My head feels lighter

So I got a haircut. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary but it had to get done. I've been coloring my hair almost monthly since February and it took a toll on my hair. My ends were dry and ugly, even the stylist called it out ..oops..Anyway, I had her cut off a few inches and she made me promise I'd start deep conditioning my hair and not dying my whole head but the roots only. I walked out of the salon feeling a million times better.



On another sidenot though, I want to get a whole new "look" but I haven't decided what I want. Actually, I'm terrified of doing anything drastic and I'm always afraid the style/cut won't look good on my because a) my face is round and b) my foreheads too small. I'd really love to try this haircut out, just not that short. Love the layers and bangs just not the length. I like long hair. Everytime I actually go ahead and chop all my hair off I love it for a minute and then almost immediately hate it and want to cry. Maybe when I go back in a few weeks I can sport a Mandy, Kim, or Ginnifer look :)

*courtesy of ericdsnider.com*


*courtesy of whitefun.blogspot.com*

*courtesy of beautyriot.com*



Getting fit

I'm just going to put it out there. I'm FAT. Now, I know many of you would be offended by my perhaps, insensitive usage of this word but I'm merely stating it like it is.It's simply how I feel. Fat. I've always struggled with my weight. There hasn't been a time in my life when I wasn't worried about my weight, whether it was up or going down.
I've been on and fallen off the fitness wagon many many times, too many to count in fact. Right before my wedding this past September I was super vigilant about my caloric intake and my exercise regimen, so much so in fact that I was probably the lightest and healthiest I've ever been as an adult (trying to fit into a white dress will do that to you!) but like always, after the wedding I fell OFF the wagon and so now 8 months later I'm trying to get back on it. I won't lie, I have gained some weight back, thankfully only about 5 pounds but I've lost much if not all of my muscle definition.
My goal with writing about it so openly is to help me stay on track and hopefully by staying accountable to those out on the interwebs I may be able to stay ON the fitness wagon for the rest of my life. At this point You may be wondering what I look like since I'm making such a big deal out of my weight. Well, lets go down memory lane shall we?

August 08'

March 09'

June 09'

October 09'

March 10'

May 10'

September 10'

December 10'

May 11'

So there you have it. At my highest weight I was approximately 225 pounds, I'm only guessing here as I was deathly afraid of getting on a scale. I didn't actually start weighing myself until about a month into my fitness kick. As you can see, I didn't really get into getting fit until March of 2010. I was running short on time and I knew I wanted to look nice for my wedding so I ramped it up. I lost weight pretty quickly at first but by July of last year I'd hit a plateau. I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to get get into a size 10 by the wedding(that was my goal at the time). I could get into size 10 pants but I wasn't able to fully zipper them all the way. At that point my hope was to get back from our amazing honeymoon and keep on the fitness train, but with the holidays and my general lack of laziness it obviously didn't happen!

My overall goal is really to just be at a happy weight and size which for me is a size 8. I've never been a size 8 but for my height and body type thats approximately where I should be. I'd like to stay active and eat healthy to be at a good weight when my husband and I start trying to conceive. I want to feel like I can do anything and run anywhere for the rest of my life. I don't want to slip back into old habits and laziness.

I hope that by being open about it I'll stay on track. I'll proabably post once a week on how I'm doing with the weightloss, calorie intake, and exercise routine. Let me know if theres anything specific about my weightloss efforts that you'd like to see me write about!

Revamp

I've been away from this blog for far too long. Part of the reason I hadn't written in so long is simply life got a bit crazy. I stopped writing about the time I was promoted at work. The adjustment to my new reponsibilities and the massive amounts of stuff I had to learn left me little time and energy to come home cook and write.
However, now that i have a good flow at work and a little spare time im ready to jump back into it!
Since i've been away for so long I had some time to really think about what I want this blog to be about. Truth is, although I really love going out to eat and cooking delish meals I rarely have time to do either. I dont want to neglect the blog because I havent gone out to eat or cooked anything in days sometimes even weeks(hangs my head in shame!) so I decided to expand the blog to more than just food related posts.
I'll be talking about things in general that are going on around me. A mix of my opinion on certain things, (because if I have anything its an opinion!), my weightloss efforts, fashion, home decor, books, and of course food! Hope youll stick around and see what im up to!

RECIPE: CHICKEN POT PIE

So if you live in New York you know that winter has most definetly arrived! It's a frosty 20 degrees outside and all I want to do is curl up under a blanket and veg out on the couch with a big ole' bowl of something warm and filling. That's where homey, delicious, Chicken Pot Pie comes in. It's relatively quick and easy to make and it just makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over as soon as you bite into it.

I got the following recipe from:
"THE NEWLYWED KITCHEN - DELICIOUS MEALS FOR COUPLES COOKING TOGETHER"
I made a couple of substitutions...

Here you go:
FOR THE FILLING:
3 strips bacon, diced ( I didn't have any bacon, I know tragic!, so I used some ham that I had in the fridge)
3/4 cup diced onions
1 tbsp vegetable or extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup diced carrots ( I also didn't have any only frozen peas and carrots, but they're good none the less)
3/4 cup diced cremini mushrooms (I used button mushrooms)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsps dried marjoram( didn't have on hand, so I skipped it)
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 tsp. paprika
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. flour
1/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken stock( if you can find Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock, use it! It's by far the best Chicken stock I've ever used!)
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken( I used chicken breast, it's easy to make and it cooks very quickly, if you're pinched for time you could always buy one of those roasted chickens at the supermarket and use it for the filling and a bunch of other things for the rest of the week, i.e. chicken fajitas, chicken noodle soup, chicken salad sandwich, etc etc.)
1/2 cup frozen peas (DO NOT DEFROST)

FOR THE CRUST:
1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted ( you can find these in the frozen aisle at the supermarket)
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp whole milk (I used heavy cream...I didn't say this meal was low cal!)
1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F

2. To make the filling, in a large skillet, cook the bacon  ham over medium-high heat until soft and slightly browned, 3-4 minutes. Add the onions and oil to the skillet with the ham, and cook the onions for 8-10 minutes or until the onions are a golden brown color. Add the carrots and mushrooms, and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in the salt, pepper, marjoram, rosemary and paprika. Add the butter. When the butter melts, stir in the flour. Add the cream and chicken stock, and let the liquids simmer for a few minutes, ust until it looks like its bubbling a little bit and the liquids have reduced and you have a creamy looking sauce. Add the chicken and the frozen peas, and turn off the heat.

3. Transfer the filling into a small casserole dish or 2 large ramekins.

4. To make the crust, unfold the puff pastry sheet, place it over the casserole dish or ramekin, and trim any overhang.

5. In a small bowl, add the egg yolk and milk heavy cream and whisk to combine.

6. Lightly brush the top of the potpie with a bit of the beaten egg yolk mixture. With a knife, cut a few vents in the puff pastry to let the steam out.

7. In another small bowl, mix the cheddar, pepper, and thyme. Distribute the cheddar mixtures over the top of the potpie. Place the dish on a baking sheet.

8. Bake the potpie for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling.

Let the potpie rest for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven, you don't want to burn your tongue! Slice into it and enjoy!

HEAVEN!!!!

Bar Boulud

Big Apple Bites Review: *** out of *****

*all photos courtesy of Bar Boulud website

I finally got around to trying Bar Boulud, one of famed chef Daniel Boulud's restaurants. I've heard many great things about it and I was looking forward to the experience. Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations (insert sad face here) and I left disappointed and a little hungry. But, let's get on with the review shall we?
Many times I can predict how good a meal will be based on the bread and butter served. You can tell a lot about a restaurant based on how they treat their bread. In fact many times I can predict how good a meal will be based solely on the bread and butter served. I knew as soon as I took my first bite of the bread that I was in for some dissapointment. It was a bland sourdough bread, nothing spectacular or tasty about it, it's perhaps only redeeming quality was that it was fluffy, but it lacked any real flavor. At this point I was hoping I was wrong about the bread indicating how good the meal would be...really I did, so I trudged on!

We started out with soup and salad: (The hubs was with me, it was date night!)

Mushroom Soup
velouté de champignons
mushroom velouté, porcini confit
chive crème fraîche

The mushroom soup was by far the most memorable part of the meal. I could have eaten a whole pot of this, it was just THAT GOOD! It had the perfect amount of mushroomness (I make up words, so get used to it!) and it was velvety smooth and creamy. No little bits of mushroom or anything!  Then I had a little of my husbands'

Frisee Salad
frisée lyonnaise
chicory, chicken liver, poached egg
lardons, sourdough croutons

The poached egg really meshed all of the flavors together, the gooey yolk running over the frisee and coating everything was simply perfection! Why use salad dressing when a creamy yolk would suffice! I know many people would be put off by the chicken liver but honestly once you get over the fact that it's chicken liver you really can't even tell its chicken liver, only little bites of perfectly seasoned chicken. The saltiness of the lardons (a small strip or cube of pork fat, mmm pork fat..) and the richness of the yolk created a wonderful medley of flavors and the sourdough croutons give it just the right amount of crunch to make the salad feel hearty and substantial enough as a light main dish.

After we'd had the soup and salad things were looking up. I figured I had been wrong in judging them too harshly based on the bland bread, so I was looking forward to my:

Scallops
coquilles saint-jacques meunière
dayboat scallops, brussels sprouts
serrano ham, concord grapes

The scallops were placed atop a bed of shredded brussel sprouts and drizzled with saint-jacques meunière, basically a sauce of paprika, milk, flour, butter, and lemon juice. A sprinkling of serrano ham on top of the scallops and two dollops of concord grape jelly reduction. While all the flavors complemented each other I found the scallops a little lacking in flavor, the brussel sprouts too mushy and the concord grape jelly almost an afterthought. I'd figured with such a rich sauce I'd get a flavorful, filling, meal. Unfortunately, it was none of the above. It fell flat...very flat, not even the serrano ham was enough to make me happy, and I believe anything that has ham or bacon is good in my book!

Needless to say I left Bar Boulud disappointed. While some items were a hit others left much to be desired. I wouldn't write the restaurant off and I'm sure there are other stand outs on the menu but I guess I'll have to go back and see what else they have to offer. I'd rate it a solid 3 out of 5 stars, so if you're in NY I would suggest trying it out. Let me know what you had and maybe you can convince me to  make a return trip!