Sprint 2 the Table

Appetites and Adventures

Ultimate Veggie Trail Mix

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It would be impossible to make this dish any more healthy.

Filled with raw, fresh veggies, you would probably ascend into some new level of raw health food heaven if you ate it all in one sitting.  Either that or have some serious gas.

When I saw this recipe for a Detox Salad from Angela @ Oh She Glows, I knew I had to make it post-Chilean tour of gluttony.  In my version I use her base of cauliflower and broccoli, but added some extra nutrients with kale and mushrooms.  I love the meaty earthiness the mushroom adds!

To dress the veggie mix, I used fresh lemon juice and my new Chilean spice blend, merkén.  You can read more about it here, but it’s basically a mix of red chilies, coriander, cumin, and salt.  Spicy and smokey!  The other blend in the pic above is a sea weed flake mix: dulse, laver, and sea lettuce.  I picked it up a Whole Foods recently and am addicted to the briny, slightly sweet flakes.

All mixed up it looks like trail mix, hence the name.  However, I wouldn’t recommend adding chocolate in this type of trail mix. 🙂

Recipe at the end.

I finally have workouts to recap!  This week I was back on it full-blast.  I’m embarking on a new fitness endeavor… after my first leg/glute workout with a trainer on Monday, I was so sore that I could barely walk until Friday.  At one point I (slowly) lowered myself to the floor to do push ups, gave up at 40, and then just laid there in downward dog for a sold half hour.  More this new punishment journey tomorrow!

Today I am sore from playing 4 softball games in 90 degree weather.  I drank 150 oz of water and I STILL had a headache until bedtime.  At least I my socks looked cool.

Workout Recap (6/18- 6/24):

  • Monday – Ab Ripper X, Legs/Glutes (w/ trainer), 40 push-ups
  • Tuesday – Tris/Chest, 1.5 mile walk, 100 push-ups
  • Wednesday – Shoulders, 3 mile walk, 100 push-ups
  • Thursday – Biceps, 3.5 mile walk, 100 push-ups
  • Friday – Back/Tris (w/ trainer), 2.5 mile walk
  • Saturday – Butt/Shoulders, 20 min bike ride
  • Sunday – 4 softball games

The Ultimate Veggie Trail Mix - this might be the healthiest thing you could put in your mouth!

Ultimate Veggie Trail Mix

  • 1 small head broccoli, stems removed
  • 1/2 small head cauliflower, stems removed
  • 1 large carrot, shredded or finely chopped
  • 2 large kale leaves, finely chopped
  • 5-6 baby bella mushrooms, diced
  • 2 T red onion, minced
  • 1/4 C pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
  • 1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
  • 1/4 C fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp merkén (or mix of smoked paprika, coriander, cumin, and salt)
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • Dulse or lavar flakes (optional)
  • 4-5 drops NuNaturals orange liquid stevia (or other sweetener, to taste)
  • S&P, to taste

In a Vitamix or food processor, process the broccoli until fine. Place in a large bowl.  Repeat with cauliflower, then with carrots.

Stir in kale, mushrooms, onion, pumpkin seeds, and rosemary.  

In small bowl, stir together lemon juice and seasonings to taste.  Pour over salad and mix well.  Allow to marinate at least 1 hour before serving.

Makes ~5 cups.

Approximate nutritionals: 94 calories, 5.9g fat, 8g carbohydrates, 2.7g fiber, 2.6g sugar, 5.1g protein.

***

I brought this trail mix to the ball field for lunch.  Amazingly, people didn’t stare.  They must have been too busy having heat strokes.

Have you made any good blogger recipes lately?

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Leftovers + Love Your Liver Cleanse Recap

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People are always hating on leftovers.

They aren’t so bad!  They make great lunches for work, and you much know that last night’s pizza is best eaten cold while standing in the refrigerator door.

This post isn’t about pizza (sorry).  It’s about the tidbits leftover from the week that I wanted to share, but never found a spot in the belly of my posts for.  (See the leftover food tie-in?  Funny, right?)

1. My new favorite snack combo:

Blackberry Coconut Cottage Cheese

  • ~ 1/2 C cottage cheese
  • 2 T unsweetened coconut milk (I used So Delicious)
  • 1 T coconut flour
  • ~1/4 c blackberries, sliced in half
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
  • 4-5 drops NuNaturals Vanilla Liquid Stevia
 Mix it all together, smashing the berries a big to release their juice.  Best enjoyed right out of the container. 🙂

2. Chilean late-night street food

It was a tasty adventure, but I’m still shocked I didn’t get food poisoning.  And I will never tell what time of night/morning this occurred.

Clockwise, Left to Right:  the line, a man cooking kabobs on a shopping cart, my sandwich being prepared, sandwich being shoved in my camera (they didn’t understand my need to take pics of everything).

I’m not sure what the sandwich it was, but it involved a delicious grilled bread with some sort of sketchy meat and lots of avocado.  Sold.

3. Guest posters are the best

I am forever indebted to my gracious guest-posters.  In case you missed any of them:

4. Travel Buddies

I don’t think I said it enough in all of the Chile recap posts, but these are the BEST travel companions in the world.  I have never spent so much time with such fun, laid back, drama-free women.

Julia and Katherine, thank you for a memorable, intoxicatingly fun, and sometimes bizarre (in the best way possible) adventure.

I can’t wait for our next excursion!!!

5. The “Love Your Liver” Arden’s Garden cleanse

I gave my live some love post-Chile trip.  Lindsay requested that I say a little more about my post-Chile recovery cleanse.  Here’s the basics from their website:

“Fatigue, depression, nausea, dizziness, and unexplained weight gain may indicate your liver needs some lovin’! This cleanse helps your body rid itself of toxins and cleanse the blood. The liver converts everything we eat and breathe into life-sustaining substances, while also filtering toxins at the rate of a quart of blood per minute.”

They give you the juices you need, and tell you when to drink what.  You are also told to drink as much water as possible.  Here’s the line-up:

  • 5 Multi-Max – afternoon snack was kale, spinach, cucumber, and celery
  • 3 Salad in a Glass – dinner was beets, carrots, celery, spinach, parsley, and cucumber
  • 3 pH Solution – breakfast (part 1) and mid-morning snack was distilled water, cucumber, celery, lemon, spinach, and parsley
  • 3 Apple – lunch
  • 2 Carrot (They only had 1 carrot, so I got a Carrot-Cocoa instead.  Poor me had to drink chocolate.) – this is breakfast part 2
  • 1 Pure Lemon – drink 2T with water first thing in the morning and again right before bed.

My favorite was the apple.  I used the Vitamix to turned it into an apple cider sorbet bowl (with some cinnamon):

The Multi was hard to choke down.  That just means it’s really good for you, right?  I added some cinnamon and Stevia.  It may be “cheating,” but you have to do what you have to do.

I was hungry the first day.  I cheated with salad with avocado and sunflower seeds at dinner.  After that I was used to the routine and didn’t suffer much from hunger pangs.

To get the full benefits, they suggest following the cleanse with two days of raw vegetables and fruits.  I mostly did that, with the exception of a much-needed casein protein shake.  This was a fabulous cleanse.  In 3 days I felt almost human; after the two raw days following I was back to 100%.

Added bonus: it tamed the sugar addiction that had been rearing its ugly head.

For more info, click here to visit the Arden’s website.

P.S. My sister’s band, Goose & Fox, is recording an album.  She begging for money via Kickstarter.  Click here to check out her project/video!  Here’s one of my favorite songs by the duo:

***

Ok – done with Chile for a bit.  Next week I’m back with a TON of recipes and an awesome giveaway!

Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  Did you like it?

Would you eat random street food in a foreign country?  Out of a shopping cart?

Aboard the USS Underwood

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Only in Chile…

Katherine, Me, Julia, and Captain Pete

…would 3 American women end up aboard a US Navy ship.

Our officer-friends, Pete and Michael, gave us a tour of a their ship, the USS Underwood.  This was not your boring 5th grade field trip tour.  We were privileged to a ~3 hour behind the scenes view of the ship.  Touring the ship was certainly a highlight of our trip to Chile.  SO cool!

The USS Underwood was commissioned in 1983 (an excellent year, if I may say so).  This thing was HUGE.  I would get lost on there.  The guided missile ship is 453 feet long and houses a helicopter!  It also has machine guns and torpedoes.  I felt like I was in a 10 year old’s fantasy land. 🙂

Here are a few highlights:

Clockwise, Left to Right: Captain’s coffee mug, the surf board the Captain keeps in his office/room, radar room (in additions to enemies, they have to watch for whales!), the Chilean ship parked next door, view of Valparaiso from the deck, look out, weights so they can work on their fitness, us posing with a machine gun, staring down the barrel, the on-board helicopter, us IN the helicopter, the flag in the back of the boat

Fun fact of the day: Navy men are fans of Beachbody.  During our tour we ran across a group of guys doing one of the Insanity DVDs!  I wanted to join them, but didn’t have the right attire. *sigh*

The Captain knew about my food obsession and offered to let us take a peek into the ship’s kitchen.  It would be so hard to live on their diet – they can’t keep a lot of fresh fruits and veggies on board because it goes bad after a few days at sea.  The chef, Livingston, was nice enough to let us intrude as he was preparing for dinner.

We finished up the tour at the front of the ship.

One fun fact: the bell you see in the middle-left pic below doubles as a baptismal pool.  If you are assigned to a ship when your child is ready to be baptized, the bell is turned upside down and filled with water for the baby to be dunked in.  Afterwards the baby’s name is engraved inside – it remains there for the life of the ship!

To our friends aboard the USS Underwood: Thank you so much for your hospitality, and for your service.  We wish you the best on the rest of your journey!

Please ignore the fact that I look sickly in a baseball cap.

The ship’s motto:

“Whensoever hostile aggressions . . . require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.”  -Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Andrew Jackson, December 3, 1806

On an entirely different note, please click here to hop over the Lindsay’s blog, The Lean Green Bean, today and check out my guest post.  While she’s vacationing in the sunshine, I’m home baking these no-sugar-added, gluten-free Banana-Maple Zucchini Muffins:

There is a vegan option, of course. 🙂

***

Recaps = over!  Back to your regularly scheduled food blog.

What is you favorite type of muffin?

Can you imagine trying to find something to eat aboard a ship for months at a time?  Poor guys!

Chilean Cooking School + WIAW

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It took several days, but we located Chilean food.

As I said in my first recap post, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of Chilean food in Chile.

Determined food-lovers, my travel mates and I did mange to find some more “authentic” eats after making our way to the Chilean coastal towns of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.

For What I Ate Wednesday this week, I am jumping ahead in our travel story to share some tasty Chilean treats with you.  The highlight was an amazing cooking class with the fabulous Boris.  This may not be true snacking, but I eat more snacks than meals when traveling so I can try EVERYTHING.

Check out my Chilean eats below; then click here to hop on to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons to see what the rest of the blog world else ate Wednesday!

Breakfast:

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in a neighborhood that was right in between Valpo and Vina.  It was built in 1934, and has since been restored to a fabulous accommodation.  Doesn’t this looks like a Crate & Barrel magazine? 

Casa Olga provided us breakfast each morning.  We were served strawberry yogurt, pears, passion fruit, bananas, kiwi, cereal, toast, jam, ham and cheese (I passed on this – too much for breakfast!), coffee, and – best of all – freshly squeezed orange juice.

Here is the view we enjoyed every morning:

Their dog, Shay, wanted a seat at the table too!

Funny side note: when I asked for water at breakfast, they asked if I drank too much… they are not accustomed to drinking water in Chile!

Lunch:

This is the experience I have been most excited to share with you guys!

Katherine had to leave early, so Julia and I kept ourselves entertained by taking a Chilean cooking class.  The company, Chilean Cuisine, offers hands-on cooking classes in Valparaiso.  Our charismatic Chilean instructor, Boris, took us to the kitchen to choose the menu before escorting us to the local market to purchase the ingredients.

Much to my surprise, Boris had found my blog via my email signature and read up on it in advance!  He even read the “About Me” section and learned that I do NOT like white potatoes.

“Today we are NOT going to eat potatoes” was written on the board. How cool is that?

Boris lead us through a cookbook to help us choose the menu.  We decided on making cheese empanadas, Chilean pebre (salsa), hake fish terrine with avocado carpaccio, pumpkin and cranberry bean stew… and green chili and basil pisco sours. 🙂

First up, the market.  In the rain.  I don’t take public transportation often (Atlanta isn’t conducive to that)… and I especially don’t take it in the rain.  However, Boris kept us so entertained and energized that I hardly minded!  He also hung our wet jackets and shoes by the fire place to dry while we cooked – thank you, Boris!

Left to right, clockwise: Boris with a fish head, the market, Calabaza pumpkin, Calabaza trash (it was everywhere!),  fruit stand, a massive bucket of CHIA, eggs for sale, drying my jacket, and thawing our feet

Back at the kitchen, we began to prepare the meal feast.

A few fun highlights:

  • See my socks in the first pic?  Those were borrowed from the owner, Martin, because our shoes were soaked and it was too cold to cook barefoot.  Thank you again, Martin!
  • I love empanadas.  I cannot wait to try some fun combos here at home, and to try them baked.  Boris wasn’t amused when I started adding ingredients to the cheese… but the chilis and some cumin were really good additions!
  • We used a lot of merkén.  Merkén is a unique spice blend native to Chile consisting of dried and smoked red chilies (ají cacho de cabra or goat’s horn), toasted coriander seeds, cumin and salt.  I loved it and brought home a couple of bags!
  • The fish terrine was cooked like a poor man’s sous vide.  We wrapped the fish mixture (fish, onions, bread crumbs, egg, spices) in plastic wrap and placed it in simmering water for ~10 minutes.  Very cool method – I can’t wait to try it with other items.
  • I was in charge of seasoning the stew.  You all know how I love heat… I added so much merkén that is made Boris tear up… I thought it was perfecto. 🙂
  • Boris surprised me with beets – he saw me admiring them at the market and snuck them into our bag.  They were wonderful simply boiled with olive oil and salt.

We took a ton of this food to-go to share with our Navy officer-friends.  We were told it was a nice break from ship food. 🙂

Clockwise, Left to Right: Boris (a classically trained dancer) teaching us a dance while shaking chili-basil piscos, raising a glass to surviving the dance, Julia rolling out empanada dough, empanada pre-fry, frying empanadas, the final product (plus some sopapillas), eating our delicious empanada (topped with salsa), fish terrine (pre-slicing), terrines and avocado salad, salsa and beets, pumpkin bean stew (one of the most delicious things I ate on this trip), taking a bite, mas vino, Boris with dessert, dessert – lucuma ice cream with meringue.

Dinner:

I lied.  The Chilean food ends here.  For dinner we met up with the Navy boys for a final farewell.  Dinner was at an Italian Place called Pasta e Vino.  This was the #1 spot recommended to us – by travelers and Chileans alike!

It was quite good!  Those Chileans know their Italian food.

Clockwise, Left to Right: Restaurant window, beautiful candle in the window, the dining room, menu, wine of the evening – a big 2007 Chilean red blend, amuse – pumpkin soup, bruschetta topped with prosciutto, bell pepper filled with goat cheese and prawn and wrapped in phyllo, my entrée: the eggplant gnocchi in goat cheese sauce with toasted almonds, Captain’s entrée: pumpkin ravioli with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese (my favorite of the night), Julia’s entrée: spinach fettuccine with ham and walnut (spelled “wall nut” on the English menu) in a cheese sauce, XO’s entrée: fettuccine with ham in a white wine-lemon sauce with parmesan crisps, apple crumble with chocolate ice cream and caramel, panna cotta topped with a berry compote, sambuca en fuego x2.

Snacks:

Like I said, we basically snacked our way through the entire trip.  My favorites?

Banana Split Gelato

Never enough empanadas!

***

Are you beginning to understand why I had to do a juice cleanse when we returned? 🙂  One more recap to go – the tour of the US Navy ship!!!

Have you ever taken a cooking class in another country?

Do you prefer to stay at hotels or bed & breakfasts when you travel?

Chilean Wine with the US Navy

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This is where the trip got really interesting.

 

 

Having had our fill of Santiago, we decided to make our way to Vina del Mar on the Chilean coast.  I found a wine guide that would pick us up in Santiago at our hotel, take us to 3 vineyards and lunch, and then drop us at our Bed and Breakfast in Vina.

 

Al Rameriz is a sommelier (one who studies wine) from Chile that basically grew up in New York City.  It was such a relief to find someone who spoke English well.  Most Chileans do not and our espanol es mal!  Al was quite knowledgeable and has had some incredible life experiences at his young age.  If you’re ever in Chile, check him out here.

 

Al, Me, and Julia

 

Al and Eduardo, the driver, took us to the Casablanca Valley.  We visited 3 wineries: Emiliana, William Cole, and Casas del Bosque.

 

Me, Julia, and Katherine

 

The Casablanca Valley is a cooler climate, making it better for white wines.  This is where a lot of the more well-known Chilean wine come from, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.  that’s all well and good, but I’m in it for the big reds!  We made sure to have a sampling of Carménère everywhere we went.  I won’t bore you with all the details of everything, but here were my highlights:

 

Emiliana

I should preface this by saying that Chile is not Italy.  In Italy, they have tons of small wineries and you often do a tasting with winemaker or a member of their family (like these tastings we did with the winemaker and their winemaker’s mother in Barolo last year).  At Emiliana the tasting guide was Brazilian and it was his second day on the job.  If you ever go to Chile, it is worth the money for a knowledgeable wine tour (such as Al).

 

Here we tasted a Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.  I likes the Sauvignon Blanc better, but it’s a matter of taste.  Crisp, citrus-y young whites are my favorite.  the lighter and greener the wine it is in color, the younger the wine.

 

Our favorites were the reds.  Their blend, Coyam (pictured on the far right above), was a hit throughout the trip.  We ordered it whenever we saw it in a restaurant!   The blend was 41% Syrah, 29% Carménère, 20% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Mourvedre, 1% Petit Verdot.  Normally I’d say that’s too much, but the berries and black fruits on the palate were fabulous.  It was a good structure and soft tannins.  It was a fun, complex wine that was wonderful to taste.

 

Tip of the day: Always snack while wine tasting!

 

William Cole

This was my favorite winery.  William Cole founded the winery in 1999, right as the valley was being established.  The funny part about the story is that Mr. Cole is an American!  He’s from Denver, Colorado, but married to a Chilean woman.  The symbol on his wine bottles is the Columbine, Colorado’s state flower.

 

 

The wines we tasted were from his Columbine Special Reserve line.  They were: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and a Carménère.  The 2011 Sauvignon Blanc was quite green in color with grapefruit and pepper on the nose.  The minerals and acidity were prevalent, but this young white we well balanced with a pleasingly long finish.  The Pinot was good,nut the tannis were a little sweet for my palate.

 

 

Predictably, my favorite was the Carménère.  It had a deep, rich garnet color and was the most complex wine we tasted this day.  The nose was filled with tobacco and vanilla, with just a hint of cocoa.  In the mouth this wine is layered with dark berries and some oak.

 

A bottle may have found it’s way into my suitcase. 🙂

 

It was at this winery that we heard two guys walk in speaking with Southern accents.  We struck up a conversation and learned we were all from the Southeast.  That is how we met a couple of Navy men that would make our trip 100x more fun.  The guys were the top two officers on a US Navy ship parked in Valpariaso.  We immediately hit it off, and even exchanged contact information with the thought of meeting up in Valpo.  I didn’t think we’d ever see them again, but I was proven wrong!  More on that after lunch and the rest of wine tour…

 

Macerado

At this point it was past time for lunch.  Al and Eduardo took us to this adorable restaurant called Macerado.  It’s in an beautiful old house on a farm, so most of their food is quite literally locally sourced.  If you’re ever in the Casablanca Valley, I highly recommend it.

We shared a huge salad with hearts of palm, olives, and avocado, as well as a grilled fish served with a baked pepper, parsley and abalone sauce and Parmesan husked wheat stew. It was fantastic.

 

 

 

This may not look like much for the 3 of us to share, but they bring out a TON of bread and salsa before meals here.  We learned quickly to share entrees if we were going to enjoy the carbs!

Al ordered a rabbit dish that was cooked in an apricot gravy and served with a baked vegetable salad (basically ratatouille) with sesame with fresh thyme.  It too was scrumptious (thanks for the taste, Al!).

 

 

 

Casas del Bosque

Unfortunately this was not our favorite winery.  It was the most commercial and the wine tasted… more processed, I suppose is the right word.  There weren’t the layers and complexity present as with the previous wineries.

They did do one neat thing – on the table there were glasses filled with red and green peppers and coffee.  Smelling one of those prior to tasting the appropriate wine further bring out the flavor of the juice.

 

 

 ___________________________________________________________________________________

The day’s fun had just started to begin.  We bid our adieus to Al and Eduardo, successfully checked into the B&B, and checked our email.  The Navy officers had actually emailed us!  We were to be picked up by their driver at 9:30p.  Impressive, no?  We got showered, watched some TV (they had E! in English!), and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  They finally showed at 10:30p.  It turned out the restaurant was much further than anticipated and yada, yada, yada…

Any annoyance I felt dissipated when the driver turned on the lights and sirens to rush us to the restaurant.  I wish I could do that every time I’m starving!

 

Santa Brasa

Before you get the wrong idea… my 2 friends are married, and one of the officers is married.  No inappropriate shenanigans was had with the Navy officers.  We were glad to find some other Americans to hang with and I think they were glad to have someone off the ship (i.e. not an 18 year old kid) to talk to.  And we would have NEVER gotten in the car with strangers had they not been US Naval officers.

Dinner was at a very nice steak house called Santa Brasa in Concón, which is right outside of Valpariaso.  At this point it is nearly 11p and we are starving.  Thankfully, Micheal (the XO officer) had empanadas waiting for us.

 

That was followed by the most gigantic pieces of steak I’ve ever seen (we ordered family-style).  It came out smoking!  It also came out with a couple of (unpictured) bottles of Carménère.

 

Its been a loooong time since I’ve had a steak on my plate.  It will probably be a long time before I do it again… but OMG this was a good one.  Well worth the interesting tummy issues the next day.

I tried to balance it out with a spinach salad and roasted asparagus with mushrooms.  Followed by a few french fries.

 

The 5 of us shut down the restaurant, but we weren’t tired… bring on the casino!  (Note to self: you are too old to stay out this late.)

To be continued…

***

I hope I’m not boring you guys too much with all the recaps.  There is just so much to share! 🙂

Have you ever had such random things happen on a trip?  Do tell!

Are you a red or a white wine fan?

 

Argentina… errr… Chile!

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What do you do when you get booted off of a flight to Buenos Aires just before takeoff?

Those of you who caught this post already know.  You get on the next flight out… which happened to be Santiago, Chile!

We landed in the morning feeling a little tired, but excited.  The first order of business was to find coffee and wi-fi so we could locate a hotel and form a plan.

Thanks to the Internet and a very nice Chilean man in the airport restaurant we booked a hotel in a nice neighborhood called Providencia and were on our way in just a couple of hours.

The first order of business was lunch.  Naturally we ended up at a French cafe.  I was craving greens and enjoyed a massive salad topped with egg, asparagus, broccoli, avocado, and olives.   We also enjoyed a glass of wine to mark the first of many beginning of vacation.

We sampled an empananda.  This is once of the most famous South American foods, and one of the most tasty.  It’s basically a pocket of dough filled with cheese and other items (often ham) that is either fried or baked.

More exploring/getting lost ensured before we found these gorgeous fountains.

And then we found wine.

And then we found dinner in a cute plaza called Patio Bellavista.  It was a Peruvian restaurant called Barandiaran.  Go figure.

The dinner was quite good.  That highlight was a shared ceviche dish that was wonderful.  I NEVER thought I’d eat seafood, let alone ceviche; however, I loved the sea bass!  Shrimp is still a bit much for me.

The next day we found parks!  A really cool sculpture park called Parque Las Esculturas:

Followed by an even better park that was filled with exercise equipment!  I busted my ass a move on the elliptical.

I should mention that these were all found on a walk that must have been close to 10 miles.  By the time we reached our original lunch destination in the Bellavista neighborhood we were starving.  Annnnnd… we discovered the restaurant no longer existed.  We did the only thing left to do: ate a greasy lunch at a trashy college dive.

Sometimes you need to be local.  However, when you order guacamole and it’s served with Doritos, you wish you were a little less local.

That was followed up with a “traditional” dish of fries topped with onions, sausage, and fried eggs.  I can’t lie… I didn’t hate it.

Doesn’t that first yolk look like a heart?

Post-lunch we really needed to walk more.  There is a giant mountain/hill called Cerro San Cristobal that holds one of the most popular tourist destinations in Santiago: the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción.  It contains a 14 meter statue of Mary.  We hopped a funicular (a train built in 1925) to get to the top and visit Mary.

View of Santiago from the funicular

The view from Mary, looking down on the outdoor sanctuary and Santiago

The traveling trio with the Andes in the background

Random sight of the day: dude wearing a UGA sweatshirt.  He wasn’t American.

Come se dice “Go Dawgs” en espanol?

Santiago was an interesting experience; however, we were ready to move on after 2 days.  I hate to say it… but it’s a pretty dirty, crowded (7.5 million people) city.

One odd food note – when we sought out traditional “Chiliean” food, we were often directed to other cuisines such as French and Peruvian.  It seems like Chile is sort of like America in that they take foods from other cultures and modify.  It was good, but a shock having travelled more extensively in Europe.

Sadly, there are no workouts to recap this Monday.  Instead I’ll recap my recovery from the trip:

Step 1: Green smoothie bowl

Step 2: Mani/Pedi

Step 3: Arden’s Garden “Love Your Liver” 3-day juice cleanse (this was amazing – no joke)

Icing on the cake: A special delivery of Greek yogurt from Chobani!  Nothing but goodness.  Thank you, Chobani.  I love you much.

My concierge now loves Chobani, too.  I tipped him with a yogurt, and he’s a convert. 🙂

***

Check back tomorrow for some excellent wine and a run in with US Navy officers.

Have you ever been to South America?  Was it what you expected?

Doritos with guacamole… any thoughts?

Frozen Kale Cucumber Mango Margarita

By

We had an adventure before even leaving ATL.

At 9p last night our Argentina trip was no more.  We boarded the plane only to be deplaned 10 mins later.  Apparently there was a lot of cargo on boarded and the plane was over weight.  All non-rev passengers were removed.  But we were going somewhere, dammit.  The next flight out was a 10:30p to Santiago, Chile.  A quick sprint through the airport later (with luggage, which was an adventure in itself) and we were on our way to Chile.  So… we’re in Santiago right now. 🙂

After all that we needed a drink.  The plane served wine, but tequila would have been good too.  Ashley from Freckles & Spice has put together the healthiest drink recipe possible to share with you guys.  I met Ashley at the Blend Retreat and we hit it off immediately.  She has so much energy and a passion for trying fun foods.  She brought roasted fava beans from NYC to share with everyone at Blend!  (Which reminds me, I want to recreate those…)  Check out Ashley’s awesome tequila-kale concoction here, and then go say hi over on her blog!

Hi Sprint 2 the Table readers! I am Ashley from Freckles & Spice.

I began writing my blog to share my journey of a fifty-pound weight loss and to help me find my way as mid-twenty something living in the greatest city on Earth, New York. I write about all aspects of healthy living with the goal to find happiness and balance in my life.

I cannot tell you how honored I am that Laura asked me to do a post for her today. Spring 2 the Table is one of those blogs that I check every morning, so I could not turn down the opportunity! I also knew I was going to have to do something a little special. I fully believe that the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is enjoying everything in moderation and finding a balance that works for you.

Laura and I both share a love of Mexican, green smoothies, and enjoying a drink with friends every now and then.  I came up with this recipe for a frozen green juice margarita. It is the perfect blend of health and indulgence.

Frozen Kale Cucumber Mango Margarita

  • ½ cup kale and cucumber juice (4-5ish kale leaves and ½ cucumber)
  • ½ frozen mango
  • 3-4 oz tequila
  • juice of one lime
  • 3 ice cubes
  • salt for rim of glass

Directions:

  1. I used extra green juice from early in the day. (I don’t have a juicer so I blend the green juice ingredients and then strain the pulp with either a nutmilk bag, cheese cloth, or any fine strainer.
  2. Blend all ingredients except in your blender.
  3. Pour in salted glass and enjoy!

This drink is best served poolside, but it was so nice and refreshing it can be enjoyed anywhere. It definitely brought the feeling of summer to my NYC apartment for Memorial Day weekend.

A life well lived is one with balance. This frozen indulgence allows you to have your drink and feel good too!

Cheers!

Ashley

***

This may trump a glass of red wine as the healthiest drink.

P.S. Thank you for the Buzz yesterday!  My Sweet Potato Leek soup made the Food Buzz Top 9!

Have you ever combined veggies with cocktails?

Do you like South American wines?

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