Author Archives: Emily

Red, White, and Late

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I hope everyone and their families had an incredible Independence Day.  No July 4th post for me, mostly because I was so ashamed by my lack of red, white, and blue foods; I always stick to theme!  We did dress festively though,

some of us more than others 😉

We did eat in an, ahem, celebratory fashion though, so I woke up today feeling pretty bloated and gross.  No better cure than testing out the new running shoes (an early birthday gift from my parents).

Since it was 10am already but we didn’t want breakfast before our run the husband and I split this pack of energy gels.

They were a free sample but I would probably buy them again, they tasted more like candy than gels and didn’t sit heavy in our stomachs.

I decided the safest route for new shoes was short intervals –

  • 5minute walking warm up
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute walk
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 5minute walking cool down

All total we covered 3miles in 39minutes.  I’m unsure about my new shoes still, they were far more supportive but I ended up having to stop and mess with my right foot halfway through because of a big blister forming on my right pinky, I’m hoping from my new socks.

After a quick shower we headed out to meet our friend Danielle for brunch.  I had a ton of work to do today (and did NOT get enough of it done!) but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity since the husband had the day off from the lab.  We headed to Panos.

I was feeling stressed about my work, but that’s nothing an extra spicy bloody mary can’t fix.

All the breakfast options were pretty big, but thankfully I talked the waitress into letting me order off of the kid’s menu.

I ended up with the 1-1-1.  One egg, sunny side up,

one piece of french toast,

and I subbed in hash browns for my one piece of meat.

I smothered everything in maple syrup and devoured, delicious!

While I was home not working I did random snacking.  Blue and I had some Rainbow Nerds.

A serving of Jammie Dodgers biscuit cookies.

An onion roll with Smart Balance, x2 actually, this was quick and tasty.

And I finally got in my red, white, and blue!

Siggi’s vanilla yogurt with strawberry sauce and blueberries.

O-M-G, so fabulous!  Doesn’t the yogurt just look like a scoop of ice-cream?!  The texture is practically like cream cheese!  The strawberry sauce I actually whipped up yesterday, the recipe comes from Healthy Food for Living.  I had to add ~1/4t of xanthan gum to keep it from being too liquidy, but other than that I highly recommend trying it yourself.

The husband came home this evening (he went to a water park with some friends) and insisted on getting me some veggies; my knight in shining arm took me on his steed to the Co-op hot bar.

I got a little bit of turkey Tetrazzini,

a piece of eggplant parmesan,

2 stuffed grape leaves,

and some side salad.

Now I’ve got to get to bed on the double, I panic a little bit whenever I think about how much work I have to do tomorrow!

Did you do anything fun to celebrate the Fourth?

Caramel Crab and Beef on Weck Roll

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It’s been a busy past 24hours, the husband I have managed to pack in a LOT of fun!  We started by staying up half the night watching “Dollhouse;” what are we, in college?!?  Adam shared one of his Kashi cookies with me around 1am.

This “morning” didn’t begin until after 10am 😉  But I did start the day off right with a tasty breakfast sandwich.

An onion roll topped with Crofter’s Superfruit Spread, a slice of reduced fat colby jack cheese, and 2 eggs.

I use the microwave method for the eggs (which I whisked a bit of Buffalo sauce into) and they came out so fluffy.

Then we piled in the car for another mini roadtrip.  Adam’s friend from his lab invited us to her wedding reception and it was held upstate.  They actually got married in St. Thomas (hometown represent!) a few months ago, so the party had a tropical theme.

The husband and I split a strawberry daquiri,

and a small plate of chocolate fountain food.

We actually cut out early and missed dinner, so we decided to get sushi once we got back to Buffalo.

The husband has been craving sushi so we checked out a place we walked by a few weeks ago, Sea Bar.  They had great aqua accoutrements,

and complementary spiced popcorn.

For our actual appetizer the husband and I split a Miso Caramel Crab roll.

So tasty!  The roll was tempura’d with cream cheese, green onions, and crab, then topped with miso spiked caramel.

The four bites were enough to satisfy my sushi fix, so I went with salmon for dinner.

It came well done with roasted pineapple salsa and egg fu young.  I passed the eggs to Adam but devoured my fish.

Among other things, the husband ordered a Beef of Weck roll.

Fun!

After dinner we kept the date going with a trip to Delish for ice-cream.  I got a Love Potion # 9,

sweet cream raspberry ice cream with lavender.  Swoon, the lavender gave such a great aftertaste.

The salmon and ice cream were quite tasty, but honestly, I’m still flipping starving!  I’ve been hungry since I went to bed last night and it’s been driving me crazy.  Once I get this published I’m actually going to go get a sandwich!

What is your favorite type of sushi roll?  I’m not often brave enough to go beyond veggies, but one time in Brooklyn Adam and I had a roll with bananas in it that was divine.

Achoo BooHoo

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So it turns out that I scored a 100% on yesterday’s exam (yippie!).  Sadly, that news was pretty much the last high point of the day.  Today was just bad.  I woke up with bad allergies and a bad mood.  A terrible mood actually.  I have no explanation for it, but kittens and sunshine were just not in the cards.

I went out to get breakfast so I could take a cheer up walk, and I ended up with an egg and cheese biscuit.

Meh.

Even more meh was lunch.

I usually love Allergaroo, but this Spaghetti was bad.

The serving (or two!) of Lindt truffles I had for dessert did perk me up a bit though.

And once the husband got home things started to get better, love how that works!

Grocery shopping was obviously a necessity so we threw in a salad bar date.

Grilled veggies,

a little bit of sweet and sour chicken and curried chicken salad,

cabbage salad,

a lot of Asian green beans.

Realistically Friday night was not the time to hit up a hot bar, usually I lick my plate clean but I couldn’t quite swing it tonight.

I was still hungry post-dinner and when I was feeling empty a full hour later I decided that it was real hunger and made myself some mashed potatoes.

I mashed 7oz of baby potatoes with 1T skim milk, 1.5T butter, salt, and rosemary.

I’ll never understand people who peel there potato salad potatoes, the skins are the best part!

Do you have any allergies?  I am allergic to cats, dust, and tons of seasonal plants, but I’m so happy not to have any food allergies that it’s really all good.

Dinner at the Dollhouse

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I think I actually did pretty well on my test 🙂  But the amount of work to be done in the next three days is frankly a bit scary.  I’m decompressing before my nose hits the grindstone by watching Dollhouse with the husband.

Did you catch my vegan challenge recap?  This breakfast is so tasty that even though it’s vegan it’s the only thing I wanted.

A serving of Van’s Buckwheat with Berries waffles with my Berry Breakfast Topping.

I used Silk Almond Milk, a peach and some blueberries in my topping.  It is just so good!  Like at how juicy and big the berries get –

The rest of my day was decidedly UNvegan.

While we were out getting his new phone the husband bought me Coldstone.  I went with a kid’s size Oreo filling ice-cream with a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup mashed in.

It was the perfect amount, I’m so glad they let me get a kids instead of the “small.”

We still haven’t gone to the grocery store since our roadtrip, so dinner came courtesy of the bar downstairs.

My turkey grill had turkey, tomatoes, jack cheese, and 1000island dressing on sourdough; no butter on the bread.  With fries.

If I’m getting fat it’ll be on french fries please, not soggy fried bread; don’t be afraid to request modifications when ordering in a restaurant.  I was a bitter waitress for years but I never minded when people championed for their health.

What modifications do you make to restaurant orders?  I usually just throw away the bread, but when I plan on eating it I ask for no butter.  I also ask for things like Hollandaise sauce on the side.

Vegan Challenge Recap

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Howdy, again!  Thank you for being patient with all these blogging-free days.  My online class has been as hard (if not harder!) as I was expecting.  The fact that I’m in catch-up mode (I had to print out all the hand outs, write up my profile, etc) is definitely adding to the stress though; once I’m on top of things this weekend everything will run more smoothly.  I actually have my first exam today, so no food post now, but I wanted to do a Vegan Challenge Recap.

Overall, the last month was very satisfying.  I will straight up admit that yesterday (June 30th) dinner was a big cheesy plate of jalapeno nachos!  Amazingly, it was the first time all month I even wanted anything that wasn’t vegan.  I had several people ask me over the course of  month what foods I was missing, and the honest answer was nothing.  Vegan foods can be easy, tasty, and satisfying.

Will I be permanently changing my eating style then?  No.  I still believe the things I said in my Challenge Introduction Post –

  • Eating many vegan meals each week contributes to a healthy diet.
  • Vegan cooking and baking can be fun and satisfying.
  • Veganism is kind to our planet and can be a great way to conserve energy.
  • The current industrialized dairy and meat industries are immoral (even though in theory consuming meat and dairy is not) and the best way to vote is with my wallet.

But I also believe these things as well –

  • I personally feel healthier when I am eating some animal products (especially Greek yogurt, eggs, and lean fowl).
  • Going out to dinner is a lot easier and more enjoyable, especially in Buffalo, when your diet is less restricted.
  • I enjoy foods like eggs and Greek yogurt.  And even though I didn’t really miss them during June, I don’t want to cut them out of my life forever. 
  • I don’t drink a lot of cow’s milk, but soy milk in iced coffee just isn’t the same.
  • We are going to be broke as hell next year and not using my year’s worth of free eggs just isn’t an option.

 For all my ‘traditional’ readers – have you ever done a vegan challenge?  What were your final impressions?

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

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Hey guys!  This is me writing to you from the car yesterday, mid-road trip.  You won’t be hearing from Today Emily until later this evening.  With any luck she’s been up since 6 this morning, plugging away at school work.

I just wanted to give you guys a little monthly announcements post.  Please feel free to picture a boy with a scroll and one of those long trumpets.

It is July  in the land of Eatventures.  I realize that it’s still June for the rest of you, but to me it’s now July.  And July is synonymous with BUSY round these parts.  Here’s some of what’s on tap for the next month –

  • My very first dietetics class!  Which also happens to be my first online course.  And it’s with the head of my department.  And she force registered me in ahead of the rest of the waiting list.  And I need a recommendation from her to get into the coordinated program I’m shooting for.  Basically I need to earn an A++.  And she has already let us know that we should expect 25hours of work a week minimum in order to do well in the course.
  • My incredible anxiety about whether or not I’m going to do well in my first dietetics course.
  • Our move to our new apartment!  There’s actually a one month overlap in our rents at our current and new spots, which means we can make little trips throughout the weeks to move some stuff in pieces.
  • My 25th birthday.  Not so fun fact – our moving truck day and my birthday are going to be one in the same.

I’m incredibly nervous, but also really excited about this new chapter in my life.

For those of you who decided to skim or skip ahead, here’s the basic take away message – don’t feel like I don’t love you any more if my blog posts are few and far between this month.  In fact, I love you bunches 😀

8hours in the Car Later

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We started off this morning with another bike ride!

Actually, my mom and I biked around and my dad and Adam walked behind.  It was a short ride because our main destination was coffee.

Piqua gas stations aren’t exactly floating in soy milk so I ended up having to use Irish crème non-dairy creamer, yetch!

For breakfast I pulled a Coconut Acai Prana Bar out of my snacks bag.

This was not enough food and I was starving the minute we hit the road.  I ate a bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel thins,

and I opened some honey roasted cashews.

Miracle of miracles, we managed to find another healthy road trip food option!

I have major adoration for Einstein Bagels anyways, but this was by far the healthiest car lunch one could eat.

I got the veggie sandwich – red onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce on a sesame bagel thin – and subbed in hummus for cream cheese.

Filling, healthy and delicious.  It even came with an apple as a side.

A mealy and disgusting apple that I ended up throwing out the window, but at least it came with one! 😀

Things were going well until we realized we missed an exit and added 2.5hours to our trip.  Arrgh!  At least, when I was starving and things were looking grim, we found a Sheetz, with fresh fruit.

Watermelon,

and grapes.

And pretty road sign flower sculptures across the street.

When we did finally get back to Buffalo we quickly unpacked before grabbing dinner from the Co-op.

Baked veggie rolls,

and baked tofu with cilantro ginger sauce.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Put Another Veggie on the Barbie

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Our day just got better and better 😀

After my bike ride I grabbed a small bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast.

Melon, blueberry, raspberry, grape.

Then the family set off toward the 2nd Street Market –

It ended up reminding me of a mash-up between a farmers’ market and Quincy Market in Boston.  We didn’t end up buying a whole lot, but we did see all sorts of neat things.

I did “lunch” in bites.  My dad and I bought a pint of cherries to split.

Adam gave me one of his grape leaves.

And I ate a pack of Bananamon Funky Monkey.

After the market we did shopping that was even more my style.  We went to Trader Joe’s to stock up on Sun Butter and then to Dick’s where I got my birthday gift early – new running shoes!!!  I can’t wait to start breaking those bad boys in!

On the way home we stopped at George’s (like Dairy Queen, but owned by a family friend, and better) so the husband could demolish a double cheeseburger and chocolate malt.  I went with a much more reasonable extra small grape/strawberry slushie.

This was one of the times I appreciated the vegan challenge; George’s has a long blizzards list and besides the fact that I really don’t need a huge ice-cream choosing a flavor gives me anxiety 😉

I did finish up dessert with a small serving of gummi cola bottles at home though.

Dinner was the first time this month that the vegan challenge was actually a challenge.  My grandparents adore Outback so that’s where we went, but my options were beyond limited.  I ended up ordering three sides.

Side salad (no cheese, no croutons) with balsamic vinegar.

Side of steamed veggies.

Side of french fries.

Not the healthiest meal by any stretch.  I rounded it out with some fresh watermelon when we got home.

Adam and I just got our butts kicked at Euker and now it’s bedtime.  We’ve got an early morning tomorrow before we head back to Buffalo, see you at home!