Best Lunch Ever

by Emily

I’m on cloud-9 here in excitement over how tasty my lunch was! It was delicious x 10 and healthy, healthy, healthy!

I had a gorgeous Neon Eggplant to use so that was the inspiration for lunch.

I chopped up 2/3 of the eggplant alongside some okra and a handful of kale.

Then I poured some evoo into a pan on medium heat. I cooked the eggplant and kale for a couple minutes, seasoned with salt and pepper, before adding a big pour of vegetable stock and allowing it to reduce. Then I added a few huge glugs of Worchestire sauce. After a few minutes I turned the heat up to medium high and added a bit more evoo and the okra and cooked another couple minutes.

That amazingness was bowled, drizzled with an einsy bit of agave syrup, and then I crumbled a small last serving of casserole over the top, and some paprika.

Holy Yum!

Some of my favorite flavors were in this lunch and they all came together perfectly! It was an amazing mix of flavors and textures.

As satisfied as I am, my craving for this seems to finally have gotten the best of me and I think I’m heading to Wegman’s soon so I can pick up some ingredients. We are driving to OH for an in-law visit this weekend and the husband’s family is most definitely NOT vegan so I need to pick up some supplies any way.

I have a big warm pot planned for dinner, a gym date I’ll hate myself if I don’t keep, and a bit of light homework on the agenda. See you later alligators!

What was the last simple meal that blew YOU away? If you can’t think of one please do yourself a favor and remake my lunch!

17Feb2010

At Least the Walls Are Still Standing

by Emily

Sorry for the very late dinner post! We randomly had no internet last night. At the same time the power to the fridge was being funky again and 2 of the knobs pulled off the stove. It was a fun night!

Plus I burnt not 1 but 2 batches of kale crisps. Fortunately there was enough from the 2nd batch that were salvageable for dinner.

Plus a serving of Tempeh Hashbrown Casserole leftovers.

With ketchup for dipping.

Yum, yum, and yum; is there condiment better than ketchup???? (I actually prefer 1000island but you know what I mean!)

There was some worry that class would be canceled due to last night’s excitement (everyone is fine by the way) but no such luck. And all our apartment troubles kept us up late so my breakfast smoothie plans fell through. Thankfully I had this Naked Green Machine Juice I got with my volunteering voucher.

And I also brought another new flavor of Prana Bars.

After lab I went to the post office to mail some supplemental forms. As soon as I get my UB transcripts sent tomorrow I will be officially applied! That is why I’m just now going to go make lunch. Peace.

Do you keep your cool when the internet has hiccups? I totally lose it. As much as I hate our dependence on electronics I am beyond frustrated when things don’t work for no discernible reason. I need to learn how to chill.

7Feb2010

Saturated Sunday

by Emily

Sadly, I think this will be an entire week of one-a-day, quick and dirty posts. I have to cut back somewhere and it can’t be at the gym (I did NOT go to the gym today, but that was more about my weak ankle than time) because I’ve only got three weeks left to train! I’m going to try to keep eating healthy too and I’ve got a plenty of leftovers meal on the schedule for tomorrow. It sucks that I let myself get so behind but hopefully I’ll keep on top of things after these two tests.

Breakfast was eaten in parts. Dannon Coconut Pineapple Lite and Fit Yogurt.

A stolen 1/2 cup of the hubby’s cereal, with skim milk.

And a packet of hot chocolate.

Lunch was a replay of last night’s feast.

Two biscuits spread with clover honey.

Chicken salad (+ 4 big bites from the container).

Sautéed okra, with paprika. This was the best combo on earth, out of this world tangy and delicious.

3-8pm were spent doing a coffee shop study meet up with Caroline. Everything bagel with veggie cream cheese.

Skim milk iced chai latte.

And when I got home I had baby carrots with Cedar’s Spinach and Artichoke Hummus.

Now I’ve actually got to go do a Chem homework assignment that’s due tomorrow, see ya!

What is your favorite spice? I feel a lot of the bloggers on the cinnamon love but to me nothing beats paprika. It adds spice and tang and goes with almost anything.

2Feb2010

Combos are Like Rocket Fuel for Studying

by Emily

I have my first Chemistry quiz at 8am sharp tomorrow (as well as my first ChemII lab experiment!) so I’ll keep this short and sweet. I hate doing one loooooong post, I like 2x or 3x days better.

Breakfast was delicious.

The last small serving of carrot cake pancakes smeared with sunbutter and maple syrup.

And a Cara Cara Orange. I think I’m in love! This had such a perfect balance of sour and sweet and it’s PINK.

My appetite has been crazy lately and I was so hungry I wanted to chew off my arm within minutes of finishing breakfast! The only solution was to make my favorite snack of all time –

Cedar’s pita chips with feta spread. I finished off the feta spread today and I just might have shed a few tears about it!

I randomly decided it was a fantastic idea to watch Make it or Break it in the middle of the day, which meant that lunch was an on-the-go affair eaten during Anthropology.

Naked Red Machine Juice and an Almond and Cashew KIND Plus Bar.

Plus the snack of champions a few hours later in Chemistry.

Combos and diet soda are always a winning pair 🙂

Dinner-dinner was leftover Cocoa-Coconut Chili (1C serving),

topped with 2% colby jack, 0% Fage, and some jalopenos.

Yum! This is much healthier than the jalopeno and cheddar nachos I was inhaling a while back but just as tasty.

The plan for the evening is to study a bit and make it to bed before 10. I do NOT feel prepared, I got a lot of catching up to do before my two tests next week. I’ll let you know how the quiz went tomorrow at lunch, hasta!

Are you a combos fan? I dare a 90’s child to say no!

P.S. My inner-fatty wouldn’t stop screaming so I ate this snack while I studied –

I want to call bad lighting but it really did look like that! (Approximately) 1 ripe banana + 2T 0% Fage + 1T sunbutter + cinnamon + crumbled caramel filled cookie.

P.P.S. I completely forgot to do a Fest Check-in

Food – pretty good, if I had packed an apple or something I could have skipped the Combos
Exercise – meh, I chose not to work out in leiu of studying but this ties into T
Sleep – if I actually brush my teeth and go to bed now (9:40ish) pretty damn good
Time management – sucessful people do not watch tv shows about teenage gymnasts in the middle of the day!

31Jan2010

Sleepy Sunday

by Emily

We overslept (what else is new?!?) so waking up was a stressful, frustrating affair; but I tried to make breakfast as soothing as possible.

A serving of leftover carrot cake pancakes,

with 1/3cup 1% cottage cheese topped with a honey tangerine.

I’m loving all the citrus options lately!

I’ve got to get cracking, see you for lunch.

What is your favorite kind of citrus? I enjoyed the Ugli fruit a lot just because it was so unique, but clementines top my list due to their lack of seeds.

P.S. Check out this girl’s first giveaway!

26Jan2010

Whine and Cheese

by Emily

This was not my most sucessful Tuesday, I’ll keep this quick because I’m in a pretty bad mood.

Sooooooooo, my tasty oats this morning? Two issues – 1. They apparently had no staying power, I was starving by 10am. 2. The 1/3 of yogurt is from the same container as last week’s 1/3 a cup in overnight oats. It was a single serving cup of Dannon, which I placed inside a tupperware after I opened it. I wondered about that decision this morning, but I figured it would all be ok. Yeah, so not ok! My stomach hurt so bad I thought I was going to die and I ended up going home after my first class. Boo!

Between starving and sick I did squeeze in lunch at the school cafeteria.

It was a pretty lame lunch, sometimes food court situations are really overwhelming for me. The excess of choices tend to induce mini panic attacks and short of that I choose quickly, randomly, and poorly. Thus a sandwich that was neither healthy nor what I was craving.

Chicken salad on a spinach wrap with shredded lettuce, jalopenos, black olives, and blue cheese dressing. I also had a side of pickles,

and some so-so chips I only ate due to extreme hunger.

Post lunch but before class I also grabbed a tall white hot chocolate.

In retrospect that wasn’t the best choice; I had it made with skim instead of whole milk but it was still too much sugar. Which doesn’t mean that once I was curled up wimpering on the couch I didn’t eat this brownie. 😉

Or two servings of these guys, straight from the bag, not a good idea.

Given that chips are not that healthy of an appetizer choice I tried to keep dinner light.

The other half of my minneola and a kiwi bowl,

leftovers of the tastiest collards on earth,

mini pita with melted blue brie.

I promise to be in a better mood tomorrow! But not a morning mood, I have my first chem lab tomorrow and it start at 8am, I clearly won’t be blogging until lunch. Night.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

19Jan2010

Simple is Sweet

by Emily

It’s barely noon and it’s already been a quite tasty day! Breakfast and lunch both prove how sweet simple can be.

Breakfast was Pineapple Chiobani topped with blueberries and a drizzle of organic agave syrup.

I don’t actually love blueberries, I eat them because I know how healthy they are, but this was delicious. And I liked the agave better than my first try too. The whole combo knocked my socks off!

Lunch was equally stunning.

This was the perfect kind of tasting plate.

Leftover grilled veggies and blackened chicken from dinner at Pano’s on Sunday,

1/3 of a sliced cucumber,

1/2cup Cedar’s Aegean Edamame Salad,

and 2T Cedar’s Artichoke Spinach Hommus.

Cedar’s just might be my new favorite brand.

In just a bit I’m heading to campus. I have Anthropology and ChemII today, but I also need to return something to the bookstore and do a few things at the campus library.

We’re doing a gym visit when I get home and then we have something fun planned for dinner.

Do you take restaurant leftovers home? Why or why not? We always try to, leaving it is wasteful and usually they are tasty!

16Jan2010

Coffee and Coconut

by Emily

Today has been the perfect kind of Saturday! Cuddling up with Adam in front of the tv with funny shows and plates of food? Count me in!

My parents gave us a purple french press for Christmas and we finally got to try it out.

Besides the fact that it makes me feel cool and European, the coffee (Kona, by the way) was much tastier and less bitter; win. Per usual, I had mine with skim milk.