Back from Mexico!

I had the most amazing time in Mexico. I went for a friend's wedding in Cabo. The wedding was small (about 65 people) and they treated us so well all weekend by inviting each guest to several parties with great food and entertainment. Her mother has a home on the beach and we spent some of Thursday in their pool and they had a party on Friday for their guests. There were waiters roaming around with endless margaritas and delicious appetizers and an excellent Mexican buffet dinner. They treated us to a DJ and dancing complete with Pyro Dancers, it was absolutely amazing!

The wedding was at a beautiful golf resort in El Dorado that overlooked the beautiful Sea of Cortez. The wedding party looked so gorgeous and the reception venue was breathtaking! There were waiters with abundant drinks and appetizers...the crab tacos were the favorite among our group! We lit up 3-foot long sparklers for the wedding party's entrance into the venue and dinned in a stone courtyard with a man playing guitar for dinner music...it was beautiful! Dinner was 3 courses, which included a lump crab cake, trio of ceviche and I chose the red snapper (other choice was filet mignon). There were cupcakes, wedding cake and Mexican coffee for dessert. Everything was so delicious I was stuffed to the max!!!

Her mother gave an excellent speech and had every woman at the party in tears! It was absolutely beautiful. During their first dance their was a huge firework display...breathtaking! They had a live Latin band followed by a late-night DJ (with a late-night taco bar!) During the cake-cutting, a mariachi band came out and they were so hilarious goofing around in their tight white pants! It was such a memorable weekend, I am still in awe and so happy that I got to be a part of it!

Yummy Salad

I was craving a light and sweet salad for dinner the other night and cam up with a this yummy combination:

2-3 cups Green Leaf Lettuce

1/2 pear, sliced

4-5 sliced strawberries

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 TBS Balsamic and Fig dressing (found at Whole Foods)

Then I made a side of roasted sweet potatoes and the other half of the pear roasted with the potato. I topped with a drizzle of coconut butter...yum!


The meal was delicious and filling...and satisfied my sweet tooth!

I wanted to add this pretty flower pic to remind me of the nice weather that peaks out from behind the clouds of Seattle every now and then:)

It's been a dreary couple of weeks, and my running plans have suffered...why is it I only feel like running when it's nice out?! I've still been doing other exercises, but I don't feel as good as I do after a run. I did about 20 minutes on the treadmill yesterday and felt pretty good...I hope it's enough to get myself going again! I am planning on some much needed hot yoga tonight...I can't wait to sweat it out at the studio!

I just got my organic delivery so I will post some photos later this week of all the fantastic-looking goods! I have big plans for some yummy dinners with some of the produce! I have to eat it all up in a week because I am off to MEXICO NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!! Can.not.wait.for.sunshine!

How's the weather in your part of the world? Any fun vacations coming up?

Yoga at Home

I love practicing yoga at a studio, but sometimes it just doesn't fit my schedule. I've been thinking about practicing on my own without yogadownload or an on demand source. I have a vacation to Mexico coming up in about 3 weeks and my plan is to stay active on the trip (between laying poolside and spa activities!) I thought staring out my mornings with some yoga on the beach would be great, and maybe even a short jog to warm up. I also plan to take swim breaks from being completely lethargic next to the pool!

So on Friday, I made a yoga playlist including some Enya, Dido and slower Incubus tracks and rolled out my mat in the living room. I chose sequences that I like from classes I've taken and just by what was feeling good at the moment. I practiced for about 35 minutes and it felt great...I could have kept going. I am confident that I will have no problems practicing solo on the beach in a few weeks. I think it will be a great way to start the day and hopefully keep my somewhat on track!

After my practice, I set up the camera to capture a few of my favorite poses. I didn't include all of them, but it was neat to see what I look like and a good way to make note of corrections in form I can work on.

Ps. that is a new shirt from Lululemon that I absolutely LOVE! it's not great for yoga because it moves too much, but is great for cardio and/or weight training. I think its great to wear with regular clothes as well. In fact, I wore it to work with jeans and a blazer...I just love the pale yellow color this spring!

Are you comfortable practicing yoga on your own, or do you need instruction? What is your favorite pose? I also like dancer pose because I am getting better at it, but didn't take a phot of that one!

Lazy Saturday Lunch

This Saturday was warm and sunny here in Seattle. I took advantage and spent the majority of the day out and about. The morning was busy with yoga and shopping and once I got home I was tired of driving places so I decided to walk somewhere for lunch. Luckily right down the hill is the Essential Bakery Cafe (my favorite place to buy bread and macaroons!) It always amazes me how many people are out walking or riding bikes when it's nice here. I never felt the need to be outside when I lived in Michigan! The cafe has an outdoor patio as well!

I went with a raspberry jam cookie to start...it was so yummy!

For my lunch I got a 1/2 size portion of the Pacific Northwest Salad, which had greens, balsamic, Gorgonzola and marinated mushrooms and a 1/2 roasted yam and leek sandwich on rosemary bread. This combo so so delicious and filling. I also had a Moroccan mint iced tea.

I could eat lunch here often, everything tastes so fresh and it's always buzzing with people. I often stop here after morning spin to grab coffee and a pastry or bread for the week...since its 7 am and not picked over yet!

After lunch, I went for a long walk in the Washington Park Arboretum to play with my camera during the spring bloom. Here are some of my favorite shots:

Do you sometimes take a long walk over a run? I just wasn't feeling the running this weekend, but did enjoy two long walks about 1 hour 40 minutes each!

Cornbread and Chili

Sprouted Kitchen, one of my favorite recipe blogs (and the blog that inspired me to start playing around with food photography) posted this recipe for Cast Iron Cornbread that I have been wanting to try ever since I read it! The ingredient list wasn't too long and it was actually pretty simple to prepare and wow, it was the best cornbread I've ever made. I will definitely be making this again. I think the best part was the sprinkle of cheddar cheese that crisped up on the top...and the nice crust that the cast iron pan gave it!

We paired the bread with a chili recipe that we made as we went (to taste). The ingredients included extra lean ground beef, kidney beans, crushed tomatoes, chopped onion, stock, tomato paste, BBQ sauce, salsa, chili powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, apple cider vinegar, honey. This seems like a lot of spices, but the flavor was so good...there was a little spice and a little sweet at the same time. I can't wait to east left-overs tomorrow! We topped the chili with a spoonful of sour cream and chives with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar.

Yum, the meal was comforting and delicious! I went back for another sliver of bread...so good!

I ended up going for a 3.5 mile hilly run after work while the sun was still shining. I did the same loop as last Friday twice and the second time was pretty tough, but I pushed through and only walked half-way up one hill and once crossing a street...not bad! My pace was around an 11 minute mile, and I am hoping to get it down to a 10 minute mile by summer.

Sunny Weather

It's been so nice in Seattle lately and I have been pretty busy making the most of it. With the time change, it seemed like the afternoon when I got out of work last Friday! I changed into workout clothes and hit the pavement while the bf hit the elliptical. I did a short 1.8 mile hilly loop in a sub-10 min/mile pace, which is pretty great for me! I really liked the loop, I had beautiful views of Lake Washington and Mt Rainier. After the run, I met the bf back at the gym and we did a full body strength training workout. It felt great!

When we got home, we both felt like eating out and have been wanting to go back to Dahlia Lounge since we ate their for NYE and decided it was time. We started with oysters and cocktails (I got champagne). Then I had a winter white salad with cucumber, endive and a truffle dressing. My entree was the Alaskan salmon with morels, mashed potato and roasted asparagus...yum! We spilt a dessert and called it a night! This was an awesome splurge of a meal and we had so much fun!

Saturday was a beautiful 68 degree sunny day and I started out with a heated flow yoga class at 8 am followed by a veggie juice and huge bowl of oats! We watched the St. Mary's game then went for a long hilly walk to grab sandwiches for an outdoor picnic in a park. It was fun and I soaked up as much sun as I could! Later I had a massage and it was painful, but so so great. I took a nap after and we made steak, sweet potato and salad for dinner and met some friends out for drinks. I had 2 glasses of wine out and one glass at dinner...I think I am going to try and cut back on the alcohol again!

Sunday was great...I took a restorative yoga class and relaxed the rest of the day. We also made all our meals in which doesn't happen often on a Sunday!


It's been sunny this week so far and is supposed to get to 68 again tomorrow. Yesterday, I took a yoga class, but had the itch to go out running so I am going to make up for it today! I am planning to take advantage of the sun and go for a run after work...probably that same loop as last week x2. I hope to get in another run tomorrow at lunch.

Do you ever feel like you NEED to be outside when it's nice? I feel like I'm wasting a nice day when I don't go out and do something!

Rack of Lamb Feast

During weekends we like to cook a more time-consuming meal with fresh meat from either Whole Foods or Pike's Place Market. One last weekend's menu was rack of lamb. We haven't cooked this in a long time and I don't have a recipe to give because the bf knows the recipe by heart and cooked the whole meal himself (I opened the bottle of wine!) We went shopping at Whole Foods and picked up all the ingredients we needed.The lamb was seasoned with salt and pepper and coated in dijon mustard, then bread crumbs and wrapped in aluminum foil before baking.

We steamed asparagus and boiled/mashed some gold potatoes to serve alongside the lamb.The sauce was made from stock, port, raspberry and mint sauce.

The rack came out of the oven perfect...I took 3 bones, he took 5:)

We garnished the plate with fresh raspberries and a glob of mint jelly. I wasn't a fan of the mint jelly because it overpowered the taste of the lamb. This meal was fantastic...so delicious!

We drank a bottle of Cuvee Rutherford from my favorite winery in Napa - Rubicon Estate.

Have you made any good weekend dinner's lately?