Category Archives: yoga

Pickled Plans

I got the snow I was hoping for last night!

Sadly, by the morning I was wishing it was gone because my plan of yoga at the gym and coffee with girl-friends got interrupted.

I still had a great morning though.  It started by throwing together some pickled carrots.  I was inspired by this recipe I found in Bon Appetit a few days ago.  My dad always makes pickled carrots from his garden crop and I love them so I was excited to try a quick version.  The recipe called for lots of things that I didn’t have so I improvised a lot. 🙂

Ingredients were gathered

I even braved the snow to dig out some rosemary, the star ingredient in my dad’s recipe.

Carrot spears packed into pint jars with rosemary, oregano, chili flakes, and garlic cloves

The brine of water, apple cider vinegar, sugar, and salt was heated to dissolve the sweet and salty and poured into the jars

The jars got lids and set into the fridge.  Tomorrow they will be ready to eat and they will keep in the fridge for up to a week.  I am hoping for a super strong rosemary flavor!

I am so excited for all the interest in Kefir Soda!  There was so much interest that I decided to to a step-by-step guide to making it as well as answering some commonly asked questions.  It will be posted on Saturday.

After pickling and breakfast I bundled up for a walk in the snow and a rendezvous.

I spy…

You don’t see her?

Look closer.

Kath and I left our houses at the same time and met somewhere in the middle.

After crunching around in the snow and sunshine for about an hour we made our way back to her house for 60 minutes of Dave yoga love.  My painting and Pilates muscles are talking to me today so it was perfect to work through some tightness/fatigue with yoga.

Kath invited me to stay for lunch, and although I should know better than to ever turn down a meal at the KERF house, it was time to head home.  Tate and I are planning a Grand Opening at Core next month and there’s lots of work to be done!

Got any questions about Kefir Soda?  Send them my way so I can include them in Saturday’s post!

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Filed under cooking, Fermented Food, food, gardening, recipes, yoga

Mindlessly Mindful

Many of the circumstances surrounding “my” insomnia elude me.

Turns out reading Runners World before bed is not one of them.  I am totally convinced that reading about running and races before bed on Sunday night made me lie totally wide awake all night, just waiting until morning so I could get moving.  Won’t be doing that again!

Needless to say, I spent yesterday morning feeling pretty spacey and sleepy.  The first half of the day was spent mindlessly tinkering around the kitchen, making kimchi and yogurt and organizing.

Kimchi!

After a morning of trying to ignore my mind and body (both too tired to bother with), the afternoon was all about the mind-body connection.  Yoga and Pilates Reformer at the gym.  Both were delightful and glorious and throughly enjoyable.

The teacher for the Reformer class was new to me and a total hard-ass, she cut me down to size!  As a dancer and aerobics instructor I am used to  being at the top of the class with form and coordination and balance (not to brag but I’ve got A LOT of experience after all).

This class was a style of Pilates (Stott) that I have only taken one class in previously and she was on my sh**!  It was awesome because it made me work harder and learn a few things.

After weeks of a hot oats obsession, breakfast today was a little something different.

Quinoa, 2 hard-boiled eggs, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos, and chili flakes.  This bowl packs a serious protein and B vitamin punch, both great to start the day energized and alert.  It was very satisfying and tasty although I will probably go back to oats tomorrow (because I am already kind of craving them :)).

I haven’t been updating you on my “cleanse” but it’s going great.  The plan was to completely clear my diet of refined grains, alcohol, and refined sugar and limit flour and coffee.  I have cheated on all of the first three, a few bites of Tate’s pizza, a splash of wine and a sip of beer, and an AMAZING chocolate thing at the gallery stroll.   The important thing is that I gave each of these slips a lot of thought rather than just mindlessly imbibing.  And enjoyed every taste.

I’ll admit it though, I am looking forward to a juicy glass of red wine next week!

The coffee thing has been easy and good for me, I plan to stick with 3-4 coffee days per week and tea for the other days.  My energy levels and appetite are definitely more stable when I don’t drink coffee but I am not interested in stopping completely at this point.

We have another fun meal with friends planned for this evening.  Evan and Stephanie are having some folks over for some take out Thai food.  But not just any take-out, apparently the best in the area because they are driving 30 minutes to pick it up!

Remember, if you are missing comment commit you can still join in the fun on Facebook!

 

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Filed under Fermented Food, food, goals, workouts, yoga