Cookie Dough Oreo V-Day Truffles + Kickboxing Bootcamp Workout + a Romcom Must-See List

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

As someone who has spent many Valentine’s Days both single and in relationships, I’ve never really understood the bitterness towards this holiday. Sure, it’s a Hallmark holiday, but if you’re in relationship, it’s another opportunity to remind that special someone why you love them and if you’re single, it’s the perfect excuse to bake some sinful sweets and show some of the important people in your life how amazing they are. 

And let me tell you, after the “great breakup of 2014,” I have a long list of people to thank for their love, support and of course, patience. You see, I’m one of those people who constantly seeks advice from her friends and family. I listen earnestly, taking in every single word and vowing to take their wise advice. Yet somehow, I always end up doing the opposite. Thus, I owe a lot of “thank yous” to these patient people!

Anyway, lots to cover today and such little time to capture your attention. If you’re scrambling to bake something last-minute today, then I have just the recipe for you…and you don’t even have to bake. All you need to do is grab some of those new Cookie Dough Oreos, some cream cheese and melting chocolate and magically, you will have a rich, decadent and chocolatey truffle.

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Personally, I always indulge a little extra on every major holiday. Therefore, I make the gym a priority on those days as well. Today’s workout is inspired by a class I took at the gym last week. The class combined simple boxing moves with intense bootcamp exercises, and I was a hot, sweaty mess by the end. Hopefully, this workout will do the same for you.

And finally, if you are single on Valentine’s Day, you may just want to stay in with some friends, eat those delicious oreo truffles and watch a nice, cozy romcom. I’ve put together a list of my top 10 romantic comedies that never fail to make me cry like a little baby but also remind me that the whole “happily ever after” deal does exist. 

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Rough Life in NYC

Hello from the top of NYC!

We are on top of the world!

We are on top of the world!

My parents came to NYC for the weekend, and luckily decided to make a pit stop upstate to visit their favorite daughter. We had something VERY important to celebrate:

It's a VERY special day!

It’s a VERY special day!

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday, so we spent the day together celebrating the greatest woman alive 🙂

I now figured out why I have barely any pictures with my mother. I had to beg her just to squeeze this one out of her yesterday…and she sort of made me promise not to post on the blog. Ooops. Sorry mom, you look great, as usual! Not a day over 35 ;-).

We spent the day eating great food, and doing my mother’s favorite thing in the world: shopping. I also made my mom some special fat free Sometimes Healthy Apple Cinnamon muffins.

Special Muffins for Mom!

Special Muffins for Mom!

These babies included fresh chopped apples, apple cider, apple butter AND Apple Chobani. They were definitely a hit, and I hope to share the recipe Wednesday. Whenever my mother comes to NYC, one of her favorite things to eat are the fat free muffins at the bakeries, so I figured she’d enjoy some of her very own special healthified muffins.

We also went to dinner on the river and ate some birthday cake with extra frosting.

Celebrating one special Mommy!

Celebrating one special Mommy!

My mother loves buttercream frosting, and in her younger years, she used to be able to eat the frosting off of half a big cake! She’s decided to eat frosting in moderation in her older, wiser years.

After dinner, we headed back to the city, where I am going to stay a couple of days for some QT time with the parents. I’ve written about this hotel before, and whenever my parents stay here, I feel like I’m living in another world.

Sadly, I found out this morning that the gym in the building was being renovated, which meant I might not be able to do my tabata workout for the day.

Then, they told me the hotel guests could use the Ritz Carlton’s gym.

I guess this will do...

I guess this will do…

Rough life I am living here in NYC, that’s for sure. I banged out 8 miles on the treadmill (to humid to run outside) and a quick tabata workout. I was definitely the sweatiest person in the entire gym.

Hot, sweaty, selfie.

Hot, sweaty, selfie.

But hey, the more sweat, the better the workout! The Ritz gym was not too shabby and had more than enough to keep this Sometimes Healthy Girl occupied.

Now, we’re off for dinner with my brother and his wife. Hope you’re enjoying your holiday weekend!

How to Get your Post-Holiday Healthy Groove Back

Oh, hello and welcome back from what I assume was a fun and food-filled holiday weekend. Hopefully, like many of us, your weekend started around 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon and the relaxation and indulgence continued through Sunday night.

Hopefully, you had a lot of these this weekend!

Hopefully, you had a lot of these this weekend!

I took a break from the blog this Friday (in case you haven’t noticed, I post Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays), because I was really proud of the content in my post from Wednesday and decided it needed to stay front and center for a while :-). And, although 4th of July is over, I STRONGLY suggest you try the cookie recipe. It received rave reviews from our holiday crew, even the toughest cookie critics!

I’m going to recap some of the good times from our long weekend, but then I’m going to wrap up this post with some helpful tips for getting back on the healthy train after a long holiday weekend. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling raring and ready to jump into my Sometimes Healthy routine.

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Kitchen Adventures in Whipped Cream

Now that it’s officially summer time, I’m sure there are a lot less of us in front of our computers on Fridays. Hopefully, you’re outside enjoying the weather or headed somewhere fabulous for a weekend vacation.

If not, I have a tasty dessert recipe to share with you! Now that I’m officially a country bumpkin with a REAL kitchen (not a wall inside of a studio apartment), I feel excited and inspired to try new things in the kitchen – techniques and foods I never would have dreamed of trying to tackle in my tiny little NYC studio.

My goal is to explore one new “kitchen adventure” every week, but given that it’s summer and I’m me, every other week is probably more realistic.

For my holiday dessert, I was on a mission to make homemade whipped cream….

Whipped Cream Opener

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Love and Lobster in Newport

What an amazing Memorial Day wedding weekend!

Though the weather didn’t cooperate exactly as we might have planned, it didn’t affect the spirit of the party or of the bride and groom.

Summer 2009...the night they met. Summer 2013...the night they got married!

Summer 2009…the night they met (the two on the left). Summer 2013…the night they got married!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was lucky enough to be there the night these newlyweds met. I remember hearing the loud sound of Irish accents behind us in the never-ending line at a “hip” Hamptons bar. All we wanted to do was get inside to celebrate my birthday…But, these boys were persistent, and they won us over with their Irish charm!

Four years later, we are so glad that they did!

(They were so charming that a “socialite” website decided to follow them around to capture their evening…thus unknowingly, capturing the evening that Michelle met her Irish prince!)

Let’s recap the food, fun and romance of the memorable wedding weekend in Newport, RI!

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