Tag Archives: greens

All I Need Are My Pearls

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I was quite the little wife this afternoon, making my husband a nice home-cooked lunch.  Actually, what I made was a big batch of pasta so he could eat leftovers for dinner the next three days but I’d like to think he still appreciated it!

I had a nice bowl myself for lunch while it was still hot.

My Arugula Brie Pasta is my improvement on this Real Simple recipe.  For six servings –

  • 14.5 oz box whole wheat penne
  • 1T butter
  • 6.5 oz onion, chopped
  • 1 bundle (8 or 9) green onions, chopped
  • salt and pepper
  • 3/4 cup dry sherry
  • 6 cup arugula
  • 9 oz brie, chopped
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  1. Prepare the pasta according to box directions, drain and set aside.
  2. Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add all of the onions and cook 3-4minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. Season onions with salt and pepper.  Pour in half of the sherry and cook until reduced.
  4. Carefully stir arugula into skillet.  Pour in the remaining sherry and cook 4-5minutes, until reduced.
  5. When veggies are almost done, reheat the pasta pot over high heat.  Add in pasta, milk, and brie.  Stir to combine then cover for 3-4minutes.
  6. Pour veggie mixture into pasta mixture and stir to combine.

It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself. 

The only fail was our attempt at dessert.  While I was out running errands this morning I picked up a small piece of this Rosa’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fudge.

Yetch!  The husband and I both spit out our bites, it tasted like a piece of wax.

I promised myself I could buy another, less disgusting, dessert if I went to the gym so the likelihood of me working out today is pretty high 🙂

What was the last dessert that made you gag?

Dinner

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I hope you entered my giveaway, because I’m be fawning over Cedar’s some more in this post!  Speaking of giveaways, here’s a healthy one.  I was super excited about this dinner, I’ve been planning my Mediterranean Fest for a week!

All of the individual components were fabulous, and they melded together perfectly.

Mini whole wheat pita from Wegmans.  A serving size was 2 for 110 calories but one was more than enough.  I loved how doughy these were.

Collards.  The absolute star of the dish!

I steamed a 16oz bag of frozen collard greens then mixed it with 1/3 cup toasted walnuts,a drizzle of  maple syrup, and 3.5oz of chopped blue brie cheese.  The flavors went together so perfectly, I was in heaven with every bite!  The cheese was from Saga, something I’ve wanted to try forever and I’m glad I did.

Falafel.

I used half of the box, mixed with H2O, but decided to ignore the package directions and bake instead of fry.  After 25minutes in a 350* oven they were perfect.  Tasty as they were, the falafels were a bit dense, I ended up only eating 2 of 3.

Cedar’s Garlic Tzatzika for dipping.

Everything went together so well, the mix of textures and tastes was kind of a dinner thrill.  Plus, after all the junk I ate this weekend it feels really good to eat something good.

After dinner it was time for my final to do: the gym.  37minutes on the treadmill; it was good to add to my training log.

What is your favorite kind of cheese?  I tie between blue and brie so the Saga blend was perfection for me!

P.S. Eating Bird Food is also doing a giveaway.

Tuesday Afternoon – Thursday Afternoon

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My family’s Christmas Eve party is tonight and we’ve got lots of setting up to do so this will have to be kept quick.

Tuesday Afternoon….

After my last post Adam and I set out for some exercise.  We ran on the waterfront downtown together.  We did walk/run intervals for 40minutes.  I’m not sure exactly how far we ran but I burnt 450calories.

Adam and my parents made chili for dinner (which I’m really not a fan off, unless it’s from ED&BV) so I pieced a few things together.  Like a smoothie –

1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, 1/2 cup pineapple, 1 small banana, splash milk, squeeze honey.  Topped with nutmeg.

My mom also reheated me a slice of pizza from the freezer, Adam ate all of my half from the other day so it was just plain cheese.

We went out for drinks with some friends but I was the driver so I stuck to diet coke.  We stayed out past 1 though, so we were a little sleepy the next day! 😉

Wednesday…

Our plan was to go study at our favorite coffee shop, but due to our late start and some unexpected traffic it just didn’t work out.  I was planning on blogging too, but I forgot my camera cord, doh!  We did get tasty sandwiches to eat in the car while we ran errands with my mom though!

I got a whole wheat wrap with sweet potato, goat cheese, spinach, and spicy hummus, YUM.

I was feeling really sick later in the afternoon (NOT because of the sandwich, spicy food does NOT seem to affect my stomach) so Adam made me this yummy tasting plate.

Thankfully I rallied in time for dinner.  Adam and I cooked for my parents and grandparents, who are down visiting as well.

Adam made a Real Simple recipe for roasted red pepper turkey meatloaf,

and I roasted up some okra and green beans.

My mom provided dessert –

A teensy sliver of rum cake a parent brought her,

and a peppermint chocolate cookie.

I ate a snowball a little later too.

And a cup of Eggnog’n Tea.

And then we went out drinking way too late for the second night!  Good times were had by all, but I did stick to diet coke again.

Thursday Morning….

I think the no-booze rule saved me last night because I was able to get up this morning and go for a run!  I did ~ 45minutes/490 calories, and ~3miles.  I did my pt when I got home before I dove into this –

holy food am I glad I can find the pineapple Chiobani down here!

Although I was probably most excited about this Carebear spoon I dug up!

Now as soon as we leave the library we are heading home to prep for the party.  There won’t really be dinner or lunch today, more like lots of snacking on really tasty things.  🙂

I probably won’t be posting again until after this weekend, so to all my readers who celebrate – Merry Christmas!

Buffalo Chicken Breakfast

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Thank goodness last night was a success!  The food and drinks were all super tasty and we had a great time.  Most of our friends stayed past 1 as we did totally cool things like play pictionary and scattegories 🙂  Adam said it was the best birthday he’s ever had!

This morning I couldn’t get the party food out of my head; breakfast traditions be damned I wanted buffalo chicken dip and garlic bread!  So that’s what I had.

Two small slices of garlic bread topped with buffalo chicken dip and stuck under the broiler for 10minutes.  Delicious.

I dropped Adam off at school, went to Fed-Ex and then hit up the grocery store.  We are going home for Christmas so I don’t have to feed us much longer, we had a nice $25 grocery bill!

When I got home I inhaled the rest of the dip (about 3servings?) which kind of killed lunch.  I knew I needed something more – and some greens – so I drank this Odwalla Original Superfood drink.

Yums, green looks good on more people than Kermit.

I’m not sure what the rest of the day will bring; I have a few tentative plans but we’ll see.  I should be studying.  I may not go to the gym because I’m still limping from my doctor’s appointment.

What should you do today?

Last Lab and Leftovers

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I just got back from my last Chem lab ever!  Until next semester that is 😉  Actually, I have to go back next week to officially check out, but that won’t be bad at all.  Nevermind that I did end up failing my quiz, let’s focus on the positives!

I ate some sour cream and onion PopChips before I left for class.

Without a formal lunch though I was starving before I even got to campus.  I tried to trick myself into fullness my eating far too much gum and my body got its revenge by giving me a wicked stomach ache.  😦

And I think it’s good that I’m mentioning the stomach ache before dinner, before I show you what I actually ate for dinner.  The rest of the Annie’s shells leftovers +

I mixed some greens into the mac before microwaving and then doused the whole thing with Taco Bell hot sauce packets.

I know it looks a little swampy, but it ended up being tasty.

I’d like to say I’m going to bed soon, but I’ve said that the past three nights and then stayed up past 1, so let’s just not pretend.  🙂

Do you take home packets from dining establishments?  I’m not so lacking in class that I go out of my way to steal them, but I always squirrel away any leftovers.  The Arby’s packets that are always lying around – Adam eats way too much roast beef – make for the best sandwiches ever!

P.S. Please please don’t enter this; I NEED to win.

The Blind Side

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It was a grand, grand Sunday!  No schoolwork ever made it into the picture, but that would have just mucked up the fun anyways 🙂

At 4:20 we finally made it in to see “The Blind Side.”  Love, love, love.  It was a true story about a Southern white family that took in a struggling, homeless black boy.  There were lots of y’alls, football, laughs, and touching moments.  Sandra Bulluck is one of my favorite actors, particularly for how well she does in roles like this.  I highly recommend seeing this movie.

I had a lick of Adam’s Maple Bacon Lollipop (brought back from Foodbuzz),

and we ate some of these Milkata candies.

When we got home at 7 I was so hungry!  I ate a delicious spoonful of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter.

Then we made the quickest-tastiest dinner of all time.

4 ingredients, 3 minutes of prep, 20minutes in the stove, 1 very very happy housewife!  I linked to the recipe here.

I was so so pleased with this idea.  Thanks for the pesto, Foodbuzz!  The crunchy bits of pasta were my favorite.

After dinner we walked over to Walgreens to pick up a few things.  And you know I made a big bowl of ‘corn when I got home!

I’m going to snuggle up with Adam and do some munching and tv watching, have a good night!

What 5 ingredient or less recipes have you had success with lately?

Bowled Over

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Hello, hello!  I’m up pretty late for a sick kid so I’ll try to keep this quick.  The movies didn’t really work out – we went to the mall and missed not one, but two! showings.  We ended up being at the mall for two fruitless hours, we walked around a bit and had a long chat on a bench.

I was actually glad we missed the second show because on the ride home I got a killer migraine that would have hit mid-movie.  After some Excedrin and a quick nap I was ready to make a fancy shmancy dinner.  I love brie, and was so excited to see some in my Foodbuzz swag.  And actually the inspiring recipe can from a magazine I read on my California trip!

We loosely followed this recipe from Real Simple, Pasta with Brie, Mushroom and Arugula.  Our changes –

  • we used ziti instead of penne
  • we used white mushrooms instead of button mushrooms
  • we used a cooking onion rather than a red onion
  • we subbed 1T butter substitute (Promise) for the evoo

It was pretty tasty!  But I guess it’s a good thing I’m sick or I’m not sure one meal for the whole day would have covered it 🙂

After dinner we headed out to meet some friends at a local bowling alley.  We called and found out games are $3 after 9 so it seemed like a good idea, even though I’m not a very good bowler.  We played (and drank) with three other couples and it was a lot of fun!

I managed to finagle it with the snack bar and the bartender to get a chocolate milkshake with a double shot of Jack Daniels.

Perfection.

And later on I had a diet coke with amaretto.

None of my games were great, but the second was the worst (I was playing under Benji’s name) –

Embarrassing!  I had a great time though, I definitely want to go back.

Now the goal is sleep before 1am.  My workload tomorrow is pretty light, I only have class one day before Thanksgiving some I’m hoping to get lots of pre-work done next week.  Sweet dreams folks!

Do you like ‘couples sports’ like bowling and mini golf?

Doing It With Friends

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Today was pretty darn successful!  My shameful laundry has to wait until tomorrow but I completed all my planned studying.

I ended up skipping errands with Adam (he can really go to the post office alone) in order to stay home and make an early dinner.  I whipped up a tasty veggie frittata while he was gone.

unfortunately I can’t share the recipe because I’m entering it in a contest, but I can tell you it was tasty (if not photogenic).

Each serving has 112calories, 12grams of protein, and 60%+ of your daily requirement of vitamin A, so I think I did a pretty good job recipe writing.

During cooking time, I ate two slices of white bread with Smart Balance Light while I did some kitchen organizing.

After dinner was finished we headed over to a friend’s house for a study session.  Listening to Adam and his friends identify body parts puts me in the perfect study zone and I got lots of reading done.  Plus I stole some Halloween leftovers.

It’s almost 11 and I still have to shower and look at my schedule so I’ve got to scadaddle.  Sweet dreams folks!

How do you like eggs other than as eggs?  I like frittatas a lot but my favorite rendition is definitely french toast.