new york | Say Yes to Salad

11 October, 201130 November, 2014

{food} Sunday Dinner with Family

Growing up I always had a friend whose Sunday nights were reserved for dinner at her Grandma’s. I always liked the idea. I guess I just like rituals. So recently Bobby and I have a new ritual with our New York family – our aunt and uncle (this is the aunt I bake gingerbread with) have been having us over for dinner each week and we are loving it! Other family members always drop by as well throughout the night.

This week’s menu was a roasted red snapper, served chilled with homemade cocktail sauce (ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice), lemon wedges, and fresh parsley.

We also had curry rice, a salad, and bread.

For dessert we had an array of little chocolate pasties. They were similar, each filled with chocolate mousse and other various delicious things. There was also vanilla ice cream. The pastries are from a little shop somewhere in the East 90’s. I forget the name but can ask next time.

This past weekend was one of just two weekends I’ll have off during my yoga teacher training and I tried to enjoy it to the fullest. The only other weekend off is Thanksgiving and I have to go down to Miami to be in a wedding anyway. Then this week I jumped back into taking classes (we have to fulfill a certain number during the course of the training). And I have another exciting thing to share but I want to wait until it’s official.

Hope you all are having a lovely week so far. Sometimes I wish fall would last forever.

6 September, 201130 November, 2014

{food, yoga} Kabocha & Yoga Love, aka Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun, so here are a few highlights. The number one highlight, of course, included my favorite food:

That is Penang Curry with Beef on a Bed of Pumpkin. Would you believe that I saw other restaurant goers leaving the kabocha squash (“pumpkin”) as though it was a garnish? I wanted to 1) take it for myself or 2) tell them to try it out. I did neither, and Bobby laughed at me all the way home about my passion for kabocha. (The dish in back is Bobby’s Pineapple Fried Rice, also delicious.) I really liked the curry and I want to get it again (soon). The restaurant was called Yum Yum Too (Hell’s Kitchen). It’s a Thai restaurant, and we went here for lunch yesterday.

The second highlight was that I bought a 1-month pass for unlimited yoga at Yoga Vida this month. I’ve been every day since I got the pass.

(Psst – If any NYC bloggers want to go for yoga together just shoot me an email: maggie (at) thesaladgirl (dot) com.)

Lastly, here is a Mooncake. My coworker brought some in for us all in celebration of a Chinese holiday/season. I don’t remember exactly what she said they were for – anyone know? This Mooncake has a red bean filling which is one of my favorite flavors. She also brought ones filled with green bean. I started eating this and then thought it might be an interesting item to share.

How was your weekend? Do anything fun?

28 August, 20117 June, 2015

Weekend Link Love – 08.28.2011

It’s been a while since I did one of these… But first an update: NYC is recovering from the hurricane (Irene) that passed through last night. To be honest, not much happened in Manhattan. I think the major damage occurred in the outer boroughs (poor Staten Island) and New Jersey (my mom is without power and water). Our power didn’t even flicker. On the plus side, I did have a mini Reese’s cup yesterday that I got at the hardware store. I love these things.

Our weekend went well. We mostly hung out with our neighbors (friends) and ate good food together. A few of us like to cook and all of us like to eat. This morning I went for a run (a little over 3 miles) after not having run for ages (at least 1.5 years?). It felt great. The subways are still not running so we can only get to places on foot (…or taxi). They probably won’t be running for the morning commute tomorrow so I plan on walking.

After my run this morning (err, afternoon) I did some yoga stretching and took a nice shower. Then we ate brunch together (6 of us) – bacon, eggs with homegrown jalapeno, homemade bread, and some various pastries. (If I didn’t mention it already, we moved into a building where our friends live – so we hang out a lot. Just like college, and it’s great.)

Weekend Link Love – Health & Food

Garance Dore talks about the NYC ten. (I was victim to this, too.)
How to cook Real Good Cheap Easy Food.
I made this turmeric juice recipe (also called jamu). My only change was to use 1/2 a lime (instead of lemon) and I only had 2 pieces of turmeric (thanks, coworker!).
Made this pumpkin protein cake recipe.
…And these Healthy Banana Cookies. Will probably use butter in place of the grapeseed oil. (Or bacon grease? I don’t know how bacon grease turns out in cookies – anyone tried it?)

Totally Random Link Love

Funny but serious comic about how we are like little specks of dust in the universe.
I might learn a language with this site.
I really want to check out the old city hall station (also a cool tourist-y idea).

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How was your weekend? I hope anyone who was in Irene’s path is okay!

14 August, 201130 November, 2014

Manhattan Mornings & Walking Routines

Sometimes I walk along Central Park in the morning before work, and this is what I see.

The view up the east side of Central Park

The view down a side street (72nd or something) from the park

I think I prefer walking to all other exercise. BodyRock was a good experiment, but I only stuck with it about 2 weeks. I just like walking better, and too much intensity is not fun for me. BodyRock is a great workout if you are into that kind of thing though.

***

What did you do this weekend?

On Friday night I had a dinner party and had people over, yesterday I got a facial and then spent the day with various friends, and today I will probably be spending the day with friends and running some errands. Friends are the best part of living in New York.

21 February, 20112 December, 2014

Weekend Link Love – 02.21.2011

Food and Recipe Links

Carrots, Linguini, Orange, and Raisin salad. I really like SaladPride’s blog. (And plus, he’s Italian! I took 6 semesters of Italian in college and for my graduation present to myself, Bobby and I went to Italy – Venezia – for 2 weeks.)
Squash, Lentil, Chickpea, Carrot Stew. I seem to be linking to The Dainty Pig every week. I haven’t yet tried the other recipes I’ve linked to, but I really will soon. I have been a cooking slacker lately. She also made Kabocha Cake in the rice cooker that I MUST TRY.
Detox Salad from Jennifer Galardi. She is one of my most favorite workout instructors (videos, not real life – I’ve never been to a real live class of hers). I just recently found out that she has a blog (not updated a lot) and it has some yummy healthy recipes.
Asian Cauliflower Fried Rice. Need I say more?! I found this recipe when I was browsing various paleo blogs. (No, I’m not going paleo.) I also liked this Roasted Curried Cauliflower recipe, also from Nom Nom Paleo.
Protein Ice Cream! From more of my paleo/low-carb browsing. (No, I’m not going low carb.)
Coco’s single-serving chocolate cake.

Health Links

6 Surprisingly Effective Treatments for Depression. Cool graph of depression treatments – the x-axis is popularity and the y-axis is effectiveness.
Out of Control: A True Story of Binge Eating. Good article in the NYTimes from early 2007.
The Oil Cleansing Method. This is an interesting skin-care method that I just found out about. I haven’t tried it yet but I was wondering if any of you had? My skin has actually been fabulous lately because I haven’t been eating much/any sugar. But I’m still curious about this oil cleansing thing.
Complete Notes to Good Calories, Bad Calories. Missed my post last week? Go read that, and then read this summary of Gary Taubes’ book. It’s an interesting point of view, and while I don’t fully agree with him, I do agree that current medical research is not really focusing on what is important in the battle against obesity. Yes, I did just say battle, Jillian.