New York New York

This is going to jump all over the place, just how you like it right?

First thing’s first. My sister got back from a week-long trip to Peru this past weekend, and I think it might be official that she’s cooler than me.

Bri, in her Bulls jersey, with a baby llama, before hiking Huayna Picchu.

While I haven’t traveled internationally recently (and probably won’t this year) we did go up to New York City this past weekend for my first ever visit! We just stayed the day on Saturday, saw all the touristy sites, and met up with my friend Leslie who was in town for work.

My favorite part of the day was probably seeing the 9/11 Memorial, which was incredibly impactful and so tastefully done. Runner up was our New York-style pizza and some beers. HOWEVER, let me make it clear that Chicago-style pizza will always be my favorite. Always.

the 9/11 Memorial

It’s a busy week over here – on Thursday most of my coworkers and I ship out to Dallas for a work event. I tried my best to get some solid food prep in yesterday for the days that I am here, including this delicious spaghetti squash recipe and then this (paleo) brownie recipe…

I doubled the recipe to make a full pan

Being a compulsive Type A-er, traveling sometimes stresses me out. Seeing that traveling is happening four of the next eight weekends, I’m trying hard to plan ways to set myself up for success – from packing healthy food, to saving all of those obnoxious (yet helpful) no-gym workouts we constantly see all over Pinterest.

Last but not least, I promised an update on oil pulling if I had anything to report. Really… I don’t. I haven’t noticed much, outside of that I kind of enjoyed the process itself (I found it relaxing) and liked the way the coconut oil felt on my lips. Maybe my teeth got whiter? Outside of that, I remained unimpressed. The price of coconut oil probably isn’t worth continuing to oil pull religiously… but I may still do it on occasion, assuming it’s a good oral health ritual. All in all, it was a fun experiment.

That’s all I’ve got. Stay tuned for some Hump Day confessions on Wednesday.

Anyone else have an oil pulling opinion? Got a great travel workout to share? I could use it.

Cheers –

K

Sunday Yumday

Winter decided to tease us this weekend - temps broke 60 both Saturday and Sunday, and it made me way too excited for Spring to officially get here.

Friday night myself, the boy and few friends made our way down the Fillmore in Silver Spring to check out a country concert. It turned out to be an entirely acoustic set with Joe Nichols, Chase Rice, Thompson Square, Craig Campbell and Eric Paslay and I think we would all agree it was a pretty stellar performance.

good times!

In other new, has anyone tried this coffee?

It's one of my new favorites.

Food prep has (nerdishly) become on of my favorite parts of Sunday. On top of my favorite crockpot sweet potato casserole, I also made my own healthy fruit snacks, and a spaghetti squash egg fritata bake for the week.

fruit snacks in the making

breakfast this week? yes please.

Dinner tonight was pizza from a local Baltimore restaurant, Verde. My pizza happened to be gluten-free, and we enjoyed it with some wine up on the deck before the sun went down and temps started dipping back down to cold.

YUM

I feel good about this week. Last week of February - March is on Saturday, can you believe it?? Let's make it great.

Cheers - 

Kait

Preparation is Key

This weekend was solid. There really isn’t a particular reason why, just a lot of small fun/funny moments that made it fab.

Patapsco State Park is a big huge park near Baltimore that has an endless amount of trails to explore. I sometimes run there when it’s warmer, but on Saturday Andrew and I decided to bundle up and find some new trails.

We got a solid 75 minutes of hiking under our belts, and discovered some pretty stellar views in the process. Following the hike we hit up Subway’s JanuANY special and scarfed down footlongs. One each.

I probably wouldn’t have felt bad if we wouldn’t have followed up later that evening with a hot fudge sundae on top of a waffle. Oops.

'DONT EAT IT YET I NEED A PICTURE'

In comparison to my almost 100% paleo diet during the week, weekends can get a little sketchy. Granted, we were both freezing on our walk home, and literally nothing sounded better than hot fudge on top of a Belgium waffle...

Have I mentioned Vaccaros before in Little Italy? Its got some seriously decadent desserts. If you're ever in town, go.

Anyways,  even with a sweaty run bike run bike (15 mins each) workout yesterday pre-Broncos kicking the Pat’s butts didn’t make me feel much better. Pair that with some artichoke dip, and a celebratory shot or two when Peyton sealed the deal, and we’re talking about a pretty negligent weekend nutrition-wise.

I’m not too strict when it comes to weekends in general, but when hot fudge sundaes do call my name, I try to make extra certain that I set myself up for success for that coming week. Preparation is key.

Now, I  believe I’ve mentioned my snack drawer at work on here before, and I wanted to give you all a quick update on its current status, because it’s looking pretty damn impressive. Keep in mind, I'm a strong believer in keeping a stocked, healthy snack drawer...

Yes, there are at least six different kinds of tea in there. I continue to fall in love with tea, especially now that I have an awesome tea pot at home.

I went to town for a solid 90 minutes this evening in the kitchen, cooking up some broccoli slaw for my lunches (not pictured), a badass veggie fritata (picture bottom), and some delicious paleo Cranberry Pecan Pumpkin Banana muffins. The original recipe can be found here - but keep in mind that I threw about a half cup of pumpkin in there, omitted the coconut (didn't have it), used coconut oil instead of butter, and used pecans instead of walnuts just because that's what I had on hand. 

They are great. If you're a muffin person, try these bad boys out.

Hopefully my food preparation this evening has me on track for success this week. Word on the street is that Balty is going to get a couple inches of snow tomorrow, something I'm actually looking forward to.

Snow > dirty dead grass.

Cheers!

K