27...That Means Late 20s

Last night I went out on the town after a week+ of being cooped up indoors fighting a nasty sinus infection.  With antibiotics and some limited energy running through my bloodstream, we had an early birthday celebration for yours truly at a sushi restaurant and then back at our home.  It was more than I could have hoped for and just the perfect way to officially bring in my late 20s (because I'm 27 now, which is officially late 20s for you math people).
Although I complained about the slow service (sorry husband for being a meanie-head- patience is not my best quality when it comes to waiting for food) the sushi was good and just what I wanted.  We also had time to take group pictures- my favorite.

Best Husband Ever and I

My lovely in-laws

My brother, favorite nephew, and sister-in-law

My lovely parents

Once we got back to our house, it was business time.  There has been some mention of chocolate around here, and my birthday was the deadline for said chocolate consumption.  Meet my lover- the flourless gluten-free chocolate cake.  It was mine. All mine.  I did share some with our guests though, with scoops of coconut milk ice cream. 

Puppy wanted some too- but none for him.  He's on a low-carb, high protein deal right now.
We also played and laughed together.  There were clearly two stars of the show tonight- the grandkids.

I went to bed a happy girl- with flowers, personalized cards, generous gifts, and dreams of lulu threads thanks to my new gift card.

Thank you, family for making my day.

Happy Birthday Papa

Today is my dad's birthday.  I'm not sure he would appreciate if I told you how old (young) he was but I will tell you a few things.

He is the best grandpa ever. Just ask my nephew.

 He can suit up like nobody's business.

 He's athletic and can lift quite a load of weight ;)

He loves to dance and has his own trademark dance-off moves.

He does everything he can to help and support his family.  He bought me those acid washed jeans when I was 7- no judgment.

Finally, my dad is someone I look up to.

Happy Birthday Papa.  I know I'm a brat and sometimes (usually) give you a hard time, but it's only because we are so much alike ;)

My Favorite Things

What a beautiful weekend it was!  It included my favorite things- food, fitness, great company, and wedding stuff! 

First the food!  
On Saturday morning we watched Food Inc., a movie that I have been waiting to see since it came out, but forgot about until now!  I know that a lot of bloggers have already reviewed this movie, but I think it raises a lot of important issue that we should be aware of as consumers.  I loved that two of my favorite authors, Eric Schlosser and Michal Pollan played important roles in the movie.  I'm kind of a groupie of these two authors and highly recommend you read any of their books!
Food Inc. has a comprehensive website that eloquently explains this, much more so than my goofy ramblings, but here are my takeaways from the movie:

• We all have the right to know where our food comes from.  If the information is not available, then ask.
• We have the right to food safety.  Measures need to be taken to make sure that the government is protecting us, not just the interests of the lobbyists and organizations stuffing green in their Gucci wallets.
• Poor nutrition is causing obesity and many other health conditions like diabetes. The correlation between poor nutrition and socioeconomic status is staggering and it should not cost more to buy a vegetable than a burger!
• Read labels, ask questions, and vote with your dollars!

OK, enough preaching from me!
I discovered some new food finds this weekend, one of which includes nut butter:

Sunland Inc. sent me this sample of Organic Vanilla Cranberry Peanut Butter.  The color of this peanut butter is more yellow than other kinds and this is my first flavored peanut butter ever!  It was a bit sweet, but I tasted the subtle taste of vanilla and some kind of berry too!  I think that kids would love this and it's a wholesome product with only 4 all natural, organic ingredients.  I will definitely keep this for a special occasion (OK, who in the world keeps nut butter for a special occasion??) and will try to not finish this jar off in a few days!  Thanks again for letting me sample this!  Also, check out the Recipe section of the site.  I have my eyes on the peanut sauces- and apparently you can make doggie treats too.

I also finally got to try and attack my Foodbuzz Festival samples from Frog Hollow Farms!

The dried peaches are delicious and the granola is dangerous!  So, so good and I will definitely be dipping my fingers into these when I need something sweet.  I have been dreaming of the Frog Hollow pears ever since I tried them at the farmer's market and I can't wait to walk down to the market to get one!
After dreaming about the Ferry Building Farmer's Market, I forgot that we had a perfectly good one right in our city!  I met a man who kicks my Marketing degree's butt with his convincing "5 pounds for 5 dollars" sales pitch (in English, Spanish, and Spanglish)!  I went right to him and grabbed my persimmons:

This is not even all of them and we are now in fruit heaven and this is mine, all mine!  The nice man also threw in a couple of tangerines and this ginormous Asian Pear:

It is seriously the size of a small cantelope!  While shopping I also saw some other freakishly large vegetables, that I tried to justify buying, but finally didn't. 
Also in food news, I got 2 B-nut squashes and roasted one up with dill, red pepper, and some sea salt:

And I roasted some chicpeas with more dill and stuff.  These taste like soynuts to me!  Abby is right!

Hubby wanted me to show you what he was excited over- OLIVES!  This may be his favorite food, ever.

My dinner had chicpeas, spinach, tomato, and egg.  It isn't the most intuitive combination, I know, but it tasted so good, especially with all the hot sauce I doused it in.  I'll be having this again soon!

Fitness!
In fitness news, I got in 2 fun workouts this weekend.  Yes, I'm the freak who takes a picture of her workout stats:

This was 30 minutes of walking hills and a few sprints in between.  It has hot and I wasn't feeling it, so I decided it was a perfect time to throw in some weights.  Since I haven't lifted in a while, I did 2 exercises each of chest, tris, and shoulders and stretched really well afterwards.  I did have an incident in which my balance ball rolled right under me, but nobody seemed to notice!

Today I attacked the old  Torture Chamber ('mill) to get my distance up.  I set the time for 45 minutes and busted out 3.8 miles.  If you do the math, it wasn't fast, but at 5'4", I practically sprint at 5.3 MPH!  I am also having some minor hip pain, which proves my hypothesis of being roughly 79 years old.  I cooled down with some stretching and sun salutations and called it a day!

Great Company and Wedding!

We spent Saturday afternoon celebrating Hubby's mom's birthday!  I of course forgot my camera, but it didn't stop anyone from having a great time.  We went to a Persian restaurant and my spinach salad was awesome!  We also came home to have cake:

(Picture taken this morning, as hubby was eating breakfast dessert)
I also discovered the first chocolate item in the world that I didn't like because it was a whipped cream cake.  You may not understand how shocking this is- it may be like foregoing oxygen for a day, or something like that.  I don't think anyone really would have wanted me to eat that cake if they knew the consequences!  We also had a great time watching the video that our new Step-dad, Stan put together for us (STAN- if you are reading, I have now said your name twice, so keep going!) including photos and a video of our wedding!  It was so nice to actually see how things went down since I was in my bridal stupor and could not really remember most of the wedding.  Look how cute the CD covers are:

I'm going to go shower (for my own well-being and that of those around me) and to watch Amazing Race!  Tomorrow is another day at my favorite place, but it's only a 3-day week, so Hump Day, here I come!

Oh- and in other news- hubby got the surround sound working!  I have spent half of the evening wondering why people are yelling at me and also had a living room dance party (just me) testing out the woofer.  We can throw a mad party now!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Today is Mike's birthday. Pardon me for the mushyness, but I kinda really, really, love this guy! Today's post is dedicated to my future hubby (less than 3 months to go- sure you don't want to back out?)

Top 10 things you need to know about Mike:

• Mike likes efficiency- efficiency is the answer to everything
  
• Mike's favorite MMA fighter is Fedor. Look him up- he's dope.
• One of Mike's many favorite movies is Requiem For a Dream
  
• Mike doesn't like surprises and picked his own birthday presents- hello punching bag and HOT shirt
  
• Mike loves olives and Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Hummus and eats at least one of those foods ever day of his life
  
• Mike's breakfast of choice for the last 3 years have been chocolate chip cookies. Fast metabolism ladies and gents is all I can say!
  
• Mike has competed in 2 Brazilian Jiu Jiutsu tournaments and kicked majah booty. He even cut 15 pounds to compete in one of them.
  
• Mike is incredibly smart and driven. The boy knows his financial modeling. Sounds hot? It is!
• Mike is incredibly patient with his loved ones. He waits for me in the mornings while I run around the house like a chicken with my head cut off collecting my items for the work day.
  
• Mike makes me smile every single day of my life and even offers to walk me when I have too much energy

Below are some of the best descriptions of the birthday boy doing his thang:

Sushi dinners in which he lets me abuse him:


Throws great parties:


Drops it like it's hot:


Cleans up nice and wears the hell out of those cuff links:


Proposes to a goofball like me in St. Petersburg, Russia:


Follows the 't-shirt optional' policy while on vacation:


Happy birthday to my wonderful future hubby!

Birthday Weekend Wrap-up

I am finally winding down from my birthday weekend. Around here we celebrate for an entire weekend, and since my birthday was on Saturday, the festivities began on Friday night. My fiance picked me up and had a beautiful bouquet of roses for me. I spent the evening cleaning up and setting up for our party and made some cupcakes and my cake. I used the box recipes and omitted the oils, but there was no culinary masterpiece here- just some good ole fashioned cupcakes.

I also put together a cheese tray with crescent cheese-filled rolls, spinach flatbreads, grapes, and lots of crackers. We also had chips, guacamole, salsa, and hummus- all courtesy of Trader Joe's. We had a bowl filled with Trader Joe's Oatmeal Cranberry dippers, meringues, and chocolate covered grahams. People definitely grubbed on these snacks once the drunk munchies set in. Now, without further ado- a photo recap of the party:


Food:



Food Platter:




Alcohol:




Alcohol in my Ariel cup and a lei courtesy of our florist friend:






25-year-old Birthday Girl!




The best fiance in the world:




I am so thankful to my friends and family for making my birthday weekend and making me feel so special and loved. I always whine about birthdays and all the work but this weekend was all worth it.