Tag Archives: cabbage

Last Friday Night

by

I spent Friday night getting a little drunk.  Mind you, not so drunk that I would actually want to listen to Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night.”  We did watch some bad stand up comedy on Netflix though.  <– Tim Minchin, not as funny as this joke would lead you to believe.  (It’s so dirty, don’t click, Nana!)

Yesterday, Bitchtastic

Friday morning started with a Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bar on the way to the hospital.

DSC00605

I had plans for a morning gym session but when I saw the weather report I decided to sleep in instead.  We got really lucky here, the snow was annoying but not anything dangerous.

snow

I had a nice day at the hospital in spite of the weather.  I got to chart on several interesting patients and had a little more practice with doing pediatric TPN orders.  I love the nutrition support aspect of dietetics but children are really different from what I’ve done with adults.

Lunch was a simple salad.

DSC00601

Chopped green pepper and cucumber with evoo, Sriracha, and some salty peanuts.

DSC00598

What a winning combination!

Plus a GoGo Squeez Cinnamon Applesauce packet.

DSC00603

Great on the go, but not as amazing as the pile of fruit I had when I got home.

DSC00614

Underneath my mounds of blue and blackberries was Naked Vanilla Oat Milk, a little honey, and 1/4 cup each All Bran Bran Buds and Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola.

DSC00610

So flipping good.  And it was a good thing I got in a healthy snack because my responsible food choices took a downhill turn during the rest of the evening.

I blame the Bitch Bubbly.

DSC00616

A girlfriend came over and she, Adam, and I drank the bottle in mimosas.

DSC00618

The sparkling wine was pretty bad, but our next round was fantastic –

DSC00620

Sips Lavender Lemondrop Sparkling Cocktails!  This was so fun, and quite delicious.  I described it to my coworker today as “Kate Spade’s Four Loco.”  I would definitely buy them again.

But maybe I’d eat dinner first next time.  My evening meal ended up being… A slice of bread with Smart Balance Light,

DSC00623

and a huge bowl of popcorn with melted Earth Balance.

DSC00625

Major thanks to the husband for making me two bowls of popcorn; I spilled that first one within a matter of minutes!

Fashion Friday

DSC00508

DSC00534

DSC00565

DSC00595

DSC00607

Today, Tofutastic

Saturday’s meals were a little healthier.  Still very tasty though.

For breakfast, Adam and I split a great pb & j.

DSC00630

With a pear on the side.

DSC00628

I worked today, but only a half shift, so I had time to get lunch from Wegman’s hot bar.  Some tofu and veggies in mushroom dashi with two pieces of inari.

DSC00634

I did lots of Googling, and as far as I could tell mushroom dashi is just mushroom stock, so I’m still not sure what that yummy sauce was.

We made tofu for dinner too.

DSC00636

A bed of cabbage —a bag of “Asian Slaw” mix cooked with a bit of Earth Balance with caramelized onions tossed in towards the end— topped with walnuts —cooked in a skillet with salt and sugar— and tofu —super firm tofu cooked in the skillet we used for the onions, finished with a sauce of tamari, rice vinegar, sesame oil, Sriracha, honey, and orange juice.

DSC00642

I was glad I added the nuts at the last-minute to help break up the texture.  The flavors were spot on though.

I had Goody Good Stuff Tropical Fruit for dessert.

DSC00647

Adorable, and much firmer than the other varieties.

Was your area hit with this weekend’s crazy weather?

All Over The Place

by

I’ve been all over the place the past two days, figuratively speaking.  Literally, I’ve been in Buffalo, at work or in my apartment.  Influencing the craziness of my eats?  I started a 20 Day Vegan Challenge on Sunday, I was so hungry yesterday I thought I might actually eat a horse if one happened to gallop near me, and today I woke up far under the weather.  What can you do?

Sunday was fairly ridiculous.  In spite of being vegan and staying home from the Super Bowl party I definitely still managed to match the rest of America’s Super Bowl Sunday caloric intake.

Banana Bread Lara Bar.

DSC00492

Chips.

DSC00497

Summer roll from the co-op.

DSC00495

Fancy bread with olive oil, x2.5.

DSC00498

Vegan almond joy bar.

DSC00500

Gummies.

DSC00504

If my summer roll hadn’t been packed with veggies I probably would have had to turn in my diploma!

Then I got into bed at 9:30 pm Sunday night and barely made it out by 7:15 today.  I don’t seem to be sick with any typical flu-like symptoms {knock on wood} but I am tired beyond reason.  I swear to God I didn’t spend Super Bowl Sunday eating chicken wings and getting wasted, but when I woke up this morning I felt like I was drunk!  It took me 10 minutes to really figure out where I was and I stayed in a haze for most the morning.  And super embarrassingly, I almost passed out in the ICU during rounds!  Hopefully no one else noticed but the RD I was with said I got very pale for a few minutes.

I grabbed a (non-diet) Dr. Pepper during a quick break and that helped get my blood sugar back up.

dr. pepper

Lunch was a simple salad – romaine, raw veggies, pickled beans, and low-fat raspberry vinaigrette.

salad

And I had a bowl of cereal when I got home.  A serving of Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola topped with blackberries and Simpli Vanilla Naked Oat Milk.

DSC00514

The granola was some of the best I’ve ever had!

DSC00513

It held up in the milk without being too hard and it was loaded with big pieces of coconut.

I ate half of this Enjoy Life Ricemilk Chocolate bar while I did some history reading.

DSC00516

And kept dinner simple with an Annie Chun’s Korean Kimchi Soup Bowl.

DSC00517

DSC00519

I still had some reading to do for class so I needed to keep things quick.

Don’t ask me how I managed to drag myself to the gym after my night class, but I did.  I am hoping to start up with the Couch to 10k program again.  Today was 1 minute running/4 minutes walking, x 8.  Except a great song came on and I ended up just running the last five minutes.

I was starving when I got home so I ate a slice of bread with Smart Balance Light while I packed our lunches.

DSC00526

All that stands between me and bed is a shower!

Did you watch the Super Bowl?  What’d you snack on during the game?

Fashion Friday

by

The hospital was great today.

DSC00238

I got to chart on several patients and I saw some really interesting cases; everything from cancer to Crohn’s, to burns.

If you think I actually got in bed early last night… you haven’t been reading my blog very long!  Of course I stayed up another hour and of course I was exhausted this morning.  I had to grab breakfast on the go, a Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Bar.

DSC00226

The taste was good and I loved chewing through the chia.  The bar only had 100 calories, but it did provide 4 gram each fiber and protein and 1000 and 800 mg respectively omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Nutrition fun fact – it is important to get healthy fatty acids in your diets, but did you know that the ratio of omega 6:3 matters too?  It should be about 1:1 but most Americans get too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3.

I also had a big cup of coffee at the hospital.

coffee

Half vanilla cappuccino (sweetened) and half caramel nut coffee (flavored beans).

I may have packed lunch yesterday, but it wasn’t much help sitting in my fridge all day!  Instead I got a salad from the salad bar.

salad

Spring mix topped with tomatoes, banana peppers, french dressing, and scoop of cole slaw.

I wasn’t interested in my packed-but-forgotten turkey sandwich when I got home, but I did eat my Pink Lady apple.

DSC00216

Plus a Caramel Pineapple Chobani Bite topped with some KIND Maple Walnut Clusters with Chia & Quinoa.

DSC00241

<– heavenly

Dinner was a big slice of pizza.

DSC00246

Buffalo chicken with blue cheese for dipping.

DSC00244

This will be my last slice for a little while (I’ll explain soon) and I really enjoyed it.

Fashion Fridays

This post was pretty short, so I figured I’d share my “professional” look with you all.  I hope at least a few readers (hi, Nana! hi, Mom!) would like to see what I wore to my first week at the hospital.

DSC00090

tues

DSC00181

thursday

friday

Fact 1 – Lose-fitting tops with fun neckline details are pretty much my uniform.

Fact 2 – I know my mirror is filthy.  Sometimes I hold Webster up to the mirror to see “the other dog” and I don’t always have time to clean off his nose smudges because by “sometimes” I mean daily.

See You Next Year!

by

Last night we made cheesecake brownies with the cherry gourmet sauce my grandma sent us for Christmas.

DSC04320

Yum!  I had several but my camera was charging at that point.  Plus a huge bowl of popcorn {with melted butter, for the win}.  We stayed up past 2am so there was plenty of time to eat.  Our sleep habits are ridiculous.  I know I said I wasn’t making any resolutions, but in 2013 I am going to have to mature up my sleep schedule.

Of course, I overslept this morning and I didn’t pack food.  I have to start packing food for work because buying breakfast and lunch is a huge waste of money.  Both were good though.  A cheddar basil scone.

DSC04328

And some waldorf chicken salad.

DSC04326

I also bought a grande caramel macchiato from Spot but I forgot to photograph it.

I wanted Thai food as my last meal of 2012 and Thai Orchid Cafe delivered.

DSC04331

Pad Kee Mao, aka Drunken Noodles, ordered Thai spicy.  In contrast with last night, this was the best plate of food I’ve been served in forever.

DSC04332

Perfection!

Followed by a brownie with ice cream for dessert.

DSC04336

…plus another brownie; they are so flipping good!

We are going to watch a few more episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” and then I hope to turn in early.  I know most people like to party on New Year’s Eve but my goal is always to be in bed before the ball drops.

I assume you’re all reading this tomorrow morning; what’d you do for New Year’s Eve?

Chocolate, Croissants, Coffee, and Cuddling

by

As my title indicates, it’s been a damn good day!  This is the most time I’ve gotten to spend with the husband in weeks.  Other than my short, 4-hour shift at work, we spent the whole day together.  There was studying I could have done, and I certainly could have eaten healthier food, but I’m calling today a raging success!

We started our morning by sampling last night’s baking efforts.

My Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins earn two giant thumbs up.

Next we perfected my drinking chocolate recipe.

Two more thumbs!  I’ll be sharing that recipe on Halloween.

And finally, we settled in for croissants, coffee, “Chopped,” and cuddling.

I had a Wegman’s chocolate croissant,

and a small mug of coffee (cinnamon vanilla nut, brewed with ground cinnamon) with skim milk and sugar.

When we were at the store picking up croissants we snagged pimento cheese samples.

The cheese spread was only ok, but the baguette they served it on was perfection.

Lunch foods were a Cara Cara orange,

and baby carrots with blue cheese dressing.

I should have eaten more food and less chocolate because I was very hungry when I got out of work.  Co-op salads were consumed on the car ride home to stave off hunger and get in some veggies.  Ramen cabbage crunch,

and 5 bean and feta salad.

I had about half of each and handed the rest off to Adam.

A friend was coming over and we had to clean up our hovel, so dinner was snacky.  1.5 oz of smoked almonds with 1.5 Tbsp butterscotch chips,

and (2) 100-calorie bags of kettle corn with 2 Tbsp of melted butter.

I’m definitely not minding the vegan challenge as an excuse to eat up all of the cheese and butter!

While our friend was over, the three of us split this Crispin hard cider.

The Saint wasn’t quite as good as the honeycrisp variety, but it still got good reviews all around.  Not too sweet or sour.

Adam and I finished up the day with bbq and buffalo chicken pizza (from Zetti’s) while we got our Halloween movie on.

“Once Bitten,” aka the 80’s-fabulous vampire movie that was Jim Carrey’s first starring role.  OB always reminds me of my friend Lana Winter and is one of my favorite films for Halloween.

We did something super fun while our friend was over but I’m going to tell you tomorrow because I have to get into bed this very minute.  Good night!

Have you ever seen “Once Bitten?”

TV Dinner

by

I think this is my easiest week thus far this school year.  I actually watched tv this evening!  I know that I really should have been working, but at least for this week it’s not the end of the world that I didn’t.

I was starving this morning and ended up eating all of my breakfast and my lunch within the first ten minutes of class.  Müller Passion Fruit Peach Früt Up Yogurt.

A Clif Grape Fruit Rope (FNCE sample).

And a Jalopeño Popper Burger on a Sandwich Thin with pumpkin spice cream cheese.

This was such a good sandwich combination.

I had a long morning of classes and then a doctor’s appointment – with a super long wait – in the afternoon.  Thankfully my appointment took me near Gin Gin, the restaurant with bubble tea that a customer raved about at work last weekend.

It was worth raving about!  The used two kinds of boba, regular and popping!

The bubbles were in a red bean milk tea, and that was delicious too.  I’m glad I took a chance on something different.

I came home with food too.

Hot and sour soup,

and Mongolian chicken (with carrots, cabbage, and a spicy sauce) with white rice.

I ate about half of each and then Adam ate the rest.

Plus ice cream (about a serving) straight from the pint.

With a side of “Private Practice,” “Castle,” and “Royal Pains.”  ‘Twas a good night!

Crazy Cakes

by

Crazy-cakes is one of my favorite expressions and for the post title I’m using it both figuratively and literally.  It is crazy stupid that I’m blogging at 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday.  Things have been crazy busy and the next two weeks are only going to get crazier.  Finally, I fulfilled a birthday list goal and made a crazy good cake.

The past few days have been crazy on the healthy living front but I want to blog them because I don’t live a healthy living blog, I live my life.  And in my life 90% of what I’ve consumed in the past week has been pizza.  I’ve decided that attempting to work out over the next week would actually be unhealthy because I’m already getting so little sleep (my planner is workout-free until October 10th).  I’m super stressed and not doing the best job of balancing school work with too many hours at my job.  But again, this is my life.

As I prewrote these posts in my head I had a lot to say, but now that it’s been 4 days since I last blogged I think we shall go WIAW-style for the recaps.  Note – there is no recap from Thursday because I took the day off from everything, took no pictures, caught up on “Awkward” and “Covert Affairs,” and ate pizza and Chinese food for dinner.  It was both necessary and delightful.

The Next 2 Weeks

  1. (9/26)  3 homework assignments are due
  2. (9/27)  the 4 major assignments from my community clinical rotation are due
  3. (9/28)  I’m presenting a journal article for my research methods class.  It is a 25 minute Powerpoint presentation and it makes up a large percentage of our grade.
  4. (9/28)  we have our first Microbiology test
  5. (10/1)  we have our first MNT test <– it is going to be so difficult that our teacher recommended that we all quit our jobs if we can
  6. (10/6)  two friends and I are driving to Philly for 4 days for a professional conference  <– fun, but also holy frick, when am I going to pack?!

Friday

Breakfast on the walk to school.  Zico Chocolate Coconut Water.

Muller Blueberry Bliss Frut Up.

Blueberry Bliss Luna Bar.

China Breakfast Tea with skim milk and a pb-chocolate magic straw while at work.

A See’s candy that my bosses brought us back from their trip to California.  (I had never tried See’s before and now I am a fast fan; soooo creamy!)

A caramel apple non-fat latte as I geared up for a late night.  (Cafe Aroma, Buffalo peeps.)

Wegman’s frozen cheese pizza and a sad salad of romaine and 1000 island dressing.

Cake!

One of my goals for my 27th year was to bake a cake from scratch.  I figured I’d only do this once, so I wanted a recipe that was delicious but didn’t call for cake flour.  After much pondering and Googling, I settled on this Hummingbird Cake recipe from Serious Eats.

If you’ve never had Hummingbird Cake before (I hadn’t!), it is a yellow cake with chopped pecans, crushed pineapple, and mashed banana in the batter that is frosted with cream cheese icing.  This combination of ingredients ends up being amazing.

I made the following changes to the recipe and they all worked out –

  • light brown sugar instead of dark brown
  • low-fat buttermilk
  • canola oil instead of vegetable oil
  • 1/3-reduced fat cream cheese

I baked the three cakes when I got home from work on Friday night.  This activity, of course, included a sprint to purchase more eggs at the co-op 10 minutes before it closed.

Then Saturday morning I layered and frosted helped Adam frost the cake.

His surgeon’s hands came in very handy.

It ended up being a big success!

I brought the cake to book club and it got two-thumbs up all around.  If I ever have to make another cake in the future I will definitely think of hummingbirds.

Both of my book club offers were pineapple-based, because I also made my Tropical Fruit White Sangria.

This batch was made with –

  • 2 cups chopped pineapple
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup Cruzan Guava Rum
  • 1 bottle Rosebud Gold (a local sweet white wine)
  • 10 oz lemon seltzer water

Saturday

Eaten before my 10 am shift at work because I had been up since 5:00 frosting and studying.  Leftover bbq chicken pizza and sliced apple.

Popcorn with Smart Balance Light.

A Zevia Cola at work.

A pizza bagel on my break.  (The Spot uses the very best tasting marinara sauce; it is super zesty.)

My friend picked me up from work and I immediately guzzled two giant glasses of sangria instead of helping her set up.

Book club food, a slice of cheese quesadilla with guacamole and mango salsa, plus two toasts with shrimp dip.

A slice of cake.

Drunkenly eaten at midnight, my 3rd serving of pizza for the day and carrots with french onion yogurt dip.

Sunday

Homemade cole slaw.

A slice of cake.

A See’s candy at work.

Dinner while grocery shopping.  Sweet and sour chicken plus wok-seared veggies.  (This was randomly really tasty and the best hot bar meal I’ve had in a while.)

A medium, non-fat (no whipped cream) Apple Steamer during our class study-session at The Spot.

Baby carrots and french onion yogurt dip while I wrote this post.

An Important Question

Don’t you think that the dog sort of likes like Oprah when he sits with his arms crossed like this?

Appletastic

by

Today was a much better day!  Mostly because I accomplished tons and ate a healthy and amazing tasting dinner.  Also, I’m a little drunk.

Yesterday wasn’t the best day and it was clear from my post that I was a little depressed.  Several of you commented on my consumption of Halloween candy pre-Pumpkin Month and all I can say is “it won’t happen again.”  I’m so ashamed!  🙂

For breakfast I packed a sandwich to eat in class.  A slice of 2% colby and 2 slices of Applegate Farms turkey bacon on a toasted Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin.

It was a little dry but oh-so-tasty.

Plus the last serving of my caramel apple sugar babies.

These guys win as my #1 favorite Apple Month candy.  But eating them at 9am did make me a little sick.

I got a ton accomplished this morning, between a break in class and the time after my Micro lab, I polished off several school to-do’s.  I am way (way, way, way, way, way) behind on studying but it felt good to make a dent.

Then I went to a orthodontist appointment.  My last full-time-retainer-wearing orthodontist appointment!

I screamed when I heard the good news and scared the crap out of my orthodontist.  Then I told him I was going to go swish coffee.

I didn’t actually get any coffee because I had another appointment, but I am looking forward to leisurely sipping through my morning class for the rest of the semester.  It’s also worth mentioning that I didn’t have time for coffee or lunch.  <– remember that when I remind you that I’m drunk a minute from now

My 2nd appointment dealt with a recall on my car.  It turned out I did have the defective part and I was very glad that I could get it fixed for free.  I guess when I called them “stupid errands” yesterday I spoke too soon!

I worked at The Spot for an hour or so before I headed home.  Then I made us an appletastic dinner, complete with on-theme booze.

Adam and I split this Crispin Honey Crisp Hard Apple Cider while we cooked.

Delicious!

The “soft” cider was even more amazing though; we also took swigs of this Red Jacket Fuji Apple Cider.

It was so perfectly sweet!  We loved it.  And it helped make dinner amazing.

  1. I melted 1.5 Tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Then I sautéed 1 pint sliced mushrooms and 1 small chopped Sweet Mayan Onion, with a sprinkle of salt.
  2. Next I added 4 cups cole slaw mix and 1 cup apple cider and cooked until the cabbage was soft.
  3. I removed the veggies from the pan, added another 1/2 Tbsp butter and 8 oz sliced Naysoya Super-firm Sprouted Tofu.
  4. I cooked the tofu until crispy in 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp maple syrup, and a sprinkle of salt, then put it on top of the cabbage.

Soooooooo good.  The veggies were sweet and savory and the tofu had the best texture.  That ‘fu is going to be my go-to from now on.

Now I’m off to hopefully kill my buzz with popcorn.

If I can get myself together, I’m going to try to bang out another hour or so of work tonight.

Do you have any ciders, hard or otherwise, to recommend?