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!

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.

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.

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:

Helllooooooo Vibrams! My parents think these are WEIRD! hehehe

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

With a side of waffle + pnut butter shmear

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

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.

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

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

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.

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..]

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!!!