Tag Archives: mushroom

It Got Away

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Hello, hello!  I swear that I didn’t skip my post/giveaway this morning because I was sulking; the day just got away from me!  First things first though, thank you so much to all of you who offered me advice in the last post.  I blog for me (and my mom and grandma!), but I also blog for you guys, and I always want to do my best.

I mentioned that the day got away from me, and if I’m honest, it started getting away from me last night.  When Adam got in bed at 10pm I so wanted to be the type of person who got in with him and got a good night sleep.  But that’s not who I am.  I’m the type of person that stays up until 2am watching Missing.  I’m also the type of person who eats the last banana split cupcake at 2am.

That’s just me.

I actually woke up raring to go this morning (probably nerves) but I ended up skipping my planned 4-miler anyways because my knee feels funky again.  I’m hoping to double up on cardio tomorrow to make up for the lost day, fingers crossed!

Today was my first training day at work and since I was going to be busy through lunch I knew I needed a big, hearty breakfast.

Yum and yum.

I sautéed a crumbled salmon patty with three tablespoons of spicy corn relish and when I started to get a good char I scrambled in two eggs and ~ 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

I’m in love with this dish.  I haven’t eaten the corn relish “raw” yet, but it is so darn good in eggs.

I also ate a 0% Fage with soursop.

Which, thankfully, pushed me to enough food to get me through the lunch rush.

— Insert 11 – 2:30 training at the newest restaurant on Elmwood. —

When I got home I had time to split this taffy candy with Adam,

before we had to head to his dentist appointment.  <– ironic, right?

I obviously didn’t have to go, but I’m co-dependent, so I ignored my growling belly and hopped in the car.  I brought a chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar,

but I had to split it with Adam because it’s too darn good not to share.  Tastes just like a Girl Scout Samosa, I swear!

Unfortunately, I let myself get waaaay too hungry and my food choices have gone a little downhill.  I got a good balance of veggies and protein in my Wegman’s hot bar,

but I shoveled it into my face the minute we got back to the car!

I also bought a pecan pie bar from the Co-op.

I can’t even tell you how much self-control it took not to eat this in the car too.

And now (as soon as I hit publish) I’m going to eat some popcorn.  Boo-yah.  Clearly I need a more effective way of dealing with lunches on work days.

Just for funsies; what are some of your favorite blogs to follow?

I’m Hungry and I Suck

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My legs have been feeling pretty good, but this afternoon 2nd day hunger hit me hard!  I didn’t plan on eating while I was out of the house, so I left my camera at home to charge, but by the time I got to the grocery store at 5:30 I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.  Thank goodness for cell phone cameras and thank goodness for hot bar.

That’s my usual mix.  It’s hard to see portion sizes in the photos but that’s ~2/3 of what I usually get, it wasn’t supposed to be dinner.

I also impulse-bought this So Delicious Chocolate Coconut Milk from the fridge by the register.

It was pretty good.

I ate my Co-op candy bar before I went to the mall and it was fricking amazing.

That white stuff tasted like pillowy, marshmallowy nougat!  I “mmmmn’d” my whole way through.

I threw together dinner fairly quickly but it ended up being a good meal.

Salad – arugula, green bell pepper, cucumber, and poppy seed dressing.

I made this salmon patty recipe, but subbed green onions for shallots because our shallots were moldy.  <– what is happening in this house?!

Plus Adam and I split a cheddar cheese bialy.

Best part of the meal, hands down.

No one is entering my recent giveaways, boo.  I would really appreciate some feedback on why/how I suck.  There’s another one tomorrow, please let me know what I could do to make it better!

Are My Hoisin The Club?!

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Forget about what Rebecca Black says, Saturday is where it’s at!  We didn’t even do anything all that exciting today – studying, grocery shopping, easy dinner – it just was a good day.

Since I’m ridiculous about meals on the weekend I went with lunch – snack – dinner rather than breakfast – lunch – dinner.  Besides, lunch for breakfast means you get in more veggies.

Yes, that is Wegman’s hot bar.  Yes, I’m aware we have a problem.

Fruits (pineapple, berries, strawberries, watermelon),

Veggies (avocado, squash, mushrooms, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli),

and a mini crustless Quiche (with tomato and artichoke heart).

Adam and I split a Zone Perfect Sweet & Salty Trail Mix Bar for dessert.

The kind folks at ZP sent me some samples of their new Sweet and Salty line since they knew how much I adored their Cookie Dough stuff.  Adam and I agreed that the bar was good, but not as good as the cookie dough ones.  There was a great peanut butter flavor spread throughout it, and the bar lived up to its sweet and salty name.  I’m looking forward to trying the other variety.

In addition to being repetitive and crazy, constant hot bar isn’t cheap!  Adam has to purchase lots of random snacks and coffees this summer (he’s off for 2 months to study for a major exam and focuses better in public venues) so we need to save our pennies where we can.  I tried to do an extra good job of stocking up on groceries this week; I’d rather spend a little more money at the store and save some money not going out for random things throughout the week.

One of my have-snacks-in-the-house-stop-buying-nachos-damn-it purchases was a 10ct box of mini 100-calorie popcorns, and one of those bags ended up being my afternoon snack.

I also grabbed a (sweetened) cappuccino from Wilson Farms.

Looking back at this post, it seems like I had more than enough to eat today, but you know I couldn’t keep my hand out of the cashews while I cooked dinner!

We whipped up a simple stir fry that ended up being delicious.

The inspiration for the dish was the 2 unopened bags of spinach that were starting to go bad, but these guys were the real stars –

Step-by-step, serves 3-4.

Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat.  Add 10 cups of raw baby spinach.

Cover and cook until wilted.

Add 1 15 oz can baby corn, 1 15 oz can stir fry mushrooms,

5 green onions, sliced, and 2/3 cup salted cashews.

Top with 4 Tbsp Hoisin sauce and continue to cook.

In a small bowl on the side, whisk together 3 large eggs.

Make a hole in the veggie mixture and pour eggs into it.

Cook until starting to slightly scramble then toss to combine.  Continue to cook stir-fry until desire doneness is reached.

Delicious.

I topped my bowl with Sriracha,

and Adam added some baked tofu to his.

I stole a few pieces of tofu and they were so tasty I’m planning on making them again soon so I can share the recipe with you guys.

When I’m feeling unsatisfied after dinner a yogurt bowl for dessert is always the answer.

This one centered around a Dannon Light and Fit Caramel yogurt.

I almost never eat fake-sugar yogurts (if I’m not eating Greek I’m buying Stonyfield because it is humanely sourced) but this guy was pretty fantastic.  Topped with unsweetened shredded coconut, the last of the butter toffee almonds, and a few butterscotch chips.

Sweet dreams, readers!

A Random Assortment

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Spring had sprung.  Spring sprang so hard that it wore itself out and had to go lie down.

Let’s pretend we’re chatting face-to-face, this is the expression I make when discussing Buffalo’s descent back to 50* weather –

At least it’s not hot?!

Today was actually a busy day (hence the late recap post); I attended an event this evening and helped set up a bit as well.  Since a friend was coming home with me between class and the event, I needed to get in my workout before class.  <– not a good day to oversleep.  Sometimes when you try to live a healthy life (especially when you make the unhealthy choice to stay up too late at night) you’ve got to weigh your options.  For me today, workout > breakfast.

I had a great gym session and I’m glad I squeezed it in!  My right knee was feeling a little funny so I lowered the resistance and upped my time – elliptical level 6 random, 40minutes.  Followed by a quick strength/stretch session.

When I got to campus for class – after I walked home, showered, walked back – I grabbed a Red Velvet Latte for breakfast.

Skim milk, half syrup, fully delicious!

After class I went to the health center to get my PPD read and learn the shocking news that I don’t have TB.  <– I was holding my breath.  I celebrated my health with a new yogurt find for lunch, Athenos 0% Greek with strawberry.

I love the idea of jam-on-the-side Greek yogurts, but this wasn’t my favorite.  Actually, it was super sour and unappetizing, and I threw it out after a few bites.  I’m glad I also packed a clementine which got the taste out of my mouth.

P.S. I brought in the last of the ‘Smores Cupcakes to share and they got rave reviews.

I volunteered an hour helping to set up the event – the Nutrition Club arranged for a few local dietitians to come in and speak to us tonight – and then Rachel and I headed back to my apartment to watch Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.  Shonda Rhimes’ saptastic tv is so much better when you have another girl to sniffle with!

I’m obsessed with taking people to Wegman’s hot bar, so we headed there at 5.

The plan was for this to be dinner but I had difficulty finding enough food, so instead I filled my veggie quota as a pre-dinner snack.

I snagged a glass of punch at the reception,

and then came home for the world’s most random dinner assortment.  An apple with 2Tbsp PB,

half a cucumber,

a lemon Chobani with 1 sheet of crumbled graham crackers and a blob of marshmellow filling,

1.5 servings of tortilla chips,

and a Fun Dip for dessert.

Heck yes!

Marys, Monkeys, and Magnums

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As the title implies, it’s been a fun day!  Also, in case the title leads to any confusion, mary = an upcoming half marathon and magnum is not referring to condoms!

Yep, I said it, I’ve got another half marathon in my sights!  I’ve been agitated ever since my 6-week illness killed my training for the Buffalo Half Marathon and I finally found one to take its place.  My goal is to run in the Presque Isle Half Marathon on July 17th.  I say goal instead of plan because I’m mindful of the fact that I have a history of injuries and pushing through pain isn’t worth the risk.  I’m going to wait until I’ve made it to at least 7 miles without incident before I put money down on entry fee.

I do however have a training plan (which I’ll share sometime soon) that had me slated for 3miles this morning.  The husband and I ran a nice loop around our neighborhood, 3miles and 30minutes.  Since I don’t have a Garmin I can’t really track my pacing, but I use MapMyRun as best I can.

When we got home I had to run through my shower since Katie was picking me up for a brunch date at Betty’s.

I’d never been before but I’ll definitely be going back to Betty’s soon, the place was adorable and the food was delicious!

I ordered off the specials menu, the Portobello Benedict –

Hashbrowns,

fruit,

and two English muffins topped with roasted Portobello mushroom, spinach, two poached eggs, and smoked gouda.

Mmmmmmn!  It shouldn’t be called a Benedict without Hollandaise (I would have gotten it on the side though so I probably shouldn’t quibble..) but this meal was not lacking for flavor.  The egg yolks melted perfectly into the bread and it was great to get some veggies into my morning.

Katie was kind enough to drive me back to school and I snagged a “mocha” (half coffee, half hot chocolate) along the way.

I don’t have classes on Tuesday but I was headed to an Anthropology-sponsored speaker on the topic of primates.  Ever since I attended the Body Farm lecture (love!) my name has been on an e-mail list and when I saw “live primates in attendance” I jumped on the opportunity!  I recruited a few friends to come with me and we all had a ton of fun –

Where else can you see a man diaper a monkey?

We’ve been putting grocery shopping off and are running out of food so Adam picked me up from the lecture for a trip to Wegmans.

I had to show off my primate pictures so we had to get hot bar for lunch.

Tons of grilled/steamed veggies with a little bit of sesame chicken,

with fruit for dessert.

Tastes like summer, the mango was definitely swoon-worthy!

While we were out, I cashed in a coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program for some Magnum Ice Cream.

I grabbed a box of Double Caramel Bars.

I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to taste this for free because it’s not it’s not a product I would have bought on my own and now I might be obsessed!

Holy double layer of chocolate, Batman; this was good!  It’s (surprisingly good for vanilla) vanilla ice cream, wrapped in chocolate, wrapped in caramel, wrapped in a second chocolate shell.  The premise reminds me of this SNL skit, but the execution was perfection!

http://www.hulu.com/embed/umxmTijZLcnMhDPJjmYd5g

I also snacked on baby carrots with blue cheese,

and shared a few tastes of the husband’s new fancy cheese.

Dinner was a Cooking Light find, Quick White Bean, Asparagus and Mushroom Cassoulet.

Per usual, my changes included –

  • using baby Portobellos for half of my mushrooms
  • skipping the wine and oregano entirely
  • subbing in chicken broth for veggie broth
  • roasting the asparagus instead of boiling it
  • putting the cassoulet into the oven instead of the broiler (I don’t have a single broiler safe vessel!)

Even with my changes it was still pretty delicious though.

I ate my serving with some chips for scooping purposes.

Delicious.

Ok, this has been a very long post, time to wrap things up.  Hope everyone had a good day!

Smoothie Sucker

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At least once a week I put “smoothies!” on our meal plan for breakfast.  I would say the ratio of smoothies made to smoothies listed is something like 1:10.  Why am I such a sucker for the allure of morning smoothies?!  They sound so refreshing and tasty, but I never actually have time to make one, leaving me breakfastless and cranky.

Thankfully today I packed a pretty breakfast-y lunch, so I pulled that out a few hours early.

A berry flavored Revolution Foods squeeze packet,

and a 2% Mango Chobani.

With a small coffee (that large cup is half full) with two creamers.

I loved the new fruit packet flavor (on sale at Buffalo Tops!) but I wasn’t thrilled by the new-to-me Chobani.  I was expecting to love it because Pineapple is so good, but the texture just seemed strange to me.

Speaking of fruit, we had a fun lab today – finding the ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content of different food items.  It was an interesting lab; always nice to practice something that actually relates to my profession.  P.S. Tang has .023mg of vitamin C per mL.

I was a busy bee after lab, with work to complete, a trip to the health center, a date with the gym, and finally an impromptu lunch date with Adam.  I was at the health center for a required physical before I begin working in the hospitals during the Coordinated Program next year.  After I get a PPD test next week there will be nothing between me and clinical work!

Next up was the gym.  I’m not going to lie to you guys, this visit was hard!  I did interval sets on the treadmill, 1minute walking/3minutes jogging.  I hit 3miles just around my 9th set.  With a quick cool down for a total of 3.25miles and 35minutes.

Since I ate my lunch for breakfast, I made an impromptu lunch date with the husband.  Adam was my savior and drove my drippingly sweaty self home for a much-needed shower.  We set a timer as I got out of the car (he had to sit out in front of the house) and getting upstairs, undressed, showered, ready to go, and back downstairs took me 11minutes and 5seconds.  And I even made an outfit change!

Go speedy!

Yes, that picture is at Wegmans.  Yes, we do have a hot bar problem!

I know we should try someplace new, but we love all the options and the price is right.  I’d much rather take a bunch of little different bites than have one choice in bulk.  Today I got a random mix of tofu, chicken, and slaw,

with pretty much every kind of roasted veggie.

The veggies were fantabulous as usual, but I ended up leaving behind most of the other side; my slaw had ham in it!

It was great to spend some mid-day time with Adam, and even better to get to head back to school with some yogurt pretzels to munch on during my night class.

Having a snack definitely made the time go faster.

In no time at all we were home eating burritos.

It helped that I pre-made the filling yesterday so the burritos came together in a cinch.

We topped whole wheat tortillas with sautéed mushrooms and onions, black beans, corn relish, sliced jalopenos, and some shredded 2% sharp cheddar.

Then we pressed them in the George Foreman like what we see them do at Moe’s.

Plus a side of scoops tortilla chips with spicy salsa for authenticity.

Perhaps I should have saved this meal for May 5th?

And since I’m a bottomless pit, I’ve got a mug waiting for dessert.

I stirred hot cocoa mix into some 0% Plain Oikos, then topped with brownie crumbles and toasted coconut.  I haven’t tasted it yet, but I can pretty well guess that it’s going to be amazing.

I hope this means I’m all set up for sweet dreams!  But first, some reruns of “Iron Chef” on Hulu.

How often do you make smoothies?  How often do you purchase them out?

She Ain’t Messing With No Court Jester

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No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger.  I started dating Adam when we were still in high school.  I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!).  But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”

And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto.  And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.

Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.

First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip.  While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.

I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).

In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.

I also munched on half a leftover turkey reuben.

And then, we were at Medieval Times!

I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.

We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.

The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony.  The best part was definitely the horses though.  And dinner was surprisingly good.  No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –

None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!).  We started with tomato bisque,

and garlic bread,

both of which were only ok.

And then my meal blew me out of the water.

Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.

Dessert was an apple tart.

It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.

Smarties make the drive go so much faster!

We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home.  I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.

I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!

Have you ever been to Medieval Times?

Often Blogged Activities

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We’ve reached the week’s end, but I suppose the weekend is more exciting to those of you who aren’t on spring break 😉

It’s my mom’s last day here, but we kept things low-key.  We did have fun introducing her to often blogged activities.  Like eating yogurts at home for breakfast.

I went with Greek Gods fig on the bottom.

Soooo good!  I don’t actually like figs that much, but this yogurt is my favorite.

We spent the day running all sorts of fun errands, like going to Target, buying groceries, and hitting up the post office.  We live large like that.  We did at least introduce my mom to the blog fodder that is Wegman’s hot bar.

I got bunches of veggies,

with sweet and sour chicken and a mushroom bun.

The afternoon was low-key, but come 5pm I was still starving!  My hunger has definitely returned.  I made myself a cocoa for the drive to dinner.

Dinner, by the way, was from Spicy Thai, and it was fantastic!  The three of us shared an appetizer plate to start.

Veggie egg rolls, tofu tod, tempura eggplant, and crab rangoon.  Yes, this dinner was rather fried.

For dinner Adam and I split cashew chicken,

and Pad See Eiw with tofu.

The cashew chicken was not our favorite,

but the pad see eiw was ridiculous good.

If you haven’t tried broad rice noodles yet you’re crazy!

And for dessert, we introduced my mom to the awesomeness that is mini ice-creams.

I went with Double Fudge Brownie.

All is right with the world.

Tomorrow we’ve got to head to the airport at an ungodly hour, and then we’ve got brunch plans and I’ve got a volunteering obligation.  I’ll be back another evening 🙂

Have you jumped on the single-serve ice cream bandwagon yet?