Tag Archives: booze

Prioritizing

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Today has been such fun!  It’s felt packed, but in the best way possible.  First things first, let me announce the CSN Stores giveaway winner –

Clare (#14) please send me an e-mail – emilyhwaxATgmail.com – so I can get you your prize.

This morning actually felt a little stressful; I way overslept and was trying to squeeze in lunch plans, a workout, apartment cleaning, showering, and being on time to pick my parents up from the airport.  I’m really proud of myself though because I made exercise a priority.  I realized that Katie wouldn’t be upset if I made our lunch date a maybe, and my parents wouldn’t care if the apartment was messy, but I would care if I skipped my run.  So I went!  And I ended up having time to (quickly) do everything else too.

I did cut my length though, which ended up being for the best because my calves were stupid tight.  I didn’t manage my times as much, just ran and walked whenever I needed to.  In the end I did ~1.6miles and 20minutes.

I kept my lunch date, and picked Katie up for a trip to Panera.

I did the half/half deal; half a strawberry, poppy seed, & chicken salad,

with half a turkey and artichoke pannini,

with an apple as my side.

The sandwich was gooey and crunchy and perfect but the salad was NOT good.  I ended up leaving 95% of my salad even though the other half of my tray was practically licked clean.

After dropping Katie off I went to the husband’s computer lab to print off airport directions; what, I’ve only lived in Buffalo a full year?!?  We had a fun time showing them the town, we hit up the mall, Target, Allentown, the Erie Marina, and finally had a fabulous dinner at Pearl Street Cafe.

There was a long wait so we went the bar so that my parents could try some of the microbrews.  I went the tall Johnny Walker Black and Coke route.

Drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk!  I did not eat enough today to functionally handle this big drink and the poor husband definitely dealt with me being a little loopy during dinner 😉

Foodwise my mommy and I split a small Chicken Cheddar Pizza.

It came with broccoli and black olives, a fantabulous combination.

I had this slice times 2 –

As well as a few big bites of Adam’s lobster ravioli.

It was a perfect “Welcome to Buffalo” dinner.

How do you make exercise a priority?

On the Move

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Thanks for all the birthday wishes guys!  Even though it didn’t feel very celebratory, I ended up having a pretty good 25th birthday; I like things low-key.  We are 99.9% moved but the last two days have been H-A-R-D!  We did everything but the kitchen yesterday, the kitchen today, and our pictures need to be hung sometime this week.

I must have been nervous/excited because I slept maybe 40minutes Friday night.  I actually got out of bed at 3:40am to take a shower.  Our U-Haul pick-up was at 7am so it was an early morning.  Don’t we look excited?

I did manage to have a pretty good breakfast though.

Fage with Strawberry,

and some blueberries (I didn’t eat the whole pint, but I didn’t want to diry a bowl to put them in).

And I even managed some birthday flare – glitter painted nails.

We were 100% focused on moving so breakfast ended up having to hold me over until late evening.  I did grab a few chunks of watermelon mid-morning though.

And I drank this G-2 throughout the day.

Moving was a serious workout and the husband and I were both sweating bullets so we knew we’d need to replenish some electrolytes.

We moved and we moved and then we moved so more.  Then finally (8pm!) it was time for dinner.  It was my birthday so we got a little gussied.

But after some rain, and some raising of fists to the sky and proclaiming that it shouldn’t rain on birthdays, we moved the party to Cheesecake Factory.

There was a 60minute wait (keep in mind that we last ate at 8am) so we found our way to the bar.  I got a passionfruit mojito because it was made with Cruzan rum.

And then I was drunk.  The combo of not sleeping, not eating, busting my butt all day, and then booze was just too much for me, I could barely keep my eyes open at the table!

We finally got seated and Adam and I practically cheered when the bread basket was brought to the table.

He also shared one of his avocado eggrolls with me.

Dinner –

I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich,

with a green salad on the side.

At that point I was too tired to be very hungry, so I ate all of my salad but only 1/3 of my sandwich.  But what’s a birthday without (cheese)cake?

We got the caramel pecan turtle cheesecake to split.

It was tasty but too much, I took 3 bites and wrapped the rest up for Adam.  Bed never felt so good!

This morning I took a walk in search of breakfast.  The co-op is only .9miles from my new apartment, this could be dangerous!  Sadly the co-op wasn’t exactly bursting with fruit that didn’t require a utensil so I headed to Starbucks.  It might be baby food, but it’s still fruit!

I also got an egg white, spinach, and feta wrap.

Again today we were too busy for lunch, but I did grab some chocolate chip cookies (baked fresh for the husband prior to the move).

The only real snafu in the move so far is that when I turned on my oven to make dinner this evening the fire alarms went off.  Fun fact: the alarms in our apartment are electronic so taking out the battery doesn’t shut them up 😦 We turned it on twice and both times there was no smoke but still deafening noise.  We called to have it taken care of tomorrow and I plopped my “oven roasted” asparagus into a pan to cook on the stove.

I also ate the rest of my buffalo chicken sandwich (with blue cheese dressing).

Not a bad dinner at all.

We don’t have internet set up yet so the husband dropped me off at the Spot so I could blog.  We should be getting it hooked up on Tuesday but I’ll be checking in sporadically until then.  Be on the look out tomorrow for pictures of the new apartment and a giveaway!

What’s the worst moving snafu you’ve encountered?  Last year our BUDGET (hate them) truck leaked and ruined our matress, but other than that we’ve been pretty lucky.

Sample

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It’s been a fun evening but I probably should have been in bed hours ago so I’ll try to keep this short 😉

When the husband got home this afternoon we took a much-need 1hour nap.  Then we geared up to go to the gym.  I realize today probably didn’t provide the best circumstances for a work out (lack of sleep, not a lot of food) but I’m finding that if I take even one day off from gyming it that one day turns into two, and three, and so forth.  It’s like my lack of motivation snowballs.  So for the next 30days or so – the amount of time it takes to form a habit – expect to see some sort of formal workout from me every day.  Even if it’s just 10 minutes of stretching, hopefully making it “official” will keep me motivated.

Today’s workout was 30minutes on the elliptical.  I set the machine to level 6 random, and did backward pedal/forward pedal intervals as well as several sprints.

I gave it my all and was so tired afterwards I had a hard time raising my arms to wash my hair in the shower!  I think I managed to look pretty cute though, dontcha think?

The only thing I like more than ruffles is trying out new restaurants with the husband and that is precisely what tonight’s date entailed.

We’ve had SAMPLE on our radar ever since we wandered past it last month during the art festival.  The concept is that you get to SAMPLE a lot of little tastes.  It’s like tapas but the serving sizes are even smaller, single portion, no sharing.

The husband and I are a unit though (gag) so we managed to share a bit.  Like the cheese plate we split –

Carmelized onion, goat cheese, and roasted pear butter pannini.  Housemade ricotta cheese with fire roasted pineapple chutney. Aged provolone “fondue” with roasted tomato & basil pesto and baguette cubes.  I ate about 1/3 of this; it was ok, but nothing exceptional.

Or the 2-for-1 rum drink special that prompted us to order strawberry mojitos –

The husband’s entrée consisted of little sandwiches and “lots” of meat –

Cuban sandwich, steak frites, beef on weck, and pulled pork.

I got one sample plate to taste, Fish and Chip –

Beer battered salt cod served on a crispy potato guafrette with napa cabbage cole slaw.  The cole slaw was crazy good, but I was glad to only have a small bite of the fried fish.

I took the healthy route for my meal and choose something of the “Small Plate” menu instead of the “Sample” options.  Beet salad –

Tender green salad with roasted beets, gorgonzola cheese, and beet vinaigrette topped with housemade candied walnuts.  This was very good, but certainly not the best salad I’ve ever had.  I prefer this combo with goat cheese.

For dessert we split the Sample Some More –

Housemade graham crackers, chocolate peanut butter cream, bruleed vanilla marshmallow with dark chocolate sauce, and peanut brittle, served with dark hot chocolate.  This dish was a winner, you can’t go wrong with ‘smores!

In the end we agreed that we had a good time but probably wouldn’t go back (unless it was to sit at the bar and eat dessert).  The concept was wonderful but the execution wasn’t quite there.

I knew Adam would still be hungry but in my effort to feed him I shared too much of my salad and ended up a bit hungry myself.  We drove around for awhile and ended up grabbing a 4-piece chicken nugget kid’s meal at Wendy’s.

I know a lot of bloggers wouldn’t eat Wendy’s, period, but I was actually pretty proud of myself for this choice.  My meal wasn’t quite big enough so I had hunger and not appetite (look at that nutrition vernacular!) and this was a reasonable little meal.  We are going out of town again this weekend so our fridge is pretty bare and I can’t think of any fast food option that would be a better choice than a kid’s meal.  I could have probably done without the fries but Wendy’s fries are sooo good – I like the extra squishy ones – and I did share some with the husband.

How do you get/stay motivated for your work outs?  Any tips for me as I get back into shape?

Red, White, and Late

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I hope everyone and their families had an incredible Independence Day.  No July 4th post for me, mostly because I was so ashamed by my lack of red, white, and blue foods; I always stick to theme!  We did dress festively though,

some of us more than others 😉

We did eat in an, ahem, celebratory fashion though, so I woke up today feeling pretty bloated and gross.  No better cure than testing out the new running shoes (an early birthday gift from my parents).

Since it was 10am already but we didn’t want breakfast before our run the husband and I split this pack of energy gels.

They were a free sample but I would probably buy them again, they tasted more like candy than gels and didn’t sit heavy in our stomachs.

I decided the safest route for new shoes was short intervals –

  • 5minute walking warm up
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute walk
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 5minute walking cool down

All total we covered 3miles in 39minutes.  I’m unsure about my new shoes still, they were far more supportive but I ended up having to stop and mess with my right foot halfway through because of a big blister forming on my right pinky, I’m hoping from my new socks.

After a quick shower we headed out to meet our friend Danielle for brunch.  I had a ton of work to do today (and did NOT get enough of it done!) but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity since the husband had the day off from the lab.  We headed to Panos.

I was feeling stressed about my work, but that’s nothing an extra spicy bloody mary can’t fix.

All the breakfast options were pretty big, but thankfully I talked the waitress into letting me order off of the kid’s menu.

I ended up with the 1-1-1.  One egg, sunny side up,

one piece of french toast,

and I subbed in hash browns for my one piece of meat.

I smothered everything in maple syrup and devoured, delicious!

While I was home not working I did random snacking.  Blue and I had some Rainbow Nerds.

A serving of Jammie Dodgers biscuit cookies.

An onion roll with Smart Balance, x2 actually, this was quick and tasty.

And I finally got in my red, white, and blue!

Siggi’s vanilla yogurt with strawberry sauce and blueberries.

O-M-G, so fabulous!  Doesn’t the yogurt just look like a scoop of ice-cream?!  The texture is practically like cream cheese!  The strawberry sauce I actually whipped up yesterday, the recipe comes from Healthy Food for Living.  I had to add ~1/4t of xanthan gum to keep it from being too liquidy, but other than that I highly recommend trying it yourself.

The husband came home this evening (he went to a water park with some friends) and insisted on getting me some veggies; my knight in shining arm took me on his steed to the Co-op hot bar.

I got a little bit of turkey Tetrazzini,

a piece of eggplant parmesan,

2 stuffed grape leaves,

and some side salad.

Now I’ve got to get to bed on the double, I panic a little bit whenever I think about how much work I have to do tomorrow!

Did you do anything fun to celebrate the Fourth?

Caramel Crab and Beef on Weck Roll

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It’s been a busy past 24hours, the husband I have managed to pack in a LOT of fun!  We started by staying up half the night watching “Dollhouse;” what are we, in college?!?  Adam shared one of his Kashi cookies with me around 1am.

This “morning” didn’t begin until after 10am 😉  But I did start the day off right with a tasty breakfast sandwich.

An onion roll topped with Crofter’s Superfruit Spread, a slice of reduced fat colby jack cheese, and 2 eggs.

I use the microwave method for the eggs (which I whisked a bit of Buffalo sauce into) and they came out so fluffy.

Then we piled in the car for another mini roadtrip.  Adam’s friend from his lab invited us to her wedding reception and it was held upstate.  They actually got married in St. Thomas (hometown represent!) a few months ago, so the party had a tropical theme.

The husband and I split a strawberry daquiri,

and a small plate of chocolate fountain food.

We actually cut out early and missed dinner, so we decided to get sushi once we got back to Buffalo.

The husband has been craving sushi so we checked out a place we walked by a few weeks ago, Sea Bar.  They had great aqua accoutrements,

and complementary spiced popcorn.

For our actual appetizer the husband and I split a Miso Caramel Crab roll.

So tasty!  The roll was tempura’d with cream cheese, green onions, and crab, then topped with miso spiked caramel.

The four bites were enough to satisfy my sushi fix, so I went with salmon for dinner.

It came well done with roasted pineapple salsa and egg fu young.  I passed the eggs to Adam but devoured my fish.

Among other things, the husband ordered a Beef of Weck roll.

Fun!

After dinner we kept the date going with a trip to Delish for ice-cream.  I got a Love Potion # 9,

sweet cream raspberry ice cream with lavender.  Swoon, the lavender gave such a great aftertaste.

The salmon and ice cream were quite tasty, but honestly, I’m still flipping starving!  I’ve been hungry since I went to bed last night and it’s been driving me crazy.  Once I get this published I’m actually going to go get a sandwich!

What is your favorite type of sushi roll?  I’m not often brave enough to go beyond veggies, but one time in Brooklyn Adam and I had a roll with bananas in it that was divine.

BBQ + Beer = Bedtime

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Beware: Quick, uninspired post approaching.  Also, high probability of drogging.

Dinner came courtesy of a blog sample, in a cute little pouch.  [FYI, whenever I talk about a product that I was sent for free (rather than one I’ve purchased on my own) I always include a link to my full review page]

Allergaroo Chili Mac.

Seriously, seriously good.  It’s been years since I’ve had chili but I was kind of blown away by the sauce.  I feel like you could get a meat eater to enjoy this.  Additionally, the pouches can literally be thrown into your purse, then microwaved (in the pouch) for 45seconds, then eaten.  I highly recommend anyone who plans on traveling whilst doing Vegan Month with us to purchase some.

For my veggie I made an acorn squash using my mommy’s recipe.

It’s not actually supposed to look burnt like that.  This was the tiniest acorn squash I’ve ever seen and even after I reduced the cooking times I think I still overdid it.  Sadly it was pretty stringy and it had kind of a gross aftertaste.  I ate about 1/3 of it before moving on to dessert.

Vegan chocolate mousse from the co-op?  Yes please!

This was better than any “regular” mousse I’ve ever had!

I didn’t feel like bringing my purse to the party, so no photographs, but a good time was had by all.  I drank two beers (Red Stripe and something blueberry) and was inexplicably drunk.  Also – soooooo hungry.  They bbq’ed and I’ve literally never wanted a bite of hamburger more.  Which led to me insisting on buying and inhaling a large thing of fries.  Except, somehow halfway in I realized I’d be happier if I didn’t eat them.  So I had a cucumber instead.

Look at me with the healthy choices!  Bedtime?  Bedtime!

Boston to Buffalo

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We’re back in Buffalo!  I can’t help but be sad that vacation is over, but it always feels nice to get back home.

Our last day in Boston was our best yet!  I love ending vacation on a high note.  How could it not be though, when you start the day off with froyo?

This time I got chocolate malt, gingersnap, blackberry.  I only ate about 1/3 of it and the boys finished off the rest.

Then we hopped on the T and headed down to Grafton Street Cafe for brunch.

When we walked by on Friday we spotted Conan O’Brian eating there, so we were all pretty psyched about it.  Sadly, it ended up being one of our worst meals in Boston.  Still, it was fun to see Conan the other day!

We ordered Bloody Marys,

extra spicy.

And I had a piece of bread with butter.

Nikki and I also split a plate of fresh fruit.

For my meal I ordered the Veggie Benedict with roasted avocado, hollandaise on the side.

I can’t even tell you how excited I was about poached eggs when we sat down but mine ended up being so poorly done that they were more like hard-boiled!  I ate as much as I could manage because I was hungry, but I ended up leaving a lot of food on my plate.

Our next activity was 1.5mile walk (over a bridge and through the sun!) away so we grabbed some skim iced lattes for the road.

And pretty soon we were on the river!

We rented a 4-person canoe and spent an hour zig-zagging around.

It was so much fun and such a good arm workout!  I was in the front of the boat so my steering duties left my shoulder muscles burning!

After we walked back to the city we picked up our car and helped Nikki and Ian run a few errands before packing up and heading home.  We got on the highway at 8pm so we planned on stopping for dinner asap but we had basically no luck.  I ate a small serving of pretzel m&m’s to tide me over.

But by 10:30 we finally accepted that the best we were gonna do was McDonald’s.  I tried to go as healthy as I could (480calories and no trans fat, btw) with a 6piece chicken nuggets,

and a fruit and yogurt pack.

Meh.  As much as I am a fan of the occasional fast-food meal I hate McDonald’s.  It was good to have sustenance though, since we pulled into Buffalo after 3am.

Today is so full of errands – unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, school organizing – that I’m actually going to skip blogging.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the start of summer school and vegan month!

P.S.  Allison and I are doing Vegan Month in June.  Join us?

Best Day in Boston

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Today has been our best day of vacation yet!  We’ve done all sorts of Boston things and did lots of walking.  We’ve been doing some serious eating too.

After everyone was showered and ready this morning it was almost noon by the time we left the apartment.  The late hour makes it far less strange that we started the day with froyo.  I think I’ve found my heaven –

The flavor choices, oh the flavor choices!  I went with oreo, cookie dough, nutella.

It was amazing but I still only managed to eat half of it.  We’ll be back tomorrow!

Then we headed into the city to wander through Quincy Market.

We did some people watching and walked around the piers,

before setting on the Barking Crab for lunch.

Check out the view from our table –

It was a great choice, I finally got my seafood fix!

I ordered the fresh lobster roll, which came with fries and cole slaw.

Everything was fresh and wonderful.  My lobster roll had huge hunks of meat in it and I drowned my fries in malt vinegar.  I ate everything except for my bun.

Next we hopped on the T and headed back up to Harvard Square, where I spotted a Ben and Jerry’s truck.

Free ice cream?!?  Who turns that down.

I only ate half of it but it was still pretty exciting.

Our friend Ian rejoined us (with his roomate) and that point and we ended up in an outside cafe with a pitcher of sangria.

We took the party to an (inside) bar so the boys could play pool once the rain threatened our fun.  FYI – other than what I show in booze I stuck with diet coke and water for most of the day.  I also munched on an apple I had in my purse.

Doesn’t everyone do that when they’re in bars?

For dinner we headed to Deep Ellum, our friends’ favorite spot in their neighborhood.  They had an impressively innovative drink menu, lots of absinthe and elderberry liquor.  I went with the Vanilla Flip.

Brandy, vanilla syrup, egg, bitters.  It was shockingly good, it tasted just like Christmas!

For an appetizer Nikki and I split a soft pretzel.

And apparently I was hungry for dinner because I was halfway done before I remembered to take the picture!

That’s the last 1/3 of my vegan seitan burger and fries.  Again, I ate everything minus the bun.

We did a lot of “vacation eating” today; fries and ice-cream x2!?  As I mentioned before, I’m not going to miss out on fun foodie chances in Boston, but I did try to keep things in check by doing lots of walking, not drinking too much booze, and skipping the caloric items that don’t excite me (like sandwich buns).

We are actually heading back out in an hour or so because Ian’s friends are having a party, but I’d rather not deal with my camera this evening.  You can assume I’ll have 1-2beers and then stick with water.  Tomorrow we are squeezing in as much as possible during the day and then driving back to Buffalo in the evening.  I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to post again.

Are there any items you always skip when eating out?  I love bread bread – bagels, our sourdough loaves, or naan – but since sandwich bread doesn’t rock my socks I’d just as soon skip it.