Hello Hello! Gah, I can’t believe it is Thursday already! This week has flown by….Hope everyone is having an amazing week!
I’ve been busy busy with the usual stuff this week. Lots of work – both training and a ton of online work…reading and perusing the internet nonstop for my new venture. I’m over the moon excited about all that I have going on that I’ve barely been sleeping. I feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. I did, though, make time for dinner with one of my best friends last night. It was both a belated birthday dinner for me and a celebratory dinner for her — she just got engaged 2 weeks ago — so so happy for her!!
We decided to check out the newly renovated Gallery Restaurant in the Ballantyne Hotel. I’ve been meaning to get in and check out the new menu so thought this would be THE perfect night to go! While training my client Peter, who just so happens to be the GM at The Hotel, I told him that I would be having dinner in the Gallery that night and he offered up the AMAZING idea to let our Chef, David Moore, have some culinary fun and cook up a special treat for us! Peter of course let David know of my clean eating habits and he MORE than accommodated this without sacrificing flavor in the slightest bit. We had this absolutely beautiful, colorful 3 course meal and finished with melt in your mouth macaroons, which are made in house. OMG!
Gallery Restaurant. The Ballantyne just finished up the restaurants renovation about 2 months ago. Huge improvement from the old look & feel. Love the new decor – slightly modern but still very warm and inviting.
Focaccia bread and the cutest mini popovers! I pretty much love when anything is made into a mini – yes, even bread! Adorable.
Our first course! All about orange – LOVED this. One of my favorite colors and of course its the perfect creation for this incredible fall season we’ve been having this year. Using all local produce, this dish was mainly created out of carrots. You can see on the rim of the bowl…that is a carrot purée, few grapefruit wedges, mango, roasted baby carrots, carrot ribbons and butternut squash. Finished with a super light, ginger dressing.
And on to course #2! Yayyy, green! I think you all know how much I love my greens! haha 3 cucumber rolls/wraps stuffed with micro greens, broccoli & pepitas. English Cucumbers were used throughout the dish. Couple pieces of lump crab meat, roasted pepper on top of the wraps and finished off with an amazing, rich balsamic vinegar.
Delicious seafood entree.
3 mussels in the shell you see there. Piece of flounder filet on top of purple cabbage, roasted purple potatoes and some micro greens.
Don’t you just love these macaroons!? The colors are so pretty. Orange, Blueberry annnnd…I forget what flavor the green one was. All 3 were so good. The perfect sweet treat to end our meal!
Quick Food & Workout Recap for today….
Oatmeal for breakfast this morning. (830ish) A couple times a week my body just craves some carbs! Needed something a little heavier this morning than my standard green smoothie. Cooked up my favorite apple, cinnamon, coconut oil oatmeal and sprinkled in a tiny bit of nutmeg today. Always find this so satisfying. Ate a Gala Apple & some raw, mixed nuts around 11am in between sessions. Ran home in the middle of the day to make a smoothie. (1ish)Threw in my Super Greens mix, frozen blueberries, banana, splash of almond milk, some hemp protein, water & ice.
Had about 30 minutes between my meeting this afternoon and my 430 session so I ran to Earth Fare and got a Grilled Chik Breast. I always have them slice it for me since I’m usually running right back out and eating in the car! And some roasted carrots. Dinner tonight was more chicken & steamed asparagus. Forgot the pic…was starving! lol
Some yummy fruit after dinner….banana, raspberries & mango. Also, I ate 2 pieces of dark chocolate out of the selection of chocolates they sent me home with from my visit to Johnson & Wales on Tuesday.
Today’s Workouts…
Pretty easy 30 minutes of cardio. On/Off slow jog/fast walk on 6-10 incline and caught the 815 yoga class with Amani at Yoga Flex after dinner tonight. Love her so much! Today was a little stressful and needed some Amani & yoga in my life. That class was exactly what I needed.
That’s it for me tonight! 8am boxing sesh and then off to Chicago at 4pm tomorrow. SO excited and can’t wait to share all about my trip with you. xx
