As Promised…

I’m so sad this weekend is over!  I can’t begin to tell you how much fun the party was yesterday, and how lucky and loved I am by family and friends. 

Andrew and I with our good friends Billy and Laura.  We are the executive board members of The Wine & Couch Club.  That means we drink wine and sit on couches, and we also take weekend retreats (read: vacations) together every year.  Laura and Billy are getting married this coming March!  I asked Laura to be one of my bridesmaids yesterday, and I’m so happy she said yes!

I bought a million balloons in our colors for the wedding.  We’re doing mostly teal and white with little a few red accents.

This is Jessica and her boyfriend Rob.  I also asked Jessica to be one of my bridesmaid’s and she also said yes.  Jessica was the photographer for the day, thanks Jess!!  (You may remember them from the camping trip a few weeks ago!)

This isn’t the best picture, but my parents gave us champagne flutes to use for our toast on our wedding day.  They look exactly like the ones that they used, there’s a little dove at the stem.  I absolutely love them!!

We got so many great cards from everyone, clearly this is my “aw” face, I might have teared up a few times.

Our cake, I didn’t eat any (since I don’t like cake,) but I definitely took a few licks of the frosting.

 

 

We had a mini photo shoot in front of the cake, I felt like I was on a red carpet with all the cameras flashing.

 

Laura told us this is the pose you have to do in front of your engagement cake.  Not sure I believe her, but we did it.

Bailey has a new best friend!

Andrew ruins pictures.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day!  I can’t believe how fast it all went!    Well I’m off to bed, I’m exhausted from all the fun!  I’ll be back to regular food blogging tomorrow!

Busy Busy!

I can’t believe I’ve neglected the blog for so long!   I haven’t had a day where after work I could just come home and relax in over 2 weeks.

I love the summertime and I’ve been making the most of it.  I went to see 2 movies (Bruno and Harry Potter) with friends. Andrew and I went to a Bridal show with my friend whose getting married in March.  We had some major shopping to do when my friend, that I’ve known since I was 2, had a baby boy!  Unfortunately she lives in Ohio, so I won’t be able to see her for a while, but I’ve stared at his picture for hours on end.

Doesn’t he look perfect? 

We also have our engagement party tomorrow night.  So we’ve had to do a lot of shopping, finding a caterer, and other miscellaneous tasks to get everything ready.  In fact I’m going to my mom’s house (where we’re having the party) to cook some things, and to help clean up.  We have family coming tonight, so I better get going but I just wanted to check in.  I’m not sure I’ll have time to post tomorrow, but I’ll definitely be posting tons of pictures from the party on Sunday!

I haven’t been commenting, but I’ve been reading! 

Keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow goes smoothly, and that everyone gets along!

A Rushed Post

Good Morning!  Sorry I didn’t post last night I had a terrible sinus head ache and went right to sleep as soon as I got home from work!  I have to run out so this post is going to be a quick one.

For breakfast yesterday I had another Peach Chobani but remembered some Kashi Island Vanilla cereal to mix in.

I love the vanilla cereal in the peach yogurt, so good!

Between breakfast and lunch I snacked on some Cherry Semolina Dr. Krackers.  10 of them to be exact.

Lunch was Harborside leftovers.

And I even snuck a roll out from the restaurant in my to go bag.

So like I said I came home yesterday with a horrible sinus headache, it’s been so long since I’ve had one it hit me out of nowhere!  I came home got right into bed, and slept until 8, when I woke up my headache was still there so I jumped in a hot shower hoping the steam would help.  No such luck.  Finally I took some nighttime cold and cough medicine and that knocked the headache out and I was finally feeling well enough to eat at around 10.  I just had a sandwich thin with pb.

Well I have to run now, I’ll be back tonight!

An Al Fresco Dinner

What a day!  I woke up thinking it was Thursday and thought that until I was on my way to work.  Since we don’t work Fridays anymore Thursday is our dress down day so I went to work wearing jeans and everything.  It was obvious to everyone at work I had mixed up what day I thought it was.  Ugh.  But oh well I was comfortable all day at least.

I started out the day with something I haven’t had in so long, unfortunately in my hurry this morning I forgot my camera but I do have some pretty bad blackberry photos to share.

Peach Chobani!  In addition to forgetting my camera I also forgot some cereal for mixing into the yogurt.  But it was still amazingly delicious, it’s been to long Peach Chobani!

Without the cereal though this didn’t do a great job of holding me over for lunch.  I wound up getting hungry around 10 and snacked on some Dr. Kracker’s Cherry Semolina crisps.  These are absolutely delicious!

The serving size is 8 but I probably had about 12, they are so delicious.

Lunch today was an old favorite, rice pilaf, green beans, and broccoli all mixed together.

What a horrible picture of one of my favorite flavor combos.  I can’t get enough of it I crave this at least once a week. 

After work Andrew and I decided to go out to eat.  It’s been a while since we went out just the 2 of us for dinner so we went to our favorite local restaurant, Harborside Bar and Grill.  It was a beautiful day so we got to enjoy being outside on the patio.  To start I had a house salad with balsamic dressing on the side.

I used about a 1/4 of the dressing with my fork dips before almost every bite.  It’s amazing but before I would have easily used 1/2 of it or more, dipping the fork in is just as flavorful and definitely a calorie saver.

Then our waitress brought out some fabulous rolls.  I of course had one.

Warm and doughy, it was perfect.

For dinner I had the Rigatoni Pomadora, a fresh tomato basil sauce, with rigatoni and fresh mozzarella balls throughout.

This sauce is the freshest tasting sauce ever, I don’t think I could make it even 1/2 as good as they do.  I would love to be able to buy a jar of this sauce.  I have about 1/2 of this left for tomorrows lunch.

After dinner we stopped by to visit my sister and parents since she’s been bugging me for the past 3 days to come over.  It was a nice night hanging out on their patio enjoying the weather.  After it rained for almost all of May and June, it’s definitely made me appreciate the past 2 weeks, we’ve had the most beautiful sunny, warm days lately, and I’m definitely grateful for them!

Life Got In The Way

 

I can’t believe I disappeared for so long.  Usually this is where I would apologize and give excuses as to why I wasn’t blogging.  But I have no excuse, Andrew and I both had last week off, and it’s the only time we’ll have extended time together for the rest of the summer, so we made the most of it.  This is a monster post!
We went camping, went to a graduation party, went to the beach, hung out with friends, watched the fireworks, ate burgers, went out for brunches, watched fireworks, shopped, booked a wedding venue and put a deposit down, sleeping late,  and spent lots of time with our families.  I wouldn’t change a thing about last week, (except of course make it longer).  I missed blogging though and I’m excited to get back to a normal schedule, but it was kind of liberating eating without taking pictures, at first it felt weird but by the end I enjoyed it, but I’ve seen so many creative things out there in blogland while catching up yesterday that I can’t wait to try.  (Hello Banana Soft Serve!)
Camping was so much fun!  I still can’t believe how much I loved it.  I knew with the people I would be with it was going to be a good time, the actual camping part worried me.  I’m kind of a girl who likes electricity, showering, and knowing what time it is.  By the middle of Saturday I was just enjoying the time and relaxing with my closest friends.  We went with 2 of my best friends Michelle, and Jessica.  I know I’m extremely lucky to have those girls in my life.  I’ve known Michelle since we were about 3 (although we didn’t become super close until Middle School).  And Jessica was always close with Michelle so she was always a friend, but it was only a couple years ago where we grew as close as we are now.  Their  boyfriends are both really great people as well, so we had a great group with the 6 of us.  There was lots of hanging out around the campfire talking, lots of walking down to the river, and perhaps the other 2 girls are more adventurous then I am and tried to float on inner tubes down the Delaware river.

I was so happy to be on our way!

Yayyy!

 

Michelle and I cooking up so camp food!

Andrew and Jessica’s boyfriend Rob and me being creepy in the background.

Since it was Andrew’s birthday I brought cupcakes, unfortunately they melted in the car on the way there.  They looked gross but no one complained about the taste, and I even ate a 1/4 of one.

Me and the Birthday Boy!

Me and the ladies standing by the fire.

And another one.

Here’s Michelle and Jessica getting ready to float down the Delaware.

Meanwhile I was fishing with some friends I made.  Or tried to make, they apparently didn’t like my idea of me taking pictures with their fish so I could pretend that I caught it.  It’s not like we know the same people, geez kids!

 

That blue tent on the right was where Andrew and I slept, the orange one is Michelle and her boyfriend Scout’s tent.

We’re planning on going camping again really soon so Andrew and I went out to buy our own tent, so we wouldn’t have to borrow one again.  After we bought it we set it up in my parents backyard just to see how big it was and make sure everything was right so we didn’t get out in the woods and realize we were missing an important pole or something.  I can’t wait to use this tent!

 

Hopefully sometime in August we’ll be back out in the woods somewhere.   If your someone who thinks they’d hate camping give it a try, I guarantee the time away from computers, cell phones,  and civilization in general will leave you feeling refreshed and ready for anything once you return.
I didn’t take any pictures of things I ate while camping, except one.

But that’s an obvious choice, right?

I somehow didn’t take any pictures while at the beach on Monday but we were there and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  Sun, sand, and the sounds of the ocean! Although the Jersey Shore doesn’t have the most beautiful beaches in the world, they are really nice, and after living within 10 minutes of the beach my entire life (and being able to see the bay from my apartment) it has spoiled me and whenever Andrew and I talk about moving out of NJ because it’s so outta control expensive, my only requirement is we have to move to a town on the coast, don’t care where, but it’s got to be within 20 minutes of a beach.   I did do a google image search for where we went though.

That’s where we parked.

And that’s pretty much exactly where we set up our towels and soaked up the sun.

And probably the most exciting thing that happened!  A few weeks ago we found a location for our wedding that we absolutely fell in love with, it’s not the beach wedding I always dreamed of (just more proof I’m obsessed with the beach!), the only places on the beach we saw were crazy expensive,  kind of run down, couldn’t hold the amount we needed, or wanted us to guarantee many more people then we were comfortable paying for.  The second I walked into this last place I fell in love, it’s a yacht club and right on the river, the views from the ballroom are beautiful, the centerpieces they would provide are perfect, and I just saw us having a fantastic time there.  So before we left 2 Friday’s ago for camping we took a trip down with both of our mom’s who also loved the location.  We put our date on hold, and then this past Friday we put our deposit down and signed the contract.  Now that it’s official, I’m happy to share some pictures of our location!

The gazebo and river.

The ballroom.

The patio for use during cocktail hour.

The center pieces we will most likely use.

A pretty cake, and another view of the river.
Our date is still over 2 years away but we wanted to lock in for the date we wanted, and also guarantee the low prices, since most places do go up each year.  We picked a date that apparently is going to be pretty popular.  We didn’t think it would be because it’s so far out, but apparently at least 2 other couples have the same idea as us because our venue is completely booked for the day now as well, all 3 time slots and ball rooms are taken.

We also picked a place for our ceremony.  About 10 miles from the venue there is an historic park with a chapel.  It’s a great place for pictures and the chapel is so charming.

Not the best pictures but I pulled them off the website.

So now I’m done with any and all planning for this year, I have my cousin’s wedding in September and my friend Laura’s in March so I’m going to focus on being great bridesmaids to both of them, plus I really do have plenty of time.  The date we picked is September 10, 2011.  Or 9-10-11 which is why it’s going to be popular.

 

If you stuck through to the end, thank you, this was a very long post and very picture heavy, I’ll be back to regular blogging tomorrow!  Enjoy the rest of your evening!  I’ll leave you with some more pictures of the fireworks we saw from our deck last Thursday.

To My Best Friend on His Birthday

This was supposed to post on Friday but for some reason it didn’t.  Friday was Andrew’s birthday but we were camping, I have a lot to catch up on including all the pictures from our camping trip but for now I’m just going to finally post his birthday post!  We’re going to a friends graduation party right now, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to post our camping trip!

 

 

Today is Andrew’s 24th Birthday!  Andrew and I met Freshmen year of High School, and I had a crush on him right away.  We became pretty good friends and then Junior year of high school we went out for about 5 months before I broke up with him.  I wish I could find the pictures of us from way back then but I did a quick search around the house and couldn’t find any.

The summer between Freshmen and Sophomore year of college we ran into each other and started hanging out again.  That whole summer Andrew, his twin brother Matt, his cousin George, my best friend Michelle, and I were inseparable.  We did everything together whether it be just going to the diner for coffee, or watching movies at Michelle’s house.  After that summer,  we both went back to our colleges, mine in Pennsylvania, and him up to Montclair.  We continued to hang out on weekends and then when we came home for Christmas, I realized just how much I really did like him.  I went back to school and one night we were talking on line I mentioned how much I liked him and how I wasn’t going to look for anyone else while I was away.  He agreed and a couple nights later we started going out again.  That was nearly 5 years ago now and I have to say I am so extremely thankful that I ran into him that summer night.  Otherwise who knows if we ever would have gotten back together.  We’ve had so much fun together and I’m so excited to spend the rest of my life with him.

He always knows how to make me laugh.

Halloween this past year, we were McCain and Palin.

 

Happy 24th Birthday Baby!

Sweet Summer Cravings

I am feeling so much better today!  It’s amazing what a difference 24 hours can make.  I ate all my meals today and felt more like myself again.  I’m a pretty easy person to get along with but I can get pretty ugly when I’m mad.  I’m just happy that it’s all over and we’ll see what happens from here on out.  Once again I got some great advice and support from you gals!  You are the best!

I can’t tell you how happy I am that tomorrow is Thursday!  As usual I have off on Friday and then have the next week off!  After all the stress from yesterday I’m ready to have some relaxing fun times with my 2 best girlfriends and their boyfriends on the camping trip this weekend.  I just hope tomorrow goes by quickly, it kinda feels like the last day of school or something which is stupid because it’s only 10 days off not a whole summer.

So we need to do some serious food shopping, we don’t even have the staples of milk, bread, or eggs, but it seems stupid to do it before the we go away for the weekend.  So I was kind of scrounging in the kitchen for meals.  Once again I totally forgot my camera, I used my Blackberry though while I was at work, not the best pictures, sorry!

For breakfast I had a chocolate chip clif z bar with pb and then an orange on the side.

 

Oranges are so good right now, I can’t get over how juicy and delicious the last few I ate have been.

Lunch was exactly what I said it would be last night.  Leftover Chicken parm.  I meant to bring a side salad but forgot this morning.  So I guess the tomato sauce is going to have to count as my vegetable for lunch.

I definitely made up for my lack of veggies with dinner though, ever since I mixed the rice pilaf with broccoli and green beans last week I’ve been wanting it again.  It’s just way too good.

Just to prove there is rice under there, here’s a shot with some peaking out.

I definitely went back for the last spoonful of rice with another piece of broccoli and a whole mess of green beans.  Such a simple meal but it’s so darn good,  I can not get enough.

After dinner Andrew and I decided we wanted dessert.  So unlike us!  We decided to go to a local Italian Ice place which also serves Ice Cream and Cream Ices.  I got a small pb cookie dough cream ice.

So delicious, I’m going to pretend it’s summer even if it doesn’t feel like it at all!

Well I’m off to start packing things up for the weekend.  Tomorrow night Michelle, Jessica, and I are going shopping for the camping food, anyone have any suggestions of healthy foods to eat while out in the woods? 

Stress Non-Eater

<rant>I know there are people out there who eat when they are stressed.  I am the exact opposite.  When something is really bothering me I let it manifest itself in ways that prevent me from wanting to eat.  It’s probably just as unhealthy as someone who binges on a stressful occasion.  I will admit that sometimes when I’m just a little bit stressed and eat I make poor choices, I don’t overeat though.  I might just say screw it I’m eating that cookie(s).  But when I let myself get so worked up eating is the last thing I want to do.  Today was one of those days.  For the past year Andrew’s twin brother’s girlfriend and I haven’t gotten along.  Today I finally let everything build up and when I got angry with something she did today,  I let it eat me from the inside out.  We sent some not-so-nice emails back and forth, and finally spoke on the phone a little while ago.  I’m a people pleaser, I get upset when people don’t like me, it bothers me so much, that this really stung.  I should have just went about my day but unfortunately I wound up leaving work early, and stewing in my anger.  Nothing has been completely resolved she apologized for somethings and I accepted her apology and for Andrew and his brother’s sake we have decided to start over.  Is it the best option?  Probably not.  Will it make Andrew happy?  Absolutely.  Besides that his brother is now going to be my brother-in-law in a couple years, and who knows one day she might be my sister-in-law so I have to bite the bullet and work on this relationship no matter how badly I just want to hide my head in the sand.  I’m more of an “ignore it and it will go away” type of person, not a strong characteristic.  Maybe it’s time I grew up and just worked on things. </rant>

Wow okay sorry for all that, it feels good to vent though.  And I’m sure at least one of you will have a similar story, or be able to share advice.

Enough about that, this is a food blog after all.  For breakfast I once again had a sandwich thin with pb.  I actually have pictures though!  And Homegirl, the key to the perfect pb spreading is to spread it on thick in the middle and then work it towards the outside.  No I’m kidding, there is no secret,.  I do admit I have a little more then a serving perhaps 2.5-3 tablespoons I’m willing to get the extra calories though.  I’m still losing weight so perhaps I’m doing something right. 

Then the trouble began.  Andrew came to take me out to lunch since I was so upset.  We wound up going to my favorite salad bar.

I ate some but not all of this salad.  If i had to guess I would say between 1/3 and a 1/2. It was:

• mixed greens
• carrots
• onions
• chicken
• cucumbers
• and light balsamic vinaigrette.

And this is where my pictures from the day end.  I came home early and began screaming about the whole thing to poor Andrew.  I was so worked up!  I give myself this nauseous feeling when I get upset, and eating seems impossible.  I feel better now but not well enough to eat something, I did stop by my mom’s house though and picked up her left over chicken parm, so get ready to see it for lunch tomorrow!

I’m off to watch the New Jersey Housewives reunion, and then get some much needed rest. 

Italian Food Overload

Monday is over! Thank goodness!  I have a lot to look forward to so it’s making this week drag.  I’m just ready for it to be over already!  Starting Thursday at 5 I’m on vacation for 10 days!  Unfortunately it’s a mandatory furlough where I won’t be getting paid for the 4 working days but hopefully I’ll be able to claim unemployment.  As luck would have it Andrew has all those days off except 2 with me.  He’s on vacation from school for 2 weeks and the summer program starts next Wednesday so he’ll work Wednesday and Thursday and then have off for one of my favorite holidays, the 4th of July.  Let’s just hope it feels like summer!  This weekend I also have a very exciting camping trip planned with my 2 girlfriends and their boyfriends.  It should be a great time!

This weekend flew by, and I had a lot of family things to do for Father’s Day, plus looking at more wedding locations.  I think we found one that we both absolutely love and we’re taking our moms there on Friday for their opinion.  I have a feeling they are going to love it, once we make our final decision I’ll be sure to share it with you.

So if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know I’m not a fan of sweets, you’ll hardly see chocolate or cake, but I’m a big fan of Italian food.  It’s my weakness, a nice big dish of pasta, or a slice of pizza are my weaknesses.  And in today’s post your going to see a lot of Italian food.

First off let me start with last night’s fabulous Father’s Day dinner that my dad selected and my mother cooked.  She was a little upset I hadn’t posted it last night so here you go Mom.  Happy now?

My mother makes THE best chicken parm.  It was so tender you didn’t even need a knife and it was overall perfect. 

With Andrew’s favorite pasta on the side.

Wagon Wheels!

This was absolutely perfect, thank God it’s not Father’s Day everyday though because I would seriously gain all the weight I’ve lost this year plus some, if this was an everyday option.

Now on to today.  My breakfast of choice lately has been pb on a sandwich thin.  I have no idea why, I’ve just been craving that peanut butter a lot lately.  It seems to be the only thing I want in the morning.  Unfortunately I didn’t take have my camera today, but here’s the same picture from last week. 

For lunch today I leftovers from the weekend.  I had gotten an eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and roasted red pepper sandwich.  I had a 1/4 left and brought that in for lunch today.  These pictures are from the first time I ate it over the weekend.

So delicious.  A perfect combination of flavors.

Later on I snacked on an orange.

So juicy!

Dinner tonight carried on my theme of Italian food.  I had made a very lean meat sauce over the weekend and had some leftovers for dinner.  I’ll be posting the recipe for the sauce this weekend, so stay tuned, it’s really very good and actually super simple.

I actually had dessert tonight as well.  I had a container of Fro Yo in the freezer that was about to expire.  Never one to waste food I happily ate  a small serving with some chocolate syrup.

It’s hard to tell the size but that’s just a small ramekin. 

Well I’m off to get ready for bed.  Good night everyone, hope you are having a great night!

The Luckiest

Seriously how lucky am I?  Andrew blogged for me yesterday and made me a fabulous dinner!  Andrew now walks around saying he’s a Super Star because of his guest post.  He loved reading through the comments!  Thanks so much for welcoming him!

I think he did a great job blogging, but unfortunately not so good guessing what I ate.   For breakfast yesterday I had a sandwich thin with pb.  Kinda close to what he guessed I would have for lunch though.

Before lunch I ate a peach.  The juiciest peach of the season so far!

We had a pot luck lunch yesterday at work.  I forgot to bring anything in though so I felt really bad eating the food others had brought in.  I’m weird that way.  I was planning on having that in the morning though but then chickened out.  Although I’m sure no one would have noticed or cared that I hadn’t.  Instead I ran out and got what I was really craving.  A multigrain bagel toasted with butter (lightly) from Dunkin Donuts.

Such great texture!

As I was walking through the area of the pot luck later on I saw a lone piece of watermelon.  I had a feeling if I didn’t rescue it, it would just get thrown out, so I snatched it up.  Aren’t you proud Sarah?

I was so excited to come home to my dinner.  Andrew loves making things in the crockpot and he did an awesome job.  You can read how he made the salsa chicken here.

Just look at that cheesy goodness!

On the side he made Near East Rice Pilaf.  I had that bulked up with some left over veggies.  I had 1 piece of broccoli and a bunch of green beans.

This morning I woke up later then I wanted to, we had big plans to go see 3 prospective wedding venues.  I quickly showered, got Andrew up, got ready, and had to run out the door.  Totally forgetting breakfast!  I hate skipping meals!  After we were done at the first venue we had an hour before our appointment at the next, they were only about 10 minutes apart so we stopped at my favorite pizzeria on the beach.  I haven’t been there since the summer between freshmen and sophomore year in high school, that was 9 years ago (oh my God I’m getting old).  The slices are GIGANTIC (bigger then my head) and so good.  Andrew had never had it before so I was excited to show him the biggest pizza I had ever seen.

On 2 paper plates!  A plain slice with Andrew’s hand as reference.

Andrew got a Chicken Parm slice.  He loved it!

So good!

And you can’t have a slice of this pizza without Diet Dr. Pepper.

After our second venue we had a while before we went to the next so we stopped by my mom’s house to visit.   We visited the last venue and then came home for dinner. I had no clue what I wanted so I decided to have a smoothie.  Easy, fast, and filling, perfect meal for me tonight.

This smoothie contained a lot:

• skim milk
• POM juice
• raspberries
• a banana
• soy protein powder
• 1/2 a cup oats
• and pineapple chunks

Well my 2 girlfriends just got here to enjoy some cocktails on the deck (no wine for me this week, just liquid poison (vodka and diet coke).  Have a great night bloggies!