No Labor Day

by Emily

Guess how much work I got done today?! Actually, please don’t 😦 I knew that the back to school transition was going to be rough, and so far it has been.

I actually don’t have a post today – my camera was charging while I was eating – but I do have a question:

My camera has an ok battery life, but it’s stopped showing the remaining power so it dies instead of me recharging when it gets low (that wasn’t the question, just the backstory). Does anyone else have the Sprint EVO 4G? Do you have any tips about using the camera phone to take blogworthy pictures? Thank you!

5Sep2010

When in Random

by Emily

I’ve been all over the map today so this post is going to seem a little random. I didn’t get much any schoolwork done but I did have a lot of fun – lunch at the Co-op with Katie, hanging out with the husband, and a trip with a group of friends to the Buffalo Wing Festival. It’s sort of essential that I get a good night’s sleep and rock out my work tomorrow so I’ll keep this quick. Bare minimum description in 3, 2, 1…

This small banana chocolate bar was 33cents at the grocery store.

It was super light and tasted like airy banana cream pie.

Co-op hot bar lunch (for reference, this was the small box, about the size of a novel).

Buffalo-style tempeh,

cashew noodles,

a stuffed grape leaf,

and some pasta with delicious homemade ricotta and marinara.

I also bought the best Hello Dolly (7-layer bar) I’ve ever freaking tasted!

The wing festival was super crowded and really poorly organized (boo) but we had a good time hanging out with the other couples at least. I only got to sample a few wings, Hawaiian, smoked, and Guinness bbq.

You can assume I ate about half of that; when it gets to close to the bone I get squeamish and Adam finishes them for me.

Crackers with smoked gouda spread, split with the husband.

Yogurt mix bowl – Vanilla 0% Siggi, a chopped peach, cinnamon chips, and tons of cinnamon.

For dinner we cooked up some pizza.

Tandoor Chef caught wind of how obsessed I am with their Pad Thai and graciously sent me some Naan Pizza samples. I was more than happy to do a review, I think Tandoor Chef products are amazing! A lot of their offerings are vegan, it is by far the most authentic “ethnic” food I can get in Buffalo, and everything tastes so fresh you have to check the box to remember that it was frozen! Tonight we tried the Margherita Naan Pizza,

and the Cilantro Pesto Naan Pizza.

Check out the nutritional stats –

Reasonable amount of sodium and saturated fat for a good dose of protein. I think that a full pizza (as opposed to a half) is a more realistic serving size though. That makes it a little calorie-dense, but since the ingredient list is just “real” food it’s ok.

Adam and I each tried half of each flavor (he ate some of my crusts though).

Even though our crazy oven caused us to burn them we were still big fans. The tomatoes on the Margherita tasted fresh and juicy and the cilantro pesto had a great spice kick to it.

I’m getting in bed now, but I’ll probably play Word Feud with Adam for a bit before sleeping. Good night!

What’s your take on hot wings?

4Sep2010

Disaster Dinner

by Emily

Ugh. I’m feeling very much like a Whiney Wendy right now so I’ll keep this short and snippy sweet.

I’m not giving the recipe up yet, but basically I’ve been excited about tonight’s dinner for almost a week … except we didn’t eat dinner 😦 The husband got stuck at the lab until 9 and we had to push back our plans. Instead I did some super random (carby) snacking. And I don’t even have a photograph of everything, so this is going to be a really boring post.

1. A hamburger bun with 1T Smart Balance, microwaved for 30seconds. I don’t know why the bun/butter/microwave combo gets me so excited but it really does. So excited that I shoved the whole thing in my mouth before I remembered my camera. Here’s a cute clip art instead –

2. I will never buy full-sized ice creams again. I currently have 5 different flavors (of minis) in my fridge and their mere existence is rocking my socks. This was a Friendly’s Sundae to Go.

Nugat flavored ice cream topped with chocolate (and it was dark chocolate) and caramel? Oh God yes!

3. Healthy(ish) take on jalapeno nachos. 5 Spice Melba Snacks with shredded sharp cheddar microwaved on top.

I know that plate looks like a cheese monster hopped itself into a deep fryer but I really did measure out a serving of cheese! Except that the measuring was less meaningful when I measured out another serving and had a second plate! 😉

4. Strawberry Hi-Chews.

Well then, I’m glad I ate a veggie heavy lunch!

What is your favorite type of shredded cheese? I’m sharp cheddar, extra sharp when I can find it.

**Updated to add – 5) Popcorn.

4Sep2010

The Farmers’ Market Feeds My Soul

by Emily

What better way to announce my Zevia giveaway winner than to toast one in her honor?

Caitlin (commenter #5), this Zevia Cola’s for you!

By the way, after you e-mail me your address so I can get your prize sent off, I suggest drinking the Cola flavor first. Cola is hands-down the best Zevia out there; it doesn’t taste diet at all, but the flavor isn’t exactly “Coke” either, much earthier. There is almost a coffee note to it.

This morning the weather was wonderful and I took a nice walk to the Co-op and the farmers’ market. Look at my bounty of local goodies –

I’m most excited about the plethora of peppers,

I ended up with two purple, one lime, and a pimento!

The only fail was breakfast; I planned on getting something to eat at the farmer’s market but there were so many tasty things to choose from that I got overwhelmed and ended up with nothing 😉 Instead I had a fat-free raspberry lemonade yogurt when I got home.

I finished up my grocery trip at Wegman’s. We had a coupon, so I got myself a small iced coffee.

– With skim milk and sugar-free caramel syrup. –

I’ll cop to my lunch being a little strange, if you’ll promise to try it yourself anyway!

I pan cooked chopped eggplant, broccoli and okra in a big splash of chicken broth, then finished it off with ~1/2T of evoo. Then I added 2t of mango chutney to the skillet, along with 2T each raisins and peanuts.

I know it sounds odd, but I swear that the flavors work. It’d be great with a bit of spice too.

I’ve got a TON of schoolwork to do this long weekend but we have some fun planned in for tomorrow too. And a dinner on the agenda for tonight that I’m totally jazzed about. See you then!

~*~*~ It’s time for some shameless self-promotion!

1) Check out my mini guest post at Iowa Girl Eats.

2) I’m throwing my hat into the ring for Project Food Blog! Actually, I’m thinking about resigning before it even begins, but check out my profile anyways!

3) Are you following me on Twitter?

4Sep2010

Gourmand on the Go

by Emily

I left the house more than 20 hours ago, good golly it’s been a full day! Another clue that things were busy – 1o0% of my food was eaten on the go today. I would say I’m definitely mastering the art of eating healthy on the fly.

This morning’s breakfast contained some pretty snazzy components –

a chocolate Oikos, 3 dried figs, 1/4 cup of homemade granola, and a plucot. Things got less fancy in a hurry when I had to load those guys into a to-go cup –

Still delicious though.

I didn’t have time to finish before my first class started so I had to throw out some of my stellar combo, but breakfast on the go is a work in progress.

Lunch was identical to the other day; Whole Grain Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese wedge, and three slices of turkey.

I hate to be repetitive but I see many more of this exact sandwich in my future; it’s just so good! I thought I was going to hate the Arnold’s Sandwich Thins (I got them as a free sample from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program), but they are actually exquisitely doughy. They remind me a lot of when I was a kid and a I would mush a piece of bread up into a single, delicious square.

I did mix up my side though, a sliced cuc.

Classes were pretty intense; I finally attended my last nutrition lecture and it’s going to be a lot of work. I’m taking 7 courses this semester (several are 1-credit labs) and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed. As soon as classes were done today I curled up with my planner, binder, and a computer to map out my assignments for the semester. Todoist was key.

I was stuck at school until 5pm (rain) so I ended up searching the food court for sustenance. Thank goodness I gave it another chance, I found a build your own salad place.

Romaine base, 2 servings of roasted veggies, green bell peppers, carrots, red onions, and blue cheese crumbles with a bit of balsamic. It came topped with a tasty breadstick.

We were only home a minute or two before we headed back out. Our dinner plans were Korean night with a group of friends.

Gleesh our friends are good cooks! My bowl was sticky rice with carrots, cucumbers, kim chi, garlic paste, nori, and an egg.

Yum!

Korean night eventually turned into boys’ only poker, and I sat on the couch catching up with the girls until after midnight.

Adam insisted on pizza on the way home (guess which one of use was drinking instead of driving?!) and I wanted to take part in the fun so I had him cut a slice in half for me.

Tasty bbq chicken pizza, without undoing my day’s worth of healthiness. I mostly wanted a taste anyways.

It’s another busy day tomorrow, Bedtime, Bedtime, Bedtime!

Have you ever tried Korean food? What’s your favorite dish?

2Sep2010

You Can’t Control Your Environment, You Can Only Control Your Reaction

by Emily

I wasn’t going to post at all today; I’ve been in a inexplicable (unshakeable) bad mood and I didn’t feel like bringing my rain cloud to the blog. I’ve said at least ten times today “I hate everyone.”

However, then I read this. The article in general makes me even angrier – and sad, and disheartened, and shocked by how harsh we’ve made this existence. But more than that I am moved by the optimism of Bethany Storro. I am inspired by her courage, and the grace she brought to an untenable situation.

I often forget that no matter what the situation is, we always have control over our response to it. And our response – whether it’s a positive or negative one – ends up coloring the entire experience.