Tag Archives: cheese

Prep = Snap

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Since I started to prepare ingredients yesterday making breakfast this morning was a snap.  All I needed was a pan and 4 eggs.

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For two servings I used (approx) 2C kale, 2t evoo, 2oz extra sharp cheddar.  Look at those yummy greens.

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Lunch was less than stellar in the greens department for the second day in a row.

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Who could pass up buffalo chicken pizza?  The vouchers we get wouldn’t cover pizza and a salad and I’d rather not spend my own money at the hospital.

Volunteering went well again, although I wish I had more to do.  I’m there 6hours a day and they don’t go by very quickly!

When I got home I made the afternoon snack of artificially flavored champions.

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Diet cherry flavored colas are my favorite kind of soda.  I bought the candy – Kazoozles, which were like Twizzlers filled with goo and made by Wonka – at the gas station yesterday because pink lemonade totally caught my eye.

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Tonight is Adam’s semi-formal.  I’m not planning on taking pictures – tonight is his night, it’s not the appropriate time to explain about the blog – but I will do a full recap.  I will definitely take pictures of my new dress though.  See you when I get home from the ball!

What do you do to ensure a healthy breakfast?

pasTa

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I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love!  If I could run off with a smoothie without hurting Adam’s feelings I would, but more on that later…

Our errands went ok, we have to go back to the post office tomorrow but we dropped off our donations at Goodwill and got the things we needed at Target.  I also got majorly suckered into some candy –

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York Patties used to be my favorite candies and an ad in a magazine at Adam’s doctor’s office totally got me craving one – way to go former communication majors!  I also ate some of the husband’s mini truffles (x3).

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For dinner we made AnTEAoxidant Pasta (my name, recipe courtesy of an old Self magazine).  So good!

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I had my portion with a big glass of iced h2o.

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AnTEAoxident Pasta, serves 4  (I made some changes to the recipe, mostly to make it lower fat and to accommodate our lame pantry, so I’m posting the changed recipe below)

  • 6 green tea bags
  • 2.5C dry ww penne
  • 2C chopped broccoli
  • 2C chopped kale leaves
  • 1 14.5oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 3/4C fat free ricotta
  • 4t evoo
  • 1T balsamic vinegar
  • 1T chopped garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste

>Bring 6C of water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add tea bags; turn off heat and let steep for 5minutes.  Discard tea bags and bring back to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to package directions.  Add in broccoli and kale in the last three minutes of cooking.

>Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, ricotta, oil, vinegar and garlic; mix well.  Drain pasta and cooked vegetables; add to bowl and toss well.

It was good, but nothing on this Earth is as good as this smoothie –

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  • 1small banana
  • 1C Goya frozen soursop pulp
  • 3/4C So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk

Holy frick it is good! 

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Soursop is so good, it is my favorite childhood taste memory.  Legend has it that soursop makes you sleepy which is the idea tonight.  We are watching more “My So-Called Life” and then I am trying to get to bed by 10.

What is your favorite childhood taste memory?  Mine is soursop juice and baked macaroni and cheese from the old grocery store back home.  When I went out shopping with my parents around lunch time my dad would buy it for me and I would eat it with my fingers in the car!

New Things

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In a major change from our apartment in Brooklyn where it was stiflingly hot, I overslept this morning because I couldn’t sleep last night because I was too cold!  I will never complain about lower temperatures though, I can always add layers, in Brooklyn I would have had to peel off my skin!

In spite of my late start I’ve managed to get most of my to-do’s for the day completed.  We did a little bit more apartment organizing (almost done!) this morning and then I ate a juicy black plum before we headed out.

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We drove up to the North Campus of UB, my campus, today to get our id cards and it accounts.  The campus is a 20minute drive away which means I will have to be careful to schedule my commute around rush hours.  My class is all at night anyway though.  We needed money for the meter so we stopped at the campus Starbucks and I got an unsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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On the way home we stopped by the public library.  I can get a card yet because I have no mail addressed to me (you have to show proof of residency) but I am super excited to go back, it was HUGE!  They even had a Mark Twain room 🙂

Now that we are home I’ve been doing all my school/business things on the computer and eating a late snacky lunch.  First we cut into this bad boy (my hand is there to show the size) –

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This was a Crenshaw Melon.  I couldn’t really tell the difference taste/texturewise between this an a cantaloupe but it was fun to try something new.

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Ours was a little too ripe so I ended up throwing out part of my last slice, I think we will have to use the other half for smoothies.

Next I ate a low-fat cheese stick.

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And finally this –

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This beauty was

  • Stoneyfield YoKids Banilla low fat yogurt
  • 2t fat free ricotta
  • 1small banana
  • sprinkle of cinnamon

It was so tasty it even looked enticing when stirred to mush.

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In a bit we are going for a run (the same route as yesterday to see if maybe it doesn’t conquer me this time!) and then the plan for tonight is a low key dinner.  Lates!

What new fruits or veggies have YOU tried this summer?

Cold and Not So Hot

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My volunteering meeting went well – I completed orientation and once my TB test gets cleared on Friday I will be ready to start.  I am trying to get in as many hours as possible before school starts so I will be going pretty much full-time for the next three weeks – Monday through Thursday from 8am to 4pm.

After volunteering I came home and met up with the husband for more local exploration.  We drove out to Erie and walked around the waterfront a little bit.

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We spotted a cute ice-cream stand and I bought a lemon ice.

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I ate about half before handing it off to Adam.

We did more house-fixing when we got home and then headed out for our first Buffalo run!  I ate a Stoneyfield YoKids Banilla yogurt to refuel first.

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We did 2miles around the neighborhood in 20minutes.  I am painfully out of shape, I can’t wait until 2miles don’t kick my butt any more!  I kept my heart rate monitor on through 10minutes of floor work (stretching, 100 abs reps, and 50 arms reps with my 5lb weights) and all total I burnt 344 calories.

When we were done we cooked our first Buffalo dinner!  We made cold avocado soup and sandwiches.

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We used our George Foreman to make the grilled cheese sandwiches, I used 2 slices of reduced fat colby-jack on mine.

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And the soup was a Rachael Ray magazine recipe which I will include for those of you who enjoy cold soup, but it didn’t really float our boats.

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No-Cook Avocado Bisque, serves 4

  • 2 large avocados (we ended up accidentally buying “Slimcados” which have 35% less fat and calories but tasted the same)
  • 2C buttermilk
  • 4 scallions, green and white parts sliced separately
  • grated peel and juice of one lime
  • 16 ice cubes
  • salt
  • 1lb tomatoes, coursely chopped (we used three plum tomatoes)
  1. Put 1 avocado, buttermilk, scallion whites, lime peel and 3/4 of lime juice in the blender.  Blend on low speed and then blend in ice cubes one by one until smooth.
  2. Meanwhile coarsely chop the remaining avocado and then combine with tomatoes, scallion greens, and the rest of the lime juice.
  3. Divide soup among 4 bowls and top with with guac.

We were excited to have leftovers for lunch but after tasting it we are less excited!  I ate about half of my bowl (but my grilled cheese was great!).

Now I’ve got to go because we are watching old episodes of “My So Called Life” that we Netflixed, night!

Do you like cold soup?  I had some kind of cold fruit soup a few years ago that I loved but now I’m not sure if I enjoy it.

Lunch Break

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I’m making pretty good progress on my to-dos.  After the post office I got to Starbucks at 10:30 and studied until 12:30.  I drank a Grande Iced Americano with bit of skim milk while I worked.

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I decided to split my study session into two because I got distracted by a phone call from my mommy and my coffee was making me pretty jittery.

We decided that lunch out should be forgone in favor of using fridge food because we are packing our kitchen/dishes up tomorrow and that will be the end of that.  I managed to make a pretty exciting meal at home though.

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This spicetastic sandwich is –

  • 2 slices toasted white (cheap) bread
  • 2 TJ’s Spicy Jalopeno Chicken Sausages
  • 1slice provolone cheese
  • smidge Stonewall Kitchen Hot Pepper Peach Preserves

This was hands down the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten!  I think it was the hot pepper peach, which I adore.  On the side I had a chocolate Amazing Grass packet with skim milk.

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I need to get back to business – I have some things to do online and then I’m heading to Starbucks for another 2 hours of studying.  Adam is meeting me around 6 for some fun this evening though!

What is your opinion on spice?  I say the more the better!  I don’t like the chemical taste of Chinese hot sauce but beyond that bring it on.  Jalopenos, chillis, red pepper flakes, buffalo sauce, are all good in my book.

Back to the City

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After a final car trip this morning, we are home again!  I’m excited to be back (I was actually a little bit homesick this weekend), but that doesn’t mean I’m not super excited to head to St. Thomas on Weds 🙂

This morning we headed out the door bright and early (8am) and made our way back to NYC.  I brought a 0% Oikos Vanilla to eat in the car,

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and supplemented it with oj and an Amazing Grass packet.

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I liked this berry flavor a lot more than I did the plain one.  I found it a little too sweet, but apparently not too sweet to keep me from eating one of the hubby’s maple candies during the ride.

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Once we made it home sweet home we got right down to business – we had to sign/mail our lease for the Buffalo apartment (yippee!), pick up some 2day essentials at the store, and get an insurance check for our car.  FYI – Adam’s parents are amazing and bought us a car our senior year in college (no car was not an option because I had to drive to my internship so they totally saved my butt).  They have driven it for the past two years while we lived in the city but now we have a car again, which is pretty exciting.

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I ate 1.5slices of cheese before we took the car,

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and taking the car took us to 15th street so we took the opportunity to go to our favorite Thai place, Watana.  I got the lunch special, which was pretty exciting.

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My meal was Pad See Eiw chicken.

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It came with a side salad,

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soup,

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and a veggie spring roll.

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Everything was delicious, this lunch totally rocked my socks.  I loved all of the different veggies and the smaller portion of noodles was great because I have zero self-control when it comes to broad rice noodles.  I actually did take about 1/4 of the meal to go, but I attacked it within the next two hours.

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Before we drove home we did dessert Expansion style, by hitting up Union Market for cake samples.

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I had a killer headache all afternoon so I lazed around the house room and enjoyed the comfort of my own couch.  Reruns of Bones kept me pretty happy, as did my yummy snacks.

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3 strawberry chocolates,

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and a marzipan pig.  I also ate about 10, unphotographed, pieces of saltwater taffy.

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After that I made a strange sounding but great tasting bowl – 0% Plain Fage, tons of blueberries, a few pine nuts, and a smidge of maple syrup.

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The mix of flavors and textures in this was perfect.

Plus some protein plus pretzels from Newman’s Own Organics.

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These were hands down the best pretzels I’ve ever had, they had a great salty almost sour flavor.  I ate about 2x what was pictured.

Later in the evening I ate a small bowl of granola for “dinner.”

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Then I was (finally) productive again by writing my thank yous.  We made the mail drop off trip a stroll, ending at Starbucks for a nonfat iced half pump white chocolate mocha.

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P.S. I was making serious eyes at the husband’s dinner during this post and while I was blogging he darted out of the house and brought me back this –

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yums.  I almost never drink sugar soda but I adore dipping my pizza crusts and coke coke (rather than diet) is just a little more special for that classy activity.

Vacation Reflections

  • especially for the lack of good choices available, I did a pretty good job of getting in fruits and greens
  • packing a few of my own snacks helped me a lot (hello Amazing Grass packets)
  • when I get frustrated my food choices go downhill – I did pretty well at breakfast and lunches but after a day of dodging unhealthy choices I get frustrated and end up eating a bunch of crap.  I’d be better off having a few smaller indulgences throughout the day than, for example, eating chicken fingers with fries and mac and cheese for dinner
  • the above point is especially important when I am feeling bored in the evening
  • even when I can’t fit in a full workout (like my Saturday run, with hills, go me!) I would be better off squeezing in 2 or 3 minutes here and there

I have another trip coming up, right before my 24th birthday, so I will have to keep these reflections in mind; it’s a learning curve here!

Fun Hap’s in Bloggerland

  1. Mr. and Mrs. Hangry are giving away some MojoMix.
  2. Eat Live Run is helping us uncultured drinkers to figure out wine.
  3. An Apple a Day has 2 fun giveaways, Sahale/Ooba and Crofter’s spread.

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer

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Hi there folks!  Was anyone else feeling lazy in the heat today?  I just couldn’t seem to get going, ever!  In my defense, originally, my alarm clock didn’t go off so I got a late start.  I pushed myself out the door and headed to Starbucks for a study session.

I did breakfast there since I felt bad bringing in my own food, a low fat spinach feta wrap,

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and a small Naked Green Machine juice.

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All together:

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Way to go Starbucks, I couldn’t believe how good this was!  I will certainly be going back to order this wrap again, it had great flavor and chew.  Plus I hit every food group and got a tasty meal for just 410 calories.

My study efforts were not as successful.  The table next to me (after intense eavesdropping I think it was a girl and her landlord who was also her boss) had the longest, loudest conversation!  But even after they left I couldn’t focus.  I ended up working from 10:30 – 12:00, staring into space for another half an hour, and then calling it quits.  I came how to veg out and was very happy about it 🙂

Plus I had a great lunch.

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I’ll be honest though, I started with dessert.

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After my row of Riter Sport I had roasted yellow squash,

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roasted cauliflower, and

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carrot salad (the recipe is posted here).

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Also a serving of Asiago cheese.

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I spent some serious time enjoying Bones, and I enjoyed a few too many of these salt water taffies my parents brought us from Hilton Head (they went to a wedding before visiting us) too.

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I’d like to say it stopped there, but I ended up eating a bunch of other random crap throughout the afternoon.  First I stole some of A’s chicken nuggets,

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yes they are dino shaped, and yes he is 23.  And then I ate 1/4C of peanuts.

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Finally I realized I wasn’t getting full so I made myself stop and just wait for dinner.  I think part of the problem was boredom and part was being tired.

Dinner was easy peasy:  quinoa, topped with canned seasoned mustard greens, and baked tofu.  Plus a sprinkle of goat cheese.

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The tofu I drained, pressed, thinly sliced, rubbed with rice vinegar, rubbed with maple syrup, sprinkled with jerk seasoning, and cooked at 475 for 20minutes.

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I made another cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and no sugar added CIB (this time in vanilla) to drink with dinner.

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I got a very very exciting package in the mail the other day (can you guess what it is?) and I refuse to open it until my CIB is gone.

Husband and I are planning on going out for dessert later but I’ll post about that in the morning.  This summer is not going to be successful until I start following a bedtime!  Peace.

Don’t forget about my Flogg giveaway!  It ends tomorrow at noon and you can enter by commenting at this post.

Good News

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We got some good news this morning which means I am finally ready to share my news with you guys – we got accepted for an apartment in Buffalo, New York.  We are moving to Buffalo (to an actual apartment, not a studio, yays!) on August 1st.  Adam is going to be attending medical school at Buffalo University.  I am going to be taking science prereqs, hopefully, and looking into RD and PA programs for fall of 2010.  I am still not sure what my work situation will be, but I am trying not to stress.  We are so excited.

Anyways, I will be spending July doing lots and lots of studying to prepare.  After breakfast this morning I headed down to Starbucks to get my study on.

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I drank a grande nonfat ice caramel machiatto while I worked.  P.S. I always order these (although I don’t order them often) with 1/2 the pumps of vanilla so they aren’t sooooo sweet. 

I worked from 10:30 – 2:30 when it was time to go to the doctor’s office.  I had a yearly check up but I ended up having to wait for 1.5hours in the waiting room!!!  It was ok though, I got to do more reading in my Chemistry for Dummies book.

When I got home it was after 5 and I quickly got sucked in to 3hours of Bones.  I know it’s bad, but I am obsessed.  I was doing some random snacking, including 2 unphotograhed servings of Newman’s Own Organics Spelt Pretzels, so I knew I needed my make myself an actual plate.

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Green grapes, 1serving of TJ’s sliced Asiago, and some baby carrot butts from a salad I made for tomorrow.

Around 8:30 the husband and I set out for a quick run.  We did two miles again (sticking with my training schedule).  I had to walk the last three blocks because my right ankle hurt but I think that was because it was slippery from rain so I’m not too worried.

When I got home I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, I guess my snack plate became dinner, so I made this.

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Unsweetened vanilla almond milk with chocolate no sugar added CIB was a much better mix,

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I gulped this down.

I have to shower and then I’m going to snuggle up with Adam in bed to continue to discuss some move logistics.  Nighty night.

Where all have you lived?  Buffalo will be my 4th city, I was born in St. Thomas, went to college in Miami, and worked in NYC for the last two years.