Author Archives: Emily

Window Shopping Wednesdays

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I am not much of a shopper, much to my mother’s chagrin. The woman can spend days at the mall, while I start to feel itchy after just a few hours. It’s not that I’m not materialistic, I totally am, it’s just that the thought of adding more stuff to my life makes it hard to breathe. But I like the idea of things. So I’m an avid window shopper. I browse catalogs I’ll never buy from and hold my breathe when I pass the window at J.Crew. So while I’m stuck at school on Wednesdays, I thought we could have some fun via blog. Let’s window shop!

Here’s what I am coveting for Valentine’s Day –

1.  The heart key chain bottle-opener from UO.

I find that you never regret a bottle-opener key chain.  The need for one doesn’t come up often, but when it does you feel like a totally bad ass boy scout.  Plus this one is adorable.

2.  The Watermelon Ice Dress from Anthropologie.

I’m afraid that this is almost too precious.  But I love the cap sleeves and eyelet.

3.  Strawberries and cream malted milk balls from Oh!Nuts.

 

It’s becoming possible that I will include a malted milk ball variety in every WSW!  But strawberries and cream sounds like the perfect foil to the malt center.  And these are swirly red to boot.

4.  The Daydreamer LA Solid Tulip Back Tee from UO, in red.

The back of this is super cute, but the sleeves are even cuter!  I adore the back window trend but since I’m pretty busty I usually can’t play along; this shirt looks like there’s bra coverage.  And either way, this would still look pretty good with a cami layered underneath.

5.  The Dark Red Lace Skater Dress from Dorthy Perkins.

How can you not love a red lace dress?  The cut of this is fun too.  I’m not sure where I’d wear it, but I’d definitely pair it with my black Steve Madden heels.

What are you giving to your Valentine this year?

Tropical Tapioca Panacea

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I love hot yoga but it’s a pain in the neck, literally.  I felt fine on Monday night, just like I might have pushed my back a little too far, and fine all through the day on Tuesday.  But then when I got home from clinic last night I was so sore I could barely move.  I’m not sure why I took so long to feel the pain, but it came on strong.  Even today I still feel pretty awful!

Breakfast was a serving of Quaker Oatmeal Squares with Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk.

Plus a naval orange for vitamin C.

I’ve got my first test of the semester this afternoon and I am not feeling ready.  Fingers crossed!

For lunch I packed a jam jar of one of this weekend’s kitchen efforts, Tropical Tapioca Pudding.

This pudding was inspired by the great vegan tapioca pudding you used to be able to get at the co-op.  I think my version is pretty great too.  The pudding has the perfect balance of chew and cream and the bananas are little pillowy clouds floating throughout!

Tropical Tapioca Pudding, serves 4

  • 1/2 cup small-pearl tapioca
  • 13.66 oz can light coconut milk (aka 1 and 2/3 cup)
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 medium bananas, sliced
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  1. Place tapioca in a bowl with enough warm water to cover completely and soak for two hours.
  2. After 2 hours, drain tapioca.
  3. Combine coconut milk, sugar, salt, and drained tapioca in a small pot over medium-low heat.
  4. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
  5. Add banana slices to the pot and cook another 5 minutes, stirring carefully.  Cook until tapioca are translucent.
  6. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
  7. Move to a covered container and cool in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.

Have you ever tried tapioca pudding?  What about boba (large pearl tapioca that are placed in cold drinks and sucked up through a special straw)?

A Round Meal

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Breakfast was very well rounded.

A serving each of Multigrain Cheerios o’s, All Bran Bran Buds balls, and Wegman’s Berry Corn Crunch spheres.

With Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk poured on top.

The flavors and textures in the mix rounded out nicely, with good ratios of sweet to bran and crunch to puff.

Lunch – a very early lunch because of Statistics and clinic – was served in a round bowl and on a round bagel.

In the bowl was dinner leftovers; roasted broccoli and two slices of Asian Orange Tofu Bake.

On the bagel was SmartBalance Light and homemade strawberry jam.

The berries in the jam came straight from my uncle’s mom’s farm.

I think we’ll get more one-on-one time with patients at clinic today, I hope I’m not a square, or too obtuse!

Monday Felt More Super Than Sunday

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Hello, work week!  Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday?  Were you happy with the outcome?  I will admit to not watching a single minute.  And in fact, Adam and I were a bit under the weather this weekend and did not eat or do a single thing worth mentioning!  Today I’ve managed to get almost back on track and eat some good food.

I had an orthodontist appointment early this morning; nope, I’m still not done with retainers.  My plan was to drive straight to school from there but after two parking lots worth of circling there were still no spots to be found.  Instead I drove to Wegmans and banged out a bunch of work at their comfy booths.  Plus I got a coffee for fuel.

With soy milk and 2 sugars.

My coffee was paired with breakfast from home.  A Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar.

and a baggie of purple seedless grapes.

Curious about my nails?  They are pink glitter French tips!

They aren’t perfect but I did them free-hand so I’m pretty darn proud.

I did work at Wegmans, drove home, walked to school, did work at school, went to class, did work at school, got picked up by Adam, and ended up back at Wegmans for a late lunch.

Some lo mein with a piece of lemon pepper tofu and 1.5 vegan meatballs.

Veggies (mostly mushrooms and carrots with a few green beans).

This hit the spot.

Dinner took a while to cook (you can only fit two trays in our oven at a time) so we arrived home from the store we got right to work on the next meal.

My plate had 1/4 cup of sweet brown rice,

pieces of my Asian Orange Tofu Bake,

and roasted broccoli.

Everything was delicious!  The sauce on the rice and veggies is leftover tofu marinade that I cooked down quickly in the rice pot.  The tofu recipe is from way back in 2009.  I made it again to update the recipe page, still good!

After dinner I managed to drag myself to an 8pm hot yoga class.  Woot!  90 minutes of hot yoga felt so dang good!  I haven’t gone to many classes on this 30-day pass, but I’ve cherished every minute I’ve gotten.

Jordan Almond Cookies For Dad

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Who’s got Valentine’s gifts on the brain?  When you think about the people you love, it’s important to think about the things that they love.  Who you love, what they love; got it?  Good.

One of the people I love is my dad.  One of the things he loves is Jordan almonds.  He’s passed this love on to me, and we both know exactly what to look for in a good Jordan almond – thick but slightly soft shell on a crunchy almond – and where to look for them – the “foreign” section of grocery stores, specialty markets, and the occasional wedding.

My dad also likes gum. He particularly enjoys those huge gum balls that give you a headache within a minute of popping them into your mouth.  And since I like my dad – and particularly like the fact that he doesn’t have to come live with us so we can puree all of his meals in a blender – I’d like to keep his jaw intact.  So when Oh!Nuts offered to send me some Valentine Jordan Almonds, I tried to think of a way to serve them that didn’t involve chomping.

Jordan Almond Cookies, makes 36 cookies

{loosely adopted from Nestle’s chocolate chip cookie recipe}

  • 1 cup Jordan almonds
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1.5 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  1. Preheat oven to 350*.  Prepare baking sheets with cooking spray.
  2. Pour Jordan almonds into the bowl of your food processor and process for 1 minute.  Pick out any large chunks that remain and set processed almonds aside.
  3. In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together butter and sugars.
  4. Beat in egg and almond extract.
  5. Stir flour, salt, and baking powder into the dough.
  6. Fold processed almond into the dough.
  7. Roll scant Tbsp-sized pieces of dough into balls and place in evenly spaced rows on prepared baking sheets.
  8. Bake 12 – 14 minutes.  Cookies will not brown, but the tops should become slightly firm to the touch.

Dad, a package is in the mail for you, be on the lookout.  I love you guys!

I used Oh!Nuts Valentine Jordan Almonds for this recipe.  Jordan almonds were provided to me free of charge.

On The Hook

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It’s Friday; two weeks of school are officially done and over with!  And 2 days of Vegan Month in, I realize I need to figure out a new eating plan.  Now that our larders are stocked it should be easier, but I’ve been waiting too long to eat and eating way too much.  Not good.

Due to a looming bedtime and the sheer mass of (uninteresting) food, I’ll keep this quick.  Coconut water was consumed during class.

This Jumanji apple wasn’t quite as exciting as its name, but it was sweet and good.

With 2 Tbsp of peanut butter.  Plus a ridiculous amount of peanut butter (3-4 Tbsp?!) eaten straight from the jar.

This Amy’s Rice Macaroni with Dairy-Free Cheese was good.

The cheese was by far the best vegan cheese you could hope for (it was good even on the just cheese scale, without the vegan modifier!).  But I wish I could find the vegan but not also gluten-free version, because I bet it’d be better.

The rice pasta was a little bit gummy.

Jordan Almonds (x2) were consumed for taste-testing purposes.

If you like Jordan almonds then I have got the recipe coming for you!  I’m baking this weekend and hope to post early next week.

Vegan jerky.

A bagel with SmartBalance Light.

An Earl Gray with soy milk during a monster-shopping trip.

A Red Hood Winter Hook was split with Adam when we got home.

And a big bowl of popcorn (with SmartBalance Light) was consumed while watching “Grey’s.”

Holy crap carbs.  I think I’m going to spend tomorrow embracing produce!

Peachy Keen

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Hello, hello!  We’ve reached Friday without me grabbing a diet coke and/or ice cream cone out of a stranger’s hand, I call that a successful week!  Yesterday went well, I did indeed get in bed early – I stayed up pretty late finishing the 10th Temperance Brennan book, but at least I was in bed.

This morning’s breakfast was peachy keen.

But I miss my cottage cheese, this bowl was so hot!  (Hence the foggy photos.)

My scorching spoonfuls contained –

  • 3/4 cup (frozen, thawed) peaches
  • 2/3 cup water and 1/3 cup Silk Vanilla Almond Milk
  • 1/3 cup oats
  • ~2 tsp chia seeds
  • a liberal sprinkle of brown sugar

It was delicious, though I do admit that I’m greatly looking forward to trying a peaches with cottage cheese oatmeal bowl when this month is over!

I’d love it if more of you guys would go back and tell me something about yourself!

11 Things

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I typically don’t do memes like this but one of my good blog friends, Teacher Girl, tagged me and I just couldn’t resist.  Plus, it’s nice to have a little prewritten content for my looong school day.  I’ll be back tomorrow.

The Rules

You must post these rules.
Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.
Go to their page and tell them you linked him or her.
No tag backs.
No stuff in the tagging section about “you are tagged if you are reading this.” You have to legitimately tag 11 people.

11 Things About Me

I’m going to assume that I have gotten at least a few new readers over the past year or so and I’m going to stick with the basics.  I apologize if these are redundant for any of you!

1.  I was born and raised in the US Virgin Islands, on the Island of St. Thomas.

2.  In the VI, I learned how to drive on the LEFT side of the road.  When I moved to Miami for college and started driving in the states, I had to chant “right is right, right is right” every time I made a turn.

3.  On my sixteenth birthday, I was the first person under-18 to sky dive in the state of Pennsylvania.

4.  I have two tattoos.  A star next to my left hip and a tramp stamp in the outline of a bow.  Both are tiny.

5.  I drew the outline for my bow tattoo myself.  I went in with an idea of what I wanted and when I couldn’t find it in the books at the shop, I quickly drew an example.  I thought my drawing was pretty good and I ended up just using that!

6.  When I’m at home, I’m naked more often than not.

7.  When I was in high school, “Dirty Dancing” played on TBS all of the time.  I fell in love and watched it every time I could, at least 10 viewings in one year.

8.  Because of my love for it, a friend rented “Dirty Dancing” to play at a sleep-over.  As we watched I mouthed along with the dialogue until … we got to a sex scene I had never seen.  I didn’t know that TBS showed an edited version and I’d never seen the full movie!

9.  My celebrity meetings (ie I spoke to them for at least 45 seconds or more) include Mariska Hargitay, Dave Chapelle, and Keanu Reeves.  Keanu Reeves and I actually spoke for 10 minutes or so; when he was shooting “Henry’s Crime” here in Buffalo one of my friends was the liaison between the movie crew and the bank they used for the big scenes.

10.  When I was in 5th grade I went through a major Doc Martins phase.  On an island.  It wasn’t pretty.

11.  When I was a kid, President Bill Clinton drove past our house.  One of the cars in his entourage had to stop because they almost ran over our dog!

TG’s Questions

1. If you could be any character from a book, who would you be and why?

Temperance Brennan from Kathy Reichs’ novels because she is a bad-ass forensic anthropologist (one of my dream careers!).

2. If you were going to move anywhere in the world, where would it be?

In the summer of 2013 I am going to move to                                 , because that is where Adam will be matched for his residency.  If I have my druthers, that blank will be filled in with Miami or Brooklyn.

3. What is something embarrassing that happened to you that you now think is funny?

Last semester, in the middle of a class I spilled a full cup of diet coke.  The cup went flying straight into my friend Kim’s purse!  Thankfully nothing really spilled and her stuff was alright, but my face was so red!

4. What do you do when you have “nothing to do?”

Blog read.  And spend time on Pinterest!

5. What was the last book you read?

One of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels.

6. What are the top 5 songs on your playlist right now?

  1. Sexy and I Know It – LMFAO
  2. Soldier – Ingrid Michaelson
  3. Fearless – Cyndi Lauper
  4. Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living) – The Eels
  5. New Slang – The Shins

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

10 pairs of sandals (all Ginger style Reefs), 3 pairs of heels, 12 pairs of flats, 5 pairs of sneakers (including running shoes, Vans, and KangaROOs), and 4 pairs of boots (that includes children’s snow boots and rain boots).  Yikes, that sounds like a lot!  But 99% of them are 6 years old or older.

8. Never have I ever…

Gone streaking.

9. If _____ showed up at my door…

If President Obama showed up at my door, I’d be sure to keep a close eye on Webster!

10. What is something you are afraid of?

Dark parking lots.  If I have to walk to my car alone at night I leap into the front seat so that a creeper hiding beneath my car won’t have time to grab my feet.  And then I thoroughly check the back seat.

11. Tell me something wonderful that happened to you this week (or month, ya know, if it has been a bad week).

We started Vegan Month on Wednesday and I am so excited that the husband is taking the challenge with me.

People I’m Tagging

  1. Food, Sweat, and Beers
  2. Fitness NYC
  3. Meals and Moves
  4. Please Don’t Weigh Me At The Zoo
  5. Bran Appetit
  6. Table for Glasses
  7. Yes, I Want Cake
  8. Turn Towards The Sun
  9. Accidentally Vegan
  10. A Taste of Confidence
  11. The Frozen Pineapple

My Questions to You

1.  You can fly anywhere in the world to eat one item of food.  Where do you go and what do you eat?

2.  How many songs are in your i-Tunes library?

3.  How many states have you lived in?  How many have you visited?

4.  If you could be any TV character, who would you be and why?

5.  If you had to change careers tomorrow, what new job would you want to do?

6.  If you had to pick one food to give up for the rest of your life what would you pick?  What would you pick to have to eat every day for the rest of your life?

7.  How many blogs are in your GoogleReader?

8.  How many children do you want to have?  How many siblings did you grow up with?

9.  (If tv was still good…) would you rather be on Real World or Road Rules?  Why?

10.  Which fashion/hair/make-up trend did you participate in that you wish you’d skipped?

11.  What physical attribute do you love most about yourself?

Readers – pick one or two of my questions to answer in the comments section!