Author Archives: Emily

Worth It

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Hey guys!  I feel bad about breaking the challenge (not that it’s the first time we’ve cheated!) but it was so so so worth it!  I had such a great time catching up with my cousin.  She is pregnant with her second child and I’m glad I got to meet the first baby before she has the second one.  She and her husband are so nice and fun and we all had a good time.

They needed to meet somewhere close to the highway so we ended up at the Galleria Mall.  Adam and I showered and did our best to pretty up.

He was a bit more successful than I, it’s pretty obvious I’m sick!

PF Chang’s had a 5minute wait so that became our lunch spot.  I ordered the Vegetable Chow Fun.

It was only ok.  Way too much food and pretty bland.  I ate about 1/3 of it before I packaged it up for leftovers.

After lunch we walked around the mall and Dairy Queen just seemed right.  I got a small Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard with chocolate froyo.

Mmmn.  This made me pretty happy.

From there Adam and I hit up the movie theatre.  Sharing pretzel bites seemed like less of a good idea, but still an irresistable one.

We saw “Old Dogs.”  It was pretty terrible, but movie dates are always fun 🙂

Not surprisingly, I was not hungry for dinner after all my mall food.  I got unpacked and did some cleaning this evening, but mostly Adam and I spent a looooooong time discussing my life choices stagnation.  Some tears later, I think after a meeting I have this week things will be a lot more clear.

Just as it is clearly time for bed!  Sweet dreams.

Seen any bad movies lately?  What would you NOT recommend?

Hello Again From Buffalo

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Hello again from Buffalo.  Sorry I didn’t post last night, we didn’t get in until late and I am sick so I was exhausted.  Honestly though, when you see my poor food choices I feel like I won’t have to have mentioned that I was sick.

Friday in a thousand words –

+ several bites from Adam’s plates.  Sorry to be lame, but I would like to completely be home and unpack all our crap.  Another apology.  All total we spent $16.30 yesterday, bringing the Challenge Balance – $95.54.  All I need between now and Monday is a small can of soup, so technically, we made it!  However, one of my favorite cousins just called and said she would be passing through town today.  There is no way I am turning down lunch with her (and her baby whom I’ve never met, and my husband whom she’s never met) just to stick with the Challenge.  Sorry 🙂

So I’ll be back this afternoon after this shamefulless lunch!

Feeling Thankful

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Again, I’ll try to keep this quick, but it’s been a great Turkey Day.  I’m thankful for family, good food, and my wonderful husband.

We slept in until 10:30 this morning (I’m feeling sick again, boo!) and then woke up to the world’s tastiest breakfast.

My grandma is so cool, she had Greek Gods’ Honey Greek Yogurt waiting in the fridge for me!  I had a small bowl of fruit,

and honey Greek yogurt with berries and a sliver of homemade coffee cake.

Mmmmmmn!  I was in love with this breakfast!  If it wasn’t Thanksgiving I would have gone back for another bowl!  I think I’ve got my aunt hooked on Greek yogurt now too 🙂

We went to a family friend’s house for Thanksgiving at 1, so we headed out around noon to socialize.  Look how cute my grandparents are!

I’ve gone to Thanksgiving with this family ever year I’ve been with my grandparents and it’s always so much fun.  They have the best decorations, I wish I could have gotten more pictures.

I made a small appetizer plate with pretzels, honey raspberry dip, and crackers with dirty martini dip.

And I had a light beer to drink.

As I mentioned before, I am actually not much of a Turkey Day food fan!  I didn’t even eat any turkey meat!  I tried to just take a small bit of everything.

Clockwise from the top – stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, roll, jello mold salad, cranberries.  I finished everything on my plate (except for the roll which I gave away).  I didn’t actually eat very much, but I didn’t do seconds because I knew dessert was coming.

I actually gave away that mini cake in favor of a second cookie!

It was great getting to catch up with people and Adam was definitely stuffed!  He took a fat nap before we even headed home, and hit the couch asap.  My grandmother and I wanted to take a nice walk but unfortunately it was raining.  The other disappointment was that there was nowhere for me to volunteer.  I really wanted to put in some time at a food bank or soup kitchen today but everywhere my grandma called had too many volunteers.

We ate dinner around 7, and I was actually hungry again.

Leftover sweet potato casserole,

and a yumtastic sandwich – turkey, cranberries, cream cheese.

Plus apple and celery salad on the side.

I was still a bit hungry so I went back for more salad.

We played cards after dinner.

I had a coffee with 2% and an amaretto stick,

a mini 7-up,

and a small handful of caramel corn.

We kept my grandparents up past midnight playing cards, I’d say it’s time for bed!

How was your turkey day?

Road Tripped

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We are in Ohio!  My grandmother’s internet isn’t the best and it’s been a long day so I won’t be able to be as detailed as I would like.  It’s been a good day though 🙂

We got up at 6:30 this morning and were out the door before 7am.  The trip was 400+ miles so we had to get an early start.  I packed up food for the road, a la Thanksgiving Challenge, threw on a sweatshirt and split.

I had some am amazing grass – 1banana, 1scoop grass, big pour skim milk, 8 ice cubes, blender.

I was so proud of the husband for drinking some too!

A few hours later I ate a yummy leftovers sandwich.

1.5 buffalo blue bean patties on toasted bread with honey and jack daniels mustard.

We split the driving fairly evenly – 2hours Adam, 2hours me, 2hours Adam.  The switches were a nice excuse for pee and diet soda breaks!

When we got in to Piqua my grandparents had a great lunch ready for us.

Carrot and dill soup was delicious.

And the two-cheese grilled cheese were so nice and gooey.

There were also spicy bread and butter pickles and sunchips on the table.

I ate more chips throughout the day than was a good idea!

To drink I had half of Adam’s holiday Coke,

and I split a lime beer with my grandmother.

For dessert I had a cherry cordial from the box of candy we brought as our hostess gift.

We had a great time hanging out with my grandparents.  We played Euchre and my grandpa bought us all fun lotto cards!

I didn’t win, but it was nice to dream.

My aunt and uncle drove up this evening and we all had a great dinner together (more soup and sandwiches!).

The soup was white chicken chili,

and the sandwiches were pulled chicken – I think we are done with chicken for a bit!

I also had one delicious deviled egg.

Dessert was homemade old fashioned cream pie.

It was awesome, but the crust was store-bought so I just scraped out the filling.

Plus coffee with 2% milk.

Look at their adorable sugar bowl!

Now it’s almost 10 and I would love to get in bed!  Overall it’s been a fabulous (filling) day!  My grandmother is such a good cook and it’s so great to be with family.

What do you usually pack for road trips?

An Early Thanksgiving

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I’m too stuffed to be sad!  I have so much to talk about in this post and I’m so excited (and so drunk) that I know things will be left out.

This afternoon I picked up the husband and we headed to my imaging appointment.  We were in the waiting room forever so I ended up snacking on an Apricot Pumpkin Prana Bar.

Good.  And the good – but not surprising – news is that I don’t have a blood clot.  Unfortunately, this meant I didn’t really get more information.  I don’t know how I feel about the doctor who saw me yesterday so I actually made another appointment, this time with a sports medicine doctor, for Monday.  Sadly, I decided to push back training one more time, so that I will have still been on a break when I meet with this new doctor.  😦

When we got home I started packing and one of Adam’s friend’s came over to hang out.  He gave the buffalo blue bean patties a rave review!

Once he left it was time to get gussied for date night.

When I introduced the Thanksgiving Challenge I warned you guys that we had a dinner out pre-planned, a reward for a check from my old job.  Tonight was the night.

We went to Juniper, a place on Elmwood that serves 100% local food.  Nothing comes from more than 50miles away.  Their menu changes seasonally, and the entire concept has had me in a tizzy for months.  Our date did not disappoint!  For starters, I was in love with the ambiance.

I even loved the look (and labeling!) of the menu!  [i. porridge / ii. relish / iii. bird’s work / iv. aristology / v. fixations]

I actually don’t like Turkey Day food all that much (gasp) and this ended up being my mini-Thanksgiving.  We ate so much food!  I am beyond sad that my camera isn’t better, because my shots aren’t that great.  It feels imperative that y’all understand how fabulous this was!

I started the evening with a glass of Dr. L, reisling.

Yums, I thought I wasn’t a wine drinker but I really really enjoy reislings.  Wine hits me pretty hard though, halfway through dinner I was definitely nearing wasted.  Adam got a beer made with Kona Coffee that was pretty kick ass as well.

And soon homemade foccacia and evoo were delivered to the table.

I ate the piece shown x2, dipped in oil.

The husband went soup and salad for his appetizer route.  romaine ‘taco white anchovy, oven dried tomato salsa, peccorino.

I only took a small bite but it wasn’t really my thing.

mushroom pearls miso, ginger, barley.

This soup was fabulous.  I only took a few bites because I knew he loved it but it was so nice and meaty!

For my appetizer I went slightly less traditional, bobo’s not wings eggplant tempura, vitamin f, grilled celery.

Ohmyfrickinggod!  This rocked my socks.  I would eat chicken wings every meal if the chicken wing part of the equation didn’t slightly skeeve me out, so this was perfection.  This appetizer made the top three list of best things I’ve ever eaten.  It was spicy and crunchy and perfect.  I demolished it.

For entrees Adam got the chicken little poussin, chevre, rosemary smokies, fig jam.

Delish.  The meat was super succulent and the fig jam was as good as you would imagine.  Adam said his favorite component of the evening was the dark meat of his chicken.  He ate every single scrap of meat he could find, and even did the wishbone with me!

I won!  I wouldn’t have mattered though, I definitely have everything I could wish for.

I ordered the ponzu salmon bok choy, forbidden rice, pickled lime.

I was pretty stuffed at this point so I only ate about 1/3 of mine.  I asked for my fish well done and I thought it was cooked perfectly.  The lime flavor on the veggies was out of this world.

Honestly though, the best thing on the table wasn’t even the entrees.  It was this random bowl of roasted squash.

Holy frick!!!!!  This is literally the best thing I’ve ever eaten.  When I took my first bite I made Adam stop talking for a minute so I could just sit there.

We were pretty stuffed at this point but we knew we had to try dessert.  Adam got the chocolate ‘bomb.’

I know this sounds crazy from a food lover, but I really don’t like chocolate cake!  I took a small nibble, and I could tell it was good, but it just wasn’t my thing.  He loved it though.  It had Grand Marnier and candied orange peel on top.  The homemade lavender chocolate ice cream was ridiculous.

I went with my favorite, trio of creme brule vanilla bean, cinnamon, pumpkin.

Gah!  Indescribable.  I don’t know how I managed to let Adam split this with me.  I was most excited for the cinnamon, but pumpkin ended up being out of this world.  This was another moment when I just had to sit in silence.

I honestly can’t describe how much I enjoyed this meal.  I must have thanked Adam 20times during dinner for putting up with my out of control joy!  I was in love with everything in my mouth.  I felt so thankful.

Now that we are home I need to finish packing quickly and get to bed.  The plan is to leave before 7am tomorrow and I do not want to be a sleepy driver.  I will hopefully be doing regular posts this weekend but depending on the internet situation there may just be a big recap.  Whatever may happen, I hope all my readers and their families have a fabulous Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite restaurant?  I loved everything about Juniper – the decorations, the flavors, and the ideals.  The only other place I feel so strongly about is Serendipity in New York City.

Microwaved Miracles

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Hello, hello!  I slept in until 10:30 today, but I’ve been telling myself it’s so I’ll be fully over my cold before we drive up to Ohio tomorrow to visit my grandparents.

When I did get up I made the most amazing breakfast!  Microwave eggs might be the best thing ever.

You just combine all of your ingredients in a smallish microwave safe bowl (2 eggs, s&p, the last 1.5T of gorgonzola), stir, microwave on high for 1minute, stir again, and finish with another minute in the microwave.  The fabulously fluffy eggs slide right out of a bowl and onto a sandwich!

This sandwich was topped with Jack Daniels mustard and some clover honey from Foodbuzz!

Mmmn!  It was the perfect combo of savory and sweet.

Breakfast lunch perfection!

In just a bit I am driving to pick up Adam at school so we can go to my doctor’s appointment.  I am getting my leg imaged to make sure I don’t have a blood clot, and hopefully finding out more information in general.

Tonight we are going to a dinner we’ve been planning for months, and tomorrow I’m driving up to my grandparents’ for Thanksgiving!  Just to warn you in advance, I’m not sure what the posting sitch will be this weekend, they may need to be a large recap.

What miraculous things have you done with your microwave?

Liver Spots

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There were all sorts of goods and bads today but I’ll try to focus on the goods.  Like, for example, the fact that it’s Turkey Day week!

I went ’80’s style when I got dressed today, all I needed was my old Doc Martin boots!

Now that I live in Buffalo I wear sandals every day, but when I was growing up in the Caribbean I went through an intense Doc Martin phase.  I guess I like anything that’s out of season!

I was in desperate need of greens/fruits so I made a smoothie for the road.

1C frozen blackberries, a scoop of Chocolate Amazing Grass, and some skim milk.  I loved how purple it got!

I arrived at school really early so I walked around with Adam for a bit before heading to my appointment.

Fun fact #1 – my leg hurts like crazy.  Fun fact # 2 – according to the RN at the health center I have a varicose vein!  It’s not a terrible one, and at this stage my insurance won’t cover removal.  They are hereditary and my teaching career (on my feet nonstop from 7-5) is a big factor, as well as my years as a waitress. She said I need to wear support hose and supportive shoes, but wouldn’t give me information about how long that would need to happen.  If a month or so will ‘fix’ me then I’m all for it, but if it’s a rest of my life thing I’d rather keep with my sandals and just have the surgery when it gets worse.  I have an imaging appointment tomorrow to make sure I don’t have a blood clot and I’ll get more information then.

I’m not going to lie, it’s a good thing Adam drove me to class because I bawled all the way there.  I’m able to put up with a lot of pain, but having a yucky old lady problem pisses me off!  I don’t want to wear support hose!  I sort of lost it.  I think things will be better once I get more information tomorrow.

The good news is that physical activity can’t make it worse.  I try to be very careful of injury (that’s why I took time off when the leg pain started) because I would never want to permanently side-line myself.  However, I am ridiculously stubborn and am pretty good with putting up with pain.  I decided last week that I would always stop running if I would cause permanent injury by not taking a break, but that if I could safely run through the pain I would do so.  Therefore, 7 out of 10 leg pain be damned, half marathon training is back on!!

I recomposed myself once I got to campus, but definitely bought this bag of Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos to ease my sorrows.

($1, Challenge Balance – $79.24 ) I ate about half the bag – go me for not just downing the whole thing.

At 6 I got more good news when Caroline showed up with her laptop, class was cancelled!  Adam was already at the gym with a friend so she offered to take me home.  We made a pit-stop at the mall (shopping for her bf) so that was fun.

Dinner was more good news.  Delicious, all around!  The first course was Dr. McDougall’s Soup.

Adam had Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato and I had Chunky Tomato.

I almost never eat ‘mater soup but I love it.

The second/main course was my newest creation.

Buffalo Blue Bean Patties, serves 4

  • 2 15.5oz cans black beans we use low sodium
  • 1/2 cup, plus 2T buffalo wing sauce we used the sauce from Anchor Bar, the birthplace of Buffalo wings
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbles
  • salt and pepper, to season
  1. Preheat the oven to 450*.  Foil and spray a baking sheet.
  2. Empty bean cans into a colander and rinse thoroughly – this is a heart healthy step, reduce your sodium intake.
  3. Pour beans and 2 cups wing sauce into a blender and puree.  If you have a rickety blender you may want to do this in two batches.
  4. Empty blender into a large mixing bowl.  Add rest of wing sauce and eggs, stir.  Add bread crumbs, stir.  Add cheese and fork to combine.
  5. Using your hands, form 12 patties out of the bean mixture.
  6. Put patties on prepared sheet and bake for 20minutes, it is not necessary to flip them during baking.

I ate mine with the sad remains of our ketchup (that’s a small plate).

Man they were good!  I don’t want to toot my own horn, but this was such a good idea!  They were also very filling, I ended up only eating 2.5.

You what what else is a good idea?  The big bowl of popcorn I’m about to make!  Yes, I used up the big bag of ‘corn my in-laws brought me just last month!

Have a good night folks!

What makes you feel old?  I’m 24, I’m not cool with the idea of support hose!  Teenage entertainment makes me feel old too, shows like “Gossip Girl” just make me uncomfortable!

Lame Lunch

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I have to head to school soon so this is a lame quick post.

I was planning on eating a bar for breakfast but I way overslept and in fact was a few minutes late to volunteering 😦  By the time lunch rolled around I was actually feeling a bit faint.  I used my lunch voucher to buy a big slice of cheese pizza.

I blotted this like crazy, do you blot?

I miss having a full-time job, if nothing else, I love volunteering because it gives me an opportunity to be on my feet for  a few hours!  I always take the stairs when I am sent somewhere.

Breakfast and lunch was lacking in fruit and veggies so I’m planning on making a smoothie before I leave.  I have class tonight at 6:30 (my only class this week!) but I have a doctor’s appointment first for my leg at 5.  Wish me luck!