Roman Nose

Hi There!

It's the weekend...WHEEEE!!! I hope you all had a fantastic week. The end of my week turned out much better than the begininning did (thank goodness)! I  have a couple of food related goodies to share with you all on this fine Saturday morning! First, let's discuss Wednesday night's dinner.

Here we have a lovely, roasted and stuffed tomato. This dish came to be due to PJ's complaining about all the random frozen meals packed in our freezer. Recently, I've been making an effort to freeze leftovers from the dinners I make for PJ and I during the week. In the past, I haven't really been a big fan of freezing because I'm just not to keen on leftovers; however ,through some convos with my mama, I realized that freezing not only helps to reduce food waste, but it also aids in the process of putting a nutritious dinner on the table quickly! Score. Last night, I made stuffed peppers for PJ using leftover turkey stuffing from the fabulous stuffed peppers I made a few months back. For my meal, I wanted to try replicating a dish I sampled at the Solae event  that I attended which utilized veggie crumbles. I decided to adapt the Solae dish, and instead I made a stuffing using the veggie crumbles! It ROCKED. If you're not sure what veggie crumbles are, they're essentially a soy based, vegetarian ground meat. They're awesome in chili and tacos as well!

I sautéed some onions, garlic, peppers, chili peppers, mexican spice blend, and veggie crumbles. The veggie crumbles are pre-cooked, so I tossed them into the mix last so they would soak up some of the other flavors in the pot! I hollowed out a beefsteak tomato, stuffed it with the mixture, and baked it in the over for about 20 minutes. I took it out at about 15 minutes into the baking time and sprinkled the tomato with some Monterey jack Daiya vegan cheese. Let me state that Daiya is phenomenal; even PJ liked it!

Daiya comes in other flavors as well. My co-worker said her mom loves the cheddar version.

Sticking with the vegan cheese theme, I whipped up this eggalicious wonder for brekkie on Thursday AM: 1 egg, 2 egg whites, spinach, tomatoes, and Daiya cheese. I enjoyed a crack apple on the side. YUM. Retrospectively, I should have added some nut butter to the apple because my tummy was grumblin' about an hour and a half after this breakfast. I find that if I don't combine fruit with a nut or protein, it leaves me feeling immediately hungry.

Although there hasn't been much in the way of exercise this week, Thursday evening I made some time to do a little yoga before I headed out to dinner. As I said in my last post, I have a lot of trouble slowing down and focusing on the present moment. What I love about yoga is it forces me to just "be" with myself and what I'm feeling. I was definitely experiencing a little stress and anxiety on Thursday, so the beginning of my yoga practice was particularly challenging. My mind was filled with all the things I should and could be doing instead of yoga, and I actually considered rolling up the mat and calling it quits. This happens to me from time to time with yoga, and usually these are the times that I need and benefit from yoga the most. I breathed through my anxiety and went on to have a fantastic practice. I'm so happy I pushed myself to sit with my busy mind and complete the practice , because I soon found myself completely engaged in the flow, and I finished feeling renewed and refreshed. In my opinion, that is yoga at it's best.

 

On Thursday evening, my friend Le-La and I headed to a new Italian restaurant in Jersey City called Roman Nose. It's currently a BYOB establishment, but they will unfortunately (fortunately for them!) be obtaining their liquor license in January. I love BYOB because you can bring your favorite wine or beer, and your bill is significantly less than if you were to indulge in wine off the menu. 

This looks about right, dontcha think?! When we sat down, we received the pitcher of water and the four glasses pictured above. Clearly the big glasses were meant for the wine, and the small ones were intended for water, right?! One of the waitors actually came over and offered to get us new glasses as he thought we had mistakenly poured our wine into the oversized water glasses .We assured him that we knew exactly what we were doing. :) Speaking of the staff,  the owner, as well as the wait staff, was extremely friendly and helpful. The owner actually spent some time explaining to LL and I where the restaurant's name Roman Nose originated from and recommended the dishes he thought we might like. He was spot on.

We split the caprese to start.

I enjoyed the pasta Norma. The dish had fresh veggies, oil, and cheese. I substituted whole wheat pasta for traditional white pasta. Roman Nose allows for whole wheat pasta substitutions in place of white pasta for any of their dishes. They also have gluten free and vegan options. Both LL and I LOVED our meals and the ambiance of the restaurant. I will definitely be back to this neighborhood Italian gem very soon!

I found this little muffin later in the evening. My goodness he is handsome:)  PS. I used red eye correction on my eyes and the picture STILL looks like this  haha.

Brekkie yesterday AM consisted of a sprouted grain english muffin topped with pumpkin puree, sunflower seed butter, and chia seed. I have been eating this breakfast almost every day for the past month. It's super quick to put together, and I'm mildly obsessed with the combo. I paired my pumpkin muffins with some soy bacon. I'm really loving soy bacon these days!

After work, I hung out for the remainder of the evening.

There was some of this....

Alot of this...

And more importantly.... THIS!! (Val.. this is for you xo !)

Today I'm kinda bummed out because my parents were supposed be visiting this weekend . Since hurricane Sandy (biatch!) and my parents unfortunately scheduled their arrivals simultaneously, Sandy won and my parents have resorted to rescheduling their visit. Bummer.  I decided to treat myself to a massage for later in the day at a place  in Jersey City that I haven't yet tried ( I will let you all know how it is). Ok, my friends! I'm off to do some yoga, followed by cleaning and grocery shopping. I hope you all have a fantastic Saturday!

Something to check out:

My friend Katie wrote a fabulous article that was published on Mind Body Green about how to eat healthy while traveling. You all know how I just LOVE Mind, Body, Green!  Check out Katie's piece here.