Tag Archives: beans

Baking and Buddies

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I did not work out today (I told you I can’t take a day off, 1 has turned into 4, eek!) but I did manage to do a ton of creating.  I feel like I’ve spent the whole day mixing and stirring, and that’s a fabulous feeling!

First I whipped up a batch of natural spider repellant.

It’s h2o and lemon essential oil combined in an old spray bottle.  I went spritz-crazy all over the house.  I’ll let you know if it actually does any repelling.

Next I cooked up a batch of Maple Coconut Granola.

I used Kath’s recipe but substituted unsweetened shredded coconut for pecans.

Then I tried my first smoothie in a bowl!

First I put a Siggi’s Vanilla in the bottom of my bowl.

Next came my smoothie.

I mixed 1cup frozen strawberries, a packet of Chocolate Infusion Amazing Meal, and water.

This was my first smoothie using water as the liquid and I still adored the Chocolate Amazing Meal!  It wasn’t too grassy or too sweet but it totally helped to fill me up.  No weird graininess either.

Finally I topped my SIAB with 1/4 cup of my new granola.

Delectable!

I think smoothies via spoon instead of straw will definitely be the new thing in this house.

I may not have done any exercise, but my blender sure got a workout!  Next it had to tackle hummus.

I don’t have exact measurements, but I blended up chick peas, evoo, balsamic vinegar, salt, and water.

I wanted fresh hummus for lunch, but I also wanted … purple?

I ended up creating a pretty plate.

Purple bell peppers,

purple cherry tomatoes,

a dollop of hummus,

and some pita pieces; a take-home from dinner with my parents the other day.

Lunch was good, but nothing could top my afternoon snack.  I’ll give you a hint…

I cobbled together a couple recipes and my memories of Oko in Brooklyn to create Honey Greek Frozen Yogurt.

I didn’t have any fresh fruit (the horror) but enjoyed this bowl sans toppings just fine!

Make.This.  The texture is a tad bit softer than regular ice cream and the flavor is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted.  There is a bit of tang and a bit of sweet, but the olive oil totally comes through at the same time.  Click here for the link to my recipe.

Dinner was also a winner, and I’d say that even if it didn’t rhyme.

Chicken with figs and blue cheese (follow the link to the recipe, you can click to enlarge).

Soon I’ve got to head to the airport to pick up my friend Camile!  She’s flying in today and then tomorrow we are driving to NYC for BlogHer.  So excited!  The only sad this is that our friend Kristen was supposed to be meeting us in Buffalo on Sunday but due to some personal issues her trip got canceled.  I’m feeling a bit down about the breakdown of our trio visit, so indulge me in a little reminiscing?

Our senior year in college –

My 2007 visit to Miami –

Their 2007 visit to NYC –

My 2008 visit to Miami –

Their 2008 visit to NYC –

Their visit to STT –

My most recent visit to Orlando –

Do you keep in touch with any of your college friends?

The Devil Went Down to Georgia…

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We have internet!  And I cooked dinner in my oven!  A banner night all around 🙂

On my walk home this afternoon I realize that it had been 6hours since breakfast and was going to be another 4 until dinner, definitely time for lunch!  I made a stop into Subway.

I got a 6inch tuna salad sub with oil and vinegar and red onions.  I think the combo of tuna salad and red onions is just to die for!

I got a meal (hello, fountain diet soda!) so I also got some Baked Lays.

I took me a while to get hungry but once I was I got HUNGRY!  I also ate a serving of Goldfish,

and two cookies (yes in my Goldfish bowl, we have a tiny dishwasher I can’t be dirtying things left and right!).

Thankfully I was still hungry for dinner because dinner was a freaking masterpiece!

Every single component was through the roof tasty and the combination all together rocked my socks.  Plus, you know any meatless meal that the husband raves about is a winner.

My Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers,

Unfried Green Tomatoes from Cooking Light,

and 2 deviled eggs, recipe below.

Made for quite the pleasing meal.

The husband is obsessed with deviled eggs and since I won a year’s worth of Eggland’s Best it’s hard to turn down his request.  Tonight I tried out a new recipe that I thought up at the bar at Cheesecake Factory the other night;

Dirty Martini Deviled Eggs

  • 1 dozen large eggs
  • 2T olive brine
  • 2.5T blue cheese crumbles
  • 2T mayo
  • 6 pimento stuffed olives, halved
  1. Hard boil your eggs.  My method is to place the eggs in water in a big pan, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and cover for 15minutes.  If you run cool water over the eggs when the time is up they will be easier to peel.
  2. Peel eggs and slice in half lengthwise.
  3. Dump yolks into a medium bowl and mash together with brine, blue cheese, and mayo.
  4. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the whites and top each egg with an olive half.

I’ve got my 2nd shower of the day and I’ve promised my pack-mule of a mover husband a back massage.  Then it’s off to bed so I can hopefully make it to an early morning tomorrow.

Deviled eggs; like ’em, love ’em, or hate ’em?

P.S. I apologize for the brain worm title, I’ll be singing that song all night too!

Greens, Beans, and Time Machines

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I am officially caught up with school and ready to take my final exam tomorrow 🙂 I’ve definitely disliked being blog-neglectful, I can’t wait to get back into a schedule after the move is over.  For now, even though I love you it’s got to be another quickie (TWSS!).

 Breakfast/lunch were sort of spread out in three courses throughout the morning and afternoon.  I managed to get enough to eat, but consume in shifts that allowed me to study.  #1 A big bowl of fresh watermelon chunks.

#2 A serving of Barbara’s Shredded Oats topped with Silk Almond Milk and blueberries.

By the by, I hear a lot of people talking about binging on cereal and if you are one of those folks I highly recommend this stuff.  It is not very tasty dry from the box but fantasmic with some Silk Almond Milk.

#3 A long overdue green monster; 1frozen banana, 1cup frozen spinach, 1cup calcium + vitamin d oj.

When Adam got home this evening we played hookey from moving and instead took a long walk.  Our long walk was supposed to be an hour or so, to the ice cream store and back.  Instead we fell into a pointless fight and spent hours huffing and crying (who me?  I’m not stressed about moving!).  Don’t pointless fights just feel like you accidentally fell into some sort of time machine?  It’s like you can’t even believe how late it is when it’s over.  We did make it to the ice cream store eventually, but they were closed.  So instead we split a slice of melty pizza to hold us over for late dinner.

The husband had chicken to use up and I made myself a Mexican bowl of sorts.

Into the skillet went 2tsp evoo, chopped shallot, a small chopped potato, half of a chopped green pepper, black beans, 1egg and 2egg whites, 2T shredded cheddar, salt and tons of paprika.

I also had some green bean fries on the side.

It is late late late, Futurama–> bed –> goodnight!

Do you ever have pointless fights with your SO or do you bottle up your emotions and save them for times that actually count?

P.S. I also enjoyed a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lara Bar, yum!

Watermelon in a Smoothie and Beans in Some Soup

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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?

Long but Loving

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Hello again!  I hope that everyone got over the week’s hump nicely.  I’ll describe my situation succinctly: I will never put off my work for 4 days in a row again!  It’s been a painful experience that I don’t want to soon repeat.  The last 48hours have been stressful, but my eats have all been so good that there was no way I wasn’t posting them; hence the long recap post.

Wednesday morning I made a breakfast that was truly a thing of beauty –

A serving of Van’s Belgian Waffles topped with 2T maple syrup, the last of the strawberry sauce, fresh blueberries, and a cinnamon sprinkle.

Gah!  I always used to think that I didn’t like waffles, pancakes, etc, but that was just because I didn’t know to top them off with fruit and cinnamon.

{study, study, study}

Lunch was some Allergaroo Spyglass Noodles.

These were super tasty, and just the right about of food.

I wanted to keep lunch light because it was Katie’s birthday last week and we had a cupcake date.  It ended up being too hot for cupcakes, but locally made ice cream certainly fit the bill.

I got a small scoop of A Date at the Zoo, coconut ice cream with wine poached dates, brazil nuts, and chocolate chips.  Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds!

{study, study, study}

When hunger hit (hard) later in the afternoon I sliced up a big plate of cucumber to munch while I studied.  Unphotograhed accountability note – I also ate ~ 1/3 of a salmon patty straight from the container.

The water-dense snack was a good choice, because when the husband got home at 6 we headed out for a run.

I didn’t wear my watch, so I have no idea what the times are, but it was a good workout.  We did a mix of running and walking (with a few stops so I could fuss with my socks, eek I’m not sure if it’s the shoes or the socks but something with my new shoes isn’t working) and covered 3miles in total.

When you have good leftovers a healthy tasty dinner can literally be less than 2mintues away!

Over a bed of spring mix lettuce I combined 2/3cup microwaved frozen corn, a salmon patty, and a big scoop of medium chunky salsa.

The flavors of this salad went together so well!  It filled me up but it tasted so good that I kept scraping at my plate so I wouldn’t lose any of it 🙂

{study, study, study} um, {study, study, study, study}

That’s right folks, I pulled an (almost)all-nighter!  I stayed up until 4am doing the reading I should have done over the weekend.  Ugh.

I fell into bed for 6hours or so and then got right back to my books.  My messed up sleep schedule messed with my hunger in turn, and breakfast just didn’t sound good.  I did nibble on a serving of Jammie Dodgers throughout the morning though.

Around 2:30 I was finally caught up on the reading, which meant that I was ready to study for and take my test, jeez!

I did break for lunch though.  I pulled a carton of Dr. McDougal’s Lentil Soup out of the depths of my fridge.

I gussied it up with a chopped string cheese, a dollop of plain Siggis yogurt, and some Sriracha.

With a Savory Kathy’s Krackers Flax Snax on the side.

All together now –

Then it was more studying, yadda, yadda, yadda, and FINALLY I took my exam.  And I’m pretty sure I got a 100%, phew!

and if you’ve stuck around through all of that, I’d like to reward you with some recommendations…..

A Few of My (Current) Favorite Things –

1. The new fishy measuring spoon set my mom sent me.

They are available at Fred Flare, but I have heart palpitations whenever I view the kitchen section of that store so I can’t give you an exact link!

2. This College Humor Article about us 90’s kids.

Although I was actually always partial to Treasure Mountain, the article is hilarious.

3. The free online game Red Remover –

It is based on actual principles of physics, it is wickedly entertaining, and it’s flipping adorable.

Any current loves you’d like to share with me?

We Like To Ride

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Almost magically, we spotted a Chipotle around 7:30 yesterday.

Real food on a road trip?!?  Count me in!  I got a vegetarian burrito bowl.

Underneath all that lettuce was rice, black beans, guacamole, roasted corn salsa, and fresh tomato salsa.

It was the perfect fuel to get me to Ohio.  Perhaps a bit too much fuel, because we ended up keeping my parents awake chatting until almost 2am!

My mom was able to lure me out of bed at 8am with the thrill of a bike ride.  My grandparents live right next to a fabulous running/bike path; I’m so jealous!  My mom and I started our day off right with a good workout – biked 7.6miles.

Now I’m off to find breakfast before we start the rest of the day’s activities.  Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

Rainy Daze

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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? 

Fake It ‘Till You Make It

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This morning wasn’t a particularly good morning.  My alarm didn’t go off and I stubbed my toe.  But it felt like a good morning, because I said it had to be.  If you tell yourself you’re in a good mood and put a smile on your face, pretty soon you’ll actually feel like smiling.

I wanted to get my incidental exercise on today (2.5mile walk home) so I had the husband drop me off at school this morning.  When he gives me a ride it also means I’m at school 1.5hours early so I brought breakfast to eat on campus.  I think I redefined the word breakfast today though 🙂

Blueberries with a drizzle of honey and unsweetened shredded coconut.

A sliced red bell pepper with a serving of beet humus.

And some apricots from Peeled Snacks.

The apricots were supposed to be a snack for later but I was sooooo hungry.  I don’t know why my morning hunger has been so substantial recently.

Class went well today; fyi – I’ve scored a 90-100% on every one of the daily quizes thus far!  Not so exciting was the fact that our Monday test was moved up to tomorrow.  I only got a B+ on the last exam and I was looking forward to having the weekend to study.

I stopped at the Spot on Elmwood during the walk home and squeezed in some studying then.  I also managed to find some tasty vegan options for lunch.  Carrot and ginger soup,

and a (dry) sundried tomato bagel.

Lunch ended up being really, really good.  The soup was spicy and sweet and had huge tasty chunks of carrot.

Once I finished the walk home I got dinner in the crock-pot (we can’t eat until almost 8!) and now I’ve got to get started on some cleaning.  And find time to study for tomorrow.  But I’m doing it with a smile.

Does the ‘fake it ’till you make it’ philosophy work for you?