Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Slacking

What a blog slacker I've been over the last few weeks. My excuses this week were a surprise and then EXTENDED Kate Spade Online Sample Sale (which takes up HOURS of my time obsessing about what to buy), then spending as much time as humanly possible outside and getting fresh air (as well as starting to turn a nice shade of 'I should wear more sunscreen or I might get skin cancer before I'm 45') and finally 'we' the Roseto side of my family has an AWESOME email thread going with too many of us that reply ALL DAY LONG so it takes awhile to read through them all because they are all so entertaining.

What's been shaking in my world you ask?! THE HEAT!!!! It's hot as hell here in Boston right now. Last year at the very beginning of summer the AC in my car decided to stop participating in my life. I had it checked out by a few different people and it turns out it was going to be VERY expensive to fix so I decided I'd rather sweat some pounds off while sitting in traffic.


Yep it's hot!

So on Sunday, after kayaking, Alex and I headed into the city to meet these three (see below) for cocktails and some sunshine...


On our way into the city we ran into a little bit of traffic. My car said the outside world was a ripe 93 degrees....inside my car was like 110.  HELL is the first word that comes to mind. So I pulled off of 93 and as I was creeping along in stop light city traffic I saw a beacon of shining hope a few blocks up. I asked nicely BEGGED Alex to get out of the car and run to the convenience store for water.

 He goes, "Well why don't you pull over and I'll go in"

Me, "NO!!!! You need to jump out of the car now and go in...by the time I get through the next light
I can meet you on the corner up there....(I am pointing three blocks up at the night set of lights)

The sensible one "I am NOT getting out of the car at this light. With my luck the lights will go too fast and you'll leave me on the corner" (this is a VERY real possibility)

The not so rash one in the car "Well I can't stop the air flow in the car...IT'S ALL WE HAVE!!!! There is no wind and I am melting....meeeeeeeeelllllttttttiiiing. If you love me please get me water...I will NEVER ask for anything from you ever again!!!" (*Hello bold face lie)

I pulled the car over in front of the store because he does make more money than me and he also does make me laugh pretty hard from time to time. So he runs in and come out with and ice cold gatorade for him and this for yours truly....



The bottle jug of water was ICE cold but was called "Happy Valley" water and tasted like wet dirt. Two big sips and I decided I would rather hold it like a giant cold water pillow in my lap than drink this crap. He tried....Failed.... but tried!

Two things I discovered this weekend...Happy Valley water SUCKS and I also hate coconut water. Yep HATE it. I would rather drink Happy Vally water than the coco. I'll leave you with this little gem...





Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Two days in a row...WOW

I am going to make this short and sweet because the Bruin's just started and...well...I have to pee.

Side note, I just 100% fell off the couch and wedged myself in between the couch and the coffee table because I was trying to reach for the "pluggy inny thingy" for my mac air because the battery was going to die. I was too lazy to stand up and reach for it. I mean it was about a foot away from me but I wanted to stay on the couch....and stretch as far as I cannnnnnnn....I kept smacking my hand on the carpet reaching for it over and over again while trying to strettttttcccccchhhhhhhhhhh....and BOOM! Yep. Alex is still laughing about it.

Dinner....OH MAN! Yet another winner. I wasn't even going to do a post about this but Alex took a picture of his plate and goes, "Here I think this will look GREAT on your blog!" How can I not do a blog post then! He's so sweet!

Does it sound like an odd combo...Grilled Peach Portobello Mushroom Burger?! YEP it does. Was it awesome? HOLY SH*T Balls it was! Here's why it works...the portobello mushroom gives it a meaty-ish taste but the grilled half peach actually gives it a meaty texture. It was SO unbelievably good and yes it turned out to be vegan as well. WIN, WIN! I can't take ANY credit for this, it was Green Kitchen Stories, a FABULOUS food/life style blog out of Sweden. They make me want to visit Sweden...hell I'd even go in the winter. (Well maybe not) but this recipe was delish.

"We", and by we I mean Alex, followed this recipe to the letter and it turned out AWESOME.

So it's summer...fire up those grills people and throw a peach on your portobello mushroom burger! You will want to thank me and Sweden! :)


*we also do not have a grill and did all of this in our oven so no excuses here. Make this recipe!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Hellllloooooo Dinner!!!!

Alex just goes (while we are washing dinner dishes together...) "So who do you think is going to win the Voice?"

Me "Uh?!"

Alex "The Voice! You know...the SHOW! Who's going to win" and then proceeds to list off EVERY SINGLE PERSON LEFT (all three) and their LAST NAMES!!!! Uh?! He can't remember what we are doing this weekend but he can remember who is on some reality tv show!? JESUS!

*yes he 100% has an opinion of who he wants to win as well. He's rooting for the "hometown girl" as he put it. Who is this man I live with???

So tonight we made one of the best things we have made in a long time for dinner. I have to give EVERY bit of credit to one of my favorite food blogs, Love and Lemons, (the lay out of this blog I envoy more than you care to know and I ADORE that it's a husband and wife team...keep on keeping you guys! LOVE LOVE LOVE you!!!)

The recipe seems a little time consuming to make, it's not, so get that right out of your mind. Did I have to go to 3 different grocery stores to find tomatillo's in the Boston Area?? ABSOLUTELY! If I only called Market Basket the FIRST time I wouldn't have had that issue.

So I give you....Enchilada's with a Roasted Poblano Crema


(I need to get much better at taking these food pictures but HOLY GOOD GOD was this good!!!)

*Just a note...when you read the recipe on their site, roast everything together to save time on a large sheet pan. For 4 portions I doubled the tomatillo salsa, the spinach mushroom filling and left the crema as it which still made A LOT of crema. We have now frozen it to put it on some future nacho's or tacos and since there is no dairy in it at all I think the unfreezing shouldn't been an issue. Lastly we used the flaxseed heart healthy Joseph's tortillas, portioned 2 a piece per meal. The calories were MUCH lower using these since the torts only have about 70 per tortilla. They held up well with the sauce and everything else. I think per portion (2 enchiladas per person)....depending on the tortilla, would be about 250 calories TOTAL. 

It's Vegan (but that doesn't matter) and so so tasty. Both Alex and I said that if we had this in a restaurant not only would we both be beyond happy about our dinner selection (we both get food envy when one orders something better than the other) and we would both order again!

Make the two sauces ahead of time (I made ours on Sunday morning)...it took about 30 minutes (only because of the roasting time) to make and blend both sauces. And tonight we cooked up the filling part, stuffed and baked which took about 45 mins total because of baking time. I am STUFFED and feel great. Make this...make this as soon as possible. 

Now I am finishing a homemade skinny gal rita....



and watching some Law and Order before the big Voice Finale which apparently my better half has been excited for all day.

Such a good end to a rainy Tuesday! xoxo

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Getting the Band Back Together and Epic Dinner Fails!

I know most of you are loosing sleep wondering how the Ukulele (finally figured out how to spell it right) Project/Band is coming along. Well I am taking a class next Saturday at 10:15am! That's how!!! I am going to learn how to tune this puppy and some of the other basics. I am 100% beyond excited to have someone teach me (no offense Uku-Lenny) how to use this bad boy because I have now tried playing "Twist and Shout" for a couple of people and they have NO IDEA what I am trying to play. I have had people guess, "Oh is that Happy Birthday!?" or "Ummmmm, play it again".... so either they are tone def or I have NO idea what I am doing with this ukulele. You be the judge!

On to today's latest debacle! I don't think I'm the world's best home cook but after years and years of practice I have fine tuned my kitchen/cooking skills. I usually don't follow recipes exactly which is why I don't bake too much but I rarely end up throwing what I make out because of an epic fail. Well tonight is a new one for the record books...

Tonight I made, hands down, one of the nastiest things I have had in along time for dinner. (If you ever come across this recipe or feel the need to try something new DON'T make
it.... Whole Foods HOW COULD YOU!!!!!) The picture is so deceiving...whole foods how could you steer me so..so wrong?!

Alex powered through eating it but I just had to throw mine out. The red sauce was awesome as always (because it's MY fool proof recipe) but the meatballs...OH GOOD GOD!!!! The worst part was it took 2 hours in a hot kitchen using almost EVERY pot and pan in we own to make these little green and black hockey pucks! I made such a mess of the kitchen and was so upset that I had to go for a long walk and talk to my bestie, Lauren about it. She always says the right thing and totally talked me down from the vegan meatball fail ledge!

So what do we do to turn this meal around?!



Drowned our sorrows with ice cream which 5 bites in I felt so guilty eating it that I plopped it (my entire scoop and cone) on top of Alex's cone when we were at a stop light. It was like the ice cream never happened! :)

It was so much ice cream (it's been 15 minutes) and he's STILL eating it!





Thursday, June 13, 2013

Impromptu Date Night....

And what a fun night it was....the level of fun was measured by venting about a crappy work day, lobster and red wine! It's a trifecta of awesomeness that no pictures will be able to do it justice!


I had another shit day at work (nothing worth mentioning) and Alex said, "Let's do impromptu date night at Rino's!!!!" YAY!!!!! We haven't been there in about a year and some change! It's the place in Eastie (East Boston) that Guy (that tan over stuffed troll doll) from Diner's Drive In's and Dives ruined for the rest of us about 4 years ago. That show single handedly ruins TONS of small businesses all across this country. Rino's is a prime example of this. They were already busy before he walked in and put them on prime time tv. It was like a 2 hour wait to get a table on a busy Saturday night before he came in and now... now you have to put your name in BY 5pm if you plan on eating before they close at 11pm on Saturday. They do not take reservation and you have to go in person to put your name on the wait list. Is it the best Italian food I have ever had in my life?....No (I can cook some damn good sauce and fresh pasta!)

..is it worth the 4 hour wait? Not always...BUT are the lobster ravioli's THAT GOOD?? ABSOLUTELY! (the left overs are in the picture below. I couldn't take a picture of the dish in front of me at Rino's because I was too excited and inhale it! Solid fat kid move)

 We have 100% waited 3 - 3 1/2 hours before on a Saturday night for a table but tonight we were second on the wait list and were eating dinner by 6:30! It was PERFECT!!!!! AND all of the wine on the wine is no more than $22 a bottle!


Now I am laying on the couch googling useless fun facts on the internet while watching Law and Order while Alex is doing this....


Too much excitement for one day....This is how almost every date night ends....

He would 100% kill me if he saw how many of these pictures I post on the internet. If he ONLY READ MY BLOG I would stop posting these pics! (we both know that's not true). At least we are both in our "happy place" and I am about to go to bed and can't wait for lunch tomorrow!



Tuesday, June 11, 2013

I am BACK bitches!!!!

I haven't worked that hard in a long time. It's not the time I put in over the past week that was exhausting. It's the actual work. I have a new found love and respect for all those who do physical labor type jobs. Even when I was bartending I still don't think it was as stressful as doing a commencement/alumni weekend at a major college. The first day alone I walked 32,000 steps...that is about 13 miles. Day one! WTF?! Over the course of 3 days I walked enough to go to Maine!

I know what you're thinking....Wow! You must loose weight when you work like that?! NOPE! The entire time is about stress eating and moving...stress eat...nimble, nimble....walk walk walk...nimble, nimble....it's a vicious cycle! And it's not like you are eating fruit or veggie sticks...oh no my friends it's WHATEVER YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON!!!!! And there is ALWAYS food around. ALWAYS!

Enough of that crap so what's new with you guys out there in the world? I feel like I am so out of the loop of life so instead of reliving some of the funny highlights from this past whirlwind shit show of a weekend let's talk about some goals for June...

FIRST let's recap May, I kicked ass in the goal department! (I feel like we already did this in another post...oh well...second times a charm!)
- I did the vegan thing for 2 weeks which ended up being longer and little bit more of a life style change (and still trying to keep most of my day vegan but god damnit every now and than a girl's gotta have a bite of cheese and some oysters!!!) 
- Every day I did something active and went above and beyond as often as I could during the month in the exercise department. I didn't loose an inch and it's because I let too loose on the weekends (story of everyone's life).
- Walked over 10,000 steps every day, love my fitbit (shameless fitbit plug yet again!)

For June....
- Try to hit 12,000 steps every day and also go above and beyond that as many days as I possibly can. So far most of my days since the first have be about 20,000 step kind of days or more. Wooooo Hooooo!!!!
- Only going out to eat once a week (Dear Friends, CAN WE PLEASE DO SOMETHING ELSE!!!! I have no will power with you, cocktails, patios and food...mix them all together and you might as well put on the fat gal yoga pants and call it a day! Once a week sure but more often than that I am going to blow up like a blimp!!!)
- Keep moving in and around the house till 7:30/8pm every night. I tend to plop down on the couch for dinner and only leave it for more snacks from the fridge throughout the evening. With the nice weather walking after dinner usually happens a few days a week but with this rainy weather I am so unmotivated to do anything after dinner!
- And last but not least...read the stack of books by our end and on my kindle! (I have been playing games on my Ipad for the past six months solid at bed time verse reading a single book before I nod off to dream land. The 14 year old in me is very happy about the ipad games but my brain is mush. To be honest I just beat one of the last levels on this golf solitaire game before I need to "buy" more levels. So books it is until they come out with a new update!!)

Alright I can barely keep my eyes open. Hope you all have a fabu week. I swear I will be back to my funny self by Friday! xoxox

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Back in the saddle....

Why hello all! Happy Tuesday. I had a shit day at work and out of no where I am allergic to something...I just looked down and saw this on my arms....


TONS of tiny little bumps all over my arms!!! NO CLUE where they came from. Any thoughts?? I had a long sleeve shirt on while we were sitting on the patio and after dinner I did not barrel roll down a hill into poison anything. Am I dying? Do I have to go to work tomorrow??

 On my way home I was telling Alex about my horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day and he goes, "Patio Action, A pitcher of Sangria and some cheese-less pizza from the Tucc??" Does he know me or what?!


1 pitcher of sangria + patio time + pizza + Alex = MUCH better Tuesday!!! (not the most flattering picture I know but it's the 5th one we took and HANDS DOWN the best!)

Don't believe me.... Here are the runner's up....




Nope I was 100% not kidding....5th times a charm here folks!


So the struggle continues with my weight ( I know pizza and sangria are not helping with this). I think this is something we all battle (men and women) some voice this more often than others but I know that no one is EVER thrilled with what they look like at any stage of the game in life. 

I decided to start going back to the gym last week and haven't taken a day off since. (I am on week 2 and oh so good but please check back with me in a month and see if I am still doing this! ha, ok I know that's not the right attitude here) I am trying to change the way I think of myself and this weight loss goal. I tend to beat myself up for eating certain things, over doing it on the weekends or being too lazy to get up in the mornings to workout....not to be sappy but here's some food for thought...

- Being Proud of myself for waking up and getting some exercise in before the day starts. No matter how much or little. It's a great thing and puts me in a wonderful mood. Kicking myself on the days I don't want to workout isn't going to make me want to do it more so focus on the days I do workout! And enjoy the rest when I can get it.

- Enjoying the moments with those around me regardless what I am doing. I sometimes wish I could figure out other things to do than eat and drink with friends but it's a way to be social and I am so thankful I have so many wonderful people in my life who want to do something. :)

- Relaxing and Being Tired is 100% ok and I need to stop kicking myself for the days when I just do not feel like going to the gym. I need to stop being upset with myself about this and just enjoy the rest. It's almost as if we miss the point of the feeling and just focus on what we didn't do.

Point being don't beat yourself up for what you didn't do. Let's be positive here folks! So that's enough of that for one day.

This week is my hell week at work. It's commencement at MIT and for those who don't fully understand what that means for my job...it means I work NON STOP for three-four days straight running events. So bare with me with no posts for the rest of the week and I will see you all on the other end of this hellish week ahead. :) Hence the Sangria! (which Alex and I did split)

Looks like someone had too much sangria patio fun! ha ha ha ha he would kill me if he knew I posted this. Serves him right for not reading this fabulous post! Annnnnnnd he's snoring.