By looking through 260+ pictures I took, it looks like this weekend was as crazy busy as ever. But I can assure you – we definitely spent a few hours just sitting on the porch, soaking in the sunshine and catching up on books that have been gathering some dust over the past few weeks. And of course, we also ate well. Very well. Thank you, Jane and Jim, for being such great hosts! (I also cooked one breakfast and one dinner – cooking is what I love!). So how about a recap? Ready?….

We like breaking up trips that are over 2 hours with fun stops. This weekend was my first time in Potsmouth, NH where I finally got to taste the famous Flatbread flatbreads.

This adorable drawing pretty much says it all My choice of the carne special – pepperoncini oil, organic garlic yogurt marinated chicken, baby spinach, whole milk mozzarella, kalamatta olives, feta cheese, artichokes hearts and herbs was a very good choice. I can’t see it on my camera so here is Adam’s pepperoni + mushroom flatbread (also awesome!).

The place itself is also adorable, very fitting for a super cute town. I want to go back to Portsmouth asap!

The real eating commenced upon our arrival in Maine though…

HEALTHY HOME COOKED MEALS (over 4 days, in no particular order)

Ellie Krieger’s tricolore penne pasta with chicken (recipe here)

Stuffed peppers with eggplant (and parmesan cheese) – recipe here. I had no idea these were somewhat healthy. I limited myself to just one. I may need to recreate them soon to make up for lost time. haha

Dark chocolate bark with walnut and dried cherries (and crystallized ginger) – recipe here. I ate my weight in these. Addictive is an understatement.

Broccoli-cheese (and sausage) breakfast casserole – recipe here

Chobani with fresh strawberries, blueberries and mango

Chobani with wild Maine blueberries, fresh mango, Kashi GoLean crunch cereal + mixed nuts

+ some blackberries Adam freshly picked on the side of the road while I was eating breakfast

Breakfast casserole with mushrooms and asparagus (recipe here, I added more cheese, more veggies than the recipe called for + some fresh lemon juice)

Blueberry tea cake (Adam’s mom has been making it for years… from this recipe?)

Apricot-walnut cereal bars (recipe here, the recipe yields a lot more than 10 servings and they are very delicious!!)

Zucchini rice casserole (recipe here, we subbed broccolini for zucchini and corn – this tasted like sinfully creamy risotto – SO good yet healthy, although apparently time consuming. Thanks for making this, Jane!!)

On Monday night I offered to cook dinner (although it ended up being a whole family effort after all). What’s more Maine than lobster? Adam and I decided that we must eat it every time we come. At $4/lb, fresh out of the water, it doesn’t get much better than this!!

Adam’s dad steamed the lobsters…

I made the lima bean/corn/grape tomato and bacon succotash (based on this recipe, I used 6 corn ears, lemon juice and of course lobster!!)

Mmm, so summery… and so Maine

We bought 5 lobsters – Adam took the meat out of the last one and shared it with all of us. Good job, honey! Adam’s mom made this lovely pear tart from Ellie Krieger (recipe here)

Oh yeah, we ate quite well at home!

THE NOT-SO-HEALTHY MEALS OUT

A super special dinner at Primo. We’ve been dying to go ever since seeing Anthony Bordain go there. Vegetables served in the restaurant are home grown in their extensive gardens and meats, seafood and cheese are mostly local (we spotted some Italian cheeses – who can blame them?!).

The atmosphere was very cozy (read dark soft lighting) so my pictures would not do the food and presentation justice. Here is my favorite serving platter at the charcuterie bar.

The charcuterie board with homemade sausages was my favorite! Adam and I shared it as a starter and it set the right tone for what was to come – more delicious eats! This molten chocolate cake did not dissapoint either. Yes, I know – predictable… but I couldn’t help myself!

Pretty much the exact opposite of Primo was a plate of fried clams we got at Kelly’s on the drive back. I don’t know what was up with me – I actually got this craving. Adam and I shared this plate. You know who ate the onion rings.

OPEN FARM DAY

Food, as always, was kind of the main activity (well eating it at least) but the coolest part of the weekend was visiting 5 different farms all over Maine. There were dozens open for visitors this past Sunday. How lucky was I?!! These pictures should say it all…

This afternoon, before going back to Boston, we picked some wild blackberries for the road.

Slim pickings today. Does that mean we should come back in a few weeks?

The loot:

Another amazing weekend. I feel so fortunate!!

I had lots of time to destress and reevaluate my priorities. Some small changes will be coming to Healthy and Sane. Stay tuned.

Ok, so let’s start this post again by saying that I really missed you guys. Did you miss me? Thank you for sticking around with me these past few weeks (I loved reading every comment – reminded me I have a life outside of work too!). It was rough (if you couldn’t tell already) but yeah, it’s all good now. Insert happy dance here. Is there a special smiley face for that? I think the world needs one.

All right, silliness aside, I do have a serious question for you. But first…

BREAKFAST

2 ww waffles with Barney Butter, 2% greek yogurt and fresh blueberries

MID-MORNING SNACK

I went to the kitchen to grab some cottage cheese and dates and ran across some amazingly delicious looking brownies. So I had a brownie instead. No picture. That’s my dessert for the day

LUNCH

Iggy’s tomato mozzarella baguette sandwich. This is a reused photo (I originally was planning on having lunch at home but wanted to crank through work so I grabbed lunch out around 3pm. Yeah, you bet I stuffed it in my mouth as fast as humanly possible. oy)

DINNER

Late (and big) lunch = full stomach for a long time. Also = no workout and dinner almost in the dark. I kept it light…

Mixed greens, 1/4 avocado, chickpeas, rosemary almonds, shredded carrots, goat cheese and a lemon vinaigrette (dressing recipe is from The Best Light Recipe cookbook)

This salad was actually quite fantastic. Soon after I wanted something else though – enter Siggi’s orange & ginger yogurt. Can you see how thick it is?

This was my first time trying this flavor and I am a giant fan. Basically up until now vanilla was my go-to and this awesomely unique flavor is giving it a run for its money. It was decisively orangy with real ginger flakes inside. Tart, a little spicy. Delicious. Try it!

So here is the serious question for you. I read The New Rules of Lifting for Women upon some of your recommendations. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d learn much and I certainly did not want to start another diet. But after hearing about it several times I added it to my library queue and it came up this week. Surprisingly, I was really into it from the very first page. I LOVE lifting and haven’t done enough of it in a long time. Sure I do some lifting at bootcamp (and thankfully I’m still pretty strong) but nothing too pro-longed and nothing that’s just pure lifting. I’d say I didn’t learn much after all, but the idea of concentrating more on lifting again, really excites me. I keep thinking about starting to run again but end up canceling my workouts when they are on the schedule (something always comes up… or am I just subconsciously not into it?) but I am itching now to get to the gym to pump some iron. Workout A has my name on it. Here is my dilemma (3 dilemmas actually)…

1) I do not want to start another diet. I don’t want to count calories or protein grams. I am finally happy with trusting my body. Letting it choose (for the most part) what and how much fuel it needs (of course, don’t forget the treats!). Will this program work without their specific diet?

2) The book is VERY clear about eating a lot of protein. I would estimate it is 2 or even 2.5 times as much protein as I’ve been eating ever since incorporating more vegetarian meals into my diet and letting meat take the back seat. I am very happy with trying to focus on more protein rich foods (see a protein packed siggi’s yogurt as an example for a snack) but I’m on the fence about protein powder. It actually sounds like fun. I can think of all these ways of incorporating it… into smoothies, pancakes, my own protein bars, muffins but is it “real food?” Again, I’ve come a long way from gimmicky diet foods and learned to balance my meals “the right way.” Is protein powder cheating?

3) The book recommends maximum 3 workouts a week. Is that really enough? My instinct is to supplement (the workout don’t seem that tough, maybe I’m being silly right now. I may speak differently once I actually do them). Should I or is my brain getting in the way? Over-training is something they warn about.

Dilemmas, dilemmas. Tell me, blog friends – what are your thoughts on the subject?

PS – as mentioned we are going away for the weekend – there is no cell or internet reception at my PIL’s house so you may not hear from me again until Monday (I may be able to do a quicky post before we leave tomorrow… no promises though. I will be back for real next week). Would LOVE to hear your thoughts. Oh, it’s so good to be back. I’m freeeeeeee.

Except for a brownie there were other eats too, of course!

I got this in Montreal

… but I’m not a fan. It tastes like hemp seeds which I find bitter

Can you guess what I got as a gift in the mail yesterday? That’s some exciting stuff.

PS – I made it to bootcamp today and rocked it again. I’m back to my old self at the gym. I love intense workouts.

All right, I was actually going to go back to the office but I am beat so hopefully I can make up for it tomorrow. 2 more days of madness!!! The last night may be an all nighter, though. eek

Highlights:

- I can’t stay out of the kitchen for too long. Last night I made a recipe that’s been on my list for a whole year. Yes, this one is from July 2009 Cooking Light issue – phyllo pizza with feta, basil and tomatoes (recipe here). It sounded (and looked!) delicious so I thought this would be a perfect dinner to make on a meatless Monday. Now here is the kicker – have you ever worked with phyllo? It was crazy. The sheets of dough were SO thin and they were definitely sticking together and breaking the second I touched them. The recipe said to use one sheet at a time and spray it with EVOO spray (layering it with the cheese mixture every 3 sheets). I fought it for a few rounds and then started grabbing 2-3 at a time. I was nervous that it would result in a rubbery final product but it was one of the best things I’ve made in a long time. So flaky and light, the cheese melted beautifully between all the layers and the super fresh tomatoes enhanced the dish even further. It tasted like a cheat meal but it wasn’t! I will never attempt to make something like this on a weeknight again (especially since work was waiting!) but I think I need to give phyllo another go. It’s too delicious not to.

- The chocolate chip cookies from yesterday’s post were from The Best Light Recipe cookbook. I made them as a thank-you for our neighbors but we never saw them so I brought them to work instead. This cookbook is amazing but I have to say this recipe was just okay. The cookies were a little too crunchy and actually got rock hard after a few hours on a plate. I had to warm them up to bring them to life. Warm cookies are always better!

- No gym today. I get too overwhelmed on Mondays. I feel like I’ll never meet my deadline. Hopefully it will all come together soon (I definitely made a lot of progress over the weekend).

That’s all I’ve got for today. Here is yesterday’s breakfast and lunch (snacks were unphotographed – imagine a breakfast cookie, a serving of almonds and 1 plum).

Cya tonight!

My original plan was to finally make this week’s CEiMB recipe for panzanella with chicken sausage which was featured by Pantry Revisited (recipe here)… but something told me that didn’t qualify. In fact, Adam told me if I hesitated to answer whether this was a man meal or not, that meant that it wasn’t. I guess that’s true. I also purchased some fresh corn on the cob at the farmers market on Friday. Corn is best in the very first few days after being picked so that had to be featured for dinner. After a quick brainstorming session we had dinner which qualified as a man meal but also satisfied this girl. I love my man meals just a little fancier.

Italian style chicken sausage on a whole wheat bun with tomato/cucumber/basil “relish” (based on Ellie’s panzanella salad)

Lemon-garlic glazed corn on the cob (recipe here)

This meal really came together. The salad added lots of freshness and the corn recipe was definitely a winner. I’ve never cooked corn on the cob on the skillet but now I’m a believer. It basically steamed with butter/EVOO/garlic + lemon mixture (I used a little less than the recipe called for) which infused it during the cooking process, and then it was finished with the reduced sauce. Lovely. Adam said this was the best corn on the cob he’s had at home (the one from Toro taking first place so far – I am going to attempt recreating that next time).

Working backwards… lunch

Hummus/smoked gouda/capers/ tomato and spicy mustard panini

This wasn’t just any old hummus – I made EDBV white bean hummus with thyme and fresh basil last Sunday (recipe here) and have been enjoying it in a variety of ways. This is a really fantastic dip – there is so much depth of flavor with dijon mustard, garlic, red wine vinegar and all the fresh herbs. I was in love from the first spoonful. I highly recommend it (don’t worry, it’s not too “herby”).

This panini was another great lunch. The combination of a very flavorful hummus with the creamy cheese, a little pickled flavor from the capers and the freshness of tomatoes was absolutely amazing. The hot mustard gave a kick right at the end. Yum!

A few hours later I made this instant blueberry oatmeal snack. I am actually not a fan of this particular oatmeal flavoring but topped with Barney Butter and fresh blueberries, this was quite satisfying. I got these blueberries at the farmers market on Friday – they are SO sweet. I’m so happy I got 2 containers because every time I pack some, a few jump into my mouth (and I have no problem with that at all. lol)

I also had one breakfast cookie before bootcamp in the morning (for visual, see previous post), an iced coffee with soy milk mid-day and at night- an apple, a serving of dry roasted almonds and some fudge when my sweet tooth hit (sorry, no picture – it was quite ugly so I didn’t bother). As previously mentioned, 3-2-1 is going really well. I feel stronger, lighter and overall a lot healthier. That’s a lot to accomplish in a week.

I’m off to work……story of my life.

- No doubt dinner at Bombay Club. We had a Groupon for $40 and that almost covered dinner with a half carafe of Pinot Noir! What a deal! Best of all – Bombay Club just made it to the top of our list of Indian restaurants in the area. There were so many creative dishes I’ve never seen before (and a giant selection of vegetarian dishes) that I had a hard time choosing. My final dish – Navrattan Korma (nine select vegetables cooked in a mild cream sauce with almonds and cashews) was really fantastic. The owner even stopped by to chat with us and the whole experience from service to food, price, music was just fantastic. I love Indian food!!

- Getting free basil at the farmers market. I love talking to the farmers!! After buying a bunch of stuff I noticed the basil on the side (which was also on my list). The guy “made” me take 3 bunches and didn’t charge me for it. He wasn’t twisting my arm too hard.

- Getting another sweat sesh in. I am feeling a million times better about my endurance compared to even a week ago. Yesterday was a spin class. My 3-2-1-1 plan is going great!

- Our carpet is 100% dry!! We’re going to have it professionally cleaned next Tuesday. Hopefully that will be the end of this nightmare.

Yesterday in pictures…

Indian pickled veggies – really weird. I think you have to be Indian to like them

Have a great weekend!! I’m off to work (and I already fit a bootcamp class this morning. Weeeee).

- It was my aunt’s birthday yesterday (thus leaving work early) – happy birthday, Dodina!!

- Roasted rhubarb is genius. I added it to my salmon/hummus/avocado wrap and it contributed a fun sour/tangy flavor to it. Yum

- Dinner at my first Persian restaurant, Lala Rokh, (remember it from here?) was not as great as I hoped it would be. Too much lamb, not enough vegetarian/seafood options as legit meals (lots of vegetarian apps though!).

- It is possible that I can get used to the taste of caramelized onions!!!! They were added to the bulgur with my dish and I didn’t even taste them. The bulgur was delicious! I need to research this one a little more. This could be a pretty awesome discovery (I hate my serious aversion to onions. Maybe there is hope for me after all )

- The look on my aunt’s face when the waiter brought out a giant chocolate cake that had her name on it (I pre-arranged that, brought one from Whole Foods) was priceless. I love surprising people with things I know they’ll like! Dodina is her nickname btw (doda = aunt in Hebrew, many years ago we just made Dodina into a word and called her that ever since).

- A spontaneous stop at Charlesmark Hotel for another drink with the hubs (because we were having too much fun on our walk home and didn’t want it to end) was one of the reasons I love living in the middle of a City. There is always something to do, you just have to get away from that office desk!

- Not randomly going for more food because I wasn’t stuffed (something I’m supposed to feel after a restaurant meal?) was my most proud personal accomplishment of the day.

- Bootcamp at lunch rocked (I’m getting better already!!). I told you I’ll make it there!

Thursday in pictures:

We shared the appetizers. The mushrooms and eggplants were phenomenal!

Have a great weekend! I’ll be working but I’ll definitely try to spend a little time in the kitchen so please stay tuned

- A good dress is powerful. I was tired, stressed yet I felt fantastic. That’s because I knew I looked good. No, I did not instantly drop those damn 15lbs but the wrap dress I had on today hugged me in all the right places and was very forgiving in others. I felt FIERCE. So fierce that when I encountered a very abrasive co-worker, I gave him the verbal equivalent of a middle finger and moved on. Three years ago (or even last week on a bad day) I would have probably cried in the bathroom (or at least wanted to). Today the dress gave me the power that I needed. Go dress! But since this is a food blog, let’s see what else I got going…

- b.good mango smoothie, blended with Amazing Grass chocolate powder, extra ice, milk and some gums makes for a kickass breakfast. I was impressed.

- Sometimes a brownie makes it all better. Today’s fudgy brownie from Whole Foods was not on my “planned” list but it was my one and only dessert. I don’t regret a single bite.

- Sushi bento boxes from Haru make one amazing dinner. I almost didn’t mind that I was eating it at my desk at 10pm instead of being at home with the hubs (not true actually but it was good). I hope I can expense that baby.

- No gym today. Nearly 14 hours of work and yet I feel like I got nothing done. I think my new goal is to hit it every other day. Those reports don’t write themselves and financial statements cannot be analyzed while kicking butt in bootcamp. I AM making it happen tomorrow though. Promise.

Today’s eats….. (oh and last thought of the day - I hate my tripod!!… you’ll see why)

Ok, I have a 7am conference call tomorrow so I’m off to get my beauty sleep. It never stops, folks. Seriously. See you with a Thursday recap tomorrow night. I’m kind of liking this format for super busy nights. You?

- I am not a morning person. No matter how determined I am the night before, waking up in the morning is the hardest thing on earth… especially when I am thoroughly exhausted from the day before. So this morning I hit snooze for another hour. It was much needed.

- Bootcamp class during lunch. I felt a million times better after. Definitely worth taking a little extra time out of my day. Yay for exercise!

- Fresh tomatoes picked that very morning taste like a completely different vegetable (or is it fruit?). I dreamed of cutting one up and enjoying it with hummus all afternoon.

- A venti (read: giant) iced coffee with soy milk held my hunger for 4.5+ hours. The only reason I finally had dinner was because I knew I “needed to.” It was pretty awesome to plow through work without worrying about fighting off hunger. The flip side? Once I started eating, I couldn’t stop. No bueno. I think maybe going back to a medium sized coffee will keep hunger at bay without completely throwing my eating schedule out of whack. You see, I’m learning.

- The carpet in the condo is getting a little drier. Good news.

3:2:1 in photos. My internet is down so I can’t transfer the picture of my giaganto coffee but I’m guessing you know what that pretty much looks like.

*I also had the leftover Thai red curry stir-fry after finishing the brownie. PS – that was heavenly. Best Carly creation for sure!

How are you, guys?

As you may have guessed, we spent most of the afternoon/evening trying to clean up the mess. We extracted over 10 gallons of water just out of our carpet in the hallway. Thankfully Adam built up this little barricade between the living room and hallway so at least it prevented the water from going too far into the rest of the place (our bedrooms are dry). Our living room floors are 100% okay (we are still trying to figure out whether there is a risk of mold growing under there, but the carpet is soaking wet days later. The shop vac is unable to extract that much water at this point so we’re not sure what to do.

Anyways, we’ll get through it, I’m sure. Maybe we’ll at least become friends with our new neighbors out of this. They were extremely helpful – unclogged the sewer drain, brought lots of towels and around 7pm on Saturday even brought us dinner, fresh out of their oven. How incredibly nice is that?!!!

We weren’t going to stop until the mess was cleaned up, but when she came over with a hot pan of lasagna and meatballs, we realized we were actually starving. Talk about a random act of kindness. Adam and I couldn’t get over this. Definitely one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for either one of us.

By the way, my laptop charger got submerged in water and is not currently working so I’m using Adam’s laptop which is painful (switching from a mac to a pc is not as easy as one might think), so I’ll try to keep it brief. Basically, this whole flood in our condo is a metaphor for my life. It been ridiculous at work, I feel like I can’t catch up with anything at home and the last drop in the bucket which I can’t ignore is that I gained so much weight recently that it’s affecting everything from how my clothes fit to my fitness level at the gym and how I generally feel about myself. I stepped on the scale last week and let’s just say that I haven’t seen that number in 4 years (!!!). I’ve been ignoring this issue since then but it’s time to clean up the flood mess!! I am not going to feel bad about myself, I’m going to do something about it. The plan of attack:

- Plan meals for the week and stick to the plan!! It’s ok to make minor adjustments based on taste preferences at the moment but I will stick to 3 meals + 2 snacks + 1 dessert (in moderation) equation until some progress is made in the weight dept.

- No mindless snacking/eating. My hours at home are going to get all out of whack over the next few weeks as I spend majority of my time in the office. That usually means stress eating. As mentioned above, I will make sure to stick to the pre-planned meals and snacks only. When life gets crazy like this, structure should be a good thing. I can do this!!!

- Continue making exercise a priority. I’ve been pretty good about this recently. I hope I can continue to keep it up despite the longer hours at work. I usually need a mental break mid-day anyways. A good sweat session should kill 2 birds with 1 stone (or something along those lines that’s less gross ).

How does this sound? I think it sounds good. I did A LOT of prep work last night for the next few days. Hopefully this builds up the momentum I’ll need.

So since I haven’t blogged in a few days, here are the highlights of this weekend’s eats.

Iggy’s ww bagel with olive jalapeno cream cheese and tomatoes

These tasted like sugar cookies with a pomegranate twist. Amazing!!

Beet/pesto/goat cheese and pecan panini + leftover b.good southwestern chicken salad

Spinach/artichoke hearts and mushroom calzone from Mangia (a treat on Friday night)

It was really delicious. We’ll definitely order from that place again!

I had the leftovers for lunch on Saturday. Yum!

+ Carly’s Confection 7 layer bar with a twist. So much white chocolate goodness. Another amazing treat for sure.

Sunday brunch at Sel de la Terre

Virgin bloody mary (I had to go to work!)

I had 2 of these. They weren’t very spicy but were definitely delicious.

Bread basket - I helped myself to a mini cinnamon roll and a cracker

For my entree I ordered the brioche French toast, strawberries, honey roasted almonds and vanilla butter.

It was really fantastic!! I removed that big butter blob and didn’t use any maple syrup because it was already rich and flavorful on its own. The strawberries were amazingly fresh and sweet as well. The sides of the french toast were perfectly grilled and the middle was kind of goey (souffle like) which normally would gross me out but it was so tasty that I didn’t care about texture. I would order this again in a heart beat (I ate half for brunch and then ate the other half later in the day as a “snack”).

Garlic/thyme smothered pork chop over qunoia and roasted rhubarb (adopted from this recipe).

It was great having a home-cooked meal again! Adam and I ate every morsel of our plates and I can’t wait for leftovers which I plan on making into a sandwich tomorrow.

All right, time for work! I apologize in advance for my random blogging schedule. I’m thinking of doing a picture collage at the end of each day and noting how my plan of attack is working so far. What do you think? Are you up for it?

I’ll be back with a bang in a few weeks. I have some giveaways in the works and a few posts that just need a little more research time. Happy Monday!