Tag Archives: cheese

The Very Hungry Blogger

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Do I look like a pre-school teacher?

Actually I was a bit too dressy; all of the real teachers were in jeans!  My friend Kim and I did a nutrition education activity with 17 pre-k kids today.  We talked about fruits and vegetables, read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and then had the kids draw their favorite fruits and veggies to feed to the hungry caterpillar.

It was a lot of fun.  The experience equally excited me for my future in Dietetics and made me long for my past in the classroom.

I was definitely “on” in the classroom but I’m not working with a lot of sleep.  As I was getting into bed last night I calculated and realized that working out this morning would leave me with 2.5 hours to sleep.  Obviously I grudgingly reset my alarm.  No workout was worth the additional 2 hours of shut-eye I logged, but this does mean I can’t get in my three for the week.  One of the good things about logging workouts on a calendar per my NYE resolution is that I can see trends.  Like I’ve identified the problem that I never workout.  Or less obviously, I realize that I put off workouts at the beginning of the week and leave myself to scramble and/or miss them at the end.

I didn’t have time for breakfast either, but I did eat breakfast-y food when I was finished with preschool, Statistics, and clinic.

When I was at work on Wednesday Adam made a version of my Healthier Spinach Ricotta Pie with spinach and chopped broccoli.  He put the extra into cupcake tins.  I brought three egg cups for lunch today.

Plus a pear.

And my friend Janessa shared a few dark chocolate almonds with me during night class.

But I was more than ready for a big dinner when I got home.  We have spring break next week (yay!) and I need to use the free time to get back into the breakfast habit.

Dinner was a big pile of roasted green beans,

and an amazing sandwich.

I piled 2 oz of Applegate Farm’s Honey and Maple Turkey Breast, 2 oz of Cabot’s 50% Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Cheese, and a sort of disgusting amount of sweet pickle slices on a Wegman’s Sandwich Thin and then wrapped the whole thing in foil and stuck it in the oven to get melty.

Dee-lish-us!  Cheese and pickles is the new cheese and jam.  I generally use full-fat cheese (other than what we buy shredded) but going 50% reduced here lets me use enough that the cheese is a major sandwich component.  And the Cabot is pretty spot on with texture and flavor.

I also had popcorn with butter as an evening snack since the husband made himself a big bowl and couldn’t finish it all.  Amateur.

David Beckham Says Hi

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Did everyone have a good weekend?  I had a work training on Saturday and a shift on Sunday.  I don’t think I’d mentioned on the blog yet, but I’m back at my tele-fund-raising job for the next month.

When I wasn’t working, we were watching Stargate: Atlantis like mad.  And mourning the loss of an hour!  Even with lost time, I did manage to try a few fun new things –

Shipyard Applehead beer.

I like Shipyard and I love apple ciders so I thought I’d be a fan of this, and I was.  But it’s not a cider, it’s an apple beer.  I thought it tasted like cinnamon roasted apples!  (Note – when I googled after tasting I was thrilled to see that cinnamon was included.  I love tasting a product “right.”)

Wild Ophelia Chocolate Bars.

The Hickory Smoked Almond was the perfect blend of smoky and sweet.  And I loved the little branding details here, like fun printing on the inside of the package.  I obviously didn’t taste the beef jerky flavor but it’s Adam’s new favorite.  Whenever we find meat based candy bars (right up Adam’s alley) they are always with dark chocolate (he hates it) so it was great to find this perfect flavor combo.  They didn’t have the Southern Hibiscus Peach flavor in our store but I would consider ordering it if I could!

Monday morning wasn’t such a win.  I slept right through breakfast!  One of our phone chargers is getting persnickety and last night my phone, and my alarm clock, shut off from lack of power.  I also slept through a $30 parking ticket 😦

Lunch was good though.

Leftovers from the other day.  A random mix of unmeasured amounts of –

  • spaghetti
  • linguine
  • shredded chicken
  • peas
  • spinach
  • broccoli
  • blue cheese
  • cheddar
  • mozzarella
  • evoo
  • skim milk
  • egg

‘Twas good.

Random fun fact – when the dog’s ears are flopped back I think he looks like David Beckham with a headband on.  David Beckham says hi –

Up All Night

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…well not quite, but I did come close!  It’s possible I underestimated how many statistics problems were due!  Here are the totals –

Hours slept: 3.5; from 5:30 am to 9am

Assignments completed: all

Coffees consumed: 2, with skim milk and sugar

Snacks nibbled: 1 plate of pretzels with yellow mustard

Minutes wasted on Pinterest: too many!

The morning came quickly but I’ve actually felt pretty good all day.

The t-shirt bustle is the fashion industry’s equivalent to caffeine.

Oh, and I had caffeine too.

I shook a packet of Starbucks Caramel Via Iced Coffee with a bottle of water and was very impressed.  Everything went into solution with no grounds left behind and the flavor was great.

I think, fingers crossed, that my statistics exam was a success as well.  I was not as triumphant on the meal front though.  I only had time to pack one set of meals (actually I packed it yesterday, but whatever) and too little sleep and two few calories made the afternoon feel pretty long.  It was a good meal though.  Sliced cucumber.

A Sandwich Thin with Applegate Farms roasted turkey and maple apple chutney.

And the last of my Canada candy.

I shared a gummi bottle with a friend and she was dully impressed.

I ate my packed meal at 4:45 when we finished with clinic and then had to sit through my night class with a growling stomach.  By the time I got home I knew the only way to keep from going crazy was to use one of our restaurant meals this evening.  We didn’t have time to eat in and we aren’t allowed to do take out so we turned to Wegmans.  I was eating this veggie sushi the minute we got in the car!

And ate this frozen meal practically the minute we got in the house.

It wasn’t anything amazing but the nutrition stats were not terrible.

And soon after I tucked into a giant plate of pizza bagels.  No picture because the husband delivered me my plate like an awesome, but I ate two servings worth (~540 calories).  I think I’m all caught up on food now.

And now I should probably try to catch up on sleep!

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter?

Has Been And Will Be

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Howdy!  It has been – and will be – a long day, so I’ll keep this quick.

My morning started with a trip to the gym.  My CT10k plan called for 11 sets of 3 minutes running / 2 minutes walking, but today was my worst workout ever so I had to mix it up a bit.  My calves were soooooo tight.  I ran and walked super slowly and stopped practically every 5 minutes to stretch but my legs just wouldn’t feel right.  I ended up doing 6 sets of 3/2, followed by 30 minutes of slow walking with my notecards, and then another 6 sets of 3/2.  90 minutes and 6.7 miles in total.  And after my walk home my legs now feel completely better; weird!

I drank a grape G2 while I was at the gym.

Technically this was a drink purchase but I’m not going to count it.  I was feeling very light-headed so calories were a necessity and not just a desire for something other than water.  I am going to buy a few larger (read cheaper unit cost) G2s next time I’m at the store though.

I ate lunch on my walk to school, or at least attempted to.  First, a delightfully crunchy pink lady apple.

Next, I packed a B’More Skyr Vanilla Smoothie.

I had such high hopes – the packaging was neat and I adore Siggi’s skyr yogurts – but alas, stevia.  Yuck, I wish I had looked at the ingredient list more carefully.  I had to throw the drink out after just two sips.  Then I spent the rest of the afternoon bemoaning our no-take-out challenge; I didn’t have anything else to eat and I was starving!

I stayed strong though, and even managed to focus intently for my test.  I’m never really sure, but I think this one went much better than the last few.  Fingers crossed.

And in even better news, the husband got out early from the hospital in time to drive me home from school.  Thus bringing me to food 90% more quickly.

Those are cola gummis I got in Toronto and they were fabulous.  I have the rest of my stash packed for lunch tomorrow and I just can’t wait.

I also made an extraordinary sandwich.

A Sandwich Thin topped with Applegate Farms roasted turkey, sharp cheddar, and tons of sliced sweet pickles.

Mmmmmmmn!  When I was in middle school I’d occasionally pack pickle and cheddar sandwiches for lunch and they are still rocking my socks today.

My delicious sandwich was eaten on the go.  It was warm enough this afternoon to walk Webster sans coats!

We still have more freezing days ahead of us, but it was nice to get a little taste of spring.

Dinner was an oldie but a goodie.

Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles, with an updated recipe page.

Plus the last serving of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2 Ingredient Ice Cream for dessert.

I’m pretty sad to see it go.

We’ll call dinner carbo-loading for the marathon night ahead of me.  The things I have to get done for tomorrow list includes studying for my first stats test, three homework assignments for clinical, and a major assignment for management.  And the number things on the list I’m done with is – zero.  Whoops!  Guess I needed to do some work last weekend.

I’m not sure when (or if!) I’ll get to bed but I foresee some midnight snacking in my future.  Sweet dreams to the rest of you!

Thai Chicken Pizza

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Is anyone else wishing it was Thursday?  Actually, I’m wishing it was still Monday!  I have a lot (a lot, a lot, a lot) of big school stuff going on this week and I’m so not ready.  I spent too much of my morning worrying and not enough of it working.  Such is life; and I finally got over feeling overwhelmed and got some serious work done this evening.

Breakfast was berrytastic.

Greek Gods Honey Strawberry Greek Yogurt topped with blackberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I underestimated how sweet the fresh berries would be (not sour at all!) and this bowl ended up being a little too sugary.  The full-fat Greek Yogurt is sweeter than the 0% varieties too.  But the new-to-me flavor receives two thumbs up.

I also made myself something hot for the walk to school.

A double-brewed (2 bags tea to 1 cup water) mug of Tea Republic’s red velvet tea with sugar and plain almond milk.

We had a mock Statistics test today before our first real test on Thursday and it went pretty well.  We are allowed to bring a “cheat sheet” in so I’m not too worried.  I do have to actually make the sheet though!

When I got home I found a package of homemade goodies from my mother-in-law.

I helped myself to many white chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles.

And for lunch I helped myself to one of the husband’s tupperwares.

I made him spaghetti with turnip greens, brocoli, and tomato sauce for lunches this week.  I gussied up my stolen bowl by reheating it in a skillet with evoo and an egg.

The crunchy, almost burnt bits are my favorite.  And not to worry, I packed Adam a sandwich for tomorrow.

Speak of the devil my hero, when Adam got home this afternoon he made me a big bowl of airpopped ‘corn.

I haaaate cleaning the airpopper and Adam is so sweet to me about regularly dealing with it.  As long as you leave off the butter, popcorn makes the best study snack.

Dinner was inspired by my favorite chain restaurant meal.

California Pizza Kitchen’s Thai Chicken Pizza.  The Thai Chicken Salad is my favorite but the pizza’s a close second.

For our version we topped a store-bought crust with –

  • Wegman’s peanut sauce
  • shredded chicken
  • chopped green onions
  • leftover carrots from the Bahn Mi
  • 2% reduced fat mozzarella
  • cocktail peanuts
  • sesame oil (rubbed into the crust)

It was fantastic!  I could only finish one of my slices though; apparently half a pizza was a little too much!  But I ate all of my roasted zucchini.

Other than green beans (the long-term reigning favorite), zucchini is this year’s favorite vegetable for roasting.

What is your favorite chain restaurant?

Weekend Woot-dates

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Did everyone have a good weekend?  I didn’t get much work done, but the food and fun categories were filled to the brim!  We are starting another take-out reduction challenge and we definitely made the most of purchased meals this weekend 😉

Saturday morning I got up and went for a run!

The gym wasn’t open yet so I did my CT10k workout out in the wild at Delaware Park.  I forgot my watch at home and ended up having to count to 150 in my head as I switched from walking to running intervals.  I’m not sure how accurate I was but it was a great way to keep my thoughts occupied.  All total I did 4 miles in 53 minutes.  The wind was out of control and it ended up being a resistance workout of sorts; it was actually super fun to keep pushing through.

I drank the 2nd half of my G2 during my run.

And then I had a big iced coffee with English toffee syrup and Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk in the car.

In the car because we were heading to Toronto!

Last month I promised Adam all-you-can-eat sushi as a reward for participating in vegan month.  We failed at vegan month (recap post to come), but I figured he still deserved his reward for trying, especially since our fails were mostly due to my fat/laziness and not his lack of committment.  My parents sent us $ for Valentine’s that perfectly covered the cost of our fun international date, so off we went.

Lunch was delicious, way too many bites to even attempt to recap.  Adam and I did a lot of sharing, but the spread below shows everything I at least tasted.  Adam had many, many, other bites that I didn’t photograph.

Yum!  I’m still a little stuffed just thinking about it.  But we did find room for dessert.

Thank goodness, because this was actually the best cup of froyo I’ve ever had.  I thought I was going to die from a happiness overload.

A small serving of tart plain yogurt topped with fruit, sprinkles, and a huuuuuuge pile of popping boba.

I was grinning wider and wider with every bite.

After our drive home and an extreme shopping session at Wegmans, I did end up with room for a late dinner.

On that plate was a buffalo chicken sub with blue cheese and an order of fries.  Devoured.

Sunday has been spent on the couch.  Adam is starting a new project this week, in addition to the general being a med student craziness, and we took full advantage of today’s free hours for cuddling and sci-fi.

I did venture outside for brunch though.  My old friend Katie was back in town for a visit!

That sort of fun calls for a Bloody Mary, extra spicy.

Finding a Sunday brunch spot without a 45 minute wait took some doing, but we ended up having a great meal at Panos.

I got the kid’s meal 1-1-1.  A sunny side up egg, a pancake, and hash browns.  Then I smothered everything in syrup.

Every bite was delicious and I seriously considered licking my plate clean!

During the afternoon I ate a bowl of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2-Ingredient Ice Cream.

x2.  That stuff is ridiculous good.

Adam had an evening meeting so I pushed back our dinner plans and ordered Chinese.  Told you I was taking advantage of my last days with take-out!  Once our food gets here we are watching our last ever episode of Stargate: Universe and eating crab rangoons.  Yippee!

Are you a sci-fi tv fan?  Did you watch any of the Stargates?

Resolutions Check In: February

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Last night – I didn’t finish my work, but I did make a big dent.  We were up until midnight but it was only 8pm when I realized that dinner wasn’t going to cover it.  I started with a bowl of coconut barley (cooked in coconut milk with shredded coconut stirred in) with pb sauce.

But there was something off about the texture so instead I moved on to pizza.

Lots of pizza.  What?  It was the last hours of Vegan Month, on a leap year!  Plus we’d already cheated anyway.  This was our least successful Vegan Month to date.

This morning – was the start of successful month.  I blame coffee.

That’s a leftover cup (+ish) of Wegman’s Espresso Roast (<– love!) with 1 Tbsp English Toffee Syrup and 5 Tbsp Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.  I’m not done with my work, not even close, but I made another big dent.

Breakfast was soup.

Dr. McDougall’s Pad Thai Noodle Soup.

Not Pad Thai in the slightest (the flavor seemed more Spanish than Thai), but the texture and flavor were quite tasty.  It badly needed peanuts but sadly we don’t have any.

Happy March’ing everyone!

Resolutions Check In: February

2 months down.  February was not quite as successful as January.  I want to blame the Vegan Challenge, but honestly we failed at that too.  The good thing is that I feel more than ready to put my head down and work the rest of the year.

1. Workout a minimum of three times per week.

Fail.  I have no excuse, but I can only do better.

2. Continue to read at least one book a month, for a minimum total of 30 books this year.

10. 206 Bones – Kathy Reichs

11. Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah

12. Spider Bones – Kathy Reichs

Win.  3 books read this month for a total of 12 this year.  I’ve officially read every Temperance Brennan book currently available.

3. Put the time and effort into my school work that I can be proud of each week.

Middling.  I’m still on top of things but I slacked and I’m not necessarily proud of myself.

4. Continue working on being a positive person.

Fail/Win.  I decided in January that I needed to make more specific goals for each month so for February I said – “every time I get so mad I want to yell at Adam, I have to do three push-ups first.  And then I can yell!”  I only ended up doing push-ups once.  I forgot about them the times I was mad, but I did get mad a lot less often this month.

For March – stop eating take-out!  I’ll talk about this more later but getting creative in the kitchen helps keep me happy (and healthy!) so it’s a good goal for addressing positivity.

Resolutions Check In: January

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Yoga did not happen, but it didn’t happen by choice.  When I got in bed last night (later than desired but still not all that late) I was so tired I thought I was going to pass out.  My last conscious act was switching my alarm to 8:30 am instead.  It was a good call; those three extra hours were a godsend and I woke up feeling well-rested.

Since a 9 am breakfast feels late now, and lunch doesn’t happen on Tuesdays anyway, for my first meal I had lunch.

This Stoffers Cheesy Chicken Brocoli and Rice Bake was pretty good.

A little too much cheese though.

New Year’s Resolutions Check In: January

A month has passed!  Let’s see how I’ve done on my goals.

1. Workout a minimum of three times per week.

Fail.  But I think this one will get easier now that I’ve got a school schedule to help guide my time.

2. Continue to read at least one book a month, for a minimum total of 30 books this year.

1. Death Du Jour – Kathy Reichs  (f)

2. Deadly Decisions  – Kathy Reichs  (f)

3. Fatal Voyage – Kathy Reichs  (f)

4. Grave Secrets – Kathy Reichs  (f)

5. Bare Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

6. Monday Mourning – Kathy Reichs  (f)

7. Cross Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

8. Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs  (f)

9. Bones to Ashes – Kath Reichs  (f)

Win.  9 books read this month for a total of 9 this year.  I doubt I’ll be able to spend this much time reading in the coming months, but it sure was fun.

3. Put the time and effort into my school work that I can be proud of each week.

Win.  As of today I’m up-to-date or ahead of the game on everything.

4. Continue working on being a positive person.

N/a.  I need to find more specific ways to benchmark this.  I think for February my goal is – every time I get so mad I want to yell at Adam, I have to do three push-ups first.  And then I can yell!

How are you doing on your NYE resolutions?