Author Archives: Emily

Party Pooped

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Good morningafternoon!  The get together was a success, but now the husband and I are all pooped out 🙂  I didn’t get to take pictures but we had wine and cheese, and I made baked Brie and spinach and artichoke dip (recipes below).  Everyone brought a wine or cheese and everyone had a good time.  I got pretty drunk (don’t worry mom, I was still a good hostess) but I managed to be calm with the cheese.

People stayed from 7-12ish and then we cleaned up and went to bed.  We ended up with leftover wine,

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and cheese.

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Once I quit drinking I chugged an orange Ooba, which was the perfect way to end the evening. 

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Today we slept in for-ev-er, and then woke up to eat lunch and watch “My So-Called Life.”  I made a tasty looking salad, but then there was an incident with a bug, so brunch ended up being this –

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Dr. Kracker Pumpkin Seed Cheddar Flat Crisp with homemade sour cream and onion dip.

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Quite good.

School starts tomorrow, so there’s lots to do still.  See you for dinner.

Baked Brie

Top a round of brie with chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, and a dash of salt.  Bake in a 350* oven for 15minutes.

The dip recipe is here.

Errands to Ecstasy

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 I found time for a mid-day post!  We’ve been busy, but having fun.  I ❤ errand Saturday with my husband.  We got up around 8:20 and got straight to work; there’s been a lot of movement today.  After loading up the car with stuff for Goodwill (including a heavy mattress that gave me an arm work out) we headed out to our car inspection.  The car took about an hour so Adam and I walked to the post office and back while we waited.  Afterwards we dropped off our donations.  During the drive I ate this Balance Bar I found at Target yesterday for 78cents.

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Gah, too good!  I ate the cookie dough flavor and it was literally like cookie dough.  I try not to eat them that often because they have much more saturated fat (3-4g) than I prefer, but they are a really great occasional treat.  I gave Adam a bite and he fell in love too.

Next we took our coupons to Wegmans.

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I’m sure you’re all shocked that Adam insisted on salad bar again 🙂

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I knew I would eat some snacky food tonight at the party so I skipped my usual buffet philosophy (90/10 healthy food to splurges) and went all healthy.  I had Bourbon grilled chicken, Asian baked tofu, and steamed veggies (that is a small container).

We got a ton at the grocery store (I got another arm workout carrying purchases up the stairs) and then came home to do some cleaning.  I stopped to paint my toenails and figured drying time was a good time for dessert.  I don’t know if you guys remember my super sample sundae?  Forget that.  This is the new hottness –

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Purely Decadent Dairy Free Coconut and Crofter’s Asia Superfruit Spread.  Ridiculous.

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This is hands-down my favorite ice-creamand the jam addition was out of this world.  I was in ecstasy.

We have a few more to-do’s this afternoon, and then tonight people are coming over for wine/cheese.  I’ll do a recap but I’m not sure how many pictures I’ll take.  See you later for some drogging!

  1. Do you use coupons when you food shop?  I don’t comparison shop or anything like that, but I do clip coupons.  I keep them in a mini file folder, organized by category and expiration date.
  2. Do you bring your own bags to the grocery store?  I sometimes slip, but 90% of the time we bring cloth bags from home.  It’s good for the environment, and I find it way easier to carry heavy bags over my shoulder.
  3. What was your most exciting grocery purchase this week?  We got some organic, dairy free chocolate syrup with a bear on the front that I am pretty eager to open up!

Balls, of Meat

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Extra to-do’s are done, dinner was made from scratch, it’s been a good day!  This morning was not much of a success.  I wanted to do chemistry review – one last ditch effort before class starts on Monday – so I rode to school with Adam to study at the South Campus library.  We got to school before it opened so I hung around the med school lobby and ate my snack.

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My baggie was about 2servings and very tasty.

Once the library did open at 8 I put in a valiant two hours of day-dreaming before I accepted that I was too cold and hungry to focus.  I trekked in search of a cafeteria, success.

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My egg/cheese bagel and coffee were just what I needed.  I studied in the cafeteria until I was halfway through with my coffee.  I should mention, the coffee machine was one of those push button thingies, and I ended up with English Toffee Cappuccino.  It was very syrupy and halfway through I basically had diabetes.

I trekked again, bought a diet soda to clear my head (don’t judge me!) and went back to the libary for some actual  studyingcompletely worthless blog reading. 

It wasn’t until 12:30 that I finally had some success!  I went for coffee with a blog reader/R.D student at UB (hi, Katie!).  I got to ask questions about the program and catch up on blog gossip, it was great.  We ended up sitting at Starbucks for hours!  While we were there I had a more successful snack.

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Unsweetened iced coffee with skim milk and a KIND bar.

I didn’t get home until after 5, and then Adam and I headed out on errands.  We spent forever at Target.  Among other things, I replaced my devious Sigg,

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and we bought a new blender, woo!

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Before we could head home we had to hit up a wine store too.

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We are having a small get-together tomorrow, the theme of which is wine and cheese.

Somehow at 9pm I managed to force myself to cook dinner.  While I worked I ate two farmers’ market plums for energy.

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We made Giada De Laurentiis’ meatballs, from her Everyday Italian cookbook.  I only had a small serving,

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but it was frickin delicious!  Hands-down the best turkey meatballs I’ve ever had, I’m sorry I can’t post the recipe.

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Dinner was great, and “My So-Called Life” was even better 🙂  We will be very busy tomorrow (in addition to our get-together set up we have to get our car registered) so I probably won’t be posting again until the evening.  See you then!

What is your favorite ground meat, for balls form?  My favorite is extra-lean turkey.

Jordan Catalano

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It’s been a long day and I am watching Jordan Catalano and Angela Chase decide whether or not to have sex so this will be a quickie (ha) post!

For breakfast I ate a Cliff Mojo Bar on the walk to volunteering.

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Today was my last 6hour shift, next week I do 4hours each Monday.  There was employee appreciation bbq in the cafeteria which meant not a lot of choices for me.

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I ate half of the macaroni and ate the chicken out of the bun with a fork.

When I got home it’s possible I got in a screaming match with my husband.  Just a poss ability though, it’s not like my husband is a first year med student under tons of pressure or I don’t know what to do with my life and am freaking out.  And if we did fight, we might have made up with Arby’s five-for-five and “My So-Called Life,” which is how I ended up with this –

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Jamocha shake and Diet Dr. Pepper.

Fueled by my awesome shake, I tackled tons of to-dos.  Laundry,

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meal planning/coupon organizing/list making,

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recycling our paper,

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While we were being green I drank so chocolate Amazing Grass with So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk,

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and around 9 we finally broke for dinner.

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I know it looks like swamp, but Moo Shu Stoup left-overs rocked my socks.

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I stopped 80% of the way through though, so I could have a threesome (is anyone else as amused as I am by the punny sex references as I am?) with a couple whose child could rule the world.

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Purely Decadent Dairy Free Peanut Butter Zig Zag and South America Crofter’s Superfruit Spread. oh.my.god.

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The ice-cream had chunks of chocolate and peanut butter and the spread had maqui and passionfruit.  They were both samples, and they will both be purchased when I run out!

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Gah!

We are finishing up our 90’s TV marathon, sweet dreams folk.

Did you watch My So-Called Life growing up?  I really liked it as a kid but now I am obsessed!

(Belly)Flop

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Bad decisions all around! “District 9” suck, suck, sucked. Save your money, do not go. Also, my mom told me to charge my movie snacks to her and I might have gone a bit crazy –

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Adam and I split popcorn and a diet soda and I ate 85% of that (huge) box of candy.

It is, unequivocally, time for bed.

What do you eat at the movies?  The movies seems to be my Achilles’ Heel of healthy eating this year.  Popcorn is my favorite thing ever, but I don’t even like movie-made popcorn, so I’m not sure why I keep eating it.  What I really, really like, is to bring apple slices to the movies (or jr mints).

Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job

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I ate breakfast on the go this morning while I walked to volunteering.

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Stoneyfield Farm Lowfat Strawberry Smoothie and a Cinnamon Raisin Gnu Bar.  This was the perfect combination.  I’ve tried every flavor of my Gnu Bar samples now, and cinnamon raisin is one of my favorites.

For lunch I hit up the hospital’s sandwich bar.

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Jalopeno wrap with chicken salad, banana peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, pickles, spinach, and chipotle sauce.

I’ve been drinking a diet soda with lunch but it is a Pepsi place, and I hate Diet Pepsi, so it seemed a little silly.  I don’t mind that I drink (a lot of) diet soda, even though many people think it’s too unhealthy, because I get so much enjoyment out of it, so a flavor I don’t like is hard to justify.  Today I brought a Snapple-On-the-Go Diet Pink Lemonade packet that I bought on a whim the other day.

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Delish!  And it got me to drink a water with lunch, which I always should but never do.

Volunteering was a little busier, which was a nice change of pace.  One lady said I was their best volunteer and it kind of made my day 🙂

On a similar note, I’m sure some of you are wondering why I don’t have a job.  No, I am not planning on living off Adam’s loans.  80hours+ of volunteer service was a prereq for the programs I am applying to so that took priority until school starts.  Next week when my class starts I will be moving to one (4hour) volunteering shift a week.  I will also – fingers crossed – get a job then.  I am hoping to substitute teach and get a waitressing job.  However, I can’t apply for the restaurant job until I know the situation with substituting, and that won’t happen until after Labor Day.  For now, I am enjoying the lack of responsibility and being proud of myself that I’ve saved enough money that it’s not a big deal.

My plan was to study after volunteering, but we got some sad news from back home and it kind of nixed my motivation.  The husband is dying to see District-9, so I just might join him for a movie!  I’ll let you know at dinner.

What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without working?  I started a part-time job when I was 15 and have pretty much worked ever since.  I waitressed through college and had two jobs I went back to at home over every break.  The two years I taught were the only time in forever that I haven’t been waitressing, and I’m actually excited to get back to it.

Listed

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This post is check off style, following my to-do list from the last post.

#2 – Feed my sourdough starter. 

#3 – Eat some damn fruit.  All this was blended into a tasty smoothie.

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Er, uncheck. 

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My blender exploded.  That was fun.  So I drank the rest of my sample from Ooba, and ate a Farmer’s Market plum while I cooked.

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#4 – Make dinner.

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We used a Racheal Ray recipe, Mu Shu Stoup, from Just in Time.  I can’t post the recipe, but it had chicken, cabbage, and pot stickers, and was delicious.

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#1 – Fill in my new planner.  I was so frickin excited to start a new planner!  It is kind of sad how obsessively I plan; I used to plan out my outfits for vacations on paper and my friends would tease me mercilessly 🙂

#5 – Find time to curl up with my new reading material.  No check, boo.  But I did eat a yummy dessert while we watched “My So-Called Life.”

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I warmed it in the microwave, so it was nice and gooey.

And now if I hurry, hurry, hurry in the shower, maybe I can skim a magazine!  Night.

Do you keep a planner?