Tag Archives: apple

Dreaming Day

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After it’s auspicious start, my day continued to run enjoyably.  Definitely not a Monday’s Monday!

The weather was (mostly) fine, I got an 82% on last week’s big test (lower than I’d like, but 10points higher than the last one), and there were lots of delicious eats.  Like lunch –

Into 2 Tbsp of Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter with Honey,

I dipped baby carrots,

and a Fuji apple.

Oh man, this apple!  It was beyond sweet and crunchy, best apple I’ve had yet this year!

Not quite enough food though apparently, because my stomach growled all through my second afternoon class.  I’ve got another big, important test on Wednesday and I needed to be note-taking not dreaming of dinner!  Sidenote – when I get bored in class I totally work on my meal plan for the upcoming month; there are always so many new recipes I’m excited about.

The day felt like Spring instead of Winter – finally! – but by the afternoon the wind was howling.  It was loud enough that my teacher had to pause a few times because she couldn’t talk over the nose.  Thankfully one of my friends graciously offered to drive me home, so I didn’t have to worry about blowing away.

I was blown away however (ha!), by my tasty dinner.

What better way to get in your greens than with homemade veggie nachos?

I piled corn chips with 50% reduced sharp cheddar, fresh arugula, black beans, and canned jalapeno, then baked at 450* for 10minutes.

Plus plain 0% Oikos and green salsa for dipping.

The salsa was stolen on a Moe’s run and it totally made the nachos.  I would love to find green salsa that I could purchase like a not-a-creeper, but our store only sells one kind and it is way too spicy for us.

I ended with a fun dessert, clotted cream fudge.

I don’t have a better picture because the wrapping was a little intense, but I ate half of the box, aka too many servings.  We bought this on a whim but it was great; it tasted sort of like extra soft caramels.

two questions for a good Monday

  1. What do you day-dream about?
  2. Is there a brand of (not super spicy) tomatillo salsa that you recommend?  Preferably one I could order online.

A Food Log Food Blog

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So there’s thing 1 and thing 2. Thing 1 – we just got home after our second 9+ hour car trip in two days and I’m too tired to be clever. Thing 2 – due to inclement weather (nearby tornadoes!) we spent much of the weekend without power and my pictures are pretty dark and awful. But, here’s the thing – part of the reason I write this blog is as a food diary (accountability). Sometimes I feel so silly when I’m writing a post that isn’t funny or chockfull of useful ideas or amazing recipes, but I have to remember that I do this for me too. So, feel free to skip this weekend’s recap, or settle in for a food log post.

Friday

I made Adam and myself a huge iced coffee to split on the road.

Coffee + Silk Vanilla Almond Milk + maple syrup.

I also packed a sandwich for breakfast.

Sandwich Thin + Applegate Farms organic sliced chicken + a Light Laughing Cow.

I was randomly starving five minutes later and spent the rest of the day complaining about how hungry I was. Enter an early lunch from Sheetz. Cole slaw,

and a turkey sandwich, with cheddar, honey mustard, lettuce, and tomato, on a pretzel bun.

Bletch x2! Normally I’m really impressed by Sheetz, but this time not so much.

However, Adam and I did split some Reeses Minister that were freaking life changing!

When we saw them again at another gas station we even bought some to bring home.

When we got to Virginia, before a tornado(!!) knocked out the power, there was dinner waiting for us.

Salad,

chips,

and grapes.

Then we spent the night playing cards in the dark.

Saturday

I skipped breakfast in lieu of cuddling up to my books, but made time for a last lunch.

More salad,

a small slice of cheese pizza,

three shrimp with cocktail sauce,

and strawberries and melon.

I also had a cinnamon brownie (we baked them Thursday night to bring down) and some Ruffled for dessert.

I ate my fair share of junk on Saturday unfortunately. I don’t mind digging into desserts or snacks at all, but I prefer to nosh only on unhealthy things that I love, and I feel like I sort of just grazed.

In the afternoon we did get to go out for a short but nice walk with my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and niece.

I even ran several sprints with my niece, it’s so much fun getting little kids to be active.

We went out to dinner, where multiple peanuts we cracked.

Sagebrush is a steakhouse, but fortunately there was some chicken on the menu as well.

I started with a cheddar biscuit,

and a side salad with peanut vinaigrette.

Dinner was grilled chicken,

with bbq sauce,

and broccoli.

We stopped for gas on the way home and I grabbed a (half sweetened) coffee.

I also snacked on some Easter candy,

and this plate of chips x2.

Sunday

My in-laws whipped up breakfast before we had to hit the road.

Scrambled eggs, strawberries, and half a bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

I also ate an apple with cheese in the car,

and a medium plain coffee.

We sang along with the radio, listened to recordings of Adam’s lectures, and reviewed my music reading all afternoon. Then, according to plan we pulled into Grove City at 4:45 and grabbed a late lunch/ early dinner at Primanti Brother’s.

Adam grew up eating there and I’ve seen it on the Food Network so we were pretty excited.

I ordered the turkey and provolone cheese sandwich, which came piled with Cole slaw and French fries!

The bread was boring (and abandoned halfway through), but the slaw and fries were perfectly vinegary. I’d probably never want one again, but it was fun to try.

But the fun was just beginning. There was an outlet mall across the street so Adam suggested we take advantage of the great weather (75*) and walk around a bit. First, I love to walk with the husband. Second, we snagged a Silpat on sale.

And then I literally started hyperventilating with excitement… we spotted a self-serve froyo place!!!

You guys, I can’t even tell you! I got original tart and sugar-free praline, topped with hot fudge, marshmallow, butterfinger, strawberries, and a cherry.

This is the kind of “junk” I feel 100% good about eating.

I’m pretty sure I swooped the whole rest of the drive home.

We stopped for a mini grocery run at Wegmans, and also grabbed some Chinese food (which I’m just not going to blog); our early dinner was a bit too early 😉

If you have a blog, how much of its purpose is food log vs. fun?

Seeing What Buffalo Has to Offer

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Another late post for another long day, yesterday that is 😉  My mom is in town until Saturday so we’ve been exploring all Buffalo has to offer.

We started our morning with a trip to Sweet_ness 7 Cafe,

a creperie.

It was our first trip, but we were totally impressed by the adorable details, comfy setting, and exciting menu.

I was pretty jazzed to see hibiscus lemonade available.

This was barely sour, and even less sweet, a near perfect lemonade by my standards. 

For breakfast the three of us split two crepes, one sweet and one savory.

The Irish Blessing, which came with a side salad, was caramelized fresh apples with brie.

The apples were literally caramelized, so sweet and chewy!

The Celtic Love Spell had Nutella and fresh whipped cream, with bananas.

Melty Nutella is pretty much the pinnacle of happiness.

The fillings were fun (obviously!), but the crepes themselves were delicious!  I don’t know much about crepes, but from what I’ve read these were perfectly made.  They had the best eggy smell!

Afterward we headed to another new (to us) and fun location – The Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

ABG has a lot of older pieces, but it is actually a gallery based around collecting contemporary work, not a museum.  It was really interesting to see the “created by” and “purchased by” dates side-by-side, many of which were less than a year apart.

There were bunches of works that I loved, but I didn’t take any pictures out of respect.  I did purchase postcards of two of my favorites from the gift shop,

and we snagged a free print that an artist was giving away to help promote his work.

I can’t wait to get that up on the wall and give this place a little class!

For lunch we went back to an old favorite, JP Bullfeathers, and were greeted with the good news of Restaurant Week.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to make it anywhere else (we tried many spots, but reservations for dinner were impossible), but Adam and I did take advantage of this menu.

I went with the Cajun Haddock Caesar Salad, with balsamic on the side subbed for the dressing.

This was my first time trying Haddock and I think I’m a fan, it’s a nice flakey white-fish without a lot of strong fishy flavor.

The specialty portions were super generous too, I could only eat half of my meal and now Adam has a nice lunch for later this week.

I did have room to try a Valomilk for dessert.

There’s an old-fashioned candy store on Elmwood and it’s sort of irresistable.

I also snacked on a Wallaby Caramel Apple Yogurt while we figured out a dinner plan.

Ultimately we decided low-key was the way to go, and headed to Moes.

I got a kids’ quesadilla with corn salsa,

and chips with queso.

My mom got a kick out of eating something I blog all the time; I think we’ll probably hit up the hot bar tomorrow too!

The rest of the evening was spent on this dorky/awesome venture, which I’ll blog more about in a few weeks.

Have a great night morning!

Is there an art museum and/or gallery in your town?  Do you prefer modern or classic art?  I’m all about modern; there was a series made with ink and soap bubbles on display today that could have held my attention all afternoon.

Status Updates

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Location: Back in Buffalo. It was an all day affair getting here from Ohio though. Between late starts, terrible weather, bad conditions, and detour to see the town that the husband grew up in, we’ve been in the car all day.

Puppy Cuteness:  100%. 

My grandparents’ dog is named Cocoa because she looks like a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on her feet!

Health: 98% better, but still sick. I’m a bit congested and still have my cough, and I’m still not quite feeling like myself.

Growth: the adorable Easter egg planters sprouted another couple of inches overnight!

Food Rations: Poor.

Things started off well. We had breakfast with my grandparents before we hit the road.

My grandma made quesadillas with scrambled eggs, salsa, and turkey sausage.

We also had leftover fruit salad.

Then, bodies and car fueled, it was time to start our journey.

Our first detour was to Trader Joes. We picked up a few fun items, including this yogurt honey peanut Balance Bar I snacked on while on the road.

Flavor favorite, second only to cookie dough.

My stomach never felt up to a road food lunch, but I did steal a few bites of this Choco Taco.

Plus I bought a coffee (half regular half sweet English toffee cappuccino).

Several hours later I was starving, and so glad to find the perfectly crisp apple my grandma gave me.

Crunch!

The plan at that point was clearing to get dinner, but somehow it kept getting later and later and no food was available. When we rolled into Buffalo after midnight we knew it was better just to skip it. Speaking of which, I should get in bed!!!

How late does it have to be for you to decide just to skip dinner?

You and Me Baby Ain’t Nothing But Mammals

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We head to Ohio tomorrow, and my mom comes to visit on Wednesday, so we woke up early to deal with our squalor.  Actually, Adam woke up early to clean the house.  I woke up at 9 to Adam’s amazement that I could sleep through the vacuum cleaner!

Once I did welcome morning, I started my morning with some fantabuous iced coffee.

Yesterday afternoon I bought a cup of caramel flavored coffee from a gas station, and brought it home to the fridge.  This morning I mixed it with 1tsp maple syrup, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and ice.

Delicious!  The almond milk has the best texture for iced coffee, it makes it so thick!  When I’m back to retainers in a few weeks I won’t be able to have coffee ever, so I’m trying to enjoy it was much as I can.

The food part of breakfast was pretty fun too –

A Pink Lady apple dipped in the last of the marshmallow icing.

Holy yum this was a good idea!

Our next idea wasn’t necessarily good, but it was necessary… a trip to the zoo!

I bought a Groupon months ago (thinking that by April it’d be, ya know, Spring) that was set to expire so we bundled up and headed out.  There wasn’t a lot to see because of the weather, but I did spend 20minutes or so mooning at the polar bears.

Awwww!  My nickname for Adam is ice bear (German for polar bear).

On the way out we spotted a neat crepe place – we’re coming back next week with my mom! – and Mustachios.

Apparently Adam has been excited about taking me to Mustachios?!?  We ended up coming home with two slices of cheese pizza.

We also hit up the hot bar to get in some veggies.

I got steamed broccoli, glazed mushrooms and carrots, sesame kale, white beans and escarole, and scooped a bunch of veggies and cashews from the cashew chicken.

It was a random but good lunch.

After my month of illness (I’m still coughing by the way), any meal with veggies is a good one.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on matzah with melted extra sharp cheddar.

I also did a bunch of nibbling, raw pasta, marshmallow topping, butter toffee almonds…  No photographs, just informing you guys that my appetite is back 🙂

Dinner was quick and tasty.

I boiled up the last of the spinach and three cheese ravioli, adding a few big handfuls of arugula to the pot at the last minute.  I topped my bowl with buttermilk blue cheese crumbles and a drizzle of honey.

Then we had single-serve ice cream for dessert.

We each at half and then switched flavors halfway through.  Those single-serves are the best idea ever, the texture is so creamy!

I’ve still got to shower, pack, and do some school work… better hop to it!

What’s your favorite zoo animal?  The cutest thing we saw today was the Egyptian Dabb Lizard.  I pretty much love any creature with a big belly; Seth Rogan crush anyone?!

Biochem Makes Bad Bloggers

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I’ll leave the correlation between fences and good neighbors to Robert Frost, but in my experience Biochem makes bad bloggers.  Especially Biochem exams one has not adequately prepared for!

Yesterday’s post was sacrificed to a cramming session.  Unfortunately, the cramming session was then sacrificed to a orthodontist appointment and subsequent headache.  You can’t win ’em all!  Our teacher is very, very kind, so I probably ended up with a B anyways.  Sidenote – I swear I’m usually not such a terrible student, my (22day!!) sickness is really taking its toll.

I am blogging today though, with pictures and everything, but there’s the problem of not having much to blog.  My involuntary breakfast ban continues, but I did get coffee.

A grande non-fat latte with almond roca syrup (2pumps instead of 5).

I was hungry for lunch – my brain used up all my glucose on the exam – but I hadn’t done a great job of packing.  I brought a Revolution Foods tropical fruit packet.

And the newest Fage, 0% with Mango and Guanabana.

Oh. My. God.  Did you know that Gaunabana is the formal name for Soursop, my favorite fruit of all time that I almost never see outside of the Caribbean?!?  When I was saw the flavor at Wegmans I was so excited I bought two right away (and did a fairly embarrassing dance in the aisle!).  It was divine! 

Yogurt perfection aside, I hadn’t packed enough food!  Thankfully the vending machines in the Dietetics building are stocked with mostly healthy things, so I was able to get this packet of tuna salad and crackers.

It was a little strange – I don’t usually add water chestnuts to my tuna salad – but it did the trick of holding me over through my last nutrition class.

I spent my break between classes working on my lab assignments and watching the snow pile outside.  Then, wonder of wonders, my night class so cancelled!

Eeeeeee!

I came straight home (the husband picked me up) and dove face first into a plate of Granny Smith apple with a serving of Smuckers Natural PB with Honey.

Then we got started on dinner. 

Lemon Chicken Fricassee with Biscuit Topping from Rachael Ray.

We followed the recipe except –

  • substituting olive oil for shortening
  • substituting chicken breasts for thighs
  • using a frozen peas and carrots mix that also had lima beans, corn, and green beans
  • using some packaged frozen biscuits rather than making them

It was ok.  Only ok.  Adam said 6 out of 10, I said I won’t be eating any of the leftovers.

Plus a side salad.

Arugula topped with leftover roasted butternut squash, craisins, buttermilk blue cheese, and Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry and Walnut Dressing.

The salad was tasty at least.

The meal might not have been very good, but the entertainment was; season 5 of Futurama is finally on Netflix Instant Watch!

Did/do you watch Futurama?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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I hope all my readers are out enjoying green beer and Irish car bombs!  No booze for me at the moment.  Anyone who really knows me can tell I’m sick just by looking at me today –

It’s a holiday with a theme color and my nails aren’t painted?!?!

Sickness be damned though, it’s a freaking holiday, I kept 90% of what I ate today green!  Well sort of, I didn’t eat breakfast and I didn’t pack lunch so this non-green tuna packet was kind of a necessity for lunch.

I have no taste buds at the moment, but I’ve had the spicy thai chili variety before and it’s quite tasty.

I sipped on a Green Superfood packet from Amazing Grass after lunch.

And ate a GoGo Squeez applesauce during my break.  <– fruit in a pouch rocks my socks

In the hours between my two classes I totally completed a huge assignment that’s not due for another few weeks; whoop, whoop!

During my late class I snacked on some green jelly beans,

and dried kiwi.

Yuuuuuum.  If you ever see dried kiwi at your stores, buy it!  The chew is perfect and the little seeds pop with the best crunch.

Dinner was tasty and on theme.

We stirred turnip greens into a box of mac and cheese.

Then topped them with poached hard-boiled eggs.

CSN Stores gave me this microwave egg poacher to try,

we haven’t gotten the method quite down yet, but the eggs were tasty and quick at least.

To combat my dead taste-buds I added 1oz of extra sharp cheddar and some sprinkles of Sriracha to my bowl.

Delicious!

How did you celebrate St. Patty’s day this year?

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

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The healthiness level of my food consumption today mirrors the level of health I felt all day.  That is to say, not very healthy at all.  I feel rough.  It’s rough being sick for 16 days straight.  It’s rough finding out that I have a C average in two of my main classes because I’ve had so many tests fall in those 16 days.  It’s rough having a music exam that I literally only had 1 feasible hour to study for.  Long Wednesdays are always rough.  You get the picture.

Breakfast started out well with a big Granny Smith apple dipped in a serving of natural honey peanut butter.

But as I got closer to leaving my sore throat was begging for a cookie dough ice-cream sandwich.

I guess it’s a good thing the treat we’re obsessed with only has 160 calories?

I totally couldn’t get it together to pack lunch and ended up at Taco Bell on campus of all places.  Once there, I proceeded to drive the workers crazy by knowing only that I wanted a chicken burrito and asking the ingredients in all the varieties.  I believe what I ended up with was a chicken grilled stuft burrito.

Question – why the heck do we have to go with “stuft,” stuffed is literally one letter more?  Also, why was this so monsterous?  I nibbled away for a solid 45minutes (I knew dinner would be iffy so I wanted to make sure I was very fueled) and I still conceded defeat to the final quarter.

Dinner was in fact the definition of iffy. 

Buffalo wing and blue cheese chips.  They confirmed both that my cold has killed my taste buds and that I’m a terrible healthy living blogger when I’m sick.

Did I mention that I’m sick?

What do you like to eat when you’re sick?  Other than really disliking salads, I don’t have any “sick foods.”  It seems like I should be eating normally because my sickness is in my chest/head and not my stomach, but in fact I’ve coughed so hard that I’ve made myself throw up every day of the last 16 days.  It’s been fun around here.