Booze and Board Games

It’s been a very enjoyable evening, but it’s also a late evening (after midnight) and I’ve got an early morning tomorrow (open house at Buffalo State) so I’ll keep it quick.

I ended up only eating half of my sandwich and giving the rest to Adam.  If you’re concerned I’m not feeling myself, not to worry, I completely killed my diet dr. pepper and jalapeno poppers 🙂

I did make myself a tasty snack a couple of hours later though.

A cup of Eggnog’n Tea (it was 40* out today!),

and 3spoons of lemon curd with a serving of Biscoff cookies.

Yumtastic!  The combo of flavors there was truly toe-curling.

Some friends came over to hang out and eventually we headed to dinner.  We had to go back to Cozumel’s so that they could experience it 😉

I tried to keep my hands off the chips this time,

but only because I knew that we had a plate of fried cactus coming.

A few of us split this appetizer (I had about 1/3) and were all pretty impressed.

Drinks were flowing so I ordered the Tequilla Popper Up.

Tequilla, 7-Up, and grenadine.  So-so, I ended up sharing it with the husband.

And for dinner I ordered the Donnie Brasco Quesadilla fresh shrimp, homemade basil pesto, roasted red pepper & smoked gouda stuffed in a flour tortilla.

It was very, very tasty.  However, I only ate about half of my meal, choosing instead to decimate Adam’s fries; my booze wasn’t the best influence.

After dinner we all headed over to another friend’s house to play some board games.  We did some serious We Didn’t Playtest This At All and Pictionary.  I had a half sweet/half regular coffee,

but the caffeine didn’t keep me from losing at everything!

Hope everyone else had a fabulous evening!

An Even Better New Thing

TGIF!  Not having a job and all, weekends don’t really mean much to me lately, but today has been an exceptionally good day. 

Before I headed to the gym I ate a big spoonful of TJ’s SunButter.

As well as a mixed berry mix 1.

Tasty, but I split it with the husband so I wouldn’t be too sloshy.

I pulled out the new one-piece and headed to the pool for my first ever swim workout.  I was a little bit nervous but things ended up going great.  Growing up on an island, of course I’ve always known how to swim, but I don’t know how to swim swim.  I’m so slow!  True story: one time my friend Amanda realized we could move faster with her swimming and pulling me along by one leg than by swimming and waiting for me to catch up!

Today I did 32laps in 30minutes.  That’s 32 x 25meters or almost .5miles.  It felt great to be moving again!  Nothing could replace running for me but this might be one of my new favorite workouts.  Some thoughts –

  • they made me buy a swim cap (yes I looked ridiculous, yes I’ll post pictures next time) but I think some ear plugs might need looked into as well
  • I refuse to wear goggles too, but Visine definitely needs to be purchased
  • I alternated between breast stroke and freestyle but I don’t know how to flutter-kick at all; I was frogging it the whole time!
  • My leg hurt once or twice but overall I think this is a safe, great workout for my injury
  • I need to pack a change of clothes.  I thought I would just throw my yoga pants back on over my wet suit but it felt so awful I ended up just going commado!

When I drove home I couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere near our house.  I had to pay for a meter (which I need to refill or move at 3) and then make a long trek home.  On my walk I stopped in at Arbys for a diet soda and totally got suckered in by some good marketing – Market Fresh Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich, with chicken, pecans, celery, apples, grapes, and mayo.

Yum.  I couldn’t help getting jalapeno poppers as my side.

Not the best or worst lunch ever.

I have to run, I need to go fill the darn meter soon!

Do you ever swim to work out?  Any tips for me?

Can you get me a choco-banana…..Foster?

7:30 is a much nicer time to wake up than later hours.  For one thing, it gives me more time to make an out of this world breakfast!

That would be a sliced banana cooked in 1T of butter, over plain 0% yogurt with a sprinkle of brown sugar, drizzled with honey.

Oh man!  Bananas Foster is pretty much one of my favorite desserts and I almost never get to eat it, so a similar taste for breakfast rocked my socks*.

*note – I said a sprinkle for a reason; I slipped and added ~2T! of brown sugar to mine and it was a bit sweeter than I’d like

Who knows what movie my title comes from??

A New Favorite

Sorry for the late post, but I did have tons of fun!  I also apologize for the daily long postage (as opposed to three a day), it looks like that’s going to be the norm around here for a while.  The next three weeks are chockfull of exams; not like I did much studying today but you know!

I ate breakfast around 10:30 – just what happens when you wake up after 9! – so leftover green tuna enchilladas just felt right.

Amazingly, these were even more tasty after a day in the fridge!

I picked up the husband around 1 and we sat in the campus cafe to study a bit before class.  I’m not sure what has been up with my intensely specific cravings lately but today’s was for frozen coffee.  I just went with it…

A couple of thoughts – 1) I could make a frozen coffee at home for less calories and $ so this was a little silly; 2) this ended up being outrageously good and I’m so glad I got it!  I ordered the ‘Jamaican Me Cooler’ because it made me giggle and it ended up having coconut in it 🙂

Before my next class, a couple of hours later, I got sucked in by another beverage.

I adore Naked juice, coconut is pretty much my favorite thing, and the new nutritional stats looked good.

This was good but not as impressive as I was hoping for; I’d probably just drink a coconut water next time and save the calories.  It’s always good to get in some servings of fruit though!

I ended up having a pop quiz in Chemistry (?!?!) and even though we had leftovers about and a dinner plan it didn’t take too much for Adam to talk me into a dinner out.

We wandered over to Cozumel Grill and Tequilla Bar, a place we’ve been eyeing on all our recent walks,

and it’s our new favorite place on Earth!  Seriously, we might have just developed an obsession.  There were at least 10 things each that Adam and I were dying to try on the menu!  And they brought out complementary housemade tortilla chips and salsa.

I freaking dived into that basket, these chips were even better than the ones from Burrito Bar in Brooklyn.

For dinner I went with the Maryland Blue Crab Quesadilla.

So good!  Everything was super fresh and this felt so high-brow for a quesadilla.  I shared 1/4 with the husband who was pretty much in love as well.  We have plans to go back asap!

I hope everyone else had a great day.  Pleasant dreams and happy Fridaying.

How do you discover new restaurants?  I definitely look at Yelp for specific cravings but in general we find things by wandering around new neighborhoods.

Hump Day Slump

I’m just gonna be upfront about it: this post is going to be lame.  And I realize a lot of my posts have been lame recently, but this one really takes the underachievement cake.  It’s sort of not my fault, because my camera was randomly being finicky and low-battery.  But it also sort of is, since I only ate three (count them, 3) items today.  Tomorrow?

For breakfast I made Adam and I Green Monsters.

(For 2) 2cups frozen spinach, 2cups frozen strawberries, 2cups oj w. calcium + vitamin d.  I made this mix to appeal to the husband, but it did NOT appeal to me.  I drank the whole thing in spite of preferring the flavor of my original gm and ended up with serious acid reflux.

My stomach was super painful all morning and by the time I was finally hungry again I could only think about one thing – a turkey sandwich.  So I went out and got one.

A Turkey Grill, no bacon no butter on the bread, from Coulter Bay.  And yes, I ate the fries.

When the husband came home around 6 it didn’t take much arm-twisting to get me to agree to head back to Sweet Tooth.

If I’m really being honest, it was mostly that I’d been home all day except for lab and I wanted to show off my cute top!

Adam got a gigantic sundae (he tore into it so fast I couldn’t even photograph) but I opted for a bear cookie.

I didn’t even realize it was a Black and White Cookie, my very favorite, until I started eating.  My nickname for the husband is ‘Bear,’ so it’s possible I took out some of my marital tension on the cookie –

Whoops!  😉

I guess it’s a good thing I got fruit and veggies in at breakfast?!  Hope everyone else had a happy Hump Day.

Does your significant other have a pet name?  He’s Bear and I’m Mouse.  Gag, I know!

Nightmares and Dream Recipes

Let me get my whining out of the way so I can get on to the good stuff:  my leg hurts / I’m not getting my to-dos done and I’m going to fall behind in school / I felt exhausted and awful all day.

I actually did get into bed before 10pm last night, a first of its kind achievement for me.  However, then I had another first – a nightmare!  I used to have night-terrors when I was really young, but this was my first ever bad dream that I could remember.  Basically, I went to the fertility doctor and found out I couldn’t have babies with the husband.  I was telling my dream-mom how helpless I felt when I woke up in the middle of the night in tears!  I don’t even know where in my psyche this came from, the husband and I don’t have babies on our radar (I’m not even taking folic acid yet!).

The good stuff –

Today’s outfit sort of thrills me –

Stripes, high-waist, and pockets; oh my!

Understated but green bowl aside, breakfast was pretty thrilling as well.

I topped the last of the Fage (~1/2cup) with 1 cup (frozen, defrosted) berries and 3 heaping spoonfuls of lemon curd.

My, oh my this was good 😀

My busy sit/stare agenda filled up all my lunch making time, and I ended up grabbing a mango mix1 to go.

I ended up not loving the flavor and giving half of it to Adam.  To quell my rumbling tummy I ended up buying a Slim Fast Cookie Dough Bar.

It was tasty, but I have about a trillion bars in my cabinet at home; I need to make carrying one in my purse a habit.

Later during my second class I snacked on some yummy dried fruit.

Kiwis and hibiscus, my favorites.

When we got home the husband whipped up some deviled eggs.

He was super generous (deviled eggs are pretty much his favorite) and let me share one.

I also did some unphotographed nibbling while I cooked dinner.  Which was fricking fabulous by the way.

Green Tuna Enchiladas (click here for the recipe link), serves 4.

  • 1 T evoo
  • 1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 10 oz cans tuna
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup green tomatillo salsa
  • 8 small corn tortillas
  • 3T half and half
  • 3/4 cup shredded taco cheese (montery jack would work well too)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350*.  Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat.
  2. Add onion and peppers to oil and brown, about 7 minutes.
  3. Add tuna and 1/2 cup salsa to veggies and cook 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat.
  4. Spoon 2 T filling into each tortilla and place into a 8x11inch casserole, seam-side down.* **
  5. In a separate bowl, stir together last cup of salsa with half and half.  Spoon mixture over enchiladas.
  6. Sprinkle cheese evenly over casserole and bake 20minutes.

* Too keep tortillas from cracking and breaking, it is helpful to cover them with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30seconds.

** If you have extra filling it would go deliciously stuffed into a pita sandwich

I paired my serving with a batch of kale chips,

for a tasty, tasty dinner.

Speaking of tasty things –

I wanted to let you guys know that my recipes for Italian Style Gumbo and Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta have also been posted (click the names for recipe links).  Seriously, those two dishes were the best things I’ve ever made!  Please, please get the recipes and try them yourselves, they are dreams come true.

I’ve got lots of lab work due tomorrow so I’m going to make like a banana and split.

Do you ever make up your own recipes or do you tend to do things by the book?  A lot of my creations are ideas from magazines that I’ve seriously altered; usually made healthier and/or spicier.

Something Fishy

I don’t think it’s just a Monday thing, there is definitely something fishy going on with my head-space.  I’ve been falling asleep more easily, but waking up multiple times a night, often just before my alarm goes off (often causing me to reset the alarm to a later time).  I’ve been totally distracted – my to-do list was practically untouched today – and getting out of bed feels like waking the dead.  I felt like I was peeling myself up at the late hour of 9:30 this morning.

My late wake up hour couldn’t interfere with my trip to the volunteer services office at the hospital though.  I ended up throwing jeans and a jacket over my nightgown!

I’m probably the classiest class-less person you know 😉

I wanted to speak to the volunteer office in person because I had to tell them I still won’t be volunteering until after May 7th.  I can only get to volunteering via a longish walk, and I’m pretty much useless there unless I’m running things up and down the stairs.  I felt badly, especially because I’m probably done with volunteering once summer school starts, but my leg was killing me on the walk there which helped me know it was a good decision.

On the way home I stopped into the gas station for a coffee.

I went with my usual half/half method – equal parts vanilla creme (unsweetened) and English toffee cappuccino (sweetened).

I want to say the caffeine gave me the study boost I needed, but it was more like I stared at my Chem book without moving for 1.5hours, grrrrr!  I did make an inspired sort of lunch.

I topped a everything bagel thin with 1 microwaved egg and a slice of buffalo wing cheese.

And I burnt some kale chips for a side.

Tasty, and I did manage to take some notes while I ate.

I need some advice.  This is my new $19 one piece from Old Navy –

Nevermind the fact that I clearly have been eating too many nachos, please tell me this suit doesn’t look completely ridiculous in a sport-swim capacity??  I’m planning on heading to the South Campus gym pool this Wednesday to make like a fish.

I had to pick up some stuff – dry cleaning and the husband! – but I ate another egg for some pre-workout protein.  This time hard boiled.

Today’s workout was less ‘exotic,’ by exciting in its own rite.  I slooooowly hiked up the gym stairs so that I could have a stretch/strength workout using actual equipment.  The gym was packed and I hurt my leg on the stairs, so we ended up working out for about 15minutes, but it was a nice idea!

After our “work out” we did take a walk.  Our tax refund came today and we were pretty pleased, so we took a trip to the bank and for some celebratory ice-cream.  I waited all winter to try out Sweet Tooth.

It was adorable, they had awesome looking cookies, and even had serving sizes that were ACTUAL serving sizes; we’ll be back!  I got a “baby” cup of cannoli ice-cream.

Delish.  It was marscapone flavored ice-cream with chocolate chips and pieces of cannoli dough.  I’ve never actually eaten a cannoli (I know, I know!) but I loved this.

Post-shower (and another intense staring off into space session, wtf?!?), we threw together an Easy Peasy dinner.

  1. I boiled 7oz dry rotini pasta according to the box directions.  In the last 3minutes of cook time I stirred in 7oz frozen artichoke hearts and 1cup frozen peas into the pot.  Then I drained the pasta/veggies and returned them to the pot.
  2. Meanwhile, I sautéed 1 chopped onion over medium heat.  When the onion was browned I added 2T butter,2T  flour, and 2T half and half to the pan.  I stirred and gave the mixture time to thicken.
  3. Finally I poured my onions and sauce into the pot with the veggies and pasta, along with10 oz boneless skinless canned salmon, and stirred to combine.

It doesn’t look like much, but for how simple it was this dish was tasty and healthy.  (Note – this recipe makes 4 servings)

As soon as my teeth are brushed I’m going to curl up in bed with a magazine and hopefully fall asleep pretty quickly.  I do not have time in tomorrow’s agenda for sitting/staring.  Sweet dreams.

Have you ever had a cannoli?  What’d you think?

D-O-N-E

Welp, Adam drank expired milk and got sick, so that sort of put a damper on the evening festivities.  We watched some Buffy though 🙂

I took a Dannon Light and Fit Toasted Coconut Vanilla Yogurt,

and stirred in some lemon curd,

and it kind of rocked my socks.

Dinner just might have been more jalapeno nachos…

By the way, my nacho days of over.  O-V-E-R!  If they are on the menu at all, so to speak, I can’t resist them.  So nachos (at least these particular nachos) are henceforth banned.  My butt and my cholesterol will probably both thank me for it 🙂

Are there any foods you’ve had to ban?