Texas de Brazil

Brent and I had a night out on the town on Saturday to celebrate the last working weekend of tax season! Today was the deadline, so I hope you got your taxes done. excuse me while I celebrate YAHOOOOOO!!! Done and DONE! Now, just for that little masters degree he is going for can be done….

We headed out to Texas de Brazil, a new restaurant that recently opened at City Creek (a new mall in SLC). It was Brents first time to the mall so I made sure to give him the proper tour of my favorite stores before heading to the restaurant. After browsing through a few stores we were ready to eat.

We found the restaurant quickly and expected to wait a little bit since it was prime dinner time (7pm) but as soon as we walked in they took us right to our seat! We were quickly greeted by our waitress and given a quick introduction to the restaurant. I was pleased to discover that they receive top of the line meat from the mid west that is all grass-fed! Texas de Brazil is a Brazilian steakhouse, it pretty much is a all you can eat! Salad bar and Meat. Lots and lots of meat.

Our waitress promptly took our drink order, and instructed us that we may start on the salad bar. I was very impressed with the salad bar! It was different from other Brazilian steakhouses that I have been to. There was not only salad but smoked salmon, sushi, steamed asparagus, roasted red and yellow peppers, bacon, pastrami, fine cheeses (goat cheese and mozzarella balls the size of my fist.)  Sticking with paleo I opted out of the cheeses and was very happy that this restaurant was right up the paleo alley.

Round 1

 

Arts of Palm, artichokes, smoked salmon, asparagus, tomato topped on a bed of romaine lettuce.

I was one happy girl.

Each table is served hot mashed potatoes, Cheese balls, and fried bananas to clean your palate. They keep them hot and coming till you don’t want anymore.

You flip this little disc to green when you want meat to come to your table.

And red you think you’ve had enough

.

There are multiple servers running around with different cuts of meat. We tried out several kinds of meat and enjoyed most of them.

Flank steak, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, garlic chicken, top sirloin, pork loin, chicken sausages, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, chicken drumsticks, brisket, and so many.. My favorite was the flank steak! Brent loved the top sirloin with their special marinade but wasn’t a fan of chicken parmesan.

I was overall impressed with our service, my water was kept full, but Brents DC was ignored.. the manager came over to check on us and our waitress kept her eye on us and was good about taking our plates and such.

We were offered dessert, that all looked delicious but we were so full there was NO room for dessert.

We had a coupon for buy one get one free that we came to find out they don’t honor on Saturdays.. oomph. (read the fine print)

Texas de Brazil offers buy one get one free meals on Birthdays and a discount on anniversary's. BONUS! But… not on Saturdays. We were unaware obviously so the manager kindly gave us 10% off and extended our coupon for a week.

PROS

• Great Service
• Delicious food
• All you can eat.
• Clean, great atmosphere.

CONS

• You pay the price. It is $43 a plate! I’m not made of mula, so it will definitely be a once a year, special occasion.. birthday with coupon kind of deal.
• Soft serve drinks are $5 which was never refilled?
• We had a great experience and enjoyed everything but the bill. 

 

Best part was I got to spend some one on one time with this guy..

There are several locations, I highly recommend this restaurant, high quality, high quantity. Just expect to scrimp for food the rest of the week after paying the bill.

Q. Do you prefer quality over quantity or quantity of quality?

Q. What is the most you have ever paid for a meal?

Baby Tikka

We welcomed a new family member last night! Meet Tikka! She is half yorkie and half Pomeranian.

She is the sweetest thing ever! We are loving her.

T & B can’t get enough of her, and she is doing very well. She is 9 weeks old and has become my little cuddle bug and soon to be running partner.

When we first started looking for a dog, I was thinking a vizsla, but their energy and size around the babies scared me a little bit. Brent and I use to have poms and loved them and figured a smaller dog would be best for our little family. We love her!

Yesterday was also my sisters birthday! We headed out to dinner at Texas Road House for dinner.

Brent was working late (Tax Season is almost over!! Yay!) So me and the babes met my family there for some grub. I’m still following Whole 30 so going out to eat can be a bit rough.. especially to chain restaurants where they douse everything in butter.

I played it safe and went with a house salad. No cheese, dressing on the side. Extra tomatoes and egg.

We had a great time together and the highlight of the night is when my sister jumped into the birthday saddle for a little YEE-HAW!

When we got home I was still hungry. $3.99 house salads are just not enough.

I had some baked chicken breast covered in home made salsa that my coach gave to me, (Thanks, Liz!) with butternut squash and green beans on the side. I felt much better afterwards.

Today’s workout was Body Pump followed by a quick 15 minutes on the elliptical to catch up with a few of my pregnant friends. I stayed light with my weights in pump to avoid any pressure it may of added to my hip. My recovery is coming along, I am starting to feel better and that craving to run is stronger then ever!

I want to give a shout out quick.  I love my Saturday morning class! They work hard and do it with smiles on their faces.. or maybe it was because I completely tripped over my bar and almost landed on my face today and they all seemed to think that was humorous. Either way. Great class, great people. Thank You!

Tomorrow is a complete rest day. I didn’t even make it a whole week of rest.. almost…. but no. Which I expected but didn’t plan. It’s hard to find subs for some of my classes throughout an entire week. I’m very thankful for those that did though. My hip is feeling better. I almost feel ready to run. But ready or not, Next weekend I have 21 miles in SoCal to trump through. I’m excited to get down there and RUN!

Contending with a hardship is often how we find our inner strength and most authentic selves. Training is NEVER easy. You have to plan for the unexpected.. even if it seems to happen at the peak of your training.

Life is about preparation meeting opportunity.

Let this next week be a prep week. Rest, recover.. then run.

Since I can’t train at the extent I feel I need to, I’m going to dial in on my nutrition and prepare mentally for the race next weekend. I’m not running with a competitive team so I’m going to keep it slow and easy and just have fun.

One thing I have learned through this past week is the power your mind has. The first few days, negative thoughts were sneaking into my mind. Thoughts of failure. How much of my fear of failure is irrational? The fear of letting myself down and those around me. Are the people around me going to really think less of me if I fail? NO. And if they are they shouldn’t really be close to me. Right?

If there is something I want, I am going to believe I can achieve it. When I think positive I automatically conduct myself more assertively and confidently. Even if I haven’t run at all for the past 9 days.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are stronger at the broken places.”

- Ernest Hemingway

My goal is to be smart this week, take it easy, eat right, and don’t let the negativity or feelings of little training get to me. Think positive and just go for it.

Q. What is your goal for the week?

Walnut Crusted Tilapia

 

I have had some fish sitting in my fridge “defrosting” ALL week. I had full intentions on preparing it earlier in the week, but life happened.  I finally had time to take it out and prepare it today into something especially delicious!

I had both types of fish in my fridge, tilapia and salmon!! I am a big fan of both fish. Salmon has more of a healthy fat and tilapia is a no fat fish both high protein. Tilapia is a mild fish, little flavor, not “fishy” tasting. Salmon is a bit more fishy then the tilapia and has a bit more flavor to it.

Since both fish had to be cooked I made both.. differently.

Two recipes! Both are quick and SIMPLE and take less then 10 minutes to prepare!

Done and Done!

First Up!

Walnut Crusted Tilapia

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Tilapia filets
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbs Coconut Flour
• 1/4 C. Diced Walnuts

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Place each ingredient into a different tupperware

In dippin order:

egg whites- flour – walnuts

Matching tupperware anyone?

Take each filet and dip and roll it in the egg whites, then flour then walnuts- place in glass pan and cover with additional walnuts. Sprinkle with sea salt if desired!

Bake for 20 minutes!

Lemon Pepper Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Salmon
• 1 Lemon
• Mrs. Dash- Lemon Pepper

Directions:

Place Salmon in glass dish

(obviously not in glass dish..yet)

Squeeze half lemon over salmon

Slice other half of lemon and place on top of salmon

Sprinkle with Mrs. Dash

Bake for 30 minutes!

Tilapia is thinner and bakes quickly. I made both fish in the same glass dish but removed the tilapia after 20 minutes and put the salmon back in for an additional 10. They both turned out great!

I had about half serving of each and paired with some green beans and a sliced apple for a little sweetness.

Brent came home yesterday with a surprise for me!

A new LAPTOP! He had even downloaded I-tunes, live writer, set up internet. It was all ready to go! He is amazing! I’m one lucky girl.

I love it!! Much needed!! My right click didn’t work on my old one and I couldn’t drag anything anywhere! Things would stick.. music would get stuck and skip..etc. I was constantly yelling at it.. (Like that would make it work anyway..) He gave it to me with one promise.. NOT to eat next to it.. Being a food blogger my computer tends to get a bit sticky.. Same with my phone and camera..

I have been resting this week. NO workouts. Which has been one of the hardest things ever. Tonight, I had a emer sub call from one of the gyms I teach at to cover a pump class. Which I did. (Sorry, Coach)I went light. WAY lighter then normal. My hip is still aggravating, I don’t think I’m ready to run again or lift my leg in any sort of way. This is an injury that I know is going to take time to heal and I’m just going to have to be patient. Next week I have the So-cal Relay. Hopefully, I’m ready to go.

I also got a great massage today! My friend Stacy is an AMAZING massage therapist! She has worked in Chiropractic offices as well as Sports medicine for 20 years!

I will admit it was the best sports massage I have ever had. She made sure I was comfortable the whole time. I never felt to revealed or insecure the entire time. She asked just enough questions to know where to focus on and never felt awkward at all. I have had massages before where either the masseuse talked to much and I couldn’t relax at ALL or they didn’t say a thing and it was just uncomfortable and weird. There were times that I wanted to cry just because she focused so much on my hips and hamstrings, both of which are tight and overworked.

I left feeling rejuvenated and loose. My hip feels better already! If anyone local is in need of a massage give her a go! You’ll LOVE it!

Time to hit the couch and catch up on Modern Family!

Good Night!

Q. What is your favorite fish?

Q. Do you ever get massages?

What I would of done

Last night, I turned off my 5am alarm. This whole rest thing just got real.

Sundays are typically my rest day, so today was my first real “no workout” day. I got up at 8:30am Wow. Kudos to the twinners who slept like champs.
I made some eggs with veggies to start off the day. I also had some grapefruit to kick off the morning right.

Can you see the steam?
Since I am not working out at the extent that I usually do I am going to just share what I would of done today.
If I was injury free I would of…
Woke up at 5 am to run 4 miles with some friends.
I would of also completed this workout.
In 16 minutes.. give or take.
This is one of my favorite workouts at GPP and it would have been a great way to start the week following the Easter crap. (More on that later.)
Meg-inator
For time complete:
15-16-17-18-19-20

• Thrusters 45/65
• Burpees
• KB swings 25/35

Give it a try! This workout guarantees you to be a hot mess under 20 minutes.
We spent a lot of time playing outside today- a walk to the park, playing ball in the front yard and lots of staring at my garden trying to decide what I want to do with it. Yard work is < laundry…
Easter recap!
Easter this year was spent with Brents family. We split time between Brents mom and Dads home. We had a great time and once the babes discovered there was candy in eggs they were all for it.
We enjoyed-
Two Easter egg hunts




Lots of family time,

Ham, potatoes, rolls, a green salad, jell-o and CAKE.

My SIL made this cute wittle wabbit.
Confession:
I fell off the paleo train yesterday. Oops. I had some cake and some jelly-bellys and a bite size snickers…Then went ahead and had some rice krispies for dinner. Stellar.
I’m totally paying for it today. My belly has not been happy ALL day.  Eating clean definitely makes me feel better all around.
Q. What was your workout today? (I’ll vicariously live through all of you..)

Dead Last.

Last night we were able to go to another Jazz game! Two weekends in a row! This time I had two dates!

The hubster

And my little sister, Jessica! –We had amazing seats.. its where the “real fans” sit ok?! And also provides amazing lighting for pictures. Obviously.

We had a great time and the Jazz won!!! After two heartbreaker games, it was good to finally get a “W”.


Time to get serious…

So starting today.. okay, tomorrow. I’m taking a break from the gym. (Shocker). After my long run last weekend, I felt okay after, and on Monday, I went out for a run and my hip was hurting. Tuesday, it hurt. Wednesday… double taught and it hurt. Thursday ran 2 miles.. hurt. Friday taught body attack- hurt. Its not excruciating, but it is not getting better. My coach recommended I take a break. OFF of everything for a while.

Do you know how hard this is going to be?! I can’t even remember the last time I took even a full week off!

I have a marathon coming up and I don’t feel prepared at all. Truth is, I wouldn’t be ready if I continued training right now anyway. My hip will never heal if I keep pushing it.  If I keep training it could lead to further injury and a even LONGER recovery with no races.

So, I’m doing it. Nothing.

Exercise is my stress reliever, its MY time for me. As a fitness instructor and in the midst of training for tris, relays and this marathon my days consisted of multiple workouts. Needless to say, this is NOT going to be easy. Actually, I think its going to be the hardest thing I have ever done.

Honestly, I can feel that my body needs it. I really do believe everyone needs to step back every once in awhile to give yourself a break. I just don’t like to admit it to myself. It will be for the best and hopefully this time off will be the right amount of time for my hip to heal.

I’m going to keep myself busy by marking off my to-do list around the house, possibly read a book and try some new things.  This will be interesting and I’m hoping to find out more about myself. (If that makes sense?)

After pump today, I had the most interesting conversation with a friend. (Hi Rach!). I was telling her about my hip issue and how I don’t think I will meet my goal time for the marathon and blah, de blah, blah, blah..
She brought up an interesting point. She asked me if I ever just thought about coming in dead last on a race. On purpose.

What? Race to finish last? Who does that.. A top athlete who is fast, who has had great times in the past. Start the race and make it your goal to just finish last. Ever thought about that one?

Well, think about it. With every race we sign up for, we train our little hearts out in hopes to PR or place. Have you ever thought about running the race and finishing last? Hang back and chill with the real champions. Talk with them and listen to their story. You may meet some of the most interesting people and it may just change your outlook on your own life. Maybe, they just lost a loved one, a cancer survivor, a war vet.

Think how many different people actually make it to that starting line. It doesn’t matter if they are obese, elderly, or of a different ethnicity. Every racer there has the same goal…. to finish. It is their motivation to finish that is different from everyone else.

Take your time at water stations, give someone a high five who looks just beat. Don’t look at the race as getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. Check out the scenery, meet people, enjoy the race for you. By the end of it you may actually feel like this.

source
I think we come from a very competitive lifestyle. We want to be fast, we want to be the best. We can sometimes worry about how fast "so and so" is going to be, or we want to get a time that will impress someone later.

We often fall into a egotistical way of thought. We compare our times, our training, our successes to those around us. It honestly is kind of depressing don’t you think? For example: Sally ran 20 miles today and all I did was a measly 5. Why can’t I run as long as she did today?

I totally have a type A personality, to where I enjoy pushing myself to the limits. I LOVE getting a new PR and being proud of that accomplishment. I can ride on that high for weeks. Not once, have I ever thought about the people behind me. I am in every race to just get ahead of the people in front of me.

Why?

I don’t know either.--- How interesting would it be? How RELIEVING would it be to just not care about that and put that behind you and just run the race simply, for the experience.

The race will not define who YOU are. In fact your fitness level doesn’t define who you are as a person. It doesn’t mean your “healthier” then Sally or Bob or Sue if you came in first anyway.

Everyone has ups and downs in training, even in life. Things happen that will slow you down and then there are things that can propel you forward. How boring would it be to stick at the same level all the time. Make it interesting. Make it fun. Because, I think you learn the most at the bottom.
So with that being said. I’m still planning on running the marathon. Not competing. I’m not going to worry about splits or my pace. I’m going to run this race for me. Hopefully, pain free. I will do my best, but I’m sticking to my own story.

Source
Q. When running a race do you ever fall into comparison with friends, siblings etc. Ever thought about coming in dead last?

Pancakes and a Make-over

This morning I had protein pancakes to fuel me through my workout.
I got the recipe from Tina @ carrotsncake! I just doubled her recipe.

 I was obviously still half asleep when I made them, because when I blended the ingredients together they were really thick and not so pancake batter like, so I added !/3 C. of almond milk to the recipe. That was when I realized I forgot the eggs!!!

Duh.

I added 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white.
They turned out delicious!

Gluten-free, whole 30 friendly. Pancakes are one of my favorite foods! Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner! I enjoy them anytime of day! Especially these ones!

The weather was really nice today so we spent a little more time outside today. I love spring in Utah..

We shopped for Easter with the Bee bunny and my little man to.--->Target is a money sucker... Seriously. I love Target and could browse around there all day.

and I even got my hair done! I haven't had my hair done for a long time. Like 7 months. Big shocker I know, those elastics do great things...

Hello Blonde! I love it! I’m sure the chlorine from the pool will too…

I got my cut/color from a reader, and good friend! (Thanks, Whit!) I’m super picky about my blonde and she nails it every time! I love getting my hair done its like getting a make-over every 6 weeks.. 7 months?!! ( My hair was in dire need of some TLC).

I had a shake on my way to the salon. Because I knew my hair takes a solid 4 hours to do.

In the mix:

• 1 1/2 C. Almond Milk
  
• 1 scoop chocolate protein
  
• Half frozen banana
  
• Spinach
  
• 4 frozen strawberries
  
• Ice

Looked like garbage.. but chocolate, spinach and strawberries will do that.. Like I said.. its not always pretty.. but delicious!
For dinner I had some veggies that I had prepared earlier in the day with some grilled chicken

Check out that asparagus!! It was HUGE.. Love it!!

I covered the chicken in some balsamic dressing and Dijon mustard post picture!
Dessert was a ginormous plum! They are SO good right now! I enjoyed every last juicy bite..


Q: Favorite Veggie?


Q: How often do you get your hair done?
Its time for bed! 5 am wake up call is in my future!
Goodnight, friends!