{Product Review} Sunshine Burgers

Who else has been glued to the television over the last week? I love the Olympics and have been keeping up with snowboarding, downhill skiing and other events as much as I can. Having the long weekend and huge dump of snow have made it a bit easier than it otherwise would have been. 

Being stuck at home, catching the latest broadcast means having some quick and easy meals ready to make at home a necessity. Lucky for me, I had a huge supply of Sunshine Burgers arrive just in time for the Winter Olympics! 

Sunshine Burger is a line of vegan burgers made with non-genetically modified, organic ingredients. These burgers are a great source of plant-based protein and are gluten, wheat, soy, corn, oat, dairy, egg, peanut and tree nut free. 

Sunshine Burger sent me a selection of their most popular flavors, including Garden Herb, Loco Chipotle, Black Bean South West, Falafel, Shiitake Mushroom and Hemp & Sage Breakfast. 

For dinner one night, I decided to make some veggie burritos using the Sunshine Burger patties. 

Sunshine Burger Burrito

1 Garden Herb Sunshine Burger patty

1 Shiitake Mushroom Sunshine Burger patty

1 can of vegetarian refried beans

1 avocado

1 tomato

shredded Mexican blend cheese

4 flour tortillas

I thawed the patties and then crumbled them by hand before heating them through on the stove. Raisin Bread and I then built our own burritos with all of the accroutrements!

I have also been using the Sunshine Burgers to make quick and easy veggie burgers for lunch.

A Quick Lunchtime Burger
1 Sunshine Burger patty of your choice
1 burger bun
lettuce mix
cheese
avocado
chili (optional)

For the burger below, I used the Loco Chipotle patty, which is a quarter pound patty and has a ton of flavor and a great kick to it. I went all out with it and added some vegetarian chili to my burger.

I found both recipes super tasty. Raisin Bread, on the other hand, was not a fan of the texture of the meatless burgers. On the negative side, I found the patties to be pretty fragile. Just moving them from the microwave on to a bun caused the patties to crumble. Overall, though, I really love the taste of the patties that I have tried thus far, especially the Black Bean South West.

Find stores selling Sunshine Burgers near you here.

To learn more about Sunshine Burger, visit them:

On the web: www.sunshineburger.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/sunshineburger

Twitter: @sunshineburger

Disclosure: Through my affiliation with Fit Approach, I received complimentary product from Sunshine Burger for the purpose of this review. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

{Product Review} Professional Skin Care Face and Body Brush System by ToiletTree Products

In terms of my beauty routine, I pretty much have found a system that works for me and have stuck to it for years and years. Once in a while, I am willing to try something new if I think it will help solve a problem area or save me time or money. 

The Professional Skin Care System by ToiletTree Products is just such a product. I have been wanting to try out a skin care brush for the longest time, but just couldn't justify spending the money on a beauty item that I was unsure of. That is why I was so excited when ToiletTree Products contacted me to see if they could send me their Professional Skin Care System! 

I have been using the brush for about two weeks now, and I love it! The system comes with 4 interchangeable brush heads: 2 face brushes (one soft and one medium), 1 body brush and 1 pumice sphere, a water-resistant strap, and 4 AA batteries so I could use it immediately. The brush is water-resistant, which is perfect for use in the shower. It is also available in six different colors: pink, purple, green, blue, gray and black. 

I have had a hard time finding a good exfoliating product for my face, so to be honest with you, I don't really do a lot of exfoliating. The brush is a great alternative to harsh scrubs and solutions to get rid of dead skin and get the deep clean I really need but have been avoiding for so long. 

My body is a different story. I use body scrubs, mesh poufs and exfoliating body washes on a regular basis, but my skin feels even softer than usual after I started using the ToiletTree Skin Care System.

My favorite part about the system is how easy it is to use. The heads just pop off, so I can switch between all of them very easily over the course of my shower to make sure I am squeaky clean from head to toe.

Get this. The Skin Care System is sold for only $39.95. Although I have not used other skin care brushes, I think this is a great alternative for those who are looking for a product of this kind at an extremely affordable price point.

The ToiletTree Professional Skin Care System is available on Amazon.com

To learn more about ToiletTree Products, find them on
Twitter: @ToiletTreeProd
Facebook: ToiletTreeProducts
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/toilettreeprod/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/toilettreeproducts

Disclosure: I received a complimentary ToiletTree Professional Skin Care System from ToiletTree Products for the purpose of this review. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

An Outdoor Run + {Product Review} 2Toms BlisterShield

For the first time in a very, very long time, I got to run outside! Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous out and warm enough for this Californian to brave the elements. I knew it wasn't going to last long, so I took a break from my best friend, Mr. Tread Mill, and hit the pavement. 

I headed past the Netherlands Carillon. 

And across the Memorial Bridge.

I stopped to check out the frozen Potomac River.

I made my way past the Lincoln Memorial 

and the Washington Monument. The scaffolding is coming down, slowly but surely.

I ran down the National Mall. Here's the Smithsonian Castle.

I made it to the National Gallery of Art before turning around. I planned to complete between 6 and 9 miles on this run and wound up finishing 8.22 miles. It felt so good to be outside and enjoy the sights. My first race of 2014 is coming up quickly and getting outside was just what I needed to reassure myself that I am ready for it. 

I also used my outdoor run to test out a product I recently received. Medi-Dyne sent me a few samples of 2Toms BlisterShield. On runs, my left foot in particular has problems with chafing and blister formation, so I was interested to see how this product might help. 

I opened one of the sample packets I received and sprinkled half of the powder into each of my socks. 

Then I shook the socks around to spread out the powder. Putting the powder-lined socks on created a little bit of a mess, especially since my pants were black! I could definitely feel the difference of having the powder in my sock because it actually felt like more friction instead of less. That made me a bit worried. There was no reason to be though because I had no foot problems during or after my run!

I also thought that taking my socks off would create a mess but this also wasn't the case. There was no mess and the product washes right off in the shower. I will be using the second sample on my next long, outdoor run for sure!

Disclosure: I received two sample packets of 2Toms BlisterShield from Medi-Dyne. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

Sonoma Winter WINEland and Brewery Visits

We planned a trip down Northern Sonoma County's Wine Road on Sunday for the 22nd Annual Winter WINEland.

By the way, if you missed the previous posts on my recent trip to Northern California, check them out first:
- The Hills of San Francisco
- Sunshine, food and wine in Napa and Sonoma

Winter WINEland is an event, where you have the chance to visit any of the over 100 participating wineries, where you receive tastings, discounts and sometimes food pairings, all for one ticket price. We purchased Sunday only tickets, which were about $35 including service fee. Such a good deal!

Northern Sonoma County in itself is huge, so we pretty much stuck to the area around Healdsburg to make the most of our time.

We started out at 11 am at Wilson Winery, where we picked up our wristbands and tasting glasses. We sampled three different red wines by Wilson as well as enjoyed some barbecue brisket.

As you can tell, the weather was absolutely amazing. I hear that it can sometimes be dreary and rainy in January, but California is currently facing a severe drought and there hasn't been any rain to speak of. 

Barbecue brisket at Wilson Winery

Our next stop was lunch at Bear Republic Brewing Co.

The restaurant served pub-style offerings, which were tasty but not amazing, and I felt I was led astray on the beer recommendations. I typically like lighter beers, and the waitress suggested the beer on the right for me. Yeah, that's not a light beer! I believe it was the Heritage. 

Beers from Bear Republic

Our second Wine Road stop was the beautiful Truett Hurst Winery. The grounds were so gorgeous that we wound up spending quite a bit of time just chatting, sitting in the sunshine and exploring. Along with the vineyards, there are gardens and livestock, including chicken and sheep (which I did not see any of).  

The gardens of Truett Hurst

The property butts up against Dry Creek, where there are salmon and trout, which I also did not see any of. 

Not only was the setting magnificent but I also had some fantastic wine there. My favorite was the 2012 Black Sheep Pinot Noir with flavors of black cherry, candied ham and ripe berries. It was rich and tasty! 

Next, we ventured over to Geyserville to visit Silver Oak, which specializes exclusively in Cabernet Sauvignon. The AFC Championship game was happening during our visit and the winery staff kept visitors updated on the score via a chalk board. 

Silver Oak also had a food pairing for us to enjoy. Black truffle and mushroom pizza from their own wood-fired oven! It was so yummy and, of course, fresh!

We still had some more time, so we added one more winery to finish out our WINEland journey. We visited Geyser Peak Winery. Our day was pretty heavy on the red wines and one of our traveling companions prefers whites. Geyser Peak was recommended for this reason. I was pretty wine-ed out by this time, so I just had a taste of the offerings. I did confirm one thing over the course of the weekend though. I really really do not enjoy sauvignon blanc! 

 

If you thought our day was over, we still had more tasting to do! We headed to Russian River Brewing Company, which we had tried to visit the previous night. I did not order anything to sample, but I had a couple of sips of the famous Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig. Unlike my friends, I do not appreciate IPAs so those beers were lost on me.  

On our way back into San Francisco, we stopped by Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma for dinner and more beer sampling. I shared the "Around the World in 16 Beers" tasting with two other girls and we barely made a dent in it. Again, my beer palate is pretty limited, but they were fun to try and the setting was nice. There were large picnic tables in an outdoor beer garden. The food here was also very pub-ish, so it was nachos for me! 

It was a fun weekend of catching up with old friends, eating delicious food, enjoying plenty of adult beverages and spending time outside in beautiful weather!

Until next time, San Francisco!

January 2014 Happenings

Welcome to February! January was a busy and very very cold month. Here's a brief run down of January 2014!

- #Polar Vortex: I am so over this weather. We experienced 6.6 inches of snowfall in January and I have lost count of how many single digit degree days we have had. This has been by far the coldest winter we've had since I moved here in 2011. Is it spring yet?

January 21, 2014

January 21, 2014

January 25, 2014

- RAMW Restaurant Week: I got to experience a new restaurant this month as well as enjoy another meal at an old favorite during DC Restaurant Week. There has been some noise about how Restaurant Week isn't really a good deal and might also be a rip off. I don't disagree, but you can also find good deals by scouring the menus and picking high price point restaurants. 

I had a lunch date with myself at Sushi Taro, my favorite sushi restaurant in DC. My lunch was comprised of a 3 box tasting of shrimp and vegetable tempura, salmon and albacore tuna sashimi and soba. For my sushi course, I received eel, yellowtail, tuna, salmon, white fish and shrimp nigiri and salmon and avocado maki. Lunch ended with a serving of green tea ice cream. Yum! And not bad for $20! 

Raisin Bread and I had a friend who was in town for a week on business so we set up a Restaurant Week excursion with him to Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill. I don't often find myself around the Hill but this establishment was teeming with Hilly people. 

I started my meal with a cocktail called The Lobbyist's Libation (Hendrick's Gin martini with cucumber puree and lemon-infused simple syrup). I wasn't at the table when our amuse bouche arrived, but it was yummy and tasted like tomato soup. 

For my three course meal, I had the red oak and roasted beet salad with crisp goat cheese, black walnut and a sherry shallot vinaigrette, the grilled angus sirloin with short rib ravioli, sweet potato puree, braised swiss chard and black garlic jus, and lastly, green apple consomme with crisp apples, cinnamon panna cotta and almonds.

My favorite course was the entree. It was perfectly cooked and I really liked the accompaniments, especially the black garlic.

- Funniest Thing to Happen: I won a year's supply of toothbrushes from Colgate and Influenster. Sweet! Clean teeth! If you haven't tried the Colgate SlimSoft toothbrush before, I highly recommend it. It's magical.

- Making an Apartment a Home: January was the first month since we've moved to DC that both Raisin Bread and I weren't in graduate school. We got a chance to spruce up the apartment a little with some greenery. I love plants but I have a history of not having the greenest of thumbs. Hopefully, these bad boys will thrive.

- The Treadmill is My Friend: When it's cold, I treadmill. When it's icy, I definitely treadmill. I'm currently training for my next half marathon, the Rock 'n' Roll DC Half Marathon in March. I also got to put in some miles in my awesome new Union Jack leggings, which I received from my mother-in-law for Christmas. 

Total mileage this month: 30.8 miles. 

- Trip to San Francisco: Last but not least, as you know, I visited San Francisco over MLK weekend. Be sure to check out my posts on this fun trip. The final post will be up later this week.

Part 1: The Hills of San Francisco
Part 2: Sunshine, food and wine in Napa and Sonoma

Sushi Taro
1503 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Charlie Palmer Steak
101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Sunshine, food and wine in Napa and Sonoma

After a short drive from the city to Napa, we checked in to our hotel and had a few hours to rest before it was time for our dinner reservations.

By the way, if you missed my first post on my Northern California Adventures, check it out here.

For dinner, we visited the very cute and very busy The Girl and The Fig in Sonoma. To start, we shared "The Works" cheese platter, which came with a selection of three cheeses, cured meats, seasonal fruit, house-made fig cake, spiced nuts and a baguette. I shared the duck confit with my friend, and it came with farro, roasted parsnips, kale and black pepper vinaigrette. It was amazing!

For dessert, we split the asian pear crostata with buttermilk creme anglaise and spiced caramel. Everything was so delicious and it was hard to decide what to order. 

The next morning, we were up bright and early to attend a 10 am sparkling wine tasting at Mumm Napa. I'm not much of a sparkling wine/champagne person because I tend to get really bad headaches from drinking champagne, but I must admit that this tasting was a lot of fun.

We shared two different levels of tastings and some of the wines we tried included the Brut Reserve, Brut Prestige and the Brut Rosé.

We also got a couple of "bonus" tastings including the sparking pinot noir and Carlos Santana's Supernatural Rosé.

After our fill of sparkling wine, we had an early lunch at Bottega. I was so looking forward to dining here and tasting some of Michael Chiarello's food!

First off, the ambiance was amazing! I am completely obsessed with their brass water goblets.

Our party was seated in a private dining area, which just happened to be in the wine cellar!

I went all out and continued my day with a yummy peach bellini. My friend and I shared a bunch of dishes, and we also shared a charcuterie plate with the table. 

To start, we had the polenta under glass with caramelized mushrooms and balsamic game sauce. Very rich and creamy! Next, we shared the shaved Brussels sprout salad with Meyer lemon dressing, toasted Marcona almonds, egg and Pecorino cheese. 

For our entree, we had the most decadent dish: cavatelli with lobster and sea urchin. I want to eat this again right now!

As if we hadn't stuffed ourselves silly already, we had to head across the way to Bouchon Bakery. I was a good girl and only purchased a lemon macaron and an almond croissant for breakfast the next morning. 

Next up was a wine tasting at Ma(i)sonry, which didn't turn out exactly as we hoped. Upon arrival, we were told that everyone in our party had to do the same tasting and that we all had to spend a minimum of $35 each. This is something that we were not told when we made our reservations. I found this to be entirely uncool. We decided to just order three bottles of wine to share.

Our first bottle was Lail Vineyard's 2012 Blueprint Sauvignon Blanc ($40). Over the weekend, I confirmed that I am not at all a fan of Sauv Blanc. Our second bottle was more my speed. It was Blackbird Vineyards' 2012 Arriviste Rosé ($25).

For our final bottle, we went up a notch on the price point and purchased Tor Kenward Family Wines' 2011 Tor Beckstoffer To Kalon ($150). It was the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever had and it was quite delightful.

Ma(i)sonry also is home to a gallery with the space filled with lots of pieces. I loved the sheep. Overall, I thought the setting was gorgeous, but I wasn't pleased with the situation I described earlier.

I skipped out on our final tasting of the day. I had already had enough to drink and I didn't really want to do another champagne tasting. I did, however, get to enjoy the beautiful terrace of Domaine Carneros. The building itself is styled like an old French chateau. So pretty!

This photo of Domaine Carneros is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Even though I abstained from the final tasting, there were clear, sunny skies, another gorgeous setting and pleasant company for me to enjoy. 

The Girl and The Fig 

110 West Spain Street

Sonoma, CA 95476

Bottega

6525 Washington Street

Yountville, CA 94599

The Color Run 2014 Kaleidoscope Tour {Discount}

Who is ready for the happiest 5K on the planet? The Color Run is back with its 2014 Kaleidoscope Tour and promises to be bigger and more colorful than ever.

I am a sucker for themed runs, and after finishing two last year, I can't wait to complete The Color Run, which I consider to be one of the originators of the themed race. In fact, I am already signed up and ready to go!

This year, The Color Run will be holding events in new cities and will feature lots of new swag including new t-shirts, headbands, wristbands and sling bags for all registrants.

I am happy to be able to offer you a discount for $5 off registration to The Color Run in any city. Just type in the code COLOR5OFF at the time of registration. Important: code cannot be retro-actively applied. Type in the code. Do not copy/paste. Not valid on flash city sales. 

To find The Color Run event nearest you, check out the current tour dates. Races around the country are already scheduled, and new dates are added regularly.

To learn more about The Color Run, visit them at:
TheColorRun.com
Facebook.com/TheColorRun 

*Photos courtesy of The Color Run*

Disclosure: The Color Run provided me with two complimentary registrations to the run of my choice. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here.