Boston Has My Heart.

April 17, 2013April 16, 20133 Comments

**edited to add- As I posted on Facebook yesterday, I had this post all ready to go up yesterday, but after Monday’s horrific events in Boston, I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it, so I ended up doing my best to avoid social media all together. I realize for most people, this was a source of comfort and way to express emotions and connect, but I really just had to step away for some time. To all my readers out there, I hope everyone is safe and that your friends and family are safe as well. The texts, emails and phone calls I received to make sure I was safe were overwhelming. I was, and am, safe and am fortunate that all of my friends who were at the marathon are safe as well. Boston is the strongest city around, so I know we will overcome this.

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I’m not the best with words or transitions, and am not even really sure how to segway into my original post, but here goes nothing…

Hey everyone! How’s it going? I swear the birthday talk and posts are almost done:) Even though I nursed an awful headache all morning, I pulled myself together to go out for a birthday lunch. I had really wanted to go to Local 149 in Southie, but since I knew my patience was low, I opted to avoid the parking and probable lines and suggested that we go to Not Your Average Joe’s right near us in Medford. The greasy food and fountain soda did the trick. I felt a million times better not long after we got there!

Yes, all 3 of those drinks are mine. I needed a lot of liquid and wasn’t sure what was going to do the trick so I went for a variety: booze, soda, water. The Diet Pepsi did the trick! My sister’s recent hangover cure is a milkshake, so we swung through McDonald’s after lunch and I just had to get myself a sundae! I’ll tell ya, I felt human again after these! So much so, that I was able to come home, pick up around the house and clean my room! boom! Take that, hangover;)

I got a pleasant interruption midway through the afternoon. MORE birthday flowers… AND chocolate covered strawberries. I am a lucky girl!

Rachel stopped by a little while later and it was fun catching up, hashing & rehashing, and playing with Millie (her sweet pup!).

After Rachel left, I started to make a healthy dinner to try to redeem my not so healthy lunch (I don’t regret any of it, though! It was just what the doctor ordered.). I stocked up on a bunch of veggies at the grocery store because I was not sure what I was going to be in the mood to make on Sunday night. I took my mom’s tip and sautéed up a huge batch of veggies (EVOO, wine, garlic, seasonings) to have handy for the week. I also had a few chicken sausage links leftover from when I made my Chicken Sausage & Veggie Sauce Spaghetti Meal, so I also cooked up some of those. To accompany the chicken sausage and veggies, I made a batch of quinoa/brown rice blend (love this stuff!).

I probably cooked about 3/4 cup of each veggie, few dashes of wine and garlic, and a few shakes of different herbs/seasonings and let everything simmer for about 30 minutes on med/low heat.

When the veggies were about halfway done, I started my quinoa and chicken sausage.

Once everything was cooked, I placed some veggies in a bowl, topped with chicken sausage and goat cheese and gave myself a serving of quinoa. I wasn’t sure what to use for a sauce for the veggies and chicken sausage, but out of sheer laziness, I settled on using a little marinara sauce which was actually a pretty good idea!

Yum! This meal was so warm and comforting. And it was really very easy! I packed up all the leftovers and am excited to have a bunch of nice veggies and quinoa handy for meals throughout the week. If any of you have any ideas/suggestions for how I can use these in a meal this week, please share! I also have a sweet potato that I want to do something with, too, as well as a spaghetti squash. So many options!

Questions for you: What was a memorable meal from the weekend? Do you like to “stock up” on foods so you can have quick and easy meals during the week?

Last day of being 27

April 13, 2013April 12, 20138 Comments

Hey Burpees to Bubbly readers! Happy, happy Saturday to you! Have anything fun planned? I’ve got a busy day, but before I get to that, let’s catch up on yesterday! As most of you probably know, Friday’s are my “work from home” (WFH) days and after a full, busy week, it’s the best feeling to get home on Thursday after teaching a double and know I don’t have to pack a lunch or get up early to make the commute into the office. WFH on a Friday before my birthday is even better… treats and flowers and cards galore!

When I finished my work day, I had plans of going to the gym near me since I am no longer teaching my Friday night UXF in Allston (so sad. I miss you guys!), but the weather was so gross that I decided to stay in and do an “at home” workout. I was gchatting with Athena (but, let’s be honest, when are we NOT gchatting?!) and she said she was going to use the jump rope today. Ding, ding, ding! The light bulb went off and I decided that I could get a great workout done in the comforts of my own home. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have the option to go to the gym or to workout at home or to not do anything at all!

So, I set up shop in the kitchen with my weights, jump rope and “Friday Five” Arms/cardio workout and got busy. I ended up doing about 60 minutes including warm up and cool down/foam rolling and time flew by!

5 mins warm up (jogging in place, jumping jacks, squats, hamstring curls, knee lifts, etc)
5 mins jumping rope (this is SO much harder when you use a real jump rope vs imaginary jump rope)- this round was tabata style with 20 seconds jumping, 10 seconds rest.
15 minute Arm/Cardio/Core from April Arms Challenge (up the ladder)
5 mins jumping rope (30 seconds jumping, 5 seconds rest)
15 minutes down the ladder
5 mins jumping rope (alternating leads and speed and direction)
10 mins (abs, stretching, foam rolling)

60 minutes later, I was sweaty and tired and rope burned. Wait, what? You read that right, I clearly need work on my jump roping because I got whipped by the rope more time than I’d like to admit and boy did it hurt!

After I showered, I headed out to the grocery store. On a cold, rainy, Friday night. REALLY not that fun, but it was dead and fully stocked, so I couldn’t really complain too much. As I was shopping, I thought about how great it would be if I could have a glass of wine. Wouldn’t that make grocery shopping so much better?

I was so ready for wine by the time I got home that I poured myself a glass before I even took my jacket off! J.Lohr is one of my favorite wines- red and white. It’s delicious!

I sipped as I put away all my groceries. It really made the process a lot more enjoyable, but then again, when doesn’t wine make things more enjoyable?

I was so in the mood for sushi last night, so I picked some up in my travels. It totally hit the spot! There is something about Chardonnay and Sushi. They go hand in hand in my book. Anyone else with me on this?

Although I had somewhat wanted to go meet up with friends for dinner or drinks, the weather and knowing that I have lots of things on the agenda for today made me decide that staying in was more desirable than going out!

……

Today’s agenda:

getting my BSC paycheck and going to the bank
tanning (yes, I tan occasionally…sorry if that offends anyone, but I want a nice glow for my birthday!)
teaching kickboxing
going to Jess’s first tasting
getting my hair highlighted and cut (!!!)
getting all done up in my birthday dress for birthday celebrations!!

A little serious talk…

So, today is my last day as a 27-year-old. It’s a little crazy to think about, but I am ready for 28. First off, I am a fan of even numbers, so right away 28 is better than 27, haha. Secondly, I am in a much better spot personally at this point than I was last year, so I am excited for what 28 will bring. I have a few things lined up (expanding and growing the blog, moving into my own place, etc- more on that later) for the next year and I hope you will all stick around with me as I share my journey. I have only been blogging for a few months, but I have had so much fun thus far and appreciate everyone who reads and follows me. You have no idea how much that means to me!

Questions for you: What’s a special meal that you’ll splurge on every once in a while? Birthdays- love them or hate them? What’s been your favorite year thus far?

Sunday Dinner- Pinot Grigio Chicken with a Honey Citrus Glaze

April 8, 20133 Comments

Hey everyone! How was your Sunday? The weather- again- didn’t end up being what I thought it was going to be, but that’s ok. I mean, it has to get warmer soon, right?

Even when I try to make Sunday’s relaxed, a wide open schedule stresses me out and without even meaning to, I end up filling it with random things. Is anyone else like this? For instance, yesterday I got up, had breakfast, blogged, went grocery shopping, made a delicious lunch, went to the mall, prepped some blog posts, showered, made dinner, did my April Arms Challenge for the day… no wonder why I am tired! The thing is, I never once felt stressed or rushed or anxious. Yesterday was a great day and a great mix of being on my own schedule of things I WANTED to do and some things that I had to do.

After facing the masses and masses of people at Market Basket, Danielle and I got to making a nice lunch. This is kind of weird for a Sunday, but since we didn’t have any leftovers and had lots of groceries, it was a great idea. I cooked up a bunch of chicken and made a salad for lunch, as well as a few for lunches for the beginning of the week.

Danielle made her new favorite thing to make: homemade Mac N Cheese! She added broccoli and buffalo chicken (leftover from Friday night pizza night) and it was delicious! My mom had gotten me the cutest little pot thing and it was perfect for the Mac N Cheese.

I went to the Cambridgeside Galleria for a few things (got my birthday dress at the first store I went to- on sale- amazing!!), but wasn’t really in the mood to poke around so I didn’t stay long. When I got home, I prepped dinner and then got busy with the Sunday circuit for the April Arms Challenge. Since I was tired and sore from a tought week of workouts, I just did a 5 minute warm up and cool down and 2 rounds of the 3-2-1 circuit. I also switched up the 3 mins of cardio to a kickboxing cardio move that felt better for my shoulder and did the same with the reverse curls (something wasn’t working with them, which I was so bummed about because I love that move!).

Ok, ok, let’s get to dinner, shall we?

I usually make up my own recipes for the blog, but when I saw a recipe for Pinot Grigio Chicken over at Eat, Live, Run, I knew I wanted to make it soon. Another deciding factor was the fact that we just happened to have an open bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge:) I followed the recipe to a T (except for the fact that I had to use drumsticks since Market Basket was out of chicken breasts), so go on over to Eat, Live, Run and check it out!

On the side, I roasted some asparagus (all I did was spray them with Pam spray and give a few shakes of garlic crumbles, sea salt, pepper, and lemon juice) and cooked up some harvest grains blend quinoa. Since we had extra white sauce from the Mac N Cheese, we put a little of it on the asparagus, which was a great idea!

I absolutely loved this meal! It was very different from what I usually make and I only wish that I could’ve grilled the chicken instead of baking it! I was a little nervous that it would be TOO citrus-y (is that a word?), but it was not at all! I took the skin off of the drumsticks and poked some holes in them so that the marinade would be absorbed, which was perfect because we didn’t lose all the flavor when peeling off the skin before eating. I have just enough left over for dinner tomorrow night- score for me!

Questions for you: What’s your go-to blog for finding recipes? drumsticks/Thighs/Darker meat- fan or not? I used to hate it, but then I realized how much more flavorful dark meat is than white meat so now I eat it when I can!

Saturday’ing

April 7, 20136 Comments

Hey Friends! Happy Sunday! I tweeted this morning how happy I was that it was a bright, sunny morning and I am still smiling about that! The temp may not be that warm yet, but the forecast is looking good. I love a Sunday morning where I wake up feeling good (definitely tight from my workouts this week so I am happy today is a rest day! Haha, jk! I just checked my email and saw the that Athena sent us our weekly workouts for the April Arms Challenge so I have some 3-2-1 circuits to do!) and have a fairly open agenda for the day. All I “have” to do is grocery shop and look for a dress to wear to my birthday party next weekend. Yes!

Thank you all so much for your comments on my post on Friday! It’s definitely a fine line you can cross when working out while you’re sick, so I am happy to see I am not the only one that struggles with it!

Friday night…

I taught my last class at the Allston BSC on Friday night… totally bittersweet:( I sure went out with a bang, though! 21 or 22 people came and it was so nice to see that most of them were my “regulars”. They all had the kindest words for me after class and I am going to miss them so much!! Hopefully some will come to my Wednesday or Thursday classes at the Central Square BSC!

When I got home, I poured myself a glass of vino (I tweeted Jen to let her know that I was participating in Winesday Wednesday early!) and hung out with Danielle while she made pizza!

Danielle decided she wanted to make buffalo chicken pizza AND a margarita pizza so I was pumped! I’m all for easy, simple pizzas, but it’s nice to have fancy ones every once in a while!

Drool-worthy, I know. It tasted even better than it looked! Post dinner, we watched Wednesday’s Nashville episode (anyone else watch this show?! How GOOD were the 2 girls at singing Ho Hey?! I might have cried a little…) and I was in bed by 10:30. I know, I act like I’m 80 years old with my early bed time!

Saturday

Yesterday was a busy, busy Saturday! Between teaching kickboxing and having two birthday parties on the agenda, I was pretty much non-stop all day! Kickboxing was an absolute blast!! Again, I had a huge group of members who like to work HARD. Every instructors dream, right?! I was also happy because Athena came! I had a to sneak a pic after we were done. Please pardon our sweaty, post workout appearance! I was so sweaty yesterday that my hands slipped on the ground when we were doing our last blast of the class (10 burpees to finish off our workout)!

After class, I rushed home and showered because mom and Colleen and baby Emma were coming down for Rozzie’s 1st birthday party (my mom is obviously a social butterfly and her friends kids have had their own babies- Emma and Rozzie. Love those two to pieces!). I don’t have any pictures of Rozzie’s party, but it was perfectly pink and looked like it was right out of the Etsy homepage:) We did get to hang out with Emma… can you get enough of those cheeks?!

(We were twinnies with our matching green pants!)

We had to leave Rozzie’s party early because it was Rachel’s birthday! In years past, Rachel and I celebrated our birthday’s together, which was always a blast, but now we celebrate separately which gives each of us our day to shine (We are both ridiculously obnoxious with our birthdays… forcing people to celebrate with us for the whole month!).

Rachel is the hostess with the mostess and this party was no different! But, let’s be honest, as long as she has made her famous Sangria, the food is just an added bonus!

Look at the treats!! mmmmm These things are pretty strong, so it was a good thing that we had loads of food!

And most of you saw these on Instagram… SO good.

It was so nice to catch up with so many friends and family yesterday! Feeling very blessed today and know that feeling will stay with me for the rest of the week as it is BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

Questions for you: How was your weekend so far? Anything fun to share? Do you have a lot of birthdays to celebrate this month, too?

[Dad’s] Pork Pie & [Mom’s] Tomato & Zucchini Casserole

April 3, 2013April 2, 201311 Comments

Hey everyone! How is your week going so far? Anyone else enjoying the #AprilArmsChallenge as much as I am so far? I am still battling a nasty head cold, but trying to push through it and sweat it out when I can!

Today was the first day in probably a month where I was able to come right home after work and I cannot tell you how nice that feeling was. The only problem with coming home early, though, is that I don’t know what to do with “extra” time and am horrible at relaxing. What’s a girl to do besides pour a big glass of vino and think about what to do to fill the time (please tell me I am not the only one who suffers with relaxing and enjoying free time!)?

(Recycled Photo, but you get the idea. Tonight was actually red wine. I heard it helps with congestion 😉 )

Dinner didn’t take me much longer than 20 minutes to prepare, but that is because the hard part of the meal was already done thanks to my dad! Both of my parents are 100% French Canadian, so having Tourtiere (aka Pork Pie for the non-Frenchie readers) around Christmas is a big tradition for us. According to every friend and family member who has tried dad’s Tourtiere can attest that he makes the absolute BEST around. Seriously. People pretty much place orders in November. Lucky for you (anyone who might be looking to indulge a little, but as dad said on the phone today “don’t drain the excess liquid. The saltines soak it up. Just have a smaller piece if you’re watching your waist”), he has agreed to share the recipe. It all sounded so familiar since Danielle and I spent a few hours with him right before Christmas making 9 (I think) of them!

Dad’s Tourtiere

Note: it’s 1 pound of ground pork per 1/2 pound of onions and 1/2 pound of potatoes. Use this ratio if you plan to make a bigger batch than what is below. He said he usually makes a batch with 10-12 lbs. of pork.

1 lb. ground pork
1/2 lb. onions
1/2 lb. potatoes
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. Red Hot
1 tsp. All Spice (this is key- you don’t want to add too much of this! A little goes a long way!)
1/2 sleeve crushed Saltine crackers
Pie Crust

1. Place the pork and onions in a big pot. Add the Worcestershire and Red Hot and stew until onions are translucent and meat is fully cooked.

2. While pork and onions are stewing, boil your potatoes. When cooked, “smash” them, which means leave the skin on when you mash them. Mix the smashed potatoes into the pork/onion mixture and mix well. Add the All Spice.

3. Crush up 1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers (1/2 sleeve per pound of meat) and add to the meat/onion/potato “pudding” as dad called it (clearly we have different ideas of what “pudding” is). He said this is key to soaking up the excess liquid and helping to keep the pie filling together when slicing and serving.

4. Place the pie crust into a pie dish and spoon in the mixture. Bake at 400* for about 15 minutes (or until the pie crust has browned up).

(my own mini pork pie that dad sent me home with!)

To accompany the pork pie that I thawed, I wanted to make my favorite veggie dish that my mom makes in the summer: Tomato and Zucchini Casserole. This is SUPER easy and so tasty!

Tomato & Zucchini Casserole (small version)

1 medium zucchini
2 small tomatoes
herbs & seasoning of your choice
1/4-1/2 cup of cheese (can be parmesan or Italian blend or whatever you have on hand

1. Slice up the zucchini and tomatoes.

2. You’re going to layer these in a small casserole dish. In between each layer, sprinkle in some herbs/seasoning and a sprinkle of cheese. Repeat until you’ve used up all your veggies. Top with extra cheese and microwave for 4-5 minutes to speed up the cooking. Bake at 400* for about 10 minutes to brown everything up!