Tag Archives: pasta

Cows, Elephants, And Buffalo

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After two days of waking up before 6 am, today’s 7 o’clock alarm felt like a breeze.  That’s a lie, but I did manage to get out of bed and go for a run.

2 minutes running/ 3 walking, x 11 (plus a little extra to finish the loop) for 4.8 miles and 56 minutes.

I brought 20 oz of water with Lemon Lime Gu Electrolyte Brew with me on my run.

I didn’t fuel so well for breakfast. There was no time to pack any proper meals for school but the endorphins were worth it.  Running (and run/walking!) puts me on cloud nine.

Psst, Mom – I wore the sweet flowered top that you got me over a t-back tank and it was cute and didn’t look dorky like you told me pairing it with a t-shirt did.

Self photos are hard, self outfit photos are almost impossible.

For “breakfast” (quotes because this was not enough food but it was the only thing I managed to grab and I drank it at breakfast time) I had a Sneaky Pete’s Apples Away.

The SP’s were on sale at Wegman’s and looked interesting, so I took a chance and was rewarded.  The flavor was mild – just a little apple and no oat – and I liked the slightly thick texture.  For 40 calories it was packing 3 grams of fiber.  I would definitely drink one again.

Lunch featured apple as well, in juicy Pink Lady form.

I also packed a cucumber with two Laughing Cow Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese wedges.

Trying to prep that with a plastic butter knife was a little messy but the flavors were delicious.

I also bought a doppio espresso, with vanilla sugar and lots of skim milk.

The vanilla sugar at the cafe at my school is ridiculous good.  The spot is just a Barnes and Noble Starbucks but the vanilla powder is so much better than the stuff you see at the “real” Starbucks; it has little flecks of vanilla bean!

Speaking of tasty beverages… I poured myself a beer when I got home this afternoon.

Tusker (a Lager brewed in Kenya) is in my “top 3” list for favorite beers.

Dinner was an old favorite too.

My Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta recipe page was updated.

Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta, serves 4

  • 8 oz rotini pasta
  • 8 cups fresh baby spinach
  • 1 T butter
  • 1 lb skinless boneless chicken breasts; chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • ½ cup plus ¼ cup buffalo wing sauce
  • 8 oz 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
  • ¼ cup blue cheese dressing
  • ¼ cup shredded sharp cheddar
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.  Set up your colander or strainer in the sink and put the raw spinach inside.
  2. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions.  Pour cooked pasta over the spinach (the heat will “cook” it) and return pasta and spinach to the cooled pot when all of the water has drained off.
  3. While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Add chicken to the pan and cook until done, about 4 – 6 minutes on each side.
  4. Add ¼ cup buffalo wing sauce to the chicken and cook 1 more minute.  Remove chicken from pan to the pot with the pasta and spinach and reduce heat to medium-low.
  5. Combine cream cheese, blue cheese dressing, and remaining ½ cup buffalo wing sauce in the pan.  Heat until melted, 3 – 5 minutes.
  6. Remove pan from heat and pour sauce over the pasta.  Stir until all ingredients are well-combined.
  7. Pour the pasta mixture into an 8×8 inch casserole dish.  Top evenly with the shredded cheddar.  Bake 8 – 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and browned.

It is spicy, creamy, cheesy, and even a little bit healthy.

The rest of my evening includes a walk with the dog and hopefully some polishing time with the “Minted” I’ve been eyeing all week.

I hope everyone enjoyed the official first day of summer!

I know it’s like trying pick a favorite child, but if you had to choose – Buffalo sauce or Sriracha?

Cukoo For Coconut

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I know I said this morning that I’d be a grump, but today wasn’t so bad.  Coffee helped.

I got dressed quickly enough that I had time to take Webster on a morning walk and when I met the husband to do a backpack/dog swap he ended up driving me to school.  We got iced coffee with skim milk along the away.

Sidenote – my bladder probably wished I’d skipped the coffee; I also had a breakfast drink, a soda, and a huge bottle of water.  At one point all four were sitting on my desk, which made everyone crack up.

Breakfast was a celebration of coconut.

A Liberte Coconut Yogurt,

and a Zico Chocolate Coconut Water.

I tried the chocolate Zico in Ohio last spring and loved it, it’s like a lighter Chocolate Nesquick!  When I finally spotted some at Wegmans last week I freaked out.

My lunch looked an awful lot like last night’s dinner.

Tempeh and veggie brown rice casserole topped with white cheddar.  I microwaved it at school.

I have one final casserole serving stashed in the freezer and I’m looking forward to remembering it in a few months.

After class I spent time on some job applying things.  <– please cross your fingers for me!  Then I took the world’s hardest nap.  When you wake up from a nap remembering dreams you know you needed sleep.

Dinner was simple but oh-so-good.

  1. Chop the top off of a bulb of garlic, drizzle with evoo, stick in an oven at 400* for 30ish minutes.
  2. Boil ~1.75 cups of bow tie pasta.  Add ~.25 cup frozen edamame and 1 pint frozen mushrooms during the last three minutes of cooking.  Drain and return to pan.
  3. Squeeze roasted garlic into pasta.  Add ~3 Tbsp creamy mushroom soup, ~2 Tbsp evoo, and a liberal sprinkling of salt.  Stir vigorously.
  4. Portion onto two plates.  Dig in.

Adam gave me a bunch a bunch of crap when I told him the dinner plan but we both swooned our way through the finished dish.  Roasted garlic is so flipping creamy.

I’m up late because I was typing up the posts with the pie and dog treat recipes from last weekend.  It was worth it even if no one else tries them out because I will definitely make both recipes again.  In the meantime, I’ll see you tomorrow at noon for some window shopping!

Wakeful Weekend

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In solidarity with the husband I kept his vampire/emergency room doctor schedule and stayed awake all Friday night.  I ate a big bowl of popcorn, discovered Solitary, read a book… it was great.  Except that the rest of the weekend ran together in a big fog so I guess it was not so great.  I didn’t do much, but here’s what I ate Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday.  I ate a bowl of Maple Brown Sugar Frosted Mini Wheats and All Bran Bran Buds with skim milk for breakfast.

Split a PB & J’s candy bar with Adam.

This was super fun.

Made a to-die-for bagel sandwich.

A toasted Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin topped with a wedge of Laughing Cow Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese Spread (two thumbs up), turkey pepperoni, and melted white sharp cheddar.

Discovered another new froyo place.

I got coffee and coconut yogurt topped with toasted coconut, oreo, marshmallow cream, hot fudge, and candy-coated sunflower seeds (<– freaking awesome topping idea!).

And I ate a big thing of black bean nachos for dinner but was so tired at that point that I forgot to take a picture.

Sunday.  Here is how Adam’s Sunday morning went – drive home from the hospital / say hi to me and tell me about how his night went / fall asleep in bed without covers because I had all of the sheets out with me on the couch

Here’s is how my Sunday morning went – wake up and realize it’s light out (think “don’t freak out) / check my phone and see that it’s 9:30 am (think “don’t freak out”) / notice a 6:30 am text from Adam saying he was heading home / freak out / scream, waking up the husband in the bedroom

Apparently I was talking to him in my sleep!  I used to do that a lot of mornings in college but back then it was more inconvenient than scary.  I still don’t remember talking to him but I am so flipping glad that he was home safe.

For breakfast I made the husband some “I’m Glad You’re Not Dead Honey Roasted Peanut Butter.”

1 lb of TJ’s honey roasted peanuts, 3 Tbsp canola oil, 3 Tbsp honey.  I took several taste-tests for quality purposes (about 2 Tbsp worth) and it was delicious.  I washed it down with a pear that I somehow didn’t photograph.

Lunch was an Annie Chun’s Pad Thai Noodle Bowl.

It was good but not “60% of your daily value of sodium good,” yikes!

I spent the afternoon exploring the Allentown Art Festival with a friend.  We didn’t buy anything but it was fun to wander; almost six miles were covered on foot!

Dinner was leftover soup.  Topped with tons of lime and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

We have one more serving left and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m not quite full though and if I finish tomorrow’s assignment in time I’m going to grab a snack.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

**updated to add –

Homemade pb and chocolate chips were melted and consumed while I finished my work.

Froyo On A Friday

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It’s been a fabulous Friday!  Any Friday that starts a three-day weekend is bound to be good, but this one was fun all on its own as well.  I went on two dates with the husband, spent the afternoon at the mall with some friends, and ate lots of tasty food.

Lots and lots of tasty food.

We had errands to run this morning and while at Wegman’s we purchased chocolate croissants.  fatty pro tip – the best chocolate croissants in town are at Wegman’s bakery

We walked with the dog to Starbucks for espresso.  A doppio with skim milk and sugar.

Then we breakfasted on croissants and espresso in the sunlight.  It was just as wonderful as it sounds.  We finished our grocery shopping on foot, with the dog, with a sweet espresso buzz, and felt very European.

I spent my afternoon with two friends at the mall.  We also went to The Christmas Tree Store (which sells discounted products and actually no Christmas trees) which was ironic because when Janessa and I went to the mall originally we got so lost that we ended up at The Christmas Tree Store, i.e. about as far away from the mall as you could possibly get.  It was beyond pathetic.  We were 45 minutes late to meet Kim and laughing so hard that we cried.

When we finally made it to Galleria we rewarded our superior navigation skills with froyo.  I had coconut and plain tart with tons of strawberry and mango boba.

This was both of my friends’ first times trying self-serve froyo and popping boba and thankfully they were big fans.

I didn’t do much shopping at the mall but I did see many cute items; lots of lace things to covet!  And I purchased a pretty plate from Anthropologie that was 50% reduced.  Buffalo people – Anthro currently has lots of reduced-price stuff on the main floor in addition to the sale room.

At home I ate slice of cheese pizza leftover from yesterday’s lunch.

And a coffee yogurt with roasted peanuts and honey.

This combo has been one of my favorites since I was a young child.

Date number two was a walk down Elmwood.  It wasn’t an aimless amble, we had a very specific destination in mind –

Chow Chocolat for iced hot chocolates!

I got peanut butter and Adam got salted caramel and we switched halfway through.

The drinks were made-to-order with real chocolate and were rich but not too sweet.  They were heavenly.

Dinner was a toss-together.

I boiled six-cheese tortellini with a frozen green bean and carrot mix, then tossed the cooked past and veggies with marinara sauce.  Nothing special but it did the job.

I left behind the last quarter or so of my portion because I’m going to tuck into a biiiiiig bowl of popcorn as soon as this post is up.

Pop… pop… pop!

Our Trip To Toronto

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The past weekend was so much fun!  We’ve decided it was our best couple vacation to date.  We weren’t expecting to get to go on a trip this summer but a Living Social deal popped up and it was just too good to turn down.  Our voucher included a one night hotel stay, dinner, and tickets to a movie.  We filled in the rest of our time with lots of exploring.  It was fabulous!

Our Saturday did get off to a bit of a late start; we had a tragedy Friday night.

We were cutting Webster’s nails and Adam did two of them too short and he bled.  The worst part was that he is such a good boy – and was so focused on the treat in my hand – that he just sat there and we didn’t know there was a problem until there was blood dripping down my leg.

He mostly seemed fine, but I cried.  Thank goodness we board him at the vet so he was well looked after while we were gone.  He was due for a stool sample and vaccine too so the timing was great.

But we did miss him like crazy!

Once we were on the road I snacked on a Cara Cara orange.

Plus a Rockstar Relax I bought along the way.

I’ll just warn you in advance, my allergies make my throat hurt and I basically did nothing but drink all weekend.  I think the final count was eight beverages, not including the giant water bottle I carried around in my purse.

Before we knew it, we had reached Toronto!

We settled in at our hotel.

Then we spent hours exploring the Asian section of town.

We saw so many neat things and we walked for-ev-er.  Plus we ate tons of good food.  The first order of business was bubble tea.

Adam and I split this taro milk tea with boba.

Mmmmn!

Then we split a sugar cane juice.

We both grew up with sugar cane – me in St. Thomas and Adam on vacations in Hawaii – so this was familiar and fun.

Totally new to us was this cool shop where you went around with tongs and picked out items to put on a tray.  Then you paid and they packaged your selection to go.

We got a chicken bun and a pork bun.  I ate half of mine.

And Adam and I split this taro pastry.

So pretty!

We split these gummi moo cows from a candy shop.

We stopped in at a David’s Tea.

I got an iced (unsweetened) Cream of Earl Grey and it was very tasty.

I’ve wanted to order some of their flavors for forever (birthday cake! ice cream cake! buttered rum!) so it was great to try it out.

Our lunch spot was selected because I liked the windows.

It ended up being a pho restaurant.

We went all out and ordered two milkshakes.

Jackfruit and durian!!

Trying durian is on my life list so this was super exciting.  The shakes ended up being made with powder instead of the real deal but it was fun to get an idea of the flavor.  I only drank a quarter or so of each but they were nice to have when my meal got spicy.

My order was sautéed mixed vegetables with tofu and vermicelli.

Which I proceeded to douse in Sriracha.

I mean douse.  I covered the dish just like this twice more and I didn’t even eat the whole meal.

Gaaaaah; it was so flipping good!

Our exploration took us almost 5 miles.  When we went to shower we both needed thirty minutes to lay on the bed with our feet up!

Our evening plans were decided by our Living Social deal, which included dinner and a movie.  Dinner was from a pre-fixe menu at the hotel’s restaurant.  We were not expecting it to be very good and we were not surprised.  But you can’t beat free.

The complimentary bread was wonderful.

But it went downhill from there.

I ordered the Caesar salad to start.

The menu said that it came with shaved parmigiano reggiano and authentic anchovy dressing but it was definitely canned cheese and bottled dressing.  The one plus was that the dressing came on the side.  I ate 3/4.

My main meal was pasta.  “Smoked chicken/charred sweet bell peppers/black olives/toasted pine nuts/shaved parmigiano reggiano/extra virgin olive oil and basil pesto.”

I ate 1/3.

We were fairly disenchanted at that point so we took dessert to go.

Meyer lemon cheesecake with huckleberry jam, chantilly cream, and seasonal berries.  That I finished.

For our movie we selected “The Five Year Engagement.”  It was pretty cute.  I stole a few handfuls of Adam’s Crazy Core Skittles while we watched.

It was fun to walk to and from the movie but by the time we were back at the hotel I was done with exploring and more than ready for bed!

After a good night’s sleep we woke up on Sunday raring to go.

Our 2nd day was a shorter version of our first; walking and eating.  This time we explored Bloor Street.

We were planning on going to Menchies (duh!) when we spotted a new froyo spot further down the street.

Yogurty’s was fantabulous!

I got espresso and coconut frozen yogurts topped candy bits, coconut, cocoa syrup, sprinkles and a cherry.

We both thought it was the best self-serve froyo we’ve ever had.

I also had a final bubble tea.

A black milk tea with boba.

And when we spotted one of these fancy machines you know we had to try it out.

My diet cherry coke was only ok but the process was cool.  And diet pop is always a good way to end a vacation.  After a bit more exploring we drove back home.  You already saw the rest of the day.

Self-serve froyo?  Bubble tea?  Lots of walking?  Trying new foods?  Check, check, check, and check; it was a wonderful trip!

Sunday Disposition

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Welcome, weekend warriors!

No Saturday post because I spent most of the day moping around the house.  Little was accomplished, though I did get the laundry done.

I got so sick of myself that I made damn sure to have fun today.  And I’ve been thinking positive thoughts about the upcoming week as well.  I want to make sure my last 8 days before summer school are as productive/relaxing/fun/healthy as possible.

We got this morning off to a tasty/healthy start with sludge smoothies to go.

Enjoyed out of repurposed jars instead of fancy stemware because we were on a family walk.

In the blend were unmeasured amounts of frozen banana, frozen blackberries, frozen spinach, and oj.

Plus a piece of rye bread with strawberry jam and Smart Balance Light when we got home.

Our new jam is the store-brand version of Crofter’s (ie organic and with no added sugar) and sadly it’s not very good.

Lunch was consumed out of hand.  A slice of pizza (now you see what we did on Saturday!),

a Cara Cara orange,

and half of this package of mint m&m’s.

I’ve never been a huge m&m person but these mint ones are fantasmic.  Perhaps because they are dark chocolate?  They are one of the few (the only?!) desserts that actually tastes better to me in small quantities.

We walked to dinner and surreptitiously enjoyed Black Jack Colas along the way.

We went on a sushi date.

Kunis has been on our “Buffalo: Go To” list for months and I’m glad we finally gave it a shot because it was great and we’ll definitely be back.

I ordered three small plates to make up my meal.  First, Wakame Salad.

Seasoned and dressed seaweed, with sesame and chili flakes.  I’ve been trying to get Adam to taste seaweed salad for years and now that he finally did he’s officially obsessed (we stopped at the co-op on the way home because he was hoping to find more!).  I will say that Kuni’s version was one of the best I’ve ever had.  But – the photo isn’t deceiving you, it was a ridiculously small portion.

My soup course was a bowl of Udon.

Thick white flour noodles in a light broth, topped with sweetened tofu, wakame and scallions.  At $3.75 this huge bowl was a steal.  The sweet tofu wasn’t my favorite but the slightly sweet and sour broth was great.

Finally, a veggie roll.

It had asparagus, mushroom, and some pickled vegetable that I’m not remembering.  Be forewarned – the wasabi at Kunis is fresh!  I gobbed it on the way I usually do and my first bite almost killed me.  It wasn’t necessarily spicy – in fact we both noticed that this wasabi put no spice on your tongue and was strangely sour – but a bunch of it stuck to the roof of my mouth and I started choking and breaking out in a cold sweat.  Adam said my face was BRIGHT red!

We had a great walk home; Kuni’s is just far enough away to be fun.  My dinner was good but on the smaller side and my mouth didn’t feel done so I ate a mug of cereal when we got home.

1 cup of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat with skim milk.  Aaaaand, scene.

The Semester Is Winding Down

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The semester is winding down.  Classes finished today and I’ve got a week of exams standing between me and summer.  Of course, I only have two weeks of freedom before summer school starts, but I’ll take what I can get.

I’ve been having the hardest time getting out of bed in the morning and today was not the day that broke the streak.  I’ll need to treat my two free weeks like a bedtime boot camp or I’m going to be hurting during summer school.  I ran out of time to workout so instead I drove the dog with me while I parked the car and then walked him home from school.

It was nice to take him somewhere new, though I wish he would have found a better place to do his business than the middle of the quad!

I did a quick outfit change at home and then I was walking back to school, breakfast in hand.

This smoothie combo is a winner!  1.5 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 cup of lemonade, and 1 cup of frozen strawberries.

Frozen strawberry lemonade can’t be beat and the chia seeds give it a nice hit of omega-3s.

I had less time this morning because my statistics teacher let me come in early to check over the homework.  All of my assignments are now in (a week early) and I finished today’s practice test and checked my answers (all correct!) before class was half over so I’m feeling good for the final.

Lunch was eaten in the car on the way to my last clinic observation of the semester.  Bagelwiches are a nice, one-handed item.

I had a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with jalapeño cream cheese and Applegate Farms’ Smoked Turkey.

Plus an Empire apple.

My last day of clinic went great.  I did another outpatient observation and I’m pretty much convinced I want to do outpatient when I grow up.  I love the amount of interaction RDs get with their outpatient clients!  While I was there we saw three patients, two type 2 diabetics and a GI issue.  Getting an hour (+) with each of them was great; it seems like they all took a lot away from their appointments.

My last night class went well and suddenly, I was free!  I didn’t have much time to workout; once I made it home and changed I could only get one loop around the block before it got dark.  It was just was well though, I’m not sure I had a 2nd loop in me!  1.2 miles in 10:55.  <– that’s more than a minute faster than any of my previous times!!

Dinner was easy peasy leftovers.

Bow tie pasta and roasted zucchini with peasy pesto, drizzled with 1 Tbsp evoo.

I’ve never been so glad to see a bowl of pasta in my life.  The only thing I’m more excited about is getting my head on a pillow.

Peasy Pesto Pasta

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It’s already after 11 pm and the alarm is going off before 6 am tomorrow, yikes!  This day needs a speedy post.

Workout – 40 minutes on the stationary bike at  random level 6

Breakfast – Banana brulee yogurt.

In a small skillet I cooked a sliced banana with 1/2 Tbsp butter and 2 tsp brown sugar.  I put the gooey, caramelized banana on top of a bowl of Wegman’s 0% Plain Greek Yogurt.

The sweet and tangy tastes went perfectly together.

Lunch – a bagel sandwich.

A cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin topped with jalapeño cream cheese and two slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

I ate a slice of turkey in the morning as I was assembling my sandwich, it’s great.

I also had a Golden Delicious apple.

Snack – a mini bag of kettle corn.

Dinner – 2 oz of bow tie pasta with slices of roasted zucchini and peasy pesto (see below).

I love pesto so flipping much!  Bow ties with pesto are one of my major food memories from my childhood.  My aunt makes the best pesto I’ve ever had but she’s a great cook so that’s not surprising.

Peasy Pesto, makes 4 – 8 servings

  • 10 oz frozen peas, thawed and drained
  • 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. Place peas and oil in food processor and process until homogenous, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until well combined.

It was such a pretty green, I just couldn’t help taking pictures of it!