Tag Archives: cooking

I Live In Marvelous Boston!

It’s official! I LIVE IN BOSTON! I start work on Wednesday (thankfully my new employer gave me a few days after moving to settle in) and the last few days have absolutely flown by – in a good way. They’ve been so marvelous in fact, I can hardly stop smiling.

Share your marvelous in Katie’s link up!

My last day at work on Friday was surreal. I honestly don’t think it’s hit me yet that I’ve left that job. Actually, it did hit me a bit, but only as I was leaving our post-work happy hour shenanigans that extended well past happy hour. And they would have extended later had I not had the discipline to leave in time to get home and get enough sleep before my early moving wake-up call. Spending that time with my co-workers was marvelous though. I’m SO glad I got the chance to have a last hurrah with all of them. As I mentioned on Friday, it was the last day for three employees, so the whole evening was very emotional. And fun!

Tom, I, and Steve cut our goodbye cake at work!

Continue reading →

Keep Calm and Think Out Loud

It’s that time of the week again: Thursday, the time to Think Out Loud! Thanks as always to Amanda for hosting this link-up, even from sunny California…hope you’re enjoying your time in Disneyland, lady! I too am going to be on the move tomorrow (I’m heading to Boston and staying the night to visit friends, Friday to Saturday) so I won’t be posting; this is the last you’ll hear of me this week. But I guess that means I can just throw in some extra thinking today, right?

Think out loud with the rest of us by linking up!

1. Since writing Tuesday’s Trade ‘Em Up post, staying in a couple of nights, and making sure I get enough sleep, I have been feeling better about myself anxiety and body-image wise. I didn’t even experience guilt yesterday about going out with friends the night before. I met up with former UConn co-workers (and newly engaged couple) Cara and Brian for dinner at Bricco Trattoria in Glastonbury. Still loving it there and have kept returning since New Year’s Eve!  After dinner we walked (aka jogged, it was freaking freezing) over to Hanafin’s for Tuesday Trivia. Theirs starts at 8PM – nice and early! I enjoyed a half pint of the Rebel IPA (two thumbs up) and even managed to contribute a few movie-related trivia answers. I have to be honest and say I totally judged a bro the next table over who didn’t know that Finch is the last name of Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird. Did you not take high school English?

A side of baby cabbages (of course) and they were awesome.

Continue reading →

MIMM: Worn Out But Worth It

I am exhausted, despite the fact that I went to sleep at 9:15PM and got to sleep til almost 8 this morning. But the reason I’m worn out is because of a weekend which included some going out of my box, and it was well worth it. Let’s get the Marvelous In My Monday party started so that I can remember that fact.

Will you too be joining Katie’s marvelous link-up?

Marvelous is…trying a new restaurant for a baby shower on Friday. I went to spin in the morning so I was able to join my co-workers after work for drinks and dinner, which is not something I’m usually able to do with my preference for evening gym sessions. I was of course in charge of picking the place and I ended up choosing nearby Cracker Barrel Pub in Tariffville, because they just re-did the menu and new manager and head chef Hazen is someone I’ve worked with before. Clearly he knows me because he sent out crispy baby cabbages for the table – what a nice surprise! (If anyone is interested in trying Cracker Barrel’s new menu, there is a Groupon out right now!)

Continue reading →

Cookin’ and Killin’ It

Don’t worry vegetarian readers, I’m not talking about killin’ an animal for cooking (see title). I’m talking about killin’ my goal to cook more meals at home. Yesterday I mentioned I was planning to get a Whole Foods salad after the gym. Well I got to thinking throughout the day as I was researching which recipes I wanted to use for food prep this weekend. I’ve eaten at home, without takeout, every night this week since Sunday. Why not make it a full week of weeknight meals at home, with no takeout? Why not go all the way and just kill it?

That’s just what I did! After the gym (where I got in a killer personal training session by the way, more on that later!) I went to Stop N Shop and picked up ingredients for the meals I plan to prep that weekend, plus some frozen veggies so I could make Tina‘s Creamy Laughing Cow Cheese Veggies. I already had the Creamy Swiss flavor at home though, so I just used that instead of Chipotle. I still kept the frozen broccoli, but I used frozen baby cabbages instead of edamame/spinach because I have never cooked with frozen baby cabbages and wanted to see how they’d turn out (obviously they wouldn’t turn out as good as the roasted kind). I also cooked up a pot of Goya chickpeas and black beans (with added garlic salt and cumin) on the stovetop. I combined the beans, creamy veggies, and some leftover meatloaf into a bowl for a delicious veggie and protein packed meal. Perfect for post-strength training.

Source

Continue reading →

Weightless Goals

Thanks so much for your words of support in response to yesterday’s post. Every comment, email, tweet, etc was read and appreciated. No matter how crappy I may feel about myself during my recovery, there are plenty of experiences in my now-fuller life that make this process and journey worth it. I may be tricked at the moment into thinking deprivation was worth the body I was happier with, but I wasn’t even satisfied with myself back then. And you will be happy to hear that this morning, I got rid of that shirt on Saturday night that caused me tears over it being too small. It may only be one article of clothing, but it’s a start. Enough of that for now, because I’m honestly a bit sick of thinking about weight and body image and pants and all that crap. That’s why when yesterday I stumbled upon a Mind Body Green article titled 10 Awesome Life Changes That Have Nothing To Do With Losing Weight, I was completely inspired to write goal-related post as if I don’t have any issues with my appearance, any anxiety about what I ate/am going to eat, or any guilt about “only” doing 20 minutes of cardio yesterday. No body-related ambitions, no diet-related wishes, no promises to cut out X or work out more. Let’s talk about something else for once! Appreciate More: I tend to focus on shortcomings and get lost in negativity. I sometimes kinda-sorta-definitely hate those people who wake up each morning saying “Man it’s great to be alive!” but at the same time while I’m feeling like Miss Grumpy Pants over their happiness, they are, well, being happy. The phrase “fake it til you make it” keeps coming to mind. For example, if I wake up on a Monday and don’t want to go to work, I can continue to work on reminding myself to appreciate the fact that I even HAVE a job. Plenty of folks out there would kill for my job even if I don’t always enjoy it. Eventually if I keep repeating that to myself (the fake it) then I think I’ll start to believe it (the make it).

This is also where my New Year’s resolution comes in. I may not be psyched about going to work, but I can try to improve my mood by setting aside time the night before to pick out a cute outfit.

Continue reading →

MIMM: Holiday Cheer!

The winner of my giveaway for a Blue Nile Sterling Silver Branch Necklace is actually the first person who submitted any entries – Shawna! I will be contacting you to get your shipping address. Congrats to all who entered and thank you for the enthusiastic participation!

I had plans this past weekend for not one but two holiday parties. Unfortunately Saturday’s snow resulted in one of them getting cancelled but I still managed to make my weekend full of plenty of marvelous holiday (and overall) cheer.

Be sure to link-up with Katie if you’re participating in Marvelous In My Monday today!

Marvelous is…visiting Kaitlin on Friday! She was kind enough to host me for the evening and showed me a wonderful time. We started with a gift exchange…she got me a set of champagne flutes and a bottle of Prosecco, not to be opened until I move out of my parents’ house and get my own place 😉 my kind of motivation! The booze theme proceeded to carry on throughout the evening.

We went to Total Wine in Norwalk (which only made me more pumped for FL this month because there’s one by our condo) and they were having not one but two wine tastings AND a vodka tasting. Thank you Friday night! I’m worse in liquor stores than most girls are in Target so I walked out with two bottles of late harvest dessert wines, a nip of coffee liqueur, and a really nice Cabernet to share with Kaitlin at the holiday party we planned to attend later. I also ran into a fantastic guy named Latif who overheard me asking an employee if Total Wine carried Cesca Vicent, my favorite red to order at Barcelona. We immediately bonded over our love for Cesca and Barcelona! It was classic.

Continue reading →

Five Things Friday: Half Day!

It’s the last day to enter my Blue Nile giveaway for a sterling silver necklace! Entries close tonight at 11:59PM EST.

It’s Friday and I’m taking a half day at work today (holla) and have a lot of random stuff to say. Perfect day to join Clare‘s Five Things Friday party so I can be ADD and talk about all the things!

If you participate, make sure you link-up!

1. Today I get to see two very special people!

The reason for my half-day at work today is because I’m the lucky duck who gets to pick up this lady from the airport.

Continue reading →

WIAW: I Cooked!

Whenever I do a What I Ate Wednesday post (thanks Jenn!) that features at-home meals, it shows off my mom’s amazing healthy dishes. Truth (though I’ve never been secretive about this): pretty much every one of my recipes was created by her. Well today I’ve got something new cooking…two dishes THAT I MADE. They may not be recipes I created (I’ll be sharing one of those later!) but they are recipes I took from my Recipes I’d Actually Make Pinterest board. And now I’m able to take a cue from Sam and move those two recipes to a board titled I MADE THIS. Yes in all caps, because I”m that excited about it.

The reason I don’t have much experience with cooking is because I live at home to save money (I always feel the need to throw the reasoning in there…I’m not a 30 year old living it up in my parent’s basement – although my room IS in the basement). My mom is an awesome cook and she always makes super-healthy dinners for me. Believe me it’s come in handy especially given the fact that I do the gym after work, and when I get home I am just hungry and ready to chow down after my shower. But I won’t be living at home forever and I definitely have been fearing getting too content with my mom’s cooking and too dependent upon restaurants, take-out, and the Whole Foods salad bar. My parents have been spending more time than ever in our FL condo so I decided it was the perfect time to practice my cooking!

Continue reading →

Pond House Grille Side Dish Cooking Class

I received complimentary admission to this event in exchange for a blog post about my experience. All opinions are my own.

This past Friday night I had the opportunity to attend my second cooking class (read about my first one here) at Pond House Grille in Glastonbury, CT. The restaurant has been doing one class per month, and with Thanksgiving coming up this one was appropriately themed “Spice Up Your Side Dishes”.

11-15-13-pondhouse5

This month’s class had enough participants to be held in a bigger room in the restaurant’s adjacent banquet facility.

All classes are taught by Executive Chef Jordan Stein but I wouldn’t exactly call it teaching…hosting is a more accurate word. Jordan is so great with his guests! I felt like I was in his home and he was letting us all help him make Thanksgiving dinner. He made sure every “student” got some hands-on cooking time in. He would demo each step and afterwards pass it off to a volunteer – or someone he chose. Some guests were hesitant to volunteer and Jordan did a wonderful job of encouraging them to do so.

Continue reading →

MIMM: Well That Worked Out!

The winners of the Bristol Bliss giveaway are Steph, Heather, and SmileyJoyLove! Congratulations and I will be contacting you for your shipping info so that you can receive your scrub. Remember to check out the Bristol Bliss Etsy shop for natural beauty goodies for yourself…or a custom gift basket for a holiday gift!

bbwinner3 bbwinners12

This weekend taught me a few lessons and gave me some great ammo for the next time I’m feeling down. I always need these kinds of weekends to prove to myself that the fun in my life is not a “bad habit”…it’s marvelous!

Join Katie‘s marvelous weekly link-up!

Continue reading →

Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

Social

Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

Privacy Policy

I allow third party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit this blog. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g. click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice visit the NAI at http://www.networkadvertising.org. To opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices.