Author Archives: Emily

Driving Dilemma

by

We love our neighborhood – a quiet side street off of Elmwood, the “cool” strip in Buffalo – but the parking situation here is a bummer.  There’s not a lot of parking space to begin with and then the city further restricts residents by only allowing use of one side of the street from 9-5 on weekdays.  In the end it’s really not something I can complain about though because we generally end up parking 2 blocks away from our apartment at most and often snag spots right out front.  What I can complain about (and do at length) is the fact that parking switches from left MTW to right RF.  Which means that if you wake up at 8:50 thinking that it’s Wednesday when it’s actually Thursday you’re out $30.  $60 if you have two cars to worry about.

During the school year – when Adam and I have long-houred internships at different hospitals – having two cars will be a godsend.  But in the summer – when we barely drive the one car, let alone two – it’s all we can do to remember to move the cars and they become a big, costly annoyance.  I try to put “move the cars!!!” in my day planner but since I often don’t check my planner until after 9am this has proved less than helpful.  What has proved effective lately though is coupling the task moving the cars with another activity.  If there’s one thing I’ll never forgot to look forward to it’s a date with Adam!

For example, this morning we set our alarms for 8:20 8:40 8:50 and moved the cars before setting out on a walk to get coffee.

We ended up with no tickets, plus (half sweet) coffee as a bonus!

I waited to enjoy my hot coffee until I got home to the ac, and paired it with the rest of my breakfast spread.

A crisp, local apple,

and Greek Gods Fig yogurt.

Yum x 100!  If you still haven’t tried Greek Gods then you totally need to get on that.

Coffee always makes me super full, which helped lunch to get pushed back later and later into the afternoon.  When a coworker called at noon I ended up picking up an extra daytime shift at work tomorrow which meant we needed to switch around some of our lunch and dinner meal plans.  The end result of all this is that it was 2:30, I hadn’t eaten lunch, and I needed to go to the store before I could make dinner.

I’d been craving garlic eggplant all morning – actually I’ve been craving that dish ever since I saw it on the table across from ours at Tokyo Shanghai – so I told myself that if Wegman’s had it on their hot bar then I’d buy lunch there.  I haven’t seen garlic eggplant at Wegman’s in months, but apparently crossing your fingers works!

I got a big scoop of garlic eggplant alongside veggies picked out from various containers,

and a few big pieces of sweet and sour chicken.

So fun to find exactly what I was craving right on that day; usually I whine to the husband about tastes I’m looking forward to for days!

No matter how satisfying and tasty though, waiting too long for lunch always means I’m hungrier all afternoon.  We had a good array of snacks to pick from; baby carrots with blue cheese,

a white chocolate and toffee cookie from Wegman’s cookie bar,

and when I made another batch of pumpkin muffins I ate a mini muffin with Smart Balance Light.

I’m glad I didn’t snack too much because dinner was amazing.

The dinner idea that I just couldn’t wait for was tuna salad Reubens.

We made tuna salad with 1000 Island Dressing and pickle relish, then pressed sandwiches with sauerkraut and 2% Swiss cheese.

We picked up a loaf of blue cheese and cracked pepper bread from Wegman’s bakery today and it totally took the sandwiches over the top.

With roasted broccoli,

and ears of fresh corn.

This dinner was so worth making the kitchen hot and steamy! 

How many cars does your household own?  How often do you drive to your final destination (as opposed to walking or using public transportation)?

My Friends, Ben and Jerry

by

I know I said I was excited about blogging again, but I was more excited about sharing dinner with my friends in less than ideal table lighting.

I met up with a group of girlfriends from school and we had a great time playing summer catch-up.  I ordered a tuna melt (sourdough, no butter; with cheddar cheese).

I ate half and then brought the rest home to the husband.

Such a random diner order but it definitely hit the spot.  Sidenote – once I occurred to me to ask for no butter on my bread I started enjoying restaurant sandwiches 80% more.

Adam and I are spending the rest of the evening watching “That 70’s Show” with our new best friends.

I know, I know; it’s totally time for us to stop splitting a pint of ice-cream like that’s normal healthy behavior, but Maple Blondie?!

What’s your favorite flavor from Ben and Jerry’s?  Bonaroo Buzz is topping the charts for me, but I’ll let you know in the morning if Maple Blondie edges it out!

That Which Shall Not Be Blogged

by

Blogging lunch is hard because of not blogging yesterday.  Blogging breakfast was impossible because I slept through it, but that’s another story!

I did eat lunch though, and it requires that I go back to what I did 24 hours ago.  Which was go on a date to the Spot with Adam to get a Funghi Pizza before work.

Mozzarella cheese with an assortment of roasted and fresh mushrooms finished with extra virgin truffle oil drizzle.

I ate the leftovers today for lunch.

Delicious, especially when I dipped the crusts in my Cherry Coke Zero.

Yesterday before work I also did some baking,  Jenna’s sunflower butter cookies.

I forgot to flatten the first trays with a fork before baking (what? I’ve never made peanut butter cookies before!) and the cookie balls that resulted were nice and doughy on the inside.

I ate two small ones for dessert with lunch today.

Also good with Cherry Coke Zero!

I realize that this was a lame quick post, but I’ve gotta say that I’m enjoying blogging again after my short break.  I really enjoy being a (mostly)-three-meals-a-day blogger, rather than a once in a while poster.

Bloggers – what percentage of your meals do you blog?  Readers – do you prefer all-of-the-time bloggers, or once that post just snippets.

I’m Out

by

Not to worry, the title doesn’t refer to my blog (who was worried?!).  My mini hiatus was the result of my adjustment to my new sleep/work schedule and a need to mull some things over.  Also, my food consumption has been embarrassingly junky recently; Adam and I finished off two pints of Ben and Jerry’s in as many days.

No, the title refers to the upcoming half marathon; I’m out.  I knew it was a possibility going in, but it took a few days for me to make peace with the decision.  I had a 8-miler on the schedule for Sunday and I realize that I just physically wasn’t ready.  Upping my mileage while simultaneously starting a job that requires me to run up and down stairs was just too hard on my knee. 

I love to run and I want to do it for the rest of my life, not push through an injury and make it worse.

If I’m honest with myself, the main reason my knee hurts is because I was lazy with my training plan.  Slacking off and training sporadically meant I was upping my distance without actually getting in shape, a recipe for injury.

I realized I was dreading my workouts, and that’s no fun!  For my joints and my sanity I’m going to scale back to every other day at the gym for a while until I’m actually back in shape (I haven’t really felt like myself since that killer 8 week illness this winter).

I’m sad, but I’m excited.  There are a few local halfs coming up in the fall that I might decide to train for.  I can go on runs that I’m actually looking forward to.  I have a Groupon for a hot yoga study that I’m very nervous and excited about.  The workout scene is my oyster.

Have you ever dropped out of a race you were training for?

Southern Style

by

The other day when I made the 1000 Island BBQ Sauce I knew I’d need to think of a good way to use it.  Adam and I put our heads together and we decided that bbq pulled chicken sandwiches would be the way to go.  This morning I put some chicken in the crockpot, and this evening we took a quick walk to pick up some key supplies.

I also munched on some Dirty BBQ Chips on the walk to get myself in the mood.

Once home it was easy as pie to shred the chicken, toss with the bbq sauce, and place on a bun with thin sliced red onion and bread and butter pickle slices.

Tasted as good as pie too.

On the side I cooked up some shredded brussels sprouts with black truffle oil and browned butter.

Divine!  Please do try out the recipe, it turns brussels sprouts into a whole new vegetable.

This is exactly the kind of meal I look forward to on a summer day.

Easy, tasty, and healthy.

We watched “That 70’s Show” while we ate; we recently discovered it on Netflix Instant Watch and I’m falling in love with it all over again.

Soon enough, it was time for dessert.

Southern Coke Sundaes.  I’ve been turning this idea about in my head for a few weeks and it tasted just as good as I’d imagined.  The recipe is a play on the southern tradition of dumping salted peanuts into bottles of Coke.  When my mom told me she did that as a kid I was skeptical, but sundae-style it totally works!

Did you (or your parents) ever put peanuts in Coke?

Bad Decisions Brew Bad Outcomes

by

I’m going to be honest from the start: this is a fairly whiney post.  In fact, I’ve got a pretty fun recipe post coming this evening (hopefully!) so you may want to just wait.  If you’re still here, I’ll tell you that I’ve been in a rotten mood for the past 24 hours.  It’s been a very frustrating day, not without a few high points though.

I’ll be honest; yesterday afternoon when we went to the Co-op what I really wanted was nachos.  I talked myself out of them in the interest of attempting to actually be healthy this summer, but it was a big mental battle.  <– I shared the play by plays with the husband too, fun for him.  So when I was hungry within 5 minutes of arriving at work yesterday (the hot bar wasn’t very good) I had some regret about my choice.  It doesn’t help that my workplace serves some amazing looking nachos that make me green with envy every time I serve them.

Anyway, I was at work getting hungrier and hungrier, when we had a terrible string of customers that made me question humanity.  Sidenote:  to the woman who requested a private room for a birthday party, brought in her own cake for me to serve, received amazing service, and then tipped me $20 on a $245 bill – I hope someone punches you in the face.  I’m thinking about doing a mini-post on tipping actually, would anyone be interested in that?

As my mood got worse and worse, I knew nachos were the answer.  When I got cut 20 minutes early (ie before the kitchen was closed) I knew it was a sign from the cheese gods.  Nachos.

I realize that bad lighting / the to-go container / the fact that these had to sit and wait for me to finish work makes these look less appetizing than they could, but let me assure you these were a high point of the day!

The nachos were ridiculous good.  Housemade chips with poblano peppers, mango salsa, and smoked gouda?  Heck yes!

I brought the nachos home to share with the husband but I ended up housing 80% of them myself.  Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, consuming that much smoked gouda made me sick to my stomach.  Totally worth it, but this combined with my bad mood did keep me up past 3am.  When I did finally get in bed the husband tells me that I thrashed about and made noise all night.

I didn’t get out of bed until 10am this morning and after sending a few e-mails I realized that I was a) still in a terrible mood, and b) still exhausted.  Back to bed I went.

I got up around 3 with the goal of cashing in on free donut day at Dunkin, and getting in my 5miler.  I ordered a small iced coffee with skim milk,

and got a free Boston Cream donut out of the deal.

Goal #1, check.

Goal #2 = massive fail.  Probably in part because I fueled for the gym with a freaking donut.  Probably also in part because my sleep schedule is that of a college student or a crazy person and I’m in fact a 25-year-old sane person.  I got to the gym, suited up, bought a Gatorade, then got on the treadmill and died.  I was too tired to physically make myself run in the proper form.  I couldnt’ even walk at a pace about 3.2 miles per hour.  It was ridiculous.

I’m so mad at myself!  I realized from the start that I might not be able to actually do the half (especially when my knee started hurting) but I didn’t realize that it would have anything to do with being lazy with my training plan.  What has my problem been the last few weeks?!  As I yelled at myself I did at least come to two realizations –

  1. I need to do better at the grocery store so that there aren’t so many mornings where there’s nothing healthy in the house for me to eat.  Even without sleep, my gym trip would have gone better if I was properly fueled.
  2. I have to get serious about sleeping like an adult.  When Adam’s working at the hospital our hours will be crazy and there’s nothing I can do about it, but right now I have control over the situation.  I don’t get out of work that late, if I came home and went to bed it’d be all good.  But instead I come home and get sucked into the computer/tv and am tired and frustrated all the next day; not good!

What’s a bad decision you’ve made lately?  What can you do to help yourself in the future?

Almost Off

by

I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’m off for the next three days; wahoo!  Today basically has felt like a day off anyways since I’ve got laundry to put away and some things to clean and I’ve successfully ignored it all.  I also skipped the gym so I could give my knee one more day’s rest before I run 5 miles tomorrow.

Adam and I both had nightmares last night that effected our sleep and when we rolled out of bed after 10:30 this morning I was nightmarishly hungry.  Enter a crunchy bowl of cereal with cool skim milk.

We’ve got a Wegman’s brand crunchy oatmeal cereal and Cinnamon Pecan Special K and I had a serving of each.

I don’t eat a lot of cereal but sometimes it sounds so good.

I also noshed on a big pile of baby carrots with blue cheese.

There was only one serving of food left for dinner tonight (we went to town on those sloppy joes yesterday!) so I left it for Adam and walked to the Co-op to pick up hot bar.

Curry chicken salad, tofu with okra, bbq temph, southwestern baked yams,

cashew broccoli salad, grape leaves.

For dessert I made the “punch” that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I had a sip at an event a few months ago.

Vanilla ice cream with orange juice and Sprite.

Frothy!

What is your favorite kind of punch?

Here, Here!

by

It’s here, it’s here; I’m so glad to finally be writing this dinner post!  This specific meal has been on our meal plan for the longest time and I have kept pushing it back again and again.

One day we went out for sushi instead of cooking.

The next day we went out for Thai food instead of cooking.

Yesterday I read a book instead of cooking.

Today I was ready to get back in the kitchen.  First I had to get my gym on though.  I didn’t leave the house until near 10am (a solid 19 hours since yesterday’s lame dinner) so I split a Cliff Bar with Adam as I headed out.

Then I hit up the elliptical for a nice workout, with no leg pain!  45 minutes on the elliptical (included warm up and cool down) at level 6 random; with lots of sprint intervals.  Followed bya quick round of strength and stretching.  Sometimes it’s annoying that the gym is a 30+ minute walk away (it’s towards the back of campus), but it is nice that I’m forced to walk it out after every workout.

Once home I got to cooking, fueled by a chocolate protein smoothie.

For two (mine is the slightly larger one) – 1 frozen banana, 6 ice cubes, 1 packet of chocolate protein powder, 1/2 packet hot chocolate mix, and 1 cup of skim milk.

It was tasty and filling, but maybe a little too filling because it sort of gave me a tummy-ache.

On the cooking agenda were: These pumpkin muffins.

I halved the recipe and skipped the sugar on top.

A sauce recipe I’ve been mulling over for weeks, 1000 Island BBQ Sauce.

Recipe included at the bottom of this post.

Plus turkey sloppy joes made with the bbq sauce.

And steamed kale and zucchini sauteed in the bbq sauce.

All of the above made for a tasty dinner.

The sauce was sweet and tangy and perfect for joes and veggies.

1000 Island BBQ Sauce, yields ~ 2 cups

  • 1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp molasses
  • 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
  • 3 Tbsp ketchup
  • 2/3 cup sweet pickle relish
  • 1/3 cup Miracle Whip or reduced fat mayo

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes until beginning to thicken.  Store refrigerated.