Midweek Check In

Earlier this week I set some goals for myself because I need to start taking baby steps towards a better life. My Best Life (miss u Oprah!)

Today I was put to the test for mini goal #2 - to bring lunch every day this week. We didn't really have much at home, and all of our containers are in use. I nearly used this excuse to buy a salad but I did not!! I wound up eating this combination:

Plum, Peach Chobani, Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

I haven't had oatmeal since the last time it was cold and was surprised by how tasty it was. I always forget. I enjoyed this with a Chobani Peach yogurt and a plum. It was pretty good overall! Now I'm going to look at my checking account and at the extra $8 in it :)

PS Look my plum looks like a heart!

boom boom, boom boom

Hurrican't (See what i did there?)

We made it!! Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene hit NY and it was windy and rainy. Luckily we were all safe. Some trees and tree limbs are down but our little apartment is fine!

There was such an odd energy in the air over the weekend. All channels had 24 hour news coverage and poor reporters were out in the streets and at the beaches. We packed "go bags" with essential papers, clothing, food & toiletries. We even taped up our windows!

Fire extinguishers and toilet paper =  most important

In the end nothing serious happened by us but there is ton of flooding in other areas and people without power. I feel super lucky that ...we .. were lucky! God I need a thesaurus.

Since we were stuck in the house for the most part all weekend, Pete and I did what we do best, respectively.  I laid on the couch knocking out my dvr list lazy, and Pete cooked, baked and cooked.

Pete has this awesome new Cooks Illustrated book that I will have to get the title of. It is mostly all 1 skillet meals with simple ingredients. So far he has made three recipies from it and they have all been amazing.  This weekend he made a ziti with sausage and it was wonderful. We also had tacos (not from the book) and chocolate chip cookie bars.

These were delicious!! Perfectly cooked and sweet. Being stuck in the house really accelerated their consumption ;) Pete also cut the edges of this bake into little bite sized pieces which I personally loved.

Today is "Monday" in my life where I get to start fresh again (thank god the cookie bars are almost gone). Here are some interesting articles about healthy stuff!

• Get the details on some popular cleanses and a chance to win some products! The Truth About Cleanses
• This is something I should've read BEFORE hurricane Irene... Home Workout Ideas
• Ooo and while I was on Fitsugar.com I saw a link for one of my favorite sites Peanut Butter Fingers. Julie has a great recipe for an autumn inspired oatmeal breakfast! I cannot wait for pumpkin flavored everything :D
• Speaking of pumpkin - today is the day that Pumpkin flavor comes back to Starbucks! And it has also returned to Dunkin Donuts (my personal preference). GET IT! (I don't care that it is still August!!)
• Lastly- I love a good list! Check out this list of 100 foods that are super for you! Super Foods.

Watch out NY!

Holla!! Did all you east coasters survive the earthquake on Tuesday?? Are y'all ready to be blown over in hurricane Irene this weekend? Whew! I'm sure you all know this is happening because the world is ending in 2012. You didn't think it'd just end did you? It has to come to an end over time, clearly starting with eastern N America.

Anydelusions, I'm not giving up! I'm still going to set goals and be the best Laura I can! I started out this week with a wonderful smoothie.

Nom nom.
I don't really understand.... I've made tons of smoothies all summer long and while they're always similar, I have a hard time recreating ones I loved. It's so frustrating. Sometimes the texture is really thick  and what I want (that's what she said) and sometimes it need to drink it with a straw (no bueno). Well.. sorta bueno. I think I really just want some ice cream.

In the bowl:

• 1 & 1/2 frozen 'naners (small)
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup frozen blackberries
• 1 cup dark chocolate almond milk
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder

Great breakfast!

So this week has been pretty decent but I wanted to make some tangible, bloggable goals for the week. I read a bunch of blogs of girls who attended the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend and when I left comments on blogs about what MY blog was about, I realized I'm still trying to find that out myself! I started it with the intention of keeping me on track and helping me reach goals before I hit 30 in about a year. I also wanted to get back into writing and just have a space where I could be free and say what I wanted. But as much as I love what I've done here so far (sort of an internet scrapbook with some meals mixed in) I'd like to have accountable Fridays. Sooo here's my list for this week!

1. Work out 4x (2x at the gym). Why on Earth am I paying for this gym!?!
2. Bring lunch every day next week. (I'm normally pretty good at this but today I spent $9 on lunch :p)
3. Get at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies in each day. (Easy peasy!)
4. Spend 15 minutes each day keeping my home neat & clean.
5. Blog at least 3x this week.

Sooo let's see how I do!  This past week I've done yoga 2x and Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred Level 3 (!!) so I am proud of that. These goals are a little easy/nothing life changing...but a million steps brings you a long way! Or some other cliche.
  
   6. Use less cliches.

Since you endured that long ass paragraph about myself and my vague life goals, here are some pictures of Peach cleaning her toes.  Happy Weekend! Be safe in the hurricane! Drink a hurricane instead!

Not my most flattering angle

Broadway Baby

I love love love Broadway shows, particularly musicals. I've been going to the theater since I was 12 and feel so lucky that I live in NYC and am able to go often. About two weeks ago I randomly entered a "blogger night" contest to win tickets to Catch Me If You Can. I thought why not? ..and filled out my info. On Monday I got the email that I had won tickets for Thursday night!! I was super excited because a) I never win anything & b) I really wanted to see this show again before it closes on September 4th. 

The show is based on the movie and I think they did a great job adapting it to the stage. The movie is long and there is a ton going on and I thought they stayed true to the story without omitting too much. 

Aaron Tveit  & Norbert Leo Butz star in this show and I love them both. Tveit is charming and a great singer. He does a great job of taking you through the story of his life. It doesn't hurt that he is a bit dreamy as well ;)

Source

Norbert Leo Butz needs no review - he won the Tony for this role and has been amazing in roughly 800 other projects. He had a show stopping number in the first act.

Source

While the show does lag a little bit in some places, I think overall it is a fun time. I really enjoyed the music (the score was written by the guys wrote the music to Hairspray) and storyline. If you're in town, looking for a fun show (before Sept 4th) I would recommend it! Run, don't walk, to catch this musical before it flies away!!

HAAAAA I wanted to see how corny I could get ;)

No but really- go see it.

My friend Brandon joined me for this night out! After the show we went to a Mexican place called Iguana's for some after show margaritas.

The place is really pretty and they have 28 flavors of margarita! I tried the pineapple and the cherry and Brandon went with an original on the rocks.

Guac at the table

We were a bit hungry and decided to order from the menu. I got crab cakes that were SO GOOD. Brandon got a quesadilla that looked great. We ordered guac for the table and they made it in front of us! Fancy :)

crab cakes

'dilla

I loved our little date! It was nice to Catch Brandon If I Could (yea) and see what's going on in his life. I love mid week fun :D

   

Mad 4 Chicken

I'm love love lovin' summer berries and fruits. (Are bananas just year round guys? Because I love them too).

I've been enjoying the different flavors of 'naner, strawberry, and blueberries quite often. In fact, I bet you can guess all my breakfasts by now! I also enjoyed 1/2 a banana with pb in the center. I'm not actually a huge pb fan (shh don't tell anyone). I think it's ok, but I like that its a healthy protein that keeps me full for a long time. I'm itchin' to try almond butter & sunflower butter. I want to explore and see if I can find a sample of them though- I'm not ready to commit to an entire (and usually expensive) jar.

Last night Pete and I tried a place called Mad For Chicken. I've been hearing a number of different people rave about this place and decided to check it out for myself!

The place was decorated with lots of different record players that had been deconstructed. The exposed brick and metal tables made for an interesting decor.

I'm currently reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer which is about why he became a vegetarian and his exploration into the treatment of animals in factory farms. It's so eye opening (although I'm still on the fence about eating meat, kinda love it, and don't judge anyone for choosing differently). So I was surprised and found it quite coincidental and appropriate that Mad For Chicken uses chickens that are raised on an all vegetable diet, without antibiotics, growth hormone or artificial flavoring. How convenient!

We started off with a pitcher of Stella Artois. MmM.

No hops were harmed in the production of this beer

We ordered a 12 piece mix of wings and drumsticks and a side of fries.

Look at the leg on the left!!

The items on the menu were a bit pricey, but let me tell you - the "drums" (which are generally my favorite type of wings) were like full legs! HUGE! The wings were super flavorful and less greasy and heavy than traditional wings. They (and the fries) were wonderfully crispy and the sauce had quite a kick to it. I loved how they were cooked. It makes you think if you're gonna have fries and spend the calories, you  might as well have amazingly fresh, crisp & tasty ones like these instead of something that isn't so great.

Afterwards we literally wandered around with no particular destination in mind. We wound up at a divey bar, had a drink and headed home. Fun times! :)

La - Z- Weekend

This weekend was super low key. It included lots of coffee, berries, nail polish, movies & games. And laundry.

Lots of laundry :p. This is one of the two bags I lugged down to the laundromat. Fortunately, not many people were there for a Saturday afternoon!

For breakfast I enjoyed a Hazelnut coffee with Truvia, (trying to wean myself off the pink crack!!) and an Arnold's thin with peanut butter, strawberries and blueberries.

Saturday night me and Pete saw Crazy, Stupid, Love with Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. I really liked this movie! I thought it was super cute and loved the way it all tied together.

Sunday on Breakfast 20s I had the breakfast of all breakfasts!

Waffles with a schmear of peanut butter, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. MmM!! SOO GOOD.

Sunday day and night had awful weather here in NYC! I kept telling myself I was going to go out once the rain let up.... so I never did! :p Me & Pete had a relaxing dinner and spent the evening playing Scrabble and Scattergories. After we finished playing I thought, "Damn! I should've taken pictures!" LOL... still learning haha.

Wasabi Blues

For dinner Thursday evening I was on my own and was in the mood for a big, vegetably salad!

Again I forgot to place everything nicely for a photo. This salad included:

• lettuce
• spinach
• tomato
• celery
• cucumber
• blueberries
• gorgonzola
• black bean veggie burger

It was sooo good :D

Afterwards I played with devil Peach.

Yesterday I had a half day from work and me & Pete took a drive out to the island for some dinner and a walk on the boardwalk.

We drove up and down the main boulevard looking for a place that piqued our interest. After glancing at the menu in the window, Grillfire was our choice!

They started us off with some soft pretzels and mustard which were pretty tasty!

nom nom

I ordered a glass of Riesling but the flavor was a bit off. It was sorta  an omen for the rest of my meal.

I ordered a seared tuna wrap with avocado, black beans and lettuce with wasabi dipping sauce. The meal was just ok. I've had a few different meals with seared tuna in the past and they've all been pretty fantastic, but this was lacking. There wasn't much flavor to the tuna and the black beans were just rinsed and placed in the wrap. There was no pizazz! Luckily Pete's chicken meal was much more flavorful, and he let me have a few bites.

Afterwards we headed over to the boardwalk for a lil sunset walk.

It was nice and relaxing! I wish I had a half day every day!! :D

The One With the Box

Hi everyone! I took a little sabatical of boringness for a few days but now I'm back!

For breakfast yesterday I enjoyed yet another summer smoothie. I can't get enough of these in the morning!

Into the blender:

• 1 cup vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• handful of frozen peach slices
• big handful o' spinach

I made a smoothie the day before with so much spinach that it looked hideously gross (but tasted great!) You're welcome for sparing you.

Look at these cute mugs I bought from Crate & Barrel!!

I went in here recently and browsed the tabletop section for a solid HOUR. Pete was with me while I squealed over cute mugs and spoons. He must really love me!! :)

I threw that random mug photo in, not only because they are awesome and fun mugs and make me want to drink more coffee & tea, but to break up two breafasts. Breakfai?

This morning after craving egg whites for days and days, my craving was satisfied!! I sauteed some spinach in a pan with olive oil first, and then added about 1/2 cup of egg whites. I ate it on an Arnold's Sandwich Thin.

It was filling & tasty!!  Look at how the thin is perfectly toasted!

Sunday Pete & I went on a little shopping trip to Kohl's. Pete got an awesome deal on some sneakers, and Peach reaped the rewards in the form of a box.

Box!

She quickly jumped on in, rolled around and did cat things in it. By the next day the box had been reduced to half a destroyed box. We decided it'd be fun to carry her around the apartment in it so she could have her Temple Grandin moment in the cow machine.

Today, the box died. It is no longer a box, and more of a homeless person sign.

She even thought it would be a fun way to earn treats.

RIP Box!! G'nite everyone :D