Microwaved Miracles

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Hello, hello!  I slept in until 10:30 today, but I’ve been telling myself it’s so I’ll be fully over my cold before we drive up to Ohio tomorrow to visit my grandparents.

When I did get up I made the most amazing breakfast!  Microwave eggs might be the best thing ever.

You just combine all of your ingredients in a smallish microwave safe bowl (2 eggs, s&p, the last 1.5T of gorgonzola), stir, microwave on high for 1minute, stir again, and finish with another minute in the microwave.  The fabulously fluffy eggs slide right out of a bowl and onto a sandwich!

This sandwich was topped with Jack Daniels mustard and some clover honey from Foodbuzz!

Mmmn!  It was the perfect combo of savory and sweet.

Breakfast lunch perfection!

In just a bit I am driving to pick up Adam at school so we can go to my doctor’s appointment.  I am getting my leg imaged to make sure I don’t have a blood clot, and hopefully finding out more information in general.

Tonight we are going to a dinner we’ve been planning for months, and tomorrow I’m driving up to my grandparents’ for Thanksgiving!  Just to warn you in advance, I’m not sure what the posting sitch will be this weekend, they may need to be a large recap.

What miraculous things have you done with your microwave?

Liver Spots

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There were all sorts of goods and bads today but I’ll try to focus on the goods.  Like, for example, the fact that it’s Turkey Day week!

I went ’80’s style when I got dressed today, all I needed was my old Doc Martin boots!

Now that I live in Buffalo I wear sandals every day, but when I was growing up in the Caribbean I went through an intense Doc Martin phase.  I guess I like anything that’s out of season!

I was in desperate need of greens/fruits so I made a smoothie for the road.

1C frozen blackberries, a scoop of Chocolate Amazing Grass, and some skim milk.  I loved how purple it got!

I arrived at school really early so I walked around with Adam for a bit before heading to my appointment.

Fun fact #1 – my leg hurts like crazy.  Fun fact # 2 – according to the RN at the health center I have a varicose vein!  It’s not a terrible one, and at this stage my insurance won’t cover removal.  They are hereditary and my teaching career (on my feet nonstop from 7-5) is a big factor, as well as my years as a waitress. She said I need to wear support hose and supportive shoes, but wouldn’t give me information about how long that would need to happen.  If a month or so will ‘fix’ me then I’m all for it, but if it’s a rest of my life thing I’d rather keep with my sandals and just have the surgery when it gets worse.  I have an imaging appointment tomorrow to make sure I don’t have a blood clot and I’ll get more information then.

I’m not going to lie, it’s a good thing Adam drove me to class because I bawled all the way there.  I’m able to put up with a lot of pain, but having a yucky old lady problem pisses me off!  I don’t want to wear support hose!  I sort of lost it.  I think things will be better once I get more information tomorrow.

The good news is that physical activity can’t make it worse.  I try to be very careful of injury (that’s why I took time off when the leg pain started) because I would never want to permanently side-line myself.  However, I am ridiculously stubborn and am pretty good with putting up with pain.  I decided last week that I would always stop running if I would cause permanent injury by not taking a break, but that if I could safely run through the pain I would do so.  Therefore, 7 out of 10 leg pain be damned, half marathon training is back on!!

I recomposed myself once I got to campus, but definitely bought this bag of Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos to ease my sorrows.

($1, Challenge Balance – $79.24 ) I ate about half the bag – go me for not just downing the whole thing.

At 6 I got more good news when Caroline showed up with her laptop, class was cancelled!  Adam was already at the gym with a friend so she offered to take me home.  We made a pit-stop at the mall (shopping for her bf) so that was fun.

Dinner was more good news.  Delicious, all around!  The first course was Dr. McDougall’s Soup.

Adam had Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato and I had Chunky Tomato.

I almost never eat ‘mater soup but I love it.

The second/main course was my newest creation.

Buffalo Blue Bean Patties, serves 4

  • 2 15.5oz cans black beans we use low sodium
  • 1/2 cup, plus 2T buffalo wing sauce we used the sauce from Anchor Bar, the birthplace of Buffalo wings
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbles
  • salt and pepper, to season
  1. Preheat the oven to 450*.  Foil and spray a baking sheet.
  2. Empty bean cans into a colander and rinse thoroughly – this is a heart healthy step, reduce your sodium intake.
  3. Pour 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, stir.  Add bread crumbs, stir.  Add cheese and fork to combine.
  5. Using your hands, form 12 patties out of the bean mixture.
  6. Put patties on prepared sheet and bake for 20minutes, it is not necessary to flip them during baking.

I ate mine with the sad remains of our ketchup (that’s a small plate).

Man they were good!  I don’t want to toot my own horn, but this was such a good idea!  They were also very filling, I ended up only eating 2.5.

You what what else is a good idea?  The big bowl of popcorn I’m about to make!  Yes, I used up the big bag of ‘corn my in-laws brought me just last month!

Have a good night folks!

What makes you feel old?  I’m 24, I’m not cool with the idea of support hose!  Teenage entertainment makes me feel old too, shows like “Gossip Girl” just make me uncomfortable!

Lame Lunch

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I have to head to school soon so this is a lame quick post.

I was planning on eating a bar for breakfast but I way overslept and in fact was a few minutes late to volunteering 😦  By the time lunch rolled around I was actually feeling a bit faint.  I used my lunch voucher to buy a big slice of cheese pizza.

I blotted this like crazy, do you blot?

I miss having a full-time job, if nothing else, I love volunteering because it gives me an opportunity to be on my feet for  a few hours!  I always take the stairs when I am sent somewhere.

Breakfast and lunch was lacking in fruit and veggies so I’m planning on making a smoothie before I leave.  I have class tonight at 6:30 (my only class this week!) but I have a doctor’s appointment first for my leg at 5.  Wish me luck!

The Blind Side

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It was a grand, grand Sunday!  No schoolwork ever made it into the picture, but that would have just mucked up the fun anyways 🙂

At 4:20 we finally made it in to see “The Blind Side.”  Love, love, love.  It was a true story about a Southern white family that took in a struggling, homeless black boy.  There were lots of y’alls, football, laughs, and touching moments.  Sandra Bulluck is one of my favorite actors, particularly for how well she does in roles like this.  I highly recommend seeing this movie.

I had a lick of Adam’s Maple Bacon Lollipop (brought back from Foodbuzz),

and we ate some of these Milkata candies.

When we got home at 7 I was so hungry!  I ate a delicious spoonful of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter.

Then we made the quickest-tastiest dinner of all time.

4 ingredients, 3 minutes of prep, 20minutes in the stove, 1 very very happy housewife!  I linked to the recipe here.

I was so so pleased with this idea.  Thanks for the pesto, Foodbuzz!  The crunchy bits of pasta were my favorite.

After dinner we walked over to Walgreens to pick up a few things.  And you know I made a big bowl of ‘corn when I got home!

I’m going to snuggle up with Adam and do some munching and tv watching, have a good night!

What 5 ingredient or less recipes have you had success with lately?

French Toasty

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You’re not going to believe it, but we missed another movie this morning!  We were a combination of a little tired, a little hangover, and a lot cranky.  The plan was to see our movie at 10:30, but we were definitely still in bed at that time.  When we did finally get up we decided to go this afternoon and get started on breakfast!

I made my best french toast yet!

The toast was regular style – 2 slices of bread dipped in a splash of milk and an egg, cooked in a skillet with a bit of butter substitute.  The topping is what made it though.  Fruit topping, serves 1

  • 1/4 T butter substitute
  • 1/4 t sugar
  • dash of salt
  • apple, chopped
  • splash oj
  • 1/2 cup blackberries (I used frozen)
  1. Heat the first four ingredients over medium high heat until the apples are browned. 
  2. Add the juice and berries and cook another 5minutes.

I topped my toast with the fruit and a little bit of real maple syrup.

Delicious!

I have some errands to run and we are planning on (actually) seeing our movie at 4:20.  I’ll be back for dinner!

What is your favorite type of french toast?  I had amaretto and pecan at a restaurant that was great, and I want to try cream cheese and banana stuffed next!

Bowled Over

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Hello, hello!  I’m up pretty late for a sick kid so I’ll try to keep this quick.  The movies didn’t really work out – we went to the mall and missed not one, but two! showings.  We ended up being at the mall for two fruitless hours, we walked around a bit and had a long chat on a bench.

I was actually glad we missed the second show because on the ride home I got a killer migraine that would have hit mid-movie.  After some Excedrin and a quick nap I was ready to make a fancy shmancy dinner.  I love brie, and was so excited to see some in my Foodbuzz swag.  And actually the inspiring recipe can from a magazine I read on my California trip!

We loosely followed this recipe from Real Simple, Pasta with Brie, Mushroom and Arugula.  Our changes –

  • we used ziti instead of penne
  • we used white mushrooms instead of button mushrooms
  • we used a cooking onion rather than a red onion
  • we subbed 1T butter substitute (Promise) for the evoo

It was pretty tasty!  But I guess it’s a good thing I’m sick or I’m not sure one meal for the whole day would have covered it 🙂

After dinner we headed out to meet some friends at a local bowling alley.  We called and found out games are $3 after 9 so it seemed like a good idea, even though I’m not a very good bowler.  We played (and drank) with three other couples and it was a lot of fun!

I managed to finagle it with the snack bar and the bartender to get a chocolate milkshake with a double shot of Jack Daniels.

Perfection.

And later on I had a diet coke with amaretto.

None of my games were great, but the second was the worst (I was playing under Benji’s name) –

Embarrassing!  I had a great time though, I definitely want to go back.

Now the goal is sleep before 1am.  My workload tomorrow is pretty light, I only have class one day before Thanksgiving some I’m hoping to get lots of pre-work done next week.  Sweet dreams folks!

Do you like ‘couples sports’ like bowling and mini golf?

Cough, Cough, Sniffle, Sniffle

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Yesterday I played it low-key all morning.  I didn’t end up getting any Airborne, but I did take a good nap.  Around 2 I headed to a friend’s house with Adam and did some studying.  I left there around 7 and went to the grocery store.  Since we go to my grandmother’s on Wednesday it was an easy week, $ 15.14.  Challenge Total – $78.24.  Walking, however, was not so easy.  I was sobbing by the time I left the store because my leg hurt so bad.   I have a doctor’s appointment on Monday, thank goodness.

This morning I stayed in bed past noon, more than 12 hours of sleep!  I feel better, but still not great.  Adam went to get winter tires put on so we did some consumer report researching.  We are hoping to go to a movie this afternoon, and we have another date planned for tonight 🙂

I haven’t actually eaten anything yet, but after a much-needed shower I’ll rectify that.  Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

Any sickie tips for me?  Airborne?  Emergen-C?

Updates, an Outline

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1a. I definitely went to bed at 9:30, and then got back out of bed at 10:30 and went and got sandwiches with Adam.  Being hungry like that makes me really sad and I had been hungry all day.  We watched Bones, ate Buffalo chicken sandwiches, and stayed up until 2am; it was fabulous.

1b. I kind of suck at the Challenge.  There is a recap to come at the end of November, but we’ve cheated so much it’s kind of ridiculous.

2a. I will not be running today.

2b. I haven’t really been talking about it but my legs (right in particular) hurt like crazy.  I haven’t run in 2weeks but yesterday I was limping because I was in so much pain.  Adam “diagnosed” me with tendonitis last night and I am planning on going to the doctor ASAP.  I am so sad about this fact that I have to leave it at that because it’s just too frustrating.

3a. I will not be posting a real post today.  I am turning my computer off completely for the day.

3b.  I woke up with some sort of bug today and am hoping that if my only activities are walking to buy Airbone and getting back into bed I’ll kill it off for this weekend.

4a. This post was lame as all get out.

4b. But I kind of had fun, I miss writing papers!  🙂