Wednesday, January 4, 2012

new years weekend

New Years weekend started out with one of Scott's Christmas gifts: Caps game!


We won. I wore my Laich jersey. I'm pretty sure that's why we won. After the game we went to Asian Spice, which was not so good. We shared some shrooms.


And I got the seafood, avocado and seaweed salad with lime dressing. The seafood tasted boiled with absolutely no seasoning, while the dressing tasted like limeade. Gross.


Brunch the next morning was also unsuccessful. We went to the Diner in Adams Morgan. I don't know why people like that place. The best part about it was seeing a dad and his toddler daughter sharing breakfast. They kept toasting their OJ and it was the cutest effing thing I have ever seen.


Then, ANNAPOLIS! His other gift was New Years Eve at an historic hotel in Annapolis. After walking around downtown Nap Town for a bit we headed to O'brien's Oyster Bar for some drinks (okay, I had drinks) and appetizers. I had three oyster shooters! Which is two or three oysters with cocktail sauce in a shot glass and then beer in a shot glass also. I was unaware of the beer accompaniment and will never complain about beer even though I don't drink it (gluten). I did have a few sips of beer though.


Soo many oysters. I ended up having about 7 total, because they gave me an extra oyster shooter. And they were all gigantic! And insanely delicious. I wish I could afford to eat raw oysters every single day. Easy to digest and FULL of nutrients.


I also had their crab soup. Because I can't go to Annapolis and not have crab soup. It was delicious, so creamy and with the perfect amount of Old Bay. Oysters and crab soup is probably my favorite meal.


Then we walked around town and headed to the water. I loved the decorated boats!


How tight is this?!


A Christmas story boat!




We headed back to our hotel before dinner. It was super old and gorgeous. I absolutely prefer to stay at old inns as opposed to new and hip chain hotels with all the amenities.


Gorgeous tree.


For dinner I made reservations at Level Small Plates Lounge. I got a Moscow mule. Which is vodka and ginger and some other stuff in a copper mug that I wanted to steal.


It tasted good. Scott got brussel sprouts


and eggplant.


He made me order gouda cheese. "She wants the gouda." "No I don't." "Yes you do. Yes she does." "okay I'll have the gouda."


Raw tuna! I love raw tuna. Raw seafood is my jam!


It was actually a lot of tuna.


Scallops, cabbage and pancetta. Obviously it was delicious.


And we split the fries. Which were definitely really good fries, but I still wished they had ketchup.


We hung out at our hotel bar after dinner. It was in the basement, super old and with lovely exposed brick. And peep this old phone! How amazing. I picked it up, and to my surprise it rang directly to the front desk. "Uhh, sorry. I just wanted to see if this old phone worked."


US mail!


View of main street from our room.


View of some old MD building, I can't remember what it is, but I'm sure it's very important to MD.


We wandered around our inn, which had four floors. We opened all the doors that weren't locked. They were mostly linen closets and stuff. Boring.


The below picture is floor! In one of the rooms in the inn there was an old room, and the floor was glass to display the old and original heating system of the house. Cray!


We had breakfast at someplace I can't remember the name of. The crab soup was very similar to O'Brien's but with more crab.


Crab souffle. Wasn't that good.


We headed home and eventually got ready to go see Wale at the Fillmore.


Such a fun show. Black Cobain was also awesome.



We spent Monday shopping around some furniture stores and eating at Los Cuates in Georgetown. I got the usual shrimp fajitas, which tasted even better than normal.


So, it was an amazing weekend and I had the best time with Scott. Sooo thankful


primal fried chicken and pizza

Yup, fried chicken and pizza. Since I can't and won't eat the real thing, I decided to make my own. We know that fried chicken is usually in the form of arsenic laced (yeah, non-organic chickens have traces of arsenic!), refined wheat and fried in rancid vegetable oils. Or, cancer on a plate (or in a bucket). Pizza is refined wheat and processed cheese, with sauce that most likely contains high fructose corn syrup. So even while this may not be the most primal meal, it's still a hell of a lot healthier. And sometimes you just need fried chicken and/or pizza. In my case, I felt that I needed both.

I started out with the pizza crust. I used Elana Amsterdam's recipe that I got from Paleo Table. I don't care whether my pizza is round or square, or somewhere in the  middle. It came out like this:


After baking I added gouda, onions that I sauteed in grass-fed and raw butter, and mushrooms. I recently read via the Healthy Home Economist that gouda is very high in Vitamin K2, an essential vitamin. I did some more research to confirm this and I am so stoked! A lot of people in the primal community do not do dairy, I am not one of them! It does not affect me negatively and I now have an excellent excuse to eat gouda, not that I actually need one.


I put it under the broiler for about 5 minutes.


And it was amazing.


So, so good and so reminiscent of that terrible for you pizza. I love that this grain-free recipe was so simple and turned out so sturdy. Amazing.

For the fried chicken I beat an egg and put that in one bowl, while I added almond flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic and mustard powder to another.


Dip in egg, dip in "flour" mixture and add to pot full of coconut oil and non-hydrogenated organic palm oil.


And dominate a plate of fried chicken and pizza. I dipped in organic ketchup, mustard and rooster sauce.


And now I have the rest for lunch today. I can't emphasize enough how awesome leftovers are. They're healthier than buying your lunch and they save you money! 


Later today I'll post about Scott and I's New Years weekend. Caps game, Annapolis and Wale! So amazing.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

new years resolutions

First, I'll say that 2011 was amazing. I wrote out a whole post, but it apparently disappeared (thanks, blogger). 2011 was amazing not because shitty things didn't happen (they definitely did) but because as I'm getting older I'm learning to accept the negative things that happen, and appreciate all of the amazing things that happen too. I really believe that happiness is choosing to be happy. You can sit around and bitch about your problems and feel sorry for yourself, or you can do something about it and change your life.
  • To be the best girlfriend and friend to Scott
  • To workout more consistently
  • Do yoga
  • Eliminate all grains, sugars and processed dairy from my diet
  • To make more meals that are healthy for Scott
  • To prepare more meals at home for both Scott and myself
  • To meditate
  • To be thankful every single day
  • To continue to grow spiritually
  • To let go of stress, anxiety, fear and anger
  • To take my supplements religiously
  • To fast when we return from Panama
  • To travel more
  • To complete a Whole30 after the fast (and to some extent help Scott do the same)
  • To be more productive
  • To finish the HR grad classes
  • To finish the new nutrition within 4 months of starting
  • To make 2012 the best year of my life
  • To be the best version of myself
  • To do this challenge on Mark's Daily Apple
I'm so stoked to do the challenge on MDA because I feel like it will be such a great motivator. While I've got the eating down (mostly) I find working out to be SO tedious. But having a starting point, a picture, a goal and all the support from MDA readers will be amazing. I encourage anyone who is looking to change their lifestyle to join me.