Evie's New Food

Remember last week, I said the Vet wanted to put Evie on new food? I talked to her last week and she told me she wants Evie on a "limited ingredient diet" which means food with one protein and one carb. The other thing she said is that she wants them to be foods Evie hasn't been eating. Since her current food is chicken, this means no chicken.

She recommended the brand Wellness and I did some research. I found the line of Wellness "Simple" is for limited ingredient diets and had various proteins. Some that they offer are salmon, rabbit, whitefish, etc.

This is Evie's new food - salmon and potato. This weekend, we started giving her 75% of her old food, 25% of the new food. We will SLOWLY adjust that percentage over the next week or two to get her adjusted. Then, she will fully switch to the new food. Hopefully this helps her!

Apple Picking and Feeding Cows

On Sunday, we drove up to Petaluma to the Chilleno Valley Ranch  to go apple picking! We also got a big treat of getting to see some farm animals, too. 

There were three cows in a huge open space to roam. They came right up to the fence and were so cute. While picking apples, they asked us not to toss the cores on the ground but to feed them to the cows!

Me and a Cow

They literally ate the apple out of my hand. It was so cute....and slobbery!

 We picked a few different types of apples and can't wait to try them all

 Here's hoping we can make an apple pie or one of the other many "apple" recipes 

found on Pinterest this season

 One last shot of my cow friend licking her lips. So cute!

  The farm was pretty big with lots of big open pens. There were also a lot of goats and sheep. 

Check out how LOUD they were:

The Farm

The Farm House

 After the farm, we stopped at Petaluma Creamery for ice cream. 

Petaluma is a cute, farm town. Fun Fact - American Graffiti was filmed there!

For dinner, I made Erik's Mom's Rice & Beans recipe with grilled chicken. He said it tasted like how she makes it so I guess that means it was good!!

One thing we got accomplished this weekend was getting this print framed. Our friend Betsy gave this to us and it's a cool shot of the GG Bridge with a heart balloon over SF. We did love SF, that is for sure!

Well, what a packed weekend of errands, projects, some fun & relaxation!

Erik's Planter Box

On Saturday, while I was running my errands, Erik made a planter box. It looks great!

He made it out of 2x4 and pallet wood. 

 Here's our outdoor space...The potty patch is in the upper right corner. We want to get two chairs and matching chair pads for this area so we can sit out here and relax. Outdoor patio cushions are expensive -- the pad for the bench is going to be $50! I know it's because they have to use outdoor fabric but still! That is the going rate even on Overstock.com. Maybe I'll find a good post summer clear out price. 

I think we might stain the planter box and then Erik is going to plant an Avocado tree! Wheeeeee for home gardening!

A day of errands and Albany Taproom

Saturday started with my first New Member meeting for the Junior League. It was held in Oakland and we learned about the history of the National Jr. league, our local chapter, and what the year holds for us. I'm pretty excited! It feels like being a new Theta all over again! 

Want to hear who some famous Junior Leaguers are? Shirley Temple, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Bush, Sandra Day O'Connor.....

I came home and made us some lunch with spaghetti squash!

Spaghetti squash with ground turkey and sauce...spaghetti without the carbs! Delish!

Afterwards, I did some errands which took forever because I was looking for a)new dog food for evie b)baskets for this new bathroom storage thing c)frames for my photo wall project d)fabric for a new re-do project. All of this sent me to FIVE stores. Ugh!! I went alone so that took more time. When I have Evie in the car, I tend to rush so she's not sitting in the car(plus it was too hot for that for her yesterday!)

First to Petco, then to Joann fabrics. They had frames 50% off so I swear I was in there comparing frames forever!! Luckily, these two are in the same plaza. Aha moment at JOann's yesterday when I was looking for fabric that they did not have any more of. Save your receipts there when you buy fabric and think you might want to buy more of that same fabric. They can look up the SKU number of the fabric for you and re-order it! Wish I had my receipt right about now. 

Then to BB&B for a hot second(I hate that store & it gives me clausterphobia) and finally Target. I can't wait until my photo wall is complete. I have a grand vision for it!

To cap off the errands, I hit up Starbucks in Target. I got an iced pumpkin latte and it was delish!!

Erik also worked on a big project yesterday but I'll cover that off in a separate post. For dinner ,we tried out the Albany Taproom. The taproom is next to Grazzy Burgers and you can order some food while you're at the bar. We had beer and ordered burgers, as well. 

Photo

Here is a Buzzzzzerkeley beer that is a Belgian beer made with champagne yeast. 

Check out all of their beers on tap. 

Cool place to try new beers or beers you may not be able to get at any old bar!

Two Snaps for Friday

Friday began with this Instagram post. Who remembers "In Living Color"? It was hilarious and come on, it's where J.Lo really got her start. 

On Friday, I worked from home since I was going to be the only one in the office. I set myself in "my" spare room to work since Erik was off, too. Evie doesn't really get work from home days because she wants you to play with her most of the day. She bothered us for a little while though and then laid outside in the sun. 

After work, we had a hot date at....Home Depot. Haha. Our outdoor space is a patio lined with a garden border around it. Erik has used part of the border area for his garden but there is an area up against the sidewalk that Evie likes to go in for two reasons. Reason #1 is to bark at people on the sidewalk and reason #2 is to pee (occassionally). We want her to stop barking at people and start using this area to go the bathroom more(think late night potty when I don't want to walk her!)

Solution: Bamboo fence up against the regular fence to block her view and a roll of sod! Now Evie has her own Potty Patch. 

We'll see how this works for her. I am going to get another roll of sod for her to really make that HER corner. Also, the bamboo doesn't do exactly what we wanted. It's still pretty see through but hoping it provides somewhat of a barrier of her view. She scares people when she runs up to the fence to bark. They don't see her and suddenly she is at the fence barking. I want to get a "cute" Beware of Dog sign without completely lying to people on what is behind the fence. 

Total Lie, unless she knows you

I think this sign is a little scary

This one says there's a dog in the yard, FYI, not BEWARE!

Despite neither of us having any connection to France or being French, this one seems the softest to announce a barking dog might run up to the fence. Now...will people understand what it says!?

Anyway we wrapped up the night with burritos (I know, after no carbs mostly all week it was a big dinner for us) at Cancun. This place is good, they farm their own veggies, and have a kick ass salsa bar. 

Monkey Head and Acorn Squash

On Thursday after work, Erik and I finally went to Triple Rock Brewery for Monkey Head night. He has been wanting to do this for awhile but we haven't made it yet. Here's the 411 on Monkey Head night -

Thursdays only!
Monkey Head Arboreal Ale
Monkey head is a warming, bottle-conditioned, malty amber ale with slight hop bite and clean finish. Served cold in liter bottles. At 8.0% A.B.V. it’s great for sharing with your friends.
$9/1-liter bottle in house only. Join us Thursdays and relax.

We had some beers, some free Goldfish, and then headed home. The bar was PACKED now that school is back in session. UC Berkeley is within a 10 min walk from our house and we have noticed a ton of students around. Apparently, Olympian Missy Franklin goes to UC Berkeley! Maybe we'll see her around. 

For dinner, I cut up an acorn squash. I LOVE Squash season and am so happy it's here!! 

All I did was cut the acorn squash into rings, place on a baking sheet with some olive oil, salt & pepper. Baked it for maybe 20 min and it was done. So soft and delicious! Tonight, I think we are doing spaghetti squash - another fave!

Anyone have any good recipes for squash they want to share? Leave a link in the comments!

Here's one I saw the other day - Roasted Squash & Arugula Salad. 

Cesar Chavez Park and our new Best Friend

On Wednesday, Evie and I returned to our favorite park - Cesar Chavez. It was pretty warm out but a little cloudy but the sun was trying to peek through. I had two days of straight client meetings and Evie was antsy from being home for three days by herself so the park was a good spot for us to run around. 

 Trying to get Evie to take a picture with me but she sometimes hates it!

Random story - after the park, we stopped at the art store for something I needed for my latest project. I signed up for an Art Store member card (free! get 10% off!) and gave the guy my address to get coupons in the mail. He said to me, "Oh that is why you look so familiar to me!" Of course, I am totally surprised that anyone knows me over here because we don't know a lot of Berkeley peeps. He said that he is an artist at a little gallery down the street and has seen me with Evie. 

Hmmmmm strange/not strange/kinda creepy?? I don't know. I'm sure I'll see him around now. 

Anyway, for dinner, we had grilled chicken tacos with NO shells. Yes, that is correct. We had tacos and used romaine lettuce leaves rather than the shells for dinner. 

We have been trying to cut the carbs down and this was a good way to do so. It was really good and we didn't miss the shell. We didn't feel totally stuffed like you do after taco night sometimes. On the side, we had quinoa, our new best friend. Quinoa makes you feel like you're eating rice but you're really not. Quinoa is actually a protein so it's a carb free dinner!

Top 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Tuesday

Been so long since I did a Top 5 Tuesday! 

1. First Junior League Meeting this week

2. Still off Facebook and feeling grand! I went back for a brief moment but shut it off again. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram if you want though! !

3. So excited it's September which means we can get excited for Fall and countdown to the best Halloween movie EVER

4. We are going APPLE PICKING this weekend!!

5. Evie is feeling better

Hope you're having a good week!

Hello, Junior League!

Tonight was my first Junior League Meeting! I am really excited to join the East Bay League. We have general meetings once a month and tonight was our first of the 2013/2014 season. We heard all about upcoming events, volunteering, and heard a great speaker. I'm also really excited because Jr. League is a training organization which means they train the women in the group with leadership skills. 

Our speaker talked about the lessons learned in the book "How Full Is Your Bucket?" Essentially, every day we choose to fill ours or someone else's bucket. You can fill a bucket by having a positive attitude, giving a compliment, listening closely to a friend, etc. 

You can TIP someone's bucket by gossiping, being rude, raising your voice, not listening, etc. 

How often do you try to FILL someone's bucket v. tip it? 

We also learned that everyone responds better to positive interactions vs. negative ones. Those positive interactions stick with us and we remember them often. Think of the last time someone praised you, complimented you, etc. The negative ones stick with us too, in a bad way. The more people don't listen, raise their voice, tell you what you've done wrong, the lower your self esteem goes. 

One big thing I took away from the speaker was how to NOT tip someone's bucket and that is by "Pressing Pause" When you want to say something mean, be sarcastic in the wrong time, gossip, etc....Press Pause and really think about what you are about to do. It aligns well with something I saw awhile ago and try to think of often. 

I also saw a new friend that I met at the Jr. League mixer a few weeks back so it was nice to see her. I also met a woman who owns her own shop where she sells FURNITURE SHE HAS REFURNISHED. I was like, "Oh I pick up furniture on the street and re-do it." hahaha. 

Anyway, great Tuesday!

Turkey & Spinach Quinoa

I made this DELICIOUS dinner the other night -  Turkey & Spinach Quinoa Casserole. Uhhhh---make this! It was SO good and the quinoa makes it no carb essentially! Some edits - I did NOT have any tomatoes so I subsituted with a chopped red pepper and a zuccini. Also, didn't add the thyme or basil just some salt & pepper. So good. It made leftovers which is even better!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry quinoa
• 2 lbs extra lean ground turkey
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 medium garlic cloves, crushed
• 4-5 large handfuls spinach, chopped
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• 3 cups light cheddar or mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 tsp thyme, dry
• 2 tsp basil, dry
• Salt & ground black pepper to taste
• Cooking spray
• Green onions and diced tomatoes for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Cook quinoa as per package instructions and undercook by 4 minutes. Add to a large mixing bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F degrees and spray 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Preheat skillet on medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Add turkey and sautee for 5 minutes breaking into pieces with the spatula. Drain the excess liquid and add to the bowl with quinoa.
4. Return skillet to the heat and spray with cooking spray again. Add garlic and onions, and fry until golden brown. Add spinach and sauté until it's wilted. Transfer to a bowl with quinoa and turkey.
5. Into the same bowl, add tomato sauce, bread crumbs, 2 cups of cheese, thyme, basil, salt and ground pepper to taste. Mix enough to combine.
6. Transfer the mixture in a baking dish, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese and bake for 25 minutes. Serve immediately, no need to let the casserole cool down.
7. Optional: sprinkle with diced tomatoes, green onions, a dollop of Greek yogurt or salsa.
Storing Instructions: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Freeze divided into individual portions, in an air tight container for up to 1 month.

Nutritional Info

Servings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving = 2 cups:
Calories: 294.4
Total Fat: 5.4 g
Cholesterol: 35.9 mg
Sodium: 607.9 mg
Total Carbs: 30.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.9 g
Protein: 30.4 g
WW Points+: 7

In other recipe news, I haven't been making too many recipes lately. We have been using our grill and making basic dinners like grilled chicken and veggies. We loving grilling out, especially with the warm weather!

So our TV is still messed up. This is how I watched Drop Dead Diva while playing with Evie on Monday night. Pretty funny. We are checking to see if our TV has a warranty on it since we only got it in 2009. 

Since I could barely see my show, I took a punch of pictures of Evie playing because I thought she looked super cute. She is also doing MUCH better in the bathroom department. She is back on regular food but I am talking to the Vet this week to determine what food we should switch her to, to avoid this from happening again.