Activia Desserts for Dessert

I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast this morning, but I was all about the pizza pizza!

I roasted up some broccoli, put it on a single-serving crust with marinara, and topped it with 2% sharp cheddar.

Mmmn, broccoli and sharp cheddar made the perfect pizza combo.

A bit later I snacked on some sliced green apple and a few pretzels (way to finish the whole bag before I got any, Adam!).

And for dessert, Activia Desserts.

I buy Activia for the husband because he has some tummy issues and it seems to really help.  I usually just stick to Greek yogurt but the Strawberry Cheesecake flavor sounded so divine that I had to try it.  Good decision; the cheesecake flavor was spot on, nothing like the “cheesecake” fat free yogurts I’ve tried in the past that just scream artificial sweetener.  This was creamy and sweet and pleasantly thick for regular yogurt.  All for 140calories, I think I’m  a fan.  If you’d like to try some yourself go here for a $1 off coupon.

We’ve got a tasty dinner planned, but I’ve got my eye on a mini bag of kettle corn in the meantime.

*Update to Add – I’m going for it, mini bag of kettle corn here I come!

I Am NYC Homesick

I had an amazing time at BlogHer, but it’s always great to be back to reliable internet home!  I hate to rush through a recap of a good time, but it’s after midnight and I did miss my husband!

If Thursday night was a healthy living fail, Friday night was a blogger fail – I forgot my camera!  We attended an art gallery at BlogHer and then walked down to Lexington Ave for some fabulous Thai food.  I stuffed myself silly 🙂  When Camile e-mails me her photos I’ll post some up later.

Saturday morning there was a long lull between breakfast and the first session so we decided to walk over ‘late’ and just pick up breakfast along the way.  I got a bagel with egg and turkey bacon, no cheese,

and a Zico coconut water.

Everything was super tasty but I knew the expo hall had samples waiting so I stuck with half of my bagel.

Later in the morning I sampled a new “dessert” line from Yoplait.

So good, I can’t wait until these come to Buffalo.

Lunch was vastly improved over the first day as well.

A bean salad with yellow raisins,

green beans,

and a small piece of salmon.

For dessert I grabbed a Jello Mousse Cup, also good.

Later in the afternoon I also snagged a blondie,

and a baggie of apple slices.

At 5, Camile and I met up with a group of bloggers for some green juice and a power walk.

[thanks for the group shots, Kath!]

I went with spinach, parsley, carrot.

I’ve been missing green juice like crazy since we moved to Buffalo, so this hit the spot!

We walked around Central Park for an hour or so, then hightailed it back to our hotel so we had time to make it back to converge with the group for dinner.

We went to Eatery, which was wonderful.

I ordered the Adobe Salad, which came with grilled chicken, smoked bacon, jack cheese, blue tortillas, black beans, buttermilk dressing, and honey chipotle dressing.

The honey chipotle was out of this world.  I ate about half of my salad in total.

We spent some time at the BlogHer Gala (mostly people watching and marveling at the mommy bloggers boogieing down) and then made the long walk back to our hotel.  To say we were delighted to find a Pinkberry mid-trip would be an understatement.

Just yum.

I got a small original (tart) froyo, topped with yogurt chips, coconut, and praline crunch.

OMG.

This morning Yelp turned up a brunch spot right down the road with tons of rave reviews, Penelope.  It was set up like a country kitchen and the eclectic touches abounded (the coffee cups didn’t match!).

It was too freaking adorable.

And my brunch was out of control.

FBLT – fakin’ bacon, avocado, lettuce, and tomato with black pepper balsamic mayo, served on sourdough with homemade french fries.

Delicious.  The mayo put it over the top.  It was monstrous too; I only ate a couple of fries but I still could only down 3/4 of the sandwich.

On the way out we stopped by the killer dessert case,

and 7.5hours in the car later I was splitting a peanut butter blondie with Adam.

During that 7.5hours I also consumed a Rockstar.

Camile had read about JP Bullfeathers on my blog and requested that for dinner.  I don’t know what is up with me and chicken fingers lately but I went with the buffalo chicken sub.

With blue cheese for dipping, duh.

I spent the rest of the evening showing the husband my swag.  Oh gosh, you guys, the swag!  I’ve decided I have a mildly unattractive level of excitement about the freebie coupons.  Could be a problem.

Do you have a favorite brunch spot in your neighborhood?

Prioritizing

Today has been such fun!  It’s felt packed, but in the best way possible.  First things first, let me announce the CSN Stores giveaway winner –

Clare (#14) please send me an e-mail – emilyhwaxATgmail.com – so I can get you your prize.

This morning actually felt a little stressful; I way overslept and was trying to squeeze in lunch plans, a workout, apartment cleaning, showering, and being on time to pick my parents up from the airport.  I’m really proud of myself though because I made exercise a priority.  I realized that Katie wouldn’t be upset if I made our lunch date a maybe, and my parents wouldn’t care if the apartment was messy, but I would care if I skipped my run.  So I went!  And I ended up having time to (quickly) do everything else too.

I did cut my length though, which ended up being for the best because my calves were stupid tight.  I didn’t manage my times as much, just ran and walked whenever I needed to.  In the end I did ~1.6miles and 20minutes.

I kept my lunch date, and picked Katie up for a trip to Panera.

I did the half/half deal; half a strawberry, poppy seed, & chicken salad,

with half a turkey and artichoke pannini,

with an apple as my side.

The sandwich was gooey and crunchy and perfect but the salad was NOT good.  I ended up leaving 95% of my salad even though the other half of my tray was practically licked clean.

After dropping Katie off I went to the husband’s computer lab to print off airport directions; what, I’ve only lived in Buffalo a full year?!?  We had a fun time showing them the town, we hit up the mall, Target, Allentown, the Erie Marina, and finally had a fabulous dinner at Pearl Street Cafe.

There was a long wait so we went the bar so that my parents could try some of the microbrews.  I went the tall Johnny Walker Black and Coke route.

Drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk!  I did not eat enough today to functionally handle this big drink and the poor husband definitely dealt with me being a little loopy during dinner 😉

Foodwise my mommy and I split a small Chicken Cheddar Pizza.

It came with broccoli and black olives, a fantabulous combination.

I had this slice times 2 –

As well as a few big bites of Adam’s lobster ravioli.

It was a perfect “Welcome to Buffalo” dinner.

How do you make exercise a priority?

Like Ice Cream

Today has been sort of … lame!  I guess maybe I should call it low-key?  I do have some baking and a workout on the agenda for this evening, but other than that, zilch.  The real excitement starts tomorrow when my parents get here for a visit!  They’ll be in town all weekend -yay! – and then the next weekend is BlogHer and a visit from two of my best friends.  I’m so excited!

I always say Siggis yogurt is so thick it looks like ice cream, so this morning I served my breakfast out of an ice cream bowl!

That’s a Pomegranate Passionfruit Siggi with a bit of fruit topping.

I will admit, it was a lot more fun to eat with my fancy spoon 🙂

I had a lunch date that got canceled at the last minute (seriously Katie, don’t worry about it, I was running soooo late) so I buckled to my near obsession with getting another tuna salad sandwich with red onion.

The red onion makes the sandwich.  On a similar note, I would consider myself a cheese fanatic (my husband calls me mouse!) but I didn’t miss the cheese on this sandwich at all.  I am going to offer everyone the advice that you should consider whether or not it will actually make a difference in the sandwich before you blithely pile on the cheese.

I did the combo (fountain diet soda? yes please!) so I also had this baggie of apple slices.

Not a bad lunch at all.

Are you going to be attending BlogHer???

Distractable Me

The range of activities today mean that I have very few pictures, but considering the late hour it’s just as well.  We did a lot of indulging today too, but since we move on my 1/4 of a century I’m basically declaring it Birthday Week! 😉

Yesterday I had breakfast for lunch, and today I had lunch for breakfast.

I ate the 2nd half of my tasty turkey sandwich,

alongside three carrots.

We ended up not moving at all today, which was great because moving yesterday was even more of a workout than I had thought; I’m so sore!  My legs practically feel like they did after my half marathon, which is I guess is what living on the top floor without an elevator will do to you.  I’m always glad to squeeze in the incidental exercise, and today I was glad to squeeze in more time finishing my paper.

The main reason we switched our plans is that we were off being *movie stars!*  Some of our friends are involved in shooting an orientation video to show to first year medical students and they called this morning to ask us to help out.  Adam and I got to shoot a library love scene

Afterwards we were in a movie frame of mind and we ended up heading to the theatre to watch Despicable Me.  The husband and I split a big tub of popcorn but it was too dark to photograph.  Poor nutrition aside, the movie was a good decision; it was so cute!  We highly recommend it, even to grown ups (although it’s also worth noting that it is a great kid’s movie, it was funny without relying on inappropriate adult humor).

When we got home I made myself a sliced Gala apple with 2tsp of TJ’s Sun Butter.

Dinner got out of whack because of my paper writing, but we did make a trip to DQ for (16oz) Oreo Cheesequake Blizzards.

What can I say, it was another bogo birthday week coupon!  I did manage to control my spoon and only eat half though, the rest is in the freezer waiting for me for another day.

When I did finally finish my work the husband threw me together a quick dinner.

Nobody makes sunny side up eggs like Adam does!  The bread is from a thin sliced loaf of rosemary and olive oil; we tasted a sample on Saturday and it was so good we knew we had to buy it.

Can you keep it to one day or do you celebrate a Birthday Week as well?

Watermelon in a Smoothie and Beans in Some Soup

I hate doing all these drive-by posts but things have just been so busy.  A little rush is worth it though, it was wonderful getting to meet our new niece.

We got in the car around 10 this morning and I was thrilled to see a Sheetz where we could buy fresh food in time for lunch.

I got a chicken burrito with fire roasted tomatoes, rice and beans, colby cheese, diced tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, diced onion, and salsa.

And ate an apple packed from home on the side.

We pulled back into Buffalo around 5:30 and I immediately got to work unpacking and heading to the grocery store.  Once I was home for good, the husband helped me whip up some delicious soup.  More specifically, White Bean Consomme with Almond Milk, from SELF magazine.

I ate a serving of Salt and Pepper Sommersalts on the side.

It ended up being the perfect quick meal.

I also made a huge smoothie to drink.

Tons of frozen watermelon chunks blended with a Simply Raspberry Lemonade.

Pink!

We didn’t finished dinner until 9:30 but I knew I’d be happiest if I got in some sort of a workout.  10minutes of stretching and strength moves later, my day is complete and I’m on my way to shower and sleep.

What is the most unusual application of watermelon you’ve tried this summer?

Rainy Daze

Today’s weather was a strange mix of torrential downpour and beautiful blue skies; on the whole it left me throughly confused.  I felt like I muddled about in a bit of a daze all day.  The only thing I didn’t muddle through was my sociology test – 24/25 😀

Breakfast, on the go, was delicious.

Applemon Funky Monkey.  It was like a grown up version of those caramel apple chips that used to be around when I was a kid.

After class I did ~1mile of my walk home, stopping at the Spot to study.  While I was there I ate a vegan peanut butter chocolate chip muffin for lunch.

It was during that time that the skies really opened up.  Fantastically, Adam randomly got off work early and came to pick me up in the car.  When we got home we had to plan a couple of things for the rest of the week and I begged him to lay on the bed and cuddle with me while we talked.  —> enter 2 and 1/2 hour nap!  It was way too long to be asleep in the middle of the afternoon and left me totally disoriented; still worth it though.

Dinner was one of those meals that was so simple and so tasty.

I went ahead and made leftover for tomorrow as well so the amounts listed are for 2servings – 2cups frozen okra, 1.5cups frozen corn, 1cup black beans, paprika, s&p.  Perfect.  I topped today’s bowl with green salsa pinched from Moe’s.

On the side I had one of my favorites, beer bread.

My mom always makes this (and save the ends for me!) when I’m home but this was my first time making the recipe on my own.  Also definitely the first time it was made with a vegan butter substitute 😉  It was so fantastic I ended up going back for a second hunk, spread with a bit of Smart Balance Light.

This bread seriously takes less than 5minutes to put together, make it!

What is your favorite food recipe that involves booze? 

Full of Fruit

So far my meals today have been about the lower half of the food pyramid.  I tallied it up and realized that I’ve eaten six servings of fruit via breakfast and lunch!

Breakfast – eaten on the drive to school – was a tasty waffle sandwich.

1/2 a sliced banana, ~1T smear of sun butter, and a drizzle of maple syrup sandwiched between 2 Van’s Buckwheat and Berries waffles.

This was my first waffle sandwich and I think I’m a fan.  It could have used a bit of jelly though.

After class I got in my 2.5miles of incidental exercise walking.  I stopped at The Spot halfway to read and eat the first half of lunch there.  A bag of Apple-2-the-core Peeled Snacks,

and a bag of Carnival Mix Funky Monkey.

It was kind of an unorthodox snack, but the fruity mix of chewy and crunchy helped to keep my full while I worked.

Once I got home out of the steam I made a bowl of my new favorite.

A plain Whole Soy yogurt topped with watermelon chunks.

I want to give you guys an opportunity to od on fruits as well!

Peeled Snacks has graciously offered to send one of my readers an Organic Fruit Picks Variety Pack.  The giveaway runs from today until Friday (June 25th).  To enter to win –

  1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite type of fruit.
  2. For a 2nd/3rd entry – link back to this post from your blog and/or Twitter account and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so