Delicious and Colorful Day so Far

After feeling down yesterday, I got back into gear, worked out hard last night and stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items to liven up my meals today with some much need vegetables, color and flavors. What I had originally bought for lunches was definitely making it harder to look forward to my lunches and stick with a healthy plan.

For breakfast I added walnuts to my Vanilla Berry Protein Oatmeal for some extra crunch and nutty flavor.

And for lunch, instead of a boring and brown cheese sandwich, I layered it high with cucumber, tomato and lettuce and a Boca Vegan burger for an extra punch of saltiness. Plus, a juicy black plum on the side.

After boot camp I'm looking forward to a couple of fresh hard boiled eggs that I get from a gal who raises chickens in Puyallup. So delicious and I love supporting local food!

Oregon Adventures in Camping, Wine Tasting, Eating and Driving

This past weekend was crazy! After being present for the arrival of my best friend's baby girl very early on Saturday morning, and with only 2 hours of sleep, my husband and I hit the road to Oregon for a slightly delayed weekend camping trip.

We started our morning in Portland at Bijou Cafe which offered seasonal vegetables and a delicious brunch menu. We both went for bright yellow fluffy omelettes - mine stuffed with fresh vegetables including broccoli, asparagus, peppers and mushrooms - with a side of whole wheat toast.

We then made it to our camp at Champoeg Heritage State Park by 10:30 a.m. and setup the tent and our gear. And then we were off again - so much for really camping :).

We headed into McMinnville to check out the historic downtown area and to get directions to a winery I wanted to visit. Downtown on 3rd Ave there are many cute shops and wine tasting rooms plus a delicious ice cream shop called Serendipity. I enjoyed scoops of praline caramel and orange vanilla while Reilly had fried ice cream over lemon meringue pie, in waffle cones.

After hunting down a map, we drove out to Amity Vineyards. While not impressed with their reds (though I was able to taste quite a few flavors notes like cherry or lemon), I really enjoyed their rieslings. They also offer eco-wine where they don't add any sulfites and it is quite a different flavor that I would describe as juice like. From what I understand they don't have as long as a shelf life as a regular wine though since it doesn't have the added preservatives.

Next stop, the Spruce Goose (which is huge!), at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where my brother and sister-in-law were attending an event. The gentleman who started the museum also owns some local vineyards and produces wines so I enjoyed another round of wine tasting at the museum and bought a bottle of pinot gris.

For dinner, we went back to McMinnville's historic downtown to McMennamins. They have a wonderful roof top bar where we split a plate of sun dried tomato hummus and a vegetable pizza. All delicious, especially while savoring a glass of chilled  iognier while basking in the 80 degree summer weather.

We didn't return to our camp site until after 8 p.m. on Saturday night where we only had the energy to make a few smores and crash out on our air mattresses. I even bought Reilly a new board game (The Farming Game) but we were too exhausted to play.

Sunday morning started off with a very filling steak and eggs breakfast that we grilled ourselves. I had picked up some 100% grass fed beef at PCC from Thundering Hooves and had it marinating since Thursday. The tenderloin was full of flavor though it still had a toughness/stringiness that I attribute to it being grass fed that I haven't gotten used to after being brought up on grain raised beef. Overall delicious though. We also grilled toast out of a french baguette, hashed potatoes (using the leftover pea and potato cakes)and mushrooms. My plate was overflowing with food and ended up being Reilly's dinner later that night.

After breakfast and a couple of more smores we packed up and headed into Portland for VooDoo Doughnuts and lunch. I've been looking forward to their Mango Tango jelly filled doughnut since we'd gone last year and it didn't disappoint. A secret about VooDoo, by the way, is don't go to the downtown location if you don't want to wait in the block long line. Instead, head across the river to the convention side of Portland and visit their pink building on Sandy. The building and decor are awful but the doughnuts are just as good and only a minutes wait at the most!

We then drove into the downtown Pearl District where we settled on lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. After spending way to long trying to decide between a salad or falafel, I ordered the elk meatballs off the appetizer menu when I saw that it came with sweet potato gnocchi. It ended up being stupendous!! The elk meatballs were sweet and savory and the gnocchi was tender and filling. Best of all was the sauce it was served in that is apparently "Mirror Pond Pale Ale Wort Sauce" but I would describe it as a sweet cider with brown sugar and spice. I was literally licking the bowl with my finger afterwards.

Satisfied and very full from a busy weekend of eating, we drove home to Seattle to get groceries and get back to routine and a plan to work off all the damage I did from overeating. I still need to focus on having a better plan for when I travel so that I don't eat until I'm physically uncomfortable. Not good in so many ways!

Hospital Cafeteria Food Sucks

After waiting over 12 hours with my dearest friend and her family at their local hospital - they welcomed a new baby girl, Annette Zoe, into this world.

During the wait, I tried to make use of the hospital cafeteria for lunch and dinner and was sorely disappointed. Chicken fingers, cheap chicken patties, burgers, fries, white pasta with buttery alfredo or pesto sauce and tons of super carb filled pastries. The saving grace was their salad bar which I hit up for both meals.

Pretty sad options when you're at a hospital where you would think they'd be proponents of healthy living to try to keep people out of them. No better than the school lunches that are finally getting some much needed attention!

Now, after 2 hours of sleep I'm hitting the road with my husband to head to McMinnville, Oregon to see my brother and sister-in-law. Do a little camping, maybe wine tasting and a stop in Portland on Sunday. Thank goodness I'm not driving!

Herbal Tisane (Tea) Tasting

Thursday evening I attended an herbal tisane tasting. I use the word tisane as it is not actual green tea so it's a new word that is being introduced to differentiate.

The class was held at the Teacup at the north end of Queen Anne in Seattle and since I had decided that Thursday was going to be rest day I would walk the 1.3 miles there including many sets of stairs that it takes to get up and down the hill from my apartment in South Lake Union. The photo to the right depicts just one of many sets of stairs that litter Queen Anne hill. I calculated I spent 10 minutes of the 30 minute walk just doing stairs!

The tasting was led by my acupuncturist, Clarissa Helton of Queen Anne Acupuncture and she was vibrant and full of information. Most of the tisane recipes she used comes from a book called Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen which is on my reading list and I've posted photos of my favorites below.

The different herbal tea concoctions have medicinal values in both Chinese and Western herbal medicine and the book and Clarissa went into the different uses and how they may effect you. It was a really fun exploration of smelling and tasting the different flavors of dried herbs, berries and fruit and the many different ways that they can be used.

My favorite tisane of the night, good for restoring energy, and one I'm going to make on my own once I gather all of the ingredients is the Cheerful Cherry Berry Beverage - absolutely amazing flavor from the longan fruit (which is a dried fruit that can be eaten on it's own and has a unique smokey flavor that I'm dying to try in both some sweet and savory dishes in the future). For full details on how to make these beverages I recommend checking out the book above.

Goji Berries used in the Cheerful Cherry Berry Beverage

Meditative Mint, Ginger and Tangerine Tisane which is good for digestion.

Ginger, Mint Stems, and Dried Tangerine used in the Meditative Tisane.

Calm The Spirit Tea for calming effects.

Dried Licorice, Red Dates and Triticum used for Calm the Spirit Tea.

The Rest of the Day

Thursday ended up being an out of sorts day for me. I had completely checked out of work on Wednesday night expecting to head down to my best friends induction for her baby and found out it wasn't going to be happening until Friday now. So into work I went Thursday morning which took me awhile to get on track.

Plus I was just hungry all day - or maybe just from being out of sorts my brain was sending me the emotional eating signals. To counter act the hunger pains I did hit the salad bar in the cafeteria and splurged on some vanilla mango frozen yogurt which was sooo delicious.

Fortunately , I did avoid the cookies at my 1 o'clock meeting - it was sooo hard - but I'm glad I didn't overindulge. They're just full of sugar and butter and flour and is a high glycemic food. Plus they are the kind of cookie that looks too perfect - definitely not home made - so I definitely felt good after getting back to my desk.

4 p.m. could not come soon enough and I headed home to leftover frozen chili from a couple of weeks ago and caught up on this weeks Top Chef episode.

Sweet Potato and Pea Cakes

I've started going through a new cook book, Simply Organic, by Jesse Ziff Cool. Her book is organized by the season which is perfect for cooking with local organic produce. Since I live in Seattle (despite that Monday was the first day of summer) we are still experiencing more spring like weather so I decided to start with a spring time recipe of pea and sweet potato cakes.

While the cakes didn't turn out as crispy as I would have liked (it all stuck to the bottom of the pan) the flavors were well balanced and the peas offered a bright spot of color.

Sweet Potato and Pea Cakes
Makes 8 cakes for 3 to 4 People

2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (boil until soft, mash and set aside)
1 cup peas
1 medium yellow or white onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces of a favorite cheese shredded or chopped into small pieces
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Fill a sauce pan with about 1 inch of water and bring to a boil
2. Blanch the peas for 2 minutes in the boiling water, drain and set aside
3. In the same pan add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil on medium heat
4. Add the chopped onion, stir occasionally and let soften for 4 minutes
5. Add the garlic and let cook for another 2 minutes then remove the pan from the heat
6. In a bowl combine the mashed sweet potatoes, peas, onion and garlic saute, cheese, flour, salt and pepper and stir until it is all well combined (peas shouldn't get too squished)
7. Form potato mixture into 8 equal balls and flatten slightly into a cake shape.
8. In a new or cleaned sauce pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil at medium heat.
9. Cook 4 cakes at a time, 4 minutes on each side (about 8 minutes total).
10. Repeat with last tablespoon of olive oil and 4 cakes.
11. Plate over lettuce or bright vegetables and garnish with carrot or other bright colors.

The Rest of the Day

Wednesday flew by. My best friend is expecting to have her first child this week so I've been wrapping up lose ends at work so that I can be there for the birth. A very exciting time!

My hard work of exercising extra this week without extra snacking due to Monday's big dinner out, paid off as I finally got back on the scale this morning and it was where I was this weekend. No damage done!

Other than that I stuck to the usual meal plan and went to boot camp during my lunch break. I always love how what my trainer has me do on Mondays is what my boot camp teacher ends up working on Wednesdays. My obliques are obliterated!

Simple Sustainable Scallops

I used to be intimidated by making seafood. I tried pan frying and grilling it but it always ended up being a mess or overcooked. But now I've got a great, simple way to serve perfectly cooked seafood everytime, whether salmon or halibut, or in Tuesday night's case, fresh scallops.

When buying seafood, always try to find a sustainable product that doesn't have bycatch (meaning hundreds or thousands of other types of fish that get killed and thrown away in the process of putting your dinner on the table). The best way to know you're buying from an environmentally friendly source is to head to your farmer's market or if you live in a port city (like I do in Seattle) we have fish markets that we can head to as well and learn about the different fishing operations and their practices. I'm able to get my scallops sustainably through my local grocery store, PCC Natural Markets, and is the top national grocer for sustainable seafood.

Simple Scallops Recipe

For Two People

6-8 1.5 ounce scallops

1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Lemon (Optional)

Aluminum Foil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit and move the top rack up one above what you normally have it at
2. Brush the scallops on all sides with olive oil
3. Season all sides with salt and pepper
4. Get about 2 feet of aluminum foil and fold in half so that it's two layers thick
5. Fold up the sides of the aluminum foil to make a squarish boat
6. Place the scallops into the foil
7. Squeeze lemon over scallops (optional)
8. Place the scallops on the top rack and bake for 10 to 15 minutes
9. Test scallops with a fork which should go in easily or break a piece off and test to make sure it's done enough for you.
10. Serve immediately with your favorite vegetable

Tuesday dinner's final product included scallops with baby bok choy and sweet chili sauce for dipping. Delicious and done in less than 30 minutes too!

The Rest of the Day

Tuesday started out as a typical eating day with my vanilla protein berry oatmeal for breakfast but included a splurge on a coconut cream pie larabar. I had never had one of these bars before but they had samples at the Fremont Fair over the weekend. I was absolutely amazed and thrilled by the ingredients - dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews, and coconut oil - that's it! Fairly tasty though it didn't totally satisfy my sweet tooth like the name was implying to me it would.

As usual lately, my morning snack was a pluot; lunch was tuna and egg salad, Dave's Killer Flourless bread, string cheese, a pluot and a hard boiled egg; and my afternoon snack was a Chobani blueberry greek yogurt.

I push myself on Tuesdays to do at least 1.5 to 2 hours of cardio and after Monday nights dinner I wasn't going to give myself a break. I jogged 3.5 miles up to my Zumba class, danced for 50 minutes and then jogged the 3.5 miles back to work to get my things where my lovely husband, Reilly was waiting to drive me home.

With our scallops and bok choy dinner I also had a vanilla Brown Cow greek yogurt and coconut juice to refuel. Overall a very satisfying and healthy day!

6 Courses to a Perfect Date Night

My husband, Reilly, and I went on a much deserved and long awaited date night on Monday. I landed a great deal through Tippr for our favorite restaurant, La Spiga, and I knew night of many delicious courses awaited us.

To prepare for our dinner, which I knew would be much more calorie rich then what I would normally eat I planned ahead so I wouldn't feel guilty when I woke up this morning. And I have to say I did a pretty good job! The plans I followed were:

• Fit in an extra cardio workout that day which I did on my lunch break on top of my training in the morning.
• Don't skip any meals throughout the day but no extra snacking at all! This was the hardest as there were all sorts of snacks in our break room but I stuck to my usual oatmeal breakfast, had a pluot to tide me over until lunch. Lunch was protein filled to keep me satisifed with a tuna and egg salad, flourless bread, string cheese, another pluot and a hard boiled egg. And my afternoon snack to get me to dinner was a blueberry greek yogurt.
• I made sure our dinner reservation was early enough that I wouldn't be starving by the time we showed up so we set a time of 6:00 p.m.
• I looked at the menu ahead of time and planned out our courses. I also decided since we would be doing six courses that we would split each plate and my husband could always get the bigger portion if he was feeling deprived.

6:00 p.m. arrived and after finding an awesome parking spot only 1/2 a block away from La Spiga (no easy feat on Capitol Hill) we were seated at a cozy table in the back.

First Course - Formaggi Misti
We selected a trio of cheeses include a hard cow's milk, a soft cow's, sheep and goat mix, and a cheese infused with truffle served with warm flat bread and fig jam. All three were excellent (especially the truffle cheese!)

Second Course - Evening Special Small Plate

Fried duck egg over asparagus and freshly forraged morrel mushrooms topped with shaved black truffles. One of our favorite courses of the night the blend of the egg yolk with the vegetables was rich and savory.

Third Course - Insalata Primavera con Carciofi Croccanti

Bibb lettuce with fava beans, spring peas, asparagus, pecorino and deep fried artichoke. This is our favorite salad at La Spiga with the deep fried artichoke being a suprising burst of salty flavor.

 

Fourth Course - Tagliatelle al Burro di Tartufo

Wide handmade pasta smothered in white alba truffle butter sauce. While the sauce is buttery and the truffle flavor is rich, the pasta still has a lightness to it from the simplicity of it and left me licking my plate.

Fifth Course - Filetto ai Funghi

Beef tenderloin with grilled asparagus, porcini mushrooms and fried potatoes. The beef was incredibly tender and cooked to perfection but the potatoes were definitely the standout on this dish being crispy and rich with flavor and seasoning.

Sixth Course - Crostata di Rabarbaro con Gelato al Zucchero di Cana

Rhubarb and orange tart topped with brown sugar gelato. While I barely saved any room for dessert, I'm so glad we didn't pass it up. Rhubarb and orange is now my new favorite fruit combination and I'm going to have to put together a recipe or make some jam before rhubarbs go out of season. And brown sugar gelato - yum!

Washed down with a bottle of Lambrusco Lini

Lambrusco is a red sparkling wine, best served chilled that is a light and refreshing change to a red or white wine.

La Spiga is one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle. They do a good job of supporting local food and bringing delicious, real food to your plate. Can't wait to go back!

Back to Blogging and Baking

I'm picking up my blog again with a slight twist and new name from the direction I was originally taking it. More food and health along with my travels - the three things in life that sustain me (as the new blog name implies). Read my new pages to learn what I've been up to and learning this past year!

I spent my Saturday baking, on another cold... rainy... late spring Seattle day. (Summer starts Monday right?!?). My husband Reilly had mentioned he wouldn't mind crackers and some more of my oatmeal cookies I'd made him last week.

Crackers - never made them before but why not.

Cookies - easy, but I am missing some key ingredients of butter and brown and white sugar.

So here's what I ended up doing!

Whole Wheat Rosemary Crackers

3 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

3/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Minced Fresh Rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Combine all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir until just combined. You should have a nice dough that doesn't stick to your fingers when you pick it up.
3. Split the dough into about 4 balls and roll each thinly (1/8 inch) out onto a sheet of wax paper into a rectangle.
4. Transfer the rolled out dough onto a cookie sheet or oven safe parchment paper by just flipping the wax paper over and peeling away.
5. Using a pizza cutter or knife cut but don't separate the dough into about 1x1 inch crackers. Then use a fork to poke 2 to 3 sets of holes per cracker.
6. Season with salt and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until cracker feels hard to the touch.
7. Let cool and then separate crackers easily to enjoy or store for later. Repeat for the rest of dough.

This recipe made about 12 dozen crackers at about 10 to 15 calories per cracker.

Butterless Oatmeal Craisin Molasses Cookies

6 Tablespoons Olive Oil (instead of 8 Tablespoons Butter)
4 Tablespoons Molasses (instead of 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar)
4 Tablespoons Honey (instead of 1/3 Cup Sugar)
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Large Egg
2 1/2 Cups Oatmeal
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Craisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Using blender, mix all ingredients but oats, flour and craisins.
3. Add in oats, flour and craisins. Dough will still look a bit wet but as long as it sticks when you scoop with a spoon it should be fine. The dough will also have a strong molasses flavor that disappears after baking.
4. Using a spoon, space out 12 spoonfuls of dough on your baking sheet or oven safe parchment paper.
5. Bake for 11 minutes or until when you touch the top of the cookie it feels a little firm. Cool and enjoy.

This recipe made 3 dozen cookies at about 75 calories per cookie. The flavor is also fairly mild for an oatmeal cookie.