Me, a Gym Rat?? Plus a 2nd 101 Completion and more!

#26: Workout 3 times a week for a month (2/4)
This would have been one of my guesses for the least likely to complete from my 101 Things, but I've surprised myself (and all those around me) with my recent devotion to the gym! Along with my first Summer Friday a couple weeks ago, came the sudden desire and impetus to visit the gym in my building, a mere 3 floors below me. It was then that I realized, if I was unemployed, I'd workout everyday! 11-11:30am is just the absolute best time to workout in my mind - the gym is empty, it's before lunch (but, should you wake early enough, after breakfast), you can watch The Price Is Right while you workout, and when all is said and done, you've still got the whole day ahead of you! Of course, I (thankfully) am employed and thus cannot workout at 11am, so I've had to workout after work (since before work certainly is still not an option for me - not only do I oversleep as it is, I've found after the past 2 weeks that I sweat PROFUSELY while on the treadmill, so going to the gym in the morning would also require a cold shower afterward, and what about my hair?? Either way, I'm not sure I could handle waking up early enough to get through it all - especially without wanting to get back into bed immediately after my post-workout shower.) But I digress...I'm extremely proud and excited that I've actually had the energy and willfulness to go to the gym after my sweaty 20 minute walk home from work and I'm even more excited that I am now halfway to my goal of going 3 times a week for a month! Wish me luck!!


#41: Try a new recipe at least twice a month
#90: Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes
The usual cooking roundup - New recipes on CareBearsKitchen this week:
Taco Salad
Three Berry Pie
Blueberry Crumbcake


#94: Update picture frames in apt
A second completion in the same week!! Amazing!! Last night, I decided to finally look through the last 6 months worth of photos on my computer and pick out some new fun ones to put in my picture frames, especially since some of the pictures I had included people I don't really see that much - afterall, my frame space is a hot commodity: you have to earn it! While I am marking this 101Thing as complete, that does NOT mean I want to spend the next 937 days with the same pictures...so moving forward, I will think of this 101Thing as a semiannual goal.


#96: Buy a new plant and keep it alive for the entire 1,001 days
So, technically I did not bye a new plant, but my parents did bring me a cactus back from their trip to New Mexico! While I definitely hope to keep this cactus alive (cause if I can't do that, I'm pretty hopeless), I still want to try my hand at a regular plant as well. Perhaps I should just try to keep the 3 plants I already have alive (plus my office plant, that hasn't been looking so hot lately...)

Plant Pictures To Come!

Progress Report: #7, #16, #41, #44, #49, #90

#7. Go to at least 3 Mets games each summer
This past Saturday, May 30th, J and I (along with J's sister and her roommate) voyaged back into Queens for another Mets game! While this one wasn't as good as the last one (half the team was out "resting" and they lost pretty badly), we DID get to take a picture with the old Shea Home Run Apple, which is pretty awesome.


#16. Try to find the best burger in the city
Another trip to Citi Field also gave us a reason to start our best burger quest! We each had a Shake Shack Double-Shack Burger and it was mmm mmm good! We decided to judge each burger we taste on 4 points: Taste, Presentation, Value, Overall each on a scale of 1-10.

Taste: 8

We liked the charbroiled taste of the burgers and the cheese to burger ratio. The burger came with a special shack sauce, tho I couldn't really taste it, it was overpowered by everything else.

Presentation: 5

Nothing really special on the appearance front. It looks like a homemade burger - kind of messy/sloppily piled together.

Value: 8

The double-shack burger was $8.25. We're not sure of how the prices compare with the Madison Square Park location (we'll be sure to try it out there as well) but we felt that it was pretty reasonable for a regular meal, let alone a ballpark meal. We were also so stuffed afterwards that we didn't really need to eat anything else.

Overall: 8

J: If I'm at Citi Field, this is hands-down what I'm eating.

C: While we ranked the burger for presentation and value, what's really important to me is taste, and this burger tastes GOOD. I'm in for more, both at Citi Field and hopefully sometime soon, at the Madison Square Park location.

#41. Try a new recipe at least twice a month/#44. Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week/#90. Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes
New June Recipes up! Includes Southern-Style Chicken Stew, Egg Salad Sandwich, my official new recipe of the week Saucy Pepper Steak, Penne with Veggies in a Ricotta Sauce, and Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Dressing. Yumm-o! Not only did I do a lot of delicious cooking this week, but got a lot of leftovers out of it, which makes for my favorite recipes.

#49. Scrapbook all my saved up stuff
So this week, our modem broke leaving us internet-less for a night. I took this opportunity to finally start organizing all the random stuff I want to scrapbook!! I've kept everything in this tote bag in my closet, so I had to organize it by year (going back to 2007, eek) then start scrapbooking! Unfortunately, the progress stopped when my scotch tape ran out. Doh! And now that we've got our internet back, it's all in a pile in my armchair. But! Now that I've started, I have a renewed yearning to finish, so I don't think it'll be there for long!

Progress Report: #14, #40, #41, #44, #72, #90

#14: Go to brunch once every 2 months (not just at the diner) (1/16)

This one was unintentionally easy this month...we went to Brunch for Mother's Day with my family! We went to City Crab on 19th and Park, where I had the Eggs Copenhagen (like Eggs Benedict but with Smoked Salmon instead of the Canadian Ham) and a Pear Cosmo. Mmm!

#40: Make meal plans every week (2/143)
#41: Try a new recipe at least twice a month (4/66+)
#44: Make (or order in) one vegetarian meal per week (2/143)
#90: Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes

These 4 pretty much go hand-in-hand (in-hand-in-hand).

While last weeks meal plan was intricate and well thought-out, since I was out of town this past weekend for my 5th Year college reunion and came back late on Sunday night, with a cold to boot, this week's meal plan was much more haphazard. Lunches this week have consisted of sandwiches (which are actually pretty yummers) of salami, pepper jack, lettuce, sweet pickles and mustard. Dinners this week were Italian Order-In (Eggplant Rollatini mmm) which was large enough for two dinners and Cheesesteaks before the concert last night. Tonight will be the only cooking night and the menu is simple steak (marinated in lime juice) and baked sweet plantains, which have become a staple at our place recently.

As for new recipes, over the past 2 weeks I've tried:
Steak Tacos (which also produced follow-up lunch Steak Salad)
Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce
Chicken Parmesan
Falafel Pitas with Cucumber-Yogurt Dressing

And, obviously, have added those to the blog, check to #90! I still have to update the food porn. As for #44, last week I made Falafel Pitas for dinner and this week's big V-card goes to Eggplant Rollatini. All-in-all, my Cooking 101 list is moving along stronger than any other section! (Gee, I wonder why!)

I'll close out this lengthy progress report with:
#72: Visit all 4 boroughs (3/4)

This 101 thing is managing to fly by, though I fully intend to visit boroughs more than once. Now, the Bronx is unfair, my parents live there, afterall. I visited just last week to get my hair done! Queens was also easy peasy, with the Mets Game being located there (and with all the other games I have planned, I will be a repeat Queens visitor for sure! Brooklyn was a new one for me for a nighttime locale, but I was able to check this one off thanks to my friend Sheryl's birthday earlier this month, located at the very fun Radegast Hall & Beer Garden.

Progress Report: #40, #47, #90

#40: Make meal plans every week (1/143)

Yesterday, I was bored enough at work that I started looking up recipes for next week's meal plan...which is much easier than my usual routine of trying to think up what to do on Sunday morning between when I roll out of bed and we head out for Brunch!

Week of May 11th
Lunches for the Week: Noodles with Lime Peanut Sauce
Dinner1: Chicken Parm
Dinner2: Falafel Pitas

Expect the recipes up on CareBear's Kitchen next week, in compliance with #90 Keep blog updated and always have a picture for recipes!!

Speaking of #90, last night I went through all the Attempted Food Porn pics I've taken over the past few months, some of which needed to be added to their respective recipes on the blog, and some of whose recipes had never been added...so I did that too! I also added new pictures of dishes I've made again (such as my Curried Chicken Salad and Tuna White Bean Salad)

New recipes/pictures:
Steak Salad
Steak Tacos
Cuban Sloppy Joes & Baked Plantains (picture added)
Chocolate Caramel Matzo (picture added)
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Gruyere Fondue with Carmelized Onions
Pear Raspberry Pie
Baked Shells with Winter Squash

#47 Upgrade my recipe binder (put everything online?)

Last night I started to look up some info on computer cookbook/recipe software for #47 on my list. Justin noted that I could be frugal and just organize it myself on my computer, but these programs just look so cool! They come with their own recipes, but you can also input your own. They can give you nutritional info for your recipes, which is handy, and you can search the recipes by the ingredients you have. Not to mention, that I'm an easy sell when it comes to purchasing a new toy... Now the question...which toy to buy?!