Monthly Archives: July 2011

Pizza Party

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We had a mini pizza party for dinner but the rest of the day was sort of … strange.  I had a teaching nightmare last night and it left me feeling funky.  I basically never have nightmares, like ever, unless they are about teaching.  In fact, other than night-terrors that I had as a really young child, I had never even had a nightmare before I became a teacher.  I don’t get them often now, but when I do I’m always in a rowdy classroom (or fighting with Adam!).

I have no idea where my nightmare came from, maybe anxiety about going back to school or churning thoughts from not being that busy recently.  I’d like to pin it on “No Strings Attached,” but I guess being the worst movie ever (seriously) still doesn’t make it to blame for my bad dreams.

Breakfast was mocha(ish) smoothies.

For two, I blended – 2 packets of instant coffee, 2 scoops of chocolate whey protein powder, 1 frozen banana, 7 ice cubes, and 1.5 cups of skim milk.

Bleck; I’m not sure what was off about these but something sure was!  I drank about half and then passed the rest to Adam, the human trash compactor.

My snack to make up for breakfast was trail mix.

That bag was actually half spicy mix and half sweet mix; I like to mix things up.

Lunch was veggies from the hot bar,

and a buffalo chicken slice from Zettis.

Dinner was actually more pizza, ie (or ige!) Iowa Girl Eats Homemade Pizza Rolls.

Kristen wrote another recipe winner!  For our filling we chopped together spinach, mushrooms, extra sharp cheddar, black olives, and marinara sauce.

Pizza perfection.

Plus a side of roasted green beans.

At least I won’t be having nightmares about dinner.

Do you ever get nightmares about your job (or jobs past)?

Goodbye, Katie

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Today was bittersweet.  I did fun things, but I had to say goodbye to my friend Katie.  This goodbye was doubly sad because it stinks that friends keep leaving and because Katie was the very first friend I made in Buffalo!

I started my morning with a delicious sounding yogurt bowl.

  • 1/4 cup Stonyfield Plain Fat-Free Yogurt
  • 1/4 cup fat-free ricotta
  • 1/8 cup roasted buckwheat groats
  • 1 Tbsp key lime curd

Sadly, in spite of the decadent sounding ingredients, the components of this bowl didn’t come together very well.  I didn’t realize that the roasted buckwheat would taste quite so roasty.

Since it was Katie’s last day in Buffalo we met up for a final lunch date.

I’ve been dying to try Romeo and Juliet’s and I’m glad I got to go with Katie.

I’m also glad that our meal was delicious, since the cafe is owned by a girl I go to school with and I’d hate to have to say bad things.  We ate outside and the lighting sort of killed my pictures, but I promise this was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in Buffalo!

The complementary bread was nice and doughy.

And the eggplant parmigiana was the best I’ve ever had (seriously).

It was baked instead of fried and you could totally tell.  The eggplant was perfectly velvety and the sauce was rich and slightly sweet.  I was pretty much in heaven.

I brought Adam the 2nd half of my meal and he agreed that Romeo and Juliet’s must be one of the very best spots in Buffalo.

For dessert, Katie and I hit up new spot #2, Grumpy’s Ice Cream.

I got a cookie dough and heath bar flurry with chocolate custard.

Meh.  It was nice to spend time with Katie, but I won’t be going back.

Once I got dropped off back home, I spent the rest of the day with Adam.  By foot and by car we ran several errands, including two loops up and down Elmwood.  My afternoon snacks included an unsweetened lemonade iced tea from Starbucks,

and some Nerds.

Sometime during our 2nd trip down Elmwood we decided to stop at Blockbusters and make it a movie night.

“How To Train Your Dragon” is one of our very favorite movies and “No Strings Attached” is one I’ve been curious about for months.

I kept dinner simple while we started our first movie.  Roasted green beans and an everything bagel with Smart Balance Light.

Dinner was on the small side because I’m going to dig into a HUGE bowl of popcorn as soon as I hit publish.  Have a great night!

MALTiple Choice

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I don’t know where my day went this morning but I didn’t manage to eat until way into the afternoon.  Actually that’s sort of a lie, a lot of my morning went to this –

Did anyone else read Phyllis Renolds Naylor’s Alice series growing up?  I was obsessed, and since the series still isn’t finished (the final book will be published in 2013) I’ve continued to read.  My mom knows that there are few presents more exciting to me than a fresh Alice book.

Also exciting is a free coffee from the Dunkin’ Donuts birthday rewards program.

Since it was a “gift” I went all out; a medium iced coffee with skim milk, sugar-free toasted almond, and sugar-free coconut.

Totally worth the headache it left me with all afternoon.  I don’t know when I’ll figure out that drinking coffee without eating makes me sick.

However, eating was the next stop on our string of errands (post office, DD, Goodwill, Wegmans).

I snagged several types of chicken – picked through for extra veggies – and some of the chilli garlic eggplant I’m obsessed with.

Is there a more perfect fuel than hot bar?

Adam and I took a walk to the Co-op to finish our grocery shopping later in the afternoon and I grabbed a ‘smores bar from The Spot.

I swear we had plans to make dinner like grown-ups, but Incredibly Alice was screaming my name and I just had to finish it.  By the time I returned to the real world it was too late for a real dinner.  Good thing I had multiple kinds of malt at my fingertips.

First, beer.

8% alcohol beer in the form of Wild Blue.

I want to love blueberry beers, but I just never do.  This wasn’t bad but it was a little too sweet for my tastes.  I drank about half of it.  What I do love is pouring beer into to-go cups and drinking on neighborhood walks. 

I know it sounds rebellious but really I just grew up on an island with no open-container laws and fell in love with walk-boozing before it was illegal.

Malt number two was poured on my french fries.

Waffle fries from ETS plus roasted green bean fries for veg.

Mmmmn, malty!

Malt vinegar on french fries: love it or leave it?

Cheesy Peasy

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This afternoon I got my Great Fundraising Act contribution ready for mailing tomorrow.

Would you like to see what hand-rolling 30+ sugar cookie balls does to your palms?

Ouch!  But at least it makes it ok for me to get caught red-handed having a reward for my hard work.

Sugar cookie frosting sandwich, x2.

My snack embodied sweet, so dinner was savory.

Cheesy Peasy Garlic Pasta (recipe available here and included at the end of this post).

Plus a side of roasted asparagus.

I was so excited about the creation of this recipe – which totally achieved the thick, cheesy sauce I was shooting for – but unfortunately it didn’t really fill me up.  I wasn’t sure if I was really hungry or residually hungry though, so I decided to wait a bit before refilling my plate.  Adam had a volunteering commitment in our neighborhood so I walked with him to deliver a cookie sandwich to the friend he was meeting (hi, Patrick!).

When my stomach was still grumbly mid-walk I decided to stop by the co-op for some protein.  Waldorf chicken salad fit the bill.

It filled me up and pleased my taste buds, yum!  If you haven’t tried grapes in chicken salad yet you don’t know what you’re missing.

Cheesy Peasy Garlic Pasta, serves 4

  • 8 oz uncooked rigatoni
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  • 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp reduced fat cream cheese
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 4 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 2 Tbsp fat-free ricotta
  1. Cook pasta al dente according to box directions.  In the last three minutes of cooking time, add frozen peas to the boiling water.  Drain peas and pasta and set aside.
  2. While pasta is cooking, heat evoo in a large pan over medium-high heat.
  3. Add garlic to the oil and saute for 2 minutes; remove from pan and set aside.
  4. Add flour and cream cheese to the pan and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
  5. Add milk to the roux mixture and cook 3 more minutes, stirring constantly until thickened.  Don’t worry if your mixture still is lumpy at this stage.
  6. Reduce heat to low and stir in cheddar cheese and ricotta.  When the sauce has fully mixed and achieved a smooth texture, remove the pan from the heat.
  7. Add pasta, peas, and cooked garlic to the sauce in the pan; toss to combine.
  8. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with a vegetable.

Courageous

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Hello, hello!  I’m not sure how it’s become Thursday, but it all feels very sudden.  Probably because I haven’t had a whole lot on my agenda this week.  I’m excited to have a bunch of to-do’s to tackle in the remaining month before school.

I didn’t make dinner (or blog) last night because I got hit with another migraine.  I don’t get them all the often any more but when I am struck it seems to happen in sets.  I took medicine in time to still have an evening, but our dinner plans were ruined.  Instead we got take-out.

That’s a buffalo chicken sub and french fries from Jim’s Steak-Out.

I also ate half of a Rollo McFlurry, but the pic is on Adam’s cell phone and he’s not home.  I’ve been obsessing over these ever since I saw them advertised last month, but it ended up only being ok.  I love caramel, but vanilla ice cream just doesn’t do it for me.

Fast-forward to this morning when I enjoyed a bowl of Fiber Plus Caramel Pecan Crunch with skim milk.

For lunch I decided to try these Soy Boy Okra Courage Burgers I’ve had in my freezer for months.

I tried mine toasted, on a bun with a slice of sharp cheddar and a drizzle of ketchup.

I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.  The nutrition stats (130 calories and 13 grams of protein per patty) are great but the flavor didn’t blow my mind.  I think I’d like to try one on something less bready before I make an official decision.

I did love pile of roasted green beans I had on the side.

It’s official: roasted green beans win the Emily’s Favorite Veggie award.  I’m also in love this new plate I got at Anthropologie on my birthday.

I’m keeping the afternoon low-key (ie watching tons of “Charmed”), but at some point I am going to finish making my #tgfa cookie balls so I can mail them out to the winner tomorrow.  I’d also like to make that dinner, but let’s not write anything in stone! 😀

What is your favorite veggie?  Roasted green beans top my list, but eaten straight-up I’m obsessed with baby carrots.

Bed Time Bungle

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I’ve been slathering sunscreen and popping my vitamins ever since I turned 26, but I’m still figuring out that whole bedtime thing.  Last night I stayed up way too late watching Charmed.  Like, way, way too late.  And my ability to control my popcorn consumption suffered as a result.

I was too tired for proper photography, but not too hungry to force me to eat a proper meal.  My eats for the day so far include – Wasabi peas.

Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus with Pretzels.

A lemonade that sadly tasted like dirty syrup.

And two packs of Shark Bites.

Guess I should go gourmet for dinner, huh?

Easy Eats

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I accomplished so much yesterday that today was actually a bit boring.  I’ll take it though.  And I’ll definitely take the fact that I had to skip today’s workout because my abs were so sore from yesterday’s 90 minute hot yoga session.  Whoop!

Breakfast was easy and summer-y.

1.5 servings of cinnamon Puffins, .5 serving of oats and honey Bear Naked Granola (which is like a Tbsp, seriously?!), chopped plum and white apricot, and skim milk.

For a mid-morning snack I measured out 2 servings of the peanut brittle popcorn my in-laws gave me for my birthday.

This stuff might be dangerous.

Lunch looked borning.

But looks can be deciving.  That’s not pb & j.

That’s a mini kaiser roll topped with Nutty Guys honey roasted peanut butter, crushed up honey wheat pretzels, and a drizzle of honey.

And what goes with a peanut butter (pretzel, honey) sandwich better than milk?

In my fabulous new glass from Anthropologie.

Milk also goes well with cookies.

But those aren’t for me (though I did eat a few cookie’s worth of dough!), I baked them up for The Great Fundraising Act.

Instead of cookies, Adam and I snacked on hummus this afternoon.

Not just any hummus though, Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus that I got to try for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

Usually I’m too cheap to buy hummus because you can make it easily at home, but I think it’s time to update my policy!  Adam and I both thought this was delicious; creamy with a great roasted flavor.  The pine nut was a great new twist, though Adam thought it wasn’t as zesty as the garlic variety we used to buy.  Plus at 80 calories per 2 Tbsp serving it’s a nutritional steal.

I ate my serving(s) with some baby carrots.

Keeping up the easy eats theme of the day, dinner was leftovers.

I piled the steamed collard greens, millet, and baingan bharta into one bowl, topped with tons of Sriracha.

Easy, like your mother.  Ba dum ching!

I Did What I Curd

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Go me; I accomplished so much today!  I would say I crossed 95% of our household to-do’s off of the list this afternoon.  I’m not sure what exactly got into me, but I’ll take it.

One errand took me to the grocery store where I kept my energy levels up with an iced coffee with skim milk.

Sidenote – can I just tell you how much I adore the Wegman’s mini carts with the drink holders?!

I’m definitely choosing my future stroller by the amount of cup holders.

One big accomplishment was making this tasty, healthy dinner.

Can you guess who we are?

I made a batch of Jenna’s Baingan Bharta,

some millet,

and steamed collard greens cooked with maple dill dressing.

This was my first time trying millet and I found it a little dry, but I’m excited to try it again tomorrow with a little plain yogurt stirred in.  The Baingan Bharta – basically pureed eggplant, tomato, and spices – was also new to me and I think I’m a fan.  I thought it was a little bit sweet but I did extra eggplant so I probably should have done extra jalopeno as well.

For dessert I dug into this afternoon’s baking project.

Key lime curd!  Basically key lime pie without the crust.

I dipped a serving of Biscoff cookies into it after dinner.

The ginger and lime combo is a force to be reckoned with.

As soon as I hit publish I’m heading out on a short walk with Adam.  What a good day indeed.

Don’t forget – you have until 10:40 EST to bid on my sugar cookie balls.