A Free Wednesday!?

Hey guys! Happy hump day! How have your days been? Mine was pretty good, I got a lot done at work and had a rare day off of class tonight. Its so nice to not have to rush from work to school and be able to have a relaxing afternoon. Yay for that! :)

Today I started out with oats topped with blueberries and raspberries and a bit of honey. I decided to try it without nut butter this morning (gasp!) because I couldn’t remember the last time I had. It was delicious! Yum.

Lunch was a twin of Saturday’s lunch. A bowl of soup with two carrots and almond butter on top (or is it almond butter with some carrot!? It looks like I was pretty heavy handed, hehe).

Snack was a plain greek with nanner (I almost wrote banana, Caroline!). :)

After work, Brian and I went for a great run in the local park – I love trail running in the fall. It was pretty chilly out and such a great day for it. We ran about 4.5 miles in 36 minutes.

When we got back, we did our 11 burpees and then got to making dinner. Brian picked up these apple veggie sausages at an organic market the other day and so we decided to break into them.

They were in a plastic casing and Brian thought that was the coolest thing. :)

We sauteed an onion and a green pepper and then added the sausages and some broccoli. Everything got brown and crispy and delicious.

We ate all of the veggies and 3 of the sausages (I had one, Brian had two) along with some baked beans. I topped my sausage and veggies with some honey mustard and hot sauce. Mmm…

The good news is that I have a leftover sausage for tomorrow! Leftovers!! Score!!

Now, Brian and I are going to play some Rock Band and he just requested to have some of my mom’s delicious brown bread toasted for dessert. How could I say no to that!? :)

I hope you have a great night my lovely blog friends.

Em

And Yet, Another Birthday Treat

Hey guys! Happy Tuesday!! How have your days been? My work day floated on by and before I knew it, it was time to meet my bestie Mel for a birthday dinner.  Before I get there though, I did have a lovely day of eats (and yoga)…

Before work today, I did 25 minutes of yoga with Rodney (felt amazing) followed by ten minutes of standing abs from exercise tv (felt HARD!) and ten burpees.  Brian and I have entered a burpee challenge – each day for one hundred days, we will be doing one more burpee than the day before, eventually doing 100 burpees on the 100th day.  For those of you unfamiliar with burpees, check them out.  Its going to be tough, that’s for sure.

Breakfast was a yogurt bowl mess featuring Kashi vanilla graham vive cereal (so good!), banana, barney butter and plain Greek yogurt.

Lunch was a grilled cheese sandwich kicked up with swiss, spinach and mustard along with some carrots and bell pepper dipped in hummus.  Yum.

Snack was a peanut b utter cookie larabar and totally hit the spot, as always.

For dinner, I couldn’t decide what I wanted and finally decided on Indian food.  My friend Melissa lives in Cambridge and right next to an awesome Indian food restaurant. 

It was pretty dead in there and so I felt a bit strange taking pictures, but imagine garlicky warm Naan, jasmine rice and curried cauliflower and potato.  It was so delicious. Thanks for the birthday dinner Mel!  :)

I’m pretty beat now so I’m going to hunker down and do some cuddling with my fellow.  I hope you guys have a great night!

Em

Three Times Its Size

Hi my blog friends! How are you? Happy Monday! How were your days? Mine was good, I was a bit all over the place but it wasn’t bad at all.  I was taken out for coffee by my lovely co-workers (as is birthday tradition at work) and it was the great cap to an amazing birthday weekend.

I’m pretty sure that my heart played a Grinch and grew three times its size this weekend.  My amazing friends, heartfelt cards and notes all made me realize just how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life.  I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend or better people to be around.  Thanks so much. :)

The last I left, Sam and I were off to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D.  It was amazing.  I love 3D now, its come a long way since I was a kid.  Sam and I really enjoyed it and it was the perfect day for it – rainy and grey.

When we got home, we found Brian prepping some experimental treats for our Sunday night dinner.  He mixed crunchy pb, plain greek yogurt, 2 bananas, raisins, oats, homemade hot chocolate mix and chocolate chips and placed the mixture on a cookie sheet and baked it at 450 for about 20 minutes.  They came out delicious – like homemade Clif bars.

After his experiment success, we had some time to kill before starting dinner so we kicked butt at Rock Band with our band – Arrested Pants. Haha, it sounded funny so we chose it. :)

We started cooking around 6:30 – Brian’s awesome burritos with sweet potato, tofu, bell pepper, black beans, onion, adobo pepper, with homemade guac, cheese and sour cream as toppings.

  

While Brian was busy manning the stove, everyone else was enjoying some tortilla chips with salsa and a different batch of spicy homemade guac made by Jason.

Jason, Andrew, Sam and Caroline (from left) Caroline, Jason, Emily and Laxmi (from left)

My burrito was amazing – the heavenly mixture topped with salsa, some cheese and guac in a sundried tomato tortilla.

Jason and Jake were posing very GQ like.  This is the “unaffected” look.

My brother Sam trying tofu for the first time!

Jake and Emily brought the most amazing dessert – little chocolate cakes and little cheesecakes along with Breyer’s cookie dough ice cream. 

I cut everything in half so that we could share bites. :)

Me and my birthday dessert

There were several times during this weekend that I was overcome with gratitude at my amazing family and friends.  I definitely had some teary eyed moments.  I know that through bad days, tough exams, bad runs, I am still so lucky to have such an amazing support system.  Thanks so much guys!

OK - I think its time to swallow my heart – enough sappy stuff huh? :) Have a great night my friends.

Em

Birthday Fun

Hey guys! Happy Sunday! I hope that you’ve been enjoying your weekends! Mine has been great so far.  I’ve really been enjoying having my brother here.  We had a great day yesterday – played some Rock Band with my new Wii!! (my present from Brian!), took a walk to the park and around the lake (phew, I was beat by the end), enjoyed my mom’s homemade brown bread birthday treat and went out last night with some great friends. 

Brian and I started our Saturday out pretty early.  He went for a run while I did some yoga and pilates.  When we were done, we had a quick breakfast (heart to heart with raisins and cinnamon) and headed out to the grocery store.

After our huge shopping trip, Brian headed out to practice and I vegged around waiting for Sam to arrive.  He got here around 12:30 and we started setting up the Wii.  We worked up quite an appetite and took a break for lunch before breaking out our guitars. :)

I had lentil soup with two carrots smeared in barney butter.

  After some epic Rock Band playing, we headed to the park and took a 4.5 mile walk.  It was so beautiful outside.

We were super hungry when we got back and Sam urged me to open the gift bag from my mom.  Among a gift certificate to LL Bean, was two loaves of my favorite – homemade brown bread.  I’m not sure of the recipe, but it contains dark molasses and raisins.  Its amazing toasted.  I had mine topped with some plain oikos and cinnamon.  So good. Thanks Mom, love you! :)

We all got showered and headed out to a great dinner at Mandarin Reading (our favorite Japanese/Chinese restaurant).  We started with a shared appetizer of avocado and sweet potato maki rolls.  Mmm. Wasabi. For my entree, I ordered the Signapore rice noodles with shrimp.  It was delicious – with cabbage, egg, scallions, bell peppers, thin rice noodles and shrimp in a delicious curry sauce.

Needless to say, there are lots of yummy leftovers.

After dinner, we headed to Cambridge to one of our favorite bars – People’s Republik.  I had so much fun and definitely had my share of birthday beverages. :)

  So much fun, thanks guys!

Today, Sam and I started out pretty late.  I wasn’t feeling great when I got up, but lots of water and some breakfast definitely helped.  

We’re going to head out and see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at the IMAX theater this afternoon and I’m so excited.

I hope you guys have a great day! I’ll be back with a recap of our first Sunday Night Dinner in the new place.  What a great birthday weekend this has been. :)

Em

Friday!!!!

Hey guys! Happy Friday!  This is going to be super quick and I apologize.  Brian and I are off to spend some quality time with our friends Emily and Jake and celebrate the weekend! My brother is coming to visit tomorrow as a special birthday gift to me (its Sunday) and I’m so pumped. :)

Anywho, here is a picture run down of my eats today.  Peanut butter pizza for breakfast, salad for lunch, yogurt and nanner for snack and Brian made a delicious dinner of tempeh, veggies and couscous.  So good.

  

I hope you guys have a great night! I’ll be back tomorrow for some more attentive blogging. :)

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Em

Phew, Glad that's Over.

Hey guys! Happy Emilyday! I feel like this week has been an absolute whirlwind. Work has finally calmed down and my economics exam is over (thank goodness) so it couldn't be a better time for a stress-free Emilyday. :)

I have some pictures from yesterday's meals, so I'll run you through.

I worked out before work - 40 minutes on the elliptical - and was so excited to have a deliciously rib-sticking breakfast after - two kashi blueberry waffles with almond butter and nanner. Yumyumyum.


Lunch consisted of Amy's vegetable barley soup along with some organic tortilla chips and salsa.


Snack featured my favorite - plain Oikos - but was not the best because of the mix ins: defrosted blueberries and pepitas. It was a little too acidy with the blueberries and yogurt. I definitely needed some honey. Somehow, I managed to finish it off though. :)


After work it was off to school, but not before picking up some delicious exam fuel - a middle eastern salad from a great little restaurant in Beverly. It consisted of mixed greens, tabouli, tomatoes, limed onions, hummus, falafel and some tahini. It was amazing.


As I said earlier, I'm so glad that the test is over. I really enjoyed the class, but I did struggle with it, definitely. Economics is not my thing. One good thing about the test was that we could leave when we finished and so I got home around 8:30. Woo hoo.

I hung out a while with Brian and then decided to have a snack. A peanut butter 'n raisin pizza on whole wheat pita. It yumtastic.


And here we are to today! I was super excited for breakfast this morning because I was down to the last bit of barney butter. You know what that means, don't you?!


Jar oats with nanner. Yum. I do feel a little ridiculous eating this at work, especially when my boss walks by and asks - "Are you eating babyfood!?" Haha. So worth it.


Lunch consisted of a baby spinach salad topped with some swiss, a boiled egg, red bell pepper, raisins, and some light newman's own italian dressing.


On the side I had some super spicy baked pita chips. Zing!


After work today I'm going to head to a new class (to me) at Healthworks called Pilates with Props. Its an hour long and I'm super excited about it.

After that, Brian and I have plans for a date night. Not sure where we're off to, but it should be a blast. :)

I hope you guys have a great Emilyday!

Any cool weekend plans out there??

Spicy Beans and Crazy Hard Yoga

Hey guys! Happy Tuesday! How did it go?  I feel like these past two days have been so busy at work that I should earn a press on the fast forward button for this week.  At least Wednesday or Emilyday…at least…

Anywho, this morning I started the day out with a yummy yogurt bowl featuring plain Oikos, nanner, barney butter and some heart to heart cereal.  So delicious and messy.

Lunch was delicious and featured my spicy spicy chick peas.  I didn’t remember them being this hot, but I imagine the salad dressing helped to cool them off.  They were quite tasty anyhow alongside my whole wheat pita toasted with some spinach and a slice of swiss and then stuffed with red bell pepper and spicy honey mustard.  Mmm…

  Snack was an amazing Key Lime Pie larabar.  So good.

When I got home, I decided to do some yoga.  I browsed around exercise tv and found a 45 minute yoga fusion session.  It was SO hard.  Within the first five minutes I was sweating like crazy.  I really liked it. :)

Shaky and sweaty, I quickly started on some dinner.  We had some whole wheat penne and broccoli left over in the fridge so I just added some extra sauce, steamed a bit more broccoli, and heated up some of our delicious frozen eggplant “meat”balls.  It was quite delicious topped with some parm.

  I did some majah studying for my managerial econ final tomorrow and now am just doing some relaxing.  I had a snack of some more heart to heart with raisins and super dark chocolate chunks.  Yum.

I hope you guys have a great night! Chopped is on so I must run! :)

Em