Tag Archives: beans

Great News

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I hope everyone is having a great Monday.  Mine has been full of all sorts of good news so far –

  • I got a 95% on the final and ended up with an A- in Anthropology
  • I finished my first set of Chemistry classes with an A in 102
  • My leg hasn’t hurt for the 3rd day in a row (more on what that means below)
  • Our plans are all set to visit Adam’s brother this weekend

As you might guess, I’m in a pretty good mood 😀  And all good days start with good breakfasts.

Stonyfield Blueberry Fat Free Yogurt with All-Bran Wheat Flakes (my final sample box) and fresh blackberries.

I’m going to be volunteering again for the next three weeks, so after breakfast I headed off to the hospital.  It felt so good to be back I ended up staying long over my time-commitment.

My late lunch was a veggie sensation.

I finally got to try the Nut-Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries blogworld has been raving about.

I tossed 1.5cups of peeled and chopped ‘snips in 2T of SunButter, then sprinkled them with salt and baked at 400* for 30minutes.  Here is the original recipe.  Angela was right, they are life-changing; I want to eat this every day!

I also had 1/2 cup of vegetarian baked beans.

Eat More Veggies Tip # 1 – Don’t be afraid to test their versatility, most veggies can go savory or sweet.

Eat More Veggies Tip # 2 – Canned veggies are just as healthy, and because they are non-perishable to easy to always have them on hand.

While I wait for lunch to digest, I will tell what about what I consider to be the best news of all: I can run again!!!!!  My doctor told me that my leg wouldn’t stop hurting until the fracture was fully healed, so 3 days without pain should mean I’m good to go.  I want to be able to keep running, so I’m going to be VERY careful.  i.e. –

  • icing as much as possible
  • stretching every day
  • working on leg strength training 3x a week
  • never running 2 days in a row
  • taking things really really slowly.  This first week I’m only going to let myself run for 5minutes.  And I’m not going to cross-train either until I’m sure I’m really healed.

So in just a bit I’ll be off to the gym, so exciting!  I’ll let you know how it goes over dinner.

Veggies eaten so far today:  2cups

Gotten any good news lately you’d like to share?  Brag away!

You’re Too Kind

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I’m back!  I spent the last three days letting Chemistry make me her b***h, do I look any worse for the wear?

My final this morning actually didn’t go all that well, but at this point I’m glad to be done.  Plus, it’s hard to feel anything but grateful when I read over all the nice comments you guys left on my last post!  I loved all the sweet things you had to say, but do feel free to voice anything negative if you’re ever so inclined.  I always miss blogging when I’m away but I’ve especially been itching to get back today.  I also appreciated your support on my moderation plan, I’m pretty excited about it.

This morning before the slaughter final I ate a Hazelnut Bumble Bar for breakfast.

Then THREE HOURS LATER I was freeeeeeeee!  I actually have an Anthropology final next week but it’s pretty low-key so I’m letting the whimsy overtake me.

Adam and I had errands to run this afternoon so lunch was the soul-soother that is Wegman’s salad bar.

I had a little bit of broccoli,

some amazingly delicious roasted eggplant and squash (I almost went back to purchase more of this!),

Channa Masala,

and a half piece of Naan.

Lunch was fantastic, and our grocery shopping went pretty well too.  We purchased a bunch of fun things this week that I’m excited to blog about.  For example, Simply Lemonade Raspberry.

I generally try not to drink a lot of juice (although I’ve actually been trying to up my intake of calcium+vitamin d oj) but the Simply line is so perfect that I make an exception.  The lack of sugar overload is so refreshing.  I enjoyed a glass (8oz) during this post.

Mmmn, pink!

In spite of all our good finds, we had to make another stop on the way home to purchase our poultry.

I’d been having some misgivings about our Wegman’s chicken – skinless, boneless, breasts – for a while and after Adam watched the entire Earthlings movie last week he was easily convinced that we needed to step up our ethical purchasing power.  While I have no moral qualms consuming poultry (I’ll never eat pork or beef, i.e. mammals), I do take issue with not treating the chickens, whose lives we take, with respect.  From now on we’ll be purchasing our meat from the local co-op.  It costs a bit more, but I’m more concerned with the cost to my karma right now.

Free Bird.  Vegetarian fed, humanely raised, no growth hormones used.  Check, check, check.

To my omnivore readers – what kind of meat do you purchase?  What guides your choice money, morals, apathy, or a mix of all three?

And another thing – After reading some negative blog posts about product reviews (a whole ‘nother story) I got to thinking.  I occasionally review a sample or two that a company sends, but I’ve pretty much stopped reviewing the products I’ve purchased.  But I’m excited about food, and I feel like I have good great taste.  So for now on I will at least try to link to the website of products that I’ve purchased that I think are exceptional.

A Spot of Tea

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I had my head buried in the books all morning so it ended up being a late lunch.  I have three more chapters worth of notecards to make before I can get into the nitty gritty of reviewing.

The husband’s been nagging me to cut back on the diet soda (a.k.a my lifeblood) so today I gave iced tea a try.  I combined 4 bags of Snapple berry tea with 3cups of water in a saucepan and heated them to a low simmer. 

Then I cut the heat and let them stew for five minutes before discarding the bags.  Finally I dumped in a tray of ice-cups.  Voila, a pot of tea –

My strainer ladle was the perfect serving implement.

And I enjoyed this glass x2 while I studied.

I also enjoyed geeked out over a few of these.

Cherry-cola salt water taffy, I am so onboard!  Cherry cola is one my favorite flavors (my favorite diet soda addiction is Cherry Coke Zero), in fact I’ve already decided to order a Roy Rogers next time I’m in a restaurant!

Around 2:30 I finally came to a stopping point and made a worth-the-wait lunch.

  1. First I put 1t canola oil into a saucepan over medium high heat.  Once the oil was warm I added in 1/2 a medium sweet potato, chopped and 1/4cup roughly chopped red onion.  I seasoned the veggies with s&p and spicy Hungarian paprika.
  2. I cooked the veggies for ~5minutes before adding 2 handfuls of fresh kale.
  3. I poured 1/4cup h2o over the kale and let the water disappear before I added 1/2cup black beans.
  4. Finally I poured in 1t chipotle oil and toss everything together.

Yums!  I’m not a vegan, but my favorite meals are always a combo of veggies.

When Adam gets home around 4 he’s driving me to The Spot for a study session with Caroline.  I’m probably going to be at the coffee shop every night this week and I’d rather not spend that much $ on food so hopefully my late lunch will be able to hold me over until a late dinner.

What do you drink all day long?  I have no plans of quitting soda, but I did agree to cut back a bit, and more importantly drink more water!  In addition to my tea I’ve already also had a few glasses of the plain stuff.

Down in Lunch Lady Land

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Why yes, I am posting at midnight.  Is it possible my sleep schedule needs a wee bit of work?  Perhaps I should grow up a bit and learn to not watch Buffy the husband all night prioritize?  I will keep this quick though.  Like super quick.

We had lab check out today, I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar during final exam review.  (18words, speed it up, Emily!)

Good God I love those bars!  Did not really dent my hunger though.  And my plan was to swim afterward but I didn’t so I ended up stuck at campus waiting for Adam.  I did a 40minute swim on Monday and my ears have been hurting, better safe than sorry so I’m not swimming again ’till this weekend.

While I waited I did hit up Starbucks.

Tall, non-fat, iced, cinnamon-dolce latte.  I literally had to tell the barista that I was aware that “my drink has too many adjectives!”  I almost was starved into an item from the display case but I was too excited about my planned lunch.

I decided to bring back taco salads.  This guy had a lettuce base with black beans, crushed blue tortilla chips, 2% colby jack, low fat sour cream, and homemade pineapple salsa.

Do that not just sound/look like the best salad ever?

Well it WAS NOT.  Holy yuck!  The lettuce was so bitter that I seriously gagged on it.  I did my best to pick off the toppings but I ended up having to throw most of it away.

Not surprisingly, I was still hungry, so I popped a frozen mac and cheese into the microwave.

Much better.

Whilst hanging out this afternoon I snacked on too much some of this Divine candy bar.

It had crunchy, but yet still juicy, pieces of dried strawberry all throughout, so yum!

Dinner looked like this –

I used a Cooking Light recipe for Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes.

The sauce was more Joe’s cousin James than full on, but still very tasty.  I used ground turkey meat, of course.

And for our side I did a quick saute of chopped okra, frozen turnip greens, and chopped turkey bacon.

Dinner was good, but Adam and I were mostly excited for dessert.

What’s that?  Oh, not much, just a toasted marshmallow milkshake!

The recipe comes from Rachael Ray Magazine, and yes it was amazing.  I did sub in reduced fat varieties though.

It is undeniably bedtime.  Sweet dreams!

What’s your favorite Adam Sandler song?  When his stuff was popular my parents wouldn’t let me buy the cds, which was ironic because I owned several Jerky Boys cds!

Achoo, Achoo!

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I’m feeling sick so I’ll keep this quick.  (I’m a poet and I don’t even know it, ha!)  My s-i-l has cats that I’m super allergic to I’ve been sneezing my head off.  So I’ve got showering, packing, and sneezing 8bazillion times still on the agenda before bed.

This morning I made a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with skim milk.

I’m not gonna lie, Adam was getting some seriously whining about my inability to make a Green Monster.  Sometimes (like all day today) the food situation with my in-laws is frustrating because I eat so differently than they do.

When Adam and I went to gas up the car around noon I spotted a ‘make-your-own’ milkshake machine and squealed with glee.

I’m not sure why these are so exciting to me but they really are.  Adam and split a mint chocolate chip.

And then we came home for a real lunch.

Celery and carrots with a little bit of ranch,

part of a Cara Cara Orange,

and a turkey sandwich.

I also had a few of these throughout the afternoon.

My m-i-l made an adorable bunny cake –

But it was box cake with can icing and there was no way that was worth the trans fat ingestion.

Dinner was a Mexican affair.

Turkey nachos,

and chicken, peppers, and black bean quesadillas.

Adam and I were in charge of making the quesadillas but I only ended up eating half of one.  I did go back for nachos seconds though.

My b-i-l made a plate with nachos just for the two of us and I was in heaven.

My favorite part of dinner was my beverage though.  Diet cola with Strawberry Crush, hell yeah!

I ate way too much crap this weekend, but I know that that streak will be continued tomorrow because we have a foodie day planned……..in New York City!!!!!

Do y’all have any idea how excited I am to back to the city?!  Oh man!  We are getting there around 11 and staying until around 7pm.  It’s obviously not the trip we had planned originally, because our favorite thing to do in NYC is walk, but we wanted to go in spite of my injury.  Even a low-key day will be a lot of fun.

We have an 8+hour drive back to Buffalo and I have classes Tuesday afternoon so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post a recap.  I hope everyone else had a great weekend.

What is your favorite US city?

In Need of a Green Beer

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Happy Festivus!  No wait, that was yesterday’s post, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  If you don’t know what Festivus is your life has been empty and you should check out this wikipedia post.

My late night/early morning combo didn’t leave me feeling that chipper but I knew I had to get my green on –

my nails are rocking a shamrock hue as well –

And breakfast, consumed on the way to 8am lab, was a Green Monster.

We were out of bananas so this guy had 1cup frozen spinach, 1cup oj, and 1/2cup frozen peaches.

Lab went well, I am all done with my post-calculations which always makes me happy.

Adam picked me up from campus around noon so we could finally replenish our stores at the grocery.  It was a quick trip, nothing too exciting, because frankly I’m too busy to do much cooking until after my two exams are over.  We did get an exciting lunch though.

Random roasted veggies,

Chan Marsala and Tandori chicken,

and a piece of Nann for sauce scooping.

Now I’ve got some random business to take care off before I meet Caroline at the Spot for an evening study date.

Curious about my half marathon?

Check out my personalized results page, click here.

To my lucky NYC readers –

SELF Work-out in the Park is coming soon, Saturday, May 8th.  I had a great time last year and I’m super sad to not be able to go again.  If you are interested tickets are $20 in advance, available here.

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?

No-So-Small Smalls Will Make Me Not So Small

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We are the proud owners of new (safer, eco-safe) pans!  Nothing else today has gone according to plan though, mostly in a good way 🙂

I ended up only taking a few sips of my Naked juice because the husband picked me up much earlier than expected.  It was good because I got to blow that joint, but I had hoped to be forced to do a few more hours of studying.  When I offered Adam a sip of my juice he randomly fell in love with it and I let him have it.

After our Target trip we randomly decided to go on a date ❤  We had to stop at Wegmans to pick something up so we hit up the salad bar.

Chan Marsala with Naan (YUM!),

roasted veggies and a little bit of tofu.

So good.  Whenever we do the salad bar the husband and I always share a diet soda, awwwwww!

Can you guess what we did next?

Bowling!  I am so terrible at it but I enjoy it so much.  My first game was beyond embarrassing.

But I started to get the hang of it.

And by the 3rd game I beat the husband!

He had a pretty serious thumb injury at that point but I’ll take what I can get 🙂  While we were bowling I munched on this entire “small” (4serving!) bag of buffalo wing pretzels.

I need to basically never pick up a bag that has more servings than I plan on eating at that moment.  In general I only eat things that aren’t healthy when I choose to, but I have no control with those “small” bags.  I did the same thing with a bag of trail mix yesterday 😦

I planned on eating dessert this evening, Maple Pecan Blondies (another E,D&BV recipe), but a mid-way run down the block for flour meant they aren’t done yet.  I’ll probably nibble one before bed and I’ll give you a review in the morning.

What foods do you lose control with?  What have you done to combat the problem?