Break Begins

Did you know that this was my last day before spring break begins?  Of course not, I didn’t tell you.  In fact, I was so tired this week that I kept forgetting about it, but then I was very happy every time I remembered.  We are doing something fun for break, but I’ll tell you more about that later because right now I want to get in bed.

I mixed things up and packed breakfast this morning.  Stonyfield Chocolate Greek Yogurt.

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I ate on the walk from my car to the hospital.

Lunch was salad leftovers.  When I made our dinners last night I went ahead and made four bowls at once – his & hers lunch and dinner.

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My maple vinaigrette dressing was so good.

I also packed a Cascadian Farm Oats & Honey Crunchy Granola Bar (a free sample).

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And I drank a coffee with creamer in the afternoon.

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I had some really interesting patients today; lots of tube feeds, which I love.

When I got home I snacked on some BBQ Smart Fries.

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Looking back I feel like I ate (more than) enough food today, but I was so flipping hungry this afternoon.  A friend and I had plans for dinner and I could not have been more excited when she called me to go.

First though, we walked our dogs and had a drink.

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The Honeycrisp Apple Shock Top is good, but not quite as good as I was expecting.

We headed out aimlessly down Elmwood and thankfully my friend thought of the “The Place” for dinner because I probably would have wandered down to Allentown!

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My foodie co-worker has been raving about The Place’s buffalo chicken mac and cheese for weeks and I knew what I was going to get before I even sat down.

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I was definitely hungry – I ate almost half of that skillet full of mac and cheese!

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I thought the dish was ok, not all that exciting, but Adam polished off my leftovers in a matter of minutes and declared that we have to go back immediately, so apparently it were a hit with him.

After dinner my friend and I walked back up Elmwood (it felt so nice to take a walk!) to meet the rest of our group for drinks at Mezza.  I am totally kicking myself that I didn’t get a photo of all of us, but I did manage a shot of my amaretto sour.

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I’m an embarrassment.  And I’m pretty sure the (cute) bartender thought I was special because I ordered a diet coke for my 2nd round and he refilled my glass free-of-charge at least three times.  I basically wanted to move in.

I stopped at Starbucks on the way home for something warm to drink while I wrote this post.

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Tall/toffee nut/black tea/skim latte.

Adam and his friends are in the middle of a poker game in the living room but I’ve got to fold… myself into bed.

My goodnight gift to you?  Shots of the dog chillaxing.

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Squee!

I Forgot A Title Again!

It is problematically late, but tomorrow’s exhaustion will definitely be worth it.  I spent the first half of the day cuddling in bed with husband.  Literally, the first half.  It was fabulous.  Then we went to lunch and ran a few errands, and I spent the remainder of my day working on a giant project for my internship.  I am 100% finished with it, wahoo!

Brunch from Pano’s.

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Chicken slavaki wrap,

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with french fries.

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I ate half of each.  I’d been craving french fries like crazy but the sandwich wasn’t as exciting.  Not bad, but I’m just not that into chicken; the feta made it.

Iced coffee with Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and sugar.

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The coffee was salted caramel flavored from Wegmans and it was yummy.  I have a little bit of my cup left and I’m looking forward to it for breakfast.

A giant bowl of Lays’ Chicken and Waffle Chips.

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This finalist flavor was pretty good; the flavor was definitely “chicken.”  Embarrassing sidenote – I was talking with Adam about the dog and I heard “I usually just shake my bag of chips at him,” come out of my mouth.  The juxtaposition of usually with my bag of chips may have been my come-to-Jesus moment about how fat I’m getting.

At least nibbling does help me focus on work; I am 80% more productive with food next to my laptop.  Final snack plate.

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Honeycrisp apple,

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with ~1/2 serving of Alter Ego Quinoa Dark Chocolate.

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The chocolate was fun.  I’m excited to have Adam try some because he adores quinoa.

Dinner was a bit of a failure.  I sautéed frozen carrots and Wegman’s Japanese Stir Fry mix with a packet of Naysoya Shirataki Fettuccine in canola oil, then tossed in a serving of my peanut sauce and let it get nice and crispy.

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Sauce was great.  Veggies were great.  “Noodles” were slimy and terrible.  I ate ~half then gave a bite to Adam who promptly spit his chewed-up mouthful back in my bowl.

It was bedtime two hours ago is time for bed!

Me Eat Food

We are 36ish hours away from finding out where we are going to live for the next 5ish years, so clearly I can’t think about anything else.  I’m not even going to try to make this coherent.  Food good.  Me eat food.

I skipped breakfast and packed too light of a lunch and my poor planning for the first half of the day left me starving for the 2nd half.  Whoops.  At least my protein-light mid-day meal was tasty.  Leftover turkey egg cup filling (sautéed mushrooms with green onion and shredded cheese),

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which I topped with some sweet seaweed snack.

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It was a good combination.  Plus 70% dark chocolate.

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On a positive note – I aced my quiz.  101%!

I show you dinner first, since most of my food consumption was in snack form.

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Cheese tortellini (about 1.5 servings) with green pepper, Kerrygold Skellig cheese (a sweet cheddar), and Tarragon vinaigrette.

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Before dinner I had… A pear.

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Jalopeño poppers and bread and butter pickles,

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a handful of chips x2,

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and a slice of turkey.

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And after dinner I had more chips and cheese.

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I was going to have a cookie too but then I got distracted looking at apartments …. in 5 different cities.

And We’re Off!

Today was officially my first day off (from both school and work) since January 20th!  42 days straight!!!  I didn’t even work full shifts for most of those days but it was still nice to have 24 hours all to myself for a change.

We didn’t do anything all that exciting with our newfound free-time but it still felt pretty damn nice.  We did a major grocery trip, started watching Battlestar Galactica (please tell me that the episodes are faster paced than the movie?!), and Adam currently has the guys over for poker.

Breakfast was a bowl of peanut butter and bananas, squared.

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2% Banana Chobani Greek Yogurt topped with a sliced banana, 1 tsp of melted peanut butter and 1 crumbled Cascadian Farm Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bar.

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So flipping good.

Lunch was even better.

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I took enough Pho home last night for Adam and I to both have lunch with the leftovers.  I beefed mine up with some roasted broccoli and a soft-boiled egg.  Plus more Sriracha, of course.

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The entire bowl was delicious and the egg yolk melting into the broth was so amazing that it almost made me cry.

For dessert we shared this plate of samples.

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Oh Nuts! offered to send me their Passover Cake & Cookie Sampler and I happily accepted.

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Neither of us liked the brownie piece (too dry) but we thought that the jam in the sandwich cookie and raspberry jelly roll was nice.  By the by, everything was gluten-free and kosher.

I also had an Adora calcium disk.

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I am going to try to remember to take one every day for the next while, but I probably won’t blog about it again.

Dinner ended up being a (giant!) container of hot bar.

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A little bit of mac and cheese and brussels sprouts and a bunch of chicken.  Apparently I was in the mood for protein.

I made the poker players some Mac and Three Cheese Cups but they were gone before I could snag one.  That’s a good sign!

What’s your longest run without a day off?

(Pho)ning It In

I regularly drop off the face of the blogging planet and I haven’t even started my next rotation yet!  It’s rumored to be time-consuming and exhausting, but I’m sure that won’t keep me from hitting my 30-days goal this time.  I mean, I made it an entire day the last round!

You missed – bubble tea with a friend, Adam and I splitting an entire bag of chips and dip for dinner, and other stuff that can’t have been that exciting because I honestly can’t remember any other food item from the past two days.

Also, the end of my purple hair.

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I had to get rid of the streaks before my next rotation so I’m back to brown, albeit a darker, redder brown.  I’ll try to get a picture in good light this weekend.

Today was the end of my winter break make-up and an on-campus meeting before we switch placements (I’ve got five weeks of clinical rotation in a local hospital coming up on Monday).  Coffee was needed.

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I earned a free coffee with a book store punch card so I went big (literally!) with a venti non-fat half-pumps toffee nut latte.  Note – I drank my giant coffee and a diet pop in lieu of water all day and I totally paid the price this afternoon.

I was running late this morning – we ran out of water in the middle of my shower!!! – and I packed a fairly ridiculous trio of foods for my breakfast/lunch.  A green pear.

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A Honeycrisp apple.

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And a package of Annie Chun’s Brown Sugar and Sea Salt Roasted Seaweed.

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I wasn’t exactly full, but at least it all tasted good.

Our meeting got out a smidge early and three friends and I made it over to the mall for some high school-style fun.  We wandered, window shopped, and got froyo.

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A little plain tart with tons of popping boba for me!

Unfortunately, my dehydration kicked in during the fun and I ended up getting hit with a bad migraine.  {Sorry to be such a downer guys!}  I made it home just in time to throw up in my own bathroom; always a plus.  Then I took medicine, and a nap, and managed to feel much better in an hour or so.

My boys joined me for the nap and this scene occurred –

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They are too cute.

Once I rallied, Adam and I headed out for a fun dinner.

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Red Pepper might be my new favorite restaurant.  They gave us free tea and fried wontons,

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and served me the best bowl of vegetarian Pho I’ve ever had.

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Adam and I both thought that the broth was swoon-worthy.

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I took the 2nd half of my trough home with me and we are quite excited for leftovers tomorrow.

‘Night!

Asian Carbs

The title describes every single thing I ate today!  At least I managed to cover a good spread of the continent – Thailand, Japan, and India.

Adam wasn’t excited enough about my Pad Kee Mao leftovers, so I ate them myself for breakfast.

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Amazing.  Broad rice noodles (when cooked in a Thai dish and super spicy) are my favorite food.

I rounded out the meal with a spoon of peanut butter.

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I left a little bit behind for the dog and he was on Cloud 9.

Lunch was spicy avocado Inari.

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Yes, contrary to popular Adam’s belief, that orange stuff in mayonnaise-based.  But when you husband sweetly delivers you lunch at work you don’t turn it down just because you’re doing a silly challenge.

We used a groupon at India Gate for dinner.

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I got Chana Bhatura.

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I ate half of my chickpeas, with rice.  And 1.5+ of my fried dough.  I tried to eat less but half the times Adam went to take a bite I ended up snatching it away from him!

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The flavor was very similar to the Johnny Cake I grew up eating and I was having a total taste memory.

Adam is in bed (he got under the covers at 8:45!) and I should be there too but I have a mental problem that keeps me from making healthy sleep decisions so instead I’ll probably get some dessert and watch Law and Order: SVU.

P.S. I picked a winner for my Slow Cooker Desserts giveaway – (#1)

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Cori, e-mail me with your mailing address so I can get your prize sent out!

Back On Winter Break

My title’s no joke – I am officially back on winter break until the 28th!  Since I started my rotation early I’m spending the rest of this portion of the semester catching up on the days of winter break that I missed.  I do have a placement with an outpatient RD on Thursday, but other than that the time is mine.  I’m not doing anything super exciting; in fact, I work every single day of the next two weeks!  I’m hoping to get back into the gym habit too.

My last day of senior practicum was bittersweet, I loved this experience so much more than I was expecting to.  I am going to post some more about the internship after I gather my thoughts, but for now I’ll stick to breakfast.

Breakfast.  A packet of Spiru-Tein Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Protein Powder shaken with 1.25 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

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I didn’t really love the texture/flavor all that much, but at least this kept me full through rounds.  p.s. – this flavor has bee pollen in it so it won’t work for strict vegans

Lunch was packed with veggies.  I brought a container of roasted butternut squash and green beans,

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and topped it with a thing of Sea’s Gift Sweet Seaweed Snack.

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That combo was ridiculous good.  I actually drove to Wegman’s the minute I was done with the day to buy more of the sweet seaweed!

Can I brag for a second?  I brought the nutrition department a thing of my Triple Butterscotch Blondies to say thank you and everyone raved about them.  You know a group of dietitians doesn’t go for seconds on a dessert unless it’s good!

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I couldn’t have a blondie – they are sooooo not vegan – but when I got home I did eat 1.5 servings of So Delicious Coconut Milk Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

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The flavor of the ice cream is a little bit funky, but the cookie dough pieces are the best I’ve ever had (vegan or otherwise).

Let’s do a final Fashion Friday Monday –

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I accented my outfit with this great bracelet my mom sent me for Valentine’s.

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That is seriously such a “me” pieces of jewelry.

Since the college is closed for Presidents’ Day, my night class was cancelled.  This meant I could go out for celebratory drinks and dinner with friends.

I didn’t plan on drinking much, but I kept a Tea’s Tea Green Tea with Grape in my purse for rehydration purposes.

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Really I only drank 1 Jack and ginger ale.

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I was embarrassingly tipsy afterward.

My friend had a friend visiting from out-of-town so we had to shower her the wonder of Sun Restaurant for dinner.

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I went with the Pad Kee Mao, ordered Thai spicy.  Thai-style fried wide rice noodles with hot and spicy sauce, mixed vegetable, and basil leaves.

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There wasn’t egg listed in the description, but it was definitely present in the dish.  I’ve already cheated on the Vegan 20 Day more than once though, so it’s not like it was a big deal.

I ate a little more than half of my pasta, then brought the rest home for Adam.  I also brought him a whole order of the tea leaf salad that he loves to help bribe him into making me popcorn.

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Score!  I smothered that bowl in melted SmartBalance Light and it was amazing.

Did you have the day off for Presidents’ Day?

The Sunday Scurry

I’m in a quandary: I want to blog because yesterday I started my “30 days of blogging” challenge again, but I want to get off the computer so I can hang out with my boys.  I didn’t say it was a large quandary.  I’ll just keep this quick.

Leftover pineapple crisp (from my Slow Cooker Desserts cookbook).

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Ritz crackers with white bean truffle dip.

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A lunchtime snack plate.

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Honeycrisp.

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Crunchy peanut butter.

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1 serving of Sweetriot 70% Dark Chocolate with Kickin’ Coconut*.

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Co-op hot bar after work.  Fried seitan, cucumber salad, and peanut noodles.

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Homemade Thai curry for dinner.

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Green curry and light coconut milk with a bit of tamari and rice vinegar.  Nasoya Black Soybean Tofu Plus** fried in coconut oil.  Tons of broccoli and a can of straw mushrooms.  Cashews.  Tasty Bite Thai Lime Rice.

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My boys.

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*the chocolate was out of this world; it had all the healthiness of dark but the creaminess of milk chocolate

**Adam and I both want to buy this tofu again; we didn’t press it but it still stayed firm and got nice and crunchy, plus it had a good, different flavor

Don’t forget to enter my cookbook giveaway.