Tag Archives: citrus

Happy Thanksgiving

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We’re in Miami!

Can I just say, how little I did I manage to pack for two people for four days?

And that’s with the husband’s giant boy clothes taking up extra space.

Our day of travel went smoothly, minus my yogurt (in a perfect peanut butter jar!) getting tossed at security. We slept though the first flight and then spent three hours walking around the Chicago airport.

We got a strange 8am meal, splitting a Baja chicken burrito from Burrito Beach.

I asked for chicken, red rice, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, and roasted veggies.

Supplemented with a tangerine packed from home.

I was pleased with the job I did packing food for this trip.

(Adam also had a downright gourmet salad in my backpack.)

I ate a sandwich – Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna, Crofter’s Grape Spread, everything Bagel Thin – on flight number two.

Plus Peanut M&Ms bought from the airport.

I also started reading the all time funniest book ever on the plane.

Clearly Webster liked it too.  I laughed aloud so many times I’m sure our seatmates were thinking of muzzling me.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and hugging my parents at the gate.  We are so freaking excited to be with them (especially in Miami!).

Our first stop was a nice walking tour of our old haunt, the U!

So fun to see how the campus had changed in little ways.  I will admit to becoming a bit nostalgic when we walked past the building where I took all of my English classes.  Plus it’s fun that Adam and I got to date here for four years.

Our next stop made my heart sing.

Self-serve froyo is high on my list of things to be thankful for!  I did keep the serving small though (we were about to head out to a nice Turkey Day dinner!); dolche de leche and taro froyo with fruit, a smidge of marshmallow, sprinkles, and lots of popping bobba.

If we manage to sneak in a froyo every day of the visit I think this will end up being the best vacation ever.

For dinner we headed to the Chart House.

The shirt that Adam has on here is actually the one he got married in!!!

I started my meal with a Blue Moon.

And a really great roll with butter.

And for dinner I went traditional.

Sliced roast turkey,

cornbread stuffing,

mashed potatoes,

cranberry relish,

and creamed spinach.

The spinach was soooo good, but overall I probably ordered the wrong thing since I actually hate most Thanksgiving foods.  I only ate a 1/3 or so of my plate; but at least I won’t have regrets about “missing”anything, and Adam is thrilled with his plate of leftovers.

My meal came with pecan pie.

But there wasn’t a preference issue that kept me from eating this, the pie was just plain nasty.  Store-bought (crappy store-bought) pie, Chart House?  You can do better.

But what really matters on Thanksgiving is family, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite people.  And I hope all of you, Americans or otherwise, got to spend the day with your nearest and dearest too.

No Sleep Makes Strange Cravings

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Hello, hello. It’s been a long time (48+ hours!) since I’ve posted and it’s felt even longer. It’s been a crazy couple of days. My meals since I last blogged have been anything but impressive, but it kind of made me want to post all the more since I’m trying to put it all out there. I will add the disclaimer though that this is a *do not as I do* post 😉

I didn’t tell y’all last time, for obvious security reasons, but Monday was Adam’s 1st 24-hour shift at the hospital. It went very well, but I’m still glad that he’ll get to sleep at home most nights this year! I was tired, he was tired, the dog was tired.

<– That’s the scene I walked in on Tuesday afternoon. Swoon.

I had a ton of schoolwork to catch up on and was worried about sleeping without Adam so I pulled a bit of a 24-hour shift myself and only slept 2 hours on Tuesday night. <– this was a terrible idea, but more on that in a minute. I studied mostly standing at the mantle, which was lovely, and had a civilized midnight snack of tea with skim milk and dark chocolates.

Since I packed lunch before my all-nighter, Tuesday’s meals got off to a good start. I mixed together a Stonyfield 0% Chocolate Underground Yogurt with pumpkin puree and the end result was pretty amazing.

I also packed some citrus.

I ended up eating just the tangerine and giving away the orange.

And I bought a coffee – with tons of skim milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon – during a break in class.

Brunch was tasty, but not very filling, so when I came home to my sleeping family I stole a slice of Adam’s Newman’s Own White Pizza.

I also ate this fruit packet.

Wednesday (today) involved a major test and a major paper, so working on practically zero sleep Adam and I knew to grab hot bar for dinner Tuesday night.

An Indian dish and some tofu,

veggies,

which included some “Asian” Brussels sprouts that we so wildly good I almost drove back to Wegman’s to buy more!

I also snacked on a bowl of pretzels and coffee & cream malted milk balls.

And then the evening took a turn South. It’s possible I had a full-scale meltdown and confirmed that I’m now too old to pull all-nighters. Writing my paper involved such dramatic sobbing that I had to reprint a copy of my article because I got it wet with tears. Pathetic, I know.

When I did wrap things up, around 2am, we both celebrated with bowls of Lucky Charms.

Thanks for the cereal, husband, and for loving me in spite of me!

Tuesday I was too tired to be tired (if that makes sense) but today I felt every single missed hour of sleep. Meet breakfast –

And lunch –

Why, yes, classmate wondering why I’m photographing two bags of combos at 10am, I do write a healthy living blog.

But my paper was turned in and my test was at least passed, so today wasn’t a total fail. All I wanted to do at 4:30 when class finished was go home and sleep, but instead I headed to work. Tonight was my final shift which was actually sort of sad. I suppose I won’t miss random strangers calling me an asshole and hanging up, but the whole getting paid thing was nice.

When I got out at 9, I picked up Adam so we could fulfill the strangest food craving I’ll ever have – a McDonald’s Fillet-O-Fish Sandwich.

I hate McDonald’s. I’ve never even tasted this sandwich before. But for some reason I was smelling it all afternoon and it was driving me crazy.

This wasn’t even good (I was right, McDonald’s is gross) but at least I can move forward now.

P.S. I still have to shower (it’s after midnight) and tomorrow I have to *start* studying for Friday’s giant test so if you think tonight’s post was whiney and/or incoherent you probably should wait to read again until this weekend!

Have you ever craved a food that you’ve never tasted before?

A Random Assortment

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Spring had sprung.  Spring sprang so hard that it wore itself out and had to go lie down.

Let’s pretend we’re chatting face-to-face, this is the expression I make when discussing Buffalo’s descent back to 50* weather –

At least it’s not hot?!

Today was actually a busy day (hence the late recap post); I attended an event this evening and helped set up a bit as well.  Since a friend was coming home with me between class and the event, I needed to get in my workout before class.  <– not a good day to oversleep.  Sometimes when you try to live a healthy life (especially when you make the unhealthy choice to stay up too late at night) you’ve got to weigh your options.  For me today, workout > breakfast.

I had a great gym session and I’m glad I squeezed it in!  My right knee was feeling a little funny so I lowered the resistance and upped my time – elliptical level 6 random, 40minutes.  Followed by a quick strength/stretch session.

When I got to campus for class – after I walked home, showered, walked back – I grabbed a Red Velvet Latte for breakfast.

Skim milk, half syrup, fully delicious!

After class I went to the health center to get my PPD read and learn the shocking news that I don’t have TB.  <– I was holding my breath.  I celebrated my health with a new yogurt find for lunch, Athenos 0% Greek with strawberry.

I love the idea of jam-on-the-side Greek yogurts, but this wasn’t my favorite.  Actually, it was super sour and unappetizing, and I threw it out after a few bites.  I’m glad I also packed a clementine which got the taste out of my mouth.

P.S. I brought in the last of the ‘Smores Cupcakes to share and they got rave reviews.

I volunteered an hour helping to set up the event – the Nutrition Club arranged for a few local dietitians to come in and speak to us tonight – and then Rachel and I headed back to my apartment to watch Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.  Shonda Rhimes’ saptastic tv is so much better when you have another girl to sniffle with!

I’m obsessed with taking people to Wegman’s hot bar, so we headed there at 5.

The plan was for this to be dinner but I had difficulty finding enough food, so instead I filled my veggie quota as a pre-dinner snack.

I snagged a glass of punch at the reception,

and then came home for the world’s most random dinner assortment.  An apple with 2Tbsp PB,

half a cucumber,

a lemon Chobani with 1 sheet of crumbled graham crackers and a blob of marshmellow filling,

1.5 servings of tortilla chips,

and a Fun Dip for dessert.

Heck yes!

I’m Back, Baby!

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When you haven’t been feeling 100% for more than a month, or gotten to really exercise in even longer, you’re not looking for a great workout, you’re just looking to move.

Last night we stayed up way too late (and ate way too much Chinese food), and when I woke up this morning it felt like there was a bowling ball in my stomach.  But one bad turn does not deserve another, so I hopped in the car with Adam so he could drop me at the gym.

I did a 5minute warm up, 20minutes of jogging, and a 5minute cool down for a nauseating, excruciating, humiliating 30 minute treadmill workout.  I wouldn’t have traded that time for anything in the world.  I had to pause every 5 minutes to die and I only covered 2.65 miles, but I’m back, baby!

After the walk home (also glorious) and a shower, I settled in to eat my new favorite breakfast combination.

I’ve got to make sure I enjoy this a few more times before the weather gets too warm.

Amaretto cocoa,

and a minneola.

The citrus chocolate pairing is awesome.  If you haven’t tried this combo yet you totally should, but maybe with some toast.

It’s also possible that I’m feeling especially like myself because my response the realization that my breakfast only had 200(ish) calories was to eat a piece of candy.

😉

What is your favorite breakfast combination?  While your morning meal change as the weather gets warmer?

Scarlet In The Face

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Boy was I red in the face about skipping a post last night!  Nah, not really 🙂  Actually we got home close to midnight and I knew I had an early morning so I made the healthy living decision to get to bed.  Sometimes I forget to prioritize sleep, which I’m sure relates to the fact that it’s a month later and I’m still coughing.

Back to yesterday.  My test went well.  Not as well as I would have liked, but at least this one I’m sure I passed!  Plus a test meant getting done with class early – I’m a super fast exam taker – which meant I had time to switch my music class to pass/fail (whew!) and get home to visit the husband (yay!).

I had just enough time for a bowl of freshly chopped pineapple before I had to head back to class.

My music class still feels long (at 6-8:40 it is long!), but now that I’m not terrified of what it’s doing to my GPA it feels a little less tedious.

We had to run to Walgreens across town, and I can pull up our Groupons on my phone, so we ended up going out to dinner at 9pm on a whim!

We headed to Scarlet, a cozy little spot that is actually right down the street from our old apartment.

The inside looks fun and inviting, and we always kicked ourselves for not walking over there last year, but after tasting the food it appears we didn’t miss out on much.  The meal wasn’t terrible, and there were highlights, but overall it was disappointing.  Buffalo restaurants all seem to have menus that read like New York hot spots and food that tastes like TGIFriday’s.  But it was fun to have a Wednesday night date with the husband regardless.

Before we realized everything on the menu was fried, we decided to split 4 appetizers.

Adam and I always just eat off of the same plate, so I’m not even going to attempt to show you portion sizes this post.

We started with complimentary bread with flavored butters (tomato, garlic, and honey).

Then Three Cheese Fondue,

Buffalo Shrimp,

Tempura Chicken Tikka,

and Artichoke Francaise.

The buffalo shrimp were a low-point.

The breading was thick and spongy, the sauce spicy in an overpowering way, and if you’re going to go ahead and serve these deep-fried then you might as well use blue cheese dip rather than haphazardly tossing on blue cheese like someone’s eating these with a fork.  We left the shrimp basically untouched and if all the food had been like this we probably would have left, but thankfully other things were a little better.

The chicken – the one thing we knew would be fried – was pretty good.

The peanut sauce had a nice back spice to it.

The artichokes came in a fabulously lemony butter sauce,

but again, we were expecting something that wasn’t fried.  I enjoyed the big, meaty pieces of flesh, but Adam – who usually adores artichokes – wasn’t a fan.

The high point of the meal was the fondue.

We never could identify what the three cheeses were, but this had great texture (no graininess) and paired well with the apple slices.  Adam scooped into the actual bread bowl a bit and declared it nice and doughy.

So overall not the best (or healthiest) meal, but still fun!

This morning I had to be up early to register for my Fall 2011 classes.  I got everything I wanted, yay!  Actually, I should say I got everything I needed; what I really wanted was a forensic psychology class, but it didn’t fit in my schedule.  If I had my druthers I would be able to take forensic psych and forensic anthropology, in addition to my other courses.

Life for the rest of 2011 planned out, I made a nice fruit salad for breakfast.

This was a mix of pineapple, Cara Cara orange, banana, honey, unsweetened shredded coconut, and a few honey peanuts.

The combination of flavors was great.  I almost never eat my fruit with a fork but it’s actually really satisfying.

What classes did you take just for fun in college? 

My first time around in undergrad I switched majors (communication –> education) after a year of taking almost all communication classes so I took the maximum number of credits each semester just to graduate on time.  Back then I was sad I didn’t get to take more English courses (my 2nd major).  Now that I’m back in school I took an Anthropology course just for fun, and plan on doing one again whenever it fits in my schedule.

In the Nutritional Know

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Hello, hello. I want to tell you guys that I’ve got to hurry because of family time, but really I need to go finish making notecards! Don’t worry, we got plenty of fun time in as well.

Our vacation theme of mini mishaps continued – we wanted to work out on the great path behind my grandparents’ house, but Adam left our bag of running gear at home!  In keeping with my pessimistic optimism, I’m going to assume that means that I’m still too sick to run and it’s good that I couldn’t.

I wasn’t hungry for breakfast, but I did snag a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

The whole family (grandparents, mom, husband, me) piled in the car for lunch at a neat spot in Troy.

The Bakehouse was right up my alley; adorable, lots of offerings, and freshly baked bread!

I went with a half soup/sandwich combo for lunch.

A cup of turkey corn chowder,

with half a sandwich of turkey, aged swiss, cole slaw, and thousand island dressing on pumpernickel.

I only ate about half of the soup, because it was a little creamy for me, but the sandwich was perfection!  The reuben – sauerkraut + cole slaw is my absolute favorite.

Actually, my absolute favorite used to be the English toffee bars sold at Starbucks.  They were removed from the menu a while back and I’ve been in mourning ever since.  The Bakehouse had the exact replica –

Split four ways.

OMG!  I love love love this bar, crunchy toffee inside a chewy blondie!

I cleansed my palate with some Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape.

We’re fancy like that.

We did some antiquing (Zzzz), and also made it to a matinée of “The Lincoln Lawyer.”  I feel like the opening wasn’t given a lot of fanfare (I only heard about the movie because I’m obsessed with Michaela Conlin), but the movie was so good!  The perfect mix of funny, touching, and tense.  I highly recommend.

We headed to Applebees afterward for dinner.  Chain restaurants aren’t exactly my speed, so I ordered using the nutritional info as my guide.  Looking for entres 500 calories or less led me to the Teriyaki Shrimp Pasta (440 calories).

This was actually very good!  Whole wheat pasta, teriyaki sauce, and grilled shrimp with broccoli, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas.

I pretty much ignored the pasta, but I devoured my shrimp and veggies.

I tried to keep dinner light because I knew we were heading to George’s (<– Dairy Queen without the franchising) after dinner.

I ended up with a small snow storm (blizzard) with butterfingers and reeses cups.

I planned on sharing with Adam, but um, yeah…

We’re headed back to Buffalo tomorrow, with a few fun stops along the way.

If a restaurant offers nutritional info do you utilize it?  How much does the info affect your ordering?

Measure It Monday

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It’s hard to measure where I am in my sickness because my symptoms keep changing.  I feel much more perky but my congestion and seal-cough continue.  I would say I’m 2-3 days from well?  Hopefully!

One vestige of deathly sickness that remains is my complete and total lack of interest in breakfast.  As a future RD I know the morning meal is important, but I just can’t make myself eat it right now.  I did get a big coffee when I got to campus though.

Grande nonfat latte with 1 pump of Irish Cream syrup, delicious.

As foretold, lunch was dinner’s twin.  A serving of Newman’s Own 4 Cheese Pizza,

and roasted green beans.

Plus some fruit snacks my mom sent during the break between classes.

We’re learning about breast-feeding in my Nutrition Throughout the Life-cycle class and it is so interesting!  The benefits of breast vs. bottle are immeasurable, even more vast than I had previously thought.  Plus we are exploring (just a bit) the socioeconomic factors that come into play.  Fascinating!

Random sidenote – I walked to and from school today in jeans and Adam’s sweatshirt, no coat!  Boo-yah.  The temperature is set to drop again tomorrow but I’m getting very excited about spring.

While prepping dinner I snacked on (an exact) serving of Popcorners.

Do you measure out things like chips, or just eat from the bag?  I only put my hand in a bag of chips if I’m planning on eating the entire thing, which I sometimes do!  Otherwise I always use my food scale to measure out a serving.  When it comes to snack foods like chips, the difference between 1-2 servings in satiety and satisfaction is nill, but the caloric difference can be huge.

Dinner was quick and easy but so tasty and wonderful.

Only 4 ingredients and no measuring required.

Goat cheese tortellini, butter toffee almonds, cubed butternut squash, and balsamic vinegar.

Cook the pasta as directed.

Roast the squash.  Actually, roast the squash, get nowhere, and finish it off in pan with a bit of butter.

Reduce the vinegar.

Combine everything (plus nuts) and fall in love.

This was perfect; a little savory and a little sweet.  Plus, you really can’t go wrong with goat cheese.

I made myself a broiled grapefruit for dessert.

But then I discovered that I hate grapefruit.  Oh well, at least I know.

Instead I had a cupcake.

Not just a cupcake though.  I just took the picture to show you guys how cute and perfect it was.

Instead I crumbled it over a Stonyfield 0% Chocolate Underground Yogurt,

for a much less cute, much more delicious treat.

Say it with me – “Mmmmmn!”

What sort of foods do you measure?  Do you use cups/spoons or a food scale?  I measure cheese, snack items, cereal, peanut butter and maple syrup.  Plus a few other things I’m sure I’m forgetting.

Sick of Being Sick

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I’m sick of being sick!  (I’m also tired of being tired, but that’s another – barking dog heavy – story.)  Yesterday was a particularly bad day so I didn’t post, but I will recap.

I didn’t go to school again yesterday, which means I’ve basically missed a full week of classes!  <– not happy  I did make myself 1.5 servings of Special K Red Berries with almond milk for breakfast.

And when Adam got home he made me his favorite snack  – matzoh with melted cheddar (50% reduced fat, extra sharp).

I had a rough evening and when it came time for a late dinner I begged the husband to get me a milkshake.

The chicken nuggets with hot mustard he randomly came home with sounded good too, thankfully.

Adam has been joking that I must be dying because of how little I’ve been talking (I have a lot to say normally, can you tell?) but he knew I was sick when I scarfed down dinner; I hate McDonalds!

Even though I’m too sick for class, I did have to go to campus today.  I had labwork to turn in and I had to make up the Nutrition test I missed yesterday.  I probably could have done really well on the test (and I was really excited about the material) but since the only time I was able to study was the 2hours beforehand I guess I’m just glad that I think I passed!

The walk home was difficult, but I did stop halfway to purchase a huge soda.

Half diet, half not; the combination seemed to work.

I even managed some people food for a late lunch –

leftover roasted green beans,

and a Cara Cara orange.

Dinner was a Three Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni Lean Cuisine.

This wasn’t the tastiest thing ever, but it felt good to eat some veggies.

I bulked it up with 1.5servings of Popcorners.

I had two online assignments due today, and that with my trip out of the house kind of did me in.

When I went to the clinic they said the virus I probably had lasts 1-2weeks.  I’m a week into being sick, and I’m keeping my fingers (and all my toes) crossed that I’m back to normal by Monday.

What’s the longest you’ve ever been sick?