Yoga is a real pain in the ass…

Haha… just kidding… kind of…

Tonight I went to my first yoga class in at least three years, and OMG… my body is SORE!  The class was incredible though!  It was a community class at Back Bay Yoga, and it was only $5!  The teacher, Ro, was so awesome.  The room was really hot and packed with people, so I was one hot and sweating mess by the end of it.  

I am really happy that I enjoyed the class, because in the past I have found yoga to be really frustrating. This time though, I concentrated really hard on my breathing and stretching, and by the end of 90 minutes felt like I had just had the most intense workout of my life.  It also really did help to clear my mind, which has been very stressed out lately with the job hunt, the bf leaving, the apartment going on the market, and my friend Lindsey coming in tomorrow! It was great just to unwind my mind and work my muscles instead! 

I definitely have A LOT of room for improvement with my yoga practice, and I am really hoping to stick to it.  I could definitely see how girls get such great and toned bodies through it… my whole body, even my toes, feel worked! 

Dinner was an unphotogenic omelet with 3 eggs, skim milk, spinach, hot salsa, mozz cheese, and red hot sauce.  It was awesome when paired with a slice of When Pigs Fly Bread… definitely the protein kick I need after my awesome workout. 

I am so excited for the new episode of Top Chef tonight – double elimination AND a new judge!

Enjoy your evenings, and hopefully I will be back in the kitchen soon!

Guacamole – Ole!

So tonight my mom and dad drove down from New Hampshire, picked my lil sis up at the airport, and came over for dinner.  My mom made her fabulous meatballs, pasta, a salad, and a raspberry pie – pure heaven. Now do you see why I never learned how to cook?

However, the bf and I wanted to contribute something to the meal.  I needed to make something on the quicker side, and figured a good, “picky” appetizer would be perfect.  Despite the Italian theme of the night, I really wanted to make guacamole.  I should confess here that I have a total weakness for anything avocado.  And avocados are soooo good for you. So I found this recipe, and went to town.  I changed a few things along the way: I thought the onion was overpowering, so I added one extra avocado and one extra tomato, and I didn’t add the cayenne pepper (not a big fan of spicy).  I was so busy trying to get everything pulled together for everyone, that I totally forgot to take a picture… but trust me, it came out gorgeous!  The bf, who has a weird thing with texture, and hates both avocado and tomato (I know… how are we dating?) was such a good sport and tried it.  Even he admitted that it was good… and I caught him sneaking a few tastes throughout the night! My mom, dad and little sister loved it – my mom said it was “restaurant quality” and my little sister definitely did a number on the dish. As I have said before, they are all very talented in the kitchen, so their approval means a lot! I think that this guacamole dish will be on the recipe book for a while…

Speaking of the boyfriend, he made a DELICIOUS pepper salad.  We found it in my Savoring Italy book from Williams and Sonoma, and it turned out divine.  The original recipe called for the addition of anchovies, but we decided to just stick to the peppers… he did a fabulous job!

It was a fabulous evening, topped off by a few lovely glasses of red wine, dark chocolate, and of course, lovely company.  I am off to bed to read… what a wonderful Monday!

Sunny on a Bed of Greens…

Today I woke up and did my new favorite activity – ExerciseTV’s Zen in your Den.  It’s a really relaxing way to start your day and get moving, and it is really helping me start to build my yoga practice.  I have done yoga in the past, but have never gotten much out of it.  I have decided to give it another chance though, and have really enjoyed feeling more flexible and strong after only a few days. Check it out here.

After my quick stretch session, the boyfriend offered to make breakfast… I don’t know what it is, but when it comes to eggs, I always think they taste better when someone else makes them.  He made my new favorite breakfast ever… one sunny side up egg in a toasted pita with spinach and hot sauce.  Delicious! I love the little kick of Frank’s Red Hot on it – and I am not even a huge hot sauce fan.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BF skipped out on the hot sauce, substituting sundried tomatoes instead, and put his sandwich on two pieces of whole wheat toast. I stole a bite – also very good… but not as good as my creation!

Tonight the little sister gets home after being gone for about a week, and so we are trying to figure out what we are going to tackle for dinner.  It is pretty grey and gross outside here in Boston, so I think a day in the kitchen sounds pretty good!  Have a great day!

The BF on the Lasagna…

Okay, so the verdict is in… the boyfriend likes the lasagna… but agrees the carrots threw it off.  He thinks next time I should shred or grate the carrots, and I totally agree.  I do have to point out that he still did eat two helpings of it… now, maybe he was really hungry, or just being really supportive, but he does keep saying that he likes it. So, next time, I think I am going to cut the veggies much finer, and see how that goes…

Also, just in case anyone is curious, neither of us can eat that much cheese without getting an upset stomach. So, when making this recipe, I used a lot less cheese than it called for… and it still came out cheesy and good.  I just added a little extra sauce to make up for it. 

Hope you have a great night, and lets see what I burn tomorrow!

Learning Lasagna

Okay, here we go…

Today the BF was at work, so I had the whole kitchen to myself (imagine a shoebox…with a stove…voila – you have seen my kitchen).  I decided that since it was so chilly outside, a little Italian would be good…Also, the BF and I are trying to be a little healthier in the new year (isn’t everyone), and so I wanted something with a lot of veggies…  I decided to try out a recipe I had been eyeing on www.katheats.com - “the best vegetable lasagna”.

I hit up Trader Joes to get all of my ingredients…and was immediately stressed out by the cheeses – there are soooo many. Luckily, I finally pulled my act together, and snagged my groceries (minus the cottage cheese – had to hit up a Shaws for that one).  I decided to use carrots, spinach, sundried tomatoes, basil, and zucchini in my version.  I got a little nervous about the sundried tomatoes, because the store only had them jarred in olive oil. I decided to go for it though, and just rinsed off the olive oil before I put the tomatoes in the mix.  I don’t know, but it seems like the oil would have screwed up the lasagna? maybe? who knows. 

Anyways, once I got home, I realized I didn’t buy grated parm, but instead grabbed shredded.  Having absolutely no idea how much of difference this would make, I decided just to get out my cutting board and chop the cheese into smaller pieces…it wasn’t until about an hour after this that I realized the cheese would melt anyways, which probably means that it wouldn’t have mattered at all… or maybe it would. Any ideas?

Ok – so after taking waaaaaay too long to pull this recipe together (I got nervous, and probably read the instructions about 2 million times), I finally put my tinfoil pan in the oven (no glass ware yet… I’m a beginner… and too broke to splurge on a hobby at the moment ).  I hated that it was covered in tinfoil, because then I couldn’t spy on my dinner for an hour… so I cleaned my apartment instead. One thing I am starting to really like about cooking is that the time it takes to bake something really motivates me to accomplish a goal…like my laundry. I don’t know, I’m weird. 

ANYWAYS… when the timer finally went, I pulled out a BEAUTIFUL lasagna!!!  Really, I was so impressed by myself!! Those of you who are naturally talented in the kitchen probably don’t understand just how awesome it feels when you don’t start an oven fire every time you enter the kitchen. But it feels gooooooood

 

So Far So Good!

 

 So, I cut a big chunk of my lasagna, and overall I am really impressed! The only thing I don’t love is the carrots.. I think they are too hard… does this mean my lasagna should have cooked longer? or that I cut them too thick?  Well, regardless, overall, I am satisfied!  Now, I just have to wait for the BF to get home and give his opinion… I’ll let you know…

DISCLAIMER *I feel it is of utmost importance to stress here that any recipes I make that turn out TERRIBLE are almost 100 percent guaranteed in someway my fault… I am sure anyone with any degree of talent would have banged this dish out in flash and it would have been perfect… but I am still learning… so, for any screw ups and disasters that occur – I take total blame!*

Hello world!

Hello!

I am Ali, and you are currently reading my very first attempt at a blog…what can I say, I am not very tech-savvy. At all. But anyways…

I am a 24 year old recent graduate of Boston University’s Master’s in Public Relations program. I have been living in Boston for a little over a year, and am finally adjusting to being freezing all of the time… but anyways, on to the point of this blog…

Confession: I am a horrific cook.  I love reading food blogs (especially www.eatliverun.com, and www.katheats.com), cookbooks, EATING… all manner of food-related activities.  However, I seem to have an innate ability to be totally incapable of actually cooking for myself (which is strange, considering everyone in my family is amazing in the kitchen… maybe I got shortchanged on the culinary gene?)  So anyways, with the start of the new year, and having a lot of free time on my hands with school being over and the job hunt still on, I decided to work on at least being somewhat adept in the kitchen.  Currently, I am living with my sister (a member of the great cook tribe) and my boyfriend.  Since neither my boyfriend or I have any clue as to what we are doing, we are in the process of learning together.  BUT – he has to move back to Australia this week… leaving me still with no school, no job (fingers crossed that changes soon), and a lot of free time on my hands, but with no one to share my horror stories with!  

This is why I decided to start blogging my culinary attempts.  I figure that this will force me to get in the kitchen and challenge myself, and then maybe the members of the great cook tribe and step in and tell me where I am screwing up exactly…or, if you are cuisine-challenged, like me, at least we can commiserate on our attempts at chef-dom.   At the very least, I think this will be a fun experiment and hopefully I will turn into Martha Stewart by 2010…