Sweet Relief!

I am seriously happy today. You see, I have had a problem shoulder for about the last 2 years or so. There’s what feels like a giant knot in there and it is very painful by the end of most days, which is a total bummer. I have pretty much tried every treatment under the sun – massage therapy, muscle relaxers, steroid injections, physical therapy etc. etc. and NOTHING works. It’s very frustrating!

Since moving to DC my mum suggested I try a doctor here – if you can’t find a good doctor in Washington, where can you find one? So, I went to see a neurologist this morning and we did a bunch of tests. It was NOT FUN.  I was hooked up to this nerve reader machine and they shocked me in various places, then they stuck lots of big needles in me and had me flex my muscles in various ways while they wiggled them around. Ouuuuch.

BUT I don’t even care because finally someone can tell me what’s wrong! Apparently I had some nerve damage in my neck, which causes the pain in my shoulder. That’s why treating my shoulder over and over was doing nothing. So, tomorrow morning I have an MRI, then we can discuss a treatment plan. THANK GOODNESS!! I hope to GOD this will finally be solved.

That story was semi health blog related, right? I talk to much! Let’s look at some food.

You know what I totally had forgotten about that I’m so glad I just remembered!?

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Ants on a log!!

You never get too old for these. What a gorgeous little snack they make. I had some celery left-over from last week’s celery salad recipe and I didn’t know what to do with it. I’m not a huge fan of celery for most things cause it’s so blah. But everything tastes better with peanut butter, right!? :O) I made them with dried cherries instead of raisins, so they’re a little bigger than “ants”. But nothing sounds as cute as ants. “Roaches on a Log”? No, we’ll stick with ants I think.

I had them for lunch as a side to a baba ganoush, Munster and pickle sandwich. Is that a random combo or what? It was yummy – that’s what counts!

Isn’t that lunch so pretty basking in the sunlight? It is THE MOST gorgeous day here in DC. It feels like fall! I know I shouldn’t be wishing summer away but you don’t know how happy I am to walk to work without sweating my face off!

Anyway. I will go now, but not before I do, a big happy birthday to my BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD!! Emily. Here we are at Fleet Week this spring. Isn’t she adorable?

– Beth

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Roommate Reunion

On Saturday, my roommate from university came up to visit!  It was so great to see her because it had been over two months since our last visit.  We relaxed and caught up, and of course, had a fabulous meal!  I can’t take credit for this one because it was another meal that my Mom made for us.

We had stuffed tomatoes, stuffed zucchini, and stuffed potatoes on the BBQ.

Plus some carrots cooked in brown sugar and ginger.  And I have to note, that the majority of the veggies were from my grandmother’s garden!

 

For dessert, we had cooked peaches in some kind of sugar, I can’t remember exactly! :P  Plus some chocolate chip, oatmeal, raisin cookies and brownies.  I had one of each!

A wonderful meal for our reunion.  We all loved it!

 

Aaron

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Time for an Update

Good afternoon! Hope everyone’s having an enjoyable Sunday.

I woke up this morning after a better sleep and dreamed up this pretty breakfast bowl before coming downstairs to create it.

It turned out just as lovely as I had imagined  :O). It was:

• about 2/3 cup plain yogurt
• tbsp. flax seed
• 1/3 cup Dorset Cereals muesli – yum!
• 12 raspberries
• tsp. creamed honey

That honey MADE the bowl, I swear! So good. And some coffee. I love a nice slow morning of reading and coffee drinking, don’t you??

After brekkie I walked over to the Farmer’s Market. I didn’t need much since I’ll be going out of town soon, but I wanted some delicious juicy peaches for sure. I also got some bird egg beans(??). I have no clue what they are but they look pretty and trying new things is my favorite hobby. I’ll let you all know how they taste!

I’ve decided to wait for a break in the heat, say around 7 tonight, and then try running. It is just tooooo hot during the day, but I feel like a good work-out. So hopefully this plan works!

I thought I should update everyone on the goals that I made last week, since it’s been 9 days since I began.

I haven’t had one single piece of sugar-free gum since I swore it off, which is HUGE for me! I have been pretty addicted for years. I don’t know that I feel much different physically, but mentally I’m happy I’m not putting any more artificial sweeteners in my system. I really do think in a few years we’re going to discover how truly bad artificial sweeteners are, so I want to be prepared!

Having said that however, I did drink one diet pop this week. Eek! I was feeling a little off after Wednesday’s boozy dinner and so I decided to have one as a little pick-me-up on Thurs. However, I’m not worried. I drank it because I really wanted it, not out of routine. I don’t believe in denying yourself anything you really want, so there you have it. Hopefully in time I’ll get to a place where I don’t like diet pop at all. Takes time I guess!

Exercise wise, to be honest, I have struggled. Like I said, I have been a gym goer for almost 10 years now and it’s hard to just stop. I really love walking but I also have really been craving those exercise endorphins that you can only get from a good sweat. I told myself at the beginning of all of this to just listen to my body and see how I feel – I miss a good work-out, so I think I’ll be bringing them back. BUT I am going to cut back on how much I was working out, which was probably too much, hence the burn-out.

So there you have it! I’m only 9 days in to my 21 day experiment, so I’m sure there will be more thoughts and adjustments to come. I like this process though! It’s always good to shake things up in the quest to be the healthiest version of me :O).

See you all tomorrow.

– Beth

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Fun’s Over

Ahhh the weekend. This will be a quiet one for me – next weekend I’ll be visiting my best friend in Norfolk and the weekend after I’m headed home – so I’ve decided to try and be productive and economical as much as possible now! In light of restaurant week, I think my bank account will be thankful :O).

I slept horrible last night! So frustrating since I didn’t even have anything pressing on my mind. I just kept thinking thinking and woke  up early this morning still thinking.  Boo. Hopefully my brain has tired itself out and I’ll sleep like a little baby tonight.

I started my early day with a delicious breakfast of waffles with a packet of Justin’s Almond Butter, a tbsp. of maple syrup, a sliced banana and cinnamon. Seriously amazing. And coffee (of course).

Mmmm, I love a meal that tastes as good as it looks.

After breakfast I headed out as quick as possible to get in a nice walk before the grey sky opened up. And after that, a bit of ab and arm strength training. Poor planning on my part of course because it never did rain and now the sun‘s out! Ah well, I guess that means I’ll be forced to head outdoors again later today.

Now it’s back to my to-do list for the afternoon. Doesn’t this post seem sad after the last two?? I need to be a restaraunt critic I think. Imagine being able to write things like that everyday!? Heaven! I enjoyed it so much in fact I signed up for a food writing seminar here in DC this November. Should be interesting and if nothing else perhaps it’ll make me a better blogger :O).

Happy Saturday blog friends…

– Beth

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What a Week…

After a looong few days of moving, I am finally back to having internet access.  I’m not in my new place yet, so I am currently staying with my parents for a week or so.  But, all my stuff is in my new place waiting to be unpacked!  Can’t wait to get down there and get started.

I’ve been feeling soo sick the past couple days so I kept putting off putting up a post.  This is my meal from a couple nights ago that just didn’t get up on time!

We had a fab homemade dinner by none other than my Mom!

Barbequed Portobello mushrooms, garlic bread on a baguette, steamed veggies done in a pouch on the barbeque, red potatoes with an onion sauce, and a small piece of chicken.  Mmm…

Fresh flowers from the garden as a centrepiece… how pretty!

Heading out for dinner tonight with some friends.  Not sure where we are headed yet!  Details tomorrow 🙂

 

Aaron

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Meal #2 – Zola

And so, here is the Zola wrap-up. I enjoyed dinner at Zola but I don’t think I was blown away. I’ve decided not to write a full review or go on too much about it because I think it had a few things working against it from the start, which might make my evaluation a little unfair:

1. I was so in love with LIMA that it might be hard to follow it the very next night

2. I probably didn’t order one of the stars of the menu and I might have been much more impressed with something else.

It was a fun night, I really liked our waitress and the decor was lovely – so those added a lot. But foodwise I felt it could have been better. It’s funny because going into the week I was super excited for Zola and hesitant about LIMA – now they’ve done a switch!

So without further ado, here’s some pics:

 Beautiful interior:

 

Appetizer – seared tuna with avocado, mango, chilis, grilled frisee and taro strands. This I enjoyed!!

Main – mushroom crepe with cauliflower puree, grilled asparagus and frisee salad. It sure looked pretty! And I adore mushrooms, which is why I ordered it. Buuut it was just meh.

And then there was dessert. I will tell you now this is not the one I ordered; it’s my roommates’. But it was the lovliest by far! So it gets to be the feature here because I’m the blogger and that’s what I decided.  This is the chocolate mouse with pears, hazelnut crunch and passion fruit sauce. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all, but in a very good way! I think the desserts were the highlight for most of us :O).

And finally, a picture of the diners. Jamie got cut out! You can just see a sliver of her next to Beth :O(. So for the second day, imagine one more pretty face.

Beth, Nicole, Allison and Beth (me). So now when I talk about my roommates you have a visual!

So there you have it – Restaurant Week meals complete. I enjoyed all that yummy food but I’m glad I only splashed out twice because I really don’t feel like eating anymore!!

Hope you enjoyed the wrap-ups. I’ll be back with (much) less fancy food shortly :O).

– Beth

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In L.O.V.E. with LIMA

There are few things I love more in this life than a really good dinner with excellent food, wine and friends. Last night was certainly one of the best dining experiences I’ve had since I moved to DC. Such a treat! As mentioned, we went to LIMA for restaurant week. Admittedly I was a little worried because it’s a restaurant and night club, which indicated to me the food may not be the best. But I was pleasantly proven wrong!

Here we are at dinner. Sadly my friend Rachel left before this picture was snapped. Just imagine one more pretty face!

 

A fair amount of alcohol was consumed over the course of the evening which left me feeling less than stellar this morning. But once in a while when the drinks are really good, I don’t mind so much! We started the night with mojitos which to me, taste just like what summer should taste like. I had an original first. After trying my friend’s I followed it with a guava. Deelish!

For dinner we ordered off the three course prix fixe menu which was more limited than the main menu. To start, I had the tuna ceviche. The waiter said it’s what they’re known for and I can see why.

 

I apologize in advance if these pictures aren’t the best, it was very dim in the dining room, which made for good ambiance but crappy picture quality! I tried my best.

The ceviche was amazing. One of my very favorite foods is seared rare tuna so really, this was just perfect for me. It was also nice and light, which meant I had plenty of room for this!

 

Wild Atlantic salmon, which came with grilled vegetables, a yellow corn tamale and chipotle mojo – whatever that is. Yum, yum, yum. Everything was cooked perfect and the combination of flavors was a party in my mouth!! I boxed a bit of it up so I’d have room for dessert – boy am I glad I did!

 

Warm chocolate cake with Dulce de leche ice cream. Heaven! I ate every bite :O).  My friend Diana had a beautiful milk and coconut cake that was so picturesque it needs to be featured on the blog too.

 

 Look at that fun sugar decoration. A work of art!

There was also a good bit of wine to drink while all of this food was served. I had a Malbec. They were very generous to give us more than was ordered :O).

The service was excellent, the food was excellent and the alcohol was flowing, so really I have not a single complaint! I would like to write a full review soon, but for now, there’s the wrap-up of my eats.

Like I said, one of the best meals I’ve had in DC! We’ll have to see if tonight’s trip to Zola can top it.

Have I mentioned I ❤ restaurant week?? :O)

–Beth

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Two Strikes

Not a pleasant run this morning! After taking a little over a week off of running outside due to the heat, I decided to give it a go today as it’s just slightly cooler. Bad idea! I started out okay, but the sun was really beating down. When I was finished, for the first time in a long time I actually thought I was going to be sick! Not good. Lesson learned: it’s still too hot to run outside. Ah well, we’ll see if I want to try again in a while. Trying very hard to just listen to my body on all of this!

After my run I could not cool down, but for some reason I decided I wanted oats. Perhaps oats are like tea and will cool you down on a hot day? Although I’m not even really sure that’s true of tea – just a nice British excuse to drink more!

Despite my hotness, they were good:

• 1/3 cup each oats/almond milk/water
• splash of vanilla
• tbsp. ground flax
• blueberries
• tbsp. PB&J almonds
• tsp. peanut butter

It was my first time trying those almonds and hooooly were they good. I have found a new oatmeal topper! What a day.

At lunchtime today I was on a real adventure. It was free cupcake day at Hello Cupcake! in DuPont. What is better than a cupcake? A FREE cupcake! I had to do it. Sadly, I forgot my paper with the store’s address on it. Even more sadly, by the time I did finally find the place I was a hot sweaty mess and the cupcakes were SOLD OUT!! Nooooo. I was so excited to share them and all their beauty on the blog and let’s be honest, more excited to eat one. Disappointment! It’s the worst.

Okay so a nauseous run and a missing cupcake doesn’t make for the worst day ever but sometimes a little wine whine helps!

Get ready for tomorrow! Restaurant week dinner #1 at LIMA. Can’t wait to share!

– Beth

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Second Success

I had an all-around good day today – don’t you just love those? :O)

I started my morning with a long, sunny walk. It was in the high seventies to start with, so the temperature was nice to be out in for a change! Afterwards I popped into the dry cleaner to pick up a shirt I had there. I only had a credit card with me and when it was time to pay, the lady told me she could only take cash or check. When I said I didn’t have any on me, she said that I could take the shirt now and next time I walked by I can bring the money. It was the nicest thing ever!! When I looked at her like she was crazy she said, “Don’t worry, I trust my customers.” That’s the first time I’ve ever been there and she trusts me!? I was touched. So touched in fact I went straight home, got the cash and went straight back. I will be a customer for life!! Well, until I move anyway.

The other wonderful thing that happened to me was I found out I got a nice little bonus for good sales performance at work last quarter. I’ve always hated selling things, way back to school fundraisers. I just don’t like to think I’m bothering people with something they don’t want. However it was for my job and my job is something I’d like to keep, so I sucked it up and tried my best.  So not only am I happy for the money but happy I have a talent I never knew about! Those two things made for a good start to the week!

Dinner tonight was also a nice way to start things off. I made another recipe I got from The Skinny, which I am growing more and more impressed with! Celery salad with bleu cheese and Tabasco, which is meant to taste a bit like buffalo wings, celery and blue cheese dip, without the wing part. Make sense? I hope so. Made sense to my taste buds anyway. I had one of the two servings it made along with a veggie burger topped with baba ganoush, roasted peppers and mustard on some farmer’s market bread. Tasty!

Evening relaxation is in order now before I head to bed. Did I mention it’s restaurant week in DC this week!? It’s like Christmas. I have dinner plans Wednesday and Thursday night which I am super pumped for. Perhaps that’s what I’ll dream about tonight :O).

– Beth

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Celebrity Sighting

What a pleasant Sunday it’s been. The weather was actually a little cooler and a lot less humid than it has been, which meant lots of time frolicking outside!

I started my day with a trip to the DuPont Farmer’s Market. The peaches and tomatoes were so good last week, I couldn’t wait to re-stock. I ended up with nectarines instead of peaches but couldn’t resist more of the same tomatoes. I also got some nice fresh bread and some ginger peach preserves.

I used some of the bread for lunch, one piece with peanut butter and one with creamed honey. Oh yum. I also had some pineapple and a yogurt with a tbsp. of ground flax.  

I managed to get all of my Sunday catch-up tasks done early in the day so I decided a fun afternoon was well-deserved. I walked over to the Museum of Contemporary Art,  which I’ve been wanting to visit forever, and then through the Sculpture Gardens. I really should take advantage of these things more often!

Foodies, would you even believe who I saw there!? THE ACE OF CAKES!! I walked past him and I was like, “Oh my God, is that Duff?” and then I heard him talk and OhMyGod it WAS him! I was so exited, but really what was I going to say to him? So I just stared like a weirdo and then kept walking. Hm.

Dinner is actually not too different from last night’s, but I made a different variation of sweet potato that was so good I had to share. I got this recipe from the book The Skinny and I am absolutely making it again! It was so good. Hot cinnamon-glazed sweet potatoes with yogurt. Please look it up, it was to. die. for. I had that along with the rest of my Jamaican jerk chicken and half of a farmer’s market tomato. Aaron is right, homegrown tomatoes are a flavor that can’t be beat!

After dinner I walked and walked and walked. It was too nice of a night not to soak it in. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous and tons of people were out to enjoy. See how much better that is than starring at a wall on an elliptical in the gym? I am liking my new lifestyle goals more and more!

Off to read some more of Julie and Julia before bed. Night night!

– Beth

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