Mexican Food is Fantastic!

This week has been crazy so far.  Tuesday we headed down to Long Island for Joe's wedding rehearsal and dinner afterwards with family and the bridal party.  Much fun; it was great to see old friends from high school, Joe's family and then meeting everyone else.  Dinner that night at Sage Bistro in Bellmore was fantastic!  Fantastic is the word of the day by the way LOL.  So since I love Lobster Bisque I of course had to try it.  I still have yet to find a restaurant better than the Chowder Pot, yet this place was still very good.  For the entree I went with the Filet Mignon special with sauteed spinach, roasted potato's and a Roquefort Cheese sauce.  By the way the Filet was also drizzled with a fig infused Balsamic Vinegar.  The whole dish was awesome.  For lunch Mike and I even stopped at Legal Seafood for a quick bite.  I had a very light dish of roasted sweet potato with a Almond Crusted Grilled Shrimp.  Very nice flavor to this dish and I recommend both of these restaurants if you're on Long Island.

Wednesday led us into NYC to pick up the tuxedos and of course we had to stop and get some food as well.  Joe, Doug and myself stopped by a little Greek place called Ammos which is across from Grand Central.  We decided to get some appetizers; I went with the crispy Calamari, Joe had the fresh Lump Crab Cakes and Doug had the Grilled Tiger Shrimp.  Everyone fully enjoyed their apps.  For dinner, we had a little bit of everything.  Joe went with a not so traditional burger...it was a Lamb Burger with fries, which looked very good.  Doug had a more traditional meal and went with the Lamb Chops and I went with the Grilled Salmon over orzo with some julienne vegetables on top.  I would have liked the salmon cooked a bit more, but it was still very tasty (thats for you pop).  For dessert Joe had some pistachio ice cream, Doug had the sheeps milk cheese cake which our waitress recommended and I had a semolina custard drizzled with an orange honey and some raspberry sorbet.  It was a different dish but very good.

As for the title...mexican food really is fantastic.  Tonight we had Panchero's which is just great, like always.  Erin went with the bowl and I had a burrito this time instead of the bowl.  Last day of the work week tomorrow much needed and then the start of a fun filled weekend.  Hockey game on Friday night in Plainville; 9pm if you're around come check out the Dragons.  Then Saturday starts the crazy 5 week wedding bonanza!  Looking forward to everything and can't wait for Joe and Lex's wedding.  Oh yeah...and on Tuesday I lost another pound.  Down a total of 48 now...a little disappointing since I thought over the weekend that it would be more.  Oh well...there is always next week!  My goal for the next few weeks (before Mikes wedding on the 15th) is to get down a total of 55 pounds.

Talk to everyone later on, have a great night and a FANTASTIC (word of the day) weekend!

My Monday Night Love Affair

I really love the start of the new TV seasons.  I mean don't get me wrong TV is nothing like it used to be; I'd love me some Perfect Strangers, Mr. Belvedere, A-Team, The Shirt-Tales, Laff-A-Lympics and of course Charles In Charge.  I always look forward to coming home and relaxing with Erin while we watch some of our favorite shows.  It's funny how when some/most of us were younger the big night to watch TV was Friday...who could ever forget TGIF!  Nowadays I don't really think there is one night that stands out over any others.  I mean we all have our favorites, Monday on CBS is mine with How I Met Your Mother, 2 1/2 Men, Mike & Molly and the new show Broke Girls...or maybe yours is Thursday's on NBC...but they really don't make TV shows like they used too.  Too many reality shows that make me want to dig my eyes out, or the TV shows that don't really look like scripted shows, but really are...I hate those.  I can only imagine what TV will be like when my kids are sitting with me on the couch at night...it'll be so terrible that we'll just end up watching DVD/BlueRay/Hulu/Netflix or whatever crazy thing will happen next.

The one constant you can always count on is sports; the players may change, but people will always be able to watch and enjoy sports.  Or love to yell at the TV when your favorite team or fantasy team is sucking!  Well except for you NBA fans out there, HAHA.

So since this week is pretty crazy with stuff going on (rehearsal/dinner for Joe's wedding, tux pick-up, hockey game) our dinners are going to be pretty simple.  Tonight we had pizza made at home.  If you are a pizza lover (which I definitely am) Boboli makes an awesome thin whole wheat crust, throw on some sauce, cheese, veggies and turkey pepperoni as toppings and in like 10 minutes you have yourself an awesome pizza.  So my statement the other day about some good dinners was a big lie...LOL sorry.  Well gonna watch football for a little bit more and then hit the sack.  Only half day at work tomorrow, i'll talk to you all on Wednesday!   

Home Is Where The Heart Is

So yesterday was homecoming at Sacred Heart and also my 10 year reunion.  Can't believe it's been 10 years since I graduated from SHU.  You know over the years there, whether as a student or a staff member I've had some great times and awesome memories.  From getting stuck on the Merritt Parkway in a blizzard my freshman year with the band where a tree fell on a car to late nights with the CS crew studying for some of Grodzinsky's crazy tests; or the bands trip out to Pittsburgh for the championship football game, the first trip to the NCAA's with the women's basketball team, Coyote Ugly bar in Charlotte, NC, and to nights of almost getting thrown out of hotels.  And who could forget all the concert setups with the student life crew as well as late nights during senior week.  From top to bottom my time at SHU was a blast!  Do I miss it, some days yes...but i'm glad to see that the traditions built in the band live on.  Too bad some of the people I really wanted to see weren't able to come yesterday, but there is always next year.  Always great seeing all the band kids from over the years as well too.  We also did our first alumni band event as well.  Unfortunately we only had 10 people actually play with the band during the 3rd/4th quarter but we had a lot of alumni show up for the day in general.  We're going to attempt to do another alumni event in January and hopefully without all the fanfare and drinking that comes with homecoming, next time we will have more people actually play.  We'll see.

Hockey also started last week.  The Dragons have new threads with our now alternate black jerseys with the logo that I had designed.  If you want to check out the team or the jersey's hit up the Dragons website. So two games in and we are 0-2; we still have issues with keeping a consistent offensive lineup.  First game we lost 9-5 with one guy scoring 6 goals and yesterday we lost 5-4 in OT with one guy scoring 4 goals.  Seems as we either beat ourselves in the 3rd period or we just have one person school us.  Mikey played outstanding with some great saves and one spectacular stacked pad save.  We were down 4-1 with 4 minutes left in the 3rd period when we decided to start playing.  We scored 3 goals in two and a half minutes to tie the game only to lose in OT on a shot from behind the net that banked in off of Mikes skate.  I had a goal and 2 assists in the game.  Next game is Friday night.

Onto the weight loss stuff...So weigh in day on Tuesday went OK, lost another pound to bring the total up to 47 pounds lost.  I feel like I'm on the 1-3-1 roller coaster.  We will see what happens this Tuesday but I'm feeling pretty good about losing more than 1 pound.  One of the greatest things about losing weight isn't fitting into close that I haven't worn in years, or the general feeling of being healthier, but I really think it's when people notice that you made a change in your life and that it shows and they ask you what you're doing to lose weight.  Now I know that a few of you have asked for recipes for a few of the things I made a couple of weeks ago and I will definitely get those to you, I've been a little lax on writing in the blog and responding to stuff.  No great recipes this past week as Erin wasn't feeling well so it was leftovers and quick pick ups for dinner.  Back to normal for the dinner menu this week.

Well it's about that time to watch football and see who gets hurt on my fantasy teams next.  Thanks to everyone for reading it was great seeing so many good friends on Saturday!

Look at that it's TUESDAY!

Man, a whole week has gone by and its weigh in day once again.  Now I know that on Saturday I gave a premature update but that's OK, I hadn't written in a while so i wanted to give you all something to read about.  Well since last Tuesday's weigh in, I lost another 3 pounds!  That is 46 pounds down so far!  I feel like dancin!  It's really awesome that I've been able to make so much progress in such a short amount of time.  I don't believe I will hit my second goal in the time frame that I had allowed myself, but that is OK.  I can still try.

So over the weekend I had a picnic for work which was very fun.  It's always good to see your coworkers outside of the work environment and just relax.  As always it was good food; some bacon wrapped shrimp in a tangy BBQ sauce, Lobster Mac n Cheese, Ribs and of course dogs & burgers.  I sampled a little bit of everything but not too much.  Sunday I also got back to the bike trail; only 8 miles but I wanted to get a ride in and a shower before football started.  So glad that football is back by the way!  One thing that I've been more strict about is working out at home...finally.  Pretty much every night I did my crunches and also some resistance training.  Definitely helped out with the weight loss this week I think.  Unfortunately this weekend Erin wasn't feeling very well...so Sunday's dinner was just for me.  And boy was it a good one; Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken with green beans and brown rice.  I think for the next time I will stuff the chicken a little bit differently, but all in all this was an awesome dinner.  This is the first time that I've really had goat cheese and I was pleasantly surprised.  A very nice flavor and with some sauteed spinach with garlic...yum!

As for the rest of the week, we're pretty much on our own.  Since Erin still isn't feeling good, she's been on a soup and cracker diet and I've been fending for myself.  Later in the week we will be making up our menu so I will for sure pick some good meals for next week.

Tomorrow is also the big day...the Big Four come to Yankee Stadium!  Going to be an awesome day and the word awesome doesn't even do it justice...not even epic...give me a word bigger than the both of those and it still doesn't even compare.  Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica!!!!  Fantastic!  Well it's on to finish watching Sons of Anarchy...love this show!  Night all

It's been a while!

OK, well I'm back at it again.  Took a little bit of time off from writing with the Labor Day weekend and everything, but here I am.  So I missed the Tuesday weight update and there really hasn't been that much from scratch cooking going on in the house lately either.  But here we go with a bit of an update.

So Tuesday I weighed in 1 pound less than last week;  not what I wanted but a pound is a pound!  Since Tuesday however I have lost another 2 pounds, so it looks like we are on the right track again for next week.  I really started to buckle down this week and get in a good amount of exercise.  Last weekend I did 9 miles on my bike, which was the longest I've done since I started riding again.  I was even able to make it up the pain in the ass hill back to my house without stopping.  Added to that some crunches, pushups (with the damn perfect pushup thing Jimmy told me to get...worst idea ever! that thing is hard!), and some more resistance training with the bands...very good stuff.

As far as food goes the other night I cooked Mini-Turkey Meatloaves with a baked sweet potato.  The meatloaf was awesome!  Small 1/3 of a pound loaves mixed with some garlic, sun-dried tomato's, scallions, whole-wheat bread crumbs and finally Parmesan cheese.  These were topped with a mixture of tomato paste, cider vinegar and a bit of the oil from the sun-dried tomato's.  This added a great flavor to the already flavorful meatloaf. 

Day before that we had pan grilled salmon, with asparagus and couscous.  A great quick meal and the salmon had a nice crisp on it.  We added a steamed broccoli and chicken dish to the menu earlier in the week.  If I had let the chicken marinate a little bit longer, I have a feeling that this dish would of had much more flavor.  It wasn't bad, but I need a "sauce" on my Chinese food, ya know.  As for the first meal of the week, we went with a Swedish Meatball dish with a side of whole-wheat pasta.  I added a bit of sherry to this dish to give the sauce a little more flavor.  So it might not have been a traditional Swedish Meatball sauce, but it was very good.  Once again all these recipes are South Beach approved, so...they are always gonna be a little different anyway.

Well thats the wrap up for the week.  If you want any of the recipes from this past week, just let me know!
Today is the AG barbeque at Liz and Miles house, so that will be fun and we'll see where the night takes us.  Last night we hit up the Norwalk Oyster Festival with Coleen and Mike.  Once again the grounds were soaking wet and mud was everywhere.  Fuel was on stage playing; they were pretty good, but the singer has definitely lost some of his voice from earlier on in there career.  Have a fantastic Saturday everyone!