A Variety of Dinners

This past week has seen some interesting and diverse dinners. Sunday night, I was in Miami and enjoyed a delicious dinner at this South Beach restaurant called On Ocean 7 Cafe. I ordered a mango mojito and salmon teriyaki. The mojito was fantastic and the salmon was very flavorful. The teriyaki sauce was super salty, but luckily, it was served on the side, so I enjoyed my salmon with the citrusy vinaigrette from my salad. It ended up being a great combination.

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Monday night, I was in the Miami airport and enjoyed a turkey sandwich on a baguette from ABP. It was a late lunch/early dinner and it held me over perfectly until late into the night. It was so fresh and delicious, which is super-rare for airport food. I was also starving since it was 4pm and I hadn't eaten since my 9am breakfast!  

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Tuesday night I went out to dinner with colleagues at this incredible French Bistro & Cafe, Parc Brasserie. It is hands-down one of my favorite restaurants in the city! I've only ever gone for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, but dinner was the best I've ever had in this city. I ordered salmon en croute, which was basically salmon in a pastry dough package with swiss chard and onions. It was spectacular. I also enjoyed a slice of their famous cranberry walnut bread from their bread basket. Post-dinner, I ordered an espresso since I knew I'd be up late working on my lab report! Everything was so delicious.

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Wednesday night, my friend invited me over for dinner and we enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It was so comforting and tasty. She used whole wheat bread and a slice each of swiss and provolone. The tomato soup was from Trader Joe's. She thought it was lacking in taste, but I thought it was pretty flavorful.

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And last night, I enjoyed a smoothie, which is easily one of my favorite dinners. I love that it's delicious, icy, cool, and filling. I love that it's slightly sweet and incredibly satisfying. Last fall, I started seeing bloggers posting about pumpkin smoothies all the time and I started getting the itch to experiment and come up with my own creation. I was thrilled with the product and I wanted to share it with you all! It was a light and perfect meal for the end of the week. I just took the ingredients below...

added them to the blender and in less than a few minutes, I had a delicious dinner, complete with protein, dairy, veggies, and fruit.

Here's the recipe:
Combine the following ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of ice cubes to create and icy smoothie.
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 banana
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Vega One Vanilla, but you could use any protein powder. I love the Whole Foods Vanilla Whey Protein Powder!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
stevia or splenda for added sweetness (optional - 1 to 2 packets)

Serve in a glass and sprinkle with cinnamon.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my dinners from this past week. And I definitely hope you try out this smoothie for a snack, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Let me know what you think. Enjoy! :-) xoxo

Housewarming Flowers

How pretty are these beautiful flowers?! My friend invited me over for dinner last night before Ash Wednesday mass and I eagerly accepted the invitation! On the menu were grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. How could I resist? I took the train back to the city from class and I headed to her house. It was my first time visiting her place and I knew that I wanted to bring a special gift...flowers! A beautiful bouquet brightens any room and adds so much love to a space.

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 I know of several flower shops in my neighborhood, but my friend lives in a different part of the city, and I wasn't familiar with flower shops in her neighborhood. I literally said a little prayer and the next thing I knew, there was a flower shop on the upcoming corner! I love when things happen like that. Praise the Lord! I stopped in and was the only female in a sea of at least 10 males placing their Valentine's Day orders for their wives and girlfriends. I smiled when I saw the florists helping these men pick out flowers. It was too cute!

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After walking around the tiny store, I spotted a few white hydrangeas in a pail and I immediately knew that they would need to go into this housewarming bouquet! We have a beautiful blue hydrangea bush at my parents' house and I have always loved their fullness, color, and relative sturdiness. They'll easily last a week or two if you change their water daily. I've always found it fascinating that hydrgangea color is dependent on soil pH and the presence or absence of aluminum. Soil containing aluminum produces blue hydrangeas, and aluminum-free soil produces pink hydrangeas. White hydrangeas aren't dependent on the presence or absence of aluminum, but require a low (acidic) pH in order to thrive.  Blue hydrangeas require a soil pH of 5.2-5.5, while pink hydrangeas require a slightly higher pH of 6.0-6.2. Just some interesting information that I wanted to share with you :-).

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With the knowledge that white hydrangeas would definitely be part of the arrangement, I headed over to the flower cooler and immediately feel in love with these beautiful calla lilies.

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I absolutely love calla lilies! They're so delicate and look spectacular in any arrangement. Those were definitely going into the bouquet! The florist came over and we discussed the arrangement and I told her my thoughts regarding the calla lilies and the white hydrangeas. She loved the idea and informed me that the calla lilies had just been shipped from Holland! Apparently, they regularly receive calla lily shipments from Holland. How cool is that?! The florist grabbed the flowers and headed into the back to assemble the bouquet. A few minutes later she emerged with this beautiful arrangement. The addition of eucalytpus leaves adds the perfect amount of green. With flowers in hand, I made my way to my friend's house. She loved the flowers and we cut the stems (under running water, of course!) and put them in a vase. They looked absolutely beautiful! What a perfect housewarming gift!

If you are struggling to find a gift for a friend or loved one, consider flowers. I was thinking that I would bake my friend some cookies, or buy her some fancy chocolates, but I chose flowers because they're timeless, special, and especially because she gave up chocolate for Lent! I hope you'll buy your friend, loved one (or yourself!) some flowers very soon! With Spring right around the corner, there's no better time than now...

xoxo

My first gel manicure!

Hello! So, after my organic chemistry class let out a bit early this morning, I decided to seize the day and get my very first gel manicure! As I walked to the train I googled "benefits of gel manicures" and read several articles and reviews of this 2010 manicure invention and decided that I needed to give this a try! I called my favorite nail salon and I booked an appointment and thirty minutes later, I was in love. I chose Lincoln Park After Dark because I'm really liking the dark bail polish look. It was a bit more expensive than a traditional manicure, but I think that it will be worth it, because all of the reviews indicate that a gel manicure remains glossy and chip-free for at least 3 weeks. Woohoo! Here's the final result! What do you think? Have you ever tried a gel manicure? Xoxo

Miami!

Hello and happy Fat Tuesday! I hope you enjoy your King's cakes and breakfasts for dinner tonight! I'm going out to a French Brasserie with coworkers tonight, but I'm determined to order eggs so that I can continue the breakfast for dinner Mardi Gras tradition. It was always either French toast or pancakes and I can clearly remember my category 3 hurricanes swim practice and how I would rush out of the pool and shower extra quickly so that I could head home to breakfast for dinner ASAP. Yummers! Anyhoo, I wish I were home to celebrate the occasion with my family. We'd always have a King's cake and we'd hide a baby inside and whoever got the piece of cake containing the baby would have good luck for the rest of the year. Let me tell you, I could most certainly use some luck, but I'll have to live vicariously through all of your king cake baby-winning pieces. Will you let me? Please?

So, back to the intended purpose of this post! I was in Miami this past weekend for a conference! I flew in a day early to have a whole day to hang out with my cousin who recently moved to Miami for work! She picked me up from the airport and we had a blast exploring south beach, the University of Miami, coconut grove, miracle mile, and the bay of biscayne. It was so much fun! The meeting started bright and early on Sunday, but the breaks allowed us to walk and sunbathe in the eighty degree heat! It was fantastic! The meeting room overlooked the bay of biscayne and we could see all the people jet skiing and boating and sailing. It was incredible. My coworkers and I enjoyed dinner in south beach on a water-front porch. We sipped mango mojitos the size of my head and feasted on delicious seafood. It was perfect! I caught the end of the Grammys on Sunday night and headed home yesterday afternoon after sunbathing on the pool deck. It was the most perfect mid-winter trip!! I came back with a little color, a lot more vitamin d, and a brand new pink Bobbi Brown blush that was a gift from my cousin :-). Here are some pictures from my trip. Enjoy! :-) xoxo

Blueberry Muffins!

Hello there and Happy Sunday! I can't believe that it's already February and I can't believe that it's Super Bowl Sunday! Here's a special treat that you still have time to make for your game-day party. Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins
from the kitchen of my aunt Anne 

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 3/4 cup flour, plus 1 tablespoon (set aside)
2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries

Directions:
In a mixer, add butter and sugar and beat for two minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat for one minute. Add milk and vanilla and mix until combined. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and blend only to combine. Do not overmix! In another small bowl, combine one cup blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour to coat blueberries and prevent them from falling to the bottom of the batter.

Fold blueberries into batter. Scoop 1/3 of a cup of batter into 12 lined muffin tin cups. This batter will make exactly 12, so if you end up having extra batter at the end, divide evenly among tin cups. Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool in pan for 2 minutes and then allow muffins to cool on cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.

Serve warm or cool, whichever you prefer. 

If there are any leftovers, be sure to store them in an airtight tin, where they'll keep for one week. 

Enjoy! :-) xoxo