Swimming in the Snow

I am most definitely suffering from a sweet vacation hangover.

While I took photos, I’m not even going to bother posting pictures of EVERYTHING we ate because it was pure chaos!

Cruises are basically an all-you-can eat extravaganza and we took full advantage, and while a good portion of our weekend getaway to nowhere was spent chewing, and sleeping, there were some other highlights:

Separate Beds!

Just kidding, we had them push the twin beds together for cuddling purposes. But we were tempted to sleep solo for a few nights.

Towel animals.
I was obsessed. Every time we came back to the room and there wasn’t an animal carefully constructed out of our linens I was bummed.
Since we’ve been home I’ve been spending a lot of time on YouTube learning this mysterious art for myself.

While the weather outside was absolutely frigid (we were basically cruising down the coast of Long Island), the pools and the hot tubs were heated. We spent quite a few hours swimming in the snow. I think that will be the name of my next book, “Swimming in the Snow”—Harlequin Romance might be interested.

It was that cold.

For our last meal on the ship we tried out the hibachi restaurant. Our chef, Restler, was a true showman.

There were oodles of “activities” that we didn’t partake in…because we were unconscious. I don’t think either of us realized how much we needed a little rest and relaxation until it was thrust upon us. All in all, food, hot tubs, and lots of naps—in my eyes that’s a pretty perfect weekend getaway.

We’re definitely thinking of doing another cruise. Any suggestions?

As for the rest of TODAY…

Now that we’re back from vacation, I’m back to race training. Today was a short run day, so I hit up the West Side Highway running path for a quick 3-mile run. Okay, not that quick. I’m not a particularly speedy runner, but at least I’m dedicated.

It was so windy today that when I was walking home I felt frozen tear drops on my face, from the cold air and my leaky eyes.

Afterward I went home for lunch

I made a big pot of vegetable soup last night…we’ll be eating it all week.
I coupled that with a sprouted grain English muffin with low-fat cottage cheese and sun-dried tomatoes

The Fella and I met up in the afternoon for a little strength training, he focused on his back, I focused on my legs, after a short strength session I spent a good amount of time stretching and utilizing the foam rollers on my oft abused muscles.

Dinner



We kept dinner lite, because we ate it late. Salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, carrot, feta and kalamata olives

Kim

Coed Competitive Dating

Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I have just successfully pulled off the Valentine’s Day to end all Valentine’s Days.

I will remind you that this whole thing started when The Fella and I went out to dinner with friends and the gentlemen proceeded to complain about how much effort is expected of them for things like dating and Valentine’s Day.

You wanna complain about effort? I’ll show you effort. Challenge Accepted (We watch way too much How I Met Your Mother).

The Day started out with small things. I left twenty or so notes around the apartment and in The Fella‘s stuff, each explaining a reason that I love him.

Some were silly, like how he doesn’t know the words to any song and just makes them up as he goes along, and some were more sentimental, like how he tells people that he’s “happily married” even though we’re not married yet, and probably won’t be for another couple of years.

Then I left, because I had things to do. People to see. Desserts to buy. Lingerie to pick up, and hair to be done.

When I got home in the afternoon, The Fella had a little surprise waiting for me.

A nutritious lunch if I ever had one.

For dinner we went to Candle Café, an amazing vegan restaurant in our neighborhood.

The best part of the meal was by far the soup. We started with the smoked leek soup, topped with truffle oil and fried onions.
I have to figure out how to make this at home.

Next we shared a roasted portabella mushroom in a red wine reduction with brussel sprouts.
So good.

I had the sofrito tempeh with plantains

He had the sesame crusted seitan

We opted out of dessert, because I had dessert and more surprises waiting for him at home.

We left the house together, but as if by magic, when we returned the whole apartment was decked out in candle light and rose petals ;)

I’d arranged for a friend of ours to come by while we were at dinner and decorate the place, put out dessert and place even more love notes around the apartment.

As Roy searched the place for more reasons I love him, I changed into my strategically chosen evening attire, and was waiting with his present. One final note with his present in it.

We’re leaving today for a 3-day, 2-night cruise to nowhere. Let the pampering begin.

That will teach him to complain about holidays!

What did you do for Valentine’s Day?

Kim

All Kim Can Eat Chocolate

I will start this post off by saying that I like chocolate…but I don’t love chocolate. At least not the same way that many others profess that they do. The Fella is one of those people, if a cake is not chocolate it is not worth eating. He would never dare to eat an apple strudel or slice of lemon meringue pie. So, many months back when I saw a Living Social deal for a chocolate tour of New York City I signed us up thinking we’d have a romantic day of desserts.

Fast forward to present day and I put off scheduling our tour because I was busy with work and now it’s expiring and the only day left is a Thursday and The Fella teaches at a local community college on Thursdays, so I took my non chocolate loving self and my non chocolate loving friend out for a romantic date of desserts.

I have never taken a walking tour before, but I was so incredibly impressed with my tour guide who appeared to know the entire history of New York and could rattle it off as we walked from shop to shop.

Facts like our meeting spot, Chelsea Market, the trendy mall/business venue that now hosts such places as Google, iVillage, and Oxygen used to be the National Biscuit Company factory and it was where the Oreo cookie was invented.

Oreos are New Yorkers!

He also told us that the structure is one of the oldest that remains from the early colonization of New York, similar to the cobble stone streets of the financial district (think Gangs of New York) and there are very strict zoning laws in those areas and that is why the street signs are black. I had never noticed that the street signs were black before, but now I’ll keep an eye out for that sort of thing.

Alex, our tour guide, looked like he was barely out of college. He also had a nifty French accent, and told us his mother is Italian and his Father, American, so that although he grew up in Paris he doesn’t have a French passport. If you’re looking to rob someone of their French passport, don’t choose him.

Our first stop was Jacques Torres for some Wicked Hot Chocolate

Super rich cocoa with cinnamon and chili powder

My date.

Our next stop was Li-Lac Chocolates which is one of the oldest chocolate shop in New York City, having opened in 1923.

While there we sampled the dark chocolate which was 74% cocoa.
I learned that there’s actually a correct way to eat dark chocolate; first bite off a small piece and let it sit on your tongue, roll it around a bit, then chew, then proceed to eat normally. Apparently chocolate is a lot like wine.

The next stop was Chocolate Bar for some sea salt chocolate.
This you don’t let sit on your tongue you just go right ahead and chew to break up the salt crystals.
This was at the top of my list for favorite chocolate experiences.

Our fourth stop was the original Magnolia Bakery.
Since Sex and the City featured this cupcake hub they’ve grown exponentially, popping up with shops all over New York City.
Honestly, I think the cupcakes are a bit over-rated…but that didn’t stop me from eating one.

Sprinkles anyone?

Friends fans, this is the building used as the exterior for Joey, Monica, Chandler, Rachel, and Phoebe’s building.
The restaurant below, The Little Owl, is the inspiration for Central Perk.

I knew that before the tour, score one for Kim!

Our next stop was at Milk & Cookies Bakery for some double chocolate cookies

That’s my “I’m trying to look psyched about this cookie the size of my head, but I’m chocolate-d out” face

Random sculpture of Picasso’s second wife.
She looks like she was burgeoning on a sugar coma too.

This bakery was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay (my Food Network crush), and the cannoli’s here put Bobby’s to shame.

I have to agree, they were pretty excellent.

Our next stop, Xocolatti is owned by a 24 year old, and focuses on reimagining chocolate flavors.
You won’t find any milk chocolate bars here, they have things like basil and olive oil chocolate.

I was a bit nervous about trying the mango paprika white chocolate bark. I’m not exactly adventurous when it comes to sweets, but I was amazed.

This tiny nibble rocked my world. The paprika really compliments the buttery sweetness of the white chocolate and the crystalized mango really closed the deal in regard to taste bud bliss.

Dudes Chobani has a storefront shop! We didn’t go in it, but you can bet your sweet patooties that next time I’m in Soho I’m stopping by for some yogurt. My friend told me that they just opened and have specialized yogurt flavors. Consider my world rocked.

Our last stop of the day was Vosges. You may have seen their creative bars in Whole Foods. They’re the ones that make the bacon chocolate bar.

We tried a red pepper toffee that I wasn’t a big fan of.
They can’t all be winners.

I did make a friend there. Vosges gets an A+ for decorating.

As far as sweets go, I’m pretty sated for the foreseeable future. Despite the fact that for the most part a chocolate lovers tour is really wasted on me, I really enjoyed this experience. I think I’ll look for more walking tours to partake in. I have no shame about playing tourist in my own city.

For folks that may want to retrace my steps, the whole tour happened between the neighborhoods of Chelsea, the West Village, and SoHo. All are very close to one another.

 

 

 

 

 

Kim

Jerusalem

The Fella and I took some amazing pictures in Jerusalem yesterday, unfortunately on the ride back to Tel Aviv his camera wiggled loose from his pocket and was never heard from again. We’re hoping that a good Samaritan turns it in to the bus company, there are a lot of pictures with his grandma that we’re really sad to have lost.

In order to blog the day I’m going to rely heavily on Google Images.

We started our day by taking a Western Wall underground tour. Interesting fact, the Western Wall is not the wall of the ancient Jewish temple itself, as we often hear about, it’s the wall of temple compound, a massive city within a city.

Photo Source


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The most amazing aspect of this tour to me was how deep the wall goes, as we walked through the layers of rock we were walking through different eras in Jerusalem’s history. The first temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, and afterward new cities were continuously built on top of the old. That’s the craziest part to me, they just covered up an old city with some stone and built a new one on top! We could see the pillars, archways, windows of homes, and aqueducts of King Herod’s time (He ruled Judaea from 37 BCE through 4 BCE). The wall that is above ground now is the newest part and it’s 2000 years old!

Photo Source

Afterward we went topside and spent a few minutes at the wailing wall. I’ve been there before, but it’s always a very moving experience. People come from all over the world to pray there. Ladies take note, if you ever visit you need to have your knees covered as well as your shoulders. Men can walk around naked if they want. Definitely a bit unfair. Nonetheless, there are women there handing out shalls and what I like to refer to as safety skirts (cheap skirts to act as a cover up for those wearing shorts or short skirts.

Another aspect that’s unfair: women and men pray separately and the male section is three times the size of the women’s section. Grrr.

When we left the Jewish Quarter we headed over to the Christian area to check out the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is said to be where Jesus was crucified, laid to rest, and was later resurrected. It’s a huge pilgrimage sight for Christians all over the world.

Photo Credit


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An alter was built around the spot where Jesus is said to have been crucified. You can crawl under that alter and see the ground where the cross was.

Photo Credit

This is The Stone of the Anointing where the body of Jesus was said to have been placed after being removed from the cross. Many people bring candles with them, and place them on the rock for a blessing.

Photo Credit

This is the tomb where Jesus was said to be buried and later resurrected. Obviously this isn’t my picture, and it wasn’t mass when I was there. In actuality people can go in the tomb, but there are different time slots for different sects. It was Russian Orthodox hour when we were there, so we couldn’t go in, but we could tell it was a highly emotional experience for the people there. One family even brought their infant to be baptized there, which seemed pretty cool.

To any Muslim readers I may have, I’m sorry I couldn’t go to the Dome of the Rock and report back to you. As an American I’m allowed to go, but the general consensus is that Jewish Israelis shouldn’t enter the Muslim holy sight. He has his permanent green card now, and in a couple of years he can apply for American Citizenship and an American Passport, and then we can visit the Golden Dome.

We spent the rest of the day walking through the marketplace of the Old City. Most of the shops are overpriced tourist shops, but if you take some of the long winding pathways you might find yourself in the non-tourist area, where people sell spices, dried beans and fruit, and meat.

It’s really amazing to me that people live within the walls of Old Jerusalem, in 500 to 1000 year old stone houses.

As for food, I didn’t really eat much yesterday. Someone on The Fella’s flight was sick, he got a little sick, one of his friends got really sick, and then I got really sick. Subsequently my appetite wasn’t really up to snuff and I stuck with orange juice and water for the majority of the day. I’m hoping this bug is on its way out, there’s nothing worse than sleeping through your own vacation.

Kim

Let’s Talk About Dairy—The Israel Chronicles

Dear American Friends,

It gives me great sadness to inform you that the dairy industry that has been serving your milk, cheese, and yogurt needs has most definitely been giving you the shaft. My eyes have been opened, and I will never look at the dairy aisle the same way again.

Guys, our dairy sucks. If you want good dairy, you have to visit Israel (or possibly other countries that take their cow juice seriously).

I started out the day at the gym. I did an hour-and-a-half of cardio to try and fend off any serious hip-width damage done during our celebration of carbs the previous night. I think this particular fruit smoothie was dairy free, but I’m not entirely sure, seeing as how I just told the fellow at my new boyfriend, the juice stand, that I trusted him implicitly to tantalize my tongue.

Not a fantastic picture, we were coming back from the gym and only had Roy’s camera phone at the ready.
We think said juice drink included: mint, banana, orange juice, melon

When we got back to the apartment I snuck in a bit more snacking, and this is where my story begins…

This, my friends, is 3% yogurt. Peach passion fruit 3% yogurt.
Let’s talk percentages. If you wander the dairy aisle of an Israel grocery store, the thing that will stick out to you most is the various percentages on each carton of cheese, milk, sour cream, or yogurt. Want your yogurt to be 1.6% milk fat, sure thing. What about 5%, they have that too. Whole milk fat, got it. Completely milk fat-free, that’s available too, maybe you prefer 1% or 2% or 2.5%…see where I’m going?

Roy patiently sat by while I ate my 3% yogurt and explained to him how I used to love yogurt as a kid, but as I got older had started to think that it was rather disgusting, but now I see the error of my ways. Yogurt is amazing…just not where I live.

Patient, patient man. I’m sure he really wants those five minutes of his life back.

To change the subject from yogurt to something infinitely more interesting, he started laundering money.

I mean that he literally started washing a twenty shekel note. You see, the NIS 20 is waterproof and tear proof so that people can take it the beach and swim with it. Well, not only that, it’s also to prevent counterfeiting. Still, kinda cool. We put it to the test when we hit up the shoreline.

Welcome to the Mediterranean

The water was amazingly warm and clear. I’m not a huge beach person in general, but I had no problem wading around the beach in Tel Aviv for a full four hours.

Yeah, I swim in sunglasses.

There’s a beach here for everyone. A dog beach, a gay beach, a beach for religious folk who only want to sunbathe with same sex folk (note the spelling)

After sunbathing we went on a two-hour walk around Tel Aviv, but first we stopped at a deli for a snack. You guessed it, more dairy!

This is a super soft cheese (think slightly thinner cream cheese) with herbs. It comes in different flavors and I have a feeling it would be awesome tossed with pasta. Notice it’s a 5% cheese.

We spread it on some whole wheat bread while we walked around.

We wandered aimlessly around Tel Aviv window shopping and sightseeing for a couple of hours.

This is Rabin Square, where Yitzak Rabin was shot in 1995. Some people think he was the last hope for peace in the region. Let’s hope not.

Then we saw a deal for a delicious and nutritious meal. Anyone up for some hot dogs in their fries?

Seriously, I have no idea how these people stay so fit.

For dinner we met up with one of Roy’s closest childhood friends at a restaurant that specializes in veggie burgers; aptly called Buddha Burger.

Roy and I split three different types of burgers and a couple of Diet Sprites

One was Shnitzel flavored, which basically means breaded tofu. Another Falafel, and the last garden vegetable

All the restaurants here have diet coke and diet sprite. The options!

It was finger-lickin’ good!

I’m glad that meal was tasty because it may be my last one ever. Tomorrow I’m having my body fat percentage analyzed. Not quite sure how excited I am about that, after having gained 13 pounds during the book-writing process. I doubt I’ll be brave enough to put my number on the Internet, but I’m looking forward to telling you about the experience.

Kim

Shalom Day 1

Shalom from Israel!

After an 11 hour flight my groggy stiff-jointed self was greeted by this handsome guy:

I think I started eating the moment I landed.

Yeah, I double fist kartiv (popsicles). That’s just how I roll.

After a night of popsicles and meet and greets with The Fella’s childhood friends we retired to the swanky Tel Aviv apartment a friend of his is lending us.

The thing about dating a personal trainer is that they like to work out. For fun. Which means the moment I landed I already had a two-week gym membership waiting for me.

I started my first full day of vacation clad in oh-so familiar spandex, but let’s just say there was a learning curve to my gym-going. I started my workout with some chest and tricep exercises. All the while standing at the weight rack mentally trying to convert pounds to kilos. I’m pretty sure my fellow weight-lifters assumed I was in some sort of dumbbell induced tantric trance. After a while I just gave up and hit the cardio machines.

Running doesn’t take conversion, right? You just move one foot in front of the other—hopefully quickly.

Except…

Wait, look closer…

The treadmills were in Hebrew, which makes sense, this being a Hebrew speaking country and all. I ended up pressing a whole bunch of buttons to no avail and just sticking with the up and down arrows to adjust my speed. A speed that also needed to be converted to the metric system.

My workout made me feel dumb.

After the gym Roy and I hopped in a cab and went to one of the smaller cities that surrounds Tel Aviv to visit his grandmother. Where I proceeded to not take a picture of the lunch of omelet, pasta, and salad prepared for us. Considering I can barely say hello in Hebrew, trying to explain that I write a blog seemed way outside my current vocabulary.

Six hours of baby-boyfriend stories later, we headed back to Tel Aviv and Roy introduced me to the new love of my life.

This juice stand!

And this here smoothie!

Dates, banana, melon and milk.
I don’t ever want to drink anything else.

Chen (pronounced H-phlegmy sound-en), the friend who is lending us his apartment, then took us for a foot tour of old Tel Aviv, before he got on a plane to head to America for his own vacation.

I’ve been to Tel Aviv before, but didn’t get to see much because I happened to be here (in the desert) during the one week in the last bajillion years that was constant torrential downpours. Things are way better when they’re dry.

One guy lives there. One. Singular. Uno!

Eventually we left Chen to pack for his own trip and met up with some friends and headed to Jaffa for dinner at a traditional Arab bakery. Jaffa is an ancient port city. There are sections of the city that date back 5,000 years. It also happens to be one of the most mixed in terms of Jewish and Arab population. I was told that for the most part that isn’t really an issue and people get along, despite what we see on TV. But every once in a while there is an incident, especially as the area becomes more and more gentrified and rising property values push people out.

It’s a good thing the food isn’t effected by the rising property values, because my goodness was it a carbtastically tasty dinner.

Roy picked out a bunch of baked goodies for us to share, something tells me I’ll be at the gym again tomorrow morning.

We took our baked goods to go and strolled over to the pier.

And through some winding archways and tunnels.

Until we finally found the perfect bench to eat on.

The first thing we shared was a sweet sesame seed bagel.

The next pastry was a mallawach, filled with tomato paste, hard-boiled egg and pickles.

Next came pita with za’atar (A combination of spices including chickpea flour, sesame seeds, oregano, thyme, and savory)

I don’t know how to describe this, it’s basically a pizza but made with egg, cheese, onions, and mushroom, hold the tomato sauce.

Finally there was a sambusak, a spicy potato pastry dough filled with hard boiled egg.

What we obviously needed after a dinner of bread, bread, and more bread was some simple sugars to wash it all down with.

This is a small. I have no idea why Israelis are so skinny (I’m beginning to think they sweat all their fat out). I had two bites of this sucker and resigned it to the garbage. I know when I’m beat.

Now I’m off to sleep off that carb coma. More Israeli hijinks tomorrow!

Kim

One Minute in Niagara

Let’s just say I have a whole new respect for what my dad has done for a living the last 30-years (he drives a bus, often 12-14 hours at a time).

The Fella and I have had a house guest for the last month. A close friend of Roy’s from the homeland (Israel) has been visiting. He’s gearing up to head home on Monday, and wanted to see New York’s natural wonder, Niagara Falls, before he left. So, Roy, Omer, Omer’s new New York-based love interest, and I rented a car and hit the road. Amazingly enough, I’m the only one with a driver’s license, so the driving was my gig, hence the new respect for my dad. I spent 20 of the last 30-hours behind the wheel. It’s amazing how tiring sitting somewhere, staring, and steering can be.

Despite the fact that I was a walking, yawning, zombie the majority of the mini-trip, the drive was worth it, the Falls really are beautiful.

We were told by multiple sources that we could skip the New York side, and that the Canadian view was much more impressive. We saw both, and I have to say they both have their unique beauty.

Canada’s Horse Shoe Falls really show off the magnitude of the waterfalls. It’s really hard to show in pictures how big the waterfall is, and how fast the water streaming through it is moving.

The Canada-side has a very Atlantic City-esque feel to it, with glitzy casinos, restaurants and rides.

The American Side is basically set up as a park, and while you can see less of the actual waterfall, you can get right up to the rushing water. Honestly, and this isn’t patriotism speaking, I liked the American side better.

The rainbow helped

There was most definitely a romantic feel to the entire area, as documented by the boys.
I can totally see why Niagara Falls has been a honeymoon spot for generations. In fact, it’s where my grandparents went on their honeymoon!

It was well worth the day trip. I wished we could have stayed a bit longer and taken advantage of the romantic setting more.

Don’t get any ideas (Hi mom!), what really happened as soon as we got to our hotel room was this…

It was a lot of driving!

We’re back in NYC now, and trying to finish unpacking our new apartment before we leave for Israel next week.  Hopefully there will be more time for cuddling up on that vacation ;)

Kim

Queen of the Hill

 

That is a Captain America insignia on my head. I’m a super hero (or it was a gift from my comic book loving boyfriend)

I’ve been receiving worried emails from my mother all week. They go something like this: “Don’t do anything dastardly!” or “If you do, do the bunny hill” or “Are all of your limbs intact?”

This is because the woman that made me is fully aware of the degree of my klutziness. The Fella doesn’t quite understand, and thinks he can convince me to actually get on skis. But, I know what he doesn’t, I’m a walking disaster. Instead, I opted for an afternoon of tubing. The instructions for tubing go a little like this: Sit in a tube, slide down a hill.

That’s about as much coordination I can muster, so it seemed like a good plan.

See how injury free I look!

Even The Fella had fun.

There were cocoa breaks too!
My BFF is an avid skier, unfortunately she broke her foot a few days before the trip. We figured some hot chocolatey deliciousness would dull the pain of unrequited snow.

The day wasn’t all snow and games. I started to feel like my insistence on having a healthy/budget-friendly vacation may be cramping everyone else’s style, so I loosened the reins a bit with a trip to the candy outlet!

For someone that makes their living as a personal trainer, The Fella sure loves his candy.

POUNDS OF CANDY!!!! We bought it all. Remember when I used to eat healthy?

There’s nothing like a candy store to regress you right back to your childhood…

Look, there’s a dinosaur with my name!

Despite the candy and cocoa we did try to keep the rest of the day’s meals moderately nutritionally sound:

Breakfast


Repeat breakfast: Kashi with strawberries and almond milk
Coffee with almond milk and stevia

Lunch


Back at the timeshare I whipped up some lentil soup and roasted acorn squash

Dinner

We went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner.
This is about as healthy as I could muster

Tonight we’re going to a party at a hotel somewhere. That’s all I know. I’m hoping I still fit in the dress I brought.

What are your New Year’s Eve plans?

 

Kim

Good Riddance Day

We have made fire!

Then we put all of our bad memories of 2011 in it.

You know how everything has a day? Stuff like:  National Popcorn Day, Wear Your Undies on Your Head Day, Drink a Margarita in the Bathtub Day. Well, Wednesday was Good Riddance Day. We were a day late in celebrating, but when my friend announced that such a day existed I insisted we take part.

I doled out paper and pens and we wrote down all of our worst memories of 2011 then ceremoniously threw them in the fire.

Hokey, yes. Did it make me feel better? Totally.

There some things in life that don’t really have closure, this felt like a nice way of saying good-bye.  And by “nice” I mean burning them until they’re nothing but ash and soot.

2011 has been a very dichotomous year for me. On one hand many great things have happened: My parents moved to a new home, I met The Fella, my best friends got married. On another, it’s been the hardest year I’ve ever had financially, I lost my job at the beginning of the year (something that in itself is a good thing) and have since tried to survive as a freelancer.  Unfortunately that has brought with it thousands of dollars of debt and some personal and emotional low points.

I’m really grateful about what 2011 has brought my way, but I’m not too sorry to see it go. What I’m most excited about is incorporating the blessings it created into my life in 2012.

What are you grateful to be saying “Good riddance” to?

 

Breakfast


Kashi with strawberries and almond milk
Coffee aka the love of my life

Lunch


We shall call this the week of the burrito
Today we let the pros make them for us. Vegetarian burrito and chips.

Dinner


The Fella made dinner tonight. Tomato soup with rice and crackers.
Okay, he’s requested that I clarify this statement: He microwaved (Spicy) V8, put rice in it and labeled it soup.

Exercise: I wouldn’t call puttering around the pool exercise, but it’s the closest I came to it today.

Kim

LumberKim

Flattering it’s not. In Pennsylvania, I am. And I’ve decided to become a lumber jack. Flannel is nice.

When my friend showed up this morning, suitcase in hand, ready for a road trip she looked at me like I was crazy. You see, I’d packed up the majority of my refrigerator’s contents: Almond milk, cereal, yogurt, frozen soy crumbles, veggie burgers, fruit, vegetables, tortillas, I even brought seasonings and cooking spray.

Why?

Because just because we’re going on vacation doesn’t mean we can’t have some home cooking and healthy meals. We’ve all have weeks of parties, catering, and cocoa under our belts. A little home cooking sounds like just what the New Year ordered.

The groceries came in especially handy when we got stuck in traffic. The longer we faced gridlock, the more hummus, crackers, raw vegetables, nuts, and fruit got noshed. Healthy snacks rock.

You know what else rocks, being on vacation. We haven’t actually done anything yet, but it’s already relaxing. Maybe that’s the point, not doing anything. I could get used to this. Tomorrow I’m hoping for a wee bit more of not doing anything, and maybe a little bit of lounging, if I’m feeling particularly ambitious I may even go for a soak in the whirlpool. It’s a rough life, but someone’s got to do it.

 

Breakfast



French toast with Ezekial bread, egg whites, vanilla, cinnamon, coconut oil and strawberries

Lunch


Trader Joe’s low carb tortillas, lite shredded cheese, grilled chicken, salsa, avocado

Snack


Long car ride. Snacking became necessary.

Dinner



As soon as we arrived at the time share I got to work on dinner. We were some ravenous vacationers.
Luckily I’d brought with me all the fixings for veggie burritos: soy crumbles, peppers, taco seasoning, tortillas, and avocado

Exercise: Does sitting in a car count?

Kim