High Five Friday: Enough to cook

I'm giving myself the biggest HIGH FIVE this week!
Yesterday, a relationship ended and unlike in the past, I wasn't upset. I wasn't even surprised.

Yes, it was only 2 months old. But in my world where 6 months is the longest ever, that's a long time. Okay, it's not.

We became too close as friends. It got weird - I felt like a therapist. I was listening to problems, to him talking all the time. Conversations were one-sided. I'm totally okay with that as a friend though and we've already continued talking as such.

Also, I don't have to drive 30+ minutes to see him. I can finally commit to putting my his name in my phone book too.

And out of it, I realized I'm not shallow (because he was really attractive) and that I do want something more from a companion.

Alright, the rest of this more of a WIAW and not so much a High Five Friday. Guess I'll just have to cook more good lookin' food next week.

After work on Wednesday, I lazied around, napped for 30 minutes (not bad), worked out, and headed to dinner with co-workers. I got ceviche - there was so much I had leftovers!

HIGH FIVE for Open House was fun. I met and talked to parents and was told I have great energy and am really bubbly... not sure if that's good.

HIGH FIVE for seeing a friend for a quick minute, which gave me quite a bit of energy. That and I ate some of what I made.

Note: These are all recipes from my Pinterest. I actually went through and made a special list of recipes to make... since they've been pinned and ignored for so long.

I've been wanting to make these since I saw them: Oh She Glow's no-bake Elvis bars with Sunspire white chocolate.

HIGH FIVE for avocados appearing in the fridge so I made The Lean Green Bean's peanut butter avocado cookies.

HIGH FIVE for this pumpkin and paleo recipe: Elana's Pantry paleo pumpkin bars. Not as pretty, but they tasted like pumpkin pie/bread pudding out of the oven. Yummmm.

HIGH FIVE for something salty too: cilantro lime chicken with the leftover chicken before it went bad.

How many times per week do you food prep? I prep 2-3 times. The 3rd time is for the weekend.
What is your favorite pumpkin recipe? I'll make a post of my favorites and ones I want to make next week!

WIAW: Dolmas & end of Paleo challenge

I'm having trouble sleeping. I'm working, working out, and doing homework - exhausted but unable to sleep till 1:30 A.M. last night. So, in effect, a 5 A.M. alarm didn't happen. A 6:30 one did and I'm craving a Sidecar doughnuts. I rarely eat whole doughnuts.

 This week, I bought fresh grape leaves. It took awhile to even track down canned grape leaves and when I got there, I saw a sign for fresh leaves. I didn't know what to expect.

But my paleo dolmas turned out great. I cut and cleaned cauliflower for the first time too!

There's a lot, but I eat a lot of them too.

I also made super simple protein balls from Gabby's G-Free Instagram.

My new CrossFit friend Anna sent me a recipe for dark chocolate banana ice cream. I froze banana medallions the night before and came up with this delicious treat. I want some more...

We finished the Paleo challenge yesterday, a lot earlier than we expected. We won. I'm happy...

... and I'm experiencing less bloating.

I'll keep trucking along the Paleo path 80-90% of the time. It wasn't a huge adjustment in my life.

MIMM: Venice & Fight Gone Bad

I bought more ground meat and realized most ground meat is the same.

I made pork chili instead of beef chili this week.

Eggplant fries instead of sweet potato fries

Marvelous paleo pumpkin pancakes from Practical Paleo that came out better this time

My Pharrell station on Pandora yielded this amazing song. Most marvelous station ever.

I had to go to my second job and picked up some meat from Trader Joe's. Ready to eat! Not. I was supposed to heat it. Oh well.

Saturday morning boot camp then baking ginger spice muffin tops from Healthful Pursuit.

And a giant batch of marvelous sweet potato pancakes with maple coconut butter. I ate this Saturday and Sunday, and there's enough for tomorrow.

After attempting more homework and falling asleep, I drove out to meet up my friends Andrew and Denton. We headed into Venice.

The boardwalk was crazy, but I dug the vibe in other parts of Venice.

Dinner at Oscar's Cerveteca

I chose the Peruvian sashimi (left, rec from Yelp), but really wish I chose the chorizo burger (right). The sashimi was good but small. I dealt and drank a beer from El Segundo.

Marvelous Coolhaus Ice Cream in Culver City was reminiscent of my San Francisco ice cream experience. I got the dirty mint and ChocoVivo salted chocolate. I didn't realize there was so much so I only had the ChocoVivo - I'm usually not a chocolate ice cream fan! The mint was refreshing with fresh specks of mint and tons of chocolate chips.

Another marvelous Sunday Funday at CrossFit. We did 3 rounds of Fight Gone Bad, named after BJ Penn. I got in 230 reps that included wall balls. I'm better at them now! :)

Some of my semi-Paleo grocery shopping for the week:

• Sweet potatoes
• Tomato
• Apples
• Paleo bread
• Coconut oil
• Boar's Head buffalo chicken
• Turkey bacon
• Carrots
• Dark chocolate
• Pine nuts for dolmas, but I can't find grape leaves!
• Ginger, cardamon, nutmeg

I finished up a big assignment and fell asleep for a couple of hours. So I'm still up, 6 A.M. CrossFit is not a possibility and I'm sleeping in. Not the best way to start the week...

What did you do this past weekend?
What's your favorite station on Pandora?
Where's your next beach trip?

WIAW: As long as I get up in the morning

Looks bad but doesn't hurt

Doesn't look bad but does hurt

Wearing too many colors to yoga.

99 cent store purchases for mobility

Paleo. I hate cucumbers.

Breakfast: egg and bacon-almond butter banana-wich

Life right now.

Lots of meetings and missing 6 A.M. CrossFit. I'm going to try and go after work. Yep, wish me luck on that one.

MIMM: First free (of work) weekend

More Paleo eats, including chicken, avocado, & kale/spinach/chard in raw seaweed.

MARVELOUS coconut-sprinkled chocolate-covered coconut butter-stuffed Fuji apples

I nabbed this book from work. I LOVE mid-century modern. Speaking of modern history, I'm beginning to lesson plan for my assignment next month! I can't stop planning either - its been so long!

My strength wraps came in on Friday and I got to use them on Sunday. We did so many power cleans that I'm not sure how helpful they really were.

Paleo or not? This NadaMoo ice cream is fantastic. In any case, this weekend was a cheat weekend. I had a beer at my cousin's birthday BBQ where she also got engaged!

Toasted Paleo bread fulfills my craving for turkey sandwiches

Pet Expo at work. This is Scooter, the miniature horse(?).

My llama friends again...

Blisters bursted from knee tucks for the Team Paleo Challenge. P.S. We pulled ahead to first place!

Sunday's Hero post-WOD class picture:

I need to go on weekends more often to see everyone. I should and do look terrible. I'm right in the middle in red with my pal Bobby Sue/Vinh.

Since I quit my night job, I had to use up my 40% discount at Van's. I bought my little cousin a new pair (left), my aunt got a pair of classic blues, and mom and I got the same pair of peachy-orange shoes (right).

Return of the sweet potato chili fries! This didn't taste the same as I just throw spices in, but it was still good.

We took Sunday off Paleo too. I ate Paleo except for bites of this pumpkin spice Front Porch Pops from the back of the fridge.

Back to Paleo tomorrow after a whole weekend off. I made some Paleo sushi by hollowing out cucumber slices then inserting chopped chicken with Tapatio and avocado.

...and back to waking up at 5 A.M. to hang out with my 6 A.M. CrossFit crew. Thankfully, I have more afternoons/evenings off for... lesson planning and homework?

What's your favorite decade?