Salad in a Jar

Also known as lunch for the week!

Lookit me being all healthy!  Craziness...

Who needs Starbucks?

We made our own iced coffee!  And not the add ice to regular coffee kind, either.  And it came out pretty tasty!

Ok, so we do need Starbucks a little since we got the coffee beans from them (Sumatra Dark Roast) and had them grind them.  But you can get that lots of places.

We basically followed the directions for this "Home Brew" but we did not use mason jars.  Also, we were lazy and just used the a filter rather than multiple paper ones.  Worked fine (we told the barista that's what we'd be using so he set the grinder to the right setting) and it took more like 5 minutes to strain the concentrate, rather than an hour.

Yummy!

Basic Chicken Cutlets and Caramelized Broccoli with Garlic

Back by popular demand - a recipe post!

We actually cooked a healthy dinner tonight!
I love breaded chicken, but the packaged stuff is always full of who knows what.  So, I wanted to try my hand at doing it myself.

I found this Basic Chicken Cutlet recipe from Woman's Day.  It was super simple, literally just season the chicken with salt & pepper and coat with Panko breadcrumbs and cook in some oil.  Very easy and a great base to experiment and add other seasonings to.

B loves broccoli, and I've been meaning to try this recipe for a long time.  And...it got rave reviews!!
Caramelized Broccoli with Garlic from Food & Wine magazine was super easy to make.  The crushed red pepper really gave it a nice kick.  I may have overcooked it a little, as it was a bit mushy.  Thankfully, B likes his broccoli mushy.

To round things out we also made some brown rice as well.  Here's a picture of my masterpiece:

Busy Busy!

Weekend In Review

This past weekend I went to Pittsburgh to visit the McGourty crew, rather than B coming back to NY.  The weather was perfect!

On Friday night we caught some live music in Market Square (and had some beers), dinner at Seviche (highly recommend the Drunken Sailor mojito), and dessert at Sharp Edge.

Seviche was particularly good.  We had the Avocado and Corn Seviche with salmon and the Asian Tartare with tuna from the Seviche Bar and the Pulled Chicken Tostada from the Tapas menu.

We went back to Sharp Edge for lunch on Saturday.  It was good, but gave me a stomach ache.  Apparently I can't eat so much fatty bar food anymore :(

Saturday evening we did the Gateway Clipper sightseeing cruise.  Did I mention the weather as perfect?  The narrator was really good too, very informative and entertaining.  As is typical, we forgot our camera, but I did get this shot with my iPhone:

After the cruise we had dinner at Church Brew Works which is a very cool brewery in an old church.  The food was tasty, especially the Chocolate Mousse Cake.

Workout Update
Tonight I had my first Cross Fit ON-RAMP class.  We got a decent workout, but the focus was really on learning the basic exercises and proper form.  Still thinking I'm really going to like Cross Fit - next class is Wednesday!

ON-RAMP

I must be crazy...

I signed up for the on ramp course at Cross Fit.  It's 3 training classes to learn all of the various exercises and Cross Fit lingo and then unlimited classes for a month.  It's a good deal for them because after the 3 training classes I'm pretty sure I'll be unable to move for a while.

The 3 classes are next week - Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  I'm stocking up on advil and ice packs now!

Ow!

So, I survived last night's CrossFit class.  I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.  The exercises were doable, the people were friendly and supportive, the equipment brought back memories of my days in gymnastics.  Oh, and we can't forget - the trainer running the class came over to introduce himself bleeding from a rip (callus torn from his hand from pullups) and with his foot in a boot.  He claims the foot injury was not CrossFit related, I'm not convinced.

Today, I hurt.  Everywhere.  I'm not sure what to massage/stretch first.

But, I'm a glutton for punishment and do plan to go back!

What Did I Get Myself Into

So apparently they've open a Cross Fit gym about 4 blocks from me.  Who knew?

Earlier today it seemed like a good idea to schedule myself for a trial class, but now that it's confirmed I'm a tad nervous.
I REALLY don't want to do the box jump thing - have you seen how short I am.  Yikes!!

I'm going to a call Monday night, we shall see how it goes.  Wish me luck!!

New Running Shoes!

I ordered new running shoes from Zappos.com yesterday afternoon and had them in time to use them for tonight's run.  How do they do that??

For the past couple of years I've been wearing Brooks Ghost running shoes.  Every time I think "huh, these shoes feel OK, but it's been 6 months so I guess I should buy new ones."  Then I get the new ones and realize how much of a difference it really makes.  Craziness.

Here are the new kicks:

Disregard the horrendous wallpaper in the background.  We desperately need to renovate the kitchen!

Hodge Podge Dinner

This has been a weird week.  I did something not ideal to my hip flexor and it's really been hurting.  I took a couple of days off the gym, hopefully that will help.  I do feel a bit better today. 
Of course, at the same time I'm insatiably hungry.  Isn't that always the way?


We actually have a ton of food in the house with all the cooking and freezing I've been doing.  So, I skipped the grocery delivery this week and I've been using up what I have.

Tonight I decided to get a little creative for dinner (aka, too lazy to really cook).  So, here is my hodge podge meal of the night:

I cooked up 2 eggs, mixed that with Steamfresh Southwestern Corn and some diced onion and red pepper I had.  Then I sprinkled some cheddar cheese on top.

And actually - it's pretty good!  No pic tonight, it just looked like a mess of yellow :-)

Hot Stone Heaven

I had my hot stone massage at Red Door Spa in Westchester yesterday.  It was so nice.  I had a gift card, so I splurged for the longer 80 minute massage rather than the 50 minute, so worth it! 
I was sore from my workouts and the hot stones felt just amazing on my back and shoulders.  Anyone who hasn't had one of these really should try it.  Massages are pretty awesome anyway, but the hot stones are just magic.

Not actually me!

After the spa I did some shopping.  Of course I had to make up for the fact that I didn't have to pay for the massage.  I made up for that and then some...oops.

Continuing my "day of beauty" I also got my hair cut and colored.

To top off this lovely day, we had dinner at Hacienda Azteca.  Their margaritas and fresh made guacamole are always tasty.  The food is really good, service tends to be a little questionable.
We then headed over to Wicked Wolf.  They've started having Dueling Pianos on Fridays and Saturdays so we wanted to check it out.  So much fun!!  We'll definitely be heading back.

I'm a bit dehydrated this morning, but still planing to go for a run a bit later today.  We'll see how that goes!

Wahooo!!

I met my workout goal :-)  Can't wait for my massage this weekend!

I'm also pretty excited that we have nothing planned for this weekend except some relaxing and hanging out with friends.  Yay, for travel free weekends!

New workout goal = 60 workouts, not sure of my prize, might stick with the massage.