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Don’t Get Intimidated by Pinterest

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Some days, the idea of cooking dinner can easily be overwhelming.

Miraculously, I had no plans on Tuesday night, which therefore allowed me to get excited about a relaxing night at home in the kitchen. I could open a nice bottle of champagne, put on the Spotify Michael Buble Christmas channel and just relax while cooking dinner. As soon as the clock struck 7pm, I headed downstairs, not even stopping to change out of my work clothes, and did a quick scan of ingredients in the fridge and pantry.

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Inspired by the carton of eggs in the fridge and pile of onions in the pantry, I started skimming Pinterest for inspiration. Not the right move at 7pm, Diamond.  Leave it to Pinterest to immediately intimidate and overwhel. After typing in a few key ingredients I wanted to use, the results quickly included multiple step, complicated recipes. Instead of getting frustrated, I reached out to Kristine, whose Instagram feed never ceases to make me hungry, for some inspiration.

Within minutes, I found myself opening cans and cracking eggs, excited to whip up a dish that I fell in love with in London.  Little did I know that impressive, delicious dish only takes 30 minutes and uses ingredients most of us have in our pantry or refrigerator.

Friends, this New York Times Shakshuka is a recipe that you should pin on your “weeknight dinner” Pinterest board and enjoy often. It only has three, primary recipe steps and one of those is preheating the oven. I’m not kidding!

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If you aren’t familiar with shakshuka, it is a traditional Israeli breakfast dish featuring eggs poached in tomatoes, peppers and onions.   The bright, spicy, one-pan dish is easy to make but the flavors will linger with you for hours. The smoky sauce will have you scooping up the remnants on your plate with pieces of crusty bread.  When paired with a small green salad and a hearty pour of wine or bubbly, it is the perfect, healthy, heart comfort food.

So, what did we learn from this post?

  • Open bubbly before cooking.
  • Don’t fall down the Pinterest intimidation rabbit hole.
  • Phone or test friends for help.
  • Eggs are great kitchen staples!
  • Shakshuka is easier to make than you’d think.
  • Have fun!
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ashleyd /

I Feel Home

Tonight I felt like I was at home. An old school favorite song of mine from high school and early college days even sang in my head as I cooked.

Even though our furniture isn’t set to arrive until Friday at 8am, I hosted someone in the flat for the first time tonight! Maybe it’s my Southern roots or just my upbringing but there is nothing I love more than opening my home to friends, whether it’s 1 or 20, and sharing a bottle of wine while enjoying homemade meal and conversation.

I realized this morning that I kept putting off hosting my girlfriends merely because I didn’t feel I could properly host without our furniture, fresh flowers and a spotless home. But, an evening like tonight is far more important than any of that. When I realized that Emily was working late and hadn’t gone to the grocery store due to a weekend trip to Amsterdam I thought it was the perfect opportunity to host and use some of the produce on their last legs. IMG_0929

Within an hour of walking through the door the apartment was cleaner than it’s been in the five weeks I’ve been here and the candles aroma filled the apartment.  It wasn’t a fancy evening but it was one more step in making Geneva feel like home versus an extended work trip.

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We laughed over stories from our respective weekends and sipped a local white chardonnay. Since I was starving I put together a quick cheese plate with a Manchego and Brie cheese bought from the store this evening paired with some crackers and cornichons. Our main course was a dinner salad featuring a bed of baby spinach topped with freshly sliced and salted tomatoes, figs, goat cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled chicken sausage. The chicken sausage was a bit random as I swore it was just chicken when I took it out of the freezer this morning in my pre-run morning stupor, but it did the job.

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Reset

Greetings from New York City where the current time is 9:51pm. My body feels and thinks it is 3:51am however since I’m still very much on Europe time after spending 13 days on that time zone. You know what’s really fun though? Flying out to the Pacific Northwest tomorrow at 6am so my body can be really, really confused.

Yup, by the time I land in New York City Friday evening, I will have logged 21,000 miles in less than a week. That is insane and hard to fathom. What’s even harder to fathom is having a super, strong PR worthy 10k race on Saturday morning during the New York Road Runner’s Oakley 10K.

Instead of throwing in the towel on this race, I’m doing the opposite and revving up my system for a great race by focusing on myself this week even though I’ll be traveling. This means plenty of sleep, back on the vitamin and supplement wagon, strong but efficient workouts, stretching, and smart eating and drinking choices. It won’t always be easy but I know that a PR will feel sweeter than any late nights or 3rd glasses of wine. You see that? I’m not being silly and saying no wine, I’m saying moderation.

Here’s how I started the reset process today in between a long work day and an evening filled with both fun and tedious errands including another shellac manicure, long line at the post office, dry cleaning, and meeting with the movers (!!!?!).

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From top:

Peach Protein Oats including 1/2 c rolled oats, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1 scoop Designer Whey vanilla protein powder, water, and 2/3 c peaches.

Salad #1 for lunch including mixed greens, beets, red onions, grilled chicken, egg whites, apples, tomatoes, salt & pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Speed workout on the treadmill is the perfect way to end a long day when torrential rains force me inside. Today I did 1/2 mile pick ups (6.2, 6.4, 6.2, 6.5, 6.2, 6.7) for a speedy 5k while jamming to Justin Timberlake, Usher, Ludacris, and Icona Pop.

Salad #2 for dinner including a large bowl of mixed greens, walnuts, tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, beets, red onions, egg, tomatoes, salt & pepper, 1/2 portion blue cheese, and light balsamic vinaigrette.

I also stuck guzzled over 64 ounces of water today and limited my caffeine to one cup of coffee around 3pm when my body and mind were both hitting a jet lag slump.

We’ll see if I can keep this up beginning tomorrow morning when I hope on a plane out west. Goal #1 is to drink at least 3 bottles of water during flight and baby my calf muscles with compression socks.

If you could fly anywhere tomorrow, free of charge, what would be your destination of choice? Mine would be New Zealand or Australia! Both countries have been top of our list for ages but are such a trek and quite expensive!

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