Tag Archives: food for thought

Chocolate > Codeine

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Thank you so much, everyone, for all the good luck wishes!  They must have worked because I’m actually feeling pretty good!  My last post must have been a bigger distraction than I thought because the pain tapered down to a livable level.  When Adam got home with my prescription I actually turned it down.  I know from experience that the pain will be worse tomorrow, so I’m enjoying my comfort for now.

A few people asked about my foot so I posted pictures at the bottom.  It’s bandaged, but bloody, so don’t scroll all the way down if you are quesy!

The Spanish Spaghetti was mostly for Adam and not a dish I really enjoy (although I will be eating it tomorrow), and I just couldn’t stand the thought of eating it for dinner.  I have some pain, I’m using food as a distraction here!  Thankfully Adam was able to run to the bar downstairs and get me take out.

French fries and a turkey sandwich with 1000 Island dressing.  It hit the spot.

I keep forgetting to order sandwiches without butter though!  When something is on a bun I just eat the middle so it doesn’t usually matter, but when I’m eating the whole thing I need to remember to modify.

I decided to go with dessert instead of drugs.

The Amano company sent me two chocolate bars to sample – Dos Rios and Guayas.

I doled out about 2/5 of each bar but the flavors were pretty intense and I ended up only eating half of what I put on the plate.

I have lots of schoolwork I hope to get done tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to fall asleep early tonight.  I hope everyone else’s work week got off to a good start!

What is your opinion on OTC medicines?  Do you take them on a case to case basis, adamantly oppose, or say the more the merrier?!?  I am a full supporter of conventional medicine but I do try to take things only when absolutely necessary.

Below this line is for Edward Cullen types only!  Look at your own risk!

Visit from the In-Laws

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Don’t forget to enter my Zevia giveaway!

Today was quite a day.  We had a great time with my in-laws, I’m so glad our families all get along!  They came over to see the house and brought me a gift that shows just how much they know me –

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awww 🙂

Before we left the house I actually grabbed a 2nd Zevia for the road.

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‘Twas good.  Not as good as my awesome new hoodie though, nice and warm!

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We took them to school (my m-i-l’s best friend was with us too) to see Adam’s campus and the husband and his dad played ping pong for awhile – I’m married to a dork!  Our friend Benji came by for a while too so there were quite a lot of balls flying around!

Afterwards we drove to the mall for dinner and a movie.  The wait for a table was 60minutes so Adam and I went upstairs to get ice-cream (life’s short eat dessert first, he says).  I have been craving a pumpkin pie blizzard since I saw it advertised last time I was at the mall.  I actually was in line to get one and then the woman in front of me ordered exactly what I planned to order (small, pumpkin pie blizzard, no whip cream).  As I watched them make it I had two thoughts – 1) that’s not that small, and 2) that’s not that exciting.  I am all for indulging and having fun with food, but it’s only fun if you indulge when it’s really worth it.  Like the dinner I then ate 🙂

My m-i-l ordered an appetizer platter for the table that was quite tasty.  I ate the small plates shown, but multiply the bread times two and add a few bites from Adam’s plate.

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For dinner I got the Spicy Cashew Chicken.

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This is basically the only thing I ever order at Cheesecake Factory.  It isn’t the healthiest but we don’t go all the time and I love it.  I ate half and then boxed the other half for lunch tomorrow.

It was starting to rain pretty hard at this point (6pm) so our visitors actually decided to hit the road.  They sweetly gave Adam and I movie $ before they headed out so we stayed at the mall and watched “Law Abiding Citizen.”  The movie had good moments but I thought it was pretty sad.

Now my plan is to curl up with some magazines and hopefully fall asleep before 11.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I sleep through the night!

What was the last thing you decided wasn’t worth it?

Late Lab

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The longer I ate my lunch the more I loved it!  I will definitely do without the squeeze cheese next time but everything else was perfection.  I enjoyed my online tv watching as well.  If you have not watched the new show “Modern Family” you need to; it’s comedy genius!

After lunch I had 1 serving of Halloween Dots for dessert.

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Then I got started on cooking dinner.  I made a chicken cacciatore recipe from this month’s Cooking Light. 

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But I actually didn’t eat until much later.  As soon as the food was packed up I set off for campus.  I didn’t do so hot on my test last week (83%) but lab went well!  I always stay until the end of lab to work on calculations, which means I don’t leave until 9pm!

When I did finally get home it was time for dinner.

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I ate a teeny plate because Adam and I split a chocolate mint milkshake.

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Yes, it is 30* outside.  Yes, I am 24 years old and eating ice-cream for dinner.  The chicken was pretty good, Adam loved it.

I’ve got an early morning planned so I’ve got to get ready for bed.  Sweet dreams!

Do you watch tv/movies while you eat or is that dangerous for you?  I know studies always say not to eat in front of the tv but I love to.  I think as long as you only portion out a reasonable amount of healthy food (rather than digging mindlessly from say a bag of potato chips) it’s fine to eat and veg.  Plus, it’s tv, not open heart surgery – I’m able to notice when I’m full and push away my plate even if there’s food left.

Why Do You Workout?

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Phew!  Our rough weekend is over and things are starting to look up.  I let myself catch up on sleep this morning, sleeping in until I had to had to the hospital.  I felt a little off so I didn’t eat breakfast, but by 12:30 I was more than ready for lunch.  I used my cafeteria voucher to get a slice of cheese pizza.

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I thought a little bit about mindless eating while I lunched.  When I entered the cafeteria someone handed me these Hershey’s Kisses.

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I was planning on eating them after my pizza, but after a moments thought I realized: I don’t like Kisses.  I prefer dark chocolate and while I love the truffle variety that was around for a while, plain kisses taste dry and bland to me.  How often do you put something in your mouth without thinking about it?

I volunteered from 10-2 and then came home and did some organizing.  Around 3:30 I headed for the gym.  My foot’s been really hurting and I realized not being able to run has kept me from the gym entirely.  That’s not right.  While I am excited about the half marathon and wish I could train for it, that’s not the only reason I work out.  I work out to feel healthy and strong, to relieve stress, and to be my best.

With that in mind, I did 30minutes on the elliptical machine (for about 3miles and 300calories).

After a quick shower I’m headed to campus.  I want to print some materials before class so hopefully I’ll have enough time to get to the library.  See you for dinner!

Why do you workout?  Studies have shown that an active lifestyle can promote better sleep, regulate metabolism and hunger, prevent bone loss, bolster your immune system, and more!

To Market

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What a day!  Saturday is only half over and I am grinning from ear to ear  🙂

Most of our agenda so far has been shopping.  We started at the farmers’ market.

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I loved getting to explore a new farmers’ market, and this isn’t even the only one in town!  There was tons of fresh produce and we bought some great veggies to use this week.  The produce there is definitelymore expensive than at the grocery store, but I think it’s worth it.  One, when you consider that the veggies are basically organic it doesn’t seem as expensive.  Two, in addition to getting food for your family you are helping the famers to put food on their tables; these markets help to support small local businesses.

Next we went to Target for some cleaning supplies and cards.  I got handed a free sample of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters so I ate them in the car.

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The taste was ok, but it would have been a bazillion times better if made by hand, or at least Lara Bar style.

Our final stop was food shopping at Wegmans.  Adam was starving (it was after 1:30) so we decided to do lunch at the salad bar.

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Yums!  All this was less than $6.  I got blanched cauliflower and curry cauliflower,

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General Tso’s Tofu and steamed veggies,

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and one piece of sesame chicken.

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My plan of attack with buffet situations is to do 90/10 healthy food to splurge.  I also like to stick to a majority of veggies.  I am especially pleased with Wegman’s salad bar because they post the calories for most items.  For example – I wasn’t going to get the tofu because I figured it was deep fried, but then I saw that it was 210calories for 1cup.

After we got home and unloaded all of our purchases I made my best snack ever.  This –

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equals perfection.

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  • Stoneyfield Fat Free Plain Yogurt
  • 1/3 a Jonasgold apple
  • sprinkle of cinnamon
  • crumbled Cinnabon Breakfast Bar [yes mom, this was from the box I bought you]

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We finished most of our fun, now I have to tackle our practical to do’s.  See you for dinner.

What is your plan of attack at buffets? 

Do you shop at farmers’ markets?

Bad Etiquette?

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When Adam got home we spent some time cuddling/discussing his day and then I made some business phone calls.  Among other things, calling Budget insurance which is being ridiculous; our mattress was ruined on the move due to a leak and making a claim has been impossible.

I decided to eat my Newman’s Own Organic 77% Chocolate bar as a pick me up before our run.

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I had half of it (serving size was the entire bar), and oh yes that is sunflower seed butter spread on those two pieces!

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Unfortunately, my pick me up was more of a weigh me down, as now I am having major tummy troubles.  I love love love Newman’s Own Organic products but the last time I had one of these bars I had stomach issues too so I have to think there is a problem with them.  Has anyone else tried these and had issues?

To be honest I was feeling pretty lazy anyways so I am (almost) glad to have an excuse not to exercise!  I very happily filled the time pouring through cookbooks and making a list of “to try now” recipes!

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Over the course of the evening I ended up looking through every single cookbook and now I have quite an exciting list.

In the middle of it all I drove Adam out to his event.  When I got home I walked to the gas station across the street to buy cheese for tomorrow and I ended up walking to Arbys for dinner on a whim.  I got flustered so I decided to do 5-for-5 but when I realized there was no chicken on that menu I got even more flustered and I ended up ordering this –

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Left to right: onion rings, curly fries, mozzarella sticks, jamocho shake, diet dr. pepper.  I ate a few bites of everything (except for the shake which I had 90% of and the pop which I had 100%) and then threw the rest in the trash –

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  1. I know that was a major waste of food
  2. I am aware that I am a totally fattie
  3. I realize this is totally against food blogger customs (which is kind of sad actually, I wonder how many readers look at some of the bigger name blogs and feel crappy because they actually eat fast food more than once a millenia?)

I wasn’t hungry for real food but I did manage to prep my ingredients for breakfast tomorrow morning.

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We are having (better) eggs tomorrow so I sliced 2ish oz of Hellva Good Sharp Cheddar Cheese and sauteed ~1.5C of kale in 1t evoo and 4-5T water.  Not only will things be quicker tomorrow but I am much more likely to get up and make a healthy breakfast if I know I’ve already done some of the work.

I’m going to hang out while I wait to pick up the husband and my goal continues to be bed before 11 – I’ve made it the past two nights, but hopefully tonight I’ll actually fall asleep then!  Sweet dreams.

How often do you eat fast food?  We do not eat fast food all that often (especially because other than Wendys it doesn’t do much for me, making it not a “splurge” but a waste) but we do rely on it from time to time.  There are places I will not eat at because of ethical issues – hello kfc – but other than that I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.  I grew up eating pretty healthy, but once a week my family would go out to dinner.  For a while when I was 6-8ish we didn’t have much money but we continued the tradition by going to McDonalds once a week.  Those 5chicken nuggets didn’t do irreparable damage and I have fabulous memories with my mom and dad.

Bye, Brooklyn Bloggers

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Our mini-meet-up was a success; good food and great company!  Diana, Vani, Sarah, and I met up at Organic Heights, a vegan spot near the Bergen stop.

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It was a cute little restaurant although the menu was also pretty little.  I am a Reuben (turkey Reubens only) fanatic so when I saw tempeh Reuben my order was obvious.

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I ate none of the salad and 95% of the sandwich.  It was de-lish-ous!  The bread was sourdough, which is always fantastic, and they got the tempeh chewy and wonderful in a way I never could.

To drink (my third bought drink of the day, I think I went a little over calorie/$ budget in liquids today) I got a Vita Coco.

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It was great getting to spend a final bit of time with that group of girls.  I have met some really wonderful people through this experience.  We sat after dinner and had a big chatfest which is exactly what I needed this stressful week.

Diana was a sweetheart and brought us all homemade, vegan, chocolate chip cookie/brownie bars.

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They were delicious.  They did not deter me, however, from getting suckered into Haagen Dazs which is across the street from where Adam and I had to go after dinner to deposit a birthday check from my grandma.  I got a mint chip dazzler.  I couldn’t take a picture due to drippage but think of the biggest sundae acceptable for a grown woman to eat and multiply it by 3!  I threw away half of it and it was still a ridiculous serving.

On a similar note, I think the thing I am most excited about in the move is shaking up my routines.  This year (and the last month especially due to move circumstances) we have done so little cooking.  I really do love my time in a kitchen.  When people play the ‘if you won the lottery….’ game with me the very first thing that pops into my head is culinary school.

Our exercise schedule, or lack thereof, could also use a good shaking.  I am 24, the amount of stiffness and lack of energy I currently have is unacceptable to me.  Even if I hadn’t recently discovered that I’m 10+lbs over where I want to be, I don’t like the way I feel.  Aside from long-term health benefits and looking good I like to be active because I enjoy the way I feel in my body when it is in shape.  The CPR instructor yesterday did a quick heart health speech and he made a very good point – this is the only body you have.

So now I’m going to try to take my only body and actually get it in bed a reasonable time!  Peace y’all.

What do you need to shake up?

P.S.  Who doesn’t want Chiobani????

Thunder, Turkey, Too Much

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I am so hungry!  I’ve eaten so much, as you will see in this post, and I am still starving!  I finally just stopped eating because it was getting ridiculous.

We didn’t have much to get at the grocery store for this week – milk, bread – but we stocked up on some snacks for our upcoming road-trip.  Due to some plan changes I just found out that I will be driving from the city to Buffalo alone by myself in the car.  It’s a little scary – moving vehicles put me to sleep in minutes – but my plan of attack is to do a lot of snacking and chug some sugar free energy drinks.  By the way, for obvious reasons, I won’t be blogging during the move.  We lose our internet this Wednesday and it won’t be set up in Buffalo for about a week so I will be taking a quick hiatus.

The errand took a little longer than planned because we got caught in a massive thunderstorm –

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I looked like a drowned rat.  By the time we got home I was (wet) starving so I grabbed my emergency candy from when I thought the CPR class was running until 6.

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Limited Edition Coconut M&Ms.  These were really good, the coconut flavor was very present without being too strong.  Plus some had cute little palm trees stamped on them.

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I also love these “what’s inside” nutrition stat bubbles.

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What a clear, colorful way to make sure important information does not go overlooked.  My only complaint is that they do not list trans fat in the bubble – that is by far the most important thing I look for when I read nutritional labels.  Even when I am totally pigging out I never eat trans fat.  With the disagreements over how trans fat effects fertility it is disgusting to me that this [added] ingredient is still in products.  It’s one thing to say that Big Brother shouldn’t put laws on how much fat products can have or restrict supersizing, it is up to consumers to be informed.  But when it comes to trans fat there is a real glut of information, even many informed consumers aren’t informed and they deserve to have risk-free food.

While we were cooking I also lopped off the top of a kiwi and ate his brains out with a spoon.

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This was the best method at maximizing flesh eaten and minimizing mess I’ve found so far.

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For dinner we sauteed extra lean ground turkey with frozen collard greens and some peas and then added Newman’s Own Cabernet Marinara.  We ate that on top of some wheatberries Adam cooked in bulk the other day.

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I ate a ton of toppings over 1/3C of wheatberries.

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Tasty, and quick.

Of course I was still hungry after dinner, so I dipped into our car snacks stash and at a small large bowl of cheddar goldfish

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And finally a mini strawberry rice krispies treat.

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As I said before, I’m still hungry, but it was time to stop.

Unfortunately I never got in even a mini workout, but I am just so wet!  I need to go shower so I can snuggle up in bed.  I’ll leave you with some interesting happenings online –

1. Surprising Secrets of Celebrity Chefs from MSN.  My favorite tip was from Ming Tsai, there are so many wonderful, easy applications for store bought wonton wraps.

2. Kath and Caitlin both blogged about free samples in bloggerland.  I don’t get many samples (although I’d like to get more!) because my blog is pretty teensy and I don’t ask for them.  However, when I do get freebies I think I do a good job of mentioning that the item is a sample.  I will always be completely honest about how I feel about a product – if it’s bad it’s bad, my blog isn’t big enough to be worth compromising my integrity.  While I don’t get a lot of free samples, I do do a fair amount of product reviews on here.  I know sometimes it seems like I gush about everything but honestly, I’m just really excited about food!

What is a non-negotiable for you on nutritional labels?

What do you think about blogger freebies?