Monthly Archives: August 2013

Tasty Thursday: Moroccan Stew

This past several days have been unbelievably hot in San Diego. Every year winter comes and goes and I forget the feeling of sweat-soaked clothing on my skin. Not terribly comfortable for the woman who regularly wears black polyester pants (we’re getting close to laundry day here).

However! I’ve had the veggies for this recipe almost a week now. They were on the verge of going bad. So we sat in our sweltering apartment and ate hot stew. Oddly enough, it made us feel cooler! I have heard that when you eat hot food, it heats your body temperature and there’s not such a huge difference between you and the air. Hmmmm…

Regardless, I would have eaten this stew even if it made me sweat like a Scotsman at a charity fundraiser. In other words: it’s delicious. Chunky and thick and SO tasty.

I’m trying to teach myself a few recipes to prep on Sunday nights and crockpot cook it on Monday while I’m at work. It makes our late track riding clinic much easier to handle if dinner is ready when we get home. You could do it in a pot though. Just try it, however you decide to cook it.

MoroccanStew Continue reading

Wednesday Workout: 16 Minute Total Body #1

I know there are a few readers who come to this page only for the workouts. That makes me pretty happy because that means people are catching on to how awesome they are. It is very important though to vary your workout. Eventually, muscle memory gets the best of your body and your workouts aren’t as effective. The variation can be as drastic as starting a different activity, or as simple as switching up your intervals.

So this is the first of the 16-minute total body. Try to mix these in with the 20-minute workouts to keep your body guessing. Continue reading

Marvelous Monday: The Ultimate Bathtub Cleaner

Cleaning the bathtub/ shower SUCKS. It’s my least favorite cleaning job in the whole apartment (including the toilet). I think because it’s actually physically demanding to clean up and down the tile walls then into the tub, etc. And by the time I’m done, I’m soaked from head to toe in a lovely mix of shower water, soap scum, bubbles, and a little bit of bleach. It’s just unpleasant.

Mike, being the amazing man he is, used to do that particular job to save me the strife, but he takes most showers at work now and has a very valid excuse for giving that job back to me.

On top of that, we use HUGE amounts of bleach while cleaning the tub. So when I started this health kick about a year ago, I started searching for a tub cleaner alternative. My pinterest time was consumed by research for tub cleaners (this is some serious business) and every few weeks we tried a different concoction. We tried at least 3 or 4 and some of them were getting expensive. I was about to give in to the bleach when I found this heavenly mixture.

It’s so simple, very cheap, and perfectly effective. It take a bit of time to soak (2 hours) but there is almost no scrubbing involved and everything gets so sparkly clean!

BathTub Cleaner

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Tasty Recipe: Pineapple Shrimp Skewers

This last weekend, my friend in our apartment complex (lovingly dubbed “the courtyard”) organized a cookout/ movie night. She acquired a projector, organized the potluck, and set up all the fixin’s. We grilled and ate our weight in meat, pasta salad, and veggies, then watched a movie outside in the courtyard.

The courtyard houses some pretty awesome people and we had a great laugh. The best part was being close enough to use our own bathroom, grab a glass of water, and not have to worry about the journey home.

Anyway, I decided to try the shrimp skewers Bonnie perfected for us a few weeks ago in Maine. I tweaked Bonnie’s recipe a bit because I love grilled pineapple. The marinade was amazing and the overall product was delicious. It’s really simple and assembling the skewers can be a social activity. This is a great one. Enjoy 🙂

Pineapple Shrimp Skewers Continue reading

One Year Later

Yesterday was my blog’s birthday. It’s been 365 days since I wrote my first post on Anxiety and Depression. When I started this little blog space, I actually had almost no idea of what a blog was. All I knew was that I had a lot of ideas and was tired of getting up on my soap box in the grocery store line. I was tired of talking to people who didn’t want to hear my advice. (Fair enough for the poor people who mentioned one thing about gluten and then had to hear me talk about it for 30 minutes straight).

One year later, this blog has given more than I could have imagined. Of course, I’ve cut back on my number of posts, everyday is just too much. And I’ve narrowed my focus to life updates, health experiments, recipes, and workouts (yep, that’s a narrow focus, hah). But this thing is still a lot of work and there’s a reason I keep going.

This blog has connected me with long-lost friends and new awesome strangers. It (and some advice from my bff) led me to start my Happy Bootcamp. It has helped me focus my cooking energy on healthy meals and my workout energy on a manageable routine. It holds me accountable.

This blog helped me channel my design energy when I couldn’t get it out at work. And when I finally moved on, it helped me get a new job! And now, when my work isn’t health related and I want to talk health, I come here!

But finally, and most importantly, this blog has helped me stay in touch with friends and family all over the world. When I reunite with family after a long time and they know exactly what I’ve been up to, I know it’s all worth it. Because although I may not have any clue that they’re even reading, I know that if they want to pipe up and say hello, they can. The loved ones in my life are my main reason for writing. I miss you all so much, I just don’t want to lose a connection.

This blog has become an extension of me. It represents such a huge part of my personality, health and happiness.

So please … keep reading and I’ll keep writing. I hope you’re all having wonderful Wednesdays. Hugs and a big smoocheroo (yep, you’re all getting birthday kisses today) – Ash

 

Womanly Monday: The Cup

Men by warned, THIS POST IS DEFINITELY NOT FOR YOU. It concerns menstruation and, unless you’re very curious, don’t read any further.

Ladies, welcome! For the last several months I’ve been testing a product called the Diva Cup. It is a long-lasting, eco-friendly, healthier, cheap alternative to tampons and pads. Continue reading

Tasty Friday: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegetarian Lasagna

While in Maine last week, I was so stoked to find out that Mike’s mom, Bonnie, has turned to the Nutritarian side! I try not to label the diet things because everyone has their own way and “certain knowledge,” but the word nutritarian covers a lot of basis. It basically means that we will eat anything that gives our body the largest amount of nutrients. This means that a person has to figure out what they don’t tolerate and then what makes them feel incredible.

Anyway, Bonnie is an amazing cook and I was so excited by everything she made for us. Most of it followed my rules so I could afford the random blueberry pie slice and blueberry muffin here or there without feeling like crap.

So on to the recipe! Bonnie adapted this recipe from the amazing post by Dance While You Cook: Kick Ass Lasagna.

VeganLasagna

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Workout Wednesday: Total Body #5

Summer time can be tough to keep a workout schedule. Why would you go to the gym when you could be laying in the sun?? Fortunately, there are tons of workouts you can do outside, in the sun, while on vacation.

Personally, vacation is my break time. Every body needs some down time to recover. I usually come back even stronger from a week-long break. But a few times while in Maine, I felt the overpowering urge to do a bit of yoga and one of my Total Body workouts. Sometimes I just wake up needing to do something positive to start the day, working out is usually it. Continue reading

Marvelous Monday: Ashley Life Update

Whew! What an incredibly busy and awesome last two weeks. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this yet, but since getting hired at the amazing new architecture firm, I also scored myself a second job!

I recently sold my car (we are now a one car “family!”) and had to get a bunch of work done on it. It turns out the mechanic I saw was looking for an office manager and voile! I’ve been working there about two weeks now and it’s perfect. A few hours tacked on to my normal Mon-Fri work day. Easy work, great atmosphere, perfect.

So one week after I started there, we left for a nine-day vacation to Maine. It could not have come at a better time. This was at the tail end of several months of uprooting and settling and then starting my 60 hour weeks. I was exhausted.

We, of course were on our way to Maine to see Mike’s family. Everyone of his family members lives there so we try to go back as often as possible. Mike’s parents have a “camp” (Maine word for awesome uninsulated house) on a lake there. It is, as my dad so perceptively named it, “my happy place.” So quiet you can actually hear the woodland animals, surrounded by huge, beautiful trees, great Maine sight seeing and hiking in the area, and they have a speed boat for wakeboarding, tubing, and water skiing! Doesn’t get much better. Continue reading