Tag Archives: chicken

Sunday Joes

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This afternoon Adam I decided that ice-cream was in order so we headed off in search.  We found a local spot on Elmwood that had Cioa Bella gelato, so you know I was all over that.

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I had a small cup of key lime pie, yums!  I said at least 4x whilst eating how good it was.  The store was super-cute, I’m glad we found it.

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On his way home, Adam dropped me off at The Spot to do some studying.  I ate lunch #2 while I was there.

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Iced Americano with skim milk (they call it “skinny moo” on the dispenser which makes me smile),

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and a whole wheat black bean and cheese quesadilla.

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I liked the ww tortillas and the insides included some sort of spicy tomato so it ended up being pretty great.  I ate all of the salad, none of the toppings, and half of the quesadilla.

I studied from 2:45 – 5:15, so I ended up also getting an iced tea.

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Cinnamon Plum, might be my new favorite!

Once I got home I continued my Chemistry organization. 

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I already created a GoogleCalendar, but now that I have this todoist  list of due dates I feel fully ready.  When I was in undergrad I wasn’t aware of these online organization applications, but now I am planning on taking full advantage of them.  Seeing everything in black and white in front of me is the only way for me to truly feel comfortable.

Work finished, we got started on dinner.  I did a Rachael Ray recipe, from “The Big Orange Book,” Hot Wing Sloppy Joes.

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Apparently 30minutes only applies if your stove isn’t half broken!!! 😦  It was still good though.

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On the side I got to cook my new original eggplants!

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These white ones seemed so odd to me, but they are the original item, and the reason why the veggie is called an eggplant.  I sliced, sprayed with evoo, sprinkled with nutmeg and chili powder, and roasted them for 30minutes at 450*.

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And since I ate a bun for brunch I ate my ‘joes with a serving of Scoops tortilla chips.

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Delish.

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We drove to Target to pick up a few supplies for Adam, and now we are finishing up a Bones episode.  My goal is bedtime before 11 because I am hope hope hoping I actually get up early to study.  I have volunteering in the middle of the day tomorrow and if I don’t study first I feel like I’ll run out of time.  G’night.

Do you like sloppy joes?  One time when I was a kid, before I stopped eating red meat, I tasted them and fell in love!  My mom makes them pretty well with turkey meat and Rachael Ray has several ‘joe adaptation recipes that I’m excited about.

When In Rome

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My fabulous day continued to be great!  We were kept busy with lots of (foodie) fun.  Our first stop was the Buffalo Wings Festival.

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I don’t actually love wings (I get a little skeeved out so I leave a ton of meat on the bones), but I adore Buffalo sauce so I end up eating them fairly often.  The festival today was set up for tasting, using food tickets you got 3wings for $2 from several different tents.  Adam and I tasted from 2 locations.

First was Hurricane Grill & Wing (West Palm Beach, FL), I tried Gold Rush, which was basically hot sauce.

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Yummy!  Adam had salt and vinegar wings there that he adored.

Then we split some Barefoot White Zinfindel.

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And finally we hit up Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar (Harrisburg, PA), where I got 1 Buffalo Blue wing and 2 Instant Death.

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Buffalo Blue was the best fricking thing ever, Adam got it too and we were in love.  I was a little worried about Instant Death, here’s my apprehensive face –

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And the wings?  Were deathly!  It wasn’t just spicy, it had a great flavor, but man was it spicy!  I only ate one of the two and then sweat was pouring down my face.  I made a run for the blue cheese table to cool down.

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Drinks were $3.50 so I toughed it out and waited until we got to Wegmans to get a diet coke.  We did our grocery shopping quickly because we had to hurry home to shower to make it to our next event in time.

A med. school friend was having a BBQ!  Several couples who I really enjoy were there and we had a great time.  We talked and played games and ate some good food.  I had a small plate – pasta salad, raw veggies, chips with bean dip, grilled chicken.

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And I had two Black Cherry Cruzan Rum and Cokes.

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Plus a small Oreo bite,

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and a jello shot!

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On the way home I ate two bites of Adam’s brownie (Mary-Kate sent him home with a baggie of them and she’s his new best friend) before I realized that I hate brownies and I was actually hungry.  I made Adam pull into Wendy’s so I could get a broccoli and cheese baked potato.

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Which I ate about 4bites of before I promptly dropped it – sticky side down – on the rug.

Adam saved the day and cleaned it up, and even shared some of his fancy chicken nuggets with me.

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I ate 5, along with some homemade honey mustard.

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And now we are watching “My So-Called Life” and cuddling, peace!

What food is your town famous for?  I’m pretty thrilled to be in the birthplace of Buffalo wings.

Jordan Catalano

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It’s been a long day and I am watching Jordan Catalano and Angela Chase decide whether or not to have sex so this will be a quickie (ha) post!

For breakfast I ate a Cliff Mojo Bar on the walk to volunteering.

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Today was my last 6hour shift, next week I do 4hours each Monday.  There was employee appreciation bbq in the cafeteria which meant not a lot of choices for me.

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I ate half of the macaroni and ate the chicken out of the bun with a fork.

When I got home it’s possible I got in a screaming match with my husband.  Just a poss ability though, it’s not like my husband is a first year med student under tons of pressure or I don’t know what to do with my life and am freaking out.  And if we did fight, we might have made up with Arby’s five-for-five and “My So-Called Life,” which is how I ended up with this –

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Jamocha shake and Diet Dr. Pepper.

Fueled by my awesome shake, I tackled tons of to-dos.  Laundry,

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meal planning/coupon organizing/list making,

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recycling our paper,

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While we were being green I drank so chocolate Amazing Grass with So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk,

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and around 9 we finally broke for dinner.

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I know it looks like swamp, but Moo Shu Stoup left-overs rocked my socks.

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I stopped 80% of the way through though, so I could have a threesome (is anyone else as amused as I am by the punny sex references as I am?) with a couple whose child could rule the world.

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Purely Decadent Dairy Free Peanut Butter Zig Zag and South America Crofter’s Superfruit Spread. oh.my.god.

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The ice-cream had chunks of chocolate and peanut butter and the spread had maqui and passionfruit.  They were both samples, and they will both be purchased when I run out!

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Gah!

We are finishing up our 90’s TV marathon, sweet dreams folk.

Did you watch My So-Called Life growing up?  I really liked it as a kid but now I am obsessed!

Don’t Cry Over Chopped Onions

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Wow, today has somehow been packed!  We slept in until 9:30 or so, due to a late night last night, and then got out and had husband/wife time.  I’ve missed Adam now that he is in school full-time!  When we were finally ready to take off our pjs we headed out for errands -can recycling, change making, grocery shopping – check.

Of course, Adam was able to convince me to get Wegman’s salad bar!

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I got tofu curried salad, with red and green peppers, nuts, and raisins

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and a small portion of chicken and broccoli, heavy on the broccoli.

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Adam and I split a Black Forest Berry Honest Tea to drink.

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We tried to shop quickly, but I got distracted by my hysterical laughter over this –

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🙂  I am super excited to be done with volunteering next week so I can buy fun veggies to make for lunches at home.

After we finished the errands Adam played Devil’s advocate again and convinced me to go watch “Inglorious Basterds.”  I was super hungry by the time we got to the theatre and I ate 90% of a thing of pretzel bites.

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When we got home Adam took a nap and it got later and later.  Suddenly it was 8:30 and we had tonsof baking to do.  For dinner we made a Rachael Ray recipe, Lazy Chicken.  It got majorly modified, for some good reasons – I wanted to use my farmers’ market tomatoes,

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and some bad reasons – this was our potato,

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so I decided it ended up being my own recipe. 

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Here is a link.  I had only a small plate.

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It was good, but I was saving my self for –

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homemade french onion dip!  The recipe was from Delicious Dips by Diane Morgan so I can’t post it, but I highly recommend buying the book.  We shared a small bowl with toasted (homemade) sourdough bread.

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Yums.

We are watching “My So-Called Life” and snuggling and then it’s off to bed.  See you Sunday.

What have you made from scratch recently (ever)?

Excited!

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First things first, my exciting news – one of my best friends and I just registered for the Disney Princess Half Marathon in March!  I am super excited but very nervous.  I am sure you will hear lots lots more about it in the upcoming months, especially once I start my training in September.

My parents had lots of excitment for us at the post office –

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They sent magazines, books, bath products, and a huge stack of cookbooks I’ve stored at home for the last few years.

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That isn’t even all of them, some didn’t make the cut!

They also mailed the two adorable vases I bought an Anthropologie years before I had anywhere to put them.

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Now they are right at home on my cookbook shelf 🙂

Adam and I spent some time talking about his first day and looking over his schedule and then we got started on dinner.  We made a recipe from the March issue of Fitness in under 30minutes!  I’ll post the recipe below but just to warn you, I’m not so big on measuring – I used way less cilantro and peanuts than called for, and more chicken because the husband scoffed at the suggested portion.  Also, where it called for sesame oil and red pepper I used 1t of the chipotle oil* my mom sent instead.

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Here was my portion –

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It was pretty darn delicious.

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Cilantro Chicken with Peanuts, serves 2, from the March ’09 issue of Fitness

  • 8oz skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into strips
  • 1t cooking oil
  • 2t reduced sodium soy sauce
  • 1t rice vinegar
  • 1/2t roasted sesame oil
  • 1/4t crushed red pepper flakes
  • 3/4C fresh cilantro leaves
  • 2C Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
  • 2T dry roasted peanuts
  1. In a medium nonstick skillet, cook chicken over medium-high heat 3-4minutes, or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.
  2. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and pepper.  Stir and cook 1 more minute.
  3. Remove from heat.  Stir in cilantro.
  4. To serve, spoon mixture over cabbage and sprinkle on peanuts.

If you follow the recipe the nutritional stats per serving are: 231calories, 30g protein, 6g carbohydrates, 10g fat (2g saturated), 4g fiber.

After dinner I ate a serving of Lindt mini truffles (180calories for 3, in fantastmic flavors like cappuccino, caramel, and hazelnut) before I got ready to go out.

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Adam had a first day of medical school mixer at a bar nearish our apartment.  I wore my new perfume – how cute is that packaging?

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And my new favorite shirt.

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I met a lot of neat people, it seems like he has a pretty great class.  We stayed until almost 10 playing pool and chatting.  I drank this x2 –

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The bar made its own microbrews, I had a Blueberry Blonde Ale and an Irish Oat Stout.

My goal is bedtime by 11 again, especially because I’m hoping to get up and cook Adam breakfast tomorrow.  Sweet dreams all!

Have you ever run any sort of race?  How did it go?

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.

Sweet, Spicy, Sesame, Tangy

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After the morning my day got pretty crazy; I’m glad I got my work-out in early!  Before my shower I scarfed the other 2/3 of my Cliff Bar.

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This had too much sugar to be a regular choice but it was very tasty.

My next course of action was to do some planning for my classes next year – I am attending a university in Buffalo as a non-degree seeking student so that I can complete some prerequisite courses for PA and RD programs.  The plan is to work part-time, volunteer (which I still need to figure out), and take classes.  As a non-degree I can’t officially register for classes until August 1st.  Well, when I went to look at the course offerings today to make a rough schedule I found out that almost every class I need is already full; by August 1st I doubt I will be able to enroll in anything!  I wigged out and cried for a good 10minutes before the husband convinced me that I just had to suck it up.  If I can’t take classes in the fall it will suck and I’ll be sad but I don’t have any control over that situation.  If I can’t take any courses I will have to work full-time, which will help us save money, and get my nutritionist certification, which I am interested in and excited about.  I’m scared that this could push back my loooooong journey towards a new career but I’ve got to roll with the punches.

After I pulled myself together I ate 1/2 of this (small) container of stir fry leftovers.

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Then we packed up our cart and headed to the post office.  The postal service in this (expensive!) neighborhood is shockingly bad, I’ve never been in when there wasn’t a line out the door.  Whether rain, snow, sleet, or long waits, nothing could stop our errands so we prevailed.

During the trip I drank this My Smoothie juice box.

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I knocked out two servings of fruit with this, woot!

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Finally, it was time to head to *bucks to get my study on.  I went with economics to choose my snack –

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an iced coffee (I added my own skim milk) and a rice-crispie bar were my cheapest choice at $4 and 300calories.  I studied from 3 – 7 straight, another woot!

My husband is the nicest man on earth so he did my laundry for me while I was studying, when I got home all I had to do was fold and hang 🙂  Post-laundry I started watching a riveting episode of Bones, I am so hooked on that show!  I paused during a commercial to eat a Yoplait Light and Fit strawberry shortcake yogurt.

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I’m not going to be able to afford Fage and Oikos as much next year (Greek yogurt doesn’t really fit into a budget unless you find a sale) but I think I’ll be a-ok with all these Yoplait Light varieties.

During a later commercial I ate my green veggie from dinner as an appetizer – Spicy Sesame Beans.

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I had a bag of mixed beans and carrots in my freezer that I heated in a skillet with a little evoo.  I topped my portion with a dab more evoo, some wasabi sesame seeds, and some red pepper flakes.

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Spicy spicy!

After my socks were fully rocked off by Bones we got started on dinner.  I received a package from Nakano with coupons and recipes yesterday so I used that for inspiration.

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I will say though, my chicken recipe was clearly all mine own – Apple Pretzel Chicken, 3servings

  • 1/2C Stonewall Kitchen caramel apple butter
  • 3T Nanako rice vinegar
  • 1C Newman’s Own Mighty Mini Pretzels, crushed
  • 1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
  1. Preheat oven to 375* and prep a baking sheet with foil and spray.
  2. Mix apple butter and vinegar in a low bowl and pour pretzel crumbs into another low bowl.
  3. Drudge chicken through wet and then dry bowls.
  4. Cook for 30minutes.

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I took a pretty small portion but it was delish, the perfect mix of salty and sweet!

For my side dish I tried to follow a recipe a little bit,

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but still but a pretty big twist on it.  Not only was I missing several ingredients, the original recipe called for (regular) potatoes with the skins peeled off.  I never follow that step in any recipe, why would I spend cooking time making something less healthy by peeling away fiber?  What I ended up with was Tangy Stovetop Sweet Potatoes, 2servings

  • 1large sweet potato, cubed  [note, I think I actually used a yam but that didn’t fit with my title alliteration]
  • 1/3C Nanako rice vinegar
  • 3T water
  1. Heat 2T evoo over medium heat in a skillet.
  2. Add potato cubes to the pan and cook for 5-7minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up and brown bits.
  3. Season with salt and paprika.
  4. Pour vinegar and water into the pan and cook until all the liquid is gone.

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Yums!  Here was my plate:

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Before you get all judgey about the expanse of brown, remember that I ate my greens as an appetizer 🙂

My internet is ridiculous so this post took forever but there are still some to-dos left on the list for the night – 1) brush my teeth asap so I can put my retainers in to get some of the intense pain out of the way before sleep time (my braces experience was so ridiculous I can’t even get into it, but suffice to say I stopped sleeping in my retainers in college and now my perfect teeth are going crooked).  2) tuck into my stack of magazines……I didn’t say they weren’t fun to dos!  Sweet dreams all.

Do you ever peel fruits or veggies?  Why or why not?  Other than kiwis – which many bloggers actually down fur and all – I enjoy the tasty fiber whenever it’s available.