Saturday, November 23, 2013

Turn the Beet Around

Last weekend we were invited to 'Friendsgiving' an event hosted by Elsie's original owners. This was a very special occasion as Elsie has not seen them or her brother from another mother-Humphrey-in about 8 months. Besides contemplating what scarf Elsie was going to wear to the reunion, I had to figure out what to bring. I wanted to try out a new recipe that I could possibly use for Thanksgiving at my parents' house next week and found the perfect one to experiment with from Robin Robertson's-Vegan Planet. I love the bright colors of roasted beets and it's a tasty side dish to almost any fall meal.

 Orange Roasted Beets & Shallots with Toasted Almonds & Fresh Mint:
Ingredients:

5 Large beets-scrubbed and quartered (I peeled some of the stringy/rough parts)
4 shallots quartered
2 TBSPN organge juice concentrate
2 TBSPN olive oil
1 TBSPN chopped fresh mint
2 TBSPN toasted chopped almonds
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

*preheat oven to 425 degrees
1. Mix the oil and OJ concentrate together.
2. Mix the OJ/oil dressing with the beets & shallots and place in a large baking dish (I initially thought there were way too many shallots but they shrink). Sprinkle with salt & pepper and cover with foil. I prepared this ahead of time allowing the beets & shallots to marinate for about an hour.
3. Bake for 50 minutes, turning the beets & shallots halfway through.
4. Serve warm garnished with fresh mint and toasted almonds


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Babymoon-November 12, 2013

Last Friday marked my last day at work for 2013. I have been at my current place of employment for almost 9 1/2 years. During that time at most I have taken about 2 weeks off from work. My employer will allow me to take a total of 6 months off for maternity leave. This could leave some women wondering what they would do with their time but not me-I feel like I have a lot of organizing and prepping to do and my biggest worry is that the baby will decide to come earlier than Dec. 10th. I also still have a bit of a bucket list (like one last Sunday night at the 500 Club, stuffing my face at the Hella Vegan Eats food truck at Dolores Park, paddle boarding at Jack London Square, hike to Cataract Falls in Marin, etc.) I need to work on once all the baby prep stuff is done.

But first things first-Babymoon! GK was a little worried about being too far away from a hospital in case of an emergency and of course Elsie had to be included so we decided to revisit one of our favorite spots-the Stanford Inn, an eco-friendly resort in Mendocino. This was the spot of our first getaway together in 2011 and where we became engaged last New Year's Eve. For this trip I was especially looking forward to a prenatal massage in the forest, vegan food, and a king sized bed with extra pillows.
After my massage I returned to our cozy room complete with a fireplace to find GK and Elsie engaging in some serious cuddle time.
We then relaxed which consists of watching TV since we don't own one. Unfortunately the inn does not have Animal Planet (a favorite) so we settled on the Food Network's reality show, "Chopped," that  had a special Thanksgiving theme. Above is the view from our room where we could see the ocean and we took a short break from the TV to appreciate an amazing sunset. Then it was time to head to dinner at the inn's Raven's Restaurant.
Probably because it was a Tuesday night, we were one of about three couples, and I have an incredibly healthy appetite these days-we were finished with dinner in a little less than an hour. Clockwise from the upper left hand corner-roasted beet frisee salad with lemon walnut pate, vegetables tamales with beans, rice,  & avocado slaw, homemade mushroom tofu ravioli with cream sauce & sauteed chard, and barbeque pulled tempeh sandwich with citrus slaw. Unfortunately I was too full to order dessert.
 Being a model is hard.
After dinner GK took about an hour to get a fire going and Elsie had her holiday photo shoot (sorry-no previews). I fell into a blissful sleep with the fire crackling in the background, surrounded by at least five fluffy pillows, and no alarm clock to wake up to.
In the morning I decided to take advantage of the solarium swimming pool. Because I've been feeling ahem, a bit warm these days, walking to the pool barefoot, in just the inn's bathrobe was pretty invigorating and I reminisced about all the ice baths I took last year while training for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50K.
36-week belly shot.
It's official-I still float!
After the pool we had brunch-tofu Florentine and roasted potatoes for me and quinoa and black bean enchiladas complete with freshly squeezed orange and carrot juice.

 Then it was Elsie time and we took her for a walk on the grounds. Here she is checking out the organic garden.
And here she is ignoring the llama.
Elsie refused to look into the camera so I looked in the direction she was-at what I have absolutely no clue but I hope it was interesting.
GK's turn to look intrigued.
We even ventured down to the dock at Catch a Canoe. Elsie is NOT a fan of water and typically refuses to walk on a dock. However, when we took her leash off and proceeded without her, she summoned the courage and joined us. She was so nervous she wouldn't even accept the treats we offered her for being so brave.
I would have loved to stay just one more night but that would have been pushing it with all we have left to do in the next few short weeks. We'll be back in 2014 though with just a little extra luggage:)