Tonight Neil took me on a wonderful date night to France, well the closest you can get to France in Vermont. We started the night out with a drink at 156 Bistro and then Neil surprised me with dinner at Leunig’s Bistro. We have been talking about going to Leunig’s for months okay years but we just have never gone. It’s a little pricey but we had an amazing meal complete with dessert.
To Start- Seeded Baguette
Cocktail for me: Moulin Rouge and a Beer for Him
Artichoke stuffed with Temeph
Espresso
Vegan Carrot Cake: A-MAZ-ING
Overall we had an amazing and delicious meal. The entree was light, fresh and so tasty. The dessert was amazing especially with the espresso. It was the best espresso I have ever had too. Overall amazing meal, amazing ambiance (it was like you were in France) and I had the best date ever- my husband.
Way back in March Neil and I started a fitness incentives program to help keep us on track. This was probably one of the best things that we have ever done for ourselves. You can read more here and here about the program.
So lets talk updates and progress- this was one of the most successful programs that we have ever followed through with. Each month we have achieved our goals and in June we surpassed them- win! I used to have a million excuses as to why I didn’t work out and now I go more than a day and it feels like weeks since I worked out.
We have the entire month of July planned for workouts because we have an upcoming 5k and then we half a half-marathon in January. So many exciting things on the workout front for Neil and I. In addition to creating a successful workout routine we are feeling more energized, we have lost some weight and are looking better.
Last night started what I hope to be a tradition of dinner and a movie with our friend Laura. We have been talking for months (years?) about watching the Bourne Trilogy because Laura is obsessed and neither Neil or I have seen them. We finally made a dinner and a movie date and watched the first one last night. Laura cooked spaghetti and provided the wine, I brought the salad and the Hubz brought the chocolate. We had a wonderful night of chatting, eating and movie watching. Now we have to set the date to watch the 2nd movie!
Laura Cooking Up a Storm
Salad with creamy pesto dressing
My Plate - YUM
Laura's Cat...this is as close to Neil as she would get- the he tried to touch her...not recommended
Neil and I decided (very) last minute that we would partake in the Pete’s Greens CSA again this summer since we love their produce. Last week was the first pick up because we were away we ended up giving away most of it except the potatoes and garlic scapes that we had for our camping breakfast. This week we received:
Bag of Mesclun Greens
Beet Greens
Napa Cabbage
Sweet Salad Turnips
Garlic Scapes
Scallions
Zucchini
Easter Egg Radishes
Sage
Potatoes
Tonight is the first of many meals using these amazing organic and local ingredients. Enjoy- I know we did!
Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta with Zucchini
Yields 4 servings
Takes about 30 minutes total to make
Ingredients:
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 cup raw walnut pieces
1 bunch of garlic scapes (about 1 to 3/4 cup), chopped
4 cups basil leaves
2/3 cup olive oil
1t salt
1T sesame seeds
2T nutritional yeast
Place the walnuts and garlic scapes in the bowl of a food processor and process until small crumble. Add in the basil leaves, turn the processor on low and slowly stream in the olive oil through the feed tube. Add in the salt, sesame seeds and nutritional yeast; process to combine.
Sauteed Zucchini
2 medium zucchini, sliced into half moons
Cooking Spray
1/2t salt
1/4t black pepper
1/2t garlic powder
1t nutritional yeast
Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray and toss in the zucchini and saute for 3-4 minutes just until they start to lightly brown. Stir in the salt, pepper, garlic powder and nutritional yeast; cook for 2 more minutes.
4 servings of pasta of your choice
In a large bowl toss the pasta, zucchini and 1/4 to 1/3 of the pesto together. Serve warm, room temp or cold!
The pesto makes a lot more than you need for this dish so place any extra in a jar top with a layer of olive oil and seal tightly. Store in the freezer until you need it again. To defrost move from the freezer to the fridge 8 hours before using.
For dessert we shared one of these wonderful vegan, raw, gluten free tarts from Hail Merry.
It was one of the best desserts I have ever tried and I am looking forward to picking up the other 3 flavors over the next month. It was so rich and the perfect balance of creamy chocolate, cookie crust and almond butter center- to die for.
Bah! I have been so crazy busy lately between a weekend of backpacking, then trying to get all my work in line before heading off to Wanderlust for the weekend; now I’m back and trying to get myself back on track.
I'm in the middle near the poles- if you look really hard you can find me- Photo By: Arthur Shim
Our weekend was absolutely amazing even though it rained 98% of the time. I started Thursday off with a Kundalini yoga class with Kia Miller; it was really amazing! It was the first Kundalini class I have ever taken and it was hard but so much fun. After my Kundalini class I was starving and took a rainy walk down to the vegan cafe that was onsite for a delicious lunch of Indian curry, rice and salad and a piece of cashew cheese cake that I split with Neil. Unfortunately do to my extreme hunger I downed the food so fast I didn’t get a photo and heads up no photo of any other food #fail. In the afternoon I took a workshop with Desiree Rumbaugh on knees, lower back and hips. Desiree has so much energy and she is absolutely hilarious! I loved her class so much and learned a lot about alignment and ways to relieve pains in the lower back, knees and hips. Thursday night Neil and I had veggie burgers and a beer at one of the restaurants on site and ended up in bed early because we were so exhausted from traveling down, camping out Wednesday night and yogaing all day.
Desiree Rumbaugh Class
On Friday I started the morning off with an early yoga class with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman- I died a little bit when I saw Rodney Yee. This was the one class I was looking forward to most after years of doing Rodney Yee yoga videos at home I was finally sitting in his presence. The class was amazing! Colleen and Rodney took turns leading the class. To my delight (I died a little more) Rodney Yee adjusted me in a pose- MADE MY DAY haha; I’m totally geeking out as I write this so you can just imagine what I was feeling during this class. After my yoga class I went to a SpeakEasy with Majora Carter who is known for her greening efforts in the South Bronx. I took a break after this and headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit and enjoyed hummus wraps with Neil for lunch. After lunch I had my second yoga class of the day and second class with Desiree Rumbaugh this time a workshop for neck and shoulders. Again I loved this class! Desiree easily became my favorite teacher of the weekend. I learned so much in the class but was sad when it was over so fast. Friday night we met up with our friend Catherine and went to dinner at a restaurant onsite and then spent the remainder of the night working on blog posts and articles; the work never ends.
Stealth photo of Rodney Yee
Saturday was the busiest day of all and the best because I got to take two classes with my husband! It was so nice because our first class of the morning was with Desiree Rumbaugh and it was a playful flow class. In the class we did a lot of partner work and it was so nice to be able to practice with Neil. I even did a handstand with support of Neil. After our class we went to the worst SpeakEasy ever with the author of The Athlete’s Plate; honestly the lecture could have been over in 5 minutes because the guy just kept repeating himself over and over and over. For lunch we had mini Lara bars, tastings of Honest Tea and humus wraps that we made in our room. In the afternoon Neil and I took one of John Friend’s classes which was such a great experience; it started off a little slow but we learned a lot and had a great time. After the class I went to a SpeakEasy featuring the founders of Wanderlust and Neil was lucky and took one of Sean Corne’s classes- he loved it- colour me jealous.
Wanderlust Founders
We ended up leaving early on Sunday due to a few things that came up and I missed out on what I imagined was an amazing class with Brian Kest and one with Schuyler Grant. Oh well there is always next year.
Summary/Wanderlust in Numbers:
Yoga Classes Taken: 6
Interviews Performed: 2
Mini Lara Bars Eaten: 8
Hummus Wraps Eaten: 3
Beers Drank: 5
Favorite Teacher: Desiree Rumbaugh
Best Day to go to Wanderlust: Thursday; classes are 2 hours and less crowded
Runs Done: 1; I only got a run in on Wednesday night because well I was crazy busy, it rained all weekend and I wasn’t paying to use the gym
Hours Spent Blogging: 8
What I would Do Next Year: I would schedule classes closer together and take 3 classes per day, pack more food and get a condo to cook in because vegan options are limited and CRAZY EXPENSIVE, oh and find more time to sleep.
Wanderlust Photos:
Desiree Rumbaugh Class
Stealth photo of Rodney Yee
Wanderlust Founders
Getting Our Yoga on At Wanderlust Vermont
I’m in the middle near the poles- if you look really hard you can find me- Photo By: Arthur Shim
I have been lucky enough to get away this weekend and do hours and hours of yoga. For those times when I want to get away (for a non-yoga retreat) or don’t have time to go to a yoga studio I like to do a home practice and YogaDownload.com has been a great way to do this.
Why YogaDownload? (their reasons in black, my responses in red)
Yoga Download empowers you to practice yoga your way, on your time, wherever you see fit. Check out some of the best reasons to choose classes from YogaDownload.com:
Superior Quality – every yoga download class is professionally recorded and mastered to give you the highest quality experience.I agree with this- I find that the recordings are really well done and are really easy to follow on your own.
Unparalleled Selection – and Growing! – with hundreds of classes in dozens of styles, you can practice your favorite form of yoga or experiment with new styles. This is one thing I love about the site- they have so many different types of yoga from Hatha to Power to Kundalini to Yoga for Runners- it makes it fun and exciting to try new types of yoga at home to decide whether you like them enough to spend the $15-20/class to do them at a studio.
Yoga Your Way – whether you’re looking to relax for five minutes or sweat for an hour and a half, Yoga Download offers classes to fit your schedule and needs. Another great feature about yoga download – you don’t have to schedule your time around the class that you want to go to you can schedule your practice around your time. I love being able to do a quick 20 minute practice after work or 60 minute practice on the weekends when studios in Burlington are all closed. Additionally, there are times when studios don’t have the type of class I want to attend during the hours I am available but with yogadownload.com I am able to take any class (that they have) whenever I want.
Options Galore – choose audio classes, video classes, slideshows or build your own custom class from your favorite poses, then choose to stream it once or download it and keep it forever. See above.
Affordability – stream, save to your computer or become an unlimited monthly or annual subscriber. Yoga Download makes a high-end yoga practice attainable for all. This is the biggest plus- you can get a number of free 20 minute downloads and if you like it go back for the 30, 60 or 90minute downloads for only a few dollars! Way less than studio practice and all those expensive DVD’s that you can’t take with you everywhere.*
For the Teacher, By the Teacher – Yoga Download is designed to be an outlet for a wide range of deeply talented yoga teachers to share their gifts and practice with a global audience.
*Note: I don’t think YogaDownload.com is a replacement for studio classes- it is not the same by any means but it does provide you quality podcasts for your at home practices or for the times when going to the studio just doesn’t fit your budget. Additionally, I love my yoga DVD’s but with one TV in the house it makes it difficult to do them at times as well as I can’t always bring them with me when I travel.
Overall I loved my experience with Yoga Download an I plan to continue using their services and podcasts for those days I don’t make it to class or just want a quick practice at home. My favorite YogaDownload classes are the gentle Hatha Yoga and the Yoga for Runners
Yoga Download has generously donated a free one month membership to one reader.
To Enter: You must leave a separate comment for each entry and YOU MUST do the mandatory entry for your additional to count. This giveaway closes on June 30, 2011 at 6pm EST.
Interview with Marketing Manager Heather Williams of Manduka
During my visit to Wanderlust Vermont I had the opportunity to speak with Heather Williams of Manduka about what Manduka is doing to green their products as well as their role at Wanderlust and Heathers take on the events. Enjoy!
Q:How did you guys get involved with Wanderlust?
So just because we are such a big part of the yoga community so whenever Wanderlustcame around it just seemed like the perfect fit. Manduka is just into greening thecompany and is so eco-conscious and eco-friendly and Wanderlust has that entireside to it themselves and so it made sense that they were getting a community of yogistogether that cared about those sort of things to celebrate yoga it made sense thatManduka would be involved.
Q:What types of things is Manduka doing to green the company?
So a lot of it is just the products themselves and the materials that go into the productsand some of it is actually the manufacturing process as well. We have one line of matsthat is our eco line of mats that has zero foot print within the land fills and is made out ofnatural tree rubber, so it’s meant to biodegrade. So our other lines of mats are based onthat same idea, they are all made out of recycled material.
Q:What has been your experience here at Wanderlust?
It’s just this fascinating, vibrant community, the energy is fantastic and I feel that evenwith the rain it’s very natural but kind of tends to have people shift in a couple differentways. And so things have gone a couple of ways here at Wanderlust with where thingsare placed, where our sponsorship is and the experience has been great as far as thepeople go. Everybody has been just so glowing about it even though things are kind ofchaos and things are getting shifted around. Everybody has been just really flexible andit’s really beautiful to see that.
Q:So, What kinds of things are you (Manduka) doing here (Wanderlust)?
[Manduka is] sponsoring registration is one of the ways which means we have some signage up forpeople so that they can take photos, free henna and free feather hairs. Once the raintops there is a rig outside that is an aerial rig and there is also a retail space.
It was one of the best desserts I have ever tried and I am looking forward to picking up the other 3 flavors over the next month. It was so rich and the perfect balance of creamy chocolate, cookie crust and almond butter center- to die for.
