What to even say, right? This week was just wild. It seemed surreal, like living in a movie. On Friday, we woke up to some crazy news. All public transportation was shut down as the Boston manhunt went on. Both of our work places were closed. The city of Boston was a ghost town. We received automated calls from our town telling us to stay indoors. So, we watched the news, and waited.
I have always been a proud Bostonian, but never more proud than I was on Friday. What amazing people, and what hard work and dedication. There was so much bravery! I have no words that will do it justice.
We have a long way to go with the healing process, but I am confident that we will do so together.
I have fallen off the 21 Day Sugar Detox. I have. I am back on tomorrow and making another attempt. I felt like this week was just so overwhelming, I couldn’t even begin to sort of deal with that, too. I wanted a cookie. Is that awful? Even if they were refined sugar free (they were), they were still not 21DSD approved. I am trying not to be so down on myself. I really want to stick with it. I felt like giving myself permission to start again was a good idea though.
I have made several paleo/gluten free/dairy free/refined sugar free things though!
While watching the news, I made chocolate sorbet. This was the first time I’d made sorbet with my ice cream maker. It went really well!
This recipe comes from Elena’s Pantry (as per usual, I love her recipes) and I tweaked it a little. If you’re used to having really sweet frozen desserts, this will come as a little bit of a surprise. It’s along the lines of 70%+ dark chocolate in terms of sweetness.
Dark Chocolate Sorbet
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp agave
- 1/2 cup Penzey’s high fat cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate (70% or higher)
Combine all ingredients into a pan. Whisk and heat over medium heat until mixture looks smooth and all ingredients are well combined.
Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool before moving mixture to fridge. Place ice cream maker in freezer and allow it to freeze for 12-24 hours.
Mix sorbet as you would any ice cream. Return to freezer if it’s still kind of soupy looking (mine was). Before scooping, allow to come to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. This will make it easier to scoop. Mine easily scooped and didn’t flake off into icy pieces.
That’s it!
Also I did a bunch of food prep today:
I made kale and chard, shredded a bag of carrots, hard boiled 6 eggs, made bacon in the oven, cooked some chicken breasts and made 2 sweet potatoes. I like being ready to go come Monday!
And here is something sad: I got glutened this weekend. Yup. The scenario: we were at the trapeze class (the only note on this: I belong on the ground, where runners like to live. I don’t care what anyone thinks of that, either!) and afterwards we got some fries at Fuddruckers. I know, right? You’re also wondering what is happening. ME TOO. I am not sure what in the heck overcame me but I was so amped up and anxious about the week, about trapeze, that I didn’t even THINK. I never get fries. Ever. Ask pretty much anyone who knows me. There’s the fried aspect but more importantly, there is the cross contamination issue. I ate about 8 before I had this internal epiphany. Ohhhh Nicole, what are you doing? I asked myself.
Well, first my face flushed like I had a bad sunburn and then my lips and tongue swelled. And then my throat. And then my face kind of puffed up like a blow fish. Not pretty. We are now 72 hours from the incident and I’m hoping I look more normal for work tomorrow. What I really dislike (besides how I look) is how awful I feel. And that the histamine response means I can’t feel my face for a couple of days. Since my symptoms are getting worse, I’m calling to get an epi-pen tomorrow.
So I called the restaurant and asked about the fries. As it turns out…..get this – this fries are coated in FLOUR before they go into the fryer. ACK. Totally my fault here, all around. I cannot believe I let myself get so casual. I am a little disappointed but I learned a great lesson: don’t let your guard down.
And while I was avoiding seeing people all weekend (I wore a hat to go grocery shopping, no lie), I wore my Boston Marathon shirt.
I will also admit I first took this pic in the mirror…annnnd then realized if anyone wanted to read it, they’d need to hold the blog pic up to a mirror! Hahaha. Oh, it’s been a few rough days. For those of you who have run Boston, you know exactly what this means. You’ve been on Comm Ave for so long and you think you might never turn. Then you see the barricades and the police officers waving you to turn onto Hereford Street. It feels like the shortest little street right before you turn onto Bolyston. When I saw the turn and the finish line, I just cried. It’s still one of the best moments of my life. (Also do you see my quad muscle? It’s all like WHOA. QUADZILLA.)
Boston strong, baby.
