It’s 2am and I just got home; I’ll just give the important notes.
* Webster is doing fine, he came home with an antibiotic and an order not to worry
* I looooved The Help. I may not have eaten or changed out of my smelly shirt this afternoon, but I read it in its entirety today
* My friends make really amazing food for book club
* I had 3-4 chocolate saltines and 5-6 chips with the most amazing crab dip
* I had two Arnold Palmers made with this!
11 days of freedom! That is, I have 11 days until I have another test or major assignment on my schedule. Woo-who; good thing I’ve got all that tv to watch 😉
Last night was, shall we say, eventful. Just before bed we killed the largest spider I’ve ever seen and it sent adrenaline coursing through my veins. <– Seriously, “woodlouse spider,” Google if you dare. Then Webster got sick at 2:30 in the morning and none of us really ever went back to sleep after that. I made a vet appointment for the dog and a giant coffee for myself.
That’s Godiva Pecan Turtle Coffee (a foodbuzz sample) with Plain Silk Almond Milk and ice. Delish, thought it did mean that my jumpiness continued.
I ate brunch around my breaks in class. A red pear.
Plus a sandwich.
2 slices of Rudi’s Honey Sweet Whole Wheat, with Trader Joe’s mango butter, 2 slices of Applegate Farms Herb Turkey, and a slice of 2% Swiss.
Not that great but at least it kept me fueled. Especially because your brain needs 130 grams of CHO a day to function!
My exam went pretty well, I think. There were a few areas of confusion (on material we were told was not going to be on the exam!) but overall I felt like I knew my stuff.
I never really mind exams; it’s fun to see how much I know, or don’t know! Plus I’m a speed tester so I always finish with time to spare. Having an exam today meant I was released an hour earlier than usual, which is great because I’m on page 21 of The Help and book club is tonight! Gotta get reading!
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.
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?
I spent basically the whole day napping with the dog and the husband. It was epic.
Just like next week will be an epic fail as I try to work around all the stuff I didn’t do.
I swear the cold just makes me go into hibernation. My appetite was all over the place too. We started our “morning” with hunks of sourdough dipped in herbed olive oil.
Off all the things my body could have demanded at 45* degrees in October, next came ice cream.
I topped Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Roll ice cream with hot fudge and Heath crumbles.
When we did make our way out of the cave it was to go to the movies. 50/50 was great; very touching and funny. I love Seth Rogan in everything he does but it was nice to get to see him play a new role.
We also made a weekly trip to Wegmans. They were out of eggplant entirely which through our meal plan for a loop, but I think we worked it out. We didn’t get any hot bar (more on that tomorrow) but I did buy 50cents worth of Halloween candy.
50cents for $100 worth of happiness. I live for theme things.
Following the theme, Adam and I split a pumpkin beer when we got home.
Shock Top’s Pumpkin Wheat was wonderful. Not bitter at all like some pumpkin beers I’ve tried. I think I actually liked this variety better than traditional Shock Top.
For dinner we made this tofu quiche.
Same recipe as last time, though I did leave out the milk this go-round.
It was quite good; very cheesy. A good hibernation food.
How did you celebrate the start of October?
As you can probably tell from the title, this is not a happy post. I mean, it was a fine day and all, but it ended with a bit of despair.
My smart breakfast held me over nicely through my 1st 2 hour class; oats for the win. I was ready for lunch by the time we reached break though. Mostly because I knew in advance how darn good my sandwich was going to be.
1 slice of 2% provolone and 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey and Maple Turkey on a toasted Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin.
The turkey was delicious and the sweetness of the bagel totally made the sandwich.
I also packed a baggie of baby carrots but they were so slimy I couldn’t even eat them. Thankfully my friend Rachel realized that we were burning through our glucose stores cramming for the exam and she bought us Rochers.
Got to keep that brain powered.
I also bought a caramel apple frozen coffee.
But it was disgusting. I’ve had the drink before and I know it doesn’t usually have a strong aftertaste but it was too close to class time to get back in line so I just threw it out 4 sips in.
I used both of my breaks to study today and the test ended up going ok. Not as well as I would have liked, but I probably should have studied in advance for that! I don’t want to do “ok” this semester, I want A’s! It is worth noting though that I finished our 77 question exam in 17 minutes. I’m a test speed demon. <– that was with checking everything twice
I had to stay on campus after our test was over and I was starving. I turned to the vending machines for sustenance.
The dietetics’ building’s machines actually have some healthy options, but Clif Bars are $2.50 and honey mustard pretzels are $1 so you see how that went.
My late home-coming was because I had a job interview at 6pm (fingers crossed!). I think that went really well but sadly then the evening took a downturn.
I ate my pretzels at 5 and then didn’t eat anything else so I was still starving. The important point there is that at 7:30 I hadn’t eaten in almost 3 hours; that’s a key detail. I came home and cleaned up the remains of the husband’s shoes (thanks a lot, Webster!), took the little monster on a walk, and was just catching up with Adam when I felt something in my mouth. “I think I chipped a tooth.” Adam told me to shut up – it’s possible I’m paranoid about my teeth and it wasn’t like I was currently eating anything – but did get out his otoscope. And, confirmed; I chipped a tooth! I chipped two teeth last year using my old retainers but tonight I basically cracked one of the previously chipped molars in half. Ouch!
We had to cancel our hot, crunchy dinner and we also had to go buy Adam new insoles so while we were out we picked up Subway for dinner.
I got a 6inch veggie sub with pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, lots of pickles, and yellow mustard.
And I also scarfed the last quarter of Adam’s tuna sub.
Eating was a little painful, but no worse than hunger pains or a day without veggies. Bleck.
Have you ever chipped a tooth? Any food suggestions (or warnings) until I can get it fixed?
We didn’t get in bed until past 11pm and the dog snuggled me awake 10 different times during the night but somehow I did manage to get in a 6am gym session. Woo-hoo! 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 5. My feet kill and I was moving pretty slowly, but I got some movement in and spent some time reviewing my notecards.
When I got home I grabbed a coffee for the road but didn’t bother taking a picture because the dog ate my camera cord. Coffee, English Toffee syrup, Silk Plain Almond Milk. I think y’all know what that looks likes. Instead, here is a picture of Webster the Destructor –
I had a nice break between class 1 and 2 because my test only took half of the alloted time. The test went well, probably not an A but definitely not an F. We’ve had mostly multiple choice questions for the past year so I need to get used to the short answer, matching, etc. format.
I ate my breakfast on the break (I uploaded my photos after I packed lunch last night). Mini box of raisins,
serving of Love Grown Granola (HLS swag),
and a Trader Joe’s applesauce packet.
I ended up going ahead and eating my lunch during the same break (phone pic). I packed a frozen serving of leftover kale and beans which I plated and stuck in the campus bookstore microwave.
There was a bit of tofurkey sausage and parmesan on the bottom too. Even frozen and defrosted the bbq kale and beans were still delicious! I’m sad this is all gone and plan to make another batch soon.
Eating lunch at 10am left me pretty hungry come my second break but I distracted myself with some computer time. <– I even started writing this post!
After school I had to run to Bagel Jays to pick up some halvah for a school presentation later this week. They were all out, but the cashier did have a suggestion of where I could find more. And an epic journey to the Wegmans 25-minutes away with an international section ensued. In the end that hour was completely worth it though; I ended up finding all sorts of goodies that I haven’t spotted elsewhere in Buffalo!
Adam and I have been searching for everything matzoh every since we left Miami! And I was excited to eat a snack find right away.
Pizza flavored snacks (chips? crackers?) from Bissli.
Adam and I split the package and we both loved them. The flavor was pretty mild but the texture was unlike any snack I’ve ever had, very hard and crunchy! When I turn my epic Wegman’s journey into a monthly event I will definitly be buying more Bissli products.
I also drank a Wegman’s diet root beer and pretty much died and went to heaven.
Sidenote -I don’t show you all of the diet soda I drink (I’d never get off the computer!), just the interesting ones. Diet cola is my favorite thing on Earth but other sugar-free sodas tend to make me gag. I’d sooner dehydrate than put Diet Sprite in my mouth. But this root beer was amazing; perfect balance of sweet and spice, no aftertaste. This actually was the best root beer I’ve ever had, diet or regular, period.
We ate our snacks on the road because we were out searching for a camera cord replacement. Many (many) stops later we finally had success. By the time I had the ability to photograph dinner Adam and I were completely demoralized. He actually called my mom and begged to charge dinner! She’s the best lady ever, so out we went. And wouldn’t you know it, we wandered into restaurant week.
How serendipitous!
My pictures of dinner are all terrible. I’m hoping it was the lighting because if I need to buy a new camera right after I sprang for a new cord I might just cry.
Course 1 was soup;
a jalapeno cheddar corn potato chowder.
This had a nice spice to it but was too rich for my taste.
For my entrée I ordered the tortellini ratatouille.
That’s not it. I was two bites in I was complaining about the lack of veggies when I came to a startling realization – this was the tortellini Bolognese. Pros – my entire pre fixe meal was comped. Cons – I ate a cow!!?!
Our waiter was apologetic about the mishap and soon enough I had my ratatouille.
Much better, this had tons of veggies. I ate 2/3 of my meal and brought the leftovers home for a happy husband. He ordered steak with a Stilton crust and was thrilled.
For dessert I ordered peach cobbler with Grand Marnier and chantilly cream.
I never really consider the cobbler but this was a lot of fun to eat. I finished all of the peaches and cream and 3/4 of the cobbler.
Not so fun is the fact that my stomach started hurting halfway through dinner. It was bad enough that the pain was making me sweat (though not bad enough that I’ll skip dessert, apparently!). The issue was probably the creamy soup, but I’m going to blame the beef!
Are there any foods you don’t eat? When was the last time one slipped into your meal? Veggies – how do you react when you accidentally consume some flesh?
I can’t even tell you how freaking good it feels to be back to blogging. I know I don’t always blog everything (though if I blog for a day than I include everything that goes in my mouth) but going extended periods without posting just feels strange!
I’ve got a busy week ahead – 3 tests and 2 projects by Friday – so I set my alarm for 8am to get working. I got a little distracted by house organizing and puppy training but I got a good bit of work done too. I was extra fueled by coffee.
Into my big mug (thanks Janetha!) went 2.5 cups of coffee, 2 Tbsp English Toffee syrup, and a big pour (~3/4 cup?) of Silk Plain Almond Milk.
Hello, dog.
I went unorthodox for breakfast because I found the last serving of bacon, corn, and shrimp chowder lurking in the back of the fridge.
Food safety regulations would have called for tossing this but it tasted great and I feel fine.
Around 12:30 I headed over to Delaware Park for a run. Running at high-noon wasn’t my best idea but this ended up being a terrible workout in general.
That’s 3.5 miles in 44 minutes plus 1.75 miles more walked. This run was pretty much a shitshow. 9 minutes into my second lap my feet went completely numb and I had to walk to avoid twisting my ankle. Adam had tightly tied my shoes for me but loosening them didn’t help and I wasn’t off pins and needles until I actually took my shoes off. I wanted to finish my last walking lap because I had my notecards with me to review so I ended up doing 1.75 miles barefoot. It seemed like a good idea at the time but my gigantic, excruciating blisters indicate that it was actually a terrible idea. Ouch!
I was at least cheered up by my shower thanks to this lavender soap my mom sent me –
When I was a kid my mother loved lilac (which smells like cat pee, by the way) but my dad and I couldn’t get it together so we’d always buy her tons of lavender-scented goodies. I teased her for years about being an old lady but in the last year or so I’ve become completely obsessed with all things lavender. Guess I’m the old lady.
Adam offered to help me hobble through the grocery store so I did a quick-lunch out of hand. A black plum,
and a Sweet Tango apple.
Holy crisp and juicy, Batman! I was so thrilled to loudly munch through a fresh apple; Sweet Tangos are divine.
We did Wegmans and the co-op and when I got home I hungrily dug into this container of Dr. McDougall’s Spicy Kung Pow Noodles.
Pretty darn good. The was a nice amount of spice to these and it felt like a ton of food for 220 calories.
Dinner involved more shrimp and tasted better than it looked.
On the left is a small serving of Cooking Light‘s Bombay Shrimp Curry. My changes to the recipe included using ground mustard instead of mustard seed, skipping the cilantro, and using a veggie mix with peas, corn, carrots, lima beans, and green beans. I also skipped the rice because I had just eaten pasta.
Unfortunately, we hated it. Adam and I both could barely choke this down. The flavor was strangely flat and it was spicy in an unpleasant way. Do not recommend.
I know the stuff on the right looks bad, but I promise it tasted sooooo good.
Cheesy baked eggplant! Using this Italian eggplant I picked up at the farmers’ market last week.
For two – into my mini casserole dish went a thin layer of marinara, a layer of thinly sliced eggplant, a sprinkle of salt, a thick layer of marinara, and 2 slices of 2% provolone cheese. Baked at 450* for 45minutes.
Gah; this was unbelievable! The eggplant got soft enough to cut with a fork and baking the cheese intensified its flavor x100. We are going to make this again as a main meal very soon.
For dessert I used Mixchief Jell-O Mix to make Cherry Coke Jell-O.
How fun! It wasn’t as strong as I would have liked but I would try it again and substitute more cola for water next time.
That bowl had 2 servings but I only ate one. To be honest I’m feeling pretty unsatisfied; I think I will most likely end up adding enough dessert to this day while I study. I’ll update later if I do.
How often do you update your blog? Does it feel strange to take breaks.
***Updated to add – I did have a 2nd (fiberific) dessert; 1/3 cup of All Bran Bran Buds with 2 tsp of crushed Heath bar. No picture because the dog chewed through my camera cord. <– ugh!
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!
Eating Chalk 