Tag Archives: chicken

Sweet and Sour

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I made Adam a batch of pulled bbq chicken almost a week ago and I’ve been thinking about making a sweet and sour bbq chicken sandwich ever since.  Start by spreading apricot preserves on a sesame bun.

Then lay down your chicken (cooked on low in the crock pot for 8 hours then shredded and topped with homemade bbq sauce – tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and ketchup).

Finally, top with bread and butter pickles.

Sweet, sour, and delicious.

I paired my sandwich with a simple side salad of spring mix lettuce, dried cranberries, walnuts, and poppy-seed dressing.

I also sprinkled a little bit of salt onto my salad and I swear it made a huge difference!

It was a nice little lunch.

I’m surprised I was even hungry after my late breakfast, but I’m heading to the gym in a bit and I didn’t want my stomach to be growling.

On the agenda for the rest of the day?

  • the gym (finally!)
  • a mini grocery trip
  • doing the dishes
  • making another batch of bug repellant
  • fun dinner

Driving Dilemma

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We love our neighborhood – a quiet side street off of Elmwood, the “cool” strip in Buffalo – but the parking situation here is a bummer.  There’s not a lot of parking space to begin with and then the city further restricts residents by only allowing use of one side of the street from 9-5 on weekdays.  In the end it’s really not something I can complain about though because we generally end up parking 2 blocks away from our apartment at most and often snag spots right out front.  What I can complain about (and do at length) is the fact that parking switches from left MTW to right RF.  Which means that if you wake up at 8:50 thinking that it’s Wednesday when it’s actually Thursday you’re out $30.  $60 if you have two cars to worry about.

During the school year – when Adam and I have long-houred internships at different hospitals – having two cars will be a godsend.  But in the summer – when we barely drive the one car, let alone two – it’s all we can do to remember to move the cars and they become a big, costly annoyance.  I try to put “move the cars!!!” in my day planner but since I often don’t check my planner until after 9am this has proved less than helpful.  What has proved effective lately though is coupling the task moving the cars with another activity.  If there’s one thing I’ll never forgot to look forward to it’s a date with Adam!

For example, this morning we set our alarms for 8:20 8:40 8:50 and moved the cars before setting out on a walk to get coffee.

We ended up with no tickets, plus (half sweet) coffee as a bonus!

I waited to enjoy my hot coffee until I got home to the ac, and paired it with the rest of my breakfast spread.

A crisp, local apple,

and Greek Gods Fig yogurt.

Yum x 100!  If you still haven’t tried Greek Gods then you totally need to get on that.

Coffee always makes me super full, which helped lunch to get pushed back later and later into the afternoon.  When a coworker called at noon I ended up picking up an extra daytime shift at work tomorrow which meant we needed to switch around some of our lunch and dinner meal plans.  The end result of all this is that it was 2:30, I hadn’t eaten lunch, and I needed to go to the store before I could make dinner.

I’d been craving garlic eggplant all morning – actually I’ve been craving that dish ever since I saw it on the table across from ours at Tokyo Shanghai – so I told myself that if Wegman’s had it on their hot bar then I’d buy lunch there.  I haven’t seen garlic eggplant at Wegman’s in months, but apparently crossing your fingers works!

I got a big scoop of garlic eggplant alongside veggies picked out from various containers,

and a few big pieces of sweet and sour chicken.

So fun to find exactly what I was craving right on that day; usually I whine to the husband about tastes I’m looking forward to for days!

No matter how satisfying and tasty though, waiting too long for lunch always means I’m hungrier all afternoon.  We had a good array of snacks to pick from; baby carrots with blue cheese,

a white chocolate and toffee cookie from Wegman’s cookie bar,

and when I made another batch of pumpkin muffins I ate a mini muffin with Smart Balance Light.

I’m glad I didn’t snack too much because dinner was amazing.

The dinner idea that I just couldn’t wait for was tuna salad Reubens.

We made tuna salad with 1000 Island Dressing and pickle relish, then pressed sandwiches with sauerkraut and 2% Swiss cheese.

We picked up a loaf of blue cheese and cracked pepper bread from Wegman’s bakery today and it totally took the sandwiches over the top.

With roasted broccoli,

and ears of fresh corn.

This dinner was so worth making the kitchen hot and steamy! 

How many cars does your household own?  How often do you drive to your final destination (as opposed to walking or using public transportation)?

Southern Style

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The other day when I made the 1000 Island BBQ Sauce I knew I’d need to think of a good way to use it.  Adam and I put our heads together and we decided that bbq pulled chicken sandwiches would be the way to go.  This morning I put some chicken in the crockpot, and this evening we took a quick walk to pick up some key supplies.

I also munched on some Dirty BBQ Chips on the walk to get myself in the mood.

Once home it was easy as pie to shred the chicken, toss with the bbq sauce, and place on a bun with thin sliced red onion and bread and butter pickle slices.

Tasted as good as pie too.

On the side I cooked up some shredded brussels sprouts with black truffle oil and browned butter.

Divine!  Please do try out the recipe, it turns brussels sprouts into a whole new vegetable.

This is exactly the kind of meal I look forward to on a summer day.

Easy, tasty, and healthy.

We watched “That 70’s Show” while we ate; we recently discovered it on Netflix Instant Watch and I’m falling in love with it all over again.

Soon enough, it was time for dessert.

Southern Coke Sundaes.  I’ve been turning this idea about in my head for a few weeks and it tasted just as good as I’d imagined.  The recipe is a play on the southern tradition of dumping salted peanuts into bottles of Coke.  When my mom told me she did that as a kid I was skeptical, but sundae-style it totally works!

Did you (or your parents) ever put peanuts in Coke?

Almost Off

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I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’m off for the next three days; wahoo!  Today basically has felt like a day off anyways since I’ve got laundry to put away and some things to clean and I’ve successfully ignored it all.  I also skipped the gym so I could give my knee one more day’s rest before I run 5 miles tomorrow.

Adam and I both had nightmares last night that effected our sleep and when we rolled out of bed after 10:30 this morning I was nightmarishly hungry.  Enter a crunchy bowl of cereal with cool skim milk.

We’ve got a Wegman’s brand crunchy oatmeal cereal and Cinnamon Pecan Special K and I had a serving of each.

I don’t eat a lot of cereal but sometimes it sounds so good.

I also noshed on a big pile of baby carrots with blue cheese.

There was only one serving of food left for dinner tonight (we went to town on those sloppy joes yesterday!) so I left it for Adam and walked to the Co-op to pick up hot bar.

Curry chicken salad, tofu with okra, bbq temph, southwestern baked yams,

cashew broccoli salad, grape leaves.

For dessert I made the “punch” that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I had a sip at an event a few months ago.

Vanilla ice cream with orange juice and Sprite.

Frothy!

What is your favorite kind of punch?

They Were The Worst Of Plans, They Were The Best Of Plans

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Contrary to this morning (when my grand plans were thwarted), my terrible evening plans failed for the better.  Sometimes when things run off course you end up in a much better place.

I needed a win after my lame shift, so I decided to spend time on an activity I knew I could do well –

reading magazines on the couch.  I also lifted my mood exponentially by breaking in to my Co-op best-ever candy bar stash.

I ate it slowly, with a fork, over 45 minutes of magazine reading and was practically in heaven.

But I guess I wasn’t feeling angelic, because the end result of our dinner plans was me getting in a screaming match with Adam over the best way to measure flour.  Seriously.

I stormed out of the house in a dramatic huff and ended up at Talking Leaves, sitting a table on the sidewalk with my book and a drink.

Like I said, a better place.  Though it was even better once the husband joined me, finishing off the other half of my iced coffee with Irish Cream.

We sat long enough for me to finish my book.  <– not Sloane Crosby’s best showing; I Was Told There’d Be Cake was far superior, How Did You Get This Number? was more whining than funny

It was too late to make dinner at that point, so instead we headed to Saigon Cafe for Thai food.

I strayed from my go-to order of broad rice noodles and went with Pad Krapow – chicken with spicy basil sauce.

I asked for extra veggies and extra spicy.

I got enough veggies, but unfortunately the spice level was much closer to bland than “Thai spicy.”  I housed the entire plate, but my spice tooth is still begging to be satisfied.

Actually, I was randomly so I hungry that I surprised the husband with how much food I wolfed down.  I shared most of my rice with him, but I killed my meal and stole several bites of his Pad Thai to boot.

Adam and I wandered down Elmwood in search of chocolate ganache (I’m not sure what sparked the craving but my spice needs seemed to be linked to a desire for deep chocolate) and finally settled for a Starbucks salted caramel bar mini.

I’ll let the chocolate thing go, but I still need to find something to smoother in Sriracha, soon!

Instead of dinner at home we somehow ended up with drinks, dinner, and dessert; at three locations natch.  Regardless of the fact that he knows nothing about flour, I think a date with the husband is always a better plan!

Walk It Out

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend, readers!  The holiday doesn’t mean much to me (I didn’t even know tomorrow was Memorial Day until a few hours ago; I was so confused the last two days at work when my manager said we were ‘slower than usual because of the holiday weekend’) but I imagine it’s exciting to those of you with real jobs.

Since I hadn’t eaten since 3pm yesterday I made sure to fuel up with a big Granny Smith Apple and a packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter before we set out this morning.

It’s funny that the Justin’s website referenced the fact that most other choc-hazelnut spreads have more sugar than frosting, because the flavor and texture of this goodness totally made me think of frosting!

I ran yesterday on my off day and I felt pretty sore from work so I decided to do a long walk today.  Adam and I headed to Delaware Park for an hour of walking while I quizzed him on pharm. questions.  We walked ~ 2miles.

After a super quick shower I met up with my friend Katie for lunch and ended up walking another ~2miles in the process.  Our final destination was JP Bullfeathers for brunch.

I ordered two poached eggs, cooked dry.

Which came with  a side of fruit,

and rye toast (I ate 2 half slices).

Dipping thick toast into drippy egg yolks might be my favorite restaurant food sensation.  Poached eggs are the perfect dish in my eyes (dippy yolks but much healthier than fried eggs because not cooked with any sort of oil) but I can’t get them right at home so they are the perfect restaurant food for me.

Katie and I also split a side of sweet potato fries, which were sadly sort of awful.

Soggy fries aside, it was nice to get out and about and to see Katie.  I also grabbed a cup of coffee and a Lindt truffle for dessert.

This afternoon Adam and I decided to split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza.

I realize we eat this pizza a lot (it’s possible we fall into food ruts, Wegman’s hot bar much?!) but it’s something we both love.  Plus, at least we always split it!  However, it’s after 6pm and we’ve both determined that we’re really not hungry for dinner so perhaps we should have skipped it today!

We’re going to take another (short) walk and see how we feel about dinner when we get back.  Either way, I have a fun dessert recipe I plan on posting (and eating!) this evening.  See you then!

What is your favorite food to order while dining at restaurants?

That Sounds Dirty

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My shift last night went great, but when I got home to bed that’s when it felt like the real work began**.  I’ve been having a terrible time sleeping lately and it’s driving me crazy.  I’ve always struggled with bouts of insomnia, but I’m fairly certain this week’s sleeping difficulties are tied to skipping the gym.  Even though I was tired (obviously), and it’s technically a free day in my training plan (the whole week has been “free” apparently), it was pretty easy to convince myself to work out this morning once I made the no gym = no sleep connection .

Once I got the husband up**, we were off for a 9am run.  We ran 2 miles down Elmwood and back for a 4 mile run.  4 miles in 44:53. Yikes, holy skipped training days, Batman!

After a quick shower and a date with some ice** we retraced our running steps so I could pick up a few things at the Farmer’s Market and Co-op.  The Farmer’s Market was a gigantic puddle, but we had more luck on the rest of our stops.

We split a grande (non-fat, half syrup) iced caramel macchiato.

And bought some brunch from the Co-op.

I knew my dinner was going to be veggie-heavy so I loaded up on protein.  Pad Thai noodles,

mango cashew curry chicken salad,

waldorf chicken salad,

and pea and radish salad.  That stuff in the corner was Adam’s tofu.

We ate at a table outside in the sun and it was glorious.

The real excitement came at dessert though, they have my new favorite candy bars back in stock!  Adam and I split one for funsies when we got home.

Mmmmmn!  <– things that make you go oh god, yes!**

I spent some time cleaning the apartment this afternoon, balanced with time spent curled up with a few magazines, and then it was time for lunch/dinner.

I had a neon eggplant and some purple kale (yay, colors!) to use up and the first place my mind went was honey sesame eggplant.

First I saute/steamed the eggplant and kale in a bit of sesame oil and water.  Next I tossed the veggies with a mix of tamari, rice vinegar, and honey.  Finally I topped them with some crunchy sesame seeds.

Not my most amazing combination ever, but good enough and at least it was quick.**

Gotta get in your veggies!

I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’ve got the day off tomorrow, yippie.  I’m off to be a working girl**.

**that sounds dirty

The Gym of Life

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Today makes the fourth training day in a row I’ve skipped.  <– arrrrgh!  This week has been a combination of genuine leg pain and genuine laziness.  On the bright side, my legs are so sore from my shift last night that I’m counting work as at least a half workout.  The restaurant is split into two levels, with the dining area upstairs and the bar and kitchen downstairs.  This means that I go up and down the stairs 8 million times a shift.  Yay for the gym of life.

This morning I made Adam an Orange Dream Machine knock off (vanilla ice cream, orange juice, and vanilla protein powder) and I drank the extra.

This is going on the ‘to make again’ list.

Adam and I had some errands to run, which culminated in a trip to Wegmans to pick up lunch.  While we were there I grabbed and iced coffee, Wegman’s version of Jamaican Me Crazy with skim milk.

Not as good as the Wilson Farms’ one sadly.

Lunch was great though.

Fruits – berries, pineapple, cinnamon banana.

Steamed broccoli, grilled squash, succotash, and cashew chicken with tons of celery picked out of the container.

Plus a white chocolate toffee cookie.

The perfect end to lunch/dinner.  Hopefully it will hold me over through work, it’s going to be a busy shift!