The lounge [...]]]> Last night my parents took me to dinner at one of Winnipeg’s most notable restaurants…529 Wellington.  It’s actually a steakhouse, but we decided to sit in the lounge and order drinks and split some appetizers.
It’s definitely somewhere you don’t go often, but when you do it’s a real treat!

The lounge is lovely. Imagine sitting in someone’s old, elegant living room, which happens to have a bar attached!
A perk of the lounge is Jamie! My mom says he’s “the greatest” and makes the best cocktails!

I agree! He seems extremely friendly and knows so many of his customers by name! 
And he advised me to order a ‘lemon drop’ martini. It was delicious!
 
My mom always likes to order her martinis with a side of olives. And I always like to steal them.

Our meal started with warm fresh French bread.
 
And then we all split two salads – Caeaser and Tomato Bocconcini

 
As well as grilled rainbow trout and tequila lime shrimp


Both were delicious! Rich and slightly buttery

We had some AMAZING asparagus on the side as well.
 
We finished off the meal with some very potent loose-leaf mint tea! 
 
And my first ever BREAD PUDDING. 
 
Um. Why has nobody informed me that bread pudding is so AMAZING! Perhaps it was because it was slathered in maple syrup and cream. But I am determined to make a healthier version of this! It was my favorite dessert I’ve had in a long time.

Enjoying my delicious dessert!!!

We also had some berries with dessert, which included GIANT blackberries!

And adorable gooseberries!

I don’t think I’ve ever actually tried one of these, but they are sooo cute! Have you ever tried a gooseberry? What do they taste like?

Well I’m off to bake some cookies for BF + his family. I’m going back to their cottage this afternoon and I thought I would bring them a little treat. Hope they like babycakes ! And I will be sure to remember my camera this time!

Do you go out to fancy restaurants often? What do you like to order?

I honestly prefer making “fancier” food at home. I find that most fancy restaurants put way too much salt and butter in their dishes to make them taste good. When I make something like grilled fish or seafood or a fancy pasta dish at home I can control how much of something goes into it and I can make it much healthier than I would ever get at a restaurant.  But sometimes I like going to a fancy place once in a while just for the fun of it!

Last night for [...]]]> I’m not sure why but I have been forgetting to take my camera with me EVERYWHERE! And it’s funny because all the people I’ve been eating with are always like “Um…aren’t you going to take a picture of that?”and then I’ll remember that I’ve forgotten my camera. Always keeping me in check!

Last night for dinner, I dined with BF, who is in town, at Wasabi Sabi a high-end sushi restaurant in Winnipeg. I am kicking myself for not taking my camera to show pictures of the beautiful dishes but also the beautiful decor. My mom (who is an Interior Designer) actually designed it. And it gets rave reviews all the time!

I found a couple pictures from this website.

This is right near the bathroom entrance. She used these Japanese-infused cherry blossom cutouts all over the restaurant, which I LOVE!

Here is the bar area with lit up motion-blurred Tokyo streetscapes!

And of course the food is amazing. My favorite roll is the Volcano Roll.

Here is an older picture I took when I ordered it a couple summers ago:
I realize it looks slightly unappetizing in this picture. But it is serious AMAZING. It’s not something I would order a lot, it’s a definite indulgence but SO WORTH IT! It is a sweet barbequed eel and avocado maki roll topped with mini scallop pieces and a warm creamy spicy sauce! UN-REAL!

For breakfast this morning BF and I decided to eat outside.

He had eggs, jalapeño cheese, tomatoes and toast

And I had a bowl of oats with goat yogurt and Maranatha almond butter. (And I stole one of his pieces of toast!)
 
I had a spa day this afternoon and went to get a mani/pedi. My nails and toes were looking rough and I’m going to a wedding this weekend so I thought I should do something about them!

I got my “signature” combination of colors. I like to change it up a bit, but I always revert back to a sparkly pink on my nails
(Princesses Rule by OPI)

And a hot pink on my toes! I will do you a favor and not show you my feet! But the color I’m wearing is La Paz-itively Hot by OPI.
 
I’m a girly girl. What can I say!!!!

Speaking of being a girly girl, I’m off to do some shopping with my mama!!!!

Do you get mani/pedis or do your own nails? What colours do you usually get?

Not quite as delicious as Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, but it’s up there!  I made a decadent bowl of “Ice Cream Sundae” oats!   Whipped banana oats topped with cinnamon, [...]]]> All I wanted this morning was some oats and a large scoop of my new almond butter.

Not quite as delicious as Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, but it’s up there! 
I made a decadent bowl of “Ice Cream Sundae” oats!
 
Whipped banana oats topped with cinnamon, goat milk yogurt and a drizzle of honey AB
 
Holy. Yum. 

Before heading to volunteering I snacked on some mango. I knew we would be having lunch there so I didn’t want to fill up too much beforehand
 

Volunteering was great. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to take pictures though. The program I volunteered for yesterday is called Operation Frontline which is a cooking based nutrition education program that teaches low income seniors, families, teens and children how to cook healthy, tasty meals on a budget.  I was the substitute “chef” and taught a group of 5-12 year olds how to make a brown rice salad and strawberries and cream. All the kids helped me make the food and we all got to eat what we made afterwards! The kids were amazing. They were so adorable! One particular 6 year old took a liking to me and gave me about a million hugs throughout the class! We all had to wear nametags and at the end of the class he came up to me and gave me his nametag so I “would remember him”. How cute is that???

Afterwards BF and I went to dinner at Perilla.

I initially wanted to order just two appetizers instead of an entree but the waiter insisted that they would be too small. It was nice of him to say that, but waiters have actually said that to me a lot when I’ve asked for two apps instead of an entree and the appetizers ended up being just the right size because entrees are usually SO big!

But I was silly and listened to him. So I cancelled my appetizers and just got an entree.

They still brought out one of my appetizers, which I had cancelled but BF said he would share it with me so we kept it.  

I was glad they made the mistake. It was REALLY good! It was a hearts of palm and macadamia nut salad. Mmmm..

And then there was my entree. The only non-meat item of the entrees. It was ricotta stuffed Agnolotti.

I was not a fan. It was literally SWIMMING in butter. Actually, BF got a pasta appetizer which also had tons of butter. I’ve heard it was a restaurant trick to add up to a tablespoon of butter to a finished pasta sauce to enhance the taste, but this was over the top!

Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of real butter is probably much better than some other things, but I think some restaurants go a little crazy. Perhaps some people enjoy their food drenched in butter, but I definitely do not. Serves me right for listening to the waiter and not going with my first instincts. I think two appetizers would have been the perfect size.

Afterwards we went out for some Pinkberry. I definitely felt like it at the time, but afterwards felt a bit sick. Ooof. It was a bit too much food… or maybe it was too much butter. Next time I will go with my gut (literally) haha!

What do you think about restaurants and butter?

Do you tend to eat out more or make more meals at home?

1) Buy a dance package and start taking classes regularly!

2) Consign my clothes! I have quite a few nicer things that I don’t use/wear anymore.

3) Make my apartment smell amazing! Amanda’s [...]]]> Back to grind!  I have so much to do! After my little trip this weekend I was inspired to do a couple things:

1) Buy a dance package and start taking classes regularly!

2) Consign my clothes! I have quite a few nicer things that I don’t use/wear anymore.

3) Make my apartment smell amazing! Amanda’s apartment smelled SO good And now I’m on a hunt for some natural ways to make our apartment smell great as well. I actually told you about a great tip for doing just this, but now that it’s summer, having the oven on just makes it too hot!

For lunch yesterday I decided to pick something up from Whole Foods. I was going to get some hot bar but then a very interesting looking pizza offering caught my eye. It was labelled as a Summer pizza, but it was actually more of a cold flatbread. It contained hummus, sprouts, cukes, onions, tomatoes, carrots and tahini on top of a whole grain crust.

Yum! I may have to recreate this as a delicious summer flatbread lunch or dinner!

Besides lunch yesterday, I’ve been feasting on a lot of noodles! For dinner, since we hadn’t gone grocery shopping yet, we ordered dinner from Mooncake Foods. I had heard good things about it, so I decided to finally give it a try.

I ordered the Octopus and Spinach Noodle salad with tamarind dressing
Love the green noodles! And the dressing was super delish!

And I used a lot of the SPIIIIIICY (like, crazy spicy) green sauce

It was pretty good! Not AMAZING (the octopus was just okay) but I would definitely order again!

For lunch today I was craving more noodles, so I threw together my sunomono salad.

LOVE this stuff! So happy I can make it on my own because a lot of sushi restaurants here don’t offer it.

Alright I’ve got to get on with my day, I have so much cleaning to do. Why can’t I just snap my fingers and the apartment will magically organize itself and the laundry will magically be done??

It’s okay my reward is a trip to the consignment store and a dance class later this evening!!! So it’s all worth it

What is your favorite type of noodle or noodle dish?

I love cellophane noodles (the ones I use in my sunomono) but I also love those really long and wide noodles they use in Pad See Ew!

Something to Read: 10 Toxic Foods We Love to Eat

What a fun weekend!!! Here are some highlights….

We grabbed a quick bite on Friday afternoon at Clear Conscience Cafe before doing some shopping on Newbury Street.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup… perfect on a cool day. [...]]]> That pretty much sums up my Boston experience…well if you also include Shopping and Dancing!

What a fun weekend!!! Here are some highlights….

We grabbed a quick bite on Friday afternoon at Clear Conscience Cafe before doing some shopping on Newbury Street.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup… perfect on a cool day.

Afterwards we met up with Amanda’s family and some of her friends for dinner and drinks at Laurel.

Risotto galore, some fish, some fries, some mussels…and lots of laughs! 
 
 
 

And later there was a dance party, lots of singing and an unforgettable night out

In the morning we were craving eggs. So we whipped a scramble with peppers, scallions, onions and pepper jack.  
My plate with wheat bread and hot sauce on the eggs!
 
After having a lazy relaxing day we headed to Muqueca for dinner
 

It was so good.

I started off with a Brazilian Summer juice. Pineapple and Mint. I WILL be recreating this at home. And you should too.   |
For dinner there were plantains and 2 different types of Moqueca with shrimp, fish, calamari, crab and mussels.
  
  
Oh right. And there was dessert. A chocolate truffle and a Tapioca & Coconut flan. 
Um….I have no words

Today we started our morning off with Maple Oats: Oats + Almond Milk + Maple Syrup

And then we took a sweaty modern class at The Dance Complex. It was incredible. Why am I not dancing more in New York??? It’s not like there are a shortage of classes! I actually talked to Amanda about it and I think it’s because I’m nervous. I haven’t danced regularly in so long and I’m scared I’ll be bad and the other people in the class will look at me like “What is SHE doing here?”…  which is silly right? I just need to get over it and go. I always have fun when I do

We were starved afterwards and made our way to Petsi Pies!

Soup, paninis and an apple crumble pie were devoured here!

 

My panini was so good I didn’t want it to end! And of course the pie was amazing

I had such a great time and Amanda is such a good hostess, I couldn’t have asked to have better food or more fun!
Boston is such a great city. But now it’s back to another great city… 

Bye Bye Boston!

p.s. If you ever go to Boston you should definitely hit up ALL of these places. I highly recommend them!

Our first stop was Nathans to get the rest of the crew some world famous frankfurters 

And, of course, enter the Hot Dog eating contest Can you believe the world record for males is 680!!!! And [...]]]> Me, BF and two friends spent the day at Coney Island yesterday.

Our first stop was Nathans to get the rest of the crew some world famous frankfurters 

And, of course, enter the Hot Dog eating contest

Can you believe the world record for males is 680!!!! And females is 410!!! Ew…

The dogs
 

While the others enjoyed their beef I got myself a GIANT slice of pizza

It was huge, it was greasy. And it was delicious.

Our table
  

And then, it was beach time.

Not quite the Hamptons… but a beach is a beach.
 

I got about 2 pages into my new book before I passed out in the warm warm sun.

That would be a pina colada beside my book…and later I had an un-pictured ice cream. Ugh. Tummyache.

Later our group showered off our sandy, carnival covered selves and got prettied up to go to Yerba Buena

Highly HIGHLY recommend this place.

Watermelon fries

Hamachi Taquitos

Grilled hearts of palm

And spicy shrimp with rice, hearts of palm and tomato salsa
 

And then we went for dessert at Cafe Reggio. I got chocolate mousse. It was huge. And rich.

And un-pictured. Sorry! Also un-pictured was some more pizza that BF and I shared when we got home.

YIKES! I was stuffed. And am still stuffed this morning. TOO.MUCH.EATING!

I’m keeping it light today. And then…back to school tomorrow.

What did you get up to this memorial day weekend?

I started my Monday morning off right by being dragged to the gym by BF hitting the gym!

I foam-rolled and then hopped on the treadmill for 1 mile. And, I hardly felt any pain!!!  A little tightness but, otherwise, I think by next week i may be able to try [...]]]> Monday monday monday.

I started my Monday morning off right by being dragged to the gym by BF hitting the gym!

I foam-rolled and then hopped on the treadmill for 1 mile. And, I hardly felt any pain!!!  A little tightness but, otherwise, I think by next week i may be able to try for 2 miles! I foam-rolled afterwards and stretched as well.

And I started Day 1 of my One Hundred Pushups challenge! You can check out what I did today on my fitness page.

After a shower and some pretty awesome shower singing, I made myself a VERY yummy post workout smoothie.

It contained frozen organic strawberries, 1/2  a large banana, 1/2 C almond milk and 1/2 C OJ

It was stawberry-banana perfection!

It was really nice to have my parents here for the weekend! Yesterday, Mother’s day, we went to Spitzer’s Corner for brunch.

Spitzer’s is actually a bar but it is very clean, has communal tables, delicious brunch food and there was no wait!

My mom ordered the Crispy Eggs & Spinach Ricotta Terrine

Mmmmm

And my dad ordered the Vanilla Pancakes with Rhubarb Syrup (aka the best pancakes ever)
The rhubarb syrup was to die for!

And I was feeling more like lunch food so I ordered the Grilled Vegetable Salad with Queso Fresco
 
I need to make grilled veggies more often.

Mom and I spent Mother’s Day getting lost amongst the designer shoes in Saks. The perfect girls day! 
My dad went and explored midtown.

The shoes I wanted to buy originally didn’t come in my size, but I did pick up these BCBG’s on sale!

They’re not normally my style but they were surprisingly comfy and they reminded me of wearing my point shoes!

Hope you had a great weekend/mother’s day!

I feel so free since I did my workout this morning! I think I will clean up the apt and then get ready to meet JH!

Do you like to sing in the shower? What do you sing in the shower, if you do sing?

First, the winner of the Giveaway!

#1 – Jessica @ Dairy Free Betty! – Congrats! CSN will contact you soon with your promotional code!

So, I had my last Physical Therapy appointment yesterday. Here’s the deal: basically I have to start all over again, very very slowly. I am allowed to [...]]]> Happy Friday to you!

First, the winner of the Giveaway!

#1 – Jessica @ Dairy Free Betty! – Congrats! CSN will contact you soon with your promotional code!

So, I had my last Physical Therapy appointment yesterday. Here’s the deal: basically I have to start all over again, very very slowly. I am allowed to run 2-3 times a week for only 1 mile. And I must foam-roll before and after my run. As well as stretch and ice after each run. Once I can do 1 mile comfortably and not feel pain after, then I can move onto 2 miles… and so on and so forth. I hope the pain goes away!!!

Union Square Cafe 

As you may know, my parents are in town. We went to Union Square Cafe for dinner.

I attempted to do a bit of a Fashion Friday shoot beforehand. Not sure how well that turned out. Ha.
 
I don’t think the lighting was good enough to really see my outfit properly.

In any case I wore:
Navy Dress: Barneys NYC
Sweater: Aqua
Belt: Don’t remember!

I love the shoes I wore. I got them at a second-hand store in Boston!  
 

Alright, enough of that… onto the food!

USC is a very well known restaurant in NYC (it’s not actually a cafe!). It’s definitely not “hip and cool”… it’s more classic. It’s not casual by any means, but it’s not super fancy either. It’s a good place to go with your parents

My mom and I each started with the bibb lettuce salad
  

My dad started with the hamachi tartar appetizer. I stole a bite. It was AH-MAZING! Melted in your mouth.

For our main course my mom and I split grilled halibut and gnocchi. Both were great.

My dad had the lamb, which looked wonderful. He said it was delicious.

And the three of us split the flourless chocolate cake with salted caramel for dessert.

If there’s one thing I know about my family, it’s that we never pass on dessert!
 

P.S have you checked out Fit Chick in the City’s awesome playlist compiled by readers? (I contributed #1!). Love all the songs on there!

What song always makes you happy when you listen to it?

For me, it’s Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. (And the one on the playlist above!).