My Forever Alone Movie Date

by Emily

Why am I posting at 12:30, tomorrow would have been such a happier day if I had gotten into bed an hour ago? There isn’t much to share on the food front though, so at least I will keep this quick.

Breakfast didn’t happen at home, but thankfully my co-worker offered me her blueberry muffin (she bagged it at Wegman’s and then decided on hot bar instead).

I ate half. I’m not a big muffin person but this was pretty good.

I actually wasn’t supposed to work today, but was called in last night at the last-minute. Work = money, yay! But I had fun stuff planned with Adam that I was really bummed to miss and I was sort of in a funk this morning.

Lunch was a 0% Pear Chobani.

Holy frick I love that flavor so much! I tried one at FNCE and have been biding my time until they showed up in Buffalo.

Also a KeVita Living Green Sparkling Probiotic Drink.

Full disclosure – KeVita sent me some free coupons so I could sample their products. They sent me some extras to share with y’all too; stay tuned! I wasn’t expecting to love the drink, but then I did. It was so refreshing!

Adam was playing poker with friends all evening, so after work I took myself to a movie. I was seeing “Hansel and Gretel” so I didn’t even bother inviting other people. I’m still not sure why I was so obsessed with seeing the film but I did end up enjoying myself. I brought a .25 lb bag of candy for a themed movie snack but didn’t have time to take a picture. It was mostly conversation hearts and they were mostly disgusting.

Dinner didn’t happen until almost 10 pm and I’m still amazed that I managed to stick to my plan.

2 Quorn Cheeseburger patties* topped with some Cabot’s 50% sharp cheddar,

and a sliced cucumber sprinkled with lots of salt.

I also ate these Honey BBQ Smart Fries because I was too hungry to wait patiently for the patties to cook.

I enjoyed the flavor but it wasn’t worth getting seasoning all over my fingers versus the classic version.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

*Adam ate the other two Quorn patties when he got home from poker and proclaimed them to be “very good”

21Jan2013

Winter Weight Gain

by Emily

I came through my first full-time day at the hospital with flying colors! Well, I guess I was a little in the gray when I ran out of time in the morning and had to skip breakfast, but that was the only hiccup. I had fun, learned a lot, and made it through 8 – 4 without thinking longingly of my couch once!

We were busy on rounds (walking around the floor and listening to the medical residents give an update on all of the patients) all morning and I was too busy to miss breakfast. Then I got to grab a tea latte from Tim Horton’s while we charted.

My earl grey with frothed skim milk was great. And the RD let me chart on a patient! I’ve got to do a lot of work independently to meet all of my internship curriculum goals so it was a good sign that they let me hit the ground running. In the afternoon, among other things, I observed a gestational diabetes education that I’m eager to try on my own.

I was worried about finding a table in the packed cafeteria, but thankfully the RDs invited me to sit with them for lunch. I’m with a different person each day of the week so it was great to get to meet some of them in advance.

I packed a really tasty sandwich.

A multi-grain Sandwich Thin with Crofter’s strawberry preserves, 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey & Maple Turkey, Cabot’s 50% reduced sharp cheddar, and pickled jalopeños.

A pack of Annie Chun’s Sesame Roasted Seaweed Snacks.

And a Trader Joe’s 100-calorie milk chocolate bar.

This lunch was perfect – fun, healthy, and it helped fuel my brain through its first afternoon of actual thought!

Before I knew it, the day was over and Adam was picking me up. His lab was closed for Martin Luther King Day and I was thrilled that he could drive me because it is brutal outside. My phone’s weather forecast for Wednesday is a giant, ominous looking snowflake.

My workday may have flown by, but our errands took forever. Adam and I ended up splitting an ice cream Twix bar while we were out and about.

He {claims that he} hates Twix bars so the sharing portions were in my favor.

I also snacked on a Caramel Pineapple Chobani Bite with the last of the blackberries.

This snack was so flipping good, I can’t wait to eat the rest of the pack of Chobani and I must buy more fresh berries immediately! The caramel gave the yogurt a little extra sumthin’ sumthin’ compared to the regular pineapple variety and the entire gorgeous carton only has 100 calories. Plus it smelled delicious and made me want a big slice of cheesecake.

– – – Sidenote: Why, oh why did I keep scrolling through Chobani’s website? I need the Key Lime Crumble and Almond Coco Loco Flips, need. I’m sure they won’t hit Buffalo for another couple of months and I’m basically going to die. – – –

Dinner was a big salad with some confusion about its roots.

Inside the jumble –

baby spinach
peanut sauce
1 Tbsp ground flax
chopped green pepper
chopped red onion
buckwheat groats
chopped honeycrisp
leftover 1000 island bbq sauce pulled chicken

Somehow all of those flavors just worked together.

I’m still feeling a bit hungry but I did a lot of nibbling while I assembled dinner and tomorrow’s lunch so I’m closing my kitchen for the day. I’ve been steadily gaining weight since we moved to Buffalo but recently my unhealthy habits have been out of control and I’m officially too fat for some of my work pants. Pride and health may not have motivated me (though they really should of!) but my wallet sure does – it’s time to lose some weight! I’m not planning on going on a diet, far from it, I’m just going to stop being ridiculous. Wish me luck?

Did you gain any weight over the winter holidays?

26Dec2012

Our New Christmas Traditions

by Emily

Happy holidays, from our family to yours!

We spent the last two days making memories and building our own traditions. We missed our family like crazy, but other than it was one of our best Christmas days ever. It helped that most of our new family traditions involved eating lots of tasty food!

One event I hope not to turn into a tradition was December 23rd’s 3 am grocery trip. We had a slight misstep with the baking I did for my co-workers’ Christmas gifts. One of my pies burnt to a crisp and I had to go buy a replacement gift in the middle of the night. Also, we ate the salvageable half of the burnt pie… at 3 am.

I made my Hello Dolly Pies and they were delicious. I hope everyone liked them!

We exchanged gifts at our company holiday breakfast.

Our bosses took us out for a delicious meal at Mythos. I had never been there before but I’m still sure that what I ordered was the best thing on the menu. A burrito with turkey, eggs, potatoes and cheddar, smothered in hollandaise.

It came with berries and Greek yogurt on the side and everything was delicious. I ate half and brought the rest to Adam who loved it as well.

We ran a few errands when Adam picked me up from breakfast and we ended up going on an adventure. Vineeta International Market has been hiding under my nose on Grant for months!

We had a grand time wandering around and came home with lots of goodies.

Including the Thumbs Up cola we shared.

Then we trimmed the tree.

We couldn’t buy a big tree because the dog is a monster but we enjoyed this little magical grow tree I bought Adam for Hanukkah.

And then we had pie.

Gaaah; can this be a yearly tradition? That pie is so fricking good.

So was the eggnog seltzer I sipped on all day.

I had a salad for lunch.

Romaine with peanut sauce, buckwheat groats, chopped honeycrisp, and cheddar.

Plus the last of the sugar-plum candies.

We did pizza for dinner.

Why mess with our usual traditions?

Then we stayed up late watching “How I Met Your Mother.” We’ve decided that’s our new tv marathon of choice.

This morning (Christmas!!) we slept in late like a couple of old people. It was pretty great. The dog started his morning with sirloin and bacon wet food.

And I started mine with toffee.

Plus a glass of eggnog with nutmeg.

Then we got all fancy with breakfast.

Seriously fancy. Check out we bought at Wegman’s –

Lobster for Christmas breakfast? That can definitely become a tradition! We cooked turkey bacon and then used the skillet to sautéechopped lobster tail in butter. Then we scrambled in egg whites (leftover from the pies, plus one yolk) and baby spinach.

It was quite good. And lunch was a winner as well.

We used this Christmas tree pasta that my co-worker gave me.

I sautéed sliced mushroom, chopped red peppers, and baby spinach in butter and evoo. Then I tossed in pasta, a big dollop of Nayo, and a huge handful of shredded cheese.

Ridiculous good.

And the bowl Cannoli ice cream I had next was even better.

Ben and Jerry just keep getting it right.

For dinner we went over to our friends’ house for a party. We brought over a good dip, and terrible chips for everyone to try.

The White Chocolate Peppermint Pringle’s looked so nasty that there was no way Adam and I could pass up the experience of trying them for a measly $2. Pro tip – freaking terrible, aka totally worth the money to try.

My dinner plate.

Tons of salad with mashed potato and mac and cheese. With homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I ate about half. Plus a candy cane.

That cane was actually my hook in a candy cane fishing game we played. We went through a series of challenges from Minute to Win It. Hilarious.

Adam and I won! Woot!

We took a long walk to get home and stopped for sushi on the way back.

I had two pieces of inarai (tofu skin) but some amazing fried thing. It was the perfect way to end a great holiday.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

P.S. Here’s a video of Webster opening his Christmas present. You’re welcome.

4Dec2012

Sunny Sunday Monday

by Emily

We had a high of 57* today, wheeeeeee! And tomorrow promises to be in the 50’s as well. I’m hoping to take the dog on a glorious long walk.

Today’s exam was thing 1-of-6 on the “big things left in the semester” list. So that’s where I’ve been.

Yesterday I was actually busy being sick. I woke up with a cough and a constantly running nose and even my boss said I looked terrible. I didn’t have it in me to make or eat food before my shift at noon. When I got home at 5, I had some spicy avocado inari.

So flipping good; I love how the tofu skin is a little bit sweet.

I also ate the best dipping plate I’ve had all year.

A sliced green dragon apple.

This apple variety – a hybrid cross between a Japanese Orin and a Golden Delicious was new to me and I loved it. Perfectly sweet! I have another one in the fridge and I can’t wait to eat it.

2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter melted with 1 Tbsp Biscoff for dipping. Plus a spoonful straight from the jar.

The pb-Biscoff combo cannot be beat!

This plate was supposed to be dinner.

The roasted green beans were divine per usual,

but I was not a fan of the Tofurky Pepperoni Pizza. The “meat” was way too soft and the “cheese” did not melt.

I could only eat two bites of pizza before calling uncle. It is worth noting that Adam clearly thought it was fine because he ate the rest of the pizza!

I ended up supplementing my green beans with Chinese take-out.

Crab rangoon was the perfect one-handed dish for study-eating.

Soon after dinner, I realized that the only way I could study was if I had a constant stream of food going.

I also ate a bowl of baby carrots and these sugar-plum candies from Wegman’s bulk bins.

The sugar plums were quite good, I recommend buying some if you spot them at your store. There really was plum flavor, not just one note of sweetness.

Studying went about as well as could be expected when trying to cram with a sudden cold. But it was what it was.

P.S. Adam decorated the house for the holidays while I was at work because he is the best.

And then he decorated the dog.

Too awesome.

I got myself up at 6 this morning and {hallelujah!} discovered that I wasn’t actually sick any more. I don’t know where my cold went but I hope it stays there! {knock on wood}

I drank a mug of hot chocolate while I did some clear-headed studying.

And then I was off to take my exam. It didn’t go as well as I could have liked (do they ever?!) but it certainly could have gone worse. Phew!

After my classes I did something amazing…

I worked out! 60 minutes of hot yoga was heavenly. And the session was nowhere near as hard as I’d worried it would be after more than a month of no exercise. <– yikes!

I have a 2-month unlimited pass that expires soon so I had to go to yoga today, looming finals or not. I probably will only go once or twice more in the next two weeks though because I really do have to study. But as soon as break begins I am looking forward to making the most of my pass!

A Stinger honey waffle was consumed on the walk to yoga.

And a juicy apple was consumed on the walk to work.

My six+ hour shift went well, though I did have to deal with a bleeding lip since my body waited until the warmest day of the winter to rebel against the cold. I got a Starbucks Strawberry Lemonade Refresher while I was out buying emergency Chap Stick.

Finally home, I did eggs for a quick dinner.

– – Cooked 8 oz package chopped seitan in 1 Tbsp Earth Balance until crispy, set half aside for tomorrow. Add ~ 1 cup frozen spinach, chopped cilantro, 1 tsp evoo, 1/2 tsp sugar, salt, and a few dashes of Sriracha. Scramble in 2 large eggs and 1 egg white plus 2.5 oz Cabot’s 50% Reduced Sharp Cheddar. – –

I couldn’t get a single good picture, but this meal was out of control good! I adore eggs.

With a microwave chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

It was much tastier than it looks.

I didn’t get to study today (I needed a day to recover from my exam anyway) but I did put away a load of laundry, do the dishes, and organize my study materials. Now I’m off to read a book in bed!

Did your area get hit with unseasonably (fabulously) warm weather this week?

2Dec2012

Friday-Saturday Frenzy

by Emily

I worked 9.5 hours on both Friday and Saturday, so the weekend has felt a little frenzied. Basically ever single thing I ate was on the go, covered in cheese, or both! Quickly, because I have to get up tomorrow and study for my giant exam before work…

Friday morning on the walk to school, an apple.

When I had to spend time on campus contesting a credit waiver instead of going home before work, a juice.

I made a custom blend – kale, spinach, carrot, and apple.

Lunch at work, delicious co-op hot bar. Chicken paprikash and smoked gouda mac and peas.

Late night dinner while I waited for my husband to get home from the airport, a giant plate of nachos with black beans and olives.

Saturday morning at work, a rosemary olive scone. Apparently I loved olives this weekend.

“Lunch” at 5pm during a busy shift, a Katie’s Food Stash Bar and half a veggie and hummus wrap.

On a 9pm grocery trip, December candy.

A late dinner that was worth the wait – eggs and hash browns.

For two – a pint of mushrooms browned in 1 Tbsp Earth Balance, 1.5 cups spinach with 1 Tbsp evoo, salt, 2 eggs; scramble.

For two – 2 small potatoes and 1 red onion cooked in 1 Tbsp evoo and 1 Tbsp Earth Balance; salt, garlic powder, spicy paprika.

An impulse buy at the store, I got sucked in because the box was only $1.50. It was pretty good.

While catching up on tv, my boys are the cutest.

Good night!

27Nov2012

Cook Book, Cookies, Chicago Fire

by Emily

It’s felt like forever since I’ve blogged. Thankfully (ha!) I was starving all day and ate a ton of food so I have lots to post about.

First things first – I need to announce the cook book giveaway winner.

Congrats Turn Towards the Sun, shoot me an e-mail (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) with your mailing address!

Breakfast was consumed during class but photographed in Adam’s car. I waited until 6 am to will myself out of bed to finish writing a paper and was running behind. Actually, I would have been fine but then I had to cuddle the dog before I took my shower and I ended up needed Adam to drop me off. Thanks, husband!

A Wegman’s low-fat pumpkin pie yogurt that I was very impressed with. The texture was perfect and the taste was so good I’ll consider continuing to eat this flavor in December!

An Iced Oatmeal Cookie Z-Bar (FNCE sample).

The 2nd half of this Chuao Honeycomb Bar.

Adam continued to be the nicest husband ever, and he walked the dog to pick me up after classes. I love those boys so much!

I also love leftover pizza for lunch.

1 cheese slice,

with carrots and blue cheese dressing.

Plus batter bites for dessert.

I’m going to share the recipe tomorrow and here is my endorsement: I ate four and a half cookies today!!

Work went well. We extended our hours for the holiday season which means my shifts are all an hour(+) longer but it wasn’t too painful. I drank a cup of (Keurig) hot chocolate while at work but didn’t photograph it for obvious reasons.

Dinner was a serving of Seven Layer Casserole.

The recipe’s vegan but you don’t need a challenge to try it; it’s delicious!

Apparently that all wasn’t enough food because I also ate a bag of SmartPop while I caught up on “Chicago Fire.”

Are you watching Chicago Fire? Thoughts??

15Nov2012

This Post Is {Pea}Nuts

by Emily

We got home from Philadelphia after midnight on Monday and Tuesday morning definitely felt a little rough. I had clinical practice all day so I had to solider through, but I became pretty much worthless the minute I got home. Same story this evening. However, I promise that if you make it through this post there will be two tasty peanut-y recipes waiting for you at the end!

Caffeine was a necessity Tuesday morning. My friend and I shared this Silk Dark Chocolate Pure Almond milk in our coffees.

My other hospital eats included… An Apple Cinnamon GoGo Squeez.

An Enjoy Life Rice Milk Chocolate bar.

And a KIND Almond & Apricot Bar.

The KIND bar was the best. The name only references almonds and apricots but the base was pure coconut! It reminded me of a macaroon. I bought another one at the store today and I’m pretty jazzed about it.

When I got home I had a serving of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola with Blue Diamond Almond/Coconut Milk and fresh blackberries.

Plus a serving of Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream with peanuts on top.

My 2nd tasting of this ice cream left me with the same impression as my first; it’s awesome.

Dinner was awesomely quick and easy.

A microwaveable Punjab Eggplant dish from Trader Joe’s (I ate the whole package),

with a serving of pita chips for crunch.

I ate another serving’s worth of chip crumbles straight from the bag.

Wednesday’s meals were even better than Tuesday’s, but they did get off to a late start. I’ll skip a long story about my unsuccessful breakfast and just say that I didn’t get to eat today until I got home from school. And I got home after class, lab, and several hours working on a group project.

I was hungry as hell and thrilled that my dinner plans could come together in under 15 minutes.

I updated my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles recipe (shared at the end of this post) and was pleased with the results.

If we call that my “3pm breakfast,” then the food I ate from the hot bar while we were grocery shopping was lunch.

Farro with mushroom and spinach,

and sautéed green beans.

Both were quite tasty. This may have been the first time I’ve ever eaten farro and I enjoyed how creamy it was.

Dinner was snacks and beer. I got out my food processor for some peanut grinding took several taste tests at every stage of peanut butter production.

This honey roasted peanut butter comes together in a snap but it is one of Adam’s favorite things that I make (recipe is shared below). I also made Webster some pupsicles; if I have to clean the food processor I’m going to make sure I really use it first! <– let’s be real; I’ve never cleaned the food processor, Adam always does it

We split a Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale that was the perfect blend of sweet and spice.

Then we started a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale that I didn’t enjoy and passed off to Adam.

You would not even believe how many pumpkin beers I still have left!

As promised, recipes…

Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles, serves 2

4 oz dry linguine
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups frozen broccoli
2 tsp canola oil
4 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2.5 tsp sugar
(optional) dash red pepper flakes
(optional) 1-2 Tbsp peanuts

In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, tamari, vinegar, sugar, and red pepper flakes if using. You may want to microwave the bowl for 30 seconds or so to help loosen the peanut butter.
Cook pasta according to package directions. When 5 minutes of cooking time remain, add frozen veggies to the boiling water and stir. Drain and set aside when pasta is finished.
Once pasta is cooked, heat canola oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add cooked pasta and veggies to the pan. Cook 3 – 5 minutes, until the noodles start to get a bit crispy.
Pour sauce over pasta and toss to combine. Continue cooking for 5 – 7 minutes, until desired consistency is reached. My family likes to cook it until the sauce starts to form a crust on the pasta, but this dish is ready to serve as soon as everything is tossed together.
Serve and top with peanuts if desired.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

1 lb honey roasted peanuts (I highly recommend Trader Joe’s if you can get them)
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt

Put peanuts into food processor and process 1 – 3 minutes until mostly smooth.
Add remaining ingredients and process until fully combined.

14Nov2012

Final Day In Philly

by Emily

My final day in Philly was delicious. I was on my own while Adam took an 8 hour practical exam so I walked, ate, and read. It was perfection. I had to park the car in an all-day spot to save money but since I love to walk I was able to explore a large area on foot.

The Reading Terminal Market didn’t have as many vegan options as I’d hoped. In fact, we learned on Sunday that the vegan cheese steak place was temporarily closed which was a good thing because it gave me a day to deal with my massive disappointment. There were plenty of fun things to look at though.

Since I had trouble finding breakfast I went straight to dessert (and stayed there pretty much all day!).

Bubble tea for breakfast? Why not.

This was a red mango tea with strawberry popping bubbles. It was the best tea of the trip, popping boba is just so flipping good.

I spent some time at Au Bon Pain with the latest Kathy Reichs book and sipped a coffee with soy milk.

By the by, Reichs’ latest book was great.

Then froyo happened.

I have no regrets. Vegan Challenge or not, Emily Wax does not walk past self-serve eggnog frozen yogurt. I wanted to feel guilty, but this ended up being the best bowl I’ve ever had. Eggnog yogurt and cream cheese yogurt (even better than the eggnog!!) topped with salty peanuts, shredded coconut, caramel, and butterscotch chips.

Ridiculous. And now I have to spend the rest of my days searching for more cream cheese froyo.

The rest of lunch needed to be a little healthier – enter a green smoothie. Almond milk, banana, kale, and cacao.

I did a “design your own elixir” and was very pleased with my combination.

We needed to get on the road quickly after Adam’s exam so we headed to Whole Foods again for dinner.

Bbq seitan, collard greens, curry “chicken” salad, sesame seaweed, garlic pasta, and wheat berry salad.

Plus a vegan cookies and cream cupcake was split for dessert.

We did 50/50 but I got 100% of the frosting and Adam got 100% of the cake.

I also grabbed a coco libre coconut water + chia raspberry lemonade for the car.

It was awesome. I love chia drinks and this was the best I’ve ever had.

The rest of my car snacks (for the 8+ hour trip!) were decidedly less healthy.

I wasn’t even hungry by the end but I had to keep eating to stay awake and I woke up the next morning with a stomach ache. No matter, nothing was going to take away from how wonderful our Philly visit was.

All in all, we had a fantastic trip!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: greens

My Forever Alone Movie Date

Winter Weight Gain

Our New Christmas Traditions

Sunny Sunday Monday

Friday-Saturday Frenzy

Cook Book, Cookies, Chicago Fire

This Post Is {Pea}Nuts

Final Day In Philly