Monthly Archives: September 2011

Sep 28 2011
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blogs i'm loving

paleo love

I am addicted to keeping up with different paleo blogs to the point where my favorites list isn’t even convenient anymore.  It would probably take me less time to type in the different web addresses than to scroll through my massive list of paleo blogs.  Having said that, I absolutely love discovering new and interesting blogs.  Be sure to check these out and I’ll be featuring more blogs periodically.  Share the love people!

The Paleo Project

I probably love this blog purely for the fact that about 20% of Jenna’s posts are about her Grampa.  She is super funny and blogs about all sorts of topics, not strictly paleo.  It is such a refreshing blog with a truthful outlook on all things “life” and I really look forward to her posts.  Check out her blog for paleo recipes, cheat recipes, Grampa, and much more!

Paleo Project home page

PaleOMG

Honestly, I am a bit jealous that I didn’t come up with this name myself! Anyways, Juli has a great blog with tons of paleo recipes! Not to mention, she is quite funny…and RIPPED.  The girl is seriously fit.  Check out her blog for so many new ideas if you are in a dinner rut!

PaleOMG homepage

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Sep 26 2011
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life, paleo in madrid, random things i eat

still on the hunt

Ok, I know you all are sick of hearing about my inability to find coconut oil in Madrid.  And if you follow me on twitter, I’m sure you already have your mouse ready to close this page.  But seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, I am entering into my last week of TEFL school so soon enough my blog posts might be a bit more exciting since I won’t be eating like a college student.  I can’t wait to have some money in the bank!  Although I have enjoyed not working….tough call.  Sugar daddy? Are you out there?  Tweet me.

Also a part of my hunt through Madrid was to find a good hot sauce.  I was seriously addicted to Frank’s Red Hot Sauce back in the states and have been seriously missing it.  I did find this asian hot sauce that nearly killed me when I put it on my chicken.  But sometimes there is an adrenaline rush that comes with putting hot sauce on food so I enjoyed every bite!

Here are some pictures of some things I’ve been eating.

tomatoes

I am really trying to force myself to like tomatoes. My plate looks prettier with them, don't you think? Omelet on the other hand could be prettier.

dinner

random dinner: chicken thigh, cailiflower, sauteed veggies, and weird spanish sausages I was testing out (they were okay, but won't repurchase)

I did do a fun tourist day and posted all about it on my other blog!  Check it out!

 

Sep 26 2011
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living in madrid, TEFL

tourist day

So after nearly a month living in Madrid, I finally did something touristy on Sunday.  I went for a three-hour walking tour throughout the city center that hit all the big landmarks.  Oh, and it was free!  It was a great day and I really enjoyed the tour.  The guide was from Australia and hilarious!  Here are a few pictures from the tour:

I hope you all enjoy the photos for now.  This is my last week of TEFL school so after that I am a free girl unemployed.

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Sep 23 2011
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random things i eat

force-feed your way to success

Today was a very big milestone in my Paleo life.  I ate 5 cherry tomatoes.

I hate tomatoes with a passion.  I always wished  I liked them and even tried multiple times to force myself to eat them, but it was a lost cause.  Today during our lunch break in school we were all talking about the different foods here in Spain that taste different or better than back home.  Obviously I mentioned the eggs (because let’s be honest here, I am addicted) and other people mentioned things like tuna or apples.  At one point, someone mentioned tomatoes as being one of the few things they think taste different in Spain.  She made it very clear that she hates tomatoes back home (the UK for her) but for some reason, she liked them here.  I had to give it a shot.  I am determined to conquer the tomato!!

So I bought a little box of cherry tomatoes.  ‘Start small’ I thought to myself.  I took 5 little babies out and cut them in half, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkled with sea salt and oregano.  If I was going to try these on my own free will, they better be dressed properly.

spanish tomatoes

Spanish cherry tomatoes with EVOO and Balsamic vinegar

Shockingly, they weren’t that bad (which is a huge step from ‘the taste of tomatoes makes me want to vom’) and I ate them all! I will be eating the rest of the container in order to force myself to like tomatoes.  I did it with broccoli so I don’t see why it can’t happen again.

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Sep 23 2011
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life

simplicity

I pass this brick every morning and every afternoon on my way to and from school.  I can’t help but smile every time I see it.

don't ever forget!

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Sep 22 2011
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life, paleo in madrid

best/worst day ever.

The picture below will explain why I had the best day ever.  For the purposes of this blog, you can find the translation in the caption.

manteca de coco - coconut butter

manteca de coco - coconut butter

“Are you kidding me?!?!?! I can’t find coconut oil anywhere in this damn city, but I can find coconut butter??!!!!!”

Well my excitement was quickly brought to a screeching stop when I looked a bit closer…

you've got to be kidding me

€€€€

“you’ve got to be kidding me…”

For those of you who aren’t up to date with the current exchange rates, €18.51 roughly equates to $25.  I will never complain about the Artisana $11 jar ever again!  However, I have decided that I will splurge on this item at some point (most likely my first paycheck, let’s be real here).

In other news….well there is no other news.  I am finishing my last week of TEFL school which you can read more about here.  TEFL school has been occupying most, if not all, of my time the past three weeks so that’s why I have been so boring on this blog.

I have had some fun going on small excursions throughout the city to find certain foods I like.  I forget how convenient the United States is.  I can walk in to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods (if I put in a bit of overtime that week) and get everything I need in one stop.  In Madrid, you have to find your people.  For example, I have a particular vegetable man that I like to visit to get vegetables (obviously) and he sells a lovely brand of coconut milk so eloquently branded as “Snob Crema de Coco”.  I also visit a certain market for eggs and another for coconut flakes and specialty organic items.  The little ‘alimentacion’ (similar to a convenience store) next to my apartment sells all the good dark chocolate.  I wave at the store owner, Angel, but I try not to go in otherwise I will find myself two hours later with chocolate all over my face (can you say addict???).  I am still looking for a good meat shop that I like as well as stores that sell my beloved coconut products.

Much like the rest of the world, it’s all about who you know here in Spain.  But I won’t tell you where my vegetable man is.  Sometimes you have to be selfish with your secrets.

random dinner

dinner tonight: mashed cauliflower, sauteed vegetables, and roasted chicken breast (I impressed my roommates by cooking a whole chicken)

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Sep 19 2011
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paleo in madrid

missing my kitchen.

I am having serious withdrawals from my gorgeous kitchen back in the States.  I miss my unscratched non-stick pans, my brand new refrigerator all to myself, my dishwasher, my large pantry space…all of it really.  It is really hard learning to share kitchen space with two other people.  Not to mention the space is significantly smaller than my kitchen back home.  I just wish that my roommates didn’t like to cook so I could enjoy it all to myself.

Anyways, sorry for the depressing start!  I hope everyone is doing well.  I had a good weekend I guess (as good as homework and projects on a weekend can get).  I finally found a local market that sells coconut cream so we are back in business when it comes to my coffee.  Yes, my addiction has relapsed once more but I am giving myself until the end of TEFL school to enjoy it freely.  It is just part of the culture here so I am trying to immerse myself *cough cough*.

As for food, it hasn’t really changed much.  I am finding it hard to be creative these days due to lack of storage space to cook leftovers or lack of ingredients I am used to cooking with back in the states.  It will just take some getting used to.  For now, this is a good depiction of what I have been eating lately.  Looks like shit but tastes amazing.

mashed cauliflower, ground beef, garlic, onions, red pepper, spinach and mushrooms

Also, be sure to keep up with my other blog where I talk about living in Madrid and basically everything unrelated to food.

Sep 19 2011
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teaching, TEFL

harry potter and the prisoner of TEFL school

I’m pretty sure I have mentioned in a previous post that I was assigned the topic of Harry Potter for one of my lessons this week.  I obviously can not be bothered to check, so if I haven’t mentioned it, well, there you have it.  Allow me to go into a bit of more detail regarding the specifics of the assignment.  The actual topic (word for word) is this:

“Harry Potter:  Have you seen the most recent movie?  What did you think of the movie?  What was your favorite scene?  Would you see the next one when it comes out?”

First of all, I have never seen the movies.  Secondly, I have also never read any of the books.  And third, to my knowledge, there will not be another movie coming out from this series.  Anyways, as you can imagine, I spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday agonizing over this ridiculous topic and practically pulling my hair out trying to come up with some sort of cohesive plan.  It wasn’t until about 11:30 last night that I made any sort of headway.  Needless to say, I was absolutely dreading the class this afternoon and was completely lacking confidence.  Given the phrasing of the topic, I was lead to assume that at least one person in my class would have seen this movie and have some sort of opinion on it. Boy, was I wrong.  Not only had no one in the class seen the movie or read the books, one fine gentleman named Enrique told me that he hated Harry Potter so much it made him want to fall asleep.  This all came to the surface within the first five minutes of my fifty-minute class.

“fuck.”

The seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours (or however the saying goes).  Basically, it was a horrible disaster and it felt like a plane spiraling downwards, engulfed in flames, and hitting everything in its way before crashing into the ground.  At least that’s how it felt to me.  My feedback session with the moderator went surprisingly better than I had expected.  Apparently, the fact that I stuck to my written lesson plan to a T and didn’t waiver was extremely impressive in her eyes given my distaste for the assignment.  Looking back on it and putting it into context, I don’t know why I was stressing about it so much.  Yeah, the topic was complete shit.  But at the end of the day, it’s just teaching English.  And if there is anything I have perfected in this life, it is speaking English.  Or just talking in general…

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Sep 15 2011
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life, paleo in madrid, workouts

huevos and nuts.

I have been so busy with school this week that I have totally neglected to take any photos of food I’ve eaten or anything like that.

I am still trying to figure out this new lifestyle when it comes to meal time and meal composition.  I have been really hungry at meal times (like talking-stomach hungry) which I am not used to.  Also, I have had a serious snack attack and nuts have been the culprit!  I think it is due to the increase in cardio I have been doing like walking everywhere and not getting a good pattern on my workouts.  I have been running a lot, not because I like it, but because I haven’t been able to find a good space or time to do my usual body weight workouts.  I figure something is better than nothing, right?  What do you think?

Oh yeah, the ‘huevos’ part of this post.  The eggs in Spain are the freshest and most flavorful I have ever tasted.  Ever.

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Sep 15 2011
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living in madrid, TEFL

the “schwa” is a bit of a slut

(little phonetics lesson for you there.)

So I am nearly halfway through my TEFL course and ohmygod I am exhausted.  It’s like I have just completely lost focus during this week!  Unfortunately for me, losing focus is not accepted in a course like this so I just keep moving along.  I have so many projects/lesson plans/flash cards/materials/papers coming up that I literally can not see the end in sight.  I guess I can find solace in the fact that I am halfway through after tomorrow. However, I must mention that I am really not looking forward to my upcoming assigned topics for the next two class I teach: time travel and Harry Potter.

Aside from that, my social life (what minimal life there is) is going great.  My roommates are turning out to be even better than I expected and I am really enjoying their company when I come home from a long day.  Also, my classmates are incredible.  It is amazing how close we have all become in the short time we have spent together.  I am really loving learning more about all of them every day.  I can’t wait for our graduation night together!

Random fact:  Contact solution costs €8.50.  Do the math.

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