Posts Tagged Wine
Sunday Date Night
Adam and I had a fun little spontaneous date night tonight. We both needed it for sure!
Before I get to that, let’s back up to lunch.
I had some leftover salad tossed with some Annie’s Goddess dressing. I also had one mini-whole wheat pita with some roasted red pepper hummus. I love Sabra’s roasted red pepper hummus!
I also had a couple cookies that I brought home from the cookie extravaganza yesterday.
I ate a lemon & ricotta cookie and a coconut macaroon. Yumm!
We hung out at home and then headed out for our date night!
First stop: The Wine Room at Park Avenue.
First you buy a card, and then add money to it as you want. They have over 150 wines to taste and you can choose the size of your tasting as you go. It’s self-serve and it’s really fun to just go around and try what you want! We already had a card so we added some money and went for some tastings. Then we headed to Urban Flats.
We split a salad of caramelized onions, walnuts, blue cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette(on the side). Yum! At first they forgot the pears but they made the salad for me, glad I asked for some. 
We ordered three flat breads to share. Well, I shared two he was on his own with the steak & portobello.
To the right is the roasted vegetable flat bread.
This is the FIG and prosciutto flat bread with blue cheese and mozzarella. SO amazingly good! Sweet, savory. Delicious!!
This is Adam’s steak and portobello pizza!
I ate this plate..
..plus another slice of roasted veggie and the fig and prosciutto.
When we got home, I ate some cookies. Excuse the paper towel, I just wanted my sweets fast! 
I only ate one of the lemon ricotta cookies and the coconut-meringue-macaroon cookie. Yummy!
I had a great night with Adam, and I am SO ready for bed now!!
Goodnight!
Katy
Add comment December 21, 2009
Tapas & vino.
It was tapas night in our household!
We were going to go out to a local wine bar and order some tapas but I suggested we stay at home and use the money to drink our own bottle of wine and make the tapas we want! I want to try something, so we set out for grocery shopping.
But, before that I got some ab work in..Leo coached me..
Don’t let the eyes fool you, he’s tougher then Jillian!
I did:
-Planks (3 sets, 20 seconds each)
-Pelvic lifts (3 sets of 20)
Okay and then I stopped..it’s hard working out at home! I went to our apartment gym and it was full. :-\ Easy to do in a tiny gym..so I did a little. A little is better then nothing!! Though I wish I did more. We left for Publix and got some things for dinner then got to cooking!
I made a savory pastry but mixing 1/3 of a small tub of Philadelphia cream cheese and 1/3 cup goddess dressing.
The sauce was yum! Don’t knock it till you try it!
I also micro-ed some turkey bacon to crisp up to top the pastry with. I grew up on turkey bacon, and I like it way more then real bacon.
I layer two sheets of paper towels and a few pieces of the bacon and cover with one sheet. Micro for one minute at a time checking and flipping after each minute.
It comes out crunchy and all the extra grease is soaked away!
We also baked up some of these crabcakes.
A little spinach dip with crostinis..
A glass of this, Barren Ridge 2007 Meritage. This is a vineyard in Viriginia that Adam’s dad played(he’s a musician) at this summer and will be playing next summer. This is some yummy wine, we may have to tag along next summer!
Two glasses of wine tonight.
The crab cakes with pastries covered in the sauce I made with some turkey bacon crumbled on top. It was last minute, and I would have stuffed the pastry instead and maybe had some sausage in there as well, at least they tasted good!I had 5 of the little crabcakes and two of the pastries.
I also snacked on this spinach dip with Adam, had about half!
This was a such a rich meal, and lacked veggies and many things healthy that were needed!! :-\ I ended up grabbing a bag of baby carrots and munched for a while at the end. My body needed something fresh and healthy. This was our splurge night for the week, and worth it but my body still knew it was missing something. I did have to have dessert though.
We also picked up these mini-desserts from Publix! How cute right? They were the perfect amount of sweetness, and considering the richness of our meal the smaller the better!
We each had 1 petit four, 1 mini eclair and one chocolate covered strawberry(my FAVE!!). Perfect and yummy.
For all of the mini desserts it was maybe $5! Not bad! So decadent too..I could 10 of those petite fours.
My announcement!
Okay so I have an exciting announcement! I feel like I need to get it out there to give me the motivation to really do it.
I am going to start training for the ING Georgia half-marathon!! YAY!! It’s March 21st, a week before my birthday next year. I am so excited and scared but I know I can do it! I have some friends running in it as well and it will be fun. It’s in Atlanta where my dad lives actually. I watched this and just got SO excited.
Watch through mile 7(the rest is the marathon course) I will be running that!! Past Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home! Crazy right?
I hope you will all join me as I train. I am starting to train just having run a 5k. I am really a beginner. I am going to work on my training plan this week and I plan on training smart and hard! I need your encouragement, and I can’t wait to share my training with you! AH!
Watching Biggest Loser, It makes me feel like I can do it more then I felt before. So yay!!
EDIT: Make sure you head on over to Ashley’s blog and check out the vegan bake sale!! Head on over and check out what I am auctioning off!!(Thanks Lindsey for the recipe) Join me tomorrow as I bake it up to send out to one awesome bidder!! Lots of yummy things baking up over there so hurry on over tomorrow at 2:30 EST. and bid away!! Your tummy (and team in training) will thank you!! Sweets for an awesome cause, what more could you want??
Good night friends!!
Katy
6 comments December 1, 2009
It’s like Christmas before Thanksgiving!
Well, today was a little hectic. Sorry for only one post today. I suppose it is busy for most people, it is the day before Thanksgiving after all!
My morning started with a green monster..
I drank about half, I didn’t have much of an appetite this morning! I actually had a group interview for a job and when my nerves are high, my appetite is way low.
My sister drove and Leo came along. After my interview we ran errands then headed home to pack up for our trip! When I got home, I was starving and I remembered that this was in my freezer..
Thankfully, Adam got home early so we were able to pack and get on the road earlier then we thought. But first, we had to head to Super Target for a few essentials. We picked up items to make pies for tomorrow (yay baking!)and I make a mean apple pie.
I also had to pick up an early graduation present for myself from my mom..
The Nikon D3000.
Okay okay okay, I know it seems EVERYONE is getting a DSLR. I suppose it’s true but honestly, I have wanted one for at least three years. My Dad was great and got me an SLR style point and shoot but I really felt like it was time for an upgrade. This isn’t a spur of the moment decision, it’s been years people..and I am SO excited. I was between this and the Canon for a while, but they seemed pretty even, and this one just felt perfect in my hands. It’s the smallest Nikon DSLR and is not heavy at all, it will be very easy to take with me places. My sister was so sweet and bought me an SDHC memory card as a graduation present. I even got this super cute camera bag as a gift for myself!
I couldn’t resist. I love it. I wanted a bag that I would want to carry around.
I had a glass of wine once we got to the hotel. Our suite is great! It’s designed for extended stay guests. Full kitchen with an oven and full sized refrigerator! Pretty nice, if we had everything we needed here we would just make the pies in the morning. Oh well, I would have taken more pictures of it but it was pretty messy by the time I got to it. We had a lot of stuff! Or maybe I had a lot of stuff? Oh well..better to over pack then under pack..right?
Dinner didn’t happen until 10:30! We ordered pizza and salads.
These photos were with my old camera, the new one was still charging..
I nursed this glass of wine along with another one after dinner..
I requested veggies..I had these plus one more slice..(maybe even had some garlic butter)..
Side salad with Italian dressing.
By this time, my camera had charged so I had some fun..
I know you may be rolling your eyes since it’s just one more person with a DSLR..but I am really excited about it. So yay!! 4 comments November 26, 2009
Recipe Fail
Okay so I must admit this was my first attempt at making my own recipe..from scratch. I did a little research but obviously not the right kind because it was a fail. I suppose not a complete failure since it was edible and not too bad tasting..but it didn’t quite turn out. This was my attempt at making a healthier chicken pot pie..
Yep that’s what it should like after you eat it, and see it coming back the other way. Gross. I was trying to use yogurt and it coagulated. I think I would need to heat it up slowly? Any thoughts?
I added a little smart balance and flour and it thickened up. I was getting a little flustered trying to figure all of this out..but I pressed on. Imagine those people who have already lost the game but keep playing to hang on to their dignity…that was me. Good thing this is a healthy living blog and not just a food blog. This is why I am more of a baker!
Lessons learned:
Practice makes perfect, and I need to do more research!
Done and done. I will not give up.
Snacked on some of the baked dough. Yum pastry dough..
At least it looked pretty good! It didn’t taste too bad.
I munched on this waiting for Adam to get home.
I had made a pot of half-caf coffee earlier and drank half of the hot mug, and used the rest to make an iced coffee.
I ate one small scoop of the failed pot pie and it filled me up. I had one sip of this..
..before realizing I would rather run then finish it. We headed to the gym and I ran for 40 minutes, mostly an easy pace but I ran 3.02 miles! I barely made a dent in this glass at all. Sad..but true!
I had dessert afterwards, some yummy coconut cookie dough ice cream!
Looks like a large bowl, yes?
Nope, that probably equaled a scoop and a half! I’m a huge fan of using smaller plates and bowls! It’ll be one of my tricks for not overdoing it on Thanksgiving.
Another note, I realize I have been eating pretty heavy things. It’s important to remember balance this time of year. I plan on eating lighter the days before and after Thanksgiving to balance out the calorie overload that will be inevitable Thursday. I am just writing down this goal since writing it(especially on the blog) really helps me to follow through!
I’m off to sip my nighttime tea, and read Julie & Julia in bed. Night friends!
Love, love, love (:
Katy H.
1 comment November 24, 2009
Have your cake and eat it too!
Last night we cooked up “on our own” dinners which usually mean we both eat something completely different. This time, it meant different proteins. I had a spicy black bean burger with organic “huck-uptsh” and hot sauce. Okay, when I was a little kid I called ketchup “huck-uptsh” for some reason that was easier then ketchup. I cooked up some 5-minute Israeli cous-cous and veggies. YUM! My mom made couscous a lot growing up but I haven’t had it in soooo long.
I love couscous.
Adam really wanted me to show the “rabbit” at work, it was a gift I got him while we were dating and it makes wine work removal super easy! We love it.
So yummm! I love Pinot Noir, especially from Oregon.
We also broke into our wedding cake topper. We saved our topper in three large sections and vacuum sealed it. We ate one on our one month, and since our six mont just passed, we decided to try(and hope) that the cake still tasted amazing.
Ohhh..my…GOSH!! It tasted PERFECT! Like we froze it yesterday!! We had two layers, this was my favorite. It was coconut cake with a guava filling. Incredible! I had that slice plus another one the same size. I looove it. Oh and the best fondant ever, Adam said he never likes the taste of it but this one he does. Yum yum yum! If you need a reference for a great cake in Orlando, ask me!
This morning began with coffee with a little skimmy and sugar.
Breakfast was my last of my Chobani (le sigh..) and my yummy MixMyGranola..
Yumm..I am scarfing it at the moment so we’re not late for church! Hope you are enjoying your Sunday and GO ASHLEY GO!! I am so happy my wonderful friend is running her first marathon! YAY!
Have a beautiful day, friends!
Katy H.
4 comments November 22, 2009
Nothing like sleeping in..
..to start a day off right! Of course sleeping in to me is sleeping until 9:30. My body really needed it so I was more then happy to oblige.
SInce last Saturday it’s been hard to feel rested no matter how much sleep I have gotten, but I finally feel caught up! I don’t like sleeping in all the time but after a long, hard week I let myself get more then 8 hours and it’s divine.
This was our dinner last night:
This was one of the best meals I have had in a while..I was craving sweet potato(when am I not craving sweet potato? *she says as the microwave beeps and the smell of sweet potatoes fills the air*…….anyways..) so we decided to make sweet potato fries. We coated them in a very light coating coating that included-
- A little EVOO
- Paprika
- Garlic Powder
- Chili Powder
- Salt and Pepper
Remember, spices are free reign so add to taste and enjoy!
These were probably the best we ever made, sweet potato fries may be my favorite food..
In a pan I added a very little bit of EVOO along with some fresh broccoli, chopped up baby carrots, some frozen veggies and once those were warmed through I added two handfuls of fresh spinach. Half for Adam, half for moi!
While I cooked up veggies, Adam cooked up some tilapia that he found on sale this week.
Adam cooked it with a little EVOO and spices, I forgot to ask him what he used but I know he used Old Bay and S&P.
So delicious and buttery without adding butter!
All together..
I drank it with some green tea and pomegranate that I hadn’t finished, I just poured it over ice!
Then I switched to vino..
Throughout the night I sipped on a glass and a half.
I noticed we only had a small amount of pumpkin pie ice cream left, I brought the container to share with Adam but he didn’t want any.
To be honest I had a few bites and threw it away since I could already taste freezer. Not the best taste! I settled on a lemon head and twizzler from my halloween candy stash. I’m sorry but I LOVE lemon heads and I allowed myself one. I may need to donate this candy to Adam’s office.
When I woke up this morning I read through some blogs and got ready to workout by fueling on some almond butter and banana. Yumm..but it looks like someone snuck a bite before I took a picture..
Me- “Adam! I didn’t even take a picture yet!”
Adam- “I’m sorry! I thought it was funny!”
(Just like I thought the raw onion kiss was funny?)
Me- “It’s okay I am just going to have to tell the blogworld..”
Adam-*Sadface*
Me-”It’s okay, it doesn’t make you a bad husband. I’ve seen it happen.
Adam-”I’ll just cut that part off.”
Me-”I can’t lie about it!!”
Adam- “That’s not lying…”
I took a picture anyways..(;
At the gym the treadmill was taken..grr apartment gyms! I made due with the elliptical and set it to level 10 for 30 minutes on the “Hills” program. Boy was I sweaty after that! I read Women’s Magazine while working but made sure to push it often, especially on the hills.
I didn’t feel %100 after, but luckily Adam made breakfast!
Eggs in a basket and some turkey sausage(+1 more)!
This was yummy and I felt instantly better.
After getting ready we headed off to our favorite Orlando coffee shop, Cup O’Soul to get some work done. Unfortunately their internet was on and off so I didn’t get that much done(hence the later “morning” post) but I got a job application completed which was a huge to-do! I sipped on this while working-
The drink I always get, the llama. I talk about this amazing drink and it’s coffee iced cubes here. Love it!
Now I am getting dinner together before heading off to my beautiful friends baby shower! Then a girl’s night of baking and Twlight watching. I have already seen it once right when it came out last year but have never read the book. I am hoping that watching it with Ryan and Ashley will help me get into it. I am a bit of a skeptic..maybe I will be a late convert. Have you gotten into the Twilight craze?
Announcements:
-I am starting a new series! Look out for it this weekend!
-Add me on twitter! Check the link on the right side of my page
-If you like what you read, be sure to subscribe. Let me know if you have any trouble with this!
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday !
Katy
3 comments November 14, 2009
Winner winner veggie-pasta dinner!
Before I announce the winner, I’m going to talk about the second half of my day. I know torture right? At least this is a blog and not “The Biggest Loser”..you can just scroll down to find out the winner .
For my pre-cleaning fuel:
Smooothie time!
- One banana
- Flax
- Amazing Grass
- Strawberries, Mango, blue berries
- Quarter cup of Chobani 0% plain greek yogurt
- As much spinach as I could stuff into the magic bullet. It sounds like death since I have been making all those smoothies..oops!
- Some of this:
Yummm!
It was perfectly yummy and creamy. Looove me some smoothies! I also had a small bowl of booty! Pirate’s booty that is..
After my snack, we began the dreadful task of cleaning! Due to us both working forty hours a week..cleaning seems to be a minor priority. In honesty, it’s a huge priority but we often let tiredness and other duties take over and our apartment becomes a mess! It doesn’t help that we live in a one bedroom and it seems that many things just don’t have a place. Well, it’s now clean! I swear we had so many dirty clothes, I didn’t realize we had that many items of clothing between the two of us. This is the laundry that never ends..yes it goes on and on and on and on……
Well, you get the idea
When we got towards the end, Adam started dinner. I love the smell of garlic and onion cooking..mmmmmmm! He made farfalle pasta with diced tomatoes, veggies, garlic, and what was left of a small hunk of mozzy cheese.
Yuuuuhhh-hum!
It helps that I married a man whose nickname in college was “Chef Adam”. He even has a chef coat that says “Chef Adam” on it.
I aim to please.
She said:
3 comments November 11, 2009
Seasons 52, I love YOU!
Dinner was so nummy..okay nummy isn’t a great word for it. It was AMAZING!
When we arrived I got right to work photographing..
Not the best pictures, but I just love the open kitchen! They probably thought I was crazy. I didn’t want the flash to go off and distract them..in a kitchen that could be dangerous!
I didn’t hate flash until I became a food blogger..
A little better..I love wine cellars!
We arrived and sat at our booth and while perusing the wine list, we ordered appetizers. Rosemary and parmesan flat bread along with stuffed mushrooms. The “Caramelized Crab & Shrimp Stuffed Mushrooms” to be exact. The menu said they were served with roasted garlic and parmesan cheese.
This was my first time since food blogging trying to deal with dark lighting. A little stressful, we need a new camera..I did my best!
This was so amazing. I had these:
Plus another stuffed mushroom and 1 1/2 more of the flatbread.
Rosemary is my FAVORITE herb! Seriously, it’s comfort food for me. Anything with rosemary. My mom used rosemary a lot growing up, it smells like Christmas to me!
I ordered the Leanne Vineyard pinot noir.
Pinot noir is my new love, my original favorite was Malbec. Seriously I would always order an Argentinean Malbec and was never disappointed. I tried pinot noir and fell in love. It’s a lighter red so it’s not too heavy which turns me off to reds sometimes. Especially in Florida where it’s hot most of the year and something lighter and fruitier is always more appealing to me. I really really really love wine and would love to learn more about it.
I ordered the “Grilled Boneless Rainbow Trout” which the menu described came “with parsley new potatoes, fresh roasted vegetables and broiled lemon”.
YUM! Vegetarian/Vegans beware..there’s a tail on my dinner..
This was so good! I first had trout in Michigan when I was 11, it was freshly caught by our group and cooked up so yummy! It quickly became a favorite. It’s a very mild fish so even if you don’t like fish, give this a shot.
Had to highlight the rosemary..yessssss!
Mmmm two of my favorite veggies! Those roasted carrots were AMAZING! I am roasting carrots real soon! The potatoes were super yum and comforting as well!
The husband got the special which was quail in a maple bourbon glaze with fresh veggies (and TONS of blanched garlic!) some garlic mashed potatoes(he opted for those instead of mashed sweet potatoes..silly husband!) and more rosemary! I need to grow rosemary. I had a bite of his quail..my first experience with quail and it was yummy! Also maybe snuck a bite of his mashed potatoes. Yummy!
But we were most looking forward to this….
Okay we didn’t order ALL of those..we decided on three! I let the husband pick first..he opted for fresh fruit.
I was a little jokingly mad at him. I know I know, I am a healthy living blogger. But come on! Dessert! Not fruit I apologized later because this helped add some freshness to our dessert and the other two were way satisfying I didn’t need anymore!
I chose pumpkin spice..oh my gosh, their are no words..so incredible.
Then he let me pick the mocha machiatto. Yummy coffee, chocolate and caramel! Such a delicious mix of flavors.
Our server treated us to two of those free! Why? Because it was our anniversary silly!
They gave us a cute little card, how sweet!
It was a fabulous dinner with the love of my life. I’ll have to do a wedding recap post so you can get caught up on our crazy day!
I also forgot to mention that when I got home I ran 2.5 miles! It took 35 minutes, but I was focused more on time then distance. I am easing back into more time and then I will work on gaining speed and endurance. Once the weather gets better I will be outside. As of now, I have to be at work at 7:45 so morning runs are out of the question for now. I need sleep! Speaking of which, I am off to bed!
Goodnight friends, don’t forget to tell everyone to enter the giveaway! I only have 16 entries! The odds are awesome !
Katy
6 comments November 10, 2009
