Posted on October 4, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

So I might have lied…

…when I said I’d be back with another post like two and a half weeks ago. I’m still trying to figure out this whole working-full-time-while-dating-and-training-for-a-half-marathon-and-cooking-healthy-food thing.

My half-marathon–the one I had to bow out of last year because my left foot went all pear-shaped–is on November 6, and I’m a little behind on my training, but still feeling confident that I’m going to be able to finish. I had a totally awesome walk/run last Wednesday, totaling about 4.6 miles; I ran for the majority of it and was fine afterward except for some muscle soreness.

This was largely thanks to all the athletic tape I put on my foot beforehand.

Here are some pictures that made their way onto my camera over the past couple of weeks…

Here’s one of the almond butter pumpkin brownies I made.

They were pretty tasteless, but in a non-offensive way, and the texture was fantastic. I plan to mess around with this recipe so that it involves chocolate.

The Tuesday after Contagion came out, the boyfriend and I went to the Cheesecake Factory and then to the IMAX. This was my first time at the Cheesecake Factory and I agree with everyone who said the menu was overwhelming. I finally went with some salmon and broccoli…

…and some fries. Because I couldn’t think of anything else to order.

I did only eat part of the fries. And they were delicious. As was the salmon. I’ve never had salmon with tartar sauce before and it seemed weird to me when they brought it out, but I figured I’d try it anyway. It turned out to be pretty good.

With the exception of some donut binges and the occasional meal out, I’ve been trying to eat pretty primal lately. It’s been fun to try out new dishes, such as buffalo chicken and veggies.

I’m still trying to get the sauce right for the chicken, but it’s pretty good. I’ve also been making blue cheese dip to go with it (out of cream cheese and blue cheese crumbles).

There was even a trip to Golden Corral where I pretty much stuffed myself on veggies, fajita steak, and shrimp.

I also got a piece of cheesecake for shiggles, but I didn’t eat the crust. Oh, and I had some chocolate soft serve. Because I could.

On Saturday, September 17, it was time for BugFest. I volunteered at the USDA-APHIS booth for the fourth time and sampled some of the buggy fare. My boyfriend tried some, too, which made me happy. We had the cricket and crayfish jambalaya…

…and some fried waxworms, and then some chocolate-covered mealworms. I had the orange-chocolate ones. Mmm.

I have recently discovered a love for Chargrill. (It hasn’t supplanted my love for Cook-Out; these two loves can co-exist peacefully.) I like to order their low-carb option–a 1/2 lb hamburger on a bed of lettuce–with cheese, mayo, and tomatoes. And more lettuce. And I split an order of fries with my boyfriend (which is to say, I take some of his fries).

I like Chargrill because you don’t have to talk to anyone to order.  You just check off what you want on a ticket and put it in a slot. It appeals to me in the same way that self-checkouts at the grocery and the library do.

At some point, I made more buffalo chicken, and my boyfriend made garlic Parmesan fries, and their wonder twin powers activated into a totally awesome dinner that I ate way too much of.

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I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’ve spent the last couple of years growing out my hair with the intention of one day getting it all cut off and donating it. I finally did it this Friday!

I chose to donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths because their length requirement is only 8 inches, and because I’ve heard a lot of positive things about their program–the donated hair is actually used for wigs, not sold for profit (as with some other, better known charities), and the wigs are given to women who have lost their hair because of cancer treatments.  Everyone always tells me how beautiful my hair is, so I hope that my donation will help make a kick-ass wig.

I’ve cut my own hair, had friends cut my hair, and gone to some less expensive salons (i.e., Great Clips, JC Penney), but I’ve never gotten my hair cut at a nice salon. I figured that since I was doing a good deed by getting my hair cut, I could splurge a little. I bought a LivingSocial voucher back in May for a nearby salon and I finally used it on Friday. The stylist cut off my ponytail…

…and then gave me an extremely cute haircut that was exactly what I wanted.

And thanks to the LivingSocial voucher, it ended up being about as expensive as getting my hair cut at Great Clips would’ve been. LivingSocial FTW!

Posted on September 12, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

Oops (I Did It Again)

Once again I wandered away and left my blog all alone on the great big Internet. It’s been a long time and I’m not even going to try to catch up on what’s happened since I last updated, other than to say that I now have a boyfriend. I say this because it explains both my long absence and the sudden surge in dining out. Also, why I’m talking in first-person plural in parts of my post.

(It does not explain why I’ve gained 15+ pounds since the beginning of this year, when I was so happy to be below 150. That’s my own fault.)

—

So I’ll just dive right back into posting like nothing happened.

Today was the first day I’ve worked since September 1st. I took a much-needed vacation and it was pretty awesome. Hands down the best vacation I’ve ever had–I barely thought about work, and when I did it was to think, “Huh, I’m not thinking about work.”

Tuesday we took a trip downtown to eat lunch and visit the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. I Googled around to find a restaurant we could walk to from the museum’s parking lot. That’s how I discovered The Oakwood Cafe, Raleigh’s only Argentinian-Cuban restaurant. I ordered the marinated chicken, which was smothered in onions and came with mojo sauce on the side. I also got the kidney beans,  which were delicious, and an order of tostones, which I got just to try and probably wouldn’t order again (they were pretty bland).

But now I can say I’ve eaten at Raleigh’s only Argentinian-Cuban restaurant.

Then we went to the museum, where this pretty cool fish lives.

Fish was all up against the glass, like some sort of overly friendly aquatic dog.

We also saw this Buddha-esque frog.

The main reason we went to the museum was to see the Living Conservatory, in which are living a sloth and many butterflies, among other things. I had to take a picture of this sign…

Despite working for PPQ, I am not authorized personnel. Sad times.

Later in the day there were donuts.

It was prep for a trip to Myrtle Beach on Wednesday. We drove straight to Margaritaville to meet up with my mom, aunt, brother, and sister-in-law. (My dad hurt his back Tuesday night and wasn’t able to join us–boo.)

I went with the Cheeseburger in Paradise. Margaritaville’s good, but the burgers are huge (and overpriced)–I ended up taking a third of mine to my dad at the condo.

Thereafter there were many donuts, and lots of swimming, and a tutorial game of Shanghai rummy.

Friday the boyfriend and I hit up Woodhaven Pancake House (home of the WaffleCam). I got two pancakes, sausage…

…and an order of delicious homefries.

I ate maybe half of the pancakes and all of the sausage and homefries, and spent the rest of the day whining about how I ate too much.

We went to Barefoot Landing to do some wandering around, and I had a delicious Diet Mountain Dew.

Glass makes every drink taste better. Unless there’s glass in your drink. I can’t imagine that would make it taste better.

For dinner that night I had this delicious plate of nachos.

And that was my trip to the beach. Hurrah.

Now that I’m back from the beach, I’ve decided to go back to not eating tons of crap. I’m participating in our latest wellness challenge at work, but my goal this time is to train for my half-marathon in November, not count calories like it was before. Subsequently, I haven’t been making an effort to eat better, until today.

Tomorrow I will blog about tonight’s adventure with making primal almond butter pumpkin brownies.

Posted on May 24, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

Avocadoes and Eggs

At my post-op check-up yesterday, the surgeon seemed surprised that I wasn’t in agony (because most people with wisdom tooth extractions as complicated as mine are in agony). He said I must be tough, and I beamed like a toddler who’d just been told she was getting to be a big girl. And he also told me it was good that I don’t have any numbness because they could see my nerve around the roots of my bottom wisdom teeth.

I’m just gonna file that under “things I don’t need to know.”

Naturally, this evening while I was eating some leftover stir-fry, something popped in my jaw, and now my lower right jaw, which has been sore since yesterday’s appointment (there was irrigation and suctioning…ugh), hurts more. Will it never end? Actually, I can’t complain much; this whole experience really hasn’t been that bad.

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I fell down an Internet rabbit hole the other day and ended up on Mark’s Daily Apple, and have been voraciously reading about the paleo and primal diets ever since. This is totally what I feel like my eating habits have been progressing towards. I already know that if I eat lots of carbs I end up starving soon after, and I have to have fat/protein to feel full. I also am not a big fan of wheat and other grains, and if there’s a way of eating that says it’s cool to give them up entirely (or almost entirely, ’cause I still plan on having angel food cake for my birthday…!), I’m down with that. I also don’t really like fruit that much. So I’m understandably intrigued. I’ve got The Primal Blueprint waiting for me at the library right now and have been skimming blogs for recipes and have already tried a few.

One was this:

This? Was an explosion of awesome in my mouth. Hardboiled eggs, bacon, cherry tomatoes, and guacamole all smushed together with some pepper. It was nommy warm, and I had leftovers cold for lunch on Monday, and it was still nommy!

After my visit to the oral surgeon yesterday afternoon, I wanted something squishy to eat. So I made an omelet.

Or I was going to, but I had too many peppers/onions/mushrooms/pieces of sausage that I couldn’t fold it over. So really, I cooked three eggs into a square and topped them with deliciousness.

Also on Monday night, I decided to make  a frittata so I’d have breakfast ready to go for the next four days.

A dozen eggs, five slices of bacon, and some diced onions and mushrooms…ta-da! We have frittata (next time I’ll add cream cheese, but I had none…). I quartered it after it had cooled and wrapped each quarter in wax paper, then stacked them neatly in my fridge. This morning I ate a slab cold out of my lunch box, and I swear by the time I ate lunch at 12:45 I was barely hungry. I usually have breakfast and a snack and am still starving by 11 AM. But today I just felt a tiny bit hungry, and since I had a meeting at 1:30 PM, I went ahead and had a peach and passionfruit Liberte and this salad:

A romaine heart, a chopped-up chicken thigh, cherry tomatoes, cotswold cheese, pecans, and garlic dressing. It was majorly tasty, although I couldn’t quite eat it all.

Tomorrow’s lunch might not be quite so tasty: I’m going to try sardines for the very first time….

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I finished reading Robert Heinlein’s Double Star over the weekend. Like all the Heinlein I’ve read, it was awesome (well, okay, I didn’t think Stranger in a Strange Land was awesome…). I demand that you stop reading my blog and go read  some Heinlein!