Big Spain Post Numero Dos

Well it's about time I posted my 2nd Spain post huh? Thanks to K at ksgoodeats.wordpress.com/ for asking me to post Spain pics I am finally posting some Euro eats and sites! Instead of a regular post of my daily eats and meanderings I am giving you MADRID!

But first and foremost my dried Dragon fruit review:
It's really interesting! I have never tired Dragon fruit raw or fresh so I don't have much to compare it to. You see I am a dried food nut and almost always if I like the fruit raw I like it dried, even freeze dried! This particular fruit dried is very nice texture! It reminds me of a chip, or rice cracker. It's thin shape and crispy bubbles makes for a fun treat in your mouth! Now the flavor: a bit sweet, a bit bitter. I don't know if I have ever tasted anything quite like them! If you like to try new things I recommend these!

Here we go with Spain, they are out of order but I will try to explain them.
This is my mama, Sean and me in front of the train station.

Here my dad, Sean and I are at the gates of the Gardens:

We ate at the oldest restaurant in the world according to The Guinness Book of World Records:

The crazy crowded streets of Gran Vía and around the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol:

The local beer, a lot like Corona or Budweiser, not too impressive.

Giggling it up in the Metro

A tapas, pub like stop: gotta love the Bulls:

There was Christmas decorations on every street!

The beautiful architecture:

In the Atocha train station there was a funny baby's face sculpture by Antonio López García

Holy Toledo! Yes we visited this ancient city and saw beautiful culture and religion!

Here is a sculpture made of MARZIPAN- yummmm! This dessert is made of Almond and honey and sometimes egg yolk. In Spain it is most popular during Christmas as it is a religious treat made by Nuns and Spaniards claim it's origin to be in Toledo.

The Santo Tome church:

Fat Santa in the street market-haha:

Eating underground!

The Castle in Toledo:

The Train station in Toledo:

Chips and Guacamole at a Mexican Restaurant!!!! So good, the guac had curry and tumeric in it- yummmmmmm!

My Pork with rice and veggies!

The best steak I ever had! With potatoes and brussel sprouts!

At the Mexican restaurant Surpriso Y Surpriso!

My staple bfast- I bought some Activia yogurt in new flavors and ate it with All Bran, a banana, and dried Cranberries, Peach juice and Coffee!

The hallway of our Piso!

Atoche train station:

TAPAS!!!!!! This is Roasted Red Peppers stuffed with ground pork and covered in a creamy tomato sauce! Tasted like meatloaf!

This is also pork, skewered with a tasty rub of spices!

This was one of my favorite meals from Museo De Prado!!!! Garbanzo bean soup in yummy broth with a side fruit salad with kiwi, orange, melon, pom. A WW slice and a little bite of another bread and salad with black olives, beets, mix greens, and cucumber!!!!! Yummmmm! With a glass of white wine:

Roaming the streets near our Piso:

Inside a church:

The bread at tapas:

Us at listening to Flamenco:

Well there are more pictures on my computer but this otta be enough for one night! But if not you can go here http://moourl.com/spain1, http://moourl.com/spain2, http://moourl.com/spain3 to see my older Spain posts. Hope you all enjoy my trip pics and hope you get to visit Spain if you haven't already! Good night all!

What's your favorite city abroad?

C

When cookies come to work.....

Hello Bloggeristas!!!!

I will start with what snacks I had last night after I blogged, here are the goods:

Yogi Licorice tea, again!

The wise mantra:

I totally agree! Moving right along to this morning. I had a cup of coffee accompanied by the one and only straptastic Strap Perfect! My dad of all people saw this on tv and bought it for me, my sis and mama- hehe! I also had a bowl of oatmeal, with 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, 1/2 shot Craisins, 1/2 shot raisins, 1/2 shot Bare Naked Granola, sprinkle of Cinnamon, 1 med banana with 1/2 smashed in and 1/2 on top:

Thanks to everyone who checked out my blog for the first time!!! I love ya'll for taking a liken to the Kale and Tofu and my handy dandy shot glass measuring tool! It really works! And a special shout out to my girl Meghann at graduatemeghann.com/. Her blog is great for recipes and tips on staying fit! She is a marathon runner and is such an inspiration to me!!!

Continuing right along. On my way to work I had a few of Mrs. May's almond clusters:

They are super good! Toasted nuts are so yummy and crunchy! As I said I would I wore my HRM for test #2- a day on set.

The totals:

Time- 5:40

Calories- 1058!!!!! Heck yea!
As I assumed I burned more calories on set versus at the coffee shop due to the vigorous work. Today was an unusually short day so I am sure with a regular 14 hour day the numbers would be outrageous!

For my mid morning snack I had a Luna Bar in yummy Lemon Zest- an old time fave, this was the first Luna bar I ever tired oh so long ago! It is sitting foggy on a pile of MDF that we broke down today.

MDF is very expensive and so is the Chroma paint. We usually have no use for it when the show is done and it usually gets trashed :( This show we aimed to be more GREEN (no pun intended) and put an add up on a free recycler website! We got a ton of replies to pick it up! We gave it to a girl doing a low-budget music video who offered to bake us cookies!! They were Sea Salt Oatmeal!!! Strange, good and crispy! I had a few bites of this cookie:

I prefer chewy cookies to crunchy so it was not my fave, but free cookies hey why not! For lunch today we went back to Grub! This was the lunch menu only so the table goodies were not sugar cereal but VEGGIES, pretzels and ranch dressing! I had a few cucumber spears, carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes-yumm.

For my meal I had the Mediterranean w-RAP! Here is the description: No, this ain’t a Greek Fisherman singing about his woes…It’s a yummy combo of Couscous, Spicy Lemon Hummus, Kalamata Olives, marinated Artichoke Hearts, French Feta, Tomatoes, chopped Romaine & Basil in a Spinach Wrap…”My baby left me for the sea, she, she, she…

I ate half at lunch and rest for my afternoon snack! It was sooooooo good a tad bit too salty for me (I rarely use salt in my cooking) with the feta and the kalamata olives, but very filling! The best part......Betty was there today and when she served us she called me pumpkin!!! I was star struck for sure. That woman can cook!

I had a minor disaster tonight! My wrist has been super sore from Saturday's painting and lifting and it has only gotten worse since-yikes! So tonight after work I decided to go check it out. I went to Kaiser and waited for a good 2 hours before I was diagnosed "a strained wrist to be medicated with ibuprofen and try to not use it for a few days" Hello! I could have told you that! GRRRRRR! A waist of time and moola, but at least I know it's nothing serious.

For dinner I planned on eating my left over Kale and Tofu but wanted to change it up so I could have it tomorrow! I microwaved a huge Yam cut it in half and topped it with a dab of butter and pepper. On the side I had Romain, cucumber, a Roma tomato, broccoli and a heaping spoon of Eggplant Hummus! It was satiated!

For dessert I snacked on some more of my popular dried fruit medley:

I am going to get to all your blogs tomorrow because I am a dork and want to watch the premier of American Idol!

In honor of my fellow blogger's in colder climates I am leaving you with some pics from my Spain trip:

"ooo la la whole wheat pasta!"

Good night everybody! And have a great hump day tomorrow!

C