Friday Faves

Hey friends! I survived my week! I am currently writing this post on Thursday night, the first night this week that I didn’t work overtime and/or didn’t have some kind of function to attend after work. PHEW.

My office hosted/coordinated/attended quite a few events this week (ALL of which took place on Wednesday, I might add) so it was a crazy time. And much like I said in my post about staying healthy in times of busy-ness, I have still been keeping up with my workouts…buuuut just not so much with the healthy eating part. Though I can successfully say I haven’t had any cheese and crackers dinners this week! Small victory.

In the little time I’ve had to surf the web over the past few weeks, I’ve accumulated a few fun finds, along with other things I’ve been enjoying IRL, that I wanted to share today. Enjoy!

Weekend in Photos

So I’ve been sucking as a blogger lately. On the flip side, that probably means I’ve been succeeding as a productive employee 😉

I’ve got an extremely busy workweek ahead of me, but I wanted to pop in and say hello, yes I’m alive, and here are some pictures from my weekend to prove it!

Weekend in Photos

Happy Monday!

Hope you all have had a good day so far. A few ups and downs over here…after a full 8 hours of sleep (following 2 nights totaling 8 hours of sleep), I woke up calm and relaxed this morning and even walked to work (it somehow feels so much more relaxing to walk than hurriedly bike). However, I got to work and found out that my gym isn’t reopening for another week. It has been closed for a week and a half, so I’ve just been running outside in the meantime. But I had brought my workout clothes hoping to get back to weight training today and my hopes were shattered! Luckily there is a 24-Hour Fitness by my office, so I just printed out a one-day trial pass and jogged over there instead. Crisis averted!

Anyyyyyway….. the weekend!

Friday evening started with a classy happy hour with 3 of my oldest girlfriends at Riverside Clubhouse (I hadn’t been there since high school- we went before Junior Prom!)…..and ended at not so classy Chita’s for 3am nachos. In between: Late night Insidious Chapter 2 viewing and a couple of drinks at a gay bar.

Saturday morning routine time! Despite a late-night-Mexican stomachache, I still made it out to run. This week, I shook it up a little bit: dressed obnoxiously for my 4.1 mile run, and and walked around the Farmer’s Market with my friend Landai instead of…alone. Afterward, Lisa came over and I used some of my finds to make breakfast/brunch nachos for us.

After a little bit of shopping, it was arts and crafts time. The dodgeball league was hosting a Ninjas vs. Pirates pub crawl…my friend lent me his huge black kickball shirt, so I took in the sides and made some crazy slashes and head/armbands to transform it into a ninja-worthy outfit.

The rest of the night involved our group (half of the bar) singing along to My Heart Will Go On, and lots of general shenanigans. Let’s just say lots of plastic ninja stars were thrown.

In the morning, we recovered with breakfast at a new-to-me spot: Harry’s Cafe. They have both American and Asian-inspired breakfast food (and a full Asian menu)… I got fried rice with a couple of eggs and a BOATLOAD of sriracha, naturally. Roger got their chicken skillet, which didn’t have much chicken to be found, but was still delicious. I’m lucky this place isn’t exactly within walking distance of my apartment, or my arteries would be in trouble!!!

All in all a great weekend, though my sleep schedule suffered greatly!

What’s your favorite theme for a party or pub crawl?

Breakfast: sweet or savory?

Run to Remember 10k Recap!

Well, I did it y’all! I ran a 10k. And I mean ran… I didn’t stop to walk at all during any of those 6.2 miles! Woot!

For various reasons, I didn’t have anyone cheering me on at the actual race (though a few texts and Snapchats throughout made me smile!), so more than ever this run was definitely a mental challenge for me. I am always pep talking myself through long runs… So while it’s all still fresh in my mind, I wanna recap the race mile by mile and let you know what was going through my head 😛

First off, I popped out of bed at 7:45 and headed to the kitchen for my pre-race meal of champions:

Sprouted whole wheat toast + Nutella, and a serving of fitmixer Clean Energy. I almost always have this before my long runs on Saturday mornings, and I have had a lot of success with it. I even take it on Saturday mornings sometimes to avoid hangovers…. #truestory

After getting dressed and trying to figure out how to attach my timer to my Lock Laces (ugh), I headed over to Capitol Mall.

at the start!

At 9:11am (It was a 9/11 Memorial run), we were off!

Mile 1: Whoooaaaa people get outta my way! Alright. Passed all the slowpokes…now who should I pace myself with? I need to keep it slow. That girl looks like the same general size/athleticness as me…Hmmmmm….But what if she’s running the 5k? She’ll be going too fast…It’s a marathon, not a sprint! Where are the 10k runners??

still smiling because i didn’t know what laid ahead…..

Mile 2: Whoops, my split for the first mile was 9:27. (I usually aim for 10 minute miles for my first couple) Cool your jets Katie!!! You’ll regret it come mile 4! There have already been like 2-3 hills…I hope there aren’t many more. I can’t believe I don’t have a sidecramp!

view right after the 3 mile mark

Mile 3: (This is where it started getting tough. A lot of the course looped through the same spots more than once, so we went back over the hills from earlier.. And then some) WHAT. THE. HELL. Halfway through, Katie, HALFWAY THROUGH. Mile 2 was slightly slower than mile 1, might as well just keep that pace now. Even though your legs are already feeling like jello…

going over the Tower Bridge into West Sacramento at the beginning of mile 3

Mile 4: Alright, you slowed down to a 10 minute mile for that last one, but you’ve gotta step it up here!! Actually get some damn water at the 4.5 mile mark so you don’t crap out like you did in Manteca last weekend! So. Many. HILLLLLS. You’re heading back over the bridge into downtown soon, that’s a good sign.

Mile 5: The water helped. Feelin’ good now… running through the flat, shady mall has never felt so good.

Mile 6.2: Just gotta finish strong. But wheeeereeee is this damn finish line?! We better not be making a full loop here… please, I swear to Buddha the finish line better be right there when we turn onto 4th Street….

it was!

FINISH!

Chip time: 1:02:27

In my 20-29 age group, I finished 21st. Not too shabby.

Unfortunately, my goal was to finish in 1:00:00, so I didn’t quite get there. This is because of several factors… First off, my first 2 miles were waaayyy too fast. I felt like I was going slowly, but I started at a pace that was definitely too fast to maintain. Secondly, I definitely should have done some of my long training runs on the actual course. I had no idea how many hills there would be! We went over several bridges (that are somewhat elevated), past Old Sacramento where the street dips down, and along the River Walk, which is down along the river below the sidewalk/street level. My legs were definitely not happy about the hills!

they were, however, happy about free food!

Regardless of my time, I feel great for finishing and I can’t believe I can now say that I’ve run 6 miles. Just 3 months ago I NEVER thought I’d pass the 5K/3 mile mark…It’s just a testament to how practice and planning can help you achieve more than you’d ever expect!

And for all my hard work, I decided it was definitely necessary to #treatyoself (myself), and got a luxury pedicure! Win. Sorry, bank account.

Hope you’ve had a great weekend! Go 49ers 🙂

Labor Day Weekend in Photos

Raise your hand if you didn’t want to get out of bed this morning!

My roomie and I had a hilarious moment this morning…I was drowsily walking out of the bathroom as she was walking in, and she looks at me and goes, “Is it just me, or was it really hard waking up today?” …Given the fact that it was already 8:10 and I had been snoozing my alarm since 7:30am, I don’t even have to tell you how much I agreed 😉

Also, I would like to take a moment to thank my multivitamin and kombucha for getting me through this weekend. Multivitamin for my lack of sleep…and kombucha for my hangover tummy aches!

The weekend started with me whipping up a batch of my Avocado-Cilantro Hummus to bring to Manteca for Wine Stomp 2013. Every year, my college friend Rob invites a group of us to his parent’s beautiful home in Manteca to stomp their chardonnay grapes, drink lots of wine, and generally have a blast. This year was no exception!

Nicki and I arrived just in time to enjoy a movie in the backyard under the stars. Rob’s dad set up a projector and a huge (10-15 feet) screen. We watched Mud, starring Matthew McConnaghey (um, I just realized I’ve never actually had to spell his name…is that even correct?) and Reese Witherspoon. It was pretty good!

Saturday was Stomping Day!! Nicki and I woke up early-ish to go for a run in the “country” so I could stay on track for this weekend’s 10K. Unfortunately, I was severely dehydrated and there was very little shade, so I nearly passed out after about 3 miles. #fail.. I still need to get one long run in before the race on Sunday, hopefully I’ll be able to do that tomorrow morning.

After a jump in the pool, everyone got their picking gloves on and we started picking the chardonnay grapes we’d be stomping later!

Then it was stomping time! We picked names out of a hat for who would face whom, then set a timer and played one minute of a song. Jerry and I tied at 4 cups of grape juice each, while the winning score was 8 cups! That is a lot of juice.

After stomping, we had a blind taste test (where everyone guessed what variety of wine they were drinking) and barbecue, followed by a beautiful sunset, bonfire and smores! Such a perfect day.

Nicki and I headed back Sunday morning with plenty of time to spare for more fun. So, for the 2nd week in a row, Matt & I had Sunday Funday, which included a silly re-enactment at Gold Rush Days in Old Sac, followed by beers (lots of beers) at Fanny Ann’s, and a drink at Dive Bar on our walk back into Midtown. And yes, my liver was crying by this point.

Because I apparently didn’t have enough wine at Grape Stomp, the logical next step of the weekend was to #DrinkMoreWine. Miranda was having an impromptu ladies wine & cheese night at her new place, with guest of honor Timmy the cat! All of my favorite things 😀

Monday morning was for brunching at Crepeville. Highlight? Definitely that banana-stuffed beauty on the right. Not pictured: the vat of Nutella we got on the side. I may have a Nutella problem…

Unfortunately, it RAINED most of the rest of the day. So after a few too many days of debauchery, most of Monday was spent relaxing, cleaning up around the apartment, and catching up on TV shows. (1 ep of Breaking Bad and 2 eps of The Newsroom, to be exact!)

Hope you all had great Labor Day weekends, and enjoy the rest of your short week!

What was the highlight of your weekend?

What is your favorite kind of wine?

Meatless Monday: Zucchini-Corn Fritters

Labor Day is the worst.

For me, it has always marked the end of summer. No more pool days, no more white pants, goodbye 9pm sunsets, goodbye barbeques!

I have had an epic weekend, however, which I will share pictures of tomorrow. Wine, grape stomping, college friends, Sunday Funday, Nutella…If I have to say bye to summer, I might as well send it off right…right?

These past few years, I’ve also begun to love summer produce. Tomatoes have always been one of my most hated foods…but between the months of June and September, I find myself popping fresh cherry tomatoes like candy. Every meal is accompanied by corn on the cob, and I can’t remember the last stir fry I made that didn’t involve zucchini.

Luckily for us in California we get summer produce year round! For a price 😉

This summer, I’ve been trying to perfect the zucchini fritter. It’s such an easy Monday night meal – there’s minimal prep needed; just scoop together a bunch of veggies and fry ’em up! My ratio was always off, though…too wet, too crumbly, etc. Last week, I finally hit my sweet spot and they turned out delicious! But really, who doesn’t like fried food?

So make these tonight, make them next week or next month, and enjoy the lingering produce of summer!

Unfortunately I learned that taking pictures of food isn’t super easy to do with a cast on your thumb…haha.

#epiclyblurryfoodphotos

Zucchini-Corn Fritters
loosely based on Zucchini Fritters by smitten kitchen

makes 4 fritters

1 medium zucchini
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped basil (fresh) or 1 tsp basil (dry)
1/2 cup corn, removed from cob
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder (optional)
oil, for frying

Shred zucchini with a box grater or, if you’re smart and lazy, a grater attachment on your food processor. Place in a strainer and sprinkle salt over the shredded zucchini. Let stand for 10-15 minutes, then using a clean towel or thick paper towels, wring out all the excess water. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

To the lump of zucchini, add salt, pepper, basil, corn, and egg and mix. Add flour and baking powder and combine until well incorporated.

Heat about a tablespoon (or more if desired) of oil over medium-medium high heat. One at a time, scoop blobs of zucchini batter into the pan. Let cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until brown, then carefully flip to the other side. Once it’s on the other side, you can flatten it out a bit so it has a fritter shape. Let cook on the other side for another 3 minutes and remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Serve immediately!

Weekend in Photos

Good morning friends!

Hope you all had a good weekend and that your Monday isn’t too miserable. I just successfully replaced our water cooler jug – broken thumb and all – without spilling any water, so it’s safe to say I feel like a rock star this morning. Haha. It’s the little things 🙂

Sorry about the very intermittent posting these past few weeks. It can mostly be chalked up to the aforementioned broken thumb, and the fact that using a computer mouse sucks big time. That all changes soon, though, because I’ve only got 2 days left before the cast comes off. Not that I’ve been keeping track…

Just imagine I took this picture this morning, and that it says 2 days 😉 I actually do have things I’ve been wanting to post about…like that I registered for a big race in 2 weeks!! But more on that later!

Just like last week, I kicked off my weekend with what is quickly becoming my favorite no-cook Friday night dinner: crackers, cheese, fruit & wine! Nutella might have made an appearance later in the evening 😉 I also watched 4 more episodes of Orange is the New Black…only one left! Such a great show, I almost don’t want to watch the finale because I don’t want it to end.

Saturday morning, I suffered through a very long run (my longest yet!)…I had a side cramp for the first 2 miles, but still exceeded my 4.75 mile goal and am hopefully on track to run 6.2 miles in 2 weeks. I followed it up with a protein smoothie: frozen mango, Chobani plain yogurt, vanilla Plant Fusion protein powder, and a little bit of almond milk.

As much as I love change, I realized this weekend that I’ve been following the same Saturday morning run + farmer’s market routine for almost 2 months straight now. It’s nice to carve out a little bit of “me” time every week!

So off to the farmer’s market I went – I actually didn’t get too much stuff this week, since I went out for lunch a couple times last week and still had a lot of produce left. I did get some flowers for myself, and fresh eggs, which I then whipped up into an massive lunch with ONLY Farmer’s Market ingredients: scrambled egg + squash & eggplant + salsa.

Lest you think I spend my entire weekends eating clean, running almost 5 miles, and being totally G-rated, I present to you: Saturday night. My friend Danny had an SNL-themed Pub Crawl for his birthday, and Yvette and I dressed up as the Delicious Dish/Schweddy Balls ladies (complete with chocolate balls made by Yvette!). We even found a Pete Schweddy no less than 1 hour into the night! Score! There were some amaazing costumes, our group was definitely quite a sight to see.

I also decided to wear a few sharpies around my neck and let all my friends sign my cast, since it’s coming off soon anyway. My only rule was “no profanity, but if you must, write it on the underside“…. And of course, I ended up with a dick on the underside. But hey, I got a cute guy’s number too, so it all evens out 😉

Yesterday was probably one of the best Lazy Sunday/Sunday Fundays in recent memory. Most of the afternoon was spent on the patio at Burgers and Brew enjoying perfect weather and, well… burgers and brew. Haha. Followed by fro yo for dinner, another amazing episode of Breaking Bad, and N*Sync at the VMA’s…it was a good day.

Just a few more days and then I get a 3-day weekend! Even so, I hate Labor Day.. it always marked the end of summer throughout childhood. Time to soak up these last days of summer!

Do you have any routines that you stick to every day or every week?

What did you think of the VMA’s?

Weekend in Photos

Happy Monday from cloudy, humid, hot Sacramento?

It’s overcast and 80 degrees outside already, with a high of 103 on the horizon. What the what?! I was going to go for a jog this morning since it would be too hot to go at lunch, but it was just too muggy. It’s never a good sign when the A/C wakes up at the same time you do!

Anyway, I had an excellent weekend doing a whole lot of nothing. After a couple of fun weekends and a whole week of vacation, I seriously just wanted to veg out all weekend, and that’s more or less what I did!

Since I had kickball on Wednesday and stayed out late on Thursday (dodgeball) I decided to stay in on Friday. I started off the weekend with a post-work workout, and a decision to finally unpack from New York. Little did I know that my roomie had similar plans to clean up around the apartment, so most of Friday evening was spent cleaning! Haha. Add in my ideal Friday night dinner of cheese, crackers, fruit & wine, and I was in heaven!

Another reason I decided to call it an early night was because I was going on a run with my friend Nicki in the morning (we ran a 5K together earlier this year!). I never run with a buddy, but I think I might have to start.. we went slow and steady, chatting and gabbing the whole way, and before I knew it we had run 4.1 miles! What?!

As per my usual Saturday routine, the morning jog was followed by a trip to the Farmers Market. This week, I went with corn, cherry tomatoes, local cage-free eggs, squash, mushrooms, and some cute little Indian eggplants!

Another benefit of having a relaxing weekend was that I got to eat some good, clean, homemade food for the first time in a while. Including: badly cracked egg + eggplant + goat cheese in a tortilla, southwestern salad with turkey-quinoa meatballs, Moscow Mules (haha okay not clean, but the ginger beer was housemade at the bar!), and a protein packed black bean-quinoa-egg-sriracha bowl.

I did some serious damage at the Macy’s Sunday sale yesterday and was worried my bag wouldn’t fit in my bike basket. Crisis averted! I finally succumbed and signed up for a Macy’s credit card…I’m in for it, you guys.

The perfectly relaxing weekend finished up with a super tense viewing of Breaking Bad at Sam & David’s place. Sam cooked up some amazing quesadillas and guac as we chewed off our nails and stress-sweated through the episode (ok, maybe that was just me…) that had an epic cliffhanger. SO GOOD!

Hope you all had a good weekend as well! I’m going to try to get back to my more frequent posting schedule, but to be honest that might not happen until after my cast comes off…Typing and using a computer mouse with a cast on your thumb/forearm is not the business. 9 more days!

Do you run with friends?

What did you think of Breaking Bad?

What I Ate Wednesday

Though I have been blogging for well over a year now, there’s one typical “healthy living blogger” blog post I’ve never done…until today!

What I Ate Wednesday.

I try to avoid posting pictures of every.single.thing I eat, unless what I’m eating is particularly good looking, great tasting, or if it’s a meal I’m really proud of making. Well, none of the things in this post are good looking or mind blowing recipes.. but I generally don’t eat anything that isn’t delicious 🙂 Thankfully, even if I don’t share it on the blog, I have friends who don’t mind me snapping pix of everything I eat to them on Snapchat (Hi Linda Li!)

I’ve also been known to post what I can actually eat/make with a cast, and this time around is no exception! Actually, I’ve found that eating might be even harder with this broken thumb than it was with my broken hand. Though I eat with my left hand, I require my right thumb to chop veggies and hold a spatula. Also, washing dishes is interesting:

(wearing a rubber glove, Grocery Outlet bag, and a plastic produce bag)

Without further ado, here’s what I ate yesterday.

My standard breakfast for, like, the last month is 2 slices of Alvarado Street Bakery sprouted toast + Laughing Cow Smooth Sensations cream cheese spread. I won 5 wheels of the stuff in a Twitter contest back when I was at Blend, and I am still working through them! Pictured is cinnamon (left, SO yummy) and strawberry.

I am also really loving Alvarado St. bread at the moment. You can find it at Trader Joe’s (I got their Essential Flax bread there), but my trusted Grocery Outlet discount store recently started stocking it for way cheap! I usually get the California-style complete protein bread, or sprouted whole wheat. They’re the perfect size, pack some protein, and are only 80-90 calories a slice!

And since we’re on the subject of breakfast…

I was so stoked to be able to make my overnight oats in almost-empty nut butter jars TWICE in the past couple of weeks! Although that also means I’m out of peanut butter and almond butter 😦

This morning, I had an epically fruity yogurt bowl. Banana cream pie yogurt, fresh pineapple, blueberries, and a dollop of my grandma’s apricot jam. The apricot jam and banana yogurt were actually a really yummy combo!

Since Friday, I have also been having either a calcium pill or multivitamin with breakfast 🙂

Snacks during the workday for the last 2 weeks have not changed:

SO ADDICTIVE!

I only grab 3-4 at a time, but I always end up eating 2 servings (20 pretzels) worth in a day, haha. I have stopped trying to fight it, but I at least limit myself to one serving before lunch and one after 😛

As is somewhat normal for me, I did a short workout at lunch. I lifted one small (5 lb) weight and, after realizing it was kind of painful, decided I probably shouldn’t risk injury. So, I’ve relegated myself to the sorority girl workout: elliptical and abs! I’ve made it my goal to have a 6 pack by the time my cast comes off in 4 weeks, haha. Yesterday, I did 20 mins on the elliptical, followed by a 1 min plank, 30 sec side planks, 2 sets of V-ups and Stability Ball sit-ups, and a little bit of work on my obliques.

Also, related note: be glad you’re not friends with me on Snapchat 😛

Lunch was part 2 of the summer stew I prepped on Sunday: onion, garlic, zucchini, fire roasted tomatoes, corn, lentils, and bell peppers. Aaand a La Tortilla Factory 100-calorie tortilla. LOVE those. 100 calories, 8g of fiber, and they’re huge! I was kind of ravenous after my workout, so I also found an Oats n Honey granola bar to tide me over till dinner.

Last night was laundry night so I was at my parents’ house for dinner:

BLT’s are probably my family’s most common summer meal, since my dad grows so many tomatoes! Mine was 2 slices of 12-grain bread, 3-4 slices of juicy garden tomatoes, 3 slices of bacon (the real kind, not turkey…my brother’s request) and lots of arugula. On the side was honey dijon Kettle chips, pineapple, and a Lagunitas IPA! Seriously, perfect summer meal.

After dinner, I folded laundry and watched Breaking Bad (I’ve been catching up for almost a year, and am finally on season 4!)

…while snacking on peanuts and tasting some sangria my mom bought. Yum!

Do you take pictures of everything you eat?

What’s your go-to breakfast?

Any ab/core workouts to recommend?

Weekend in Photos

So this weekend turned out to be a pretty long one, folks… Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I’ll let you decide…

I ended up taking more or less of a half day on Friday. I went in to Kaiser in the morning and learned that my dodgeball injury had resulted in a “small crack” in my thumb. Womp womp. They sent me on my way with an itty bitty finger brace and I thought I had made out pretty well…until I got a call from the NP an hour later saying that she had an actual radiologist look at the X-ray and it was worse than they thought. I headed over to another Kaiser and left 2 hours later with this monstrosity of a splint. Sad face.

I had already planned on attending a Young Dems BBQ/pool party, but ended up focusing more on the BBQ and less on the pool. After we left the party, we headed over to the guys’ house to play drinking games with some really bad champagne.  Felt like I was in college again!

Despite the massive splint, I went along my normal Saturday morning routine – starting with a nice run. This was my first run in 2 weeks, and my fastest 5K since my race back in March!

I missed the Farmer’s Market last week since I was in SF with the girls, and I couldn’t believe 1) how many tomatoes there were and 2) how beautiful all the colors were! I also picked up some zinnias, which finally looked pretty and healthy enough to treat myself to 🙂

Despite not having one of my thumbs, I made lots of stuff with my produce this weekend! A summer veggie lentil stew to bring for lunch today + tomorrow and an epic herb & veggie omelet.

Sunday concluded with 2 trips to the mall: first to buy shoes for my cousin’s wedding (I went with the slingback peep toes on the left to pair with my yellow dress!) and later, to see an 11pm showing of The Conjuring. We had a shot of Fireball before to calm our nerves 😉 I thought the movie actually wasn’t too scary…I got way more freaked out at Paranormal Activity 1 and 2!

I spent a loooong lunch hour today (3 hours, to be exact) following up at Kaiser. Essentially, there is a small crack in my thumb, and though nothing is out of place and by all means it should be an easy thing to heal…The crack goes all the way through to the joint and affects the cartilage. So I have to wear a cast – AGAIN. Hopefully for only 4 weeks this time. Here’s hoping all the precautions I’ve been taking since my last broken bone will make this recovery much speedier than the last! At least I got a color that will match my shoes at my cousin’s wedding! 😉

Have you ever broken a bone?

What is your favorite produce and/or flowers to spot at your Farmer’s Market?