Domestication

Do you ever wonder when the time will come when you are ready to settle down, move to the 'burbs, start cooking dinner for a family every night and seeing your girlfriends once a month when you all get together and sit around reminiscing about our crazy / wild twenties?? While I understand that things can always change on a dime and something I say right now may not be true in the future....right now I'm saying that this time is a looong way off for me.
While I may be too immature (is that the right word?) to start thinking about this now, I can appreciate some of the high points associated with this kind of life - a domesticated life...and I have a genuine admiration for girls my age who are makin' it work!

This saturday I had the pleasure of meeting a girl who is my age who I have a lot in common with, except for the fact that she lives way outside the city with her boyfriend. A bunch of us went back to their place to have dinner and have a few drinks and some conclusions that I drew by the end of the night were 1. This couple rocked 2. Their place rocked 3. They can still party like the best of us and 4. This girl could cook!! Having a fully stocked kitchen and cooking for two definitely has it's perks.
We (/ she) made penne a la vodka and a salad that was so delicious!!



Oh yes and the obligatory glass[es] of wine... :)
It was so great to be in a real apartment and have a home cooked meal on a Saturday night that I could really see the positive in living this kind of life... :)

So much so, I even did a little "faux" baking tonight! One of my family recipes is a yogurt pie, which I will make eventually on this blog. However, this weekend I picked up a little Greek Yogurt and some Agave Nectar and decided to try a slight variation on the classic.
Introducing: Berry Tart Yogurt Pie



It was delicious if I do say so myself! And healthy!

Highlights

Hey hey! Again, I have not kept up with my daily eats, but in all honesty, they really haven't been anything special: morning oatmeals, lunch ab&j's (which I am so happy to have reinstated), fruit as an afternoon snack, yada yada.
However...I have had a few highlights this week that I am happy to report:

1. Grocery Shopping at Chelsea Market last Sunday! The fruit exchange has amazing produce and is NOT expensive - who knew! I picked up a few goodies, including some almonds, tomatoes, apples - the basics.


2. My family came in for dinner, since it's my brothers Spring Break, and we went to Market Table It's this nice little restaurant in the west village with great ambiance (personally I think it would be better for a date with a boy, than a date with a my family, but...ah well) The food was really good though...
I had a cod dish with butternut squash risotta; I forgot how much I loooove risotto. Must be the italian in me ;)
My brother god a whole fish -- legit whole thing. And he completely butchered it. I triiied to teach him how to do it correctly, since I lucked out the other night and had my own lesson, but boys will be boys...c'est la vie

Topped off with a fabulous homemade gelato from an ice cream shop on Bleeker.

And 3. saving the best for last...I have been walking by the Cake Boss in Hoboken for the last few weeks just dyyying to go inside but the line is OUTRAGEOUS! Always! All I want are some cannolis...and I don't know how I got so lucky but I got a little gift later that day <3 and let me just say they were everything I dreamed of and more. mmm mmm mmm

Headed to a beer garden tomorrow to resume my favorite past time of day drinking [in the rain]?! Have a great weekend!

Disappearing Act

Whoa, it's been a while since my last post! Between a plethora of vacations and trying to fend off this little cold that I will not let get the best of me, I have been so tired and overwhelmed and as a result have not been eating well at all. I figured, there is not better way to stabilize and regroup than to return from my disappearing act and starting accounting for all of my eats! And having all of you keep me in check ;)

I lucked out last night and had this ah-maze-ing dinner at Barbuto. Seriously so delicious, I'm not joking. I started with a grapefruit salad and then ordered the Seabeam as an entree. The fish comes whole (eyes and all) so I got to cut off the head and take off the spine. There is no harm in playing with your food as an adult!

Fun Fact: if you are stranded on an island, eat the eyeballs of fish for hydration. (Yes I learned this last night...and no I did not eat them, I had a glass of water / wine in front of me so I was all set)

Dessert was an indulgence but well worth it: coffee semifredo icecream, lemon almond pound cake and mint gelato. Mm mm. No worries! I split this between 5 people, but I wish it was all for me :)

After my extra-large dins last night, I started off the morning on the right foot with a killer spin workout (I created 40 wats of energy on the new Green Revolution bikes!) and a protein shake:

1 C organic skim milk, 1 Scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 T ground flax, handful of frozen cranberries. This was delicious, and pink!

What is your take on protein powder? Is it chemicals? Is it better to get protein from "real" foods? I don't know that much/anything about it so any information would be helpful and interesting!

Great to be back folks!

Laugh a Little!

I am so looking forward to NOT traveling this weekend!! whoo hoo. Seriously the past three weekends I have been go go go in different states and different countries and every mode of transportation that is available...I can't wait to relax and maybe sleep 8+ hours (maybe!) this weekend in my newly cleaned apartment. Yes, my roomie and I caved on Sunday and begged the cleaners to come and clean out our dirty excuse for a living situation. It was sooooo worth the $$. If anyone in NY needs a cleaner, get in touch with me. I swear the place looks 3x as large :) yaay

This past weekend I traveled to lovely Beantown for a BC Charity Ball! Remember the dress I said I was going to get hemmed?? Ta - da!

The dressed turned out great. Not as slimming down the legs as I would have liked but great all the same. I'm really proud that I finally made use of a dress that's been hanging in my attic for 6 years!

A collection of my college and high school friends drove the 5 hours to boston, relaxed, did hot yoga (that was amazing), danced, dressed up, drank, play, and had an all around good time. :)

While it definitely took a lot out of me, I'm glad I went. Any excuse to dress up really..it might be one of my favorite things. Now, back in NYC, I'm excited to get back to rejuvenating, recharging, and detoxing; for the next few days at least ;)

A little factoid that I heard today that both depressed and motivated me: Babies laugh 300 times a day. The average adult laughs 10 times. 

Future reminder to myself: Stop taking yourself so seriously!! No one else does :) 

Worthwhile Break

Wow I didn't realize that it had been so long since my last post! However, I do have a worthwhile excuse...

I spent all of last week basking in the beautiful views of St. Johns in the US Virgin Islands. A vacation in the middle of February is probably the healthiest, most relaxing activity that I could think of doing - and since this is a healthy living blog, I figured it had to be featured ;) 

There was snorkeling, hiking, sunsets, swimming, reading (I read three books!), sleeping, running, and eating of course...while I didn't get a ton of food photos, I did manage to snag a few of my favorites!

Delicious Breakfast Burrito

Stuffed Waffles with Fresh Mango and Bananas

This was the menu from La Tapa restaurant that we went to on our last night - the owner shuts down during Hurricane season and travels the world to find new recipes and ingredients. She then comes back to St. John and incorporates them into her menu and changes it every night! I had the Yellowfin Tuna, which was absolutely spectacular! 

Lots of banana smoothies were consumed :)

Home sweet home  - and another trip to Boston this weekend to look forward to! Have a great week everyone :)

L O S T?

Happy hump day folks! After Wednesday's are over I feel so much more refreshed...it's amazing what little things can do for your spirit huh?

In case you live under a rock and were unaware of last night's festivities, it was the LOST premiere (or in case you have more productive/educational hobbies that preoccupy your time - to each his own)!! My roommate was so excited she almost printed out these:

We were having a little get together at our place with some friends from college that we hadn't seen in ages! LOST was something we all used to look forward to at school and watch together so getting together for an ol' pasttime was half of the enjoyment in my opinion. :)

Dinner consisted of take-out pizza and beer (did I mention we were with boys??).

We loaded upon on a Cheese pizza with mushrooms, mozzarella sticks (for the veggie in the house!), meatballs, and a salad. Random combo I know. I don't particularly like the cheese on my pizza, unless it's mozzarella or super fresh so I ate two pieces of pizza sans the cheese, half a meatball (no, I am not the veggie - I would never survive), and some of the salad since I have been feeling seriously devoid of greens these days!

This was the beer we picked up from our snow tubing trip. Gets better every time!

The premiere was great! However, while this might make me sound like an idiot (unlike all of the other incredibly intellectual things that I say ;) ) I seriously do not understand time travel and this show is chock-full of it - I was LOST, pun intended. I'm hoping that it tones down a little this season or at least gets explained a little better!

Overall a great night, topped off with a great spin class this morning and a clean and simple breakfast of vanilla protein powder shake with lots o' cinnamon . mm mm.

Note to self:

Do not put protein powder in oatmeal after it is already cooked. I made that mistake this morning and literally felt like I was inhaling dry pretzels er something to that extent...it was not good to say the least. Having a crummy breakfast didn't put my day off to a good start, and I don't think that it got the blood flowing to my brain because I walked all the way to work, sat down at my cube, and realized that I had forgotten my laptop on my bed. A-W-E-SOME. 24 minutes and $45 later (I had to buy a new subway card) I finally got the day started..oof!

The day did get a little better though...In 3 weeks I am going to a Charity Ball in Boston!! I am a huge (HUGE) fan of dressing up and getting out on the town ;) so of course I jumped at the chance to 1. Road trip with some girlfriends to Boston for the weekend 2. Donate some $$ to a good cause and 3. play dress up :)

I have waaay too many dresses as it is, but of course I was thinking nothing in my closet would work! ;) My mother might disagree with me.....However, in the spirit of staying on budget (January was difficult to say the least) and the reality that I actually do have plenty of things to wear, I decided to do a little makeover of the wardrobe kind. I have so many long prom dresses back home that are just sitting there, accumulating the terrible attic smell that some clothes can never say goodbye to. So, I figured I would re-vamp one of my favorite dresses and make it into a sleeker, sexier, more mature version of the high school prom dress! I wish I had an old prom photo to show..but alas, they have been burned/buried to keep my dignity ;)

Picture this - but red. Anyhow, I trecked down to the lower east side today for my lunch break to this place called Nelson's to get this dress hemmed. There will be some after photos assuming all goes well - but I did hear some great things.

The highlight of my day was passing this cute little bakery that I have been wanting to try:

I didn't actually make it in (since my hour lunch break was nearing a close!) but now I know right where it is for next time. I'll have to "step inside and find out" what the heck they were talking about on this chalkboard outside ... ;)