Burgers | Healthy and Sane

When you don’t have the time, have someone else do the cooking! (b.good catering blogger get-together)

July 7th, 2010

So I know I mentioned in my post yesterday that crazy deadlines at work have pretty much taken over my life at the moment, but a few weeks ago I set up a little blogger get-together for today, which b.good kindly offered to cater for free, and today was the day. I left work a little after 6pm and felt like I could stay another few hours easily, but once I stepped foot in my already clean apartment (Adam did most of that!) I realized that this was going to be EASY. And I really started to get excited! Sometimes a night “off” from work and cooking is just what the doctor prescribed. I love hosting get-togethers but always end up running around. This time b.good did all the work. All I had to do was sit back, relax and enjoy some healthy fare. Life ain’t bad, ain’t bad at all.

b.good hooked us up, I tell ya! We had every kind of mini-burger: veggie, turkey, beef and chicken.

Burgers as far as the eye could see…

Everyone waiting patiently for me to take photos

Table #2:

Southwestern chicken salad – my favorite!

Sweet potato fries – these guys went fast!

Fruit shakes: mango and banana/strawberry

Ok…. go!

Brian (Bridget‘s husband) and Alicia

Melissa and Josh

Brian, Lauren, Bridget’s butt (hehe), Shannon and Alicia

My plate:

I finally tried the veggie burger!!! It has onions in it but I couldn’t taste them. I’m super happy about that one because sometimes I really do prefer a black bean burger vs. a meat one. El guapo is my favorite burger combo at b.good.

After eating and chatting, we eventually settled down on the couches. That’s pretty much the only thing I like to do on a full belly.

[Kyle and Tiffany are on the left (I think they're the only ones that I haven't covered yet ) although perhaps Bridget should get a real introduction as well (she's second from the right) ]

Everyone was relaxing… except Adam. He was doing some intense entertainment apparently.

This dinner was a great way to spend some time with my blogger friends. The food was healthy and delicious, we have minimal clean-up (just some wine glasses, oh yeah – I had Yellow + Blue savingon blanc which I liked and some Y+B rosse which I didn’t) and we have plenty of leftovers for the next few days. Now that’s a party that accomplished quite a few things!

Thank you, b.good, again for offering to cater this dinner and thank you Lauren, John, Melissa, Josh, Bridget, Brian, Shannon, Alicia, Tiffany and Kyle for coming!! If you don’t know these awesome bloggers already, check out their blogs (linked above) – they each offer a unique food blogging perspective and even some fashion talk.

And just to make sure we cover all the bases, here are my eats from earlier in the day…

BREAKFAST

Banana oats with Barney Butter and cherry preserves.

Yes I’m crazy. I ate hot oats on a hot summer day. No, you won’t see it again for a while.

WORKOUT

50 min spin + 10 min stretch. I was drenched! I think that means I was using my time wisely.

LUNCH

Mixed greens, tomatoes, roasted beets, CEiMB pesto potato salad, pinto beans and goat cheese + 1T goddess dressing. I could really drink that stuff. Ok, that’s gross…. but I kind of could.

SNACKS

Shelling peas (I ate 1/2 of the bag)

+ banana with Barney Butter (unpictured)

Good day. Time for bed.

Have you ever had a party catered? I could really get used to this kind of luxury.

Summer grilling

July 3rd, 2010

I love summer. Did I mention that already? hehe. Yeah, I’m a big fan! Right now I’m sitting by the pool, blogging, and soaking up the sunshine. I hope you are up to something very similar (perhaps also with a laptop on your lap, looking for something to read… just like me? I told you I’m an addict. ). So here are a few eats to make your mouth water… and a burger recipe that you should try if you’re doing some summer grilling over the next few days (or months ).

BREAKFAST

FFL english muffin with crunchy Barney Butter and fresh local strawberries + coffee (of course)

Mmm, these guys were so sweet! Produce really is so much better during peak season. I’m eating as many strawberries as I can these days because in a few weeks there won’t be much of these berries at the farmers market. PS – english muffin + almond butter + any fruit is a great combo… and I mean ANY. Try it!

WORKOUT

Abs + spin classes. My abs were on fire (and somehow I did more today – I don’t learn! ). I had 2 almond stuffed medjool dates before my workout. Dates are a great pre-workout fuel!

LUNCH

Leftover pasta with roasted tomatoes, garlic and white beans. It was a bit better the next day, I guess the flavors developed.

Since it was July 3rd and our office was looking pretty dead, I left around 3 to hit up the farmers market and do other grocery shopping before the long weekend. Eventually hunger hit…

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

TJ’s Tuscan Pane with Samira’s Homemade baba ganoush and roasted beets

You know all about my obsession with all of the above ingredients so I won’t bore you.

DINNER!

This was my favorite meal of the day. I just love having a grill and the best part about it is that I still get to cook something special. We don’t just throw premade patties on the grill and call it a day.

On the menu for this Friday night, we had a “man meal” as per Adam’s request. I interpret it as pizza, steak & cheese subs or burgers. Last night it wasn’t just any burger though – we made spicy poblano burgers with chipotle cream (recipe here, I didn’t make the pickled onions for obvious reasons ).

I made the patties, Adam did the grilling. The burgers were expertly grilled. He’s becoming good

Instead of pickled onions, I topped my burger with sauerkraut.

Wow, this was one good burger! A little spicy from the roasted poblano peppers, nice and moist from the addition of soft bread and smoky and hot from the chipotle cream. The chipotle cream is $$$, I tell ya.

Corn on the cob, just simply grilled. For some things, simple is best.

Dinner all together. This was an awesome man meal that can be enjoyed by a lady like myself.

After dinner our friends came over for a few drinks on our patio. The weather was gorgeous! I had 2 glasses of the Perducci sustainable white.

This is a great general white – pretty smooth and not very sweet. I’m a fan.

Lastly, no day can be complete without dessert. Tiffany requested chocolate mint ice cream which I attempted to lighten up by using 2% milk and half-and-half instead of whole milk and heavy cream, but for some reason it wouldn’t harden. Does anyone know why? Instead, we had chocolate mint milkshakes with oreo cookie pieces. And yes, we spiked them up with a bit of Bailey’s mint.

It was one good night.

All right, the boys are getting rowdy in the pool so before this post costs me my laptop, I’m going to sigh off. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Back to journaling with a bang

June 29th, 2010

Well hello, my lovely readers. Traveling is my passion and I love sharing some of my experiences with you here on Healthy and Sane, but I can see from the drop in the number of comments that you miss my daily “journal-style” posts and I have to say, I’ve been itching for one of these as well. I LOVE eating out and this past weekend’s trip to Montreal was especially special (is that repetitive?) because with Foodbuzz‘s sponsorship, I got to plan a whole day of sustainable eats while traveling. It really was a blast! With that said, journal style posts mean that life possibly slowed down for a second (i.e. I have no restaurant review, trip recap, or new giveaways – although I know you like those too ) and I am able to enjoy some meals at home. And with some luck, discover a new recipe or 2 that can go on the favorites recipes list.

So here we go, nice and simple today. Work is crazy but I still found time to take a minute and mindfully enjoy some very delicious foods.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast started with a little help from this weekend’s trip to the City Market in Burlington, VT. This is a community-owned grocery store, which means that many products from small local producers were available (for a few pictures of what it’s like inside the market, check out my previous post – you can click on the pictures to enlarge). I came in to find Liz Lovely cookies, which I discovered just days prior to our trip to Vermont through the Foodzie blog (which is very dangerous by the way, I’m a sucker for all the cute stories of small producers) and ended up clearing out their dessert bar. Ok, this may be a slight exaggeration but you better believe that the only thing that stopped me from doing exactly that is the expiration dates on the products. They were freshly baked and clearly should be consumed asap. One of the products that I just could not resist was this package of Butterfly Bakery raspberry apricot breakfast scones.

I absolutely adore apricots and these plump cookie-like scones (looks-wise) were a love at first sight. The first bite sealed the deal for me. Soft and buttery, with real raspberry and apricot chunks – this is the best scone I’ve ever tasted and I don’t think any future scone can stand a chance. These are perfect! I think I may freeze one and see how it preserves, because I’d love to stock up on a future trip to Burlington. And there will be a future trip. I’m obsessed.

I enjoyed the scone with coffee and an oikos (this batch is the best for some reason – so fluffy!). I didn’t end up eating the strawberries until dinner time. This was one good breakfast!

LUNCH

Lunch was pretty special too. I had a lunch date with Lauren and Shannon. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Lauren and I’m so glad that Shannon keeps popping in during lunch to my neck of the woods because that means we can see each other more often. Caffe Jaffa was our meeting place.

Look who I spotted already at the table… hi, Lauren! (hehe, I was trying to be sneaky but she noticed me)

Caffe Jaffa features American and Middle Eastern fare. I wanted nothing more than hummus. So that’s pretty much what I ordered – a hummus plate that came with a Greek side salad.

The lettuce was fresh, the feta and dressing (which I had on the side and just dipped my fork into) were both delicious. A great simple starter!

Mmm, hummus! Standard stuff (maybe even a tad too grainy for my liking). I ate about half with a warm pita.

The girls both ordered the hummus/baba ganoush/falafel platters (which is SO the way to go!) and I snuck a taste of Lauren’s baba ganoush and had one of Shannon’s falafel balls. Both were outstanding! The baba ganoush was very creamy, the falafel was flavorful and not at all greasy (although of course, it is still deep fried so one should enjoy such things in moderation).

This lunch was so fun! We chatted for a while, only stopping to take bites of our food. It was hard to go back to work, I’m not going to lie.

SNACKS

Before heading back to the office, Shannon and I did stop by the Copley farmers market. I bought more shelling peas. I think I have a problem (good thing they’re just nutritious peas).

Snack of champions!

DINNER

Since we’ve been out all weekend, there was not much in the fridge for groceries (I bought beets and greens at the farmers market – these would take too long to cook for a weeknight). I’m still impressed with how I pulled dinner off. And it was a good one, let me tell you!

About 3 weeks ago, Jen posted this recipe for salmon with strawberry and tomato salsa that I’ve been dreaming of ever since. The only problem is – wild salmon is expensive. I was waiting for it to go on sale but the day never came. Strawberries are only going to be in season for a few weeks and I happened to have some amazingly sweet ones from Quebec on hand. We also had half a container of grape tomatoes in the veggie drawer in the fridge and wild salmon burgers in the freezer. Hey, how about a salmon burger with strawberry and tomato salsa? Oh yeah!

The strawberry tomato salsa is the prefect balance of sweet and savory with balsamic vinegar’s acidity balanced out by the smooth and creamy laughing cow cheese I topped the ww burger buns with and of course by the incredibly juicy wild salmon burger (the burgers were from Whole Foods by the way – I highly recommend them!). Adam and I couldn’t get enough of this – so unique and fresh. Summer fare with a twist. This recipe is definitely going on the favorites list!! Thank you, Jen, for the inspiration!

Dessert was another City Market purchase.

Think 7-layer bar but better. I ate 1/2 of the package and it took a lot of will power not to go back to the kitchen and finish the rest. The white and semi-sweet chocolate chunks worked beautifully with walnuts, almost short bread-like crust, and of course the toasted coconut. I’m stopping now because the kitchen is not that far away.

The little pleasures in life. I don’t hate this.

Have a great day! And say hello if you have a second to spare. I was feeling a bit abandoned earlier but something tells me these yummies will bring you back.