Tag Archives: banana

Surprising Satisfactions

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I was surprised and satisfied when I woke up at 6am this morning to register for summer school and I got into all of the classes I need.  Whoopie!!!  My exams at UB end May 6th and then here is my class schedule for this summer –

  • Sociology 100 – MTWRF 10:30-12:40, June 1st – June 26th
  • Anatomy Physiology – MWF 3:00-4:50, June 1st – July 17th
  • Introductory Nutrition – Online, June 28th – July 21st

It’s going to be a really challenging summer but I’m so excited to get started.  I just hope I’m as lucky with registration for fall classes next week.

I was surprisingly satisfied by how tasty my in-the-car-breakfast was.  A huge hunk of coconut banana bread,

and a Greek Gods Fig Greek Yogurt.

Greek Gods is my very favorite yogurt brand.  The texture and flavor is the absolute best in Greek yogurt and the packaging is adorable.

I ate in the car because I headed to school with Adam this morning.  My production level at home is abysmal and I have work that has to get done today.  While I was taking a computer break I was surprised and satisfied to see that I earned a 94% on the last Anthropology exam, go me!

Walking around campus I was surprised and satisfied to see all the signs of Spring in spite of the especially cold April weather.

I hung out in the campus library from 8-12 and then when Adam got out of class we headed over to The Spot and continued the study session there.  I was satisfied but surprised by my Mikes (egg and cheese) Bagel Sandwich.

Tasty and filling but I’m not sure it why it looked like such a hot mess.

The plan for the evening is a dinner that’s quick and easy (just like your boyfriend! ba doom ching!) and cuddle on the couch tv time.  With a big scoop of excitement mixed in – we are getting dessert from Dolci!  I’ve had my eye on it all year and we are finally trying it out.

What were you surprised and/or satisfied by today?

Taming the Beast

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Sorry for the late post, I had 8am lab and my day ended up galloping off from there!  I was hoping my extreme hunger was a yesterday thing, but it ended up following me into today as well; I felt like I was trying to tame the beast!

We had a hard quiz this morning (the first of the semester I don’t think I got a 100% on, boo) so I started my day with some brain food in the form of a green monster.

1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup calcium/vitamin d oj + 1 frozen banana = tasty, healthy perfection!  I’m glad I experimented for the husband’s sake, but you just cannot improve on this recipe.

Normally GMs leave me satisfied until lunch, but today the beast was howling by the time I finished with lab around 11:30.  I knew I wasn’t going to make it at the gym without food so I fueled up at the mini cafe next to my class.

A cup of fruit salad and some Silk Soy Chocolate Milk.

Ready to go; I’ve got to give the snack a little credit for the fact that I had another great swim work out.  As promised – because I love you guys! – here’s a picture of me in all my dorky glory in my swim cap:

Actually, a lady walked by right as I took this picture so I had to explain to her why I was taking photographs in the ladies’ locker room.  She ended up giving me some great swimming tips and encouragement.  Although I’m still a little jealous of Meghann’s locker room social scene.

In the pool I did 32 laps (75ft each) in 28minutes.  The husband walked into the pool area in time for my last loop so I tried to haul ass; I could feel my heart pounding by the time I was done! 

We had to run some errands on the way home and Adam decided we were going to lunch.  He didn’t consult me and I had pool water dripping down my back but I’m still not complaining!  You’ll never guess the location he chose 😀

Yes, we went back to Cozumel again; yes, I did major damage to the chips.

I told you the menu is expansive, I tried yet another new item!  Veggie Chimis –

Nachos aside, I never order stuff like this and I quickly remembered why.  Unless we are talking  french fries I don’t like things that are fried, give me roasted or raw any day!  Thankfully it wasn’t all that greasy and the cheese was fairly under control.  Plus it was stuffed with mushrooms, zucchini, and summer squash.

I didn’t even taste my rice, who would want more carbs as a side with this?

My hunger was only temporarily quelled though, and a few hours later I was ready for more.  The husband I continued our fancy-free attitude and took a walk to Sweet Tooth.

I went with a small ice-cream which beyond hit the spot.

Cookies and cream with raspberry white chocolate swirl.  Holy yum!

I’m sure you’re shocked that I was still hungry for dinner a few hours later 😉  On the menu was this recipe for Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa.  Two thumbs up!  If nothing else, I highly recommend making the salsa.

Here’s my plate:

I had a small piece of chicken,

with a side of roasted veggies drizzled in leftover glaze.

The glaze was awesome but I still could only choke down half of my veggies; I just did not like these!  The husband thought they tasted off too, we ended up throwing the rest of them out.

I was a little too fancy-free with the husband today and I’ve got a TON of work to do by the end of the week so I’ve got to run.

Do you like fried food?  How often do you eat it?  Other than nachos and french fries, yum, I genuinely don’t enjoy fried foods.  Although I do like typically fried foods if they’ve been baked (i.e. chicken nuggets).

Can you get me a choco-banana…..Foster?

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7:30 is a much nicer time to wake up than later hours.  For one thing, it gives me more time to make an out of this world breakfast!

That would be a sliced banana cooked in 1T of butter, over plain 0% yogurt with a sprinkle of brown sugar, drizzled with honey.

Oh man!  Bananas Foster is pretty much one of my favorite desserts and I almost never get to eat it, so a similar taste for breakfast rocked my socks*.

*note – I said a sprinkle for a reason; I slipped and added ~2T! of brown sugar to mine and it was a bit sweeter than I’d like

Who knows what movie my title comes from??

Eating Like I’m on Vacation

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It’s been a good day of family fun.  Sadly I had a ton of school work to do so a lot of my time was spent with my nose buried in a book.  I managed to sneak in a few a few strength training exercises as well; I packed a resistance band for just that purpose.

For breakfast I arranged a little bowl.

4oz of 2% cottage cheese, medium sliced banana, Multigrain Cheerios.

And for lunch I roasted up a huge plate of veggies.

Broccoli and cauliflower.

I made some for my sister-in-law too; she’d never tried roasted veggies before and she ended up loving them.  I guess I’m influencing all sorts of people!

I dipped my hand into this two or three times as well!

We ended up going to an all you can eat Chinese buffet for dinner.  I’m not the biggest buffet fan and this one was seriously lacking in veggies but I made do.  I ge that people want to eat crap (and I ate my fair share of it), but I don’t understand having such a variety of food and not managing to squeeze in a single veggie!  I was glad I ate a produce-heavy lunch.

Plate 1 –

I ate all of the (not so good) green beans and half of the chicken.

Plate 2 = a bunch of fried stuff.  I’m not sure why the camera randomly ate this picture, I guess my Sony likes crab rangoon.

Plate 3 –

My favorite!  I was mmmning and yumming through this whole plate of fruit.

There were some tasty looking desserts but we planned to go to Rita’s after dinner.

I’ve been so excited about trying to find one of these because the menu is a lot like Jeramiah’s in Orlando and the husband totally came through and spotted one today.  I got a small gelati; mint chip italian ice and twist custard.

So good, I was basically swooning.

Everyone else is eyeing the board games but I have a ton more work to get through tomorrow so I think I’ll turn in soon.  Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

What’s your feeling on buffets?

Bags and Burst Bubbles

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Hi all!  This needs to be quick or I’ll be late to class.  I mostly wanted to warn you guys that I’ll probably get my tests back today so don’t expect a chipper dinner post 😦

I ended up eating an entire bag of green beans of lunch.

Roasted with a bit of salt they are just so addictive!

I ate while watching another addiction; “Mercy,” so bad and yet so good!

And managed to get in a fabulous 20minute strength/stretch session.  Yays!  Even though I’m not at a gym, my mats still get grimy, so I pulled out this bag of wipes my mom got me.

Good smell + natural + clean up = triple duty.

I also just made my first fresh (as in not frozen) spinach Green Monster.

It was good, but I prefer the thicker consistency of my frozen spinach ones.  Sorry to all my readers who like me and want to think I’m cool – not to burst your bubble, but yes I totally matched my outfit to my smoothie!

Equations of Sorts

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It’s 9:20 and I would kill to already be in bed so I’ll keep this short and sweet.  My day went lab –> people watching on campus –> doctor’s appointment/waiting for the husband’s doctor’s appointment –>  eating junk whilst watching tv –> this super lame post.

Breakfast = green.

1cup frozen spinach, 1cup oj, 1 frozen banana.

Lunch = sandwich + spicy.

Bread, sliced turkey, spinach, Crofters superfruit spread, cheese.  Looks unassuming, but the Yancey’s Farm Buffalo Wing cheese was intense.

Plus a sliced jazz apple.

A less healthy snack.

1 small mint milkshake – minty flavor = half a milkshake in the trash.

Dinner = Moes.

Chicken Homewrecker Jr (that’s a small plate).

I swear on a Big Gulp of diet coke that I will have an actual post tomorrow.  And some good news!

Movement is Good

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We’re going to pretend like I didn’t magically skip two days of posting, ok?  Ok.  Because in reality it was more like I skipped two days of life, leaving not a whole lot to post about.  My first test went pretty badly, probably because I spent Thursday watching TV and eating nachos.  And my bone scan appointment was canceled indefinitely because the hospital waited to call me until 10hours before my exam to tell me that I had to have an in-state referral.

Since my journey back into fitness could be a long time coming (now I don’t even have a doctor’s time-frame) it’s officially time for me to quit wallowing.  I can’t do any form of cardio (swimming would probably work but there’s no pool available) and I can’t strength train at my gym (I’m walking better but stairs are super painful and my gym has a ton) but that doesn’t mean I have to sit on my butt and get fat fatter.

So I stayed in bed and felt sad until the husband left at 9 this morning and then I decisively limped to the living room to set up my workout area.

20minutes later I had completed arm/ab/back/leg strength work and stretching.  I felt great to “move” again!

I was less excited about cleaning around the house, but I made myself do that before my shower too.  Then I made the husband and I a tasty brunch.

Adam is sick so I made the smoothies around his tastes.  For two – 2medium bananas, 7oz frozen peaches, 2T fat free sugar free pudding mix, 1cup oj.

I’ve got to clip some coupons and do my recipe planning while I sip my smoothie (lots of alliteration in that sentence!) and then we are headed to the grocery store.  We are hoping to head to the movies later too.  Happy Saturday!

I need your help!  Does anyone have a genius non-impact cardio suggestion that I haven’t thought of yet? 

Sandwiches, Smoothies, and Schedules

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Hello again, happy Monday!  This will definitely be the longest recap post I’ve done in a while – Friday through Monday.  Physically things have been low-key but mentally there’s been lots of drama – my flight was canceled!  And since I’m in St. Thomas it could have meant getting into Buffalo on Tuesday and not having a ride and missing class.  I was freaking out a bit.  Thankfully 45minutes on the phone + my firm but calm voice got me on a different flight that leaves/gets in on pretty much the same schedule.  And now my layover is shorter and in Philly and not Charlotte.  🙂

I’m a big proponent of the firm but calm voice.  I was polite, and said multiple please and thank yous, but unwavering.  I didn’t ask whether or not I could get on another flight, I simply said “I will be leaving St. Thomas tomorrow, what can you do to help me make that happen?”  And it worked.

Anyway, back to Friday.  My mom served me a slice of cake,

which promptly got stripped of it’s icing because I don’t eat cake.

Then I moved on to greens, a small container I put together at the salad bar we stopped by.

Lettuce, beans, corn, cheese, 1 hard-boiled egg and a drizzle of light Cesar.

I also made myself some frozen coffee – coffee, ice, skim milk, and 2T sugar.

Soo much better than Starbucks could ever do.

Dinner was all about the leftovers.

Oven baked okra is kind of my favorite.

And I served up some leftover baked tofu on toasted rye with hot pepper raspberry preserves and sharp cheddar.

Friday night I did end up going out to meet some friends.  We had a good time and I had a few drinks but photo-taking was abandoned in favor of trying to keep my balance on one leg!  I don’t know how on earth I managed to stand on one leg past 2am but a fun time was had by all.

For Saturday morning breakfast my mom and I hit up one of my favorite places on earth – Barefoot Buddha.  I had fresh-made lemonade,

and a Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich.

Frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, spicy sauce…

I love these sandwiches so much I ate them on my wedding day!  I know most brides say they are too nervous to eat but I was just nervous my friends would devour them before I got any 😀

We hung out and studied for a bit and I had a passionfruit, banana, coconut smoothie.

We laid low the rest of the day before going out to a fabulous dinner at The Cellar.  We did a lot of sharing and the lighting was low so let me apologize for the picture quality in advance.

There were way too many things I wanted off the drink menu but I finally settled on the Caribbean Champagne.

Champagne with coconut rum and key lime juice.  GREAT combination.

We split a cheese plate that was kind of out of this world.  The goat cheese was my favorite but the stewed plums were pretty fantastic as well.

My plate –

And at The Cellar the chef always sends out an amuse bouche.

Ahi wontons.

Plus homemade bread and butter.

For my meal I got the Vegetable Cutlet – panfried, potatoes, peas, carrots, eggplant and pickled papaya, and tiki masala sauce.

The cutlets were delicious but my favorite part of the entire meal was the eggplant wrapped papaya.  I ate one cutlet and took the other home, and I had a few bites of my dad’s tamarind mahi as well.

We were stuffed, but couldn’t not order a dessert plate to share.  It came with little forks,

because we got four little desserts!

NY cheesecake with fruit sauce and bananas foster,

cinnamon creme brulee and chocolate mousse.

Yum, yum, yum; I wished I could have had a BIG serving of the bananas foster.

Sunday morning I made a nice green monster for breakfast.

My mom and I got our nails done (green again, I’ll show you later!) and then I picked up nachos for lunch from the bar I used to work at.

Yum, but I think it’s time to be fully done with any sort of nachos for a while.

We saw a matinée of “Our Family Wedding,” during which I munched on a box of Nerds.

I would like to show you dinner but it was so dark at our table I never could get a picture.  I shared green bean fries with my parents and ate half of a tamarind turkey burger.

When I got home I had 2 maple pecan sticky blondies for dessert.

Dreena would be sad to know I deveganized these, but at least I made the recipe for my parents!

This morning (Monday) I’m hanging out at school for a bit before I head home to pack.  I brought a pineapple Chiobani for breakfast,

but that didn’t begin to cut it.

I ended up also having an egg and cheese biscuit from Wendy’s.

It is 100% time to stop eating like I’m on vacation!  Especially because I’m not sure what the workout situation with my leg is going to be like.

I had fabulous spring break but I am more than ready to get back with the husband and back on a schedule.  I get in late tonight so I won’t be posting today’s eats but hopefully Tuesday my sleeping, eating, and blogging will all be back on track!  I can tell you now though, that I have a Greek Gods honey yogurt in the freezer for a pre-packing treat!

When you get to the end of a vacation are you sad it’s over or ready to get back to business?