Nowhere To Dip My Crusts

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I’ve got my eye on a 6 am yoga class so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Adam’s got an early bedtime going tonight.  The chance of me actually making it to 6 am yoga is about 50%, but if I make it I’ll be 100% happy.

This morning’s bowl of oats did not hold me over; I think the banana helps with satiety more than I realize.  My stomach was growling within an hour!  I ended up serving myself a small scoop of leftovers.

Plus a few big bites straight from the container.  And a glass of chocolate milk.

1 cup of skim milk with 2 Tbsp of chocolate syrup, over ice.

When I was a kid I would always serve my milk, chocolate or otherwise, over ice.

I went to school early to get some stuff done in the library.  On my walk, I stopped at Ashker’s for a double espresso.

With milk (cream?) and sugar.

It was so thick.  Ashker’s has not served us wrong yet!

School went well, I had a meeting after class and set up a meeting before class, so if nothing else I was productive.  And I got my copy of the Dietetics Newsletter … with an article by ME in it.

It’s possible I talk about the banana’s jacket (aka peel).

It was super cool to see my name “in print.”  One of the things I want to do with my degree is get freelance jobs writing articles for health and wellness magazines.  Or have my own column some day!

It worked out very well that I left my car on campus, because I ended up having to run a few car-necessary errands on my way home.  While I was out and about I picked up a peanut butter swirl brownie to split with Adam.

My half –

It wasn’t very good.  Boo.  Ever since the Co-op stopped selling that candy bar I was obsessed with I’ve been disappointed with them.

I had a salad of Romaine lettuce, sliced cucumber, and thousand island dressing.

And dinner was pizza.

Buffalo chicken pizza.

And it was so dang good that I went back for a third slice later on!

When I put pizza on the meal plan I forgot that I would have nothing to dip my crusts in.  The horror!  For the next two weeks I’m going without diet soda.  The horror!  As an assignment for school, we had to choose an item that we regularly consume to stop eating for two weeks.  Since part of our career will involve counseling patients who may no longer be able to eat certain foods, our teacher wanted us to experience what it was like to give up a favorite.  I’ll be honest, if I had known what the assignment was beforehand I probably would have picked a different item!

Have you ever stopped eating a certain food?  Why’d you give it up?  How long did you go without / has it been since you’ve had it?

This will be the first time for me, other than our past 2-week to 1-month vegan challenges.  And speaking of which, we are doing another vegan challenge this February.  I’d love to have any of my omnivore readers join us!

Strawberries And Cream, Squared

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Adam stayed up later than planned last night which meant I stayed up later than planned last night.  At least it meant I got to catch the dog building a cave.

That is one of the very cutest things that he does!

I also ended up having a snack.  A small but amazing cookie,

and a big pile of grapes.

I may not be a med student, but I did manage to wake up with the husband this morning too.  By 6:30 am we were in our cars and I was heading to the gym.  45 minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.

I left my car on campus so I could drive home this afternoon, and hurried home on foot for breakfast.

This bowl puts my last attempt at Berries and Cream Oatmeal to shame.

  • 1/2 cup each skim milk and water
  • ~ 1/3 cup (frozen, defrosted) strawberries
  • 1/4 cup oats
  • ~ 1 cup 1% large curd cottage cheese
  • ~ 2 Tbsp strawberry cream cheese

The strawberry cream cheese really helped put a bow on the berries and cream theme.

Have a great start of the work week!

Day Of Work

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After two very (very, very, very) lazy days, it was time for a day of work. This Sunday was all about getting things done. I –

  • put away two loads of laundry
  • did some dishes
  • ran some errands
  • organized my school binder
  • made all of my note cards from last week’s notes
  • did a case study for clinical practice
  • made a delicious dinner

Breakfast was worth a thumbs up too.

I stirred a Liberte Coconut Yogurt into a big scoop of 1% large curd cottage cheese, topped with shredded sweetened coconut.

The coconut flavor was nice, but the resulting texture was mind-blowing. Too creamy for words.

In between errands and school work was lunch.

I picked up a grab bag-style to-go container from the Co-op.

A salad of yam, corn, and black beans; cilantro tofu; peanut tofu with lots of broccoli; and a little bit of vegan pasta salad.

We took Webster with us on our walking errands and his little sweater was so becoming!

He’s still not 100% down with snow, and shivers like a total wimp.  I tease him mercilessly, telling him that his ancestors in Germany only used to hunt badgers in a climate-controlled living room.

While we were out I found a new M&M variety – Dark Chocolate Mint!

Delish.  These had just the right level of chill to them.

Sometime between the lunch and dinner hours we had salads.

Romaine with chopped cucumbers and a dressing made of the remains of the yogurt Caesar shaken with evoo and cider vinegar.

Dinner was a real winner.

For 4 servings of creamy, cheesy, buttery, vegetarian yet protein-rich pasta, combine –

  • ~ 4 servings of small shape pasta, cooked
  • ~ 1.5 cups peas
  • 2 pint mushrooms sautéed with chopped green onion and 5 Tbsp butter
  • 4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 12 oz 0% Plain Fage

So much yum! I didn’t tell the husband that there was plain Greek yogurt (which he thinks he hates) in the pasta and I didn’t hear any complaints. I think pasta with peas and cheese might be our favorite dish.

I’ve got to get back to work; I’m going to hit with week with running start!

Which flavors of M&M’s have you gotten to try?  I think I’ve had them all – regular, peanut, almond, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, cinnamon, and coconut – the only flavor I missed with strawberry pb which I never found despite hours of searching!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Eat

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I know it’s a big claim.

And I know these cookies don’t seem like much.  The recipe is at best, simple (it’s basically the traditional recipe), and at worst, strange (there’s no egg!).

But I promise, these are the best chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever eat.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Eat, makes 24 small cookies

  • 4 marshmallows
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp skim milk
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Prepare cookie sheets with baking spray.
  2. Place marshmallows on prepared cookie sheet at bake for 2 – 3 minutes, until just beginning to brown.  Set aside to cool.
  3. Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugars.  Beat in vanilla and toasted marshmallows.
  4. Stir in flour and baking soda.  Stir in milk, a 1/2 Tbsp at a time, until dough is wet enough to work with.  Remember, chocolate chip cookie dough is pretty dry normally, you’re not looking for cake batter.  Fold in chocolate chips.
  5. Pinch off pieces of dough that are approximately 2 tsp-worth.  Roll into a balls and place in even rows on prepared cookie sheets.  Cookies will flatten as they bake, but they won’t spread much.
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until edges are starting to brown.  Since there is no raw egg in this recipe, you can feel free to go a little underdone if you’d like.

Cloud 6ish

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Holy crap!  It’s late at night and we just got some terrible money news so this post is going to have to be quick before it devolves into the blogging equivalent of sobbing.  Not pretty.

Statistics was fine, as of right now it seems like I can understand the concepts.  The hospital was fine, though we do have a lot of work to do.  My evening class was more anxiety ridden than fine; among other assignments we will have to create a 6-week staffing schedule for an imaginary clinic, figure out the budget for that clinic, and create an imaginary business plan.  Yikes!

We had an hour break between clinic and evening class when I could eat my packed lunch.  A turkey bagel sandwich.

That’s a toasted whole wheat multi-grain bagel topped with strawberry cream cheese and 2 slices of Applegate Farm’s roasted sliced turkey.

A baggie of roasted green beans.

And 4 gummi cola bottles.

The gummies were amazing, but I bought them in Toronto so it’ll be awhile before I can get more.

When I got home from class I ate a Voskos 0% Honey Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt.

This was amazing.  Seriously.  The texture was pillowy like a cloud!  I do love other Greek yogurts but this was totally different and yet equally amazing.  If the sour cream-like texture of Fage bothers you, then I highly recommend trying out Voskos.

Which Greek yogurt variety/brand do you recommend for good texture?

Breakfast – Banana Ricotta Won Tons

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Good morning!  My day started off with a difficult trip to the gym.  I forgot my water bottle at home, and when I tried to buy one the machine stole my money.  Ugh.  I knew I couldn’t do much without drinking (I hadn’t even had a sip yet) but I figured I could do something.  Treadmill – 5 minutes walking warm up, 10 minutes running, 5 minutes walking cool down.  20 minutes and 1.6 miles.

Then I bought my Statistics manual while the book store line was still short and walked home.  On T/R I’m going to drive to the gym in the morning and then walk home (and back to school) so that I keep my good parking spot.  When I leave Statistics in the afternoon I only have 45 minutes to get to clinical so I can’t afford having to hike to my car.  Today Adam is home and can give me a ride to class, yay!

Breakfast was another won ton experiment, and a winner.

Banana Ricotta Won Tons

  • 1/2 a small banana
  • 1/4 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
  • 1 tsp honey
  • pinch salt
  • 5 won ton wrappers
  • baking spray
  • cinnamon sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit and prepare a baking sheet with cooking spray.
  2. Mash together filling components (banana through salt) until well combined.
  3. Place ~ 1 tsp of filling in the center of each won ton wrapper.  Wet the edges of the wrappers with water and fold into little packages, pressing the sides firmly to seal.
  4. Place won tons on prepared baking sheet.  Spray the tops with baking spray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
  5. Bake for 10 minutes.

I also had a juicy pear.

Bring on the juicy fruits; I’m also guzzling water like there’s no tomorrow.

Today is my long day – Stats, clinical, evening class until 8 pm – so I’ll see you tonight for what’s sure to be a cranky post!

Toasted Is Like Frosted

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I made it over the hump, it’s time to wind down the week.  I know it’s pathetic but I’ve got to admit – three days of actually doing things has left me exhausted!

I did have to hurry, but I managed to leave the house to walk to campus for my two afternoon classes on time.  We learned about Diabetes Mellitus for two hours, and then had the introduction to our class on integrative medicine/nutrition.  My packed lunch was a little weak though.  A mini box of Brown Sugar Quaker Oatmeal Squares (a HLS sample).

And a huge cup of iced coffee with skim milk and English toffee syrup.

Not enough food and too much caffeine made me very shaky and cranky!  Adam picked me up for a quick grocery trip after class and I’m surprised he didn’t strangle me in the frozen aisle.  It’s possible that I stood and stared embarrassingly longingly at the hot bar.

A Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar did the trick when I got home.

This new flavor is an easy cranky killer.

I also had a handful of sliced cucumber.

Cucumber slices with a sprinkle of salt are legit better that potato chips, and I say that as someone who really loves potato chips.

Dinner started with a salad course.

Romaine lettuce with chopped cucumber and yogurt Caesar dressing.

Then more salad and veggie.

Roasted green beans.

And a salad of crock pot chicken, mayo, green grapes, and toasted pecans.

Guys, toasted pecans are ridiculous good.  And I’m telling you that because I told Adam three times during dinner and he hates me.

What’s your go-to ingredient for jazzing up chicken salad?