A perfect summer weekend

Saturday morning LT and I decided to ride bikes. Too bad we didn't get started until 10:25 am when the temp was in the upper 90s!

Our biking gear. LT and I have custom ear molds for our Ipods made by mua! =) Yes I know, where are the helmets? We need to get some. Shame on us!

Thanks for airing up my tires babe!

His and Hers.  The ride was awesome! Next time I am going to bring the camera. The views of the waters were amazing. We rode for 2 hours,  roughly 12 miles. Peew... we were worn out. I know for some people that's nothing but we were exhausted! It felt great at the same time!

For lunch I made Peach "pizzas". I made mine on Ezekial bread. YUM!

Yummy gooey pesto! My best pesto batch ever!

LT's Peach pizza is on  a bagel. He doesn't like the Ezekial bread. Yes I agree... Crazyness!

I like the presentation of the bagel Peach Pizza better than the Ezekial Peach Pizza. =)


Peach Pizza
Pizza Crust, tortilla or bread
Store bought or homeade pesto
Peaches, sliced
Tomatoes, sliced
S&P


Directions: Toast or warm your bread. Spread a thick layer of pesto. Layer tomatoes and peaches. S&P to taste.  Very simple but soo good!


Ashley's Pesto
I don't really measure my ingredients so these are very rough guesses. Taste the pesto as you go and modify amounts. I will make better measurements next time I make it and post it. 
1/2 C Fresh basil
1 C Baby spinach
1/2 C Roasted Almonds
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1 T Italian seasoning
 2 T Garlic powder (I like a lot of garlic)
S&P
About 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (evoo)


Throw everything into a food processor except the evoo. Process until crumbly. Drizzle evoo while processing until the pesto is creamy but not oily. I like it like the consistency of crunchy peanut butter.

After lunch, Victoria, Dominic, LT and I headed to Morton's Market for a beer tasting event. It was a lot of fun. I ran into a hearing aid patient of mine. He and his wife are super nice. They introduced us to a younger couple who is in the same field as LT. We might get together with them sometime. The woman invited me to an event on Wednesday in Venice. I love meeting new people!

Me, LT, Victoria and Dominic

After the tasting, we went to Simons for dinner. They were out of the Raw Lasagna. =(  I had Vegan Split Pea soup and a Veggie Panini. Very yummy!

Sunday morning was church. I really look forward to going to church. It's so nice to be able to honestly say that! =)
We are on a series called 24/7. So far it is awesome.  Overview of Series: Real Faith, Real Time, it's all about what a relationship with Christ looks like day in and day out. Each week we're going to look at a part of the book of James. James is all about how real faith works in real time, every day.
Session 1: Real Pain.
Pastor Larry talked a lot about failures and joys.
"If any of you lacks widsom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1: 5
This verse comforts me and challenges me. I love knowing that God will always be there for me but it's scary for me to give up all control.
Right now I am struggling to figure everything out. I love my career. I love helping people hear. I just feel like I need to take it a step further and I'm not sure what direction I want to take. One day I hope to be a Doctor of Audiology. I pray that God will guide me there if that is what he has in his plans for me.

After church we headed to Daquri Deck and then Siesta Key's Beach.

Keith and Karen are visiting us from Texas. Haven't seen them in 16 years. Crazy!

Cheyenne, Kade and Cole. Such sweeties.

Ang and Ricky. Hugs!

Siesta Keys is one of the whitest sand beaches in USA. And it's only 30 mins from my house. =)

Kade and Cold built a hammer head shark in the sand. Great job!

Hanging out at the beach is always fun!

For dinner, we went to Crows Nest.

The picture is no good but this is the Roasted Tomato Polenta with Oyster Mushrooms and Spinach. It's so yummy. I should make Polenta at home more often.

Cole made me these out of Wiki Stix (candle wax). So Sweet!

Karen, Me and Ang.

LT, Ricky and Keith.

It was a great weekend. I am so blessed to have such great people in my life!


Hugs to everyone who reads. I hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you later!

Friday!!

I woke up feeling really good! Work should go by pretty quickly and then we have volleyball with friends tonight. =) I am super exceited to be playing again. Back home, in Dallas, I was playing vball 2-5 times per week. Indoor, sand, grass and pool. It was so much fun. I got pretty rusty over the last 2 1/2 years, which could explain the 3 lost games (again!) on Tuesday, but I can feel that I am getting back into it pretty quickly. Plus, I don't think I am the weakest link but I wont go there. ;)
I have a few exercises I need to start doing in order to jump higher. I'm not sure what they are called, probably something like "Hamstring Hell" or "Butt Beating" but basically you jump into a lunge and the jump straight up and swich your legs into a reverse lunge. Trust me, it hurts. My goal is to work up to 2 sets of 10, which is recommended by a girl on my team who learned this move playing vball in college.
Tonight is all about hanging out and having fun. Everyone brings a cooler and we listen to music. Maybe even go out afterwards. Totally looking forward to it!
Tomorrow is pretty much wide open, which I love. We get to do whatever we want. I know our good friends, Victoria and Dominic want to go with us to Beer Fest at Morton's Gourmet Grocery in Sarasota. That should be a lot of fun. Basically it's a beer tasting instead of a wine tasting. They have crazy stuff like blueberry beer and pumpkin beer.

Here is a picture of us at Beer Fest 2009. We made it into the paper because the reporter girl has a crush on LT. She's gone up to him 3 times saying, "You look like superman, he he. (insert big goofy smile with a little eye batting)." I don't mind though, it got me in the paper 3 times too.
I want to do something active tomorrow. Maybe ride bikes on the Legacy trail near the intercoastal or walk the Sarasota Bay bridge. I wish I was brave enough to swim laps in the ocean. Not even close to doing that yet. Sharks!!

Sunday is church and then possibly hang out with Ricky and Ang. They have some friends in town that I knew when I was little. I don't remember much about them but that should be fun. They are true Texans and it's always nice to be around that. I miss Texas! OOOOHHHHH! Great news. My Dad is coming to visit me. Soon! Sometime in September. I am so excited. Haven seen him since Christmas time. LT has not met my Mom or my Dad or any of my family except my sis Hayley. Well, that's not true... Ricky, who is my 2nd Dad, lives here and we hang out with him and Ang all the time. They are definitely family.

Ah... such an amazing weekend ahead.

I wanted to post what I made for dinner last night...

My plan was to make Peach Pizzas since my basil is growing like crazy! I've already made it twice in the last 2 weeks and I still can't keep the basil trimmed. LT and I love some Peach Pizzas! Yum!

So I have my pretty basil in the Food Processor. Somehow the next step ended up like....

LT called and said he wanted to surprise me with dinner. =)

He got Vegan Red Curry, Thai Hot, with brown rice and Vegan Pad Thai, Mexican Hot. He's a spice wimp. Kiss babe!

It was nice not to have to cook. Dinner was delish and of course I love when LT surprises me.

We watched our Netflix movie "Daybreakers." Creepy, not scary, but great movie. I love vampire, zombie and warewolf movies. Does that make me weird? I blame my Dad! He always let me watch scary movies when I was little.  I also blame Michael Jackson. "Caused it's a thriller, thriller night, Cause no ones going to save you from the Beast about to strike".... humming the song still. Love it! Miss MJ's music. Too bad he got so strange. =(

Well, I am running late to work now. Best get a move on. Hugs!

Island Hopping

Finally I am posting about my trip to the Keys. We had a lot of fun but honestly I would not go for 4 or 5 days. I think a long weekend in Key West would be fun. Luckily we were with great friends, otherwise it might not have been as fun.

Ang and I are very excited to get our vacations started!

Cute!

Ricky and Ang!

We stopped along the way at Islamorada to enjoy the best Margarita ever made!

We got our "southernmost point" pic. =)

Margaritaville. The margaritas came close to the ones we had in Islamorda.

Pizza joint.

LT is so sweet. Incase you can't read it... "May the sunrise greet our love and may it never see a sunset." =)

I'm using a scary staple gun to secure our $1 to the wall.

Buddy! We met this cute guy right before going snorkeling.

Sporting a neon yellow life jacket.

Ricky and Ang thoroughly enjoyed the snorkeling. I think they were the last on the boat. LOL!

My sexy man!

Beautiful Sunset at Mallory Square

Hemingway House -the first swimming pool in Key West and the only pool within 100 miles in the late 30's. Pauline Hemingway (2nd of 4 wives) spent $20,000 (the house only cost $8000) to have the deep well-fed pool built for her husband, while he was away as a Spanish Civil War correspondent in 1938. When Hemingway returned, he was reportedly unpleasantly surprised by the cost, and exclaimed: "Well, you might as well have my last cent." ...

...This penny is embedded in concrete today near the pool.

Our good friends, Jen and Brian were on a cruise that stopped at Key West so we got to hang out with them for a little while.

Sunset at our resort.

We had a great time. It was awesome spending time together. I love you baby!

I loved being on vacation and relaxing. Luckily I was with super supportive people because eating was not easy. We spend a great deal of time looking at menus and trying to find places that I could eat. It's amazing how many places do not have anything vegan. Not even salads.  Nothing was delish enough to take pics but I ate plenty of salads, wraps and french fries. My favorite places were Margaritaville and Willy T's which both had vegan burgers. Made ordering so much easier. Not the healthiest but I was happy with easy.

So I've been home for 5 days and it feels like it's been weeks. Vacation can be really spoiling. Sleeping in, drinking coffee in bed, having a casual morning, naps in the afternoons, hanging out with great friends, laying poolside, yummy cocktails.... I could get used to it very quickly. I think LT agrees because he is sitting next to me on his laptop searching for cheap airfares. LOL!

Well that is all I have for today. Good night!

Dinner made by Luke

I know I need to post about my vacation in the Keys but I'm too tired tonight. I promise it will be posted soon!

We have Luke for a 4 day weekend since this is his last week before school starts. He loves to help cook dinner. It's really a great way for he and I to hang out. I just love it!

LT bought me a box of Kid Friendly recipes when we first started living together. Luke loves to flip through all the recipe cards and pick out what dinner and desserts he likes to make. Tonight we made Pizza Pasta Bake which calls for cheese, peperoni and beef. No problemo! Thank goodness for Lightlife products and soy cheese.

Luke had no clue! =)

He did most of the work!



Well the dish turned out really well. I know it is super processed but when you have a 6 yr old who hates veggies and me being vegan, you have to improvise. He told me he didn't like onions and I was like, "well I bought the kind that don't taste like anything." Ha ha. Lol! He went for it! Yay. He ate whole wheat pasta, tomatos and onions. I'm happy! I tried to get him to eat a smoothie with a banana for dessert and that was not gonna fly with him. Ok so I wont push my luck.

Well that's all for tonight. Zzzzzz...

Asheville Part Two

Ok so I will try to get past telling you about our lunch at Laughing Seed. It will be hard since it was so awesome! ;)

After lunch we walked around downtown...


Bele Chere was going on all weekend which made the streets packed with people and booths. We were there pretty early, which is when this pic was taken so you can't see how crowded it was.



Yay for puppies. We went behind the pool to see the dogs and there were kennels with plush bedding, a fan blowing and fresh water. Glad to see the dogs are being treated well.



Some art work. Not really sure what it is or why it is there. Cool looking though. I don't really understand abstract art. Hmmm...Wish I were more artsy fartsy like my sister and my mom.



This was the cutest street in downtown. I think LT said it was called Wall Street. It just so happens to be the street Laughing Seed is on.



It was a super hot day which we were a tiny bit bummed about. LT walked through the misters to cool off. I was too worried about having hair like Monica did on that episode of Friends.




Us! <3

We stopped by Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria to taste a couple local brews. I told the bartender I liked wheat beers so he picked out something for me that I have no clue what the name of it was.


Here's the bartender. LT asked if I would like him to grow a beard like that, I said, "sure, if we lived in the mountains."
Ha!

Here are some of the beers on tap.

On the way out I noticed Soy Cheese on the menu. I checked if the pizza crust was vegan, and it was!! We have dinner plans Sunday night!

After Bele Chere we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up for dinner. I didn't take any pictures of dinner at Zambra but it was a little tapas place with great ambiance. The food was really good and there were lots of choices, surprisingly.

Day 2
We headed out early to the Biltmore estate.

Look at the size of this house. 250 rooms in the house. We weren't allowed to take pics on the inside of the house. We listened to an audio tour, which was awesome because you could go as quickly or as slow as you wanted through the house. There was no AC since the house was built in 1895 but the windows were strategically placed where you almost always had a nice breeze and view of the mountains.


Me at the gardens.


LT at the gardens.

There were several gardens on the property. We only visited a couple and they were amazing. I can't imagine how much work goes into keeping up the gardens. For some strange reason, we didn't take any pics. I think we were in awe and didn't think about it.



Here we are after the wine tasting. We bought a glass of our favorite, Pinot Nior, to end our afternoon at the biltmore.

Sunday evening was nice an relaxing. We headed over to Barley's for some Pizza.

LT had the vegetarian pizza.

I had 2 slices of soy cheese, artichoke, sundried tomatoes and spinach. The crust was awesome!
After dinner...

Groves Park Hotel. I wish we could have stayed there. LT and I want to stay here next time and spend a day at the spa.

For some crazy reason, we decided to visit a local spot where people claim it's haunted.



You can't see it very well but it's a bridge up in the mountains where there is nothing around. No lights. No nothing. Click on the pic to see the bridge better.

Story is, a woman lost her daughter in a house fire so she came down to this bridge and hung her self. There are claims that she walks around in a long white dress asking people if they have seen her daughter. People also claim they have car problems when they park under the bridge, such as flickering lights and battery failure. Luckily we did not experience any of that but we did see some headlights appear out of nowhere and just as quickly disappear even though there were no streets to turn on. Weird!
I told LT that he needed to hurry up and get us out of there. LOL!

Day 3 - Last day. =(
Vacation was winding down and I was very sad.


We spent the morning walking the campus of LT's college, Montreat. It is a gorgeous place. All the buildings are super old with ton's of character. He is truly blessed to have had such an awesome college experience.

We went hiking up a local trail called the Lookout trail. This is us at the top of the mountain. We are very sweaty!



Here I am huffing and puffing after climbing up the trail at LT speed. I kept up and didn't even slow him down! (breaking my arm while I pat myself on the back)

I loved the hike. I loved the school. I loved Montreat and Black Mountain. I think I preferred this area over Asheville. The mountains are so beautiful!

After cleaning up and checking out of the hotel, we went to Rosetta's Kitchen. It's a close call between Laughing Seed and Rosetta's Kitchen. Both delish!

Ever tried vegan queso?? OMG... I was in heaven. I thought I would never get to eat queso again! Truly a sad story that I live so far away.

The veggie burger was very good.

But not as good as my mash potatoes and gravy. Seriously!?! Gravy? I have to figure out how to make that at home. Along side the potatoes (LOL) was grilled portabello and kale. Also very yummy!

I wanted the Peanut Butter Cake but I was way too full!

Reason to go back, very soon.

Well there are no more photos but basically that was the end. We are excited that this is a short work week and we are off to vacations #2 this weekend. We are going to the Florida Keys. I'll take lots of pics, I'm sure. I am a little bummed that the restaurant choices are pretty much seafood and burgers. I'm packing my trustee foods such as almond butter and apples, just in case there are no vegan friendly meals.

I'll post ya later. LOL. Seriously, I crack myself up. He he.