The big american latte and other stuff

Last Friday was a really fun day. I started off meeting a friend for coffee and breakfast:

We met at Starbucks because we were both craving a big American Latte,...and the barista was just learning latte art so we got hearts with wings. So cute! The sandwich was actually pretty good it was egg with a spinach ricotta... YUM!

After this we went to the Purse and Handbag museum and then went our separate ways as we each had stuff going on that evening. Once I got home about 2 I was starving so I fixed up some red potatoes with onions and garlic and an egg and two egg whites with a little cheese. I am egg obsessed these days.

Then, it was off to hubby's work to meet him for the New Year's party they were hosting. We went to a place called the Nacht Wacht, it is a steakhouse that always has yummy food and good service (which, as I have mentioned before is really tough to come by here in Holland).

In true Kate fashion and my not a fan of red meat ways I went for the salmon. The crust on the outside was quite delicious. The salad was amazing as usual. I had water and white wine with dinner, of course!

At the party because it was quite chilly I stuck with red wine

This was actually a photo from the night before, but I didn't take any photos of my drink at the party so this one offered to stand in ;) hehe It was a tasty red though.

After the party we headed home, it was so windy and miserably cold that we had hot cocoa

Really helped us settle in for the night.

This weekend was a lot of fun, that salmon, seriously, really good! First one I have had cooked to my linking in years, usually they are underdone for my taste. I will say cuddling up on the couch with the hubby and hot cocoa after a long night out was the best part of the day. ;)

How do you like to wind down after a fun day?

Join the rest of the party over at Peas and Crayons!

Apple Cinnamon Peanut Butter Wrap!

I love anything with peanut butter and anything in a wrap...so does my kid. This is a great lunchbox main course because even if your kid is in a peanut free school you can easily make this with an allergy friendly alternative spread.

I usually do not make this in advance as my child apparently has a very sensitive palate and she does not like the lemon juice I put on the apples to keep them from browning coupled with the PB so I just make it the day of and the apples stay fine until lunch.

What ya need:
1 tortilla
1/2 an apple
chia seeds
sprinkle of raisins/craisins
cinnamon and/or nutmeg

How ya do it:
Spread a tablespoon or so of peanut butter on the tortilla so it is sufficiently covered.

Dice up half an apple so it is fairly small, place in the middle of the tortilla.

Sprinkle with a few raisins or craisins or a little of both.

Sprinkle lightly with chia seeds for some added protein, then add a little cinnamon and nutmeg for some spice!

I put this in her lunch box with some berries and tomatoes and cucumber slices.

What is your favorite lunch item to take to work or school? How about for the kiddos?

Linking up to One Project at a time!

Weekend Recap-The one where there was a party in a Church!

This weekend was a pretty fun one I must admit. It was fairly full, yet relaxing. You really can't ask for a better weekend than that...which really is why I am giving it a separate post away from my normal recap in my Menu Plan Monday post!

**(I will warn you in advance, as you scroll down there is a photo of a bronze relief I took that is a hand caressing a breast, I personally do not find it offensive and do not hide this stuff from my child, BUT, if you have children around you don't want to see it or are offended by that please visit the direct link to my Menu Plan Monday post above or check out more travel article I wrote here)**

We had a friend in town so our weekend really started Thursday night. We took him downtown for dinner, a stroll through the red light district, and to one of our favorite bars in the lobby of an old hotel down there.

When we came out at Centraal Station we came upon the House of Cards that is up for the Amsterdam Light Festival. 

Pretty cool huh?! 

After dinner and a stroll through to show him the girls behind the windows we stopped in at our favorite bar. This place is not expensive, it is a little hole in the wall and totally classy as evidenced by the Beethoven plaque. haha

It has two levels and the bartenders are always really nice and it always has people in it but it is never too crowded.

When you order wine you get a whole mini bottle. Really useful when you have two people, but not so much when it is just you. haha

We love this bar so much because you can look down and people watch and with two windows being just under you it is super entertaining! Just remember-NO PHOTOS! 

Here you can even watch people walk on their heads! Not really, but the "hold your child's hand" sign upside down is pretty hysterical. 

This plaque is in the Oudekerksplein, just outside the church, the artist is unknown, but it was installed in 1993.

I love the unknown about this bronze relief, I think it is probably one of my favorite pieces of art in the city.

Just a few blocks away from our favorite bar is another great bar where you can grab a table by the window and do yet more people watching.

But don't take your drinks outside, probably not wroth the €90. 

After this we walked around a bit more then headed home.

This is the metro to Gein, it is always so nice and coming from Centraal there is never anyone on it...but we don't go to Gein, so we get the crappy metro. haha

Friday morning I rode downtown with hubby to meet my friend for coffee and a museum.

I took a different walking route than normal and discovered this awesome courtyard! I love the design of the garden.

After we had coffee we went to the Museum of Bags and Purses. This place is hysterical. First off there was one of those defibrillators on the wall and they had chairs you could carry around with you if you need a rest! I think the average age of visitors here is about 75-80ish. But, it was actually quite interesting and the inside is GORGEOUS! I have more coming but here is a peek.... 

 These are boxes the kids used to use at school. They would keep them at school until Holiday and use them to write on and store their supplies. It did say they didn't have to be fancy, but the child with the most skilled father often had the nicest case. Parental competition even back then! :)

Then, after that I went home to change and met the hubby at work for dinner and his work had a great New Year's party...it was inside an old church! They had been renovating it for quite some time and finally finished it. I would love to get back inside for some better photos during the day.

Sorry for the crooked picture, I was holding wine, my clutch, and trying to take a photo! haha This is the altar where the DJ was. Those fresco's behind him had all been covered up at one point and they really did a great job uncovering them.

This was the Organ...wow! Just breathtaking! How cool is it we got to party under that?!

That staircase! <3 p="">

Then this guy made an appearance. Fire eater, neat, huh?!

Well, after this, where he ate his last bit of fire it just got weird. Like really weird. Like totally freaking me out weird and I can't relive the experience weird. But, ya know, it was entertainment so we just had more wine to get us through ;)

After that we were going to go to a party at a different club but the wind was so bitter and cold that we came home and drank hot chocolate. haha

Then Saturday we woke up to this gem of a day:

The wind eventually blew our neighbors shed over! Thank goodness nothing was in it, but now where will the birds bathe?! 

So, instead of doing anything we stayed in and drank copious amounts of coffee...I mean seriously, I had like 4 cups on Saturday! ha!

We played a little Ohana Mana...this is a favorite for sure!

Sunday was a little more chilled. I took the kiddo to cheerleading, came home to grocery shop and clean up house a little, then once the kiddo was home we decided to go to a movie! I will to a write up eventually but we have unlimited movie passes so we can go to the movies as many times as we'd like in a month for just the cost of our pass, which is an incredible deal and since we don't have cable we do movies! 

We actually got the nice metro this time ;) haha

I found the movie really helped break up the Sunday blues. I think we will do it again next Sunday too! 

How was your weekend? Do you get the "Sunday blues" in your house too? How do you deal with it?

Menu Plan Monday 2015 #3

Happy Sunday y'all! I was slacking last week...we had company in town, I got to catch up with friends. It was a great week but left little time for me to do my usual weekly stuff!

I will say we are starting the 2nd full week of the year and I do NOT feel like I have done much toward reaching the goals I set forth for myself this year and it is making me totally anxious! So, this week, I change that.

Last Week Workout Review
Monday: Speed and agility
Tuesday: Back to core
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Vertical Plyo
Friday: Off (I did do a lot of dancing and walking though)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Game day and relief

This last week was just a bit off. I felt off. Today though I am back at it, pulled a double with Asylum game day and the stretching dvd relief. I even ran two miles...I did a warm up of one mile, then before relief I went out and did a second mile.

This week's planned workouts:
Monday: Back to core plus 2 mile run
Tuesday: Strength and 2 mile run
Wednesday: Relief plus 2 mile run
Thursday: Speed and agility
Friday: Vertical Plyo
Saturday: Strength and 2 mile run
Sunday: 2 mile run and relief

This week I have lots to accomplish.

• 2 projects I want to complete for the blog 
• 2 projects to complete to get me a step closer to a businessish goal
• I will pick back up on studying my Dutch, at least an hour a day
• I will start reading The Poet's Wife

Breakfast

Acai Bowl x2 (recipe to come)

Sweet potato pancakes and mushroom sausage x2

Oatmeal

Leftovers or omelettes

Oatmeal

• For prep I have the acai juice frozen already so it just has to be taken out in the morning. Sunday I will make granola, pancakes, the mushroom sausage, and a big pot of oatmeal. I will divide it all up into smaller containers so it is all ready to go.

Lunch

Apple/pb wrap (recipe to come)x2

Veggie Stir Fryx2

Leftovers

Soup and sandwiches

Snacks of smoked meat, bread, cheese

Salad

• I will prep one big salad ahead for the week, plus one flavored salad I've been interested in trying. The veggie stir fry will be put together after Sunday dinner from leftovers this past weekend. The apple/pb wrap will be made fresh those mornings so the apple doesn't brown too much.

Dinner

Monday: Broccoli fritters, burger sliders, rice, healthy fried apples

Tuesday: Maple baked lentils and sweet potatoes with toast, baked potato and chicken for hubby

Wednesday: Triple lentil soup with quinoa bites

Thursday: BBQ chicken/bbq mushroom cauliflower mix with rice

Friday: Chicken fingers/veggie fingers with fries

Saturday: Tacos and salad

Sunday: Chicken wings/cauliflower "wings" and pizza

• The kiddo and I are going mostly meatless. Hubby is not, so there will always be a protein cooked at each meal. All my dinners I make fresh the day of as I feel that dinner is a special meal time and want everything to be as fresh and as warm as possible.

The other day I was talking to a friend about feeling down about taking care of the house. A few years ago, right after we moved to Canada I was feeling off when it came to taking care of the house. Just lazy and not really wanting to do much, basically I felt overwhelmed by all the things to do. Well, one day when I was browsing the library, I found and checked out the book: Hip Home Ec: Get Crafty. This really viewed the way I took care of my home and my family and really was an inspiration to me. If you aren't feeling totally into organizing and doing all those home improvement things check out this book, I bet it will really change your attitude!

Well, that is what I have going on this week. What about you?

Linking up over at Mommy Run Fast, Jill Conyers, and I'm an Organizing Junkie.

New Years Eve/Day Recap!

New Year's Eve was definitely one of the highlights of 2014. Some friends from our home town were visiting so we all bought tickets to a local club that serves a full menu and then they have dancing after dinner. 

Escape is normally one of my favorite places during the day, on a nice day to sit outside and have a drink and enjoy Amsterdam. I had never actually had anything to eat there, I was pleasantly surprised though! 

The table was adorable. The night's menu and some winter confetti. So fun!

Dislaimer: I didn't take a photo of everything we ate. I honestly forgot some of the time because we were having so much fun!

First course I didn't get a photo of was a duck breast salad...it was delicious!

Next course you could get either beef or fish..I opted for the Cod.

....and I stole the sweet potato puree from hubby's beef plate haha

Next we got some sort of bubbly something or other....I'm guessing this was a bit of cava. Whatever it was made me extremely bloated! Ugh.

Last came dessert...it was "sparkling"

Sorry, I know it is blurry, but how cool are all those desserts on "fire"! It was pretty hard to breathe in the room though after these went out haha

The full dessert was a chocolate moose with a white chocolate ice cream rolled in white chocolate shavings and some sort of fudge cake with nuts. It was very delicious.

After this we went upstairs to the club part for dancing. It was packed and hot but we had a great time!

Our one friend is ridiculously tall, I stole this picture from him. haha

Such a fun night. I won't post the picture we had someone take of the four of us just before we left at 2am...we were so sweaty it looked like we'd just done a full workout! ha! But, felt great and was such a fun way to bring in the new year.

New Year's Day we decided to make use of our unlimited movie passes and went to see Interstellar, which was fantastic! ...and since I was feeling lazy we went out to eat too.

These were the spiciest meatballs I have ever eaten. It said they came in a spicy tomato sauce but failed to mention there were also giant red pepper flakes in the meatballs as well. ha!

Somewhere under all that cheesy goodness is a vegetable lasagna ;)

Then, on the way home hubby stopped and picked us all up some mini Ben and Jerry's to nosh on while we cuddled in bed. 

Such a great way to start off the new year...now though we are back to reality...

....which isn't so bad.

Now, since it is the new year, lets talk workouts!

January 1st I was supposed to start Insanity Asylum, but I was tired so I took a "rest day" haha but, here is what Jan 2nd on has looked like:

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: Speed and Agility

Saturday: Back to Core

Sunday: Vertical Plyo

Monday: Speed and Agility

Tuesday Back to core

Today: Vertical Plyo

*there is a Strength DVD I am supposed to be doing but I don't have a proper band so I need to pick one of those up. asap. Here is a break down of all the DVD's I've done so far and what I think of them. It is important to note I have completed all of the P90X series multiple times and I have done Insanity 5 times, so some of my opinion(s) may need to be taken with caution:

Rest Day: was awesome haha

Speed and Agility: It was tough, but seemed just like a tiny bit more advanced version of insanity. The moves were a bit more advanced, loved the progression moves like in and outs where you'd start on the first rung of the ladder then move to the second and then the third. I thought that was a great way to measure your movement and go from easy to advanced.

Back to core: This one may have been my favorite. I still didn't think this one was super difficult. It starts off with three different types of jumping jacks, all of them working the back. After the jumping jacks you moved on to monkey squats...I LOVE these things. I could do them all day every day (ok, probably not but they are my favorite exercise haha). The reverse planks at the end I found the most difficult move of the workout. There are some one legged bridge moves, no matter how in shape I am these kill my hips so I modify them. I do a few and then just do regular glute bridges. I figure no reason to injure myself over one move. I will say though the more I practice doing the one legged glute bridges the stronger my hip gets! I used to only be able to do one then I'd throw my hip out of whack and couldn't do any thing for weeks, but now I can do four before I feel a "pull" and know I should stop..so YAY!

Vertical Plyo: I am pretty sure this is the DVD where Shaun-T lost his freaking MIND! I found it EXTREMELY difficult..could be too I was just exhausted from the other days and was surprised by how much more advanced the moves could get. I cannot express how insane this workout is. So you know power jumps where your legs are wide you squat down and jump up both knees coming up and feet off the floor? Well, here you do one legged ones of those. Yeah, those are insane, you have to be really, really, really careful. At the end as I am flinging myself all over the mat during one move I was totally regretting saying any of these workouts seemed "easier" than I imagined. 

So, that is what my week has looked like...what have you been eating, and how have you been moving?

P.S. I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for WIAW, come on over and check out the party ;)

Menu Plan Monday 2015 #2

This week we have a friend visiting and I am catching up with my friends after the long holiday break so there will be a lot of eating out, will have to make sure I make good choices!

Breakfast options:

Acai Bowl

Smoothie

Oatmeal

Cereal

Lunch options:

Me: leftovers, superfood salad X2, eat out x2

Kiddo: fruit and fries, veggie wrap x2, apple pb wrap x2

Saturday: Pulled bbq chicken/bbq mushroom sandwiches with vegan creamed spinach, salad, and any leftovers

Sunday: Muffins, coffee, fruit

Dinner options:

I say options here because with a friend in town this may  not go 100% as planned.

Cheese burgers/bean burgers with apple sauce and grilled tomatoes

Tacos/veggie tacos with salad

Chicken wings/baked cauliflower with rice and a salad

Pizza with salad and bread

The "empty days" will be out to eat.

Fitness is going well. I started Insanity Asylum Vol 1 on the 1st so here is my workout schedule this week:

Monday: Speed and agility

Tuesday: Back to core

Wednesday: Strength

Thursday:Vertical Plyo

Friday: Game Day

Saturday: Back to core

Sunday: Relief

I will talk more about the program in my What I Ate Wednesday post as this program is super crazy and deserves some serious attention!

So, what are you making this week?

P.S. Make sure to join the party over at Mommy Run Fast, Jill Conyers, and I'm an Organizing junkie.