Icing or Cake

by Emily

This post comes from back in Buffalo. We made it (mostly) in one piece. More on that later though.

I want to preface this post with recognition of the fact that the husband and I eat very differently than the rest of his family. Our preferences, nutrition goals, and food values are all very different. This means that when we are with his family I have to weigh being rude or being a bother with eating in a way that makes me feel happy and healthy. I try to satisfy myself in a healthy way and also not to offend anyone. I did my best to balance both of those goals this weekend.

When we went to the store Friday night my brother-in-law did warn me that I needed to buy breakfast so I was more than prepared for that. I got to try a couple of new things 😀 – – – Side note; walking through the yogurt aisle in his grocery store practically gave me an aneurism because I was so jealous of the immense Greek yogurt variety. – – – Like Fage 2% with blueberry.

I was so excited for this but I ended up being a bit disappointed. It wasn’t terrible, but the blueberries had a weird bitter taste. The strawberry Fage has such a great balance of sweetness and tang but it just didn’t work here.

I had much more success with Oat Revolution instant oats, cinnamon roll flavor.

The texture was way more complex that regular instant oats, definite upgrade!

Adam and I drove around with his brother helping to pick up things for the party but we also found time to play on the swing set with our niece.

Excuse the closed eyes, swinging as high as I could was glorious but sunny. We swung for an hour which ended up feeling like a bit of a workout. We also worked on handstands and cartwheels. Just throwing it out there – my fitness goal for the next 4months is to be able to do a proper handstand and cartwheel again.

Lunch.

I grabbed two small slices of pizza with ranch and a little serving of pasta salad.

Our niece had an iCarly birthday cake. I requested a tiny corner piece.

It ended up being mostly icing, which was exactly what I wanted!

Saturday evening the grandparents babysat and we went on a movie date with Adam’s brother and his wife. We saw The Expendables which was adequately funny. There are so many movies coming out that I’m excited about. I packed a Toffee Chocolate Power Bar as my movie snack.

When we got home I ate another two small slices of pizza for dinner but they somehow escaped the camera.

This morning I started my day with a Yoplait Plain Greek Yogurt with a grape honey stick.

Everyone was in a hurry to get on the road but we did make time to go to the in-laws’ favorite spot for breakfast. It was a buffet but sadly most of the options were meat based. I ended up putting together a pretty good plate.

Veggies, scrambled eggs, and a biscuit with honey. And a second plate full of fresh fruit.

Why, oh why was 90% of the fruit bar canned in heavy syrup? I would have loved peaches or strawberries.

I had one final coupon to use so we stopped at McDonalds at lunchtime. My coupon was for a premium salad so I got a Southwest Salad with grilled chicken.

I have a lot of issues with some of the offerings at McDonald’s so I wanted not to like this but I just can’t give this salad a bad review. Honestly? It was freaking amazing.

The lettuce was super fresh and the salad was loaded with black beans and roasted corn. The dressing came from Newman’s Own and even if you did slop a lot on there were only 100calories in the pack. The tortilla strips added crunch and the perfect amount of heat. I was pretty much in love! With grilled chicken (and the dressing packet) the salad came out to only 320calories, and it was very filling. Even though I loved it I was so full that I only could finish ¾ of it.

Now we’ve made it safely home and I’m headed off to the grocery store. That was supposed to be a Monday errand but instead I’ll be meeting the glass repair guys to deal with the giant crack that resulted when a rock kicked up by a truck (in the left lane like a jerk!) met our windshield. Here is a question dear readers – do you have glass coverage included in your auto insurance? Repair is going to be a hassle, but at least it’s free. I highly recommend you check out your policy. Fun fact – Adam was actually going to remove glass coverage from our policy on Friday, but while he was on the phone I told him not to. Thank goodness!

Which do you prefer, the icing or the cake? I’m an icing girl! To the chagrin of classroom mothers, when I was a kid I would like the tops off of cupcakes and throw the rest away!

13Aug2010

Fun Things on a Friday

by Emily

Fun thing # 1 was getting this package –

Soap.com is an online pharmacy/home supply store that lets you order vitamins, face soap, toilet paper and other household essentials. The site is easy to use, and perfect for city dwellers who don’t like to schlep everything via reusable bags. I won a $20 gift certificate and free shipping while at BlogHer. I decided to go a little bit functional, a little bit fun.

Fun thing # 2 is that it’s our niece’s birthday this weekend so we are heading to Ohio for some family time. I got my celebrate on by trying some new nail polish (also snagged at BlogHer).

What? It is a party for a 5-year old girl!

The not-so-fun thing is that our kitchen is currently swarming with fruit flies. My spider repellant actually works and now this?!?! I couldn’t handle my ewwwww-reflex so I quickly packed and fled to The Spot for brunch.

Chicken quesadilla; yum, yum, yum!

I swear I have yet to have a single sub par meal from the Spot, they are always “yum, yum, yum” worthy! The portions are pretty generous too, I ate half and packed the other half up for the husband mid-road trip.

Final fun fact? I’ll cop to the fact that I’m currently wearing jeggings!

Not something I would have bought for myself but my aunt, with two teenage daughters natch, always gets me birthday gifts that let me pretend I’m cooler than I actually am.

I’m taking my laptop with me to Ohio so hopefully I’ll have time for a couple quick posts. Have a great weekend!

Can you read during a road trip or do you get car sick?

6Aug2010

Five Words or Less

by Emily

In NYC, Yippie! But yawn….

Caffine to drive = skim latte.

Mike’s split with Camile, yum.

WW Foccacia, egg, cream/cheese.

BlogHer reception, vodka diet coke.

Big movie popcorn bites = dinner.

Dinner for Schmucks was hilarious!

Give me 5 words to describe your day.

3Aug2010

48hours of Fun

by Emily

Aaaargh! Two (FULL) days worth to recap? I actually debated not writing this post but I’ve blogged every single eat since my 25th birthday and I’d like to keep that streak going. I’m keeping this one pretty dry though.

-~-Sunday-~- We did lots of sharing so my photos are more of a basic representation than a spot on accurate one.

We started with breakfast from Pano’s.

I ordered the Artichoke Omlette, which came with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, and a a touch of basil pesto. I also requested that they add broccoli and only use half cheese, pepperjack, i.e. there is cheese on the top but not the middle.

With some hasbrowns,

and a slice of sourdough.

Delicious, but I couldn’t come close to finishing; we packed up the second half for the husband.

By the way – our leftover situation this week was ridiculous, at one point our fridge had 8 to-go boxes in it!!!

We spent a looooong time at a nearby outlet mall, which was tiring but amazing. At some point I ate this baggie of dried fruit (kiwi, apricot, hibiscus).

And we had to at least get appetizers at Cozumel’s.

Complimentary chips and salsa,

Maryland Blue Crab and Avocado Handrolls.

I love how Cozumel’s has healthified Mexican food; the rolls were not fried, contained no creaminess or cheese, were stuffed with sprouts, and were totally tasty.

My plate –

Dinner ended up being a bit of a fiasco, everything closes on Sunday here! We drove around for hours looking for a place and the husband’s new phone came in totally handy. In the end we headed to Jack Astor’s, which was the perfect choice.

We shared lobster and crab dip as an appetizer.

For my meal I ordered the chicken fajitas, which came with cheese, sour cream, onions and peppers, lettuce, salsa, and smokey bbq sauce.

I never order fajitas but assembling my own meal was totally fun. I ate two fajitas and then packed the rest up to add to our to-go boxes.

-~-Monday-~- We had to get up super early to take my parents to the airport (boo!) so Adam and I stopped at a bagel place on the way home and got a tomato pesto bagel with salmon shmear to share.

We also split the leftovers of my omlet from Sunday.

It was actually a pretty great breakfast.

I was starving (all day, it was insanely annoying) so I also finished off the rest of my chicken fingers from the other night.

The husband headed to work and I passed out. I didn’t wake up until around 1 and then I spent the rest of the day sneezing. It was out of control, I sneezed at least 50times yesterday! I don’t know what allergy flared up but I felt like death warmed over and even had to skip a friend’s birthday party last night because I couldn’t control all the snot running down my face (gross, sorry!)!

Mid sneezes and tissues I did find time to eat a bunch of crap. Strawberry yogurt bar from Lindt.

This came from the outlet store and rocked my socks. It was a single serving (love) and was creamy, and tangy, and crunchy, and perfect.

A piece of whatever this is –

my parents brought it; sort of tastes like a dried crepe with sesame seeds?

An entire bag of chips!

A small piece of banana bread with Smart Balance Light.

Dinner was at least healthy (and epic).

I topped a small bed of lightly dressed spinach with roasted yellow beets,

purple tomatoes,

crumbled goat cheese,

and candied pecans.

OMG!

The combo was out of this world, yellow beets are 10x better than regular ones.

Oh, and I also had a bowl of SmartPop kettle corn.

-~-Today-~- I’m not sure what the day holds. I have a terrible case of grumpies for some reason. I have a dinner I’m excited about cooking and a trip to the gym is definitely in order because I haven’t worked out in 2 days. We shall see….

48hour recap = 4 reader questions

Have you ever tried beets? Yellow beets?
What is your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
What is your favorite flavor of Lindt truffle?
Are you attending BlogHer this weekend?

1Aug2010

Blazing a Trail Through Buffalo

by Emily

How is everyone’s weekend going? It’s been another amazing but packed day around here 🙂 It’s a late night and tomorrow’s an early morning, so I’ll try to keep this snappy. That’s not to say I won’t take a moment to brag about some of the final birthday swag….

Like another bear for the window sill.

Or a shower-time bear!

And our snazzy new doormat.

Ok, ok, I’m done!

Yesterday, since Adam met up with us from work, we ended up leaving a car at my parents hotel. That meant that this morning Adam and I could run over to the hotel to meet my parents, then take the car to drive us all to breakfast; it was the perfect plan!

I covered the 1.8miles in ~20minutes. It was great to run twice in a row, but I’m taking tomorrow off to give my calves a chance to unclench 😉

We did breakfast at the Spot so I ordered a grande skim iced latte,

and a maple pecan scone.

The scone was delicious but pretty filling so I ate half and gave the rest to the husband.

Once everyone got showered we headed out for a full Buffalo day. We walked along Elmwood, and got some great veggies at the Farmer’s Market.

We drove up to a park on the lakefront.

We ooohed and awwwed at the Falls.

In the middle of all the sight-seeing we had to make a stop at Delish to get my parents some locally made ice cream. I went a slightly different route –

YUM! That’s a yellow cupcake with passionfruit icing.

The icing was practically juicy, I was swooning!

Sometime in the afternoon I also pulled out an Amazing Grass Green Superfood Bar.

I actually didn’t mind the “green” taste as much as I thought I would, the nuts totally helped to make it enjoyable. Nonetheless, I could still only handle half of it!

We dropped my parents off to shower before dinner and when we got back to the house I realized I was starving. Except that starving was an understatement, I was basically drunk with hunger! The poor husband managed to scrounge up a piece of sourdough pizza foccacia bread for me.

We went to dinner at J.P. Bullfeathers and my dad ordered the fruit and cheese plate, asap, before I tried to gnaw off my own arm!

Here’s my plate –

The smoked gouda – swoon, again – calmed me down but I was still hungry enough that I had a hard time focusing on the menu.

Obviously, since I ended up with Jack Daniels chicken fingers!

They weren’t bad, but it was a strange order for me. I ate two pieces of chicken and shared the rest. The fries were demolished however, when I have blue cheese sauce for dipping I lose all control!

We walked around a bit and then headed back to the marina to check out part of the Garden Walk. We caught someone else enjoying dinner.

That bunny was going to town on the flowers, so cute!

In addition to the exciting exploration, we ended the night with a trip to Wegmans so I could do next week’s grocery shopping. I know that sounds like a strange stop but since my parents live outside the continental US it was actually pretty exciting for them!

Bed.Time!

What was the highlight of your Saturday?

22Jul2010

Pros and Cons

by Emily

Today was the day of my final exam. My big, important, time-sensitive final exam. First my computer went all wonky and I had to run a complete security check. Next our internet inexplicably required me to use our password, and thus spend an hour digging through all of our packed boxes. Finally, after 10minutes of blissful functionality, POOF, the internet wasn’t working.

Wah, wah, wah!

Those are my “wtf?!” faces. And yes, I did dress like a watermelon to cheer myself up.

It wasn’t all bad though. I walked the .62miles to The Spot, bought a diet cola to gain access to their wifi, and then rocked my final. I’m pretty sure I aced it! I also got to get a Mike’s Bagel Sandwich for breakfast.

Gooey gorgeous.

And I’m going to get something decadent from Starbucks for my .62mile walk home (birthday week!). Now that I’m done with school the rest of the day involves baking cookies and doing lots and lots of packing. I’m hoping the husband will work his boy magic on the internet when he gets home but otherwise I’m not sure when I’ll post next.

I’ve gotten a few questions about the move – which is just across town – so I figured I’ll leave you with the pros and cons of our spot-to-be. You’ll notice one list is much shorter 😀

cons –

the whole apartment, while still a 2bedroom, is a bit smaller than our current place
the kitchen is tiny; like laughably tiny – we had to purchase shelving just to have a place to put our plates

pros –

the apartment managers don’t seem like evil, irresponsible morons who will let dirty dish water leak through our ceiling for two days in a row (ahem, Clover Management)
we live one block away from Elmwood Ave, the “cool” spot in Buffalo with all the bars and restaurants
it’s an 8minute walk from our front door to my campus, I’ll never have to drive again
the walls are a calming blue green color
there is exposed brick in the kitchen and living room = love!
we have a fireplace and a mantel
it’s a fresh start!

Where do you live? An apartment, a condo, a house, a houseboat, your parents’ basement?

21Jul2010

Greens, Beans, and Time Machines

by Emily

I am officially caught up with school and ready to take my final exam tomorrow 🙂 I’ve definitely disliked being blog-neglectful, I can’t wait to get back into a schedule after the move is over. For now, even though I love you it’s got to be another quickie (TWSS!).

Breakfast/lunch were sort of spread out in three courses throughout the morning and afternoon. I managed to get enough to eat, but consume in shifts that allowed me to study. #1 A big bowl of fresh watermelon chunks.

#2 A serving of Barbara’s Shredded Oats topped with Silk Almond Milk and blueberries.

By the by, I hear a lot of people talking about binging on cereal and if you are one of those folks I highly recommend this stuff. It is not very tasty dry from the box but fantasmic with some Silk Almond Milk.

#3 A long overdue green monster; 1frozen banana, 1cup frozen spinach, 1cup calcium + vitamin d oj.

When Adam got home this evening we played hookey from moving and instead took a long walk. Our long walk was supposed to be an hour or so, to the ice cream store and back. Instead we fell into a pointless fight and spent hours huffing and crying (who me? I’m not stressed about moving!). Don’t pointless fights just feel like you accidentally fell into some sort of time machine? It’s like you can’t even believe how late it is when it’s over. We did make it to the ice cream store eventually, but they were closed. So instead we split a slice of melty pizza to hold us over for late dinner.

The husband had chicken to use up and I made myself a Mexican bowl of sorts.

Into the skillet went 2tsp evoo, chopped shallot, a small chopped potato, half of a chopped green pepper, black beans, 1egg and 2egg whites, 2T shredded cheddar, salt and tons of paprika.

I also had some green bean fries on the side.

It is late late late, Futurama–> bed –> goodnight!

Do you ever have pointless fights with your SO or do you bottle up your emotions and save them for times that actually count?

P.S. I also enjoyed a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lara Bar, yum!

16Jul2010

Culinary Confusion

by Emily

I ate a sundae for breakfast and breakfast for lunch, how’s that for traditional? Really though, it doesn’t matter how “normal” a meal is, as long as it is healthy and tasty. And breakfast and lunch both were!

My sundae bowl yesterday was so wonderful that I had to do a repeat.