Tag Archives: citrus

Breakfast For The King

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This morning I had breakfast fit for a king.

Make that the King.

I topped a toasted Naturals Flax and Fiber Sandwich Thin with maple jelly, chunky peanut butter, and 4 slices of Lightlife Smart Bacon.

I had a Suspicious Mind, but in the end I Loved It Tender.  The Lightlife bacon wasn’t all that good – not much flavor and it was impossible to get into pieces! – but I’ve had great vegan bacon before so I blame the product, not the concept.  Even with the lackluster bacon though, this sandwich was a winner.  Sweet and salty is a dream team and peanut butter can pretty much go with anything.

On the side I had my first Cara Cara Orange of the season.

After clementines (which have no pith, no seeds, and are impossibly juicy) Cara Caras are my favorite kind of citrus.

And while my slacker side would like to sit here all day and tell you about my favorite stone fruit, and favorite vegetables that are actually fruit… my ration side knows that I’ve got to go study!

Have you ever tried vegan bacon?  Turkey bacon?  What’s your favorite variety?

These Photographs

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My title is both one of my favorite songs (Joshua Radin, woo!) and a nod to the fact that my eats today were not at all pretty (in any sense of the word).

I’m not sure why I keep trying to pack breakfast when I’m leaving with Adam in the morning.  My plan is always smoothies and my plan always falls through sometime between the 2nd and 3rd alarm clock snooze.  My lack of packed breakfast leads me to talk to you all about pretzels.  Have you talked with your kids about pretzels yet?

Let’s talk Snyder’s of Hanover Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces.  1st, what they are not – vegan.  Also not – a (not vegan either) candy bar.  But they are – the only non-candy bar food available on campus before my 9:25 lab.

I ate them.

I did pack a lunch, but it wasn’t pretty.  Inside this ugly photograph lies a tasty lunch.

A Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin with an eggplant burger and a bit of Stubb’s BBQ Sauce.

I also packed a pair of clementines.

Sadly within three minutes of eating lunch I was starving again.  That’s approximately one hour into my five-hour break if you’re keeping track.  I’m pretty gosh darn glad I ate the pretzels, otherwise I might have chewed off a leg.

When I got home from my final class dinner was the first thing on my mind.

That will be my final bowl of Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup.  It was still delicious, but enough is enough.

My plans for the evening include a shower, hopefully starting a new book, and dessert.  If dessert is just ok then I’ll mention it in the morning.  But if it’s as good as I think it’s going to be – it’ll deserve its own post!  Keep your fingers crossed!

What is the ugliest thing you eat?

Make Yourself a Dang Quesadilla

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Vegan month is off to an auspicious start with this winner of a lunch.

The only way this meal could have been more enjoyable is if there was a new “House” episode for me to watch!

I used to assume that quesadilla had to mean cheese, but recently I’ve figured out that peanut butter can be a mighty fine substitute.

I steamed some matchstick carrots and piled them onto a tortilla with 2Tbsp each chunky peanut butter and raisins, and a sprinkle of sweet curry.  Then I sandwiched and gave a quick spin in a hot skillet with a bit of evoo.

Not cheesy, but still melty and delicious and good!

Alongside I had two clementines.

Both of these guys were a bit dry, I’m terrified that the crate in our fridge is getting old.

I didn’t eat breakfast this morning – not because vegan food is hard, but – because I quickly got swept up in errands.  I had an 8:15 orthodontist visit where, thankfully, they agreed that my top retainer was sitting wrong and gave it a quick adjustment.  That thing was driving me crazy!

I also went to the grocery store.

Um, yeah.  I spent practically double our normal weekly bill!  Adam is planning on attempting the vegan challenge with me, for at least the first two weeks, and I wanted to make sure he had lots of options.

Of course, when I get our biggest load of groceries ever I have to forget our reusable bags.  Forget bad for the planet (and we reuse all the plastic ones anyway), our reusable ones fit over my shoulder and are 10x easier to carry.  I honestly don’t know how I managed to get those all up three flights of stairs by myself!

Do you use reusable bags for the grocery?  Otherwise, paper or plastic?

I Hate Eggs Almost As Much As I Love Them

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It’s Friday, Friday, Friday!  The completion of my first week back at school means that weekends mean something once again.

Typical Friday lazies be damned though, I banged out a ton of work after class this afternoon.  That’s what going to the gym in the morning will do…  A classmate and I sat at a coffee shop and studied from 12 until almost 4.

I had to go to Talking Leaves (a local, independent book store) to buy my music textbook, so we sat at the attached cafe and had lunch.

Chicken pesto panini.

This bad boy – I ate 3/4 – wasn’t even the whole sandwich, I shared the other half with Janessa!

Plus a coffee with skim milk.

Adam picked me up and I came home and kept the productivity ball rolling; all of my (many!) assignments for the semester have been entered into Todoist.

Plus I made another gourmet dinner.

Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta with a Soft Egg, from Cooking Light.  We only made two servings so we basically eyeballed all of the measurements, and we used panko breadcrumbs, but other than that we followed the recipe for a change.  The end results were worth a little obedience.

The soft eggs were perfectly thick and drippy.  They were also a pain in the butt.  We had an impossible time getting them peeled, and all I can say is that it’s a good thing we made a few extra!  We “buy” (I won a year’s worth of free eggs) Eggland’s Best vegetarian-fed eggs and my mother-in-law says the chicken’s low protein diet is what makes our egg shells so hard to peel.

With two perfect clementines for dessert.

These are just so dang good!  (thanks Katie)

Have you found the secret to easy peel eggs?  Please share!

When Do You Work Out?

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I liked yesterday’s early workout so much that I had Adam drop me off at the gym again this morning.

I did a treadmill workout – warm up + 1 mile run (9:17) + incline walking – 2.25miles and 30minutes, followed by a quick stretch and some abs moves.

I haven’t 100% come to a decision yet, but I think I’m going to move towards morning workouts from now on (vs. going at the end of the day after classes) –

cons of morning workouts

  • it adds a 3rd walking trip to my day (Adam drops me at the gym, I walk home to shower, I walk back for class, I walk home again)
  • I won’t have time to eat breakfast before my workout
  • it’s hard for me to wake up before 8

pros of morning workouts

  • my workout is out of the way for the day
  • not having to work out after class makes me much more likely to study before dinner
  • I can wear one thing from class through the end of the evening; I hate feeling like I “wasted” a cute outfit because I have to change into gym clothes at the end of class
  • I won’t have to stuff the aforementioned change of outfit into my purse to get it home from the gym

After a quick shower, I made myself a nice little breakfast.

A mug of cocoa,

half a Sandwich Thin with chunky peanut butter and honey,

and a juicy clementine.

The mix of flavors here was so satisfying.  I am super psyched that clementines are back in season, we’ve got a crate in our fridge!

I have one class on Fridays (biochem) and then my plan is to hole up in a coffee shop somewhere and power through some homework.

When do you prefer to work out?

My First Long Day

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So Wednesdays are a bit insane; I get to campus at 11am and I don’t finish classes until 8:40pm!  By the time my final class was done I was feeling very, very tired.  Sidenote – that tiredness was not helped by the fact that our music teacher does not allow food or drinks in the classroom…..in a 3hour long class……at dinner time. [end rant]

This morning I made sure to eat an extra filling breakfast to make up for yesterday’s missing dinner.

That’s a serving of plain Siggi’s topped with 2 tsp maple jam, 3 Tbsp chunky peanut butter, and a serving of Special K Red Berries.

Delicious, and the (tons of) peanut butter packed a protein punch that kept me full all morning.

Lunch was less exciting.  I packed a minneloa from home,

and bought a southwest chicken flat bread from the book store cafe.

My sandwich was tasty, but my teeth have started hurting and I could only eat half of it.  Boo!

I have lots of break time on Wednesdays – 1 hour + 45 minutes + 2 hours – but unfortunately I didn’t make good use of it at all today.  I’ll have to chalk up the wasted time to first long day tiredness.  Probably from now on I’ll go to the gym in my 2 hour break, but I didn’t want to go all sweaty to my first class session.

When I got home at 9 tonight I was beat.  All I could manage for dinner was a hot chocolate and a frozen meal.

Caramel Praline Hot Cocoa,

and a Pumpkin Squash Ravioli Healthy Choice.

P.S. This is disgusting.  I ate it because I was exhausted and starving, but they were steamed apples in with the squash chunks and the ravioli were sweet and disgusting.

I’m finishing an episode of The X-Files with Adam, and then bedtime can’t come quickly enough!

When was the latest class you took in college?

Snow Filled Saturday

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Howdy all, happy Saturday!  It’s been chilly and busy ’round these parts.  I had lots of errands to run, but more on that later (tomorrow).  Basically I have today and tomorrow to tackle this monster to-do list –

Before I got started on my errands I grabbed this coconut aloe juice.

So good, the best coconut (or aloe) drink I’ve had yet!

The weather was insane today, whiteout for miles.  

It took me forever to get the five miles to the post office, probably because I was only going 10miles an hour!  At least the bad weather meant that this adorable snowflake ended up on my steering wheel –

I snacked on a bag of kettle chips when I got home.

And made myself a Peanut Noodle Lean Cuisine for lunch.

This was actually very good, the sauce was mild but nice.

I also snagged a minneola.

And while I was ruthlessly cutting down my magazine clipping I snacked on a 7-Layer bar.

Then came dinner.

A recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray, Stir-Fried Pasta Primavera (sorry I can’t link to this recipe).

I basically followed Ray’s lead, with a few healthy changes:

  • I wanted 3 big servings (vs. 4), so added a bit more veggies and used a bit less pasta
  • subbed parsley for basil
  • subbed light for heavy cream

The end result was delicious.

I almost never order cream sauces when dining out but lately we’ve been loving them at home.

What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today?

St. Thomas; Tuesday Morning – Thursday Morning

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We’re here. We’re here, we’re here, we’re here!  We’re also busy; this will be a quick recap post.

Tuesday morning at the airport, Adam and I did a good job putting together breakfast from our packed snacks.  We split the Orange Cranberry Cliff Bar,

and shared sharp cheddar, baby carrots, and a gingergold apple throughout the morning.

Our flights went well, and on our layover I found a Salsarita’s for lunch.

(Delicious) chips with spicy salsa,

and a chicken burrito with black beans, a little bit of rice, corn salsa, red onions, medium salsa, and shredded cheese.

So tasty and fresh, especially for a plane meal!  I ate about half of everything.

Before we knew it we were in my childhood home.  Being handed homemade toffee,

and finding gifts on our pillows.

I could get used to this!  The husband and I did some wrapping of our own too.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

Spicy chicken with whole-wheat linguine,

mushrooms and broccoli with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds,

and mandarin oranges.

We ate all squished together in a clump, because someone decided to start a puzzle at the table 😉

For dessert my dad and I opened up these Klick Halva Truffles.

Adam went out (late!) with some of our guy friends from high school, but I stayed home rereading All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein and laughing at the notes I wrote in the margins while writing a 15page final paper on it.

Wednesday morning was all about dinner leftovers for breakfast.

And 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.  My goal for vacation is to (at minimum) get in a good stretch every day.

For lunch, we headed to Barefoot Buddha, my favorite restaurant.

I split a passionfruit smoothie with the husband,

and a bagel sandwich with my mother.

Yuuuuuuuum.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on errands, including finding a gloriously huge pile of Achie comics (donated to my mom’s library),

and getting all of our wedding rings polished.

Plus testing saved maple sugar cookies from Thanksgiving.

Out of the freezer, still good!

For dinner we headed to Island Time Pub with my aunt and cousins (2sets, one local, one visiting). The lighting was awful, but the dark did mean we got to enjoy these sailboat sail “trees.”

Adam and I split a Caesar salad, with green peppers and mushrooms added.

And a buffalo chicken pizza.

I had these two slices plus a third.

I also had two black and cokes with dinner.

After that I was the designated driver, so even though we were out with friend until almost 1, I stuck to diet coke.

This morning began with a workout. A good workout 🙂 St. Thomas isn’t exactly map-my-run-able and I don’t have a Garmin, so we are focusing on time instead of distance. We had my mom drive us down to the nearby beach so we could run (not that we ran I’m the sand, just near the beach). In the end we ran for 20minutes and walked for 18minutes. Then we slowly walked up the HUGE hill home; I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow. All total, 60monutes of activity, which felt great.

Breakfast was Greek Gods honey Greek yogurt, topped with some blueberries and banana.

I’ve spent the morning running errands with my mom, including a trip to school so I could write this post.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what?!?

What’s the best airplane food you’ve ever had? The worst?