Food

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Busy, busy, busy. The next five to six weeks are going to be full of marathon training workouts, new work, blogging and social events, and travel. Keeping on an eating budget and making healthy meals is still a priority, so on our most recent Market Basket trip, we kept an eye out for some affordable shortcuts. The Market Basket in Woburn was in-freakin-sane on Sunday, I have to tell you. I witnessed one fight and got yelled at by an elderly man because apparently my cart was at an angle he didn’t like.

Don’t mess with me when I am picking out bananas.

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As always, my paltry patience somehow prevailed, and we got some great stuff, including a rotisserie chicken that was on super sale. The smell of the chicken was pretty enticing, so it was easy to add one to our overflowing cart.

I already had a giant pot of kale and three bean chili set up to cook for Sunday dinner, so I decided on a Monday night chicken salad for the rotisserie chicken.

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Chunky Chicken and Fruit Salad

The ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed and chopped into chunks

2 medium apples, chopped

1 /2 cup each dried cranberries and dried cherries

1/4 medium red onion, chopped

3/4 cup Fage Greek yogurt (I used 0% because it was on sale, but I prefer 2%.)

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Assembling this salad was, of course, very simple. I made it during my lunch break, added some salt and pepper, and let it chill until dinner time when I served it on a whole wheat ciabatta, also on sale at Market Basket. I also made a giant batch of simple roasted broccoli, mostly because I wanted to stand next to a 420 degree oven. And also because we needed greens, of course.

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Everything about this salad said summer, so it was a nice treat. Lots of crunch and chew from the fruit, and it had a nice zing from the onion. I love Greek yogurt for recipes like this; I planned on adding a few spoons of mayo, but it just didn’t need it.

Healthy, simple, make-ahead, it was just what we needed. I have a dinner out tonight and another tomorrow, so luckily there are chili and chicken salad leftovers for the husband.

What are you eating this week? Do you have any shortcuts to quick, healthy meals?

Tags: chicken, dinner, Food, healthy, recipe, sandwiches

Snow Day

Snow days are good for the soul. I am not known for my love of winter in general, but when snow falls at a convenient time (weekend or holiday) or is enough to keep my husband working from home, I don’t mind it. I just like for it to melt quickly rather than lingering, freezing on un-shoveled sidewalks, and turning filthy.

Saturday was just that sort of day. Last week I completed five pretty intense workouts. I won’t lie; I am super proud of my Boston Marathon training right now. I will never be very fast, but I feel strong and healthier than I have in marathons past. But the workouts make me crave fat and rest.

I also had a bunch of meetings last week with new or potentially new clients. Being a consultant is like constantly job-hunting it seems; putting myself out there so much is something that takes it out of me every time. I’m not naturally outgoing. . . at all.

By the time Friday night rolled around, I was achy, hungry, and exhausted.

The remedy? A snow day.

After sleeping for over 10 hours (!), I woke up to this. With nowhere to go, I read blogs, sipped on tea, and relaxed until I was ready for a spinning workout. I had planned on a day off, but the sleep made me feel so good!

Boston in the snow

The rest of the day was spent watching Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey

Source

And baking a chocolate chip cookie pie.

chocolate chip cookie pie

chocolate chip cookie pie

And bringing that chocolate chip cookie pie, along with a bottle of one of my favorite wines, Piazzo Barbera, to our neighbors’ house for a lasagna dinner and movie watching.

This Barbera was one of the first wines I ever tried and purchased at The Urban Grape. It was such a solid introduction to their taste in wine, and it is one of the reasons we keep going back.

Piazzo Barbera

We watched Bridesmaids, feasted on lasagna stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and turkey sausage, with a side of a garlicky bread, and followed it up with my cookie pie topped with vanilla bean ice cream.

We made the short, snowy walk home just after 11 pm and had another early-to-bed night. It’s great having neighbors who are also good friends. Despite all of the complaints we have about our actual condo, I love our neighborhood, especially in winter and summer!

If you had a snow day this weekend, how did you spend it?

Tags: baking, Boston, Food, snow, wine

Our trip to Stowe last month was absolutely perfect and made us wonder why we don’t visit Vermont more often. There was so much to do, and even though we were there for just a weekend, I would say we fit a lot in.

Vermont

We didn’t really plan a ton of activities for Stowe, but when we got there, we passed by quite a few attractions that made for a Saturday afternoon filled with a food and drink: a visit to the Cabot Coop store, chocolate sampling at the Lake Champlain chocolate store, followed by a visit to the Green Mountain Coffee store. I followed this trifecta with a beer tasting at the Trapp Family Lodge, making for a fun and tiring day.

Cabot

Our first stop was some cheese tasting at Cabot. Since we were planning a sparkling wine tasting, I took my cheese tasting job seriously.

In the end the hot habanero, extra sharp cheddar, and horseradish made it into our basket. I live by the rule that there must be at least three cheeses in the house at one time.

Cabot

Next up was a visit to the Lake Champlain chocolate store. We sampled (and purchased) Aztec hot chocolate and some fudge.

Lake Champlain fudge

candy

chocolate

And I fell head over heels for their milk chocolate praline crunch and dark chocolate disks. We may have purchased a lot of chocolate, but I figured we were helping the post-Irene Vermont economy, so it was okay.

Green Mountain Coffee

After getting hopped up on chocolate, we got our caffeine on at the Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center and Café. Housed in an old-fashioned train station, the café smells of divine dark roast. It was toasty and warm, but unfortunately the visitor center portion wasn’t opened.

Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center

Instead of touring the visitor center, we wandered around outside, getting a good dose of chilly air and loving the neat little train station touches. It reminded me of Anne of Green Gables; I was just waiting to turn a corner to see Anne and her carpet bag waiting for Matthew. Winking smile

Green Mountain Coffee

We made an afternoon of leisurely checking out these three local gems, and it was perfect. As always, I enjoyed bringing home some food gifts to remind us of our time away. We’re headed to Vermont again very soon, this time to Killington for a little skiing (him) and apres ski (me) and to spend some time with good friends. I am trying my best to not hate the winter. It’s not really working. I am ready for this.

How’s winter treating you?

Tags: Cabot, cheese, chocolate, coffee, Food, Green Mountain, Lake Champlain, snow, Stowe, Travel, Vermont

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