MY place

Workity work.

I was up with the cock-a-doodle-doo this morning…I’m not sure why, but for the fifth day in a row I woke up at 4 am on the dot (without my alarm even going off).  Whatever.  I dragged myself to the subway, and woke up a bit more along the way…

What’s there to say.  Work was work was work was work.  I was craaaazy busy all day, but not really in a good way.  I felt like I was in slow motion and I couldn’t get myself organized, which is so unlike me.  Blah.  I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.

This is for you Courtney!!

The one and only, seaweed salad!  The ingredients read: organic seaweed, organic sesame seeds, organic ginger, organic green onion, organic tamari, and sesame oil.

It is SO good.  Although a bit on the oily side, I usually mix it with other things (salad, veggies, etc.) which neutralizes it a bit…or at least greases up the rest of my food…

Here it is in today’s lunch salad:

Other tuperware attendees included spinach, clover sprouts, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, dried cranberries, raisins, and heart of palm.

The rest of my packed goodies: Newman’s Own dried apricots, berries gomega odwalla bar, apple, dried mangoes, and Ocean Spring’s harvest of heaven fruit chips.

I was still starving by the time I got off work…

TGIF!

For dinner, Kyle and I decided to do a little something special.  Friday night dinner date!  After I got off work we met for some bomb ass grub at….HUMMUS PLACE

Be jealous.  Be VERY jealous.  It was a cozy little place, but believe me, what it lacked in space, it made up for ten-fold in flavor!

Falafel balls, hummus masabacha (whole chick peas, olive oil & spices), quinoa salad, lebane, hummus tahini (tahini, olive oil & spices), and the most amazing, PUFFY, whole wheat pitas on earth!

Ummm, yeah, it was horrible.

We enjoyed the nice weather and walked home…

And as we both made playlists for our 10K tomorrow morning, I enjoyed this plum and a bowl of dried cranberries and carob covered raisins for dessert.

race recap (and some food)

Sunday may as well have been re-named half marathon day.  It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past month.  I could hardly sleep last night my nerves were going berserk.  Even though I consider myself a runner, and I exercise regularly, training for a concrete event (13+ miles no less) is very different than simply running to get your endorphins flowing.  The longest organized race I’ve ever participated in was a 10K, which I really really enjoyed.  So I figured it was time to step up to the plate.  Half marathon, here I come.

And now that I have lost my half marathon v card, here are a few things I learned today:

1.  It is NOT wise to cram your feet into pointy 3 inch stilettos (and then walk 20 blocks in said heels) the night before – unlike the rest of the normal running population, I had to apply band-aids to multiple blisters before the race this morning (so painful).

2.  13 miles is INSANELY long – WHAT was I thinking?

3.  If you are going to run for longer than a soccer match, you may as well be playing IN a soccer match – can you tell I miss soccer?

4.  If they cancel the full marathon because the temperatures are too high, it means you shouldn’t be wearing pants – strike 4?

Needless to say, I was kicking myself for signing up for the friggin’ race by mile 1, trying to figure out a legit excuse to call it quits by mile 2, and seriously considering if finishing was that important to me by mile 2 1/2…the thought that kept crossing my mind was HOW could I face the blogging community if I were to give up?  I’m NOT a quitter, and under normal circumstances, I’m highly competitive.  So I sucked it up, and ran ran ran.

The race started at 8, so I woke up nice and early to get ready, had a teeny cup shot of coffee with almond milk, a couple calcium chews chocolate treats, and hit the road. 

At the starting line, my stomach was butterfly-tastic.  There were approx 10,000 people participating so it was crowwwwded.  I inched my way to the front(ish) area, since I signed up for a pace group WAY too slow.  Then the race started and I was on my way. 

Central Park is hilly.

I realized very quickly that I had no idea what I had gotten myself into and that I was a fool – and my thoughts didn’t deviate much for the next 11 miles. 

Miles 1/2 – Uphill, grrr.  Mile 3 – Downhill, sigh.  Mile 4 – Uphill, grrr. 

Around miles 5/6 I hit a wall.  I wasn’t yet half way and I was dying – it was ugly.  My playlist (which normally gets me moving) just wasn’t pumping me up, and I couldn’t even fathom getting through the first loop of the park, not to mention finishing an entire second lap. 

Suddenly, I realized I was drenched with sweat and hadn’t had a drop of water to rehydrate myself.  Hellooooo?  Sometimes I can be quite dense (it’s not like I’m a nurse or anything, oh wait…).  At the next water station I got a cool cup of H20 and felt light years better.  Duh.

I crossed the half way point and looked at my watch, 45 minutes!  What!?! 

I freaked!!!  If I didn’t slow my roll I was going to poop out by mile 8.

At mile 9, I did. 

New tactic: walk through the fluid stations and adequately rehydrate (clearly chucking a cup of water near my face while running wasn’t doing the job).  So, the rest of the race continued with a similar pattern: fluid station, Gatorade, water, run…

Finally, I saw the end of the race and all was right in the world again.  I crossed the finish line and checked my iPod stopwatch: 1 hour and 43 minutes.

Sweet!!!

I definitely agree with Melissa that training in the opposite direction (harder direction) than the race helped a ton, as did knowing the Central Park loop like the back of my hand.  Otherwise, I may have died.

At the end of the race Kyle was there waiting for me with a clean t-shirt and a water bottle and he asked me “which part was the worst?” 

Ummm, miles 1 through 13?!?  Seriously.  The whole thing.   It sucked.  I think it’s safe to say I have completely lost the will to run a full marathon.  No thanks.  I love running, and I love competing, but on my own agenda (crowd free for one).

So post-race what’s a girl to do? Get some grub!!!

(I actually waited a while before eating since my stomach is uber sensitive), but eventually I had a nice brekkie of toasted Alvarado street bread with EB and a bowl of strawberries and mangoes.

Followed by some frothy caffeine love.

I spent the rest of the day refueling, hungryhungryhippie style (lots of hummus and dried fruit).  And since this post is already insanely long, I’ll stick to mostly pictures only from here on out.

Lunch at French Roast.

Mountain of hummus.  Warm fresh gooey pitas.  Enough said.

Avocado and tomato salad.  Perfect.

Iced coffee.  Apple slices with chunky sabra hummus.

Dried pineapple rings.  Hummus and spinach sammie.

HUGH JASS salad (spinach, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, brocc slaw, and chickpeas galore) which I mixed all up and then dumped hummus on…

Too much hummus?  No such thing.

Dessert cup of carob raisins and super salty peanuts.

I’m already aching…tomorrow may be a yoga and massage kind of day. 

April (in Cliff’s Notes)

I don’t even know where to begin…this past week has been one of the most incredible times of my life.  Between getting engaged, visiting friends and family in Nor Cal and So Cal, my cousin getting married and my other cousin giving birth, it has been a fantastically memorable week. 

Yes.  My only two cousins managed to coordinate the biggest events in their lives to overlap!!!!!!!!!

My older cousin went into labor 5 weeks early, and ended up in the hospital on the night of the rehearsal dinner and gave birth to a healthy baby boy the day of my cousin’s wedding (her younger sister).  Not only did she miss the ceremony and the reception, but she was the maid of honor and her husband was one of the groomsmen.  Needless to say, it was ONE EXCITING DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rarely remembered to snap pics of my food because I was a bit preoccupied (it was one of the LAST things on my mind…) and to be honest, a lot of it wasn’t very photogenic.  An unfortunate reality of traveling and going out to eat with friends/family is the inability to control the types of food that are available for vegans. 

In Nor Cal I ended up eating a lot of cereal messes…

(raisin bran, life, and nanners)

(grape nuts, bran flakes, nanners and fresh blackberries!!!)

SO MUCH wonderful fruit (!!) and yes, that bowl has my name on it…only in Paris can you find “Elise” on a dish.

Normally I don’t like citrus, but these oranges were SO juicy and perfect (AND they were from our backyard)

Who am I?  Gliding Calm?

No worries, we have massive trees with about 800 pounds of oranges, so I was going to town guilt free :)

They look fake, they are so pretty.  Mmmmm…

We also had a BBQ the day after the engagement.  Sorta an impromptu celebration (which is pretty easy when the weather is permanently 80 degrees).

Apps: Sabra hummus with veggies and ALL-BRAN crackers (review to follow)

Snackety snacking…

The All-Bran crackers were SO good.  They kinda reminded me of graham crackers because they had a sweet honey taste to them, even though I got the “multi-grain” flavor.  Plus, who doesn’t like fiber?  Can’t beat those stats…I’ll prolly never find them again back in NYC.

My dad threw some meat on the grill while I prepped veggie skewers.

Red and yellow bell peppers, zucchs, squash, and ‘shrooms.

And after some time on the barby…

There is nothing like grilling fresh produce to make me miss California.  This west coast livin’ just can’t be beat…

Other featured eats: salad, rice, VINO, and champagne (in bulk)

Plus, some tea on the late night to soothe my tummy.

…and FAR too much of this.  My dad is going to be pissed when he sees the cherry picking that went on while I noshed this tub down to nothingness.  I heart dried fruit like nobody’s business.

In So Cal I ended up frequenting the Whole Foods hot bar quite a bit (always a great option).  Hummus and falafel are definitely the flavor of the month so far.  Prepare yourself for a MAJOR falafel montage…

(and remember these are all different trips – and I only captured 1/3 of my meals on film)

The above meal had TWO kinds of hummus (parsley and plain) and in the corner is BBQ tofu.

The below meal was dominated by hummus.  I went overboard, to put it mildly.

I even tracked down a falafel, hummus, and pita chip platter at the AIRPORT, on one of our many flights, there’s no stopping me!!!

I told you I went through a MAJOR falafel phase.

We also spent some time at my g-ma’s in Newport Beach, so obviously I managed to get my hands on hummus :)

This was my first time trying this brand, and I gotta say, it gave Sabra a run for it’s money.  I would DEF buy it again.  Creamy and thick, and packed with flavor.

But enough about food…back to the fun times! 

 

The proposal was such a surprise.  :)

Kyle told me his parents were in San Francisco for business, so we decided to meet them in the city for lunch…I found out later no such business trip existed.

We stopped by my sister’s apartment on the way…

Here’s the view from her rooftop.

Then Kyle took me to Crissy field to “meet up with his parents.”

In actuality, he asked me to marry him!!!!!!

As if the day could get ANY more amazing, his parents AND mine then showed up (they knew the plan the entire time!!!!!!) and we all celebrated together!

As you can see, the weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and I was the happiest girl in the world!!!!!!!

I was basically doing the above all day long (staring at my finger  and gushing on the phone).

How could I not, right?

For lunch, we went to a vegetarian restaurant called Greens, which was great!  I got a skewer with veggies and tofu and a side salad.  But I was hardly even aware of my food on SUCH a high :)

The champagne was flowing…

 

After lunch we took more photos, walked around the city, and eventually made our way to the financial district (near our old SF apartment before we moved to NYC).  Kyle had booked a hotel room for the night, so we check in and then headed out to do some shopping.  I desperately needed a nicer outfit than what I brought (jeans and a t-shirt) for dinner.  Clearly the ring upped the ante for the attire!  Off to BCBG, Aldo, and Victoria’s Secret…stat!

For dinner we went to Kokkari, an amazing Greek restaurant in the financial district. 

The food was great and they were so thoughtful, catering the menu to make sure there were vegan options for me.  I hardly even remember what we had because there was so much good food…fried eggplant and zucchini cakes, mushrooms, babaganoush, hummus, greek yogurt, etc…just to name a few things.

L to R: my parents, Kyle, me, Kyle’s parents.

Our table faced a massive fireplace, with live rotisserie action going on. 

Baklava dessert with a sweet message.

It was amazing, for lack of a better word.  The entire day couldn’t have been more perfect.