Omelet On the Run

A quick post this morning with a quick breakfast idea. The other day I found myself out of yogurt which prevented me from making my usual breakfast. I scoured my fridge and found an unopened carton of egg whites and some spinach on it’s last leg. My mind started stirring and I immediately wanted an omelet.

But I have to head to work. No time for an omelet. Well I guess I could. I could make it now and throw it in a tupperware and see if that works. Alright, I decided to give it a shot.  I cooked up an omelet while getting ready, tossed it into a tupperware and ate it at work. And it worked! It wasn’t gross or soggy or ruined at all. I was so excited, I made a similar concoction the next day, this time with zucchini.

I chopped up the zucchini and let it sauté on low heat while I got ready in the morning. Hair, makeup, outfit, zucchini is still cookin’. After about 10 minutes, I added in some egg whites, also cooked on low heat. Grab my bag, get everything together, head back to the stove. I added in a laughing cow cheese, added a piece of bread to a plastic ziplock. Out the door!

I was so happy that I found this idea as another good quick portable breakfast for those busy work mornings and I just had to share it with you. Super simple, super healthy.

• veggie of choice—I chopped up a zucchini one day, spinach another
• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup egg whites
• 1 laughing cow cheese
• S&P
• a tupperware

1. Sautee the veggies until cooked through, about 5 or 10 minutes, on low heat

2. Add in egg whites. Allow to sit for a few minutes

3. Add in cheese. Fold over into omelet style.

4. Pack it up and go!

This morning I was back to my usual:

Mmmm look at the colors of that nectarine! Like a sunrise 🙂

Do you have any good quick on the run breakfast ideas? I’d love to hear!

One Day, Two Notable Restaurants

Morning! I woke up today thinking it was Saturday and wondering why my alarm was going off so darn early. Aw man, two more days and then we’ll be there.

Yesterday I had quite the foodie day. We had a special celebratory work lunch and then my mom came into the city to have dinner. Both restaurants I went to were pretty great, so I figured it was worth a recap.

First of all, my day started out again with a walk in the park with Katie. Creepy, bad picture below. Clearly neither of us know how to look at a camera at 7am:

We stopped again at Le Pain for coffee after a good walk. There was this dog waiting in line that cracked me up. “I’m next, thank you”

For lunch, one of the people at my company took us out to L’Entrecote for the real Steak Frites. This place has one thing and one thing only on their menu. And they definitely do it right.

Once you sit down, you order how you want your steak: Blue, Rare, Medium or Well Done. That’s all, your order is placed. They bring out a green salad, and then shortly after, you get this:

Not the prettiest picture, but wowwzzaa this was good. The green sauce is their “special sauce” which makes them famous. Apparently, the original Paris location has a constant line around the block to get in.

They give you a second helping on both the steak and the frites. I could barely finish one serving!

And we all ordered dessert. I stayed healthy knowing I was headed back to my office (and also had a glass of wine at lunch… such a treat! 😉 )

Raspberry Sorbet

Just a few hours of work later, and I was off to meet my mom for dinner. My mom is up on the NY restaurant scene and knows about more great restaurants in the city than I do. She recommended that we go to the Plaza Hotel near Central Park and check out the Todd English Food Hall. Of course, I trusted her recommendation.

There is my beautiful mama! 🙂

When you walk into the Plaza Hotel, you go downstairs to the food hall which basically reminded me of an indoor market. There were stands for different types of food & desserts, and some local vendors who even have stations set up.

Luke’s Lobster!

You can either grab something quick at the stations (would be a great lunch option if you work close by), or you can go into the Todd English Food Hall restaurant which is located in the back. It is the only actual restaurant down there.

My mom and I ordered a flatbread (tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions, chicken, parmesan, basil) and the the Lobster Roll from the Sushi Bar. A side salad with shaved grilled corn as well.

The food was all delicious, but the flatbread was definitely the best choice.

BUT, afterwards, we were lookin’ for some dessert and stumbled across the most ridiculous frozen yogurt station. called YoArt. This was the only frozen yogurt place that I’ve ever seen to date that tops 16 Handles.

LOOK AT ALL OF THE TOPPINGS!

These toppings weren’t your average fro-yo toppings. They were gourmet. Salted caramels, chocolate covered goji berries, Ghirardelli chocolates, chocolate covered gummy bears, etc. The list runs on and on.

My mom and I loaded up (sorry no pic), but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. We couldn’t fit too much in but it was still the perfect end to the delicious foodie night. I would definitely head back to the Todd English Food Hall in a heartbeat. There are so many things to try there and much of it is very reasonably priced. It’s a great lunch option, or a place to go grab a coffee and a dessert with a friend. Not to mention the wide range of items on their sit down dinner menu that I would love to try.

Thanks for coming in, Mom! 🙂

Overall, yesterday was a day filled with some fulfilling morning exercise and amazing food. Not all days are quite like that, but I’m thankful for the ones that are!

What I ate Wednesday (WIAW): 6.26.2012

Good morning! I just wrote out this entire post and then accidentally deleted it at the very last second. How awesome? I’m going to try to convince myself that the rest of my Wednesday will not operate on that same wavelength 🙂

Anyway, I am really excited to do my second WIAW post, even though it is again Tuesday’s eats like it will always be because I like to get this out Wednesday mornings. Thanks again to Jenn for hosting!

So here we go. Breakfast started out with some overnight oats:

The night before, I grabbed a tupperware and added:

• 1/4 cup oats (usually use a 1/2 cup but its all I had left)
• 3/4 cup 0% Fage Greek Yogurt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 T flax
• 1 chopped up apricot (fresh not dried)
• handful of almonds
• lots of cinnamon

Refrigerate, sleep, wake up, grab. Love it!

Alongside my breakfast I also had some Ginger tea. Usually I drink coffee in the mornings but I woke up with a weird stomachache and decided to go with the tea to help it out. Luckily, it did the trick and I started feeling better by mid-morning.

Before lunch, I headed out for a short walk. I’ve been trying to get out of my office for at least a 20 minute walk everyday to stretch my legs and enjoy the weather. I grabbed a hot cup of coffee since I missed it in the morning and headed out for a stroll. I covered about 1.5 miles in 20-25 minutes. The weather really felt like fall yesterday, so strolling around with hot coffee got me really excited for fall to roll around!

Next, lunchtime:

I brought an Ezekiel Sprouted Grain English Muffin with a turkey burger, mashed up avocado, thick slices of tomato and ketchup. Red pepper slices on the side for some crunch.

This was so good! Mashed up ripe avocado rules.

Snacks:

And a handful of these:

After work I headed to do some yoga with friends. My brother’s fiance’s friend’s sister (HA) is a yoga teacher out in Portland. She was visiting NYC this week so they got some girls together to have her teach a yoga class to. They have a beautiful apartment on the West Side with an amazing rooftop, so our original plan was to do the yoga class on the roof. However, after hiking up there we realized the wind was way too strong to do it up there… our yoga mats wouldn’t even stay down! We ended up moving around their living room furniture and squishing in their apartment. It worked out great, and Heather was an incredible yoga teacher. She led us through about an hour of Vinyasa and we all agreed that she showed us some moves we had never done before. She also had really good tunes to go along with it. Thanks again Heather!! 🙂

It was 9pm by the time I left their apartment and I was STARVING. I booked it in a cab to Fairway on 86th street to hit up their to-go salad bar. To any New Yorkers out there, this is an awesome deal. For $9 you can get a masssiiivee salad with any toppings you want, and Fairway’s produce is really top notch. I definitely grab these salads pretty often when I am in a rush but want something super healthy and designed by moi.

This is only about 2/3 of the serving they gave me. It is seriously gigantic.

In the salad I put:

• Spinach base
• Artichokes
• Olives
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Peppers
• Beets
• Goat Cheese
• Jalapenos <—MISTAKE. My mouth was on fire and I was tearing.
• Balsamic Vinegar and EVOO

All Chopped Up!

And a few animal crackers for dessert:

And then I quickly hit the hay. Nothing beats crawling into bed after a long yoga class 🙂

And there we have it, another day of my eats. Here’s to a quick end to this week!

On Travel: Headed to Greece & Turkey

Traveling has been a big part of my life since as far back as I can remember. My Dad is in the hospitality business which has brought him all over the world, and as a result, my family also made some major moves when we were younger. I actually lived in London for 5 years growing up.

Since college and living on my own, I definitely travel a lot less, but still make it a priority in my life. I love getting out my current environment and exploring a whole new area. It allows me to put my own life into perspective and gain a better understanding of what else is out there.

After moving to NYC after college, my first big trip was with my two best friends, Amanda and Romy. We rented a car in Paris and drove throughout France, stopping in Burgundy and Provence and finally making it to Nice.

Last year, I ventured to Israel with a group of about 25 other people in my age group (all strangers at the time).

And now I am so excited to say that I am headed to Greece & Turkey with two of my best friends at the end of the summer. Greece is one of those places that I have been wanting to go to for my whole life. Ever since I saw Mamma Mia (ha!) it has been on the top of my list. I love the pictures you see of the houses built into the cliffs:

Source

We are planning on going to Mykonos, Santorini and Istanbul. If you have any recommendations, please let me know! 🙂

What is your favorite place you’ve traveled to? Any plans this summer?

A Weekend Recap: Spectating the Fairfield Half Marathon

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was mainly spent in CT where I went to cheer on two of my friends as they ran the Fairfield Half Marathon. I came back feeling refreshed and of course quite sunburned. Here is a short recap of my weekend:

Friday started off with a relaxed girls night with a couple of my friends. My friend Katie cooked while I sat back and watched. It was nice to have someone else in the kitchen!

She cooked up an awesome meal. Whole wheat bow tie pasta, shrimp, squash, and spinach with a chunky tomato sauce and quality parmesan. She is a parm snob so she brought her own over. Apparently, mine wasn’t good enough 😉

Brunch with a couple of friends at Uva on Saturday morning after a bootcamp class at the gym. Review of Uva coming soon!

Then we headed to CT. Saturday afternoon was spent hanging out at my friend Kenny’s beach house and then Saturday night we went to my house and hung out with my sister and her two friends. We ordered pizza and pasta so Katie could carb load and I could pretend like I needed to carb load too 😉

Up bright and early on Sunday! We picked up Kenny at 7am in order to get a parking spot before an 8:30am start. We got ourselves situated, picked up their bibs, and took some pictures on the beach:

There were several vendors set up with food and supplies for the runners. I grabbed some swag from Whole Foods since I get amped up about anything free. We hung out in the shade, stretched, and drank some water. At around 8:10 we headed over to the start line where they separate the men and women. I hadn’t seen this before, but instead of putting people in corrals, they had two different start lines – one for the men and one for the women. At the beginning of the race, they head off in different directions and then meet up a few minutes into the race.

With about 10 minutes to go, I wished Kenny luck and went with Katie to the women’s start.

Katie was incredibly relaxed and excited about the race. I gave her a lot of credit—if that had been me, I would have been a nervous wreck!

And off they go….

I then dropped off all of my stuff in the car and booked it over to our designated meeting spot. Katie wanted me at mile 9 since she thought miles 9-11 would be her most difficult. The course went out and made a big loop, so I knew exactly where I needed to meet her. I walk/ran the 2.5 miles to meet up with her and then began cheering for the runners as I waited. Katie was able to text me during the run and I tried to motivate her to get to where I was.

Finally, I heard her yell my name and saw her coming up the hill looking GREAT. She asked if I’d run with her and I quickly scooped up my stuff and started running along. The funniest part about the day was how quiet Katie was during the next mile and a half. Katie NEVER stops talking. Ever. We joke about it all the time. But during the next 1.5 miles, not a peep. I wasn’t sure how to best help her at this point. Talk to her? Just be quiet? Distract her? Talk about the beer she could enjoy later in the day? I think I tried every tactic and then I just shut up and ran. Katie runs at a much faster pace than me so I think I didn’t have an option other than to just be quiet and run with her after a while.

I left Katie at around mile 10.5 and said I’d see her at the finish. As soon as I stopped, I realized Kenny was probably right behind. I turned around and saw him heading toward me. He looked awesome and like he wasn’t even sweating it! I ran with him until mile 11 and then he said he wanted to speed up to take off and finish strong. Off he went!

I ran most of the rest of the race with the runners. It was kind of weird running with them, but nobody cared and people probably just thought I was a runner sans bib. I loved this aspect of the race—it was so laid back and very easy-going, much different from many NYC races.

I met up with both of them at the finish and they both looked awesome. This was Kenny’s first race ever, and both of their first half marathons. They killed it, coming in at 1:53 and 1:54 which is insane for their first time. I am so proud of them and hope that they realize how big of an accomplishment this is.

Half marathoners!!!

After they got some watermelon and water in them, we headed home and quickly back to the city. The rest of the night was spent with some celebratory beers out on my balcony and some time with Garth, my friend’s dog.

He was pooped by the end of the night. As were we.

How was your weekend? Any recommendations for how to be a good race spectator and what to say to runners to motivate them while they are running?

On Loving Your Mornings

I read this article recently and it really stuck out in my mind as one of my favorite articles that I have read in a while:

http://yourbellalife.com/healthy-living/add-color-to-your-morning-routine/

The article is written by Sarah Jenks who is a Lifestyle and Nutrition consultant and also a fellow graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Her whole philosophy on weight loss and life in general is to enjoy yourself and that if you are living your life with a focus on pleasure, enjoyment and self-care,  then you won’t even need to worry about your weight. “Live More, Weight Less” is her branded motto and her mentality in a nutshell, that the more you “live”, the less you will naturally weigh. When you are taking care of yourself in every way and thoroughly enjoying your life, you won’t need to turn to food to fill any voids.

If I could line myself up with anyone’s philosophy on health and life in general, it would be hers. My thoughts have evolved in this area over the last several years, and I’ve found that when I focus on living my life, surrounding myself with amazing people, taking care of myself and my friends/family, and doing things I love, that everything falls into place.

So along those lines, I want to talk about loving your morning routine. In this article, Sarah talks about how we set ourselves up for an energetic and centered day when we make an effort in the mornings to enjoy ourselves. Rather than waking up just in the nick of time to get to work and rushing out the door, spend some time making your morning faaabulous.

Some of her ideas:

• Upgrading your shower products. Use body washes and scrubs that make you feel amazing.
• Dancing around your apartment
• Making yourself a delicious breakfast
• Grabbing coffee with a girlfriend
• Going for a walk outside
• Reading a magazine at a local coffee shop for 20 minutes

These sound good huh?

So this week I really focused on making my mornings better and more enjoyable. This past weekend, I took some time for “me” on Saturday and bought a newspaper and a coffee and sat in my apartment. I strutted over to Starbucks more or less in my PJs and bought the NY Times. Relaxation at its finest:

Some DVR catch up:

On Tuesday, I headed to the East River as the sun was coming up and made up a short and sweet boot camp workout for myself. I did sprints and suicides along the basketball court there, and took some time to soak in the sun and stretch it all out.

On Thursday, I met up with one of my best friends Katie at 6:15am and we went for a walk in Central Park and got coffee at Le Pain Quotidien when they first opened at 7am:

We also had a solid 10 minute stretching session near a picnic table in the shade. It felt like giving ourselves a massage. We both overlook taking the time to stretch but this felt SO GOOD!

Doggies!

Today I got up, and decided to celebrate Friday by wearing a new springy shirt that I bought from JCrew and cash in a free drink coupon to Starbucks.

Some other ways that I have spruced up my mornings and learned to love that hour or so before I go to work:

• Light a candle while getting dressed. It will just make the morning feel special (and your apartment smell good!)
• Make a breakfast the night before and eat it out of a jar. Jars > Bowls

• Wear a knock-out outfit. Get up and take more time than usual to get ready. Make yourself look awesome. Don’t rush.
• Go for a walk and listen to a podcast. Download a random one from iTunes and learn something new.
• Go sit down and eat at a nearby cafe. Treat yourself to an actual breakfast on a weekday.
• Grab your coffee from a new and different coffee shop every now and then.
• Watch the Today show or some other morning show for 15 minutes. Just sit and relax. Or watch while you are at the gym.
• Go to the gym but do something that feels good. When you walk in, check in with yourself and see what sounds good. Weights? Elliptical? Running?
• Download a few new songs the night before and play them as you get ready.

Any other ideas? How do you enjoy your mornings? I’d love to hear!!

Colorful Quinoa Salad with Chili Avocado Yogurt Dressing

Good morning! It is quite the hot day here in NYC. My friend Katie and I got up this morning to go for a walk in Central Park and were seriously sweating after just a few minutes. Yesterday was no different… it was one of those days where you walk outside and you might as well be in a sauna. So, as I was walking home from work in the sauna, I was toying with different dinner ideas in my head. All I knew was that anything hot or that required me to touch my oven was out of the question. I just wanted something to cool me off!

Salads are rarely on my mind come dinner time, but yesterday was one of those hot summer days when all you want is something light, cool and refreshing.

But this dinner needed some spice. It needed something interesting. I can’t do boring or I just end up unsatisfied. Ah- ha! I will make a good dressing, a dressing that I’ve never had before and that will take this beautiful lookin’ quinoa salad to the next level.

So I started thinking… I want something creamy. I have avocados and yogurt. Wouldn’t those go well together? I have never really made a dressing before, so I wasn’t sure. I started googling a few things just to make sure I wasn’t going to be totally off base with this concoction I was dreaming up. Turns out, yes, there are dressings with an avocado/yogurt base out there in the world. Sweet.

I swear there is quinoa under there. A whole cup, in fact. Topped with cucumbers, red and orange peppers, chopped red onion and two hard boiled eggs. Fun fact: this was the first time I had EVER hard boiled eggs. I know… amateur. I used this technique and although it worked, I had the hardest time peeling off the shell. What did I do wrong? I didn’t add salt to the water, maybe that was it? Mom… if you are out there.. please advise 🙂

I turned to my mini food processor for the dressing. Half an avocado, a couple tablespoons of greek yogurt, some lemon juice. I then had this idea to make it slightly spicy, so I grabbed the chili powder. I kept adding more and more until it had some kick. It reminded me of a dressing you would find at a Mexican restaurant to top off a taco salad.

All mixed together… see I told you there was quinoa.

This was delicious and special. It was a good change up from my normal olive oil + vinegar dressing. It was creamy, thick, and tasty. Not to mention super healthy. Win, win!

With the leftovers (1/2 an avocado base yields 2-3 generous servings), I created my lunch for today:

I added the dressing to more quinoa, chopped spinach, peppers, cucumbers and a chopped up turkey burger. I can’t wait to break into this.

In other news… get ready to cry. Bring out the tissues. My friend sent me this link this morning and it brought tears to my eyes. It is definitely worth checking out :

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity

Have a great Thursday!

 

Colorful Quinoa Salad with Chili Avocado Dressing: 

makes 1 salad and 2-3 generous servings of the dressing

• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cucumber, chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or you could use feta for a stronger flavor)
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup dressing

For the dressing (creates 2-3 generous servings):

• 1/2 avocado
• 2 T greek yogurt ( I use 0% Fage)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 t chopped garlic
• 1/2 T chili powder

Combine all dressing ingredients in a food processor. Generously pour on top of all salad ingredients. Mix together!

What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW): First Edition

As a long time blog reader, I have come across many WIAW posts, where different bloggers post about what they ate for a given day. I always think its interesting and it also gives me ideas about what to make, what to bring as snacks to work, what quick meals I can put together, etc. So here is my first WIAW, with Tuesday’s eats. I hope you like it and thanks to Jenn at Peas & Crayons for hosting!

Breakfast: about 3/4 cup Fage 0% yogurt, sliced nectarine, handful of salted almonds (meant to buy unsalted, oops), about 3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean, drizzle of honey.

Lunch: Spinach salad with chopped carrots and homemade dressing (balsamic vinegar, spicy mustard, maple syrup), and a sharp cheddar and strawberry jam sandwich on an Ezekiel Sprouted Grain English Muffin. I got this idea from Kath’s blog and have been wanting to make it for a while. It was so good!

Snack: Two Cookies

Dinner: It was my best friend, Amanda’s, birthday and we went to Back Forty for a Crab Boil. For anyone living in NY, I highly recommend this as a place for a birthday or large group event. Every Tuesday, Back Forty has a Crab Boil and you buy tickets for $60 in advance which includes all you can eat crabs, sides such as cornbread, spiced potatoes and green beans and fruit cobbler for dessert. The $60 also includes tax and gratuity.

Amanda’s boyfriend did an awesome job organizing this and he ensured that we got a table outside in the Garden. We lucked out in terms of the weather and it was the perfect night to sit outside for hours. It’s really rare that you find a place in NYC with a huge backyard like this so we all really appreciated the laid back atmosphere.

It was incredibly messy, and man, you had to work for your food. But it was so worth it. The experience was unique and the food was really delicious.

The birthday girl and her Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with a candle! Happy Birthday Mands! (sorry for the crappy pics… I am still just using my iPhone and the lighting was tough)

So what did I even eat? Well, I’d say about 8 crabs (there is barely any crab meat in each), a piece of cornbread, several green beans, a few potatoes and half of my cobbler. Oh and about a beer and a half. I also snuck some corn bread in my bag for another day… 🙂

And here we are. Me on the left, Amanda (bday girl), and my other best friend Romy. The three of us have known each other since freshman year of college and have been best friends ever since. Good times 😉

A Summer Dessert: Sautéed Grapefruit with Ricotta

As I mentioned yesterday, I am aiming for a healthy couple of days coming off of a not so healthy weekend. Yesterday was just that…. success! My planning ahead definitely helped and I enjoyed delicious homemade food all day long.

Last night after a filling dinner of sweet potato fries and a turkey burger, I was in need of a little somethin’ somethin’. Although I love my froyo, I wanted to keep it light.

In walked this idea. I honestly wish I had a grill, but I live in a shoebox in NY and very few of us have grills. This would have probably been even better had I grilled the grapefruit, but sautéing also produces a delicious result.

Here, I simply cut up a grapefruit into bite sized chunks, tossed it in a packet of Truvia that I had hanging around (I don’t really use fake sugar but had this packet lying around from a while ago and it was the only sugar I had on hand).

Sautéed it in a pan for about 2-3 minutes until the grapefruit was hot. When you cook it, it makes it even sweeter!

I then topped it with a dollop of ricotta, a few mini morsels and a drizzle of honey.

Simple, summery perfection. This will definitely be repeated. The ricotta was so rich and creamy on top of a super sweet, light summer fruit. Of course a few mini chocolate morsels can’t hurt, and they melted all over the hot grapefruit and ricotta. Mmmm…..

Sautéed (or grilled) Grapefruit with Ricotta:

1 serving

• 1 grapefruit, peeled and sliced into chunks
• about 1/4 cup ricotta cheese or a little less
• 1 T mini chocolate chips
• 2 t sugar
• 1 t honey

1. Toss grapefruit chunks in sugar

2. Place grapefruit into a heated pan, sauté for 2-3 minutes until hot.

3. Top with remaining ingredients. Let the chocolate melt. Enjoy! 🙂

On Preparing for the Week

They say that failing to plan means planning to fail. I do think there is a lot of truth to this, especially when it comes to achieving goals that are sometimes difficult. Eating healthy throughout the week can definitely be a struggle. We are busy, we are tired, we try to do a million things at once, and so many unknowns always come up.

Coming off of a weekend of pizza and frozen yogurt, I want to have a somewhat healthier next few days. I can feel my body craving vegetables, fruit and simple homemade food. So yesterday I spent just two hours getting together some delicious and healthy food for the week.

Here we have my turkey burgers:

Sweet potato fries courtesy of Tina’s Tutorial:

Simple Quinoa because I like to have at least one grain on hand, and my Compost Cookies:

These are for packing to go alongside a salad for lunch or for snacks.

I tried to think ahead and make a few healthy things to have on hand that weren’t totally boring. Sure I also bought plenty of fruits and vegetables but it’s nice to have a few actual recipes that I cooked to add some variety. Planning ahead definitely helps me stick to my goals. Now I can go into the next few days knowing I have delicious food that I actually look forward to waiting for me.

Here’s to a healthy week!

How do you prep for the week ahead? Do you have any staples that you cook on Sundays to have throughout the week?