Tag Archives: carrots

Boarding Time

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I started my morning with a shot of the Orange Dream Machine knock-off I made Adam.

He takes the Step I Board Exam on Saturday so we are testing out different breakfasts to find the perfect one for test morning.  This is a big-time important exam so he needs a breakfast that leaves him full and doesn’t make him have to go pee.  We’re also making sure he eats the perfect night-before dinner.  It’s the little things people!

The Step I Board Exam is similar to the MCAT exam, but more important and taken after your 2nd year of medical school.  Your Board score basically determines the rest of your career so, no pressure Adam!  Taking the exam also marks the “end” of your 2nd year of medical school.  The 3rd and 4th years you leave the classroom for rotations in different clerkships, ie hands-on experience.  In 3rd and 4th of medical school Adam’s schedule will be similar to what’s coming during residency – basically I’m becoming a single mom to Levinson.

Since Adam is taking his exam this Saturday, we have exactly one week of freedom before he starts back for his 3rd year of school (Adam is hosting a student clinician ceremony the Saturday before school starts).  Since I’m not dramatic at all, I’m calling this “the last week of our marriage.”  To celebrate/spend as much time together as possible, I took the week off of work and we are going on vacation!

  • 1 day in VA helping my in-laws move
  • 1 day exploring Charlottesville (a lot of programs on Adam’s list are at UVA)
  • 2 days in DC visiting my best friend from high school
  • 2 days in Maryland visiting family

It’s going to be a whirlwind and lots of driving but we are so looking forward to it!

Apparently I’ve also been looking forward to bed, because that’s where I spent my entire day!  I stayed up until 3 am last night because I have some sort of mental problem and then I napped the day away.  I did finally get up around 4 because I needed to make the husband dinner.  I nibbled on more mini candy bars while I cooked.

I wasn’t eating dinner at home because I had a date with Katie.  She’s moving at the end of the summer so hopefully we will get in a lot of meet ups before then.  We went to Saigon Cafe and split a spring roll for an appetizer.

I ordered the Spicy Rainbow – an assortment of vegetables stir fried with basil leaves in a hot sweet basil sauce, with white rice.

The dish is marked with two stars (= extra spicy) on the menu and I asked the waiter for “Thai spicy” and he grimaced like my face was going to fall off.  After the grimace, but before tasting my food, I ordered Thai Iced Tea to combat the spice.

No dice spice.  The veggies were good, but this wasn’t even close to being a little spicy, let alone Thai spicy.  So disappointing!

I ate about 2/3 of my food but after this and last week’s bland meal I’m going to take the hint and stop going to Saigon Cafe.  Can any Buffalo readers recommend a local Thai spot that actually brings the spice???

After dinner we took a nice walk down Elmwood, stopping for Ciao Bella gelato.

Key lime pie and dulce de leche for the win.

I actually walked Katie all the way back to her apartment where she loaned me some books so … I could get in bed early and read!  Be back in the am!

What time is your bed time usually?  What’s the stupidest reason you’ve stayed up too late recently?  I think reruns of Food Network Star takes the cake for me.

Allentown Art Festival

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I’m sticking with the “work hard, play harder” theme since today’s agenda included only a trip to the Allentown Art Festival and an evening shift at work tonight.  I had my day of fun, and now I’m heading to work at 4.

I stayed up way too late last night like a crazy person and I was definitely dragging this morning.  I didn’t wake up until after 10 and after taking care of some to-dos I needed to head out without eating breakfast.  I knew today was the perfect day for some portable nutrition –

On my walk down Elmwood I stopped in at Organic 3 Cafe‘s newest location.

It looked great inside and the staff were all super friendly. 

They let me customize the Go Green drink and I ended up with a blend of apple, carrot, cucumber, spinach, and kale.

Perfection!  I felt a million times more awake after I drank this, I’ve been missing green juice so much living in Buffalo.

I continued down Elmwood until it was time to cross over to Delaware and into the festival.

There wasn’t as much I liked as last year but I did spot a few fun things.

And I even bought something! 

A mug (not this exact one).

I also bought a bunny dog (brown sugar grilled carrots in a hot dog bun),

and a fresh-squeezed lemonade.

This wasn’t the frozen lemonade I’ve been pining for but it was refreshing.  I believe that there is frozen lemonade at a stand at the mall, so I’ll have to do some shopping to fill that craving.

I did squash another craving though.

Adam used the word “marshmallow” at least 15 times in a conversation yesterday and I thought I was going to die if I didn’t eat a rice krispies treat.  I stopped at the Co-op my way home today for a chocolate covered one.

Craving killed, all though it did get my wheels turning about baking these at home soon.

I’ve been really taking it easy workout-wise because I’m trying to give my knee a break, so it was great to get some movement in today.  All total I walked ~4.5 miles getting to and around the festival.  I even got in some weights since I thought it was a good idea to buy a 6-pack when I was still a mile from my apartment.

All that movement got me hungry for dinner, but I’ll have to blog it later because I backed myself into a corner timewise.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Almost Off

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I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’m off for the next three days; wahoo!  Today basically has felt like a day off anyways since I’ve got laundry to put away and some things to clean and I’ve successfully ignored it all.  I also skipped the gym so I could give my knee one more day’s rest before I run 5 miles tomorrow.

Adam and I both had nightmares last night that effected our sleep and when we rolled out of bed after 10:30 this morning I was nightmarishly hungry.  Enter a crunchy bowl of cereal with cool skim milk.

We’ve got a Wegman’s brand crunchy oatmeal cereal and Cinnamon Pecan Special K and I had a serving of each.

I don’t eat a lot of cereal but sometimes it sounds so good.

I also noshed on a big pile of baby carrots with blue cheese.

There was only one serving of food left for dinner tonight (we went to town on those sloppy joes yesterday!) so I left it for Adam and walked to the Co-op to pick up hot bar.

Curry chicken salad, tofu with okra, bbq temph, southwestern baked yams,

cashew broccoli salad, grape leaves.

For dessert I made the “punch” that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I had a sip at an event a few months ago.

Vanilla ice cream with orange juice and Sprite.

Frothy!

What is your favorite kind of punch?

Drunk Puppets

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Holla!  holler, not Spanish for hello; but hello nonetheless

I usually blog before heading to work (since I eat my “dinner” in the afternoon and just come home and go to bed) so the fact that I’m not blogging until now should indicate just how successful this day was.  <– not very

Speaking of not successful things, let’s talk about the 4mile run on today’s training plan.  It ended up being not a run, not so much, but more of a walk.  In fact, it straight up was a walk.  My “troublesome” knee felt funky and I planned on running anyways but every running step I took felt like my leg was going to give out.  I tried a few jaunts, looking like my puppet-master was drunk, before I finally gave up.  My husband is the nicest man ever, so instead he joined me for a 4 mile walk, 1 hour and 13 minutes.  Followed by some strength and stretch moves at home.  Something is better than nothing, something is better than nothing…

After a quick shower I headed out to my biannual dentist appointment.  This venture was more successful, my teeth were pronounced “perfect,” though he noted that wearing retainers is not an excuse to skip flossing!  Ironically, once I confirmed that my pearly whites were doing well, all I could think about was coffee!

We headed to the Spot for a small frozen coffee.

The caffeine boost took me from dragging to functional, but it still didn’t give me the energy to make the planned dinner that I keep putting off.  The good news is that this procrastination means I can keep procrastinating on grocery shopping.  The other good news is that I read an entire new book from start to finish while I should have been cooking.

The bad news was that this plate of baby carrots with blue cheese dressing

and this slice of Swiss cheese

ended up being dinner.

Also a huge bowl of Cinnamon Pecan Special K.

I didn’t have huge hopes for this cereal – Special K is usually good but not great – but I actually really enjoyed it.  And I’m crediting it in keeping me full through work in spite of eating nothing but carrots and cereal all day!  Can we pretend that since it’s summer vacation I’m not a Dietetics student who should know better?!

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!

Thank You, Friends Up North

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First things first, the winners of today’s giveaway were Jenny and Monica –

Congrats guys, get me your mailing addresses and I’ll send out your coupons.  Everyone else (and Jenny and Monica too, you can enter more than once if you’re feeling extra lucky), don’t forget that another giveaway chance will be posted tomorrow morning.

I feel a little strange writing this post because today felt a little strange.  We haven’t been getting enough sleep and I feel like I’ve been walking through a haze.  I’ve been insanely hungry and I’m sure it’s tied to my lack of sleep.  Though let’s pretend that I’m hungry from my good habits instead of my bad ones, like my workout this morning!

I had 40 minutes of cardio on the agenda so I hopped on the elliptical – level 6 random – for 40 minutes.  I worked up quite a sweat, but my pace was super slow and I knew that I wasn’t really pushing myself so I added 25 minutes on the stationary bike.  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with the fancy tv-style settings, but I was dripping when I finished so I must have done something right.  As I was getting off the bike, I spotted a fun looking game setting that I’m eager to try out next week.

By the time I got home I was hun-ga-re!  Enter my newest dream team.

I topped a 1 cup serving of Quaker Golden Maple Oatmeal Squares with a serving of Amande strawberry flavored almond milk yogurt and 2 Tbsp of crunchy peanut butter.

I probably won’t buy this yogurt again, the texture was definitely a little “fake” and I’m not too keen on non-Greek flavored yogurts anyways, but I do highly recommend it for any vegans looking for a yogurt fix.  I sent my pb through a spin in the microwave to get it all melty and it became very swoon-worthy.

Unfortunately I didn’t eat “breakfast” until I got home and showered from working out and it was near noon.  My insane hunger coupled with the weird meal times meant I ended up grazing all day.

I had a perfect, crunchy pear.

Two onion rolls with Smart Balance Light.

And a packet of cinnamon roll Oat Revolution with brown sugar, a splash of skim milk, and a big handful of raisins.

Around 2 I did stop stuffing my face long enough to get gussied and leave the apartment – it’s time to find a summer job!  My long stroll up and down Elmwood (in a suit, with a packet of resumes) wasn’t fruitful yet, but at least it got me back off the couch.  I have a couple of prospects I’m feeling hopeful about, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed because the next step will be looking for jobs that aren’t walking distance from the apartment.

Adam picked me up towards the end of my walk home and we split a mini turtle Blizzard.

Then we came home and made a pile.  <– watch “Where the Wild Things Are,” you’ll thank me

I was flying solo for dinner so I went simple.

A leftover Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burger,

with a big plate of baby carrots to get in some veggies.

Notes – 1. I added a slice of cheese to that burger right after I snapped the photo.  2. My hand has been sneaking into the tin of cashews all evening but there’s no pictoral evidence.  3. Those burgers are really good!

And with that, I’m off to watch “Missing” on Netflix Instant Watch.   I rediscovered it recently and it’s rocking my socks.  Is there anything Canadian tv can’t do??!  I also loved “Are You Afraid of the Dark?,” “Braceface,” “Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy,” “That’s So Wierd,” and “In a Heartbeat.”  <– loooove

Did you watch any of those shows back in the day?

Buffalo, Take Me To San Fransisco

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This post is my entry into a contest that will hopefully take me to San Fransisco for the 2011 Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.  The Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken was provided as a free sample via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

I moved to Buffalo after spending two years in the best place on earth.  That’s Brooklyn, NYC, if you’re not sure.  Before that I was born and raised in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and attended college in Miami, Florida.  The places you call “destinations” I call home.  What could Buffalo have to offer me?

For one thing, my new home is the birthplace of Buffalo chicken wings.

Which have spawned Buffalo sandwiches, Buffalo shrimp, Buffalo tacos, and most importantly, Buffalo chicken dip.

When I took my first bite of Buffalo chicken dip – supremely spicy and dotted with pockets of creamy cheese – I knew I’d found my new home.

No matter how nice your home may be, it’s ok to have a little wanderlust!  When I attended the very first Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in 2009, it was one of the best weekends of my life.

I fell in love, with the bloggers, the city, and the food!  I was heartbroken when we had to tighten our purse strings this fall and financial constraints kept me from attending the festival a 2nd year.  So that’s why I’m hoping to win a trip to this year’s event.

It’s not just about winning though, not that winning’s ever bad; the winner of the contest will have an opportunity to cook their dish for the crowd at the festival.  People don’t think of Buffalo as a foodie hotspot (I know I sure didn’t!), but I’m proud of my town.  I want the opportunity to share my city’s namesake flavor.

Buffalo Wing Baked Pasta, serves 8

  • 22 oz bag Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken Breast Strips
  • 14.5 oz whole wheat rotini pasta
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup medium heat Buffalo wing sauce (I recommend Anchor Bar’s!)
  • 16 oz Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese), softened
  • 1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese dressing
  • 10 cups fresh spinach
  • 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
  1. Cook pasta al dente according to box directions.  Drain finished pasta and return it to the pot (remove from heat when pasta is finished).  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Heat frozen chicken strips in a nonstick skillet on medium heat for 3 – 5 minutes or until warm.  Add 1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce to chicken and continue to cook for one minute.
  3. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.  Reduce heat to medium-low.
  4. Combine cream cheese, blue cheese dressing, and remaining 1 cup Buffalo wing sauce in the pan.  Heat until melted, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
  5. Pour sauce over pasta.  Add chicken and spinach to the pot and stir well to combine.
  6. Spread pasta mixture into a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish.  Top evenly with cheese.
  7. Bake 8 – 11 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

I ate my serving with carrots and celery, because that’s how we serve Buffalo chicken dip.

What dish is your town famous for?

Are My Hoisin The Club?!

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Forget about what Rebecca Black says, Saturday is where it’s at!  We didn’t even do anything all that exciting today – studying, grocery shopping, easy dinner – it just was a good day.

Since I’m ridiculous about meals on the weekend I went with lunch – snack – dinner rather than breakfast – lunch – dinner.  Besides, lunch for breakfast means you get in more veggies.

Yes, that is Wegman’s hot bar.  Yes, I’m aware we have a problem.

Fruits (pineapple, berries, strawberries, watermelon),

Veggies (avocado, squash, mushrooms, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli),

and a mini crustless Quiche (with tomato and artichoke heart).

Adam and I split a Zone Perfect Sweet & Salty Trail Mix Bar for dessert.

The kind folks at ZP sent me some samples of their new Sweet and Salty line since they knew how much I adored their Cookie Dough stuff.  Adam and I agreed that the bar was good, but not as good as the cookie dough ones.  There was a great peanut butter flavor spread throughout it, and the bar lived up to its sweet and salty name.  I’m looking forward to trying the other variety.

In addition to being repetitive and crazy, constant hot bar isn’t cheap!  Adam has to purchase lots of random snacks and coffees this summer (he’s off for 2 months to study for a major exam and focuses better in public venues) so we need to save our pennies where we can.  I tried to do an extra good job of stocking up on groceries this week; I’d rather spend a little more money at the store and save some money not going out for random things throughout the week.

One of my have-snacks-in-the-house-stop-buying-nachos-damn-it purchases was a 10ct box of mini 100-calorie popcorns, and one of those bags ended up being my afternoon snack.

I also grabbed a (sweetened) cappuccino from Wilson Farms.

Looking back at this post, it seems like I had more than enough to eat today, but you know I couldn’t keep my hand out of the cashews while I cooked dinner!

We whipped up a simple stir fry that ended up being delicious.

The inspiration for the dish was the 2 unopened bags of spinach that were starting to go bad, but these guys were the real stars –

Step-by-step, serves 3-4.

Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat.  Add 10 cups of raw baby spinach.

Cover and cook until wilted.

Add 1 15 oz can baby corn, 1 15 oz can stir fry mushrooms,

5 green onions, sliced, and 2/3 cup salted cashews.

Top with 4 Tbsp Hoisin sauce and continue to cook.

In a small bowl on the side, whisk together 3 large eggs.

Make a hole in the veggie mixture and pour eggs into it.

Cook until starting to slightly scramble then toss to combine.  Continue to cook stir-fry until desire doneness is reached.

Delicious.

I topped my bowl with Sriracha,

and Adam added some baked tofu to his.

I stole a few pieces of tofu and they were so tasty I’m planning on making them again soon so I can share the recipe with you guys.

When I’m feeling unsatisfied after dinner a yogurt bowl for dessert is always the answer.

This one centered around a Dannon Light and Fit Caramel yogurt.

I almost never eat fake-sugar yogurts (if I’m not eating Greek I’m buying Stonyfield because it is humanely sourced) but this guy was pretty fantastic.  Topped with unsweetened shredded coconut, the last of the butter toffee almonds, and a few butterscotch chips.

Sweet dreams, readers!