Saturday, July 31, 2010

Po'Boy my way


How is it already 6:30? I have no clue where this day has gone :( Oh well, it's been relaxing at least.

Yesterday I met up with Amanda and we walked to a new vegan sandwich shop, Terri Cafe.

We grabbed our sandwiches and headed over to Madison Square Park to eat. I had the spinach and tofu wrap.

It was so yummy and my tummy was pretty happy; but, I must say the place is a little pricey. Including tax the sandwich was $8.50 and that was without any sides and to go! I will probably go again because there are a few other intriguing options, but I think S'nice will remain my go to sandwich shop.



This afternoon I was inspired to use both my cabbage and dill from my CSA share. I decided to make another coleslaw and was inspired by this recipe in the NY times for a Po'Boy. I don't know how I feel about sardines so I went with Salmon instead. While I do still eat fish I very rarely buy it on my own. However, while in pilates this afternoon my stomach was grumbly and all during the side series exercises I was thinking of how perfectly salmon and dill compliment each other. Thus it would be a Salmon Coleslaw Po'Boy. After the gym I went to the local fish shop, first time I've been in the 2 years I lived in this area!

I started by soaking about 1-1.5 cups of cabbage in water for 15 minutes.


Cut up my lilac pepper thinly.

Minced 2 cloves of garlic, added a pinch of sea salt and mashed into a paste with the back of a spoon. Then I added 1/2 teaspoon of lemon and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes before adding 2 tablespoons of plain non fat greek yogurt.


In a separate mixture I combined 1 teaspoon of spicy dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Oh and some black pepper.


Then I drained the cabbage, mixed with the lilac pepper, and added the dressings. Mixed all together and let sit in the refrigerator for 15 or so minutes.


For the sandwich itself I combined cooked salmon (400* for 20 minutes, seasoned with pepper, onion and garlic powder, olive oil drizzled on top, and dill) with the coleslaw and served in a whole wheat pita. Yum!


Enjoy the remainder of your Saturday,
Nicole

Friday, July 30, 2010

TGIF

So excited it's Friday and even more excited that I'm taking a few days off next week to head into the woods for a few days...sometimes you need a break from the heat and humidity of the city!

But, before I get ahead of myself a quick recap of this week.

The good eats...

The last of my free juicy watermelon from my volunteer work for the CSA:




Other CSA goodies, including slicing and boothby cucumbers (the yellow one is the boothby) and cherry tomatoes:

Banana with dark chocolate peanut butter, great pre or post workout snack:


And the baddish...

Ice cream cake for yet another lab celebration/summer intern presentations:

I had originally planned on skipping on the treats. I feel like I don't say no enough these days and snaking has increased greatly...but yet again I couldn't resist and had a small slice along with a small piece of peanut butter pie (peanut butter is my weakness).

The summer students:




Yesterday a post doc in my lab came back after a month away for various conferences and vacation, so we went out for lunch. We've been to this bistro on a few occasions as a lab outing and I love it, good food, and perfect portions. I ordered the veggie panini which came with a small salad and a reasonable serving of fries.



That evening I met a friend for happy hour and to chat before she begins her med school rotations on Monday. After a drink we walked to Whole Foods, grabbed salads, and walked to Union Sq to eat, continue conversation, and people watch.




Time to get back to the grind. I'm currently working on a presentation about thinking critically in science and society to give to high school summer students in a couple of weeks...I'm thinking about discussing the hype around high fructose corn syrup.

Then it's out, fit in a quick cardio session (couldn't wake up this morning to do so) and meet Amanda for dinner. Haven't seen that girl in forever and am excited to catch up!

Nicole

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Oh, Canada. Eh!

I haven't made a post in a while, and that's because I was on a family trip to Canada! We started at Niagara Falls, went to Toronto for a day and a half, and then came back to Niagara. For anyone who hasn't seen the falls there, it's definitely worth it! They are just beautiful!



Before going on the trip, I was thinking about what kind of food is Canadian, and all I could really think of is maple syrup! That's pretty sad. Once I got to Canada, however, I found a few Canadian foods that I haven't really seen anywhere else. One is poutine, which is fries with cheese curds and gravy. I thought it was very tasty!



Another one is called a butter tart. It tastes like caramel in a tart shell with a few raisins threw in. Overall, it was too sweet for me.



I also went to a dinner show called Oh, Canada, Eh! They had pretty normal food, like chicken, potatoes, veggies, and maple cake for dessert. It was fun and pretty entertaining! They gave us some history of Canada and sang lots of Canadian songs, not one of them being Oh, Canada.



Apart from performing, all these people were also waiters! Ours was the woman on the left.



While in Toronto, we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. As far as museums go, in my opinion, Canada has the best ones! A few years ago, I went to the Royal British Columbia Museum and it was the best museum I've ever been to. The R.O.M was just as good! They had a special exhibit on the Chinese Terra Cotta Soldiers, which was fantastic. We went to a few other sections of the museum after that, like dinosaurs, Native Cultures, birds, gems, etc. and didn't even see half of the sections. It's a massive museum!



After 5 hours in the museum, we were hungry, and had already asked the concierge how to get to Little India in Toronto. After taking the subway and the bus, we made it there and found a great restaurant with tons of outside seating. The food was wonderful, the best on the whole trip! We got chicken tikka masala, naan, chicken biryani, a lamb dish and a veggie dish.





Did you know there are over 100 wineries within an hour of Niagara Falls? While we only went to 4 of them, i could tell that there is great quality wine to be found in Canada. One type of wine I've only seen here is Ice Wine. They wait until it is 15 degrees outside and the grapes on the vine are frozen solid, and the press the grapes frozen. The flavor is sweeter and more concentrated, and I love it! It's more expensive than regular wines; we saw a bottle for $80! My favorite winery was 20 bees, the wine was great and it was the least expensive place we found. Out of all the wines I tasted, the type I liked best at every winery was Gewurztraminer, a nice white wine.



Here is what I spent a week in with my family. I have to tell you, by the end of the week, I was starting to get a little stir crazy in such a close space with 3 other people!



After I got back, I picked a ton of stuff from my garden. Try and guess what this is:



Give up? It's a yellow cucumber! Yes, I was confused too. But I cut it up and tasted it, and lo and behold, it tastes just like a regular cucumber!

We also got a TON of tomatoes, all kinds. My favorite thing to make with tomatoes in the summer is salsa. It's really the only way I'll eat tomatoes raw. I made the first batch yesterday, and it's the best one I've ever made! It was super easy too! Here's the recipe (and it's a mild/medium salsa):

4 cups of tomatoes, seeded and halved
(I used 6 roma, seeded, and a bunch of little yellow tomatoes. If you use big ones, drop them in boiling water for a minute to remove the skins)
4 garlic cloves
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 oinion, chopped
2 jalepenos, one seeded, one not
2 dry chipotle peppers, reconstituted in 1/2 cup warm water (and reserve the water)
2 Tbl olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
a handful of cilantro

Directions: Put all ingredients into a food processor or blender, including the water used for re-hydrating the dried peppers. Blend until it's the consistency you like!

I ate mine with some Food Should Taste Good olive chips! Yum!



Long post, I know! Just one more thing. I made some dog treats today! Doggie Peanut Brittle.



Enjoy the rest of the week!

~Sarah

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Last Minute Change

My mom and sister were suppose to come into the city today for a visit but when I woke at 7am I saw a text from my mom letting me know my sister was sick and they had to cancel our plans.

I was up and scrambled through my head what I would end up doing with my day. I started with breakfast and then decided to go back to sleep. After a 2 hour morning nap I walked into the heat and to the gym for a cardio session and the hardest pilates class of my life! I use to do pilates 4-5 times a week and now it's down to about 1. This past week I have been working on reincorporating pilates back into my life and fit it into my routine 3 times, alternating it with 2 days of weight lifting. Pilates is such a great total body workout with a particular focus on core. At today's class we had a substitute teacher who threw in just about every advanced level pilates movement plus some that I know. I'm already feeling it and not sure how tomorrow's spin class is going to feel.

At the same time I also want to get my running mileage back up. Since my half marathon my longest run has only been 5 miles, however, during my half training I pulled back on speed quite a bit and focused on pure endurance. My 3 mi run is back to about 24 minutes and I want to work on extending this pace to 5 miles by the end of the summer. I plan to make a schedule for the next 2 months to help me reach these goals, with modifications each week based on my social life.

After the gym I was planning on walking to Whole Foods but I felt my tummy grumbling so I decided to hit the grocery store that's between the gym and my apartment. So glad I did, Siggi's was on sale! This is by far the best greek yogurt but it's so $$$ even when on sale! I started with 3 containers in my basket but ended up grabbing 3 more. I rarely splurge on much so why not spend a bit more on really good healthy food that I will enjoy.



Lunch today featured a Sunshine burger:


and delicious cherry tomatoes from my CSA share. Ah I've never had tomatoes that are so flavorful, I don't know if I can ever by a tomato from a grocery store again.



As for the rest of the day. I plan to get some data analyzed and get some much needed reading done and maybe some writing. Then tonight I'm off to Central Park for the Alvin and Ailey dance performance, so excited.

Have a great day,
Nicole

Monday, July 19, 2010

Cat Walk

Among the things I love about summer in the city, the summer artwork installations rank pretty high.

This year's installations include the Event Horizon Statues at Madison Square Park and the Sidewalk Catwalk from Herald Sq to Times Sq.

Event Horizon:

Some of these statues are put in eerie locations, do you see it?





The Catwalk:







Nicole

Ps-Can't believe it's Monday, where did the weekend go?!? Part of the lunch menu today includes cabbage from my CSA used to make a lighter coleslaw. Basically I used a 1:1 ratio of fat free plain greek yogurt and mayo (rather than all mayo). Should be yummy!

The dressing also included dijon mustard, splash of white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper:


Cabbage and carrots:
And I think I forgot to take a picture of final product, oh well, you get the idea!