Category: Dining Out

Birthday Week!

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Hey everyone! TGIF,right?! Remember how I said the week wasn’t going by slow? Yeah, I was so wrong. As soon as I wrote that, my weekly drastically slowed down and I felt a day ahead. But! Good news is that it is Friday! Birthday weekend officially kicks off at the end of the work day today. Woohoo!

Catching up…

Wednesday was a great workout day. Actually, the whole week has been awesome. I have been pleasantly sore all week, which hasn’t happened in a while so I must be doing different things this week that has “shocked” my body. Love that! Before class, I managed to run 3.25 miles. Nothing like being a sweaty beast before class even starts:)

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I taught UXF, but was able to incorporate some moves from Wednesday’s April Arms Challenge workout. I switched up the moves a little bit, but we got it all in!

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(Took this from Sunday’s 3-2-1 circuit. New favorite move!)

007(We just did side lunge and biceps curls, so I switched it to an isometric side lunge & 1-armed triceps extension. 30 seconds each side, 3 rounds)

008(Finishing off class with 3 rounds of 30 second wall sits & hammer curls, followed by 30 seconds of high knees)

The whole trip home (I have to get back on the T and then take a bus from Davis… really not that fun), I brainstormed what I could throw together for dinner. I am usually good at having enough leftovers from “Sunday Dinner” to get me through until Thursday, but not this week. I ended up throwing together a Caprese Omelette, which, even though it didn’t look that good, tasted delicious and was just what I wanted!

011Birthday’ing

Yesterday, my friend/coworker took me out for a birthday lunch at Miel which is the French restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel (remember when I went there for a massage?). French cuisine is my absolute favorite (I blame it on the sauce and cheese that accompany every meal!), so I was really excited about this lunch. JP got the French Onion Soup to start and he said it was delicious (I mean, how can it NOT be delicious when it looks that cheesy and gooey?!)

015I usually get the Cobb salad, but yesterday I splurged on the Croque Monsieur. Best.Decision.Ever.

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And, no birthday is complete without dessert, right?

019This was a flourless chocolate cake and it was to die for! I am usually not a huge fan of flourless things, but this was amazing! I was thankful that I was teaching a double after work! haha

As for today, I am not digging the gloomy weather! I just hope it’s nice for tomorrow since I am celebrating my birthday at the Brahmin and want to wear my birthday dress without freezing to death. Tonight is the first night I am NOT teaching, and, I just don’t really know what to do with myself! I am pretty sore from workouts this week, but since it’s mostly my lower half, I’ll be fine to do today’s A.A.C. workout… and maybe some light cardio? Who knows!

I’ll check back in soon! To all my other April Birthday Buddies, I hope you’re having a great month!

Questions for you: What is your favorite cuisine? What is your favorite restaurant? Any good workouts to share this week?

From MA to ME

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Greetings from my favorite state: Maine! As much as I love my life in Massachusetts, my heart will always be in my home state of Maine, so I love when I have the chance to break away from the fast-paced city life and slllooowww down and hang out in Maine with my parents.

Let’s catch up on Friday before we get to Saturday…

Last time I checked in with you, I was debating on what to do for a workout. I wasn’t feeling great and had had a couple of intense workouts earlier in the week. I thought about just walking or doing nothing, but when Athena suggested that I do the “Deck of Cards” workout (originated by Bob Harper- google it), I was totally peer pressured. I had wanted to do this workout for a while, so I figured that Friday was the best day to do it.

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Yeah, that face totally means “oh, wow. that was killer. #sweatybeastmode”. I picked cardio and core moves since I had just lifted on Thursday (and was teaching UXF later in the day where I knew I’d be doing about 50% of the strength exercises) and let me tell you, when I flipped multiple hearts followed by diamonds, or vice versa, I was cursing. The whole workout, including a 5 minute warm up, only took me about 30 minutes so it is great to do when you’re in a time crunch or traveling. (for those of you unfamiliar with the “deck of cards” workout, you pick and exercise to do for each suit in the deck. When you flip the cards over, that’s what you do for an exercise. Face cards= 10 reps, Aces= 11 reps).

Post workout, I decided that I just HAD to get to Lulu to get that tank that I had been dreaming about.

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Cute, right?! And, I ended up finding a really cute of low-rise (unheard of at Lulu) capri’s on sale for $29!! With my instructor discount, that’s basically free when it comes to Lulu:) Since I “saved” so much money and had extra time on my meter and before class, I treated myself to some frozen yogurt.

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YUM! Great fuel for teaching, right?! 😉 Class went great, though. Wasn’t a huge group, but considering it was Easter weekend I was happy with the turnout. Post class, I grabbed a couple of drinks- and nachos- with a friend and my sister. Yum, again!

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My sister and I called it a relatively early night since I knew I had to teach at 10am today and pack and be ready to head to Maine straight from teaching.

Onto today….

My day started out with an hour cardio kickboxing class at the Oak Square YMCA. For the new readers, I recently dropped my Saturday 9AM TBC class at the Allston BSC for an every-other Saturday Kickboxing class at 10AM at the YMCA.  This class makes my week! Even on Easter weekend, I had 31-32 people in class today and boy did we SWEAT! Perfect start to my weekend of extra glasses of vino (yes, that is possible…I am the “wuss” in my family”) and extra candy.

We had an extra long trip up to Maine due to a shopping stop in Kittery and ice cream stop in Sanford

015Avocado ice cream?! No, thanks! Plus, Shaw’s Ridge is wayyy better than Shain’s anyway (I worked and managed Shaw’s Ridge for 7 summers and had the privilege of working with the BEST group of girls everrrr, so I am biased, but the ice cream quality really is much better).

We finally got home around 4pm and got back in the car with mom to head to our roommate’s mom’s house. My mom and Amy’s mom are best friends and when you take our mom and  my sister, Amy, Sara and Rachel, that makes up the “Shapleigh” girls. Rachel wasn’t there today, but we still had a blast!

EasterOk, how CUTE is Amy’s mom’s centerpiece?! I swear, that is the best use of peeps I have ever seen! I just love these girls so much!

025From L to R: my mom, Chris (Amy and Sara’s mom, me, Amy- our roommate-, Sara- Amy’s sister- Danielle- my sister)

As much as we would’ve loved to have stayed and had fun with them all night, dad was at home waiting for us to eat dinner. I told him I wanted crab cakes, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he not only had the crab cakes ready for me when I got home, but also had chicken sausage sando’s, veal sando’s, and pea soup. I’m a lucky girl!

We also surprised mom with the coolest thing ever! Mom and dad live off of box wine (they drink A LOT of wine, so it makes more sense to buy by the box) and my sister and I found this “Purse Box Wine” that we knew she’d love.

wine purse

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As for the rest of the night, I’ll likely be in bed early since I’m exhausted! Church in the morning and then a delicious Easter spread!

Questions for you: What are you doing for Easter? Have anything you’re really excited about eating? Did you get in any good workouts this weekend in anticipation of candy indulgence?

Wait. It’s only Wednesday?

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Don’t you hate it when you’re a day ahead?  It’s so disappointing when you realize you’re not as close to the weekend as you originally thought you were. Since I have Friday off, I guess today technically IS like my Thursday, so I guess it’s not so bad that I feel like it is Thursday today. I’ll take it!

I am working from home again today, so you bet I’ll be doing this workout:

WFH workout

I might do it every 60 minutes instead of every 30 minutes because I plan on going for a jog during my lunch break (I think it’s supposed to be around 50 degrees today! and sunny! woohoo!). Has anyone tried this? I made a coworker virtually do it with me on Monday. I would message him every half hour. He may or may not have called me a drill sergeant. I may or may not have loved it.

Speaking of being a drill sergeant… This email made my night!

emailPeople should know that when they send me emails/Facebook messages/texts like this, it only amps me up more! Watch out, Dynamaxers! Speaking of Dynamax, did you guys catch my guest post over at Fitness and Feta? If not, head over and check it out. If you are a new follower because of Athena’s blog, welcome! I am so happy you stopped by:)

This email actually made me feel so much better. As some of you may have seen on Facebook, I just couldn’t pull myself together on Monday once I got to the gym.

FB pull it together

I had worked from home during the day and I was all amped to get in a solid cardio sweat sesh prior to teaching, but between the traffic getting through Harvard Square, the parking nightmare at the YMCA and the fact that there were LINES for every piece of cardio equipment, I totally lost all motivation and wanted to go home and not work out. Now, if you know me, you know this RARELY happens to me. I really do love working out and know that even on the days I am not that excited about it “I’ll never regret a workout,” however on Monday, this wasn’t the case. I tried my best to pull it together for my Dynamaxers (I don’t think that is a word, but I’m going with it), but I still felt like I let people down with sub-par teaching. I know we can’t all be perfect all the time, but with my Type A personality, I WANT to be as close to perfect as I can all the time (I know, this makes zero sense, please tell me I am not the only one). Thankfully, Gregg’s email made me feel much better. Guess it was just another classic case of me being way too hard on myself. #storyofmylife

Phew… enough with the downer Debbie talk!

Did you all see the massive salad I had for lunch yesterday at Papagayo?

001As cool as this salad looked, I think it’s a little silly when restaurants make the “taco shell” so big! I had a few bites, but found the chips and salsa much more appealing.  Regardless, I do love me some Papagayo, just wish I could have enjoyed a marg!

What’s on the agenda for today/tonight? Any good workouts planned? Please share:)

Feeling Greek

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Good morning and happy Monday! Did everyone have a nice weekend? I think we last left off with me sharing our girls night, right? So fun! After publishing that post yesterday, I got very busy with my “Sunday things,” including a Target run, cooking, baking and going for a nice walk.

017How nice was the weather yesterday?! I couldn’t get over it! And I’ll tell ya, gabbing with mom for 30 minutes of my walk definitely helped to pass the time- thanks mom:)

Feeling Greek

With a name like Monique Gagnon, you might be wondering how on earth I could ever feel Greek, right?  Well, last night my sister was invited to her study abroad program’s 50th anniversary at Vlora Restaurant which is on Boylston Street in the Back Bay, and she invited me to join her.  We dined there a few years ago for Danielle’s birthday because she was missing Greek food (she studied abroad in Athens, Greece in the fall of 2009) and have always wanted to go back, so I obviously jumped at the opportunity!

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026As soon as we walked in, they showed us where to go and gave us the tip to order the Sangria- twist my arm- I LOVE sangria!

021My intentions going into this were to have a couple of apps and then save myself to have dinner at home since I had made a delicious looking veggie sauce and chicken sausage (recipe to come soon!), but after chatting (so nice to meet you, Rebecca) and enjoying some adult beverages, I decided that I should probably just make myself a plate. I mean, I love the food there so my meal at home could definitely wait!

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I had a chicken skewer, some grilled veggies, an Arancini ball (total splurge, but so worth it!), tomato and feta skewers and some goat cheese/honey mixture.  Not pictured were the watermelon and feta bites- holy yum! The most refreshing little treat! Definitely check out their menu because if you like Greek/Mediterranean food, it’s totally drool-worthy!

We got home just after 8:30, meaning we were able to catch Revenge! Anyone else following that? Anyone else think that it’s getting a little twisted now?

Social Media

Are you guys following and “liking” me? If you are- thank you!!! If not, check me out:)

Instagram- @burpeestobubbly

Twitter- @burpeestobubbly

Facebook- facebook.com/burpeestobubbly

I hope everyone has a great Monday! I am working from home which always makes Monday seem a little better. I plan on getting my own workout in this morning/today and then teaching Dynamax at the YMCA.

Questions for you: Are you a fan of Greek food? What’s your favorite non-American style food? Do anything share-worthy over the weekend? I love to hear from you!

Girls Night!

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Good morning, everyone! Going into the weekend, I had anticipated that I would wake up today feeling like I had had too much to drink. Lucky for me, last night ended up being much more laid back than I had thought and we were all home and in bed by 11:15!

For those of you who do not know me on a personal level, I live with my sister and our long-time friend from home, Amy. Only 2 miles down the road, lives our other long time friend from home, Rachel (she lives with her husband, but Rachel and I were roommates for the first 3+ years that I lived in Brighton). Sara is the last piece of the “Shapleigh Girls” puzzle, but she lives in NH with her husband (she is expecting a little baby boy on May 30th and we are all SOOO excited!!). Here’s all of us together at Rachel’s bridal shower back in December of 2011:

IMG_0893(From L to R: my sister, Danielle, our roommate, Amy, Sara- who is Amy’s sister- me, and Rachel)

Anyway, Danielle, Amy, Rachel and I try to get together for a “girls night” every month or every month and a half.  We all have very busy lives, so it’s nice to get a night on the calendar where we all go out and catch up for hours!  It’s always fun to figure out what restaurant we are going to go to, as well.

For Danielle and Amy’s birthdays back in December, we went to Sip which was amazing. The wine options and food options and prices were on spot and perfect for our ideal night: order lots of different apps to share and keep the wine coming!

SipLast month (I think?) we went to Gem which is in the downtown crossing area of the city. Amy randomly found this restaurant on a Groupon offer and we LOVED everything about it. The atmosphere and the service and the food were all perfect… and of course, the company was even better. I always feel bad for the people around us because we are SO loud and talk so much. Whoops! This was a super fun night because we went out to Brahmin after.

rachel and me

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shap girls 2Last night, we ended up going to Scollay Square, which is on Beacon Street.

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We had to wait a little bit for our table to be ready, so we grabbed a drink at the bar.

002Shortly after we got our drinks, our table was ready. In typical Shapleigh Girl fashion, we got a bunch of different things to share.  As we finished one item, we would put in an order for something else. I like doing this because it’s so easy to over order when eating out.  By taking it slow and enjoying the things we order in a spaced out time frame, we can gauge our hunger and stop when we are pleasantly satisfied.

We started with the oven-roasted goat cheese and the guacamole (sorry for the dark photo’s…my iphone didn’t like the lighting in the restaurant).

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003Both of these were delicious, but I have to say that the oven-roasted goat cheese was out of this world!! We were just talking about how we needed to try to re-create that in our own home ASAP.

Next up was a Grilled Pear Salad with Chicken

005Our final course was a hamburger (so random), which I failed to get a photo of.  Overall, the food was really good, although we all agreed that it wasn’t our favorite restaurant that we’ve been to.

Post dinner, we decided to grab a quick drink at Mooo, which was right next door. Anyone ever been? It’s a bit on the swanky/upscale end of Boston restaurants, but definitely a fun place to grab a drink!

As you can see, these girls are my everything! We always miss Sara, but when we are all home in Maine together, it’s like nothing has changed. The best part, is that our moms are best friends, too. I mean, look how fun these two are!

IMG_0949(Christine, on the left, is Sara and Amy’s mom, and our mom is on the right)

We are all so lucky that we have remained such good friends for SO long. We were telling the waitress this last night because she was totally getting a kick out of how we were ordering and how much we talked and finished each other’s sentences. What can we say? We are besties!

Questions for you: Do you have any friends like this? Do you try to do a “girls night” every month or two? Any good restaurants to add to our lineup?

I am not sure what the rest of the day entails, but I am hoping some type of physical activity (probably keeping it light since today is supposed to be an active rest day) along with a Target trip and a Sunday meal! Also, my sister studied abroad in Greece at CYA and they are having a get together in Boston tonight, so I told her that I’d join her. Looking forward to it!