Tag Archives: flax

Crazy Week Was Crazy

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Phew, am I glad that’s over!  Ha!  Not really; this week was crazy but the year is bound to only get crazier.  And I didn’t even have that much going on with school last week.  I did, however, work every single free day.  Also, the husband’s residency applications went out today.  <– giant stressball

Here’s what’s been going on:

  • I haven’t blogged since Wednesday
  • I didn’t work out a single time last week (insert major sad face here)
  • I didn’t do any enough school-work
  • I worked my butt of at work-work
  • I put in a lot of hours helping the husband to finalize his application and edit his personal statement
  • I had to videotape myself giving the husband a nutrition education (it was hilarious)
  • I didn’t eat anywhere near enough the past few days and I’ve been out of control cranky
  • I went to the co-op and stocked up on organic ramen so I never have to skip so many meals again (I was truly that busy)

I don’t have time to do a proper recap but I have taken a photo of every food item that’s passed my lips so I am damn well going to blog them!

Thursday

My clinical group toured the food bank as part of our community rotation.  I car-pooled with a friend and we used a BOGO coupon for iced coffees with skim milk along the way.

We discovered that Got Milk’s Magic Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Straws turn iced coffee into something magical.

So flipping good!

We spent the 2nd half of our food bank visit sorting tomatoes.  It was nice to help out but I had to squelch some major throwing urges.

Lunch was plain yogurt with 2 Tbsp flax and chopped plum and nectarine.

Dinner was Jenna’s Baked Polenta with Mushrooms, Gorgonzola Cheese, and Tomato Sauce.

I made a bunch of changes but the basic recipe was still hers.  My updates –

  • made 4 servings
  • 1 cup of polenta (cooked without butter)
  • 2 pints mushrooms (sautéed in 1 Tbsp butter 1st)
  • 1.5 cups marinara
  • 1 cup gorgonzola
  • cooked 20 minutes

It was really, really good!

Friday

I ate a strange lunch-breakfast in class.  A 2 slices of Applegate Farms turkey on a Sandwich Thin with yellow mustard and 2% colby sandwich.

Roasted seaweed.

An apple.

And apple month candy.

This didn’t fill me up at all and I ate lunch an hour later.  And by ate I mean shoved into my face in under two minutes.  A Wegman’s Low-fat Honey Yogurt.

A Fiber One cookie.

And a Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter squeeze packet.

That Justin’s isn’t even like Nutella, it is frosting!!

Baked polenta leftovers for dinner.

Plus leftover pizza dipped in 1000 island dressing an hour later because I was still hungry.

Saturday

…was ridiculous.  0% Chocolate Oikos.

A plum.

A Honey Low-fat Yogurt with Banana Chobani Flip.

This product is so new that it’s not even on their website but I sure hope they keep making it.  The mashed banana was strangely delicious.

However – I ate all three of those items at work.  And then I didn’t eat anything else all day.  My day went – get up. work, work, work.  edit Adam’s applications.  bed.  He may have slept on the couch.

Sunday

Two breakfasts to make up for yesterday’s lack of calories.  1 serving of Special K Vanilla Almond in Blue Diamond’s almond/coconut milk blend.

Chopped plum and apricot on top of a strawberry 0% Oikos.

Nature’s Path Apple Pie Crunch Plus Chia Bar.

I only bought this because I was having an Apple Month frenzy, but I actually loved it.  The bars were crunchy without being too crumbly and the apple spice flavor was subtle.  Plus, 3 grams each protein and fiber.

I bought a Raaw Passion Fruit Wheatgrass drink at work.

I used to love Jamba’s oj and wheatgrass shots with a passion (ha!) and I adore passion fruit so this was the perfect thing for me.  If the co-op keeps stocking them I will certainly buy one again.

Adam handed me three gummi mice this afternoon.  (His nickname for me is Mouse.)

We had to videotape our interview when I got home from work and it ate up most of the afternoon.  More time was spent giggling than recording!

We split take-out from Vasilis Express for dinner.

A Chicken Souvlaki Wrap,

plus Greek Fries, aka fries smothered in Greek dressing and feta.

When we went to pick up our food we spotted this –

And we had ice cream before dinner (Turkey Hill Double Dunker).

It was mocha ice cream with crunchy cookie and cookie dough and it was ridiculous.

I had my class review at The Spot this evening so I had another iced coffee with skim milk and a magic straw.  I didn’t manage to photograph but I imagine most of you can use your imaginations.

The end?

This post was terrible.  Much too long, poorly written, and exceptionally boring.  I apologize for making you read my food diary.  The end.

Rocking Around The Clock

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The upcoming week is going to be busy, busy, busy and apparently today was the start of the craziness.  It’s not a good feeling to leave the house at 8:10 on a Saturday and already be running behind!

While running errands I did stop in at Dunkin Donuts to use a coupon I had for iced coffee.

With skim milk and toasted almond syrup.  The barista (are they still called baristas if it’s Dunkin?) gave me a giant sheet of new, exciting coupons so I’ll probably be back in the near future.

After running errands I ran to work (literally) in the pouring rain.  I packed a Oikos Low-fat Pineappe Greek Yogurt for breakfast.

Holy crap, it was good!  I couldn’t stop mmmmmning.  It was so thick, creamy, and sweet that it almost reminded me of a piña colada.

Adam ate my last serving of eggplant (jerk!) so I got co-op hot bar for lunch.

1 falafel, sesame cashew noodle salad with tons of veggies, 2 grape leaves, and some chicken salad.  The veggies in the noodles and the almonds in the chicken were my favorite bites.

When I got home from work, Adam and two of our friends were on the couch watching a movie.  Patrick and Michelle brought pizza!

I had a veggie slice,

plus a simple salad of romaine, flax, and lite honey mustard dressing.

Buffalo people – the pizza was from Mister Pizza and it was great.  The crust was somehow both thick and crispy and it was loaded with vegetables.

Our friends were over because we had purchased a Groupon together…

for rock climbing!  We climbed for two hours and it was exhausting and so much fun.

This year has been a total bust in the workout department but I actually felt like I did a little better this time than I did the last time I tried.  I mastered one fairly hard wall (ie not a kid’s wall!) and I was so proud of myself when I made it to the top.  At one point my arms and legs were so wide I was practically into a split.  <– bad ass

I’m going to make myself do a 4-minute workout and then I’m going to go pass out.  Good night!

Cheesy Eggplant Bake With Salad

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Nutrition (education, access, etc.) for underserved populations is topic that is important to me.  It’s the reason I quit my job as a teacher and the reason I’ll someday go back to teaching again, though my new lessons will be about healthy eating instead of English.  So, when Romano’s Macaroni Grill contacted me to see if I would write a post about their current partnership with Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry, I jumped at the opportunity.

Disclaimer – I am not being personally compensated for this post, though they will make a donation as thanks for my participation.  This is just a subject to which I am glad to bring awareness.

Here’s how it works – Macaroni Grill is enlisting the food blogger community to help end childhood hunger with a single post. By simply tagging #macgrillgive to a recipe, message or photo of their favorite Italian meal on their blog, Macaroni Grill will donate $50 to connect a child to up to 500 meals.  Readers can go into the restaurant and donate $2, and get $5 off their next meal; OR – share an artist inspired image from our Mac Grill Give Facebook Gallery and we’ll help connect a kid with 1 meal.

Here are some facts from No Kid Hungry –

  • 48.8 million Americans—including 16.2 million children— live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, they struggle with hunger at some time during the year.
  • Food insecurity—the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food— exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.
  • Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents (35.1% of female-headed households with children are food-insecure) and among Black and Hispanic households.
  • Food insecurity is most common in large cities but still exists in rural areas, suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities.  25 % of households with children living in large cities are food-insecure.

My favorite (homemade) Italian meal is my Cheesy Eggplant Bake. 

It is so cheesy, hearty, and filling; you would never guess that each serving has less than 200 calories.  Being cooked in the marinara sauce makes the eggplant extra creamy and delicious.

What goes better with rich, cheesy food than a nice green salad?

On the side, we had romaine topped with ground flax, buckwheat groats, and lite honey mustard dressing.

It was an easy, tasty, wholesome meal.

Cheesy Eggplant Bake, serves 4

  • 1 to 1.5 pounds thinly sliced eggplant (approx. .25 inch thick)
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • 6 slices 2% provolone
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Layer eggplant and tomato sauce into an 8×8 inch casserole dish; placing tomato sauce as the bottom and top layer.  You’ll most likely end up with three even layers of eggplant if your eggplant was sliced thinly enough.
  3. Bake 40 minutes.
  4. Remove from oven, top evenly with cheese, and return to oven for 10 additional minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Stir-Fried Soup

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I made it through the first day of a new semester!  I forgot what day it was and pressed snooze a couple of times this morning, but I did manage to make it to the gym for a quick workout.

25 minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.

I cut it close but the husband offered to drive me this morning (both walking and driving myself eat up 30 minutes) so I had time to shower and grab breakfast to go.  A Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bar,

and an iced coffee with skim milk.

It wasn’t just any iced coffee.  Do you remember when I blogged about wanting to try Chameleon Cold-Brew Coffee?  They now sell it at Wegman’s!

It was even better than I had imagined.  Smooth, not at all bitter, and I swear with the skim milk I tasted hints of chocolate?!

I breakfasted during my first class and the caffeine boost was much-appreciated.  This semester is going to be hard.  I’m only taking a few classes (the minimum number of credits versus having to petition to take extra credits almost ever other semester) but there is a ton of work and the concepts are all higher level.

Good thing I got some work done in the break between classes and my shift at work.  I also made lunch.

A salad of romaine, flax, light honey mustard dressing, a little shredded gruyere, and a crumbled slice of turkey bacon.

Plus apple dippers.

A sliced Pink Crispin,

with a melted mix of peanut butter, Biscoff, and Heath bits, ~ 1 Tbsp of each.

Delish!

I worked from 2 -7 and then came home and wandered around all evening in a tired, sore-backed haze.  That is not going to be able to happen as the semester progresses.  But overall I think I did a good job of getting things done today.

I even pre-made some of the components for tomorrow’s dinner.  I snacked on a serving of Barbara’s Baked Cheese Puffs while I cooked.

They were an impulse buy at the co-op that paid off; didn’t tasted “baked” at all.

Dinner didn’t happen until 9:30 but it was worth the wait.  Super worth it.  Did you make my Thai-Inspired Coconut Peanut Soup yet?  I hope so, because if you did you are halfway done with this killer spin on it – Stir-Fried Soup!

Stir-Fried Soup, serves 1

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Toss in cashews and toast.  Add soup leftovers and Sriracha and saute, stirring occasionally, until crispy.  Scramble in egg.  Serve and swoon.

It was the tastiest thing I’ve eaten in weeks, I swear to God.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve done with leftovers?

Sunday To Go

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One day to go before the fall semester begins.  I wish today could have been full of adventure, but sadly I worked, errand-ran, and ate a lackluster dinner.  Ho-hum but part of the time was spent with the husband so it wasn’t terrible.

I did not get in bed last night as planned.  In fact, I stayed up past the boys leaving and the husband falling asleep.  Today I am le tired and the bags under my eyes are gigantic.  I hope to get in bed nice and early on Sunday because it’s bad enough to go back to school fatter, I hardly need to look worn down too.  At least my hair is finally growing out of its awkward stage!

In spite of the sleepiness, I did manage to make breakfast before work.

Plain fat-free yogurt topped with 1 Tbsp ground flax, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and some canned tropical fruit mix.

I was glad to have eaten because work was pretty crazy; the Elmwood Arts Festival is this weekend so there were lots of people wandering in.

I plan on checking out the festival tomorrow and today I did snag a $1 orange San Pellegrino.

I saved my fair-food eating for tomorrow and packed a sandwich for lunch.

A Sandwich Thin with 2 slices of turkey, a slice of pepperjack, and strawberry jam.  Plus a Raspberry Fields Honest Tea to drink.

I probably should have gone with coffee instead because I was dead on my feet by the time my shift was over.  Also, ready to gnaw off my arm.  I bought a giant slice of cheese pizza (folded and eaten New York style) on the walk home.

I shared ~ 1/4 with Adam which was a true testament of love.  Dinner was fair away and not awesome and I ended up very pleased with this impulse purchase.

We ran errands this evening, including a purchase of ink that has left me crossing my fingers that the printer was out of ink and not actually broken.  I’m too tired to check now but printing is early on my agenda tomorrow.

On our grocery errand (which was stupid because we have to go back tomorrow too) I bought a fun-size peanut butter Snickers.

I only ate half; apparently they aren’t very good.

Dinner wasn’t good either.  Well, parts of it were.  For example, my low-fat (because it was made with skim milk and low-fat froyo) chocolate coffee milkshake was pretty tasty.

1.5 thumbs up, Lake Effect Diner.

And I was so pleased to see this on the menu –

It encouraged me to order non-vegeterian, in the form of a Chicken Souvlaki Wrap.

“Grilled marinated chicken breast, shredded lettuce, green bell pepper, black olives, diced tomato, crumbled feta cheese and Greek Dressing in a grilled herb wrap.”

I added cucumber and pepperoncini to mine, a good idea since otherwise the sandwich would have been completely tasteless.

The feta was bland and it probably would have helped it there had actually been Greek dressing on the wrap.  I only ate half and left feeling pretty unsatisfied.

I shouldn’t even complain though because my meal was at least edible.  Adam’s bacon and sausage were burnt to a crisp and his “sunny side up” eggs were cooked through.  Yucky.  Lake Effect, we thought you had such potential!

Speaking of potential, I’m not going to live up to mine at yoga tomorrow morning if I don’t get in bed this instant.  Good night!

Locals, are you attending the art festival this year?  Did you eat anything I just have to try tomorrow?

Curry And Lemongrass, Too

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The past 48 hours haven’t been all that exciting, but they have been busy.  Work, fun, then work.  No working out, unfortunately.  I’m not even going to attempt a workout before my early shift tomorrow either.  I do have big goals for next week though, because I’m hoping to get myself started on a healthy schedule (re: bedtime, working out, and cooking dinner) in the week before school starts.

Thursday’s breakfast was a yogurt bowl.

Note – I’ve eaten a LOT of yogurt the past two days, be prepared.

This bowl was Wegman’s Low Fat Honey Yogurt topped with sliced yellow plucot and white nectarine and 1 Tbsp ground flax.

It was so good I did a similar breakfast the next day and plan on buying more of the honey yogurt asap.

I spent Thursday morning curled up on the couch with a Patricia Cornwell novel.  I’m hoping to blog quickly to get in bed with that same novel!  Reading and eating made for my perfect morning.

I took a reading break to walk the dog and snagged this white chocolate macadamia cookie from the co-op.

I should have made time for a real lunch instead of a cookie because I was starving by the end of my shift.

I had evening plans with friends and knew I would be too cranky to function so we stopped at Code Blue for juice along the way.

My customized drink included kale, spinach, collard greens, carrot, and watermelon.  So tasty and the fun ingredients were very exciting to try.

And it didn’t matter that we stopped for juice because our plans were a total bust.  We’ve been excited about seeing Salt-n-Pepa for a month but it just didn’t pan out.  The line was three times longer than the amount of people let in.  Boo!  But we did catch a few lines of “Let’s Talk About Sex.”

I got home late and had pizza for dinner.

1.5 (big) slices total.  Buffalo and bbq chicken flavored.

I spent the night by myself because the husband had 24-hour call (more like 32 hour call!) and the dog and I slept very fitfully on the couch.

Today’s breakfast was a repeat of Friday’s.

Wegman’s Plain Fat-Free Yogurt, sliced white nectarine and yellow plucot, and 1 heaping Tbsp each ground flax and Biscoff spread.

Then more yogurt for lunch.  Coffee with a honey stick and honey-roasted peanuts.

The honey + peanut + coffee yogurt combo is a childhood favorite of mine.

At work I drank a Big Gulp of diet pop and split this bag of mini Rolos with my co-worker.

I also had a jalapeño cheddar bialey in the afternoon (with a slice of pepperjack).

Adam requested Thai food for dinner and since he came home from a 32 hour shift and did the laundry, Thai food it was.

I got veggie Pad See Eiw.  The husband ordered and we forgot to say “extra veggies” for me so I was pleasantly surprised to see my plate chockfull of the green stuff.

From Sun Restaurant, by the way.  The noodles get a 10-out-of-10 but the sauce only got a 5.

Ben and Jerry’s for dessert.

Coffee Caramel Buzz.  Better than Bonaroo Buzz but not as good as Schweddy Balls.  <– I have officially eaten too much ice cream!