Tag Archives: booze

Mood Food

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Today’s eats were a little strange, which made them perfect mood food since I feel a little strange.  I’m an odd mix of nerves and excitement about heading back to school tomorrow.  I’m thrilled about getting back on a schedule but I’m worried that I’m planning on working on too many goals (being a better student, getting on a workout schedule, cooking more often).  I don’t want to set myself up to fail by trying to do/change too much.

I spent my morning setting up the office for school and worked right through breakfast.  Side note – trying to figure out which notes to save for registration exam studying is brutal.  I’m not sure whether I’m throwing away things I need or saving so much that it will be overwhelming.

I didn’t want to head to the grocery on a completely empty stomach so I stirred a scoop of protein powder into a glass of skim milk.

It wasn’t very good (it tasted about as good as it looks), apparently I only like our protein powder after it’s been through the blender.

I did get myself a small but delicious salad from the hot bar too.

A spring mix lettuce base with tarragon vinaigrette, topped with a scoop of corn and kidney bean salad,

a scoop of veggie lo mein,

and a tiny piece of smoked salmon and brie.

The whole combo was super tasty, I think I may need to do salad at the hot bar more often.  I really want to like smoked (basically raw) salmon and usually I’m too afraid but today I loved it.

When I got home Adam and I took a quick walk through the Elmwood Art Festival.  We were naughty and snuck in our own beverages.

The Woodchuck Limited Release Winter Hard Cider is wonderful.  It tastes more like a vanilla-scented apple juice than something boozey.  Also when I went to the site to link for you guys I discovered that they make a pumpkin variety!  <– must find

I knew dinner was going to be on the small side, so I made myself a tasty yogurt bowl to supplement when we got home.

Low-fat coffee yogurt with 1oz of honey roasted peanuts and a drizzle of honey.

One of those combos from when I was a kid that I still love.

We didn’t have any set plans for dinner, but I did want to make a batch of Jenna’s Sweet and Spicy BBQ Beans to have for lunches this week.

I used 2+ cups worth of extra kale and it came out fabulously.  This recipe – which really is sweet and spicy – gives the best chew.

We decided to make the beans the bulk of dinner.

Such a good plan!  I topped my serving with shredded Parmesan, more Sriracha, and a dollop of 0% Plain Fage.

Dee-lish!  I sort of ate around the cheese to save it for the end and I was swooning by my last bite.

To round out my meal with carbs I turned to popcorn.

1 serving, topped with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  I can’t think of a better way to face a new school year than popcorn.

Who else is heading back to school this year?

Fit For A Dog

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Going back a few hours…  We did go get Webster that toy.

Actually we got him a few, but we started with Mouse who he loves.

Dinner wasn’t quite as easy.  Adam and I had things to do and it got later and later until suddenly it was just late.  We set out in search of sustenance but got sidetracked at Blue Monk, where one of our good friend bartends.  She was in, and she was on break, and they did have Brooklyn Brewery’s Concoction on draft, and we could get it for free….

And before you knew it, it was really late and dinner was bought at Jim’s Steak Out at 1 am.

That plate was a 6inch buffalo chicken sub with a side of fries.  Exactly the kind of food you should just go to bed without eating and exactly the kind of food that is perfect for 1 am dinners.

I tried to stay in bed as late as I could this morning, but that basically meant getting up to do something for Webster every 10 minutes from 7 – 9. 

That’s his ears-back look.  When I did get up, I made myself some Lean Cuisine Thai-Style Chicken Spring Rolls.

They were good, but not life changing obviously.  I liked the chew and the veggies but I needed a lot more spice.

I ate the entire box (2 servings) for 400 calories, which – with the addition of roasted green beans – made for a perfect brunch.

I also had a yellow plucot, I think it was called a dapple, for dessert.

This was my first time trying the yellow variety but I loved it.  I couldn’t taste the difference between this and other plucots, but it was sweeter than regular plums are.  I’ve got to cop to the fact that I let Webster eat a few bites of plucot while I was still eating it; apparently I’m that dog owner.  But you know what, dogs’ mouths are only disgusting because they eat their own poop and we don’t let him do that!

The Elmwood Art Festival is happening today but Adam’s at the hospital all day so I’m going to wait it out until tomorrow.  I do have plans for a long walk with a friend this afternoon though.

What’s your stance on dog mouths?  Share some food, lick your face, or stay the hell away?

Healthy Living Summit 2011 Mega Recap

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This post is going to be huge, so there are a few facts I want to establish before I begin –

* The Healthy Living Summit (HLS) was fabulous and I had a wonderfully fun time.  However, since I didn’t have internet all weekend this is going to be a monster post and I’m not going to include as many details as I’d like.

* I met and hung out with some amazing people.  So many, in fact, that I think it makes the most sense for me not to link back to anyone.

* I snapped a photo of every piece of food that went into my mouth but I wasn’t so good on people or places; I was too busy enjoying those things to photograph them.

Okey doke, let’s start from the beginning…

So, this happened exactly halfway between Buffalo and Philly –

Usually a picture of a flat tire would be followed by many four letter words but the only one I could think of was l-u-c-k.  My trip to Philly was greasy, two hours longer than planned and completely exhausting, but I actually started crying because I felt so grateful.  The things I am thankful for –

  • It rained 70% of my trip but not a drop fell during the two hours I was standing on the side of the road changing my tire.
  • My tire blew on a small side road and not when I was going 70 mph on the highway.
  • I was able to take off the nuts and jack up the car all by myself, and if the tire hadn’t been completely rusted to the axle I probably could have done the entire thing myself like a total badass.
  • The nicest man on earth not only stopped to help me out, but drove back to his house for the sledgehammer it took to get my tire off.
  • The nice man gave me directions to his nice friends’ body shop, where they replaced my tire and fixed me up for only $20.

Isn’t the world amazing?  Before the whole debacle I drank a guava Rockstar for breakfast,

and afterwards I shakily ate the half turkey sandwich with cheese and cranberry mayo that I packed from the Co-op. 

And I made it (with aching forearms) to Philly with time to shower and change before the HLS cocktail party.

The drinks, provided by Drink Chia, were super tasty.

This cocktail was a mix (I believe) of Drink Chia, strawberries, and vodka.  It tasted sort of like a bubble tea with mini bobba!

The food was pretty good as well.

I had a corn and crab fritter, a piece of pretzel crusted chicken, a few small bites, plus another piece of the chicken.

Everything was tasty but there wasn’t quite enough sustenance for dinner so a few of us ended up in the hotel restaurant for a late night snack.

I went with the s’mores mousse shooter.

Plus I scarfed up one of the Lindt truffles they brought with the bill.

It was a sweet end to the first day.

The next morning (Saturday) we were up bright and early for breakfast.  Cereal with skim milk,

an Oikos drinkable yogurt with a juicy plum – sidenote, I feel like I had food dripping down my face this whole weekend! –

and a much-needed coffee.

Around this point I realized I probably should be snapping more pictures like a good blogger.

Though I did snag a shot of me with two of my roomies.

I didn’t love the Quaker Smashbar provided on the snack break so I only ate half of it.

But I did love the RD Quaker provided as the key-note speaker.  She wrote a book on being a flexatarian and I loved her points about embracing plants more than avoiding meats.  In fact, all of the sessions were pretty darn informative and inspirational.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

Side salad for greens,

quinoa salad, which had some sort of acid component that took it over the top,

and half a tofu sandwich on Great Harvest bread, squeal!

For dessert I grabbed a milk chocolate crunch Attune probiotic bar.

I had no idea these would be so delicious!  I was very excited to see some coupons in my swag bag.

After the sessions we went to do some city exploring.

Here are all my roomates,

and here is the Liberty Bell.

I’m glad we sight-saw in the way that we did, because our travels took us to Farmacia for dinner.

Yum, seriously just yum x 1000.  The wait staff was so sweet and accommodating of our 12-person party, the space was adorable, and the food was delicious.

I was ravenous and I think my heart actually skipped a beat when this bread and herbed butter were brought to the table.

I ate this slice times two.

Since it was a vacation I went with a John Daly to drink.

Sweet tea vodka and fresh squeezed lemonade, yes please!  A few people sipped my drink and we all agreed it was the best Arnold Palmer ever.

And then came the food.  Which was basically ridiculous.

I ordered the sweet corn and risotto croquettes.  Which came with garden veggie ratatouille,

and sautéed spinach that blew my mind.  It must have been the butter sauce that was floating on my plate.

The spinach was the best thing I ate all weekend, but the croquettes were perfect too; crunchy and creamy all at the same time.  I ate 1.5 croquettes and all of my veggies and was basically in heaven.

You know I have to get self-serve froyo if I’m in a new city.

I got peanut butter, cream cheese (!!), and tart, topped with all the berries, caramel sauce, and sprinkles.

Fueled by sugar, a group of us stayed up until practically 3am!  Normally a 3 am bedtime and 8 am Sunday workout would feel brutal, but I think I was too excited to be tired.  I don’t have any pictures, but I did participate in the HLS 5k.  A huge group walked/ran around the city including the Rocky steps.

When we got back it was time for oatmeal.

Topped with flax, cinnamon, and walnuts.

I also had about a billion mugs of Tazo Earl Grey tea with skim milk.

I am completely obsessed (I stole a few packets from breakfast!) and need to buy this asap.

After the festivities wrapped, a group of us did some more exploring around Philly.

This is what happens when you give bloggers a group photo-op –

For lunch we sought out Philly cheese steaks.  I found success at the Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar.

This monster was vegan, but there is basically no way that the traditional meat sandwich could be better.

I left a lot of the bread, but gobbled up the “meat” which was crunchy in the most pleasing way.  Such a great way to end the weekend!

Around 2 I made my final goodbyes and headed out.  Though I did stop at Whole Foods for an Argo Tea Mojitea for the road.

It was very tasty, but my next two drinks were much more telling.  A grande white mocha coconut frappuccino with 2 extra shots of espresso.

And a huge diet pop with a splash of cherry coke.

Can you say exhausted?!  But I made it home in one piece and had a wonderful weekend to boot!

Did you attend HLS?  What’d you think?

Birds Eye Blue

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Tonight, we dined in the future!  Well sort of, we tried the new Chef’s Favorites line from Birds Eye that won’t hit stores until September.  I was sent an exclusive free trial to sample as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

Initial thought – I think this line is a wonderful idea.  Each bag contains two servings and cooks in the microwave in approximately 5 minutes.  The veggies are flash frozen and the ingredients are mostly natural, 99% just like a home-cooked meal.  The meals cook right in the bag, so you don’t have to dirty any dishes or really do anything.  Two bags come together to make a nice meal (with a protein ideally) in approximately 10 minutes, and those 10 minutes are basically hands-off.  All of which is to say, if you have a few of these in your freezer there’s no way to say “I’m too tired for dinner, let’s get take-out.”

On the left is the Lightly Sauced Mushroom and Green Bean Risotto.

It contained a few iffy ingredients (xanthan gum, modified food starch, maltodextrin) but overall was like what I’d make at home.  The taste was pretty similar to what I’d make on my own (after way more work!) too.  Not the best risotto of all time, but very creamy and with a good ratio of rice to veggies.  Each serving had 170 calories, 5 grams of protein, and only 18% of your allotted sodium.

On the right is Lightly Sauced Creamed Spinach.

This was nice and creamy though the spinach did have a little bitterness.  Each serving contained 90 calories, 3 grams of protein, and only 14% of your allotted sodium.

Together, this made a tasty meal.

Wins all around, I say.

The calories in dinner were pretty light though (~270), so I supplemented with beer.

Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is in my top five for favorite beers.

We also had j-e-l-l-o for dessert.

This afternoon I made up a box of pina colada jello with half water and half club soda for some fizz.

‘Twas good.

Two final notes:  1 – We are currently half way through “Blue Valentine” and I’m loving it.  All this point I can’t decide if it’s really hopeful or really sad, maybe both.  2 – Webster’s godmother asked for a picture that shows how big he is –

This Is A Morning

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I said I’d blog in the morning, I just didn’t say which morning.

As promised, Adam came home Saturday night with a feast.

We split some waffle fries,

and I ate half of this spicy bean enchillada.

In the morning we took a long walk (he pooped!),

and picked up an iced tea from Starbucks.

Then came home and made breakfast.

I had turkey bacon,

two eggs with spicy corn relish scrambled in,

and a Bagel Thin with Smart Balance Lite and Crofters Organic Grape Spread.

My plan for the afternoon was supposed to be a 3 mile run.  But then this happened –

So then this happened –

Webster makes spending the afternoon at home so much more exciting.  As do brownies.

These S’mores Brownies are definitely in the top ten list of things I’ve baked!

I think I actually like them better than traditional s’mores!

We did take a few walks, which turned into mud baths, which turned into Webster’s first real bath.  Eeee, wet dachshunds are so cute; I will have to remember to take a picture next time.

I had dinner/drinks plans at 8:00 which felt late so I did some afternoon snacking.  Baby carrots dipped in blue cheese dressing.

Half a matzoh sheet with extra sharp cheddar melted on top.

A mug of Candy Cane Lane with skim milk.

And 1 serving of Trolli Soda Poppers.

The snacking did the trick and before I knew it I was at Bar Louie with my friends.  I know it’s sort of a breakfast drink, but the extra spicy bloody mary was calling my name.

It was spicy and delicious, but I was a little put off by the freaking sandwich Bar Louie stuck in the top of it –

I don’t eat meat!  I did eat a small plate of the appetizers we shared.

I’m so happy that I ended up with such a great group in my year for Dietetics.  I didn’t get home until after 12 and I will admit to feeling a bit cranky this morning.

I’m starving and I assume Webster’s chewing on my bookshelves to tell me that he’s bored, so we’re off to take a long walk.  This will be my first day home alone with the puppy, wish me luck!

Change Up Your Plans

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One good turn deserves another, so we started our day with more booze.

With my Brewfast stamp still fresh on my hand, natch.

Drinks two days in a row, or martinis any day, is usually not my style, but we were at a well-known martini bar and when in Rome.  Adam and I just had to split the Pineapple Upside-down Cake, vanilla Smirnoff shaken with grenadine and pineapple juice and topped with a cherry.

It was delicious and totally fun to try something new.

Adam and I met up at Cecelia’s Ristorante with our friend Danielle for brunch around 11.  Adam and Danielle have both had martinis at Cecelia’s before and were total fans but today we wanted to check out the food.  Sadly, brunch is apparently only a Sunday thing but since it was lunch time at that point anyways it was probably just as well.

The husband and I both got the Hickory Smoked Pulled Chicken sandwich.

3 hour smoked whole chicken pulled off the bone, Carolina red sauce and homemade cole slaw.  With a side of homemade butter pickles.

Not as good as THE sandwich from Taste of Buffalo, but still pretty darn good.  The chicken was nice and soft and the Carolina red sauce was sweet and smokey; plus cole slaw on a sandwich is always a win.  I practically licked my plate clean.

The next this on the agenda was a work out which was supposed to be easy but of course it wasn’t.  I’m participating in a fueling study through my Department (which basically involves walking on the treadmill for an hour and taking some notes) and I ran into some issues.  Heres how my workout ended up actually going –

  • walk from home to the gym
  • spend 5 minutes on the treadmill figuring out that I couldn’t do the study today
  • walk from the gym to home to put the special drink for the study back in the fridge
  • work up a sweat getting annoyed about missing a workout
  • walk 2 miles to the tennis courts where Adam was playing with friends
  • spend 45 minutes getting a lesson in tennis basics

We bought me a cheapie racket recently and I’m so excited to get to play tennis with the husband!  I’m bad, but not as bad as we’d thought I’d be, and our lesson today was a ton of fun.  He totally kicked my butt.  [We also kicked my knee’s butt but I’m icing as I type and keeping my fingers crossed.]

After a quick shower we headed to the mall and I refueled with ice cream.

These Friendly’s mini take-home sundaes are seriously to die for, I was basically in heaven.  This had 340 calories and it was sooo worth it.

We were headed to the mall so I could cash in my birthday gift from my parents, new running shoes.  I’m super excited to take them for a spin tomorrow.  My parents also told us to take their credit card to a movie so we took in a showing of “The Change Up.”  Hy-STARE-icle!  No “Friends With Benefits” but definitely laugh-worthy.  Also definitely worth getting home at 10pm without dinner.  We just ordered a large pizza, which I plan on devouring and blogging about in the morning.  G’night!

Buffalo Brewfest

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Last night was loads of fun. 

I don’t have a hangover this morning, but I definitely was not in shape to blog last night! 

Adam and I had a great time at Brewfest and then we continued the party on the metro to get a late dinner with a group of med school friends.  We came home after midnight, exhausted and happy.

I’m not 100% convinced that Brewfest was worth the admission fee, since the lines were so long we didn’t even have a chance to use all of our tickets.  Additionally, a lot of the breweries had either sold out of, or not brought, the beers listed in the program.  The two brews I was most excited about were unavailable, which sucked.  And most of the replacements were IPAs, which Adam and I both hate.  We had a great time, but I would suggest only going if you want to get indiscriminately wasted and NOT if you are excited about tasting specific things.

I’m not going to do a typical recap beyond that because we were given a 3 oz glass that was filled at each station and my pictures would just be more of the same.

I can tell you that I consumed 20 ounces of beer. 

That’s not a lot (1.5 beers!) but I did get a little bit buzzed.  Thanks to the blog, I can tell you that prior to last night I only drank 14 times in 2011.  And most of those occasions were half a beer or a glass of champagne.  When did I get so tame?!

For us there were two highlights to the festival.  One was McKenzie’s Hard Cider.

I tried the original and green apple flavors and as a cider aficionado I think they were great.  These were the only two pours that I wouldn’t let Adam share.

The best beer of the night though was Brooklyn Brewery’s Concoction.

Adam and I both agreed that this was one of the best beers we’ve ever tasted!  It reminded me of a ginger ale!

After the Brewfest wrapped at 9:30, we hopped back on the train with a group of friends.  (We parked near our old apartment and took the train to the festival)  I’m not sure how Anchor Bar was able to accommodate a group of 8 so quickly but they did a great job.

I was feeling a little queasy – even when I drank a lot more, I’ve never been a big beer drinker – so I ordered off of the kid’s menu.

5 spicy chicken wings,

with a basket of fries.

Ugggggh.  I felt so sick halfway through eating that I excused myself to the bathroom because I thought I was going to cry.  I don’t think there was anything wrong with the food – Adam ate all of his beef on weck and most of my meal – but it was too rich for me and I was not a happy camper.  I ended up eating most of 3 wings and half of the fries.

I went to bed pretty hungry, which means I woke up hungry, which means I’m off to find brunch!

Have you ever attended Brewfest or a similar event?

MALTiple Choice

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I don’t know where my day went this morning but I didn’t manage to eat until way into the afternoon.  Actually that’s sort of a lie, a lot of my morning went to this –

Did anyone else read Phyllis Renolds Naylor’s Alice series growing up?  I was obsessed, and since the series still isn’t finished (the final book will be published in 2013) I’ve continued to read.  My mom knows that there are few presents more exciting to me than a fresh Alice book.

Also exciting is a free coffee from the Dunkin’ Donuts birthday rewards program.

Since it was a “gift” I went all out; a medium iced coffee with skim milk, sugar-free toasted almond, and sugar-free coconut.

Totally worth the headache it left me with all afternoon.  I don’t know when I’ll figure out that drinking coffee without eating makes me sick.

However, eating was the next stop on our string of errands (post office, DD, Goodwill, Wegmans).

I snagged several types of chicken – picked through for extra veggies – and some of the chilli garlic eggplant I’m obsessed with.

Is there a more perfect fuel than hot bar?

Adam and I took a walk to the Co-op to finish our grocery shopping later in the afternoon and I grabbed a ‘smores bar from The Spot.

I swear we had plans to make dinner like grown-ups, but Incredibly Alice was screaming my name and I just had to finish it.  By the time I returned to the real world it was too late for a real dinner.  Good thing I had multiple kinds of malt at my fingertips.

First, beer.

8% alcohol beer in the form of Wild Blue.

I want to love blueberry beers, but I just never do.  This wasn’t bad but it was a little too sweet for my tastes.  I drank about half of it.  What I do love is pouring beer into to-go cups and drinking on neighborhood walks. 

I know it sounds rebellious but really I just grew up on an island with no open-container laws and fell in love with walk-boozing before it was illegal.

Malt number two was poured on my french fries.

Waffle fries from ETS plus roasted green bean fries for veg.

Mmmmn, malty!

Malt vinegar on french fries: love it or leave it?