Tag Archives: greens

Buffalo, Take Me To San Fransisco

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This post is my entry into a contest that will hopefully take me to San Fransisco for the 2011 Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.  The Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken was provided as a free sample via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

I moved to Buffalo after spending two years in the best place on earth.  That’s Brooklyn, NYC, if you’re not sure.  Before that I was born and raised in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and attended college in Miami, Florida.  The places you call “destinations” I call home.  What could Buffalo have to offer me?

For one thing, my new home is the birthplace of Buffalo chicken wings.

Which have spawned Buffalo sandwiches, Buffalo shrimp, Buffalo tacos, and most importantly, Buffalo chicken dip.

When I took my first bite of Buffalo chicken dip – supremely spicy and dotted with pockets of creamy cheese – I knew I’d found my new home.

No matter how nice your home may be, it’s ok to have a little wanderlust!  When I attended the very first Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in 2009, it was one of the best weekends of my life.

I fell in love, with the bloggers, the city, and the food!  I was heartbroken when we had to tighten our purse strings this fall and financial constraints kept me from attending the festival a 2nd year.  So that’s why I’m hoping to win a trip to this year’s event.

It’s not just about winning though, not that winning’s ever bad; the winner of the contest will have an opportunity to cook their dish for the crowd at the festival.  People don’t think of Buffalo as a foodie hotspot (I know I sure didn’t!), but I’m proud of my town.  I want the opportunity to share my city’s namesake flavor.

Buffalo Wing Baked Pasta, serves 8

  • 22 oz bag Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken Breast Strips
  • 14.5 oz whole wheat rotini pasta
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 cup medium heat Buffalo wing sauce (I recommend Anchor Bar’s!)
  • 16 oz Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese), softened
  • 1/2 cup reduced fat blue cheese dressing
  • 10 cups fresh spinach
  • 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
  1. Cook pasta al dente according to box directions.  Drain finished pasta and return it to the pot (remove from heat when pasta is finished).  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
  2. Heat frozen chicken strips in a nonstick skillet on medium heat for 3 – 5 minutes or until warm.  Add 1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce to chicken and continue to cook for one minute.
  3. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.  Reduce heat to medium-low.
  4. Combine cream cheese, blue cheese dressing, and remaining 1 cup Buffalo wing sauce in the pan.  Heat until melted, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.
  5. Pour sauce over pasta.  Add chicken and spinach to the pot and stir well to combine.
  6. Spread pasta mixture into a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish.  Top evenly with cheese.
  7. Bake 8 – 11 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

I ate my serving with carrots and celery, because that’s how we serve Buffalo chicken dip.

What dish is your town famous for?

Are My Hoisin The Club?!

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Forget about what Rebecca Black says, Saturday is where it’s at!  We didn’t even do anything all that exciting today – studying, grocery shopping, easy dinner – it just was a good day.

Since I’m ridiculous about meals on the weekend I went with lunch – snack – dinner rather than breakfast – lunch – dinner.  Besides, lunch for breakfast means you get in more veggies.

Yes, that is Wegman’s hot bar.  Yes, I’m aware we have a problem.

Fruits (pineapple, berries, strawberries, watermelon),

Veggies (avocado, squash, mushrooms, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli),

and a mini crustless Quiche (with tomato and artichoke heart).

Adam and I split a Zone Perfect Sweet & Salty Trail Mix Bar for dessert.

The kind folks at ZP sent me some samples of their new Sweet and Salty line since they knew how much I adored their Cookie Dough stuff.  Adam and I agreed that the bar was good, but not as good as the cookie dough ones.  There was a great peanut butter flavor spread throughout it, and the bar lived up to its sweet and salty name.  I’m looking forward to trying the other variety.

In addition to being repetitive and crazy, constant hot bar isn’t cheap!  Adam has to purchase lots of random snacks and coffees this summer (he’s off for 2 months to study for a major exam and focuses better in public venues) so we need to save our pennies where we can.  I tried to do an extra good job of stocking up on groceries this week; I’d rather spend a little more money at the store and save some money not going out for random things throughout the week.

One of my have-snacks-in-the-house-stop-buying-nachos-damn-it purchases was a 10ct box of mini 100-calorie popcorns, and one of those bags ended up being my afternoon snack.

I also grabbed a (sweetened) cappuccino from Wilson Farms.

Looking back at this post, it seems like I had more than enough to eat today, but you know I couldn’t keep my hand out of the cashews while I cooked dinner!

We whipped up a simple stir fry that ended up being delicious.

The inspiration for the dish was the 2 unopened bags of spinach that were starting to go bad, but these guys were the real stars –

Step-by-step, serves 3-4.

Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat.  Add 10 cups of raw baby spinach.

Cover and cook until wilted.

Add 1 15 oz can baby corn, 1 15 oz can stir fry mushrooms,

5 green onions, sliced, and 2/3 cup salted cashews.

Top with 4 Tbsp Hoisin sauce and continue to cook.

In a small bowl on the side, whisk together 3 large eggs.

Make a hole in the veggie mixture and pour eggs into it.

Cook until starting to slightly scramble then toss to combine.  Continue to cook stir-fry until desire doneness is reached.

Delicious.

I topped my bowl with Sriracha,

and Adam added some baked tofu to his.

I stole a few pieces of tofu and they were so tasty I’m planning on making them again soon so I can share the recipe with you guys.

When I’m feeling unsatisfied after dinner a yogurt bowl for dessert is always the answer.

This one centered around a Dannon Light and Fit Caramel yogurt.

I almost never eat fake-sugar yogurts (if I’m not eating Greek I’m buying Stonyfield because it is humanely sourced) but this guy was pretty fantastic.  Topped with unsweetened shredded coconut, the last of the butter toffee almonds, and a few butterscotch chips.

Sweet dreams, readers!

Seis de Mayo!

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Okay, okay, so I’m a day late on my May 5th post.  Normally I hate to do long-overdue recap posts, but since my new 30 day goal is to post everything, here it is.  Quick sidenote – mad props to everyone who engages in drogging (aka drunk blogging); I wanted to share this yesterday but it was just not an option 😉

My classmates I add were touched by serendipity yesterday, when Cinco de Mayo and our last day of classes fell on the same day.  After a very long last day of classes (9:25 in the morning to 7 at night) we were able to head out for some much-needed celebration.

First, the morning.  Our last day of lab included drawer check out and a final exam.  I had a little extra time in the morning to study since I had to skip my workout (boo!), and I think I did pretty well on the exam.  I didn’t have it together for breakfast, but I did grab a medium iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

And it was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was down to my last sips; clearly I needed coffee!

Our last lab let out pretty early, and we were left with a six-hour break before our final evening class.  No problem, I took my friend Rachel on a mini tour of Elmwood!  We ambled down the street from school, stopping to visit a friend at work and hit up the Spot for a study session.  I grabbed some brown rice veggie sushi from the co-op for lunch.

And actually stopped at the co-op on the way back to school for dinner as well.

During my night class I noshed on Thai cucumber and peanut salad,

and some vegan pasta salad.

Suddenly we were taking our last quiz of the semester, packing up, and we were done with our first year of school!!!  I mean, there are finals next week, but still exciting.

Cinco de Mayo plans were supposed to include a holiday appropriate trip to Cozumel Bar, but a $10 cover later we ended up at JP Bullfeathers.

That was a Jack and ginger ale, but it tasted more like dirty water.  Weak drinks aside, JP Bullfeathers ended up being a perfect spot for our end of school celebration; not too packed for good conversation, but busy enough to still be fun.

We ended up sitting at a table and ordering some food as well.

My friend Janessa and I split the turkey and gorgonzola pannini,

which was delicious.  Turkey sandwiches seem to be my go-to restaurant order.

And how to do go out on Cinco de Mayo without margaritas?!

What’s the Spanish word for sloshed?  Let’s just say I’m glad I could walk less than a minute and be home!

I did stay up to share some dessert, of course.

That’s a caramelized macadamia nut and chocolate mousse tart that Adam brought home.

Now on to today.  In true college-girl fashion, I managed to stay in bed well past 1pm!!  It helps to have the bladder of a camel and a four-day break before finals begin.  🙂

Adam and made the executive decision that we needed a day together, so we took down a full season of Scrub’s recaps and an entire pizza.

That’s a bruschetta pizza topped with extra green olives, the best pizza topper ever.

The half a pizza pretty much covered all my food groups (what?! dairy, grains, veggies…) but I did sneak in one more veggie with a slice of carrot cake from the co-op.

A few facts – Carrot cake does to count as a veggie.  I think I need to be done with the co-op for a few days.  It was a glorious day with my husband.

Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

I’m Feeling Wicked

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Congrats to those of you who guessed it; last night Adam and I saw “Wicked” at Shea’s Performing Arts Center!

I’ve seen the show once before in NYC and I have to admit that the Buffalo rendition totally exceeded my expectations!

Gregory Maguire is one of my favorite authors, and Wicked is actually my all-time favorite book.  I tend to read mostly memoirs and non-fiction, but Maguire’s adult fairy tales are totally my jam!  I don’t love all of the changes that the play makes to the story, but the added hilarity definitely allow me to overlook them.  Adam loved the show as well, which was the most exciting thing at all for me.

We bought ourselves a champagne before the show started,

and nibbled on some Smarties during intermission.

It was a glorious date night, thanks Mom and Dad!

This morning’s breakfast was centered around trying out a new vegan yogurt find, Amande is made from cultured almond milk.

I tried the coconut flavor today, atop a sliced banana and topped with a dollop of Smuckers Natural PB with Honey and a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

I didn’t love love the yogurt (nothing can top the tang and thickness of Greek), but I thought it was the best vegan alternative I’ve ever tried.  I wouldn’t buy it regularly, but I am looking forward to trying the strawberry flavor in my fridge.  The bowl was pretty good,

though I have to admit, I was missing my usual crunchy/sweet nut addition.

I had to head to school a bit early because I was meeting with a professor about a project and I needed to go grovel at the financial aid office as well.  Part of the reason I have been feeling wicked is because I have NOT been keeping on top of my work!  <– more on that in a minute

Lunch was all about the leftovers; a piece of corn bread,

and a serving of steamed spinach,

topped with maple turkey sloppy joes.

The “sauce” mixed with the spinach was divine; I’m never eating ‘joes on a bun again!

I also snagged a few bites of free cotton candy from the student union.

Boo-yah for free spun sugar!

I mentioned feeling wicked above, and I think I put that shame to good use.  After classes ended today I headed to the dietetics lab (computers and silence) with a friend and hunkered down there until after 8pm!  I finished a ton of work and I’m on such a roll that I’m planning on making it a late night of studying.  The goal is a 12-1am bedtime alternating 30minutes of tv with 45+ minutes of studying. 

We grabbed lattes – medium, non-fat, half pumps of almond rocca syrup –

before the study session but dinner never really happened.  My stomach has been feeling off all day, hurting and bloated, so nothing ever sounded appealing.  I’ll probably grab a snack at some point this evening and I’ll just blog about it in the morning.

Have you ever seen (or read) Wicked?  What’s your favorite Broadway show?

May Day

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Welcome, May!  You haven’t quite warmed up to us yet, but you allowed me a glorious run around Delaware Park with the husband, so I think I’m going to like you.

The half marathon plan called for 4 miles this morning, so we set out through our neighborhood for a loop around the park and back.  Runs like this are when I’d kill for a Garmin; MapMyRun isn’t 100% accurate when you’re not going in a straight line.  To the best of my knowledge, we ran 4 miles, in 48 minutes.  That’s crazy slow, but I ran the entire time so I’m feeling proud of myself!  We finished with a short walk around the ‘hood to bring our workout to 1 hour.

Then I came home and got into bed.  The run didn’t really tire me out (my legs feel great!), but we’ve been staying up way too late watching “Scrubs” lately.  Running knocks my hunger back anyways, so I gladly showered and fell into bed without breakfast.

When I was done with the Sleeping Beauty routine I made myself a glass of hazelnut cocoa,

and some baby carrots.

And we just finished a Southern feast of a dinner –

Cheddar and Scallion Corn Bread from Fitness Magazine,

Sloppy Maple-BBQ Turkey Joes from Everyday with Rachael Ray,

and some steamed spinach.

I ate my spinach in the ‘joe juice and it was so good!  I definitely took an extra large serving of everything.  A great meal all around.

We ate the early dinner because we are headed to Shea’s Theatre to take in a show.  I am beyond excited!  My parents bought us tickets for Easter and we are seeing one of my favorites.

For funsies, see if you can guess the show from my hints –

Any ideas?  I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap!

Marys, Monkeys, and Magnums

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As the title implies, it’s been a fun day!  Also, in case the title leads to any confusion, mary = an upcoming half marathon and magnum is not referring to condoms!

Yep, I said it, I’ve got another half marathon in my sights!  I’ve been agitated ever since my 6-week illness killed my training for the Buffalo Half Marathon and I finally found one to take its place.  My goal is to run in the Presque Isle Half Marathon on July 17th.  I say goal instead of plan because I’m mindful of the fact that I have a history of injuries and pushing through pain isn’t worth the risk.  I’m going to wait until I’ve made it to at least 7 miles without incident before I put money down on entry fee.

I do however have a training plan (which I’ll share sometime soon) that had me slated for 3miles this morning.  The husband and I ran a nice loop around our neighborhood, 3miles and 30minutes.  Since I don’t have a Garmin I can’t really track my pacing, but I use MapMyRun as best I can.

When we got home I had to run through my shower since Katie was picking me up for a brunch date at Betty’s.

I’d never been before but I’ll definitely be going back to Betty’s soon, the place was adorable and the food was delicious!

I ordered off the specials menu, the Portobello Benedict –

Hashbrowns,

fruit,

and two English muffins topped with roasted Portobello mushroom, spinach, two poached eggs, and smoked gouda.

Mmmmmmn!  It shouldn’t be called a Benedict without Hollandaise (I would have gotten it on the side though so I probably shouldn’t quibble..) but this meal was not lacking for flavor.  The egg yolks melted perfectly into the bread and it was great to get some veggies into my morning.

Katie was kind enough to drive me back to school and I snagged a “mocha” (half coffee, half hot chocolate) along the way.

I don’t have classes on Tuesday but I was headed to an Anthropology-sponsored speaker on the topic of primates.  Ever since I attended the Body Farm lecture (love!) my name has been on an e-mail list and when I saw “live primates in attendance” I jumped on the opportunity!  I recruited a few friends to come with me and we all had a ton of fun –

Where else can you see a man diaper a monkey?

We’ve been putting grocery shopping off and are running out of food so Adam picked me up from the lecture for a trip to Wegmans.

I had to show off my primate pictures so we had to get hot bar for lunch.

Tons of grilled/steamed veggies with a little bit of sesame chicken,

with fruit for dessert.

Tastes like summer, the mango was definitely swoon-worthy!

While we were out, I cashed in a coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program for some Magnum Ice Cream.

I grabbed a box of Double Caramel Bars.

I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to taste this for free because it’s not it’s not a product I would have bought on my own and now I might be obsessed!

Holy double layer of chocolate, Batman; this was good!  It’s (surprisingly good for vanilla) vanilla ice cream, wrapped in chocolate, wrapped in caramel, wrapped in a second chocolate shell.  The premise reminds me of this SNL skit, but the execution was perfection!

http://www.hulu.com/embed/umxmTijZLcnMhDPJjmYd5g

I also snacked on baby carrots with blue cheese,

and shared a few tastes of the husband’s new fancy cheese.

Dinner was a Cooking Light find, Quick White Bean, Asparagus and Mushroom Cassoulet.

Per usual, my changes included –

  • using baby Portobellos for half of my mushrooms
  • skipping the wine and oregano entirely
  • subbing in chicken broth for veggie broth
  • roasting the asparagus instead of boiling it
  • putting the cassoulet into the oven instead of the broiler (I don’t have a single broiler safe vessel!)

Even with my changes it was still pretty delicious though.

I ate my serving with some chips for scooping purposes.

Delicious.

Ok, this has been a very long post, time to wrap things up.  Hope everyone had a good day!

All Sorts of Win

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My day has been like Charlie Sheen, all sorts of winning!  Seriously though, it has been one of those days that are just randomly fantastic.  Good workout, mostly good food, good times with the husband…

Win #1 of the day was the realization that music makes my workouts fly by.  My i-pod broke months ago and my parents gave me an IOU for a replacement in my Christmas stocking but it’s taken me a while to finally cash it in.  I got a nano, in lime green, engraved with my phone # and part of my favorite quote from Robert Frost.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Once I got of Biochem this afternoon I headed straight to the gym, my new i-pod stocked with a new 30minute playlist –

  1. Sweet Light, The Chapin Sisters
  2. The Cave, Mumford and Sons
  3. Coming Home, Diddy
  4. Signal Fire, Snow Patrol
  5. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster, Geto Boys
  6. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
  7. My Dick, Dirt Nasty
  8. Somwhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

For 30minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  “What a Wonderful World” is actually the song Adam and I walked down the aisle to once we were married, and when it came on I started to cry!!!  I had to elliptisize as fast as I could to make myself stop being embarrassing (double win!).

Once I was home and showered I headed out on errands with Adam.  Win #2 was the free coffee I picked up at Starbucks for Earth Day –

Seasoned with a big pour of skim milk and two sugars.

Our errands included a trip to the mall for Adam to get an eye check up, where I sat in the food court for an hour and wrote notecards like a weirdo.  I may have looked like a creeper, but I actually got a lot done.

Not a win, was the fact that we were busy straight through lunch and ended up not eating anything.  By 5:30 when we left the mall I was having a definite panic attack of hunger.  I ended up randomly grabbing this Liquid Taffy candy to split with Adam.

Such a win!  The texture of this was divine; a velvety, less chewy taffy.

We continued dessert before dinner by splitting froyo.

Fat free chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with strawberries, sprinkles, and granola.

Total win!

Dinner, not such a win.  It was poised to be good…

We headed to Taste of Thai on Hertel (an avenue with tons of good-looking restaurants and next to no parking), where we split our regular order – Pad See Eiw with tofu,

and Cashew Chicken.

The dishes had tons of veggies (our complaint with Buffalo Thai has been the lack of veggies), but that’s where the compliments end.  The renditions were painfully inauthentic, and way too salty to boot.  Fail!

But being with the husband is always a win.  Especially for the rest of the evening, for which our big plans include the latest Community and the splitting of two mini ice creams.

This day has been sweet, in every sense of the word!

What was your most recent #win?

She Ain’t Messing With No Court Jester

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No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger.  I started dating Adam when we were still in high school.  I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!).  But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”

And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto.  And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.

Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.

First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip.  While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.

I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).

In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.

I also munched on half a leftover turkey reuben.

And then, we were at Medieval Times!

I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.

We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.

The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony.  The best part was definitely the horses though.  And dinner was surprisingly good.  No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –

None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!).  We started with tomato bisque,

and garlic bread,

both of which were only ok.

And then my meal blew me out of the water.

Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.

Dessert was an apple tart.

It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.

Smarties make the drive go so much faster!

We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home.  I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.

I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!

Have you ever been to Medieval Times?