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.

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.

- 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

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!

Obviously I’m going to eat (hopefully some super quick meals that are more “assembly” rather than “cooking” will still be satisfying) but exercise is the easiest thing to push off the schedule when life gets in the way. So how do you find time to exercise when it seems like there is no time to spare? My answer for now is going to be “You have to make it a major priority“. My deadlines are not for a few weeks but it’s a lot of work and I have to have the discipline to work with this in mind. The last few days may get tough, but until then I’m willing to do whatever it takes – that may mean waking up early on some days, or working until very late because I want to go to the gym during lunch. I also will try to increase the intensity of my workouts so that less time at the gym still provides me with a quick burn that I crave. Finally, that also means that some other things will have to suffer. I am sure my DVR will miss me dearly (or maybe not, I know I’ll miss it) and as previously mentioned, elaborately cooked meals will be out of the window for the next few weeks. Some healthy take-out once in a while will also give me a little extra time. Lastly weekend work will surely be required. It’s easy to get so stressed out about work that you don’t allow any time for other activities and burn out quickly, but I’m going to attempt to still take care of my body in the meantime. Do you have any other tips?

Onto today’s eats…

BREAKFAST

Raspberry apricot scone, siggi’s vanilla yogurt, fresh raspberries and strawberries

I froze this scone last week and microwaved it for a minute this morning. Unfortunately the microwave totally fried it. This was a little softer than a rock.

MID-MORNING SNACK

I had 1 almond stuffed date form the little batch I made last night. Here is how the whole “process” looks…

(From left to right): whole medjool date, medjool date cut open with pit inside, date stuffed with almonds, date stuffed with pecans, date stuffed with one of each.

A few closeups… easy, right?

So yeah, I had the guy on the left this morning. He tasted oh so sweet.

LUNCH

Leftovers from last night’s dinner at Panza saved me time today as well.

“Free form lasagna” - black pepper pasta sheets, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, plum tomato ricotta sauce (I had mine without the chicken)

Panza was a really great restaurant (casual, yet inviting, great service, delicious unpretentious food) and this dish was fantastic. I loved the fun shapes of the pasta and the chunky tomato ricotta sauce. If I go back there and order this dish again (very likely!), I’m going to ask for extra mushrooms.

After taking this picture, I also added a handful of cannelloni beans for protein. It was a great lunch!

WORKOUT

After all this talk about finding time for exercise, I did in fact find some time for a bootcamp class tonight. I’ve gained weight recently and its impacting my performance at the gym but it’s not going to stop me from keep trying. In fact, I’m using it as a challenge to get back into it and get even better than I was before!

DINNER

Super quick! Beet greens, diced tomatoes, pesto potato salad, roasted beets, goat cheese and pecan fritatta

Quick side note: the pesto potato salad I made for the pool party on Saturday. It’s this week’s CEiMB recipe hosted by The Not So Skinny Kitchen (recipe here). I am not a fan of the mayo-based potato salads but this one was quite delicious. The fresh peppers were an especially delicious addition – they added a great crunch and lots of brightness to this dish. Pics from the pool party set-up…

So yeah, I threw some of the leftover potatoes/peppers into the pan for some extra heft and carbs. I also pre-roasted the beets end of last week (sliced, at 350* for about 20 minutes). Tonight, I sauteed some beet greens in a sprayed skillet, then added 1/2 can of diced tomatoes, roasted beets and potato salad, cracked 2 eggs and finally threw a few pecans in. That was on the stove for a few minutes, then under the broiler for a few more. Done!

Another un-photogenic meal that was really delicious. Obviously beets + goat cheese go well together. The rest of the ingredients enhanced this combo further. Look at all these veggies!!

This was the perfect quick dinner… and the perfect ending to a great day of eats. I will say I’d love something sweet right about now but it’s getting late and I can probably do without. Maybe at least a sweet apple is in my future.

What are your go-to recipes on a super busy night? Mine will have to be sandwiches and stir-fries.

How do you fit exercise in during super busy days/weeks/months? I’m all ears!

So here we go, nice and simple today. Work is crazy but I still found time to take a minute and mindfully enjoy some very delicious foods.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast started with a little help from this weekend’s trip to the City Market in Burlington, VT. This is a community-owned grocery store, which means that many products from small local producers were available (for a few pictures of what it’s like inside the market, check out my previous post – you can click on the pictures to enlarge). I came in to find Liz Lovely cookies, which I discovered just days prior to our trip to Vermont through the Foodzie blog (which is very dangerous by the way, I’m a sucker for all the cute stories of small producers) and ended up clearing out their dessert bar. Ok, this may be a slight exaggeration but you better believe that the only thing that stopped me from doing exactly that is the expiration dates on the products. They were freshly baked and clearly should be consumed asap. One of the products that I just could not resist was this package of Butterfly Bakery raspberry apricot breakfast scones.

I absolutely adore apricots and these plump cookie-like scones (looks-wise) were a love at first sight. The first bite sealed the deal for me. Soft and buttery, with real raspberry and apricot chunks – this is the best scone I’ve ever tasted and I don’t think any future scone can stand a chance. These are perfect! I think I may freeze one and see how it preserves, because I’d love to stock up on a future trip to Burlington. And there will be a future trip. I’m obsessed.

I enjoyed the scone with coffee and an oikos (this batch is the best for some reason – so fluffy!). I didn’t end up eating the strawberries until dinner time. This was one good breakfast!

LUNCH

Lunch was pretty special too. I had a lunch date with Lauren and Shannon. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Lauren and I’m so glad that Shannon keeps popping in during lunch to my neck of the woods because that means we can see each other more often. Caffe Jaffa was our meeting place.

Look who I spotted already at the table… hi, Lauren! (hehe, I was trying to be sneaky but she noticed me)

Caffe Jaffa features American and Middle Eastern fare. I wanted nothing more than hummus. So that’s pretty much what I ordered – a hummus plate that came with a Greek side salad.

The lettuce was fresh, the feta and dressing (which I had on the side and just dipped my fork into) were both delicious. A great simple starter!

Mmm, hummus! Standard stuff (maybe even a tad too grainy for my liking). I ate about half with a warm pita.

The girls both ordered the hummus/baba ganoush/falafel platters (which is SO the way to go!) and I snuck a taste of Lauren’s baba ganoush and had one of Shannon’s falafel balls. Both were outstanding! The baba ganoush was very creamy, the falafel was flavorful and not at all greasy (although of course, it is still deep fried so one should enjoy such things in moderation).

This lunch was so fun! We chatted for a while, only stopping to take bites of our food. It was hard to go back to work, I’m not going to lie.

SNACKS

Before heading back to the office, Shannon and I did stop by the Copley farmers market. I bought more shelling peas. I think I have a problem (good thing they’re just nutritious peas).

Snack of champions!

DINNER

Since we’ve been out all weekend, there was not much in the fridge for groceries (I bought beets and greens at the farmers market – these would take too long to cook for a weeknight). I’m still impressed with how I pulled dinner off. And it was a good one, let me tell you!

About 3 weeks ago, Jen posted this recipe for salmon with strawberry and tomato salsa that I’ve been dreaming of ever since. The only problem is – wild salmon is expensive. I was waiting for it to go on sale but the day never came. Strawberries are only going to be in season for a few weeks and I happened to have some amazingly sweet ones from Quebec on hand. We also had half a container of grape tomatoes in the veggie drawer in the fridge and wild salmon burgers in the freezer. Hey, how about a salmon burger with strawberry and tomato salsa? Oh yeah!

The strawberry tomato salsa is the prefect balance of sweet and savory with balsamic vinegar’s acidity balanced out by the smooth and creamy laughing cow cheese I topped the ww burger buns with and of course by the incredibly juicy wild salmon burger (the burgers were from Whole Foods by the way – I highly recommend them!). Adam and I couldn’t get enough of this – so unique and fresh. Summer fare with a twist. This recipe is definitely going on the favorites list!! Thank you, Jen, for the inspiration!

Dessert was another City Market purchase.

Think 7-layer bar but better. I ate 1/2 of the package and it took a lot of will power not to go back to the kitchen and finish the rest. The white and semi-sweet chocolate chunks worked beautifully with walnuts, almost short bread-like crust, and of course the toasted coconut. I’m stopping now because the kitchen is not that far away.

The little pleasures in life. I don’t hate this.

Have a great day! And say hello if you have a second to spare. I was feeling a bit abandoned earlier but something tells me these yummies will bring you back.

It felt a little strange being there – like I’m invading something. I grabbed a vanilla yogurt from the lovely Amy (I have yet to taste it) and almost walked away. And then I collected myself and introduced myself to Mr. Siggi (fun fact: Siggi is his first name). He was super nice and really excited to answer any of my questions. The story of how he started his yogurt business was unlikely many other small business start-ups. He didn’t care for his job, he missed his yogurt from homeland Iceland, so he decided to make his own… and then eventually began selling it. Siggi’s yogurt is now sold nationally at every Whole Foods. How’s that for realizing the American dream? (Siggi has been in the US for only 8 years!).

So here are a few interesting things I learned about chatting with Siggi…

• Siggi’s yogurt sources dairy from 6 small farms in New York. They have many standards, including those about humane treatment of animals. Although the dairy is not organic (it is cost-prohibitive at this point given the small scale of his operation), “the cows have names, not numbers.” Siggi spends some of his days visiting the farms.
• The plain siggi’s yogurt tastes pretty close to the original Icelandic yogurt Siggi missed when moving to the US. The flavored varieties are a little more unique.
• Siggi’s yogurt is a little more tart than most (in my opinion at least) because Greek and Icelandic-type yogurts are naturally tart but manufacturers add a lot of sugar to them to sweeten/mellow them out. Siggi’s yogurt uses just a touch of agave nectar and that’s why it is not sugar-laden.
• They work on new flavors all the time. I’m volunteering to be a taste tester.
• We talked about my Moldovian origin and about our Kefir. Apparently Kefir has a natural alcohol content. I’m going to google that soon.

Siggi was so nice. I LOVE meeting small business owners that are passionate about their business and do it right – without cutting corners at the expense of the consumer and our environment!

And here is a picture of me and Siggi – now you know what the man behind the yogurt looks like. He’s taaaaaaall.

Thank you, Siggi, for chatting with me… and thanks Judith for setting up this event. I think I may actually go to Healthworks today to work out. Imagine that!

Now onto yesterday’s eats…

BREAKFAST

The breakfast pizza is back!

Ww tortilla, almond butter, 2% TJ’s greek yogurt, 1/2 banana, raspberries, dried cherries and Kashi Golean cereal

A pizza slice, anyone?

I really love this breakfast. It’s so satisfying without being too filling.

LUNCH

Giant salad: mixed greens, grape tomatoes, radish, chickpeas, feta and Seta’s Mediterranean beet salad

This salad was fantastic -the beet salad was definitely the highlight. It came from the Copley Farmers market (Seta is there on Tuesdays) – the salad contains beets, dried mint, lemon juice and EVOO. Simple yet so flavorful. I LOVE beets!

WORKOUT

Yesterday’s workout was pretty random – I wanted to do a simple run outside but got bored so I turned around. I ran for a little over 20 minutes and then went to the gym and did 15 minutes of the elliptical there. I got my sweat on, so I guess that’s all I can ask of myself.

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Pita chips + Samira’s baba ganoush

Loved the crunch. I finished this container with a spoon after I ran out of the chips. Classy.

After meeting Mr. Siggi, I went to Joe’s to meet my co-workers for a few drinks. While there, I had one Hoegaarden and a glass of Cabernet + a little slice of margarita pizza.

I came home slightly buzzed and ready to chow down on more food.

DINNER

Dinner was based on this sandwich Shannon recently blogged about. You can’t really see the insides (bad blogger!) but this contains mustard, green apples, pickled green tomatoes and Cabot horseradish cheddar.

I know this sounds strange but it really is nicely balanced. Since the apples are only slightly sweet, they work well with the sour pickled tomatoes. I dare you to try it!

Dessert: cookies ‘n cream cheesecake bar

Plus 2 joe-joes (unpictured).

Phew – long post, fun day! Can you believe it’s Thursday already? I love love love Thursdays because of the Thursday Prudential farmers market. Plus I have really fun workouts planned for today. See you later, alligators. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t already.

I’ve been thinking recently about how my snacks got pretty boring lately. I often just grab a fruit to-go:

Sometimes I add something else for satiety…

Sometimes it’s fruit and nuts in dried form (a.k.a trailmix)

…sometimes it’s just nuts:

And then there are various bars that are oh so convenient:

Once in a while I get a little more creative and I LOVE snacks like that…

Baby carrots + almond butter

1/2 Food for Life english muffin with Barney Butter and 1/2 banana (one of my favorite snacks!!)

Ww toast with hummus and 1/4 avocado

Baguette with baba ganoush and tomatoes

Crackers with edamame hummus

Baby carrots with hummus and 1 hard-boiled egg

I need to revamp my snacks. What are your favorites?

Onto yesterday’s eats…

BREAKFAST

German fitness bread with cream cheese, kiwi, strawberries and pecans

Close up shot:

This was so hearty and satisfying. The fresh fruit was so sweet and paired nicely with the tangy cream cheese and earthy bread. Yum!

LUNCH

I decided to treat myself to a lunch at the farmers market yesterday. I think I’m going to start doing that once a week. It just felt so special… plus I’m supporting local farmers, right?

The Prudential Center farmers market (open Thursdays 11:00-17:00)

The swiss bakers table caught my eye

They had 2 kinds of sandwiches and the guy talked me into the lettuce, tomato, pickle & turkey (and mayo apparently) sandwich. He was 99% sure that the turkey was organic since supposedly the owners pride themselves on all ingredients being organic.

This guy came on a PretzelBaguette – oh my!

So I went on their website after getting back to my desk and I see nothing about the use of organic ingredients. I’m pretty sure this was NOT organic turkey but I still ate it. Not eating it would not make a statement other than a hungry Elina. The bread was the most amazing thing – a soft pretzel in a baguette shape. Fantastic. I’m going to choose the vegetarian option next time or just buy the PretzelBaguette and assemble my own sandwich. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this lunch!

SNACKS

1 banana, 1/2 apple pie larabar, 1 orange (after workout) <– see, boring!!

WORKOUTS

Pilates reformer class in the am. I’m still on the fence. I LOVE the studio (it’s Boston Body btw) but I think I need some heavy lifting/bootcamp classes in my life to feel complete. And since these classes aren’t cheap (I got a discounted deal for just a few sessions before), they would have to replace my gym membership and everything else. So we’ll see. I have a 30-days unlimited mat membership that I have yet to activate and I think it may be more my speed. Plus it’s a lot cheaper so if I absolutely love it, then it’s more likely to become part of my routine. I’ll keep you guys posted, of course.

After work, I also went to the gym for some cardio. I NEEDED it. Even that’s an understatement. I didn’t have my running shoes (only old sneakers) so I didn’t want to run (much) so I thought I’d try Janetha’s slow paced treadmill workout (with increasing inclines). Yeah, I thought it was going to be all walking but… I don’t know about you but I can’t walk at 5.0. I got to 4.6 but even that got a little too much at 8-9 incline. I basically stuck between 4.4 and 4.5 mph and used Janetha’s incline recommendations. After about 17 minutes I decided that running actually wouldn’t be so bad. I finished the 30 minutes at 6.6-6.7 mph at 1.0 incline. That felt good. I need to bring running shoes to the gym next time. It felt weird running in those babies. After the treadmill, I did like 3 minutes on this weird stepmaster type thing (you move the legs sideways) but it was sooooo boring I couldn’t handle it. I grabbed a jump rope and did that for maybe 30 seconds and then an elliptical with a tv freed up. Sweeeeet. So I did 17 minutes on that, again using Janetha’s “moves” – elliptical HIIT. I was sweaty and happy by the end. After a little stretching and it was time to get moving.

DINNER

My grandmas from Israel are in town so I rushed to my parents’ house after my workout (and a shower of course!). We ate dinner there.

Short-rib + polenta prepared by my dad. It was really good.

+ a little plate of hummus, tomatoes and pickled radish

I went back for more hummus (on 1/2 toast) and more pickled radish after this. Yum! And had a glass of Pinot Noir that my dad got me for my birthday. It was the same wine I had last time at Bin26 and declared it was my favorite wine of all time. It was still good last night. Not sure if I can give it the same mark though. Maybe I need to taste it one more time, just to be sure.

And that’s how you do it. Sorry for the crazy long post. I guess I was in a chatty mood.

Don’t forget to enter the RPS giveaway. I’ll declare the winner in my next post.

We got an ice cream machine from my parents-in-law this past Christmas. Around the same time we started our kitchen remodel, but that didn’t stop me from making my own frozen yogurt. It was a good first try. Pretty yummy but the recipe definitely required some tweaking. That was my first and last attempt at making a frozen concoction… until today!

I actually finally dug a whole in our freezer big enough to fit the ice cream bowl into a few days ago, but receiving The Oprah Magazine Cookbook from my parents-in-law for my birthday (thank you!) and locking eyes with the sour cream ice cream recipe sealed the deal for me. I had to go buy ice cream ingredients. Stat. [Recipe can also be found here, I used low fat sour cream and a little less than 1 cup of sugar.]

Introducing my new love

Mix all the ice cream ingredients and pour into this genius machine. Let it run for ~30 minutes.

I think someone wanted ice cream even more than I did

Try not to eat it all right away. It really should spend at least 4 hours in the freezer to reach the perfect (hard) consistency.

I lasted 1 hour. So what if it was a little softer.

My first REAL ice cream

Can you see how creamy it is?

OMG – amazing. Incredibly smooth and slightly tangy. Maybe it’s the sour cream that put it over the top for me, since you know, sour cream probably runs through my veins (being a “Russian” and all), but Adam thought it was pretty phenomenal as well. I am doing everything I can to keep myself away from the kitchen (read: freezer). This could be trouble!

If you don’t have an ice cream machine (although you should really start making space or saving for one – whatever reason has stopped you from buying it), no worries. I got a whole lot of other deliciousness to share with you. Let’s begin with…

BREAKFAST

I love leisurely mornings – they allow me to start the day with fresh baked muffins, like these zucchini spelt muffins from eat, drink & be vegan cookbook

The recipe made 4 larger muffins and 8 smaller ones. I also added about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to the batter. For those of you who count calories – the larger one is ~255 calories, the smaller one is ~170 cals (just counted it so that I wouldn’t be going overboard on calories without even realizing it). I enjoyed one larger one with some local organic strawberries and coffee.

And then I went a little crazy with picture taking (it’s kind of the theme of today’s post actually – too much time on my hands? )

Hello, strawbs!

So pretty.

And so moist and delicious!!!! Dreena is right – don’t let the healthy sounding name discourage you – these are such a treat for your taste buds. Also Adam approved.

LUNCH

The rest of the morning flew by so I just thew together a random Mediterranean-inspired spread.

Fresh cucumber slices, Foxboro Co fromage blanc, jalapeno stuffed olives, Samira’s baba ganoush, Sofra beet tzatziki, edamame “hummus,” grilled peppers and zucchini and When Pigs Fly olive bread. Phew!

Adam and I shared this platter.

It was a fun lunch with lots of flavors and textures.

And yes, I went crazy taking pictures again.

Earlier this week I received from the company a sample of Lipton Pure Leaf ice tea for my review. I thought these would be perfect to accompany a summery-ish lunch.

The Pure Leaf ice tea is sweetened with stevia and has zero calories. I received 2 flavors: lemon and raspberry. Unfortunately I did not enjoy either one of these. They were extremely sweet and very “fake” tasting. Thumbs down from this blogger. Adam still polished them off but said he prefers diet Snapple. I’ll stick to water.

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

Luna Protein chocolate cherry almond bar (I received in the Healthworks swag bag)

It tasted like a candy bar. I liked it. The ingredients list appears to be all natural too. Excellent

A while later – 1/2 fitness bread with light cream cheese, lox and grape tomatoes

+ an orange (unpictured)

DINNER

Although I really wanted ice cream for dinner, I behaved like an adult and made a real dinner – Ellie Krieger’s steak tacos with cucumber-avocado salsa to be exact (recipe can be found here)

Dinner came together in minutes and was extremely flavorful. These tasted pretty authentic to me. No cheese or sour cream needed – just lots of fresh flavors (mmm, lime + avocado).

So much good eats! I wish everyday could be this healthy and delicious.

Have you ever made your own ice cream? What’s your favorite kind? I think we’re going to do a chocolate/m&m combo next (Adam’s childhood favorite) and then junk-free oreo cookie ice cream. I love that I can use all organic high quality ingredients and that the mix-in possibilities are endless.

* Only a few days left to enter the cookware giveaway!*

Yesterday was another busy day as I was trying to tackle the rest of my to-do list, complete a longer run, and prep for a casual bbq. Adam was a HUGE help. I gave him a grocery list with like 50 items on it (some kind of obscure) and he bought everything but one (which I was fine without at the end of the day). Awesome! I love grocery shopping but sometimes a little help in that dept helps!

My long run was kind of bluh. It was HOT out by the time I got out (almost at noon) and I took lots of water breaks and gave up kind of early. I think I covered 8 miles (maybe a bit more) but maybe ran 6.5 of them and not all in a row. Oh well, hopefully there will be better runs this week!

My breakfast/pre-workout meal:

FFL english muffin with BB, strawberry rhubarb jam and 1/2 banana + coffee

Sorry for the terrible photo. I wasn’t even going to take a picture because you’ve seen it a million times, but then I took a quick one just in case. haha

I ended up kind of grazing for the rest of the day, so let’s call the eats below snacks, lunch and dinner.

Shrimp, mango & avocado ceviche in mini fillo shells. I think I’m going to submit this recipe to the phyllo contest. It turned out delicious after a few tweaks.

I munched on an orange and some cottage cheese while prepping these babies (unpictured).

Then the boys brought over some chips and salsa to munch on during the Celtics game. OMG, this black bean is like crack. So spicy and flavorful. I wanted to eat a whole jar with a spoon and call it dinner.

Let’s see the label a little closer. You guys need to find it asap!! I added it to my grocery list right away.

I did eat an actual meal eventually – Applegate Farms grass-fed organic hot dog & sauerkraut + grilled veggies

Did I mention how much I love grilled veggies? I think I did.

Dessert: bake-off test recipe #1 – break-up bars (recipe here)

I tried these  bars for the first time at the cookie swap party in January and they were definitely a favorite. I omitted the toffee (couldn’t find it + they are rich enough without it) but otherwise followed the recipe closely.

I’ve never baked with so much butter (more than a whole box was used for this batch) but man – these truly are incredible!! They took a while to set (I suggest throwing them in the freezer as the last step) but the wait was well worth it. So rich and decadent. I cut them into 64 little two-bite pieces and I think they can be enjoyed in such moderation guilt free (I had one of the bars pictured).

Shortbread + caramel + fudge = sounds like a winning recipe to me!!! I’ll keep on testing though, just in case

My birthday is this Saturday so I’m calling this my birthday week. I’m actually excited for it. See you later!