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.

0% Plain Oikos, a little bit of homemade key lime pie ice cream, blackberry sauce, and crumbled graham cracker.

I seriously fall more in love with the ice cream every time I taste it!

Breakfast lunch featured some favorites as well, hash browns and pizza eggs.

For the hash browns I chopped up a small handful of baby red potatoes then fried them in 1T Smart Balance with salt and paprika.

Tasty, but next time I’d let them cook longer and get those crunchy brown bits.

Pizza eggs are a favorite, and so simple! 2 eggs + 1oz extra sharp cheddar + 10 slices turkey pepperoni + 1/4 cup marinara sauce = taste perfection

Mmmn-mmm-mmmn!

What is your favorite way to eat potatoes? Mine is oven baked fries.

15Jul2010

Get On The Train

by Emily

No, not that train.

The gravy train! (which is a bit of a misnomer here as well, but just roll with it).

Actually, first I’ve got to go back to that sundae I talked about in the last post.

When I posted I had just sat down to eat my sundae, but I hadn’t really dug in yet. Oh-My-God! That thing was insane! I couldn’t decide what the best part was, everything was good, but together it was fantastical! Siggis yogurt is so thick that it’s basically firm, the key lime pie ice cream is the best thing I’ve ever made, and something about turning the blackberries into topping seemed to make them practically seedless. I think it was the combo of just a little sour, just a little sweet that pushed it over the edge for me. So here is your homework; you pick one but if you do all three you’ll give yourself an A++

Ignore the shockingly high, “what, I don’t have rent to pay?!?” price tag and buy yourself some Siggis yogurt.
Buy the reasonably priced (because it’s such an investment) Pie, Pie Pie: Easy Homemade Favorites, by John Phillip Carrol and make the blackberry topping that is supposed to go on the Blackberry Sour Cream Pie.
Get hitched so you can get an ice cream maker via registry, then make Rachael Ray’s recipe for Key Lime Pie Ice Cream.

Now that you have your homework, back to the gravy!

I told you I had a strange dinner in the works – an open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy. Very traditional and yet very unorthodox for our house. I topped a piece of beer bread with thick sliced turkey breast and provolone, put it into a 450* oven until the cheese was nice and melty, then topped the whole thing with fat free turkey gravy.

It was delicious but the flavor wasn’t quite what I was going for, I’m not sure what was missing. The husband loved it though.

We also had big plates of green bean fries on the side.

Other than okra, green beans are my favorite veggie to roast.

And some Dove dark chocolate for dessert.

What is the most “traditional” meal you’ve prepared lately?

P.S. I don’t know what kept this meal from being filling but Adam and I both got more to eat later on since we were both so flipping hungry!

9Jul2010

Sample

by Emily

It’s been a fun evening but I probably should have been in bed hours ago so I’ll try to keep this short 😉

When the husband got home this afternoon we took a much-need 1hour nap. Then we geared up to go to the gym. I realize today probably didn’t provide the best circumstances for a work out (lack of sleep, not a lot of food) but I’m finding that if I take even one day off from gyming it that one day turns into two, and three, and so forth. It’s like my lack of motivation snowballs. So for the next 30days or so – the amount of time it takes to form a habit – expect to see some sort of formal workout from me every day. Even if it’s just 10 minutes of stretching, hopefully making it “official” will keep me motivated.

Today’s workout was 30minutes on the elliptical. I set the machine to level 6 random, and did backward pedal/forward pedal intervals as well as several sprints.

I gave it my all and was so tired afterwards I had a hard time raising my arms to wash my hair in the shower! I think I managed to look pretty cute though, dontcha think?

The only thing I like more than ruffles is trying out new restaurants with the husband and that is precisely what tonight’s date entailed.

We’ve had SAMPLE on our radar ever since we wandered past it last month during the art festival. The concept is that you get to SAMPLE a lot of little tastes. It’s like tapas but the serving sizes are even smaller, single portion, no sharing.

The husband and I are a unit though (gag) so we managed to share a bit. Like the cheese plate we split –

Carmelized onion, goat cheese, and roasted pear butter pannini. Housemade ricotta cheese with fire roasted pineapple chutney. Aged provolone “fondue” with roasted tomato & basil pesto and baguette cubes. I ate about 1/3 of this; it was ok, but nothing exceptional.

Or the 2-for-1 rum drink special that prompted us to order strawberry mojitos –

The husband’s entrée consisted of little sandwiches and “lots” of meat –

Cuban sandwich, steak frites, beef on weck, and pulled pork.

I got one sample plate to taste, Fish and Chip –

Beer battered salt cod served on a crispy potato guafrette with napa cabbage cole slaw. The cole slaw was crazy good, but I was glad to only have a small bite of the fried fish.

I took the healthy route for my meal and choose something of the “Small Plate” menu instead of the “Sample” options. Beet salad –

Tender green salad with roasted beets, gorgonzola cheese, and beet vinaigrette topped with housemade candied walnuts. This was very good, but certainly not the best salad I’ve ever had. I prefer this combo with goat cheese.

For dessert we split the Sample Some More –

Housemade graham crackers, chocolate peanut butter cream, bruleed vanilla marshmallow with dark chocolate sauce, and peanut brittle, served with dark hot chocolate. This dish was a winner, you can’t go wrong with ‘smores!

In the end we agreed that we had a good time but probably wouldn’t go back (unless it was to sit at the bar and eat dessert). The concept was wonderful but the execution wasn’t quite there.

I knew Adam would still be hungry but in my effort to feed him I shared too much of my salad and ended up a bit hungry myself. We drove around for awhile and ended up grabbing a 4-piece chicken nugget kid’s meal at Wendy’s.

I know a lot of bloggers wouldn’t eat Wendy’s, period, but I was actually pretty proud of myself for this choice. My meal wasn’t quite big enough so I had hunger and not appetite (look at that nutrition vernacular!) and this was a reasonable little meal. We are going out of town again this weekend so our fridge is pretty bare and I can’t think of any fast food option that would be a better choice than a kid’s meal. I could have probably done without the fries but Wendy’s fries are sooo good – I like the extra squishy ones – and I did share some with the husband.

How do you get/stay motivated for your work outs? Any tips for me as I get back into shape?

8Jul2010

Long but Loving

by Emily

Hello again! I hope that everyone got over the week’s hump nicely. I’ll describe my situation succinctly: I will never put off my work for 4 days in a row again! It’s been a painful experience that I don’t want to soon repeat. The last 48hours have been stressful, but my eats have all been so good that there was no way I wasn’t posting them; hence the long recap post.

Wednesday morning I made a breakfast that was truly a thing of beauty –

A serving of Van’s Belgian Waffles topped with 2T maple syrup, the last of the strawberry sauce, fresh blueberries, and a cinnamon sprinkle.

Gah! I always used to think that I didn’t like waffles, pancakes, etc, but that was just because I didn’t know to top them off with fruit and cinnamon.

{study, study, study}

Lunch was some Allergaroo Spyglass Noodles.

These were super tasty, and just the right about of food.

I wanted to keep lunch light because it was Katie’s birthday last week and we had a cupcake date. It ended up being too hot for cupcakes, but locally made ice cream certainly fit the bill.

I got a small scoop of A Date at the Zoo, coconut ice cream with wine poached dates, brazil nuts, and chocolate chips. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds!

{study, study, study}

When hunger hit (hard) later in the afternoon I sliced up a big plate of cucumber to munch while I studied. Unphotograhed accountability note – I also ate ~ 1/3 of a salmon patty straight from the container.

The water-dense snack was a good choice, because when the husband got home at 6 we headed out for a run.

I didn’t wear my watch, so I have no idea what the times are, but it was a good workout. We did a mix of running and walking (with a few stops so I could fuss with my socks, eek I’m not sure if it’s the shoes or the socks but something with my new shoes isn’t working) and covered 3miles in total.

When you have good leftovers a healthy tasty dinner can literally be less than 2mintues away!

Over a bed of spring mix lettuce I combined 2/3cup microwaved frozen corn, a salmon patty, and a big scoop of medium chunky salsa.

The flavors of this salad went together so well! It filled me up but it tasted so good that I kept scraping at my plate so I wouldn’t lose any of it 🙂

{study, study, study} um, {study, study, study, study}

That’s right folks, I pulled an (almost)all-nighter! I stayed up until 4am doing the reading I should have done over the weekend. Ugh.

I fell into bed for 6hours or so and then got right back to my books. My messed up sleep schedule messed with my hunger in turn, and breakfast just didn’t sound good. I did nibble on a serving of Jammie Dodgers throughout the morning though.