RhodeyGirl Tests

New York!

February 8, 2010 · 23 Comments

When I started sharing my recipes and food adventures a couple of years ago, I never thought I would have the opportunities I have been given. From attending the Foodbuzz Festival in 2009 as a Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador, to sampling and giving feedback on raw items for a new online bakery to today, I am a lucky woman.

Today’s adventure began early. I woke up unhappy to hear such an early alarm, but it is worth it. I am in New York City for the next two days for an event featuring Electrolux and Kelly Ripa benefiting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. I applied through Foodbuzz to participate in the event, and am one of 15 bloggers chosen to be here. When the time comes, I will need all of your help voting on our cake creation. That’s right, we are participating in a cake decorating contest! Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss will instruct us on a few cake decorating techniques. The event will be held tomorrow afternoon, but until then, lots of fun is to be had!

I got to the hotel bright and early and was able to check into my room right away. Each blogger was given a beautiful gift bag.

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It had the following items:

-Electrolux tote bag
-heart shaped bowls by Zak designs
-spatulas, sugar shaker, measuring cups and spoons from Williams Sonoma
-Carlo’s Bake Shop t-shirt (and mine actually fits!)
-Electrolux wine cooler!

The wine cooler will be delivered at a later date, and I already know where it is going to go in our home!

I unpacked my bag so my clothes would be wrinkle free, and explored the hotel a bit. The Hotel Gansevoort is really beautiful. It is in the Meatpacking District, an area I haven’t explored since my cousin was a fashion design intern for Yigal Azrouel. The style of the hotel is similar to the one I stayed at in Chicago, but even sleeker.

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It is directly across the street from Pastis and Spice Market.

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I have lunch plans with Tina in a little bit, but until then I decided to walk around the area. I am vaguely familiar with it from the day I spent roaming the area before the Yigal Azrouel show I attended three years ago. Of course, I had to stop by his store to see the latest collection.

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A few more shops piqued my interest and I checked them out. I saw a beautiful shirt at Catherine Malandrino, but at $345, it wasn’t worth buying. On my way back to the hotel I saw a SALE sign in front of charles nolan. Have you ever heard of him? I hadn’t before, but he designed for Ellen Tracy and Anne Klein for many years, and more recently has sold pieces from his charles nolan collection at Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and more. He currently is selling his work only at this store.

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I loved the warm, family feeling in the store, and I took a good look at everything for sale. I ended up buying an oversized cream sweater, kelly green tank for St. Patrick’s Day, and three beautiful ornaments that were 70% off! If you are in the area, definitely check out their store!

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I will be blogging about this entire trip in extensive detail, so keep checking back for more updates! Feel free to also follow me on Twitter as I share the smaller details of the trip! For now, I’m off to lunch!

P.S. I am so excited to have Tina & Joseline on my cake decorating team!

P.P.S. I already miss PhillyBoy.

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Menu: Healthy Super Bowl Party

February 5, 2010 · 14 Comments

Don’t ask me who is in the Super Bowl, because I have no idea.

I do, however, know what I would make for a Super Bowl party. Add a healthy twist to old favorites, and you can enjoy this Super Bowl guilt-free… unless, however, you are like me and fall asleep halfway through the game!

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(Source)

Healthy SuperBowl Party

Snack Tray:
Sabra Hummus
Guacamole
Stacy’s chips, unsalted pretzels, carrots, and cucumbers

Dinner:
Healthy Turkey Burgers
Veggie Burgers
Baked Sweet Potato Fries (recipe below)
Baked Potato Fries
Turkey Bean Chili w. cornbread (made from a mix)
My favorite salad (sans chicken)
Exotic fruit tray (mango, pineapple, kiwi)
Blue Moon beer & Unsweetened Iced Tea

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RhodeyGirl’s Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato
olive oil spray
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Boil a pot of water. Wash your potato and cut to the desired fry shape. Boil them for 5 minutes. Meanwhile spray a baking sheet with olive oil (or Pam). Drain the potatoes and spread them on the sheet in one layer. Sprinkle with salt (and whatever spices you want) and spray with more oil or cooking spray. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Flip each fry carefully (I use tongs). Put the heat up to 425 and pull out when they reach the desired brownness/crunchiness.

I will be in New York at the beginning of next week for an event with Electrolux and Kelly Ripa, benefiting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. I am really excited! Keep your eyes open for lots of posts next week! I will be joining 14 other bloggers for a fun cake decorating contest, including Tina & Meghann!

If you missed the rest of this week’s posts, you may find them here:
Working from Home
You Can Learn to Cook: Part 1

For all the Philadelphia & New Jersey readers, enjoy being snowed in this weekend!!!!

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Working From Home

February 3, 2010 · 32 Comments

Last year was a big year of change for me. Not only was I getting married and moving to Philadelphia, I was going to be moving far away from my family and dearest friends. Not many of you know this, but in Rhode Island I worked for my dad alongside my brother, sister in law, cousin and more. I saw some family members every single day. In fact, my cousin and I even lived together for two years! While I was so excited to begin this whole new life, the thought of leaving Rhode Island left me choked up on many occasions.

When I began to look for jobs in the Philadelphia area, I didn’t know that it would be possible to continue working for my father from home in Philadelphia. Luckily, with the amazing expertise of my brother (our IT guy and much, much more), we were able to figure out a way for that to work! While I don’t see my family every day anymore, I am so happy to still be a part of the family business and talk to many of them on work related business on a daily basis.

Working from home has brought on new challenges. It is NOT easy. Yes, I feel so blessed that I am able to do this, but it was a major adjustment. Over the last six months I have finally learned what works for me, and a recent Ask Me Anything question sparked this post.

“I am pretty sure that since you moved to Philly you are working from home (if I’m wrong feel free to ignore!) – a few questions on that front: How do you stay motivated to focus on work? Where do you work? (Office? Living room? Kitchen?) How come you don’t go for runs at ‘lunch’ time rather then getting up super early or at night? How do you not eat all day long?!?”

First, let me set up the scene for you. My daily winter routine:

6 AM: Alarm goes off. Grumble about it being so early. Hit Snooze.
-If it’s a morning workout day: Roll out of bed with a smile, change into workout clothes, brush teeth and head out for a workout with PhillyBoy (yes, we mostly exercise at the same time, but not always together).
-Make breakfast while PB showers and makes the bed. Pack his lunch if I haven’t packed it yet. If I am feeling extra nice, I make him coffee.
-PB leaves for work and I jump in the shower. I blow dry my hair as fast as possible and consider throwing my pjs back on. I don’t, but I settle for almost that bad. For example, right now I am wearing PB’s Princeton sweats, an Old Navy tank, long sleeve thermal shirt, socks, and slippers. I wore this same outfit Monday & Tuesday, only having changed the socks to fresh ones.
-I quickly do 10 minutes of cleaning as fast as possible, unless the clock is past 7:45. In that case I put on a pot of tea and make my breakfast.
-I sit at my desk (which is set up in the guest room) and eat breakfast while checking emails and reading blogs. I don’t fully get settled into work for another 20 minutes, but I eat my lunch and afternoon snack at my desk too, so I make up for the time. I watch Hulu on my laptop while I work, which helps me not get distracted (sounds counterintuitive but it works). While I make my lunch I do a quick load of laundry or empty the dishwasher or some other menial home task.
-When the day is over I try to remember what my Nonna taught me about looking nice for my husband, but instead I stay in my sweats.

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I thought that I would wear real outfits every day, but it is too easy to just work in comfy clothes and not bother spending the time to get properly dressed. It has made me really appreciate those moments when I get out of the house, and I try to look nice on those days. I was having lunch with Leslie almost once a week, but work and life have been too busy lately to allow that. So for now I eat all my meals during the day at my desk.

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View from the door:
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View from the window:

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Here are my tips on working from home.

1. Remove all distractions.

I can’t focus on my work when Mela Mia (my laptop) is staring me in the face with sparkly blogs to read and emails to reply to, so I watch Hulu. It really works for me because I get to listen to the latest junky TV show or news segment while working, and I don’t get distracted. In the same regard, I keep the guest room clean at all yimes. I shut the door completely and focus on what is going on in the room, at the desk. If I think about the dish that needs to be washed or the toilet that needs cleaning, I can’t focus on my work until that task is done. On days where the house is a mess, I start work 30 minutes late so I can get those tasks done, and then work later that evening. That way I don’t get distracted thinking about the mess.

2. Plan your meals.

Eating was a major issue for me those first few months. In fact, I contribute working from home to the few lbs I gained after our wedding. The kitchen was RightThere, and every time I got stuck on an order or needed a break or felt a little hungry I would head into the kitchen and eat a snack. I keep our kitchen well stocked with fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods, but of course I also have chocolate and fun treats. I ate all the fun foods first, and my pants got tight. Now I plan breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack to have every day. I know that when I get hungry, the next meal is only a short time away, and by planning something healthy, I don’t raid the chocolate in the freezer as often.

3. Get out.

In the same regard, I try to get out of the house at least once a day or at the least once every other day. I do an errand or meet up with a friend (like Leslie!). CVS, the drycleaner, and Whole Foods are all less than a mile away. After work (and before PB gets home) I make an effort to run a small errand. At first I even purposefully didn’t buy certain items from the market so I would be forced to go back. Now I notice that if I don’t get out for a couple of days I start jabbering to myself or don’t stop talking from the minute PB gets home until we go to bed. That is not healthy. Get out of the house.*

*Note: Our gym is in our building, so I don’t consider the gym or an outdoor run to be “getting out”. Luckily, we just joined a gym and will be going to that one once or twice a week before work!

4. Work hard.

I noticed that it some ways working from home is easier. In Rhode Island my cousin and I would often chat for 20 minutes about the latest gossip or story, or we would all sit in the lunch room for 20 minutes slowly eating lunch. Without those small bits of time, I am able to get a lot more work done. When I am working now, I am working. I can accomplish a lot more in a shorter amount of time because I am completely focused on the task at hand.

5. Bites add up.

Admission: I no longer keep cereal in the house. Granola, fine. Oats, no problem. Yummy cereals, however? The enemy. At the beginning of fall I bought a box of Puffins. Two or three times a day I would go into the kitchen and fill this tiny bowl with a few puffins. I thought that over the course of the day I was eating a total of one serving. When I finished the box in a couple of days, I realized that every time I filled the bowl was an entire serving. Bites like that add up, and I know now to just not keep cereal in the house. This tip goes in line with item #2, plan your meals.

10 Things You Didn’t Know about Working From Home.

1. Even if you say you’ll dress up every day, you won’t.
2. Your friends will think that since you work from home you can meet them at any time to do any thing.
3. The kitchen will tempt you, even if you never had that issue before.
4. If you stay at home too long, you will start singing to yourself in crazy voices or read emails aloud with an accent. This is not ok, and is a sign to leave the house immediately!
5. Managing your time well will become your greatest asset.
6. Your friends will be jealous that you are working from home, and you’ll be jealous that they get to get dressed up and go to an office.
7. You will watch more TV than you used to, especially if you have two computers and like Hulu.
8. House bills will be higher.
9. If you smell delicious and you’re in a fresh outfit, it is a good day.
10. Your life will be more amazing than ever.  

Now, please excuse me while I get back to my desk and my Hulu.

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You Can Learn to Cook: Part 1

February 1, 2010 · 17 Comments

There is something I need to seriously address:

Cooking is not difficult, or at least it does not have to be.

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I try to present as many super simple recipes on this site as I can, but I am going to break it down even more for you in a several part series.

Part 1: Your Meal Plan

Too many make the mistake of buying too much at the grocery store and then throwing out rotten, stinky lettuce at the end of the week. That is very discouraging, and a big waste of money. Further, if you plan ahead, you won’t find yourself staring into the fridge at 7 PM, hangry like crazy, with nothing in mind to cook.

How to prevent that? Make a plan! It is easier to show you than explain…

My meal plan two weeks ago.

I knew the following:
-Over the weekend I would be eating out.
-Monday I would still be stuck in Rhode Island and would be having people over for dinner at my dad’s house.
-Wednesday I would have a lot of errands to do (laundry, housekeeping, etc) so dinner should be simple
-We were going snowboarding over the weekend in NY and wouldn’t want anything to go bad.
-I have been trying to increase the protein in my diet while still enjoying balanced meals with my husband.

Here is the meal plan I made:

Monday dinner: salmon, asparagus, broccoli, potatoes, bread (RI)
Tuesday dinner: on the road (bring salad with me)
Wednesday dinner: turkey burgers, baked sweet potato fries for me, regular potato fries for PB
Thursday: za’atar breaded yogurt chicken & roasted eggplant
Friday: on the road up to the mountain, make sandwiches with leftover turkey burgers

Lunches for PB: leftovers from dinners, small yogurts, mini blueberry scones, oranges, bread to make sandwiches with the leftovers

Lunches for RG (including afternoon snack): grilled chicken salads with croutons and dried cranberries, Luna protein bars, golden delicious apples

Breakfasts for PB: bagels with cream cheese or eggs

Breakfasts for RG: mini whole wheat bagels with peanut butter and banana

It might seem crazy that I basically plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner for PB and I at the beginning of the week, but we save so much money by doing that. Of course our kitchen is pretty well stocked so we can always change our minds. However, planning this way keeps things creative (I try about one or two new recipes a week) and keeps us always prepared.

How do I pick the meals?

For the lunches I have a vague formula I follow for PB: a main item, a yogurt, a fruit, something fun, and maybe something else if lunch is smaller than usual. For my lunches I always have a smaller, 300-400 calorie lunch, plus a large balanced snack with a little protein, fat, and carbs. It usually is something slightly sweet but mostly healthy to keep my sweet tooth happy.

For the dinners: I think about that day. Do I have a meeting that night? Will I be tired from the weekend or will we not be too hungry from a dinner out the previous evening? I then craft my menu around those plans. I always keep salad ingredients in the house and can always make a salad if our dinner is missing a vegetable, and I try to have a protein source and a carbohydrate source at each dinner. If we are going to be busy or tired one night I try and make something that is quick and easy. If, however, I know we have no plans that night, I might take on a more ambitious meal.

Our basic dinner formula is: a protein (from beans, fish, organic poultry) and a carbohydrate (pasta, rice, couscous, whole wheat bread, potatoes) with some sort of vegetable. If a vegetable comes to mind that easily goes with the meal or we are craving something specific I will buy it. If not I will make a big salad with lots of vegetables to eat with our dinner.

The next step is to actually go to the market and shop, which will be the topic of the next part of this series!

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