I Love Vermont

I'm back! What a jam-packed weekend! We did everything! I'm exhausted... and a tad stressed-- the big day is in less than 6 days, and we've got lots and lots and lots to do, which means a quick recap of our VT weekend. (Hope you guys understand!)

Mal and I arrived at our friends' home in Jeffersonville, VT around 4:00 on Thursday, and immediately headed to Breakwaters on Lake Champlain in Burlington to enjoy some appetizers, beers, and fireworks. While waiting for the fireworks to begin, Mal and I enjoyed some Long Trail Blackberry Wheat beer and live music.

Beautiful Breakwater's sunset...

As you can see by the shadows, the bar was packed with people!

After about 6 hours at Breakwaters (and just as many beers), we worked up an appetite for a late-night snack. One of the best late-night foods in Burlington is the "Rise and Shiner" sandwich from The Kountry Kart Deli.

The "Rise and Shiner" sandwich is a sub-roll filled with a fried egg, hash brown, cheese, and bacon. It is delicious... and obviously, a-mazing when you are a little drunk! :) Here's Mr. Mal about to bite into his "Rise and Shiner." My half is in his lap-- we split one.

Friday morning, we woke up bright and early to head to North Beach on Lake Champlain for a day of swimming, sunning, beach games, and grilling. Before hitting the beach, we stopped at City Market to pick up some supplies.

From the City Market website: "City Market is a consumer cooperative selling wholesome food and other products while building a vibrant, empowered community and a healthier world... all in a sustainable manner."

City Market had an amazing selection of local and organic foods, which was heaven for me! The store was also gorgeous inside! I wish so badly that we had a co-op like this near where we live.

A few weeks ago Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma, visited the store. So cool! Too bad I missed his visit!

Views of Lake Champlain from North Beach...

After spending a few hours at the beach, we met up with some more friends to ride around the lake on their boat. Here's our friend Jenny with her French Bulldog, Sophie. I am in love with Sophie! She's the cutest!!!! Love those bat ears! :)

Me, Mal, Maggie, and Danielle (left to right) hanging out at the beach...

Mal and me at the beach... we lucked out with a beautiful day!

And the highlight of my weekend...

RED ONION!!!!!

The Red Onion sandwich is my absolute FAVORITE sandwich in the whole wide world! If you ever visit Burlington, Vermont, you NEED to try one of these sandwiches. (FYI: the Red Onion Cafe is right on Church Street in downtown Burlington.)

The Red Onion sandwich is roasted turkey bread with smoked Gruyere cheese, red onion, granny smith apple slices, bacon, and sun-dried tomato mayo. I got mine on toasted honey oat bread, which is freshly baked at Red Onion. Best. sandwich. ever!

Tina + Red Onion Sandwich = Very Happy Girl!

Before leaving Vermont today, we stopped at a farmer's market in Stowe. Mal and I purchased a bunch of goodies-- relish, hot sauce, pumpkin spread, and a couple other things, but I will post about them in more detail as I try them.

Another shot of the Stowe farmer's market...

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend-- just what we needed before our crazy wedding week!

Mal and I and our friends also went hiking on Saturday morning, but the photos that we took are on our nice camera. I'll post some of them tomorrow night.

Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July weekend!!!!! I'm off to tackle our wedding to do list!

Headed to the Green Mountain State

Good morning, blog world! I am jazzed for the long holiday weekend! I only have a half day of work today, and I am already counting down the hours until we leave for Vermont. Last night, Mr. Mal made 3 mix CDs for our 3.5 hour road trip-- I love good music on road trips! So fun!

I was hungry this morning! I had planned to have something different for breakfast like waffles or eggs, but when my stomach is a-growling, a big bowl of oats is the only thing that I crave!

Today's oat bowl included a sliced banana and some strawberries. As always, it was delicious! I also had some iced coffee to go, but I was in such a rush this morning (still obsessing about packing), I didn't have time to take a photo.


Miraculously, I made it to the gym this morning! I set my alarm last night and hoped for the best this morning. My alarm went off at 5:30 am, and I woke right up and headed to the gym. I jumped on the elliptical for 35 minutes and walked on an incline on the treadmill for another 20.

Before hitting the gym, I fueled-up with half of a cherry-flavor Yotta bar. After my so-so review of the apple-flavored Yotta bar, the nice people at Undercover Vegetable Company offered to send me samples of their #1 best selling bar, which is the cherry flavor. The cherry bar has a strong, tart cherry flavor. It's consistency was ideal-- moist, but not sticky, and its appearance was much more visually pleasing than the apple. Overall, the cherry bar is a yummy snack. The Yotta people have done a fantastic job of hiding veggies in this flavor!


I'm leaving for VT promptly at noon, so I won't be posting again until late Sunday afternoon. I plan to take lots of photos this weekend, so I will have a massive weekend post for you all then!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Packing Problems

Does anyone else have major problems packing for a trip? Mal and I are only going to Vermont for 3.5 days, and it took me about an hour to pack! I kept trying to plan outfits, but then I would worry about the weather and the "appropriateness" of the clothing that I was selecting. I have an idea what is on the agenda for the long weekend, but our plans range from spending the day at the beach (and/or on a boat) to hiking to going out on the town, which means lots of outfit possibilities... and a lot of shoes! Shoes take up so much space, especially sneakers! Jeez. I have no idea how I am going to mange to pack for the honeymoon! My life is so hard! :) 

Anyway, on to dinner...

Dinner was a spinach salad with leftover pad thai veggies and a little balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. 

I munched on my salad while sitting on our balcony and reading the newest issue of Shape magazine. I love laid-back summer nights like these!

After packing, I made myself a delicious sweet snack-- an English muffin with peanut butter and butterscotch chips (surprise!) and strawberries on the side. 

I still need to do a few things (wedding stuff included) before our trip to VT tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure how late I will be up, but I am thinking about skipping the gym tomorrow morning. We'll see. 

Good night, all!

Thunderstorm!

It's crazy outside right now-- thunder, lightning, wind, and rain. Yowsahs! Let's hope it clears up before I have to leave work... I didn't bring an umbrella today.

Lunch today was leftover's from last night's dinner of shrimp pad thai. Some days, my leftovers surprise me and actually taste just as good as the actual meal. Today's lunch, however, was sort of a disappointment. The noodles were sticky and bland, and the veggies tasted like, well, old leftover veggies. Oh well. I still ate the whole portion.


Luckily, lunch included my favorite flavor of Larabars: Ginger Snap. It was a wonderful way to finish off a not-so-great lunch. (Check out the scribbles on my to-do list. I'm trying to get a lot done before I leave next week for 9 days!)


My afternoon snack was a repeat of the last 2 days. Sorry that my meals are so boring this week. We're heading to Vermont tomorrow, and then we are getting married and honeymooning, so we're trying to finish up the groceries that we already have in the apartment since we won't be home much. Actually, the meals will probably get more interesting once we get really low on food! :)

Strawberry Morning

Good morning! We're so close to the long weekend! Let's hope today and tomorrow fly by! Yay to three day weekends! :)

This morning's breakfast was strawberry oat bran with almond slices and vanilla hemp milk. I was actually in the mood for oatmeal this morning, but we're all out (yikes!) As my friend Dave would say, "put it on the list!"


I just bought a big carton of strawberries. Be prepared to see lots of them in the next few days! Gottta eat 'em up before they spoil!


Breakfast also included a dark chocolate Adora disk. Calcium + D + K.


This part of breakfast won't surprise anyone-- iced coffee to go with hemp milk and half of a packet of Splenda. I'm becoming so predictable!


Question of the Day

What are your tips for enjoying the many food options, but not overdoing-it at 4th of July BBQs/parties/celebrations this coming weekend?

Me: Celebrations with lots of good food are always tough for me. I love food so much! My typical "game plan" is to load up on fruits and veggies, try a few new things (I don't waste my calories on boring stuff like chips and store-bought cookies), and take it easy on the booze. I usually find a way to balance my nutritious eating and fun... but like I said, it's not always easy! Here's a few more ideas that I put together for navigating social events.

Picture Perfect

I finally got to play with our new camera tonight. I've been meaning to use it more often, but my little Canon PowerShot is what I know and it's just easier, especially if you are constantly taking photos of everything you eat. I included a mix of new and old camera photos to compare the quality-- there is a big difference!

Dinner tonight was shrimp pad thai with lots of veggies. This photo was taken by the new camera...

This photo is from the old camera...

This is a new camera photo as well... quite the noticeable difference, huh? 

Dessert obsession: Toasted English muffin with peanut butter and butterscotch chips. YUM! I love this combo as a dessert! 

Our shrimp pad thai included red peppers, carrots, mini corn, snap peas, and red onions, which was a rainbow of veggies.

Colorful veggies cooking on the stove...

We used a Thai Kitchen Pad Thai meal-in-a-box as the base of our dinner. With some shrimp and veggies, it turned into a delicious and satisfying meal. 

Afternoon Snack

My afternoon snack was Stonyfield peach yogurt with Barbara's Shredded Oats cereal. I added 1.25 cups of cereal to my yogurt. It didn't all fit at once, so I added it as I ate my yogurt. The cereal remained crisp and crunchy while sitting in my yogurt, and its flavor was sweet, but not overwhelming or artificial-- it sort of reminded me of oatmeal in cereal form. I'm a huge fan of this stuff! It's the perfect snack!

I'm exhausted after today! The first day of Summer Session was crazy! I think an early bedtime is in my very near future. Good night, all! 

Summer Session Starts

I apologize for the late post. Today is the first day of Summer Session at HSPH, and my office coordinates it, so I've been helping out with orientation and registration all morning. I just now sat down to my desk. Anyway... on to the food!

Breakfast today was a repeat of yesterday's: Banana oatmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter.


However, today's banana oatmeal was made with vanilla hemp milk, which added a sweeter flavor and creamier texture. Yuuuum!

I had to be at HSPH at 7:30 this morning to prepare for our Summer Session event, so I ate breakfast around 6:15 (so early!) I'm surprised that I was actually hungry at that hour, but I knew that I needed to eat something since I wouldn't have a chance to eat until lunchtime. My oatmeal did a great job holding me over!


A very early work morning requires copious amounts of iced coffee. Today's iced coffee was light on the ice and milk, and heavy on the coffee. It did the trick though-- by the time I arrived at work, I was wide awake and ready to go!


I didn't make my lunch last night, and it was futile to even attempt a lunch at 6:00 am, so today's lunch was a big old salad from the cafe's salad bar. All of the veggies were very satisfying-- I'm full!

My very colorful salad included lots of goodies...

• Strawberries
• Cucumbers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Kidney beans
• Broccoli
• Feta
• Jalapeños
  
• Chic peas
• Black beans
• Beets
• Wasabi peas
• Mushrooms
• Red grapes
• Edamame
  
• Artichoke hearts
• Shredded carrots
  

Question of the Day

What's the best idea/tip/recipe/etc. that you read off someone else's food blog?

Me: It's a toss up between Kath's Oatmeal Pancake recipe or VeggieGirl's mention of Medjool dates on my blog. Both of these have changed my life! :)