Happy Friyay! This month has truly been a whirlwind! We started off the month celebrating our anniversary in Bonnet Creek and coming off the extreme wunderlust of July. Now, this month has been filled with adventure and extravagance (in my opinion) in my favorite place ever - South Tampa! This month I got a chance to visit some local markets which is popular in Tampa. The idea of buying fresh, local, and supporting local farmers is a huge deal to me as well as a lot of people. I am actually starting our with the market in Hyde Park Village which is closest to me. I have been wanting to go tot this market for about 3 years now and I finally got to do it. There wasn't much fresh produce as I hoped, but more of local businesses selling their handmade items; so I got dem babies some scarfs. Hopefully I will be able to update this post later this week with some details on another market near me happening Saturday and Sunday.
 |
| Local market Hyde Park Village |
 |
| Yue in her new bed |
 |
| The Tampa postcard mural |
On our way to the latest festival we stopped by an area of downtown Tampa to get some photos in front of the Tampa Postcard Mural. This is a truly vibrant and beautiful mural and if you are in Tampa this is a must see. Tampa is home to many murals as well as St. Pete. This festival we visited was in historic Ybor City and it was the Taco and Watermelon festival. That sounds like a random combo right? It was too hot for all that that day though!
FITNESS:
This month's fitness has been crazy since I got back from vacation. Even when I eat as healthy as possible on vacation and stay with mostly the same diet (gluten free, organic, 80% vegetarian) I still gain weight. So, I had to jump on the scale and see just where I was at when I got home which was about a ten pound gain. The scale and I have never gotten along because 1. I retain about 8 pounds of water all the time and 2. Ever since I started strength training I have more muscle mass now than I did when I was doing cardio only so I basically weigh more, but I am not sure what more is my natural weight if that makes sense.
I did want to update you all on my fitness routine though because its been the same for a while, but I feel like I never talked much about it. I used to be a cardio only girl and big on counting calories. As of next month it will be 2 years since I started this strength training workout, yoga, and pilates only (I still count calories though). So I am completely avoiding running on the treadmill like the plague. I actually got smaller which is shocking because I am already a size 0, but I gained weight because I got more muscular. So, it has been an interesting journey because without doing the cardio its harder to keep my problem area in check, my flanks. It's the one place that my body just loves to store fat!
As for diet, it hasn't changed. Its still heavy in protein, but I don't eat a lot of meat or carbs. Its like a complete 360 from 5 years ago. Anyhow, I have been pretty lax with my workouts all summer so I am going to be focusing on my back and arms more as a fall fitness goal. And yep, I do need to loose 5 pounds, I am down 5 since I returned home fortunately.
I tried a lot of new yoga moves this month and I just kind of felt like at least the last month of July I probably didn't push myself hard enough and trying new and harder moves always pushes me.
I did buy some new orchids this month also while we were finishing up the couch. I now have 24.
NIMA TESTS:
 |
| Takeout street noodles from P.F. Chang's. They made a mistake, they have never messed up an order before for me. I am just glad I tested when I noticed the crispy onion in it. |
Date Nights:
 |
| Timpano Tampa |
 |
| Ocean Prime- National Oyster Day |
 |
| O Cocina Mexican |
 |
| Noodle Kitchen & Market |
 |
| Edison Food Lab |
 |
| Ciro's Speakeasy & supper club |
PROJECTS: This month's project was to organize the condo. I am a neat freak and I love organizing things! Luckily, the Container Store is right by me. I am pretty bad with throwing things in drawers and then when I need them I just start digging around until I find it. Since we are in a place that is only 1200 sq ft I have to try to make the most of what little space we have. Organizing with stackable boxes has been a lifesaver! For the kitchen I wanted to go with the classy bamboo while in the master bath I was ok with the acrylic since my acrylic makeup sets are also in there.
lingerie drawer... I actually was off by an inch on my boxes with this one and I have yet to figure out where I am putting the boxes I bought since I have no room.
Kitchen (Obviously lol)
Masterbath drawer organization
ALL GLUTEN FREE DINNERS COOKED BY MYSELF*
 |
| Lemon pepper wings with boiled kale and white rice |
 |
| Gumbo with smoked sausage instead of Andouille |
 |
| Roast pork (slow cooker) with yellow rice and French cut string beans |
SOUS VIDE:
So this month we had a little cooking adventure with something called a Sous Vide. A Sous Vide is a method of cooking in which water is heated to a precise temperature in water in a sealed bag. Once the food has been fully cooked you can finish it off any way you want such as with a torch (which is what we used), a grill or fryer. The process of finishing off the food basically gives the outside of the food a nice "char" or browning since the texture will be kind of weird since it was boiled.
So, after my husband googled how to cook a medium rare rib eye we set up the sous vide which is this device that is attached to the pot. Once the water is at temperature, you place the sealed steaks inside for 1.5 hours and it will cook in its own juices. Once they are done you remove them from the baggies and pat them down. They will have a strange color and texture since they essentially were boiled in a sealed bag. Once you pat them down and remove excess water its time to get that perfect char!
 |
| The cooked steaks in the baggies |
After having tasted this steak I was convinced we need to get one! The great thing is that they are affordable at 100$ and you can cook anything with it even eggs! This was probably the best steak I have ever had and I usually go all out on my steaks. It was perfectly medium rare and juicy and just amazing!
 |
| Rib eye prime steak with onion and mushroom caps |
 |
| Sea scallops |
 |
| Pan seared sea scallops in a lemon butter sauce with an alfredo sauce made from scratch. Gluten free pasta (as usual). |
 |
| Slow cooker salmon with carrots and broccolini |
 |
| roasted salmon with roast carrots and sauteed broccolini |
*recipes available upon request
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment