Category Archives: Dessert

Cadbury Egg Craving

Posted on April 5, 2010 | 9 comments

Hi all. Good afternoon. Where has the day gone? I didn’t have a chance to blog until my lunch break!

How was everyone’s weekend and Easter?

Mine was very good. The weather in NYC was fabulous, I ran a great race on Saturday and then Hubby and I hit up a local restaurant for a delicious celebratory dinner.

UVA Review

On Saturday, we went to Uva on 2nd Avenue between 77th and 78th, upon the recommendation of one of Bill’s colleagues. We went to celebrate the fact that Hubby recently passed a hugely important test thing at work. Seriously, he was stressing about this thing for months! But he passed and with flying colors (of course I knew he would).

My apologies in advance, there will be no delicious dinner pics, since Hubby gets extremely embarrassed when I snap away in public places. We started off dinner at Uva with a delicious cheese plate with three different selections and we each had a glass of wine. I absolutely LOVE cheese plates. I order one every chance I get when I’m out. I’ve also been known to make a nice little cheese plate as an appetizer when hosting or attending parties. 🙂

Hubby also ordered the baked calamari, which I’d never had before. Have to say it was pretty good and I’m not the biggest calamari fan.

For my entrée, I had the Bigoletti Di Barbabietole – red beet fingerling gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce with baby spinach and yellow grape tomotes. It was DIVINE!!

I also tried a bite of Hubby’s dish which was some kind of ravioli filled with artichoke and something else – his was amazing as well!

Overall, our meal was delicious. It wasn’t exactly inexpensive, since we did order two apps, two entrées and three glasses of wine (of which I had two – hehe). But I think that the price was definitely more worth it than some of the other restaurants in the area we’ve eaten at before.   

I also liked that our server was very knowledgable. I asked her for cheese suggestions and she totally knocked it out of the park.

After dinner, I forced Hubby to stop at CVS while I picked up some half-priced Easter candy. Lent was almost over and my sweets craving was starting to grow.

Which leads me to Sunday, which was a very candy-filled day. I woke up and had a decent breakfast. Oatmeal with mixed frozen fruit blended in and a side of light cranberry juice.

After breakfast we headed to church for Easter mass and then when we got home we went to work cleaning and scrubbing the entire apartment. Seriously, it took hours.

And while we cleaned, I snacked on chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Including my favorite…

Cadbury eggs!

Mmmm so yummy. I ate all four eggs in that carton yesterday. Yes, sickening – I know.  Are you a cadbury egg fan? I think people either love them or hate them. We know how I feel about them – obviously.

I didn’t really eat lunch, since I was snacking on candy all day and cleaning incessantly. So by the time dinner came around, I wanted something über healthy. Hence, my giant salad.

It was so yummy and just what my stomach filled with chocolate wanted. Romaine lettuce, carrots, feta cheese, apple and walnuts with Newman’s Light Italian dressing. I definitely overdid it with the candy.

How about you – did the Easter bunny visit you this weekend and bring you lots of candy? Were you able to use any willpower?

I clearly was not able to abstain. But I do not eat like this everyday, so if I go a little crazy once in a while, I think it’s okay.

That’s all for today folks – I’ve got a 5 mile run on the training plan tonight. Weather.com says it’s gorgeous out – so I can’t wait! I really can’t believe I’m already in week 13 of my 18 week training plan. Scary!! Marathon will be here way too soon.

Have a great day!

9 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

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No Rest for the Weary

Posted on March 15, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all – have you adjusted to the new time yet? I was actually so exhausted from my busy weekend that I was able to go to bed fairly early last night and adjust to the change a little bit easier.

My weekend was fabulous, but exhausting. I travelled to Albany on Friday night and had a nice dinner with my parents at Beff’s.

We were home pretty early and I went to bed at a decent hour so I could run on Saturday morning before the impending rain and all my activities. I was up by 6 a.m. and ate an English muffins with peanut butter and bananas for fuel. I was out the door a little before 7 a.m. and had a wonderful run. I did almost the same run as the last time I was home (when my Garmin and I got in a fight and I basically had a miserable run).

This time, the run was perfect. I felt really great, the predicted rain was holding off and I ran pretty well. Here are my run stats:

Mile 1 – 9:00
Mile 2 – 8:55
Mile 3 – 8:29
Mile 4 – 8:17
Mile 5 – 8:36
Mile 6 – 8:15
Mile 7 – 9:15
Mile 8 – 8:55
Mile 9 – 8:33
Mile 10 – 8:09
Mile 11 – 8:38
.25 – 1:54

Total mileage  was 11.25 in 1:37:01

I was feeling pretty good after this run. My fastest mile (mile 10) was partially run on my highschool track. I really picked it up and enjoyed doing some speedwork there. My slowest mile (mile 7) was one giant hill. I purposely added a bunch of hills to this route because I know that the Poconos marathon is going to be hilly. It scares me a bit that I was a little bit slow during that section – I hope I can maintain my speed during the marathon.

Overall, it was a great run and it started sprinkling just as I got back to my parent’s house. Very lucky!

After my run I showered and headed out to my friend Jenny’s bridal shower at the Edison Club in Rexford, N.Y. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We had a brunch/lunch selection of food and I went with both:

I was ravenous after my run and cleaned this entire plate. 🙂

And then there was a delicious bananas foster crepe for dessert. And you know how I love crepes…

Yummy! Jenny’s bachelorette party was that evening as well, so after we wrapped things up at the shower, we headed to our hotel in Saratoga to get ready for an evening of bachelorette fun! 

We spent the beginning portion of the evening in the hotel suite eating some amazing dips, veggies and pizza (sorry no photos). Then we headed out on the town. Here’s a lovely group shot of many of the girls:

The bridey is the lady in the middle in white! The rest of us were garbed in some Irish green attire since the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Albany took place on Saturday and we knew most people would be celebrating in Irish style. Such a great time – I can’t wait for the wedding!!

So now it’s Monday and back to the grind. I have plans for a nice, easy run on the treadmill after work (since the rain is still lingering in NYC) and then I’m heading to bed early again.

Did anyone else watch that new program Minute to Win it last night? I’ll admit that it totally hooked me. I was really rooting for the Rachel girl – I thought she could go pretty far. But don’t worry – you won’t catch me practicing at home or anything – I’m content to just watch.

And starting tomorrow, I think the weather in NYC is supposed to be amazing!! Can’t wait. I may have to do a nice Central Park run after work finally. I hope the nice weather hangs on through the weekend. Have a great day all!

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Posted in Dessert, Running, Travel, Uncategorized

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100 Posts, Progress, Kryptonite

Posted on February 18, 2010 | 12 comments

Good morning blogworld! This is my official 100th post – hurray! I’m so proud to have kept this little blog going this long. My Hubby says I have a habit of starting new projects or ideas and then deserting them after a little while. So I’m very happy that I’ve been able to blog on a fairly regular basis for about 4 months.

I thought that my 100th post would be the perfect opportunity to talk about my 2010 goals and how I’ve been progressing.

1. Stop Biting My Nails: Fail. I have possibly curtailed it a bit, but I haven’t been able to stop yet. The cold weather isn’t helping, as it makes my nails brittle and breakable.
2. Become a Real Winter Runner: I think I can say this one has been a success! I’ve run outside just about every weekend since early January and have actually gotten used to the cold temps.  Check out my recent post on the tell-tale signs that I have truly become a real winter runner.
3. Eat Cleaner: So-so on this one. I’ve definitely been incorporating more clean foods into my diet, but there are a few lingering “problem foods” I need to deal with. More on that (and my kryptonite) later in this post.  
4. Read More: I’ve done okay with this. I’ve read Ahab’s Wife, The Weight of Silence and The Historian so far in 2010. I’m currently reading Food Rules and Angela’s Ashes (just started). I guess I’m averaging about 1-2 books a month, which is good, but I used to read much faster. It also depends on the book. 
5. Be Grateful: Fail. I don’t think I’ve been too great so far this year about appreciating what I have. This is definitely something I will work on.
6. Shop Less, Save More: Fail. Need to focus on this.
7. Keep in Touch: Fail. I haven’t been calling people like I claimed I would. I’m just not a phone person. I will make my new goal to call one friend each weekend, as well as my mother, to catch up.
8. Expand My Horizons: Success. So far in 2010 I’ve tried Ethiopian food and Greek food, attended the ballet and a camera class.
9. QT with Hubby: Fail. We’ve been so busy going to weddings, parties and family events that we haven’t spent much QT together. 😦
10. Qualify for Boston! Working on it! I signed up for the Poconos Marathon in May 2010, with hopes of qualify for Boston in 2011. Wish me luck!

Okay – so not as much progress as I would have liked, but also not a total disaster. It’s only February right?!

How are you doing on your 2010 goals?

I’ll do a quick recap of my eats yesterday and explain just where kryptonite fits in. Breakfast was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter and banana. And oops a big hole in the middle of one half.

I had a busy agenda yesterday and knew I wouldn’t be able to eat much from about 1:30 p.m. on, so my mid-morning snack was my Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean.

Lunch followed shortly after – Triscuits with Light Laughing Cow cheese and carrots.

I was at a meeting out of the office from 1:30 – 5:00 and then headed straight from there to church for Ash Wednesday.

By the time we got home I was starving. I made a grilled cheese sammy for dinner with some pickles.

And then I gave in to my kryptonite. In all honesty, I did it to myself. Hubby had to stop at Duane Read after church to pick up some cold medicine (he thinks he’s getting sick) and while I was there, I was drawn to these fellas:

Seriously – I can not resist them and I have a problem. I can eat this entire bag in one sitting. Last night I ate half the bag. Oh the guilt and the unbearably icky-feeling stomach! Why can’t I resist these things?

At my old job, my co-worker would buy a container of these and leave them on her desk and I would literally devour them in two days. When we saw Avatar a few weeks ago, I ate entire bag during the movie. I have a problem. The first step is admitting I have a problem.

Now here’s my solution: I am giving up all sweets for Lent. Yes, technically Lent began yesterday and I shouldn’t have eaten these, but at that point I hadn’t decided what I was going to give up yet. Well, after this overeating debacle, I think my choice is clear.  I am taking the rest of this bag, closing it up and putting away until Easter. It’s time to get a grip on my sweet eating.

Now, if you’ve read my blog much over the past 4 months, you must have seen that I love me some dessert. I typically have some form of dessert almost every night after dinner. So what am I going to do? My plan is to make fruit into my new dessert. I’ll be stocking up on strawberries, blueberries, grapes, etc. to take the place of my beloved chocolate and sugary treats.

What else will help me with this sacrifice? 1. Reading Micahel Pollan’s Food Rules, and hopefully his other books in the near future. 2. Remembering that the ingredients in my kryptonite are: Sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, citric acid, tartaric acid, artificial flavors, titanium dioxide, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1. Gag – did I really just enjoy eating tartaric acid and titanium dioxide? 3. Reliving the terrible burning sensation on my tongue after eating too many of these things – seriously, that should be a huge red flag for me right there. Real food shouldn’t strip, burn and desensitize your tongue.  

So that’s the plan man – I’m really hoping I will have the willpower to say no to the Sour Patch Watermelons, chocolate and other sweets that come my way. And maybe by the time Easter rolls around my sweet tooth will have diminished a bit and you won’t always see me capping off a meal with a piece of chocolate or candy. 🙂 Here’s to hoping!

So tell me – what is your kryptonite? Besides sweets in general and Sour Watermelons, mine seem to be nachos, cake and french fries.

P.S. – How awesome was Shaun White last night? He’s the reason I didn’t make it to the gym this morning and have to try to squeeze in 6 miles tonight. I just had to see that Double McTwist – so glad he did it!

12 Comments

Posted in Books, Dessert, Uncategorized

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Get into the Training Groove

Posted on February 9, 2010 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone! Hope you all had a decent Monday. Mine wasn’t too bad as Mondays go. My breakfast yesterday was a delicious bowl of oats with banana, almond butter and agave. Delish!

I was ravenous again by early morning, but I decided to have a small snack  of 3 prunes. They look gross, but they are actually pretty tasty.

For lunch I finished up some rice and beans from Saturday night, as well as a few sticks of celery with Garlic and Herb flavored Laughing Cow Light Cheese.

My afternoon snacks were Strawberry and Banana Chobani yogurt (this one was not zero-fat – it has 2%)  and an apple pie Larabar. I liked the Larabar flavor just okay.

After work I headed to the gym for an easy run. My legs were still a little sore from my run on Sunday, so I was definitely happy to have an easy night. And I did not even try to up the speed or increase the distance at all. I ran 3 miles in 28:00 minutes. Then I did some ab work and a few arm exercises with 5-pound weights. I so did not feel like running or exercising at all, but was very proud that I actually went. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick to my marathon training plan a little better if I can just get into a groove with it.

I headed home after the gym and just re-heated Sunday’s dinner of Venison and Barley Soup (sorry no picture!). It was actually even more flavorful on day two, which was what some of the reviewers of the recipe had said. I finished that up, but then had a strange craving for some…

Pickles!! I had a little pickle plate with dill and bread and butter pickles! I just love em!

And finally, a little while later I wanted some dessert, but I also felt not entirely full. I had big plans to run on Tuesday morning, so I thought a little snack might actually be a good idea so I wouldn’t be completely low on fuel on Tuesday morning. I made a Tina 3-Minute Breakfast Cookie, but used: oats, egg whites, 1 packet of Truvia, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin purée, cinnamon and walnuts. 

It was actually pretty darn good – maybe a little bit bigger than it should have been.

Then Hubby and I watched The Bachelor and shared some moments of utter disgust. Hubby turned to me at one point and told me he felt like punching Jake. HA! I agreed. Jake says the SAME things about every girl and then stares at them trying to seem deep, but to me it comes off as a vacant stare. He was really annoying me last night. And then Allie pushed me over the edge with her fake crying (yes, she had real tears at other moments) and her overly-dramatic exit at the end. Hubby and I agreed they will be bringing her back later to spice things up or maybe will give her a spin-off Bachelorette. Overall – GRRR to that episode.  

Health in the news

Learning What Food Looks Like Before It Goes Into the Package – I would have loved to take this class in high school. I’m so happy that schools are starting to offer courses like this one.

The Healing Power of Herbal Tea – I don’t think I really realized there was a difference between “tea” and “herbal tea.” Interesting.

Study links sugary soft drinks to pancreas cancer 

Three Home Habits Help Youngsters Stay Slim

P.S. – Who’s excited for the Olympics to start?!! MEE!! I love watching them. Hopefully they aren’t on too late at night.

And who’s not excited for the snow we’re supposed to get tonight/tomorrow? Me again.

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Veggie and Cookie Cravings

Posted on February 3, 2010 | 6 comments

Good morning – Happy Hump Day! Hope everyone had a good Tuesday. My day was pretty good – I started off with a nice breakfast of oatmeal with banana and peanut butter, along with a side of light cranberry juice. A very filling breakfast.

It was such a filling breakfast that I didn’t even have a mid-morning snack – so unlike me. But lunch was filling enough as well, I had leftover chicken and spinach bulgur from the night before. This meal was very hearty.

Afternoon snacks were Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal (aren’t you so sick of this snack – maybe I will switch it up on Thursday) and an apple.

After work, I headed to the gym to try to squeeze in as much of a run as possible. I ran a decent 4 miles in 33:26 and then was going to stop, but saw that there were one or two treadmills opens, so I ran another mile for a total of 5 miles in 42:30. Then I noticed people waiting so I hopped off and did some ab work. I slacked on doing free-weight arm exercises, but oh well.

So far, this week I am doing okay with my marathon training. Here is a link to access my training plan through Google Docs. I like using this program because I can update it from anywhere. Here’s a brief snapshot of my progress so far:

I can’t wait until it starts getting warmer and light outside later so I can do my longer week workouts outside — running 8 miles on the treadmill would not be fun.

After the gym, I was craving veggies in a really weird way, so I came home and made a giant salad for dinner with Mediterranean lettuce, carrots, goat cheese, raisins, and walnuts. I drizzled Newman’s Light Balsamic Vinaigrette over top.

It was delicious and hit the spot, but then I was craving some dessert (very much like me). I decided to try to make Tina’s 3-Minute Oatmeal Raisin Cookie into a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. I followed her original recipe, but added peanut butter, swapped out raisins for chocolate chips, used protein powder in place of flour, left out the cinnamon, used Truvia instead of brown sugar and voila!

The addition of the peanut butter made it a little gooey in places, but I was okay with that. I also doubled the original recipe, which produced a GIANT cookie  – totally unnecessary. Somehow, I managed to eat it all, but wouldn’t double it again in the future. Here was my final recipe:

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/4 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1 packet of Truvia 
  • 2 tsp protein powder (thanks Hubby)
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp peanut butter

    • Thanks again to Tina for this great recipe and congrats to her on her two-year blog birthday!

    Lastly, here are a few health headlines that caught my eye:

    Slimmer Doesn’t Always Mean Fitter – I am still trying to determine what my “best” weight is for running. Hopefully I can figure it out by May – just in time for the marathon! How about you – have you PRed or run better when you were either heavier or lighter – how did you find your ideal running weight?

    Rules Worth Following, for Everyone’s Sake – I am buying Michael Pollan’s new book  Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, published in December 2009. I really want to read his other books:  In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but I think Food Rules has moved to the top of my list. This NY Times article gives a great overview of the book’s main ideas, as well as some general info/facts about healthy eating.  Have you read any of  Pollan’s books? Will you be checking this one out?

    Have a great Wednesday everyone. I’ve got some exciting plans tonight: I’m going to the ballet with Katie and trying some authentic Greek food beforehand!  I’m super excited! See you tomorrow.

    6 Comments

    Posted in Books, Dessert, Running, Uncategorized

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    Wave to the Camera!

    Posted on January 29, 2010 | 11 comments

    Good morning and happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a seriously stressful week and am ready for a nice weekend. And the best part is that my friend Kelly is getting married tomorrow, so the weekend is sure to be a blast! Congrats Kelly and Jerry – I can’t wait to celebrate with you tomorrow!!

    Yesterday was definitely a less stressful day and I was very grateful. I started the day off with a great breakfast of oatmeal with almond butter and tons of blueberries. I love blueberries!

    Around 10:30 a.m. I ate a banana – I was ravenous for some reason. Then we had a work meeting and it just so happened to be my co-workers birthday and my boss had purchased giant cupcakes for everyone. Now, those who know me well know that I simply can not pass up a cupcake. And I didn’t. Not only that, I chose the worst one: carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting (sooo good!). These cupcakes were from Zeytuna and they were enormous. Seriously out of control…and I ate the whole thing. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. It was awful.

    Needless to say, I was pretty full and felt gross for the rest of the day. And I also got a terrible headache (probably from such a huge rush of sugar) and then felt sleepy. Awful! Where was my self-control on that one?

    Can you say no to sweets – especially when it’s your very favorite? It’s obviously something I need to work on.

    The rest of my afternoon involved little food – some Triscuits with laughing cow cheese and a Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal.

    In the afternoon  I received an email from the NYRR photographer site notifying me that the pictures from last weekend’s half marathon were ready. I always check them out just to see how terrible I looked. There were a ton of pics of Lauren and me. Some were pretty awful, but then I came to this one, which made me laugh out loud:

    I actually remember doing this. It was at the very beginning of the race, maybe at the first mile marker, and I saw the photographer right in front of me. But there were so many people taking pictures that day, that I didn’t think the guy was definitely one of the event photographers – umm yeah he was. Ha!

    Anyway, I digress. I made it through the work day in a slight sugar coma (actually is was really bad). And then I trudged to the gym after work. This week has been terrible as far as my marathon training goes. I am supposed to finish up at 22 miles for the week and I’m at 11 right now. And I will not be running 11 miles tomorrow – maybe 6-7.

    Anyway – I hopped on the last available treadmill and pretty much told myself I’d have to stop at 4 miles because people would be waiting. Miraculously, after 2 miles, the treadmills cleared out and I was able to run 5 miles (43:03) without feeling guilty.

    Then I did some ab work and some arm free-weight exercises with a 5-pound weight.

    I left the gym feeling much better (sugar coma gone) and started walking home and holy coldness!! The temperature had dropped tremendously! I got home, did the dishes, vacuumed and tidied up and then made some dinner. I already had some cooked pasta ready, so I just added a ton of veggies and stuff to it: cucumber, carrots, grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese and apple. I then drizzled it with Newmans’ Light Balsamic vinaigrette.

    Perfection! Dessert was the second half of my grapefruit with a packet of Truvia on top.

    I also had a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips as well.

    I was considering getting up early today and hitting the gym for a 4-mile run to make my weekly mileage total, but my legs were feeling tired and so was I last night. I figured why push it? If my body was telling me to rest a bit, then I would. That way, I’ll be extra rested for my cold run upstate on Saturday morning. I don’t even want to check what the temperature will be – it will certainly scare me. I am simply preparing to layer-up like crazy.

    And then after that it will be party time!! Do you have any fun plans this weekend or will you just be trying to stay warm? 🙂 Have a good one everyone!

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    Posted in Dessert, NYRR, Running, Uncategorized

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    I’m Okay With a Little Stray

    Posted on January 7, 2010 | 9 comments

    Good morning blog world! Happy Thursday – yay it’s almost Friday. What fun things do you have planned for the weekend?

    I have a few things going on this weekend. Friday night I’ll be laying low because I have a 5-mile race bright and early on Saturday morning in Central Park! Then Saturday evening the Hubby and I are having our first 2010 date night (sticking to those resolutions). We’re going out to dinner and then going to see God of Carnage on Broadway. It’s supposed to be really funny – don’t mind the name. I bought these tickets for Hubby’s birthday and when I originally bought them months ago James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) was the lead male. Bill loved the Sopranos, so I was kind of disappointed when they changed the cast. But I still happen to recognize two of the actors in this cast: Jimmy Smits and Christine Lahti. Sunday we are contemplating going to see Avatar. Everyone is raving about it, but neither one of us is too pumped to go see it. Have you seen it – feedback? 

    Before I get into yesterday’s eats, I wanted to share this link with you from Foodfit.com – it’s their Winter Guide to Fruits and Vegetables. I get their newsletter and thought this list was pretty useful. There were definitely some fruits on the fruit list that I’d never heard of before, but sounded tasty.

    Now onto eats:  I remembered to photograph my breakfast yesterday – it was oatmeal with banana and pumpkin butter. I hadn’t used my pumpkin butter in a while and it’s starting to get low. I also had a side of light cranberry juice.

    For lunch I might have had a piece of pizza during our Marketing and Communications celebratory lunch. Some of our publications recently won awards, so we were celebrating. I can’t pass up celebratory pizza! Sorry – no pic. And then a little later I got my fill of veggies with cucumbers, carrots and grape tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

    A little later I had a few chippers…

    And even later in afternoon I had two clementines for a snack.

    I left work right at 5 p.m. because I was soo excited to go have dinner with my friend Katie! I looked for a restaurant near Union Square, but didn’t want to go to big place or a chain place – I wanted something smaller and cozy. I found some good reviews about Vintage Irving on the NY Magazine website, so I decided we should give it a try. It did not disappoint. Our food was so good. Here’s the rundown – I had to use flash because it was very dark and my photos were not coming out at all:

    Truffle Chicken Mini Meatballs, thyme-scented sherry wine sauce

    This was a Spinach and Artichoke dip, which is not shown on their online menu:

    We also had an amazing cheese and meat place from the Chef’s plate portion of the menu. The Manchego cheese was amazing – if you ever make it to this place, that is a must. We both loved this plate a lot (half of it has already been eaten – we dove in before I could get the camera out).

    We had a lovely mesclun salad as well, but it definitely fell behind the Chef’s plate.

    And finally, we topped the meal off with some cheesecake. It was amazing!!

    We also had a few glasses of wine with our many mini meals, of course 🙂 As you can see, I did not limit myself on this outing at all. But I agree with Katherine and Meg’s recent posts that healthy does not have to equal perfect and we should learn to live a little! Plus, I don’t see Katie all the time, so when we are able to get together we kind of go all out. Here we are (I turned it black and white to hide the our wine-stained red lips and mouths):

    Don’t you hate when that happens? Or does it only happen to me? Katie’s red stains were not nearly as bad as mine.

    So it was a delightful dinner and then I headed right to bed when I got home. How about you – are there times when you stray a bit from your healthy ways? I certainly did last night, but I am proud to say I don’t feel guilty about it at all! 🙂

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    Posted in Dessert, Restaurants, Uncategorized

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    Party, Pizza Dip and Peanut Butter Balls

    Posted on December 28, 2009 | 14 comments

    Good morning blog world. It’s Monday again and I’m heading back to work [groan]. I know that a ton of people took off from Christmas through New Years and I’m very jealous. I’m headed back to work and dreading it.

    So I was a bad blogger and was MIA on Sunday. The party on Saturday night was a ton of fun and Sunday was mostly spent lounging around, doing laundry and packing for the trip back to NYC. The Hubby convinced me to relax instead of going for a run and testing out my Garmin – darn him! But it was nice to just hang for a bit.

    So here’s a quick recap of Saturday. I pretty much took no photos on Sunday – so it will be considered a lost day. But here goes Saturday.

    Breakfast was an English muffin with peanut butter and topped with a banana. Side of cranberry juice.

    My mother and I got out during the day to run some errands and brave the shopping crowds. It was a quick trip, but on the way home I had a Gingerbread Latte craving. It was only my second of the season – they are so darn expensive.

    I snacked on a few other things during the day, but this was the only thing I managed to capture: Greek yogurt with Kashi cereal.

    We headed to the party around 7:00 p.m., so I didn’t really eat a “full dinner” beforehand. I had some cheese and crackers, leftover from our Christmas day appetizers. But the party had plenty of food! I also made my pizza dip to bring along.

    The party was a blast – thanks go out to Jenny and Kevin for hosting. I love their house and they are such great hosts. Here are a few pics from the night.

    A few apps on the pretty table.

    All the girls gathering for a group photo. I thought the stairs would be a perfect spot, but turns out we had a lot of girls and things got a bit squished.

    I still think it’s super cute, even though a little tight. There were also lots of yummy desserts. And you know I can’t say “no” to desserts.

    My favorite were the peanut butter balls.

    Sorry for the terrible pic! I mainly snacked on veggies, taco dip, and a few desserts. I had one scoop of my pizza dip and then went back for more and it was gone. I guess that is a good thing. I had two glasses of wine and one beer throughout the night as well.

    Toward the end of the party some meatballs came out and I couldn’t resist them!

    They were goood! Hubby and I had such a great time. Before we knew it, everyone had left and it was time to go. Here we are together at the very end of the night.

    Wow – I need a haircut!

    And now I will leave you with a photo of Mr. Murphy sporting a bow-tie that I bought him from Target after the sweater didn’t fit. Doesn’t he look regal?

    Mr. Murph didn’t travel so well in the car on the way up (he got sick), so we had to give him half a Benadryl for the trip back. My mom got that tip from someone who works at Petsmart, but the Benadryl should only be 25 milligrams and then cut in half. Mr. Murphy seemed a bit groggy on the trip back, but we made it home with no sickness, so I consider it a success.

    Does your pet(s) travel? Do they like it? Any traveling tips?

    I’m planning to hit the gym today after work to burn off some of those holiday calories and get back into the swing of things. It’s time for me to start thinking about my 2010 goals. I’ve seen them posted all over the blogosphere, so I suppose I should give it a whirl.

    What’s your biggest 2010 goal?

    Have a great Monday everyone!

    14 Comments

    Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized

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    Callahan Christmas Weekend Recap

    Posted on December 21, 2009 | 6 comments

    Happy Monday everyone – happy short week! I’m super excited to have some time off coming up. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I hope all the fellow NYC bloggers/readers managed okay in the almost foot of snow. How crazy. We came back last night around 6:15 and things were looking pretty decent. We managed to find a parking spot right out front and we climbed our way across the huge mounds of snow.

    How did you like the snow this weekend?

    Coming from upstate New York, snow has never really bothered me all that much. Upstate I used to have to drive in it, but down here I don’t have to worry about that. So I throw on my tall boots and stomp out in the slush without a problem.

    So this weekend up in Utica was a ton of fun! We drove up on Friday night after work and I was exhausted and still recovering from my Thursday night debauchery, so I slept for a lot of the ride. We got to Bill’s parent’s house pretty late and I went right to bed.

    Saturday morning I got up and had breakfast with Bill’s mom – a bowl of raisin bran, which was camera shy. Much of my food this weekend was shy and I was lazy. Then I set to wrapping the nieces and nephews’ Christmas presents. The party started around 3:00 and this was the food spread:

    Lots of yumminess. I had some pasta, meatballs, shrimp, crackers and cheese, and fruit salad. It was a perfect mixture of all good things.

    But dessert was my very favorite:

    Bill’s sister Christine made a Hazelnut Chocolate Cake and a Cranberry Cobbler Cake (I made up the names – that’s what I called them). I loved them both. The hazelnut was my favorite at Thanksgiving, but I think the cranberry won my heart this time around. Bill’s mom and I devoured it. YUM! Plus, when there’s fruit, I don’t feel too bad.

    What is one of your favorite holiday desserts?

    There were tons of nieces and nephews at the party – do you know that I’m a Great Aunt!?! Isn’t that funny? Bill’s sister’s first son has a little girl that’s about 2 1/2 and a 1-month old. I went from having no nieces and nephews (I’m an only child) to have about a zillion when I married Bill. It’s great! Here are a bunch of the kids attacking Bill’s brother-in-law Kevin.

    And Bill had fun playing with his best friend Dino and his wife Jen’s son Nathan. How cute is he?

    Later on Saturday night we watched “The Hangover” and I laughed until I almost cried. Thank goodness my hangover was nothing like that.

    The Hubby and I started heading back to NYC on Sunday afternoon around 2:30. I had a bunch of stuff that I needed to do that evening in preparation for our department’s holiday lunch today.

    After we managed to find parking and lug everything over the giant snowbanks and upstairs I had some dinner. Leftovers from the party – pasta with meatballs.

    I then set to work frosting some sugar cookies I had previously made for today’s lunch.  

    I also wrapped my secret santa gift (lotions from Sephora) and put together little gifts for my immediate co-workers (homemade fudge, homemade cookies, a candy cane and scratch-off ticket).

    By the time I was done with all that, it was time for bed! I read for a little before I fell asleep. I’m about 200 pages into Ahab’s Wife and I’m really enjoying it so far. Just when I think I know what’s going to happen, something completely different happens. It’s keeping me on my toes.

    Ok – that’s all for today. I have our work holiday lunch today, so I will definitely be taking photos there and trying to stay as healthy as possible (which may be difficult). And I’m going to try to hit the gym after work today, but I’m feeling pretty exhausted. The holidays are tiring!

    6 Comments

    Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Travel, Uncategorized

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    So Hungover it Hurts

    Posted on December 18, 2009 | 7 comments

    Happy Friday! That was such a fake exclamation point by the way. I want to feel that happy, but I am so hungover I can’t think. I made it to work – okay maybe I was a half hour late and maybe I do sort of look inhuman, but hey, I’m here in body, if not totally in mind.

    So this post is going to be really quick and to the point. Starting with yesterday’s eats:

    Breakfast was Kashi Heart to Heart and light cranberry juice.

    Lunch was not well thought-out, I’ve been too frazzled this week. I grabbed a salad.

    Later on I had a Larabar for a snack and was not too impressed with this flavor.

    Ginger Snap goes on my “do not buy again” list. Bleck.

    So here’s where the trouble begins. Yesterday was really busy and so I didn’t snack very much. That’s literally all I had to eat. And then we went to our company holiday party. However, before we went to the party we stopped and had a drink.

    Ok – one drink no problem. Then we headed to the party and had some food (thank goodness).

    That’s my co-worker Tiffany and I.

    This work holiday party was crazy. Just look at the dance floor – doesn’t it remind you of a high school dance?

    I probably should have had more food, but I really didn’t think I’d be out drinking much or late. I did have some yummy desserts though.

    After the holiday party a few people went out for more drinks and I went with them. Not smart. I’m a lightweight as is and it was just way too much for me.

    I think I got home a little after midnight and getting up this morning was horrendous. I have an important project I need to work on and I feel really terrible. Dear God, please make this day go by fast and help me feel better soon.

    Note to self: Never drinking during the week again.

    7 Comments

    Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Uncategorized