Dinner for Breakfast Through Dinner

by Emily

Thanks for all the well wishes for my sick laptop, guys! Adam’s been a sport about letting me use his and for now I’m viewing it as a glass half full situation because it keeps me from wasting so much time on the internet 😉

There was a situation this morning with the applesauce (you so don’t want to know) so my breakfast ended up being a little less breakfasty.

Apparently I like my morning meals spicy and veggie filled.

This vegan Enchilada from Amy’s was pretty great though.

I also had a cup of Eggnog’n tea with a splash of Silk Hazelnut Soy Creamer.

Lunch was random if nothing else.

A plain So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt with some Crofter’s Strawberry Jam,

and a Thai Peanut Primal Strip.

If you’re going to write in and ask “but, Emily, weren’t you hungry after that lunch?” don’t bother. Yes! I was satisfied for an hour or so and then I was starving. I sat through a club meeting after school where everyone was eating pizza and it was pretty torturous.

I was pretty ecstatic that I had time to buy a sandwich before my night class.

I got a 6inch sub with green pepper, red onion, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickles, black olives, and bbq sauce.

One of the things I’m loving about the vegan challenge is that I’m learning that it’s ok to skip the cheese sometimes. Before I would have automatically ordered a slice of cheddar on this sandwich and it was totally fine without it.

It was a great night because we got out an hour early from my music class, and then it got even better when I walked in the door to dinner.

I set the husband up with the ingredients and recipe for Cooking Light’s Spicy Moroccan Chickpeas, and then he did the rest before I got home.

Go, husband!

The rest of the evening involved the pre-lab due tomorrow and the chocolate-covered strawberries the husband bought for Valentine’s.

Hasta!

Do you automatically put or skip cheese on your sandwiches? What’s your favorite kind for sandwiches?

4Feb2011

Friday Night Frozen Yuuuums

by Emily

I did the Friday shuffle! In fact I shuffled right on through to bedtime!

After class I walked down Elmwood to meet up for lunch with Katie at Wasabi.

I’d like to tell you I ordered a hot water to drink because I’m so mature and healthy, but really it was more of a Japanese waitresses cannot understand me when I’ve got retainers in my mouth thing.

I ordered the lunch special which came with a miso soup (not always vegetarian, fyi, though this one was),

and two sushi rolls.

I got a cucumber and asparagus roll,

and a tempura sweet potato roll.

We had a great lunch and spent a long time catching up.

Then I headed to the Spot to get my study on. I ordered a grande soy latte with two shots of amaretto syrup.

But then I discovered that drinking hot coffee with retainers in is disgusting and threw it out.

Caffeinated or not, I managed to get all of my notecards for the week done, phew!

Adam and I didn’t both didn’t get home until after 7, so all plans of a fancy dinner flew out the window. Thank goodness I had the best frozen meal on earth on standby.

The Tandoor Chef Veggie Pad Thai is ridiculous tasty and vegan to boot.

Yuuuuuuum! It’s nothing like nyc, but this is literally the best Thai food I can get in Buffalo.

I also had some unsweetened applesauce topped with red hots and simply sweet granola.

Can I say “yuuuuuuuuum” again?

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

3Feb2011

Three Courses Worth Waiting For

by Emily

Thursdays are when I have my earliest class, which means they are also my latest wake-up school days. Makes no sense? I’ve decided on MWF (class starts at 11) that I’ll have Adam drop me off at the gym on his way to school so I can work out/come home and shower/walk back to school for classes. But Thursday class starts at 9:25 (and there’s no time for all that) so I can wake up on my own and walk straight to class.

Except today all my plans went out the window because the snow was basically up to my waist. Whoops! I had to hurry-scurry to get in the car with Adam, which meant all of my breakfast and lunch bubbles were quickly burst.

The positive side is that I got to squeeze in my workout before my lab. I did another quick (too quick) treadmill session – warm up + 1.5mile running (14:13) + cool down – 21minutes and 1.85miles.

The negative side is that breakfast ended up being of the not-of-champions variety.

I grabbed the Cliff Builder’s Bar because it was vegan, full of protein, and most importantly sold in the only kiosk without a line.

I gave up on eating the Cliff Builder’s Bar after two bites because it was tasteless and way to tough for my aching teeth.

Better luck next time? I brought the rest of the bar home for Adam and I’m sure he’ll love it because he’s silly.

Unfortunately I had a club meeting on campus at 12:15, so I couldn’t get home to a proper meal until that was over. Then I had to finish/e-mail an assignment before I could let myself eat. I wasn’t about to add ‘shower off the gym grime’ to my wait-time, so you better believe I ate lunch like this –

Before anyone asks – Why yes, I did think the appropriate response to sweaty gym hair was a pair of pony tails.

They’re a pair of ponies, not pig tails. Pig tails come out the sides, the end.

I made up for lost time by rocking my own world with a three-course lunch.

Course 1 – Salad.

I topped a bed of spring mix lettuce with chopped pear, green pepper, radish sprouts, and poppy-seed dressing.

Course 2 – Pasta.

Amy’s Rice Macaroni and Dairy-free Cheeze.

For some reason the gluten free version is the only vegan macaroni Amy’s makes (the soy cheese version has milk proteins in it).

This wasn’t ridiculous good like the dairy one, but it was still pretty darn good.

Course 3 – Dessert.

Banana soft serve (1.5 frozen bananas, food processed with a splash of Vanilla Silk Soy Milk until delicious) topped with crushed pretzels and these adorable vegan marshmallows.

Soooo good. BSS is where it’s at!

It took forever to eat my epic lunch, so I should probably get down to work!

Do you or anyone you know eat a gluten free diet?

26Jan2011

My First Long Day

by Emily

So Wednesdays are a bit insane; I get to campus at 11am and I don’t finish classes until 8:40pm! By the time my final class was done I was feeling very, very tired. Sidenote – that tiredness was not helped by the fact that our music teacher does not allow food or drinks in the classroom…..in a 3hour long class……at dinner time. [end rant]

This morning I made sure to eat an extra filling breakfast to make up for yesterday’s missing dinner.

That’s a serving of plain Siggi’s topped with 2 tsp maple jam, 3 Tbsp chunky peanut butter, and a serving of Special K Red Berries.

Delicious, and the (tons of) peanut butter packed a protein punch that kept me full all morning.

Lunch was less exciting. I packed a minneloa from home,

and bought a southwest chicken flat bread from the book store cafe.

My sandwich was tasty, but my teeth have started hurting and I could only eat half of it. Boo!

I have lots of break time on Wednesdays – 1 hour + 45 minutes + 2 hours – but unfortunately I didn’t make good use of it at all today. I’ll have to chalk up the wasted time to first long day tiredness. Probably from now on I’ll go to the gym in my 2 hour break, but I didn’t want to go all sweaty to my first class session.

When I got home at 9 tonight I was beat. All I could manage for dinner was a hot chocolate and a frozen meal.

Caramel Praline Hot Cocoa,

and a Pumpkin Squash Ravioli Healthy Choice.

P.S. This is disgusting. I ate it because I was exhausted and starving, but they were steamed apples in with the squash chunks and the ravioli were sweet and disgusting.

I’m finishing an episode of The X-Files with Adam, and then bedtime can’t come quickly enough!

When was the latest class you took in college?

22Jan2011

Snow Filled Saturday

by Emily

Howdy all, happy Saturday! It’s been chilly and busy ’round these parts. I had lots of errands to run, but more on that later (tomorrow). Basically I have today and tomorrow to tackle this monster to-do list –

Before I got started on my errands I grabbed this coconut aloe juice.

So good, the best coconut (or aloe) drink I’ve had yet!

The weather was insane today, whiteout for miles.

It took me forever to get the five miles to the post office, probably because I was only going 10miles an hour! At least the bad weather meant that this adorable snowflake ended up on my steering wheel –

I snacked on a bag of kettle chips when I got home.

And made myself a Peanut Noodle Lean Cuisine for lunch.

This was actually very good, the sauce was mild but nice.

I also snagged a minneola.

And while I was ruthlessly cutting down my magazine clipping I snacked on a 7-Layer bar.

Then came dinner.

A recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray, Stir-Fried Pasta Primavera (sorry I can’t link to this recipe).

I basically followed Ray’s lead, with a few healthy changes:

I wanted 3 big servings (vs. 4), so added a bit more veggies and used a bit less pasta
subbed parsley for basil
subbed light for heavy cream

The end result was delicious.

I almost never order cream sauces when dining out but lately we’ve been loving them at home.

What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today?

14Jan2011

Some More Than Others

by Emily

Some parts of this afternoon were more successful than others. For example, I did not realize that the gym was already closed for MLK weekend. And since I wasn’t gyming it, I had a hard time convincing myself to go to school just for my errands. Tuesday? Seriously though, I know that not working out the last two weeks was a terrible idea, and my goal for the weekend is to jump back into strength-training.

Lunch was neutral, leaning toward successful.

Lean Cuisine Roasted Garlic Chicken, with sliced cucumber on the side.

This frozen meal had a disturbing amount of saturated fat for only 170calories, but also an impressive amount of protein and potassium.

Typically I would supplement a 170calorie lunch with more than cucumber. But typically I don’t have this for dessert.

I haven’t tasted the finished product yet, but I’m hoping this baking project sets the bar for success this evening.

2Nov2010

I Think I Can, I Think…

by Emily

If I like myself and want to do well in school at all, it will be a busy afternoon. So I’ll keep this quick!

Tuesday is my 8am class, I had a bar in my purse but I never got hungry for breakfast. After class #2 I headed to the English department (still transfer credit issues) where I did snag some Sweet Tarts.

I was hungry when I got home at 12:30. Lean Cuisine for lunch.

And a serving of Pillsbury Sweet Moments for dessert.

Think productive thoughts for me?

*Updated to add

……Yeah……please don’t even ask what I did this evening!

17Oct2010

Why Don’t I Accomplish Things on Sunday?!

by Emily

I’m going to set a blogging speed record today because it’s bedtime. Especially with the amount of school work I did today (cough, cough, none, cough), I want to be well rested for tomorrow.

As we went to get in bed last night the husband and I both realized that we were starving. It was a bit ridiculous. We ended up getting staying up, getting pizza, and watching the Simpsons’ Halloween special.