Hi friends!

I’m so glad you all enjoyed the first installment of ELR Wine 101!!! Obviously it was just the total tip of the iceberg but hopefully it will inspire you to explore some new stuff! Its funny, even though I have had a *little* training in wine, when I get around someone that REALLY knows their stuff, I feel like I know nothing! There’s just so much to know and explore….its really endless. But that’s what is so interesting and cool about it all!

This morning I ran tons of errands….got some jeans altered, returned some pants from The Limited, bought another Lindt Fleur de Sel bar from the chocolate shop. You know, the obvious. Seriously though, those bars are so good I couldn’t help myself!

For lunch today I made the Middle Eastern Salad from this month’s issue of Cooking Light. It involved some prep work but was oh so worth it! i honestly don’t mind the chopping, dicing and sauteing though. To me, that’s relaxation. I love chopping vegetables in the quiet of my own kitchen. The smells and tastes of different ingredients all forming together to make one stellar meal…amazing.

The salad was comprised of sauteed eggplant (heck yeah for the big bag from Costco!), roasted red peppers and a spicy sauce made from fresh tomatoes, garlic and spices. And obviously, it was bett-a with feta!

On the side, I had a warm whole wheat pita with hummus and a delicious ripe peachie!

Twas a lovely and tasty meal! Definitely make this salad, but give yourself about 45 minutes to do so!

After I digested I hit the gym for a 25 minute cardio sess on the stairmaster, which I have a love-hate relationship with. It was okay though because I was thoroughly absorbed in my “California Wine for Dummies” book. hahaha

Post-workout snack was a Snickers bar—-

Around 5:30 my dad and I went for a glass of wine at a local wine bar. Since the wine of the day is white, I picked a new white I had never heard of before to try!

It was the Domaine Schlumberger Riesling from Alsace, France and it was awesome! Typically German Rieslings are the sweet ones and those from France and the Pacific Northwest are more dry. This did not disappoint. It honestly wasn’t sweet at all and had lovely melon notes in it. My dad tasted mine and loved it so much he ordered it as well!

I LOVE trying new wines I haven’t heard of before. Its a great way to experiment and see what you like and don’t like. I’ve tried random wines at wine bars before that I loved so much that I went immediately out and bought at Total Wine. Plus, it makes for good conversation when you are with dinner guests!

As my dad went to pick up my mom from the airport, I walked home (we were right across the street) and heated up what I had been looking forward to all night long!!

Pizza, pizza, PIZZA! Somehow it tasted even better than last night and I eagerly gobbled down the remaining three slices of my mini goat cheese pizza. The bad part about not having a microwave is that you have to demonstrate self-control and wait until your pizza heats up in the oven!

Dessert was the obvious—

Ryan is teaching me to be a pro at Texas Hold ‘Em because apparently we are playing in Healdsburg. I beat him last night!!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 51 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardio, chocolate, Dinner, Exercise, leftovers, Lunch, musings, pizza, Snack, wine

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Hi guys!

I’m glad you enjoyed my “wine history” post. Tomorrow I will being our five day “Wine 101″ class with a “lecture” on white wine. Hehe In all honesty though, what are some things you would like me to address during the next five days? I’m down for whatever–this should be fun!

This morning I had an AWESOME run. Short, sweet and to the point, I ran two miles at an 8:40 pace on the treadmill and it felt awesome. I had so much energy I could have cranked the speed up even more (must have been the extra sleep) but I didn’t want to re-injure myself so I kept it easy.

Afterwards I stretched and refueled with a half serving of EAS Myoplex.

I was sent this sample to review for the blog and even though its not something I normally drink, I agreed because I like to try new things! EAS Myoplex contains 25 grams of protein and is naturally and artificially flavored. Ingredients include a lot of things I can’t pronounce. Did it taste good? Yes! It tasted like liquid marshmallows—my sweet tooth was happy! Would I buy it again? No. While this might work for some people, it tasted a bit too artificial for my tastes.

When I was in college I drank a TON of these protein drinks but I just feel like I’ve come pretty far in my understanding of nutrition and food in the past few years and I really just don’t like to put things in my body that are artificial and, err, fake. They taste good going down but they leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth that could only come from fake sugar. I’m VERY sensitive to sucralose (the third ingredient listed) and while this didn’t give me a migraine, I actually do have a dull headache right now that I can’t shake. However, Ryan LOVED this stuff so who am I to say!

This is a Morningstar farms black bean burger on Ezekiel bread with red onion, spinach, aged cheddar cheese and all natural ketchup. Aaaaamazing! On the side, I had sugar-free raspberry acai applesauce!

We laid out all afternoon by the pool and I skimmed through my “California Wine For Dummies” book (lol) in the sunshine. Snack was a half cup of whipped cottage cheese with organic canned pears and 2 tbsp MixMyGranola!

Cocktail hour with my last glass of Murphy-Gooooooode

And then tonight was pizza night!!!!!! We picked up Greenwise pizza and it.was.awesome. Ryan and I both were in pizza heaven!

I got a small pizza with goat cheese and mixed veggies—heaven!

I polished off half….gotta save some for tomorrow! I loved the HUGE pillows of goat cheese!!!!

Dessert was two extra dark chocolate Le Petit Ecolier cookies. I adore these.

I’m in a food coma right now but it was worth it!

Time for bed….gotta stock up on my zzzz’s this week!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 48 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardio, chocolate, dessert, Dinner, Exercise, pizza, Snack, wine

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Wow….I don’t even know what to say. It started out really well but then it just downpoured on us all and proceeded to rain off and on for the remainder of the day. We couldn’t control the weather obviously, but what crappy luck!!

I started like this:

And ended like this:

We started this morning around 6:30 with a chocolate GM--I was so tired!

GM made up of 1 scoop chocolate amazing meal, 1 scoop amazing grass wheatgrass, 1 frozen banana, some frozen blueberries, 1 cup almond milk and 1 spoonful peanut butter.

The garage sale was INTENSE and actually rather sad. I am sort of attached to my things and it was really hard for me to watch some of my stuff and my brother’s stuff go for dirt cheap. I know that’s what you sign up for when you have a garage sale but watching my brother’s skateboards and clothes go nearly broke my heart in two.

However, I had some wonderful girls come and cheer me on and give me strength and smiles!

First, there was Anne P!

Anne is coming to BOSTON!!!! Yay!

Then, a surprise visitor came to visit and eat a cupcake—

We let Abbie play with Mikey and Mikan and it was truly a mad house but very amusing to watch! I tried to get a picture but they were racing in circles way too fast. Meghann and I also talked races (serious talk) and I’m super excited to race together this fall….especially the Miracle Miles 15K in Orlando this September!

The bake sale was so cute when it was all set up—

And then when it started to downpour it was a mad scramble to get everything in the garage. In the midst of it all, a woman slipped down our driveway and I thought we were going to have to call 911 but I think she was just a little stunned more than anything. It was totally insane.

I ate two slices of leftover margherita pizza for lunch, while running around like a chicken with its head chopped off

And around 2:00 I finally broke down and ate a carrot cake cupcake! It was SO good!

As for how the bake sale went in all, it was okay. A lot of people had no idea what “vegan” meant and were suspicious of the treats because they were so healthy. The best seller definitely was the blondies but I did sell a few cupcakes as well. In all, I made enough from it to go on a nice little Anthropologie shopping trip and to be honest, I might do just that. I’d love to get a new dress to wear to my cousin’s rehearsal dinner on Friday night!

Near the end, Sarah and her hubby, David, stopped by and I sent her home with cupcakes and books. Ryan and I left around 2:30 because for the most part, it was over and I was soaking wet and shivering. All I wanted was a super hot shower and a mug of hot tea! We didn’t end up selling the microwave so it had to come back home with us (ughhh), and since I didn’t sell some of my old bedroom furniture I’m going to try next on Craig’s List or something. I have the CUTEST vanity set for a little girl that is actually painted wood; I was so sure it would sell today but people were really looking for dirt cheap deals. I was shocked at how low we were forced to go.

I’m currently sitting on the couch sipping hot herbal tea in my fuzzy robe and socks and I’m totally content. Ryan says he is itching to take a walk so we might do that then I’m not sure what for the rest of the day and night.

I hope you all are having a great Saturday!

Murphy-Goode Fact of the Day:

Murphy-Goode began with only two wines in mind: Chardonnay and Fume Blanc. Only later would they realize they needed to expand their repertoire and that they were sitting on a goldmine for some of the best red wines in the country.

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 41 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breakfast, First ELR Bake Sale, leftovers, Lunch, Murphy-Goode, musings, pizza, Snack, vegan baked goods

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Hi!

Well it was definitely another long day in the kitchen over here. We had some power outages due to the storms, so that made it especially tough to bake! However, I persevered and finally everything came together.

Vegan Lavender Walnut Blondies:

Vegan Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Anise Scented Icing:

Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Coconut Icing:

Woot woot! Now I just really hope people buy all this stuff or I’m going to have a TON of delicious baked goods in my kitchen!!!! Dangerous!

The Vegan Lavender Walnut Blondies were the hit of the day. Remember when I was still in culinary school and made a chocolate lavender cake for my practical?

Seems like an eternity ago but the cake was aaaamazing and that’s how I got the idea to make lavender blondies today!

They came out way to good for me to keep the recipe to myself. I started with VeggieGirl’s basic blondies and adapted the recipe by changing the white sugar to brown (for a more caramel flavor) and adding dried lavender buds and chopped walnuts. Very holy yum indeed!

Vegan Lavender Walnut Blondies

Modified from VeggieGirl’s famous blondies!

2 6-ounce coconut milk yogurts, plain or vanilla flavor (I used one of both)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup coarsly chopped walnuts

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp dried lavender buds

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup coconut or canola oil

pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup almond milk, soy milk or cow’s milk

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix together the yogurts, sugar, molasses and oil. Stir well to get rid of any clumps. Sift in the flour, baking soda and sea salt. Stir to combine wet and dry ingredients and then fold in the lavender buds and chopped walnuts.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until golden. Makes about 18 blondies.

The double chocolate cupcakes also came out really, really well. Perhaps I shall post my recipe for those tomorrow night? They literally were the moistest cupcakes I’ve ever made!

To keep myself from eating the entire kitchen, I snacked on an Odwalla bar while I baked—

And later had a cranberry soda for a pick-me-up

And then Ryan and I went out to Paci’s around 8:30. OMG, the pizza was so good! No one could believe it when we EACH ordered our own large pizzas!

Can you guess whose was whose?!

Yep, Ryan got sausage and pepperoni and I got a margherita pizza!! We each ordered our own (large was the only size available) because a) we can’t agree on pizza toppings and b) I wanted a ton of leftover slices to take to my parent’s house for lunch tomorrow!

The margherita pizza was AWESOME. Get this, I ate THREE of those super large slices and I don’t even feel full right now! What is wrong with me?! The crust was just so thin and the cheese was very light. Mmmmm

When I reached for a third slice Ryan goes “who are you??!” But it really was light and not greasy in the slightest bit. And I was hungry….so sue me!!

I also had my first Blue Moon since they only had beer, no wine.

I actually liked it–huge surprise! I’m definitely NOT a beer girl but this was actually refreshing!

No gelato for dessert—-we just rolled our pizza bellies on home.

Elastic waist pants, here I come! Alarm going off at 6:30 for the garage/bake sale tomorrow! If you are in the area, stop by and see me I’ll be out there all day long helping my parents and selling my ware.

G’nite!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 72 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dinner out, pizza, recipes, Snack

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Good morning!

Oh, wow, it was a zoo in our house last night…that’s for sure!!! Our tiny apartment might be a tad too small for three pets and I think now I ruined all my chances of convincing Ryan to get a puppy.

To back up a little bit though, as you know Ryan and I were asked to pet-sit Mikan and Mikey because my parents were spending another night in Vero Beach. Now, Mikan and Dexter get along great but when the little kitty stepped into the picture Dexter immediately transformed into that mean kid on the playground and him and Mikey spent the entire night under the bed growing and hissing at each other. I guess it was because Dexter isn’t used to another cat on his “turf” but needless to say, we really didn’t get too much sleep. When Mikey wasn’t under the bed being hissed at, he was hiding on top of bed on Ryan’s head. And of course Mikan was under the sheets by our feet. It was a full house!!!

Ryan left at 7 am to go spearfishing again in the hopes of catching our dinner for this week and I finally rose at 7:30 and made breakfast.

A smile for Sunday

These French Meadow Hemp Bagels really DO do a great job of keeping my full and going all morning long. Not too hard to believe though with a whopping 19 grams of protein per bagel! And what isn’t good when smothered with raw almond butter and raspberry preserves?!

Speaking of raw almond butter, I forgot to tell you!! Last night when we were picking up pizza from Greenwise I found Maranatha on sale for $4.90!!!!!!!!!!! Can you even believe it??! I’m sort of kicking myself now for not buying more.

After dropping the kiddies back off at my parent’s house I headed to the gym to try out a new activity…...pool jogging!

Here’s some quick facts about the exercise:

* pool jogging improves your cardiovascular fitness

* it lowers your blood pressure

* it lowers your cholesterol

* it raises your energy levels

* it helps you lose body fat.

Basically, it is a low impact workout that doesn’t stress your body, therefore making it the ideal exercise for athletes coming off of injury. Apparently you can even use pool jogging to train for a marathon!

The folks over at Aquajogger.com, the premier source for pool jogging gear, were kind enough to send me a complete women’s fitness kit after hearing about my shin split woe. The sad news is that I actually received the system the day that brother passed away and, therefore, it has unfortunately been sitting in the trunk of my car for six weeks now. I stuffed it in there on the way to the hospital and totally forgot about it until a few days ago when a little bell went off in my brain about it!

After yesterday I was just dying to get back into the water already so today I busted out the Grandma belt and hopped in the pool.

Okay, so I got a few questions about it by lap swimmers and I took the opportunity to tell them how I’m training for a half marathon, have shin splints, am waiting on orthotics and pool jogging is one of the best ways to get the benefits of running without actually being on the road. Then I was on my merry little way. It was pretty easy at first but then I could actually feel myself BREAKING A SWEAT in the pool and had to keep splashing water on my face. I could feel my legs starting to burn and my little heart was pumping like crazy. I actually didn’t notice though how much my heart rate was up until after I stopped, 10 minutes later, and got a sip of water. I couldn’t stop panting!!

I ended up doing 10 minutes of pool jogging, 10 minutes of swimming laps and 10 more minutes of jogging for a great 30 minute workout. Yay!

I will definitely keep up this non-impact jogging because I feel like it can really help me improve my running. Our condo is actually on the same level as the pool so this would be very easy to just run out the door and do for half an hour in the morning.

When I got home I was very ready for lunch and super excited to finish off the other half of my individual sized pizza from last night!

With a juicy nectarine for dessert—-

So, I’m actually heading out the door right now to participate in an all afternoon class to get re-certified in CPR. I get certified every three years by The Red Cross and its something I’m pretty passionate about, especially after all that’s happened in my life lately. I like to know with absolute certainty that if something happened to someone I could be there to maybe even save their life. If you aren’t certified I urge you to look into it. Yeah, its a long 4 1/2 hour class but its a really good thing to be ready in any emergency situation. Today worked out that I do this because its sort of a crappy day outside and Ryan is with his guy friends about 15 miles out in the gulf, hunting more hogfish.

It also works out that I do this today because the class is in St.Pete and this evening Ryan and I have to be at a Cuban restaurant down there anyways for a birthday party. Yay for rice and beans and plantains again! I could eat Cuban food every day and be a happy camper, I swear.

Off to go kiss mannequins! Have a lovely Sunday!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 47 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breakfast, cardio, Exercise, leftovers, Lunch, pizza, Product Reviews

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WOW!

Sorry I’ve been so MIA but I have good reason!

First of all, what was supposed to be a quiet, early night at Virginia’s on King ended up being a little more crazy with cocktails, wine and pizza. My friend Lara met Alissa, Christie and I out and we ended up staying out till 11 then coming home and crashing. Let’s just say it twas a very early wake-up call at 6:00 am this morning!

Here are some highlights:

My new obsession: firefly sweet tea vodka. Why have I never heard of this before?! It was love at first sight. I had two Holy City Mint Teas to start off the evening and they were, quite possibly, the best drink I’ve ever had.

Lara and I reunite!

After a few drinkies at the wine bar we headed next door for some very authentic Italian style pizza! Lara and I split a Campari pizza, which had goat cheese, buffalo mozzarella, eggplant and capers on it and was divine!

We each ate three slices…..total and complete Italian yum!

And of course no Italian meal would be complete without a glass cup of red table wine!

After we ate we headed to the Mexican place next door so Alissa could get a margarita….she had been wanting one all night! The girls talked me into trying raspberry firefly on the rocks but it was GROSS and I didn’t drink any of it!

That’s my EEWWWWW face!

No one was that thrilled with their cocktails there so we left and headed BACK to the wine bar where we got sangria!

Sangria was much better!

Proud to say there was no “drunk eating” and at 11:00 we all rolled on in. Alissa ended up sleeping over and I woke up at 6 am feeling GREAT! Well not “great” but no headache or anything. I am in desperate need of a major Green Monster though, I’ll tell ya that!

I had planned ahead and bought a honey wheat bagel for the road, which I promptly inhaled at 6:30 smeared with Mighty Maple pb—-

And I also “drank” an applesauce (by drink I mean I didn’t have a spoon to use!):

I got these yummy little treats in the mail to sample and I tried the Raspberry Acai today and LOVED it! I love flavored applesauce but its hard to find a good one without added sugar. Definitely look for this at the store—I can’t wait to sample the other flavors!

A couple hours into my drive I started to feel the effects of last night. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy! I was searching for a Starbucks but couldn’t find and the next best thing was……..McDonalds?!

I RARELY go to McDonalds, and by rarely I mean never. However, I will admit that their new vanilla cappuccino McCafe was quite……yummy! I just tried not to think about how many grams of sugar and weird artificial things I was pumping into my blood. Yuck.

The drive was pretty much uneventful. I listened to The Reader, which was awesome—I highly recommend it! I definitely want to watch the movie now that I’ve listened to the audiobook. I stopped at Subway for lunch because that’s all there was and I hadn’t packed anything. I had a 6″ veggie & cheese sub on honey wheat with a yogurt!

Mehhhhh. Not a fan of these yogurts anymore. I guess my taste buds have just changed…..all this tasted like to me was fake sugar. I’m surprised it didn’t give me a migraine actually! You live you learn!

I pulled into Tampa around 1:15 and went straight to the gym to do some cardio. This was definitely more for my mental sanity than anything else.  I needed to relieve some anxiety about my brother’s graduation and hammered out 20 minutes on the elliptical (gag) and 10 minutes walking on a steep, steep incline on the treadmill. Afterwards, I took a long steam and hot shower and felt better.

My brother’s graduation went as well as it could possibly go. Of course it was incredibly sad but I had a mini breakdown in the car today and I think that saved me from losing it during the service. Crying and screaming in your own car by yourself sometimes is just a better option. When my brother’s name was called my dad walked up and accepted the diploma and EVERYONE in the auditorium stood up and gave a huge round of applause for my brother. I couldn’t believe that 1,800 people stood up…..it was the most touching thing in my entire life, other than his service. He was just so, so loved.

On the way to the ceremony I started to get pretty hungry from my workout so I dug out this amazing little beauty because Lord knows I need my greens after last night!

When we got home my mom made yet another amazing dinner! I love, love, LOVE traveling but there’s nothing like a home cooked meal by mama. I’m just lucky my mama is such a healthy chef! On the menu tonight was pan friend mustard chicken topped with homemade caesar coleslaw. Sort of like an upside down chicken caesar salad—-recipe from one of our favorite cookbooks, Cook What You Love.

No booze for this cool cat tonight—I need to DETOX!

However, whats a great dinner without dessert?! This was my first time trying these chocolate almond bars and they might be my new favorite thing ever.

It’s 8:00 and I’m finally home. I’m exhausted both mentally and physically but definitely very happy that I went to Charleston! It was exactly the kind of “breather” that I needed and now I’m ready to tackle anything that may come my way, most importantly the Paddle Out Memorial we are holding for my brother this coming up weekend in Vero Beach, FL where we grew up. I think about 30 of his friends are making the 2 1/2 hour drive across the state to paddle out on their surfboards with us and scatter John’s ashes into the ocean, his favorite spot.

I’m off to unpack and regroup. A HUGE congratulations to the Tampa Prep Class of 2009!! I teared up watching my brother’s classmates and friends as they walked across the stage today to get their diplomas. I’ve watched so many of these kids mature into young adults over the past few years and I’m so proud to know each and every one of them. I pretty much consider John’s best friends to be my brothers now and I love them all so much.

Also, another HUGE congrats to Miss Meghann for rocking her first marathon!!!!!!!!

G’nite!

Click here to read all about my Green Monster smoothies on Creative Loafing!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardio, cocktails, dinner by mom, dinner out, Exercise, girls nights, musings, pizza, Product Reviews, road food, Snack, travels, wine

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Well, at least we have one miracle happening right now~~apparently, my grandpa only had a 20% chance of making it through the night last night (my mom didn’t tell me this for obvious reasons) but he’s a fighter to the bone and not only survived the night but is doing great! He’s now off life support, awake and talking and they are only keeping him in ICU for the next couple days to monitor. All the doctors just keep shaking their heads in amazement because he was really very close to death last night.

Of course I am thrilled and so is the rest of my family but I just don’t understand (and never will) why my little brother had to die. Where was his miracle? I keep telling myself everything happens for a reason and one day I’ll see him again.

Okay…on to much happier subjects! Food! I’m not going to go into great detail about my experience at The Tampa Bay Fine Wine and Food Festival this afternoon quite yet because I’m working on a whole review of my time there and will add on to it tomorrow after my mom and I go again. That post will be up Monday!

As for today, all I can say is that it was fun!

I got dressed up all pretty—

And stayed for about an hour and a half, walking about and taking notes. There’s only so much you can do when you are by yourself and driving so I am expecting tomorrow to be a lot MORE fun when my mama gets to come with me! Stay tuned on Monday for a long post with my complete coverage from the event (and to see everything I nibbled on!)! =)

Once home, I snacked on what might be the best thing yet—pb mousse with raspberry preserves and raw buckwheat crispies!

I used whatever was left in the big Fage container (maybe 3/4 cup?) and mixed it with 2 tbsp PB2. Topped it with raspberry preserves and a sprinkle of crispies and I was in heaven. SO good and satisfying!

Dinner was simple—

I had this pizza waiting at home while my dad picked up my mom from the airport. This was Greenwise pizza on a whole wheat crust with a mix of mozzarella cheese + goat cheese, black olives, onions and peppers. Delish!

I had two yummy slices—

And now I’m calling it a very early night because the alarm goes off at 5:20 tomorrow morning for my first Team in Training practice! Last month at this time, 5:20 would be “sleeping in” and now I’m dreading the alarm! Haha We meeting at a park about 30 minutes from my condo so I have to get up extra early. I think we are scheduled to run 4 miles tomorrow….not quite sure. I’m bringing watermelon to the potluck after! Wish me luck!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dinner, pizza, Snack

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