Tag Archives: fruit

Mexican Melee

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I didn’t post yesterday in a last-ditch attempt at today’s three tests.  This was not a successful plan.  Too little, too late.  Let’s just say that I’ve studied more for quizzes than I studied in total for these three exams.  At least my extreme disappointment in myself will serve as motivation the rest of the semester.  In fact, I’m not even going to talk about my tests in today’s recap; let’s keep things positive.

I had Adam drop me off at school early today to study (God, I miss the gym!) and I packed this Ricera vegan yogurt for breakfast.

Bletch!  One bite (and a lot of gagging) later and this was in the trash.  I don’t think I’ve ever tasted something so chemically in my life!  And the texture was indescribably bad, slimy at best.

Thankfully I picked up a tea on my way into the library.

This Republic of Tea English Breakfast Black Tea actually wasn’t half bad.  I need to make tea part of my routine more often.

Lunch was random and quick.  A leftover serving of Asian cole-slaw,

and a baggie of dried kiwi and hibiscus.

Yum, the kiwi was a fresh bag from OhNuts! and it tasted extra fresh.

Halfway through my second nutrition class I realized I made a mistake not packing more food, especially carbs – I was starting to shake!  Some really messy notes and a major headache later we were finally out of class and I tried to remedy the situation in the campus bookstore.  Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar,

and a pack of (new!) Rainbow Mentos.

The dose of protein and sugar was just what I needed to get my through my night class/test.

When I finally got home it took mere minutes to whip up a tasty themed(ish) dinner –

Yum, yum, yum.

First, Mexican-style pizza topped with black beans and corn.

This combo was too awesome, the leftovers are going to be great tomorrow.

On side, steamed kale with Stubbs BBQ Sauce and raisins.

Try raisins in your next savory dish, I dare you.

Finally, Mexican hot chocolate.

Serves 2 –

  • 1 cup plain almond milk (we used Unsweetened Silk)
  • 2 unsweetened baker’s chocolate squares
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon extract
  • 4 Tbsp sugar
  • (optional) cinnamon and vegan marshmallows
  1. In a small, thick-bottomed put, heat milk to a low boil.
  2. Chop chocolate and add to milk.  Cover pot and continue to boil 1-2minutes.
  3. Whisk in sugar and cinnamon extract.
  4. Pour into two mugs and top with cinnamon and marshmallows if desired.

The cocoa was so thick and creamy it was more like pudding; I ate mine with a spoon!

We watched House while we ate (glorious!) and now I’ve got to get some beauty rest so I’m ready to conquer tomorrow!

Do you ever put raisins in savory dishes?

The Super What?

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I may have been a cheerleader, but I just don’t follow football.  Even the Super Bowl.  There, I said it!  Adam and I are pretty much on the same page about everything.  But he cares about the Super Bowl a little bit, and that’s a whole lot more than I do.

We were on the same page with breakfast this morning though.

I whipped us up a batch of smoothies, 1 part frozen strawberries to 1 part chocolate peppermint stick soy milk.

We needed a sipable breakfast because we were busy moving around giving the house a deep clean.  I don’t want to tell you how long it’s been since I scrubbed the stove (um, never!), but it took me a good 20minutes to get the burners clean.

Once we were no longer living in squalor, we headed to Wegman’s for lunch.

Fruits,

and veggies,

plus a sandwich from home.

I split a pita and filled my half with Tribe Roasted Garlic Hummus, green pepper, and cucumber slices.

It was a nice lunch, and it fueled us through a weekly grocery trip amongst the horde of people who somehow forgot that today was the Super Bowl.  I don’t want to judge, but were those people all afraid that their carts of chips and beer would spoil if they bought them more than an hour before their parties?!?

I’m home alone tonight, Adam cared just enough about the game to head over to a house with cable.  I did send him off with party food though.

Spinach and Artichoke Hummus –

  • 15.5 oz can chick peas, drained
  • 14 oz can quartered artichoke hearts in brine, drained
  • 3/4 cup frozen spinach
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp plus 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup salted soy nuts
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Heat tsp oil in a skillet over medium-low.  Add garlic and saute until just beginning to brown, 1-2minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Add spinach to the pan and cook until completely thawed.  Remove pan from heat and set aside.
  3. Place chick peas in bowl of food processor and pulse until smooth.
  4. Add artichoke hearts to the processor and continue pulsing until smoothie, scraping down the sides as needed.
  5. Working in ~ 1/2 cup batches, add spinach and garlic to processor and pulse until smooth.
  6. Pulse in soy nuts and Tbsp oil, until mixture is well-combined.  Note – the soy nuts will add a chunky texture to the hummus, if you prefer a smoother end product then you will need to start but processing the nuts first.
  7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I stayed home doing girly things, like cleaning out the food processor, baking tomorrow’s lunch, then cleaning out the food processor again.  It’s a good thing I took many cooking bites, because after the send round of blade cleaning I decided I was not going to make dinner.

Really, it doesn’t come up that often that I have dinner by my lonesome, so why not revel in the situation and make myself a batch of single serve cookie dough for dinner?

Yeah, yeah, I had this yesterday too.  But this was different, this was peanut butter single-serve cookie dough.

  1. Using a fork, mash together 1 Tbsp Smart Balance Light and 2 Tbsp chunky peanut butter.
  2. Mash in 3 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp sugar.
  3. Pour in a splash of Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk and mix well.
  4. Place in the freezer for 30minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Top with a serving of chopped up Chocolove bar.
  6. Eat with a spoon, moaning occasionally.

Do you watch the Super Bowl?  Who were you cheering for today?

Seriously, have you tried the single-serve cookie dough thing yet?

Late Morning Wake-Up Call

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Labs don’t start until next week, which means that my morning class was canceled today, yippee!  I took advantage of the found time and tried to make up a little sleep so I wouldn’t repeat yesterday’s walking zombie theme.

Once I got up, I took further advantage of the free morning and had the husband drop me off at the gym on his way out.  My extra long classes are really tiring, so I’m thinking I might need to move my gym time to morning time.

Today I did 30minutes on the elliptical, level 6.  Guys, I’m not gonna lie, this was hard!  Like legs burning, oh my god make it end hard.  Apparently no matter how much you run on vacation, you can’t take a month off of exercise without losing fitness.  Good to know.  Also good to know while I still have time to get back into shape before my March venture.

Even though I walked home through the snow, I couldn’t get my head around a hot breakfast this morning.  Instead I had the last of the tropical fruit mix, topped with pulverized coconut,

and a big bowl of Special K Red Berries with skim milk.

Do you tend towards hot breakfasts in the cold months, or solider on with cereal and smoothies?

Two by Two, Hands of Blue

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If you can tell me what tv show my title quote comes from you will earn my love and respect forever!

On a less nerdy note, this morning my breakfast was served two by two, in bowls of blue.

Bowl cup numero uno was a serving of (canned) tropical fruit salad.

Dos was some plain 0% Oikos with maple jam stirred in.

My mother put this maple jam in my stocking for Christmas because she’s a genius.

It’s Greek yogurt’s soul mate.  Instead of flavoring the yogurt but thinning it out, this gives you fully creamy yogurt with heavenly pockets of maple.

I had to get up for an earlyish breakfast this morning because I’ve got a orthodontist appointment at 8:45.  Oh yes, you read that right!  I’ll tell my braces story at a later date (remind me if it’s not up by next week), but for now suffice to say that this is not my first go-round with orthodontia.  I’m not getting actual braces, but the next time you see me I’ll be in retainers!

NYC – Day 1

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Hello from Nyc! Our hotel is lacking internet so this day late post come from the McDonalds across the street.

I’m just using wifi though, we have real brunch plans at eleven.  For now I’m sipping a diet coke and this Tropical Revolution Foods Mash-Up.

Yesterday morning started with a pre-6am shower before we hit the road for our 8hour drive.

I started my car breakfast with an Empire apple, to put me in an empire state of mind.

This was the most sour red apple I’ve ever tasted! It was quite crunchy and good though.

Plus a blend coffee; ie 2/3 (regular) cinnamon hazelnut coffee, 1/3 (sweetened) English toffee cappuccino.

Coffee really fills me up so I ended up having just the apple for breakfast, but I did steal a bite of the husband’s peanut butter Snickers.

Holy yum! Such a good idea, candy manufacturers! Plus, each square has 125calories, pretty good for a dessert with protein.

We had a lot of hours to fill in the car, I poured through magazines and even painted my nails –

pretty good for 70mph! I guess keeping myself pretty is why I’m so spoiled; the husband stayed on driving duty the whole way!

Our hotel is right on 7th Avenue, which is fabulous for the price.  I’m used to sleeping in Brooklyn so it’s fun to dream in a new area.

You better believe our first stop was Pinkberry!

A small original tart with strawberry, mango, yogurt chips, and praline cream.

There were two spoons, but basically for show because I pretty much dominated it.

And our next stop was green juice.

Carrot, apple, lemon, cucumber, and spinach gets a huge smile from me.

Then we spent a couple of hours walking around our old neighborhood in Park Slope. It was fabulous. Sidenote: we are deliriously trying to pretend we are still local, so the underabundance of city shots is not due to a lack of fabulousness.

Among our old haunts was a quick trip to Watana, where we split Drunken Noodles with steamed tofu.

My plate, x2.

This was so good it hurt! Broad rice noodles are hands down my favorite food.

During the 20(short) block walk back to the subway we also shared a Curiosity Cola.

Quite good, like Coke but without the syrupy sweetness.

We are here for the weekend with friends from high school (Ian lives in MA – and his girlfriend lives here – and Gory lives in PA) so our next stop was meeting them at their train. From there we headed to Bon Chon for dinner.

Ian called it “the new hotness” but beyond that we didn’t know what to expect. It ended up being Asian meets fried chicken. With complimentary rice wine to start.

I ate a super spicy chicken wonton,

and for dinner I ordered the Soy Duk Bo Ki, a sweet rice cake dish prepared with fish cakes, scallions, onions and soy garlic sauce.

The fish and rice cakes were super chewy, it was a totally unique texture. Adam thought it was gross, but I happily devoured 3/4 of the plate.

Even better than good food was the chance to catch up with old friends 🙂  I wasn’t drinking, so I was in bed watching tv by 2, but the boys were out past 4!

I’m not sure what the plan for today is, but my ideal itinerary includes cupcakes!

St. Thomas; Tuesday Morning – Thursday Morning

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We’re here. We’re here, we’re here, we’re here!  We’re also busy; this will be a quick recap post.

Tuesday morning at the airport, Adam and I did a good job putting together breakfast from our packed snacks.  We split the Orange Cranberry Cliff Bar,

and shared sharp cheddar, baby carrots, and a gingergold apple throughout the morning.

Our flights went well, and on our layover I found a Salsarita’s for lunch.

(Delicious) chips with spicy salsa,

and a chicken burrito with black beans, a little bit of rice, corn salsa, red onions, medium salsa, and shredded cheese.

So tasty and fresh, especially for a plane meal!  I ate about half of everything.

Before we knew it we were in my childhood home.  Being handed homemade toffee,

and finding gifts on our pillows.

I could get used to this!  The husband and I did some wrapping of our own too.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

Spicy chicken with whole-wheat linguine,

mushrooms and broccoli with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds,

and mandarin oranges.

We ate all squished together in a clump, because someone decided to start a puzzle at the table 😉

For dessert my dad and I opened up these Klick Halva Truffles.

Adam went out (late!) with some of our guy friends from high school, but I stayed home rereading All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein and laughing at the notes I wrote in the margins while writing a 15page final paper on it.

Wednesday morning was all about dinner leftovers for breakfast.

And 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.  My goal for vacation is to (at minimum) get in a good stretch every day.

For lunch, we headed to Barefoot Buddha, my favorite restaurant.

I split a passionfruit smoothie with the husband,

and a bagel sandwich with my mother.

Yuuuuuuuum.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on errands, including finding a gloriously huge pile of Achie comics (donated to my mom’s library),

and getting all of our wedding rings polished.

Plus testing saved maple sugar cookies from Thanksgiving.

Out of the freezer, still good!

For dinner we headed to Island Time Pub with my aunt and cousins (2sets, one local, one visiting). The lighting was awful, but the dark did mean we got to enjoy these sailboat sail “trees.”

Adam and I split a Caesar salad, with green peppers and mushrooms added.

And a buffalo chicken pizza.

I had these two slices plus a third.

I also had two black and cokes with dinner.

After that I was the designated driver, so even though we were out with friend until almost 1, I stuck to diet coke.

This morning began with a workout. A good workout 🙂 St. Thomas isn’t exactly map-my-run-able and I don’t have a Garmin, so we are focusing on time instead of distance. We had my mom drive us down to the nearby beach so we could run (not that we ran I’m the sand, just near the beach). In the end we ran for 20minutes and walked for 18minutes. Then we slowly walked up the HUGE hill home; I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow. All total, 60monutes of activity, which felt great.

Breakfast was Greek Gods honey Greek yogurt, topped with some blueberries and banana.

I’ve spent the morning running errands with my mom, including a trip to school so I could write this post.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what?!?

What’s the best airplane food you’ve ever had? The worst?

Nightmare Before Christmas

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There was no blog post yesterday because I was so exhausted that I bumbled around all day without really doing anything!  We set our alarms for 8am and at 10:00 the husband was shaking me awake and I had no recollection of turning off the alarms.  Finally the husband remembered – after I told him I couldnt’ study because I was too tired to lift my arms – that I had such a bad nightmare on Saturday night that my moaning and flailing woke him up.  I don’t remember that either, but he told me I looked pretty pitiful.

When I got up today, the idyllic scene outside my window was like something out of one of my nightmares –

Yes, it’s gorgeous.  But – that’s the kind of snow you make cocoa and cuddle by the fireplace in, not the kind of snow you walk 30minutes through to Organic Chemistry!

But after Sunday’s #fail I was determined to make the best of today; even though I woke up at 9:30!  I started my day with some good stretching.  Not gonna lie, then I started my day with this (after brushing my teeth of course!) –

Sorry I’m not sorry (thanks, Rachel), Cherry Coke Zero is my version of the dog with a barrel around its neck.

Then I dressed for battle.

I take the dull out of bundling! (Say that out loud for me, pretty please?)

Oh yes, those are children’s snow boots.

Even my boots couldn’t fully save my trek though, it sort of sucked 😦  When I lived in Brooklyn and everyone walked it was kind of fun, but here, where I’m the only one in the snow, it’s a bit embarrassing.  At least I never really felt cold, probably because I got so sweaty; galumphing is a good workout!

I got to school early to pick up a portfolio (100%, booyah!) and then used the space before class to try to make up yesterday’s lost study time.  While I worked I snacked on a serving of Kugel.

I also drank a medium skim gingerbread latte (half pumps) and got distracted talking with a friend.

During Anatomy (87% with the curve on Friday’s test, booyah!) I slurped down a Revolution Foods Fruit Mash-Up.

As soon as classes were over, and I confirmed with the husband that he could pick me up from school, I got my study on.  I’m disappointed in myself that I screwed around so much it took me until after 7 to finish my notecards.  I’m proud of myself that when I was done at 7 I headed to the gym anyways!

I took my notecards on the elliptical – 35minutes, random, level 6.

We got home close to 9:00 and I’m pretty proud of the dinner I pulled together – fruits, veggies, and dessert!  First was a green purple monster.

This bad boy was a blend of frozen spinach, frozen blueberries, orange juice, Silk Almond Milk, and honey.

I gave the husband the extra and he loved it as well (although his did have a little extra sugar blended into it!).

Next up was a taste of the South.

I randomly picked up this can of Hoppin’ John when it was on sale a few weeks ago.  I’ve never eaten (heard of) Hoppin John before so I pretty much stuck with the directions on the can –

I did a 1/2 batch (one can) topped with Applegate Farms turkey bacon, Sriracha, and a little brown sugar.

I portioned half of it into a bowl, and tried something new.

Pretty good, who knew I liked black-eyed peas?!

Dessert was “new” as well, but there was never any question about liking it.

Oh. My. God.

This, my friends, is a (half)-batch of Jenna’s Caramel Sauce.

Well, that’s what’s left of the batch after Adam and I got to it.  It has a deep, decadent flavor and is sweet and rich.  Make it, make it, make it, make it!

Eaten drizzled (liberally) over a small bowl of vanilla ice-cream with lots of sliced strawberries.

Really it was just an excuse to eat some strawberries 😉

Yum!  Quite a pleasing dinner indeed.

Now I’ve got to hurry to shower so I can get to bed like a girl with an important test tomorrow.

Have you ever tried (heard of) Hoppin’ John?

Going Out with a Bang

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Thanks so much for the encouragement on my last post!  Although, it seemed like many of you thought I was stressed; I was actually being matter of fact.  And I matter of factly failed my test this afternoon 😉 😦

Breakfast at Starbucks ended up being a success.  I got a tall, non-fat latte,

and a slice of gingerbread.

Then I brushed my teeth in the public bathroom and spit Scope in the parking lot like a total creeper 😉

My breath was fresh, but the dentist did give me the bad news that I got my first ever cavity.  I knew it was coming (they’ve been “keeping an eye on” that spot for a year and a half) but I’m still a little nervous about getting drilled.

After my appointment I headed to Wegman’s for a great hot bar lunch.

An assortment of veggies plus a few pieces of sweet and sour chicken,

with fruit for dessert.

I left my car parked at Wegman’s, which meant I got to walk to school for the slaughter (Orgo exam), and then walk back to do my grocery shopping.  I love walking so much, I hope this “nice” weather holds out!

When it was all said and done I ended up with a ‘you shouldn’t grocery shop hungry’ candy bar.

Delish, like honeycomb enrobed in chocolate!

I also ate a bowl of random cereals (Barbara’s Shredded Oats, plus Kashi H2H and Strawberry Flakes) with Silk Almond Milk.

I’m not sure why I was so hungry, but I’m glad I ate because I had a lot to do in the kitchen.

I’m at the point where I transfer my obsessive love from fall foods to holiday foods, and I wanted to end the season with a bang.  There’s no better way to go out than P-U-M-P-K-I-N, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!  (Can you tell I watched “Bring it On” during dinner?)

Hello there.

We made Rachael Ray’s Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage.

We subbed rigotoni for penne and vegan crumbles for sausage, but other than that we pretty much followed the recipe.

Delish!

For dessert I went with more pumpkin, (and more Rachael Ray, come to think of it) Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Muffins.

I skipped the frosting, these babies are perfect without it!

I had two.

Now I’ve got to go to bed, go, go, to bed!

Were you a cheerleader in highschool?