Boots, Chana Masala and Yoga
Friday evening after my MRI, a few friends and I went to dinner with my friend Brendan, since it was his 25th birthday. Happy Birthday Brendan!
We went to the Bayou Cafe in downtown Albany for dinner. I ended up getting a vegetarian taco salad wrap. It was filled with refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and lettuce. It was definitely sub-par. I wasn’t expecting much from the Bayou, since they are more known form their drinks, since it is a bar, after all.
We had a great time chatting during dinner though! The birthday boy enjoyed his meal.
After dinner we all headed down to the Biergarten so Brendan could get his birthday boot.
(And apparently nobody told me I had something stuck in my teeth–so ignore these next few photos of me.)
A great time is always had at the Biergarten…
Saturday morning I headed to the gym to get a workout in. I got on the Arc Trainer and did a 40 minute hill workout, followed by a few upper body weight machines. I realized setting the Arc Trainer on a special workout definitely helps the time go by!
After the gym, it was time for Chris and I to make our weekly vegan meal!
After searching around for some tasty vegan recipes, I found one for Chana Masala. Chris and I both love Indian food, so we figured we would make this! We didn’t add the yogurt, obviously, but we did have a lemon!
I got the ingredients, which included lots of spices, an onion, garlic, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Easy?
Of course, we needed some New York Riesling to drink while cooking! It was strawberry and absolutely fantastic!
Anyway, we started by browning the onions.
Spices!
Smells so good!
Added the chickpeas and then Chris’ whole kitchen smelled like an Indian buffet!
The final product.
The Chana Masala was delicious. I can’t even believe we made it ourselves. I think it may be one of the most successful dishes we’ve ever made, and I am definitely making it again! Vegan meal success!
After watching a movie and enjoying our lunch, I decided to go to a yoga class. Heartspace yoga studio is within walking distance to Chris’ apartment, so I signed up online to their Saturday Afternoon Yoga community class. I really loved being able to walk to class! Even if there was snow everywhere, I put on my snow boots, grabbed my yoga mat and headed over.
The studio is in the basement, but it was lovely! The atmosphere was very calm, and it was nice and warm in the studio, I loved that. I started sweating before we even started!
The class itself was actually pretty hard, which I wasn’t expecting! It was definitely a workout and I’m even a little bit sore today. I felt kind of weak during class (probably dehydrated from the wine) and I also forgot a bottle of water, which was my mistake. Some of the poses were so hard I started shaking. I’m going back to try it again because I would love to get my strength up so I can hold the poses without shaking so much.
I’m going to aim for a yoga class 2x a week during my running hiatus. I feel like doing yoga while I’m not running will help me both physically and mentally.
Overall–it was a nice and relaxing weekend. I hope you’re enjoying yours!
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10 Comments
Amber from Girl with the Red Hair
Sounds like a great weekend! That chana masala looks DELISH!
Courtney @ Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life
Your Chana Masala looks fantastic! Way to go, Jen! 🙂
And I know that wine…I’ve gotten a few bottles from there up in Lake George myself!
Courtney @ Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life recently posted..Double Date Night & A Cookie Bar Recipe
stylish1
That looks delicious! I’ve been gearing up to make an Indian meal also, I don’t know why but Indian food is so intimidating to me. I think it’s the laundry list of ingredients that’s used sometimes lol.
I definitely think yoga will help you both mentally and physically right now. Have you ever heard of satsang? I went to a satsang session during a yoga retreat. It’s basically mediation, followed by devotional chanting (crazy at first but really relaxing) and sometimes followed by philosophical discussions. Maybe there’s a yoga studio in your area that offers it (I’ve only seen them offered for free also).
stylish1 recently posted..Saturday flatterday!
Emily
I love when recipes come out even better than you expect! Indian food isn’t my favorite, but that does look pretty amazing 🙂 I’ve never been to bayou cafe even though everyone always talks about going there for drinks.
I think doing yoga twice a week is a great idea! I’m glad you found a studio you like 🙂
Emily recently posted..A Much Needed Day Off
Alicia
The Chana Masala looks amazing!! yum! and i LOVE adk winery!!
Alicia recently posted..Long Time No Blog!
kelly
i just bought savanna an a to z yoga book for kids i think ill start off there with her i think thats all i can handle for now
Jen
Hey Kelly that’s awesome!!!
Kat
Aaand now I’m making chana masala. I read the recipe on my android while I was in line at the pharmacy and immediately went into the grocery part of the store to buy the ingredients I didn’t have. It smells great in here! thanks for the inspiration!
Marcie
That Chana Masalo looks awesome! I needed another dinner idea for this week anyway. I love the smell of garam masala.
Hmm, that Saturday yoga class sounds interesting, although the one you did sounds hard! I’m looking at the rest of their schedule. I haven’t done any yoga in about 3 years so I’d have to start out slow. Were there a lot of people in your class?
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Jen
There were about 10 people in my class on Saturday. I’m going again on Thursday after work at 5:45….do you wanna go with me to that one??