Tag Archives: pasta

Dinner for Two

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After our family time weekend it was great to spend the evening with the husband, just the two of us.  We even had a three course meal, Emily and Adam style.

First course, a big plate of green bean fries.

This is my favorite veggie to roast!  Tonight’s plate got a sprinkle of onion powder pre-oven that took it over the top.  My favorite are the crinkly ones, just like french fries!

Second course, shrimp and lobster ravioli with garlic butter sauce.

I’d love to have you think I was a good enough wife to have whipped this up on my own, but in reality it was a Buitoni sample I got to try via the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

This was from their Complete Meal for Two line.  The ravioli and garlic butter sauce cook in the time it takes to boil water so I didn’t have high expectations but I ended up being very impressed.  This was the quickest, easiest meal but it tasted restaurant quality.  The sauce was rich without being too heavy and I thought it was well seasoned.  The ravioli were stuffed full and I found huge meaty chunks of shrimp and lobster.  Plus, at 500calories a serving I found my portion to be very filling, probably from the 21grams of protein.  My only complaint with the dish is that it had 49%! of your daily sodium.  Adam and I both have good to low blood pressure so this is ok for an occasional indulgence for us, but be careful if you are watching your sodium levels.

Dessert.

Breyer’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough sandwiches.  I saw the box on sale today and just couldn’t resist.  I adore ice cream cookie sandwiches but I had a random allergic reaction to a Chipwich in college so I haven’t had one in years.  No reaction tonight, unless you count the exclamation of utter bliss!  For 160calories I was blown away at how generous the portion was.

The cookies were chewy but not at all soggy and the filling tasted like vanilla froyo.  The cookie dough pieces took it to a new level.  Full disclosure – I actually ate my dessert before dinner 😀

What was the last “fancy date meal” you prepared?  I feel like I tend to make “girl food,” but bacon mac and cheese is on the menu for tomorrow so we’ll see if I can’t make the husband swoon yet!

Pep in My Step

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Whew!  I am sad to see Camile go, but it’s nice to have a day with a little downtime.  Before I drove her to the airport this morning I whipped up a Green Monster so she could have a taste.

1cup frozen spinach + 1frozen banana + 1cup oj = a new convert; she thought it tasted great!  Here’s what our mouths saw –

I made the world’s quickest grocery trip (we are out of town with family again this weekend) then came home for some serious cleaning.  I might have been working but at least I was home 🙂

Mid-morning I snacked on a 100-calorie Cheez-It pack Camile left behind.

As well as some Canada Candy!  This Cadbery Pep was basically just a foreign York Peppermint Patty.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry, I just ate it because I was hot.  We try not to run our A.C. all that often and cool minty refreshingness straight from my fridge was hard to pass up.  Not the best reason to consume 200calories though…

When I did finally get hungry late in the afternoon I set out for a neighborhood wander.  We had food at home but I was in the mood for a walk so I let myself celebrate our $15 grocery bill (God coupons rock my socks so hard!).  I ended up at Saigon Cafe for Pad See Eiw with tofu.

I have zero control around broad rice noodles so I plated half of the serving and put the rest away before I even took a taste.

Sidenote – how cute are the plates I got for my birthday?

They almost match my favorite chopsticks.

Back to the food; Pad See Eiw is my favorite Thai dish but I was shocked to see how many veggies this version boasted.  You never see yellow squash in this dish but the addition was fabulous.

Tonight is something along the lines of dinner, tv, mini workout, more cleaning.

What tricks to you use to keep yourself from eating all of too big portions?

Oh, Canada

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Tuesday was so absolutely busy that it’s taken me ’till halfway through Wednesday just to sit down and do the recap!  I’m not even worrying about today’s posts until later, I think this one will be looooooong enough.

Yesterday morning Camile, Adam and I piled into the car bright and early to pick up Benji; oh yes, we were going to Canada.

Actually, first we stopped by the American side of the Falls.

Adam and I, in our typical fashion, forgot our passports so while he ran back home the rest of us wandered across the bridge to a view of the Falls I hadn’t seen before.  Mother Nature knows where it’s at, everything was gorgeous.

For our car breakfast I packed a Cookie Dough Balance Bar,

and a Blueberry POM to split with Adam.

POM Wonderful recently sent me this new juice variety to sample.  I tend not to drink a lot of juice but POM has such concentrated nutrient value that I think it does have a place in a healthy diet.  Plus, juice usually doesn’t register fullness with most people but POM has such a strong flavor that I think it contributes to satiety.  The four of us agreed that while the blueberry was good, we liked the original variety better; the berries gave a bit of an aftertaste.  We also thought that it was too strong, we cut ours with water and enjoyed it better that way.

We crossed the border into a pretty touristy area, but the four of us definitely enjoyed marveling at the wax sculptures, the kooky decorations, and all the offerings at the gigantic Hershey’s store.  Everyone was hungry and ready to get out of the heat so we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

I enjoyed all the decorations and special effects, but thought that the menu was pretty overpriced.  Adam and I decided to split an entrée.

Splitting was a good decision, our meal was giant!  It ended up being wonderful though.  We shared pasta with peas, shrimp, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes.  We both adore sun-dried tomatoes and we felt like the food was pretty high quality.  Splitting worked out perfectly; I gave Adam all of the shrimp and most of the pasta and he let me go to town on all of the veggies.

Next we drove to Toronto!  I loved it!  Adam, Benji, and I kept asking each other all day why we didn’t just live there?!  Toronto seemed like a very walker-friendly city, we saw tons of bikes, there were a bazillion cute stores, the food options were great, and everyone was so nice.

We walked all day, my idea of heaven!  We started in Chinatown; I went into a small grocery store which was probably a mistake because now I’m dying to get back to shop.  You could buy Bobba!  Adam insisted that it wasn’t a kitchen necessity, but we did get some bubble tea.

I got a small passionfruit black tea with tapioca, yum!

We had to walk to see the CN Tower.

Tickets to get in were $20, so we spent some time craning our heads back and walked around the lobby instead.  I met a very fuzzy bear, which might have made Adam a bit jealous 😉

Afterwards we wanded around what I guess was the fashion district (there was also a button).

Fabulous, is pretty much the only word for dinner.

We searched for vegetarian Poutine and came up with Utopia Cafe.  Perfect crispy fries topped with vegetarian gravy and big cheese curds?  Fabulous.

I was so excited to get to try this classic (usually the gravy is meat based).  The four of us split a basket for an appetizer and now we all want to go back.

Our entrées were fantastic as well.  I got the curried chick pea and potato burrito.

The entrées all came with rice and beans and a green salad.

My burrito tasted so much like the roti I grew up eating, I felt like I was back in St. Thomas!  The potato and chick peas were cooked in a spicy coconut curry with raisins and served with some chutney.

I ate all of my salad, most of my rice (Adam happily scarfed down the rest), and half of my burrito.  I’m already excited about eating the second half for dinner tonight.

Then we piled back into the car for the drive back to reality the U.S.

Have you ever been to Canada?

Long but Loving

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Hello again!  I hope that everyone got over the week’s hump nicely.  I’ll describe my situation succinctly: I will never put off my work for 4 days in a row again!  It’s been a painful experience that I don’t want to soon repeat.  The last 48hours have been stressful, but my eats have all been so good that there was no way I wasn’t posting them; hence the long recap post.

Wednesday morning I made a breakfast that was truly a thing of beauty –

A serving of Van’s Belgian Waffles topped with 2T maple syrup, the last of the strawberry sauce, fresh blueberries, and a cinnamon sprinkle.

Gah!  I always used to think that I didn’t like waffles, pancakes, etc, but that was just because I didn’t know to top them off with fruit and cinnamon.

{study, study, study}

Lunch was some Allergaroo Spyglass Noodles.

These were super tasty, and just the right about of food.

I wanted to keep lunch light because it was Katie’s birthday last week and we had a cupcake date.  It ended up being too hot for cupcakes, but locally made ice cream certainly fit the bill.

I got a small scoop of A Date at the Zoo, coconut ice cream with wine poached dates, brazil nuts, and chocolate chips.  Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds!

{study, study, study}

When hunger hit (hard) later in the afternoon I sliced up a big plate of cucumber to munch while I studied.  Unphotograhed accountability note – I also ate ~ 1/3 of a salmon patty straight from the container.

The water-dense snack was a good choice, because when the husband got home at 6 we headed out for a run.

I didn’t wear my watch, so I have no idea what the times are, but it was a good workout.  We did a mix of running and walking (with a few stops so I could fuss with my socks, eek I’m not sure if it’s the shoes or the socks but something with my new shoes isn’t working) and covered 3miles in total.

When you have good leftovers a healthy tasty dinner can literally be less than 2mintues away!

Over a bed of spring mix lettuce I combined 2/3cup microwaved frozen corn, a salmon patty, and a big scoop of medium chunky salsa.

The flavors of this salad went together so well!  It filled me up but it tasted so good that I kept scraping at my plate so I wouldn’t lose any of it 🙂

{study, study, study} um, {study, study, study, study}

That’s right folks, I pulled an (almost)all-nighter!  I stayed up until 4am doing the reading I should have done over the weekend.  Ugh.

I fell into bed for 6hours or so and then got right back to my books.  My messed up sleep schedule messed with my hunger in turn, and breakfast just didn’t sound good.  I did nibble on a serving of Jammie Dodgers throughout the morning though.

Around 2:30 I was finally caught up on the reading, which meant that I was ready to study for and take my test, jeez!

I did break for lunch though.  I pulled a carton of Dr. McDougal’s Lentil Soup out of the depths of my fridge.

I gussied it up with a chopped string cheese, a dollop of plain Siggis yogurt, and some Sriracha.

With a Savory Kathy’s Krackers Flax Snax on the side.

All together now –

Then it was more studying, yadda, yadda, yadda, and FINALLY I took my exam.  And I’m pretty sure I got a 100%, phew!

and if you’ve stuck around through all of that, I’d like to reward you with some recommendations…..

A Few of My (Current) Favorite Things –

1. The new fishy measuring spoon set my mom sent me.

They are available at Fred Flare, but I have heart palpitations whenever I view the kitchen section of that store so I can’t give you an exact link!

2. This College Humor Article about us 90’s kids.

Although I was actually always partial to Treasure Mountain, the article is hilarious.

3. The free online game Red Remover –

It is based on actual principles of physics, it is wickedly entertaining, and it’s flipping adorable.

Any current loves you’d like to share with me?

Ch. 6 Was Actually About Protein

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I hope everyone is having a good week!  Panic is sort of an understatement for my current mindframe.  My stomach starts to hurt whenever I think about how much schoolwork there is to be done.  Between this morning and Thursday afternoon I need to read and take notes on 7 chapters, watch 7 online lecture videos, and complete 9 different assignments.  Oh yeah, and right now I’ve completed 1/7, 1/7, and 1/9; yikes!

I’ll get it all done in time, but I’m definitely not too happy.  The biggest problem is that it takes me so long to get started in the morning.  Thank goodness I ate a great breakfast to fuel me once I did start!

Just yum!  This bowl was a big mix of Siggis blueberry yogurt, strawberry sauce, blueberries, a sliced red plum, and a spoon of clover honey.

Who doesn’t love a breakfast that’s a beauty even after she’s all mixed up?

This bowl was super filling too; I didn’t eat lunch until after 2pm.

Lunch was a beauty all on its own.

I needed staying power like breakfast so I made a Protein Packed Peas and Peanuts Pasta Bowl

  1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, pan-steam 1cup frozen peas in a splash of vegetable stock.
  2. Remove the peas to a separate plate and lower heat to medium.  Swirl 1tsp evoo in the pan and add 1cup precooked macaroni noodles, season with salt.  Cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, until browned and crusty.
  3. Meanwhile make your sauce.  Whisk together 1Tbsp peanut butter, 1/2Tbsp tamari sauce, 2T rice vinegar, and 1tsp sugar.  Tip # 1 – microwaving your pb for 30seconds can make it easier to stir.  Tip # 2 – use the bowl you plan on eating out of so you don’t waste any sauce that sticks to the sides.
  4. Return peas to pan with pasta, pour in sauce, toss to combine.  Cook 2-4more minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Break 1egg over mix and allow to mostly set before stirring in.

This was so fricking tasty!  I lowered the peanut butter and oil amounts from my usual recipe and I really didn’t miss them.

Fun fact, the egg came from the first of my winning cartons.

I always buy Eggland’s Best eggs but now I can get the really good ones!  (i.e. organic, vegetarian fed hens, etc)

And it’s back to work for me!

Nutrition Fun Fact – Quinoa is considered a high quality protein because it is easily digestible and contains all of our essential amino acids.

Achoo BooHoo

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So it turns out that I scored a 100% on yesterday’s exam (yippie!).  Sadly, that news was pretty much the last high point of the day.  Today was just bad.  I woke up with bad allergies and a bad mood.  A terrible mood actually.  I have no explanation for it, but kittens and sunshine were just not in the cards.

I went out to get breakfast so I could take a cheer up walk, and I ended up with an egg and cheese biscuit.

Meh.

Even more meh was lunch.

I usually love Allergaroo, but this Spaghetti was bad.

The serving (or two!) of Lindt truffles I had for dessert did perk me up a bit though.

And once the husband got home things started to get better, love how that works!

Grocery shopping was obviously a necessity so we threw in a salad bar date.

Grilled veggies,

a little bit of sweet and sour chicken and curried chicken salad,

cabbage salad,

a lot of Asian green beans.

Realistically Friday night was not the time to hit up a hot bar, usually I lick my plate clean but I couldn’t quite swing it tonight.

I was still hungry post-dinner and when I was feeling empty a full hour later I decided that it was real hunger and made myself some mashed potatoes.

I mashed 7oz of baby potatoes with 1T skim milk, 1.5T butter, salt, and rosemary.

I’ll never understand people who peel there potato salad potatoes, the skins are the best part!

Do you have any allergies?  I am allergic to cats, dust, and tons of seasonal plants, but I’m so happy not to have any food allergies that it’s really all good.

I’m Almost Done with Soc!

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This morning I had to get up and write my oral presentation which was due, also, this morning.  Whoops 😉  I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home so I snagged the last end piece of beer bread for the road.

My presentation actually went pretty well I think.  I spoke about the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who I think are fascinating.  If you are interested, there is a great film made about them, which you can watch online here.

For lunch I went ahead and made a serving of my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles.

Gah!  Look at how good that looks –

I used 1/2 a yellow squash, 1/2 a zucchini, and ~3/4 of a serving of pasta so this was gloriously veggie-heavy.

I couple of hours later I also ended up snacking on a bowl of Barbara’s Vanilla Almond Shredded Oats.

We had to drive out to UPS this evening (they fabulous Brandi arranged a vegan sample for us!) and since we were in the area we drove up to the lake and took a short walk.

Dinner just sort of didn’t happen.  Perhaps because of the late snack?  Tomorrow morning I have my Sociology final and then we are driving up to Ohio for some family fun.  Later alligators!

P.S. Speaking of Brandi, go and wish her happy birthday!

Peanut Butter Perfection

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I ended up being too lazy to go get a snack, to the point where I actually didn’t eat anything until my late (8:30) dinner.  In college Adam and I used to joke that I was too lazy to ever get fat, but I guess that doesn’t apply when your apartment is 5feet from a bar with jalapeno nachos!!  😀

Dinner was all about that new jar of peanut butter.

How good does that look?!?  Parsnip fries, OIAJ bases, pasta, is there nothing nut butters can’t do?

I basically made a single serving of my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles.

  1. Place a pan over medium-high heat.  Add in half a chopped yellow squash, half a chopped zucchini, s&p, and 1/2cup water.  Cover and cook for 5-8minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. When the veggies are done to your liking place them on a separate plate, taking care to dump out any extra water left in the pan.
  3. Heat 1T evoo in the pan.  Add 1 serving cooked linguine and cook 3-5minutes, stirring occasionally.  You want the pasta to start to brown and get a bit crispy.
  4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together 2T chunky peanut butter, 1T rice vinegar, 1T tamari, and 1t sugar.  If your peanut butter is very firm you might want to give it 30seconds in the microwave before added the other ingredients.  I like to do this step in my dinner bowl so the sauce that sticks to the sides doesn’t get wasted.
  5. Add the veggies back into the pan with the pasta.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and veggies and carefully fold it in with a wooden spoon until everything is coated.

I ended up with a huge, delicious plate of food.

The balance of sweet and savory in the recipe is spot on.  If you aren’t vegan, I would also recommend scrambling in an egg at the last minute.

I may have been too lazy for a snack, but dessert is definitely on my horizon!  I’ll update later if I end up eating anything else.

*****Updated to add – we had to go move the car so I decided to make a trip to the Co-op to pick up the essentials; i.e. more vegan yogurt to eat watermelon with 🙂  I did also grab dessert.

Rice Dream Mocha Pie, done and done. 

This question has been all over blogworld recently but it fits with this post – what is your favorite way to eat peanut butter?