Bella Costa Ristorante

Bella Costa

I went to Bella Costa in Framingham on 3/22/11 for dinner with Andy.  The restaurant caters to the “dinner special” crowd as Andy put it.  We were the youngest people there by a good 30 years.  The atmosphere was relaxing and it seemed like everyone inside the restaurant was a regular because they all seemed to know the wait staff.  The bread was very dry and the oil that came with it needed a little extra oomph as it was a bit on the bland side.  I ordered the fettuccini with prosciutto and it was really delicious.  The pasta was cooked great and the sauce was just the right amount.  Andy had a veal dish with mushrooms that was rather bland the veal was a bit on the thin side.  The portion sizes were the perfect size as neither of us had leftovers but we were defiantly full afterwards.  I had a coupon for $5 off $25 or more.  The prices are in line with that of an Olive Garden but the food quality is much much better (I am not a big fan of the OG).

I would give this place 3.5 stars out of 5 and I would go back but I would only go back if I had a coupon.

Danny Needs a New Pair of Shoes!

I finally broke down and got a new pair of nice dress shoes.  My other ones had finally kicked the bucket.  The back of the shoe had ripped and they desperately needed to be replaced.  While walking around Nordstrom’s Rack, with my friend Andy, I was trying on shoes and found these.  They are black slip on ones and they are really nice.  They were originally $110.00 marked down to $49.  And honestly, who could pass up a sale like that.  I hope that I and my shoes go many miles together!

A Breakfast a Day

One of my goals is to eat a hot breakfast every day for a week.  I was reading this article and thought that this would be good to follow:

Big Breakfasts for Big Results

By Joe Wilkes
Breakfast. It seems like forever since Mom told us breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but one study shows it's actually true—she wasn't just nagging us. Breakfast is a key component of weight management: A study presented at the 90th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society showed that participants who consumed large breakfasts high in protein and carbohydrates followed by a low-carb, low-calorie diet for the rest of the day lost almost five times as much weight as the participants who followed a low-carb, high-protein diet throughout the day. So what's the big deal about breakfast? And what is a big breakfast anyway? It doesn't seem like the lumberjack special at the local diner would do much to get the pounds off, so what should we be eating?

The study supported the idea that when we wake up in the morning, our bodies want food. You've burned through all the fuel from the previous day, and now your body's ready to burn anything—even muscle—to get a jump-start on the day. And if you skip breakfast, muscle is indeed what your body will burn. Later in the day, your brain is still in starvation mode from breakfast (or lack thereof), so your body will store all the calories you eat as adipose tissue, or fat, to save up for the next day when you try to starve it again. This study also found that levels of serotonin, the chemical responsible for controlling cravings, were much higher in the morning, which is why breakfast is the meal so many of us are willing to skip. But if our bodies are left unfed, our serotonin levels drop, and our bodies' craving for sweets begin to rise throughout the day.
But before you hit McDonald's^® for their 800-calorie Big Breakfast, or worse, their 1,150-calorie Deluxe Breakfast, or you swing by Denny's^® for a 740-calorie Grand Slam^® or 950-calorie All-American Slam^® with hash browns, keep in mind these weren't the breakfasts the study participants consumed. The big-breakfast group had a 610-calorie breakfast as part of a 1,240-calorie day. Breakfasts included milk, lean meat, cheese, whole grains, a serving of healthy fat, and one ounce of chocolate or candy to defray the craving for sweets. The other group's participants consumed 1,085 calories per day as part of a high-protein, low-carb diet; only 290 of their daily calories were consumed at breakfast. Both groups were on their respective diets for 8 months. The high-protein group lost an average of nine pounds, but the big-breakfast group lost an average of 40 pounds. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the big-breakfast group complained less about cravings and hunger.
The big-breakfast group's breakfast consisted of 58 grams of carbs, 47 grams of protein, and 22 grams of fat. Study reviewers attribute some of the success of the big-breakfast group to the fact that the protein and healthy fats eaten kept the participants full and reduced cravings. They also said that nutritional requirements were well met and that there weren't empty calories consumed, because the breakfasts included lots of whole grains, fruits, lean proteins, and healthy unsaturated fats. So bad news for the lumberjack-special devotees—a big plate of greasy hash browns, bacon, and biscuits with gravy isn't going to get the job done, unless the job we’re discussing is clogging your arteries.
Here are some healthy big breakfasts, similar to the ones consumed by the study's participants.

Chicken and the Egg

2 large eggs, scrambled
2 slices whole wheat toast
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, grilled
1 grapefruit

Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Fiber
589	52 g	48 g	19 g	5.5 g	12 g

Oats 'n' Berries Breakfast

1 packet plain instant oatmeal, prepared, with 1 scoop Beachbody^® Whey Protein Powder
1 cup fresh blueberries
3 oz. roasted turkey breast
1 large hard-boiled egg
1 oz. dark chocolate

Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Fiber
631	62 g	47 g	21 g	8 g	10 g

Two Egg Sandwiches

2 whole wheat English muffins, toasted
2 large poached eggs
2 slices low-fat Swiss cheese
2 slices Canadian bacon, grilled

Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Fiber
597	57 g	45 g	13 g	5 g	8 g

Vegetarian Breakfast

1 cup cottage cheese (2% milk fat)
1 cup sliced peaches, canned in juice, not syrup
1 slice whole wheat toast
1/2 avocado
2 vegetarian sausage links, cooked

Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Fiber
621	62.5 g	47 g	26.5 g	4.5 g	16.5 g

Pescetarian Breakfast

1 6-oz. can light tuna, canned in water, drained
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise (preferably olive oil or canola oil-based)
2 slices whole wheat toast
1 oz. dark chocolate

Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturated Fat	Fiber
592	45 g	51 g	22 g	7 g	10 g

Reference
http://www.endo-society.org/media/ENDO-08/research/New-weight-loss-diet-recommends-high-carb.cfm

My New TV

I got a new Flat Screen TV!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is a 32 in HDTV flat screen and I love it!  Big thanks for Andy to help set it up.  It was on sale at Best Buy, the price I paid was $279 which is the same price that I was looking at for a 26 inch flat screen.  I just love getting a great deal.

White Teeth

White Teeth

By: Zadie Smith

White Teeth was a great novel about how history is never really history and the conflict that different cultures face in new environments.  I found that this book was a great read and went by quickly.  I will try not to give too much away in my review incase someone wants to read it.

White Teeth can be divided up by the characters, there are: Archie Jones and his wife Clara and their daughter Irie, then there is Samad Iqbal, Alasna, and their twins Magid and Millat, and there are the Chalfens. 

The book starts out with Archie trying to kill himself because his wife is divorcing him.  He does this by attaching the hose from the vacuum cleaner (that he never got around to fixing) to the exhaust of his car.  His attempt is unsuccessful because he is interrupted by the shop owner in front of the shop where he is parked because the owner doesn’t want his shop blocked for deliveries.  Archie then goes to a commune and meets Clara (a Jamaican Jehovah Witness) his futures wife (who lost her teeth and her faith in her religion in a moped accident).  They end up getting married and having their daughter Irie.  Irie ends up wanting to be a dentist.  Archie’s best friend is Samad Iqbal who he met in WW2 because they were both stationed in the same tank.  They end up in a back town in Europe.  In this town there is a scientist that is a Nazi.  Samad wants Archie to kill the scientist.  Cut forward a few decades Samad is in an arranged marriage to Alasna (both are from Bangladesh and have immigrated to England after the war). They have twins named Millat and Magid.  Samad ends up sending Magid back to Bangladesh to make him a better Muslim and learn their ways (he only sends one twin because it’s all he can afford to send).  Meanwhile Millat stays in England and becomes the complete opposite of what his father wants him to be.  Millat ends up joining KEVIN a fundamentalist gang of Muslims and Magid becomes scientist.  They meet up with the Jewish Chalfens because Millat and Irie got in trouble for smoking pot in school.  The Chalfens are the perfect middle class family that Irie wants to be so desperately bad.  The father Chalfen is working on a project called FutureMouse which is an experiment on cancers and genetic engineering.  At the end of the book they all meet up at the public showing of the FutureMouse Project and that is when everyone’s history comes to the present.  Zadie Smith has a quote “don’t fall for ‘the myth, the wicked lie, that the past is always tense and the future, perfect’.”

The teeth symbolize that everyone, no matter race or socioeconomic class has white teeth.  When someone looses their teeth in the book it represents that they are losing part of who they are (whether be believes or religion) it always brings about change in a person.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to see the struggles of immigrants and anyone that believes the past stays in the past

Easy Chily

I made easy chilly on Presidents Day (2/21/11) and here is how I made it

You will need:

2 Pounds Ground Turkey

1 Onion

1 Green Pepper

1 Red Pepper

2 Jalapeños

2 cans of Red Beans

Couple handfuls of frozen corn

Salt

Pepper

Chili Powder

Ground Cumin

Hot Sauce

To start cook the ground turkey though and set aside.  Add a little oil to a large deep pan and put in the chopped onion, peppers, jalapenos and cook until tender (about 5-7 min) add back the ground turkey and put in the two cans of beans (make sure you drain and rinse them off first!).  Add the seasoning until desired amount of spice and cook for a couple of minuets.  If it looks a little on the dry side add a little bit of water (or if you have it chicken stalk) until you get the desired thickness of your chili.  I then added in a couple handfuls of corn and then let simmer for an hour on really low heat mixing occasionally.  Enjoy with some corn bread

This came out really good and I made a lot of it because I wanted to take it to work for lunch all week and it lasts.  I hope you enjoy my chili recipe as much as I do!

1 Puzzle Down 5 to go!

Here one of the 5 puzzles that I will be doing for my 101 goals.  I finished this on Monday (2/21/11) and is a 1,000 piece puzzle.

The Plunge - Dun Dun Dun!

This past weekend (2/20/11 to be exact) I did the Winter Plunge.  I ran into the freezing Atlantic Ocean for the Gay Mans Domestic Violence Project (GMDVP) and it was cold.  I heard someone say that the water was 34 degrees.  I must admit I did have a lot of fun that day. 

The day started off with Andy, Brandon, Erik and I going to Dunkin Donuts and getting breakfast.  (I treated myself to a chocolate donut, yummy; I haven’t had a donut in many years).  Then we headed to Carson Beach in Boston.  When we got there, it finally hit me what I was about to do.  While we were in the car, everyone was pointing out that there was still snowy spots on the beach.  Curiosity took the best of us and we got out of the car and went down the ocean.  I put my hand in the water to test the temp and there were chuncks of ice floating around. 

We got there early and helped with the set up, I helped with the balloons.  After things were set up people started to arrive, and I put on my little bathing suit and the festivities began.  There was the introduction by a drag queen in a mermaid costume and she was rather funny.  After everyone was announced the “Ice Queen” got up and gave a little speech.  Turns out that together we managed to raise over $13,000!  After the speeches, we all went outside in our little costumes and posed for a picture in front of the GMDVP Sign.  The Ice Queen then gave a count down and we all ran full force into the ocean…and it was COLD!!!!!!!!!  After I went in and dunked myself I ran back inside to change so fast and then met up with the crew.

After the event, we all went to a local restaurant called dBar for a couple round of cocktails to warm up.  It was such a fun time and cold time!

Personality Test

I saw this on my friend’s blog and thought it was cool.  I took the personality test and this is what I got.  Here is the link to take it yourself http://personaldna.com/

You are a Considerate Visionary.

about you

You are a Visionary

·          Your imagination, self-assuredness, and knowledge of the world combine to make you a VISIONARY.

·          You have clear notions of how things could be, and the confidence to try to make them that way.

·          You enjoy having a routine, and prefer comfort and familiarity to risk and adventure.

·          Not needing others' approval to forge ahead, you are confident in your designs for the future.

·          Your imagination allows you to envision the world as a better place.

·          You're better at thinking of the big picture than you are with details, and you can see wonder in abstract things.

·          Style and appearances are important to you, and you have a good eye for beauty.

·          You are somewhat rigid in your beliefs, which comes from both confidence and an aversion to change.

·          You are good at creating works of art in forms with which you're familiar.

·          You prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute.

·          Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

If you want to be different:

·          Appreciate the earthly, functional elements of things.

·          Your clarity of vision sometimes prevents you from being open to new ideas. Try expanding your horizon of experiences, and experimenting with novel ways of doing things.

how you relate to others

You are Considerate

·          You trust others, care about them, and are slow to judge them, making you CONSIDERATE

·          You value your close relationships very much, and are more likely to spend time in small, tightly-knit groups of friends than in large crowds.

·          You enjoy exploring the world through observation, quietly watching others.

·          Relating to others so well, and understanding their emotions, leads you to trust people in general, even though you're somewhat shy and reserved at times.

·          Your belief that people are generally well-intentioned contributes to your sympathy regarding their problems.

·          Although you may not vocalize it often, you have an awareness of how society affects individuals, and you understand complex causes of people's behavior.

·          You like to look at all sides of a situation before making a judgment, particularly when that situation involves important things in other people's lives.

·          Your close friends know you as a good listener.

If you want to be different:

·          Because other people would benefit immensely from your understanding and insight, you should try to be more outgoing in social situations, even when they make you uncomfortable. Others will want to hear what you have to say!

Greek Pasta Salad

I made a quick version of Greek Pasta and it came out really good and was really simple.  Here is what you will need:

1 Box of whole grain pasta
3 Cans of diced tomatoes
1 Can of cannellini beans
1 Bag of spinach (fresh)
Cheese for sprinkling on top

Cook the pasta according to directions.  While pasta is cooking open up and tumble diced tomatoes and beans into a large deep pan - bring to a bubble.  Once you have your bubble, add your spinach and stir until wilted.  When all spinach is wilted in and pasta is done, combine and serve with a sprinkling of cheese on top.

This was so easy and really good.  You could put chicken in for the beans if you so desire and I can imagine it would still be delicious!  I made this for Andy and I after a night at Bikram, not to mention that the leftovers are amazing! (pluse it's really healthy).  I think if you made this ahead of time and chilled it would also make a great summer pasta salad as well.