We continue our Living Well 2013 conference with our progressive dinner, that started at the Sable Kitchen & Bar.  If you watched Top Chef Texas you may recognize the Chef of this restaurant, Heather Terlune.

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We were greeted with more wine – this time a petite sirah.  I wish I would have gotten the name of it because it was bold – Tony always teases me that I tend towards super mild, or in his eyes, tasteless, red wines.

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I liked this portion of the event because it was a chance for everyone to introduce themselves and talk about what there blog was about and what are a couple of their most popular posts.  This time of year?  My Buffalo Chicken Chili gets about 200 hits a day during football season.   My second most popular post is my Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza.   Both of which I forgot to mention because I was a bit nervous having a microphone in my face. Open-mouthed smile

We did have a couple men in our group of 20!  This guy John has a blog called Stay at Stove Dad.  He is the main cook for his family and lives in New York.  

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And R.J. was a single dad for 13 years, but recently got remarried.  His blog is called Cook Like A Dad/Single Dad.  Both were very friendly in this sea of women!

I had fun talking to these two ladies – wish the picture was better – I asked the woman taking it if she knew how to use a lens that you had to manually focus, she said yes.  Apparently not.

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The woman in the middle, Karli, was the one who invited me to this event.  She is the Associate Director, Outreach and Engagement for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and is a contractor with the Beef Checkoff, the sponsor of the event.  Her role is to help consumers enjoy their favorite protein by working with the media and bloggers to provide access to beef experts and accurate information to their readers.  (I didn’t write that – it was in the handout!).

The woman on the far right is Meredith, who is a Director of Digital Stragegy for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and a contractor to the Beef Checkoff as well.  Her job is to direct all consumer-related online and social media initiatives including BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com. 

What I liked about these two women immediately is that they got my sense of humor, and didn’t flinch when I sometimes accidentally dropped the f-bomb.  They were wonderful hosts and I realized after the event on the train ride home how time consuming putting an event like this on was.  Thanks ladies!

We started with a cheese tray – um, I like cheese!  I loved the honeycomb next to the blue cheese.  I could literally have a cheese and meat tray for dinner with crackers every night and call it dinner!

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I also tried a beet salad and I have to say . . . I liked it! Not sure what kind of dressing was on it, but it was delicious.

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And on the side they had pulled beef sliders with a rootbeer glaze.  These were just okay in my opinion – they had them under a heat lamp and they kind of got dried out.

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We ended up leaving for dinner around 6:45 on Friday night – as we walked out of our private room in the back, the bar and every single table was packed.  If you thought it was a tough economy out there, you would never know it by all the packed restaurants we passed by!

So that is Part II of V – tomorrow we talk about Mastro’s Steakhouse and butchery!

I ended up making a breakfast burrito yesterday – 1/2 cup egg beaters, low carb wrap, baby spinach, an ounce of taco meat and 1/4 cup of black beans – with a generous pour of my tomatillo salsa.  The tangerine was one of several off the dollar rack of the store – still juicy and tasty!

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I had legs on my Week 4 of strength training – kind of bummed it’s the exact same exercises as last week, but whatevs.  I had planned on doing the stair master to warm up, but I actually felt like running!  I haven’t run in probably a month, so I was pretty happy with my one mile time.

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With my run, the legs routine and a few minutes stretching, it was a great 45 minute lunch time workout.

We ended our beef weekend at The Chopping Block – my favorite part of the whole weekend (details in Thursdays post!), but we were handed bags as we were leaving.  They were packaged snacks for our trip home.  I just put them in the refrigerator when I got home, and decided to have them for lunch yesterday.

It was a cold quinoa salad, it tasted gingery to me, so I added some sriracha to kick it up a notch.  It also had apple and walnuts in it – I emailed them to see if I could get a recipe for it.  On the side were fresh veggies and hummus, and I accessorized my lunch with 2 ounces of deli roast beef and grapes for dessert.

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I am not sure I’ve ever had a cold quinoa salad, but it won’t be my last – I ate every bite.

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I ended up buying baby back ribs because they were on sale for $3.49 a pound – I bought a whole rack for $5!  I baked them in the oven with a dry rub on Sunday – just wrapped and baked at 275 for 2 hours.  Once cooled, I just wrapped in foil and stuck them in the fridge – they would be fine for up to 3 days to grill later.

Super simple dinner – grilled ribs with Rudy’s Copycat BBQ sauce, grilled zucchini and canned baked beans.

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Super tender – but not immediately fall off the bone – Tony and I like our ribs to have a bit of bite to them. 

So I wrote on our Healthy for the Holidays FB page (you can still join – we are 103 women strong!  Just friend request me at Beth Hills Velatini) that I wanted a pumpkin beer.  I thought about it when I was grilling.  I thought about it when I was eating dinner and even thought about it while I was cleaning up the kitchen!

But I ended up doing 20 minutes of Taebo (Ignition Express – cheezy, but it got the heart rate going) and then doing Insanity’s Insane Abs for 33 minutes – holy shit that was hard – I was only able to do about 80% of that one.  I made some coffee and then told myself that the kitchen AND fridge were closed for the evening. Open-mouthed smile

Stats for the Day:

  • 1864 calories, 262 carbs, 96 protein, 54 fat, and 44 protein
  • (not pictured my 300 calorie granola snack)
  • 25% of calories from fat, 20% from protein and 54% from carbs (too high)
  • Calorie Count grade:  B+
  • 45 minute lunch time workout, legs for strength
  • 20 minutes Taebo
  • 33 minutes Insane Abs from Insanity

Alright, I have to get this show on the road – I have 15 minutes left to get ready for work – luckily I type fast!  Make it a great day!