Tag Archives: cheese

Comfort Food Fusion

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When I tried the honey mustard chips yesterday I didn’t love them for snacking but I knew they’d work great as a component in a larger dish.  Like say, tuna melt nachos.

I saw a reader suggestion for a similar idea in an Everyday with Rachel Ray a few months back and I’m so glad I finally tried it.  Blending these two classic comfort foods only made them better.

I piled 1.5 oz of Lays Honey Mustard Chips with 2/3 a can’s worth of tuna salad (made with Miracle Whip and pickle relish) and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan.  After a 8minute spin in a 400* oven I had a win-worthy dish.

This would have been even more amazing with my honey mustard tuna salad, but I didn’t think that Adam would eat those leftovers.

This dish made me think about other comfort foods we serve together: fries with chilli, Oreos in milkshakes, pizza in egg rolls; I wonder which epic combinations we’ve yet to think of.

My side dish was supposed to be a plum, but this is what I got when I cut mine in half.

I don’t know what that spongey stuff is but it didn’t look appetizing.  I’m taking a walk to the Co-op later this afternoon, hopefully I can get in some fruit then because we are clean out here.

Which two comfort foods would you like to try together?

Rebel Without A Cause

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My productivity came to a sudden halt this afternoon when my body remembered that I put it to bed at 5am and rebelled.  And it rebelled hard, the closest I came to a workout was belly laughing at “That 70’s Show.”

Afternoon snacks included mini candy,

mini (coconut) milk,

and a white chocolate toffee cookie.

When it was 8:30 and dinner was still just a thought we decided to get rice bowls from Moe’s instead.

This bowl included:

  • rice (I asked for less than they usually give)
  • black beans
  • chicken
  • grilled mushrooms
  • cheese
  • sour cream
  • corn salsa
  • lettuce
  • olives
  • cilantro

It was delicious, though I did end up picking around most of the chicken.

Which saved me room for chips with queso.

I guess I’ve just got an extra big to-do list for tomorrow!

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.

That Which Shall Not Be Blogged

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Blogging lunch is hard because of not blogging yesterday.  Blogging breakfast was impossible because I slept through it, but that’s another story!

I did eat lunch though, and it requires that I go back to what I did 24 hours ago.  Which was go on a date to the Spot with Adam to get a Funghi Pizza before work.

Mozzarella cheese with an assortment of roasted and fresh mushrooms finished with extra virgin truffle oil drizzle.

I ate the leftovers today for lunch.

Delicious, especially when I dipped the crusts in my Cherry Coke Zero.

Yesterday before work I also did some baking,  Jenna’s sunflower butter cookies.

I forgot to flatten the first trays with a fork before baking (what? I’ve never made peanut butter cookies before!) and the cookie balls that resulted were nice and doughy on the inside.

I ate two small ones for dessert with lunch today.

Also good with Cherry Coke Zero!

I realize that this was a lame quick post, but I’ve gotta say that I’m enjoying blogging again after my short break.  I really enjoy being a (mostly)-three-meals-a-day blogger, rather than a once in a while poster.

Bloggers – what percentage of your meals do you blog?  Readers – do you prefer all-of-the-time bloggers, or once that post just snippets.

Bad Decisions Brew Bad Outcomes

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I’m going to be honest from the start: this is a fairly whiney post.  In fact, I’ve got a pretty fun recipe post coming this evening (hopefully!) so you may want to just wait.  If you’re still here, I’ll tell you that I’ve been in a rotten mood for the past 24 hours.  It’s been a very frustrating day, not without a few high points though.

I’ll be honest; yesterday afternoon when we went to the Co-op what I really wanted was nachos.  I talked myself out of them in the interest of attempting to actually be healthy this summer, but it was a big mental battle.  <– I shared the play by plays with the husband too, fun for him.  So when I was hungry within 5 minutes of arriving at work yesterday (the hot bar wasn’t very good) I had some regret about my choice.  It doesn’t help that my workplace serves some amazing looking nachos that make me green with envy every time I serve them.

Anyway, I was at work getting hungrier and hungrier, when we had a terrible string of customers that made me question humanity.  Sidenote:  to the woman who requested a private room for a birthday party, brought in her own cake for me to serve, received amazing service, and then tipped me $20 on a $245 bill – I hope someone punches you in the face.  I’m thinking about doing a mini-post on tipping actually, would anyone be interested in that?

As my mood got worse and worse, I knew nachos were the answer.  When I got cut 20 minutes early (ie before the kitchen was closed) I knew it was a sign from the cheese gods.  Nachos.

I realize that bad lighting / the to-go container / the fact that these had to sit and wait for me to finish work makes these look less appetizing than they could, but let me assure you these were a high point of the day!

The nachos were ridiculous good.  Housemade chips with poblano peppers, mango salsa, and smoked gouda?  Heck yes!

I brought the nachos home to share with the husband but I ended up housing 80% of them myself.  Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, consuming that much smoked gouda made me sick to my stomach.  Totally worth it, but this combined with my bad mood did keep me up past 3am.  When I did finally get in bed the husband tells me that I thrashed about and made noise all night.

I didn’t get out of bed until 10am this morning and after sending a few e-mails I realized that I was a) still in a terrible mood, and b) still exhausted.  Back to bed I went.

I got up around 3 with the goal of cashing in on free donut day at Dunkin, and getting in my 5miler.  I ordered a small iced coffee with skim milk,

and got a free Boston Cream donut out of the deal.

Goal #1, check.

Goal #2 = massive fail.  Probably in part because I fueled for the gym with a freaking donut.  Probably also in part because my sleep schedule is that of a college student or a crazy person and I’m in fact a 25-year-old sane person.  I got to the gym, suited up, bought a Gatorade, then got on the treadmill and died.  I was too tired to physically make myself run in the proper form.  I couldnt’ even walk at a pace about 3.2 miles per hour.  It was ridiculous.

I’m so mad at myself!  I realized from the start that I might not be able to actually do the half (especially when my knee started hurting) but I didn’t realize that it would have anything to do with being lazy with my training plan.  What has my problem been the last few weeks?!  As I yelled at myself I did at least come to two realizations –

  1. I need to do better at the grocery store so that there aren’t so many mornings where there’s nothing healthy in the house for me to eat.  Even without sleep, my gym trip would have gone better if I was properly fueled.
  2. I have to get serious about sleeping like an adult.  When Adam’s working at the hospital our hours will be crazy and there’s nothing I can do about it, but right now I have control over the situation.  I don’t get out of work that late, if I came home and went to bed it’d be all good.  But instead I come home and get sucked into the computer/tv and am tired and frustrated all the next day; not good!

What’s a bad decision you’ve made lately?  What can you do to help yourself in the future?

Walk It Out

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend, readers!  The holiday doesn’t mean much to me (I didn’t even know tomorrow was Memorial Day until a few hours ago; I was so confused the last two days at work when my manager said we were ‘slower than usual because of the holiday weekend’) but I imagine it’s exciting to those of you with real jobs.

Since I hadn’t eaten since 3pm yesterday I made sure to fuel up with a big Granny Smith Apple and a packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter before we set out this morning.

It’s funny that the Justin’s website referenced the fact that most other choc-hazelnut spreads have more sugar than frosting, because the flavor and texture of this goodness totally made me think of frosting!

I ran yesterday on my off day and I felt pretty sore from work so I decided to do a long walk today.  Adam and I headed to Delaware Park for an hour of walking while I quizzed him on pharm. questions.  We walked ~ 2miles.

After a super quick shower I met up with my friend Katie for lunch and ended up walking another ~2miles in the process.  Our final destination was JP Bullfeathers for brunch.

I ordered two poached eggs, cooked dry.

Which came with  a side of fruit,

and rye toast (I ate 2 half slices).

Dipping thick toast into drippy egg yolks might be my favorite restaurant food sensation.  Poached eggs are the perfect dish in my eyes (dippy yolks but much healthier than fried eggs because not cooked with any sort of oil) but I can’t get them right at home so they are the perfect restaurant food for me.

Katie and I also split a side of sweet potato fries, which were sadly sort of awful.

Soggy fries aside, it was nice to get out and about and to see Katie.  I also grabbed a cup of coffee and a Lindt truffle for dessert.

This afternoon Adam and I decided to split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza.

I realize we eat this pizza a lot (it’s possible we fall into food ruts, Wegman’s hot bar much?!) but it’s something we both love.  Plus, at least we always split it!  However, it’s after 6pm and we’ve both determined that we’re really not hungry for dinner so perhaps we should have skipped it today!

We’re going to take another (short) walk and see how we feel about dinner when we get back.  Either way, I have a fun dessert recipe I plan on posting (and eating!) this evening.  See you then!

What is your favorite food to order while dining at restaurants?

It Got Away

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Hello, hello!  I swear that I didn’t skip my post/giveaway this morning because I was sulking; the day just got away from me!  First things first though, thank you so much to all of you who offered me advice in the last post.  I blog for me (and my mom and grandma!), but I also blog for you guys, and I always want to do my best.

I mentioned that the day got away from me, and if I’m honest, it started getting away from me last night.  When Adam got in bed at 10pm I so wanted to be the type of person who got in with him and got a good night sleep.  But that’s not who I am.  I’m the type of person that stays up until 2am watching Missing.  I’m also the type of person who eats the last banana split cupcake at 2am.

That’s just me.

I actually woke up raring to go this morning (probably nerves) but I ended up skipping my planned 4-miler anyways because my knee feels funky again.  I’m hoping to double up on cardio tomorrow to make up for the lost day, fingers crossed!

Today was my first training day at work and since I was going to be busy through lunch I knew I needed a big, hearty breakfast.

Yum and yum.

I sautéed a crumbled salmon patty with three tablespoons of spicy corn relish and when I started to get a good char I scrambled in two eggs and ~ 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

I’m in love with this dish.  I haven’t eaten the corn relish “raw” yet, but it is so darn good in eggs.

I also ate a 0% Fage with soursop.

Which, thankfully, pushed me to enough food to get me through the lunch rush.

— Insert 11 – 2:30 training at the newest restaurant on Elmwood. —

When I got home I had time to split this taffy candy with Adam,

before we had to head to his dentist appointment.  <– ironic, right?

I obviously didn’t have to go, but I’m co-dependent, so I ignored my growling belly and hopped in the car.  I brought a chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar,

but I had to split it with Adam because it’s too darn good not to share.  Tastes just like a Girl Scout Samosa, I swear!

Unfortunately, I let myself get waaaay too hungry and my food choices have gone a little downhill.  I got a good balance of veggies and protein in my Wegman’s hot bar,

but I shoveled it into my face the minute we got back to the car!

I also bought a pecan pie bar from the Co-op.

I can’t even tell you how much self-control it took not to eat this in the car too.

And now (as soon as I hit publish) I’m going to eat some popcorn.  Boo-yah.  Clearly I need a more effective way of dealing with lunches on work days.

Just for funsies; what are some of your favorite blogs to follow?

American As Apple Pie

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I know rationally that it’s summer, but the 50* lows this week have me all confused.

So confused, that I put fall on a plate for breakfast.

Or I guess you could blame this combo on the complete and utter lack of food in our house.

Let’s just call it patriotism.

Whatever the reason, I was definitely channeling apple pie with these waffles.

I topped a serving of Van’s Vitamin Boost Waffles with a thick slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese and stewed apple (a Macintosh apple microwaved with cinnamon, agave syrup, and a bit of water).

I highly considered throwing on a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream (or at least some ice cream frosting) but I managed to resist.

In awesome news, I may have found a summer job.  Since I don’t know my schedule yet I can’t make our meal plan, but I am going to head to the Co-op in a minute to pick up a few staples.  Mostly I just want to walk out my legs (knee especially, fingers crossed!) after last night’s 7-miler.  I’ve also got a stroll around the mall planned for after lunch.

to enter to win today’s (Applegate Farms $-off coupons) giveaway:

Tweet the following – “Go to http://eatingchalk.com before 6pm to enter @EmilyWax’s @ApplegateFarms giveaway.”

If you don’t have a Twitter account you may Facebook it, but leave a comment on this post to let me know that you’ve done so.