Thanks to Rick Bayless this week is going to be Mexican-inspired. I have his Mexican Everyday checked out again from the library and have browsed through it and have tons of things flagged to try to make. I love this book and realize that I should just buy it already so I went ahead and put it in my cart over at Amazing for when I make my next purchase. I also watched an episode of Bayless' Mexico: One Plate at a Time that I had DVRed while Mike was out at a meeting one night last week so when I went to meal plan for the week it was no wonder that almost all the meals that weren't trying to use some of what we already have in the freezer were Mexican-themed in nature. I go food shopping on Fridays these days so that when my meal plan starts and I made some yummy tacos for us for dinner served with guacamole (as simple as it gets - just avocado, salt, and lime juice since Ryan isn't a fan of onions or tomatoes in his), quasi fresco (which is delicious - this was the first time I remember having it!), and two varieties of salsa. The tacos were based on the Chorizo Potato Mushroom tacos but I nixed the chorizo and made steak for Jessica and Mike and left out the mushrooms to cook last so that I could have it along with the onion-potato mixture (they don't do mushrooms; I don't do steak). I also made some black beans earlier in the week with which I used to make some refried beans (for me and J). The refried beans were awesome and and I've been eating them as the base of my lunch for the past two days (and I have lots more too). I bought corn and flour tortillas but I don't know why I bother because my family just doesn't like corn tortillas at all. I'll finish them off (the corn tortillas, not my family... this isn't Reservoir Dogs or anything) and then it's flour tortillas for them from here on out.
I planned on making a roasted tomatillo salsa to serve alongside this but when I the store was all out of tomatillos - boo! Good thing I happened to have a jar of Rick Bayless' Frontera Tomatillo Salsa in my pantry (!!) that I bought a while back so it all worked out! I was really wanting to make my own... but that will have to wait for another day. I would also LOVE to make my own flour tortillas someday.
Yesterday I took a rest day - no working out at all... just some good fall fun with the family. It started out with an early t-ball game for Ryan, then we came home for some lunch and showers, and then we headed to Pumpkinville, a small fall outdoor destination complete with slides, a playground, hayrides (which all of us bubble kids skipped), apple cider, a maze made out of hay, moon bounces, animals, camel/pony rides, and pumpkins.
We had a chance to feed and play with some of the animals.
There were turkeys and chickens roaming around too.
When we came home from Pumpkinville the kids got to work in the art room painting their pumpkins.
Today: I had planned on going to take a morning Vinyasa yoga class at the studio where I'm taking my teacher training but when I woke up I knew it wasn't to be. Yesterday I was feeling very tired, then as the day progressed my throat felt funky, then last night I was extremely tired and even went to bed in the middle of the Gator game (which was sorry of lucky for me because I didn't have to see how horribly the game went at the end) and when I woke up this morning my allergies were really bad - I couldn't get to the tissue box quickly enough - and at breakfast I was having trouble breathing (hello Ventolin!). See I love the outdoors, especially when we get amazing weather as we've had this weekend but my allergies have other plans. I knew I didn't want to be in a hot and crowded room (the yoga classes at the studio were free all weekend so there would likely be more people than usual) so I opted to stay home and do an hour of yoga at home. I was resistant at first. I was thinking up all the excuses I could. The bed looked so inviting and I thought of crawling under the covers and taking a nap. So I made myself a deal: I would try some yoga and if I didn't want to continue after 30 minutes I could stop. Sometimes these little tricks really WORK! Today was one of those times!!
I practiced along with Intermediate Yoga (one of my favorite DVDs - by Rodney Yee). The practice started with a series of sun salutations, then some standing poses (triangle, revolved triangle, warrior I, revolved triangle, forward bend, and others), some balancing poses (half moon, warrior III), then handstand, forearm balance, headstand (that I enjoyed so much that I paused and did some more), bridge, boat, plow, shoulderstand, some supine and then seated twists, and then final relaxation pose (I don't like calling this corpse pose) with blankets on the hips to further ground them (this felt so incredibly good. I also paused the DVD and stayed in this pose a little longer).
I'm so glad that I made the little deal with myself. I feel a deep sense of ease that I definitely didn't feel this morning. My gift to myself this morning. Awesome.
I just dropped Jessica off at a friends' house for a birthday party sleepover 10 years in the making. Her friends turns 10 today (10/10/10)!
I've also just made a salad dressing for tonight's Avocado Mango Pumpkin Seed Salad (also from Bayless' book). The dressing has toasted pumpkin seeds, olive oil that was infused with jalapeno and garlic (I roasted them in it until they were nice and blistered/browned), lime and lemon juice, salt. I expected it to turn out more green than white but it's really very white. And it taste SO GOOD! I thought it would be very spicy but it's not at all... and it's very creamy. I added a little water to thin it out. Might need to add some more once when I take it out for dinner since it'll be very well chilled by then and may have thickened. I would definitely make this dressing again!! I'll probably sprinkle some black beans into the salad for me and opt for some bacon for Mike.
As I type this I'm sitting in a handmade double glider that Mike and I bought while we were at Pumpkinville. For as long as we've lived in this house we have wanted a porch swing. The way our house is situated and given the depth of the porch a porch swing just seemed a bit risky (as in during the backswing, breaking a window risky) so we've never purchased one. But when Mike saw the glider this weekend he knew that it solved the fundamental porch swing issue. He realized we didn't need an actual porch swing. It didn't matter where the construct was hanging from or attached to. What we wanted to create was a cozy, comfortable place where we could sit together on the front porch and look out onto the world and sway/rock the day away. This glider was IT!
This afternoon... you know where you can find us.
