Tag Archives: cabbage

You Want S’more Puppy Pictures

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What a beeee-U-tea-full day for a walk!

I met blog reader/friend Katy for a walk down Bird Island Pier.  We walked for an hour and a half and covered somewhere around 4 miles.  We even got to go under the Peace Bridge!

So fun; I highly recommend heading out there if you’re in Buffalo.

Afterwards I came home for a quick walk with my boys; my tootsies are a little tired now!  Before I met up with Katy this afternoon I opened up this bag of Lays Garden Tomato and Basil chips from my HLS swag bag.

I love the Caroline BBQ variety that is part of the same line but I wasn’t really a fan of this flavor, too much tomato.  I knew I could get something better later so I abandoned the bag 5 chips in.  I’m glad I waited because my stomach started growling after my walks, but too early for dinner, and I split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza with Adam.

The picture is just of my half a slice, by the way; Zetti’s gives you a sort of ridiculous good deal with their ginormous slices.

I did have a swag bag win this afternoon too though, I drank this Lavender Mint Water during our walk.

Yum!  I couldn’t really taste the lavender but there was the slightest hint of mint (not overwhelming at all)  and it was amazing.

Insert several hours of blog browsing (me) and napping (husband) and then it was time for dinner.

Kielbasa, sautéed cabbage, hash browned potatoes; it’s like my Polish ancestors were right at the table with us!

First I cooked sliced Tofurkey Kielbasa Polish-Style Meatless Sausage in a skillet until it was nice and toasty,

then I used the same skillet to saute some cole slaw mix with a little bit of butter and apple cider vinegar,

then finally I sautéed some sliced potatoes (which I precooked a bit in the microwave first) with garlic, onions, and a lotta bit of butter.

This meal was so hearty and satisfying. 

The combo was maybe a little strange for a summer night, but I will have to bookmark this post for the long winter. 

more puppy pictures

I think Webster is a great name for a little brown dachshund – particularly when we get him a Frenchie friend named Miriam in the future – but lately Adam’s been saying we should have called Webs S’more.  He has a chocolate-brown back, a graham cracker tan belly, and this spot on his chest that we call his marshmallow.

Adorable!

Craving Meat

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A man blogger can not live on bread popcorn alone, so I did make myself a lunch lunch around 2:30.

A toasted Bagel Thin with spinach, artichoke, hummus dip,

and a handful of baby carrots.

I also at a Rocky Road mini ice cream.

Clearly I’m on a mini ice cream kick lately.  I’m just going with it.

I had some plans for dinner – plans I tell you, plans dammit! – but then Adam called.  No he didn’t get home late this time, and I’ve decided that from now on I’m just going to cook dinner as scheduled and not wait anyway.  But when he did get home on time we would need to find the recipe for, purchase the ingredients for, and then bake coffee cakes.  For tomorrow morning.  Gosh darn it, husband!

I shouldn’t really complain though, he mostly did the cakes by himself and I got a dinner out on the town out of the deal.

We went to JP Bullfeathers, because I like their stoic looking bear statue.

After my carb-filled day I was ready for some meat. 

The Cowboy Burger from JP Bullfeathers is a turkey burger with bbq rub, melted cheddar, bbq sauce, and jalopeno poppers on top.  It came with a side of cole slaw.

The cole slaw was only ok (I ate it for the veggies) but the burger was fantastic and exactly what I was craving.  I pushed the bun to the side but otherwise it was devoured.  Meghann blogged about needing a meat fix too so maybe there was something in the water at HLS!

Sidenote – I almost never crave meat meat.  When I say I’m craving meat I typically mean turkey.  I’ve never in my life had a craving for lamb or pork.  Since I stopped eating mammals 13 years ago I crave a juicy burger once or twice a year but other than that I’m generally grossed out by the idea.

How often do you crave meat?  Are you an omnivore or a veg-head?

Meet Webster

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Webster is 4 months old.  He is a red dappled dachshund.  He stole our hearts.

It won’t be easy, or cheap, adding a puppy to our lives but I’m sure it will be worth it.

Side note – we want to get a French Bulldog named Merriam next.

I’m going to keep my eats recap short, who would sit on the computer when there’s a puppy to pet?!  This afternoon I ate a bowl of H2Omelon chunks.

And for dinner we threw together an Asian-inspired bowl.

Cabbage, which I saute-steamed with some rice vinegar,

topped with roasted tofu and zucchini that I tossed in a skillet with peanut sauce.

Such a delicious mix, you can’t go wrong with peanut sauce.

This meal was out of this world delicious.  The tofu gets spongy and amazing if you bake long enough and the peanut sauce forms an amazing crust.

Our friends Patrick and Michelle came over to meet the new addition and it was a great evening all around.

other exciting things –

  • we are going to Ohio tomorrow for our niece’s birthday party
  • I’m going to Philly next weekend for the Healthy Living Summit!

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!

Walk It Out, II

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Apparently I’ve used this title before…  I don’t think I knew what “a lot” of walking was when I wrote that post; Adam and I (who love love love to walk) wore ourselves out this vacation!  I’m glad we’ve gotten in the incidental exercise though, we need the walking piece to make up for our eating.  It’s definitely been a vacation week!

After breakfast on Tuesday Adam and I dropped my laptop back at the apartment and headed into the city.

Our main destination for the day was the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

We saw all sorts of amazing things but my favorite exhibit by far was “Written in Bone: Forensic Files of 17th Century Chesapeake.”  They recently discovered the burial site for the first settlers of Jamestown and using modern forensics were able to piece together a picture of how those settlers lived and died.  The exhibit was half American history and half forensic anthropology; I loved it!  If you are in DC in the near future I highly recommend you check it out.

We expanded our minds all morning, but unfortunately our stomachs stayed empty.  Failing to plan is planning to fail, particularly when you are visiting expensive museum food courts.  I did delight in seeing all sorts of these though –

and Adam and I split the Luna protein bar I had in my purse.

Even without breakfast or lunch, our next stop was obvious.

FroZenYo!  If my memory is correct, I served myself red velvet, cookies and cream, cheesecake, and tart yogurt topped with kiwi, strawberries, candied nuts, pb, hot fudge, and sprinkles.

It was ridiculous good.  Frozen yogurt was the high point of my day, but Adam was most excited for dinner.

First though we met my best friend for a drink (pink lemonade and Stoli),

and then an iced coffee for our long metro ride.

Finally we arrived at Adam’s heaven our destination.

Chrisfield Seafood has been an institution in DC (technically Maryland) since the 40’s, and it was a big part of my family vacations as a child.  I didn’t actually eat any seafood as a child so Chrisfield’s magic was lost on me, but this time I was ready!

Portions note – I ate about 1/3 of everything shown here; it was a rich meal but I kept it fairly healthy by not stuffing myself silly.  If you do go to Chrisfields (and you should!) and plan on going crazy, I still recommend that you not fill up on bread because your dinner will be worth the wait.

Adam and Nikki ordered a pitcher of Red Hook Ale ($8!), apparently it turns you into a creeper,

but I still enjoyed a small glass.

When we sat down we were served bread,

and a plate of the necessary accoutrements.

Then we sat, and waited, and drooled and plates went by us.  Finally it was our turn to dig in.

When I called my father for menu advice (I wanted to maximize the opportunity now that I finally like seafood) he told me to order either the crab-stuffed flounder or crab-stuffed shrimp.  But when I got to the restaurant the lobster tail was calling me.  Thankfully I found my perfect meal, The Broiled Combo – lobster tail,

stuffed shrimp,

stuffed flounder.

My meal came with cole slaw and french fries as well.

O.M.G.  I think if I’d actually tasted the food as a child I would have been a seafood convert a lot earlier!  My favorite was actually the stuffed flounder, but the husband was more than happy to take over eating my lobster tail.

Stuffed to the gills (ha!) we slept very well that night.

Wednesday morning was spent walking around Georgetown.  Wandering down M Street is my favorite thing to do in DC!  Adam and I actually ended up at an old New York favorite for brunch, Serendipity 3.

I went with a favorite order too, The Summer Bries.

An open-faced turkey sandwich with apples, cranberry mayo, and brie cheese.

My bread was sort of burnt but I ate 2/3 before passing it off to the husband.

I’m glad I saved room, because we discovered a brand new favorite for dessert – Mr. Yogato!

I couldn’t serve myself, but the shop was so cute that it was worth the change.  I ended up with a small original tart yogurt with banana, coconut, and sprinkles.

Did you think I was kidding when I said we’d get froyo every day? 🙂

Guys, the walk back to pick up our stuff was brutal.  It was in the high 90’s and I was carrying my backpack with the laptop and it was just crazy.  Adam actually got so overheated he started to get light-headed!  Thankfully he felt faint right in front of a Walgreens and we could run in for provisions.  I drank 2 liters of water in under an hour!

Once we were back to our car it was time to head to our final destination: Baltimore.  We probably should have eaten lunch first though because as we sat in rush hour traffic we got pretty cranky.  I ended up digging into my packed stash and eating a serving’s worth of honey mustard chip crumbles,

and tons of (craisin, peanut, chocolate chip) trail mix.

When we finally got here my aunt and cousin had a great healthy spread for us to dig into.  Tortilla chips with homemade guacamole,

hummus with fresh veggies from the farmer’s market,

and this huge bowl of cherries that I basically dominated.

Plus a small pour (x 1.5) of sauvignon blanc.

For the protein portion of the meal my aunt grilled up some delicious Indian spiced chicken with yogurt and mint sauces.

It was so tasty I went back for a second piece (that’s a side plate).

Finally, dessert.

My aunt is quite the hostess.  There was dulce de leche Ben and Jerry’s and salted caramel gelato,

plus No Pudge Fudge Brownies and berry crumb bars (the blueberry crumb bar recipe from Bon Appetit made with raspberries and blackberries).

I was so stuffed I ended up leaving one bite of each piece on my plate!

And bringing this super long post full circle, I woke up at 6:30 this morning to go on a walk with my aunt.  She walks a 40 minute loop around her neighborhood most mornings so I happily joined her.  Even after our miles of city walking yesterday it felt good to get up and get my legs moving.

And now it’s time for breakfast!

Pretty Good

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Hello there; I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend.  It’s been a good Saturday around here, I spent lots of time with the husband, I got to take a few walks, and I received some good news I’ll be sharing later.

Our plan this morning was to cash in a Groupon for brunch, so to kill time while the restaurant opened I headed out to the Farmer’s Market and the Co-op.

While I was up on that end of Elmwood I stopped in at Wilson Farms for my new favorite coffee.

Half Jamaican Me Crazy Coffee (regular) and half Jamaican Me Crazy Cappuccino (sweetened).

Adam and I also drove over to the lake to check out the crazy fog.

Spooky!

Then it was time for brunch at Empire Grill.

But apparently brunch is only a Sunday thing, boo.  And the bad news didn’t stop there, Adam and I hated our brunch lunch order.  I really don’t want the blame the restaurant (the food wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either), we just made really bad order choices for our preferences.

We split a Blue Point Toasted Ale,

the Caribbean Shrimp and Mango Salad with mixed greens, mango viniagrette marinated jumbo shrimp, black bean and pineapple salsa and a mango viniagrette,

and the California Turkey Wrap with coleslaw, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, onions and a chipolte aioli.

I sort of hate raw spinach and I hate wraps so, again, it wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault.  Nonetheless, I ended up eating basically nothing for brunch.

Thank goodness for Banana Split Cupcakes!

Amid chowing down on two cupcakes, Adam and I took a trek to the post office and got to enjoy almost 2 miles of walking and talking, win!

Random sidenote (super random when you consider that this isn’t even a new top) – how awesome is it that this shirt has a bustle?!

I had fancy plans for dinner, but when Scrubs reruns are on you never turn down pizza.

Adam and I split another Buffalo chicken slice,

along with a big pile of baby carrots.

Yep, pretty good for a Saturday!

Summer On A Plate

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I knocked off most of my to-do’s by 7:30 and was ready to get to work on an extra-extraordinary dinner!  Getting back into the kitchen helped me to feel like myself again; I can’t wait to use my extra time this summer cooking.  And in spite of the still-crummy weather outside, this dinner tasted like summer!

We started by attempting to make onion rings for an appetizer.

We loosely followed this recipe and after some difficulty and a few scary oil incidents, Adam and I ended up with a nice plate to share –

I would pretty much never order onion rings in a restaurant, but it was defintely fun to make them at home.

Dinner was summer on a plate.

Corn on the cob.

We placed our shucked corn in a big pot with enough water to float, then covered the pot and brought the water to a boil for 5 minutes.  Followed by a quick roll in the butter.

Roasted asparagus.

35 minutes at 450*, with a bit of cooking spray and salt.

The veggies were pretty perfect, but the real winner was the burgers.

My newest genius creation, Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burgers. 

We served our burgers on onion rolls and topped them with more cheese and dressing, because we are reuben fanatics!

Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burgers, serves 6

  • 1 lb 94% fat-free ground turkey meat
  • 1 cup sauerkraut, carefully squeezed to remove as much liquid as possible
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1.5 tsp dried caraway seeds
  • 3 (1 oz)-slices Swiss cheese
  • 2 Tbsp thousand island dressing
  1. Slice cheese into quarters; you should end up with twelve 1inch x 1inch squares.
  2. Place meat, sauerkraut, egg, breadcrumbs, and caraway seeds in a large bowl.  Use your hands to mix until well combined.
  3. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, divide the meat mixture evenly into twelve 1/4-cup portions.  Flatten six of the portions into patties.
  4. Place 1 tsp thousand island dressing and two cheese squares in the center of each flattened patty.  Top with remaining portions, pressing on the edges to “seal” the patties.
  5. Place a greased grill-pan over medium-high heat.  Cook burgers until browned and fully cooked through; 5-8 minutes on each side.

If I could get my hands on some watermelon I think I’d be pushed right over the edge.

What foods taste like summer to you?

The Best Laid Plans

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I guess Friday the 13th ended up getting the best of me after all!  The best laid plans don’t always work out.  That’s especially true if you and your husband are terrible at time management and plan to leave at a time that’s too late and then don’t even get out the door on time!

We did get our fun lunch though.

Lloyd’s Taco Truck is Buffalo’s first and only food truck, you know we had to check it out!

I ordered a chicken taco, which was pretty good.

I wish I had gone with beans instead of chicken for my protein, but whatever the white cheese was it was delicious, and the shredded cabbage was nice and crunchy.

We also ordered a churro with cinnamon sugar.

Yuck city.  It was waaaaay too fried and we ended up throwing it away after a few bites.  Lloyd’s wait-time wouldn’t have been worth it in another city, but if you are in Buffalo I’d still say give it a shot; just don’t order the churros!

The day didn’t really improve from there.  The plan was supposed to be taco truck – post office – mall/seeing Bridesmaids- crossing training at the gym – party with some school people.  We ended up running so behind that we had to see a different movie and moved the post office to the end of the day.  Of course, we got to the post office just as the doors were closing in our faces!  In the end we had to scrap the gym and the party too.  And the movie we ended up seeing (that we should have skipped all together because it’s timing is what threw off everything else) was terrible.  <– skip “Thor”

But I guess it wasn’t all bad.  We did get a free small popcorn at the movies.

Do you belong to your theatre’s loyalty program?  Adam and I have gotten so many free tickets and snack items over the years, we love it.

And since my evening was suddenly free, when Adam went to meet friends for a game of tennis I ended up going with him to take a long walk around Delaware Park.  Walking isn’t the best use of cross-training time, but it’s better than nothing.  I walked 3.5 miles around the park.  It was fun to do the loops at a slower pace; the park has done lots of landscaping for Spring and it runs along one side of the zoo so there is a lot to see.

Blooms and buffalos definitely helped to put me in a better mood.

I ate an everything-style Bagel Thin with two slices of 2% colby cheese before we left,

and I drank half of this Arizona Virgin Pina Colada while we were out.

But I couldn’t get it together for dinner.  We stayed up way too late on Thursday and I was pretty zonked out.  <– It’s possible that when Adam and his friends switched courts at the last minute and he asked me to drive myself the last 2 blocks to the park I started to sob uncontrollably  

When we got home from the park I curled up in a filthy little ball for a much-needed nap!  Thank goodness Adam backed me into the shower with a chair before we went to bed.

The plan this morning was supposed to be breakfast then a trip to the Farmer’s Market.  But the skies looked like rain so we hurried out without food.  Too bad we still didn’t beat the clouds.

There wasn’t a lot at the market yet anyways 😦 

I did grab a three-cheese and caramelized onion focaccia to split with the husband for breakfast.

We shared a grande iced America with skim milk from Starbucks so we could eat at one of their dry (and dark!) tables.

A few notes – I love going on mini-dates with my husband.  Thank goodness it’s stopped raining now; I still need to get to the darn post office!  I need more food!

So I’m off.  Assume that I successfully made it to the post office and the grocery store, otherwise tonight’s post is going to be another cranky-pants one!