Category Archives: Paciugo

by | July 13, 2010 · 8:24 am

Lovin’ the Carbs!

     Good evening! I am completely wiped out from a busy day, so let’s get through this before I pass out! The morning monster was huuuuuuge!

Okay, so it doesn’t look any bigger than normal, but this GM had the most spinach ever included! There was probably about 3.5-4 cups in this. Lovely!
     My roommate and I jumped on the trails around 9:30am and headed down our recently discovered trail. We got to the bridge where we usually turn around, but decided to keep walking and see where we ended up. I don’t know where we were. It was awesome.
We were so busy chatting and enjoying the views, that by the time we turned around, we’d added an extra half hour to the hike. 90 minutes of hiking? Sweet!
     When we got back, I refueled with another mug of coffee, and an indian-spiced KSS.
This had 1/3 a bag of chopped baby greens, 1/2 a chopped bell pepper, 1/2 a cup of warmed lentils, and some of last night’s indian-spiced chicken and vegetables reheated and thrown on top. This was so good! The chicken was still incredibly salty, but when it was combined with a plethora of veggies, it fit right in!
     I ran out to the library to pick up a couple of books that had finally come in: Up in the Air by Walter Kirn, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Finally I have something easy to read! I love all the beer brewing books and mountain biking books, but sometimes it’s nice just to get drawn into a story and get lost in the book. I’ll be reading The Help first, because that one is a two week loan.
     The Great Harvest Bread Company was next! I stopped in for a free slice of pumpkin-seed bread and bought another loaf of the 9 Grain bread. I’ll be throwing most of it in the freezer since I didn’t get through the last loaf. I made another batch of Chimichurri sauce to spread on top of my new bread :).
I used actual oregano, instead of marjoram like last time (The vendor at the farmers’ market gave me the wrong bunch last time, but the marjoram still worked!).
I love food processors!
I re-used the bottle from the farmers’ market that I based my recipe off of. It fit perfectly and is now chilling in the fridge.
     I pored through the Veganomicon cookbook for awhile trying to find something to make for dinner, but instead opted to go out to The Natural Cafe with my roommate, who was treating.
I got the Local Favorite – my usual. I told myself I would try something new. I knew I was lying…
My roommate got the albacore sandwich and was done with the entire thing before I’d finished my first half. He had to sit patiently while I scraped up every last crumb.
     Since he treated to dinner, I offered up dessert.
Of course we went to Paciugo! Where else would we go? I got a small with peanut butter caramel, chocolate turtle cheesecake and amaretto chocolate chip. The roommate got chocolate. Just chocolate. At a place that has 20 different flavor options. Seriously.
     There happened to be a Vitamix blender on display at Williams-Sonoma, so we dropped by and got a demonstration of the terrifying sound it makes when turned onto high speed. I’ve been obsessing over these for months now and researching everything about them. I WANT ONE!
     It’s now 9pm and we’re still uncomfortably stuffed. Since I can’t fit anymore food into my stomach, I’m going to head over to the Vitamix website and mentally drool a little. 
Are there any amazing books that you’ve read recently?

4 Comments

Filed under gelato, green monster, hike, kitchen sink salad, Natural Cafe, Paciugo, Vitamix

by | July 12, 2010 · 8:22 am

Surprise Training!

     Hello all! I hope you had an amazing Sunday! I had to work, but it was actually a really good day, overall! It helped to start with this:

This baby had 3 cups of spinach, 3/4 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/3 a cup of frozen cherries, 1/2 a banana and lemon juice!
     I missed my Monsta! I had a full shift at work today, so after a lovely Monsta and cup of coffee, I headed out. When I got inside, I was surprised to find that I had four hours of training today. That would’ve been good to know before I’d arrived, but I can deal! The most important change that the training brought around: TWO LUNCHES!!!
     First lunch was…
Subway! I had a 6-inch on wheat with turkey, roast beef, pepperjack cheese, spinach, cucumber, tomato, green peppers, a little mayo and mustard. And a few chapters of my newest bike book!
     Training was not as painful as I was expecting! It was very interactive and basically involved lots of girls chatting and throwing around ideas. The time didn’t drag, and at the end of it, I got to have my second lunch!
GELATO! I got a small with peanut butter cookies, mint chocolate chip and amaretto chocolate chip. I LOVE TRAINING DAYS!!!
     The rest of work was interesting – we got two counterfeit $100 bills that somehow slipped by unnoticed (if I hadn’t been in training, this wouldn’t have happened :P) : people can be really clever/awful nowadays. Acid-washing bills is common now??? 
     I came home to an awesome dinner that the roommates had made – Indian-spiced chicken tenders and grilled vegetables.
This was delicious! The chicken was pre-marinated from Trader Joe’s and very salty, but no salt was involved in the veggies, so it balanced out.
And a Stockyard! This is a cheaper-priced, better quality beer than New Belgium’s 1554. I’ll be repeating this one, for sure!
     Well, that’s all the pictures I’ve got for you, folks! Nice and easy, eh? I’m currently watching ‘New Moon’ (which I own, as well as Twilight – I saw Twilight in theatres and hated it, and as soon as it came out on DVD, I bought it. I told you I was weird!) while sipping the remains of my beer and trying to plan out a productive day tomorrow. I’ll leave you now with the question of the day:
What do you most look forward to in your week?

5 Comments

Filed under beer, green monster, grilled vegetables, Indian-spiced chicken, Paciugo, Stockyard, Subway, work

by | July 8, 2010 · 10:07 am

Blog Name Redeemed!

     I am back on the exercise wagon!!! Today, I completely overdid my workout and loved every second of it! I hiked. I biked. I ate! Boo to the yah!

     First, we’ll start with first things first. Firstly…

I had breakfast before my monster! This was an omelette with 2 eggs, 1/2 a cup of spinach, 2 teaspoons of chopped sun-dried tomatoes (I use the ones that are soaked in oil, then drain them – the flavor is so much better than dry!), and 1 teaspoon of goat cheese.
     My roommate was up late last night, and me, being the wonderful person that I am, decided to wait until both my roommates were awake to share the awesomeness that is the Green Monster!
By the time they were both awake, I’d eaten my omelette and was pretty full, so I had a half of a Monsta. Mine had 1 cup of spinach, 1/3 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/8 a cup of frozen cherries, 1/3 of a banana and lemon juice.
     We got on the trail very, very late. For a change, my roomie and I tried a different trail – this was decided halfway to the national park while we were in the car, and I had no camera to document. It was beautiful! There was a thick marine layer and we walked through mist for the entire hour. This trail was a steep downhill for 1.43 miles, but that meant that it was another 1.43 miles back up that steep hill. It hurt. I loved it!
     After we got back to the house, I decided that since I was all sweaty and gross anyway, I might as well get on my bike! I biked down to the local library to return some books, and pick up some more. It took me about 5 minutes to lock my bike because I wanted to lock my wheel and frame to the bike rack, but alas, it wouldn’t fit. 
I figured that since I’m not at UCSB anymore, no one will be out to steal my tire or bike seat.
It was still there when I came out! Yay!!!
     I biked around with a full backpack – about 6.75 miles of which only the last .2 miles KILLED me! I don’t think I can detail the hill I live on enough to make you understand the pain that is involved in the climb up. I’ll have to post a picture tomorrey.
     I finally removed the 40 pounds of books that I’d had strapped to my back, and collapsed onto the couch.
My interests of the week: Flexitarianism, Veganism and mountain biking!
     I read the flexitarian book and wasn’t very inspired. It’s not as much of a nutritional info book as it is a mixture of random recipes. Meh. Next! The Veganomicon book (included in my favorites –>) is pretty cool! I’ll probably be dabbling in that during the next week – I’m going to do a week of veganism, just to see if I can! If you haven’t noticed, I really enjoy ridiculous challenges that have no real purpose to them except to prove that I can do anything :). The other books I’ll get to tomorrow.
     After showering, I chugged about 48 ounces of water immediately, then had a mini-salad to calm my stomach while I sauteed some zucchini.
1 cup of chopped lettuce and 1/4 a cup of chopped bell pepper with 1 teaspoon of homemade balsamic dressing.
Lots of Herbes de Provence!
Lunch was 1/4 cup of Barilla Plus pasta with tomato-basil marinara, 1/8 a cup of my sauteed zucchini and a teaspoon of goat cheese.
     After fooding, I fell into the barcalounger and flipped through some of my books. Before I knew it, my alarm was going off to remind me that I had to go to work. I threw on some clothes and makeup (blah), grabbed some books and headed out.
     My first stop was to get a little more calories into my system. I worked hard today!
OOOOOH YEAAAAH! I had a small with amaretto chocolate chip, rocky road and Grandma’s Penuche from Paciugo. This totally made my day!
     I actually had work to do at work! I was slammed with unpacking and repacking of boxes, cleaning counters and all that fun stuff, so the time flew by. It’s such a nice change to not be staring at the minutes creeping by on the clock.
     When I got home, I was going to have a nice hot cup of tea, but instead I went for this:
Stockyard Oatmeal Stout! This had a wonderful mocha smell, and tasted like a rich coffee with some toffee/chocolate mixed in. It was very smooth and had a great amount of carbonation – some of you may know that I don’t like flat beers I.E. Guinness and the like. I’ll be back for this one, especially since it’s only a dollar down at my local Trader Joe’s!
     I now feel warm and sleepy – the perfect way to feel after a beer, so I’m off to read some of my mountain biking books and prepare for another day tomorrow full of exercise, FARMERS’ MARKET, cooking and another late shift at work.
Anyone up for a week-long vegan challenge? C’mon, give it a try!

4 Comments

Filed under beer, bike, green monster, hike, library, marine layer, omelette, Paciugo, pasta, salad, vegan, zucchini

by | July 4, 2010 · 6:23 am

A Quickie

     A Quickie BLOG. If you make any snide comments on my title, I will know that you’re as immature as I am. And then I will eat chocolate because that will somehow make everything better.
    
     Because I forced you all into a picture-coma yesterday, today’s blog will be nice and short.

Morning Monster: 2 cups of spinach, 3/4 a cup of soymilk, 1/2 of a frozen banana, 1/2 a cup of fresh blueberries, lemon juice and ice.
     Got to work on time, but didn’t have enough coffee to keep me awake. I dozed with my eyes open and then went to Paciugo for some caffeinated gelato (not really, but they do have affogato gelato where they pour shots of espresso over your gelato choices. Why didn’t I get that? I’ll have to try it tomorrow!).
I got a small with rocky road, amaretto chocolate chip, and Grandma’s Peneche which is a vanilla made with sour cream, and ribbons of caramel made from brown sugar. The owners of this franchise actually used their grandmother’s recipe for this!
     Lunch was the boring but healthy usual:
A mini-spicy tuna roll with brown rice. Wheee.
     Vicky and I decided to decorate our counter space a little more.
We have a lot of time on our hands…
Oh yeah, that’s right – we made Edward! We gave him some white-out fangs, some lip-gloss blood, and glued sequins to his abs so he’d glitter in the light. 
Waaaaay too much time on our hands!
     Work was typical. We got a stereo and I got to blast my insanely random mix of music – Owl City to Chumbawumba to Uffie to Greg Laswell to Taylor Swift. I’m cool like that.
     After work I went over to let the LBM out, then swung by Trader Joe’s to pick up some KSS makings.
This had 2/3 a bag of chopped fresh baby greens, a chopped up zucchini that was roasted with olive oil and Herbes de Provence, 1/2 a chopped bell pepper, 1/2 a cup of Spicy Ranchero Egg White Salad, 1/2 a cup of lentils and 2 teaspoons of homemade dressing (1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a small dollop of whole grain mustard).
     How was that? Short and sweet! Now I have to head back to the LBM house where I will relax, eat a vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, and most likely fall asleep early since I have to work all day tomorrey.
What are you doing for the 4th of July?

6 Comments

Filed under gelato, kitchen sink salad, Paciugo, Trader Joe's, work

by | June 24, 2010 · 9:27 am

TV Stars and Chocolates

     I loves me the hiking!!! If I don’t get on the trail in the morning, I really feel like something is missing from my day without that burst of endorphins. Yes, I realize I complain about the heat and the bugs, but I always end in a much better mood and have a MUCH better day than I would if I’d just sat on my butt and had a third (or fourth) cup of coffee. I begged my roommate to let me have the third cup of coffee: she told me to shut up and get my hiking gear on.

     First things first: MONSTER!

Lots of pretty red cherry bits and purple raspberry seeds in this one!
     We hopped on the trail around 10am and did our fastest pace ever for this year – 49 minutes. My roommate and I used to take a trail that took us two and a half hours, and as awesome and that was, time constraints from real life got in the way. We’ll take what we can get nowadays.
Marine layer (covering the ocean) views!
I’ve been to the top of that mountain three times, and plan on making a sunrise hike up before the end of summer. My Jet Boil and some instant coffee will be joining me on that trip.
     We got back and I had just enough time to rinse off and make a quick omelette in a feeble attempt to keep me full throughout a long work day.
This has two eggs, a handful of wilted spinach, 1 tablespoon of chopped sundried tomatoes (the kind that are soaked in oil, then drained) and a tablespoon of goat cheese.
DROOL!
     I got to work and was greeted by my lovely coworker, Briann, with this:
That would be a strawberry cheesecake truffle from Godiva. She is evil… and lovely…
     Work was very dull. I know I keep saying this, but TODAY was the most dead I’ve ever seen the store! I read about fifty pages of my current book, Insatiable, by Meg Cabot (it’s about vampires, but it makes fun of the current media craze. I must admit, I do love her writing!) and went on lots of breaks.
     I had big, bad cravings all day – I blame Briann for initiating it with the chocolate. There’s a sandwich I used to be obsessed with – the garlic basil chicken sandwich – that I was pining for today for some reason. I decided to give in to my desires, and have planned a long, hot bike ride tomorrow to pay for it.
This thing is HUGE! Fresh-baked bread with a garlic-basil mayonnaise, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, swiss cheese (baaaad lactose), avocado, red onions and chilled pasta salad on the side.
     Don’t freak out, I only ate half of the sandwich, had two bites of the pasta and was totally full, so I stored it in the employee fridge for my dinner. The rest of lunch was spent on my couch, which I feel I should name because I am so fond of it and basically own it. I walked back to work in a daze, as I always do after forty minutes of dozing in a food coma.
     I decided that I needed to create another Paciugo addict to help keep the company alive, so I took Briann to get some gelato. She got a combo of Italian Trifle, Chocolate Chip and Tiramisu, and I got a child size of soy chocolate – dull, but delicious! And very blurry!
     The rest of work dragged by. I read a lot, reheated my sandwich and devoured it, did some pushups against the counter, saw the kid who plays “Rico” on Hannah Montana, got checked out by the kid who plays “Rico” on Hannah Montana, visited with a friend who works at a very expensive store where the kid who plays “Rico” on Hannah Montana was shopping at, and read some more. It was quite a thrilling night.
     I bolted from work as soon as I could, called KIIS 102.7 pretending to have “Bieber Fever (Beiber? Bieber?)” to try and get tickets for his show, just because I’d like to win tickets from the radio at some point in my life, then got home and had a chilly Fat Tire while watching the Food Network: A wonderful night to make up for a long, boring day.
     Tomorrow I’ll be going on an intense bike ride in an attempt to burn off the huge sandwich and pasta salad I ate today, as well as a hike, and visiting the Farmers’ Market to pick up some more chimichurri sauce supplies. 
What are your favorite things to get at the local Farmers’ Market?

2 Comments

Filed under gelato, Godiva, Hannah Montana, Insatiable, Justin Bieber, Meg Cabot, Paciugo, sandwich

by | June 20, 2010 · 6:50 am

Home Sweet Home

     Doesn’t everyone love waking up at 6am? Today was the last day of watching the LBM, so I had to wake up a bit earlier to fold sheets and straighten up around my foster house. I woke up early on my own (I was going to let myself “sleep in” until 6:30am), so I had plenty of time to enjoy my GM.

I like my Monsta with a little extra Monsta on top.
     Do you remember those cookies I bought last night for my date night? Yeah, I brought those in to work with me, in hopes of getting rid of them and not having any more. That didn’t work out so well. I ended up eating another two, and my coworker Vicky helped me polish off the remaining sprinkles that were stuck in the grooves in the bottom of the box.
     Once we were all hopped up on sugar, Vicky and I decided that we needed some coffee, so we ventured out for an “enorme” cup of java, but got sidetracked by See’s and bought some Tipperary bon-bons and caramels. THEN came the coffee, then came the outcome of our caffeine/sugar binge:
I apologize if you like those Zsu-Zsu pet things. This hamster toy was left a week ago by a little girl, and after letting it roam around the store, we decided that we’d had enough of its squeaking, so we made a spit and paper fire and roasted it. Caffeine/sugar highs make us creative!
     I had a BIG crash. Like, dropping-onto-the-floor-in-a-heap-crash. Subway would fix me up!
I had a 6-inch on wheat (threw away most of the bread) with turkey, roast beef, extra spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and avocado. If I find something I like, I order it over and over again.
     My final break was spent at Paciugo, my lovely gelato store. They had soy mint today, so I was finally able to get a cup instead of drooling onto the glass over all the milk-based gelato. I also introduced Vicky to Paciugo. She’s pretty mad at me for creating a new addiction :).
     Finally, I got to come HOME! I unpacked, organized, went to the bank to cash my check for watching the LBM, then went to The Habit for burgers with the roommates. I didn’t take a picture – I was much too busy swallowing the fries and burger by the handful. 
     Now it’s time for me to sign off and do a little reading of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, and prep for FATHERS’ DAY tomorrey! I’ll be spending the day with my mum and pops eating lots of indian food, drinking lots of good beer, and enjoying a hard-earned day off from work. Lots of father-spoiling will ensue. And yes, many, many pictures too. What are your plans for Fathers’ Day?

Have a blessed weekend!

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Filed under burgers, fries, gelato, green monster, Home, Indian Food, little blurry monster, Paciugo, See's Candies, soy, Subway, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, The Habit, Zsu Zsu Pets