Sunday, May 10, 2009

mother's day brunch

I woke up earrrly this morning and got ready for a long run. I planned on running basically as long as I could running around my small town. I ran hills and neighborhoods, through the strong winds and through the sunshine and felt pretty strong. But when I mapped my run, it was only 6.56 miles but thats better than nothing.


Date5 /10/2009
RouteAshland Run
Distance6.56 mi
Time55:30
Pace08:27/mile


I gotta get a ten or 11 miler in this week no matter what. I'm hoping for tomorrow or Tuesday. Before I left for the run, I had half of this bar:

When I got back around 9:30, I quickly got to work on our Brunch meals. Last night, I had prepped the ingredients for the two quiches I was making and my baked french toast was in the fridge absorbing the egg mixture. This is how I made the Baked French Toast. This recipe was inspired by Paula Dean but I made a lot of substitutions. Here's my recipe

Baked French Toast Casserole


Ingredients

  • 1 loaf French bread + 5 slices of Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl Bread cut into cubes
  • 6 large eggsand two egg whites
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 cup of 1% milk
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Dash salt

Directions

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch thick each and cut the additional bread into bite size pieces. Arrange slices in a flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the topping evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

Topping:

2 Tablespoons of Smart Butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped glazed walnuts
1 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Spread over bread as directed above. I also added some dried Cranberries. Here's how it turned out!



My father in law is lactose intolerant so I made a version of this recipe with Lactaid Milk.

I also made a fruit salad combining strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, apples and mangos.

A late addition to the brunch menu was a veggie sausage and egg casserole. Here's the recipe:

Apple Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

6Morningstar Farms® Maple Flavored Veggie Sausage Patties
1 small cooking apple, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups cubed, firm-textured multigrain bread
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk

Directions

1. Chop Morningstar Farms Sausage Patties into bite-size pieces. Set aside. In small bowl toss together apple, 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. Place half of the bread in 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Top with half of the veggie patties, half of the apple mixture and half of the cheese. Repeat layers.
3. In medium bowl whisk together eggs and sour cream. Whisk in 2 tablespoons sugar, vanilla and salt. Add milk, whisk until combined. Pour over mixture in baking dish.

4. Bake, uncovered, at 375°F about 60 minutes.
This was really fun and interesting. It was sweet and cheesy and delicious all at the same time. I would definitely make this recipe again!

My sister in law Natalia and I also made two quiches. I had prepped all the ingredients the night before making sauted onions, spinach, cooked mushrooms and bacon. One quiche had bacon, spinach, onions, mushrooms and cheddar and mexican blend cheese. The other had bacon, spinach, onions and swiss and feta cheese.



These turned out a little watery because we tried to cut out some of the fat and use egg substiuite for some of the eggs which didn't work. Here's the recipe:

Quiche

-Unbaked pie shells defrosted
- 5 slices of Bacon diced
- 1/2 Onion, cooked and translucent
-1 package of mushrooms, cooked
-1 package of frozen spinach defrosted and drained
- 1 cup of various cheese per quiche
-1 cup of 1% milk
-1/2 cup of cream
-4 eggs
-1 egg white
-nutmeg and s & p

Beat together eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg, s&p. Fill pie shells with toppings and then add the egg mixture and bak in the over at 375 for 40 minutes.

I also made REAL bacon (not sure the last time I made REAL bacon).

And no brunch is complete without bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, tomatoes, red onion and capers! My favorite! I also bought bran muffins and for dessert, I bought a chocolate coffee cake. We had mimosas and coffee as well.



My plate:


Lots of food. I'm still stuffed. I ate dinner at 6:30 and my plate pretty much looked the same as above, minus the french toast. I'm off to watch the Celts and go to bed. Night!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Run, Food, Birthdays & Mommy Day!

Started off Friday morning (after the gym) with a fruit salad.

I didn't want to eat too much because Gretchen, Carissa and I decided to go out to lunch to Grezzo the Raw Restaurant we've been wanting to check out. The restaurant was awesome and we will definitely be back. I ordered the 'BLT'- it had dehydrated eggplant acting as the bacon, lettuce, tomato, a 'cheese' dressing and avocado. It was then 'wrapped' in a nut mixture that was dehydrated to make a bread/wrap like quality. It also came with sweet potato chips.

For dessert, we all shared a brownie sundae which was topped with vanilla gelato (made with coconut water and coconut flesh), chocolate sauce, and shredded coconut, and mango sauce on the side. This was soooooo good.
Can you tell we liked it?

Unfortunately, when I got back to work- there was a lot of work needed to be done before I left for the evening. I worked as fast as I could, but a lot of it was out of my control because I had to convert files to a different format which took a long time. We had dinner reservations with our friends Usok and Michelle at Cottonwood at 7, but I didn't get out of work until 8. Luckily, they didn't seem to mind. When we sat down, we shared grilled calamari with a sundried tomato pesto and toast with an olive tapanade. TASTY!

I also had a Margarita on the rocks with salt.
For dinner, I ordered the Tostada Salad. It was Romaine Lettace with various vegetables, cheese, chicken, steak and avocado. I ate about 1/2 of this.

After dinner, Dave and I walked a few blocks to Saint where our friend Mike was celebrating his 30th birthday. It was definitely a cool scene and fun to have a big crowd. Having a table with liquor service didn't hurt either. Although, I planned to wake up and run this morning, I was having a good time at the bar and the drinks were going down pretty smoothly. I had two STRONG Vodka Tonics with a splash of Cranberry Juice and I was FEELING it. yes I know I'm a light weight. Around 12, we left and headed home. Here's a pic of Dave and I, Lindsay and the birthday boy!

Now on to today. I woke up with a hangover at 730 and got ready and left to head to my brothers so we could run the trails in Boylston, MA. Unfortunately once we got to the trails, there was a sign that said the Dam was flooded. Mike knew of other trails, so we ran those. They were hilly and again, I had an off day. It didn't help that I drank the night before. Half way through (around the 34 minute mark), I started just dying. I ended up telling my brother to leave me and get a workout in since I was fading so much. I even had to stop and walk a couple times. I'm not sure the last time that happened. But all in all, I still got in 6 miles. I ran about 53 minutes. I hope I can run tomorrow before Mothers Day. I need to get more miles in before my Half Marathon in two weeks! When we got back to my brothers condo, we quickly got ready and headed to my Nana Edie's 90th Birthday Party. She isn't my real Nana, but she took care of me from ages 0-4. IT was a surprise and boy was she shocked!
For lunch, there was a buffet and I ate a little of everything. I ate the stuffed chicken, a big salad, bread, pasta and swedish meatballs. I definitely ate too much but I was STARVING!
Then Mike, Natalia and my mom went shopping for Mothers Day and on our way back, we stopped at DD. I got an iced Coffee and a munchkin.

Then I went Grocery Shopping for mothers day and when I finally got home, I started immediately cooking dinner and prepping tomorrows brunch festivities. I made Pork Tenderloin with a maple orange marmalade sauce with baked brussel sprouts and fingerlick potatoes and also creamed corn. It was a tasty meal. Brussels Sprouts are so delicious!

Not sure why these pictures turned out so blurry. After dinner, I continued to prep for brunch tomorrow. Here is my menu:

Baked French Toast (currently soaking in the egg/milk mixture)
Two Quiches
coffee Cake
Bagels with CC and Smoked Salmon
Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Have a good night, Happy Mothers Day! I'll post how my brunch turns out tomorrow!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

It's Friday!

Hello Everyone! Happy Friday! Now that I have my camera back, I have to back track to Wednesday night. I was really looking forward to making this recipe I saw in Martha Stewart Everyday Living. Here is her version of the recipe:

Curry Coconut Chicken with Peas

Ingredients

Serves 4
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 bone-in, skinless chicken breast halves (10 to 12 ounces each), halved crosswise
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3 tablespoons curry powder (preferably Jamaican)
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 4 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
  • 1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas, thawed
  • Cooked white rice, for serving

Directions

  1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Working in two batches, brown chicken, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
  2. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, garlic, cumin, curry, thyme, and 1/2 cup water and season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
  3. Add carrots, coconut milk, 1/2 cup water, and chicken with any accumulated juices. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover partially, and cook until chicken is cooked through and carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in peas. Serve curry over rice.
I didn't have Coconut Milk so I substituted that for a little cream/milk combo. It tasted okay. I felt like it was missing flavoring. Dave liked it though! I added fresh peas and spinach (of course!) and mushrooms. Here's my plate!

So steamy!
I also ate a Cadbury Egg! I have been hiding this since Easter so Dave wouldn't eat it! It was very tasty.
Now on to Thursday, I started the morning by getting to the train station at 6:15AM. Unfortunately for me, the train didn't show up until 7:30 and I didn't get into Boston until 8:40 leaving me no time to workoout and only time to shower and get into work. I was starving after my two hour commute, so I stopped at Sebastians and got an English Muffin, Egg, Cheese and Turkey Sausage sandwich. It was amazing, but definitely not what I should be eating!
For lunch, I went to this place called Pressed near my office. It was AWESOME! I got the
SMOKED TURKEY BREAST AND BRIE- smoked turkey breast, brie, tomato, baby spinach, on a baguette. And then they grill it to perfection!!! YUM!

For dinner, I made a leftover sandwich. I used the Arnold Muffin and put the leftover filling from the stuffed peppers, cheese and avocado and tomatoes. I also had a side salad. It was very tasty!




I certainly had enough bread for one day! I woke up early this morning to go to the gym and had a total "off day." I could only finish 3.5 miles and then I lifted. Tomorrow, I am running with my brother around the trails in Western Mass. Hopefully I will be able to do 10+. On my horizon today I am waiting for feedback from one of my clients and then I am hopefully going OUT to lunch to enjoy this day and then tonight I am going OUT to dinner to watch the game, then head over to Saint for my friends 30th birthday. Have a good Friday everyone!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Britney Bachelorette and lots of food...

So its been awhile since I've blogged mainly because of two reasons: 1) work has been insane and 2) I left my camera charger at my friends house this past weekend and my camera is now dead so I cannot upload pics! But I have been photographing lots of food and other fun things that have been going on. So lets start with Friday. The day started by me not being able to wake up to run. Work was pretty insanely busy working on 26 videos that were due for client approval by EOD on Friday. Breakfast was a wheat bagel with light Veggie Cream Cheese.


For lunch, I had pasta salad and pasta with some sauce. This was out in the kitchen made by the Design team. It was tasty and perfect that I didn't have to go out and get anything.

I drove into work on Friday and had to work until 6:30ish and just when I was about to leave, I saw more leftover food. There was food from Au Bon Pain and there was a Mediterranean Wrap!

I used to eat these all the time when I worked at the Gap back in High School. Brought me back to the old Natick Mall where I would get my half hour lunch break and I would run over to Au Bon Pain and get this wrap. It had tons of roasted veggies- red peppers, onions, zuchinni, olives and tons of feta. And I'm sure tons of oil. I actually ate this in the car heading down to Duxbury where I headed for the weekend for my friend Remi's Bachelorette Party!

I wasn't sure if there was going to be dinner, so I thought it was smart to eat before I got there. Well, once I got there, I certainly didn't need to eat anything because there was TONS of food and TONS of booze. Remi's little sister made Coq Au Van and it was delicious.

I'm not sure of all the ingredients but it had lovely flavorings. She served it over egg noodles. I also drank about 4 glasses of Prosecco. Around 11 PM, I called it a night and headed up for bed. The next morning, I had a small coffee with cream and splenda from DD along with a bagel and cream cheese. Then I decided to go running. I really needed it. And we were right along the water so how could I resist. I ended up running 40 minutes- 20 minutes out and 20 back. The first mile was at 8:20 pace so I think I stayed pretty consistent. It started drizzling while I was raining which was pretty nice.


Date5 /2/2009
RouteDuxbury Run
Distance4.75 mi
Time40:10
Pace08:27/mile

When I got back, we got ready and ate even more food and also had Remi's shower. Remi got tons of great gifts!! Then after the shower, Kelsey, Remi's sister made steak and chicken fajitas and they were amazing!! She had the best marinade for the steak tips. YUM!!

Then pretty soon after that, our bus arrived to take us to the Britney Spears concert at Mohegan Sun!!! The bus was AMAZING! It looked like a stretch limo!

On the bus we had spiced pecans, chicken sticks, bagels, cookies, veggies- you name it! There was also tons of cocktails. I really couldn't stop eating. IT WAS BAD. But it was worth it!




The Britney concert was nothing short of amazing. First of all, I know I went in March, but because we had such amazing seats, this was like a completely different show! We saw Britney perform a song to her two children, we saw her take a (small spill) and we saw a fan go on stage and try to dance with Britney. All in all, she was amazing!

After the show (and the celtics win- I may have been keeping an eye on the game the entire time) we went to gamble a bit then head home for the night. We started off in the bus drinking but then one by one we all fell asleep on the 2.5 hour ride back to Duxbury.

I pretty much went straight to bed once we got home. In the morning, we woke up and got on the road! It was a great weekend! I stopped at DD on my way home and got an iced coffee and a multi-grain bagel with light cream cheese. When I got home, I cleaned a bit then headed to the mall with my mom to get dresses for the five weddings I have this year. I also went grocery shopping for the week. Sunday night dinner I made salmon with lemon pepper sauce. I also made asian noodles with spinach, carrots, roasted red peppers and mushrooms. It was tasty.


On Monday, I couldn't get up to go to the gym and I had another busy day at work. I started the morning with oats with peanut butter and golden raisins and dates. Here is a pic of my dried fruit cup I snacked on:

For lunch, I ate a salad with tomatoes, carrots, red onion and cheese along with fruit salad and lots of water. I also made home-made dressing consisting of EVOO, Apple Cider Vinegar, Oregano and Mustard.

I also snacked on a Fiber One bar, which I've learned is NOT good for me and aftr this box is finished, I'm no longer going to buy them. Gretchen noticed that they have high fructose corn syrap in them, yuck! For dinner, I made stuffed peppers with a filling of ground turkey, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, zucchini and mexican blend cheese. I stuffed two red peppers and two poblanos.

I also made Naan pizza. I put the leftover filling and covered it was cheese. What can I say, I had Naan to use and tons of leftover filling!

And here is my plate:


I gotta be honest, I've made a stuffed peppers a couple times and I'm never very happy. They always turn out just okay. I don't think I like how soft the pepper gets. I think I like my peppers with more of a bite to them. But the Naan pizza was delicious!

Today, I started out cinco de mayo with a great run.


Date 5 /5/2009

RouteTreadmill
Distance8.00 mi
Time1:08:04
Pace0:08:30/mile

The run was pretty good. It was hard but all in all it wasn't too terrible. I got out of the shower at 8:50 and still got into work at 9:05. Impressive right? Then I went to work. I ate a Pure Raw Bar that was pretty terrible. I think I am going to start buying the Lara Bars instead. For lunch, I ate a whole wheat wrap with spinach, turkey and cheese (for a change). I also had more of the fruit salad.

Check out my massive to-do list. I'm still crossing things off this list!

At 4, we had an agency Talent Show at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was pretty entertaining. I had 1.5 beers and chips, salsa, guacomole and cheese. Now I'm in bed contemplating if I want more food which I did end up getting. I made an egg white omelet with Cheese, spinach and then topped it with my favorite avocado dip and put it on an Arnold 100 calorie muffin:



Okay, good night everyone! Maybe I will wake up to run tomorrow. One thing is for sure, tomorrow I will be posting pictures of everything I just talked about!