Tag Archives: pasta

All Sorts of Win

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My day has been like Charlie Sheen, all sorts of winning!  Seriously though, it has been one of those days that are just randomly fantastic.  Good workout, mostly good food, good times with the husband…

Win #1 of the day was the realization that music makes my workouts fly by.  My i-pod broke months ago and my parents gave me an IOU for a replacement in my Christmas stocking but it’s taken me a while to finally cash it in.  I got a nano, in lime green, engraved with my phone # and part of my favorite quote from Robert Frost.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Once I got of Biochem this afternoon I headed straight to the gym, my new i-pod stocked with a new 30minute playlist –

  1. Sweet Light, The Chapin Sisters
  2. The Cave, Mumford and Sons
  3. Coming Home, Diddy
  4. Signal Fire, Snow Patrol
  5. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster, Geto Boys
  6. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
  7. My Dick, Dirt Nasty
  8. Somwhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

For 30minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  “What a Wonderful World” is actually the song Adam and I walked down the aisle to once we were married, and when it came on I started to cry!!!  I had to elliptisize as fast as I could to make myself stop being embarrassing (double win!).

Once I was home and showered I headed out on errands with Adam.  Win #2 was the free coffee I picked up at Starbucks for Earth Day –

Seasoned with a big pour of skim milk and two sugars.

Our errands included a trip to the mall for Adam to get an eye check up, where I sat in the food court for an hour and wrote notecards like a weirdo.  I may have looked like a creeper, but I actually got a lot done.

Not a win, was the fact that we were busy straight through lunch and ended up not eating anything.  By 5:30 when we left the mall I was having a definite panic attack of hunger.  I ended up randomly grabbing this Liquid Taffy candy to split with Adam.

Such a win!  The texture of this was divine; a velvety, less chewy taffy.

We continued dessert before dinner by splitting froyo.

Fat free chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with strawberries, sprinkles, and granola.

Total win!

Dinner, not such a win.  It was poised to be good…

We headed to Taste of Thai on Hertel (an avenue with tons of good-looking restaurants and next to no parking), where we split our regular order – Pad See Eiw with tofu,

and Cashew Chicken.

The dishes had tons of veggies (our complaint with Buffalo Thai has been the lack of veggies), but that’s where the compliments end.  The renditions were painfully inauthentic, and way too salty to boot.  Fail!

But being with the husband is always a win.  Especially for the rest of the evening, for which our big plans include the latest Community and the splitting of two mini ice creams.

This day has been sweet, in every sense of the word!

What was your most recent #win?

You’d Have To Be High…

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…to think that “Your Highness” was funny.  My goodness, can I have those two hours of my life back?!?  My fun evening plans ended up being mostly tedious and only a little bit funny.

Actually what was funny is the back story – I’ve been excited about “Your Highness” for months; I saw previews and thought it looked a lot like “Year One,” which I loved.  Sidenote – I saw “Year One” twice in theatres, I’m all about raunchy comedies.  Well, we saw “Your Highness” tonight and it was awful; pretty much the only redeeming quality was the gratuitous naughty language <– which I’m all about.  On the drive home something strange occurred to me, Summer Glau (one of the main reasons I was excited about the movie – “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Firefly” both rocked my world) didn’t appear to have been in it.  After some quick Googling I found the problem – I’m an idiot!  The movie I’m excited about is “The Knights of Badassdom.”  I saw the previews at the same time and must have melded them together in my head!  Well, now at least I can be excited for that movie 😀

Prior to the movie I made a quick dinner of this Smart Ones Pasta with Ricotta and Spinach.

And during laughs that we few and far between, I snacked on an apple,

and a bag of random candies I got at a kiosk in the mall.

At least the snacks were good?!

Did you see “Your Highness?”  What’d you think?  Any plans to see “Knights of Badassdom?”

Playing Catch Up

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I had big plans to go to the gym this morning, but when the alarm went off I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.  I thought I was all caught up on sleep from Saturday’s 4am fun, but clearly not.

Instead, I went back to bed and didn’t get up until 15minutes before I had to leave the house.  Clearly once I got to school coffee was a necessity.

A medium non-fat latte with sugar-free Irish creme syrup.

We got back our pre-Spring break Biochem exams today; my 85 was even more frustrating when I realized that I had circled B (correct) but written A (incorrect) for a key question.

Lunch was random but delicious.  First a Yoplait Key Lime Greek Yogurt.

Sooo thick and sweet, really tasty.  This tasted more like really thick regular yogurt than Greek yogurt (not a bad thing); the tang all came from the lime flavor.

I also had a Revolution Foods tropical fruit packet.

And during my second break I ate this roasted seaweed snack.

This was bought on a whim, but now it’s going on my permanent grocery list!  It was salty and crunchy, and the portion stretched a really long way for only 30calories.

My class didn’t get out until a little late, then Rachel came over to get some notes, and then I went to the gas station for some coffee (looking forward to iced tomorrow), and by the time I was home I was starving.  I made myself  a snack plate while I cooked dinner.

Baby carrots,

and half an everything bagel with pb and low-fat cream cheese.

I think my month of no-hunger is catching up to me, I felt like I could gnaw my arm off all evening!

Thankfully dinner came together in a snap.

Roasted asparagus,

and lobster ravioli (from our trip to Trader Joe’s) tossed in Newman’s Own Roasted Garlic marinara sauce (free via Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program).

This was good, but not filling enough.  Honestly the only reason I didn’t eat an after dinner snack is because I was so hungry I couldn’t decide what I wanted.

I wish I could tell you I filled my evening studying for Wednesday’s big, super important test.  But instead I took a much-needed nap.  As soon as a take a quick shower I’m back to bed to catch up on sleep!

What’s your favorite brand of Greek yogurt?

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?

In the Nutritional Know

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Hello, hello. I want to tell you guys that I’ve got to hurry because of family time, but really I need to go finish making notecards! Don’t worry, we got plenty of fun time in as well.

Our vacation theme of mini mishaps continued – we wanted to work out on the great path behind my grandparents’ house, but Adam left our bag of running gear at home!  In keeping with my pessimistic optimism, I’m going to assume that means that I’m still too sick to run and it’s good that I couldn’t.

I wasn’t hungry for breakfast, but I did snag a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

The whole family (grandparents, mom, husband, me) piled in the car for lunch at a neat spot in Troy.

The Bakehouse was right up my alley; adorable, lots of offerings, and freshly baked bread!

I went with a half soup/sandwich combo for lunch.

A cup of turkey corn chowder,

with half a sandwich of turkey, aged swiss, cole slaw, and thousand island dressing on pumpernickel.

I only ate about half of the soup, because it was a little creamy for me, but the sandwich was perfection!  The reuben – sauerkraut + cole slaw is my absolute favorite.

Actually, my absolute favorite used to be the English toffee bars sold at Starbucks.  They were removed from the menu a while back and I’ve been in mourning ever since.  The Bakehouse had the exact replica –

Split four ways.

OMG!  I love love love this bar, crunchy toffee inside a chewy blondie!

I cleansed my palate with some Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape.

We’re fancy like that.

We did some antiquing (Zzzz), and also made it to a matinée of “The Lincoln Lawyer.”  I feel like the opening wasn’t given a lot of fanfare (I only heard about the movie because I’m obsessed with Michaela Conlin), but the movie was so good!  The perfect mix of funny, touching, and tense.  I highly recommend.

We headed to Applebees afterward for dinner.  Chain restaurants aren’t exactly my speed, so I ordered using the nutritional info as my guide.  Looking for entres 500 calories or less led me to the Teriyaki Shrimp Pasta (440 calories).

This was actually very good!  Whole wheat pasta, teriyaki sauce, and grilled shrimp with broccoli, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas.

I pretty much ignored the pasta, but I devoured my shrimp and veggies.

I tried to keep dinner light because I knew we were heading to George’s (<– Dairy Queen without the franchising) after dinner.

I ended up with a small snow storm (blizzard) with butterfingers and reeses cups.

I planned on sharing with Adam, but um, yeah…

We’re headed back to Buffalo tomorrow, with a few fun stops along the way.

If a restaurant offers nutritional info do you utilize it?  How much does the info affect your ordering?

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?!

Breaks and Body Farms

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Today has been chock-full of excitement!  Well, nerdy excitement; I’m feeling pretty jazzed.

First off, did you know that my spring break starts tomorrow?  Of course you didn’t, I’ve been so busy being sick that I haven’t had time to get excited about it.  Well I’m excited now!  Here are some of the fun happenings –

  • March 26th – April 3rd: Adam and I both are on spring break
  • March 28th – 30th: we are heading to Ohio to visit my grandparents, and my mommy will be there too!
  • March 30th – April 2nd: my mom will be spending her spring break in Buffalo with us
  • also, on April 9th we are heading to VA to visit my in-laws

I have a lot of school work to do over break (being sick for three weeks will do that), but it’s going to be great!

I wasn’t hungry again this morning, but I was starving as soon as I got to campus so I think breakfast might be back.  As soon as lab was over I dove into lunch, including a killer sandwich combination. 

An Arnold’s Sandwich Thin with sliced turkey, maple jelly, and…

Queso Fresco and Chipotle Laughing Cow Light.  The spicy and sweet made for a fantasmic combination.

With baby carrots on the side.

I ate with a group of friends and then we spent the rest of the afternoon banging out a bunch of pre-break work.  I took an online midterm, finished 2 weeks worth of lab work, and started studying for an upcoming nutrition exam.

I was hanging out on campus waiting for piece of excitement #2 – attending a forensic anthropology speaker series.  I spent 4:30 – 6:00pm  Listening to Rebecca Taylor from University of Tennessee’s “Body Farm” talk about their studies in human decomposition.  Eeeeeeee!  We learned about adipocere, and skin slippage, and animal scavenging.

I love anthropology, particularly forensic anthropology.  Did you know that if I wasn’t invested with having kids with the husband I’d probably be off pursuing a degree in Anthropology?!  I’m fascinated by the subject and would love to help work on applying our knowledge of osteology to crime scenes (think Brennan from “Bones”).

I continued the glee when I got home, with Smarties!

Adam and I split the box.

And then I got started on an exciting new dinner creation –

Ravioli Lasagna, serves 4 (loosely inspired by something I spotted in Everyday with Rachael Ray) –

  • 10-12 oz package refrigerated ravioli (we used a spinach and three cheese variety)
  • 4 cups (packed) fresh baby arugula
  • 2 cup marinara sauce
  • 1 cup reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese
  1. Preheat the oven to 350*.  Lightly grease an 8x8inch casserole dish with cooking spray.
  2. Place half of the ravioli in a neat, even layer in the bottom of your casserole dish.  Top ravioli with 2 cups arugula.  Top arugula with 1 cup marinara sauce, spreading evenly with a spoon.
  3. Repeat layers once more.  Top with mozzarella cheese.
  4. Bake for 45minutes, until browned and bubbly.

I’m not actually that huge of a lasagna fan, so it’s too time-intensive for me to ever want to prepare.  Plus, it’s expensive, the one I made for the husband’s 21st surprise party cost an arm and a leg.

This new lasagna was quick and cheap, but still cheesy!

Three questions for Thursday –

  1. What subject, that is not related to your career, thrills you?
  2. Smarties or M&M’s, pick your poison?
  3. Are you a lasagna fan?  Do you cook it often?

Measure It Monday

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It’s hard to measure where I am in my sickness because my symptoms keep changing.  I feel much more perky but my congestion and seal-cough continue.  I would say I’m 2-3 days from well?  Hopefully!

One vestige of deathly sickness that remains is my complete and total lack of interest in breakfast.  As a future RD I know the morning meal is important, but I just can’t make myself eat it right now.  I did get a big coffee when I got to campus though.

Grande nonfat latte with 1 pump of Irish Cream syrup, delicious.

As foretold, lunch was dinner’s twin.  A serving of Newman’s Own 4 Cheese Pizza,

and roasted green beans.

Plus some fruit snacks my mom sent during the break between classes.

We’re learning about breast-feeding in my Nutrition Throughout the Life-cycle class and it is so interesting!  The benefits of breast vs. bottle are immeasurable, even more vast than I had previously thought.  Plus we are exploring (just a bit) the socioeconomic factors that come into play.  Fascinating!

Random sidenote – I walked to and from school today in jeans and Adam’s sweatshirt, no coat!  Boo-yah.  The temperature is set to drop again tomorrow but I’m getting very excited about spring.

While prepping dinner I snacked on (an exact) serving of Popcorners.

Do you measure out things like chips, or just eat from the bag?  I only put my hand in a bag of chips if I’m planning on eating the entire thing, which I sometimes do!  Otherwise I always use my food scale to measure out a serving.  When it comes to snack foods like chips, the difference between 1-2 servings in satiety and satisfaction is nill, but the caloric difference can be huge.

Dinner was quick and easy but so tasty and wonderful.

Only 4 ingredients and no measuring required.

Goat cheese tortellini, butter toffee almonds, cubed butternut squash, and balsamic vinegar.

Cook the pasta as directed.

Roast the squash.  Actually, roast the squash, get nowhere, and finish it off in pan with a bit of butter.

Reduce the vinegar.

Combine everything (plus nuts) and fall in love.

This was perfect; a little savory and a little sweet.  Plus, you really can’t go wrong with goat cheese.

I made myself a broiled grapefruit for dessert.

But then I discovered that I hate grapefruit.  Oh well, at least I know.

Instead I had a cupcake.

Not just a cupcake though.  I just took the picture to show you guys how cute and perfect it was.

Instead I crumbled it over a Stonyfield 0% Chocolate Underground Yogurt,

for a much less cute, much more delicious treat.

Say it with me – “Mmmmmn!”

What sort of foods do you measure?  Do you use cups/spoons or a food scale?  I measure cheese, snack items, cereal, peanut butter and maple syrup.  Plus a few other things I’m sure I’m forgetting.