Happy Monday!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It was low key over here. I worked pretty much all day on Friday and when I finally got home around 7:30, I was POOPED! I think I passed out at 9 p.m. #grandmastatus. Saturday I worked in the morning, got a facial in the afternoon, and then Michael made freaking awesome pasta which was immediately followed by an outing for ice cream.  Yesterday we went on a nice walk before the heat was at full force to Maple Acres Farmers Market, a wonderful farm near our place that has all sorts of amazing fresh produce and meat! We bought $8 worth of produce that would have probably been $20 at any grocery store. I'm talking 25 cents for a massive eggplant. And 3 for $1 cucumbers. Shop local - so worth it! If you're in the Philadelphia area or surrounding suburbs I definitely recommend a trip to Maple Acres.

We chilled by the pool, watched the olympics and browsed properties to buy in Italy for the rest of the day. No we're not moving to Italy, but one can dream! If couch lounging was an olympic sport, we would have gotten gold yesterday. And then we had more pasta for dinner last night with homemade marinara...can you tell we really, REALLY want to go back to Italy?!? 

Lazy weekend for the win after a crazy few past weekends.

Chewy Apricot Energy Bars

My friends bought me this new cookbook for my birthday in attempt to motivate me to post more recipes on the blog and it totally worked.

chewyapricotbook

You know I'm all about my power snacks. I just tweaked a few ingredients in the recipe to make it my own and to use up what I had and I absolutely LOVED this recipe. Its chewy, gooey, nutty, crunchy and perfectly sweet. 

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Chewy Apricot Bars via ahealthfulheart.com

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter*
1 apple peeled, cored and coarsely grated
1 2/3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup oat flour**
1/2 cup chopped walnuts***
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 1/2 cups dried apricots, diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8-inch square cake pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper
Heat oil & sugar in saucepan over low until sugar dissolves
Remove from heat & stir in nut butter
Add apple, oats, flour, walnuts, sunflower seeds and mix well
Spoon about 2/3 of mixture into pan
Sprinkle with apricots (press them into mixture) and dot the remaining oat mixture over the apricots in a thin layer
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown
Let cool until almost cold (or else they will crumble apart!) and then cut into 16 squares
Store in fridge for up to 3 days or freeze for later

**Recipe called for almond butter, but I only had PB on hand and it worked great - could use any nut butter!
**Recipe called for brown rice flour but I stuck with oats here
***Recipe called for almonds, again adapted here with walnuts because I love walnuts in baked goods

Hope you all have a great Monday!

XO - Rach

What did you do this weekend?

If you could travel anywhere right now, where would it be?

Hello!! It's been a while, huh? I decided to take a short hiatus from blogging. October has been a very busy month at work, a very busy month in general, and sometimes I just can't do it all.  In addition to work, there's been some really great times this month. One of my best friends, Corinne, came to visit philly, I got to travel to Ohio for work and this weekend we were able to head to the Finger Lakes in New York! Next weekend, I'll leave October with a bang in the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. There's been a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to. 

The Finger Lakes: 1 Day, 8 Wineries

Michael and I left PA on Friday night after work to head up to New York. Our friends Andrew and Lauren invited us to stay at their relative's B&B in Hector, NY, which is right off of Seneca Lake. Oh man. It is GORGEOUS up there. We stayed in Lauren's family's guest house, which resembled a rustic barn. Complete with two horses in the backyard, and a labrador named Maisey, who was the coolest dog ever. 

We started off Saturday morning with a big breakfast and a short hike down to the gorge led by Maisey. Side note - she picked up a semi-fresh deer leg in the woods on the way down. Yum!  After our hike, we quickly showered and got ready for a full day of wine tastings. Around Seneca Lake, there are more than 20 wineries. We made it to 8 of them in a time span of 6 hours...we made pretty good progress! I will say that we tasted so many wines, that I don't remember each one. I have a few absolute favorites and I will explain in pictures. We took a group photo at every stop so that we could look back and remember each winery we stopped at. A full day of wine tasting leads to a blurry memory...who would have thought? The best part about tasting wine in the Finger Lakes...each winery averages about $4 to taste 6 different wines. 

Stop 1: Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars

Lamoreaux was one of my favorites. The wines were all amazing and the view was picture perfect. My favorite wine at Lamoreaux was the 2012 76 West, a Bordeaux blend that combines Cabarnet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Listen to this description: Bright notes of blackberry and blueberries harmonize with aromas of luxurious vanilla and espresso. A classic steak wine or an accompaniment to Roquefort cheese. Um YES PLEASE.

Stop 2: Standing Stone Vineyards

At Standing Stone, we went for a wine and cheese pairing, otherwise known as a match made in heaven. The cheese really changes the way that the wine tastes and it's so fun to try all of the different combinations. My favorite combo at Standing Stone was the Smokehouse Red wine paired with a spicy chipotle cheddar cheese. Lauren noted that she downed a whole bottle of this watching Magic Mike XXL, and I can definitely see why because it's so smooth, so I am now referring to this wine as the Magic Mike Wine. 

Stop 3: Hector Wine Company

Hector Wine Company looked like a classy brewery inside. The atmosphere was great, but to me the wines weren't as memorable as the other wineries we stopped by. They definitely win for best logo design, though - I love it! 

Stop 4: Damiani Wine Vineyards

We stopped for lunch before heading to Damiani Wine Cellars - perfect timing because at Damiami we were able to pair chocolate with the wine for desert! My favorite pairing was the black tea dark chocolate (INCREDIBLE) with the Cabernet Franc. Another match made in heaven. 

Stop 5: Ryan William Vineyards

Ryan William Vineyard might have been my favorite in terms of the tastings. Every single one I tasted was so different and SO amazing. The Chardonnay was incredible. I ended up purchasing a bottle of Pinot Noir Rose´. I usually hate drinking Rose´ because it's way too sweet for me, but this one was a game changer. Had to buy it. The guys even loved it and termed it 'Brose´' 

I don't even know what's going on here.

Clearly excited about my new wine...

Stop 6: Atwater Estate Vineyards

Atwater was awesome. I loved the cozy atmosphere and in addition to the wine tasting, they added on a special treat of a mulled wine tasting at the end. Oh. My. Gosh. Amazing. Can't get much better than heated and spiced wine. Perfect for a winter night. 

Had to buy a shirt to remember this experience. No coincidence that I spent more money as the day went on...shopping feels great when you're a little buzzed until you look at your bank account later! Woops. 

Stop 7: Chateau Lafayette Reneau

Chateau Lafeyette Reneau was beautiful inside will high ceilings and a view overlooking the lake, but these wines were mostly too sweet for my liking with an exception to their Cabernet Sauvignon - it was amazing.

Stop 8: Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards

Hazlitt was by far the most fun. Hazlitt is super quirky inside, with a taxidermy grape weasel on the wall (yes, I thought it was a real animal at first,) and popcorn served to go along with the wine tasting. So great. The wines here were great, too, but the music playing was even better, so I think we were mainly focused on singing out loud and feeling that wine. 

It was a weekend well spent with great company. No 'wining' over here! However, I'm very ready to get back into a routine this week.

CHEERS!!

XO - Rach

Let's chat:

What's your favorite wine?

Bloggers - have you ever needed to take a hiatus from blogging?

How was your weekend?

Happy Monday all! Can you guys believe that tomorrow is September? Ugh. Time goes too fast. Way too fast. I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Mine was great, filled with a lot of my favorite things.

On Friday night Michael and I headed into Center City to go out for a birthday celebration. It was lots of fun and a great start to the weekend. On Saturday morning, being the crazy people that we are, we decided to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to drive to the beach. We wanted to spend ALL day there and had to be early just in case we hit traffic, you know? Rest assured, there is zero traffic from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, NJ on a Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. We got to Brigantine Beach around 7:30, waited for the CVS to open at 8 to get sunscreen, and we were on the beach by 8:15 and stayed until 6. It was PERFECT. Not a cloud in the sky :)

Brigantine Beach is an awesome location if you're anywhere near the Jersey area. It doesn't get too crowded, the sand is super soft, it really looks like a Florida beach AND there's a bar right on the beach. It's pretty perfect!

The full day of sun knocked me out and I got a solid 10 hours of sleep on Saturday night. Woke up Sunday morning ready to tackle my 8 mile run!

My run on Sunday was definitely harder than my 7 miler last weekend, but I keep surprising myself. I seriously thought when I started training for this half marathon that anything more than 5 miles is just going to feel like death, but to be honest, the long runs are my favorite. I think it's mostly because I can sleep in, eat a good breakfast and enjoy the morning. The slow and steady pace is leisurely and although I sweat like a pig, it's just refreshing to run along the river and zone out in my music. I think I'm starting to experience these runner highs.

Next weekend I am going to taper off and do either a 6 or 7 mile run and then the week after I will do 9. I still have a solid 8 weeks before the race, but I am glad I started training earlier because it's giving me confidence that I'll be able to finish the race without dying. Typing about it also helps :)

Now I'm off to work (currently on the train)! I was quite absent from the blog last week so this week I plan to come back strong - I've got a couple recipes on the menu, a workout and ooohh a video! Stay tuned...

XO Rach

What would you like to see more of on this blog? I'm all ears (eyes)!