Brunch

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June 14, 2008

Pancake Brunch

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Pancakes always bring such good memories and feelings for me.  My mom makes the best blueberry pancakes – and it was always such an event when she made them!  My family really loves big weekend breakfasts followed by small lunches and dinners.  At my house, the kitchen is always poppin on weekend mornings and then dead the rest of the day.  I guess that’s why I’m such a lover of brunch!  Here are my delicious pancakes topped with strawberries and banana:

I had three pancakes total, along with a couple forkfuls of maple syrup.  Brunch was 840 calories, 127g carbs, 29g fat, and 22g protein.

No agenda today…more resting.  Happy Saturday guys!

 

June 13, 2008

CSA Bounty #2 plus Brunch

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Hey guys, another long day of rest and relaxation yesterday. P was kind enough to pick up our second CSA batch last night:

From left to right, starting in the back: spinach, lettuce, salad mix, turnips, radishes and braising mix. We still have some stuff leftover from last week so I’m really going to be pushing salads in the next couple days.

P made an Annie’s mac and cheese for two last night, so we split that. I also had some more cottage cheese and granola.

This morning I made myself an Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin with two tbsp PB and a banana:

Brunch was 475 calories, 74g carbs, 18g fat, and 15g protein.

I snapped this photo last night, and I wanted to use it to formally introduce you to my cat, Horseshoe:

(She pulled those wires into her bed.) Horseshoe is 3 yrs old; I got her from a shelter in Va when she was a few weeks old my Junior yr in college. She grew up with a bunch of different dogs and thinks she is one: she’ll greet you at the door, follows you around, sleeps at your feet. I’m probably a dog person, but HS is the bomb. She needed some love on the blog for being such an excellent caretaker while I’ve been recovering.

Apparently it’s beautiful outside, so I may head up to the roof with a magazine for some fresh air. Have a great day guys!

 

June 8, 2008

Relaxing Sunday

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Hey guys! Another late post! This has been a calm, quiet weekend. I woke around 11 and decided against the gym in favor of brunch – I was starving! I did want to run to the gym to do a weigh-in. I’m interested to see if the surgery and recovery will cause me to lose or gain weight. If I lose weight, I just hope I don’t lose muscle! On the way to NYSC, I ran into Eva outside Banana Republic! Of course, we had to go in and peruse. :) We met up with Peter when he came downstairs. It was such a serendipitous meeting!

At my weigh in, I lost a lb! It was nice to see the scale move after maintaining for a while. I’m officially down to 167 lbs. 21 lbs down, 24-34 lbs to go!

Peter and I went to a new place for brunch, Alexandra. I started out with my favorite, iced coffee with fancy frothed milk:

Then we split a fruit bowl, I had about half:

Then for an entree, I got the spinach and goat cheese omelette:

Potato wedges on the side. I ate all the potatoes, and half the omelette (plus a couple bites of Peter’s eggs benedict).

After brunch, we walked around a while in the heat for a while until Peter started getting grouchy for want of a milkshake. We finally found a Baskin Robbins, where P got the largest Strawberry Cheesecake milkshake in existence. It was the size of a Double Gulp. I snapped this pic:

TOO CUTE! (He did not drink this whole thing, thank goodness.) I got a small cup of mint chip and forgot to take a pic until a few bites in because I was scowling about Peter’s jug of milkshake:

I ate about 3/4ths of this. Brunch was estimated at 800 calories.

After that I got a manicure and pedicure (Galapa-ghost on my nails, and Strawberry Margarita on my toes) and a massage. The massage was P’s idea – and a good one too! I’m starting to get really nervous about tomorrow and that really calmed me down.

Not sure what the plan for tonight is. Probably more keeping it calm. :) Maybe a workout, but I’m on the fence about that – we’ve done ALOT of walking today. See ya guys!

 

June 7, 2008

Good Brunch

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Hey guys!  I can’t believe I’m just getting my brunch post up!  I’ve really been trying to take the pressure off this weekend, which meant waking up leisurely, heading to the gym on my own time, then enjoying a calm outdoor brunch with Peter.  I’ve really been enjoying our calm QT together. :)

As I said, I woke up around 10:30 and was at the gym by noon.  It really took some prodding from both P and myself to get me there, but P was adamant about me having a workout.  And he was right – a hard workout and then brunch is one of my favorite pleasures in life.  I’m so lucky to have such a great support system!  Before I left for the gym I had half an Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin with a tbsp almond butter:

Pre Workout Snack was 174 calories, 21g carbs, 8g fat, and 7g protein.

At the gym I did Cardio Smorgas: treadmill with weight, Elliptical, Step mill, jogging on treadmill.  I tried to do the Cardio Wave, but it was malfunctioning.  That’s the problem with that thing -about every third time I want to use it, it’s broken!  Really annoying.  Cardio smorgas=479 calories burned.

After some cleaning up (myself and the apt), Peter and I headed to brunch.  We wanted to try a new place, so after a quick search we ended up with Good.  After a quick walk, we were settled at an outdoor table for a sunny brunch. :)

I started out with an iced coffee:

That’s P’s arm and Polo shirt! :)   Then we started out with a bread basket.  We’re both suckers for carbs – and these were totally worth it!.

Two spotted big guys were Lemon Blueberry Bread, on opposite sides was the Savory Cheddar Cornbread, and hiding down below were Warm Buttermilk Biscuits.  There was also The Best Pear Pecan Crumbcake:

Which really was the best Pear Pecan Crumbcake I’ve ever had!  All of these breads were amazing – loved the lemon blueberry, and the cheddar cornbread, and the biscuits were the perfect biscuit consistency and taste.  Just amazing!  I had 1/3 the crumbcake, 1/2 of each of a piece of the other three breads.

For an entree, I got the scramble of the day with peppers and Fontina cheese with asparagus and avocado, with greens on the side.

I ate all of the greens, none of the bread, and half of the scramble with half the avocado.  I’m estimating brunch at 750 calories.

At brunch, P and I made a list of all our pre-surgery to-do’s and to-buy’s.  So far we’ve hit up Duane Reade, the grocery store and done alot of apt cleaning.  For tonight, P has a meeting at 6 and then I think he wants to see SATC.  I’ll happily oblige!  Hope you’re having a great Saturday!

 

June 1, 2008

Ellen’s Goodbye BBQ, Columbia University Reunion, Day 2, and Parental Brunch

Posted by winningfriendswithsalad under Brunch, Dinner, Lunch | Tags: , , , , , |
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Whoo – get ready for a long post!

P and I headed out to Brooklyn on Saturday for Ellen’s Goodbye BBQ.  Unfortunately, it was raining and mucky all morning – so we had to move the party inside.  Everyone wanted to be on the blog – so there are quite a few cameos in this post.  Here’s was the initial spread:

More food came later.  What was paricularly interesting was the make-your-own strawberry shortcake spread:

Neat idea right? Plus homemade sangria, made by Brooke’s boyfriend Kyle (the thumbs-up in the picture):

Later, our friend Melissa brought a really delicious bean and avocado salad

The only thing was there were way too many sweet items, and not enough savory ones!  Everyone loves dessert!  Here was my plate: bean and avocado salad plus grapes.

I also split a cupcake with Peter:

Plus I tried a make-your-own strawberry shortcake, with my goofball friend Brooke in the background:

And here’s me with Ellen (I swear I don’t usually look this tall):

Our friends Rita and Bryan came and brought guacamole and Vegan ‘E’ cookies.  Here’s Rita and Ellen with the cookies:

I had one of these ‘E’ cookies. :)

On to our next activity! We headed up to Columbia campus for a cocktail and dinner, plus dancing and starlight reception.  Here was the main tent:

After we checked in, we went over to Peter’s class’s tent.  Here’s a shot of the inside of the tent:

And the tables:

I started out with a glass of white wine.  Here’s a shot of the bottle:

With my wine, I had 5 fruit kababs:

After some schmoozing and reminiscing (for Peter), we sat down to dinner.  Here’s my first plate, salad with blue cheese, plus a little latke:

With dinner, I had a cocktail: a whiskey sour.  I used to love these in college – they were definitely my drink of choice.

Then I went back for a second plate of salad and latke. :) The salad was sooo good, and the other options (fish, chicken, steak, etc) looked a little heavy – I knew my sweet tooth was going to get the best of me later (which it did!).

For dessert, I had a cherry cobbler:

This was really good – I split another one of these with P. :)

Then at the starlight reception, I had a glass of champagne and snacked on a bunch of chocolate desserts they had out.  YUM!  Of course I had to sample every type – amazing.  Then Peter and I danced like maniacs!  There was a live band playing old hits, and everyone was getting down!  I love live bands – they’re so festive!  It’s especially fun to see all the older people getting down and funky.  Soo sweet.  I definitely burned 300-500 calories easy.

So, to close the Columbia festivities, here’s the Columbia lion, the school mascot.  I think P really had fun being nostalgic and seeing old friends, so it was definitely a success.

P and I crashed at about 1 AM, and my parents called at 10:30 AM with a brunch invitation.  My parents, who live in Virginia, were up in NYC for my dad’s 35th Columbia Reunion and for their 30th wedding anniversary, which is this week as well!  The plan was to meet them up at a old Columbia hangout, the Hungarian Pastry Shop, at noon.

I knew I needed a AM workout after my day off yesterday, not to mention the extravagant dessert parade.  I booked it to the gym to get in a quick workout.  I did the stepmill and the treadmill with weights at full force!  Cardio smorgas = 427 calories burned. I wasn’t hungry when I woke up (never a good sign), but I knew I needed something in my stomach, so I had a banana before I left:

Pre Workout Snack was 125 calories, 32g carbs, 1g fat, and 1g protein.

We were a little late for brunch (whoops), but my parents had stopped for gelato, so I don’t think they minded!  P and my parents picked out pastries and then we headed to another Columbia haunt, The Heights, for brunch.  My mom and I started off with mimosas:

For an entree, I had the portabello mushroom with goat cheese and veggies sandwich, without bread, plus a huge salad of mesculun greens:

I only had a few forkfuls of the balsamic dressing.  Plus I had a complementary fruit cup:

Brunch was good, and it was great to see my parents!  P and my dad talked about Columbia the whole time, of course. :)   Brunch was estimated at 400 calories.

This afternoon the plan is to CHILL OUT.  We definitely need a rest after this weekend.  We also have another event for tonight.  Busy, busy, busy!

 

May 25, 2008

Sunny Brunch

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Hey guys!  Today is the most unbelievably beautiful day! I want to post this quick so I can get back outside.  I woke up early this morning and debated the gym.  I decided to take today as my rest day.  I get one rest day a week (barring illness or injury), and I don’t usually like to take it on Sunday because that means I have no room for error for the rest of the week.  However, I walked around ALOT yesterday and by the end of the day, my hips and feet were hurting!  Not that I won’t walk around today (I definitely will) but I don’t need to stress my body even more by going to the gym.

So that decided, I looked towards food – I woke up STARVING! My friend Eva and I had plans for brunch, but I couldn’t wait for her to wake up (it was still early) – so I made myself a brunch of two flax waffles, two tbsp PB, and a banana:

YUM! This is the first time in a long time I’ve had waffles – and I’ve never had a waffle sandwich before!  It was awesome.  Brunch was 462 calories, 55g carbs, 24g fat, and 14g protein.

I enjoyed brunch with some sun and magazines (finished Self, on to Cosmopolitan) on the roof!  This time I remembered my camera for you guys:

Swoon.  I can’t wait to get back out there!  This afternoon I’m headed to the park with some friends.  Have a great day everyone!

 

May 24, 2008

My Kind of Saturday

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Hey all! Sorry for the late post, I’ve been taking it easy this morning. Well, last night was both a success and not-a-success (’failure’ is too harsh). At the bar, I expected Jeff and I to have two rounds of drinks – standard, right? I cleverly (or so I thought) sat out the first round, opting for a club soda with lime, intending to get my vodka soda the next round. Well, the bar we were at was doing table service, and our server was SOOOOOO slow. After the first round Jeff ordered fried calamari, which I can take or leave, so no real sacrifice there – but since the server never came back for our second round of drinks, we decided just to call it a night. So when I got home I realized I had a good 150~ calories to spare. Well, I dug into the chocolate chip bag and ended up snacking on 1/2c. Grr. It was totally emotional – by the end of it, I didn’t want any more, but the bag was almost done and I just wanted it out of the house, so I kept eating. Midnight Snack was 431 calories, 50g carbs, 26g fat, and 6g protein. On the flip side, if I had the cocktail during the first round, I might have eaten the calamari, gone to the bar for a second drink, and eaten the chocolate chips when I got home. So I don’t know – what do you think I should have done?

Anyway, despite my late night slip up, I had a good weigh in this morning at the gym. Even though I’m still maintaining at 168 lbs, I lost an inch around my waist and an inch around my hips. I’ve only recently (within the past two months) started measuring myself. When I first started losing, I was losing a couple lbs a week, so it was a big difference. But now that I have less weight to lose and are incorporating weight training, measuring has become more integral to keeping me seeing results. As we all know, muscle weighs more than fat, so it’s important for me to see that even though the scale is the same, I am getting smaller. Anyway, today I worked with weights, did some matwork, walked the track, and did a Podfitness workout on the Elliptical. Before I got started I had a new flavor of Luna Bar: Chai Tea:

Kind of a weird flavor for a bar. It tasted exactly like Chai Tea – but not necessarily in a good way. Meh, it was okay. Pre Workout Snack was 180 calories, 25g carbs, 5g fat, and 10g protein.

Workout was good – not much to report there. I had planned to go swimming, but when I went to change I realized I forgot my goggles, and by that time it was 12:30 PM, so I just wanted to get started with the day. Elliptical and Weights = 501 calories burned.

On my walk home, I got myself a treat:

Swoon. (Obviously this was full when I got it.) When I got home I made myself a brunch of an Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin with 2 tbsp almond butter and a banana:

Yum. Brunch was 448 calories, 67g carbs, 18g fat, and 15g protein.

Not sure what the day holds – I have it all to myself! I may lay out and read a bunch of magazines. I also have a 20% off card for Banana Republic. Hmm…what decadent options! Have a great Saturday!

 

May 17, 2008

Nero Brunch

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Hey all! Brunch is my FAVORITE time of the week – I used to think there was nothing better than a good brunch. Now I know something better: a hard workout and THEN a great brunch! I woke up at 10 AM this morning to hit up the gym. I had some Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin toast with a tbsp of Almond Butter before I left:

Pre Workout Snack is 175 calories, 21g carbs, 9g fat, and 7g protein.

At the gym I did the Cardio Smorgasboard again: Treadmill with weights, Cardio Wave, Stepmill and Elliptical. It was a really great workout – I’ve just incorporated weight training into my routine, and I’ve really seen a difference in my arm definition. However, I weigh in on Saturdays, and this is the second week in a row that I’ve maintained. I did have a splurge on Thursday, but Peter thinks that my building muscle is the cause of maintaining this week. I also take my measurements on Saturdays, so I know I’ve lost inches, but I’m ready to see the scale MOVE again. On a side note, I’m looking to work on my lower abs. Does anyone know any specific moves to work this area? Cardio smorgas = 493 calories burned.

P and I went to a new place for brunch called Nero’s. The only table available outside was on a slant, boo – so we ended up eating inside, next to the open front area. It was a really cool interior though, I had to take a picture:

None of these pictures are coming out too well, boo. There were stained glass windows right behind us that cast a blue light on everything.

Anyway, even though this place had an all you can drink brunch (!), I decided to stick with my other brunch drink love, iced coffee. I’ve had too many poor decisions made under the influence of booze these days.

Peter and I split a fruit bowl to start:

I had half of this. This fruit was amazing! The most flavorful cantaloupe I’ve had in a long while. And then I had the blueberry pancakes. I was really craving these – so I had em!

I had a few forkfuls of syrup, but these really didn’t need anything. Breakfast was 600 calories, 89g carbs, 22g fat, and 15g protein.

And to close, here’s me with my new purse. Have a great day!

 

May 11, 2008

Girls Brunch Out

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Hey guys – sorry for the late post, I’ve been up and around all day. I woke up this morning around 8:00, hit snooze on my internal clock and woke back up at 9:00. I decided not to fight it and got up. I goofed around for a while on the Internet here and there, wished my mom happy mother’s day (Hi Mommy!), and tried to work out some of my upcoming surgery details. After my small dinner last night, I was hungry as soon as I woke up. I wasn’t sure of my plans for the day, so I decided to have a snack so I didn’t make any bad decisions. I had a cocoa banana scone with a tbsp of nonfat vanilla yogurt to help me start the day:

Snack was 145 calories, 27g carbs, 4g fat, and 4g protein.

While I was eating my snack, I debated the gym: gym or no gym? gym or no gym? I finally decided gym. I feel like whenever there is a question between gym or no gym – you should choose gym. I always feel better for it – and all that time spent debating could be time spent getting it done. Plus, I was kind of in the mood for it, so why not? I did a Cardio Smorgasboard – Elliptical, Treadmill with weights, Stepmill, and Wave. Cardio Smorgas = 433 calories burned.

Got back, showered, changed and met my old roommate Eva for brunch and manicures. We went to a really cute restaurant called The Mermaid Inn. Our wonderful and hilarious waiter (Hi Brett!!) gave us tons of info about how the food was prepped, so I feel really confident in my nutritional analysis of this meal. We dined alfresco because it was such a gorgeous day! To start, Eva and I each had a slice of cinnamon raisin bread with strawberry butter. Eva snatched her slice before I could take the picture, but here are the remaining two:

I had the thinner slice up top. Then for entrees, I had a Gruyere and Zucchini Frittata:

I had all of the greens, which were surprisingly spicy!, and 3/4 of the frittata, which was also very good. Eva had a Cobb salad, which wasn’t too pleasing to the eye, but very tasty she said.

My brunch came out to 566 calories, 22g carbs, 39g fat (!), and 32g protein. Much more reasonable brunch than yesterday, so I was pleased.

After some more girl chat and manicures (I got a beige nude color called Vanilla-zeula), we parted ways and I headed to my apt to pick up my mail. I have 4 new magazines to read, yay! On my way back to Peter’s, I snacked on a Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna Bar while in the subway:

Snack was 180 calories, 26g carbs, 5g fat, and 9g protein. This is definitely my favorite of the Luna bars that I’ve tried, but I love anything that combines chocolate and mint, swoon.

The plan for the evening is to bake cookies for Ira and Martha, the sweet couple who found my wallet, clean the apt, and hit the drugstore. Have a great Sunday evening everyone!

 

May 10, 2008

Lost and Found

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This morning went from calm and relaxing to crazy and stressful back to calm and relaxing again! Whew! Quite the whirlwind! I woke up early this morning for some gym time. It’s always easier for me to get up early on the weekends than the weekdays, not surprisingly. I meant to try a Z Bar for my Pre Workout Snack, but I forgot it on my way out the door, boo. This did give me an opportunity to analyze whether my Pre Workout Snacks are impacting the quality of my workouts, though. Although I had a wave of hunger hit me in the first 10 min of my workout, after that I was more concerned with exercise than my stomach. But overall I think it’s a positive thing to do, so I’m going to keep with it. But it’s always good to evaluate your methods consistently to make sure what worked a month ago is still working now, because that might not always be the case!

So I did more mixing it up at the gym this AM. 10 minutes on the stepmill, 10 minutes on the treadmill with the free weights, some mat time, AND a new machine, the Cardio Wave. I really liked this machine – it was a fun switch-up. It felt like roller blading or ice skating. And again, I didn’t have to move very fast to get a good sweat going. I’ve really liked exploring the different cardio machines – I’m going to keep switching it up! Cardio and weights = 438 calories burned.

I got home, showered, and dressed – P and I were headed to one of our favorite restaurants, CookShop, for brunch. But as we were just about to walk out the door for our 11:30 reservation – I realized I couldn’t find my wallet. Well, to make a long story short, we tore up the apt, called every police precinct in the city, went to my office, and STILL couldn’t find it. After a good amount of tears, and a phone call to Mommy, I finally went to report it and cancel my cards, and my cell phone died. I pulled out my company blackberry to make the call and found I had a message. An older couple, Ira and Martha, who have a stationary store a few buildings down from me, found my wallet on the street – I dropped it as I was getting out of the cab in the rain yesterday! They went door to door in every building in the street trying to find me, but couldn’t, so they left a message on my company blackberry, the number of which is on my business card which is in my wallet. They were on the way to Massachusetts for the weekend when they left the message yesterday, so after speaking with them this morning, I’m going there first thing Monday to get my wallet. I’m bringing them a huge batch of cookies, and I know where we’ll be getting all of our stationary from now on! Can you believe it???? How nice are they! It just goes to show that even in a big city like NYC, there are good Samaritans out there.

Peter, the poor thing who deals with me in hysterics, was smart and kind enough to push back our reservation, and we made it just in time at 12:30. I was planning on having an iced coffee, but Peter insisted we get cocktails after such a stressful morning – and I had to agree! I had a Mango Ginger Daiquiri, which had fresh mango, ginger, lime and rum. It was really good – very creamy.

I cannot hold my alcohol anymore! I was definitely toasted after this glass, which led to bad decisions later… But for an entree, I had three poached eggs, with a slice of sourdough and 2 strips bacon:

This was great! I also had a bite of P’s fish sandwich and about 8-10 of his french fries. :)

So combined with a stressful morning and alcohol, here comes my bad decision, which Peter gladly supported: dessert! I got the Lemon-Vanilla cheesecake with Lemon Sorbet and Blueberry Capote:

I also had a bite of P’s milk chocolate bread pudding, which I snapped a photo of for you guys:

Yum-o! Since this is brunch, and essentially two meals in one, I don’t feel too guilty for going overboard. And I don’t feel uncomfortably full or anything, so I’m happy. Brunch was…gulp…estimated at 1100 calories.

No real plans for the rest of Saturday, but a bunch of options! I’ll let you know what we come up with…happy Saturday!