Tag Archives: cheese

Surprising Satisfactions

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I was surprised and satisfied when I woke up at 6am this morning to register for summer school and I got into all of the classes I need.  Whoopie!!!  My exams at UB end May 6th and then here is my class schedule for this summer –

  • Sociology 100 – MTWRF 10:30-12:40, June 1st – June 26th
  • Anatomy Physiology – MWF 3:00-4:50, June 1st – July 17th
  • Introductory Nutrition – Online, June 28th – July 21st

It’s going to be a really challenging summer but I’m so excited to get started.  I just hope I’m as lucky with registration for fall classes next week.

I was surprisingly satisfied by how tasty my in-the-car-breakfast was.  A huge hunk of coconut banana bread,

and a Greek Gods Fig Greek Yogurt.

Greek Gods is my very favorite yogurt brand.  The texture and flavor is the absolute best in Greek yogurt and the packaging is adorable.

I ate in the car because I headed to school with Adam this morning.  My production level at home is abysmal and I have work that has to get done today.  While I was taking a computer break I was surprised and satisfied to see that I earned a 94% on the last Anthropology exam, go me!

Walking around campus I was surprised and satisfied to see all the signs of Spring in spite of the especially cold April weather.

I hung out in the campus library from 8-12 and then when Adam got out of class we headed over to The Spot and continued the study session there.  I was satisfied but surprised by my Mikes (egg and cheese) Bagel Sandwich.

Tasty and filling but I’m not sure it why it looked like such a hot mess.

The plan for the evening is a dinner that’s quick and easy (just like your boyfriend! ba doom ching!) and cuddle on the couch tv time.  With a big scoop of excitement mixed in – we are getting dessert from Dolci!  I’ve had my eye on it all year and we are finally trying it out.

What were you surprised and/or satisfied by today?

Summer Goals

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Another excited yet lame blog post from Eatventures?  Nah, you’ve got to be kidding me!  And I’m not going to lie to my readers and say “it’ll be better soon.”  Because it won’t.  I’ve got finals folks, and now it’s time for me to learn all of the material I’ve been ignoring the last month!  But I do promise to keep posting at least daily (because people would totally die without reading about my lunch?!?!), and to work on stepping it up this summer.  In fact, I’ve got all sorts of goals for this summer –

  • start running again (slowly and carefully!) once my leg fully heals
  • get into a daily exercise schedule before I start full-time school
  • post more regularly on the blog
  • purchase a domain name and go all official (fingers crossed)
  • rock out my summer school classes
  • find a new, better apartment and move into it
  • turn 25!

This morning’s goal was to tackle some issues with my financial aid.  I was trapped on the phone all morning so I ended up eating a bun spread with a little bit of Smart Balance Light.

And that candy bar was decimated.

When I was finally free I made a real breakfast.

Plain non-fat yogurt topped with honey and a sliced plum.  This guy was a little too sour but I am so excited about plum season; they are my favorite fruit yogurt topper.

Unfortunately I ate so late that I wasn’t hungry for lunch.  And even more unfortunately I failed to plan ahead.  So lunch was most of this trail mix eaten during Anthropology.

I ate ~500calories worth, so it certainly covered lunch, but not in any sort of healthy way.  Plus I ended up feeling totally ill.  Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Bellyache be damned though, I wasn’t passing up an on-campus opportunity; bubble teas are few and far between in Buffalo.

Strawberry milk tea with bobba.  It was way too sweet but I was kind of in love with it anyways.

Classes are done, whoopie!  Now I just have to huge finals before I’m through with UB.  (Dear God, that was not supposed to rhyme)

Dinner was leftovers, with a twist.

I didn’t want to use another bun so I ate my sloppy joe mix in a bowl, topped with 2% colby jack, Siracha, low fat sour cream, and the last of the homemade pineapple salsa.

This mix of flavors was so darn good!

That glass of sludge is plain non-fat Kefir with cinnamon-sugar swirled in.

I’m posting so late because Adam and I went on a Buffy binge, but also because I did some baking.

Coconut Banana Bread.  I followed this recipe but skipped the glaze.  Make this, make this, make this!  The flavor profile is spot on.  I might have had a slice or three.

Bed time?  Bed time!

What are some of your goals for this summer?

Down in Lunch Lady Land

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Why yes, I am posting at midnight.  Is it possible my sleep schedule needs a wee bit of work?  Perhaps I should grow up a bit and learn to not watch Buffy the husband all night prioritize?  I will keep this quick though.  Like super quick.

We had lab check out today, I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar during final exam review.  (18words, speed it up, Emily!)

Good God I love those bars!  Did not really dent my hunger though.  And my plan was to swim afterward but I didn’t so I ended up stuck at campus waiting for Adam.  I did a 40minute swim on Monday and my ears have been hurting, better safe than sorry so I’m not swimming again ’till this weekend.

While I waited I did hit up Starbucks.

Tall, non-fat, iced, cinnamon-dolce latte.  I literally had to tell the barista that I was aware that “my drink has too many adjectives!”  I almost was starved into an item from the display case but I was too excited about my planned lunch.

I decided to bring back taco salads.  This guy had a lettuce base with black beans, crushed blue tortilla chips, 2% colby jack, low fat sour cream, and homemade pineapple salsa.

Do that not just sound/look like the best salad ever?

Well it WAS NOT.  Holy yuck!  The lettuce was so bitter that I seriously gagged on it.  I did my best to pick off the toppings but I ended up having to throw most of it away.

Not surprisingly, I was still hungry, so I popped a frozen mac and cheese into the microwave.

Much better.

Whilst hanging out this afternoon I snacked on too much some of this Divine candy bar.

It had crunchy, but yet still juicy, pieces of dried strawberry all throughout, so yum!

Dinner looked like this –

I used a Cooking Light recipe for Almost Meatless Sloppy Joes.

The sauce was more Joe’s cousin James than full on, but still very tasty.  I used ground turkey meat, of course.

And for our side I did a quick saute of chopped okra, frozen turnip greens, and chopped turkey bacon.

Dinner was good, but Adam and I were mostly excited for dessert.

What’s that?  Oh, not much, just a toasted marshmallow milkshake!

The recipe comes from Rachael Ray Magazine, and yes it was amazing.  I did sub in reduced fat varieties though.

It is undeniably bedtime.  Sweet dreams!

What’s your favorite Adam Sandler song?  When his stuff was popular my parents wouldn’t let me buy the cds, which was ironic because I owned several Jerky Boys cds!

Sunday, Study Sunday

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It’s almost Monday, I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Today started off with some glitching, but ended up being quite productive (and fun!).  Continuing with my oh-so-healthy late night habits [insert sarcasm here] I’m going to work on some homework after posting so I’ve got to keep this quick.

And I’ll use my quickness excuse [see above] to not have to explain why breakfast looked like this –

I’d been excited about key lime since this month’s custard calendar first came out, but sadly it was a bust.  No tang at all, it basically tasted like vanilla which I hate.  I ate less than 1/3 of it.

I was disappointed about my ice-cream and my few bites fully kick-started my hunger the result of which, sadly, was a bit of a temper tantrum when we got home [blush] 😦  Thankfully the sweetest man on earth, aka my husband, saved the day by suggesting we go out to lunch before heading to our study session.

Pearl Street + lunch =

– sun =

2nd time’s the charm!

We decided to split lunch which worked out perfectly (although we ate off a communal plate so I don’t have photos of my portions; you can assume I ate roughly half).  We had our own drinks though, the husband can consume a beer and still study but my light-weight tendencies meant I guzzled iced tea instead.

To start we got a bowl of the Gouda Soup.

Holy yum!  It was a blend of smoked Gouda and the house made Lighthouse Ale.  I pretty much adore soups with booze in them.

As well as the fish fry.

I could tell it was well done but this pretty much confirmed my idea that I don’t like fried things that are not french fries.  The fries, however, got doused with malt vinegar and rocked my socks.

After lunch we spent the rest of the day (3pm-10pm) studying at The Spot.  I got a ton done for Tuesday’s Anthropology exam (basically all the stuff I should have been doing the past 3weeks).  At one point in the afternoon I ordered a medium iced coffee with skim milk and amaretto syrup.

And for dinner I went with the pizza bagel.

Yummy, and the perfect studying “carrot.”  Cut into 8ths and eaten at 5page intervals this meal lasted more than 1.5hours.

During our one (extended) study break the husband and I actually had a long talk about factory farming / welfare / American food production / corn / etc.  The end consensus is that we’ve been shopping based on $ since moving to Buffalo and we are going to make a much bigger effort for now on to only purchase sustainably and morally farmed meat and dairy products.

Now we are home, and I’m munching on the last of the fresh pineapple.

I’m planning on staying up to work on this homework assignment so I’m not sure what tomorrow’s deal will be.  I hope everyone else gets to bed early in preparation for another work week!

What guides your meat and dairy purchases?  Nutrition, money, morals, other, or some combination of the above?

Taming the Beast

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Sorry for the late post, I had 8am lab and my day ended up galloping off from there!  I was hoping my extreme hunger was a yesterday thing, but it ended up following me into today as well; I felt like I was trying to tame the beast!

We had a hard quiz this morning (the first of the semester I don’t think I got a 100% on, boo) so I started my day with some brain food in the form of a green monster.

1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup calcium/vitamin d oj + 1 frozen banana = tasty, healthy perfection!  I’m glad I experimented for the husband’s sake, but you just cannot improve on this recipe.

Normally GMs leave me satisfied until lunch, but today the beast was howling by the time I finished with lab around 11:30.  I knew I wasn’t going to make it at the gym without food so I fueled up at the mini cafe next to my class.

A cup of fruit salad and some Silk Soy Chocolate Milk.

Ready to go; I’ve got to give the snack a little credit for the fact that I had another great swim work out.  As promised – because I love you guys! – here’s a picture of me in all my dorky glory in my swim cap:

Actually, a lady walked by right as I took this picture so I had to explain to her why I was taking photographs in the ladies’ locker room.  She ended up giving me some great swimming tips and encouragement.  Although I’m still a little jealous of Meghann’s locker room social scene.

In the pool I did 32 laps (75ft each) in 28minutes.  The husband walked into the pool area in time for my last loop so I tried to haul ass; I could feel my heart pounding by the time I was done! 

We had to run some errands on the way home and Adam decided we were going to lunch.  He didn’t consult me and I had pool water dripping down my back but I’m still not complaining!  You’ll never guess the location he chose 😀

Yes, we went back to Cozumel again; yes, I did major damage to the chips.

I told you the menu is expansive, I tried yet another new item!  Veggie Chimis –

Nachos aside, I never order stuff like this and I quickly remembered why.  Unless we are talking  french fries I don’t like things that are fried, give me roasted or raw any day!  Thankfully it wasn’t all that greasy and the cheese was fairly under control.  Plus it was stuffed with mushrooms, zucchini, and summer squash.

I didn’t even taste my rice, who would want more carbs as a side with this?

My hunger was only temporarily quelled though, and a few hours later I was ready for more.  The husband I continued our fancy-free attitude and took a walk to Sweet Tooth.

I went with a small ice-cream which beyond hit the spot.

Cookies and cream with raspberry white chocolate swirl.  Holy yum!

I’m sure you’re shocked that I was still hungry for dinner a few hours later 😉  On the menu was this recipe for Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa.  Two thumbs up!  If nothing else, I highly recommend making the salsa.

Here’s my plate:

I had a small piece of chicken,

with a side of roasted veggies drizzled in leftover glaze.

The glaze was awesome but I still could only choke down half of my veggies; I just did not like these!  The husband thought they tasted off too, we ended up throwing the rest of them out.

I was a little too fancy-free with the husband today and I’ve got a TON of work to do by the end of the week so I’ve got to run.

Do you like fried food?  How often do you eat it?  Other than nachos and french fries, yum, I genuinely don’t enjoy fried foods.  Although I do like typically fried foods if they’ve been baked (i.e. chicken nuggets).

Snacks McGee

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I was so excited by my salad combination, and it looked so tasty, but the moment I began eating I started feeling gaggy.  Does this ever happen to you?  Vegetables comprise most of my favorite foods list – roasted brussels sprouts, baby carrots – but sometimes they really don’t appeal to me.  I started feeling nauseous and sick to my stomach and I ended up eating less than half of my lunch.

I was extra glad I pre-packed a class snack!  I was still feeling stomach-rumbly once I got to campus but I was also hit by extreme-hunger-light-headedness.  I opened up my Cool Mint Chocolate Cliff Bar once class started,

and I slammed down my serving of TJ’s Gummi Tummies just a few minutes later.

I was still so hungry after class that I ended up buying a slice of pizza before Chemistry.

It was so nice to have a reprise from today’s near constant hunger!  I was deep into Chemistry studying from class to 9:45pm so I needed all my focus on my books.

I did manage to break away from equations long enough to throw together a pretty darn tasty dinner.

I made myself egg salad with the last of the Easter eggs.  I didn’t really measure anything, but I mashed 2 hard-boiled eggs with a little bit of  mayo and mustard and a lot of pickle relish.

With two thin slices of fresh ciabatta bread.

We generally are impressed with everything about Wegmans but trying items from their bakery has just given us more to love!  This was wonderfully chewy.

A while later I made a pretty bangin’ snack plate.

3 Melba crackers dipped in dark chocolate and pistachios

,

with most of a Minneola.

This combination of flavors was fantastic, I loved the flavors of citrus mixed with chocolate.  Perfect study fuel.

I’ve got a quiz tomorrow at 8am (my breakfast/lunch post will probably be pretty late tomorrow) so I’ve got to get off to bed.  See ya on the flipside!

Here is the recipe Old London and Melba Snacks provided me with –

Chocolate Pistachio Crunch, yields 40

  • 4cups semi sweet dark chocolate chips
  • 1box Melba Snacks Sea Salt
  • 1cup pistachios, chopped and toasted
  1. Stir chocolate in a large bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water until melted and smooth making sure that water does not touch the bowl and that the chocolate does not get too hot.
  2. Remove from over water.
  3. Dip into melted chocolate to cover half of the Melba Snack.
  4. Gently shake off excess chocolate.
  5. Place on a baking sheet and quickly sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
  6. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, about 35minutes.

Nightmares and Dream Recipes

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Let me get my whining out of the way so I can get on to the good stuff:  my leg hurts / I’m not getting my to-dos done and I’m going to fall behind in school / I felt exhausted and awful all day.

I actually did get into bed before 10pm last night, a first of its kind achievement for me.  However, then I had another first – a nightmare!  I used to have night-terrors when I was really young, but this was my first ever bad dream that I could remember.  Basically, I went to the fertility doctor and found out I couldn’t have babies with the husband.  I was telling my dream-mom how helpless I felt when I woke up in the middle of the night in tears!  I don’t even know where in my psyche this came from, the husband and I don’t have babies on our radar (I’m not even taking folic acid yet!).

The good stuff –

Today’s outfit sort of thrills me –

Stripes, high-waist, and pockets; oh my!

Understated but green bowl aside, breakfast was pretty thrilling as well.

I topped the last of the Fage (~1/2cup) with 1 cup (frozen, defrosted) berries and 3 heaping spoonfuls of lemon curd.

My, oh my this was good 😀

My busy sit/stare agenda filled up all my lunch making time, and I ended up grabbing a mango mix1 to go.

I ended up not loving the flavor and giving half of it to Adam.  To quell my rumbling tummy I ended up buying a Slim Fast Cookie Dough Bar.

It was tasty, but I have about a trillion bars in my cabinet at home; I need to make carrying one in my purse a habit.

Later during my second class I snacked on some yummy dried fruit.

Kiwis and hibiscus, my favorites.

When we got home the husband whipped up some deviled eggs.

He was super generous (deviled eggs are pretty much his favorite) and let me share one.

I also did some unphotographed nibbling while I cooked dinner.  Which was fricking fabulous by the way.

Green Tuna Enchiladas (click here for the recipe link), serves 4.

  • 1 T evoo
  • 1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 10 oz cans tuna
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup green tomatillo salsa
  • 8 small corn tortillas
  • 3T half and half
  • 3/4 cup shredded taco cheese (montery jack would work well too)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350*.  Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat.
  2. Add onion and peppers to oil and brown, about 7 minutes.
  3. Add tuna and 1/2 cup salsa to veggies and cook 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat.
  4. Spoon 2 T filling into each tortilla and place into a 8x11inch casserole, seam-side down.* **
  5. In a separate bowl, stir together last cup of salsa with half and half.  Spoon mixture over enchiladas.
  6. Sprinkle cheese evenly over casserole and bake 20minutes.

* Too keep tortillas from cracking and breaking, it is helpful to cover them with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30seconds.

** If you have extra filling it would go deliciously stuffed into a pita sandwich

I paired my serving with a batch of kale chips,

for a tasty, tasty dinner.

Speaking of tasty things –

I wanted to let you guys know that my recipes for Italian Style Gumbo and Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta have also been posted (click the names for recipe links).  Seriously, those two dishes were the best things I’ve ever made!  Please, please get the recipes and try them yourselves, they are dreams come true.

I’ve got lots of lab work due tomorrow so I’m going to make like a banana and split.

Do you ever make up your own recipes or do you tend to do things by the book?  A lot of my creations are ideas from magazines that I’ve seriously altered; usually made healthier and/or spicier.

Something Fishy

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I don’t think it’s just a Monday thing, there is definitely something fishy going on with my head-space.  I’ve been falling asleep more easily, but waking up multiple times a night, often just before my alarm goes off (often causing me to reset the alarm to a later time).  I’ve been totally distracted – my to-do list was practically untouched today – and getting out of bed feels like waking the dead.  I felt like I was peeling myself up at the late hour of 9:30 this morning.

My late wake up hour couldn’t interfere with my trip to the volunteer services office at the hospital though.  I ended up throwing jeans and a jacket over my nightgown!

I’m probably the classiest class-less person you know 😉

I wanted to speak to the volunteer office in person because I had to tell them I still won’t be volunteering until after May 7th.  I can only get to volunteering via a longish walk, and I’m pretty much useless there unless I’m running things up and down the stairs.  I felt badly, especially because I’m probably done with volunteering once summer school starts, but my leg was killing me on the walk there which helped me know it was a good decision.

On the way home I stopped into the gas station for a coffee.

I went with my usual half/half method – equal parts vanilla creme (unsweetened) and English toffee cappuccino (sweetened).

I want to say the caffeine gave me the study boost I needed, but it was more like I stared at my Chem book without moving for 1.5hours, grrrrr!  I did make an inspired sort of lunch.

I topped a everything bagel thin with 1 microwaved egg and a slice of buffalo wing cheese.

And I burnt some kale chips for a side.

Tasty, and I did manage to take some notes while I ate.

I need some advice.  This is my new $19 one piece from Old Navy –

Nevermind the fact that I clearly have been eating too many nachos, please tell me this suit doesn’t look completely ridiculous in a sport-swim capacity??  I’m planning on heading to the South Campus gym pool this Wednesday to make like a fish.

I had to pick up some stuff – dry cleaning and the husband! – but I ate another egg for some pre-workout protein.  This time hard boiled.

Today’s workout was less ‘exotic,’ by exciting in its own rite.  I slooooowly hiked up the gym stairs so that I could have a stretch/strength workout using actual equipment.  The gym was packed and I hurt my leg on the stairs, so we ended up working out for about 15minutes, but it was a nice idea!

After our “work out” we did take a walk.  Our tax refund came today and we were pretty pleased, so we took a trip to the bank and for some celebratory ice-cream.  I waited all winter to try out Sweet Tooth.

It was adorable, they had awesome looking cookies, and even had serving sizes that were ACTUAL serving sizes; we’ll be back!  I got a “baby” cup of cannoli ice-cream.

Delish.  It was marscapone flavored ice-cream with chocolate chips and pieces of cannoli dough.  I’ve never actually eaten a cannoli (I know, I know!) but I loved this.

Post-shower (and another intense staring off into space session, wtf?!?), we threw together an Easy Peasy dinner.

  1. I boiled 7oz dry rotini pasta according to the box directions.  In the last 3minutes of cook time I stirred in 7oz frozen artichoke hearts and 1cup frozen peas into the pot.  Then I drained the pasta/veggies and returned them to the pot.
  2. Meanwhile, I sautéed 1 chopped onion over medium heat.  When the onion was browned I added 2T butter,2T  flour, and 2T half and half to the pan.  I stirred and gave the mixture time to thicken.
  3. Finally I poured my onions and sauce into the pot with the veggies and pasta, along with10 oz boneless skinless canned salmon, and stirred to combine.

It doesn’t look like much, but for how simple it was this dish was tasty and healthy.  (Note – this recipe makes 4 servings)

As soon as my teeth are brushed I’m going to curl up in bed with a magazine and hopefully fall asleep pretty quickly.  I do not have time in tomorrow’s agenda for sitting/staring.  Sweet dreams.

Have you ever had a cannoli?  What’d you think?