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!

The vegetarian & the carnivore

Hi!!!

I haven't written a post in a long time but I have been quite busy lately! I've had friends visiting from Canada, busy times at work and lots of social events to attend.

As some of you may know, I don't eat meat while my BF loves it. As a way to show him that I care about him, I love to make him healthy and homey dinners once in a while. Most of the time when we cook together, it ends up being fish or pizza or something else non-meaty. 

I am still new to cooking chicken - since I will never eat it, I only prepare chicken when I'm cooking for someone else. That being said, you should  know that I really hate chicken and everything about it, but I really find it interesting that it is so versatile.

To make a vegetarian meal for me and a chickentarian meal for BF, I picked up:

a couple of chicken breasts, tofu (mine) a jar of pureed basil, roma tomatoes, herb & garlic goat cheese, some quinoa and both green & yellow zucchini. 

oh, and bud light :) 

I put the goat cheese, tomatoes and basil inside the chicken & shoved it closed. Olive oil & more basil on top.

Like my pretty ring? I got it in Prague :)

I cooked this for about an hour in the oven and made the zucchini + quinoa on the stovetop.

BF's plate

my plate. note, goat cheese on zucchini is fantastic

This is my idea of compromise.

Today I got to go to the pilates class at lunchtime near my office & was so happy. I LOVE the instructor and felt soooo good after leaving. Tomorrow, I have signed up for a Soul Cycle class after work. I love Soul Cycle a lot - it kicks my ass.

This coming Wednesday is my company's annual client party and I bought a very tight dress. So obviously I've been cutting calories this week / last week at work and picking up my workouts as much as I have time to do. I'm talking Green Juice for lunch, gallons of water + spinach with beets for lunch, the odd Simplifast here n there. Your tips for slimming down quickly would be greatly appreciated ;)

I need to get to bed early! Night :)

Easy Veggie-ful Lasagna

Lasagna is one of those once in a while comfort foods that can warm up even the coldest NYC belly. 

Unfortunately, its one of those things that I usually feel pretty guilty about eating. All of that cheesy, carby goodness can take back a week's worth of workouts in one plate. Luckily, it doesn't always have to be unhealthy and is worth the effort (and calories). 

My version is relatively easy, cheap and pretty fun to make - and its really, really good.

What you'll need: 

• lasagna noodles
• Parmesan cheese
• pre-shredded cheese 
• 2 jars of pasta sauce 
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 zucchini
• 1 tub of fat free ricotta
• a handful of mushrooms
• funion
• frozen peppers
• frozen spinach
• garlic salt, chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper
• about an hour or two of your time

thanks Whole Foods!

Thaw the frozen spinach in a strainer, pat dry with paper town and stir into the ricotta cheese.

Chop and saute the other veggies in a bit of olive oil with the spices that you like.

mmmmmm

Starting with a layer of pasta sauce, layer veggies with a bit of cheese, seasoning, top with boiled + drained pasta. Add a layer of ricotta + spinach. Repeat until the dish is full.

Top with more cheese, sliced roma tomatoes and  more seasoning.

oooh layers

Bake at 400 until the top is crispy.

o baby

goes well with Red and Sriracha

My version has nothing on my mom's lasagna, but it is a pretty close second.

For a lighter take, check out my eggplant / zucchini parm bake here - Eggplant + Zucchini Asiago Bake

What's your go to comfort food? How was your weekend???

Vienna, Bratislava & Prague!

What do these places have in common? Really good food & lots of fun things to do!

Vienna -

famous chocolate desserts

amazing anti pasta plate - i skipped out on the ham, but my friends said it was great!

pumpkin risotto - amazing

 

Austrian summer

delicious Viennese breakfast

 

Bratislava -

our welcome platte

 Prague -

vegetable lasagna

amazing cheesy salad with balsamic reduction

 

fancy restaurant :)

built in the 1500s

 

they have gluwein everywhere!

salad made with love :)

pumpkin ravioli

What incredible cities, I can't wait to go back :)

Why I love Vienna, part 2

 The food.

As a pescatarian, I was a little worried about finding things that I could eat in Austria. I had mental images of schnitzel, beef stews and sausages being serves by large angry waitresses.

To my delight, there were a number of excellent traditional options for me throughout the city and almost all of the waitresses / waiters I encountered were absolutely lovely. The best part of these options? Cheese was almost always involved.

my favorite - garlic soup with homemade croutons! i will dream of this soup.

vegetable bake with really good cheese

 One thing I really liked about restaurants in Vienna: almost every menu has friend Camembert with cranberry. Talk about a match made in thunder thigh heaven!

 I even had the chance to try traditional goulash at "The Goulash Museum" - the fish was not good, I didn't eat it. But the veggies & sauce = amazing.

Fish goulash.

Lunch at Palmenhaus. An amazing salad ^ Check out all of that feta.

 The cheese plates in Vienna kick NYC's butt in the cheese plate dept.

crazy. crazy. crazy.

I love how lattes come with a little glass of water everywhere in Europe. Why yes, I would love a bit of water with my coffee :)

More food to come in my next post.

For the long weekend I am going to Florida to visit my aunt and uncle. I am SO EXCITED to have  some warm sunshine beat down on me!

What are your plans for the long weekend?

Weekend Breakfasts

Don't you just love sleeping in then waking up with time to make a delicious breakfast chased by as many cups as coffee as you want? I do.

drinking 3 cups of coffee from a friendship mug makes it taste better

Capers, red onion, brie, smoked salmon

Omlette it up.

Top with capers, I like my omlettes crispy

Happy weekend!

Canada Bound!

Hi There!

I am flying home to Canada tomorrow for the holidays, woohoO! Yes, that means I am taking 2 whole weeks off work. (yessssss!). I am planning to go to BF's parents house for a bit, see some extra-wonderful friends from university in Toronto, and get in some solid fam-jam time. I love Christmas so very, very much.
While I'm home, my posts will be few and far between because I will be pretty busy and away from a computer. I promise to post pictures of snow, horses and Canadian fun when I get back :)

For now, here is a bit of an update on what is going on in my fridge.

A few weeks ago my aunt and uncle came to the city to visit. Randomly, they thought it would be fun to go to Target in Harlem. I love Target and loved that they wanted to go to Harlem, so off we went in a cab all the way up to 117th St.

I forgot how cool Costco is. The huge carts. The colossal isles, brimming with giant packages of anything and everything. This Costco even had Michael Kors and Coach bags. Is that normal?

 I ended up with more cheese, fish, almonds and ziploc bags than I know what to do with. I have a HUGE container of salsa. At least 8 kinds of cheese. Enough salmon and tilapia to last me months. How the heck did I get so lucky?
Check out my fridge.

CHEEEEESE - the #1 reason i am not a born again vegan

my freezer

ridiculous

amazing

best thing evverrr

 Due to the large amount of salmon I have at my disposal, I have been eating it pretty often. Here is what I've been doing with it lately:

I separated a big slab into smaller Caitlin-sized portions.

the salsa jar is almost as big as my coffee maker.

Great use for a giant jar of salsa!

 

wonderful on salad.

Honey mustard glaze with teriyaki veggies. mmmm

 

 

Now I think I need to have a cheese and wine party. Maybe I can bring it to the New Years eve party I’m going to?

What are your plans for the holidays? Do you shop at Costco?

Later! 

Also, you should definitely check this out https://twitter.com/#!/shitgirlssay