Grill Time!

Tonight we had a wonderful little cookout on the back porch! Jeff drove up from New Haven, and I managed to round up dad and get him to come over to mom’s for some great food and fun together. Dad made cocktails for everyone – vodka tonics and gin and tonics went around. We munched on chips with double roasted salsa.Then I made up some bruschetta with farmer’s market tomatoes, basil from the porch, and mozzarella from Whole Foods. We had olives too, mmm. Then we got grillin with bell peppers, corn, and veggie burgers over the flame. 6 ears of corn in total! All got eaten :) There was broccoli too. I loaded my burger with pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, and grilled bell peppers. More munching and talking and it was dessert time!
Dad brought a wonderful watermelon and I picked up some special dark chocolate from trader Joe’s. We also had a plate of almonds and dates to nibble on. Healthy dessert!
The watermelon was so juicy! This chocolate was similar to the one the other day, and was loaded with caramel and dark sea salt – I loved the saltiness! We sat out on the porch til close til 10 then called it a great night.

Jeff and I are heading out early tomorrow morning for a 5 night camping trip up North. Super excited! Blogging will be minimal from the wilderness though, but stay tuned!

Summer Vegetables

Today we did some errands and went to the farmers market! So many beautiful veggies and fruits. We loaded up on fresh veggies and peaches! I brought a yogurt with me because I knew I’d get hungry throughout our errands. I topped it with blueberries we bought at the market, and I ate it at the market itself. I also had a few bites of banana and a spoonful of almond butter before heading out the door. I stopped by dad’s house to pick up some camping gear and to visit, and I munched on a whole bunch of trail mix. I also noticed that these peanuts (that I did not eat) had gelatin in them — why?? and so not vegetarian. just pointin it out… After some errands with dad (more on that tomorrow) I came home to find mom munching away on some tasty bread and oil dip. I had a few small hunks as we got dinner ready. I had a salad with some beet hunks and yellow bell pepper, raspberry vinag. dressing And two awesome ears of corn from the market – they were perfection!! and very sweet. Also, a boca burger topped with ketchup and bread and butter pickles.We also had a caprese salad which I had a few pieces of. Basil from the porch and tomato from the market. Mmm local!
We’re contemplating going to a movie .. it’s a rainy evening here in Massachusetts..

Summer Dinners

Have I mentioned how much I love this water “bottle”? It’s a platypus and it’s so great because it folds/rolls up when you’ve drank all the water so you’re not left carrying around a big metal klean kanteen or sig (I have and love those too, but this is great for on-the-go!) And great for these suuuper hot days. It’s 7:34pm and 92 degrees, whatttttt.So, I attempted to lay by the pool to get just a little color around 4:15 pm. Man, it was just tooo hot. I just laid there and sweat, and then somehow got attacked by a mosquito, I’ve got 3 huge bites. What is up with me and mosquitos lately?!

I gave up after 20 minutes and headed back upstairs. I decided to get over to the gym before they closed early. I did 15 minutes on the stair master and 15 minutes on a different kind of elliptical. I then did my arm strength training. In and out in an hour. I always think I’ll do extra hard workouts on the weekends when I have sooo much time, but somehow my weekend days end up being busy busy with only short times for workouts. Or maybe I just prioritize relaxation over exercise on my days off :) I caught up with a friend on the phone on the walk back which was nice. I showered up and cooked up round 2 of my yummy summer time dinner.  

GINORMOUS salad (spinach, lettuce, snap peas, tomato, green pepper, green beans, broccoli, topped with balsamic vin.) And some more tasty COTC (corn on the cob) and a boca burger with lots o’ ketchup. This corn was good, but I must say not as buttery as last week’s.  But still good! 

Now it’s time to do some work, oyve. Since I ate pretty early I’m foreseeing some sort of dessert or snack later on…

 

Well hello, Mr. George Washington

What a fun day so far! We headed out super early down to the waterfront to get on the boat to go see Mount Vernon. I kicked off the morning with the juice I made yesterday – mm veggies. As the boat pulled off we had some breakfast – yogurt and coffee. I munched on a peach a few hours later. Mount vernon was beautiful! Hot and sunny, but a great day touring the estate – the gardens, the mansion, barn area, and all. Very neat! George Washington was quite a guy, let me tell you. We ate at the restaurants there, and I had a pretty tasty black bean burger. I had it open faced so abandoned the top half of the bun, take that. Trail mix on the side shared with dad, and a diet coke, couldn’t help it! Cool and refreshing.More pictures to come later. Now off to the pool to cool off!

3rd of July

Today I had OATS for breakfast, been missing these guys! Mixed with banana slices, walnuts, and a scoop of peanutbutter. Yum! Veggie sausage on the side, just because. 

After catching up with a friend over coffee and a biscotti, I headed back home for a quick run with Jeff. A quick 3 miles with interval sprints for me, a sluggish 3 miles with interval walking for Jeff. Gotta get him off the bike and back on the running roads! I then went right to work on some CUPCAKES before taking a shower and getting ready for the cookout up at Jeff’s family’s house. They came out pretty good! Bowls to lick…..

We had a fun time catching up with his cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, etc. ate LOTS of food, veggie burgers, drank lots of UFO beers, and were very merry! There were sparklers and lots of other fireworks set off later in the evening. Fun night! We’re going to be up bright and early and off to the esplanade to hang out all day in preparation for the awesome Boston Pops show and fireworks!!

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

 

 

Wednesday, almost my Friday

Happy Wednesday! Since tomorrow is my Friday, it’s almost the weekend! Today has been a fun day so far. Started off with two egg whites and turmeric, with a cup of raspberry tea.

Skipped the veg with breakfast today because I thought I was going to Chop’t with my supervisor today for lunch and I figured it would be laden with veggies. On my way into the office this morning he texted me saying to meet him and one of our coworkers at sbux. In addition to my travel mug full of coffee, I had a grande black coffee with them and enjoyed chatting for about an hour in the coffee shop – not a bad way to start the day! And highly caffeinated.

Back at the office we got an email saying a coworker had brought in a whole bunch of leftovers from a cookout and that us (unpaid) interns should eat them all up! My supervisor said we might as well take advantage of this rather than head to chop’t (I was a little bummed, as I was excited about trying out the popular chop’t salads I’ve heard about, and because cook-out fair is often not so vegetarian friendly.. but it all worked out well) I made a nice high-protein (but sadly a bit low on veg) plate.

vegetarian baked beans (I double checked), pile of lettuce, pile of tomatoes, and hidden under there is a black bean burger which was quite tasty. ketchup and mustard, too. I steered clear of the carb and mayo-laden potato salad, white hamburger buns, and cole slaw. Not a bad lunch, and free :) I find it can be really challenging to eat healthy when unexpected meals come up, but this one worked out well.

 We just got an email about an “urgent birthday celebration at FroZenYo” – it was one of the interns birthdays on Monday but no one knew! Sounds like we’re going to have a little field trip celebration this afternoon – I’ll need to choose my froyo carefully! C ya later.