Tag Archives: booze

Mungry

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I don’t know what my deal is but lately I’ve been so freaking hungry.  Yesterday I was uncomfortable with hunger all day long.  And I wasn’t in a dessert mood at all but we don’t have much food in the house and I ended up eating sweets all afternoon.  Ugh.

I did do my best to make a healthy, filling lunch.

I sautéed ~ 1 cup of sliced okra in 1/2 Tbsp butter and a pinch of salt.  Meanwhile I whisked together 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese, and 2 oz of Cabot’s 50% reduced-fat sharp cheddar.  Then I scrambled my mixture in with the okra.

I didn’t know how the cottage cheese would turn out in the eggs but I ended up loving it.  The end result wasn’t watery at all, just super creamy and cheesy.  I now know that cottage cheese is a tasty way to add more volume and protein to my eggs.

But sadly my filling lunch wasn’t filling at all.  Nothing is filling when your stomach is being a beast.  I also had …

A spoonful of cookie butter, x2.

A packet of Gushers.

A Magnum Double Caramel Ice Cream Bar.

And the last ~1/2 serving of Butterfingers Bites.

Not gonna lie, I was still hungry after all that too.  It was funny because I watched “Kitchen Nightmares” all afternoon and that show is a total appetite killer!

I ended up not even eating dinner because I left the house on a last-minute invite and didn’t get home until past Adam’s bedtime.  A classmate’s restaurant was running a booth at a local wine event and I volunteered to help out.

I got to chat with all sorts of people and it was a lot of fun.  Plus, I got a small plate of cookies and two tastes of wine out of the deal.

And my friend and I got our picture on a big local website.

I need to make some uglier friends!

My plans for today do include lunch with Holly this afternoon, should include cleaning, and must include catching up on the “Grey’s” and “Private Practice” finales.

Do you ever have insatiable bouts of hunger?  And more importantly – do you say “hungry mungry?”

Wonderful Weekend

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Long time no see!  I needed a few days of N-O-T-H-I-N-G, nothing, after my last exam but I did have a wonderful weekend.  I went out drinking with friends and on a few dates with Adam, I read two books and a whole stack of magazines, I watched three full seasons of “The Game,” and I consumed tons of rich food and good booze.

Wonderful.

It was a such a wonderful weekend that I’m sad not to blog it, but so many days got away from me that now the recap’s too long to manage.  Plus, I’m trying to look forward and not backward; two weeks sounds like a lot but I know that I tend to be unproductive when I have time off before a big committment.

My next few days need to include –

  • organizing my stuff from the semester (binders, notecards, portfolios, computer files, clinic hours)
  • reorganizing my stuff for next semester (binders, buying books, setting up physicals and malpractice insurance, professional memberships)
  • cleaning up my act (the bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry, taking off the brown polish I’ve been rocking for three straight weeks, the tailor)

Sadly, blogging won’t appear on that list until tomorrow.  I’m pretty sure my camera is in Adam’s car.

I’ll see you then!

Yesterday – Brunch and Book Club

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Sunday was a great day; a busy, friend-packed, fun day.  I spent breakfast with the medical school crowd, lunch with the husband, and dinner with my dietetics friends.  I had not one spare minute for blogging but I wanted to play catch-up now since I ate so many great things.

As I said, we spent Sunday morning with some of the medical school crowd.  Adam’s friend and his boyfriend invited us all over for a homemade brunch.

In spite of my Prosecco-filled Saturday, I started my morning with a hibiscus mimosa.

I smothered this whole wheat waffle in maple syrup.

The waffle was amazing; it was so airy that it actually melted in your mouth!

I also had several bites of chips and guacamole.

It was great getting to sit and catch up.

Adam and I spent the afternoon blissfully watching Stargate: Atlantis.

Snacky foods were eaten for lunch.  Tons and tons of snacky foods.

Kettle corn (I polished off that entire trough for a shockingly low 400 calories) and Crab Chips (2 servings) that were delightfully spicy.

That night I went over to my friend Anna’s house for gossip and snacks club book club.  Here’s part of the spread.

I brought over two new dishes that turned out great, Jalapeño Popper Rolls and S’mores Dip.

Be on the lookout for those recipes to be shared over the next two days.

Here was my dinner plate.

Grapes, a jalapeño popper roll, Wegman’s marathon bread with guacamole, and a slice of Greek quesadilla.  I also ate many more grapes and several scoops of s’mores dip.

To drink, I had a sprite with vanilla vodka.

It was a surprisingly good combination and probably to blame for my eating the final jalapeño popper roll when I got home.

After a great Sunday, I woke up this morning feeling a little bit off.  I hit snooze on my alarm for a solid hour and a half before I decided to turn it off and just let my body tell me when it was done sleeping.  I stayed in bed until it was practically time to leave for class (!!) and I feel great now.  But I didn’t eat breakfast and my morning run will have to be completed this evening.

I ate lunch in class and it was fabulous.

3 oz of bread and butter pickle slices,

baby carrots,

and the other half of my dark chocolate mint m&m’s from Saturday.

I’ve been working on the blog since I got home from school (yikes!) and I had a snack while I wrote.

Golden delicious apple slices with 2 oz of melted s’mores dip.  I aimed for mainly carbs rather than protein and fat because I’m heading on my make-up run as soon as I’m done here.

And I’ll be done just as soon as I make two interwebs fashion notes.  1, I got my outfit idea for today from Pinterest.  The inspiration –

My attempt –

I think I did ok!

2, Do you like my nail polish?

It’s “a-taupe the space needle” and I wished for it here.  When we were all in Ohio for the funeral my aunt bought it for my cousin’s girlfriend and she didn’t like it so it was gifted to me.  It’s darker than I was expecting but I’m a fan.

Where do you get your fashion inspiration?

Epic Meal Time

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I’m not talking about the Epic Meal Time, though those guys are awesome.

Muscles Glasses is a hottie.

I’m talking about yesterday’s meals.  They were literally epic (you’ll see).

Breakfast was more nonexistent than epic, because I stayed in bed reading a book until the last possible minute.  When I was utterly distraught over finishing Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series my mom bought me the first book in several murder mystery lines.  Yesterday I was finishing up Tess Gerritsen’s The Surgeon.  It wasn’t terrible – I loved the way she switched point of view with each chapter from a different character’s perception – but I don’t plan on reading any more of hers.  I actually have the latest TB book now but I’m making myself wait to savor it.

I had to be out of bed and out the door at a specific time because my friend Hillary and I were presenting our research on Ginkgo Biloba at a poster presentation.

Last major assignment of the semester, done!

After I changed out of my suit Adam and I went to lunch.  We took a nice walk down Elmwood (a little over a mile) to Nickle City Cheese & Mercantile, an adorable new cheese shop.

The space looks great and they carry all sorts of cool lines that I’ve read about and wanted to try.

Adam and I got lunch and had a picnic outside.

We had a Sprecher Cherry Cola,

Mac and cheese with gouda,

and a grilled cheese of pimento cheese on pumpernickel with red onion.

Everything was great, but the pimento cheese didn’t have as much flavor as I was hoping for.  We definitely plan on going back for fancy cheese.

On the walk home we stopped at the neighborhood candy store for mint M&M’s.

They are one of my favorites but I was feeling pretty satisfied from lunch so I only ate half of them.

The rest of our afternoon was spent running the rest of our weekend errands.  Many took us to the mall.

Our final errand was at Cold Stone (legit!) where Adam and I split a kid’s chocolate frozen yogurt with butterfinger.

I like that Cold Stone has an option with less than 200 calories per small serving but this tasted a little “empty” somehow.

For dinner we went on a fancy date night!  We had an amazing Groupon for Epic Restaurant and Lounge.

They brought us bread with oil to start.

And Adam ordered the Filet Sliders – with house-made sea salt and vinegar potato chips and smoked gouda fondue as an appetizer.

I ate a few chips dipped in the fondue and it was awesome.

Per usual, we did some sharing with dinner.  I got the Grilled Rock Lobster Tail  – with lemon and asparagus barley risotto drizzled with a garlic shallot butter and brocoli rabe.

He got the Cedar Plank Salmon – maple candied carrots, fresh arugula, smoked gouda mashed potatoes.

Gahhhh!  Everything was sooooo good!  Adam’s favorite bite was the lobster tail and my favorites were the broccoli rabe and the fatty end of Adam’s salmon.  It was a great meal and a great time.

We extended the fun with Monkey Bread for dessert.

Oh, and we ordered a bottle of Prosecco with our meal.

Which is why you’re getting this post in the morning 😉

Two Beers And A Book

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We’re still waiting on Spring but the weather has warmed up enough that walks are pleasurable.  We took several today so I’m a happy camper.

This morning’s breakfast was a winner.

I topped a plain Siggi’s with melted Dark Chocolate Dreams pb (2 Tbsp) and strawberry jam (~1 Tbsp).

It looked just like an ice cream sundae!  Tasted like one too.

Lunch didn’t happen – the husband got to come home at the last minute and he took me on a walking date – but when I got home from school I sank my teeth into this juicy Bartlett pear.

Produce is so flipping good this time of year.

And a 100-calorie bag of kettle corn.

Which is good any time of year.

Dinner looked a lot like Monday’s; white girl broad rice noodles with broccoli, and a spicy sauce.

I stir-fried ~1 serving of noodles and 2 cups roasted broccoli in 1/2 Tbsp evoo and a sauce [made out of 1/2 Tbsp sugar + 1/2 Tbsp tamari + 1/2 Tbsp Sriracha + 2 Tbsp rice vinegar] .

It was nice and spicy.

I’ve already got the rest of my evening planned –

A Blue Moon Spring Blonde Wheat Ale, a Shock Top Lemon Shandy, and book 2 of the Hunger Games, Catching Fire.

Thai One On

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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

  • 6 heaping Tbsp espresso roast ground coffee
  • 3 cups water
  • 14 oz can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
  1. Place grounds and water in coffee maker of choice and brew according to manufacture’s instructions.  Remove finished coffee from heat and allow to cool completely.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together coffee and sweetened condensed milk until homogenous.
  3. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9 inch glass casserole dish and place in the freezer.
  4. Freeze 8 hours or until fully frozen.  Use a fork to break up the mixture every 2 hours or so, scraping the tines through until you’ve achieved a texture similar to wet sand.
  5. Serve immediately.  Slush will keep in the freezer indefinitely but you may need to use a blender to break it up if you wait more than 1 – 2 days to serve.

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?

Still Searching for ‘Rita

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Did you have a successful Saturday?  Ours was sort of a wash.  I did my to-do’s and had some fun with the husband but I also felt sick and spent many hours curled up in bed.  I guess I’m just glad I was awake long enough to do what I needed to do.

For breakfast the husband took me to the new juice bar he spotted.

Code Blu was a win!  Cute space and good juice.

*Hulk smash*

I got an “@Green.com” – spinach, kale, parsley, romaine, cucumber, celery, lemon, and apple.

Delicious!  I liked how much it tasted like a lemonade.  And there was combo on the menu with kale and watermelon so we’ll definitely be back.

We didn’t grocery shop at all for this week (only soda, cottage cheese, and fruit for Adam were purchased) so our errands were very quick but I was still complaining of hunger by the time we were done.  I ate this handful of peanut m&m’s to try to stave off more whining.

Bletch; these only led to more complaining; why do they have such a terrible aftertaste?

When I woke up this morning the only thing I could think of was margaritas.  I don’t even like tequilla so it was an odd craving but it was a strong one.  Unfortunately none of the Mexican restaurants nearby were open for lunch (sidenote – I am flipping out over Cantina Loco‘s menu, I need to go there immediately).  Then I remembered the free appetizer coupon I had for TGIFriday’s.  I knew the margarita wouldn’t be the best ever, but I figured it was better than nothing.

Nothing would have been better.  Adam and I split this skinny margarita and neither of us were fans.

The only redeeming thing I can say is that it had only 120 calories so at least I didn’t waste a meal’s worth of calories on the worst drink I’ve ever had.  The sweetness level was sickening.  Now I need to keep trying until I find a margarita that quenches my craving; I’m up to the task!

With our free appetizer coupon we got an order of pretzel sticks with beer cheese.

Beer cheese and pretzels are both always good things. 

I ate 1.5 pretzels with cheese.  We took one pretzel home for later but we probably should have just split it because the rest of lunch was a bust.

We split a cranberry jalapeño turkey reuben, no butter on the bread.

I loved this sandwich when I attended the tasting a few weeks back, but I couldn’t even finish my half today.  It was too spicy and totally tasteless all at the same time.

I did eat most of my side salad with balsamic though.

Our meal came with dessert for only a dollar more so we took a chance on the “Oreo Madness.”

Yuck again.  Adam actually ate most of it but I was unimpressed, and I’m the one who loves Oreos.

By the time we got home I was totally ill, a fact for which I blame the skinny sour mix in the margaritas.  Not my best idea.  But after a much-needed nap we pulled it together and switched out our closets and spring cleaned the storage containers.  Go us!

Dinner ended up being a bag of popcorn.

No complaints there!

Beer Baby Belly

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Friday’s here!  There is lots to do this weekend to make up for missing last week but weekend time is always good.  Today lots of food was eaten to make up for missing ….. who am I kidding?  I never miss a meal!

Breakfast was a white chocolate macadamia Clif Bar.

Lunch was pizza-pizza.  Double because I had double slices!  I had to stay at school after class for a group project and by the time I headed home at 2 I was ravenous.  I stopped at Zetti’s for two gigantic slices.

Bbq chicken and veggie.  The veggie slice was loaded with vegetables; broccoli, spinach, and several types of peppers.  I was full to the brim afterwards, mostly with cheese, but at least I got in some solid servings of vegetables.

This evening I went to a baby shower.

It was my first ever shower experience other than the one for my wedding.  I can’t even tell you all of the cute shower ideas I spotted, it was like Pinterest come to life!

The party included a sit-down dinner.

Side salad, mixed vegetables, and a bit of stuffing.  I wasn’t feeling the heavier stuff after my huge lunch.

I did grab a few handfuls of blue-for-boy candy though.

And a Michelob Ultra.

Thirst quenching because it’s basically water 🙂

I got home a bit before 9 and Adam and I took a gloriously long walk down Elmwood.  A bit over two miles which isn’t really long but ate up some time due to ambling.

We stopped at the Village Beer Merchant at the halfway point and split a beer of the root variety.

I ❤ Abita, even its nonalcoholic varieties.  I have a six-pack of Abita Strawberry in my office waiting for the summer to come.

How many baby showers have you attended?