by Sam Tackeff | May 28, 2014 | Challenge, Restaurants, Wellness
For the past few months I’ve been hopping on the #FitFluential Twitter chats, looking to meet like-minded folks passionate about health and fitness.
Tonight one of the questions was about nutrition trends, a topic that always piques my interest. One person quipped “Now we say “clean eating” is a trend. When I was young, it was called, “eating at home.” And I’m not that old.” And isn’t it so true? Growing up, eating well meant eating wholesome, home cooked foods, free of junk additives. Treats were few and far between, but when we got them, they were savored.
I like to say that I’m not training for any particular race, I’m training for life. And to do that, I think about what I eat often – my goal in life is to eat sanely, well, and with delight. Sometimes it falls in line with trends, and sometimes it doesn’t. My eating is largely seasonal, heavier in the winter, lighter in the summer. At home I cook a lot of mediterranean inspired meals, and many of my home cooked meals fall squarely into the “paleo” or “primal” camp, which I was doing well before things became trendy. I just call it “eating”, and it’s something that I’m excited to do every day.
There’s always room for well-selected treats – tonight was no exception. I couldn’t help a trip to Shake Shack to celebrate National Burger Day. To balance it out, I crossed the street to the brand new sweetgreen in Chestnut Hill to pick up a “guacamole greens” salad to accompany it. Now that’s a good meal!
by Sam Tackeff | May 21, 2014 | Meat, Mexican, Vegetables
Let me just say, thank goodness for Trader Joe’s. When I’m running late, and haven’t meal planned, I tend to stop by Trader Joe’s to purchase protein and a vegetable, and go from there.
Tonight I did a “double” at the gym – the WOD (workout of the day), followed by the Olympic Lifting Clinic (where we practiced snatches). The main workout was AMRAP 20: Run 400 meters, then three rounds of {5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats}. Feeling sluggish from a track workout yesterday, I managed through only two full rounds (two runs and two sets of three rounds) before calling it. After two hours in the gym, I went for a long walk with my friend AA to make our respective Jawbone/Fitbit step goals. I headed home feeling very accomplished, and decided to support my fitness behavior with a home cooked meal instead of takeout.
Tonight’s dinner – a twist on one of my favorite dinners: taco salad. While I’m not competing in my gym’s nutritional challenge this time around, I’ve been feeling inspiration to eat delicious home cooked meals and share ideas with friends. This dinner takes about 8 minutes to put together if you buy the salsa and guac pre-made. (I like Trader Joe’s Avocado’s Number guacamole, or sometimes if I’m feeling spend-y, the freshly made guac at Whole Foods.)
Beef and Cabbage “Taco” Salad
beef, cabbage, pico de gallo, guacamole
Sauté a pound of ground beef (I use organic, free range when possible) with a large pinch of salt and a heaping teaspoon or so of cumin. When the beef is cooked, add a few large handfuls of shredded green cabbage (about 5 ounces), and another large pinch of salt. Let the cabbage cook for about 4 minutes, until slightly softened but still toothsome. You want the cabbage to still have a little bit of crunch. Once cooked, assemble your salad – the beef and cabbage as the base, and then spoon on pico de gallo and guacamole on each plate. For some added vegetable, add a few chopped cherry tomatoes. Nice with a little squeeze of lime. Serves 2, generously.
by Sam Tackeff | May 7, 2014 | Blogging, Meat, Restaurants
For four years in college much of my world revolved around the short corridor of Route 9 outside of Boston. I spent all too much of my free time mall-hopping from Natick to the Chestnut Hill strip. The area’s heyday was really in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, when the first Cheesecake Factory opened in the Atrium mall. While my palate may be slightly more refined over the years, the opening of Cheesecake Factory was fairly momentous at the time – we were all in awe of the massive portions, hot brown bread, fresh lemonade, and their oreo cheesecake (which they have since discontinued, for shame). The last recession seemed to hit the area hard, and the Atrium (the original location of the Cheesecake Factory) is now completely boarded up – but rapid construction in the past three years has changed things dramatically. Instead of crumbling malls and shuttering retail, now we have a Shake Shack! Lululemon! Equinox! You can go for a glamorous cycling class at SoulCycle – and it’s awesome. TrueRunner and Athleta have a bunch of free fitness classes. Sweetgreen is about to open a location. And as of this week – Wegmans! While I’m generally sensitive to a dramatically changing landscape, replacing old empty stores with places that I’m actually excited to go to is pretty great.
This weekend I jumped at a blogger event in Chestnut Hill at the Del Frisco’s Grille with Blog and Tweet Boston – it’s been too long since I’ve been able to take pictures of people taking pictures of food, and I’m always craving a good steak!
To start, we sampled a selection of their appetizers: their cheesesteak eggrolls with chili sauce – which I’d never think of ordering off of a menu, but ended up being totally smitten by the rich/spicy/sweet/crunchy thing they had going on. There were ahi tacos – little hard shelled tacos filled with tuna tartare and avocado in a nice ratio (the gluten free version was in lettuce wraps) which I’d definitely order next time! Stuffed deviled eggs came with a truffle vinaigrette, but I found the flavors a little heavy handed for the eggs, plus, I’m over anything “truffle” unless you are shaving the black mushroom directly onto my food. If you want to do so, please note that they are going for $999/lb. at Wegman’s. My birthday is in two weeks.
We were at the restaurant early, but the place starts filling up quickly at dinner time and during brunch – fortunately, the empty back space gave us plenty of room to shoot to our hearts desires without bothering other patrons. Being a mix of food, fitness, and fashion bloggers, I must say that the fashion gang kicks ass at cute outfits and food poses. {That’s Chloe shooting Semirah being adorable, with cake.}
At lunch I sat with the two of them, along with Elissa (another style maven), and Kerrie – who I last shared an excellent meal with two years ago at Angela’s in East Boston, and haven’t seen since! Being the hermit that I am, it was nice to catch up. Although the blogging community in Boston is relatively small, I so rarely do blog events, that I ended up meeting a whole group of new people at lunch – some of which I’ve been Twitter stalking for a good long while, and it’s always nice to connect a real face to a handle.
The main courses were all things that I might order and eat: the seared Asian tuna salad came with a large mound of arugula and cabbage, over noodles that are hiding somewhere under there. In the background you can see one of their signature peppered steaks that has been sliced and perfectly cooked (rare, how I like it.). I managed quite a few slices and ended up taking home a whole filet to eat cold for breakfast. (My favorite way to eat steak.)
There was a beef short rib stroganoff with pappardelle noodles, piled high with crispy onion strings; and two flatbreads – the wild mushroom with fontina, caramelized onions, and baby arugula; and the shaved brussels sprout with smoked bacon, caramelized onions, and mozzarella. Second to the steak, this was one of my favorite dishes we tried, and at $13 is definitely something I’d order for an inexpensive dinner during the week. (They also happen to have takeout.)
While I found dessert, the layered lemon doberge cake, to be a little too sweet for my taste, I’ll come back to try their adult milkshake – a fabulous combination of nocello walnut liqueur, creme de cacao, and vanilla ice cream.
At the end of our meal, everyone was pleasantly stuffed – but being the glutton I am, okay, and the fact that bloggers are somewhat less restrained when it comes to meat eating than my CrossFit friends – I managed to score both a filet and the lobster and egg double cheeseburger to take home with me, getting three full meals worth out of this trip – a treat for sure.
Del Frisco’s Grille
33 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA
Design lovers note, this is right around the corner from the brand new Jonathan Adler store! Rejoice!
Disclaimer: I did not pay for this meal, all opinions are my own.
by Sam Tackeff | May 4, 2014 | Ingredients, Turkish, Vegetables
Yesterday at Formaggio Kitchen I noticed a basket full of green almonds, but passed them over while gorging myself on cheese samples because the $6/pound price tag made me cringe. Yes, they’re shipped from California, but boy is that a markup – in California you might see them for a few dollars a pound. Today I went back, with clearer perspective, to pick up a small bag for snack – some seasonal items with short windows are worth paying a premium for just in case you can’t find them somewhere else for cheaper before they’re gone.
Green almonds are tart fuzzy pods that contain almonds in their earliest stage of maturity– a springtime treat that you can often find in Middle Eastern markets. You can eat the pods whole doused with a little olive oil and salt, or you cut them open with a little paring knife down their center groove and eat the white almonds that haven’t yet hardened. The pods are crunchy, and filled with a clear citrusy jelly substance. Unlike the mature nut, they are soft, fresh and verdant – more plant-like than nutty in taste. In the Middle East, they are often pickled, sometimes fried, and sometimes featured in stews, such as the Persian Khorest-eh Chagaleh Badam, with beef, parsley, and mint. Usually, they are just eaten plain, accompanied by a cold beer, but also taste delicious sliced into spring salads.
Today I took a cue from the masterful Judy Rodgers in her Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and stole the pairing right off the cover photo: green almonds, stone fruit and prosciutto. If you happen to see these cheerful orbs, grab them quickly, before they are gone.
by Sam Tackeff | May 3, 2014 | Fitness, Meal Planning
Last week I neglected to meal plan, which pretty much meant that most of our meals were odd combinations from the pantry, or take out. And truthfully, with a dead microwave, freezer meals take longer than they used to, so we ate a few extra meals out than normal. I still managed some good home cooked dinners – the lamb chops, baby potatoes, and salad; grilled chicken + broccoli; and roasted chicken with tomatoes were standouts – but I do wish that I had just sketched out a few extra ideas before the week had started! I really do feel for people who are trying to meal plan but can’t quite get into the habit – sometimes it’s hard for me to do, and it’s one of my favorite weekly activities!
In fitness: I’ve been ramping up my active time these past two weeks – CrossFit, indoor cycling, lots of walking, and a little bit of running – and I’ve been trying to get outdoors as often as possible now that we’re experiencing some real spring weather! A few weeks ago my Jawbone UP died, and I finally got a replacement, and have been working my way back up to a daily ten thousand step goal. On weekdays this is usually the walk to and from work, and a brief walk at lunch. Weekends are tougher – I have to resist the urge to melt into the couch. Today I walked around Fresh Pond for the first time this season (pictured above), and got my fix of cute puppies and a beautiful view. To work up some motivation, I signed up for a spring DietBet to help get into optimum racing shape, and registered for the B.A.A. 10k for an easy goal to work towards!
Week of Saturday, May 3rd
Cook Smarts was having another “favorites week” and everything looked good to me! Four meals (listed below) with Cook Smarts, and the rest are pantry meals/out. This afternoon I shopped at two stores: Trader Joe’s and the new Wegman’s in Chestnut Hill. For non East-coasters, Wegman’s is a chain of supermarkets with a cult following, and they’ve just opened their first location in the Boston area. Think Trader Joe’s meets Whole Foods meets Costco – bonus points for lots of organic produce and meats, a phenomenal hot bar, and a closing time of midnight.
Saturday: Spinach salad, with cheeseburger and egg. I went to a blogger lunch at a steakhouse this afternoon, and a surprise burger came out after we’d had dessert. Everyone else went in for photos, but nobody was eating it – clearly the blog crew is different than my CrossFit people – that meat would have been GONE… So with glee I had it wrapped up, and took it home to make dinner with leftovers!
Sunday: Eggs, basil pesto sausage, and salad. I like having eggs in my back pocket as an any night of the week meal. The sausage is smoked chicken and turkey from Trader Joe’s – a favorite of mine.
Monday: Cook Smarts Meal #1. Thai tacos with mango salsa. For me this will be Thai Taco Salad – featuring marinated beef, mango cucumber salsa, and a Vietnamese nuoc nam sauce with lime and fish sauce (I love Red Boat). Green beans on the side.
Tuesday: Cook Smarts Meal #2. Shrimp vermicelli bowl with cucumber, mint, and carrots. I make a version of this Vietnamese salad every few weeks, but I wouldn’t have sprung for shrimp on my own – but somehow with it “on the meal plan” I felt justified this time around.
Wednesday: Cook Smarts Meal #3. Pesto pasta with peas and fennel salad. Easy comfort food, and noodles are an excellent vehicle for pesto. For this meal I sprung for a fancy pasta from Formaggio kitchen, but will gladly make this with zucchini noodles once they are plentiful and in season. Cook Smarts had paired this with a strawberry fennel arugula salad, but I can’t bring myself to purchase out of season strawberries, so plain fennel salad it is!
Thursday: Cook Smarts Meal #4. Chicken with honey lemon butter and roasted potatoes. This was a winter favorite, but it’s spring time! I dropped the parsnips because I’m tired of roots now that spring has sprung, but the original recipe with parsnips was definitely delicious!
Friday: out.
What’s on your table this week?
–– Sam
