size 4’s!

OK, so the highlight of my night wasn’t dinner, although the wheat berry dish was really good. Even Andrew liked it! (Always a victory…)

The highlight was, you guessed it…fitting into SIZE 4 shorts at J.Crew! Seriously, I never thought this would happen. Before I get too far, I will admit that I don’t really think I’m a 4; J. Crew’s sizes run a bit big, but still. They weren’t even tight! So yeah, I’m pretty much on cloud 9. Or 90.

No, I haven’t met my weight-loss goal yet, and I apologize to all my subscribers for the premature “congrats-to-me” post e-mail from late last night. With the end of my weight-loss journey coming soon (I hope! THREE pounds to go!), I have a draft of what I’d like to post that day going and I was working on it, and… accidentally hit the “publish” button instead of the “preview” button. Oops.

Let’s back up.

Today was my pilates/yoga and kickboxing day, so I spent the morning at the gym, sweating. I usually get back around 11 and then have a pretty substantial lunch after showering and getting ready. I hate waiting that long to refuel after working out, so today I grabbed an apple and a cheese stick and headed out the door on a walk with Hadrian.

Having eaten something already, I felt great and proceeded to do laundry/iron/clean-up/prep dinner for the next two hours until I got hungry again. This time it was sweet potato tortilla chips and guacamole–YUM! I love guac…I could eat it every day! Today I was craving another slice of Abigail’s leftover birthday cake, which was calling to me from our fridge. Because I’d gone so light food-wise so far (after a great workout) I didn’t feel bad indulging in the chocolate mousse cake; it was glorious.

Tonight’s dinner wasn’t the most amazing thing ever, but I thought the wheat berry salad was fantastic. I sauteed a sliced plum in some extra marinade from the chicken and white wine, then swirled some balsamic syrup on top. They came out mushy and with a bit too much bite. Oh well, there is always next time.

The chicken recipe I used was from my new Eastern Mediterranean cookbook. It was marinaded in orange juice, orange zest, white wine vinegar and brown sugar. Not bad, but not memorable either. I browned both sides of the chicken breasts in a skillet, then roasted them in our toaster oven for about 25 minutes. They came out very well cooked, so that was nice.

The star of the meal: Anna Pump’s wheat berry salad with pineapple, cucumber and mint. Loved it! It was incredibly fresh and light. The only other wheat berry salad I’ve made before is Ina’s, and it’s more of a veggie and balsamic mix, so a totally different flavor than what we ate tonight. I cut up a fresh pineapple for this (the only way to go here), and the salad also includes parsley, dried cranberries and scallions. The only dressing is lemon juice and olive oil, and plenty of salt and pepper.

After dinner we headed out to the mall since it was kinda crummy and rainy out. I had hoped to try on some shorts (since none of mine fit!) and Andrew loves perusing Williams-Sonoma and Banana Republic. Before we left the mall we shared a vanilla milkshake at Johnny Rockets, which brought back memories for Andrew of going as a child with his grandma. I was just proud we actually SHARED. All too often, I intend to share/have a few bites of Andrew’s treat, and instead am seduced by something enormous that I see on the menu. Victory tonight! As I said, I really lucked out at J. Crew and I was also able to run a few errands while we were out, so I would call the night success.

Yay for smaller clothes!

a balsamic kind of night

I may have outdone myself tonight. At least with what little resources I have available here in the hotel.

(Photos courtesy of Andrew)

I made Ina’s herb-roasted salmon from her How Easy is That? cookbook. It’s basically salmon coated in chopped scallions, parsley and dill. YUM. It was incredibly fresh and light. A very thin drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice allowed the herbs to stick, and it was roasted with a little white wine. I LOVE things cooked with wine. I love being able to smell and taste just a hint of it.

For once, I didn’t overcook the salmon. I’ll be honest; I like my salmon on the ‘done’ side. So does Andrew. I probably could have cooked it longer, but I didn’t want to turn it into rubber. There is a fine line between slightly done and WAY overdone.

I threw together some balsamic vinegar and olive oil-marinated tomatoes and onions. Growing up, my mom would thickly slice tomatoes and Vidalia onions and bathe them in a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Ah, the memories. I don’t have any shallow dishes here, and all I had were red onions, so I went with what I had.

Until this afternoon, I’d been using the balsamic drizzling syrup my mom got me in Italy for all my balsamic needs. While running errands on Main Street today, I popped into Tuscany On Main for a bottle of the good stuff. It was so neat to be able to actually sample the different vinegars–you can definitely tell a difference between the various kinds. Of the three regular balsamic vinegars (among COUNTLESS herb and fruit-infused vinegars and oils), I sprang for the ultra-premium “Cask 25” variety. (At only $12.99 I would hardly consider it that much of a splurge, but I felt fancy getting the top-of-the-line!) It’s been aged for 25 years in the barrel (obviously) and has distinct notes of wine, like port and madiera. The Cask 10 was lighter and fruiter and I didn’t prefer it. The Premium was more like what you’d find in the grocery store. Both the Cask 10 and 25’s were visibly thicker and syrupy. Needless to say, I had fun using it for dinner tonight!

I had about 5 ounces of orzo hanging around, so I found a recipe in my Foster’s Market cookbook for a dish with grilled veggies, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and greens. It was lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. Because I love my husband, I kept the grilled portobello mushrooms and mozzarella on the side and only added them to my half.

Andrew really liked it! I served it all with a glass of Leonard Oakes’ Blanc d’Orleans wine, which I found in Reed’s Liquors this afternoon. I walked in and asked for a recommendation of a New York wine. It’s a little drier than Andrew and I are used to, but I liked it very much. The bottle says it’s “gooseberry, honeysuckle, grapefruit and melon. Slate and straw and subtle spice. Crisp, complex and completely refreshing.” I wanted something that would go with our salmon tonight, our chicken tomorrow and our quinoa Thursday, and I think I chose well. I also got a glowing recommendation for a local Riesling that I’ll be picking up next time we need one.

We had just enough leftover (dinner, not the wine) for me to have lunch tomorrow–yay!

Tomorrow morning I’m blending a banana into my beet smoothie to sweeten it up and make it more “breakfast-y.” It’s my pilates/yoga and kickboxing day, which means a big breakfast!

sliders!

My food-filled week has begun!

I started with a beet smoothie for lunch, courtesy of my new smoothie cookbook (belated post coming soon, perhaps tomorrow), then a trip to Wegmans. Glorious Wegmans.

I shopped for about four different meals, plus staples like plain lowfat yogurt and milk. I stocked up on veggies like yellow bell pepper, celery, cucumber, zucchini, a Granny Smith apple and tons of fresh herbs. Kudos to me for passing on CoffeeMate’s Coconut Creme creamer… I’ve been DYING to have some, but it only came in the large size and I still have three bottles in the fridge. Boo.

For dinner tonight? SLIDERS! I came across the recipe in Barefoot Contessa’s newest cookbook, How Easy is That?, and happened to have a pound of ground beef in my freezer.

(Photos courtesy of Andrew, who actually saved the day when he asked/reminded me to photo dinner as we were about to dig in! The lighting is HORRIBLE.)

Ina’s recipe called for a garlic, olive oil, dijon mustard and thyme mixture for the meat. YUM. I served them on hawaiian sweet rolls because they’re already tiny and I love them and it was the perfect excuse to have them. For next time, I would go easier on the olive oil. My beef is pretty lean, but I’m not sure it needed the amount specified in the recipe. If you don’t mark all over your cookbooks yet, do it! I can’t tell you how helpful some of my comments are to me the next time I make a recipe, like “use LARGE dutch oven,” or “less salt,” or “this takes more time to cook.”

Needless to say, Andrew was a HUGE fan and said that I should “star” this recipe in the book. I admit, I don’t really gravitate to burgers (at restaurants or at home), but what else do I do with ground beef? Other than a good meatloaf every once in awhile, I don’t make casseroles or anything else you’d make with ground beef. I’ve made more homemade burgers in the last couple years than ever before since we’ve been buying quarters of cows to store in the freezer.

Anyone have good ideas for ground beef, other than spaghetti and meat sauce, meatloaf or burgers? I have one more pound in our freezer here and about TEN in Andrew’s parents’ freezer!

What will tomorrow bring? Probably another beet smoothie for lunch and Ina’s herb-roasted salmon with a special orzo dish. I feel like it’s Christmas around here!