Archive | October, 2011

Bertucci’s and TCBY Night!

30 Oct

Hey guys! I am currently stranded for an extra night in Tennessee due to the snow storm back home, but I don’t hate it. I love it here and could stay for days and days more! I have been eating tons of food and having great quality family time. I’ve even managed to get in a couple of good workouts, including a 4 mile incline treadmill run today! I have to be honest that sometimes I get hesitant to indulge on vacations or let loose and let myself enjoy things I don’t normally eat, but I have been concentrating on being with my family and trying to use that to distract myself from any worries I may get about vacation food. After all, this tasty food is definitely not something that should be cause for worry!

Before I start recapping this trip I want to recap a couple of yummy nights out I had last week, starting with last Monday’s dinner!

I was a crazy woman last Monday night and went out to eat after the gym. Yes, I’m wild and insane. Usually I go straight home, but I made plans with Jeff and Kim to go to a Thai restaurant that I had a SaveNowCT deal to. Well, you know how small restaurants are sometimes closed on Mondays? Yes, that happened.

NO WORRIES! I’m a coupon queen, and had a $5 of $25 deal from the Bertucci’s Facebook page, so I met the two of them there instead. At this point I was ready to eat my arm off and I immediately started on a roll. Mmm. I love their rolls and olive oil + herbs.

Jeff the hand model

Luckily my meal came with a cup of minestrone, so I got that fairly quickly and was relieved from my hanger. It was delicious! I loved the plentiful red beans and noodles. I hate runny, lackluster broth soups. This was hearty!

Check out the herbs on top – love it! For my meal I selected the Seafood di Mare, which awkwardly means Seafood of the Sea? We will let that one slide. This was a brick oven entree of baby scallops, shrimp, mussels, cod, with plum tomatoes and a baked crostini AKA crusty, amazing bread that I put the tomatoes on top of and ate like a homemade bruschetta.

The mussels were very good! It was my first time trying them and I’m glad I had something new. The rest of the seafood was wonderful as well. My only complaint is the temperature of the dish. This thing was HOT, and not your normal restaurant hot. I’m talking after 15-20 minutes of eating (I eat slowly), I was still blowing on each bite and desperately sipping water to cool my mouth down. I finally figured out that taking the remaining components of the meal out of the hot oil they were chillin’ (not at all) and setting them on a bread plate for a few minutes would cool them down quickly. The amount of oil this was baked in was too much anyway – there was so much leftover when I finished! I’d recommend using less oil and heating it less – but really, what do I know about cooking? Just a thought though, Bertucci’s!

And now I’ll embarrass myself by showing the website’s image of my meal. Looks pretty similar in terms of what came with it, but man I would’ve enjoyed having that lemon!

Thanks to Bertuccis.com for image.

Jeff went with the Seafood Torta: “Bertucci’s famous dough filled with tender scallops, shrimp, roasted tomato sauce, tomatoes, shaved cheese and oregano. Topped with fresh thyme and then baked to perfection in the brick oven.” I’ve had the Vegetable Torta before and while it’s delicious, I found it hard to eat and too similar to a pizza. I might as well just get a pizza, it’s easier to manage!

We all agreed that the presentation on this dish was pretty sad. It looked so bland on that plate – so lonely! But Jeff said he liked it. And another website photo for comparison…

Thanks to Bertuccis.com for image.

If only Jeff’s meal had come with that sprig of thyme laying oh-so-delicately on the torta!

Kim got one of my favorites, the Venetian Spinach Salad: ”Grilled chicken breast atop a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes, red onions, shaved cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.” Her only complaint was that the red onions were too large for the salad – they were in rings, not shavings, and she doesn’t like too much onion taste at once. I gladly took a few rings off her hands and ate them whole. Classy.

I’m really lucking out with the availability of pretty website photos to put mine to shame, huh?

Image from Bertuccis.com

I’m always impressed with this salad. It’s one of the few I will order from a restaurant. I like to get the salmon – it is worth the higher price. Bertucci’s offers surprisingly delicious salmon.

At this point, we were feelin’ pretty good because the meal was over and it was time to head to TCBY for some FRO YO!

Cute couple aka my dining partners in crime.

We arrived and I discovered that it was Trivia Night, aka answer a trivia question right and get $1 off. And I got the only easy question (Which designer’s daughter owns a candy shop in NYC, Ralph Lauren OF COURSE), so I got $1 off! Poor Jeff and Kim got questions about the 70′s gas shortage and the tallest waterfall on Earth.

The most interesting topping on tap was star fruit! I’d never had it before and was excited to try it. Jeff nailed it when he compared it to an under-ripe pear – it was OK, but not something I’d go for again. Maybe it was just under-ripe!

I went with a mix of PB, white chocolate mousse, caramel, and cake batter flavors. Lots of toppings and topped off with sugar-free chocolate sauce.

And now I bring you…our creations!

Jeff's

Kim's

Mine.

Hey, it looks like there’s a candy cane in there! Trust me, there’s not, I hate them. I am obsessed with those frosted animal crackers though.

What’s your favorite fro-yo topping? Have you ever run into a meal that was just WAY too hot?

Another Guest Post: The Actor’s Diet

30 Oct

HI FROM TENNESSEE! Due to the snowstorm back home I may actually be stranded here another day, but for now a quick update to let you guys know to head over to Lynn’s blog The Actor’s Diet and check out my guest post about Newman’s Own products!

Gonna stick with the Tennessee spirit and say have a good one y’all!

Beyond Bananas Guest Post!

28 Oct

Hey guys! Today I am guest blogging over at Caitlin’s blog, Beyond Bananas. No, I am not speaking about myself in the third person and starting a second blog about my favorite fruit. It just so happens there’s another blogger out there who shares my name, its correct spelling, and a lot of the same interests as me!

The post I wrote is a review of some tasty Odwalla bars I won in a giveaway on Katie’s blog, so head on over to Beyond Bananas and check it out!

I just finished a sweaty Stair Master workout. It was only 30 minutes, but I had to turn down the level after 20 minutes and my heart rate still didn’t go down. I did intense intervals and it was so hard! Quality over quantity, my friends. Tomorrow will be a strength-centered day, so we’ll see what the hotel gym has to offer.

Ready to rock this morning.

I’m at Daybreak doing homework and sipping on a nonfat pumpkin spice blanc. Ah, the little things. Hopping on a plane to Tennessee in a few hours – feels surreal! Not sure how much I’ll be blogging this weekend but I hope you all have a good one!

What are you doing this weekend?!

Hotel Room Workout

27 Oct

Hey guys! It’s been a whirlwind week but today is my Friday because tomorrow I am off to University of Tennessee to visit my little sister and I can’t wait! SEC football and tailgating – there’s nothing better. Also can’t wait to see my Nana Connie (grandma) and a bunch of my parents’ old friends that I haven’t seen since I was a few feet tall. Oh, and the libations consumed during tailgating should be fun too ;-) I will try to take lots of pics!

Uncle's 50th birthday party - Tennessee theme

Last night I went to my first Zumba class at the gym near my office. I did Zumba a lot at UConn and it was awesome, but the gym near my house offers classes that I haven’t found challenging enough. Happy to report that this class’s choreography was, though not as heart-pumping as I usually like, more advanced and the music was great. I really loved the instructor’s energy too.

I was still craving that peak-HR that I like to try to get to in each cardio workout though, so I hopped on the treadmill and put it at a 1.0 incline. I decided to try to accomplish the goal I’ve had for a couple of years of running a sub-8 minute mile. And after 7 minutes and 55 seconds of feeling like I might die (well, maybe in the last few minutes I felt that way), I DID IT! I love accomplishing mini goals like that and I left feeling pretty awesome.

My "I'm Awesome!" pose

This morning I woke up really early for no reason, and since I have class tonight I thought it would be good to squeeze a workout in. I did 30 minutes of total body strengthening using my body weight. It was no joke – just goes to show there is plenty that you can do with absolutely NO equipment! I like to call these “hotel room workouts” and thought I’d share with you all what I did. Remember I’m not a trainer, and always check with your doctor before starting a new workout!

Hotel Room Workout (try to move from one move to next without stopping!)

I think I remembered everything!
I’ve gotta run for now but let me know if you try the workout, and how it goes!
What’s the last mini-goal you accomplished?

Quickie

26 Oct

First of all, I’d appreciate it if you would take a chance to check out my About page, which I updated yesterday. I added a little more about my relationship with food/working out there, and hope you like reading an updated version of my story!

Yesterday was the first rest day I’ve had in awhile where I didn’t feel antsy and cranky. Instead I felt, well, rested. I consider this an accomplishment! I enjoyed my day off and am ready to get back into it today. I plan to sweat it out later with some Zumba or Spin – we’ll see which!

I honestly don’t have much time for posting today, which is a bummer because I wanted to recap a fun and delicious night out I had on Monday. It will have to wait though, hence this post’s title (get your mind out of the gutter). For now, please enjoy (?) a couple of photos I’ve accumulated over the last few days. This is turning into my MO!

Sunday's dinner

Sunday nights seem to be protein parties in my house. My dad inevitably ends up grilling three different kinds of meat, and we also happened to have leftover black beans from Saturday night. I had a turkey burger patty, half of a turkey sausage, and a piece of grilled chicken, all dipped in spicy yellow mustard. This was VERY filling! I relieved my dad of his potato skin and filled it with Mariah’s Chow Chow Relish.

Potato skins = my taco shell substitutes. Unless I’m eating real tacos, that is. Then no substitute will do.

Monday’s breakfast obviously, judging by its size, left me eating lunch at 10:30am. Oh well! I can move meals around and eat at my desk at work, so it’s all good.

Banana and Dark Chocolate Dreams PB

Eh, that definitely looks kind of gross.

Finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to the Elvis Duran Show (any fans out there?) and suggest that you head on over to their web store and pick up a HELLO LADY shirt. ALL profits will be donated to Susan G. Komen, and there’s still enough time in October to promote breast cancer awareness (of course, this can be done anytime). If you listen to the show you know and probably love HELLO LADY, and if not, I recommend you get on IHeartRadio and listen to Elvis Duran’s show because it is HILARIOUS and accompanies me to work every single morning.

That’s all I’ve got for today, folks.

Do you listen to the Elvis Duran Show?

Do you ever eat a breakfast that’s too small and end up eating a ridiculously early lunch?

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