Tag Archives: potato

Better Than 32Minutes in Bed or 2.8Miles by Car

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Hello, Saturday!  We’re having a fun visiting day, but stopped by the house to do a huge load of laundry chat so I figured I’d do a quick post.

We put the late in late-night yesterday, but I was determined to go to the gym today.  Our in-laws are staying in a hotel with a little gym so I could work out there, then shower in the room, and then head to breakfast.  Doing everything in the same building was soooo nice; I would up my gym time exponentially if there was one attached to my house!

I decided to hit up the treadmill for a short run.  My right arch was killing me so I kept having to take walking breaks to stretch my foot, but I manged 2.8miles.  With warm up/cool down I ended at 32minutes.  I was frustrated about how slow that is, but then I put it in perspective – 32minutes and 2.8miles of activity is never a bad thing!

Neither is breakfast at Pano’s!

Adam and I split the California Omlette, “avocado, sautéed mushroom, green onion, tomato, shallots, sour cream, cheddar, pepper jack and swiss cheese; served with home fries and (sourdough) toast.”

It was a tasty meal, and sharing left us with the perfect portion size.

I’m not sure entirely what the day will bring, but this evening will be spent at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.  Can’t wait!

I’m Done!

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For real this time – I’m done!  I’m done!  I’m done!

And, in further cause for celebration – I found out I scored a 93% with the curve on the Anatomy final, which means my final grade for the semester was a 87%!  And I think we did a great job on our presentation today.  Booyah!

This morning started off with a chocolate mint strawberry smoothie.

For two (I love that Adam likes these!) we mixed 2 cups of frozen strawberries and 2 cups of chocolate peppermint soy milk.  I know that picture is a little grim, but that what it’s like outside in Buffalo at 7am and 12*.

Our final presentation went well; not gonna lie, I think ours was the best.

Plus, I might have bribed everyone by brining in Tamarind Candy!

After a quick meeting I was free, free, free!  I spent almost an hour walking down Elmwood, just happy to be outside.  I can’t believe I don’t have class again until late January.  Or that I’m going to St. Thomas next week!

Lunch needed to be walking distance from the apartment, celebratory, and in my budget.

Chicken fingers drenched in Buffalo sauce?  Don’t mind if I do.

I scarfed this entire thing, got a bit sick to my stomach, and was totally in heaven.  All I need now are some sweatpants.

When does your holiday break start?

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*

We Liked Them a Latke

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This has been the perfect sort of evening; exactly what I need before another week of tests!  My night was spent in the kitchen, with my husband, cooking and eating good foods.  We moved from cooking to couching (cuddling) and the whole affair was pretty blissful.

I was famished when I got out of the shower; nuts for lunch pack a caloric punch, but they don’t hold me over as long as I would expect.  Since we knew dinner would take a while to prepare we decided to go with dessert first.  My aunt and uncle sent us this box of fancy chocolates for Hanukkah.

Milk and dark chocolate dipped orange peel, almonds, hazelnuts, and biscuit pieces.

I ate a handful and was in heaven; you can tell this stuff is good!

I also ate a candy cane white chocolate coated pretzel from my Sweet Treats Basket.

Yum!  White chocolate dipped candy cane anything is pretty awesome but the pretzel was especially fresh and tasty.

Dinner was a labor of love, but it was so worth it.

Latkes, homemade applesauce, and roasted veggies.  We spent a long time in the kitchen, but had a lot of fun and the end products were amazing.  Recipes at the end of the post.

The roasted veggies were leftover from Thanksgiving.

We wanted to try our hand at latkes for Hanukkah this year so we turned to my uncle’s famed recipe.  My uncle Brian makes the best latkes on earth, seriously, and following his recipe I think ours turned out pretty great.

We kept things top-notch and made our own apple sauce as well (latkes are traditionally eaten with sour cream and/or applesauce).

The applesauce recipe came from my food lab, my group was assigned it one week and it turned out so well I knew I wanted to make it again.  We didn’t have a cinnamon stick to cook in so instead I topped my bowl with red hots.

That was better anyways!

Such a pleasing meal. 

I portioned out a small bowl of candy for dessert dessert, and told myself that the kitchen is “closed.” 

Hope everyone else had a great Friday!

Best Potato Latkes

  •  5 med. to lg. Idaho potatoes
  • 2 eggs (slightly beaten)
  • 2 tbsp. matzoh meal (or breadcrumbs)
  • 1 lg. or 2 med. onions
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • vegetable oil and butter for frying
  1. Peel potatoes and place in a bowl of cold water.
  2. Finely grate half the potatoes and then more coarsely grate the other half, put in colander and completely drain off liquid.  You want to really press all of the liquid out, persistence pays off.
  3. Finely grate onion and mix with potatoes. Add eggs, salt, pepper and matzoh meal and mix well.
  4. Heat  oil in a large skillet. (Add some butter for flavor.) Drop by heaping tablespoonful into hot oil (draining off any excess liquid). Flatten with spatula and fry on both sides until crisp and golden brown.
  5. Remove to paper towel to drain and keep warm until all latkes are done.

Serve with sour cream and applesauce.  These freeze very well; can be made ahead and frozen and then heated up in hot oven.

Applesauce

  • 2lbs cooking apples
  • 1cup water
  • 6″ cinnamon stick
  • 1/2cup sugar
  1. Core and peel apples.  Cut into quarters.
  2. Place apples in a large pot; pour water over.  Add cinnamon and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer 8-10minutes or until tender.
  3. Uncover and remove cinnamon.  (I drained the water out here but I like my ‘sauce pretty chunky).
  4. Remove from heat.  Mash apples with a potato masher until smooth.
  5. Stir in sugar.  Refrigerate.

ThanksGiveaway

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I am thankful –

  • that my busy days really aren’t all that busy in the big scheme of things
  • for my family (and getting to see my grandparents and in-laws this weekend)
  • for my husband
  • for my health
  • for a 2nd season of “Modern Family”
  • for Cherry Coke Zero
  • that there are so many things I’m thankful for that I could probably keep this list going for pages; I am blessed

Today has been a busy day (in the little scheme of things).  My to-do’s have been taking longer than expected and I’ve been running around.  I packed a sliced cucumber to munch on in class and it was a great stress reliever.

Though I have to imagine that my seat-mates were stressed wondering why I was being so crunchy and drippy, sorry guys!

I didn’t get to pick up Adam until 1pm and by the time we got back to our apartment is was after 2:00 and I was starving.  I calmed my growling stomach with a 2% Pineapple Chobani while I put lunch in the oven.

I ended up with feast of dippable delights (all roasted in the oven) –

Green beans,

a small potato,

and some chicken strips,

with ketchup and homemade honey mustard.

The chicken strips were a free sample from Applegate Farms.  They heard me raving about their turkey bacon (so good that I don’t have to miss a thing about not eating mammals and the only kind of “fake” bacon that Adam will eat) and offered me a chance to try another product.

The strips were delicious.  They cook nice and crispy (I oven-baked) and had a nice buttery aftertaste to them.  Plus I approve of the ingredient list and nutritional stats.

And they said I could share the wealth with you guys!

Three readers will win a $1-off coupon for any Applegate Farms product.  All you have to do to win is leave a comment on this post letting me know what you are thankful for.  Giveaway closes Friday (11/26) at noon and winners will be chosen via random integer generator.

Facts of Fall

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There is nothing pumpkin can’t do.

The weather in Buffalo today was beautiful!  In lieu of a formal workout, Adam and I took a long walk to soak it in.

Today included too much snacking and not enough studying.

The words in this post are lacking (just wrote “snacking,” whoops!), but I will at least show you everything I ate today; plus some “Fall” photos for funsies.

Arnold’s WW Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Blue Cheese, 3 slices of turkey.

Mini Vanilla Tootsie Roll, x2.

Baby carrots and ranch.

Small slice of pizza from the school food court where we were studying.

Leftover Loaded Potato Soup (make it, seriously!).

Waffle fries (more potatoes?!) doused in salt and vinegar.

Allie’s Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies.  Note – I halved the oil, substituted the spices (little bit of pumpkin pie spice, lotta bit cinnamon and nutmeg), and used light brown sugar and these still came out fabulously!

What signs of fall are popping up in your area?  What’s been your favorite pumpkin goodie so far this season?

Project Tasteless – The Naked Chef

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This blog post offers a fantabulous (if I do say so myself) new recipe and serves as my first entry into Rachel’s Project Tasteless Contest.

Basically the rules for the Naked Chef contest were – 1. Take everything off; 2. Put on an apron, and only an apron; 3. Cook something delicious.  The entry post must include photographs and a recipe.  My grandma reads this blog (hi, Nana!) so my pictures are PG, but the recipe is shockingly good!

In honor of the fun contest, I decided to try a recipe I’ve been building in my head for the past couple weeks – Loaded Potato Soup.

In the contest description, Rachel specifically warned against cooking bacon.  But I’m an island girl; I’ve cooked bacon in a bikini!  Bacon in an apron (albeit only an apron)?  Pshaw!  Bring it on, I thought.  And I’m glad I did, because the bacon brought the flavor to this soup.

Thick, satisfying, inventive….. sorry husband, still talking about the soup!

The recipe (included below) looks a little long (that’s what she said!), but it’s actually really easy (that’s what he said!).  Even stopping regularly to try to keep my boobs out of the photographs (a good policy for the modern world in general) we finished very quickly (she’d never say that!).

It was divine.

Loaded Potato Soup, serves 4 –

  • 24 oz butter potatoes (4 medium potatoes will do)
  • 3 tsp evoo
  • 3 slices nitrate-free bacon (I used Applegate Farms turkey)
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 3 Tbsp flour
  • 2 cups fat-free milk
  • 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
  • 4 Tbsp shredded extra-sharp cheddar
  1. Wash potatoes and pierce several times with a fork.  Place in a circle on a microwave-safe plate.  Microwave until cooked through and softened, 12-14minutes depending on your microwave.
  2. Finely chop the scallions; set half of the chopped upper green stems aside.
  3. Meanwhile, heat 2tsp of evoo in a large saute pan over medium heat.
  4. Cook bacon until it is browned and crispy.  Remove from pan and roughly chop.  Divide the chopped bacon into two piles.
  5. Add the final tsp of oil to the pan.  Cook scallions 2-3minutes, until softened and slightly translucent.  Remove from pan and reduce heat to low.
  6. Melt butter, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle flour into melted butter and whisk vigorously to combine.
  7. Cook the roux over low heat, about 3minutes, to remove the raw taste from the flour.
  8. Working in four batches, slowly add the milk to the pan.  Whisk vigorously and make sure each batch is fully combined before moving on to ensure there are no lumps.
  9. Raise the heat to medium and bring mixture to a low simmer.  Stir in broth.
  10. Use a fork to roughly mash the cooked potatoes.  Carefully add to pot and cook 3-5minutes, continuing to mash with your spoon.
  11. Stir in cooked scallions and half of the chopped bacon.
  12. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in sour cream.
  13. Divide the soup into four bowls and top each one with 1Tbsp cheese and reserved bacon and scallions.

The End.

The Pants

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What, I drop that mega-post on you and then I just disappear?  Sorry about that!  I was in a terrible mood yesterday and it just didn’t seem right to subject anyone but the husband to me.  Plus, I was actually in such a terrible mood that I couldn’t even get it together to make dinner so there wasn’t a whole lot of foodage going on.

A lot of times a bad day is just about a bad mood, and even though I know that I still couldn’t shake my rain cloud yesterday.  possibly because I had to get up at 6:30 on a Friday.  I rolled out of bed early, but on the wrong side of the bed!

I had to get up early to attend a meeting about an honor society I was invited to because of my summer school grades.  What I didn’t learn until after the 7:15am meeting is that I’m actually not eligible until after a 3rd semester at my school. 

The minute we left the meeting I was starving.  Not just hungry, stomach-growling, headachey, starving.  Nothing was open until 8:30.  I buy a medium coffee with skim milk.

I wait.  I get really psyched about an oatmeal bar in the food court.  It turns out a bunch of people called in sick and actually nothing is open.  I could go get food from the coffee place though.  I know it doesn’t make sense to some people, but I get more picky as I get hungrier.  If my stomach feels like it’s eating itself I want something good; I don’t want a dried out bagel or a mass-produced croissant.

I ended up wandering around campus for 1.5hours in futile search, getting hungrier by the minute.  Finally, minutes before class, I found this cup of grapes.

The grapes lifted my mood considerably.  But then in class I learned that the portfolio assignment due next week has to be turned in in an actual portfolio.  An actual expensive portfolio.  I’m sorry, I realize it’s not exactly cool that I have to budget for a binder, but it pisses me off that I’ve had to spend so much money on school supplies this semester.

After my 2hour class I went straight to a group meeting for a project.  We didn’t finish until it was time for Orgo, good thing I had eaten those grapes! 😉

I had absolutely no understanding of what we were talking about in Orgo.  None.  I started freaking out about the next test, and being super angry with myself that I let myself get behind on the reading.  By the time Anatomy was done I just wanted the day to be over.  I didn’t even go to the gym as planned, I just went home.  Sidenote – I do realize that the gym would have certainly lifted my spirits, but I was still starving.

I poured myself a serving of Terra Chips Blues.

The plan was to refill the bowl with some food-food as soon as I was done.  Yeah, about that; I never got off the couch!  I just let my bad mood spiral out of control.  Not doing any errands, or doing anything fun, certainly didn’t make me feel better and it just got worse and worse.

This morning I was determined to have a good day.  Really, it’s all about attitude.  When the alarm went off at 7:40 I read a magazine in bed before getting up.  I took a much-needed shower.  I cleaned the apartment – that one’s not actually that fun, but the mess was stressing me out.

I made a healthy, tasty breakfast.

A serving of Special K Red Berries with skim milk,

and some leftover fruit (papaya, mango, grapes, watermelon) I brought home from food lab.

Adam and I went on errands and took care of business (including buying that portfolio!).  When we got groceries we also got smile-inducing hot bar and a diet pop.

Who doesn’t love hot bar?

A bunch of green beans with a little bit of eggplant tomato salad,

cashew chicken with a tiny bit of fried chicken,

roasted veggies.

To round out the good mood vibes, I got a fun package from my parents.  With seasonal gifts.

And “the pants.”

Some background on the pants – When Adam was a freshman in college (I was a sophomore) his mom sent him a great pair of pajama pants.  They were super comfortable and I borrowed them often.  As time went on I eventually just stole them.  I was wearing the pants the Christmas morning that Adam proposed.  I wore them through recovery from all my various injuries.  The pants are the item I would save if the house was on fire.

The pants have been getting thin (they are old and I wear them a LOT).  I hardly ever wash them, and my mom has done many minor repairs.  Well, a few weeks ago I tore a huge hole through the left knee.  I sent my mom the pants in tears.  She rocks, and now I guess they are “the capris.”

When I mailed the pants, I threatened my mom several times that I would stop loving her if she threw away any of the fabric.  Instead, she made the legs into a pillow (dont’ worry, she also saved the scraps!) –

Adam and I love it.

I guess the point of the very long, whine-filled post is that today is a better day.  It always is.  And this took me so long to write that I took a snack break and ate a Brown Cow 0% Strawberry Greek Yogurt with homemade chocolate pb.

The end.

Do you own anything like “the pants?”