Tag Archives: okra

Sandwiches, Smoothies, and Schedules

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Hello again, happy Monday!  This will definitely be the longest recap post I’ve done in a while – Friday through Monday.  Physically things have been low-key but mentally there’s been lots of drama – my flight was canceled!  And since I’m in St. Thomas it could have meant getting into Buffalo on Tuesday and not having a ride and missing class.  I was freaking out a bit.  Thankfully 45minutes on the phone + my firm but calm voice got me on a different flight that leaves/gets in on pretty much the same schedule.  And now my layover is shorter and in Philly and not Charlotte.  🙂

I’m a big proponent of the firm but calm voice.  I was polite, and said multiple please and thank yous, but unwavering.  I didn’t ask whether or not I could get on another flight, I simply said “I will be leaving St. Thomas tomorrow, what can you do to help me make that happen?”  And it worked.

Anyway, back to Friday.  My mom served me a slice of cake,

which promptly got stripped of it’s icing because I don’t eat cake.

Then I moved on to greens, a small container I put together at the salad bar we stopped by.

Lettuce, beans, corn, cheese, 1 hard-boiled egg and a drizzle of light Cesar.

I also made myself some frozen coffee – coffee, ice, skim milk, and 2T sugar.

Soo much better than Starbucks could ever do.

Dinner was all about the leftovers.

Oven baked okra is kind of my favorite.

And I served up some leftover baked tofu on toasted rye with hot pepper raspberry preserves and sharp cheddar.

Friday night I did end up going out to meet some friends.  We had a good time and I had a few drinks but photo-taking was abandoned in favor of trying to keep my balance on one leg!  I don’t know how on earth I managed to stand on one leg past 2am but a fun time was had by all.

For Saturday morning breakfast my mom and I hit up one of my favorite places on earth – Barefoot Buddha.  I had fresh-made lemonade,

and a Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich.

Frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, spicy sauce…

I love these sandwiches so much I ate them on my wedding day!  I know most brides say they are too nervous to eat but I was just nervous my friends would devour them before I got any 😀

We hung out and studied for a bit and I had a passionfruit, banana, coconut smoothie.

We laid low the rest of the day before going out to a fabulous dinner at The Cellar.  We did a lot of sharing and the lighting was low so let me apologize for the picture quality in advance.

There were way too many things I wanted off the drink menu but I finally settled on the Caribbean Champagne.

Champagne with coconut rum and key lime juice.  GREAT combination.

We split a cheese plate that was kind of out of this world.  The goat cheese was my favorite but the stewed plums were pretty fantastic as well.

My plate –

And at The Cellar the chef always sends out an amuse bouche.

Ahi wontons.

Plus homemade bread and butter.

For my meal I got the Vegetable Cutlet – panfried, potatoes, peas, carrots, eggplant and pickled papaya, and tiki masala sauce.

The cutlets were delicious but my favorite part of the entire meal was the eggplant wrapped papaya.  I ate one cutlet and took the other home, and I had a few bites of my dad’s tamarind mahi as well.

We were stuffed, but couldn’t not order a dessert plate to share.  It came with little forks,

because we got four little desserts!

NY cheesecake with fruit sauce and bananas foster,

cinnamon creme brulee and chocolate mousse.

Yum, yum, yum; I wished I could have had a BIG serving of the bananas foster.

Sunday morning I made a nice green monster for breakfast.

My mom and I got our nails done (green again, I’ll show you later!) and then I picked up nachos for lunch from the bar I used to work at.

Yum, but I think it’s time to be fully done with any sort of nachos for a while.

We saw a matinée of “Our Family Wedding,” during which I munched on a box of Nerds.

I would like to show you dinner but it was so dark at our table I never could get a picture.  I shared green bean fries with my parents and ate half of a tamarind turkey burger.

When I got home I had 2 maple pecan sticky blondies for dessert.

Dreena would be sad to know I deveganized these, but at least I made the recipe for my parents!

This morning (Monday) I’m hanging out at school for a bit before I head home to pack.  I brought a pineapple Chiobani for breakfast,

but that didn’t begin to cut it.

I ended up also having an egg and cheese biscuit from Wendy’s.

It is 100% time to stop eating like I’m on vacation!  Especially because I’m not sure what the workout situation with my leg is going to be like.

I had fabulous spring break but I am more than ready to get back with the husband and back on a schedule.  I get in late tonight so I won’t be posting today’s eats but hopefully Tuesday my sleeping, eating, and blogging will all be back on track!  I can tell you now though, that I have a Greek Gods honey yogurt in the freezer for a pre-packing treat!

When you get to the end of a vacation are you sad it’s over or ready to get back to business?

Playing Catch Up

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Hello, hello!  As per the title of my post, I have lots to do so I’ll make this quick.

When we got home last night I munched on some turkey bacon.

I’ll never ever ever eat pork again, but turkey bacon is one of my favorite things and my mom always has it ready for me when I come home.

And I also ate a small bowl of cole slaw while we cooked dinner.

My dad (who’s a little bit picky) was doing leftovers so my mom and I made a roasted feast.

Tofu: cut a block of firm tofu into 6-7 pieces and place on a foiled, sprayed baking sheet.  Rub with maple syrup, sesame oil, salt, and red pepper.  Bake at 450* for 35minutes.

Baked okra.

And my mom made some sautéed cabbage with almonds.

Delish!

Then, for the second night in a row, I passed out fully dressed at 8pm!!!  I had been getting to bed really late and sleeping really poorly for the last few months and apparently my body is finally ready to catch up on some of that lost rest!

I even slept in (6:40) a bit this morning so I was glad I packed a breakfast sandwich last night while preparing dinner.

Although first I had a banana half so I could take Alieve on a non-empty stomach.

Eaten in the car, my sandwich was rye bread with roasted red pepper and goat cheese spread, chive cream cheese, turkey bacon, and spinach.

This was a fantabulous combo.  I thought I was fueling up for my bone scan but unfortunately once I got to the hospital I decided to cancel my appointment.  The scan was not 100% positively going to be covered by insurance and even if it was if I went out of network I’d have a $360 co-pay.  I’m using the crutches and resting my leg this week regardless so I’ll just wait until I’m back in Buffalo for the bone scan.

Equally fun was when I realized that using crutches with a button-up shirt was a bad idea.  There were at least 15men watching me struggle across the parking lot when my shirt popped open all the way down to my belly-button!!  This shirt usually goes in my conservative pile, not my Brittany pile!

Now I’ve got to spend the day catching up on Anthropology reading.  Thankfully I’ve got a lunch date planned with my mom in the middle!

What is your favorite kind of bacon?  I honestly really prefer turkey to pork but I do think that the fakin’ stuff can be pretty tasty.

Death and Taxes

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Hey guys!  Sorry for rushing out on you last night, I managed to get to the hospital just in time so that neither the husband nor I had to wait.

This morning I went with a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast before volunteering.

I topped 1/3 cup oats with a splash of soymilk, a big shake of cinnamon, 1t maple syrup, and natural peanut butter.

Delish!  The mix of flavors in this was great.  I usually am not the biggest oats fan (especially without banana) but lately it’s been tasting so good to me.

Volunteering went well today, they kept me super busy for a change.  There’s another volunteer on my same shift now and we get along really well so it makes the time pass all the more quickly.  On my way out I used my lunch voucher to fill up a little container of pineapple.

Then for lunch lunch I made a big plate of roasted veggies.

Okra fries,

and kale crisps with garlic powder on them.

Sadly my tasty lunch was ruined by the fact that I was on hold for 15+ minutes trying to get my W-2 form.  I still just can’t quite get myself away from the soul-crush that is the NYC DOE.

I have plans for a study date this afternoon at the Spot and then a quick but fun dinner.  Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Have you started your taxes yet?  Do you go it alone or have someone/a service help you out?  We are using H&R Block this year.  Our goal was to finish them weeks ago but the lack of w-2 forms is really gumming up the works.

Best Lunch Ever

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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!

Saturated Sunday

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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.

A Southern Feast

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I’m trying to experiment with different mid-race fuels so I downed this Lemon Sublime Goo right before we headed to the gym.

Unfortunately I ended up having a frustrating, pathetic work-out.  I wanted to do the same treadmill interval set as yesterday but my legs were not having it.  My left ankle was killing me and my whole leg just felt week.  I ended up stopping at 24minutes (2miles).  Then I moved to the elliptical for 16minutes at level 6, hills.  Lame.

In spite of its patheticness my workout did leave me starving, I ate a spoonful of pb as soon as I got home.

After icing my legs and a quick shower I made a dinner that was so not lame!

Yummy chicken salad (recipe below),

buttermilk biscuits from this Cooking Light recipe, split with honey and Smart Balance Light,

and a side of sautéed okra.

It was my own healthy Southern feast!

I knew the okra and chicken would rock but I was seriously so impressed with how well the biscuits turned out; I’m a baker!  They were perfectly biscuit-y and healthy!

awesome chicken salad, serves 3

  • 12oz cooked chicken breast, shredded
  • 2T lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup plus 2T Miracle Whip
  • 1/3 cup toasted walnuts
  • 1 cup grapes, halved

What is your favorite chicken salad recipe?  I like this one a lot but I’m also partial to curried chicken salad.

Late Lunch, Very Veggied

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The lateness of my lunch post is well worth it; more than half my to-do’s are complete!  My new laptop is already starting to feel like “home” –

Volunteering went well and on my way out I used my lunch voucher to grab a large coffee.

I made a tasty mix of amaretto coffee, toffee cappuccino, and 2% milk.

If I got my fruits at breakfast, I got my veggies at lunch!  I made a tasty, Southwestern stir fry of sorts.  3oz of okra were chopped and cooked with some evoo, and s&p (charred),

and then I added 1/2cup of black beans to the skillet,

and finally 1/2cup of Cedar’s Edamame Salad.

The end result was so delicious!

The mix of textures and flavors was so pleasing and the warmth felt comforting after my treck through the blustering winds to do my errands.  Is there anything better than okra???

Since I’m soooooo out of shape I need a bit more fuel for my gym trip this evening but luckily I’ve got an afternoon snack (and a giveaway!) already planned.  See you then.

Are you an okra fan?  What do you love/hate about it?