Hunger Action Month

Did you know that September is Hunger Action Month?

Now you do. In 2013, 20% of American households participated in SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. A household qualifies for assistance when the household is at or below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level, at this time 100% is at $11,670 for a household of one person.  Working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year equals less than an hourly minimum wage ($5.6/hour).

I knew about Hunger Action Month but I'll admit I'd never really educated myself until this year because The Junior League of San Antonio is partnering up with The San Antonio Food Bank to eradicate childhood obesity in San Antonio.

In the spirit of this partnership, Junior League of San Antonio is going orange (the symbolic color of Hunger Action Month- #JLSAGoesOrange) and challenging it's members and the community to participate in the SNAP Challenge. 

Obvious question: What's the SNAP Challenge? 

Answer: It's a challenge to live on $4.50 a day for food. This is per person, not household. Why the $4.50? It's comparable to the daily food budget of a snap participant $1.50/meal. 

Of course I got Justin to join me, partly cause I wasn't sure I could shop for one person for $22.50 for 5 days worth of food for just me. I'm pretty sure I spent that much at happy hour in the last month. On drinks alone. 

So $45 seemed more manageable for 30 meals. Read that again. 

Turns out there are pros and cons to buying for two. One loaf of bread is enough for 8 lunches, but I needed enough for 10, so I needed another loaf. How do I stretch that loaf out so that I'm spending my money efficiently? We're having sausages for dinner this week. All week long. So things like that would pop up while shopping.

I ended up spending $45.48 on food.  I feel pretty good about that.  I did a lap around the grocery store to assess my options because, honestly, I rarely pay attention.

And I came home feeling pretty good.

My Receipt:

What all those lines translate into:

 

 The fixings for our chicken salad sandwiches:

What we'll be seeing more of this week for lunch:

The menu for the week will basically be...

Breakfast: 2 eggs and 1/2 banana (Justin will likely have coffee that we already have in the house. I can go without)

Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich made with canned chicken breast, celery, almonds (I bought almost 60 cents worth from the bulk organic section) and mayo.  The sandwiches also have some mustard we already had in the fridge, a slice of swiss cheese and spinach. And a half a green apple!

Dinner: A sausage or bratwurst that will be cooked on the grill and likely wrapped in a slice of bread.  We'll split one of the containers of chopped broccoli pieces and maybe each get 1/2 slice of swiss melted on our portion.  I also have butter in the fridge, but I feel like the mustard is already a "cheat" of sorts. 

Snacks: I used the tiniest pieces of celery for the chicken salad so there's enough piece left over for us to enjoy with a tablespoon or two of peanut butter. And we have the yogurt which can be a daily snack or maybe dessert. 

I have stuff going on in the evenings on Wednesday and Thursday and then a friend coming in to visit on Friday, so I will likely eat dinner out of the house, but I went all in when it came to the grocery store trip and already know what I could have done to cut the 48 cents. I bought two 8-packs of yogurt and could have just bough two individual yogurts, but the bulk mentality that usually resides prevailed and so it goes.

While I'm excited about these tiny successes, I have to admit that thinking that hard about every grocery trip seems like a daunting task. But let's see where the week takes us. 

500 Words a Day

What does 500 hundred words a day look like?  Is this challenge something that's easy to accomplish when it's extracurricular?

So it's not just an email or a Facebook status. And it most definitely is not just a tweet (this would be a lot of tweets!). 

I want to write more, though you wouldn't know it from the neglected state of my blog. 

Is 500 hundred words too obnoxious a length for a yelp post?  Cause I want to do more reviews for yelp, I just don't do it, but if that could count... Game on. I'd of course cross post to my blog cause it feels sad and lonely and my life has not been sad and lonely.

Life is full of good times. Even watching the most depressing episode of HBO's The Leftovers is a good time because I am watching with Justin. 

By the way, the above sentence ending with the word Justin is only 145 words. 

And the above sentence counts in my word count as does this one. 

I know this because of Google. I searched for and found an online word counter tool (because I started writing this on my phone in the car while Justin was driving). It's a nice basic tool: http://www.wordcounter.net/

A short break was taken in the writing of this post for lunch at an awesome,local joint called The Cove. They are known for their fish tacos but I think their burgers and sweet potato fries are better. The Cove prides itself on serving food from sustainable (and mostly local) resources. So when you eat local it's paid forward many times over to their vendors and so forth and so on. They have "Eat well, live well" written on the wall. 

#LicenseToEatSweetPotatoFries #TheyServeThem. 

While at The Cove we enjoyed some live music and a few bottles of brew. If you haven't had a Shiner Premium in a while, or ever, I would say it's time to pop one open. Drink it straight from the bottle and remove the pretentiousness of using a glass. It's the only way to truly enjoy this beverage that touts itself as being "behind the times."

The live music was also fun, an artist by the name of Ashlee Rose. Her voice had the depth and slight roughness one wants from a soulful singer and her accent had the perfect Texas twang.

Justin made a joke that her wind machine was working overtime. Her wind machine was simply a fan. 

We are at 417 words people. 

 If you've read this far in the post then I am much obliged. I don't know if I would've read this far if you had written this much. #honesty

I think part of the challenge is that you can't cheat by writing ahead of time and stockpiling words. It's about taking the time each and every day to do this. That said, if this goes the way other 30 day challenges have gone for me...  Let's just say I'm great at throwing myself into little self improvement projects but when it comes to seeing it through to the end, not so much. 

I'm now over 500 words!  Now you know what it looks like. And now I know what it takes. (It takes more than I thought it would, but I also wrote the whole thing on my phone.)

Insanely Bad

I love to eat.

You want proof? I've got proof. Just check out my Instagram feed. That's what I've been doing instead of blogging the past few months. And yes that beef rib is as big as my head.

It's been insane.

Insanely tasty.

Insanely fun.

And insanely bad for me.  

I know this because even though I've been doing p90X 3 for about 3 weeks, I feel like I haven't majorly increased my fitness (and definitely haven't lost weight) and I'm apparently so dehydrated from all my fun that my arms (actually they do look pretty good) hurt so badly I can barely put on the support garments that are much need by most any woman in her day-to-day routine. 

Houston, we have a problem. 

We had a problem. 

Yesterday, during a simple walk with Wookie!, Monday became THE day when I stopped the insanity (I winced too). For the next 30 days I am going to treat every day as a day to look back on and be proud of and a day that will not require a restart the next morning. 

All I ask of you is that you not offer to buy be a drink or tempt me with any other sort of deliciousness until around the 4th of July.  Cause who's gonna want a slice of cake on the nation's 238th birthday. This girl. 

Any changes you're trying to make? Maybe it's going to bed earlier, watching less TV or maybe even watching more TV?! (Summer can mean the perfect time to binge watch those shows everyone else is talking about- Mashable tells you exactly how much time to block off.)

And now enjoy this blast from the past:

Farmer's Market Find: Lamb Chops

Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon with my mom at the Ripe Farmer's Market at Eilan. We went to a cooking demo with Sustenio's executive chef and enjoyed a tasty arugla, fried okra salad with corn vinaigrette. 

Of course the chef's knife skills were amazing and I learned a thing or two about how to properly dice a tomato.  

After the demonstration we wandered out to the meat vendor, Alamo Cattle Co., and I ended up buying some lamb chops and a package of bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with de-seeded jalapenos and cream cheese. 

Let me say a thing or two about these chops.  Upon first glance, you might think $12 is too much to pay for them.  But au contraire.  With the right seasoning, these were amazing and I'm pretty sure I am going to be dreaming about them tonight.

The recipe we used to cook these can be found here- 10-minute Rosemary Lamb Chops.  It says it's for 12 chops, so my sous chef, Justin, and I just adjusted down a little bit. One of the coolest parts about it- we got to use the Rosemary from one of the bushes we have out back. We bought it to help keep the mosquitos at bay over the summer.

You can see that they are sizzling in the pan.  Well I heated it up under the broiler just as the instructions said to do.  And then they got 5 minutes in the oven. 

They weren't medium rare, but they weren't overdone either.  I definitely look forward to cooking these again. 

As a side I thought a cauliflower gratin might be good.  So I found this recipe for a skillet cauliflower gratin. And took a head of cauliflower from this:

To this!

Because I am trying to eat lower carb, I subbed out the regular flour for soy flour and the bread crumbs for pork rinds.  As a whole this was also pretty delicious. 

So for dinner we had a pretty full plate:

Justin wouldn't mind having something green on the plate next time, but I know he's gonna go to bed and dream of the lamb chops too.  

Side note- this was my first attempt at cooking lamb chops ever, so this recipe is pretty fail proof. Also my first attempt at the cauliflower gratin.  Obviously I would happily make both again!

It's been too long, but I've been busy.

It's been too long since I last posted. And I'll readily admit that there's not enough hours in the day combined with the fact that I was too tired to divide my attention between watching Scandal and writing blog posts.  Some things just deserve a person's full attention.

Ya know?

Along with my commitment to JLSA (winning JLSA 2012-2013 Board Member of the year! what?!)

Justin's first JLSA meeting EVER!

                                               

The award!

helping a dear friend raise funds to beat blood cancers ($130,000+ for the LLS Man and Woman of the Year competition),

Justin, Bryce, Erin and me celebrating Team Bryce!

focusing on my running (which has gone past a jogrun to an actual run),

Beach 2 Bay half marathon relay team: Coastbusters (Lake, Erica, Matt, Mireya, Justin and Me).

#AintFraidOfNoCoast.  We finished in 4:43:21 with an avg pace of  10:48.

                                   
going to community events at awesome places like SAMA,

Justin, Elizabeth and me holding art we liked. Duh.

                               
keeping my Mom happy on Mother's Day (don't knock the bowling),
                                      

and visiting my best friend, Amy, in San Fran,

They have happy hours at places with views of things like the light show on the Bay Bridge. (Me, Tori and Amy) #LivinsEasy

                                   
I've also maintained my sanity by watching TV that makes the hubs retch (no pics of the poor programming choices or pics of Justin looking ill are necessary).

But I also go to Scorpions games with him, so you won't hear any real complaints.

They won!

So that's a quick recap of the last month.  What's new with you?

Fredericksburg's The Rathskeller

Justin and I spent a couple of awesome days in Fredericksburg, TX, before the new year. During this wonderful little trip we were lucky enough to stumble into the Rathskeller for breakfast.  It was across the street from the Fredericksburg Brewery Bed and Brew where we stayed.

If you do one thing while you are in Fredericksburg you should eat breakfast at the Rathskeller.

Image from Trip Advisor

Justin ordered and enjoyed an awesome spin on the typical corn beef hash concept.  His had duck, with perfectly juicy skin. I was jealous when I saw his plate, but that was before I really paid attention to mine. I ordered the smoked salmon on potato patties with over easy eggs, sour cream and caviar. After one bite I realized I needed to replicate this awesome meal at home. While the combination might sound crazy, it's really just crazy good.

I made it and you should too, especially if you can't get to Fredericksburg.

It was pretty simple:

What you need for one plate:

• Two potato patties
• Two to Three large thin slices of smoked salmon
• Two eggs that you'll cook to your liking. (I'm an over easy girl)
• Sour Cream (full fat, low fat, no fat- you pick your poison), top to your liking
• Two to three teaspoons Yellow caviar (or roe)

Now to put it all together:

1. Bake frozen potato patties according to package instructions. (I said simple right! I'm not making these from scratch, through the Rathskeller might've.) You should be able to find these in the frozen food section.  Heck, I bet pre-made hashbrown patties would be pretty tasty too. (I'm kinda hoping it goes without saying that you then put them on a plate next to each in the fashion seen below.)

2. Lay two-three large slices of smoked salmon across the top of the potato patties.

3. Carefully, oh so very carefully, place the almost perfectly cooked over easy eggs (or however you take them) on top of the salmon, one egg per patty. (I cooked them while the potato patties were baking.)

4. Top with sour cream and caviar.  (I might have gone over board on both here, but Justin didn't complain about it.)
                                                

Then just dig in and enjoy!  Sorry no pictures of the empty plates.  You'd probably think they looked weird anyway because we licked them clean. (Just kidding about licking them clean. Sorta.)

The awesome thing about this meal, is you don't have to wait until the morning to eat it, this would be great anytime of the day!

I guess this can be filed under healthy cooking, if you really do bake the potato patties, go with fat free sour cream, and aren't as heavy handed as I was with it. 

2011- A year in review

We are looking forward to ringing in 2012 with friends and starting a new year of adventures.
This year we've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to:

Explore Parisian culture:

Walk through ancient history in Rome

 Eat a little barbeque with friends

See the sights of San Francisco

Drink some fine Napa wines 

And enjoy them with friends

Listen to 20+ hours of music at ACL

See some college football (we'll be wearing orange and blue next year- Go Gators!!)

Enjoy the holidays with family

And the beauty of the San Antonio River walk

Enjoy the sites in Fredericksburg

And lots more great times with friends and family!

Cheers to you and yours and may 2012 bring everyone all they looking for in the new year. 

Springtime in Paris- Day 3 (Part 2)...

The metro we took spit us out at the entrance to the underground bridge that takes you to the area in the middle of the insanely busy traffic circle where the Arc de Triomphe lives.

Fun overexposed shot of the Arc.

We got a shot tour bus free!

Justin knew he wanted to head to the top of it and the entrance was on our museum pass so this was a no brainer. Plus I was promised an elevator ride.  Wikipedia says a lift will take you to the attic and then from there you only have to conquer 46 steps to get to the top. See here. Well, we weren't given a choice.  We were funneled into a spiral staircase (at this time we're totally familiar with the never-ending feeling of these things from climbing them at night to get to our studio apartment) and started climbing.  I said something to the effect of "I hate you for tricking me Justin" and his reply/motto for the trip was "The greater the effort/risk, the greater the reward." And I shot him venomous looks. They did nothing to deter him. But he did apologize for for not realizing that the elevator option never really was going to be presented.  Whatever, I needed the workout after all those Monacos.

Yes, it's a long way up and down.

That's just the head of one of those sculptures on the outside of the Arc.

The Arc is dedicated to the armies of France.

Once at the top we were like little kids exclaiming over the awesome view and how spectacular it was to be able to see so many things from one place. Of course we took pictures!

Justin's panoramic picture from his iPhone. Imagine the streets as a semi-circle.

The Eiffel Tower from the Arc.

It was breezy up there.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica.

Champs-Élysées

The gold dome is Les Invalides.

I thought all the trees lining this street were pretty.

The underside of the Arc de Triomphe. There are four flowers in the pattern of squares. I sat for a little bit.

Another shot of the underside.

The scale of things is incredible.

Justin found the lens cap we're always misplacing.

After enjoying the view and the breezy wind we decided that the group of tour kids that had just joined the crowd at the top were going to make things a little unbearable and it was time for a snack.  So we decided we'd commit to a short jaunt down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.  We went to a Pharmacy on the Avenue where I decided now was the time that I absolutely had to buy more bandages. So we bought some of the most expensive bandages I've ever bought in my life/the cheapest bandages in the store. 

This same store also had a macaroon stand.  So we decided to indulge in some.

The green one is mint and the brown one is chocolate. The colors of these things are so vibrant!

We wandered down a little bit and stopped to eat in the outside section of a place that was tented in blue.  And that is why I chose it. The blue.  It's my fave color and apparently I will go so far as to decide where I'm spending my money based on it.  Justin and I split a pizza and enjoyed being able to just sit for a little bit.

Where we ate under the blue tent on the Champs-Élysées.

Justin's beer and my coffee.

The menu. Cause I can't help myself.

Justin writing away.

We walked along a little bit more and stopped at a Toyota concept car showroom.  We marveled over the fact they spent all that money for a place on that road and who really walks out of there owning a new car.  But the advertising account executive in me acknowledges that it's all branding and every Joe Schmo, including me, walks out that much more impressed because obviously Toyota thinks the showcase spot is worth while and hey we stopped in even though we aren't in the market for a new car.

Vroom! Vroom!

You can almost see it smiling at you.

Next stop for us was Centre Georges Pompidou, basically the acting modern art museum in the city.  It was open late on Sunday, and we wanted to see it anyway, so a perfect storm of timing for us really.

Justin taking the following picture.

That tube is the escalator that goes all the up to the top.

We took the escalator to the top, the sixth floor, and enjoyed another awesome view of the city.

View from the top. I don't know what's in the distance. Bonus points if you can tell me. Justin identified Notre Dame with the Pantheon in the background. Winner!

We got two awesome views of the Eiffel Tower that day.

Then we walked around to see the art.  We tried really hard to appreciate a lot of stuff that we didn't understand.  But there was one piece by Dali that was particularly disturbing (about his bad childhood and poor relationship with his father and on and on) and we decided we'd seen enough and it was time to have some drinks. We found a little spot that had Monacos on the menu and took in our surroundings.

I'm writing as I enjoy my Monaco and Justin's enjoying his beer.

Of course once we were ready to go it was almost impossible to get the guy to give us our check because he was chilling outside with his friends.  Eventually we settled up though and went looking for a place to eat that we had definitely marked on our map.  The place definitely was not where we'd marked it and it was getting late and places were closing up shop, so we figured we'd try our hand at looking for a place near the apartment.

Dinner that night was at a place around the corner from us and a little lackluster for me, but it was food and I didn't go to sleep hungry.

All in all not bad for the third day in a new city.