Tag Archives: chalk

Post Means After

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I was poised for an early bedtime last night and just as I was about to get off the couch my phone dinged with a final e-mail regarding changes for the upcoming chili sale (<– a big, important class project).  So I spent another hour on my computer, scaling the recipes and creating a market list.  In total, the chili sale project involves creating, testing, choosing, and scaling recipes; advertising; budgeting; shopping; cooking; and selling chili.  Plus writing a summary paper afterwards!  Needless to say it has us all in a bit of a tizzy.

In spite of hitting the pillow after 11:30 I was able to keep my morning together with a little planning.  I slept fully dressed and when my alarm beeped at 5:20 5:40 6:00 all I had to do was slip on shoes and head out to my car.  I spent my workout on the elliptical with my notecards.  30 minutes, level 6 random.

I managed to shower and get ready quickly enough that I still had time to walk to school too, yay!  Plus, breakfast was already packed.  My jar of overnight oats was delicious; I always forget how much I enjoy chia seeds and their tapioca pudding texture.

We spent most of our 4 hour class discussing case studies, which were fascinating.  All of today’s related to pregnant women.  One subject was 15 (married!) and had dropped out of school and rarely left the house; another was living in poverty and pregnant with her fourth child, and the last was a socialite with disordered eating patterns who was still drinking heavily 6 months into pregnancy.  It was so interesting discussing counseling for all three women, but so frustrating too.  Some of the (imaginary) people you just wanted to smack, like the middle women who eats almost no fruits or veggies because her husband “just doesn’t like them,” or the final one who was thrilled with only gaining 2 pounds over the course of her pregnancy.  I’m considering working with WIC once I have my degree so this was more interesting to me than some of our food service discussions.

I stayed after class for a club meeting with lunch.

I grabbed a veggie wrap (lettuce, tomato, pickle, cheese),

plus a few banana peppers and chips which I ate within the sandwich.

When was the last time you ate a pb & j with chips crushed in the middle?

After I walked home and worked up an appetite folding laundry I ate the 2nd half of lunch, leftovers from last night’s dinner.  Actually, I was already reheating the bowl when I realized that the husband wouldn’t have dinner until late tonight and he can’t have take-out.  So I put that meal away for him.  I’m going to have popcorn instead, and perhaps a beer.

We’ve got some fun, last-minute plans for tonight; our friends could get us cheap tickets so we are going to Shay’s Theatre to see “The Lion King.”  I am so excited!  But I’ve also got to get studying for tomorrow’s test!  I’m not going to blog again this evening but I’ll see y’all tomorrow after my exam.

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Green Dog?

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If I start this post by saying I haven’t been very productive today, will that be too predictable?!  I’m in a cold-weather/program-frustration/lack-of-exercise induced rut!  But I’m making a commitment to going to bed early and pushing my way out of it tomorrow.

At least all of my eats today were tasty.  Like my in-class breakfast trio.

Wegman’s Plain 0% Greek Yogurt (which is quite good and can hold its own against the big brands; though it is more similar to Chobani than Fage as it is less thick),

Fiber One Honey Squares Cereal sample (this had a gross fake-sweetener aftertaste – Sucralose was on the ingredient list – but was very filling for 80 calories),

and a honey stick.

Since my trio only had about 200 calories or so, I supplemented breakfast with a Banana Nut Bar that Odwalla generously sent me to try out.

Love!  I actually tried this in college (the first time!) and loved it then too.  220 calories, .5 grams of saturated fat, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein.  Plus it packs good amounts of many vitamins, including 25% daily value each of calcium and folate and 50% vitamin e.  The bar is chewy and a bit crumbly, just like banana bread!  I shared bites with two classmates who agreed that this was the best fake (<– aka not literally just a banana) banana flavor ever.

My breakfasts held me over nicely too; I had to run several errands after class and I didn’t get to eat lunch until close to 2:30.  Actually, my breakfasts held me over well until around 1, and then I was cranky.  I went frozen meal quick for lunch.

Another Lean Cuisine win, Chicken Enchilada Suiza.

I supplemented this meal with popcorn.

There’s always room for Jell-O popcorn.

I took the doggy on a long walk this afternoon (that’s productive!) and before I knew it the husband was home and it was time for dinner.

No matter what little tweaks you make to the ingredients, turkey Reubens are always good!

This guy was GH sourdough bread, 1000 island dressing, sauerkraut 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey and Maple Turkey, and 2 slices of 2% Swiss.  I ate at least another slice worth’s of bread in nibbles, Great Harvest is seriously the best.

With roasted green beans on the side.

A winner of a dinner.

Blue Fish, Red Fish, Green Dog?

Calling all pet owners, we could use some advice.  How do you clean up after your dog while staying green? 

Adam and I pride ourselves on being pretty environmentally friendly but Webster seems to have doubled our plastic and paper consumption.  Since he is home by himself for long stretches of time (and since he is a small dog with a small bladder in a third floor apartment) he has to do about 50% of his “business” inside the apartment.  When he’s not out on a walk, he “goes” on pee pads.

I don’t feel bad about using these because they are basically unavoidable and we have him reuse each one two or three times.  However, being the asshole that he is, only about 2/3 of his going takes place on the pee pads.  The rest of his business goes on the floor.  Number 2 requires a baggie and Clorox wipe (don’t worry, we use a different brand without harsh chemicals, I’m just too lazy to look up the name of them) and number 1 requires several paper towels and wipe.  I’ve thought about using paper towels for pick-up at home (wasting more paper but conserving plastic), but on walks we have to use a baggie.

For the past few months we’ve been leaving our reusable bags at home and reusing the plastic bags we take home from the grocery.  This is the cheapest solution but Adam and I both felt badly about how wasteful it was.  When we ran out of baggies and were forced into purchasing some I think we both were a little relieved (and we’ll go back to reusable bags for groceries).  In fact, one of my errands today was purchasing these –

These Green Bone bags are biodegradable and made from cornstarch.

So that’s an improvement but I’m still hoping to find a better solution.

Pet owners, how do you take good care of your furry friends while still taking care of the planet?

Goats In The Grass

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So that turtle sundae was about as amazing as an afternoon snack gets.  My finger scooped several more tastes of the coffee caramel throughout the afternoon!

Thankfully I was looking forward to dinner, in large part due to my most recent co-op discoveries.

First, a maple yogurt from Maple Hill Creamery, made with organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

I so wanted to love this.  This was my first time trying any dairy product sourced from 100% grass-fed cows.  To give you some short background info, grass-feed cows provide different nutrient content (via meat and milk) than their “traditionally” fed counterparts.  Eating polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as omega-3 and omega-6) is essential for a healthy diet, but the ratio of those PUFAs is important as well.  The typical Western diet has a greater ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s and does not fall within the healthy range of the 1:1 – 1:4 ratios.  Milk from grass-fed cows provides a healthier 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.  Plus, Maple Hills Creamery is a NY company with great business practices that I’d love to support. 

However, I just didn’t enjoy this!  I want to try MHC again and I definitely want to try 100% grass-fed dairy again, but I just don’t enjoy flavored non-Greek yogurt that much.  The flavor of this was way to sour for me, no sweetness or maple flavor at all.

Once I realized that I couldn’t eat more than a bite of my yogurt – and more than a bite of 50% of my dinner calories – I ended up stealing from Adam’s packed lunches.

I know that doesn’t look very fancy but I promise it was good.  The husband threw chicken breast, carrots, and sweet potatoes into the crock pot and cooked until delicious.  Then topped the final dish with a healthy dose of A-1 Steak Sauce.

I ended up going back after a few bites for a dollop of sour cream to balance out the A-1, but overall I loved this.  The melded flavors of the sweet potato and chicken were amazing.

The second half of dinner was the real winner though.  Cue my new favorite salad.

A romaine base, topped with 1 Tbsp of Catalina dressing, craisins, groats, and goat cheese.

Can we talk about the goat cheese?  This was the co-op purchase that panned out.

A Double Cream Chevre from First Light Farm and Creamery.  A local business with sustainable business practices, and the producers of the best flipping goat cheese I’ve ever eaten!  I was dying eating my salad.

This was so creamy and rich!  Locals – buy some asap!

Oh, Balls

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Oh.  Hello there.  Are you here to hear me talk about my balls?  Well calm down, I’m getting to that.  I do have some exciting ball news but there was lots of excitement today.

Like my discovery of my new favorite smoothie of all time.

I know it doesn’t look like much but this new combination was freaking amazing.  I put 1 cup of lemonade and 2 Tbsp of chia seeds in my blender and left them to soak.  Five minutes later I added 1 cup of frozen strawberries and then blended like crazy.  Here’s an outside picture so you can really see the color –

Un-be-leave-a-bull!  The chia seeds mostly blended but still left a nice chew and their nuttiness was the perfect foil to the sweet and sour of the strawberry lemonade.

Even better, my smoothie actually held my stomach through my 4 hour class.  I attribute this to the chia seeds.  My 2 Tbsp of chia seeds gave my smoothie an extra 140 calories, 5 grams of protein, 11 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of polyunsaturated fats (mostly omega-3s).  source

That’s not to say I wasn’t ready for lunch though.  We had a “welcome back” department lunch today, complete with food.

I took a slice of mushroom pizza,

a few fresh veggies,

and some amazingly fresh strawberries and watermelon.

I also grabbed a 2nd slice later on.

In other lunch news I finally had an apple month win!

This caramel apple iced coffee from my school’s coffee shop totally hit the spot.  I did only drink half of that monster (I thought I was ordering a small) but I definitely made sure to get every last lick of caramel out of my cup.

Fully fueled, I headed to the gym for a L-O-O-O-N-G spells long workout.  I had a time goal and a length goal and I ended up hitting my time goal long before my length one; ie I took too many walking breaks and was slow!  I did a looong warm up and looong cool down with walk/run intervals in between that ended up being a lot of walking. 

In the end I covered 9 miles in 1 hour and 53 minutes.  As slow as you can move and still call it running but the distance at least is nothing to sneeze at.  P.S. I’m having some issues with the bones in my right foot but my legs feel great; yay!

Alright already, let’s talk about the balls.

S’mores Oat Balls.  Click here for the recipe link.  I swear to God this recipe was inspired by the S’mores Quaker Chew Bars and not my desire to say the word balls repeatedly after eating and rewatching Schweddy Balls.

The recipe was simple but the end result was delicious yet subtle.  Part s’more, part oat, totally acceptable for breakfast!  I resisted any nibbling while I assembled but I did eat two balls as soon as they were formed.

Make them at home, I promise you’ll love my balls.

Since we ate dessert first dinner needed to be a 15 minute affair.

I prepared 2 servings of spirals pasta, stirring frozen spinach and peas into the mix in the last few minutes of boiling.  Then I made Emily’s Nutritional Yeast Sauce and tossed everything together.

Yum, I thought the nutritional yeast was really good; though that could have been my love for peas with pasta talking.  Head over to The Daily Garnish (recipe link) to see all the benefits of nutritional yeast, but suffice to say dinner was healthy.

Adam has a test tomorrow and I have a really hard time sleeping when he’s not in bed (the upcoming surgical rotation should be fun!) so I’m going to stay up with him.  Studying, blog reading, perhaps a shower; who knows what I’ll get done.

P.S. I used the word “balls” 10 times in this post.  Sorry, Nana!

In The Zone

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My plans for the evening got a little thrown off when I decided to go to the gym come hell or high water.  And my plans for dinner got a little thrown off when Adam ate himself sick snacking while he waited for me.  Everything worked out in the end though.

I was in the study zone this afternoon, working until 6pm before I decided to head to the gym.  Side note – we have a ton of busy work assignments this semester so don’t expect me to do well or anything just because I’m working a lot!  The gym was quick and easy, 30 minutes on the elliptical at random level 6.  I had to stay up super late studying because I went (obviously, you guys see the timestamp!) but I’m glad I got in some movement before our 7-hour drive tomorrow.

I had to go buy notecards and we walked around Elmwood trying to feed me for a while and it got pretty late.  At least I discovered a new favorite when I ended up in front of Zonies.

I split with Adam but gave the larger half to myself (that’s a small plate).

The owner was super nice and let me combine two different calzones in one; they make each order fresh.  I got the eggplant parmesan (baked eggplant, mozzarella, marinara) with spinach and broccoli added in.

The bread was nice and doughy, the marinara was zesty, and they provided me with veggies; I call that a new favorite.

I also bought this Tazo black tea and mixed it with lemonade we had in the fridge for an Arnold Palmer.

We had to wash the dog, and I still have to wash myself!, and by the time I finished with all of the work I planned it was pretty darn late!

Speaking of school, my goal is to read over all my class notes (and make notecards where needed) at the end of every week.  Since I’m doing that, I thought it’d be fun to compile some of the more interesting things I’ve learned each week to share with you guys.  Welcome to –

Fun Fact Fridays

  • Iatrogenic is a term that means inadvertently induced by medical treatment.
  • The preventative and traditional approaches to health involve reducing risk factors before disease occurs or after symptoms appear, but the wellness approach involves positive lifestyle choices that enhance physical and mental well-being.
  • Food Processing is the largest manufacturing industry in the US.
  • In the 1800’s “smouch,” made of dried ash leaves, was routinely added to tea leaves to extend the food profits and supply.  Pea flour or mustard husks (aka “pepper dust”) were also added to pepper.
  • Probiotics naturally live in our guts but need regular replenishing.  Want to replenish yours?  Stonyfield contains four more active cultures than other yogurt brands.

P.S. Can any one who’s ever seen Eurotrip hear the phrase fun facts without thinking of this quote?  “Here’s a fun fact – you made out with your sister, dude!”

The Board Beard

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Adam is finished with his Step I Board Exam!!!  He won’t know his score for a while, but this means he has a free week to relax with absolutely nothing he should be studying.  This also means he’s finally going to shave.

That, my friends, is a “board beard.”  The husband has had a (normal, groomed) beard for several years now and I love it.  Much to my chagrin, he decided a month or so ago to grow a board beard.  Basically, he wasn’t going to shave again until after the exam.  I’ve been sharing a bed with Paul Bunyan, lovely.

But boards are done, so that thing’s got to go!

My day was a little more low-key than Adam’s obviously.  I did get up at 6am to make him a protein smoothie, but I’m the driver this evening so I crawled back into bed until 9:30 to make sure I was well rested.  Since I did the prep work last night, I awoke with breakfast waiting for me.

I dumped 1 sliced banana, 1/4 cup oats, and 3/4 Silk Light Vanilla Soy Milk into the 0% Plain Fage container with the last bits of yogurt.

This morning all I had to do was stir in some cinnamon sugar and move my overnight oats to my new mug.

I picked this kitchen addition up from Budala Pottery at the Allentown Art Festival and I’m loving it.  It has a nice round bottom (great for people who prefer to eat things out of their mugs than drink) and I love the look of the handle.

After breakfast I had planned to go to the gym but I’m starting to get nervous about driving all night (and moving all day!) so I decided to skip it.

Lunch.

One last serving of vegan pasta leftovers, deveganized with parmesan cheese.

It felt good to get some veggies into my system before I head on the vacation I’ve deemed “Frozen Yogurt Tour 2011!”

Plus the last of the soy milk with chocolate syrup.

If it looks frothy it’s because I shook the crap out of it.  I recently read in an issue of Cooking Light that if you aren’t shaking the sludge from the bottom of your soy milk you’re not getting the added calcium.

I spent the afternoon packing – both of our bags, car snacks – and as soon as Adam gets home and shaves we’ll be ready to hit the road.  We are reaching his parents’ house sometime in the middle of the night and spending all day Sunday helping them move.  There’s no internet at their house so I will see you guys on Monday!

Work Hard, Party Harder

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It was a slower shift (ie not as much $) but I had a good day at work today.  Plus, this happened –

Apparently I work with the boyfriend of a blog reader; Hi, Katie G!!

One of my friends was hosting a (girls only!) party tonight so I stopped at the Co-op after work to pick up some chips and dip.  I bought this raspberry lemonade for the walk home.

It was meh; I ended up giving the 2nd half to Adam.

I had enough time between work and fun to get hungry so while I whipped up Adam’s dinner I ate his leftover corn from yesterday.

What kind of a freak doesn’t like corn on the cob?!

I ended up making dinner out of party foods.

I stuck heavily with green grapes and 7-layer dip.

I didn’t want to do any drinking because I have a hot busy day planned tomorrow (walking to/through the Allentwon Art Festival) but I did drink some sugar-free iced tea out of a glass with a fun charm.

The party was pretty intimate and we ended up talking a lot about health stuff, which you know I loved.  I realized tonight that I actually know a few things about nutrition!  I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be able to answer (simple) questions about my future profession; it felt like something finally clicked between me and Dietetics.

Before I had to bed I’ll leave you with this factoid – Dietitians recommend that everyone take a multivitamin (or prenatal vit if you are a woman of child-bearing age) and that women also take a calcium supplement.  One of the reasons that a multi alone can’t cover your calcium needs is because it would be size prohibitive – a multivitamin with enough calcium would be a big horse pill that would be difficult to take.

Smoothie Sucker

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At least once a week I put “smoothies!” on our meal plan for breakfast.  I would say the ratio of smoothies made to smoothies listed is something like 1:10.  Why am I such a sucker for the allure of morning smoothies?!  They sound so refreshing and tasty, but I never actually have time to make one, leaving me breakfastless and cranky.

Thankfully today I packed a pretty breakfast-y lunch, so I pulled that out a few hours early.

A berry flavored Revolution Foods squeeze packet,

and a 2% Mango Chobani.

With a small coffee (that large cup is half full) with two creamers.

I loved the new fruit packet flavor (on sale at Buffalo Tops!) but I wasn’t thrilled by the new-to-me Chobani.  I was expecting to love it because Pineapple is so good, but the texture just seemed strange to me.

Speaking of fruit, we had a fun lab today – finding the ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content of different food items.  It was an interesting lab; always nice to practice something that actually relates to my profession.  P.S. Tang has .023mg of vitamin C per mL.

I was a busy bee after lab, with work to complete, a trip to the health center, a date with the gym, and finally an impromptu lunch date with Adam.  I was at the health center for a required physical before I begin working in the hospitals during the Coordinated Program next year.  After I get a PPD test next week there will be nothing between me and clinical work!

Next up was the gym.  I’m not going to lie to you guys, this visit was hard!  I did interval sets on the treadmill, 1minute walking/3minutes jogging.  I hit 3miles just around my 9th set.  With a quick cool down for a total of 3.25miles and 35minutes.

Since I ate my lunch for breakfast, I made an impromptu lunch date with the husband.  Adam was my savior and drove my drippingly sweaty self home for a much-needed shower.  We set a timer as I got out of the car (he had to sit out in front of the house) and getting upstairs, undressed, showered, ready to go, and back downstairs took me 11minutes and 5seconds.  And I even made an outfit change!

Go speedy!

Yes, that picture is at Wegmans.  Yes, we do have a hot bar problem!

I know we should try someplace new, but we love all the options and the price is right.  I’d much rather take a bunch of little different bites than have one choice in bulk.  Today I got a random mix of tofu, chicken, and slaw,

with pretty much every kind of roasted veggie.

The veggies were fantabulous as usual, but I ended up leaving behind most of the other side; my slaw had ham in it!

It was great to spend some mid-day time with Adam, and even better to get to head back to school with some yogurt pretzels to munch on during my night class.

Having a snack definitely made the time go faster.

In no time at all we were home eating burritos.

It helped that I pre-made the filling yesterday so the burritos came together in a cinch.

We topped whole wheat tortillas with sautéed mushrooms and onions, black beans, corn relish, sliced jalopenos, and some shredded 2% sharp cheddar.

Then we pressed them in the George Foreman like what we see them do at Moe’s.

Plus a side of scoops tortilla chips with spicy salsa for authenticity.

Perhaps I should have saved this meal for May 5th?

And since I’m a bottomless pit, I’ve got a mug waiting for dessert.

I stirred hot cocoa mix into some 0% Plain Oikos, then topped with brownie crumbles and toasted coconut.  I haven’t tasted it yet, but I can pretty well guess that it’s going to be amazing.

I hope this means I’m all set up for sweet dreams!  But first, some reruns of “Iron Chef” on Hulu.

How often do you make smoothies?  How often do you purchase them out?