My name is Ashley McLaughlin, and this is my blog, Edible Perspective. Check my about + FAQ pages for more of the nitty gritty.  I'm thrilled that you stopped by. Enjoy!

         

Friday
Dec182009

messed up schedule!

Between the time difference, and my weird late-nite 2nd winds, my sleep/eat/play schedule is all off!!  Last night I finished my post at 1am and then had to wrap a gift for my dad to mail this morning.  So I got to bed at about 1:45am and didn’t set my alarm.  I figured I would for sure be up to make it to the 11am yoga sculpt.  Welp, I woke up at 10:45. CRAPola!  Apparently my body needed 9hrs of sleep.  So from then on I was just off. 

I made oats at about 11 so then lunch was going to be later than normal.

Oats + almond milk + bananana + lil’ honey + TJ’s cinnamon almonds + wheatabix crunchy goodness

Scooooooby dooooby dooo

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My dad loves mugs and being the holidays and all, I had to use this guy.

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Scooby Buttocks.

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After the oats, I was seriously craving vitamin C.  Is that weird?  My body was like “either eat an orange or chug some OJ.”  I have never had that feeling before.  I listened :)

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These were both a bit bigger than the normal clementine size, and I was overstuffed after eating both.  Oh well, hehe.

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Had to get a few things done at home and then go run a few errands.  I didn’t get out the door til about 1:30pm.  I knew I was going to be hungry for lunch 1/2 way thru my errands.  I chomped on a new bar before I left the house.  I saw it at WF and have wanted to try it for awhile.

Chocolately Chocolate Chip flavor

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It was pretty much TERRible.  Too bad, because I liked the ingredient list.  It literally did NOT taste like chocolate and had what I would describe as a chemical taste to it.  I would never try this bar again, or try it in any other flavor.  I choked down 3/4 of it because I hate wasting $2 bars.  The only thing I liked was the texture.

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As predicted I was starving around 3:30 and didn’t make it home until 4:45 and then knew that I would be making dinner soon-ish, so I couldn’t eat a full lunch.  I decided to have a mini cup [from one of the 4-paks] of SF vanilla Oikos + a 1/2 of the blueberry muffin I bought from WF.  Hollllllllllly cow was the muffin amazing.  I rarely splurge for a muffin and I don’t know what made me do it. SO worth it!  It was super moist + had the perfect crunchy crust. The other 1/2 is waiting for my oatmeal tomorrow.

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Dinner time!  My mom didn’t want anything too heavy and I didn’t want anything with meat, so I made an awesome layered dish full of veg.

Altered from a recipe on the WF website [WF has a milllllion recipes on their website…I always forget that!]

Layered potatoe veggie bake:

  • 1 bunch kale [chopped]
  • 2 large yukon potatoes [thinly sliced]
  • 2T olive oil
  • 1 small container baby bellas, chopped
  • 1c. cheese [swiss, jarlsberg, gruyere, whatev!]
  • 1/2 onion [diced]
  • 3 garlic cloves [minced]
  • s+p
  1. Preheat oven to 350*
  2. Sauté onion + garlic in the oil over medium heat for about 5min
  3. Transfer to a casserole dish
  4. Add 1 single layer of the potatoes
  5. Add 1/3 of the kale + 1/3 of the mushrooms + 1/3 of the cheese + s+p
  6. Repeat 4 + 5 three times, ending with cheese
  7. Bake, covered, for 1hr 15min
  8. Uncover and bake for 15min longer

The prep took about 15min and this was comforting and delicious, with not too much cheese.  I would say it serves 4.

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You could also use a cast iron skillet and cook the onion/garlic in that and then layer everything and pop in the oven.  Less dishes!

Tater layer

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The WF version did not use mushrooms.  They were soo perfect with this!  That recipe also used swiss chard.  The kale rocked!

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Stuffed full!! Pre-bake!

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It shrunk in size by half after baking!  the top layer of kale was crunchy :)

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Bought a HUGE sourdough roll for $.89 at WF to throw on the salad.  I bought about 1/4lb of sundried tomatoes from the olive bar, so I didn’t have to buy a whole container.  They were delicious!  I used Annie’s organic balsamic dressing which was realllllly yummy!

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I had 1/4 of the tater casserole + this salad plus another big scoop. 

Last night of Hanukkah!

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Oh yah, while dinner was in the oven I hopped on the treadmill :)  A quick 30min walking interval workout.  I made it really hard!!!  It sucks that both of my feet are hurting in 2 different places.  This has never happened before and I am missing my runs!  I’m icing + advil, so hopefully they’re better soon!

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We went to my uncle + aunt’s house after din to hang out.  My aunt had a cookie exchange with her Bunko friends and she came home with 12 dozen cookies. OMG.  She brought them all out and I think I had a break of almost all of them. 

I am going to get better photos of them tomorrow because they were all so cute + different!  I had this plate, plus another few breaks.  There was a tie between 2, for my favorite.  I am usually not a big chocolate cake person, weird I know, but there was one “cookie” that was a chocolate cake ball dipped in chocolate.  The cake was super moist and the hard shell made for a great texture difference.  I didn’t get a photo of that one though. 

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My other fav, although they were all seriously really good, was the top left cookie.  I can’t even tell you how buttery and delicate the 2 cookie layers were and the icing in the middle just melted in your mouth.  Most of them were mini sized which I liked because then I could try more. 

It is now 1:05am and I am definitely setting my alarm for about 8:15am.  My plan is to throw on some workout clothes, chug some h2o, chomp on a banana, and head to pilates at Harmony Yoga Studio.  I’ve never done pilates before but the description sounds awesome!! 

Niiiiiiiiiight

~Ashley

Friday
Dec182009

hungry all day

My body is beat from yoga!  I went to Harmony Yoga Studio in downtown Willoughby today.  Check out the website just to see a photo of the studio.  It’s gorgeous and was so peaceful + welcoming.  I took the power vinyasa class with 4 other women and it rocked.  I thoroughly enjoyed the class, and I think even liked it better than Yoga One in Charlotte [crazy, I know].  The instructor played music which I thought might be annoying but was great.  It really made you lose yourself in the yoga a little easier instead of having a million things running through your mind you could just zone out and listen to the music.  There was a lot of Ben Harper played, which I haven’t listened to in forever.  It was great!

Last night’s Hanukkah photos!

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Before yoga, I had a quick bowl of some Kashi instant hot cereal.  I didn’t get to pick up my organic rolled oats yet and my mom had this in the cupboard so I tried it out.  It was surprisingly tasty, even when just made with water.  It tasted like one of their cereals and even had some crunch to it.  Great in a pinch for sure.

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The one thing I don’t like about Kashi, are their ingredient lists.  They are a mile long on all of their products.  I am a fan of their cereals, but usually avoid buying them because I feel like cereal really doesn’t need a 30+ ingredient list to be tasty.  However, once in awhile, it’s YUM! :)  Their bars however are very “bleh” to me.

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After yoga, I came home + hopped on the treadmill for a 30min hill workout.  However, right before the treadmill I was staving and chomped on this:

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Helllooooooo Vibrams!  My parents think these are WEIRD! hehehe

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I kept it on 8% @4mp most of the time but them worked it up to 12 and decreased down to 6 during the last 8min.  I was exhausted from both activities today!!!

Showered + then made lunch.  Huuuge bowl of SF vanilla yogurt [~1c] + 1/4c raisins + 1/4c wheetabix crunchy delicious cereal

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With a side of waffle + pnut butter shmear

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And for dessert!!! Trader Joe’s, Cinnamon Almonds!!  They were suuuper tasty but I could only eat about 10 before they got too sweet for me, but that’s probably a good thing.  The only ingredients are: Almonds, Cinnamon, + Sugar.

Taaastyyyy – perfect to throw in a bowl for a holiday party

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My parents, brother and I went to a nice restaurant in the University Circle area, in Cleveland.  It was called Sergios and the food is a cross between Italian + French.  It was delicious!

I started with a tasty Chardonnay.

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I only ate 1 roll, even though they tempted me by delivering another pillow of bread on my plate.

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I ordered Butternut Squash Bisque to start.  It was tasty with notes of ginger + garlic + maybe some apple or pear, not quite sure. 

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My main course was “Scampi Genovese.”  They were about 6 delicious, large shrimp with a super creamy garlic/wine flavored rice full of shitake mushrooms.  The rice was deeevine!!!  The shrimp was cooked perfectly too.  I liked the broccolini on the side because it wasn’t doused in butter, although it was a bit cold and a tad undercooked.     

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My dad + I got the same dish, and my mom + brother got the same thing.

Beef Tenderloin Romano – The restaurant was sooo dimly lit.  [If any of you digiSLR peeps are reading, I had it on ISO 1600 f-stop 2.8 and the shutter speed was like 1/15 – 1/25 – I fixed the white balance a bit in Lightroom and brightened them up just a tad.  The photos are pretty noisy at 1600, I usually don’t even like having the ISO at 800.  Okay, I’ll stop nerd talking..]

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Guess what??  Remember my 18 Rabbits bar from yesterday??  I am still thinking about it!!  The texture + not too sweet flavors were just so delicious.  Well, I found a pretty good deal on them with free shipping if you spend over $25.  You can get a box of 12 for $20.99, which is by no means cheap, but is cheaper than Whole Foods or amazon.  They also have granola, which I definitely want to try.  These bars make me want to start ota.bars back up again!!  I hope I can at some point…we’ll see!  They also have Amazing Grass products the cheapest I have seen!

Well, I’m all out of photatoes [new word for “photos” Laura made up and I’m in love with…why? no clue] and I’m all out of steam.  My arse is starting to get sore from yoga + hill walking today.  Hope to make it to Yoga Sculpt class tomorrow with a bunch of errands before + after.

I found an awesome sounding recipe for RAW chocolate mint pudding that I maaaay have to make tomorrow.  Chocolate + mint is a favorite combo of mine and I love pudding but have had a hard time finding recipes that don’t include corn starch and other crappy ingredients.  This sounds super easy + super awesome.  Does anyone know much about raw cacao?  I read some pretty crazy [negative] things about it online today and was curious what everyone thinks.  So mine might not be totally raw, but it will be totally delicious.

Didn’t I just say I was out of steam??  Leave it to me to bring up food again.

Niiiiight xo

~Ashley

p.s. I just ate two uhhhhmazingly delicious Satsumas….try them out!!!

Wednesday
Dec162009

fly by

Hi hi hi with a quick Cleveland post.  I was literally running on fumes all day.  The past few days have sort of been a blur of bizziness!!  Went to bed way too late and left for the airport at 7:20am.  Luckily, I had no hang ups at the airport and arrived safely in Cleveland after only 2hrs + 20min in the air.

I took my oats to go this AM.  Gotta eat healthy when on the go, or I feel like poo!

  • 1/4c oat bran + 1/4c oatmeal
  • 1c vanilla rice milk
  • 1/2 banana
  • dash maple sugar
  • ~1T [WF no stir organic – my FAV] pnut butter
  • ~1/2T [Jason’s organic] chocolate pnut butter
  • ch ch ch chia sprinkles

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I am growing to love the creamy oatbran/oatmeal combo!!!  Once I arrived at the airport I found Caribou of course!  You all should know by know Caribou is much higher on my list than Starbucks. 

I got a small cup o’ joe to go and drank it on the plane while I read a good chunk of this book -  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – I don’t see myself writing a book per say, but it has really been a great read.  If you are thinking that writing is your thing and a book is in your future I highly suggest you pick this up for $10-15!

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I flew Continental [my fav, along with Frontier] and sat next to a really nice mom + her 2 daughters, 18mo and 3yr old.  They were super cute and I give her a lot of credit for traveling alone with them.  We actually got a snack on the plane: tuna or turkey samich w/fritos + a hershey bar.  I asked the mom if she wanted me to get them an extra because I didn’t want mine.  She took me up on the offer.  Not a fan of fritos or hershey chocolate and wasn’t feeling the samich either.  Do I sound picky :)  It’s not that I passed it up because I thought “oh that is not a healthy choice” [which it wasn’t], however I passed it up because those things just do not taste good to me. 

Luckily I came prepared!  The 18 Rabbits granola bar is absolutely amazing.  I would definitely give it a 9/10, even though I can’t put my finger on anything that I didn’t like about it.  It had the perfect chew factor and was the perfect sweetness. [pretty sure it was 9g of sugar]  The ingredient list was awesome and the bar even had raisins mixed in that I liked. [I mentioned recently I like raisins, but not at all in baked goods] Oh maaan I cannot wait to eat more of these.  They reminded me of my ota.bars quite a bit. mmmmm  You must check them out!

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Guzzled down some OJ as well :)

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My dad picked me up and on the way home I snacked on some POPchips – salt + peppa’

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I went to my aunt + uncle’s house right away and found my aunt making loads of mondel broit.  It’s a Jewish cookie, somewhat similar to a biscotti but WAY better. 

Kelsey posted the recipe this summer after she tried them and fell in love.  Check it out here!!  You will not be sorry.  They freeze perfectly and I actually eat them straight out of the freezer whenever my aunt loads me up.

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The ends.  I ate about 5 of these little guys….mmmmm

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Dinner was quick but yum.  We made sloppy tom’s [weird that you can buy it cooked in a jar, but there are minimal ingredients and it is delish!] from The Turkey Farm in Marshall, MI.  We picked some of it up when we were there last month.  I sautéed some veg + we also had some out of season but delicious cantaloupe.  

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I finally got to light some Chanukkah candles tonight with my parents.  Only 2 more nights left!!  I took a photo but my cam is now out of batteries so you will see it tomorrow! 

On another note.  I know a lot of you have showed interest in the RUSH bowls I talked about on the blog a few weeks ago.  I got a list of stores they are available in, from Nicole [the VP].  She said she will try to get them at other locations if there is enough interest.  They are still in the start up process of selling them for retail so it might take some time. 

Here is the list:

Whole Foods Locations

Academy - ACD 505-856-0474 New Mexico

Baseline – BSL 303-499-7636 Colorado

Belmar – BMR 303-935-5000 Colorado

Broadway – AFB 303-442-0909 Colorado

Capitol Hill – CPH 303-832-7701 Colorado

Cerillos (Santa Fe) – CER 505-992-1700 New Mexico

Cherry Creek – CCK 720-941-4100 Colorado

Colorado Blvd – COL 303-691-0101 Colorado

Fort Collins – FTC 970-267-9200 Colorado

Highlands Ranch – HLR 303-470-6003 Colorado

Ideal – IDL 303-443-1354 Colorado

Park City – PKC 435-575-0200 Utah

Pearl – PRL 303-545-6611 Colorado

Pikes Peak (Col Springs) – PPK 719-531-9999 Colorado

Metcalf  – MET 913-652-9633 Kansas

South Glenn – SGN 303-996-3660 Colorado

Sugarhouse (Salt Lake) – SUH 801-359-7913 Utah

Superior – SUP 720-274-1415 Colorado

Overland Park - OPK 913-663-2951 Kansas

Fouth South - FTS 801-355-7401 Utah

Some of the local CO locations you can find them at:

Saxy's

Brewing Market

8 Port

Stone Cup

Delilah's

Niwot Market

Lucky's

Bova's

Folsom Coffee

Flatiron Cafe

Super Joe's

Boulder Country Club

 

Sleeeeeeeeeeeepy!!!  I felt like going to bed at 8pm, which was really 6pm CO time and now I’m up til 1am!?  What is wrong with me….stupid 2nd wind!!!

Night folks!  Ooooh, I think I’m going to check out what looks to be an awesome yoga studio in Willoughby Hills tomorrow.  They offer a 10 day unlimited pass [10 consecutive days] for new students for $10.  since I’m home for a week this works out perfectly.  If I make it 3 times I will be super excited!!  More on that tomorrow! 

xo

~Ashley

p.s. Follow me on Twitter @edibleASH or become a fan on facebook The Edible Perspective