Tag Archives: beans

Vegan Visit

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A road trip is not an easy time for a restricted diet, but with a combination of preparation and an understanding family I made it work.

I made sitting in the car for six hours work by dressing in comfy-cute clothing.

Plus my driving moccasins.

<– name that show!

Food from home was for breakfast.  A sandwich of tempeh, Smart Balance, and strawberry jam (a killer combination) on a Sandwich Thin.

A small apple.

A piece of leftover Halloween candy.

And a sugar-free Red Bull from a gas stop.

I have been seriously tired lately; I need to make sleep a priority next week or I should basically just buy stock in energy drinks.

For lunch I was jazzed to spot a Sheetz.

I had a medium soy milk latte with marshmallow syrup.

I’m doubtful that the syrup was actually vegan but I’m taking a loose approach to the challenge on this trip.  The coffee was delicious with tons of foamed milk and I was glad I got it, vegan or not.

Plus a veggie burrito.

This was not delicious.  I made myself eat half so I wouldn’t be too hungry for dinner but if there had been other options I probably would have tossed the whole thing.

For dinner we got Italian food with my in-laws.  P.S. We are staying with Adam’s sister and her husband and getting to spend time with my two nieces is making my ovaries hurt; they are so flipping cute!

A piece of bruschetta to start.

The waitress was very nice about bringing me new tomatoes when the first batch came out sprinkled with cheese.

And two slices of veggie pizza (sans cheese) for dinner.

Healthy, vegan, and tasty; I’ll take it.

Feeling Blue

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My pain pills (which I think I don’t need any more, yay!) have made my appetite all sorts of wonky these past two days.  And some life stuff has made me super cranky.  I hate feeling like I have to post when I’m in a bad mood, but so many of the things I ate (of the very many things I ate!) have been winners that I want the post for my own memory.  This will be detail-light though.

Honeycrisp.

Rockstar Juiced.

Winter outfit.

My downgraded hand bandage.

Organic Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream (1 cup).  This stuff was ah-mazing.  The texture was reminiscent of Italian Ice and peanut butter-chocolate is always a winning combo.  I especially liked the cookie pieces.

A healthy lunch.

Roasted green beans dipped in ketchup,

and Cilantro Lime Bean Burgers with Citrus Guacamole.

An entire bag of bbq Popchips for dinner.

Melted peanut butter with powdered sugar and good cocoa.  This snack is ridiculous good but also just ridiculous.  I need to quit cold turkey.

Chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar.

Happy Tot Blueberry, Apple, and Purple Carrot squeeze pouch (FNCE sample).

Vegan almond joy.

Supplement sampling at clinic.  Not vegan but also not optional.

Veggie sub – lettuce, tomato, red pepper, jalopeño, banana pepper, pickles, and yellow mustard – from the hospital cafeteria.

Amy’s vegan mac and cheese.

Honey roasted peanuts.  By the by, honey is still on the table, so to speak, this Vegan Month.

Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole.

P.S. I am so flipping nervous about what election results we are going to wake up to tomorrow.  Anyone else?

I’m Typing With One Hand…

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…so I’ll keep this short.  Speaking of keeping things, Adam will have to keep me, my surgery went off without a hitch!

It wasn’t a big deal – I just had a benign keratosis removed from the back of my hand – but they sure were dramatic about it.

I had to wear a gown, and get wheeled into the OR.  And look at my giant bandage –

they called it a “sympathy cast!”  I’ll have my stitches in for ten days and then I’ll be right as rain.  But unfortunatly they told me that I’m not allowed to work out while my stitches are in.  I know I haven’t been working out anyway but I really was excited to start again!  Ten days…

They told me to take it easy after surgery but I actually had to head over to a friend’s house to work on a group project.  At least I got some Moe’s out of the deal.

I got a naked burrito (aka a less expensive rice bowl) with black beans, lettuce, green pepper, onion, mushroom, corn salsa, and guacamole.

Delicious.  Moe’s is a great option for Vegan Month.

Resting up didn’t happen the rest of the weekend either, I worked both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday morning was rough (on top of everything else we started an hour earlier than usual), but at least my shirt matched my bandage!

I ate an apple on the walk to work.

And a drank a Rockstar to help keep myself awake in spite of my pain medication.

My medication makes me feel pretty funny – nauseous and tired and all sorts of loopy – so I never ended up getting lunch at work.

Dinner was a buffalo seitan wrap from the co-op.

Plus a roasted potato.

Those fries are cut so nicely because the husband did it for me.  He’s been so nice helping me while I fumble around!

I did manage to catch up on some sleep this morning.  Thank goodness for Daylight Savings.  Even with the extra hour, all I managed to accomplish today was a shift at work and switching out my summer and winter wardrobe.

Breakfast was an amazing bowl of cereal.  Blackberries with cinnamon sugar, 1 serving each All Bran Bran Buds and Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola, and Blue Diamond Unsweetened Vanilla Almond/Coconut Milk.

I had the granola from the HLS and have wanted more ever since!

A very late lunch was purchased at the co-op after work.  Broccoli salad and vegan mac and cheese with veggies.

The mac was so tasty that I almost made Adam walk back and get me more!

Instead I was basically stoned on pain meds all evening and was a total weirdo.  Dinner just didn’t happen, though I did eat multiple desserts.

A bowl of melted peanut butter with powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

A Cara Cara Orange.

And a few pieces of primrose oil old fashioned candies.

It’s been a weird day.

It’s Getting {Pinapple Turkey} Chili

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Yesterday I spent 3 hours standing in the 40* rain… It was fabulous.

Elmwood Avenue held its trick-or-treat session yesterday afternoon and since I’ve never gotten to give out candy before my store let me be in charge of that job.

I checked out all of the cute costumes, rocked my bunny ears, handed out candy (ate a lot too!), and froze my butt off.

When I got home from work I needed new socks, one of Adam’s sweatshirts, and a big bowl of something hot to warm me up.  Good thing I had gotten the crock pot started before I left for work.

Pineapple Turkey Chili, serves 8

  • 1 tsp evoo
  • 1 lb 94% fat-free ground turkey
  • 1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 15.5 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 15.5 oz can cannellini beans
  • 29 oz can tomato sauce
  • 20 oz can crushed pineapple
  1. Heat evoo in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ground turkey and cook until browned, 3 – 5 minutes.
  2. Place all ingredients (including browned turkey) into crock pot and stir to combine.
  3. Set pot for 4 hours on the “high” setting.

P.S. I hope all my readers in the path of the Frankenstorm are doing alright!

Chocolate, Croissants, Coffee, and Cuddling

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As my title indicates, it’s been a damn good day!  This is the most time I’ve gotten to spend with the husband in weeks.  Other than my short, 4-hour shift at work, we spent the whole day together.  There was studying I could have done, and I certainly could have eaten healthier food, but I’m calling today a raging success!

We started our morning by sampling last night’s baking efforts.

My Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins earn two giant thumbs up.

Next we perfected my drinking chocolate recipe.

Two more thumbs!  I’ll be sharing that recipe on Halloween.

And finally, we settled in for croissants, coffee, “Chopped,” and cuddling.

I had a Wegman’s chocolate croissant,

and a small mug of coffee (cinnamon vanilla nut, brewed with ground cinnamon) with skim milk and sugar.

When we were at the store picking up croissants we snagged pimento cheese samples.

The cheese spread was only ok, but the baguette they served it on was perfection.

Lunch foods were a Cara Cara orange,

and baby carrots with blue cheese dressing.

I should have eaten more food and less chocolate because I was very hungry when I got out of work.  Co-op salads were consumed on the car ride home to stave off hunger and get in some veggies.  Ramen cabbage crunch,

and 5 bean and feta salad.

I had about half of each and handed the rest off to Adam.

A friend was coming over and we had to clean up our hovel, so dinner was snacky.  1.5 oz of smoked almonds with 1.5 Tbsp butterscotch chips,

and (2) 100-calorie bags of kettle corn with 2 Tbsp of melted butter.

I’m definitely not minding the vegan challenge as an excuse to eat up all of the cheese and butter!

While our friend was over, the three of us split this Crispin hard cider.

The Saint wasn’t quite as good as the honeycrisp variety, but it still got good reviews all around.  Not too sweet or sour.

Adam and I finished up the day with bbq and buffalo chicken pizza (from Zetti’s) while we got our Halloween movie on.

“Once Bitten,” aka the 80’s-fabulous vampire movie that was Jim Carrey’s first starring role.  OB always reminds me of my friend Lana Winter and is one of my favorite films for Halloween.

We did something super fun while our friend was over but I’m going to tell you tomorrow because I have to get into bed this very minute.  Good night!

Have you ever seen “Once Bitten?”

It’s 10-11-12!

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I’m blogging a two-day recap from a blanket nest with a killer migraine, so please excuse any typos.  I was hoping to be back on a “normal” blog schedule by now, but I’m not sure that’ll ever happen this semester!

Going back to yesterday… Wonder of wonders, I made it to the gym!  20 minutes on the elliptical; random level 6.  The machine was out of water so I drank a fruit punch g2 while I worked.

It was embarrassing to have so much fuel for such a short workout but I ended up being very thankful that I had it.  I guzzled most of it during my workout, then refilled the bottle with water and drank all of that on the drive home.  I guess I came back from Philly a little dehydrated.

From my trip to the gym, I came back short on time.  Thank goodness Adam had the day off yesterday; he drove me to school and packed my breakfast.  FNCE expo samples were heavily featured.  An iced coffee with skim milk.

A mini apple pie Larabar.

An apple it its true form.

And a serving of Cheddar Cheese Beanitos.

I was a big fan of the (pinto bean and flax-seed) chips.  They were nice and crunchy with just a touch of spice.

I’m also a big fan of things working out in the lab.  Look at what I made in Microbiology – spread plates and pour plates!

Adam’s undergrad degree was in Microbiology Immunology and sometimes it is downright embarrassing to show him my class-work!

I had several to-do’s after lab, but I made it home in time to make dinner before work.  My mid-day meal was pretty lame.  2 small corn tortillas microwaved with ~1/4 cup shredded cheese.

Plus a 2% Fage with Peach.

And the last two Buttered Rum Raisin Cookies from the batch I brought my friend.

We are getting in all of our Christmas stock now and work was more like a workout; I carried boxes up and down the stairs for my most my shift.  I was very glad to have dinner already finished when I got home.

Green Tuna Enchiladas; serves 4-6

  • 1 tsp evoo
  • 1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • (2) 10 oz cans tuna
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup green tomatillo salsa
  • 12 small corn tortillas
  • 4 Tbsp light half and half
  • 3/4 cup reduced-fat shredded taco or Mexican-style cheese
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat.
  2. Add onion and peppers to oil and brown, about 7 minutes.
  3. Add tuna and 1/2 cup salsa to veggies and cook 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat.
  4. Spoon 2 T filling into each tortilla and place into a 8×11 inch casserole, seam-side down.  Too keep tortillas from cracking and breaking, it is helpful to cover them with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds.
  5. In a separate bowl, stir together the last cup of salsa with half and half.  Spoon mixture over enchiladas.
  6. Sprinkle cheese evenly over casserole and bake 20 minutes.

Dinner did not fill me up like I was hoping.  I ate a huge spoonful of Skippy Natural Super Chunk with Honey; aka the very best peanut butter ever.

And I had dessert.  I am working on a hot chocolate recipe so I’m not going to share the ingredients now, but I will tell you that this batch included a serving of Caramel Apple Milky Ways for funsies.

It was ridiculous good.  Ridiculous.

Moving on to Tuesday… Today had a productive start but has steadily gone downhill.  I had a difficult time getting out of my warm bed and ended up eating breakfast on the walk from my car to the hospital.  A Sweet Tango apple,

and a Full Moon Brownie Z-Bar, which I actually hated.

I couldn’t put my finger on what the problem was specifically, but the taste of the bar was not good to me.

Today was my busiest day at clinic yet.  I had a patient on my own in the morning, then worked on another in a group later in the afternoon.  We had our first practice with tube-feeds today and it was both fascinating and frustrating.  We’ve learned a lot in school but it’s all been in isolation; in the real world conditions overlap.  For example*, you might have a patient in End Stage Renal Disease that has increased protein needs for wound healing and is also a Diabetic. *just an example, this wasn’t a specific patient that we worked with today

Also, my friend Janessa and I offered to turn-key some of what we learned at FNCE, so we did a short presentation on ketogenic diets for epilepsy.  The group had to stay late so that we could present and I love them all for still being interested in what we had to say.

I ate a late lunch during my afternoon errands.  Vegan pecan cornbread stuffing from the co-op.

Buffalo peeps – run to the co-op to get some of this stuffing, it had the perfect blend of flavors and textures.

Then hot bar at Wegman’s while I ran through my notes before shopping.

I did three types of vegetable stir-fry.

I am glad that I got in veggies and time studying, because both were in short supply when I got home.  Minutes after walking in the door, I got an immense migraine.  It came on much more quickly than they usually do and made me unbelievably nauseous.

Adam brought home pizza for dinner and I ate a big plate once I was able to get out of bed.

Now I have to go try to study for tomorrow’s giant exam.  <– so screwed

What is your favorite store-bought peanut butter?

Even My Food Was On The Move!

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Oh boy!  I don’t have a lot to show for today because the whole day was crazy.  I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off from 7 am to midnight.  Going out-of-town for five days will make your to-do list a little insane.  And I haven’t even started to pack; mostly I was taking care of school errands.

Breakfast was an energy drink during class.

And I drank 4oz of Chamaeleon Cold Brew coffee over ice with skim milk and a chocolate pb magic straw on my walk to work.

Solid food didn’t happen until dinner; I was honestly too busy to eat all day!

Thankfully dinner was fun, filling, and a line through my to do list birthday goal list.  Adam came into the store just before we closed and told me to hurry because he had a surprise for me.  My bosses guessed a new puppy (if only!), I figured it would be something pumpkin flavored, and my co-worker had her money on booze.

None of the above.  He hurried me over to Delaware Park because he had spotted Lloyd’s Taco Truck and knew a food truck visit was on my list.

Thanks, honey!

I ordered the Tricked Out Nachos and was not disappointed.

White corn chips served with salsa roja, homemade Lloyd queso, chimichurri sour cream, brined jalapeños and pickled red onions, topped with stewed black beans.

Even with a day’s worth of hunger I couldn’t quite finish that monster serving!

For dessert we split the Puddin’ Cup.

Rich chocolate puddin’, dulce de leche caramel, and pumpkin seed brittle.

I guess I got my pumpkin after all!

Are you a food truck fan?  What’s the tastiest item you’ve gotten on the go?

Hot Dog!

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2nd day of the semester was a success!  I promise I’ll stop counting them soon though.

I started my day with a smoothie for the walk to school.  1 scoop bourbon vanilla protein powder, ~1.5 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, medium frozen banana, and ~2 cups frozen blueberries.

My smoothie matched my shoes!  Actually, it matched my whole outfit.

I found this great loose-fitting racer-back tank in a dressy fabric at the Gap outlet this summer and bought it in all three available colors.

I got to wear jeans because we were on campus for clinical orientation today.  Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the semester we’ll spend 8 hours a day in clinic, aka practicing our skills out in the field for our internship hours.  Today we met with instructors, filled out paperwork, and spent several hours practicing calculations.  <– I remember more than I thought, yay!

I packed this vegan tortilla soup for lunch.

Supplemented with a cheese stick I got at an info table in the quad.

Sadly it took my friends and I for-ev-er to find a table and by the time I finished waking back and forth from two buildings with my hot soup it didn’t really appeal to me any more.  I ate half, plus all of the cheese stick and a Diet Pepsi from the vending machine.  Note – this set the trend apparently because every meal thereafter was also unsuccessful!

After class was over 2 friends and I set out on a mini journey.  We stopped at Anna’s house along the way for sunscreen, then walked a little over a mile to Delish to try out the East Park Pops.

The pops are made from scratch from local ingredients.  My mango pineapple contained only mango, pineapple, and fresh lime juice, no added sugar.

It all sounded really promising but unfortunately we just weren’t fans.  The pops were way too hard and icy and we all threw ours out a quarter or so through.  Janessa and I had been planning this excursion since summer so we were sad it didn’t pan out, but Delish’s new Black Rock location is adorable and we do want to go back for coffees soon.

We ended up having (tall, skim) iced caramel macchiatos from Wegman’s as our treat instead.

Buffalo students – Wegman’s is giving out their awesome student coupon books this week and our coffees were a dollar off.

We spotted jalapeño poppers on the hot bar and two of us went for one of those as well.  (Don’t worry, my friend is going to reuse that plastic container so we didn’t totally waste it.)

This was another idea that was better in theory, the poppers had cheese instead of cream cheese and I threw half of mine out.

Dinner was hot dogs –

Not that kind of hot dog!  Though, Webster, if you don’t stop eating my stuff I might consider it.  Adam and I regularly joke about taking a bite out of his meaty thighs.

This kind of hot dog –

I put two Applegate Farms turkey hot dogs on a bun, piled high with sauerkraut, relish, and ketchup.  The dog was devoured with gusto but its accompaniments were pretty “meh.”

Roasted asparagus that was undercooked and tasted terrible.

I choked down half.

Smokey Maple Baked Beans that were good but not what I was craving right before I went to a yoga class.

I ate 3/4 of those.

Thankfully I had a great workout to make up for my lackluster meal: a 90 minute hot yoga class.  I was worried about making it through a 90-minute class (I haven’t exactly been making the most of my unlimited yoga pass!), but it ended up being great.  The 90-minute session is almost easier than the 60-minute one because you do the same poses with more repetition so you have time to practice them.

All that stands between me and bed is a shower and 15 minutes of reviewing DNA with the husband.  I turned in too late last night and felt it in the morning so I’m trying to hurry.

What was the last food that you were excited for and then disappointed by?