cake

If they did, I would be doing it tonight! I was searching through On Demand, and there seem to be all sorts of yoga videos, but none for cranky people. 🙂 It was a great great weekend in New Jersey, but I am exhausted and not at all ready to face a crazy week. A hectic Friday led right into a 6 hour drive in torrential downpours, so we arrived at my mom’s house at around midnight. I was too wired to sleep well, and woke up Saturday morning to a ton of work email to tend to and then went straight into helping my sister prep for the party.

I got put in charge of the penne with tomato vodka sauce:

Canned crushed tomatoes

Olive oil to coat the bottom of a big pot

Lots of chopped garlic and about half of an onion

prosciutto di parma (I didn’t see much benefit to adding this, so I would leave it out next time)

tsp oregano

fresh ground black pepper and sea salt

1 shot of vodka

heavy cream to taste (to a big ol pot we added maybe 3/4 cup of cream)

1/4 grated parmesan

Sautee onions and garlic until soft and the garlic is golden, then add everything but the cream and cheese. The cream and cheese can be added at the very end, and we shared the load doing this. I stirred and she poured so that nothing would congeal or get yucky. If the sauce was for my house I would definitely add crushed red pepper flakes because I love spice in my tomato cream sauces, but this was a kid party. We served it over regular penne. I would do whole wheat at home. It was easy peasy, delicious, and a real crowd pleaser.

SimmeringWith cream

There was so much to eat and drink at the bbq: my mom’s famous baked lima beans with brown sugar and bacon, potato salad (mom’s famous again!), green salad, fruit salad, sausage and peppers, teriyaki chicken meatballs, rolls, pasta, and these smazing soft pretzels that they buy at a special pretzel bakery.

I had LOTS of orange and yellow peppers

There was also a lot of this:

6 types of Harpoon

On a side note, we live a couple of miles from the Harpoon Brewery, and it has trumped Sam Adams as my favorite local beer! I have been to a couple of charity events at Harpoon, and the fact that they do them for free makes the beer even better to me. I liked their Brown Session Ale and their Crystal Wheat, but give me a classic Harpoon IPA, and I am a happy girl. Remind me to blog someday about Yankee Lobster , an awesome fresh fish restaurant yards from Harpoon. Yankee Lobster roll + Harpoon IPA = summer in my mouth!

Ok back to the bbq post! There was also cake, a Dorah cake with lemon filling for my niece and a chocolate mousse filled cake for my hub’s belated birthday. Sadly, I really don’t like many cakes any more. They are far too sweet for my palate. That’s probably a good thing!

The party colors were pink and orange

Overall, I ate well and didn’t stress. I also brought Amazing Grass with me so I was not without my green smoothies. Do you stress about food when you are out of your routine? I came up with a few very simple tips this weekend to make these times easier:

1) Eat as healthily as possible for the situation you are in. Seems like a no brainer, but other people’s homes are not stocked like mine, and rather than freaking out, I make do. I made my smoothies with organic regular milk, something I definitely don’t do at home, but it was fine and tasty for a couple of days.

2) Water water water! When I travel I tend to not drink in the car so I don’t have to stop. This is silly. Dehydration makes you tired and cranky and more likely to feel hunger pangs that aren’t there. Drinking my normal 80 ounces or so kept me feeling good and also kept me from unneccesary snacks.

3) Enjoy! I had a little bit of everything. If I didn’t like it, I didn’t finish it. I waited for at least 30 minutes to go for a seconds plate, and when hungry a few hours after the party, I filled up on fresh cherries to feel full and satisfied. Trying all of the party food felt great, tasted great, and totally kept me from feeling deprived.

4) Don’t overdo the post party “detox”. Other than having lots of water and veggies tonight and doing some stretching, I am going to relax. Traveling to events can be exhausting, and while a little voice was telling me earlier to push myself to run, my knees are sore, and I am just feeling overwhelmed about work. A weekend off won’t undo your exercise/training progress. It will most likely make you better when you return!

I hope you all had a great weekend. I am off to watch “Mondays in the Sun” and to stock my ipod with some new “Notes in Spanish” Spanish podcasts for my walk to and from work. Tomorrow night I am having dinner with friends (I think Ashmont Grill wine club!) and will announce the winner of the Nigella giveaway. Have a GREAT night!