Greeting from my iPhone! Since it’s hump day I decided to treat myself to a sugar free non fat vanilla latte for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Tastes like 5 pm already!
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Training Day
This week marks that start of my formal running training. Actually, I’m not doing much different than I usually do. Running 4.1 miles at least 3 times a week with yoga in between runs and triceps dips and light weight training on my “off days”. I want to also introduce some interval training. I had my first run yesterday and it was great. I think that knowing I was going to run a race made me more motivated. I was running with purpose. However, my left hip didn’t like it too much. I really have to up my stretching before and after runs.
Tonight I did power yoga which was intense. I sweat a lot and the 6 pm class was packed. The guy next to me was sweating before class started and was rocking a yoga headband. That’s a deal breaker. As I said, class was intense and sweaty and I expect to be majorly sore tomorrow.
After yoga I caught up with a taco truck I saw on my way into yoga. How awesome that it was still there, right? I was kinda thinking about it all through class. I know, I have a sick obsession with food trucks. I ate a taco so quickly that I didn’t get a picture. When I got home I knew I should eat something else so I had this piece of Ezekiel bread with hummus, arugula, and sun dried tomatoes.
Yum. Delicious.
This was so good! Definitely going to have this again soon.
And one more thing before I go. Last Sunday my balcony was infiltrated by a squirrel. Izzy took this invasion very personally. She became fixated.
I have since removed the pumpkin but she remains obsessed. Literally, she has been stalking the screen and staring at the place where the pumpkin was for hours. Poor thing. Goodnight, bloggies!
Getty Up
Last weekend I went with Mack and Danielle to the Getty museum. I live fairly close to the Getty and I hadn’t been since right after I moved to LA. We went to see the DaVinci but my favorite part of the Getty are the gardens.
And my favorite art is impressionist art. The Getty has an OK collection. I feel like once you’ve been to the Musee d’Orsay nothing else really can compare. But I loved these paintings:
I also love this Singer Sargent:
Sign. Sometimes I wish I lived in the time of ballgowns. So glam.
See ya later, Getty!
Barefoot Mac and Cheese
As a first day of work present to myself I prepared mac and cheese. I have a well documented love of cheese and pasta! The both together is always amazing. I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa but I altered it. I used her Lobster Mac and Cheese recipe as a base, but at the end when you add lobster I added veggies instead. I also used some Barefoot tips and tricks with varying degrees of success. Obviously I started by boiling brown pasta. I utilized Barefoot Tip #1: add olive oil to the pasta water so the pasta doesn’t stick.
This was a successful experiment! None of my pasta stuck which means that this is a success. While the pasta was boiling I took gruyere and cheddar and cut them up. Instead of the arm workout of grating cheese I attempted to use Barfoot tip #2: putting the cheese in the food processor to cut it. Ummm, not so successful:
the picture of fail
I think it was because of the consistency of the cheese. Maybe it was too mushy? Well, moving on. I heated a 1/4 pint of milk in a sauce pan while I melted a 1/4 cup of butter in another pan with a little bit of flour.
butter mixture
the milk pan
and then we combine! This, according to Ina, is a traditional white sauce. I kept the heat on low and added nutmeg (which I ground with my Microplane, a product I love), pepper, salt, and the cheese. Then I mix and let melt.
This is where we separate from Ina and add our favorite things. I added tomato, broccoli, and leeks. Note: tonight I made this again and instead I used sundried tomato, leeks, arugula, and thyme!
Mix it up and put it in an oven safe container, cook at 350 for 30-35 mins. Barefoot suggests adding a breadcrumb crumble but I bypassed this.
Yum! I only ate about 1/2 of the pasta and saved the rest for a later time. What can I say, I was full!
This recipe is for sure a keeper. Barefoot never does me wrong.
Power(flow) Hour
Today I did my first Power Yoga class. Holy yoga! I left a pool of sweat on my mat. I know, gross but in an awesome way. The class was really intense and fast moving. Towards the end it slowed down and we did inversions. We even did pranayama breathing in the chair position. I’ve never done that breathing in a class that wasn’t Bikram. It was pretty interesting. I got a decent stretch from yoga including a long time in pigeon which I hope makes a difference in my running. I noticed my ankles were very stiff which made child’s pose a bit uncomfortable which is depressing since child’s pose is my favorite recovery poses. Anyways before yoga I went to Clementine and had lunch. Much to my delight I was greeted by this wonderful sign…
Yes! A whole new menu with all types of new options!!! Some items are still the same, like the rare roast beef sandwich. I was momentarily upset because I couldn’t get my favorite egg plant sandwich but I soldiered on and ordered the local mozzarella sandwich. It had mozzarella, greens, and artichoke on whole grain bread.
And of course being at Clementine I had to treat myself to a cookie! I tried peanut butter sandwich cookie and it was delicious of course! I enjoyed it while driving to power yoga (where I promptly burned it off).
So delicious.
And now I have an announcement: I am going to run my first race! I have been playing with the idea of running a race for a while. I have been asked if I would like to run a half marathon and Carolyn just ran one recently so I got her input on it. I’ve decided to hold off on the half for now. However, thinking about running a half has made me consider racing seriously for the first time. So I have decided to start racing. I will start with a 5k, then do a 10k, then a 15k and then reassess the half marathon. I want to start with a 5k because right now I am running 4.1 miles a couple times a week. I would like my first run to be a confidence booster and also not too intimidating. So my first race will be on July 11th. Of course, my training plan will be documented here!
Do any racers have any words of wisdom for me?
Oats to You
Kicking off my first real weekend in ages with oats.
I love oats and today I actually had time to cook them!
Delicious raspberries from the Farmers Market. This totally made my morning. Fresh fruit is the best way to start the day.
A little brown sugar and Saigon Cinnamon later, deliciousness.
This was moments before I mashed up the raspberries into a puree thing. I love fresh berries. Super summery. And now I am off to run errands and finally unpack from my trip to Chicago and Boston. Whoops! Well, its been a busy week and sometimes it just takes a while to unpack. It happens.
Success
I see this every time I go to the UCLA Gym. I think its an important reminder of how to live life.
(source)
RIP John Wooden
I finally meet a cookie I don't like
So there is this awesome farmer’s market near my work where there is a mix of made to order food AND veggies and fruits. Plus, its next to the Coffee Bean. Score! I got a ton or arugula for 95 cents and a thing of raspberries. I cannot wait to make oatmeal tomorrow. So anyways, I hit Coffee Bean and got some veggies and then I bought these cookies for $1. Um, not my favorite. I actually only had one of these thin cookies. They were pretty flavorless and also very chewy, but chewy like a store bought cookie. Well, we can’t win them all. There were some great roasted nuts. Next time I will get those for sure!
After work I had happy hour and then went on a run. I made sure I stretched my hip out before starting my run. I did pigeon, butterfly and a few other yoga poses. I stopped my run a little early because I could feel my hip. After I stretched again. I feel ok now but we will see tomorrow. Yoga will be a must do this weekend. I also made this delicious pasta. Basic homemade tomato sauce with roasted broccoli and eggplant. I also added some of the arugula. Yum.
and crap. I’m hungry again. Why am I such a beast today? Night!
I finally meet a cookie I don’t like
So there is this awesome farmer’s market near my work where there is a mix of made to order food AND veggies and fruits. Plus, its next to the Coffee Bean. Score! I got a ton or arugula for 95 cents and a thing of raspberries. I cannot wait to make oatmeal tomorrow. So anyways, I hit Coffee Bean and got some veggies and then I bought these cookies for $1. Um, not my favorite. I actually only had one of these thin cookies. They were pretty flavorless and also very chewy, but chewy like a store bought cookie. Well, we can’t win them all. There were some great roasted nuts. Next time I will get those for sure!
After work I had happy hour and then went on a run. I made sure I stretched my hip out before starting my run. I did pigeon, butterfly and a few other yoga poses. I stopped my run a little early because I could feel my hip. After I stretched again. I feel ok now but we will see tomorrow. Yoga will be a must do this weekend. I also made this delicious pasta. Basic homemade tomato sauce with roasted broccoli and eggplant. I also added some of the arugula. Yum.
and crap. I’m hungry again. Why am I such a beast today? Night!
Into the Groove?
Today I went on my first long run (4.1 miles) in 4 weeks. The last time I ran this run was May 8th- I think. I probably could have waited an extra day due to my heinous sun burn, but today is National Running Day and I was antsy to run to work off the “checking my grades” anxiety. I started slow and felt good but when I got to the “Hilgard Hills” I stopped for a little bit and walked in place because I had a major cramp in my side. Does anyone know a trick to stop a cramp other than stopping and breathing deeply? Then I resumed running and was doing OK until the very end when I had to stop at a stop light. When I started running again my left hip was really sore. Argh! More yoga, more stretching? I think so! I did a bunch of hip openers after I got home (while simultaneously checking my twitter feed, Katherine FTW!) Hopefully I won’t feel too bad tomorrow AM. I’m off to sleep.
andddd because I took too many picture in Chicago, here is my little retriever buddy, Wally…
Left Coast Contessa 
