Victory Brewery

This evening, I went out with my parents for a late dinner at Victory Brewery, a local bar and brewery in our area. I love their beers but had never been there, despite it being right around the corner!

To start, I had their seasonal pale ale, called Summer Love. It was pretty standard as far as pale ale goes, but still really good. My parents had the Golden Monkey and Hop Devil, which are two of their most popular brews.

I'd eaten dinner before going out (I like to eat early, so waiting till 8:30 is tough, especially when I'm bored), so I just ordered a garden salad. I was impressed by the bulk of this, though- lots of spring mix, black olives, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and a bit of parm.

I topped it with oil and vinegar and ended up eating my dad's side salad, as well. I also sampled one of the eggplant fries we ordered for the table:

These tasted like mozzarella sticks with eggplant inside of them, not like fries. I'm not the biggest eggplant fan so I didn't love them, but they were pretty good.

Meanwhile, my dad got a veggie pita with feta cheese:

And my mom got two courses: a spinach avocado salad,

And an asparagus and brie pizza, which I tried a small piece of. The brie was surprisingly tasty on pizza- I'm hoping to snag a leftover slice for lunch tomorrow!

That single beer made me surprisingly tired. I'm off to bed- see you in the morning!

Do you have a favorite beer or brewery? What beverages is your area known for?

Pasta Fumble

I was right- my biceps and triceps are burning after yesterday's upper body workout! This morning, I signed myself up for another sore day tomorrow by completing a lower-body strength routine, too.

I did three sets of 12 reps each of the following exercises:

• squats, 12 lbs
• plie goblet squats, 20 lbs
• lunges, 12 lbs
• straight-leg deadlifts, 25 lbs
• single-leg dumbbell calf raises, 15 lbs
• single-leg hip raises
• weighted side leg raise, 12 lbs (only did 2 sets of these...they are tough!)
• fire hydrant in-outs

For the record, the fire hydrants look about as classy as they sound. Yes, they are so named because you look like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. Cute.

As my post-workout lunch, I had a big bowl of yesterday's salmon pasta salad.

Which, unfortunately, I then dropped the last serving or two of on the floor in our kitchen while putting it away. 

Maggie helped me clean it up. She's such a weird dog- the only human foods she likes are meats/fish, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies! Along with the pasta salad, I also had a big bowl of fruit- two diced peaches with a few handfuls of blueberries.

A few peanut butter fingers slipped in there as well :)

While eating lunch, I wasted time looking up concerts on TicketMaster. There's about a million I want to go to in the next few months, but they are either a) hundreds of miles away, b) insanely expensive, or c) too embarrassing to convince anyone to go with me. For instance, I really want to see Josh Groban at Madison Square Garden in November. Who's with me?!

Unless I'm forgetting something, the last concert I saw was Blink-182 in October of 2009. I actually saw them twice- once in Philly, and once in NYC. It was an amazing show! I'm pretty sure Travis Barker's drum solo was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life...fast forward to 2:15 for the best part.

Do you like going to concerts? What's the best one you've ever been to? 

June Recap

Wow- June 30th already? Where has the time gone?! It's one of life's great injustices that the summer months seem to pass three times more quickly than the winter ones.

June has been pretty uneventful for me, but still fun! Over the past month, I:

• Started my photo project (which I only have a few days left to complete!)
• Went on a baking fest
• Celebrated my friend Maggie's 21st birthday
• Remembered how awesome my dad is on Father's Day
• Created recipes for raspberry Nutella pie, chocolate cherry walnut butter, cashew pesto hummus and salmon pasta salad
• Caught up with some high school friends for two birthdays
• Went to the Jersey shore for the weekend
• Celebrated my dad's birthday
• Went through some life changes...for the better :)

Overall, a pretty good month! I'm excited to get back to the city next week. Home has been good, but I'm ready for more excitement!

* * *

This morning's breakfast was the usual. Surprises abound!

Recycled photo, because now I'm even getting too lazy to take pictures, let alone change things up.

Hope you have a great day!

What was the highlight of your June? What are you most looking forward to in July?

Salmon Pasta Salad

With the Fourth of July right around the corner, we're smack dab in the middle of "salad" season- potato salad, pasta salad, chicken salad, egg salad, ambrosia salad. Basically, saladless salads that usually have little to no actual nutritional value. Appropriately, tonight for dinner, I decided to create a Mediteranean-inspired pasta salad for my family- only this one is actually healthy!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb box of small pasta (I used farfalle)
• 2 6 oz cans salmon in water
• 1 bell pepper, any color (I used green)
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 large tomato
• 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
• generous handful chopped mint
• 3 T olive oil
• 3 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 t dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 T lemon juice
• 1 t dried oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, then drain and rinse in cold water for a few minutes and return to the pot. While the pasta cooks, finely dice the pepper, onion, tomato, olives and mint, and combine them by shaking everything in a Tupperware container. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic, lemon juice, oregano and salt and pepper. Add vegetables to pasta, then top with dressing and stir until all pieces are coated. Drain cans of salmon and stir into pasta mixture.

This makes a lot of salad (probably about 8-10 cups), so it would be perfect for a party. It's light and fresh tasting, perfect for the summer. 

I had a big bowl of it for dinner, and it was just the thing for the hot weather. Paired with a little dark chocolate and an apple, obviously :)

I'm off to go spend some time with the fam and the scaredy dog. Enjoy your evening!

What's your favorite not-really-a-salad-salad? I'm not a big fan of mayo in general, but the one time I like it is in potato salad. Egg salad, on the other hand, makes me gag.

Scaredy Dog

And you thought it was cats that were afraid.

Maggie is scared of everything, seriously. I took her on a walk around our neighborhood this afternoon and she freaked out about:

  -  cars
  -  dogs barking
  -  the wind in the bushes
  -  a pug in a fenced-in yard
  -  one of those big plastic mailboxes

Just look how far her tail was between her legs! Poor little fraidy dog.

The best was the bushes. I snagged a short video of her reaction...she was pulling so hard on her choke chain!

Silly Mags.

Earlier this morning, I went to the gym for an upper-body workout. I completed three sets of 12 reps of the following exercises:

• bicep curls
• hammer curls
• tricep dips
• tricep kickbacks
• dumbbell bench presses
• dumbbell flies
• dumbbell rows
• lat pulldowns
• shoulder presses
• side raises
• pushups (real ones, though I only did 6 per set!)

Unsurprisingly because they were first, I think I worked my biceps and triceps the hardest. These guns are gonna hurt tomorrow, hardyharhar.

My midmorning snack was a bit bigger than usual, so lunch was on the simple side. I spread a whole-wheat tortilla with a layer of crunchy peanut butter, then had some fresh strawberries.

An apple was also had, but you've all seen those before! Hope you're having a great day so far.

Do you have any funny or irrational fears? Make Maggie feel better about her bush phobia!

1997

1997 was the last year that I was still kinda cute. The pictures are going to get a heck of a lot more awkward after this post...

7th birthday! It looks like 6, but notice that there's an extra candle on to represent the 7th year. Sneaky, mom. I seem to be really proud of my lack of teeth.

About 3/4 of the 1997 pictures were taken in France, mostly with my friend Eve whose grandparents' house we stayed in.

Love this one.

I. hated. that tennis instructor. I have zero hand-eye coordination and I swear he was evil and always embarrassed me in front of the class. I'm pretty sure I cried a few times.

Just showing off our wares in the window, you know...

Funny story behind this one: we were in the Paris airport and fell asleep on a banquette behind a table, so my mom couldn't see us. She freaked out and thought we'd been kidnapped.

Having my picture drawn outside of Notre Dame in Paris. This picture is still hanging in our family room!

Cliff jumping in Corsica. I just remember that water being so, so, so cold!

Luke couldn't be happier.

I'm not sure how well you can see, but I'm absolutely COVERED in bug bites in this picture. I slept on a cot in the kitchen when we were in Corsica, and at night the bugs came out and just ate half my body.

This was on the ferry to Nantucket- Luke was really good at devil sticks and actually drew a crowd with his tricks.

First day of second grade. I stopped dressing like that soon after. Sorry, Gabriela, but you're not in France anymore...

Next time, get ready for some embarrassing stuff. And when we get to middle school you're really in for a treat!

Who was your "best friend" growing up? Are you still close? Eve and I fell out of touch a few years later. Kinda sad.

PS- Do I even need to mention what I had for breakfast?

Matador

In case you haven't noticed, my life has been kind of...uneventful lately. One thing I've found helps break up my day is hanging out with friends a lot, so this evening I got drinks with my friend Maggie at Matador, a tapas restaurant in our area.

I got a margarita, and she got white sangria.

I used to hate tequila, but I guess that's what happens when your only experiences with it are in shot form at dive bars. Now I love a good marg, with lots of salt.

I'd eaten before I left, but we got an order of chips and guacamole to share.

Holy guacamole- this was a huge portion! The pico de gallo was excellent, too. I ended up eating about half the bowl with a fork. Class.

Before heading out, I'd eaten a big salad with romaine, tomato, cucumber, pickles, a can of tuna and balsamic vinaigrette.

Along with a big bowl of sliced strawberries and blueberries, and a few squares of Lindt dark chocolate.

Still so full from all that guac. Off to sleep it off- goodnight!

What's one food or drink you used to hate, but have grown to love? I used to gag at the thought of spinach, and now I love it. Although I doubt I'll ever learn to love mushrooms!

Lulu Loot

Soooo remember that trip to Lululemon you guys were supposed to convince me not to take yesterday?

Well, it happened. You're bad influences. It was worth it, though! I browsed around and ended up picking up a "Let It Loose" tank and a pair of "Run Speed" shorts. I like the shorts, but I'm especially obsessed with the tank- it might just be the comfiest workout top I've ever worn. (Please ignore my sweet sunburn.)

Lululemon clothes are pricey so I always feel slightly guilty when paying for them, but I can honestly say I've never regretted a purchase from there. Their clothes are well made, comfy and continue to look good after tons of wear, plus I really believe in the company's manifesto. And is it just me, or does looking cute while working out motivate you to work harder?

It was certainly the case for me this morning! It's been a few days since I did some heart-pumping cardio, so I hit up the gym for half an hour of intervals on the elliptical, followed by twenty minutes of hills on the Octane machine and fifteen minutes of planks, crunches and leg lifts.

For lunch, I dug into the fridge and pulled out a bunch of stuff. What I came up with was really random:

I spread a whole-wheat tortilla with pesto hummus, then added a Boca veggie burger and half a sliced tomato.

On the side, I had some leftover steamed asparagus and baby carrots for crunch.

Plus a super-sweet mango that was probably about a day from going bad!

And then this happened:

My dad buys these huge jars of Skippy crunchy peanut butter at Costo and eats out of them with a spoon after dinner. He's really messy about it, so a few times a day I go in with my own spoon and eat all the little crunchy parts. We're special. Nothing beats PB off a spoon.

Where do you usually buy your workout clothes? Mine are a mishmash from a bunch of places- Target, Marshall's or TJ Maxx, Nike and Lululemon!

The Four Agreements

Recently, my good friend Jillian recommended I read a book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. The two of us in similar in that we're worriers and over-thinkers, and she said she loved it, so I was intrigued!

I'm not big into self-help books or New Age stuff, but I have to say that this book really made me think about my life and reconsider some things. It's short- very small and only about 150 pages- but what it does contain is simple yet dense. As the title suggests, the author lays out four "agreements" to live your life by, agreements you make with yourself in order to be a happier person.

The Four Agreements are:

   1.  Be impeccable with your word

   2.  Don't take anything personally

   3.  Don't make assumptions

   4.  Always do your best

The ideas in the book are based on ancient Toltec beliefs, and while they definitely should be taken with a grain of salt, it reminded me that a lot of my "problems" or the things I worry about are all in my head. It was helpful to be in several ways, especially during this limbo time!

* * *

The summer stickiness is really starting to set in around here, and I kind of love it. I may get things thrown at me, but the hotter the better in my eyes. For breakfast, I had the usual:

Topped with a banana this time- need to get some more berries.

Sometimes I feel like my breakfasts get really boring (and let's be honest, they probably do), but then I realize that my dad has eaten the exact same breakfast every day for years and never gets sick of it. I'm a creature of habit- and I promise to switch things up eventually :)

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Are there any books that have significantly changed your outlook on life, whether they're novels or non-fiction?

Colon Cleanser

Those of you with an older brother will probably agree that growing up with a male sibling makes you far more tolerant towards potty humor. This evening for dinner, my friend Lauren and I went to dinner at California Tortilla, a Mexican chain restaurant I'd never tried.

Initially I was planning on getting a taco salad, but I changed my mind once I spotted the No Meato Burrito Bowl on the menu board: rice, black beans, vegetable mix, sunset sauce, fresh spinach, guacamole and salsa. Sold!

The sauce on it was already spicy, but I couldn't resist choosing a few hot sauces to add. One of the main attractions of California Tortilla is their "Wall of Flame," a huge rack holding several dozen types of hot sauce to add some heat to your meal.

Being the mature, classy young woman that I am, I chose my sauces by finding the ones with the grossest names. The Rectal Ripper:

The Colon Cleanser:

And the Ass in Tub:

Luke would have been so proud. All three were okay, but the Colon Cleanser was definitely the winner. Laur chose the regular Choula and a chipotle sauce. We love us some spice!

And don't worry, I redeemed my femininity by also getting a hot pink pedicure :)

Now let's just pray those hot sauces don't live up to their names...

Potty humor: amusing or gross? I'm all for a good fart joke, but in general I do appreciate a slightly more refined sense of humor...