It started out as a dreary, rainy day at 5:30 am.  I rolled out of bed to bring Petrie outside in the torrential rain and she was not a happy camper; my dog detests the rain.  She is a tomboy at heart, but when it comes to wet [...]]]> Well, today was interesting to say the least!

It started out as a dreary, rainy day at 5:30 am.  I rolled out of bed to bring Petrie outside in the torrential rain and she was not a happy camper; my dog detests the rain.  She is a tomboy at heart, but when it comes to wet grass she acts like a princess.  Needless to say, I was dragging her down the sidewalk in the dark pouring rain, getting soaked myself, waiting for her to do her business.  Happy Tuesday, huh?

I snuck in a quick elliptical workout this morning before work.  I’m not kidding, my body is seriously detoxing from this past weekend.  It is craving exercise, fresh food and Crystal Light.

The work day was just like any other, maybe a bit slower than normal.  Nothing special there.  I did have one major high and one major low throughout the day that made it a bit of a roller coaster.  Early afternoon I learned of a loss in the family.  Although not terribly unexpected, it was somewhat sudden.  One hour later, Mike called with arguably life changing news for him, something so exciting and positive.  Funny how life plays those cards for you at times.  Just when you think you get handed something terrible, something good comes along to remind you to celebrate life.  So this is what I’m going to do for both the good and the bad that happened today.  I’m going to celebrate my late great-aunt Fern for the full life that she lived, for the love that she shared with us all, and for the memories we’ll always have.  I’m also going to celebrate Mike’s exciting news that will hopefully be finalized tomorrow so that I can share with you all.  All foodies will appreciate.

Both Mike and I wanted to get out of the house for some fresh air tonight.  We have pretty much no food so the grocery store was calling our name!  We live about 4 blocks from the nearest grocery store and while it isn’t my favorite store, it is great in emergency situations.

While discussing what we wanted for dinner tonight we both decided something light and veggie packed was needed; carbs were also being heavily craved.  Then I remembered back to the Ravioli Salad I made a few months back and bingo, we’ve got dinner.  It’s such a quick and satisfying meal that it will definitely become a quick go-to in our household.

The star of the show was the Buitoni Chicken & Four Cheese Ravioli.  Holy yum! If you haven’t tried this line of Buitoni products I encourage you to pick some up, stat!  They tasted so fresh and were extremely flavorful.  You know sometimes when you have ravioli and the cheese just tastes so processed and even just chewy and pressed?  Well, not these babies.  These were light and almost melted in your mouth.  Love.

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I placed a few ravioli on top of a bed of mixed greens and topped with sauteed carrots, green bell pepper, broccoli, summer squash and marinara sauce.  I maybe sprinkled some processed parmesan cheese on top, but who’s watching?

Such a great way to bulk up those pasta meals.  Add a bunch of chopped and sauteed veggies to your sauce mixture and serve atop greens.  It’s all about adding in some volume to those carbs so you are getting more nutrients and taste, but not overloading on the calories.  Pasta is deceiving, it adds up quick!  Don’t get me wrong, I love my pasta, but my ’serving size’ is more like two or three servings of pasta.  Once in awhile that is just fine, but every time I eat pasta?  Not so much.

Well I’m off to bake up some cookies.  I made a recipe of chocolate chip cookies last week, baked a few and then kept the remaining dough in the freezer.  This is the perfect solution for me because I always love to have dessert options on hand, not to mention that frozen cookie dough is pretty stellar itself.

I just saw an add that Parenthood starts in one week from tonight.  EEKKK!  So excited!  What tv show are you looking forward to the most this fall?  Any new ones people are excited about?

]]> http://www.thefoodieinthecity.com/?feed=rss2&p=4769 7 http://www.thefoodieinthecity.com/?p=4762 http://www.thefoodieinthecity.com/?p=4762#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:35:26 +0000 admin http://www.thefoodieinthecity.com/?p=4762 Happy Labor Day!

We’re back from the Windy City!

Not going to lie.  We are both exhuasted and are looking forward to getting settled back in, watching Bachelor Pad and hanging out with this little Gremlin…

She was SO excited to be home.  I missed her little face way too much.

After a rather indulgent weekend on both the [...]]]> Happy Labor Day!

We’re back from the Windy City!

Not going to lie.  We are both exhuasted and are looking forward to getting settled back in, watching Bachelor Pad and hanging out with this little Gremlin…

She was SO excited to be home.  I missed her little face way too much.

After a rather indulgent weekend on both the food and beverage front I was in desperate need of both a workout and a nice home cooked meal.  I was low on energy and decided rather than trying to get through a cardio workout that I would just lift some weights at home.  Thank goodness for that decision because, while I got through the weight session and it felt rather good, there is no way I could have mustered up the energy to complete an elliptical workout.

While I worked on my fitness, Mike got to work in the kitchen.  Lemon baked chicken with jalapenos and red onion with an asiago/italian dressing marinade, parmesan risotto and canned green beans with peas.  I <3 canned green beans.

It’s the perfect meal to get back on track.  Not to mention, it is a bit dreary here tonight so this is great comfort food!

I’m off.  I loved our mini-vacation but I am in dire need of some r&r.  Later this week I’ll be putting together a recap of our weekend!

How was your Labor Day weekend?  What was the highlight?

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I usually get around 7 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep every night.  Last night, not so much.  I pulled in about [...]]]> Today.was.rough.  I’m so glad to be over the hump. There is no sugarcoating the fact that I felt like death the whole day.  Thanks Gaga, I have you to blame.

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I usually get around 7 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep every night.  Last night, not so much.  I pulled in about 5 1/2 hours.  Yeah, it was rough.  I know some people can function just fine off of such little sleep, but not this girl.  It’s okay though, because Lady GaGa was AMAZING!  I have a new found respect for this woman.  Yes, there were some questionable parts to the concert, some things that were a little bit shocking, some songs that weren’t my favorite, but dang, she’s good.  Talk about a true show.

She also spoke about self confidence throughout the show and it came across as a very powerful message.  If there is even one person in that building that didn’t get a boost of self confidence from her confidence, I’d be shocked.  She was very keen on telling everybody to throw all their insecurities out the door.  What stuck with me was when she said that we should let ourselves free and that we shouldn’t leave loving HER more but we should leave loving ourselves more.  Gaga said she’d always love us.  I don’t want to get too deep about Lady Gaga, but I just thought it was pretty neat!  If you have a chance to see her live, I fully recommend it.

Moving on to today, work was work.  I wasn’t mentally all there today but tomorrow is a new day.  The plan was to hit up some yoga tonight but I decided against it last minute.  I have a theory that if you are a bit too tired or your body is worn out that it is better to rest than have a half-@$$ workout.  You know?  Why put in half the effort when you could give your body and mind a break and go at it 100% the next day?  Am I right or am I right?  So that’s the plan; I’m going to get in a nice and sweaty workout in the morning followed by yoga Friday night.

Since this was the first night in a long time that neither of us had plans on a weeknight, we decided to make an actual homecooked dinner.  I feel like I haven’t cooked in ages!  I picked up some masala sauce from TJ’s last week which is what we based our dinner around this evening.  An Indian stir-fry if you will.

We are heading out of town to Chicago this weekend so I placed all of our veggies out on the counter and got chopping and dropping into a sauce pan.  Into the creation went peas, corn, green bell pepper, tomato and red onion.  While those got cooking on the stove we simmered some diced chicken in the masala and water creation.  Once the chicken and masala sauce started to cook through and the sauce started to thicken up, I added the cooked veggies to let everything jive together to get the masala flavoring.  I served the ‘Indian stir fry’ over penne and wa-la, you’ve got an easy and tasty weeknight meal.

It was sooo good!  This sauce is killer!  Oh, and I couldn’t eat an Indian inspired meal without naan now, could I?

My belly is happy.  It will be even happier once it has a few cookies in it!  I’m off to bake something along the lines of a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie.  Could get interesting folks!

Team Pasta or Team Rice? I’m Team Pasta, hands down.  Mike on the other hand is Team Rice.  We have an unspoken rule about rotating every other stir-fry creation, rice then pasta.  :)

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Monster Ball tour, here I come!  I [...]]]> The title of my post gives it away, and if you follow me on Twitter I totally gave it away this weekend, but my ’surprise’ this weekend was tickets to see LADY GAGATONIGHT!!!!  AHHHHHHH!  Big thank you to the boy for the surprise.

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Monster Ball tour, here I come!  I had a few friends and cousins who went to her concert last night and they all said she far exceeded their expectations.  Can.not.wait.  I think I’m more excited for the actual ’show’ than the music.

I don’t know what it is about her that I love so much because I wouldn’t classify her music as ‘my type’ of music.  I’m more of a rap/country/Dave Matthews type girl.  Okay, I guess I love all music, but she wouldn’t be my norm.  I think it is her catchy rhythms, lyrics and her persona.  Yep, that’s it. Training for my half marathon I relied on a lot of Gaga to get me through my long runs!

Who is your favorite artist?  If you could see one person in concert, who/what band would it be?

I’ll report back on the show tomorrow.  Have a good one!

The action was literally [...]]]> Is it possible to turn back time?  Because if so, I’d really like to relive the weekend that just passed us by.  I won’t forget this past weekend for a long, long time.  It was filled with family, friends, laughs, love, weddings, good food, pampering, shopping, newexercises and a surprise!

The action was literally non-stop from Thursday night until ohh, 4 am this morning.  Yes, 4 am.  Mike deserves the a boyfriend of the year award for driving my mom and brother to the airport this morning.  What a guy, eh?  I sure think so.  The only failure of this weekend was the fact that I took all my photos on my moms camera and we never took the time to upload them on my computer.  FAIL.  Oh well, I guess words can be just as good as photos, or at least that’s what we’ll say.

I started the weekend off right last Thursday by hanging out and having dinner with two of my best friends.  I brought the wine and brownies, and our hostess with the mostest baked us a stuffed chicken.  My brownies were out of a box and I brought over two buck chuck.  Outdone much?  At least I undercooked the brownies and added peanut butter chocolate chips.  Seriously divine.  Little did they know they were out of a box.

Friday my family arrived in the good old MSP.  The ladies of the family including the aunts and girl cousins had Wicked on the agenda for the evening.  My brother and Mike had more of the bar scene in mind.  Can you blame them though?  I must say, if Wicked is coming anywhere near your hometown YOU MUST GO!  It was wicked good.  Get it?  I know, I’m a comedian.  But really, it was a phenomenal show that topped even Rent and Jersey Boys in my book.  I want to go back and watch the Wizard of Oz now because I think I have a different perspective on all the characters.  That is my old hint and piece of information I will spill about this musical as you need to buy your tickets after reading this blog post.  Or, please book a ticket to NYC and then purchase your Wicked tickets.  Okay?  Good.

Saturday was WEDDING DAY!  Oh how I love weddings.  My mom and I started the day with a nice walk around the lake with Petrie, followed by a mani/pedi and brow waxing.  I felt like I was a princess.  Nothing better than some pampering.  The wedding was gorgeous, the bride was ravishing, the drinks were flowing and the cake was… eaten.  They didn’t have a formal wedding cake but in return, they did have a table filled with pretty much any candy you could think of.  Yes, I visited multiple times, especially after a few glasses of wine.  They did serve sheet cake, which in my book, is better than nothing.  For once I preferred the vanilla over the chocolate cake which still days after has me perplexed.  I don’t know who I am.

Sunday the gang slept in, my mom cooked us a wonderful brunch and then we were off to the mall!  Why is it whenever you have money to spend you can’t find anything?  Seriously.  My mom and I were dead set on not coming out empty handed so I ended up with one shirt and my mom with two.  Afterwards I brought my mom to Whole Foods for her first experience ever and we picked up a bunch of goodies to make nummy sandwiches before my brother, Mike and I hit up Hot Yoga Sculpt!

Just down the road from my apartment building is a yoga center called Core Power Yoga.  They offer the first week of classes free for new students so we decided to hit it up.  HOLY MOLY was I ever slapped with a big dose of reality… that class kicked my booty.  Not only was it a billion degrees, but our instructor was intense!  I went into the class having doubts but lying there after completing 60 minutes of cardio, weights, yoga and everything in between, I felt like a million bucks.  I left wanting to immediately sign up for a package but I think  I need to give it a little more thought because dang is it ever expensive.  My thought would be to supplement running and cycling with yoga one a week or once every other week to stretch out my sessions but we’ll see.  Yoga package, yay or nay?  Anybody have any thoughts? The yoga I do at home is just not the same. The plan is to hit up another Hot Yoga Sculpt on Wednesday night. I’m already pretty excited.

We finished up our weekend with some pizza from a nearby pizza joint and a pitcher of beer.  Got to go out on a high note before a detox from greasy food and booze.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to make it through the Emmy’s last night but don’t fret, I have it recorded to watch this week.  I heard Modern Family won a bunch of awards, I need to add that on to my Netflix queue pronto.  What about best/worst dressed?  Anybody have any favorites?

As stated before, my mom and brother had to get up at 4 to head out for their 6 am flight.  Poor guys.  It was either 6 am or bust; supposedly flights were ridiculous when they were booking, upwards of $800.  What gives?  I miss my family already, but I get to see them in Arizona in just weeks!

So what is the surprise of the weekend?  Well you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.  I’m pretty stoked.  One hint is that it is an event and it happens tomorrow night.  Guesses are welcome.  :)

Today was a brutal awakening after a weekend of fun but you’ve got to work hard to play hard in my eyes.  Dinner was light and healthy with a salad and some pita chips & hummus (not pictured).

My salad was topped with red onion, strawberries, raspberries, gren bell pepper, red grapes, grape tomatoes, goat cheese and raspberry vinegrette.  Epic.  I had some homemade pickled beets and croutons on the side.

I feel better already having eaten that; my body is thanking me.

Well I’m off to watch the Bachelor Pad tonight, who’s with me? Don’t judge.  Oh, and somebody says hello…

Awww, my heart melts.  GOODNIGHT and wow, what a rambling post.

*Dancing*

Okay, all done.

Confession.  I didn’t bring my camera to work last week to capture my scone and failed to bring it yet again this week.  I know, WHO AM I!?!  I know some of you look forward [...]]]> Happy FRIDAY!!!  Let’s all take a second to do a little dance, shall we?  Ready, set, GO!

*Dancing*

Okay, all done.

Confession.  I didn’t bring my camera to work last week to capture my scone and failed to bring it yet again this week.  I know, WHO AM I!?!  I know some of you look forward to my scone every week and sit there and drool at it, so sorry to disappoint this week.  Maybe next week I’ll have to bring out some old school scone photos.  Two weeks without Scone Friday photos just is not acceptable in my book.  Agreed? 

I’ve got a pretty busy weekend on tap.  My mom and brother just flew in this morning (again, but I’m not complaining!) for my cousin’s wedding tomorrow.  The last wedding in July didn’t have something in particular…

Yes, there was no wedding cake.  GASP. I about had a heart attack.  Good thing my cousin that is getting married tomorrow was sitting next to me and assured me that there would be plenty of cake at her wedding.  Crisis averted! 

I can promise you one thing… when I get married, my wedding cake will be magical and out of this world.  You just wait and see.

The fun isn’t all packed into one day though because tonight my mom and I, along with my aunts and girl cousins are going to the theater.  I’m pumped because we are going to see a musical that I’ve heard rave reviews about…

Ahh yes.  Wicked my friends!  Has anybody ever been?  I was having dinner with some girlfriends last night and one of my friends is obsessed.  I cannot wait.  Whoohooo!

Well I’m chained to my desk for the rest of the afternoon and then get to head home to see the fam! 

What are you up to this weekend?

Do you have a favorite musical?

I kid, I kid.  The cooking class/sampling indeed was oysters, but [...]]]> Remember how I told you a few weeks ago that our new apartment offers cooking classes about once a month?  Well, last night was the first cooking class scheduled since we have moved in.  Lucky for us, the theme was one of our favorites, oysters!

I kid, I kid.  The cooking class/sampling indeed was oysters, but they are definitely NOT one of Mike and my favorites.  In fact, before last night, neither Mike or I had ever had an oyster before.  We decided since we just moved in and are trying to get to know people that attending this get together would be a good idea, oysters and all.

Mike is the real trooper here.  He despises anything and everything seafood.  Oysters= 10x worse than seafood in my opinion.  To make matters worse, Mike googled what oysters taste like and of course got answers such as ’snot’, ‘the sea’, ‘garbage’, ‘rubber’… you know, all things good that you want to try in this world.   Good thing I got a candid photo of Mike trying his first raw oyster…

Nice expression, love.  Verdict?  He didn’t mind it ‘that much’.  I was shocked, I thought for sure he was going to hurl in front of everybody!  My first reaction?  Absolute disgust.  Funny how that works.

Probably the most important thing I learned over the course of the evening was right when I walked in the door.  You do not serve red wine with oysters as it is a bit too powerful.  Champagne goes best and beer to follow.  I partook in both beverages over the course of the evening.  Hey, I can’t turn down free drinks!

How lucky are we to have this incredible kitchen and gathering space right in our apartment building?  Not to brag or anything, but it is pretty sweet.

Another interesting piece of information that all of you will appreciate comes in the form of a piece of paper that the chef is holding up.  This piece of paper is the seafood tag which restaurants & stores are required to keep when they sell seafood.  The purpose of course is so that the seafood can be traced back to the origins in case of illness, bad seafood, etc.  Pretty neat huh?  Next time you buy seafood, ask if you can see their ‘tags’.  Hopefully they have them!

To be honest, I was too busy chatting up with new friends to really snap many more photos.  Here is the first oyster we tried though.  Raw, unseasoned, unsalted.  Bleh.  Sorry if I’m being a bit too harsh.

I did manage to snap a photo of my favorite oyster of the night, Oyster Rockefeller.  Spinach, bacon (!!), cheese, (butter!!), all baked over a half shell oyster.  Swooon.  This is one oyster dish I could get used to.

I suppose I can spit out one more fact about oysters before I head out for the evening.  The chef mentioned that just like wine, oysters taste vary depending on their origin.  We tried both east coast oysters and west coast oysters last night.  Although I couldn’t really taste the difference (I was probably focusing on getting the bugger down as fast as possible), west coast oysters apparently have a more creamy texture and consistency.  Neat, huh?

One non-oyster tidbit.  Our chef was talking about seafood sales in China (I believe, should have been paying more attention, whoops!) last night and we were all blown away by the highest amount of money paid for one tuna last year.  $100,000.  I kid you not.  Ridiculous to you?  Or understandable if you are a sushi/seafood lover?

Oh, and just for those Kirk fans out there, guess who stopped by for a few minutes last night?

Ahhh, swoon.  I was that creepy girl last night.  I had to take one for the blogging team though because I knew you would all appreciate it!

So let’s get some discussion here.  Have you tried oysters?  What are you thoughts?  Raw vs. cooked?

Last night we enjoyed dinner at a local sushi restaurant with Mike’s sister and brother-in-law. [...]]]> Life these past few weeks has been a whirlwind. We are so busy! I thought  this week was going to be pretty low key, but it is turning out to be just as busy, maybe even busier than the last!

Last night we enjoyed dinner at a local sushi restaurant with Mike’s sister and brother-in-law. It was an impromptu get together that was very well received from my end. Monday’s can be tough on us all, so why not have something to look forward to, no? Mike and I split edamame, gyoza and a few sushi rolls. The food was fabulous but the service was unfortunately terrible. I hate how service can ruin a perfectly good restaurant. Ah well, my bell was happy at least!

Before I crashed and burned last night I made the most amazing wrap to bring for lunch today. I literally was dreaming of it last night and have been thinking about it all morning long. Mmmm…

How good do these layers of flavor look? We’ve got the usual suspects in there- turkey, lettuce, cilantro and tomato, all nicely wrapped up in a Flat Out.

I brought this wrap to a whole new level with two secret ingredients… goat cheese and strawberry jam. Okay. Yes, may sound weird, but work with me here. I have been on a goat cheese kick lately and have been topping Wheat Thins with goat cheese and jam as an after work snack. The tangy cheese with the sweet jam just works. Trust me.

Turkey & cranberries go so well together, so turkey and jam?  I think it is worth the risk.  Hopefully I don’t regret this decision.

I brought a Chobani yogurt and an apple to work yesterday that I didn’t end up eating, so those will be the other components of my filling and healthy lunch.  Is it lunch time yet?

What is the latest odd food combination you are loving?