Hi friends! It was quite the wintery weekend over here – very cold temperatures and our first snow of the season, too!
On Friday night, Matt and I picked up dinner at Lost Dog in Arlington and drove up to Bethesda to hang out with our friends Tom and Janice – they just had their second child, so we were excited to meet him! It was a fun night – we started with some fresh oysters that Tom picked up at a local fish market:
And then moved on to pizza and salad from Lost Dog! Delish.
I had an extra piece of pizza – and then we had unpictured cookies from a local Bethesda bakery for dessert. I also shared some wine with Matt – I was our DD so I just had a little. :)
MY OTHER RECIPES
On Saturday, we woke up to snow, but luckily the roads were still clear because I had to drive up to Dupont Circle to attend an all day training for the volunteer teaching English as a second language I’ll be doing for the next few months (via Washington English Center). By the time we finished I was in the mood for some movement after sitting all day and hot yoga sounded amazing, so I treated myself to the 5 p.m. hot yoga 2 class at CorePower Yoga in Courthouse/Rosslyn. (If you are in the market for a new yoga mat, I love my Jade Yoga Mat – it was a Christmas gift a few years ago from my brother and it’s the best – not slippery. Also, for hot yoga, I love this yoga towel.)
I really enjoyed the class – it felt so good to sweat on such a chilly day!
For dinner on Saturday, Matt whipped us up a batch of my Creamy Mexican Chicken Chili Soup (<—recipe)! I loveeeee this soup – the creaminess comes from hummus! So flavorful and filling, especially on a cold winter’s day.
Toppings bar!
Ready to eat. It made enough for a few more servings, too, so we enjoyed more on Sunday for dinner and I’ll finish it off today for lunch!
Yesterday morning I had plans for a run date with two of my track buddies; we almost bailed because of the weather (my phone said it was in the low 20’s but with windchill it “felt like” 1 degree – omg) but decided to give it a shot in the end after all, and were SO glad we did!
Diane, Paul, and I hadn’t seen each other in ages (everyone has taken a bit of a break following our fall marathons) and we ended up having the best run – we were all so excited to be out there hanging out again!
The weather really wasn’t bad at all either – we ended up running on the Capital Crescent trail rather than trying to do the National Mall or a bridge loop, which was a good call because we were much more sheltered from the wind. Between the crunchy (but not slippery) snow underfoot and the beautiful blue skies and sunshine above, it ended up being a lovely running day!
We covered 6 miles with a short photo/walking break at the turnaround point. Felt great to be back out there – I haven’t been running much lately and this reminded me why I love it. :)
Also, I’m obsessed with these new running gloves that Santa brought me for Christmas this year! They are the Manzella Women’s Hatchback Gloves and I put them on my wish list for Santa after my friend Mary raved about them on her blog.
They are AWESOME – I have a lot of other running gloves that are great for chilly weather, but when it gets down into reeeeeally cold weather like it was on Sunday, my other ones are too thin to really keep my hands warm, especially with wind involved. These are made from microfleece so they are a lot warmer, and the neon part helps with the wind, too! (You can flip it back and tuck it into the pocket if you don’t need it.) Thanks for the great rec, Mary!
My post-run brunch back at home with Matt was also awesome! My mom got us a bacon of the month club for Christmas – our first shipment was a super smoky bacon that tasted like BBQ when cooked. It was delicious! Plus some scrambled eggs and pancakes (with a little organic butter and pure maple syrup, of course) and a whole milk latte! More on those pancakes to come – they were amazing!
Matt headed off to watch the Steeler’s game with friends yesterday and I stuck around the house and did a billion loads of laundry, cleaned up, and did a little pre-work to get ready for the week. Solid weekend! I hope you guys had a good one too. :)
Anyone else get in a snowy run this weekend?
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yes, manzella! so happy that you have a pair now. um also a bacon of the month club sounds amazing. need to sign up asap!
Best gloves ever!
Wait Bacon of the month club?! This sounds like a perfect gift for my inlaws next year. details pls?
Sure, here’s a link to it!
You were braver than me this weekend, no snowy runs here… but was pumped to watch a Steelers victory and make hot chocolate. Thanks for the tips on the gloves (and the bacon of the month club-yum!)
Such a great snowy run – so glad we braved the cold vs. getting stuck on a treadmill!
Me too!! :)
Well done on the snowy run; there’s nothing like a run on such a crisp day with solid snow underfoot. Looks like it was a great one, too!
Definitely. It was! Love the sound of the snow crunching under my shoes!
No snowy run since we had all ice but I walked and pulled my daughter in her sled for some resistance :)
Sounds fun! And like a great workout too :)
You’re so brave! I didn’t venture out for a run but finished 8 miles on the treadmill. It was boring but at least I got it done. :)
Oh man – that’s a long treadmill run, I’m impressed! Treadmill miles feel like 4x normal miles for me!
Please tell us more (maybe in a post?) about this bacon of the month club!!
Here’s a link to the bacon club!
That soup looks good! Hummus is a great idea to add some creaminess, especially on a snowy day. We got a few inches of snow in CT on Saturday but I’m not much of a runner in the snow. I take my workouts indoors for the season, haha!
I don’t love the super cold gray days – but if the sun is out to play and it’s ice-free out, I can usually be convinced. :)
Pancakes look delicious can’t wait for the recipe! I love running in cold weather but I have never ran in snow, it looks dreamy! ha ha
Paul, Diane and you= sad I missed it!(Did my long run on Saturday). I might be ordering those gloves soon!
We missed you out there!! Run date asap please! xo
Looks like a fun weekend! Do you have a good way of cleaning your Jade yoga mat? I have an orange one and I’ve noticed lately that it’s kind of really dirty. (I had been doing a lot of Core Power and always using a mat towel, but lately I’ve gotten back into more mellow yoga so no towel, so I’ll blame not noticing the dirty on that!) Water doesn’t seem to be cutting it and I’ve been debating buying or making a mat spray, but I’m being cheap!
I have a mat spray that I use that’s awesome (it’s this one), although to be honest I should probably be better about using it more often. :) Mine’s getting a little dirty too!
You are going to be volunteering as an English teacher? That’s neat! Sounds like a lovely weekend–it was cold and icy/snowy here this weekend so I mostly hibernated indoors.
Yep! I wanted to do something post-election to help immigrants feel more welcome here. <3
Glad to report to my husband that I wasn’t the only one nuts enough to venture out yesterday :) Like you, I’m SO glad I did, but I wish I had some gloves like that!
Will also have to try that trail soon as I get up into longer runs – where is the best place to park if you are coming from the Old Town area?
You park underneath Key Bridge – so you’ll want to drive to Georgetown, then drive down to the water and then along the water with the water on your left. Pass under key bridge and then the trail entrance is where the road dead ends. There’s street parking all around – some is free, some is not, so look at signs! It’s all free Sundays though. Have fun!
Thanks, Anne! I’m newish to the area (a fellow UNC grad!) and am often put off exploring new trails in the area by all the logistics involved in getting from point A to B up here!
The logistics really aren’t bad once you do it once — don’t let it scare you off! :)
Ahh snowy runs are my favorite runs!! I am loving this winter running. :)
So much better than hot summer running, right?!