Ketchup

We had a late dinner last night, and I just didn't feel like posting afterwards. So, lots of food to catch up on. For an afternoon snack, I had an apple with brazil nut butter. A blurry apple...


Then headed off to a work event at the New England Aquarium. We were screening some of our agency's new work at the IMax, and there was a little cocktails and snacks reception beforehand. This included a sushi bar...

And a cheese plate...

It was a little odd to be eating sushi at the aquarium, but it was good sushi. I also had 2 glasses of chardonnay.

I got home a little later than I'd hoped, and put together a quick dinner. I was dying to try the porcini mushroom ravioli I bought at Russo's. I served them with a marinara sauce I also bought at Russo's - normally I'm an advocate for making your own sauce, but this was made in the store and didn't have any preservatives or weird things added to it. So I didn't have an issue with it. It was very good - just like I made it! I did doctor it up a bit with sauteed asparagus and chopped olives.

The ravioli was really tasty and very rich - I think the filling was mixed with marscapone cheese. look how steamy this plate is! After dinner I had a piece of Taza chocolate while Derek washed the dishes.

For breakfast, again, nonfat plain yogurt with sliced banana and granola.

Ok, back to work. Is it really only Tuesday??

Runnin' in the Mornin'

Last night when I went to bed I set my alarm for 6:30AM thinking, maybe I'll get up and run in the morning. Knowing full well that I would just hit snooze and fall back to sleep. Then when it went off this morning, I laid in bed for a few minutes and made a deal with myself. If its raining and below 40º - no run. Back to bed. Dry and above 40º - I'm hitting the road. Well, despite raining all day yesterday and all day today, I seem to hit a window this morning where it wasn't raining and wasn't too cold. So I put on my sneakers and headed out the door! It still certainly wasn't warm. And the only pants I have are cropped, so my legs definitely got a little numb below the knee. I need to invest in some running tights! But I made it 4 strong miles and am quite proud of myself :)  Being motivated to run in the morning is not normal for me!  I tried to test out this new iphone application I got, called imapmyrun, but it kept crashing. Its supposed to use the phone's GPS to track your distance and pace - it'll be pretty cool if it actually works!

Breakfast when I got to the office was the usual.


Nonfat plan yogurt with 1 sliced banana and granola. And lunch was very yummy.

A mixed green and herb salad with roasted golden beets, pecans, dried cranberries, and some amazing maytag blue cheese I bought in the fancy cheese section yesterday. I love stinky cheese. I tossed this all with some balsamic vinegar and EVOO. And had half a slice of whole wheat bread on the side.

I have a work event to go to tonight - so I'm glad I got my run in already! There's going to be food there - I'm going to try to control myself so I can go home and make a delicious dinner with all the food I have!

Choke! Choke!

I made a delicious dinner tonight based around the chokes - arti and sun to be precise. While looking for a recipe for the baby artichokes I bought today, I found this one for salmon with baby artichokes and sunchokes with a warm fennel vinaigrette.  Well, I just happened to have sunchokes in my fridge from last week's Whole Foods adventure and I bought fennel today. Perfect! I was planning to cook rainbow trout tonight, so I roasted that with a little lemon juice instead of the salmon. Here is my choke prep...

And the finished product.  

Its a little brown, but it was very tasty. Now I'm finishing off a glass of wine and just had a piece of dried mango and a piece of Taza dark chocolate. It doesn't always make it in my posts, but let me assure you, I can't go a day without this stuff!

Great Discoveries

I made an amazing discovery today. Actually, my friend Heather discovered it, but today she shared it with me. But first, let's start the day right. With waffles! We were out way too late last night (2AM! I can't remember the last time I was out that late!) and I had a little too much wine, so this morning I whipped out the waffle iron and fixed us an indulgent breakfast. Buttermilk waffles with strawberry sauce and yogurt.

Overall it was a very satisfying breakfast, but I was disappointed with the strawberries. I should have known better than to buy strawberries in March and expect them to have flavor. Really they just added color to this dish. I chopped a pint of strawberries and cooked down half of them with a little water and agave syrup. Once they were nice and saucey I stirred in the rest of the strawberries and the juice of 1 meyer lemon. You could definitely taste the lemon and it was very nice and sweet/tart. I spooned the strawberries on the waffles, and then mixed up some nonfat plain yogurt with a little more agave and some good quality vanilla extract. I was glad I had all these extra flavors in this dish since the strawberries had none!

After breakfast, I braved the pouring rain and went to a yoga class at the Boston Sports Club in my neighborhood. I've been to this class a few times, and I'm liking the instructor more and more. He's great at guiding you through the postures and goal of each position. He's definitely more of "yogi" than most of the the gym yoga instructors I've taken classes from. Often times the instructor is just a personal trainer and focuses more on the fitness aspects of yoga practice, rather than the bigger goals of getting in tune with your body and quieting your mind. I'm definitely going to try to go to this class more often.

After yoga I met Heather for an exciting afternoon of grocery shopping! She recently moved to Watertown and discovered this market called Russo and Sons.  This place is amazing! There were huge bins of any kind of produce you could think of, plus a gorgeous cheese selection, bakery, deli, and a fresh pasta bar! AND its really reasonably priced. I bought way more stuff than I needed because it all just looked so good, and still ended up spending less than I normally do for a week. The pasta bar was great - all fresh, homemade pasta and ravioli. I bought fresh porcini ravioli - I can't wait to try it.

I also got a bunch of random stuff that I don't even know what to do with, but it just looked so interesting. Like wild dandelion greens. What the heck am I gonna do with those?! Tonight I'm going to figure out some way to cook a bunch of baby artichokes. The only downsides to this place are that its tight quarters and super crowded on the weekends, and I didn't see any organic produce. But they do stock local produce - I'm sure there's a lot more in the Spring and Summer - and I'll definitely take local over organic.

At the deli counter, we picked up some sandwiches and then ate them back at Heather's. I always have trouble when you have to create your own sandwich or salad on the spot - I usually go overboard and end up with a bunch of random things that don't go together. This sandwich threatened to be one of those odd, mismatched assortments, but ending up being really good!

I got a wrap with smoked gouda, pesto, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and pickles. The pickles were really the wild card - but they were huge homemade pickles and were so good!  

I just put everything away, and now I'm sipping some chai and about to start looking for recipes. I realized as I was going through my photos that I forgot to fess up to a piece of dark chocolate almond bark I bought at Godiva yesterday. Opps! Here it is - enjoy :)

I'm confused

So I started my taxes, but I didn't get very far before I got confused and gave up. This is why accountants exist. I started dinner early because I made a slow cooking risotto. With a little healthy twist - using pearl barley instead of rice. This was served with tilapia picatta and roasted brussel sprouts.

Mushroom Barley Risotto

Makes 6 side dishes

4 cups assorted sliced mushrooms (I used cremini and shitake)

2 Tbl EVOO, divided

1 cup dry white wine, divided

2 gloves garlic, chopped

2 spring onions, chopped

1 cup pearled barley

4 1/2 cups vegetable broth 

2 Tbl chopped fresh thyme

salt & pepper

• Heat 1 Tbl EVOO in a large skillet over medium heat
• Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms have release their juices and start to stick to the pan and brown, about 10 minutes
• Add 1/2 cup white wine to the pan to deglaze and cook about 3 more minutes until liquid is almost gone
• Set aside mushrooms
• Heat broth in medium saucepan over low heat
• Add 1 Tbl EVOO to same pan heated over medium heat
• Add garlic and onions and saute until softened
• Add barley and cook for about 2 minutes, until barley starts to toast
• Add 1/2 cup white wine to pan and cook until liquid is reduced
• Add 1 cup of broth and cook until liquid is absorbed
• Reduce heat to medium low and continue to add broth by the 1/2 cupfuls, stirring frequently, until all broth is absorbed between each addition
• Cook for about 50 minutes.  Barley should be soft, but with a chewy bite
• Stir in thyme and cooked mushrooms and cook until heated through. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

Tilapia Picatta

Serves 2

2 Tbl EVOO

2 tilapia fillets

salt & pepper

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 lemon

1 Tbl capers

1/2 Tbl unsalted butter

• Heat EVOO over medium high heat in large skillet
• Preheat oven 200º
• Season tilapia with s&P, then dust with flour, shaking off excess
• Add tilapia to pan and cook until golden, about 3 minutes, then flip and cook until golden and cooked through, about 2 more minutes
• Remove tilapia from pan and keep warm in oven
• Add wine to hot pan and cook 1 minutes
• Squeeze and lemon juice into pan and add capers
• Simmer until reduced by half
• Remove pan from heat and stir in butter
• Pour sauce over tilapia and serve

Now we're headed out to meet some friends for cocktails.  Hope everyone is having a fun Saturday night!

Outside

Its a lovely day here in Boston, so I decided to go for a run outside for the first time this year! It was so awesome to hit the pavement again. First, I made us a nice weekend breakfast.

A 4-egg (divided by 2) frittata with broccoli, tomatoes, and feta. On the side I had a slice of oatmeal date toast with fig and ginger jam, and half a slice of whole wheat toast with almond butter. This was good running fuel!

I ran a loop around the Charles that is about 4 miles. I walked probably the last 1/2 mile back to my apartment from the river, so I guess I ran about 3.5. I definitely run slow when I run outside! But it just feels so good to actually be getting somewhere, and not feel like a hamster on a wheel like I do on the treadmill. It got me really excited for my 8 mile race in July!

When I got home, I stretched out and rehydrated, then made myself a quick lunch.

I heated up leftover lentils with kale and cranberries and 4 slices of tofu that I broiled this morning with some Newman's Own all natural steak sauce. The tofu got a little burnt but it was still good and chewy, the way I like it. I also had a sliced apple on the side. Now I'm off to run some errands. I actually really need to do my taxes but I'm totally procrastinating. Maybe later this afternoon...

Sushi for Two

Good evening! I had very high hopes of getting to the gym tonight, but I really should have known better. I didn't leave work until 8:45. Oh, well. Tomorrow is Saturday and I am definitely getting a run in. In the afternoon, I snacked on one of Dr. Weil's bars.

While working into the early evening I also had a beer, a few pretzels, and a handful of goldfish. Those escaped my camera. Dinner was definitely not being cooked tonight, so I picked up sushi for two on the way home.
This lovely tray holds a caterpillar roll, spider roll, scallop kiwi roll, and Douzo roll (named for the restaurant).
My rolls were the scallop kiwi and Douzo, which contains asparagus, crab, salmon and tuna. When I eat sushi with anyone else, we always get 4 rolls and share them. Derek is the only sushi companion I've ever had who wants his own rolls. He'll trade one or two pieces, but he's not into sharing everything. Should I take this as some sort of sign of what our marriage will be like??

Banqing on it

We had an AMAZING restaurant week dinner last night at Banq. We've eaten there several times before and have always been really impressed with the food. Its that very popular Asian fusion style food.  Our dining companions were my parents, some friends of theirs, and a relative who just moved back to the states from Guatemala and happened to be in town. It was great to see her! We visited her in Guatemala a few years ago and it was a great trip. Such a cool country.  The highlight of the trip was getting to release just hatched baby turtles into the ocean for the first time from a turtle sanctuary!

Oh, I wish I could be there now. So, dinner started off with cocktails, of course. I had a Bostonpolitan. It had some peach licquor, vodka, cranberry, and prosecco. It was clear, which surprised me. And it was tasty, but a little sweet.

I had 2 of these. For the table, they brought us these incredible baby naan with a some kind of roasted red pepper spread. I had 1.

My appetizer was a beet salad that I totally forgot to photograph. Whoops! It had mixed greens, roasted golden beets, goat cheese, candied pecans, and cumin seeds. It was really good, and a pretty large appetizer portion. My entree was fish, of course.

Roasted striped bass (second time this week!) with fingering potatoes, cucumbers, and baby bok choy (also for the second time this week). It was great. The fish was perfect. And, of course, it was a 3 course restaurant week menu so there was dessert.

Wow. This was a fluffy little cheesecake with a chocolate cream on top and cherries and chocolate sauce. There was some cardamom in there somewhere, but I couldn't figure out where - maybe the crust. Such a good dinner. I was full after! This has been a serious eating week. With no exercise. Ugh.

This morning I had breakfast at home before heading to the recording studio.

A healthy, filling oatmeal bowl with 1/2 cup oats, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1 sliced banana, dried cranberries, blueberries, slivered almonds, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

And...I just ate a delicious salad for lunch!

This had grilled salmon with a potato and green apple salad. It looked small to me at first, but it was a hefty portion of salmon so it was very filling.

Ok, back to mixing...almost the weekend...

I don't want to talk about it

I ate way too much junk food yesterday. I want to pretend the day just didn't happen. I just couldn't stop eating and was having major sweet cravings! So, I'm going to own up to and post my meals - but I'm in denial about the peanut M&Ms and christmas cookies I excavated from the freezer.

I had a big lunch, I knew I would. I went to Cosi and got a grilled veggie sandwich on wheat and a bag of Terra chips.

The chips were STALE and I ate them anyway. I did not care.

I tried to make a healthy a dinner, to offset all the junk. A nice tofu and veggie stir fry.

I marinated some extra firm tofu in soy sauce, fish sauce, and teriyaki sauce then broiled it. For the veggies I stir-fried together snow peas, shitake mushrooms, red and green peppers, baby bok choy, and cabbage. Usually when I make a stir fry I throw in whatever random sauces I can find in the fridge - this was no exception. I think I tossed in chopped ginger, soy sauce, classic stir fry sauce, black bean garlic sauce AND ginger peanut sauce. Sounds like a lot, but I used just a splash of each. This meal was really tasty - but then I moved onto to the christmas cookies. Ugh.

I also feeling kind of like a slug because I haven't exercised in 3 days, and don't think I will get to the gym until Friday night. I intended to get up early and Shred this morning, but it didn't happen. And I'm going out to dinner tonight with my parents and some family friends for restaurant week. More food!

Breakfast was at least healthy.

Greek yogurt, blueberries, 1 sliced banana, and granola.

And I just had a CPK salad at the recording studio I'll be at for the next 2 days.

Original BBQ Chopped salad with shrimp instead of chicken and avocado added. Not really a healthy salad but it is so good. Can't wait for a yummy dinner at Banq tonight!

Hungry Girl

For some reason, I am SO hungry today! I'm also really tired, despite getting a decent amount of sleep - so maybe that's why I'm hungry. Or it could be because I ate a huge dinner last night and my stomach got all stretched out and wants more food. We tried to go to The Spotted Pig for dinner. I've heard great things about this restaurant and really want to try it. But it was very busy in there and an hour wait for a table. And we didn't feel like waiting. So we went to an unassuming little Spanish place called El Faro that had been recommended to us. It was a casual, quiet little place that we probably wouldn't have tried if we hadn't been told about it. But it was really good! Felt more like (Spanish) home cooking than fine dining. We started with a couple tapas.
We ordered manchego cheese and some spinach croquettas. I love manchego! Its a sharp sheep's milk cheese and one of my favorites. But this was a lot of appetizer for 2 of us. They also brought us a big plate of house made potato chips that were awesome. For our entrees, we both ordered paella. Mine was all seafood - and huge! We probably could have ordered one and shared it, not one for each of us. I tried to eat a lot of the seafood and didn't make a big dent in the rice. It barely looked like I'd eaten anything when I was done!

It was very tasty - the seafood was super fresh and perfectly cooked - but I thought it could have used a little more saffron flavor.

This morning I got up early and ordered room service! A big plate of fresh fruit with organic fat free plain yogurt.

I ate all the berries and most of the pineapple. Didn't eat much of the melon - I'm not a big melon person.

We took off on an 8AM shuttle back to Boston, and headed straight to the office. I was starving again when I got there! Maybe this breakfast just wasn't enough for me. I had a Weil bar around 10AM.

Kind of like a banana nut muffin? Not really. This just has dates, dried bananas, and almonds.  It hit the spot, but now I'm starving again! I don't have a lunch packed for me today so I'm going to have to buy something. I suspect it will be a big sandwich. And maybe a cookie.

Back in the Apple

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30AM today to catch a 7AM shuttle to NYC. Ugh. Before I left, I made myself a delicious sandwich and some tea.


This has 2 slices of toasted oatmeal date bread with almond butter on one side and little vanilla spice butter on the other, layered with half a sliced banana. So good! I love this vanilla spice butter. I got it on clearance at Williams Sonoma after Thanksgiving one year. It has chai spices and is all natural - no HFCS!

I ate the sandwich with the other half of the banana and some blueberries.

When we arrived in New York, I knew I'd be hungry for a second breakfast since it was like 5 hours after I'd eaten this sandwich. I had a handful of grapes and a yogurt parfait with granola, strawberries, and kiwi.  

The yogurt was sweetened - bleh - but not too sweet. I ate it all anyway. Then lunch was sushi!

I had a lunch special with a spicy tuna roll and 2 pieces each of tuna, salmon, and yellowtail sushi. And a miso soup on the side. Yum! Still trying to figure out where to eat dinner tonight...somewhere good for sure!

Good Evening

Hi there. Everyone happy another Monday is over? As I mentioned before, I snacked on kumquats in the afternoon.

Love these little guys. Then before heading to the gym I had an apple with brazil nut butter. Crappy picture, sorry.


I did 3 miles at 6MPH and 10% incline. In another week I'm increasing my distance! Dinner was made of more yummy Whole Foods ingredients.

Roasted salmon marinated with soy sauce, ginger, and honey, along with a beet salad and garlicky sauteed beet greens. Green tip - don't throw away the greens! Use the whole plant. They're really good for you. The beet salad was the best part of this meal.

Golden Beet Salad
2 roasted golden beets, chopped

3/4 cup chopped jicama

1/4 cup chopped feta cheese

1 Tbl chopped mint

2 Tbl chopped walnuts

1 Tbl rice wine vinegar

2 Tbl EVOO

zest of 1 lemon

• Whisk together vinegar, EVOO, and lemon zest in a small bowl
• Mix all other ingredients in a medium bowl
• Pour dressing over and toss to combine

Yum!  Just had 1, ok 2 pieces of dark chocolate.  I have to get up suuuper early tomorrow to go back to New York.  Luckily its just a quick 24 hour trip.  See ya in the Big Apple!

Holy Tupperware!

Wow! Look at all the tupperware I brought to work this morning! I always look like I'm going on an expedition with the amount of food I carry around in my backpack, but today was particularly bad.

Even though I cracked my glass container last week, the crack didn't go all the way through and I still wanted to try to use it for my oatmeal this morning. Bad idea. It cracked completely in half in the microwave and I ended up having to transfer all my oatmeal to a PAPER CUP! Oh no!
This paper cup contains 1/2 cup oatmeal, 3/4 cup water, 1 sliced banana, 1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt, and a handful of blueberries. I'm loving the addition of yogurt to my oatmeal! It makes it really creamy and gives it a protein boost. And don't worry - I washed the cup out and recycled it when I was done.

For lunch I made a big salad with a surprise ingredient.

This has mixed greens and herb salad, red and green peppers, plum tomatoes, pea shoots, tuna, and SUNCHOKES! What a random little vegetable - they're little root vegetables that I peeled and thinly sliced. Didn't have much taste but added a nice crunch. The sunchokes were from Vermont - the most local vegetable I could find! I tossed this all with balsamic and EVOO. On the side I had a hunk of organic oatmeal date bread (have I mentioned I love Whole Foods?) with some of my new brazil nut butter. This made a hearty, well-rounded meal. Now I'm munching of some of those kumquats. Weird little fruits but tasty!

I Love You, Whole Foods

I made a really delicious dinner tonight, all thanks to the amazing ingredients I got at Whole Foods. I started with this pretty purple kale. Love me some kale!

The rest was all just a combo of the different amazing ingredients that looked good to me. I made roasted striped bass with meyer lemons and spring onions and red lentils with purple kale and dried cranberries. Meyer lemons are a cross between and a lemon and a mandarin orange, so they're sweeter and can be eaten when roasted.  Not only was this meal delicious, it was full of vitamins and nutrients. Good stuff!

Striped Bass with Meyer Lemons and Spring Onions

serves 2

1 lb striped bass fillet

1 meyer lemon, thinly sliced

1 spring onion, white bulb thinly sliced

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbl EVOO

1 Tbl chopped tarragon

1 tsp dijon mustard

salt & pepper

• Preheat oven 400º
• Coat a baking dish with a little EVOO
• In a small bowl, whisk together white wine, EVOO, tarragon, dijon mustard, and a little salt & pepper
• lay fish in baking dish, and put over white wine mixture
• lay lemon slices over fish fillet, then sprinkle onion slices over lemons
• Roast in oven covered for 15 minutes
• Remove cover and roast another 10 - 20 minutes, depending on thickness of fillet
• Serve fish with lemon slices still over them (you can eat them!) and pour remaining pan sauce over fish.

Red Lentils with Kale

1 cup red lentils

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1/2 Tbl EVOO

2.5 cups water

1 large bunch purple kale

1/2 cup dried cranberries

salt & pepper

• Heat EVOO in large saucepan over medium-low heat
• Add onion and saute until soft and translucent
• Add lentils, water, and salt & pepper to taste and bring to a boil
• Reduce to a simmer and stir in kale
• Simmer covered 20 minutes
• Uncover and stir in cranberries
• Simmer on low 10 - 15 more minutes until lentils are soft and water has cooked off

I have to admit, my lentils got a little overcooked - I like them with a little more of a bite.  But they were still delicious and comforting all mushy like this.  Lentils are very high in protein and fiber, and kale has tons of Vitamin A - double the recommended daily value in 1 cup cooked.  These lentils could be a meal on their own.

Now I'm about to enjoy another Whole Foods treat... a vegan chocolate chunk cookie, sweetened with fruit juice. With a glass of skim milk.  Serious comfort food!

Forgive me, Fiance, for I Have Sinned

I have a confession to make. But first...brunch!

My beautiful grandmother lives in a retirement community about 45 minutes outside of Boston. She moved there about 6 years ago after living by herself in her big old house, and its been wonderful for her. She's become very social, participates in lots of activities, and is especially popular because she has a car and can drive. Its kind of like high school all over again! Here we are in her cute little apartment.

Her building has a nice dining room that serves a big Sunday brunch. I ate a lot! I'm actually still full. I had multiple plates.

My first plate was fruit, nonfat cottage cheese, and a piece of orange french toast.

Then baked scrod, steamed vegetables, sauteed leeks and tomatoes, and cheese ravioli. I ate about 2/3 of this. It was a lot! And THEN was dessert. Bread pudding, which I also ate about 2/3 of.
Overall, the food is good, but not amazing. Definitely good for old people food. My Nan said that the old people complain that the bread pudding has too many raisins. But I like raisins. I enjoyed it.

Nan lives off of Route 9, which has tons of stores and shopping plazas. After brunch I went to target and got a set of 3lb and 5lbs hand weights to use for my Shred. And then...I broke the rules. I went shopping at Whole Foods! I'm not allowed to go to Whole Foods. Its sooo expensive and sooo good that its very dangerous for me. I've gone in for a bag of barley and come out with $75 worth of cheese. Today was not an exception. I did not control myself. But I did get lots of great food! Check this out!

Some highlights of my shopping include these kumquats.

They're so yummy and different. You eat them with the skins on - the skin is sweet and the flesh is nice and tart. I also got some freshly ground brazil nut butter.

Brazil nuts are really good for you and this will be a nice alternative to my almond butter. I have to go do some work now :( Look for more special ingredients in tonight's dinner!