Tag: Grocery Shopping

Extended Time In Maine: Spending lots of time with family and friends!

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I can’t remember the last time I spent more than a few nights home in Maine. Actually, that’s a lie. Last year for Christmas, my sister and I were able to spend a lot of time in Maine, mostly due to the fact that I came down with pneuomonia and we couldn’t leave when originally planned. Thankfully, I survived the holiday sick-free this year.

Since I’ve already caught you up on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ll pick up after that! Thursday morning, my mom, sister and I all went to the gym, which is my favorite way to start the day 🙂

After we got home, my dad and I got busy putting together my new mini-kitchen island. I thought I could do it on my own, but I am so happy my dad suggested doing it together because he has all the tools and knowledge to make sure it’s done right.

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Charlie thought he was going to be a good helper… he wasn’t.

It took much longer than expected to put it together, but I am so happy with how it turned out! It’s not great quality, but until I buy a place and know I won’t be moving every couple of years, I don’t want to have super nice stuff that could get damaged. This is absolutely perfect for my little kitchen because not only does it give me extra counter space, but it’s on wheels so I can move it around as I need/want. Love it- thanks mom and dad!!

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We went to the movies in the afternoon (nothing like $6.50 matinees in Maine!) to see Anchorman 2, which, sadly, was a big disappointment. Has anyone else seen it? I just thought it was slow and not that funny. At least the beers were $2, which kept me entertained 😉

We made the most delicious chicken parmesan meal when we got home from the movies. Holy moly. My mom really does make the best chicken parm (Danielle and I served ours over spaghetti squash… the best way to save on carbs and calories!)!

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After dinner, we spent a lot of time listening to my parents talk about their parents and their childhood. My dad’s parents passed away when he was in his young 20’s and my mom’s mother passed away when she was in her mid-late 20’s, so we haven’t really gotten to hear much about them over the years. It was so fun to look through old photo albums and listen to their stories.

I started my Friday just like most “off” days from work: at the gym! I took a great cardio and core class, which was perfect after a weights class on Thursday. After the class, I headed to the AT&T store to get a new iPhone. I was using an old iPhone 4 and was long overdue for an upgrade, so I finally headed in and made the upgrade! So far, I am LOVING my iPhone 5S and can’t wait to see the difference in picture quality.

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My family headed to the mall in the afternoon and I scored a number of deals- have you guys been shopping since Christmas? The sales are unreal! I got 2 shirts a dress and lotion for $30! After the mall, we headed to the Back Street Grill for some happy hour wines with my mom’s friend, Jean. When the $3 happy hour wine ends at 6pm and you get there at 5:30, you order 2 😉

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We made a nice, healthy chicken and veggie teriyaki stir fry for dinner- all of us agreed we needed more veggies!

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Saturday, Danielle and I made the trek back to Boston, with a quick stop in Kittery to exchange some things (I just ended up buying more. whoops). With the looks of the back of her SUV, though, you’d think the last thing we’d be doing was shopping!

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Once I got back, I unpacked everything, went for a 5K run and then had a quiet night in. I had wanted to do something, but it ended up being nice staying in. I needed to get my iTunes updated so I could put music on my new phone, catch up on blogging and have some alone time, all which I accomplished on Saturday night!

Sunday morning I woke up pretty early, which was expected since I’ve slept a lot the past handful of nights, so I went to a 9:30 spin class, followed by upper body strength and core work. The gym was dead, which is my favorite way for it to be unless I’m teaching 😉

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The rest of my Sunday was pretty quiet… I’m ready for some serious social interaction! I went grocery shopping, prepped lunches/meals and did some other random stuff around my apartment. I hung out with my sister in the afternoon for a few hours before coming home and making a delicious chicken, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and quinoa dish.

Although it was a quiet weekend, it was good. I started Monday feeling refreshed and ready to get back on a schedule!

Questions for you: Have you seen Anchorman 2? Do you have the new iPhone? What was the best part of your weekend? Any fun plans for NYE tonight?

Chicago: Part 3 {Brunching, Architecture Tour, Homemade Dinner}

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Hi there! After this post, my Chicago recap is finally done 🙂 In case you missed the other posts, you can find them here, here, and here.

Sunday morning, I woke up feeling mostly better, but my stomach was still a little off. We hung out in the hotel for a bit and I blogged and we watched some tv. Around 11ish, we ventured out into what looked to be another beautiful day in the city! Seriously, I cannot believe how lucky we got with the weather. It could have been miserably cold/snowy, which we were not prepared for at all!

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We met up with JP for brunch at Eggy’s, but not before going to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of Prosecco since Eggy’s was BYOB. How fun is that?! Dining out would be so much more affordable if you could bring your own booze. Boston, get on that, will ya?!

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Apparently cheese curds are big in Chicago (I didn’t even know what they were until Danielle and JP explained the to me), so we go an order of the fried cheese curds to start. I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were!

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I got the green eggs and ham, which was one of their signature dishes. Sadly, it looked better than it tasted. It wasn’t bad, there was just too much stuff going on… too many flavors.

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We walked around for a bit after brunch to digest and then jumped on an afternoon Architecture Tour. Whenever I go to a new city, I always try to go on as many tours as possible because I think it’s the best way to see the city and get a good overview of all the important pieces of information and dates. JP took this photo of my sister and I as we waited for the tour to start. Whoops. Not very good company!

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Our tour guide was fantastic and I learned so much about Chicago! As I mentioned in my last Chicago recap, Chicago completely burned down and was rebuilt in the 1900’s, so a lot of the buildings are relatively “new” and really interesting to look at since so many famous architectures came to Chicago to show their talents. I didn’t take many photo’s on the tour because it was SO COLD. Seriously… We were freezing because it was mostly in the shade and on the water. Brrr. I did get this one of the Sears (now, Willis) Tower, which is the tallest building in Chicago (right? I think it is…) since they count the tall things at the top in the measurement.

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I didn’t take this photo on the tour, but we did see them and talk about them, so I’ll post it now.

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Danielle and I immediately noticed these buildings when we arrived in Chicago. They were so cool looking, and when we found out that they consider themselves mini “cities”, we thought they were even cooler. Apparently they have everything in the building that a city would have, so basically if you lived in one, you’d never have to leave. A little weird, right?

After the tour, we warmed up by walking around the mall on Michigan Ave and then got a drink in the lobby of our hotel. Danielle and I went to JP’s to make dinner on Sunday night since we were tired of eating out and were craving healthy food. Ok, and, we wanted to shop at the amazing grocery store across from JP’s apartment building. It was like a mix between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s… but better! It was two levels and had the best deli/hot bar section I’ve ever seen. I died and went to grocery store lover’s heaven!

We went simple for dinner and I just made a veggie and chicken dish, served over a fancy fettuccine with a nice, big salad on the side!

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Yum. It was so good! Danielle and I were in bed by 10pm on Sunday night and it was wonderful. Between traveling for work and then going right to Chicago to travel for fun, we were both exhausted!!! I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow 🙂

Monday morning we both got up and went to the gym and then hit the road for the airport.

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I traveled in comfy clothes, which I never do, because I had to sub a class on Monday night and was worried we might be delayed and I wouldn’t have time to change. Lucky for us, everything was on time (shocking for the Chicago airport) and I got home and to the gym with plenty of time to spare!

All in all, both trips were a blast. I might be going back to Chicago with a group of friends over the summer and I’m already looking forward to that possibility because I seriously loved Chicago. If I didn’t live in Boston but had to live in a city, I would choose Chicago. There was just something about it that I loved and I could see myself living there!

Thanks for following along through my recaps of the trip!

Questions for you: Have you done the architecture tour? If you had to pick a city to live in other than where you currently live, where would it be? Do you know of any BYOB restaurants in Boston?

What’s In My Grocery Chart…

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My family loves grocery shopping. We’re a grocery store family. My dad was a meat cutter at Shaw’s for years and then worked as a maintenance technician at the Shaw’s Warehouse, so it’s just normal to be aware of grocery stores.

As a kid, I remember Saturday’s consisting of dance lessons/class in the morning and then grocery shopping in the afternoon. Grocery shopping wasn’t a quick, in and out type of thing; it was a 1-2 hour ordeal. We walked up and down every aisle and filled the cart to the brim. I’ll admit: we were always the house with the good “snack closet”. Mom always had plenty of fruit snacks, crackers, granola bars and whatever else might be a “new” type of snack at the time.

The love of grocery stores and grocery shopping has stuck with both my sister and me throughout the years and we, to this day, still get excited about trying out new-to-us grocery stores (when I first moved to Eastie and realized I was close to the Chelsea Market Basket I was pumped! And then I found a Shaw’s a half a mile from my apartment and was so excited I had to find an excuse to go and I called my dad to rave about it). These days, I tend to do my shopping at Market Basket because the prices are so much better than anywhere else.

When I got home from Michigan, I got right in the car to do my grocery shopping for the week and when I got home, I thought it might be fun to share my goodies with you! I’ll admit, I don’t buy organic. Heck, I don’t even wash my fruit before I eat it (I know, I know.). But other than that, I do eat pretty healthy!

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Let’s start with the produce:

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Since I try to get most of my veggies for the day at lunch, I make sure to get lots of salad stuff:

  • Bibb lettuce (my favorite)
  • Green pepper
  • Carrots
  • Cucumber
  • Broccoli
  • Tomatoes
  • Avocado
  • Goat Cheese
  • Chicken

My salads aren’t creative, but I try to load them up with veggies, protein (chicken or hard boiled eggs), cheese, avocado. It helps make them more interesting 🙂

Next up: Fruit, yogurt, pantry items

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To accompany my salads, I always bring a Greek yogurt and berries. Chobani is usually my yogurt of choice, but I do buy other brands, too. I was SO excited to find these “value pack” Chobani yogurts. Even though I like a variety of flavors, it was a great deal to buy the value pack.

I buy whatever fruit is on sale for the week: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries… I don’t discriminate against my berries 😉 I have a banana every morning so I always get a big bunch of them!

A treat for me this week was the Vermont Bread Cinnamon Raisin bread. The hotels we stayed at in Michigan had free continental breakfasts and they all had cinnamon raisin bread and it reminded me how much I love it! When I saw this bread (a much better brand of bread than others), I had to grab a loaf. Pair that with a small bowl of cereal and it kept me very satisfied!

As for the Stacey’s pita chips, those, paired with hummus, are a staple in my apartment 😉

Also, one tip I have for my fellow friends who live alone: cut your pizza dough in half or in thirds before you freeze it. Since it’s just me eating, it takes days and days for me to finish a whole pizza, and by that point I am so sick of it I end up throwing the remaining slices away. I decided to cut the dough into smaller pieces and freeze them in little baggies so I could pull one out and have it be “personal pan” size. I’m going to make one tonight and I’m pumped!

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Now, I know this doesn’t look like a lot of groceries, but for 1 person, it is plenty. I take inventory of what I have and what I need before I go grocery shopping, as well as figure out what I am going to make for my “Sunday dinner”, so my grocery list varies by week.

Questions for you: Do you like to grocery shop? What’s your favorite grocery store? What’s a staple item in your grocery cart every week?

I hope you all have a great weekend! I have work today and then lots of errands to run this evening for my housewarming party tomorrow!

ps- I’m not sure what’s going on, but my pictures won’t get big anymore! It’s very annoying. If anyone has any idea how to fix this, let me know 🙂

I Bought A Computer, Bruins game, Apartment Hunting & Day Drinking in the City

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Hey everyone! How has your weekend been? Mine has been pretty good so far. I have to say, the feeling of knowing that I had NO plans that I absolutely had to do was really nice. Like, really nice. I spent yesterday afternoon having cocktails and hanging out with friends in the city and I kept feeling guilty for “hanging out” because there were so many other things I could be doing, but then I gave myself a little pep talk and told myself to relax and enjoy the moment. There was nothing urgent that I had to do; sneaker shopping, cleaning, grocery shopping… those were all things that could wait until later in the day or not at all! I’m just so used to always being on a tight schedule that it takes a bit for me to feel ok with having free time to spend however I want.

Anyway, let’s catch up. As I mentioned yesterday, I was on a mission to find a new computer. Well, I found one and I’m currently blogging from it! I ended up going with a Lenovo, thanks to my work IT department’s suggestion (and Jean, I got excited when you said you had one, too!) and I think I will be very happy with it. As much as I wanted a Mac, I needed to be financially smart about this purchase and try to find something within my budget. Some day I’ll get a Mac, but for now, I think this Lenovo is going to do juuuuust fine! It’s pretty fancy and unlike any computer I’ve ever used (the screen display and settings), but I think I’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

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It’s a pretty fun new toy! After I bought this beauty, I decided to swing by Old Navy since I heard they had cute shorts and bathing suits. I mean, why not keep spending, right? I scored some pretty sweet deals, though! Shorts were on sale for $12.50 each (!!!!) and bathing suits for $10 each. I couldn’t believe it!

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Cute right?! I was happy with what I got and how little I spent! I was also amazed with myself for the fact that not only did I run errands in the pouring rain, but I also tagged along with my sister and her friends for a night in the city! The Bruins were playing game 4 and we thought it would be fun to go to a bar near the garden and watch it there. The lines were incredibly long everywhere, but we were able to get into North Star fairly quickly. I still can’t believe I went!

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Bruins for the win! It was fun being in the midst of all the crazy sports fans, because anyone who knows me knows that I am so far the opposite of that. This was the first game I actually watched all season!

Yesterday morning, I knew I wanted to work out, but wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted t do. I decided to go to the 10am BodyPump class with one of my favorite instructors. Normally, I do cardio before or after BodyPump, but yesterday I opted to just do the class. I went heavy on the weights and it felt great! (well, minus the bar on my back during squats… does anyone else get so uncomfortable during the squat track? Now that I am lifting heavier- 20lbs on each side- the bar really hurts my upper back!).

Post BP, I showered quickly and my sister, Kelly and I headed to East Boston to look at an apartment!!! So exciting that I am finally starting to look at places to rent come September. The whole thing is really stressful (it’s so expensive to live on your own in Boston), but I am excited for the change and to live alone. The apartment was awesome and I actually really liked the area of East Boston that it was in. The only problem was that the bathroom was TINY. Like seriously tiny, BUT the kitchen and back deck did make up for it. I am going to see another one in that building (a little cheaper) next week I think. If any of you have suggestions or know of any open apartments, let me know!

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(Wore my new shorts!)

We grabbed lunch at Jerry Remy’s in the Seaport. The weather had warmed up and we were able to get a table on the deck! Beautiful views!

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We had beers and shared sliders and nachos… calories don’t count on Saturdays 😉

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My friend Jessi met up with us so after we finished eating, we decided to find a new spot to have another drink. We tried to go to the Legal’s roof deck, but it was closed for a private function. Boooo. We ended up going to the Mexican restaurant next door and sat at the bar. They had all the windows wide open so it was almost like we were sitting outside. Such a fun Saturday afternoon!!

I dragged Danielle to the grocery store with me on our way home. Where do you guys usually shop? I like Market Basket because it’s SO cheap, but I’ve been going to Stop n Shop lately because it’s less crowded. We stopped in at the Star Market today and it was SO expensive compared to most grocery stores. Chobani’s were on sale for 88 cents which was the only good thing about that trip. Whomp whomp.

My friend Meredith just posted this fun recipe for chicken tenders so I decided to make some for dinner last night! I didn’t follow her recipe, but it helped me remember that I love making chicken tenders! I also made sweet potato “fries” and had corn on the cob (sorry, it seems like I eat this all the time, but I am obsessed with it lately!!). Fun, easy, healthy Saturday night meal!

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In other news, I need to take a second to say that even though I had a great day yesterday, I had a very heavy heart. Our cousin’s wife passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Katrina and Sean had love like we all dream of having, and I cannot imagine what Sean is going through. Katrina was one of a kind; the most caring, energetic, fun loving, giving, wonderful person whom we will all miss so much. We were lucky enough to share a cabin with the two of them when we were at our other cousin’s wedding in Vermont last September; we were definitely the “fun” cabin. Sending lots of love and support to my cousin, Sean, and everyone else who was lucky enough to know Katrina.

Questions for you: Did you buy anything fun this weekend? Where do you go grocery shopping? Any suggestions for where I should move in September?

Scenes from Saturday

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Happy Weekending, everyone!

Ok, these were from Thursday, but I’m still counting them as “Scenes from Saturday” because I wanted to share them…

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{Beautiful run along Memorial Drive in Cambrige before teaching. Teaching class. Sweet Charlie snuggles. Flour granola- yum! My beautiful “M” necklace from my sister.}

Scenes from Friday…

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{Mom and dad came for lunch! Drinks and apps with Jessi at Olives in Charlestown.}

Finally scenes from Saturday!

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{Teaching a killer kickboxing class. Burpee seeds! A match made in heaven. Garden shopping at Home Depot. Lunch at Chipotle with Danielle. Seeds and other gardening supplies. Charlie on a leash- don’t ask. Final product of my potted plants! Before & after of the area beside our apt. My garden. Grocery goods & a delicious Sam Summer. Dinner- Chicken parm burgers & roasted broccoli.}

Questions for you: What was your Thursday, Friday or Saturday like? Do anything worth sharing?