Stratta (Vegas) Chopped Salad: Recreated

Not only was Vegas a blast, but I don’t think I ever had a bad meal.  In particular, there were some very delicious salads eaten throughout the weekend and I found myself writing down their ingredients so that I could re-create them when I got home.

Our plane got into Boston around 9:30AM Tuesday morning and later that day I went grocery shopping, then spend a good chuck of my afternoon chopping veggies for this guy:

On Saturday evening, after checking into the Wynn, Jocy and I wanted to eat a not-so-big dinner before getting ready for our big night out at Pure (green dress night…p.s. that dress is from Nordstrom juniors dept.). 

We grabbed two seats at the bar in Stratta and proceeded to split a salad and a pizza.

First up was the Stratta Chopped salad which was described as:

CHOPPED SALAD. . .
Escarole, Beans, Salami, Crisp Vegetables, Mustard Vinaigrette

The best part about this salad was that all the veggies were diced up so small!!   Even the olives were small!

As we kept “mmm”ing about this salad, I whipped out my phone and jotted down every veggie and bean I could identify. 

Next came our pizza

The crust was SUPER thin…almost like a tortilla, so thin.  I love a good thin crust. 

Toppings were sausage, green peppers, onions, and buffalo mozzarella.

Using some will power we were able to leave 2 slices to pack up.  We then proceeded to fill one of the sinks in our hotel room with ice and leave the leftovers on ice for a late night snack….Best Idea Ever.  Although the bar at Stratta is open until 6am.  The bartender did tempt us with the knowledge that we could get a fresh pizza after our night out, but we resisted. 

Re-creating that chopped salad was fun, although it did involve a LOT of chopping.

However, it made a big batch and I had it for lunch the next 2 days.

Chopped Veggie Salad with Salami
inspired by Stratta, serves 5-6

The key here is to chop all the veggies at a uniform size.  The smaller the better.

• mixed greens or baby spinach for your salad base
• 1 can kidney beans or black beans (or both!)
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1/2 med. red onion, diced
• carrot, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 red or orange bell pepper, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 large cucumber, diced
• kalamata olives, small ones if you can find them
• 4oz salami, diced from a larger piece, or from slices

Mustard Vinaigrette:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 T white wine vinegar
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Drain and rinse beans and chickpeas.  In a large bowl combine all diced veggies (onion through cucumber).  Add in beans, olives, and salami. 

Make vinaigrette:  combine ingredients into a bowl or mason jar with lid.  Whisk or shake until combined.

Toss veggie mixture with salad.  Serve over a small layer of greens. 

As long as you keep the greens separated until ready to serve, the leftovers will keep for a day or 2 even with dressing already tossed in.  Just serve over fresh greens.

For lunch I added extra slices of salami and provolone cheese.

 

Does anyone else have a good mustard vinaigrette recipe?  I really enjoyed how this came out, but it wasn’t quite what we had at the restaurant. 

Do you ever “take notes” at restaurants??

Dinners Lately: Grill & Carb-light

I kind of hate the term “low-carb”.  It just reminds me of the Atkins and South Beach crazes, and all the fake and processed foods that you can still eat on those diets. 

So even though I’m shooting for less carbs lately, I’m even more committed to REAL food above all else.  

So with that said, I’ve had some delightful meals recently!

Saturday we had Brian’s mom and sister over!  It was SUCH a gorgeous day that I couldn’t very well not grill out!  I also had a craving for Mexican so we decided to make up some grilled fixin’s for Fajitas!

Chicken Fajita Marinade

• juice of 2 limes
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
• few shakes of crushed red pepper
• salt

Combine ingredients then add to a large Ziploc bag with your chicken.  We had 4 breasts in the bag, and marinated them for about 2-3 hours.

Grill up your chicken, some sliced bell peppers, and sliced onion.

Serve with your favorite additions:

• tortillas
• salsa
• sour cream
• avocado
• cilantro
• cheese
• mango would also be good here, we didn’t have it though

Best eaten outside :)

I used 1 TJ’s brown rice wrap for my fajitas!  But another idea is to serve over a bed of lettuce.

This was an easy, but fun meal for company!

Sunday was even nicer!

Grilled Steak Salads

• grilled tri trip steak
• baby spinach
• cucumber, chopped
• tomato, chopped
• shallots, sliced
• chives, finely chopped
• goat cheese, crumbled
• Dressing: balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper

We also broke out some refreshing white wine!

This was actually a bottle that we brought home from Wine Country in November.  This is a 2010 Viognier from Thumbprint Cellars in Healdsburg. 

Not sure if this is a “proper” pairing, but we liked it.  This wine has a great full flavor, reminiscent of a Chardonnay to me, but without the bite…it’s smooth :)

Last but not least…TONIGHT!

It was a warm warm Marathon Monday, and unfortunately I was at work.  However, I did leave a little early ;) Shhhh. 

We had some ground turkey to work with and we wanted an easy and fast dinner!

Greek Style Turkey Burgers!

• 1 lb ground turkey, white meat
• 1 T olive oil
• canned artichokes: 4 chokes, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped olives, canned works fine here
• crumbed feta, about 1/4 cup or more
• salt and pepper
• a few shakes of za’atar if you have it

Mix together with your hands, form into patties, grill.

I also whipped up a quick little yogurt sauce!  Just took 2-3 T of 2% plain Greek yogurt, squeeze from 1/4 lemon, salt & pepper, and whatever dried herbs and spices you like!!  I had some different mixes from Penzey’s (used more Za’atar here, Aleppo pepper, and some Sandwich Sprinkle).  Delish!  Tasted like Ranch dressing :)

As you can see I enjoyed mine on lettuce, with some tomatoes, and a sweet potato on the side.

The burgers were incredibly flavorful!! 

I leave you with an outfit post!!  Long time no outfits around here.

But I have a current obsession…in the form of BRIGHT yellow skinny jeans…

 

They just make me happy.  I encourage you to go get some fun colored pants!!

Mine are from the Gap.

Just have to get through this week…then on Friday I leave for a fun weekend in VEGAS!!  I’ve never been, SO excited to have a girls weekend by the pool :) 

Any must see or must do or must eat things while I’m in Vegas???

Balance: Crossfit + Running

Earlier this week I contributed to the official blog of Reach the Beach, where my teammates Tina, Patricia, and I talked about how we were balancing our RTB training with our love of Crossfit.

This is what I had to say about that…

I’ve been Crossfitting for 4 months now. I’m hooked and I love it… the Kool Aid has been drunk. I don’t remember ever jumping into something so fervently in such a short period of time before in my exercise history. Now, even with Reach the Beach only 6 weeks away, I’m still trying to figure out the balance of Crossfit with my training runs. I’m sure it doesn’t help that Crossfit still has that new and exciting feel to it… I don’t want to cut back! But on the other hand, I know my body, and I know that I need to get in those runs.

Gotta love my “I’m dying” face haha…(Source)

Currently my plan has been to maintain Crossfit 3-4 times a week, as I had before, and get in a longer training run on the weekends. When I trained for my very first half-marathon last year, I was having some issues with plantar fasciitis so I had cut out my shorter mid-week runs, leaving just my long runs, so that I wouldn’t be running too much on my foot.

I was just looking to be able to (somewhat) comfortably finish the half-marathon, not go for any particular times, and I did just that. So, for me, I know my most important training goals are to make sure I get in the longer training runs once a week. I’m confident that those runs, plus the metabolic conditioning aspects of Crossfit will be enough to get my through my 3 legs and Reach the Beach!

In addition to that, I think I want to try doing 2 runs “back-to-back” to mimic what the relay will be like.  And by “back-to-back” I mean 8-12 hours in between runs. 

In other news, my Crossfit box is starting a big 60-day “Paleo Challenge” starting next week.  I’m still on the fence about this whole Paleo thing, but I’m always up for a challenge…especially when it involves keeping better track of my food intake!  Plus we’re going to be broken into teams and there are other ways to get points aside from eating…

(Cauliflower “rice”…really liked this!  Will have to experiment with recipes more)

1 point each for the following:

• getting 8 hours of sleep
• 20 min stretching/mobility
• taking your fish oil
• completing the WOD (workout of the day)
• water: drink half your body weight, in ounces, a day
• eating Zone (the zone diet is also a favorable way of eating for Crossfitters) This PDF has a great breakdown of The Zone diet

But you get 4 points for eating Paleo, losing points as you decline from 100% (4 points) paleo to 85% (1 point).

I’ve already made another batch of Paleo Brownies…mmmm.  This time baked them for only 20-22 min.  Much better consistency if you like your brownies on the fudgy/gooey side :) 

As much as I do agree with many aspects of the Paleo diet, I just don’t see myself going 100%.  I find I get too resentful/angry when, in my head, I “can’t” have something.  Plus I don’t want to stress over it.  My focus during the challenge will be to incorporate more Paleo-friendly meals, keep my carb intake down, and keep it clean!  Plus we’re doing some baseline workouts to compare at the beginning and end…I love seeing improvements, and not just in my appearance! 

I’ve been doing a pretty good job of this lately anyways, so I just need to keep it up!  Can’t hurt for my Vegas trip next weekend either ;) 

Red Sox home opener tomorrow!

I think Bromley could teach them a thing or two ;)

 

Tomorrow’s Friday!!!  The weekend is going to be beautiful, I just feel bad for the marathon runners on Monday…great weather for spectators but it’s going to be a warm one!

Lemon Berry Tart with Almond Crust

I love when so many of my favorite flavors are combined into one fabulous treat!!  For the past few years I’ve been making a dessert for Easter dinner at my mom’s house, and it almost always involves lemon!

We always have a chocolate bunny cake, so that’s why I go for fruity when making a dessert for my family’s Easter celebration.

I love lemon. Lemon in savory dishes, lemon in desserts, lemon in drinks…you name it.  If there’s lemon in it, chances are I like it…a lot!



You might also know by now that I love making tarts.  Much easier than pies, in my opinion, and they turn out much fancier looking!  It’s a win-win.

Another one of my favorite flavors when it comes to desserts is Almond.  Almond cookies, croissants (!!), paste, cake, coffee…oh yes.  Definitely a go-to flavor for me.  Not to mention just snacking on raw almonds.  Perfect snack.

I started with a classic sweet tart dough (pate sablee) recipe.  Swapped half of the flour out for almond flour, and slightly reduced the sugar and butter.   



The filling is a simple lemon curd (a lighter version even!), with freshly whipped cream folded in to create a velvety light lemon mousse.



As far as the berries?  My sous chef (Brian) sliced up the strawberries for me and I just sort of winged it on the design!  The green tops of the strawberries actually were looking nice so I decided to use those as well for decor.



Almond Tart Crust
adapted from the TartineTartine cookbook

• 4 Tbsp butter, room temp (if using unsalted, add 1/8 tsp salt)
• 3 T sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
• 1 egg, room temp
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup almond flour (blanched almond flour/meal, not the TJ's almond meal)

In a mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix together butter (and salt if needed) and sugar on medium speed until smooth.  Add the egg, mix until incorporated.  Add remaining ingredients and mix until incorporated, scraping down the sides with a spatula when needed.  The dough will form and stick together.



Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.
When ready to bake, heat the oven to 325.  Take out your dough.  Flour your working surface, your rolling pin, and a little on your dough ball.  Roll out dough until just larger than your tart pan.  My pan is roughly 8”x11”, but you could also use a round 9” pan. 



I use a floured spatula to loosen the dough from the counter, roll it onto the rolling pin and then transfer it to the tart pan.





Lightly push dough into the pan, and use excess pieces to patch broken spots until the pan is nicely covered.



Poke a few holes in the bottom with a fork.



Bake for 12-15 min until just barely golden.  Mine had hardly even changed color.  Let cool. 
Lemon Curd
adapted from Cooking Light

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp butter

Combine sugar, zest, and eggs in a small/medium sauce pan.  Whisk together, then heat on medium, constantly stirring until sugar looks dissolved (2-3 minutes).  Add lemon juice and continue stirring until mixture begins to thicken (about 5 min).  Continue cooking and stirring for 1 more minute, or until desired thickness is reached.  Remove from heat, add butter, and stir until the butter melts and is incorporated.  Cool completely.




 

Lemon Mousse

• I batch Lemon Curd
• 8 oz Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbsp sugar

Add cold heavy cream to a mixing bowl and beat on med/high until frothy.  Add sugar, and continue beating just until stiff peaks form.  In another large mixing bowl add lemon curd.  Then fold in whipped cream with a spatula until combined. 





Tart Assembly

• tart shell
• lemon mousse
• berries (sliced strawberries, blueberries, and/or raspberries)

Spread mousse into tart shell and even out the top.  Then arrange berries on top in whatever way you’d like!





Lick the lemon mousse off those bowls, beaters, and spatulas…you earned it!! 
There was only 1 tiny piece left of this tart by the end of the day yesterday!  It was cool, creamy, refreshing, and not too sweet!!



I would also even go so far as to say that this dessert is somewhat on the healthy side of the dessert spectrum.  There is not much sugar, as far as tarts and pies usually go, and the filling is very light and fluffy. 

This may be my new favorite Easter dessert…I think it may show up again next year, if not sooner!! 

Learning to Dinner Plan

Menu/Meal planning for the week ahead has never been my strong suit.  I usually prefer to go to the store and see what’s on sale or what looks extra good that week.  This doesn’t always go well for me though, and sometimes can result in wasted food….which I hate.

However, last week was actually pretty good as far as meal planning goes!!

We only really cooked 3 days (out of 5, I don’t count the weekends in this), but I knew what was on the menu from Monday to Thursday.  It really did take a little weight off my shoulders knowing exactly what we were going to cook each night!

Monday: not technically a meal but I asked Brian go cook up some chicken however he wanted (grilled, sautéed, etc...), while I was at Crossfit. I love that he’ll cook if I ask him :) 

We each made our own meal with some of the chicken. I'm actually not sure what he had but he's very resourceful in the kitchen so I don't have to worry about him not having a good meal without me there to help.

I knew I wanted to make a salad that I saw in Cooking light that had arugula, tomatoes, chicken, and some crispy cooked prosciutto. It was a nice quick meal, and the salty crispy pieces of prosciutto were the best part.

(source)

Tuesday night I was going to make some tomato sauce. Brian requested it that weekend, so we bought some grass-fed ground beef and 2 Italian sausages to add to it for some protein and extra flavor. (side note: wasn’t a huge fan of the sausage, next time I’ll leave it at the ground beef, still tasty but not my favorite)

I don't really have a sauce recipe per say, but it almost always involves:

• lots of garlic, minced, added to the pan with the olive oil first.
• Then maybe some diced onion, possible carrot
• I add my meat here if I'm using it...usually ground turkey or lean beef
• A can of tomato paste, stirred in.
• A splash of red wine if I have it around
• Seasonings and herbs (whatever I feel like... dried basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper).  I don’t add much herbs though because I don’t want to take away from the tomato flavor.
• 1 or 2 cans of ground tomatoes, preferable San Marzano (I always stock up when they are on sale at Whole Foods)
• Bay leaf

Simmer on low, covered, 20-40 minutes, or longer if you want.
If its tasting too acidic for me, I'll add a teaspoon of sugar.
That's basically it. I'm not Italian, I don't have some secret family recipe, but this always comes out delicious.

I had a big salad at lunch that day so I was less worried about veggies tonight. I had a big bowl of sauce with some whole wheat penne.  I like less pasta and more sauce when I make a sauce like this!

Wednesday is usually dinner on your own as I go to Crossfit, and Brian has basketball.

Thursday we had Shrimp and Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce!

I saw the peanut sauce/soba noodle recipe when Tina had it a couple weeks ago and it just sounded really good to me.

The recipe was from Runner’s World.  I sent Brian the link to start it, and I’d finish it when I got home.  Somehow he ended up at a different Soba Noodle with Peanut Sauce recipe on Runner’s Word…what are the odds!?  So I just adjusted it slightly when I got home.  The final recipe for the sauce was:

Peanut Sauce:

• 3T Peanut Butter
• 2T Water
• 4T low sodium soy sauce
• 1T honey
• 2T Chinese Rice Wine
• 1T champagne vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2T sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

In a large sauté pan I seared 1lb of shrimp on med/med-high heat for about 2 minutes per side.  Set the shrimp aside, and cooked up 1 bag of broccoli slaw.  Once the slaw was tender I added the sauce, cooked for 1 minute, and added back in the shrimp, and the cooked soba noodles. 

Toss all together, and serve topped with chopped scallions.

BIG FAN of this!!!  SO flavorful!!  Plus pretty easy.  I can definitely see this one added to the rotation.  Plus you could add so many different veggies/proteins!

I need to figure out how to get better at this. 

Sometimes I’ll even sit down, go through cookbooks, magazines, blogs…etc, and nothing strikes me.  Or I can’t remember where I saw something.  It really depends on the week.

How do you keep track of recipes you see online that you want to try??  Everyone says “oh I flagged this”  or “bookmarked” it…what exactly do you do??  Do you just add it to your “favorites”?  Or is there some website that keeps track of these things??  Right now I even have just a Google document where I’ll copy/paste a link of a recipe I want to remember…but there’s GOT to be a better way??

We’re on the downhill side of the week!!  2 more days till the weekend!  Easter Plans??  What are you making for Easter??  Any good ideas?

10K by the Sea

Sunday I ran my best 10k yet!!

This was a last minute decision when Tina emailed me about running the Cohasset Road Race by the Sea. I figured a 6-mile run would be good for my training, and I was free, so why not?!

(photo from Tina)

In typical Bridget fashion I was running late….Cohasset is a lot farther off the highway than I had thought. I barely had time to park, use the porta-potty, and get to the starting line. I didn’t even have time to pick up my number!! So sadly I didn’t get officially timed, but I used my Garmin and it matched up with the clock at the finish line so I’m confident in my time.

It was a fairly small race (less than 15oo people), so I easily found Tina, Patricia, and Patricia’s friend Ro at the start. Patricia is also on the RTB team in case you forgot!

Well, I’m not as fast as those girls so they easily left me in their dust ;) I didn’t mind, I was not about to try and keep up at their pace! I’ve only done a handful of 3 – 5 mile runs in the past couple months, so I wasn’t exactly trained (but I do believe Crossfit helped me greatly!).

According to my Garmin (the race was over 6.1 miles actually…grrr), I ran 6.27 miles in 1:02:20! Average pace of 9:57. FOR ME…that is GREAT! Considering I’ve only ever ran a sub 30min 5k ONCE, I was not expecting this…because the course was actually very hilly!!  My only other 2 10k’s were around 1:10, so I shaved off almost 10minutes! 

I’ve decided I like rolling hills (did I really just say that??). There were lots of hills, but none were too long and they all had a downhill afterwards…which is where I made up some speed :)

Plus the course was beautiful…some of the houses I saw were insane.

The race was very organized as well and had water stops at each mile!

After the race I found the girls + Tina’s husband Mal and we headed to the Red Lion for some food and drinks.

(photo from Tina)

I was planning to get a beer, but their selection was less than stellar so I stuck to water and food.

Lobster Bisque And split a flatbread with Artichoke, Spicy Aioli, Arugula, and Mozzarella.

Mmmm that flatbread was goooooood.

Fun time with fun ladies…and Mal! We had a blast talking Crossfit as we all do it except for Patricia’s friend Ro….but I think she’s convinced now ;)

In other fitness updates….I did handstand push-ups!!!  Like numerous handstand push-ups!!  If you’re just starting you put 1 or 2 small ABMATs under your head so you don’t have to go all the way down, but STILL!  I was psyched!  Luckily handstands came back to me easily as I used to do gymnastics back in the day.

(p.s. that is an ABMAT.  Source)

I also climbed a rope…not all the way to the top, but over half way…crazy.  That is definitely something I never thought I’d be able to do. 

So yes, I’m still loving Crossfit. 

This post started with a post about dinners, and then the 10k but it was getting crazy long…so 2 posts done tonight!  Holler!  Dinners to come.

Monday is done folks.