Tag Archives: greens

Candied Bacon Pancakes

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I know that title drew you in, but a lot of stuff happened before the pancakes; it’s been two days!  It’s only Tuesday, but am allowed to say that this week sucks?  I still haven’t worked out (in fact, I slept through my last unlimited yoga class this morning and I’m so sad), I started reviewing class notes for upcoming tests and realized that I’m starting three weeks too late, and I’m in a terrible mood.  I wish I had a day to catch up but instead I had to go to stupid meetings and tomorrow I have to go on even stupider errands.  Bah!

Yesterday, I had a 0% Plain Oikos with a honey stick for breakfast.

Plus a Mott’s Caramel Hot Spiced Cider.

This appears to be another product so new that it’s not on the website.  It was also the start of an appletastic lunch.

Nature’s Path Apple Pie Crunch Chia Plus Bar (I’m loving these; my favorite parts is definitely the chia seeds),

GoGo Squeez Cinnamon Applesauce Packet,

and Apple Month candies.

Plus more candy in the form of a serving of Caramel Apple Sugar Babies when I got home from work.

They were the best Apple Month Candy yet!

Also when I got home from work, I had a total meltdown and Adam saved the day dinner by remembering our Living Social deal to SoHo Burger.

There was actually some nonsense with the deal and I’m pretty annoyed with SoHo Burger as a business, but the food was good and I need to get to bed soon so nevermind.

Adam and I split a Gimme Smore Spiked Shake.  (I ate 45%)  Chocolate fudge, roasted marshmallow, graham crackers, vanilla ice cream, Bacardi Select Dark Rum.

And an order of the Truffle Tater Tots.  (I ate 30%)  New twist on classic house made tater tots seasoned with truffle oil, parmesan cheese and parsley.

For my meal I did a burger and a salad.

A side Caesar (I ate everything but the croutons),

and a “naked,” aka without a bun, Turkey Burger.  (I ate 95%)  8oz fresh organic turkey breast topped with brie cheese and cranberry chutney.

We shared our leftover burger bites with the dog when we got home and he was very happy to see us indeed.

I got in bed the minute we got home.  Literally; I gave the dog his treats and then handed the husband my dress from under the covers!  And then I stayed there through my alarm clock and didn’t get up until I was an hour late this morning.  And I’m still tired.

Coffee with skim milk and a pb-chocolate magic straw was clearly how I needed to start my day.

Then I had a dipping plate.

2 servings of baby carrots,

in 3 servings (for only 150 calories!) of Cedar’s French Onion Yogurt Dip.

The dip was tangy, creamy, and delicious, and yet another product not found on the company’s website.  <– what is up with that lately?!

And a Butterfinger Pumpkin.

Speaking of unhealthy (but delicious) things, I impulse-bought lunch while I was making a much-needed grocery trip this afternoon.  Mac and cheese and sweet and sour chicken.  I didn’t have my camera and I can’t get the phone photo to format so you’ll just have to take my word that it was ridiculously unhealthy.

Speaking again of stupid but tasty purchases – I bought two more pumpkin beers!

Dinner was a two-course breakfast affair.  First, eggs.

Spinach and bok choy cooked in evoo and salt with eggs with light half & half and crumbled blue cheese.

Then candied bacon pancakes with a little maple syrup.

That picture wasn’t worth the wait, was it?

Let Apple Month Begin!

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When I go more than a day without blogging I do really miss it.  It’s clearly going to be an adjustment a year from now when I have a baby (hopefully) and a job (even more hopefully).

It’s felt like a long week (already!) and I only had time to pack one meal this morning so I went with breakfast.

A 1.5% Pineapple Oikos,

and a granola bar.

Today’s classes went well and I had time to run a few on-campus errands before work.  The mini grill from my confession post was part of a project I completed last night.  One of our clinical community assignments was to create an educational bulletin board on a nutrition topic.  I went with healthy grilling.

I had a friend snap a picture of me with it for my portfolio.

This assignment felt stressful because there is so much going on this month, but it was actually kind of nice to revisit my teacher days.

My options were limited and “lunch” ended up being this bag of Smart Fries.

They were fairly similar to packing peanuts but somehow that wasn’t a bad thing.  The flavor was mild but savory and a 1 oz serving (110 calories) included 60-something pieces.

I came home from work to a package from my mom celebrating the arrival of Apple Month.

Too funny that this box came on the same day that I had already blogged about being ready for apple goodies.  I took a few tastes as a snack.

Plus a few bites of Adam’s (not so good) mango.

I was glad that I didn’t snack too much because dinner ended up being a work of art.

Taste-wise it was art, that is, I know that the pictures are fairly dark and unappetizing.

(Ingredients that follow are listed for both Adam’s and my servings together.)

A bag of fresh baby spinach was steam-sautéed in evoo and chicken broth, then tossed with a big handful each blue cheese crumbles and dried cherries.

An amazing smokey fish salad.

A 6.7 oz can of Trader Joe’s Smoked Herring was mashed with lemon juice, Miracle Whip, smoked paprika, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, and 1 shredded green bell pepper.

We used the small holes on our cheese grater to shred the veggies and they ended up being an amazing addition.

A 1/2 serving of Special K crackers for dipping.

Delicious, delicious, delicious!

Have you ever had to make a bulletin board display?

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!

Co-operating With My To-Do List

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I have officially accomplished more today than I did the entire rest of the summer, no lie.  On my to-done list:

  • go to the DMV
  • renew my BSC parking pass
  • make a copy of my proof of malpractice insurance
  • confirm my class schedule
  • sign up for the co-op
  • work
  • make 2 recipes for dinner
  • make snack for Adam’s poker game
  • complete summer work for my professional portfolio
  • put away clean laundry
  • set up binders for school
  • blog

Woot!  I work tomorrow and still have a few things to do on Sunday, but I feel good about heading back to school on Monday.

The DMV was amazingly quick and painless, probably because I got there soon after they opened.  I recently discovered that my licence expired more than a month ago so this was an important errand to accomplish before school starts and I have to drive to my internship.  My photo probably will look something like this –

Holy hair brushes, Emily, learn how to use one!  Also, I might be old enough that it’s time to figure out concealer before my next id photo.

I ran around all morning and didn’t have time for breakfast so I drank a Starbucks Vanilla Double Shot Energy on the walk to work.

Also on my walk, I stopped in at the co-op and became an owner.

This errand was even quicker and less painless than the DMV.  Locals, did you know that Lexington Co-op will refund your membership fee if you move?

For my lunch break today I grabbed food at Globe Market.

Side note – once school starts my buying food at work habit needs to die a quick death.

Thai Peanut Noodles that were astonishingly tasteless and disappointing,

and a crab cake that more than made up for the lackluster noodles.

I found a GIANT hunk of claw meat in my cake and was so pleased.

Work went well.  I dropped off the rest of the Cookie Butter Fudge a few days ago and apparently everyone really liked it.  My lack of breakfast hit me hard as we closed up shop at work.  A Starbucks’ unsweetened Arnold Palmer was consumed on the walk home,

and these surprisingly delicious Caramel Brule Chocolate Bites were shared with Adam while I cooked.

At least those purchases were bought via a birthday gift card with a 2pm treat receipt.

I went full-on fancy for dinner, though my plate did end up unfortunately monochromatic.

A Shallota Salmon Burger patty,

with a serving of Buttery Bok Choy Gratin.

Rachael Ray’s gratin only got middling reviews but my salmon burgers were a hit.  Several of Adam’s friends who are here playing poker tried them and gave rave reviews.

But maybe they were just sucking up because they knew I was making *brown butter and candied bacon popcorn* for them to snack on –

I don’t think I’ve ever been more jealous of a snack!  I consoled myself with a Rascal’s Wild Red.

But that was disgusting (it tasted like cough syrup to me) so a few sips in I traded up for a Michelob Ultra Light Cider.

Michelob will never be my beer of choice, but their cider was damn good.  120 calories per bottle (and naturally gluten free).

I assume it will be a late night for Adam but I’ve got an early morning at work so I’m going to go curl up in bed with a Patricia Cornwell novel.

Do you belong to a co-op?

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!

Buffalo Blue Cheese Black Bean Burgers, From Yesterday

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The past 24 hours have been odd but gratifying.  Mostly because I’ve done odd but gratifying things, like frying up a batch of bacon yesterday at 5:30 in the morning.

I ate three hot slices of turkey bacon and they were delicious.  And now you know our wonderful reason for having bacon in the house.

I ate a bagelwich with my bacon.

A Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with two slices of turkey and 1 oz sharp cheddar.

In addition to bacon and breakfast before 8 am, I also cleaned the kitchen, registered for a conference, made a batch of pupsicles, and worked out.

1 hour hot yoga class.  I love how even if you’re not very good at yoga it’s still a nice workout.  P.S. Wanna know why girls who do yoga are so skinny?  For safety.  My boobs practically smoother me to death in rabbit pose!

After yoga I walked the little man.

We’ve had him more than a year now and I’m still amazed by how well he stops at cross-walks.

Pre-lunch snack was a plate of pickle slices.

And dessert first, since I had to make a last-minute trip to the store for a forgotten ingredient.

Trader Joe’s cookie butter dark chocolate bar, does that even need a description?!  Though I will say that I freaking adore the little bites of crunch embedded throughout the bar.

An epic journey of three stores in my sweaty yoga clothes later, we had panko.  And shortly after that, lunch.

Roasted green beans,

and Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers.

(recipe included at the bottom of this post)

In the afternoon I worked.  It was a good shift, I actually worked several hours by myself for the first time.  It’s always fun when someone trusts you to hold down the fort.

But then on the walk home I got a migraine.  I didn’t take my medicine in time and I ended up being down for the count the whole evening.  I curled up in a fetal position on the couch and Adam brought me to bed at 10.  Unfortunately by then my head felt better and my stomach was twisting with hunger pains.  I probably should have gotten up and eaten but instead I flopped around for several hours before falling asleep.

When I got up this morning cereal was the last thing on my mind; I wanted savory and lots of it.

This salad fit the bill.

With the bites I took while I filled my bowl, this salad contained:  a romaine base, 2 Tbsp light honey mustard dressing, 1 oz gorgonzola crumbles, 2 oz honey roasted peanuts, 2 slices turkey bacon, and 1 chopped Crispin Pink apple.

With a Green Dragon Tea from Honest Tea for drinking.

I also ate the last serving of Maple Pancake and Bacon Ice Cream.

That stuff was ridiculous good.  Pretty please go make it and see for yourself.

I’m actually about to eat another small dessert now too.  It’s a recipe I’m working on though, so no pictures for now.  Hope everyone else is having a sweet day!

Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers, serves 4 – 6

  • (2) 15.5oz cans reduced-sodium black beans
  • 1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp buffalo wing sauce
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbles
  1. Preheat the oven to 450*.  Foil and spray 2 baking sheets.
  2. Empty bean cans into a colander and rinse thoroughly – this is a heart healthy step that helps to further reduce the sodium in this recipe.
  3. Pour rinsed beans and 2 cups wing sauce into a blender and puree.  If you have a rickety blender you may want to do this in two batches.
  4. Empty blender into a large mixing bowl.  Add rest of wing sauce and eggs and stir.  Stir in panko and cheese.
  5. Using your hands, form 12 patties out of the bean mixture.
  6. Put patties on prepared sheets and bake for 20 minutes.  It is not necessary to flip the patties during baking.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

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This is a “Do as I say, not as I do” post.  The past 48 hours have been… strange.  I feel like crap mentally and physically and I’ve been eating crap.  I’ve been weirdly, intensely thirsty all day; like I want to pour a milkshake down my throat all day long (which I basically did!).  I get sort of depressed every fall about missing teaching and I might be panicking a bit about the start of my last year of school.  So I’ve been eating only crap and lots of crap.  Lots of crap because apparently crappy food isn’t all that filling.  Do we think I said crap enough times for this post month?

as I say –

  1. Don’t drink your calories.
  2. It’s okay to have a treat, but probably not more than 3 1 a day.
  3. Skipping breakfast might set you up to make bad choices the rest of the day.
  4. Sometimes you should eat fruits and veggies just for the nutrients, even if you’re not feeling them at the moment.
  5. It’s ok to feel hungry sometimes.

as I do –

Friday’s “breakfast” was wasabi trail mix, ~5 oz worth in total.

And two pieces of the amazing sea salt caramel my parents brought from Canada.

Lunch was a quick run to the co-op hot bar during work.

Chicken salads and veggie salads.

The kale was the best (take note, Emily!)

I did another try at a caramel macchiato in the afternoon, this time at The Spot.

Does that look like an iced caramel macchiato?  No.  And it was disgusting anyway; there were at least 5 inches of straight foam.  I took three sips and dumped the rest down the sink.

I didn’t eat enough during the day and that is where the bad dinner decisions started.  Adam had to pick me up from work so we could run errands across town that took forever, I started to have a tantrum, and somehow we ended up at Arby’s for small Jamocha shakes.

Um, and also mozzarella sticks.

I hate mozzarella sticks.  But these were actually pretty good.

I’ll start Saturday’s recap by saying this – Friday was healthy in comparison.  But at least I finally had a sweet coffee win.

I gave up on caramelmacchiatos and moved on to a tall white mocha coconut frappucinno.

For lunch at work I packed a plain 0% Greek yogurt with a honey stick,

and a Fiber One chocolate chip cookie.

I also bought a Synergy Grape Chia Kombucha.

And on the way home I had this, because two milkshakes a day is totally normal and healthy.

Seriously though, this was actually a good decision because it was outstanding.  This sign has been calling to me for days –

“Emmmmmmily.  ‘Greek iced coffee milkshaaaaaake.’  You’re not even sure what that means but you need it.”

But I still didn’t eat any real food and I ended up eating half of this candy bar while we were on a never-ending trip to Target.

I did eat a real food dinner, but it is dark and stormy (honestly it is, I’m not trying to be cute) and my pictures were disgusting.  Go ahead and try to imagine a plate of chicken nuggets and baby carrots.  I’m also 90% sure that you should imagine some popcorn in the near future too.

Who’s up for fruits and veggies on *Monday?  Me!  (*Note – I would say tomorrow but tomorrow my in-laws are coming to take us out for bbq for my belated birthday lunch and lets be real.)

Chicken Chicken

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Please note – if you were my dog you would read that title as “chick-ON chick-ON,” since that is what we say whenever we feed him chicken.

Not a lot has gone down in the two days since I left Ohio, but there were a few highlights.  I did get to eat lots of chips and several large diet sodas.

Our drive back to Buffalo and my parents’ flight home went off without a hitch.

My dad drove the whole way home for me and I finished knitting my scarf!!!

The fine people at Honest Tea noticed that I can’t help but buy a beverage whenever I walk past the co-op and sent me a few new flavors to try.

I got a new retainer, hopefully my last new retainer ever.  *fingers crossed*

We had to take the dog to the vet to get a cyst on his tail lanced and it was the grossest/coolest thing ever.

Poor baby!

The vet trip actually happened today and it’s a good thing that went well because it was pretty much all I accomplished today.  I didn’t get much sleep at my grandma’s house (I was on the couch and there was cable) and I stayed up too late again last night and crashed hard today.

I did manage a good, late breakfast.

Oh, Green Monster, I love you so.  My original recipe is still my favorite.  1 frozen banana + 1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup oj.

So green good.

I also ate half (aka 1 serving) of this Honey Noosa Yoghurt.

I got lunch from the hot bar while I was grocery shopping (hey, that’s an accomplishment!).

Two types of chicken,

plus roasted veggies.

I tried to get a skinny caramel macchiato as an afternoon snack but I ended up throwing it out after a few sips.

This drink was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted.  It was super sour, but like there was something wrong with the coffee, not the milk.  And I used part of a birthday gift card so it was extra sad.

Dinner was more chick-ON.

Baby carrots,

honey mustard for dipping (Ken’s Lite and it was very good, if you’re wondering),

and two servings of Wegman’s chicken nuggets.

I’ve been wanting nuggets for days and these hit the spot.

Tomorrow’s plans include not sleeping through yoga, medicating the dog, a shift at work, and a fun nighttime event with the husband.

What is your favorite sauce for nugget dipping?