A Tropical Getaway

I may be stuck in Buffalo until spring break but tonight’s meal felt like a tropical getaway!  And what better day to celebrate the sunny Caribbean than a day that’s all about romantic getaways?!

Every single aspect of tonight’s meal was tropical and tasty.  We started with a Uniq fruit as our appetizer.

We have tried Ugli fruits before, but this was our first Unique.  It was a little too bitter/sour for me.  We each ate 2-3slices from the mound and the rest got packed away.

Dinner was much more successful.

Lime Ponzu broccoli with walnuts,

and my Coco Loco Tofu.

Everything together was delicious.

Coco Loco Tofu is my favorite tofu recipe, it is the perfect blend of savory and sweet.  For the side dish I sautéed a big bag of frozen brocoli in clementine olive oil, then added a few walnuts and some Kikoman Lime Ponzu Sauce.

The sauce came from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program and was the perfect addition to our Caribbean night.

Even our drinks were tropical!  We made hibiscus mimosas.

I’ve carried this hibiscus juice from Brooklyn and I was almost sad to open it.

For the mimosas we used a little extra oj because the champagne (from our wedding!) wasn’t cooled, with a splash of hibiscus juice.

Wonderful!

I’ve got to work on my lab before we head to bed, but I’ll probably be pouring a 2nd mimosa!  Have a great night lovers!

How did you celebrate Valentine’s today?

A Lunch Post?!

I knew this would be a busy week, but now it feels like things are just dropping out of the sky!  Last night’s late night issue was the power to our fridge randomly being shut off.  Fun times 😦

I planned on getting up to eat breakfast before lab but my pushed back bedtime meant I just wanted to sleep in.  I packed a (peeled) minneola to eat in class,

and bought a small package of peanuts from a vending machine as well.

Lab went well, but I’m incredibly worried about how difficult the post-lab calcuations are going to be, the minute my test is done on Friday I’m going to have to start working on that.  First I have to get through tomorrow’s Anthropology test though.

Lunch was a semi-Asian affair.  I had a serving of mini chicken egg rolls,

and a Thai-Style chicken Lean Cuisine.

I also randomly had a forkful of peanut butter,

and a (too) big bowl of cereal.

Now I am about to head to the Spot for a quickie study session with Caroline.  I’ll be back for dinner.

Do you have vending machines nearby at your job or school?  Do they tempt you to make unhealthy choices or are there any quality options available. 

Combos are Like Rocket Fuel for Studying

I have my first Chemistry quiz at 8am sharp tomorrow (as well as my first ChemII lab experiment!) so I’ll keep this short and sweet.  I hate doing one loooooong post, I like 2x or 3x days better.

Breakfast was delicious.

The last small serving of carrot cake pancakes smeared with sunbutter and maple syrup.

And a Cara Cara Orange.  I think I’m in love!  This had such a perfect balance of sour and sweet and it’s PINK.

My appetite has been crazy lately and I was so hungry I wanted to chew off my arm within minutes of finishing breakfast!  The only solution was to make my favorite snack of all time –

Cedar’s pita chips with feta spread.  I finished off the feta spread today and I just might have shed a few tears about it!

I randomly decided it was a fantastic idea to watch Make it or Break it in the middle of the day, which meant that lunch was an on-the-go affair eaten during Anthropology.

Naked Red Machine Juice and an Almond and Cashew KIND Plus Bar.

Plus the snack of champions a few hours later in Chemistry.

Combos and diet soda are always a winning pair 🙂

Dinner-dinner was leftover Cocoa-Coconut Chili (1C serving),

topped with 2% colby jack, 0% Fage, and some jalopenos.

Yum!  This is much healthier than the jalopeno and cheddar nachos I was inhaling a while back but just as tasty.

The plan for the evening is to study a bit and make it to bed before 10.  I do NOT feel prepared, I got a lot of catching up to do before my two tests next week.  I’ll let you know how the quiz went tomorrow at lunch, hasta!

Are you a combos fan?  I dare a 90’s child to say no!

P.S. My inner-fatty wouldn’t stop screaming so I ate this snack while I studied –

I want to call bad lighting but it really did look like that!  (Approximately) 1 ripe banana + 2T 0% Fage + 1T sunbutter + cinnamon + crumbled caramel filled cookie.

P.P.S. I completely forgot to do a Fest Check-in

  • Food – pretty good, if I had packed an apple or something I could have skipped the Combos
  • Exercise – meh, I chose not to work out in leiu of studying but this ties into T
  • Sleep – if I actually brush my teeth and go to bed now (9:40ish) pretty damn good
  • Time management – sucessful people do not watch tv shows about teenage gymnasts in the middle of the day!

Sleepy Sunday

We overslept (what else is new?!?) so waking up was a stressful, frustrating affair; but I tried to make breakfast as soothing as possible.

A serving of leftover carrot cake pancakes,

with 1/3cup 1% cottage cheese topped with a honey tangerine.

I’m loving all the citrus options lately!

I’ve got to get cracking, see you for lunch.

What is your favorite kind of citrus?  I enjoyed the Ugli fruit a lot just because it was so unique, but clementines top my list due to their lack of seeds.

P.S. Check out this girl’s first giveaway!

Carrot Cake n’ Coffee

It’s good to be back, and it’s a Friday!  My tummy troubles seem to be better which is always a good thing.

Breakfast this morning had me thinking of Tina.  Perhaps because it involved carrots n’ cake? 🙂  I followed this Cooking Light recipe for carrot cake pancakes.

A winner!  I halved the recipe, so some of the spices were eyeballed, and skipped the canola oil, but they came out perfectly.  I loved the spice flavor and I though the consistency was great.

The entire breakfast felt pretty darn fancy.

1 serving of carrot cake pancakes, topped with Smart Balance Light and a drizzle of maple syrup (that’s a side plate btw).

A mineola with the last of the blueberries.

And french pressed chocolate peppermint coffee with tons of skim milk.

I really want to start doing more homemade coffee, this really rounded out the meal. 

Once the kitchen is all cleaned up – and there’s not much to do because I clean as I cook – I’m going to settle in with some reading.

Don’t forget, today’s the last day to enter my giveaway.

Whine and Cheese

This was not my most sucessful Tuesday, I’ll keep this quick because I’m in a pretty bad mood.

Sooooooooo, my tasty oats this morning?  Two issues – 1. They apparently had no staying power, I was starving by 10am.  2. The 1/3 of yogurt is from the same container as last week’s 1/3 a cup in overnight oats.  It was a single serving cup of Dannon, which I placed inside a tupperware after I opened it.  I wondered about that decision this morning, but I figured it would all be ok.  Yeah, so not ok!  My stomach hurt so bad I thought I was going to die and I ended up going home after my first class.  Boo!

Between starving and sick I did squeeze in lunch at the school cafeteria.

It was a pretty lame lunch, sometimes food court situations are really overwhelming for me.  The excess of choices tend to induce mini panic attacks and short of that I choose quickly, randomly, and poorly.  Thus a sandwich that was neither healthy nor what I was craving.

Chicken salad on a spinach wrap with shredded lettuce, jalopenos, black olives, and blue cheese dressing.  I also had a side of pickles,

and some so-so chips I only ate due to extreme hunger.

Post lunch but before class I also grabbed a tall white hot chocolate.

In retrospect that wasn’t the best choice; I had it made with skim instead of whole milk but it was still too much sugar.  Which doesn’t mean that once I was curled up wimpering on the couch I didn’t eat this brownie.  😉

Or two servings of these guys, straight from the bag, not a good idea.

Given that chips are not that healthy of an appetizer choice I tried to keep dinner light.

The other half of my minneola and a kiwi bowl,

leftovers of the tastiest collards on earth,

mini pita with melted blue brie.

I promise to be in a better mood tomorrow!  But not a morning mood, I have my first chem lab tomorrow and it start at 8am, I clearly won’t be blogging until lunch.  Night.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

Front-Loading Fruits

Isn’t she lovely?!?

It’s good to be back.  I missed you guys!  I’m not gonna lie though – the husband and I took advantage of the few camera free days and ate a bunch of crap (those of you who’re thinking “but you always eat a bunch of junk,” this was actually worse, gasp).  So this morning I front-loaded my day with antioxidant rich fruit.

First a tasty kiwi.

I love the taste of kiwis but eating them skin on makes me gag and removing the skin requires Iron Chef-like knife skills.  However, my Kiwi Bowl method works perfectly!

Next I tried this Siggi’s Pomegranate Passion Fruit.

The yogurt was disturbingly tart but topped with blueberries, half a minneola, and ~1.5t of agave syrup it was perfection.

A healthy start to the day is always energizing.

And I needed the energy.  Adam and I had lots and lots of fun this weekend, not limited to dinner at a new Vegan spot with Katie (me), purchasing/playing RockBand with friends (him), getting Adam hooked on Buffy reruns, purchasing my Bloggie Secret Valentine gift, and seeing “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.”  Whew!  All that didn’t leave much time for work so we actually set the alarms for 6am to finish homework this morning.

My homework is done but I have a long list of to-do’s for the day still:

  1. volunteering shift at the hospital
  2. errands – mail, bank, etc.
  3. a bit of blog business
  4. a bit of school business
  5. getting my new computer set up
  6. laundry
  7. a beyond necessary trip to the gym for training
  8. dinner

Yikes, I better get going!

it’s a 2fer day1. How do you eat your kiwi?  2. Did you see “The Imaginarium,” what’d you think?