Loaded

by Emily

I’ve made it halfway through the first week of this rotation and I only sort of want to nap for a million years. The teachers have warned us for years that this is the placement that makes everyone get in bed at 9 pm. I’m crazy, so I’m still staying up ’til midnight, but I’m definitely tired!

I’ve been eating breakfast at the hospital but I need to figure out a new system because the cost of bars is going to add up. This one was a free sample at least.

And tasty too. Cascadian Farm Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bar.

Lunch was more black-eyed pea salad (beans, green pepper, cheese, smoked almonds).

The Talenti gelato pint made an awesome leftovers container; gotta love that screw-on lid.

Plus a pear.

I skipped the dark chocolate today because I knew we were planning a big dinner.

Of course, then I decided to get a milkshake on the way home.

You have to do a yearly Shamrock Shake! This was so good.

I also had a bagel thin with smoked salmon cream cheese when I got home.

I’ve been so hungry today, I want to say it was yesterday’s workout but let’s be real, I only did 4 miles.

Dinner was fantastic; loaded baked potatoes for the win.

Toppings included turkey bacon, mushrooms cooked in turkey bacon drippings, Smart Balance Light, shredded cheese, and green onions.

We were both practically licking our plates.

And I had a Toasted Onion Sea Snax while we watched The Nanny.

Love that show! We’ve got two more episodes to go and then I’ve got to get to bed. Good night!

5Mar2013

Cider House Run

by Emily

Let me apologize in advance for what is sure to be a post riddled with typos. I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises. I’m two days in and I’m going to have to agree with my friends who were in the previous rotation – this placement is exhausting.

Breakfast was a Pirouette Cinnamon Pecan Barre.

This bar was in my Yumvelope shipment. The ingredient list is great – dates, walnuts, pecans, agave nectar, hemp seed, rolled oats, hemp protein, ground flax-seed,brown rice protein, vanilla, cinnamon, sea salt, peanuts – but I wasn’t a big fan of the final flavor; too much date.

Plus hospital coffee with 2% milk.

We get free soda and coffee at this hospital so expect to see a lot of caffeine breaks!

Lunch was an easy assortment. A Pear Chobani.

A Honeycrisp apple.

And 70% dark chocolate.

I also packed this blue algae nut butter packet but I threw it out one lick in.

Much too gaggy.

At the end of the day, Adam texted me that he and a friend were at a bar near our house so I met them for a quick drink.

The McKenzie’s Seasonal Reserve Hard Cider was great. It had notes of cinnamon that were quite tasty.

I headed straight from Cole’s to meet my friend for a gym visit. I’m back to the Couch to 10k plan, right where I left off, though obviously I’ve got to stick with it this time. 2 minutes of running/3 minutes of walking, x 10. I am fat, I am out of shape, I was still a little drunk – my workout was so flipping hard!

In spite of my extreme tiredness and Adam’s messing up our meal plan by eating while I was at the gym, I managed to cobble together a good dinner. I was worried about not having enough to eat, but I think I ultimately went a bit overboard!

My favorite black-eyed pea salad,

green beans with shredded parmesan,

and 1.5 servings of Wegman’s vegan “chicken” nuggets with sweet and sour sauce.

Everything was delicious. Those nuggets are awesome.

Have you ever done the inebriated workout?

4Mar2013

Poor Puppy

by Emily

I had a few silly things to complain about, but the dog had another seizure today so that kind of all pales in comparison. He’s doing ok now but we are going to have to meet with the vet soon and possibly rethink our strategy.

Regardless, it’s been a long day and just want to go to bed. Keeping this quick…

Kit’s Organic Chocolate Almond Coconut Bar.

Pear.

Honey wheat Sandwich Thin with white bean truffle spread and tempeh. (I ate the tempeh raw and I am officially never doing that again – I am still sooooo bloated and sick.)

1/2 serving Green and Black 70% Dark Chocolate.

Dannon Oikos Cafe Latte Greek Yogurt with Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola. Both are heavenly and the combo was fantastic.

Leftover stir-fry. The last 2 servings each of roasted broccoli, white basmati rice, and copycat CF spicy cashew chicken went into a skillet with 1 tsp sesame oil and 2 large eggs.

Ridiculous cookie.

Please go give your pets a big smooch for me.

3Mar2013

Copycat Cashew Chicken

by Emily

Today’s eats have been mighty tasty. I could wax poetic about flavors for hours, but we saved up the last two weeks of Castle and are in the middle of a very tense marathon!

Bagel for breakfast.

A Garlic and Italian Herb Bagel Thin (a new flavor!) with smoked salmon cream cheese.

Fruits and vegetables for lunch, split up before and after work. Roasted broccoli with lots of melted sharp cheddar before.

Honeycrisp apple with 1/2 Tbsp melted peanut butter after.

The apple was good, the cheesy broccoli was better.

Dinner was an absolute success.

We followed this copycat recipe for Cheesecake Factory’s spicy cashew chicken. We doubled the sauce and subbed Sriracha for cayenne pepper but otherwise followed the recipe.

Flipping amazing! Served with white basmati rice,

and more roasted broccoli.

We loved every bite and are eagerly awaiting leftovers for dinner tomorrow.

Single-serve cookie dough for dessert.

Also amazing.

And with that, I’ve got to go – Castle is blowing my mind.

Do you watch Castle?

3Mar2013

And We’re Off!

by Emily

Today was officially my first day off (from both school and work) since January 20th! 42 days straight!!! I didn’t even work full shifts for most of those days but it was still nice to have 24 hours all to myself for a change.

We didn’t do anything all that exciting with our newfound free-time but it still felt pretty damn nice. We did a major grocery trip, started watching Battlestar Galactica (please tell me that the episodes are faster paced than the movie?!), and Adam currently has the guys over for poker.

Breakfast was a bowl of peanut butter and bananas, squared.

2% Banana Chobani Greek Yogurt topped with a sliced banana, 1 tsp of melted peanut butter and 1 crumbled Cascadian Farm Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bar.

So flipping good.

Lunch was even better.

I took enough Pho home last night for Adam and I to both have lunch with the leftovers. I beefed mine up with some roasted broccoli and a soft-boiled egg. Plus more Sriracha, of course.

The entire bowl was delicious and the egg yolk melting into the broth was so amazing that it almost made me cry.

For dessert we shared this plate of samples.

Oh Nuts! offered to send me their Passover Cake & Cookie Sampler and I happily accepted.

Neither of us liked the brownie piece (too dry) but we thought that the jam in the sandwich cookie and raspberry jelly roll was nice. By the by, everything was gluten-free and kosher.

I also had an Adora calcium disk.

I am going to try to remember to take one every day for the next while, but I probably won’t blog about it again.

Dinner ended up being a (giant!) container of hot bar.

A little bit of mac and cheese and brussels sprouts and a bunch of chicken. Apparently I was in the mood for protein.

I made the poker players some Mac and Three Cheese Cups but they were gone before I could snag one. That’s a good sign!

What’s your longest run without a day off?

2Mar2013

(Pho)ning It In

by Emily

I regularly drop off the face of the blogging planet and I haven’t even started my next rotation yet! It’s rumored to be time-consuming and exhausting, but I’m sure that won’t keep me from hitting my 30-days goal this time. I mean, I made it an entire day the last round!

You missed – bubble tea with a friend, Adam and I splitting an entire bag of chips and dip for dinner, and other stuff that can’t have been that exciting because I honestly can’t remember any other food item from the past two days.

Also, the end of my purple hair.

I had to get rid of the streaks before my next rotation so I’m back to brown, albeit a darker, redder brown. I’ll try to get a picture in good light this weekend.

Today was the end of my winter break make-up and an on-campus meeting before we switch placements (I’ve got five weeks of clinical rotation in a local hospital coming up on Monday). Coffee was needed.

I earned a free coffee with a book store punch card so I went big (literally!) with a venti non-fat half-pumps toffee nut latte. Note – I drank my giant coffee and a diet pop in lieu of water all day and I totally paid the price this afternoon.

I was running late this morning – we ran out of water in the middle of my shower!!! – and I packed a fairly ridiculous trio of foods for my breakfast/lunch. A green pear.

A Honeycrisp apple.

And a package of Annie Chun’s Brown Sugar and Sea Salt Roasted Seaweed.

I wasn’t exactly full, but at least it all tasted good.

Our meeting got out a smidge early and three friends and I made it over to the mall for some high school-style fun. We wandered, window shopped, and got froyo.

A little plain tart with tons of popping boba for me!

Unfortunately, my dehydration kicked in during the fun and I ended up getting hit with a bad migraine. {Sorry to be such a downer guys!} I made it home just in time to throw up in my own bathroom; always a plus. Then I took medicine, and a nap, and managed to feel much better in an hour or so.

My boys joined me for the nap and this scene occurred –

They are too cute.

Once I rallied, Adam and I headed out for a fun dinner.

Red Pepper might be my new favorite restaurant. They gave us free tea and fried wontons,

and served me the best bowl of vegetarian Pho I’ve ever had.

Adam and I both thought that the broth was swoon-worthy.

I took the 2nd half of my trough home with me and we are quite excited for leftovers tomorrow.

‘Night!

27Feb2013

Coconut Chocolate Lavender

by Emily

Howdy! I have not been following my sleep schedule – – at all – – but I can say that today was quite productive. Every item on my list is now to-done!

The dog has been getting in and out of bed all night long recently and between that and my usually fitful sleep, mornings have felt very difficult this week. I barely had time to make it to work today so I had to take breakfast with me on the walk. This Wegman’s Bean and Cheese Burrito was good but not great.

Something about the flavor and texture made me long for a beverage, and I ended up exploding pinto beans all down the front of my winter coat.

I ate a Honeycrisp apple mid-morning.

Then I spent the rest of my day holed up in the basement like a retail hermit. We got in tons of tons of shipments on Monday and I opened and priced 99% of them today.

I never did have time for lunch at work (I kept my packed food in the fridge for an easy lunch tomorrow!) and I ended up doing double dinners. First was Wegman’s hot bar on a mini-date with the husband.

Wok-seared veggies,

and chicken dumplings and chicken salad.

Adam and I are obsessed with the dumplings’ dipping sauce and the combination of the sauce stirred into my chicken salad was the bomb.com. <– legit, it tasted so good that was the first expression that popped into my head!

I also ate a big bag of Easter candies from the bulk bins and gave myself a stomach-ache.

A little pain was worth it, the sugar rush totally helped me through the remainder of my internship journaling. Minus breaks for making food and eating food, I chugged away for the remainder of the evening.

Our home dinner was vegetable fried rice.

In the wok (for 2) –

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
~1 heaping cup peas
~1 heaping cup roasted broccoli
~1.5 cups leftover brown rice
1 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp Sriracha
3 large eggs

The dish had the potential to be great, but it was way too salty. It’s been awhile since I’ve used fish sauce and I forgot what a sodium-punch it packs. I ate a little less than 2/3 of my plate.

Dessert was a giant, delicious cookie.

Coconut Chocolate Lavender Cookies = this recipe for single serve cookies plus 1 tsp minced culinary lavender and chopped Sweetriot 70% dark kickin’ coconut chocolate subbed in for chocolate chips.

We were both big fans of the big cookies and big taste.

The winner of my Hey Shuga! giveaway is:

(#1) Jenny, shoot me an e-mail with your mailing address.

26Feb2013

Strawberry Tea With Mini Boba

by Emily

You can, in fact, purchase the giant tapioca balls known as “boba” for bubble tea. They are available in most Asian specialty groceries in most mid-sized cities. Sadly, it took me years to learn this. Even more sadly, some of you live in cities devoid of boba entirely. And it just wouldn’t be right to let you live a life free of bubbles.

I’m not going to say my recipe is as good as what you’d get in a tea shop. It isn’t. But it is good. And the fancy-factor of making your own strawberry tea makes up for the slightly less chewy boba.

I recommend making all of the components 24 hours ahead of time, for easy assembly the next day.

Strawberry Tea with Mini Boba, serves 4

5 bags tea of choice (I recommend a nice Earl Grey)
1 cup large pearl tapioca
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
sweetener to taste

Brew 4 cups of tea (the 5th bag is to make your 4 cups extra-strength) according to package directions. Set aside to cool completely.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add tapioca and allow water to return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer tapioca for 5-10 minutes, until balls are mostly translucent. Strain and run under cool water to stop the cooking process. Store cooked tapioca in a water-bath in a Tupperware in the fridge.

Place berries in a small saucepan over medium-low heat (go ahead and reuse your dirty tapioca saucepan, I won’t tell!). Cook 1 minute, using the side of a wooden spoon to mash the berries. Add sugar and continue to cook until it is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool completely before transferring to a Tupperware.

Divide mashed strawberries evenly between 4 glasses. Top with brewed tea and shake or stir to combine. Sweeten to taste. Carefully scoop cooked tapioca out of water bath and place into tea. Serve with large straws to allow for bubble slurping.

Eating Chalk

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Loaded

Cider House Run

Poor Puppy

Copycat Cashew Chicken

And We’re Off!

(Pho)ning It In

Coconut Chocolate Lavender

Strawberry Tea With Mini Boba