Thursday, February 7, 2013

Boo age. Yay mole.

Since moving to Seattle, I'm definitely more active than I've typically been, given that I walk a total of about 50 minutes a day to and from work. Yet I've gained about 10 pounds since moving here! I blame that whole slow down of the metabolism thing that comes with age. Apparently this damned age thing means that to simply maintain my weight I have to work out more and eat better? Damn you age, damn you! So in January I started trying to work on this in terms of working out beyond my walk to work and trying to watch what I eat a little bit more.

Now I'm not someone who could ever cut out carbs completely (um, hello Asian?), but I'm just trying to have them for lunch instead of dinner. I probably still have some carbs for dinner a night or two a week, but I'm focusing on a dinner of proteins and veggies the other 5 nights. I've also significantly cut down on dairy intake, though yes I still have cheese now and then. But gone is my habit of 3 or 4 greek yogurts a week.

So these slight eating changes plus working out just 2-3 more times a week means I lost five pounds last month. I need to lose 5 more, would like to lose 10 more, and would love to lose 15 more... though 15 is a stretch. I should probably try to find another yoga and/or pilates studio in order to keep this going. And in the same spirit, I guess I should pass on this new product I saw on the shelves the other day:

It's a little portable compartment with Nutella and bread-sticks. Honestly how could you say no to something so delicious and small and cute?!?! Though I laugh at the name... not the words so much, but the punctuation. Nutella and Go! Though ok, I guess I could get excited enough about Nutella to warrant the exclamation point. Because my love for Nutella is such that this is another viable option:

However given that I passed on the cute Nutella, I did treat myself to a pretty awesome dinner last night. I went to a chef's table tasting with 24 other people in the back room of what many call the best Mexican restaurant in Seattle, La Carta de Oaxaca. It's the type of place where you have abuelas making fresh tortillas in the back. One of their most famous dishes is their mole, a dish many consider to have originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. There were about 5 dishes during this chef's table dinner, but my goodness their mole...

I've never really been a mole fan, as most of the mole I've had has been too sweet. However, I discovered last night that I've just never had really good mole. Their mole was amazing... just such a complex, rich, smoky blend of flavors. When I came home I was intrigued and looked up a recipe online. Check out Rick Bayless's recipe. Twenty seven ingredients! Holy moly! Or is that Holy mole? (Har, Har, I crack myself up.)

I started this post talking about my weight loss and ended it talking about a dinner where I ended up so full that this asian had to pass on tasty rice that was still left on the table (sacriledge!!!).

Sigh.

3 comments:

  1. With a title like "Boo age. Yay mole." I must admit that I thought you were about to talk about a different kind of mole, and was a little confused why you were excited about it (or even writing about it for that matter!).

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  2. Oh my god that recipe. That is the Ragnaros of all moles.

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  3. @Jess: Haha that's actually really funny now that I read it that way.

    @Rades: I know! How insane is that recipe? Just reading it exhausts me.

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