Divinity at Tribeca Grill

Mmm, I just came back from a delicious dinner at the Tribeca Grill. The restaurant is a former warehouse, and it really shows: it's very open, with exposed brick wall and huge ceilings. I told my parents that should it suddenly become a loft built for one with my name on it, I wouldn't complain. Righto!

What's dinner out without bread?


We ordered a delicious bottle of Sandy Cove, a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.


I started with Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Crème Fraiche. This. Was. Heaven. I'm pretty sure that without the crème fraiche, it would have been completely vegan. (The drizzle on top is molasses.)


My dad and I split two entrées, since I couldn't decide which one I wanted and Daddy-O is always very accommodating. This is the pan roasted brook trout with chestnut purée, haricots vert & celery root in brown butter. I ate about 1/3 of a filet... the soup really filled me up. The green beans were my favorite part of this dish.


This was the star of the evening: Spinach and sheep's milk ricotta ravioli with rainbow chard & picholine olives. By the first bite I was completely full, but I could not let the poor ravioli sit all by their lonesome. You know how it goes.


Bring on the desserts! Here we have chocolate truffle cheesecake with morello cherries:


Pumpkin, oatmeal & pecan torte with vanilla ice cream:


And a strawberry semifreddo with a meringue "baton":


We split all the treats in three, but my parents were having trouble finishing their cheesecake. Lilveggiepatch to the rescue! You'd think the pumpkin would have been my favorite, but I didn't even finish my portion in favor of extra cheesecake!

I'm pleasantly and happily- (almost) always happily- full. It's going to be an easy movie night tonight.... We have The Science of Sleep (which I've already seen 1.5 times before) and American Teen. Should be fun! Have a lovely evening.

Peanut Butter & Thai

Hello bloginas and bloginos (I know there's at least one of you...)! I hope you have all had fabulous Tuesdays. I love being able to blog more than once a day; I feel much less overwhelmed when I don't have to upload 38 pictures at once!

I lazed around the house for awhile today (I loved reading what you all do to get comfy when you come home... I thought the jewelry/jeans thing was just me!) and finally decided around 2 to head out to the gym. Before I left I had a banana, which I nestled in a sweater so that he could be cozy, too.


Today was my first day using my beautiful new heart rate monitor. I'm still learning about how to use it, so bear with me while I figure it out... my stats are kind of incomplete today but I'll do my best.

Stairmaster- 20:00 minutes
Elliptical (I think that's what it was... it was kind of this free-form flying contraption)- 7:00 minutes (the machine turned off when I went to get water)
Bike- 15:00 minutes

Calories burned: 449

I also did my usual arm series (4 machines, 3 sets of 10). My abs are in so much pain because of my new yoga habit, so I decided to give them a rest and only did 60 crunches. I spent the rest of the time using the roller... I could roll around on that thing forever! Nothing feels better than stretching out sore muscles.

I decided to have breakfast for lunch (if that's what you can call it at 4:30) and had a delicious (if not aesthetically pleasing) bowl of peanut butter and jelly super protein oats.

1/2 cup oats
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 big scoops nonfat plain yogurt
1 tsp peanut butter
1 tsp blackberry jam
dried currents

This was a great combination (sadly I cannot take the credit for pairing peanut butter and jelly). I wonder what it would taste like hot... and cooked, for that matter!

I went shopping for dinner in Chinatown tonight. Let me tell you, if it wasn't so out of the way I would go there every day! They have great produce, and everything is so cheap! I got all of this for under $20. (Those long purple things are Chinese eggplants.)


Dinner tonight was from Moosewood Cookbook: New Classics. You've probably already figured out how much my family and I love Moosewood recipes. They never fail to disappoint! I would love to go to their restaurant, but I'm not sure when I'll find myself in Ithaca.


Stage 1: some tofu, red bell pepper, and snow peas.



Stage 2: Add some rice noodles, a little egg, some hot chili paste, rice vinegar and soy sauce...


Lime garnish, bean sprouts, a little lime, fresh peanuts and TA DA! Pad Thai.


This was one of the only times we've all gotten to sit down and eat together, and it was pretty nice.

Look at that crazy eye!


Finished my meal off with a Grolsch and a golden delicious apple. Interesting combination.


And then, because the night couldn't end without a little chocolate (trend of the week!) I had a vanilla Skinny Dipper. Yum. I'm also reading one of the best books I've read this year... well, the only book I've read this year, but of 2008 as well! I'm only halfway through, but I hope to get another nice big chunk read before Ari finishes working for the night.


Have a great night!

(I just banged my knee into the corner of the bed... the other one is already bruised AND bloody, since, after 10+ years of shaving, I still always nick my legs with a razor! Maybe in 10 more I'll grow out of that...)

Un gustoso notte

Good evening! Hope you've all had a lovely Saturday. I'm currently watching a special on Billy Joel with Ari... he's trying to convince me that he's a genius. Sorry to all your Billy Joel lovers, but I just don't think my mind is going to be changed!

My cousins are leaving early tomorrow morning, so we had a nice farewell meal at Regional.


We were all starving, so the ciabatta and white bean spread the servers brought out was much appreciated.


My dad and I split two specials: branzino in a white wine sauce with olives, zucchini, tomato, carrots and potatoes...


... and linguine with lobster, mussels and calms in a light red sauce.


I usually don't finish my plate at restaurants, but Daddy-O and I went about 50/50 on this and I ate everything. Delicious!


We had some Montepulciano with dinner, but the pictures didn't come out at all. When I came home, I had one of these:

Yum!


Off to bed with me. Bonne nuit!

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!

Yoo hoo!

Well hello! Vitamin A does really help you see!



I had two of these eatingbender (Gliding Calm) inspired coffee cocoas today:


They ended up putting me to sleep for about 4 hours! I woke up at 4 PM (!) and had a quesadilla.


I sandwiched one whole egg + 1 egg white, 1/3 avocado, swiss cheese and tomato between two small Ezekial wraps. Strange combo, I know, but it was pretty good! There was some ketchup slathered on there as well.


A slice of pumpkin bread leftover from Monday's pot luck:


Sarah, Carlye, Becky and I had a farewell meal tonight (sniff sniff). Sarah made us a fantastic dinner, while Carlye and I sat around on our bums! Ah, what a life.

We had some of this delicious Vignoles wine that Sarah got when we went apple picking. Look what a good mama Carlye is!


Dinner was made of two kinds of pumpkin pastas: pumpkin tortellini and pumpkin sage ravioli. Sarah mixed it all together with a boiled sweet potato, garlic, oil and parmesan. YUM.


Miss Jenna was here in spirit tonight... Sarah made her delicious Peanut Butter Incredibles and let me tell you, there were out of this world.


The only adaptations she made were to use 1 jar of peanut butter, and 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate and half bittersweet. I died and went to heaven!


She sent me home with a whole plate of goodies... I just enjoyed a brownie to help my studies.


I can't wait to be done with this paper and GO HOME! My flight is at 7 PM tomorrow... I am so excited!!!

Sleep well, little bloggies :-)

Midnight Madness

It's very late, and I'm very tired, so without further ado...

After my monster nap, I had two clemmies:


Crudités:


I'd been planning on having something healthy for dinner, since I've been eating pretty heavy things recently. But, of course, I started picking at the cold macaroni and cheese (leftovers) in the fridge, so I just gave in and heated it up. I steamed a whole bunch of veggies, but after only a few bites of my dinner I felt really full. This should have been my cue to stop eating, or at least wait a while for my stomach to settle, but no. I saved a few of the veggies but I ate all of the pasta. Ugh.


For some reason I'm always of the mind that fruit will un-bloat me.


And when that fails, why not try some chocolate?


It's a tradition at our school that every semester on the first night of finals, we have a "midnight breakfast" from 10-12. The teachers serve the students, you don't have to pay to get in, and pretty much the entire campus squeezes into our little cafeteria. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've actually gone!

I had some fruit and H2H cereal with skim milk.



I think they're starting to like being in the pictures! I rarely even get a grumble from this bunch anymore... I only had a little Reese's cup.


Hmm. So, I guess you can see that I've been thinking a lot about how eating when I'm not hungry anymore... I've noticed that I've been doing it since I went home for Thanksgiving. Going home always means eating my favorite foods, treating myself, and going back to that glorious childhood mentality of not caring. Oh, if only! The rich food in and of itself isn't what worries me, it's the mindless grazing and not listening to my body telling me it's had enough. So, I'll be working on this in the future...

Anyway, time for me to go to bed. Hope the week's off to a good start!