Tag Archives: potato

Pride of Lions

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I am so proud of my husband.  He begins his 3rd year of medical school tomorrow and I’m sure he’ll kick as much ass at clinical as he did his first two years of school!  The soon-to-be-3rd-years had a celebratory ceremony today and Adam was in charge of the opening/closing remarks.  <– this is why his parents are in town

Before the festivities began, I took my in-laws out to brunch.

I had a bogo coupon for Moe’s so that’s where we went.  What?  Mexican food can be brunch.

I got another rice bowl.

Rice, black beans, tofu, green pepper, onion, mushrooms, lettuce, cilantro, cheese, and corn salsa.

And chips with a side of queso.

I ate about 2/3 of everything and it was delicious.  I love how healthy Moe’s is, but I will admit that it’s got me hankering for some cheesy, crunchy, greasy, authentic Mexican food.

Adam did a great job at the ceremony, sometimes I can’t believe that the handsome, funny, well-spoken medical student belongs to me!

Afterwards we cheers’d at Pearl Street Brewery.

I was drinking a Blue Eyed Blueberry Blonde.

My beer was nice and refreshing, with just a few hints of fruit.  I love that Pearl Street microbrews on site.  Whenever a beer is described as blonde I know I’m bound to like it; I also enjoy dark beers (Guinness, Turbo Dog…) but I hate IPAs.

Along with my beer I ordered a turkey reuben.

Not on the menu, but they’ll sub turkey for corned beef if you ask nicely.

It was delicious but so filling that I could only handle half.  I left my chips only completely though; who eats chips when their husband’s meal comes with wedge fries?!

Yum!  My favorite fries are the big, squishy ones.

Once we got my in-laws on the road we had to run a few errands.  I’m actually going on another trip in just a few days so we had to get the husband stocked with a few groceries.  I grabbed a white chocolate toffee cookie while we were at the store.

I’m going to get off the computer now so that I can spend Adam’s last free night (ever!) hanging out, but know that I will be enjoying a big bowl of peanut brittle ice cream later this evening!

Doorknob Ankle Cold

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Whew, vacation’s not over yet; Adam’s parents are here for a visit!  We spent the day running around with them and it was nice to be the one showing off the city for a change.

Before our visitors arrived, Adam and I set out for the farmers’ market.  We didn’t find any produce we wanted but it was basically a menagerie down there.  Here’s a llama –

there’s a llama –

(and another little llama, fuzzy llama, funny llama, llama llama,) duck!

That song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  (Remember this one??)

While we were out we snagged breakfast, straw-style.

Organic 3 Cafe is great about letting you customize your juice orders.  This was spinach, carrot, cucumber, kale.

I also grabbed a half-sweet coffee from Wilson Farms.

Soon enough, my in-laws were here and we all headed to Tokyo Shanghai Bistro for lunch.

That’s the a la carte tomago (egg custard nigiri) I shared with my mother-in-law.

The lunch specials (only $6!) came with steamed rice and a cup of soup, I went with hot and sour.

For my main order I got the garlic eggplant with extra veggies.

I’ve been craving garlic eggplant for forever and this totally hit the spot.  It was a little bit spicy but not super sweet or fried tasting.

After lunch we took a movie break and headed to the theatre to see Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  The movie was a lot better than I was expecting, it was great to see Jim Carrey actually act (not just make crazy faces).  My favorite character was definitely Pippi.

We wanted to cash in a Groupon for dinner so we drove out to Hamburg to the Buffalo Street Grill. 

The husband and I had trouble deciding so we ended up sharing two dishes.

Tortellinni with portobello mushrooms and pesto,

and grouper topped with crab, brie, and roasted red peppers,

which came with french fries,

and a squash medley.

The veggies were seriously delicious, the best side I’ve had in a restaurant all year!

Finally, we took the parents to Anderson’s for frozen yogurt.

I got a baby twist with marshmallow topping.

Mmmmn.

After we said goodnight to my in-laws, Adam and I took a walk to pick up a few things at the Co-op.  It might be 90* in DC but it’s in the 60’s here; we were so cold we ended up sharing a cinnamon dolce steamer from Starbucks to warm up!

A steamer is just steamed skim milk with 1.5 pumps of syrup, but it did the trick getting us through our walk.

Adam is making the opening and closing remarks at a medical school ceremony tomorrow so we’ve got to get to bed and get him his beauty rest!

Comfort Food Fusion

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When I tried the honey mustard chips yesterday I didn’t love them for snacking but I knew they’d work great as a component in a larger dish.  Like say, tuna melt nachos.

I saw a reader suggestion for a similar idea in an Everyday with Rachel Ray a few months back and I’m so glad I finally tried it.  Blending these two classic comfort foods only made them better.

I piled 1.5 oz of Lays Honey Mustard Chips with 2/3 a can’s worth of tuna salad (made with Miracle Whip and pickle relish) and 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan.  After a 8minute spin in a 400* oven I had a win-worthy dish.

This would have been even more amazing with my honey mustard tuna salad, but I didn’t think that Adam would eat those leftovers.

This dish made me think about other comfort foods we serve together: fries with chilli, Oreos in milkshakes, pizza in egg rolls; I wonder which epic combinations we’ve yet to think of.

My side dish was supposed to be a plum, but this is what I got when I cut mine in half.

I don’t know what that spongey stuff is but it didn’t look appetizing.  I’m taking a walk to the Co-op later this afternoon, hopefully I can get in some fruit then because we are clean out here.

Which two comfort foods would you like to try together?

Which Resulted In…

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I crossed off all of my to-do’s (I still have to clean the stove but I know that it’ll get done before bed) and I even made a quick run out to Wegmans and Target; bam!  Very accomplished feeling although there were some unintended results…

My trip to the store pushed dinner back later, which resulted in a grumbly tummy, which resulted in an impulse buy, which resulted in me eating 2 servings of Lays Honey Mustard Chips before dinner.

I actually picked up this same bag the other day and then put it back but when I was at the store again with “free” money (we get $ for recycling our cans/bottles) I just couldn’t resist.  Sadly they were oddly spicy and not as good as I was imagining.

The chips did give me the ability to make dinner without a distracted stomach, and I ended up making an amazing meal.

That, my friends, is a heaping bowl of pasta.

This quick and easy dish was randomly chosen but everything ended up coming together perfectly.  For 4 servings, served on top of rigatoni, I combined –

Healthy, filling, and vegan to boot!

Workin’ Girl

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Yikes, my first real shift at work left me pretty tired!  Hopefully this job will force me to get my sleep schedule in order.

I had to skip another day at the gym and I haven’t been getting very good sleep lately so I spent most of the day napping, summer vacation-style.  That would have been all good except that I realized an hour before I had to head to work that eating would be good.  I did my very best to squeeze enough my needed calories and food groups.

First up, a protein packed yogurt bowl.

This guy was a fun, filling mix.

  • 1 sliced banana
  • 1/2 cup 0% Fage
  • 2 Tbsp raisins
  • 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2.5 Tbsp Smuckers Natural PB with Honey

 The combination was great; I think I’m going to start adding raisins to all my yogurt bowls.

I also made a veggie plate.

Roasted brussels sprouts,

and roasted potatoes drizzled with truffle oil.

Thankfully I found that this held me through all 7 hours at work.  It helped that I was too busy to get hungry too.

I’m probably going to be working 4 night shifts a week and I’ll be doing a late, huge lunch on those days.  Hopefully, like tonight, I won’t be hungry for dinner when I get off work and I’ll be able to simply blog, shower, and get to bed.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

Shower and sleep time!  P.S.  The giveaway winners are –

Pretty Good

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Hello there; I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend.  It’s been a good Saturday around here, I spent lots of time with the husband, I got to take a few walks, and I received some good news I’ll be sharing later.

Our plan this morning was to cash in a Groupon for brunch, so to kill time while the restaurant opened I headed out to the Farmer’s Market and the Co-op.

While I was up on that end of Elmwood I stopped in at Wilson Farms for my new favorite coffee.

Half Jamaican Me Crazy Coffee (regular) and half Jamaican Me Crazy Cappuccino (sweetened).

Adam and I also drove over to the lake to check out the crazy fog.

Spooky!

Then it was time for brunch at Empire Grill.

But apparently brunch is only a Sunday thing, boo.  And the bad news didn’t stop there, Adam and I hated our brunch lunch order.  I really don’t want the blame the restaurant (the food wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either), we just made really bad order choices for our preferences.

We split a Blue Point Toasted Ale,

the Caribbean Shrimp and Mango Salad with mixed greens, mango viniagrette marinated jumbo shrimp, black bean and pineapple salsa and a mango viniagrette,

and the California Turkey Wrap with coleslaw, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, onions and a chipolte aioli.

I sort of hate raw spinach and I hate wraps so, again, it wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault.  Nonetheless, I ended up eating basically nothing for brunch.

Thank goodness for Banana Split Cupcakes!

Amid chowing down on two cupcakes, Adam and I took a trek to the post office and got to enjoy almost 2 miles of walking and talking, win!

Random sidenote (super random when you consider that this isn’t even a new top) – how awesome is it that this shirt has a bustle?!

I had fancy plans for dinner, but when Scrubs reruns are on you never turn down pizza.

Adam and I split another Buffalo chicken slice,

along with a big pile of baby carrots.

Yep, pretty good for a Saturday!

I’ll Mail Your Package

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You guys won’t even believe it; when I got to the post office it was closed!!!  Apparently the 1:30 closing time listed online referred to the p.o. boxes, the actual office had closed before I even left the house.  Just as I felt steam about to come out of my ears a postal worker told me about another location with longer hours.  The post office where I finally had success is actually much closer to my house, so it was a win in the end.

While I was out and about I snacked on a blueberry muffin Lara Bar,

the rest of my Arizona,

and .1 lbs of yogurt pretzels.

My stomach was growling and as I hungrily grocery shopped all I could think of was eating french fries and catching up on Grey’s.  So when I got home, that’s what I did.

If you consider my cheesy show choices, it’s almost like those were cheese fries…hyuck, hyuck.

Adam and I tried to eat this peppermint candy my mom sent us from Carnival food fair,

but we waited too long and sadly it was all squishy.

We took a nice walk around Elmwood in the evening, and worked up an appetite for dinner.

That’s tuna salad with lots of red onion,

and half a slice of buffalo chicken pizza with blue cheese dressing.

Perfect food for watching Bones, which made me cry, p.s.

With a serving of Raisin Bran Extra for dessert.

See you tomorrow for a long(ish) run!

They Can’t All Be Winners

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It wasn’t my most succesful day.  I had a crappy run, I didn’t do a lick of school work, I have not been drinking enough h2o, we’re up too late yet again…

Let’s look at some of the things that went right –

  • a crappy run is still a run, AND my knee doesn’t even hurt 😀
  • even though it’s late, I’m sticking to my 30-day blog everything goal
  • I’m feeling super fortunate about having the best mommy on the planet  <– fact

I started my morning with a we-suck-at-bedtime inspired Big Gulp.

That’s coffee from Wilson Farms with some Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

I skipped the sweetener because this was supposed to be my pre-run fuel.  B-A-D, bad idea!  I stopped to pee not once, not twice, but three times during my 5 mile run!

My knee felt good when I woke up this morning (and all day yesterday) so I felt ready to tackle my training plan’s scheduled 5-miler.  The husband and I headed to Delaware Park to complete 3 laps around the ~1.75 mile loop.  My knee felt fine the entire time but my endurance was a horse of a different color.  Guys, I can’t even tell you how many times I had to stop during this run 😦  All total, I did 5.25 miles in 51 minutes.  I turned off my watch during all my breaks (I would just stop at stretch, not cover any distance) so I don’t know how long the entire start to finish time was, but I do know that each loop took me 17 minutes.  Yay for not slowing down!

And yay for still no knee pain; knock on wood!  I did ice my knee when I got home.

But ice water in a plastic baggie was a terrible idea so that didn’t last very long.  Some bags of frozen peas are on my grocery list for next week.

Somehow I decided that 5 miles at a 10-minute-mile pace was enough of a workout that I needed to sit on the couch the rest of the day.  Boo for being a loser!  Throughout the afternoon I ate popcorn – there are two mini bags in that bowl,

a Smart Ones Tuna Noodle Gratin frozen meal,

and a Skinny Cow Caramel Cone mini ice cream.

How on earth do they pack so much goodness into 170 calories?!?  That flavor was ridiculous good.

Our one accomplishment of the day was finally switching out our summer and winter wardrobes.  I’ve had that task on my to-do list for almost a month but Buffalo’s reluctance to enter spring kept it from feeling urgent.  Adam’s glad we put it off; the whole process took for-ev-a!  By the time we were done it was after 9pm and we ended up going out to dinner at Panos.

Sidenote 1 – we did not give up on our eat-in-more goal already, the meal was actually a gift for me from my mother-in-law, who clearly does not get the spirit of the holiday.  Sidenote 2 – not to worry, we’re not as clueless as we seem, we did buy both sets of moms nice gifts too.

I ordered the blackened chicken Caesar salad with roasted veggies and smoked gouda.

I shared 90% of my chicken with the husband, and dove into his fries in return.

‘Twas a great date night meal!

What was the best thing about your weekend?