For breakfast I made myself a big bowl of cereal.
You couldn’t really tell.
I topped 1 serving of Cheerios and 1 serving of All Bran Bran Buds with blueberries and 1 cup of Lifeway Low-fat Birthday Cake Kefir.
I expected the kefir to sink and fill in the cracks.
Instead it took a little coaxing to get it to give up the booty.
There it is!
Like buried treasure.
But for breakfast.
I wasn’t quite the productivity machine I was hoping to be, but I did take off that gross brown nail polish. Baby steps.
I didn’t eat definitive meals today, more like equally spaced random snacks. Bowl o’ berries.
2% cottage cheese and Siggi’s 2% Coconut Skyr Yogurt topped with blueberries and maple syrup.
The syrup was supposed to be a light drizzle but with my newly opened bottle it ended up being more of a drenching.
Kettle corn.
Magnum Double Caramel Ice Cream Bar.
Tuna salad.
Adam and I split a can’s worth of tuna with Miracle Whip and pickle relish.
I had an everything matzoh on the side for crunch.
My final snack was a glass of Low-fat Birthday Cake Kefir.
I showed a picture of the bottle yesterday and promised to share more. The Kefir is from Lifeway and it is flipping delicious.
The flavor isn’t exactly cake but it is pleasant. Every flavor of Kefir I’ve tried from Lifeway has been the perfect balance of sweet over sour but not so sweet that it hurts your throat. There are 170 calories per 8 oz and it is definitely more filling and satisfying than a glass of milk.
My evening was spent at the Buffalo Centre for the Treatment of Eating Disorders for an informational session put on by the local dietetics association. I toured the center last summer on my own but it was good to see some familiar faces from my outpatient rotations. I’m not sure whether or not we’ll stay in the area after graduation but it’s always good to do some networking.
How important is networking in your profession?
The semester is winding down. Classes finished today and I’ve got a week of exams standing between me and summer. Of course, I only have two weeks of freedom before summer school starts, but I’ll take what I can get.
I’ve been having the hardest time getting out of bed in the morning and today was not the day that broke the streak. I’ll need to treat my two free weeks like a bedtime boot camp or I’m going to be hurting during summer school. I ran out of time to workout so instead I drove the dog with me while I parked the car and then walked him home from school.
It was nice to take him somewhere new, though I wish he would have found a better place to do his business than the middle of the quad!
I did a quick outfit change at home and then I was walking back to school, breakfast in hand.
This smoothie combo is a winner! 1.5 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 cup of lemonade, and 1 cup of frozen strawberries.
Frozen strawberry lemonade can’t be beat and the chia seeds give it a nice hit of omega-3s.
I had less time this morning because my statistics teacher let me come in early to check over the homework. All of my assignments are now in (a week early) and I finished today’s practice test and checked my answers (all correct!) before class was half over so I’m feeling good for the final.
Lunch was eaten in the car on the way to my last clinic observation of the semester. Bagelwiches are a nice, one-handed item.
I had a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with jalapeño cream cheese and Applegate Farms’ Smoked Turkey.
Plus an Empire apple.
My last day of clinic went great. I did another outpatient observation and I’m pretty much convinced I want to do outpatient when I grow up. I love the amount of interaction RDs get with their outpatient clients! While I was there we saw three patients, two type 2 diabetics and a GI issue. Getting an hour (+) with each of them was great; it seems like they all took a lot away from their appointments.
My last night class went well and suddenly, I was free! I didn’t have much time to workout; once I made it home and changed I could only get one loop around the block before it got dark. It was just was well though, I’m not sure I had a 2nd loop in me! 1.2 miles in 10:55. <– that’s more than a minute faster than any of my previous times!!
Dinner was easy peasy leftovers.
Bow tie pasta and roasted zucchini with peasy pesto, drizzled with 1 Tbsp evoo.
I’ve never been so glad to see a bowl of pasta in my life. The only thing I’m more excited about is getting my head on a pillow.
1. Can we talk about the weather? Because seriously –
2. I definitely rocked day old smokey eye to the gym this morning.
3. Did you like how I casually mentioned that gym trip like it hasn’t been practically a month since I last worked out? I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 6 random. Plus a few minutes of strength and stretch moves.
4. The new 2% Coconut Siggi’s Skyr yogurts are delicious. I ate one for breakfast topped with raspberries, 1 tsp passionfruit jam, and a sprinkle of toasted coconut.
5. Even with my lackluster photography skills, breakfast was a looker.
6. I like to study standing at our mantel. Everything is better with a friend.
7. Adam laughed at me when I took home the extra pretzel stick from TGIF’s but I ate it for lunch today with roasted okra. The mustard drizzle was like icing on a cake.
8. One of our smoke alarms is running out of batteries and it beeps every 20 seconds. I appreciate the warning but the damn noise is making me consider burning the house to the ground.
9. Leftover Thai Iced Coffee Slush makes great iced coffee. I poured 1+ cup of skim milk over a leftover serving of slush for a tasty treat.
10. Adam made beef stew in the crock pot to take for lunch this week. We gave a tiny bowl of meat to the dog last night and he’s alternated between standing guard at the fridge and staring deeply into my soul ever since.
Good food, good friends, and a bit of work; ’twas the perfect Sunday!
Any day is sweet when your morning starts off like this –
If you don’t want to start your day with sweetened condensed milk I’m not sure we can be friends. I only had a small taste, I was using the SCM in a fun recipe and licking the spoon is practically a requirement.
We had brunch plans at noon so I also had this Cara Cara Orange in the a.m. to hold me over.
Good thing too, the wait ended up being lengthy.
Thankfully Betty’s was worth the time.
3rd year has been busy so it was great to get together with some medical school friends.
Apparently I think smoky eyes are a brunch look.
A Bloody Mary (extra spicy) was ordered the minute we got to our table.
Not gonna lie – I got a little buzzed; I’m officially a light-weight.
For my meal I had my eye on the vegetable hash –
Corn and poblano peppers topped with runny eggs sounds like heaven on a plate, but sadly they had run out. I ended up making a last-minute decision and choosing the apple and cranberry french toast streusel casserole.
The casserole was good but I should have stuck with savory, I just wasn’t feeling sweet. I ate about half plus two incredible stolen bites of Adam’s lox Benedict.
I didn’t have to wait long to eat again (do I ever?!); we went to the movies this afternoon and I polished off 90% of these pretzel bites.
This is literally the only time I would ever considering eating fake cheese, but boy do I shovel it in with pretzel bites! We saw “Cabin in the Woods.” I hate horror films a lot (even “horror comedies”) but we’re obsessed with Joss Whedon so we had to go. I didn’t adore the movie itself but I loved the fact that it was basically a giant commentary on the genre. No “Serenity” though 😉
Our friends were talking about the “five languages of love” at brunch so when we got home we decided to take the quiz. Here are my results –
And here are Adam’s –
We both are indifferent to gifts but need physical touch and quality time (I could have told you that before the quiz!) You’ll notice that I care much more about acts of service than Adam; a good thing since I’m basically worthless!
But I did make us an awesome snack.
When we lived in Park Slope there was a coffee shop on our block with the best-ever coffee granita. We were obsessed and Adam got a granita for free two years in the row because he was the first person to order it at the end of winter. This was my attempt at a Thai Iced Coffee style granita.
I know it looks like dog food but I promise that the taste and texture were great. Here’s the recipe –
Thai Iced Coffee Slush, serves 6
We loved it! The slush was milky and sweet but the coffee flavor was strong. Each serving has less than 200 calories so it’s the perfect light, summer treat.
We weren’t done having fun yet; next we cashed in a Living Social deal for dinner at Spicy Thai. Spicy Thai has my favorite pad see eiw in Buffalo but I was craving spice so I branched out.
Spicy Tofu – “(comes hot and only hot) fried tofu with green beans sautéed in spicy chili, garlic, and basil.” I requested mine extra hot and with broccoli thrown in for some extra veggies.
Awesome. It actually wasn’t as spicy as I’d hoped but the flavors were delicious. I loved how the tofu was a little bit sweet. I ate 2/3s and then gave the rest, and all of my rice, to the husband.
He ordered the Pad See Eiw and I took many bites of that as well.
Marshmallow noodles!
My tofu may not have been hot but my dish did come with some of these killer Thai peppers.
I always pick around the darker dried ones (I had a really bad experience at a Panda Express once) but today I tried one of the soft, bright red pieces. I spent a minute in tears with a tongue that felt like it had a hole in it, but ended up with a really pleasant spice flavor. Adam – who used to ardently hate all things hot – even tried one.
I’m so proud of him for branching out! He’s even the occasional Sriracha fan now.
On our way home we stopped in at Starbucks to get me the chocolate hazelnut tart that I’ve been mooning at for weeks.
I Googled when we got home and if I’d know that this guy only had 180 calories I probably would have gotten one sooner! The shortbread crust was everything I was hoping it would be.
Actually, Adam attempted to get me one of those last week but misunderstood and purchased a little apple pie instead (no thanks). I may not have eaten his treat but I was incredibly thrilled by the gesture. I guess I do care a little bit about gifts!
What is your most important language of love?
I am so flipping excited to be back to blogging! In fact, I’m excited about doing pretty much anything. You see, I’m getting over a case of the “have-nots.” It was a nasty one. The past week I have not:
blogged ~ washed my hair ~ cooked ~ done any school work beyond what was immediately due ~ worked out ~ read any books ~ cleaned my house ~ eaten anything with any real nutritional value ~ been nice to my husband ~ taken a moment to appreciate my life
I told you it was bad. I finally got so sick of myself that this morning I started getting back to doing. I did three hair washes in the shower. I made and ate two healthy meals. I took a walk. I went to school. I finished a major assignment. I pre-made Adam’s dinner. I took a moment to reflect.
My plans for the weekend are big but doable – 1. spring clean our storage containers. 2. switch out our summer and winter wardrobes. 3. eat lots of fruits and veggies. 4. get in some strength training. 5. make notecards to start prepping for exam week. 6. read the 2nd Hunger Games book. #6 is the only task that’s really urgent 🙂
How do you get back in gear when you’ve got a case of the have-nots?
Back to blogging? This morning breakfast was pink, pink, pink.
I blended together 1 cup of skim milk, a 0% plain Yoplait Greek yogurt, 1 cup of frozen blackberries, and 1 Tbsp maple syrup.
Tangy but tasty. I froze a bunch of blackberries when they were on super-sale a few weeks back so I expect to have this again soon.
When my class was over this morning it was too pretty out to go home so I extended my walk up Elmwood to the Co-op. I perused some fun looking products but came away with only one.
A Relax drink from Solixir. With blackberry, chamomile, passion-flower, jujube, lemon balm, and hibiscus.
It didn’t really have much flavor but for 50 calories and no added sugar I’m not complaining.
My food was feeling preppy so to go with breakfast’s pink lunch was green.
I started with a Crispin apple.
Then I had a green-on-the-inside twice baked potato with basil and cheddar.
Recipe is down below. But I have to show you what I used for my basil –
I bought this Gourmet Garden Basil Herb Blend the other day on a whim but I think it’s going to become a kitchen staple! So much easier than cutting up my own basil or throwing out my own basil when it rots in the crisper. I see a lot of herbs in this week’s meal plan future.
Finally a big pile of roasted green beans.
Better than french fries! <– and I can tell you that for certain because I ate french fries for dinner two nights this week *whoops*
Basil and Cheddar Twice Baked Potato
Have you ever had a string of fails in the kitchen?
I’m starting to seriously question my baking ability. First, there was the Guinness cupcakes fail (apparently you can’t add beer to cake batter like the diet coke cake trick). Then this weekend I learned this – adding strawberry pie filling to peanut butter cookie dough does not make pb & j cookies. But as I told Adam as he was scraping an entire bowl of cookie dough into the trash, if I don’t at least try then I’ll never learn.
I was hoping to have a fun smoothie recipe to share today but I learned from that too. Instead I had to turn to leftovers for breakfast.
This casserole was a fun mix of brown rice, shredded chicken, spinach, celery, toasted pecans, and fig butter.
Plus I had fruit and yogurt on the side. Plain Siggi’s with blackberries, yellow plucot, and maple syrup.
It was a good meal.
And it’s always good to get a healthy start after several days of popcorn!
I took an extra long walk this afternoon. Two friends from school came over and we took Webster on several loops of the neighborhood. One of the girls recently switched majors and it was a great to get the chance to catch up with her. Unfortunately now I have a huge painful blister on one of my toes; I can barely walk!
When I got back I ate a big spoonful (~2 Tbsp) of my new favorite thing.
Now that Wegman’s sells Crunchy Biscoff Spread my life is complete.
Lunch looked similar to breakfast, but had a flavor profile that was all its own.
I mashed roasted butternut squash with Miracle Whip, stirred in brown rice and roasted, shredded zucchini, and topped with some chopped 50% reduced fat cheddar.
Some people live without microwaves, how do they get things melty?
Dinner was melty too, but from the oven. I roasted a sandwich thin with turkey, more reduced fat cheddar, and six (6!!) pickle slices.
Plus a pile of roasted green beans.
It’s not the first time I’ve had that meal this month and I don’t expect it to be the last.
In spite of my foot, the weather was too nice for me to not go another short walk with the husband. We split a Push Up from the convenience store.
It felt like being 8 again!
Adam has a late start tomorrow and I’m on spring break so we plan on watching Stargate: Atlantis late into the night. Woot!
P.S. I was gone yesterday because I got some frustrating news at my “final” orthodontist appointment – I’m back in retainers for three weeks. Ugh! So yesterday I was sulking and eating soft things.
Is anyone else wishing it was Thursday? Actually, I’m wishing it was still Monday! I have a lot (a lot, a lot, a lot) of big school stuff going on this week and I’m so not ready. I spent too much of my morning worrying and not enough of it working. Such is life; and I finally got over feeling overwhelmed and got some serious work done this evening.
Breakfast was berrytastic.
Greek Gods Honey Strawberry Greek Yogurt topped with blackberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.
I underestimated how sweet the fresh berries would be (not sour at all!) and this bowl ended up being a little too sugary. The full-fat Greek Yogurt is sweeter than the 0% varieties too. But the new-to-me flavor receives two thumbs up.
I also made myself something hot for the walk to school.
A double-brewed (2 bags tea to 1 cup water) mug of Tea Republic’s red velvet tea with sugar and plain almond milk.
We had a mock Statistics test today before our first real test on Thursday and it went pretty well. We are allowed to bring a “cheat sheet” in so I’m not too worried. I do have to actually make the sheet though!
When I got home I found a package of homemade goodies from my mother-in-law.
I helped myself to many white chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles.
And for lunch I helped myself to one of the husband’s tupperwares.
I made him spaghetti with turnip greens, brocoli, and tomato sauce for lunches this week. I gussied up my stolen bowl by reheating it in a skillet with evoo and an egg.
The crunchy, almost burnt bits are my favorite. And not to worry, I packed Adam a sandwich for tomorrow.
Speak of the devil my hero, when Adam got home this afternoon he made me a big bowl of airpopped ‘corn.
I haaaate cleaning the airpopper and Adam is so sweet to me about regularly dealing with it. As long as you leave off the butter, popcorn makes the best study snack.
Dinner was inspired by my favorite chain restaurant meal.
California Pizza Kitchen’s Thai Chicken Pizza. The Thai Chicken Salad is my favorite but the pizza’s a close second.
For our version we topped a store-bought crust with –
It was fantastic! I could only finish one of my slices though; apparently half a pizza was a little too much! But I ate all of my roasted zucchini.
Other than green beans (the long-term reigning favorite), zucchini is this year’s favorite vegetable for roasting.
What is your favorite chain restaurant?
Eating Chalk 