Long Weekend (Drake Hotel & Empanada Company)

I took Friday off to relax and pamper myself. I was at the spa at 9AM to get a massage, a pedicure, and a manicure. I started off by having a light breakfast. Raspberries, omelet, a brazil nut with coffee and milk.

After I came back from the spa, I stopped by the Empanada Company (www.empanada.ca/) to get a few empanadas to go. I truly love this place and I recommend to anyone. They have fried and baked empanadas, however, my favourite ones only come fried. That's my only complain to the owner. In addition to the Chilean empanadas, they have gourmet empanadas. My favourite one is the beef braised rib with a merlot reduction. Soooo yummy!

My strategy in this meal was to finish the entire salad before eating the empanadas. The result? I had a hard time finishing the lobster empanada with corn and black beans, so I ended up eating the second one as a snack before I headed to the movie theatre.









Here is my Friday dinner. Fennel salad with orange, parmesan cheese, and balsamic vinegar with citrus. A light braised oxtail soup. I am glad that the chef did do a good job! I cannot wait to try the Campagnolo version of the salad.




Saturday:

I was planning to prepare a Brazilian style brunch on saturday morning but I ended up having a Brazilian style breakfast .... It is life. Boiled yucca, friend egg, cheese bread, raspberries, a brazil nut, and coffee with milk.

Lunch was very similar to Friday's lunch. I was too lazy to think about what to cook so I had a spinach salad with feta, candied pecans, tomato, and cucumber... and an empanada. I will have to give a break to the empanadas for at least 2 weeks. It cannot become a habit!










My afternon snack was a little bowl of DanActive with strawberries and all bran buds.

White BC tuna sashimi, half of the spicy red tuna maki roll, half of the black forrest cake with dark chocolate mousse, and a very large mojito. That's all that I had for dinner.

The food was not bad, and the drink was ok, but I don't think that I would ever have a full meal at the Drake Hotel (www.thedrakehotel.ca/). The ambiance on the other hand was pretty good. The place was filled with well dressed young professionals. Thank you God I did not wear my usual Parkdale outfit (jeans and plaid shirt)!

A TEN course dinner at Barque BBQ

My phone rang early in the morning. It was my mom worried about me after my Saturday struggle. She wanted to know if I was fine. She wanted to know if I went to the doctor. She wanted to know if I slept well. She was upset at me because I am on a very strict diet and she wasn't here to see how well I was doing. She made me promise that I would never ever again leave the house without a snack in my purse. That I would not "skip" meals or eat pseudo food while depriving myself from real food after exercising. All that I could say was yes mom, I know it was stupid. Yes mom, I know it should not happen again. Yes, mom I will keep a cereal bar in my purse (while she wanted me to keep an entire box).

That was the beginning of my day. When I headed out to run my errands I could not forget about my mom's concerns so I brought two cereal bars with me. I found some Special K shakes while doing my groceries and left them in the trunk of my car just in case of an emergency. I tried to find some good cereal bars at the Wholefoods store but somehow they were all packed in sugar (minimum of 10g of sugar), so I could not buy them. I was able to pick up some nice fishes and when I asked the butcher which one was the leanest cut of the pork, his answer was "you cannot go wrong with the sirloin". I cannot wait to make juice karkówka next week!

My calorie count today stopped right before dinner and honestly there is no way I can come up with a number for all that I ate. I had dinner plans with my group and we went to a smokehouse. The issue is that I was completely unaware that on Sundays they have a set menu "family style". That said, there was not too much left other than enjoy the TEN course menu and try to eat only small portions. Here is the list: Rouladen Sliders with mustard and bacon, Pommery and dill potato salad, Creamy leek and onion soup, Mixed green salad with wiessen vinegar, fennel, corn, and peppers, Beer braised cabbage, Herb spatzle, Herb & garlic chicken, Pork schnitzel with smoked bacon and caper sauce, Griffon gold BBQ back ribs, and strawberry gelato.

I have to confess that the sliders, the ribs, and the spatzel were my favourites. The soup was pretty good too. I just wish the meats were warmer :( Next time I will get it to go.

Here is what I had today before dinner:

Breakfast was super easy and not boring as I did not have to resort to eggs (not that I don't like them, just because I cannot have them every single day). That said, I had a salad for breakfast with mixed greens, baby corn, buffalo mozzarella, and smoked salmon. I also had the usual coffee and milk, and a brazil nut.

Lunch was a bit of a cheating as I got 3 types of quinoa salad and a green beans salad from Wholefoods and I roasted wild sockeye salmon.

I had a small portion of beef with okra before dinner as I needed some food right after my workout.

You already know about dinner. As my mom said, you need to screw up from time to time, otherwise, it gets boring.

Aftermath of 01/06/2013:

629 calories before dinner
15 minutes of workout
4 glasses of water
9 hours of sleep

I wish you a good week,
Fernanda