30

Well it happened. I turned 30.

On the plus side we spent the day in Napa Valley. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Perfect weather to celebrate my birthday. 

If you're ever in Napa, I highly suggest checking out the donuts at Boon Fly Cafe. I haven't had a full meal there yet but I'm sure it's good too.

Might have had a cupcake or two as well...at the time it seemed like a good idea. The next day I realized it was a big mistake. This gluten free thing is not easy!

We didn't do any wine tasting. It's just not our thing. But had to take a vineyard pic.

There are so many Napa Valley restaurants that I want to try but decided on Bouchon's. It was good but not good enough to keep me from trying a new place next time we're out there. (My favorite Napa Valley restaurant is still Rutherford Grill. Sorry Bouchon.)

Loved seeing the sunshine and the warm weather. It's always nice to venture outside of the city. It certainly was a good way to start my 30's. 

OKC Couchmans

We had a great time visiting the OKC Couchmans earlier this year. It was our first trip to Oklahoma City so we tried all of Bryan & Jill's local favorites and had some good quality time with the fam. 

 I think everyone's tweeting about how much fun we were having. 

Bryan had a lucky night at the Casino. The rest of us were praying for the gamblers souls outside. 

We had some good ole' fashioned fun! You're never too old to play on the playground! 

 And, as a bonus, I got to meet Graham and see Kat! Graham is full of personality. He's such a calm and cool kid with style. He's way cooler than I am. Wish I had a daughter to prearrange their marriage. 

Only Read If Your Interested in Hippie Food Stuff. You've been warned.

This post is a follow up to my last post.

I'm still a noob but thought I'd pass along what I know. Maybe some of my fellow hippies out there (Cassie) can pass along their wealth of information as well:).

I will say, because of the large amount of food processing/blending that I've been doing lately, I did invest in a (reconditioned) Vitamix. I haven't gotten it in the mail yet (boo!) but I think it will be a game-changer.

Coconut Oil
I started my coconut oil obsession pre-diet. For reasons such as these: (check out the full article here)

The first, extra-virgin olive oil is the best monounsaturated fat and works great as a salad dressing. However, olive oil should not be used for cooking. Due to its chemical structure, heat makes olive oil susceptible to oxidative damage. So for cooking, I use coconut oil exclusively.

And polyunsaturated fats, which include common vegetable oils such as corn, soy, safflower, sunflower and canola, are absolutely the worst oils to cook with.

I have tried many of these 101 uses. I won't even tell you some of the uses I've tried, but mostly I use it for cooking, night cream, eye make up remover, lotion, and to shave with. It can be pretty pricey but a friend recommended this site where you can buy in bulk at significantly cheaper prices. I was told to make sure you buy the pale opener if you buy a one or five gallon size.

Almond Flour
I just got my first package of almond flour last week. It is 100% pure skinless almonds so it has a lot of protein and the best part is it makes some delicious chocolate chip cookies THAT ARE DIET FRIENDLY (in moderation...boo). I keep them in the freezer and grab one when I want it. I made a few substitutions. I used melted coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil, honey instead of agave, and 85% dark chocolate just because I had it around. When I'm done testing foods I'd like to try it with melted organic butter at some point and see how that changes the taste. 

Elena's Pantry has been my go-to blog for almond flour cooking and other great recipes as well. She is gluten free and has many dairy free & egg free recipes too. She even has a cookbook about cooking with almond flour which looks good.

I made her fish stick recipe and it was very good. In the comments there are tips for baking them instead of frying.

Also made her Chocolate Cranberry Bars with almonds instead of pecans that are good.  And I really enjoyed her Brownie recipe. I made it pre-diet...it has eggs, but has pretty good ingredients, though a little pricey to make, mostly because it uses a jar of almond butter. Which brings me to my next point...

Almond Butter
This has been my go to snack mostly just on an apple. Brent also likes it on crackers with honey. I'm on the lookout to buy almonds in bulk and make my own almond butter in my Vitamix. Anyone know a good, cheap place to buy almonds in bulk?

Bananas
A staple around here. Mostly in frozen form. I've had the following green smoothie configuration for breakfast for nearly two months straight and am still not tired of it:

1 frozen banana, 1 cup spinach, 5-7 frozen organic strawberries, 1TBSP flaxseed, coconut milk (full fat from the can and/or kind out of the carton).

Desserts
3 desserts I've found that are diet approved (in moderation): banana ice cream, chocolate chia pudding, and the dairy free/gluten free chocolate chip cookies I mentioned above. These Chocolate Chip Cookies look good too and were recommended by a friend but have eggs.  I will be trying them at some point just not now.

Here are some Banana ice cream ideas. My faves right now are the banana + fresh strawberries combination and this one:

Vanilla Soft Serve
1.5 bananas
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (i didn't use this at first but finally bought some and really like it)
1 tsp organic vanilla
3 cubes of ice
2 TBSP water


Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
15 oz can organic full fat coconut milk (this is usually found in a can not carton. i use native forest from whole foods because they don't use bpa's in the can lining).
1 c organic frozen or fresh strawberries 
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/4 c honey
sea salt to fast
2/3c chia seeds (I bought them here for much cheaper than whole foods.)

Cooking Instructions

1. Place coconut milk, strawberries, vanilla, cacoa powder, honey, and salt in a blender. Blend until all ingredients are well blended. 2. Place the chia seeds in a bowl. Pour the chocolate milk over the chia seeds. Stir; allow to sit for 5 minutes, and then stir again. Make sure to break up any clumps that have formed. Cover. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving but overnight is ideal. Garnish: When you are ready to serve garnish with raw unsweetened cocoa nibs, sliced strawberries, and chopped toasted almonds.

Health Benefits of Chia seeds:

Come from the plant Salvia Hispanica which is a member of the mint family. Chia seeds are high in omega-3 fatty acids. They also contain protein, antioxidants, vitamins B, C, and E, calcium, and fiber. A chia seed contains 34% fat, 20% protein, 25%fiber. 2 ounces of chia seeds contains 600mg of calcium, compared to 120mg for a cup of milk! 

So good! I also look forward to trying this Banana Cream Pie when I test egg. It looks SO good! Also want to make these diet friendly (in moderation) recipes: Chocolate Coconut Truffles and coconut ice cream (but need to get our ice cream maker repaired first). 

I've been looking for a good egg substitute and a friend recommended this site of helpful food substitutes.

A couple more sites that I haven't spent too much time on but I think are worth checking out for recipes:

http://nomnompaleo.com
http://www.thefoodee.com/tag/whole30/
http://chowstalker.com/whole30/

Lastly, here is my gluten free/dairy free pinterest board. It's mostly desserts...go figure:) and it's pretty short for now but hopefully will be growing soon.  

I think that's about all I know. Would love to hear your ideas. 

Big Changes Around Here (Not pregnant)

I'll keep the suspense to a minimum and just come out and say that I'm gluten intolerant.

I realize this probably isn't interesting to anyone except my mom (love you mom!) but at the very very least maybe I won't have to answer questions of why I've lost weight when I'm in Texas next time:).

I'd been having mostly mild stomach pains for years and years (I don't even know when it started...pre-high school probably) and finally Brent and Amy convinced me to see a professional about it. It's been quite a process and a pretty big change for me and Brent. Brent has been such a trooper! Love him!

I've been doing a lot of research. Mostly trying to find recipes I can eat. I'm on an even stricter diet for the time being (overseen by a nutritionist). I can't eat: processed foods, added sugar, gluten, dairy, egg, soy, nuts (almonds are allowed), corn, citrus fruit, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant)....so you can see why I'm scouring the internet for recipes. Luckily there are some really delicious recipes out there even with all these restrictions, it just takes time to find them. I'm on these restrictions until I test each food one-by-one to see how my stomach reacts to them. (I've tested gluten and dairy so far)

Most of the recipe blogs I end up reading mention something or other that divert my attention from finding recipes to reading about food and how they effect our bodies. Just thought I'd sharing some of the interesting articles I've come across that have helped educate me a little more (or confuse me a little more:).

The jury's still out for me on a lot of topics although I can say for me I feel better than ever and have noticed improvement in my skin, hair, energy level, and obviously for me my stomach feels so much better. But as far as the research goes there are a lot of different ideas and opinions and even contradicting studies that make it hard to decide what's true. I do know I will need to avoid gluten, though I do cheat for special occasions.

Just saw this one today...
14 Foods You Should Never Eat. A few of these are obvious like McDonald's or diet soda but some might surprise you.

The New York Times article last Sunday about Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food gives an interesting perspective about the produce in our grocery stores. "The United States Department of Agriculture exerts far more effort developing disease-resistant fruits and vegetables than creating new varieties to enhance the disease resistance of consumers."

This one's for my doctor who told me that dairy is the devil. Haha. Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It at All Cost or Why Following the USDA Food Pyramid Guidelines is Bad for Your Health.

I particularly enjoyed the authors sense of humor while challenging the age old idea that dairy prevents bone fractures, his encouragement to get calcium from foods other than milk, and this quote about the USDA food pyramid:  

"Some of the "experts" who helped create the pyramid actually work for the dairy industry, which makes the US Department of agriculture's recommendations reflect industry interests, not science or our best interests." 

I love a good conspiracy theory and how hard is it to believe that there are greedy and powerful people out there trying to keep us consuming their product?...milk is tasty though. 

Man, you guys are gonna think I'm such a hippie! Hope all you're tummies are well! Mine's getting there!

Weekend Getaway: Seattle

Brent had a business trip to Seattle so I joined him for the weekend. It worked out well for me because by the time I got there he already knew his way around town and exactly how to get to the best donut shop in town, Top Pot. He has a talent for finding them.

I am not usually a donut person but it was my first time to have sugar in 4 weeks (more on that later). So I ate every sweet I could like it was my last meal. 

SUGGAARRRR!

more SUGGAARRRR! 

couldn't stop myself...

Seattle is a beautiful city and the weather was just perfect, clear and warm. We did tons of walking. Tons! It was easy enough to get to almost everywhere we went by either walking or taking public transportation.

Our weekend in a nutshell:

Friday I arrived in the late afternoon and rode the Sound Transit lightrail to meet Brent downtown. It was clean, safe, and super easy to figure out...much nicer than SF's subway. We walked to our hotel and found a nice restaurant on the water, Daniel's Broiler.

Saturday we ate breakfast at Lola's, walked to Pike Place Market, the Olympic Sculpture Garden, and Kerry Park for an amazing view of the city. Dinner at Crush. 

Didn't get any pics of the sculpture garden but did get this cool art on the wall inside. 

I don't think I'd go back to the Pike Place Market. It was touristy and the things for sale weren't anything we would buy although their flower bouquets and groceries (produce, fish, meats, etc) looked really good. I was glad we experienced it though. 

Sunday we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island and ate sandwiches on the island at Hitchcock's. We didn't find much more that interested us on the island but the ferry ride back to Seattle has a great view of the Seattle skyline. Afterwards we headed over to Ballard, a Seattle neighborhood, walked around, shopped and found some really good BBQ at Bitterroot and dessert at Hot Cakes. 

Beach Mondays

I love my work schedule: part time in an office environment and part time at home with Brent. Sometimes on a warm and sunny Monday, we take a break from work and just enjoy life. It looks a little like this....

....and then back to the grind.

The Happiest Place On Earth

And we're back to LA...

Since we do enjoy LA and Brent LOVES Disneyland, it only made sense that when our good college friends Jared and Chris called on Saturday to see if we wanted to go to Disneyland on Sunday, we hopped in the car and 5 hours later it was a friend reunion. Maybe some nerding out going on. I think Batman was mentioned a few times. Yada yada. 

And back to Disneyland...

The guys enjoyed planning their picture moments. I was just trying to keep my head attached to my neck. Roller coasters aren't the same when you're (almost) thirty. Chris was doing a bit for his tumblr, I'll Sleep On It. 

The couples at the back seem to have the same idea. 

Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth. Lots of smiling that day. 

And laughing with old friends.  

Yes, we watched Captain EO. Michael Jackson and weird monsters...IN 3-D! What's not to like.  

                            

The tiki room was fun. It was the first time for me. Loved the pineapple juice while we waited for the show. 

Our favorite restaurant is Blue Bayou. This is the view you get while you eat as the Pirates of the Caribbean boats float by and the food is delicious. 

Brent and I rode the carousel. We have to hold on to our youth...since we're THIRTY now. Jared and Chris were too cool for school. They had to talk about retirement funds and capital gains I guess. 

The guys enjoy watching robot Abe Lincoln before we go. I DO NOT enjoy it! All I want to do is take a shower and sleep, it does feel good to sit though. 

It was a very happy (Easter) day even considering all the the screaming kids and frustrated parents! I can see why they call it the happiest place on earth.