Saving Seats

Hey hey Monday :/ The weekend absolutely flew by, I feel like it lasted only an hour. I hate that. I think I may need a vacation.

Friday night date night with the boy was spent at Bosphorus, the new Mediterranean restaurant in Cambridge. A full review will be posted later this week.

Saturday was spent in NH visiting my bestie Briar, along with some various errands and things around the house.

Sunday our plan was to go hiking in Blue Hills, but apparently there was a race of some kind going on and all of the roads to get to the trails were blocked off by policemen. So instead of going hiking, we decided to get cupcakes instead. A logical choice, right? To go from hiking to cupcakes? Absolutely. We drove to Somerville to try out the famous Kickass Cupcakes.

We ordered the Wacky Rabbit (AKA carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and the cookie dough cupcakes, which somehow went unpictured. They were good, but extremely small for the $3 price tag. I most likely will not be back. We also got a blackberry soda, which was also extremely expensive, but still quite tasty.

After cupcakes, I went and met Melissa and Emily and her boyfriend Jamie for lunch at Whole Foods.

I got the usual mac n cheese, which was delicious as usual. I also got cold garlic string beans that were flavorful and a piece of mustard chicken. The chicken was a lot spicier than I expected, but had a perfect balance of spicy and sweet. I finished it easily and felt myself wishing I had gotten a bigger piece.

Since I was at Whole Foods anyway, I decided to see if they had the elusive Blueberry Muffin Larabar in stock...and they did! I broke into it on the way home from lunch and I have to say, it tastes nothing like a blueberry muffin, more like blueberry pie. I loved it. It may take second place for favorite Larabars after the chocolate chip cookie dough. I will definitely get this agin.

Once I got home I had a lot of prep work to do as I am hosting my book club meeting tonight at my house. Therefore, cherry white chocolate oatmeal cookies were made. Don't worry, recipe coming later this week!

Now onto the title of my post. This morning in spin class (actually every morning) there is a group of women who always sit in the front row (prime spot due to proximity to the AC vent, clock, and instructor). The rows have 6 bikes in them, and one woman shows up super early every day to put towels on the bikes of her 3 other friends, all in the front row. Mind you, there is no sign up for the class, it's first come first serve. And I have to tell you, it irritates the shit out of me. I make sure to get there early enough to snag one of the other two bikes, but sometimes it doesn't always happen and it makes me angry that there are three people having seats saved for them when I am there long before they are. I want to knock these bitches off their bikes.

How do you feel about this? Do you save seats?

Wins & Fails

This week has been a series of wins and fails for me. I have been successful in my healthy living endeavor in some ways and came up short in other ways.

Wins:

- I made it to the gym every morning this week
- I have been drinking at least 3 bottles of water a day (20oz bottles)
- I had veggies in every meal yesterday...pumpkin (butter) in my oatmeal (hey, it counts), salad for lunch, and brussel sprouts for dinner.
- I got hit on by a 75 year old man and a 5 year old boy this week (this could also be labeled as a FAIL but I'm counting it as a WIN)

Fails:

- Tuesday I went to the Melting Pot. Enough said.
- Thursday night I had pizza and ice cream for dinner
- I fell asleep by 8pm on the couch 2 nights this week
- Two days this week I lost the cookie battle and had a moonpie (two chocolate cookies with peanut butter in the middle for those of you who have never heard of these little bites of heaven)
- I haven't been stretching after my spin classes.

Speaking of spin, this morning's workout was a 1 hour spin class (I have been taking spin Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings). I have proclaimed my love for spin before. It is one of the few workouts that I can do that keeps me motivated, keeps me working at my hardest, and not staring at the clock the entire time (although I will cut a bitch to get a prime spot on the bike within view of the clock outside the studio). Other workouts have me thinking this:

Breakfast was oatmeal again. I have been really feeling the oatmeal this week...and as you guys know, I tend to eat the same thing over and over again until I get sick of it. I got sick of the egg white omelettes I had been craving the past few weeks and switched over to the oatmeal. Once this stint is over I will most likely switch over to cereal again. And the cycle continues.

Tonight is date night for the boy and I...last Friday we were supposed to go to Bosphorous but ended up at Masona Grill instead, so tonight will most likely be Bosphorous. Side question - do you guys have any suggestions for good date ideas besides the usual dinner and a movie or bowling? Something outside of the box?

I have a full weekend planned including a trip to NH and a Whole Paycheck date with my bloggie friends. Have a good weekend!

P.S. I totally DVR'ed the royal wedding and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I got a glimpse of Kate walking into the church while I was at the gym. Oh my gorgeous. Oh and the boy doesn't know it yet, but this totally may be part of our date night in lieu of a movie ;)

What is your favorite workout? Have you ever tried a spin class?

I Have to Have It!

Oh Friday, I have been waiting for it all week! I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow, have a leisurely breakfast, and then head to NH to see my bestie Briar :)

Tomorrow night is date night for the boy and I (usually it's Friday night but tonight he is going to see Bob Seger at the Garden for which I am achingly jealous). We are going to a new-to-us restaurant called Bosphorus in Cambridge, so expect to see a review next week!

Last night (and actually most of yesterday) I was CRAVING some vegetarian sushi (I swear I'm not pregnant). Ever since I had it last Wednesday night at Fuji 1546, I have wanted it again. After scouring yelp for a good half hour trying to find a decent sushi place in my area that had a good variety of vegetarian sushi and coming up short, I decided to convince the boy to head to Whole Foods for dinner. This goes back to my (lack of) ability to save money. We had plenty to eat at home, but when a craving hits, nothing else will do.

Because the boy is indecisive, I had my vegetarian sushi and my plate from the hot bar picked out before he had even chosen one thing. I offered to split my hot bar plate with him since I got the sushi:

We split grilled pineapple (a must-get at the hot bar) and the apple crisp. The mac n cheese was all mine. For some reason, I really really love the mac n cheese at Whole Foods hot bar. The boy got his own mac n cheese because he knew I wouldn't share.

For my sushi I selected the avocado and cucumber rolls:

I ate three pieces and saved the rest for my lunch today. I can't wait to dig into them! The sushi was good, but obviously not as good as the sushi I had at Fuji. As far as supermarket sushi goes, it was pretty much what I expected. It ebbed my craving a bit, but I will still be trying to convince the boy he will like it so we can go to an actual sushi place to get it (I have made no progress on that as of yet). Boys are stubborn and picky.

It's funny because I'm very much a patterned eater. I will eat the same things over and over again until I get sick of them, rather than incorporating a variety of foods into my diet. I will probably drag the boy and my friends to Whole Foods or sushi places as often as I can until I can't eat sushi anymore.

Do you tend to eat the same things over and over again until you get sick of them or do you try to change things up often?

Eating Through the Weekend

Sorry for the little hiatus guys! I was way too exhausted from traveling and getting caught up on everything that I didn't have the time or energy to post on Friday, and since yesterday was a holiday, I decided to give myself the day off and enjoy myself blog-free.

My weekend was a whirlwind of activity.  I basically ate my way through the weekend. Friday night was date night with the boy. We started out at Wicked first for a little arancini, pizza, and apple tart (sorry no pictures guys) and then on to Kings in Dedham for a little bowling!

The boy beat me both games, but I was reallllllly close the first game (100 to 102). We had a really great time at Kings...I have to say though that I would never go back on a Friday or Saturday night again because the wait just to get a lane was 45-90 minutes, and when you do finally get a lane, you only have the option to play two strings and then you have to get back in the queue to wait for a new lane. That being said, I did love the atmosphere of the place with the disco ball and the music. And surprisingly, the shoes were not all that disgusting...probably because this location is fairly new and there is only about six months of feet sweat in there instead of years like at other bowling alleys.

Saturday was spent running errands and cleaning the house, doing laundry, etc. Saturday night was reserved for fun! I met Melissa, Julie, Emily, and her friend Emily for a girl's night out. We headed to the Showcase at Legacy Place (yes, second time in two days for me) to see No Strings Attached. I actually really liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Typically romantic comedies are rated PG-13 and I'm very much a rated R girl. I like foul language, nudity, and violence in a movie. Lucky for me, this movie was rated R and was quite funny. After the movie, we headed over to Whole Foods for some dinner. My plate:

On my plate was mostly grilled pineapple and the mac n cheese, but also a little mixed veggies and tomato basil chicken. I ate all of the pineapple, mac n cheese, and veggies, but left most of the chicken because there was just too much basil. Don't get me wrong, I like basil, but there was so much in the sauce that it choked me. I just couldn't finish it. Before chowing down, in true blogger fashion, there was photo fun...

We did a lot of chatting, laughing, and gossiping and had a great time! We finally called it quits a little before 10, and as I was on my way home, the boy called on his way home from a party and asked me to stop and pick up some beer, it was drinking time!

Samuel Adams Irish Red for him and Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde for me. I actually spied the Strawberry Blonde by accident as I was trying to decide what I wanted for myself and was so excited. I had forgotten this beer existed and I used to drink it all the time right out of college. It was just as delicious as I remembered and I have found a new beer of choice.

Sunday morning the boy and I slept in naturally, and when we woke up, the boy said he was taking me someplace for breakfast and it was a surprise. Because he's not all that stealthy, I figured it out way before we got there but I was still really happy and excited. We went to Zaftigs in Brookline.

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I ordered the Banana Stuffed French Toast with date butter. I said to the boy as I was eating it that this would be my last meal (you know what I mean, the meal you would order if you were on death row...I am this morbid). I wasn't kidding or exaggerating in any way. If you ever have the opportunity to go here, no matter what the wait is (there is always a wait) you must order this dish. You will not be disappointed. Just try not to moan in pleasure a la Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally because the tables are pretty close together and people might stare.

(source)

The rest of the day was just spent grocery shopping and hanging out on the couch with my boy. It was the perfect lazy Sunday.

Yesterday was a holiday so I had the day off. I met my gorgeous friend Danielle for lunch at my favorite pizza place ever...Angela's in Saugus. Angela's is famous for it's coal fired pizza and wings. I am not a huge fan of the wings, but I do love the pizza. If you like burnt things, you will love this place.

I ordered a personal size pizza (10") with mozzarella and garlic. Oh my YUM.

Miss Danielle ordered the Ultimo (basically a meat lover's pizza) and just to give you a size comparison, she ordered the small, which is 14" compared to my 10". It looked amazing.

We had a great lunch catching up and oohing and aahing over the pizza. The rest of my day was spent spending a little quality cuddle time with my cats (they were a little perturbed with me for being away for so long) and catching up on my overflowing DVR. The long weekend was just what I needed for a nice recovery from traveling for two weeks.

What did you do with your long weekend? What would your "last meal" be?

It's Good to Be a Food Blogger

Last day until the weekend...not that I've been looking forward to it all week or anything...

This week marked a momentus occasion for me as a food blogger...my first product to try out! Chobani generously offered to send me a sampler pack of Chobani to taste and experiment with (forgot to snap my own picture of it this morning).

Not that I haven't tried Chobani before (it's usually the staple in my yogurt bowls and I literally live for the pineapple flavor) but I was excited to get the sampler box to try out all of the flavors.

This past Saturday night was another milestone for me as a blogger...my first blogger meetup! I met Melissa, Di, Rhea, and Emily at the Whole Foods in Dedham for some yummy food and good conversation. It was so nice to finally meet these ladies in person. In the blog world, you read about people's daily lives so much that you feel like you know them already, which was exactly how I felt Saturday night. We talked and laughed like we had been friends for years!

One of the greatest things about having dinner with other bloggers is that they don't get uncomfortable when you start taking 100 photos of your food. Here is Di posing with her camera with me right next to her trying to get a good shot of my plate. I was probably on photo # 4 at this point.

For dinner I rolled with a simple salad with romaine, red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, and cranberries with a berry vinegrette. I also had a few bites of the Mac N' Cheese (it looked way too good to resist) and a chicken samosa. The salad and the Mac N' Cheese were delicious, but the chicken samosa not so much. I believe what I said at the time was that it tasted like ground up cat food. Not that I know what that tastes like.

After dinner we decided to head over to Met Bar, which was of course PACKED. If you have never been to Legacy Place in Dedham, let me assure you that the entire plaza is always crazy no matter what time of day or night and there is always a wait at every restaurant there. Prior to getting to Met Bar, we had some photo fun!

Of course we found no seating or even standing room at Met, so we tried Legal C instead. No luck there either. Finally we ended up at my very favorite place, Yardhouse. You guys know I talk about this place incessantly and practically live here, so I was excited. I ordered my usual Anderson Ale seasonal (AKA Christmas in a glass) and we had a great time just enjoying each other's company in the 100 degree bar (I really have no idea WHY it was so hot in there, but I literally sweated through my shirt being in there. Yeah, I'm a sweaty beast).

I know everyone else says it too, but it really is true, that the best part of this little hobby of ours is the community that comes along with it. I had such a great time with these lovely ladies and I hope we get to do it again soon!

Have you met any of your favorite bloggers in real life?

Have you tried Whole Foods hot bar and salad bar? Do you like it?