First weekend of 29

Saturday morning brought my first trip to Bikram yoga in oh, 2.5 years. Jeebus, talk about a long break.

We stopped in for an early class at the Bikram studio on Columbus in North Beach. It's a small, neat, friendly studio that offers a great intro special - unlimited classes for the first month for $29. Pretty sweet.

Lobby (off of Yelp)

Room (again, off of Yelp)

Yes, that's carpeting and french doors you see. Don't get me wrong, it was a great studio, but I was definitely spoiled by all the classes I took at Bikram Yoga Dupont - my favorite place in DC.

The Dupont studio was pretty large and it felt pretty secluded once the door was closed, plus the floors were slick mats that I like to think made it seem cleaner. Don't get me wrong, this new place was super clean...I'm just weird about carpet.

After a couple minutes, I got over the whole carpet thing and got back into the yoga zone. Bikram has been the only type of yoga I've actually enjoyed and look forward to practicing. I think part of it is due to the fact that you do the same 26 poses in the same exact order each time. Not only do you know what to expect, but it's easy to notice progress. Also, there's no denying I love sweating. The more sweat, the better. ;p

Since it had been so long since my last class, I decided to take it super easy and not do certain poses. OMG, still pretty rough...but I felt so great afterward.

So great and SO hungry. I made a spicy oat bowl for breakfast (not so pretty) with eggs, spinach, canadian bacon, cheddar and chili garlic paste. I think the chili garlic paste and cheddar made it extra yummy. I may or may not have followed it up with a slice of birthday cake...

Eh, seemed appropriate ;)

After a very productive morning, we headed out to the East Bay for some pool time. Much needed pool time.

Couldn't have asked for better weather - not too hot, slight breeze. I didn't know this, but apparently there's a good 10 degree temperature difference once you leave the city. I like it!

We sat down for a late lunch poolside and I went with a Chicken Salad on Sourdough (I can never say no to a chicken salad sammich).

It was pretty good, maybe a little too mayo-ey for my taste and the bread tasted more like white bread than sourdough, but it was a great poolside treat. Can I call a sammich a treat? haha.

We eventually made our way back into the city and started working on dinner. There were a ton of taco leftovers from Friday so it was taco night again! Well, for me it was nacho and taco salad night:

Innovative reuse of ingredients! I do love me some taco salad!

This morning I decided to close out the weekend right with a nice, easy, long-ish run. I haven't really done more than 3 or 4 miles at a time since the injury and I've been craving a long run like no one's business. I started mapping out a route when I realized I had no idea what I was doing. Then, I got the brilliant idea to search for the Nike Women's Marathon course map. It was, after all, the race that brought me here for the first time :)

I originally mapped out an 8 mile course, but I cut it down to 5 since about halfway through I realized I should have carried my water bottle and maybe a gel if I wanted to go further. I took the run super slow since I didn't want to aggravate the achilles and ended up running 5.03 miles in about 53 minutes. Not too shabby.

My run basically took me from somewhere a little before Mile 1 of the marathon course to just past Mile 4 before I turned around. The weather was absolutely perfect and I was psyched to have a camera on hand this time. One thing that will always stick out from my first marathon was the first super steep hill I came across early on in the race that I huffed and puffed and shuffled up. It was totally worth it in the end because of the phenomenal views - there were actually people stopping and taking pictures.

Three years later, I was finally able to snap a photo! Of course, to get there, I had to hoof it up this monster

It also winds around, but I thought it was worth it. Of course every uphill is followed by a downhill, or flatness

As I ran through Fort Mason, I got another case of the warm and fuzzies as I remembered running through in 2007. I kept thinking about how nervous I was back then and how I felt throughout the course - I feel like so much has changed since then! Not only am I now living in the city I told myself I wanted to live in back then, but that hill wasn't as horrible as I originally thought it was. Also, I told myself back then that I'd only do one marathon and here I am about to start training for number 4!

I took a leisurely walk back to the apartment by way of the famous Lombard Street

And yes, I joined the throngs of tourists stopped in the middle of the street...momentarily. :)

Since I got home around lunchtime, I made a pitstop at Caffe Capriccio for some lunchtime reading and snacking. This time I tried a lunch item - Roasted Chicken & Bacon Salad (romaine lettuce, roma tomato, toasted croutons and creamy poppy dressing)

Awesome. Loved the poppy dressing (found out they use this) and they didn't over-dress the salad either. Just the right amount and everything was chopped into easy to eat pieces!

To wash it all down, I had some water (duh) and a large cup of White Orchard Mighty Tea

I loved the fun teabag (it wasn't paper) and it was a nice subtle peachy/melony tasting tea!

How's that for a picture-loaded post? :) Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A week of firsts.

Hey all, it's been a super busy week for me so I'm going to keep it brief. Hopefully I'll have more for you after the weekend!

On Monday I successfully bussed it to my first full day at the office, where I eventually had to find my first weekday lunch. Luckily Main Tower Deli had a wide variety of salads (and popchips!) for me to munch on!

I picked up the Southwestern Salad (all the standard 'Southwestern' toppings plus some grilled chicken) with what appeared to be electric orange dressing on the side.

What I liked:

1. the sweet and smokey bbq sauce on the chicken
2. the chicken that had actual chicken taste and texture

What I didn't like:

1. the sort of flavorless, electric orange dressing
2. the whole red onion in my salad

Hey, it was fast and right downstairs. I will say they had a bunch of fun looking specials - I probably should have checked one of those out. Next time...

I can't remember what exactly I did on Monday, but I do know that it ended with my first soyrizo experiment. I've been itching to try the Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo and I managed to find the rice cooker in the last batch of boxes. Hello, brown rice bowl!

Um, soy chorizo is weird. Sorry non-meat eaters, but I might need to stick to my pork sausage. I was a little freaked out by the crumbles that just fell out of the casing and into the pan. They smelled good (I think I compared it to a sloppy joe?) and I tried to get the little nubbins as brown as possible without burning them.

Looks pretty legit, right?

Plopped some brown rice into a bowl after scraping it out of the rice cooker (brown rice - 1, Karena - 0), topped it with some soyrizo, romaine, grape tomatoes, corn, black beans, white cheddar, salsa, avocado and hot sauce.

As you can see, I got a little too excited about the return of the brown rice bowl and it was tough mixing that sucker up.

Yay:

1. return of the filling and tasty brown rice bowl!
2. ruffage

Nay:

1. TJ's Soy Chorizo is SUPER salty...and I think I'm a pretty big salt fan.
2. defeated once again cooking brown rice.

Tuesday was another day of firsts...interesting firsts. I ran for a bus and it ended up being the wrong bus. I learned that bus drops me off eight LONG blocks from the office. Luckily I was running ridiculously early and still got to work on time. Lesson learned.

I also discovered that we've got a box of Genmai Cha (Roasted Brown Rice Green Tea) in the office kitchen...my favorite brand too!

Have you ever tried this stuff? A coworker introduced me to this a long time ago and I just can't bring myself to drink regular green tea. The toasted brown rice adds a whole new dimension of flavor and there's just something comforting about the popcorn-y smell. Try it. It's goooood.

What's your favorite type/flavor of tea? I'm trying to wean myself off of coffee since I've been getting super jittery (but I'm willing to make some exceptions) so my morning jolt has been coming from this:

Squirt of honey and I'm content :)

My office welcome lunch was at nearby Palomino where I went with a lunch combo, sans photos since it was only my third day. Sheesh. My lunch combo included a Baby Field Green Salad with Chèvre and Pumpkin Seeds and half a Panini Club (Smoked turkey, genoa salami, pepper bacon, Provolone, tomato carpaccio, pesto, Dijon mustard). My salad was kinda lame - olive oil and lemon dressing. I definitely kept eyeing everyone else's salad. The sammich made up for it though. Perfectly crisp on the outside and salty, gooey, meaty and mustardy on the inside. YUM. Well, maybe a little too salty at times, but whatever.

After work I went and purchased my very first bus pass...EVER. Exciting moment for me since I no longer have to worry about having $2 on me at all times or losing transfer tickets. Genius!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I had an o so exciting bowl of oats for dinner. Did you catch the sarcasm there? ;p It wasn't photo worthy, but I dumped in some leftover dark leafy greens, soyrizo and feta and LOTS of hot sauce. Not my favorite dinner, but it'll do.

Wednesday brought more excitement as I stopped into Howard Street Coffee Roastery before work. I've been stopping here all week for my morning tea (the ladies are really nice and there's never a line when I go) and on Wednesday I thought I'd grab some breakfast on the go. I decided to try the Granola and Yogurt, thinking I'd get a cup of yogurt with some granola. NO. I was mistaken. I got a monster:

I think that's like a medium sized cold cup. WTF?! Ridic. Way too much for me, so I ended up only eating that first layer of yogurt, some blueberries (on the top) and then played around as I dug for some granola. I felt really wasteful. Ladies and gentlemen, perfect example of why bigger isn't better when it comes to food.

The morning and lunch flew by and the next thing I know it's like 3pm and someone comes by with a package...for me! Yay! I opened the box and smiled when I saw this:

And smiled even more when I opened it to see this:

Immediately put that on my desk even though my birthday isn't until Friday (o yeah, I have no idea why my desk is green). I figured I should refrain from opening the actual present in the box to avoid drawing attention to myself so I quietly hid it under my desk until I left.

I forgot I had errands to run after work. With the box. Awesome.

Went to fill out paperwork on my (hopefully) new apartment. Will keep you posted on the situation - I've got my fingers crossed nothing weird happens. You never know. I remembered to carry Box with me (yes, it now is a proper noun) out of the building and I didn't drop Box when I hopped on my first cable car

That I took in the wrong direction

I think it was a sign I wasn't meant to go to the TNT info session downtown. Maybe I'm not meant to learn more about the triathlon team. Meh? Whatever. It was free (o hey bus pass!) and hanging off the side with Box was fun. I ended up riding it all the way to Fisherman's Wharf (ish) and Box and I walked home from there.

I decided a trip to Trader Joe's was necessary since I didn't have anything for dinner (though, I was seriously craving sushi and couldn't justify spending the money). Box sat quietly in the shopping cart while I picked up some random things for dinner like some Summer Rolls

Cooked Lentils

a bottle of vino

some canadian bacon and spinach. Do you see where this is going?

Mid-TJ's trip, I decided dinner would be a Warm Lentil Salad. I had a ton of grape tomatoes that needed to be eaten and I was curious about these pre-cooked lentils. Canadian bacon just got tossed in there for fun since I've been experimenting a lot with fake meat - I needed some pork. The summer rolls were an impulse/I didn't eat enough during the day and have to eat something buy. I will never buy them from TJ's again.

I like to think you can't f up a summer roll. It's all fresh stuff. Apparently you can mess it up. These were wet and not tightly wrapped and there were definitely random bitter greens inside. PASS.

Warm Lentil Salad

2 tbsp shallot, minced

3 slices canadian bacon, diced

1/2 pt grape tomatoes

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 package cooked lentils

1 c baby spinach, roughly chopped

1/4 - 1/3 c reduced fat feta, crumbled

salt

pepper

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a skillet. Add shallot and saute for 1 minute before adding canadian bacon. Cook until bacon starts to brown and then add tomatoes, stir, and cover for 2 minutes.

Add lentils and reduce heat to medium low for 4 minutes. Stir in spinach and cover for 1-2 minutes. Stir in feta and add salt and pepper to taste.

Now this is one of the few times where I prefer reduced-fat feta. For some reason, I like the texture it has in this dish.

The goods:

1. Super simple and easy dinner.
2. Pre-cooked lentils are staying on my grocery list.
3. Made enough for dinner AND lunch.
4. The Norton Malbec was only $8 and reminded me of the two or three Norton bottles Jamie and I stashed in our suitcases upon our return from Buenos Aires a few years ago.

The bad: Do I need to repeat the bad summer roll? Done.

Man, that was a ton at once. I'll have to leave you guys with that for now. More tomorrow!

I'm heeere!!

I made it to San Francisco safe and sound :)

V dropped me off at Dulles and I kept my cool until I dropped my bags off...all 100 lbs, plus at least a 30 lb carry-on! I started walking toward security and got a little verklempt - it was finally starting to hit me. I was flying out on a one way ticket. I had packed up our entire apartment and left the only city I have known in my entire adult life. WTF was I doing?!

After my spastic day of last minute packing/tossing and my emotional outburst, I hoofed it over to the Gordon Biersch in an adjacent concourse. I was still craving ruffage so I went with the Grilled Chicken Cashew Salad (Artichoke hearts, tomatoes, cashews and feta cheese with Märzen Balsamic Vinaigrette) and the Gordon Biersch Märzen (a smooth, auburn colored Bavarian lager with a mildly sweet malty finish). That was totally an accident. I just thought it was a regular Balsamic when I ordered haha.

Also an accident - the massive salad that appeared on my table

not to mention the huge beer - pretty sure I didn't ask for the large.

I ended up eating most of the salad and only taking a few sips of beer. I remembered about halfway through that lots of ruffage and bubbles are NOT good for plane rides. No they are not.

The salad was pretty good, even mixed up with the dressing (I'm usually an 'on the side' sort of girl). Also, there was definitely goat cheese in my salad, not feta...and I liked it. The beer was tasty and refreshing as well...if only it was the regular size and I wasn't flying. Oh well.

Next thing you know, I'm boarding a plane and napping. Jamie snagged me a window seat, so when I woke up awhile later, I was greeted with this:

I thought it was a fun picture to take.

I popped out of bed around 7am PST and tried to catch up on blogs before heading out on some errands. Turns out Trader Joe's doesn't open until 9am, so I killed some time at Cafe Capriccio. I've grabbed coffee and a bagel here before, but this was my first time sitting for a leisurely breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of a pretty large mug of coffee and a beautiful bowl of Granola (with milk, bananas and strawberries).

It was a filling and nice change from the PB&J toasts I've been having! I was SO happy to see all that fresh fruit :)

After breakfast, I moseyed on over to Trader Joe's to pick up some produce essentials for my veggie packed week. I saw this package of baked tofu and decided to give it a shot:

I was intrigued by this "savory" flavor. Hi, vague name. Did some more errands and maybe took a nap mid-afternoon before making dinner...a HUGE salad:

Sliced up some of the tofu and mixed it up with some romaine and arugula blend, black beans, corn, feta, grape tomatoes, avocado and dressed it with a few spoonfuls of this:

OMG. Sweet and a hint of spice and tang. It went perfectly with all the stuff on my salad. Check out how colorful and pretty it is!

Exactly what I needed. I needed ruffage so badly and this hit the spot. The "savory" baked tofu was a little too salty for my taste. I can actually feel the puffiness happening in my fingers as I type.

I know, I know, a lame first day, but I had to adjust! My first batch of boxes arrived today so tomorrow I'll be sorting/reorganizing since I'll be moving in a month to a permanent home. I'm hoping to make some room in my day to take one of the walks in my new book :) Anyone with suggestions for places to go, things to see, food to eat, send them my way!