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Challenge Check Ins

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February – Vegan Month Challenge

I’m not going to do the traditional recap; frankly, I’m not sure what to say.  This was our least successful vegan challenge to date.  We just weren’t in the right frame of mind to take on the challenge that month.  I was in a cooking rut and a perpetual bad mood.  But the one thing I know I can’t blame our failure on is lack of tasty vegan options.  The successful part of the challenge was the great new vegan recipes I’ve added to my repertoire.  Here are some of my new favorites –

Berry Better Than Spaghetti

Mushroom Umami Pasta Sauce

Peanut Butter Banana Pretzel Pie

Smokey Maple Baked Beans

Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole

Tropical Tapioca Pudding

And if you’re interested in my other vegan options, check out my newest recipe page!

March – “March Back Home,” No Take-out Challenge

March Back Home March is very similar to No Take-out ‘Tober.  Basically, our (crappy, unhealthy, expensive) food purchases have been out of control lately and we want to rein them back in.  Here are the rules –

  • no Wegman’s hot bar, period
  • no take-out; meals that are not cooked at home must be eaten in the restaurant setting
  • two predetermined restaurant meals are allowed per week
  • Adam is allowed to purchase a maximum of two coffees per week (at the hospital)
  • Emily is allowed to purchase a maximum of one drink per week; coffee, soda, juice or otherwise
  • the last week of March the rules won’t apply because my mom will be visiting for spring break!!!

I’m excited to get back in the kitchen.

Resolutions Check In: February

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Last night – I didn’t finish my work, but I did make a big dent.  We were up until midnight but it was only 8pm when I realized that dinner wasn’t going to cover it.  I started with a bowl of coconut barley (cooked in coconut milk with shredded coconut stirred in) with pb sauce.

But there was something off about the texture so instead I moved on to pizza.

Lots of pizza.  What?  It was the last hours of Vegan Month, on a leap year!  Plus we’d already cheated anyway.  This was our least successful Vegan Month to date.

This morning – was the start of successful month.  I blame coffee.

That’s a leftover cup (+ish) of Wegman’s Espresso Roast (<– love!) with 1 Tbsp English Toffee Syrup and 5 Tbsp Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.  I’m not done with my work, not even close, but I made another big dent.

Breakfast was soup.

Dr. McDougall’s Pad Thai Noodle Soup.

Not Pad Thai in the slightest (the flavor seemed more Spanish than Thai), but the texture and flavor were quite tasty.  It badly needed peanuts but sadly we don’t have any.

Happy March’ing everyone!

Resolutions Check In: February

2 months down.  February was not quite as successful as January.  I want to blame the Vegan Challenge, but honestly we failed at that too.  The good thing is that I feel more than ready to put my head down and work the rest of the year.

1. Workout a minimum of three times per week.

Fail.  I have no excuse, but I can only do better.

2. Continue to read at least one book a month, for a minimum total of 30 books this year.

10. 206 Bones – Kathy Reichs

11. Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah

12. Spider Bones – Kathy Reichs

Win.  3 books read this month for a total of 12 this year.  I’ve officially read every Temperance Brennan book currently available.

3. Put the time and effort into my school work that I can be proud of each week.

Middling.  I’m still on top of things but I slacked and I’m not necessarily proud of myself.

4. Continue working on being a positive person.

Fail/Win.  I decided in January that I needed to make more specific goals for each month so for February I said – “every time I get so mad I want to yell at Adam, I have to do three push-ups first.  And then I can yell!”  I only ended up doing push-ups once.  I forgot about them the times I was mad, but I did get mad a lot less often this month.

For March – stop eating take-out!  I’ll talk about this more later but getting creative in the kitchen helps keep me happy (and healthy!) so it’s a good goal for addressing positivity.

I Need A Plan

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I’m a girl who needs a plan. I am obsessed with my day planner. I make weekly meal plans in bed as I fall asleep. As you’ve seen, if my workouts don’t follow an exact schedule they tend not to happen.

That’s why, without a 10k in sight on the day planner, I’ve decided to follow this Couch to 10k Plan. Not because I’m signing up for a race, but because I hope it will get me back to the gym and back in my running groove. I decided to start at week 4 because I was reasonably certain that I could handle 2 minute spurts of running.

But I also need to follow the plan. I didn’t this morning and it cost me an hour of time and aggravation. I had three things to do in the morning – errands, moving my car, and my first CT10k workout – and the plan was to leave with Adam. But I had weird, vivid dreams all night and a 6:30am rousing made me feel like throwing up. I ended up waiting in bed until 8:50, getting up just in time to move my car. I drove to school, no spots. Went on one errand and back, no spots. It wasn’t until my third return to school that I finally found a place to park. Arrgh!

But my treadmill workout went great. Week 1.1 was 11 sets of 2 minutes running, 3 minutes walking. With warm up and cool down it came to 63 minutes and 4.5+ miles. I don’t know the exact distance because a guy walked by and kicked the plug out of my machine just as I was finishing up.

The rest of my morning/afternoon involved a lot of hurrying to get to class on time and not a lot of feeding myself.  Whoops.  After class I had a mock interview to go to.  The interview was required for a class assignment but I’m really glad to have the experience.  It was video-taped (holy crap, that zit on my chin!) and getting to actually see myself in action was helpful.  My interviewer said I was great, by the way.  Woot!

Then Adam picked me up and this happened –

Hello, lover.  Going two weeks without diet soda wasn’t impossible but it wasn’t fun either.

But while we were at 7-11 something scary happened too.  A major head-on collision right across the street, complete with fire and explosions.  Adam run over to help and I’m not going to lie, it was kind of sexy to see him in action.  (<– I can say that now because everyone involved was ok)

Adam reeked of smoke and I hadn’t eaten all day so we told ourselves we were in shock and headed out for Thai food.  Such a good decision!  And they must have still had lunch pricing going because it was super cheap too.

The husband and I split two dishes, pretty much equally.  Cashew nut tofu, which came with rice.

And Pad See Ew, without egg.

Both dishes were great.  You seriously can’t go wrong with broad rice noodles.  Both dishes were sadly lacking in veggies though, and I was glad that this meal was “lunch” and not “dinner” so I could squeeze more produce into my day later on.

Several hours and some school work afer my late lunch, it was time for late dinner.

I had a baked potato topped with Smokey Maple Baked Beans.

And a side of roasted green beans.

Much better.

Have you ever witnessed a scary car accident?

Let It All Out

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Question first – What is currently stressing you out?  Think about it and really let it out in the comments, you’ll feel (a little) better!

I want to apologize for the on-again-off-again blogging schedule of late.  I also want to be honest with you guys about the fact that I’m having a hard time.  There’s not necessarily one big thing that’s bothering me, but there are a lot of little things that are adding up.  I am 80% sure that I believe in fate, and I am 110% that I believe that any seemingly negative thing you go through leads you to a better place.  But it’s still hard not to get a little freaked out by all the questions I have about the future.

Where will we have to move for Adam’s residency?  What if Adam doesn’t get a residency?  What if Adam’s chosen career means he’s away all the time and I’m lonely?  Should we have kids?  When should we have kids?  Should I get pregnant next year so if that I don’t get a job right away when we move I’ll get to be home with the kid until it’s all sorted out?  Should I wait to have kids until I’m established in my job?  How do women with full-time jobs breast feed?  How do you make an impression at your job if you excuse yourself every hour to pump and are also already 28 years old and starting out in a brand new field?  What if I can’t find a job?  What if the career path I’m on isn’t the one I want?  What do I want to do with my life?

And to be honest, the above questions are only a snapshot of all the things I’ve been worrying about.  It’s hard not to feel a little defeated when I can’t do anything proactive (at the moment) to answer those questions.  Sometimes you just have to have hope/faith/optimism and wait it out.

Sometimes – like last night – you have to eat a veggie sub and a bucket of french fries and sit on the couch watching old episodes of “Family Guy.”  But then the next morning you have to do your hair and put on your comfy-yet-sexy shoes.

So that’s what I did!

And in my comfy-yet-sexy shoes, I drove to school early and made my way through a big stack of school work.  I haven’t stopped working since, and bit by bit, I haven’t stopped feeling a little better, a little more in control.

The theme for my meals today was – late.  Breakfast was at 10, lunch was at 5, and dinner was at 9.  My late breakfast was eaten in the computer lab while I worked.

Holy frick I love reusing containers so much  I over-served Adam’s lunches for this week so that reused cheese container held a half serving he’d left behind.  In the mix was penne pasta, roasted zucchini and yellow squash, sautéed mushrooms, spinach, diced tomatoes, marinara sauce, and a drizzle of olive oil.

It was yumtastic; I’ve been a good wife this week!

Also helping me get back my happy, clinic went really well this afternoon.  We are starting to do SOAP notes and learning more about what RDs actually do helps a lot to relieve my anxiety.  Plus, I screened patient who agreed to do another round of diabetic diet education.  I can’t really say much about clinic (thanks HIPPA), but so far all of my patients have been really nice.

When we got back to campus it was time for late lunch.

Not cottage cheese*, another reusable.  *I may not have been eating a very healthy diet lately but I have been sticking to the vegan challenge at least.  And no soda for another 3 days either.

In the container were leftovers from Monday’s dinner; brown rice, roasted broccoli, and Asian Orange Tofu Bake.

Continuing the citrus theme, I had a navel orange.

And a piece of dark chocolate for dessert.

When we got out of class at 8 I drove a friend home and then hurried to make dinner.

Purple grapes.

And a Sandwich Thin with mustard, roasted garlic hummus, and 4 oz of raw tempeh.

I wasn’t expecting much but this sandwich was goo-ood.

This post took me awhile to write, but it felt good to put it all out there.  Thanks for “listening,” seriously.  I’ve got a low-sodium diet education presentation tomorrow and I’m still riding a productivity high so I’ll probably burn the midnight oil today.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Jordan Almond Cookies For Dad

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Who’s got Valentine’s gifts on the brain?  When you think about the people you love, it’s important to think about the things that they love.  Who you love, what they love; got it?  Good.

One of the people I love is my dad.  One of the things he loves is Jordan almonds.  He’s passed this love on to me, and we both know exactly what to look for in a good Jordan almond – thick but slightly soft shell on a crunchy almond – and where to look for them – the “foreign” section of grocery stores, specialty markets, and the occasional wedding.

My dad also likes gum. He particularly enjoys those huge gum balls that give you a headache within a minute of popping them into your mouth.  And since I like my dad – and particularly like the fact that he doesn’t have to come live with us so we can puree all of his meals in a blender – I’d like to keep his jaw intact.  So when Oh!Nuts offered to send me some Valentine Jordan Almonds, I tried to think of a way to serve them that didn’t involve chomping.

Jordan Almond Cookies, makes 36 cookies

{loosely adopted from Nestle’s chocolate chip cookie recipe}

  • 1 cup Jordan almonds
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1.5 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  1. Preheat oven to 350*.  Prepare baking sheets with cooking spray.
  2. Pour Jordan almonds into the bowl of your food processor and process for 1 minute.  Pick out any large chunks that remain and set processed almonds aside.
  3. In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together butter and sugars.
  4. Beat in egg and almond extract.
  5. Stir flour, salt, and baking powder into the dough.
  6. Fold processed almond into the dough.
  7. Roll scant Tbsp-sized pieces of dough into balls and place in evenly spaced rows on prepared baking sheets.
  8. Bake 12 – 14 minutes.  Cookies will not brown, but the tops should become slightly firm to the touch.

Dad, a package is in the mail for you, be on the lookout.  I love you guys!

I used Oh!Nuts Valentine Jordan Almonds for this recipe.  Jordan almonds were provided to me free of charge.

11 Things

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I typically don’t do memes like this but one of my good blog friends, Teacher Girl, tagged me and I just couldn’t resist.  Plus, it’s nice to have a little prewritten content for my looong school day.  I’ll be back tomorrow.

The Rules

You must post these rules.
Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.
Go to their page and tell them you linked him or her.
No tag backs.
No stuff in the tagging section about “you are tagged if you are reading this.” You have to legitimately tag 11 people.

11 Things About Me

I’m going to assume that I have gotten at least a few new readers over the past year or so and I’m going to stick with the basics.  I apologize if these are redundant for any of you!

1.  I was born and raised in the US Virgin Islands, on the Island of St. Thomas.

2.  In the VI, I learned how to drive on the LEFT side of the road.  When I moved to Miami for college and started driving in the states, I had to chant “right is right, right is right” every time I made a turn.

3.  On my sixteenth birthday, I was the first person under-18 to sky dive in the state of Pennsylvania.

4.  I have two tattoos.  A star next to my left hip and a tramp stamp in the outline of a bow.  Both are tiny.

5.  I drew the outline for my bow tattoo myself.  I went in with an idea of what I wanted and when I couldn’t find it in the books at the shop, I quickly drew an example.  I thought my drawing was pretty good and I ended up just using that!

6.  When I’m at home, I’m naked more often than not.

7.  When I was in high school, “Dirty Dancing” played on TBS all of the time.  I fell in love and watched it every time I could, at least 10 viewings in one year.

8.  Because of my love for it, a friend rented “Dirty Dancing” to play at a sleep-over.  As we watched I mouthed along with the dialogue until … we got to a sex scene I had never seen.  I didn’t know that TBS showed an edited version and I’d never seen the full movie!

9.  My celebrity meetings (ie I spoke to them for at least 45 seconds or more) include Mariska Hargitay, Dave Chapelle, and Keanu Reeves.  Keanu Reeves and I actually spoke for 10 minutes or so; when he was shooting “Henry’s Crime” here in Buffalo one of my friends was the liaison between the movie crew and the bank they used for the big scenes.

10.  When I was in 5th grade I went through a major Doc Martins phase.  On an island.  It wasn’t pretty.

11.  When I was a kid, President Bill Clinton drove past our house.  One of the cars in his entourage had to stop because they almost ran over our dog!

TG’s Questions

1. If you could be any character from a book, who would you be and why?

Temperance Brennan from Kathy Reichs’ novels because she is a bad-ass forensic anthropologist (one of my dream careers!).

2. If you were going to move anywhere in the world, where would it be?

In the summer of 2013 I am going to move to                                 , because that is where Adam will be matched for his residency.  If I have my druthers, that blank will be filled in with Miami or Brooklyn.

3. What is something embarrassing that happened to you that you now think is funny?

Last semester, in the middle of a class I spilled a full cup of diet coke.  The cup went flying straight into my friend Kim’s purse!  Thankfully nothing really spilled and her stuff was alright, but my face was so red!

4. What do you do when you have “nothing to do?”

Blog read.  And spend time on Pinterest!

5. What was the last book you read?

One of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels.

6. What are the top 5 songs on your playlist right now?

  1. Sexy and I Know It – LMFAO
  2. Soldier – Ingrid Michaelson
  3. Fearless – Cyndi Lauper
  4. Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living) – The Eels
  5. New Slang – The Shins

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

10 pairs of sandals (all Ginger style Reefs), 3 pairs of heels, 12 pairs of flats, 5 pairs of sneakers (including running shoes, Vans, and KangaROOs), and 4 pairs of boots (that includes children’s snow boots and rain boots).  Yikes, that sounds like a lot!  But 99% of them are 6 years old or older.

8. Never have I ever…

Gone streaking.

9. If _____ showed up at my door…

If President Obama showed up at my door, I’d be sure to keep a close eye on Webster!

10. What is something you are afraid of?

Dark parking lots.  If I have to walk to my car alone at night I leap into the front seat so that a creeper hiding beneath my car won’t have time to grab my feet.  And then I thoroughly check the back seat.

11. Tell me something wonderful that happened to you this week (or month, ya know, if it has been a bad week).

We started Vegan Month on Wednesday and I am so excited that the husband is taking the challenge with me.

People I’m Tagging

  1. Food, Sweat, and Beers
  2. Fitness NYC
  3. Meals and Moves
  4. Please Don’t Weigh Me At The Zoo
  5. Bran Appetit
  6. Table for Glasses
  7. Yes, I Want Cake
  8. Turn Towards The Sun
  9. Accidentally Vegan
  10. A Taste of Confidence
  11. The Frozen Pineapple

My Questions to You

1.  You can fly anywhere in the world to eat one item of food.  Where do you go and what do you eat?

2.  How many songs are in your i-Tunes library?

3.  How many states have you lived in?  How many have you visited?

4.  If you could be any TV character, who would you be and why?

5.  If you had to change careers tomorrow, what new job would you want to do?

6.  If you had to pick one food to give up for the rest of your life what would you pick?  What would you pick to have to eat every day for the rest of your life?

7.  How many blogs are in your GoogleReader?

8.  How many children do you want to have?  How many siblings did you grow up with?

9.  (If tv was still good…) would you rather be on Real World or Road Rules?  Why?

10.  Which fashion/hair/make-up trend did you participate in that you wish you’d skipped?

11.  What physical attribute do you love most about yourself?

Readers – pick one or two of my questions to answer in the comments section!

Vegan Month Challenge

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Ugh.  Today was day 3 of no diet soda and I’m seriously cranky.  Also, when I woke up there was no food in the house (vegan or otherwise) and I’ve been starving all day.  It was one of those situations where I waited so long to eat that I never got full, even now.  Oh, oh, oh!  And I’m annoyed because I have projects I want to start and we haven’t been given all of the information that we need yet.  Okay, I think that’s it for the complaints!

Breakfast was a smoothie.

I found this Vega Tropical Tango smoothie mix (HLS sample) in the cupboard and blended it with 1 cup of orange juice and 7 oz of frozen soursop pulp.

It tasted better than it looked.

My classes went well, though I was cranky the entire time.  Thinking about my newest reason to love Kristen Bell helped.  I made sure to run to Wegmans for an emergency grocery stock-up the minute class was over!

I ate this handful of peanuts x 3 when I got home.

Dinner was stir fry.

We stir fried a bunch of veggies – frozen brocoli/carrot/cauliflower mix, plus more frozen broccoli, plus canned stir fry mushrooms, and canned baby corn – with stir fry sauce and topped with a few toasted cashews.

Tasty, but it didn’t even make a dent in my hunger.

Next I had a huge (2 cups, aka 2 servings) bowl of Wegman’s Berry Corn Crunch Cereal with Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk.

And a huge spoonful of Dark Chocolate Dreams pb.

And now I’m going to go have some popcorn.  I swear that all of vegan month won’t be like this, it’s just that I waited to long to eat and I let my hunger get out of control!

February = Vegan Month Challenge

We’ve done this so many times now that this announcement feels like it doesn’t require much fanfare.

During February of 2012, Adam and I will be doing a 1-month vegan challenge.  No eggs, no dairy, no meat, no honey, and no products containing any of the aforementioned.  No, we didn’t choose February because it’s the shortest month.  Yes, we are excited.

Over the years I’ve done three different challenge introductions and three different challenge recaps (see the links above) on my blog and I feel like there’s no new way to explain why we are choosing to do this.  Basically –

While I think a vegan diet can be healthy for some individuals, I don’t think it is healthy long-term for everyone.
I think that everyone can be healthier if their diet includes more vegan meals and less meat.
Adam and I have both been in a healthy diet rut recently and a month of vegan meals will force us to spend some time with vegetables again.
1 month is a good way to remind myself that not every dish needs cheese.

Would any omnivores be interested in joining me for the month?

Resolutions Check In: January

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Yoga did not happen, but it didn’t happen by choice.  When I got in bed last night (later than desired but still not all that late) I was so tired I thought I was going to pass out.  My last conscious act was switching my alarm to 8:30 am instead.  It was a good call; those three extra hours were a godsend and I woke up feeling well-rested.

Since a 9 am breakfast feels late now, and lunch doesn’t happen on Tuesdays anyway, for my first meal I had lunch.

This Stoffers Cheesy Chicken Brocoli and Rice Bake was pretty good.

A little too much cheese though.

New Year’s Resolutions Check In: January

A month has passed!  Let’s see how I’ve done on my goals.

1. Workout a minimum of three times per week.

Fail.  But I think this one will get easier now that I’ve got a school schedule to help guide my time.

2. Continue to read at least one book a month, for a minimum total of 30 books this year.

1. Death Du Jour – Kathy Reichs  (f)

2. Deadly Decisions  – Kathy Reichs  (f)

3. Fatal Voyage – Kathy Reichs  (f)

4. Grave Secrets – Kathy Reichs  (f)

5. Bare Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

6. Monday Mourning – Kathy Reichs  (f)

7. Cross Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

8. Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

9. Bones to Ashes – Kath Reichs  (f)

Win.  9 books read this month for a total of 9 this year.  I doubt I’ll be able to spend this much time reading in the coming months, but it sure was fun.

3. Put the time and effort into my school work that I can be proud of each week.

Win.  As of today I’m up-to-date or ahead of the game on everything.

4. Continue working on being a positive person.

N/a.  I need to find more specific ways to benchmark this.  I think for February my goal is – every time I get so mad I want to yell at Adam, I have to do three push-ups first.  And then I can yell!

How are you doing on your NYE resolutions?