Category Archives: Uncategorized

Window Shopping Wednesdays

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I am not much of a shopper, much to my mother’s chagrin. The woman can spend days at the mall, while I start to feel itchy after just a few hours. It’s not that I’m not materialistic, I totally am, it’s just that the thought of adding more stuff to my life makes it hard to breathe. But I like the idea of things. So I’m an avid window shopper. I browse catalogs I’ll never buy from and hold my breathe when I pass the window at J.Crew. So while I’m stuck at school all day Wednesdays, I thought we could have some fun via blog. Let’s window shop!

Here’s what I’m coveting this week –

1.  Yellow Pop Herringbone Women’s Classics by TOMS.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about how comfortable TOMS are and when I finally checked out the site I couldn’t believe how cute they were too!  Could I wear these to the hospital for clinic?  I love that the company gives a pair of shoes to a child in need with every purchase.

2.  MAC Nail Lacquer in Hyperion.

This shade, a mix of light grey and blue-green, would look great with my new TOMS 😉  I think it’d be fun with a coat of multi-color glitter over the top too.

3.  The Food Bank Ric Rac Storage Bowl from Fishes Eddy.

I’m moderately obsessed with ric rac and if I have a girl child I have big plans of sewing it on the hems of all her dresses.  I love the cheery yellow of this bowl.  Even better, 5% of the proceeds from the sale of the Food Bank line at Fishes Eddy go to a NYC food bank.

4.  The Slub V-neck Tee from Lands End.

I’m all about slouchy tees for layering under blazers.  I like that this has the cute v-neck but isn’t too low-cut for business dressing.  All the colors are cute but I like graybird (shown) and antique olive best.

5.  An order of Parisienne mac and cheese from S’mac.

If you currently live in NYC I sort of hate you.  Not really, but the newest reason on my dying of jealousy list is S’mac, a mac and cheese place on East 12th Street.  The Parisienne is made with creamy Brie, roasted figs, roasted shiitake mushrooms & fresh rosemary.  Swoon.

Do you own TOMS?  What’s the verdict, should I be pining for a pair?

Thai Chicken Pizza

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Is anyone else wishing it was Thursday?  Actually, I’m wishing it was still Monday!  I have a lot (a lot, a lot, a lot) of big school stuff going on this week and I’m so not ready.  I spent too much of my morning worrying and not enough of it working.  Such is life; and I finally got over feeling overwhelmed and got some serious work done this evening.

Breakfast was berrytastic.

Greek Gods Honey Strawberry Greek Yogurt topped with blackberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I underestimated how sweet the fresh berries would be (not sour at all!) and this bowl ended up being a little too sugary.  The full-fat Greek Yogurt is sweeter than the 0% varieties too.  But the new-to-me flavor receives two thumbs up.

I also made myself something hot for the walk to school.

A double-brewed (2 bags tea to 1 cup water) mug of Tea Republic’s red velvet tea with sugar and plain almond milk.

We had a mock Statistics test today before our first real test on Thursday and it went pretty well.  We are allowed to bring a “cheat sheet” in so I’m not too worried.  I do have to actually make the sheet though!

When I got home I found a package of homemade goodies from my mother-in-law.

I helped myself to many white chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles.

And for lunch I helped myself to one of the husband’s tupperwares.

I made him spaghetti with turnip greens, brocoli, and tomato sauce for lunches this week.  I gussied up my stolen bowl by reheating it in a skillet with evoo and an egg.

The crunchy, almost burnt bits are my favorite.  And not to worry, I packed Adam a sandwich for tomorrow.

Speak of the devil my hero, when Adam got home this afternoon he made me a big bowl of airpopped ‘corn.

I haaaate cleaning the airpopper and Adam is so sweet to me about regularly dealing with it.  As long as you leave off the butter, popcorn makes the best study snack.

Dinner was inspired by my favorite chain restaurant meal.

California Pizza Kitchen’s Thai Chicken Pizza.  The Thai Chicken Salad is my favorite but the pizza’s a close second.

For our version we topped a store-bought crust with –

  • Wegman’s peanut sauce
  • shredded chicken
  • chopped green onions
  • leftover carrots from the Bahn Mi
  • 2% reduced fat mozzarella
  • cocktail peanuts
  • sesame oil (rubbed into the crust)

It was fantastic!  I could only finish one of my slices though; apparently half a pizza was a little too much!  But I ate all of my roasted zucchini.

Other than green beans (the long-term reigning favorite), zucchini is this year’s favorite vegetable for roasting.

What is your favorite chain restaurant?

A Bahn Mi Attempt

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I forgot to charge my camera and had to plug it in this morning while I should have been photographing breakfast.  It was a good time to be camera-less; my foods were predictable (is anyone even remotely surprised that I ate a big bowl of two ingredient ice cream for breakfast?) and my activities were boring.  I will say though – I don’t know what my neighbor did, but the next time the cops block my entire street and make it take 30 minutes for me to repark my car, I just might go on a crime spree of my own.

So it’s no biggie not to blog breakfast and lunch, but missing dinner would have been a crying shame.

I mean that crying part literally, I went a little heavy on the Sriracha in my spicy mayo!

For dinner we had my best attempt at Tofu Bahn Mi.  French bread topped with spicy mayo, baked tofu, carrots, and cucumber.

For the tofu I cut a block of extra-firm into five slices and then pressed.  I marinaded the dry slices overnight in a mix of sugar, rice vinegar, and tamari.  Then today I baked the slices at 425* for 30 minutes.  While the tofu was baking, I cooked the carrots in the leftover marinade.  Then I stirred together Sriracha and mayo, thin sliced some cucumber, and assembled.

We also had roasted asparagus on the side.

If you’re wondering why my asparagus pile looks so small, it’s because the ‘gus is Adam’s favorite veggie and one of his favorite foods.  I.e. he freaked out and took half of what I served myself to put on his plate.  I’m just glad he’s so in love with something green.

Meanwhile, the dog’s in love with my coats.

And I’m in love with the two of them.  And with 2 ingredient ice cream.

Challenge Check Ins

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February – Vegan Month Challenge

I’m not going to do the traditional recap; frankly, I’m not sure what to say.  This was our least successful vegan challenge to date.  We just weren’t in the right frame of mind to take on the challenge that month.  I was in a cooking rut and a perpetual bad mood.  But the one thing I know I can’t blame our failure on is lack of tasty vegan options.  The successful part of the challenge was the great new vegan recipes I’ve added to my repertoire.  Here are some of my new favorites –

Berry Better Than Spaghetti

Mushroom Umami Pasta Sauce

Peanut Butter Banana Pretzel Pie

Smokey Maple Baked Beans

Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole

Tropical Tapioca Pudding

And if you’re interested in my other vegan options, check out my newest recipe page!

March – “March Back Home,” No Take-out Challenge

March Back Home March is very similar to No Take-out ‘Tober.  Basically, our (crappy, unhealthy, expensive) food purchases have been out of control lately and we want to rein them back in.  Here are the rules –

  • no Wegman’s hot bar, period
  • no take-out; meals that are not cooked at home must be eaten in the restaurant setting
  • two predetermined restaurant meals are allowed per week
  • Adam is allowed to purchase a maximum of two coffees per week (at the hospital)
  • Emily is allowed to purchase a maximum of one drink per week; coffee, soda, juice or otherwise
  • the last week of March the rules won’t apply because my mom will be visiting for spring break!!!

I’m excited to get back in the kitchen.

Weekend Woot-dates

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Did everyone have a good weekend?  I didn’t get much work done, but the food and fun categories were filled to the brim!  We are starting another take-out reduction challenge and we definitely made the most of purchased meals this weekend 😉

Saturday morning I got up and went for a run!

The gym wasn’t open yet so I did my CT10k workout out in the wild at Delaware Park.  I forgot my watch at home and ended up having to count to 150 in my head as I switched from walking to running intervals.  I’m not sure how accurate I was but it was a great way to keep my thoughts occupied.  All total I did 4 miles in 53 minutes.  The wind was out of control and it ended up being a resistance workout of sorts; it was actually super fun to keep pushing through.

I drank the 2nd half of my G2 during my run.

And then I had a big iced coffee with English toffee syrup and Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk in the car.

In the car because we were heading to Toronto!

Last month I promised Adam all-you-can-eat sushi as a reward for participating in vegan month.  We failed at vegan month (recap post to come), but I figured he still deserved his reward for trying, especially since our fails were mostly due to my fat/laziness and not his lack of committment.  My parents sent us $ for Valentine’s that perfectly covered the cost of our fun international date, so off we went.

Lunch was delicious, way too many bites to even attempt to recap.  Adam and I did a lot of sharing, but the spread below shows everything I at least tasted.  Adam had many, many, other bites that I didn’t photograph.

Yum!  I’m still a little stuffed just thinking about it.  But we did find room for dessert.

Thank goodness, because this was actually the best cup of froyo I’ve ever had.  I thought I was going to die from a happiness overload.

A small serving of tart plain yogurt topped with fruit, sprinkles, and a huuuuuuge pile of popping boba.

I was grinning wider and wider with every bite.

After our drive home and an extreme shopping session at Wegmans, I did end up with room for a late dinner.

On that plate was a buffalo chicken sub with blue cheese and an order of fries.  Devoured.

Sunday has been spent on the couch.  Adam is starting a new project this week, in addition to the general being a med student craziness, and we took full advantage of today’s free hours for cuddling and sci-fi.

I did venture outside for brunch though.  My old friend Katie was back in town for a visit!

That sort of fun calls for a Bloody Mary, extra spicy.

Finding a Sunday brunch spot without a 45 minute wait took some doing, but we ended up having a great meal at Panos.

I got the kid’s meal 1-1-1.  A sunny side up egg, a pancake, and hash browns.  Then I smothered everything in syrup.

Every bite was delicious and I seriously considered licking my plate clean!

During the afternoon I ate a bowl of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2-Ingredient Ice Cream.

x2.  That stuff is ridiculous good.

Adam had an evening meeting so I pushed back our dinner plans and ordered Chinese.  Told you I was taking advantage of my last days with take-out!  Once our food gets here we are watching our last ever episode of Stargate: Universe and eating crab rangoons.  Yippee!

Are you a sci-fi tv fan?  Did you watch any of the Stargates?

If A Kid Were King…

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If a kid were king, dessert would be decreed dinner!  I think that’s a valid lifestyle choice, every once in a while.  Like tonight, though honestly the main reason I didn’t eat food-food for dinner was because we are out of food-food and desperately need to make a trip to the store.

When Adam got home from the hospital I fed him a malted heath bar toffee blondie, and ate another one myself.

I didn’t get a lick of work done but somehow I managed to fill my afternoon.  Mostly I was preoccupied seeing if my (reduced fat) ice cream would work out.  And … it did!

I made ice cream!  Shelly’s 2 ingredient ice cream is pure genius.

I made myself a (big) cup to-go to eat in the car on the way to UB.

And then I babbled about 2 ingredient ice cream the whole car ride.  I couldn’t share any of the good stuff obviously, but I did bring everyone blondies and they received glowing reviews.  I have a mile-long list of dessert ideas going and I have the feeling I’ll be doing a lot of sharing in the upcoming months.

The dance show was very cool.  Most of the numbers seemed like they ran a little too long but overall I enjoyed myself.  It was a modern dance exhibit (put on by the UB dance students) and just soaking up the vibes made me feel super creative.  Whenever I see a dance show I always leave feeling like I want to do pirouettes across the parking lot.

Afterwards we extended the fun with a trip to Starbucks.  I got a tall, non-fat Earl Grey latte.

We sat and talked over our drinks for a while and it was a ton of fun.  Friday night plans with friends need to be a more regular thing.  And bedtime needed to be 20 minutes ago; we’ve got a big day tomorrow.

Did/do you do any type of dance?  I did modern dance through fifth grade and adored it but my sense of rhythm is nonexistent; when I was a cheerleader I had to pantomime clapping because I was always so off-beat!

A Sweet Start

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That title is literal, I opened my day with some baking!

I didn’t get to taste the finished product at 8am, but you can bet that I licked those beaters, raw eggs be damned.

I also had an onion bagel with strawberry jelly.

Try that combo sometime, you won’t regret it.

School was not as sweet; my test was basically a disaster.  I knew a whole lot of material that wasn’t on the test, and a whole lot of nothing about what the questions were asking.  The class is with my favorite teacher whose previous tests (in two other classes) I all scored a 100% on so it was extra disappointing.

Thankfully the test at least meant we were done early, giving me time to work on a group project and go to the gym.  My CT10k workout for today was 12 sets of 2:30 walking / 2:30 running.  5 miles in 60 minutes.  When I was done on the treadmill I did some strength and stretch moves on the mat too.

I drank half of this lemon-lime G2 while I was running.

And when I got home I finally got to try those blondies.

I made Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondies; swoon.  They are chewy and fantastic but you’ll have to take my word for it because the recipe was cobbled together from a few sources and wasn’t changed enough to be sharable.

I ate 1.5 and then made myself stop so I’d still be hungry for a real lunch.

Though I did get another bowl to lick.

I wasn’t done baking, oh no; can you guess what I made next?

Two Ingredient Ice Cream from Cookies and Cups to fold my malted heath bar toffee blondies into.  I used half light cream and low-fat sweetened condensed milk so I’ll have to let you know how it turns out.  The ‘cream needs 4 more hours in the freezer and I’ll be waiting with bated breath.

In the meantime I made a small green salad.

Baby spinach topped with 1 Tbsp each raisins, groats, and peanut sauce.

Plus I had a bowl of leftover linguine, turnip greens, and mushroom umami pasta sauce with a drizzle of evoo.

I think that set of leftovers was technically the husband’s, but it tasted too good for me to feel bad.

I need to buckle down for a few solid hours of work this afternoon and then I’ve got a fun weekend ahead.  Tonight I’m going with a  group of friends to see a dance performance at UB, tomorrow Adam and I are making a day trip to Toronto, and Sunday I’m having lunch with a dearly missed friend who’s back in town for a visit.  Wheee!

Anything exciting on the agenda for your weekend?

March Came Marching In

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Hello, from a new month!  My March came marching in; I have a feeling that this is going to be a good month.  But even if the rest of the March sucks, I’ve been more productive just today than I was all of February!

After my morning post, I headed to school for Statistics.  We have our first test next week; I’ve had a firm grasp on all of the material so far but I can’t help but be a little nervous.  Next  I picked up my carpool buddies and we drove to the hospital for clinic.  Funny sidenote – we couldn’t find street parking and the one spot we saw that was too short but would have been fine if the front car had pulled up a bit more … was behind the husband’s car!  I could have moved the offending vehicle but I don’t have the key to Adam’s car on my key chain!

I ate a Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bar at the hospital.

I know I say it every time, but I still can’t get over home much this bar tastes like a samoa.  Speaking of which, there’s a samoa recipe I dreamed up during Vegan Month that I can’t wait to share with y’all!  I seriously rub my hands together like an evil villan every time I think about it.

Clinic went well, I had my first patient at the new hospital today.  He was being discharged as I went up to the floor so I didn’t get to do much, but I got to look through the chart and ask a few questions.  This hospital doesn’t have a screening/assessment form like the last one so I created my own and our instructor liked it so much she told me to make copies for everyone.  We don’t get to do a whole lot yet so getting praise for even the littlest things is still exciting.  And even more exciting was getting out early, woot.

I planned on working out after night class but I knew that would be a major drag so I took advantage of the extra time and hurried to the gym before class.  The CT10k workout for today called for 10 intervals of 2:30 walking/2:30 running (25 minutes total each), but I didn’t have quit enough time so I had to reconfigure.  I ended up doing 8 intervals of 3 minutes walking/5 minutes running (15 minutes walking and 25 minutes running total).  3.5 miles and 40 minutes.  First workout in two weeks?  Done!

Night class went well because we got out of that early too!  Found time is the best time.  We finished so quickly that I even got to eat my packed dinner at home.

In the repurposed jar is 1 serving of leftover Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole.

I pulled dessert from the freezer too; I finally got to try my Jordan Almond Cookies!

They were great, I wish I’d saved more for myself.

With my found time, I finally finished my notecards for tomorrow’s exam.  Better late than never?  I probably should go review those, huh?

How many cars does your family have?  If you are a multi-vehicle family, do you carry a set of your significant other’s keys with you?