I Have To Grudgingly Admit

by Emily

… I love, love, loved The Hunger Games! We are reading it for book club and I’d been resisting, but I got in bed with it last night at 11 and couldn’t stop reading until I was done! My late night meant I missed my run this morning but it was still totally worth it. I need to get my hands on the next two books asap.

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal (a mix) with vanilla almond milk.

Plus a pear.

We ran around all afternoon, including a trip to the mecca.

Squeee! I didn’t buy even a tenth of what I wanted but still came away with a few goodies, including this Zico Chocolate Coconut Water.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but I think this might be my new favorite thing. The taste sort of reminded me of a chocolate egg cream. I hope this becomes available in Buffalo soon!

Our meals for the day were eaten at chains, but both were good. Lunch came from Panera Bread.

I got a soup and salad combo. A half serving of brocoli cheddar soup.

And a half Thai chopped chicken salad.

With an apple as my side.

And part of a cookie to finish.

I made it through the drive back to the house but then my late night hit me hard and I ended up taking an afternoon nap. I’m still feeling pretty tired and my mom and I have another 7-hour drive home tomorrow so I’ve got to get to bed early tonight (as in the minute I publish this post!).

Dinner was at Red Lobster.

I started with a side salad with balsamic vinegar on the side,

and of course a cheddar biscuit.

The salad was watery so I ignored it in favor of the biscuit which was delicious (of course!).

I did another combination for my main meal.

The stuffed flounder – which wasn’t as good as my meal last night at Outback,

and coconut shrimp – which came with tasty piña colada sauce.

I wasn’t expecting to get such a platter of food! I managed half of the fish and 4 of the shrimp, plus all of my side of cole slaw.

All that’s left to eat is sugar plums!

17Mar2012

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

by Emily

I may have had water at the beer garden but I did manage to sneak some booze into my St. Patrick’s Day.

Iced coffee with Tres Leches Liqueur and Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

I enjoyed my beverage on a walk with the husband and the dog. It was warm enough to do this –

Spring has sprung!

We all made sure to get our green on today,

even Mother Earth.

It was the perfect day for a walk and apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought so because the sidewalks were packed. Or maybe people just heard that the Co-op was giving out free carrot cake samples?

It was a fruitful day, I also snagged some samples at the grocery store. Some peanuts, fresh squeezed blood orange juice, and a big hunk of cheese in addition to the cake.

I also had a pear,

and a 0% Oikos Greek Yogurt with Caramel on the bottom.

Awhile back I complained about the texture changes in Stonyfield yogurt and a company rep sweetly offered to send me some coupons for products I might like more. You can assume that the next few Oikos products I mention were freebies. This caramel Oikos was delicious and the texture was perfect, smooth and decadent.

I topped it with a handful of Heath Bar crumbles and it made a great afternoon treat.

I was pretty hungry all afternoon so we ended up making an early, easy dinner.

Tricolor six cheese tortellini with marinara sauce, and roasted sliced mushrooms and shredded zucchini.

Tasty, tasty. I kept my portion on the small side because my evening plans include a HUGE bowl of popcorn. Also Stargate: Atlantis. A real party animal, that’s what I am!

What did you do for St. Patrick’s Day?

15Mar2012

The Very Hungry Blogger

by Emily

Do I look like a pre-school teacher?

Actually I was a bit too dressy; all of the real teachers were in jeans! My friend Kim and I did a nutrition education activity with 17 pre-k kids today. We talked about fruits and vegetables, read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and then had the kids draw their favorite fruits and veggies to feed to the hungry caterpillar.

It was a lot of fun. The experience equally excited me for my future in Dietetics and made me long for my past in the classroom.

I was definitely “on” in the classroom but I’m not working with a lot of sleep. As I was getting into bed last night I calculated and realized that working out this morning would leave me with 2.5 hours to sleep. Obviously I grudgingly reset my alarm. No workout was worth the additional 2 hours of shut-eye I logged, but this does mean I can’t get in my three for the week. One of the good things about logging workouts on a calendar per my NYE resolution is that I can see trends. Like I’ve identified the problem that I never workout. Or less obviously, I realize that I put off workouts at the beginning of the week and leave myself to scramble and/or miss them at the end.

I didn’t have time for breakfast either, but I did eat breakfast-y food when I was finished with preschool, Statistics, and clinic.

When I was at work on Wednesday Adam made a version of my Healthier Spinach Ricotta Pie with spinach and chopped broccoli. He put the extra into cupcake tins. I brought three egg cups for lunch today.

Plus a pear.

And my friend Janessa shared a few dark chocolate almonds with me during night class.

But I was more than ready for a big dinner when I got home. We have spring break next week (yay!) and I need to use the free time to get back into the breakfast habit.

Dinner was a big pile of roasted green beans,

and an amazing sandwich.

I piled 2 oz of Applegate Farm’s Honey and Maple Turkey Breast, 2 oz of Cabot’s 50% Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Cheese, and a sort of disgusting amount of sweet pickle slices on a Wegman’s Sandwich Thin and then wrapped the whole thing in foil and stuck it in the oven to get melty.

Dee-lish-us! Cheese and pickles is the new cheese and jam. I generally use full-fat cheese (other than what we buy shredded) but going 50% reduced here lets me use enough that the cheese is a major sandwich component. And the Cabot is pretty spot on with texture and flavor.

I also had popcorn with butter as an evening snack since the husband made himself a big bowl and couldn’t finish it all. Amateur.

26Jan2012

Breakfast – Banana Ricotta Won Tons

by Emily

Good morning! My day started off with a difficult trip to the gym. I forgot my water bottle at home, and when I tried to buy one the machine stole my money. Ugh. I knew I couldn’t do much without drinking (I hadn’t even had a sip yet) but I figured I could do something. Treadmill – 5 minutes walking warm up, 10 minutes running, 5 minutes walking cool down. 20 minutes and 1.6 miles.

Then I bought my Statistics manual while the book store line was still short and walked home. On T/R I’m going to drive to the gym in the morning and then walk home (and back to school) so that I keep my good parking spot. When I leave Statistics in the afternoon I only have 45 minutes to get to clinical so I can’t afford having to hike to my car. Today Adam is home and can give me a ride to class, yay!

Breakfast was another won ton experiment, and a winner.

Banana Ricotta Won Tons

1/2 a small banana
1/4 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
1 tsp honey
pinch salt
5 won ton wrappers
baking spray
cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit and prepare a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Mash together filling components (banana through salt) until well combined.
Place ~ 1 tsp of filling in the center of each won ton wrapper. Wet the edges of the wrappers with water and fold into little packages, pressing the sides firmly to seal.
Place won tons on prepared baking sheet. Spray the tops with baking spray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes.

I also had a juicy pear.

Bring on the juicy fruits; I’m also guzzling water like there’s no tomorrow.

Today is my long day – Stats, clinical, evening class until 8 pm – so I’ll see you tonight for what’s sure to be a cranky post!

21Jan2012

Neighboors

by Emily

Last night was all-around pathetic. I stayed home alone watching Grey’s (pathetic) and crying (pathetic) while Adam was on his night rotation. I ate this pathetic plate of chips and melted cheese for dinner.

x2 (pathetic).

I had an alarm set for hot yoga, but then my neighbors were so incredibly loud that I figured it was time to get up. After turning off my phone and brushing my teeth, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was actually 1:30 am. I missed my yoga class and I hate my neighbors, aka my neighBOORS. Seriously. Adam and I lived off-campus when we were in undergrad too, but we weren’t complete assholes to coexist with.

When Adam got home this morning we spent hours (hours!) online looking through residency options. Between trying to balance program lengths, locations, childcare possibilities, and more; it’s a fairly frustrating process. But it is fun to think about the future.

We ate breakfast while we worked.

I had a pear,

and a cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

Strawberry cream cheese is too amazing. Though I might have picked a different breakfast topper if I’d remembered that my lunch leftovers contained cream cheese too.

I gave my 5 Jalapeño Popper Won Tons a 5 minute spin in 400* oven and they were good to go.

Adam devoured the rest of the leftovers during his hospital shift. We both agreed that they were one of my better creations.

Many (many, many, many) hours of residency research later … It was time for dinner.

The main attraction was butter chicken.

I followed a recipe from Kath’s blog, minus most of the spices because we didn’t have them. It was still good.

This small pile of kale was actually a huge mountain before it cooked down.

Cooked in chicken stock and dressed with lemon juice and brown sugar.

And finally baked potato fries.

I cut them extra thin, before baking at 450*, and they were nice and crispy.

One more day until I go back to school, So much to do still!

Do you live within hearing distance of your neighbors? Have you ever had a horrible neighbor?

29Dec2011

Wednesday – Thursday, Still On The Move

by Emily

Hello again from another location, this time Ohio. Once we get home from here we have a day trip to Toronto and then I’m staying put until the end of break!

Wednesday

Yesterday was Adam’s and my 4-year wedding anniversary, aka our 9-year anniversary of being together!!! It’s crazy to think that we’ve shared so much of our lives. Sappy sidenote – I am grateful every day that I get to spend with my husband. I am so thankful that the man I love is handsome and funny in addition to being intelligent and kind. </sap>

I had an early morning orthodontist appointment and we had to do a grocery restock and then we reunited with another man I love.

I sort of want to get those pictures framed.

Adam and I spent our anniversary doing our favorite things – namely tons of eating good food and cuddling on the couch watching good tv. A big, made from scratch breakfast felt downright gourmet.

For the eggs, we went to the deli and requested two, 1/4 inch-thick slices of honey roasted turkey.

We chopped them up and sautéed them in a bit of butter, then scrambled in 4 large eggs.

Out of control delicious. I quit eating most meat (mammals) before I had gotten to try everything and I suspect that I would really enjoy ham.

We also had hash browns made with white potatoes, onion, red bell pepper, 2 Tbsp of butter, and 2 tsp of chipotle oil.

Adam bought me some fourth year gifts for our anniversary.

A book with a sweet inscription, persimmons for fruit and rugelach for flour (substituted for flour because we were going out-of-town).

I’ve been picking up the persimmons and deciding that they were too expensive to splurge on for weeks at the grocery, so they were such a nice surprise. We split part of one persimmon but decided that it wasn’t ripe enough yet.

Adam was careful to buy squishy ones because once in the city, before we knew better, we tried to eat an unripe persimmon and about died when all the moisture was sucked from our mouths! This one had a good flavor but was still a little cotton-mouthy. So we washed it away with rugelach.

The snack was perfect to bring us into lunch.

I had an Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna sandwich on half a cheddar jalapeno bialey with a little bit of Miracle Whip.

Plus a huge pile of roasted green beans.

Adam hates jalapeno but knew I’d like that bialey more than the others and I gave him the half with more cheese, so we both compromised in the name of love.

It would have been easy and fun to go out for a romantic dinner, so I’m extra proud of us that we stayed home and cooked together instead.

I started by steam-sauteing 3 chopped zucchini in a bit of chicken stock. Then I finished them off with 1 Tbsp of evoo and this packet of Garlic Gold I got in my HLS swag.

I was expecting to adore the Garlic Gold after all the love it got in the healthy living blog community, but we found it to be pretty “meh.”

We set the cooked zucchini aside and while Adam boiled 3 servings of pasta I made a roux with 2 Tbsp of butter, 2 Tbsp of flour, and 1 Tbsp of milk. Into that, I whisked 1 cup of skim milk and 1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Once the sauce came together all we had to do was toss it with the cooked squash and pasta.

We topped our bowls with a bit of panko and more cheese.

Dinner was great, definitely as good as anything we would have gotten in a restaurant. This was on the healthy side, but now I am absolutely going to make a similar sauce and use it in oozey, gooey mac and cheese.

We stayed up later than planned watching “That 70’s Show,” which was good for anniversary fun but bad for me working out this morning. I can’t do anything active here in Ohio and I’m worried that all my vacation workout momentum will be for naught.

Thursday

Today was a day of many meals. Due in parts to time of the month and restlessness from 7 hours in the car. And we got junky food too; a healthy living blog no-no but an unavoidable part of existing in the real world.

Chicken biscuit from Chick-fill-a.

The leftover serving of dinner.

A juicy pear.

Animal crackers split with Adam (70/30 his favor).

Mid-way we got to stop for froyo.

I got eggnog and toffee mocha yogurts, topped with candy bar pieces and some marshmallow topping.

Alas both of my flavors were too spicy and I ended up throwing most of mine away. It was a sad day indeed.

But hundreds of miles later we found a Sonic and I ordered a diet coke with strawberry that totally made up for it.

Adam and I also split fries and chicken tenders.

Good thing my grandma served a lateish dinner, huh?

Webster was a perfect angel for 95% of the drive.

We even got to take him in to meet my grandpa this afternoon. I like it when all the men in my life are well-acquainted.

Per usual, my grandma made a great dinner.

Side salad,

cooked spinach with feta and cherry tomatoes,

truffle mac and cheese to make up for Adam not having any on Christmas,

and italian breaded chicken,

which I only could eat a few bites of because I felt like food was coming out of my ears.

After dinner, Nana and Adam worked on a 750-piece puzzle while I wrote this monster post. I hate all these super long posts I’ve been writing lately! I know none of my readers are interesting in scrolling for hours, but since I use my blog as a journal I don’t want to skip days that are so great. I promise to get back to a less annoying schedule once I’m home for good.

27Nov2011

Best Ever

by Emily

It’s a good thing I decided not to blog after dinner yesterday because we ended up staying out for drinks! It was a late, fun night.

We started our evening with dinner at Las Culebrinas, Adam’s favorite Cuban place on the planet. They have rolls with the best garlic butter.

We also ordered some appetizers to share.

Fried plantain with shrimp in red sauce and mozzarella sticks.

For dinner I got Mahi Mahi crusted in corn flakes and topped with a honey mustard sauce.

It was a little too fried for me but the sauce was so good.

And it came with a side salad with great dressing.

We did lots of sharing (though no one went near Adam’s beef because he was moaning so loudly – and whispering sweet nothings to his chocolate flan – and we were all a little afraid). I ended up eating the equivalent of 3/4 of my plate.

Afterwards we walked around Coconut Grove for some more people watching. And somehow ended up at Uncle Moe’s for drinks. Like the Cow Tipper.

Here’s a shot with my hand for size comparison.

My mom and I split this one, obviously. It was tasty, but not as strong as it sounds.

Which is good, because I was feeling good this morning. I decided to skip the hotel breakfast, which was lackluster yesterday, and get in a quick gym trip instead. 15 minutes on the treadmill for a bit over a mile.

I ate my stolen pear for breakfast.

Along with a NuGo Dark bar packed from home.

And we stopped by our old favorite Thai place for a bubble ~~tea~~ smoothie.

Strawberry coconut smoothie with bobba.

So freaking good!

Plus a few peppermints for freshness.

Amid the day’s exploration we also spent some time at the mall. I know shopping seems like a strange vacation activity, but my parents live on an island so it’s more exploratory for them than the beach. My dad shared a pretzel with me while we were there.

I ate about x2 what’s pictured. We were practically frozen so I also bought an earl grey with steamed skim milk.

A few stops later, and we were at my favorite place on the planet.

Where I made the biggest cup of froyo I’ve ever eaten.

Everything chocolate and caramel, smothered in marshmallow.

Heaven. Pure heaven.

And the evening only got better. The plan was to go to Joe’s Stone Crab, but a 2-hour wait scared us away. The disappointment was very serendipitous, because we ended up having a best ever dinner at Joe’s less formal take-away spot next door. You ordered your food at a counter and brought it to the booth yourself and it ended up being just perfect.

To start, Adam and I split a seafood bisque.

It was creamy and tangy with big chunks of fish.

Then the four of us split an order of stone crab.

Stone crab is like the best crab you’ve ever had, on steroids. It is meaty, yet tender and buttery.

I got most of two claws, dipped in butter and mustard.

I drank a spicy bloody Mary with my food but I was too excited about the crab to remember to photograph before a few sips in.

For the rest of the meal, my mom and I split two sandwiches.

The shrimp po boy and the lobster Reuben.

The po boy was good, though I mostly ate the shrimp out of the bun, dipped in remoulade.

The Reuben was out of this world. Everything that’s good about a Reuben but with the added amazingness of lobster.

Everyone kept laughing at me for chewing with my eyes closed but I just couldn’t help it. The big pieces of meat were absolutely perfect.

I thought I couldn’t be happier, but then Adam bought me this t-Rex juice container.

Best trip souvenir ever.

My favorite activity in any city is bike riding, and for the hour after dinner that’s just what we did.

It was so much fun, though our times in the sand basically left my thighs burning! Then we spent another hour walking down the club strip on South Beach for the ultimate people watching. It was the best vacation day ever. The best.

25Nov2011

Lincoln On South Beach

by Emily

The day’s not yet done, but I can already tell that I won’t feel like blogging after dinner so I wanted to get a post in now. This vacation is tiring me out, whee!

We started the morning with complimentary breakfast. I made oats to eat, and stole a pear and some granola for later.

I topped my oats with skim milk and peanut butter.

Plus had a cup of hot chocolate.

And then we went to the gym! I realize the first morning of a vacation is an odd time to break my months’ long gym hiatus, but what can I say? There was one in-house, Adam could go with me, and Sleepwalk with Me by Mike Birbiglia was begging to be read. I actually extended my workout so I could finish the book; 45 minutes on the stationary bike.

Our first stop of the day was Lululemon for an exciting Christmas gift. I also grabbed a piece of candy.