Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives: Stop #1

The man and I have toyed with the idea of visiting the hot spots that Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives raves about, whenever we have the chance. Well, today seemed like a great day to start our little adventure!

Today we made our way to Corey's Catsup and Mustard- The Burger Bar located in Manchester, Connecticut. While driving down Main Street, we didn't know if we were in the right area but there it was on the corner, a little brick building with a pretty noticeable sign with none other than a burger and it's appropriate condiments.

For 1230 in the afternoon, the place was full and there was a wait time of about 30 minutes. The bar was lined up with men feasting their eyes on burgers, beers, and basketball, the Uconn game was on.

After we sat, ordered our drinks it was time to go over their menu.

They had a lot of choices which you can see if you check out their website. Most of them looked pretty good. I liked how if you wanted, you could substitute a veggie burger or turkey burger, which it seems most places do now.

One item that caught my eye was the Jersey Shore burger. It wasn't the ingredients that triggered my interest, but the bottom line "Snooki Approved". Really, they had to go there?

I ended up choosing their Rodeo Burger. Whenever I'm in the mood for a burger, the combination just screams my name. For me personally, anything with BBQ sauce tastes good....it's just something I have always loved and won't live my life without. To be different I did order it with their pretzel roll.

It took a little longer than expected to come out, and I was about ready to chew my own hand off! (Ok, a little less drama, please!) So I occupied myself with a little table top menu browsing.

I didn't see this episode of DD&D, but I'm sure this is what was featured. Interesting combinations, not sure I would try them. I would be interested to see how many people do get them though? It's like a BBQ in your mouth for one and brunch for the other. The middle one, LOTS of things going on...ok moving on.

I thought I would test myself since I've given up sweets. Yeah, all I'm going to say is come Easter, I know where I'm going to get my dessert on.

Finally, FOOD!

So how many pictures can you take of a burger? A lot I suppose, but I stopped at four.  

I only ate half the burger which allowed me to satisfy my craving and tried to remain mindful that I am getting married in three months.

My review: I thought the place was cool. Not too big, not too small. The atmosphere was upbeat, but cozy in it's own way. The service was good and the people were friendly. The burgers were juicy and the chef and I give them 7/10 (0 being really bad, to 10 being the exact opposite of really bad). I enjoyed the pretzel bun but probably wouldn't get it again. I would definitely go back, but try a turkey burger or chicken sandwich. They do have a variety of items that I know I would enjoy. 

All in all, good day with this handsome guy.

Hrm, where will our next adventure take us?!?

No sweatin' the sweets day one

Well, so far so good. Those yummy cookies I baked the other day, you know the ones that that oozed with chocolate and butterscotch, that called out to me every time I walked near the kitchen. Well, they were removed from the house today *tear* and given to my family and friends. Better off near them than wasted since our house is a NO SWEETS ZONE.

Today started off nice and early, thanks to my lovely other half who decided to blast some sort of music from a website right next to my once peacefully sleeping ear. He is lucky that I'm still not 100% and it's too much effort to speak to have made a nasty comment.

Breakfast: Wasn't in the mood to make anything extreme, so made up a nice chocolate peanut butter smoothie to enjoy in my most favorite mug (at the moment, it changes well regularly!)

I spent the morning getting some wedding things figured out in regards to flowers. When I first started all the wedding planning, my vision for the wedding was unclear. Now I know that I am definitely in a traditional romantic theme with little hints of Melissa flair. It's all coming together quite nicely!

Since I was out and about with two of my favorite girls today we decided to stop at Panera Bread for a late lunch.

Lunch: I chose the BBQ chopped chicken salad again and because I was so hungry I failed at photographing my food before it went into my belly. Food bloggin' FAIL! Here's a repeat, not very appealing picture of my favorite salad of the moment. (It does not compare to Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad BUT being that that salad is over 1200 calories, I think I'll pick my battles!)

My sister, and my BF Lauren helped me to get a lot accomplished today with the flowers, and we were able to get my centerpieces figured out. Now I am in full blown wedding planning mode again. So off to do more planning! I leave you with a little tidbit of my future.....

But everything will be much better than this. *Big smile*

Lent + Sweets + Inactivity

So today marks the beginning of 40 days where some people give up something important to them, and some don't. While I do not want to get into my religious beliefs on this blog, I am going to participate in the Lent ritual. I have decided that during Lent this year, I will be saying "NO" to sweets, meaning all of them. *shudder* AND committing to 40 days of exercise and physical activity.

The best part....the man is doing it with me! Well, I'm not going to hold my breathe on the exercising part. But, he did say he would support me and go the no sweet street with me as well. Yay!

There will be no couch potato days like this......

Disclaimer: Old photo from *bad* camera and disregard upside down cushion. The man does not notice the things that so irk this woman!

There will be no indulgences like this.....

The picture may not be great but hands down the best bread pudding with caramel sauce I have EVER had!

Since the title of this blog screams what I'm passionate about, anything paired with chocolate tastes better, it'll definitely make for a challenge. But, I guess I'll just have to settle for my other love in life...KISSES!!!

I'm hoping by committing to 40 days straight of exercise that it'll get me back into my old habits where I loved to get up early in the morning before the man, and get a great workout in. I felt better, I had more energy, and I got a lot more accomplished. Plus, it'll help me feel better for MY WEDDING! 93 days and counting.....

Sick Day

It figures that I would get sick again. It's been every month since October, it seems. So yesterday was not a fun day by any means. But, it could have been worse. So we will keep an open mind and remember that somewhere else, someone else is far worse than you. Moving on.

My appetite and food choices yesterday were definitely affected by how lousy I felt. I skipped breakfast because I couldn't even swallow and food was the last thing on my mind. The food I did eat, wasn't exciting and taking pictures was not in the agenda. So today is a new day.

Again, didn't start the day off right with breakfast. So let's move on to lunch.

Kim's light onion bagel with a few squirts of butter spray and penne vegetable soup. It wasn't a gourmet meal, but it hit the spot and the nice warm broth soothed my sore throat.

I may or may not have also eaten this cookie.

I'm hoping that I'll begin to feel better and be able to entice you all with my fabulous cooking & baking, sooner than later. Until then, hope everyone is having a glorious day. I feel spring in our near future!

Only a small amount of snow left. Let's hope it stays that way!

Mom, please let us go outside!

Sleepy Beast

-1

I think I may have too much on my mind, because this girl could not fall asleep last night. I was up tossing, turning, getting up, turning the tv on then off, until 5 this morning. Now you ask what time did I wake up? Between 830 and 9. Based on the math, and my typical sleep pattern... it's going to be a long day. As the man said "I'm glad I'm going to work!" Snot.


Despite my lack of sleep, my sore throat and wheezing problem I did make us breakfast this morning. It's nice having him home in the morning even if it's only for a few hours!

Scrambled eggs with s&p, paprika, chili powder, parsley and shredded cheddar (because cheese makes everything better!). On the side sausage, and his & hers bagels. I had a Kim's onion bagel, while the man enjoyed a Thomas' everything bagel. I have to admit, breakfast was quite tasty.

Shortly after the man went to work, it was time for me to finally experiment with some baking in the kitchen. I have way too many recipes I want to try from all the wonderful blogs I follow! Today's winner: Chocolate Butterscotch Cheesecake Cookies from the blog Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. The only changes I made, I used splenda for the sugar and brown sugar splenda instead of plain brown sugar.

These taste like cake cookies! They are delicious.....note to self: must bring to work tomorrow, must get them out of the house.

Dinner: Baked Chicken in the form of legs....yum!

Ingredients: Chicken legs (amount varies depending on how much you want!), salt & pepper, paprika, garlic powder, parsley, crush red pepper, olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Dry chicken before placing in pan or bowl (so seasoning will stick better). Drizzle chicken with olive oil, add all seasonings to coat chicken thoroughly. Place in oven, bake for about 40 minutes, turning once. Change oven to broil, broil for a few minutes on each side until skin is as crispy as you like. The end.

This chicken just fell off the bone, so good. The flavors from the seasonings and the crispiness of the skin was definitely on point. It was an easy dish to prepare that packed a protein punch without hassle. It'll be added to one of our go to meals! 


Now it's time to continue on with my wedding planning. Finally got the save the dates done (3 months late! grrr). Now going to figure out flowers, centerpieces and favors. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Weekend Love

I have an every other weekend type of job. So when it was time to clock out Friday night at 1230 am, I was a happy lil' nurse. For the weekend, my job is done. I don't have make anyone feel better this weekend, but myself. There are no patients, doctors, call bells, IVs, medications, or chaos.... and it feels wonderful.

Today started off a little later than I wanted, didn't feel like getting out of bed until 10 am! All things considered, based on the time I go to bed it's only 7 hours of sleep so it's okay.

The first thing that popped into this girl's head....breakfast. Made his and hers breakfast sandwiches with wheat toast, two eggs, low fat provolone and a piece of bacon. Again drizzled with cholula goodness. I was so hungry I failed to take a picture before devouring it. So it kind of looked exactly like this.

I have a to do list that I WILL accomplish today. It involves some good stuff and some tedious things, but like I said before, no work. The main event of the day: baking something that involves my one true love, chocolate.

Grilled Cheese, Yes Please

-2 lbs
When I got home from work last night, I was starving. My usual self would put her stuff done, go get cleaned up/change in pjs and then make my way back to the kitchen. My usual self would then find some kind of food product to munch on, whether it be some tortilla chips, left overs, etc. My usual self would then go to bed after eating and wake up feeling like crap. But I am not my usual self anymore. I'm a changing girl trying to make lifestyle changes, which includes....not eating crap when I get home.

I actually was able to fall asleep shortly after getting home. As the man says "I was touching your feet and you didn't move." If you know me, anything touching my feet brings this girl into a 3 year old tantrum moment. I HATE FEET! And worse, I hate when you touch MY FEET with YOUR FEET.

I should own this shirt.

When I woke up this morning, I was very excited for my breakfast. I fell asleep thinking about it actually. Grilled cheese for breakfast, um YES.

Two pieces of wheat bread, low fat provolone cheese and ham. All toasty and melted by none other than the George Foreman. He is my best friend. He makes cooking fast and delicious with a very easy clean up.

It's another work day today. So my in between breakfast (kind of like lunch) and dinner, I'm going to make a smoothie. Definitely inspired by Julie because how could you not want to make something she is so excited about!

In the mix

1 cup milk

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1/2 frozen banana

1 tbsp Teddie peanut butter

A little xantham gum 

Can't wait to try it! Hope everyone has a great day! I'm excited I have the weekend off which means I actually get to cook!

Breakfast X 2

-0.5 lbs
Who doesn't love breakfast? I could eat breakfast for all three meals of the day. I don't think the mister would like that much though.

Breakfast #1: Two pieces of whole wheat toast topped with Teddie Peanut Butter and a banana. Now I understand why so many of you healthy living bloggers eat this every morning!

The only catch for me, I developed a sensitivity to bananas. I use to eat one every day without a problem. Then one day I started to get nauseous after eating them, I would get dizzy and I almost passed out in Home Depot. So I stopped eating them. But every once in a while I try to eat them again, only to have the same thing happen. My love for bananas runs deep so today is one of those days where I'm going to eat one. I'll let you know how it goes.

The man also was kind enough to get me my iced coffee fix. He loves me!

Breakfast #2: Between breakfast and going to work I don't have much time, but I do need to eat something. It is not healthy to eat at 9 am and then not again until 6. So, sometimes I have a smoothie, or a protein bar with some babybel cheese. Today, I made the time and decided I wanted to have a few eggs. So I had two eggs overhard with a piece of lean ham. I think it will give me the protein punch that gets me through to dinner!

Dinner: Salad! Can't go wrong.

In the mix
Romaine Lettuce
Shredded Carrots
Cucumber
Green bell pepper
Slivered almonds
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Grilled chicken tenders
Ken's Steak House Lite Caesar Dressing

All packed up and ready to enjoy at work. Now it's time to get some things done before having to go to work. Let's hope for a good night!

100 days

- 2 lbs (Decided I'm going to post my daily weight gain/loss in the beginning of the post. That way it's a slap in my face every time I log on :-) We shall see!)

In 100 days I'll be getting my hair done, having my make up be all pretty and wearing the white dress. I can't explain in words how excited I am, but I can explain how nervous I am to be the "spotlight" of the day. I am not good with attention, pictures, or compliments. So for the next 100 days, I'm going to have to psych myself into accepting those three things that terrify me the most about our special day. I'm sure that I'll be so happy that day that it won't phase me, I hope.

Today is a good day. I get to spend it with my man, who I've missed terribly. His schedule has always been an issue being that he works in a restaurant, but I've only recently started to be upset about it. I think it's because I see how hard he works and how little they respect him at his job. Also, we will be starting a family sooner than later and I don't want him to miss seeing our children grow up. So, we are yet again on the job search, we'll get it right one day!

Breakfast: I was craving a breakfast sandwich today. So I took 1 egg + 2 egg whites, added a few tablespoons of shredded mozzarella, a piece of bacon and put it on two pieces of wheat toast. Of course I drizzled cholula all over it.

It was scrumptious!

Lunch: We were out and about getting errands done today so we stopped at Panera Bread. I got the BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad. It was fantabulous.

Of course on our adventures I got an iced coffee. I have an addiction. Although, I do not need one every day. So, I'm good. *smile*

Dinner: Tonight I made a version of chicken marsala but with pork instead. I got the recipe idea out of my Eat what you Love cookbook. I had been eyeing it multiple times at Costco but didn't want to splurge. Being that Borders is going out of business in EVERY place I can go to, I decided to do some shopping. Maybe I'll show you what I got at the end of this post. Now back to dinner. The recipe calls for pork tenderloin, but I had some pork chops in the freezer that I needed to use up.


20 Minute Pork Marsala
Ingredients
1 lb pork tenderloin, well trimmed (like I said, I used the chops)
2 tsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste (I omitted this since I didn't have it on hand)
1 tsp flour
1/2 cup dry marsala 
1/2 cup red wine or reduced sodium beef broth (I used beef broth)
8 oz or 2 cups mushrooms
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley


~Cut the tenderloin into 3/4 inch thick slices and pound to 1/8 inch thickness. This is a great way to get your frustrations out. 
~Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add the cutlets, and brown for about 1 minute on each side. Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.
~Heat the oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. In a small bowl, whisk together the tomato paste, flour, marsala, and red wine or beef broth, add mushrooms and pour into pan. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender. Add butter and stir.
~Return cutlets to the pan, turn in the sauce, and heat until warm. Garnish with parsley.

The End. We changed it up a little bit by using the pork chops. We browned them in the pan and then put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms were sauteed in the pan with minced garlic and olive oil before adding the wine & beef broth. We also omitted the tomato paste and then added some caramelized onions on top. I had a craving so I gave in! On the side, some green beans that are always delicious.

When you cook from a recipe, do you always follow it or change it to your liking? When I cook, I take what I like and then what I know to form a recipe that hopefully tastes good!

Now it's time to get some wedding stuff done in the last hours of the evening. My mantra for today:

It's not a new diet, it's a new way of life.

Goodbye February. Hello March!

I can't believe that it is March already! Woohoo! The countdown to many wonderful things can start.

My April Vacation: 53 days

My 28th birthday: 56 days

Our Jack & Jill: 60 days!

My Bachelorette Party: Who knows!

Our "dating" anniversary: 86 days!

Our wedding: 101 days!

Our honeymoon: 103 days!

Now that I've made myself excited and scared at the same time, let's talk eats.

Breakfast: After not really eating breakfast for the past week, I was craving some eggs. So, 1 egg + 2 egg whites, cooked over "hard" (Is that really a term?). I hate runny eggs, I know it doesn't taste bad but it is just something I won't eat because of appearance and texture. We all have our own internal battles! I paired that with 3 pieces of turkey sausage. I have no fruit in the house, so to the store I go today!

Lunch: Lunch was on the go. I made a chocolate banana peanut butter smoothie.

In the mix
1/2 cup non fat milk
1/2 frozen cut up banana
6 oz. plain fat free chobani yogurt
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 tbsp peanut butter

It was good. I also took two yummy babybel cheeses for when my stomach started to grumble.

Coffee: It's sunny, the birds are chirping, and I'm craving warmth. So Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee run was expected. I got a medium french vanilla with skim milk and 2 splenda. I know that there are many mixed reactions to splenda. While reading some of the information, it definitely makes you think. I guess you just have to choose what you like/believe in. I'll have to go over this decision again.

Dinner: Dinner was by myself, AGAIN. So, I decided I was in the mood for a salad. When it starts to get nicer out, we all just crave lighter food options. Maybe I should move somewhere warmer so my mind stays in the right place ALL the time!

In the mix
Romaine Lettuce
Shredded Carrots
Green Pepper
1 oz. low fat shredded mozzarella cheese
1 serving of slivered almonds
2 tbsp. Newman's Own Italian Dressing
3 oz. ham sliced

It was satisfying and didn't leave me feeling awful like the pizza (I shouldn't have eaten) last night. Note to self: Just because it tastes good going in, doesn't mean it makes you feel good.


On that note, I really enjoyed reading Julie's post from PBF yesterday. It really is about motivating yourself and the mantras that she posted, gave me a new outlook. It's always a battle with yourself. Eat this, do this, exercise this much, lose this, blahblahblah. Over and over and over again. You have to find what works for you that gives you the motivation to obtain your goals. So for today my mantra is.....

If you keep doing what you are doing, you are always going to look the way you are lookin'.

Well based on today, I think I'll be lookin' mighty hot one day. *smile*