365 Days of Awesome @ashleytate-blog - Tumblr Blog

117. Spaghetti and Meatball Bird's Nests

Paleo, oh paleo, how I love you paleo. You force me to be so creative with my cooking even though I'm tempted to order pizza or Chinese every single weeknight. Thank you for being the reason I don't eat MSG and weigh 400 pounds, you are amazing :)

Your paleo recipe of the week is a twist on spaghetti and meatballs because let's face it, spaghetti and meatballs are snooze-ville. Introducing: Spaghetti and Meatball Bird's Nests!

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash, cut in half lengthwise with seeds removed

1lb grass-fed ground beef

1 (14oz) can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried thyme

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise, use a spoon to remove the seeds and excess threads. Place spaghetti squash cut side down on a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Don't overcook or it gets soggy.

Place your ground beef into a large bowl and add 1/2 tablespoon of parsley, basil, and thyme and a bit of salt and pepper. Combine.

Make your ground beef into small bite-sized meatballs.

Place a large skillet under medium heat. Add coconut oil and meatballs.

Add your can of tomato sauce, extra herbs, and salt and pepper.

After meatballs have cooked for about 3-4 minutes, flip them and let them simmer in the sauce.

While the meatballs are cooking through, remove your spaghetti squash from oven and use a fork to dethread the squash.

Turn oven down to 350 degrees.

Add your spaghetti squash threads to eat silicone cup, pressing down in the middle of the cup for the meatball to sit.

Once the meatballs are done cooking, remove them from the sauce, and place each one in a muffin tin.

Top each of your "nests" with the leftover sauce.

Bake for 18-20 minutes. Consume!

Filling the tins with spaghetti squash.

Into the oven they go!

Delicious nests of squashy-goodness!

#paleo #recipe

116. Go to Barolo

I love my friends. Not only have they been willing to help me take ridiculous pictures and get dragged on ludicrous adventures for the sake of this blog, but they are supportive enough to keep our girl’s nights new and exciting rather than going to the same old bar for the millionth week in a row. Their suggestions have been vital to my resolution’s success, and I just love them for it.

Now, onto the main event. This week’s girl’s night was held at Barolo in Belltown. Barolo is a cute little place where men in fancy suits go after work to spend way too much money on glasses of wine they tote around in their Rolex-adorned hands (sans wedding ring of course, as men cut from this particular cloth will never admit it). However, Barolo has a BOMB happy hour menu, so we decided to try our luck.

The verdict? We dined among a sea of upper crust Seattleites with whom we did not fit in, but the atmosphere was too relaxed for us to care. The service was great, food was delicious, drinks were strong, and company was amazing. I’d go to Barolo again as long as I have my girlfriends in tow.

#restaurant #seattle #girl's night

115. Complete a TABATA Workout

Yes, yes, another crossfit post. Today’s class was a TABATA workout which I had only heard of but never tried. TABATA is a workout series of high-intensity cardio training with varied intervals. Rather than working out for hours and hours to reach a cardio peak, the TABATA workout can be completed in as little as four minutes while allowing you to achieve the same results. This type of workout falls perfectly in line with the crossfit mantra of workout smarter, not harder,

Our TABATA workout consisted of a series of air squats, situps, pushups, and a 400m run just for fun. We did each exercise for 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off, repeating 8 times per exercise (minus the run, this was only three sets in between exercises). It took about 20 minutes to get through the entire workout rather than pounding out two hours of intense cardio. So how did I feel after my first TABATA workout? Like I’ve never worked out harder IN.MY.LIFE. I can’t wait until this workout is on the board again!

#health #crossfit #fitness

110-114. Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

My dear friend Maggie got married in Texas this weekend, and I was lucky enough to stand by her side to watch her and her now-husband Taylor tie the knot as a bridesmaid in their wedding party. Maggie’s whirlwind wedding weekend (well, wedding week, really) gave me plenty of opportunities for awesome new things. This post serves as a summary of the awesomeness that was my weekend in Texas, complete with “dressed” beers, guns, Walmart, rednecks, and a wide assortment of other stereotypical Texas occurrences. ‘Merica.

Erin, the beautiful bride Maggie, and the author of this crazy blog.

The happy couple!

Go to San Antonio: Despite the massive size of good ‘ol Texas, I’ve only visited once to Ft. Worth. I drove (yes, drove, I couldn’t tell you why) from Arizona with my family when I was about 10, and my memories consist mostly of reading a ton of books and hanging out with my aunt and uncle’s dogs. Basically, it’s safe to assume I know nothing about Texas.

We flew into San Antonio and made a few stops throughout the weekend to various wedding events. My impression after spending some time in the city of S-A? There are lots of republicans who talk about Jesus and wear cowboy hats, fast food restaurants and massively obese people are abundant (Correlation? Yes.), you have to drive at least 45 minutes to get anywhere, and all of America’s mosquitos have gathered and decided to try to overthrow the state due to its poor judgement of...well...everything. Let’s just say I did not fit in here. Oh Texas.

This is what happens when you bring the city to the country. 'Merica.

Get a rental car: You know the phrase “everything’s bigger in Texas?” Every single part of this sums up my rental car experience.

Our flight from Seattle landed in San Antonio around midnight, so Ian and I were a bit late in getting to the rental car pick up. My best friend works for Enterprise and had set us up with a sweet rental package, so I wasn’t feeling pressured by time. I had requested a simple compact car with limited bells and whistles as we weren’t going to be needing it much, and seeing as this was the first time I’d ever rented a car in my life, I assumed that it was a simple “get pretty much what you ordered because you made a reservation” process. I was so, so wrong.

Due to the fact we arrived at the rental car pickup so late, Alamo (the sister company we had ordered our car through) was fresh out of cars - except for one: a 15 passenger fleet van.

We weighed our options and decided that huge-ass wheels were better than zero wheels, so we signed the extra paperwork (there is a form you have to sign when renting a fleet van warning you that it can flip if you “exceed maximum speeds of 60mph”...not even joking), went out to the lot, and drove up our tremendously colossal bus out into the open San Antonio night. If you order a compact car, you get upgraded to a 15 passenger fleet van. Everything’s bigger in Texas.

Watch out for hop-ons.

Go to a wedding rehearsal: Wedding rehearsals are an awesome time to meet family members, get to know the rest of the wedding party, and party your face off the night before a wedding that’s not yours. This is the first wedding rehearsal I had ever attended, and it lived up to all of the above expectations and then some. I had such an amazing time!

The bride and her bridesmaids celebrating one last night of singleton-ville.

Be a bridesmaid in a friends wedding: I’m officially entering the time of my life where all of my friends are getting married. I’m lined up to be a bridesmaid in another of my best friend’s wedding next year, and I’ve recently had two other close friends get engaged in the last month. Despite the fact that it’s terrifying, it’s exciting to come to terms with the fact that we are actually growing up...some of us, anyways. I still laugh at fart jokes.

Maggie was the first of my closest friends to actually tie the knot, and I was honored to play such a huge role in making her day as special as it could be. She was a beautiful bride and I had an amazing time getting to spend the last few hours of her “single life” with her. Cheers to Maggie and Taylor!

Getting ready for the main event.

Our pre-wedding outfits were awesomely hot.

Go to a frequent flier club: In my 79th post (link) I signed up for my first ever frequent flier miles. Since I am now part of an exclusive and elite airport club (joking, so joking) coupled with the fact that Ian has more frequent flier miles than any normal person should have, we decided to spend our layover time in the American Airlines frequent flier club rather than waiting at the terminal.

I had always pictured airport clubs as a place for snobby businessmen to relax with free swag that cost them far too much money to gain access to in the first place, but again, my assumption was incorrect. The club was super cozy and relaxing, and I did not feel like a homeless outcast amongst the rich and famous at all. Plus we were able to doze in peace throughout our four hour layover rather than having to worry about random people stealing our luggage. Airport clubs are the best.

Sleepy Ian in the comfy club chairs.

#Weddings #Texas

109. Fold Shirts Like Martha

I would not consider myself a domestic goddess in any way, shape, or form, and folding laundry is definitely not my specialty. I fold laundry so that it fits where I need to put it rather than to make my drawers aesthetically beautiful, and that’s about where my laundry folding abilities stop. I’ve always assumed that my folding strategies were quick and functional, and anything more would be a waste of my precious time spent away from my computer. I don’t take that shit lightly.

However, today I was informed that there might be an easier way to fold my t-shirts that would not only save me time, but make my shirts look stupid awesome. I checked out the video, practiced the technique a few times, and decided I’m never going back to folding laundry the same way again.

Behold, the best way to fold laundry of all time. You’re welcome.

108. Be Comfortable with Gaining Weight

I’m not a big girl by any means, but I’ve always been weight conscious. I grew up competitively dancing and cheerleading and, let’s face it, if you gained a pound in a place where you shouldn’t, you’d immediately get “the talk.” My coaches were always big players in the Arizona competition scene and didn’t care if you were 8 or 18; gaining weight was a no-no, and I was always obsessed with keeping mine in check. This mentality, coupled with the fact that I’m a competitive perfectionist who always had to be in the front of the routine to be happy, meant that I was careful to never pack on the pounds, regardless of what that meant. Not the most conducive environment to fostering a young girl’s healthy body image, but it worked.

I’m naturally pretty thin, but in college my weight plummeted for about a year to around 95-98 pounds. This is the point in my life I would title “scary skinny Ashley.” I was working out 20+ hours a week because of pom practice and was dieting on top of it, and I felt on top of the world...until my friends pointed out how worried they were.

Scary skinny Ashley in hiding. Gross.

I took a healthier approach for the last two years of college and returned to “normal skinny Ashley” at a decent 105 pounds (at 5’0 feet, this is a perfectly acceptable, healthy weight). I felt good, was happy with my appearance, and finally felt I had hit a target weight and daily routine that I could stick with.

Healthy and happy in 2009.

Although I hit the gym almost every day throughout majority of my college career due to pom, after college I hit a plateau. I moved to a brand new city, started working a real 9-5, and was completely over staying in shape. For over a year I had no desire to set foot in a gym, and the idea of working out on my own was laughable. My body weight had been at the forefront of my every move for the last 22 years of my life, and I had had enough. I wanted a break from caring so much about my appearance, so I took one. My carelessness started to show quickly, and I soon became quite a few pounds heavier (about 15 of them) and a LOT more depressed.

Holy weight gain #1.

Holy weight gain #2. That beer definitely helped.

Fast forward another year, add in a few life changes, throw in a touch of self-realization and motivation, and I started caring about my weight again. This time my approach was different - I didn’t want to obsess and scrutinize myself all over again. This mentality might have worked while growing up, but it was never a mentally - or physically - healthy way to stay in shape. I changed my diet, got back into yoga and running, and my appearance started to change for the better. I was back on track.

I took up Crossfit in January and changed my diet pretty drastically, and I’ve kept track of my weight over the last few months. I started at a solid 108lbs and lost a couple pounds quickly, but at the beginning of April I was back to 108. I’ve been pleasantly pleased with how my body’s been looking lately, so on Wednesday I decided to weigh myself again. I expected to have lost another few pounds, but the scale read 113. I started freaking out. “How the hell is this possible!” I kept thinking to myself, “Literally all I do is workout and eat healthy food! WTF!”

And then it hit me: I, for the first time in my life, gained healthy weight in a healthy way. I feel strong, am able to get through epic cardio workouts, and can honestly tell you I’ve never been happier with how I’ve looked even though I’m far from “scary skinny Ashley.” I stopped being upset immediately after realizing this. It took 24 years to get here, but I finally feel comfortable gaining weight. Hells yes.

I weigh the same in this picture as Holy Weight Gain #2. Crossfit for the win.

#Health

107. Apple Glazed Chicken Breast

Not breakfast, but still paleo and delicious. Super simple and makes lunch leftovers for the next day, which is always bomb. You can also do this recipe with turkey which is how it was created originally, but we had a bunch of chicken and I’m cheap.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

1/2 cup apple juice

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 Tbs fresh tarragon, minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbs coconut oil

Directions

Combine the apple juice, chicken stock, garlic, tarragon and ginger together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Season both sides of chicken breasts with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add coconut oil.

Sear each cutlet 1-2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place on plate and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium and add apple juice mixture to pan.

As the sauce comes to a boil add the turkey cutlets back to the pan. Simmer until sauce reduces and turkey is fully cooked.

#Paleo #recipe

106. Cranberry Sweet Potato Breakfast Cakes

Your paleo-approved recipe of the week is yet another breakfast idea, because I sometimes only want to eat breakfast food all day. When I say sometimes I mean all times. Breakfast recipes are the best.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 tablespoons fresh or dried parsley

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 red onion, sliced thin

3 egg whites, beaten

6 eggs (or more if needed)

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoon oil

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Use a fork to poke holes all around each one of your sweet potatoes.

Throw the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, throw in the oven, and bake for 25-35 minutes or until soft to the touch.

In a large bowl, add your sweet potatoes and use a fork or masher to mash the sweet potatoes until smooth. Add your dried cranberries, parsley, onion, and salt and pepper.

Mix thoroughly then taste to see if you want to add any more spices.

Now add 3 egg whites that were beaten to your sweet potatoes and mix well.

Make 6 or more patties from your sweet potato mixture.

Heat up a large skillet under medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil in it, then add your patties. Cook on each side for 3-5 minutes or until they have a nice outside crisp to them.

Now grease a 8×8 glass baking dish or whatever works for you then add your cooked patties to baking dish.

Use a spoon to push down in the middle of each patty just enough that when you crack an egg on top, it will stay on your patty.

Crack eggs directly on top of sweet potato cakes.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until yolk is cooked to preference.

While the eggs are baking, add your sliced onions directly to your hot greased skillet and let those caramelize in the meantime.

Top caramelized onions on top of baked eggs on sweet potato cakes. Hot sauce it if you want (this always means yes for me). Eat!

#paleo #recipe #breakfast

105. Go Indoor Skydiving

Continuing the birthday celebration weekend, I decided to take Ian indoor skydiving for his present (edit: yes, I am an awesome girlfriend). There were a few reasons why indoor skydiving sounded attractive to me: you get to wear a squirrel suit, it’s an adrenaline rush that doesn’t require jumping out of a real airplane (Ian hates flying), plus who doesn’t want to get blown around at 110mph in a wind tunnel pretending they are flying? Answer: nobody. Everybody wants to fly. This is a childhood dream come true.

We headed down to iFly in Renton for our big skydiving debut. I’ve been skydiving before, but this experience was equally if not more awesome in so many ways that it’s better just to show you than tell you. I’m adding our sweet video to come, so make sure to come back and check it out

#Seattle #Skydiving

104. Go to Olivar

You know how you can walk by a place a billion times and never think to go into it? You find yourself passing by, thinking “hmmm this place looks awesome, I really need to check it out soon” but yet the days, weeks, months pass and you never seem to put any effort towards actually following up on your curiosity. I do this ALL the time, and as part of my 2012 project I decided to quit saying “someday” and actually give the shops and restaurants I walk by every day a chance.

It was Ian’s birthday and I wanted to take him out to dinner to celebrate at a restaurant we pass by almost every day called Olivar. The restaurant has lots of good reviews, but it’s easy to miss it if you aren’t walking right by. This hole in the wall is right down the street from the house, so we walked over for dinner before meeting with friends later that night.

The Olivar verdict? This place is ADORABLE and the food is INCREDIBLE. They serve Spanish and French inspired cuisine with a wine list that is to die for. Our waiter was extremely sweet, the atmosphere was relaxed, and our short dinner turned into over a 2 hour meal because we were having so much fun. Olivar will definitely get a second visit from me :)

#Seattle #Restaurant

103. Make A Paleo Birthday Cake

Birthdays are absolutely pointless without cake, and I wanted to make sure that Ian’s birthday was uber meaningful this year in every way. That meant rising to the challenge of making a birthday cake that was not only delicious, but also Paleo. I’m happy to announce that not only was this cake the cutest thing that’s ever come out of my kitchen, but it tasted pretty damn amazing. Behold, the Paleo German Chocolate Torte birthday cake!

Ingredients

Chocolate Torte

6 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup coconut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

Chocolate ganache

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

2 tablespoons coconut butter

Topping

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Chocolate Torte

Preheat oven to bake at 350.

In a large mixing bow, combine eggs, maple syrup, coconut butter, and vanilla. Blend until smooth.

Add coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda to the bowl, and continue to blend until batter is smooth.

Lightly grease a circular cake pan with coconut spray.

Pour batter into the pan, and smooth the top with a spatula. The batter is think, so you will have to work with it a bit.

Bake chocolate cake for 30-35 minutes, and remove from oven to cool.

Chocolate Ganache

Melt chocolate chips on low heat, stirring often.

When chocolate is completely melted, add in the coconut butter and stir until all is combined.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Final Cake Assembly

Once the cake has cooled, remove from pan and place on a platter.

Slowly pour the cooled ganache over the cake.

Sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Garnish with a drizzle of left over ganache if desired.

Keep refrigerated until served.

Top with candles, sing a song, and EAT!

#paleo #recipe

102. Welcome Someone New to Seattle

The Seattle Freeze: a social phenomenon of superficial friendliness that is widely practiced throughout the Puget Sound area. The notion that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to make friends in a city where the locals are as cold as the terrain 9 months out of the year. The constant state of the “have a nice day, but do it somewhere else” mentality. The myth of the Seattle Freeze can be described in many ways, but one word above all other sums it up: cold. Seattleites can have a tendency to be cold.

I, like all other transplants to this incredible city, have undoubtably experienced the so-called Seattle Freeze at least once since relocating. When I moved to Seattle two years ago, I was lucky enough to meet a group of people at work who were my age and had similar interests. I made friends quickly and fell into my normal Arizona routine of girl’s nights, shopping trips, and hanging out at the homes of my new Seattle friends. But one fact stood out: not one of my new Seattle friends was actually from Seattle. We were ALL transplants. California, Idaho, Texas, New Jersey, New York. We came from all over the place where we were popular in college, had tons of friends, and felt on top of the world only to end up in a city where not one of us could make friends with any locals despite how hard we tried. I joined groups, went to meetups, and branched out to no avail; friendship with Seattleites was unpenetrable to me. This trend continued for some time, and it took me about 7 or 8 months before I could truly say I had made one good Seattle friend.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to rag on this city or its citizens because I am head over heels in love with Seattle. It’s my home, and strangely enough I get defensive when people talk badly about it. However, I do believe that Seattle locals can have a passive-aggressiveness about them that I haven’t encountered anywhere else; the Freeze is not as bad as we make it out to be, but it is real. But above all, I believe that the Freeze can melt if you give it time. The friends I’ve met since my “melting of the Freeze” stage have been worth every part of feeling like a lonely loser with no friends for months.

Once your Freeze melts, you meet people who want to to go Warrior Dash with you.

And who want you to support their work events.

And who want to throw tomatos at you. *Edit: you are, at this point after the melted Freeze, allowed to throw them back.

Because making new friends despite the Freeze is one experience I will never forget, I jumped at the chance to welcome someone new to Seattle. We went to happy hour after work one sunny afternoon and talked about the city, how she was adjusting, what she missed about back home, and how the Freeze could (edit: it was) rear its ugly head. I told her my story and hoped that my insane amount of love for this city would give her some encouragement to stick it out and give Seattle time. The people in this city might seem intimidating and cold at first, but if you're patient and resilient you'll find an extra layer of awesomeness here you're just not going to find anywhere else. Seattle is the best city on earth, but it won’t happen overnight. You’ve got to give the Freeze time to melt and, once it does, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

#seattle

101. Download PairSpark

Relationships, no matter how worthwhile and amazing, can be tough. Regardless of how much you value your partner and their interests or how healthy and wonderful your relationship is, it’s nearly impossible to remember every single activity, desire, and hobby your lovely SO is passionate about. We’re all guilty of getting caught up in work and life stress, and it can be easy to slip into the awful habit of putting the most important person in your life second to the bajillion emails you still haven’t gotten to at 10pm when he wants to relax and watch Arrested Development reruns (ok so maybe this is my personal example, but I have a feeling most of you can relate). Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy, integrated way to keep our relationship “sparks” alive during a busy day that gave us an opportunity to laugh, love, and learn about our partners without overhauling our already insane schedules? The phrase “there’s an app for that” has never been truer than when it comes to PairSpark, the app for couples.

PairSpark is an app that helps couples communicate and get closer through playing a mobile board game. Your moves are driven by Challenges (answering questions about each other that are cute, funny, whatever) and Sparks (real world activities that you and your partner enjoy) and at the end of the game, both players receive a Reward (literally anything you and your partner decide on) that they selected before the game began. Once the game is complete, you and your partner can cash in on the chosen Reward, whether it’s a date night, kind gesture, or something a little saucier. The most clever part of this game? You win by helping each other out across the board to “meet in the middle.” A nice play on words to describe the success of any relationship: compromise.

Ian and I downloaded the app and have played a few games, and it’s actually working. The app gives us a few minutes a day to connect, laugh at each other, and win things (this last part is awesome because we’re both competitive as hell). Basically, the app makes us make time for the little things. Seeing as we both work for startups, our days, nights, occasional early mornings, and most weekends are jam-packed with email, industry events, meetings, and networking. When we’re not at work, we talk about work. When we’re not talking about work, we’re thinking about it. It’s a sad, sad cycle sometimes, but we’ve both been lucky to find passions early in life that are important to us, and our love for technology and creation brings us closer. Most of the time. Sometimes it would be nice to feel a little more like a normal couple that doesn’t talk about SEO trends and that day’s blog posts of our favorite business minds over dinner, and that’s where the app has been the most awesome for our relationship.

If you’re dating someone, you should download this app to experience something new with your partner. You get to play a game with a cool interface, come up with creative ideas to do with each other when you win (the sky’s the limit here), and you’ll probably learn a few things about each other along the way, no matter how long you’ve been together. PairSpark = awesome.

#app #ios #relationships

100. Make Paleo Bread

Bread is my weakness. Always has been, always will be. When I was single it was not uncommon for me to buy a loaf of warm, freshly made bread from Whole Foods and eat the entire thing by itself for dinner. Calorie counting and cat lady-like habits aside, bread for dinner nights were some of my favorite meals, even though they were slightly pathetic in a lonely bachelorrette kind of way. I love bread.

Now that I am no longer allowing myself to resort to my disgusting single person habits that fall in line with the idea of “I don’t need to do dishes because nobody can see” and “it’s only 5 donuts if someone is counting,” coupled with the fact that I’ve adopted the Paleo diet into my lifestyle, my bread indulgence habit has been significantly cut down over the last few months. And when I say cut down, what I actually mean is cut out. Bread is a big Paleo no-no, and it’s taken me awhile to come to terms that the soft, savory goodness that is a loaf of freshly-made French bread can no longer have control over my heart...and stomach, for that matter. Time to improvise with the next best thing: Paleo bread.

It took me a few tries, but I’ve finally found a respectable Paleo-friendly recipe that rivals any traditional bread I’ve tried. It’s easy to make, delicious with jam or almond butter, and only takes about 30 minutes. Give it a try if you dare, and please don’t judge me if I eat an entire loaf for dinner.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups blanched almond flour

2 tablespoons coconut flour

¼ cup flaxseed meal

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

5 eggs

¼ cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place almond flour, coconut flour, flax, salt, and baking soda in a blender. Mix ingredients together.

Then blend in your eggs, oil, honey, and vinegar.

Pour the batter into a greased 7 ½-by-3 ½-inch loaf pan. I used coconut oil cooking spray as it's the best invention ever.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Eat!

#paleo #recipe

99. Celebrate Easter with Friends

From one confusing religious holiday to the next, this weekend was full of celebration for all. My family is Christian so I celebrated Easter during my childhood, but after graduating from college I don’t think I’ve celebrated the occasion once. I don’t seek out celebrating biblically-inspired holidays in April unless otherwise prompted, and Easter fell into that category along with our previous evening’s Seder.

My dear friend Courtney was hosting Easter dinner at her new house and invited us to join in the festivities with a group of our close friends. As none of these peeps are religious either, it was more of an impromptu Sunday Funday party that just happened to fall on a religious holiday - therefore, it was an Easter Funday party.

Courtney made an amazing dinner complete with a honey baked ham, tons of traditional sides, delicious desserts, and more champagne and fruit-based beverages than we could handle. The amazing spread coupled with the uncharacteristically warm Seattle sun lead to us enjoying our Easter Sunday outside in the yard playing with the dog, spending quality time with great friends, and enjoying life. Maybe, just maybe, that’s really what these holidays are all about :)

#Easter

98. Participate in Seder

Passover was approaching over the last few weeks, but it didn’t mean much to me. I’m not religious in any way so I had no plans other than to cross my fingers for some sun, take a mental break from my computer, brainstorm some new ideas for the blog, and make delicious breakfast food as weekend brunch is my favorite thing on earth. My boring weekend plans were interrupted by Ian when he suggested we participate in the Seder his friends were hosting on Saturday. Ian is Jewish and celebrates Passover every year, and he knows I usually jump at chances to involve myself in events outside of my cultural norms. I figured Seder would be a good opportunity to learn more about his family traditions, plus religious celebrations typically include a butt load of delicious food, so I happily agreed to tag along. After RSVPing for both of us, I asked him, “So, what’s Seder?” Crickets. And then laughter. And then lots and lots of learning ensued.

I won’t get into all the details, but Seder is an event that is so heavily based on Jewish tradition that I don’t think I’d ever be able to understand it all, even if I someday converted. I learned the story, taught myself the questions (especially after I was told I’d have to read them out loud with the other Seder newbie), and was prepped by the pro on all of the “what to expect when you’re expecting Seder” points as much as I could. We also made a dish called Haroset that was bomb, and I’m kind of hoping we don’t have to wait until next year to make it again.

Although the events leading up to Seder were fun, the actual Seder dinner was awesome. Ian’s friend hosted and the table was gorgeous, food was incredible (she literally spent all week cooking), and company was fantastic. The entire night was filled with laugher, lots of slightly-butchered passages read in Hebrew, and more wine than we could handle. Literally, you have to drink 4 glasses of wine at this thing. JUST at dinner. These peeps know how to party. We skipped through the longer sections of the traditional readings throughout dinner but still went through a ton of rituals, and I was only confused for about 75% of the time. Oh, and we sang a hilarious song called “Dayenu” that I’m pretty sure was not sung to tradition, but it was by far my favorite part.

I’m really glad that I participated in Seder. It was great to learn about another culture, especially one that has so much meaning to the person I’m closest with. It was also pretty cool that nobody thought I was weird for participating and not being Jewish. This was the first time I participated in a Jewish event, and I surely hope it’s not my last!

Among the fascinating parts of Seder I'm not sure I understand. Loved it.

#Seder #Passover

97. Go to Cinebarre

One new thing I’ve wanted to experience since moving to Seattle was one of those “dinner and a movie” theaters that the city is so well-known for. Arizona doesn’t offer anything similar, and the idea of eating dinner and drinking a beer that you didn’t sneak into the movie theater in your purse has always intrigued me.

I finally got the chance to experience this super-sophisticated type of “dinner and a movie” by going to Cinebarre. We decided to see the newest installment of a 90’s classic and went to see “American Reunion.” (Note: Anyone who was grew up with the “American Pie” series has to see this movie, it’s seriously hilarious...although it did make me feel a little bit old.) After taking our seats in the theater, a waiter took our drinks and dinner order and our meal arrived as the opening credits began to roll.

Enjoying dinner and drinks while watching a movie in the theater was sort of awesome, but not as awesome as I thought it would be. The waiters running around throughout the show were mildly distracting, and neurotic me was worried about enjoying my meal too loudly as I was surrounded by a bunch of movie-watching strangers. Also, the theater sort of smelled like beer. Not an experience I’m too stoked about when I pay $11 for one movie ticket. I’d go back to Cinebarre again, but I’d prefer to keep my dinner and a movie experiences separate next time.

#Seattle

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