Sunday Sunday

The typical hotel breakfast was had. Then this oddly shaped banana happened.

Fortunately, we were amidst some real produce pretty soon!

Mixed greens w edible flowers – I bought this mix all the time last summer in Berkeley!!

I miss NYC bagels. I miss all bagels actually.

Shishitos mmm…

Gluten-Free cookies from “Sweet Temptations” – The nice older man at the booth let me sample all 6 cookies. I went with the Vanilla Chocolate Chip.

The ingredient list is good and bad. The Maltitol is really what bothers me. Not only is the fake sweetener a turnoff, the cookies were too oily in my opinion. I still at 4 today The upside is that they’re not too sweet, they contain almond meal and have great flavor from the pecans, coconut and vanilla. I probably won’t buy them again (I get tunnel vision when I see “Gluten-Free” and see “Tummy Safe” instead) but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy them!

Fennel and Yellow Carrots

My mom getting produce snap happy with her new phone

Heirlooms

Stalks of Brussels

Peach and Pluot Sample Bar

Fresh, Raw Sprouted Coconut Almond Milk. SO SO Good. I may come back next week just to buy a few bottles.

Cranberry Beans – I wonder what they look like outside of their pod!

Chubby Carrots

9 AM Farmer’s Market means no shower & make-up. That’s cool right?

Afterwards, we met up with Matt and his mom for brunch at a cute cafe in a Victorian house (*these aren’t my photos)

I had a seasonal vegetable salad w/ poached eggs and stole all of my mom’s homefries.

Snacks included 4 big cookies as mentioned, several handfuls of raw almonds, and one of these:

Is it just me or did they change the recipe for these Pure Chocolate Brownie bars? I recently looked at the ingredients and saw that there was added protein. I remember this bar being only a few ingredients like a Larabar. While I like the nutritional value of the added protein, it definitely takes away from the “pure” taste.

Dinner was vietnamese.

Shrimp Vermicelli Spring Rolls w/ Peanut Sauce to start.

Lemongrass Pork w/ Egg Roll, Papaya Salad and Shrimp for my mom.

Veggie Pho w/ Fried Tofu, Vermicelli Noodles, Bean sprouts and Broccoli. All the goodies sunk to the bottom!

After dinner, we saw The Help.

We both really enjoyed it and recommend it to all. My mom read the book and said it was better than the movie (when is it not?) but I have never read the book. Regardless of age, sex, social status, I think this movie would resonate with every human who has some source of compassion. “The Help” is realistic fiction that tells the TRUE story of inequality through the microcosm of Jackson, Mississippi. By focusing on the house help, the viewer gets an inside, nitty gritty look at the lives of white housewives and their interactions with their “colored” maids. Despite the heavy context, the movie is light-hearted and prompts plenty of laughs.

Goodnight 🙂

*Have you seen The Help yet? What did you think?

*What are your favorite farmer’s market finds?

Total Tourists

We took my cousin and his girlfriend Megan out to my favorite Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant last night.  We had fun catching up and hearing about her upcoming marathon!  She did a half marathon and became addicted to running so she decided to sign up for a full marathon right afterwards.  I really like her already – she is both girly and gutsy, just what my cousin E-man needs.  She even surfs with him at 6am in Santa Cruz (it’s freezing… they have to wear wetsuits and booties).  That girl plays no games! Although I feel the same way about running as she does, i’m not sure that I want to take the jump just yet!  Although i’ve never had real knee problems, I get achy knees sometimes which worries me.  The last thing I want is to get injured.  After I run a couple of half marathons, i’ll decide when to take the plunge.  It could be this year or in 5 years!

Into our hotpot went: Many types of greens (bokchoy, watercress, lettuce, a traditional mongolian vegetable), a white fish (I think bass), Shitake mushrooms and on the other side : Sliced beef and Udon

After Mongolian Hot Pot, I took my mom to see Ranch 99, a super asian market.  It’s basically a super walmart sized asian grocery store.  Matt’s mom shops here sometimes and when I didn’t have a job I would come along and ogle at the exotic ingredients.  My mom rarely goes down to chinatown in NYC because of the dirtiness and hustle and bustle.  We also have the BEST chinese restaurant in NYC on our corner, so we are spoiled.  But there are definitely no asian markets near us in the city.  She’s only been to small Asian markets so this was a real experience.

We took pictures like dorks tourists.

Look at those thick salmon steaks … mmm

Countless fish species * this word makes me sad because we are species too 😦

Sea urchin – how do you eat this?!

Oysters. Delicious and disgusting looking at once?

Cookies should maybe not be fried in my opinion.  They should be peanut flavored though!

One product that I actually wanted to buy:

Organic Indonesian Tempeh.  I wonder what makes Indonesian tempeh any different from other tempehs.  Too bad this was frozen and our hotel room doesn’t have a freezer.

Sticky rice in a banana leaf (a.k.a. cantonese temale… I think they meant tamale)  It’s so funny when things get lost in translation or just have ridiculous names.  Kind of like this bun we saw at the bakery next door:

Youth Lava (Pesto) bun.  This cracked me up!

The award for weird combo went to…

Would you any of you health blog peanut butter lovers give this a whirl?

This bun looked …furry!

It’s the time for mooncakes again.  As a hapa, I am ashamed to say that I do not know the significance of these little pastries, other than the fact that they are eaten at the moon festival and it’s kind of a big deal.  I will look this up!

Has any one had mongolian hot pot? If not, you must go.

What are your favorite ethnic grocery store items?  At the asian supermarket, I like to buy: short grain japanese brown rice, red bean and green tea mochi ice cream balls, edamame, braised and smoked tofus, lychees, and obviously whatever eye-catching impulse items wind up in my cart.

Seen or eaten any weird food combos recently? I love sweet/savory combos like eggs with maple syrup (don’t knock it ’till you try it!)

Home is Whenever I’m With You

I read Kara Goucher’s “Running For Women” while waiting for my mom at SFO’s fancy new terminal 2.  So far, so good! Kara’s story is really inspiring and she has a truly positive outlook given all of the injuries she has had to overcome for her career.  It’s a pretty quick and fun read for beginners and avid runners alike.

When my mom’s flight finally got in from JFK, we picked up our rental car, checked into the hotel and headed straight for dinner.  Tanto is an authentic japanese restaurant in Sunnyvale, CA.  It was so authentic that we were the only non-japanese diners.  Matt and I once had dinner here in a weird jail cell-like stall.  We sat side by side on a tiny bench eating from a the small countertop affixed in front of us.  It was bizarre.  It was like eating in a phone booth.  I wanted to take a photo of it last night, but refrained so as not to disturb the people awkwardly seated there.  Since then, I have dreamt of the melt in your mouth chilean sea bass and salmon onigiri.  But, Matt isn’t a bone-in-the-meat eater, and his chicken teriyaki was certainly not boneless.

My mom and I started with a sashimi salad with a soy/sesame oil/yuzu (japanese citrus fruit) dressing.  It was delicious.  My mom isn’t much of a raw seafood person so she wasn’t too into it.

We then got a few variations of black cod… This was the one that was grilled in butter.  I don’t typically eat super buttery dishes, but this was so worth it.

 

 

This morning, we skipped down to the hotel breakfast (figuratively for my mom, literally for me).  I’m just so ecstatic to get some QT (quality time) with her 🙂

My mom had eggs, bacon, toast and coffee while catching up on emails.

I had a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon, a lowfat yogurt, a banana and snuck out a grannysmith apple for later.  And a cup of half coffee/half soy milk microwaved.

 

 

 

My favorite part of the breakfast was the make your own miso soup counter! Look at the cute “Tofu”, “Green Onion” and “Radish” packages!  Once I put these freeze-dried (?) ingredients on top of the miso paste, I added boiling water.  I swear I could move to Japan and eat miso, seaweed and fatty fish for breakfast.  No big deal.

We checked out several new apartments (I am hoping to move closer to work) and car dealerships.  We stopped at Sprout in Palo Alto for lunch.  It is my all time favorite salad place.  I think mathematically speaking, there are about 856,294,736 different combinations you can make with their extensive and fresh ingredient options.

My mom went with an arugula + grilled steak salad w/ watercress, grape tomatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds, feta cheese and avocado.

I rolled with a spinach salad w/ 2 servings of avocado, a hard boiled egg, edamame, watercress, broccoli and strawberries.

My mom has such a smaller appetite than I do.  She ate half of her salad and was satiated.  After I finished mine, I snacked on a big handful each of pumpkin seeds and almonds, a huge organic white peach and opened up this baby  ❤

We are having dinner with my little cousin (who is actually only 9 months younger and 6′ 2″) Ian and his girlfriend.  I’m so excited to meet her! Catch ya later.

 

Have you heard this song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros? Check it out on their youtube page. It’s been one of my favorites for a long time now.  It makes me miss home less because even though my home will always be New York City, home is really the people that make it so wonderful, not simply the city.  I can be with Matt in San Francisco and be home.  I can be with my cousin Jenn in LA and be home.  Or with my mom reading and taking an afternoon nap in a hotel 🙂

What are some of your favorite nostalgic songs?

 

 

 

hi mom

My mom is coming to SF today to help me get a car.  My first car.  I blame just learning how to drive on growing up in Manhattan.  I always get laughed at for this, but driving a car is foreign to me.  Well, that’s not completely true.  My parents both drive frequently, even in Manhattan.  And my brother got his license at the normal age of 16 or 17.  I’m the outlier.  This has been my car for a long time:

BUT thanks to Matt’s mom (who recently taught me how to drive), a couple crazy instructors (who didn’t know what they were getting into when they took me on the highway), and a really generous DMV examiner, I now have a California license.  Yipee!

The very first thought of a city girl with a license: “I can go to a … TARGET!” … you spoiled suburbanites would not understand the sheer happiness and convenience that a place like Target brings.  My 3 year old godson in LA does though.  A few minutes after we boarded the plane to go to Maui this past spring he asked my cousin “mom, can we go to target instead?”  What a funny guy.

I am SO excited for my mom to get here already.  The last time she was here with my brother, we had a blast.  But, it was too short and my brother hogged her from me.  This time she is all mine MUAHAHA.  I already compiled a list of restaurants to take her to…let’s see how much we get done!

This morning I made a quick bowl of oat bran made with soy milk, and topped it with some frozen blueberries.

I then hit the gym for a “Ride to the Rhythm” Spin class.  It was really fun, but it was only the 2nd time that i’ve taken a spin class since I moved here.  I used to attend them religiously at Chelsea Piers in NYC (almost 4x a week).  If you have the chance to go to a CP Spin class, the instructor Pal is quite possibly the funniest human being you will ever meet.

Spin kicked my butt, and the older ladies were really killing it! I couldn’t believe it.  They had a stronger gear and a higher cadence than me. THE WHOLE TIME!  So inspiring 🙂

I made a quick soymilk, strawberry and bourbon vanilla whey shake but I was still hungry.  So, I had some greek yogurt w/ more frozen bloobs and caught up on some magazine reading.

Yes, Stress IS bad.

Carrot Cake Larabar at the Laundromat.

This little guy found me in the middle of the city 🙂

Edamame while sitting on my yoga mat.

Coffee and reading SF Weekly outside Starbucks.

This restaurant flyer caught my eye.  I’ve heard about this place.  Headed to their website now… Then going to meet my mom at the airport.  Have a great day 🙂

What did you do today? For me, it was a ton of errands.  Laundry, waxing appointment, quick grocery shop for snacks.  OK maybe not a ton.

Are there any restaurants that you are dying to try out? Aside from Radio Africa & Kitchen, I have been eager to check out the pop-up restaurant “The Corner” in SF.  I’ve also never been to Cafe Gratitude.

A Killer Elliptical Workout

Do this and then give your legs a break 🙂

Time for a recipe?

I realize that I haven’t yet posted any recipes.  The reason for this is that I am kind of in transition right now.  I just moved into a new apartment and am still getting the hang of sharing the fridge, stove and kitchen in general.  I swear I could fill an entire fridge by myself.  But that wouldn’t be too nice for my roommates so i’ve been trying to keep grocery shops (a.k.a ingredients) to a minimum.  Luckily, we live a few blocks from a Whole Foods 🙂  Can you say Quinoa and Soy Cheese stuffed Poblanos from the hot bar?

I promise this will change though.  I plan on cooking a lot more!

This morning I was in the mood for one of my favorites which has been surfacing the health blog world for a while now.  Chia Pudding.

Chia seeds are rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Fiber.  When they are combined with a liquid, they become gelatinous.  I’m sure you’ve seen them in some form by now.  I love the Mamma Chia drinks, which are chia seeds in juice.  But, my new FAVORITE way of getting my Chia fix is Chia seed Kombucha.

I LOVE this Cherry Chia Kombucha.  After lunch (post-half marathon) on Sunday, I picked up one of these gems from Whole Foods in downtown PA (Palo Alto).  Our legs felt like bricks so we popped a squat on a bench while I cracked it open and drank it in one sitting.  We could hardly move but I was in a state of ecstasy.  I am already a Kombucha addict but G.T. Kombucha’s new Chia Seed line means they own me for life.

Back to the Vanilla Chia pudding.

Ingredients:

-3 or 4 Tbsp. Chia Seeds  —> You can find them in the bulk bins at Whole Foods, or in a health food store (Nativas Naturals sells Chia seeds pre-packaged in a brown and white bag)

-2 Cups Almond Milk (or any other non-dairy or dairy milk)

-Stevia (to taste)

-1/2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract (optional – I ran out so of Vanilla so I didn’t use it this time)

Simply mix together Chia Seeds and Stevia (or sweetener) in a bowl.  Add the 2 cups of almond milk and then the vanilla extract.  Whisk together.

Let sit ( I usually do room temperature because once it’s in the fridge, out of sight, out of mind)

Every 10 minutes or so, whisk it again so the seeds don’t form clumps or stick to the bottom or sides of the bowl.

Repeat 3x or until the mixture has the consistency of tapioca pudding.  It should be pretty thick! Sometimes I get impatient and eat it before it really thickens up (it depends on your personal taste).

You can prepare this the night before for breakfast, but don’t forget to follow the steps.  If you whisk it together just once and stick it in the fridge overnight, you will wake to Almond milk with some seedy clumps.  It’s unfortunate 😦

Have you ever used or seen Chia seeds before? I am addicted.  I now add them to my oatmeal, cold cereal, smoothies, homemade granola, baked goods, you name it!

What other superfoods are you into? If Mulberries and Goji Berries weren’t so freaking expensive, I would probably go through packs of them daily.

Heart of The City

After catching up on what seemed like a million emails and errands, I decided to check out the 30th Annual Celebration of the “Heart of the City” Farmer’s Market by City Hall.  San Francisco’s City Hall is so spectacular but also located in one of the worst neighborhoods I have ever been to, the Tenderloin.  If you ever visit SF, it is one place to completely black out on your map.

My dear friend Julian took this great photo of SF’s City Hall when he came to visit from NYC a few months ago:

His other photos were just as awesome.

The Chinatown Fortune Cookie Factory (They charge 50 cents for a photo but we didn’t mind supporting the cause)

Outside the De Young museum!

The four of us

Of course Juelz had to get an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

Back to the Farmer’s Market… It was a pretty dreary day but there was still a great turn out!

If I’m at the market, I tend to only buy all organic produce.    I stocked up on Kale and Zucchini at this table.

After walking out of my way to avoid the worst parts of the neighborhood, I finally reached home base.  By that time, I was famished.  I heated up some Spicy Latin Black Bean soup from Trader Joe’s and made a quick Farmer’s Market salad  with my loot.  I massaged Lacinto Kale with some EVOO and chopped a bright yellow heirloom tomato, a carrot, a zucchini and added dollops of fresh herbed goat cheese.  It hit the spot!

Until I found this little insect crawling on my kale.  It looks a whole lot bigger than it was.  It was itty-bitty  and I’m sure it was harmless, but I couldn’t bear to possibly eat a living crawling insect (for my sake as well as theirs).  So, I picked up every piece of ripped green leaf and thoroughly inspected it before it passed through my lips.  I may have looked like a caveman but I had to do it.  

Pac Heights hills in the morning

At 7 AM, my roommate Nicole headed out for a 3 mile run amidst the Pac Heights mansions.  Going up the hills wasn’t too bad because she has the inside scoop on the streets with more gradual climbs.  However, downhill was a pain in the … knees.  When we got to the Lyons St. stairs, I was pooped.

At the bottom of Lyons

Nicole wasn’t playing any games.  After a quick stretch, she took them two and three at a time.

The first flight

The middle landing with an SF heart!

At the top

It’s pretty amazing how many people bring yoga mats and plop them down on the pavement at the top of the stairs.  People bring their personal trainers, and I even think that there was an outdoor bootcamp class going on.  Must get more info!  Matt and I always take family and friends who visit us here to take a picture at the top (if it isn’t too foggy!) because it’s a great view of the bay.

Here is a picture of us just over two years ago by the same steps:

Not my favorite picture, but check out the view!

I saw two old ladies sneak into this closed Presido trail.  I only hope i’m as daring in my 80’s.

The city is still so beautiful despite the fog.

I’m off to get my 2nd Starbuck’s Bold this morning.  I really should be getting it from the local La Boulange but their coffee doesn’t give me the late morning energy boost that I need right now.  Ideally, i’d like to ween off caffeine and drink coffee only once every other day.

Does anyone have any tips to cure my caffeine addiction?!

Does anyone workout utilizing a long flight of stairs? I’d love to integrate an outdoor workout into my week.  Have a great morning 🙂

Eating greens in the garden

This morning I pulled myself out of bed for a 5.25 mile run (well, I walked/lightly jogged the first 3/4 mile).  First I had 2 pieces of toast with 2 heaping tablespoons of almond butter, a half a banana, and a few strawberries.  I forgot to take a picture, so instead here is what I ate for breakfast yesterday:

Is it just me or is avocado spread on toast with salt one of the best combos ever?!

The run was just alright.  I felt a slight pain in my right thigh for the first time ever.  I think it’s minor because it subsided after 5 minutes or so.  After answering a few emails and continuing my job search, I headed downstairs to make a farmer’s market salad.  My boyfriend, his stepdad and I went to the Palo Alto Farmer’s market on Saturday and wound up with a few bountiful bags of beautiful California produce.

A bit of red leaf lettuce + kale w/ A lot of 3 Grain Tempeh (Trader Joe's - made from brown rice, soybeans and millet), an egg white puff, grape tomatoes, fresh chives, a big white carrot and a half of an avocado w/ balsamic

As you can see I like to have a 1:8 ratio of salad greens to delicious accoutrements.

Eating in their garden is such a treat!

Finally blogging

Hi everyone!

Thanks for reading my first post in the health blog world.  I have been reading health and fitness blogs for years now, and have been dying to start my own!  A typical day starts and ends with my eyes glued to the Google Reader as I catch up on all of the eats, workouts and lives of the amazing, admirable health bloggers that I follow.  After much encouragement from my best friend (Hi Mom!) I finally took the plunge.

On Ruthie’s Runs and Recipes, you’ll find a bit of everything! Healthy recipes (some raw, gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, vegetarian … a little something for everyone), Not so healthy recipes (you’ve got to live it up sometime!) and Fitness.  As an avid runner, I am hoping to train for my First Half Marathon soon and diversify my workouts.

Enjoy!

xo Ruthie