Monthly Archives: March 2012

Hunger Games – The Good, The Bad, The MUTTS

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I finally (cue the dramatics) saw the Hunger Games last night… and it exceeded all of my expectations of a book-I-loved-turned-movie. I laughed, I teared up (I dare you to tell me you didn’t during the reaping and Rue scene… you know what I’m talking about), I nearly lost my ‘ish at the end with the mutts, and I thought it was so very, very well done.

Obviously, the book was better and more detailed, but when is it not? Taking that into consideration, I LOVED the movie.

If you’ve been reading this little blog since the beginning of time (also known as June 2011) you’ll remember I mentioned the Hunger Games about every single post for a solid 8 weeks. I loved the books. I loved them so much I read the series twice. Just like my favorite celebrity of all time Kristen Bell. (Watch this video, I beg of you. You’ll quickly see why I want to become best friends with her.)

There’s something about obsessively reading the books and then seeing the movie… you envision the way people look, the way scenes play out, and way you think the story goes.

There’s also something to be said about seeing movies at Kabuki in San Francisco and taking full advantage of the 21+ balcony seating area/pre-show bar for food and refreshments. I had a glass of vino and the pesto chicken personal pizza (extra points for providing seat-side tables every other seat in the theaters Kabuki – well done), but had I not been going to see a movie and actually needed to concentrate on the task at hand – one of these would have definitely happened:

So without further ado, (and if you haven’t seen the movie/read the books I would just stop reading now…)

A Very “Involved” Fan’s Hunger Games Review:

  • Peeta- I thought the casting was spot-on. Now before you hit me with a “REALLY? What about your serious questioning/complaining just two months back?” hear me out – I was so unimpressed with the photographs of Josh what’s-his-last-name as Peeta, but I will be the first to say that he came across so much better on-screen than he does in the photographs. I ended up being extremely sold on him as Peeta. I did not however think him and Katniss had any on-screen chemistry.

 

  • Katniss -  I can’t think of anyone else that embodied her more than Jennifer Lawrence. There’s a reason she was nominated for an Oscar in her first major role (Winter’s Bone… and if it wasn’t her first major role it’s the first time I’d heard of her, so just run with me on this one), she’s that good. When she was getting ready for the Games to start, standing in the tube with Cinna (also Lenny Kravitz I’m not a fan of yours in general but you made me like you in this movie), you could actually feel how effing terrified she was. I thought she was spot-on.

  • All Peeta love aside, in this particular book/movie, I’m still Team Gale. Sorry, I’m not sorry.

 

  • The reaping was just as depressing, dark, and “seriously, can they really do that?” in the movie as it was in the book.

 

  • Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. BRAVO casting directors, bravo. (Although I totally pictured Haymitch as being in his 50′s or 60′s… not sure why.)

  • Personally I loved when they showed Seneca and the other game-makers coming up with things to “challenge” (okay let’s be real – kill) the tributes. I really don’t think I had pictured the game-makers or how the arena was created in the book and I liked this part of the movie a lot.

The Bad

  • I wished they had developed the other tributes a little more, aside from just Cato. Also, girls from District 1 and 2 you are scary and mean.
  • President Snow I’m sorry but you were nowhere near as creepy and slimy as they portray in the books. Let’s work on that ick-factor for Catching Fire.
  • I also wanted them to go a bit more into Katniss’ mom and how she’s so mentally checked out. I felt like for people who hadn’t read the book it would have been weird to see the half-hearted hug she gave her before she left for the Games, and the flashback after her dad died would have been a bit confusing.
  • Why wasn’t the movie 4 hours long? Seriously, go into every detail. I want more.

The Mutts

  • Was it just me or did anyone else think the mutts were going to be the size of Labradors and be more “human like”? Weren’t they supposed to have the eyes of the dead tributes? Why were they the size of Bull Mastiff-Gorilla hybrids?
  • Building on my previous point, I was beyond stressed out at this point in the movie and I legit jumped out of my seat when they burst onto the screen. I’m also pretty sure I screamed. That may or may not be attributed to the wine.

I can’t wait until 2013 when Catching Fire comes out. That was my favorite of the three books, so I have even higher hopes for it. I also can’t wait for the season premiere of Punk’d and the Pauly D Project tonight. So. Darn. Excited. Judge away my friends, judge away. :)

Have a great Thursday!

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles

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To set the scene it’s been a rainy, gloomy, cloudy and gray couple of days in San Francisco this week. When those adjectives combine, there are few things I’d rather do than snuggle up under a blanket on the couch in cozy clothes and watch hours upon hours of TV.

Something that ranks just above that extreme level of laziness (barely) is baking.

I got home from Pilates yesterday, amped up by the delivery of my new stainless steel Cuisinart hand-mixer (we have zero extra counter space for a Kitchen-Aid mixer but believe you me… when we do, the stainless steel version will be ours) and brand-spanking new Silpat and knew I wanted to bake. I also knew I needed to use whatever ingredients we had on hand as venturing out in the horrific weather wasn’t about to happen. (You think people are bad drivers in fill-in-the-blank-city normally? Try adding in pouring rain to the equation. Recipe for disaster.)

I have always had quite the love affair with Snickerdoodles. They are my all-time favorite cookie which may or may not have something to do with the copious amount of cinnamon involved. I will do just about anything for cinnamon.

So naturally when I saw a recipe for Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles on Skinnytaste, one of my favorite food blogs, I knew I had to try them out.

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles


Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour (I used Whole Wheat Flour)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 tbsp agave
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tbsp sugar*
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon*
  • cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Line two baking sheets with Silpat mats.

Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Combine 1 cup of sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended.  Add the agave, vanilla and egg; beat well.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until combined.

 

Cover and chill for 10 minutes.

 

In a medium bowl, combine 3 tbsp sugar with cinnamon, stirring with a whisk to combine.  With moist hands, shape dough into 42 (1-inch) balls.  Roll balls in sugar/cinnamon mixture.

 

Place balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets (I slightly flattened them).   

Bake 375°F for 5-7 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft). 

 

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.  Enjoy!

These cookies are incredible – I’m guessing because I used all whole-wheat flour mine came out a bit darker and a bit denser, but just as delicious. I actually prefer a fluffier cookie, so these were right up my alley! For a more traditional snickerdoodle, just follow the recipe exactly.

Have a great Wednesday!

 

The Almost Perfect Run

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Ahh Monday. Tell me I’m not the only one that could have hit snooze about a dozen more times this morning? It was one of those Mondays (okay, what Monday isn’t?) that I wished the weekend could have been just one more day.

Since Monday’s are my busiest day with work all day and then Pilates Teacher Training all night (literally – from 6-9:30pm), I have to get my workout in where I can. And on Monday… it’s at lunchtime.

Fueled by the Green Smoothie du jour (unsweetened vanilla almond milk, kale, frozen mangoes, strawberries, Sunwarrior, chia seeds – with a little agave and cinnamon on top), I was ready to go.

Around 11, I headed to the gym armed with the newest Us Weekly (I knew Reese was pregnant, and I’m just waiting for Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Biel to announce theirs – you heard it here first) and a slight stomach-ache. It felt like it was twisted up in a knot to be blunt. I typically get that feeling if I wait too long to eat, and since I waited until around 9ish to drink my smoothie (I leisurely sipped my coffee instead) I figured it was just that, and would go away shortly as it always does.

So on to the treadmill I went… and pounded out 4 so-great-but-at-the-same-time-so-crappy miles.

At an 8:57 pace the entire time.

Hallelujah.

The good: I held on to a sub-9 pace for all 4 miles… and honestly my legs, and my mind wanted to go for at least 6 miles. The pace felt perfectly comfortable.

The bad: The stomachache. It didn’t go away. It got progressively worse until mile 4 when I was hunched over and finally had to be smart and listen to it, rather than trying to push it another 2 miles… even though my legs were vehemently arguing to keep going.

The result: I’ve never run with any type of stomach issue – ever. Including through 18 weeks of marathon training, and a marathon. Minus the Great Hungover 18-Miler of Marathon Training 2011, I’ve never felt sub-par when running. I have an extremely competitive mindset with myself – if I set out to do something, I want to complete it, and I want to do it well. I’ll be real – knowing my legs were ready to continue on at my current pace for at least 2 more miles but that my stomach was going to twist into an even tighter ball if I kept going left me feeling a little frustrated and defeated. But in the end, I backed off. A solid 4 miles back at my almost-normal pace is better than feeling awful for the rest of the day because I pushed my body too far.

I cooled down for 10 minutes, and then the dreaded time had come – the gym shower.

I detest gym showers and locker rooms in general. It’s always hot and humid thanks to 35 other people taking steaming hot showers and blow-drying hair before going back to the office. Also big ups to the lady who left her razor in the shower. That was a pleasant surprise that I had to navigate around without so much as coming within an inch of it in a tiny shower stall. (Germophobe? Me? You betcha.)  I also somehow always get the locker next to the “I’m so comfortable being naked in front of a few dozen strangers that I’m going to do my make-up in the buff” lady.

Thankfully I’ve finally figured it out – if you go to the gym at 11, you’re out of there by noon when the rush (and the potential nudists) arrive…the empty locker room today was so welcomed.

I can now shower, change, and be out of there in 11 minutes flat. A new PR in fact. While everyone else was getting PRs in their races this past weekend, I was PR-ing the crap out of the gym locker room.

I also try to use as much of the supplied Kiehls products as I possibly can. Which ensures I leave with baby-soft skin, coconut smelling hair, and the impossibly fresh scent of fruity body wash. It’s the little things. Suffer through the locker room, use the free Kiehls stuff. Give a little, take a little.

I may or may not have bought the largest Creme de Corps moisturizer they sell because of this. (Sidebar: the stuff is amaaaaazing.)

A homemade salad (read: small fortune at Whole Foods yesterday = not buying any meals this week!) made up or arugula, white figs, pomegranate seeds, mushrooms, the last of the rotisserie chicken and an Amy’s California Veggie Burger was just what the stomach needed to feel right again.

That and one of my mom’s homemade granola bars. (Recipe coming soon!)

Off to finish up the day! Have a great Monday! (or as great as the first day back post-weekend can be!) ;-)

Weekend Round Up

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Ahhh, is it Sunday already? Ugh. This weekend has been just what I needed – relaxing.

With on exception: the power going out not once, not twice, but at least five times last night. Normally I sleep like a log, but when the power goes out, the fan in our bedroom turns off. When the fan in our bedroom turns off, it makes a beeping noise. The beeping noise wakes me up. Then the fire alarm down in the lobby incessantly beeps because it too is turned off. Which turns into me putting on my headphones and letting Matt Nathanson’s latest album lull me back to sleep. Which results in me just about falling asleep and then my personal favorite “Mercy” comes on and then I just want to rock out.

Last night I set my alarm for 7:30am this morning – I had a 9am Pilates class that I was pretty pumped about… and then I woke up at 9:12am. iPhone alarm was really winning on that one. The worst part isn’t even that I missed the class, it’s that if you late cancel (12 hours or less before your class time) they charge you $18. If you’re a no-show, it’s $25. A policy I have a love-hate relationship with. Goodbye $25. San Francisco rainstorm, I officially hate you.

Nonetheless as soon as I got up I threw on a pair of Tempos, a tank, a long sleeve, and my running shoes, and bolted out the door. I was determined to get some kind of workout in today. And so I ran a lovely 4 miles. There’s something just so gorgeous about San Francisco after a rainstorm. The Golden Gate Bridge has never looked so International Orange (the official color), the bay looks beautiful, Alcatraz looks picturesque, and the air is cool and crisp. Perfect running weather in my opinion.

Today’s 4 miles, makes my total for this week 24 miles. Not bad considering last week my running mileage equaled roughly… zero.

The rest of this week’s workouts?

Monday – Rest (sick)

Tuesday – Pilates Reformer

Wednesday – 8 mile run

Thursday – 4 mile run + Pilates Reformer Class

Friday – 8.25 mile run (holding 9:2x’s… I’m comin’ back!)

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – 4 mile run

The rest of the weekend included lots of relaxing and playing with a new toy (starts with an i, ends with a Pad… thanks dad SO SO MUCH for your hand-me-down…enjoy the new one!), running some errands, a girls dinner and drinks, and today started off with a ridiculously good homemade breakfast courtesy of boyfriend and then was full of wedding fun! I’m a bridesmaid in one of my best friend from high school’s wedding, and today’s mission was brunch and bridesmaid dress fittings at J.Crew. She picked the color, and the fabric, then let us choose our individual styles… something I definitely appreciated because I look like a linebacker in strapless dresses. Thanks Pilates for the shoulder definition, really appreciate it.

You bet that avocado, applewood smoked bacon (baked on a wire rack over a cookie sheet at 400* for 20 minutes – perfection), WW english muffin and lemon hummus was quickly turned into the best breakfast sandwich of my life.

Girls dinner at Perry’s

newest toy (and greatest surprise ever… thanks dad!)

the blushing (laughing?) bride

so many pretty J.Crew choices

Friends since high school

Now after spending a small fortune at Whole Foods for this week’s groceries, and prepping a cilantro/tabasco/lime roast chicken/potatoes/garbanzos to slow cook for tonight’s dinner, it’s time to relax with boyfriend, and enjoy what’s left of this lovely weekend.

Hope you had a great one!

Thursday In a Nutshell

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It’s FINALLY FRIDAY! Do I say that every week? Probably. I don’t even care, I love weekends that much.This weekend we have a whole lot of relaxing, delicious food, some beverages, and a day of brunching/bridesmaid dress shopping on Sunday.

To rewind to yesterday, I was clearly still riding my runner’s high from Wednesday’s glorious 8 miles of heaven. Even though I was scheduled to be in Sara’s Pilates Reformer Class O’Death, I still felt the need to sweat during my lunch break. Ergo I happily jumped on the treadmill yet again for a solid 4-mile run. I think I was actually smiling for the first 2 miles of said run.

Do you see that average pace? 9:00 people! And to toot my own horn for 14 seconds, for about 2.5 of those miles I was at an 8:49 pace. Hello muscle memory, it’s good to see you.

In case you care, I started a new book on my Kindle for treadmill runs in the foreseeable future : The Darlings. So far, so good. (My last treadmill read was Bond Girl – highly, highly, recommended. Miles flew by with that book. Which is how I now rate the books I read. Do the miles go by fast or slow?)

Running sweat (not to be confused with pilates “glistening”) I missed you so much the past 10 days. Let’s agree to never part ways for that long ever again. Runners sweat. Pilates people “glisten” while we wear our Lululemon and do fun muscle toning and lengthening things. People like Gwyneth don’t sweat. I pride myself in being of the minority – there is a time for sweat and a time for glistening. And on some days you just need both.

I mentioned that every now and again I’d share some of my recent eats – mainly to share ideas, and also get some ideas from you. I’ve upped the protein a bit lately, and I’m keeping things as clean as ever, and let me tell you – a difference is noted. My energy levels have been through the roof.

Breakfast-

1 c unsweetened almond milk, frozen organic mangoes, frozen organic strawberries, heaping scoop Chocolate Sun Warrior, 1 T Chia Seeds, 2 very large handfuls of organic KALE 

When I was at Whole Foods earlier this week I noticed a container of pre-washed, organic baby kale (packaged like baby spinach) and picked it up. I added it to my smoothie this morning, and just like adding spinach, you can’t taste it at all. Win.

Mid-Morning Snack - 

0% Fage Greek yogurt, chopped organic pink lady apple, couple handfuls Banana Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon

Lunch -

Cup of Whole Foods Black Bean Soup, leftover Quinoa smorgasbowl (quinoa, rotisserie chicken, spinach, onion, mushroom, balsamic, parmesan)

If you aren’t familiar, Black Bean Soup looks like sludge. And that’s putting it nicely. There is no way around it. Therefore, since there is no way that I know of to make it look appetizing… just imagine it looks really pretty and appetizing.

Pre-Pilates Snack-

Banana with a packet of Artisana Walnut Butter (surprisingly good!)

Dinner –

Homemade Chicken Enchiladas with cilantro lime brown rice and homemade guacamole, ay papi!

Clearly with a little something, something on the side.

And if you haven’t yet discovered these at your local Trader Joes (thank you Mom for the englightening knowledge!) I highly suggest you pick up a bag (or 5). They dip into guacamole quite well too.

Hope you have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

Tell me – What was the best thing you ate yesterday? (or today?)