Ooh Casseroohles

Yes I know that's not the actual spelling of casserole but give a girl a break - gotta be witty somewhere ;)
I have been on the hunt for some simple and healthy recipes that will allow me the least amount of time in the morning to prepare for lunch. Doing Jillian's shred in the morning along with a run sometimes has really made me late for work; thus was born the Santa Fe Casserole, adapted from Caitlin's recipe.
It was healthy, tasty, and so so easy to pop into a tupperware for lunch. Three cheers for Santa Fe!
Santa Fe Casserole


- 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon Coconut Oil
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 tablespoon chopped dried chilies
- 1/2 tablespoon pepper
- 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup organic skim milk
- 1 and 1/2 cup three gain rice, cooked (purchased from Trader Joes)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 head of broccoli, steamed

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a skillet, sautee the onion, garlic, and coconut oil until tender. Add the salt and chilies.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the pepper, milk, beans, COOKED brown rice, eggs, cheddar cheese, and broccoli.
4. Pour mixture into casserole dish and sprinkle with extra pepper.
5. Bake casserole for 25 minutes or until center is firm. (Mine took a little longer ~ 35, and then I turned the broiler on to get a good crisp on top)
6. Let cool 5 minutes and top in a tupperware for lunch!

Lover of the Arts [& Music]

Hi-yo! Wow my longest hiatus yet..my apologies. I guess my eats/events lately haven't been that blog-worthy? On the contrary, I feel like April flewwww and so quickly that I didn't even have time to take out my camera and document. Luckily, I had my handy dandy photo-taking device this weekend at the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival!
Any one who lives in NY knows that there are these random street fairs that pop up on blocks or avenues throughout the summer and feature a plethora of sunglass stations, dress shops, street meat vendors and fried dough concoctions; aka they're faaabulous. This weekend, hoboken had their own version however it was much larger and more involved: there were art vendors from all over with really nice jewelry and paintings, photographs, signs, the works! Plus the street food - of course:

Sweet potatoes fries sprinkled/doused in cinnamon & sugar. Soo delicious! I kept searching around for the extra crispy ones :)

Kebabs! Decided on a chicken kebab with hot sauce. i tried to be bad-ass and it backfired tremendously. Apparently Franks Red Hot is tooo hot for this girl - my lips were on fire! Still, the two bites I had before running for the ice water were very tasty. My first time eating street meat!
It was so hot out that we didn't last long so a pitcher of red&white sangria was in the near future. mmm mmm

Beantown Bonanza

For the past two weeks I have been lucky enough to start traveling for work; while it's sporadic and short-lived in nature, it's still an experience in a different city, which I have definitely been looking forward to. The destination: Cambridge, MA! The minute you step into this town I immediately feel smarter. Bordering both MIT and Harvard, there is a definite intellectual vibe in the both the coffee shops and numerous libraries that you pass by on the street.
I flew down to Boston on Sunday night and decided to take a stroll down Main Street and look for a little place to sit and read my new obsession : The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Low and behold I stumbled on this little joint -

Toscanini's
Technically, I guess it is an ice cream store ("the best ice cream in the world"), but they serve coffee and tea as well. One thing that I thought was incredibly cool was this brunch menu on the wall (Breakfast @ the big table)with a disclaimer that said you could not use your laptop during that time - guess they get that busy! If I ever get back here I am going to hit up the Strawberry Ice Cream, which is apparently unreal :) And lord knows I love a good ice cream!

Anyways, since it was a little on the chilly side, I opted for tea.

Vanilla Rooibos has been at the top of my list since I tried it a few weeks ago - it has such a strong flavor and it's herbal so perfect for night time when you don't need the extra boost of caffeine!

Unfortunately they were out of lids (??) so the barista let me have it for free - wahoo!

Along with the strawberry ice cream, my next visit will include knocking out a few of these coffee numbers in search for the ultimate goal of FREE ESPRESSO :)

Ah - Mazing [Grass]

There is some thing so exciting and tempting about Fridays. The idea that it is almost the weekend, but you still have a little bit of suspense about finishing the day and what is in store. I love it! - well, I would love it a little bit more if it was Friday at 5 instead of Friday at 10, but oh well; it's 5o'clock somewhere!

I had an exciting week what with traveling to Boston again, buying new running shoes, two work happy hours, AND the most exciting part was receiving a shipment of Samples from Amazing Grass! I had been e-mailing back and forth with the lovely Teri and her shipment of goodies got to me on Wednesday - what a highlight! Amazing Grass is this "Amazing" (pun intended) company that really just helps people get the most out of their daily nutrition by making it simpler! They have a variety of products, all in different flavors, but all of them jam-packed with protein, antioxidents, and vitamins galore.
There is so much inside:

organic wheat grass, green superfood powder, berry superfood powder in acai and goji flavors, even Kidz Superfood samples in Chocolate (can't wait for that one!), and some protein bars.
I immediately set out to make my favorite breakfast, besides my beloved oatmeal of course - a smoothie!
The one that caught my attention immediately was the Amazing Meal Pomegranate Mango Infusion. This superfood is a combo of plant based protein, phytonutrient rich fruits and veggies, digestive enzymes and probiotics. All of which you can get more information about at their website. Each serving has 110 calories, 10 g of Protein (!!!), 13g of carbohydrates, and a ton of whole food ingredients.

I had a bunch of other fruit so into this smoothie went:
1 C skim milk
1 packet of Amazing meal pomegranate mango infusion
~1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
some icecubes for a nice chill
Liqufied and poured into a transportable cup it made the perfect breakfast to walk to work with!
Overall the taste was great! I think in general pomegranate has a very faint taste but you could definitely taste a hint of the mango. In the future I will probably choose less overbearing fruit (such as bananas and blueberries) and maybe add some frozen mango to really add the wowza! factor to this bad boy but still, I finished it in about 10 minutes - oops...

Stay tuned for more reviews of Amazing grass and all that it has to offer :)


In other blogger news, Check out Chelsea's site for a Barney Butter give-away!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I had to go home to CT last night for a rather lame and embarrassing reason (ahem traffic court), but it ended up being perfect because today is my mom's birthday! So between driving to a no-name town of Lewisboro, pleading down my measly little speeding ticket, and still paying an exorbanent amount of money - yes I am a little biter - I was able to bake some cupcakes for my mom. I feel like everyone in my family has a favorite kind of cake that they don't like moving away from; my dad's is Spice Cake, mine might be Carrot Cake (but nothing really beats confetti), my brother likes anything with sugar, and my mom has been really leaning towards Angel Foods Cake, if there is no chocolate souffle laying around ;). So I whipped together some super simple Angel Food Cupcakes with some whipped cream frosting and whatever fruit and other toppings we had around. Happy Birthday mom!

The Dining Room

Hey there readers! Happy saturday - and seriously what a gorgeous one it is. I'm about to hop on a train back to CT for easter with the family so I'm going to make this quick but since the internet is hit or miss at mi casa I figured I had to squeeze in one fabulous restaurant review!
This morning I went to The Dining Room in Hoboken for brunch, which is a part of Anthony Davids located on Bloomfield and 10th (if you are familiar with the area). This place was recommended by a friend who considers himself to be an avid 'bruncher" and said that this was seriously the best. And ladies and gentleman, I can confirm that it was indeed the best. I ordered two poached eggs with bacon and whole wheat toast and my friend there ordered a steak and eggs (as per the waitress' recommendation). To top it off, like we hadn't had enough, we figured we just HAD to order the thing that Anthony David's is famous for - the bourbon doughnuts.
I can't remember the last time I had a doughnut - let alone bourbon - but they had this amazingly distinct yet not overpowering bourbon glaze covering the crispy outside and warm doughy center. They were, I will have to say, out of this world. Mmm Mmm.

Cha-Cha-Cha Chia!

Ever since I joined the blogging community dedicated to health / nutrition / fitness, I have heard gobs of bloggers refer to the amazing taste and benefits of the infamous Chia Seeds. 2 TBS of Chia seeds are jam packed with 7g fiber, 2g protein, 205mg calcium, more Omega-3 than atlantic salmon, more antioxidants than blueberries, and more protein/fiber/calcium than flax seeds (whoo!).
I have looked far and wide for them in my neighborhood and can't.find.them.anywhere. Apart from ordering them online, I thought that I was going to have to suffer without ever trying some straight from the grocery.
To my great shock I finally!! found them at the Organic Market near by - still not plain and packed on their own, but chia seeds none the less. Enter:


I thought the flavor "Cranberry ginger" sounded delicious as an oatmeal and maybe even I could throw a few goodies on top.
Overall, the oatmeal had a great taste - especially the cranberries! However, the directions left little to be desired. Instructions read:
1. Pour 2 Tbs of chia seeds in bowl
2. Add 1/3 C of water (hot - cold) whatever your preference.
3. Let sit about 3-5 minutes

Mmm I did as the recipe instructed and still 15 minutes later there was a liquidy mess. So I packaged them up and took them too work and popped them in the microwave for about 40 seconds - that did the trick. I guess you just have to experiment!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I could do to cook these guys??

Have an amazing Friiday! Weather in NYC is b-e-a-utiful so if you have sunshine, use it!!