It’s all happening.

Right now…with these baked spice doughnuts. You need to get in the ball game, like, stat. I’m currently eating one as I type this and every few words, am letting out a little tiny doughnut moan.

Don’t tell me you’ve never let out a doughnut moan!

(...)
Read the rest of It’s All Happening: Baked Spice Doughnuts (473 words)

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Post tags: baking, Breakfast, healthy favorites, holiday recipes, seasonal ingredients, Snack

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Helloooo!!

I survived my first day of work! I get paid to promote adult beverages….and then I get sent home with some more…what could be better?!

Yes, now we operate a wine bar out of the house. Totally normal.

In all seriousness, my day went really really well. I feel right at home at Michel Schlumberger and everyone I work with is really nice. Today I tasted the entire collection of wines….it was awesome. I think I’m going to do a little bit of everything, including fun social media stuff, so that’s good. Tomorrow I get to experience my first event at the winery and this weekend I’m pouring wine at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. I can’t even believe that not even a week ago I had such a totally different life. Crazy!

I grabbed lunch with my boss at the most Jenna place ever!!

I LOVED this place!!!! It’s a really old general store with all sorts of fun foodie surprises inside. I spotted tea infused dark chocolate, kombucha, gourmet cheeses and the best sandwiches ever. I got a turkey sandwich with some sort of spicy spread, feta cheese and thick slices of tomatoes. It was delicious and I inhaled it!

SO GOOD! This place might be dangerous.

I left work around 5:30, wine in hand, and snacked on an apple on my way home. I got home, kicked off my heels, poured myself a glass of viognier and waited for the boys to get home.

We were going to cook tonight but everyone was too wiped out so we just headed downtown to Russian River Brewery for some PIZZA!

This had cheese, caramelized onions and black olives on it. It was deeeeelicious!

I’m one lucky girl with two dates:

I also got a half house salad:

I love how FRESH all the produce is here!!! Seriously, I’ve eaten the best tomatoes of my entire life since I moved to California. So, so sweet!

I’m totally wiped out!!! Ray Charles is still blasting on surround sound but I think I’m going to have to call it a night…..one of my coworkers is picking me up at 8am tomorrow and I really wanted to run first but honestly, exercise just isn’t my primary focus right now. Moving cross country, living out of a suitcase, relying on other people for rides and starting a new job is totally sapping all of my energy. I still have a long run planned for Sunday morning though!

The boys say they want me to film them having an Amazing Grass chugging contest in the morning. Get ready!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 85 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dinner out, Lunch, Snack, wine

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Good evening

Today has really felt like my first productive day in a very long time. I got a big chunk of my inbox cleared, wrote my new Health.com post, wrote my latest True/Slant post on staying healthy while traveling (I need my own advice!), and even got time to lay in the sunshine and read my bible. Life is good.

I snacked on this bar around 3:00 this afternoon while working….

And then got served a glass of wine while on a call from work outside. Living with boys ain’t half bad and wine is one thing they AREN’T lacking….

Neither is turkey for snacks. Apparently.

Dinner was leftover enchiladas, obviously!

First day of work tomorrow!! I work 10:30 to 4:00 and am really excited to just get in there and learn everything I can. It definitely should be an interesting day!

Here’s a little teaser for you: guess who’s going to NYC on Sunday afternoon? ME! I have a top secret meeting on Monday morning in the City and I’m super stoked about it……that’s all for now! Don’t you just hate me right now??! muhahahaha

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 75 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dinner, Snack, wine

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Hey hey!

I feel about 500 times better this morning…..thanks to a solid 8+ hours of sleep (with tylonel pm, ear plugs and eye mask), an early morning run, a jenna-breakfast and amazing grass, I think I’m almost back to my old self. I’m currently sitting at a little French bakery in downtown Healdsburg, drinking a cafe au lait and James Taylor “going to Carolina” is playing and I almost choked up….but besides that, things are going well.

This morning I set my alarm for 6:15 and for the first time, I actually felt like it WAS 6:15 and not 9:15. I ate a banana, laced up my running shoes and ran a COLD couple miles. I found a little park and track near the boy’s house and blasted my music…..it was wonderful to get back out there, break a sweat and clear my mind. Since I’m out here all on my own and don’t even have the comfort of my old car, my music is the one thing that makes me feel close to home. I couldn’t believe it was 44 degrees outside….I’m used to running when it’s 84 and humid. This is so weird!

When I got back, I made a comforting jenna breakfast of oatmeal with almond butter, banana and honeycrisp apple chunks:

Plus coffee! I have never in my life been in a boys kitchen that is SO well stocked. Both Adam and Rocky are major foodies and they have french press coffee makers, rice cookers, teavana tea infusers and, of course, a whole supply of hot sauces. What more could you need?!

I’ve been instructed to throw it out there that if there are any single girls who read this that would like to go on a date with Rocky, he is ready and available.

Ain’t he cute?!

I dropped Adam off at work and again took the big red truck for an adventure. First, we went to the gas station and discovered real fast that California gas is SO EXPENSIVE!!!! good lord.

Then, I parallel parked!!!!

Dad, aren’t you proud?!

Got a delicious cafe au lait and sat outside and worked on my laptop—

I <3 Healdsburg

And this WEATHER!!!!!! Oh, my heart!

Sigh. I can’t believe I’ve been brainwashed by Florida humidity for 17 years. California is extremely expensive and far away, but I’d move here for the weather and Trader Joe’s ALONE! I mean, come on!

For lunch I had a yogurt bowl with cinnamon puffins, almond butter and apple. You will probably see a lot of these as I attempt to save every penny I have…..

Have a bunch of work to do this afternoon in regards to my freelance projects….and tomorrow is my first day of work at Michel-Schlumberger!

To be continued!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 90 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardio, Exercise, Lunch, musings, Snack

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Good morning!

I feel SO much better this morning…..I finally got some SLEEP! 7 1/2 hours of sleep, exactly, and it made all the difference in the world.

Somehow the night started off like this:

And ended like this:

And you know the sad thing? We got in bed at 9:30. We were SO tired!

To back up a little bit, the BlogHer Cocktail Party was as picturesque as can be, on top of the terrace at the St. Regis.

Kath and I immediately took advantage of the open bar and got COSMOS!

I drank mine and half of Kath’s because she decided she would rather be a true southerner and get bourbon (gross!). Here’s what I thought of her drink:

There was food but it was more like VERY light appetizers…..we didn’t want to spend any more money by going to dinner though, so we just grabbed whatever we could and made the best of it.

Spicy butternut squash bisque (I had two of these):

mini french onion sliders (had two of these also):

Braised beef with mushrooms:

TOMATO SOUP CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING! (I had three of these!!!):

These were totally the hit of the evening……I swear, they tasted just like mini spice cakes….SO delicious!

After the cocktail party, we hightailed it to ANOTHER after party so we could be among the first 150 in the door to get the free gift! And let me tell you, it was soooo worth it. Check out the GIFT!

This bag is stuffed FULL of absolutely amazing kitchen stuff…….great knives, kitchen timers, spatulas, dishclothes…heck, even a meat tenderizer. This couldn’t have worked out any better since I’m moving and don’t have anything for my new place! We were giddy with excitement!

And then we crashed at 9:30. Awesome. The hotel we are staying at is really cute but they were sold out of rooms with two beds so the three of us had to make do….poor Tina got the floor!

And then we were all up at 5:15! Our bodies are still on east coast time and Tina had to get to the airport ridiculously early. So, Kath and I made coffee and sat in bed to blog. For some reason this is incredibly funny to me: food bloggers in bed together….blogging.

I’m so lucky to have met such amazing friends through the blog! Kath and I have now traveled to Chicago, Boston and San Francisco together…..where to next?! Last night when we were all standing rooftop, sipping cocktails and looking out over San Francisco as the sun set, I couldn’t help but think this was pretty darn awesome. I LOVE this city!!!!!

Today is going to be hopefully quite relaxing! I’m meeting my cousin’s best friend, Tara, for brunch at Zuni at 11 and then heading back to BethT’s house to gather all my suitcases! Adam is picking me up there early this afternoon and then we are heading back up to Santa Rosa together since I’m sort of crashing his guest room for the next week until I move into my apartment. Thankfully I have some really good friends in the area already who are being so kind to take me in when I’m homeless!

Let the adventure continue!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 59 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dessert, Dinner, Snack, traveling

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Hello!

I can’t believe I’m here!!!!!!!!!!

How weird to say goodbye to Florida and the whole east coast….I’ve lived in Florida for the past 17 years and have been on the east coast my entire life. Incredibly excited for this new adventure out west…. Thanks for coming along with me for the ride!

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my parents yesterday morning…..here’s my dad and I in front of my new car right before heading to the airport!

My parents are packing up my car to the gills this weekend and then on Monday it’s being shipped off to the west coast. Crazy.

I waited until I was on the plane to eat a banana and then later in my flight I tried this new Amazing Grass bar + a honeycrisp apple:

ohmygosh this bar was soooooo good!!!!!! 12 grams of protein and absolutely delicious. Probably one of the best protein bars I’ve tried and I love the simple, easy to read ingredient list. These were just released at Whole Foods so look for them there….seriously delicious.

One of my friends from yoga made me this amaaaaazing mix tape for my journey. Think iron & wine, bon iver, the national, nico stai, tiny vipers and more. Very “chill” airplane music. He also gave me a book of inspiring life quotations by Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist. This one really hit me this morning as I was reading as my flight was taking off

whenever we need

to make a very important decision,

it is best to trust to impulse, to passion,

because reason usually tries

to remove us from our dream,

saying that the time is not yet right.

reason is afraid of defeat,

but intuition enjoys life and its challenges

Isn’t that awesome? I love this little book because I’m a quotation freak.

I made it to San Francisco right on time, changed my clothes and immediately got together with the fabulous BethT, who actually brought me CHAMPAGNE, chocolates, hummus and carrot sticks!!!

At the airport, I ate a veggie burrito the size of my head……..I was sooooooooo hungry!!!!!!

And then Kath and Tina arrived and we were off!!!! First stop to Beth’s house to drop off my whole life in suitcases and then we headed straight to Healdsburg and Michel Schlumberger!

I can’t believe I work here!!!

We totally got spoiled……right when we got there, us four girls were whisked away to taste some totally delicious Michel Schlumberger wines. I loved them all (and there were many!) and we took a total tour of the estate. Seriously one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been in my whole life. I feel like I’m on vacation and have to remind myself that I actually get to wake up and go here every day for work.

On Fridays there’s live music outside so after our tour we just sat, ate some delicious cheese and drank MORE wine!

Loved these cheeses……it was pretty much heaven on earth and everyone was so nice!

And, I got reunited with my Murphy-Goode friends!!!!!!!! It’s just so crazy to be back. Feels like just yesterday we were all meeting for the first time in July.

It’s so funny because now five of us live here out of the original top ten. Slowly but surely we are all trickling back in….I guess Sonoma does that to you; once it gets under you skin you never want to leave! I’m still pinching myself……I CAN’T BELIEVE I LIVE HERE!

As for dinner, we ate at Zin, which was totally fabulous. I love the whole concept of this restaurant—-everything on the menu is seasonal and all the produce is grown on the restaurant’s farm! Since everything looks so good, we just decided to order every one of the appetizers (hehe), split two more bottles of vino and I ordered a bowl of the butternut squash apple soup.

Everything was SO GOOD! I was so busy enjoying it all and catching up with friends that I really didn’t shoot as many food pictures as I should have….bad food blogger! Those little rolls are “figs in a blanket”, basically figs wrapped up in puff pastry……melted in my mouth.

And my soup, with lemon creme fraiche and bacon. This was divine. Y’all will have to refer to Kath and Tina’s blogs for more food pictures…they were much better at photo taking last night…!

At about 10:15 after all this delicious food and wine, we started to crash. Fast. What a whirlwind day!! The alarm this morning went off at 5:50 and we raced to get ready, head back to SF and make it to BlogHer Food 09 on time. Grabbed some quick breakfast at the hotel before jumping back in the car.

Banana, yogurt, hard boiled egg and peanut butter toast. I should have drank more water….feeling very dehydrated right now!

Finally……BlogHer Food 09!!!!!!!!

This is my first BlogHer conference and I am super impressed so far…..everything is so nice (obviously, since it’s at the St.Regis!) and I’m about to listen to my first session on developing your visual voice. Later, I’m attending a session on photography that I’m really excited about as well! Fun!

I ate a big plate of fresh fruit first thing:

Got to jet for the time being….laptop is about to die! Full BlogHer recap later!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breakfast, dessert, Dinner, dinner out, friends, Lunch, musings, Snack, traveling, wine

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This is what spending hours at the Honda dealership does to a girl:

But……in the end I bought my first car and on Monday it’s being shipped straight to Santa Rosa, FULL of my worldly belongings! wooooahhhhhhhhh

Okay, I’m just going to say it: I feel like a real adult now! I can’t believe I just BOUGHT my first car and am moving across the country tomorrow morning. My life! This actually works out really well though because I’m packing the car FULL of books, kitchen stuff, CLOTHES, shoes…heck, even a bedside table and bookshelf. Saves a lot of money to ship stuff and I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’m hoping to get my car by next Friday so keep your fingers crossed! She’s a brand new white honda civic…..Abby! How very “california” of me.

I snacked on this bar while I was at Honda all afternoon:

Drank some coconut water to rehydrate!

And when I finally got home tonight my parents and I FINALLY uncorked my precious bottle of Cambria, which I have been coveting ever since I took the trip down to the Cambria Estate last July! When I was there, I was told I could pick any bottle I wanted to take home with me and I’ve been just staring at this gorgeous pinot noir for months now, waiting for the right time to finally open it…….well, tonight was the night!

Was it ever good. This might have been one of the BEST pinot noirs I’ve ever had. The three of us each had a *large* glass and toasted to my new adventure! I totally got the “go seize life” pep talk from the parents and can’t believe I’m about to embark out on my own for the first real time. I feel like in the past six months I’ve grown up soooo much and can’t even believe that, actually, five months today my brother passed away. I’m here to tell you that life can change in a very instant! Never in a million years could I have predicted this but I’m hanging on for dear life and taking it as it comes….life is meant to be experienced and I have to think my brother would think me moving to California would be pretty darn cool. I’ll admit, I’ve always had a pretty comfortable life with my parents living nearby to catch me if I fall….and I had the privilege of moving back in with them last month and living rent free for awhile. Well, friends, no more. If my food is less exciting, that’s because I might be dirt poor and picking vegetables from the garden. I also might be homesick laying on my floor drinking wine but it’s all good. And hopefully first I can actually FIND a home because as of right now I’m just staying with friends until the apartment thing pulls through, which it hopefully will next week. Sometimes I feel like my life is a country song, no?

Anyways, for dinner I requested my favorite meal—linguine with escarole and brie from Bon Appetit!

I’m still packing and packing up my car to be shipped but here’s how tomorrow will go down:

Flight leaves Tampa at 6:50 am

Get into Houston at 9 am

Get into San Francisco (!!!!) at 11 am

Meet Kath, Tina and the fabulous BethT at the airport and Beth is driving us straight to Healdsburg (new home!) where our destination will be my new place of employment, Michel Schlumberger! We are meeting Jim (new boss!) there and he is giving us a total tour the winery and vineyards….plus lots of tasting. There’s live music at the winery in the early evening and we have a 7:30 dinner reservation at Zin! We are staying the night in Healdsburg tomorrow night and then getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and driving back to San Francisco for BlogHer food!

***

Wheeeeeeeeeewwwwww!!!!! Don’t worry, I’ll be twittering and blogging, of course…..plus there may be a little FlipCam action that has already started so stay tune for a VLOG as well!

Tons of loose ends to tie up…..I’ve gotta kiss Dexter about a million times because I think my parents are just going to bring him out to me when they come for Thanksgiving. ahh! I know he’s in good hands though and he soon will love California, too.

Bye,bye Florida…………Hello, California!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 124 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dinner, dinner by mom, Snack, traveling, wine

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Hey hey!

Wow, I forgot how HOT Bikram is!!!! 105 degrees, thank you very much. I think I sweat out every toxin that has ever been in my body. It was awesome.

Before I practiced, I had this lovely bar:

And afterwards, in all my sweaty smelly glory, I had a big yogurt bowl with a Voskos, 1/4 cup Ezekiel cereal, 1/4 cup Udi’s granola, dried cherries and almond butter:

Yogurt. It’s whats for dinner. I may or may not have had a piece of organic dark chocolate for dessert that missed the camera’s eye

I love how CLEAN you feel after Bikram. I went in all stressed out and I left….still a little stressed, yes, but feeling like a whole new person. Maybe when I’m in Santa Rosa next week I can hit up the Santa Rosa Bikram College of India studio….that would be fun!

I’m off to read, pack and organize my life. See you in the morning!

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

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Hey guys!

Hope you all are doing well this evening. I just got home after my shift at the studio and had a glass of some deeeelicious Murphy-Goode Fume. I love that wine.

I spent a big chunk of this afternoon cleaning out and going through all my stuff. I found some interesting journals from back in 05-06 and it was interesting to read about the stuff that I used to stress out about! Seriously, I would get hung up about the stupidest things. It’s crazy to go back and read your thoughts years ago then put together the puzzle of your life. I also found all my journals from my time in France and that was crazy to read as well!

I snacked on a waffle with almond butter and apricot preserves—

And then I had a late dinner of a slice of leftover lasagna

I’ve got a few things to take care of this evening before I can call it a night. Got some big exciting news today that I can’t wait to share with y’all, but alas, we must wait a little bit. Patience is a virtue.

Goooooodnight!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: leftovers, Snack, wine

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hello! Monday!

I’m so glad y’all enjoyed my latest Propel piece. It means the world to me!

I woke up this morning and am having a bit of trouble going up and down the stairs….my legs are so sore!!! Not in a bad way….just sore. I was going to do yoga but decided to just give my legs a total break today instead….it was a good decision.

The first image that popped into my head this morning was honeycrisp apples and almond butter. Naturally, breakfast centered around that.

I used a cup of plain Voskos yogurt (which I loved because it was so THICK!), 1/2 cup Nature’s Path optimum cereal, a sprinkle of Udi’s and of course, apple and almond butter. Love.

Midmorning I snacked on ANOTHER apple and MORE yogurt! Noticing a trend here?

Oh! and grass

Ran some errands, came back for a stroke of genius lunch. Seriously, this was the best idea I’ve had in a very, very long time.

Leftover Annie’s mac & cheese with broccoli, a black bean burger and HOT SAUCE!!!

I think I was grinning while I ate just because it tasted soooooooo good. Sometimes I grin and moan when I eat because I get really excited about food. Want to go to dinner with me?

And yes, dessert:

These were sort of meh. I like my gummies incredibly chewy and these….weren’t. Didn’t wow me by any means.

***

Working this afternoon at the studio. Back at 8!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 54 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breakfast, Lunch, Snack

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