Patria

So I decided to include restaurant reviews on my blog. I eat out a lot (more then I should, and if I go to a new place, I wanted to let everyone know how it is. So on Saturday night, Walter, a bunch of our friends and I went to Patria in Rahway for dinner and drinks. It is a new restaurant where El Bodegon used to be. It has been closed for about a year for renovations, so when it reopened as Patria, everyone was interested in checking it out.

When we walked in, it was huge, and trendy. We has a party of seven, and the hostess gave us a tour of all the "rooms" that we could choose to eat. There was the bar, the main dining room, a "club" room where the DJ would be later in the night, and a room downstairs with lower tables and couch like seating. We chose to eat there because it was quieter and looked so unique. They did a great job of renovating, and really transformed the restaurant. I wish I took pictures! We then ordered drinks - I got the watermelon mojito, which was fabulous! (If I knew at the time it was $12, I would never have ordered it!)

All the food on the menu looked great, aside from the fact that it was having a bit of an identity crisis (it had both Asian and Spanish options all over the menu). A friend and I got two meals to split – the skirt steak, and a shrimp dish. The meals came with a soup and one side, which were basically rice (fried, white, rice of the day, or beans). We were all shocked that you couldn’t get rice AND beans together. The soups came (I ordered butternut squash), I didn’t care for it at all – it tasted like they dumped ginger in the soup. Walter was nice enough to share his lobster bisque, which was better. Then the main courses came, and it didn’t get much better. Here are some of the opinions around the table:

·         The steak was WAY overcooked

·         The white rice was hard as a rock

·         The black beans came STRAIGHT from the can, and weren’t seasoned or heated

·         The scallops were awful

·         The fried rice was way too salty

·         The pork dish and shrimp were actually pretty good

All in all, we all decided we would not be returning for dinner. Ever. We then went into the club area for drinks to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The music was all over the place, the drinks were expensive, and I left early because I had a splitting headache. Walter stayed and later told me that the fire alarm went off and the fire department showed up, they had to start kicking people put since they were over capacity, and cars were getting towed because there was nowhere to park. So, I am glad we tried a new restaurant, but I will not be returning. I know it's bad that my first restaraunt review is so negative, but I know there will be many positive reviews in the future!

2011 Goals

I know we are almost done with the second week of the year, but I wanted to outline my goals for 2011 so I can hold myself accountable and keep track of them!

1.       Make at least 2 NEW recipes per week for a total of 50 per year (since I started a week late). This should include 1 crockpot meal per week.

2.       Run 1 mile without stopping

3.       Run a 5K

4.       Lose 50 pounds

5.       Complete the 200 situp challenge

6.       Track my calories

7.       Get organized!!! (finances, email, calendar, apartment)

8.       Go the gym 12 times per month (3x a week)

I will keep my progress on these goals updated throughout the year, so stay tuned!

Weigh in #5

I am up 1.5 lbs. BOOOOO! Its from getting sick over Christmas, and then going to Florida and eating out for so many meals. 

Total weight loss: 4 pounds

Weight Loss Remaining: 46 pounds

But I am going to get back into the swing of things and get that weight off!!!

On Monday night a friend and I went to dinner and a movie. We went to Chevy's, and then to see Black Swan! Chevy's has a dinner and a movie deal where you can buy movie tickets at the restaurant for $8 instead of $11 - pretty  good deal!I had Sangria, chips, salsa, and guac, and we split some fajitas. Well let me just say this: Next time, NO sangria, and I am staying on my diet from now on when I go out! The meal didn't agree with me, and i spent Monday night and all of Tuesday sick as a dog! But on a positive note, the movie was great! If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you go - its pretty twisted, but a great movie.

If you haven't heard, NJ got ANOTHER snow storm last night, and after getting 8-12 inches, I am working from home (don't worry - I am writing this on my lunch break!) This allowed me to make a pretty nice breakfast!

I threw a Chiobani strawberry yogurt, 1/4 cup kashi go lean cereal, 1/2 a clementine, and 1/4 pear and mango. I sliced another 1/4 pear and mango to have on the side. SO GOOD! I am also planning on making a crock pot meal during lunch for dinner! More on that to come...

New Years and Florida!

For New Years this year, Walter, MOLLY, and I flew to Florida! (yes Molly, she is becoming an expert traveler!) I don't have many pictures from Florida, but I wanted to share the highlights from the trip:

For New Years Eve V had a party at her house, and i got to spend NYE with my best friends and sister! Here are some pics from the night:

For eats, we made a bunch of different appetizers, like buffalo chicken dip, chicken skewers, salad, chips and salsa, taquitos, edamame, and cheese and crackers. We also tried skinny girl margaritas which were good, but sweet! After 2, i was done with them.

Saturday night, we went to the Miami Heat game!

Some of the other highlights and best meals from my trip were:

• Going to Firehouse subs with Walter. They don't have Firehouse in NJ so I always try to go when I am in FL!
• Walking around downtown Delray with Walter, my mom, and Molly and going to Mellow Mushroom. The waitress gave Molly 2 treats!
• Taking my mom out for her first sushi experience
• Going mini-golfing with Walter, V, and Nick
• Going Maternity clothes shopping with V - she actually let me take her to Forever 21and cooperated...and got 5 shirts!
• THE WEATHER!!!

The weather was perfect the entire time, with highs in the upper 70's and lows in the 60's. It made me never want to leave! We came back on Wednesday night and i have been playing catch up ever since. Back to regular blogging and dieting tomorrow!

Christmas

I started this Christmas post 2 weeks ago! I was going to come back in the new year with a recap of the holidays, but I will finish this Christmas post, and tell you about New Years next!

Christmas was... interesting. Christmas Eve was awesome, we had a great dinner and a great time. We made napkin frogs for the table (lame I know LOL).

Walter helped cook in the kitchen. Christmas dinner consisted of potato salad, pierogies, salmon, lobster, and shrimp.

Nicholas was helping too...until he decided to "pose" for a picture with the dogs. Too cute!

Before bed, Nicholas brought cookies into the living room for Santa...

But on the way, he ate one!

Walter and I posing with the pups on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas, I woke up not feeling too hot. Walter's sister had a stomach virus the day before, and Walter and I ended up both getting it on Christmas. NOT fum. But I made it through presents before going to bed for the rest of the day. Here is Molly opening her own present!!!! She has skills!

And she had on her tacky Christmas sweater

Here is the tree with a ton of presents!

The Day after Christmas, we were hit with a huge snowstorm...and the rest of walter's family got the stomach virus. Here are some pictures of the aftermath. My car:

Walter's car:

And the street with 31 inches of snow!

Christmas was good all in all, but I wish we weren't all sick! I have a weak stomach, so I ate bread, pretzles, and soup through Wednesday. New Years post coming up next!

Weigh in #4

I lost another 2 pounds!!!!

Total weight loss: 5.5 pounds

Weight Loss Remaining: 44.5 pounds

I have decided that for every 5 pounds i loose, I am going to reward myself. I have been stocking up on a few rewards in preparation for all of my weight loss! So far I have the $25 gift card from DSW i got at the White Elephant, a free pedicure coupon, and an hour long massage i bought from Groupon. I don't want to use any of these yet for various reasons, so I need to come up with an idea for a reward! Maybe I will buy myself a new shirt for Florida (we are going on Friday!)

Christmas post coming up next...

Santacon!

Merry Christmas Eve! In honor of the holiday, I figured I would FINALLY explain my first cheat day/weekend... Santacon!

Santacon is a Santa themed pub crawl, where people dress as Santas, Mrs. Claus, and other holiday themed characters, and bar hop the day away. It happens in cities all over the world! So on Saturday, Dec 18th, Walter, myself, and some friends headed to Morristown to join in the fun! Here are a few photos of the madness:

In other news, last weekend Molly also got groomed for Christmas and New Years! After she was done we picked out her very own tacky Christmas sweater for the occasion:

She is too much!