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Friday Afternoon – Saturday Afternoon

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Well, I am still enjoying my vacation.  How are you enjoying your weekend?  After my last post the husband and I headed to a local favorite for some lunch.

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If you ever visit St. Thomas, Shipwreck is actually a bit overpriced, but we had a coupon.  I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sub, which came with fries.

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Spicy buffalo chicken tenders with pepperjack cheese and blue cheese dressing, count me in!

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I let Adam eat 90% of my fries but I demolished my sandwich.  I have a serious weakness for buffalo chicken sandwiches (good thing I’m moving to Buffalo NY, eh?).  In general I am able to make healthy choices at restaurants, except when I am choosing to indulge, but no matter what my intentions I am powerless when I see this option!  The annoying thing is that it doesn’t even have to be so unhealthy – I would probably like it better with grilled chicken!  My problem in recreating them is that I’ve yet to find a sauce that tastes like “buffalo” to me.  Any suggestions?

After lunch we headed home for some showers.  Adam spent the rest of the afternoon playing chess with my dad but I drove back to school to do some work.  I spent 4 – 5:30 doing chemistry studying.

Next the family headed out for a fun dinner at Enkai, a new sushi spot.  It was right on the water so husband and I posed for some pictures.

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I love my hometown (duh, it’s an island!) but I had to do some Brooklyn representing!

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The restaurant was super cute,

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I love it when tablescapes are mismatched.  But the lighting was really dim so my pictures are all terrible.  I also have zero description because I couldn’t take my usual close-ups of the menu descriptions.  We started with some edame,

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which I pretty much polished off by myself, sorry guys!

My parents don’t really eat real sushi, as raw as they get is smoked salmon (because they are used to lox and bagels) so we stuck to tempora shrimp, lobster, crab sticks, and smoked salmon.  My mom dad and I split 4 rolls,

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here are my pieces –

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Everything was delicious!  When I looked at my camera later I realized I only ate 11pieces (aka 1.5rolls), no wonder I was still a little hungry.

After sushi fun we came home for more games 🙂 We are definitely trying to rope my parents into playing at least one game a day while we are here.  I made my mommy and I frozen coffees (4C cold, strong, coffee; 1tray ice cubes; 1/2C skim milk; 3/4C coffee chip ice-cream) while we played.

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They weren’t all that sweet, but they were super icy – perfection.  I also ate 3 more chocolate chip cookies.

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I’ve decided I’m done with the cookies, I physically cannot stick to just one.

After game time Adam and I headed out to meet up with some high school friends at Mojos, a new bar.  They had some good drink specials so I got a $2 strawberry mojito.

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I was driving so after that I stuck with small sips of the husband’s Cruzan Dark with Cokes.  We stayed out past 2 though so by the end of the night not drinking I had eaten most of this pack of Newman’s Own Organic mints.

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Peppermint tummyache was more than worth the good time we had with our friends though.

Saturday – dining delight

Our late homecoming only slightly effected our wake up this morning, we made it out the door before 8:30.  We had plans to meet some friends for lunch and I wanted to get some studying done so we decided to park ourselves at my favorite spot on earth – Barefoot Buddha Cafe.  We timed it so we could have both breakfast and lunch there, it is that good!

For breakfast I ordered the Bigfoot Bagel.

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Holy frick, I cannot even describe how good this is!  It has turkey bacon, egg whites, tomato coulis, spinach, aioli…..drool. 

We ate breakfast around 8:45 and then I spent 9 – 12 deep in chemistry.  When it was time to come up for air our lunch date had arrived.

I was in the mood for hot coffee so I ordered a vodoo latte; it has espresso and coconut milk.

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It was gorgeous, look at the heart –

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And for food I got a sweet potato wrap.

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It had sweet potato, chipotle sauce, goat cheese, and was pretty fantastic.  Not as good as my breakfast but pretty damn close!

After lunch we ran some errands with my mommy and at some point it seemed like a good idea to go to Wendy’s for a cookie dough twisted frosty.  {for which I magically seem to have no picture} This put me over the edge fullnesswise.  Looking back on this post there has been a lot of indulging in the last two days (I feel like that’s been the norm these last few months, that is good for fun times but not as a norm!).  I want to assume that it’s time for some leafy greens and light choices but being realistic we are headed to a fancy French spot tonight and I don’t see that happening.  Tomorrow (maybe!).

We will probably meet up with friends again after our French dinner but I’m not sure what the plan for tomorrow is.  Just in case anyone is wondering about the lack of beach time I wanted to address that: even though I grew up on an island I do love the beach, it is gorgeous even if you’ve seen it a billion times.  However, I am very careful with my skin – growing up on an island means even without tanning I’ve already had way too much sun exposure – so I don’t tend to calmor for the beach.  And right before this trip my husband had an abnormal mole removed from his back so for now I’d mostly rather keep him out of the sun.  How do you take care of your skin?

I was born and raised in St. Thomas, here are some fun facts about my island childhood –

  1. Down here we drive typical American cars (steering wheel on the left side) but we drive on the left side of the road.  The first time I had to drive on the right in the states it was pretty scary for me!
  2. I graduated from a private prep school in a class of 40.  I was very fortunate to be at private school (my mom is a teacher so we had tuition credits) because the year I graduated all of the local public schools were deemed non-accredited.
  3. I am a US citizen, but I can never run for president.  People born in commonwealths or US military bases outside of the US can, but people born in territories can not.
  4. Similarly, I could not vote in a presidential election until I established residency in the continental US.
  5. (Partly due to the lack of voting rights and partly because of the lack of highways) Even though we are a part of the US the drinking age here is 18 years old!!!

What are some fun facts about your hometown?

Nooners

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My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning and Adam and I slept in until noon!  It is clear that we are on summer vacay?  As exciting as our late start was, it pushed the whole day back and made everything rushed (still worth it though, it was a happy mistake!).  Art imitates life, and this post will be a little rushed as well.  [Note – as I reread to proofread this post it actually is pretty long, ya me]

After getting out of bed (at noon!) I made some Buffalo business calls and then hurried to Starbucks to meet a former coworker for a study date.  I did brunch from Starbucks, a reduced fat breakfast sandwich with egg whites and turkey bacon.

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This wasn’t bad (and it wasn’t expensive, less than $4) but it wasn’t as good as the wrap from the other day.  I had it with a grandeunsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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Ms. N and I studied from 1:30 – 4:30; she is taking the MCAT soon so she’s doing sciences as well.

After my study date I met the husband for some errands and a walk (2.2miles roundtrip) to Atlantic Center.  We had to spend outside of our budget, pulling out the credit card instead of our weekly $200, but there were some items I’ve needed for forever –

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– bras, underwear, and yoga mats!  I have a very unattractive habit of sticking my hand down the front of my top to pull at my uncomfortable older bras so Adam was more than happy to get me some new ones!  I’ve never owned a yoga mat (I got two b/c the cheap ones were so cheap it made more sense to buy two and layer) before but my floorworkfrom the 10minute strength challenge is killing my knee and back bones!

After we walked home I tucked into a Yoplait Fat Free pineapple upsidedown cake yogurt.

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Then I did my packing for tomorrow, we are not leaving the house until after 1pm tomorrow and I am so proud of myself that I packed today – in college I would have flights home for which the car service would pick me up at 5am and I wouldn’t start packing until 4:50am!  All total we have more than 18hours (via bus and car) on the road this weekend so I had to pack reading materials and snacks for the husband and myself.

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I also half-wrapped my niece’s 4th birthday gift –

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We got her two Raggedy Anne books with a Raggedy Anne doll and some candy hearts (one of the books is about how she gets her candy heart).  My brother-in-law makes a big fuss about how “books are for suckers” so I’ve gotten his daughter a book for every single present we’ve given her!  We always do a book and an accompanying doll and it’s become a good tradition.

We are pretty much out of food so I had the world’s lamest dinner, a cup of CambellsChicken and Egg Noodle soup withsome oyster crackers from when I had soup at a restaurant a month or so ago (I thought of you when I took them Sarah!).

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The soup was pretty terrible, it had a strong, strange herb flavor so I ended up adding Saltines too to help cover the flavor.

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While I ate I worked on some applications for Buffalo things.  After dinner I took a walk with the husband to drop off the mail, I was still a little hungry from my small dinner but the walk helped subdue my stomach.

I couldn’t commit to 10minutes of strength training but I took breaks while writing this post and completed 100reps of arm exercises with my 5lb weights and held one 60second plank.

FYI – This will be my last post until tomorrow evening, we are going on a short vacation!  We are leaving tomorrow to visit Adam’s sister in PA and then traveling with her to VA to meet up with all the rest of the in-laws.  It’s a pretty quick trip, we come home Monday, but it should be fun.  I’ll see you when we get there!

What kind of gifts do you give to youngin’s?  I’ve become a big fan of the book/doll combo, it encourages reading and the doll is more meaningful when connected with a favorite story.  I’ve given our niece The Hungry Caterpillar with a stuffed caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See? with a teddy bear, and more.

Sweet, Spicy, Sesame, Tangy

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After the morning my day got pretty crazy; I’m glad I got my work-out in early!  Before my shower I scarfed the other 2/3 of my Cliff Bar.

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This had too much sugar to be a regular choice but it was very tasty.

My next course of action was to do some planning for my classes next year – I am attending a university in Buffalo as a non-degree seeking student so that I can complete some prerequisite courses for PA and RD programs.  The plan is to work part-time, volunteer (which I still need to figure out), and take classes.  As a non-degree I can’t officially register for classes until August 1st.  Well, when I went to look at the course offerings today to make a rough schedule I found out that almost every class I need is already full; by August 1st I doubt I will be able to enroll in anything!  I wigged out and cried for a good 10minutes before the husband convinced me that I just had to suck it up.  If I can’t take classes in the fall it will suck and I’ll be sad but I don’t have any control over that situation.  If I can’t take any courses I will have to work full-time, which will help us save money, and get my nutritionist certification, which I am interested in and excited about.  I’m scared that this could push back my loooooong journey towards a new career but I’ve got to roll with the punches.

After I pulled myself together I ate 1/2 of this (small) container of stir fry leftovers.

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Then we packed up our cart and headed to the post office.  The postal service in this (expensive!) neighborhood is shockingly bad, I’ve never been in when there wasn’t a line out the door.  Whether rain, snow, sleet, or long waits, nothing could stop our errands so we prevailed.

During the trip I drank this My Smoothie juice box.

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I knocked out two servings of fruit with this, woot!

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Finally, it was time to head to *bucks to get my study on.  I went with economics to choose my snack –

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an iced coffee (I added my own skim milk) and a rice-crispie bar were my cheapest choice at $4 and 300calories.  I studied from 3 – 7 straight, another woot!

My husband is the nicest man on earth so he did my laundry for me while I was studying, when I got home all I had to do was fold and hang 🙂  Post-laundry I started watching a riveting episode of Bones, I am so hooked on that show!  I paused during a commercial to eat a Yoplait Light and Fit strawberry shortcake yogurt.

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I’m not going to be able to afford Fage and Oikos as much next year (Greek yogurt doesn’t really fit into a budget unless you find a sale) but I think I’ll be a-ok with all these Yoplait Light varieties.

During a later commercial I ate my green veggie from dinner as an appetizer – Spicy Sesame Beans.

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I had a bag of mixed beans and carrots in my freezer that I heated in a skillet with a little evoo.  I topped my portion with a dab more evoo, some wasabi sesame seeds, and some red pepper flakes.

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Spicy spicy!

After my socks were fully rocked off by Bones we got started on dinner.  I received a package from Nakano with coupons and recipes yesterday so I used that for inspiration.

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I will say though, my chicken recipe was clearly all mine own – Apple Pretzel Chicken, 3servings

  • 1/2C Stonewall Kitchen caramel apple butter
  • 3T Nanako rice vinegar
  • 1C Newman’s Own Mighty Mini Pretzels, crushed
  • 1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
  1. Preheat oven to 375* and prep a baking sheet with foil and spray.
  2. Mix apple butter and vinegar in a low bowl and pour pretzel crumbs into another low bowl.
  3. Drudge chicken through wet and then dry bowls.
  4. Cook for 30minutes.

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I took a pretty small portion but it was delish, the perfect mix of salty and sweet!

For my side dish I tried to follow a recipe a little bit,

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but still but a pretty big twist on it.  Not only was I missing several ingredients, the original recipe called for (regular) potatoes with the skins peeled off.  I never follow that step in any recipe, why would I spend cooking time making something less healthy by peeling away fiber?  What I ended up with was Tangy Stovetop Sweet Potatoes, 2servings

  • 1large sweet potato, cubed  [note, I think I actually used a yam but that didn’t fit with my title alliteration]
  • 1/3C Nanako rice vinegar
  • 3T water
  1. Heat 2T evoo over medium heat in a skillet.
  2. Add potato cubes to the pan and cook for 5-7minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up and brown bits.
  3. Season with salt and paprika.
  4. Pour vinegar and water into the pan and cook until all the liquid is gone.

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Yums!  Here was my plate:

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Before you get all judgey about the expanse of brown, remember that I ate my greens as an appetizer 🙂

My internet is ridiculous so this post took forever but there are still some to-dos left on the list for the night – 1) brush my teeth asap so I can put my retainers in to get some of the intense pain out of the way before sleep time (my braces experience was so ridiculous I can’t even get into it, but suffice to say I stopped sleeping in my retainers in college and now my perfect teeth are going crooked).  2) tuck into my stack of magazines……I didn’t say they weren’t fun to dos!  Sweet dreams all.

Do you ever peel fruits or veggies?  Why or why not?  Other than kiwis – which many bloggers actually down fur and all – I enjoy the tasty fiber whenever it’s available.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

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Hi again, Merry Monday everyone!  Post-post (that prefix use made me smile) I spent the morning helping Adam fill out some scholarship applications.  I also took care of some general business around the house room.  The thing I am most looking forward to in the move is having more than one room; sleeping, eating, and working in the same place end up making the work space feel hard to work in and the sleep space hard to sleep in.

I also did 10minutes of strength training.  I’ve decided to do Caitlin and Kath‘s 10minute challenge, so I’ll be doing (at minimum) 10minutes of strength training every day.  The fact that this 10minute set (click the link to their sites to see it) made me sweat is all the more incentive to turn it into a routine.

After my shower we rounded up some coupons and headed to the grocery store.

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Between keeping the coupons Key Foods prints at the register, getting offers through the blog, and tearing coupons from magazines, we have saved some good $ this year.  One of the hardest things about next year will be working part time (and right now I don’t even know where I will be able to find a job) and living on Adam’s med school loans, there will be a big lack of cash flow.  We have already begun to budget though, we made a list of all of our monthly expenses, though right now we can only estimate some of them.  For now, the plan is to have $200 a week (that’s $100 a piece) for food and fun.  Monthly expenses like rent, internet, etc will be paid by credit card (we always pay on time and I like the miles) and things like textbooks and prescription drugs will not be taken out of our weekly cash.  But everything else – groceries, movies, magazines – will have to come out of that $200.  Parts of it sound rough but I am looking forward to the challenge.  I will acknowledge that both of our families have very generously offered to help us with some expenses, I’m not going to begin to pretend that I know what it’s like to be a family that actually struggles.  What does your family do to budget?

After the grocery I went all fancy and utilized my Easy Mac for lunch.

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I went *extra fancy* and added 2 chopped hotdogs to it.

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Check out the impressive nutritional stats on these TJ’s Spicy Jalopeno Chicken Sausages:

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Together they made a tasty treat.

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I was feeling snazzy with my classy lunch so I used a pretty bowl.

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And I way spiced it up; it addition to jalopeno sausages I added red pepper flakes and Chipotle Tabasco, look  at that spice!

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I kept the hot party in my mouth to a dull roar by drinking milk on the side.

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It’s pink because I used my last CIB (sugar free strawberry) packet it it, who-woo I can finally open my fun package 🙂

After that husband and I went up to the city for my doctor’s appointment.  After a long waiting room visit and a quick office visit we took a long walk around Times Square.  The thing I’m most sad about with the move will be walking away from how much we get to walk here in nyc.

I have a very low-key evening planned but it does include making dinner, I’ll be back with that lata!

Back to Business

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First things first, in numerical order:

  1. I hope everyone had a fabulous July 4th!  I did not post because I spent the entire weekend in bed; as excited as I am about the big move, it is possible that the stress of having no idea what I will be doing next year is getting to me.
  2. As promised, I chose a winner for my Flogg giveaway at noon on Saturday.  I used a random integer generator to get –

The new blog looks/sounds great!

I don’t reeeeally keep an organized journal, but occassionally i tally my food and/or exercise in the margins of my notebooks. Especially when i am bored at work during meetings. I think it is helpful for really ascertaining my daily intake/outgo (outtake?).

So, Joanna, please e-mail me your address so I can send you your prize!

Now today, per usual, I am behind schedule.  Right now I am so stressed that I end up falling behind schedule, and then I’m stressed that I am behind schedule, and then that additional stress causes me to make more mistakes, and so on and so on.  I’m like the tippler from The Little Prince!  My goal for today is to remain calm.  So I’m posting the following to-do list as more of a “hope” than a “plan.”

Goals for the day

  • quickie workout
  • 3+ hours of chemistry studying
  • doctor’s appointment at 4:30 (I guess this one is just straight scheduled)
  • load of laundry
  • set up my boxes for the post-office tomorrow
  • make a nutritious dinner

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Good News

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We got some good news this morning which means I am finally ready to share my news with you guys – we got accepted for an apartment in Buffalo, New York.  We are moving to Buffalo (to an actual apartment, not a studio, yays!) on August 1st.  Adam is going to be attending medical school at Buffalo University.  I am going to be taking science prereqs, hopefully, and looking into RD and PA programs for fall of 2010.  I am still not sure what my work situation will be, but I am trying not to stress.  We are so excited.

Anyways, I will be spending July doing lots and lots of studying to prepare.  After breakfast this morning I headed down to Starbucks to get my study on.

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I drank a grande nonfat ice caramel machiatto while I worked.  P.S. I always order these (although I don’t order them often) with 1/2 the pumps of vanilla so they aren’t sooooo sweet. 

I worked from 10:30 – 2:30 when it was time to go to the doctor’s office.  I had a yearly check up but I ended up having to wait for 1.5hours in the waiting room!!!  It was ok though, I got to do more reading in my Chemistry for Dummies book.

When I got home it was after 5 and I quickly got sucked in to 3hours of Bones.  I know it’s bad, but I am obsessed.  I was doing some random snacking, including 2 unphotograhed servings of Newman’s Own Organics Spelt Pretzels, so I knew I needed my make myself an actual plate.

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Green grapes, 1serving of TJ’s sliced Asiago, and some baby carrot butts from a salad I made for tomorrow.

Around 8:30 the husband and I set out for a quick run.  We did two miles again (sticking with my training schedule).  I had to walk the last three blocks because my right ankle hurt but I think that was because it was slippery from rain so I’m not too worried.

When I got home I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, I guess my snack plate became dinner, so I made this.

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Unsweetened vanilla almond milk with chocolate no sugar added CIB was a much better mix,

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I gulped this down.

I have to shower and then I’m going to snuggle up with Adam in bed to continue to discuss some move logistics.  Nighty night.

Where all have you lived?  Buffalo will be my 4th city, I was born in St. Thomas, went to college in Miami, and worked in NYC for the last two years.

I Didn’t Have to Go to School Today

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The title doesn’t really relate to anything, I’m just still excited about it 🙂

My parents really wore us out, we stayed in bed until 11am getting our sleep on!  When I did finally wake up I had a killer headache that knocked me back into bed for most of the day.  When I did finally get up we had no food so breakfast/lunch was this –

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I ate one row of this Riter Sport bar.

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I took care of some business and did some cleaning and then Adam and I headed to Trader Joe’s to fix the food situation.  I needed to eat something so I made a cup of this before I left.

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Vanilla hempmilk and No Sugar Added Strawberry CIB are a bad combo, lesson learned.

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I choked it down (with a fish oil pill) but I did not enjoy it.

We had a great time at Trader Joe’s but it took forever.  We went to Staples first so I could redeem a coupon and then we did some serious aisle wandering.  I was starving by the time we got home.  I ate this Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy Yogurt in cherry cobbler.

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Yums!  This is a 100calorie product that I am 100% behind.  I found this on a big sale the other day so expect to see a lot of them!  I also ate a serving of this TJ’s sliced Asiago cheese.

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Next we headed out for an easy run.  We did 2miles around the ‘hood.  My goal for June is to get back into running.  Here is my training schedule – I will do 3-4 runs per week

  • week 1 – 2miles
  • week2 – 3miles
  • week3 – 3.5miles
  • week4 – 4miles
  • week5 – 4.5miles

I have really bad joints so I’m forcing myself to really take it easy and be careful with them.

When we got home we got right down to dinner.  I ate a serving of these Newman’s Own Organics Spelt Pretzels.

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These are so tasty, they are my favorite type of pretzel.

Dinner was quick, easy, and delicious.  We threw together these ingredients in under 15minutes.

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We cooked the mac following the box directions and added 1.5C of frozen artichoke hearts in the last 3minutes.  After draining the pasta we stirred in the cheese powder and 1can of boneless skinless tuna.  I ignored the directions at that point, skipping the milk entirely and subbing evoo for butter. 

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Finally I topped my serving with 1.5T seasoned bread crumbs, 1T goat cheese, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

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This was so satisfying and delicious, I even made a recipe page for it!

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After a much-needed shower, it will be time for bed.  I have an early morning planned for tomorrow so I’ll see you then 🙂

What is your favorite thing to add to mac and cheese?  We always do canned tuna or salmon and some sort of veggie.

Welcome to My New Blog

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My name is Emily, and welcome to my food blog.  I was born and raised in the Virgin Islands, went to college at the University of Miami, and lived in Brooklyn as a middle school teacher for 2 years.  I quickly discovered that teaching was not for me – I taught English Language Arts at a high needs school in East New York and it was the hardest two years of my life.  My exercise and eating habits got so out of whack that I started my first blog, Super Caloric Chalk Dust, to describe the ways teaching impacts your life.  While I loved parts of my job I was so busy, stressed, and sad that I ended up eating too much and sleeping and exercising too little.  Not everything was bad though, my teaching career gave me an opportunity to live in New York City and it helped me discover my true passion – getting proper nutrition education to low-income areas.  Plus, in December of 2007 I married my high school sweetheart.  A did a two-year stint in Teach For America before medical school; now that he will be a student for the next 8 years I’m using this time to do the same: I am heading back to school to pursue a new degree to become a Registered Dietitian.

This blog will not only show my efforts to get back to ‘fighting shape’ but will chronicle my return from teacher to student.  I’m using this blog as a food and exercise journal for myself, but hopefully to connect with others as well.  I hope to show that a happy and healthy lifestyle can include some splurges as well – I have pretty major popcorn and diet coke obsessions! 

My goals are –

  1. keep a food/exercise record as part of eating healthy and staying active
  2. post healthy and tasty recipes that others might enjoy
  3. share my eating adventures, eatventures, with other foodies

I hope you enjoy it, please feel free to make any suggestions.