Tre Voce

One of my students looked at me yesterday while I was filing away their report cards in my classroom and said, "Ms. Perez, take a deep breath. Everything will be fine." I guess my face and body language said it all haha and it took the wise words of a six year old to actually make me realize I did need to take a deep breath.

Yesterday was a great day with my students. We got to watch the second grade put on a great school play, then we organized our classroom, then ended the day watching Shrek 3! I told them I was taking off today (Friday) , it killed me to see their disappointed little faces. But I assured them that next week since we only have three half days left, I will make it a party week to end the school year! That cheered them right up!

When I woke up I was short on time so I did a quick P90X Ab Ripper DVD. This is just 16 minutes of intense abs. Actually as I sit here right now typing this, my abs hurt every time I breathe. Good sign right?
Yesterday morning was one of those mornings where I woke up starving.. when this happens cereal is my best bet! Nothing is faster!

At school lunch was a Trader Joe's find. TJ's baked zita and I thre in some snap peas on the side... it was actually very tasty! My only complaint would be I prefer my tomato sauce a little thicker than this - it was a tad watery. For a frozen meal it was good.

While watching Shrek 3 with my students I ate a peach. My afternoon snack was small because I had made plans to go out with two coworkers after work for an end of the year dinner.

Our early dinner started at four at a BYOB in Ridgewood, NJ called Tre Voce. It was very good and I would go back.

The table was served a bread basket with three different kinds of homemade bread. I chose a piece of the honey raisin bread. It as delicious and just the right amount of sweet.

For my main course I chose the grilled vegetable brick oven pizza topped with arugala and goat cheese. This was amazing!!! I loved everything about it!

I ate about three slices at the restaurant and two more later in the evening at my moms when my appetite returned.

The three of us ordered three desserts to split. This restaurant has an in-house pastry chef so the desserts were very fresh tasting.

Tiramisu

Italian Cheesecake

White Chocolate Tart

I had one bite of each. Tiramisu was my favorite. Just the right amount of soaked cookies at the bottom and just the right amount of creaminess. Delicious. Cheesecake was good too, I prefer NY style cheesecake vs. the Italian ricotta based cheesecake, but this was good. The White chocolate tart was gross. Not sure why but it tasted like candle wax to me. :(

After my lovely early dinner I went to my moms to finish some last details of the engagement party planning and to finish the favors with my sisters (we only got 37 done the other night and we needed 63).

Here are some fun photos of that process. Don't mind how tired I look :P

I am off today and I have a lot to do. My sister is on her maid-of-honor duties all day as she will be traveling with me to get pedicures, dress shop (yes I still have no idea what I will be wearing tomorrow!), wait for the table rental people to come and set up the tables, and make the centerpieces! AH craziness.

TGIF

Al Dente

Do you ever just wish life would slow down, that it would just stop for a second so that you can take in what's going on around you? That's how I felt all day. So many things happening at one time make me want to capture every second of it. I only have five days left with my class at school and I get more and more sad as I near the end. My party on Saturday is coming together, but I still have not one thing packed for Italy ;) Oh well, one step at a time I guess. I want to make sure I really enjoy Saturday first. Not sure how I feel about the fact that the party is all about my fiance and I. I am nervous about the attention being on us the whole time- just not used to that :)


Work was quick today because I took a half day to get to some appointments I had made. Before it was time to pick up the kiddies I had another juicy peach and organic yogurt from TJ's for breakfast.

Lunch was another organic mac-n-cheese bowl with carrots on the side.

I left work at 12p.m. so that I could get some errands done and I had a nail appointment. After I got my nails done, Derek picked me up and we headed down to Piscataway, NJ to the place where he bought my engagement ring so that we could get it resized and cleaned. The ring has been a bit big for the last few months but we just have not had the chance to make the trip to get it fixed. With the party Saturday and our engagement photo shoot coming up in Italy, we thought it would be smart to make fixing the ring a priority. On our way there I had an apricot.

My uncle owns and is the head chef at a restaurant in Piscataway called Al Dente. My uncle is the best chef I know! So since we were in town we could not leave without grabbing a quick bite after my ring was done.

Finished nails and ring tightened...

Whenever we go to my uncle's restaurant he always sends out appetizers for us to try without us even ordering them. So my the time your entree comes... your stuffed!

Last night I started with a piece of very crunchy bread dipped in olive oil, balsamic, and salt. I was starving at the point!

The first thing my uncle sent us out to try was pan-fried shrimp stuffed with crab meat with arugala, over a lobster creme sauce. I had one. This was amazing. Tasted like shrimp wrapped in a crab cake.

Next, he sent out balsamic glazed figs over procuitto with shaved parm cheese on top. This was one of those savory/sweet dishes. The cheese was my favorite part.

Then, if all that wasn't enough already, he sent out a very interesting risotto. This risotto had fresh strawberries and marscopone (prob spelled wrong) cheese in it. It was also a very interesting savory and sweet combo. I would have never thought to put strawberries in risotto. But it was fabulous. Even Derek was blown away and he is not a fan of fruit in his meals.

Luckily I know how my uncle is and I now know to pace myself when I come to his restaurant. I only eat a very small portion of every dish he sends out. It takes a lot of will power, but it needs to be done.

Next was a citrus salad. This was baby mixed greens, with toasted pistachios, orange wedges, goat cheese, and beets, all tossed in a citrus vinaigrette. It was extremely refreshing.

   
Then, finally, I received the main course in which I ordered. Grouper over swiss chard and baked beans, and topped with a cherry tomato and onion straw salad. This was delicious and light, the beans had this smoky flavor that complimented the fish perfectly. I couldn't finish it though. Barely, made a dent actually.

Today will be another busy day of work, dinner out with coworkers, and finishing the favors for the party with my sisters. AHHH! All good things though. Have a happy Thursday!

Engagment Party Favors

I cannot believe it is already the middle of the work week! I knew this week was going to be crazy, but I never expected it to go by this fast! The last two days have been so busy, but as I approach the weekend, I am defiantly feeling better about the engagement party on Saturday. I just want to play catch up on this post... So let's start with Monday....

Monday was rush rush (as always) But I was very productive! I got all my report cards done at school, I bought my students their end of the year gifts,  I scrubbed the apartment clean (and I mean deep clean!), and then I ran to Trader Joe's and picked up some fruit and veggies because we had none left in the apartment!
We are trying to eat everything we have in our fridge and pantry because we leave next Thursday for Italy and I hate wasting food... but I couldn't go a whole week without buying some fruits and veggies ;)

Monday eats....

I know this is not a complete breakfast at all... but I was super late and had no fruit in the apartment :(
Lunch was a new find at the grocery store that has been sitting in my pantry for about two weeks already. And in the effort to eat everything I have I chose to bring this to work and try it. It is an organic mac-n-cheese bowl. You just add water and the cheese sauce in the microwave and you get a healthier mac-n-cheese! I thought it was delicious and very filling because the pasta is actually whole wheat pasta. I had carrots on the side. 

I had to run around after work so I grabbed a bag of pretzels...

After shopping at TJ's Derek stopped and picked us up dinner from a local pizza place. I had half of an eggplant parm sub.

Derek also made me buy this lovely pie at TJ's. I am not a big pie eater at all. I would much prefer chocolate cake or a CUPCAKE!!! but Derek loves pie's and this one caught his eye.
It was a multi-berry pie with cranberries, raspberries, cherries, and blueberries.

See that big piece missing? That's all Derek ;) At least it's organic!


Tuesday was a fun day! I woke up and right away did P90X Legs and Back DVD. Here is Tony Horton on my TV.

That is a great workout! You alternate doing two leg exercises then one back exercise. You do that the whole video so you really never get bored.

Breakfast...

Juicy peach and peanut butter crunchy granola bar.

Lunch was fabulous... turkey, swiss, baby spinach, and honey mustard wrap. YUM!

After school on Tuesday I got my hair cut and colored. I'll try and get a pic of the new do up today :) I had a vivanno smoothie as I got my hair did.

Last night four of my bridesmaids came over and helped me put together the favors for Saturday. They were a huge help! There is nothing like good friends ;)

The engagement party colors are orange and green, so the favors are orange and green M&Ms with our names on them and our wedding date. We wrapped the baggies of M&Ms with an orange ribbon and then tied a piece of paper to them with a love lyric from our favorite music artists. We used all love song lyrics and every bag has a different lyric. The fun part is that one of the favors has a lyric from our wedding song on it... but we are not telling anyone which one it is :P

I can't wait to show you the decor for our engagment party. It is so modern. I read that your supposed to do your engagement party the opposite decor of your wedding so that's exactly what we are doing. Our wedding is very vintage and classy, so the colors will be more muted. We decided to go modern, bright, and bold for the engagement party. Here are the engagement party invitations.  The ring is on the tree because it ties in with how he proposed (see Wedding Stuff page). The top of the invite says "He popped the question, she said yes! Now, we're having a party, so be our guest!"

Here are my bridesmaids Kara& Daniella helping me last night...

All finished! Ugh that feels good! I'll get a better picture of the favors at the party in the daylight.

Unpictured is a glass of Riesling and two slices of broccoli pizza I had with the girls while making the favors. 

Happy Wednesday! Be back a little later.

Father's Day

I had a very nice and relaxing Father's Day Sunday and I hope you all did too! Every Sunday Derek has softball games, so when he went to his game I did what any normal girl with free time would do... laid by the pool! Our apartment complex has a nice big pool and it is probably my favorite part about this place. Before heading to the pool I had a slice of ww toast w/ PB&J. I only had one slice because I new I would be eating a big lunch in three hours.

I tried laying in the sun for about an hour before getting way to hot and decided I could use a dip in the pool. Once I was in the water, I decided to make a workout out of it and swam for about 30 minutes! My legs are so sore from the swim now! I forget how good of a workout swimming is.

I came in leaving myself only 30 minutes to get ready for lunch with Derek's parents. I was starving!!! So getting ready quickly was not an issue! Showered and dressed in 20 minutes....

For Father's Day, Derek and I took his parents to a local Italian place for lunch. The restaurant is called Aldo's and it has very good old school Italian food.
The table started with some garlic bread made with EVOO... crunchy and delicious!

As an appetizer I got the pear, arugala, gorgonzola cheese, and walnut salad. This was even better than my salad last night. The sweet pears and sweet honey mustard dressing complimented the fierce cheese in the best way possible! The walnuts added just the right amount of crunch too.

For my main course I had Whole Wheat Penne Arriabatta. This was a spicy tomato sauce and had just the right amount of kick to it. The pasta was cooked al dente which I love. When I was in Italy two summers ago, all the pasta I had there was cooked al dente and ever since I have loved it that way- Love the chew!

Once dinner with Derek's parents was over, it was time to see my dad. Now that we are engaged we are trying to get used to splitting all the holidays between families.
My sisters came over and we did a small photo shoot before heading by our uncle's house to see our dad.

I have two sisters. Amanda is 24 and Kristie is 21. I am the oldest :)

There was a ton of food at my uncles, burgers, chicken, sausage, hot dogs, rice & beans, etc. But I was tooooooo full from lunch. At like seven at night I got a little hungry and opted for two chicken legs.

Here are some pics from the day.

Derek with my step-mom Amerilis.

Me and my sisters with my dad.

Me and my sisters with my little cousins. They will be the flower girls and ring bearers in my wedding :)

Aren't they the cutest!

Derek and I got home around 9 p.m. Just in time for True Blood! I had a lime whole fruit bar while I watched.

Ok, got to get to work.... Happy Monday!