Paris, je t'aime

Hi everyone! So, I am restarting my blog! I am living in Paris for the year doing the first part of my masters program...so...I thought this would be a great way to share a little bit of Paris with everyone.

I'm not just going to focus on food but living here as well!! I already have some funny stories lol

To start off with, eating has been really easy here! It's just like New York, you can get anything, anywhere at anytime. The only thing I have noticed is that I haven't had too many veggies, a lot of fruit but I have to increase the veggies.

Funny story 1: I got a Falafel in St.Michel the other day, which is super touristy and right by my apartment. Anyway, I THOUGHT the lady asked me if I wanted carrots. Apparently, when I proceeded to say "oui" and she stared at me for 5 min, she said "quatre quarante" which means 4,40 euros. HA. oops.

Funny story but not so funny at the same time: I went a runnin' in the Jardin de Luxembourg, which is also about 2 min from the apt. I was feeling pretty great so I tried to hop over a 100lb chain, only, it caught my shin, I fell, was bleeding and hobbled home. This is prolly why french people don't run.

But really, you don't need to run here. I have walked more in the past week than ever in my life.

Good Eats:

1. Crepe Nutella..always delicious

2. Grilled Salmon

3. Delicious salads with their standard yet amazing dressing

I also went grocery shopping which is an experience. First, their eggs aren't refrigerated..um weird but whatever. Also, they literally sell like 3 salad dressings. I swear every person in france uses the same dressing. Which I love, but still. Ain't no ranch to be found lol. I'm scared of their milk. Just puttin' it out there.

More updates to come, you know you love me

xoxo

Paris Girl

Food Blues

Hi friends! Lately, I have been so uninspired about food! I absolutely love food and everything lately hasn't really satisfied me. As a result, I have been eating granola cereal, cookies and chocolate ALL WEEK! I'm so sick of being uninspired. I am going home this weekend so hopefully I'll get re-inspired there!

Here are some great food highlights:

I made a feta chicken and shrimp over couscous in the slow cooker. This was extremely easy, you set it and go. The main ingredients were tomatoes, broth, chicken, garlic, onions, shrimp, feta and couscous. Slow cookers are great for people with little time. You can make dessert, dinner, breakfast, appetizers...

Next, I made peanut chicken soba noodles. The sauce was so-so. Basically, it was peanut butter, skim milk, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes.

Bison Bugers! These were the best things I made all week. Delicious bison burger with cheese, onion, pickles, spinach and a sweet potato. YUMM

Banana Fro-yo. Saw this in the blog world, had to try it!! Very good. I love ice cream so it isn't quite the same, but a nice alternative. I threw some chocolate chips on it. YUMMM.

I've been OBSESSED with Cascadian Farms Chocolate Almond Granola. I had one serving with bfast, and TWO for a snack after dinner (oopssss). I absolutely love it. Pretty good stats as well. For 3/4c it is 200 cals, which is great for granola. And I have been LOVING Stonyfield Organic Skim Milk. I think organic milk can have a strange taste but Stonyfield (I also love their Oikos yogurt in vanilla) is superb!

I've also noticed that I have been eating a ridiculous amount of meat products. What's up with that?!? Need to focus this up coming week!!

Hopefully I'll get out of this eating funk. I am soo sick of not being satisfied!! I have eaten so much more than normal lately due to this! Madness!

Cat woman

Hi blog world! Today was an interesting day! There was pretty much a hurricane and then the weather was beautiful. So strange.

I started off the morning with a slice of ezekial raisin toast and a little earth balance. I then ran. It was way too hot, however, I love being sweaty so I didn't mind. I took it nice and slow.

Distance: 4 sweaty miles

I then rehydrated with Gatorade. Usually, I drink coconut water, however I only had the plain kind left and I really hate it. I LOVE the passion fruit and mango, but can't stomach the plain. So I opted for electric blue gatorade. So healthy. I only drink electrolyte replacement drinks when I'm super sweaty or if I am sweating out salt. Usually water is fine for me during things like spinning or a short run.

In addition, I made the best juice ever!

• 1.5 large carrots
• 1 medium kiwi
• 1 small apple
• 3 handful of spinach

Lunch was a spinach salad with tomato, avocado and roasted turkey. And since I was frigid, I added 1/2c of Pacific Tomato Roasted Red Pepper soup, which happens to be my favorite :)

Snack was a banana and fresh ground almond butter...dreamy...

Dinner! My sister made my stuffed peppers ( she was practicing for when I move out lol). SO delicious! This time we added Fire Roasted Tomatos to the mix. Plus a side of corn.

I have noticed that I have been eating more animal protein lately. It hasn't been a conscious decision, however, I have been craving turkey for lunch almost everyday! Wonder why?

Dessert was 1/2c of Breyer's 1/2 the fat ALL NATURAL creamy Chocolate Chocolate Chip...YUMMMM. I love Breyer's all nautral as much as I love Stoneyfield Yogurt! Great ingredient list and even better taste.

Kitty was eating the flowers my parents sent my sister for her birthday..such a silly cat...even if I end up being a cat lady, I don't mind because my kitty is precious.

I was on the WW message boards and I saw a post about what you would like to say to certain people. Ever since Operation Beautiful, I have been making a real effort to end fat talk. It's nothing but harmful and often, untrue. I think sometimes we like to say, "Oh, I am so fat" or "I need to diet" because we want others to tell us that isn't true. I'm so sick of saying, "Im so fat" or "I need to loose weight" as well as hearing it. I don't think I am fat. In fact, I know I'm not, so I need to stop saying it. It's almost as though saying it it normal. I am making a vow now to end fat talk! And if someone really does think they need to loose weight, then do it! But don't just say it to say it. It brings people down!! Be confident in yourself. Workout to feel great and eat healthfully to feel great and you will!

Hii everyone! Sorry I was missing, it was my sister's birthday so we were celebrating. Highlights include a Harry Potter cake from Publix (yummmm) and delicious sushi.

Yesterday we had another dinner party and it was just as delicious as the first! I made pesto chicken sandwiches. For all you vegans/vegetarians, this recipe is SUPER SIMPLE and you could easily re-create it with tofu, temphe, any grilled vegetable ect.

• whole wheat bread of anytime (or lettuce wrap/pita/wrap)
• homemade pesto (1 tsp olive oil, 1c basil, 1/4c vegetable broth, garlic, parmesan if you wish)
• chicken breast
• roasted red pepper
• spinach
• any other additives, I added Mozzarella cheese for only 80 cals and 6g of fat
• press it until its gooey

Plus fresh organic corn on the cob, which is incredible right now.

Jenn made a peanut butter pie (which was like a thick peanut butter cheese cake). TO.DIE.FOR.

and pretty reasonable, one slice was 10 weight watcher points. The basic ingredients were:

• fat free and reduced fat creamed cheese
• reduced fat peanut butter
• graham crackers
• condensed milk
• dark chocolate chips
• real butter (no fake scary stuff)
• brown sugar and regular sugar

I highly suggest people try and play around with this stuff and make it. I try not to eat "fake" things, like fake cream cheese, but every once in a while, I think it's fine. Also, note how there is NO SPLENDA or other weird sweetners, just natural things.

For dinner tonight, I used some homemade pasta that my parents bought at the farmer's market. It was garlic/basil flavored and I paired it with a homemade sage butter sauce with some grilled shrimp and steamed broccoli. Holy Yum. The sage added a nice subtle flavor to the already seasoned pasta. This stuff was AMAZING. Best pasta I have had yet.

I also made a vegan friendly pizza the other day! We bought a whole wheat crust from the farmer's market and topped it with delicious red sauce plus roasted veggies (broccoli, red pepper, onions, zucchini). Simple and delicious.

For the first time ever today, I got a shaken green iced tea from Starbizzle...so. good! Usually I get it unsweet, however, I was feeling sassy today and got the simple syrup (which only makes the whole thing 80 cals. not bad AT ALL. so don't freak out girls). It was such a nice refreshing summer drink! Plus anti-oxidants from the tea.

Sorry for the lack of pics..I promise i'll be better about taking them this week!!

On an off topic note, I am soo sad for Reid. I love him and will be his wife. The end.

Yogaaa

So, I have been doing a ton of yoga lately. I think it is helping me stay strong because I finally feel like I'm not struggling to run everytime I head out the door. I LOVE Polly's online videos. Especially: Yoga for runners, Hip Opener 1, Yoga for Arms and Yoga for Abs. YUM. They are more like streatches then yoga flow but I still love them.

Speaking of running, I fell yesterday. Like fell down. On the ground. Scrapped knee and all. But I was only 1.15 miles into my 4 mile run SOOO I washed off my knee with my water bottle and kept running. I'm so hardcore.

I did spinning today. Pretty good. Nice and sweaty. I wish my instructor would play better music though..Uptown Girls just wasn't cutting it today. But I was a sweaty monster so I guess it was ALL GOOD.

Eats:

• Juice (carrots, apple, romaine, lemon)
• egg whites (3)
• turkey sand on ezekial with spinach, avocado, tomato, with watermelon
• 1/2 Gogi Bar...SOOOOO GOOODDD!!! Loved this bar by Dr. Weil
• 8 oz G2 during spin (not good. reg gatorade is much better, or coco water passion fruit or mango)
• homemade roasted veggie lasagna with fresh multigrain bread
• Stoneyfield After Dark ice cream

See, these are the days I love. When I'm totally satisfied with every single thing I eat.

Here are some delicious pics:

Kitty loves yoga. Modified cobra pose heheh

Whole wheat lasagna noodles, cheese, sauce, roasted veggies, seasoning ( you could add ricotta and ground turkey too or a cream sauce..whateves you like so easy)

What is this?! Dinner from last night. I saw it in Runner's World. Basically it's dijonnaise, lump crab, avocado, apple, tomato and green beans. Over spinach. Hello deliciousness. I have done it with both canned crab (not bumbleebee but any other brand) and with crab from the seafood section of the grocery store. Either work well.

Green Lemonade

After my morning run (which was about 90000 degrees), I made Natalie Rose's Green lemonade. WOW! So. Good. Really tangy, but not sour. I heart my juicer :)

Here it is..so green and beautiful...

I wasn't going to document lunch because it didn't seem terribly exciting..until i started eating eat. AMAZING. I got Honey Roasted Turkey from Fresh Market. I don't eat a lot of deli meat, however, this was quite delicious. Sorry for the half eaten pic. I just had to document.

• 2 slices of ezekial bread
• 1/2 small avocado (about 1.5 oz)
• spinach
• tomato
• 2 slice of honey roasted turkey
• guiltless gourmet blue corn chips with salsa (needed some crunch and salt)

I had a massage today at Cloud 9. I really love Cloud 9 because they go out of their way to make you feel like you are having a luscious treatment. I especially like their facials. I was so relaxed and my masseuse really worked on my shoulders and neck, which get un-godly tight.

So, I guess I'm obsessed with Natalie Rose because I also made her Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup. While she is a raw foodie, she includes cooked meals in her cook book as good transitions into raw eating. I give this soup an A+++++++++. It was sweet but not dessert like and had a wonderful sweet potato flavor with a nice hint of carrot. While I can't give you the entire recipe, here are the ingredients:

• carrots
• sweet potato
• vegetable broth
• cumin
• garlic
• ginger

With that I made crab cakes. So tasty.

My lulumon leggings came today!!! I did some impromptu yoga to test them out (in love with them). Can't wait to wear them to spinning on Thurs!!

Dinner Party

I. am. stuffed!! What an amazing dinner party!

We had such a delicious dinner (and dessert), plus there was a Bachelorette surprise...Reid! I highly doubt she picks him, but I absolutely adore him/have the biggest crush on him/screamed like a crazy person when I saw his darling face and I am happy to see him man up and share his feelings!!!!

Today was a rather strange eating day because I woke up with intense upper stomach pains...sorta of like stabbing pains!?!?! WHY?!?! So I had some nice oatmeal with a banana and then went back to sleep.

I did some gentle hatha yoga and some core work and felt much better.

Then I feasted on these beauties:

• Whole wheat pasta with fresh pesto, tomatoes, asparagus
• Roasted veggies with thyme, salt and pepper
• Kelli's famous (and deadly) Key Lime Pie.
• Organic soft red wine (aka Grape Juice)

The pie was def the scene stealer. It had the perfect amount of sweetness and saltiness to the crust (her secret is using macadamia nuts and graham crackers). It was amazing..I had 3 pieces :) Needless to say i'll be working out big time all this week...

We watched Jillian and the sexy men (ie. Jesse, Kiptyn, REIDDDDD) and then watched the new show about dating in the dark. We all agreed it was too mean of a show to keep watching. These people have real connections in the dark and then they see each other in the light and the reaction is sad :(