Mr. and Mrs. Valentine

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day – and I don’t know why, but I love celebrating holidays. Even the ones that people say are fake or too commercialized; what is so wrong about sharing love and appreciating who we having in our lives? Especially after hearing about the tragedy in Florida – take a moment to appreciate who you have.

I started the day early with an at home yoga session [as part of my 30 day yoga journey].  I even treated myself to a new yoga mat this week as a form of some self love. I read a quote on social media that has been resonating with me,  “you can’t fill from an empty cup”. Take care of yourself, put on your own oxygen mask first.

After yoga I put in a donut order via the Dunkin Donuts app. They were actually running a special on Valentine’s Day for bonus points if you ordered a dozen donuts. I’m not sure if all locations are as efficient, but the one closest to my house was impressive. I walked in, grabbed the waiting box of donuts, and walked out.  They even apologized that one of the donuts I had requested wasn’t available – so they threw in two donuts of their choice to replace it.

Look at all those happy hearts and sprinkles.  How can you be upset when you start your work day with a heart shaped donut?

They aren’t healthy, they aren’t home made, they aren’t gourmet. But they’re happy and fun and sometimes you have to eat the heart shaped donuts with pink frosting because its Valentine’s Day.

Then came the main event. Dinner.

This was our first Valentine’s Day as husband and wife. I wanted to make a big deal about it. I set the table, used candles from our wedding ceremony and glasses from my Grandparents.

The night before I picked up filet mignon, cocktail shrimp, asparagus, and potatoes from the Fresh Market. Everything was an expensive splurge and it made me feel even happier that we’re in a situation where we can afford to indulge ourselves.

Mister wore a tie, I wore heels. We sipped wine, exchanged presents. It was exactly what we wanted it to be.

The meat was under cooked after our first attempt, but we figured it out together after some combined online searches. It was so incredibly tender and definitely worth the splurge.

I had even planned for a dessert of cheesecake and strawberries, but after everything we snuggled up on the couch with wine and a box of chocolates.

Here’s to Valentine’s Day. To love. To newlyweds, to families, to laughter, to happily ever after. Eat your donuts, share a meal, take some time. And always fill your own up first.

Weekend Meal Prep

Yes for real, every Sunday I cook lunches for the week.  If you didn’t believe me the past few times I’ve done this post, hopefully  by now you’ll see that its a thing.

This past weekend, Mister came down to Westchester to celebrate (observe?) Passover with my family.  I brought Almond Cloud Cookies both nights (though my first batch with chocolate chips were better than the second batch without), but also made a really great fruit salad for the second night.

I know that fruit salad is pretty basic, and non recipe worthy; but seriously this was good stuff that was surprisingly eaten up fairly quickly for dessert, even with a counter filled with chocolate.

• Muddle together mint, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and honey
• rinse and drain: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries
• slice the strawberries; put all berries in bowl
• peel and slice kiwis (I used 5)
• throw in a handful of stray grapes from your other fruitbowl
• toss with the muddled mixture
• refrigerate and until you’re ready to go to your aunt’s house, then let it sit on the counter for a few hours until dessert

Mister and I went to Stew Leonard’s in Yonkers to get groceries for our Sunday meal prep.  It wasn’t nearly as crowded as we were expecting, and we got through fairly quickly.  While I love the experience of Stew Leonards, it can be hard to stock up on canned or packaged goods.  We took that into account when figuring out what we wanted to cook for the week.

While there, of course we were both hungry and decided to grab burgers there before heading back to Bedford.

I ogled the baby ducks while we ate our burgers (no bun for me in honor of Passover).  Sweet potato fries on the side that I surprisingly loved considering that I usually hate sweet potato fries.  They were dense, crunchy wedges of sweet potato that felt like a real food, instead of a weirdly soggy sweet potato french fry that I don’t always love.  Mister didn’t love them so much since they weren’t really fry like in taste or appearance I think.  While he went for the car, I went for the ice cream.

They were advertising a new soft serve, dairy free Gelato.  Made with coconut milk, this “ice cream” had a seriously icy almost sorbet like texture, with a heavy coconut kick.  It was okay, but definitely not worth getting again.

Once back at my Dad’s house,  I got to work on lunches while Mister got to work helping on an outside construction project.

I did time myself on this meal prep, since I keep hearing from people that they don’t have the time.  I did the following in about an hour, with the last portion just waiting for chicken to come out of the oven really.

1. Get chicken in marinade
2. Preheat the oven
3. prep salmon and asparagus (foil lined cookie sheets, olive oil, salt, pepper)
4. put those in the oven once it hits 350 degrees
5. brown beef in a pan, drain.
6. mix ground beef and marinara sauce (I used Stew Leonards refrigerated/prepared sauce) in a bowl and set aside
7. lightly sautee veggie noodles in same pan from the beef
8. Plate beef and veggies in containers
9. Pull salmon and asparagus, plate in containers
10. Push oven up to 400
11. Bake chicken for 15 minutes at 400, then reduce to 350 for 20 minutes per pound.  Set a timer on your phone and go outside to enjoy the weather.

 

 

For Me:

• 2 salmon and aspargus (to be topped with mango salsa after reheated)
• 3 meat sauce with veggie noodles

For Mister:

• 1 chicken with asparagus
• enough baked chicken to either eat as is, or turn into chicken salad for the week.
• leftovers from Passover

Breakfast will be fruit and greek yogurt (the chobani cups were .99 cents at Stew Leonards).  Dinner will be figured out as we go along, or we can eat the lunches if they get skipped during the day for say takeout with a coworker or a lunch meeting.  Sometimes just figuring out what to make can be the hard part, but Mister and I both agree its so nice to just grab a full meal in its own container from the fridge each day.  We feel better about not resorting to frozen meals, takeout, or just sandwiches every day.

 

Hudson Valley Restaurant Week: Harvest on the Hudson

Having never been to this restaurant in Hastings on Hudson before, I was excited to see if the consistently rave reviews would carry over to their restaurant week offerings.  Upon entering, we were enveloped in the warmth of candles and low lighting.  Though the space itself is massive, with high ceilings and large windows overlooking the Hudson River, it felt warm and cozy with the combination of seating at various levels, warm colors, and low noise level.

Our table was positioned at the corner of one of the higher floor levels.  We noticed that the seating all seems to be positioned to optimize river views.  This sounds great in theory, but once it got too dark to see out the enormous windows, the arrangement was awkward.  Regardless of that minor issue, the dining room felt like a warm embrace just as the sun was setting, comfortable and inviting.

For appetizers, I went with the Spring Asparagus Vinaigrette, while Mom chose the soup, which was a butternut squash bisque with pumpkin seeds.

The low lighting made taking pictures tricky, so bear with what dishes look like!  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the description, but my starter consisted of thick stalks of tender, chilled asparagus and a creamy dressing. According to the menu, this was soft egg tarragon dressing.  What I loved about this, was that not only was the asparagus cooked to a perfect state of crisp and tender, but that the entire plate was so perfectly seasoned.  The soup, was also balanced in a way that it was decadent while not being too heavy.

My salmon entree was just as excellent in terms of flavor, although execution could have been tweaked just a bit.  The skin, could have been just a bit more crisp, while the fish itself was more than a little over cooked.  I prefer salmon to have the almost silky fatiness when cooked just enough, while this was piece resembled the texture of dry, canned tuna.  This oversight aside, the brown butter combined with capers and golden raisins was perfection in a way that thoroughly compensated for the salmon.

The service was so efficient, most likely based on the streamlined restaurant week menus, that we were offered the dessert menu just about the same time I finished my first glass of wine (the sauvignon blanc available by the glass, really fresh and crisp).

I had the tiramisu, while Mom went with the semifredo (in all honesty we had to google what the conceptual differences were between panna cotta and semifredo)  They were both the perfect sweetness to finish a really great menu.

We realized, once back in the car, that we had finished our dinner in just about an hour, though we didn’t feel rushed in the slightest.  We were satiated without being stuffed, which is one of my favorite benefits of restaurant week.  Though you are enjoying three courses, they are sized appropriately for the price and experience. I genuinely can say I look forward to trying this restaurant as a special date night in the future, and can’t wait to indulge in the full menu.