spring rolls: 1, Ashley:0

I do grocery shopping on Sundays and each week I find it challenging to come up with new things for dinner. But yesterday while I was at the farmer's market, I remembered a recipe for chicken springs rolls I came across on one of my favorite blogs, The Diva Dish.

Side note: I'm not the biggest fan of cilantro but know it's really good for you, so I've been trying to eat it more often. Another reason this recipe was a good one to try! 

Mike and I made them for dinner yesterday with a few variations. Like using peanut butter instead of almond because it's what we had... These springs rolls are certainly delicious and definitely recommend buuuttt my execution needs work. 

Please see my rolls compared to Ari's (the diva of The Diva Dish) below: 

Ari's 

Mine

I'll have to try again and practice my rolling technique for these babes. 

Tips and tricks are welcome ;)

Love almost always, 

Ashley

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Sometimes I wonder why I have a blog. I don't know if many people read it and even if they do, I'm not sure my content is relatable or if it's like there she goes talking about balance and shit again... Occasionally I think about nixing this baby because, really I already have two Facebook accounts, a Twitter, Tumblr, an About Me, and an Instagram - do I really need another place to spew my thoughts and pictures on the web?

Maybe not... but then I remember stories like the one I am about to write about and understand the reason for my blog. It's not just a place for me to tell my four friends who read this sucker about DELICIOUS Greek tacos I made last weekend (which I will be posting about soon by the way!) - it's a place to write the stories that are supposed to be written and not just spoken; the stories that offer too many opportunities for descriptions so good you feel like you were there yourself; the stories that are supposed to be shared with not just your friends but their friends too; the stories that offer a deeper than surface level glance at life and interactions; the stories like this one...

From ages 18 to 23 I lived on a tiny little dead end street with my mom and her finance. Our house is all the way at the end, nestled and safe behind a long driveway. Our house is quaint and warm and wonderful. My mom's finance, Andy,  took his first steps in our house. His old room became mine. He knows all the neighbors on the street, growing up with their kids and now, visiting their parents in their retirement. My favorite couple comes with a side of four sisters. We call them the five Cuban sisters and they are rambunctious, sassy, and beautiful. They demonstrate the definition of sisterhood - womanhood - in the flesh.

Also, they make the most delicious food you will ever have in your life.

Andy, my mom, and I are invited over to their house for dinner often. I don't live in the little house way at the end of the dead end street anymore so I don't go every time, but when I do - it's love.

I can only imagine the sisters spending the day together in the kitchen, cooking, drinking wine (at least this is what I would do...) and reminiscing on their days in Cuba. I can hear their stories and see their laughter -- bent over, hugging bellies, tears streaming down cheeks.

When we arrive the house smells more amazing than you can imagine. You are greeted with a hug and one kiss, two, from each sister and Esperanza's - the baby sister whose home we all gather in - husbands strong handshake. They lead you through the house to a back room with chairs, a tiki bar, and a giant table to soon feast at. You feel like you are on an island.

While is food is finishing simmering, I ask every time if I can see Esperanza's garden. I walk outside and know I have been transported to a special kind of place. The flowers and plants intermingle with each other, flirting under the moonlight. I walk the paths and breathe in the grass. I take my shoes off so my toes can feel the earth. I promise to do yoga here.

The food is ready soon and we are ushered to line up and serve ourselves an abundant amount of rice, chicken, peppers, and corn.

"Would you like a Coke?" someone asks and I say yes, even though I don't normally drink soda.

We sit and eat and talk and laugh and eat. ..And eat.

"More, more." One of the sisters will instruct after you're so full you feel you may burst.

And then, when you've convinced them you've had more than enough, there is dessert. Esperanza gets up to grab it out of the kitchen. Her sisters follow her to help and minutes later they are making their way back with a giant bowl of rice pudding. My mom's favorite. They form a line and one starts singing Happy Birthday.

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday Dear ..." they burst out laughing. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

"Who's birthday is it?" I ask, glancing around trying to pin-point the receiver of the song.

Simultaneously giggling and serving up rice pudding, Esperanza tells me "no ones and everyone's." She shrugs and passes out forks.

No ones and everyone's. 

What does that mean? I make a mental note to decode the meaning later and sit back to sip my icy cold Coke that tastes good only here.

I still don't know what her response means and I can almost guarantee I'm not supposed to. The moment wan't about singing to someone for some occasion - the moment was about singing with someone for no occasion.

I don't know if the sisters would remember this story if I told them today. They might snicker in Spanish and then, remembering I don't speak their native tongue, translate to English - probably saying something just as profound as the original sentence that made me ponder deeper things; that made me write this post; and that reminded me why I keep on blogging.

...Or they could be like, "yeah. duh - we knew the whole time that singing happy birthday to no one and everyone would shed light on a life lesson. You want a Coke?"

LOVE ALMOST ALWAYS,*
-Ashley

*I'll explain why I titled my blog Almost Always in a post coming soon! ...to a computer near you ;)

ox

Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, Oh my!

I'm Ashley and I'm on a Paleo, 

vegan, 

and vegetarian diet. 

(Hiiiii, Ashley) 

There is an overwhelming amount of contradicting information about what to eat and what diet to follow out there. I've read claims that both paleo and vegan diets are how our ancestors ate/what our bodies are used to. Apparently both diets prevent and cause cancer. Of course it depends which diet is friend and which is foe depending on what book you're reading ...or who it's written by or what site you're on or what friend you're listening to or... well, I think you get my point. And if you don't; I'm saying it's all subjective. There are studies to prove this diet is better than that one for both meat eaters and non-meat or animal byproduct eaters alike. 

One of my favorite pieces of "food advise" comes from the book Skinny Bitch. (This book promotes a vegan lifestyle - which I don't live by 100% of the time but can still talk on some really good points the authors mention.) In Skinny Bitch they advise DO NOT TRUST ANYONE.  My interpretation of this four-word gem is that no one really knows how/what you should eat because no one really knows your body ... except for, well, YOU. 

I have friends that are on the paleo diet and I have friends who are vegan and vegetarian. Each of them have their own reason for eating the way they do and more power to them. I personally don't understand how a predominantly soy-based diet (soy based meat, soy cheese, soy milk, soy tofu.. jk I know it's just tofu) is better for you than just eating a piece of chicken or having a splash of animals milk* in your coffee. But that's just me and remember you shouldn't trust anyone but yourself! 

I've found combining all three paleo, vegan and vegetarian diets into one magically, balanced diet works best for ne. Sometimes I have strictly vegan meals - or days - and other times I eat meat at every meal... Admittedly this isn't often but there are times when one piece of bacon just doesn't cut it...

Today is a perfect example of my paleo/vegan/vegetarian  balanced diet:

My breakfast consisted of 2 eggs and 1 egg white, a small apple, 

and a giant americano with organic half & half. 

My vegan buddies are crying at the thought of so many animal byproducts in one day;

 let alone one meal. 

For a hearty snack I had a quinoa and sweet potato patty with an avocado chopped on top. 

Sorry, paleo friends but grains are this girls friends. ;)

For lunch I had a salad with 

spinach

kidney beans

mushrooms

olives

and sunflower seeds

The vegans are crying happy tears now! 

It's about to be dinner and my VBF (Vegan Best Friend) 

is coming over to celebrate National Wine Drinking Day. 

She's making vegan polenta "lasagna" but I will probably add organic chicken. 

And, of course, there will be wine!

Today it just worked out that I didn't have any gluten but that doesn't mean I don't eat wheat. However, in line with my consumption of meat and dairy, I don't go overboard with it; I try not to exceed 1 serving of wheat/1-2 animal byproducts in a day. But some days I do and that's life. Eating is all about balance; EXCEPT when it comes to veggies....

Another favorite piece of food advise that speaks to me is to EAT PLANTS NOT THINGS THAT ARE MADE IN PLANTS.  THIS, I think, is the fundamental "diet" which everyone should live (and eat) by. Meat eater or non-meat eater, cheese lover or soy-cheese connoisseur, you need to eat your plants! ...Trust me.

TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE FOOD ADVISE! 

Love almost always, 

Ashley 

PS 

I also had 2 mini Hershey chocolate bars after lunch 

because (as much as I hate it and wish it wasn't true)  

the manufactured food has a (small) place in my diet too. 

*well, dairy is actually an entirely different conversation but we'll save that for another post.. 

Cyber crush

It happened to me again today. 

But with someone new. 

This person is not the first person this kind of thing has happened with... 

And this probably won't be the last time it happens... 

I'm Ashley and I have a
cyber crush on you ..so.. wanna
like blog about each other
or something?

Today I developed a crush.

...A cyber crush.

I've had a few since I've started blogging. They have all been on girls and have always started innocently.

One day you're googling  "how to make quinoa" and then - over a year later and many quinoa skills mastered - you're still checking in to see what your cyber crush is up to.

There's a familiarity and almost a sense of reminiscence when you visit an old crush's page. Like you've been there and then you've been away and now it's really nice to be back; checking in to see how things have been, what's changed and what's still the same, whose grown and whose changed their hair color...

But nothing beats a new cyber crush... The plethora of new things to pour over... Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, oh my! The different videos posted and blogs written. An all access pass to this person's interpretation of life. ...It has taken hours of my life.

Though I've found that you can't go searching for a new cyber crush. It just doesn't work like that. You can't force interest into someone else's life. It has to happen organically - originally - like the Internet Gods destined one click to lead to another and then suddenly *BAM* you've found your next cyber crush. Almost like a soul mate but more ...one sided.

Clicking around a bit you find you really like this girls hair color and her bedspread is super cute. You dig her fancy drop-down menu and icons directing you to other showcases of her life. All the links with all the fascinating information about ..a stranger.

It's time consuming and weird if you think about it long enough. But it's probably also normal. With so much personal information readily available on the internet, I don't think it's dramatic to feel like I know some of my cyber crushes without ever meeting them. I don't think it's crazy to feel like I can be friends with someone because they post a lot of shit I "like." If I'm entertained by your life from freakin' post-it sized pictures I scroll through on my phone... you must be a bad ass.

Occasionally I am envious of my cyber crushes.

They have how many followers?

I'm that funny too! ...after a glass of wine shot of tequila. 

That is literally the best sentence I have ever read 

in the history of all of the sentences in the world.

Wait, is her blog better than mine? 

Yep! My iPhone 3 will never take the pictures her camera can.

Maybe I  should put Adobe Photoshop on my Christmas list this year..?

But most of the time I'm just like girl, go on with your bad self. Which is really what cyber crushing should be all about anyway...

LOVE almost always, 

Ashley 

PS. 

I thought it would be interesting for you to know who my cyber crushes are sooo, drum roll please...

1. The Diva Dish

Ari was my first cyber crush and I still love checking out what's new with her and what healthy cooking she is doing for her family.

She even replied to a comment I left and it was pretty much the highlight of my day

2. Laci Green

I stumbled across Laci's YouTube channel and pretty much agree with everything that comes out of her mouth. :)

3. Hannah Brencher

This girl is founded The World Needs More Love Letters and I seriously hope to meet her one day.

4. Kaleigh Somers

I've exchanged a few emailed with Kaleigh and actually wrote for her website but just recently discovered how interesting her life via Instagram is ;)

5. Natalie C.

I've actually met Natalie but fact: feel like I know her more than I actually do because of the amount of time I spend on her blog. #obsessed

6. Ms. Morgan Wright

This is more of a real life girl crush since she is one of my actual best friends but because I am so excited for her new blog.. I figured I would add her to the list!

7. Melissa K.

This is also a real life crush but I am blown away every time I read her blog. Highly recommended!

winner winner sweet potato dinner

Soooooooooooooooo I am doing a really bad job at posting in my Sunday vs. Monday section but I figured I'd share what we had for dinner last night as a small step in the right direction. (Next week Sunday vs. Monday SUPER BOWL edition is happening!)

If you know me - and we share more than an acquaintanceship - you probably know I hate eating the same food twice in the same day. (If you didn't know this fun fact about me, you just learned something new on your Tuesday!) Most people make fun of me for this ... quirk, we'll call it... which is cool, like T.Swift white girl dancing at award shows, it's just what I do.

My sweet spuds steaming

Moving on, yesterday I had leftover chicken fried rice for lunch. When I got home and was rummaging around the kitchen deciding what to cook for dinner - that couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't included chicken - I found I had everything for ... chicken tacos. What to do? Have tacos with just lettuce, cheese, salsa, and avocado? Maybe but that wouldn't be very substantial... sooo I steamed sweet potatoes!

Nom

I mashed the spuds with a bit of butter
then spread it thinly on corn tortillas, layered it with some taco essentials, turned on Breaking Bad and nom'd on some vegan (minus the cheese!) sweet potato tacos. 

stop talking about how much you weigh and start ... flossing?

:) 

Over the holidays I spent time with a good friend and Jennifer Lawrence came up in conversation over wine (and tequila shots). I immediately gushed about the girl crush I have on the Hungry Games star; anticipating my friends response to be equally giddy and obsessive. Instead she threw me. She told me she was kind of over Jennifer and all of her body image chatter.

Wait, what?

This good friend's name is Melissa and we are basically the same person except she lives in Toronto and I'm in California. We have the same birthday, the same middle name. We own the same cookbooks and have the same fundamental ideas about life and love and yoga.  How was she not totally in love with J-Law like I am?

I mean, isn't Jennifer Lawrence all the rage with how real she is? Isn't is refreshing that a mega celebrity isn't stick skinny? She is setting a good example for the young girls (and older ones too) that you don't have to starve yourself to feel worthy. ...Right? I thought so too. And then Melissa shed some light.

She accurately pointed out that one comment about one's weight is enough.

In other words, Jennifer's first comments about being a role model and not starving herself so young girls (and older ones too) think they need to skip dinner to be Katniss-beautiful was great; awesome even. In my opinion, it brought positive, healthy awareness to counteract all the damaging media images bombarding our brains. However;   it seems all she does now is talk about her weight which (in mine and Melissa's opinion - even though it was hers first) is actually diminishing her initial great - awesome - comments about weight.

WHY IS WEIGHT SUCH A WEIGHTED TOPIC?

(Disclaimer: I realize this post might sound hypocritical because I myself have written about weight and body image more than a few times but I am not on the cover of all the magazines in all of the stores. ...Yet.

I promise if I ever reach that magnitude of influential ability, I will take my responsibility seriously. I will not allow so much attention to be focused on poundage.)

By constantly talking about weight when you're such a major player in the media, even if it has a  "positive" spin, it is still constantly talking about weight. You're bringing massive attention to something that should be as mundane as flossing. Everyone knows flossing is good for you (as maintaining a healthy weight is) but no one talks about it in every.single.interview. ...Even if they don't floss everyday and make the rest of us normal folk feel okay about our flossing habits too. So, just stop, Jennifer. Stop answering questions about how much you weigh...

I'm still a huge fan of JL; I just hope next time someones asks about her weight, she doesn't respond. I hope the next time she or any other person of fame admits to eating a slice of pizza it doesn't make headlines.

Floss, anyone?

Love almost always,
Ashley

Tiny spuds teaching life lessons...

Yesterday I went to the gym after work and came home later than normal. Usually I get home before Mike so I cook dinner but yesterday was an exception. Even though I wasn't cooking dinner I had still decided what ingredients we would use for Monday's meal; which included leftover lamb, green beans that needed to be used soon, and the tiniest, cutest organic potatoes I had bought on Sunday at the farmers market.

Mike has been pretty busy at work and was running late to get home and cook dinner. By the way, side note: I am a terrible human when I'm hungry... When he got home, anxious to have dinner ready by the time I got home, and found the baby potatoes that he had no idea what to do with, his stress level automatically went up.

By the time I strolled through the door, a delicious smelling aroma was wafting through the air. I made by way into the kitchen to see what Mike was concocting. He had added all the ingredients in pan, added some onions and garlic and viola! dinner!

The only problem was those baby spuds did not cook. They were still hard and starchy on our plates ready to be eaten for dinner. We couldn't cook them longer because they were already combined with the lamb and the green beans. And, hi, I was starving! So, we ate around the cute, but uncooked, tatters. Then we made a trip to whole foods for slices of pizza.

I am equal parts proud and embarrassed to say this same situation a year ago would have easily burned our entire evening. Side story: Mike made mac n' cheese with almond milk for dinner one time - insisting it would taste the same - and when it didn't, because it definitely doesn't, I threw a giant fit and probably didn't talk to him for some ridiculous amount of time... over MAC N' CHEESE! I mean, really.. who cares?!

Well, I did...

I would (and still do occasionally because I'm almost always perfect but not quite entirely) get really upset over really small things; like small potatoes not being cooked properly... Instead, yesterday, I ate my lamb and green beans and then my slice of pizza. (And also some potato chips..)


Love almost always,
Ashley

Starting over

So, here's the thing about having a birthday in November, what ever personal goals you've set for yourself to become a healthier, better, nicer, whatever-er person during that year of your life is shot when the holidays roll around. (Well, hopefully not the nicer resolution but who knows? Christmas can bring out the Scrooge in some...)

For example; this year - the year leading up to my 25th birthday - I decided to start this blog and become stronger. (Read about it here) Ideally, I wanted to write in this sucker 2-3x a week, magically work out 7 days a week (jk but come on? I should at least be able to swing 3 days..), consistently update my Sunday Vs. Monday section, become the next BIG SHOT BLOGGER (holleeer), and have fancy drop-down menus with organized content.

But guess what? it's Monday and I am not uploading pictures of what I ate yesterday and today... (Read about that here and here and here) And my blog is STILL lacking the drop-down menu feature... Ask me about the last time I consistently worked out and you'll weep at my answer...

You ready for the excuse for why I've majorly been sucking yet?

I'm blaming it on the holidays.

The holidays are still as festive as fun as they were when I was a child but they also come with a side of stress. A lot of spending, too much to drink/eat, and not enough exercise. Then there is the bittersweet packed social calendar; I love a good Ugly Sweater party as much as the next girl but weekend after weekend I find myself devoted to dinners, get togethers, and family gatherings instead of writing, reading and yoga. I have to admit, I don't feel like the well rounded person that I want to be going into 2014. I can't even remember the last book I read........

BUT I'm not going to beat myself up about it because hey, guess what? I wrote a book in 2013 and even though I wanted to be well past my first draft of my second book by this time (definitely not my reality right now) I didn't anticipate a move that is still consuming most of my time. And even though I wanted to keep this baby plush and abundant with posts, I couldn't because I was packing and unpacking and celebrating and unpacking and going to Ikea... So? (ready for the standard cliche yet?) it is what it is.

Tomorrow I will be 24 years and 2 months old and I'm going to go ahead and redraw the start line there. Please join me and almost always read my blog. ...Starting with tomorrows post about the fiasco tonight's dinner was and how there are few problems pizza can't solve.

Love almost always,
Ashley

All of the fun -- none of the guilt

I've been neglecting my blog lately -- with the holiday parties, (still) unpacking, and the overall laziness that seems to consume the winter months, it has been hard to steal some time to sit and write. But here I am, between sips of coffee and songs on my new favorite pandora station, writing away...

Last week was full of fun and festive holiday madness. I had my company holiday party on Thursday and my boyfriend's the following night. Both nights were filled with food, laughs, drinks and.. that's it! There was ZERO stress on my end about how many calories or carbs (or sugar or fat) I was consuming because I've learned not to sweat the small stuff like having that extra piece of bread before your entree or eating more than half the chocolate cake you were supposed to split with a friend. In reality, accepting the extra cals as a mini splurge and MOVING ON is way more productive than filling yourself with feelings of regret.

I know because I used to obsess over what I ate in a day and ended up feeling guilty for not being able to resist the mini snickers. Then, more often than not, the guilt would flirt with rebellion and all of the sudden I'd be eating an entire snickers bar because who cares? I already screwed up -- so, why not make this a "bad" day?  Bad day after bad day added up and soon I had an unhealthy relationship with food (I'll blog more on this topic another time....) until I learned to give myself a break. Now, I can hit up two holiday parties in a row and not feel anxiety about what (or how much) I'm going to eat.

It's Sunday -- which means I usually log what I eat to compare to Monday's meals (in an effort to show the difference between crazy weekend eating habits and healthier work day options... balance, my friends, balance) but this week I've decided to recount what I had on Thursday and Friday to show you can splurge a bit without beating yourself up about it; all of the goodness and none of the guilt.

On Thursday we had bagels at the office for breakfast. I ate a Everything bagel with cream cheese and earl gray tea. I was ridiculously busy the rest of the day and only had time to eat a few handfuls of peanuts for lunch (not highly recommended but it could have been worse -- at least peanuts are full of healthy fats and kept my brain functioning for the rest of the day). Dinner was at the delicious Cascal's in Mountain View and I had a little of A LOT; a few pieces of calamari as a appetizer; a glass of sangria; a side salad; the Cuban wrap with pork and cilantro; some paella; a few bites of vanilla ice cream and a Mexican coffee (coffee with a shot of coffee patron - yes please!)

On Friday I woke up thirsty and craving nutrients but not very hungry so I had a simple green smoothie with spinach, romaine, orange juice, a banana, berries and frozen pineapple. For lunch I had left over paella and a few hours later had two tangerines and a small pumpkin cookie. Before we left for Mike's holiday party I had a glass of champagne. There was an array of small, appetizer-like food we ate for dinner. I had a few tortellini with tomato sauce, a pork slider, asparagus, and some bruschetta. I had a vodka soda (or two.. or three..) throughout the rest of the night.

Both nights were worth every calorie. I had fun and ate whatever I felt like without going overboard. There were no restrictions so I didn't  guilty about eating anything and I didn't feel deprived so there was no messy aftermath of over-eating after I had a couple drinks. I ate what I wanted and had nothing to worry about but having a great time ....and a bit of a hangover on Saturday.

Love almost always,
Ashley

PS. It's also worth mentioning that we played laser tag after dinner on Thursday (40 minutes of running around and getting sweaty in the dark) and danced on butts off on Friday; some major (fun and) calorie touching to balance out all the food. And yes, I'm counting both as workouts for the week ;)