Not Completely but Almost [Free]Tatta

I heard on the Today Show today that Thursday is one of the "unhappiest" days out of the week, based on a recent poll. I'm going to have to agree with the newscasters and say that I just do not agree! Like one of the ladies said, "I'm in a great mood today! ... Because tomorrow is Friday". Nothing wrong with that ;)

Because my weeks are getting more and more scattered with travel for work and play, I'm trying to be pretty frugal about buying groceries. There is nothing I hate more than having a ton of great looking produce and letting it go to waste because I end up traveling for the week. On the other note, sometimes when my fridge is full of fresh fruits and veggies, I end up eating waaaay too much because I'm afraid that it'll go bad. So, in an effort to try and just use anything perishable in my fridge, along with buying as minimal as possible I baked a delicious yet simple Frittata on Tuesday night!


In my fridge already was 4 organic eggs, some Jarlsberg cheese slices and 4 slices of Turkey bacon - (clearly I had a hankering for a bacon/egg/and cheese sandwich sunday morning). So I popped on down to the Chelsea Trader Joes which just opened and is the best thing on earth, literally :) Smiles appear on my face when I talk about it :) :)
...and I bought some mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and spinach for ~$5. Unbeatable.

Then I pranced on home, feeling pretty happy with myself and continued to bake the following:

Simple Frittata

Ingredients
- 3 eggs and 1 egg white
- 2 cups of mushrooms*
- 8 grape tomatoes*
- 2 cups spinach
- 2 slices of turkey bacon
- 2 slices of jarlsberg cheese
- coconut oil
- salt & pepper
- Thyme (1/2 Tsp)
*Use as many of these ingredients as you want and feel free to switch them up. That's the beauty of something like this, tons of different veggie combos can taste fabulous.
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Use butter or cooking spray to coat the bottom of a square baking pan (I assume any would work fine)
3. Put bacon on pan and cook until they look browned and crispy; place on paper towel to cool
4. Cut up mushrooms if they are not already sliced, and tomatoes in half
5. Saute cut veggies in 2 Tbs of oil until mushrooms are browned
6. Put veggies into baking pan to cover the bottom
7. Place spinach on top of veggies to add an additional layer
8. Scramble up eggs and egg white in a bowl and add a little water (or milk if you prefer)
9. Add in salt and pepper to your liking, and some thyme (Rosemary could work here to)
10. Add bacon to egg mixture
11. Pour egg mixture into baking dish
12. Pop into oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until egg looks well cooked
13. Take baking dish out and place cheese on top. Throw the pan back into the oven for an addtional 5 or so minutes, or on broil, to get a nice melted and crispy top.

Take out and enjoy!!

I was able to create 4 portions of this meal and use for lunch every day. Couldn't ask for anything better than a $1.25 lunch huh??

Happy thursday all - and feel free to enjoy it since tomorrow is Friday :)

Stuffed [my face off] French Toast

Hoboken is continuously climbing the list of the top cities to find good eats! I know I know, I live in New York, the city of a million cultures and cuisines and good good food! But, alas, sometimes too many options are not a good thing...

A few weeks ago I was home in CT playing around on the tv and settled on Bobby Flays' show "Throwdown". B Flay was in the midst of challenging a poor soul on his Stuffed French Toast. Lo-and-behold, this restaurant was located in Hoboken, NJ! La Isla - oh i have walked by this cute little awning and fake bamboo trees multiple times on Washington street, however, never managed to stop in. The head chef, Omar Giner, definitely held his own against Mr. Flay and won the competition! So, I said to myself, I must try this delectable looking french toast that clearly rocked the judges socks off.


O - M - Y - G- O - S- H

I think this may go down as the best thing I have had for breakfast ... ever. I clearly tried to make my own version of this brunch specialty right after watching the episode, but after tasting this creation today, my was an embarrassment - to put it lightly.
Two thick slices of egg bread, dipped in a cinnamon batter, coated with crushed almonds and corn flakes, and then stuffed with a strawberry and guava cream cheese filling.


I was a little afraid that the filling was going to be a little too overbearing or sweet, but it was just perfect. And no syrup necessary :)
But honestly, the kicker to this culinary perfection was the crunchy cornflake crust. That little boost of texture on french toast makes such a world of difference! When I tried to make this at home, I burned the pieces pretty spectacularly - so I'm thinking there is a trick to this cooking technique that I will master one day.

If you are ever in the area and have a hankering for some delicious sweet breakfast, stop in at La Isla, order the Stuffed French Toast and an Iced Cuban Latte and give Chef Omar a pat on the back because you will not be sorry ... ahh love sunday eats !

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!

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!!

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!

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.

Chi-caaaa-go!!

Hey all! I hope you had a great weekend, because I definitely did...I have been in Chicago since Thursday! Every time I go out there I have such a good time and I say to everyone, "I can't wait to move out here".... eventually I think I would like to but for now, I'll just stick to my weekend celebrations in the Windy City. Here's a recap of some seriously fabulous eats that took place :)

A coffee and reading at Newark prior to take off (I've been trying to get through Emma ever since my Jane Austen kick. It's taking a little longer than expected...) 

I decided to skip the complimentary turkey sandwich and kit kat bar and instead snacked on a Larabar and a bag of mini carrots. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get full because I know that myself and some co-workers were going to be hitting up this later....!!!
Mercat a la Planxa! Mercat is Chef Jose Garces restaurant, the winner of Iron Chef this year. I've been waiting to go to this place since I heard we were headed to Chicago so clearly I studied the menu in extravagant anticipation :) While I didn't take photos of everything, here are some of the star studded tapas. 

Seasonal Red Sangria 

Croquetas de Mariscos

Diver Scallops 

Bruschetta, Cana de Cabre (goats milk balsamic strawberries), and Costillas de Ternera (braised shortribs flatbread) 

 Serrano Ham and Fig Salad

 

Seriously everything was unbelievably amazing..and these were only a few of the things that we ordered! My favorite was the Pelotas de Calabaza y Cordero (butternut squash dumplings, lamb ragout, Beech Mushroom escabeche, black truffles) holy cow - holy incredible. mm mm mm

On to the rest of the weekend! On Friday I left the beautiful Westin River North and headed to Lincoln Park to stay with two of my girlfriends from college. We went out had a great time and caught up, and ended the night with a burger at Five Guys. Have you ever been there?? I haven't had a burger in [I can't remember how long ago]...needless to say this will add to the story later.. We woke up on Saturday and headed to brunch at Ann Sather Cafe. 

Apparently I just had to try the cinnamon buns, and so I did, and they were fabulous.

So warm and gooey! Along with that I got multigrain pancakes with fresh strawberries and a side of turkey sausage. I felt great while eating that..but as the day went on, my stomach got more and more uneasy. I could feel the Five Guys burger just chillin in my stomach and my stomach was NOT happy about it. Long story short, by the end of the night I felt like I had a mini dose of food poisoning or my stomach was just in shock from eating that greasy food again -- it's pretty crazy/incredible how things like that can effect your body! 

Has this ever happened to from eating something terrible and that you're just not used to??

Unfortunately I ended up curling up in a ball and falling asleep super early :( I woke up this morning and felt sooo much better, just a little weak. I'm hoping I regain some strength by tomorrow, but I dont think I will be eating burgers anytime soon! 

I ordered some snacks at O'Hare for my trip back, and the nice man at the Starbucks station gave me some free nuts to try! 

First time I tried Vanilla Rooibos Red Tea - Two Thumbs Up! 

Are there any other teas that you recommend?? I'm trying to get into tea...vs. my coffee addiction ;)
Ooof sorry for the long post but clearly I had a jam packed weekend and ate some jammin food! Looking forward to a great week :) except for the JETS loss :( Everyone at the airport was watching the end of the game lookin' sad .. tear

Pancake Breakfast!!

Spelt Pancake Recipe

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

sea salt - just a pinch!

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbs flax seed

1/2 cup organic skim milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and slap it on the griddle! It made about 5 silver dollar pancakes. 

I didn't have any syrup so instead I just used some strawberry jelly and some almond butter. On the side I had a banana w/ almond butter and raisins (seriously an unbeatable combo). Such a delightful sunday breakfast!

Stonyfields and Greens

I'm really not entirely sure where this week has gone. I cannot believe that it is already Wednesday. I feel like once Wednesday is over with, the rest is just a breeze :) Don't you?? 

Nothing too exciting today but I did have a few of my favorite things pop into the picture..

First, I started off with another great workout - this time working my arms :)

• Lateral cable raises (3 sets of 12)
• Stability Ball Pushups (these were super hard and I only got out 3 sets of 10 -- and they were pathetic looking :/ )
• Tricep dips (my favorite!! 3 sets of 15)
• Treadmill for 15 minutes (CLIMB: warm up 5 min, increase the incline 1 level every minute for 10 minutes, decrease by 1 level for 5 min)
• Dumbbell Tricep Extention (3 sets of 15)
• Stability ball chest press (3 sets of 12)
• Dumbell shoulder press (3 sets of 12)
• Treadmill [again] (SPRINT: vary speed each minute - sprinting 1, jog 1, etc. for 15 minutes)
• I followed this up with a nice and sweaty 30 minute "power walk on an incline" bc I had some time to kill :)

I came back to the apt and created one of these:

Oh yes, yes a green monsterrrr. Alas, I had no fruit :( so this was kind of more of a protein shake + a few handfuls of spinach. It wasn't bad actually because I added a secret ingredient. (a few drops of vanilla extract cures anything) 

Midday I had one of my favorite snacks that I have recently discovered. A Stonyfield Organic Yogurt! I usually will add some almonds, granola, or fruit to these, unless it's the Key Lime Pie flavor. So strange I hate actual Key Lime Pie, but the Stonyfield yogurt is unreal!! I love it so much I just entered this Stonyfield give away: Check it out!

I started eating Organic Dairy a few months ago, after my dermatologist recommended it for my skin. She related it to all of the hormones, etc. that can go into typical dairy that you might by at the store. I had never really considered eating organic but at the time, my skin was in such disarray that I would try ANYTHING. I have found that there are a ton of benefits to eating organic foods. For example, by switching to organic dairy alone you are:

1. Avoiding hormones and antibiotics
2. Supporting sustainable agriculture
3. Creating less waste and pollution
4. Helping to reduce global warming
5. Making yourself pretty from the inside out ;)

While I think that eating organic dairy has helped my skin and overall feeling, that doesn't mean I stay away from cheese and cracker platters at parties, or skimp on my usual ice cream fix topped with chocolate. But as an general shopping/stocking my refrigerator move, I try to follow this plan. Give it a try, see how you feel!

Up and [Atom/Adam]?

I started writing the title to this post and realized that I have no actual clue as to how this saying is spelled, or what it is saying at all. Turns out, after a little research, that the saying is Up and At 'Em! I guess I could have figured this out if I had used my brain a little, but it's early...and this guy hasn't kicked in yet...

Oh and just for reference, we got the saying from Duke Wellington's command orders at Waterloo, "Up Guards and At 'Em!" in case this ever shows up on Trivia night ;)

I woke up early this morning and hit the gym with a new killer workout that I read about on Meg's Blog.

PART 1:
Warm up for 3 minutes at 6.5
3-5 minutes at speed 6.8
3 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.0,6.8,8.0
3 minutes at 6.8
2 minutes recovery at speed 6.5
PART 2:
5 minutes at speed 7.0
5 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.0, 7.0, 8.0,7.0, 8.0
5 minutes at speed 7.0
5 minutes recovery at speed 6.8
PART 3:
3 minutes at speed 7.5
3 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.6,7.2, 8.6
3 minutes at speed 7.5
5 minute COOLDOWN @ 6.5
1 minute walking at 3.5

Followed by an additional killer leg workout from Gina's blog:

• Forward and reverse lunges (3 sets of 12 on each side)
• Squat Jumps (25)
• Sumo squat and leg raise (3 sets of 10 on each side)
• Burpees (15 - these killed me!)
• Stability Ball Hamstring Curl (3 sets of 10)
• Pulsing Plie Squat (60 seconds/pulses)
• Bosu Calf Raise (3 sets of 15)

It was a great way to start off the morning, along with a green monster and one of Angela's Be Fit Bars. Clearly i was very impacted by the blogosphere this morning :) Have a great day!

Hangover Bfast?

I woke up this morning with a huge hankering (sp?) for a bacon egg and cheese sandwich - the go to hangover breakfast. Ironically, I did not drink at all last night. hmmm strange how these cravings work...

Instead of running down to the Bagel Shop underneath my apartment, I decided to run to the grocery store and make one of my own by making a few modifications to "The Breakfast Sandwich" from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. If you haven't read the predecessor to this book, Skinny Bitch, I definitely recommend it. The two authors take a no-joke approach to getting healthy [and skinny] by following a vegan diet and give you recommendations and recipes along the way. While I do not follow a vegan diet by any means, I hardly would consider myself even a pescatarian, I think there are some interesting concepts in terms of animal treatment and what you are putting into your body that I don't mind incorporating into my diet. So for breakfast I made a pot of coffee in my fav mug:

For The Breakfast Sandwich itself, I used some leftover NAAN bread for an open faced sandwich which I toasted in the oven (oh the joys of a nyc kitchen sans a toaster). I topped that with some melted Veggie Mozzarella Cheese (my vegan addition), Turkey Bacon, tomato slices, two eggs over easy, and sea salt and pepper. On the side, I had some fruit and yogurt too!
This hit the spot and was soooo gooood. I then headed to the park for photo ops! coming up next...