Enjoy the rest!

Thanks to my sister Kristina and friend Clarissa for joining me in this public humiliation!

PS: The next Yoga on the National Mall class will take place on May 19th, in conjunction with DC Yoga Week!

Richmond has a nasty reputation as a hood rat city but that could not be further from the truth!  The city has a vibrant artistic community with tons of cute, locally owned shops.  While I was there, they were hosting a French Film Festival at the Byrd Theatre which is a beautiful, historic theater right in the heart of Carytown.  I had such a lovely visit full of brunching, thrifting, wine tasting, and shopping!  Richmond is such a wonderful city.

Here are a few photos from my trip!

If you are craving Indian food without the heavy cream and clarified butter — this should do the trick!  It is spicy, easy to make, and quite filling.  But I’m not going to lie — it would have tasted MUCH better in a creamy tomato sauce with lots of garlic naan to soak it up.  There are some classic recipes you shouldn’t mess with.

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium red onion diced
1 cup of cut broccoli florets
1 medium zucchini sliced
2 Tablespooons of curry
1 teaspoon of tumeric
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 cup of cooked quinoa
Himalayan sea salt to taste

Directions
-Saute diced onions in olive oil for a few minutes until translucent, add salt, curry, tumeric, and red pepper
- Add other vegetables and cook untik softened
- Add cooked quinoa and stir everything together. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Recipe adapted from Kimberly Snyder

NOM NOM NOM

As a seafood aficionado, I have never had the chance to fall in love with crawfish.  My pops had 30 lbs of fresh crawfish flown in from Louisana last spring and I was a bit underwhelmed — now I know why.  It was missing that hot, spicy, tangy seasoning that makes the inside of your mouth pucker for days. Luckily for me, Chasin’ Tails had the secret ingredient and it is less than a hop, skip and a jump away from my office building in Falls Church!

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Everything I consumed from the gator bites, to the shrimp, to the lushious, lushious crawfish was fresh, juicy and perfectly seasoned.  I have a feeling that this will be my new seafood bar of choice since our last trip to the raw food bar at Dogwood Tavern ended up being a big fail.  Rob, Kristina, Andrew, Timmy, Linda, Sam, Kat, Paul, and Carlo – - I hope you have your seafood bibs ready cus things are about to get CRAYYYY!

Now Open!
220 N Westmoreland Street
Arlington, VA 22213
http://chasintailscrawfish.com

In my household of two, I am the main cook while Rob takes care of the dishes.  Some people may think that I have it easy since cooking is the fun part, but it is EXHAUSTING trying to come up with new and delicious recipes all the time.  Thanks to Pinterest, this task has been alleviated for a little bit, but now I am stuck with the wonderful job of making sure that my pantry is stocked with the right ingredients at all times.  I have been drooling over this recipe for stuffed zucchini for quite some time now, but unfortunately I was missing more than half of the ingredients it called for.  I decided to try stuffing my zucchini (that sounds dirty doesn’t it?) with whatever vegetables I could find at the fridge at the moment.  Guess what — my gamble was worth it!  This dish ended up being tasty, filling, and easy to prepare!  I am already thinking of other ways I can stuff it next time — orzo salad? garlic, cheese and bread crumbs?, curried cauliflower and chickpeas? I don’t mind if I do!

Ingredients:
- chopped tomatoes
- chopped parsley
- chopped onions
- chopped mushrooms
- minced garlic
- two zucchinis
- salt and peper

Directions:
- Cut two zucchinis length wise
- Scoop out the guts with a fork and then chop into cubes
- Combine zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and garlic in a skillet and saute until cooked
- Stuff vegetable mixture into hollowed out zucchinis, top with shredded cheese and fresh parsley
- Cook in 400 degree oven for twenty minutes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Serve immediately

I served my zucchini boats with some tzakiki sauce on it just because I had some laying around.

[#1] Cherry blossom season came and went faster than you can say whatchamacallit
[#2] My new beside milk jug flower arrangement thanks to Ikea
[#3] Baby Willow is in the hospital again so we ended up celebrating her mom’ birthday/St. Patrick’s day at the PICU unit at Inova Fairfax
[#4] The lovely people at Robert Kennedy publishing just sent me Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet cookbook to help me come up with some new healthy eating ideas.  I can’t wait to share some new recipes with you.

I just received a shipment of all natural, organic beauty products from Sally B Skin Yummies to review!  I am still testing everything but so far getting A-MAH-ZING results with their carrot facial dream cream.  I can’t wait to share my results with you.  Stay tuned!

This hummus made out of zucchini is much healthier and JUST as delicious!  In fact, I made this for a party of carnivores and the whole thing was gobbled up in an instant!

Raw Zucchini Hummus

Ingredients:
1 large zucchini
1/2 cup raw tahini (I made this in my mini blender by blending un-toasted sesame seeds and olive oil together)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1 Large Garlic Clove
Sprinkle of Paprika

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in blender until smooth. This will have a slightly thinner texture than chickpea hummus.

Bjork Me -Maricel is a self-proclaimed graphic design nerd, pug lover, Vespa owner, and hopeful yogi.  I like to think of her as my hipster older sister.

Don’t Play With Your Food – Sara is a lady who has turned her video game/anime enthusiasm into art — in the form of food.  Trust me she is way hotter than she sounds.  Sara is very creative and always blows me away with her creations — my favorite being her bento box rendition of Kermit the Frog.

Little Miss Cupcake – Adrienne is the type of girl who loves sparkles, rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns!   If you watch the New Girl and love Jess you will enjoy reading Adrienne’s ramblings on 80′s music, Hulk Hogan, and children’s cereal characters all relating to cupcakes!

Beneath the Jacket - Angie was my token Mormon friend in high school (I am pretty sure I was her token Asian).  Since HS she has moved to LA to become an actress/writer.  Like many LA actress/writer types, she is working part-time at a book store to support herself and has since taken a lover — young adult books.  This very well-done site is a collection of her book reviews.

Feisty Fatale – Casey is a an artist who recently moved to Richmond to pursue her dreams.  With her blog she proves that poor artist does not exactly equal starving artist, since she has learned to feed herself and her new fiance as economically as possible by baking her own bread, making her own tortillas, and growing vegetables from her own garden.

Bulletproof – Miemo is a new friend that I have made through blogging!  Her honest and open blog chronicles everything from her mother’s diagnosis of cancer, her travels around the world, to her adventures experimenting with red lipstick (it looks very good on her, I might add).

The Real Housewives of NOVA -I honestly do not know how Andrea does this but as a person who is not a real housewife at all (she is a single mom raising a beautiful toddler, has a full time job AND is going to grad school) she is taking over the Northern Virginia blogosphere by storm by connecting local merchants with their target demographic.

C Squared Cupcake – Clarissa was my one of my hs best friends and now she is a Columbia Pike neighbor.  By day she works in accouting and by night she is a DIY diva who dabbles in everything from baking, sewing, to crafting!

The Sweet Loaf – Devon, also known as Super Hot Roomie is now just my super hot friend with a penchant for bread pudding.  This blog chronicles her journey to find the perfect bread pudding, recipe by recipe.

Stiletto Mommy – Kat is my hilarious sister who waxes poetic about her life as a DC socialite turned mother of a two-year old neat freak.