Category Archives: Restaurants

Fun and Exhausting Girls Weekend

Posted on August 9, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all. How can it be Monday already? I’m not ready for it. The weekend seriously flew by. My Friday night was low-key, as Hubby went to the Yankees game with a co-worker. But then Saturday was very busy and fun-filled.

I headed out around 10:00 a.m. to catch a Metro North train to Stamford, CT to meet up with a few of my girlfriends from college. Upon arrival, I met this new little arrival:

That would be little Miss Kendall. She is seriously precious.

The rest of Saturday day was spent grabbing some lunch and walking around an outdoor festival area in Norwalk, CT. It was really cute, fun and was a lovely afternoon.

After the festival, we headed back to my friend’s house to change for dinner and drop off little Kendall with her daddy for a few hours. Then we headed to this cute restaurant called Market in Stamford. We’d had a rather filling Mexican lunch, so I wanted to keep my dinner a little lighter. I ordered the chopped salad which was made up of local greens, jicama (actually not included), corn, apple, basque cheese with a champagne vinaigrette. No picture of my salad, but it was delicious.

Of course, we had to have dessert. We ordered two things, first these mini ice cream cones:

These were so cute and very yummy. But the star of the meal was definitely our second dessert:

This was called Crack Pie “Momofuko” and was described as NYC’s famous gooey, rich pie with coconut gelato. It was AMAZING!! This one was devoured.

And finally, here we are enjoying our nice dinner.


Katie, Kate, Me and Kim.

After dinner, the two Kates and I headed into NYC to watch a band play and proceeded to party well into the night. It got so late that when we hit up a diner at the end of our fun, I may have snoozed a bit – signalling it was time to go home.

Unfortunately, our partying and fun meant that Sunday was pretty much a complete waste of a day. Oh boy – I’m getting old. I managed to rouse myself enough to watch True Blood and then went straight to bed.

And as you may have guessed, on the running front – none was done this weekend. However, I just bought a book on running that I’m hoping will inspire me to get back into it, it’s called “Once a Runner.” Has anyone read it? The reviews on the back say it will make you want to go running – I sure hope so! But first I’ve got to push through “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb. It’s a good book, just long. I’m only about 250 page through the 700-page book.

What did you do this weekend? What were some of the highlights?

Have a good Monday all!

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

I’m Still Here & a Restaurant Review!

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 3 comments

I swear – I haven’t disappeared. I’ve just been really busy. The past two days were spent in a Leadership Development Class I was selected for about a month ago. They were full day classes about Communicating Up, Down and Across an Organization. It was taught by someone from the American Management Association and it was a really great class. However, since it was all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, I came into work early both days and stayed a little late to get things done, so blogging fell to the bottom of my list.

So anyway – I’m here and trying to catch up on quite a few blogs. But I also promised you a restaurant review! Last Wednesday, my friend Katie and I went to a little restaurant in the East Village.

Tsampa
212 E. 9th St., New York, NY 10003

We arrived at Tsampa fairy early (we’re the early-bird people hehe) and could very well have been the only people in the place. This Tibetan restaurant is conveniently (for me) located off the 6 line and I got off at Astor Place.

If you recall, last week in NYC was pretty sweltering. Wednesday was a really tough day and it didn’t seem like Tsampa’s air conditioning was up to par. As we walked inside, we noticed it was a little cooler, but not too much. We tried not to dwell on the heat as we were shown to our table in the front corner.

We were both ravenous, so we set to work on choosing an appetizer to hold us over. We ordered two 1) Khampa Momo With Chicken and Vegetables – which were dumplings and 2) Tibetan Salad Shredded Cabbage, Carrots, Greens, Cucumber with Sesame Vinaigrette.

one dumpling left


Both appetizers were delicious!

We also decided to try one of their “signature” drinks, which I can’t remember the name of, but looked a lot better than it tasted.

To me, this sort of tasted like soured milk. It looked so refreshing and milkshake-like, but it was not. We were very glad we decided to share this drink and not each get one.

For my entrée, I ordered one of the specials which was made with chicken, rice, cabbage, carrots, leafy greens and spices.


It was sooo good!! And it was really filling as well. I wish it was on the menu all the time.

Overall, our meal was delicious and super cheap. The NY Magazine review of this restaurant also states that all their chicken is free-range. While we both chose chicken dishes, there are a TON of vegetarian options. I would say more veg options than meat dishes actually.

All in all, I think we found a great little place to come back to for healthy, cheap and delicious food!

So that’s all for me today folks. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I hope you all have had a good week. I squeezed in a nice 5 mile run on Tuesday night and am going to try to run outside tonight. I’ve got a 4 mile race planned for Saturday morning and I’m hoping it’s not too hot, although the forecast is showing high temps. 😦 I know I shouldn’t complain about the warm summer weather, but sometimes it just makes running feel so awful!

Have a great Thursday all!!

3 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Reviews, Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Is it Seriously Sunday?!

Posted on June 6, 2010 | 3 comments

Wow – where did this weekend go? It’s already Sunday evening and I’m not looking forward to the start of the work week.

Saturday was a really nice day. We woke up a little later than usual and headed to Marlboro, NY to visit some friends who just had a baby a few months ago. By the time we left the apartment around 11:30 a.m., the weather was already pretty hot. We got to Marlboro and met the new little babe and then we headed to Newburgh, NY for a late lunch and drinks.

The area we went to was right on the water and I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures. We went to The Blue Martini on Front Street. It’s a sushi bar, but they also offer sandwiches, salads, wraps, etc. I started off with the Over the Moon Martini.

I don’t remember exactly what was in it, but I think it has some pineapple juice and peach juice. Yum!!

We started the meal off right with a cheers…

I ended up ordering the California Chicken Wrap, which has grilled chicken, avocado, bacon and tomato – but I completely forgot to take a picture. It was very good though. I dove right in.

After linner (lunch/dinner), we headed back to our friend’s house to play some Wii and have a few more beverages. We didn’t end up leaving until almost 10:30 p.m., so we got back home pretty late. I think that may led to our SUPER late rising time today – almost 10:00 a.m. Granted, I woke up at 7, 8 and 9, but then went back to bed.

How was your weekend? What was the highlight? How did you beat the heat?!

Have a great Sunday night all!

3 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Travel, Uncategorized

Marathon Photos and Angelica Kitchen

Posted on May 20, 2010 | 9 comments

Good morning all – we made it past Hump Day! We are inching along toward Friday. Before I get into Wednesday’s recap, which includes a review of Angelica Kitchen, I’m going to reluctantly share with you some of my Pocono Marathon photos taken by the event sponsor. I think they pretty adequately depict my decline in strength and spirit. 

The start (look at how eager I am – see me there in the blue tank top and black shorts!) 

 

Next the photographer caught us at the halfway mark. Somehow I always manage to miss the photographer and have my eyes closed: 

 
And there’s proof that I was still motoring – my official halfway time was 1:45! 

Next up, we have some extremely flattering photos from mile 18. At this point I was most certainly feeling some pain. 

 

 
And man am I white!! I’m also kind of impressed with my ripped leg muscle in the last photo. I think it’s because I was going downhill, so my muscles were screaming and bulging a bit, but doesn’t my leg look totally ripped?! It’s nice to dream. 

And lastly, my finish shot is also less than stellar. 

 
Head down, struggling to pull it in, looking like I was barely moving. My clock finish time was 3:39:56 and my chip finish time was 3:39:35. 

Gorgeous I know, it’s okay to be jealous. Hey, I’ve never claimed to be a pretty or photogenic runner! Tomorrow I think I’m going to do a post about what exactly I changed in my training plan, eating and thinking from my first marathon to this marathon and how these changes helped me reach my BQ time. 

So now on to Wednesday’s recap. Breakfast was a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and banana on one side and apricot jelly on the other. 

 

For lunch a few of my co-workers decided we needed to go out and celebrate my latest my marathon completion. We went to Zigolini’s near Stone Street and I had the arugula salad with a side of fries (no pics). 

After work I met up with one of my best friends, Katie, for a belated birthday dinner/celebratory marathon dinner. I’ve been wanting to try Angelica Kitchen for a while now and I knew that Katie is usually up for trying new and potentially different/delicious restaurants. 

I stopped at Trader Joe’s along the way and picked up a bottle of 3 Buck Chuck Shiraz to share with our dinner.

We arrived at Angelica fairly early, which was good because it filled up quickly. We settled in and started to peruse the extensive menu. 

Angelica Kitchen Review 

We started with the Soba Sensation appetizer: rich, velvety sesame sauce ladled over soba noodles, topped with pickled red cabbage garnish. 

 

That photo was taken after we mixed it all up. We also tried their Southern Style Cornbread with the Onion Spread and it was delicious. 

Now my apologies, I forgot to take photos of our entrees. They looked so amazing, we just dove right in. We ordered the two specials of the day which were: 

Wyld Scallions: Savory Mexican style corn cakes featuring Yukon gold potatoes, roasted red & green peppers, sautéed scallions, carrots, corn meal & sweet corn kernels; topped with black bean-tomato salsa, sprinkled with toasted pumpkin seeds & served with guacamole. Accompanied by green beans & roasted cauliflower; garnished with mixed lettuce. 

Dill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Delectable Greek style casserole layered with a mix of spinach, nettles, roasted zucchini, leeks, button mushrooms, & onions, balsamic marinated beets, lemon dill tofu cheese & a whole wheat couscous crust, baked with a flaky phyllo top; served over creamy carrot-sunflower seed coulis. Accompanied by asparagus & an arugula salad drizzled with orange balsamic vinaigrette. 

The prior was my favorite, but I really loved both! The specials change daily and are posted on the website. And then we had the special dessert of the day which was a rhubarb something. 

 

Totally yummy! 

All in all, I give Angelica Kitchen VERY high marks. For being a vegan eatery, I thought all the food was flavorful and delicious. Everything we ordered hit the mark and totally satisfied. Dare I say I liked it even better than Caravan of Dreams? I’d also read some negative reviews about the service, but we thought our waitress was great – a little quirky, but very pleasant and more than willing to help us with any questions we had. 

All in all, I highly recommend this restaurant! I hope you all have a great Thursday. Still no running for me…maybe this weekend. 🙂

9 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Races, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

Tagged ,

Post-Marathon Slump and Shrimp

Posted on May 19, 2010 | 11 comments

Hi all – I’m back! I took a little blog break yesterday. I think just writing my Poconos Marathon Recap post took a lot out of me. Seriously, I’m still on a high and can’t believe I actually qualified for Boston.

I know there has been debate and discussion on other blogs about whether the women’s qualifying times are too easy, and let me just tell you that for me, I did not think getting that time was easy. I’m not an awesome runner, so maybe that does say something. Maybe I shouldn’t even have been able to qualify at all – maybe it means the time is too lenient. But let’s just say that I’m happy I qualified at this time before there is any chance they make the times tougher! Tough enough for me already!

I haven’t been taking too many photos lately, but I did document two new meals I made earlier this week that I loved!

On Monday on my day off, I got a much-needed haircut and met Hubby for a lovely lunch outside at a local cafe/bar. While we lunched, I decided that I wanted to make something different for dinner. For some reason shrimp was stuck in my head. I figured why fight it? So I stopped on the way home and picked up some frozen shrimp. I was in the mood for different, but I still wanted easy. 🙂

For dinner on Monday night I made a yummy shrimp stir-fry.

Frozen shrimp (thawed), carrots, green peppers, orange peppers, broccoli and long grain wild rice. For the stir-fry sauce, I used organic Soy Sauce, chicken stock, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. Totally yum!

And then dessert followed:

Then Tuesday for dinner I had to use up the left-over shrimp, so I came up with this little concoction:

Shrimp and spinach sautéed and then covered with a light sauce made from white wine, lemon juice, chicken broth, garlic powder and onion powder. I placed it on a bed of spaghetti and topped it with a little Parmesan cheese. I thought this one was delicious!

All in all, I was very pleased with my shrimp creations and I think I’ll make shrimp dinners a lot more in the future. Maybe I’ll upgrade to fresh shrimp, if/when I feel more confident.

Post-Marathon Slump

So my big post-marathon confession: I haven’t run at all yet. I really just haven’t been in the mood. It probably would have helped with my recovery to loosen things up, but I was just not motivated. Plus, the yucky rainy weather hasn’t exactly been inspiring. And I haven’t been eating too great either. There may have been a bag of Hint of Lime Tostitoes that was devoured in 2 days (but Hubby did help with that).

I think it’s just my post-marathon little slump. I’m trying to get back on track today with eating. I’m meeting my friend Katie for dinner tonight and we’re going to try out Angelica Kitchen, which has been on my list to try forever. But I’m not going to put a deadline on my first post-marathon run. I’ll do it when I feel ready.

As far as how I felt after this marathon – a little bit more sore than after my first marathon. I probably didn’t stretch quite as well though, since we wanted to hop in the car and head home very soon after the race. I did wake up on Monday night at 1:00 a.m. and rolled my legs with my Marathon Stick. They felt so tight and achy, but after a few minutes of rolling they felt 10 times better. Walking down stairs hurt a bit on Monday and Tuesday, but today everything feels almost 100% back to normal.

If you’re a marathoner – do you encounter anything like my post-marathon slump? I’m not lazy by nature, but I just feel like such a schlub right now. How long do you rest after a marathon?

Anyway – thanks again all for the congrats about qualifying! I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support, encouragement, advice and words of wisdom! Have a great hump day!

11 Comments

Posted in Races, Recipes, Restaurants, Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Finding a Hidden Gem

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 9 comments

Good morning all! Happy Hump Day – hope it goes by quick. Thank you ALL so much for the birthday wishes yesterday. I am admittedly not the biggest birthday fan, but I took your advice and feigned some excitement.

My day started out with a yummy breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and more blueberries. 🙂

I had a seriously crazy day at work. We are working with a videographer and he was at our office yesterday, so I was running around trying to coordinate and schedule different shots. I managed to squeeze in a late lunch of salad – no pictures. I also snacked on a granola bar and Chobani yogurt during various down-times throughout the day. It was hectic.

And then around 3:30 my co-workers scheduled a “meeting” where instead of a meeting they got together to wish me happy birthday with GIANT cupcakes. They were seriously huge. I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of them before they were devoured. Soo good. But also very filling.

After work I headed home to go out to dinner with Hubby. I had decided earlier in the day that I wanted sushi. I came home to find these lovely flowers waiting for me!

So gorgeous!! I love getting flowers. After I got my lovely flowers we headed out for dinner. I had been looking at Japanese places throughout the day and decided that I wanted to try this little hole-in-the-wall place practically across the street from us. I’d walked by it a million times and never noticed it, but I read some great reviews about it on menupages, yelp and Chowhound.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not the fancy, overpriced restaurant kind of girl. I’d rather find a small hidden gem that has quality, delicious, yet affordable food and I will visit it frequently.  And guess what, that is exactly what we discovered last night. We went to Sushi Suki on York Avenue between 83rd and 84th, and had what I consider to be some very yummy sushi. Mind you, I may live in NYC, but I am by no means a sushi connoisseur. But my personal opinion was that it was delicious.

Hubby and I both started off with the miso soup and it was very good. Then we ordered 4 different rolls: Spicy Tuna Roll (Hubby’s favorite); the Boston Roll (shrimp, cucumber & lettuce); the King Crab Roll (with avocado, cucumber & tobiko); and the Lobster Tempura Roll (with avocado, cucumber, lettuce with spicy sweet sauce). I am pretty sure the Lobster Tempura was my favorite, but they were seriously ALL delicious.

I got the impression that many people from our neighborhood visit this place frequently. The owners said hello to many of the patrons and asked about kids, etc. They also knew what many of the patrons’ “usual” selections were. For its small space (only about 10 tables) and less than eye-catching facade, this place is absolutely the local eatery I had been looking for. I think Hubby and I will definitely go back.

Have you ever found a hidden gem like this in your neighborhood? I was seriously so excited!

After our delicious, yet inexpensive meal, Hubby took me for ice-cream at our favorite place in the neighborhood: Emack and Bolio’s. I was so full from dinner I could only manage a small scoop of the Cake Batter ice cream. Have you ever been to Emack and Bolio’s? It is certainly not a frozen-yogurt, low-fat place. But it is a treat to have it every now and then.

We headed home in the freezing cold (it felt like fall yesterday) and I finished my ice-cream in the warmth of our apartment. Then we settled in to finally watch Sherlock Holmes. We got the DVD probably three weeks ago, but haven’t had time to watch it.

I thought it was pretty good. I was very tired and found a few parts where I struggled to stay awake, but I think that says more about my busy schedule than it does the movie.

We finished the movie just in time to switch over to The Biggest Loser to find out the final four. I was happy with the way it turned out.

And that was my busy birthday yesterday! It was a very good day with lots of indulgences. But now I am back on the straight and narrow for the marathon on Sunday. No more sweet treats. It will be good food and carbs for the rest of the time.

Have a great day all!

9 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Long Lost Blogger

Posted on May 10, 2010 | 11 comments

Hi all – how is everyone? I don’t know because I haven’t been able to check many blogs lately and have been so super busy – I have no clue what is going on with people. I am trying to catch up, but I’ve missed so much!

Things with me have been crazy at work and outside of work. Last week I only ran 3 of my 5 training days – eeek! And my marathon is this Sunday!! Can you believe it? I can’t. My nerves are out of control.

This past weekend we headed to Utica, N.Y. to visit Bill’s family and celebrate Mother’s day and his sister’s 50th birthday. Our drive up Friday night was good, the weather was clear and slightly cool, but not too bad.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to some blustery weather – about 37 degrees, overcast and a slight drizzle. I decided to suck it up and bang out my last “long” training run. It wasn’t so long – only 8 miles, but I wanted to make sure I got it in. Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 8:32
Mile 2 – 8:08
Mile 3 – 8:18
Mile 4 – 8:07
Mile 5 – 8:33
Mile 6 – 8:12
Mile 7 – 8:30
Mile 8 – 8:27
.23 – 1:43

Total mileage – 8.23 miles in 1:08:33. Average page – 8:20 minute miles.

I finished up my last “long run” and felt pretty great. And as I did so, I finally reached over 500 miles on my training plan.  I won’t reach my total goal mileage, but I’m not too far off.

On Saturday night we went to dinner at a Greek restaurant in Whitesboro, N.Y. called Symeon’s. It was pretty good. I had the THRACIAN CHICKEN: Fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts marinated and charbroiled  and served with rice pilaf. I could have gone a more authentic Greek route, but I wasn’t feeling entirely adventurous. I’ve found as races approach, I tend to try to play things a little safe.

What is not so safe is that everyone around me seems to be getting sick! Bill’s one sister didn’t make it this weekend because she was hit with the flu, his nephew’s kids were sick, and then my parents both got hit with a cold of some sort on Sunday just before we were planning to drop by. My mom called to tell me to stay away because she didn’t want me getting whatever they have right before the big race.  Ahhh!!

On Sunday I was originally planning to run 3-4 miles in the afternoon, but I scratched that idea when it started SNOWING!! I kid you not. It was really snowing in Utica. It was insane. It was freezing cold outside and I didn’t have appropriate running clothes with me, nor did I feel like confusing the heck out of my body. I just kept praying that this coming weekend is drastically different. Can you imagine running a marathon in the snow? I’m sure people do it and do great, but those are not the right conditions for me.

The rest of the day Sunday was busy and we didn’t actually get home to NYC until 11:30 p.m. and I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30 a.m., so I am pretty darn tired today. I just keep telling myself that I need to get through this week and power through the marathon and then I get a break!! I need one.

How was your weekend? Do you seem to have busier times during the year? For me, Spring always seems to be chock-full of activities and my free time is non-existent!

I hope to catch up on what’s going on today. Have a great day all!

11 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Restaurants, Running, Travel, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Caravan Dinner and 16 Handles

Posted on April 20, 2010 | 9 comments

Good morning all – happy Tuesday! I hope everyone’s Monday was good and all the Boston marathoners are recovering nicely. I was checking the progress of my 18-year-old cousin and this lovely lady and both did AWESOME! Congrats to them and everyone who ran it!

My Marathon Monday was good. As I mentioned yesterday, I was up super early to get in a quick 5-mile run. I made a yummy oatmeal and banana morning mash-up with some delicious brown sugar on top.

Then I headed to work  for the day…just a little bit tired.

What a boring eating and snacking day at work. Mid-morning snack was a granola bar and then lunch was a salad with romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, carrots, walnuts, raisins and chickpeas.

My afternoon snacks were an unphotographed apple and yogurt with Kashi Go Lean. And it was the yucky yogurt. I just couldn’t throw it out – it felt too wasteful. Plus, the pickens were slim in our fridge yesterday and beggars can’t be choosers right? So I sucked it up and at the Yoplait yucky yogurt.

It was loaded with cereal, which made it a little bit better.

After work I headed to the Lower East Side to meet up with my friend Katie for dinner. She suggested Caravan of Dreams, which is where I met up with a few bloggers and blog readers a little while back. I loved it then, so I happily agreed!

We decided that we wanted to share an appetizer and then split our entrees as well, we really wanted to try as much as possible. We started with the Classic Nachos and they were scrumptious!

For our main courses, we split the Shiitake Stir Fry and The Ecuador “live meal.”

They both looked delicious, but the stir fry was the only one that impressed us. The Ecuador was too much like a plain salad – there were hardly any noodles and hardly any of the dressing and pic de gallo. It was unimpressive to say the least. I wish we had ordered another of the main entrees.

I did enjoy the stir fry a lot. However, after our meal I was craving something sweet. Katie had just mentioned a frozen yogurt place called 16 Handles, which was in the neighborhood, so I decided I needed to try it.

All I can say is YUM!! The yogurt at 16 Handles was delicious!! I tried to control myself, but you get to make your own, so it’s kind of tough. Here was my creation:

Yeah, there was a lot going on in there. The frozen yogurt in my bowl is vanilla (boring), NY Cheesecake (divine) and Dulce de Leche (YUMMM). Then I topped my three flavors with a few cookie dough bites (love em), granola and shredded coconut. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!! It ended up coming to about $4, which isn’t so bad. I’ve definitely spent more a Pinkberry.

Have you ever tried 16 Handles?

I certainly do recommend.

However, one thing got me thinking as we were leaving. I noticed a group of three high-schoolers with their yogurt containers piled high and deep with everything you can imagine. I looked at their obscenely large yogurts and then instinctively I looked at them to see what kind of health they appeared to be in. (I couldn’t help it) Two out of the three were extremely overweight. And for some reason this made me really uneasy. I immediately thought of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which I’ve been watching lately, and about all the obese kids in high school these days. These girls were probably about consume at least 500-calorie yogurts (if not more, I’m so bad at estimating) and were likely thinking that because it’s “frozen yogurt” and they saw signs posted that said “low-fat” they were being healthy.  Or maybe they just didn’t care.

And it’s certainly not my place to judge anyone, I just know that if/when I have kids they will learn the value of their food — what it gives you in terms of nutrition and energy and how to enjoy desserts and treats in moderation. To be fair, I wasn’t much of a moderation-kid. I wanted candy, fruit rollups, Little Debbie dessert cakes – you name it and I wanted to eat it. But my mom also instilled in me the need to have three nutritious square meals a day. So maybe that helped tame my snacking a bit. That and the fact that I was always on the go – riding bikes, playing tag, climbing trees, building forts. I didn’t really discover video games until junior high and even then, I wasn’t a huge fan. So I burned a lot of the extra calories I ate through cardio activities.

Sorry for this long tangent. The yogurt place just seemed to be a perfect example of how we got to where we are today in terms of childhood obesity.

For all you mothers out there – what are some of your techniques and tips to teach your kids about nutritious foods? And do they seem to get it, and/or are they interested?

Alright all – have a good Tuesday!

9 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

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

Tagged , , ,

Enjoying Some “Choice Eats”

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 10 comments

Good morning all! How is your Tuesday going so far? Mine is already busy, busy. I also have a feeling the rest of this week is going to be a little bit crazy.

But first, let me do a quick recap of my busy day yesterday. After missing my morning run, I finally dragged myself out of bed and ate some Kashi Heart to Heart Cinnamon cereal for breakfast.

My workday was very busy – I was tying up loose ends and prepping for a big training later this week. What I’m trying to say is that I forgot to take photos of my food throughout the day. I know – I’m a bad blogger. I had a granola bar as a my mid-morning snack, my regular salad for lunch and a pomegranate Chobani yogurt for an afternoon snack.

But the monotony of my daily foods was soon overshadowed by my “dinner” fun. After work I met my friend Katie and we headed to the Village Voice’s Choice Eats Tasting Event. This event featured 50+ restaurants and food from over 35 nations, including Vietnamese, Italian, Uzbekistani, Brazilian, Cambodian, Russian, Tunisian, and Cajun/Creole among many others.

Katie and I dove right in and tried so many things. Here are just a few snapshots:

This meatball, mashed potatoes and drizzle of cranberry sauce was delicious and came from Smorgas Chef.

We then had some delicious mac n’ cheese and I forgot to write down where it was from.

One of both of our absolute favorites was this mini salad with sweet glazed pork on top, along with pickled shalots and cilantro. Yum! This was from Xie Xie:

 I took this kind of cool action shot while we were walking around. This place was über crowded.

 
Despite the many, many vendors and food options, there was a clear winner in our book. We tried a whipped cheesecake with blueberry on top and it was divine. In fact, we went back to Spot Dessert Bar’s table twice! 😉

Yes, technically this was a sweet, but it was eaten for the sake of taste testing.

All in all, Katie and I had a great time. The event went until 9:30 p.m., but they began to run out of food around 8:00 p.m. At that point, we’d had our fill anyway and couldn’t eat anymore. I also sipped on three mini cups of wine…seriously mini. There were tons of beverage stations as well, but we were more focused on the food. Here we are at the end of the night:

There were definitely some way-too-crowded moments with a bit of bumping and pushing, but overall the amount of people was tolerable. I definitely think I’d hit this event up again next year.

One of the best parts about the event is their charitable partner: Slow Food NYC. “Slow Food NYC is the local chapter of a national association that is part of an international movement. Slow Food USA, with over 200 chapters in the USA, is dedicated to achieving a good, clean, and fair food system, where good means food that is real and culturally rooted, clean means food that is produced sustainably and humanely, and fair means that those who produce our food are treated fairly and that everyone has access to good, clean food. 

A portion of the Choice Eats ticket sales will be donated to Slow Food NYC. The donation will be used to maintain and expand these important Harvest Time Programs.”

Have you ever attended a tasting event like this?

This event was absolutely huge, but also a lot of fun.

I headed home in the pouring rain – not fun. I made it home by almost 9 p.m. and watched some of Dancing with the Stars and then headed to bed.

I expect a busy day today and then probably a 5-mile training run on the treadmill since the rain has continued. I’ve got a 15k race coming up this weekend which I’m pretty excited and nervous about. I won’t be racing it, but I’ll run it as a training run. I need to run 18 miles this weekend, so the 15k will be the first 9.3 miles of that long run. Fun, fun – right?

Have you ever run a race as a training run? I’ve seen a few other bloggers mention doing this (like this lady and this gal). And they are both pretty darn speedy, so maybe there’s something to the idea. I just have to focus on not running it too hard and getting caught up in the racing atmosphere or else my long run will turn into a painful run.

Have a nice day all!

10 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, NYRR, Races, Restaurants, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,