boo!

Freshman year costume #1, Black Cat

Freshman year costume #2, Tap Dancer (real tap shoes included)

Sophomore year costume, Mermaid

Junior year costume, Hippie

Peace out cub scouts! Be back tomorrow with more energy & more food!

un almuerzo especial

Oh my gosh... I am so useless today. Last night was so fun and I probably had too much of a good time. No, I'm sure I had too much of a good time :) it was only Wednesday night! I loved dressing up and it was one of the nights where I took the time to get ready and was quite fond of the way I looked before I left. Don't you love that? My friend is sending me pictures, so I can show you soon, haha. We went to Jorge's apartment for a little pre-party entertainment and then to the club. As I've said before, it was on top of Cerro Santa Lucia, which is awesome because of the view, but it's also in a beautiful building, attracts a great crowd, plays awesome music and has a huge dance floor. I'm a fan.

Following my night of debauchery 0:) I woke up much later than expected and missed my Body Balance class and morning run. I'm hoping I can get to the gym later, I know I'll feel better afterwards. Anyway, I had a quick breakfast, cleaned up, and helped my "mom" prepare lunch. Her cousin, Pamela, whom I met at the dieciocho fiesta came to visit us and it ended up being a long meal of great food, great people, and great conversation. The best. Those two are my absolute favorite Chilean women and I cannot wait for our coffee date next week!

I feel weird not explaining the food :) We had a Italian-Veggie Frittata, and rice mixed with carrots and green beans. Then we had una Ensalada Carmen Gloria (tomatoes, corn, onions, drizzled with olive oil) y lechuga. Delicious. I'm off to take a nap and then hopefully get in some studying before this evening's class. Tomorrow we're taking a trip to Valpo for a touristy day and a major Chilean Halloween celebratory night, so I've gotta be in tip -top shape! Speaking of, the costume still has yet to be determined, lol. Hope you're having a fabulous day!

spreading the warmth

As I type, I'm sitting on my back patio in the sun. It's an absolutely gorgeous day in Santiago, clear skies, high 70's, a slight breeze fragrant with the scent of flowers... and my friends at school are combating snow already. Don't worry, I appreciate my good fortune :). Apparently, many North Americans are experiencing temperatures that are dropping, some to wintery chills, so I'd just like to let you know that I'm sending you all a very warm blog hug, please bundle up!

My lunch may be more appropriate for the conditions there than here but Ita felt like soup. She made it with carrots, potatoes, corn, spinach, white beans, and celery. Yum. Then we had an Ensalada Chilena, my favorite! Tomatoes, onions, and cilantro go so very well together. Today's an easy day, I had classes this morning but from now on I'm completely free. I've got to make the final confirmations on the detailed itinerary for my parents visit ;) (haha, I'm ridiculous) and then do some research. Tonight I'm dressing up and meeting friends for drinks near Cerro Santa Lucia. Wednesday night's are "After office," looking forward to pretending to be a professional, Happy Humpday!

jake-o'-lantern

This is Jake... and I miss him dearly. Yesterday my mom sent me pictures of him and his sister, Taylor from their pumpkin-picking trip. Not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but in addition to being a real estate agent, my mom also watches children in our home during the week. The kids have practically grown up with us, so being away from them is nearly as tough as being away from family! Jake is my favorite (shh, don't tell) and he promised that he'd enjoy the fall season for me- pumpkin carving, apples, cider, colored leaves, hay rides, all of it :).

Thank you to all my wonderful readers who commented yesterday! It's so nice to know that I don't always have to portray a perfect worldly life, you girls are the best. Anyway :) I snacked on a granola bar and large pear during my amazing class so I wasn't hungry for dinner last night. I finally settled on a cheese and romaine lettuce sammie. My host-dad had just bought bread... it was awesome, so so yummy!

This morning I ate a quick 2 slices of PB, Banana & Flax toast and literally ran to the gym for Body Balance class. Our regular instructor was present in addition to a guest, nice surprise! The two kept switching teaching roles so our routine was completely new. My body could definitely tell, whew, love it! After, I ran errands with my "mom" before sitting down to a lunch of left-overs, Pastel de Papas y ensalada.

I took a delicious up close and personal shot... so I thought I'd share ;). This afternoon is probably going to be filled with online paper work (does that even make sense?) for the French government. I can't believe I'm actually leaving here in less than 2 months and then heading to there! It's all so bittersweet. See you after dinner, HAPPY TUESDAY!

imagine

Love that song. Good morning my dears! Um, I have a confession to make... I didn't take any pictures yesterday. Bad blogger :( I know, but on the bright side, you didn't miss out on a whole lot!\

I had the Apple Strawberry Oatmeal like I did on Sunday for breakie. Just as good as before, if not better, I can't stress again how happy I am that it's berry season! For lunch I caught up wih Kristin who had crossed the border with out friend Tim this past weekend to Mendoza, a natural beauty of an Argentine city. I hope I can go soon! We ate at the school cafeteria (queue the boo's) and I settled for a salad with a hard-boiled egg and tuna. As expected it left much to be desired but the company was certainly well worth it :). Lastly, on the menu for dinner last night, was Pastel de Papas. However, since it wasn't ready in time and Isidora had come home with a friend that day, my host-mom reached for the emergency stash of frozen food. Vegetarian lasagna, yuck. Fortunately, all hope was not lost because the main dish was followed by an arugula salad, which was absolutely divine. And there you have it folks, Danielle's day of not-so-special and picture-less eats!

Now onto the fun stuff! I was lucky enough to receive my second Brillante Weblog award... twice! First from the balanced healthy lifestyle blog of my intelligent B-Hlthy girl at Body. Mind. Soul. If you don't already know of her, you should! Not only does she make creative and yummy foods and share her workouts, but she also let's you in on that mind of hers making for a concrete source of nutritional information and thoughts. The second lovely bloggie who recognized me and this worldly culinary adventure was the inspirational and dedicated Sarah from See Sarah Eat. She lost 70 pounds through eating well, strength training and running. She's already run a half-marathon! A true example of the benefits of living mindfully and enjoying food and fitness. Thank you so much girls! I'm so lucky to be a part of such a wonderful and supportive blogging crowd and have enjoyed every minute of it! And now I will leave you with B-Hlthy's stand-in award... the scariest pumpkin of the week! :) In addition to a question: What on earth should I be for halloween?! With limited resources and time,any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday!

do not vote

nada, nada, nada

So... I've got nothin'!

The Indian place we went to Thursday night, Restaurant Majestic, was just descent and the best part about it was probably the ambiance. I could definitely tell a Latin American spin on authentic cuisine. I've gotten spoiled from the scrumptious little hole in the wall places that my best friend takes me to in the city I guess! Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries immediately at the beginning of the meal so I have no pictures to share, I'm so sorry :(. To start we ordered Samosas, deep fried pastry triangles with meat and vegetables. I'd give them a five out of ten. Mine was yummy but it reminded me more of an empanada than anything else. We then split a large order of Naan and Rice for the table and had our own little separate dishes, I got the Vegetable Kashmiri since I wasn't too hungry and felt like some spice. This was good but not nearly as hot as I think it should of been. I also sampled other dishes that were just, okay. Oh well, lol, I felt like such a snob because everyone else was thrilled.

Alright, so I had gotten a bit too excited for a mediocre restaurant but it was nice to go out to eat for a change and with my favorite people. Plus, I had Friday and Saturday to look forward to. Earlier in the day my program had a Empanadas cooking class and then I was supposed to go with a few of my friends to Viña del Mar y Valparaiso. The cities are super close so we would have been spending time in both. So, Friday night was a birthday party at a club and Saturday, today, we were planning on going to a beach asado. Yet I'm sitting at home writing this post.

I woke up early yesterday morning with one of the most intense stomach pains ever. I feel like I'm constantly complaining about mi aguata, it's become very sensitive to everything apparently, but this was like nothing I had ever felt before. I had gotten food poisoning from the Indian food that I didn't even enjoy that much ¡Qué pena! I spent most of my day between my bed and the little girl's room and hardly ate a thing. I've never been so incredibly uncomfortable. I even took the medicine that I had from the gastrointestinal infection but it hardly helped. Nonetheless I never made it out of the house, let alone to the coast... and my friend, who I was supposed to share a hostel room with, is pissed at me. Seriously, she sent me a text message that started off, "thanks for screwing me over..." and got worse from there.

What?! I didn't reply yesterday because I didn't have the energy but even now that I'm feeling half-way better I still don't know what to say. I'm still shocked that she reacted so selfishly and felt the need to message me in such a mean tone. Obviously I would've much rather gone and obviously I didn't get sick on purpose; I was just as disappointed. Ugh, I hate the way girls are! So, anyway, yeah, like I said, I've got nothin' for you all and again, I apologize. No pictures, nor foodie stories, not even any cool sights. I figure I'd use this unexpected free day to get in some research for on my organic agriculture project. And in the mean time, I may or may not eat anything interesting, (although I'm not in pain, I still don't have much of an appetite,) but I'll let you know. Take care bloggies, I hope you're enjoying your weekend more than I am!

calling all pumpkin lovers

So apparently I'm not the only fan of pumpkin, huh? Good thing, these winter squashes are chock full of nutrients like Vitamin A (beta-carotene), Vitamin C, Potassium, Manganese and Dietary Fiber. There's much more of course :) but I don't want to bore you with the list, these are the vitamins and minerals that are most prominent. Anyway, after many requests I've decided to share Carmen-Gloria's Pumpkin Purée recipe contigo... at the end of the post!

I can feel the suspense already. For lunch and last night's dinner we had scrumptious bowls Carbonada. Today's picture won ;). Soup is such a great and easy way to get in tons of veggies and flavors. It's by far my favorite comfort food. I'm going to miss this particular one when I get back to the states! I might just have to make it for my real family, lol.Nope, no receta quite yet. I felt bad that dinner had no pictures so I thought I'd share the salads we ate following our soup. I love cauliflower in all forms and this way is bound to become a new go-to prep of mine. So simple! We steamed the cauliflower, topped it with the juice of one lemon as it cooled and then sprinkled parsley on top before mixing it up. Yum, try it soon! Oh and there was lettuce too, go figure :).

Purée de Zapallo

Ingredientes

1/4 fresh pumpkin, cut into cubes

2 large potatoes, cut into cubes

1/2 medium onion, diced small

4 tbsp of skim milk

2 tbsp of butter or butter-replacement

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instrucciones

1. Place the potatoes and pumpkin in a large deep pan of salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

2. While they're cooking, sauté the onions with a bit of oil in another pan until golden. 

3. Drain the potatoes and pumpkin and return to the pan with the onions. Lower the heat to the lowest grade as possibly and mix with an immersion blender.

4. Add the milk and "butter" and mix again.

5. Serve and enjoy the creamy orange goodness!

There you are my dears, I hope the recipe serves you well... literally :). Hehe, I think I'm funny. Get excited for the next post because after my class tonight I'm going with friends to the best Indian restaurant in Santiago. Yay, so excited! We're bringing big appetites so I'm sure I'll have a fun recap tonight. Happy Thursday!

si se puede

The phrase basically translates to, "yes, you/he/she can," and I'm not gonna lie, I got it from the Disney movie. (I think it's Gotta Kick It Up? Ha.) Throughout the film, the squad repeats this phrase as a form of motivation and inspiration. Anyway! I seemed to have adopted it, too. I've noticed I say it to myself in the last few minutes of a run or during the pilates 100s in Body Balance class, or even, most recently, when climbing the volcano. I was feeling too lazy yesterday to go into the entire trip and our excursions so I let the pictures speak for themselves, but I believe that my trek up Volcán Villaricca is worth spending sometime on. It was honestly one of the most physically-challenging things I've ever done. My perception of measurements is embarrassingly horrible, so even after hearing that it was 2,847-meter-high, I had no idea how strenuous it would be. Most of the volcano was incredibly steep, the snow certainly didn't help, and the fact that the ski lifts were no longer in service made our journey longer than most; it took us six and a half hours to reach the top and two people didn't make it the entire way. We went from being sweaty, dragging through melting snow, to freezing at the top of the frozen, windy peak. The minutes didn't fly by either, every step of the way took a complete joint effort of mind and body to keep going. But, I did it! And I've never before felt so proud of myself for doing so. I got one of the most beautiful experiences out of it, between the view itself and the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. Not to mention that it's probably the closest I'll ever get to hot, boiling magma ;). Si se puede. We are so much more than we could ever imagine... so yes, whatever it is that your striving for, no matter how difficult it is, or how distant it seems, you can do it... and with determination and focus, one day you will. Congrats in advance!

Well there's my inspiration speech for the day, ha, onto la comida! Today for lunch and last night for dinner (pictured), I had a Zucchini Frittata, Pumkin Purée and salads. Lip-smacking good. I have to say, if you like mashed potatoes and have already tried mashed cauliflower, move onto pumpkin, it's a tasty and nutritious substitute. My family had an asado this past weekend while I was away, so my ita used the left-over in Monday's dinner and yesterday's lunch. She mixed it with canned tomatoes, string beans, and corn, and it came out delish. We also ate rice and, of course, salads. Tuesday I only had lettuce, but Monday I hit the jackpot with tomatoes & cucumbers, onions & beets :).

En fin, Monday's lunch. We had Salpicón de Pollo for the first time this season and my first time ever. It's so tasty and light and ideal for the kind of heat that we've been having lately. Our salad was just the basic lettuce, chicken, and potato because we were missing a few ingredients, but I'm sure it'd be even better with the rest. Originally, it was a Spanish dish, and since then almost every Latin American country has interpreted it differently. Here's the Chilean version according to my "mom."

Salpicón de Pollo

Ingredientes

2 tbsp of mayonnaise 

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of vinegar

Juice of one lemon

--

1 cooked chicken breast, chopped into cubes

1/2 head of lettuce, shredded

1/2 kilo of cooked potatoes, chopped into cubes

1 cup of shredded carrot

1/2 cup of cooked peas

1/2 cup of cooked corn

1 cup of chopped avocado

1 boiled egg for each plate

Salt and pepper to taste

--

Instrucciones

Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss. Mix the dressing ingredients and add to salad. Enjoy!

I'm sure you all won't be looking at this recipe any time soon with winter quickly approaching, but it'd be great for the summertime. Oh, and just a side note, I like the taste of mayo in the dressing, but leaving it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world seeing as it's not exactly the best thing for you :). Alrighty then, I've got to get back to work, 'tis the life of a student. Happy Humpday, all!

¿qué tal?

As for me, I've eaten really delicious food.

Desayuno, de el viernes - el domingo

Cena, Restaurante 89, el viernes... salad, salmon with spinach and spiced mashed potato.

Cena, El Fugón, el sabado... pan amasado, vegetable consommé, fettucine with a creamy vegetable sauce.

El almuerzo, Fuegovivo, el domingo... garlic chips and bread with butter or eggplant olive oil!, mediterranean salad (baked eggplant, mixed greens, tomato). A real entreé salad!

El cena, un asado, el domingo... steak rounds, mixed salads, fruit and ice cream (dessert). Yum, I love helado artesanal!

I went hiking in Huerquehue National Park.

I drove through the Southern Chilean countryside.

I saw Lake Villaricca.

I've relaxed in the hot springs.

And I climbed a 2,847-meter-high volcano, one of the ten most active in the world, with best friends and a trusty ice-pick.

I had an incredible weekend in Pucón :) and now I'm looking forward and catching up with my blogging friends that I've missed so much! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and are ready for another week! Back to reality...

viña concha y toro

Yesterday, here in Santiago, we were experiencing ideal conditions for a little vino so... why not make the most of it?! It was so simple, after calling to make tour reservations all we had to do take the metro to the southernmost stop and pick up a bus that whisked us away to vineyard paradise. The entire commute took 30 minutes, gosh, I'm so lucky ;). We went to the birthplace of Concha y Toro, their vineyard at Puento Alto in Maipo valley. It was absolutely, postively, gorgeous!

After a walk through the grounds,we first tasted a Carménère reserve from their Casillero del Diablo line. The Carménère grape is originally from the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France that produces a deep red wine. It is virtually extinct in Europe, as a result of the Phylloxera outbreak, but has been preserved in South America since 1850s and still thriving in Chile due to the geographic isolation and ideal weather conditions. Interestingly enough, many of the vineyards misidentified it as Merlot for more than a century until 1994 when Jean Michel Bourisiquot discovered the truth. There are only 3 places in the entire world where it is cultivated today. With such fascinating information it's a shame I don't enjoy it more! It's just too rough for me.

Next we explored a couple wine cellars and then tasted a Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon. It was heavy, and deep, and in an attempt to sound like a connoisseur, I appreciated the hearty, structured bodyof currants, dark berries, and violets. Definitely would be a delicious pairing with red meat. Haha, I'm such a poser :P. After drinking on a basically empty stomach, it had been about 7 hours since my oatmeal breakfast, we decided to sit down and get a bite to eat. The two of us wanted to split a cheese plater and since that, of course, called for another glass... we both caved into the pressure ;) oh well...

I had a Casillero del Diablo Shiraz Rosé, a nice medium-dry, fruit and spicy pink. Not sure if it was my tipsyness recollection but I'm pretty sure I deemed it as a versatile choice, lol. Genevieve had a white from their Trio line, 70% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Grigio, 15% Riesling. This one was probably my favorite it was very fresh and balanced, and I may have had more than one taste :). White wine is just delectable.

Overall it was a wonderful afternoon and resulted in a winey post instead of the usual foodie one. By the time I got home I just had "breakfast for dinner," took a quick shower, and was off again for more wine. I promise that wasn't my only intention ;). I went to a friend's apartment for a birthday celebration. The majority of people were either Chilean or French but there were also three Italians, a Swiss, plus Gen, myself, and our friend, Ben, from the U.S. Embracing diversity at it's best! Not sure what's up for Sunday but I'm looking forward to relaxing and drinking copious amounts of water! Be back tonight with lunch & dinner eats. Hope you're enjoying the end of your weekend!

monsoon

So. Much. Rain. It's unbelievable! It has been down-pouring since about 11 o'clock this morning, and when I say hard, I mean h-a-r-d. Well, now that you got the daily weather report :). The second go at the gym was great, I ran there, spent 45 minutes on treadmill and then walked back. My jogging intervals on an incline really kicked my butt so it took me longer to get home. It was a nice cool-down walk though, in every way possible. I didn't layer as much as I had on the way there because I had been so warm and not only did I look ridiculous in my thin rain coat, thin sweatpants and big red rain boots but I was completely soaked when I walked through the door! So smart ;).

Here's breakfast from earlier in the day, 7:15 am to be exact: Green Tea and a Peanut Butter, Banana, Flax, and Marmalade sandwich. Ten minutes after the photo I toasted up another piece of bread and spread it with more peanut butter and the other half of a banana too. I don't know how other people work out or do anything for that matter before eating breakfast in the morning. I always wake up absolutely starving! By the time I really got to go the gym it was already 11 and I should have eaten a snack before because I was basically hungry the entire time. It may have helped though, you should've seen me go! Once I was home and showered I snacked on a Granny Smith Apple and a handful of walnuts to hold me over until lunchtime at 2. It must have been that one time of the month that the family eats beef so of course I had a special plate :) a Lettuce, Corn, Carrot, and Avocado salad with Tuna... and Rice. I had about 3 more scoops of tuna as I ate my way down until I was finally satisfecho in the best way possible. A few hours later I was itching for something more but what? I walked into the kitchen to find my answer, my cookies. There were only 4 left on the plate, haha, they were definitely a hit last night and throughout the day. I ate one with another cup of Green Tea to keep my energy up. The gloomy weather had me sleepy all day! By the way, my celebratory sweet of choice was four of these bad boys during the course of the party last night. Not only is that totally okay with me because of the fact that it was a special occasion but their nutritional stats aren't half bad.

I started with the ingredients Veganomicon listed- flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, canola oil, sugar, flaxseed, vanilla extract, almond extract chocolate chips, walnuts and then made a few adjustments, the largest of which was using skim milk instead of soy. Next I decreased the one and a half cups of sugar to one and used an extra tbsp of vanilla extract to compensate (3 as opposed to 2), replaced half of the all-purpose flour (1 cup) with whole-wheat flour (1 cup minus 2 tbsp), and upped the amount of ground flaxseeds (4 tsp to 2 tbsp) for added fiber. As for oil, the recipe didn't call for much to begin with, and obviously there were no eggs. Gotta love vegan cookbooks.

Nope, not bad at all, although they tasted like they should've been. "Deep, dark, chocolatey, nutty." Only thing they forgot was, yummy. Omg, I adore chocolate, maybe a little bit too much, eh well :). Speaking of, I think I'm going to grab another one for dessert soon! But before I go here's dinner, a veggie plate almost as those of my talented friend, Em. Almost :). There's some leftover Lunch Salad in the middle, one tomato, Celery salad, and a hard-boiled Egg. So good, so fresh, so clean. And, now for that cookie I was talking about... Haha, wishing you all a great Friday night and upcoming weekend!