Strawberry shortcake would be better.
But this will do.
1/2 cup each skim milk and water, 1/4 cup oats, a pinch of salt, 1 small banana, 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese, blackberries, a sprinkle of milk chocolate chips, and a drizzle of light half and half.
About last night … After all of my excitement,
the skillet cookie didn’t pan out (ba-dum ching!).
It was more of a cookie cake, which I hate. But the husband ate it. And now I’ve got this cool little skillet.
But I was left without dessert. And after my first hour of complaining about wanting a cookie, I realized that what I actually was, was hungry. For food.
So we set out. As we left the house at 8, I said to the husband “we’re going to drive around for hours and not get food, and you’ll be mad and I’ll cry.” That statement wasn’t entirely correct, but mostly. Instead of tears, we came home at midnight with pizza. And we watched “Bride Wars” and stuffed our faces and all was right with the world.
This morning it felt like breakfast should be nutritious. We had errands to run so we were looking for an on-the-goal meal that was packed with vitamins. Enter smoothies.
Into the blender went frozen blueberries, strawberries, a bit of orange juice, and a handful of ice. I blended, but instead of a smoothie all I got was rock hard fruit chunks sitting in a pool. So I continued to blend, adding in a bit of club soda to move things along.
But it seemed that no matter how much liquid I added, I just couldn’t get the substance in the blender to reach a liquid state. And that’s how our smoothies came to contain two cups of club soda.
They were disgusting. Shocking, right?
I made myself drink a bit more than half for the nutrients, and ate a piece of pizza when I got home.
And now I never want to see another piece of pizza ever again for at least week.
We have got –
If you guessed (e), you’re correct! Adam and I have the problem of being crazy people because we stayed up past 2am doing absolutely nothing. This morning got off to a late, rough start, but our day was packed full of to-do’s to prep for tonight’s party. We are almost set up and I’m all packed for tomorrow to boot.
Today was a double smoothie sort of day. First, another round of berry chocolate mint.
For two, 2 cups chocolate mint soy milk, 2 cups frozen strawberries, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, and 6oz 0% plain Greek yogurt.
My second smoothie was a (soy) nog delight.
For one, medium frozen banana, 1 cup Silk Soy Nog, 3 Tbsp malted milk powder, and a handful of ice.
Plus nibbles while we got ready for the party.
I’ll see y’all on the other side, from St. Thomas!
Note – I will probably be blogging every other day or so on vacation (my parents don’t have internet). If my first post is Monday morning, that doesn’t mean my plane crashed. But thanks in advance for thinking safe thoughts for me!
Amid doing lots of errands and eating lots of crap, I managed to squeeze in some merriment.
First, chocolate berry mint smoothies.
For two, I blended 2.5 cups frozen strawberries, 6 oz 0% plain greek yogurt, and 2 cups of peppermint chocolate soy milk.
Adam and I both love this Jamba Juice knock-off.
Dinner was especially merry.
Cottage cheese gingerbread pancakes!
My ingredients for 2 servings (which ended up being more like 1.5 servings!) –
Whisk together dry, then wet, then fold the two together just before griddling.
I topped my serving with Smart Balance Light, syrup, and sprinkles.
On the agenda for tomorrow?
I had an important test today (it didn’t go well, but that’s another story) so I got up early to do some studying at Starbucks. Just as I was about to head out, Adam called. He’d left his pager at home and needed me to wait for him. At first I was annoyed; I needed every minute of studying I could get. But then I realized that he had a pager because he’s going to be a doctor, and that’s amazing. So I got over it.
When I finally did get to Starbucks at 6am I got myself a gingerbread latte.
Actually, I ordered a plain non-fat latte and added 1 Tbsp of gingerbread syrup from home.
Shhh.
When I left at 7:30 I did buy an actual fancy drink though, a short, non-fat, salted caramel hot chocolate.
The flavors in this feel very complex and gourmet for a coffee joint, but it’s pretty rich so the short size is perfect.
I also ate some leftover fruit salad.
Then I failed took my test, got myself in a tizzy applying for several jobs and internships, and did my group presentation on cultural food patterns. Our country was Ireland so we all dressed in green.
We also brought in Irish soda bread for the class to try.
In addition to my slice I ate a Peppermint Stick Clif Bar.
This flavor was good, but not great like I was hoping it would be.
After class I had so much nervous energy I needed to burn off that I actually went to the gym! 30 minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.
I got home at 3:30 and had to unpack, shower, change, and eat dinner before my 4:15 orthodontist appointment, so this meal was quick but good.
My amazing turkey sandwich was 2 slices of toasted rye with cranberry relish, 2 slices of Applegate Farms roasted turkey, and 1 oz of reduced fat cream cheese.
Cream cheese on a sandwich is where it’s at.
I also had a pile of roasted green beans on the side.
I had less than 8 minutes to shovel my food in and this still tasted good! And I’m glad I did an earliest bird dinner because my teeth don’t feel like chomping with my new retainer set.
Webster and I are going to take a walk down Elmwood to pick up a friend and then she’s coming back here so we can work on yet another presentation. Exam week won’t be fun, but I still going to be so relieved when we have our last class of the semester on Thursday!
Which “fancy drink” are you going to Starbucks for this winter?
Book club was a success! And Adam got off of his shift early and got to spend the afternoon with me, so it was a great day all-around.
I got up early to do some final cleaning (when people come over I like to pretend that we’re not slobs) and snacked on a bag of popcorn and a slice of 2% provolone while I worked.
I also did some major 2-for-me-and-1-for-the-bowl-ing while I prepped the fruit salad.
At 10 my friends arrived and we feasted.
We may not have really talked about the book (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) but at least we had some good eats!
My plate had potatoes,
fruit salad,
cheesy baked eggs,
and a crepe (so cool!) with Biscoff spread on the inside.
We also made hibiscus mimosas.
It was all great fun. No people pictures though because we suck at remembering to take them. I always have my camera with me (duh) so I need to do a better job at snapping candids.
We book clubbed until after 3pm and then my cultural meal pattern group and I baked some Irish soda bread to bring to our presentation tomorrow. By the time they left I was starving again and my study motivation was seriously waning. But I have an important cumulative exam – spanning two semesters and material from 2 courses – tomorrow. What to do, what to do?
Somehow the husband and I decided that the solution was to go out to dinner and study at the table while other people prepared our food!
We went to an all-you-can-eat sushi spot that has a longish wait between courses and it was actually perfect. I’m not prepared for tomorrow by any means, but I got a lot more done than I would have at home.
I also ate a lot. I just plain don’t have time to break the pictures down, but here’s a shot of what I ate.
Wow! Highlights included edamame, tamago (sweet egg) sushi, and tempura zucchini.
And we stopped at Wegmans for a candy cane for dessert.
Sweet dreams!
Sorry I keep disappearing. No one actually cares besides my mom, but she really cares! (Sorry, mom!) My personal school semester seems to have ended two weeks ago, and since real school runs until December 15th it’s been sort of a problem.
But today was busy. So busy in fact, that I woke up at 7:30 but didn’t have my first bites sips until after 10am.
A mug of White Christmas tea with 1/4 cup of eggnog.
The tea contained peppermint and ginger so all of my favorite holiday flavors were present in this mug.
My morning included dog walking, house decorating and grocery shopping. Then I took a quick break for lunch.
This open-faced sandwich was stupendous. I topped a thick slice of bread with cranberry relish, some shredded rotisserie chicken, and a few slices of melty sharp cheddar.
The tang from the cranberries paired really nicely with the cheddar.
Adam had to go to the mall to replace his eyeglasses (Webster) so I tagged along. We also finished up the last of our Christmas shopping and cashed in a coupon at DQ.
I got a mini candy cane chill blizzard. There were little pieces of crunchy peppermint throughout and I loved it.
The flavor and texture actually reminded me of that great peppermint stick chocolate bar Adam and I ate last week.
We made a quick stop at home to pick up the little destructor and then we headed to Pet Smart. Someone has been getting chilly on walks.
Oh. My. Goodness. I don’t even have the words to describe how cute Webster looks in his new sweater (thanks, mom!). Sidenote – every single time we go out on a walk someone/many people comment on how cute Webster is, so I always tell him that he’s “the toast of the town.” Then today I got to ask how The Toast liked feeling toasty!
My evening included coffee cake cooking, more cleaning, and dinner.
We split a bag of Bird’s Eye garlic cauliflower,
and made a batch of Rachael Ray’s Beer-Braised Meatballs.
I subbed in turkey meat and chicken stock for the beefy bits, but otherwise followed the recipe. We think this one’s a keeper.
And for dessert I tried a small slice of the coffee cake.
Pretty good. I’m actually not the hugest coffee cake fan but I’m hosting book club tomorrow and I needed a brunch-appropriate cake (we read I Was Told There’d Be Cake).
Are you a pet dressed? I’m not really into it (my mom tried to buy Webster a bandana of the month club and we staunchly put our feet down) but the dog seems kind of wimpy and I don’t want him to be unhappy on walks.
So, this morning I looked like this –
and now I look like this –
I like it, I think!
I always sort of hate my hair whenever I get it chopped, but I’ve gone short several times now so apparently that’s not holding me back! I ended up having 14 inches to give to Locks of Love, which is great.
A friend and I went during a long break between classes and it was fun to see people’s reactions when we got back. “Wait, didn’t you have a pony-tail this morning?!?” I surprised Adam too. He picked me up from school and his mouth fell open when I walked out to the car!
BC (before the cut) I ate half of this Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar for breakfast.
And AC (after the cut) I bought a great green juice.
This was blend of spinach, kale, carrot, and cucumber; from a new spot just blocks from my apartment.
This was so good, and “only” $4. I predict I’ll be there more often than I can afford!
Adam picked me up after school so we could make a quick grocery trip. We each picked something from the cookie bar for funsies before we did boring stuff like toilet paper.
I chose cinnamon nut rugala and I’m now on the hunt for a rugala recipe to make at home.
While I was fixing Adam’s dinner I snacked on some canned pineapple over 1% cottage cheese.
My dinner was supposed to be some of Monday’s “leftovers,” leftover.
A heaping bowl of pasta, shredded chicken, and tons of peas, topped with parmesan, cranberry relish, and a drizzle of evoo.
I love this bowl so much more than I do anything I eat on Thanksgiving. But I got up to do something halfway through and when I came back there was a dog face in my bowl! Webster’s sort of an asshole.
Instead I ate this Smart Ones Brocoli and Cheddar Roasted Potatoes.
Not as good as the dinner I shared with the dog, but not as bad as it looks either.
Have you ever given to Locks of Love? If you have long hair – how many times have you gone short?
Eating Chalk 