Five Favorites: Spring Things

Now that spring has officially arrived (HUZZAH!) I would like to take a quick minute and share with you five of my favorite spring time things.

Beer!

I love all the spring seasonals. Heck, you know I am a sucker for any type of good beer year-round but there is something about the spring beers that just make me happy.

My favorite spring  beer I can find locally would definitely be Abita Strawberry. We tend to stock up so we don’t really go without it but once it hits the shelves at the stores its like a celebration for us.

Second place is 21^st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon (yes, I love these fruity beers for spring/summer- they are perfect beach beers) but since we cannot get this CA craft beer here in FL we just have to drink it up on our travels. I am super looking forward to our Atlanta trip in April so I can get my fill.

Also super yummy- Bayou Teche Passionne and Covington Brewhouse Strawberry Ale. Sidenote: out of the close to/maybe more 50 breweries I have been to Bayou Teche is my favorite. If you are ever passing through Arnaudville, LA (we did on our drive from Austin to Pensacola) you should definitely check it out!

Baseball

Yes! Baseball season has arrived and although we didn't get to make it to Phillies spring training this year (insert sad face here) I am super excited for some Pensacola Wahoos games (especially the ones we can bring Gordie to) and maybe even some MLB games on our travels this year. I just love, love, love baseball season.

Books

I love warm weather. I especially love the warm weather on days when I can sneak in some quiet time outside on our swing or just lounge on the beach and curl up with a good book. I have four books I am hoping to read over the next few months;  ‘We’ll Always Have Paris’, ‘It Was Me All Along’, ‘What You Can When You Can’ (#wycwyc) out on April 28^th and the next Jen Lancaster book, ‘I Regret Nothing', out on May 5^th! Hmmmm, April 28^th and May 5^th…I think those books would make great graduation presents, wouldn't you agree?

BBQ

It doesn't take more than a handful of days in the 70’s before E and I stop making meals indoors. It becomes salads or BBQ for dinner every night. No more stews, chili, soup. No more roasting or braising. It’s either cold foods (salads, ice cream) or it’s BBQ. That’s just how we roll. You would think I would probably be limited to what I can have for dinner from the BBQ since I am vegan but you would be wrong. I will BBQ pretty much anything. Yep, there is the standard BBQ fare like veggie burgers or veggie dogs but I will grill up just about anything else I can get my hands on. Some of my faves- grilled mushrooms, potatoes, corn on the cob, eggplant, zucchini, peaches, pineapple slices, onions, peppers….I think you see where I am going with this. I love my fruits and vegetables and I love them even more when they are hot off the grill.

Here are some tips and tricks for grilling vegetables : 5 Tips for How to Cook Grilled Vegetables Perfectly

Beach Days

It won’t be long until our weekends are spent at the beach.  Living on the gulf coast we are spoiled by easy access to some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Spring time means Sundays lounging at the beach with my boys (we do have some dog friendly beaches too), drinking beers, reading books, and taking in as much Vitamin D as possible. I am definitely the happiest and the calmest Dacia when I can devote a day or two to the beach every week.  You would be hard pressed to convince me to ever move north again. I am definitely a beach bum at heart.

What are some of your spring favorites? Are you a beach person or not so much?

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxoxoxox

Wordless Wednesday- Playing Catchup

8/22 to 8/24 in New Orleans- One of our favorite cities

 

By far the best meal of our life @ Square Root

Chef Phillip Lopez personally crafting each of my vegan dishes...

 



Chef Phillip Lopez, Erick and me after an amazing 15 course meal! He even invited us into the kitchen to take a photo with him. Hands down the most amazing restaurant experience of my life! 

 

Labor Day weekend- chillin' in P'cola

 

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxoxo

Five Things Friday

Hooray! It’s Friday! And I don’t know about you but I am certainly looking forward to the weekend.  So much so, I will make it the first thing I talk about in this week’s edition of Five Things Friday.

#1- I live in Pensacola which, for those of you who don’t know, is on the gulf coast of Florida (in the central time zone) about ten miles from the Alabama border. It’s a pretty tiny city but a city nonetheless. I am always impressed with all the fun events going on around town. Tonight is a recurring event that I have yet to attend called hot glass cold brew at the First City Art Center. It is a fundraising event for the center and its programs and includes a hand-blown glass or hand-thrown pottery cup, pizza, beer, live music, live art demos and workshops. I am pretty excited for this event- I have been waiting since November (when I first learned about it) to attend one.  The rest of my weekend will probably a bit more low-key. Tomorrow I have a long list of errands and homework to do and I am also having some furniture delivered so most of my day will be spent on those things. Saturday night will more than likely be spent downtown at one of the bars we like to frequent and then Sunday we are heading out of town to visit E’s family. They live about an hour away and it’s a nice, easy drive. E has a three year old niece who is just the cutest little thing and thankfully she likes me too so I plan on spending a lot of time hanging out with her, playing Angry Birds.  All in all, it should be a really great weekend.

#2 This week was pretty good. Definitely the best one I have had activity wise since the surgery. Tuesday I had my fitness assessment and on Wednesday & Thursday I did the first two runs of the couch to 5K program. Wednesday’s run went really well but Thursday’s did not.  I think a lot of that had to do with the treadmill I was using, the one on Thursday was old and stuck on an incline and I think that was just too much for me. I scaled back as much as I could but afterwards I had some pain in my abdomen which was no bueno. I will try again next week, on the good treadmill, and see how I feel. I may need to opt for more cycling and limit my running if there is still pain. This whole surgery recovery/getting back into the swing of things is all new to me. I don’t know what is a healthy amount of pain/discomfort versus too much pain/discomfort. I know that it is possible for me to have lingering issues years after this surgery so right now I am just trying to figure things out.

#3 I need to get back into my greater than 50% raw diet. This way of eating is ideal for me. I feel really great when I eat pretty much all raw before dinner. I have tons of energy and I really enjoy the foods I eat which make it easy to do. However, it isn’t as easy to do when I am away from home which I was for pretty much every day for the past two weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I still managed to pack my lunches and snacks daily and still ate a decent amount of raw foods just not as much as I would like. So this week, since I plan at being at home most nights, I will try to get back into the swing of it again. Right now I think that is the most realistic plan for me to have- stick to raw before dinner on days/weeks I am home and the rest of the time just do the best I can. I mean ultimately, I can’t beat myself up if I eat oatmeal instead of having a green smoothie…both are really good and healthy options.

#4 On a more personal note…I need dating advice. After being married for so long, I am not really sure how to be a girlfriend. I fear most days I may be too smothering or too overbearing (my words, not his) but I think it is because I am so accustomed to being with the same person day in and day out. I am not really sure if I am doing the whole dating thing right. Also, is dating in your mid-thirties different? I would think it would be. I mean I have way different expectations from a relationship now than I had in my twenties. I would hope that most people my age who are out in the dating world feel the same. Kind of like the whole ‘I don’t have time for BS or head games or drama’ type mindset. I’m too old for that crap. But I do often worry that being totally open about my wants and needs can be a bit overwhelming. But that’s just the way that I am and I doubt I will change it. I guess I really am just looking for some affirmation that being this way is ok because I doubt it is possible for me to be ‘less Dacia’. LOL!

#5 Ok, so in this segment I will actually ask for your advice/input. How do you handle toxic people, especially those ones you cannot (due to circumstances) cut out of your life? Do you have a mantra or meditative phrase or some way to help get you through those frustrating moments? Although I am sure it would feel good to just scream STFU at someone I doubt that is the right way to handle this situation. So, any ideas how to work through a difficult situation with a difficult person?

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for today. I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

Love and hugs,

Dacia

From our last trip to the Abita Brewery...finally got it on there! 

Wordless Wednesday: New Orleans

My apologies to those of you that are also friends with me on FB...I am pretty sure I posted all of these pictures over the weekend. Feel free to ignore this post if you think you have seen enough NOLA pics to last you a lifetime. ;)

ABITA- brewery tour and brew pub

 



 

More Beer!

 

 

FOOD!

 

 

 

LOTS OF FUN!!!