It’s been a crazy, crazy week.
Here are 5 things I’ve been meaning to share with you, but just ran outta time…
1. Blend Retreat Recap Round-Up
The hardworking organizers have collected all of our recaps (click here for mine) on the Blend Retreat in Boulder, CO! Check them all out by clicking here. There are some great ladies in this group you might just discover a new favorite blog. 🙂
2. Protein Peanut Butter Sauce
I’ve been using peanut flour to slather my baked (errr… frozen….) goods lately. It’s also good by the spoonful. Not that I would know.
Protein Peanut Butter Sauce
- 1 T peanut flour
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 1/4 C almond milk
- 1/4 tsp maple extract (or syrup, to your liking)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional, I just love cinnamon)
- 1-2 drops liquid Stevia
- Shake of salt
3. Coconut Noodles
One more Food & Wine Festival mention then I swear I’ll shut up.
Saturday I attended a session with Bryan Voltaggio (remember Bryan and his brother, Micheal, from Top Chef?). they have a restaurant in Maryland called Volt. If I’m ever in the ‘hood, I will be sure to stop by this place. Dude made a funked-up version of strawberry short-cake. He MICROWAVED the cake (I thought only bloggers did that?!). Then he made a granola with strawberry puree and a mini ice cream-coconut doughnut with dry ice… but the coolest part…
He made noodles from coconut and agar agar using syringe and a piece of piping! Check out the noodle-pushing-through-a-syringe shot in the top right pic below.
It’s things like this that warrant the glowing praise our fest received from Josh Ozersky of TIME and Every Day with Rachel Ray:
“There are a lot of food festivals these days. There is a very classy one in Aspen; there is a rocking one in South Beach… having just got back from Atlanta, I am ready to say that there is only one indispensable event, and that is it. The reason is obvious: the south is the new capital of gastronomy in America.”
4. I have an addiction.
I wasn’t home long enough to warrant a full grocery store trip (I’m actually writing this from the Sky Club right now), but I HAD to stop to buy this mid-week: 
Green smoothies are my crack. And that’s not whack.
5. Stand up and WALK!
Lastly, this is the article I will use to convince my boss I need a walking desk.
Source: Treatment Online
Gretchen Reynolds, the New York Times Phys Ed columnist recently published a book, The First 20 Minutes, about the effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
The previously recommend 30 minutes of exercise per day may not be enough to ward off the dangers of sitting on your arse at a desk all day.
Reynolds says “Sitting for long periods of time… tends to cause changes physiologically within your muscles. You stop breaking up fat in your bloodstream, you start getting accumulations of fat.”
She suggests that you make it a goal to stand for two minutes every 20 minutes that you’re chained to a desk. Studies have shown that merely standing can have an impact on how your body responds physiologically, even decreasing your chances of getting diabetes!
***
I’m excited for sleeping in, a hike date, and 2 softball games this weekend!
What are you looking forward to this weekend?
Do you have a sedentary job? How do you combat the effects?
GOOO ATLANTA!!! I wanna move back so bad! 🙂
And I need to remember to stand up every so often. Sometimes I get so into what I’m working on that it’ll be over a couple of hours before I get up. That must change ASAP! Thanks, Laura. Happy Friday!
That would be awesome if you moved back! 🙂
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now–and I love it! I definitely want to try the protein peanut butter sauce and really want one of those treadmill desks… the research about what sitting all day does to your body is scary!
Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Let me know how you like the dip.
I’ve been begging my boss for a standing dest for 2 years!!! I always work standing up at my bar when I’m working from home.
I’d be perfectly ok with another week of AF&W recaps. Great job, I’ve enjoyed reading yours.
I’ll be exploring some new whitewater in the kayak and also some mountain biking this weekend. Good luck in your games! 🙂
That’s so funny you posted about the treadmill desk! I was telling my mom yesterday how I want to buy one of those treadmills which are synced to the internet- i.e. the longer/faster you run/walk, the faster the internet speed is…talk about motivation! Unfortunately I do have a sedentary job but I’ve started walking up the stairs as much as I can. I live on the 15th floor and while I can’t say I walk up all the way every day, I try to at least walk up at least 6 floors and then take the lift the rest of the way- anything helps :)! Have a fab weekend, my friend!
That’s a great thing to do – my place is 8 flights of starts and I always take them up. It’s a great way to get some extra movement in!
This weekend I’m running a race (it’s going to be interesting, my runs have not been very consistent recently), heading to East Atlanta Beer Fest, and house hunting online. It’s going to be awesome! 🙂
That peanut butter sauce looks delicious – I love your random sauces. 🙂 And I want a walking desk – or a exercise ball to sit on, but probably not on the first day at my new job. 🙂
I bet you killed it anyway. How was the festival???
Boo for house hunting. 😛
one of the faculty in our department has one of the treadmill desks. i really want one. maybe someday…
i’m excited for a hiking day this weekend too! we’ve also got a grad party for a friend who just finished his md/phd <– woah, and a birthday party for another friend! it's going to be a fun weekend. 🙂
Our weekends are so similar it’s scary – I went hiking and celebrated a friend getting her phd too! Then I went to a housewarming. Hope your weekend was a fun as mine turned out! 🙂
That peanut sauce is great on ANYTHING. 🙂
Cheers to that! I did this combo as a protein shake this morning (adding spinach and a bit of ginger) and it rocked!
The protein PB sauce is amazing!
I’m going to the party in the park this weekend, that concert in centennial olympic park. And doing a 5K, which I’m worried about because of my back. But I just can’t bear to skip it after I paid for it!
I’m the same way – if I’ve paid for something, I’m betting my money’s worth!
I can’t wait to get my hair done this weekend. My roots are OUT of control!!
I want to see pics! I’m getting mine done next Friday and I cannot wait!
it’s articles like these that make me paranoid that I sit too much 🙁 Being a student it’s hard not to sit. I couldn’t imagine studying while on a treadmill, you know?
I would love to try your peanut flour sauce 🙂 Do you order yours online?
Same here! I’ve just made an effort to be less-sedentary when I am outside of work, and to take plenty of walk breaks.
I order mine through iherb.com. Here’s a code for $10 your 1st order: USO924.
I need to go check out the whole round-up. I’ve read all of my “friends'” re-caps, but really want to look at all of them!
I make a similar peanut sauce often- but not with the exact ingredients that you listed. But, your recipe sounds AWESOME (especially with the maple flavor!!) I can’t wait to try it out. I am definitely obsessed with peanut flour!
I am looking forward to sleeping this weekend, as always. And being away from my horrid job for 2 days. 🙂
I loved the pic you posted. So glad you enjoyed. 🙂
At least we have a long weekend coming up!
Regarding your 5th thing… I needed that reminder, yet at the same time, I hate to see it while I’m at my little cube at work. I try to go for walks, but I really really really wish I worked from home so that I could walk more, stand more, and sit in more ergonomic positions. This desk chair and I do NOT get along.
Agreed! My job satisfaction would be through the roof if I could move around more, or at least stand at my desk. I also find I focus better when I’m standing.
Oh my god! I want a walking desk!! haha that’s so awesome!
I want a walking desk! I talked my boss into a standing desk when we most recently moved offices–And I love it! (I’m even at it right now! Errr, I mean, I’m not blogging at work…). I don’t stand all day, but it does give me a good 3-4 hours of standing time, rather than a solid 8.5 of sitting, yuck.
How did you talk your boss in to it?! I’m trying so hard!
I have a pretty health-conscious boss (okay, REALLY health conscious–he competes in triathlons), so I really only had to suggest it, and he ran with the idea.
Thanks for sharing that article! It was so interesting. That peanut sauce looks and sounds amazing. So do the crazy coconut noodles! I definitely have a sedentary job, but the good thing is, my office is the furthest away from the bathroom so I try to drink a lot of water so that I have to get up and walk to the bathroom pretty frequently during the day. I also try and exercise as much as possible and am up on my feet a lot of the time that I am home, so I hope that helps. Sometimes I worry I’m not doing enough though. Some days I’ll do pushups, squats or jumping jacks in the office but not often enough.
I wish there was a place in my office that I could go do some jumping jacks. Sitting on a stability ball helps, but my hips still kill when I have to sit all day!
I gotta come watch you play softball!!
Come on! Game starts in an hour. 😉
loving that pb sauce!! i definitely need to try that..maybe on a vitatop tonight? or right now? haha.
my job is kinda sedentary but i have the luxury of working from home so i guess its not really. i can get off my butt whenever i want (sort of). i just try to get into the routine of heading to the gym or outside right at 3…then its kinda just part of my day which helps!
Ohhh… it would be SO good on a chocolate Vitatop!
I do the same thing when I’m woking from home. That mid-afternoon break is a life-saver.
I totally had a crush on Bryan Voltaggio. I need a man who can cook for me. I can make those noodles! I have a molecular gastronomy kit 🙂 And its basically just all stuff from my lab haha
I now have a crush on him! He can make me noodles any time. 😉
Oh man! I so want this walking desk… Have you read ” Drop Dead Healthy” by A.J Jacobs?? He talks about how great they are!
Never heard of it! I’ll have check it out – thanks!
I have seen that walking desk thing before, initially I thought it was quite odd, but now I do think it’s a great idea and could really benefit people out there!
I am also intrigued by that peanut flour sauce thing, I really need to use my pb2 in more interesting ways!
Have a nice weekend Laura 🙂
For sure! It’s so versatile. I like to make a spicy PB sauce with it too.
Definitely want to try that pb sauce!
I would have LOVED a treadmill desk when I was working!
How awesome!
SO insanely jealous of your ATL Food and Wine Festival!
Hopping back to the past posts…so jealous…
xoxo from Trinidad
Does that mean you’ll come to next years fest? 🙂
YES! Do they all ready have the dates? ive always wanted to go to Aspen for thiers but Atlanta is SO much fun!
I don’t think so, but it’s usually the 2nd weekend in May!
I’m already on it! Need to look into protein PB sauce and coconut noodles! Both sound delicious.
Sounds like you have an awesome weekend planned! I’m especially jealous of the sleeping in part, that doesn’t happen around here very much anymore! Those coconut noodles through a syringe are crazy- so creative! And I would have loved a walking treadmill desk when I has working full time, my body does not like to sit. Thankfully, my jobs have always involved lots of moving around, even if it was just walking the halls of the school (social worker).
Don’t be jealous. I tried really hard… but I only managed to sleep until 8a. What a drag it is getting old. 🙂