Monthly Archives: December 2009

Crock Pot Catastrophe

Posted on December 8, 2009 | 5 comments

Good morning! Before I get into the catastrophe I created last night, I’m going to focus on a positive thing I did today: I actually went to the gym this morning!! I know – I can’t believe I actually got up and went. It felt great. It’s so strange when you first try out a routine and you’re figuring out your timeframe and what works. Everything went well.

I left our apartment around 5:45 a.m. and was to the gym and getting on the treadmill by 6:00 a.m. Here’s what I did:

4 miles – 35:07
.5 miles – for a total finishing time of 39:57
75 crunches
25 alternating scissors
50 (25 each side) criss-cross crunches

That was actually a little more than I typically do at the gym after work. I was out of the gym and heading to the subway by 7:40 a.m. or so and even got to work a little bit early. I’m going to look into reserving one of the lockers and keeping some of my stuff there permanently. But it is kind annoying to lug all this stuff around all day.

If you workout at the gym in the morning and head to work straight from there, how do you minimize what you bring to the gym?

Now my eats from yesterday and the catastrophe.

Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal with 1 tsp of pumpkin butter, 1 tsp of almond butter, raisins and a swizzle of agave.

I never post it, but I ate my usual granola bar snack around 11:00 a.m. Since I hadn’t been in the office for a few days, my Monday was hectic and I had a ton of stuff to catch up on. The morning flew by.

Lunch was actually leftovers from last week when I made the rice and beans with grape tomatoes. It was still good and I pretty much devoured it.

Later in the afternoon, I had a Greek honey yogurt with granola (but it was camera-shy or I was just forgetful) and then I had two clementines.

After work, I was all set to go to the gym. I was heading that way, when all of a sudden I got a text from the Hubby saying. “Dinner burned.”

WHAT?! Now, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, on Sunday night I put a bunch of stuff in the crock pot for Monday night’s dinner. Before I left the house Monday morning, I asked Bill to turn it on LOW for 10 hours. I had adapted a recipe I found online and then asked for some tips from my mom before putting it together. This was to be my first crock potting experience. The darn thing has been sitting in our basement for about 3 years.

Here’s the before picture:

I threw together about 2 cups of chicken broth, 2 diced chicken breasts, 1/3 cup of balsamic, a dash of wine, 1/4 cup of chopped onion, one chopped garlic clove, carrots and spinach.

Being worried about my first crock pot dinner, I decided to skip the gym (bad I know!) and flew home to see what devastation awaited me. This was the scene in the kitchen when I arrived:

Sadness!! I was so upset. I made a valiant attempt to salvage the remains with some chicken broth and spices and the end result looked like this:

Hubby and I tried to eat it…but it was just awful. The chicken was dry and it sort of reminded me of cat food. I think if I ever try this one again, it needs a LOT more liquid. Alas, we gave up and I had this for dinner instead.

PB&J sandwich with carrots.

Then I had a little chocolate fix – hot cocoa – to make everything better.

We were so depressed about dinner that I decided to cheer Bill up by holding off on the Christmas decorating for one night and watching Bruno instead.

My take on this movie: it had some funny parts, but overall I wasn’t all that impressed. I definitely think Sascha Baron Cohen is an amazing actor for being able to pull off these incredulous characters, but watching his movies once is usually enough for me. And I liked Borat better than Bruno.

I went to bed shortly after we finished the movie, with my secret intent to get up early the next morning and hit the gym. I’ve stopped telling the Hubby that I’m going in the morning because then he just laughs when I snooze 18 times and never make it. This time I kept quiet about my plan and then confused the heck out of him when I left at 5:45 a.m.

And now I’m thrilled that tonight is free. My plan is to stop at the store, do a load of laundry, make dinner and decorate! It probably doesn’t sound very exciting to others, but to me it sounds divine.

Have a great Tuesday.

P.S. – I got a girl in the Secret Santa thing (we picked yesterday) and I kind of know her, so I’m less Grinch-like today.

5 Comments

Posted in Running, Uncategorized

I Sound Like the Grinch

Posted on December 7, 2009 | 4 comments

Happy Monday? Yes, it’s a question. I’m having a rough day. I slept terribly last night (probably because my body’s schedule is all mixed up) and am dragging at work.

But, I think tonight the hubby and I are going to decorate the apartment for Christmas. Usually, I’m soo on top of this – I start decorating as soon as Thanksgiving ends. With my recent crazy schedule, our holiday decorating has been pushed to the wayside.

And in the spirit of the season, my company department is hosting a potluck holiday gathering later in the month. That’s all fine and good, but they are also asking requiring that everyone who attends participates in a secret santa! What?! Mandatory Secret Santa?!!

Not only that, but it’s not just the get a generic gift and throw it in a bag and we all pick deal, we actually get assigned a person. I’ve only been with the company for about 6 months and am nowhere close to knowing everyone in my department. I know that sounds weird, but it’s a large organization and we have multiple locations. So I’m kind of freaked out about having to buy a gift for a specific person. Worse yet, what if I get a guy?! Girls can be fairly simple: a nice candle, some lotion, a pretty decoration. But I have a hard enough time buying gifts for my husband and father, there’s no need to throw in a complete male stranger too! I hope I draw a girl.

Does your office do Secret Santa? What is the best Secret Santa gift you’ve received or given? Help I need some ideas!

So that’s my dilemma of the day. I know, I sound like the Grinch, but I like getting gifts for people who mean something to me and are a part of my life and getting a gift for someone I don’t know just feels fake and forced. Furthermore, I really don’t want a gift from someone I don’t know. Awkward.

Enough grinch-talk for today. Now on to yesterday’s eats!

I started breakfast out right. Katie and Kate stayed at my apartment and Kate’s husband Eli headed up our way for breakfast on Sunday morning. I took them to the Yorkville Creperie, right around the corner. This place is pretty new and I hope it sticks around. I made my own crepe and it included: banana, strawberry, nutella and granola!

Lunch in the afternoon was light because of my deliciously filling crepe. I just had an apple with peanut butter and some tea.

I spent my Sunday doing laundry and cleaning the apartment. I really wanted to meet my friend at the Craftacular event downtown, but I was just spent after my L.A. trip and night out with friends. Instead, I listened to the Holiday Sounds station on the t.v. while I did my housework. It put me in the holiday mood and I decided we need to get our decorations up asap. Tonight for sure!

EDIT: I have to edit this post because of the comment my friend Jess made about the t.v. in my photo, pointing out that the “fun fact” on top says that Barbie’s measurements in real life would be: 39 – 18 – 33. So funny that I snapped a pic of the t.v. with that on there. I agree with Jess – little girls should not be aspiring to be Barbie’s size. In real life, according to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, Barbie “would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate.” Many claim Barbie wouldn’t even be able to stand up in real life.

Here are some Barbie-related news stories and sites that I found after thinking about and researching Barbie a bit:

Ruth Handler, Whose Barbie Gave Dolls Curves, Dies at 85
What Would a Real Life Barbie Look Like?
Editorial Observer; The Evolution of Women’s Roles, Chronicled in the Life of a Doll
Barbie – Wikipedia
Schoolgirl becomes unlikely feminist icon in Russia

Researching some of the Barbie details and arguments was interesting – I may have to look into it a little further later!

If you have a little girl, does she play with Barbie? I did.

For dinner, I was lazy tired yet again, and made some Campbell’s Homestyle soup and had two pickles.

My little dessert afterwards hit the spot:

I tried to go to bed early, but it was not happening. Before I went to bed, I threw some food into the crock pot which I finally brought up from the basement. It should be cooking all day today, so hopefully I’ll have a nice meal all ready later tonight.

What’s your favorite crock pot dish?

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Restaurants, Uncategorized

There’s No Place Like Home

Posted on December 6, 2009 | 6 comments

I’m back in NY and I’m exhausted! The last 4-5 days have been c-r-a-z-y and I am ready for some downtime. I’m going to just give some highlights from the past couple of days, or else this post will get out of control. When I left off, we had just wrapped up our first day in L.A. (Wednesday). Thursday and Friday were full 8-hour days of training and then we went to dinner on Thursday night.

THURSDAY

Here’s an overview of Thursday’s eats:

Gingerbread latte with soy milk and an apple bran muffin from Starbucks for breakfast.

For lunch we went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant called Samosa House and I had their lunch plate. The only things I remember are the Soy Tikki Masala and the Curried Cauliflower. Everything was pretty decent and very filling.

My bad snacks during our training! Eeks. The training host had TONS of junk food available in the kitchen. I like to think that I did pretty well only having these.

For dinner we went to a tapas place in Venice Beach called Primitivo and it was delicious. We shared this salad, which was made up of spinach, goat cheese, apple, walnuts and dates. Amazing.

Next up was a dish with these little potato, egg and cheese morsels. The red sauce was salsa-esque and a bit spicy.

And lastly a steak dish with pommes frites! I was a meat-eater that night apparently. This was amazing. YUM!

We left the restaurant at a fairly decent hour – probably around 10pm (1 am EST) – and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Exhausted!

FRIDAY

We woke up bright and early on Friday to head into the office and check work email before training started. I must say that this was a lovely sight to see in the morning:

We headed into the office and picked up some breakfast along the way.

Organic blueberry yogurt with granola, a plain coffee and a banana. The granola was particularly yummy.

For our last lunch in L.A. we went to a place called Tender Greens. This “small” salad was filled with spinach, goat cheese and candied pecans. This lunch spot was insane – they churn out salads like a machine.

The rest of Friday was busy with finishing training and heading to the airport for my return flight. I grabbed a turkey sandwich from Starbucks for dinner, but it was camera-shy. Then I hopped on the red-eye and promptly fell asleep for almost the entire flight.

On a sad note: We did not get a chance to run at all when we were in L.A. But, to be honest, I don’t feel all that bad about it. We were on such a hectic schedule, I literally don’t know where we could have squeezed it in. So I’m not beating myself up about it.

If you don’t get to workout during your travels, do you let it go or feel guilty?

SATURDAY

I got home around 5:45 a.m. and hopped in a cab, came home and went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I finally felt human again, I got up and had some breakfast.

Kashi cereal with granola and skim milk, a coffee and a water. I have been a coffee fiend lately!! But I really needed it.

For the rest of the day I cleaned up the apartment a bit and prepped for my two friends who were coming into town in the late afternoon. Kate and Eli and Katie arrived around 4pm. Eli headed out to meet one of his friends and us girls had some quality girly chat time. We made dinner reservations for 7:30, but we were all pretty hungry, so I threw together a little snack plate while we sipped on some wine.

Triscuits, cheddar cheese, grape tomatoes, apple and carrots. It was a great reviver. Then a little while later we headed out into the… SNOW!! The first snow in NYC.

For dinner, we went to Pangea on 2nd between 11th and 12th. They have a very eclectic menu and I ended up getting the Vegetarian Assaggio – it was a mix of grilled veggies, a quinoa pilaf, humus and a balsamic drizzle. I really loved it and ate it all.

Kate and Katie both liked their meals as well. We left Pangea and went to two other bars for a drink at each and headed home pretty early. Here we are:

I’m so glad they came to visit! We haven’t all hung out together in a while. Even though I was a tad bit tired from my L.A. trip and red-eye flight , I think I held it together pretty well.

I have to say that it’s so nice to be home and have some quiet down time. Although I do have to do lots of laundry and clean the apartment a bit, I’m still just so happy to be settled. There really is no place like home!!

Do you feel the same way when you return from a trip?

Have a great Sunday all – sorry for the crazy long post.

6 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Travel, Uncategorized

Lagging in L.A.

Posted on December 3, 2009 | 7 comments

Good morning from L.A.! It’s Thursday and this week has flown by (in some ways literally – with a flight to Cali!). We have been going non-stop since we got here yesterday and it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down anytime soon.

I was up at 4:00 am yesterday, in the car by 4:45 and on the plane by 7:30. Before I left the house I had some walnuts and raisins and then at the airport I drank a big cup of coffee before our flight left. I was afraid to really fall asleep on the plane because I knew we had meetings to go to once we got to L.A. and I didn’t want to look groggy and gross. Here’s my large java:

I was able to use the free Wi-Fi for a lot of the flight, but then the computer started making my head hurt, so I signed off. Virgin America is a REALLY nice airline. My only complaint was that I was soo hot throughout the flight. I was thrilled to get off and breathe fresh air.

We arrived around 11 am Cali time and headed for lunch to meet up with a potential web designer for our company. Navigating in L.A. was a little tricky. We were driving a truck that my co-worker borrowed from her friend who lives in L.A. and we were armed with some maps, but it wasn’t easy. I’m used to NYC where it’s a grid and generally the numbers go up and down and East and West. Not as straightforward in L.A. We got to the lunch site, only to find that it no longer serves lunch! So then we had to make our way to a new location.

We finally made it and it was well worth it. We met up with the designer at a really cute outdoor mall and farmers market. It’s soo funny to see Christmas decorations in Cali when it’s 70 degrees out and sunny.

We ate at The Farm and I had a delicious blackened chicken wrap. It had grilled chicken, bacon, roasted tomatoes, avocado, etc. It was delicious – a tad on the spicy side – but I was so hungry at that point that anything was bound to taste good.

I did pretty well on my wrap and then the three of us also had some late-afternoon coffee.

After lunch we headed to the training place for a quick informal meeting. The real training begins today.

By the time we left the training place yesterday Tiffany (co-worker) and I were both pooped. We were even a little delirious from our long day. But we still needed dinner and we thought nothing would perk us up like a little Mexican and margaritas!

They were huge margaritas! We had salsa, chips and guacamole and then I had a chicken quesadilla (I know lots of meat). Here are a few pics (the first is the view from our hotel room):

This last pic is funny because we look sooo exhausted – we had been up for almost 22 hours – we were definitely lagging! Also, look at the size of the margarita compared to our heads. This is my co-worker Tiffany btw – now you have a face to go with the name. 🙂

Ok off to training ALL day. Have a great day all!

7 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Travel, Uncategorized

West Coast Bound

Posted on December 2, 2009 | 5 comments

I’m going going, out to Cali, Cali. It’s Wednesday morning and I’m heading out West! To Los Angeles, California to be exact. I’m headed there for training for work, so nothing too exciting – but a trip to Cali just the same.

Right now I’m on the plane and am pumped because we’re flying Virgin America and it has a free Google-sponsored Wi-Fi deal for passengers until January 15, 2010! Nice. Our flight left at 7:30 a.m. (EST) and I am pretty darn tired. I had a giant coffee this morning before the flight because I really don’t want to sleep much on the place since we’ve got a busy day ahead of us. I’m hoping I will be able to post at least once or twice while I’m there.

Let me do a quick recap of yesterday’s eats. For breakfast I went a little crazy and threw some chocolate into my oatmeal. This looks disgusting, but it was good. 1/2 cup of oats, tsp of peanut butter, 1 banana and a few semi-sweet all natural chocolate chips. Once mixed, it looks G-ross.

Next time I’ll take a pre-mixed pic.

For lunch I was boring and had leftovers from Monday night’s dinner, minus the pasta. It tasted pretty decent on day two though. I also had some strawberry Greek yogurt with granola and oats.

Later in the afternoon, as I wrapped up all my work in preparation for the trip, I snacked on two clementines. Still rocking the vitamin c, although I feel pretty much 100% better and think I was just suffering from allergies on Sunday night.

After work I headed home to finish up packing and prepping and spend some time with the hubby. I seriously feel like lately we are just ships passing in the night- we only ever seem to have a day or two together before one of us is off to somewhere else. And last night wasn’t very much quality time since I was packing and wrapping things up and then I went to bed early. Sorry Bill – we’ll get to spend some QT together soon!

How do you stay connected with your significant other when schedules gets hectic and time is tight?

For dinner I wanted something really quick and nothing is quicker than rice and beans. Wild rice, black beans and a few grape tomatoes.

But I also needed some chocolate to ease my traveling nerves – of course!

And now I’m headed across the country to see what Cali has in store. We are staying in Beverly Hills (how posh right?), but we won’t have too much time to explore. We’ll be in training from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm on Thursday and Friday and then I am taking the red-eye back to NY on Friday night. It’s going to be exhausting.

I think we’re headed to a pretty nice lunch this afternoon, so I will be sure to take some pics and hopefully post a daily recap tomorrow at some point. Added bonus, the weather report for the next few days in Cali says between 65-70 degrees – I will certainly take it!!

In the News:
I think this college is taking things a bit too far, What do you think? It’s great to “encourage” living healthy, but you can’t mandate it. People have the right to eat and live as they please.

College’s too-fat-to-graduate rule under fire

I’m signing off and either attacking my new book or watching some free movies. Yup – you read right – I FINISHED David Copperfield finally!! The next book on my list, and with me on the plane, is Ahab’s Wife. Anyone read it? I’ll do a Copperfield review in the near future, but I warn you, it may not be too exciting.

P.S. – Check out this give-away on Meg’s Be Fit Be Full blog. I love the pumpkin granola!

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Travel, Uncategorized

An Official New York Road Runner

Posted on December 1, 2009 | 9 comments

Good morning blog world! It’s Tuesday – we made it through Monday – yipee! I was pretty darn tired yesterday and was still wondering if I was actually going to get sick. I woke up yesterday feeling a little bit better and hoped it was just a nasty allergy attack.

For breakfast I had 1/2 cup of oats, tsp of pumpkin butter, handful of raisins and a splash of milk.

It was really tough to get moving and get out the door on time. I had to stop and grab a coffee to help keep me sane and awake. Monday mornings at work are typically pretty busy for me, so I knew the coffee would help.

I was surprised that the day actually moved along pretty quickly. I ate my morning granola bar at 11:00 and then the one or two new projects I started to work on kept me occupied and before I realized it, it was 1:45 and I hadn’t had lunch yet!

I trudged out in the rain and got a salad from across the street. The usual stuff: romaine lettuce, peas, carrots, cheddar cheese, walnuts and craisins.

My camera was a little off, so pics are looking blurry.

After lunch, I went onto the New York Road Runners site and browsed some races. I decided I wanted to sign up for two in January. And then I just bit the bullet and became a member. It’s about time I started running races in NYC and not just upstate. I typically try to run all my races with my running buddy Lauren, but as my hubby said yesterday, “she’s not always going to be able to run with you.” Sadness. So I signed up for these two races:

NYRR Fred Lebow Classic (5M)
NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan

Lauren WILL be able to run the Half Marathon with me!! YAY!! I will tackle the Fred Lebow 5 miler on my own – just call me Miss Independent. Unless my hubby surprises me and decides to run it as well. 😉

Any other NYC bloggers planning on running either of these?

I am generally NOT a winter runner, but this will be my attempt to keep running strong throughout the winter. If you’re a runner, do you still race in the cold weather?

My co-worker tells me that she actually runs better in the cold. Not me.

Later on in the afternoon yesterday I had some Greek Yogurt with granola and oats and two clemetines (gotta get that vitamin C to stay healthy!).

BTW – today at noon you can sign-up for the NYC Half Marathon Lottery . Can you tell that I have racing on the brain after my Turkey Trot? It’s an addiction.

I didn’t work out last night after work for a few reasons: 1) I was tired, 2) I’m going away on Wednesday morning for a business trip and needed to run some preparatory errands, 3) I haven’t actually hung out with Bill in a while, 4) I was tired.

So I left work, picked up some traveling necessities and headed home. I made this quick and easy dinner:

Here is my made-up recipe for it.

Asparagus Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients

3/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
1/3 cup of diced onion
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 stems of fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 (7 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1/3 cup shredded parmesean cheese

Directions

Heat the broth in a large skillet over medium-high heat with the garlic and onion. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and place in the skillet. Cook 15 minutes, until chicken is almost done.
Place asparagus and red peppers in skillet. Continue cooking 10 minutes until asparagus is tender. Place tomatoes in skillet during last 2 minutes of cook time. Sprinkle with vinegar. Top with parmesean cheese and serve.

It was yummy and the husband rated it as “pretty good.”

After dinner I had a small piece of the white cake with white frosting that Bill’s sister Christine made for his birthday and brought to Thanksgiving dinner. I was shocked that Bill was willing to share his cake. But then he told me that Christine made him promise to share with me – figures! It was great.

The rest of my night was quiet and I went to bed pretty early. However, Murphy decided to try to wake me up pretty much every two hours during the night, so I’m a bit tired again today.

I’m starting to get a little nervous about traveling tomorrow. I’m one of those people who is always afraid of missing a flight or forgetting something important or losing my luggage. Generally – just not a very relaxed traveler. Hence, I start prepping 2-3 days in advance.

Are you a good traveler – what are some of your helpful tips or tricks?

I AM excited about the possibility of running while we’re training in L.A. The weather there is looking nice and warm. I could certainly use a nice West-coast run. 🙂

Last note – I want to say congrats to my friend Becky for starting her new blog: Write On!! I’m so happy she is proactively seeking new creative outlets and will be able to share her passion and wonderful insights with others. Becky is one of the people in my life that I always “talk books” with. We typically like the same books and are ALWAYS asking each what the other is reading and for recommendations. Now I can just check out her blog and see that, as well as her feedback and reviews. I’m so excited – so be sure to check it out. She’s also on my Blogroll! 🙂 Love ya Becks!

9 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Dessert, NYRR, Races, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized