Babes in Sugarland

Hello my long lost friends! I HATE posting once a day, not only because I have about a dozen pictures that need to go up, but I feel like such a bad blogger. When I get back to school it'll be better, I promise.

Yesterday after a ridiculously pathetic workout that I'm not even going to post about (I'll admit, I got a little too party-hardy the night before so getting onto a cardio machine probably wasn't the best idea) I met my mom, aunt, uncle, twin cousins, and George in Union Square for lunch.

After eating something I felt a thousand times better. Is pizza and soda not the best hangover cure? Maybe not the healthiest, but there's something to be said for it. We went to Pie, a cute little pizzeria on 4th avenue (and conveniently across the street from my gym, for future reference). I got a portabello mushroom slice with a diet black cherry soda.


Bere grew an orange moustache:


All in the family! Notice how Abby and I are dressed almost exactly the same.


Abby and I broke off from the group to have some girl time and do a little shopping. We needed some fuel to keep us going, so we stopped in at the Cupcake Café.


Some dancing cupcake showgirls to aid the decor:


I got a chocolate cupcake with mocha frosting. It was almost too pretty to eat. Almost.


I made a nice pre-work snack... I've started eating more meals throughout the day, if you haven't noticed, because of the weird schedule my body is struggling to get used to.

Fage with honey, blackberries and a clemmie:


An Amy's California veggie burger with ketchup and mustard:


One of Melissa's chocolate-covered pretzels...


After I finished work at 11, I had a Crispy Crunchy Veggie Salad (carrots, chickpeas, olives, cucumbers, hearts of palm, celery and romaine) with carrot ginger dressing.


The sushi chef saw me salivating over the sushi bar so surprised me with a California roll. Thanks, Sunny!


Daddy-O and Abby made my favorite: Grandmother's Apple Cake (which you may remember); he brought me a slice to munch on in the car. I LOVE THIS CAKE!


This morning Ari and I woke up bright and early, split this Hot'n Healthy bar (LOVE) and went into the city.

I had a nice long workout to make up for my days of slackage:

Stair Mill:
20:00 minutes
1.76 miles
84 floors climbed
229.9 calories burned

Bike:
25:00 minutes
152 calories burned
3.21 miles

Machines:
shoulder press- 2 x 10 @ 10 lbs
chest press- 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs
lateral raise - 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs
lateral pulldown- 3 x 10 @ 40 lbs

Ab series (minus plank holds)

I popped into Starbucks to refuel. This was my first experience with their "Perfect Oatmeal." I added brown sugar and dried fruit; it was very good and definitely the healthiest thing Starbucks has to offer. Now that they've posted the calories in their baked goods, I don't think I'll be buying their mediocre "treats" again!


We just had our "second Christmas" with the fam. I got some very nice things, including a heart rate monitor! I have been wanting one for SO LONG. I can't wait to figure out how to use it tomorrow!

Have a lovely day, and if I don't see you, have a GREAT NEW YEAR'S!

Guess who?

Good morning, bloggies! I hope you've slept well. I did my weird get up and have breakfast then go back to sleep for two hours thing. But hey, whatever works.

Last night Kalle and I met for a light dinner before the play at the Aspen Social Club. It was a swanky little place that looked fun; they have a bar with businessmen in the front so we high-tailed it to the back and had an intimate little corner to our very own.

We split a bottle of this chemin blanc:


AMAZING beet salad. Yes, it was as small as it looks, but it was actually the perfect amount. There were two different types of beets (have you ever seen a pink beet? I sure haven't), blue cheese, frisée lettuce and mint. The mint really made it.


We also split an order of polenta fries with gorgonzola sauce. I've never made polenta fries myself, but I know how popular they are in the blogosphere. They were delicious. I'll have to bake me up some of these! I'm pretty sure their version was fried, though.


We snuck some Milano cookies into the theater to see Speed the Plow.


It was great. The acting was amazing, and especially excited because it starred Elisabeth Moss. Does her name sound familiar? It should, because she is.... yes! you guessed it! Peggy on Mad Men!


This morning I woke up and made a breakfast uncookie and used up the last of the peanut butter. I forgot to prepare it and put it in the fridge overnight, but it tasted just fine without being cooked or anything..

1/2 cup oats
2 scoops yogurt
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tsp PB
dried fruit
1/2 banana

I'm going to the gym now (I've taken way too many days off recently) and then meeting my cousins in Union Square to go shopping. Have a great day!

Role Models?

Yes, we saw this movie today. It was actually much better than I thought it would be! Ari gave it a C+; I'd probably give it a B. I love me some Paul Rudd. I was so jealous of Cher!


I forgot to bring my camera to work last night. I was going to try to use Paint to draw you my salad, but I couldn't find the application! Oh well. It was a Cobb with avocado, tomato, cabbage, lettuce and crumbled blue cheese. I had little carrot ginger dressing on the side. I also had a vodka soda for my shift drink.

My nice nice Daddy-O drove me to Queens, and brought treats! I had two of Melissa's chocolate- covered cashew butter sandwich cookies.


I also had a piece of trail mix bark. I have the eating bug this week! Sorry for these pictures... I took them in the car, as you can probably tell.


Another morning at the diner! I should just call Ari Coffee Boy from now on... he's always in my coffee pictures.


Toasted sesame bagel with lox, onion, lettuce, tomato, a little cream cheese and capers. I might take Sarah's suggestion and start bringing Laughing Cow Light wedges with me.


After the movie, I'd been planning on going to the gym (I was even in my workout clothes!) but I just didn't feel like it. I felt guilty about that decision later, but whatever.

I stopped at Whole Foods and had a late lunch (you'd think I'd have learned by now). I filled up at least half of the container with mixed greens, then topped it with two kinds of tofu (including an inferior version of Gliding Calm's sesame-ginger kind), green beans, artichokes and sesame noodles. I've been craving cold sesame noodles- you know, the really good Chinese take-out kind? Well, I haven't been able to find any that are satisfactory ANYWHERE. I might just have to make some myself.


The carbo-load this morning apparently didn't satiate me, so I grabbed a cranberry walnut roll and a coconut water. I LOVE this stuff.


Here are some shots of the view outside our living room window, courtesy of Ma Veggie Patch:




I might do a little yoga or ab work... I feel sort of like a slob today. I'm going to a play tonight with Kalle; I'm not sure if we'll get dinner before since I ate such a late lunch. My family is also coming tonight for a week... I'm so excited!

Have a great evening!

Good afternoon! I had a great workout at the gym today. I finally remembered to bring a notebook with me to write all my stats down so I don't lose all those little scraps of paper.

Stair Mill:
20:00 minutes
91 floors
1.9 miles
238.3 calories burned

Elliptical:
6:00 minutes (HA)
.39 miles
45.9 calories burned

Bike:
18:00 minutes
2.67 miles
121 calories burned

Ab series

When I was finished, I scarfed down this juicy apple:


After a brief stint at Sephora playing the the make-up, I went home to have lunch. Note to self: waiting to eat lunch until 3 PM makes me crabby.

I made a delicious leftover salad with romaine, basmati rice, shrimp curry and swiss chard.



While watching The Visitor, I dug into Sarah's biscuit bread.


It tasted like a sweet cinnamon babka roll. Well done, Miss! I had a small slice and the butt. Mama and Papa Veggiepatch enjoyed some, too.



I also had a bowl of Fage with blackberries, a clementine and honey. Pre-shift fuel is very important!


Time for work. Have a fantastic evening!

One Cute Cookie

Good morning sunshines! How did you sleep? I slept well, thank you.  I got cut early last night so I got to leave work at midnight instead of 2 AM.  I love when that happens! I got some bum news last night: I have to work on New Years Eve.  I know it's not such a big deal, and "it's only a day," as Ari said.  It's just sad because I haven't had a "real" New Years Eve in years, and even if it was kind of mellow (like going out to dinner and watching movies at home) it would have been special. But, there's always the chance that I'll be let off early and get to have some kind of evening of my own, so I'm not losing heart.

For some reason (je te déteste, Safari),  my pictures loaded backwards and sideways today, so bear with me while I recap in reverse. 

We had a full house this morning! A lot of Ari's family is here right now, so we had a nice breakfast together.  I had my now daily breakfast cookie:  

Papa Ari thought it was hummus! I wonder how that would taste...

1/2 cup oats

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 portion applesauce

1 tbsp PB

2 heaping scoops yogurt

dried fruit

Kalle and her friends surprised me last night by stopping by the restaurant.  I love my little redheaded girl.  I had a small mixed green salad with carrot ginger dressing:

And (surprise!) steamed shrimp dumplings.

Before I left last night I had a thick slice of my dad's maple oatmeal bread with 1/2 almond butter/blackberry jam, 1/2 honey.  I also had a bowl of Fage with pumpkin and honey.

I have to surrender the computer now... have a great day!

HapBEE Saturday!

Good morning, friends! Well, afternoon, evening, whatever it is. My sense of time is so off right now... at the soup kitchen this morning someone mentioned an event on Sunday, and I looked blankly at her and said "Sunday...?" She gave me a weird look and said, "You know, the day after Saturday and before Monday?" Whoops!

I woke up bright and early to have breakfast with Ari. I had a breakfast cookie, coffee with milk (probably not skim) and water. Note to self: black table + red glass= invisible beverage!

In the cookie:
1/2 cup oats
1/2 scoop protein powder
2 heaping spoonfuls yogurt
1 clementine
1 tbsp PB
dried fruit (craisins, currents, dates and prunes)

The soup kitchen wasn't very busy this morning, which was a little odd because there are usually more people towards the end of the month. It was still nice, though, because it meant more food for the folks who were there. One of the men who works there burst into song; "Auld Lang Syne" for New Years in baritone. Everyone joined in, and it was very festive. That song always makes me think of When Harry Met Sally! Maybe I'll try to rent that for New Years Eve.

My mom and I had a nice lunch at PicNic.

I'm feeling a little funky so I didn't want any more coffee. I had some Organic Breakfast tea with tea and lemon.


We split a couple things: Eggs "Benedict" (with gravlax insead of Canadian bacon) with the sauce on the side; we each had one and I didn't have any fries.


And a cheese soufflé with tomato sauce. Uh, yum.


We split the little side salad.


For some reason I was still snacky after all that, so I had a piece of Melissa's trail mix chocolate bark. THIS IS SO GOOD. The chewy/crunchy combination INSIDE the chocolate is pretty fab.



And... surprise! Christmas isn't over!!! I got an AMAZING package from my Sarah (whom I miss very much) today. She appliquéd this adorable shirt (with a BEE, which is my power animal, FYI) and "happened" to bake some of her grandma's Finnish Biscuit Bread. I can't wait to try some!


Look how cute! She's the best.


Even though I already packed my gym bag and shlepped it into Manhattan, I'm not feeling so great so I think I'm just going to take a bath and do some gentle yoga.

Enjoy your Saturdays!