Tag Archives: cheese

Jalapeno Popper Burgers; Booyah!

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Remember when Adam and I went on an epic, fruitless quest for jalapeno poppers?  Yeah, f*** that.  I may not be able to get poppers as long as I live in Buffalo, but I can make something even better at home – Jalapeno Popper Turkey Burgers.  Click on the dish name for the epic recipe.

Turkey, cream cheese, panko, and jalapenos are pretty fantasmic all on their own, but adding sharp cheddar to the mixture took it over the top.

The husband and I were swooning the entire dinner.  And the recipe (with cheese!) has less than 500calories.  We rounded out the meal with some roasted asparagus.

Fabulous.

Do you prefer jalapeno poppers with cheddar or cream cheese?  Cream cheese all the way baby!  You actually can find the cheddar variety in Buffalo but I turned up my nose.

When in Random

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I’ve been all over the map today so this post is going to seem a little random.  I didn’t get much any schoolwork done but I did have a lot of fun – lunch at the Co-op with Katie, hanging out with the husband, and a trip with a group of friends to the Buffalo Wing Festival.  It’s sort of essential that I get a good night’s sleep and rock out my work tomorrow so I’ll keep this quick.  Bare minimum description in 3, 2, 1…

This small banana chocolate bar was 33cents at the grocery store.

It was super light and tasted like airy banana cream pie.

Co-op hot bar lunch (for reference, this was the small box, about the size of a novel).

Buffalo-style tempeh,

cashew noodles,

a stuffed grape leaf,

and some pasta with delicious homemade ricotta and marinara.

I also bought the best Hello Dolly (7-layer bar) I’ve ever freaking tasted!

The wing festival was super crowded and really poorly organized (boo) but we had a good time hanging out with the other couples at least.  I only got to sample a few wings, Hawaiian, smoked, and Guinness bbq.

You can assume I ate about half of that; when it gets to close to the bone I get squeamish and Adam finishes them for me.

Crackers with smoked gouda spread, split with the husband.

Yogurt mix bowl – Vanilla 0% Siggi, a chopped peach, cinnamon chips, and tons of cinnamon.

For dinner we cooked up some pizza.

Tandoor Chef caught wind of how obsessed I am with their Pad Thai and graciously sent me some Naan Pizza samples.  I was more than happy to do a review, I think Tandoor Chef products are amazing!  A lot of their offerings are vegan, it is by far the most authentic “ethnic” food I can get in Buffalo, and everything tastes so fresh you have to check the box to remember that it was frozen!  Tonight we tried the Margherita Naan Pizza,

and the Cilantro Pesto Naan Pizza.

Check out the nutritional stats –

Reasonable amount of sodium and saturated fat for a good dose of protein.  I think that a full pizza (as opposed to a half) is a more realistic serving size though.  That makes it a little calorie-dense, but since the ingredient list is just “real” food it’s ok.

Adam and I each tried half of each flavor (he ate some of my crusts though).

Even though our crazy oven caused us to burn them we were still big fans.  The tomatoes on the Margherita tasted fresh and juicy and the cilantro pesto had a great spice kick to it.

I’m getting in bed now, but I’ll probably play Word Feud with Adam for a bit before sleeping.  Good night!

What’s your take on hot wings?

Disaster Dinner

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Ugh.  I’m feeling very much like a Whiney Wendy right now so I’ll keep this short and snippy sweet.

I’m not giving the recipe up yet, but basically I’ve been excited about tonight’s dinner for almost a week … except we didn’t eat dinner 😦  The husband got stuck at the lab until 9 and we had to push back our plans.  Instead I did some super random (carby) snacking.  And I don’t even have a photograph of everything, so this is going to be a really boring post.

1. A hamburger bun with 1T Smart Balance, microwaved for 30seconds.  I don’t know why the bun/butter/microwave combo gets me so excited but it really does.  So excited that I shoved the whole thing in my mouth before I remembered my camera.  Here’s a cute clip art instead –

2. I will never buy full-sized ice creams again.  I currently have 5 different flavors (of minis) in my fridge and their mere existence is rocking my socks.  This was a Friendly’s Sundae to Go.

Nugat flavored ice cream topped with chocolate (and it was dark chocolate) and caramel?  Oh God yes!

3. Healthy(ish) take on jalapeno nachos.  5 Spice Melba Snacks with shredded sharp cheddar microwaved on top.

I know that plate looks like a cheese monster hopped itself into a deep fryer but I really did measure out a serving of cheese!  Except that the measuring was less meaningful when I measured out another serving and had a second plate! 😉

4. Strawberry Hi-Chews.

Well then, I’m glad I ate a veggie heavy lunch!

What is your favorite type of shredded cheese?  I’m sharp cheddar, extra sharp when I can find it.

**Updated to add – 5) Popcorn.

Gourmand on the Go

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I left the house more than 20 hours ago, good golly it’s been a full day!  Another clue that things were busy – 1o0% of my food was eaten on the go today.  I would say I’m definitely mastering the art of eating healthy on the fly.

This morning’s breakfast contained some pretty snazzy components –

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a chocolate Oikos, 3 dried figs, 1/4 cup of homemade granola, and a plucot.  Things got less fancy in a hurry when I had to load those guys into a to-go cup –

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Still delicious though.

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I didn’t have time to finish before my first class started so I had to throw out some of my stellar combo, but breakfast on the go is a work in progress.

Lunch was identical to the other day; Whole Grain Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese wedge, and three slices of turkey.

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I hate to be repetitive but I see many more of this exact sandwich in my future; it’s just so good!  I thought I was going to hate the Arnold’s Sandwich Thins (I got them as a free sample from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program), but they are actually exquisitely doughy.  They remind me a lot of when I was a kid and a I would mush a piece of bread up into a single, delicious square.

I did mix up my side though, a sliced cuc.

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Classes were pretty intense; I finally attended my last nutrition lecture and it’s going to be a lot of work.  I’m taking 7 courses this semester (several are 1-credit labs) and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed.  As soon as classes were done today I curled up with my planner, binder, and a computer to map out my assignments for the semester.  Todoist was key.

I was stuck at school until 5pm (rain) so I ended up searching the food court for sustenance.  Thank goodness I gave it another chance, I found a build your own salad place.

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Romaine base, 2 servings of roasted veggies, green bell peppers, carrots, red onions, and blue cheese crumbles with a bit of balsamic.  It came topped with a tasty breadstick.

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We were only home a minute or two before we headed back out.  Our dinner plans were Korean night with a group of friends.

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Gleesh our friends are good cooks!  My bowl was sticky rice with carrots, cucumbers, kim chi, garlic paste, nori, and an egg.

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Yum!

Korean night eventually turned into boys’ only poker, and I sat on the couch catching up with the girls until after midnight.

Adam insisted on pizza on the way home (guess which one of use was drinking instead of driving?!) and I wanted to take part in the fun so I had him cut a slice in half for me.

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Tasty bbq chicken pizza, without undoing my day’s worth of healthiness.  I mostly wanted a taste anyways.

It’s another busy day tomorrow, Bedtime, Bedtime, Bedtime!

Have you ever tried Korean food?  What’s your favorite dish?

Second Day Snowballs

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There is a reason why health professionals advice against skipping meals.  I didn’t actually chose to go dinnerless last night, it was more a necessity of circumstances, but I paid the price all the same.  That unhealthy act snowballed into a whole day of poor nutrition.

I was starving when I woke up, but Tuesday is my 8am class day and there just wasn’t time for breakfast.  I packed a Cookie Dough Balance Bar instead.

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I have class from 8am – 7:30pm (with some big breaks) most Tuesdays and I wanted to stay on campus to study.  I packed myself a healthy lunch.

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I spread a wedge of Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle on a Whole Grain Thin Bun and topped it with three slices of turkey.

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On the side I had a baggie of green bell pepper slices and baby carrots.

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And a small dark chocolate for dessert.

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And that held me over for a good minute and a half.  I sought out sustenance in the food court and came back with, this –

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Yeah.  Clearly if I want to eat healthfully on campus I’ll have to pack my own snacks from home.  I ate 90% and felt like crap, but that was at least less distracting than gnawing hunger.

My evening class snack was also unhealthy, but that was by choice.

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Who could say no to caramel apple frozen coffee?  That’s just unAmerican.

Adam made himself a respectable dinner, but I had yet another coupon that was about to expire so I picked up a Moe’s kids’ meal.

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I’m going to try to turn in early; that’ll be the healthiest thing I’ve done all day!

Weekend Ends

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Pretty much my only accomplishment today was eating so much junk that I put myself in a food coma.  Good thing I’m not officially a dietetics student until tomorrow, huh?

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Speaking of school, sorry for the quick post but the dork in me just can’t resist setting up my binders and getting to bed early!

What was the tastiest thing you ate this weekend?

*Updated to add – The husband just offered to make me eggs and (turkey)bacon; guess I’m staying up a little longer 😀

It Was a Day Relano

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***Disclaimer – between crappy lighting, cheap camera, and no photography skills, I could not get a usable picture of dinner.  But where I lack in artistic prowess I achieve in kitchen creativity; this recipe is a taste winner!  So please ignore the lack of photographs and go ahead and try it anyways.

On the agenda for dinner tonight were Stuffed Poblano Peppers.  I’ve had, and loved, chile relanos at restaurants before and I’ve always wanted to recreate them at home.  I didn’t really look at or follow any recipes for inspiration but I did have a couple of goals in mind –

  • make the recipe healthier by baking the peppers instead of frying them
  • achieve a filling that is creamy and cheesy without being over the top

Here are the steps I took for 4 servings (measurements all approximate, eyeball things for your tastes) –

  1. Preheat your oven to 400*.  Prepare a baking sheet with foil and cooking spray.
  2. Heat 1T evoo in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Add 1lb 99% lean ground turkey to the pan.  Cook through, stirring often and using a wooden spatula to break the meat into little pieces.
  4. When the meat is almost cooked, stir in a drained 14.5oz can of crushed tomatoes (we used onion and garlic flavored).
  5. When the turkey is cooked through and combined with the tomatoes reduce the heat to low.
  6. Stir in 5 wedges of Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese.
  7. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1/2cup shredded sharp cheddar.
  8. Allow the filling to cool.  Meanwhile, chop the tops off of 8 small-medium poblano peppers; be sure to remove all of the seeds (that’s where the peppers’ heat lies).
  9. Use a spoon to stuff filling into peppers.  If you have extra filling it would be delicious in Mexican-style Sloppy Joses.
  10. Lay the peppers on the prepared baking sheet, at least 1inch apart.
  11. Bake for 25-30minutes, until the peppers’ skin appears to wrinkle and blister.

Name that movie –

“She’s making her famous stuffed chile relanos!”

“Relanos means stuffed.”

Disappointing Dinner

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I really try not to be too much of a Debbie Downer on the blog, but I don’t have many positive things to say tonight so I’ll keep this quick.  The husband and I got really jazzed about having a fancy date and it basically was a bust.  (Although that’s not to say that we didn’t have a good time being together :D)

I read about Groupon on Meghann’s blog recently and was excited to join.  Today’s deal was a $40 gift certificate for $20 at a spot we’ve been wanting to try, The Wine Thief.  I’ve been telling people about how I wanted to try their lobster for months so we decided to snatch the deal up.

It’s been a hectic (and stressful!) time lately so we were really excited about a fancy dinner date together.

We decided that I would order the lobster and Adam would order the scallops and we’d do some sharing.  Before I show you the food I want to show you an actual shot of the entrée menu –

Here was Adam’s dish.

A portion of scallops with a side of rice topped with chutney.  (Sidenote – Adam hated his scallops but the rice/chutney was pretty darn tasty)

Now here’s my dish –

Go back up and read that menu.  Here, I’ll even give you a shot of the two meal descriptions, from their menu.

I was not served lobster with a side of risotto, as the menu implies, but risotto with lobster mixed in.  Now that is either the most poorly designed menu on earth, or the description of my entrée is meant to deceive the consumer.  If the dish is “Lobster Risotto,” why does the menu read “Australian Lobster: risotto…?” 

Sadly, the lack of class I think the menu shows is almost besides the point because the risotto had 4 measly pieces of meat in it and was not even a properly done risotto.  *Steam*  Major fail, Wine Thief, major fail 😦

Adam hated his scallops – I thought they were actually pretty good, I ate 2.5 – so he only ate his rice and I ate a few bites of my mush and we both left hungry.  Our dinner date ended up being pizza from Wegmans.

Ugh.

What do you think – was the menu misleading or are Adam and I idiots?