Tag Archives: carrots

Taking My Notecards to Bed

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It’s almost Friday!  Actually, I’m a bit less excited about that than usual, because Friday brings a Nutrition test I’m not quite prepared for.  I’m going to do a quick post, an even quicker shower, and then take my notecards to bed.

I wasn’t hungry for breakfast before lab, but I ate brunch when we got out at 10:30.  This Liberte Peach and Passionfruit yogurt was on sale at Wegmans so I thought I’d give it a try.

I ended up really enjoying it.  The texture was much closer to thick Greek yogurt than traditional yogurt and the tangy/sweet balance was perfect.  I generally choose lower fat yogurts but I do think the higher fat content helped with satiety in this smallish lunch.  If I can find this on sale again I’ll definitely snatch it up.

I also packed some baby carrots.

I think crunchy equals brain food for me because as I munched through these carrots I got a ton of work done.  When I headed to food lab at 1:40 I was able to hand in all of my lab assignments for the remainder of the semester!

Food lab was a lot of fun today too.  It was the Meat/Fish/Poultry lab so I was feeling a little anxious about having to cook pork or red meat but luckily my group was assigned fish and fowl only.  We made pan cooked salmon with fresh tomatoes and Laab (a spicy Thai chicken salad).

Also on the plate are curried chicken and lemon chicken.  Everything was delicious and I even ended up bringing our leftovers home to Adam.

I sipped a coffee (medium, non-fat latte with 1 pump of sugar-free English toffee syrup) throughout lab as well.

It kept me warm, but I think it also gave me a caffeine headache later in the afternoon.  I love the experience of coffee but sometimes it makes me feel so icky!  My headache definitely influenced my choice of afternoon snack.

Dinner ended up being pretty pathetic.  We had something exciting planned but I didn’t realize that it involved 45minutes in the oven until it was already after 8pm.  If I’d planned ahead I could have done my reading after I cooked but the way it worked out it was just too late.  Instead I ate 2 turkey corn dogs (dipped in fresh honey mustard).

My random eats worked well for my productivity, but I think I need to house some fruits and veggies this weekend!  😉

I’ve got my alarm set early for tomorrow; I can register online for Spring classes at 6am.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get what I need!

Do you ever cook with fish sauce?  My lab mates were weirded out (it’s a Laab ingredient), but it’s a staple in my fridge.

Squashing My To-Do List

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When Adam and I were miserable, teaching in New York, we would escape in entertainment.  I genuinely believe that “Scrubs” saved our sanity (and our marriage!) during our first year.  During our second year, things had gotten much easier but they were still much harder than we had ever imagined.  On Sunday nights, when none of our plans for the week were complete and things felt hopeless because even after we stayed up all night writing them we’d still never get to teach the damn plans, one of us would say it – “Do you want to see what’s playing at the movies?“

Something was always playing.  And if there hadn’t been I’m pretty sure we would have convinced ourselves that something from the previous week was worth rewatching.  Our studio apartment was on the corner of 2nd Avenue and the movie theatre – a fabulous revamped spot with a galaxy of stars sewn into the carpet and classic movie posters lining the walls – was on the corner of 13th.  Those eleven blocks, and every single store and restaurant along the way, are forever etched into my memory.  No matter how we felt before the decision to see a movie, that walk always felt hopeful.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

But times have changed.  Now I’m in a Dietetics program (that I quit my job career to join), and letting Adam talk me into seeing “Paranormal Activity 2” (I hate scary movies) at 9:10 on a Tuesday night is just a bad idea (a really bad idea).  But that’s what I was doing yesterday!

Thankfully, today I really did get it together and I managed to take care of my to-do list.  My eats were nothing if not unorthodox and I can’t help but credit that in my success at actually taking care of business.  Should I have chocolate for breakfast every day?

Because that’s what I did today.  I let Adam gobble up most of the homemade pb cups, but this one was special.  A layer of chocolate and a layer of butterscotch, sandwiching a layer of crunchy peanut butter?  Oh yeah!

Breakfast’s dessert was significantly healthier.

Yesterday I roasted this delightful orange acorn squash with a teeny bit of honey and salt.

And today all I had to do was reheat and mash with a bit of Smart Balance Light.

Sort of like mashed potatoes, but a thousand times better.

For lunch I crunched through Anatomy with a bag of baby carrots and sliced Empire apple.

Btw – after the curves I scored an 89 on the Orgo test and a 74 on Anatomy.  I need to step up my Anatomy game for the remainder of the semester (I do, however, have a 96% as my Anatomy Lab current class average!).

Adam came to study with me between classes and Orgo lab and generously shared a few bites of pizza with me.

When I realized that I was actually considering punching him in the face and trying to make a break for it with the pizza I deemed it time for an early dinner.

Huuuuuge chicken burrito.

We took a quick walk around the ‘hood on the way home (glorious!), so 4 hours after my burrito I had dinner, part 2.

Low fat plain yogurt topped with 1/4 cup gingerbread granola, 2tsp maple syrup, a sliced plum, and a sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut.

I need to remember this combo in December, it felt very ‘visions of sugar plums.’

Maybe you’ve noticed my lack of gym time?  My plan/goal is to smash my to-do list over the next 4 days.  Whether I succeed or I fail in that endeavour, I’m returning to the gym come Monday!

Do you ever escape in entertainment?  How often do you go to see a movie?

Rabbits Get A Lot Of Tail

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This blog post is my entry for Project Tasteless’ Challenge # 2: Pizza Tricks for Treats.

The only requirement was that you create a pizza inspired by your Halloween costume.

My costume was a little lame, but my pizza recipe is spooktacular (that’s a good thing)!  Sexy Holy-crap-it’s-freezing-outside Bunny anyone?

Hey, it was cheap, allowed me to stay warm, and in leu of my ability to wriggle my nose I shook my tail all evening.

Sidenote – if anyone enters this contest as Sexy Chewbacca please just withdraw my entry Rachel, I’d rather not be a part of that.

My pizza was definitely more impressive.

Brick-Oven* Bunny Tale**, anyone?

* this was not prepared in a brick oven, but I image if you had one at your disposal that’d be great

**no bunnies were harmed in the making of this blog post

I went the personal pizza, store-bought crust route, but you could do any number of things with this recipe.  Homemade dough would be an upgrade, store-bought honey mustard would be a downgrade, but really you can’t go wrong.  Instead of specific measurements I’ll just give you the basics.

Soften some shredded carrots by sauteing over low heat in a bit of butter.

Whip up some bunny mustard using 1-part honey to 3-parts dijon mustard.  Spread on your chosen crust in a thin, even layer.

Top with carrots and small pieces of baby spinach.

Add a few bunny tales (fresh mini mozzarella balls) and bake according to dough directions.  If your crust needs a long time in the oven I would precook for a bit so as not to heat the mozzarella for more than 10minutes.  Balls can only take so much heat.

Nibble daintily and twitch nose with pleasure.  Or go at it like Sexy Chewy, your call.

The flavors and textures on this ended up being perfect; a little spicy, a little sweet, gooey, and chewy.  The mini mozzarellas were perfect, you won’t miss the greasy layer of cheese at all.  Although I did end up stealing a piece of the husband’s extra cheesy tuna slice, for quality control purposes.

Being in the Halloween mood and all, we had to round out dinner with some candy.

I’ve seen this on some many blogs that I have no idea whom to link back to, but suffice to say that homemade peanut butter cups were not my idea.

They certainly were a good idea though.

Spooky Saturday

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It’s been a full and fabulous day!  A race, some shopping, good eats, going out with friends; yup, it was pretty perfect!

Our morning started bright and healthy with the Jack O’ Lantern 5k.

The course looped 3.1 miles around Goat Island (Niagara Falls) and was beautiful.

I split a Cliff Crunchy granola bar with the husband on the drive up.

Today’s race had everything going against it – I had to run alone (Katie had to back out at the last minute and the husband wanted to actually run), the lack of bathrooms meant my full bladder bothered me the entire course, I was slow as all get out, and it was frigid out.

But you know what?  Even a terrible run is still a great one!

I don’t know my exact time but, it was something less than 31:20, I’ll take it!  I was terrified of coming in last (ask me to tell you that story sometime!) but I ended up only coming in behind 75% of the racers.

We hit up the food tent afterwards – Adam housed at least two sandwiches – and I ended up eating part of an ice pop.

I didn’t really it get it together to eat a real meal after that and my hunger ended up hitting hard later in the day.  The husband requested a pumpkin chocolate milkshake (he’s a genius!) and I did take a few sips of that before we headed to the grocery.

Adam had to go into the lab in the afternoon so I went with him and did some school-work.  I packed a snack for while I studied.

Apple slices and baby carrots dipped in a serving of sun butter.

Unfortunately this was around the time my hunger hit and I ended up not getting much work done.

Afterwards we headed to the mall to pick up a few things.  We must have done at least 4 full loops of the mall and by the time we stopped at Cheesecake Factory I was ready for diner!

Bread, x2 with butter. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, I don’t know why CF is always so darn dim!)

I ordered off of the appetizer menu for dinner and my salad was still huge!

The Fresh Vegetable Salad – Asparagus, Green Beans, Tomato, Cucumber, Roasted Beets, Apple, Edamame, Radicchio, Romaine and White Cheddar All Chopped with Pomegranate Vinaigrette.  I subbed in spicy peanut vinaigrette for my dressing, which somehow also got me edamame; score!

This is sooooooooo good.  <– That’s what I said to Adam at least 10 times during dinner 🙂  Huge as it was, I still managed to finish 2/3 of it.  I have a nice takeout container for lunch tomorrow as well.

I stole a few of Adam’s french fries too.

After we got home a couple of friends came over and we hung out for a bit before heading out to some nearby bars to check out people’s costumes.  We had a lot of fun, but I didn’t bring my camera so you’ll have to take my word for it – I’ll show you my “costume” tomorrow!

While we were out, Adam and I split a Woodchuck Cider.  And once home I ate part of a vegan pumpkin pecan blondie.

What a day, what a day.

Facts of Fall

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There is nothing pumpkin can’t do.

The weather in Buffalo today was beautiful!  In lieu of a formal workout, Adam and I took a long walk to soak it in.

Today included too much snacking and not enough studying.

The words in this post are lacking (just wrote “snacking,” whoops!), but I will at least show you everything I ate today; plus some “Fall” photos for funsies.

Arnold’s WW Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Blue Cheese, 3 slices of turkey.

Mini Vanilla Tootsie Roll, x2.

Baby carrots and ranch.

Small slice of pizza from the school food court where we were studying.

Leftover Loaded Potato Soup (make it, seriously!).

Waffle fries (more potatoes?!) doused in salt and vinegar.

Allie’s Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies.  Note – I halved the oil, substituted the spices (little bit of pumpkin pie spice, lotta bit cinnamon and nutmeg), and used light brown sugar and these still came out fabulously!

What signs of fall are popping up in your area?  What’s been your favorite pumpkin goodie so far this season?

Hot Bar Makes the World Go ‘Round

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Today was Study Saturday, sort of.  We were up waaaaaaay too late last night, and it shifted the whole day back.  At this point I am at least all caught up and ready to begin studying for my two tests next week.

We puttered around the house a bit in the morning and I made myself a Pumpkin Pie Through a Straw.

We didn’t have a lot of pumpkin leftover so I ended up having to add some ice for filler, which made it less tasty than usual but still pretty fricking tasty!

Around 11 we packed up our stuff and headed to Wegmans cafe for a study session.  Between our hot bar obsession and the fact the booths are perfect study session size, Wegmans is the perfect spot.  And we were jazzed to see that they had Halloween decorations up and employees dressed in costume!

Not gonna lie, lunch was still the most exciting part.

I got a random mish-mash of little bites.  Steamed broccoli and brussels sprouts,

wok seared veggies, bbq tofu, and sesame chicken and shrimp.

Full-bellied, we got a lot of studying done.  Except for the two hours we wasted on an intense conversation about the social construct of gender roles/child care/alimony.  <– dorks!

We got our weekly grocery trip in before we came home.  I had to spend a certain amount of $ in the bulk bins to use a coupon so I filled a baggie with assorted chocolates.

And downed them the minute we walked in the house 🙂  Think chocolate covered peanuts, pretzels, sponge candy…

On the agenda for tonight is a tasty, saucy (<–puns) dinner that’s my entry into a certain fun contest…..

Rye Sense of Humor

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This is a late lunch post because I ate a late lunch – my oatmeal held me over until 3pm!

I had forgotten to take my planned leftovers down from the freezer, so I settled on a nice sandwich plate instead.

That’s a slice of toasted rye, topped with Miracle Whip and pickle relish, stacked with 3 thin slices of turkey and 2 slices of 2% colby cheese, stuck under the broiler for 5minutes.

I kept it open-faced because I want to really taste the cheese and not just a bunch of bread.  I will say though, I definitely enjoyed having the rye (with carraway seeds!).  When I was growing we always had rye in the fridge; I never even tasted white bread until I was in college!  Maybe that’s why I have such a wry sense of humor….. 😀

Some baby carrots on the side for crunch.

This was the perfect one-handed meal to eat while I worked on my laptop.  I crunched and munched my way through part of a group project.

The plan tonight is an easy dinner, a fun dessert, and hopefully switching out our winter and summer wardrobes.  Oh, and some more school work!

What kind of bread was in your childhood fridge?

An In and Out Post

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Can I do 100 words or less?

We had a late dinner party to attend yesterday so I did some random snacking to tide me over until 9pm.

Two of our Russian friends provided a traditional ethnic feast.  My plate included potatoes with mushrooms, salad, and bellinis with caviar (omg, the caviar!).

The table also had liver and onions and tongue!!!

We didn’t get home until after 2am – I was the only non-drinker in the room – and even abstaining from alcohol couldn’t keep me feeling peppy today.  Let’s sum Sunday up with more random snacking.

Also picture and unphotographed glass of chocolate milk and several extra handfuls of peanuts.

Word Count – 111