D-runk September 11, 2010

We had so much fun with Mollie, Dana and Greg today! Before heading out on our adventures, I snacked on a honeycrisp apple (handpicked last week) with a light Laughing Cow cheese wedge and light Sargento colby jack cheese stick.

We went out to Kimball Farms in Westford, MA. I had heard about it from a friend last year and it took us this long to get around to getting there! They have a driving range, mini golf, bumper boats, a small animal farm, ice cream and fried seafood.

(There were chickens wandering around)

First item on the agenda was ice cream.

I got a “kiddie” sized cup of vanilla and chocolate frozen yogurt soft serve. It was HUGE! I forgot to take a picture until about 1/3 of the way through.

Dave, Greg and Mollie bumper boated while Dana and I took pictures and talked. We were glad we chose to opt out of bumper boats because their bums were wet for the entire evening!

Next, we engaged in a cut-throat round of mini golf.

The ladies

And the very rough ‘n’ tough men

I won by three strokes! But I didn’t win any prizes 😦

Before leaving, we wandered through the Country Store. They had all kinds of jams, syrups and salsas. The Raspberry Champagne Mustard sounded most interesting to me!

While driving back, we decided to go to a local Mexican/Guatemalan restaurant that is about a 5 minute walk from our house. We’ve lived in the area for over 3 years and have talked about going there but never had. Tonight was the night! My neighborhood has a lot of Guatemalan expatriots, so the food was very authentic.

They had a mariachi band! None of my pictures turned out well, so I have none to share 😦

We ordered a pitcher of margaritas. Dave and I shared a glass and I had my fair share!

I also munched on several tortilla chips and salsa while waiting for my dinner to come.

I ordered the shrimp fajitas, sans sour cream and cheese.

It was a ginormous plate of food!

Shrimp and veggies, with the guac in the background

Rice

Refried beans (these are one of my favorite foods!)

Pico de Gallo salsa

I finished everything except for the rice. I am such a lightweight! After having only about 1 1/2 margaritas, I was so drunk. I definitely didn’t need as much food as I ended up eating, but when I’m drunk, paying attention to my hunger and satiety cues just goes out the window. That’s OK, I had an awesome time tonight!

Fun times were had by all!

I hope this all made sense, considering how tipsy I am. I think that I’m headed to bed after this. See you tomorrow morning!

The Best Place on Earth

They say that Disney World is the best place on Earth, but I beg to differ. I think many of you would agree with me that Trader Joe’s beats out Disney World. I picked up a couple things there today, including white bean and basil hummus.

OMG this stuff is so good! I tried it with a couple carrots as an appetizer before lunch.

Tabbouli (this had a very strong parsley taste, so if you’re not a fan, steer clear!)

Barbara’s Puffins cereal

Of which I had a small handful as I was making lunch.

Precooked lentils

Refried black beans with jalapenos

Organic baked tofu (I took this picture after using some of it in my lunch – it didn’t come missing 1/3!)

Fat free feta cheese

and light coconut milk.

Now I’m all stocked up! I have a weird food-shopping fetish. I just love grocery shopping!

Rewinding back to this morning:

Breakfast this morning was banana oatmeal protein pancakes. I mixed the following ingredients in a bowl:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup egg whites
• 1/3 cup fat free cottage cheese
• 1 defrosted frozen banana
• crushed walnuts
• baking powder
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract

I cooked them in a well-oiled pan over medium-high heat and ate them topped with pancake syrup.

Sadly, they didn’t turn out so great. I think the problems were that a) the pan was way too hot, which meant that the top and bottom burned a bit and the middle wasn’t cooked thoroughly and b) the banana and/or cottage cheese made it too liquidy. I had made a similar version of these on Thursday, which turned out better. I think that when using a lot of cottage cheese in pancakes, I need to blend it to evenly distribute the taste and texture.

After breakfast, I headed to the gym for some moderately intense ellipticaling. After yesterday’s hilly and fast run, I thought that it’d be a good idea to flesh out my legs, but not to do anything overly strenuous. Afterwards, I went to my first body pump since Sunday. I can’t believe that I’m addicted to strength training. A year ago, I absolutely hated it and did it sporadically because I felt I “should” do it. I love that body pump uses fun music to keep me motivated and just makes me feel so strong! I moved up to 48 pounds on my squat track for the first time! It was a bit heavy, but I definitely made it through all right!

Lunch today was a kitchen sink salad:

• spinach
• tomatoes
• red onion
• cucumber
• orange and green bell pepper
• mushroom
• 2 falafel balls
• TJ’s baked tofu
• feta cheese
• TJ’s tabbouli
• hummus (for dressing)

We ate alfresco. I am sad that our days of eating outdoors are numbered with the colder weather approaching!

It was delish.

My first idea for dessert was an orange…

which turned out to be very bad 😦

Idea #2 was a sliced peach with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Winner!

Dave and I have plans with some friends to go mini-golfing and bumper boating! I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful Saturday – we have perfect weather here in Boston!

Forgotten September 8, 2010

Before I say anything, I just need to say that the Chocolate Chip Brownie flavored Larabar was amazing! I love how those things taste like what they say they are.

I had an awesome day at school today. It helps that this week was only two days long for me 🙂

After school, in addition to the larabar I mentioned earlier, I also snacked on some celery.

And picked up a decaf iced caramel coffee from Dunkin Donuts. It was so refreshing!

I managed to squeeze in an hour at the gym this afternoon before leaving for Connecticut this evening. It was good to get my muscles moving on the elliptical, especially since I have a 2 hour+ car ride ahead of me!

On the menu for dinner tonight, we had portobello mushroom burger (marinaded in balsamic vinegar, rosemary and thyme) on a whole wheat bun. We were out of sliced mozzarella, so we just used two light string cheese sticks instead 🙂

Topped with basil, tomato and red onion.

We had planned on making a homemade pesto sauce with all our fresh basil, but we plumb forgot! Partway through eating my sandwich, though, I realized that all was not lost! We had store-bought pesto in the fridge. This Classico stuff is awesome. A little bit goes a long way!

Roasted brussels sprouts on the side. I roasted them yesterday with olive oil, salt and pepper, but I made a sauce using a bit of olive oil, honey and dijon mustard and tossed the sprouts to evenly coat them. As expected, I loved it! I could eat these all day every day.

After making dinner, we realized that we’d also planned on making polenta fries, but had somehow managed to forget to write polenta on our shopping list and therefore didn’t get made. We’ve moved them to next week, though!

Dessert was a pluot.

And we’re off!

Tums for Dinner September 6, 2010

I love apple picking! I also love the I will be able to do it several times this year. Because the Jewish holidays have been on weekends in recent years, I’ve only been able to go once a season (or not at all!). This year will be different though. I love the entire atmosphere of apple orchards; it just says “autumn” to me!

We went to a farm called Tougas Family Farms, which we went to last year and fell in love with.

We picked the peck, which amounts to about 10 lb. of apples! It’s the perfect time to have a surplus of apples since Thursday is Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and we eat apples and honey (and lots of it!) to signify the sweet new year we anticipate. Anyway, they had several varieties ready for picking, such as Cortlands, Macintosh, Gala, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Ginger Gold, and Fujis. One thing I love about apple picking is tasting all the different kinds!

We prioritized and decided to go with a couple Gala apples and several Honeycrisp and Ginger Gold. I’d never had a Ginger Gold apple before but it fits my criteria of sweet and crisp.

We found out that Dave’s height (he’s a little over 6’0″) comes in handy for picking the high-up apples!

This was the perfect day to spend a beautiful day outside!

I’m strong, but I’m willing to let him do the heavy lifting (those apples are heavy!)

Once we got home, I was still a bit hungry, although I’d sampled many apples. I’m not sure if it was real stomach hunger, but I decided to eat anyway. At first I had some Kashi Warm Cinnamon Oat cereal mixed with Fiber 1 and some Almond Breeze. Everything tastes better in a mug.

I had a craving for chocolate, too, so I also indulged in a vitamuffin with chocolate pudding, walnuts and 1/2 small sliced banana.

I also danced with danger by eating some Edy’s Cookies ‘n’ Cream light ice cream out of the carton (this should always send up warning signals to me), a whole wheat pop tart, and crackers with guacamole and hummus. I was able to stop myself pretty early before it became an all-out binge. Even still, I felt pretty disheartened and decided to get myself out of the kitchen. We worked on some crossword puzzles outside in the beautiful weather and I practiced the piano. Towards the end of my playing, I decided that I wanted to give running another try for the day. I got all my gear on and headed out for another 6 miler.

This one was a much bigger success! I didn’t try to push myself as hard as I did this morning, but I must say that all the food bouncing around in my stomach didn’t go over well. I was able to make it through, though and was glad that I did! I ended up running 5.85 miles in 57 minutes. So all in all, I ran about 8 miles today!

I am sure that some of you out there are horrified that I ran while my stomach wasn’t at the top of its game, but with the PMS I’ve been experiencing in the last few days (sorry gentlemen readers out there!) I needed my exercise. I’ve felt so moody and snacky and the best medicine for that is exercise. I’m already feeling the benefits 🙂

After arriving home, I decided that I definitely didn’t need any more food, especially after my run made me feel the indigestion. Instead, I took three tums and am calling it a night. Dave had made dinner for us, but I’ve decided to put my serving in a tupperware and eat it for lunch another day.

I have posted the recipe here, though. I am off to pack my bag and get ready for tomorrow. Good night!

Bars Galore September 5, 2010

Afternoon snacks today included:

Honey Chobani yogurt with a small organic peach, Fiber 1 cereal, walnuts and cinnamon

An Arnold’s Thin with a light Laughing Cow cheese wedge and a Cabot’s cheddar cheese snack, toasted so that it was like a grilled cheese.

We headed out to a nearby outdoor mall, Legacy Place, in Dedham. Dave’s birthday was on Thursday and tonight we met friends to celebrate. He’s been a lucky guy with celebrations on Thursday, yesterday and today! First we ran some errands.

I finally bought spinning shoes! I got a coupon for the Pearl Adzumi spin shoes at my gym and was perusing the City Sports website when I found out that they were on clearance, too! What would have been $100 dollar shoes only ended up costing me $50. Score! I have very sensitive feet and was worried that these wouldn’t fit, but this was perhaps the easiest shoe shopping trip in history. They feel super comfortable! I’ll let you know how they feel when I use them next weekend in my spinning class.

I also stocked up on Larabars. I bought eleven bars (Cinnamon Roll, Pecan Pie, Chocolate Coconut Chew, Carrot Cake, Banana Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Chip Brownie, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Apple Pie and Peanut Butter Cookie). I am officially addicted. It’s taking every ounce of my willpower not to taste each one right now! These are the best snack – they are filling and delicious as well as balanced in terms of healthy fat, protein, and carbohydrate. They also really do taste like the real thing! That Lara is a smart chick.

(I arranged these with loving care.) Into a tupperware for easier storage.

We headed to the Yardhouse for dinner. My husband is a fan of beer and good food. It was a good pick.

They are known for their beer menu, with 250 beers on tap.

I of course did not partake, though! I was happy sipping on my water and diet coke.

We had a good crowd turn up! In all, there were 8 of us and good times were had by all!

I ordered the Mediterranean Vegetable Sandwich on a whole wheat bun (sundried tomato mayo on the side) and a garden salad instead of the fries.

I could eat this sandwich every day for the rest of my life. It should really be renamed the “Jess Sandwich.”

The veggies and feta were so flavorful that I barely used any of the mayo, except on one bite just to taste it. It was one of those sandwiches where once you started, you had to keep going; if you put it down, the whole thing falls apart. I loved every second of it!

They also brought a chocolate soufflé with a candle for Dave’s birthday. We sang a very rousing renition of “Happy Birthday” to him (in harmony – both Dave and I were in a cappella groups and college and therefore have very musical friends). We all shared, and I had a small taste.

Another good night with friends. Oh how I love long weekends!

Fake It ‘Til You Make It August 30, 2010

Work today went pretty well. I feel really confident about my plans for the next few days and relatively calm, considering tomorrow is the first day of school. My move to the 8th grade has been a good one so far. The other 8th grade teachers are really warm and welcoming, which is so nice, but at the same time, I miss my 6th grade friends! I was blissfully happy teaching 6th grade; my teammates were great, the curriculum was engaging and I loved the age group I was working with. I know that I will enjoy 8th grade, but I’m still upset about being forced to by my principal. In the meantime, I’m going to keep a smile on my face and fake happiness until I truly find it.

Even though I’d packed some cottage cheese with tomatoes and cucumbers for a snack, I didn’t end up eating it. I did, however, eat an unplanned handful of grapes, extra almonds and these two prunes pre-workout.

I’m so glad I got to the gym this afternoon! I like to start the year off on the right foot by working out my stress and exhaustion at the gym. I did 60 minutes on the elliptical and then body pump. It’ll take some getting time getting back into my afternoon workout schedule. I’m really a morning exerciser at heart, but afternoon workouts have been working well while I’ve been teaching!

I came home to find Dave hard at work in the kitchen. We knew that we wouldn’t be getting home until pretty late today, so we threw together a crockpot recipe: vegetarian bean chili. Last night, we sauteed some chopped white onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and jalapeno. Then, we threw it into the crockpot with 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 small can of corn, chopped carrots, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Overnight, we soaked some dried black beans and then put them into the pot with the other ingredients. We let it cook on the low setting for about 10 hours. Slow cookers are awesome! It requires little preparation, although you also need to plan ahead. I love walking in the door and having dinner waiting!

We also made some cheddar cornmeal biscuits with chives, which we found on Eating Well. They were so yummy and the perfect accompaniment to the chili!

I also had a bite of some manchego cheese.

My serving (about 1 – 1 1/2 cups of chili), topped with some low-fat shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of plain fat free greek yogurt. The biscuit was perfect for dipping.

I ended up going back for a small serving of seconds and another half of a biscuit. It was all delicious!

Grapes and blueberries for dessert.

I was craving some chocolate, so I had a Weight Watchers Giant Fudge bar. I think the craving really came from my sadness over summer vacation coming to an end and starting a new year. Even though I was in the mood for more sweets, I drew the line and had a diet peach Snapple to fill up my belly and call an end to the night.

I’m off to do some relaxing things as a last hurrah before tomorrow. Hope you’re enjoying your evening!

The Elusive Moisturizer August 28, 2010

For weeks, I’ve had a $2 off coupon for my favorite tinted moisturizer which I use nearly every day, Neutrogena Healthy Defense tinted moisturizer. I love it for so many reasons, some of which are:

1. It has 30 SPF in it, so it covers sun protection on my face.
2. I use it in place of a foundation and it does a great job of evening out my skin tone.
3. My skin loves it!

In the last couple weeks, I’ve visited no fewer than 8 different CVS and Walgreens stores looking for it, but they were sold out at each and every location! While I was in Porter Square this morning, I decided to give my search on last go at the CVS below the gym. Ahoy! I finally found it!!! With only 4 days before the coupon expired!!!

I had a great morning at Healthworks, with some ellipticalling and body pumping. I’m totally addicted to this class. I feel so badass when I do it, both during and after when I flex my muscles! On my way home from the gym, I was feeling pretty peckish and snacked on some green grapes I picked up this morning.

A decaf iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, to make up for the lack of ice in my coffee this morning. I always ask for just a bit of ice (more coffee this way!) and toasted almond and coconut flavor shots.

For lunch, I wanted to use up the leftover Israeli salad I’d made earlier this week. I bulked it up with some quinoa (leftover from the other day, too), chopped red bell pepper, lentils, feta crumbles and a bit of dijon mustard for flava.

We had a picnic in our backyard! I’m loving this end of summer weather. In case you’re curious, Dave’s lunch consisted of my leftovers from three different meals: last night’s sandwich, the half a burger I didn’t eat on Thursday, and sweet potato fries from yesterday.

Grapes and cherries for dessert. We shared this small bowl.

Off to do some grocery shopping!

What beauty product can’t you live without?

Sandwiches Galore! August 27, 2010

After getting home from my pedicure, I was feeling particularly snacky this afternoon. Maybe it was the hunger of my run catching up? I recognized that this could get dangerous quickly and stopped pretty quickly. We had plans to go out to dinner and I wanted to have an appetite!

The first snack: Honey greek yogurt with a chopped pluot and chopped walnuts

Snack #2: A small bowl of Kashi Warm Cinnamon Heart to Heart cereal

Snack #3: An unpictured Weight Watchers Giant Fudge ice cream bar.

We met Dana and Greg in Boston for dinner at a restaurant called the Parish Cafe.

The Parish Cafe has a menu of sandwiches created by different chefs in the Boston area. They also had a nice bar selection (of which I didn’t partake, naturally). We waited for about an hour so that we could get a table outside. It was just such a beautiful evening and it was a waste to sit in an air conditioned room!

As an appetitzer, we ordered the white bean dip plate. It had pita wedges, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, pickled red onions, feta cheese and white bean hummus. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I ate one pita wedge topped with the hummus, roasted red peppers and feta. I also had some pickled onions, which I liked a lot! My kind of appetizer. I swear, I could eat this all day every day for the rest of my life and never get bored!

My plate:

For dinner, I ordered the Pudding Portobello Sandwich: Portobello mushrooms, casa de roma cheese, onion marmalade and a walnut-parsley pesto on focaccia bread. Served with mixed greens and a white bean salad topped with an herb vinaigrette. (Source)

I really liked the sandwich! I liked the combination of the mushrooms and cheese, the softness of both really complemented each other. It was so big and my appetite was pretty small, so I ended up only eating half of the sandwich, but all of the white bean salad. I asked for the vinaigrette on the side, but because the salad was already so flavorful, I didn’t even end up using it.

A fun night with good company. We always have fun with those two! I’m off to bed. I have an early date at the gym for some body pump!

Ribbit Ribbit August 26, 2010

We received our first box from Boston Organics!!! Boston Organics delivers a box of organic fruits and veggies every week for a very affordable price.

This week, we got

• 1 lb. Paula Red apples
• 1 lb bananas
• 2 small cucumbers
• 1 pint of edamame
• 1 nectarine
• 1 Valencia organge
• 1 Bartlett pear
• 1 pluot
• 1 lb. of red vine tomatoes
• 1 lb. yams
• 1 lb. summer squash
• 1 head of Romaine lettuce

And my neighbor gave me some of his tomatoes! He has a garden full of them. I wonder what we did wrong to only get 5 tomatoes this summer?

I got to work with the edamame. We had a half of an avocado left from earlier this week and I decided to make edamame guacamole.

First, I boiled the edamame until they were soft. Then, I shelled them and pulsed them in a food processor until they were smooth. I combined this with the mashed up avocado, chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion, lime juice, salt, and oregano. I was surprised that it tasted just like normal guacamole! Aside from a bit of grittiness in the texture, I wouldn’t have noticed that it was any different. I tested it out with a couple baby carrots. I love that a simple addition like this adds a lot of protein to an already nutritious dip!

I also snacked on some of the edamame as I was shelling it. I didn’t get a good enough picture to post. Sorry 😦

I also had some tofu from last weekend that I wanted to use up and tested out Caitlin’s recipe for baked tofu. I wrapped the tofu in several paper towels and sandwiched them between two plates for 15 minutes. I mixed some honey, olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika in a bowl and nuked it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Then I tossed the tofu in the marinade and baked it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. It was so good I ate it all instead of keeping it for tomorrow’s lunch like I’d planned 🙂

I snacked a bit this afternoon, but it wasn’t a lot of food. Even still, when I came home around 7:00, I wasn’t all that hungry. On the dinner menu was Bobby Flay’s Argentinian burgers, grilled potato wedges (sweet potato for me), and some salad using the ingredients from our Boston Organics box.

Salad, drizzled with Cindy’s Fig Tahini dressing:

Made with our fresh organic romaine and tomato!

Burger (a turkey burger topped with thinly sliced manchego cheese, red onion, and a chimichurri paste [1 cup fresh parsley, 3 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar, 2-3 tbsp. olive oil, salt, pepper and smoked paprika, pulsed in a food processor] on a whole wheat bun):

Sweet potato wedges on the side.

My appetite was so small that I only ate half of the food on my plate, but ate most of the salad. While we were eating, Dave noticed something moving in the flowerbed. It was a frog! He let us get pretty close to him before hopping a bit and scaring the bejesus out of me. We don’t know where he came from, but he must have traveled a long way to see us.

For dessert, I had half of large, delicious and juicy peach, sliced, with some cherries…

…and a Weight Watchers Giant Fudge ice cream bar.

I can’t believe it’s already 9 PM! I’m off to spend some quality time with the hubby.

A Good Night’s Sleep At Last! August 20, 2010

Good morning! I finally got my requisite 8+ hours of sleep, which I’ve been in dire need of this week. All my excitement about and creative energy going into the blog has acted like a five red bulls and I’ve had a hard time falling asleep. I feel much more refreshed this morning and ready to take on the world!

I did wake up with a bit of a migraine, though. I suffer from chronic migraines, which aren’t nearly as painful as episodic migraines. I tend to get a dull headache that lasts for days or even weeks on end, as opposed to the ones that come every once in a while with pain so bad that it makes me want to cry. I’ve been seeing a neurologist who specializes in women and headaches and we’ve been working together to get me on the right medicines so I can live pain-free. I am in so much less pain than I used to be, but still get headaches from time to time. Anyway, I took some medicine and am feeling better already! (If you also suffer from headaches and live in the Boston area, I’d be happy to give you the name of my savior [i.e. neurologist].)

Anyway, I made my go-to pre-run breakfast this morning: whole wheat toast, topped with almond butter, banana slices, and cinnamon. And decaf iced coffee, of course 🙂

Everyone has their own pre-run fuel and what’s most important is that you know what works for you. The last thing you want is your breakfast sitting in your stomach like a brick.

I also wanted to write a quick review of my knives. For our wedding, Dave and I wanted to register for some really good quality knives and consulted Bed, Bath & Beyond’s knife guru. He recommended the Calphalon Katana series. We have been so happy with them! They are made of Japanese steel and keep their edge for a very long time. It makes chopping, slicing, and dicing a piece of cake.

If you are in the market for new knives, I highly recommend them, although they are pricey. Even still, we know that we will have these for a while and that they are some of the best quality knives out there.

I’m headed out for an 8 mile run and then meeting Dave for a picnic lunch. The forecast is sun and good temps in Boston!

What kitchen gadget can’t you live without?