Tag Archives: beans

Wonderful World of the Weekend

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Welcome to the wonderful world of the weekend!  <– said in the voice of the cryogenic lab workers from Futurama

We had a lazy, hazy summer winter day around these parts.  Light on the responsibilities and heavy on the tv reruns and being cozy. 

Not my healthiest day of eating – I needed more produce – but everything was delicious.  Like the Moe’s takeout we grabbed for brunch.

I got a junior burrito, stuffed with rice, black beans, corn salsa, lettuce, mushrooms, cilantro, guacamole, and black olives.

It came with a ton of tortilla chips…..

and I ate them all; whoops!

For dessert I tried out the single-serve cookie dough recipe I’ve seen floating around the web.

The chocolate pieces were a chopped up serving of this Chocolove Almonds and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate.

So satisfying and delicious, and vegan to boot (butter = Earth Balance).

Yums all around.

It took me until 7pm to get the energy to get off my butt, but I did finally decide to go to the gym.  Good thing too, I got it together just in time to get in a short workout before the gym closed.  I ran 1.5 miles in 13:40 (my last 1.5 was 14:13, whoop!), with cool down 18 minutes, 1.75 miles.  Plus a few planks.

My run killed my appetite, so I bought a Naked juice for dinner.

But it was waaaay too tangy for me so I passed it off to the husband (don’t worry, he loved it).

Instead I had some Amazing Grass Kidz Chocolate SuperFood shook with 8oz of Silk Vanilla Soy Milk.

Not gonna lie, I shook in a glug of maple syrup and served it over ice to make things feel a bit more festive.

Have you tried the single-serve cookie dough recipe yet?

Off the Map, Into the Oven

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Lots of excitement in the geek household today, I received a package of samples with dry ice in it.

Might have been the highlight of my week.

My three-course lunch kept me full late into the afternoon, and in fact I wasn’t hungry for dinner until after 8 o’clock!  Which was great, because this meant that in addition to watching “Off the Map,” and being a jr. scientist, I also had the focus to bang out the rest of an assignment for next week.  Sidenote – Off the Map, it’s like Grey’s Anatomy, but in the jungle.  Watch it if you live for dramatic drama.

When I made Emily and Jenna’s beans and potatoes I knew they’d be good, but I didn’t realize how many servings I was getting myself into.  We’re on our third day of leftovers!  They’re still tasty, but I felt the need to take the meal off the beaten path a bit.

Into my mini casserole went a layer of beans, a layer of potatoes, and 30 minutes in a 450* oven, and out came my version of a single serving Shepard’s pie.

I can’t believe that tomorrow is Friday, having two days off really made the week fly by!

What new shows are you loving this season?

Delightful Dippables

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As I mentioned early, today was a snow day, and a glorious snow day it was!  Not a lot of work got done, but you know how it is.

I did make a very successful (vegan) lunch.

With a nice roll up (a play on a dish I love that my mom makes with cream cheese for parties).  Spread a tortilla with humus – Tribe Roasted Garlic, – chopped green peppers, and radish sprouts.

Tightly roll up and chop using a big scary knife.

Lay out like a fancy sushi roll.

Eat the unsightly ends.

I also ate half of a piece of vegan jerky I split with the husband.

I paired my roll up with some roasted kale.

And dipped everything in some Stubbs bbq sauce.

It was a tasty, tasty lunch.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on 1.5 servings of Newman’s Own Spelt Pretzels.

With a chocolate soy pudding and a diet pop.

Of course, I dipped the pretzels into both the pudding and the soda.  Sooo good.  Honey wheat pretzel sticks dipped into diet cherry coke is my favorite snack on Earth.

Dinner was a repeat plate.

Leftover baked beans,

leftover caramelized onion mashed potatoes with a dab of Smart Balance Light,

and some sugar-free applesauce topped with a few Maple Mini Wheats and red hots.

Again, delicious, delicious.

What do you like to dip pretzels in?  Before you hate – have you ever tried pretzels dipped in diet pop?

Eat, Live, Garnish

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Bleck.  I’ve been in a crummy mood all day.  My retainer fitting properly finally means it’s actually working, which means my mouth is hurting.  Additionally I’m irritated with myself for not starting Biochem work.  I know the longer I put it off the worse it’s going to be but I’m a week in and it’s feeling a little daunting.  Plus I was so excited about these filled Mini-Wheats, but when I ate a small bowl this afternoon they hurt my mouth. 

Bleck.

I know something guaranteed to put a smile on my face was a blogger-approved dinner.

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes from Emily at The Daily Garnish,

and Mom’s Sweet and Spicy Barbeque Baked Beans from Jenna at Eat, Live, Run.

The guacamole gravy?  That was all me!

It ended up being a very tasty meal.

A time intensive(ish) one as well, the potatoes required a good hour of hands-on time while the beans were baking in the oven.  As I was removing the caramelized onions from the pan genius struck, and guacamole gravy was born.  I kept a few onions in the pan over medium heat and added a chopped avocado and a bit of evoo.  Once everything was warmed through I deglazed the pan with some mushroom broth.  A bit more broth and some mashing, and the best potato topped ever was born!

It was great to get back into the kitchen and make my husband a nice hearty (vegan!) meal.  Sidenote – that’s not to say the husband didn’t help cook this meal, mashing potatoes is hard!

What is your favorite kind of gravy?

A Double Serving of Entendre

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I liked the cock.

Adam thought the cock was ok, but found it a little salty.

I’m speaking, of course, of this soup package we had for dinner this evening.

We spotted it at Wegman’s a few months ago and had to buy it, because we’re six.  Sorry, Mom and Nana, you know I can’t resist a good (dirty) pun!

We decided to finally use the package tonight, incorporating it into a nice Caribbean dinner.

Cock soup.

No, I have no idea why it’s called that, and yes, it was a little too salty.

Rice and beans.

Minute brown rice mixed with a can of reduced sodium black beans.

And fried plantains.

We bought some frozen from Goya, and revived them with a quick saute.

Adam and I also split a cheddar cheese bialey.

Sooooooooo doughy and chewy!  We picked up the bialey while we were at Wegman’s buying cookie dough.  Cookies are in the oven (Adam’s request) and all is right with the world.  You can assume I’ll eat two, but since we are moving from the blogging portion of the evening to the watching X-Files portion, no pictures are occurring.

Does it seem like we are eating down the fridge slash searching for all the dairy we can get our mouths on?  Well we are!  You’ll see why tomorrow 😀

My First Long Day

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So Wednesdays are a bit insane; I get to campus at 11am and I don’t finish classes until 8:40pm!  By the time my final class was done I was feeling very, very tired.  Sidenote – that tiredness was not helped by the fact that our music teacher does not allow food or drinks in the classroom…..in a 3hour long class……at dinner time. [end rant]

This morning I made sure to eat an extra filling breakfast to make up for yesterday’s missing dinner.

That’s a serving of plain Siggi’s topped with 2 tsp maple jam, 3 Tbsp chunky peanut butter, and a serving of Special K Red Berries.

Delicious, and the (tons of) peanut butter packed a protein punch that kept me full all morning.

Lunch was less exciting.  I packed a minneloa from home,

and bought a southwest chicken flat bread from the book store cafe.

My sandwich was tasty, but my teeth have started hurting and I could only eat half of it.  Boo!

I have lots of break time on Wednesdays – 1 hour + 45 minutes + 2 hours – but unfortunately I didn’t make good use of it at all today.  I’ll have to chalk up the wasted time to first long day tiredness.  Probably from now on I’ll go to the gym in my 2 hour break, but I didn’t want to go all sweaty to my first class session.

When I got home at 9 tonight I was beat.  All I could manage for dinner was a hot chocolate and a frozen meal.

Caramel Praline Hot Cocoa,

and a Pumpkin Squash Ravioli Healthy Choice.

P.S. This is disgusting.  I ate it because I was exhausted and starving, but they were steamed apples in with the squash chunks and the ravioli were sweet and disgusting.

I’m finishing an episode of The X-Files with Adam, and then bedtime can’t come quickly enough!

When was the latest class you took in college?

Just the Facts

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This needs to be a quick post, just the facts.  Adam and I got hooked (way hooked!) on Firefly today and the sooner I post the sooner I watch  🙂

This morning = Sabrina the Teenage Witch and a huge bowl of popcorn.

Bringing ‘corn back into this house was a bad idea, and that’s a fact.

Plus real lunch.

Sandwich Thin with cheese spread and turkey,

Bartlett pear.

Dinner a la mother-in-law; turkey quesadilla casserole.

End.

First Post of the New Year

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2011 is off to a productive start.  Probably because last night I gave the husband his 5-4-3-2-1-midnight! kiss and then headed straight to bed.  It’s not an official resolution, but bedtime is going to be a focus of mine in 2011.

Healthy breakfasts are also going to be a focus, but that was kind of a flop today.  To be fair, I just got back from a 10day vacation, so the choice was candy or nothing.  (I went with nothing).

Instead I unpacked, put away all the Christmas decorations, organized my new day planner, and wrote up a grocery list and meal plan.  The husband and I also got in our first workout:  20minutes of strength and stretch moves, side by side on our yoga mats.

Next up was a trip to Wegmans to deal with the food situation. It was 50*(?!?) here today, so this was my entire outfit, no coat!

It was after noon by the time we got to the grocery, so we had a lunch date at the hot bar.

I got Brussels sprouts with honey walnuts, white beans and escarole, Asian style veggies,

and a single piece of sweet and sour chicken.

I looooove it, but more than a bite really is overkill/unhealthy.

After a quick trip home to drop off the groceries, we headed to date #2 – the movies.  We were both dying to see “The Black Swan” and were crushed when we thought it wasn’t going to come to Buffalo.  As soon as we saw the updated movie listing on Thursday we knew what our plans for the new year were.

While at the mall I took advantage of post-holiday sales and snagged some bras and hand soap, both of which were boring but necessary. We also checked out the new candy kiosk.

A quarter pound of sour gummi cola bottles makes for a very exciting movie snack.

During a very exciting movie! The Black Swan was gorgeous, and very tense. I realized during that credits that I was clenching my hands so hard I hurt my finger!

Our dinner plan was an easy peasy three ingredients.

Pasta, marinara, canned sardines.

The husband is obsessed with sardines but I’ve been too afraid until now to try them. The smell is less than appetizing, but fish – omega-3 – is so healthy for you and this is the only kind of seafood we can afford.

I had the husband deal with them – mash, pan fry with marinara sauce – until it was time to top the pasta.

Looks good, great idea, but ultimately not for me.  I ate about half of my plate but was gagging and putting on major theatrics the whole time.  It didn’t help matters that Adam way undercooked the pasta, perhaps I’ll try again another time.

Thank goodness we had a spinach side salad planned.

Topped with Newman’s Own Asian Sesame dressing and Sahale Snacks Valdosta pecans.

And thank goodness for popcorn!

How did you ring in the new year?