Book Club Monday

Unfortunately it was back to work this morning. I started out with my standard Matt breakfast. One egg and one egg white with a slice of wheat toast. I added a little something extra this morning with a multi-vitamin and a big glass of water.

My lunch was my standard wrap and a handful of kettle cooked chips:

2 ounces sliced chicken breast

spinach

banana peppers

blue cheese crumbles

balsamic vinegar

I finally got back to the gym today! I was able to complete my full body strength training workout! I think I was able to sweat out the rest of my cold! Good bye cold!! After my workout I was able to grab a cheese stick and a HUGE apple before a very long meeting. Unfortunately the large apple was mealy and I only finished about half before I gave up on it.

After the meeting I walked a mile to Eastern Standard Kitchen with my co-worker for our book club. It was a nice afternoon for a walk along the Charles! It was my first time at Eastern Standard. I thought it was a great restaurant! The bartender made me a pretty pink martini with Absolut Boston, Campari and lemon bitters. It was amazing! We got the flatbread with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and goat cheese, the charcuterie plate and an order of french fries to share. The picture of the flatbread is what was left after we all grabbed a slice. Sorry it's so bare and blurry! I also had a glass of Pinot Grigio while we finished discussing The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. The book was great, the food was delicious and the company is always so much fun! Another memorable book club!

When I got home Matt hadn't had dinner yet so I had a salad while he ate dinner. Once last chance to get some vegetables. I put a little of everything that was in the fridge into my salad:

steamed organic cauliflower

spinach

red pepper

organic carrots

organic pear slivers

sesame seeds

flax seed

balsamic vinegar

Lastly, I ended my night with a little dessert smoothie. It's our standard protein shake:

chocolate whey protein

frozen strawberries, blueberries and banana

non-fat milk

chobani yogurt

peanut butter

ground flax seed

Question of the day: I've seen so many articles regarding stretching. "It's only beneficial if you stretch before", "It's only beneficial if you stretch after" or " stretching isn't beneficial at all". Along the same lines how long you should hold a stretch for. To be on the safe side and to cover all my bases I stretch before and after for 15 seconds per stretch. So what do you do when you exercise?

Football Sunday

We ended our trip at my parent's with one of my dad's famous breakfasts. An egg omelet with onion and peppers, a sausage patty, a slice of whole wheat toast and a slice of cinnamon raisin toast. What a great way to finish out our trip in New Hampshire!! YUM!

Matt and I somehow weren't hungry until we got back to Boston so we ended up skipping lunch. We had friends over to watch the Patriots game. We started with whole wheat crackers, carrot sticks, hummus and an assortment of cheeses. Then for dinner we had pepperoni and red pepper pizza on a Whole Food's 365 whole wheat crust.

We washed down our snacks and dinner with the new Bud Light Golden Wheat beers which were amazingly good! I just found my new cheap go-to beer!

Now I'm sitting down to finish out our night with some TiVo catch up and a glass of Gnarly Head Zinfandel.

Quick question: Does your husband or significant other leave the cabinets open like this?! Unfortunately I found my husband's fatal flaw!

Saturday

Saturday morning I had a bowl of Kashi's Cinnamon Harvest cereal and an apple! I love this cereal! It's like a healthy version of frosted shredded wheat with a kick of cinnamon sugar.

We were up in New Hampshire celebrating my mom's birthday so Matt, my sister and I ran out to the store during the day. After our shopping trip we stopped at Jon's Roast Beef & Deli for lunch. My sister and I shared a large whole wheat wrap with tuna salad, lettuce, tomatoes, hot peppers and swiss cheese with the smallest bag of chips. It was late in the day and we were going to be eating an early dinner so it was the perfect sized, tasty meal to hold me over.

We went out to a Swiss restaurant, the William Tell Inn, to celebrate my mom's birthday dinner. The restaurant had a special menu to celebrate Oktoberfest. We started with beignets au fromage, fried swiss cheese balls in tomato sauce.

I also had their Oktoberfest beer, Julius Echter Hefe-Weiss. It was a great hefeweizen that complimented my entire meal.

The appetizer was followed by the house salad.

Matt and I shared the special wiener schnitzel that came with red cabbage and spitzel.

For dessert I had a coffee, apple strudel and a bite of my sister's snowball, vanilla ice cream encrusted in toasted coconut and covered with toblerone chocolate sauce. It was definitely my favorite course!
After dinner my mom, both of my sister's and I went to Morbid Mountain at Gunstock. It was a lot of fun but freezing! I think I burned off all of my dinner calories from all the laughing and shivering!

Friday

I decided to work from home on Friday because I was still feeling sick. So I made myself scrambled eggs with one whole egg and one egg white, a slice of wheat toast with Brummel & Brown yogurt spread and a glass of apple cider.

For lunch I had low-fat Panera chicken tortilla soup with a scoop of fat-free Chobani plain yogurt. After I ate my soup I had a packet of raisin and currant fruit biscuit. I grew up eating these biscuits with tea when I wasn't feeling well. It was a very nostalgic lunch.

We were going up to New Hampshire after Matt got out of work so I tried to eat a substantial afternoon snack to hold me over until dinner. I had a piece of whole wheat toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter, a teaspoon of honey and a dash (or two) of cinnamon along with an organic plum.

My snack was good but Matt got held up at work and we left late. We resorted to sharing my favorite fall treat, a pumpkin muffin from Dunkin Donuts. When we got to my parent's house my dad had dinner waiting for us. His famous smoked ribs and chicken with his homemade BBQ sauce with salad and garlic bread. Heaven on a plate! It's a start to a good (not healthy) food weekend!

Thursday

Thursday morning was a repeat of Wednesday. Not feeling well, going into work late meant giving the steel cut oats another try. I think I lost more oatmeal this time than I did Wednesday! I added a scoop of peanut butter, strawberry spread, Chobani yogurt and ground flax seed to what was left of the oatmeal.

There was a work "lunch and learn" that I attended so I had a slice of pepperoni pizza from our cafeteria for lunch. Pizza is one of those things that I just can't say no to, even when it's not that good!

After lunch one of the departments invited us to a Sweet Day event. All of the employees brought in home baked goodies to share with us. It was so nice and made my day! I had an orange zest cookie and a mini apple bar. Nothing can top homemade treats during the work day!

After work Matt and I met up with friends of ours at Post 390 for dinner. We had been there when they first opened for drinks and were so excited to go back for dinner! The food was amazing! We started with a couple of appetizers for the table: crab and spinach dip with pita chips and baguette, peking duck potstickers with blackberry hoisin sauce and deviled eggs. Who would have thought deviled eggs would be served in a restaurant?! But everything was amazing!! Especially the deviled eggs, they had a nice spicy kick to them! The appetizer's picture is really what was left after the first round of consumption! I was so excited to try everything that I forgot to take a picture of them all initially! It actually happens to me a lot! I remember to take pictures after I have started eating. That's what happens when I get excited! My brain shuts off and I go into "must eat" mode! Sorry!

For dinner I had a small house salad with goat cheese and citrus poppyseed dressing with some of Matt's roasted lemon garlic chicken on top. To compliment my meal I had a glass of Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon. Everything was perfect!

After dinner we finished our night at Brandeis watching our friend in an Edward Albee play, Everything in the Garden. It was such a great night!

Crazy Wednesday

I wasn't feeling very good Wednesday morning so I went in to work a little late. This allowed me to try something new for breakfast. I tried microwaving some "instant" steel cut oatmeal for the first time. It did not turn out well! Half of my oatmeal ended up in the microwave. What was left I added a teaspoon of peanut butter, a dash of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground flax seed and a handful of frozen blueberries. It tasted good but was slightly disappointing with the mess it made.

My morning snack was an oatmeal raisin walnut Clif bar. I was surprised how good it was! It reminded me of a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie!

I knew I was going to have a food-full afternoon so for lunch I took my typical sandwich and just made it into a salad sans wrap: spinach, marinated mushrooms, blue cheese, sliced chicken breast, banana peppers and a splash of balsamic vinegar with a handful of kettle cooked potato chips.

Because I wasn't feeling well I didn't end up going to the gym. Instead I went to the bar down the street from work, Asgard, for a department get together. I had a Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC) pumpkin ale that was a little too bitter and a Guinness.

After the Asgard Matt and I went to the Passport to Kendall Square Yelp event.

There were a lot of great restaurants, bars and businesses at the event. We decided to share a taste of everything starting with a pulled pork sandwich and a spinach cheese ball from Amelia's Trattoria with a glass of Barefoot Pinot Noir.

Then we had another CBC Pumpkin Ale with a delicious brown bread topped with a duck confit, vegetable and beer mixture that was delicious!! I'll definitely make a trip to CBC to try more of their food!

On to lobster mac & cheese from Sebastian's. It was good but didn't have a lot of lobster so we each had a bite and moved on to the next table.

We finished the night with a small cup of clam chowder from Legal Seafood.

While we were at the Yelp event my sister sent me a text asking if we wanted to get together for dinner. After all this food how could we eat anymore?! Of course we will! We met my sister and her boyfriend at Mooo...

I had 4 East Coast oysters, a handful of truffled french fries, a scoop of squash brulee, two spears of asparagus and a glass of Z-52 Zinfandel. We all shared their HUGE, DELICIOUS sundae for two for dessert. I wasn't feeling too well and had eaten more than my fair share so I only had a bite or two of the sundae. It is so good though!

I went to bed very full and very tired after a great Wednesday night!

Tuesday

I started my morning with a Matt made breakfast: 1 egg, 1 egg white, 1 slice of wheat toast with Brummel & Brown spread and a glass of apple cider.

For lunch I had a Joseph's fiber wheat tortilla wrap with: sliced chicken breast, blue cheese, spinach, marinated mushrooms, banana peppers and balsamic vinegar with a handful of kettle cooked chips.

For my pre-workout snack I had a bunch of grapes and a handful of almonds.

At the gym I did my strength training circuit which included tricep, chest, ab and leg exercises. After the gym I had a scoop of chocolate protein powder in a cup of milk. For dinner I made Turkey chili from the Abs Diet cookbook and served it over brown rice and a big glass of water.

After dinner my next door neighbor, an unwilling Matt and I caught up on Project Runway and had a glass and a half of wine. I finished the end of the Joseph Carr Cabernet Sauvignon and then had a full glass of the Root 1 Carmenere. It was such a nice and relaxing night!