Tag Archives: greens

Start of Sandwich Week

by

Some bloggers have their dinner posts up before I even eat dinner, how do they do it?!?  We’re on a pretty late schedule here, but it works well for us.

That Paula Red apple was mealy and sad, I traded it off to the husband (he liked it!).  Instead I ate a Crispin apple with a spoonful of peanut butter.

My night class got out super early today, and I completed the online quiz and walked home all before 7; score!  I celebrated with a small piece of pumpkin chocolate chip square.

Btw – the husband has demolished these bars, almost all of them are gone!  He took a container to school today and said all of his classmates freaked out about them as well.

Now, on to sandwich week……

Since it’s already Tuesday into the week, I decided to start things off with a bang.  What’s that?

Oh, nothing.  Just homemade from scratch mayonnaise!

It took team work, and more time than predicted, but in the end we were victorious; go us!  I used the recipe from Katherine Darling’s Under the Table – which is an amazing book in general, I highly recommend it – but you could easily Google a recipe.

The sandwich vehicle for the mayo was Buffalo chicken subs, which came together in a snap.

I slow-cooked chicken breasts in a bit of broth for 8hours on low today and then shredded the meat with two forks.  Then I doused two servings worth in Buffalo sauce.  Next we stirred crumbled blue cheese into two portions of mayo.  Finally we spooned and spread that fantasticness onto split rolls.  Perfection.

Seriously, I can’t even handle this picture.

This was way healthier than a fried chicken sandwich and much much tastier!  Speaking of health, as I told Adam – “I dont’ care that we forgot the asparagus, I’ll be damned if I’m serving blue cheese and mayo but no veggie!”  So we made a quick side of microwaved kale.

Very, very not good.  But I choked it down for the nutrients.

All together, even with bitter, chewy kale, the meal averaged out to be fantastic.

A fabulous start to Sandwich Week.

Do you eat mayo or does it skeeve you out?  Have you ever made your own mayo?  In general I’m not a big fan; I’ll eat Miracle Whip in tuna and chicken salads, but I prefer mustard varieties.  I was pretty jazzed about it tonight though 🙂

Why Don’t I Accomplish Things on Sunday?!

by

I’m going to set a blogging speed record today because it’s bedtime.  Especially with the amount of school work I did today (cough, cough, none, cough), I want to be well rested for tomorrow.

As we went to get in bed last night the husband and I both realized that we were starving.  It was a bit ridiculous.  We ended up getting staying up, getting pizza, and watching the Simpsons’ Halloween special.

Breakfast = beautiful.

Plain fat-free Dannon with canned pumpkin, homemade pb, 1/4 cup gingerbread granola, and a bit of honey.

2nd breakfast (my hunger from last night didn’t wane all day), was more yogurt.

Low fat coffee topped with peanuts and honey.

Lunch was a sandwich from Lean Cuisine, Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Chicken.

Dinner was looking at me!

That fried egg is sitting atop a bed of sweet potato and kale. 

I precooked both veggies in the microwave to cut time, then cooked them in a bit of butter with salt, pepper, and paprika.

More pumpkin?  Dessert was a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Square.

Con leche.

Goodnight!

Pour Some Sugar On Me

by

I’ve had that ubiquitous Def Leppard track stuck in my head all weekend.  Around midnight on Saturday I even requested it be added to the party playlist!  And “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a fitting anthem for this evening as I’m currently buzzing from a major sugar high.

Let’s cover dinner first shall we?

The tofu I was pressing earlier was cooked up this evening into my fabulous Coco Loco Tofu.  If you haven’t tried this recipe yet I highly recommend it; it’s the dish that got the husband hooked on tofu!

We used the remaining coconut marinade to cook down a big batch of kale.

The creamy (coconut), tangy (rice vinegar) sauce was the perfect complement to the kale.  Sometimes I hate how much greens cook down though; I swear that is a big serving of veggies!

I was ravenous while we were cooking dinner so I made myself a tiny bowl of 0% Plain Oikos with homemade chocolate pb, Crofter’s strawberry spread, and a pinch of shredded coconut.

Tasty, but ruined my appetite for the main event; I ended up only eating 2/3 of my tofu and sharing the rest.

I worked up an appetite for dessert stirring, stirring, stirring in the kitchen.  40minutes later I was rewarded with caramel apples!

I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray for Honey-Vanilla Caramel Apples.  I decided to make a half batch of apples (Adam won’t eat any) and save the rest of the caramel for other means. 

Granny Smith, Paula Red, Crispin.

I haven’t tasted an actual apple yet because I made myself too sick on caramel, but I can already tell you that this recipe is a keeper!  The honey vanilla caramel is divine and it was easy as pie to make.  There is a fabulous deep roasted flavor that makes it addictive; there was a lot of this –


Healthy dinner, check; most of my school work up to date, check; satisfied sweet tooth, check plus!

Caramel, candied, or naked, how do you prefer your apples?

It’s All About Your Perception

by

This morning there was an issue with the alarms – Adam actually slept through his first class! – so the big breakfast I had planned couldn’t happen.  We were in such a rush leaving the house it was not until I sat down in the car that I realized I hadn’t washed my face, brushed my teeth, or put on make-up!!!  Thank goodness I managed to grab this PB Cookie Lara Bar for breakfast.

When I got to Anatomy Lab it seemed like bad-news-bombs were just dropping all over the place –

  • we have a homework assignment, and my group’s is due even though the apparatus we were given was broken
  • I only scored a 75% on last week’s quiz
  • we now have a quiz next week (that brings my quiz/exam total for next week up to 5!)

But you know what?  My morning was better than their’s –

It’s all about perception; when things seem bad you’ve got to put them into perspective before you get upset.  By the way – yes, we did a frog lab; yes, it was awful.  I wasn’t bothered by the cats at all but Mr. Hops made me pretty sad.

In my break between labs I did some Orgo reading and ate lunch.  Plums (why did I buy so many of these?!),

and another turkey/Laughing Cow/Sandwich Thin.

Today’s Food Lab experiment was fat cookery.  My group had to prepare deep-fried Pakoda (Indian-style veggie tempura), pan-fried catfish, and fried bread (to experiment with the effects of the quality of the cooking oil).  The small room got pretty crazy with five groups frying, the smell was out of control!  I had to take three (small) bites of fried bread so I could write up my lab report and it was pretty nauseating.  I just took a tiny plate of food at the end.

Next week we are doing fruit, and I am much more excited to sample then!

I actually felt pretty sick just from that small amount of fried food, but I knew that the gym would make me feel better.  30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.  I kept my workout short because I was feeling awkward about just how bad I smelled!  My hair and skin are like smell sponges; when I worked at Cold Stone in high school the smell of waffle cones would waft off of me for days!

I took a shower as soon as I walked home (and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed!).  Then Adam and I took a quick fountain diet soda walk and got started on dinner.  I was actually so hungry after our walk that I ate this mini bag of kettle korn while we cooked.

Dinner was three simple steps.  Prepare some quinoa.

Pan-steam eggplant and spinach.

Make a quick curry sauce out of 0% Plain Stonyfield, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and brown sugar.

Serve and consume.

Adam thought this was going to be gross and he ended up pleasantly surprised, and I thought it would be wonderful and ended up underwhelmed.  It’s all about perception!

Have you ever been so tired (or rushed!) that you forgot to brush your teeth?

Pho Sho

by

Did getting sucked in by Twitter keep me from accomplishing enough this afternoon? Pho sho.

Did I have a fabulous workout anyway? Pho sho.

Did I use a free sample to make some tasty soup for dinner? Pho pho sho!

Is this post punny in the worst kind of way? For sure!

I didn’t get nothing done, but I didn’t get enough done either.  Still, there’s a limit to how much work I’m going to get done after 6pm, gym or not, so I might as well go to to the gym!  Where apparently there is also a limit to how much I’ll get done after 6:00, because it was packed!  I settled for a quick treadmill workout.

  • 5minutes walking, warm up
  • 20minutes running
  • 5minutes walking, cool down

I covered 2.67miles, a little further than yesterday 🙂  Not an improvement from yesterday was the fact that I had to stop twice during my run to give my feet a break; I have the worst blisters right now 😦

Dinner came in the mail.

Star Anise Foods contacted me about trying their Garlic Goodness Happy Pho and I’m never one to say no to new things.  I’ve never had Pho before, so I can’t comment to its authenticity, but this definitely sparked my interest in trying some at restaurant.

Nutritionals –

Stellar sodium levels for a soup.  Just a head’s up – we found that this made way more than 2 servings (3-4?).

The cooking process was beautifully low-key as well.

We made a hybrid recipe from their traditional and vegetarian options –

Along with the package we did 4cups of low-sodium veggie broth, 8oz of sliced chicken, 4 sliced green onions, a heaping cup of spinach, and cilantro.

The verdict?

Two thumbs up.  This wasn’t very soupy, but that was user error because we let the water cook off while we took a phone call.  The flavors were mild but in a pleasing way, and the use of cinnamon was delightful.  I loved the texture of the noodles too, very soft without being mushy.

Want to try Happy Pho for yourself?  From now to October 5th you can get free shipping when you order online through Amazon.com.  Simply enter this code at check out – ESEFJ7WN.

He’s Just Like Garfield

by

I did not get enough work done today!  I got behind from my “free” weekend last week and I’m still making work up, and I have 4 exams next week so things are feeling a little crazy.  But I did something so that feels good.  Progress, people!

This morning we sent the in-laws off with a hearty breakfast from Panos.

I ordered “The Fix,” which was Two eggs, scrambled with Feta, in a grilled Pita, served with homefries.  I made some adjustments – mozzarella subbed in for feta, plus broccoli and spinach.

I forgot to ask for no butter on my pita so I ended up taking a few sandwich bites and then eating the insides out.  I left a lot of my huge pile of hash browns as well.

I think we sent them off full!  I wrote my blog address down for my m-i-l so she might start stopping by (hi Barb!).

I spent the morning studying – and internet time killing 😦 – at home.  The last of the 7-layer bar was calling me.

I cut it up into little pieces for ease in eating without crumming on my Orgo book.

Around 3 the husband came home from the lab and we drove over to my campus so I could go to the gym.  My knees have been feeling off so I decided to do a nice low-impact treadmill run.

  • 5minute walking warm up
  • 20minutes jogging
  • 5minute walking cool down

I covered 2.53miles.  I finished with a super quick stretch, the gym was closing as I left!

Adam and I studied in the library for a couple of hours – although, again, I got distracted by the internet; gleesh!  I packed some plums and a Babybel Light to snack on.

I also opened this Turtle candy bar my in-laws brought me.

I ate 1.5 and gave the rest to the husband.

I should not have wasted any more time, but when we got home and Adam asked if I wanted to go for a walk my answer was “of course!”  We didn’t have any destination in mind so we ended up visiting the store kitties.

The “store kitties” are two cats that live in a clothing shop on Elmwood, the husband is obsessed with them.  They are ginormous; one has huge paws and is just a big cat, and the other is a total fatty. 

Sidenote 1 – Adam and I have been talking for weeks about baking a lasagna just so we can take a picture of it with the fat cat.  Sidenote 2 – when we lived in Park Slope there was a store puppy, a french bulldog that visited a shop 13 blocks from our apartment.  We walked those 13 blocks at least 3 times a week so we could go in and be total dog creepers.

Dinner was a cinch when we got home because my m-i-l brought us all sorts of home cooked goodness.

Rosemary chicken (just to note, I only ate one of those two pieces, I don’t think I’m a fan of chicken thighs),

with roasted potatoes.

All we had to do was pan-steam some Red Russian Kale, finished off with a bit of sesame oil.

I dipped every component in ketchup 🙂

This meal felt very hardy.

Now I’m already late for my goal bedtime and I’ve still got to shower; I’m off!

Do you have any “store animals” in your neighborhood?

A Lesson Learned

by

Today has been insane, and it’s still going!  I’m going to be up very late tonight; I’m never doing nothing on a weekend again; “oh my god! oh my god! oh my god!” I’ll leave it at that.

For lunch I dug into my Naan Pizza sample stash from Tandoor Chef.

Spinach and Paneer Cheese.

Here is the ingredient list,

and the nutritional panel,

both of which checked out positively.  The fact that these pizzas are packed with real foods is definitely what keeps them from tasting frozen.  In fact, the taste was divine!

I burnt the crust last time, but now that I know my oven is set too high and lowered the temperature accordingly I was rewarded with perfect crust; it had great chew and was just crisp enough.  There was just the right amount of red sauce and its tang complimented the paneer cheese.  This was pretty plain, a child would probably enjoy it, but still had a great degree of interest.

I ate the entire pizza (technically two servings) and that ended up being just right.  I needed some extra lunch calories since my “breakfast” was coffee, but it wasn’t too much cheese and this didn’t leave me feeling heavy at all.  I was perfectly full and awake for Orgo and Anatomy class.

I had a bit of a quandary about how to divide my time this afternoon – study or gym?  I have three medium assignments and big presentation due tomorrow so I knew I needed to work.  But along the same vein I can’t go to the gym tomorrow (I have classes, with breaks, from 8am – 8pm) so I wanted to work out.  I ended up deciding to work out, even though I didn’t really have time, but to push the timing back.  Adam met me on campus after class and we spent a few hours studying together. 

I had to organize some e-mails when I got home so I got in a small serving of carbs before my run.

That’s a Van’s pancake (1/2 of a serving) topped with Smart Balance and Crofter’s strawberry.

Running with Adam was wonderful, he definitely pushes me to go faster than I do on my own.  We kept it casual, the husband says we ran ~2miles but I have no idea what our time was; we ran the whole time and the pace felt pretty good though.  We finished things up with a short walk, and some stretching.

Dinner was speedy, tasty, and healthy.

I put some of the (best ever) chilli leftovers on a bed of steamed dinosaur kale.

The kale was pretty bitter, but it felt good to pack in the nutrients.  I totally save the bites with sharp cheddar in them for last 😉

I’m going to be up past midnight (ack!) but if I do any snacking I’ll put in the morning post.  Wish me luck!

Was it the healthiest decision to honor my workout today, or should I have tried for an earlier bedtime instead?  What do you prioritize over exercise?

Pep in My Step

by

Whew!  I am sad to see Camile go, but it’s nice to have a day with a little downtime.  Before I drove her to the airport this morning I whipped up a Green Monster so she could have a taste.

1cup frozen spinach + 1frozen banana + 1cup oj = a new convert; she thought it tasted great!  Here’s what our mouths saw –

I made the world’s quickest grocery trip (we are out of town with family again this weekend) then came home for some serious cleaning.  I might have been working but at least I was home 🙂

Mid-morning I snacked on a 100-calorie Cheez-It pack Camile left behind.

As well as some Canada Candy!  This Cadbery Pep was basically just a foreign York Peppermint Patty.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry, I just ate it because I was hot.  We try not to run our A.C. all that often and cool minty refreshingness straight from my fridge was hard to pass up.  Not the best reason to consume 200calories though…

When I did finally get hungry late in the afternoon I set out for a neighborhood wander.  We had food at home but I was in the mood for a walk so I let myself celebrate our $15 grocery bill (God coupons rock my socks so hard!).  I ended up at Saigon Cafe for Pad See Eiw with tofu.

I have zero control around broad rice noodles so I plated half of the serving and put the rest away before I even took a taste.

Sidenote – how cute are the plates I got for my birthday?

They almost match my favorite chopsticks.

Back to the food; Pad See Eiw is my favorite Thai dish but I was shocked to see how many veggies this version boasted.  You never see yellow squash in this dish but the addition was fabulous.

Tonight is something along the lines of dinner, tv, mini workout, more cleaning.

What tricks to you use to keep yourself from eating all of too big portions?