Category: Wine

Dallas, Y’all!

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Howdy! (sorry, I had to!) Sorry for being a little MIA this week (I tried to keep you entertained with some facebook updates, photo’s and workouts, though), but from the time my alarm went off at 5am on Tuesday from the time I walked in the door Thursday night at 10:15pm, I had literally zero free time.  It’s a good thing that I like my coworkers so much:)

I am not going to recap everything, but I will say that there were some very funny videos, terrific speakers and lots of laughs!  I kept Tuesday night fairly low-key since I knew I had to be at the hotel for my professional photo at 7am on Wednesday morning.  I lead a very small boot camp workout (big thanks to JP and Doan for showing up!) before meeting up with the crew for a Mexican dinner. Check out the size of this gym!!! Amazing. I was in fitness heaven:)

004 003We just did a quick 25 minute workout- 5 minute warm up & 2 10 minute circuits of 10 moves done for 60 seconds each. I did a similar workout in my hotel room on Wednesday morning, too. Even though I had to get up so early, I knew I wouldn’t regret the workout!

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Wednesday night was the awards dinner. I knew I might be in trouble when we had a happy hour that lasted, ohhh like 2 hours. Whoops! (note to self, there is really no need to double fist when it’s an open bar all night.)

009 010 011Post dinner, more drinks and socializing, we managed to round up the troops and head to Sfuzzi’s. Enter: more drinks, loads of dancing, and a push-up contest. Yes, you read that correctly.

PushupSonja took a video, but it was too dark and blurry. I will say, though, that I won the contest haha

Anyway, I love that I have lots of fun work friends, it’s just a shame that we work in offices across the country.  Maybe that’s why things get so messy when we get together?

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SO, that about sums it up! Thursday was definitely a ROUGH day, but every now and again it feels good to let loose and have fun!

Questions for you: Work trips- fun or not fun? Ever been to Dallas?

Shrimp & Veggie Scampi

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I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make for my “Sunday Dinner” this week. I am traveling to Dallas Tuesday through Thursday and knew I didn’t want any leftovers;  I needed something where I could throw some stuff together and add as much or as little as I wanted.  Enter: a veggie dish… veggie scampi dish. I have been craving seafood lately and the grocery store just happened to have some jumbo shrimp on sale- perfect!

Healthy Shrimp & Veggie Scampi

Ingredients (rough estimates- I never measure anything!)

  • 1/4 lb. of jumbo shrimp (this was just for me- recipe for 1, remember:) )
  • 1/2 cup (ish) of white wine
  • 2-3 tbsp. EVOO
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 tbsp. garlic (minced)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup of sliced onions
  • 1/4 cup of sliced green pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped broccoli
  • 1/4 cup sliced summer squash
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Whole wheat angel hair spaghetti (1 serving)

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Directions:

1. Start the water for the spaghetti. Sautee onions, garlic, EVOO, butter, wine and the juice of 1 lemon for 3-5 minutes. Add in the other veggies & reduce the heat.  I also added some lemon zest which was a great addition!

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2. Once the spaghetti is added to the boiling water, add the shrimp to the wine & veggies.  The shrimp was pre-cooked, so all I wanted to do was heat it up and not actually cook it anymore.

3. Add some spaghetti to a bowl, top with the scampi mixture, sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese and voila! Dinner is served!

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(Please note: I had some extra scampi mixture leftover… hoping that it reheats well tomorrow!)

I was pleasantly surprised with how delicious this dish turned out to be.  Scampi dishes are usually laden with loads of butter and oil, leaving you feeling a little greasy when you finish eating (right? my lips are always so soft after I eat a restaurant scampi dish, and I know it’s from the oil and butter coating them!), but this meal left me feeling full and satisfied, but not greasy in the least bit! I think the meal took me maybe a half hour from start to finish (probably even less), so this is a great week night meal to add to your rotation!

Bon appetit!

Questions for you: What is your favorite meal to “healthify”? Guilty pleasure meal? Do share:)

Where did my weekend go?!

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Oh, that’s right… 8 hours of it was spent at the South Station BSC. It’s amazing how much faster the weekends go by when a whole day gets taken away from you!  Let’s get caught up, shall we? I don’t have many pictures, so I apologize in advance for the wordy post!

The kickboxing exam went pretty well, I think.  I won’t know for another 4-6 weeks whether I passed or not, but I think I definitely passed the practical part of it.  The written part, on the other hand, was incredibly hard! All those joint actions and muscle talk is so hard to keep straight! I found myself doing the movements- awkwardly- while I was trying to figure out if a jab had a shoulder flexion in the execution phase. Bored, yet? The best part of the day was the instructor. Her name is Aimee Nicotera and not only was she incredibly knowledgeable (and jacked!), but she was hilarious and totally made us feel like rock stars… definitely helped to settle my nerves! Plus, she gave us some sweet hand wraps:

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I mean, I felt pretty B.A. when I had these on! I wonder what my students would think if I showed up to class with these on?! I might try it just to see their reactions…

I finished the exam around 5 and I promptly opened the wine I had chilling in the fridge for me as soon as I got home. I bought it for the name, but I’ll be honest, it was not my favorite chardonnay I have ever had. Now, don’t let that fool you into thinking I didn’t drink it… that is basically a sin in my family… no wine shall ever go to waste!

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I got up this morning and immediately felt every muscle I worked yesterday (love that)… I was especially happy when I realized it felt like I had done 200 bicep curls yesterday.  The bicep muscle is one of the antagonist muscles when throwing a jab, meaning it is working to retract the arm in the second phase of the punch, so that means I was punching correctly, yay! (again, thanks Aimee).

Best way to loosen up tight muscles? Head to the gym, of course! I NEVER get to go to the gym to do my OWN workout anymore, so I was so excited. Plus, the Wellington BSC just put in this awesome work area:

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It was like play time at the gym!! My roommate has a personal trainer so I did a couple of rounds of one of her workouts- killer! I am obsessed with TRX bands, but I could live the rest of my life without ever touching those ropes again:)  And, I was in Dynamax heaven when I saw all those balls! Anyway, amazing workout… I was especially happy about it when I saw the buffet at the Langham Hotel. Cafe Fleuri sure knows how to serve an unbelieveable brunch!! There was a sushi station, pasta station, omelet station, meat carving station, fruit station, crepe station… and a chocolate fountain. I died and went to foodie heaven!

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009Of course I had dessert, too, but I got too excited and forgot to take a picture.  If you’re in the Boston area and looking for a phenomenal brunch, definitely check out Cafe Fleuri… it is worth every penny!

Phew! That was a lot to catch you up on! I am hoping for a relaxing night filled with some cooking, a little wine and maybe even some TV! Really living on the edge now;)

Questions for you: What did you do this weekend? Busy or not busy? Go to brunch anywhere good? I want to know!

Stuffed Peppers and Taco Salad

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Hi there! I teased all of you with some pretty tasty looking pictures from our dinner last night, so I thought it was only fair to share the recipes with you!  Per usual, I did not follow a recipe and did not measure anything out, but hopefully you can follow along from the pictures and “make it your own” with some of my suggestions!

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Stuffed Peppers

I chose to use 3 peppers today.  I washed them, cut the tops off and cleared out the seeds. I decided to steam the peppers tonight, versus baking them or using the crock pot. I steamed them for about 10-12 minutes (I just went until they seemed to be getting soft… use your judgement!)

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While the peppers were steaming, I cut up the veggies.  Tonight, I decided to use peppers (didn’t want the top part to go to waste!), onions, broccoli and mushrooms. I sauteed these with a little EVOO, salt & pepper… and wine 😉

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017Once the veggies were 95% cooked, I added in some frozen corn.  After all of the veggies were cooked, I moved them to a bowl and started to cook the ground chicken (1 lb).  We found low sodium taco seasoning which helps to make this meal even a little healthier than it already was!

019Adding in some black beans is a great way to get in some extra protein! Once the chicken, beans and taco seasoning are finished cooking, add this mixture to the bowl with the veggies and mix everything together.

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At this point, you’re all ready to stuff your peppers! I topped mine with a little cheese and baked for about 15 minutes at 350*, finishing up with a little broil action to get the nice, toasted cheese on the top!

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Don’t they look so delicious?!  You’ll notice that the one on the left looks a little different… that is because instead of using the taco chicken and veggie mixture, I simply used some of the veggies (before I mixed in the taco chicken and beans), quinoa, goat cheese and marinara.  Lately, I have been making a batch of quinoa on Sundays so I can have it handy throughout the week to add to salads and other things, so I thought I would use some in a stuffed pepper.  I have to say, my sister and I both really liked this vegetarian version of the stuffed peppers!

Taco Salad

Simply take the veggie, chicken and beans taco mixture that you made for the stuffed peppers and serve atop a bed of lettuce. Top with some salsa and tortilla chips and you’ve got yourself a tasty, healthy taco salad!

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So, there ya go! This meal did not take long at all to put together and the cleanup was also minimal- loved it! Let me know if you make it, and feel free to shoot me an email if you want more specifics on anything! Enjoy:)

Weekending…

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Happy Sunday! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  Mine, as always, seemed to go by WAY too quickly.  I am just now sitting down and “relaxing” (aka blogging and putting off studying) and it’s 4:30pm! Where did today go?! I’ll get to that, but let’s back up a minute…

Yesterday I taught my last TBC (Total Body Conditioning) class at the Allston BSC.  I was offered a position to teach Cardio Kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA every other Saturday at 10AM (vs every Saturday at 9am like I was doing at the BSC) and I accepted that position starting in March!  I used to go to that 10AM Kickboxing class every Saturday for the 3.5 years I lived in Oak Square so I am REALLY excited to have the opportunity to go back there and start teaching it:)  However, yesterday’s last class was definitely bittersweet.  My sister, Lauren and Jess came and that made it so much fun! I always like to hear feedback from honest sources (they may be friends and family, but I do trust them to give me their honest opinions!), so it was funny to hear them ask what the heck I was doing teaching a class that hard… what can I say?! I want to make people feel like their time at the gym was well spent!

Post workout, I met up with a new fitness friend for brunch at Russell House Tavern to talk all things fitness… twist my arm, will ya?! And, to make things even better, they had wine on tap?!

002I had to use some serious self-restraint as wine on tap for any member of the Gagnon family is risky business! Instead, I enjoyed a nice beer and this delicious omelet:

003Yum! I don’t really “do” brunch (I am always starving when I wake up), so this was a really nice treat, and well deserved after a tough morning class!

The rest of my Saturday was really not very exciting. I faced the masses of people at Market Basket for my weekly grocery shopping trip and then spent the rest of the night like this:

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Don’t let that book fool you… I “pretended” to read/study, but in all honesty, I couldn’t pull myself to actually DO any reading or studying.  My kickboxing exam was originally scheduled for the weekend of the blizzard and has been rescheduled for next Saturday. Mentally, I am so checked out and bored with this studying, which is not something I am proud of, but hopefully I’ll get my act together and get my head back into the game this week.

Since I went to bed at 11pm (yes, I am 27 going on 67), I was wide awake at 8Am. Perfect! There was a boot camp at the Davis Square BSC at 10 that I would be able to go to. What a thought- me, taking a class that someone else was going to teach?! It had been far too long.

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The class started out great (loads of cardio), but then we switched to partner type of work and it was really unorganized and the instructor was mean and almost rude and I really didn’t end up having that much fun. I am all about pushing people in class and yelling (anyone who has come to a class knows this), but he was straight up rude and did not offer any type of encouragement. He almost had an attitude where he was looking down on us. I was so disappointed because he had covered some classes for me when I was dying sick with pneumonia and I thought he seemed so nice, but I saw a different side of him that I was not a fan of. Anyway, it was a good thing for me to do and I did get some new cardio ideas so I guess it wasn’t a total waste of time (and, we did a ton of upper body stuff so I will be sore tomorrow!).

Similar to yesterday, post workout, I went to brunch (again! Twice in one weekend- who am I?!) with Lauren and my sister. We went to Back Bay Social Club and had a great time catching up! A glass of Prosecco was juuuust perfect for post workout refueling, right?

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To eat, a delicious Turkey Sandwich with lettuce, tomato and avocado on wheat bread. Unfortunately, the bread was very buttery, but the turkey made up for it! So good!

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Since it took so long to get our meals, the manager gave us a free round on the house… again, twist my arm! I really appreciate when restaurants do things like that because it definitely makes me more likely to go back soon!

I am about to set up an email account, Facebook account and Instagram account for Burpees to Bubbly… big steps for the blog this weekend and it makes me excited!! I appreciate everyone who has been reading and following along… it’s been a really fun couple of weeks!! For dinner: Stuffed Peppers (2 ways) and some type of taco dish… be on the lookout for a recipe early this week!

Questions for you: Are you a “bruncher”? What was your favorite thing that you did this weekend?