Tasca, my love!

Hi everyone! Sorry I was MIA last night — was too tired to blog after we got back from dinner. I literally fell asleep on the couch while we were watching some TV after dinner.

Anyhow, here’s yesterday’s recap!

Breakfast and Lunch
Yesterday’s breakfast was my usual – because it’s so yummy! I had some Oikos Greek Yogurt with Nature’s Path Vanilla Almond Granola.

On my way to work, I also had a banana — sorry, I didn’t take a picture!

For lunch, I had another one of granola + yogurt combo…I guess I just love this combo and I find it satisfying but not too filling. I don’t like feeling too heavy after lunch cause I get sleepy, so this makes for a perfect lunch.

I also had some cheddar soy chips and ate some strawberries. I wanted to keep it light because I knew I had a big dinner ahead! Here’s a close-up of the cheddar soy chips. I love these!

Dinner
Yesterday was Matt’s sister’s birthday, so we took her out for dinner. We decided to go to her (and my!) favorite place to eat in Boston: Tasca! It’s a Spanish tapas restaurant located on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston/Brighton area. It’s really close to my apartment and really easy to get to via the T.

Dinner started with a basket of bread, which actually ended up being 3 baskets total between the 5 of us at dinner! It was delicious and it was served with an olive tapenade spread. Yummy!

And of course, I couldn’t resist but enjoy a glass of sangria. Tasca makes one of the best sangrias I’ve ever tasted! We ordered 2 pitchers for the table so I ended up having about 2 glasses. I slurped those babies down like water!

One of the other reasons we went to Tasca is because from Monday-Thursday every week, they have a 3-course menu for only $16!!! Yes, you read it right…$16! They call it their Appetite Stimulus Deal. Pretty neat, right? So Matt, his sister, and I each ordered an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. My roommates ended up ordering only appetizers, which also looked delicious.

For my appetizer, I decided to order the Baked Goat Cheese Fritter with organic greens, pear, and toasted almonds in a balsamic vinaigrette.

The goat cheese was perfectly cooked.

Matt, on the other hand, was more adventurous and ordered the Escargots baked in traditional garlic butter with cognac. He asked me to try it — at first, I refused politely, but with some convincing from Matt, I finally gave it a try. To be honest, it actually was delicious! I’m glad I tried it after all!

And for my entree, I decided to go with red meat! Matt’s sister and I ordered the Grilled marinated top filet steak au jus with herb roasted potatoes and blackened corn succotash.

The steak was perfectly cooked and I liked that it wasn’t super salty, like a lot of restaurant-cooked meats.

The succotash was kinda spicy, and I’m not really a big fan of spicy things…I ate it anyway.

Here’s my empty plate. I’m surprised I didn’t lick it!

I’m sorry–that last picture wasn’t that great. As for Matt, he ordered the Roast leg of duckling with savory pork sausage over braised red cabbage and apples in a blackberry sauce.

I’m not a big fan of duck, but Matt thought it was good. I liked the sausage though. Here’s a close-up of the duck.

Of course, I had some dessert. I just couldn’t resist this amazing concoction. First of all, the name is tempting in itself: Pastel of oreo cookie base with dulce de leche, bananas, and vanilla whipped cream.

They had me at oreo! The combo of the oreos, bananas, and caramel was perfect!

All in all, dinner was awesome! I love going to Tasca and today, I just got an email from BuyWithMe.com with a deal where you can get $30 worth of food for only $15 at Tasca. I should buy that before they run out of this deal so that I have for next time!

Workouts
Before I get into today’s meal recap, here’s an update on my workouts!

Yesterday, I actually managed to fit in my scheduled 5-mile run before dinner. It was pretty cold outside, but I braved the Boston winter and went for a nice run outside. I averaged about 9:10 min/mile for the 5 miles. I felt pretty good in the beginning, but kinda slowed down during the middle, then picked it up again towards the end.

Today, I did a 3-mile speed workout. I decided to just run on the treadmill because it was so wet and slippery outside. And this way, I really got to control my speeds accurately. For the first mile, I ran at a warm-up pace of about 9:40 min/mile. Then, I did 3x400m repeats at the speeds of 8:50, 8:40, 8:30 min. It was a nice sweaty workout!

Wednesday-night Meal Recaps
For breakfast, I had 2 Vans multigrain waffles slathered with some almond butter.

I loooove almond butter!!! One of my favorites is Justin’s Natural Almond Butter – Maple flavor.

I also enjoyed a warm mug of Tazo Earl Grey tea. It really kept me warm while I waited for the T!

For dinner, I really had no idea what to make tonight but I had a bunch of random things at home so I didn’t want to pick up anything new from the grocery store. I decided to make the boxed risotto that someone at Whole Foods recommended to me.

Usually, boxed products have so much sodium, but this actually has a pretty reasonable amount. And it tasted good!

In addition to the risotto, I also decided to grill some asparagus and saute soy bean sprouts again for the salad. I love doing this because it eliminates the need for the salad dressing! The olive oil and the veggie juices are enough to dress the salad greens! For the salad greens, I used my favorite mix:

And finally, I cooked up some salmon (grilled in the oven with some olive oil, sea salt, and ground black pepper) and some tortellini with vodka sauce. I told you it was the most random mix! Here’s the finished product!

Sorry, the salmon kinda got messed up while I was trying to remove it from the foil-covered baking sheet!

Along with dinner, I also had some Organic Valley Chocolate Lowfat Milk. I actually just read in the January 2010 issue of Runner’s World that lowfat chocolate milk is the best post-workout recovery drink…even better than many sports drinks! This is because this drink contains a perfect ratio of carbs to added protein (about a 3:1) which provides the necessary amino acids for repair.

Turns out, the chocolate milk also took care of my sweet tooth. I ended up not really craving dessert tonight.

Well, I think that’s it for now. I’m so excited about tomorrow night’s event! Stayed tuned to find out what it is!

Patricia