I’ve got two final exams tomorrow, ready for the weekend highlights?
Apple and sharp cheddar quesadilla.
Key lime pie and 0% plain Chobani.
Gingersnap white mocha.
Our first eggnog of the season.
And Adam turned 25!
What was the highlight of your weekend?
Today was – – – tiresome? It wasn’t a terrible day, but I certainly have a lot of complaints about it! I woke up to the realization that I’m getting sick, I felt sick all day, we were so busy all day that I couldn’t study for Monday’s two finals, and in the midst of not studying I found out that I got a B in my Anatomy Lab… Boo.
One thing I have no complaints about is breakfast.
Kath‘s oat smoothies are genius! And my holiday twist was pretty darn smart too 😉 This was a leftover serving of oatmeal, 1 frozen banana, and 2/3cup Silk Soy Nog, with a healthy shake of nutmeg.
Mmm-mmn! The nutmeg totally took it to Christmas morning. So did these pepermint flavored Now and Laters.
And then I was out of the house for the rest of the day. We had lots of errands and doctors appointments, all of which moved like molasses. Adam has a birthday tomorrow (25!) and I’ve got an idiopathic bone lesion. Fun.
Lunch from Wegman’s salad bar was a bright spot.
But since I didn’t eat “lunch” until 4pm my hunger was so out of control that this barely filled me up.
A slice of buffalo chicken pizza was soon to follow.
Not gonna lie, this slice of pizza was not cooked and I went ahead and ate it anyway.
Adam headed to a coffee spot to study after the grocery, but I knew my best course of action was to get myself into my pjs and tuck into a large bowl of vanilla bean with caramel sauce.
Yep. I’ll be on the couch if you need me!
It’s been quite a night for a Thursday, quite a night! In addition to making a banging dinner and a revolutionary dessert, I also managed to get some school work done; booyah!
On the agenda for tonight were quick and easy quesadillas.
But you know I did some snacking first. Adam and I split some fun – a snowman cookie from Sweet Tooth,
and a Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Beer.
Both were quite tasty; I ate a little less than half of the cookie, and a little more than half of the beer.
Wokka, wokka, wokka, wokka…..
In between sips, I sautéed up 1/2 cup each frozen corn and black beans in some tomatillo salsa.
This was delicious, and what didn’t fit on my quesadilla was eaten out of a bowl with a bit of sour cream.
I topped a tortilla with my veggie mixture and 1.5oz of sharp cheddar, folded, and gave a quick spin in a greased frying pan.
To die for! This was cheesy and melty and salty, all while still being healthy. I previous thought that nothing could top Moe’s, but this was definitely better!
Dessert was pretty darn good too.
That would be low-fat cottage cheese, topped with half a banana, drizzled with caramel sauce.
Sometimes I even impress myself.
Eaten whilst watching “Modern Family,” which seriously slays me with how funny it is!
What do you put on your quesadillas?
To talk about today, let me go back to the beginning – yesterday. Be forwarned though, this is a long(ish) post.
Ok, enough of that, boo. (yay?)
I didn’t have my exciting breakfast, but thankfully I did have a baggie of dried hibiscus, Sahale Snacks Valdosta Pecans, and some Kashi H2H.
I also bought a coffee from a stand in the science building.
That coffee had two mini creamers and two sugar packets in it. Guess how fresh and tasty that coffee was?
Burnt or not, the coffee did fuel me through my final Anatomy practical. It didn’t go very well, but I’m done with the semester, and that’s a good thing.
I also had part of a group project in Food Lab today. Our main assignment for this nutrition class was a cultural meal project. We had to choose a culture; write a written report about its history, food staples, common meals, etc; cook a traditional meal for our lab; and do a presentation. The presentation is my last day of finals and the meal was today!
My group chose the Virgin Islands (where I’m from!). We prepared dumb bread (made with shredded coconut) with callaloo (stew with pumpkin, spinach, and coconut milk), pates (fried dough stuffed with spiced meat), and key lime pie.
I couldn’t actually taste everything we made (the pates were beef) but I think everything turned out delicious!
The rest of the lab – Puerto Rico, Mexico, Poland, and Greece – made tasty offerings as well.
Here’s my plate, and my dessert plate. With a glass of punch my instructor made to celebrate our last day.
Everything was soooo filling, I couldn’t actually finish either of those plates. I ended up taking so much food home that Adam actually had to come to campus with the car to pick it up!
Guys, I can’t even tell you how much I wanted to get in that car! It was 20* out, I’d been on my feet for hours… But I’d made a date with the treadmill, and I couldn’t break it! Sidenote – people always talk about how you need to ‘be a friend to yourself’ to be healthy. That’s nice and all, but I think you need to be a good friend to the gym (Jim) –
I was a good friend today 🙂 I wanted to do a longer (time/distance) run today so I decided to do some intervals:
I repeated that circuit x3, then follow it up with a 6 minute cool down walk. 45 minutes, 4.11 miles. And I talked to my parents on the walk home, so the cold didn’t feel that bad.
Can you believe I’m not even done posting for the day? I still have to eat dinner!
What would you add to my list? How are you a good friend to the gym?
My goal for today is to get in bed before 10pm. I have to shower, pack for tomorrow, look over some notecards, and write this blog post. Go!
My meetings went well this afternoon and I went to my final class of the semester. All I have tomorrow is labs, with exams and presentations, and then next week is finals. This semester feels like it flew by, I can’t belive it’s almost Christmas!
In my break I read Organic in the cafe in our bookstore. I ate a spicy chicken flatbread from the cafe.
These sandwiches are so good! When I eat while studying I like to use bites to break up the pages, but with these I end up basically shoveling them in. I go to set the sandwich down and I just can’t bear it!
Then I had a date with the treadmill –
Finally, I went to the quickest lab check-out ever; I was in and out in under 5minutes! I did stick around long enough to learn that my lab grade ended up being a 100.25%! Our lab grade gets averaged into our class grade and I definitely need those points 🙂
The husband picked me up from school because we had a date at Sweet Tooth to use up a Groupon. I had my heart set on peppermint ice cream – I can’t find it anywhere! – but sadly that wasn’t available. We ended up getting a fun array of goodies though.
Tonight’s selection –
I ate three big bites of this pistachio cheesecake, which was divine.
And three small bites of this cannoli, which was soggy and weird.
I’m excited to taste our other purchases tomorrow.
I realize that I ended up skipping either dinner or lunch (depending on how you look at it, but I only had two meals today) and I am actually a bit hungry, but I think my healthiest option for the evening is honoring my bedtime goal. Good thing I’m excited about tomorrow’s breakfast!
Have you found peppermint (or eggnog!) ice cream in your area this year?
I ended up not having a bowl of ice-cream last night – though I did have two handfuls of dark chocolate almonds – mostly because I was so excited about this bowl:
I’d been excited about breakfast for 12-straight hours and I was not disappointed!
I started by whipping up a double batch of stove top banana oats.
That’s 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 banana, 1 pinch salt.
After I removed tomorrow’s serving (I’ve got an oat smoothie in the works), I stirred in ~1/3 cup low-fat cottage cheese.
Plated (bowled?), topped with strawberries,
and a Nutella spoon.
<– Goodness!
My ‘nana-berry-cheese-nutella oats were muy bella.
I’m loving the texture of that cottage cheese and you really can’t go wrong with nutella.
And now I’ve got a warm/full belly for my 20* walk to school! I have a couple of meetings, my final Anatomy class, and a trip to the gym planned before my Orgo Lab shut-down at 6pm. I made an ice-cream date with the husband, which means he’ll be picking me up; thank goodness!
When it’s snowy and icy outside do you walk or drive? If you are normally a walker, what temperature drives you to your car?
We actually have a 2nd car now, but I didn’t purchase a parking pass for my school so instead it’s turning into a snow drift.
I love egg nog. Like, a lot. If I wasn’t so obsessed with keeping holidays within their “slots” I’d probably drink it year round. But then there’s also that whole ‘fitting into my pants’ issue. Which is what makes this product so amazing.
Silk Soy Nog. 95% as tasty as the original, and the nutritional stats are 95% better than the original.
It is so fabulously tasty, and healthfully low-fat that it even works well as a breakfast staple. Overnight oats anyone?
Soy nog overnight oats are so good that I’ve basically stopped eating regular o.n.o. the rest of the year!
Yesterday evening I stirred together 1/3cup oatmeal and 2/3cup Silk Soy Nog and put them in the fridge overnight. This morning I stirred in 1 Low Fat Vanilla Stonyfield and a dash of nutmeg. Topped with holiday sprinkles, of course!
Packed into a go-cup for the car.
I ate in transit so I could cram for my test once I got to school. I think I did pretty well, ~B, there were a few questions on there that we had not covered at all in class so that was frustrating.
My schedule today was class – break – meetings – break – evening class. I used my first break to study for my upcoming Anatomy practical. Fueled by Reese’s Pieces.
ET made me do it! I ate about half of this bag, or approximately 1.5servings.
Just in case you aren’t sure that I’m a dork, I have to show you that I was taking my notes with a peppermint scented red and green striped pen –
‘Tis the season!
My meeting concerned the application process for the program I’m applying to (due the first week of the spring semester) and gave me major anxiety. I have a lot to do over Christmas break.
My plan for the second break was to get a veggie sub and study for Orgo. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that “a little bbq sauce, please” was code for “please dip my entire sandwich in sauce, thereby making it impossible to eat and work at the same time.”
That messy monster contained green pepper, red onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, pepperjack, and bbq sauce.
Sidenote on the sandwich – what I really wanted was an enchilada burrito from Taco Bell. I hate most fast food but, not gonna lie, I sort of love Taco Bell. But I recently realized that just because Taco Bell isn’t McDonalds (eww), doesn’t mean that their chickens are any tortured. If I only buy “humane” meat to cook at home then I shouldn’t eat “evil” meat just because I’m not at home. Obviously there are road trips and restaurants and other people’s houses, but I should probably be done with Taco Bell 😦
My night class went quickly, and then I came home to a quick but random dinner.
Actually, we were both starving, so while we cooked the husband and I split a quicksadilla (that’s a tortilla with sharp cheddar microwaved in it).
When I was at my grandparent’s house for Turkey Day, they served the tastiest brussels sprout dish. I wrote down the recipe – by Cat Cora for a magazine – to make again when we got home.
3 lbs brussels sprouts
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp capersPrepare brussels sprouts by peeling off the outside leaves and cutting off the steam. Using a paring knife, mark the core where the stem was with an X. Cut the sprouts in half.
In a 4-qt saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Season with 1 Tbsp salt. Blanch sprouts for 10minutes or until fork-tender.
In a 10-inch saute pan, brown the butter and add sprouts. Cook over medium-high heat until caramelized, 10minutes.
Remove from the heat and add the capers and lemon juice. Season with remaining salt.
Serves 8. Per serving: 130calories, 5g protein…
I have to warn you about my entrée – it tasted better than it looked.
There was a serving each left of kugel and hoppin’ john…
…so I put them together!
The sweet and spicy mix was actually very tasty.
I’m almost definitely going to have a repeat of last night’s dessert (vanilla ice-cream with strawberries and homemade caramel sauce) but I have a few assignments to tackle so I’m going to say “goodbye” to blogland now and switch into work-mode. See you in the am!
***Via random integer generator, the winner of my OhNuts! giveaway is #8 –
Yvonne, please e-mail me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) so I can get you your prize!
There was no blog post yesterday because I was so exhausted that I bumbled around all day without really doing anything! We set our alarms for 8am and at 10:00 the husband was shaking me awake and I had no recollection of turning off the alarms. Finally the husband remembered – after I told him I couldnt’ study because I was too tired to lift my arms – that I had such a bad nightmare on Saturday night that my moaning and flailing woke him up. I don’t remember that either, but he told me I looked pretty pitiful.
When I got up today, the idyllic scene outside my window was like something out of one of my nightmares –
Yes, it’s gorgeous. But – that’s the kind of snow you make cocoa and cuddle by the fireplace in, not the kind of snow you walk 30minutes through to Organic Chemistry!
But after Sunday’s #fail I was determined to make the best of today; even though I woke up at 9:30! I started my day with some good stretching. Not gonna lie, then I started my day with this (after brushing my teeth of course!) –
Sorry I’m not sorry (thanks, Rachel), Cherry Coke Zero is my version of the dog with a barrel around its neck.
Then I dressed for battle.
I take the dull out of bundling! (Say that out loud for me, pretty please?)
Oh yes, those are children’s snow boots.
Even my boots couldn’t fully save my trek though, it sort of sucked 😦 When I lived in Brooklyn and everyone walked it was kind of fun, but here, where I’m the only one in the snow, it’s a bit embarrassing. At least I never really felt cold, probably because I got so sweaty; galumphing is a good workout!
I got to school early to pick up a portfolio (100%, booyah!) and then used the space before class to try to make up yesterday’s lost study time. While I worked I snacked on a serving of Kugel.
I also drank a medium skim gingerbread latte (half pumps) and got distracted talking with a friend.
During Anatomy (87% with the curve on Friday’s test, booyah!) I slurped down a Revolution Foods Fruit Mash-Up.
As soon as classes were over, and I confirmed with the husband that he could pick me up from school, I got my study on. I’m disappointed in myself that I screwed around so much it took me until after 7 to finish my notecards. I’m proud of myself that when I was done at 7 I headed to the gym anyways!
I took my notecards on the elliptical – 35minutes, random, level 6.
We got home close to 9:00 and I’m pretty proud of the dinner I pulled together – fruits, veggies, and dessert! First was a green purple monster.
This bad boy was a blend of frozen spinach, frozen blueberries, orange juice, Silk Almond Milk, and honey.
I gave the husband the extra and he loved it as well (although his did have a little extra sugar blended into it!).
Next up was a taste of the South.
I randomly picked up this can of Hoppin’ John when it was on sale a few weeks ago. I’ve never eaten (heard of) Hoppin John before so I pretty much stuck with the directions on the can –
I did a 1/2 batch (one can) topped with Applegate Farms turkey bacon, Sriracha, and a little brown sugar.
I portioned half of it into a bowl, and tried something new.
Pretty good, who knew I liked black-eyed peas?!
Dessert was “new” as well, but there was never any question about liking it.
Oh. My. God.
This, my friends, is a (half)-batch of Jenna’s Caramel Sauce.
Well, that’s what’s left of the batch after Adam and I got to it. It has a deep, decadent flavor and is sweet and rich. Make it, make it, make it, make it!
Eaten drizzled (liberally) over a small bowl of vanilla ice-cream with lots of sliced strawberries.
Really it was just an excuse to eat some strawberries 😉
Yum! Quite a pleasing dinner indeed.
Now I’ve got to hurry to shower so I can get to bed like a girl with an important test tomorrow.
Have you ever tried (heard of) Hoppin’ John?
Eating Chalk 