One if by Land, Two if By Sea

Bonjour mes belles! Hope your weeks are off to a good start! Mine certainly is, as I’m practically in a delicious food coma as a write this. I just got back from a Restaurant Week dinner at One if by Land, Two if by Sea with Mike. It was amazing! More on that in a little bit J

Last night I tried to get to bed at about 10, but unfortunately didn’t finally get to sleep until about 2. So frustrating! My roommates were both up super late, and despite the NyQuil I’d taken for my head cold, I just couldn’t fall asleep. Weirdly enough though, I was wide-awake when my alarm went off at 6:15. I couldn’t complain, though I’m super tired now!

As usual, I made the chilly trek to the gym and ate a Luna bar along the way:

Lemon Zest Luna

This was the first flavor of Luna I ever ate a few years ago, and I still love it. It’s super tangy- perfect for a pre-workout wakeup snack!

Today’s workout was my first time trying Week 4 of Gina’s Winter-Shape Up. She introduced supersets this week, and I’ve discovered that supersets = super hard. I did:

Superset 1:

-       12 overhead presses (20 lb on the machine)

-       12 saxon side bends on each side (5 lb weights)

-       20 jumping jacks (I omitted the burpees because of my knee)

Superset 2:

-       1 minute plank

-       10 renegade rows on my knees on each side (5 lb weights)

-       20 mountain climbers

Superset 3:

-       10 incline stability ball bicep curls (7.5 lb weights)- these were HARD!

-       10 stability ball tricep extentions (10 lb weight)

-       1 minute high knees

I omitted Superset 4 because I’m deathly afraid of lunges (it’s how I dislocated my patella), and squats hurt my knee; instead, I did some ab work (medicine ball twists, bicycle, etc). I ended up doing the whole circuit three times.

As usual, weight training made me super hungry, so I made a big bowl of cereal before heading to class:

1 c Kashi GoLean, 1 c Arrowhead Mills Spelt Flakes, ½ c Original Puffins, strawberries, vanilla and unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze

Hit the spot. Since I’m going home for the weekend on Thursday, I’m running low on food supplies and decided to grab a sandwich rather than run home for lunch. I stopped at Cosi and got my favorite:

 

Hummus and fresh veggie sando on white flatbread ( I asked for whole grain, but didn’t realize the mix-up until I’d taken a bite and decided to just eat it anyway instead of waiting for a new one) with baby carrots and a pear for balance

Cosi is definitely my favorite chain restaurant. Their bread is just amazing, and their sandwiches are always fresh and full of yummy ingredients. Plus, you can order tabletop s’mores- yum!

After classes, I headed to the Apple store in the Meatpacking District to finally resolve my WiFi situation. Good news? With a new Airport card, I can connect again! Bad news? Stupid thing cost $200. At least I didn’t need a whole new computer, right?

I came home ready for some snackage. Enter: chia pudding.

WholeSoy & Co. plain yogurt + 1 T chia seeds, left in the fridge for half an hour

This was my first time letting chia seeds sit, and I loved the consistency it gave the yogurt! It reminded me almost of tapioca pudding. I also had an apple + Mighty Maple for dipping:

I met Mike for dinner at 6 at One if by Land, Two if by Sea, an incredible prix-fixe restaurant in the West Village that is participating in NYC Restaurant Week. Rather than the usual $80 menu, you get three courses for $35. Still not everyday cheap, but definitely a deal for the quality of food. I know not everyone shares my opinion, but to me a truly unique and memorable meal is worth splurging on. I was hesitant to share my meal at first because I don’t want it to seem like I’m obsessed with expensive food, but I decided that you, as fellow foodies, might be interested! It created a wonderful memory and encouraged me to look at dishes in a new way. Some of the best restaurants in the world are in this city, so I love that Restaurant Week makes them available to a wider audience! Do you consider an expensive but unique and delicious meal “worth it?” If not, what do you like to splurge on? Clothes, trips?

In any case, One if by Land, Two if by Sea was definitely worth it to me. The ambiance was absolutely beautiful: soft piano music, low lighting, and gorgeous murals.

For dinner, we got three choices each for three courses. They started it off with a tiny bowl of potato-leek soup, which I enjoyed with sunflower seed bread. There were actual huge seeds throughout the bread- yummy! For my appetizer, I chose a walnut-beet salad with arugula, walnuts, and citrus vinaigrette (sorry about the poor picture quality- I felt weird using a flash!):

Mike chose the duck terrine as his first course- brave soul! For my entrée, I decided on the wild red snapper with pesto risotto. Despite hating the taste of meat, I absolutely love seafood, and this was no exception. The risotto was awesome, as well! (Mike had a steak with sweet potatoes and onions, and was kind enough to share his sweet taters with me):

Hands down though, my favorite part of the meal was dessert. I chose a milk chocolate fondant cake with dulce de leche, praline ice cream and corn flake macaroon (Mike got carrot cake with walnut ice cream, which I sampled and wasn’t nearly as good…but I am a chocoholic!):

Overall, it was an incredible meal and perfect date night! Sometimes it’s nice to go out and have a fun meal for no other reason than to spend time together J

I hope you all had a wonderful evening as well…anyone else have a new or particularly delicious dinner tonight?


Don't forget to enter my PB&Co. Giveaway!

PS- There’s a huge snowstorm closing in on the northeast right now, and NYU is one of the only schools that isn’t closed yet. I’m keeping them crossed! Any of you have school or work cancelled for tomorrow?

PPS- Check out Evan's yogurt maker giveaway here, Gena's blender giveaway here, and the Pure2Raw twins' Valentine's Day giveaway here!