Tag Archives: cheese

Breakfast, Preview, Lucky YOU

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An Early Breakfast

I am so not prepared for today’s exam that breakfast felt more like ‘last meal,’ but it’s a long day and I want to be well-fueled.  I don’t tend to eat much cereal but it is quick and tasty fuel.

1 serving of Barbara’s Vanilla Almond Shredded Oats and 1/2 serving Special K Red Berries with a chopped plum (with plain Silk Almond Milk).

A Lunch Preview

After my exam I’ve got two meetings that will keep me on campus until at least 2:30, so I thought I’d show you my eats early rather than late.

Today’s lunch is a milder form of yesterday’s Monte Cristo.

Arnold’s WW Sandwich Thin, topped with Crofter’s Strawberry Spread, and 1.5oz Cabot 50% Reduced White Cheddar.

I am so jazzed about my sandwich combo that apparently it put me in a jam mood, because I also packed a 2% Fage with Strawberry.

Finally, a serving of Terra Exotic Harvest Sea Salt Chips.

I’m not gonna lie, I gobbled up at least a serving of these chips while I packed my lunch.  I should not have accepted this free sample because as soon as this bag runs out I’m going to blow my whole budget buying more!

This new variety has carrots, blue potatoes, and kabocha squash.  All the Terra chips are extra thick in a way that is so fabulous, and this bag is the perfect variety of salty yet sweet.  They let the veggies’ flavors shine through, but you definitely feel like you are eating chips.  I’m in love….

Lucky for You

….which is good news for you, because I’m doing a giveaway!

Terra heard my raving about the Blues variety and offered to let me share the love with my readers (you guys!).  5 lucky winners will receive a coupon for $$-off a bag of heaven Terra Chips.  To enter –

  1. Leave a comment on this post before noon on Friday (11/12).
  2. For a 2nd entry, link back to this post from your blog and leave another comment letting me know you’ve done so.
  3. For a 3rd entry, link back to this post from Twitter and leave a comment letting me know you’ve done so.

And, just to be nice, you could wish me luck on my test today!  😉

Monte Cristo Monday Creation

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Sorry for going all MIA this weekend, my internet/computer was being slow and I just couldn’t bear it!  I did not get enough school work done, but I did manage to have a lot of (non-tech)fun –

And I infused some fun into this Monday morning in the form of flavored coffee.

Normally I eschew all this Christmas until December 1st, but Gingerbread and Eggnog coffees in November just felt right.  I had a few cups of gingerbread this morning, with lots of skim milk and a little sugar.

Most of my morning was spent study-study-studying.  I have a HUGE test tomorrow!  I did take time to make an exciting breakfast/lunch though.  I was inspired by the Nature’s Pride bread sample I received through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

We decided to try Honey Wheat first (review of Oatmeal is pending).

As soon as I got the bread I knew what I wanted to make – a recreation of the French Toast Monte Cristo I got in Boston a few years ago.

Crisp but chewy, eggy and cheesy, savory and sweet; I’ve been long overdue in having this again.

I spread two slices of Nature’s Pride Honey Wheat with Crofter’s Strawberry Spread,

added 2oz of Cabots 50% reduced fat white cheddar and a few slices of turkey,

dipped in a beaten Eggland’s Best egg, and pan-fried in 1Tbsp Smart Balance Light.

Oh my gosh.

Chewy.  Crisp.  Eggy.  Cheesy.  Savory yet sweet.  Perfection.

This sandwich (if you use the low-fat varieties I used) has ~500calories, perfect for 2-meals-in-1 brunch.  And if I made any changes it would honestly be to healthy this up – there was almost a little too much cheesiness and fried goldenness going on.

I also had a cucumber with ranch dip.

The study-study-study is going to be most of my day, but we do having something super nerdy fun on the agenda for this evening…..

Have you tried any sandwiches french toasted?

This Post Was Technically Born in ’09

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Yikes, I can’t believe this morning started 18hours ago!  Registration went ok, I got into all fo the classes that I had to have.  Right now I’m registered for 19 credits (2 classes more than the normal load), but I’ll probably drop a class once I get things figured out.

It was supposed to snow today (still hasn’t yet, knock on wood!) and I was wearing my Mary Poppins outfit so I had the husband drive me to school this morning.

That kind of cute is so worth it!

I got breakfast from the food court while I studied for my test, a toasted everything bagel with honey walnut cream cheese.

Love that savory/sweet combo!

The test went well, not a 100% but I’ll be surprised if I don’t have an A.  Afterwards I had to meet up with my group to work on the poster for our presentation.  When Orgo rolled around at 1:00 we still weren’t done, ugh.  I snacked on this amazing combo from home while we worked.

1 serving of dried hibiscus and 2 servings of Sahale Snacks Sing Buri Cashews.

Not gonna lie, my afternoon snack was much much less impressive…

The dip was disgusting and got tossed, but I demolished the bag of chips 😉  This was supposed to be my bribe to study in the evening, but then a whole UPS debacle happened and this ended up being just a really unhealthy snack!

Dinner was one of those fabulous ‘I told you blog reading isn’t a waste of time, husband’ gems.

I’ve been reading Kath’s blog since 2008(!!) and I actually bookmarked this recipe way back in February of 2009!  Tofu Quiche.  You won’t believe it but my version was actually less cheesy than the original –

For the most part I followed Kath’s lead, but we did make a few minor changes,

  • increased to a pint of mushrooms
  • increased to 4 (packed) cups of baby spinach
  • cut back to 2cups of (2% Sharp Cheddar) cheese
  • subbed in 1/8 tsp each nutmeg and garlic powder for oregano
  • pulsed several times to chop up the veggies rather than leaving them whole
  • skipped the crust entirely

Our version was delicious!

We hurried and cut before it set, but the flavors were spot on.

The extra cheese wasn’t missed and I actually wished we had added more veggies.  Adam was totally in love with this too.

After a very long, very fruitless drive to UPS we came home and caught up on tv.  …..after a trip the Wegman’s candy bulk bins.

Jumbo malted milk balls?  Yes please!

Do you try out recipes from food blogs?  Any major successes?  (Or failures!?)

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.

Mexican x Dos

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A few things need to be said to preface this post –

  1. Today was carbtastic!
  2. You are not seeing double; my lunch and dinner pretty much were identical.  In retrospect, I think I was just so excited about dinner that my fried brian jumped the gun at lunch.
  3. I just finished taking a midterm and I have tests in Anatomy and Orgo on Friday.
  4. I promise this blog will stop sucking (or will at least suck less) when said tests are finished.

Breakfast (1), Cliff Spooky ‘Smores Z-Bar.

This was my first time with this flavor and I thought it was pretty great.  The flavor was marshmellow-y without being too sweet.  Not very filling though, which leads to (2) – a cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

I also bought an iced tea.  The vat of coconut cocoa iced tea had been tempting me for days so I finally caved.

Whoops! Where do I think I am, Brooklyn?!  Of course this was pre-sweetened!  Sometimes I forget that BSC is the mecca of all things unhealthy, and also making things that should be healthy into things that are unhealthy.  You guys know that I love all foods sugar laden, but tea is one of the few things that I think should not be sweet.  I took a sip and then dumped it in the trash.

Something that should be sweet is candy!  Like candy corn.

During the 2hour anatomy review session I also snacked on this cucumber.

I went straight from class, to class, to a review session and by the time I was heading home at 1 I figured I should just buy lunch on the way so I could focus on my midterm.  Enter nachos.

I stopped at a ‘fresh fast food’ Mexican place that we don’t usually frequent on the way home and I figured I should try an old favorite.  I was pretty impressed – these were cheesey without being too cheesey (ahem, the jalapeno nachos from my year on the couch!), and packed with beans.  I felt healthy(ish!) rather than sick after eating them.

Special K Red Berries with skim milk.

Picture a small vegan pecan pumpkin blondie here too; I couldn’t take a photo because I ate it during my timed online midterm.

Dinner came courtesy of Foodbuzz, as well as my recent crock pot obsession.  Let me explain.  As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program I was sent a sample of this Pace Picante Sauce.

We’ve been loving stewed chicken in the crock pot lately, so why not salsa stewed chicken?!  Soooo simple – 1lb of chicken in the crock pot, a jar of salsa dumped on top, 8hours on low, shred with 2 forks.  Note – the spice level (for a medium) in this sauce is perfect, and I like the level of chunkiness.  Two thumbs up.

Easy peasy, and in a few more short steps we had a fabulous dinner.

Oven roasted butternut squash and broccoli,

sautéed chopped green peppers and onions,

shredded sharp cheddar,

salsa stewed chicken,

dollop of Daisy store-brand reduced fat sour cream.

Fabulous.  Made even more fabulous when finished with the addition of Terra Blues Chips.

Fabulous x 10.

What’s your go-to order for American-Mexican food?  Burritos, enchilladas, or do nachos feed your soul?

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?

Alternative Night

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It’s been a strange sort of day ’round these parts.  Very glad it’s almost Friday!

Things started off quite well, with a shockingly good bowl of oats for breakfast.

Cooked: 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1/3 cup each skim milk and water, 1 medium banana, ~1/3 cup canned pumpkin, and a pinch of salt.

Topped: 1 Tbsp each chunky peanut butter and butterscotch chips.

This was ah-MAZE-ing!  I don’t know if it’s the stove top cooking, the banana, the extended cooking time, or what, but my recent attempts at oatmeal have been my best yet.

The texture of this bowl reminded me of tapioca pudding (creamy with bits of chew) and the banana turned into banana clouds of awesomeness.

Awesome as it was, I could not finish this bowl.  Even with only 1/3 of a cup of oats, the banana, and the pumpkin, plus the decadent toppings were just too much.  I ended up leaving a couple of bites behind.

You can be sure I picked all of the banana clouds out first though 😀

And from breakfast things went downhill…..  My Anatomy quiz went ok, and lab was no more frustrating than usual, but halfway through class I was unbelievably nauseous.  I felt like I was going to throw up and I was light-headed and queasy.  The sick feeling continued all throughout the day, at one point in my food lab I actually had to go sit down.

I’m not sure what exactly caused it, because I’m feeling ok now.  Too much sugar for breakfast?  Hunger?  Residual effects from my flu shot?

Call my crazy, but in spite of my quease-factor I pushed through between classes and made a visit to the gym.  What?!  I went to school dressed in gym clothes and I wasn’t about to “waste” a day without a cute outfit!  I did 30 (difficult) minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.  Those 30minutes were the best I felt all day!

I did feel significantly worse once the gym-high wore off though.  Extra bad news for me, a group in food lab made cheesecake today and I was too sick to eat it 😦  I did have to take a few bites of my group’s experiments, but nothing photoworthy – 3 bites of grilled cheese with different processed cheeses and small bites of puddings made from a mix and whole/2%/1%/skim milk.

I dragged myself home after lab and parked myself on the couch.  Sidenote – I have a deeply ingrained habit of rocking myself back and forth when I’m sick I and it drives the husband crazy!  Around 5, when he was fully ready to throttle me, I redeemed myself by pulling out a coupon for this –

ColdStone has debuted fall flavors!  I got a “small” cup of cookie batter and caramel apple ice cream (swoon!) with some caramel Ghirardelli mixed in.

I know it sounds insane but I felt so much better after I ate this!  I think my nausea at that point was just hunger.

Revived, I decided to do an “alternative” sandwich for tonight’s dinner.

The Wafflewich!

I used a serving of Van’s Berry Boost Waffles as my base, and sandwiched chicken salad (stewed chicken from Tuesday, mayo, pickle relish), a slice of melty Colby cheese, and a drizzle of maple syrup in between.

The waffles got a bit mushy when I microwaved them to melt the cheese, but other than that this was delicious.

Tomorrow?  The final night of Sandwich Week, a ton of school work to make up in the early morning, and some vegetables!

What “alternative” sandwiches have you created?