Tag Archives: peas

That Sounds Dirty

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My shift last night went great, but when I got home to bed that’s when it felt like the real work began**.  I’ve been having a terrible time sleeping lately and it’s driving me crazy.  I’ve always struggled with bouts of insomnia, but I’m fairly certain this week’s sleeping difficulties are tied to skipping the gym.  Even though I was tired (obviously), and it’s technically a free day in my training plan (the whole week has been “free” apparently), it was pretty easy to convince myself to work out this morning once I made the no gym = no sleep connection .

Once I got the husband up**, we were off for a 9am run.  We ran 2 miles down Elmwood and back for a 4 mile run.  4 miles in 44:53. Yikes, holy skipped training days, Batman!

After a quick shower and a date with some ice** we retraced our running steps so I could pick up a few things at the Farmer’s Market and Co-op.  The Farmer’s Market was a gigantic puddle, but we had more luck on the rest of our stops.

We split a grande (non-fat, half syrup) iced caramel macchiato.

And bought some brunch from the Co-op.

I knew my dinner was going to be veggie-heavy so I loaded up on protein.  Pad Thai noodles,

mango cashew curry chicken salad,

waldorf chicken salad,

and pea and radish salad.  That stuff in the corner was Adam’s tofu.

We ate at a table outside in the sun and it was glorious.

The real excitement came at dessert though, they have my new favorite candy bars back in stock!  Adam and I split one for funsies when we got home.

Mmmmmn!  <– things that make you go oh god, yes!**

I spent some time cleaning the apartment this afternoon, balanced with time spent curled up with a few magazines, and then it was time for lunch/dinner.

I had a neon eggplant and some purple kale (yay, colors!) to use up and the first place my mind went was honey sesame eggplant.

First I saute/steamed the eggplant and kale in a bit of sesame oil and water.  Next I tossed the veggies with a mix of tamari, rice vinegar, and honey.  Finally I topped them with some crunchy sesame seeds.

Not my most amazing combination ever, but good enough and at least it was quick.**

Gotta get in your veggies!

I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’ve got the day off tomorrow, yippie.  I’m off to be a working girl**.

**that sounds dirty

Success x2

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So my baking project this afternoon was Jenna’s recipe for perfect chocolate chip cookies.

You know, the one with a whopping 14 Tablespoons of (browned!) butter.  No big.

I actually wasn’t sure I did everything right at first, because the dough was very strange and sticky.  I was so worried about them that I made a few less cookies than the recipe called for and tried my hand at some cookie muffins instead.

The cookies turned out fine fantastic, but the “muffins” were still a damn good idea.

I found the smallest muffin and cookie in the batch, and scarfed one of each before dinner.

Queasy tummy, happy tummy.  Adam says they’re the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever had.

Rounding out my fun-to-do’s from yesterday, I also made a banging dinner.

Dinner’s inspiration was these snowman pasta my aunt sent us for Hanukkah.

I cooked the pasta, following package directions, stirring in ~1cup of frozen peas towards the end of cooking time.  I also sautéed some chopped baby mushrooms in 1T of butter. <– Best taste ever!  Finally, I whipped up a batch of this Lemon Cream Sauce from Cooking Light. (Note – I only made the sauce, not the rest of the recipe, and I substituted in light cream.)  The end result was fantastic.

I loved how firm the pasta stayed and the sauce added a great fresh flavor without being too heavy.

We also ate some roasted green beans on the side.

Sort of a perfect dinner.

And now I’m about to tuck in to the perfect dessert; a final cookie with a glass of skim milk.  Good night!

Tastes Tropical

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Whooops, tomorrow’s my last early morning of 2010 and I’m late to bed!  I need to get showered and bedded so I do well on my presentation tomorrow.  And also so I remember to wear a watch, which I never do but need to for said presentation.

I spent most of my evening reorganizing all of my notecards and binders, for an OCD-freak like me it was pretty glorious.  I also worked on an application, finished my project, and went to UPS.

By the time we were headed home with our package the husband and I were both snippy with hunger, so he made a pit stop at Moe’s.  I stuck with my dinner plans, but I did devour a TON of his tortilla chips.

My salad was much more exciting in my head before I realized that there were chips in the other room.

Still pretty good though.  A butter lettuce base with Newman’s Asian Sesame dressing, orange slices, peas, and pulverized coconut.

Tasted light and tropical.

My whole meal was pretty tropical actually, because my protein/dessert (<– it can be both!) was 2% Plain Chobani with key lime pie.

Yuuuuuuuum!  This combination is seriously even better than just straight up key lime pie.

Think well-spoken thoughts for me tomorrow, please!

Have you ever had key lime pie?  Lots of people in my food lab had not, which surprised me.

Waiting for Harvest, Waiting for Vengence

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It’s been quite the productive Saturday; I decorated the apartment, ran a bunch of errands, made (TWO) great dinner(s), and even got some studying done for Tuesday’s Nutrition test.

Our errands – just post office, Target, Wegmans – took hours; the holiday crowds are out!  We ended up picking up lunch from the hot bar when I declared myself too hungry to shop.

Everything on that plate was delicious!

Once we were home long enough to warm up, we bundled back up and headed to Starbucks so I could get a salted caramel hot chocolate to sip while I studied.

Delicious!  But even though I gave myself a sugar headache, I still had a weird, growly hunger.  I ended up having a few random snacks while I waited for/cooked dinner.  Like a latke straight from the fridge,

and half a tortilla with melted sharp cheddar.

Dinner was quick to prepare, but the 45minute cook time is when I required my snacks.  It was worth it.

Another family recipe attempt, this time Noodle Kugel (recipe at the end of the post).

I only made a half recipe; when Adam saw cottage cheese and raisins go into the casserole dish he told me lighting the menorah would be the extent of his Jewish traditions for the day.  Hence, dinner # 2.

Did you know we have an Aero Garden in our fire-place?

I should say had.

We harvested!

And I used the basils to make Adam some tasty homemade pesto for dinner.

My dinner was better though.

Kugel is sweet in a way that still feels like dinner and the crispy noodles on the top are the best.

My side dish was pretty rocking too.  I shredded two leftover latkes, mixed them with 2/3 cup of peas, and topped with the end of the cranberry sauce and a dollop of light sour cream.

The combination was to die for and the fact that I ended up with Christmas colors was a happy accident.

Quite the fantastic dinner if I do say so myself!

Noodle Kugel

  • 12-16 oz. wide egg noodles – cook, drain, run cold water over

 Mix the following ingredients, and then mix in the noodles:

  • 8 oz. sour cream
  • 8 oz. cottage cheese
  • 1 ¼ C yellow raisins
  • 1 stick melted butter
  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ C sugar
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1 t cinnamon

 9 x 12 greased casserole; sprinkle cinnamon/sugar on top (diagonal rows); cook 45 min. at 350*

Locked and Loaded

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It’s been a full day and my to do list’s not even close to empty!  Thank goodness it’s mostly stuff I enjoy.

Tuesday is my 8am class (library) day so an at home breakfast was not going to happen.  Instead I packed some healthy snacks to eat in between classes.  A Blueberry Crisp Cliff Bar,

and a local apple.

We learned about amino acids and proteins in NTR 100 today and it was totally fascinating.  Did you know that only animal protein sources can provide a “complete protein?”  Vegetable sources don’t have the correct ratio of the essential amino acids.  However, through “complementary proteins” vegetarians can get what they need.  For example, beans and rice are a complimentary protein.  I’m obviously not vegetarian, but we do eat a lot of meatless meals so it’s definitely something to think about.

After class I headed over to the gym.  It’s a 30minute walk from my apartment (1hour roundtrip) so gyming it in the morning this year is just not realistic; instead I’m trying to make my workout part of my on-campus time.  This weekend I picked up a pretty pink lock –

and today I brought a bag full of gym essentials – sports bras, socks, shoes, outfits, scrunchies, water bottle – to store on campus.

Today’s workout was 30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.

Adam could even give me a ride home so I didn’t have to walk in the sun, yay!  We had some business to take care of so I replenished with coconut water while I waited for lunch.

Lunch-lunch was a package of Allergaroo Chili Mac.

I ‘beefed it up’ by stirring in 4oz of frozen peas.

Yum.  This packet was still part of my shipment of free samples but I think the chili mac is fantasmic, I’ll definitely buy more with my own $.

I’m still looking for a fruit-dairy component to lunch so I’ll probably have a study snack in a bit, I’ll update the post if I do.

Dinner’s gonna be exciting…..

***Updated to add -I found my dairy-fruit (+ sweet!) snack.
I started with an Oikos free sample, 0% strawberry.
 
I don’t know why I was expecting this to be flavored yogurt, but I was a bit surprised to find plain with jam on the bottom.  In the end I loved it though; it was the perfect amount of sweet!
 
I topped my yogurt with a sliced black plum, a sliced plucot, and part of a crumbled cookie.
I definitely did not need the cookie (this was really sweet), but I had to throw out the last of the burnt granola and I had my heart set on something crumbly!
Do you have a locker at your gym?  Do you bring your stuff for the day or keep a bag stocked at the gym?

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?

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.

Good + Great = Better

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Today started off with a healthy, hearty breakfast.

A serving of Van’s Buckwheat and Mixed Berries Waffles with 2T maple syrup,

and a chopped nectarine on the side.

Perhaps not so hearty though, since I’ve basically been ready to chew my arm off all day!  We haven’t had peanut butter in the house for months (we can’t find the brand we like here) but I bought some yesterday to have for a recipe.  Apparently I missed it?

Yes, there was a lot of spoon-dipping going on this morning 😀

Adam wanted to go super early today so I ended up driving to and from school instead of walking.  My toe ring toe has been developing a callous so perhaps my feet with thank me.  We got out of class 30minutes early due to a fire drill, so that was good news.  And I was glad to leave early because I felt like my stomach was eating itself!

A rocking lunch is a great cure for over-dramatic hunger pains.  I stared with a So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk Yogurt.

I think I might have a So Delicious addiction.  The carton came with great nutritional stats and a fun fact –

This yogurt is awesome because it doesn’t pretend to be “normal” yogurt, the coconut flavor definitely peaks through.  The vanilla scent was unbelievable.  And the texture; oh the texture!  It wasn’t Greek (that’s asking a little much of a vegan product) but it was soooo perfectly thick.

Really, can you improve on yogurt like that?  Hells yes!

Oh yes that is watermelon, and it was fantabulous!  This is the sale watermelon I lugged home the other day and it might just be the best watermelon I’ve ever had.

The combination was pretty much to die for.  Watermelon with yogurt easily takes down roasted brussels sprouts and joins my top 10 foods list!!!

I also munched my way through the rest of the Siracha Peas.

And since, as I might have non-dramatically mentioned, my stomach is eating itself, I’m off to find a snack!  The plan for the afternoon is couch + South Park, so I’m leaning toward the fries, popcorn direction.

Any fantabulous new food combos you’ve discovered lately?