Tag Archives: blue cheese

Seis de Mayo!

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Okay, okay, so I’m a day late on my May 5th post.  Normally I hate to do long-overdue recap posts, but since my new 30 day goal is to post everything, here it is.  Quick sidenote – mad props to everyone who engages in drogging (aka drunk blogging); I wanted to share this yesterday but it was just not an option 😉

My classmates I add were touched by serendipity yesterday, when Cinco de Mayo and our last day of classes fell on the same day.  After a very long last day of classes (9:25 in the morning to 7 at night) we were able to head out for some much-needed celebration.

First, the morning.  Our last day of lab included drawer check out and a final exam.  I had a little extra time in the morning to study since I had to skip my workout (boo!), and I think I did pretty well on the exam.  I didn’t have it together for breakfast, but I did grab a medium iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

And it was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was down to my last sips; clearly I needed coffee!

Our last lab let out pretty early, and we were left with a six-hour break before our final evening class.  No problem, I took my friend Rachel on a mini tour of Elmwood!  We ambled down the street from school, stopping to visit a friend at work and hit up the Spot for a study session.  I grabbed some brown rice veggie sushi from the co-op for lunch.

And actually stopped at the co-op on the way back to school for dinner as well.

During my night class I noshed on Thai cucumber and peanut salad,

and some vegan pasta salad.

Suddenly we were taking our last quiz of the semester, packing up, and we were done with our first year of school!!!  I mean, there are finals next week, but still exciting.

Cinco de Mayo plans were supposed to include a holiday appropriate trip to Cozumel Bar, but a $10 cover later we ended up at JP Bullfeathers.

That was a Jack and ginger ale, but it tasted more like dirty water.  Weak drinks aside, JP Bullfeathers ended up being a perfect spot for our end of school celebration; not too packed for good conversation, but busy enough to still be fun.

We ended up sitting at a table and ordering some food as well.

My friend Janessa and I split the turkey and gorgonzola pannini,

which was delicious.  Turkey sandwiches seem to be my go-to restaurant order.

And how to do go out on Cinco de Mayo without margaritas?!

What’s the Spanish word for sloshed?  Let’s just say I’m glad I could walk less than a minute and be home!

I did stay up to share some dessert, of course.

That’s a caramelized macadamia nut and chocolate mousse tart that Adam brought home.

Now on to today.  In true college-girl fashion, I managed to stay in bed well past 1pm!!  It helps to have the bladder of a camel and a four-day break before finals begin.  🙂

Adam and made the executive decision that we needed a day together, so we took down a full season of Scrub’s recaps and an entire pizza.

That’s a bruschetta pizza topped with extra green olives, the best pizza topper ever.

The half a pizza pretty much covered all my food groups (what?! dairy, grains, veggies…) but I did sneak in one more veggie with a slice of carrot cake from the co-op.

A few facts – Carrot cake does to count as a veggie.  I think I need to be done with the co-op for a few days.  It was a glorious day with my husband.

Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Keep on Truckin’

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Another morning, another run in with a truck, or at least that’s what it felt like!  Even though I have a huge test tomorrow, and a meeting scheduled with my department head, the snooze button was definitely pressed!  Adam caught my cold and was too sick to go to his first class so thankfully(?!) he was able to drive me to campus for my meeting later.

I’m not sure what my mega-exhaustion is about, but since I’ve got a slew of important tests between now and next Friday I’m not going to push it.  Returning to the gym would be nice, but after more than a month off, another week really doesn’t make a difference.  Instead I’ve decided to make this week all about strength and stretch moves.  A decision that led me to meet with my department head dressed like this –

I’ve always got the time/energy for at least 10minutes total a day!  Here’s what I accomplished throughout this afternoon (reps) –

After coffee, of course.

Yesterday I grabbed a cup of (unsweetened) butter toffee flavored coffee from the gas station, and this morning I mixed it with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk and maple syrup over ice.

After my housekeeping trip to campus – my schedule next semester looks crazy!  I register on Thursday so please keep your fingers crossed for me – I baked up a plate of green bean fries.

Baked green beans are where it’s at!

You’ll never believe me if you don’t try for yourself, but they’re better than french fries.

I also had a yogurt bowl.

The base was Target brand Archer Farms Fat Free Honey Almond Yogurt.

The Thick and Creamy line is just like Greek, but I wish I’d tasted before I went ahead and bought two, fake-sugar taste city.

Thankfully my toppings made up for it.

A sliced banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some honey roasted peanuts.

Honey roasted peanuts are basically addictive.

I had several handfuls straight from the bag.

Those handfuls didn’t stop my ever-growing hunger though.  Usually we don’t eat dinner before 8pm, but tonight I was ready at 5!  We started with salads –

Studies show that eating a salad before dinner can help you to eat less overall.

This salad was dressed delectably, in a mix of the last of the Stubbs BBQ sauce shaken with a splash of buttermilk.

Other toppings – on a baby arugula base – included dried cranberries and buttermilk blue cheese crumbles.

I think a bbq sauce salad will have to be a repeat in this week’s meal plan.

The main meal was a pretty fantastic idea as well.

Making pressed sandwiches on our George Foreman grill has been our “thing” this year, and this one included roasted asparagus!

Also 1000 island dressing, 99% lean sliced turkey, and 2oz of 50% reduced extra-sharp cheddar.

On cranberry poppy seed bread from a loaf my grandma bought us at The Bakehouse last week.

It was a pretty fantastic sandwich.

But it still didn’t quite squelch my hunger.  Enter 1/2 an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin, topped with pb, marshmallow topping, and chocolate chips for dessert.

Squelched!

And, um, I should probably be sleeping instead of blogging, so – see ya!

What is your favorite type of peanut?  (honey roasted, candied, red skin…)

You and Me Baby Ain’t Nothing But Mammals

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We head to Ohio tomorrow, and my mom comes to visit on Wednesday, so we woke up early to deal with our squalor.  Actually, Adam woke up early to clean the house.  I woke up at 9 to Adam’s amazement that I could sleep through the vacuum cleaner!

Once I did welcome morning, I started my morning with some fantabuous iced coffee.

Yesterday afternoon I bought a cup of caramel flavored coffee from a gas station, and brought it home to the fridge.  This morning I mixed it with 1tsp maple syrup, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and ice.

Delicious!  The almond milk has the best texture for iced coffee, it makes it so thick!  When I’m back to retainers in a few weeks I won’t be able to have coffee ever, so I’m trying to enjoy it was much as I can.

The food part of breakfast was pretty fun too –

A Pink Lady apple dipped in the last of the marshmallow icing.

Holy yum this was a good idea!

Our next idea wasn’t necessarily good, but it was necessary… a trip to the zoo!

I bought a Groupon months ago (thinking that by April it’d be, ya know, Spring) that was set to expire so we bundled up and headed out.  There wasn’t a lot to see because of the weather, but I did spend 20minutes or so mooning at the polar bears.

Awwww!  My nickname for Adam is ice bear (German for polar bear).

On the way out we spotted a neat crepe place – we’re coming back next week with my mom! – and Mustachios.

Apparently Adam has been excited about taking me to Mustachios?!?  We ended up coming home with two slices of cheese pizza.

We also hit up the hot bar to get in some veggies.

I got steamed broccoli, glazed mushrooms and carrots, sesame kale, white beans and escarole, and scooped a bunch of veggies and cashews from the cashew chicken.

It was a random but good lunch.

After my month of illness (I’m still coughing by the way), any meal with veggies is a good one.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on matzah with melted extra sharp cheddar.

I also did a bunch of nibbling, raw pasta, marshmallow topping, butter toffee almonds…  No photographs, just informing you guys that my appetite is back 🙂

Dinner was quick and tasty.

I boiled up the last of the spinach and three cheese ravioli, adding a few big handfuls of arugula to the pot at the last minute.  I topped my bowl with buttermilk blue cheese crumbles and a drizzle of honey.

Then we had single-serve ice cream for dessert.

We each at half and then switched flavors halfway through.  Those single-serves are the best idea ever, the texture is so creamy!

I’ve still got to shower, pack, and do some school work… better hop to it!

What’s your favorite zoo animal?  The cutest thing we saw today was the Egyptian Dabb Lizard.  I pretty much love any creature with a big belly; Seth Rogan crush anyone?!

Biochem Makes Bad Bloggers

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I’ll leave the correlation between fences and good neighbors to Robert Frost, but in my experience Biochem makes bad bloggers.  Especially Biochem exams one has not adequately prepared for!

Yesterday’s post was sacrificed to a cramming session.  Unfortunately, the cramming session was then sacrificed to a orthodontist appointment and subsequent headache.  You can’t win ’em all!  Our teacher is very, very kind, so I probably ended up with a B anyways.  Sidenote – I swear I’m usually not such a terrible student, my (22day!!) sickness is really taking its toll.

I am blogging today though, with pictures and everything, but there’s the problem of not having much to blog.  My involuntary breakfast ban continues, but I did get coffee.

A grande non-fat latte with almond roca syrup (2pumps instead of 5).

I was hungry for lunch – my brain used up all my glucose on the exam – but I hadn’t done a great job of packing.  I brought a Revolution Foods tropical fruit packet.

And the newest Fage, 0% with Mango and Guanabana.

Oh. My. God.  Did you know that Gaunabana is the formal name for Soursop, my favorite fruit of all time that I almost never see outside of the Caribbean?!?  When I was saw the flavor at Wegmans I was so excited I bought two right away (and did a fairly embarrassing dance in the aisle!).  It was divine! 

Yogurt perfection aside, I hadn’t packed enough food!  Thankfully the vending machines in the Dietetics building are stocked with mostly healthy things, so I was able to get this packet of tuna salad and crackers.

It was a little strange – I don’t usually add water chestnuts to my tuna salad – but it did the trick of holding me over through my last nutrition class.

I spent my break between classes working on my lab assignments and watching the snow pile outside.  Then, wonder of wonders, my night class so cancelled!

Eeeeeee!

I came straight home (the husband picked me up) and dove face first into a plate of Granny Smith apple with a serving of Smuckers Natural PB with Honey.

Then we got started on dinner. 

Lemon Chicken Fricassee with Biscuit Topping from Rachael Ray.

We followed the recipe except –

  • substituting olive oil for shortening
  • substituting chicken breasts for thighs
  • using a frozen peas and carrots mix that also had lima beans, corn, and green beans
  • using some packaged frozen biscuits rather than making them

It was ok.  Only ok.  Adam said 6 out of 10, I said I won’t be eating any of the leftovers.

Plus a side salad.

Arugula topped with leftover roasted butternut squash, craisins, buttermilk blue cheese, and Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry and Walnut Dressing.

The salad was tasty at least.

The meal might not have been very good, but the entertainment was; season 5 of Futurama is finally on Netflix Instant Watch!

Did/do you watch Futurama?

Missing: My Appetite

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Being on the 17th day of being sick is bound to make anyone annoyed, but as I’m starting to feel better my appetite is totally underground and it’s making me a little cranky.  My unrequited food adoration aside, it’s a little embarrassing to be a healthy living blogger while you are neither working out nor eating healthy.  I guess I’ve just joined the Sick and Cranky Blogosphere for a little while? 😉

I could not think of a single thing that sounded good for breakfast, but this sugar-free caramel pudding at least seemed doable.

The SF pudding was last week’s fever-fueled purchase and unsurprisingly it was disgusting.

I spent some time working at Starbucks this afternoon and I sipped my way through a grande nonfat iced latte.

It was 50* out today and glorious!

I ran errands as well, including a really, really bad idea that you’ll read more about tomorrow.  At least my travels gave me time to come up with a perfect salad combo –

Baby arugula topped with poppy seed dressing, crumbled buttermilk blue cheese, butter toffee almonds, and Applegate Farms turkey bacon.

Yum!  Even without an appetite this still tasted good.

I planned on getting something else for dinner but got into a long discussion about welfare/education/fertility treatments/foster care with the husband instead.  Normally an impending sense of hunger would pull me away from the conversation, but with my missing appetite I talked his ear off instead.

What foods appeal to you even when you’re not hungry?  I determined that I probably -could- eat some jalapeno nachos, but that I was probably better off not.

Stuffy – Shake – Salmon

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Did you miss me?  I hope not; no one should be sorry I took a blog break this weekend!  I did not have funny stories to tell.  I did not have great workouts to recap.  I did not create new inventive recipes.  I did not eat anything resembling healthy.  I did however, throw up, and cough, and continue to be sick.  Ugh!

I’m still sick today, but I’m definitely (finally!) on the upswing.  My cold’s moved to my head which means I’m driving everyone crazy honking like a goose, but I can sort of talk again.  And I made it to all three of my classes today.

When I got to campus this morning I stopped by the yogurt place for a chocolate milkshake, made with skim milk.

It was a strange breakfast, but the flavor/texture was exactly what I was craving and felt great on my throat!

Lunch was leftover roasted green beans, which are still delicious even when served cold,

and a nice crisp Fuji apple.

I ate so slowly that I ended up finishing my apple to class and it was pretty darn thrilling not to have to deal with retainers for the time being.

I know I’m getting better because while walking home at 4:30 I realized I was starving.  I haven’t been hungry in two weeks!  I swung by the pizza place near our apartment for a buffalo chicken slice with blue cheese.

I had them cut it in half (the picture shows both halves) and my mini slice was perfect to tide me over until dinner.

Dinner was an old favorite, Shallotta Salmon Burgers.

Eaten on a bed of salad.

Greens lightly dressed with Newman’s Own Light Raspberry Walnut Dressing, buttermilk blue cheese crumbles, and some roasted golden beets.

I didn’t actually manage to eat very much of that, but it was fun to sit down to a nice plate of food!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go blow my nose!

What’s your go to milkshake order?  There’s a place back home that mixes booze into their milkshakes and they can’t be beat!  I always always request skim milk in my shake though, wherever I am.

NYC: Day 2 and 3

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I wish I had been able to blog more in the city because squashing the recaps of these two days together just can’t do them justice.  To say the weekend was fabulous is an understatement; although every trip to the New York is fabulous. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent pretty much exclusively eating and walking.  My two favorite things.  And the walking was through our favorite areas and the eating included some of the best meals I’ve ever tasted.  Fabulous.

Saturday started with a trip to Soho to our favorite brunch spot.

We discovered Freemans on a whim one weekend and it has never disappointed us.  The boys (and my friend Lana who lives in the city and joined us for the day) were duly impressed.

I ordered the Fall Vegetable Hash, which came with two pan-fried eggs and herbed creme fraiche.

This was savory breakfast perfection, I didn’t know that brussels sprouts in the morning could taste so good. 

I knew our next stop required a hungry belly though, so I managed to leave one egg on the plate.

I’ve you’ve ever previously read my blog when I had visitors in the city then you know where we headed next.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine has the best (and cheapest) cupcakes in the city.  They are sweet without being too sweet, spongy and light, gorgeous, and innovative.  Plus the cake is so good that this former frosting-licking-then-tosser devours the entire cupcake, cake and all!

I went with pistachio.

Be still my heart.

Then we hopped on the train and headed to DUMBO.

The neighborhood Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass is one of our favorite areas in the city.

In addition to being gorgeous, you can walk straight from the park to the Brooklyn Bridge for a walk into the city.

Fabulous.

A subway trip later, and we were back in Park Slope.  I know hitting up the same area during a three-day trip to the city is a little silly, but we just love it there so much!  Plus, it was the first time Gordy and Ian got to visit our old ‘hood.

Those photos are from Bierkraft, an exciting little craft beer spot on 5th avenue.

Bierkraft has an area with benches, a tap selection, and then walls and walls of beer coolers for you to peruse.  So I of course ordered an apple cider.

This was the only underwhelming thing I put in my mouth all day (TWSS).  I usually drink Woodchuck ciders and this guy from Harpoon had a slightly lower alcohol content and a much lower flavor punch.  I passed him off halfway through.

We continued the carbo-loading by splitting this bag of chips.

It had been a long time since brunch but I wanted to be hungry for dinner and these spuds fit the bill perfectly.

For dinner we took everyone to Sotto Voce, the best Italian food in Brooklyn.  The wait staff was totally accommodating about seating six without a reservation, nice as hell, and they brought us great bread.

The lighting was a little dim, so these pictures – with lighting engineered by Lana with an i-phone flashlight app – don’t even begin to do the food justice.

I ordered the special and it quickly found its way onto my “Top Five Best Meals Ever” list.

Sacatini pasta stuffed with spinach and gorgonzola in four cheese sauce with walnuts and poached pears.

Holy god.  I am not a good enough writer to adequately describe how amazing this was.  The fresh pasta had a totally unique texture.  The sauce was pure cheese ecstasy.  The poached pears would have been exciting all on their own and then they were perched atop this masterpiece.  I ate about 2/3 and shared the rest and everyone agreed that it was divine.

The rest of the night took us bar-hopping in Williamsburg, but frankly I was just plain too tired for booze so I have no pictures of that.

Sunday morning we slept in late, Ian set off to his train, and Adam, Gordy, and I wandered down to Lexington Avenue in search of brunch.  We had been very excited to try one particular location but I’m glad that it fell through because that disappointment led us to Rare.

Rare is the restaurant attached to the Affinia Shellburne Hotel but don’t let that fool you; it is so not a hotel restaurant.

For starters, they took pride in their complimentary Bloody Marys.

I ordered mine extra spicy and was in horseradish heaven.

Did I say that Saturday’s dinner was a best meal ever?  Because Sunday’s brunch was the best breakfast of all time.  Seriously.

This is how Rare does french toast.  Thick slices of challah, real Vermont maple syrup, and sautéed bananas.

They were ridiculous good.  I ate exactly half, pretty much only stopping because I couldn’t shut up about how good they were and I was starting to annoy the other patrons.

I also took a few bites of Adam’s parmesan and truffle fries.

I wasn’t the only one moaning at the table.

A quick walk to drop Gordy at his train, a stop at Barnes and Nobel for a coffee with skim milk, and we were back on the road.

As you might have divined from yesterday’s post, dinner on the road sort of sucked, but every minute in the city was perfection.

I’ve lived a lot of (neat) places – St. Thomas to Miami to Brooklyn to Buffalo – but the city has felt like home since before I even moved there.  When we vacation my homesickness is always for our studio in Park Slope, even though we now live somewhere new.  After two years away it still feels like home, my true home.

Where is your home, your true home?

Tastes Like the Holidays

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Hello from Ohio!  The drive was long, but I genuinely love every moment I get to spend with the husband so the six+ hours flew by!  We’ve been having a great time with my family since we got here; not to make you jealous, but I kind of have the best grandparents ever 😉

Before we piled into the car we tried to make up our lack of sleep by stopping by Starbucks for some red cups.

There’s nothing I don’t love about holiday flavors/decorations at Starbucks!  This was an Awake Tea Latte with skim milk and 1 pump of gingerbread syrup.

On our 1st stop I picked up a small string cheese.

And our 2nd gas stop lead us here –

Would the husband and I like to split a small, low-fat, eggnog milkshake with local ingredients?  Yes, please!

This was so good!  No offense Starbucks red cups, but this is how you start the holiday season off right!

We arrived at my grandparents’ house after lunch so I held myself over to dinner with an apple from my snack bag and a couple dark chocolate covered pretzels.

I made up a big batch of deviled eggs (our contribution to tomorrow’s meal) and snacked on an egg and an olive while I worked.

I also had several other nibbles that escaped the camera.

For dinner my grandma whipped up a feast.

Huge, tasty, healthy; we are treated like royalty here!

Salads with toasted walnuts, blue cheese, pear, and homemade cranberry dressing.

Chicken pot pie casserole with a puff pastry top (stuffed with broccoli, red pepper, onion, and water chestnuts).

And brussels sprouts with butter, lemon, and capers.

My grandma is an amazing cook and Adam and I couldn’t stop raving about how delicious everything was.  I only stopped myself from taking seconds because I had already seen the dessert.

Oh yes, there was dessert.

Crumb topped apple pie with homemade butterscotch sauce.

Holy god.  I left behind my crust (I hate crust) but other than that I practically licked my plate clean!

And then we spent the rest of the evening getting trounced in Euchre.  ‘Twas fun.

We are heading to bed “early,” because I actually have to get up and work on Orgo tomorrow.  Boo.  Hope everyone has a happy holiday!

What food tastes like the holidays to you?