Author Archives: Emily

Shoulda Known, Part II

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I should have known that the puppy would be a bad influence.

A sleeping Webster on the couch meant I read blogs until Adam came home instead of studying.

I should have known that the gym is always the best stress reliever.  I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical and all my test worries just slipped away.

I should have known to give Adam better instructions.

He didn’t have to go in until a bit later today so I left him instructions for putting dinner in the crock pot.  The recipe called for 3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter which we didn’t have.  We did have chunky peanut butter (which I thought he’d use) and honey peanut butter (which he actually used).  I gave him some serious grief this afternoon, but …

I should have known that the husband is always right.

The soup was delicious.  We made the African Peanut Stew from Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.  We skipped some of the spices, used honey pb, and only used half of the chicken the recipe called for.  It ended up being delicious.  Plus asparagus.

It was a good dinner.  And I even had dessert.

I should have known that I’d end up eating even more calories than I burned.

I’ve been eyeing these M&M blondies ever since the semester started and when I spotted one in the bookstore on the way home from the gym I just had to get it.

I should have known that “She’s Out of My League” would be funny and cute.  My ratios of watching to studying aren’t quite where I’d planned!

What I Should Have Known

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Can we talk about my cortisol levels?  Because today was stress-full!  Not in an anything-serious-happening sort of way, more of an I’m-irritated-and-I-feel-my-heart-racing-please-let-me-go-have-a-nap way.

For irritating things #1, you need some background info.  Like “my classes start at 8am every day.”  Or “it takes me 3-5 minutes to drive to campus most days.”  And “the walk from the parking lot to my first class takes 10 minutes no matter how quickly you scurry.”  Got all that?  Because I woke up at 7:47.  Yeah.  I should have known that staying up late with Adam and eating cookies and big bowls of mac n cheese was not going to leave me well rested.  I ended up only being 3 minutes late to class though.  Extrapolate that and think about just how pretty I looked today.

Irritating thing #2 is that we don’t have our tests from last week back.  I’m not irritated with the teacher because I know time-consuming grading can be.  (Though I am irritated with another teacher because we took a test in that class a month ago and still don’t have it back!)  But it is irritating to have to keep obsessing over how I did.  I think one test went really well and the other went really, really poorly so for a multitude of reasons I’d like to have them back and be able to just move on!

Since I clearly didn’t pack any food and I had group meetings during all of our breaks, my first meal of the day was consumed at 3pm.  To keep myself from going crazy I bought a half-sweet pumpkin spice latte on my drive home.

And then I tucked into this –

That’s a leftover serving of mac ‘n cheese with chopped carrots and celery stirred in and Greek yogurt and Sriracha on top.

I went a bit heavy with the Sriracha, I should have known that my mouth would be on fire.  I ended up just stirring everything together.

This killed the cheesiness (favorite flavor 1) but the end product was very spicy and creamy (favorites 2 and 3).  I should have known that it’d be perfect.

Plans for the evening include –

  • school work (hopefully)
  • dinner (for sure)
  • stress reduction (any suggestions?)
  • a workout (please, please, please, Universe, give me the motivation to do this!)

Fun Fact Fridays Monday

Here are some of the things I hope I knew during my test last Friday –

  • Sugar alcohols, which are naturally found in some foods, are produced by reducing the carbonyl group of a sugar to a hydroxyl group.  They are used in gum because they are sweet but do not cause dental carries (cavities) and have less kilocalories than sugar because they are not absorbed as readily.
  • Corn syrup is produced by the hydrolysis (break down) of corn starch.  For high fructose corn syrup, they hydrolyse corn starch then use an isomerase to convert glucose to fructose (the sweetest monosaccharide).
  • professor’s opinion, backed by multiple peer-review studies – HFCS isn’t any worse (or different) than sugar.  The problem is that we are getting too many sweeteners (sugar, HFCS, honey, agave, etc) because they are added to everything.
  • In 2010, the average consumption of sweetened products was 131.9 lb/person/year.  This was an increase from 2009.

Tervis, Tastes, TV

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Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog!  Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow.  I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis.  Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot.  Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth.  Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes.  Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!).  We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy!  And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice.  The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top.  The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished!  Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh.  All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with!  Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful.  And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV.  Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle.  Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both.  Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

Happy Sweetest Day

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Did you tell the people in your life that are sweetest how you felt about them today?

I woke Adam up with candy on his pillow.

He didn’t get me anything (in spite of a few pointed comments about the upcoming holiday!) but he did accompany me in blustery weather for a walk to the co-op.  And we shared an apple like sweethearts.

Not “Lady and the Tramp” style because that would be messy but trading bites at least. 

And we shared this sour candy goo.

The candy was made with real fruit juice (the first 5 ingredients were all natural) and only had 38 calories but we felt like it needed a few more chemicals because it was a little thin.

We did not share this half sweet coffee.

The husband doesn’t like pumpkin spice.  <– crazy

Next we took a Living Social deal on a date to Paige’s Paradise.

DO NOT RECOMMEND!  Everything was tiny and poorly managed and we would want waaaay more to do if we were paying the full $20 a pop.  But we did have fun being together, and Adam had fun kicking my butt at both mini golf and indoor rock climbing.

I was hungry all through the morning and by the time we got home not eating enough today (or really yesterday!) hit me hard.  I made a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with a few slices of 2% cheese immediately.

And heated up this Lean Cuisine lasagna soon after.

Plus two cookies – salted caramel and a butter cream ghost – for dessert.

My sweetie actually drove to Ohio this evening to see “The Thing” in theatres with his brother (<– crazy), so dinner was on my own.

The last ~2.5 servings of Doritos straight from the bag.

Tomorrow needs to include –

  • veggies!
  • laundry
  • more movement
  • note-card making
  • more veggies!

<– and “laundry” should probably be on there twice too!  Do your jeans stretch out upon wearing?  My favorite pair is fantastic out of the dryer and loose within an hour of being put on.  And I’ve had them on, growing progressively looser, for going on three days!

Bad Blogging of Book Club

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It’s 2am and I just got home; I’ll just give the important notes.

* Webster is doing fine, he came home with an antibiotic and an order not to worry

* I looooved The Help.  I may not have eaten or changed out of my smelly shirt this afternoon, but I read it in its entirety today

* My friends make really amazing food for book club

* I had 3-4 chocolate saltines and 5-6 chips with the most amazing crab dip

* I had two Arnold Palmers made with this!

Adrenaline and Glucose

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11 days of freedom!  That is, I have 11 days until I have another test or major assignment on my schedule.  Woo-who; good thing I’ve got all that tv to watch 😉

Last night was, shall we say, eventful.  Just before bed we killed the largest spider I’ve ever seen and it sent adrenaline coursing through my veins.  <– Seriously, “woodlouse spider,” Google if you dare.  Then Webster got sick at 2:30 in the morning and none of us really ever went back to sleep after that.  I made a vet appointment for the dog and a giant coffee for myself.

That’s Godiva Pecan Turtle Coffee (a foodbuzz sample) with Plain Silk Almond Milk and ice.  Delish, thought it did mean that my jumpiness continued.

I ate brunch around my breaks in class.  A red pear.

Plus a sandwich.

2 slices of Rudi’s Honey Sweet Whole Wheat, with Trader Joe’s mango butter, 2 slices of Applegate Farms Herb Turkey, and a slice of 2% Swiss.

Not that great but at least it kept me fueled.  Especially because your brain needs 130 grams of CHO a day to function!

My exam went pretty well, I think.  There were a few areas of confusion (on material we were told was not going to be on the exam!) but overall I felt like I knew my stuff.

I never really mind exams; it’s fun to see how much I know, or don’t know!  Plus I’m a speed tester so I always finish with time to spare.  Having an exam today meant I was released an hour earlier than usual, which is great because I’m on page 21 of The Help and book club is tonight!  Gotta get reading!

Confessions IX, Teaching Edition

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Click here to read Confessions part I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII.

Confession # 1 –

My professor told this joke the other day:

“What do you call a person who talks when no one is listening?

A teacher.”

I laughed so hard I choked.

Confession # 2 – In spite of not being in front of a classroom for 3 years now, I still have my “teacher voice.”  The other day I was explaining some material to a group of friends and a classmate sitting nearby remarked that she could tell just from my mini-lesson that I used to be a teacher.

Confession # 3 – Sometimes I’m really sad that I’m not a teacher any more.  But then I remember that every nightmare (like sweaty, shaky, wake up and thank God it was just a dream nightmares) I’ve ever had has been about teaching.

Confession # 4 – When I’m in group assignments I have a pesky habit of assigning my group members tasks.

Confession # 5 –  Sometimes I look at the other students on campus and think “I am not your peer.”  And then I remember that considering my age and background I should be their teacher. This makes it especially hard not to shush them in the library.