Tag: lunch

Weekending: Quiet night in, Spring Wine Fest, Girls day out

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I love when I have weekends that are a mix of relaxation and fun events- they’re the best right? This past weekend was one of those weekends and it was just what I needed after a busy week, as well as what I needed to prepare for a busy week this week.

Friday night, I headed into the city after I finished work to go to Lindsay’s class at Recycle. I had never been to the studio on Newbury Street, but I was a huge fan!

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Working out on a Friday afternoon was a nice treat!

The rest of my Friday night included wine, a healthy dinner and serious couch lounging, which was exactly what I needed/wanted.

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Spring Wine Fest

A few months ago, my friend Jessi sent out an email telling us about a Spring Wine Fest that she has gone to for a number of years. The tickets at the time were only $19, so clearly that was a no-brainer on my part; sign me up! Drinking wine on a Saturday afternoon with my girlfriends (after teaching an awesome kickboxing class) is probably one of my favorite things do to.

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We had a blast walking around and trying lots of different wines from various wineries. Some of my favorites were Kim Crawford, Wild Horse, Estancia and Simi, although there were so many others that were great, too. I liked going during the day because even though it was still pretty busy (we basically would get a sample then drink it while waiting in another line), there was still room to move and mingle and hang out. They had lots of free food samples, which is key at a wine tasting event 😉

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The lighting in the Cyclorama was amazing- these photos came out so great! Doesn’t hurt that I have pretty friends, either 😉

After a few tastings we were feeling silly enough to jump over to the photo booth. I die a little every time I look at these pictures…

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Look at my head in that second one- it makes no sense!

Our tasting ended at 2:30, so we walked over to Gaslight for a much needed late lunch. I had a Bellini to start and then switched to wine after.

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My sister met us for lunch and she and I shared the Croque Madame and scrambled eggs with a Truffle Oil sauce. Holy yum!

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After lunch, our large group broke up and some went home and others went to The Playwright for a Boston Marathon fundraiser. I was so happy that my friend Meaghan was able to join us!

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Needless to say, after a day of drinking, I was happily home, fed and in bed by 9:30 😉

Sunday was a standard Sunday that consisted of laundry, grocery shopping, visiting my sister, packing and lots of blogging/workout planning. It’s always a little stressful right before I leave for a trip (even if it’s short) because I have to get my blog posts prepped for the time I’m going to be away and I have to make sure that I’m packed correctly (in other words, it takes time to pack smartly vs. just throwing stuff into a suitcase.). I have to say, though, one thing that was really nice was the fact that I didn’t need to cook a big meal or prep for the week. It’s sad how much easier my day felt without that task!

Here’s to a good week!

Questions for you: Do you like to workout on Fridays? What’s your ideal Saturday consist of? Have you ever been to the Wine Fest in the South End?

Boston Has My Heart.

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**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!

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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!

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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.

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039When the veggies were about halfway done, I started my quinoa and chicken sausage.

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041Once 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!

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045Yum! 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?

Mid-Week Check In

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Wednesday. Nice to see you! I love the feeling after a Wednesday is over because the rest of the week is downhill from there! I can’t say that this week has flown by, but it also hasn’t dragged on, so I guess that is a good thing!

Where did we last catch up? Oh, I posted a workout yesterday, but didn’t really post about much else (besides big news about my friend Jess’s new company!), so there is a lot to talk about!

We finally had nice weather on Monday!! My coworker and I decided to break in the nice weather with our first lunch on the water. Working in Fort Point definitely has its perks in the summer!

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Post work, to take more advantage of the weather, I laced up my sneaks  and went for a nice, 4 mile jog through Brighton before teaching Dynamax. Per usual, we had a great Dynamax class- can’t believe the last class of the session is next week! Time is flying by- I’ll be 28 in 4 days. Yikes!

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Yesterday was a much-needed rest day. Well, rest day except for walking at least 3 miles in the city and getting up to do my Triceps Tuesday workout for the April Arms Challenge. I loved yesterday’s workout because of the crab walks!! This got a funny conversation going between Athena and myself on Gchat.

animal workoutDo any of you have funny animal moves that are great forms of exercise?

After work, I headed over to Jess’s condo to talk about our partnership and congratulate her for her big day! Since we have the same birthday and I walk right past Crumbs, I picked her up a little treat!

001So, so yummy! Tell me, do you have a favorite flavor there? There are so many that I have a hard time choosing!

I ended up getting home later than I had planned, so I thought about what I could throw together for dinner while I was on the T. I didn’t come up with much, but it was healthy, tasted good and filled me up. I’ll take it! Looks, on the other hand, are really not that great. I promise it tasted good, though!

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Quinoa harvest blend, chicken, asparagus, goat cheese and marinara sauce. Quick, easy and healthy… and I used up some leftovers:)

And that brings us to today! I kept thinking that I could wear skirts and dresses with no tights this week, but between rainy mornings and cooler temps in the morning, I haven’t bitten the bullet yet.

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I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Questions for you: How has your week been? Is it going by fast or slow? What is your favorite quick, easy and healthy meal to throw together when you get home late?

A New Take to Leftovers

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Ugh. What a miserably cold, windy and rainy day! I am still not sure why I decided to wear tights and straighten my hair today (really, I had no real reason to do either of these things… except I didn’t wash my hair yesterday since I didn’t work out, so straightening it was the best option I had… shhh it’s not that gross!).  At least I had my cute Sperry Rubber Slip On’s on (does that make sense? I hate when 2 of the same words are next to each other in a sentence):

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That’s really all I had going for me this morning, though. The T was delayed and the masses of people ON the T was horrific. I don’t plan on going outside for the rest of the day:)

Anyway, I need to tell you about my dinner last night! Tuesday’s are my “rest” days from the gym, so last night I went home, did 30 minutes of self-practice yoga in my room and then thought about what I could have for dinner.  I wasn’t really in the mood for stuffed peppers or taco salad, but I did want to use some of the leftover pepper stuffing.  Enter: a “Taco” Quesadilla! This week, I ended up buying these wraps. They are the perfect size (most are so big!) and really low in calories so it’s a great way to get a little carb fix in without feeling too guilty about it!

All I did was layer a little shredded cheese on half of it, some of the taco mixture from Sunday and then a little more cheese.

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And, voila! A delicious and relatively healthy weeknight meal.  I didn’t even feel like I was eating leftovers- that’s the best part!

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Now, if only I had something a little more exciting for lunch… This week I have been getting back to the basics with healthy salads, greek yogurt and fruit. My coworker and I call this “Moe’s Leaning Tower Lunch”.

001It’s quite the struggle carrying all those containers from the kitchen to the lunch room (it’s a much farther walk than you would think!).  Broken down, it’s a salad with veggies, quinoa and goat cheese, dressing, greek yogurt (really liked the Hannaford “Inspirations” brand!) and strawberries. Yum, yum, yum! (and, when I have a salad for lunch, I feel like I don’t have to worry about eating as many vegetables at dinner time… please tell me I am not the only one who uses that type of rationalization…)

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I am excited to teach UXF Burn tonight- Hoping I have a huge turnout like last week.  I am feeling MUCH better and I am ready to kick people’s butts tonight:)

Hope you’re all staying warm and try!

Questions for you: Leftovers: love ’em or hate ’em? How is your week going?