Mushroom pizza bites & lazy times!

Hi there!

This weekend has been filled with wine, Caesars, good food and a whole lot of lazy time. It feels so great :)

I made Mediterranean salad, New Orleans style seafood and mushroom cap "bagel bites". Super good! Baked the scooped mushroom caps at 400 for 6 minutes, fill with pizza toppings and broil. Yum!

Mushroom caps

Mushrooms

Pasta sauce 

Cheese

Olives 

I hope you're enjoying the weekend too! 

-caitlin 

Friday Night Zucchini Cakes

Hi There!

I hope you had a great week and are as excited as I am for the long weekend! The past few weeks have been go, go, go for me. I was in France at the beginning of the month, then I went home to Canada the following weekend, after that, my aunt and uncle were visiting. I am so happy to just chill this weekend :) Since the weather is not great (rainy,cold,windy) BF and I decided to stay in and hide. 

I made dinner for the 2 of us. I made salmon and zucchini cakes - an amazing discovery on Pinterest! These went great with a bottle of Pinot Grigio. 

Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 large zucchini, grated
1 large egg
1 c. panko bread crumbs(I used super hot chipotle panko!)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp. Adobo spices (added creole seasoning instead)
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated (I used 2% shredded cheddar instead)

Directions:
Remove excess liquid from freshly grated zucchini by placing them between paper towels and squeezing. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Heat a large pan on medium, and spray with Pam. Shape spoonfuls of the zucchini batter into 2-in. (diameter) patties, and drop onto the sizzling pan. Cook each side for about a minute and a half, or until the outside is golden brown. Finish the cakes off in the oven. Stick them on a baking pan and broil them for 1-2 minutes. source: http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/meal-ideas/10-tasty-green-foods-st-pattys-day?page=6

For the rest of the weekend, I don't have very much planned. BF wants to get a BBQ so that might be fun!! Anyway, hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!!

-Caitlin 

Brrrrr Butternut Squash Soup

Hi There!

I am at home in Canada and it is ab-so-lute-ly freezing here! In addition to being super thankful for seat warmers in the car, being so cold makes me think of one of my favorite soup recipes - Butternut Squash. 

I didn't really measure anything when making this, so keep in mind that you should adjust to your own taste preferences! The greek yogurt creates a creamy texture but keeps your skinny conscience happy because its fat free & protein-ful.

You need:

1 butternut squash, peeled & cubed

1/2 a package of veggie stock

1 big white onion

2 pieces of garlic

garlic salt

1 cup greek yogurt (non fat)

salt & pepper

a touch of curry powder

Boil the chopped squash and onion until the are nice & soft. 

Blend in your food processor. 

 Pour it back in the pot & add your greek yogurt & spices. Stir & enjoy!

 Goes well with beer :)

Whats the weather like where you are? What do you eat when you're freezing?
I went to the barn with my mom to visit the horses. We brought them some of the gingerbread bears we had made the night before. Did you know horses like gingerbread? Well now you know :)

Merry Christmas :)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I'm at home in Canada at my parent's house for the week and have been enjoying many movies (ie, Love Actually <3), eating too much, sleeping in and going to the barn. Very enjoyable. 

Last night I made gingerbread bears with my mom from a mix I found at Trader Joes. We have never been much of a gingerbread family so this was very new for all of us. The cookies turned out well but I'm still not a huge fan. I'm more of a chocolate / peanut butter person! 

This morning we opened gifts and had coffee with Bailey's. I received some great gifts, including new Lululemon pants *note, i have had most of my lululemon gear for 4+ years, so this was very, very welcomed!*, lots of chocolate, cozy socks and an ipod. Great day. 

I'm flying back to New York on the 30th but will likely head to Toronto on the 29th to see some old friends. 

How are your holidays going?

The last days of fall in Central Park...

Pretty, pretty, pretty :)

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Trader Joe's Times

Hi There!

Happy Sunday :) I hope you had a great weekend. 

Last night, BF and I went to the Comic Strip comedy club near my apartment and had a great time. There was a 2 drink minimum and having been before, I knew that the Long Island Iced Tea was the best bang for our buck - its basically a glass of pure alcohol and makes even unfunny jokes extra funny. If you're on the UES and looking for a different night out, I definitely recommend it. 

A little while ago, I made BF and I special Trader Joe's dinner. I bought their Goat Cheese and Sun dried Tomato fresh ravioli, some vodka sauce, a beautiful aged Parmesan cheese and some spinach. 

 I have tried TJ's lobster ravioli and wasn't really impressed, but this stuff was awesome. It turned out to be a relatively cheap and easy / fast meal. Both BF and I loved it.

Check it out if you can!

Tomorrow my office is finally going to reopen. After a whole week off doing absolutely nothing, I'm super excited to get back and get my work done. It feels so weird not being able to get back to my clients and more than anything, its weird not having a weekday routine. I like getting up and having breakfast, getting to work, gymming if time allows and then going home! It makes the weekend that much more exciting!

I am off to do some laundry and maybe a little shopping! Hope you have a super Sunday!

Butternut Squash Mac n Cheese

Hi There!

As all of you (assuming) know, New York was hit very hard by Sandy. I hope all of you are safe and unharmed after the storm.

The night that the storm hit really hard, Monday, I was down at BF's place in the East Village. Very scary stuff. The power and water were knocked out. There were trees down everywhere and just a block or so away cars that were parked on the street were flooded. I feel terrible for the small businesses and residents that were hit badly... :(
Luckily, we were able to make our way to the Upper East Side to my place to find power + glorious hot water. My office has been closed this week as it is  down in SoHo where the damage is severe. The past few days BF and I have been attempting to work remotely, drinking wine and watching tv. Fun stuff.

In lighter news, I have been meaning to post this dish for a while. Mac n cheese is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Luckily, I found a lighter recipe that uses butternut squash to cut out the majority of  fatness. I copied it based on what I had and pure guess work - so no measurements will be listed below haha.

Here is what I used (sorry for the lack of measurements):

- Fresh Sage
- 1 butternut squash
- shell pasta
- vegetable broth
- garlic
- skim milk
- whole wheat crackers
- sharp Parmesan cheese

Step 1 – Cook the bag of pasta so it is al dente or with a bit of a bite to it. Set aside.

Step 2 - Peel & chop butternut squash. Maybe I have been doing this wrong all my life, but this is really, really hard. Any tips?

Step 3 – In a big pot, heat onion, garlic and butternut squash in olive oil over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions are sort of clear. Add vegetable broth and sage sprigs. Cook for about 20 minutes, add milk.

Step 4 - Cook until squash is tender. Let the pot cool until you can put your hand in it & not burn yourself. Have fun testing it! I burnt myself at least twice.

Step 5 - Blend butternut squash mixture in your food processor and add to pasta in a large baking dish. 

Step 6 - Top with a handful of crush crackers + a bit of cheese. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Step 6 - Eat.

Again, I hope all of you are safe and dry after the storm. Sandy turned out to be a huge bitch and will not be forgotten - my thoughts go out to all who are still dealing with the aftermath. So thankful to be okay

ttfn.

Fall Faves

Hi There!

A few weekends ago it was Canadian Thanksgiving. Since I am friends with a bunch of other Canadians in New York City, we had a dinner party. I assure you, it was so classy and very refined. The evening may or may not have ended with me in a food coma on the floor. Oopsies.

My contributions were pumpkin pie & butternut squash risotto. 

Recipes:

- Butternut Squash Risotto: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-risotto-2/

- Pumpkin Pie - http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/easy-pumpkin-pie/5793eb83-dca1-45e0-96e1-7f73af9e282f

The risotto took quite a while to prepare but ended up being okay. It was a little bland. Next time, I'll use more garlic & veggie broth.

  

 

 I had never made pumpkin pie before and was totally surprised how easy it was. I'll definitely do this again at Christmas!

Yesterday BF and I walked around central park for the day. I was so shocked that the leaves still hadn't changed color. What the heck, right? 

Whats your favorite fall dish? Are the leaves pretty colors where you live? 

Something amazing...

Dogs in Halloween costumes! 

I saw these little guys while walking around in the East Village and immediately asked to take a picture. So cute:)

THE HULK

Summer Flashback

Hi!

I have been a very bad blogger lately! I haven't posted anything in a long, long time. 

Today I came home sick from work as I was feeling super nauseous and dizzy. The subway ride home was pretty brutal but now that I'm cozy and in my bed I'm not feeling as terrible. Yay!

Earlier this summer BF & I traveled to Grand Rapids, MI for my cousin's wedding. 

Getting to GRR from NYC was really, really difficult. To make things as infuriating as possible for myself, I decided to make a mistake booking my plane ticket and didn't realize until the night before we were supposed to fly. When I originally 'booked', my ticket was about $200. The only tickets that were available the night before were about $600 and at 6am. 

This meant that I would no longer be travelling there with my BF because he properly booked his ticket months earlier (like I thought I did). THEN icing on the cake - I somehow slept through my alarm and missed my 6am flight. I have never done that before and couldn't believe I missed a flight - on top of my inflated ticket price I had to pay a hefty change fee & was super late! Usually when I have something to get up early for, I wake up every hour on the hour before my alarm goes off. Craziness!

Anyhoo, despite the trouble we had getting there I actually did make it. Luckily, the town was very pretty and had a gorgeous beach + pier that BF and I walked along. 

So pretty right? Who knew that Michigan had such nice beaches.

It seems like so long ago and this was only August. Does anyone else feel like September just never happened?

Well, I'm going to watch some Workaholics & try to fall asleep. Later :)