Author Archives: Emily

You’d Have To Be High…

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…to think that “Your Highness” was funny.  My goodness, can I have those two hours of my life back?!?  My fun evening plans ended up being mostly tedious and only a little bit funny.

Actually what was funny is the back story – I’ve been excited about “Your Highness” for months; I saw previews and thought it looked a lot like “Year One,” which I loved.  Sidenote – I saw “Year One” twice in theatres, I’m all about raunchy comedies.  Well, we saw “Your Highness” tonight and it was awful; pretty much the only redeeming quality was the gratuitous naughty language <– which I’m all about.  On the drive home something strange occurred to me, Summer Glau (one of the main reasons I was excited about the movie – “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Firefly” both rocked my world) didn’t appear to have been in it.  After some quick Googling I found the problem – I’m an idiot!  The movie I’m excited about is “The Knights of Badassdom.”  I saw the previews at the same time and must have melded them together in my head!  Well, now at least I can be excited for that movie 😀

Prior to the movie I made a quick dinner of this Smart Ones Pasta with Ricotta and Spinach.

And during laughs that we few and far between, I snacked on an apple,

and a bag of random candies I got at a kiosk in the mall.

At least the snacks were good?!

Did you see “Your Highness?”  What’d you think?  Any plans to see “Knights of Badassdom?”

It’s Rebecca Black’s Favorite Day

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Minus starting any homework yet, my afternoon has gone according to plan.  Class – gym – nachos – Missing.  Once you add a shower and doing the dishes into that list I don’t feel too bad that I’m a bit behind schedule.

I’m not sure that pushing the gym back to after class will be a regular thing; when we got there today all of the ellipticals were occupied.  Not a big deal, but I don’t like to run two days in a row.  I still ended up having a good workout –

  • 20(+ish) minutes jogging on the treadmill.  I didn’t take any breaks this time and I covered 2.5miles, booyah!
  • 20minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.  I did a mix of backwards, forwards, sprint intervals (and dying).
  • quick session of abs work and stretching

By the time I got home and got myself and the dishes clean, it was after 3o’clock and I was just sitting down for lunch.  Good thing I made a lunch worth waiting for –

2 oz of corn chips + 2 oz of extra sharp cheddar + a big handful of arugula + black beans + jalopenos

+ tomatillo salsa stolen from Moes + Oikos 0% plain Greek yogurt

Oh baby!

I swear I can’t taste the difference in the 50% reduced cheese when eaten on salads (so why not eat one with a little less fat?!), but for melting full fat is the way to go.  This dish blew the other day’s baked nachos out of the water.

If things go according to plan again, we’ve got a fun(ish) evening planned.  Hope everyone has a great afternoon!

What are your nacho topping must-haves?  I always go with black beans and jalopenos are essential.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry

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Good morning!  Did everyone get enough beauty sleep?  We did not have any sense of urgency at bedtime so I decided to push my workout to after class and sleep in a bit instead.  Wouldn’t you know it though, at 7:30 my brain woke up and just wouldn’t quit!  At least I got a few extra minutes.

Plus, the earlier I woke up, the earlier I got to eat breakfast.

Chocolate covered strawberries for breakfast?  Yes please!

I topped a serving of Special K Red Berries with a splash of milk, a 0% strawberry Siggi, and a dollop of leftover top-secret chocolate frosting.

The texture wasn’t perfect (Siggi is a little thick for mixing), but the flavor was a perfect breakfast play on the original.

I have one class today and then it’s time to hit the gym.  My hopes for the afternoon include homework, reruns of “1-800 Missing” on Netflix Instant Watch, and more homemade nachos!

Tell me what you like, multiple choice – My favorite dipped in chocolate is:

  1. strawberries
  2. pretzels
  3. marshmallows
  4. potato chips

Brinner and Baked Goods

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My afternoon wasn’t thrilling in the traditional sense, but I finished all of my labwork for next week so it was exciting for me!  Plus there was some fun time in the kitchen.  Time in the kitchen is always fun, especially because I’m not the designated dishwasher in this family!

But I am the designated Brinner creator.

Breakfast + Dinner = Brinner.

I love carbs, but I don’t actually eat a lot of plain old bread in my day-to-day life.When I got this Hearty Wheat with Flax Nature’s Pride loaf via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program a few weeks ago I stuck it into the freezer until the time was right.

I knew sooner or later I’d be in a french toast mood.

I pulled the bread out of the freezer and whisked together a mix of 2 eggs and 1 yolk, a dash of vanilla extract, and a splash of buttermilk.

After a quick dip in the pool casserole dish, the toasts were ready for a butter-greased griddle pan over medium-high heat.

I ate my serving Napoleon style, sandwiching banana slices, cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of maple syrup.

The Hearty Wheat and Flax bread was hearty enough to stand up to the French toasting, but paired nicely with the sweetness too.  I threw the extra egg yolk into the mix because it was leftover from my baking project and this ended up being so eggy and good.  I’m not sure exactly how it affected the flavor, but the buttermilk was obviously a good idea too.  Definitely a dinner winner, though I’m glad we got in our fruits and veggies earlier!

Yes you read correctly above, I said baking project.

I made, and ate, cupcakes, but that’s all I’m going to tell you about it.

I’m in the test stage of a recipe I’m very excitedly working on; expect a fun debut mid-week next week.

What’s your favorite brinner meal?  We eat so many eggs for dinner that I actually consider them more of a nighttime food.

Skipped But Not Forgotten

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I was gone last night, but the blog was not forgotten!  Actually, what didn’t happen was dinner 😦  Our plan was to get Wegman’s hot bar then do some grocery shopping, but unfortunately my class ran until the very last minute and by the time we reached Wegman’s the hot bar was bare.  When we finished getting groceries – Adam’s hosting poker night this weekend so this was a quick but essential trip – it was almost 10 and I determined bedtime made more sense than dinner. 

Thank goodness I had it together enough to make breakfast before we left this morning.

Sludge smoothies for all!

For two smoothies I blended –

  • 1+ cup frozen blueberries
  • 2+ cups frozen spinach
  • 2 cups orange juice w. calcium and vitamin d
  • approx. 2 Tbsp honey

Yumtastic!  The way our mornings have been running this year smoothies have seemed impossible, but they really are one of my favorite breakfasts.

Adam dropped me off at campus and once I swallowed my sludge I headed to the gym.  Unfortunately I forgot my water bottle, and I’d look a little funny rehydrating with my sludge, so I ended up buying a G2.

I managed to get in a nice treadmill workout before my Biochem lab; 20minutes of jogging with a short warm up and cool down.

I still had to pause the machine to die a couple of times, but my overall running speed was faster than last time.

Lab went by quickly and easily, I finished off an assignment in the break, and then I headed to a final meeting for the service club I’m a part of.  Easy peasy.  And lunch was good.

A salad base of arugula with 1oz of 50% reduced sharp cheddar and black beans,

topped with 1oz of crunched up tortilla chips and Stubbs bbq sauce.

BBQ sauce on salad is where it’s at!  Seriously kids, try this.

Adam came to pick me up and we headed to Moes to get him lunch – I packed him a salad too but forgot to pack him dressing or a fork, whoops! – where I stole a few of his chips.

Now we’re home for what looks like a fun and easy afternoon 🙂

How often do you skip dinner; once a week, once a month, never?  Why do you skip it?

Way Back Wednesday, Wk 2

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Even while pre-writting this post, I knew that my epic disaster of a nutrition test is going to kill my appetite this afternoon.  Nonetheless, we push on.

I packed some dried kiwi and hibiscus for sweetness and chew,

a seaweed snack for salt and crunch,

and an Eggnog Nutrament brings up the rear to fill in the calorie/nutrient gap.

I also have an exam in my night class, so the dinner plan is Wegman’s hot bar; yay!

Way Back Wednesday is a new blog series.  Since I have to pre-blog lunch on my long days, I’m throwing in pictures from life BB (life before blogging) for fun (here’s WBW1).

This week’s WBW is – the pose!  When I was in college (and sometimes now still) I posed for every single picture in the same position: one hand on my hip, arm held out from my body at a slightly awkward angle.  See?

It was such a thing that my friends starting regularly posing for photos the same just way to poke fun at me.  Like these pictures of Camile and I and Kristen and I both doing the pose.

Jerks! 😉

Is there something you always do in photos?  I always try to tilt my chin down instead of up, because I read that the up tilt can give you a photo double chin.

What Does The Gym Do For You?

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Yesterday was a disaster.

  • I ate junky, boring foods all day (and therefore there was no blog post)
  • I attended a meeting that was as pointless as it was long (and therefore I didn’t work out)
  • and I started an intense personal and professional melt-down (and therefore I didn’t study for today’s 2 important tests)

When yesterday was a disaster, skipping the gym sounds like a really great idea.  In reality, when yesterday was a disaster that’s when going to the gym is a really great idea.  My reason for having the husband take me to the gym this morning was twofold –

  1. I do my best notecard reviewing while working out.  If I’ve got to cram then I’ve got to do it in motion.
  2. Working out makes you happy.  While my endorphins don’t mean I can unthink “Today is going to be an epic fail;” they do help me to think “Today is going to suck, BUT I can make it through.”

So my notecards and I spent 30minutes, level 6 random, on the elliptical, followed by 30minutes of incline speed-walking on the treadmill.  60 low-impact cardio minutes.

Then I hurried home, took a disgustingly quick shower, and scarfed down a 0% Fage with mango and soursop for breakfast.

Coffee is also going to be needed to face this day.

What are your reasons for going to the gym?

Dreaming Day

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After it’s auspicious start, my day continued to run enjoyably.  Definitely not a Monday’s Monday!

The weather was (mostly) fine, I got an 82% on last week’s big test (lower than I’d like, but 10points higher than the last one), and there were lots of delicious eats.  Like lunch –

Into 2 Tbsp of Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter with Honey,

I dipped baby carrots,

and a Fuji apple.

Oh man, this apple!  It was beyond sweet and crunchy, best apple I’ve had yet this year!

Not quite enough food though apparently, because my stomach growled all through my second afternoon class.  I’ve got another big, important test on Wednesday and I needed to be note-taking not dreaming of dinner!  Sidenote – when I get bored in class I totally work on my meal plan for the upcoming month; there are always so many new recipes I’m excited about.

The day felt like Spring instead of Winter – finally! – but by the afternoon the wind was howling.  It was loud enough that my teacher had to pause a few times because she couldn’t talk over the nose.  Thankfully one of my friends graciously offered to drive me home, so I didn’t have to worry about blowing away.

I was blown away however (ha!), by my tasty dinner.

What better way to get in your greens than with homemade veggie nachos?

I piled corn chips with 50% reduced sharp cheddar, fresh arugula, black beans, and canned jalapeno, then baked at 450* for 10minutes.

Plus plain 0% Oikos and green salsa for dipping.

The salsa was stolen on a Moe’s run and it totally made the nachos.  I would love to find green salsa that I could purchase like a not-a-creeper, but our store only sells one kind and it is way too spicy for us.

I ended with a fun dessert, clotted cream fudge.

I don’t have a better picture because the wrapping was a little intense, but I ate half of the box, aka too many servings.  We bought this on a whim but it was great; it tasted sort of like extra soft caramels.

two questions for a good Monday

  1. What do you day-dream about?
  2. Is there a brand of (not super spicy) tomatillo salsa that you recommend?  Preferably one I could order online.