Bok To School

by Emily

I’m heading back to school tomorrow (eek!) and I finally remember all my education on the importance of vegetables. Better late than never! All of my meals today included a veggie and two of them centered around bok choy (“bok to school,” hyuck, hyuck). Tomorrow I should probably work on including some fruits.

I did not get right into bed last night – and the neighbor’s dumbass friends ringing our doorbell at 4 am didn’t help my sleep either – but I did make it to yoga this morning. A 60 minute hot yoga class.

Breakfast made use of our bok choy gratin leftovers.

I scrambled a big serving into two eggs along with a few dashes of green Tabasco.

Hidden inside the eggs, this casserole actually wasn’t half bad.

Our afternoon entertainment was a walk through the Elmwood Art Festival.

We saw a few cool pieces but my main goal was lunch and I sadly didn’t see any food that appealed to me. I ended up eating at the hot bar when we went to the grocery.

Wok-seared veggies that were the best I’ve ever had from the hot bar,

two pieces of sweet and sour chicken,

and a few grapes for dessert.

I also ate this fun-size pack of Sugar Babies while we were out and about.

I nibbled on a half serving of Special K Savory Herb Crackers while I made dinner.

Dinner was homemade soup.

Thai-Inspired Coconut Peanut Soup, serves 4 (vegan)

1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
medium green bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 green onions, sliced
2 Thai hot peppers, finely chopped
15 oz can stir-fry mushrooms
4 heaping cups baby bok choy
13.6 oz can light coconut milk
16 oz vegetable broth
6 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
2 cups black rice vermicelli, broken in half
lime juice (optional)
Sriracha (optional)

Heat sesame oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
Add green pepper to pot and cook 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add green onions and Thai pepper and cook another 2 minutes.
Add mushrooms and bok choy and cook another 2 minutes.
Stir in coconut milk and broth and bring to a boil.
Stir in peanut butter and vermicelli and boil an additional 7 minutes.
Top bowls with lime juice and Sriracha to taste.

We are both looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.

Also consumed, was an Honest Tea Honey Green Tea.

I’m down to the last bottle from my Honest Tea shipment and I definitly plan on buying more with my own money when they’re gone.

I’m hoping to paint my nails (both sets!) before bed; gotta go!

27Jul2012

Sun Shine

by Emily

My parents didn’t actually come to visit, not yet anyway. They will be here soon (hopefully!) and it was a good day nonetheless.

Breakfast bowl.

Plain yogurt, sliced plums, fat-free sweetened condensed milk, and cinnamon.

1 – Cinnamon on yogurt is awesome. 2 – Having an open thing of SCM in the fridge has also been awesome.

When visitors come to town Adam and I like to pretend that we don’t regularly live in squalor so we cleaned the house. Or rather, Adam cleaned the entire house and I made the bed and put away my own laundry.

Whatever, that bedspread hasn’t been on straight since the last time my parents were here.

For lunch we split a Mike’s Sandwich from The Spot.

I ordered, and when Adam asked me what we got I told him “a bagel with cholesterol, topped with cholesterol.” Basically it’s an everything bagel with 2 eggs, melted provolone, and cream cheese.

It’s as amazing as it sounds.

Also amazing, was my workout. 60 minutes of hot yoga. My standing series was pretty wobbly today but I made it further in a few of the seated poses than I have before. I always leave the hot yoga classes feeling really, really happy.

Around 5, my dad called with some news. The good news was they were still paying for dinner. The bad news was they wouldn’t be eating with us. I’m pissed that we lost a whole evening of visiting and fingers are crossed that they’ll be here at 10.

But we did have a fantastic dinner. I keep a running list of ‘places to try’ on my cell phone and today we crossed off Sun Restaurant.

Sun sells Burmese and Thai cuisine and we tried a bit of both.

We started by sharing La Peth Thoat. Burmese-style pickled tea leaf salad combined with crispy chana dal pea, fried garlic, onion, tomato, cabbage, peanuts, and lime juice.

I strongly liked it, Adam loved it. The tea leaves and cabbage were delicious with the lime and the fried chickpeas (crispy chana dal pea) were fun to try.

I got Pad See U – ordered “Thai spicy” – as my entrée. Thai-style stir-fried wide rice noodles with thick sweet soy sauce, egg, broccoli, Napa cabbage, and bell pepper.

This was the best Thai food we’ve had in Buffalo! My noodles were cooked perfectly and the dish was actually spicy. I loved it. I ate 2/3 of my plate and only managed to stop because I am so looking forward to having leftovers.

We split a Taro Custard for dessert. Thai-style taro custard cake with coconut milk.

We’ve had this dessert at a couple of restaurants now and I think it’s just not our thing. We both love the bites of taro but we always end up leaving food behind.

Please cross your fingers for us that my parents get in on time so we can have fun tomorrow!

18Jul2012

Black Bean Benedicts

by Emily

As I’d hoped yesterday, this was a much more successful day; after work I checked off several to-do’s that were looming. I didn’t get in a formal workout (I was out of bed and dressed in time though, go me!) but that was because I chose a long walk with my boys instead.

Our walk ate up my time for working out and breakfasting, but at least I got coffee out of the deal.

(with three caramel coffee creamers)

Lunch was a breadless wb&j, aka a giant bag of green grapes and a packet of walnut butter.

I didn’t love Artisana’s pecan butter so I was pleasantly surprised by the walnut. I think I’d prefer all off their options with more salt and more roast.

I also ate a thing of broccoli and cashew salad on my walk home.

To-do’s were tackled before cooking. Sidenote – major shout out to Bank of America for awesome service; we had a fraudulent charge on my credit card and they have resolved the issue so speedily.

Dinner was worth waiting for.

A big pile of roasted green beans.

We roast the green beans (at 450* for 20 minutes) in baking spray and salt but somehow this pile tasted like butter.

Butter made an appearance on the other side of the plate as well. The exciting thing I was going to do with Cilantro Lime Black Bean Burger leftovers? Benedicts!

Well, my take on Benedicts anyway. A bean burger topped with a sunny side up egg topped with hollandaise-ish sauce.

The “-ish” is because I couldn’t quite pull off the sauce. I followed a traditional recipe cut down for two servings – 1 large egg yolk, 1/8 tsp mustard, 1 tsp lemon juice, 3 dashes hot sauce, 2.5 Tbsp melted butter – but I couldn’t get it to emulsify. I ended up cooking the sauce in my hot skillet to help it thicken up. The smooth hollandaise texture was lost but the taste was there.

Have you ever tried your hand at hollandaise sauce?

17Jul2012

I Sure Don’t Act Like I’m Almost 27

by Emily

Did you know it’s my birthday in a week? That’s right, I turn 27 on the 24th.

On one hand I don’t feel like it’s been a year since my last birthday and on the other I can’t wait for it to get here. I’m just so sick of myself lately! I talk to myself in my head ~~like a crazy person~~ like JD and in the past month I’ve head-said “when am I going to grow up?” at least a million times.

I had big plans to work out this morning and instead I stayed up past 2:30 reading a book. And then when I got up at 10 I was almost late to work because I stayed in bed to keep reading. I love that I’m an obsessive reader, I don’t want to ever change that about myself, but I wish I didn’t always feel like I’m not taking care of business.

I have a great life so no year is really ever a bad year, but 26 was definitely not one of my better years. I didn’t cook and clean to my full potential. I didn’t maintain my relationship with the husband to my full potential. I didn’t work out ~~to my full potential~~ basically at all. I didn’t do schoolwork to my full potential. I didn’t blog to my full potential. And when I try to think “just what the hell was I doing all year??” I have no answer. I’m tired of feeling complacent!!!

Basically, tl;dr – I’m looking forward to living up to my potential as a 27-year-old. And living up to my full potential during the next week, because almost-27-year-olds don’t need to wait for some magical start date to clean their apartments.

Now that I’ve ranted, this will actually be a short post. I put in a new retainer last night and that put a major crimp in today’s eating. I brushed my teeth this morning and then kept my retainer in full-time until 7:30. When I left work I had a sore mouth and a growling stomach. F’real Coffee Frozen Cappuccino to the rescue.

It wasn’t very good but it met all of my current needs (cold, soft, has calories) so I drank it.

Adam made me a bowl of green grapes when I got home.

And I made myself a big plate of eggs for dinner.

Into my skillet went –

1 tsp evoo
~ 1 cup frozen corn
big handful baby spinach
2 sliced green onions
2 sprinkles salt
4 dashes Green Tabasco
2 large eggs

Thankfully my eggs were easy to chew and tasty to boot.

I had an Abita Strawberry with dinner.

❤

I’m going to read in bed again but I’m also going to ask Adam to slap the book out of my hands at midnight so I can make it to the gym in the morning.

Rate your current year; has it been one of your best or one of your worst?

5Jul2012

Stone Soup

by Emily

Long time no blog. I’m glad to be back, but my days away were glor-i-ous! I spent 70% of Monday – Wednesday curled up in bed. I ate pizza and lots of chocolate. I watched the first season of “Flashpoint.” And I read five (250+ page) murder-mystery novels. Like I said, glorious.

Back-in-the-world-Thursday started with a trip to the gym. 40 minutes on the stationary bike at level 7 random. Followed by stretching that was not enough because my right hip has been killing me all afternoon.

I ate half of this NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt bar on the walk home.

Summer is the only time when I could drive to the gym and park, but why get in a car when I can walk? If I’m not in a time-crunch I’d rather move my legs. And Buffalo State’s recent landscaping makes it a lovely walk indeed.

The 2nd half of breakfast used my new favorite smoothie ingredient.

This Vanilla Chai Vega was stupid good. I haven’t had a chai latte in forever and I feel an iced one in my immediate future. For my smoothie I blended the Vega packet with 1 cup of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk and a large frozen banana.

It didn’t taste green and the 15 grams of protein kept me full all morning.

I hurried through errands – Lexington Co-op, Goodwill, Wegmans – so I could meet a friend for a walking date this afternoon. I picked her up on Elmwood and we set off for the (new) Buffalo Cakery.

I brought Adam a cupcake but went with ice cream myself. A small cup of candied apple and salted caramel.

Sadly the flavors weren’t great together and I had to throw out my cup halfway through when things got melty. The 4 miles of walking were hot-hot-hot but also just what I needed.

I cooled down with a Tusker when I got home.

And I was glad for ac this evening because my meal was hot and spicy. I borrowed components from the rest of the week’s dinners for a stone soup of sorts.

In a small pot, I heated up 1 tsp chipotle oil. I sautéed ~1.5 cups chopped bok choy and 2 sliced green onions with the juice from half a lime and 1 Tbsp fish sauce. I added ~1 cup frozen corn and 1.5 cups chicken broth then covered and boiled for 5 minutes. Then I took of the lid and stirred in 1 large egg, juice from another lime, and a big squeeze of Sriracha.

The end result was an odd mash-up of Thai and Mexican flavors but it worked.

I should have made dinner bigger though because it ended up being a 2 dessert evening. The last Tbsp of so of Biscoff, straight from the jar.

And 5 marshmallows and 1 Tbsp chocolate chips, microwaved until gooey.

Tasty, but I would have been better off with an extra egg in my soup.

I’m off to watch more “Flashpoint,” but hopefully not for too long; we’ve been up past 2 am every day this week and I’m hoping to break that pattern. Night!

17Jun2012

Father’s Day

by Emily

Did everyone have a happy end to their weekend? Things have been quiet around these parts, mostly because the husband caught a summer cold. Poor boy!

I did get up at 6 am to start my book club recipe but then I spent half the day napping to make up for it. And we did start our second morning (at 10am!) with a quick Fur-Fathers’ Day walk.

I love those guys.

The tree outside of our house is sprouting cherries!!!!

Would it be crazy to eat them?

Brunch was a veggie scramble. I cooked chopped poblano and broccoli into four eggs (split between the two of us).

Plain yogurt and creamy mushroom soup were also in the mix.

I rounded out my meal with some tasting as I spent my afternoon in the kitchen. A puppy treat and a people treat were made and I’ll be sharing the recipes this week.

I’m not feeling so hot either and cooking was basically my only accomplishment this weekend. I spent half my day moping because I’m just so tired of myself. It would have been too flipping easy to get my stuff done in advance and instead I’m waking up early tomorrow to plough through things last-minute.

We had salads in the afternoon.

Romaine topped with 2 Tbsp of Wegman’s peanut sauce and 1 Tbsp each buckwheat groats, tamari almonds, flax, and white cheddar.

It was really good.

I stocked Adam up with leftovers and I ate dinner at book club.

We didn’t actually read a book this month but it was good to get together and talk (and eat!)

I had bruschetta, cheesy artichoke dip, and strawberry guacamole with blue chips.

A small glass of wine.

Roasted veggie enchillada.

And (messy, tasty) pie.

(Recipe’s coming by Tuesday)

P.S. I love you Daddy!!

13Jun2012

Lunch In The Cafeteria

by Emily

Hello, again! Long time no see; or at least it has felt long to me. There is some stuff going on that has made it in my best professional interest to skip posting, so that’s where I was the past two days. I obviously can’t share but I promise you’re not missing anything too juicy. And now I can come back!

This week of summer school we are observing institutional food-service operations. I’m at the campus dining hall and I’m loving it! Everyone else is at a health care organization and I was worried about doing something different, but I ended up exactly where I’m supposed to be. Everything I’ve experienced so far has been amazing and today I basically walked around with my mouth hanging open. I’ll admit that my expectations were not very high but I’ve actually been beyond impressed. I went into dietetics more excited about clinical work than food-service and this experience is totally challenging my previous ideas.

Breakfast was eaten on my walk to school.

ZonePerfect recently sent me a sample of their Perfectly Simple line.

Tagline – “A few wholesome ingredients. 10 grams of protein. What could be simpler?” Sounds good to me!

Unfortunately when I tried the Cranberry Almond flavor earlier this week I ended up throwing it out after just one bite. The cranberry flavor was too strong for me; but I hate cranberries, so if you’re a fan of them this might be a plus for you. I didn’t have high hopes for Toasted Coconut but I ended up quite liking it.

I wouldn’t call the ingredient list “natural” but it was nice and short. The date paste wasn’t hidden but the bar didn’t have the same flavor or stickiness of a Larabar either. The toasted coconut was tasty. For 200 calories this was pretty filling (thank you, 10 grams of protein).

I also had a coffee with skim milk on campus.

I’ve always loved the fact that our food court has a Spot Coffee and I learned more about that relationship today.

Lunch was eaten in the cafeteria. A Zucchini and Squash Blend with Vegetable Egg Frittata.

Plus a skim milk/chocolate milk mix over ice.

I’ve so missed the milk machine from my days of undergrad at UM!

My meal was delicious, by the way. The food service department here does a really amazing job of using tons of local sourced produce, dairy, and eggs. Plus they only buy cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free meat.

When I got home in the afternoon I snacked on small bowls of leftovers.

Rice with spicy chicken. Followed by the last small serving of Tex-mex chicken soup.

I am so sad to see this go! Especially because Adam said not to save the recipe because it was too spicy for him.

Dinner was pretty similar to my snacks, but Indian.

I topped brown rice and roasted eggplant with a serving of Kohinoor India on a Platter Paneer Butter Masala.

This stuff was fabulous! My roasted eggplant wasn’t very good (I baked it in Worcestershire sauce and honey and it ended up spicy and chewy) but the sauce was totally able to carry it.

It’s close to bedtime but we are going to walk the dog and we may get some chocolate!

28May2012

We’re Home From Toronto!

by Emily

Did you know we were away? I hope not, I tried to keep that under my hat. We found a great deal for hotel/dinner/a movie on Living Social so we took a quick trip. After two glorious days of mini-vacation now we’re home again!

We actually got back to Buffalo this afternoon but the day’s been packed and I’m just now sitting down. I’m going to do a mega vacation recap tomorrow, so for today I’ll stick with things consumed on US soil.

Like the medium Americano with skim milk and two sugars that Adam and I split just minutes after crossing the border.

For some reason I’d been craving milk and coffee all weekend and this hit the spot.

We also split a pack of Snyder’s Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Pieces.

They were okay, but basically tasteless compared with the honey mustard ones.

On a healthier note, I drank this sludge.

It was actually delicious. I mixed this pack of Amazing Grass GREENSuperFood into orange juice and a bit of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

I got the idea from the way Jamba Juice used to sell wheatgrass.

Most of the afternoon was spent on errands but I did sneak in a stroll. We did a ton of walking this weekend but my legs wanted to stretch out after ride home. Plus, I spotted this from the car and I really needed to check it out –