There's cake in the break room!

What is it about free food? (I'm sure I've blogged on this topic before, but I feel it needs to be revisited.)

With the new year comes many people's resolutions to "get fit" or "go on a diet" or some other health-related goal. While I don't disapprove of that, I'm trying to not think of it as just something that one does on Jan 1st. I was really getting into pilates before the holidays, so I'm going to start back up with that...not because it's the new year, but because I'm back in town.

And, of course, given the time of year, wouldn't you know...my company has free breakfast tacos available this morning and free cupcakes this afternoon (we have a big relaunch of our company brand, so it's a celebration day).

What are they trying to do to us??

I wonder how many people's resolutions we just helped to take two steps back with these offerings.

I knew that we would be having these tacos and cupcakes (I volunteered to help out with the larger event), so I had a healthy dinner last night and will only be having a salad at lunch. I think the key is balance and not beating yourself up about taking advantage of those freebies from time to time.

I'll also be going to pilates today after work - I just hope I can walk tomorrow or, more importantly, Thursday when I plan to go to pilates again followed by a body pump class. ack.

It's a new dawn. It's a new day. And I'm feeling good.

I'm a sucker for a resolution. There's something romantic about large gestures towards our future. The only problem is, I'm also a sucker for being hard on myself when my proverbial resolution eyes end up being bigger than my proverbial resolution stomach.

As such, I've decided to start small. My resolution is to write "more." How 'bout them apples?

So what is "more?" It's a lovely amorphous term that could allow success to be defined in a number of manners. But I am a bit of a nerd, and I do like numbers, so let's be real.

The way I figure, I should average out the past three years of posts and as long as by the end of 2011 I have posted more than average, resolution...well...resolved! I'm choosing an average and not just an improvement on last year because while the first half of the year started out with a bang, the second of half of the year definitely whimpered.

Here's the post count:
- 2008: 20
- 2009: 42
- 2010: 11
To write "more" than the average of the past three years, I need to post 25 times in the next year. The way I see it, that's basically twice/month maybe with one or two additional notes here and there.

That's definitely do-able. And I've got a year to do it. So start counting (what, you thought I wouldn't count this one??), and get ready to read. One down.


And for those of you who recognize the subject line, yes, it is a Michael Buble song. His "I just haven't met you yet" song is a definite guilty pleasure, and I felt "Feeling Good" was a great way to express the new year. Feel free to make fun of me.

Quick Post: There's a fungus among us

Over the July 4th weekend, I took the BF home to Brooklyn for his first trip to New York City. I promised more walking than he had done in years. I'm not sure he heeded my warning to the extent he should have.

That said, I was the one that ended up with blisters.

The blisters were brought on by the red leather Liz Claiborne heels that I wore with my black and white dress to Babbo, one of Mario Batali's restaurants in Greenwich Village.

As you might imagine, every single thing we tasted was extraordinary. Literally...it was light years beyond ordinary. The asparagus and fresh ricotta ravioli was mouth-watering. The chianti-stained tagliatelle with wild board ragu was out of this world. The grilled garden vegetables tasted better than any grilled veggies I have ever had. My sister and brother-in-law each had a secondo, and I picked off of everyone's plates. Everything was magnificent.

But what might have been best was the BF's porcini tasting menu. The dishes were:
Anitpasto – Porcini mushrooms with arugula and balsamic drizzle
Primo - Tagliatelle with porcinis in a cream sauce
Secondo – Pork tenderloin encrusted with porcini, sea salt, and something else we can't remember

Lastly, we ended the meal with a pistachio and chocolate semi-freddo. I used the chocolate stick that was on top to stir my cappuccino. A divine ending to a spectacular meal.

Then we walked to the subway so the BF could see Times Square at night. That's where the blisters began.

Quick Post: An Admission of Love

Many of you know of my obsession with grilled cheese. I even spoke of at one point opening a grilled cheese sandwich shop.

But this is not about my love for grilled cheese. It is an admission of love...for Mark Bittman.

I pretty much adore everything he does. As I've mentioned before, even if it's something I will never try, his attitude is so attractive that I will scan the recipe, read the article, or watch the video.

Here my obsession meets my love: One of Bittman's Videos entitled, Actually Grilled Cheese.

This is 2:24 minutes (with an additional 15-20 seconds for the lead in ad) of Bittman's dry wit (he suggests adding mustard, pesto, ben gay or sunscreen to the sandwich) and his simplistic yet brilliant food ideas.

I am in love once again.

Garlic Anyone?

In keeping with the attempt to eat healthy, I decided to try a recipe that I've been wanting to try for a while. Baked chicken with a coating of All-Bran (Garlic and Herb) Crackers. I was excited about it. This is a considerably higher fiber option than regular breadcrumbs. And lower calorie to boot (18 crackers to a serving). Plus those crackers are wicked tasty.

Off to the store I go. Well, lo and behold, no All-Bran Crackers. Now, this is the grocery store where I shop almost exclusively, so I know that I've purchased them there before. But now the shelves are filled with the store brand gourmet crackers, none of which are even near my beloved All-Brans. So what to do? Well, I go back to the original recipe. Instead of All-Bran crackers (which was my touch) I picked up some Fiber One Cereal. A co-worker of mine has done this baked chicken thing with Fiber One before, so I knew it could work. My only concern was that the cereal has a sweetness to it that I wasn't sure I wanted in the coating of the chicken. The plot thickens.

When I got home, I had 3 plump chicken breasts, which were clearly larger than the 4 ounces each that I needed. I had looked at a baked chicken recipe and they gave a cooking time for a pounded out chicken breast. Perfect. I weighed them out and they were about 8oz each. Perfect. I pounded them out and cut them in half. But before I had even gotten to the chicken, I put 1.5 cups of Fiber One Cereal, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried basil, some salt and some pepper in my Cuisinart. (If I couldn't have gotten my hands on some Garlic & Herb crackers, gosh darnit, I was adding garlic and herbs!) Pulse pulse pulse until those little branches of Fiber One are made into powder.

I whipped up three egg whites (not until frothy, but until all the aspects of the egg whites were more homogenous than right out of the shell). With one hand (always keeping one clean), I put the now six pieces of chicken breast in the egg whites, turned them about and then into the powder. It worked swimmingly. From there, on to a baking sheet. (Did I mention I pre-heated the oven to 350? Quite a household commitment in 100 degree Texan weather, I might add.)

Once all six pieces were done, I put the baking sheet into the oven (middle lower rack) and baked them for 20 minutes. A quick flip and back in for 3 minutes. They were golden brown and cooked perfectly. Success!

While the chicken was cooking, I put together a bean puree that was the suggestion of the BF. I put two drained cans of Great Northern Beans and put them in the Cuisinart. I peeled three garlic cloves and threw them in. Let me stop here. That was too much garlic. I should have listened to BF. He told me that it was going to be too much. Let me repeat. I should have listened. In addition to the way too much garlic, I added some extra virgin olive oil. I probably should have used the really good stuff for this as the taste would have been a nice addition. Pulse pulse pulse. After tasting it (and, yes, I could tell it was too much garlic at that point), it needed something. I added some red pepper flakes and cayenne (not much of either, for the record). All in all, it's definitely something to do again, just not with as much garlic. This recipe made 4 servings.

So, if you put a serving of the puree and a serving of the chicken together, it's only about 200 calories. Tomorrow night, I'm going to add a spinach salad with some balsamic drizzle. I think it will work really nicely. Maybe the salad will break through the garlic of the puree. Fingers crossed.