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!

Wrap Star

Trader Joes is one of the greatest food stores I've ever found - below is by far the best product I've purchased there. If you have the chance, I think you should buy them too! So spicy, so awesome (I would even go as far as to say BONKERS), so versatile. 

Get em. 

 Tomorrow is my company's summer party. We are going to a country club in NJ. The day will be full of team activities (oh joy), wine & cooking class, fun with friends and booze. Should be a nice day! I need to get a good nights sleep so I'm off.

Happy Weds :)

Pineapple Fried Rice

Happy Monday!

This weekend flew by! On Friday night I just stayed in with BF and we ate leftover Mediterranean food while watching  Workaholics (great show, check it out if you like ridiculous humor!). 

On Saturday, I went out to Hotel Chantelle for a friend's birthday. This place is great - it has a gorgeous rooftop (where we ate dinner), a bumpin ground floor with loud music and a loud, grimey basement perfect for dancing and sweating profusely - all tied together with a cool crowd. Overall, an awesome place :)

Tonight I decided to use up some of the random food I had at my apartment and make pineapple fried rice! it turned out really well and I made enough for lunches the rest of the week! Score!

I used: 

• long grain brown rice
• 3 brown eggs
• vegetable broth to cook the rice in
• trader joes teriyaki baked tofu
• trader joes soyaki sauce (the best!)
• frozen mixed peppers
• frozen green beans broken into little pieces
• chopped walnuts
• red chili flakes
• garlic salt
• 1 can of pineapple chunks in 100% juice
• the juice from the pineapple
• white onion
• 2 pieces of fresh garlic
• garlic olive oil

this stuff takes FOREVERRRR to cook but has a great texture

Tofu chopped into cubes, diced onion, chopped walnuts and of course, garlic!

After prepping the above, I did the following:

1. Before cooking other ingredients, I started the brown rice in a pot with vegetable broth. I really like this brand but it takes almost an hour to cook. So annoying but worth it.
2. Once the rice was almost finished I started by browning the onion & garlic in the garlic olive oil.
3. Added my frozen vegetables until they were a little burnt. 
4. Added the 3 eggs and let them cook. 
5. Add chopped walnuts & tofu until browned. Sprinkle with garlic salt and set aside
6. Opened the can of pineapple chunks (hate that word) and poured the juice into a glass. Drank half :)
7. Poured a bit of soyaki sauce and pineapple juice both into the rice and into the egg & veggie mixture.
8. Browned the pineapple
9. Add it all together and top with chili flakes & garlic salt et voila!

Dinner for 1 plz :)

This was really, really good. 

 Since this is packed with protein and good for you grains, it makes a balanced meal. I was full after eating about a cup of this creation! Obviously if you're going to do something similar, you can sub tofu for something else and eliminate nuts / garlic if needed. I rarely follow recipes so I'm not sure what amounts of each ingredient I actually used and will likely never be able to replicate it haha.

What are some of your go-to meals when you're trying to clear your fridge? Do you follow recipes? I have a couple cans of beets if anyone has suggestions :)

Recipe: Trader Joes frozen langostinos tails

I have been looking at Trader Joes frozen langostinos tails for quite a while. Never hearing of them before, I did a little research before deciding to buy them (they’re $9.99 for a little bag, a high ticket item at Trader Joes!), and the word langostino apparently means “prawn” according to a buddy from work. I’m glad I finally decided to get them!

I love lobster and I love shrimp – these little guys tasted like a marriage of the 2.

What you need:

½ a bag of Trader Joes frozen Langostinos

½ a tbsp of butter

A handful of fresh parsley

¼ cup of low sodium vegetable broth

1 piece of garlic, chopped

Mixed greens

  Steps!

1)      Heat up your broth & butter on the stove, add garlic. Cook it until your apartment smells like it would scare away vampires.

2)      Throw in half your parsley.

3)      Add the langostinos to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4)      Taste one. Do you like the texture? If not, cook them a bit longer.

5)      Add to a plate of mixed greens, using the leftover liquid as dressing. Top with remaining parsley.

6)      Enjoy!

This morning I tried out my new juicer!! I used spinach, parsley, a green apple, cucumber and drank it on ice. It was crazy refreshing and I can’t wait to make more. 2 complaints about juicing:

Why do you only get a little bit of juice for a whole lot of produce?

I feel like I’m wasting the pulp!! Are there any uses for this?

Have a good night everyone! I have a work party tonight, so tomorrow might be rough – thank god I have a juicer now!

Breathe. Salad will fix everything.

After my big Thanksgiving weekend, there is one thing I want – SALAD. Eating big meal sized salads for days in a row (at least 1 meal / day), I feel better about terrible eating choices I made on the weekend.

When I make a salad, there are few ingredients I almost always have / change up:

Romaine Lettuce

Cheese (usually goat or Parmesan)

A protein (either fish, nuts tofu, lentils etc)

All of the produce I have available to me

Vinegar! (I LOVE sour salad)

Sea Salt (I LOVE sour + salty salad)

Fresh chopped garlic  (the fighter of wintertime sniffy noses!)

Here a few I’ve had lately:

Roasted Chickpeas w/ parmesan, diced tomatoes & a bit of tofu. Sesame Soy ginger from Trader Joes.

mix with whatever spices you want, and a little olive oil

stir!

spread on a cookie sheet & bake at 400 until they're chewy and crispy. maybe even a little burnt!

  

 Burnt tofu that has been marinated overnight in TJ's Soyaki sauce with goat cheese, little heirloom tomatoes, walnuts, dried cranberries and balsamic vinegar.

And my classic go to - the vinegariest vinegar salad ever. Romaine with lots of white vinegar, 2 pieces of fresh garlic chopped, fresh lemon juice, lots of Parmesan cheese & sea salt. More deets on this guy here Its the Freakin Weekend Baby, I'm About to Have Me Some Fun

 

 

Yummy!

Tonight I am going to meet my wonderful Aunt for dinner. She is in New York visiting me from Toronto. Very exciting!

Later!

Time to Get Back to Yoga!

Hi Everyone! 

Tonight I am heading to hot yoga at Yoga To The People in midtown Manhattan. I have done the 90 minute class here, but tonight I think I will stick to 60 minutes based on my laziness level. If you live in the city, please do check it out. It is a great studio and it is very affordable. http://yogatothepeople.com/new-york/

Believe it or not, I used to be quite a yoga woman / yogi. Maybe it's time I get back into it?

Just a thought.. 

For lunch today, I tried something new. Smart Cutlets Classic Marinara.

pretty good!

 The box came with 2 cutlets - pretty big and 150 calories each. So last night, I grilled em up.

I put one away in the fridge for a rainy day

 Cooked up some veggies: mushrooms, spinach & frozen broccoli from Trader Joe's.

 

Sliced the up the fake chicken and added my cooked veggies. On top of this I added some extra marinara sauce I had in my fridge. 

This was a perfect lunch. It was satisfying and kept me full with the help of some plain Fage Greek yogurt & 1/2 an avocado on the side.

Gotta run to my yoga class!!

i've been in need of some zen lately :)

Have a good night!

Baked!

This weekend I did some boxed baking! (It still counts as baking, right?)

It was my friend’s 25^th birthday so he got a special surprise! We went to R Bar in the Lower East Side. A very cool bar with chandeliers and reasonably priced drinks. Check it out. http://www.rbarnyc.com/

Funfetti! Pairs well with vodka soda.

 They were really good, even though this ‘cream cheese’ icing was dairy free?! Ah well, I think I threw out any concerns about health after reading the name “Funfetti” :) 

Then last night, I decided I would continue my domestic streak by trying out a box of this stuff.

must stock up on this !

 In a word, incredible. This box was enough for 1 small and one medium sized loaf. I brought one loaf to work and kept the smaller one for my breakfast this week. Let’s see how long it lasts.

  I think I’ll be picking up some more of this magical mix on my next trip to Trader Joe’s.

I’m off to get my nails done & go to the gym.

Good night!!