McRoad Trip

Our drive took extra long due to some fun, fun traffic but we made it safely to Ohio.  All the road trips we took the last year have definitely reinforced how in sync the husband and I are; no matter how many hours we spend in the car we always find something to talk about.  The great thing about being in similar fields – medical school and dietetics – is that we always have things to teach each other.  I know that Adam is smart but whenever he talks about medical issues I am always amazed with his passion.  End sap.

We needed some car trip caffeine so we decided to cash in some McDonald’s coupons I picked up at BlogHer.

McCafe Frappes, he went with mocha and I went with caramel.

We were expecting them to be too sweet but it ended up being a total love affair.  We both agreed that they tasted like Starbucks frappaccinos, but better!  The caramel and mocha flavors didn’t taste artificial and the coffee taste totally came through.  I asked for mine without whipped cream and it ended up having 480calories.

When we finally reached Ohio we did the family thing (and bedtime, eek!) before deciding that 9pm was getting to be a pretty late dinner.  Our in-laws food situation was a bit sparse so we headed to the grocery store to stock up on essentials.  I stopped by the freezer section for dinner.

I’ve tried the Kashi Mayan Harvest before (during vegan month) but I ended up being surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Even frozen the plantains had a great sweetness and texture.  The sauce and the quinoa compliment them perfectly.

I also grabbed a single serving bag of Dirty Chips.

I love kettle style chips, the folded up ones are my favorite.

What is your favorite road trip conversation starter?  Adam and I alway seem to talk about sustanability and humane farming practices.

Fun Things on a Friday

Fun thing # 1 was getting this package –

Soap.com is an online pharmacy/home supply store that lets you order vitamins, face soap, toilet paper and other household essentials.  The site is easy to use, and perfect for city dwellers who don’t like to schlep everything via reusable bags.  I won a $20 gift certificate and free shipping while at BlogHer.  I decided to go a little bit functional, a little bit fun.

Fun thing # 2 is that it’s our niece’s birthday this weekend so we are heading to Ohio for some family time.  I got my celebrate on by trying some new nail polish (also snagged at BlogHer).

What?  It is a party for a 5-year old girl!

The not-so-fun thing is that our kitchen is currently swarming with fruit flies.  My spider repellant actually works and now this?!?!  I couldn’t handle my ewwwww-reflex so I quickly packed and fled to The Spot for brunch.

Chicken quesadilla; yum, yum, yum!

I swear I have yet to have a single sub par meal from the Spot, they are always “yum, yum, yum” worthy!  The portions are pretty generous too, I ate half and packed the other half up for the husband mid-road trip.

Final fun fact?  I’ll cop to the fact that I’m currently wearing jeggings!

Not something I would have bought for myself but my aunt, with two teenage daughters natch, always gets me birthday gifts that let me pretend I’m cooler than I actually am.

I’m taking my laptop with me to Ohio so hopefully I’ll have time for a couple quick posts.  Have a great weekend!

Can you read during a road trip or do you get car sick?

Chutney Sounds Like a Stripper Name

Just as predicted – dinner, tv, workout, cleaning.  Actually, no technical workout, but the husband and I did take a 2nd walk.  It is definitely long past time to get in an official sweat session.  The past week has been filled with walking (enough to consider exercise) but I’d like to ramp it up a bit.

Dinner took leftovers and turned them into something beautiful.

The 2nd half of my curried chickpea and potato burrito was a little soggy, but otherwise none the worse for the wear.

And it took me all of 5minutes to saute some frozen veggies; okra, corn, and green beans.  I’m from the school of thought that nothing doesn’t go with a sprinkle of salt and spicy paprika.

A healthy, easy, tasty dinner.

Improved exponentially by the addition of chutney, the one must-have on my grocery list today.

FYI – chutney is a stewed fruit spread common in Caribbean cuisine.  I’ve seen it made with mangos, cilantro, and apricots, and (in my opinion) the tastiest varieties always involve tamarind.

During the tv portion of the evening (“Rizzoli and Isles,” I’m becoming a fan, I think) I also had a bowl of popcorn.

Today was the husband’s 1st day back to school (um, *good luck!* belatedly) so we are trying to turn in early so we can attempt to establish some sort of healthy sleep pattern.  Goodnight all!

Have you ever tried chutney?

Pep in My Step

Whew!  I am sad to see Camile go, but it’s nice to have a day with a little downtime.  Before I drove her to the airport this morning I whipped up a Green Monster so she could have a taste.

1cup frozen spinach + 1frozen banana + 1cup oj = a new convert; she thought it tasted great!  Here’s what our mouths saw –

I made the world’s quickest grocery trip (we are out of town with family again this weekend) then came home for some serious cleaning.  I might have been working but at least I was home 🙂

Mid-morning I snacked on a 100-calorie Cheez-It pack Camile left behind.

As well as some Canada Candy!  This Cadbery Pep was basically just a foreign York Peppermint Patty.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry, I just ate it because I was hot.  We try not to run our A.C. all that often and cool minty refreshingness straight from my fridge was hard to pass up.  Not the best reason to consume 200calories though…

When I did finally get hungry late in the afternoon I set out for a neighborhood wander.  We had food at home but I was in the mood for a walk so I let myself celebrate our $15 grocery bill (God coupons rock my socks so hard!).  I ended up at Saigon Cafe for Pad See Eiw with tofu.

I have zero control around broad rice noodles so I plated half of the serving and put the rest away before I even took a taste.

Sidenote – how cute are the plates I got for my birthday?

They almost match my favorite chopsticks.

Back to the food; Pad See Eiw is my favorite Thai dish but I was shocked to see how many veggies this version boasted.  You never see yellow squash in this dish but the addition was fabulous.

Tonight is something along the lines of dinner, tv, mini workout, more cleaning.

What tricks to you use to keep yourself from eating all of too big portions?

Oh, Canada

Tuesday was so absolutely busy that it’s taken me ’till halfway through Wednesday just to sit down and do the recap!  I’m not even worrying about today’s posts until later, I think this one will be looooooong enough.

Yesterday morning Camile, Adam and I piled into the car bright and early to pick up Benji; oh yes, we were going to Canada.

Actually, first we stopped by the American side of the Falls.

Adam and I, in our typical fashion, forgot our passports so while he ran back home the rest of us wandered across the bridge to a view of the Falls I hadn’t seen before.  Mother Nature knows where it’s at, everything was gorgeous.

For our car breakfast I packed a Cookie Dough Balance Bar,

and a Blueberry POM to split with Adam.

POM Wonderful recently sent me this new juice variety to sample.  I tend not to drink a lot of juice but POM has such concentrated nutrient value that I think it does have a place in a healthy diet.  Plus, juice usually doesn’t register fullness with most people but POM has such a strong flavor that I think it contributes to satiety.  The four of us agreed that while the blueberry was good, we liked the original variety better; the berries gave a bit of an aftertaste.  We also thought that it was too strong, we cut ours with water and enjoyed it better that way.

We crossed the border into a pretty touristy area, but the four of us definitely enjoyed marveling at the wax sculptures, the kooky decorations, and all the offerings at the gigantic Hershey’s store.  Everyone was hungry and ready to get out of the heat so we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

I enjoyed all the decorations and special effects, but thought that the menu was pretty overpriced.  Adam and I decided to split an entrée.

Splitting was a good decision, our meal was giant!  It ended up being wonderful though.  We shared pasta with peas, shrimp, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes.  We both adore sun-dried tomatoes and we felt like the food was pretty high quality.  Splitting worked out perfectly; I gave Adam all of the shrimp and most of the pasta and he let me go to town on all of the veggies.

Next we drove to Toronto!  I loved it!  Adam, Benji, and I kept asking each other all day why we didn’t just live there?!  Toronto seemed like a very walker-friendly city, we saw tons of bikes, there were a bazillion cute stores, the food options were great, and everyone was so nice.

We walked all day, my idea of heaven!  We started in Chinatown; I went into a small grocery store which was probably a mistake because now I’m dying to get back to shop.  You could buy Bobba!  Adam insisted that it wasn’t a kitchen necessity, but we did get some bubble tea.

I got a small passionfruit black tea with tapioca, yum!

We had to walk to see the CN Tower.

Tickets to get in were $20, so we spent some time craning our heads back and walked around the lobby instead.  I met a very fuzzy bear, which might have made Adam a bit jealous 😉

Afterwards we wanded around what I guess was the fashion district (there was also a button).

Fabulous, is pretty much the only word for dinner.

We searched for vegetarian Poutine and came up with Utopia Cafe.  Perfect crispy fries topped with vegetarian gravy and big cheese curds?  Fabulous.

I was so excited to get to try this classic (usually the gravy is meat based).  The four of us split a basket for an appetizer and now we all want to go back.

Our entrées were fantastic as well.  I got the curried chick pea and potato burrito.

The entrées all came with rice and beans and a green salad.

My burrito tasted so much like the roti I grew up eating, I felt like I was back in St. Thomas!  The potato and chick peas were cooked in a spicy coconut curry with raisins and served with some chutney.

I ate all of my salad, most of my rice (Adam happily scarfed down the rest), and half of my burrito.  I’m already excited about eating the second half for dinner tonight.

Then we piled back into the car for the drive back to reality the U.S.

Have you ever been to Canada?

Cha-cha-cha-Changes

I hope you guys like the blog changes! I am very excited to be back to Eating Chalk!

We are heading up to Toronto for the day, but I just wanted to check in via Adam’s phone to say hi.

Bites and Bytes

This morning we lazed around and then headed to a late brunch lunch at Panos.  I LOVE being able to walk to the restaurants on Elmwood!  I also love new swag t-shirts.

We were so ready for food by the time our lunch arrived, V for Victory!

I went with the turkey rueban which came with fries.

Tasty, tasty stuff; you can never go wrong with a rueban.  I ate about 85% of my food before proclaiming defeat.

We ran some errands (and I got like 8 different forms of bad news, boo!) and then decided that both of us were up for a milkshake so to Coldstone we went.

I ordered a small coffee + cheesecake ice cream blend with Oreos.

Yums!  I always request skim milk when I order a milkshake; I’m all for “spending” calories on ice cream, but milk?!

It’s going to be a lazy day around here because tomorrow a group of us is heading up to Toronto.  Be on the look out for some MEGA changes to Eatventures this afternoon; while I have Camile here as a tech guide I’m doing some major blog overhaul!