Tag Archives: mushroom

And Fruit for Dessert

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Hello from Ohio! I’m glad to be here, but getting here was a freaking disaster. There was an issue with our alarms, and we got a late start and a parking ticket! Ugh.

We had to stop at Wegmans on our way out of town, and hot bar brunch was a bright spot.

Lots of veggies,

and sweet and sour chicken.

I also snagged .12 pounds of yogurt pretzels.

On our first stop I picked up a coffee.

Half regular coffee and half (sweetened) white chocolate cappuccino. I’ve decided I pretty much only enjoy flavored coffee.

We spent the (looooong) trip talking and listening to music. All of our road trip cds come from the music that used to be on Scrubs. I know nothing about music now that there’s not Zach Braff to tell me who to listen to!

We reached my grandparent’s house just in time for dinner.

But first, a cheese course.

I also admired my grandma’s amazing Easter decorations,

including a ceramic bunny I made in grade school,

and snagging a mini-spoonful of jelly beans!

My mom cooked a fun medley dish; rice, chicken, celery, tomato, green onion, almonds, rice noodles, pineapple, cheese, and gravy.

With asparagus cooked in truffle oil (Adam was swooning!),

and fruit salad.

And we’re about to take a middle of the night trip to the store (my mom’s not crazy cakes, she just doesn’t live stateside anymore!  Going to the store any hour of the day is more exciting to her and me than someone who grew up in America) so I’ve got to hurry off!

You and Me Baby Ain’t Nothing But Mammals

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We head to Ohio tomorrow, and my mom comes to visit on Wednesday, so we woke up early to deal with our squalor.  Actually, Adam woke up early to clean the house.  I woke up at 9 to Adam’s amazement that I could sleep through the vacuum cleaner!

Once I did welcome morning, I started my morning with some fantabuous iced coffee.

Yesterday afternoon I bought a cup of caramel flavored coffee from a gas station, and brought it home to the fridge.  This morning I mixed it with 1tsp maple syrup, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and ice.

Delicious!  The almond milk has the best texture for iced coffee, it makes it so thick!  When I’m back to retainers in a few weeks I won’t be able to have coffee ever, so I’m trying to enjoy it was much as I can.

The food part of breakfast was pretty fun too –

A Pink Lady apple dipped in the last of the marshmallow icing.

Holy yum this was a good idea!

Our next idea wasn’t necessarily good, but it was necessary… a trip to the zoo!

I bought a Groupon months ago (thinking that by April it’d be, ya know, Spring) that was set to expire so we bundled up and headed out.  There wasn’t a lot to see because of the weather, but I did spend 20minutes or so mooning at the polar bears.

Awwww!  My nickname for Adam is ice bear (German for polar bear).

On the way out we spotted a neat crepe place – we’re coming back next week with my mom! – and Mustachios.

Apparently Adam has been excited about taking me to Mustachios?!?  We ended up coming home with two slices of cheese pizza.

We also hit up the hot bar to get in some veggies.

I got steamed broccoli, glazed mushrooms and carrots, sesame kale, white beans and escarole, and scooped a bunch of veggies and cashews from the cashew chicken.

It was a random but good lunch.

After my month of illness (I’m still coughing by the way), any meal with veggies is a good one.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on matzah with melted extra sharp cheddar.

I also did a bunch of nibbling, raw pasta, marshmallow topping, butter toffee almonds…  No photographs, just informing you guys that my appetite is back 🙂

Dinner was quick and tasty.

I boiled up the last of the spinach and three cheese ravioli, adding a few big handfuls of arugula to the pot at the last minute.  I topped my bowl with buttermilk blue cheese crumbles and a drizzle of honey.

Then we had single-serve ice cream for dessert.

We each at half and then switched flavors halfway through.  Those single-serves are the best idea ever, the texture is so creamy!

I’ve still got to shower, pack, and do some school work… better hop to it!

What’s your favorite zoo animal?  The cutest thing we saw today was the Egyptian Dabb Lizard.  I pretty much love any creature with a big belly; Seth Rogan crush anyone?!

Sweet Sore First Day of Spring Sunday

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Can I tell you guys how sore my legs are?!  Moving around involves lots of lurching and waddling.  My longest runs before I got sick were about 2miles so the 5k was long comparatively.  Speaking of tired things, I kept us up past 3am the last few nights with my coughing, so we’ve both been a little tired.  The cure for that was a nice long, college-style sleep-in until noon.

When we did get up we had some errands to run that took us towards Wegman’s hot bar.

I got a nice mix of veggies,

and a few pieces of sweet and sour chicken.

I also snacked on a Crunchie Bar for dessert.

More candy from England (via Canada), this honey sponge candy is so crunchy and good!

Dinner was easy-peasy, and cheesey.

4-cheesey!  Newman’s Own Four Cheese Pizza.

I was sent a free coupon for the pizza through the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

The cheese mix was tasty, but the crust was a little bit squishy.

I ate my serving with some roasted green beans.

It ended up being a tasty meal,

which is good, because I’ve packed the exact thing for lunch tomorrow!

In sweet Sunday spirit, we also made cupcakes.

Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Topping.  The recipe came from Shape magazine.

I followed the recipe exactly for a change, except that I made 16 cupcakes instead of throwing some of the batter out.  <– Seriously the stupidest instruction I’ve ever read; why on earth would you instruct readers to throw out part of the batter?  Just say the recipe makes 16 servings instead of 12.  And even with “extra” cupcakes we still had frosting left over, making it even stupider!

Stupid recipe or not, it was a stupendous recipe.  The frosting tasted exactly like marshmallow topping!

I enjoyed one cupcake for dessert.  I was going to have another, but chocolate cupcakes don’t really throw me, so instead I ate a pinch bowl of icing.

Perfection.

What did you do to celebrate the first day of spring (today)?

Furtive, Unfathomable, and also Enigmatic

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I’ve been away from the computer all day, it feels good to get back!  Only for a minute or two though, I’ve got a major exam tomorrow!

I think I’ve also got a cold.  Not to worry, I still blame all my tiredness on inconsiderate barking dogs, but I’ve got some definite sickness symptoms as well.  My interview went great (I don’t want to get into more for privacy reasons) but the minute I left the office I was practically shaking with exhaustion.   My neck/throat are so sore and puffy too.  Not to worry though, the husband decided that with my swollen nodes I look like a bullfrog when I shrug my shoulders; this has delighted him to no end all day long.

Thank goodness Adam didn’t have school today, he could drive me to and from my interview, and also to Wegman’s for a study session.  Thank goodness I packed a comfier outfit than my suit to change in to.

Not so great was that forgetting my socks meant I couldn’t change shoes; I felt like I was playing grown-up grocery shopping in heels.

And grocery shop we did (Wegman’s has the new Chobani flavors!), but first a study session and hot bar.

Even though the vegan challenge is over I still stuck with mostly veggies,

plus a little chicken for fun.

And when we got home hours later I snacked on another Bananas Foster Bar.

Seriously guys, make this recipe!  It’s like tasting Banana Bread and Coffee Cake’s wonder baby that could take over the world.

Dinner was delicious but secretive, I’m testing the recipe for a contest I’m entering and I can’t share.

Roasted brussels sprouts,

plus the mystery sandwich.

Tasty, and hopefully it will somehow magically make me smarter for tomorrow; fingers crossed!

Lift the veil; tell me a secret about you!

<3 <3 <3 <3

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Every moment spent on the computer I’m not cuddling with my valentine, so I’ll keep this quick.  Especially since I wasn’t the only one with a surprise to give today –

Lunch today was 7-Layer Casserole leftovers.

This recipe just got better and better as it sat.

My quiz went ok, but it was a busy busy day.  We had “fancy” dinner plans originally, but when I saw how much work I had to do in the evening we decided to do take-out instead.

In addition to a ton of chips, I also had a vegetarian burrito.

A little bit of rice, plus black beans, sautéed onions and mushrooms, corn salsa, guacamole, and cilantro.

Yum, yum.

And for dessert, we tried out Mama’s Peas Vegan Blizzards.

We layered in a vegan Snickers-style bar, and added some pink food coloring for the holiday.

Festive, festive.  P.S. Two hints – 1) make this recipe but 2) cut the measurements in half, we didn’t even come close to eating our portions.

Now we’re off to do couple things, and that totally doesn’t mean what you think it does!  You’ll see tomorrow….

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wonderful World of the Weekend

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Welcome to the wonderful world of the weekend!  <– said in the voice of the cryogenic lab workers from Futurama

We had a lazy, hazy summer winter day around these parts.  Light on the responsibilities and heavy on the tv reruns and being cozy. 

Not my healthiest day of eating – I needed more produce – but everything was delicious.  Like the Moe’s takeout we grabbed for brunch.

I got a junior burrito, stuffed with rice, black beans, corn salsa, lettuce, mushrooms, cilantro, guacamole, and black olives.

It came with a ton of tortilla chips…..

and I ate them all; whoops!

For dessert I tried out the single-serve cookie dough recipe I’ve seen floating around the web.

The chocolate pieces were a chopped up serving of this Chocolove Almonds and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate.

So satisfying and delicious, and vegan to boot (butter = Earth Balance).

Yums all around.

It took me until 7pm to get the energy to get off my butt, but I did finally decide to go to the gym.  Good thing too, I got it together just in time to get in a short workout before the gym closed.  I ran 1.5 miles in 13:40 (my last 1.5 was 14:13, whoop!), with cool down 18 minutes, 1.75 miles.  Plus a few planks.

My run killed my appetite, so I bought a Naked juice for dinner.

But it was waaaay too tangy for me so I passed it off to the husband (don’t worry, he loved it).

Instead I had some Amazing Grass Kidz Chocolate SuperFood shook with 8oz of Silk Vanilla Soy Milk.

Not gonna lie, I shook in a glug of maple syrup and served it over ice to make things feel a bit more festive.

Have you tried the single-serve cookie dough recipe yet?

Like a Saftey

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Confession – in order to write my clever title I had to Google “football players who tackle.”  And I was a cheerleader.

Anyway, that’s what this weekend has been about, tackling my to-do list:

Hooray!

I tackled two weeks worth of laundry (actually, the husband tackled this, but I folded!),

I tackled the pile of outgoing mail,

I tackled my huge stack of unsorted magazine clippings,

I tackled my planner for the semester,

And more!  I didn’t work the whole weekend, but I did more in two days than I’ve done in two weeks.

Breakfast this morning had a mix of carbs and protein to fuel me up.

That’s a plan fat-free yogurt with Crofter’s Strawberry Jam stirred in, topped with Kashi H2H and some chunky peanut butter.

So good!  Peanut Butter and I have totally resparked our love affair lately.

Around noon I headed out to run some errands at school and replenish our food stores.  Wegman’s was terrible this afternoon – the hot bar was barely stocked and the store was packed.  Nonetheless, I managed to carve out a booth of calm and spend an hour tackling my NYE resolution to read more.

Eating materials, hot bar Asian style veggies, potatoes, and sweet and sour chicken.

Reading materials, The Food of a Younger Land, Mark Kurlansky.

When I got home from pushing my way through the hoards I snacked  on a mini bag of kettle corn and a glass of skim milk.

Dinner involved some prep throughout the day – chicken getting soft and shreddable in the crock pot, red onions caramelizing on the stove – but the end result was beyond worth it –

Bbq chicken pizza with caramelized red onions and gouda!

I topped a store-bought crust with caramelized red onions, shredded chicken tossed with bbq sauce, and gouda, and 10minutes later I had pure, steamy bliss.

Bliss served with a side of roasted asparagus.

It was a pretty heavenly dinner.

Dessert was from the bulk bins; yogurt pretzels, chocolate pretzels, and a piece of local sponge candy.

I’ve got to go shower and get my beauty sleep; school starts tomorrow!

Success x2

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So my baking project this afternoon was Jenna’s recipe for perfect chocolate chip cookies.

You know, the one with a whopping 14 Tablespoons of (browned!) butter.  No big.

I actually wasn’t sure I did everything right at first, because the dough was very strange and sticky.  I was so worried about them that I made a few less cookies than the recipe called for and tried my hand at some cookie muffins instead.

The cookies turned out fine fantastic, but the “muffins” were still a damn good idea.

I found the smallest muffin and cookie in the batch, and scarfed one of each before dinner.

Queasy tummy, happy tummy.  Adam says they’re the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever had.

Rounding out my fun-to-do’s from yesterday, I also made a banging dinner.

Dinner’s inspiration was these snowman pasta my aunt sent us for Hanukkah.

I cooked the pasta, following package directions, stirring in ~1cup of frozen peas towards the end of cooking time.  I also sautéed some chopped baby mushrooms in 1T of butter. <– Best taste ever!  Finally, I whipped up a batch of this Lemon Cream Sauce from Cooking Light. (Note – I only made the sauce, not the rest of the recipe, and I substituted in light cream.)  The end result was fantastic.

I loved how firm the pasta stayed and the sauce added a great fresh flavor without being too heavy.

We also ate some roasted green beans on the side.

Sort of a perfect dinner.

And now I’m about to tuck in to the perfect dessert; a final cookie with a glass of skim milk.  Good night!