Give Fuzz a Chance

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This has to be quick because I am leaving to start my volunteering shift (from 8-2) in just a few minutes.  I skipped posting last night because I did (and ate) nothing worth mentioning.  I spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch with the husband, eating crap and watching movies.  It was glorious 🙂

This morning I made this bowl for breakfast –

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  • 1 YoKids Strawberry Lowfat Yogurt
  • 1 huge, fuzz-intact kiwi
  • 1t peanuts

I’ve seen other bloggers eat kiwi au natural for years and I finally had to try it.  The verdict?  I prefer them clean, but for convenience sake this was pretty good.

Do you eat your kiwis fuzz-on?

Leftovers and Virgins

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I was feeling a little off last night and that carried over because I was still exhausted when I woke up…. at noon!  It’s ok though, here was the view out of my window at 1pm –

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It’s normal now but the weather was crazy for a little bit, we are going to have to get lots and lots of lamps this winter!

Adam and I took advantage of the inhospitable outside and watched “40 Year Old Virgin.”  I ate my Cheesecake Factory leftovers, spicy cashew chicken, while we vegged.

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I also ate a mug of our homemade mint cookies and cream ice-cream.

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So now it’s 3 and the weather has cleared up.  Tomorrow is Adam’s first day of medical school and my first day of volunteering.  I’m not sure where the afternoon will take us but I’m sure it will be fun!

Do you like raunchy movies or chick flicks?  My husband loves chick flicks, for which I tease him mercilessly, but I like raunchy comedies.  “Knocked Up” is pretty much my favorite movie of all time but I also love “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

Was That a Mall or a Chamber of Hell?

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Lordy, lordy, lordy, what a day!  I want to say things picked up from their low point but that would really be a lie.  I will say that the husband and I are very good at (and used to) making the best of things, so even frustrating situations can be laughed at.

Number One on our fun agenda was using an exciting wedding gift to make…..homemade ice-cream!  I’ll talk about that more later but suffice to say that poor communication between Adam and I led us to throw out an entire bowl of ingredients and have to start over from scratch.  Our emergency grocery store trip put us way behind schedule and we got to Fun Activity Number Two – the mall – much later than planned.

Somehow, Fun Activity Number Three was a total sucess.  We saw “Julie and Julia” which rocked my socks 🙂  I thought the book was better than the movie, but the movie was still great.  It was funny and touching and the husband and I thought that Julia and her husband were the cutest couple ever.

Our main purpose for coming to the mall was to find me an outfit for a semi-formal Adam’s first week of med. school.  That activity took all day.  I’m not big on shopping anyway so having eaten nothing all day it was very very tedious.  We went to every single woman’s store in the mall and I was in tears by the end of the day.  At our very last stop however, our 2nd trip to Banana Republic, I finally found a dress that worked!  It’s not perfect, but at least I won’t go naked, I’ll show you guys pictures next week.

In the interim I at least did some unnecessary, but totally necessary, shopping.  A stick perfume I needed and a hair clip I needed –

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plus the cutest top ever on sale at the Gap –

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After our final shopping sucess our Final Fun Activity was dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  I started with a major serving of bread, sourdough is my favorite.

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For dinner I ordered Spicy Cashew Chicken which used to be my favorite Factory meal.

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I knew I would devour it so I asked for a box with my meal and took half of it out before I even started.

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It was delicious!

Nothing could compete, however, with homemade ice-cream!

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I cobbled together a base recipe from a few sources (and made some changes based on what we could find during our emergency trip) and then we added in crunched Newman’s Own Organic Mint Newmanos.  So good!  The next time I make ice-cream I am going to try it with skim milk but I figured I would follow a traditional recipe the first time around.

Mint Cookies and Cream, makes 1 quart

  • 8-10 mint oreo-ish cookies
  • 4large egg yolks
  • 3/4C sugar
  • 1/4t salt
  • 2 1/4C half and half
  • 3/4C 1% milk
  • Ice water
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/4C sugar, and the salt.
  2. In a medium saucepan, whisk the half and half, milk, and remaining 1/2C of sugar over medium heat until just begining to simmer, about 5minutes.
  3. Add to the egg mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour into the saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens, about 8minutes.
  4. Pour the custard into a bowl set in an ice water bath.  Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
  5. Use an ice-cream machine to process the custard according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
  6. Fold in crunched cookies after removing from machine into an air-tight storage container.

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We are eating ice-cream and watching “My So-Called Life” and at this point, the day looks pretty good!  Hope everyone else had a good Saturday, see you tomorrow!

Have you ever made your own ice-cream?  What flavor would you most like to try?  I was saying to Adam today that I can’t believe no one has made a maple waffle ice-cream yet, I think that will be my next venture!

Discouraged

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It has not been my day so far (kind of sad to say that before noon!).  I hope to be in much better spirits when I do my next post.

I was so proud of myself last night because I actually stuck to my goal and got in bed before 10.  But then?  Bupkes, I couldn’t fall asleep!  I woke up at least three times and in fact I even got out of bed and ran to the computer in a fruitless search to find the name of an old book.

Sidenote: Do You Know the Name of This Book – It was written at least 10years ago.  It was about a boy and a girl who runaway from camp.  The boy and the girl are both unpopular so as a joke the other campers steal their clothing so they swim in a lake and run away.  They find a cabin and they stay there.  At some point they steal a hot dog.  One of them has glasses.

This morning, due to lack of sleep, we totally missed our planned 6:45 wake-up and I didn’t stumble out of bed until after 10.  We pulled it together and went for a 2mile run but that same route took us 23minutes!  To be fair, we walked some because I wore my cross-trainers instead of my running shoes by accident and my ankles were feeling abandoned.

After we got home I made a stupid mistake and locked us out!  It was a stupid embarrassing rigmarole.

Some positives –

  1. I am proud of myself for wearing spf 55 while we ran
  2. At some point it is impossible that I will not start to get back into shape and 2miles won’t be so hard
  3. We have super super fun plans today and there is no way they won’t cheer me up
  4. This evening we are using one of our more exciting wedding gifts to make something fun

What were the lowest and highest points of your week?

pasTa

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I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love!  If I could run off with a smoothie without hurting Adam’s feelings I would, but more on that later…

Our errands went ok, we have to go back to the post office tomorrow but we dropped off our donations at Goodwill and got the things we needed at Target.  I also got majorly suckered into some candy –

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York Patties used to be my favorite candies and an ad in a magazine at Adam’s doctor’s office totally got me craving one – way to go former communication majors!  I also ate some of the husband’s mini truffles (x3).

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For dinner we made AnTEAoxidant Pasta (my name, recipe courtesy of an old Self magazine).  So good!

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I had my portion with a big glass of iced h2o.

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AnTEAoxident Pasta, serves 4  (I made some changes to the recipe, mostly to make it lower fat and to accommodate our lame pantry, so I’m posting the changed recipe below)

  • 6 green tea bags
  • 2.5C dry ww penne
  • 2C chopped broccoli
  • 2C chopped kale leaves
  • 1 14.5oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 3/4C fat free ricotta
  • 4t evoo
  • 1T balsamic vinegar
  • 1T chopped garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste

>Bring 6C of water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add tea bags; turn off heat and let steep for 5minutes.  Discard tea bags and bring back to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to package directions.  Add in broccoli and kale in the last three minutes of cooking.

>Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, ricotta, oil, vinegar and garlic; mix well.  Drain pasta and cooked vegetables; add to bowl and toss well.

It was good, but nothing on this Earth is as good as this smoothie –

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  • 1small banana
  • 1C Goya frozen soursop pulp
  • 3/4C So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk

Holy frick it is good! 

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Soursop is so good, it is my favorite childhood taste memory.  Legend has it that soursop makes you sleepy which is the idea tonight.  We are watching more “My So-Called Life” and then I am trying to get to bed by 10.

What is your favorite childhood taste memory?  Mine is soursop juice and baked macaroni and cheese from the old grocery store back home.  When I went out shopping with my parents around lunch time my dad would buy it for me and I would eat it with my fingers in the car!

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

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There was no post this morning because I still wasn’t hungry at breakfast time.  Instead I put away the laundry from last night, whoops!  Then we used the metro to head up to Adam’s campus.  I have to use the car to get to my classes so he will be taking the train most days.  He got some immunizations done and we got our parking passes.

At noon I was finally hungry so we tried out the Tim Horton’s across the street from campus.

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I know that this place is famous for coffee, but I was really wanting fountain diet coke!  I ordered a 6in whole wheat turkey sub.

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It was pretty so-so but the mustard was fabulous, it was really runny and sweet; does anyone know what kind this might have been?  I doubt we will be going back to Tim Horton’s much – we try not to eat a ton of fast food so if I’m going for it I’m going for Wendy’s! – but I did really like that they didn’t waste plastic.  Places with ‘for here plates’ always get points in my book.

Our meals came with doughnuts so I ate half of a maple glazed.

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I love maple (my mommy’s favorite flavor) so it was ok, but I still don’t see what all the fuss is about doughnuts.  Growing up on an island I don’t remember tasting one until college and I was thoroughly unimpressed. 

After lunch we took the metro back home and then walked to the hospital so I could get my TB test cleared.  I also spoke to the office about shortening my hours, looking at the husband’s schedule 4 was a little late for us.  Now I will be going from 8-2, Monday – Thursday, for the next three weeks.

We have more errands to run (post office, Goodwill, Target), so I will leave you with pictures of the new apartment, enjoy!

Bathroom –

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Bedroom –

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Office –

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Livingroom (/wierd extra space turned work out area) –

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Dining Room –

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Kitchen –

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What is your favorite room in your spot?  In this apartment mine is the dining room!

Flat to Flat-Line?

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Hello again.  I ate a HUGE unphotographed handful of peanuts before we set out on our run which made me rather thirsty.  Also, I think I’m wearing my heart rate monitor strap too tight – think corset tight – as it makes it hard for me to breathe.  Enough excuses: I am out of shape.  We did the same route as yesterday, 2miles in 20minutes.  Did I mention the route is flat as a third grader and I still wanted to die? 

I kept my monitor on through a cool-down walk and some floor work (stretching and 100sets of abs) and all total I did 335calories in 36minutes.

Afterwards we showered and did some laundry…which I still have to put away…and suddenly it was 8:30!  I am not feeling hungry at all so we decided to push making dinner back until tomorrow.  I made the husband soup leftovers, only heated and cheesed and he liked it a little better this time.  I ate a disgusting lack of veggies today so I tried to think low volume but calories plus greens, which lead to –

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This used two of my new favorite “damn I’m glad I bought that” products –

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1.5C of So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk and 1.5T of Chocolate Amazing Grass.  Yums.  I used a coupon from Jenna’s blog to buy the Grass a few weeks ago, which I why I got the fancy free shaker.

Now I’m playing online while I finish my grass and I’m planning on reading my book in bed once my teeth are brushed, night!

What is an easy way you include green in your diet?

New Things

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In a major change from our apartment in Brooklyn where it was stiflingly hot, I overslept this morning because I couldn’t sleep last night because I was too cold!  I will never complain about lower temperatures though, I can always add layers, in Brooklyn I would have had to peel off my skin!

In spite of my late start I’ve managed to get most of my to-do’s for the day completed.  We did a little bit more apartment organizing (almost done!) this morning and then I ate a juicy black plum before we headed out.

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We drove up to the North Campus of UB, my campus, today to get our id cards and it accounts.  The campus is a 20minute drive away which means I will have to be careful to schedule my commute around rush hours.  My class is all at night anyway though.  We needed money for the meter so we stopped at the campus Starbucks and I got an unsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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On the way home we stopped by the public library.  I can get a card yet because I have no mail addressed to me (you have to show proof of residency) but I am super excited to go back, it was HUGE!  They even had a Mark Twain room 🙂

Now that we are home I’ve been doing all my school/business things on the computer and eating a late snacky lunch.  First we cut into this bad boy (my hand is there to show the size) –

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This was a Crenshaw Melon.  I couldn’t really tell the difference taste/texturewise between this an a cantaloupe but it was fun to try something new.

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Ours was a little too ripe so I ended up throwing out part of my last slice, I think we will have to use the other half for smoothies.

Next I ate a low-fat cheese stick.

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And finally this –

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This beauty was

  • Stoneyfield YoKids Banilla low fat yogurt
  • 2t fat free ricotta
  • 1small banana
  • sprinkle of cinnamon

It was so tasty it even looked enticing when stirred to mush.

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In a bit we are going for a run (the same route as yesterday to see if maybe it doesn’t conquer me this time!) and then the plan for tonight is a low key dinner.  Lates!

What new fruits or veggies have YOU tried this summer?