Where's the Beach?

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know that we did. It started off on Christmas Eve Day for us. We headed to our hometown to for lunch with my mom, her husband, my sister and her kids. I'll talk about some of the food I made later - a vegan "ham", coconut maple carrots from a new cookbook, and gluten-free Irish soda bread. We had a great time, and the weather was beautiful, sunny, 50 degrees. One funny before I move along, my sister and I have always felt we just should have been twins. We are 3 years apart, but most people think we're the same age. We have very similar mannerisms even if we don't look much alike. Well, this year when the gifts were being passed around, I handed Sarah her gift bag from me. She started laughing hysterically and pointed out my gift bag from her. Yep, same gift bags. And similar gifts. She got me a new beach bag with my initial and I got her a new work bag. Great minds? Anyway, after mom's it wa...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I decided to take a bit of a blogging break. I sometimes think that bloggers need to remember to do so more often, especially during the holidays. Log off. Live. Enjoy. That's pretty much what I did. Sunday we spent the day in our hometown for the family "Christmas" day festivities. We started off at my sister's house around noon. The menu was a Mexican theme - tacos, taco salad, that sort of thing. The kids were pretty much too excited to eat, but they were forced to endure lunch then pictures before presents ;-) Evil evil right? I think they ended up being a-ok with the delay getting everything they wanted, including their Uncle Jason helping them assemble some crazy complicated Lego deal. When did Lego's get complicated by the way? A and C decided they wanted to ride with Uncle Jason in our car to our dad's house. Though, Jason was planning a fast stop at his parents' house. The kiddos were excited to m...

Family Day Recap Today was the first day since I've been off work (since Wednesday) that wasn't jam packed. In other words, I was able to sleep in guilt free. We had no place to be. The only thing that we actually had planned was to get in a run if the weather was decent. The forecast kept changing, so the last we saw said rain. It was a pleasant surprise to see sunshine and blue skies rather than the dreary, gray skies we had yesterday. Oh, yesterday...that family-filled day. We left home at 10:45 in the morning and didn't get home until after 9 pm. Needless to say, the dogs were very unhappy and we were very worn out. The day started at my sister's for lunch of a brunch menu that consisted of 2 types of frittatas, fruit salad, bagels, sausage (for the meat eaters), and my mom made a gluten-free coffee cake as well.     It was so fun watching the kids open up their gifts. It was definitely a cooking type of Christmas for them. I had found these super cute Curious...

Soggy Gym Day I think it's about time to build an ark. It started raining sometime in the middle of the night and has not stopped at all. Not even tapered off. We have some drip, drip, drips happening in our ceiling that go along quite nicely with the constant downpour outside. Jason and I did manage to make our way to the gym. I started with the elliptical for 15 minutes as a warmup then hit the weights for chest, shoulders and hamstrings. Everything was 3x8. SS#1 Chest flye into press Pushups with toes on bench SS#2 Shoulder press Bulgarian deadlifts (ouch, freaking ouch. I must conquer these bad boys) SS#3 Lateral raise Step ups with rear leg lift at top SS#4 Upright rows Hamstring rollins on ball I followed up with some abs. It should go without saying that my arse is already sore ;-) Rainy Day & Christmas Decorations My original intention was to leave the gym and get to Whole Foods. But it was just pouring down, and I had no desire to fight stupid d...

Christmas Day Yesterday was a long one, but a good one that even included some snow flurries (closest thing to a white Christmas we'll ever get). It started off with more time in the kitchen getting food ready to take with us to our hometown where we started off with lunch at my sister's house. But...before going there, I must talk about my gifts of course. We got the food started before opening our own Christmas presents. It was a Victoria's Secret Christmas for me. I can never have too many PJs and was in need of new undies and house shoes. I got Jason a down vest, some new PJs, a much-needed new robe and some other goodies. Heath and Maddie (via Jason) got a gift for Jason and me. This was something we both needed in a BIG way. It's a Triggerpoint set complete with 2 different rollers and 2 balls and DVDs to help you roll out all the muscles - ideal for runners (sorry for the ugly picture below). So, after opening our own gifts, getting ready and packed up, we...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers! Kitchen Day Yesterday I spent about 7 hours in the kitchen. I made and jarred spaghetti sauce, cooked lentils then made a lentil loaf for dinner, roasted up acorn squash, baked bread, and put together treat bags (to get rid of leftover treats made for the brunch party). It was worth it of course, but man my feet were tired. Oh and my walls were covered with spaghetti sauce along with stove, counter, floor, me... You know you're Italian when... Christmas Eve Dinner Since Jason and I won't be home until late tomorrow and would definitely be too stuffed to eat a Christmas dinner at home, I made a Christmas Eve meal for us instead. I made a Chipotle Lentil Loaf topped with my Chipotle Cranberry Relish , roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with rosemary, thyme, salt & pepper, and sauteed kale with cranberries. Chipotle Lentil Loaf Ingredients: 2 cups dried lentils 6 cups water 1 not-beef bouillon cube Dehydrated w...