Birthday, Part 2

Good evening bloggies! I thought I would finish my birthday pictorial adventure!!

At work, my desk was covered in Disney stuff, and a friend of mine made baklava... very GOOD baklava!











Can you tell that I'm obsessed with Disney? HA!! Not enough proof? My husband made me a mixed tape (of sorts... ok a cd) of Disney rides, and the following t-shirt:



Yeah, that's a monorail... and yes, that's the 'Please stand clear of the doors' in Spanish spiel. LOVE IT!

Sorry- no food pictures today, except for the baklava. But lots of Disney pictures. And it was also fitting that we solidified our Disney dates for 2010-- October 2-9. WHOO HOO!! We're starting to plan!!

Have a wonderful night all! Namaste.

My Birthday, PART 1!!

Hi all! It's late, and I'm tired... so I'm going to just make this a pictorial dissertation of my birthday!!

The celebration started with dinner at mom and dad's house:



We had BBQ pork, slaw salad, and green beans. Quite yummy!! Here's my plate:



For dessert, instead of cake, my sister made RAW CHEEZECAKE WITH STRAWBERRIES. Oh so good!!!







Oh so good... and the leftovers were good too! This recipe came from Ani Phyo's book 'Ani's Raw Food Kitchen' that I got as a present. It was a big hit over dessert...



More to come!!!

The National Pastime!

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday! WHAT A DAY! So busy....

This weekend, Brenton's work (DSW) had a family day at Huntington Park (Columbus' new baseball stadium), and it was a lot of fun!! Columbus' baseball team is called the Clippers, and they're the farm team for the Cleveland Indians (that's my TEAM!!), so I was excited to go check out the new place!!

Here we are, driving to the stadium. The Columbus skyline.



Inside the park:






See that logo? Yep, that's an Indian!! Which is why I sported my hat...



We're goofs!! Watching batting practice...


DSW hosted a buffet with typical ball park food. Now, I don't 'DO' buffets... or typical ball park food... so we left to get our own!! We didn't stay for the game because it wasn't supposed to start until 7, and it was 5pm... so we went to have some dinner and rented Monsters Inc. instead!! Good movie. Maybe next time we'll stay for a game!

Well I'm off to get ready for the next few days... we're going to the 311 show at the LC tomorrow, and won't get back home until LATE, so I'm getting ready for Thursday... on Tuesday. I'm such an over achiever!! No, I'm just a very well prepared person!! Have a lovely evening!! Until next time, Namaste.

North Market Fun!!

TGIF all! Seriously! What a week- it seemed like the longest week ever for some reason. I guess I should have enjoyed it more- the upcoming weeks are going to be brutally busy!! But alas, today was a good day!

I woke up sore this morning because Brenton and I did another killer round of Billy Blanks Ab Bootcamp last night...



Killer!! (side note... I just heard a shotgun out my window... that's a good sign.) Anyway, this morning I woke up and decided to "Walk Away the Pounds" with Leslie, and have a LOVELY green-ish monster (haha).



Hahaha yeah, my 'greenish' monster was made with 1/2 frozen banana, heaping handful of organic spinach, 6 organic baby carrots, 4 organic strawberries, a squeeze of lemon juice, a few ice cubes, a T of flax meal, and 1/2 scoop of protein powder. I don't know why, but this one wasn't as sweet as the others I've made. It was still good, though.

Then, it was work time, like normal, and a Larabar (Cherry Pie) for a snack (of course!). When 11am rolled around, the office headed out to the North Market for lunch. We were celebrating the new job of one of my co-workers. What a nice outing!



For those that don't know, the North Market is Columbus' version of Pike Place Market in Seattle (you know, where the guys in orange overalls throw the fish around?). It's a place where you can eat from different nationalities, buy fresh produce and free range chicken/grass fed beef, etc.



I decided to go 'greek', and got a combo of Greek Salad, Mushroom Salad, and Hummus, all with a pita bread. WAY YUM-O!!



I ate all of both salads, and most of the hummus/pita. But, I made sure to leave room for dessert- that's to come!

After lunch, it was time to celebrate Jake's new job, and give him his gifts from us.




Haha blow up that last picture by clicking on it. As you'll see, that's a picture frame that Jake is holding, with VERY entertaining face-in-hole pictures. Too funny!

Two of the girls and I went downstairs to get the dessert that I mentioned. Jeni's Ice Cream. Oh goodness, the BEST ice cream in the world!!!



Do you see that?! 100% Organic Ohio Milk and Cream. OH how I love thee! Anyway, I got a small scoop, divided in half so I could have 2 flavors!! This is what I got, taken from Jeni's site-



"Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries
Blue Jacket Dairy goat cheese with roasted Michigan cherries—like a fluffy cherry cheesecake, but even better."

"Berries & Burgundy Sorbet
Deep, dark berries with growing hints of red wine; sophisticated and grown-up. "

Yeah, both were heaven! And what's great is that both were SO good and SO rich, that this size is PERFECT. It really hit the spot!!

I love the North Market, and would go there EVERY SINGLE DAY if I could! But alas, I cannot, because it's not REALLY that close to me (it's right downtown). Tomorrow is the first day of the Farmers Market right by my house though, so I'll be there bright and early! Hoping to find some organic yummies!! Have a good evening all!

Until next time, eat clean, and enjoy little indulgences made with clean ingredients!! Namaste.

It's almost Thursday!

Tonight was a success! We had our neighbors over for dinner and it was lots of fun! They even EAT like us (aka shopping at Trader Joe's, eating clean, etc). I was sooo excited!! The food I made was good, and we have lots of leftovers for tomorrow. I made whole wheat pasta, with tons of toppings to choose from:

Sun dried Tomatoes and roasted peppers
Spiced Peas
Tomato Sauce
Alfredo Sauce
Olive Oil with herbs
Broiled chicken

SUPER yummy. On mine, I had the sun dried tomatoes, peas, and a few pieces of chicken, topped with a little olive oil and lemon. YUM-O! I also made salad, and Brenton made fruit salad. Very good dinner- sorry no pictures!!! I forgot! We put on Wall-E for Ethan, the neighbor's 2 year old. Such a cutie! He liked that movie it seemed! (ha, and so do I!!)

As promised, a review of the new bar I got yesterday. I ate half, and it was very good! They used WHOLE almonds, and just half a bar filled me up for a couple of hours (when paired with fruit and cheese). I'm going to have the other half tomorrow at snack time. I could really taste the rice syrup, which was ok- but a very prominent flavor. Even in the fridge, the bar was still chewy and didn't get tough or crumbly, which was GREAT! I'm not a fan that there's 260 calories in the whole bar, though, which is why I ate half today and am eating the other half tomorrow. It's a really big bar, and it's sweetness really helps hit the spot!!

Hope everyone had a good Wednesday! We're over the hump, and are heading towards Friday! I'm very excited for the weekend because it's the first day of the local farmer's market, and we're going to a Clippers game (baseball- the Cleveland Indians Farm Team) on Saturday night thanks to Brenton's work. He even got this really REALLY nice cooler for just registering, WHICH I'M GOING TO PACK OUR DINNERS IN TO GO TO MIAMI!!! WHOO!!!!

Have a good evening! Namaste.

Looking forward...

Hello bloggies! The last few days have been a whirlwind! I'm SO looking forward to vacation... but alas, it's not until October. Brenton and I are going to his grandpa Jim's condo in Sunny Isles Beach, FL.

Here's a picture of the pool (thank you activerain.com... I couldn't find my pictures!):



Our flight leaves on a Tuesday evening, right AT dinner time of course. Since I'm all about bringing my own healthy food and snacks places (as people noticed at work today HA!), I'm SO going to be bringing my own dinner to have in the airport before we board. Check out my girl Angela's blog post for today! She talks all about the healthy airplane food she brought from home! Makes me VERY excited to go on our trip, and very excited to start planning on what I'm going to bring to eat!! I'm ready any time- SERIOUSLY! Too bad I can't bring my favorite green monster with me (poo on the no liquid rule!). Hopefully the condo has a blender!!!! If I have to go a week without a green monster I might die!! I had one this morning (of course!)



Tomorrow we're having our next door neighbors over for dinner. I'm making a pasta bar with lots of toppings/fixins so everyone can make their own meal. We'll also have salad on the side, and fruit salad for dessert. I'll be sure to take pictures. SHOULD BE NUMMY!

OH I almost forgot! Last night my sister and I were at Kroger for a LONG time (long story). She ordered us 2 Vanilla Rooibos Tea Lates with Soy Milk. O-M-G. Heaven in a cup. Seriously. It was sweet, wonderful, vanilla goodness. I looked on Starbucks.com to get the nutrition info, and here's what it said:

Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte

Full leaf African rooibos tea(naturally caffeine free), also known as red tea, paired with Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon. Sweetened with classic syrup and topped with steamed milk and velvety foam.

Serving Size		12 fl. oz.
		Amt Per Serving
Calories		150
Fat Calories		25
Total Fat (g)		3
Saturated Fat (g)		0
Trans Fat (g)		0
Cholesterol (mg)		0
Sodium (mg)		70
Total Carbohydrates (g)		27
Fiber (g)		1
Sugars (g)		25
Protein (g)		5
Vitamin A		8%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		20%
Iron		6%
Caffeine (mg)		0

Not horrible- especially because it was so sweet desserty like. YUM-O!! While we were there, I also picked up a couple of these little guys-

I haven't tried them yet- but they're all natural, organic, etc. etc. etc. A whopping 260 calories though, so I may end up cutting them in half and eating half a day. We'll see! I'll let you know how they are! I'll try one tomorrow.

Have a good evening all! Until next time, Namaste.