Horribly Hilarious

by Emily

Just as needed, today was much more low-key than the first two days of my parents’ visit. Adam was at school all day so my mom and dad and I did some shopping, ate take-out at home, and saw a movie. It was just what ~~the doctor~~ my sore feet and back ordered.

For breakfast I ate the newest Clif Bar, Coconut Chocolate Chip.

I doesn’t taste like a samosa like the chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar, but it was still pretty darn tasty. Just enough sweet to be fun but not sickening.

My parents and I were at the mall for-ev-er, and I ended up making a lunch snack out of samples from the kitchen supply store.

Normally I’d be upset about not getting a more substantial lunch (or breakfast!), but I knew I had the filling meal coming for dinner.

Can you beat Moe’s rice bowls? I submit that you cannot. Rice, blacks beans, sautéed mushrooms and green peppers, corn salsa, lettuce, cheese, and cilantro.

Also amazing were the (serving’s worth of) chips I grabbed from the communal bag.

I loved getting to introduce my dad to Moe’s, you just can’t help but love it.

You can totally help but love this Eat More candy bar I bought in Canada this weekend.

I’m not even going to say what that looks like.

I took two (icky) bites and passed it off to the rest of the family to try. Just as well, I was much more excited about my movie candy.

Gummi cola bottles! To be accurate, gummi cola bottles, cherry gummi cola bottles, and sour gummi cola bottles; multiple varieties for the win!

The movie was also a good idea, we saw “Horrible Bosses” and all four of us loved it! John Francis Dailey (Dr. Sweets of “Bones”) is a great actor but he can co-write one hell of a screenplay too. The movie was dirty and guffaw-inducing, just my style.

Have you ever had a horrible boss? You didn’t kill them did you?!

12Jul2011

Yes, I Want Quesadillas

by Emily

Tonight’s dinner inspiration came from Katie at Yes, I Want Cake. Layered quesadillas.

YIWC also inspires me to poke holes in all our condoms but Adam says we should have jobs before we have our own adorable baby. I guess I’ll stick with copying dinner. Katie’s quesadillas were triple deckers but I went with two layers with extra cheese.

Here’s the breakdown of our ‘dillas –

Plus homemade guacamole.

We made the guac with mashed avocado, mayan onion, tomato, and salt and pepper; it was delicious. In fact the whole meal was great.

Thanks for the idea, Katie!

Earlier this afternoon, the husband made me a Coke float.

So good. The adorable glass is from the bar I worked at back home, complete with a drink recipe.

And now I’m actually heading out for another drink, this time coffee. My friend Katie (the one from last night, not the dinner inspiration with the adorable baby) is moving soon so I’m trying to see her as much as possible. We are meeting at the Spot before she leaves for a trip tomorrow.

12Jul2011

My Fellow American

by Emily

My back hurts in a bad way, but my legs are arms are super sore in a good way; I’m not sure if it was the running or the yoga, but I’ll take it! Unfortunately my back is just sore enough that I decided to forgo all exercise today. I sat on the couch instead. I did make a sweet i-tunes playlist for the gym tomorrow though.

Since I wasn’t leaving the house, lunch got lame in a hurry. Several servings of Chip’ins popcorn chips,

were used to shovel 80% of jar of salsa.

Good thing the entire jar only has 300 calories, huh? I’m counting it as a nice big serving of veggies.

Speaking of things eaten straight from the jar, my reason for living has returned.

I mean that Adam came home early, duh. Did you think I was talking about the Biscoff spread? Noooooo…

I’ve eaten half the jar in spoonfuls over the last week, but thankfully I bought two jars. Look at the price my dad and I found this stuff for at the grocery in Ohio –

Booyah!

On a more serious note (and there are few things more serious than Biscoff spread), I want to share a video that was sent to me from the site My Fellow American. Here is a snippet from the e-mail Elizabeth sent me about the site and its purpose

As you know, America has always been a melting pot, but in the post-9/11 world the environment can be downright hostile. Recent mosque protests and congressional hearings on American Muslims are all unfortunate examples of a rising tide of fear. This climate of suspicion towards our fellow Americans compromises the great values that our country was founded upon. We’ve put together a 2 minute film in response that I believe you and the readers of Eating Chalk will be interested in sharing, watching, and discussing.

As a former resident of Brooklyn (and a permanent New Yorker in my heart), I obviously have strong feelings about the tragedy that took place on September 11th. However, I try to let the good part of my heart guide me through the world, not the hurt parts. I find it discouraging that some Americans allow the actions of a select few to taint their perception of an entire religious culture. You can’t fight hate with more hate. I think the short video compiled by My Fellow American makes that point eloquently.

1Jul2011

My Aching Ischium

by Emily

Ow!

I wish I could blog more about today but it’s after midnight and I am just so tired! Time to keep things cursory.

I started my morning with a version of my new favorite breakfast.

Great Harvest granola (essential!) with berries, 0% Plain Greek Gods Yogurt, and a blue raspberry honey stick.

Delicious, and totally fun looking.

Then my parents and I headed out for a 3 hour bike ride. Hence the aching sit-bones! My plan was to run but my leg is sore (from accelerating of all things) and I think I ended up getting a better workout anyways.

After our three hour ride a big lunch was key.

It doesn’t look like much but that’s a vegetarian rice bowl from the burrito place down the street. Rice, black beans, creamy hot sauce, tomatoes, corn salsa, guacamole, lettuce, cheese and pineapple.

It was a totally ridiculously delicious combination of flavors.

I also had this light Arnold Palmer.

We ran some fun errands this afternoon including a little farmers’ market,

and then headed to dinner at Beppo Uno.

I started with a side Cesar salad,

and ordered the baked zitti for dinner.

I can’t believe my nacho-obsessed self can even say this but it was a little too cheesy for me!

I only took a few bites but gulped down my shockingly good garlic bread,

and a slice of my mom’s shrimp and pesto pizza.

I guess I’m carbo-loading for tomorrow’s bike ride?!

I’m blogging so late because my parents and I went to see a 9:20 showing of “Bad Teacher.” <– Cameron Diaz meh, Jason Segel hubba hubba!

24Jun2011

Gourmet On The Go

by Emily

We’re back in Buffalo! We made it home without losing any limbs or luggage and managed to eat only healthy, delicious meals; I call that a winner travel day!

To start the morning my aunt took me to Atwaters, a local bakery her neighbor owns, to buy a loaf of bread and some provisions for our drive.

I also picked up an iced coffee with skim milk.

Adam and I hung out with my family as long as we could (my cousin just got back from study abroad in Costa Rica and had amazing pictures!) but soon it was time to hit the road.

You know we couldn’t leave Baltimore without self-serving one more frozen yogurt.

I got a mix of cookies and cream and taro yogurt topped with strawberries, bananas, Oreo, sprinkles, and rainbow jelly.

The rainbow jelly took my joy over the top, although now I’m going to be missing froyo and bubble tea!

Typically vacation food goes downhill once you get into the car, but today we were ready and we kept things gourmet. I bought this Tofu Bahn Mi at Atwaters in the morning and it ended up being the perfect brunch.

Bahn Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich made with pickled veggies. Typically it is very spicy but this one was pretty mild (my only complaint).

Lunch was also a sandwich, but not just any sandwich.

Bee’s Knees Honey Peanut Butter (good), homemade strawberry jam (better), and Dakota bread (best).

Best damn pb & j I’ve ever had! I’m seriously amazed by how good this bread is each time I eat it.

We were pretty well prepared but sadly I spent the last few hours in the car dying of hunger. Adam had a huge bag of m&m’s that made the whole car smell like chocolate and it was all I could do not to pour them down my throat. I managed to wait, but once I picked up our dinner on the way home I could not keep my hand out of the bag of chips.

Many many (way too many) chips were consumed this evening.

We are out of veggies, actually we are out of everything, so I picked up rice bowls from Moe’s for dinner.

My bowl was rice, black beans, tofu, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed onions, sautéed green peppers, lettuce, cheese, corn salsa, and cilantro.

I scarfed that bad boy.

Time to unpack!

20Jun2011

Tour de Charlottesville

by Emily

Adam and I had an amazing day walking around Charlottesville and seeing what the city had to offer.

I’m not sure where the next few years will take us, but we both decided that we could love living in Charlottesville!

We bunked at the Red Roof Inn last night, which was conveniently located on the edge of UVA.

This morning we were prepared to face hotel coffee since I was a smart cookie yesterday and nabbed a few shelf-stable creamers from the gas station.

Still not great, but doable.

For breakfast we headed to Brodos for bagels. Adam and I split a toasted poppy seed with strawberry cream cheese.

So chewy! Adam actually didn’t love it, but I told him that all great bagels pack chew.

Next on the agenda was Shenandoah Joes for iced coffee with skim milk.

Good coffee, good bagels, good breakfast.

Adam and I spent the day walking around and exploring downtown. We actually walked 1.5 miles in the wrong direction when we first left the hotel so we did some extra exploring!

The high point of the day was definitely our stop at Sweet Frog.

Adam and I both decided that we are never living in a city without froyo again!

We ended our visit with two car-worthy destinations: Great Harvest and Whole Foods. Adam and I left GH with a fantastic loaf of bread (Adam’s already eaten 3 slices!) and a sample bag of granola that Kath kindly shared.

Holy clusters batman! Best granola ever, I got a bite of honey/saltiness that knocked my socks off.

Whole Foods didn’t actually have any of the products I had quested for, but they did have hot bar for lunch,

and tables outside for us to picnic at.

I ended up with a southern style feast – pulled chicken, collard greens, green beans, and bbq beans.

Plus watermelon that Adam and I split for dessert.

Yep, we’re ready to move to Charlottesville 😉

After a quick drive into DC now I’m blogging from a Starbucks while we wait for my best friend to get off of work. The vacation continues!

23May2011

Give Me Fuel Give Me Fire

by Emily

Today’s lesson: fueling. Can we just call this a ‘what not to do’ lesson?

When I woke up I was sooo tired (we’ve been staying up way too late catching up on Scrubs) that I convinced myself it would be better to push my run back to the afternoon. That’d be great and all, except that I am a way better morning exerciser. Especially except the fact that I can run at 9am after downing just a Goo, but by 5pm I need to have actually eaten food and that was a little tricky. Two different loaves of bread simultaneously sprouted mold yesterday and if our cupboards had a fuel gauge it’d be reading empty.

I ate a few spoonfuls of ice cream frosting (yuuuuum),

and a slice of swiss cheese,

but then it seemed like I probably should find food food.

But by the time I’d walked a block away from the house it started to pour, which is how I ended up convincing myself that (an entire tray of) nachos would make awesome running fuel.

Also, I had a cupcake.

Too cute not to be a good idea!

Adam came home earlier than expected this afternoon and as we hung out it got later and later and myplanned 7-mile run seemed harder and harder. Which is why nachos actually do make awesome pre-run fuel: I felt like such a fat idiot that I was extra motivated to get out there! Go me?

I headed to Delaware Park for four 1.75 mile loops. 7 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes. <– that time is especially sad when you consider that I stopped every loop to stretch/drink and I paused my clock for the breaks. Maybe I do need to relook at my fueling.

I didn’t get done with my run until after 9pm so I ended up just skipping dinner. <– don’t do as I do

This was a strange post. Also, clearly I’ve stayed up too late watching Scrubs again.

21May2011

Pretty Good

by Emily

Hello there; I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend. It’s been a good Saturday around here, I spent lots of time with the husband, I got to take a few walks, and I received some good news I’ll be sharing later.

Our plan this morning was to cash in a Groupon for brunch, so to kill time while the restaurant opened I headed out to the Farmer’s Market and the Co-op.

While I was up on that end of Elmwood I stopped in at Wilson Farms for my new favorite coffee.

Half Jamaican Me Crazy Coffee (regular) and half Jamaican Me Crazy Cappuccino (sweetened).

Adam and I also drove over to the lake to check out the crazy fog.

Spooky!

Then it was time for brunch at Empire Grill.

But apparently brunch is only a Sunday thing, boo. And the bad news didn’t stop there, Adam and I hated our ~~brunch~~ lunch order. I really don’t want the blame the restaurant (the food wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either), we just made really bad order choices for our preferences.

We split a Blue Point Toasted Ale,

the Caribbean Shrimp and Mango Salad with mixed greens, mango viniagrette marinated jumbo shrimp, black bean and pineapple salsa and a mango viniagrette,

and the California Turkey Wrap with coleslaw, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, onions and a chipolte aioli.

I sort of hate raw spinach and I hate wraps so, again, it wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault. Nonetheless, I ended up eating basically nothing for brunch.

Thank goodness for Banana Split Cupcakes!