June 26, 2011

WF Swag

It’s so expensive, that I don’t go often, but when I do, it’s like the best day ever. Okay, exaggeration. But I really do love Whole Foods!

I went today and stocked up on some beautiful fruits and veggies!

A GIANT red pepper, bean sprouts, summer squash, mushrooms, lettuce, beets, a beautiful looking graffiti eggplant, and tomatoes… it’s not quite tomato season in Jersey yet, so these are from Canada… but they looked too good to resist!

Beets! Most people hate them, but I love them. I got two types: a golden, and then a white one. There were no red ones for some reason!

Delicious-looking strawberries, watermelon, pluots, and an ataulfo mango.

 

And some other favorites:

Stevia, salsa, green tea soy ice cream, some very yummy white bean basil hummus, and my very favorite brand of greek yogurt- Greek Gods! It’s been harder for me to find it lately, so when I do, I always buy a giant container. My mom and I always agree that it’s hands down the best yogurt taste and texture… SO creamy!

I took one look at my new veggies and knew I had to have a salad for lunch. So I roasted the beets in the oven (they smelled SO GOOD!), and tossed them with tomatoes, bean sprouts, arugula, and some garlic, balsamic vinegar, and fresh grated pepper.

It was absolutely delicious. The golden beet especially had such an incredibly buttery taste. There really is nothing like eating fresh produce in the summer! It makes me so appreciative of everything nature has to offer.

And now I’m off to take the monster for a little walk in the woods!

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Tagged as fresh, fruit, lunch, recipe, summer, vegetables, whole foods

June 26, 2011

Blessed

Today is my parent’s 29th wedding anniversary!

The whole family at my brother's college graduation!

I am so grateful to have such a beautiful, wonderful family… we support each other in everything we do, and all four of us “kids” owe my parents big time for being brought up in such a great household.

Congratulations and I love you!

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Tagged as beautiful, anniversary, love, life, family

June 25, 2011

Remember the Feeling

Click through for source.

A lovely quote to start of our weekend.

I thought I should document this ASAP just to remind myself when I’m feeling less motivated…

I’m feeling fabulous. Why? Because I just got back from a run. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is groundbreaking.

I am by no means a runner… I have an exercise-based variation of ADD (self-diagnosed) in that while I have always envied the endurance and motivation of habitual runners, I have never been able to get excited about doing a form of cardio in which I am not heavily distracted from what my body is feeling. However, I woke up this morning resolved to get outside, and thought, why not?

And I made a fantastic little self-discovery in the process: it’s not the running I dislike, but the anticipation. I tend to think about things too much before actually doing them, and that’s my downfall. But lately it’s become very important to me to see the positives in everything, and once I got running, I found that I actually didn’t have to look too far. I loved the way I felt energized in the cool, early-morning summer air, the quietness of the town so early, the way the lake glowed in the morning sun, the incredible smell of flowers… even a turtle crossing the road (I kid you not.)

Sure, the end of the run was tougher, as the last stretch before home is a GIANT hill. But once I caught my breath, the endorphins started to settle in, and I know that those last few minutes were the kicker that will make my muscles hurt so good tomorrow. (Yes, I’m weird… I love the feeling of being a little sore. Call me a masochist.)

Anyways, Victoria, when you are reading this tomorrow instead of getting your lazy butt out in the beautiful summer air, REMEMBER: once you go you won’t want to stop.

And here’s a Weekend Do: Go for a walk (or run), even if just for 5 minutes. Don’t do it for any purpose other than being alone with your thoughts and think about how your environment makes you feel.

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Tagged as fitness, happiness, nature, running, sumer, weekend, wisdom

June 24, 2011

Glow

So it’s two days since my summer solstice yoga extravaganza, and I’m still so sore. It was fun to do though, and it clearly gave me a great workout!

To recharge after all of those sun salutations, I whipped together a little nutritious shake… and it was delicious. And I’ve read in several places lately that eating lots of carrots- in addition to obvious nutrition- actually gives you a little glow comparable to a tan! I didn’t really check for this … sorry :)

Carrot Cake Smoothie

4-5 baby carrots

1/2 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk (or any non-dairy milk)

1/2 cup Vita CoCo Pineapple**

2 tbsp plain non-fat greek yogurt

stevia to taste

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch each of ground cloves, allspice, and ground nutmeg

Optional: walnuts, pecans, or grated coconut

** You can use any combination of pineapple and coconut- fresh is even more ideal! Vita CoCo is just what I had on hand.

Cut up the baby carrots into smaller pieces and put into blender with milk. Blend until smoothly pureed. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

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Tagged as beverage, food, healthy, recipe, smoothie, summer, vegan, vegetarian

June 22, 2011

108

I spent the beautiful start to summer mostly outside running around with my crazy little monster… also known as my dog. If ever I need to expend some energy, she keeps me on my toes.

But when I was perusing my favorite blogs this morning, I read this great post from Love Veggies and Yoga. Averie is one of my favorite bloggers… the way she goes about her life is so inspirational! And she’s a yogi.

In this post, she talks about how it’s often customary in yoga to practice 108 Sun Salutations on solstices. She goes into further explanation about why 108 (which is very interesting) on the post; I highly recommend checking it out.

My first thought: how did I miss this???

As someone who is beginning to incorporate yoga into daily life, and is completely devoted to nature, this is exactly how I would love to welcome my favorite time of year.

So, a day late, I will be doing my 108 sun salutations today. I’ll let you know how it goes!

* you can learn the sequence of the sun salutation here.

I took this picture in LA last summer… palm trees aren’t exactly abundant here in NJ!

 

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Tagged as fitness, healthy, lifestyle, nature, summer, yoga

June 21, 2011

Happy Summer!

 

 

 

 

It’s finally here!

Now go outside.

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Tagged as beach, beautiful, flowers, nature, photography, summer

June 20, 2011

It IS easy being green!

I have become ADDICTED to putting green stuff in my smoothies lately.

It’s a growing trend, and for good reason: adding a handful of lettuce, spinach, or other greens to your smoothie adds a whole lot of nutrition and antioxidants. Plus, you don’t even taste it! So if you can stomach the green color, go for it.

This is my favorite creation to date.

Tropical Green Smoothie

1/3 of frozen banana

1/2 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk

1/4 mango

1 handful of fresh spinach

3-5 ice cubes

1 tsp vanilla

Stevia (or other sweetener) to taste

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Garnish with grated coconut.

 

 

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Tagged as drink, green, healthy, recipe, smoothie, snack, tropical

June 19, 2011

Park, 5th, and Broadway

It may be blasphemous to say (especially to those actually born and raised in Manhattan), but I like to consider myself an NYC girl.

Don’t get me wrong, where I grew up in Jersey was actually very nice, but every time I venture into the city (which is very very often), I truly feel at home. And yes, the typical sites and museums are always great, but there’s nothing I love more than people-watching and walking around the quieter city streets.

I spent a lovely day in Manhattan with my Mom on Friday, because I was on assignment from with my internship to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty, at the Met. The exhibit, in a word: INCREDIBLE.

Seriously, anyone and everyone has to go see this. Yes, I follow the fashion world very closely, but this show is so much more than merely a display of clothing. For those who are unfamiliar with the late Alexander McQueen, he was a dramatic artist and creative genius above all else… and the museum curated the collection with this in mind. It’s theatrical and moving, and easily the best exhibition I’ve seen in any museum anywhere, including the incredible galleries I’ve seen in Paris. Anybody with an appreciation for beauty and creativity will enjoy it. So if you’re in the New York area this summer, please go. The show ends August 7th.

Afterwards, my mom and I took the subway over to the Flatiron district, because she had never seen EATALY, Mario Batali’s newest NYC creation. We had lunch on the rooftop beer garden… the menu wasn’t my favorite, but the views were incredible- the Flatiron on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. Plus, it was just a beautiful day. Before leaving, I of course had to take her through the amazing EATALY grocery store that takes up the whole first floor of the building: aisles and aisles of every imaginable pasta, sauce, Italian gelato, fish, meat, coffee, etc. and etc. She picked out some licorice and limoncello chocolates, whereas I grabbed some lemon-mallow tea and delicious coffee with chocolate undertones… YUM.

All in all, a great day… but that’s how New York does it.

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Tagged as city, manhattan, museum, NYC, photography, travel

June 17, 2011

Trying new things…

What the heck?!

I was in my local grocery store in the produce section and this literally made me stop in my tracks. It looks like it’s from another planet, or somewhere in the deep sea.

It’s actually a melon. It’s called a Kiwano melon, but is also known as a blowfish fruit or horned melon. This one was imported from New Zealand. Now if you questioned how alienesque it looked on the outside, just you wait:

Even Lola thinks it looks totally ridiculous!

But, naturally, I had to taste it!

The verdict?

It was okay. Just okay. Kind of bland… like an unripe banana. And it’s not like it makes up what it lacks in taste for texture… this baby is slimy.

But after some research, I saw how nutritious it was, and decided to take the recipe plunge.

See? Lots and lots of vitamins, calcium, and iron. And low in carbs and calories, too!

I decided that it could potentially taste great when complimented with both sweet and savory flavors, so I made two recipes: one sweet and one savory!

Recipe 1: Kiwano-Mango Mousse

1/2 Kiwano Melon

1/6 Mango

2 oz. (1/4 cup) non-fat plain greek yogurt

1/8 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond)

1 tsp vanilla extract

sweetener to taste (I use stevia)

Scoop the fruit and seeds out of the melon and into a blender; save the shell for garnish. Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Transfer into a plastic container using a fine mesh sieve in order to eliminate seeds. Put in freezer. Every 10 minutes or so, scrape the sides of the container and give the mixture a good stir with a fork to make sure it freezes evenly. After doing this 3 or 4 times, let freeze, untouched, for about an hour.

Remove from the freezer, and put back into the blender. Blend until it is a smooth frozen puree, like soft serve. Scoop into the empty shell, and enjoy!

*Mine was melting super fast in the shell, so I transferred it back to the freezer (in the shell) for a quick freeze before eating.

The verdict? Surprisingly delicious!

The sweetness of the mango, the light refreshing notes of the melon, and the tanginess of the yogurt came together perfectly. Seriously, it’s like the perfect summer dessert! And that “bowl” will certainly be a conversation piece. :)

And now for Recipe 2: Kiwano Salsa

1/2 Kiwano melon

1/2 orange bell pepper

1/2 tomato

1/6 mango

lemon

chili powder

cayenne pepper

garlic powder

cilantro

salt

any other desired mexican seasoning

 

Scoop the fruit out of the melon and put in a food processor; save the shell for garnish. Add the pepper, tomato, and mango to the processor, and squeeze in a squirt of lemon. Add seasonings to taste, and give the mixture a quick grind on the lowest setting until just combined. Transfer into empty shell and serve with tortilla chips or fresh veggies.

This one was also good- but I’m deeming the other recipe more of a success just because the flavors of the melon worked well, whereas in this one the melon was pretty much overshadowed by all the other flavors.

 

So there you have it!

Lesson of the day? Try something new. There are so many incredible and interesting flavors that the world has to offer, particularly in the fruit and vegetable worlds. I was inspired by this experimentation… I’m going to make it a weekly event to buy a fruit or vegetable that I’ve never seen or tried before!

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Tagged as dessert, fruit, organic, recipe, salsa, snack, vegetables

June 16, 2011

DIY: Travel Bucket List

I have been dying to make one of these for awhile now.

It’s bookmarked with all the rest of zillions of DIY posts that I find across the internet… I’m sort of a DIY junkie.

There’s just something to be said for making things from scratch, and I love the homemade quality of decorating. Paired with anything vintage, it just makes the energy of a room so… home-y. And cozy.

I recently took on cleaning out and re-decorating my bedroom, and realized that it was the perfect opportunity to make a dent in my saved craft list.

So I pulled a world map out of one of our atlases, and got to work. With this project in mind, I bought a couple of cork squares at a craft store a couple of weeks ago.

I glued them together, and then glued the map on top of it.

Simple!

And now, the fun part:

The clear pins are where I’ve been, and the colored pins are where I am dying to go sometime in my life.

Obviously, I plan on doing a lot of traveling.

Does this have vital function in my life? Obviously not. But sometimes it’s important to have things just because. Isn’t that what inspiration’s all about?

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Tagged as crafts, DIY, inspiration, travel, wisdom