Foods That Freak Me Out

Good morning! Today is Ten Things Wednesday. If you're new to the blog, Wednesday is the day I show off my affinity for lists, sometimes food and fitness related, sometimes not. Today I am listing some of the foods that I just do not like and kind of freak me out a little bit.

You would think things like tripe (cow stomach) and chicken livers would be on this list, but no. I can actually eat those things. The things that truly skeeve me out are fairly common.

1. Cottage Cheese - This is definitely a texture thing. It reminds me of eating fish eggs. Not that I've ever eaten fish eggs, but this is what I would imagine them to taste like.

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2. Fish - I have made no secret about how I do not eat fish. Everything about it skeeves me out. The taste, the smell, the texture. I was told that the secret to good fish is in the preperation. I don't buy it. Fish is still stinky.

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3. Mushrooms - Unless they are chopped up really small and heavily drowned in sauce, mushrooms are a no go for me.

4. Water chestnuts - No matter how long you cook them, they are still weirdly crunchy. Yuck.

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5. Chia Seeds - I just can't get past the fact that they expand and gelatinize in your stomach. Creepy.

6. Nutritional yeast - I know everyone in the blog world seems to love this stuff, and truthfully I have yet to try it and probably won't unless it's unknowingly slipped to me.

7. Beets - There are very few vegetables that I just can't stand and beets are one of them. Maybe it's the fact that they stain everything, maybe it's the fact that they smell like vomit when they're cooking, but whatever it is, there is just no way I can eat them.

8. Tab - Oh yes I went there. It was hot during the 80s and I still randomly see it in supermarkets sometimes and am automatically scared. Nothing like drinking your chemicals!

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9.  Sour gummies - I like the sour patch kid commercials, but when it comes to actually eating them, I just can't. Typically I like when two flavors are paired together, but sour gummies are just gross.

10. American cheese - I HATE American cheese. I think it's just about the most disgusting thing there is. I love pretty much any other kind of cheese but cannot stomach American cheese. This is one Americanized food that we got completely wrong.

What foods really turn your stomach?

It's a Pahhhhhty!

Last night was my first time hosting my book club meeting at my house. I was nervous to say the least. I spent a lot of the weekend cleaning my house and even recruited the boy to do some last minute touch ups before all my guests arrived. I'm a freak about having a clean house. And I like people to feel comfortable in my home, so I tend to go a little overboard with the party prep.

I also went a little overboard with the food.

Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (homemade):

Mozzarella stuffed arancini (Trader Joe's):

Vegetable Plate (home cut, so much cheaper that way):

Pigs in a Blanket (Trader Joe's):

Unpictured were pita chips, along with all of the food my fellow book clubbers brought (a few trays of brownies, another batch of cookies, cheese and crackers, some pineapple salsa, etc.) We don't mess around. And there was also some wine, though I didn't have any, being a school night and all.

I love me a party! Our book this time was Both Ways is the Way I Want It by Maile Malloy.

It's a collection of short stories. As far as short stories go, the book was good, but short stories really are not my thing so I didn't love it. I did love the character development and the varied approach the author took in similar stories.

If you're a reader, what is your favorite genre? If you're not a reader, what is your favorite party food?

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?

Just Another Day

Good morning friends!

So I recently switched from (attempting) to get my workouts in at night after work and on weekends to committing to going to the gym in the morning during the week and just doing activities I enjoy on the weekend. It takes a lot of pressure off of trying to fit in a workout on the weekend when I have so much other stuff going on and takes a lot of the battle out of working out during the week because getting it done in the morning means not having to choose between working out and spending time with the boy and my friends. So far it has been working out really well and I have only skipped a few workouts in the morning here and there over the last month.

This morning's workout was a speed workout on the treadmill. This has actually become my ritual Thursday workout. I did a speedy 4 miles and then called it quits. Breakfast was oatmeal (which I promise I did not take a picture of and will not post for you because if I see another picture of oatmeal in the blogworld I will scream). My morning snack was my usual banana. I sometimes miss the creativity I had when I was younger. I have pretty much the same three breakfasts over and over again and a banana for a mid morning snack just about every day. Oh well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I went to Sip Cafe on Monday and got the roasted chicken sandwich, but it didn't have a lot of avocado on it. Now THIS is how you do avocado on a sandwich:

Please excuse my less than stellar phone picture. This was homemade in my own kitchen of course...no restaurant would give you this much avocado without paying extra for it. Also in my avocado sandwich is some turkey and spinach, but we all know who the real star is.

Sides:

A pair and some green beans. Not very interesting, but hey, it was nutritious! Unpictured snacks yesterday were some veggie chips and a banana.

Dinner was originally supposed to be a salad on my own because the boy was supposed to work late, but he ended up getting out early, so we decided to hit up Franco's for pizza and beer. Root beer that is. Franco's makes their own and it's pretty good. I love homemade rootbeer.

We split a large pizza, with feta and garlic on my side and hamburger on his.

I didn't love my half. I only had one and a half slices and then called it quits. The garlic in the pizza was in huge chunks and while I LOVE garlic, I don't love biting into huge chunks of it unexpectedly. On the walk home we each grabbed a peppermint stick ice cream cone. It was the perfect temperature for a little stroll.

If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you may already know that I got hit on  by a 75 year old man the other day. Well, last night I got hit on by a 5 year old. Yep, he asked me to be his girlfriend. Apparently I have some sort of sign that says I am single and desperate and if you have trouble going to the bathroom on your own, I am INTERESTED. How depressing.

Have you ever received unwanted advances?? What's your go to snack that you always eat?

The Downsides to Working Out

I know you guys actually read my blog because you love my pessamistic self-deprecating humor, right? Then you've come to the right place! I actually like working out most of the time. Sure I complain about it, but the sense of accomplishment of a completed workout far outweighs the downsides of actually working out. With that being said, there ARE downsides...and here they are.

1. Sweat rashes. TMI maybe? Oh well, I'm just being honest! I get sweat rashes a lot, usually either under my arm, in the crook of my elbow, inside of my thigh...wherever I sweat a lot. No amount of baby powder completely cures this problem. It makes wearing shorts and a tank top unsightly in the summer.

2. Blisters. Even with careful planning, bodyglide, strategically placed bandaids and buying the correct shoes for your feet, blisters still happen. And they suck. I always manage to get blisters in the most painful and annoying places.

3. Raging hunger. The more I work out, the more I like to eat. Which completely negates the fact that I worked out. It's an endless vicious cycle.

4. Being tired at 8pm. Ok, in truth I would probably be tired at 8pm even if I didn't get up at 5:30am every morning to work out, but the working out ensures that I could put my head down at 8pm and fall asleep instantly. It also makes me completely useless at night because I'm so tired and lazy.

5. Having to shower twice. Some people like to shower. I do not. I do it out of necessity of course, but when I go to the gym in the afternoon or evening, that means I have to shower again and that makes me unhappy.

6. Sweaty ponytail hair. In case I hadn't already mentioned it, I sweat perfusely when I work out, and that usually equates to have sweat drip off of my ponytail, which is just the grossest thing.

7. The DOMS. That would be delayed onset muscle soreness for those of you who do not obsessively read fitness magazines like I do. The DOMS usually occurs the day AFTER your workout and then continues on for at least another day after that. Squats give me the worst DOMS.

8. Annoying or inadept class instructors. There is nothing worse than leaving a class feeling like you could have done more because the instructor clearly didn't know what they were doing or were just half-assing it (I have had this a lot with instructors who teach multiple classes in a day...by the time they get to the evening class, they have nothing left). It also sucks being demotivated by Fitness Barbie in her pink leotard and neon white teeth. When all you can thinking about is wanting to snap off her head, it's hard to focus on how hard you're working.

9. Permastink. You gym goers all know what I mean..."permastink" is the permanent smell your gym clothes take on no matter how many times you wash them or whatever fancy pants detergent you use. Gym clothes can clearly be distinguished as gym clothes by the way they smell.

10. Pre-planning. Working out takes a lot of pre-planning. If you're a runner, you have to plan your route, water stops, etc. If you are a morning gym goer, you have to pack a bag to go right to work, or pack a bag if you are going right after work. That's just a lot of WORK. For lazy girls like me, that's the number one reason I would skip the gym if I didn't live less than a mile away and had the option to change and shower at home.

What is your least favorite part of working out?

Sip Cafe and Little River Band

Good morning!

The weather is sucking the life out of me. I want some SUN. Moving on...

Lunch yesterday was a new find...Sip Cafe. It's in Post Office Square in Boston and if you work in the financial district, you have to try this place. The cafe is in the middle of post office square and it's glass all the way around, making the space feel very open and bright. All the tables were taken when I went in, but I would have loved to sit and stay a while.

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They have a variety of sandwiches, soups, and salads that are all made fresh and looked amazing (I creeped other people's food while I was waiting for mine). They also serve coffee and pastries in the morning which I  may have to try out as well.

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I ordered the Roasted Chicken sandwich with provolone and avocado. You have the option of getting it as is or pressed...obviously I chose pressed. Hot sandwiches > cold sandwiches. Fact. It was delicious but a little light on the avocado (clearly I like to add at least a half of an avocado to any salad or sandwich, I'm just a pig like that).

And despite the fact that yesterday I said I was not going to give in to the boy and his mission for 50% off candy, I went ahead and bought this guy anyway. It was the last one in the convenience store on the first floor of my building and I felt bad for it. Ok that's a lie. It just looked really good.

Last night I came home to a rare treat. Dinner was made for me! The boy made a pot roast, reheated some leftover mashed potatoes and boiled up some broccoli.

He did a good job except the broccoli was a little overcooked. By overcooked, I mean, it was mush. I couldn't really eat it and considered saving it to make broccoli soup but ended up just throwing it away. The rest was good though and we have leftovers to make beef stew (which I will post my recipe for eventually).

Dessert was a pineapple blueberry mix topped with homemade whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream is one of those things I always try to have in my fridge. A dollop of whipped cream makes anything better.

After dinner we headed out to Best Buy. As we get into the boy's car, he puts a CD on. Suddenly Little River Band starts playing "Reminiscing."

Me: "Are you serious with this?"

Boy: "What are you talking about?"

Me: "Is it just this one song or is this whole CD Little River Band?"

Boy: "It's the greatest hits"

: blank stare :

Boy: "Yeah, I know I'm a little gay. Wait, you're not going to put this on the blog are you?"

Me: "You know everything you say and do is subject to my blog."

Sometimes he still surprises me.

*Confession: I really love that song Reminiscing too.

What music are you embarassed to admit you like?