Dreams of Root Vegetables

by Emily

Whew, Tuesday is almost over! My meeting went well, I still have no idea which career path I’ll choose but it is exciting to learn about the options. After my meeting I swung by the house to pick up the husband, who graciously offered to go along on my printing/mailing resume errands.

True Story – while we were driving he got annoyed that I don’t know what I want to do and said – “You’ll never know what you want to do. Next thing I’ll know you’ll want to be a turnip! Do you need to go back to school to be a turnip!?!” And now he has called me Turnip for the rest of the day. Holy cow I love my funny husband!

On our way home – resumes successfully mailed, hopefully I will be substituting at some point – we stopped in The Spot for coffee.

I got a small Chaider; steamed apple cider and chai tea. Mmn, fall! I actually think I’m going to head back to the Spot to work tomorrow, I haven’t been getting much done at home 😦

I was feeling sick with hunger when we got home so I got a snack while I worked on my lab (which I can not do without help, boo!).

A bumped log,

with Granny Smith slices with cinnamon caramel apple dip.

I had a coupon for the dip and you know I’m a sucker for all foods fall.

After struggling with Chemistry for forever I moved on to making dinner. On the meal plan was a recipe from the November “Everyday with Rachael Ray” ‘lightened up’ moussaka.

I can’t share the recipe but if you bought the magazine and are planning to try it here are the changes I made:

used 99% lean ground turkey instead of beef
skipped the food processor and used low fat whipped cottage cheese
used half graffiti eggplants
add 1/2 pint mushrooms

We actually got busy and didn’t even eat dinner so I’ll have to review the recipe tomorrow! I have a busy day planned tomorrow – no room for headaches! – so don’t be surprised if I don’t post until dinner. Night!

Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway!

27Oct2009

Shorty Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

by Emily

What is with my head!?! I had another (much smaller) headache and I actually took a nap when I was supposed to be working! Oh well, I might as well move on rather than dwell.

Lunch was good.

I had a carton of Dr. McDougall’s Lentil Soup.

Half a slice of Naan from Wegmans.

And a Black Cherry Zevia to drink.

While I ate I watched “Trauma” on Hulu. The episode got me thinking about this article I read in Reader’s Digest – 911 Calls Gone Tragically Wrong. Have you read this? It’s a little scary. I want it in my head that 911 workers are well paid and capable.

I have a meeting at 2 with one of the departments I’m applying to, wish me luck! Afterwards I am getting some resumes printed and mailed, and then hopefully getting some fricking work done!!

Question of the day (Before my mom asks) – Who knows how this title fits with this post?

27Oct2009

Moving Forward Monday

by Emily

I know it’s not really Monday, but a killer migraine ate my whole yesterday so let’s pretend 🙂 I set the alarm for 5am this morning to get myself back on track. If nothing else, I have accomplished a gym session today. I did a painful but easy run on the treadmill – 3.7miles, 40minutes. Followed by stretching and strength training – 100 abs reps, 50 arms reps. Once I walked home my heart rate monitor read 1hour, 503 calories.

Post gym, I took a quick shower and actually cleaned the house before Adam even awake! We have a lot more to do, frankly we let this place become a wreck! Among the headache fun yesterday, was when I attempted to cook some wontons and basically exploded the microwave. The catastrophe was actually a good thing though – a) we now know that our apartment has no working smoke alarms, and b) in dealing with the smell the apartment now smells like yummy pumpkins.

I’m icing my legs as I write this post so breakfast was quick and easy –

Almond Protein Plus Boomi Bar. This is my favorite flavor.

I was flipping through my day planner this morning and I kind of can’t belive how much excitement is coming up! Here is a short schedule of the rest of 2009 –

October 30 – fly to Ohio for my grandmother’s birthday
November 6 – fly to San Fransisco for the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival!
November 9 – big Chemistry test
November 12 – Chemistry quiz
November 14 – semi-formal at Adam’s school
November 25 – drive to Ohio for Thanksgiving
December 3 – Chemistry quiz
December 5 – Reindeer Run 5k
December 11 – Adam’s 24th birthday (and the start of Hanukkah)
December 19 – Chemistry final
December 21 – fly to St. Thomas for Christmas break
December 24 – my family’s annual Christmas Eve party
December 25 – Christmas
December 28 – Adam and My 2nd anniversary!

Even busier? Today! I have so much to do this week it makes my head spin. Which is why I’m going to go hop to it. Peace!

What was your last kitchen catastrophe?

Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway.

25Oct2009

Where the Wild Things Are

by Emily

Productive? No. Fun? Hells yes! I am so glad the husband talked me into ignoring my work and spending a fun date day with him! Equally exciting? Some of my new shirts have built in hoods!

His favorite book growing up was Where the Wild Things Are so we went to go see the movie today. He bribed he there with promises of splitting a thing of pretzel bites.

Yums. The movie was pretty good. They didn’t follow the book very well but it was pretty visually stunning. We both appreciated that they didn’t include a bunch of adult humor; in fact, there wasn’t very much dialogue at all.

We walked to the bank once we got home (I got a very exciting last check from my old school) and it turned into a nature walk!

We followed Mother Nature’s lead once we got home and did some decorating of our own.

Now we are going to watch an old episode of Bones and curl up on the couch with our leftovers from The Cheesecake Factory.

I opened a Zevia to drink with my meal.

Ginger ale might be my new favorite.

All I really plan on doing today now is cooking dinner! So I’ll be back with that.

What was your favorite childhood book? I have bazillions (my mom was a librarian). If I had to choice I’d say Bread and Jam for Francis or The Little Mouse, The Ripe Red Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. Now my husband and I call each other Mouse and Bear so the book ended up being very telling!

25Oct2009

Drive By Post

by Emily

I finally got a little more sleep last night but I was having the craziest dreams! The one I was having when Adam woke me up –

I was teaching people about catching electric eels. I was explaining that sometimes eels have cuttlefish in their bellies, and you could eat them too. That meant you got two types of meat, neither of which were pork or chicken. Eel and cuttlefish!

I was super excited about that last part. Yetch!

This post is actually just a stop-in update post, I haven’t actually eaten anything yet (yes, I know it’s after 11). I woke up before 10, but I was on the phone with one of my friends for a while and I did some major cuddlefesting with Adam. I have a ton a ton a ton of schoolwork to do and lots of cooking planned for tonight so I am heading to The Spot for some focused study time. Or……Adam bribed me with pretzel bites and now I’m going to the movies. That could happen too.

Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway!

24Oct2009

Visit from the In-Laws

by Emily

Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway!

Today was quite a day. We had a great time with my in-laws, I’m so glad our families all get along! They came over to see the house and brought me a gift that shows just how much they know me –

awww 🙂

Before we left the house I actually grabbed a 2nd Zevia for the road.

‘Twas good. Not as good as my awesome new hoodie though, nice and warm!

We took them to school (my m-i-l’s best friend was with us too) to see Adam’s campus and the husband and his dad played ping pong for awhile – I’m married to a dork! Our friend Benji came by for a while too so there were quite a lot of balls flying around!

Afterwards we drove to the mall for dinner and a movie. The wait for a table was 60minutes so Adam and I went upstairs to get ice-cream (life’s short eat dessert first, he says). I have been craving a pumpkin pie blizzard since I saw it advertised last time I was at the mall. I actually was in line to get one and then the woman in front of me ordered exactly what I planned to order (small, pumpkin pie blizzard, no whip cream). As I watched them make it I had two thoughts – 1) that’s not that small, and 2) that’s not that exciting. I am all for indulging and having fun with food, but it’s only fun if you indulge when it’s really worth it. Like the dinner I then ate 🙂

My m-i-l ordered an appetizer platter for the table that was quite tasty. I ate the small plates shown, but multiply the bread times two and add a few bites from Adam’s plate.

For dinner I got the Spicy Cashew Chicken.

This is basically the only thing I ever order at Cheesecake Factory. It isn’t the healthiest but we don’t go all the time and I love it. I ate half and then boxed the other half for lunch tomorrow.

It was starting to rain pretty hard at this point (6pm) so our visitors actually decided to hit the road. They sweetly gave Adam and I movie $ before they headed out so we stayed at the mall and watched “Law Abiding Citizen.” The movie had good moments but I thought it was pretty sad.

Now my plan is to curl up with some magazines and hopefully fall asleep before 11. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I sleep through the night!

What was the last thing you decided wasn’t worth it?

24Oct2009

Giveaway

by Emily

Last night was another fairly sleepless night 😦 I woke up at least once every hour! I can’t imagine what the problem was this time, my workout at 5 seems early enough and I’ve never had alcohol (I didn’t even drink an entire beer!) mess with my sleep before. Whatever it was it was annoying. I slept in until 9:30 to try to catch up, but now I need to catch up on my school work!

When I got up I ate a Macadamia Paradise Boomi Bar for breakfast.

The blurb on the back said – Did you know that honey works to give athletes an energy boost before and after exercise? … Sweetened with honey, Boomi Bars are great tasting and sweet without any added cane sugar or corn syrup. Seemed like the perfect thing.

Mid-morning I randomly snacked on the last serving of Food Should Taste Good Olive Chips.

For lunch I microwaved the other half of my bsi entry, Italian Stuffed Acorn Squash.

Mmmn. Still delicious.

To drink I tried my first Zevia sample, cola.

And speaking of which, there is a giveaway going on if you scroll to the bottom of this post!

My in-laws will be here in any minute so I am going to finish getting dressed and straighten up the house a bit. We will be hanging out with them all day, so I’ll be back for dinner. Have a good Saturday!

Giveaway

I know several people have commented on my diet soda obsession in the past. Either that they drink it but worry about the chemicals or that the quit that miss it (and I guess some people have said they don’t like it, freaks). As I mentioned above, Zevia is a sugar/calorie free soda made with stevia. How could I not share that with my readers?! Zevia graciously offered to let my run a giveaway and I jumped at the opportunity.

1 grand prized winner will receive a mixed case
and five runner ups will receive a mixed six pack

Rules

Contest ends next Saturday at noon, Eastern time
To enter leave a comment on this post
For a 2nd chance to win link back to this post in your blog
For a 3rd chance to win tweet about this contest (and send me an e-mail saying you did so, emilyhwax@gmail.com)

23Oct2009

BSI Entry

by Emily

Oh man was a good evening! I am pretty much excited about everything right now. My dinner (and drink) are delicious, but more importantly fall themed, and the whole meal is just rocking my socks! I’ll back up though…

We didn’t head out to the store until after 7:30 but I was cool with the tardiness because I was excited about my new shirt.

This was one of many $10 mall finds last weekend.

The grocery store was quick and easy, Adam and I make each other laugh so much when we are doing errands. This week’s BSI, a la Megan, is acorn squash, so I picked one up for dinner.

By the way, Adam was less than thrilled by a veggie stuffed squash so he made his own dinner, including (among several other things) this sample from Annie Chun’s Soup Bowls.

It had beef broth, so my caveman was happy.

While I cooked dinner I ate the last of this pineapple.

Dinner was a masterpiece if I do say so myself! My squash was inspired by eggplant and chicken parmesan, but ended up being waay more tasty. Italian Stuffed Acorn Squash, for 1-2

1 medium acorn squash, cut in half with seeds scooped out (go bigger than the one I bought, pictured above, it was too small and I had leftover guts)
1T evoo
1C baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 a small eggplant, cubed (I used a graffiti eggplant)
1/4t minced garlic
1/4t dried oregano
salt and pepper
3T balsamic vinegar
1/2C marinara sauce
1/4C reduced fat mozzarella, shredded
1T seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400*. Line a baking pan with tin foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Place squash cut side down and cook for 40minutes.
While squash is cooking, heat evoo in a pan over medium-high heat. Add eggplant and mushrooms.
Season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Cook for 7minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add balsmic vinegar and cook another 3-5minutes, until liquid is reduced.
Remove from heat and stir in marinara sauce.
Remove squash from oven and flip cut side up. Fill cavities with veggie mixture and top each side with half of the bread crumbs and cheese.
Return to oven for 10minutes, until cheese is browned.

Holy cow, I fell in love! The flavors of this melded together amazingly and I loved the texture. Gaaah!

I really planned on eating the entire thing but 1half ended up being enough (I also ate some leftover stuffing while the final product cooked).

I am super excited to finish the rest tomorrow! To drink I made the most “Fall” cocktail ever.

8oz each apple cider and pumpkin beer. Gah again!

Good meals, especially especially fall themed ones, make me so happy! I’m going to do some blog reading and then head to bed. I didn’t get any studying done today (that time was taken up by the flooding fun) so I have a lot to accomplish before my in-laws get here tomorrow. Sleep tight!

Do you participate in the BSIs? Have you won any?

Eating Chalk

Author Archives: Emily

Dreams of Root Vegetables

Shorty Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

Moving Forward Monday

Where the Wild Things Are

Drive By Post

Visit from the In-Laws

Giveaway

Giveaway

BSI Entry