Monthly Archives: May 2011

Buffalo, Take Me To San Fransisco

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This post is my entry into a contest that will hopefully take me to San Fransisco for the 2011 Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.  The Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken was provided as a free sample via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

I moved to Buffalo after spending two years in the best place on earth.  That’s Brooklyn, NYC, if you’re not sure.  Before that I was born and raised in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and attended college in Miami, Florida.  The places you call “destinations” I call home.  What could Buffalo have to offer me?

For one thing, my new home is the birthplace of Buffalo chicken wings.

Which have spawned Buffalo sandwiches, Buffalo shrimp, Buffalo tacos, and most importantly, Buffalo chicken dip.

When I took my first bite of Buffalo chicken dip – supremely spicy and dotted with pockets of creamy cheese – I knew I’d found my new home.

No matter how nice your home may be, it’s ok to have a little wanderlust!  When I attended the very first Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in 2009, it was one of the best weekends of my life.

I fell in love, with the bloggers, the city, and the food!  I was heartbroken when we had to tighten our purse strings this fall and financial constraints kept me from attending the festival a 2nd year.  So that’s why I’m hoping to win a trip to this year’s event.

It’s not just about winning though, not that winning’s ever bad; the winner of the contest will have an opportunity to cook their dish for the crowd at the festival.  People don’t think of Buffalo as a foodie hotspot (I know I sure didn’t!), but I’m proud of my town.  I want the opportunity to share my city’s namesake flavor.

Buffalo Wing Baked Pasta, serves 8

  • 22 oz bag Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken Breast Strips
  • 14.5 oz whole wheat rotini pasta
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup medium heat Buffalo wing sauce (I recommend Anchor Bar’s!)
  • 16 oz Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese), softened
  • 1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese dressing
  • 10 cups fresh spinach
  • 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
  1. Cook pasta al dente according to box directions.  Drain finished pasta and return it to the pot (remove from heat when pasta is finished).  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Heat frozen chicken strips in a nonstick skillet on medium heat for 3 – 5 minutes or until warm.  Add 1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce to chicken and continue to cook for one minute.
  3. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.  Reduce heat to medium-low.
  4. Combine cream cheese, blue cheese dressing, and remaining 1 cup Buffalo wing sauce in the pan.  Heat until melted, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
  5. Pour sauce over pasta.  Add chicken and spinach to the pot and stir well to combine.
  6. Spread pasta mixture into a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish.  Top evenly with cheese.
  7. Bake 8 – 11 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

I ate my serving with carrots and celery, because that’s how we serve Buffalo chicken dip.

What dish is your town famous for?

They’re Fake

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This has got to be a quick one because exam #1 is tomorrow and I am soooo not ready.  I spent most of the day at school with Adam, but sadly my concentration was lacking.

Lunch wasn’t lacking though.  I threw together the ingredient dream team for our sandwiches.

White Arnold’s Sandwich Thins, organic turkey bologna, Laughing Cow Light French Onion Cheese, and a smear of maple jelly.

With a crunchy pear on the side.

And Adam and I split my 2nd sample from Sweet and Salty Zone Perfect Bars for dessert.

Cashew Pretzel was even tastier than the trail mix bar.  There were loads of pretzels and they were still perfectly crunchy.  I definitely recommend buying these bad boys if you see them.  At 200 calories it was perfect for sharing.

My hunger hit when I got home and it hit hard.  Thankfully I’ve got a husband who’s always willing to split mini ice creams with me.

I also made a bowl of popcorn (with melted Smart Balance Light).

I’m still hungry if you can believe it, so I’m off to make dinner.  Tonight’s recipe is going to be a good one!

Fish Food

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I promised that I would introduce you guys to our new pet, so meet Levinson.

Levinson is our own little orphan Annie.  The husband found him in the basement (where the laundry facilities are located) last week.

As the days ticked by, the rouge fish’s water got dirtier and dirtier and the husband was distraught.  He left this note.

Once enough time had passed so we were certain that we were saving a fish called it and not stealing a beloved pet, we adopted a fish.

Welcome home, Levinson.

Levinson eats beta fish food, but we like to eat pancakes.

(The best recipe ever for) Buttermilk pancakes to be exact.

I made the husband a bear.

And I ate my borning circle pancakes with half of a banana,

and some maple syrup.

What are your favorite kind of pancakes?

They Can’t All Be Winners

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It wasn’t my most succesful day.  I had a crappy run, I didn’t do a lick of school work, I have not been drinking enough h2o, we’re up too late yet again…

Let’s look at some of the things that went right –

  • a crappy run is still a run, AND my knee doesn’t even hurt 😀
  • even though it’s late, I’m sticking to my 30-day blog everything goal
  • I’m feeling super fortunate about having the best mommy on the planet  <– fact

I started my morning with a we-suck-at-bedtime inspired Big Gulp.

That’s coffee from Wilson Farms with some Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

I skipped the sweetener because this was supposed to be my pre-run fuel.  B-A-D, bad idea!  I stopped to pee not once, not twice, but three times during my 5 mile run!

My knee felt good when I woke up this morning (and all day yesterday) so I felt ready to tackle my training plan’s scheduled 5-miler.  The husband and I headed to Delaware Park to complete 3 laps around the ~1.75 mile loop.  My knee felt fine the entire time but my endurance was a horse of a different color.  Guys, I can’t even tell you how many times I had to stop during this run 😦  All total, I did 5.25 miles in 51 minutes.  I turned off my watch during all my breaks (I would just stop at stretch, not cover any distance) so I don’t know how long the entire start to finish time was, but I do know that each loop took me 17 minutes.  Yay for not slowing down!

And yay for still no knee pain; knock on wood!  I did ice my knee when I got home.

But ice water in a plastic baggie was a terrible idea so that didn’t last very long.  Some bags of frozen peas are on my grocery list for next week.

Somehow I decided that 5 miles at a 10-minute-mile pace was enough of a workout that I needed to sit on the couch the rest of the day.  Boo for being a loser!  Throughout the afternoon I ate popcorn – there are two mini bags in that bowl,

a Smart Ones Tuna Noodle Gratin frozen meal,

and a Skinny Cow Caramel Cone mini ice cream.

How on earth do they pack so much goodness into 170 calories?!?  That flavor was ridiculous good.

Our one accomplishment of the day was finally switching out our summer and winter wardrobes.  I’ve had that task on my to-do list for almost a month but Buffalo’s reluctance to enter spring kept it from feeling urgent.  Adam’s glad we put it off; the whole process took for-ev-a!  By the time we were done it was after 9pm and we ended up going out to dinner at Panos.

Sidenote 1 – we did not give up on our eat-in-more goal already, the meal was actually a gift for me from my mother-in-law, who clearly does not get the spirit of the holiday.  Sidenote 2 – not to worry, we’re not as clueless as we seem, we did buy both sets of moms nice gifts too.

I ordered the blackened chicken Caesar salad with roasted veggies and smoked gouda.

I shared 90% of my chicken with the husband, and dove into his fries in return.

‘Twas a great date night meal!

What was the best thing about your weekend?

Are My Hoisin The Club?!

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Forget about what Rebecca Black says, Saturday is where it’s at!  We didn’t even do anything all that exciting today – studying, grocery shopping, easy dinner – it just was a good day.

Since I’m ridiculous about meals on the weekend I went with lunch – snack – dinner rather than breakfast – lunch – dinner.  Besides, lunch for breakfast means you get in more veggies.

Yes, that is Wegman’s hot bar.  Yes, I’m aware we have a problem.

Fruits (pineapple, berries, strawberries, watermelon),

Veggies (avocado, squash, mushrooms, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli),

and a mini crustless Quiche (with tomato and artichoke heart).

Adam and I split a Zone Perfect Sweet & Salty Trail Mix Bar for dessert.

The kind folks at ZP sent me some samples of their new Sweet and Salty line since they knew how much I adored their Cookie Dough stuff.  Adam and I agreed that the bar was good, but not as good as the cookie dough ones.  There was a great peanut butter flavor spread throughout it, and the bar lived up to its sweet and salty name.  I’m looking forward to trying the other variety.

In addition to being repetitive and crazy, constant hot bar isn’t cheap!  Adam has to purchase lots of random snacks and coffees this summer (he’s off for 2 months to study for a major exam and focuses better in public venues) so we need to save our pennies where we can.  I tried to do an extra good job of stocking up on groceries this week; I’d rather spend a little more money at the store and save some money not going out for random things throughout the week.

One of my have-snacks-in-the-house-stop-buying-nachos-damn-it purchases was a 10ct box of mini 100-calorie popcorns, and one of those bags ended up being my afternoon snack.

I also grabbed a (sweetened) cappuccino from Wilson Farms.

Looking back at this post, it seems like I had more than enough to eat today, but you know I couldn’t keep my hand out of the cashews while I cooked dinner!

We whipped up a simple stir fry that ended up being delicious.

The inspiration for the dish was the 2 unopened bags of spinach that were starting to go bad, but these guys were the real stars –

Step-by-step, serves 3-4.

Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat.  Add 10 cups of raw baby spinach.

Cover and cook until wilted.

Add 1 15 oz can baby corn, 1 15 oz can stir fry mushrooms,

5 green onions, sliced, and 2/3 cup salted cashews.

Top with 4 Tbsp Hoisin sauce and continue to cook.

In a small bowl on the side, whisk together 3 large eggs.

Make a hole in the veggie mixture and pour eggs into it.

Cook until starting to slightly scramble then toss to combine.  Continue to cook stir-fry until desire doneness is reached.

Delicious.

I topped my bowl with Sriracha,

and Adam added some baked tofu to his.

I stole a few pieces of tofu and they were so tasty I’m planning on making them again soon so I can share the recipe with you guys.

When I’m feeling unsatisfied after dinner a yogurt bowl for dessert is always the answer.

This one centered around a Dannon Light and Fit Caramel yogurt.

I almost never eat fake-sugar yogurts (if I’m not eating Greek I’m buying Stonyfield because it is humanely sourced) but this guy was pretty fantastic.  Topped with unsweetened shredded coconut, the last of the butter toffee almonds, and a few butterscotch chips.

Sweet dreams, readers!

Seis de Mayo!

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Okay, okay, so I’m a day late on my May 5th post.  Normally I hate to do long-overdue recap posts, but since my new 30 day goal is to post everything, here it is.  Quick sidenote – mad props to everyone who engages in drogging (aka drunk blogging); I wanted to share this yesterday but it was just not an option 😉

My classmates I add were touched by serendipity yesterday, when Cinco de Mayo and our last day of classes fell on the same day.  After a very long last day of classes (9:25 in the morning to 7 at night) we were able to head out for some much-needed celebration.

First, the morning.  Our last day of lab included drawer check out and a final exam.  I had a little extra time in the morning to study since I had to skip my workout (boo!), and I think I did pretty well on the exam.  I didn’t have it together for breakfast, but I did grab a medium iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

And it was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was down to my last sips; clearly I needed coffee!

Our last lab let out pretty early, and we were left with a six-hour break before our final evening class.  No problem, I took my friend Rachel on a mini tour of Elmwood!  We ambled down the street from school, stopping to visit a friend at work and hit up the Spot for a study session.  I grabbed some brown rice veggie sushi from the co-op for lunch.

And actually stopped at the co-op on the way back to school for dinner as well.

During my night class I noshed on Thai cucumber and peanut salad,

and some vegan pasta salad.

Suddenly we were taking our last quiz of the semester, packing up, and we were done with our first year of school!!!  I mean, there are finals next week, but still exciting.

Cinco de Mayo plans were supposed to include a holiday appropriate trip to Cozumel Bar, but a $10 cover later we ended up at JP Bullfeathers.

That was a Jack and ginger ale, but it tasted more like dirty water.  Weak drinks aside, JP Bullfeathers ended up being a perfect spot for our end of school celebration; not too packed for good conversation, but busy enough to still be fun.

We ended up sitting at a table and ordering some food as well.

My friend Janessa and I split the turkey and gorgonzola pannini,

which was delicious.  Turkey sandwiches seem to be my go-to restaurant order.

And how to do go out on Cinco de Mayo without margaritas?!

What’s the Spanish word for sloshed?  Let’s just say I’m glad I could walk less than a minute and be home!

I did stay up to share some dessert, of course.

That’s a caramelized macadamia nut and chocolate mousse tart that Adam brought home.

Now on to today.  In true college-girl fashion, I managed to stay in bed well past 1pm!!  It helps to have the bladder of a camel and a four-day break before finals begin.  🙂

Adam and made the executive decision that we needed a day together, so we took down a full season of Scrub’s recaps and an entire pizza.

That’s a bruschetta pizza topped with extra green olives, the best pizza topper ever.

The half a pizza pretty much covered all my food groups (what?! dairy, grains, veggies…) but I did sneak in one more veggie with a slice of carrot cake from the co-op.

A few facts – Carrot cake does to count as a veggie.  I think I need to be done with the co-op for a few days.  It was a glorious day with my husband.

Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

It’s a New Day

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New planner.

New workout plan attitude.

I had to skip another training day, but instead of doing nothing I got in a few minutes of stretching and strength training this morning.

New pet.

More on that tomorrow.

New 30 day 25 day monthly goals –

  1. Drink more water!  My ideal goal is 8-10cups a day, but since it’s hard to track when you are refilling a bottle, my focus will be drinking at least one cup before every meal/snack.
  2. Focus on stretching.  I think the reason I hurt my knee was because my calf was too tight, so I’m going to go for a minimum of stretching twice a day.
  3. Blog every day for the next 30 days.  Just for funsies, no matter how boring the eats or horrible the photographs, I’m going to blog every single thing that goes in my mouth instead of just most things.

What’s new with you?

Highs and Lows

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Some Low Points from Today

  • My knee felt so funky that I actually skipped today’s workout (and I have no idea what the deal will be for tomorrow’s workout)
  • I’m in an overall horrible, terrible, no good, very bad mood

Some High Points from Today