5 - 10 A Day!

I have been craving veggies and fruits like crazy over the past couple days!

This mornings breakfast was a lovely Green Monster:


(1 cup almond breeze, 3 cups organic spinach, 1 t almond butter, 1 scoop amazing grass, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 scoop Hemp/ Maca, Cacao Powder).

I headed out to my car this morning to go to work and it was SNOWING! I thought spring was here :-( Luckily it melted as it hit the ground. It better not return.

Lunch was a tiny piece of leftover lasagna from my in-laws last night, along with an orange, some carrots and some strawberries:







I made a veggie and tofu stir fry for dinner, and served it over half a cup of rice:





Dessert was an apple with 1 T PB and a white freezie.
I love the white freezies the best!



What is your favourite colour of freezie?

What foods remind you most of Summer?

Back to Real Life

omorrow is back to work day, after 10 days off. It is also back to eating normally time :-) I see a lot of veggies and fruits in my future.

Last night the hubby and I went out to celebrate a friend's b-day. I had a few drinks throughout the night, a couple pieces of bread, and chicken curry with rice:





This morning my dad took us out for brunch and I had a veggie skillet. It was HUGE, so I only ate about 1/2:



We spent the afternoon with our little nephew, running in the park and shopping for carry-on luggage. We realized after this past trip that we need carry-on luggage that rolls. Our shoulders were killing us after carrying around our heavy bags.

We had dinner at the hubby's parent's house. I had a small piece of lasagna, a piece of focaccia bread, and a bowl of spinach salad:





I am going to grab and orange and catch up on some TV with the hubby!
Tomorrow I will get back to training for my 5k (my poor legs need a rest from 7 days straight of walking in NY!!)

What is your philosophy for eating when on vacation?

My philosophy is to eat whatever I want, in moderation. I will have a taste of something, and if it is "worth it" I eat it. If it is mediocre, I pass on the rest. I get bored of food quite quickly and am very easily satisfied, so a bite or two of a treat is usually enough for me to be happy.

Last Day in NY Recap and Some Great News!!

Our last full day (Thursday) in NY was a great one. We started the morning with the famous H&H Bagels (Carrie brings these bagels to Miranda in SATC, and refers to them as the "Good" bagels). Good they were:



We enjoyed our breakfast with some coffee in a park on the Upper West Side. Our morning was spent at the American Museum of Natural History. What an amazing place!! We saw more than we could have ever imagined, including the bones of Lucy. We also went to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) where we saw my favourite painting, Starry Night, among many other amazing pieces.

Lunch was a hotdog from Papaya King:





In the afternoon we checked out the beautiful NY Public Library, The F. A. O. Schwarz Toy Store, and did some shopping.

Dinner was at a Restaurant in Union Square called The House. We started with a cheese plate and bread:









I had a bad case of vertigo (still have it) during dinner and could not eat much of my NY strip loin steak sandwich. I had a few bites, and left the rest:



I felt a bit better when we got outside. We came across a little cupcake shop called Baked By Melissa, where all the cupcakes are little tiny bite size things. The hubby and I bought 3 and shared them:



We went to bed early so that we would be able to get up for our early morning flight back home.

Friday morning we took a car to the airport (another 70+ dollar ride). We had our last NY bagel breakfast (I ate about half). It was the first rainy day we had seen in NY, and we were glad it decided to rain on the day we were leaving - it made leaving a little easier!

We had a Mexican lunch when we arrived in Minneapolis, and then we arrived home around 1:30 in the afternoon yesterday.

When I got home I checked the mail and saw a letter from the University of Regina. I quickly opened it and found out that I have been accepted into grad school!!!!! I will be starting my masters in Educational Psychology in the Fall!!! I am so excited!! I will still be teaching full time, but will take classes in the evening.

We went out in the evening with our friends. We had dinner at 13th Avenue Coffee House. I had some curried chickpea soup to start and a tofu veggie bowl as my entrée.





We then headed over to another place called The FreeHouse for some wine and visiting. I nibbled on some sweet potato fries late in the evening.

Our trip was so fantastic, but it is nice to be back home with our friends after a week away :-) the hubby and I see a lot of our friends, and we miss them when we are gone.

I slept in this morning, and then since we have no food in the house we had to dig in to the Annie's Organic Mac and Cheese Gourmet stuff that I brought home from NY:



We are getting groceries this afternoon - I need some veggies in my life!

Final Thoughts on Our NY Trip:

- The hubby and I LOVED Manhattan, and cannot wait to go back.
- My favourite areas were Greenwich Village, and the Upper West Side. We explored every single area in Manhattan.
- Although it looked like I ate a lot on the trip, the hubby and I shared most things - I didn't gain a pound while we were away ... but it is time for a few Green Monster me thinks :-)
- The people in NY were SO nice. I don't know where they get the bad rep. because everyone was so friendly to us, and many people struck up conversations with us throughout the city.
- Manhattan is such a unique place because it is SO tiny, yet so big.
- The subway system is AMAZING. We never got lost, and you can see so much of the city for very cheap ... not like anywhere else we have ever been.
- The best thing about the city is that it is so ALIVE, and you feel so ALIVE when you are there.

Although I didn't get the tacky cliché shirt they sell on every corner, I heart NY.

In case you missed the other recaps of our time in NY:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 and 4

Day 5 and 6

Tonight we are going out with friends again - to celebrate my good friend Mel's 28th birthday.

What are your plans for the weekend?

No Place in the World that can Compare

Hubby's 29th Birthday (Tuesday)

Spending the hubby's 29th b-day in NY was fantastic!
What a great way to start his last year of the 20s.

For breakfast on Tuesday I had yogurt with fruit and granola (you can make your own parfait at a deli across from our hotel):



We spent the morning Uptown in Harlem, the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side. We were blown away by the beauty of the architecture - the old Brownstowns , the ornate cathedrals, the buildings of Columbia university. Everything is so beautiful. The history in NY fascinates me.



We also saw the Dakota, where John Lennon was killed, and many celebrities currently live.

The hubby wanted a NY deli lunch, so that is what we had. I ordered the veggie wrap, and had a about 3 chips, 1/2 a cheese string, and a couple bites of the hubby's brownie:



One of my favourite buildings in Manhattan is the Flatiron Building (My picture does not show how cool the building is ... Google it, if you don't know it!!):



It was featured in Spiderman, and is seriously SO cool!

Later on in the afternoon we had a little snack (shishkebab):



And then ... WE WERE IN THE AUDIENCE OF DAVID LETTERMAN!!!!!!!! It was so cool!! We were shocked by how small the studio was, and how short Letterman's desk was. I always thought it was much bigger. The layout of the stage was also very different from what I thought it looked like. The guests on the show included STEVE CARELL and Didi from American Idol.

The hubby and I both love Steve Carell, and were SO happy to find out he was going to be on the show. We only found out once we were already in the audience! What a great way to spend the hubby's b-day.

The filming ended at 5:30, so we wandered around the city in the evening. We had a Mexican dinner at Burrito Loco in Greenwich Village. I drank a Coconut Margarita:



We had chips with salsa and guacamole to start:





And I had a vegetarian burrito as my entree.



Hubby had a meat burrito:



After dinner we walked from Greenwich Village to Times Square (quite the hike). We love wandering in Manhattan. For the hubby's "Birthday Cake" we shared a piece of the famous Junior's NY Cheesecake (Junior's purports to have the world's best cheesecake - yep, I believe it):



A Thoughtful and Romantic Day in the City (Wednesday)

We rode the Subway like crazy today! We started our morning by sharing a NY bagel in Times Square (Just to hold us over until our late breakfast reservations):



The hubby is HOOKED on NY bagels - He insists that we get them again tomorrow from the place that is supposed to have the BEST bagels.

We headed over to the Meatpacking District (So cool BTW) where we explored and then had a late brunch at Pastis. I had the eggs Benedict:


This was the best eggs Benedict I have ever had. The egg was cooked to perfection.

They bring you your own mini little jar of jam to go with your toast (hubby had toast with his breakfast):



Pastis is a major NY hot spot - Even Carrie and the Russian visited Pastis in an episode of Sex and the City.

After brunch we wandered around Chelsea, and went to Chelsea Market (Foodie Heaven):



Then we headed over to the Financial District to see Ground Zero. It was a very powerful experience. The memorial is currently being built and will be done in a year.


(Former site of the Twin Towers)

In the later afternoon we went shopping in the Financial District and then to the Upper West Side where we visited another Foodie Heaven called Zabar's. My-Mind-Was-Blown. The cheese section itself was overwhelmingly amazing. The hubby and I had a little cheese and cracker picnic for lunch. We bought 2 kinds of French cheese, some crackers, and a couple San Pellegrino lemonades and sat in the park in front of the museum to enjoy.







After our picnic and some more shopping, we took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. We saw both Brooklyn and Manhattan all lit up, and of course we saw Lady Liberty:



We ended our evening with a very late dinner in Little Italy. It was the most beautiful night, and we got a quaint little table outside on the deck.





I enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs with some red wine of course:





What a fabulous day!!

Tomorrow is our last full day in NY, and we can't wait!

We are having the time of our lives.

If you could be in the audience of any TV show, which would you pick?
Have you ever been in a TV audience?