Back on the (food) wagon.

To talk about what an epic fail of a work week I have had would suck out the rest of my good mojo. Therefore, I am choosing NOT to dwell - I will simply summarize by saying it has been utterly craptastic, made me fall behind, and has most definitely kept me busy. That being said, it's time to move on to bigger and better topics - like fooooooood.

As mentioned before, I finally received my box of goodies from my June Foodie PenPal. Michelle lives in Wisconsin (she doesn't blog, or else I would link her up here), and sent me some fun stuff:

It included some wasabi peas, teriyaki flavor injector, locally made strawberry chocolate walnut cookies, lemon wafer cookies, and locally made orange roasted chocolate covered almonds. I have to say, the almonds were my favorite. I had never tried almonds roasted in orange before I got these, and I'd highly recommend them, if you can find any near you. How fun was it to get a box of food in the mail? TONS! I enjoyed my first FPP experience so much, I signed up to do it again this month.

You send a box to a different person than you receive from, so I was paired up with Kelly (click on her name if you want to see her blog post about what I sent her) who lives in Illinois. She is a runner who, strangely enough, was born in Round Rock and lived here for the first few years of her life. Small world! She said her favorites were peanut butter, chocolate, and oatmeal, but to surprise her with anything. It was fun getting to shop around and put this together, and I'm already excited for the next one!

As I mentioned in the previous post, the hubby and I decided it was time to go back to square one nutritionally speaking, and redo a cleanse we did back in September 2011. I blogged about each stage of the 21-day cleansing adventure, so it was interesting to go back and read what I wrote before we started this up again. It was nice to have the heads-up about how we were feeling along the way, and reading back on those posts has made the anticipation of this 21-day stretch somewhat muted. For those of you who don't know or weren't around when we did this back then, it's a vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free diet. No milk, eggs, meat, white flour, wheat, or white sugar, just vibrant veggies, fruit, meatless protein, and nuts. We started Monday, so today is day 5, and I must say we are plodding along nicely. I had a headache the first two days off and on, as did Aaron, but since then it's been ok. I haven't found myself pining for the more naughty side of food yet, but it's only week 1. I'm sure I'll whining a different tune about this time next week.

Since it's been a couple of years since we first did this, the author of the book we were following then (Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr) has come out with a book to support the diet, Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

  

It is chock full of recipes, ranging from the easy to the downright chefy. I checked it out from our local library (after being on a waiting list for 2 weeks!) and as you can see, I already have about a dozen recipes earmarked for testing.

  

I'm hoping its going to be an asset to have this cookbook in my arsenal as we go through the next two weeks. We went to the Farmer's Market last Saturday to grab a few items for the week:

Tomatoes, potatoes, and squash - oh my!

Then we headed over to Sprouts and picked up a revised version of groceries for the week:



Gluten-free potato pancakes, gluten-free buckwheat waffles,
and gluten-free dairy-free chipotle black bean "burger" patties.

Dairy-free yogurt, almond milk pudding, vegan butter, dairy-free "cheese",
and gluten-free butternut squash ravioli.

We've started having salads at least once a day, usually twice, and summer produce has given us some amazing things to work with.


A thing of beauty! At this point, still having one of these with lunch and dinner.



But, as we quickly learned last time we did this, the love affair with salads will not last long. As delicious as they are, they eventually get old. Thankfully, the cookbook I checked out has new ideas for salads to keep them from getting boring. The trick will be getting Aaron to try new variations on the old standby. I will say, the fruit during summer never disappoints, so we couldn't have done this cleanse at a better time, as far as that is concerned. Melons, apples, berries, cherries, apricots, dates, mango, peaches, pears, pineapple, and tomatoes are all in season, and I'm loving every minute of it! My new obsession:

Candycots. Holy mother, are these things amazing. They are shipped in to Central Market from Modesto, California, and are worth every stinking penny! If you have these in a store near you, buy them! You won't regret it after you get one taste of their unparalleled sweetness. A perfect snack for the kiddos!



Thankfully, it's Friday, and that means I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I'll most likely be hiding from the wretched sun, but I'll make the most of it, no doubt. I know we won't be going out to eat like the last few weekends. If it wasn't so hot, I'd love to go hiking, or biking. Guess we'll have to brainstorm and get more creative than that until the cooler weather arrives. Maybe it'd be fun to experiment some in the kitchen? Oh, and keep going with the Doctor Who marathon we've been on - yes, I said 'we'. I sucked Aaron in - muahahahahahaha! No one can resist The Doctor!

Fun without sun

So, the wretched heat arrived, as promised. And, it was sweltering and awful, as promised.

 

As you can see, it's late in the day and still stifling.

Even making sure to hydrate and running after 8:00pm didn't seem to be working. I would still see little sparkly stars every now & then mid-run, which I guessed weren't a good sign. But then, like a miracle, a weird cool front of sorts swept into Texas and gave us some brief relief. Thank you, strange weather gods - nearly zero humidity and temps in the mid-80's. Yesssssssssss.

What a difference 20° can make! No more heat stroke - hurrah!

Before the strange cool front hit, though, we had to find ways to live our lives and not be miserable. So, we went to view an amazing exhibit at The Blanton Museum of Art on UT campus called Lifelike. What a mind-blowing afternoon! These pieces were startlingly real and, well, lifelike. Check out some of our faves:

An old granny, hunched over in deep thought. 

A Hefty garbage bag, stuffed full - made out of marble.

Small weeds, "growing" up a wall. The artist's way of showing the beauty in everyday things, 

as well as the stark contrast of life outdoors vs life indoors.

This wall-mounted piece titled "(Old) No One In Particular #6". This one BLEW our minds.

First of all, the sheer size of it ...

This is a random woman standing next to it, for comparison.

Then the strange depth it had to it. Looking on, it was 3D, but it was nearly flat from the side. Amazing.

Then the teeny tiny, mouse-sized functioning elevators. 

There were even buttons inside.

The elevators, in action. Did you see the lights above the doors illuminating like they were on actual floors? Ha!

Then there was this amazing, large piece that is an exact replica of the artist's kitchen in his childhood home. Every single detail is the same as the original - the doorknobs, flooring, appliances, everything. It was pretty cool to walk around in - and it was like going into a time warp.

He couldn't find the exact table to match, so he sculpted one. No problem. (!!)

To do the flooring, he scanned one single linoleum tile from the original floor, then laser-etched it into composite tile to complete it. 

And the wallpaper was hand-drawn from photographs, then re-silkscreened. Unbelievable!

 

Another favorite - the sculpture of someone sleeping in a sleeping bag.

 

The giant paper bag.

The giant milk carton.

And the giant portrait this artist drew of himself.

After checking out that exhibit, we walked upstairs to see if some of the old-standby favorites of ours were still there. And surprisingly, some of them were!

  

Like two different replicas of Z's namesake.


The wonderful and strange pennies and bones piece.

 
It makes my heart soar to see him analyzing and discussing art.

 
One of my personal favorites over the years.

 
And Z's favorite wooden sculpture from when he was little. He even remembered how much
he loved this piece years ago, he brought it up this time. He's always had a love for all things art.

Staring at other people's creativity sure can make you hungry, so we ventured out for a late afternoon snack. In doing so, I had the profound pleasure of introducing my husband to Lucky J's, the home of the utterly divine chicken and waffle taco. I have only shared in this debauchery one time prior, but it made a profound impact on my soul. Fried chicken, wrapped in a fluffy waffle, topped with spicy hot sauce and syrup - sweet Lawd. No matter what craving you are having, this satisfies them all - sweet, salty, hot, fried, breakfast, lunch ... it's one helluva winner winner chicken dinner. And I am happy to add that all of the following items were shared -- only one of each were ordered. Did you think we would each get our own? C'mon, we're not THAT bad.

Started with the fried green tomatoes, topped with a cajun remoulade. These do not appear on the online menu, but they are present in all their glory if you dine-in. As a general rule, if there are fried green tomatoes on a menu, Aaron and I will order them. These made us glad we have that weird rule.

The shining star -- the chicken waffle taco. Stop what you are doing and find one of these immediately. It is soul food & comfort food, at it's best. These tacos are one of the reasons I run.

We washed it all down with a locally made soda. It was pretty good.

I will say, after this weekend, it's been decided we need to regroup and focus on doing another cleanse. As much fun as it is to be eating out on the weekends, we're beginning to feel awfully weighted down and blah. But, that's another post.

As for Cody, this is what he did all weekend:

Smart dog.

I've been trying to finish this blog post for a few days now - started it Tuesday, but kept getting distracted (had a busy day at both jobs, then an epic bad day at the office Wednesday, then July 4th yesterday). But, now it's finished, and I'll post next about finally receiving my Foodie PenPal box from Michelle in Wisconsin (yay!). As for now, time to go squeeze in a run before we head out to the drive-in theater tonight. 

Until next time ...

Getting hot & staying busy

Hello all! As always, towards the end of June in Texas, the heat is on. Holy mother of God, it's hot. I've been very good about working out without fail the past two weeks, so that means I have to go for my runs after the sun has gone down. Even at 8:30pm, you can feel the heat still rising off the pavement.

And it's only just begun. -whimper-

Here starts the real fun. Check out Saturday.
 

Thankfully, we have plenty of things to do that keep us busy and most importantly, things that keep time whizzing by. Its no secret how much I hate summer, so I like it to go by as fast as possible. This Mama needs to work on her tan, so we may venture out to the neighborhood pool soon. Maybe.

As for this past week/weekend, we went to see Man of Steel with Ken on Saturday, which Aaron and Z loved. Following our movie, Z was invited to a pool/pizza party on Saturday night, which got him very excited. The hosting Mom was brave enough to have 7 boys at her place for the night, and she sent me a text of them lined up to jump in their pool all at the same time:

Bless her, for I don't know if I could ever be bold enough to have that many loud, smelly, overly energetic boys at my place. Whew. Since Z was out for the night, we decided to have a little impromptu get-together in our backyard that evening, full of food, music, and laughs. Aaron strung up some Christmas lights & lit up some tiki torches and we enjoyed the backyard after the sun went down. We stopped by Sprouts first, to grab some things to grill, as well as a few of our favorite snacks. They were especially delicious, since we didn't have to share with a 10-year old. I know, we are terrible.

Cheese. Always a favorite.

Expensive, but damn tasty root beer. I dare say the best root beer on the planet. Don't worry, I'm not a total bitch - I saved two of these for Z.

Aaron grilled himself some shrimp he marinated in a sweet hot sauce, and I had some teriyaki skewers.

We stayed up way too late, ate way too much, and laughed way too loud. At what, you ask? Assorted things, but one thing in particular was this picture:

Ah, the brilliance of the stingray photobomb. I'm laughing again, just writing about it.

It was an exceptional evening spent with good people. After picking up Z early Sunday morning, we laid around being lazy for a better part of Sunday. We finally got ourselves moving enough to ... what else? Go eat. We let Z pick where we went, and of course, he picked Freddy's. That boy loves their hamburgers and fries more than Jesus, I swear.

My steakburger combo. They do have amazing fries.

Had to finish off with a chocolate frozen custard. Just had to.

Clearly, I didn't cook much this weekend, but I made up for that last night. I made Aaron one of his all-time favorite dishes from my repertoire, sour cream green chili chicken enchiladas. (Say that 3 times fast.) 

In my defense, I used light sour cream, organic non-chemical ridden cream of chicken soup (yes! it does exist!), and 2% milk shredded cheese to cut back on some of the calories and fat. I mean, after our weekend of indulgence, it was the right thing to do. They still tasted delicious, and were a big hit with Aaron, Z, and Ken. Holla!

That catches us up to today. This week is especially irritating with a lot of things going on at the office, but I'm still able to have Doctor Who on while I work. 

A new doctor already. That took some getting used to.

That helps calm my nerves some. (I'm up to the finale of season 2.) My boss is out the whole week, certain co-workers are testing my patience, and we're having major office renovations done. Needless to say, I'm ready for this week to be over, and it's only Tuesday. More than ever, I need to keep up with my exercising, and therapeutic massages. I had another one yesterday afternoon, and she went to town on the scar tissue in my knee. Boy, that massage was a blessing and a curse, but I know if I keep them up, my knee might be better than it has been in a very long time. I'm more than willing to continue going and find out.

Things to look forward to this week -- it being over, for starters, and Aaron asked if I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning. Oh, that boy sure knows how to make my heart happy. We got some tomatoes from there a few weekends ago that rocked our world, so I'm excited to go back and stock up before their season ends. Not to mention the cantaloupes, watermelon, berries, onions, carrots - oh my! 

As for tonight, I have the night off from Central Market (surprise fluke), so it's all about dinner, then a run, a shower, and curling up with So You Think You Can Dance as I drift off to sleep. Aaron and Z are 90 minutes in to a deep clean of Z's room, which means I can probably squeeze in another episode of The Doctor. I've started thinking to myself in a British accent these days, so it could be possible that I've been watching too much, but oh well - off I go! Until next time ...