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

So I wanted to talk today about something that I recently noticed about myself… I am a true Internet addict. Yes, many of us spend quite a bit of our time online (especially bloggers!) but for me the problem is that… once I pop, I can’t stop! Okay, maybe that exact expression is more fitting for chips, but seriously… if I allow myself “just 1 minute” to check the email, several hours pass by and its way past my bedtime. I check an email – that leads to a website, or twitter… and you know where that gets you. Twitter is not exactly productive. I’ve been trying to set a strict “bed time” but it’s not working. Anyone else is an Internet addict? I know at least a few of you are. Any tips of how to take it a little easier, or at least help with the whole “get in bed at a reasonable hour so you don’t look and feel like a zombie in the morning”?

You know what helps a bit in the morning though?

BREAKFAST!

How do you like that segway? Oh I crack myself up…

2 When Pigs Fly maple, pineapple, raisin with toasted sesame and ginger toasts with crunchy Barney Butter and a kiwi

Yum, yum, yum. Sweet and sour. Time for work!

MID-MORNING SNACKS

Shelling peas and 1 almond stuffed medjool date (unpictured – I’ll snap a few photos of my new date stuffing method for a future post).

WORKOUT

So Wednesday was my first workout in a week. Yikes! I took a super hard spin class and vowed to never take such a long break from working out again. It was due to a combination of going away for the weekend and work being super busy. Yesterday, I went back for more – this time for an abs + RIPPED class. Basically a crazy awesome bootcamp that I totally thought I couldn’t handle but somehow came out alive out of. The instructor was making fun of me a bit because I kept screwing up. She knows I haven’t been there in a few weeks and we both saw the pretty obvious consequences of such actions. She’s out on vacation next week, but I am going to ace these bootcamp classes again. I used to be one of the best in the class. I want to feel super strong again!!

LUNCH

We had no produce in the house, which meant a quick trip to the farmers market was in order. Here are my 2 favorite booths at the Prudential Center farmers market (open on Thursdays only).

Samira’s Homemade

The 3rd one down is my beloved baba ganoush. They sell it at Whole Foods but it’s cheaper at the farmers market since it cuts out the middle man. I stocked up!

Hehe, the guy that was working there wanted to be in the picture I think. Here you go, sir – your moment of fame.

Spring Brook Farm

This is definitely one of my favorites at our local farmers markets. I love that the girl that runs it is very knowledgeable about their farming practices and chicken raising (they sell their own eggs – from range free chickens that have their beaks for only $3.50/dozen – that’s cheaper than organic eggs at a super market!!).

I also love that their gorgeous produce is significantly cheaper than anywhere else. I think they actually watch their competition and try to undercut it a bit. Hey works for me. It’s still not cheap (i.e. I know they are well paid) but it’s more affordable compared to others for sure.

I bought SO much stuff there yesterday. It was pretty much a 1 stop shop.

… oh yeah, about lunch. I got a sandwich from the Iggy’s stand. They have the chewiest baguettes. LOVE.

Fresh mozzarella, organic tomatoes, organic basil with white vinegar dressing on buttered ficelle (I could do without the butter )

So fresh and delicious. It also held me off for hours, without making me feel super stuffed. Perfect!

DINNER

How could I forget? CEiMB meals are back! This week’s dish was penne with roasted tomatoes, garlic and white beans (recipe here). I got the tomatoes and basil at the farmers market for it so I felt it still utilized some local produce. I like really centering my meals around that.

This took quite a bit of time to make (not active time, just waiting for the tomatoes and garlic to roast) and I’m not sure that it was worth it. Maybe I overcrowded my tomatoes (I nearly double the amount based on reviews online) but they kind of came out stewed rather than roasted. This was a little on the bland side (again, maybe I should have doubled the garlic and oil too to compensate for the extra tomatoes?). We enjoyed it but I won’t be making it again.

Dessert: Russian apple cake made by my mother in law:

Adam and I each enjoyed a little slice with what was left of the greek yogurt froyo. I need to make another batch!!

Are you an Internet junkie like myself? Make me feel a little better – let me know

Any fun plans for the weekend? We have so much going on. It also happens to be our 2-year wedding anniversary this coming Monday and my dad’s birthday so there is lots to celebrate. See you tomorrow morning with a post.

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.

All right, now that we got all these logistics out of the way, let’s talk about something I’ve been super excited about lately – EXERCISE! A little while back I wrote kind of a sad post about struggling with overeating and just not feeling “it” in general. The very next day, I forced myself to go to the gym to sweat it out and haven’t looked back. I’ve been an exercise machine ever since. I can’t stop. It’s been amazing (and made a difference in my eating as well). Finally activating my 7-day pass at Healthworks just added more excitement. There are so many classes offered and I want to try every one of them. I’ve been going to Fitcorp (my current gym) and Healthworks and loving every second of it. I love when the snowball effect works in the right way. It’s all about finding something that you absolutely love (and that may change with time) – doing the “work” is then effortless. I actually look forward to every class!

So now let’s talk food. This is Sunday’s eats. I didn’t have a chance to blog about them earlier (and there is some really good stuff here!) so I actually left my camera at home on Monday and took a little break from picture taking. You still get to see a whole day’s worth of food (from Sunday) so I think it’s all good.

BREAKFAST

A few weeks ago, Lauren blogged about a healthy carrot cake sandwich that can be enjoyed for any meal of the day. I kept it in the back of my mind and even bought a special mango, pineapple, raisin bread that I thought would be great with it. I was right!

Look at this beauty from Sunday’s breakfast…

The back side

Since the sandwich just has a touch of sweetness, you don’t feel like you’re eating dessert for a meal yet it is still kind of exciting. I may have another one of these soon. Carrots are not an ingredient I use often in breakfast so why not throw it in a little more often?

WORKOUT

Body Pump at HW. Hurts so good…..

LUNCH

Beet salad, leftover L’Espalier chicken and feta wrap

Awesomeness.

SNACKS

Low fat cottage cheese + strawberries

L’Espalier macaron

Wow. I forgot how much I love macarons. I know this is a big no-no but I just had to take a picture of the inside. The paste was fantastic and the outside “shell” was so delicate, I definitely felt like I was eating a real treat.

Here is another TREAT. Sunday was Father’s Day of course so I baked my dad some pecan pie bars (recipe here). He loves nuts as much as I do (it runs in the family actually ).

Mmmmmmm – short bread crust, caramel-like pecan filling. These are not low fat/calorie by any means but SO worth it.

I probably had a square and a half throughout the day (I never actually had a whole one – just kept picking at it at different times). Oh, and if you make it – a little less sugar works beautifully. I used 1 cup for half a batch and it was perfectly sweet. If you love pecans, this is better than pecan pie (and way easier to make)!

DINNER

I mentioned before that my grandmas from Israel are here. Well, they still haven’t seen our new condo so I invited everyone over to enjoy some pecan bars and last minute, Adam and I decided to make dinner for everyone too.

Apps – pita chips, TJ’s garlic tzatziki (SO good!!) + grapes

The main fare – grass fed cheeseburgers (with whole wheat buns)

Toppings: tomatoes, avocado, pickles

Smashed grilled red potatoes (and sweet potatoes)

A big salad – mixed greens, carrots, grape tomatoes, grilled zucchini and pine nuts

My plate:

Everything was super yummy. For the burgers, btw, I almost always use 2T ketchup, 1T worchestershire sauce + 1/4t pepper for 1lb of meat. It makes really juicy and flavorful burgers. The potatoes were yummy as well.

A little dessert wine to end the meal. It tastes like white grape juice

And that was Sunday. Have you tried any new workouts lately? I’m going to a step class today – it’s been years. I can’t wait!!

BREAKFAST

Spinach, grape tomato and feta omelet

I used 1 egg and 1 egg white for this guy. As you can see, it completely fell apart but man, was it delicious. Salty from the feta, fresh from the pop of the tomatoes. Yum!

With the omelet I also had a little piece of toast, and grabbed this orange to go.

LUNCH

We had pizza at work during a meeting. I picked what I thought was a mushroom/artichoke pizza – that one looked wonderful… until I discovered a ton of pepperoni under the veggies. No picture but let’s just say I was picking at my food like a 5 year old. I had a whole mountain of peperoni on my plate and a million napkins all around me when I was done. So professional. I had 2 slices and stayed away from the super market cookies. I had something way better for me waiting in the fridge…

TREAT

Some of you were close with your guesses in my last post. I made cookies ‘n cream cheesecake bars following this recipe from Food for Living. I literally saw it yesterday morning and then stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the ingredients and baked them that night. I like having healthier baked goods around so that I’m less tempted to stop by a bakery and buy something 10 times worse for me and way more expensive.

I resisted the urge to have a whole photo shoot of these guys. Lauren already did a wonderful job. The cheesecake bar tasted so delicious. The crust was thin and moist, the cheesecake was creamy with a touch of sweetness. I like that these are not overwhelmingly sweet. You can really taste the quality of the ingredients. I love making cheesecake bars – this recipe is a keeper!

WORKOUT

After work I headed to the track for a workout with Boston Performance Coaching. You may remember I’ve done it once before and was terribly hard on myself. It was a tough workout, one I wasn’t particularly excited to go back to (since I’m not even training for a race) but I wanted coach Ali to look at my running form again so I signed up. The Harvard Track was actually being used for some kind of a race so we went to this dinky little side track and did laps there. That made them much shorter and a lot more manageable. Still hard but doable. This time Christina (I think?) was coaching and she said my problem is my arms. I cross them while I run which is inefficient and hurts my back. I tried to relax my shoulders down this time. Something I must work on. She was right. I felt very accomplished after we finished and actually ended up walking back home too, which was a little over 3 miles. It was nice out and Adam was out so I took advantage.

Speaking of running – who wants to see super embarrassing race photos of me? You can find them here. Terrible stuff.

DINNER

Get ready for some more ugly food…

All I could think about was a quesadilla on my walk home. So that’s what I had. Here are the insides:

Corn, peppers, mushrooms

Spicy black bean sauce and grape tomatoes – plus Cabot horseradish cheese all over (I couldn’t find our grader so I used a microplane)

All folded and grilled on the pan – a giant mess! (the little dish is the stuff that felt out that I still wanted to eat )

It burnt instantly on one side and wouldn’t brown up on the other. It was exactly what I wanted, taste wise though. A little spicy and definitely veggie-full. I had some more spicy black bean dip with lime tortilla chips while prepping and after dinner. I think these need to be banned from our house. So good, I can’t handle it.

I ended up watching too much trashy tv before finally going to bed so I’m a bit slow this morning. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my giveaway (here).

Have you had any ugly food lately that was still tasty?

So I’m sure you are dying to know about the giveaway I am referring to in the title of this post. Let me tell you all about it. A few weeks ago I received a copy of Substituting Ingredients by Becky Sue Epstein.

I was really excited to get this book because I swear – I realize I’m out of something mid-cooking nearly every week!! Well I guess sometimes I realize I have something slightly different from what the recipe calls for and I’m not sure if I can just substitute it one-to-one.

This actually happened the day after I got the book. I realized the brownie recipe I was testing called for dutch processed cocoa… and that I only had the standard kind. Oops. I grabbed the book – it had subs for cocoa powder in it but only for the regular kind and said 1/2 cocoa powder for baking could be substituted with 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips. Good to know but not exactly what I needed. So I got dressed (I was still in my pajamas) and went to the grocery store to look for dutch processed cocoa… and they didn’t have any. I even tried 2 different stores. Nope. A little googling solved that problem and the brownies turned out great.

So this book did not save me the first time around but I did browse through it and see how it will surely be useful (despite noting a few other misses – for example a sub for white wine for cooking was not there). There are lots of standard ingredients substitutions for things like light corn syrup, honey (for baking), and fish sauce (<- these are things I’ve looked up in the past). There are also some interesting subs for random ingredients – for example Becky suggests subbing green peppers, green beans and eggplant for okra (although notes the texture will be different with eggplant). My favorite tips are the ones for measurement conversions of dry to cooked ingredients. How many times do you see recipes that say 2 cups of cooked rice or pasta? Unless I already have that on hand, the more likely case is that I have to make some. How much dry rice/beans/pasta should I cook? This book provides equations for all these and more. Very cool.

So here is another cool part. The company sent me 2 copies by mistake. I received this one a few weeks ago and then got another package (with the same book) a few days back. This means one of you lucky Healthy and Sane readers can receive a copy of this book too!

Here is how:

1) Leave a comment on this post – anything goes.

2) If you have a blog, let others know about the giveaway and link back to this post.  If you don’t have a blog, tell someone about this giveaway and let me know that you’ve done so (after they enter the giveaway by commenting). You can also tweet about this giveaway (my twitter name must be included to qualify – that’s @healthyandsane fyi ) *Either one earns you a bonus point*

3) If you have a blog, add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll or follow me on Twitter (if I’m already on your blogroll, let me know – it counts!).  If you don’t, shoot me an email and give me some feedback on my blog. *This also earns you a bonus point*

*Please note this giveaway is open for US readers only.*

I will randomly choose and announce the winner on June 18th. Good luck!

Now let’s quickly cover today’s eats. SO good!

BALANCED BREAKFAST

Last banana zucchini spelt muffin (I had some frozen)

Fresh local strawberries

Oikos. It was extra good today for some reason.

BALANCED LUNCH

I’m still sore today so I decided to come home for lunch instead of going to Rope’n class. But not before I stopped by Whole Foods. I was dying for some sushi so I got some veggie maki since it’s Meatless Monday.

Brown rice carrot, avocado and cucumber maki

+ kale massaged with lemon and 1t basil EVOO + S&P - I was craving that too.

This was exactly what I wanted. I love when healthy meals really hit the spot like that.

Snacks at work included 1/2 apple pie larabar (mid-morning) and 1/2 giant banana with 1T Barney Butter (mid-afternoon). I was definitely hungry for dinner by the time I got home.

BALANCED DINNER

You may not recall when I raved about a tilapia dish with lemon caper sauce and roasted asparagus and grape tomatoes but this meal hasn’t left my mind ever since. Cara was responsible for this genius recipe (which can be found here) and suggested that I have to try it with haloumi as she originally posted it. So I finally did today.

Have you ever had haloumi cheese? It basically tastes like a slightly milder feta that you grill. Absolutely delicious. This dish was fantastic again. Can I put it on the favorite recipes list again? I think I can… and I am!

TREAT

One joe-joe (aka a chocolate oreo cookie minus the junk ingredients)

It may have something to do with what just came out of my oven

You’re going to have to wait for the next post for more details on that! Any guesses what it might be?

Anyways, long story short, my sister ended up canceling because she didn’t have clean workout gear and we both realized how sore we were from bootcamp on Saturday. Rest day it is! What did I do instead? Went out to brunch with Adam at Toro and had a real bloody Mary with vodka. Ha. Quite the switch.

Toro is a famous tapas place in the South End, and has been on our “must-go list” for ages. Unfortunately they don’t take reservations and we rarely have the patience to wait for a table, let alone wait for 2 hours (which is what happened on our last attempt to go there for dinner). So when Adam suggested brunch, and I remembered about Toro, we thought we’d give it a try. Plan B would have been brunch at many other restaurants that are right there in South End. Luckily, at 10:40 am, there were plenty of tables. Sweet!

Toro is very “New York” – modern space with high ceilings. Definitely our favorite kind of vibe.

As mentioned, I couldn’t help but order a Bloody Mary. I mean I’ve been drinking the virgin ones all week long.

To tell you the truth, I prefer McClure’s bloody Mary mix. It has more pickled flavor which obviously I love. I still drank the whole thing… of course!

For my entree, I ordered the huevos rancheros – eggs over easy, black beans, crispy tortillas, salsa roja and cotija cheese

This was different. I didn’t see any “roja” in the salsa – it was kind of like runny eggs in a pool of black beans with some soft corn tortillas for dipping. It was more flavorful than my description but the consistency was “off” for me. I enjoyed it overall (maybe ate 2/3?) but I wouldn’t order it again.

With my eggs, I also ordered a side of grilled avocado:

The enchilada-like sauce was a surprise and I really liked it.

And then I saw the waitress walk by with these gorgeous corn on the cob plates. This wasn’t on the menu but I ordered one right away. This is a half serving – 2 pieces.

Checking their dinner menu, I see that this is a house specialty (I think I’ve heard of it before and maybe that’s why was subconsciously attracted to them) and is called Maíz Asado Con Alioli Y Queso Cotija – grilled corn with alioli, lime, espalette pepper and aged cheese

This was cheesy and rich yet sweet and fresh (with corn kernels exploding in your mouth). I was already pretty full from eggs + avocado (working on stopping before I’m uncomfortable) so I only managed a few bites. Adam polished the rest off and declared it was the best thing he’s ever eaten. He says that a lot but these really were great!

Oh, what was also great was his home-made chorizo. It was so fresh and tender and flavorful. I had a few bites, feeling a bit guilty about breaking my self-imposed rule about not eating “conventionally” raised meat. And then I found out from the Toro website that they are a green restaurant and do many things to support the environment, including using mostly local ingredients and humanely raised meat. What? I am going back to Toro tomorrow and ordering a side of chorizo to go. I’m so happy right now. Thank you, Toro, for being so awesome. I can’t wait to go back!

So that was breakfast. Lunch was a few hours later – also known as froyo from Red Mango. It was Adam’s idea. I promise.

Small original froyo with mango, watermelon and almonds

I tried watermelon in froyo because Janetha swears by it. It sounded weird but was really not bad. Kind of fun for a change.

Topping close-ups….

Dinner was simple – I utilized 2 products I received through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

Buitoni Riserva – quattro formaggi agnolotti

+ Bertolli arrabbiata – spicy tomato and red pepper sauce

I bulked up the ravioli, um excuse me, the agnolotti, with steamed broccoli and sauteed mushrooms, and finished the dish with some shredded prosciutto.

Sorry, this is SO not photogenic but it was incredibly delicious. The agnolotti was very cheesy so a little bit really does go a long way. A serving is 360 calories and nearly 30% of daily sodium so I ate a little less than 2/3rds (or 4 agnolotti) and it was plenty with all the other add-ins. I also really enjoyed the Bertolli arabbiata sauce. It wasn’t really spicy but it was flavorful and tasted homemade to me. You could tell they used good quality tomatoes.

A yummy dinner for sure!

I ate a little less than an ounce of roasted almonds later at night and taste tested the frozen yogurt I made. More on that in the next post.

Do you keep a “must go to” restaurants list? If so, how many have been on there for a little too long? I encourage you to take the plunge. You’ll probably be sorry you haven’t tried it sooner.

A giveaway coming tomorrow…..

FRIDAY

Breakfast:

Ok, I guess a bloody Mary is not really a balanced breakfast. I was craving nothing else so I grabbed some random stuff on my way out the door to enjoy at work when hunger strikes:

The siggi’s yogurt was not bad. It’s definitely a lot more tart than most greek yogurts, but I’m pretty hardcore in that dept so I don’t mind that. The pomegranate and passion fruit flavor was pretty mild. I still prefer oikos but I’d buy siggi’s if it was on sale (or like in this case, if I had a coupon for a free one ).

FRIDAY WORKOUT

I was really feeling Thursday’s pilates class and was hoping spinning would get the lactic acid out of my muscles. It was a great class (one of my favorite instructors is back after a long break) and I was so happy to have exercise back into my life.

BROWNIES!!

Remember this post? The brownie bake-off was this Friday!

As you know, I’ve tested a few recipes for the bake-off. For mother’s day (before I even knew of the contest), I baked rocky road bars, which came out too dry but I was impressed with the topping. Then a few weeks later (based on your suggestions) I baked some Baked brownies and declared them to be the best brownies I’ve ever had, which I find a bit funny since I’ve actually had the real Baked brownies before (yes, straight from the Baked bakery in Brooklyn). They were moist and chocolaty without being too fudgy (the kind that actually shows teeth marks when you bite into them) or cakey. Basically perfect. I didn’t know that was my ideal brownie (before that I’d say “fudgy” was my favorite) but here it was, made by yours truly. I also baked a batch of the King Arthur brownies (again based on your recommendations) for a Memorial Day pool party and everyone loved them, but my heart belongs to Baked brownies. I made a batch for the contest, topped them with marshmallows, roasted pecans and chocolate chips (just like the rocky road bars) and they became THE WINNING RECIPE at my work!! So cool. There was some very tough competition too.

Btw, I baked the plain baked brownies for 23 minutes and then after topping them with the goods, baked them for another 3 minutes. I’m telling you this because you should baked them. Asap! This day was going well so far… and then Friday night happened. Yay!

FRIDAY NIGHT OUTING

Adam and I had a party to attend later in the evening, but instead of sitting at home on our favorite night of the week, we decided to look through our groupons and such and went out for (a nearly free) dinner instead. A glass of wine + pizza at Cafe 47 was definitely a great way to start the weekend!

This was a glass of montepulciano – it was nothing special but still hit the spot. For my pizza I got an individual sized vegetarian pie with roasted red peppers, mushrooms, spinach and artichokes. I really LOVE artichokes on pizza.

I liked the chewy crust – this pizza was not bad but not the best I’ve had in Boston either. Nonetheless, slowly but surely I still ate the whole thing. Pizza is one of my favorite foods for sure!

Party time! I had 2 Magners…

… and some homemade mint julep ice cream. Classy pic, I know. The ice cream was awesome!!! I am SO making ice cream with booze for my next party. Brilliant.

SATURDAY

… was a lot classier. I started the day by meeting my sister for the aforementioned bootcamp class (had an orange and a coffee before that – unpictured). This class is great – she doesn’t do anything crazy, which is good because I don’t fear the class but it’s still very effective. Since I was already pretty sore from Thursday’s pilates (seriously?!) I was feeling every move. It was glorious. Inna loved it too!

LUNCH

A feast with local produce. Mixed greens from Silverbrook Farm (I buy my eggs from them too), fresh strawberries from Spring Brook Farm, feta from Narragansett Creamery (best feta ever!!), pecans, dried blueberries and pickled jalapenos, dressed in basil EVOO and strawberry balsamic vinegar.

Sweet, salty, spicy = amazing

+ an egg (for protein – I know random!)

Lunch was on the light side because we had a bbq to attend at 4pm at Adam’s boss’s house. The bbq was moved indoors due to the rain (we actually ended up canceling our own bbq on Sunday for the same reason ) but everything inside was still so beautiful and summery!!

During the cocktail hour I had a glass of Jordan Cabernet Savignon and munched on quite a few pita crackers with hummus and a bit of cheese.

This is my favorite Cabernet but it’s quite pricey. Basically we only drink it when we are around Adam’s boss. (i.e. Christmas and summer parties). I probably had 2.5-3 glasses throughout the evening. It’s so complex yet drinkable. Definitely one of the best.

My dinner plate…

+ some more corn salad which was phenomenal (I need to get the recipe) and a slice of bread with hummus. I left half of the cheese off. I was getting full and leaving room for dessert was a priority.

Pies! Let’s see if I get them straight – blueberry…

Peach:

Raspberry/blackberry:

I had a little slice of the apricot and the raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream of course. Pie has to be accompanied by ice cream at all times. Right? Right. I left with a bit of a stomachache (the second slice of pie was probably a mistake but I have a problem with delicious desserts, what can I say). I’d say it was worth it.

How was your weekend? I’ll recap Sunday’s eats tomorrow. It was another good day!

So we are back to semi-regular food journal blogging. After a weekend away, I jumped back on the cooking wagon right away. That’s the best way to ensure that I’m eating nutritious foods. Here are the highlights:

I dug deep into my freezer and found an old box of Holy Donuts, which made an appearance in Monday morning breakfast.

I don’t know what kind this was. It was a bit stale but still filled me up.

I added something new to my green smoothie – sprouts. They made the smoothie taste a bit “healthier” but the almond milk + banana + peanuts still added a good amount of sweetness. Not bad. Not bad.

Lunch was a grilled veggie + Samira’s Homemade jalapeno hummus + Foxboro Cheese fromage blanc wrap. Yummy. No picture.

Dinner was AMAZING! Adam mentioned he was craving Chinese food over the weekend. Before I even had a chance to say: “I’ll make some” he added: I want it to be authentic and greasy. No can do on the greasy part. Sorry. I still made a Chinese dish for our Meatless Monday dinner and it was authentic tasting.

Pineapple tofu stir-fry (recipe from Eating Well can be found here)

The sauce was sticky, sweet, sour and a little spicy (I added chile-garlic sauce). This was seriously perfection. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe.

TUESDAY…

started on the right foot. With brunch! Well actually breakfast since it was 8am but it tasted like brunch.

Grilled eggplant, tomato and bacon egg & cheese

+ a bloody mary (virgin don’t worry, I don’t drink before work )!!!

I picked this McClure’s bloody mary mix up in Brooklyn before we left and I’m so happy I did. This mix is spicy and super pickly (not a word, but you get it, right?) – just how I like ‘em! I actually had another glass after dinner. This time I used about 1/2 mix and 1/2 water and it was a little less “I’m drinking tomatoey pickle water”… even though honestly I totally could. Yes, I am obsessed with everything-pickle. I may just make a quick one right now to take to work.

Conclusion: if you see this mix, buy a case!

LUNCH

Leftover pineapple tofu stir-fry in a wrap + carrots. Yep, still amazing.

DINNER

I picked up some grass fed beef at the farmers market the other day and decided to make Lauren’s beef, potato and root vegetable stew for dinner last night (recipe can be found here).

Yes, I know it’s basically summer but I don’t care. This was made in my crockpot (I just threw everything in after browning the meat) and was delicious. I did add a whole bunch of hot sauce, extra salt and pepper and garlic powder to flavor the broth a bit more. After about 6 hours in the crockpot, the meat was tender and the broth thickened up around the veggies.

Summer or not, I still enjoyed this inside our air-conditioned condo.

In other news: I tried a pecan pie larabar yesterday and thought it was incredible. Have you tried it yet? You should.

Oh and of course I promised a giveaway. This one is mostly to Boston readers. Remember the Healthworks event I attended at Alibi? Remember that crazy awesome swag-bag? One of the things included was a free cut + color from a new hair salon on Newbury Street – Rock Paper Scissors. I’ve tried enough salons to know that I can’t cheat at my girl Amanda at Jerel 119 but maybe you’re up for a free hair-do? Sues and Colleen really loved the experience there and have some pretty awesome cuts to show off.

So here are the giveaway rules:

1) Leave a comment if you are interested in entering the giveaway.

2) For an extra entry, blog or tweet about this giveaway (and come back here and let me know you’ve done so). If you don’t have a blog or a twitter account, tell a friend about this giveaway and after they enter, come back and tell me you’ve referred them here.

I’m going to have this open for a few days. If you win, please take some before and after pics and share them with us. Cool?

The rest of you are welcome to comment on anything else in this post. I think there is some good material here, no?

All right, it’s time for me to make my bloody mary and run to work. Happy hump day!

Fact: Last summer, I trained my heart out for the BAA half marathon. I followed a serious training schedule, I did my work. In the midst of it all, I learned to love running (before that I was just doing it for the challenge). I also became a much stronger runner.

Fact: On October 11, 2009, I ran the BAA half and blacked out after 12.56 miles. I pushed too hard right at the end and I was severely dehydrated. If you like horror stories, you can read my recap of that race here.

I was so upset with the outcome of that race that I actually wanted to run a half the following weekend. It wasn’t a sane decision, although I truly felt that I trained hard enough that I should be able to complete the race. Probably under 2 hours (PS – if I didn’t walk off the course, I could have actually walked, heck crawled to the finish line and still would have finished it in under 2 hours. I think). Instead, I listened to my husband and chose a half in 2010. A race that would allow me sufficient time to train. I wanted to KILL it on my next one!

So I did it, sometime late last year, I signed up for the Run to Remember half. I set up a training schedule. I wanted to run up to 18 miles at some point. I thought this would make 13.1 seem like nothing on race day. I started training in February and just burnt out. Running didn’t seem fun anymore. Training for a half didn’t seem worth it.

Fact: On March 21, I announced on the blog that I was really letting go this time. That I was going to be kinder to myself and pursue other passions. Running became a choir I wasn’t interested in… and the race was another 2+ months away. I didn’t want to waste 2 months of my life on something that didn’t make me happy. So I stopped running. Really. I maybe ran one time a week (if that) for a month after that. It felt so freeing. I could do whatever work out I wanted (and I really do love working out so the possibilities seemed endless). It was awesome!

And then at the beginning of May I decided to see if I could get back into running. The idea of running the half just 4 weeks later seemed crazy, but I kind of wanted to see if I could do it. I promised myself that if it wasn’t going to make me happy, then I really was to drop it for real this time. But you know what, spring was upon us and it actually felt great to get out and hit the pavement. No, not every run was easy (actually most of them weren’t) – I was coming back for a long running hiatus after all. But it did seem worth it. It felt fantastic to be able to challenge myself in this way again. And really, a post run high cannot be beat. Period.

Last weekend I finally made the decision. I was going to try it. The longest run I did was 8 miles at this point (which was last weekend) but I thought if I just went slow and tried to have fun, I could finish it. I was actually excited for it. Walking was allowed. Timing goals were not.
Are you still with me?

RACE RECAP

I woke up (actually pretty much bounced out of bed) at 5:45, had my usual pre-long run snack: toast with almond butter and banana + coffee, watched a little tv to calm my nerves (it was a mixture of excitement and definitely a bit of nervousness). I arrived at the World Trade Center around 7:30 (half hour before race time). The Seaport Hotel was right there and it was so nice to be able to use a real bathroom before the race. [They had dozens of porter potties too but I opted for a real bathroom, even if the wait was a tiny bit longer.]

8:00 – someone (I couldn’t see her) sang the national anthem and I started tearing up a bit. The energy was just so magnetic. It was definitely emotional. 7,000 people were going to accomplish something so big today. I was going to accomplish something so big today. Push my body to the limit and finish a half marathon. I was determined to make it happen.

Miles 1-5 – I felt pretty good. I really didn’t want to worry about time but I glanced at my garmin out of habit a few times and saw that I was running about 9 minute miles. It seemed too fast so I tried to slow down.

Mile 5 – was really tough. I knew my friend Katy was going to be around mile 6 or so and I just concentrated on running until I see her. Seeing Katy’s smiley face, cheering me on, was incredible. I was tired though and I still had 7 miles to go. Yikes.

At 6.5 miles (half way point) I had a sip of Gatorade. I hate the idea of that stuff (brought coconut water with me instead) but the extra sugar (and whatever chemicals they douse it with) really did give me a bit of a boost. I could do this!!

My next goal was to make it to somewhere between miles 9 and 10 where Shannon was supposed to be waiting for me. I was kind of done at mile 7. All I kept thinking about is just going slow and hopefully making it to Shannon, who was surely going to help me run the rest (she said she was going to join me if I wanted her to… um yeah, “wanted” is an understatement).

Mile 8.75 – I can’t take it anymore. I am SO exhausted, it’s not even funny. I didn’t know if Shannon was around the corner or if I had to go for another mile but I just couldn’t do it. I actually walked off the course for a minute and then snapped out of it. I was going to finish this thing, even if that meant walking the rest of the way.

I walked for maybe .20 miles and then decided that I really wanted to greet Shannon while running, not walking. It didn’t last long. The second I saw her (basically right around 9 miles), I started walking. And she was walking with me. I really needed a friend at that point. I kept saying how I really thought I could run the whole thing if I was going to go slow, but clearly I couldn’t. I kept on calculating how damn long it would take to walk the rest of the way but my legs felt like lead and I just couldn’t even try to run. Walking was challenging enough.

Mile 10.15 (these extremely accurate mile markers are brought to you by my baby garmin, btw ) – I decided to try to run. To my surprise, my legs felt ok. We were going slow but we were running. The problem was that I drank so much water during our walk that it was now sitting like a rock in my stomach, making me totally nauseous. Just 3 more miles, though, could I do it?

My legs felt fine but my head wasn’t in it anymore. Poor Shannon was doing her best trying to distract me but I was just so ready for it to be over. I knew I’d be proud of myself for just attempting to do it and FINISHING, whether it meant running or walking. At mile 11.5 I gave into my head and started walking again. This is when Shannon suggested that I probably would feel better if I ran at least some of the last part. We made a pact, we were going to do the last mile running, no matter how slow. I kept saying, I can do 1 mile in my sleep, right? Yes I could. I ran the last 1.28 actually (that extra .18 miles I could really do without, thankyouverymuch, race people).

Adam! Getting close!!

Shannon let me run that last 1/4 mile on my own. I finished really strong. I sped up but didn’t push to my absolute limit. Blacking out was not on the agenda for today.

Official net time – 2:24. Miles walked: 2; mile run: 11.28. To be honest the finishing time is just a number to me. I FINISHED A HALF MARATHON TODAY!!!   (is that enough smileys? lol)

After crossing the finish line, I went inside the center to grab a water and more Gatorade, then went back out to look for Adam and Shannon. There were so many people everywhere!

It took a while but we finally managed to find each other. I gave Adam a giant sweaty run! He was happy to see me finish (instead of meeting me in the medical tent like last time).

Recovering on a cold floor. 13 miles, baby!

Some race pictures Adam took. Boston looks so pretty from this angle.

Shannon and I:

Shannon I owe you BIG TIME. You saved me today. Seriously.

I am so incredibly happy that I did it but I also never want to do it again. I think I can take it off the bucket list.

PS – Shannon brought this amazing homemade bar for me that I eventually was able to stomach. Go to Tri to Cook and harass her to post the recipe. I need to make these pronto.

That’s it. My plans for the rest of the weekend are to do a whole lot of relaxing. That means dinner out tonight and a pool party for Memorial Day tomorrow. Yay for long weekends!