Fitting Back In: Event Menu

Showing posts with label Event Menu. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Night Before Two-A-Days, Asian Menu!

Not nearly as cool as the night before Christmas, but whatever! To give you guys an idea of how I prep for my two-a-days, here it goes! It's basically a little checklist I use because if I forget something, there's not turning back!

I lay out/get together the following:

My workout clothes, HRM/chest strap, 2 ponytail holders, shoes/socks and iPod/headphones and lock/key. I put this all in the bathroom so I don’t wake up Austin!
I fill my Camelbak with water and put in the refrigerator.
I put a banana on the kitchen counter. (FYI - not workout-related, but I also load the car with work stuff like my laptop bag, fill my lunchbox and put it in the fridge next to the Camelbak)

And I pack the following:

Shower stuff: hang bag with mini soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, razor, shave gel and face wash. Also include rubberbands, cottonballs/q-tips and a mini eye-make up remover. And don’t forget shower shoes! (cheap flip flops)
Dry-off stuff: 2 towels and a wash cloth on a hanger (hanger is important so wet towels can hang dry in your car while you're at work!)
Hair stuff: Blow dryer, flat iron and hair brush
Face stuff: make-up bag with hair finishing products in it (hang straight and thermal reconditioning cream) – more on why they’re in there later.
Work outfit: Outfit on a hanger, shoes in bag and undergarments in bag
Workout #2 outfit: sports bra, shorts, top and socks for lunch or p.m. workout (if i'm doing 2-a-days)
Other: small plastic deordized bag for dirty clothes

Sounds like a lot, but it's really not because everything is mini and really, aside from the clothes, once you pack it once you don't have to again! Each night I just bring the bag upstairs and switch out the clothes and top off the mini bottles as needed. I swear – it all fits in one, normal-size bag. Actually – this bag that my sis got me for my birthday 2 years ago!

My caption from July 2009: Yes, I’m a cheeseball and take photogs of my reflection in my parent company’s ‘urban garden.’

Q: Did I miss anything? Any tips you have for the night before or for packing?

So after my Friday two-a-days and work I headed over to Monica's for book club! Monica made an awesome veggie-filled Greek salad, and had tons of toppings for us to choose from. I forgot how much I loved the addition of chickpeas to salads. Awesome. Stacy and I got there a bit early, then Devon (and Dane!) and Karly! We had a great time visiting and eating Mon's yummy dinner, and I had a couple of yummy glasses of wine - fab! I quickly got in my cozy clothes and we all just lounged around and caught up - SUCH a great chill night. In the meantime, Austin had Monica's husband Andy and Scott over to our house - they apparently did the boy thing - ate meat and drank beers! The boys stayed over, and I stayed at Mon's - awesome Friday!

I was asleep by midnight and got up today at 7! I read a bit, visited with Mon and Andy once he got home, then was at Trader Joe's when it opened for a few things before I stopped by Starbucks for my first grande skinny vanilla latte of the week! Wonderful treat before heading home to my family! Now i'm just going to chill, blog a bit, cook a bit - have a great Saturday afternoon!! Oh and I posted a new menu over at Healthified Kitchen! It's my Asian-inspired menu for 10!

Appetizers: Shrimp Eggrolls and Edamame

Sides: Bowl of White rice, Bowl of Brown Rice and Asian Vegetable Stirfry

Main Dishes: Szechuan Chicken (above) and Rice and Spicy Sesame Noodles with Chicken (below)

The recipes and to-do lists are posted here!

Q: Do you and your friends still have sleepovers?! I love it - especially now that we all have guest rooms! Sweet!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Book Review, 4 Miles, Austin = Cardamom Crusher, Pasta Bar Menu for 30

Happy Tuesday! So far mine is already better than Monday -no rain! :) Thanks for your sweet comments on the new Greek stuffed chicken dish! It's a fave for sure. :) So my Monday was pretty good, despite the rain! Just work and a 4-mile walk during lunch, where I finished Emily Listfield's Best Intentions. This was our April book club read and I REALLY enjoyed it. Here is my review: The book focuses on Lisa, a mother of two in NY trying to keep up at work, at home, with the Jones, etc. Quickly you see that things aren't quite right with her marriage, she has problems at work and things are just falling apart. The story unfolds with friends from the past, a series of unfortunate events, etc. I liked that while the story was suspenseful and kept me guessing, it was happening against a backdrop of her being a mom, trying to make her daughters happy and packing "juice boxes." That was a nice break from the other focuses on adultery, murder and marital distrust. I think it's well-written, well-edited, had a good story with a lot of surprises and really I don't know what I'd change - except maybe the main character - her lack of backbone just straight up pissed me off sometimes. But overall, a 4.5/5! I heard it described as a chick lit mystery so it's no wonder I enjoyed!

Sigh. It's always bittersweet when I finish a good book. Sometimes good books can be what gets me to the gym (if I leave and go get on the treadmill I can see what happens next whilst walking at an incline... as if I couldn't see what happened from the comfort of my bed - I try to trick myself!). I'm now starting Nicci French's Losing You. It sounds fab! (and i'm sure it is because it's a loan from my mom and her taste in books is DEAD ON with mine. It's like we're family or something. LOL) After work, I headed straight home, cooked up some dishes, watched some TV with the fam and called it a night. I will say we tried grinding the cardamom. The rolling pin didn't work for us. Or the garlic press and meat tenderizer. What worked for us was taking the bottom of a stainless steel measuring cup with a towel folded/triple layered on top (so it doesn't hurt your hand!). Then just slowly grinding the stubborn seeds out with the bottom of the cup against a cutting board. It took Austin about 4 minutes to get one teaspoon, which is what the Chicken Vindaloo I'm making called for! I'm adapting my recipe off of this one. I hope it's fabulous!

On another note, I have a few menus sitting around that I haven't shared - eek! Here is one I used this January for my sister's shower for a little over 30 people. I thought it went over well - I did make a few tweaks and am happy with it now!

Pasta Bar Menu for 30

Main Dishes: Pasta with Sundried Tomato Pesto; Baked Italian Sausage Pasta; Pasta Fagioli

Salad: 'That Good Salad' - one meatless one with meat

Bread: 2 loaves of French bread with spread

Pasta Close up

Salad (same salad - one with bacon and one without for our non-meat-eating buddies)

Check out the menu on Healthified Kitchen - it includes the recipes as well as a 'To-Do List' for when to cook what! I didn't include an ingredients list, as I found I had most items on hand, and of course, the list changes for if you make two salads vs. one, provide meatless options or don't, etc. I just printed out the recipes, marked through things I had on hand, then picked up the rest.

Q: Do you have a go-to menu for entertaining? So far I've tried Italian for 30, Mexican for 50/60, Asian for 10 and Mediterranean for 20/25. I LOVE trying new menus, but like to recycle too and make them even better with lessons learned!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My First Hostess Experience in Photos: Shower Menu, 7 New Recipes and GOOD TIMES!

So... I had an amazing weekend!! I will do a separate post catching up on everything (eats, finished a book, tons of home projects done, etc.) but I wanted to devote this post to Saturday evening - the baby shower I hosted for Jimmy & Mary. It was SO much fun having so many of our closest friends in town to celebrate and just hang out. I personally think they're all hilarious and so to have them all in one place was awesome!! Three couples stayed over too so it was like a big spend the night party! Most importantly, I think Mary and Jimmy had a great time, the game I made up seemed to go over well, they got lots of beautiful gifts and it was just GREAT!!

As far as food, I wanted to do a mediterranean/Greek theme for a few reasons. 1) I've been loving the food lately! 2) It's pretty. It's just so colorful! 3) Mary and Jimmy are Greek! Perfection! So I began scouring my favorite food bloggy sites and put together the menu below. I was so nervous and so excited. Were they going to work out? Would they look good? Would it taste good? eek!! I made everything Thursday night, but about an hour before the shower I put items together and set it all up. Here goes! And a special thank you to For the Love of Cooking, Recipegirl and Cooking Light...

Shower Menu

Greek Appetizer Skewers from Recipegirl.com

Greek Salad Bites from Recipegirl.com

Marinated Mushrooms from Recipegirl.com

Penne with Chicken Sausage AND Pasta Salad in Vinaigrette from For the Love of Cooking

Herbed Greek Chicken Salad Pitas from Cookinglight.com

Tomato & Fresh Basil Crostini with feta and roasted garlic cheese spread from For the Love of Cooking

Pitas + Hummus from Trader Joe’s (1 bag of mini pitas and 4 flavors of hummus)

Baklava + Chocolate cover Pretzels from Trader Joe’s

Please note: We LOVED every recipe. Seriously! The recipes are posted below - AMAZING - I was so happy with it. ALSO, we had A LOT more food than shown above - I restocked the pasta bowls at least 2 more times, same with the greek Salad bites, skewers, etc.

The Spread