Day One Of Thirty? {Again}

by Emily

Complaints first – The chance for 8-hours of sleep passed before I even started this post. All of my end of internship assignments are due on Friday and I’m freaking out. I ate two snacks after dinner and I am still flipping hungry.

Complaints aside, it wasn’t a bad day. We got lots (and lots) of shipments at work so I was nice and busy.

The morning started with smoothies.

For two: 1 Thai young coconut, ~1 cup frozen blue/blackberries, 1 medium frozen banana, and 2 Tbsp Hey Shuga! <– don’t forget, you still have another ~hour to enter my giveaway!

I didn’t have a lot of time for lunch so I kept it simple. A Garuka Bar (from my yumvelope).

The sweet peanut butter coating was addictively good; I planned on snacking on it throughout a task but every time I tried to walk away I took another bite instead!

I also had a Fage 0% Greek Yogurt with Cinnamon Apple Raisins.

The flavor isn’t listed on the Fage website and I’ve only seen it at Target. The apple compote was good, but nothing can really compare to the pure decadence of the honey and strawberry flavors.

I only had an hour between work and night class so Adam and I cashed in a coupon for Subway for dinner.

6 inch turkey with lettuce, tomato, green pepper, banana pepper, red onion, and honey mustard on Italian herb and cheese bread.

I knew my sandwich wouldn’t quite fill me up and I shared this peanut butter spoon with Webster when I got home.

Then I also had a plate of baby carrots with the last of some smoked gouda spread.

And a bag of Smart Fries.

I ended up dipping my “fries” in yellow mustard. And then I had a big glass of water; methinks I’m a bit dehydrated!

25Feb2013

Weekend Highlights

by Emily

Hello, Monday! This is my last week of “break,” but I don’t even care because I had such a good weekend. The past three days have been packed full of fun; we did so much on Saturday that Adam even said I wore him out! Other than some short shifts at work, every moment has been exciting.

I only have time to share the highlights, but I will make this note – we ate like we had the wallets of our future and the metabolisms of our past!

I tried this dark chocolate and soft caramel Nunu bar (from the Yumvelope subscription my mom got me for Christmas) and fell in love.

Best caramel I’ve ever had and made in Brooklyn.

I received this incredibly sweet and generous care package from Cascadian Farm.

I am too excited to have those Oats & Honey granola bars back in my pantry.

I took Adam to Brickhouse Tavern for bacon-studded deviled eggs,

and discovered that they sold my favorite beer.

I’m not even going to try to lie, this one Red Stripe got me embarrassingly drunk.

We ventured out to Franks Food Truck at 1:30 in the morning.

Amazing fries with garlic aioli and a veggie dog topped with bbq sauce, cole slaw, and blue cheese;

well worth the tired morning.

Finally, I may not be any closer to running an 8-minute mile, but I did cross one thing of my yearly goals list…

S’mores {over a fire} have been made!

Did you do anything amazing this weekend?

21Feb2013

Hey (Shuga!) What’s Going On? {Giveaway}

by Emily

What’s going on around these parts?

Look at what I did at work yesterday –

I probably should have taken pictures before it got dark out, but I did have a really good time making that train!

Even though there were only a few days to go, the Vegan 20 Day Challenge has unceremoniously …ended. Not that my friend and I were doing that well anyway, what with eggs sneaking into half of what we both were eating. But yesterday I dove head first into a slice of buffalo chicken pizza. (I also ate an entire bag of chips, but that’s neither here nor there.) And tonight’s dinner involved these guys –

Adam and I have wanted to buy that shrimp plate for months and at $12 we finally decided to take the plunge. So good!

Tonight’s dessert was vegan –

We made the Chocolate Vegan Mousse recipe from the Hey Shuga! website.

Full disclosure – I recently received a bottle each of Hey Shuga! and Lil’ Shuga! to sample.

Hey Shuga! is an organic cane sugar syrup. It pours more easily than honey and blends into liquids easily. Lil’ Shuga! is a blend of organic cane sugar syrup and stevia leaf extract. I will be honest about the fact that I hated the Lil’ Shuga!; one small taste made me screw my face up in disgust. I hate, hate, hate, stevia though, so take that as you will. I shared the Lil’ Shuga! with a fake-sugar-user friend and she was a fan. And Adam and I both thought that the Hey Shuga! was quite tasty. We are both looking forward to using it in coffee and smoothies.

The company wanted me to let you guys know that both products are available in the Northeast at Wegmans. They will be doing demos at many of the stores, including at Wegmans Eastway and Wegmans Pittsford. Hey Shuga! is going to launch a fun contest with prizes for people who submit pictures of the product at Wegmans, Whole Foods, or in specialty natural food stores and tag “@HeyShugas” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

They also offered to let me share with you guys – I can send a bottle of Hey Shuga! and Lil’ Shuga! to one reader. For a chance to win – leave a comment on this post before midnight on Monday, February 25th.

Have you seen the Hey Shuga! product in your local store yet? Have you tried it?

19Feb2013

Asian Carbs

by Emily

The title describes every single thing I ate today! At least I managed to cover a good spread of the continent – Thailand, Japan, and India.

Adam wasn’t excited enough about my Pad Kee Mao leftovers, so I ate them myself for breakfast.

Amazing. Broad rice noodles (when cooked in a Thai dish and super spicy) are my favorite food.

I rounded out the meal with a spoon of peanut butter.

I left a little bit behind for the dog and he was on Cloud 9.

Lunch was spicy avocado Inari.

Yes, contrary to ~~popular~~ Adam’s belief, that orange stuff in mayonnaise-based. But when you husband sweetly delivers you lunch at work you don’t turn it down just because you’re doing a silly challenge.

We used a groupon at India Gate for dinner.

I got Chana Bhatura.

I ate half of my chickpeas, with rice. And 1.5+ of my fried dough. I tried to eat less but half the times Adam went to take a bite I ended up snatching it away from him!

The flavor was very similar to the Johnny Cake I grew up eating and I was having a total taste memory.

Adam is in bed (he got under the covers at 8:45!) and I should be there too but I have a mental problem that keeps me from making healthy sleep decisions so instead I’ll probably get some dessert and watch Law and Order: SVU.

P.S. I picked a winner for my Slow Cooker Desserts giveaway – (#1)

Cori, e-mail me with your mailing address so I can get your prize sent out!

19Feb2013

Back On Winter Break

by Emily

My title’s no joke – I am officially back on winter break until the 28th! Since I started my rotation early I’m spending the rest of this portion of the semester catching up on the days of winter break that I missed. I do have a placement with an outpatient RD on Thursday, but other than that the time is mine. I’m not doing anything super exciting; in fact, I work every single day of the next two weeks! I’m hoping to get back into the gym habit too.

My last day of senior practicum was bittersweet, I loved this experience so much more than I was expecting to. I am going to post some more about the internship after I gather my thoughts, but for now I’ll stick to breakfast.

Breakfast. A packet of Spiru-Tein Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Protein Powder shaken with 1.25 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

I didn’t really love the texture/flavor all that much, but at least this kept me full through rounds. p.s. – this flavor has bee pollen in it so it won’t work for strict vegans

Lunch was packed with veggies. I brought a container of roasted butternut squash and green beans,

and topped it with a thing of Sea’s Gift Sweet Seaweed Snack.

That combo was ridiculous good. I actually drove to Wegman’s the minute I was done with the day to buy more of the sweet seaweed!

Can I brag for a second? I brought the nutrition department a thing of my Triple Butterscotch Blondies to say thank you and everyone raved about them. You know a group of dietitians doesn’t go for seconds on a dessert unless it’s good!

I couldn’t have a blondie – they are sooooo not vegan – but when I got home I did eat 1.5 servings of So Delicious Coconut Milk Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

The flavor of the ice cream is a little bit funky, but the cookie dough pieces are the best I’ve ever had (vegan or otherwise).

Let’s do a final Fashion ~~Friday~~ Monday –

I accented my outfit with this great bracelet my mom sent me for Valentine’s.

That is seriously such a “me” pieces of jewelry.

Since the college is closed for Presidents’ Day, my night class was cancelled. This meant I could go out for celebratory drinks and dinner with friends.

I didn’t plan on drinking much, but I kept a Tea’s Tea Green Tea with Grape in my purse for rehydration purposes.

Really I only drank 1 Jack and ginger ale.

I was embarrassingly tipsy afterward.

My friend had a friend visiting from out-of-town so we had to shower her the wonder of Sun Restaurant for dinner.

I went with the Pad Kee Mao, ordered Thai spicy. Thai-style fried wide rice noodles with hot and spicy sauce, mixed vegetable, and basil leaves.

There wasn’t egg listed in the description, but it was definitely present in the dish. I’ve already cheated on the Vegan 20 Day more than once though, so it’s not like it was a big deal.

I ate a little more than half of my pasta, then brought the rest home for Adam. I also brought him a whole order of the tea leaf salad that he loves to help bribe him into making me popcorn.

Score! I smothered that bowl in melted SmartBalance Light and it was amazing.

Did you have the day off for Presidents’ Day?

17Feb2013

The Sunday Scurry

by Emily

I’m in a quandary: I want to blog because yesterday I started my “30 days of blogging” challenge again, but I want to get off the computer so I can hang out with my boys. I didn’t say it was a large quandary. I’ll just keep this quick.

Leftover pineapple crisp (from my Slow Cooker Desserts cookbook).

Ritz crackers with white bean truffle dip.

A lunchtime snack plate.

Honeycrisp.

Crunchy peanut butter.

1 serving of Sweetriot 70% Dark Chocolate with Kickin’ Coconut*.

Co-op hot bar after work. Fried seitan, cucumber salad, and peanut noodles.

Homemade Thai curry for dinner.

Green curry and light coconut milk with a bit of tamari and rice vinegar. Nasoya Black Soybean Tofu Plus** fried in coconut oil. Tons of broccoli and a can of straw mushrooms. Cashews. Tasty Bite Thai Lime Rice.

My boys.

*the chocolate was out of this world; it had all the healthiness of dark but the creaminess of milk chocolate

**Adam and I both want to buy this tofu again; we didn’t press it but it still stayed firm and got nice and crunchy, plus it had a good, different flavor

Don’t forget to enter my cookbook giveaway.

16Feb2013

Kool And The Gang

by Emily

Q: Do you know what these two things have in common?

A: I used the Kool Aid to (re)dye my hair!

I never captured it in a photo, but over the last week or so I lost 90% of my purple and was left with a lot of white/grey streaks. Since I don’t have an appointment to go back to brown for another two weeks, this wasn’t exactly a good thing. So last night the husband helped me sit with my head in a bowl of concentrated Kool Aid.

It was windy today!

I’ve still got some white but overall it looks much better. We’ll have to see how long the color lasts. I used to dye my highlights with Kool Aid in high school and I remember getting at least a couple of weeks out of it.

The hair photos were taken on my way to work. I woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather; I had a fever and I was super achy all over. Adam fed me an aspirin and I stayed in bed until the last possible second. I’m feeling much better now {knock on wood}. And thankfully I was only working a partial shift.

I skipped breakfast for bed and was very excited about food when I got home this afternoon.

1/3 cup of Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola with Naked Vanilla Oat Milk and tons of chopped dapple plum and nectarine.

Plus lots of tea. A cup of Revolution Tea Lavender Earl Grey,

and a cup of chai with 1 tsp honey an hour or so later.

I carried the lavender theme over to my snack as well.

My mom got these floral candies from a student whose parents are from Japan.

My dad says they all taste like peach, but I swear the ones I tried had subtle differences.

We spent a long-ish time on errands this evening and I got a small plate of hot bar to keep from getting too cranky.

Maple cinnamon roasted sweet potatoes plus sautéed veggies and 3 pieces of General Tso tofu. It’s been ages since we’ve roasted sweet potato fries and we definitely need to make them again soon.

Dinner didn’t take very long to prepare once we got home, but it sure was good.

I had 1.5 servings of Wegman’s Don’t Be a Chicken Meatless Nuggets dipped in honey.

They were great, far more enjoyable than I ever find chicken nuggets to be.

I made use a hot spinach salad for our veggie component.

(recipe to follow) We loved it. The spinach was super creamy and there was such a good mix of textures.

Dinner didn’t really fill me up though, and I ate some Smart Fries while I wrote this post.

Much better.

Hot Spinach Salad, serves 2

1 Tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter
1 pint white mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 pinches salt
3 heaping cups raw baby spinach
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup smoked almonds
1 Tbsp evoo
2 heaping Tbsp vegan sour cream

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown mushrooms with butter and salt.
Add spinach to mushrooms, tossing until greens are completely wilted.
Add remaining ingredients to pan and cook 1 more minute, stirring regularly.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Have you ever dyed your hair with Kool Aid?

15Feb2013

A Valentine’s Giveaway

by Emily

I know it’s a day late, but I still love you guys. So I got you some gifts. Your first present was me not whining on the blog all week about what a bad mood I’ve been in. Adam says I’ve been unbearable, so you’re welcome.

The 2nd is a chance to win a copy of Slow Cooker Desserts.

I was sent a copy to review and I asked if I could share one with you guys as well.

Remember Dump Cake? Well this cookbook has about a zillion variations of that, and they all look delicious. <– I may be exaggerating a bit, but there really are bunches of recipes for cakes, cheesecakes, crisps, brownies, and more. A fair amount of the recipes are even healthy. And since they are all made in the crock pot the hands-on times are minimal.

The recipes we thought looked most exciting? Bananas Foster, Simmered Sweet Plums, N’awlins Praline Cheesecake, and Rice Pudding with Coconut.

Also Pineapple Crisp, which we made tonight.

I used Earth Balance for butter and cut the brown sugar back by a few Tbsp but otherwise followed the recipe.

Delicious! And all it took to prepare was the time to open the cans!

For a chance to win a copy of Slow Cooker Desserts, simply leave a comment on this post before midnight on Monday, February 18th.

Eating Chalk

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Day One Of Thirty? {Again}

Weekend Highlights

Hey (Shuga!) What’s Going On? {Giveaway}

Asian Carbs

Back On Winter Break

The Sunday Scurry

Kool And The Gang

A Valentine’s Giveaway