Sprint 2 the Table

Appetites and Adventures

Flipping the Switch

By

Being plugged-in and “on” for extended periods of time can be exhausting to mere mortals.

I have already worked 40 hours this week and I still have lots to do.  I don’t mind it – it makes the time fly.  The only problem is that I’m out of things to say.

So today I’m working from home.  In Excel.  Without human connection (save one call this morning).

 

There have been lots of pics/activities/awesomeness that I haven’t gotten a chance to share, so I thought today I’d do a picture-intense post.

Warning: this post is 1) super late and 2) wordless (save a few captions).

 

@ La Pietra Cucina

@ Iberian Pig

 

Michelle Malone @ Eddie's Attic

 

Michelle's after-the-show show

 

New rug... do you like it? I'm not sold.

 

I rode in an Aston Martin DB7 Vantage

 

Sweetgrass Dairy goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers @ Holy Taco

 

 

Greek yogurt, bananas, Fiber One, cinnamon, and chia seeds

The End.

***

Do you ever just run out of words?

What to you do to re-charge?

 

Travel Food

By

Quick post today because I have to get some work done before heading back HOME!

There have been tons of bloggers sharing tips for eating on the road lately.  All I can say is that having food with you is a lifesaver.

Road breakfast of champions

I’m running a little late because I had to get a run in this morning.  Too many days sitting still in a conference room!

Stats:

  • Distance: 3.14 miles
  • Time: 25:54
  • Pace: 8.13

Not bad!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Steph @ Bite by Bite has posted a preview of her online bake sale! Steph running with Team in Training and is raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Check out the many drool-worthy items here.

 

My contribution are a batch of my dad’s fav Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies.

Sale opens on Friday! 🙂

***

Do you travel with food?  What are your favorite items to bring?

 

Rosebud

By

Guess where I am?

 

Don’t be jealous.  11 hours of the day I was shivering in a conference room. It was a good meeting though… and the beach was a great backdrop for dinner!

______________________________________________________________________________________

Have you guys heard about the bake sale going being hosted by Steph @ Bite by Bite?  Steph is a member of Team in Training and is raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart.  My dad passed away from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia 3 years ago this summer.  Please go check out the bake sale when it opens on Friday!

My contribution is a cookie that my dad enjoyed: Dark Chocolate Sea Salt. 

Recipe to come as I make them and can photog this weekend!  The basics include: dark chocolate, butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, almonds, and fleur de sel glittered across the top.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Growing up my mom used to say I had “rosebud” lips.  I guess that means they were not very wide, yet plump?!

 

I wish I could say I that I remembered this cute story when I made Mother’s Day reservations at a restaurant called Rosebud.   I did not.

Rosebud (1397 N. Highland Ave, Atlanta, GA 30306, 404-347-9747) is headed by talented chef and owner, Ron Eyester (@theangrychef).  He gets extra cool-points for naming it after named after Jerry Garcia’s guitar.


Beginning with a light cocktail is the secret to Sunday brunch success.  I ordered the Crispy Cucumber – fresh cucumber juice, fresh squeezed lemon, and champagne.  It was perfect – sparkling, light, and not sweet.

Just as I suspected, the cucumber was a refreshing compliment to the bubbly.

It’s the Sunday version of a green smoothie

 

We started with mini Sweet Corn Muffins (sadly, not pictured). They were served with fresh strawberry preserves.  Honestly, I’m not a big cornbread fan, but these straight-out-of the-oven muffins were irresistible with the preserves.  Rather than taking over the taste, the sweetness in the moist minis was more of an accent.

 

Next up was a Fried Green Tomato app.  These tomatoes were breaded in Ritz crackers and fried to crispy perfection.  (Don’t you hate when they are a greasy, soggy mess?  NOT the case  here!)

The tomato deliciousness was topped with fresh mozzarella, radishes, and leeks.  All served over truffled honey mustard.  That’s right, I said truffled.

My only issue was with the mozzarella – I prefer mine to be creamier than the thicker version served here.

My entree selection was a Wild Mushroom Scramble, topped with chopped romaine and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon goat’s milk cheese.  It was as good as it looks – fluffy scrambled eggs, properly seasoned to let the earthy mushroom and nutty aged chevre to shine.  Nom Nom.

Mom seemed pretty satisfied with her Wild Georgia Shrimp and Grits, served with andoullie sausage, sweet onion, San Marzano tomatoes, and local grits.  These grits are ridiculously good.

 

The dessert special was a chocolate pretzel ice cream with some form of rice crispy treat.  We didn’t order dessert and I still regret it 3 days later.  Learn from my mistake.

 

In conclusion, if you are in Atlanta on a Saturday or Sunday, you should check out brunch @ Rosebud.  Or you could enjoy have brunch for dinner at Rosebud on Friday or Monday.  ‘Cause 2 day weekends are never enough.

***

Do you eat breakfast for dinner?

I could eat breakfast for every meal.

 

Bikini Belly Secret

By

Want to know the single most effective exercise you can do to flatten your belly?

Plank.  I swear by it.

Side Plank

The above was my side plank yesterday morning.  My form is usually a little better… it’s hard to plank and take a picture of yourself in the mirror! 🙂

Here’s my daily recipe for a bikini belly***:

  • Regular plank – 2:30 mins
  • Left-Side Plank – 1:30 mins
  • Right-Side Plank – 1:30 mins

***In my opinion.  Don’t sue me if it doesn’t make you look like Jackie Warner!***

The thing to remember when planking is to keep your butt down – don’t be sticking it in the air.  Don’t sag it to the ground either though.   You want to be in a perfect line.  Your elbows should be directly in line with your shoulders (it will help keep them from hurting!).  Keep your hands relaxed.

Same goes for the hips when side planking.

Keep them in line – no sticking them wayyy up or sagging wayyy down.  Straight.  Line.  The elbow on the floor should be directly in line with your shoulder.

Don’t start with a 2:30 min plank if you are new to planking.  Start with what you can do and work your way up.

Form is important here or you won’t be effective.  2 minutes with bad form is just a waste of 2 mins.

Growing up, Mom used to feed my sisters and me chicken fingers with a dip made of honey and mayo.

We didn’t like mustard.

This is my 7-year old mental state: Mayo + Honey = Delicacy.  Cheese = Terrible.

I’ve mentioned before how picky I was.  I didn’t even like CHEESE.  Thankfully, I grew out of that.

Mom shares my passion for all things cheesy, so for Mother’s Day I got her her very own basket ‘o fancy cheese!

The nice ladies at Star Provisions, a specialty market in Atlanta, let me taste until I found just the right ones for the basket.  It was hard work, but I sacrificed for Mom.

In the basket:

  • Valdeon – Cow AND goat’s milk blue cheese from Spain.  This spicy, buttery blue is wrapped in sycamore leaves.  It is hands down then best blue I’ve ever tasted.
  • Winnimere – Cow’s milk from Jasper Hill in Vermont (made seasonally – Nov-April).  Washed with lambic-style beer and wrapped in strip of spruce bark cut, it has a fantastic woodsy taste.
  • Wabash Cannonball – Goat’s milk cheese from Capriole Farm in Indiana.  It has 3 layers of goodness, the last being a rind of gorgeous ash and mold.
  • Little Martha – Salty cow’s milk from Flat Creek Lodge in Swainsboro, GA; named by Star Provisions after the Allman Brothers’ song.
  • Potter’s Crackers – Hazelnut Graham
  • Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Bar – Dark with Salt and Pepper

Did anyone else’s stomach just growl?

There are all TOTALLY different cheeses… but if I were forced to choose a favorite it would be the Cannonball.  The layers added so much to the complexity.  It’s like nothing I’ve had before.

Mom!  Which is your fav?!

***

I’m running to a meeting, so the Mother’s Day Brunch review is coming tomorrow!

What do you find to be the most effective ab exercise? Do you plank?

What is your favorite cheese?

Lessons From My Mom

By

In honor of Mother’s Day and of my fantastic mom, I want to share a few nuggets of wisdom she has imparted over the years.

Alli, Mom, Madi, and Me

Mom’s Top 5

1. Eat the rainbow

Italian Stir-fry deliciousness made by Mamma

Aiming to eat a variety of colors each meal helps to ensure you get the nutrients your body needs.  It also looks prettier (which I think is her real motivation).

Mom is an incredible cook.  I know everyone says that, but my mom really is!  She is solely responsible for my love of food, creating, and baking with reckless abandon.  For that, I am forever grateful.

Check out her Italian Stir-fry here!

 

2. Always bring an extra pair of undies

Because “you never know…”

 

3. Don’t be afraid to try something new

Me, Mom, and Madi post-race

 

Whether it be brussel sprouts, roller derby, or an accent wall, my mom always encouraged my sister’s and me to try new things.  You never know – you might like it!  (Yes Mom, you get an “I told you so” … I now LOVE veggies.)

Mom leads by example – she ran her first 5K this past Thanksgiving!

 

4. The Lord never gives you more than you can handle

Dinner in the Oakland Cemetery cooked by Richard Blais

 

She has certainly been tested!  Through pain and loss I could never imagine, my mom has persevered and come out smiling and laughing.  I’m so proud of her and all she accomplishes on a daily basis.

 

 

5. Patience is a virtue

With 3 daughters, my mom is a virtual saint. 

 

Happy Mother’s Day! ♥

I love you mostest, Tree!!!


***

I’m looking forward to giving Mom her gift and enjoying a big brunch!

How are you celebrating your mom today?


A Schizophrenic Foodie

By

A schizophrenic foodie.

 

I go from eating pork belly one day to vegan lavender-chocolate chip scones the next.

 

Get in mah belly!

Cream who?

 

Does anyone else do this craziness?

 

I can’t help my schizophrenia.  I love, love, love good, gourmet food.  That 7-course tasting menu at Woodfire Grill was a whole new level of fantastic.

Kevin Gillespie, I don’t care if some people say it’s just Top Chef hype.  You can cook a damn good meal.

 

By the same token, I fully appreciate a creative, vegan baked good.  And I shamelessly pre-gamed lunch with that scone.  They were still making the walnut pesto for my sandwich… and I was STARVING after a long-ish run.

 

Stats:

  • Distance: 6 miles
  • Time: 52:01
  • Pace: 8:67

________________________________________________________________________________________

Dulce Vegan (1994 Hosea L. Williams Dr. NE Atlanta, GA 30317) opened in the Kirkwood neighborhood 2 weeks ago.  It is a vegan bakery that also serves a daily sandwich – on vegan bread, of course.

I got to speak to one of the owners (and maker of the scone deliciousness) while I waited.  Don’t you love when people are so clearly excited about what they do?

 

From the traffic during my 45 min visit, it looks like people aren’t phased at all by the fact that the store is vegan.

A good cupcake is a good cupcake, right?!

Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free chocolate cupcakes

After my pre-lunch scone, I enjoyed my sandwich: fresh walnut-pesto, balsamic tofu, spinach, and tomato.  And mayo.  All vegan.

The bread was fantastic – I love the satisfying crunch to the crust.  The firmly pressed tofu was also good – the balsamic went really well with the pesto.

My only complaint was the volume of the condiments.  The pesto – while good – was very flavorful.  The amount on the sandwich was a bit overwhelming.  They could have left off the mayo altogether – it didn’t add anything.

 

Don’t skip the scone.  Nom nom.  Nom.  And I officially have a crush on said scone-baker.

Topping off such a day is hard… but I managed to put a koozie to good use.  With a kombucha on my building’s roof.  *big dork*

***

I’m usually eat a vegetarian diet… but I do love the occasional meat-filled indulgence at restaurants.  I’m a scared-of-commitment veg.

Are you schizo with your eating or do you follow a strict vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian/other diet?

 

Guacamole Shake

By

Wayyyy back in February my jaw was freshly broken and I was sad.

I couldn’t run, lift, skate… CHEW.  Every time I moved my mouth, I could feel bones moving.  It was creepy.

Looking back at my posts, I’m kind of proud of myself.  On February 8th, I posted my goal race schedule.  I wanted to do the Tough Mudder (4 weeks post-break!) and 3 5Ks by April 16th.

I tore up that 14.1 mile Tough Mudder March 12, then placed 2nd in my age group and set a PR 2 weeks later in the Miles for Smiles 5K.

Then I ran the Sweetwater 420 5K on April 16th… after walking 4 miles to the start line.

 

The next week I placed 2nd in my age group again and set another PR in the Beat the Street for Little Feet 5K!  24:13 was the official time. 🙂

I can’t believe that less than 4 months after the break, I have run the hardest race of my life (Tough Mudder) and shaved 3-4 mins off of my 5K time.  How cool is that?!

Say what you will, but simply writing down goals has power.  Even if you forget you did it until 4 months later.

I just realized I don’t have another 5K planned… maybe Memorial Day weekend?  Anyone know of a good one?  My May schedule has filled up FAST.

After making that Mexican Oatmeal yesterday in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I decided every meal should involve spice.

And tequila.

Kidding!!!

Lunch really was that scramble though.

A Me-Egg-ican Scramble:

  • Mexican Smartground (leftover from WIAW)
  • Egg whites
  • Shallots
  • Jalapenos
  • Kale
  • Pineapple
  • Salsa
  • Cumin, salt, and pepper

The pineapple was actually good in it!  Think pineapple salsa.

Post-run snack was a protein shake.

Served in a pint glass and in the lovely shade of green.  Like a margarita.

Topped with a crumbled Citrus-Spiked Granola Bar. (It freezes beautifully, btw.)

Guacamole Shake

  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 1/4 frozen avocado
  • 1/2 frozen banana
  • 1/2 frozen kale
  • 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • Squeeze of fresh lime
  • water + ice, to taste

Put  it in a blender, blend until smooth, and enjoy the thick, creamy deliciousness.

Then there was dinner.  Grilled cheese night at Souper Jenny!

Jenny usually only opens for lunch and serves up soups, salads, and a couple of cold sandwiches.  Her menu changes daily, so everything is fresh and creative.

Thursday nights she stays open late and features 2 grilled cheese selections.  Tonight was a Cinco de Mayo special: Ham, Avocado and Mango with Monterey Jack on a Jalapeño Cheddar bun.

Grilled panini-style, this was a crispy, gooey Cinco de Mayo win.

So was the fro-yo I chased it with. 🙂

***

Happy Friday!!!

Do you write down your goals?

If so, do you notice a difference in achievement when you physically write them?

Yo Quiero Mexican Food

By

Happy Cinco de Drinko Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is a day I look forward to every year.  Surprisingly not just because of the margaritas!  (I’ll have mine on the rocks with Patron Silver and Cointreau.  No salt!)

What I really love is the excuse to eat Mexican food for every meal.  And the fact that it makes my need to an afternoon siesta totally excusable. 🙂

 

I’m planning a quick lunchtime bi/back session in the gym, so I’ll follow that with a Me-EGG-xican Quesadilla.  Eggs (post-weights protein!) + nooch + salsa + jalapenos + tortilla.

 

Tonight I’m hopping to get in a 5 mile run and a mani/pedi before hitting up a special Souper Jenny Mexican Grilled Cheese Night.  Rumor has it she’s serving up a grilled ham, avocado and mango with monterey jack on a jalapeno cheddar bun.  Can you think of anything more scrumptious???

If you live in the Atlanta area, check Souper Jenny out – she’s my favorite lunchtime soup/salad treat!

 

So… where did that leave me for Mexican breakfast?

__________________________________________________________________________________

This is the reason I’m running late today:

Mexican Oatmeal.  Complete with spices.  All you need are some basics… and a brightly-colored spoon!

Admittedly, I was nervous about adding cayenne to oatmeal.  If you read my blog regularly, you know I love to burn my mouth add some heat to meals.  Oatmeal though?  It seemed risky.  But, I can always make more… so I went for it!

It totally worked! I only added a few shakes (less than 1/8 tsp), but that was just enough to add a teensy kick at the end.  With the cinnamon and cocoa, it was reminiscent of a Mexican Hot Chocolate.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mexican Oatmeal

  • 1/2 C oatmeal
  • 1 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla (more if your milk isn’t already vanilla-flavored)
  • 2-3 shakes cayenne pepper
  • Salt, to taste


Add all of the ingredients to a pot, stir, and cook oatmeal as directed.

Remove from heat, pour into a bowl, and add desired toppings.  I used cacao nibs and honey.  Nuts would have been fantastic too!

***

How are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

What’s your favorite Mexican dish?

 

Follow Me!

instagram_b facebook_b twitter_bpinterest_b
rss_a email_ayoutube_b googlep_b

Popular Posts

Home | About Me | Privacy Policy | Fitness | Recipes | Training & Nutrition

Affiliate Links: This site is monetized through the use of affiliate links. This means that if you were to make a purchase through one of these links, Sprint 2 the Table would receive a small percentage of the sale price. Thanks for your support!