Tourists in Our City {Part Two}

Monday:

• We drove south to Santa Cruz. My new favorite day vaca. Places like this always remind me of my Dad in his surfing, leather pant wearing, blonde hair, beach bumming days. Things slow down and get a little groovy if you know what I mean. 

Mom Deb enjoying the sun...with the rest of Santa Cruz.

This needs a theme song. Learning to skim board.

Beautiful beach North of SC.

Utahans are WHITE. Me and D.

 

 An unscheduled nap. Amazing.

We finally found Tree 9 on the UCSC campus only to be shut down by cut branches.

Turns out there are tons of epic climbing worthy trees. We got over 100ft out of this one.

Tuesday:

• The total San Francisco experience...almost. 
• Golden Gate Park. I think park is perhaps too mild of a word. 
• Haight St (Grateful Dead neighborhood). Danica, Nate and I could have spent a day here. The seediest vintage shops you've ever seen. This area of the City is a completely different animal than the rest. As for Dale and Deb they ventured into a Whole Foods and that was more than enough to satisfy their curiosity about hippies. 
• Lombard St (of course). 
• Coit Tower.
• Ferry Buildings.
• Little Italy. Found an authentic Italian cafe. It was very memorable watching little D's face when the waiter told her they didn't offer ranch as a dressing. 

Snazzy little couple. 

Nate (with the map, of course) and what looks to be his angry teenage hipster wife. 

Wednesday:

• Nate took off and ran the equivalent of a marathon (no big thing). We met him at Lake Chabot. 
• I did a senior style portrait session of Danica. I am pretty excited about the results. Adding a few to my website portfolio.
• The fun comes to an end. I am the biggest boob when it comes to good-byes, but I stayed strong and managed to hold things together (might just be a first). 

It was SO nice having family visit. We're back to missing them. We had an awesome time being tourons with them and we're crossing our fingers that they haven't got their fill of us for the year. 

Tourists in Our City {Part One}

The best thing about March: family visitors & the white coat ceremony. I remember when we first moved to Oakland and the first time I heard about the ceremony. I wasn't sure if time passed the same in the ghetto or not, but as far as I was concerned it was a lifetime away. Well, we made it. And when I say "we" I mean I was there to witness the every-other-month-self-induced-torture-fest when Nate just couldn't help himself and he'd spend the evening reading Mountain Project, revisiting Jeremy Koons' blog, watching ski videos and reminiscing about all of the awesome stuff we "used" to do (his way of telling me how lame we've become). Those were the nights, let me tell you. My combat generally entailed giant symphony bars and tough love. Anyways, I'm so proud of all of the hard work he's done. I'm a lucky girl. "We" made it (1/7 that is) and Nate still has all of his hair. 

Nate & the Hansen Fam. They flew in from Utah for a wonderful 6 day visit.

With Stan. 

Looking forward to seeing more of my fine husband in his new coat.

Celebrating with some Icii's. Dear, wonderful Icii's.

Since we had the fam in town for a week we made a Hansen style agenda of all things amazing to do in the Bay. Unless you've ever experienced a Hansen family Christmas you just can't grasp what I mean when I say "Hansen agenda". At the end of my first Hansen Christmas I remember asking Nate "Did you grow up doing this every year? I feel like I just participated in a 48 hr relay". These people know how to get down and maximize time. So that's what we did, and it's a good thing too because before I could finish cooking breakfast on the first morning Danica was about to crawl the walls.

Saturday:

• Had a gorgeous drive on the coast.
• Bouldered at Stinson Beach.
• Explored some army forts near the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Girls went to SF for some shopping. Oh, yes we did. 

Can't wait to go back at low tide for a bouldering session.

  

I don't remember the last time someone said "Let's do a silly face". It shows.

Waiting for Bart. Best people watching to be had.

Sunday:

At the ruins of what used to be large community pools/baths on the beach in SF.

He came up with this pose all on his own. Saucy casual, I say.

This is all Nate here. It was quite the series.

That's the beginning of our spring break. I'm just warming up. 

Eat Your Heart Out

March was good to us. I got to watch Nate pull out the backcountry ski goods (finally!) for a trip with Jeremy, Morgan, Cody, and Rick. So, while he was gone for the weekend shredding some pow pow I went with Corene (Rick's wife) to her mom's house. I can't tell you how nice it was going to a home with a yard with view and dirt outside. We got our Molly on and made some Easter garland, which proved unsafe for the lightheaded. I was at the point in my cleanse where I could reintroduce meat so we celebrated by going out for steak. Talk about getting your socks blown off.

The other lover.

Corene  blowing  eggs.

They made a lovely little garland and headache.

  The things we do for love. Our bestest little neighbor, West. Nate is his favorite person, and I'm pretty cool too because I'm with Nate.  

The following week the cleanse was over and I started the candida diet. For those of you who still haven't figured it out this is not a "diet" diet. This is a diet to help correct certain health issues, so you can stop feeling sorry for me that after 5 weeks my derrière is still the same size. Okay? OK. This has affected both of our lives since I'm the executive chef and he's the sous chef in our little kitchen. But before you "poor Nate" hold on to your shorts*, because this girl and her camera were there to sanctify every dinner, and as Nate is my witness, we're eating good, people.

So, when you can't eat:

•  ANY sugar (if it doesn't say 0g sugar it's out)
•  artificial sweeteners
•  processed meats
•  gluten
•  yeast
•  soy
•  white rice
•  fruit (with the exception of blueberries, green apples and   unsweetened coconut milk) 
• dairy (except plain yogurt)

THIS is what you eat:

*this is the part where you should hold on to your shorts

(for all those who requested recipes, I have delivered)

I adore this dish. Brown rice pasta mmm mmm.

1 cup brown rice pasta

chicken for 2

1 medium onion

1 medium tomato

1 lemon

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1 handful of almonds

Olive oil

Cook the pasta. In a pan, sauté the chicken and chopped onions then set aside.

 Use Vitamix/food processor to mix up half a cup of cilantro, a handful of almonds, a squeeze of lemon and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. This is the cilantro pesto.

Chop up the tomato. 

Mix together. Eat. 

My little creation and favorite new lunch.

handful of asparagus

handful of broccoli and/or kale (optional)

half of a red onion

1oz chevre cheese

1 egg

salt

pepper

squeeze of lemon

Chop vegetables. Saute in olive oil.

Fry egg. 

Sprinkle with chevre. Squeeze lemon. Mmm. 

Fabulous spices.

Chicken breasts for two

2 bell peppers ( any color)

3 tomatoes

1 medium onion

2 fresh garlic cloves

3 tbsp Olive oil

Small chunk of fresh ginger

Sprig fresh cilantro/coriander leaves

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder or cayenne powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp salt

Finely chop the onions and tomatoes. Crush the garlic, grate the ginger and slice the bell peppers in thick slices. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces, wash and drain.

Cook the brown or wild rice as instructed.

Heat some oil in a pan on medium heat and cook the onions for 3 minutes. Then add the garlic for another 2 minutes. Add the chicken with turmeric and chili/cayenne powder, then stir for another 5 minutes. Now add the tomatoes, then simmer on medium heat for another 10 minutes. Now add the peppers, grated ginger, coriander powder and cumin powder, and simmer on a low heat for 5 more minutes. Lastly, add the garam masala and finely chopped cilantro and serve.

Serve over rice.

Nate loved. I loved.

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

3 bell peppers (different colors if possible)

6-10 cherry tomatoes

6-10 shallots

6-10 garlic cloves

Handful of fresh basil leaves

Small chunk of goat cheese

Squeeze of half lemon

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place chopped up peppers, peeled shallots, peeled garlic cloves, and cherry tomatoes on a roasting pan. Toss with the olive oil, salt, and pepper to mix and coat. Spread in a single layer in the pan. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned and tender.

Cook quinoa. Then add all ingredients to a bowl and serve with crumbled goat cheese on top.

Perfection!

Nate's favorite. Fab salad!

1/3 cup wild or brown rice

Goat Feta Cheese

1 Green apple

1 Red bell pepper

1 Celery stalk

2 Spring onions

1 garlic clove

Sunflower seeds (handful)

1 Lemon squeeze

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice. Chop up all the ingredients and add everything to a bowl. 

Terribly addicting! 

And the fish marinade:

1 garlic clove minced

Handful of finely chopped cilantro

1/2 squeeze lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Cover fish in marinade. Cook in fry pan with butter.

Delish. I love me some cilantro.

Cookies. Yes, cookies. Nate almost ate the whole batch! He likened them to cookies he ate in Australia because they aren't as sweet as normal cookies.

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup 2 tbls coconut flour (or all oat bran)

3/8 cup butter, melted

2 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbls vegetable glycerine (optional, if you use it leave out 1 egg)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped almonds

handful blueberries (optional)

stevia to taste

Bake at 350 8-10 mins. I also experimented with unsweetened cocoa powder. Chocolate :)

Mister Athen in his snazzy new stroller. 

Walks around the neighborhood with the Mr. and Corene.

That's all.