Niki's Neverending Adventure

Kind of a random title right?! Haha :) Well I hope y’all have all enjoyed my wedding and honeymoon recaps. If you happen to have missed them, check them out:

• Wedding Festivities Part 1
• Wedding Festivities Part 2
• Honeymoon

Alright… moving on to Tri Training!! I officially started training for the Annie Oakley Sprint Triathlon this week. I didn’t make out an official training plan because I have no clue what my schedule will be like when I start back to school July 5th. I do have a rough idea of how I want my training week to look like though:

• Run 3 X week
• Bike 2 X week
• Swim 1-2 X week

I definitely achieved that this week! I ran 3 times, biked twice, and swam twice. So I feel like I’m right on track! And I plan to thrown some brick workouts in, along with hopefully another open water swim next weekend when I’m at the lake!

Any training advice for me??

I rode 10 miles yesterday and 12 today and now my butt is super sore! I will definitely be investing in some tri shorts! Any recommendations for those? I have heard the Pearl Izumi ones are great so I will probably try those out unless someone else has any better recommendations.

I am totally loving the training though!! My body is love mixing it up and I’m not getting sop burnt out! I really have come to love biking and swimming!!

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Onto the next topic… Chocolate Banana Bread!! I was in the baking mood yesterday and had some bananas getting pretty brown, so I thought to myself… I should make some banana bread! And not just any banana bread, but Chocolate Banana Bread!! I have had this recipe for a while now and have only made it one time before. But it is fabulous! I think I got it from IGE, she has some wonderfully yummy recipes y’all!!

Chocolate Banana Bread

1/2 cup toasted pecans

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 bananas mashed (I only had 2)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup dark or white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray sides of loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 8-10 mins. Let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until well mixed. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pan. Bake 55-65 mins. Enjoy!!

How great does that look?!? I had a hard time waiting until after dinner to test it out because it smelled and looked so yummy!!

My nice big slice. It was fabulous!! So chocolaty with a great banana flavor! Not to mention extra sweetness from the chocolate chips!! I highly recommend this!!

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And last but not least… I wanted to share my first attempt at making a Panini with y’all! I decided I would use my new Cuisinart Griddler to make a Tuna Panini for dinner last night, and it came out fabulous!!

First, I mixed some chunk light tuna, a tiny bit of mayo, lemon juice, s&p, and cayenne pepper. I decided to try out some more of the bread that the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program sent me!

This time we tried out the Nature’s Pride Country White Deli Rolls! They worked out really well! I couldn’t tell much of a difference in these rolls and the hamburger buns we already tried. Tasted the same to me, just different shapes! Very good!!

So, I layered my tuna, spinach, and Swiss cheese and stuck it in the Cuisinart Griddler.

Ooey gooey tuna perfection!! We loved these so much that we made them again for lunch today!!

Well friends, gotta get going. Hubby and I are going to go purchase a new gas grill!! My Nana and Papa are buying it for us as a wedding gift! We can’t wait!!

What is your favorite thing to grill or grill recipe?

Neither one of us really knows how to grill so it will be fun to learn and experiment!! Have a great Sunday guys!!

Posted in: on Sunday, June 27, 2010 at at 2:15 PM 5 comments    

Hello! Happy Saturday! Hope y’all are having a fabulous weekend! I just finished watching the US World Cup game, sniff sniff. Wish they could have pulled the win off! But anyway, I promised y’all a Honeymoon recap so here it is!!

We had a fabulous time on our Honeymoon! I could go on and on about if but for y’alls sake I will mostly keep it to pictures :)

First place we headed was to San Francisco! We had a little snafu  with our plane out of Florida, apparently they overbooked it by 15 people! Nothing a little crying on my part couldn’t fix! Haha, totally serious by the way :) After 2 flights, we were finally in California!! We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in San Fran and it was awesome! We were on the 15th floor and had an awesome view of the bay!!

Those were both taken from our balcony!!

We did lots of fun things in San Fran! First up, we explored Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf!

Look what we found on Pier 39!! The famous Sea Lions! There was the cutest baby one too!

We also went to the Aquarium at Fisherman’s Wharf!

Then off to Ghirardelli Square!

We also took a freezing cold boat ride under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz.

They told some of the coolest stories about Alcatraz! Can’t believe some of the people who were locked up there!!

We ate TONS of seafood while we were there and everything was so good! I loved how the majority of the restaurants were on the water!!

Then, after a few days, we were off to Napa Valley!! On our way to Napa, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge…

And then went to Muir Woods!!

We both LOVED seeing the giant Redwoods and hiking all around!! It was so beautiful there! Here are some pics we got:

After our adventure at Muir Woods, we made it to Napa and check into our hotel, The Napa Valley Lodge. It was super nice too! We both loved it, plus we had a balcony that overlooked the vineyards!

 

The next day, it was time to hit up the wineries!!

This was at V. Sattui, after we did our wine tasting and we had a picnic on the lawn.

We also visited Beringer and had a really awesome tour there!

In the underground caves at Beringer.

We went to Sterling Winery and had to ride up to the winery in a gondola! So fun!!

Beautiful views from Sterling!!

I think our absolute favorite winery and tour was at Castello di Amorosa. It was a castle!!

They even had sheep outside the castle! We learned so much on this tour!!

But, I think our VERY favorite thing was the HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE!!!

The views were incredible!!

Two balloons kissing :)

We love, love, loved the hot air balloon ride! If you ever have a chance to do it anywhere, I highly recommend it!!

Our 3 days in Napa went by so fast!! I needed like a month there! They told us there were over 200 wineries just in Napa! We did bring home a lot of wine so we have little pieces of Napa with us!!

I am so happy we decided to Honeymoon in these 2 cities! We had an awesome time and memories to last forever! Hope y’all enjoyed!!

Where did you go on your Honeymoon or where would you like to go?

Have a fabulous rest of the weekend friends!!

Posted in: on Saturday, June 26, 2010 at at 5:48 PM 4 comments    

Hey friends! Hope you have been enjoying the Wedding recaps!! If you haven’t already, check out Wedding Festivities Part 1 and Part 2!! I promise to recap the honeymoon soon! But today, I have a bunch of randomness to share!!

First up… I received some Nature’s Pride hamburger/deli buns to review through the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program! I stuck 2 packs in the freezer so they wouldn’t go bad, and we tried out this pack :

Nature’s Pride Country White Buns. I gave the hubby a choice and he wanted to try these first. He is a true white bread lover!! I will say though, the ingredient list on these white buns is wonderful! No HFCS or anything else I can’t pronounce!! We used these buns for all kind of things, such as for sandwiches, turkey burgers, and garlic bread. We both give these a thumbs up for taste!

Here’s one of the turkey sandwiches I made! Yummy!! I always find buns to be a bit high in calories, as this one was. It was 200 calories for 1 bun, and I usually prefer to just eat half a sandwich. But, hubby loves big sandwiches so he really enjoyed these! We are looking forward to trying out the deli rolls and whole wheat buns! I will let y’all know what we think!!

Onto another topic… we have done tons of “house” shopping with the wedding money we got! One of my favorite purchases and the thing I was most excited to get was this:

Cuisinart Griddler!!! I saw this on IGE a while back and knew we had to have one!! It is a grill, griddle, and Panini press all in one! How perfect, right?!?

One side of the plates is grill and the other side is griddle, so all you have to do to switch them is flip them around! Easy as pie!

And it also lays out flat like this! So if you had to grill (or griddle) lots of things, it works out perfectly!!

I used this for the first time 2 nights ago to make Turkey Burgers!! They turned out so yummy with perfect looking grill marks!! This is nice for us because we don’t currently own a gas grill (this will be changing very soon)!! So, I highly suggest investing in the Cuisinart Griddler if it’s something you are looking for!

Onto another topic…. I told you there was a lot of randomness to this post!! Have y’all checked out Jennifer’s new ETSY store?!? She makes awesome hand painted signs and frames and all the proceeds are going help her and her hubby adopt!! I just ordered one from her! Get on it guys!! And Lauren is hosting a giveaway for one of Jennifer’s signs on her blog, so go over and enter!

Ok, last topic… The World Cup!! So, most of you know I really like soccer. I have played basically my whole life! And I am really loving everyone in the sports world being into soccer! It seems like normally, soccer just kinda gets brushed to the backburner, but everyone seems to be into the World Cup! Maybe it’s because USA is doing well?!? Anyway, I have not been able to catch any of the games live! The first 2 were on our trip to and from our Honeymoon, and this week’s game was during an appointment I had. So finally, tomorrow, I will be able to catch the USA playing live! I recorded the last game and I’m so glad I did! What a great end, right?!? Anyone else watching the World Cup?

Well, I think that’s enough for today! Hope y’all have a fabulous Friday! I have a wedding shower to go to for my friend Jennifer tonight! Can’t wait!

Posted in: on Friday, June 25, 2010 at at 9:24 AM 4 comments    

Hey friends!! Make sure and check out my prior post: Wedding Festivities Part 1  before moving on :)

On to the actual wedding!! My bridesmaids and I met at The Santa Rosa Beach Club around lunch time to start getting our hair done and getting ready. The room that they normally use had a broken AC so we ended up going over to The Golf Club and using a room there. No worries though, everything was great!! They made us a fabulous lunch to eat while we got ready!!

All my bridesmaids, me, and my mom!!

My photographer was with us the entire time also and I can’t wait to see all the pictures he took! He was fabulous! If anyone needs a photographer in the Destin area, his name is Grady Carpenter.

Anyway, after we finished getting our hair done, we moved back over to The Beach Club and it was about time to start!! I wasn’t too nervous until right before I had to walk down this hug flight of stairs in front of everyone… ALL BY MYSELF!! I could just see myself tripping and rolling down those steps! But I managed :)

Coming down those scary steps!!

Coming down to meet my dad!

My dad giving me a kiss on the cheek before we start down the aisle :)

Me and Dad :)

Getting hitched!

Beautiful beach view

 

We’re married!!! Husband and Wife!

Ok I know this is picture overload so I will let the pictures speak for themselves :)

I hope y’all liked all the pictures!! These were all taken by friends and family! My professional photographer pictures aren’t ready yet but I will be sure to share them with y’all once I get them!!

Our wedding day was perfect! The food was great, the cake was amazing, and there was tons of dancing and laughing! It couldn’t have been better in any way!!

We are loving being newlyweds!!

Posted in: on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at at 3:27 PM 8 comments