monday already?
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 22, 2009
hello friends. just wanted to check in, although i am feeling really crappy. i spent all weekend up visiting family, which was fun but stressful at the same time. there was lots of good food on saturday for my cousin’s graduation party – including homemade stuffed cabbage and homemade kielbasa (omg swoon!) and my mom made a homemade tray of chocolates:
so i tried to make good food choices, and didnt walk away stuffed, but i definitely could have done better. oh well – you win some, you lose some. yesterday was my great grandfather’s 99th birthday! most of the food didnt appeal to me, so i had a little bit, and then had some snacks in the car. by the end of the night i could tell my body was craving vegetables! the bf and i went to sam’s grill where i housed a small veggie quesadilla and a big plate of grilled veggies. i felt so much better after that!
today has been totally blah. i just walked in the door about 20 minutes ago, and ugh am i irritated! i just want to go for a run… but i was feeling totally dehydrated, and knew that i wouldnt eat dinner until 10pm… so i opted to stay home. hopefully tomorrow will be better! it’s been forever since i’ve gone for a run… i need to hop back on that band wagon, stat.
it’s never sunny in philadelphia
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 19, 2009
So its been quite a week, huh? I wish the sun had come out more than once, but cest la vie. We’ve had some pretty good eats this week… I stopped by trader joes on Monday to get my groceries for the week – check out this loot! I was pleased – I hardly ever get all my groceries from TJ’s, but this week I gave it a shot, and it wasn’t any more money than I would have spent at the acme! The bf doesn’t understand why I insist on TJ’s, but I (like most of you out there) like understanding all the ingredients that are in my food!
Anyway: some fruits + veggies: eggplant, zucchini (my fave!), naners, tomaters, and an asian stir fry mix that has some peppers, onions, squash, water chestnuts, baby corn, etc. This was pretty good, but I could do without the water chestnuts, etc and next time will prob just stick to my usual peppers&onions. (oh and check out those naners – they were huge and only$0.19 a piece!
Main courses: frozen chicken breasts, marinated pork tenderloin, asian marinated beef slices, three cheese ravs, and mozz cheese
And the rest of it: soyaki (soy sauce + teriyaki!) sauce for our stir fry, which was ok. A little too sweet maybe… some of the best tomato sauce from a jar that I’ve ever had (reminded me of my mom’s!), whole wheat spaghetti, Israeli couscous, and OMG edamame crackers. These are ADDICTING, and I highly recommend them.
Dinner this week was ehh. Monday I tried roasting the eggplant and made “eggplant parm” ravioli… I tossed the ravs with half the roasted eggplant, the delicious sauce, and some chopped mozz cheese. It was pretty good. I could do better with the eggplant, but Robert loved it, so that was good at least.
Tuesday was a pretty easy stirfry, which was pretty good… like I said, the sauce was kind of sweet.
Wednesday was a great surprise – my uncle was in town and he took me out to dinner! We went to this little Mediterranean place in the middle of nowhere, and I tried babaganoush for the first time! WOW! I might even like this better than hummus! My main course was Monday’s dinner, only with pasta instead of ravs. And I ate my uncle’s side of string beans for dessert :) he thought I was crazy. (oh and two little glasses of some delish white wine!)
Yesterday was my favorite dinner this week: marinated pork tenderloin with Israeli couscous mixed with veggies – the zuch, the rest of the eggplant from Monday, and some yummy maters. I was a little disappointed bc I usually cook all my rice, etc in chicken broth but completely forgot! So it was a little bland, but I just added a drizzle of butter+garlic for flavor, and topped it with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and it made all the difference! I made the pork for Robert, and had a few pieces, but I was mainly interested in my couscous and veggies. I went back for half a bowl of seconds… Super yum!
Working out this week was sort of a bust. My legs had still been bothering me since my road race on Thursday, and I was just feeling so blah! Yesterday I went for my first run in a week, and couldn’t get into it. I ran/walked for a half hour, but I wish there was more running and less walking. Oh well! I’m just glad I got nice and sweaty at least once this week J oooo and I did buy some new shorts at city sport last night – pretty colors, and a zipper pocket. For 10 bucks! Gotta love it.
Tonight I’m meeting my gf’s and their bf’s for drinks outside in manayunk, soaking up the dry weather while we can! (mind you, we’re not soaking up the sun – it went back behind the clouds, booo) the rest of the weekend is chock full of family parties – we’re celebrating my cousin’s 8th grade graduation, and my great-grandfather’s 99th birthday! This man is like the energizer bunny! Here is a pic of the whole gang last year! Can you believe there are 4 generations in this picture?
What’s on everyone’s agenda for the weekend?
what’s the use in feeling guilty?
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 17, 2009
hello friends,
i’m still fighting with myself over not going to the gym yesterday… i just was not in the mood to muster up the energy to run! luckily i’ve gotten in the habit of changing right into my gym clothes, so after i had a chat with my mom i could at least manage to do some exercises at home! i ended up doing two workout tv “videos” (gotta love on-demand exercise tv!) one was yoga, and one was pilates for legs. i liked both of them, i just felt so stiff that i couldn’t get the most out of the exercises. but i was glad to at least move around a little bit!
i’m working on not feeling guilty about things though. if i’ve picked up one thing from bethenny frankel’s book so far, it’s that you shouldn’t be beating yourself up over your choices. the most important thing is to take care of yourself. i’m slowly coming into this habit… but it creeps up on you when you least expect it, so i am trying to catch myself with my fat talk, and guilty talk/thoughts. it’s hard work!
(speaking of fat talk, check out that link above. caitlin at healthy tipping point is starting “operation beautiful,” making it her mission to put healthy, happy thoughts into women’s heads - and i think we should all join her! i know i will be 
)
anyway, i will update again later with some yummy pictures from my trip to trader joe’s on monday… and the yummy dinner that i made with all the goodies! in the meantime, have a good afternoon!
stuck in a rut… again
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 16, 2009
how do i get out of this horrible rut? i got home late from work and just want to relax. how do you all stay motivated?
another week, another monday
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 15, 2009
- In: Menu Monday
- 1 Comment
hello friends!
hope everyone’s weekend went swimmingly. this weekend was spent bumming around, reading, napping, cleaning. oh and we ran into an old friend from my last job on saturday night and ended up having a fantastic time! we went to a place in wayne, pa that’s known for its beer menu (robert is such a beer snob ) and sat right next to these two guy that i knew (and had 3 glasses of wine!) , then went outside where there was a jazz festival and we danced in the streets until it was time to go see the hangover… which of course caused us to laugh until our faces hurt. it was a fantastic evening, and i hope you all had a great weekend too! otherwise this weekend was spent reading naturally thin by bethenny frankel – so expect a full review shortly!
anyway, back to business. food shopping tonight – here’s what’s on the menu:
monday – eggplant parm ravioli. rachel ray has a great recipe in her latest magazine, but robert decided that was too much work haha. so pretty much i’m getting the frozen ravs, roasting some eggplant, and tossing with some sauce. let’s see how this goes!
tuesday – beef stirfry. again no real recipe, just beef + all the fresh veggies that i can convince robert to eat + soy sauce + brown rice.
wednesday – pesto chicken packets courtesy of my gf rachel ray
thursday – pork tenderloin (prob already marinated, etc from trader joes) and israeli couscous with all the leftover veggies from the rest of the week (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, etc) yum! this is the meal i am looking forward to the most (mainly just for the couscous!)
sunday – linguine con vongole - i have been craving this forever! maybe i will even get fancy and buy clams in the shell somewhere….
anyway that’s all i’ve got for now… hopefully later this evening i’ll be able to go for a run – my shins have been killing me after my first outdoor run last thursday :-/ fingers crossed!
what are you making for dinner tonight?
oh cool
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 12, 2009
- In: Races
- Leave a Comment
so i ran my first race! it was only a mile, but it was a big step for me. i felt anxious all day because i thought robert was going to be at class, and i wasnt sure if i’d make it out of work in time for the race, and the race itself was being held by the bryn mawr running company (aka freaking hard core runners!) so i was freaking out. but i got out in time, and robert’s class was cancelled (it made me super happy when i turned the last corner and saw him waiting for me!) and i made my one mile in 12:40. woot! i could have gone a few seconds faster but the finish line was a little confusing and i started walking before i got there. whoops! i think i might have been the only person to run the mile instead of the 5k (except maybe one hard-core dude who must have been trying to PR), so i guess that means i got first?! or last, haha. ohh well – it was fun anyway! i think my favorite part was when i realized that somehow a car had gotten on the road behind us and i was running in the middle of the road and he couldn’t get by! silly minivan. 
this race is part of a three-race series, and i’m hoping to run the 5k for the next two times. that was another thing i was nervous about… when i first read about the race they said that the race would start at 7pm, and awards would follow at 7:25. ahh! i can hardly run 2 miles in 25 minutes, let alone 3.1! but yesterday really set me at ease, and i saw that a lot of people were running up into the 40 minute mark, so i breathed a sigh of relief. i am getting excited to run in a race again! less than a month now
part of our registration fee included one free beer at the local bar. there were a few other runners there, and when they said they would need to collect my bib for me to get a free beer i had a mini panic attack. eventually i decided that i would just buy my beer in exchange for my bib back – and i wasn’t the only one! i didnt feel as crazy once the other people were keeping their numbers too… i had a nice little chat with another runner who said it was his second race and that it was worth the extra $4 to keep this little memento. i’m glad someone felt the same as i did! eventually we convinced the owner to let us get the free beer and keep our bibs anyway. what a cool night!
well thats all the excitement that i can handle for right now… off to plop in front of the tv and watch game 7 of the stanley cup finals with robert! go penguins
well i made the menu on monday, does that count?
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 9, 2009
ok ok so we’re just going to pretend that 5 day hiatus didnt count, kapeesh? nothing exciting happened, and i dont feel like recapping the food. (although i did bring robert to flemings on saturday, thanks to jenna for letting us in on their happy hour secret! we split the calamari, crab cakes, shrimp, and carpacchio, and i had a basil lemondrop (omg so good!) and the white cosmo. it was a great night!)
anyway, so let’s pretend it’s monday. here goes:
monday: we finally got those damn swedish meatballs all cooked and eaten! theyve been on the menu for 3 weeks now! i had a portion of meatballs, and a larger portion of egg noodles. i swear i could live on egg noodles!
tuesday: baked salmon brushed with evoo, salt+pepper, steamed broc and brown rice. all drizzled with a balsamic+agave reduction (hmm robert wasnt a fan of the vinegar smell permeating our apartment haha – but it tasted yummy!)
here’s the picture of robert’s dish – my picture didnt turn out as well. maybe we have another budding blogger on our hands?!
wednesday: my new favorite way to eat pesto sauce… courtesy of rach, of course. but instead of sausage + mozz balls, the boy is going to eat regular sausage and i am trying the sundried tomato chicken kind!
thursday: dinner is up in the air. i am running my first race on thursday (a one-miler, but i’m excited anyway!) so we will probably grab something quick afterwards. i am way excited for my race!
anyway so this morning started out like all other mornings… yogurt + kashi + fruit (blueberries) + tea. i was ready to gnaw my arm off by lunch, and i was so excited to eat it! i packed my lunch today for the first time in a million years (our new client has crappy food options. blech.) i had a whole grain pita stuffed with sabra red pepper hummus, feta cheese, 2 slices of turkey, tomatoes, and spinach. it was so yummy! and i had my dad’s “famous” cabbage salad on the side… which is basically chopped cabbage and italian dressing. it’s so good – and its even better when it has time to marinate, so it will be especially scrumptious later this week. i was starving again around 3pm, so i munched on some snacks – carrot sticks and a string cheese, and a kudos bar. i usually dont eat all three (i pack them because you’ll never know if i’ll be craving salty or sweet) but i was so hungry! and then on the way home i was starving again! i didnt think i ran that far yesterday! (19 min). i stopped at trader joes to get the rest of my groceries for the week.. what a mistake going in there while i was starving! i walked out with mostly snacks – 2 bags of rice chips (salt and pepper. my fave!) 1 bag of unsalted pb pretzels, and one bag of choco covered pretzel crisps. i’ve been dying to try these! in between doing my laundry i was able to settle down with some real housewives and a small plate of all three. i knew dinner wouldn’t be until later, so i didnt feel too guilty for splurging!
hmm still dont know how to rotate my pics!
oh and my beverage of choice this week is a huge gallon of unsweetened mint tea from TJ’s! i tried a snapple for the first time in a while at lunch today (desperate times, desperate measures) and it was SO GROSS. i threw it out. it wasnt worth the 210 calories. blech. this tea is so delicious, and is perfectly wonderful without any sweetener!
dinner was the salmon above, and dessert was a few more of those delish pretzel crisps:
yum yum yum!
anyway, thanks for letting me slide over the weekend 
this has been a good week, and i can’t wait til thursday! what’s your fastest one-mile pace? mine is like 8.5 (or so says my nike+)… i guess we’ll see what it will be on thursday!
Wear Sunscreen
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 4, 2009
Who remembers this song?! Can you believe it’s been 12 years since we first heard it? I was in a store this morning buying my banana and it was on – and then it just came on my ipod a few minutes ago. i feel like a dork but i love this song, and kind of wish i named my blog something from it! anyway i heard this little nugget of advice, and wanted to share it with all of you. hopefully it will inspire you the way it does me!
“Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.”
ok ok i can’t just stop at one – these little gems sing to me too:
“Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.”
“Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.”
hope youre all having a great day! love you all
new friends
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 4, 2009
- In: Cooking | Goals | Planting
- Leave a Comment
hello everyone! thanks to bobbi’s reader’s challenge, i actually feel like i have people reading my blog now. hooray! i look forward to learning more about everyone as i continue this blogging journey
anyway i know i said i’d update last night, but i suck. i promised myself that i would keep my computer in the office so that i’d actually get a chance to unplug when i get home from work, and since i had some real housewives to catch up on, i just didnt make it back to that room last night. (mind you i could hardly even keep my eyes open to finish watching my favorite divas, but thats a different story!)
anyway since its been so long since i’ve posted, i’m going to zoom through this. one of these days i will become a more regular blogger… i hope you understand
soo menu monday. ha i suck at sticking to menus! monday i got home and was in a GRUMPY mood. i dragged myself to the gym and did some strength training, but couldnt muster up the energy to cook. the bf and i got individual pizzas from felicia’s in ardmore. i got a “veggie” pizza (aka broccoli, haha. i was disappointed.) and i ate THE WHOLE THING. oy. it was good though, and i mean it wasnt that big! hehe.
tuesday i was able to snag a picture of my goodies for the day:
so to break it down for ya – breakfast was yogurt + kashi, grapes, and tea (no surprise there)… lunch was a grilled chicken, sharp prov, tomato, pepper sammy from the cafe downstairs – oh and a side of the best roasted asparagus i’ve ever had. holy yum. snack was the string cheese and carrots… and dinner – despite eating the carrots with the intention of portion control at dinner… was a big bowl of pad thai that i had while out with some work friends. hopefully the fact that we laughed all the way through dinner meant i had a good ab workout
wednesday was the standard breakfast (second verse, same as the first) but with a naner instead of the grapes. i also had a morning snack because i was helping out with a recruiting event at work and wasnt sure when i’d be able to eat, so i had the string cheese early. the recruiting event stressed me out, so when i got to lunch, i made a beeline for the calzone line… oops. but my spinach and chicken calzone (with the fluffiest ricotta ever!) was SO GOOD. so i didnt feel too bad i skipped the carrots for snack, but had a kudos bar instead. i know these have like zero nutritional value, but it was just the right amount of chocolate that it works for me. i headed to the gym where i ran the first day of yesterday’s training schedule (15 minutes running +5 min warmup/7 min cool down = 2.37 miles!)dinner was taco pasta salad, which robert officially said is his favorite of my meals! i have to admit its so good, and i had this portion… and then another. oops!
finally today – breakfast was the same as yesterday (its so much easier to do breakfast when you have a routine!) and lunch is currently the best salad ever! again from the same little cafe downstairs (pagano’s market, if anyone is interested!) i’ve never had a salad there because i was never overly impressed with their salad bar, but today it was calling my name – it had everything i love! i had only a little bit of spring mix, topped with lots of garlicky asparagus, snap peas + tomatoes, fresh green beans, grilled eggplant (omg this is my favorite part!), grilled chicken, and a little taste of pasta salad. i am in love. oh and honest tea moroccan mint green tea on the side. heaven.
i almost forgot to mention that i tried my first yerba mate tea tuesday! it was honest tea’s tropical version of yerba mate, and it was pretty good! i had it again yesterday and thought it was a little too sweet, but as a once-in-a-while drink, its tasty. i love these honest teas – they are usually just right – not too sweet. my fav.
oh! and guess what?! our little garden is finally coming along. i present to you our first tomato!
who else is growing a garden this year? what are you growing?
Quick Running Update
Posted by: cassedy04 on: June 3, 2009
- In: Goals
- 3 Comments
ok ok so i havent posted in a while. i promise i will have a decent post later tonight. in the meantime, i found this great training program for a 5k from runners world that looks perfect for the next four weeks. i was using couch to 5k, but kind of fell off track with the wedding and haven’t been able to jump back on board. this will work perfectly with my midsummer night’s runs! my first 5k is july 9, so the timing is impeccable. hooray!
Week 1:
Tues 15 min.
Thur 17 min.
Weekend
Long Run 2.5 miles
Week 2:
Tues 17 min.
Thur 20 min.
Weekend
Long Run 3 miles
Week 3:
Tues 20 min.
Thur 20 min.
Weekend
Long Run 3.5 miles
Week 4:
Tues 20 min.
Thur 20 min.
Weekend
Long Run 5-K race
