Weekend Check-In

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. It has been pretty cool and cloudy in Baltimore, but my eats have been post-worthy. Let's get to it.

Thanks to everyone for the tips on how to deal with steel cut oats (groats)! I tried again on Saturday morning and following the stove top directions created a great finished product! The consistency was heartier than regular oats, but I really enjoyed them.
Of course, I would never eat them plain, so I added cinnamon, bee pollen, honey, banana, chopped figs, chopped pecans, almond butter. After a great breakfast, Kevin and I went for a little over an hour long trail run in Patapsco State Park. The trails were in good shape and it was a tough run. If I had to guess, I would say we ran 5.5 - 6.0 miles.

I came home and ate a cutie.
For lunch, Kevin grilled up some zucchini...
And I made mexican pita bites. Whole Wheat pita, guacamole, grilled chicken, and salsa.
Dessert was two mini coconut macaroons.
After a day of errands, we met up with our friends Carron and Ben for dinner at Rocket to Venus! We decided to split a few appetizers. Roasted Brussels.
Rotini and Cheese.
And Fried Oysters...not pictured. I decided to get the Sloppy Jo-fu - Tofu prepared in a sweet and sour sloppy joe sauce on a toasted bun, garnished with coleslaw.
I really liked the tofu and the sauce was sweet with a spicy kick. The fries were perfect - fresh-cut, salty, with just the right amount of crunch. As you can see, it was a huge portion, so I took home some leftovers that I will enjoy today at some point.

We decided to all split the Fried Peanut Butter & Jelly for dessert. I think the picture speaks for itself. Decadent.
This morning, I woke up and made some pancakes with fresh fruit. I picked up the mix below and you would have never known they were 100% whole wheat. They were fluffy, just like normal buttermilk pancakes.
I added sliced strawberries and bananas and drizzled with agave nectar. I am FULL.
We are getting ready to go to see the Harlem Globetrotters...so I have to get moving.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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Food Drive Wrap-Up

Thanks to everyone that participated in the Hunger Takes No Holiday Food Drive.

53 comments x $0.20/per comment = $10.60

I am going to throw in another $20 for a total of $30.60 worth of food. My plan is to pick up the items at the grocery store this week, so that I can deliver to the MD Food Bank by this weekend.


Some of the most popular items mentioned in your comments were:

• Peanut Butter!!
• Oatmeal!!
• Beans
• Cereal
• Nuts
• Diapers
• Canned Fruits & Veggies
• Canned Tuna
• Water
• Granola Bars
  

Thanks again to everyone who helped spread the word - I really appreciate it. I will make sure to take pictures of the food and also document the actual donating since I may be getting a tour of the Food Bank!

Eats/Workouts

I am combining Eats and Workouts for the weekend because I took ONE picture of food all weekend. It is my favorite sandwich from Rosina Gourmet in Canton square.

Traditional Turkey which includes smoked turkey with provolone, parmesan, romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, chopped hot peppers, oregano and red wine vinaigrette on an Italian ciabatta flat sub roll.

As far as my workouts go - I had a great plan for the weekend, but I am sorry to say that I didn't stick to it.

• Friday: DAY OFF. check.
• Saturday: Mountain bike. It was a beautiful day, but unfortunately sleep won out and then I had a ton of cleaning to do around the house before heading down to Northern VA for a friend's 30th Surprise Birthday Party.
• Sunday: Co-ed Football Game. Run outside for 1 hour. Decided to try and run before the game, but only did about two miles because of time constraints. Losing an hour of sleep messed me up. Co-ed football was fun and we beat the pants off of the other team 40 - 12, or something like that.
• Monday: Cross Train. I ran around the park with Oscar which is ~2.2 miles. Then, I came home and did Workout #1 of Jillian Michael's 30-day shred.
  

Cant wait to catch up on all of your blogs!

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Full Weekend!

This weekend has been a ton of fun, but I feel like I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

Friday (12.05.2008)

Friday night was a dinner out in DC at Buca di Beppo for my friend Erica's 30th birthday. They do a family style dinner, so we just ordered a ton of food and split everything. I highly recommend this restaurant for a big group. The prices are reasonable and the food was very good. Oh and I tried chianti for the first time and LOVED it. Have been trying to get more into red wines, so this was good progress.

The fried mozzarella was incredible. I also had some of the Mixed Green Salad with Prosciutto and Gorgonzola. (no pic)

A shot of my plate from above. Penne Arrabbiata, Chicken Saltimbocca, and Chicken Parmesan. The penne dish was a little too spicy for my taste, but the chicken parm and chicken saltimbocca were both awesome.

And here is the birthday girl as we are singing her happy birthday...and she is conducting. She will be 29 for the rest of her life.Saturday (12.06.2008)

Sleeping in did not happen as planned on Saturday due to a crazy kitten named Lucy. (who is currently watching me type, purring loudly - trying to chase the words) Breakfast was a cinnamon crumpet w/ almond butter and agave nectar. Sliced banana on the side.Headed to the gym and did 2 miles of running and 40 mins of walking on a slight incline for 60 mins total treadmill time. Kevin wasn't done with his workout yet, so I ended up lifting my back and shoulders and then doing 35 mins on the arc trainer. Guess it is good we drove together because he caused me to do more than I ever would have.

Came home and whipped up a protein shake. (vanilla protein powder, soy milk, blueberries) We met Kevin's father for lunch in Annapolis at O'Briens Oyster Bar and Restaurant before doing a little Christmas shopping on Main Street. I was shy and didn't take any pictures of lunch. I had scallop sliders, which were huge seared scallops topped with this Asian slaw, but they didn't really fill me up, so I ended up stealing a bunch of Kevin's fries.

Saturday night was my friend Carron's 30th SURPRISE birthday dinner. I couldn't mention it in Friday's post because I knew she may be reading. ;)

We headed to Cork's in Federal Hill for a great meal and lots more wine. There were some people I didn't know sitting around us, so I was (again) shy about taking pictures. My friend Ann did take a picture of this flat bread salad appetizer which I heard was good!I drank a ton of wine because the waitress was under strict orders to keep my glass filled the entire night. I found this out later. Thanks for looking out Kevin. Dinner was blurry.

Here is the birthday girl blowing out her candles. 29 again!The ALWAYS full glass of wine and then a few beers at some bars afterwards led to these late night diner eats with my friend Mara and Kevin. I had the pecan pancakes, but they were huge, so I only managed to eat one.Sunday (12.07.2008)

Felt like absolute crap this morning as my hangover was in full effect. Today was the annual Secret Santa brunch with my friends from high school and I was looking forward to an amazing brunch at Carron's house. (the birthday girl from Saturday night)

I made the fruit salad and layered grapes, fuji apples, strawberries, pineapple, and raspberries. All my favorites.We also had crispy bacon, egg frittata, bagels w/ cream cheese, coffee cake, and chocolate chip cookies. Brunch isn't complete without chocolate chip cookies.I loved the flowers on the table...
Here is the group shot of us before eating. How many times can I wear my new favorite sweater before people start wondering if I have any other clothes?oops - Gibson was cut out by mistake, so here is a close up of Maggie and her little one! What a cutie and he didn't cry when I held him, so he's a cool dude in my book!My plate from above. Seconds were definitely in order.Whew - anyone still here? That was a long one. I am off to bed - exhaustion has set in. Now I just have to move this one...Good night!

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Red Maple (11.14.2008)

I am stuffed! Tonight was alot of fun and the food was mostly incredible! We headed up to Red Maple which is in the Mt. Vernon area of Baltimore city. Mt. Vernon is an "artsy" area that has museums, great little shops, restaurants, and older buildings with lots of cool architecture.

Red Maple is definitely not your typical Baltimore restaurant. While most places in B-more are pretty down to earth and casual - this has a cool, loungy, club feel. As we walked in, it felt like I was in DC or NY - not Baltimore!

They had a huge drink menu and we decided to split a bottle of Chardonnay. It was a sweet, light wine that went down veeery easily. So easily that we ended up ordering another bottle later on!They had mostly tapas on the menu, so after consulting with the waitress, who said they were pretty small dishes; we decided to split a whole bunch of them and pretend we were Padma and Tom on TOP CHEF. There were so many great sounding combinations! Since the complete menu isn't listed on the website, I am going to try and do these justice!

Here were some of our favorites:

The Edamame Hummus served with warm pita and tortilla chips. This stuff tasted incredible and my sister and I were thinking of ways we could make this ourselves. The waitress tried to take it away once, but we stopped her so that we clean out the bowl!The Crispy coconut tofu with a key lime ponzu was completely...perfect...tasting.

Roasted butternut squash dumplings with a creamy sage sauce definitely made my eyebrows raise on the first bite I took. sinful.

Another favorite was the steamed chicken and vegetable dumplings. These suckers were gone before I remembered to take a picture!

<!--[endif]-->The gunpowder farms bison filet satay with green tea spices, sichuan pepper and tamari glaze was a big hit with the table, although I thought it could have used a dipping sauce of some sort. The glaze just wasn't enough for me. I enjoyed trying bison for the first time though!

Guess what they had - Pumpkin fries!! How could I pass these up? With all the pumpkin recipes flying around - I had never heard of this! They were really tasty - cooked exactly the way fries should be - slightly crisp on the outside. They came with a yogurt sauce of some sort - cant remember any of the ingredients for this one, but I do know it tasted delish.

We also sampled the flank steak topped with roasted tomatoes, Gorgonzola and a Guinness balsamic reduction. If it wasn't such a "hip" place, I probably would have licked the plate on this one. (didn't grab a picture of this one)

Some of our not so favorites were:

Shrimp, artichoke and spinach fritters with a ginger-soy dipping sauce. These were EXTREMELY salty. I could barely eat one of them and I would not order them again.

The wild mushroom falafel just didn't have the wow factor some of the other dishes had. I probably would have really enjoyed it on another night, at another restaurant, but it was up against some tough, tapas competition here and it just didn't measure up.

I actually think that the baby eggplant with sun-dried tomato tapenade, goat cheese, balsamic glaze would have been more of a favorite had it come out earlier. This one came out last and we were stuffed. Just didn't enjoy them the way I probably could have...

Here is my mom, sister and I after our fun meal!Did the night end here? nahhh. We hit up a cute wine shop right near the restaurant and bought some bottles. This guy was behind the register - he was security. (I think he looks like Hooch from Turner & Hooch!)Then we headed over to Little Italy's famous Vaccaros Italian Pastry Shop for coffee and dessert. We split a Sfogliatelli and a Pasticiotti with our coffees. Probably why I am still up right now - didnt get a decaf and I cant sleep!
If you are ever in Baltimore - I would definitely recommend a day in Mt. Vernon to look around and end it with an dinner at Red Maple! Oh and make sure to invite me...would love to go back.

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I'm Baaaack! (11.03.2008)

So this weekend was fun and relaxing at the same time. I didnt get much computer time, so this is my first post in November!

Saturday started out with a walk in the park with oscar and then a ton of cleaning. Later on, I had a fun afternoon/evening with my sister! We went shopping, had dinner, and then saw a movie. After a TON of shopping (my feet hurt), dinner was a delicious one at The Tomato Palace in Columbia, MD.

We each ordered a glass of wine (pinot grigio for me) and then we decided to split the meatball and polenta appetizer. This was SO delicious and after splitting this, we realized that we should have just ordered salads as our entrees.

Especially because they bought a plate of these hot, garlicy, bread knots to our table. whoa.

I had ordered the roasted chicken special with peppers, onions, sweet potato, tomatoes over linguine. It was HUGE and just OK. The chicken was perfectly cooked, but I barely put a dent in this.

My sis ordered sole over spinach linguine with a white wine sauce w/ tomatoes and capers. I LOVED her dish and had more bites of this than mine.

We went to see The Changeling and it was a mistake. Horrible movie - we both hated it. I had a completely different expectation of the movie and felt like it was such a downer. If you are thinking about seeing it - I say wait for it to come out on video so you dont spend as much $$ on it!

Sunday AM was my last longer run before the Harrisburg Marathon which is THIS COMING WEEKEND! oh man - I cant believe I am doing this, but hopefully the weather is OK and I can beat my PR. But, I want to just enjoy it and not put TOO much pressure on myself in case it isnt my day and I cant beat my PR. I will be happy with a finish too!

I ran a little under 7 miles on and my feet and legs all felt pretty good. I am a little worried about my right hamstring because I still "feel" it. It is not like it is a pain, but it just feels tight. The first two miles were in the park with Oscar, then I dropped him off at home and ran down to the water/inner harbor and ran through fells point and over to harbor east area before turning around. My time was 1 hour and 7 mins. (I actually wore my watch!)

The rest of Sunday was spent doing some much needed laundry, resting, playing with Lucy and Oscar. Later on, we took a trip to Whole Foods and came back with some very good stuff.

Dinner on Sunday night consisted of chicken and vegetable potstickers from whole foods, edamame, and a multigrain rice/shrimp/california roll. Here is my plate before eating...

...but, I could only eat two of the sushi rolls - just wasnt into them - which is weird. I did eat the potstickers and edamame, which both were amazing. I have a potsticker obsession lately.

Breakfast this morning (monday) was a great oatmeal combo:

• 1/2 c oats
• 1/2 c skim milk
• raisins
• almonds
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• spoonful of almond butter (I got some more - thank goodness)
• drizzle of maple syrup (I have a heavy hand with this and need to start measuring!)
  

(I really do love having oatmeal in the morning and want to thank all the wonderful food bloggers out there who inspired me to try it again and start coming up with combinations I enjoy. I hadnt had oatmeal since I was little, up until a few months ago. It is such a quick, easy, hot thing to put together. I am loving how it keeps me full for so long in the morning too!)

Morning snack (had around 10:30am) was a Lemon, Vanilla, Cashew Nectar bar. love these. Lunch today will be Channa Masala with a spoonful of fage mixed in and a piece of naan bread. Afternoon snack will be the rest of the fage with pineapples and pumpkin granola mixed in.

Fresh pineapple from whole foods. I used my new pineapple corer (from my mom) and it worked great!

I almost forgot that Oscar dressed up for Halloween! He decided to rock out two different wigs.

The first is a more classic blond bob...but he likes to keep it messy.

The second is a little spunky shag cut. :) (check out that tongue...aww)

Hope everyone is off to a good start this week!

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