Thank you all for entering to win tickets to the Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival and The Festy!  I used a random number generator to pick the winners, who are listed below.

The winner of the Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival tickets is...Greg!

The winner of The Festy tickets is...Jes!

Greg and Jes, please send me an email (bellaeats@gmail.com) with your full name and contact information, and I will pass it on to Stephanie who will make sure there are tickets waiting for you at Will Call! If I don't hear from you by the end of the day Sunday August 15th, I'll do another drawing to give the tickets to somebody else.

Thank you all for entering!

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Hi All!  I'm sorry the Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce Winners announcement is coming so late today.  I was really hoping to have a recipe post to share tonight but I am a t.i.r.e.d. lady.  It was a very busy Saturday, filled with a lovely run, an intense 90-minute Vinyasa Yoga class and lots of work in the garden because we had some BEAUTIFUL weather here in Virginia today!  So, I'm finally just admitting to myself that the post won't be finished tonight, and decided to just go ahead and announce the winners. 'Cause that's why you all are tuning in today anyway.  :) And the winners are... Comment #28, Marie with 

Glad to hear the employment situation is going well! On a different note, I’d love to win some Country Bob’s!

Comment #65, Sara from Eat Fab in NYC with

Love the recipes! I think it’s an amazing idea! You’ve been linked  I have a couple of giveaways coming up too…stay posted!!!

Congratulations Ladies!!!  Send me an email at bellaeats@gmail.com with your full name and address, and I will forward it on to the Country Bob's folks.  :) Alrighty, I'll be back tomorrow with a [hopefuly] much more interesting post.  G'night!

I hope that each and every one of you had as lovely of a weekend as I had. Some friends were in town, which meant great company, lots of restaurant-eating and much vino. I got to catch up with two of my best girls from grad school and participated in a wedding food tasting with one of them who is getting married here in C'ville in May.  So fun!  Other highlights included a walk in the woods, an afternoon nap, a trip to the running shop and the viewing of Slumdog Millionaire with my hubb, which I highly recommend seeing if you haven't yet.  All-in-all, a very satisfying weekend. That being said...I was a bad healthy food blogger. Not only with my dining-out choices but also with documentation. The food I ate at home (breakfast) was unremarkable, and the remarkable food I ate out is undocumented.  I thought that I would offer you a lovely baked bread instead of a food journal recapping my weekend, but failed miserably at adapting a recipe out of Baking With Agave Nectar.  Not the book's fault, I'm sure, I just messed with the recipe a bit too much.  I can't help myself!  So, note to me, when trying to bake with new ingredients like silken tofu (its called for in nearly 1/2 the recipes in the book) perhaps I should follow the recipe exactly until I get the hang of it... So instead of a lovely baked good, I give you a few pictures from our walk in the woods.  So sunny, so serene, so left me wishing for spring... And I'll be back in the kitchen tomorrow...I do hope you'll check in.  As my pantry door shows, I've got plans for the week!  Hopefully the rest of the menu will be a bit more successful than the first item.  :)  G'night! PS:  LRM is a trip we're taking with friends in April.  The fig blondies and marshmallows have already been requested after they saw them on the blog, so I'm keeping a running tab to make sure nothing is forgotten!  :) PSS:  My foot is feeling better so I'm going to try a run tomorrow evening.  I'll give a full report, don't worry!  Thank you all SO MUCH for your continued support and advice...you are amazing!!!

Happy New Year!!!  I hope that everybody had a safe and enjoyable evening filled with excitement and hope for what 2009 has to bring! The hubb and I had big plans to attend a New Years Eve / Surprise Birthday Party for a good friend of ours.  We got back into town mid-afternoon, unloaded the car and made a trip to the grocery store to stock up on food and an appetizer to take to the party.  We timed everything perfectly so that we would finish our errands and get home with enough time to shower and get ready for the celebration. I'd even picked out exactly what I wanted to wear in my mind as we drove home from the store.  When we got home, we had a big surprise waiting for us... Our dogs had eaten 22oz of Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles, and about 1/2 of the wrappers. Needless to say, we panicked.  I immediately got on the internet for advice while the hubb called our 24 hour emergency vet.  With the help of the vet and my research on the 'net, we determined that each dog would have to consume 20+ ounces of dark chocolate in order for it to be toxic for them.  The problem was, we had no idea if one or both of them had consumed the goodies and how much each of them had eaten.   So, instead of attending a fabulous party with wonderful friends, we got to stay home and force each of our dogs to vomit in order to remove as much of the chocolate from their systems as possible.  Not exactly how we had planned to say goodbye to 2008, but considering some of the challenges we faced in the year it was almost fitting... Because we hadn't planned on this turn of events we weren't prepared to fix dinner.  So instead I ordered us some Chinese food.  I didn't even worry about how healthy it was...after our evening, and considering that the next day was a whole new year to eat healthfully in, I ordered whatever sounded good on the menu.  Szechuan String Beans, Veggie Lo Mein, Hunan Veggies and Tofu and Cheese Wontons. Luckily we had picked up some champagne while at the grocery store so we were still able to ring in 2009 with a little bit of bubbly.  And, the dogs are feeling much perkier this morning and seem to be over their chocolate feast.  Happy New Year to us.  :) So what's in store for 2009??? Driving 14 hours from Florida to Virginia the last two days left me with a lot of time to think about 2008 and all that came with it.  There were certainly challenges...

• Running injuries that kept me from completing the 2008 Charlottesville 10-Miler
• Double knee surgeries and a 5 month recovery for our dog, Lucy
• Our vehicle transmission dying at the most inopportune time

But with those challenges came opportunities for new beginnings...

• My inability to complete last year's race led to my decision to train again this year and start this blog to track my progress
• Lucy is now mostly recovered and the hubb and I feel that her surgery has had many positive effects on us.  We feel that we are now better dog owners, have gained better perspective on our finances and were given the opportunity to really examine our priorities during a time when money was tight and free time was limited.
• There was no saving our previous vehicle so we purchased a 2008 Honda Fit and are so excited to see the improvement in gas mileage from our old Mazda Tribute SUV.  We're helping to save the planet!  (and our wallets!)

There were also many exciting events and accomplishments... The hubb and I returned to New Orleans and the restaurant where we were married. I celebrated my 26th birthday with some wonderful girlfriends. I finished my graduate thesis, Housing for Seniors in Post-Katrina New Orleans. And was rewarded with a Master's Degree in Architecture, along with some amazing and unexpected awards. I managed to find a job I really like in a hurting economy, many of my friends weren't so lucky. The hubb and I picked up a new summer hobby, kayaking!  I can't wait to get back out on the water... And welcomed the second year in our garden and the beautiful harvests that came with it. We discovered a new vacation spot that we'll be returning to often, I hope. (lostrivermodern) And voted for a new president. And of course, on November 1st, 2008 I started Bella Eats!   All-in-all, 2008 was a good year filled with simple pleasures, opportunities for self-reflection and lots of time with family and friends.  I'm looking forward to 2009 and have laid out some goals for myself this year.   I have professional goals:

• Finish logging all of my internship hours so that I can continue working towards my license in Architecture
• Sit for the LEED professionals exam (I'd be certified in green building technology, basically)

And physical wellness goals:

• Complete the Charlottesville 10-Miler on April 5th, 2009
• Commit to running 4-5 days/week, strength training 3 days/week
• Find my ideal weight by May 1st, 2009 and maintain my healthy lifestyle through and beyond 2009

And mental wellness goals:

• Read more
• Bake more (baking is a huge stress relief for me...I love it!)
• Spend less time behind the computer

And married life goals for the hubb and I:

• More date nights
• Save more, spend less
• Better household chore routines so our weekends aren't consumed with cleaning and errands

On this first day of 2009 I am excited for a new beginning, hopeful that change is coming and thankful for the memories I have of 2008.  Happy New Year!!!

I am so excited by all of the fabulous recipes that were submitted for the BSI: GINGER contest this week!  You all did a great job working with an ingredient that many of you weren't completely comfortable with.  I'm so proud!!!  :) Here are all of the entries I received over the last week... Mel @ A Taste of Life : Gingered Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers Caroline @ Banana Cabana : Ginger Orange Balsamic Glazed Chicken Beth @ Biggest Diabetic Loser : Grilled Chicken Wraps with Creamy Citrus Ginger Dressing Becca @ Bites of the Day : Ancho Ginger Applesauce and Ginger Rugelach Christina @ Dinner at Christina's : Crustless Apple Pie with Ginger Topping Jessica @ Johnstone's Vin Blanc : Chocolate Gingerbread Bars Miss Tiffie @ Miss Tiffie Munches : Apricot Ginger Pork Tenderloin Jess @ See Jess Run : Maple and Ginger Roasted Salmon Ashley @ Sweet + Natural : Crystalized Ginger Cookies Tri to Cook : Blueberry and White Chocolate Chunk Ginger Cookies and Curried Lentils with Butternut Squash VeggieGirl : VeggieGirl's Veganized Pear-Pistachio-Ginger Blondies Catherine @ Stevia + Spice : Extra Snappy Gingersnaps

Extra Snappy Gingersnaps

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 1/2 cayenne
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup shortening, room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup mild-flavored molasses
• 1/4 cup egg whites (from 2 eggs)
• Sugar (for rolling)

1. Combine flour, soda, spices, salt and grated ginger in a medium mixing bowl.  Whisk to blend.  In a separate bowl, cream together sugars, shortening and butter until fluffy.  Add egg and molasses and beat until blended.  Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line 2 baking sheets with silpat cookie sheets.  Spoon sugar in thick layer onto a small plate.  Using wet hands, form dough into 3/4-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat completely.  Place balls on prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. 
3. Bake cookies until cracked on top but still soft to the touch, 8-10 minutes.  Cool on sheets one minute.  Carefully transfer to racks and cook.  (Can be made up to 5 days ahead of time.  Store airtight at room temp.)

**makes 60 small cookies.

Thankfully my hubb offered to help me with the judging, I don't know how I could have made this decision on my own! There were so many great examples of sweet and savory uses for ginger, and in the end we chose a recipe that we felt could also be used both ways... The winner of BSI: GINGER is... Becca's Ancho Ginger Applesauce!!! What we both loved about this recipe was not only its originality and simplicity, but also the fact that it immediately evoked images of a summer barbeque on your back deck.  Big ol' bbq pork (or bbq tofu!) sandwich in your hand with Ancho Ginger Applesauce on top, the juice dripping down your arm as you take a big bite...  Ahhh summer.  Maybe its the fact that I had to go out in below freezing weather to get ancho chile powder that made this image so divine in my head, but after I tasted it I was even more sure.  Especially when I realized that its flavor truly transcends all seasons, summer barbeque, paired with roast pork and veggies for a fall dinner party, dessert on a cold winter night...it works in every scenario. Excellent work, Becca!  Hubb and I ate it for dessert tonight...  :)  I'm still deciding on a prize...here are my top 3 choices:

• Trader Joe's care package (do you have one near you?)
• A copy of one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop (if you don't already have it, if you do I can pick a different one)
• A loaf of my pumpkin cranberry bread along with a few of my favorite baking ingredients

What do you all think it should be? Next week's BSI Host is... Ashley @ Sweet and Natural!!!  I LOVE Ashley's blog, she posts fabulous, naturally sweetened recipes several times a week along with very informative posts about key ingredients.  And she has a wonderfully witty style of writing that always has me laughing.  I'm sure her contest will be a blast so check in with her to see what the new ingredient is! My hubb and I had fun this weekend testing out some of the entries...check out what we tried! Mel's Gingered Chicken + Veggie Potstickers They were SOOOO GOOD and so easy to make!!!!  These fabulous little potstickers even managed to evoke a food dance out of the hubb...that rarely happens and you know when it does that whatever he is eating is goooood.  The ginger was the PERFECT compliment to the ground chicken and veggie filling...I even wished we had come up with some great spicy ginger sauce to pour over the top of them but we just used some teriyaki we had in the fridge.  This is a DEFINITE KEEPER in our house! VeggieGirl's Veganized Pear Pistachio Ginger Blondies VeggieGirl did an amazing job at veganizing this recipe...hubb and I are both EXTREMELY IMPRESSED!!!  This is our first dive into vegan baking, and we honestly couldn't tell a difference!  Not that we've tried the original recipe...but you know what I mean.  The blondies are perfectly chewy in texture, and the flavors meld together wonderfully.  I especially love when you occasionally bite into a chunk of the crystalized ginger...YUM!!!  Or as VeggieGirl says...HOLY YUM!!!!  :) Jessica's Chocolate Gingerbread Bars These bars were wonderfully chocolate-y and spicy, with a perfect chewy texture.  I took them with me today to a little knitting party and they were a BIG HIT!  Definitely a great start to the holiday baking season... I was planning to try Ashley's Crystalized Ginger Cookies as well...I just ran out of ginger, and energy.  :)  Look for it later this week, ginger cookies are a FAVORITE in our house! Ok, I can't write anymore.  Its a shame, too, because Brian made a beautiful dinner tonight that deserves a great post...its just going to have to happen tomorrow.  :)  Goodnight!

Today was not the best photo day for me.  I relied on my iphone a bit too much, but I did snag this shot of our Friday afternoon snacks at the office while my boss was away from the table.   I had 6 crackers and probably 1-1.5 oz of yummy smoked gouda.  And a small glass of wine.  Look at that knife!!!  Haha, we really need to work on our tools for these little events.  :)  I didn't eat my Clif Nectar for a snack because I was anticipating the wine/cheese Friday tradition.  However, in hindsight the bar might not have been a bad idea because I wouldn't have been tempted to eat quite as many crackers...  Oh well.  It was tasty!  :) When we got home we had a package waiting on our doorstep.  If any of you have younger siblings you will be familiar with this scenario.  A month or so ago we got an email from Brian's mom explaining that Bri's little bro was having a fundraiser at school.  We had a catalog of things to choose from, and wound up ordering some wrapping paper and these little beauties. Considering that we paid $15 for 10 little 1" x 1" toffee squares I couldn't resist eating one of them, but I'm happy to let Brian finish off the box cause they are calorie heavy. And now for the real photo tragedy.  I was so rushed taking my dinner pictures that I didn't realize that my memory card was not in my camera.  :(  So sad.  I'll tell you about dinner, but you'll have to picture its loveliness in your head. Dinner:  Chicken tenders a la coffee talk with sauteed garlicky collard greens and roasted parmesan cauliflower.  The tenders were good, I did half the batch with honey mustard dressing and the other half with bbq sauce.  I baked the tenders for about 20 minutes, smeared them with sauce, then broiled them for about 3 minutes on each side.  Watch closely though, every oven's different and they could burn quickly! The collards were great as always...love me some greens.  And the cauliflower was okay.  Brian really liked it, but I thought maybe I put a bit too much parmesan on it, it was a little rich for me.  I only ate about a 1/2 cup. I realized my camera mistake by the time I fished some dessert out of the fridge: Kozy Shack rice pudding with frozen blueberries again.  This was the one photo I could have done without since it looks exactly like last night's dessert!   Tomorrow is a big day!

1. I am making our grocery list for Thanksgiving!!!  We're going to pick up the non-veggies tomorrow during our normal grocery shopping trip, then pick up the veggies Tuesday or Wednesday.  I am so excited for Thanksgiving, I'll give details tomorrow of our plans. 
2. I figured out my BSI recipe tonight!  I'm going to try it out tomorrow, but I need to pick up a couple of things at the store...
3. Week #4 of the training program!  Saturday is long run day...our long run is up to 1.75 miles, we're slowly creeping up there!  Because it is going to be so cold tomorrow at 8am when the group meets, Brian and I decided to wait and go on our own at noon.  It will be a balmy 37* then so I'm sure we'll be out on the road in shorts and tank tops.... Kidding.  :)

Do any of you have big weekend plans?

I can't believe it!  Thank you so much Melissa for picking sweet potatoes, what a great ingredient to work with!  This contest and all of the great recipes that were submitted have opened my eyes to what a versatile ingredient the sweet potato is! And congratulations to my co-winner Marianne!!!  Your recipe looks amazing, I can't wait to try it out!!! Don't forget to check out Lindsay's blog for this week's BSI... Yay!!!  Monday just got SO MUCH HAPPIER!  :)

We've had a beautiful, but CHILLY day here in Virginia!  I slept in 'till about 8am, and met my buddy Christine for a hilly walk around the neighborhood.  We were pretty slow today because we had her dog with us and he's a big sniffer, but it was still a nice, hilly 3-mile walk in just under an hour.   After that I made a quick breakfast and spent some time catching up on a few blogs.   1 tbsp almond butter spread on a piece of my banana apple bread and a cereal bowl filled with 1/2 cup Kashi H2H, 1/2 cup Back to Nature Maple Medley, a banana and 1 cup of hemp milk.  Yum! Oh!  I almost forgot.  Last night after posting I had a craving for something sweet, and thought it was a great opportunity to try out my new PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams!   I spread it on a piece of banana apple bread and OH. MY. GOODNESS.  I don't think I need to say anymore. After breakfast and blogs I did a little cleaning, then went to my favorite vinyasa yoga class at Studio 206. It was amazing as usual.  We spent a lot of time working on our hamstrings which was wonderful and is going to be so beneficial to my training.  I've only been back at yoga for about 3 weeks now but it feels so great to be there.  I've always been pretty flexible so its been an easy transition back into my old favorite classes, I just need to work on my upper body strength.  I don't have a gym membership, but I do have a couple of sets of handheld weights at home.  Does anybody have any good suggestions of great at-home strength training dvd's that I could order on Netflix??? For lunch I decided to try out a sweet potato and black beans combo!!!  This was my first, but I've been reading about it on blogs for a few weeks now and was dying to try it.  I had an extra baked sweet potato leftover from my BSI submission, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity (especially since the hubby had leftover pizza to make him happy, he wasn't such a fan of the sweet potato for lunch idea). It was fantastic!!!!!  I used one medium-sized sweet potato, 1/2 tbsp Earth Balance buttery spread, 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup corn, chopped scallions and sea salt.  So simple, so delicious and so filling.  :) After lunch Brian and I did some yard work for about an hour...its been a pretty good activity day!  Which will make up for the fact that tonight we are making a favorite, classic dinner.  Chicken tenders, homemade mac + cheese and green beans.  Yum.  This week's menu has a few more hubby-friendly meals on it (thus the homemade pizza last night, mac + cheese tonight...).  While I can subsist on veggies and grains pretty much every night of the week, his tall frame and ridiculously-speedy metabolism don't do well with that kind of diet.  So, this week my challenge is to strike a healthy balance of good-for-me meals with good-for-hubby meals.  I don't think that means changing a whole lot, I think it just means adding in meat for him to eat in addition to my veggies and grains...and a few comfort food favorites.  :)

Hi All!!!  I'm sorry I've been absent last night and today...  I'm officially through my deadline, WooHoo!  I will do a catch-up post this afternoon/evening.  Unfortunately I don't have that much exciting food news to post...my creativity with food flies out the window when I'm stressed and we've eaten out a lot the last couple of days.  I'll still post though, if nothing else than to keep myself accountable!  :)  Its DREARY here today!  I hope you all are having better weather where you're at!

Hi y'all!  I was just perusing the Food Network site (just a little break from work....) and saw that they have started the sign up for 12 Days of Cookies!!!!!   WooHoo!  Just thought I would share.  :) I think we should have a blogger contest when we get closer to the holidays to come up with fun, creative and healthy holiday baked goods! What do y'all think?