Tag Archives: corn

I’m Sure Immortals Was Great

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It feels good to be back!  It will feel even better to actually have my computer back, but I’ll take what I can get.  I will admit that it’s felt a little freeing not having a computer this past week.  Sure, I still check my e-mail on my phone every 10 minutes, but not being tethered to a seat reminded me of how much the old me hated sitting in one place for hours, even in front of  a computer.  Something to think about.

I spent yesterday cooking and Adam spent the morning cleaning.  I like having company because it makes us pretend to live like adults!  While he worked, I munched on a simple but delicious sandwich.

Half a jalapeno cheddar bialey with 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey and a thick schmear of Crofter’s Organic Grape Spread.

I know I say it every time, but the spicy + sweet combo makes my world.

My brother-in-law got into town around noon so we took him to lunch at JP Bullfeathers.  We were sat in the downstairs “wine cellar” area, which was fun.

It was in the 40’s at that point so I relished a warm lunch.

I got a cup of jalapeno corn chowder which I was thrilled to see contained lots of whole kernels of corn.

And an order of garlic bread which I was sad to see was topped with cheese.  Who puts cheese on garlic bread?  I ate three pieces nonetheless.

The lunch as a whole was very heavy and it left me feeling full but not satisfied, if that makes sense.

I had to leave the boys to head in to work.  They went to Blue Monk while I was gone, a trip that required me to have to drive them to the movies later, ahem.  I actually walked from school over to Blue Monk to pick them up on foot first.  It was a nice walk, made even nicer by the purchasing of green juice from O3.

I made my own mix instead of ordering off of the menu, but I believe that what I ended up with was spinach, celery, cucumber, and carrot.

I had no desire to see “Immortals” so I stayed home and did some work.  I knew the dinner plan was pizza so I made sure to eat a nice salad when I got home.

A spinach bed with chopped apple, crumbled blue cheese, groats, and Wegman’s Yogurt Casaer dressing on top.

I’m not sure the salad will make me any less hungry for pizza, but I’m glad I at least got in some produce first.

I also ate a serving of Lindt truffles.

And as soon as I pick up the movie-goers it will be pizza time!  I’m not going to blog again today so the husband can have his computer, but assume I’ll have 1-3 slices of the good stuff.

I will see you all again (phew!) tomorrow.

Today Was The Day

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Hello, hello!  I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, or rather I traveled to school the right way today.  By walking!

I’ll be glad to have my car and parking permit when the weather gets a bit more blustery, but for now I think I’ll try to hoof it more often.  The weather was crisp and cool, and the 20 minutes of travel gave me time to clear my head.  Plus, it’s better for both my body and Mother Earth’s.

I ended up not really packing breakfast or lunch, but doing a brunch-type meal during my first class.  Roasted green beans are delicious, even leftover and cold, but they did feel a little gaggy at 8am.

I pushed through, because I knew something better was coming.

I know that cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin looks unassuming, anything but!

I toasted him and spread one side with the most amazing goat cheese and the other with reduced fat pumpkin cream cheese.  The combination was out of this world.

Confession – I bought the cream cheese in early September while we were visiting my grandparents in Ohio.

I brought it back home to Buffalo and squirreled it away until Pumpkin Month.  It was still good.  And it was good.

Finally I packed a crunchy Sweet Tango apple,

which I ate during the 3-hour break.  We have a tough test coming on Friday so I crunched while I studied.

It’s possible my friends and I didn’t spend the entire three hours with our noses in books.  Gossip, Grey’s Anatomy, and Biscoff Spread discussion might have filled some time as well.  Especially when we realized that we made plans to get cupcakes more than a month ago and they still hadn’t come to fruition.  We decided today was the day.

First we had to get through 2 more classes.  Class #1 answered some really interesting questions I’ve always had about starvation mode and weight loss, and class #2 handed back last week’s exam that I scored a 96% on.  Something to celebrate!

As soon as we were dismissed a group of us hit the Elmwood strip and walked down to Zillycakes.

I can’t believe that I’ve lived in Buffalo for three years and hadn’t gone in here yet; the inside was adorable.

Janessa and I decided to split to maximize our flavor sampling potential.

2 minis and full, which ended up being the perfect serving of cupcake when shared.

We had 1) a mini vegan pumpkin with vegan brown sugar and spice icing.

I ate this first because I was expecting the least of it, but this flavor actually ended up being my favorite.  The icing was perfectly spiced and crunchy in a really pleasing way.

2) A mini caramel apple cupcake with salted caramel buttercream and toffee bits.

This was my least favorite, but it was still delicious.  There were pieces of dried apple in the cake which we both loved.

3) A full-sized mudd cupcake with dark chocolate ganache.

The cake was studded with Oreo crumbles, just like dirt pudding!  I liked the icing but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.  It was like a dark chocolate pudding but I always thought that ganache was supposed to have a more thick, stiff texture?  Either way, it was delicious.

Wednesday’s class doesn’t get out until 4:30 so after cupcaking and taking a long walk with the husband and dog it was time for dinner.

We cooked up a box of mac and cheese with ~ 2/3 cup each frozen edamame and frozen veggie blend (carrots, peas, corn, green beans, lima beans).  We got 2.5 servings out of a 2 serving box so beefing vegging things up certainly helps to spread your dollars and calories.  I topped my serving with a dollop of sour cream and a liberal sprinkling of Sriracha.

Mmmmmmn.  I ran several sprints with the dog though (he was unusually energetic today) and my smallish serving was not enough.  I ended up going back to the kitchen for the last slice of GH sourdough spread with Smart Balance Light.

Now I’m perfectly satisfied.

Have you ever had ganache?  What’s it like?

Wegman’s Jackpot

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We didn’t get in bed until past 11pm and the dog snuggled me awake 10 different times during the night but somehow I did manage to get in a 6am gym session.  Woo-hoo!  30 minutes on the elliptical at level 5.  My feet kill and I was moving pretty slowly, but I got some movement in and spent some time reviewing my notecards.

When I got home I grabbed a coffee for the road but didn’t bother taking a picture because the dog ate my camera cord.  Coffee, English Toffee syrup, Silk Plain Almond Milk.  I think y’all know what that looks likes.  Instead, here is a picture of Webster the Destructor –

I had a nice break between class 1 and 2 because my test only took half of the alloted time.  The test went well, probably not an A but definitely not an F.  We’ve had mostly multiple choice questions for the past year so I need to get used to the short answer, matching, etc. format.

I ate my breakfast on the break (I uploaded my photos after I packed lunch last night).  Mini box of raisins,

serving of Love Grown Granola (HLS swag),

and a Trader Joe’s applesauce packet.

I ended up going ahead and eating my lunch during the same break (phone pic).  I packed a frozen serving of leftover kale and beans which I plated and stuck in the campus bookstore microwave. 

There was a bit of tofurkey sausage and parmesan on the bottom too.  Even frozen and defrosted the bbq kale and beans were still delicious!  I’m sad this is all gone and plan to make another batch soon.

Eating lunch at 10am left me pretty hungry come my second break but I distracted myself with some computer time.  <– I even started writing this post!

After school I had to run to Bagel Jays to pick up some halvah for a school presentation later this week.  They were all out, but the cashier did have a suggestion of where I could find more.  And an epic journey to the Wegmans 25-minutes away with an international section ensued.  In the end that hour was completely worth it though; I ended up finding all sorts of goodies that I haven’t spotted elsewhere in Buffalo!

Adam and I have been searching for everything matzoh every since we left Miami!  And I was excited to eat a snack find right away.

Pizza flavored snacks (chips? crackers?) from Bissli.

Adam and I split the package and we both loved them.  The flavor was pretty mild but the texture was unlike any snack I’ve ever had, very hard and crunchy!  When I turn my epic Wegman’s journey into a monthly event I will definitly be buying more Bissli products.

I also drank a Wegman’s diet root beer and pretty much died and went to heaven.

Sidenote -I don’t show you all of the diet soda I drink (I’d never get off the computer!), just the interesting ones.  Diet cola is my favorite thing on Earth but other sugar-free sodas tend to make me gag.  I’d sooner dehydrate than put Diet Sprite in my mouth.  But this root beer was amazing; perfect balance of sweet and spice, no aftertaste.  This actually was the best root beer I’ve ever had, diet or regular, period.

We ate our snacks on the road because we were out searching for a camera cord replacement.  Many (many) stops later we finally had success.  By the time I had the ability to photograph dinner Adam and I were completely demoralized.  He actually called my mom and begged to charge dinner!  She’s the best lady ever, so out we went.  And wouldn’t you know it, we wandered into restaurant week.

How serendipitous!

My pictures of dinner are all terrible.  I’m hoping it was the lighting because if I need to buy a new camera right after I sprang for a new cord I might just cry.

Course 1 was soup;

a jalapeno cheddar corn potato chowder.

This had a nice spice to it but was too rich for my taste.

For my entrée I ordered the tortellini ratatouille.

That’s not it.  I was two bites in I was complaining about the lack of veggies when I came to a startling realization – this was the tortellini Bolognese.  Pros – my entire pre fixe meal was comped.  Cons – I ate a cow!!?!

Our waiter was apologetic about the mishap and soon enough I had my ratatouille.

Much better, this had tons of veggies.  I ate 2/3 of my meal and brought the leftovers home for a happy husband.  He ordered steak with a Stilton crust and was thrilled.

For dessert I ordered peach cobbler with Grand Marnier and chantilly cream.

I never really consider the cobbler but this was a lot of fun to eat.  I finished all of the peaches and cream and 3/4 of the cobbler.

Not so fun is the fact that my stomach started hurting halfway through dinner.  It was bad enough that the pain was making me sweat (though not bad enough that I’ll skip dessert, apparently!).  The issue was probably the creamy soup, but I’m going to blame the beef!

Are there any foods you don’t eat?  When was the last time one slipped into your meal?  Veggies – how do you react when you accidentally consume some flesh?

Shrimptastic

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I can’t even tell you how freaking good it feels to be back to blogging.  I know I don’t always blog everything (though if I blog for a day than I include everything that goes in my mouth) but going extended periods without posting just feels strange!

I’ve got a busy week ahead – 3 tests and 2 projects by Friday – so I set my alarm for 8am to get working.  I got a little distracted by house organizing and puppy training but I got a good bit of work done too.  I was extra fueled by coffee.

Into my big mug (thanks Janetha!) went 2.5 cups of coffee, 2 Tbsp English Toffee syrup, and a big pour (~3/4 cup?) of Silk Plain Almond Milk.

Hello, dog.

I went unorthodox for breakfast because I found the last serving of bacon, corn, and shrimp chowder lurking in the back of the fridge.

Food safety regulations would have called for tossing this but it tasted great and I feel fine.

Around 12:30 I headed over to Delaware Park for a run.  Running at high-noon wasn’t my best idea but this ended up being a terrible workout in general.

  • ran 1.75 mile lap in 19:30
  • paused break for peeing and stretching (I drank a big cup of water with my big cup of coffee; slosh city)
  • “ran” 1.75 mile lap in 24:30
  • walked 1.75 mile lap in 43:30

That’s 3.5 miles in 44 minutes plus 1.75 miles more walked.  This run was pretty much a shitshow.  9 minutes into my second lap my feet went completely numb and I had to walk to avoid twisting my ankle.  Adam had tightly tied my shoes for me but loosening them didn’t help and I wasn’t off pins and needles until I actually took my shoes off.  I wanted to finish my last walking lap because I had my notecards with me to review so I ended up doing 1.75 miles barefoot.  It seemed like a good idea at the time but my gigantic, excruciating blisters indicate that it was actually a terrible idea.  Ouch!

I was at least cheered up by my shower thanks to this lavender soap my mom sent me –

When I was a kid my mother loved lilac (which smells like cat pee, by the way) but my dad and I couldn’t get it together so we’d always buy her tons of lavender-scented goodies.  I teased her for years about being an old lady but in the last year or so I’ve become completely obsessed with all things lavender.  Guess I’m the old lady.

Adam offered to help me hobble through the grocery store so I did a quick-lunch out of hand.  A black plum,

and a Sweet Tango apple.

Holy crisp and juicy, Batman!  I was so thrilled to loudly munch through a fresh apple; Sweet Tangos are divine.

We did Wegmans and the co-op and when I got home I hungrily dug into this container of Dr. McDougall’s Spicy Kung Pow Noodles.

Pretty darn good.  The was a nice amount of spice to these and it felt like a ton of food for 220 calories.

Dinner involved more shrimp and tasted better than it looked.

On the left is a small serving of Cooking Light‘s Bombay Shrimp Curry.  My changes to the recipe included using ground mustard instead of mustard seed, skipping the cilantro, and using a veggie mix with peas, corn, carrots, lima beans, and green beans.  I also skipped the rice because I had just eaten pasta.

Unfortunately, we hated it.  Adam and I both could barely choke this down.  The flavor was strangely flat and it was spicy in an unpleasant way.  Do not recommend.

I know the stuff on the right looks bad, but I promise it tasted sooooo good.

Cheesy baked eggplant!  Using this Italian eggplant I picked up at the farmers’ market last week.

For two – into my mini casserole dish went a thin layer of marinara, a layer of thinly sliced eggplant, a sprinkle of salt, a thick layer of marinara, and 2 slices of 2% provolone cheese.  Baked at 450* for 45minutes.

Gah; this was unbelievable!  The eggplant got soft enough to cut with a fork and baking the cheese intensified its flavor x100.  We are going to make this again as a main meal very soon.

For dessert I used Mixchief Jell-O Mix to make Cherry Coke Jell-O.

How fun!  It wasn’t as strong as I would have liked but I would try it again and substitute more cola for water next time.

That bowl had 2 servings but I only ate one.  To be honest I’m feeling pretty unsatisfied; I think I will most likely end up adding enough dessert to this day while I study.  I’ll update later if I do.

How often do you update your blog?  Does it feel strange to take breaks.

***Updated to add – I did have a 2nd (fiberific) dessert; 1/3 cup of All Bran Bran Buds with 2 tsp of crushed Heath bar.  No picture because the dog chewed through my camera cord.  <– ugh!

Bacon, And Corn, And Shrimp, Oh My

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Wednesdays are my long days (8 – 4:40 on campus) but today didn’t feel so bad.  I’ve fallen into the swing of 8 am classes and my friend Janessa and I had a group project to work on that filled up our long break between classes.  Throughout the day I did eat all of my packed lunch components.  I also bought a short apple cider from the school coffee shop.

This wasn’t a total fail like the Tim Horton’s cider, but it still tasted a lot like warm apple juice.

I need to find a good cider before the end of September Apple Month!

Adam came to pick me up at the end of the day and wanted me to go to Wegmans with him to pick something up for school.  He plied me with hot bar.

I caved easily.  To be fair, I genuinely needed some greens to go with my dinner.

Plus a few pieces of chicken for good measure.

It’s a good thing I was still hungry when I got home (ha! when am I ever not still hungry?) because I got to work cooking an actual dinner.

I’m not sure what corn chowder is supposed to look like but to me that looks like success.

I pulled the recipe for Bacon-Corn Chowder with Shrimp from Cooking Light last month but I was waiting until it felt more like fall to try it out.  Here were my changes –

  • using 5 strips of (Applegate Farms) turkey bacon and crumbling it all into the soup
  • skipping the thyme
  • throwing in 2 extra cloves of garlic
  • leaving my frozen corn frozen when it went into the pot

I gave myself a large serving and happily tucked into the first soup of the season.

Adam and I thought that the recipe was good, but not amazing like we wanted it to be.  I wanted the flavors to be more vibrant and definitely sweeter.  I think a large part of the problem was using frozen corn; I’d love to make this again but with fresh corn off the cob.  We gave it a 6.5/10 but considering how low-calorie it was (~300 calories for 1 and 2/3 cups) the flavor certainly wasn’t bad.

My taste buds weren’t fully satisfied by the meal though.  I actually ended up making myself an after-dinner coffee.

A little bit of lukewarm coffee, a Tbsp of sugar, and a lotta bit of Plain Silk Almond Milk.  I hope the caffeine doesn’t keep me up!

Serendipitous Stop

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Hello from Ohio!  I’m so glad we had this long weekend so I had the chance to get over to visit my grandparents.  My grandpa is in the hospital at the moment unfortunately, but we’ll get to visit a bit and we’re hanging out with my grandma until Monday.

I went to bed at 3am last night this morning and my alarm went off at 7am so you know I turned to coffee.

Adam and I shared this cup, with a small splash of English Toffee syrup and a big splash of skim milk.

Webster had an appointment to get his booster shots so we headed to the vet’s office on the way out of town.  Adam took him alone for the first visit while I was at HLS and I was so impressed today with how brave he was.

He was a total champ on the car road too.  Most of the trip was spent like this,

or like this.

And he drank water out of a glass in the cup holder like a little traveler!

When we weren’t fawning over how cute the dog is, we were eating.  I didn’t get a chance to pack lunch for myself and I got very lucky with a serendipitous stop.  I was hungry and thirsty when I spotted a Chipotle so I asked Adam to pull over,

and then we realized that we were only 2 miles from froyo!

Booyah!  You’ve seen my froyo face, but here is my “froyo and Chipotle?!?” face –

self taken in the bathroom mirror because even I have a little shame.

We actually ate our froyo first.

I stuck with a theme and got a small cup of low-fat mint froyo topped with snowcaps, crumbled Andes, Oreos, and fudge sauce.

Swoon.

Then I ate my Chipotle rice bowl in the car.

They let me do a small scoop of rice topped with black beans, fajita veggies, corn salsa, mild salsa, and a tiny sprinkle of cheese.

I topped the whole thing off myself with TONS of green Tabasco.  Double swoon.

Other snacks included part of this apple which got warm and gross,

and this baggie of snacks (yogurt pretzels!) from my grandparents’ house.

We made it to Ohio in pretty good time and got to spend an hour visiting with my grandpa before coming home to a gourmet dinner.

I swear eating with my grandma makes you feel like you’re at a hotel!

Homemade cole slaw,

a slice of foccacia,

roasted asparagus,

and enchilada casserole.

I only left a bite or two on my plate but I definitely made room for dessert.

Homemade chocolate pie.  I scraped my crust off for Adam (crust is to filling like cake is to icing) but practically licked the rest of my plate clean.

The filling of this was like chewable pudding, so good!

I am stuffed, exhausted, and ready for bed.

Long Run, Long Day, Short Post

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My semester won’t be impossible but it does look like shorter posts will probably become a regular thing.  I think adding a dog and adding (back) exercise to my life at the start of a new semester was not my most stress-free idea!

Adam drove me to school this morning – his current rotation is the psychiatric facility that’s near my campus so we’ll probably be carpooling a lot the next few weeks – so I was thrilled that my teacher suggested a 10 minute walk around campus at the beginning of class.

It was fun to get moving and in a 4-hour class any minute out of the room is a godsend.

My breakfast pie held me over pretty well but I did start to dig into my packed food a couple of hours into class.

A sliced apple topped with the 90-calorie Barney Butter packet from my HLS swag bag.

I’m typically not an almond butter girl so I was expecting to be unimpressed but I actually loved the roasty flavor and smooth texture of the BB.  I guess the other bloggers have been onto something!

I also ate this snack pack of raisins,

and a chocolate from my candy box.

Fuuuuun!  I think I’m going to make chocolate boxes a more regular part of my life.

After our class ended I actually hit up the part-time job fair.  I gave a couple of resumes out so please keep your fingers crossed for me, though I’m not sure adding a job to my life is the answer right now.

I ate lunch with friends and grabbed this snack pack of hummus with pita crackers from the book store.

There isn’t a convenience store on campus (or the C Store like we called it in Miami!) but the book store does have some pretty healthy offerings.  My friend Kim was heading to the mall so I group of us ended up going for funsies.  I didn’t buy anything but it’s always fun to walk around.

When I got back to campus, it was time for the gym.  It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty, but I achieved my goal.  Through a strange mix of walking and running I did 7 miles in 79 minutes.  Booyah.  I drank a fruit punch Gatorade-2 and I definitely think it helped fuel me through the longer workout.

Speaking of fueling, Adam went to Saigon Cafe for a work lunch and he brought me home his Pad See Eiw leftovers.  I pounced as soon as I walked in the door.

After a walk home and shower I was ready to face my replanned evening.  We are going to visit my grandparents for the long weekend (fun) but I just found out that I have a responsibility for class on Monday night that will be pretty time-consuming (not fun) so I needed to move around some things.  We ended up heading to the grocery store tonight which will hopefully make my weekend run more smoothly (my responsibility involves making chili).

I shared this frozen coffee with Adam while we shopped.

And made myself the quickest dinner I could think of when we got home, tacos.

I scrambled a big scoop (1/2 cup?) of corn relish into two eggs and then stuffed them into taco shells.  Topped with spicy salsa and a dollop of light sour cream.

I almost never eat tacos, especially hard tacos, but lately they’ve been rocking my socks.

We had to take Webster on a long walk, which took even longer than planned, so clearly I’m not getting up to workout tomorrow.  I’ll have to work on that goal next week. 

This wasn’t really a short post was it?  It’s possible I’m verbose.

Mood Food

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Today’s eats were a little strange, which made them perfect mood food since I feel a little strange.  I’m an odd mix of nerves and excitement about heading back to school tomorrow.  I’m thrilled about getting back on a schedule but I’m worried that I’m planning on working on too many goals (being a better student, getting on a workout schedule, cooking more often).  I don’t want to set myself up to fail by trying to do/change too much.

I spent my morning setting up the office for school and worked right through breakfast.  Side note – trying to figure out which notes to save for registration exam studying is brutal.  I’m not sure whether I’m throwing away things I need or saving so much that it will be overwhelming.

I didn’t want to head to the grocery on a completely empty stomach so I stirred a scoop of protein powder into a glass of skim milk.

It wasn’t very good (it tasted about as good as it looks), apparently I only like our protein powder after it’s been through the blender.

I did get myself a small but delicious salad from the hot bar too.

A spring mix lettuce base with tarragon vinaigrette, topped with a scoop of corn and kidney bean salad,

a scoop of veggie lo mein,

and a tiny piece of smoked salmon and brie.

The whole combo was super tasty, I think I may need to do salad at the hot bar more often.  I really want to like smoked (basically raw) salmon and usually I’m too afraid but today I loved it.

When I got home Adam and I took a quick walk through the Elmwood Art Festival.  We were naughty and snuck in our own beverages.

The Woodchuck Limited Release Winter Hard Cider is wonderful.  It tastes more like a vanilla-scented apple juice than something boozey.  Also when I went to the site to link for you guys I discovered that they make a pumpkin variety!  <– must find

I knew dinner was going to be on the small side, so I made myself a tasty yogurt bowl to supplement when we got home.

Low-fat coffee yogurt with 1oz of honey roasted peanuts and a drizzle of honey.

One of those combos from when I was a kid that I still love.

We didn’t have any set plans for dinner, but I did want to make a batch of Jenna’s Sweet and Spicy BBQ Beans to have for lunches this week.

I used 2+ cups worth of extra kale and it came out fabulously.  This recipe – which really is sweet and spicy – gives the best chew.

We decided to make the beans the bulk of dinner.

Such a good plan!  I topped my serving with shredded Parmesan, more Sriracha, and a dollop of 0% Plain Fage.

Dee-lish!  I sort of ate around the cheese to save it for the end and I was swooning by my last bite.

To round out my meal with carbs I turned to popcorn.

1 serving, topped with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  I can’t think of a better way to face a new school year than popcorn.

Who else is heading back to school this year?