10 posts tagged “summer”

*One banana and a piece of Coracao raw chocolate.
***5 minute warm up on the eliptical and a great yoga class at the gym. 5 minutes in the sauna too!
*Huge papaya with lime squeezed over it.
*16 ounces green juice from Sip.
*Summer's party- gluten free pasta with broccoli, zucchini, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberry pie for dessert. Oh my this was so perfect. Andy described it like a jelly donut turned inside out. haha.
*Dinner: Really into these Sunshine burgers so I had the same one as last night with a salad that had asparagus, strawberries, spinach, sunflower sprouts, balsamic vinegar, and squeezed lime on top. Perfect early almost summer salad! Dessert- raw vegan hazelnut ice cream.

Singing Horse answered these fun questions so I thought I'd join in. Sorry I haven't posted in quite a few days. Personal quiet has been needed. I thought this would be a good way to ease back into voxing.

1.  Name a song that involves food in some way.
     Baker Baker
2.  What criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?
      Vegan, preferably raw and easy
3.  What did you eat today?
     It's morning time, so far I've had a big kiwi fruit and a green smoothie- kale, celery, lemon, flax, Navitas Naturals     Tropical blend, a very ripe pear, and a few frozen strawberries to make it cold.
4.  Name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.
     I don't think I've tried Rice Mellow.
5.  The Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow.  What will the title of the show be?
      Ami's Mostly Raw
6.  Favorite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?
     Lately spicy dijon mustard
7.  How old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?
     I was 16 when I went veg and 32 when I went vegan.
8.  Favorite vegan cheeze?
     Cashew cheeze sauce I mix up in my BlendTec
9.  Cutest baby animal?
     Calf taking their first steps
10.  Favorite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?
      Raspberry preserves
11.  Do you take any vitamins/supplements?
      Loads- Maca, MSM, Cacao, Carob, Sun is Shining, Marine Serum, Flax, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
12.  What food/dish most embodies the Fall season?
      Pumpkin pie
13.  What food would you have a hard time living without?
      Chocolate
14.  Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
      Occasionally I drink tea
15.  It's 10PM and you're starving.  What do you eat?
      Drink water or if training for a marathon, a sandwich!
16.  If you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?
       I don't.
17.  Worst injury you've gotten in the kitchen?
       Haven't!
18.  When you have a food-related question, who do you call?
       Summer, Gina, or the internet
19.  Summer is ending- What food will you miss most?
      Blueberries
20.  What snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?
      Thrive bars, chocolate, raw truffles, goji berries
21.  Favorite soup to make on a rainy day?
       Throw whatever veggies I have into the BlendTec with some garlic and cayenne.
22.  What's your favorite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?
        Greens and lemon.
23.  Favorite brand of root beer?
       I don't drink soda
24.  How many times do you eat every day?  Three square meals or four snacks a day?
       I eat all day. I don't watch the clock.

Yesterday I ran six miles, hung out with Eliot, did three loads of laundry, took him to swim lessons. Swam after swim lessons, played at the park, drove home, cat napped, then took a one and a half hour long power vinyasa class. I ate, took a shower and slept.

This morning I lifted weights, jumped on my rebounder, ran four miles and came home to shower and get everyone ready for a trip to the farm! We went to a berry farm today with the family and Eliot was an amazing berry picker! He even got to pet a very busy pig who was too engrossed in eating to care. The pigs did snort in happiness when Summer gave them some rubs on their backs. Sweet. I wore sandals and a sun dress and now I have a sunburn and a few scrapes on my ankles from the brambles. Dropped Eliot and Andy at the pool for swim lessons while the rest of us had an adventure going through the Burgerville drive-thru. Forgotten sandwich, fries, stickers and a drink and we finally got out of there. They were crazy busy! Ran back over to pick up Eliot and Andy and give them their lunches, home for napping, and then off to another yoga class for one hour. The grocery store alone was my last trip of the day.

I just can't believe how busy the last couple days have been and the summer promises not to slow down. We've got more swimming lessons, music classes, gym classes, grandparents visiting, marathon training, business trips, Hawaii trip, birthdays, our nine year wedding anniversary, and I just signed up for a month long introductory membership to a yoga studio which means I can go to as many classes as I can fit into my schedule (and that my body can keep up with)!

Napping is the key, and green smoothies!

Favorite green smoothie recipe of the moment:
one whole lemon
water to get it moving
kale or spinach- as much as I can cram in
one cucumber
an entire head of celery

I made a raw triple berry cake from rawroyalty's blog on Thursday and I must say it was really good. It was a big bummer trying to get a photo of it, it's really purple all over the top, unlike the picture tells! Husband thought he tasted cacao butter, so I lost him there, I thought it tasted a bit like a berry cheesecake, and Summer (my sister-in-law of design is mine and bread and honey) thought it was more like a berry pudding. All in all a fun but expensive experience. And I couldn't get Eliot to try it, "no thanks, Mom" he says "I just like chocolate."

summer, my sister-in-law posted this cute little survey on her blog (http://designismine.blogspot.com/) today so i thought i'd join in:

Three ways you are stereotypically a girl:
1. love clothes

2. love valentines

3. love pretty things

Three ways you are stereotypically a boy: this is a hard one!
1. feminine beauty i notice before a man's beauty
2. burp
3. fart

Three of your everyday essentials:
1. birthday cake lip balm
2. coconut oil
3. laptop
-------------------------------------------------------------

1) What was I doing 10 years ago? in 1998 i was working as a massage therapist in san fransisco, california, living in berkeley and planning our wedding which was in 1999.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today: run, laundry, call volvo, get eliot in some classes and blog

3) Snacks I enjoy: scoop of raw honey, apples, green smoothies, and bananas with goji berries and cacao

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: house in santa monica, apartment in manhattan, charity work, fashion shows, maid, travel...

5)Places I have lived before: tacoma, graham, puyallup, santa monica, oxnard, berkeley, portland

i couldn't wait for monday to exercise: 10 minutes trampoline, 2 minutes weights, 10 min tramp, 2 min weights, 15 min tramp, ran outside up my street to some stairs- 5x up and down, ran home. just under 60 stairs in a set.

water!

B: the rest of my flourless chocolate cake, blueberries, and a banana chopped up.

L: restaurant called jam on hawthorne highly recommended for yummy food and service- oatmeal chai blueberry vegan pancakes. i was craving these for awhile- not raw! oh my they kept me really full for a very very long time!

summer, my sister-in-law, and i went to see kit pistol at seaplane today. she was super sweet and cute and she started a conversation with us commenting on how cute we looked, so fun! she gave us each a cute postcard that she signed i heart ami! love kit pistol! and she helped each of us pick out a bow clip that we both ended up purchasing. yes, that means 6 days into my own challenge i failed! lame. but i'm back in the game. there are no further events to tempt me and i won't be headed to any sales or shops. my intention is to drop this bad habit. moving on... i told you i needed support.

S: apple

D: walnut taco "meat" from the glorious goneraw.com recipe section, on two heads of romaine, an avocado and salsa. that stuff is brilliant, really tasty.

Show us a tattoo.

this is my sister-in-law's tattoo. it says "baker" across her fingers. she bakes every day! it's very fitting and cute!

november 20, 2007

today we got on an airplane and came to portland, oregon. we rented a blue prius. we went to the cup and saucer for lunch then to saint cupcakes for dessert. we stopped in at a market called 'z', i think, for some diapers and soy milk.
we drove around until our 2pm appointment with todd in the irvington neighborhood to view a four bedroom house for rent. we liked it a lot. ironically todd is a director who's moving to los angeles for awhile. he told us we were the fourth couple from california to view the house in the last few days. hmmm. what's up californians? next, we checked into the most amazing hotel ever, the kennedy school.  http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=57&category=Location%20Homepage
eliot and i napped while andy bought me a travel size hot pink hair dryer from walgreens then went and drank beers and ate fries. when eliot woke up we drove as fast as we could to the only toy store that was still open and that was in nw portland. we finished our day off with an amazing meal at the blossoming lotus and drove past the irvington house again. oh, and then we took loads of photos around the hotel because it is incredible! andy just left the room to go see a movie , also here in the hotel, and eliot is begging me to go to sleep, so goodnight!

november 21

we woke up at the kennedy school and got ready to go out. i met todd at his house to give him our rental application and walk through the house once more. i went back to the hotel to pack up and go to breakfast on alberta. we dined at hesler's and afterwards headed out to see more homes.
the next one was really nice but the frat boy who owned it was remodeling, and even though he had done a nice job, i just wasn't feeling it. then he disclosed he only wanted someone in for about four months. but he painted the kitchen orange and that was lovely! next we hung out with summer, daniel, riley and london. yummy kids! we called on houses and looked on craigslist until we were starving again. summer and i left all the boys and went to th new herbivore and food fight stores on se stark. then we got some take out at paradox, amazing chocolate cake. after eating we saw two more houses. one that was wacky and needed work but the owner was really sweet. and the other was cool, right off of hawthorne, near mt.tabor, two bedrooms down and a big room the size of the house upstairs. it's less expensive then the house we love in irvington but the two rooms downstairs are tiny and well by the end of today todd wanted our answer on his house. i think i skipped the point of the day when i realized todd had called right after i left this morning and offered the house to us. andy called and said we'd take it. i feel a little bad because i don't know if we are 100% because i think we should keep looking over the weekend and andy disagrees. but we're not yet locked into a lease and to be fair we only looked for one day! by 6:30pm we were back at the gibson house for more fun with cousins. by 8:10pm we were in our car and headed to washington to go stay with my mom for two nights. eliot was beyond tired and had a melt down as we lay down to finally go to sleep. poor boy, no nap and all this new excitement. goodnight!

november 22

happy thanksgiving! my mom is making me vegan treats, but i may cheat on the pumpkin pie today. vegan pumpkin pie is not so great.
end of the day now, ate the pie and burping it too much, yuck. verdict: not worth it. had a quiet day. napped with eliot and relaxed. almost bed time. i'm craving some time alone.

november 23

we drove to downtown portland this morning and ate lunch with family. then we headed to veganopolis for more food because i'm a picky vegan. we next walked through the mall on black friday, crazy. there was an indie chick dancing around (without music) in front of a sign saying don't buy anything today. the evening was spent with the gibson's and eliot and i went to bed early which was a good thing because now his nose is all runny!

november 24

lydia and aaron came to visit today! we walked over to zack's shack for hot dogs, walked on hawthorne, and then came back to the gibson's house. eliot i sick with a bad cold so he needed medicine and rest. so i took lydia and aaron to drive past the house we may rent and then to alberta where i had some awesome vegan pizza and a salad. and since we were right next to the kennedy school, we went there too. we spent the evening around the kitchen table and ummer made yummy tacos and everyone had leftover thanksgiving desserts.

november 25

today summer went to a french bakery and brought back oodles of goodies. after a little play time eliot, andy and i ate at nutshell in the mississippi neighborhood. scary hood but nutshell was incredible! eliot is feeling so yucky so we headed back for a nap. eliot slept for four hours while andy watched over him. summer and i took the baby with us to ikea and i stayed with sleeping london while sum went into safeway. the evening was spent eating thai food and hanging out.

november 26

we went to jace gace for breakfast and it was amazing! i had pina colada vegan waffle with coconut cream, bananas, and pineapple. andy had eggs and sausage on a waffle. afterwards we went to the new house and gave our new landlord a check! we move in january 12, 2008. we next visited mabel and zora , a boutique on alberta. really cute stuff in a good range of prices. andy's out to lunch with the metafilter man and e's taking a much needed nap. this entire post is all over the place in regards to time of day i'm writing, but i'm mostly doing it for my own personal archives. hope it's not too tedious if you've read this far! the evening was filled with goodies made again by summer. vegan shells that could fool anyone an chai cupcakes. crazy good.

november 27

last day in portland. we move in 6 1/2 weeks into our new rental in the beaumont-irvington area. we're really close to alberta and 4 miles away from family here in pdx. here we go....
 
 

What's your favorite restaurant?

my favorite restaurant is greens in san francisco. the food, over time i must say hasn't exactly measured up to it's earlier days, nor the service. but for sentimental reasons it is just one of my favorite places to be.
when i lived in tacoma, washington and my then boyfriend now husand was attending uc berkeley he took me to greens during one of my very first trips to northern california. we didn't have a lot of cash flow but we lived decadently because we were in love and we wanted to. dinner at greens became a tradition and once i moved there it was set aside for special occasions and when family and friends came to visit.
one such time summer, andy's sister came to see us for the weekend. i remember walking everywhere and showing summer everything and every cool neighborhood. i also remember feeling cranky cause it was august and it was hot and we walked everywhere!
so i was at work and i had this vision of andy bringing me a sunflower, and when he met me in the lobby at the end of the day he had a sunflower for me. summer, andy and i headed out to the marina to go to greens for dinner that saturday night. we had loads of yummy vegetarian food and then came dessert. my chocolate cake arrived  and andy got up from the table for a moment, presumably to the restroom, and i dove into my favorite part of any meal, the chocolate part. andy was gone for awhile, when he returned he was a bit nervous looking. he pulled back the chair next to me and asked me to marry him. i was stunned and had a mouthful of cake. i knew we couldn't afford an engagment ring but there he held a little black velvet ring box! i was so excited i said yes! yes! with my muddy mouth.
and that is why greens is the best place ever.