Tag Archives: popcorn

Mood Food

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Today’s eats were a little strange, which made them perfect mood food since I feel a little strange.  I’m an odd mix of nerves and excitement about heading back to school tomorrow.  I’m thrilled about getting back on a schedule but I’m worried that I’m planning on working on too many goals (being a better student, getting on a workout schedule, cooking more often).  I don’t want to set myself up to fail by trying to do/change too much.

I spent my morning setting up the office for school and worked right through breakfast.  Side note – trying to figure out which notes to save for registration exam studying is brutal.  I’m not sure whether I’m throwing away things I need or saving so much that it will be overwhelming.

I didn’t want to head to the grocery on a completely empty stomach so I stirred a scoop of protein powder into a glass of skim milk.

It wasn’t very good (it tasted about as good as it looks), apparently I only like our protein powder after it’s been through the blender.

I did get myself a small but delicious salad from the hot bar too.

A spring mix lettuce base with tarragon vinaigrette, topped with a scoop of corn and kidney bean salad,

a scoop of veggie lo mein,

and a tiny piece of smoked salmon and brie.

The whole combo was super tasty, I think I may need to do salad at the hot bar more often.  I really want to like smoked (basically raw) salmon and usually I’m too afraid but today I loved it.

When I got home Adam and I took a quick walk through the Elmwood Art Festival.  We were naughty and snuck in our own beverages.

The Woodchuck Limited Release Winter Hard Cider is wonderful.  It tastes more like a vanilla-scented apple juice than something boozey.  Also when I went to the site to link for you guys I discovered that they make a pumpkin variety!  <– must find

I knew dinner was going to be on the small side, so I made myself a tasty yogurt bowl to supplement when we got home.

Low-fat coffee yogurt with 1oz of honey roasted peanuts and a drizzle of honey.

One of those combos from when I was a kid that I still love.

We didn’t have any set plans for dinner, but I did want to make a batch of Jenna’s Sweet and Spicy BBQ Beans to have for lunches this week.

I used 2+ cups worth of extra kale and it came out fabulously.  This recipe – which really is sweet and spicy – gives the best chew.

We decided to make the beans the bulk of dinner.

Such a good plan!  I topped my serving with shredded Parmesan, more Sriracha, and a dollop of 0% Plain Fage.

Dee-lish!  I sort of ate around the cheese to save it for the end and I was swooning by my last bite.

To round out my meal with carbs I turned to popcorn.

1 serving, topped with melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  I can’t think of a better way to face a new school year than popcorn.

Who else is heading back to school this year?

Confessions VII

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Click here to read Confessions part I, II, III, IV, V, and VI.

Confession #1 – Sometimes I hate my dog.  But you already know that.

Confession #2 – I became completely obsessed with badgers after reading The Zookeeper’s Wife.  The book – which is the true story of how keepers at the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people during the Holocaust – discusses their ability to be potty trained and I decided I must have one.

Confession #3 – I ate popcorn for lunch. 

<– that’s not a confession, popcorn is freaking amazing.  The confession is that I top my popcorn with melted butter and granulated sugar and pretend its kettlecorn.

Confession #4 – I clean 80% more regularly after we bought the french lavender-scented Method all-purpose cleaner.

Confession #5 – I spend my afternoon setting up Google Reader and Tweetdeck.  Not only was I not using either before today, I had never even heard of Tweetdeck until Katy schooled me last weekend.

Do you use Google Reader?  Why or why not?

They Were Only Freshmen

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Do Bagel Bites count as real food?

I went with “yes,” mostly.  This plate had 400 calories (that’s technically 2 servings) 16 grams of protein and no trans fat with ingredients that I mostly felt good about.

With roasted green beans it wasn’t a terrible lunch if you ask me.

For dessert I started to eat this mini sundae.

But I wasn’t loving it so I moved on halfway through to a mug of hot chocolate. 

My session on campus this afternoon went well; a friend and I went to speak to the incoming Dietetics freshman and answer any questions they had.  No one had any questions for us (boo!) but I tried to be friendly and informative when I had to talk about myself.  It’s so strange to be doing things in an upper classmen capacity!  <– which is actually doubly strange because not only do I still feel like a freshman, but technically I shouldn’t be in college at all anymore!

While I was on campus I managed to pick up my insurance card and my parking pass so I felt pretty accomplished.  I would have liked to go to the gym but my left Achilles tendon has been aching since the first day of HLS so I’ve been taking it easy.  I think maybe I twisted my ankle while I was jumping on the wrench to get the nuts of my tire?!

You’re Getting Sleepy…

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Being a medical student’s wife is going to be tricky!  I was awake with Adam past 2am and he got me up before 8 this morning, and this is actually his easy schedule.  When we were in undergrad I’d go to bed in the middle of the night and then bound out of bed hours before Adam had his first class and feel fine.  Now he’s the one who’s unphased and I feel like I’m dying.  I’m not sure when I started needing so much more sleep but I have to assume to that it’s linked to how much better of shape I was in back then compared to now.  If that’s not motivation to step up my healthy habits then I’m not sure what is!

That said, today was definitely a “summer day” of eating.  I didn’t want to go back to sleep this morning (I’m working on getting a school-appropriate schedule going) but I didn’t want to get up either.  Reading Nancy Drew in bed was the perfect compromise!  I stayed in bed until literally the last second before I needed to leave for a meeting on campus so I ended up eating a Chocolate Covered Coconut Lara Bar on the walk for breakfast.

After my meeting I spent the rest of they running (most fruitless) errands.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t really left the house much this summer and I don’t think I realized how fricking hot it’s been outside?!!  I actually took a mid-afternoon break and saw “Friends with Benefits – alone, for the 2nd time – because I wanted to curl up in the dark with ac and a big diet coke!

Once I was back on mission I ended up at Target with the Ben and Jerry’s flavor I’ve been lusting after staring me in the face.  And they had it in a single-serve mini.  But I had more errands to run and the car was, of course, too hot.  What to do, what to do?  I bought it and ate it right in the car.

Best decision ever.

I’d like to think it was the ice cream that powered me through a much-needed apartment cleaning session this afternoon.  But it was probably the bowl of H2O-melon I had waiting to cool me off.

This wasn’t the best melon but even only ok ones are still pretty great.

I also made myself a 200 calorie bowl of popcorn; because I’m realizing that I don’t need to always eat popcorn by the bucket but I find that the 100 calorie bags just piss me off.

I topped my ‘corn with some melted butter and a few tsps of sugar for a lazy girl’s kettle corn.

I had grander plans for dinner, but when I realized I’d misread the cooking time by more than an hour we decided to go with Thursday’s planned meal instead.  Easy peasy mac and cheesy.

Adam and I split a box of Annie’s Organic Classic Macaroni and Cheese with frozen broccoli tossed in during the last few minutes of cooking.  I topped my portion liberally with Sriracha.

Spicy!  I was super hungry when we sat down to eat and I knew that kicking up the heat would help this meal to be more satisfying.  Now all I’ve got to do is get Adam in bed!

How many hours of sleep do you need to feel your best?  How many hours do you actually get?

Bed Time Bungle

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I’ve been slathering sunscreen and popping my vitamins ever since I turned 26, but I’m still figuring out that whole bedtime thing.  Last night I stayed up way too late watching Charmed.  Like, way, way too late.  And my ability to control my popcorn consumption suffered as a result.

I was too tired for proper photography, but not too hungry to force me to eat a proper meal.  My eats for the day so far include – Wasabi peas.

Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus with Pretzels.

A lemonade that sadly tasted like dirty syrup.

And two packs of Shark Bites.

Guess I should go gourmet for dinner, huh?

Easy Eats

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I accomplished so much yesterday that today was actually a bit boring.  I’ll take it though.  And I’ll definitely take the fact that I had to skip today’s workout because my abs were so sore from yesterday’s 90 minute hot yoga session.  Whoop!

Breakfast was easy and summer-y.

1.5 servings of cinnamon Puffins, .5 serving of oats and honey Bear Naked Granola (which is like a Tbsp, seriously?!), chopped plum and white apricot, and skim milk.

For a mid-morning snack I measured out 2 servings of the peanut brittle popcorn my in-laws gave me for my birthday.

This stuff might be dangerous.

Lunch looked borning.

But looks can be deciving.  That’s not pb & j.

That’s a mini kaiser roll topped with Nutty Guys honey roasted peanut butter, crushed up honey wheat pretzels, and a drizzle of honey.

And what goes with a peanut butter (pretzel, honey) sandwich better than milk?

In my fabulous new glass from Anthropologie.

Milk also goes well with cookies.

But those aren’t for me (though I did eat a few cookie’s worth of dough!), I baked them up for The Great Fundraising Act.

Instead of cookies, Adam and I snacked on hummus this afternoon.

Not just any hummus though, Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus that I got to try for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

Usually I’m too cheap to buy hummus because you can make it easily at home, but I think it’s time to update my policy!  Adam and I both thought this was delicious; creamy with a great roasted flavor.  The pine nut was a great new twist, though Adam thought it wasn’t as zesty as the garlic variety we used to buy.  Plus at 80 calories per 2 Tbsp serving it’s a nutritional steal.

I ate my serving(s) with some baby carrots.

Keeping up the easy eats theme of the day, dinner was leftovers.

I piled the steamed collard greens, millet, and baingan bharta into one bowl, topped with tons of Sriracha.

Easy, like your mother.  Ba dum ching!

My Fellow American

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My back hurts in a bad way, but my legs are arms are super sore in a good way; I’m not sure if it was the running or the yoga, but I’ll take it!  Unfortunately my back is just sore enough that I decided to forgo all exercise today.  I sat on the couch instead.  I did make a sweet i-tunes playlist for the gym tomorrow though.

Since I wasn’t leaving the house, lunch got lame in a hurry.  Several servings of Chip’ins popcorn chips,

were used to shovel 80% of jar of salsa.

Good thing the entire jar only has 300 calories, huh?  I’m counting it as a nice big serving of veggies.

Speaking of things eaten straight from the jar, my reason for living has returned.

I mean that Adam came home early, duh.  Did you think I was talking about the Biscoff spread?  Noooooo…

I’ve eaten half the jar in spoonfuls over the last week, but thankfully I bought two jars.  Look at the price my dad and I found this stuff for at the grocery in Ohio –

Booyah!

On a more serious note (and there are few things more serious than Biscoff spread), I want to share a video that was sent to me from the site My Fellow American.  Here is a snippet from the e-mail Elizabeth sent me about the site and its purpose

As you know, America has always been a melting pot, but in the post-9/11 world the environment can be downright hostile. Recent mosque protests and congressional hearings on American Muslims are all unfortunate examples of a rising tide of fear. This climate of suspicion towards our fellow Americans compromises the great values that our country was founded upon.  We’ve put together a 2 minute film in response that I believe you and the readers of Eating Chalk will be interested in sharing, watching, and discussing.

As a former resident of Brooklyn (and a permanent New Yorker in my heart), I obviously have strong feelings about the tragedy that took place on September 11th.  However, I try to let the good part of my heart guide me through the world, not the hurt parts.  I find it discouraging that some Americans allow the actions of a select few to taint their perception of an entire religious culture.  You can’t fight hate with more hate.  I think the short video compiled by My Fellow American makes that point eloquently.

It Got Away

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Hello, hello!  I swear that I didn’t skip my post/giveaway this morning because I was sulking; the day just got away from me!  First things first though, thank you so much to all of you who offered me advice in the last post.  I blog for me (and my mom and grandma!), but I also blog for you guys, and I always want to do my best.

I mentioned that the day got away from me, and if I’m honest, it started getting away from me last night.  When Adam got in bed at 10pm I so wanted to be the type of person who got in with him and got a good night sleep.  But that’s not who I am.  I’m the type of person that stays up until 2am watching Missing.  I’m also the type of person who eats the last banana split cupcake at 2am.

That’s just me.

I actually woke up raring to go this morning (probably nerves) but I ended up skipping my planned 4-miler anyways because my knee feels funky again.  I’m hoping to double up on cardio tomorrow to make up for the lost day, fingers crossed!

Today was my first training day at work and since I was going to be busy through lunch I knew I needed a big, hearty breakfast.

Yum and yum.

I sautéed a crumbled salmon patty with three tablespoons of spicy corn relish and when I started to get a good char I scrambled in two eggs and ~ 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

I’m in love with this dish.  I haven’t eaten the corn relish “raw” yet, but it is so darn good in eggs.

I also ate a 0% Fage with soursop.

Which, thankfully, pushed me to enough food to get me through the lunch rush.

— Insert 11 – 2:30 training at the newest restaurant on Elmwood. —

When I got home I had time to split this taffy candy with Adam,

before we had to head to his dentist appointment.  <– ironic, right?

I obviously didn’t have to go, but I’m co-dependent, so I ignored my growling belly and hopped in the car.  I brought a chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar,

but I had to split it with Adam because it’s too darn good not to share.  Tastes just like a Girl Scout Samosa, I swear!

Unfortunately, I let myself get waaaay too hungry and my food choices have gone a little downhill.  I got a good balance of veggies and protein in my Wegman’s hot bar,

but I shoveled it into my face the minute we got back to the car!

I also bought a pecan pie bar from the Co-op.

I can’t even tell you how much self-control it took not to eat this in the car too.

And now (as soon as I hit publish) I’m going to eat some popcorn.  Boo-yah.  Clearly I need a more effective way of dealing with lunches on work days.

Just for funsies; what are some of your favorite blogs to follow?