8hours in the Car Later

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We started off this morning with another bike ride!

Actually, my mom and I biked around and my dad and Adam walked behind.  It was a short ride because our main destination was coffee.

Piqua gas stations aren’t exactly floating in soy milk so I ended up having to use Irish crème non-dairy creamer, yetch!

For breakfast I pulled a Coconut Acai Prana Bar out of my snacks bag.

This was not enough food and I was starving the minute we hit the road.  I ate a bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel thins,

and I opened some honey roasted cashews.

Miracle of miracles, we managed to find another healthy road trip food option!

I have major adoration for Einstein Bagels anyways, but this was by far the healthiest car lunch one could eat.

I got the veggie sandwich – red onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce on a sesame bagel thin – and subbed in hummus for cream cheese.

Filling, healthy and delicious.  It even came with an apple as a side.

A mealy and disgusting apple that I ended up throwing out the window, but at least it came with one! 😀

Things were going well until we realized we missed an exit and added 2.5hours to our trip.  Arrgh!  At least, when I was starving and things were looking grim, we found a Sheetz, with fresh fruit.

Watermelon,

and grapes.

And pretty road sign flower sculptures across the street.

When we did finally get back to Buffalo we quickly unpacked before grabbing dinner from the Co-op.

Baked veggie rolls,

and baked tofu with cilantro ginger sauce.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Put Another Veggie on the Barbie

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Our day just got better and better 😀

After my bike ride I grabbed a small bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast.

Melon, blueberry, raspberry, grape.

Then the family set off toward the 2nd Street Market –

It ended up reminding me of a mash-up between a farmers’ market and Quincy Market in Boston.  We didn’t end up buying a whole lot, but we did see all sorts of neat things.

I did “lunch” in bites.  My dad and I bought a pint of cherries to split.

Adam gave me one of his grape leaves.

And I ate a pack of Bananamon Funky Monkey.

After the market we did shopping that was even more my style.  We went to Trader Joe’s to stock up on Sun Butter and then to Dick’s where I got my birthday gift early – new running shoes!!!  I can’t wait to start breaking those bad boys in!

On the way home we stopped at George’s (like Dairy Queen, but owned by a family friend, and better) so the husband could demolish a double cheeseburger and chocolate malt.  I went with a much more reasonable extra small grape/strawberry slushie.

This was one of the times I appreciated the vegan challenge; George’s has a long blizzards list and besides the fact that I really don’t need a huge ice-cream choosing a flavor gives me anxiety 😉

I did finish up dessert with a small serving of gummi cola bottles at home though.

Dinner was the first time this month that the vegan challenge was actually a challenge.  My grandparents adore Outback so that’s where we went, but my options were beyond limited.  I ended up ordering three sides.

Side salad (no cheese, no croutons) with balsamic vinegar.

Side of steamed veggies.

Side of french fries.

Not the healthiest meal by any stretch.  I rounded it out with some fresh watermelon when we got home.

Adam and I just got our butts kicked at Euker and now it’s bedtime.  We’ve got an early morning tomorrow before we head back to Buffalo, see you at home!

We Like To Ride

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Almost magically, we spotted a Chipotle around 7:30 yesterday.

Real food on a road trip?!?  Count me in!  I got a vegetarian burrito bowl.

Underneath all that lettuce was rice, black beans, guacamole, roasted corn salsa, and fresh tomato salsa.

It was the perfect fuel to get me to Ohio.  Perhaps a bit too much fuel, because we ended up keeping my parents awake chatting until almost 2am!

My mom was able to lure me out of bed at 8am with the thrill of a bike ride.  My grandparents live right next to a fabulous running/bike path; I’m so jealous!  My mom and I started our day off right with a good workout – biked 7.6miles.

Now I’m off to find breakfast before we start the rest of the day’s activities.  Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

Liquid Libations

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Hello, hello, hello!  Lots of excitement ’round these parts today; some ends and some beginnings.  And lots of liquid calories, apparently, as my eats for today have been exclusively in the fluid form of matter.

What a way to start the morning!

I introduce smoothie genius – 3cups of frozen watermelon blended with a Simply Lemonade.

It was just so fricking good.  The perfect way to start the day that is the end of Sociology.  By the way; I got a 48/50 on my oral presentation and a 44/50 on the final exam – with the curve, highest grade in the class by 10points, that’s an A.

Since July’s class is online, I had Adam drop me off at campus in the morning so I could do my final walk home.  To celebrate, I even stopped at Starbucks mid-walk.

Grande, soy, iced, cinnamon dolche latte.  A drink must have at least 4 adjectives to be exciting 🙂

I literally walked from my 2.5miles of incidental exercise to some real exercise.  I had to be quick because I’m running late but I managed a pretty good work out.  22minutes, level 6, random, on the elliptical followed by 10minutes of arms, abs, stretching.

After the gym I stuck a straw in the 2nd half of the coconut water.

As soon as the husband gets home we are hitting the road to Ohio.  My parents are visiting my grandparents and since my grandparents are pretty much the coolest people on the planet Adam and I decided to drive up too.  I’m not sure what the posting situation will be, but I’ll be sure to recap eventually.

P.S. Random Integer Generator says congrats to #6 for winning my Peeled Snacks giveaway –

Cori, e-mail me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) so I can get you your prize.

I’m Almost Done with Soc!

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This morning I had to get up and write my oral presentation which was due, also, this morning.  Whoops 😉  I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home so I snagged the last end piece of beer bread for the road.

My presentation actually went pretty well I think.  I spoke about the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who I think are fascinating.  If you are interested, there is a great film made about them, which you can watch online here.

For lunch I went ahead and made a serving of my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles.

Gah!  Look at how good that looks –

I used 1/2 a yellow squash, 1/2 a zucchini, and ~3/4 of a serving of pasta so this was gloriously veggie-heavy.

I couple of hours later I also ended up snacking on a bowl of Barbara’s Vanilla Almond Shredded Oats.

We had to drive out to UPS this evening (they fabulous Brandi arranged a vegan sample for us!) and since we were in the area we drove up to the lake and took a short walk.

Dinner just sort of didn’t happen.  Perhaps because of the late snack?  Tomorrow morning I have my Sociology final and then we are driving up to Ohio for some family fun.  Later alligators!

P.S. Speaking of Brandi, go and wish her happy birthday!

The Daze: Part 2

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Note 1 – I’ve gotten Adam obsessed with Dollhouse too and he told me to make this snappy so we could get back to watching!  Note 2 – It’s been a day!  My nap yesterday made sleeping last night off which in turn made today strange. 

Like just odd.  Yesterday’s daze had nothing on today’s.  And my appetite was totally out of whack.  Nothing sounded good to me for breakfast.  I tried to eat a spoon of peanut butter but it just made me sad.  I decided just to let my appetite play out as it wished.

But perhaps the lack of breakfast turned me into a basket case because even the simple things felt like an accomplishment.  Like I somehow gouged a chunk out of my knee pulling my pants on –

That’s my sad face 😦 Cute shirt though, right?

I ended up eating about a serving of Spree during class.

But when I got home for lunch I still wasn’t hungry.  At 5:30 the husband was home and I still hadn’t eaten.  I needed fuel though so I poured myself a class of coconut water.

Which got me through our run.  I didn’t wear a watch because it was raining, but we did 2.25miles in ~25minutes.

Usually running kills my hunger but thankfully today dinner sounded good.  Double take.

Its leftover status made this meal no less tasty, just quicker!  Veggie bowl (corn, okra, black beans, salsa),

and a huge hunka beer bread with Smart Balance Light.

I also did some serious mouse nibbles while I cut the bread, about a serving’s worth.

I was a bit hungry still after dinner, not starving but since I didn’t eat much today I welcomed another meal, so I got my roast on.

Yucca was not yuck-a!  This was my first cassava try and I quite enjoyed it.  My belly isn’t enjoying the fiber overdose though, I practically look pregnant!

Times up!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Peel Snacks giveaway!

Rainy Daze

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Today’s weather was a strange mix of torrential downpour and beautiful blue skies; on the whole it left me throughly confused.  I felt like I muddled about in a bit of a daze all day.  The only thing I didn’t muddle through was my sociology test – 24/25 😀

Breakfast, on the go, was delicious.

Applemon Funky Monkey.  It was like a grown up version of those caramel apple chips that used to be around when I was a kid.

After class I did ~1mile of my walk home, stopping at the Spot to study.  While I was there I ate a vegan peanut butter chocolate chip muffin for lunch.

It was during that time that the skies really opened up.  Fantastically, Adam randomly got off work early and came to pick me up in the car.  When we got home we had to plan a couple of things for the rest of the week and I begged him to lay on the bed and cuddle with me while we talked.  —> enter 2 and 1/2 hour nap!  It was way too long to be asleep in the middle of the afternoon and left me totally disoriented; still worth it though.

Dinner was one of those meals that was so simple and so tasty.

I went ahead and made leftover for tomorrow as well so the amounts listed are for 2servings – 2cups frozen okra, 1.5cups frozen corn, 1cup black beans, paprika, s&p.  Perfect.  I topped today’s bowl with green salsa pinched from Moe’s.

On the side I had one of my favorites, beer bread.

My mom always makes this (and save the ends for me!) when I’m home but this was my first time making the recipe on my own.  Also definitely the first time it was made with a vegan butter substitute 😉  It was so fantastic I ended up going back for a second hunk, spread with a bit of Smart Balance Light.

This bread seriously takes less than 5minutes to put together, make it!

What is your favorite food recipe that involves booze? 

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

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I’ve been pretty productive since last posting… For example, while I ate my watermelon (❤) I watched an episode of “The Dollhouse.”  I discovered it this weekend and I’m in love; why do I always discover shows after they’ve gone off the air?!?  Meanwhile, Adam and I split a serving of Salsa Kathy’s Krackers.

How gorgeous is that?

Also, I joined Adam for a trip to the gym.  Since I’m turning 25 in a month I don’t think my incidental exercise walks are going to cut it by themselves.  I did an easy season on the treadmill (remind me that I’m NOT to run for more than 15minutes until next week!), that was actually not that easy.  Can we say out of shape?

  • 5minutes walking warm up
  • (3minutes running + 2minutes walking) x 3 = 12minutes intervals
  • 6minutes running
  • 4minutes walking

I ended up covering 2.5miles in my 30minutes.  Then I finished up with some stretching and pt.

Post-shower I made a delightful, dippable dinner.  Boco Meatless Nuggets,

oven roasted yellow squash, zucchini, and potato.

All together, with honey mustard dipping sauce.

I was still feeling hungry after dinner, probably because my day was pretty light on proteins and fats, so I made myself a revolutionary snack.

Protein pudding sans icky fake protein powder – into the blender went

  • 1 large banana
  • 1 serving silken tofu
  • 1T maple syrup
  • 1T peanut butter

And finally, I worked on my oral presentation for Thursday.  I actually have a test tomorrow but I’ll work on that in the morning 😉

Now I’m going to go accomplish bedtime.

What is your favorite dipping sauce?  Mine is 1000island, with everything!