Thursday, June 13, 2013

Staying Healthy in Boston Part 1

Hello lovely blog readers!

I am writing today from the lobby of my hotel in Boston! I am here for work and feel very lucky to get to spend some quality time with my colleagues and partake in a room that I don't have to clean every day! WOO! I am here until Saturday so I thought that I would break this trip up into 2 separate blog posts.
The rainy view from my window


It was very interesting to travel to Boston and see if everything has gotten back to normal since the Boston Marathon bombings. The bombing was a tragedy and I am so happy to report that the people I know who live in Boston were all ok but how scary! I have noticed that the city is still booming and full of life. The businessmen still walk the streets

Traveling is wonderful but as I have written about before, it comes with it's own set of hardships when it comes to maintaining your health. Most of your meals aren't controlled by you unless you are lucky enough to have a room with a kitchen. Other than that, you have to make the best decisions with what you have at your disposal.

Luckily, this hotel has an okay gym - I hate when hotels say on their website that they have a gym and then when you get there, it's a 15 year old treadmill and an even older stationary bike. That is NOT a gym.

Anyway, there is a Starbucks in the hotel which makes it a little easier because they offer fruit and oatmeal for breakfast. MMM... the hotel restaurants will charge you insanely so it's nice to have an alternative!

 
 Last night we had the most delicious mexican food at a place called Rosa Mexicana by the Seaport. The healthiest thing I could find on the menu that sounded good to me was the Carne Asada- marinated steak, corn, rice and beans on flour tortillas. I wasn't too big of a fan of the beans, they were a little too sweet when I was looking for something filling.


Excited for the next two days to see what else the show and the city of Boston has in store. I am also managing to keep my alcohol promise also (more or less) The first night at dinner I was asked to chose the bottle of wine and so of course had to do the tasting portion of the wine service but other than that, I have been doing great! 18 days and counting and I can actually tell at this point that I feel better, leaner and I truly don't miss it which is great.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Birthday Recipe Recap and Our Registry!

I am so excited to write a post about my birthday weekend. That's right folks, as of now I am officially the big 2-6. I love birthdays because, honestly, when you spend a lot of time dealing with stress at work or the constant battle of keeping your house clean, it's so nice to have one day a year where you can say "I don't care, it's my birthday" and everyone just agrees. So, of course you can lay in your pajamas all day or eat a larger piece of cake than you should - it's your birthday!

I knew that I would be pigging out pretty hardcore with all the food we were preparing so my day started off with a lovely couples trip to the YMCA. Dwayne went to lift in the basement of the Dowd Y while I hit the treadmill for 4 miles of hills. Of course though, not until after we had our protein shakes for breakfast!


After the gym, we ran to the grocery store to stock up on food and to start cooking before everyone arrived at 2. We had quite the load of food!


I started cooking asparagus, homemade macaroni and cheese and always a favorite, Beer Bread. Beer bread is so easy and it tastes so amazingly good! Although I was disappointed because I think I overcooked mine, it was still delicious.



2.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 - 12 oz beer of your choice
Melt 1/2 cup butter and pour over top of the mixture in a bread pan
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean at 375 degrees.

I also decided to make my own birthday cake since I stumbled upon a delicious white cake recipe a few weeks ago and still had all the ingredients.

 I found it on Allrecipes.com - I love this site!!

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2.In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3.Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.
While I was cooking inside, Dwayne was firing up the grill outside for chicken, pork and hamburgers.


The boys certainly enjoyed it!
A huge thank you to my friends who got me some of the most wonderful gifts! Many brought me wine or champagne (for after the 30 day little/no alcohol challenge) and my friend Kat got me a cookbook that I cannot wait to break into! My friend Nicole brought me two cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes and oh my goodness! They were piled so high with icing, what a treat!!

Needless to say, I had my butt back at the gym on Sunday for 60 minutes of cardio to try and work off the day before but it was so worth it!

We also spent Sunday morning working on stuff for the wedding. We have our program almost all written, discussed possibly honeymoon ideas and started getting at least one aspect of our registry together. One place that we both agreed upon with our registry was Target. Having people from all over the country invited to the wedding, it's important that we have a place that everyone has access to. It's amazing how much stuff you realize that you want when the whole website is in front of you!

We have sent in our Save the Dates to the printer and I can't wait to see a proof of what they will look like. I am so excited!