Tag Archives: greens

So. Much. Coffee.

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The week’s almost over!  Last night we did indeed walk the dog straight to snacks.

A diet pop and a York Peppermint Patty for me.

The three of us sat on the couch and watched “Solitary.”  I discovered the show and watched the first season on my own and now that we’re on season 2 I’m sad to say that my opinion is going downhill.  For such a big committment and such a tiny prize ($50,000 for the winner) I feel like the challenges should focus on resilience and conviction.  Now that they are becoming fitness competitions I’m losing interest.

I’m not sure why Adam found it necessary to take an hour-long shower after we stayed up late watching tv, but when the alarm went off at 6:00 this morning I wanted to punch him in the face.  I basically guzzled caffeine all day and then he brought me home pizza so we’re okay now!

Coffee count – #1: A medium iced coffee with french vanilla creamer for funsies.

#2/3: A small coffee with chocolate milk, x2.

#4: A Medium coffee with skim milk and three sugars.

I spent most of my day peeing and I’m still twitching.  Worth it.  Apparently I like my drinks sweet in the summer; I’m going to have to watch that habit.

Pre-coffee I did get in a workout. 30 minutes on the elliptical at random level 6.  Plus arm strength moves on the machines.

For breakfast I had the last bit of spicy chicken and rice.

Lunch was from the dining hall again.  Spicy tofu with sautéed peppers and onions plus broccoli cooked with cherry tomatoes.

I thought the food was good and most of the students I surveyed agreed with me.  Part of my summer school assignment was supposed to be analyzing patient surveys about hospital tray service.  I had to tweak the survey form a little bit to make it fit, but the same general ideas about food temperature and serving size applied.

When I got home in the afternoon I ate my slice of husband-delivered cheese pizza.

He only has a few more shifts at the hospital with the great cafeteria so I’ll take advantage while I can.

Our dinner casserole was assembled yesterday and all we had to do today was bake, easy peasy.

In the dish (the casserole dish!) was –

  • 4 cups cooked brown rice
  • 8 cups raw baby spinach
  • 2 cups roasted broccoli
  • 1 poblano pepper, diced
  • 1 lb tempeh, roughly chopped
  • 3 cups Imagine Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup
  • (1 cup crushed Monterey Jack Cheez-Its)

Mix.  Put in a 13×9 casserole dish.  Sprinkle with crushed Cheez-Its.  Bake 25 minutes at 400*.  Serves 6.

On my new plate.

It was closer to healthy than tasty, but it worked.

With a handful of candy-coated sunflower seeds for dessert.

Have you watched/heard of “Solitary” yet?

Zombies Don’t Feel So Fresh

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Hello, hello!  No post yesterday due technical difficulties.  P.S. “technical difficulties” is a fancy way of saying “I’m an idiot and when I plugged in my camera I somehow deleted all of my pictures.”

That wasn’t even the stupidest thing I did all afternoon.  We were eating M&M’s on the couch and I didn’t realize that I had spilled a handful until I saw the dog licking them.  I picked them up immediately (because chocolate and dogs don’t mix) but we have no idea what I did with them next.  We finally determined that I must have eaten them.  That’s right, I basically took food out of the dog’s mouth and ate it.  Yum.

Yesterday was a disaster any way.  We did not run.  We did eat nachos.  Like, ridiculous nachos; they were almost too cheesy.  Oh, and I fell asleep on the couch at 5pm again.  I don’t know what my deal is lately but I’m so tired I feel like a zombie!  I seem to be a little bit allergic to the dog but overall this has been my best summer ever as far as allergies go.  And while summer school is easy I don’t feel like I’m not doing enough and I’m certainly not doing too much.  I don’t know why I feel so tired all of the time.

For breakfast a Roasted Nut Roll Larabar Uber was packed.

The last of my Uber line samples, this flavor is my 2nd favorite after Bananas Foster.  The mix of nuts included almonds, pecans, peanuts and macadamia nuts.  It tasted almost like one of those pecan roll candies with the white stuff in the center!

I should mention that the husband was the one who sweetly did the breakfast packing.  Unfortunately I requested an apple to go with my bar and he provided a rock-hard nectarine instead.  No fruit for me.

Lunch was a very special feast.

One of our classmates owns the famous, local restaurant Romeo and Juliet’s Cafe and she brought us in a spread.

I had veggie pizza,

a stuffed pepper,

and salad.

And then I couldn’t help going back for a 2nd slice of pizza.

The stuff on the side is honey mustard dressing and house-made red pepper flake mayo.  I dipped my crust in the sauces and was in absolute heaven.

She brought in dessert too.

I finally ate my first cannoli!  Loved it!

I bought espresso to drink with my dessert like a real Italian.

A double shot with tons of skim milk and a few shakes of vanilla sugar.

Continuing the excitement, we watched a movie in class this afternoon (it was appropriate, it was a food movie!).  Fresh is a documentary that examines the pros and cons of organic versus factory farming and looks at our country’s food system as a whole.  A lot of cool people took part in it, including Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin.  We all really enjoyed the movie and I highly recommend that you check it out.  None of the information was really new to me but it was a great reminder that I need to do a better job of sticking with my principles when we go out to eat.  Adam and I only purchase humanely raised meat to cook at home and ideally that is the only type of meat I ever want to consume.

Even more exciting, we got the news that we are getting the day off tomorrow.  I am going to go to the mall with some friends and I couldn’t be more jazzed.  <– honestly, I clapped my hands and squealed when someone suggested it and I have no idea why because I’m not even going to be buying anything

I had big plans to make up yesterday’s run this afternoon and it just didn’t happen.  Actually, I got up and dressed in running clothes this morning (shoes, sports bra, everything) and made it as far as the couch.  I thought I would be able to redeem myself after class but I was dreading the run.  Every time I got up to go I just felt sad.  I need to do a better job of pushing through and working out more consistently (more in general!) but I love running so much that I hate to do it when I’m not going to enjoy it.

I did finally make that soup though.

Tex-Mex Chicken Soup from Cooking Light.  It was very good but not great.  I was mostly to blame for leaving out important ingredients.

my (mostly stupid) changes to the recipe

  • used 1/2 Tbsp less evoo
  • subbed green bell pepper instead of red (do you have any idea how expensive red pepper are?!)
  • subbed pickled jalapeño
  • skipped the cumin, cilantro, and queso (again, $)
  • skipped the tomato
  • used homemade shredded chicken and stock

I liked the spice level, especially with the pops of sweet corn.

I know this sounds strange, but I think I would have liked it better without the chicken!

Also this happened.

Yuck.

Finally, a product update – Smoke and Ashes from China Glaze’s Capitol Colours line (as seen in this post) has a great slate color but it chips like crazy.

Do not recommend.

Wow, that was a long post!

Have you seen “Fresh” yet?  What did you think?

Off Plan

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Adam was on call last night and sleeping by myself did not go as well as planned.  To start, the dog and I stayed up until 1 am painting my nails and watching “Drive Me Crazy.”  And it didn’t seem like I was sleeping poorly but when the alarm went off this morning I wanted to punch it in the face.  I knew by the first snooze that I needed to update my workout and breakfast plans.

Instead of a run, I did 10 minutes of strength and stretch moves.  Not gonna lie though, I don’t think I could have done more than 10 minutes even if I’d had the time!

Instead of a yogurt bowl at home I took breakfast to-go.  A Naked Green Machine that Adam brought me home from the hospital.

And an Apple Turnover Larabar Uber.

The bar was tasty though a bit stickier than I’d like.  The flavor wasn’t really apple, instead it was chock-full of raisins.

Lunch was simple but good.

Roasted broccoli,

topped with Makhani sauce.

With Junior Mints (Canada style!) for dessert.

When I got home from class I snacked on mango slices.

Yuuuuuum!  We almost never buy mango (and Adam has to cut it for me when we do!) but it is the perfect blend of tart and tangy.

Plus bread with olive oil.

And a small slice of pizza.

It was less than a dollar but it wasn’t very good and I shouldn’t have eaten it no matter how hungry I was.

I had homemade soup planned for dinner but then the husband ate a bunch of food and came home stuffed.  I moved the soup to tomorrow and instead I got a $6 fish taco for dinner.

This was more enjoyable than the soup would have been anyhow!

Did you follow your meal plan for dinner this evening?

We’re Home From Toronto!

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Did you know we were away?  I hope not, I tried to keep that under my hat.  We found a great deal for hotel/dinner/a movie on Living Social so we took a quick trip.  After two glorious days of mini-vacation now we’re home again!

We actually got back to Buffalo this afternoon but the day’s been packed and I’m just now sitting down.  I’m going to do a mega vacation recap tomorrow, so for today I’ll stick with things consumed on US soil.

Like the medium Americano with skim milk and two sugars that Adam and I split just minutes after crossing the border.

For some reason I’d been craving milk and coffee all weekend and this hit the spot.

We also split a pack of Snyder’s Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Pieces.

They were okay, but basically tasteless compared with the honey mustard ones.

On a healthier note, I drank this sludge.

It was actually delicious.  I mixed this pack of Amazing Grass GREENSuperFood into orange juice and a bit of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

I got the idea from the way Jamba Juice used to sell wheatgrass.

Most of the afternoon was spent on errands but I did sneak in a stroll.  We did a ton of walking this weekend but my legs wanted to stretch out after ride home.  Plus, I spotted this from the car and I really needed to check it out –

Awesome.

Our late lunch was stir-fried rice.

Into the pan went varying amounts of –

  • evoo
  • sliced carrots
  • frozen peas
  • leftover rice
  • eggs
  • tomato
  • pineapple
  • rice vinegar

Topped with Sriracha.

It was quite good.

With two gummi bottle candies for dessert.

The red and blue was disgusting but the cola one was great.

We weren’t ready for the fun to end so we headed out to dinner.

Adam opened up my “Buffalo to Try” bookmarks and picked at random.  We ended up at Black Rock Kitchen and Bar.

It was fun but the final consensus is that we won’t be back.  Everything was good-ish but somehow not quite right.

We started with a cheese plate.

And I ordered the shrimp po’ boy.

I traded half of my sandwich for Adam’s eggplant panini with tomato, pesto, and marscapone.

All total I ate the equivalent of 3/4 of a sandwich.  Nothing was bad but the flavors were all slightly too strong; lots of pepper.

We split a bowl of mint chip when we got home.

This wasn’t quite right either.  You can’t win them all!

My Last Weekend Before Summer School

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It’s Saturday!  My last Saturday before summer school, in fact.  I know I’ve been a blogging blow-by these past few days but by Sunday you’ll understand why.  You haven’t missed much.  Here are the highlights –

The husband and I got in a fight and the next day he brought me flowers.

And more importantly he brought me green juice.

We found another new froyo place!!

Also this happened –

I didn’t cave but I really wanted to.  It’s funny because pork is the thing I feel most strongly about not eating but it’s also the meat I’d probably enjoy the most!

And I started my Saturday with a “run.”  1:30 running/3:30 walking, x8.  Plus 5 minutes to cool down and finish my loop = 45 minutes and 1.78 miles.

We have really fun plans for today and I can’t wait to tell y’all all about it!

Sunday Disposition

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Welcome, weekend warriors!

No Saturday post because I spent most of the day moping around the house.  Little was accomplished, though I did get the laundry done.

I got so sick of myself that I made damn sure to have fun today.  And I’ve been thinking positive thoughts about the upcoming week as well.  I want to make sure my last 8 days before summer school are as productive/relaxing/fun/healthy as possible.

We got this morning off to a tasty/healthy start with sludge smoothies to go.

Enjoyed out of repurposed jars instead of fancy stemware because we were on a family walk.

In the blend were unmeasured amounts of frozen banana, frozen blackberries, frozen spinach, and oj.

Plus a piece of rye bread with strawberry jam and Smart Balance Light when we got home.

Our new jam is the store-brand version of Crofter’s (ie organic and with no added sugar) and sadly it’s not very good.

Lunch was consumed out of hand.  A slice of pizza (now you see what we did on Saturday!),

a Cara Cara orange,

and half of this package of mint m&m’s.

I’ve never been a huge m&m person but these mint ones are fantasmic.  Perhaps because they are dark chocolate?  They are one of the few (the only?!) desserts that actually tastes better to me in small quantities.

We walked to dinner and surreptitiously enjoyed Black Jack Colas along the way.

We went on a sushi date.

Kunis has been on our “Buffalo: Go To” list for months and I’m glad we finally gave it a shot because it was great and we’ll definitely be back.

I ordered three small plates to make up my meal.  First, Wakame Salad.

Seasoned and dressed seaweed, with sesame and chili flakes.  I’ve been trying to get Adam to taste seaweed salad for years and now that he finally did he’s officially obsessed (we stopped at the co-op on the way home because he was hoping to find more!).  I will say that Kuni’s version was one of the best I’ve ever had.  But – the photo isn’t deceiving you, it was a ridiculously small portion.

My soup course was a bowl of Udon.

Thick white flour noodles in a light broth, topped with sweetened tofu, wakame and scallions.  At $3.75 this huge bowl was a steal.  The sweet tofu wasn’t my favorite but the slightly sweet and sour broth was great.

Finally, a veggie roll.

It had asparagus, mushroom, and some pickled vegetable that I’m not remembering.  Be forewarned – the wasabi at Kunis is fresh!  I gobbed it on the way I usually do and my first bite almost killed me.  It wasn’t necessarily spicy – in fact we both noticed that this wasabi put no spice on your tongue and was strangely sour – but a bunch of it stuck to the roof of my mouth and I started choking and breaking out in a cold sweat.  Adam said my face was BRIGHT red!

We had a great walk home; Kuni’s is just far enough away to be fun.  My dinner was good but on the smaller side and my mouth didn’t feel done so I ate a mug of cereal when we got home.

1 cup of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat with skim milk.  Aaaaand, scene.

Late Lunch

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I was raring to go after my last post but e-mail sending and list writing kept me home a bit longer.

Since I had the time, I ate a 2% Pineapple Siggi’s for a late breakfast.

I may not have had time for any strength moves this morning but I certainly got in an arm workout carrying bags this afternoon.  Look at all the stuff we took to Goodwill –

I also hit up the Co-op (bulk bins), Target (ask me how thrilled I was to spend $7 on batteries for the smoke alarm), and Wegmans (groceries for the next week are purchased).

It was a long trip but now 80% of our weekend errands are finished.

I ate a pear when I got home.

But later I realized that I never actually ate lunch.  I was on a walk with the dog and husband so I made a pit stop at the co-op hot bar.

Excuse the bad pictures, I ate while I walked.  I got some mushroom “meatloaf,” curried kale and cauliflower, and a bit of cole slaw.

And for dessert a brown sugar walnut tart from Starbucks.

Mmmmn!

Adam took a girl friend out for dinner so I was by my lonesome.  I made a roasted veggie feast for my meal.

Sliced potato (6oz),

and green beans.

Yumtastic.  I’ve always liked vegetables but now that I roast them I lurve them!

I had a mini bag of kettle corn for dessert.

I also melted 2 Tbsp of caramel bites and ate them with a fork but the camera ate the photo.  I’m sure you can picture it though.

Have a great evening!

P.S. Adam just got home from his date and he came bearing half of his truffled mushroom panini.  I’m not going to eat it because it’s his favorite but I think he’s just the sweetest boy!

All Hail

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It’s always nice when your routine gets shaken up. Tuesday means today was a clinic day, but the private practice rd I was placed with asked if I’d like to come in in the evening to help with a health fair and I happily agreed. A later clinic time meant I could switch up the rest of my day too. I took advantage of the time and made a traditional breakfast.

Eggs!  I sautéed ~ 1/2 cup each chopped okra and spinach in 1/2 Tbsp butter, a sprinkle of salt, and a drizzle of Sriracha. Then I scrambled in 2 large eggs and a chopped cheese stick.

Plus a sliced apple on the side.

I was glad for something warm because the apartment was far from toasty. I checked the thermostat before we turned the heat back on last night and the temperature inside was 63*! My walk to school was freezing and culminated in hail as I reached the building!

The walk home was warmer since I took advantage of my switched schedule and went to the gym after stats. 40 minutes on the stationary bike at random, level 6.

I also had lunch with a friend while I was on campus.  She switched out of Dietetics a few months back and I don’t get to see her as often so it was nice to hang.  I grabbed a grilled tofu roll from the cafeteria sushi place.

It was a little bland; I used up all of my wasabi before I was halfway through.

When I got home I also had the last of the Sahale Snacks glazed almonds.

And this cherry cola hard candy.

I bought it at Cracker Barrel in Ohio and was worried I would love it and want more but after consumption I’m glad I only bought one.  Not bad, but not the flavor I was looking for.  Besides, anytime I have a hard candy I end up chomping it ten seconds in.

I’m not sure what the exact plan is for tonight but I’m hoping to get home in time to read a book.  See ya later!