Author: foodsweatandbeers

The Wrong Side of the Bed

/ foodsweatandbeers / 15 Comments

Good evening friends! You made it through Tuesday, congratulations!  I made it too, but barely!

See, the thing is…. this morning I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

This was my bed setup my Junior year of college.... Neon room? Heck yes. Half consumed bottle of Riesling on the desk? Duh.

See, I didn’t get to sleep until late last night, my own fault, I know. But when I woke up extra early this morning…. I was really off my game.  The result? A grouchy girl.

RAWR!!

Every single thing seemed to annoy me.

Forgot cheese for my salad? Anger.

My emails at work coming in slow? Fury.

This driver’s park job?

WHO DOES THAT?!

Rage blackout.

I knew it was a problem when not even my perfect salad from lunchtime was making me feel better.  So I took matters into my own hands, and spent the rest of the day trying to do all my favorite things that make me happy.

I dropped some packages off at the post office which, coincidentally, was right next to my favorite frozen yogurt spot, Tutti Frutti.  I mean, no harm in stopping by, seeing how long the line was, right?

Completely. Totally. Empty.

Well, at that point, what option did I have, really?

My little day-changer!

Yup.  A mini-cup (about $2.30 worth of froyo) did the trick.  And then, after work, my favorite zumba class and instructor!  It was killer, sweat pouring all over.

And an ab track thrown in at the end! Well-rounded, she definitely is.

And then, for dinner, my favorite method of cooking fish:

Blackened Cod, complete with Cajun Seasoning!

I used a buttload of the McCormick Perfect Pinch Cajun Seasoning which I’ve been putting on everything lately. It has cayenne, thyme, garlic, salt, and paprika in it all in one dash! I paired my piece with half a bag of steamed broccoli and cauliflower and Ry and I split a few fancy beers he got in a birthday pack.  None really worth noting, though, but I’m sure I’ll find one soon to write about in a review.

Basically, after watching an episode of Alphas (my newest favorite Sy Fy show) and splitting some Haribo gummy bears for dessert, I’m feeling a lot better.  In fact, I might even hit the hay early tonight…. but I’ll make sure I get to sleep on the right side (which, for me, happens to be the left side of the bed.)

What do you do when you’re having a lousy day to get your spirits back up?

How do you sleep in bed? On your side? On your stomach? On which side of the bed?

Before and After: Office Meals

/ foodsweatandbeers / 7 Comments

Hey hey there cool cats! (or hot dogs… whichever you choose)

It’s a sunny Tuesday here in Dirty Durham (at least it was earlier this morning….)  Ry has my car today until his car is fixed and working pretty again, so I brought my lunch to work.  And as I was packing it, I realized why I don’t normally do this.

I HATE prepping my lunch at the office!  And, more than that, I hate pre-prepping my lunch the night before, so I chose the lesser of two evils.  I jammed my bag full of the ingredients needed and walks outta the apartment with a grocery bag literally full to the top of stuff.  One day, I’m sure I’ll be a super-organized mom who packs her kids lunches in an adorable fashion:

Oh, this ol' thing? It only took me two and a half hours. I always keep rice pandas around.

But in the meantime, I’ll focus on “Ordo ab Chao” (Order from Chaos, if my memory Internet serves me correctly…)

I started this morning off with a little Attunes Food cereal mix up (which you may have seen in one of my secret hoarding cabinets yesterday…)  Finishing off a box of cereal that has dried blueberries in it results in this:

Not little critters, just blueberry dust!

Which is what my cereal looked like before I even took a bite.  What it looked like after, though, actually matched the color of my FR60 watch more than a cereal!

Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!! - Mr. Beauregarde, Willy Wonka

Regardless of my blue milk, I slurped it up like a little kitten.

But this was the real kicker.  Lunchtime.  Here’s my before:

Salad Ingredients or what a mother of 2 bought at the grocery store?

My haul included:

  • Two bags of spinach (one that I just opened, one that had about 12 leaves left so I polished it off!)
  • Tupperware full of thyme roasted veggies (eggplant, banana pepper, and red onion)
  • Avocado
  • Plum tomato
  • End of a GIANT green pepper
  • Leftover box with fajita veggies and a teensy bit of chicken
  • Trader Joe’s Salsa Authentico (arguably one of my favorite salsas… and I’m a salsa officianado)

The “after” was a lot more manageable.

Salad Beast: You are my lover.

The process took quite some time, but the result was more than worth it.

It sort of reminded me of the “blogging behind the scenes” by Chelsey this morning…. only taken with a cheaper camera and with no real trickery. Just blue milk and a counter full of bags!

Are you an ordered chef or baker?  Or does your counter look like chaos every time (like me!)?

What’d you have for lunch?

Garmin FR60: The Perfect HRM for an Everything Exerciser

/ foodsweatandbeers / 6 Comments

Good morning y’all!!

After confessing to my Secret Snack Hoarding yesterday, I felt as though a weight had been lifted off my chest.  To combat that newfound lightness, it only made sense to talk about something else that goes on my chest! (well, at least partially).

The Garmin FR60: The Little HRM That Changed Everything

I actually was lucky enough to win this bad boy last September from a blog…. that I don’t even remember, because last September I spent most of my time on my Tumblr blog CaseInPoints, and didn’t understand these crazy “wordpress” blogs… Oh, how naive and young I was (says the word-presser of like, 66 days).

Anyway, I had been jonesing and lusting after these so-called “HRMs” for a while before I was lucky enough to win one, and thought they were only for hardcore runners.  I saw the giant 310XTs  of Triathletes and the 305‘s of racers, and thought “I don’t run… I don’t bike…. But I wanna know.”

I wanted to know:

  • The length of my exercise
  • My average heart rate during different classes like BodyPump (or Pilates…. where I think my heart actually just stopped beating and  took a nap.)
  • How many calories I truly was burning

I noticed a lot of variety when I used machines like ellipticals, and had no clue what I was burning in a group fitness room.  It was very important to me, when I was deeply engrossed in my weight loss journey, to know exact numbers, and I hated not knowing.  But that all changed.

BEHOLD! My first tracked workout!! (from September of last year, wow!)

What you see is what I normally post regarding my workout.  That is a graph track of my HR throughout the near-hour of class, featuring the average HR on the left as well as the Max HR.  You can also change what type of workout you did on the top left, but I didn’t really utilize that option.  I did all this on Garmin Connect which I set up when I first received the FR60.

The Whole Kitten Caboodle

These are the three pieces that I use to track and upload my exercise.  These are the only three pieces of my package that I received (other than the online program) that matter to me, FR60 wise.

The Wiggity Watch (and my attractive left wrist.)

This is the piece I look at the most, the watch.  I was lucky enough to win a cute purple one, which is great because purple’s my second favorite color (after green.)  I heard this HRM is water resistant, but have never tested it.  One thing to note is the FR60 is NOT GPS-enabled. If you’re looking for a HRM that is, you may have to look into spending a few more doll-hairs. On the Garmin Website, you can buy the FR60 package for about $200 and that includes a foot pod (which is an accelerometer, better suited for runners I think.)  But my package just came with the three pieces (no pod.)  Just to get what I got, though, it runs about $129.  The watch is smaller than the big’uns I’ve seen others wear and honestly, I’ve worn it as a watch before (not with anything nice, but out and about definitely.)  It’s also very comfortable to wear and doesn’t slip, even at my sweatiest.

I'm with the Band!

The band that goes around my chest has only ever bothered me a few times, once I realized that you can NOT have it set too loose on your body (or else you’ll be adjusting it more than a strapless bra at your cousin’s wedding.)  Every now and then, when I’m doing ab work on my back, I’ll have to shift so that the adjustable part doesn’t sit on my spine.  Other than that, it’s great.  You can wash it with soap and water (and even throw the removable strap into the wash) and it fits so nicely that most of the time, I forget it’s there.

Sneaky little bugger

It’s the ANT stick, though, that puts it all together. Your link to Garmin Connect, and the only way you can pull your data from your device!  Once, I lost this.  It’s very small, the size of any jump drive, and I absentmindedly didn’t put it in it’s little trunk next to my bed…. never saw it again.

I caved and bought a new one on ebay for about 15 bucks (they normally sell, separately, for $50!!), because I just couldn’t deal with not knowing.

And now…. you know!!

Also, I have a feeling that, if I wanted, I could use even more functions on this bad boy but honestly…. it gets all the jobs done that I need.  As a gym rat, but not much of a runner, this is great for me AND if I wanted to become a runner, I get a foot pod and VOILA it’s set for that!

Do you have any questions about the FR60? Thinking about getting a HRM?  I’m an open book!!

Do you have a HRM that you love?  Which one? (I always like to stay hip on the HRM knowledge)

Secret Hoarding: Office Edition

/ foodsweatandbeers / 16 Comments

Good evening, all! Normally, I’d just be turning off my HRM from a sweaty BodyCombat class….  That’s my preferred Monday exercise of choice.  Today, alas, I’m on call and BodyPump is really the only fitness class I can take with my phone on hand (translation: the only class that I’m not so drenched in sweat as I kick, punch, or zumba my booty off with the music blasting in my ears where I can hear or see my phone.)  So I took today to run some errands… which was partially successful. The drive-thru ATM at the bank wasn’t accepting checks, but other than that, I:

  • Dropped a package off at UPS
  • Picked up some goodies at the store for a package
  • Packed that package!

I promise, the knife has nothing to do with this package.

Oooh, I also just recently got a package that I’m pretty stoked for….

Oooh, what's that?

More about that at another time. The real topic of the day is something that I just learned about myself.

I think I might be a secret hoarder (of snacks). A coworker gave me something to put in one of my drawers, and that’s when it hit me.

Triscuits Thin Crisps in Quattro Formaggio (deadly addictive, never ever get them) and Odwalla Protein Bars

In our next shelf?

Adora Calcium Disks in Dark Chocolate

Across the office (i.e. over a desk that isn’t even my own:

Two of my cereals from Attune Foods! (Not pictured: my favorite Uncle Sam)

Need a mid-day pick-me up?

Trashy mags and Coke Zero!

Ok, I’ll admit, that last picture was staged. If I’m going to have soda, OBVIOUSLY I’d put it in the fridge (and truly, I am mandated by my job to have tons of media all around me, which actually means that sometimes… I make a workday out of perusing those trashy mags!)

I scatter my goodies throughout my office (didn’t even take a shot of my dried cranberries in the refrigerator or the gum in my purse).  That way, no matter what, if I forget a snack or lunch, I should be okay.  Often, I also keep a can of soup or sandwich thins in the drawers (but you caught me on an off day.)

I promise, I don’t hoard all my things like a thieving magpie (at least not regularly) but something about the amount of drawers and cabinets in my office just brings out the nester in me.  It’s like I’m ready for anything (as long as anything = a hunger pang… or a trip to the hair salon or the waiting room at the doctor.)  Now it’s time to use my hoard of goodies in the fridge and try to find something for dinner! The beau’s talking pork chops…. Let’s see how that goes.

Do you keep snacks at work or by your desk?  If so, which snacks?

Pilates: A Play by Play Breakdown

/ foodsweatandbeers / 16 Comments

Hey all, and happiest of Mondays!

I’m not a huge fan of Mondays, especially after an excellent weekend (Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ on Friday, so much fun and celebrations on Saturday and Sunday).  If it has to be Monday, though, at least it can be a Monday featuring a delicious Fajita Salad!

Leftovers: A delicacy

I took the leftovers of my On the Border fajita meal and made a salad with all these goodies:

  • Spinach base
  • cheese
  • salsa
  • reheated Fajita fixins (onions, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and chicken)
  • Tomato

It was fantastic. I chased it with a chocolate Vita Top with a bit of marshmallow fluff (trying to recreate a s’more flavor… decent).

But honestly…. that’s not the point of this post.  This post is about Pilates. Before, I did a Play by Play of a Body Pump class. And I continue to do Body Pump because honestly, it’s a good time and I like it lots.  I figure it’d be nice to give a play-by-play of a class that I truly and absolutely have no interest in taking again.

Pilates: A Play by Play Breakdown

I was super-pumped to try Pilates with some of my coworkers this past Saturday.  I think, even more than the class, I was pumped to wear some of the clothes that look like what I saw all the Pilates kids doing at my gym.  I did the best I could to model my outfit after all those Pi-ladies.

Long tank top, bright sports bra, form fitting leggings

I was rocking the Under Armour ‘Shatter’ Capris that I got at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and they were SO comfortable.  The picture doesn’t do them justice, I think, as it was placed on my table and self-timed…. but they rock.

Anyway, I got to the studio and it looked…. exactly like what I thought it would look like.

Soothing colors, random balls, carpet... the whole nine yards.

Before I knew it, the class was getting started.  I chose a funky little tye-dye yoga mat, and was ready for whatever the instructor was bringing to the table.

LET'S DO IT!

I knew that it was going to be tough, though, when she mentioned that the free class was because she was trying out her first time teaching an advanced class.

Uh oh.

First, she talked about breathing. And then, demonstrated it.  It truly sounds a lot like the breathing you’d hear in a Lamaze class (you know… hee hee hee, hoo hoo hoo, in and out).  I tried my hardest to focus on this all class.  You’ll see how that got me into trouble soon enough.

I’d done a few pilates-esque exercise classes in the past with AbSculpt, but this was different.

THIS was an "easy" move

I've seen swans in my life.... this is not what they look like.

We also did this one.... a bunch of times.

Lest we forget this little jewel.

Throughout it all, we were supposed to be thinking about our breathing, thinking about our abs, and considering other thoughts like where the sun was and pulling our bellybutton to our spine.

It was just too much for me to think about trying to get a workout.  And honestly, I really don’t think I even got one.

My FR60 actually stopped working due to lack of sweat and too much moving around.

A few times, I felt light-headed because I was so busy focusing on my abs, I forgot my breathing, or vice versa.

Clearly, what this class proved was:

a) Pilates is not for me and

b) Be ready to multitask when taking this class!!

I am not bashing pilates by any means, and I think that some folks are totally meant for it…. Those long, lean, flexible folks get my respect.  And maybe even a bit of my envy.

Go on with your bad self, Gwyneth!

In the meantime, though, I’ll keep my workouts fast paced with blaring music and the possibility of being kicked in the face or dropping a weight on my toe (Danger is my middle name.)

Except when it comes to these Pilates Torture Devices.... Then my middle name is "No Thank You."

NOTE: To check out the sweet source of my pilates pose images, or sexy Gwyneth, just click on the image… it’ll take you there!

Have you ever done pilates?

How about a workout that you thought you’d like and ended up not being fond of?

Six Pack Sunday: Stuffed to the Brim

/ foodsweatandbeers / 14 Comments

Good evening folks!

I just hate that the weekend’s coming to an end, as this one was stuffed (in all senses of the word!)  Stuffed with fun, stuffed with friends, and stuffed with food!  My tummy feels like it’s going to pop (when it rains, it pours with eating for me, I think.)  Luckily, tomorrow a new day, a new week, and right back to the grindstone.  There were some funny things, silly thoughts, and random questions to make up this week’s Six Pack Sunday!!

  1. I had an excellent time at Beer, Bourbon, and BBQon Friday. But even before we got into the festival, I saw something that made me chuckle.

    "Beer speaks... People mumble."

    So true, Lagunitas (a brewery I’m rather fond of, actually.)

  2. Ever had a Coronarita?

    BEER MARGARITA HYBRID?! Yes, please.

    Well…. I have.

    iDelicioso!

    Jealous? Should be.

  3. Ryan hates having folks at restaurants sing happy birthday to him (or to draw any attention to himself at a restaurant whatsoever.)  Regardless, at On the Border(same spot I got that Coronarita!), our server, Bob, redeemed his somewhat-lame service with a total stealth birthday surprise.

    Sneaky, sneaky sir.

    I still wish we’d sung, but I hate to embarrass people (wait a minute…. I love to do that, and to make a scene. But I figured the best present I could give my beau would be to not shame him in front of his father, stepmother, and a number of strangers. Happy Birthday, dear.)

  4. Last night, I think we spent an hour (11pm-midnight) watching “America’s Cutest Dog.”(spoiler alert: the winner is below)

    Spudgy was the winner, by a landslide.  It is quite possibly the most adorable sleepy pomeranian, Spudgy, who was trying SO hard to stay awake…. but it just wasn’t in the cards, Spudge.  I’m sorry, but great job on getting back up! I promise, you weren’t missing much.

  5. As I chopped up my eggplant for my “omelet” this morning (I put “omelet” in quotation marks because I may be the worst egg flipper known to mankind and it always just ends up as a sorta egg scramble omelet-wannabe), I couldn’t help but wonder “Why on Earth are eggplants called “egg”plants?”

    Egg. Plant. "omelet"

    Well, I went searching, and here’s what I found out:

    The name of eggplant was given it by Europeans in the middle of the eighteenth century because the variety they knew had fruits that were the shape and size of goose eggs. That variety also had fruits that are a whitish or yellowish colour rather than the wine purple that is more familiar to us nowadays. So the sort they knew really did look as though it had fruits like eggs. Source – Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words

    Now you know!

  6. If you’ve ever been to a movie theater, you’ve probably seen this poster:

    Old as Dirt Ratings Poster

    Today, after seeing Captain America (which I LOVED, and not even just for Chris Evan’s smoking bod)

    No, don't worry, I'm totally watching the plot.

    I couldn’t help but look at that poster…. and wonder what that SHADY rabbit is doing in the bottom left.  If he couldn’t see the PG-13 movie (note the young lady blocking his eyes, probably from the nude scenes), he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to see an NC-17 flick! Maybe that’s why he’s got the glasses on…. some sort of disguise.

    Let’s be honest, bunny, you’re not fooling anyone.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, loveys!  I’m off to watch Sturgis: Cops. It’s like the show, Cops…. only with more bikers.

Envy me, please.

Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival in Cary

/ foodsweatandbeers / 11 Comments

Good morning and happy weekend all!!

I’m writing to you from a comfortable couch after sleeping on a less-than-comfortable floor…. ah, the life of a Triangle Nomad, right?

It was more than worth it though, as last night was the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival in Cary, NC!

This was the second year in a row I’ve attended the festival, both celebrating (a day later) my beau’s birthday!  We had a killer groupon deal for it, and joined two of our buddies, Claire and Taylor, for the festivities.

Even though we got there half an hour before the doors opened, there was still a line.  Luckily, we were toward the front (whew).

Oi vay, lots of thirsty folks!

Luckily, we had entertainment in the form of some classy zydeco music.

Nothing classier than overalls in front of a moving van, right?

They actually ended up letting the “will-call” ticket holders in about 5 minutes before the Groupon holders, which was pretty lame in my book. That being said, by the time we got in, there was a lotta beer to go around.

Cheers!!

You can see Taylor’s sweet lanyard on the right there, which perfectly held our tasting glasses when we didn’t feel like holding them ourselves.  It was a nice enabler to my laziness, I have to say.

There was some awesome drinks there:

Offerings from Blue Point Brewery

Outstanding cocktails made with St. Germain elderflower liqueur

There were some…. less than tasty drinks there:

Hey! That's not beer, bourbon, OR BBQ... but it is Burnett's.

The BBQ was off the chain (and included with the Groupon!!)

A full plate of deliciousness!! Pork, beans, a roll, and coleslaw!

And we had a lot of laughs.

RELEASE THE KRACKEN! (and I basically wore that eye patch all night).

We even found some other beer buddies in the area.

Oh, hey LaurPo!

We had Zingo come and pick us up/drive my car back to Taylor’s house for a little late night swimming.

I also have a bit of a confession. When I’m surrounded by the possibility of coming home with free stuff…. I kinda go a little crazy.

So. Much. Swag.

  • 6 temporary tattoos
  • Heavy Seas Eye patch
  • Absolut Vodka bar mat
  • Malibu Rum bar mat
  • Palms Sticker
  • Lanyard and tasting glass
  • 3 koozies
  • a little baggy of hops!
  • 1 flashlight keychain
  • 2 bottle opener keychains
  • a Magic Hat sticker
  • a Magic Hat condom (get it…. a “magic hat”! — That’s what the Magic Hat rep told us.)
  • And an Iron Man shirt…. in a boys medium. Yeah that may have been from the pool later. Sorry, little man. Don’t leave your things lying around.  Creeps might pick em up.  Creeps like me.

Since we lived it up and dined/drank like royalty last night, I’m off to a pilates class at noon. I’m nervous…. Wish me luck!

 

IPA Day, Birthday, Thursday

/ foodsweatandbeers / 5 Comments

Good afternoon to you all and TGIF so, so much.

It’s been a long week, a full one, and a busy one! In fact, yesterday I was so busy that I had no time to write even a single post.  I’m sure you were all very disappointed, so here’s what you missed!

23 years (and one day) ago, this little man was born:

RyBaby!! So pensive over pizza.

It only made sense to start celebrating the day of his birth with a treat specially requested by the beau himself.

Cafe du Monde Beignet mix!!

While these were easy enough to mix, I realized moments after pouring that I was missing two key ingredients for the process:

  • Powdered sugar
  • A rolling pin

Neither of these could be substituted (well, I just really needed a rolling pin anyway) so at 7:40 am, I rolled up to Harris Teeter, looking classy as all get out in a dapper oversized t-shirt and boxers, unshowered and wiping sleep from my eyes. I’m sure everyone wanted to be my friend.  A quick purchase later, and a REALLY difficult amount of rolling the dough out, followed by a minor grease burn, with Ry’s help, we had…. BEIGNETS!

Mm.... Greasy fried dough!

They may not have been exactly like the ones we ate in NOLA, they were darn tasty.

During my lunch hour, instead of coming home for some No Pants time , I went to the gym, knowing full well I’d have no time to go after work.  A sweaty three miles on the elliptical were chased with a quick shower and then a delicious, yet slightly unfilling, meal.

Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala

However, when I did what I normally do with tikka masala and rice (jam it all together for a mixed up tasty mash), it looked more like this:

Not exactly a lot of foods...

This frozen meal felt more like an appetizer. And I’m DESPERATELY craving real Indian food now (hear that, Ryan?  are you reading?)

After work, I was FINALLY able to participate in one of my (new) all-time favorite holidays!

We had a great night planned at Rockfish, and it was packed! Great company, a great brand rep from Peak Organic Brewing Company, and, let’s not forget, a great beer!!

Peak Organic's Hop Noir

From the brewer:

Hop Noir is a delectable Black IPA, dripping with piney, aromatic Centennial hops. The malt base is dark and rich, anchored by organic black malt. This provides a strong foundation for the extravagant kettle hopping and dry-hopping that this beer experiences. Enjoy with a night-light.

My thoughts?

This beer was a WELCOME change of pace from the other super floral hoppy IPAs I’ve enjoyed all week (like Monday’s double IPA lineup!)  The words I’d use to describe the beer would be malty, smokey, and dark! It was sort of like a campfire burn taste, but there were enough hops in there that you could absolutely tell it was an IPA. Black IPAs are pretty new to me, so I was stoked on this one.  We even had a few ladies from Girls Pint Out come to join in the fun!!

Oh yeah, then we came home and split an ENTIRE pepperoni pizza.

I’d say it was a bangup birthday, all around.  This weekend will be more exciting celebrations, one of the highlights being Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ tonight in Cary.

What are you doing this weekend?  Any fun plans?

Everyone’s in Crisis!! Better do a Beer Review…

/ foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and a happy Hump Day!  Normally, I love Wednesdays, mostly due to the changing of the sales. But there weren’t too many excellent sales today, and so I just putzed around.  Lunchtime was great, as I bared my soul and told you all about No Pants Wednesday (and every day, for me). I was happy to hear how many of you hate pants as well. To all you pants lovers… there’s hope for you still.  After work, I got dolled up in my workout gear, and hit the gym.

I'm workout Barbie!

Tonight, I’m on call for a crisis line. This could either mean nothing, or it could mean a lot of stressful calls. Unfortunately, tonight, it meant a lot of stressful calls. I checked in for my shift at 5pm and then hopped into an AbSculpt class. The teacher this week was that same instructor from the last week I took the class, the pilates queen, and so it was a different vibe of workout. We did some leg circle things, and some nice inner thigh workout that I loved.  I made it through the 26 minutes of the workout no sweat (well, false, some sweat, but you know what I mean.)

Then, it was time for BodyPump. I love taking the ab class before BodyPump, if only to be able to have a jump start on the “good spots” for Pump (which is always a packed house.)  In the middle of Pump, though, I received my first crisis call of the evening, right before the tricep track. I ran out of the fitness room and to a secluded section of the gym, only to return after the 12 minute call (aka right in the middle of the lunge track.)  Even though it was a choppy workout, it was a good one (nice to get some strength training in there after all my cardio).

Work it, now!

After working it, I got TWO more calls, leaving me a little worse for wear in the stress zone. Luckily, the beau took the wheel and cooked up some ground turkey, perfect for a taco salad (what else is new, right?)  I didn’t snap a shot, but it looked a LOT like this:

Deconstruct your meals into salads!

Recycled picture, just imagine that salad with less tomatoes and no avocado, and more salsa and pepper. Either way, it was fantastic.

In honor of #IPADay, we’ve been enjoying quite a few IPAs this week, and tonight, I figured “Why not?!”

Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA (with a fun elephant!!)

The Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA  is described by the brewer as:

An IPA by definition is liberally hopped and higher in alcohol. We made Rocky Mountain IPA by dry hopping for an intense floral aroma and adding a generous helping of malt to create a backbone stable enough to support the characteristic bitterness of the beer.

In my opinion, this is a quality beer (shock shock, another from Colorado) worthy of trying during IPA day (or any day). It was poured into a glass with very little head, coming out a dark orange/brown color.  When I smelled it, I initially smelled the hops (typical with an IPA) but I also thought I smelled some sort of cinnamon or dark spice.  The taste was a little malty, which is why Ryan liked it, and why he wasn’t so turned off by the floral tastes (think Bell’s Two Hearted, that’s what he’s not a fan of, but which I am a big fan!). The only part that I didn’t like was the mouthfeel (hee hee that word always makes me chuckle). My mouth felt sort of dry afterwards, almost like a bitter friction on my tongue which I am not too fond of… Still tasty, but probably wouldn’t go outta my way to get it in the future.  Unless I’m in a fun elephant mood. If that’s the case…. Maybe.

But maybe then, I’ll just watch these funny elephants.

Do you have any plans for IPA Day?

Are you excited for any beer related events? How about any other weekend fun?

I can’t wait for this weekend (which unofficially starts tomorrow!) Peak Brewing Hop Noir glass night tomorrow at Rockfish, then Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ this weekend!!

No Pants Wednesday!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 26 Comments

Hello friends!

Just whipped up a DELICIOUS meal of breakfast for lunch.

Ome-LET ME AT IT!!

In this little number was:

  • 3 egg whites, one egg yolk as the base
  • Sauteed spinach
  • Banana pepper
  • Reduced fat Mozzarella cheese
  • Fresh basil (from my own plant!)
  • Pizza sauce

After eating a tasty homemade pizza last night, I was not ready to let the pizza party end quite yet.

I rounded out the meal (and my sweet tooth) with a Vita Top in Dark Chocolate covered with a little dollop of some Harris Teeter branded caramel delight.  The only reason I “splurged” on the Vita Tops (which are normally a little outta my price range, read: $5.69 for a 4 pack) was because they were BOGO at the Teeter. Hard to say no to a BOGO….

Chocolate... ice cream... pizza plate. Totally appropriate.

In other news, a lot of you have been asking (haha not even one person has asked this, but I wanted to talk about it. I always wonder when bloggers post this whole “a lot of you have asked… wondered about _____” if that’s true or if they just felt like chatting about it.  The world may never know)…

What I meant to say is: I felt like talking about why I always drive home for lunch.  Part of the reason, of course, is the fact that I can whip up delicious treats like eggs and sauteed spinach and grab my own ice cream. But the real reason is the following:

PANTS! (ugh these ones are looking a little loosey goosey, I promise they look classy IRL)

I hate wearing pants. I really do. I think there was a span of 3 years, before I made my Glorious Transformation (aka lost 40 lbs), when I didn’t wear pants. I wore dresses, skirts, leggings, and athletic shorts…. but I avoided pants like the plague. Mostly that reason was due to the desire to not wanna jump up a size. But now that I’m at a size I’m comfortable with…. I still hate em.

So every day, at lunch time, I sweep myself home for a brief, shining lunchtime. The very first thing I do….

VOILA! HAPPY NO PANTS WEDNESDAY!

And for that period of time, while I’m making my meal and writing my blog post…. the pants of the workday are gone. GOOD RIDDANCE!  So even though the title of this post is No Pants Wednesday…. for me, it’s always No Pants day.  And I like it like that.

Do you like pants?  If not, GET EM OFF! (unless you’re in public, don’t cause a ruckus, y’all)

Where do you eat your lunch? At your desk? In a conference room? Out in some restaurant?

I tend to avoid eating out during lunch, mostly to save money (but also because most of the time, I’m too busy wearing no pants to wanna be out in public.)