Birthday Recap

I started off my birthday celebration on Saturday. My hubby took me shopping for some much needed, new outfits!

On Sunday, we went wine tasting! I was super excited since I have been wanting to go for some time now.

We took a Jeep tour that took us to 3 Temecula wineries; Callaway, Southcoast and Robert Renzoni.

We started off at Callaway.

The wines were delicious! They had a great selection of dessert wines, and we ended up purchasing a sweet Chardonnay.

After the tasting, we toured the winery.

The grounds were beautiful!

After Callaway, we headed off to Southcoast. This property was gorgeous! I definitely want to come back and stay in the hotel!

After Southcoast, we had lunch! This was very welcome since we were getting pretty tipsy.

Our tour guide took us to a beautiful, quiet picnic spot, and I had a veggie sandwich.

After lunch, we took a tour around wine country. Gorgeous view!

The last winery we visited was Robert Renzoni.

We were SO feeling all the wine at this point.

The whole tour and tastings were an amazing experience. It was the perfect birthday present!

Later on in the evening, we went to have cake and pizza, at my mom’s house.

Z Vegan Pizza for me!

My very grown-up, cake:

I got great gifts from the fam, but the highlight of the gifts, was some of the wrapping!

My sister’s boyfriend, James, made his own wrapping, for me:

Complete with Fun Facts:

My sister wrote “OTB” on her gift. A reference to the Jessica Darling series.

On Monday, after work, my sister accompanied me to Disneyland!

Disneyland is offering free admission, this year, on your birthday. If you already have an annual pass (as I do), you can get a gift card, in the amount of an admission ticket. I was all over that!

We were only there for a short time, I did not want to get home to late, so we walked around and shopped a bit, and rode my favorite ride; The Haunted Mansion!

This is what I got with my gift card, and I still have a bit left!

Overall, I had an awesome birthday! I am so grateful for all the amazing people I have in my life, who made the day (weekend) exceptional.

Thanks to all of you for the blog comments, tweets, facebook messages and emails!

26

I have been absent-mindedly saying I am 26, for the past few months. I already feel older than this, well, on some days. Other days, when I am squealing over New Moon, The Jonas Brothers and Hello Kitty, I feel so much younger.

This has been a busy year, and I think I have progressed most in my running goals.

Here are some of my goals, as expressed in last year's post.

This year I will finish a marathon.
I finished 3, in fact, holla.

I will make a more honest effort into saving money and not mindlessly spending (I could probably save so much by cutting down my Target and Starbuck's trips. Booooo).
I probably could have cut out more Target and Starbucks trips, but we definitely made great strides in saving.

I will learn how to cook new and healthy meals,
I think I tried a few new things, but I tended to stick with quick and easy staples, over and over.

and I will be a better wife, sister and daughter.
This will be an ever evolving goal, one that I will alway continue to put forth effort towards.

I would like to try to be a better person. I am terribly impatient, judgemental and I lack a great deal of compassion. I know I should work on these negative qualities and not be such a bitch.
Oy. I think I have only gotten worse in all these areas, but I do think I have learned to let go of things easier, and to pick and choose my battles.

Overall, I think I did a decent job at meeting my goals for my 25th year of life.

Now, on to the next.

By this time next year, I want to have a much more healthier relationship with the scale, and modulate my weight more based on how I feel, and how my clothes fit, and not based on what the scale says.

I want to continue to improve my race times, and I want to be more methodical about planning out my speed and distance training, rather that just showing up and running.

I want to continue to progress and find value in strength training, so I can look and feel strong.

Somehow, someway, I want to become a better, nicer person. I want to have more patience with people and show others not just empathy, but also sympathy, when it's appropriate.

By this time next year, I definitely want to own a house. I was really hoping that it would happen this year, but, life just has not worked out that way, for us. It just has to work out in the next year, or else I am going to take all the money we have saved up, to buy a new car and a puppy!

I want to spend more time with people that I care about, and less time "doing things."
I have been much more aware of this in the last few months, but I definitely still need to improve.
Most significantly, I need to spend more time with my Grandma and brother, as well as other family and friends, and less time doing insignificant things, like surfing the internet and maintaining a spotless home.
All those things have a time and place, but I need much more of a balance.

In my 26th year of life, I want to have a more positive impact on the world around me.
I want to treat others as I want to be treated, or even better.
I want to strive to be the best me I possibly can, despite life's circumstances.
I want to concentrate more on improving my relationships with others.
I want to spend my time in the most productive manner, not in the sense that I am checking items off my to-do list, but in the sense that I am using my time, to better myself and others.

Most of all, I want to always be appreciative and grateful. I feel very fortunate for the life I have been given, the people around me, and my health. And, I hope that I never take any of those for granted.

Happy Tofurkey Day

Happy Day of Thanks to All!

I am really not a fan of holidays, at all, but I can appreciate the sentiments behind this holiday. I absolutely hope that in my own life, I remember to live with gratitude for all that I have, each and every day, not just once a year.

I find that gratitude is the one thing that can turn my negative attitude around, because despite life's circumstances, I have SO much to appreciate.

I am ridiculously thankful for my hubby (who loves me inspite of myself), my siblings (who always get my jokes and know that I am in fact, as funny as I think I am, in my own head), my mother (my constant source of love and support), my father (who equipped me to overcome all of life's obstacles) and my in-laws (for their caring and acceptance).

I am also grateful that all my loved ones are relatively healthy and happy.

I have come to appreciate my health and abilities in a whole new way since beginning running, and every time my feet hit the ground, I am reminded what an awesome gift it is that my limbs function and I have the ability to pursue my passion.

I am so appreciative for having not 1, but 2 jobs that I absolutely love and have a passion for. I am fortunate to be given the opportunity, to assist others in their educational, career and personal goals.

There are a million small things I am thankful for, including, but not limited to:

BOOKS, and all the worlds they have opened me up to.

Starbucks, for fueling my crazy life, that gets little sleep.

Glee for bringing my high school dream life to TV.

Eyeliner, specifically, and make-up, in general, that gives the impression that I am alive and awake, when I have had little sleep.

Target, (you understand).

Chapstick, though I do not show my appreciation for it enough to find it when I need it.

Coconut Bliss Dark Chocolate Frozen Dessert

...and on and on.

What I appreciate about myself is my iron-will tenacity to do every thing that I set my mind to do, my ability to think on my feet when craziness occurs at work and my willingness to laugh at myself when I mess up (which is often).

What do you appreciate about yourself?

I am starting off this Tofurkey Day the way I wish I could start off every day; with a morning run, with good people.

I am for a 10 miler, then it is time for family, cooking and eating!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin French Toast

I got the idea for this recipe here. I also Caitlin's used tip on using flax as an egg substitute.

I combined the soy milk, flax, pumpkin puree, cinnamon and ground ginger all together, and coated the bread in it. I fried it in just a bit of canola oil.

The result was a little soggy, and it was hard to keep the toast in 1 piece, when I flipped it over in the pan.

Tomorrow I am going to make some for the hubby. (In light of last night’s FAIL, I decided to only subject myself to new recipe experimentation, today. He will get a more refined version, tomorrow.) I think I am going to omit the soymilk, and see if that makes it less soggy, or else only add a dash.

However, the end result was still very tasty!

I served it alongside Gardenburger “sausage” patties, with Pumpkin Coffee. I have been adding in just a bit of Chocolate Silk to my Pumpkin Coffee. Delicious!

Beet Burger Failure

Ever since I first had the Veggie Beet Burger from Eureka Burger, I have been wanting to recreate the magic. Some things should be left to the experts.

Awhile back, I found a recipe for beet burgers, online, and I saved it to be made, when I had the time.

I am fortunate enough to have this entire week off, so I am definitely taking the opportunity to try out some new recipes.

I though it would be brilliant to try my hand at these beet burgers, paired with butternut squash fries (WIN, by the way).

I followed the recipe for the beet burgers, it was pretty time consuming. It took quite a bit of chopping and roasting. The mix, ready to be shaped into patties.

This was my very first experience with beets, ever. Although they leave a pretty color, they are quite messy and made for a fun clean up.

I still have not quite mastered how to cut a butternut squash. Maybe my vegetable peeler just sucks, but it was not much help in trying to get the skin off. I ended up hacking away at it with a knife.

Anyhoo, I sliced up the butternut squash, brushed it with a bit of canola oil and sprinkled with sea salt. I threw them in the oven for about 45 minutes. (They could have easily been done in 20-30 minutes, but I prefer them extra crunchy.)

The end result:

The fries were delicious! I will definitely make them again.

The beet burgers….not so much.

I can not put my finger on what it is I do not like about them, but they definitely do NOT taste like Eureka Burgers. Ugh. They also feel apart pretty quickly, I have no idea if I did something wrong, or if that is just their consistency.

Good think I made 6 patties.

I am going to try them again tomorrow, to give them one more shot.

I know sometimes when I put too much work into a meal, I end up not liking it. I know that sounds weird, but it happens often to me, if I put too much time and effort into cooking, I do not want any of the food. Does that ever happen to anyone else?

So, I will give the burgers one more shot, and probably just stick to the yummy Eureka Burgers.

Time to move on now, tomorrow I am excited to try out Pumpkin French Toast!

Also, stay tuned for my Animal-Free Thanksgiving, which will include:

• Tofurky (I know it sounds terrifying, but it really is delicious!)
• Vegan Mashed Potatoes
• Mac N Shreese :)
• Green Beans

I am still contemplating dessert…I am not much of a baker, and am hesitant to make a WHOLE vegan pumpkin pie, that only I would eat.

I am thinking about maybe making cupcakes…wonder if I could find a recipe for vegan pumpkin cupcakes…hmmmm…..any thoughts or suggestions?

Yoga Towel!

I got to try out my new Yoga Towel, yesterday!

I ordered Yogitoes Skidless Mat-Sized Yoga Towel, in teal, from amazon.

I love the color and design.

I really liked the way that the towel gripped on my mat.

The towel gripped well on my mat, however, I slid around a bit, on my first downward dog. I noticed other people in the class wetting their towel beforehand, so I poured a bit on the corners of the towel.

It definitely helped!

I loved it and noticed a big difference. It was nice to not slide all around my mat, especially during the last half of class, when I am an especially sweaty monster.

Shout-Outs

I want to wish a Happy Fitaversary to the homie Kelsey!

Kelsey has made awesome changes to her life, in the past year, in the realm of health & fitness. She has met many goals for herself and continues to push forward with challenges. Congrats, Kelsey!

Also, Jessica ran her First Half Marathon this past weekend! You can check out her recaps here and here.

Jessica has blogged her way through training, and got started using the Couch to 5K program. She has made amazing strides in her training.

Congrats, ladies! I am so proud of both of you!

Butternut Squash Tacos

Butternut Squash has been my ingredient of the season! I am loving it, I have been adding it to pastas, rice bowls and now, tacos!

I roasted up diced squash, red onions, corn and black beans (all brushed lightly with EVOO and salted), in the oven.

I served the mix in warmed Ezekiel corn tortillas.

On the side, fresh red bell pepper and snap peas.

This came out great! I love the contrast of the sweet squash and corn, with the savory beans and onions.



Topped off, of course, with guacamole!