Too lazy to post House Party photos

Oh man, it's late and I've got some MORE house cleaning/laundry to do. It never ends. It is for this reason, I will not (yet) be posting the House Party photos from my parents' Williams-Sonoma soiree this weekend. Mine, by the way, will be held on THURSDAY!

So instead, I'm going to tell you about something new I tried today. As I mentioned in my post race post, I had my first taste of Muscle Milk yesterday. This morning I tried another 1/3 of the bottle (bananas and crème) with a banana. It was a very banana-y breakfast. I think I liked it, but I'm not 100 percent sure, I guess :)

LUNCH

Then for lunch I tried two new items: POM light hibiscus green tea and Healthy Choice's Cafe Steamers, Chicken Pesto Classico. I've had TONS of POM drinks before, as evidenced by the following glass out of which I drank my lunch beverage:

I swear POM didn't pay me to write this post :) But if you work for POM, I wouldn't mind..... I don't usually buy POM since it's pretty expensive, but they were practically buy one get one free at Safeway last night. So I also got a Bossa Nova mangosteen passionfruit beverage. I've had floral drinks before and they're hit or miss. Either they're super flowery and remind me of drinking hand lotion, or they're subtle and delicious. This one was great! If it weren't so dang expensive I'd buy it again -- though I still have the other half of the bottle waiting in the fridge for another day.

Now on to the Healthy Choice frozen meal. If I don't make an abundance of dinner the night before, I'm pretty pressed for time come lunch. Enter the frozen meals. I've done a good job at cutting these down, if not out of my life entirely. But today, couldn't refuse. I think the idea of these plates is pretty neat: separated veggies and protein from a sauce, which you mix together at the end. I think this helps vegetables from turning into that nasty gloop they usually form in the microwave. Plus, it was kinda fun to assemble:

It wasn't bad, just could have used a bit more flavor. I suppose I could have added spices, but again, pressed for time. Then I threw an afternoon snack of honey Greek yogurt and cherries in my purse and headed back to the office. After someone got his lunch, of course. Only because he begged so pitifully for mine.

RUN

When I returned from work, I threw on the new outfit I bought at REI last night; this summer-like heat is getting to be intense already in the Valley. My friend Tori has been saying we should run practically all semester, so tonight we finally hit the streets. In all it was an easy 2.33 miles at a very mild pace, just to kind of unwind after yesterday's race. It felt great!

DINNER

After the run, I found J.D. hands-deep in making dinner -- for the second-straight night :) He put to work the new Calphalon grill pan I scored at the Williams-Sonoma dinner and spice-rubbed some chicken.

He had several burners going at once with quinoa and veggies tossed with garlic salt. It was at this point, I set to work on an appetizer for him, which could be called a post-run snack for moi. It was a caprese salad-inspired toast! I cut up a French baguette and then loaded it up with tomatoes, a slice of a mozzarella basil roulade and of course, olive oil and vinegar.

See the new dryfit tank top I bought!!! I love it, so cute!

I scarfed down my dinner while we watched The Next Food Network Star. Oh man, I love watching that show!! I wish I could be on a reality star show. That would be so awesome. If only I had fun talents someone would want to mold a show around.....

When that finished, I sliced an apple and dipped it in a little bit of almond butter and a little bit of dark chocolate almond spread. Then got to work French press-ing a soy latte. While owning Jeopardy!, well, if you don't count my answer on the final.

Ok, back to some more cleaning. And hopefully we'll know if we're moving or staying put tomorrow..... I'll keep you updated!

Fun with my French family

I love coming home to the Bay Area to see my family! We arrived yesterday and hit up Downtown Pleasanton to pick up our race packets at Fleet Feet, but also let little Woodstock wander around the streets for a little bit.

(Source)

When we finally made it to Alamo, my mom was just opening all of her cabinets and the fridge to assemble all the ingredients of a home-made salade niçoise!!! I know that I lived in the Nice academic region when I lived in France a few years back, but salade niçoise has been close to my heart nearly my whole life (see: my obsession with crêpes).

I love that my mom shares the same passion for French cuisine as I do.

Authentic French mustard for the vinaigrette:

Escargot for the appetizer... I really didn't mind the taste and enjoyed the pesto sauce, but I couldn't manage to get over the fact I was eating a snail. Then I started getting grossed out again. But at least I tried, right? I'm a terrible Frenchie ;)

There's nothing better than a glass of rosé on a hot summer spring night! The candlelight doesn't do much justice to the pink hue of our wine. And shhhhh, don't tell anyone that it's a bottle of SPANISH wine!

I would make a good sommelière, right?? No? Ok, I'll just stick to drinking it then.

My plate of salad topped with freshly-seared ahi tuna. Soooooo goooooooooood.

Finally for dessert, we each had tiny slices of chocolate lover's cake with blackberries. I went a little overboard with the plate decorations haha, awesome.

Then this morning we were all treated to very French breakfasts. Unfortunately, I can't handle a typical French breakfast. I think my cholesterol would skyrocket. So I cut my apple pastry in half, made a cup of blueberry Greek yogurt with granola, craisins and blackberries leftover from dessert, then washed it all down with a lowfat soy mocha latte.

J.D., my mom and I all went shopping earlier this morning to find fun things for our respective House Parties. J.D. and I scored a bunch of goodies -- can't wait for our game night -- and then my mom hit up Trader Joe's for her final groceries for tonight's Williams-Sonoma dinner party. While she was off, we stopped at Baja Fresh next door and shared a mini taco plate for a little lunch.

And now preparations for the party begin! I'm limiting myself to a half a glass of wine or less, since we'll be running 12 hours after the party kicks off. I hope to get to sleep early tonight and then away we'll go to Livermore for the 5K race!! When we get back, I'll post pictures of the party and the race if I ever bother to take any. Just don't hold your breath on that one.....

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekends! xx

What can I say, I'm an international girl??

Oh my GOSH, I felt so Euro tonight. Wasn't able to get to dinner until after 9 p.m., speaking of that it's almost 11.... jesus where's my day??

Oh that's right, I SPENT FIFTY SEVEN HOURS OF MY LIFE THAT I CAN'T GET BACK AT WAL-MART. FML

Honestly, J.D. and I had a light list of items we needed for the house and seeing how Wal-Mart's the cheapest and I needed an oil change, off we went. I was initially told it would take about an hour until my car could be serviced. No biggie, we could waste an hour at Wal-Mart. We ended up browsing around for 1.5 hours and then I went to check and my car and noticed only two were left ahead of me. I figured it'd probably take about 30 more minutes then we could be on our merry way. Except, 30 minutes later, I was told it'd be another hour until my oil could be changed. At this point, it was almost 8 p.m.!!!! You've GOT to be kidding me.... so I asked them to cancel my service and we went home with several bags of things I didn't need as a result of wasting time in a super store.

Let's rewind a few hours. I got my House Party Game Night package FedEx-ed to me today!!! The Newly Wives opened my eyes to this website and I got selected to host the Game Night party! My package included a generous mix of snacks and Hasboro games for our party. I'm so stoked and ready to break into all these goodies:

Now, back to 9 p.m. After my last few French meals, my lunch at B.J.'s with our new interview candidate -- yup I'm on a hiring committee -- had me wanting to order fish tacos. Except, the nutritional facts side of the menu dissuaded me from doing so. When dinner finally rolled around, I couldn't get Mexican off my mind!

So I started by marinating some chicken in chili lime sauce and seasoning

Then I chopped up my little chicken breasts (in case you're wondering, I cooked for Mr. Fox who was on his run prepping for our 5K this weekend -- we're on different training schedules so today was my rest day)

And tossed them on a plate of natural Tostito's corn chips + Mexican blend shredded cheese. Into the broiler all of it went.

Can you tell that one of us likes cheese waaaay more than I do the other does??? While that was cookin' I got to work making myself a special treat. A Patrón pomegranate margarita on the rocks ;)

It was super hot today. I deserved a treat!

When the nachos were ready, I loaded them up with some fat free refried beans then turned it all into a taco salad-nacho hybrid!

My nachos paired well with a dallop of plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, carrots and Pace salsa.

Someone else enjoyed his plain nachos with a side salad along with a side of refried beans. We agree to disagree on our food preparations haha, but when all was said and done we both had the same thing over the course of the meal.

Well, that's it for tonight. We're headed to my parents' house in the Bay Area tomorrow (after a half work day... I love Fridays over the summer) for my mom's Williams-Sonoma Dinner House Party and then SUNDAY'S vineyard 5K race.

Bonne nuit!! xx

Puppy update and dinner!

Don't know if you can tell, but Woodstock is doing better after pet hospital visit No. 2 this afternoon.

He was still in a funk all morning/afternoon and I nervously had the vet's number ready to call if it got any worse. Knowing there really wasn't anything I could do, I went for my 3.1 mile run as soon as I got off work at 4 p.m. in preparation for my 5K on Sunday. P.S. Let me recommend that you don't EVER run without dryfit clothing or a bottle of water in 85+ degree weather. It was horrendous. Though I still clocked in around 27ish minutes. Well over my mark, but not terrible given how awful I felt the entire time.

When I returned home, I saw that Woodstock had some issues - I'll spare you the details. So off to the pet hospital we went. They didn't charge me for the visit since it was a lingering complication from last week's visit, but we did get him new food that he's finally eating!! YAY, and a new medicine that hopefully he won't have violent reactions to.

After talking to J.D. post interview when we returned home, I started preparing dinner for one while he hopped on his plane home.

I kicked off the meal with an easy roasted garlic hummus salad drizzled with olive oil balsamic vinaigrette.

Like my "white wine"??? Haha, that joke never gets old. Anyways, I followed the meal up with a repeat of last night's dinner (since I couldn't finish it): artichoke pesto crusted tilapia with garlic sea salt asparagus. It wasn't as good nuked obviously, but it still filled me up.

How French am I??? A Provencal tablecloth purchased in Europe, along with a set of plates I'm sure my dad brought home from one of our many times in France. (Dad, when are you going to take me again, it's been over two years?!?!)

And the meal's finale included a fruit salad I "desserted up" with vanilla honey crème: nonfat Greek yogurt blended with a drop of vanilla extract and teaspoon of honey. I topped it all off sundae style with some chopped walnuts. Something I'll definitely prepare again :)

And in true European fashion the meal ended with coffee!!! I used my French press to make a soy latte in my Paris mug haha. So fun.

And speaking of finales.... what shows do you all watch?! I've been hooked on ABC for a few years now and am kind of shocked by a few of their season finales. J.D. and I watched Grey's Anatomy last night and OH MY GOSH - every commercial break I was on baited breath (which is normal for that show and season enders), but it all wrapped up so neatly at the end, save for the random deaths. Aren't season finales supposed to be cliffhangers for several months?!

Well, Modern Family wrapped up neatly as well, but Brothers & Sisters was extremely suspenseful and is going to leave me asking questions until September!!!!

Hope all your shows kept you waiting for another season :) For now, I'm going to sip my latte and veg on some Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe and await my boyfriend's return from his one day interview trip to Malibu. Good night all! xx