Author Archives: Emily

Sweet Serendipity

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After my last post I grabbed my People: Style Watch and headed out to the gym.  The magazine was a total clock-killer, if I hadn’t gone so close to closing time I would have been totally motivated to keep going.  As it was, I did 35minutes on the elliptical.  My machine said that was worth 3.3miles but I was going at a pretty easy pace so I’m not sure how accurate that is.  When I got home I did 25more minutes of strength training, stretching, and pt exercises.

After a quick shower it was time for a dinner I’ve been looking forward to all week; I finally recreated the Summer Bries sandwich from Serendipity3!  Serendipity is my favorite restaurant on the planet – the atmosphere is fun and the food is fabulous!  Plus it’s right off Lexington, one of my favorite streets on the planet!  Serendipity is the spot I always would take visitors when I lived in the city: click on the links to see the recaps for some of those fun meals link 1  link 2.

I own the cookbook and even in my hands their desserts are amazing.  However, while most people go to Serendipity for the ice-cream, I go for the sandwiches!  My very favorite – The Summer Bries – is what I recreated tonight.

*Note – dinner was delayed by a mold problem, ugh! and I snacked on a few Cedar’s pita chips and feta spread.  No pictures because I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening*

The sandwiches turned out divine!  Whole wheat raisin pecan bread with 98% ff turkey, apple, alfalfa sprouts, brie, and homemade 1000island dressing.  They got gooey in a 400* oven and turned into perfection.  I had two smallish sandwiches,

Plus some oven-roasted brussels sprouts on the side.

Such a good dinner!  I demolished the sandwiches but I did put back some of my mountain of brussels sprouts.

We are watching the season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so the bedtime goal is 11 – 11:30.  Sweet dreams.

FEST Check-in, Day 2

  • Food – pretty good, my goal was never to skip meals out, just to cut back on the take-out and “box” foods.
  • Exercise – great.
  • Sleep – poor.  11am is not when successful people wake up!
  • Time Management – see sleep.

Double Question Time!

  1. I know the calorie counts are suspect, but do you trust the miles counter on the elliptical machine?
  2. What is your favorite street in the US?  As much as I adore Lexington, my heart is forever devoted to Lincoln Ave in South Beach.  I think Lincoln is the best spot for people (and dog!) watching.

When In The Mall

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Happy Saturday!  My 1am bedtime led to an 11am wake-up, less than stellar.  But Adam and I have certainly made the best of our quickly dwindling day – movie/lunch date at the mall!

Lunch was at our new favorite spot, Jack Astors.

I got an original Bloody Mary to drink.

It was good, but not spicy enough for my liking, I miss the drinks in NYC!

Next up was a small cup of beer and cheddar soup.

This was delicious, it was so nice and creamy.  There was a spot in Park Slope that had the best beer and cheese fondue and we sort of got to relive that with the soup.

And for my main dish I ordered a turkey burger.

I ate a few bites as a sandwich before tossing the bun and dipping the patty in ketchup.

We had more than an hour between lunch and our movie and we ended up walking aimlessly around the mall.  We had fun though.  We bought a hedgehog stuffed animal to help support an environmental group, who thinks the husband approves of that purchase??

And we split a Turtle Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

This was crazy good, my favorite ice-cream on the planet is sugar-free white chocolate from Freshens and this tasted sort of like that.  Plus you can never go wrong with dark chocolate and caramel 😉

You could go a little bit wrong with our movie choice though, When in Rome did not blow me away.  I hate sappy chick flicks but my love for Kristen Bell had clouded my judgement.  We had fun looking at the New York scenes though and the clothing in the movie was making me drool.

I am all about layering, too bad I can never pull it off!

The rest of the day looks pretty low-key, especially because Sunday is going to have to be study, study, study.  See you for dinner.

Do you eat buns/bread at restaurants?  Why or why not? 

Time Keeps Slippin’ Slippin’ Into the Future

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I don’t know what happened today, time just slipped away.  Adam and I will be hanging out and all of the sudden it’s night-time and I’m sad.  I get so frustrated about not moving forward that I sit and stew and continue to not move forward!  Sometimes it just feels like I’m paralyze.

Fortunately the world’s best husband dragged me off the couch at 9:10 (the gym closed at 10!).  I started with some strength training – 100reps of abs, 80reps of legs, and 75reps of arms in various exercises.  Then I finished up with a quick jog on the treadmill.  With warm up and cool down 1.1miles in 12minutes.  I was glad I went, of course.

I actually decided it was too late for dinner, but I drove around with Adam while he got food, hence the late post.  I’ll have to have a nice big breakfast tomorrow!

FEST Check-in, Day 1

  • Food: Pretty good; I could have gotten in more veggies if I’d had dinner.
  • Exercise:  Success!  I got in cardio and strength training.
  • Sleep: Fail, it’s almost midnight and I still have to go shower.
  • Time management: terrible, as stated above.

We’re All Winners

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I’ve had such an exciting assortment of eats this afternoon!  And the husband came home earlier than usual and watched the newest Bones episode with me!  It’s been a good day all around 🙂

And I have some good news for some lucky giveaway winners –

Holly, Emily, Ashley, and Brandi; send me your info please and congrats.

This morning I finished off the rest of my coffee, chilled with skim.

I’d like to think it was the extra caffeine that gave me the energy to power through the business calls I had to make.  Or maybe it was the thought of my thrilling lunch.

Nom, nom, nom, nom 😀

If I had breakfast with Tina I did lunch with Janetha!  1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Cedar’s Chick Pea Salad, and a few shakes Kernel Seasons Ranch.

This was a super tasty combo, thanks for the idea Janetha!

Next I had one of my favorite combos.

2/3 of a Crispin apple with sun butter.

And if that was one of the favorites this next combo is my absolute all time favorite.

Cedar’s pita chips with Garlic and Chive Feta Spread.  Words cannot describe how much I love this!

Post lunch my sweet tooth hit me hard.  I was dying to run across the street and get a cookie but somehow I resisted.  At 150 calories this Dannon Caramel yogurt was a much more sensible choice.

And topped with 1.5t each toasted walnuts and cinnamon chips it was pretty darn delicious.

The plan this evening is gym, reading (magazines for sure but hopefully some homework too), and a homemade dinner.  See you later!

What has been the most exciting part of your Friday?

FEST

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This post is a bonus of sorts (not related to any meal) and will be more introspective than most.

When I quit my life as a teacher to persue a new career I wasn’t worried about feeling aimless, even though I knew our move to Buffalo meant I couldn’t start a program this year.  My identity isn’t tied to my job, I’ve got a lot to be proud of – my motivation, my organizational skills, my ripped abs, my awesome cooking…..  Let’s check in with that shall we –

  • I’m behind on the reading for both of my classes.  I had to miss Chem on Tuesday and class last night had me in tears because I was so confused.  This is especially pathetic because I chose to take Anthropology; I’m taking it for fun not to fulfill a prerequisite.
  • I haven’t cooked a real meal in basically weeks.  It seems like everything we eat is packaged (and beige!) and I feel like a terrible wife.  Plus I basically stopped eating fruits and vegetables which is certainly not good for my health.
  • I’m feel exhausted all of the time.  I know feeling stressed and run down is a normal thing, but I am an unemployed part-time student, there is no reason I shouldn’t be well-rested!  Adam and I both just get so sucked in to doing things late at night.  The later we stay up, the later I sleep in (because, you know, I have nowhere to go) and then the cycle continues.
  • My abs are no longer ripped, in fact what is the polar opposite of ripped?  I’m surprised no one has asked me if I’m preggers yet.  Nevermind the fact that I’m dangerously close to not being able to button most of my jeans.  When I had an insane life in Brooklyn I could deal with weight gain as a trade-off for the work I was doing but I’ve gained more weight since we moved to Buffalo than I did in the two years in Brooklyn.
  • I am running a half marathon in 37 days and I have not started to train at all.  Am I even going to be able to finish my race?  And if I do it will feel a lot less anti-climatic if I don’t put in any work first.  The plan was to get a 2nd tattoo to mark the memory but I’m not sure I want to any more.

So, I’m just going to whine about it?  NO!  It feels like everything in my life is spinning out of control, but “everything” covers a lot of ground, so I made four manageable goals –

  1. Food – cook at least three meals a week.  And eat more (any?) fruits and veggies.
  2. Exercise – for the next 37days you can’t tell me I don’t have 30minutes a day to devote to exercise.  It’s training time, baby!  (Don’t forget, you can track my training here)
  3. Sleep – I’m kind of a night owl, but even if I ultimately decide I want to keep my late night ways, for the next month I need to shift into waking up earlier.  My goal is 7-8hours a night, 10 or 11 bedtime.
  4. Time management – even if I add in an earlier bedtime and daily workout I still have time to study.  I get nothing done at home so I think I might take the monetary hit and start heading to the coffee shop for study time more often.

I’m going to call this “life improvement movement” FEST – Food, Exercise, Sleep, Time management.  I love how Susan of The Great Balance Act does goal check-ins on her blog and I think I’ll do the same.  Since all/any of these changes will be tricky for me I’m planning on giving a quick update at the end of each day.  Wish me luck!

What goals would you like start working on?  I would love it if you would tell me your goals/progress.

Carrot Cake n’ Coffee

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It’s good to be back, and it’s a Friday!  My tummy troubles seem to be better which is always a good thing.

Breakfast this morning had me thinking of Tina.  Perhaps because it involved carrots n’ cake? 🙂  I followed this Cooking Light recipe for carrot cake pancakes.

A winner!  I halved the recipe, so some of the spices were eyeballed, and skipped the canola oil, but they came out perfectly.  I loved the spice flavor and I though the consistency was great.

The entire breakfast felt pretty darn fancy.

1 serving of carrot cake pancakes, topped with Smart Balance Light and a drizzle of maple syrup (that’s a side plate btw).

A mineola with the last of the blueberries.

And french pressed chocolate peppermint coffee with tons of skim milk.

I really want to start doing more homemade coffee, this really rounded out the meal. 

Once the kitchen is all cleaned up – and there’s not much to do because I clean as I cook – I’m going to settle in with some reading.

Don’t forget, today’s the last day to enter my giveaway.

Chum/Chang

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Chum

I feel like shark bait!  Apparently I have some sort of stomach bug, because my tummy still hurts.  It’s gotten much better though, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be right as rain by tomorrow.  I haven’t been posting because my eats have been rather boring and bland.  And there’s the small matter of me losing my camera for a day but let’s go with the stomach theory not the forgetful one.  On the plus side – I think my yogurt storage method was fine, so that’s a good thing!

Chang

I didn’t actually know who Alexa Chung was before reading this article (hey, I don’t have cable!) but apparently people worry that she’s too skinny.  Eating disorders are a serious disease that need to be treated with compassion and understanding by the media.  That said, irreverent humor is often the best kind of humor.

Check out the link to the commercial she did with Bing and let me know what you think

Personally, I think this ad was hilarious.  I have a big issue with the media frenzy over celebrity weight and I like the tongue in cheek way Chang pokes fun at it.  I think the societal  focus on stars who are “too skinny” can a be factor in eating disorders.  While the articles often try for a sympathetic tone (look at this poor sick girl) the take-away message for many adolescent girls is look at how much attention we’re giving her for losing weight.

What do you think?  Did you find the commercial funny or offensive?

Whine and Cheese

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This was not my most sucessful Tuesday, I’ll keep this quick because I’m in a pretty bad mood.

Sooooooooo, my tasty oats this morning?  Two issues – 1. They apparently had no staying power, I was starving by 10am.  2. The 1/3 of yogurt is from the same container as last week’s 1/3 a cup in overnight oats.  It was a single serving cup of Dannon, which I placed inside a tupperware after I opened it.  I wondered about that decision this morning, but I figured it would all be ok.  Yeah, so not ok!  My stomach hurt so bad I thought I was going to die and I ended up going home after my first class.  Boo!

Between starving and sick I did squeeze in lunch at the school cafeteria.

It was a pretty lame lunch, sometimes food court situations are really overwhelming for me.  The excess of choices tend to induce mini panic attacks and short of that I choose quickly, randomly, and poorly.  Thus a sandwich that was neither healthy nor what I was craving.

Chicken salad on a spinach wrap with shredded lettuce, jalopenos, black olives, and blue cheese dressing.  I also had a side of pickles,

and some so-so chips I only ate due to extreme hunger.

Post lunch but before class I also grabbed a tall white hot chocolate.

In retrospect that wasn’t the best choice; I had it made with skim instead of whole milk but it was still too much sugar.  Which doesn’t mean that once I was curled up wimpering on the couch I didn’t eat this brownie.  😉

Or two servings of these guys, straight from the bag, not a good idea.

Given that chips are not that healthy of an appetizer choice I tried to keep dinner light.

The other half of my minneola and a kiwi bowl,

leftovers of the tastiest collards on earth,

mini pita with melted blue brie.

I promise to be in a better mood tomorrow!  But not a morning mood, I have my first chem lab tomorrow and it start at 8am, I clearly won’t be blogging until lunch.  Night.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!