Restaurant Week

Welcome to my first post on Blogger! I recently signed up to have a personal trainer at my gym and as a part of my program she suggested that I use an internet site to assist in counting calories. I had heard that SparkPeople was a good site so I decided to give it a try. Three days in and I'm feeling pretty good and feel like I'm learning a lot from the site. I've been reading food/healthy eating/nutrition blogs for months now and have wanted to try writing my own, if only as an outlet to talk about my experiences and to journal my path to a healthier lifestyle. SparkPeople has an extensive blog community but I feel like blogger has more of a format that I'm looking for. I started about 2 posts on SparkPeople which you can read here:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_summary.asp?id=JSKAQ7

So without further ado,here goes nothing...

Yesterday began with breakfast at my desk. Nothing too exciting until dinner, but I'll get to that.

Breakfast
Wegman's Green Tea Jasmine (in a styrofoam cup...gasp!)

Pre-cut Mango chunks

Oikos Greek Yogurt, Vanilla topped with Nature's Path Acai' Apple Granola w/Pomegranate (half of which I had to throw out

Total Calories= ~259


Lunch:

Turkey Breast on Wegman's Whole Wheat pita with sliced avocado and red pepper hots for some flava

Sugar snap peas, cherry tomatos, and baby carrots

Total calories= ~384

As a snack between lunch and dinner I had white peach from a local farm. It was sweet, juicy, and perfectly ripe. I wait all year for peach season so you will probably see peaches in my diet until I can't find good local ones anymore. I wanted to keep the snacking light because I knew what ahead of me for dinner. I decided to skip the gym for the night to try to conquer the leaning tower of laundry that has formed in the bedroom and so I would have enough time to get ready for dinner...

This week is Baltimore's Summer Restaurant Week!!! (http://www.baltimorerestaurantweek.com/)

I love restaurant week. It is a week in the summer when many of the restaurants in and around the Baltimore area offer a pre-fixed three-course dinner menu for only $35.10. It gives you a chance to sample of the great menue This year the BF and his roomie plus one picked Brewer's Art located on Charles Street in Mount Vernon. Brewer's Art is known for their house brews and their eclectic seasonal menu. The building is actually an old converted town home equipped with high ceilings,intricate molding, and boiserie wooden panelling on the walls. The guys tried to picture themselves living in the place as their home, smoking cigars in the study and drinking scotch, while I cook and do laundry! Gotta love em

Needless to say the setting was an experience in itself but onto the good stuff...beer! Brewer's Art is well known for their brews, one in particular is Ressurection, but since we currently have a few cans of this fine brew in the refrigerator I decided to go with Sublimation which was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone.

Description from the menu:
This blonde abbey-style ale is named for the physical process of turning solids into spirits. A semi-sweet nectar with just a hint of herbal bitterness.

It was sweet, mildly hoppy, and perfect because I just learned about sublimation in my Chemistry class this Spring. It was very fitting.

To start I had the grilled local peaches (more peaches!) over top of a bed of butter lettuce, topped with pecans, and a tarragon vanilla-vinegarette

You'll have to excuse the dim lighting while I get over my fear of taking pictures with a flash in the middle of a restaurant.

For my entree I got the Pan Roasted Halibut accompanied by Tasso-corn macque choux (pronounced mock shoe), roasted potatoes, salsa verde, and tomato compote. On the side was a bunch of spicy arugula. After googling macque choux I learned that it is a traditional dish of southern Lousiana very similar to a ratatouille. It was quite delicious.

I also had a bite of the BF's Steak Frites. The garlic rosemary fries are to diiiiiie for. I would come back just for a plate of these babies.

Dessert was a duo of a chocolate torte and tres leches cake and guess what was on top...a peach slice!

I was one happy lady but pretty much gave up counting calories after this meal. Oh well. It's not the end of the world and it was totally worth it. Good thing I meet with the trainer tonight!