Another dish that always reminds me of summer for some reason is eggs. I have no idea why, but my mom used to make light egg dishes for dinner in the summer when I was growing up. In the winter they would be more like casseroles with sausage and cheese, but the summer dishes would be light and loaded with vegetables. For instance, when we got back from NYC and she made this:

I’m not really sure what this type of egg dish is called… a crustless quiche? eggstada? egg casserole? *EDIT-the word came to me after I wrote this post…FRITTATA!* No clue, but I do know that it is refreshing and compliments a hot summer night quite well. Last night I made one my way, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result. It was one of those experiments that comes out really well. Such a relief. This is a dish that is not only healthy, but so easy that it is practically fool-proof.

I started by sauteeing very small pieces of asparagus with diced onion in a pan. Once they were about half way cooked I added thin slices of zucchini to the pan to cook for just a few minutes. I didn’t want my vegetables to be completely cooked through since I knew they were going in the oven shortly.

While those were cooking I whisked together in a large bowl 4 eggs and 4 egg whites with a little non fat milk. I transferred the veggies to a pie dish that I had sprayed with non stick pray. If I had pans that could go in the oven, I would have added the eggs to the veggies and stuck the whole thing in the oven, but my pants are cheap IKEA pans, and have plastic handles. The pie dish was the perfect size for the eggs.

After the bottom of the dish was lined with the vegetables I poured in the egg mixture, added salt and pepper, and popped it in a 350* oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the center was cooked.

Looks good right? Then to serve it I paired it with some whole wheat couscous and just added some diced tomatoes to the top for a little color and texture, basil for freshness, and spring onions for garnish. Voila!

I also seasoned mine generously with some new seasonings I received from Dean Jacobs through Xcell. Can you tell which one will steal my heart? Because it already did last night!

SPICY GARLIC!!! What is better than garlic and spice? NOTHING! And even though this seasoning does have some salt, its very mild and adds just enough spice to the dish with the flavor of garlic…AWESOME!

There are so many things you can do to this dish to change it up…you can add different vegetables, different cheeses, and even make it into a quiche. I have created the recipe below in case you want to try it out for yourself.

Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful Healthy Veggie Frittata

Ingredients:

• 1 C asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 C thinly sliced zucchini in quarters
• 1/4 C diced yellow onion
• 1/2 Tbs olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 C non fat milk
• 1/2 C diced tomato
• 1/8 C chopped fresh basil
• green onion for garnish

Directions:

Coat a large pan with 1/2 Tbs olive oil. Add asparagus and onion and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are halfway cooked. Add in the zucchini and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, egg whites, and milk until frothy and smooth.

Coat a pie dish with non stick spray. Add the vegetable to the dish so they cover the bottom of the dish making one layer. Add in the egg mixture. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and put in 350* oven for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and put the dish back in the oven for 5 minutes or until the middle is cooked.

Garnish with tomatoes, fresh basil, and green onion.

Now onto a different subject…SNACKS! I am an incredibly snacky person. I don’t know where I got it from because growing up my parents never snacked. The only thing they ever really snack on were some pretzels and cheese every once in a blue moon when they had their glass of wine after work. But besides that we never ever snacked or had snacks in the house for that matter. But for me, I need to eat every 2-3 hrs unless I eat a really big meal. So I have a hard time finding snacks that are low in calories, but fill me up. I’m no expert, but here is what I have really grown to like….and some new products as well that I have been able to try.

I always opt for fruit and nuts. I found that adding protein to my snacks definitely keeps me fuller longer. So I will have berries and nuts or an apple and some almonds.

I really love bars, but some of them have SO MANY CALORIES. I’ve grown to looove the mini Larabars. They are literally fruit and nuts, and fills the hunger pains when they strike.

I tend to like to crunch on things so I try to pack celery and hummus for snacks, but sometimes I’m just not feelin’ the celery. So I choose a small bowl of pretzels or low fat chips. Sometimes you just have to, and if you moderate the amount you eat, then you will be fine. I love these Robert Rothschild Farm pretzel crisps because they are thin, really crunchy, and perfect for dipping. I love dipping them in hummus, salsa, and even mustard. This one was cilantro jalopeno mustard and was to die for! Anything spicy that has cilantro in it has my vote. Robert Rothschild Farm also make a hundreds of fun dipping sauces including a raspberry honey mustard that I literally scraped every last morcel with my finger. Not attractive, but I couldn’t get enough.

Sensible Portions is a fairly new line that I was introduced to at the Fancy Food Show, and they were so nice to send me some samples. I have tried almost every flavor of their snacks, and am really impressed. Although the snacks are not very filling, they definitely add flavor and crunch, have less fat and calories than other packaged snacks you find at the store, and have a very readable ingredient list. Each bag only has 130 calories, and when I am craving…say Cheetos…these snacks are the perfect alternative. I know I know…I like Cheetos. I’m a foodie who loves cheetos, but I can’t help it, I just do. But these snacks give you the same satisfaction with less guilt.

The other day I had the Miner’s Gold with some unsalted peanuts for a little protein. It was the perfect pick me up snack when I was lagging to get through the day. Always add protein to your snacks to help keep you fuller longer!

My favorite flavor by far is the salt and pepper followed by the BBQ. And the Cinnamon Apple straws are not bad either. They actually tasted like apple turnovers. A great dessert if you ask me! I do have to say my least favorite flavor is the cheddar. Like I said Sensible Portions is a fairly new company, and you can learn more about them by visiting their website, following them on Facebook, or Twitter.

And when all else fails I drink a lot of water! Regular water, sparkling water, or unsweetened flavored water. If it’s water, I drink it!

So that is what I snack on…what are your favorite healthy go to snacks?

On the agenda tonight are home-made pizzas on Flat Out bread, Fro Yo and Inception. Can’t wait! Have a great weekend!

Lately I’ve been hankering for soba noodles in a peanut sauce. I’m not really sure where that hankering came from, but I knew after looking for recipes over the past week, I had to finally make the dish last night.

If you didn’t know, Soba noodles are a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. THIS is a great website that explains more about the noodles and their health benefits.

Taken from healthhokkaido.com website here are some health benefits of buckwheat:

• Decreases cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Reduces fat accumulation
• Promotes healthy bowel movements
• Fits a well-balanced and low-calorie diet

If you love Thai food, peanut butter, noodles, or any of the above, you must try this dish. It is great warm or cold, and perfect for a hot summer day.

To make my noodle dish I used THIS recipe from Myrecipes.com, and it came out perfect.

As I was waiting for the noodles to cook, I combined the chicken broth, peanut butter, garlic, soy sauce, and honey in a saucepan over low heat. This was the perfect chance for me to finally use my raw honey from Swanson Vitamins AND the Organic Thai Ginger Peanut Butter I received a while back from Sunland Peanut Butter.

The Thai Ginger peanut butter is awesome for dishes like this because it’s slightly spicy and you don’t have to add extra ginger to the dish. It has a really unique flavor, and quite possibly the best savory peanut butter around. I wanted to eat it out of the jar. The recipe possibilities are endless.

Once the sauce was smooth I transfered it to a glass bowl and whisked it a little more to make sure all the peanut butter clumps were broken up. Next I added the diced chicken into the bowl along with the drained soba noodles and grated carrots, and tossed it all together. The smell as I was tossing the noodles was incredible.

After I plated the dish I garnished with green onions and peanuts. This dish was exactly what I was hankering for all week, and I just had to go back for seconds.

On that note, I will leave you with the Wine of The Month.

July Wine of the Month:

Vietti Moscato D’asti Cascinetta 2009

We are in the heat of summer, and one thing that I love to cool me down on a hot summer day is a slightly sweet, slightly sparkling white wine. I don’t drink a lot of sweet wine, but Moscato’s are extremely refreshing in the hot summer heat. This one is round, complex, and the perfect compliment to salty meats and cheeses or just on it’s own. I love the Moscato’s from Alba a lot more than the ones from America, and this is just one of my favorites.

“One of Italy’s best Moscato d’Asti wines comes from the great Barolo producer, Vietti. Superbly fragrant, delightfully pretty and lively with mouthwatering nectar flavors. This is an innocent decadent lightly bubbly white wine, perfect to end a meal matched with a light dessert.”-Cecile’s Wine Cellar Notes

Coming Up: Snacks, Snack, and More Snacks. Easy, Healthy Snacks for people on the go.

Question: What is your favorite summer noodle dish? I’d love some recipes!!

This was left on my coaster when I picked up my drink-BE HAPPY

Wow-I’ve just been crazy lately with everything going on. After I made my dad his birthday dinner I was back in the kitchen for most of Friday making the goods for my BFF Kelly’s BBQ later that night.

The BBQ was not your typical hot dogs and hamburgers. We decided to go with a Greek theme and do sausages and kabobs on the grill, roasted red pepper hummus, tzatziki yogurt sauce, pita chips, greek salads, and other fun things the guests brought.

My job was to bring the sausages, make the hummus, yogurt sauce, and a greek style salad. I wanted to make everything from scratch, but was so nervous how it would come out. I mean after all I was making hummus for, what we thought, was going to be 40 people! I’ve never seen so much hummus in my life!

All in all the food turned out great, the party turned out great, and it was a huge success.

I started the cooking process with the yogurt sauce. I removed the seeds from 1 very large cucumber and diced it into very small pieces. I put the cucumber in a colander with some salt and covered it with a bowl to drain some of the excess water. After about 20 minutes I added the diced cucumber to 4 Cups of Plain Greek yogurt. Next I added minced garlic, lemon juice, a little salt and pepper to taste, and Italian seasoning. I know this isn’t your typical greek yogurt sauce recipe, but I was making it up as I went and it was a HITat the party.

Next up was the hummus. I used THIS recipe with a few tweaks. After adding the chickpeas, minced garlic, roasted red peppers, lemon juice, tahini, salt and pepper to the food processor, I whirled it away until it became smooth and creamy. I had to do the hummus in batches and decided to add a little olive oil as well as some Italian seasoning for a little extra somethin’ somethin’.

The Greek salad was simply diced cucumbers, diced tomatoes, and kalmata olives that I cut in half. I made a dressing of olive oil, balsamic, salt, pepper, and Italian Seasoning and let it marinate all day. Here is a picture of the salad before I added the dressing.

I bet this salad would have been even better with a little Feta!

I was very happy with how everything turned out, and the guests seemed to like it to. I got a lot of compliments which made me very happy.

Here are a few pictures from the rest of the night…

Kelly’s band, Man & Dog performed as well which was awesome!

Can you tell how hot it was from our shiny faces?

HOTT

In Food News- Yesterday I tried a new salad dressing. Made from hemp seed oil this GOOD salad dressing was something I was introduced to at the Fancy Food Show. I use hemp seeds and already know the health benefits of hemp, but I have never had hemp seed oil. This company makes Hemp seed oil, mayonnaise, and salad dressings made with the hemp seed oil. I was a little nervous to try this dressing because I had no idea what to expect.

I had my salad dressing on top of a salad made of Romain lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and beets. Along side was 3 fluffy egg whites that I ended up eating on top of the salad.

The dressing was good, but not great. However, ever since I had Galeo’s dressing, nothing even comes close in comparison. This dressing was a little thicker than I normally like, had more calories than I normally like, and it had a different taste to it that I can’t quite put my finger on. I’m hoping the other flavors taste a little better. This one just didn’t do it for me.

Check out the stats:

As you can see it has a great ingredient list, lots of healthy fats, but there was just something about the flavor that I wasn’t crazy about.

According to their website, “GOOD DRESSINGS are a great way to add flavour and omegas to your salads.” Their dressing are made with their GOOD Oil, which are a good source of Omega 3, 6 & 9. The dressings are vegetarian friendly and the Balsamic and Honey Mustard flavors are gluten free.

Last night Chris and I enjoyed a true American dinner…burgers and fries. But in true EDBH fashion I tweaked the traditional meal for a healthier version.

Extremely lean ground beef patties on the grill press (for even more fat extraction), topped with lettuce, tomato, and cheese, sandwiched between a Whole Grain Arnold Thin. Sides included sweet corn on the cob, fresh steamed spinach, and butternut squash fries.

It.Was.Awesome.

In workout news-I bought a new DVD set that helps tone the booty, thighs, and stomach. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m really excited to give it a try. The DVD set is called Brazil Butt Lift, and is part of the Beachbody Program.

I started the 4 week workout plan this morning, and let me tell you-this is NO joke! I had to stop at least 3 times to catch my breath. It’s always a little harder the first day…right? The DVD’s also come with a measurement chart, food guide, and lots of helpful tips to tone and sculpt the lower half.

I have updated my workout calendar with the workouts I will be completing a long with a few extra gym sessions here and there.

Side Note-My boyfriend, Chris, starts his new job today. I’m extremely proud and excited for him. Wish him luck!!!

Have a great Monday!!!

This week I have been on a crazy baking and cooking frenzy. It all started though with a bowl of raspberry peanut butter oatmeal with blueberries to get the juices flowin’. I made oats with water and added some cinnamon and Sunland Raspberry Peanut Butter (BTW-this stuff is incredible!).

This meal kept me full for a loooong time, which was just what I needed to get my bake on. I ended up making raw cashew cookie dough balls, raw fudge balls, lowfat/low sugar macaroons using THIS recipe, but substituted Agave for Stevia and made them sans chocolate, and Super Charge Me! Cookies from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan made with goji berries and cacao nibs.

For the cookies I also used Beveri Flax Meal. This flax meal already had dried berries so I thought it would add to the recipe…and I was right! They turned out awesome.

Then fast forward to last night where I promised my dad I would make him a home made meal for this birthday. He asked for Eggplant Parmesan, and I delivered. This meal was homemade all the way down to the sauce. The only thing I didn’t make myself was the noodles and bread. It was expensive, labor intensive, and probably the most intense meal I have ever made. I know that is not saying much about me, but I am not one to spend hours in the kitchen. This meal took time! I started my day by hitting up 3 different stores to get all the ingredients; The Amish Market for fresh produce, The Fresh Market for some extras, and The Italian Market for the cheese, pasta, and bread. I wanted this to not only be delicious, but authentic as well. Plus I knew they had incredible mozzarella there.

I’m also preparing a few dishes for my BFF Kelly’s Birthday BBQ tonight so I had to pick up some ingredients for that as well. We are expecting a good turn out, and I’m making everything from scratch so I needed to make sure I had enough of all my ingredients.

To give my dad a little appetizer I put together 2 of his favorite things to munch on. A little odd, but it’s what he likes.

Wasabi peas, Radishes, Owl House Red Wine

For the Eggplant Parmesan I followed THIS recipe, which was actually very simple, and the dish came out great! I started frying the eggplant and making the sauce. Then I just layered the eggplant in the baking dish with the sauce, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, and fresh basil. Once I had about four layers I popped it in the oven at 350* for 30 minutes. While that was baking away and filling my parents house with the smell of Italy, I made the salad.

Romain and butter lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and celery

After our salad we dove into the Eggplant and ate it with a side of spaghetti noodles and crusty Italian bread. Just how my dad likes it. I was really impressed with the dish, but frustrated that a few piece of my eggplant tasting spongy. I think I know why this happened, and hopefully can fix it in the future. But no one else seemed to mind, and my dad couldn’t have been happier.

And what would a nice meal like this be with out wine? We had our meal with two extremely incredible wines. These were both given to me as gifts at my store, and I have been waiting for the right time to open them. There was no better night than last night.

Do I need to say more? 1er Cru Meursault and A Chianti Classico Riserva. Incredible in EVERY. SINGLE. WAY! I’m a huge fan of Grivault’s wines, and this particular Burgundy was unlike anything else I’ve ever had.

Today I’ve been in the kitchen all day making the dishes for Kelly’s Party tonight. I can’t post them yet because it is a surprise, but they look and taste great! I just hope everyone else thinks so too. I already had to run back to the store today since I over salted one of the dishes, and had to start all over. It will be my first time making food for a large number of people.

Now I have to do the not so fun part: clean up the kitchen, get ready, and start setting up for the party in this hot humid heat. But I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end!

Question: What is your favorite dish to cook from scratch? Have you ever had a disaster in the kitchen when cooking a meal for a large amount of people?

I hope you all enjoyed my post about the Fancy Food Show as much as I enjoyed the show itself. But now it’s back to business.

First of all I need to wish my dad a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Dad-I hope you have an amazing day because you deserve it!!!

I’m making my dad dinner for his birthday on Thursday…I’m a little nervous!

Ok, NOW back to business…

The last time I went for my physical, I let you all know that the doctor told me my Vitamin D levels were really low. Since I had never really heard much about it before I started to get really worried. But after talking to many people, and reading through the comments on my blog, I realized that most people have low Vitamin D, and doctors have recently been aware of how important it is for our body so that is why they are checking for it more.

With that being said, my doctor gave me a Rx for the Vitamin D, and after I finish that I am supposed to take an over the counter vitamin to keep my Vitamin D levels up. When I go back in September I will find out if the level has raised or not.

Here is some info on the Big D:

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in food, but can also be made in your body after exposure to UV rays from the sun. Vitamin D helps to maintain normal blood levels of calcium, phosphorus, and without the vitamin in our body, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Recent studies show that vitamin D may provide protection from osteoporosis, hypertension, cancer, and several autoimmune diseases.

Foods that have high levels of Vitamin D include cod liver oil, salmon, mackerel, tuna fish, sardines, milk, and fortified margarine. It can also be found in eggs, swiss cheese, and fortified cereals.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends Adult women and men to have 1,000-1,200mg of calcium per day as well as 400-800 IU of vitamin D per day to help maintain healthy bones.

So along with my Vitamin D Rx, I’ve been taking a multi- vitamin as well as a vitamin C. A while back NatureMade was so kind to send me their new liquid softgels. I’ve always been a huge fan of NatureMade, and have been taking their vitamins for years. So when I found out they made soft gels I was ecstatic!

Side Note-Now, I know I do a lot of reviews on my blog, but I try my hardest to keep it as real and honest as possible. And I honestly agree to only try and review products I would use on a daily basis and feel passionate about.

My biggest problem with the regular NatureMade vitamins are that they are so large and sometimes hard to swallow. There is nothing I hate more than getting that nasty vitamin taste stuck in your mouth because you can’t swallow the vitamin. The liquid softgels have no taste, they are incredibly easy to swallow, and have the same affect as the other vitamins. I honestly don’t know why all vitamins are softgels. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to regular vitamins after trying there!

The whole gang minus the calcium…

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to feast on this delicious looking lunch. 100 calorie Multi-grain Flat Out with Hormel All-Natural turkey, provolone, spinach, and tomato with a side of cherries and celery.

I don’t mind if I do!

Question: Have you had your vitamin D checked lately? What vitamins do you take everyday?

I’m back from a fabulous long weekend in Ocean City, MD. I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July!!! I definitely did, but it went by way too fast…as usual.

The weekend before last I went to New York City with my mom to attend the Fancy Food Show, see Mama Mia, and explore the city. My mom and I have a special spot in our heart for NYC. It’s like our home away from home.

We arrived around 12pm on Saturday, headed to the hotel to check in, and quickly found a place to eat before the show. We stayed at the Hilton Times Square, but more on that later. New York is known for good food, and we always try to hit up a NY style deli while we are there, but this time we found a place with fresh salads, sandwiches, soups, and fruit. It was called the Majestic Deli, and it was fresh, ready to eat, and very healthy. We split a veggie panini and a garden salad with balsamic dressing.

Now this is what I call a lunch! After lunch we ran to the Winter Garden Theater for the show.

I have seen Mama Mia on DVD, but never on Broadway. It was not my favorite musical, but it was definitely fun, uplifting, and had great music!

After the show we headed to church, hit up Forever 21 (um hello, they just opened a 4 story F21 in Times Square-I couldn’t NOT go in), and headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. We had a date with my moms friend, Todd, and his girlfriend.

We had a glass of wine at Todd’s apartment and then set out to find a rooftop bar for dinner and drinks. We had to try 3 before we found a good one and ended up staying at one of the largest rooftop bars in NYC called 230 Fifth. By this time my ankle/foot was KILLING me from all the walking so I quickly ordered a glass of wine. I know it’s not the best thing to fix the pain, but it worked for the moment. We enjoyed some drinks, and shared a bunch of appetizers amongst the four of us. We ordered the Vegetarian Kari “curry” Puff, Crispy Shrimp(these were my favorite), Wontons, French Fries, and lettuce wraps which were basically spring rolls. This was such a different experience for us in NYC, but so much fun to try something new.

The restaurant/bar rooftop was filled with 20 somethings, decorated with palm trees, and served Asian inspired food. The food was decent, and exactly what I had expected for a restaurant like this. But the main event of the night was not the food, it was the people we were with. Todd’s girlfriend is from Barcelona and has traveled the world, so we had a lot to talk about!

We ended up having a really late night, for us, and finally headed back to the hotel around 12:30am.

I woke up on Sunday, and forced myself to visit the hotel gym. Like I said before, I never really work out on vacation, but I realize now that if I want to stay on track, it’s a good idea to get some exercise in. And now that I really can’t walk as much as I used to be able to in New York, I needed to get my heart pumpin’.

Hotel Side Note-The Hilton Hotel in Times Square is a new hotel for us. We usually stay at the Hilton New York on the Avenue of Americas. This one was a smaller hotel, very upscale, and modern, but not nearly as friendly, warm, and welcoming as the other one. Plus it was right in the middle of Times Square so as soon as you walked outside you were in the middle of a swarm of tourists. I found the staff to be a little rude, annoying, and just cold. The hotel itself was very stiff, and unfriendly. Don’t get me wrong, it was very clean, quiet, and allowed us to get a good night sleep, but I just got a weird vibe the whole time. The one huge positive was the hotel gym. It was AWESOME!

Ellipticals, treadmills, bikes, weights, towles, water, headphones, an area to do stomach and stretching. It really did have it all. And it had huge windows that looked out over the city.

View from Treadmill

I did about 45 min of cardio, and that included my warm up and cool down. I worked up a nice sweat, and that is exactly what I wanted. Especially with the Fancy Food Show later that day. My mom and I got dressed, and headed to the Jacob Javit’s center for the Fancy Food Show. This was the main reason why we came to New York in the first place. A huge food show for retailers in the food industry. Luckily this is part of my job, and I was just blow away when I walked into the convention center.

It was set up by country, and there was every cheese, sausage, salame, olive oil, and vinegar you could possible imagine. There was so much food that it was almost a little overwhelming since I want to try it all. So we took it slow, and made sure to taste only the foods that we really wanted to try. For me that was still a lot. What can I say? I love to try everything!

And of course I had a few favorites. Companies like Encore Foods, B&R Farms, Annie Chun’s, Eden, Wholesome Sweeteners, Dagoba, Robert Rothchild, The Mediterranean Snack Food Company, and so so much more. Instead of writing all the names down, you have the company scan your name tag and they send you information. So I can’t even remember all the companies I loved. There was everything you could imagine under the sun.

The most amazing flavored sparkling water

It was such an incredible event. I was able to meet so many new companies, so many companies I already know well, and just try a lot of incredible food. We left feeling quite full!

We headed back to the hotel, changed, and left to do some shopping. What is NYC with out shopping?? Of course we made it all the way down to Macy’s for some awesome sales. However, my foot was yelling at me by this point so I did a lot of sitting and waiting for my mom. Finally we left around 7pm to head back to the hotel to change for dinner. Do you see a theme here? Walk, shop, walk, eat, walk, change, walk eat.

We had no idea where to eat, but knew there were some great restaurants on Restaurant Row so we took a cab there, and just browsed the restaurants on the street before picking one we’ve been to before.

The restaurant we chose is called Becco, and it was the most crowded on the strip so we knew it must be good. Plus we had eaten there before and loved it.

The restaurant was packed, but luckily we got seated really quickly even though they told us the wait was 45 minutes. Everything was great about this restaurant except the hosts, and the seating. The host and hostess were a little rude (not just to us, but to everyone), and they sat us in the middle of a hallway type area, which was so close to the couples on either side of us. I felt like we were all eating together. It was a bit uncomfortable. Besides that the food was incredible, the service was great, and I really enjoyed myself, an important thing when eating out.

Not only was the food great at this restaurant, but they had $25 bottles of wine. And you can take home any leftover wine!!!! Clearly I was more than excited about that because we ordered a bottle of white and bottle of red with dinner. We did take home half of the red because we just couldn’t drink it all.

We started out with a bottle of Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio.

To start they serve you a medley of olives with a white bean hummus and assorted breads. I had a little of everyhting.

My mom and I couldn’t decided on an entree so we decided to split our dishes and share. We both started with a classic Caesar salad, and the Burrata appetizer.

Burrata on toasted Brioche on top of wilted spinach topped with olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. ..need I say more?

We switched to red wine at this point and went with the servers recommendation. It was a wine I had never heard before: Conti di Buscareto Lacrima di Morra d’Alba 2008.

I was hoping for something a little different, but this wine was very perfumy. It had notes of vanilla, chocolate, lavender, and some baking spice. It was very floral for a red, and I usually don’t care for those. However, the finish was soft with very few tannins, which is what we asked for. I had a glass with my entree, and we brought the rest home.

I went with the special, which was a flaky white fish on top of roasted tomatoes, and baked in this buttery, flavorful sauce. I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I just remember how incredible it tasted. My mom ordered the sirloin medium rare with the mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. We split everything, and it was heaven.

I know the plating isn’t that pretty, and the lighting is really awful, but trust me on this…this restaurant will not steer you wrong. All the food is wonderful. I didn’t think we would finish it all, but we did a darn good job. We even closed the place down!

After a night like that, I really couldn’t get myself to wake up early and go to the gym again. My ankle was swollen and throbbing, and I decided to just sleep in a little. All that walking was not the best on the ole ankle.

I had brought some brekafast foods like Arnold Thins with almond butter, protein bars, larabars, and oatmeal so we always had breakfast in the room, and plenty of healthy snacks. After we packed up our things and got our car, we headed to Union Square with one mission in mind…to find Pure Food and Wine, and One Lucky Duck. These are the restaurants that are founded and ownded/co-owned by Sarma Melngailis, the author of one of my favorite books. On our way to the restaurant we strolled through the Farmers Market.

Once we found our destination we checked out the restaurant (I just wanted to see what it was all about), and visited the takeaway for a fresh juice and some goodies. I have to say both places were MUCH smaller than I expected, and a little more expensive than I expected. I know fresh organic raw foods are not cheap, but these juices and snacks were way out of my price range. I still splurged and bought something, but I was very surprised.

I went with the Thai green, and got the rosemary quackers, and raw macaroons. My mom even got a juice…she rolled with The Fruit Spice..and boy was it spicy!!

After walking around a bit more in the hot and very humid heat, we decided it was time to get going. So we walked back to the car and hit the road. We took one pit stop to pick up some lunch, but there are slim pickins and rest stops on the turnpike. I ended up with a southwest salad with fat free french dressing, and some nuts and dried fruit I brought with me. Once back in MD, we hit up the grocery store for some eats, and I stayed at my parents house for dinner. My mom made a huge salad and an egg frittata with zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Light, refreshing, and the perfect end to our crazy, indulgent, jam packed weekend.

This was definitely a trip I won’t forget. I do have to say I like NYC much better at Christmas time, but this was a nice change for me. Now I have to wait until November for my next big Food Trip to San Fransisco for the FOODBUZZ Festival.

Will you be there?!?!?!

I’m back safe and sound from NYC, and have so much to share. But I need to get myself settled, and regroup first so I’m going to leave you with my very first guest post by Pete Allen from Gym Source. Now that I can’t run, I need to fill my workouts with less impact cardio. One sport I’m always scared to dive into (pun intended ) is swimming. So Pete put together this great guest post all about it. Enjoy!!

(Source)

Water Workouts Are A Great Way To Stay Fit And Beat The Heat

By: Pete Allen

Summer is a highly anticipated season throughout the year. The day is longer, the weather is nicer, and there’s always plenty to do to stay active. With so much going on and the plethora of trips to the beach in sight, a lot of people have high expectations to “get in shape” by the time the hot weather rolls in. Whether it’s to capture attention in their bathing suit, or the mere desire to keep up with all the summer has to offer, it is now common to hear people wanting to lose weight, stay fit, and be healthy throughout the summer months.

Unfortunately, the summer season can also be the toughest to exercise regularly. It is sort of a Catch-22 because those with lots of activities planned don’t usually find time to exercise and anyone who does want to work out during the dog days of summer often don’t because heat wears out their stamina and causes fatigue rather easily. Furthermore, activities done directly in the sun or in a hot gym, such as weight training or extensive cardio on treadmills and ellipticals, can be almost unbearable, if not outright dangerous. So where does this leave a person who wants to stay fit while staying cool during the summertime? Well, you can look no further than a cold pool for all your summer workout needs.

Swimming is a great workout that helps to work every muscle of the body using the resistance from the water. In fact, it’s been shown that deep water walking for a 130-pound person at moderate levels burns more calories per minute than long distance running on land. This is why it’s important to be aware of great workouts like Power H2O, which can help you get an optimal workout without even breaking a sweat.

(Source)

Swimming laps all day can get pretty repetitive. Doing a great watery workout like Power H2O allows you to push your limits while keeping your body temperature cool and comfortable even on the most humid of days. You start Power H2O workouts by walking around the pool and getting in knee lifts, heel kicks, and lunges for a nice warm up. After this, a workout of vertical jumps, lateral shuffles (16 counts a piece), jumping jacks, running in place, and power jumps towards different areas of the pool come in for the bulk of the workout. These workouts are best done when using the pools current against you. Therefore, it’s best to keep moving and avoid staying in one place.

Power H2O is also great for technique because it requires you to keep your posture while in the pool to accomplish each of the goals. Maintaining good posture and mechanics throughout a workout routine are essential to maximizing the effectiveness of the workout and avoiding injury. The long term health benefits of maintaining good posture are more evident. Other than that, the routine itself is not overbearing, as each session lasts 30 minutes and produces real results. They prove that a refreshing pool is a great addition to an individuals repertoire of exercise equipment which most would normally not associate with the pieces of most home gyms.

If you’re looking for a less intense workout in the pool – also not as boring as swimming laps -have no fear! Water Yoga is a much more relaxed way to work out and stay cool during the hot summer months. If you already do yoga, you’ll be surprised at the extra boost water resistance adds to the routine. Positions like Wall Cobra, Floating Forward Bend, and Corpse Pose are great ways to work the body in the pool without overheating. Actually combining the two workouts is a great combination of a high intensity workout and a relaxing yet rewarding cool down, so try them both out for a full routine.

(Source)

Pools are usually seen as places where people come to relax and enjoy their time off but water workouts have shown that pools can offer so much more in terms of health. Ultimately, pools are great places for people to workout, stay fit, and stay cool without taking leisure time away from those that want to hang poolside on a sunny day. Take advantage of a great workout while beating the heat. Simply dive right in.

I’m heading out bright and early tomorrow morning to spend the next few days in NEW YORK CITY!!! I will be attending the Fancy Food Show for work, as well as seeing Mama Mia and doing some other fun things. I’m going up there with my mom, and we always have a blast so I can’t wait to see what’s in store this time. I’ll be back next week with all the fun details of the food, drinks, and entertainment.

Have a great Weekend!!!

Last night I had my BFF Kelly over for dinner. One of the great parts of being part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program is you get to try out products and write about them on your blog! I just received a coupon from Buitoni to sample their new Buitoni Riserva Ravioli, and I thought last night was the perfect chance to do that. However, I was racing home from the gym (yes, I’ve been keeping up with my gym workouts) to meet Kelly who was already at my apt, and still had to stop and get the ravioli. I didn’t read the coupon correctly and thought it was for any Buitoni product, so I picked up the Light 4 cheese ravioli, and a few other things, and ran to the cash register. Unfortunately my coupon didn’t work because it was only for the RISERVA! So I just bought what I had since I was already running late, and decided I would just try the other ravioli’s later.

It still turned out the be a great meal. We made the Buitoni Light 4 cheese pasta with sweet pepper marinara, a side of eggplant and zucchini, and a lovely salad with Galeo’s Miso Caeser dressing.

I was pretty impressed with the ravioli. They were just as good as the regular, but 1/2 the fat and calories. I was kinda bummed I couldn’t try the Riserva, but I guess that is my own fault for not reading correctly!!

I had been telling all my friends (and you) about this salad dressing for a while now, so Kelly was excited to try it last night.

A while back my brothers girlfriend emailed me about a dressing that was so delicious, low calories, low fat, all natural, and gluten free. I didn’t really believe her since that just sounded too good to be true. However, when I went out to visit them a few weeks ago I got the chance to try three of the flavors, and I was BLOWN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so so good!

It’s called Galeo’s Worlds Best Miso Dressing. I’m not sure if you have seen these or not, but they are new to me.

(Source)

Seriously…too good. I couldn’t believe this dressing tasted this good and had only 14 calories for 1 Tbs. The ingredient list was also too good to be true. All the ingredients were ones that I would normally have in my kitchen…ginger, lime juice, garlic, honey, miso (well I don’t always have that, but I do right now), rice vinegar, mustard, sea salt, etc. There are absolutely no fillers in this dressing, and I can pronounce everything. Take a look for yourself-these are the ingredients for the Miso Caesar.

There are four flavors out right now, but I have had a hard time finding all of them at stores. In CA they were sold at Vons and Whole Foods, and I can only find them in my local Whole Foods in Maryland.

Miso

(Source)

Miso Caesar

(Source)

Miso Ginger Wasabi

(Source)

Miso Dijonnaise

(Source)

The Miso is somewhat sweet, the Miso Caesar is savory with a perfect combination between sesame seeds and caesar dressing, the Miso Ginger Wasabi is spicy, and I have yet to try the last one, but I’m sure it is as good as the others. These dressings literally make me want to eat salads. They have so much flavor, and just taste so good. I can’t even describe how good they are. So good that I find myself sitting at work thinking about which one I will have on my salad for dinner. So good that I make separate trips to the grocery store for more Romain lettuce. NO JOKE!

There is only one downfall to these dressings….they are a WEE bit expensive. Well, maybe more than a wee bit. They are down right expensive. In CA they were $4.99 at Whole Foods (that is not so bad), but they were $7.29 at Vons (I don’t think so!). Here in Maryland they are $5.99 at my Whole Foods (just enough for me to almost say no, but just enough for me to still say ok). I think they are sold online for much cheaper, but then you pay shipping. :-/ I am not thrilled at the price, but it is what it is. And I’ve definitely enjoyed them even if they are expensive.

My Bff Kelly even enjoyed it last night and found herself dipping her extra veggies in the dressing too!

This is a revelation in dressings. You can eat a salad with out feeling like it’s diet food, actually enjoy it, and feel good about it! You know I’ve been enjoying my fair share of salads lately…and this is the reason why! I just can’t get enough. Now, I do limit myself to 2 Tbs of dressing per salad, but I’ve already gone through one jar, and am almost done with my second. If you get a chance…you GOTTA TRY THESE DRESSINGS! INCREDIBLE!

I DO think this is WORLDS BEST MISO DRESSINGS!

Ok, Ok, so I have mentioned this bar in my previous post, but now it is about time I tell you what it is.

A few weeks ago when I was visiting my brother in San Diego we went down to Solana Beach to go shopping, and I stopped in a little place called Juicers for a smoothie. While I was waiting I looked around at some of their protein bars, and came across one I had never seen.

The GoodOnYa Bar. Ever heard of it?

Made locally in Solana Beach, CA, this bar looked pretty appealing. And after looking at the ingredient list, I was even more intrigued. The ingredient list was incredible, and I was really surprised at the great nutrition facts. Although a little high in fat-it’s all good fat. And the ingredients are REAL..there is nothing fake about this bar!

It got a good recommendation from the Juice pro making my smoothie too. He told me that even though it was pretty expensive for a bar (I think it was $2.85) it was completely worth it.

Since I loved the fact it was made locally in San Diego, I went home to learn more about the bar and about the people behind the bar. The company offered to send me one of each flavor to sample, and I literally could not wait until they arrived. I was really interested to see what this was all about. There are a total of three different flavors; The Breakfast Bar, Peanut Butter Honey, and Peanut Butter Chocolate.

Now I’ve eaten my fair share of bars, and my biggest complaints are that they are too sweet, too fake tasting, or that they don’t fill me up. So once the bars arrived, I took the suggestion on the package, to eat one for breakfast with a cup of organic coffee, to see how these bars compared to others I’ve had. I tried the Breakfast Bar first.

Although my coffee wasn’t organic, it still worked well together. One bite of this bar and I knew it was completely different. First of all it was savory instead of sweet. And all it took was one bite for me to fall in love. It was smaller than I had expected, and thinner than I had expected, but much denser than other bars. I ate it slowly in small pieces to really savor the flavor with my coffee. I loved the pieces of sweet raisins and dark chocolate with the savory and nuttyness of the bar. It had such a unique savory flavor to it, but it was really delicious.

So… sure it tasted great, but did it keep me full?? OH YEA! Now, I did enjoy some fruit along with my bar, but all 3 times I’ve tried the bars, they have kept me full all morning long. I’ve already tried all three bars, and can’t wait to buy some more. They really are incredible.

Their motto is “Every Ingredient Matters”, and that is very clear in these bars. There are no fillers, it’s all real whole food ingredients. They are 100% organic, soy free, dairy free, lecithin free, GMO free, high in protein, low in sugar, and even their wrappers are recyclable polypropylene. I honestly can’t find anything wrong with this bar. It’s is THAT good.

And I just found out they are sold at Mom’s Organic Market in Rockville, MD!!

If you get a chance, you must try these bars….you won’t be sorry! I wouldn’t have dedicated an entire post to them if I wasn’t passionate about them, and how good they are for you.

To find out more about the GoodOnYa Bars and the people who makes them, click here.

Something to Read about Fats: Are All Fats Really the Same for Stopping Hunger Pangs? -please read the entire article-not just the top portion!

Coming Up on EDBH: A Buitoni Pasta Night and salad dressing review. This dressing will make you WANT to eat salad.