Wellness Wednesday

The past few weeks I have been trying to eat healthier in addition to working out. Since I am not a huge fan of meat, I have great difficulty finding other sources of protein. My roommates make fun of me every time we go to the supermarket because my list is completed when we hit the produce section. Last night I tried a recipe from Tasty Yummies that involved cannellini beans, high in protein and fiber, low in fat! The dish was delicious and very filling!

Photo from Tasty Yummies

White Bean and Avocado Salad
serves 2-4 (depending on how you are serving it)

1 can of cannellini beans
1 avocado diced
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
4 or 5 green onions, chopped
juice from 1/2 lime
salt
fresh ground pepper
2 T olive oil
handful grape tomatoes, halved

Poppin' bottles

September has been a month full of birthday celebrations! This weekend I celebrated my sister, Heather’s 26^th birthday. It has been a tradition of ours to celebrate her birthday along with the life of a lost loved one. Three years ago, (on Heather’s birthday) our neighbor and brother’s best friend Eliot passed away in a tragic hiking accident in Jackson Hole WY. Eliot was a free spirit who traveled around the world to fulfill his love of people, culture and adventure. Since his passing we have incorporated his passion for travel, good friends and wine into Heather’s birthday celebrations, by asking every friend attending our family-style dinner to bring a wine from different regions around the world. This year we had presence from California, New Jersey, Virginia, Africa, Australia, France, Italy and South America.

Eliot Ramsey Kalmbach- Always in our hearts!

For dinner I cooked shrimp linguine (Heather’s favorite!), roasted eggplant, asparagus, salad, prosciutto & fig flatbread (based on Founding Farmer’s flatbread). We soon headed out to DuPont Circle’s Dirty Bar where we danced the night away (on tables and couches!) and drank a few bottles of champagne (R.I.P savings account).

From Left: Aly, Heather, Me and Jordan

Dancing around our table!

Happy Birthday to my big sister and best friend!

Sunday morning we went to Eastern Market to do a little shopping and got brunch at Boxcar Tavern. Here’s Heather with her “Hobo’s Feast”. Next weekend our brother Brian is coming into town from Philadelphia, can’t wait to show him what this city has to offer (maybe he’ll be persuaded to move down here with us!)

Birthday bash in the city

Happy Hump Day! This weekend I celebrated my 24^th birthday with many friends! We kicked off the weekend by having a few cocktails at Founding Farmers, which is my favorite place to go for all sorts of occasions! Founding Farmers is a unique restaurant because it is sustainable, certified green and promotes buying food straight from the farmers! While I was there I had the Ward 8, made with Founding Farmers Rye (they have a distillery in Virginia), oranges, lemon juice and homemade grenadine.

Saturday we headed to the H Street Festival, which is right down the street from where I live in NOMA. There we danced to live music, ate Ben’s Chili Bowl chili and made a pit stop at The Liberty Tree to have a few beers (a few birthday shots as well!) Saturday night we enjoyed our dinner at Cava Mezze near Eastern Market. I tried the Hendricks Gin Cucumber Martini which was FABULOUS. I typically don’t like gin or martinis but this cocktail was perfect. My other roommates tried the cucumber-jalapeño margarita, which surprisingly was very tasty. Since Cava Mezze is a greek tapas, we tried a lot of items and had fun sharing. My favorite dish was the roasted eggplant (almost like a hummus), and the mini gyros. We ended the night by having friends over to house and then spent the night in DuPont Circle.

My best friends Chelsea and Kathleen with me at Public Bar in DuPont Circle.

Sunday morning, although extremely spent from the previous evening, we made it to our brunch reservation at Logan Tavern in Logan circle. They have the BEST Bloody Mary menu; you actually are able to pick all the ingredients!

Heather, my sister and roommate, will be celebrating her 26th birthday this weekend…stay tuned!

Dating in the city

Nearly every week Facebook loves to remind me that someone I know has gotten engaged or married. I know I am at the younger side of the spectrum to begin thinking about marriage; however I can't help but feel a certain pressure when these status changes happen! Considering I was in relationships a good bit of my college life, it has been eye opening and difficult to dive into the real world dating scene. There are so many politics and mind games that I was never aware of...Is it supposed to be this tricky? Questions that have come up:

• What is involved in a proper first date? (location, activities etc.) 
• Can a girl initiate a second date? When I asked friends the answer was NO across the board. 
• Which sex initiates in the online space?
• How long does one wait to correspond after a date?

Today my friend let me in on a new secret. It is a dating service called Grouper. This is an invite only social club that brings together 2 groups (3 guys and 3 girls) on a group date. The company pays for the groups first round of drinks in order to set everyone at ease. Considering I have never done online dating,  Craigslist missed connections (just learned about this the other week...I was shocked people do this), blind dating etc. I was slightly scared/turned off by this idea.  However I think it could be a great experience for me to break out of my shell and live the single life, and let's be real I'm sure great stories to share with my girlfriends after!

Labor Day Weekend

Today I returned from vacation bliss, a little thing called Labor Day weekend. This year I went down to Avalon, NJ where my family has a beach home. I was able to spend quality time with family members, including meeting my new baby cousin, Kiera who is from New Zealand so it was a special treat! Although I had a wonderful time relaxing, tanning and eating totally unhealthy, I am ready to come back to normal everyday life! Below is a picture from our family dinner at Aunt Bett's.

Check out that view!

From left: Me, Kelly (Aunt Bett's Granddaughter, my sister Heather)