8hours in the Car Later

We started off this morning with another bike ride!

Actually, my mom and I biked around and my dad and Adam walked behind.  It was a short ride because our main destination was coffee.

Piqua gas stations aren’t exactly floating in soy milk so I ended up having to use Irish crème non-dairy creamer, yetch!

For breakfast I pulled a Coconut Acai Prana Bar out of my snacks bag.

This was not enough food and I was starving the minute we hit the road.  I ate a bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel thins,

and I opened some honey roasted cashews.

Miracle of miracles, we managed to find another healthy road trip food option!

I have major adoration for Einstein Bagels anyways, but this was by far the healthiest car lunch one could eat.

I got the veggie sandwich – red onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce on a sesame bagel thin – and subbed in hummus for cream cheese.

Filling, healthy and delicious.  It even came with an apple as a side.

A mealy and disgusting apple that I ended up throwing out the window, but at least it came with one! 😀

Things were going well until we realized we missed an exit and added 2.5hours to our trip.  Arrgh!  At least, when I was starving and things were looking grim, we found a Sheetz, with fresh fruit.

Watermelon,

and grapes.

And pretty road sign flower sculptures across the street.

When we did finally get back to Buffalo we quickly unpacked before grabbing dinner from the Co-op.

Baked veggie rolls,

and baked tofu with cilantro ginger sauce.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Put Another Veggie on the Barbie

Our day just got better and better 😀

After my bike ride I grabbed a small bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast.

Melon, blueberry, raspberry, grape.

Then the family set off toward the 2nd Street Market –

It ended up reminding me of a mash-up between a farmers’ market and Quincy Market in Boston.  We didn’t end up buying a whole lot, but we did see all sorts of neat things.

I did “lunch” in bites.  My dad and I bought a pint of cherries to split.

Adam gave me one of his grape leaves.

And I ate a pack of Bananamon Funky Monkey.

After the market we did shopping that was even more my style.  We went to Trader Joe’s to stock up on Sun Butter and then to Dick’s where I got my birthday gift early – new running shoes!!!  I can’t wait to start breaking those bad boys in!

On the way home we stopped at George’s (like Dairy Queen, but owned by a family friend, and better) so the husband could demolish a double cheeseburger and chocolate malt.  I went with a much more reasonable extra small grape/strawberry slushie.

This was one of the times I appreciated the vegan challenge; George’s has a long blizzards list and besides the fact that I really don’t need a huge ice-cream choosing a flavor gives me anxiety 😉

I did finish up dessert with a small serving of gummi cola bottles at home though.

Dinner was the first time this month that the vegan challenge was actually a challenge.  My grandparents adore Outback so that’s where we went, but my options were beyond limited.  I ended up ordering three sides.

Side salad (no cheese, no croutons) with balsamic vinegar.

Side of steamed veggies.

Side of french fries.

Not the healthiest meal by any stretch.  I rounded it out with some fresh watermelon when we got home.

Adam and I just got our butts kicked at Euker and now it’s bedtime.  We’ve got an early morning tomorrow before we head back to Buffalo, see you at home!

Liquid Libations

Hello, hello, hello!  Lots of excitement ’round these parts today; some ends and some beginnings.  And lots of liquid calories, apparently, as my eats for today have been exclusively in the fluid form of matter.

What a way to start the morning!

I introduce smoothie genius – 3cups of frozen watermelon blended with a Simply Lemonade.

It was just so fricking good.  The perfect way to start the day that is the end of Sociology.  By the way; I got a 48/50 on my oral presentation and a 44/50 on the final exam – with the curve, highest grade in the class by 10points, that’s an A.

Since July’s class is online, I had Adam drop me off at campus in the morning so I could do my final walk home.  To celebrate, I even stopped at Starbucks mid-walk.

Grande, soy, iced, cinnamon dolche latte.  A drink must have at least 4 adjectives to be exciting 🙂

I literally walked from my 2.5miles of incidental exercise to some real exercise.  I had to be quick because I’m running late but I managed a pretty good work out.  22minutes, level 6, random, on the elliptical followed by 10minutes of arms, abs, stretching.

After the gym I stuck a straw in the 2nd half of the coconut water.

As soon as the husband gets home we are hitting the road to Ohio.  My parents are visiting my grandparents and since my grandparents are pretty much the coolest people on the planet Adam and I decided to drive up too.  I’m not sure what the posting situation will be, but I’ll be sure to recap eventually.

P.S. Random Integer Generator says congrats to #6 for winning my Peeled Snacks giveaway –

Cori, e-mail me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) so I can get you your prize.

Full of Fruit

So far my meals today have been about the lower half of the food pyramid.  I tallied it up and realized that I’ve eaten six servings of fruit via breakfast and lunch!

Breakfast – eaten on the drive to school – was a tasty waffle sandwich.

1/2 a sliced banana, ~1T smear of sun butter, and a drizzle of maple syrup sandwiched between 2 Van’s Buckwheat and Berries waffles.

This was my first waffle sandwich and I think I’m a fan.  It could have used a bit of jelly though.

After class I got in my 2.5miles of incidental exercise walking.  I stopped at The Spot halfway to read and eat the first half of lunch there.  A bag of Apple-2-the-core Peeled Snacks,

and a bag of Carnival Mix Funky Monkey.

It was kind of an unorthodox snack, but the fruity mix of chewy and crunchy helped to keep my full while I worked.

Once I got home out of the steam I made a bowl of my new favorite.

A plain Whole Soy yogurt topped with watermelon chunks.

I want to give you guys an opportunity to od on fruits as well!

Peeled Snacks has graciously offered to send one of my readers an Organic Fruit Picks Variety Pack.  The giveaway runs from today until Friday (June 25th).  To enter to win –

  1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite type of fruit.
  2. For a 2nd/3rd entry – link back to this post from your blog and/or Twitter account and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so 

Good + Great = Better

Today started off with a healthy, hearty breakfast.

A serving of Van’s Buckwheat and Mixed Berries Waffles with 2T maple syrup,

and a chopped nectarine on the side.

Perhaps not so hearty though, since I’ve basically been ready to chew my arm off all day!  We haven’t had peanut butter in the house for months (we can’t find the brand we like here) but I bought some yesterday to have for a recipe.  Apparently I missed it?

Yes, there was a lot of spoon-dipping going on this morning 😀

Adam wanted to go super early today so I ended up driving to and from school instead of walking.  My toe ring toe has been developing a callous so perhaps my feet with thank me.  We got out of class 30minutes early due to a fire drill, so that was good news.  And I was glad to leave early because I felt like my stomach was eating itself!

A rocking lunch is a great cure for over-dramatic hunger pains.  I stared with a So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk Yogurt.

I think I might have a So Delicious addiction.  The carton came with great nutritional stats and a fun fact –

This yogurt is awesome because it doesn’t pretend to be “normal” yogurt, the coconut flavor definitely peaks through.  The vanilla scent was unbelievable.  And the texture; oh the texture!  It wasn’t Greek (that’s asking a little much of a vegan product) but it was soooo perfectly thick.

Really, can you improve on yogurt like that?  Hells yes!

Oh yes that is watermelon, and it was fantabulous!  This is the sale watermelon I lugged home the other day and it might just be the best watermelon I’ve ever had.

The combination was pretty much to die for.  Watermelon with yogurt easily takes down roasted brussels sprouts and joins my top 10 foods list!!!

I also munched my way through the rest of the Siracha Peas.

And since, as I might have non-dramatically mentioned, my stomach is eating itself, I’m off to find a snack!  The plan for the afternoon is couch + South Park, so I’m leaning toward the fries, popcorn direction.

Any fantabulous new food combos you’ve discovered lately?

We’ll Call This a Whine-cap

It’s been a strange couple of days around these parts.  My hunger has been really weird and I was in a random bad mood all day yesterday.  I’m sorry for not posting yesterday.  One thing’s for sure, I did NOT spend all of last night finishing the final season of “Buffy” with the husband instead of studying for my sociology exam.  Definitely did not.

We went to see “Killers” (ugh, waste of $) Sunday afternoon so I ate lunch via movie snacks – a big baggie of baby carrots and 2servings of spice drops.

I also ate this Himalayan mint – raw honey, unsweetened chocolate, peppermint oil – en route to the theatre.

When we were home, watching not watching Buffy, the craving for popcorn finally hit so we hiked over to Walgreeens to get a bag.

We also split a sherbet melon.

I was really excited about this new fruit but I think we let it get too ripe because it ended up basically being a mushy cantelope.

Dinner was another frozen meal from the Tandoor Chef line, Channa Masala –

While not as delicious as the veggie pad thai it was still ridiculously tasty, and the nutritional stats were a bit better.

I ate the whole box, or 2 servings.

This morning my move did improve drastically when the husband cracked open a young Thai coconut for me.

I drank some straight from the source but the rest of the water and flesh I blended with ice cubes and cinnamon-sugar for a fabulous smoothie.

Did you know young Thai coconuts only have ~200calories?  I finally looked it up, but I’d been assuming that the number was much higher.

I also ate a Thai Peanut Primal Strip in the car.

It was ok, but I prefered the flavor of the bbq.

The husband dropped me off at school today and took the car to the lab.  The benefit of that is twofold; 1. I had more time to cram study for my sociology exam, and 2. I got the incidental exercise of the 2.5mile walk home.

I was all set up to study in the food court when my stomach starting growling howling.  My smoothie and Primal Strip added up to ~300calories which isn’t a huge breakfast but is definitely able to hold me over on many a day.  Well not this day.  I seriously got panicked when it looked like I wouldn’t find a snack and I almost ate my packed lunch!  Thankfully I spotted a humus/pretzel pack at the coffee shop.

After scarfing the snack pack (and drinking an entire Sigg’s worth of water) I finally felt full enough to tackle my book.

I ended up being really confident about the information but the test only went alright because the questions were worded really poorly.  I feel like as a teacher for two years I’m qualified to comment on that and seriously, the test sucked.  Still, I got the best grade in the class, by a lot.  For reals kids?  I could also school you in how Buffy ended!

I stopped midway during my 2.5mile walk home to sit at a coffee shop and study for a few hours.  Since I knew the vegan pickings would be slim I packed my own lunch, a Kona Moka Pro Bar.

The flavor (a little touch of sweet) and texture (a lot like a Lara/Kind bar hybrid) were definitely impressive and it was pretty filling.  At 360calories this was more of a meal replacement than snack bar.

When I got home (after finishing my walk) I snacked on 2servings of yellow tortilla chips with 4T of chunky salsa.

Now I’m doing some organizing and waiting for the husband to get home and help me chop dinner.

Wow.  That was an insanely whiney post!  Any Monday complaints you’d like to whine about?

New Things

In a major change from our apartment in Brooklyn where it was stiflingly hot, I overslept this morning because I couldn’t sleep last night because I was too cold!  I will never complain about lower temperatures though, I can always add layers, in Brooklyn I would have had to peel off my skin!

In spite of my late start I’ve managed to get most of my to-do’s for the day completed.  We did a little bit more apartment organizing (almost done!) this morning and then I ate a juicy black plum before we headed out.

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We drove up to the North Campus of UB, my campus, today to get our id cards and it accounts.  The campus is a 20minute drive away which means I will have to be careful to schedule my commute around rush hours.  My class is all at night anyway though.  We needed money for the meter so we stopped at the campus Starbucks and I got an unsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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On the way home we stopped by the public library.  I can get a card yet because I have no mail addressed to me (you have to show proof of residency) but I am super excited to go back, it was HUGE!  They even had a Mark Twain room 🙂

Now that we are home I’ve been doing all my school/business things on the computer and eating a late snacky lunch.  First we cut into this bad boy (my hand is there to show the size) –

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This was a Crenshaw Melon.  I couldn’t really tell the difference taste/texturewise between this an a cantaloupe but it was fun to try something new.

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Ours was a little too ripe so I ended up throwing out part of my last slice, I think we will have to use the other half for smoothies.

Next I ate a low-fat cheese stick.

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And finally this

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This beauty was

  • Stoneyfield YoKids Banilla low fat yogurt
  • 2t fat free ricotta
  • 1small banana
  • sprinkle of cinnamon

It was so tasty it even looked enticing when stirred to mush.

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In a bit we are going for a run (the same route as yesterday to see if maybe it doesn’t conquer me this time!) and then the plan for tonight is a low key dinner.  Lates!

What new fruits or veggies have YOU tried this summer?