El Gran Malo

After what feels like forever, my husband finally passed the CPA exam! He says it's been 4 years but it's really been 2 years of hard core studying. Studying for the CPA was rough on him, but it was just as rough on me. As soon as I found out he has passed, I knew we had to celebrate. You would have thought we would have gone all out, but since it was a Monday night we kept it kind of low key and went out to El Gran Malo, a local spot we have been meaning to try out. (We actually went the day they first opened but they weren't serving food yet) 

Since we went after a work out and the weather was pretty nice we choose to sit on the patio.

El Gran Malo is really known for their infused tequilas so Wesley passed up a beer and instead ordered a habanaro infused tequila margarita. It was quite spicy!

Since we were celebrating, I temporarily threw aside my paleo diet and ordered the queso. YUM! White queso is my absolute favorite.

For our main dish we ordered the tacos. I got the el pastor and Wesley got the fish tacos. The tacos were quite tasty and I especially liked how they came on fresh corn tortillas.

Before we knew it, the sun was going down and the patio became that much more enjoyable.

All in all we had a wonderful night celebrating Wesley and his awesome accomplishment. I have a feeling that we will be back to El Gran Malo in the future to enjoy the tasty margaritas and this really fun, quiet patio.

Paleo Spinach & Walnut Pesto

I know I've been a little absent on blogging and the honest reason is that the new blogger annoys me. The box I can type in is only a few lines long which makes formatting and editing a nightmare. This is something I'm just going to have to get over since it's obviously not going back. I promise, I'll try and be better.

One of my all time favorite recipes is spinach and walnut pesto with pasta and grilled chicken. Recently I've been craving this dish so I set out to recreate it paleo style. Basically I just omitted the Parmesan cheese from the pesto and subbed spaghetti squash for the pasta.

Paleo Spinach & Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

1 Package Fresh Spinach (3.5 servings)

1 Cup Walnuts

2 Medium Garlic Cloves, minced

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

Dump the walnuts into a food processor (I have the 5 cup Kitchen Aid)

Process until the walnuts are very fine.

Then you add the minced garlic and lemon juice and pulse a few times.

Set the walnut, lemon juice and garlic mixture aside. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the spinach in batches. You will cook each batch for about 20 seconds or until the spinach looks dark green and wilted.

As soon as you remove the spinach from the boiling water, place it into an ice bath.

Once you have cooked all of your spinach, you will need to squeeze it and remove as much water as possible from it.

Once you have removed the access water, add the cooked spinach into your food processor with the walnut/lemon juice/garlic combo and pules until it is combined.

That's all there is too it! Simply top your favorite pasta (or spaghetti squash) with the pesto mixture, add some grilled chicken and you're all set for a healthy dinner. Note: you can store the pesto in your fridge for a few days after making it.

Buffalo Bayou Brewing & Rockwell Tavern

A few weeks ago I officially went to my first beer dinner. It was such a fun night that I can't believe it took me so long to post about it. What's a beer dinner? It's exactly like a wine dinner where they pare each course with a different wine except with beer.

My husband loves beer dinners but more often than not he goes with his dad. Since beer dinners can be costly, I'm perfectly okay with that! As soon as Wes saw the menu for this dinner on facebook he knew I would like it. Neither of us had ever been to The Rockwell Tavern & Grill in Cypress or tried any of the beers from Buffalo Bayou Brewing so we were really in for a nice surprise. I loved how the restaurant was closed to the public and how we got to hear first hand from both the chefs and the brewers.

First Course: Watermelon Pork Salad paired with Lemon Basil Wit.
This was easily one of my favorite dishes. The saltiness of the crispy pork belly went perfect with the sweetness of the watermelon. I very easily cleaned my plate.

The Lemon Basil Wit was also one of my favorites of the night. The brewers explained that they have an ingredient inspiration board with a small category for ingredients that they deemed "impossible" to use. One of those was basil. They definitely proved that basil can work quite nicely in beer. I wish Buffalo Bayou Brewing would make this as their summer seasonal beer. It was so good that I ordered another glass of it after the whole dinner was over.

Second Course: Spicy Pineapple Shrimp paired with Thai Chili Coconut Black IPA. The spicy pineapple shrimp was the one dish I really didn't eat. Not because it wasn't good, but because I don't really like shrimp. Wes didn't hesitate at all to eat these right off my plate. He loved them.

The brewers said that their inspiration for this Black IPA was to make an IPA (Indian Pale Ale) that was constructed from ingredients found in India. While I appreciated this (and the beer) it made me laugh inside because the beer served in India is crap.

Third Course: French Onion Soup paired with Applewood Aged 1836 Copper Ale. The french onion soup was actually made with the original 1836 beer. It was a little sweet for me but that didn't stop me from eating it all :)

I wish I would have had the original to try side by side with this applewood aged version. Since I had never had it, it was hard to tell how much different this version really was. It was tasty though.

Fourth Course: Herb Crusted Prime Rib paired with Single Hop "Willamette" Pale Ale. I really enjoyed this dish and found it to be incredibly juicy and very flavorful. One thing I haven't mentioned until now was how large the portion sizes were. Wesley couldn't get over the size of them compared to the other beer dinners he has attended in the past and was very pleased.

I am not really a fan of single hop pale ales so while this beer wasn't my favorite, it was still an easy beer to drink.

Fifth Course: Mixed Berry Shortcake paired with Gingerbread Stout. This dish and beer pairing was incredible. The shortcake was gingerbread and topped with whipped cream and fresh berries. I could have easily eaten 10 more of these.

I had heard people rave about the gingerbread stout but had never had it before. It was an excellent winter beer that I hope to be able to have next holiday season.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever beer dinner and I am already stocking Rockwell Tavern's website and can't wait to see what their next beer dinner is.

Paleo Crunch

Since going back to paleo, one of my new favorites has been a recipe for Paleo Krunch that I came across through google. I could have sworn I pinned it but now I can't find the source. Luckily, I had printed out the recipe so I can share it (with my modifications) with you.

I think it's best served over a refreshing coconut milk smoothie bowl.

But it's also not too bad just served with some coconut milk.

Paleo Krunch Breakfast Cereal

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup raw honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1 cup raw slivered almonds

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325 F

Whisk first 3 ingredients in to a small bowl.

Add all dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix the wet ingredients with the dry and combine well.

On a baking sheet covered in foil, spread a thin layer of the mixture.

Plce in the oven for 10 minutes and mix around and then place back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Let it cool for 5 minutes before storing in an air tight container.

Austin 10/20 Race Recap

First of all... what is going on with this new blogger? I don't like it. Anyways, on to the real point of this post.

I have been holding off on posting my race recap for the Austin 10/20 in the hopes that I would get some good pics of myself during the race once they released the pictures. However, since my bib was annoying me in the front I turned my spi belt to the side and didn't get one picture of myself. Oh well, I'm sure they wouldn't have been very pretty anyways. So, the Austin 10/20... I don't think I ever even posted that I had signed up for this race because it was such a last minute decision for me. A bunch of people I work with were running this race and while I had been interested for awhile, I couldn't decide if I wanted to make the trek to Austin. I'm really glad I did decide to go (although that meant I did not get to go to a concert in Houston that I really wanted to see) and had a great time with some of my coworkers.

The forecast for race day looked pretty awful. I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't rain while I was running because soggy shoes don't appeal to me at all. Funny thing, during the race I actually kept hoping it WOULD rain to cool me off a bit. It was so humid that the rain would have been nice. We got a few sprinkles but that was it.

Very sweaty, post race picture. My official finish time was 2:09:23 with an average pace of 12:56. I did a little more walking than I had planned too but given the bathroom breaks and hills, I'm fine with my time.

Some of our team after the race before the storms hit.

A close up view of the medal we received once crossing the finish line. This is the first medal I have gotten from a race which was really exciting. I don't have anywhere to hang it at home so I brought it to work and hung it up at my cube.  

I think that for an Inaugural race this one went really well. It was my first Inaugural race to run but I have heard horror stores about some others. Here is a break down of how it all went:

The Good:

• Plenty of water and Gatorade stations along the race course.
• Good music along the race course.
• Ice cold towels provided to runners on the course.
• Water and fruit provided at the finish line.

The Bad:

• Not a lot of signage directing people where to go once they arrived to the race location.
• Road closures 1 hour before the race, therefore making it difficult to get to parking even though we followed the directions on the website.

The Ugly:

• The packet pick up line at Luke's Locker in Downtown Austin was just a complete mess. The main road to get to it was closed on Saturday because of an art festival and traffic was horrible. There was no where to park (I got dropped off). Because Luke's Locker closes so early, 4000 of the 6500 runners were forced to pick up their packet the Saturday before the race. The line to get your packet which wrapped completely around the building which took about an hour to get through.
• The line for the runners "free beer" after the race. The line probably had 2000 people in it so I gave up rather than wait in line.

Austin for the Weekend

Now that Wesley is home from India, we're starting to make our rounds across Texas to see friends and family who he hasn't seen since before Christmas. Up first was Austin.

My college roommate, Sarah, and Wesley's best friend both live in (or around) Austin so we always try and see them both whenever we make it to the area. After spending the night with Wesley's friends south of Austin on Friday, we all met up in South Austin for lunch before some afternoon festivities. Sarah and I both share a love of trying new restaurants so when I knew we would be free for lunch I let her pick the place, which on Saturday was Maria's Taco Xpress. Obviously I reserved Saturday lunch for my cheat meal.

Wes and I headed out and were told by his friends wife that we couldn't miss the giant lady on the roof. She wasn't kidding.

Maria's Taco Xpress was featured on the food network a few years ago and has apparently blown up since then. The covered patio was very large and perfect for such nice weather as we had on Saturday.

Since this was a cheat meal I just had to have some chips and queso. Yum!

All of the tacos Wesley and I ordered (1 fish, 2 el pastor, 1 chicken fajita)

The chicken fajita taco with a little like squeezed on top was really, really good. I could have eaten 2 more despite being so full.

After lunch we headed out to the Jester King Brewery. I had been to this brewery once before but it was when Wes was in India and I really wanted for him to go check it out. I really like how the brewery is set in a remote area and the scenery is beautiful. There are lots of picnic tables and space to spread out.

Inside of the brewery where all of the beer is served.

The tasting menu for Saturday. One thing I love about Jester King is the wide verity of beers that they make and serve at their brewery. 

The tasting glass filled with Mad Meg, my favorite beer they had that particular day. (Thrash is my all time favorite Jester King beer) 

After leaving the brewery and saying goodbye to Sarah, I headed to pick up my packet for the Austin 10/20 which I ran on Sunday (more on this later) and then went to dinner with Wes and his friends at a little hole in the wall beer bar called The Whip In. I called it an early night and was in bed by 10:00pm which was just fine with me since I had to be up at 6:00am on Sunday to head to my race. Stay tuned for my Austin 10/20 race recap.

Avery's Bucket List

One thing I love about blogging is the impact it can have on people all over the world. I know my blog is small and it may not reach hundreds of thousands of people but if today I can help raise awareness in even just one person I feel like I have done my part.

Some of our friends here in Houston have just received some devastating news about their daughter Avery who is only 5 months old. Avery has been diagnosed with SMA, an incurable genetic disease. I can't even begin to imagine what this family is going through and I think of them daily. Instead of closing themselves up this family is opening up their lives to the world in hopes that Avery's story will help to raise awareness for SMA. I am inspired by their bravery and courage as they face SMA head on and I love reading about all of the things they are doing with Avery. I'm not going to go into all of the details as you can read all about this brave family and SMA on their blog, Avery's Bucket List.

In the past 3 days they have received well over 100,000 hits to their blog and they are definitely on their way to "going viral" but they could really use your help in continuing the fight. Avery's dad Mike posted on Facebook a few days ago not to ask if you could post about Avery's story - to just do it. So I challenge all of you as bloggers to continue to share Avery's Bucket List with your readers as well.