Category Archives: Uncategorized

S’mores Dip

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No Window Shopping Wednesday this week, instead I’ve got something better – the recipe for S’mores Dip!

Is there anything better than an ooey, gooey s’more?  No!  But this dip is a close second.  The tang from the cream cheese keeps it from being too sweet so you can go back for bite after bite.

The dip will keep in the fridge for up to three days (probably longer but you’ll definitely have finished it by then!).  Serve with Teddy Grahams, pretzel sticks, or apple slices.

S’mores Dip

  • 8 oz 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 20 toasted marshmallows*
  • 4 sheets graham cracker, crushed
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
  1. Place softened cream cheese and toasted marshmallows in a medium bowl.  Use a mixer on medium speed to mix until homogenous.
  2. Use a spatula to fold in crushed graham cracker and mini chocolate chips.
  3. Serve immediately or pull from the fridge a bit before serving so the dip can come up to room temperature.

*If you have a broiler – lay the marshmallows on a sprayed cookie sheet and then place under the broiler for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  You’ll need to watch the marshmallows carefully because they can go from toasty to burnt in a matter of seconds.

If you don’t have a broiler – it is possible to toast marshmallows in the oven (or over a grill if you’ve got one!).  Lay them on a sprayed cookie sheet and place them in your oven at the highest temperature it allows.  Cooking times will vary.

Peasy Pesto Pasta

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It’s already after 11 pm and the alarm is going off before 6 am tomorrow, yikes!  This day needs a speedy post.

Workout – 40 minutes on the stationary bike at  random level 6

Breakfast – Banana brulee yogurt.

In a small skillet I cooked a sliced banana with 1/2 Tbsp butter and 2 tsp brown sugar.  I put the gooey, caramelized banana on top of a bowl of Wegman’s 0% Plain Greek Yogurt.

The sweet and tangy tastes went perfectly together.

Lunch – a bagel sandwich.

A cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin topped with jalapeño cream cheese and two slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

I ate a slice of turkey in the morning as I was assembling my sandwich, it’s great.

I also had a Golden Delicious apple.

Snack – a mini bag of kettle corn.

Dinner – 2 oz of bow tie pasta with slices of roasted zucchini and peasy pesto (see below).

I love pesto so flipping much!  Bow ties with pesto are one of my major food memories from my childhood.  My aunt makes the best pesto I’ve ever had but she’s a great cook so that’s not surprising.

Peasy Pesto, makes 4 – 8 servings

  • 10 oz frozen peas, thawed and drained
  • 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. Place peas and oil in food processor and process until homogenous, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until well combined.

It was such a pretty green, I just couldn’t help taking pictures of it!

Jalapeño Popper Rolls

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As promised, here is the first of the recipes I made for book club last weekend.

These rolls are spicy and cheesy, my favorite combination!  They are a take on my favorite appetizer – Jalapeño Poppers.  Some popper aficionados prefer cheddar while the purists want cream cheese.  These rolls make cheddar and cream cheese play together nicely.

Wimps who want something cheesy with just a bit of spice may want to substitute banana peppers.  Daredevils can use fresh jalapeños.

Jalapeño Popper Rolls, makes 8 rolls

  • 8 oz package Pillsbury Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet
  • 4 oz 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 2 T jarred jalapeño juice
  • 1/2 cup jarred sliced jalapeños, drained
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit and prepare a cookie sheet with baking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, use a mixer to blend together cream cheese and jalapeño juice.
  3. On a clean, flat workspace, roll out seamless dough sheet.
  4. Use a spatula to spread jalapeño cream cheese in a thin, even layer on dough.  You don’t want to leave a border, spread the cream cheese to the edges of the dough.
  5. Place jalapeños in rows on top of cream cheese.  Leave about half an inch between each row and do not overlap the jalapeños.
  6. Sprinkle cheese in an even layer on top of jalapeños.
  7. Carefully roll up the dough, as if you were rolling up a yoga mat.  Slice rolled dough into 8 pieces.
  8. Place rolls on prepared cookie sheet, leaving a bit of space between them so they have room to rise.
  9. Bake at 375* for 18 – 20 minutes until golden.

BBQ ‘Bellas

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The stormy weather threatened my workout tonight but I persevered.  When I walked outside into heavy rain I knew I had to rethink my run.  Then the husband offered to drive me to the gym like a knight in shining armor a dry car.  I’ve hated running on the treadmill recently but it’s better than nothing at all.  I ran 2 miles (18:44) and then walked a 5 minute cool down.  2.3 miles and 24 minutes.  Followed by a few minutes of strength/stretching.

Dinner was a beauty.

It’s been years since I’ve eaten a portabella burger but a Wegman’s worker was cooking them for a display at the store last weekend and Adam and I both caught the craving.

These babies were especially good when paired with bbq sauce, aged gouda, and jalapeño cream cheese.

I put the ‘shrooms and a bit of canola oil over medium-high heat and then covered the pan and let them cook for 6 minutes.  Meanwhile, I toasted up some sandwich thins.  I schmeared 1 oz of jalapeño cream cheese on a thin, topped it with the cooked portabella, and then topped that with a healthy drizzle of Stubbs bbq sauce and 1 oz of aged gouda.

The sandwiches were a mess to eat but oh-so satisfying.

Roasted asparagus rounded out dinner.

This meal tasted like summer.

Pick your favorite – bean burger, beef burger, turkey burger, or ‘bella burger?

Yesterday – Brunch and Book Club

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Sunday was a great day; a busy, friend-packed, fun day.  I spent breakfast with the medical school crowd, lunch with the husband, and dinner with my dietetics friends.  I had not one spare minute for blogging but I wanted to play catch-up now since I ate so many great things.

As I said, we spent Sunday morning with some of the medical school crowd.  Adam’s friend and his boyfriend invited us all over for a homemade brunch.

In spite of my Prosecco-filled Saturday, I started my morning with a hibiscus mimosa.

I smothered this whole wheat waffle in maple syrup.

The waffle was amazing; it was so airy that it actually melted in your mouth!

I also had several bites of chips and guacamole.

It was great getting to sit and catch up.

Adam and I spent the afternoon blissfully watching Stargate: Atlantis.

Snacky foods were eaten for lunch.  Tons and tons of snacky foods.

Kettle corn (I polished off that entire trough for a shockingly low 400 calories) and Crab Chips (2 servings) that were delightfully spicy.

That night I went over to my friend Anna’s house for gossip and snacks club book club.  Here’s part of the spread.

I brought over two new dishes that turned out great, Jalapeño Popper Rolls and S’mores Dip.

Be on the lookout for those recipes to be shared over the next two days.

Here was my dinner plate.

Grapes, a jalapeño popper roll, Wegman’s marathon bread with guacamole, and a slice of Greek quesadilla.  I also ate many more grapes and several scoops of s’mores dip.

To drink, I had a sprite with vanilla vodka.

It was a surprisingly good combination and probably to blame for my eating the final jalapeño popper roll when I got home.

After a great Sunday, I woke up this morning feeling a little bit off.  I hit snooze on my alarm for a solid hour and a half before I decided to turn it off and just let my body tell me when it was done sleeping.  I stayed in bed until it was practically time to leave for class (!!) and I feel great now.  But I didn’t eat breakfast and my morning run will have to be completed this evening.

I ate lunch in class and it was fabulous.

3 oz of bread and butter pickle slices,

baby carrots,

and the other half of my dark chocolate mint m&m’s from Saturday.

I’ve been working on the blog since I got home from school (yikes!) and I had a snack while I wrote.

Golden delicious apple slices with 2 oz of melted s’mores dip.  I aimed for mainly carbs rather than protein and fat because I’m heading on my make-up run as soon as I’m done here.

And I’ll be done just as soon as I make two interwebs fashion notes.  1, I got my outfit idea for today from Pinterest.  The inspiration –

My attempt –

I think I did ok!

2, Do you like my nail polish?

It’s “a-taupe the space needle” and I wished for it here.  When we were all in Ohio for the funeral my aunt bought it for my cousin’s girlfriend and she didn’t like it so it was gifted to me.  It’s darker than I was expecting but I’m a fan.

Where do you get your fashion inspiration?

Epic Meal Time

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I’m not talking about the Epic Meal Time, though those guys are awesome.

Muscles Glasses is a hottie.

I’m talking about yesterday’s meals.  They were literally epic (you’ll see).

Breakfast was more nonexistent than epic, because I stayed in bed reading a book until the last possible minute.  When I was utterly distraught over finishing Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series my mom bought me the first book in several murder mystery lines.  Yesterday I was finishing up Tess Gerritsen’s The Surgeon.  It wasn’t terrible – I loved the way she switched point of view with each chapter from a different character’s perception – but I don’t plan on reading any more of hers.  I actually have the latest TB book now but I’m making myself wait to savor it.

I had to be out of bed and out the door at a specific time because my friend Hillary and I were presenting our research on Ginkgo Biloba at a poster presentation.

Last major assignment of the semester, done!

After I changed out of my suit Adam and I went to lunch.  We took a nice walk down Elmwood (a little over a mile) to Nickle City Cheese & Mercantile, an adorable new cheese shop.

The space looks great and they carry all sorts of cool lines that I’ve read about and wanted to try.

Adam and I got lunch and had a picnic outside.

We had a Sprecher Cherry Cola,

Mac and cheese with gouda,

and a grilled cheese of pimento cheese on pumpernickel with red onion.

Everything was great, but the pimento cheese didn’t have as much flavor as I was hoping for.  We definitely plan on going back for fancy cheese.

On the walk home we stopped at the neighborhood candy store for mint M&M’s.

They are one of my favorites but I was feeling pretty satisfied from lunch so I only ate half of them.

The rest of our afternoon was spent running the rest of our weekend errands.  Many took us to the mall.

Our final errand was at Cold Stone (legit!) where Adam and I split a kid’s chocolate frozen yogurt with butterfinger.

I like that Cold Stone has an option with less than 200 calories per small serving but this tasted a little “empty” somehow.

For dinner we went on a fancy date night!  We had an amazing Groupon for Epic Restaurant and Lounge.

They brought us bread with oil to start.

And Adam ordered the Filet Sliders – with house-made sea salt and vinegar potato chips and smoked gouda fondue as an appetizer.

I ate a few chips dipped in the fondue and it was awesome.

Per usual, we did some sharing with dinner.  I got the Grilled Rock Lobster Tail  – with lemon and asparagus barley risotto drizzled with a garlic shallot butter and brocoli rabe.

He got the Cedar Plank Salmon – maple candied carrots, fresh arugula, smoked gouda mashed potatoes.

Gahhhh!  Everything was sooooo good!  Adam’s favorite bite was the lobster tail and my favorites were the broccoli rabe and the fatty end of Adam’s salmon.  It was a great meal and a great time.

We extended the fun with Monkey Bread for dessert.

Oh, and we ordered a bottle of Prosecco with our meal.

Which is why you’re getting this post in the morning 😉

Late Lunch

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I was raring to go after my last post but e-mail sending and list writing kept me home a bit longer.

Since I had the time, I ate a 2% Pineapple Siggi’s for a late breakfast.

I may not have had time for any strength moves this morning but I certainly got in an arm workout carrying bags this afternoon.  Look at all the stuff we took to Goodwill –

I also hit up the Co-op (bulk bins), Target (ask me how thrilled I was to spend $7 on batteries for the smoke alarm), and Wegmans (groceries for the next week are purchased).

It was a long trip but now 80% of our weekend errands are finished.

I ate a pear when I got home.

But later I realized that I never actually ate lunch.  I was on a walk with the dog and husband so I made a pit stop at the co-op hot bar.

Excuse the bad pictures, I ate while I walked.  I got some mushroom “meatloaf,” curried kale and cauliflower, and a bit of cole slaw.

And for dessert a brown sugar walnut tart from Starbucks.

Mmmmn!

Adam took a girl friend out for dinner so I was by my lonesome.  I made a roasted veggie feast for my meal.

Sliced potato (6oz),

and green beans.

Yumtastic.  I’ve always liked vegetables but now that I roast them I lurve them!

I had a mini bag of kettle corn for dessert.

I also melted 2 Tbsp of caramel bites and ate them with a fork but the camera ate the photo.  I’m sure you can picture it though.

Have a great evening!

P.S. Adam just got home from his date and he came bearing half of his truffled mushroom panini.  I’m not going to eat it because it’s his favorite but I think he’s just the sweetest boy!

Loves Of Late

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Hey there!  I thought it would be fun to share some of the thing (material) I’ve been loving lately.  I’ve seen similar posts from many bloggers so I have no idea who to credit for this idea.  Suffice to say I’m not claiming it as my own.  I mentioned last week that I want to take time to be appreciative and this seemed like one fun way of doing so.

Things I’m Loving This Week –

1.  The Natural Life air freshener my parents sent me.  My car smells like strawberries!

2. Cool Cola Gum from Hubba Bubba.  When I was a kid Hubba Bubba made a cherry cola flavored gum that rocked my world.  Does anyone else remember it?  There was some popular basket ball player on the wrapper?  They stopped making it awhile ago and I’ve searched fruitlessly on Ebay ever since.  But then on a trip to Toronto I found Cool Cola in a little candy store!  It’s 95% as good as the original and I’ve been chewing it like crazy this week.  But I only bought two packages so we’ll have to go back soon.

3. These oil-free cleansing wipes from Neutrogena.  My hair is at that annoying length where no combination of headbands can keep it out of my face and face washing outside of the shower is impossible.  These wipes have been a godsend for letting me go to bed without feeling like a dirt-ball.  And the pink grapefruit smell is delicious.

What are you loving this week?

Now on to things I’m loving today.  I love improving my physical fitness.  Or more aptly, decreasing my total lack of physical fitness.  My phone died during the night and my alarm didn’t go off this morning.  When I finally did wake up, I knew my workout would have to be a something’s better than nothing workout.  It was rain/snowing and sucky outside and I only had time to do one loop so I ran my little heart out.  1.2 miles in 10 minutes and 43 seconds.  That’s slow as hell but also a whole 1+ minute faster than Wednesday!

Something else I love is my recipe for Thai Iced Coffee Slush.  This twist on it is even better than the original:

1 serving of slush + 1 cup of skim milk = the best frozen coffee drink on the planet.

Small sidenote on something I don’t love – cold weather.  Remember how I mentioned the snow?  I carried that icy coffee in my bare hand during the walk to school.  While I was wearing this –

I’m an idiot.  My toes were so purple when I got to school that a classmate actually offered to drive me home after class.  (Thank you, Mike!)

I’m looking pretty good on the school front for the moment so I am going to head back outside to tackle some of the errands for this weekend.  Wish me warmth!