• Home
• Me & Food
• Recipes
• Blogroll!

RSS

Archive for the ‘Puppy’ Category

Family Time Finally!

I mentioned somewhat briefly before that my parents were here last weekend (Friday – Tuesday) and that we had a great time.  This was really just brushing over the entire weekend, which included a TON of eating at new places, hanging out with my mom and dad and Santana being adorably excited to see them.  I was waiting to post any details about the weekend until I got the pictures my dad took.  I wanted to share some of the great shots he got (luckily, we had mostly pretty nice weather).

When my folks got in on Friday, they were exhausted from flying across country all day, so we got lunch at Macaroni Grill and crashed at home and played with Santana until Matt got home.  After my parents went to their hotel in the U-district, Matt and I got a fast dinner and crashed for the night.  A very very uneventful first evening in Seattle.

Saturday was a completely different story! Since my parents’ hotel is located directly next to one of our favorite breakfast places, we splurged (way expensive and HUGE portions) on a fun Saturday breakfast/brunch. 

Portage Bay

Portage Bay is really amazingly wonderful, and it shows in their food.  Their philosophy “Eat like you give a damn”, is seen in their great local, organic, DELICIOUS breakfast choices (we’ve never been for lunch). My dad ordered Banana Foster French Toast, my mom went with a Pork and Apple stuffed omelet and Matt and I shared one of the best omelets I’ve had in a while: Greek Omelet. Pepper bacon, herb-roasted organic onions, organic baby spinach, Greek myzythra cheese, basil pistou. YUM!  It came with their roasted potatoes, which are addictingly wonderful.  We took Dori and her mom here when they were in town, and of course they loved it! We’ve actually only been a few times, since it is such a splurge (and a long wait on the weekends), but if you want to impress visitors in Seattle (or to be impressed if you’re visiting yourself), head to the U-district Portage Bay.  They have a 2nd location on South Lake Union, but we haven’t tried that one yet. 

After breakfast, we crashed at our apartment for a bit again, and I taught my mom and dad how to play Wii bowling.  This was probably one of my favorite parts of their visit because it felt a lot like being home as we got competitive and joking around with each other while we were playing.  Also, my dad is amazing at Wii bowling!! He is extremely particular and precise about things, so once he figured out how to line up the shot, he did really great! In his first time ever playing! Way to go dad!

After relaxing for a while, we headed to Woodinville to visit the Red Hook Ale Brewery.  So fun!  They have a tour there that costs $1 per person…it includes the tour (obviously), plus a mini taster glass, and the equivalent of at least 2 pints of beer samples! I don’t really drink beer (although I tasted all of them from Matt’s glass), but I know when I hear a good deal! $1 just for the little glass (which will be perfect for mini-cocktails) is a good deal, but we also got some fun info about Red Hook’s history and the making of beer in general.  The tour itself was held primarily in a large room with a bar and tap setup.  This is really the only feasible way for them to give the tour to 60-80 people at one time, and it worked pretty well.  Our tour guide (Valerie), was really funny and called some annoying people out for talking the whole time (they eventually snuck out).  Definitely another place to go when visiting the Seattle area, especially if you are a fan of beer!  

My dad got a picture of the outside of the tour/gift shop/restaurant entryway (and Matt and I waiting patiently for our tour)

After the tour, we sat down in The Forecasters Pub, located in the Brewery, for dinner.  My dad got a really yummy chili, my mom had a southwest-type salad, and Matt and I split a pasta dish we weren’t crazy about.  It’s bar food and if we had been in the mood for burgers or something, I probably would have been more impressed, but I was starving by this point, so anything was good. My dad got more pictures!

Sunday was GORGEOUS.  The sun was shining and it wasn’t raining…we took advantage of the weather and the four of us walked with Santana up to the 74th Street Ale House.  We weren’t planning on stopping there, but we were all getting hungry after poking our heads in little stores along the way and working up an appetite.  Since it was so nice, we grabbed two outdoor tables and tied Santana next to us.  She fussed the entire time, but I fed her some of my mom’s potato chips and she was pleased.  She loves to snack just like I do! 

My dad got the blackened salmon sandwich and my mom had a Reuben (there was an article taped to the window saying that this was the best Reuben in Seattle!). 

Matt and I split a soup and salad combo, with caesar salad and the 74th St Gumbo.  From their website:

Based on an old New Orleans recipe, we feel this is the best Gumbo anywhere. "Hot and Spicy", it consists of baby shrimp, roasted chicken, fresh Cascioppo Brothers andouille sausage, onions, tomatoes and green peppers. Served on a bed of "Dirty Rice" and garnished with pickled okra. Accompanied by freshed sliced Essential Bakery rustic white bread.

It was pretty yummy, with a nice spice to it.  I also stole a bunch of my mom chips (for me and Santana).  A great lunch!

My parents were really full, and still on East coast time.  So Matt and I were on our own for dinner and got a quickie rotisserie chicken and had macaroni AND potato salad on the side (my mom and I spent the afternoon making these…LOVE comfort food from home!)

While we were walking, my dad took some pictures of the area:

        

On Monday, Matt had to work and I took a vacation day to show my folks Pike Place Market.  Even though it was not as busy as it would have been on the weekend, it was still pretty packed.  We didn’t stay long, but my dad took lots of pictures and we ate at Lowell’s in the market, where all three of us had Lowell’s Famous Fish & Chips – 4 Pieces of Hand Breaded Alaskan Cod, Fried Golden and Served with Cole Slaw and French Fries, Tartar Sauce and Lemon Wedges.  Malt Vinegar on the Side. Very crunchy and tasty ! But a huge meal! 

The highway right next to the market.

Me glaring at and my mom ignoring my dad’s picture attempts.

Park sleepers                     

Lots of color in the market…  

     

            As you can see, my mom and I are not amused by the idea of standing in the middle of the road for a picture with the Pike Place sign.  I normally complain about people doing this when I’m down there!

Since their flight was leaving super early Tuesday morning, we took them to a hotel by the airport Monday after Matt got home, and Matt and I just had sandwiches for dinner later that night. 

Such a great weekend!  Santana was super excited to see them, and got just as excited each day when they came back over!  I hadn’t seen my mom since last June and my dad since August…the longest I’ve ever gone without being home, so it was such a nice, relaxing weekend to have them here.  I can’t wait until I get to head back to NY for a visit!

Click over to Santana’s blog post about the weekend to see the adorable puppy pictures my dad took!

…Again

 

Still in Oregon…at least today’s fair was only 15 minutes from my hotel, so no crazy morning driving like the last couple days!  Yesterday’s lunch was SO GOOD (for a catered lunch at a university anyway).  Veggie trays, salad, Black Bean Corn Fiesta Rice, 5 choices of wraps (I chose chicken Caesar, because I’m predictable), cookie trays, lots of drink choices! Yum! The wrap was one of the best chicken Caesar wraps I’ve had….it was basically a chicken salad type filling, made with Caesar dressing instead of mayo, with some onions, and wrapped with some really nice red leaf lettuce, all on a tomato wrap.  So good! I spread my lunch out throughout the day because the fair was 6 freakin’ hours long.  I got some work emails answered and other random things done in the chunks of time when I wasn’t talking to prospects, so it was a pretty productive and yummy 6 hours all around.

Because I had the salad and the wrap for lunch, I wasn’t in the mood for a sandwich or salad from the organic place next to the hotel, so I walked 15 minutes or so down the road to a Mexican restaurant.  I munched on chips and salsa and ordered a small combination plate with an enchilada and tamale along with rice and beans.  Decent Mexican, not the best, not the worst.  Very satisfying.  I also ordered a small melon margarita…YUM! Piece of advice: DO NOT HAVE A FILLING MEXICAN MEAL AND A MARGARITA KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE TO WALK AFTERWARDS!  It wasn’t a long walk, and I called Matt on the way, but it was hot and my tummy was full, and I just wanted to be back in the hotel resting!

A very serious matter:  Missy, over at Missy Maintains, is having a Big S Farms Salsa recipe contest and I entered! Go now and vote for your favorite!! (if you can’t choose a favorite, just vote for me, it will be ok, I promise)

Also don’t forget to enter Dori’s doormat giveaway!

Are any of you looking for afghans?? It might be getting warm now, but think of how chilly you get in the middle of January!  Well, my mom crochets like a fiend and makes tons and tons of afghans…she constantly has at least 2 or 3 going.  Anyway, I showed her the Etsy website and she put some of her afghans up for sale.  Guys, I have SO many afghans right now.  They’re amazing and they last for a long time (unless you give them to Santana, who digs digs digs them and they get full of puppy fur).  She is still working on getting her Etsy shop all set up, so it’s bare bones basics with pictures of the afghans she already has done right now, but more to come! So if you’re looking for a homemade gift or a cuddly throw for your own couch, show my mom some love!

Some contests you should check out for Earth Day celebration:

Danica’s Daily’s Annie’s Naturals Dressings Giveaway (three winners!!!)

Run to the Finish is giving away Baumann’s products (YUM!)

Carrots ‘N’ Cake’s Stonyfield Giveaway!

Cooking with Amy’s Scanpan and cookbook giveaway!

Matzah Brie, Passover/Easter dinner, and Dying Eggs!

Happy Passover/Easter/Earth Day/Any other reason to celebrate! Yay!

My big editing job is D-O-N-E DONE! HOORAY! I have a couple tiny things to finish up with it, but the deadline was Sunday night, and I felt like I was back in grad school working on that all weekend.  But now it’s finished and I feel GREAT! Tonight has been ridiculously relaxing after a hectic day at work, and I had no idea how restful it would be to come home and not have editing work to do!  I spent the night making egg salad for dinner, finishing up my nut butter cups for the blogger bake sale high bidder and doing other little chores, but to not have the huge editing project hanging over my head was amazing!

I have a few things I want to post, since I’ve been a bit behind in updating and keeping on top of some of the fun recipes we’ve been trying.  But to celebrate the holiday weekend, you get our Passover/Easter weekend food! 

I splurged and bought lamb from Whole Foods for our Saturday night dinner because Matt and I are huge lamb fans and we don’t usually spend extra money on meat for cooking at home (I dream of a day when I can buy half a cow from a farmer and have a huge freezer to store it all away). 

We had also gotten a bunch of Red Swiss Chard in our CSA box last week and have been trying to think of ways to use it.  I’m usually wary of greens…I have never been a big fan of collard greens or other dark greens when they’re just sautéed or served on their own as a side dish.  But, some things I read online about it made me think maybe I wanted to revisit greens. 

Earlier in the week, we had used the stems from the chard in a soup (recipe to come!), so we washed and chopped the leaves, which are absolutely gorgeous.  I love the bright vibrant colors that you can find in fruits and vegetables. 

I decided to jump right into the experiment and just sauté the chopped chard with some olive oil and garlic…..I was skeptical the whole time.

For the lamb, we trimmed off some fat, crushed a couple pieces of matzah, mixed it with some parsley, and coated the lamb.

We pan fried this for a couple minutes on each side and then threw it in a 400 degree oven until it reached 145 degrees internally (medium rare-ish).  After we pulled it out, we covered it and let it rest while I finished up the greens and our other side dish. 

We served the meat with the sautéed chard and some mashed potatoes (made with some seasoned chicken broth, salt, pepper, and parsley…no dairy!).  The leftover potatoes were made into potato cakes the next night to go with the leftover soup from the earlier meal mentioned above! Leftovers all around!!

The lamb was a little less done than we had planned, but amazing anyway.  Lamb is one of the few meats I can eat when it is this pink.  YUM.  The potatoes were super flavorful and went really well with the meat.  Matt liked the chard and cleaned his plate, but I couldn’t do it…the flavor wasn’t there for me, but I think it really comes down to the texture and temperature of greens cooked like this.  They’re too slimy and soft for me, plus they never seem to be hot…the chard was the last thing to come off the stove for this meal, and yet when I sat down to eat it was already cold…cold and slimy? Not my thing.  But the rest of dinner was so good! And look how pretty it is!

Sunday morning we made one of Matt’s favorites…matzah brie!! (Pronounced “BRY” not “BREE”…there is no yummy gooey cheese involved in this dish, sad to say).  It’s basically french toast made with matzah.  We added lots of cinnamon and dipped it in syrup! Mmmm! We also tried to be somewhat healthy and share an orange, but the orange we had was flavorless and just tasted like slightly orange-flavored water.  Blech.

 

In the afternoon, I took another quick break from editing to teach Matt some fun things about Easter (I had no time to make Easter baskets for us this year 🙁 booo.)  Matt is horribly disgusted by the smell of vinegar, so we used lemon juice instead…vinegar would have made brighter colors, but no one was gagging at least! The green, blue, yellow, and orange were decently bright, but the pink was super disappointing! I was looking forward to some bright bright pink eggs! The swirly green one is my favorite! 🙂

I look like a monster attacking the camera with my huge hands in this picture, but I had to post it because you can see Santana popping her head up in the background! She wanted to help SO badly!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and Passover!  More recipes and yumminess to come soon!

Bar Review 2/5

Blah Tuesday! I called it!! I am exhausted and had a super long day.  Thankfully I had an energy bar to give me a kick in the butt this afternoon! Tomorrow: Bake Sale update, Apple Bread, and maybe some other random fun things. 

If you’re looking for some additional reading in the meantime, check out Santana’s review of her new Kong toy…she loves it!

Today’s Bar: Blueberry Crisp Energy Bar by Clif Bar

Package Goodies: Made with Organic Oats & Soybeans, Good source of protein, No Trans Fat, All Natural (which means zip on packaging, but still sounds nice), 70% Organic Ingredients…and a zillion other things about how great it is Ingredient List: Ingredients: Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Rolled Oats, Blueberry Fruit Pieces (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Blueberry Puree Concentrate, Brown Rice Syrup, Pectin, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Natural Flavor), Organic Toasted Oats (Organic Oats, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice), Organic Dry Roasted Almonds, ClifCrunch® (Organic Oat Fiber, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Organic Milled Flaxseed, Organic Oat Bran, Psyllium), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Blueberries (Blueberries, Apple Juice Concentrate), Organic Date Paste, Almond Butter, Organic Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt, Citric Acid. The list of ingredients is LONG, but they’re all pretty wholesome and nutritious. You could taste the variety of things going on in there! The Verdict: Sweet and satisfying! I needed something filling today for a mid-afternoon snack. After work I am swinging had a 2 hour training that didn’t get out until 7:30 tonight. I knew I’d be STARVING if I didn’t have a good snack in the afternoon, and this Clif Bar really hit the spot. I would have liked it just a bit better if it had a more coarse texture…bigger pieces of oats and nuts and things. Overall, though, it was really good…chewy and sticky and crunchy all at once. I did get a couple big chunks of Almonds…YUM!

The Late Late Post

I haven’t posted since last Thursday! Yikes!! I feel like it has been a crazy few days between work, fun and more work, but there are a few delicious and random things to blog about, so it was all worth it 🙂

As I mentioned before, I am working on an editing project on the side and that is definitely taking up a lot of my time (and the piles of junk around the apartment are evidence of this). I really enjoy editing because it gives me a chance to put to use the organizational side of things…I love to research, write and edit my own papers, but when someone else has done the writing, I can step back and just sort of put together the puzzle and try to untangle the lines of argument and help the writer figure out the best way to organize their ideas. I have spent the last 7 years or so editing papers for some of my best friends, which is tons of fun!! Now that I am getting paid for this particular bunch of editing, it makes it feel like a real job and like I am actually putting my English MA to work! Hooray! It is still time-consuming, especially because it was sprung on me with somewhat short notice, so I spent a lot of time this weekend curled up on the couch with two colored pens, a big quilt, and a puppy sleeping on my lap. I felt like I was back in grad school…and it made me very glad that I was NOT still in grad school. It’s nice to be able to leave work at the end of the day, leave the pile of papers on my desk and not worry about them again until the next morning.

We also managed to get some fun in…we went to the gym on Sunday for some random weight training and swimming. The highlight of our weekend was actually Friday night when we went to the Showbox Downtown to see Blue October. The opening band was mostly annoying, too loud and a little too scream-y for my tastes, but Blue October was AMAZING. If you are a fan of them at all, I definitely would recommend seeing them live…the put on a great show and they played their entire new album which was just released really recently. In my experience, bands have usually played a mix of old and new stuff, but we got a wonderful taste of exactly what the album felt like before the played the older, recognizable songs. It was different for me, but really wonderful…we went out and bought the CD on Sunday!

A note to the two people who randomly met at the show and then proceeded to intensely make out in front of everyone through most of the songs: Was it really necessary to have your hands in each other’s pants in the middle of the concert?? I hope you enjoyed the rest of your evening in whatever way you saw fit, but some of us were facing forward and could not see past your groping. In the future, it would be greatly appreciated if you could relegate yourselves to some shady corner. Thanks!

Our original plans for Saturday included getting up early, heading to the gym, running errands downtown, being super productive. Our actual activities included sleeping in late, watching some Netflix with breakfast, trying to get the pile of dishes down in the sink, spending way too much money at Walgreens and Whole Foods, making dinner (see below), and watching more Netflix on the couch before bed. I also threw in some editing and cuddling with Santana. Not so productive, and definitely less active than originally planned, but we were exhausted so we went with it.

THE FOOD

Friday night, before the show, we went to one of Tom Douglas’s restaurants, Serious Pie. We have had this on our list of places to try ever since Matt moved up here. Serious Pie is basically a fancy pizza place. They have fresh ingredients, just a few pizzas to choose from, and a really small but cute atmosphere. We shared two pizzas—the buffalo mozzarella and san marzano tomato with basil (delicious, perfect thin crust, simple and addicting) and the guanciale (pancetta-type meat made from the cheek of the pig), soft egg, and dandelion greens (same amazing crust, ridiculously fresh-tasting runny egg, addictingly-salty pork product and a really fun treat). We decided it was a fun night on the town and also went for the panna cotta with blood orange for dessert. Panna cotta is one of my favorite desserts because it is smooth and creamy and usually not completely overwhelming. Serious Pie’s was a really great one and the blood orange was a great complement to the sweetness of the cream and sugar. Yum! Thumbs up for Serious Pie!

Saturday morning/early afternoon, when we finally crawled out of bed, I made breakfast burritos!! I am be  coming addicted to these things, so I thought I’d make them at home instead of dragging us out to breakfast since we had all the ingredients on hand. I filled spinach wraps with salsa, sour cream, center cut bacon, soft scrambled eggs, shredded cheddar, and an onion/garlic/pinto bean sauté…perfect breakfast/brunch for a lazy morning.

Since we had such a late breakfast, we skipped lunch and snacked to hold us over until dinner. Since I made a run to Whole Foods, I filled up on samples (chicken sausage, grapefruit, and other random yummies) and we shared some chips and organic fruit snacks while I was editing on the couch.

Saturday night was a semi-repeat of an Indian dish we’ve tried before: Major Grey’s Chicken. This time we had two mangoes on hand so we added those to the chutney to give it a little fresher taste…it worked out really well and made a TON of chicken (leftovers for today’s lunch!).

I have never seen mangoes like this before, but they seemed really similar to the typical ones I normally find and they were really the perfect amount of fresh fruit to add to our chutney.   

  

This time we also avoided any horrible side-dish recipes and just made stir-fried chick peas and onions with curry powder. Simple and yummy if a bit dry…next time maybe we’ll add some stock to steam them off at first. We also used our rice cooker for the first time to make some basmati rice which we added green onions to. I had a mini-breakdown and felt like a complete failure because even with a rice cooker, my rice got destroyed!! We had to make a second batch, and that one was not even close to perfect, but was at least edible. The rice we had in the cupboard was a brown basmati, so I am wondering if the measurements included with the rice cooker threw us off…they had three times listed: soft oriental rice, basmati rice, and brown rice. I had basmati brown rice…I had no idea which to use and flipped out a bit. Next time we’re trying regular white rice…I may be cursed when it comes to rice, just FYI. It was especially frustrating because dinner was running late and it was nearly 9pm by the time we sat down to eat!

It all turned out delicious though, so I am done being frustrated (until the next rice adventure).

Since we were running super late for dinner, we had an adventurous appetizer of steamed artichoke with a butter sauce. Neither of us have had artichoke like this. I love artichoke hearts in pasta dishes or in creamed soups, but I’ve never pulled off the leaves and scraped off the tiny bit of meat at the end. I think I overcooked them, and our butter sauce didn’t turn out very spectacular, but I thought it was fun and didn’t dislike it. I’ll definitely try again and maybe even order it in a restaurant (food is sometimes just more fun if you don’t have to prepare it). Matt wasn’t a very big fan even though he really wanted to enjoy the fun of picking the leaves! I was sad he didn’t enjoy it, but since we had a yummy dinner on the way, it wasn’t that much of a disappointment! Yay for new veggies! Here are some pictures of the artichoke massacre!

Sunday morning we actually got up at a reasonable time and I made ham and cheese omelets! There are no pictures from Sunday…partly because the omelets were a falling-apart (but delicious) mess, and partly because the camera was probably buried under all the piles of junk in our apartment. We had a much more productive day on Sunday, ran some errands, went to the gym, got work done…quite wonderful. For lunch before the gym we made turkey caesar wraps and some chips (which I had bought on a whim because they were on sale at Walgreens the previous day!!). Yummy and a nice not-too-heavy meal before swimming!

For dinner we took a risk and tried a new Chinese restaurant. We have had a hell of a time trying to find a good, cheap, takeout place around here and it is getting pretty frustrating…apparently Seattle has never heard of Lo Mein! The yummy (but a little pricey) place across the street from us has a noodle dish similar to lo mein, but it isn’t called that, and no place else that we’ve tried even comes close. Help!!

Anyway, the last time we tried a new Chinese place, it was the WORST experience of our lives. Most unsatisfying meal ever! Matt joined Yelp just to give this place a bad review.  Since Yen Wor Garden, we have been really hesitant, but last night we went to Szechuan Bistro in Greenwood, based mostly on Yelp reviews and location. Great choice!! Not only was it decently priced, it was really delicious!! We got a standard Sesame Chicken to figure out if this is going to be a good place when we are having late-night Chinese cravings and some fried dumplings because we are suckers. Both really really good…definitely not the best ever, but way better than most of what I’ve tried since moving to Seattle. I especially liked the dumplings because they had very thin wrappers on them instead of the thick doughy dumplings that some places have. Matt prefers the thicker dough, but I like the crispiness and meat to dough proportion of these ones. We planned for leftovers and got a second entrée: Sizzling Plate with Hand Shaven Noodles and Beef. Here’s a list to summarize this dish:

• I love things that sizzle!!
• The wonderful woman serving us brought out a super-hot cast iron pan in the shape of a cow (not a hippo, as I first thought) with sliced onions on it and a bowl of noodles, sauce, veggies, and beef and then the noodle mixture got poured onto the hot plate…SIZZLE!
• The sauce had a really mild flavor but a nice spice. It was a really interesting combo and let the noodles shine.
• The noodles!!! How amazing…hand shaven! This is obviously a huge part of this restaurant because they have it written in big letters on their window to draw people in. And they are yummy!! They are a bit thicker than regular noodles so they have a nice bite to them, but aren’t so thick that they’re gummy or too chewy. Very very satisfying
• The beef was not as good as Chef Liao’s (the place across the street from us), but compared to some other beef I’ve had from Chinese restaurants, not bad! And very flavorful!

All three of the items we ordered were delicious and went well together…plus, it was all ready and served to us in less than 10 minutes…crazy fast. Granted, no one else was in there at the time (I think it’s more of a lunch place), but SO fast! It is definitely a place I’d order take out from (free delivery!) if I was craving Chinese.

Tonight we had Open-Faced Bagel Sandwiches for dinner!  Toasted bagel, one slice of cheese, some super thin and crispy bacon and a runny egg! This was a super satisfying break during all the editing I was doing tonight!

   

We’re still planning butternut squash ravioli and an exciting secret meal that Matt and I invented last year and will be featured as a guest post on Dori’s blog! Stay tuned!

Random thing I just thought of: Stay Tuned is the name of an old movie my brother and I used to watch all the time…this family gets this crazy satellite dish and it turns out it actually sucks people into this world of television where they have to survive and everyone always dies because there’s some evil plot going on, and this couple (whose marriage is failing at the beginning of the movie) beat the system, escape from the tv and reignite the flame of their relationship! Awesome! For some reason I associate it with Mom and Dad Save the World—maybe we had them on the same tape?? Also, no one seems to know of these movies when I mention them!! I miss watching horrible movies with my brother!

Also, enter some contests! It’s fun! And possibly very rewarding!

– Kelly at Every Gym’s Nightmare is giving away a Gaiam Back Support! Wow! This is a super exciting giveaway and I would LOVE one of these to wear during the day…my lower back has always been a trouble spot and I am working on being really conscious of how I sit, stand and move!

– Cover up your Gaiam Back Support with an adorable tshirt from Strawberry Shortstuff. Diana is giving this away to celebrate 100ish blog posts! Hooray Diana!