Cursory and Carby

by Emily

I didn’t get home until after 9 and I’d like to go bed so this will be quick and cursory.

Breakfast – 1/2 cup Frog Hollow Farm Granola (from the Foodbuzz Festival) with a bit of skim milk.

It was so good I went back and made another bowl.

Lunch – a bowl of air-pop popcorn with SmartBalance Light.

Dessert – Tamarind candy (my favorite!) from back home.

I ate half the package and then promptly spilled the other half all over the floor and had to do some vacuuming.

Dinner – zilch, we have no food in the house.

Reading this post, today was possibly the saddest set of meals of all time. Holy carbs. And I’m hungry. Boo.

Good night!

19Nov2009

Great Expectations

by Emily

Nothing went as planned today, in a perfectly great sort of way. I ended up not lying down – exhausted from my foodgasms – as Adam came home with the mail which included an unexpected check from my old job. Yays! I’m not going to lie about how excited I was about that $, I got a little bit teary.

I was in such a good mood I even “wasted” a cute outfit on class.

Don’t worry, there are flip flops below that blazer.

Class unexpectedly was let out early, and I ended up at a friend’s house with Adam for an unplanned study session. I love sitting and listening to the studying med students so much, it is so interesting! And I got a lot of my own reading done.

We didn’t get home until 11, and my planned dinner of frittata leftovers got gobbled up by the husband. I was pissed that I had to eat another Sunshine Burger for dinner! 🙂

Dipped in some stolen Arby’s sauce.

I used less sauce than anticipated, and couldn’t bear to throw the extra away, so I smothered a small turkey sandwich with it.

I was still a little hungry anyway so this actually worked out well.

That seemed to be the theme of the day, things going better than planned. One of my favorite quotes (and in general I’m usually not too keen on ‘God’ quotes) is “If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.”

What got REplanned in your day today?

18Nov2009

Foodgasms

by Emily

Good afternoon! Today has been nice and productive; I mixed together a schedule of work and fun and this online stopwatch has been crucial.

Amid the work has been the cleaning of the kitchen, the completion of the laundry, and a major chunk of Chemistry reading.

During some of the fun (NCIS watching) I shared a cup of tea and honey with the bears.

Did you know that Ulrick moved all the way from Brooklyn with us? Unfortunately the tea didn’t really rock my socks.

I guess I only like Yogi if we are still talking about bears!

A bit later I had a strange snack that was exactly what I was craving (yes, in my dirty tea mug) –

Sliced bell pepper and 1/2C stuffing bread crumbs with 1T prepared pesto (from the Foodbuzz Festival!). It sounds strange but it was a craving-fulfilling, 100ish calorie snack that held me over until lunch.

And what a lunch it was. OhMyGosh. It’s funny because Jenna and Brandi both talked about how much they enjoy food – like really really enjoy it, more than just ‘oh this is good,’ like foodgasms – in posts today and now I’m going to do the same. Sometimes I get so excited about what I’m eating that I flap my arms like a deranged bird. Today’s lunch was super simple and yet it elicited tons of flapping.

Today felt life-changing. Today was the day I tried Sunshine Garden Herb Burgers.

Holy frick. I didn’t think it was possible to get so excited about a veggie patty but I’ve managed. This might be my new favorite food. It’s not, because I love roasted brussels sprouts and broad rice noodles too much to demote them, but it’s close.

I microwaved one patty and ate it on white toast with Jack Daniels mustard.

One of the best sandwiches ever. Chewy and hefty and the mix of flavors was to die for. I love love loved the vinegary kick from the mustard and burger. I almost got up and made myself a second sandwich.

And then I remembered dessert.

This is the best idea I’ve ever had.

Ricemellow, the filling scooped out of a slice of ‘Smores Pie, and a few chocolate chips. Melted in the microwave for 20seconds. It was like ‘smores x1million.

I love my readers. I really do. So I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you to make some good decisions. #1 – Make ‘Smores Pie. The recipe is here. It’s from my grandma, it’s easy, and I’ve literally never met someone who didn’t like it. #2 – buy this:

It’s vegan, it tastes like marshmallow fluff, and it is socks rocking. I’ll be honest, even if it wasn’t wonderful I’d like it just because I’m in love with the packaging. Seriously though, go buy it and report back to me.

That is all. I got myself so excited I just may need to go lie down. I will get up in time for class at 6:30 though, and I’ll see you for a dinner post this evening.

Is there a food YOU would like to strongly recommend today?

18Nov2009

[Superfruit + Goji]x2

by Emily

breakfast this morning was a mathematical equation.

Stoneyfield Farms Fat Free Superfruit Yogurt + 1T dried goji berries + 1T Crofter’s Superfruit Spread + Apricot and Goji Prana Bar + pb spoon =

I loved the mix of textures, but sadly I think I’m not a goji fan. It has a strange bitter aftertaste that I can’t get past. With the help of pb spoon though my enjoyment was not diminished.

I was ready for all that crunch and chew because I was up at 7:30 registering for classes. I had to register super late because of my non-matriculated status so I am working with professors to be force-registered into two different classes! I’ll let you know my schedule once it’s all worked out.

I don’t have to be any where until class tonight but I’ve got a (half)full day planned. My planned distraction cure is to mix in fun and work intervals (with a timer!) so I can keep my focus. We’ll see how it goes.

What do you think of Goji?

17Nov2009

Doing It With Friends

by Emily

Today was pretty darn successful! My shameful laundry has to wait until tomorrow but I completed all my planned studying.

I ended up skipping errands with Adam (he can really go to the post office alone) in order to stay home and make an early dinner. I whipped up a tasty veggie frittata while he was gone.

unfortunately I can’t share the recipe because I’m entering it in a contest, but I can tell you it was tasty (if not photogenic).

Each serving has 112calories, 12grams of protein, and 60%+ of your daily requirement of vitamin A, so I think I did a pretty good job recipe writing.

During cooking time, I ate two slices of white bread with Smart Balance Light while I did some kitchen organizing.

After dinner was finished we headed over to a friend’s house for a study session. Listening to Adam and his friends identify body parts puts me in the perfect study zone and I got lots of reading done. Plus I stole some Halloween leftovers.

It’s almost 11 and I still have to shower and look at my schedule so I’ve got to scadaddle. Sweet dreams folks!

How do you like eggs other than as eggs? I like frittatas a lot but my favorite rendition is definitely french toast.

17Nov2009

Loco

by Emily

Thank you (once again) for the encouraging comments on the last post. Today has been good.

I spent an hour in the library this morning attempting to figure out my class schedule for next semester, but ultimately the computer glitches made it impossible. My registration window is tomorrow morning, so I’m going to make sure I know exactly what the plan is before I go to bed tonight. I ate a Cashew Almond Prana Bar while I worked.

I caught up on Chemistry reading until 12, and then I met up with my friend Katie for a trip to Starbucks. I let my sweet tooth talk me into the cheapest option –

🙂 mint brownie, $1.95. On the side I had some cheap healthy ice water.

Challenge Balance – $63.10. I had a great time catching up with Katie and getting in some serious blog gossip. Katie recently became a full-fledged RD so she’s kind of a rock star to me! During our chatting a barista offered us a sample of the newest drink – Creme Brule Latte.

I was expecting to love it, but neither of us were that impressed. It was too sweet, without acting tasting like Creme Brule.

By the way, those of who met me at the Foodbuzz Festival and thought I was underdressed, check out my ‘it’s 41* in Buffalo’ duds.

Katie said my sandals in November made me a bad-ass, oh yeah!

I headed home around 2:30 and I ate some peanut butter. And a teeny apple.

PB Loco rocks my socks. And if you skim to the bottom of this post, I tell you some ways they can rock your socks.

Adam and I have to run some errands and then the rest of the day will be all about business. I have more Chemistry work I’d like to do and it’s possible my clothing just will get up and walk away as my laundry is so embarrassed about living in the living room for the last weekend! I’ll see you with dinner.

Ways to get your fabulous pb fix on –

1. If you sign up for “free stuff” at pbloco.com you will receive coupons to use at the online store.

2. Spend $30 or more at Pbloco.com and receive a FREE jar of P.B.Loco Dreamy Creamy Peanut Butter. To redeem this coupon, place $30 or more of merchandise in your shopping cart at Pbloco.com. Enter coupon code BLOG1209 when you checkout. A free jar will be added to your order. Offer expires December 25, 2009.

17Nov2009

Wright Idea

by Emily

*I’m sure you guys are getting sick of these introspective posts, but I’m a list-maker at heart, it’s how I clear my head.

The last couple of days have involved entire boxes of mac and cheese and much undocumented challenge straying. On a good note, they also involved a very positive meeting with a program head. The only one of my goals I’ve really kept is my break from running, ha!

I feel out of control. During my horrible teaching experience I became this negative, anxious person and it’s like I don’t know how to find my way back. My head space very much reminds me of a quote I copied down in my notebook in 8th grade –

Somewhere in the dead of the southern night my life had switched onto the wrong track and, without my knowing it, the locomotive of my heart was rushing down a dangerously steep slope, heading for a collision, heedless of the warning red lights that blinked all about me, the sirens and the bells and the screams that filled the air.

That was from Richard Wright’s memoir, Black Boy. It’s one of my favorite books; I turn down pages with passages I really enjoyed and that entire books is dog-earred! Just thinking about that quote helps me feel more like me again.

This morning I’m headed to campus with Adam to do some catch-up reading in the library. I’m also meeting my friend Katie for coffee at noon. I’ll be back this afternoon!

Have you ever felt ‘off track’ like me?

15Nov2009

This Needs to Be a No Crap Zone

by Emily

I’m a little drunk and have a scary amount of work to do tomorrow so I’ll keep this speedy.

I might not have gotten much work done this afternoon but I did have a very calming snack.

A Tazo tea sample pinched from my hotel room and Frog Hollow Farms cookies.

And I baked a pie!

We had an extra Wholy Wholesome WW Pie crust and Adam is a crazy person who has been requesting ‘smores pie minus the actual ‘smores crust. I followed my grandmother’s recipe, but subbed chocolate chips for bars since that’s what we had in the cupboard. You better believe I did some nibbling while I cooked.

Finally, it was time for showers and gussying. I straightened my hair for the first time in my entire life and I think I like it.

The semi-formal was at the Samuel’s Grand Manor, which ended up being a very nice spot. Dinner was actually a sit down meal and the company was great. Adam is so lucky to be in school with such a great group of people.

We hit up the open bar when we arrived; whiskey sour. [I started drinking and the lights went down so my pictures were pretty much doomed at this point]

And I had a small appetizer plate.

Before the bar closed for dinner I had a bourbon and ginger ale.

Yummy salad.

Bread and butter.

Vegetarian entrée.

Since I don’t eat steak the waitstaff hooked me up with this veggie pasta plate. I ate all the veggies but pretty much ignored the pasta.

There was ice-cream for dessert but it didn’t look exciting so I gave mine to Adam. I did however, break into the centerpiece.

We totally took that candy cane home with us too!

After dinner Daniele delivered the bourbon and ginger that put me over the edge.

We hung out for a bit, but my foot hurts from my doctor’s appointment and without dancing we ended up leaving before 10:30. We were actually almost to our house before I had the world’s most intense craving for chicken fingers. It’s possible we drunkenly made our way to Denny’s (ew!) and I decided that this wouldn’t count towards the Challenge because I didn’t get enough dinner at our pre-planned event.

The craving –

I ate three and then decided I should probably be done. P.S. I am totally sick. Every time we’ve eaten crap this year it’s been confirmed for me that I just can’t. I didn’t overeat at all (in fact my dinner all total was probably on the small side) but I feel like I’m going to explode. My body can not tolerate fried food.

I also got embarrassingly excited about this –

Peppermint hot cocoa? Yes please! Honestly, it was worth Denny’s food to be able to sit with my husband. We talked about my goals and possible plans for next year. He is so busy and it’s hard to focus at home, it was nice to just sit and talk.

Now I’m going to brush my teeth (and possibly puke) and collapse into bed. Please, God, please let me wake up and get some work done tomorrow!!!