Tag Archives: leftovers

I’m Easily Excited

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It’s Friday!  Today has been sort of thrilling, in the most mundane sort of way.  I think I get excited about things that normal people do not?  For example, when Nikki told me there was froyo near her apartment last weekend the husband had to tell me to calm down so I wouldn’t hyperventilate and pass out 😀

I waited too long to eat breakfast at home this morning (so no cereal), but wanted something super filling to get me through to the afternoon (so not a bar).  What to do?  Brinner – only this time it means dinner for breakfast, not breakfast for dinner.

I ate a serving of leftover lemony zucchini seitan pasta on the ride too school.  It’s not less healthy to have pasta for breakfast and pancakes for dinner than it is to eat the reverse, and it can be a lot of fun.

The husband dropped me off early enough that I had some time to work before class.  The food court was open so I took the opportunity to buy some fresh fruit to munch while I read.

Whenever I buy grapes to eat at home they invariably go bad, but when they are in mixed fruit bowls I always gobble them up.

After class was finished I slapped on my sunglasses (polarized, bug-eyed) and spritzed on some sunblock (70spf).  The husband dropped me off this morning (instead of me dropping him off) so that I could walk home!  The BSC campus is only 2.5miles from our current apartment and since I love to walk it seemed like the perfect plan.  I wouldn’t walk everyday (I’m trying to be a little gentle on my leg) but with my heavy bags it felt like a work out and it was a lot of fun!

I stopped midway at the Co-op to pick up a couple fun items but other than that I tried to keep up a pretty fast clip.  I did slow for a couple of blocks to eat my snack though.  1 serving of s.s. sea salt Somersaults.

Holy yum!  Can you picture the sesame pieces that come in a lot of the crappier trail mixes?  I have a minor obsession with them.  They are the only item with trans fat that I still knowingly eat and often if there’s a day I don’t blog my hand has found it’s way into a bag of them.  Well this variety of Somersaults tastes just like those little devils.  And with no trans fat.  I think I’m in ❤.  Note – only two of the Somersault flavors are vegan, but the ingredients are clearly marked so if you are doing the challenge with us just be sure to check the label.

I still haven’t actually managed to eat lunch.  When I got home I got totally distracted doing some school business and looking over the info for my online class next month.  We are going to a BBQ this evening, a most likely non-vegan-friendly event, so I’ll be eating an early dinner.

What are some of the silly things that you get excited about?  My (very, very long) list includes bubbles, diet coke, ruffles, and straws.

Like Peppermint Patty Loves Lucy

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Fill in the blank:  Today I                                                                                        .

a) was homesick; b) was craving peppermint; c) ate too much sugar; or d) all of the above.

It’s no secret that I like sugar (there’s a reason “sweet” is the biggest word in my cloud tag and apparently my eating habits even piss some people off), but did you know that my favorite kind of candy is peppermints?  I like Jr. Mints and York Patties, but actual peppermint hard candy is the best.  And the ultimate best is West Indian peppermint candy.  It’s similar to the starlight mints but always homemade and comes in a variety of shapes.  The texture is different too; harder but more aerated.  Like this lollipop I pulled out the back of my cabinet –

Sadly, the stick went all the way to the top of the candy (gag) so I had to abandon it two bites in.

Thankfully the twist my parents sent from Carnival last month did the trick.

My very favorite is actually a soft peppermint bar, the texture is similar to hard packed raw sugar and when you chew it it’s almost like the grit from toothpaste at the dentist (it’s better than it sounds).  Unfortunately my parents didn’t send any of that though (ahem).

I worked on my binder and before I knew it it was time for dinner, my last serving of salsa verde chicken bake.

I also had a half serving of Guylian shells for dessert.

The other thing on the agenda for today is packing, because……. we are heading to Boston tomorrow!  Two of our very best friends both live in Boston and we are getting so excited to go see them!  We’ve managed to visit every year since our wedding, and they were in fact IN the wedding –

Last year’s visit –

I’m so excited to see them!

Do you still keep in touch with any of your high school friends?

I Blame UPS

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My food choices today were craptastic.  Not in the undelicious, unenjoyable kind of way; more in an absolutely no nutritional value kind of way.  It was just one of those days.

A serving of yellow tortilla chips (er, x2).

A serving of Guylian chocolate shells (um, also x2).

Pizza eggs.

Which are so gloriously delicious as to have earned their own recipe page.

A big messy serving of leftover salsa verde chicken bake.

Amid lots of frustrating errands (I HATE UPS!) I also went for a run.  I did the same route as Sunday but shaved two minutes off my time.

  • 5minutes walking
  • 11minutes running
  • 2minutes walking
  • 2minutes running
  • 2minutes walking
  • 2minutes running

In the end it was 2.6miles and 24minutes.  It wasn’t the best run though, my calves are feeling really tight.  Plus I felt thirsty and sluggish.  I wonder if my eats today had anything to do with it?  It is becoming more and more clear to me that I feel better when I fuel myself properly; duh! 

Not to say that the realization stopped me from “letting” the husband buy me a strawberry banana split milkshake later on.

But it had fruit on top, so it was more like a smoothie, right? 😉

Any companies you’d like to flame?  UPS gets the full passion of my hate.  They deliver during business hours only (retarded) and the man who does our route didn’t even ring the doorbell, just stuck a “sorry we missed you” sticker on the door (should be illegal), I was home, he shouldn’t have “missed” me!!!

Chip On My Shoulder

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Oh man, today bypassed low-key and went straight into ridiculous!  It is a good thing I’ve got plans for tomorrow.  My eats were pretty uninspired too.

Breakfast/lunch/whatever you’d call the first meal of the day at 1pm – Stonyfield Fat Free Key Lime Yogurt, Total cereal, the last of the blueberries.

Holy yuck!  Oh jeez do I apparently dislike this key lime yogurt.  It tasted way too chemically sick-sweet, and I say that as an avid diet soda addict.  Gag me with a spoon! 

Then we went back to bed.  All day.  We only got up at 5:30 because Adam had to eat dinner before he went to work at the hospital.

Leftover crock pot soup.  I also had an everything Bagel Thin with 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

30seconds in the microwave was too much,

lesson learned, but it still tasted good.

I also had several unphotographed handfuls of chips.  It will be a damn good thing when those are out of the house!

Since we’ve got the opposite of a sleep deficit going we’re actually heading out to do our grocery shopping when Adam gets home at 10.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle that level of productivity.

Do you ever have days where you feel completely wiped out?  Do you give in to it or do you have any tips for us?

*****Updated to add – I should have just eaten the damn chips.  Grocery shopping while hungry is never a good idea.  All of my food plans fell through and I ended up buying and eating boneless wings.  What?

Meh

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I have my Anthro final at 8am tomorrow, and it’s going to be a bloodbath so I’ll keep this quick.  Plus, I’ll admit that I’m not in the best of moods; I got some really frustrating news this afternoon and I was definitely irritated.

I will say, that I wanted this bag of chips prior to the bad mood.

But the mood probably had something to do with the fact that I scarfed the bag in under 5minutes.  A new record! 😉

Dinner was mac and cheese leftovers.

Veggies were nowhere to be found.  But I did gobble up a few of Adam’s Double Stuff Oreos.

Fruit eaten today: 1.5cups, boo!

Summer Goals

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Another excited yet lame blog post from Eatventures?  Nah, you’ve got to be kidding me!  And I’m not going to lie to my readers and say “it’ll be better soon.”  Because it won’t.  I’ve got finals folks, and now it’s time for me to learn all of the material I’ve been ignoring the last month!  But I do promise to keep posting at least daily (because people would totally die without reading about my lunch?!?!), and to work on stepping it up this summer.  In fact, I’ve got all sorts of goals for this summer –

  • start running again (slowly and carefully!) once my leg fully heals
  • get into a daily exercise schedule before I start full-time school
  • post more regularly on the blog
  • purchase a domain name and go all official (fingers crossed)
  • rock out my summer school classes
  • find a new, better apartment and move into it
  • turn 25!

This morning’s goal was to tackle some issues with my financial aid.  I was trapped on the phone all morning so I ended up eating a bun spread with a little bit of Smart Balance Light.

And that candy bar was decimated.

When I was finally free I made a real breakfast.

Plain non-fat yogurt topped with honey and a sliced plum.  This guy was a little too sour but I am so excited about plum season; they are my favorite fruit yogurt topper.

Unfortunately I ate so late that I wasn’t hungry for lunch.  And even more unfortunately I failed to plan ahead.  So lunch was most of this trail mix eaten during Anthropology.

I ate ~500calories worth, so it certainly covered lunch, but not in any sort of healthy way.  Plus I ended up feeling totally ill.  Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Bellyache be damned though, I wasn’t passing up an on-campus opportunity; bubble teas are few and far between in Buffalo.

Strawberry milk tea with bobba.  It was way too sweet but I was kind of in love with it anyways.

Classes are done, whoopie!  Now I just have to huge finals before I’m through with UB.  (Dear God, that was not supposed to rhyme)

Dinner was leftovers, with a twist.

I didn’t want to use another bun so I ate my sloppy joe mix in a bowl, topped with 2% colby jack, Siracha, low fat sour cream, and the last of the homemade pineapple salsa.

This mix of flavors was so darn good!

That glass of sludge is plain non-fat Kefir with cinnamon-sugar swirled in.

I’m posting so late because Adam and I went on a Buffy binge, but also because I did some baking.

Coconut Banana Bread.  I followed this recipe but skipped the glaze.  Make this, make this, make this!  The flavor profile is spot on.  I might have had a slice or three.

Bed time?  Bed time!

What are some of your goals for this summer?

One-a-Day, Fun-a-Day

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I couldn’t manage to make this a three-post sort of day, but it was a lot of fun!  Tomorrow and Monday are going to be all about Anthro so I’m glad I squeezed some joy in today.

When I woke up this morning I was so hungry I was actually a little angry about it!  Sometimes when I’m so hungry I feel like I could eat a horse I end up not eating anything at all because it seems like no matter what I try I’ll still be hungry!!!  Plus I knew I had a fun lunch date to look forward to 😉

Katie and I have been planning a trip to the hot bar at the Lexington Co-op for months.  The co-op only has outside seating and it was 45* outside today but that wasn’t going to stop us, we just bundled up!

And ordered hot coffee (with skim milk).

Foodwise I went with a bunch of fun tastes.

Stuffed grape leaves and some massaged kale,

An amazing falafel – it tasted like it was baked instead of fried and the outside was super thick and crunchy,

curried chicken salad, and chicken salad with almonds and grapes,

and some Thai cucumber salad with peanuts.

Yumtastic!  I adore meals where I get a bunch of different tastes, I find I feel much more satisfied.

Afterward I picked up some fun bargains at the co-op, as well as dessert.

That peanut butter swirl brownie was literally gone in less than 2minutes!

Later in the afternoon the husband and I headed to the movie theatre to see Kick Ass.  The movie was pretty kick ass (hehe) but holy moley was there a lot of explicit language and violence!

I too felt like a superhero when I got tonight’s dinner on the table.

The bacon fettuccine alfredo was almost tastier leftover than it was the first night.

And for our veggies I made the world’s best dish from yesterday’s lunch: kale and eggplant with worchestire and marinara; I left out the okra because the husband thinks it looks like spider eggs!

The pasta and the veggies ended up working together perfectly.

Dinner was a definite success.

However, a few hours later (now) I did end up feeling some hunger.  I knew I was heading to bed soon and didn’t want something heavy so I decided to try the packet of chocolate whey protein I picked up.

Shaken with 8oz of skim milk.

Meh?  It wasn’t bad, but I feel like there are a lot more exciting (natural?) sources of protein.  That’s not to say I wouldn’t try another variety though.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend thus far, enjoy your Sundays!

What is your feeling on protein powders?  Any recommendations (or warnings) for me?

One-Pot Wonder

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I am so sorry to rush through this post but the husband is working at the hospital tonight and I know if I want to get any work done at all I need to tear myself away from the computer immediately!

The morning was spent at an open house at Buffalo State.  None of the breakfast options really appealed to me but I did snag a big plate of fresh fruit.

When we got home the husband made himself a plate of green tuna enchilladas (and smushed it all up with his fork) which he then decided he didn’t want, so I ate them for my lunch.

This was the last of the leftovers and they will be missed, definitely a keeper recipe.

However, my mouth was on fire (our green salsa was a bit too spicy)!  I was so hot I finally pulled this box out of the freezer –

These ice pops traveled with us from Brooklyn to Buffalo unopened!  I tried the Dr. Pepper one today,

and I don’t know what I was waiting for; it was sweet and mouth-cooling all for 35calories.

While grocery shopping I tried a small bread + cheese sample,

and when we got home I opened up a Dannon Light and Fit Apple Pie Yogurt.

There was some major artificial sugar taste but the strong cinnamon and huge pieces of apple pretty much made up for it.  Plus anything with a SunButter spoon is good!

I also ate a small bowl of popcorn while we watched the 100th episode of Bones.

Anyone else a Bones addict?  What’d you think?????

Dinner was this recipe from “Rachael Ray Magazine” – Chicken Chutney One-Pot.

My changes; based on Adam’s tastes and our pantry –

  • we only used 1lb of skinless boneless chicken breast
  • 1T (vs. 2T) evoo
  • 1potato subbed in for the apple
  • skipped the ginger
  • skipped the cumin

I did serve the dish with some crusty bread though, smeared with roasted garlic.

I followed Ms. How Sweet’s garlic technique, she’s kind of a culinary genius.

And a side of roasted green beans.

Made for a very tasty dinner.

I will probably do a bit of snacking while I (hopefully) study this evening, I’ll update later if so.  Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

Do you read any food magazines?  I’m subscribed to Cooking Light and Rachael Ray, but I love to pick up Bon Apetit too whenever I can.

*****Updated – Unless eating ice-cream on the couch counts as tedious, I didn’t get a lot of work done last night.  I’m sure I’ll find other means of distractrion, but I’m taking the computer out of the equation for today; see you again Monday!