Curry And Lemongrass, Too

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The past 48 hours haven’t been all that exciting, but they have been busy.  Work, fun, then work.  No working out, unfortunately.  I’m not even going to attempt a workout before my early shift tomorrow either.  I do have big goals for next week though, because I’m hoping to get myself started on a healthy schedule (re: bedtime, working out, and cooking dinner) in the week before school starts.

Thursday’s breakfast was a yogurt bowl.

Note – I’ve eaten a LOT of yogurt the past two days, be prepared.

This bowl was Wegman’s Low Fat Honey Yogurt topped with sliced yellow plucot and white nectarine and 1 Tbsp ground flax.

It was so good I did a similar breakfast the next day and plan on buying more of the honey yogurt asap.

I spent Thursday morning curled up on the couch with a Patricia Cornwell novel.  I’m hoping to blog quickly to get in bed with that same novel!  Reading and eating made for my perfect morning.

I took a reading break to walk the dog and snagged this white chocolate macadamia cookie from the co-op.

I should have made time for a real lunch instead of a cookie because I was starving by the end of my shift.

I had evening plans with friends and knew I would be too cranky to function so we stopped at Code Blue for juice along the way.

My customized drink included kale, spinach, collard greens, carrot, and watermelon.  So tasty and the fun ingredients were very exciting to try.

And it didn’t matter that we stopped for juice because our plans were a total bust.  We’ve been excited about seeing Salt-n-Pepa for a month but it just didn’t pan out.  The line was three times longer than the amount of people let in.  Boo!  But we did catch a few lines of “Let’s Talk About Sex.”

I got home late and had pizza for dinner.

1.5 (big) slices total.  Buffalo and bbq chicken flavored.

I spent the night by myself because the husband had 24-hour call (more like 32 hour call!) and the dog and I slept very fitfully on the couch.

Today’s breakfast was a repeat of Friday’s.

Wegman’s Plain Fat-Free Yogurt, sliced white nectarine and yellow plucot, and 1 heaping Tbsp each ground flax and Biscoff spread.

Then more yogurt for lunch.  Coffee with a honey stick and honey-roasted peanuts.

The honey + peanut + coffee yogurt combo is a childhood favorite of mine.

At work I drank a Big Gulp of diet pop and split this bag of mini Rolos with my co-worker.

I also had a jalapeño cheddar bialey in the afternoon (with a slice of pepperjack).

Adam requested Thai food for dinner and since he came home from a 32 hour shift and did the laundry, Thai food it was.

I got veggie Pad See Eiw.  The husband ordered and we forgot to say “extra veggies” for me so I was pleasantly surprised to see my plate chockfull of the green stuff.

From Sun Restaurant, by the way.  The noodles get a 10-out-of-10 but the sauce only got a 5.

Ben and Jerry’s for dessert.

Coffee Caramel Buzz.  Better than Bonaroo Buzz but not as good as Schweddy Balls.  <– I have officially eaten too much ice cream!

Out There

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Hey there.  I always feel really poorly the day after a migraine and between the waves of nausea and the weird neck crick from something I did on the canoe, this wasn’t the most exciting day of eats of all time.  Hello, carbs!  Also, it’s a good thing I ate vegetables for breakfast.  But I like to put it all out there (especially after all of the judgey controversy over on Run, Eat, Repeat today), so here it is.

I did, in fact, make a test dessert this morning.  No pictures and also no recipe to come; it wasn’t very good.

We had to take my car for its state inspection this afternoon so Adam and I took a walk around the zoo.

We also made another missing ingredient trip to the grocery store.  I didn’t want hot bar (that stuff is addicting, I have to just say no for a while!) and by the time I got home I was so hungry I basically inhaled this bowl of cereal.

Special K Cinnamon Pecan with Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

The sweet bowl is part of a cute set my aunt and uncle got me for my birthday.

We cashed in a Subway card (another birthday gift) for dinner.

A 6-inch tuna sub (provolone, vinegar, lots of red onions) and a side of chips.

Finally, a half serving of Hershey’s Simple Pleasures.

Quick note – these guys have 180 calories per 6 candies and they are seriously the best non-European chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

**Updated to add – I also ate a box of cracker jacks (from a birthday gift basket!) after the cereal but apparently I didn’t take a picture (?!) and I didn’t remember until I walked away from the computer.

Healthy living bloggers – do you put your not-so-healthy days out there?

Buffalo Blue Cheese Black Bean Burgers, From Yesterday

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The past 24 hours have been odd but gratifying.  Mostly because I’ve done odd but gratifying things, like frying up a batch of bacon yesterday at 5:30 in the morning.

I ate three hot slices of turkey bacon and they were delicious.  And now you know our wonderful reason for having bacon in the house.

I ate a bagelwich with my bacon.

A Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with two slices of turkey and 1 oz sharp cheddar.

In addition to bacon and breakfast before 8 am, I also cleaned the kitchen, registered for a conference, made a batch of pupsicles, and worked out.

1 hour hot yoga class.  I love how even if you’re not very good at yoga it’s still a nice workout.  P.S. Wanna know why girls who do yoga are so skinny?  For safety.  My boobs practically smoother me to death in rabbit pose!

After yoga I walked the little man.

We’ve had him more than a year now and I’m still amazed by how well he stops at cross-walks.

Pre-lunch snack was a plate of pickle slices.

And dessert first, since I had to make a last-minute trip to the store for a forgotten ingredient.

Trader Joe’s cookie butter dark chocolate bar, does that even need a description?!  Though I will say that I freaking adore the little bites of crunch embedded throughout the bar.

An epic journey of three stores in my sweaty yoga clothes later, we had panko.  And shortly after that, lunch.

Roasted green beans,

and Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers.

(recipe included at the bottom of this post)

In the afternoon I worked.  It was a good shift, I actually worked several hours by myself for the first time.  It’s always fun when someone trusts you to hold down the fort.

But then on the walk home I got a migraine.  I didn’t take my medicine in time and I ended up being down for the count the whole evening.  I curled up in a fetal position on the couch and Adam brought me to bed at 10.  Unfortunately by then my head felt better and my stomach was twisting with hunger pains.  I probably should have gotten up and eaten but instead I flopped around for several hours before falling asleep.

When I got up this morning cereal was the last thing on my mind; I wanted savory and lots of it.

This salad fit the bill.

With the bites I took while I filled my bowl, this salad contained:  a romaine base, 2 Tbsp light honey mustard dressing, 1 oz gorgonzola crumbles, 2 oz honey roasted peanuts, 2 slices turkey bacon, and 1 chopped Crispin Pink apple.

With a Green Dragon Tea from Honest Tea for drinking.

I also ate the last serving of Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream.

That stuff was ridiculous good.  Pretty please go make it and see for yourself.

I’m actually about to eat another small dessert now too.  It’s a recipe I’m working on though, so no pictures for now.  Hope everyone else is having a sweet day!

Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers, serves 4 – 6

  • (2) 15.5oz cans reduced-sodium black beans
  • 1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp buffalo wing sauce
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbles
  1. Preheat the oven to 450*.  Foil and spray 2 baking sheets.
  2. Empty bean cans into a colander and rinse thoroughly – this is a heart healthy step that helps to further reduce the sodium in this recipe.
  3. Pour rinsed beans and 2 cups wing sauce into a blender and puree.  If you have a rickety blender you may want to do this in two batches.
  4. Empty blender into a large mixing bowl.  Add rest of wing sauce and eggs and stir.  Stir in panko and cheese.
  5. Using your hands, form 12 patties out of the bean mixture.
  6. Put patties on prepared sheets and bake for 20 minutes.  It is not necessary to flip the patties during baking.

Breakfast For Dessert

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What does this look like to you –

If you said chocolate chip ice cream, you’d be wrong.

If you said the inside of a cannolli, you’d be wrong.

If you said I don’t know, just tell me already, you’d be impatient.  Slow down man, we’re cool.

If you said delicious, delectable, strange but I can’t stop eating it, you’d be technically correct, though not quite giving me the answer I’m looking for.

Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream?  Ding, ding, ding!

Omg, guys, omg.  This ice cream is like breakfast in a bowl, on steroids.  You can taste each component – pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon – individually but they also blend together perfectly.  The sweet and salty pops of candied bacon are so freaking good!  It might be the best ice cream I’ve ever had and that means a lot coming from the girl who ate about a million pints of Ben and Jerry’s last summer.

Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream, yields 1 pint

  • 5 slices turkey bacon
  • 3 tsp brown sugar
  • 5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
  • 2 heaping Tbsp boxed pancake mix
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup skim milk
  1. Preheat oven to 400*.  Fill a large bowl with ice and water and place a medium-sized, heat-safe bowl down inside the bath.
  2. Lay bacon on a lightly sprayed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle slices evenly with brown sugar and return to oven for 10 – 15 more minutes, until candied.  Watch the bacon carefully the last few minutes to ensure that the sugar does not burn.
  3. Remove bacon from the oven and set aside.  Once cool, break into small pieces with your fingers.
  4. Stir maple syrup and pancake mix into the egg yolks.
  5. Bring heavy cream and skim milk to a light simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
  6. Slowly stream half of the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking steadily to ensure that the eggs don’t cook.  Then carefully stream and whisk the yolks and cream mixture back into the cream still in the sauce pan on the stove.
  7. Continue to cook the custard over medium-low heat until slightly thickened.  Take care that the mixture does not boil.
  8. Pour custard into the bowl in the ice bath.  Stir until cooled.
  9. Pour cooled custard into the bowl of your ice cream machine and freeze according to manufacture’s instructions.
  10. Remove chilled ice cream and use a spatula to fold in candied bacon.  Freeze in an air-tight container for at least 2 hours before serving.

What is the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

Canoe-dle

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As the start of my 2nd to last week before school begins, I say “hello, Monday” very reluctantly.  My day got off to an odd start because I spent an hour searching for a food truck whose Twitter stream had lied to me.  I really want to cross that off of my birthday list before the summer ends.

I ended up getting lunch at the hot bar, which was probably cheaper and certainly healthier.

Chana Masala,

veggies,

more veggies with a little tofu,

and the large space was supposed to be fruit but I got flustered and forgot.

In a crowd I’m wonderfully decisive but when I’m alone I tend to get overwhelmed by too many choices.

I had a small iced coffee with skim milk while I shopped.

I’ve officially begun hoarding pumpkin things – I’ve got three cans of puree and three beers! – even though I know I won’t touch them until October.

When I got home I broke into an exciting purchase.

Luigi’s Birthday Cake Italian Ice.

Amazingly, it was a little too sweet for me and I only ate half.  I’ll have to see what I do with the rest of the cups.

At 5 o’clock I did manage to cross something off of my list, a friend and I cashed in a Groupon and went canoeing!

We went out on a two-hour ride and managed to keep up our paddling the whole time.  We even got to spot several deer.

It was fun to get some nature time.  Over all we did really well, though there was one very shallow area that we got stuck on in both directions.  On the way back I actually had to put my feet out of the canoe and give us a push!!  I can’t wait to see how my arms feel tomorrow.

Right now my biceps feel good, but I am pretty darn tired.  Like, dinner sounded like an impossible feat, tired.  Instead of cooking, I ate this spicy salmon brown rice roll for dinner.

And I’m going to fall into bed the minute I press publish.  Good night!

Happy Buyday, Webster!

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One year ago yesterday, we brought home a little dog.

We are still totally smitten!

To celebrate his buyday, we made the morning all about Webster.  He started his day with chick-on chick-on.

He also had some sirloin with bacon and potato wet food but he scarfed it so fast that my pictures were a blur.

Then we went to the beach so he could dig.  Dachshunds are bred badger hunters and they are instinctual diggers.  The dog digs at the bed, the couch, and the dirty clothes bin constantly, but take him to the beach where he can dig without impediment and he mostly eats sand.

He also ran around free like a madman and seemed to have an absolutely fantastic time.

He certainly wore himself out for the car-ride home.

I love that dog!

Some other highlights from Sunday included….  Waking up at 8 am to make homemade ice cream.

I’m sharing the recipe on Tuesday and all I’ll tell you for now is that the flavor was such a good idea.

Going out for bbq for a belated birthday lunch with my in-laws.

And having a friend come over so that we could finally watch The Help.  We didn’t like the movie as much as the book!

Do you celebrate buydays with your pets?

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

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This is a “Do as I say, not as I do” post.  The past 48 hours have been… strange.  I feel like crap mentally and physically and I’ve been eating crap.  I’ve been weirdly, intensely thirsty all day; like I want to pour a milkshake down my throat all day long (which I basically did!).  I get sort of depressed every fall about missing teaching and I might be panicking a bit about the start of my last year of school.  So I’ve been eating only crap and lots of crap.  Lots of crap because apparently crappy food isn’t all that filling.  Do we think I said crap enough times for this post month?

as I say –

  1. Don’t drink your calories.
  2. It’s okay to have a treat, but probably not more than 3 1 a day.
  3. Skipping breakfast might set you up to make bad choices the rest of the day.
  4. Sometimes you should eat fruits and veggies just for the nutrients, even if you’re not feeling them at the moment.
  5. It’s ok to feel hungry sometimes.

as I do –

Friday’s “breakfast” was wasabi trail mix, ~5 oz worth in total.

And two pieces of the amazing sea salt caramel my parents brought from Canada.

Lunch was a quick run to the co-op hot bar during work.

Chicken salads and veggie salads.

The kale was the best (take note, Emily!)

I did another try at a caramel macchiato in the afternoon, this time at The Spot.

Does that look like an iced caramel macchiato?  No.  And it was disgusting anyway; there were at least 5 inches of straight foam.  I took three sips and dumped the rest down the sink.

I didn’t eat enough during the day and that is where the bad dinner decisions started.  Adam had to pick me up from work so we could run errands across town that took forever, I started to have a tantrum, and somehow we ended up at Arby’s for small Jamocha shakes.

Um, and also mozzarella sticks.

I hate mozzarella sticks.  But these were actually pretty good.

I’ll start Saturday’s recap by saying this – Friday was healthy in comparison.  But at least I finally had a sweet coffee win.

I gave up on caramelmacchiatos and moved on to a tall white mocha coconut frappucinno.

For lunch at work I packed a plain 0% Greek yogurt with a honey stick,

and a Fiber One chocolate chip cookie.

I also bought a Synergy Grape Chia Kombucha.

And on the way home I had this, because two milkshakes a day is totally normal and healthy.

Seriously though, this was actually a good decision because it was outstanding.  This sign has been calling to me for days –

“Emmmmmmily.  ‘Greek iced coffee milkshaaaaaake.’  You’re not even sure what that means but you need it.”

But I still didn’t eat any real food and I ended up eating half of this candy bar while we were on a never-ending trip to Target.

I did eat a real food dinner, but it is dark and stormy (honestly it is, I’m not trying to be cute) and my pictures were disgusting.  Go ahead and try to imagine a plate of chicken nuggets and baby carrots.  I’m also 90% sure that you should imagine some popcorn in the near future too.

Who’s up for fruits and veggies on *Monday?  Me!  (*Note – I would say tomorrow but tomorrow my in-laws are coming to take us out for bbq for my belated birthday lunch and lets be real.)

A Midsummer Night’s Date

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So I did, in fact, sleep through yoga.  I suck.  I have two weeks until school and then I’ve got class at 8 am five days a week so I need to seriously work on my getting out of bed skills!

Breakfast was a big pink smoothie.

Into the blender went 1.5 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, a heaping 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, a heaping Tbsp pb, and 2 scoops of Tera’s Whey Organic Bourbon Vanilla Whey Protein Powder.

My smoothie tasted like a vanilla pb & j!

I also had 2 oz of the wasabi snack mix my parents brought.

I spent what was left of my late morning cooking dinner.  This quart of heirloom tomatoes played a big role.

I also finally used this Kelapo Coconut Oil sample that I got last summer at HLS.

And tri-color quinoa from last summer’s trip to Trader Joes.

The dog is afraid of the oven and this meal kept the oven and stove-top on for a solid hour and scared him deep into the back of the closet.

What a scaredy cat dog!

The end result was worth it.

Here are the general specs if you want to recreate it, for 4 servings –

  • 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package instructions
  • 1 quart tomatoes, roasted
  • 2 large zucchini, sliced and roasted
  • 2 pints sliced mushrooms, sautéed in 2 Tbsp butter
  • 14 oz extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed and sautéed in 1 Tbsp coconut oil with seasoning of choice
  • sauce of choice (I topped my bowl with 2 Tbsp pesto)

The photos are actually of Adam’s bowl since my dinner looked like this –

I ate to-go because the husband picked me up from work and we walked straight to Shakespeare in Delaware Park.

We only caught half of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (I got out of work late and Adam has a strict bedtime) but we enjoyed what we saw.

We shared these cola gummis for dessert while we watched.

Buffalonians, have you seen any Shakespeare in the park this summer?