Life

Lindsay & Neil’s 5th Annual Pumpkin Beer Tasting

November 4, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls Leave a Comment

Please enjoy this post from my hubby Neil.

Every year around this time, Lindsay and I have a pumpkin and seasonal beer tasting party. The size and format of the party has changed just about every year with our first party was just the two of us and it was a healthy mix of pumpkin and seasonal beers. This year we had six adults taking part in the tasting, two observers and a slew of children playing together and having a good time. One thing that is consistent is that we’ve always had some form of rating system for the beers.

Sourcing the beers to taste is one of the fun (and sometimes tedious) parts of the process. This year, we started collecting beers to sample early on in the season and have been acquiring a beer here and there when something catches our eye. This year was probably the first year that the selection was entirely pumpkin as well. We managed to find a healthy mix of local beers, imports from the East Coast and even a cider.

With such a wide selection of beers and a large number of guests, we needed to find a way to adequately supply tasting glasses for everyone. Early on in the shopping process for the tasting, we had noticed Target had a beer tasting party collection designed by graphic designer and blogger Kate Peters of Wit & Delight. The suggested price of the products was a bit on the expensive side for disposable goods but as the party grew closer, Lindsay was able to find the beer tasting cups and cards and a few other party items for half off in stores. On each tasting card was four different spots to grade the beers you are tasting. The options were “Another” or “Never Again” with some of us adding a third option equated to “I’d drink it for free, but I wouldn’t pay for it.”

After some appetizers, we got the tasting under way. We poured four beers at a time and took the time to discuss what we thought of each beer as a group. The nice thing about pumpkin beers is that they come in an ever growing variety of styles. Love it or hate it, it wasn’t too long ago that it seemed that all of the pumpkin beers on the market were sweet, pumpkin pie spice bombs. It’s nice to see some more balance and moderation in flavor and styles.

As we made our way through the beers, we had a great time discussing what we thought of the beers and what specifically we liked and disliked about them (as well as giving those who like the least popular ones a hard time of course).

The results of the voting weren’t really all that surprising. The breweries at the top are known for making great tasting and creative beers. I know my personal favorite was the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. Punkin managed to fall into the “pumpkin pie” style of beer with out being overwhelmingly sweet or spicy. Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale has consistently been in our top picks for our favorite pumpkin beers since we started doing the tastings. I also enjoyed the New Belgium Pumpkick. The spices weren’t too heavy and the addition of the cranberries in the beer was a nice touch, giving it a slightly tart taste.

The East Coast wholly embraces Autumn’s seasonal beers and why shouldn’t it? Fall in New England is arguably the best season of the year. That being said since moving to the West Coast we have struggled to find many of our favorite pumpkin/Autumn beers. However there is one brewery that we’ve enjoyed and have found really embraces pumpkin beers on the west coast is Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Company.

Elysian brews up a number of different pumpkin beers every fall and even host a pumpkin beer festival. Their beers have done really well in both of the tastings we’ve had since moving to Portland with Night Owl coming in third this year and first last year.

Elysian’s pumpkin coffee stout Punkuccino (not officially part of the tasting) was Lindsay and my personal favorite this year. It’s made with Stumptown Coffee cold brew, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was incredibly smooth and was basically a pumpkin spice latte in beer form. (Lindsay jumping in here- seriously the best pumpkin beer ever and I’m bummed we couldn’t locate another bottle for our tasting).

Now on to the losers of this years tasting. The two huge disappointments in the lot were the Burnside Brewing The Dapper Skeleton and the Woodchuck Hard Cider Private Reserve Pumpkin Cider. The Dapper Skeleton just fell flat. The description was just so enticing with the chillies and cocoa nibs but in reality they didn’t add much to the beer. In the opinion of all but one of our tasters, the Woodchuck Pumpkin Cider was terrible. I don’t think a single person was able to even finish their two ounce pour. I know I took only one sip before dumping it.

Below is the tally of our votes:

This was our biggest pumpkin/seasonal beer tasting to date and we look forward to carrying on with it for many years to come. We’re also planning to host more seasonal and themed tasting parties as well as beer pairing dinners in the future.

What seasonal beer or drink do you look forward to most?

If you like coffee, beer and babies follow Neil on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Also keep an eye out for his new blog Life Brews launching December 2014.

BODY AFTER BABY | THE REAL PLAN

September 21, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 4 Comments

I call this “the real plan” because back in June when I wrote my postpartum weight loss plan those were all just ideas of what I would like to do. Now here we are 7+ weeks postpartum, have dealt with my postpartum realities and I’m ready to take on the task of refocusing on my health.

Photo from this weekend. 7weeks1day postpartum with Alder (baby #2).

I am currently 20 pounds away from my pre-baby #2 starting weight and I am 40 pounds away from my pre-baby #1 starting weight. Add in another 15 pounds that I had hanging on me before my pregnancy with Edith bringing the grand total to 65 pounds away from my happy weight (I’d say I’m about 80 pounds from my idea weight but that’s a whole other plan).

Right now I have three goals based on the above considerations. Goal 1: Lose 20 pounds. Goal 2: Lose 40 pounds. Goal 3: Lose 65 pounds. Now I’m not setting a timeline but I will say that I’d like to accomplish goal #3 by December 2016.

August before my pregnancy with Alder.

So let me start off by saying my first priority is nourishing my baby boy and taking care of myself. I am nursing and it’s going great and here are no plans to stop anytime soon so I needed to take that into consideration when I created this plan. So here it goes (based on my original postpartum weight loss plan) …

I plan to get back to running at around 9-12 weeks postpartum. Based on my original plan I said 9-12 weeks postpartum and I’m actually feeling pretty great. I have days that are better than others when it comes to healing ie. I still have some light spotting and soreness when I am overly active but have been cleared to start run/walk at 8 weeks postpartum That being said I am planning to start couch to 5k (or something similar) next weekend. I am terrified but also excited to get back at it. My plan is to slow (not like that will be hard) and just ease myself back into running.

I plan to incorporate 2 days of strength training into my workout routine and light cardio once I am cleared to get back to normal activity. I haven’t started strength training but my plan is to start this week. What I have been doing is lots of walking and just this weekend a little bit of hiking. Oh and running up and down three flights of stairs many times per day is getting my ass in shape. So that all being said I’m keeping up with the walking and will be incorporating in strength.

I also plan to get back in a yoga routine. This starts this week! I signed up for my first postpartum class for this Monday night and I can’t wait to get back in the studio. I am starting back slowly with some restorative yoga and let me tell you I just can’t wait. I am going to be doing one class weekly or bi-weekly until my punch pass runs out. I am also planning to do at least one at home sesh per week.

Keep my eating in check! Bah. This has seriously been the hardest. Nursing is no joke and my appetite is often off the charts. Combine that with a busy toddler, trying to keep house and limited time I haven’t been doing my best at eating well. I have been eating far too many sweets and not enough fruits and vegetables. The plan is to BUY more fruits and vegetables because if we have them in the house we will eat them. The second plan is to buy/make less desserts. The third and probably most important thing is to menu plan so that #1 and #2 can be successful.

Drink lots of water! When I was pregnant with Alder I had no problem downing (reusable) bottle after (reusable) bottle of water. For some reason postpartum I have been struggling with this despite always being thirsty. My goal is to drink, drink, drink and drinks some more water. Cut back on the coffee and up the water intake.

Buy myself postpartum clothes in whatever size I have to buy. This is easier said than done but I did it. I bought myself (with some gifted from my parents): three bottoms (one of which is already too big), six tops and two pairs of shoes because my feet also grew. I was also sent a few nursing tops for review. My follow-up to this plan is to continue to buy clothes in whatever size I am at the time aka as I lose weight. I have the next size down in a lot of clothes and as soon as I lose a little weight and my hips (hopefully) shrink a bit they will fit me and then after that I will have to buy all new clothes because I have nada.

Have Fun and Enjoy Life. Stop focusing solely on the number and focus on how I feel. I have two beautiful, healthy children and an amazing, supportive partner and they need met to happy and healthy and to enjoy life with them.

Favorites |My Back to School Haul

September 17, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 5 Comments

So I have been out of school for many years now and my kids have not yet started any sort of (in)formal education but I ended up going back to school shopping last week anyways. I seriously LOVE Autumn and the back to school season. As many of you already know I am ADDICTED to notebooks and love to write most everything by hand before I bringing it to my computer. It is something I have always done and I do my best work when I write it out first.

So while I didn’t need to go back to school shopping I did anyways and I did it after the back to school craze was over and everything was on major sale. Here is what I picked up:

Neil and I picked up a giant white board for our new office that I didn’t take a photo of it but I think you can picture a giant white board. Above you will find legal pads (for Neil) sticky notes, magnetic white board pens (no idea if our white board has a magnetic feature I mostly bought them because of the dry erase caps), and some arts and craft items for Edith (washable markers, water colors, gluex2, safety scissors and a pencil sharpener for her colored pencils). Oh and of course chocolate almonds for Edith because I promised I’d pick her up some; this kid is addicted to almonds especially dark chocolate ones.

Besides having lots of fun back to school supplies aka office and art supplies we have been snacking on so many tasty snacks. Above are a few that we have been enjoying which include old favorites like applesauce packets and Mamma Chia Squeeze and new favorites like Lentil Snaps and Made in Nature Fruit Fusion snack packs.

These Made in Nature Fruit Fusion dried fruit snack packs are so tasty and I can snack on them while nursing, grab them on the run for a snack or stick them in the diaper bag to have when we are out and about. I have only tried the tropical flavor (thank you to Made in Nature for sending me a sample to try) and I like it but I think the Antioxidant or Mediterranean flavors are more my taste just because I’m not into dried pineapple. I just saw on the Made in Nature site that they now have Organic Maple Madagascar Vanilla Toasted Coconut Chips <– don’t these sound insanely good? Who has tried them and are they as good as they sound? They are now added to my “must try” list.

My family (Alder excluded)is already a huge fan of Harvest Snap Peas but we were sent a box (thank you!) that also included the Snap Lentils and everyone is just crazy about them. We all could easily eat a bag in a day and well I have to admit I ate the entire back of Tomato Basil ones (sorry Neil and Edith). They are insanely good and while we could toss them on top of a salad we just like to stick our hands deep into the bag and dig right in. Who else has tried these? Seriously they are so good!

So these are some of our favorites from our latest Target, grocery and mail haul. If you like these types of post leave a comment below.

Question of the day: Do you enjoy the back to school season? What are your favorite parts? Also what are your favorite school supplies? I am all about these Piccadilly notebooks from Barnes and Noble that you find in the discounted books section that is usually right at the front near the check out. The covers are kind of terrible (as you can see in the photo back at the top of this post but they seriously have the best paper inside to write on. I’ll stop there before I write an entire sub-post on my undying love for these notebooks. I have been buying 2-3 quarterly for probably 8 years now. Seriously in love.

Weekend Adventures in Portland| Donuts and Brews

September 3, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 4 Comments

My parents are in town which means two extra sets of hands to help with Edith and Alder while I work on getting this house unpacked. We are slowly settling in and the boxes are starting disappear but then I remember we still have a small storage unit filled with boxes (ugh). This weekend we were able to get a bit done but come Monday we decided to take advantage of the holiday and the beautiful weather and took my parents out for donuts, a walk on the esplanade and then out for brews.

For more photos and details about our weekend head over to Naturally Family.

Lately…

August 24, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 1 Comment

Well hello there! It’s been far too long since my last post and I ambitiously thought that I would be able to blog our first week in or new house but well as you can see that just didn’t happen. We actually didn’t even have internet until Friday and let me tell you six days with no internet was a huge challenge for me.

Taking a break from unpacking to go to the farmers market – smiles all around!

Okay, so I had some internet because our new complex has Xfinity Wifi but for any of your who have experience with Xfinity Wifi you know that basically equals no internet. For those of you who don’t have experience with Xfinity Wifi let me just tell you it’s like using dial up – slow as molasses and constantly dropping on top of that. If you have never experience dial up internet well consider yourself lucky. Anyways I had hoped to get out of the house to a coffee shop or even just over to the clubhouse to get a post or two up but moving + unpacking + toddler + newborn = no time.

Well we have internet now (wahoo!) and we are slowly getting unpacked so I am finding myself with a little more time. Bonus my parents come into town this week which means that I will have two extra sets of hands to entertain Edith and hold Alder which means free hands for this mama to catch up on blogging and finish unpacking.

I had planned to work a little bit tonight but after a busy week and weekend I am going to call it a night and relax on the couch with a glass of wine (yay for not being pregnant anymore!) and watch a show or two with Neil before heading to bed. I’ll be back this week with some fun new posts though!

XO. Lindsay.

Life Lately

July 18, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 4 Comments

Happy Friday!

First off no I haven’t had the baby and second if you didn’t know we are expecting baby #2 anytime now (currently 38 weeks).

I know I haven’t been blogging as consistently as I once was/would like to and the reality is life is just a bit chaotic right now. Neil started a new job in June which has left him commuting anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours per day depending on traffic or if he takes public transit. This has been a bit of transition for us all since Neil is now leaving earlier in the morning and arriving home later in the evening. We have settled into a routine but I’ll be glad when we move to our new place and the commute is only 30-60 minutes per day.

That takes me to our next thing we are moving AGAIN. Once again just across town but moving nonetheless which has really taken over most of my days lately. We are trying to get as much as we can packed up before #2 arrives because we both know there will be little time to pack once they do. This process is also taking a whole lot longer because third trimester + toddler + heat + commuting husband + packing = slow process. I have a goal to pack 1-5 boxes per day and I’d say at this point we are 80-89% packed right now. If you stopped by you might not think that’s the case but our cupboards and closets are mostly filled with packed boxes and the items that we do have out are things we use on an almost daily basis.

We decided to get a storage unit this week so that we can move out the boxes so that (fingers crossed) our place rents more quickly without the box clutter so that we are not have to deal with too many viewings. Oh the joys of renting. Neil has been bringing boxes out with him every morning and dropping them off on the way to work. This also will help a little bit when it comes to moving in and hopefully not living in a land of boxes for too long. I am hoping to move a number of boxes in and then move less important/used items into the house overtime so that we can hopefully just get all moved and settled in <– our biggest moving problem. Seriously we never seem to get ourselves settled into a home and live out of boxes for months.

What’s next? Oh yeah, I’m 38 weeks pregnant this week and well I’m just ready. Ready for this baby to arrive and to start our life as a family of four. I won’t lie I’m pretty anxious for this baby to come and would like them to come ASAP so that we aren’t moving with a two week old. Alas babies come when they are ready and I don’t think this baby is ready to come yet. I have been getting out for walks, doing lots of squats and lunges, cat/cow, eating spicy food (umm I’m always eating spicy food), drinking raspberry leaf tea and today I’m getting a prenatal massage! I also want to get acupuncture but unfortunately with Neil’s work schedule it’s really hard (rather impossible) to find an appointment time that works, oh well.

Lastly, We have been spending a lot of time doing things as a family of three. Just trying to get out and enjoy the summer and as much time together as we can. We also have been trying to get together with friends because with baby #2 arriving, moving and my parents coming we know that it could be awhile before we are able to make time to get together.

So that’s life right now. What’s been going on in your life lately?

Virtual Blog Tour | The Details On Why I Write

July 1, 2014 by Lindsay Ingalls 7 Comments

I am slacking on this hugely! Nicole invited me to participate in this tour and while I agreed I dropped the ball and forgot to post last week. So here I am posting a week late but better late than never?

Total eclipse of the sausage feet. 35w4d prego and still growing.

1. What am I working on?

I am working on growing a baby but that’s not what this post is about. Lately I have been working on getting my affairs in order in preparation for the birth of baby #2. I have a few fun sponsored posts coming up, some products that I’m looking to forward to sharing with you and also a few surprises in between. I have also been working on doing the same thing over on Naturally Family. I feel like I have so much to share and yet life has been really taking over or should I say a toddler + exhaustion has been dominating my life. I feel a big surge of nesting coming on and with that lots of planning and prepping for everything.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I am not really sure how to answer this question. I think that being an active mom and a health coach gives me a different perspective on life. My blog has certainly changed and evolved over the years from being a specifically vegan recipe blog, to being a vegan food and lifestyle blog, to being a plant-based fitness and healthy living lifestyle blog. While I did blog and still do a bit about pregnancy and family I have chosen to keep that a little more separate and started a second blog before Edith was born called Naturally Family. Now I don’t know if that really answers the question but that’s my story.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I write what I do because I love to. I love writing about health, fitness and food. I love creating recipes and sharing them with others. I also write what I do to keep myself inspired, motivated and on track with my own personal health and fitness goals. I write to (hopefully) inspire. I write to share my life and my favorite things. I write because I need to have an outlet that is specific to my passions and time to myself. I write to connect with others.

4. How does my writing process work?

I have an editorial calendar that I try and keep up with for sponsored posts and time sensitive posts. Otherwise I just write based on what is currently going on in my life. I try to plan as much as I can to keep myself on track but honestly the best posts I write are ones that are not so planned. As for writing I tend to hand write an outline/first draft of my posts and then I type them, work on photographs, edit the posts and photos, schedule social media and then finally schedule posts.

I know it may seem a little strange that I handwrite my blog posts first but honestly it’s the best way for me to organize my thoughts. I have always done this whether for a paper for school or a blog post for me. While you will find me just typing things up (like this current posts) usually my best posts are the ones that I write out by hand first.

So that is a little bit about why I write and my writing style and now is when I am to pass this on to a few other bloggers. Well again I dropped the ball on recruiting and since I am not positive as to who has participated in this tour I am going to switch things up and ask that if you are reading this that you take a moment to answer these four questions on your blog and then come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments. I look forward to reading your answers and learning more about you!

Naturally Lindsay