February 19, 2015

Bits & Bites! (is back)

February 19, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

What's uppp it'sss Thursday night! Taco night in this casa! As I've mentioned, I went through a total food-creativity slump end of Dec/beginning of Jan that I recently pulled myself out of in a major way. Things are getting allll creative up in here lately and it's been fun! That being said, the creativity is mainly taking place during dinner. I'm not much of a lunch gal... ah, let me re-phrase that - lunch is my dream on days off, at the beach, on vacation, etc. Lunch at work - meh. I'm trying to mix things up a bit and if I force myself to start including more "bits & bites" posts, it'll make me expand outside of my hard-boiled egg, fruit, popcorn lunches. At least, I'll try. Here are some bits & bites over the past few weeks!

This was a simple dinner the other night: Tuna melt on a brown rice wrap, roasted asparagus, & roasted parsnip baked "fries".

Breakfast: organic instant oatmeal made on the stove top with almond milk, peanut butter, dried cranberries, and topped with coconut and cacao nibs. (I love putting peanut butter in my oatmeal!)

Dinner: Pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes, and spinach salad with roasted beats, cranberries, feta, and evoo. (heavenly)

Dinner: Ian's gluten-free fish sticks, roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes. (a quick staple)

This is what I eat for lunch wayyy too much (or is it too much? does it matter? I digress.) Anyway, 2 HB eggs, watermelons, pineapples, and skinny pop. Love.

Dinner: Lemon/Herb cod, roasted sweet potatoes with cinnamon, cayenne, salt, evoo, and roasted asparagus. (I guess I eat a lot of asparagus, huh?)

Dinner: Homemade turkey burger (organic ground turkey, dijon mustard, chopped onion, garlic powder, evoo, salt, feta) with raosted sweet potato baked "fries" and avo/lime mash. Deeeeelish.

Saturday lunch: fried egg and cheese on an organic rice cake with watermelon/pineapple. (oh, and that gross green drink that tasted like romaine lettuce - blech)

Dinner: Baked piccata-style chicken breast with artichokes, olives, capers, lemon, etc. and quinoa with parmesan stirred in.

Lunch: Traded in my fruit for a bowl of tomato/basil soup because it's EFFING FREEZING!

Dinner: Sauteed sweet potato "swoodles!" with brown butter, sage, red onion, pecans, parmesan and shrimp! Yum!

Lunch: I know this looks odd, but, it's my effort to get away from my usual. Rice cake with hummus and pumpkin seeds with organic beef jerky. This was actually so friggin delish and really high in protein which was the goal!

Ok question time: Do you have lunch staples? Are you a habitual eater? I am, I always have been - ever since I was a little kid. How do you pull yourself out of a food slump or do you even care?

Have a fabbbbulous night!

February 17, 2015

Weekend Sunshine_XXIV

February 17, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

Hey everyone! How are you all hanging in? I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I'm going to ignore the elephant in the room today and just focus on the fun parts of the weekend! I hope those that celebrated Valentine's Day whether with their valentine, family, or a group of friends - had a marvelous time!

Here are the sunniest parts of my weekend!

We kicked off Friday night with homemade turkey burgers topped with organic cheddar and smashed avocado/lime, wrapped in romaine. For a side, I made sweet potato "fries". This meal is a winner and we will eat it again soon! PS: Notice the fancy club sodas? I'm still using my drink passes (2 left!) and decided to save one for Saturday night instead of Friday. I still like to pretend I am drinking so these club sodas hit the spot (I mean, kind of, let's be serious...).

Then, one of my Valentines (Janet) picked me up and we went to Peter Welch's for the 10am class (we didn't even plan our matching vday outfits). Then, we picked up green juices from the new Juice Bar on West Broadway "Squeeze". Mine tasted like Romaine lettuce (oof), but, Janet's was pretty good. She got "The Hulk", I got "Pineapple Hydration" so do yourself a favor and hulk it up if you go. Mine was NOT good.

I drank it though. I'll tell ya - my rice cake topped with egg and cheese with a side of my favorite fruits was mighty tasty!

Then, I came home to my other Valentine (Rob) who spoiled me with the prettiest flowers I ever did see!

Then, we decided to go to the restaurant (Riccardos in the North End) at 5pm instead of 8pm because of the elephant in the room and it was a glorious decision! We sat at the bar for almost two hours before we sat down to a hand-picked table by the owner. Oh, and there were red balloons everywhere and I thought it was the cutest.place.ever.... I think I said "Omigod it's so cute in here" about 20 times to Rob. He's so good for not making fun of me once during that.

Then, espresso martinis.

And, semi-discreet selfies until I asked the nice bartender to take one.

Then, delish dinner and after that we met up with JohnO and Alicia for bevs.

It was the MOST PERFECT Valentine's Day EVER!

Sunday and Monday included a lot of something that starts with "shov" and ends with "ling", but, we did eat some heart shaped pasta with aglio olio to fuel up so that was cool!

And, that about wraps it up! How did you all spend the weekend? I hope your Valentine's or Galentine's or whatever it was that you celebrated was relaxing, fun, and included a lot of laughs.

Have a GREAT WEEK! xo

February 12, 2015

Insta-Spiration IV

February 12, 2015/ sherri d'alessandro

Hola and Happy Thursday! It's time for the 4th edition of "Insta-Spiration". I've got some really good picks for you tonight. What I KNOW about storms: People lovvveee to cook. I'm pretty pumped to share some images from a couple of my friends tonight, not just bloggers. My friends are pretty awesome and they cook/bake some super delish things so I'm excited to share their skillz.

For those not in the Boston area who are wondering how we are "dealing" with all this snow, I'll try to explain. Honestly, everyone is TRYING to be positive. We are making the best of it, but, when we look ahead to the forecast and see another blizzard and another storm week after week after week... it feels... claustrophobic. Here's the best way I can describe it... you know that moment when you realize that you don't like someone, you know it's not their fault that they rub you the wrong way, but, you know you'll never, ever truly be able to stand them for an extended period of time? You can take them in little bursts and they can even be enjoyable on some rare occasions. But then, they keep showing up and putting their dramatic mess in your life and you can't get away from it because it's someone you HAVE to see? And you keep thinking... geez when is this person going to take a hint and go the eff away? It feels like that. Smothered, claustrophobic, suffocating. That's how these storms feel. *Please note: I currently adore the people in my life so this storm is my only bad frenemy.

OK! Moooooving onnn, as promised, I have some great instas for you tonight so enjoy and again HAPPY THURSDAY!

Everything about this blend screams summer and happiness and detox and tasty! I had some watermelon for lunch today and I'll likely eat it daily until I get sick of it. (Is it possible to get sick of watermelon? I doubt it)

This made me LOL when CAROLINE posted this the other morning. So cute, funny, and motivational all at the same time!

I can attest that this is the BEST healthier dessert I've ever made. They are so easy to make and even everyone at work liked them - win!

Yes, please and thank you, TINA! Eat and train.

Liz is a friend of mine who always a) makes amazing food that I want to eat off my phone and 2) takes great photographs of said food. She doesn't blog, but, I often confuse her photos with my blogger friend's photos. This looks so delish and healthy and comforting all at the same time!

Becca is one of my bffs and she has been owning the kitchen during the storms lately. This pound cake spoke to me. I remember the day I fell in love with lemon poppy seed... When I was little... Shaw's in Middleboro used to sample muffins from their bakery section. My mom would always let me grab one. One day, I shyly (yes i was super shy - shocking, I know) went to grab what I hoped would be blueberry and there was only lemon-poppy seed. My mom told me to try it anyway and that's when I fell in love. She even let me grab another one because I was so excited about my new 2nd favorite flavor of muffin! Delish!