I hope you had a great weekend.

I woke up this morning to an awesome breakfast. Can you guess what it was?

Yep I made my first ever breakfast cookie inspired by Fitnessista. Check out her description of how to make a breakfast cookie.

I changed the recipe a little to fit the ingredients that I had on hand. I ended up using 1/2 cup oats, 2 tbs. pumpkin butter, and 2 tbs. almond milk. I mixed it all together, put it on the plate and shaped it into a cookie, and let it sit in the refrigerator over night.

I didn’t have much in the way of toppings on hand so I decided to eat my breakfast cookie topping free. The verdict? Breakfast cookies are AWESOME! I loved the pumpkin flavors from the pumpkin butter, and the oats really did form sort of cookie (one that I ate with a fork).

I can’t wait to try the more advanced versions of the breakfast cookie, i.e. using protein powder, peanut butter, and other fun mix-ins like chocolate chips or raisins.

I came home to a fun little package in the mail this afternoon.

I took a survey a while back for MamboSprouts, which asked questions about natural beauty products. In return for the survey, Alba Botanica sent me one of their products for free. It’s Organic Lavender Sunscreen with SPF 30. I can’t wait to use it!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY…

A few weeks back I received a great little package in the mail fromMyBlogSpark!

A coupon for Fiber One Yogurt and a $50 Safeway gift card!

I used the gift card today to pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables, and of course I grabbed some Fiber One Yogurt!

Now for the fun stuff!

My Blog Spark, Fiber One, and Safeway teamed up to provide one reader with a $50 Safeway gift card.

The gift card can be used at Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Genuardi’s, Dominick’s, Carrs, Randalls, and Tom Thumb stores.

The giveaway ends on Friday March 12 at noon Pacific Time.

You can get up to two entries.

To enter:

1. Leave a comment here telling me what you would buy with the $50 Safeway gift card.

2. Link back to the giveaway in a blog post or Tweet about the giveaway (include a link to the post and my Twitter @JuliaJogging) and leave a second comment with a link to the post or your Twitter ID.

I’ll pick a winner using a Random Integer Generator on Friday afternoon!

Have a great week!

** Disclosure: the product, prize pack, information, and giveaway have all been provided by Safeway and Fiber One through MyBlogSpark.**

While I didn’t blog regularly about it, you may remember that I decided to challenge myself to do the 30 Day Shred 30 days in a row beginning on January 30.

Jillian matches my yoga mat – LOVE IT!

I’m very happy to report that I stuck with my challenge and did the 30 Day Shred every day from January 30 to February 28. February was also the perfect month to choose to stick with the 30 Day Shred. I’ve been so busy with classes that taking time to run or go to the gym was causing me more stress than good. Instead of taking a month completely off of working out, I was able to work out every single day, even if it was for only 20 minutes.

And I’m sure you’re wondering about the results…

I didn’t lose any weight doing the 30 Day Shred. As someone who exercises regularly and eats healthily most of the time, 20-30 minutes of exercise a day without some pretty drastic calorie restrictions just wasn’t enough for weight loss. February was not a great month eating wise – too much late night snacking and candy eating while writing papers and doing homework. I did manage not to gain any weight despite my less than stellar eating, which I think the 30 Day Shred did assist with.

The 30 Day Shred definitely had its benefits though. Overall I feel stronger, especially in my upper body. I don’t have much upper body strength because I don’t focus on strength training in my workouts, but I’m starting to see more definition and I notice a difference when doing the actual workout. I am able to do the exercises with heavier weights (started with 3 lb weights on Level 1 and graduated to 5 lb weights!) and with less fatigue at the end. I also graduated to doing “real” push-ups, although they are still very wimpy “real” push-ups.

Another area I notice more strength and more definition is in my abs. I don’t have a six-pack, but my abs feel stronger and, like my arms, I am able to do the exercises more easily. All those plank moves must be paying off!

Here’s my final evaluation of the 30 Day Shred:

Pros

• Good variety of exercises – I really liked all the different ab exercises.
• Combination of cardio, strength, and abs.
• Short (around 25 minutes), great for a tight schedule.
• Can be done at home and while traveling.
• Jillian (Did I mention that I think she’s awesome?)
• Different levels of difficulty.
• Can be done without rest days.
• Can be combined with other exercise, such as more cardio.

Cons

• The stretching at the end is way too short (I always stretch for longer than Jillian instructs you to).
• Can I say that Level 2 overall is a con? I found Level 2 to be the most difficult, I couldn’t wait to move on to Level 3.
• Some awkward exercises – I found some of the moves hard to do properly, especially at the speed Jillian does them.
• Length – sometimes 20 minutes just isn’t enough, especially if you already work out currently.
• Your neighbors may hate you afterwards. I live in a second story apartment and I’m really surprised my neighbors haven’t filed a complaint against me after all the jumping and pounding I’ve been doing on the floor for the past month. Some of those jumps are intense (i.e., rock star jumps) and there is just no way that I’m not shaking their ceiling.

Overall, I would definitely recommend the 30 Day Shred.

I plan to continue to do the 30 Day Shred 3-4 times per week.

As my schedule settles down again, I’m getting rededicated to running. After more than a month off (gasp – I know!), I went for a 3.5 mile run on Monday. I finished in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, my quads are still sore two days later – I probably pushed it a little too hard for that first run back, but sometimes you just need to prove to yourself that you can still do something and that is exactly what that run was about.

I’m excited to get back to running, I’ve really missed it and am eager to get signed up for some fun races this spring and summer.

Well, that’s all for tonight! I hope the rest of your week goes smoothly!

The best part of my month – by far – was Tyler’s visit over the Valentine’s Day weekend. I had Monday the 15th off school, so that was the ideal weekend for Tyler to fly out here to California and get away from all the snow in Michigan

We did a number of different fun things over the weekend including going out to celebrate my friend Megan’s birthday (her birthday is Valentine’s Day), going for a hike, transforming the alcove in the second bedroom into a home office, celebrating Valentine’s Day, and just getting to spend time with each other.

Megan’s birthday dinner was at Paesano’s, an Italian restaurant here in Sacramento. The menu was really diverse, but mostly Italian. I chose the Pad Thai, yep I ate Thai food at an Italian restaurant. It was no authentic Thai food, but I wasn’t in the mood for Italian, so it wasn’t bad.

After dinner we went to a little bar nearby, where I had a White Russian. Tyler and I hung around for a little while, but we were both pretty tired so we left around midnight.

Saturday we decided to go for a hike. After searching online we found a trail that sounded pretty good up near Lake Folsom. We made a stop at REI where we bought a new day pack and stocked up on some hiking fuel. We got lunch at Quizno’s and then drove the 40 or so minutes to the trail.

We weren’t exactly sure where the trail was off the road, so we ended up stopping where another group of cars was pulled off. We didn’t see the trail we had gone there for so we followed a “trail” down the bank of the river.

It was very rocky and there was a lot of random garbage…I believe we saw 3 or 4 different shoes…weird. We also saw this hole in a rock – probably created by water erosion – kinda cool.

After hiking for about 30 minutes along the river we decided to turn around and head back to try and find the real trail. We got back to the bridge where we had parked above the river and decided to hike the other way. A few minutes later, Tyler was looking up at the canyon surrounding the river and noticed a trail about 40 feet above us.

We spent the next few minutes scrambling up rocks and weeds to the trail. We then hiked another hour out and back on the trail which was also a mountain biking trail. It was a fairly easy hike minus except for scrambling along the rocks on the riverbank and the climb up the hill to the trail.

That night we had Michael Angelo’s Vegetable Lasagna for dinner. Michael Angelo’s was kind enough to send me three coupons for free products.

The lasagna was super simple to prepare, just had to pull up the corner of the lid to and pop it in the preheated oven.

I’m not sure whether it was the way I cooked the lasagna or what, but it turned out very watery. Otherwise, the flavors were good and there were plenty of great veggies in the lasagna.

I’m not sure what it is about lasagna, but I always think it tastes better as leftovers. This vegetable lasagna was no exception. After I drained some of the excess lasagna juices off, it was great.

I’d definitely be willing to give this lasagna another try, because I think it was my fault that it ended up so juicy. I still have two more Michael Angelo’s products to try (I just bought them tonight at Whole Foods) and I’ll be sure to let you know how they are.

Tyler’s birthday was the 24th (after he was out here) so we celebrated his birthday and Valentine’s Day combined.

We spent the first part of the day relaxing. There is nothing better to do when you only get to see each other every few months.

For Valentine’s Day dinner I made a  baby shrimp and pasta dish with diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese along with some cheesy garlic bread and a bottle of wine.

I’d definitely make this again. The diced tomatoes were Tyler’s idea. I think diced tomatoes make a much nicer tomato sauce than a canned sauce.

Dessert was strawberries and vanilla ice cream – simple but delicious.

Tyler left early on Tuesday the 16th…I’ve been missing him ever since.

This past week has been rather exciting for me professionally.

Thursday night I had an amazing dinner with Paul, a friend of the family that my dad met through business many years ago. Paul offered to take me to Aioli Bodega Española, one of his favorite restaurants in Sacramento. Paul knows the owner of the restaurant and all of the restaurant staff, which made for a fun and unique experience. I was seated at Paul’s usual table.

Paul brought a bottle of Merryvale Pinot Noir to accompany dinner. The wine was great – I’m really coming to love red wines being out here in California where there are so many good red wines available.

I was treated to a four course dinner beginning with crostini – an appetizer Paul designed that consists of a baguette with a delicious mushroom topping. Next we shared a beet and orange salad with bleu cheese. I was amazed at the flavor the beets had – they were just slightly sweet and paired so well with the oranges and bleu cheese. Following the beet salad we had a unique pasta dish. The pasta was like spaghetti but twice as thick and it was paired with fried pancetta. It was very rich and heavy so I wasn’t able to eat much of it (the leftovers made for a delicious dinner tonight). Last up was pounded chicken with grilled vegetables. The chicken was tender and juicy and had some amazing flavors.

Everything we had was delicious. Sadly, none of it is actually on the menu – one of the perks of eating at a restaurant where you know the owner.

Aside from the delicious food, the evening was also exciting and relieving because Paul may be assisting me in finding an internship for the summer with a local legislator.

After learning more about legal careers over the past few months, I’ve decided that lobbying is something that I find very interesting and something I could be good at. An internship with a legislator would help me learn more about the legislative process and help me make connections within the government affairs community in Sacramento. I’m very excited, and really hope I can make the opportunity happen for the summer.

Well friends thats all I’ve got for now – well at least all I feel like typing about right now.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap of my 30 Day Shred Challenge!

Have a great Sunday!

About a week ago, I came into contact with the wonderful people at Earth Café. I was immediately impressed by the friendliness of the company as well as their overall mission to create delicious, organic, vegan, gourmet desserts!

Craig at Earth Café offered to send me some samples of their vegan, gluten-free cheesecakes to taste and review, and I couldn’t pass up that opportunity!

I received four different flavors of cheesecake to try:

• Rockin’ Raspberry Cheesecake
• Cali Style Lemon Cheesecake
• Cherry Dream Cheesecake
• Strawberry Fields Forever Cheesecake

Earth Café’s Cheesecakes are organic, raw, vegan, and gluten-free. They are dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, cholesterol free, and contain no refined sugars and no hydrogenated oils. And best of all, they are made with love (the label told me so!)

The Cheesecakes include ingredients such as soaked cashews, coconut, coconut butter, agave nectar, soaked pecans, soaked walnuts, vanilla bean extractive, cinnamon, lecithin, and sea salt.

My first Earth Café Cheesecake experience was with the Rockin’ Raspberry Cheesecake.

The first thing I noticed when I put the cheesecake on my plate was the layer of fresh raspberries. I was very excited to take my first bite, and it did not disappoint! The filling was light and creamy, the raspberries sweet and a little bit tart, and the crust nutty and crumbly.

I was so impressed that I immediately twittered this message to Earth Café: Craig, I just tried my first bite of the Rockin Raspberry Cheesecake – it is AMAZING!

My second experience with Earth Café’s Cheesecake involved the Cherry Dream flavor.

I again immediately noticed the layer of fresh fruit – cherries this time! The filling and crust were the same delicious combination from the Rockin’ Raspberry Cheesecake, the difference was in the cherries. They tasted fresh and sweet and gave the cheesecake a slightly different flavor.

My latest Earth Café Cheesecake experience was just this evening where I indugled in the Cali Style Lemon Cheesecake.

This flavor didn’t contain the usual layer of fresh fruit, however that didn’t make it any less amazing than the Rockin’ Raspberry or Cherry Dream. The cheesecake filling had a subtle lemony flavor and the usual creamy and light consistence and the crust tasted just the same as the other flavors.

I only have the Strawberry Fields Forever Cheesecake left to try and I will be sure to let you know my opinion of it when I try it. For now I think my favorite flavor is the Rockin’ Raspberry Cheesecake. The tart sweetness of the fresh raspberries paired amazingly with the nutty crust and creamy filling.

I still can’t believe just how amazing this Cheesecake tastes. I’ve tried many a piece of cheesecake in my day, and I would take this over another cheesecake any day! I love that it is a healthy and yet still gourmet and delicious take on something that is usually so packed with fat and calories. The freshness of the ingredients makes the eating experience all the more enjoyable. I found myself savoring every single bite because the flavors were so pronounced and I felt so satisfied after eating it.

I highly recommend this whether you are vegan, eat gluten-free, or are just looking for an amazing new dessert!

You can find Earth Café Cheesecakes and Desserts in stores using their Store Locator. Or, if you can’t find it in a store near you, you can order the Cheesecakes in the Online Store.

For those of you in the Sacramento area, Earth Café’s Cheesecakes are available at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op!

I hope you all get a chance to try these desserts, they really are fresh and delicious!

On a more personal note, my life has been a little hectic (to say the least) since I’ve started my second semester of law school. I’ve been having a hard time fitting in workouts and my eating has definitely taken a turn for the worst (think lots of candy and comfort foods). I think these changes have had a huge effect on other parts of my life. In order to balance my life out again I’ve decided to take some pro-active steps towards regaining some balance.

I feel so much better when I am active and am able to exercise during the week, but I feel so crunched for time. Today I went and bought the 30 Day Shred at Target.

My challenge for February is to do Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred every day for the next 30 days (until February 28th).

I needed a way to get a quick workout in without feeling like I was neglecting my school work and I wanted to focus some on toning and strengthening. This for me is the perfect way to do that. I plan on doing extra cardio (treadmill, running, or elliptical) a few days each week in addition to the 30 Day Shred, and I may choose to do the video twice some days when I build up more strength.

I did my first 30 Day Shred workout as soon I got home today.

I started out on Level 1 using 3 lb weights. I was surprised at how challenging the strength moves were, and I was very tired by the end of the 20 minutes. I hope that in a week or two I can move up to using my 5 lb weights and doing Level 2.

Feel free to join me in this February 30 Day Shred Challenge! I’ll be updating you every few days on my workouts and progress – a little accountability always makes it easier to stick to it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Mine was only a 4 day week, but it felt very long, probably because it was so jam packed with things to do.

That Progresso Soup has really come in handy for quick and healthy meals this week.

I tried two other varieties this week:

Progresso Light Chicken Noodle Soup

1 Serving (2 Servings per Can) = 70 Calories, 1.5 grams Total Fat, 10 grams Total Carbohydrate, 2 grams Dietary Fiber, 5 grams Protein

This soup was brothy, but still chock full of carrots, celery, chunks of chicken and hearty noodles. The oyster crackers I added helped absorb a little of the broth and made the soup even more hearty. I liked that the broth wasn’t overly salty but still had good flavor.

& Progresso Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup

1 Serving (2 Servings per Can) = 100 Calories, 2.5 grams Total Fat, 12 grams Total Carbohydrate, 1 gram Dietary Fiber, 7 grams Protein

My comments from the Light Chicken Noodle Soup all apply to the Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup as well. I couldn’t find a noticeable difference between the Light and Traditional Soups in the taste of the soup or the amount of vegetables, chicken, or noodles in the soup. I think it is great that I can eat the Light version and save 30 calories per serving, and not notice a difference!

I’ve really enjoyed all four of the Progresso Soups that I’ve tried.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

And now for the winner of the Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Pack provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark…

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2010-01-24 03:55:46 UTC

Comment Number 4:

julie wrote:

awww your new blog changes sound so fun! 2-3xs a week is perfect i want this soup because i want this muuug

Congratulations Julie!

Email me (julia@joggingmymemory.com) with your address and I’ll pass it on so they can send you your Gift Pack!

Thanks everyone for entering! If you’d like to try Progresso Soups for yourself check out this coupon (in the upper right hand corner of the page) for $1 off 3 cans!

And keep an eye out for more giveaways in the next few weeks, you won’t want to miss them!

*The information, products, and giveaway in this post were provided from Progresso through MyBlogSpark.*

Before I give you all of the juicy details about the giveaway, I just wanted to let you know about the changes I’ll be making regarding the blog. Coming back to Sacramento and getting my grades made me realize that I needed to re-prioritize some things in my life. I’ll be spending more time this semester focusing on school and opportunities for the summer. In order to do this I’ll need to cut back on my blogging. I’m not going to stop blogging altogether, but I am going to cut back my posting to 2-3 times per week. Because of this change, I’ll also be posting a little differently. I won’t be posting all my daily eats anymore. Instead I’ll be focusing on posting fun new recipes or meals, great restaurants, new product reviews, and exciting events – I think this will be a really positive change as well as an opportunity to make my posts more interesting and more thoughtful.

I hope that you’ll join me as I embark on this new schedule and style of blogging!

Now for the great stuff!

When I got back to Sacramento last weekend, I had a number of packages waiting for me, including one provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark!

In honor of the New Year Progresso is holding a “Souper You Debut” contest from January 4th until March 15th for the chance to win a full makeover in New York City! Click on the link above to see the full details and to learn how to enter!

I was lucky to receive one of the Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Packs which included 15 cans of soup, a soup mug, and a jump rope that counts the number of jumps for you.

I think this is a great aid to kick-starting those New Year’s resolutions!

Soup is one of my favorite foods in the winter. It’s quick and easy to prepare, it keeps me satisfied for a long time, and it keeps me warm on colder days. Progresso has a huge variety of soups including some vegetarian options. Many of their soups have 100 calories or less per serving (take note – a can of Progresso soup typically contains two servings). A can of soup along with some crackers or bread is the perfect size meal for me.

Earlier this week, I had a can of the Progresso Light Chicken Vegetable Rotini Soup.

This is a great take on chicken noodle soup with the added veggies! The rotini was really thick and delicious and the carrots and other vegetables were nice and soft. The soup had a lot of broth, which tasted pretty good. Overall, I really like this soup – especially the rotini and extra dose of vegetables!

Today I had a can of the Progresso Reduced Sodium Garden Vegetable Soup for lunch along with a serving of oyster crackers.

The soup contained a wide array of vegetables including white potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, corn, carrots, celery, and onions as well as kidney beans. I’m not a huge fan of beans, but combined with all the other vegetables and the broth, I didn’t mind them, and I appreciate the extra oomph they add to the soup.

You can win one of these Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Packs provided  by Progresso through MyBlogSpark:

• To enter,  leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win the Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Pack.
• Limit one entry per person.
• The giveaway will end Friday, January 22, 2010 at 12pm noon (Pacific Time).
• The winner will be drawn at random (using random.org) and announced Saturday, January 23, 2010!

Get your entry in and feel free to tell your friends – who doesn’t love free soup!

*The information, products, and giveaway in this post were provided from Progresso through MyBlogSpark.*

As you can tell I haven’t posted in almost a week again.

Leaving Tyler and Michigan was much more difficult/emotional than I anticipated and now I’m getting back into the law school groove, which necessitates some big changes in my current blogging habits as well as my life in general.

I’ll post this weekend and let you know the details, but basically I will not be blogging once a day as I was last semester, but will still be blogging regularly. I think it will be a good thing!

I hope you are all doing okay getting back into the school or work groove after the holidays.

Please don’t delete me from your readers and such, I promise to be back to regular blogging after this weekend, and I have some interesting posts planned, so keep an eye out for them!

Have a great rest of the week!

Tyler and I didn’t wake up until about 9:45, so breakfast was late. I wasn’t in the mood to cook anything for myself, so I ate a White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bar with a Clementine and a glass of soymilk.

After lazing around a bit Tyler got into gear, while he shoveled ice from the driveway I vacuumed 90% of the house – I’m calling that my workout for the day. I was definitely sweating.

After we both finished our “chore” of sorts, we packed up and drove to Tyler’s parents house. I had a lunch/snack of a Clif Kid Twisted Fruit, half a bag of Cocoa Roasted Almonds, and Cheez It’s.

We chatted with Tyler’s parents and watched football for most of the afternoon. Then at 5:30 Tyler and I drove to a local YMCA for his basketball league. It was a lot of fun to watch Tyler play basketball. He’s pretty good, I must say, and he really enjoys playing, so he’s fun to watch.

After basketball, we headed back to his parent’s house for dinner. Tyler’s Mom had put together a combination of healthy choices. I had a side salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, with lite Honey Mustard dressing, and croutons.

The rest of my dinner was a piece of marinated grilled salmon, rice pilaf, some macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli, and a roll.

Tyler’s Mom makes some awesome homemade macaroni and cheese that I cannot say no to. I guess it’s ok since I only eat it every once in awhile, and I didn’t have a huge portion of it (although I definitely wanted to haha).

Dessert was a low fat version of key lime pie made with lite cool whip, lime jello, key lime yogurt, and lime juice, with a graham cracker crust.

It was delish! I love key lime anything!

I’ve also snacked on a few mini chocolates throughout the course of the evening – they avoided the camera.

Tomorrow I’m heading into Grand Rapids with Tyler when he goes to work, then one of my parents is picking me up and taking me back out to the lakeshore so that I can make my 1pm appointment with the potential caterer.

I hope you had a relaxing weekend. I’m still winding down from all the holiday hub bub. I still have a few more days in Michigan before I head back to warm California. I hate to leave Tyler, but it will be nice to be in 50° temps again and able to run outside.

Do you still have more holiday time left, or do you have to head back to work/school tomorrow?

Have a great Monday either way!

Tyler and I woke up and got a late breakfast – some Kashi Island Vanilla Cereal with soymilk and a clementine for me.

The rest of the morning was spent on the computers doing some New Year budgeting, and making some New Year’s Resolutions.

Some of my resolutions include:

• Sticking to my food and grocery budget ($130) each month.
• Keeping a minimum amount of money in my savings account.
• Putting $50 each month towards some big ticket purchases that Tyler and I want to make this year.
• Working out 25 days per month (about 5-6 days per week).
• Staying on top of my thyroid problems (I have hypothyroidism).
• Running two half marathons.

Tyler also set a few goals of his own, and we set some joint goals, mostly about saving money for the big ticket purchases I hinted at above.

A lot of our goals were financially-motivated as you can tell. With our wedding coming up this summer we are both starting to look further into the future and the possible purchases we will make then.

Lunch time interrupted our resolution making and scheming. I had V8 Butternut Squash Soup and a piece of toast with butter spread.

I also snacked on a Clif Kid Twisted Fruit, some Runts, and a few Dove Dark Chocolates (no picture sorry).

After lunch Tyler went outside to clear off the driveway with the snowblower, while I did laundry and dusted the entire house.

The driveway took longer than we anticipated, but we managed to get ready and get out the door around 4.

We drove to Grand Rapids and went to Kohl’s to return a few things, then we drove to the gym.

At the gym, we stretched and did abs for about 10 minutes, then we got on treadmills next to each other. I ran 3.1 miles in 25 minutes! I was hauling! After more stretching, we headed out.

On our way back to the lake shore, we stopped by my cousin’s house to pick up a Christmas gift…

My cousin Danielle got me these two Hungry Girl cookbooks for Christmas! I can’t wait to use them!

We were invited to stay for turkey dinner (which smelled delicious), but we were super sweaty and smelly from the gym and cleaning the house/clearing the driveway, so we decided to pass.

We got some quick Jimmy John’s Subs on our way back to the house so that we wouldn’t have to cook.

I ate my #3 Totally Tuna Sub with a serving of Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.

For dessert Tyler and I shared 4 chocolates his mom had given us, each filled with a different liqueur. Mine had Kahlua in one and either a coconut flavored liqueur or Bailey’s in the other.

It was like dessert and a nightcap all in one…except that I couldn’t resist having a real nightcap – Kahlua White Russian – yum!

We’re heading to bed shortly – in the morning we’re driving to Tyler’s parents house to go to church with them, and then spending the night there – hopefully I can sneak off to get some blogging in – it is sooo nice to be back at it.

If I don’t get a chance to post be excited for Monday – I’m meeting with a potential wedding reception caterer to go over menu and budget ideas, and I’ll be telling you all about it!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Can you believe it’s 2010?

Tyler and I rang in the New Year with a group of friends last night in downtown Grand Rapids, MI.

In the afternoon we drove to Grand Rapids from the lake shore. Our first stop was the clothing store A.K. Rikks to pick up our Christmas presents (Tyler wanted to wear his new jeans and new shirt for NYE). After that we drove to the gym only to find that it had closed super early for the NYE. We were more than unhappy, especially considering we hadn’t seen any signs the previous days indicating an early closing time…bummer.

Since we had a lot of time to spare we drove to a restaurant called Old Chicago. We started off with unphotographed beers – I had Sam Adam’s Winter Lager (not terrible, but not my top of beer).

Old Chicago has a fun thing called the World Beer Tour, where you drink 110 beers (not all in one night obviously) and get prizes along the way, and your name on a huge plaque at the end. Tyler is on his 58th beer, I’m on my 22nd.

We were pretty hungry so we also got an order of Cheesy Bread to hold ourselves over until dinner, again no picture, but very delicious!

Around 7:30, we drove to downtown Grand Rapids to meet five of our friends at San Chez, a Spanish tapas bistro.

Rather than ordering regular drinks we split a pitcher of sangria made with cava (well we actually split about 4 pitchers). Our last pitcher was sangria made with white wine – Tyler and I both preferred the white wine sangria over the red, but we are big fans of white wine, so it makes sense.

We decided to get the most variety possible, so we split a number of different tapas, and an order of the gran paella between the table. Here’s my tastes of the different tapas, and my plate of paella (only times the paella plate by 3…hehe).

Warm Bread with San Chez's Homemade Oil

Fideos: Tortellini, garlic, manchego, roasted red peppers, oregano, sherry vinaigrette.

Empanadas: Five-onion-garlic potato mash, alioli, salsa.

Fritos de Arroz: Bacon-shrimp-saffron rice fritters, herb alioli.

Seta Rellena: Portabella mushroom, spinach, manchego, roasted red pepper, tomato vinaigrette.

Queso de Cabra: Baked goat cheese, tomato sauce, garlic toast.

Gran Paella: Alioli saffron rice casserole with Oman lobster tails, shrimp, calamares, mussels, crawfish, cod, chorizo, chicken tenderloin, tomato, pimientos, and peas.

With all those different dishes, dinner lasted until well after 10pm.

After we paid our bill, we walked down Ionia Street trying to find a bar we could get into. We walked by a few with super long lines and expensive covers ($40!), until we got to Ritz Coney, where there was no line, $2 cover, and an open table! We went in and got some drinks – I got a white russian (a very strong white russian).

The table we nabbed was next to a wall covered in chalkboards. Tyler put his artistic abilities to the test with the chalk, this is what resulted…

No, I didn’t tell him to write that…Isn’t he cute!

At 11:50 we decided we wanted to see the ball drop in downtown, so we literally ran the 5 or so blocks to the park where they put the ball up, and got there just in time to see the ball midair!

The ball drop - or at least the last part of it haha!

Tyler and I shared a very cold kiss and joined in on the excitement with all the other revelers.

After the excitement wore off (and the cold set in) we walked back to Ritz Coney, where we found a member of our party who we had lost en-route to the ball drop. Then we headed to another bar, McFadden’s, where we stayed for the rest of the night.

I stopped drinking so that I could drive Tyler and I home, but still had a great time hanging out and dancing with friends.

Around 1:45, the rest of the group headed out. Tyler and I stayed so he could finish his drink, then I drove us to his parents house, where we hit the sack.

I’m so glad we got to ring in the New Year with good friends and good food!

We were both super tired when we woke up this morning. We ate a light brunch (I had Oikos and cereal) and then spent the early part of the day and the afternoon working on the groom’s part of the wedding guest list with Tyler’s parents.

Around 5, we drove back to the lake shore. It had snowed at least an inch since Thursday afternoon, so we couldn’t get up the steep driveway. Instead we parked at the bottom, and Tyler got out my parent’s snow blower, while I went inside and made dinner (he’s really racking up the brownie points these days!)

We sat down to an easy dinner of creamy penne pasta with chicken and vegetables and garlic bread. We’ve spent the rest of the evening organizing some of our stuff and watching some of the Bowl games. We’ll be heading to bed soon.

I hope you had a wonderful and safe time celebrating the New Year!

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?

If so what are some of your resolutions for 2010?