GO WEST & Badass Orange Rocks

Good morning and happy Tuesday! My mom and I landed at JFK at midnight last night after a wonderful trip out West.  Who knew Utah was so beautiful? I can’t wait to get back over to that side of the country.  Yes, that’s your little East Coast girl talking!

This post is another “greatest hits” mix of road fuel and scenery.  Enjoy!

On Sunday morning, we rushed to the post-wedding brunch.  I was surprised by how many people made it there by 9 (including the groom)… there were quite a few shenanigans on the dance floor, from what I hear… I was a grandpa and was in bed by 11 😉

I loaded up my plate with 1/2 toasted bagel with cream cheese, lox, and onions; fresh fruit; two slices of mini quiche (spinach goat & roasted red pepper) that the father-of-the bride baked himself the day of the wedding.  Impressive, no?!

A couple hours later, I munched on a mini carrot/ginger muffin. This was so good! I was never a muffin person, but I think I’ll be whipping up a batch soon.

We left Park City and drove many miles to Moab.

Wind turbines!

Burger King pit stop… I made do with the BK Veggie (1/2 bun), “apple fries” (more expensive than a Whopper… riddle me that), and a side salad sans dressing.

It got very flat…

As we got closer to Moab, the scenery started to change…

Look at those orange cliffs!

We finally arrived at the Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge, which is located right in the heart of Arches National Park.

It was absolutely breathtaking.

We went to a wine tasting that was 100 feet from our hotel at the Castle Creek Winery.  I bought a bottle of Unitah White to bring home and enjoy later.

We had breakfast overlooking Arches National Park. Don’t mind my bedhead… it was a little early.

We stopped at the Peace Tree for road food:

I got a cup of “Triple A” juice with wheatgrass, carrot, apple, beet, celery & parsley.

When we stopped for lunch, I had what George called my “Instant Bathroom Stop” salad: mixed grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, quinoa, and (by my special request) curried hummus, with a lemon tahini dressing.

Bathroom or no bathroom, this salad was amazing.  I have figure out how to make that dressing! Does anyone have any good recipes for tahini salad dressing?

Another A+ Mother/Daughter weekend! So far we’ve gone to Philadelphia, Montreal, Halifax, Killington VT, NYC (for a shopping staycation), and now Park City/ Salt Lake City/ Moab, Utah.

I wonder where we’ll go next year?

Tastes Like Summer

Good afternoon! I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but the City is all doom and gloom today! Around noon it started pouring, and it’s been gray and rainy ever since.  No matter!

Yesterday we needed a little something to get us out of bed, and that thing just happened to be… Dunkin‘ Donuts.  Yes, you read that correctly.

I got the eggwhite garden vegetable flatbread sandwich (which comes with American cheese) and an iced coffee.  It was fine… a little strange because the eggs had clearly been pre-formed into a triangle a long time ago, because the top was completely smooth and dry.  However, it’s a good option when all you have to choose from is fast food (or your boy wants a breakfast sandwich).

I didn’t have enough time to go to the gym, so I went for a quick 2 mile run.

Total time: 23:46 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 197 (99%)

Average heart rate: 146 (73%)

Calories burned: 210

After hosing down (or taking a shower, like a civilized person) I headed into the city for a doctor’s appointment.  On the subway, I snacked on a Granny Smith apple:

After the doctor, on my walk to Union Square, I happened upon a sample station of water. I’d thought this was called “Immunity Water,” but I coudln’t find it online.  Does anyone know what this brand of water is called?

Then, hungrily, I browsed through all of the wonderful stalls at the Union Square Farmer’s Market.

Everything looked great, but I decided to go to Whole Foods for lunch instead.  There, they had another beverage station set up for samples of Mossé.  I had a taste of the cherry flavor, and liked it very much.

I was more in the mood for coconut water, and was so excited when I saw this new flavor: O.N.E.‘s Cashew Fruit! (The nutrition facts are available on their website.)

I liked it! It tasted tropical, sort of like a peachy mango.  They have a lot of other interesting flavors, and there are coupons for them in the “Whole Deals” booklets at Whole Foods.

The salad bar was better than usual.

• Farro w/ mint & peas (I want to make this!)
  
• Crunchy sprout salad
• Vegan chicken salad (And this!)
  
• Snow pea and napa cabbage slaw
• Vegan pesto tortellini (1)
• Mexican apple salad w/ mint (And this! Spicy but fantastic.)
  
• Green beans
• Spinach
• Seaweed salad (And this!)

After lunch, I walked over to Trader Joe’s for an overdue grocery shop.

Back in Queens, I bought a couple more things for dinner (mostly fruits & veggies, and the new Larabar flavors).

After unloading all the groceries, I was more than ready for a snack.  I had a bowl of 0% Fage with a peach and 2 tbsp low-fat granola:

Dinner was excellent.  The new Gourmet magazine has a lot of fantastic recipes, but this one came right from the “You Asked For It” column (it was, incidentally, my job to organize these letters when I worked for Gourmet): avocado-strawberry salad with orange vinaigrette.

Who says salads have to be boring?

I halved the recipe to make two servings; I used one avocado, one orange, 1/2 pint of strawberries, and goat cheese.  I added a little tofu to round out the meal, and ta da! Instant summer.

I celebrated Wednesday by having a glass of Italian frizzante that my friend Howard brought me.  It’s a fruity prosecco that’s light and not too sweet, and went perfectly with the salad.

Dessert was the old reliable: dried fruit, dark chocolate, and almond butter.

I spent the rest of the night watching two of my favorite gentlemen duke it out… pretty fabulous Wednesday, if I do say so myself.

I also chopped off my hair again.

Night 🙂

Fast, Easy, Fresca

Greetings from Michigan! I can tell the internet situation is going to be a problem.  I got really excited about how fast it was, and then… splat.  It’s this kind of thing that will slowly drive me insane… I remember being on the phone for HOURS at a time with tech support when we had DSL and dial-up… I had all of their numbers memorized. I think it may be all the rain that’s pouring down! Unfortunately, it looks like it’ll be continuing on through the night, which is sad (don’t know how that’ll affect our firework extravaganza) but the forecast looks good from Sunday until Friday… bring on the tan lines!

Yesterday, Ari and I had a quick breakfast at the diner before I left for the airport.  I got my usual eggwhite omelet with spinach, tomato, mushroom and feta (and about half a bottle of ketchup):

Toast with HFCS-rich grape jelly (sorry for the blurry photo… too bad you can’t see how prettily the slices were arranged! Seems like they’re experimenting with presentation…).  I had half:

The airport food was ridiculously expensive (would you pay $3.49 for a Kashy GoLean bar?!), but I needed fuel.  I was craving OJ for some reason, so I got a bottle of that, a small salad with roasted red peppers, green peppers, chickpeas and kidney beans, and a banana:

The flight was fine… I think I slept for a few minutes, and finally finished a book I’ve been reading for almost a month.  When I landed in Dayton, the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful! I celebrated seeing my friend Jenny with a couple medjools.

Check out those clouds!

After making a quick stop to feed Jenny’s puppers (she has three of the cutest dachsunds around), we hit the road to drive to Indianapolis.

Jenny thinks I’m so silly for photographing the highway, but I’m so used to the industrial wasteland of my city (which I am completely enamored with, don’t get me wrong) that I think it’s just beautiful.

We stopped for dinner at… hold your breath… Taco Bell.  Yes, that’s right.  I’ve had experience with their fresca menu from previous moments of road trip desperation… everything has less than 9g of fat, and, more importantly, there are vegetarian options.

I ordered two fresca bean burritos, which are just wraps stuffed with beans and tomatoes.  I peeled about 1/3 of the bread off of the first one, and ate it with guacamole and salsa:

I unwrapped the second one, covered the bean mixture with salsa and guac, and just ate the mush.  Not great, but not terrible, either.

When we got to Indianapolis, we made a pit-stop at TCBY on the way to visit some friends.  I got a small cup with 1/2 PB and 1/2 white chocolate mousse froyo (both 96% fat-free), topped with Reese’s Pieces.  It had sort of a weird taste, but I ate it all anyway.

We tried to watch The Dead Girl, but ended up falling asleep on the couch.  Some Tostitos were also consumed… the Hint of Lime flavor is so good but so addicting! (True story: I bought a big bag of those for myself to celebrate getting into college when I was 17.  I also baked chocolate chip cookies and ignored my homework for the night.  It’s the little things!)

This morning I slept in, and it was glorious.  After we were both showered and ready, we grabbed a yogurt snack (I missed these Archer Farms guys!) and went out to visit some more people.

When we got back, Jenny’s mom, Susan, had a lovely breakfast ready for us.

She made wonderful Meyer lemon poppyseed muffins (I ate the top):

And, even better: homemade peanut butter and cherry granola! (We brought some of this goodness with us 😉 )

Homemade breakfasts are so enjoyable, especially while sitting outside and enjoying a little nature.

We hit the road around 1, stopping at Starbucks to wake me up a little.   I got a grande skim latte:

Hoping to avoid another fast food disaster, I picked up a Farmer’s Market Salad for lunch.

The nutrition stats are pretty good on this guy…

It filled me up, and tasted great.  Thumbs up to the ‘bucks!

Health aside, we munched on some Gushers-style Sour Patch kids.  Weird.

And finally, after three hours of driving through cold, gray raindrops… MICHIGAN!

So, I celebrated with a date.  Hopefully that won’t be the last healthy thing to enter my body in the next week… I’m determined not to let it be.

Well, it has now taken almost 24 hours to type up this post.  Hope you’ve had a fantastic  4th of July!

Happy belated birthday, K!!!