Grilling up some fun

Hibachi was so much fun, but there was sooo much food!
For about $30 you get a whole huge meal.... we started with their house soup:

Which I ate about 1/2 of...

and we also ordered a red dragon because it's my favorite! I had one piece.


Then we had salad...

I looove this dressing, I ate 3/4!

Then came the real meal! The chef made us fried rice, and I ordered shrimp and scallops. Everything was fabulous! He added some extra bean sprouts to the top after I took my picture.

As delicious as it was, I think I ate a bit too much... I finished about 1/2... which was a lot! It was just all so tasty! I also snagged a few of Nick's mushrooms, because they're my fave =)

I had fun chatting with my family, they gave Nick a Christmas present which he was happy about, and then we headed back home because my sister has dance and I still have a bit of reviewing to do!

I think I may go for a cookie as my late night snack... what else? It's the holidays! I don't eat cookies too often, so when I've got em, I treat myself! As long as I know I'm still eating healthy and exercising, I have no problem with the daily holiday indulgences. Plus, thats what the New Year is for... getting back on track ;)!

Have a great Tuesday all! Tomorrow is a busy day- my last exam, as well as a few other errands and things I need to do. I promise my next installment of '52 things' will be up though!

Busy day, relaxing night

Thank you all for the comments earlier, but there aren't quite enough for a video just yet, so keep 'em coming! If you're out of the loop, check out my last post for video votes!

Anyway, back to what you really came to see- my food!

You can definately tell finals are in the air on campus! Stress, stress and more stress!
While my peers may be freaking out and stress eating, I try to stay as calm and balanced as I can because I know thats what's best for me!
I had my big project due in computer apps today, and luckily that went well so i have a little bit less on my shoulders!

I started my day with the usual M/W/F fare- a pre-workout 1/2 clif (I had the other half of my PB Toffee Buzz from the car ride- it was good, but I still prefer my PB choc chip!) and then after my 1 hr sweatfest (elliptical and arms) I had my 0% chobani, banana and 1 cup puffed wheat.

For lunch I had another turkey sammie- this one on two slices of honey whole wheat with organic turkey, spinach and a light laughing cow. Standard apple and carrots on the side!

After the day was done I ran some errands- the usual, bank, groceries (saw my grandma at Stop&Shop!) and I stopped at Starbucks for a grande nonfat latte for my snack. At the store I stocked up on basics (bananas, apples, peppers, spring greens, soy milk, turkey, laughing cow, yogurts, cottage cheese, bars) and two new treats- Soy Eggnog, which I LOVE and is sooo much healthier than the regular stuff, and individual dates! I had to have one when I got home- they're so expensive to buy in bulk, but I got 4 for $1.20 for a treat!!

Tonight I had a Sushi& a movie date planned... with my mom! We went out to Shogun and started off with a couple bowls of miso soup:

and then we dug into a huge bowl of edamame which we ate about 3/4 of between the two of them! Yum, salty complete protein!

For our entree, we chose two rolls- I introduced my mom to my favorite Red Dragon Roll, which I had three pieces of (including the head!)...

and a spicy salmon roll- also three pieces!

I felt full, but not too stuffed- awesome!

We did a little browsing at the shops around the plaza before our movie began. We saw Four Christmasses with Vince Vaugn and Reese Witherspoon. I love both of them, so of course I liked it! We snuck in movie treats- individually portioned baggies of holiday mint m&ms- free, and proper serving size! A great little dessert!

Ahh, what a nice way to end my evening. I'm back here at my parents' for the night, I'm going to use their treadmill here in the morning before heading back home to study the day away tomorrow!

Have a great Friday night, all!

Fun Friday

Wow, was yesterday a full day!
Sorry for the lack of post, I was up at 6:45, and didn't stop for long until 11:45 at night!

I woke up bright and early for the gym as usual! I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes of arm strength training. For my morning fuel I snacked on 1/2 the clif bar shown before the gym, and after I ate the last apple crisp muffin along with a banana and a 0% chobani for my "on the go" breakfast.

Lunch was my new faaaavorite turkey sammie- 2 slices organic smoked turkey breast, 1 light laughing cow, 1 tbsp garlic hummus, and spinach on a sandwich thin. On the side I had carrots and a pear.

Classes went well and I got some work done in the afternoon before running a couple errands. I stopped by work to get my check and grabbed a pure protein bar there because I was hungry! It held me through a grocery shop in the afternoon...I was able to only spend $30 this week on groceries!! I just got the basics, plus a cool find:

Produce-

Soy milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, laughing cow, and... GNOCCHI!! It's fresh frozen gnocchi from a local Italian pasta maker! I'm so excited to have this!!

Nick and I decided we should do something fun on a friday night instead of being lazy bums and sitting at home, so we decided to go out to dinner an a movie! I have officially decided I have the coolest boyfriend ever. Because while most of my guy friends gag when I even mention sushi, he suggested it. OF COURSE I said "yes!!" So what started out as a "cheap date" turned into a pretty extravagant dinner... both of us are huge sushi fans so we ended up ordering a lot... and racking up a $57 bill!! Whew! It was well worth it though =)

I started off with a basic salad with their fabulous house dressing:

I ate about 3/4 of the salad, and then dug into steamed gyoza (pork dumplings):

Never thought I was a big fan of pork, but these were good... so I had 1 more- 3 altogether!
We ordered a couple rolls and a bunch of nigiri (which apparently, I do not say right...) as well as a special maki- the Dragon roll!

Can you see the eyes and the tail? I got to eat the head =)
Heres the rest:

My portion was 2 sweet shrimp nigri, 2 pieces salmon/avocado roll and 3 pieces of the dragon maki because it was sooo good! It was shrimp tempura wrapped in tuna with tobiko on top! Yum!

I was stuffed, but in a good way. It was a fantastic dinner, and then we headed across the parking lot (how convenient is it one of my fave sushi places is across the parking lot from a movie theatre?!?!) to go see Role Models with Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd. If you're into that kind of humor, it was really funny. A bit ridiculous, but I got some good laughs out of it!

We were both tired when we got back home (not too late, we were only out until 10!) and I ended up going to bed fairly early- but I had a fun friday night, so that was all that mattered!

This morning I woke up to the pitter-patter of rain on my house... I guess there won't be any outside running for me today! I had a waffle-wich to fuel my morning- two Nature's Path Flax Plus waffles, 1 tbsp each PB and raspberry preserves and a big banana.

Now I'm sipping on some English breakfast tea, before I head over to the parents' house a little later and use their treadmill and do some laundry! I'll post later on!

Sisters day Part II (Into the night!)

After making a fun summery mix-cd to play in the car on our way to dinner, my sister and I hit the sushi bar at Shogun for one heck of a good sushi meal! I generally order the same things when I go out to sushi- I just have my sushi staples I love so much, but tonight it all just seemed SO good, which was awesome! Plus I had a great time talking and laughing with my sis =)
We each ordered a bowl of miso soup to start, and then shared some seaweed salad, and I ordered an avocado roll.


Round 1- Sushi, seaweed salad and cuke:

Round 2- more of each!

I was stuffed, so we stopped at a Rite Aid for a while, I chatted with one of my friends I graduated high school with and we developed some cute pics from earlier today. Then we just shopped around at a few stores in town before going to the Podhead for gelato!
I had grapefruit sorbetto and cake batter!

All in all it was a wonderful day/night, but I am quite tired and just about ready to put on my pjs and curl up in bed with the last bit of my book! Tomorrow's a full day of yoga, packing, and saying goodbyes... definately going to be stressful, but hopefully starting the day with some yoga will bring me a bit of relaxation!

Switching it up

I met up with my friend Alessandra as planned, so we decided to go to the gym to work out for a while. I was super tired after work, so I didn't want to do anything intense, but I had a nice easy workout anyways. She's a swimmer, so she taught me some of the moves she used to train her arms for swimming. We did about 5 exercises using 5 and 8 lb weights, then we did a couple machines, some ab exercises with a medicine ball and a bit of cardio. We walked for 10, rowed for 20 and biked for 5. I didn't work up too much of a sweat, but I always love working out with a friend!

Afterwards, we were planning on going to Seven Moons, but it's a bit out of the way, so we decided to just head into town to have sushi at Shogun instead. We sat down at the sushi bar, ordered japanese seltzer with lime (just bubble water, but it felt cool!) and I immediately ordered my favorite appetizer- steamed Green Gyoza dumplings! They're little dumplings stuffed with a delcious veggie filling, and served with an incredible sweet sauce that I always have to dip into! I ate 4 of these dumplings, and then ordered an Avocado roll. My friend ordered a cucumber roll, and we each switched a piece, so I had 5 pieces avocado, 1 cucumber, dipped in a bit of soy mixed with ginger and wasabi just how I like it! I also ate some lettuce and cucumber pieces from my appetizer plate. Who can resist fresh veggies?? =)

It was such a fun time, I haven't seen Alessandra in so long because she's a lifeguard so she works days and I generally work nights (except for these last couple of days!) so its hard to make plans. I guess that kind of thing comes with growing up, getting jobs, etc... so it's great to spend time with friends when I can!

I think now I'm planning on staying in for the night and relaxing with the movie I've been wanting to see- The Other Boelyn Girl.
I work again tomorrow, but luckily not nearly as early!