Author Archives: Emily

Tastes Like Home for the Holidays

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My shower took forever because I couldn’t bear to get out of the warm water!  It’s already 10* outside, I’m a little afraid of what January will bring.

Tonight’s dinner utilized take-homes from my cultural meal project.

Callaloo and dumb bread with cheese!

Callaloo is a traditional Caribbean soup made traditional with callaloo, pumpkin, coconut milk, and okra.  Our version was slightly less traditional, with spinach, butternut squash, and coconut milk.

Still delicious though.  This is the recipe we used.

Dumb bread is a non-yeast-levened bread with shredded coconut scattered throughout.  I topped my serving with extra sharp cheddar.

This flavor definitely took my back to my childhood!  This is the recipe we used.

Leftovers for dinner meant less cooking time and more baking time!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Brownies.

I followed the recipe on the Baker’s Chocolate box, but substituted the nuts and vanilla for 2 tsp cinnamon extract and 1 cup chocolate chips.

Quite tasty!  The husband said the cinnamon gave them a warm taste.

Brownies are usually my mom’s specialty but I think these definitely hold their own.  I ate two small ones.

Between the traditional Caribbean flavors and (not)mom’s brownies this meal tasted like home to us; which makes it a good meal for this week because we are gearing up for a trip home!  After all of our exams are done we are heading to St. Thomas for 10 glorious days.  Now I’ve just got two more exams to get through; I can’t wait!

What substitutions have you made on the traditional brownie recipe?  Which was your favorite?

Combatting Stress

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Today has been a big day – I had a nutrition final, a break, and then my Organic Chemistry final.  I knew 8am – 3pm was going to be a stressful, so I did my best to combat my lack of cheer.

Like wearing a nice pink shirt (new from Hanukkah).

And having Adam stop at Starbucks on his way to dropping me off at school (grande non-fat eggnog latte).

My first exam went pretty well, 84% at very minimum.  Sidenote – when I take multiple choice tests I always keep a tally of questions I’m not certain of so that I can calculate my lowest possible score.  Does anyone else do this?  Anyway, my class grade before the final was a 100%, so I’m not too worried.

Then I crammed.  Not gonna lie; I did not study Organic this weekend.  I really have no explanation or excuse for my study habits this semester; all I can say is that I’m pretty disgusted with myself.  I quit my job to go back to school, next semester I plan on treating school like it’s my job (because it is!).

For my mid-cram lunch I packed a ‘new things sandwich.’

1 slice 2% Provolone cheese and 3 slices Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna on an Arnold’s Whole Grain White Sandwich Thin.

The star of the show sandwich was definitely the Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna.

I’ve never actually tasted bologna before, but this was delicious!  There was a fabulous smokiness to it.

Does anyone else see that sandwich smile?

I also packed a baggie of baby carrots on the side,

and a 60% Cacao Ghirardelli square.

I probably should have packed more chocolate, because then I headed to Organic 😉  It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible either.  I asked the teacher to look over my test at the end and he said that I wasn’t ridiculous.  Supposedly we can get our grades tomorrow, so I’ll be waiting with pretty bated breath.

Then I headed to the gym to work off the rest of my stress.  I did an intervals session on the treadmill –

  • 1 minute walking / 2 minutes running
  • x 13 (39 minutes)
  • with cooldown = 45 minutes, 4.0 miles

I had to wait on campus for Adam to pick me up (it’s 10* out there!) but as soon as this is posted I’m getting into the shower and then into my baking clothes!

Weekend Highlights

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I’ve got two final exams tomorrow, ready for the weekend highlights?

Apple and sharp cheddar quesadilla.

Key lime pie and 0% plain Chobani.

Gingersnap white mocha.

Our first eggnog of the season.

And Adam turned 25!

What was the highlight of your weekend?

No Complaints About the Food

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Today was – – – tiresome?  It wasn’t a terrible day, but I certainly have a lot of complaints about it!  I woke up to the realization that I’m getting sick, I felt sick all day, we were so busy all day that I couldn’t study for Monday’s two finals, and in the midst of not studying I found out that I got a B in my Anatomy Lab…  Boo.

One thing I have no complaints about is breakfast.

Kath‘s oat smoothies are genius!  And my holiday twist was pretty darn smart too 😉  This was a leftover serving of oatmeal, 1 frozen banana, and 2/3cup Silk Soy Nog, with a healthy shake of nutmeg.

Mmm-mmn!  The nutmeg totally took it to Christmas morning.  So did these pepermint flavored Now and Laters.

And then I was out of the house for the rest of the day.  We had lots of errands and doctors appointments, all of which moved like molasses.  Adam has a birthday tomorrow (25!) and I’ve got an idiopathic bone lesion.  Fun.

Lunch from Wegman’s salad bar was a bright spot.

But since I didn’t eat “lunch” until 4pm my hunger was so out of control that this barely filled me up.

A slice of buffalo chicken pizza was soon to follow.

Not gonna lie, this slice of pizza was not cooked and I went ahead and ate it anyway.

Adam headed to a coffee spot to study after the grocery, but I knew my best course of action was to get myself into my pjs and tuck into a large bowl of vanilla bean with caramel sauce.

Yep.  I’ll be on the couch if you need me!

Moe’s Who?

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It’s been quite a night for a Thursday, quite a night!  In addition to making a banging dinner and a revolutionary dessert, I also managed to get some school work done; booyah!

On the agenda for tonight were quick and easy quesadillas.

But you know I did some snacking first.  Adam and I split some fun – a snowman cookie from Sweet Tooth,

and a Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Beer.

Both were quite tasty; I ate a little less than half of the cookie, and a little more than half of the beer.

Wokka, wokka, wokka, wokka…..

In between sips, I sautéed up 1/2 cup each frozen corn and black beans in some tomatillo salsa.

This was delicious, and what didn’t fit on my quesadilla was eaten out of a bowl with a bit of sour cream.

I topped a tortilla with my veggie mixture and 1.5oz of sharp cheddar, folded, and gave a quick spin in a greased frying pan.

To die for!  This was cheesy and melty and salty, all while still being healthy.  I previous thought that nothing could top Moe’s, but this was definitely better!

Dessert was pretty darn good too.

That would be low-fat cottage cheese, topped with half a banana, drizzled with caramel sauce.

Sometimes I even impress myself.

Eaten whilst watching “Modern Family,” which seriously slays me with how funny it is!

What do you put on your quesadillas?

Be A Good Friend, To The Gym

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To talk about today, let me go back to the beginning – yesterday.  Be forwarned though, this is a long(ish) post.

  • I did not meet my 10pm bedtime goal yesterday (boo) 
  • because I stayed up and had Adam re-teach me the functions of the atria and ventricles (yay)
  • which meant we overslept this morning and I didn’t have time for breakfast (boo)
  • but which also means that I have smoothie ingredients set up for tomorrow (yay)

Ok, enough of that, boo. (yay?)

I didn’t have my exciting breakfast, but thankfully I did have a baggie of dried hibiscus, Sahale Snacks Valdosta Pecans, and some Kashi H2H.

I also bought a coffee from a stand in the science building.

That coffee had two mini creamers and two sugar packets in it.  Guess how fresh and tasty that coffee was?

Burnt or not, the coffee did fuel me through my final Anatomy practical.  It didn’t go very well, but I’m done with the semester, and that’s a good thing.

I also had part of a group project in Food Lab today.  Our main assignment for this nutrition class was a cultural meal project.  We had to choose a culture; write a written report about its history, food staples, common meals, etc; cook a traditional meal for our lab; and do a presentation.  The presentation is my last day of finals and the meal was today!

My group chose the Virgin Islands (where I’m from!).  We prepared dumb bread (made with shredded coconut) with callaloo (stew with pumpkin, spinach, and coconut milk), pates (fried dough stuffed with spiced meat), and key lime pie.

I couldn’t actually taste everything we made (the pates were beef) but I think everything turned out delicious!

The rest of the lab – Puerto Rico, Mexico, Poland, and Greece – made tasty offerings as well.

Here’s my plate, and my dessert plate.  With a glass of punch my instructor made to celebrate our last day.

Everything was soooo filling, I couldn’t actually finish either of those plates.  I ended up taking so much food home that Adam actually had to come to campus with the car to pick it up!

Guys, I can’t even tell you how much I wanted to get in that car!  It was 20* out, I’d been on my feet for hours… But I’d made a date with the treadmill, and I couldn’t break it!  Sidenote – people always talk about how you need to ‘be a friend to yourself’ to be healthy.  That’s nice and all, but I think you need to be a good friend to the gym (Jim) –

  1. Never bail on plans with him at the last minute.
  2. Always bring a stiff drink!  (H2O)
  3. Don’t let your mind wander too much when you’re together.
  4. Have fun together.

I was a good friend today 🙂  I wanted to do a longer (time/distance) run today so I decided to do some intervals:

  • 1 minute walking, 2 minutes running, 1 walking, 3 running, 1 walking, 5 running

I repeated that circuit x3, then follow it up with a 6 minute cool down walk.  45 minutes, 4.11 miles.  And I talked to my parents on the walk home, so the cold didn’t feel that bad.

Can you believe I’m not even done posting for the day?  I still have to eat dinner!

What would you add to my list?  How are you a good friend to the gym?

Sweet Tooth

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My goal for today is to get in bed before 10pm.  I have to shower, pack for tomorrow, look over some notecards, and write this blog post.  Go!

My meetings went well this afternoon and I went to my final class of the semester.  All I have tomorrow is labs, with exams and presentations, and then next week is finals.  This semester feels like it flew by, I can’t belive it’s almost Christmas!

In my break I read Organic in the cafe in our bookstore.  I ate a spicy chicken flatbread from the cafe.

These sandwiches are so good!  When I eat while studying I like to use bites to break up the pages, but with these I end up basically shoveling them in.  I go to set the sandwich down and I just can’t bear it!

Then I had a date with the treadmill –

  • 2mile run (19.08minutes), I had to take a few quick breaks but my time is getting faster!
  • 11minutes brisk walking on a slight incline with my notecards

Finally, I went to the quickest lab check-out ever; I was in and out in under 5minutes!  I did stick around long enough to learn that my lab grade ended up being a 100.25%!  Our lab grade gets averaged into our class grade and I definitely need those points 🙂

The husband picked me up from school because we had a date at Sweet Tooth to use up a Groupon.  I had my heart set on peppermint ice cream – I can’t find it anywhere! – but sadly that wasn’t available.  We ended up getting a fun array of goodies though.

Tonight’s selection –

I ate three big bites of this pistachio cheesecake, which was divine.

And three small bites of this cannoli, which was soggy and weird.

I’m excited to taste our other purchases tomorrow.

I realize that I ended up skipping either dinner or lunch (depending on how you look at it, but I only had two meals today) and I am actually a bit hungry, but I think my healthiest option for the evening is honoring my bedtime goal.  Good thing I’m excited about tomorrow’s breakfast!

Have you found peppermint (or eggnog!) ice cream in your area this year?

Goodness

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I ended up not having a bowl of ice-cream last night – though I did have two handfuls of dark chocolate almonds – mostly because I was so excited about this bowl:

I’d been excited about breakfast for 12-straight hours and I was not disappointed!

I started by whipping up a double batch of stove top banana oats.

That’s 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 banana, 1 pinch salt.

After I removed tomorrow’s serving (I’ve got an oat smoothie in the works), I stirred in ~1/3 cup low-fat cottage cheese.

Plated (bowled?), topped with strawberries,

and a Nutella spoon.

<– Goodness!

My ‘nana-berry-cheese-nutella oats were muy bella.

I’m loving the texture of that cottage cheese and you really can’t go wrong with nutella.

And now I’ve got a warm/full belly for my 20* walk to school!  I have a couple of meetings, my final Anatomy class, and a trip to the gym planned before my Orgo Lab shut-down at 6pm.  I made an ice-cream date with the husband, which means he’ll be picking me up; thank goodness!

When it’s snowy and icy outside do you walk or drive?  If you are normally a walker, what temperature drives you to your car?

We actually have a 2nd car now, but I didn’t purchase a parking pass for my school so instead it’s turning into a snow drift.