Baked Brown Trout, Caprese Orzo Salad & Corn on the Cob

June 6, 2013June 4, 201312 Comments

Hey hey! Happy Thursday; we are almost through the week- woohoo! I got a few requests for the recipe for the meal that I made on Monday night when I posted an Instagram photo on Facebook, so I thought it was only fair to share it with you today! My mom’s friend Jean (not to be confused with Jeanne, although we use “the Jeans” interchangeably because they are all one in the same to us!) gave me a filet of fish that her husband caught while fishing on Lake Ontario after I told her how jealous I was that she gave some to my dad a few months ago. Dennis, Jean’s husband, caught so much Brown Trout that they have been sharing with us fellow fish lovers! As this was only my second time cooking fish (remember the Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia with a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce I made recently? That was the first time I cooked fish on my own!), I was a little nervous! Luckily, dad was just a phone call away and he was able to walk me through the cooking process.

When I was thinking about what I should pair the fish with, I decided it was time to actually make some of the side dish recipes that I always drool over when I read different food magazines and cook books. Hannaford has an amazing little magazine that you can get for free if you spend $25 or more. Clearly, I never spend less than that, so it’s always a nice little treat when I grocery shop at home with my mom! The magazine is filled with lots of interesting recipes and nutrition facts and when I went through it over the weekend, I saw a recipe for Caprese Orzo salad and decided that was a perfect side dish for hot weather!

Baked Brown Trout

The filet that the Brennan’s gave me was MUCH bigger than anything I would buy on my own, but I certainly was not complaining! All I did was rub a little EVOO on it, squeezed the juice of 1/2 a lemon, sprinkled sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash and garlic powder and then cut up some scallions that I grabbed from my garden. I baked it at 350* for about 30 minutes and it was perfect!

Voila! Easy as that!

Caprese Orzo Salad

This recipe is exactly as it is in the Hannaford “Fresh” magazine. I cut the recipe down by A LOT, since I didn’t want to cook a whole box of Orzo, but it’s listed as the full recipe below.

1 lb. Orzo
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. finely ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 pickling cucumbers
8 oz. fresh mozzarella
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Cook orzo according to the directions on the back of the box. While orzo is cooking, combine the ingredients from the lemon juice to the olive oil and mix well.

2. Cut up the tomatoes, cucumbers and mozzarella and add to the “sauce”.

3. Once the orzo is cooked and cooled, combine it with the “sauce” mixture. I put mine in the fridge for the afternoon so it would be nice and chilled when I served it!

Finally, steam up some corn on the cob and serve everything together!

This was such a light and healthy meal- perfect for a hot summer night! The fish was absolutely delicious… there is nothing like eating fish and knowing where it came from and who caught it! Thanks again, Jean and Dennis! And, Danielle agreed that the Caprese Orzo Salad is going to be a staple summer salad this year. For lunch yesterday, I took the orzo salad, added grilled chicken to it and served it atop a salad- such a great way to change up the traditional salad!

Questions for you: What is your favorite cooking or food magazine? Favorite “salad” that you always make? Favorite light, summer meal?

Wednesday Workout: Compound Exercises with CrossFit Cardio

June 5, 2013June 4, 201311 Comments

Hey there! How is your week unfolding so far? My photo shoot was re-scheduled for last night, which was SO fun! We shot on Acorn street and all around Beacon Hill and the Esplanade. More on it later 🙂 Before I get into the workout, I have to vent about what happened on Monday night. If you remember, I was supposed to sub a class at the Wellington BSC on Monday night at 5:30. The class was supposed to be BodyPump, but no BodyPump instructors were available to teach, so the permanent instructor got special approval for a format change so that I could teach the class. I had a great supersets workout all planned out, with only minimal cardio since the class is not used to cardio and I was so excited to finally get to sub at that gym (it’s huge, new, awesome and 5 mins from my apartment).

Well, I got there and had my bench and bar and weights all set up, and I was starting to talk to a few members about the slight format change and then all of a sudden, this lady comes running into the room, still in flip-flops and throws her sneakers on MY bench and runs to the stereo going “few I have 1 minute to spare!”. Clearly, I am very confused and I tried to explain it quietly to her, but she was a very vocal, overly expressionate (I don’t think that’s a word, but I am making it up because it fits well) person who felt the need to make the whole thing a bigger deal than necessary. To make a long story short, she was claiming that she was supposed to sub a 5:30 spin class for Nicole. News flash, lady, there is no 5:30 spin class at this gym on Monday’s and Nicole teaches at Central on Monday’s. Anyway, this lady tells the whole class that she has been teaching for “a million years” and asks then asks them if they wanted Pump or “whatever she is going to teach” (pointing at me). Obviously it made more sense for her to teach the real format of the class, but what bothered me is that she just came in and took it from me! And then kept bringing it up all class and was totally inappropriate (throwing her bar down, picking out and picking on the new people, calling light weights “baby” weights, etc.). ANYWAY. Vent over. Instructors- have you ever experienced something like this? Class goers- have you ever had an instructor like this?!

Ok. Let’s get to the workout. I want to do a recap of the discussion from last week’s post on Compound vs. Isolation Exercises, but I haven’t had a chance to spend time put something together… it will come, though! It’s almost ironic that I am posting today’s workout since I just got over telling you how I am loving isolation exercises more than compound exercises at the moment. What can I say? When I can only pick a few exercises to do in a class, I want them to include as many muscle groups as possible! This workout surely did that.

Most of this workout is fairly self-explanatory, but if you have questions, obviously ask in the comments or shoot me an email! Ab Roll-Ups might be new to you as they were new to me… Thank you, Women’s Health 🙂 Here’s the explanation and picture for the move: Ab Roll-Up. This is a super tough move for your legs, as it’s so much harder to go from seated to standing, but only using your legs, than you’d think! Make sure you’re not rolling too far on your back so that you’re crunching the back of your neck; only roll to about your shoulder blades/meaty part of your upper back. These ended up taking much longer than I had anticipated, so for the 2nd round, they did just 12 and 6 of each and the last round was just 6 of each.

I ended the class with low and high mountain climbers (4 high knees, then drop down and do 4 mountain climbers. Again, thank you Women’s Health) for 2 minutes and more ab work. I liked this workout because it included so many different things and my legs literally felt like jello by the end!

Questions for you: What is your biggest pet peeve about instructors (I won’t be offended!!)? Do you like it when they try to make funny jokes when they aren’t funny? What’s your most favorite “new move” as of late?

Tia’s, Baby Zeke and Maine- Weekend Recap!

June 4, 2013June 3, 201312 Comments

Hey there! Has everyone cooled done a bit? I’ll tell ya, working from home on a Monday is ALMOST as nice as working from home on a Friday! There’s something about not having to do food prep and “week prep” on a Sunday night, especially after coming home from Maine, that is SO nice. Sunday evenings are drastically better when that’s the case.

Friday

My friend, Cristina, hosted a Lupus Fundraising event at Tia’s on Friday night after work. With the weather temps at over 90 degrees, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to spent a Friday evening!

Not only did I get to hang out with my college girlfriends, but my friend, Stephanie, was also there! Steph and I went to the same high school and used to Rollerblade down Main street in Sanford in the summers. #classy

The whole time we were at Tia’s, we were checking our phones since we knew Sara was most likely going to have little Zeke at some point that night. Sure enough, around 8:30, we got THE text from Amy that we had been waiting for! Baby Zeke Aronson White was born!!!! And boy was he beautiful! I think Danielle and I made everyone at Tia’s cheers to baby Zeke! We are proud “Aunts” of this little boy 🙂

Saturday

I got up and packed an overnight bag since Danielle and I were going to head up to Maine right from the YMCA after my class. Class was sweaty and awesome, but to be honest, my mind was TOTALLY focused on going home to meet Zeke that I can barely even remember what I taught! I hope everyone liked it, though 🙂

We got to Sanford around 1:15 and drove straight to the hospital. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I will say that Zeke is the most beautiful little boy and has a wholeeeee lot of people who are already so in love with him! Sara looked like a beaming mom and it was so sweet to see her interacting with Zeke. She was in labor for about 20 hours with unreal contractions and the kicker was that she couldn’t get the epidural 😦 Sara was fully on board with getting one, too, but things moved so quickly once they broke her water that it was too late to give her the epidural. Poor thing! I can’t imagine how tired and physically beat she was. Anyway, here he is!

(mom and baby! I had Sara send me a pic of her with Zeke when I was writing up this post since I realized I only had pictures of Zeke being held by other people… we were baby hogs!)

(and then she sent me this! I wonder what he is dreaming about that makes him smile?!)

We stayed at the hospital with Sara until about 5pm when we decided to give her and Tim some time to themselves. Once we got home we had a really nice cocktail hour on the back patio with mom and dad.

Not long after we poured drinks, Amy and Chris stopped by to do more baby gushing and celebrating!

We all decided it was too hot to BBQ or cook, so we ordered food from the Corner Store (literally right next door) and called it good. While it tasted delicious, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst stomach ache 😦 Such a fun, impromptu little get together, though! Sara, congratulations on your new little baby boy. I cannot wait to spend so much time with both of you and to be able to watch him grow up!

Sunday

I woke up early (I mean, I was in bed at 10pm, so no wonder why I was up early!) and decided to go visit my very good high school friend, Caitlin. She was due to have her little baby boy on June 1st, but he decided he wasn’t ready to come out quite yet! As I was leaving the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the huge snapping turtle who crosses our lawn each year to get from the brook behind our house to the pond across the street in order to lay her eggs. She was HUGE!

Anyway! For Caitlin’s sake, I hope he decides to grace the world with his presence sooner rather than later! I hadn’t seen Cait in far, far too long, but like always, as soon as we get together, it’s like nothing has changed; the true sign of friendship! She is the most adorable little pregnant lady (she literally just has a basket ball belly!) and I am so bummed I didn’t get a picture of her. Can’t wait to meet her little one!

When I got home from my visit, Dad and Danielle had already done all the potato planting.. bummer! Since there was nothing else to do to help around the house, we took advantage of the sunny (but HOT) weather and sun bathed on the back patio.

We decided to hit the road relatively early so that we could go grocery shopping and unpack and grab dinner (since it was too hot to cook). We walked to the grocery store (about a 1/2 mile away) to get a little exercise since we did nothing all day but relax in the sun! For dinner, we kept it casual and grabbed apps at Not Your Average Joes. I got their special “Strawberry Rhubarb Sangria” which was SO SO SO delicious! And BIG! Look at this thing!

I got the Tai Chicken Lettuce Wraps for dinner and they were quite tasty.

Filling, but in a light way.. perfect for hot weather!

Well, there ya go! Fun-filled weekend surrounded by friends, family and a new baby!

Questions for you: What did you do to stay cool last weekend? Favorite summer cocktail? Any new babies in your lives? Do share!

Weekly Workouts

June 3, 2013June 2, 20136 Comments

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? I was in Maine for half of it, which is always a better place than the city to “survive” the heat. I taught too many classes last week, but happily, I survived injury free (my nagging injuries didn’t even pop up when teaching my second double of the week- woohoooo!!!). Now that I have dropped back on the number of classes per week that I teach, I realize that teaching 6 a week, while working a full time job and blogging was just way.too.much.

Last Week’s Workouts

Monday- I ran 3.1 miles in Maine, while adding in 25 reps of different strength exercises after each mile which was a fun way to change-up a run. I also gardened with my dad all day!

Tuesday- I got asked to sub a double at the South Station BSC last minute, so I took it (since it’s a 5 min walk from my office). I taught a Kickboxing class followed by a UXF class and I have to say that I really like teaching those 2 classes (what I do on Thursdays) in that order wayyyyy better than what I do on Thursdays!
Wednesday– I got in 25 minutes on the elliptical before teaching UXF Burn. I’ll try to get that workout to you this week!

(The humid weather+sweat= crazy frizzy hair!)

Thursday- I had zero time to make up a workout to teach in SHRED at work (dealt with computer issues all day), so I decided to repeat a UXF Burn class I taught a few weeks ago, but it worked fine! Kickboxing was a blast as always and it’s so nice to see how much that class has grown since I first started teaching it! Another plus of of the double was the amount of energy I had! I have no idea where it came from, and usually by the end of my double I am beat, but last Thursday was awesome!

(Shirt says “No one has ever drowned in their own sweat”, but I’ll tell ya, I came damn near close on Thursday!)

Friday- REST! Besides walking to Dunkin Donuts, haha.
Saturday- Taught Kickboxing for the 3rd week in a row at Oak Square before heading up to Maine!
Sunday– Rest, again. I woke up really quite sore from Saturday’s kickboxing (which is so weird because it was the 3rd kickboxing class of the week that I taught so you’d think my muscles would be used to it!), so I decided to take it easy again.

This Week’s Workouts

Monday- I am subbing a UXF Burn/BodyPump class at 5:30 at the Wellington BSC!!! I LOVE this gym and it’s legit 5 mins from my house so I am pumped. BSCers- come join!
Tuesday- Maybe a rest, maybe go to a kickboxing class, maybe run on my own. We will see!
Wednesday- The usual- cardio and teaching UXF Burn.
Thursday- The usual- teaching SHRED and Kickboxing.
Friday- Pending on what I do on Tuesday will determine what I do on Friday.
Saturday- NOT TEACHING! I may join a Lupus walk with friends, may do something extra in addition to that, who knows!
Sunday- I would like to do something different- maybe my own workout, maybe something Athena has posted lately, maybe yoga or Core Fusion?

So, there you have it! After my crazy teaching schedule last week, it’s nice to have an open schedule this week. Any suggestions for what I should do for a workout with my extra time?? Any good ones that you have done recently?

Questions for you: What was the best workout you did last week? Try anything new? How did you escape the heat, but still get a workout in?

Scenes from the Weekend

June 2, 20134 Comments

Good morning! I am blogging from Maine, again, as my very dear friend, Sara had her sweet little baby boy yesterday. More recap on that later (because he deserves a whole post he is so beautiful), but I wanted to give you a glimpse into my Friday night and Saturday/night. I hope you’re all having wonderful weekends and enjoying the heat as much as possible!