A Day That Wasn’t

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I accomplished less than nothing today.  Seriously.  And I seriously don’t want to talk about it.  😦 Boo, let’s just get to the food.

This morning I used the amazingness that is Thai young coconut,

to make this amazingness.

The world’s simplest, simply amazing smoothie contained the flesh and juice of one coconut, a big shake of cinnamon-sugar, and 1/2t xanthan gum (which still was a bit too much gum).  So simple and too tasty.

Dinner was courtesy of Wegman’s salad bar.  My one and only accomplishment today was getting the grocery shopping done.

Wok cooked veggies and blanched broccoli,

and amazingly delicious eggplant.

This is quickly becoming my favorite veggie!  I normally would stick to a smaller serving of something that looked fried, but Wegmans is becoming very nyc-ish and they had the nutritional info posted next to the dish – 140calories for 1cup.

Sorry to be in such an anti-stellar mood.  Hopefully a good night of sleep will set me right.

Do you ever have any days that aren’t?

P.S. I used the word “amazing” 4 times in that short post.  Who was an English major?!?

Epic

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Stuff That Is Epic

  • The bidet skit from SNL.
  • My breakfast.  A smoothie with frozen strawberries, vanilla yogurt, calcium + vitamin d oj, honey, and xanthan gum.
  • Xanthan gum.  Using this stuff is like doing a Chem. Lab; the texture of my smoothie changed soo much!  Actually, I used a T and it got a bit too gummy for my liking but I’ll keep experimenting.
  • My mother for purchasing said xanthan gum for me; and just being awesome in general

Stuff That is Not Epic

  • My leg hurts.
  • Adam is off on a bike ride and I left my camera in the car.
  • The lunch I won’t be posting since I left my camera in the car – leftover sandwich filling sans bread.

Stuff That Will Be Epic

  • The dinner I have planned using the bread I’m not eating for lunch.
  • The bbq chips I plan on buying when I go out to run some errands.
  • Going for a swim with the husband tomorrow.

**Updated**  We ended up going for a spur of the moment dinner to Anchor Bar with a big group of friends.  I knew the food would be awful (and it was) so I didn’t even plan on posting, but I did have a fabulous time!

Tomorrow is day 1-of-6 before my big chem. final and day 1-of-15 before my hopeful return to running; clearly things will be busy!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

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Don’t get too excited, no fairy tales here!  The title comes from our movie choice for the evening, I’m not feeling that creative.

I wasn’t feeling all that creative with dinner either, I almost exactly followed the recipe.  “The recipe” was from Cooking Light, Sausage-Fennel Subs.  My teeny changes were –

  • substituted 1T evoo for cooking spray
  • added ~1/2cup red bell peppers
  • skipped the garlic (we really ought to buy garlic again, it’s in pretty much everything)
  • used only 1 slice (per sandwich) of 2% provolone

I also added double the amount of sausage but that was unintentional, we have a lot of leftovers.  Thank goodness it was tasty!

As planned, after dinner we headed to Dolci for dessert.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting 😦  Although Adam did come home with a box of cookies.

Undeterred, we headed down Elmwood until we accosted a family with ice-cream cones and found out where they got them.  Delish it was!

Awesome, awesome idea – check out this flavor list of locally made ice-creams:

Oh yeah!  I chose salted caramel and was not disappointed.

We ooohed and ahhhed over our ice-cream and drove around doing some apartment hunting before we headed home to the Dwarves.  I ate a huge bowl of popcorn that somehow escaped the camera.

No cheating on wikipedia – can you name all seven of the dwarves??

Surprising Satisfactions

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I was surprised and satisfied when I woke up at 6am this morning to register for summer school and I got into all of the classes I need.  Whoopie!!!  My exams at UB end May 6th and then here is my class schedule for this summer –

  • Sociology 100 – MTWRF 10:30-12:40, June 1st – June 26th
  • Anatomy Physiology – MWF 3:00-4:50, June 1st – July 17th
  • Introductory Nutrition – Online, June 28th – July 21st

It’s going to be a really challenging summer but I’m so excited to get started.  I just hope I’m as lucky with registration for fall classes next week.

I was surprisingly satisfied by how tasty my in-the-car-breakfast was.  A huge hunk of coconut banana bread,

and a Greek Gods Fig Greek Yogurt.

Greek Gods is my very favorite yogurt brand.  The texture and flavor is the absolute best in Greek yogurt and the packaging is adorable.

I ate in the car because I headed to school with Adam this morning.  My production level at home is abysmal and I have work that has to get done today.  While I was taking a computer break I was surprised and satisfied to see that I earned a 94% on the last Anthropology exam, go me!

Walking around campus I was surprised and satisfied to see all the signs of Spring in spite of the especially cold April weather.

I hung out in the campus library from 8-12 and then when Adam got out of class we headed over to The Spot and continued the study session there.  I was satisfied but surprised by my Mikes (egg and cheese) Bagel Sandwich.

Tasty and filling but I’m not sure it why it looked like such a hot mess.

The plan for the evening is a dinner that’s quick and easy (just like your boyfriend! ba doom ching!) and cuddle on the couch tv time.  With a big scoop of excitement mixed in – we are getting dessert from Dolci!  I’ve had my eye on it all year and we are finally trying it out.

What were you surprised and/or satisfied by today?

Summer Goals

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Another excited yet lame blog post from Eatventures?  Nah, you’ve got to be kidding me!  And I’m not going to lie to my readers and say “it’ll be better soon.”  Because it won’t.  I’ve got finals folks, and now it’s time for me to learn all of the material I’ve been ignoring the last month!  But I do promise to keep posting at least daily (because people would totally die without reading about my lunch?!?!), and to work on stepping it up this summer.  In fact, I’ve got all sorts of goals for this summer –

  • start running again (slowly and carefully!) once my leg fully heals
  • get into a daily exercise schedule before I start full-time school
  • post more regularly on the blog
  • purchase a domain name and go all official (fingers crossed)
  • rock out my summer school classes
  • find a new, better apartment and move into it
  • turn 25!

This morning’s goal was to tackle some issues with my financial aid.  I was trapped on the phone all morning so I ended up eating a bun spread with a little bit of Smart Balance Light.

And that candy bar was decimated.

When I was finally free I made a real breakfast.

Plain non-fat yogurt topped with honey and a sliced plum.  This guy was a little too sour but I am so excited about plum season; they are my favorite fruit yogurt topper.

Unfortunately I ate so late that I wasn’t hungry for lunch.  And even more unfortunately I failed to plan ahead.  So lunch was most of this trail mix eaten during Anthropology.

I ate ~500calories worth, so it certainly covered lunch, but not in any sort of healthy way.  Plus I ended up feeling totally ill.  Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Bellyache be damned though, I wasn’t passing up an on-campus opportunity; bubble teas are few and far between in Buffalo.

Strawberry milk tea with bobba.  It was way too sweet but I was kind of in love with it anyways.

Classes are done, whoopie!  Now I just have to huge finals before I’m through with UB.  (Dear God, that was not supposed to rhyme)

Dinner was leftovers, with a twist.

I didn’t want to use another bun so I ate my sloppy joe mix in a bowl, topped with 2% colby jack, Siracha, low fat sour cream, and the last of the homemade pineapple salsa.

This mix of flavors was so darn good!

That glass of sludge is plain non-fat Kefir with cinnamon-sugar swirled in.

I’m posting so late because Adam and I went on a Buffy binge, but also because I did some baking.

Coconut Banana Bread.  I followed this recipe but skipped the glaze.  Make this, make this, make this!  The flavor profile is spot on.  I might have had a slice or three.

Bed time?  Bed time!

What are some of your goals for this summer?

Down in Lunch Lady Land

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Why yes, I am posting at midnight.  Is it possible my sleep schedule needs a wee bit of work?  Perhaps I should grow up a bit and learn to not watch Buffy the husband all night prioritize?  I will keep this quick though.  Like super quick.

We had lab check out today, I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar during final exam review.  (18words, speed it up, Emily!)

Good God I love those bars!  Did not really dent my hunger though.  And my plan was to swim afterward but I didn’t so I ended up stuck at campus waiting for Adam.  I did a 40minute swim on Monday and my ears have been hurting, better safe than sorry so I’m not swimming again ’till this weekend.

While I waited I did hit up Starbucks.

Tall, non-fat, iced, cinnamon-dolce latte.  I literally had to tell the barista that I was aware that “my drink has too many adjectives!”  I almost was starved into an item from the display case but I was too excited about my planned lunch.

I decided to bring back taco salads.  This guy had a lettuce base with black beans, crushed blue tortilla chips, 2% colby jack, low fat sour cream, and homemade pineapple salsa.

Do that not just sound/look like the best salad ever?

Well it WAS NOT.  Holy yuck!  The lettuce was so bitter that I seriously gagged on it.  I did my best to pick off the toppings but I ended up having to throw most of it away.

Not surprisingly, I was still hungry, so I popped a frozen mac and cheese into the microwave.

Much better.

Whilst hanging out this afternoon I snacked on too much some of this Divine candy bar.

It had crunchy, but yet still juicy, pieces of dried strawberry all throughout, so yum!

Dinner looked like this –

I used a Cooking Light recipe for Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes.

The sauce was more Joe’s cousin James than full on, but still very tasty.  I used ground turkey meat, of course.

And for our side I did a quick saute of chopped okra, frozen turnip greens, and chopped turkey bacon.

Dinner was good, but Adam and I were mostly excited for dessert.

What’s that?  Oh, not much, just a toasted marshmallow milkshake!

The recipe comes from Rachael Ray Magazine, and yes it was amazing.  I did sub in reduced fat varieties though.

It is undeniably bedtime.  Sweet dreams!

What’s your favorite Adam Sandler song?  When his stuff was popular my parents wouldn’t let me buy the cds, which was ironic because I owned several Jerky Boys cds!

Earthlings

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This is a cursory post but I wanted to stop in.  I didn’t eat a single veggie today, but I also just didn’t eat much in general.

While studying on campus I drank a frozen coffee with coconut.

After my test I went with Adam to Jamba Juice for a Pink Star smoothie.

Before class I grabbed an everything bagel with cream cheese.

And on the way home I ate a bag of chips.  [I realize my food choices today won’t be winning any awards]

And that was it.

Dinner didn’t happen.  In spite of the warnings from fellow bloggers about it’s graphic nature I decided to watch the trailer for Earthlings WARNING Clip plays immediately.  I think the movie is a great idea and I’m glad that a lot of cities have been having showings recently.  But for me it was not a good idea.

I know how animals are treated in factory farms.  I wouldn’t eat mammals regardless, but I recognize that if I can’t see the process for fish and fowl then I shouldn’t be eating them.  I do, however, disagree with conventional meat (fish/fowl) production which is why Adam and I are going to make more of an effort to purchase ethically.

But I do not believe in the fur industry.  I have never believed in the fur industry, I’ve always been staunchly against it.  I’ve said for months that Kanye West is a monster.  I do not need to learn more about the fur industry, there is nothing that could convince me to be more against it than I already am.  So seeing clips of animals within the fur industry was not a learning experience for me.

I cried for 20minutes.  I’ve described the exact process I watched, in detail, but actually seeing it was heart-wrenching for me.  Of course I was bothered by the clips of the farm animals and seals, but when the video reached the part with the fox I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.  Watching that clip was genuinely the worst I’ve ever felt.  Adam sat on the couch and rubbed my back and he told me later that he’s never seen me react to something like that before (and we’ve been through some pretty hard experiences).

Sometimes the fact that human beings are so awful just makes me feel hopeless.  Like there’s nothing I can do that will be good enough to counteract all the bad out there.  On some level I really do believe in a balance of positive and negative energy, so modern humans scare me.  How can we put so much hate into the world?

Have you seen, or are you going to see Earthlings?  Have you seen the trailer?

The Little Dutch Girl

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*Not a post!*  I have my anthro exam in just a bit and I’ve still got some studying to do.  I just wanted to apologize for bailing yesterday.  I wax poetic about 3-post-days and they ditch you guys again 😀

Nothing that exciting happened foodwise, so I’ll skip the recap.  I will say, that living in this apartment is like an adventure.  You never know what new and exciting thing is going to break.  So many areas in this little apartment have leaked in the past few months that I’m starting to feel like the little Dutch boy with my finger in the dyke!!!

What’s your living situation?  Rent, own, dorm, or still at home?  Are you in your Barbie Dream House or trying to escape like me?