Celebrating the New Year

Hi Kids!  Happy 2012 to you!  This year I woke up without a hangover for the first time in many moons on New Year and we headed off to the beach.  We were well rested since we kinda passed out the evening before.  The first order of business was getting our cawfee on.  Decaf homemade latte for me :)

Then we headed out to Ocean Beach in San Francisco.  The day was gorgeous and Chino and I walked along the beach while hubby surfed.  Chino had to makes sure that he got his father into the water safely.

After our day at the beach, we headed to the Argonaut Hotel, where we got married a couple of years ago.  We wanted to show Chino where is family began and he was happy to accompany us.

Their lunch menu was quite simple.  I almost went with the crab salad, but it had mayo and quickly changed my mind and got the grilled chicken sandwich instead.  Hubby got a tuna melt.  The food was nothing to write home about, but the company was fantastically hot.

And goofy.

And Chino got to sit with us, but he had to be in doggie jail.  We gave him water and I fed him chicken through the little fence, so not all was lost.

Once we were done with lunch, we went inside and walked around the lobby.  We took a family photo in a mirror to remember the day.

There is an old Russian proverb that says "how you celebrate the New Year is how the year will turn out" and if this year is anything like our little celebration, it will be peaceful, fun, and full of love.  I'll take it.  

My Holiday Weekend

Hey ladies and gents!  A rare random post from me, but I'm off work for the entire week, and therefore, have a lot of time on my hands.  I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend.  We don't celebrate Christmas but there is nothing wrong with plenty of days off and everyone getting together with their families :)  

If you've missed it, this weekend started off with my weekly pregnancy post.  I'm now at 18 weeks!  I have always loved the holiday time and this year all the lights seem brighter and all the food tastes better.  The best thing about this week is that I got my hubby a week long pass to my yoga studio so I now have a buddy to go with me.  I'm so excited to have him join the cult this week!

Here are a few of my weekend highlights:

Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's. Oh mylanta.  Give me more!  I haven't quite regained my full sweet tooth, but a couple of these make for the perfect sweet treat!

Eggs on top of salad with mango salsa.  This kind of made my morning- try it!

Ice cream for lunch at the movie theaters.  Baby needs the calcium :)

A 5.5-mile hike with the family on Christmas morning.  We didn't see Santa Clause, but we did see this cool ornament display on our way.

A sweet puppy who lets us torture him.  I'm not sure what Chino celebrated before we adopted him, so we covered all bases, just in case.

I hope you had a great weekend!  If Santa visits your home, what did he bring?

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Holiday baking is a ton of fun, no matter what the reason.  I didn't actually plan on doing any of my own, but my favorite nephew had to make some treats for his school and I was more than happy to micromanage and help with the task.  I stalked all my favorite blogs and we decided on making Bakerella's Red Velvet Cake Balls.  **Please go to her beautiful website for the recipe and pictures.

Let's do the math people- it's cake, red velvet, chocolate, and balls.  This makes for a winning combination.  You just can't go wrong- plus you get to excessively say 'balls'.  

Benny was on board and his mom had already pre-baked the red velvet cake.  He started with working on his own creation- a chocolate cake.  While he did that, we worked on rolling the balls, and put them in the freezer to set.

Once the balls were ready, it was time to cover them in chocolate (we used candy melts) and then pass them on to the CEO of sprinkles.  The man takes his sprinkles seriously.

I take my chocolate coating seriously.

And our little goober Chino made sure that not a single bite landed on the floor.

As we were getting closer to being finished, we took a picture with our creations.

And the final product looked fabulous- if I do say so myself.  Benny's mom, who also took all the pictures, purchased these adorable containers in Mexico for his teachers.  Don't you just love them?

I had a great time working with my little nephew and his mom.  Looks like we started a tradition- look at our cookie making from last year.  I can't believe how things have changed this year.  He was so little and cuddly, and now he's such a little man!

2010:

What are you baking this year?

How to Make Holiday Cookies

I haven't been doing too much holiday baking and I'm fresh out of holiday parties to attend.  Luckily today I had the chance to make and decorate some cookies.  I know a lot of people get overwhelmed with the holidays, so here is my easy process for making holiday cookies.  Put on your sweats, tie your hair up, and let's get baking!

1. Pick an assistant to help you out. You should check his resume for a list of skillz, but clean hands and a sweet Puma sweat suit are the core competencies for this task.

2. Make the recipe easy and work together- if boxed ingredients leave you more time to play, then do it.  I promise Martha won't come hunt you down every single time.

3. Get the prep work out of the way so you can play.  This is where a second assistant can help.

5. As much as you want to take over, relinquish control.  Little ones work better when they have the freedom.  But this does not give you an excuse to slouch on your posture. Seriously.

 6. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

7. Remember to eat real food on the days you bake to practice moderation and avoid sugar rushes.

8. Sit back and admire your hard work.

9. Make food fun.  Eating contests are good for the soul.

10. Remember to laugh and smile.  That's what the holidays are all about.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours :)

Is That a Pumpkin?

Today when I was stress-eating my persimmon, I remembered people in high school and college always asking me if I was eating a pumpkin, one of the people included my last boss, who nearly drove me to insanity.

I am also proud to say that I have eaten an entire butternut squash today- of course not in one sitting, but at lunch and dinner.  I'm not sure if proud is a good word for it, but it happened.

The blob on the left is wasabi- it tastes good on everything and makes me wish I wasn't born all at the same time!  Mmmmm wasabi!
I also indulged in my new favorite food- Fancy Medjool dates.

Not only were they worth the $4 I paid for them, but also worth the 'date' jokes I got from the burly Trader Joe's cashier who was trying to show me where they were in the store.  I appreciated the effort.
I had them with a smear of this magic:

I'm so glad that Monday/Wednesday is over and it's time to move on to Tuesday/Thursday!  I'm getting really excited for Thanksgiving and we have lots of celebrating to do!  On Thursday we are keeping it low key and celebrating our first Thanksgiving together as a little family, Friday will be spent with my parents, and Saturday will be spent with the hubby's family.  I am only cooking for Thursday, so there is not much pressure on me!

I'm keeping it simple and here is my Thanksgiving Menu (so far):

• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Asparagus and Brussels Sprouts
• Homemade sourdough stuffing
• Fall mixed greens salad (with pomegranate arils, persimmons, apples)
• The smallest turkey ever 
• Appetizers, cranberry sauce, and dessert- all TBD

Are you cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year?  What's your favorite thing to make/eat?
I heart roasted veggies, and cranberry sauce- lots of cranberry sauce!  I also attack the desserts like crazy too!

Valentine's Day and Other Nonsense

Valentine's Day Dinner


I hope you are having a great weekend and enjoying your V-day whether it's with your special one or friends and family. We all need a little love!

We went out to dinner at Paradise 33 last night. This was a new restaurant for us and a different experience. The menu is a mix of Asian cuisine including Vietnamese and Japanese entrees. We both enjoyed our meals and would go back again.

I ordered the Tuna salad with seared ahi tuna served over a bed of greens. I ordered dressing on the side but didn't use much of it since I was so into the wasabi. The tuna was perfectly done and tasted great.





My fiance, who wanted to be in the picture, ordered some kind of lemongrass prawn dish with rice and a side salad. He helped me with the food styling on this one (notice the elevated chopsticks):








Saturday Morning

This morning I went to the gym for some good ole cardio. I did a 5k on the treadmill followed by another 12 minutes on the elliptical to get my legs cooled down. I felt nice and sweaty. I came home and made an omelette with spinach and one egg and heated it in the microwave with some parmesan cheese and spicy mustard. I really enjoyed this breakfast and will definitely try it again.





Starbuck's Review

I tried the Vanilla Roobios Latte yesterday and I have to say- it was definitely a disappointment. After reading about it on Carrotsncake.com and Healthyandsane.com, I was hoping that it would be really good, but the taste was just too strange for me. The aftertaste was a bit too much- something. I guess it was just not my thing. Starbuck's never disappoints me, so this was just a fluke.





I have been snacking all day since breakfast and didn't really do lunch:

• sliced apple and celery with almond butter
• a cookie and some dark chocolate
• spicy almonds
• Cheerios and skim

We are kinda skipping dinner and heading to our friends' house to watch a movie about steroids (it's boy's choice tonight) and have some snacks. Have a great night!

I leave you with a picture of me and my valentine being goofy and posing for our Save the Date cards: