Back to Basics: BLTs!

I feel like it takes me so long to feel “back to normal” after a vacation.  This maybe partly due to the fact that I continue to have a half empty suitcase on my floor for a good week after returning…

Well this weekend I finally did all my laundry and even spent some time in the kitchen! 

Nothing too time consuming, but it was nice even to have a sit-down breakfast.

An old standby…French Toast!  I made it with TJ’s Whole Wheat Tuscan Pane which is a pretty dense chewy bread so it needed to soak in the egg mixture for much longer. 

With bananas, strawberries, real maple syrup and butter!

Great way to start the day.

The simple meals got even better as we approached lunch time. 

We had taken Bromley to the dog park, and on the ride home I started getting excited for BLT’s!

We had some gorgeous tomatoes that were ripe from the garden and what better way to eat them than with salty bacon, lettuce, and toast!

Also super excited to use the bacon from our latest Meat CSA!

This is hands down the best bacon I’ve ever had! 

Sandwiches ready for assembly!

Lightly toasted bread, a little smear of mayo, and the rest.

The key is to cooking the bacon on med/low….if you cook it too high, it starts to curl up and bend and that doesn’t make for easy sandwich assembly.  Cooking it for longer on med/low gets it just as crisp but still maintains its shape. 

Lots of bacon :)

And a deli pickle for good measure.

I savored every bite! 

Why are the simplest things always the best!

I kind of want another one right now.

It’s also been really great getting back to a normal workout schedule!  My legs are still sore from Saturday morning Crossfit:

7 time:

5 sandbag cleans 
5 back squats (at 80% of your 1 rep max)
5 strict pull-ups

The sandbags are 60lbs.  I can clean over 100lbs using a barbell but these sandbags are really awkward!

(source)         

Then the squats!  I haven’t done a 1 rep max in a while, but my most recent 3 rep max was 140lbs so I used 110 for this workout.  35 of those…are hard. 

It was a good one and I am feeling it!

Oh and did I mention we had a little belated anniversary dinner Saturday night at Menton!  :) 

All in all a great weekend.

What’s your favorite sandwich???

Fergalicious

Got a last minute invite to the Black Eyed Peas concert last night!!  SOOO FUN!!!

I'm pretty sure the only type of concerts I’ve been to in the past are laid back rock show (DMB, Guster….etc), this was my first Hip Hop show and it ROCKED!  Basically a dance party the whole time and the BEP have enough hits to make a whole concert out of them!

We were up in the nosebleeds but who cares!

Then whilst I was out shaking “My Humps” (haha couldn't resist), my BFF Jocelyn talked me into an impromptu week day beach day!!  Of course I wasn’t really playing hooky too much, because I went into work for the morning, but then we headed up to Gloucester for some relaxing time on the beach….best.idea.ever.

On our way up we grabbed coffee and bagel sandwiches from Bagel World.

I love Bagel World…BEST bagels I’ve had around here.  Nice chewy smooth exterior with delicious soft yet still chewy interior.

The star was definitely the Chicken Salad on a Whole Wheat bagel, scooped out, add all veggies.

sandwich heaven.

Other Summer Randomness:

yogurt and berries :)

These were the berries from the farmers market, plus some wild blueberries I picked up from a little shop in Cambridge. 

teeny tiny strawberries!   

TJ’s non-fat Greek yogurt, berries, sliced almonds

Then we have a summer dinner I made for my mom who came over this past weekend…

Wild Alaskan Salmon

• grilled in foil with:
• olive oil
• lemon slices
• garlic
• fresh parsley
• salt & pepper

Corn Salad

• 2 ears of fresh corn, cut off cob
• In medium skillet heat:
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• add sliced sweet white/yellow onion
• after 4-5 min add corn
• and 1 sliced zucchini
• salt and pepper
• serve over salad of:
• Baby Spinach and whatever else you’d like!

This corn lately has been RIDICULOUSLY sweet!

Also, clearly pulled one of my carrot plants too soon…

Carrot Nubs.  And that’s why I call the garden a “learning experience”

So far the garden stars are: Basil, Cucumber, Summer Squash, cherry tomatoes, mesclun lettuce, Mint, chives, parsley, sage, oregano, thyme

Garden fails: snap peas, dill, peppers, cilantro (used to be good, now it’s done)

Wait and see:  I thought Zucchini was going to be a fail, but this week we’ve started sprouting!!  The bigger tomatoes are coming, slowly. 

Our first Beefsteak next to a “nub”

So glad tomorrow's Thursday!  Almost time for the weekend :)

My little cousin’s bday party is Saturday, anyone have a great idea for a gift for a 5 year old boy???

Yay Dance, Boo Computer

Well, I'm here blogging from my roommate's laptop since I apparently still do not have a hard drive...weird how that thing can just "disappear"! Maybe I'll try the Geek Squad because I really just don't feel like putting the effort into fixing it myself :(

In better news, I FINALLY got to dance class...it's been like a month!! So fun...my favorite exercise always :)

This post is all about my dinner last night...Simple Satisfying Scrumptious Sandwich, Salad, and Soup!!!

I got home from the gym last night, looked in the fridge, and remembered all about the deli meat I had on hand...so I wanted a kick ass sandwich. It included a little of all the items I had:

• Boars Head Honey Maple Turkey
• Boars Head Virginia Baked Ham
• Sweet Sopresatta from the North End in Boston
• American Cheese!
• WW Arnold Sandwich Thin
• smear of Dijon Mustard

Because I wanted my veggies I made a little salad with:

• Baby Spinach
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Red Pepper
• Newman's Own Light Caesar Dressing

Because I was cold I also had a little bit of TJ's Creamy Tomato and Red Pepper soup for warmth...

The Spread:

I also want to highlight a new Trader Joe's snacky that I had with this...These are AMAZING!! They aren't very Gorgonzola-y strong if you don't care for the cheese, they are just these little tasty crackers with a great seasoning to make them just delicious!! Highly recommend trying them for a great flavor punch!

And they are little...about quarter size!

Tonight's dinner wasn't as extensive, but also delish...I had a bowl of leftover veggie pasta bake the roomie made this weekend...you can see the pan of it in this post with my cute new spoons!

But the star was dessert...I found 1 last little no pudgie brownie in the freezer, so I heated it up and added some chocolate and pistachio gelato!

It really is too cold for ice cream, but I just couldn't help it.

Running

So...when does it get easier? It's getting a little frustrated because I felt like I was getting better and was getting excited about the possibility of me running more! However, lately it doesn't feel any better or easier and sometimes just down right harder!! It's also annoying because it really is too cold to run outside right now so I am subject to the treadmill...which can only keep my interest for so long. I hear about some others who go from couch to 10K in less than a year and I just can't even fathom it! I'm definitely not at the "couch" stage by any means but I also feel like I will never get past the 5K stage...and I haven't even ran a whole 5k!

"That Sandwich was Money!"

Yes, those were the exact words out of my mouth as I finished my dinner haha! I had bought some honey maple turkey and ham at the deli this weekend for some lunch sandwiches. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a delicious smell in the kitchen when I got home from Birthday Shopping 2008 with my mom yesterday. Roomie was making chili! Turkey and White Bean chili to be exact, and it turned out awesome! So that was my lunch today, so I dove into the lunch meat for dinner.

I made a half sandwich with

- 1 slice of Arnold Double Protein bread
- Dijon mustard
- thin slices of brie
- thin slices of apple
- turkey and ham
- GRILLED!

AMAZING! It was sweet, salty, tangy and over all deliciousness! To go with my sandwich, I had a bowl of broccoli slaw with Annie's light honey mustard vinaigrette, and I had the rest of the apple sliced on the side.
Since I started with dinner today, I'll just go backwards... As I mentioned above, I had a delicious serving of turkey and white bean chili with a dollop of light sour cream. I decided to not post the picture because as good as it was it's VERY unphotogenic. However, on the side I had some beautiful sugar snap peas...Then I got a fun surprise! My future in-laws sent me some birthday cupcakes!! These cupcakes are amazing, from The Cupcake Boutique in Andover. You can't see all the cupcakes, but along with the flowered vanilla and chocolate, the rest were all different! I ended up cutting pieces off two different ones....a gingerbread cupcake (which had an adorable mini gingerbread man cookie stuck into the icing), and the lemon cupcake. YUM!!

Breakfast was a satisfying cereal medley...including a new one for me!

Medley included:
- Kashi Autumn Wheat
- Kashi Vive!
- Annie's Honey Bunnies
- 1/2 large banana
- skim milk

This was my first time trying the Kashi Vive...it was a great addition to my medley. Not to mention it has 12g of fiber per serving!! This cereal is a Probiotic Digestive Wellness Cereal. It contains active probiotic cultures, and apparently broccoli extract! It was a tad too sweet to eat a whole bowl on its own, but since I hardly EVER do that, I love the addition to my medley!


During the shopping excursion, mom and I had lunch at the Met Bar and Grill in the Natick Collection. They had a delicious menu, but the more interesting part is their burger menu. You can make your own amazing burger with SO many options. I went this route...my burger design was...

- grilled chicken breast (so not exactly a burger, but they had regular, Kobe beef, turkey, and veggie as well)
- in a bowl (no bun) with arugula
- buffalo sauce
- cucumber
- tomato
- sprouts
- pickles
- blue cheese dressing
This was really really good, and really spicy! I love buffalo sauce, but I'm not a huge spicy food fan...however I will put up with it for the tangy buffalo flavor.

My mom got an amazing wood grilled chicken with a cornbread sweet potato stuffing and green beans...it was amazing! The stuffing was made with bacon which gave it a nice smoky flavor that went really nicely with the sweet potato.
Back track to Saturday night... Birthday dinner with friends! A group of 6 of us went to Rustic Kitchen in downtown Boston. Man this was a great food weekend because, again, this was AWESOME!!Yum...Prosecco!

3 of us girls split a plethora of menu items, including a special that day...butternut squash soup, and this was probably the best butternut squash soup I've ever had! They even portioned it out into 3 small bowls for us :)They also portioned out our salad...arugula, avocado, tomato, red onion, feta and a lime vinaigrette!Arancini (risotto balls) with a tomato sauce...mmm.
Prosciutto!! A delicious board of it...
Topped with fresh mozzarella...heaven!
We also shared a pizza but I guess I was too excited to take a pic... it was a Fresh Fig Pizza: fig preserves, goat cheese, mozzarella, caramelized onions, and wild arugula.

Wow, long post...but lost of yumminess involved so I think it's ok. Time for a little bday cake and Gossip Girl...could it get any better?