I Wrote This Post Last Night

I’m taking a page from Kath‘s internship days and ‘ghost-writting’ this lunch post.  Thursday’s classes and gym trip mean that I’m out of the house from 9am – 4:30(ish) pm and since I have a tasty lunch packed I figured I’d go ahead and post it.  As this publishes I will be exiting my first Anatomy lab with a cat component – I’ll definitely tell y’all more about that later!

I centered lunch around the last Jalapeno Popper turkey patty.

I put it on an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin instead of a bun, and nixed the broiled sharp cheddar, so I knew I needed something special to tie the whole thing together.  Enter Laughing Cow Blue Cheese –

Sandwich perfection.

I imagine I’m going to enjoy that very much 😀

I also packed a small sliced purple pepper,

and the last (tear) of the dried kiwi with some dried apricots.

Hopefully this holds me over through Food Lab and a workout, I can’t deal with yesterday’s insane hunger!

What is your favorite type of dried fruit?  I love kiwis and hibiscus.

I Envy No Man

It’s almost Friday!  Weekends have been pretty much meaningless to me this past unemployed year, but now that I’m starting back to school next Monday they are exciting again.

I spent forever running errands today because parking was ridiculous everywhere I went.  Also helping orphans catching up on “Make it or Break it.”  I managed to make time for some amazing meals though; I’m seriously excited about every single thing I ate today.

Chicken Enchilada Suiza Lean Cuisine.

Frozen meal win, this was delicious.  A chicken enchilada with cheesy sauce,

and a pile of rice that got mushed around in the cheese sauce.

With an Orange Zevia (free sample).

I’m usually not one for orange sodas but this guy was totally thirst quenching.

Also, a mini bag of kettle corn.

I spent some time wifing it up in the kitchen, baking some chocolate chip cookies for the husband.  I stole a tiny one.

I would have eaten more, but I had already stashed 2T of dough away into the freezer for something amazing.  Keep reading…

Dinner was kinda off the hook.

Think tasty leftovers x10billion.  I topped a bed of roasted green beans with 1cup of corn, a serving of shredded bbq chicken, and some homemade bbq sauce.

Shredded chicken, corn, and roasted green beans are all pretty big favorites of mine and together they were unstoppable!  The balance of spicy-salty-sweet was perfect here.

But nothing was topping dessert.

I’ve had food-processor-envy all year, but tonight I envied no man; tonight, I got to make Gena’s famous banana soft-serve!

Only my batch was extra fabulous because it also had frozen cookie dough blended in.

This bowl was 2frozen bananas and 2.5T frozen cookie dough.  Swoon!

Have you gotten to try banana soft serve yet?  Thoughts?

Chutney Sounds Like a Stripper Name

Just as predicted – dinner, tv, workout, cleaning.  Actually, no technical workout, but the husband and I did take a 2nd walk.  It is definitely long past time to get in an official sweat session.  The past week has been filled with walking (enough to consider exercise) but I’d like to ramp it up a bit.

Dinner took leftovers and turned them into something beautiful.

The 2nd half of my curried chickpea and potato burrito was a little soggy, but otherwise none the worse for the wear.

And it took me all of 5minutes to saute some frozen veggies; okra, corn, and green beans.  I’m from the school of thought that nothing doesn’t go with a sprinkle of salt and spicy paprika.

A healthy, easy, tasty dinner.

Improved exponentially by the addition of chutney, the one must-have on my grocery list today.

FYI – chutney is a stewed fruit spread common in Caribbean cuisine.  I’ve seen it made with mangos, cilantro, and apricots, and (in my opinion) the tastiest varieties always involve tamarind.

During the tv portion of the evening (“Rizzoli and Isles,” I’m becoming a fan, I think) I also had a bowl of popcorn.

Today was the husband’s 1st day back to school (um, *good luck!* belatedly) so we are trying to turn in early so we can attempt to establish some sort of healthy sleep pattern.  Goodnight all!

Have you ever tried chutney?

48hours of Fun

Aaaargh!  Two (FULL) days worth to recap?  I actually debated not writing this post but I’ve blogged every single eat since my 25th birthday and I’d like to keep that streak going.  I’m keeping this one pretty dry though.

-~-Sunday-~-   We did lots of sharing so my photos are more of a basic representation than a spot on accurate one.

We started with breakfast from Pano’s.

I ordered the Artichoke Omlette, which came with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, and a a touch of basil pesto.  I also requested that they add broccoli and only use half cheese, pepperjack, i.e. there is cheese on the top but not the middle.

With some hasbrowns,

and a slice of sourdough.

Delicious, but I couldn’t come close to finishing; we packed up the second half for the husband. 

By the way – our leftover situation this week was ridiculous, at one point our fridge had 8 to-go boxes in it!!!

We spent a looooong time at a nearby outlet mall, which was tiring but amazing.  At some point I ate this baggie of dried fruit (kiwi, apricot, hibiscus).

And we had to at least get appetizers at Cozumel’s.

Complimentary chips and salsa,

Maryland Blue Crab and Avocado Handrolls.

I love how Cozumel’s has healthified Mexican food; the rolls were not fried, contained no creaminess or cheese, were stuffed with sprouts, and were totally tasty.

My plate –

Dinner ended up being a bit of a fiasco, everything closes on Sunday here!  We drove around for hours looking for a place and the husband’s new phone came in totally handy.  In the end we headed to Jack Astor’s, which was the perfect choice.

We shared lobster and crab dip as an appetizer.

For my meal I ordered the chicken fajitas, which came with cheese, sour cream, onions and peppers, lettuce, salsa, and smokey bbq sauce.

I never order fajitas but assembling my own meal was totally fun.  I ate two fajitas and then packed the rest up to add to our to-go boxes.

-~-Monday-~-   We had to get up super early to take my parents to the airport (boo!) so Adam and I stopped at a bagel place on the way home and got a tomato pesto bagel with salmon shmear to share.

We also split the leftovers of my omlet from Sunday.

It was actually a pretty great breakfast.

I was starving (all day, it was insanely annoying) so I also finished off the rest of my chicken fingers from the other night.

The husband headed to work and I passed out.  I didn’t wake up until around 1 and then I spent the rest of the day sneezing.  It was out of control, I sneezed at least 50times yesterday!  I don’t know what allergy flared up but I felt like death warmed over and even had to skip a friend’s birthday party last night because I couldn’t control all the snot running down my face (gross, sorry!)!

Mid sneezes and tissues I did find time to eat a bunch of crap.  Strawberry yogurt bar from Lindt.

This came from the outlet store and rocked my socks.  It was a single serving (love) and was creamy, and tangy, and crunchy, and perfect.

A piece of whatever this is –

my parents brought it; sort of tastes like a dried crepe with sesame seeds?

An entire bag of chips!

A small piece of banana bread with Smart Balance Light.

Dinner was at least healthy (and epic).

I topped a small bed of lightly dressed spinach with roasted yellow beets,

purple tomatoes,

crumbled goat cheese,

and candied pecans.

OMG!

The combo was out of this world, yellow beets are 10x better than regular ones.

Oh, and I also had a bowl of SmartPop kettle corn.

-~-Today-~-   I’m not sure what the day holds.  I have a terrible case of grumpies for some reason.  I have a dinner I’m excited about cooking and a trip to the gym is definitely in order because I haven’t worked out in 2 days.  We shall see….

48hour recap = 4 reader questions

  1. Have you ever tried beets?  Yellow beets?
  2. What is your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
  3. What is your favorite flavor of Lindt truffle?
  4. Are you attending BlogHer this weekend?

I’m Just Mad About Saffron…

I can’t believe so many of you have never heard of the Slimcado; I feel like if it’s come to Buffalo it must be everywhere! 😉

The husband and I were both starving during our Goodwill visit so we ended up stopping for a pre-dinner snack.  I ate half of this huge slice of pizza.

And a few sips of this classic –

they call me Mellow Yellow….”

Dinner was leftovers that were practically better than the first night.

Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers,

and Unfried Green Tomatoes.

We also cracked open a bottle of sparkling wine that the husband got at his brother’s wedding (before we were even seriously dating!).

Gag.  I took a sip and I think I’ll be sticking with Prosecco, thank you.

I had a good time catching up on tv this afternoon.  Has anyone seen Rizzoli and Isles yet?  I think I might be a fan!

Distractable Me

The range of activities today mean that I have very few pictures, but considering the late hour it’s just as well.  We did a lot of indulging today too, but since we move on my 1/4 of a century I’m basically declaring it Birthday Week! 😉

Yesterday I had breakfast for lunch, and today I had lunch for breakfast.

I ate the 2nd half of my tasty turkey sandwich,

alongside three carrots.

We ended up not moving at all today, which was great because moving yesterday was even more of a workout than I had thought; I’m so sore!  My legs practically feel like they did after my half marathon, which is I guess is what living on the top floor without an elevator will do to you.  I’m always glad to squeeze in the incidental exercise, and today I was glad to squeeze in more time finishing my paper.

The main reason we switched our plans is that we were off being *movie stars!*  Some of our friends are involved in shooting an orientation video to show to first year medical students and they called this morning to ask us to help out.  Adam and I got to shoot a library love scene

Afterwards we were in a movie frame of mind and we ended up heading to the theatre to watch Despicable Me.  The husband and I split a big tub of popcorn but it was too dark to photograph.  Poor nutrition aside, the movie was a good decision; it was so cute!  We highly recommend it, even to grown ups (although it’s also worth noting that it is a great kid’s movie, it was funny without relying on inappropriate adult humor).

When we got home I made myself a sliced Gala apple with 2tsp of TJ’s Sun Butter.

Dinner got out of whack because of my paper writing, but we did make a trip to DQ for (16oz) Oreo Cheesequake Blizzards.

What can I say, it was another bogo birthday week coupon!  I did manage to control my spoon and only eat half though, the rest is in the freezer waiting for me for another day.

When I did finally finish my work the husband threw me together a quick dinner.

Nobody makes sunny side up eggs like Adam does!  The bread is from a thin sliced loaf of rosemary and olive oil; we tasted a sample on Saturday and it was so good we knew we had to buy it.

Can you keep it to one day or do you celebrate a Birthday Week as well?

Long but Loving

Hello again!  I hope that everyone got over the week’s hump nicely.  I’ll describe my situation succinctly: I will never put off my work for 4 days in a row again!  It’s been a painful experience that I don’t want to soon repeat.  The last 48hours have been stressful, but my eats have all been so good that there was no way I wasn’t posting them; hence the long recap post.

Wednesday morning I made a breakfast that was truly a thing of beauty –

A serving of Van’s Belgian Waffles topped with 2T maple syrup, the last of the strawberry sauce, fresh blueberries, and a cinnamon sprinkle.

Gah!  I always used to think that I didn’t like waffles, pancakes, etc, but that was just because I didn’t know to top them off with fruit and cinnamon.

{study, study, study}

Lunch was some Allergaroo Spyglass Noodles.

These were super tasty, and just the right about of food.

I wanted to keep lunch light because it was Katie’s birthday last week and we had a cupcake date.  It ended up being too hot for cupcakes, but locally made ice cream certainly fit the bill.

I got a small scoop of A Date at the Zoo, coconut ice cream with wine poached dates, brazil nuts, and chocolate chips.  Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds!

{study, study, study}

When hunger hit (hard) later in the afternoon I sliced up a big plate of cucumber to munch while I studied.  Unphotograhed accountability note – I also ate ~ 1/3 of a salmon patty straight from the container.

The water-dense snack was a good choice, because when the husband got home at 6 we headed out for a run.

I didn’t wear my watch, so I have no idea what the times are, but it was a good workout.  We did a mix of running and walking (with a few stops so I could fuss with my socks, eek I’m not sure if it’s the shoes or the socks but something with my new shoes isn’t working) and covered 3miles in total.

When you have good leftovers a healthy tasty dinner can literally be less than 2mintues away!

Over a bed of spring mix lettuce I combined 2/3cup microwaved frozen corn, a salmon patty, and a big scoop of medium chunky salsa.

The flavors of this salad went together so well!  It filled me up but it tasted so good that I kept scraping at my plate so I wouldn’t lose any of it 🙂

{study, study, study} um, {study, study, study, study}

That’s right folks, I pulled an (almost)all-nighter!  I stayed up until 4am doing the reading I should have done over the weekend.  Ugh.

I fell into bed for 6hours or so and then got right back to my books.  My messed up sleep schedule messed with my hunger in turn, and breakfast just didn’t sound good.  I did nibble on a serving of Jammie Dodgers throughout the morning though.

Around 2:30 I was finally caught up on the reading, which meant that I was ready to study for and take my test, jeez!

I did break for lunch though.  I pulled a carton of Dr. McDougal’s Lentil Soup out of the depths of my fridge.

I gussied it up with a chopped string cheese, a dollop of plain Siggis yogurt, and some Sriracha.

With a Savory Kathy’s Krackers Flax Snax on the side.

All together now –

Then it was more studying, yadda, yadda, yadda, and FINALLY I took my exam.  And I’m pretty sure I got a 100%, phew!

and if you’ve stuck around through all of that, I’d like to reward you with some recommendations…..

A Few of My (Current) Favorite Things –

1. The new fishy measuring spoon set my mom sent me.

They are available at Fred Flare, but I have heart palpitations whenever I view the kitchen section of that store so I can’t give you an exact link!

2. This College Humor Article about us 90’s kids.

Although I was actually always partial to Treasure Mountain, the article is hilarious.

3. The free online game Red Remover

It is based on actual principles of physics, it is wickedly entertaining, and it’s flipping adorable.

Any current loves you’d like to share with me?

The Daze: Part 2

Note 1 – I’ve gotten Adam obsessed with Dollhouse too and he told me to make this snappy so we could get back to watching!  Note 2 – It’s been a day!  My nap yesterday made sleeping last night off which in turn made today strange

Like just odd.  Yesterday’s daze had nothing on today’s.  And my appetite was totally out of whack.  Nothing sounded good to me for breakfast.  I tried to eat a spoon of peanut butter but it just made me sad.  I decided just to let my appetite play out as it wished.

But perhaps the lack of breakfast turned me into a basket case because even the simple things felt like an accomplishment.  Like I somehow gouged a chunk out of my knee pulling my pants on –

That’s my sad face 😦 Cute shirt though, right?

I ended up eating about a serving of Spree during class.

But when I got home for lunch I still wasn’t hungry.  At 5:30 the husband was home and I still hadn’t eaten.  I needed fuel though so I poured myself a class of coconut water.

Which got me through our run.  I didn’t wear a watch because it was raining, but we did 2.25miles in ~25minutes.

Usually running kills my hunger but thankfully today dinner sounded good.  Double take.

Its leftover status made this meal no less tasty, just quicker!  Veggie bowl (corn, okra, black beans, salsa),

and a huge hunka beer bread with Smart Balance Light.

I also did some serious mouse nibbles while I cut the bread, about a serving’s worth.

I was a bit hungry still after dinner, not starving but since I didn’t eat much today I welcomed another meal, so I got my roast on.

Yucca was not yuck-a!  This was my first cassava try and I quite enjoyed it.  My belly isn’t enjoying the fiber overdose though, I practically look pregnant!

Times up!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Peel Snacks giveaway!