Cupcakes and Classy Chicks

As the new year rolls around my dear friend Carrie has started a wonderful tradition.  She invites all the ladies over for a New Years Brunch. 

My friends and I enjoy brunch a lot.

Today’s brunch started at 12 noon and I walked in the door to my apartment at around 8 PM but that’s beside the point.

Carrie puts out quite a spread but I wanted to contribute something sweet so I brought some cupcakes.  I used this recipe.  I usually make these with the candy cane but left it out this time.  It’s basically a box cake mix with some extras.  I added these things + some sour cream.  The cupcakes are super moist.  I got a cupcake carrier and some fancy liners for Christmas that I was dying to use. Before…. After. With buttercream icing.   In preparation for eating buttercream icing I went to the gym this morning and incline walked for 35 minutes.  Then I did one set of stairs (only to the 4th floor though – my legs and I just got back on speaking terms).And sprinkles!!!!Sidenote: I bought this cute dishtowel when I went to Maryland/DC with Dave in November.   I love it.  I know truffles..errr trouble.   My cupcake carrier slipped off my lap on the subway on the way to Queens and I almost missed my stop!!!

Carrie had all the makings for brunch cocktails.  I prefer Screwdrivers to Mimosas. She set the table with some lovely centerpieces. My plate.  Two types of quiche, a slice of pound cake and salad with apples and pomegranate. Then I had a coughing fit and drank some hot water with lemon.  This damn cold won’t leave me alone. Then, as all proper ladies who brunch do, we started to gamble.  We played a few mean rounds of Left Right Center.  First for pocket change.Then we brought out the big guns. I did not win so had to drown my sorrows.  (Note: no alcohol was consumed in the taking of this photo.  But – don’t get me wrong - I did enjoy a cocktail or two).

I got home, many hours later, full of good food and good cheer shared with good friends and made myself a bowl of pasta.   A perfect end to a pretty perfect day.

Tomorrow me and my cupcake carrier are off to the wilds of Pennsylvania.  I’ll be back again on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend one and all!

Preemptive Attack

As you might be aware Dave and I go to trivia on Thursday nights.

We go here.

I almost always get the same thing – a BBQ Cheddar Turkey Burger.  It’s difficult to get a good turkey burger out.  It’s usually frozen and pretty much flavorless.  The BBQ sauce is delish and it’s a fresh turkey burger.  Plus it comes with pickles and onion strings on top.

Nothing wrong with that.

I also always get fries with the burger – hence the extra baggage I’m carting around lately.

SO.

In an effort to keep myself from desperately wanting one tonight – I made some for Dave and I for dinner last night.

We made a trip to Trader Joe’s.  My Fitness Pal on my iPhone lists calorie counts for Trader Joe’s stuff.  The total calorie count for this meal is a little over 500 calories – INCLUDING a tiny glass of white wine.

I sprayed a grill pan with Pam and a drizzle of olive oil.  I seared one side of the burgers then added onions and red bell peppers.  The burgers are seasoned with pepper and garlic powder.  I deglazed the pan with some soy sauce.

Served with baby spinach on a low fat English muffin with TJ’s potato wedges (1 serving = 120 calories). 

Truth be told it was way better than the burger I usually get at the restaurant.  Soy sauce is the key. 

Let’s see how my willpower stands up to the challenge tonight!

This is what eating right looks like.

 

I’m really not sure why I ever stopped.

Two posts today!  What’s the world coming to?

Another good day.  I worked a full day – did 2 loads of laundry – took the stairs even though my thighs were screaming at me – ate a healthy lunch and dinner – popped a handful of vitamins to get rid of this stupid cold – and even though I feel icky went to the gym and inclined walked for 40 minutes.

I watched The Millionaire Matchmaker while I walked.  I have come to the conclusion that if you have that much money you should stay off reality TV.

I’m finding that motivation again I think.  Don’t quote me yet – it’s still early in the week but I feel different than I did a few weeks ago when I tried to get back on track.  I’m going to head to M’s soon.  I know how much I’ve gained – I don’t really want to have to pay to have someone confirm it.  I’d like to get a head start and then go back for the accountability factor.  It’s an important part of all of this I know but I sort of need to prove to myself I can do it on my own.

Tonight is a new season of The Biggest Loser but right now I’m busy watching Stacy and Clinton on What Not To Wear. 

Does anyone else remember that weird guy who was the co-host when it first came on the air?  He wore chambray shirts and had long stringy curly hair.  I think he was a stylist.

I don’t know about you but I’d like my stylist to look like (s)he actually had style.

Anyway I’m hopeful that this is a turning point for me and I can stop this train before it runs off the rails.  I’m being a tad melodramatic, I know what to do and how to do it.

And eating meals like the above is not actually a hardship.

Day One – Done.

I had a very good day yesterday.

Despite the fact that I’m sick…again.  I have a stuffy nose and a cough that I can’t even blame on my boyfriend or his kids.  :(

Yesterday I ate and behaved like I used to not so long ago and survived.  I not only survived – I wasn’t so hungry I wanted to gnaw my own arm off.

You laugh but this was a definite concern.

I broke a big rule and ate breakfast late.  I had an English Muffin with some Three Cheese Onion Blend from Hickory Farms.  Before the holiday I received a box of goodies from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.   I received the Deluxe Hickory Selection.  I took pictures but it’s been a while and the pictures are on my point and shoot and I seem to have misplaced the cord. :(   I just ordered a new one because I am not confident that I can find it through all my travels.

Here’s what it looked like.

I brought some of that box over to Dave’s.  I brought some with me when we tailgated at the Penn State Game.  I’m not a big sausage fan (That’s what she said) but I have more of the cheese in my fridge for future use.

For lunch I had a cup of Lipton Ring O Noodles Soup.  Did you know that you are supposed to get 4 servings out of that sucker?  I added some egg noodles too.

Sidenote:  That link brings you to Wegmans.  My idea of paradise is to live inside a Wegmans next to a Trader Joe’s and a Barnes & Noble while eating peanut butter for breakfast, salads with goat cheese for lunch and hot pretzels with mustard for a snack and burgers and fries for dinner.  I would also require Diet Coke and Pinot Grigio.

For exercise yesterday I didn’t want to go out again so I did the stairs.  There are 8 flights in my building and I did them 3 times up and down.  Probably took about 15 minutes.  My heart rate got up to 169 at one point (thank you Dave for my awesome new watch thingy) and my legs are KILLING ME today. 

I forgot how good that feels – to work out muscles that you normally don’t.  Today is a gym day.  I’m going to walk for 45 minutes after work.

Dave came over for dinner.   I made pasta primavera with chicken.   Dave’s mom was ridiculously generous to me this Christmas and gave me a Le Creuset Grill Pan.

If I wasn’t already in love with her son I would date this grill pan.  That’s how much I adore Le Creuset.  I marinated the chicken in Italian dressing and grilled it with a little onion.I sautéed some garlic, yellow bell pepper, roasted tomatoes and onion.

I added steamed broccoli, whole wheat pasta, spinach, basil and parmesan.  Spices were some black pepper, crushed red pepper and lemon pepper.  Sauce was some white wine and a cup of the pasta water with a drizzle of olive oil.Ta da!!!   

I measured 2 cups of dried pasta. There’s about a cup of leftovers in my fridge right now. I drank Diet Coke and had a TJ’s Mini Mint Mouthful and this guy for dessert.

I don’t feel overly full.  I feel accomplished and productive.  I still need to do some laundry and mop the floor but my place looks pretty presentable. 

It’s a good day.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

It’s a total cliché I know. A new year, resolutions and all of that. I’ve been feeling this way a while since I cut myself a huge amount of slack in 2010. I ate what I wanted, worked out when I wanted and didn’t pay very close attention.

And then yesterday I had to try on 3 different pairs of jeans before I could breathe. I’d like to blame the wash but I’m sure it’s a result of no Zumba, no gym and a multitude of french fries.

I vowed I’d never be in this position again. I gave away all my fat clothes. I literally will have nothing to wear if I grow any bigger.

It’s time to do something about it.

This morning – despite the fact I am so stuffed up I can barely breathe I walked to Trader Joe’s to restock my kitchen. I bought tons of veggies and fruit, whole wheat pasta and brown rice. Goat cheese crumbles to add to salads, nuts to snack on and mini chocolate mint ice cream sandwiches to indulge my sweet tooth.

I’m not going on a diet per se. I’m just going to pick up where I left off in June or July. I’m going back to eating half when I go out and measuring EVERYTHING I make myself.

I know I’m not saying anything you don’t know. But it is FRIGHTENING how quickly weight comes back on. 25-ish pounds thundered back in as soon as I opened the gate.

My lovely boyfriend bought me two pieces of jewelry this Christmas. A beautiful silver bracelet and a heart rate/calorie monitor watch. I’ve been wearing it all day and so far have burned about 260 calories just from the walk to and from the store and straightening up my poor neglected apartment.

Dave is heading up a “Biggest Loser” contest at his office. I’m making us pasta primavera with chicken for dinner tonight.

I’m not gonna lie. The holidays were rough without my dad. It feels like I’m in this alternative universe. We basically tried to avoid them for the most part. We did enough that made it feel like Christmas but made it different enough to…well…basically distract ourselves.

I’ll give you a quick recap. On the 23rd we all (me, my mom,.Jen and Dave too) went to Connecticut. We stayed at a hotel down the road from my brother’s house. We had a lovely fancy dinner that night. On the 24th Dave and I did some last minute shopping. He went back to NJ :( and we went to my sister in law’s mom’s house for dinner.

It was very nice. There was an abundance of really good champagne.

On Christmas Day, still in Connecticut, we went to my brother’s to open gifts with the munchkins. Then my mom, Jen and I headed to the airport to Key West.

Christmas in Key West looks like this.

There was a blizzard in New York and chilly temps in Key West but we had a nice few days unplugging a little bit. We came back on Tuesday the 28th.

Dave and Mora met me at the airport. Back to New Jersey I made dinner for Dave, the kids, my mom and Dave’s sister on Wednesday and we had a mini-Christmas. Back to trivia on Thursday (for my last BBQ cheddar turkey burger for a while) where we lost. :( New Year’s Eve Dave took me to a lovely dinner at my new favorite restaurant the Tabor Road Tavern.

The dessert was a chocolate peanut butter sundae. Enough said.

We had visions of going to a movie after but the timing wasn’t right. Instead I fell asleep for an hour while Dave watched a movie on Netflix and we didn’t even open champagne when the ball dropped.

But it was the best New Years ever as far as I’m concerned.

New Year’s Day we headed to Long Island. My mom hosted an Open House where I saw my aunts, uncles and cousins. Tons of kids, tons of delicious food prepared by Jen and a little too much Baileys. :)

Back to NYC last night when Dave dropped me off. He’s such a good guy. I had him running all over the place this past week.

My apartment looks like a tornado hit it, but I missed my little room.

As promised, I’m going to be on a blogging schedule this year. One day I’ll chat about weight loss, one day a recipe, one day something NYC related. I’ll see how it goes. I’ll mostly be blogging during the week and taking the weekends off – unless something spectacular happens.

I hope you all had a very happy holiday.

It’s good to be back. :)