Valentine's Day 2014

Tom and I celebrated Valentine's Day this year the best way we know how: by eating some delicious food. We decided against going out to dinner and opted for making the most decadent meal we could think of in the comfort of Tom's apartment. I came up with a menu, then we went food shopping together the night before for the ingredients.

Our menu:

We went to the New Deal Fish Market in East Cambridge for the lobster and oysters. Little did I know this is apparently the most expensive time for lobsters, so we decided to buy a live one instead of lobster meat. I think it was a good plan!

(Yes, I wore my custom made chef's coat for the occasion!)

We started the evening with tons of prep -- while Tom cooked the lobster I prepped the Charcuterie board so we could snack on it throughout the rest of the cooking. This is restaurant quality folks. Somebody hire me!

Other prep included: grating lots of cheese, cleaning and chopping vegetables, breaking down and getting the meat out of the lobster, making the sauce for the mac n' cheese, cleaning and shucking the oysters, baking bread and and making breadcrumbs, and making the Parmesan foam (!!).

Getting ready for the pot...

Turned red!

Delicious lobster meat

Oysters ready for shucking

Frantically stirring the cheese sauce (look at that grip)

White asparagus cleaned...

..and blanched

Getting ready for the foam!

For the mac n' cheese, we loosely followed Ina Garten's recipe but added some extra spice in the form of cayenne and paprika. We halved the recipe so the sauce came out very thick at first. I ended up adding way more milk than the recipe called for, but it turned out really great in the end!!

I was super excited to break out my gastronomy kit for the Parmesan foam. Tom took charge on this task and followed this recipe. I can't believe how great it turned out!! The flavor wasn't THAT strong, but it went so well with the vegetables. We are Top Chefs!!

We managed to time everything so it came out together. Check out the mac n' cheese all hot and bubbly.

And ready to get in my belly...!

We sipped some amazing Spencer Trappist while we ate:

And finished the night off with something sweet. We had thought about making dessert, but getting the timing down seemed too difficult and neither of us are pastry chefs. We decided to raid the tempting Whole Foods counter instead and picked up a few things to share:

That cookie bar was out of this world good.

It was definitely an evening to remember. I'm so happy I have someone who shares my love of food and experimenting in the kitchen, and appreciates my extremely cheesy self (I swear he smiled big when he saw that printed out menu). Love ya lots, TKO.

Saying goodbye

My beautiful grandma passed away in the early hours of February 18. After almost a year of suffering from various ailments, she can finally rest easy.

I've felt a mix of emotions this past week -- sadness, guilt, nostalgia, happiness, relief. I find comfort in knowing that my grandma remains alive inside of me in my memories, but also in my present.

I feel her here with all of my senses. I see her when I look at myself in the mirror. I see her when I look at my mom and my sisters. We were the lucky ones who got shades of my grandma's green eyes.

If I close my eyes I can feel her hands. Anytime I was near her my grandma would grasp my hands and smile from ear to ear. Her hands meant comfort, and love, and home.

There are certain smells that I will forever relate to my grandma -- the smell of leather shoes in her closet, the smell of a brand new deck of cards being shuffled, the smell of sauce bubbling on the stove, the smell of ripe, plump figs picked straight off the tree in the front yard.

I know I will spend the rest of my life tasting and re-tasting my meatballs and sauce until they resemble her own -- I will never forget the day I spent making them with her from start to finish. She was adamant that there was no recipe...only a pinch of this and a pinch of that.

Grandma and Roro, Christmas 2013

Grandma and Papa

Summer 2013

My grandma was the warmest and most kindhearted person I'm sure I will ever know. I am endlessly grateful to her for instilling certain values in me.

Be kind to yourself and show compassion for others, no questions asked.

While other things may change, family is the most consistent tie to your past, present and future.

Explore the world and establish your independence; look for a man who makes you smile along the way.

And most importantly, 

Accept others with open arms and a table full of food.

100 Workout

Happy Valentine's Day!

Look at that huge rabbit and tiny puppy...Literal LOL

I've had some fun this morning reading about Valentine's day the last two years. That's why this blog is awesome!! In case you're interested...

2012 (side note: somewhere in this post I said, "I'm not a huge fan of butter"....who says that!?)
2013

In 2011 all I wrote about Valentine's Day was, "In other news, Valentines Day is coming up which I'm going to try to ignore." Sounds pretty typical for the time period. I did however get frozen yogurt with a friend that day and discovered my beloved Mixx for the first time. Hello beautiful.

My day started with a little sweat session at the gym. That's two morning workouts this week! Crazy town!!

I did a hill workout on the treadmill and it sucked. That guy in the background is always there at the same exact time as me, morning or night. We should be workout buddies!

I was supposed to go to the gym to run last night but could not fathom putting my soaking wet boots on again to walk through a foot of slush/ice water. I decided instead to do a little workout in my room. I've always been intrigued by the "100 workouts" I see on blogs and Pinterest but have always felt too intimidated to try. I decided to make one up with exercises that I knew I could do but would still be challenging. The goal was to not rest at all during each exercise. I took about 15-30 seconds between each to grab water/catch my breath.

"100" Workout:

Complete each exercise with as little rest as possible

100 plank jacks
90 crunches
80 second wall sit with front shoulder raise
70 bicep curls
60 second plank
50 squats
40 side shoulder raises
30 lunges
20 bicycle crunches
10 [real, perfect form] push-ups (no knees!)

With a warm-up this took me about 20 minutes to complete. I spent another 15-20 minutes doing random exercises until it was time to eat!

Me and Tom have some fun plans for this long weekend, I'll make sure to update about so next year I can look back and read and smile! :)

XOXO

Random Thoughts from a Wednesday

I started reading Dark Places this morning and I can't even tell you how good it feels to be reading a captivating book again!! Never again will I suffer through a month of horrible reading, unless it's required by work/school/etc.

I'm hitting a major wall at work right now so I decided to blog. I don't drink coffee (or other caffeinated drinks for that matter) so I needed to come up with some ideas to keep my eyes from shutting. The first thing I did was fill up my water bottle with a hundred ice cubes so my water was freezing. Second thing: stand up. I'm much less likely to fall asleep if I'm standing! Third thing: write this post. So far it's working but I don't have much to say...

Here was my lunch from yesterday:

Isn't it pretty? I love eating oranges like that -- it reminds me of my soccer days! I don't know why I don't do it more often. I can't believe I don't even crave bread anymore and am happy to just eat turkey like that by the slice. So crazy!

We got first at trivia again last night for the second week in a row! Once again I finished off the night with a tiebreaker victory. The categories this time were cereals and TV networks. I almost bombed on cereals because I hardly eat cereal and as a kid I only ate Cheerios and Rice Krispies (preferably mixed together). Luckily the guy next to me messed up before it was my turn again. I own the TV network category though...I could go for days! Every time there is a tiebreaker I try to convince someone else from the team to go up -- maybe I should accept that I am weirdly good at playing categories?

I've been feeling a little bored and very antsy lately. Because of the freezing weather/tons of snow I feel like all I do these days is go to work, go to the gym, think about eating healthy, and watch TV. This is not even close to being true but for some reason it feels that way. Here's a list of things to do during the rest of winter when I'm bored, or to plan in advance:

- hike when it's semi-nice
- go bowling
- go to the trampoline park
- do a workout video/take a class somewhere new

- try rock climbing
- make something from scratch (bread, pasta, cookies)
- paint
- make plans to go to a new bar/restaurant
- go to the movies
- have a game night
- go snowshoeing/cross country skiing (I hate all other winter activities)
- go to a museum (ICA, MFA, science museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Harvard museum of natural history)

- go somewhere with live music (Wally's!)

- see a play (50% off tickets right outside my office!)

- see a comedy/improv show

- go into Chinatown

That's a lot of ideas!! This was a helpful exercise. 

Bye!

Round 2

Just dropping by for a quick update. As expected, here is the email I received from the DietBet team:

Your weigh-in for Round 2 has been verified!

Unfortunately, you didn't reach your goal weight this round. But don't fret! This is just the start of a new and healthier you. You now have a great foundation to build on. Keep the momentum going in Round 3! You can still catch up and make the 10% goal.

Good luck in Round 3!

I thought that was really nice! I'm glad they added a positive note to the email instead of just saying "sorry, you suck."

But really, I don't suck. I worked really hard this month! I'm not 100% sure why the weight didn't come off as fully as expected, but I'm not worried. I'm on my way to achieving the 6 month goal and that's really what's important! Actually, what's really important is that my weight is going down, not up! 

I decided to take a "mental health day" from work today. I have never taken a sick day in my 2.5 years of working at my organization and just felt like it was necessary. I slept super late and am going to lounge around for the rest of the day. Yippee! I also just found out my boss is pregnant with twins! Insano! I'm about to sound really ridiculous, but I've never spent that much time with a pregnant person. LOL. Besides my mom I guess when I was 7-years-old. I feel like I'm going to learn a lot about being pregnant...

Oh yea, I finally finished that horrible books I was reading. I may have skimmed the last bit of it just so I could finish. Ugh. I immediately bought a new book from Amazon (The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty) and also got Gillian Flynn's Dark Places from the library. I'm going to start with Dark Places even though I'm sure it will give me crazy feelings and nightmares. At least it will be a page turner!!

The Morning Workout

This morning I got up before work and went to the gym. This rarely happens so it's a pretty hefty achievement. There was a time when I would try really hard to make myself be a "morning person," but then I just decided I didn't care. What difference does it make if I'm really productive in the evening versus the morning?? While I don't have any responsibilities besides going to work and feeding myself, who cares if I work out at night? Exercising in the morning doesn't make me feel energized throughout the day, it makes me feel more tired. I also hate having such a hard cut off time to my workouts. Plus, it takes me twice as long to feel warmed up so I end up spending more time being sluggish and less time working hard. So there!

Anyway, I knew my schedule wouldn't allow for an evening workout tonight so I decided to bite the bullet and wake up early. I spent some quality time with the treadmill and the elliptical, did a few planks, and called it a day morning. I started a little plank challenge with myself a few days ago. I'd like to cross off something from my Fitness Bucket List, and the plank goals seemed like a good place to start. I'm just doing two planks a day for as long as I can hold them. Right now I'm hovering around 1 minute per plank.

I weigh in for my DietBet tomorrow morning and I have a feeling I'm *just* going to miss this month's goal. I can't be too upset because it will mean in the last two months I've lost 5.9% of my body weight vs. 6% (or really versus 0% which is probably where I'd be had I not signed up for this). Sounds like a win either way! Isn't it insane that the Biggest Loser contestants often lose 5-6% of their weight in 1 week!? I guess if I worked out for 6 hours a day with a world renowned trainer and ate 1200 calories I'd do that too...

I feel like I haven't shared much of my food lately, so here are some recent eats:

My sad $4 side of fruit from brunch on Sunday. The rest of the food was great, but this was disappointing!

Taco Sunday!

Lettuce tacos, just like the real thing.

Brought chobani + chia seeds back into my life thanks to all of the Olympics ads.

My new water bottle! I have been using the same one for four years, it was clearly time for a new one.

Colorful lunch

Less colorful dinner

Semi colorful breakfast

Dinner snack plate

And a pretty picture of snowy Copley Square for good measure

Friday Five

It's Friday Five time! This is a weird one.

Five Fruits I Wish I Could Be Eating At All Times:

1. Watermelon

2. Clementines

3. Raspberries

4. Purple grapes

5. Tie for mangos/very ripe pineapple

Five Old Time Favorite Fast Foods:

1. 8-piece chicken finger meal from Burger King

2. Chili from Wendy's

3. Cheesy Gordita Crunch from Taco Bell

4. Spicy Italian sandwich from Subway 

5. Ground beef burrito from Q'doba

Let's be honest, it NEVER looked this good.

The only thing on here I'd even consider eating these days is Q'doba...but I don't think I've been there in almost 2 years!

Five Favorite Movies:

1. Moulin Rouge

2. Shawshank Redemption

3. Forrest Gump

4. Fight Club

5. Finding Nemo (yep!)

Five Sports I've Played:

1. Gymnastics (age early as I can remember - 15)

2. Soccer (age early as I can remember - 20)

3. Basketball (8th grade and senior year of college, LOL)

4. Softball (as a small child)

5. Running (is that considered a sport? Winter & spring track in HS and races as an adult!)

Five Shout-outs To People Who Read This Blog!

1. Liz!

2. Tom!

3. Kathleen!

4. Cara!

5. Hayley!

:)

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Hello! Yesterday was such a great snow day. I got a lot of work done, but also made time to get to the gym while it was still open, go to the grocery store, and get a head start on my dish for the potluck.

At the gym, I completed this workout and was a sweaty mess after. When I finished, for the first time in months I was craving a smoothie, so I picked up some items from the grocery store and whipped one up when I got home. In the mix: lots of spinach, Blue Diamond Unsweetened Coconut Almond Breeze, peanut butter, half a frozen banana, 5 fresh strawberries, flax seeds, and cinnamon.

It was delicious!!

I usually lean toward savory dishes for potlucks, but I decided to switch it up this time and make a fun, healthy dessert. I followed this recipe, and made the most adorable strawberry cheesecake bites!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Ingredients:
1 - 1.5 lbs of fresh strawberries

1 8 oz package of cream cheese (I used the 1/3 reduced fat version)

3.5 tbs of powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Graham crackers

Directions:
1. Rinse and dry strawberries. Use a pairing knife to cut out stems and carve out a hole. Slice off a bit off the bottom of the strawberry so it will stand up straight.

2. Mix softened cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla extract. At this point I folded in some crushed up graham crackers.

3. Spoon mixture into a pastry bag or plastic bag and cut off the tip. Pipe the mixture into the strawberries, then dip them in crushed crackers to coat the top.

4. Serve immediately or put in the fridge covered in plastic wrap for up to 24 hours!

5. Clean up the disaster of a kitchen.

I don't even like cheesecake but I thought these were great! I think they'd be really awesome on a hot summer day, like at a Fourth of July party.

We had such great food at the potluck, as usual! Here is some of what people brought:

Buffalo cauliflower "wings"

Lightened up mac n' cheese

Cinnamon rolls

Another successful potluck in the books! After we ate we spent a few hours playing Scattergories. I seriously love that game, but I get weirdly competitive and make a serious effort to tone it down. My college friends have no idea what I was like in high school with my competitiveness -- it was out of control! I need more outlets to releive my competive juices.

Trampoline dodge ball anyone?