Tag Archives: product review

Take Me Out To The Crowd

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We were lateto bed last night and now I’m late to blog.  An 8:00pm grocery trip required a stop at Starbucks for soy frappuccinos.

Starbucks only caries vanilla soy milk which is annoying at times, but did make drink taste like it was fancy and vanilla flavored.

I did eat dinner last night, but I didn’t blog because I was deep in Firefly Lane for tonight’s book club.  I had a great salad to start.

Romaine lettuce topped with ~ 2 Tbsp each buckwheat groats, peanuts, raisins, and Wegman’s Thai Peanut Sauce.

The Wegman’s peanut sauce was great.

Not quite as good as mine, but nicely flavored and with only 25 calories per Tbsp.

And the husband helped me out and roasted up plate of vegetables too.

Half a sweet potato and a bunch of okra, both dipped in ketchup.

And the book?

Finished.  Start to finish in one evening, all 479 pages of it.

I think I made a mistake reading The Help in one sitting because now my friends don’t get the book club books to me more than a day or two ahead of time!  But Firefly Lane was a story I’d want to read straight through anyway.

We had a late start this morning and basically slept through breakfast.  I did have this handful of pretzels when I got up though.

And we went straight-up fancy for lunch.  Roasted asparagus,

and three pieces of Ballpark Tofu.

Another recipe page that needed updating.  Check it out if you like tofu, mustard, pretzels, or any combination of the above.

I also made a pie.

But you’ll have to wait until after book club for the recipe.  I know I could have typed it up this afternoon, but when there’s a new Ryan Reynolds movie in town you get your butt to the theatre.  Particularly when Denzel Washington is going to be staring too.

“Safehouse” was not great, but definitely good.  And let’s be honest, I’d watch practically anything if it meant splitting Five Guys fries with Adam as a movie snack.

Definitely good.

Have you read Firefly Lane?  Did you see “Safehouse” yet?  Thoughts?

What Do You Know About A Reduced Sodium Diet?

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Hello, hello!  We’ve officially hit the weekend, woot!

Breakfast, which was eaten during class, was all about the fruit group.

A baggie of purple grapes,

and a can of coconut water from Goya.

There were pieces of coconut floating around inside and it was too good.  Major props to Goya, because even without the pulp this was the best coconut water in terms of texture and taste that I’ve ever had!  Minus coconut water drunk straight from the coconut of course.

My morning was a little nerve-wracking because I had a class presentation, but at least since I don’t mind public speaking all I really had to worry about was knowing my stuff.  Just in case though, I rocked the Cameron from “House” look to make myself feel more confident.

It worked; everyone told us we did a great job!  Not to toot my own horn totally to toot my own horn, but when I was in the library after class another student came up and told me that our presentation was the best in-class presentation she’d ever seen.  Woot!

Our topic was the reduced sodium (2g) diet.  Our teacher played the patient and a fellow student and I had to give her the diet education.  I had a whole analogy about your viens being your pipes and your heart being your pump that I thought was pretty compelling (toot, toot).  I can’t share the entire handout that I made, but here are some of my tips that I thought you guys might be interested in –

When Can You Reduce Sodium On Your Own?

  • In the kitchen –
    • Experiment with new spices and herbs for extra flavor.  Don’t buy pre-made seasonings though as most contain sodium.
    • Make your own soup instead of buying canned.  If you do buy canned look for a low sodium variety and/or dilute each serving with water.
    • Replace canned vegetables with fresh or frozen varieties.
    • Replace soy sauce with balsamic vinegar.
    • Make your own microwavable entrees by making large batches of meals and freezing single portions in freezer-safe containers.
    • Use a homemade hummus in place of cheesy or cream-based sauces.
    • At the table –
      • Say goodbye to the salt shaker, sprinkle fresh lemon juice over chicken, fish, or vegetables instead.
      • Replace a glass of milk with water or unsweetened iced tea.
      • Replace condiments that are high in sodium with homemade salsa.
      • Top your salad with chunks of avocado instead of bacon bits.  While you’re at it, replace store-bought dressings with oil and vinegar.
      • Instead of a slice of cheese, spread a Tbsp of tahini (sesame paste) on your sandwich.
      • For crunch, snack on baby carrots instead of potato chips.
      • Sprinkle your popcorn with cinnamon or chili powder instead of salt.

After class I spent an agonizing hour in the library finding an article for an upcoming paper, then had to hurry home to make it to 1:30pm yoga.  I stopped at Subway for a quick lunch along the way.

I did some Googling in the library and everything on my veggie delight was confirmed to be vegan.  On roasted garlic bread – lettuce, tomato, green pepper, red onion, banana pepper, extra pickles, and sweet onion sauce.  All for $2.50, woot!

Plus a piece of dark chocolate.

Lunch was good, even when shoveled in in under 10 minutes.

And I made it to yoga on time.  60 minutes of hot yoga had me feeling good.  But it wasn’t my best practice, I definitely prefer the 90 minute class because it gives me time to really warm up.  Plus, running through each pose twice means I have double the chance of actually doing each pose!  My 30-day pass expires this weekend and I’m pretty devestated.

I’ve been hanging out instead of showering since I got home, but hopefully my partner in crime doesn’t mind that I’m smelly.

Do you pay attention to how much sodium you consume?

Cloud 6ish

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Holy crap!  It’s late at night and we just got some terrible money news so this post is going to have to be quick before it devolves into the blogging equivalent of sobbing.  Not pretty.

Statistics was fine, as of right now it seems like I can understand the concepts.  The hospital was fine, though we do have a lot of work to do.  My evening class was more anxiety ridden than fine; among other assignments we will have to create a 6-week staffing schedule for an imaginary clinic, figure out the budget for that clinic, and create an imaginary business plan.  Yikes!

We had an hour break between clinic and evening class when I could eat my packed lunch.  A turkey bagel sandwich.

That’s a toasted whole wheat multi-grain bagel topped with strawberry cream cheese and 2 slices of Applegate Farm’s roasted sliced turkey.

A baggie of roasted green beans.

And 4 gummi cola bottles.

The gummies were amazing, but I bought them in Toronto so it’ll be awhile before I can get more.

When I got home from class I ate a Voskos 0% Honey Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt.

This was amazing.  Seriously.  The texture was pillowy like a cloud!  I do love other Greek yogurts but this was totally different and yet equally amazing.  If the sour cream-like texture of Fage bothers you, then I highly recommend trying out Voskos.

Which Greek yogurt variety/brand do you recommend for good texture?

Yucky Yogurt

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This (god-awful) photo sure feels official!

I had my first day of clinical practice this afternoon.  It went well, and wasn’t as scary as I was expecting, but we’ll see how I feel once we actually start doing stuff 😉  For now there’s not a whole lot to report.

I had statistics before I headed to the hospital, but again I’m not quite sure what to make of it yet.  I do know that there is already a conflict with stats and clinic in February, but I’m hoping that knowing about it this far in advance will let me figure out a solution.

I didn’t eat anything after my little breakfast and I made it through the hospital without a hunger issue so as long as I have my retainers (probably another month or so) I’ll probably stick with that schedule on Tuesdays.  But on Thursdays with a 3rd class in the evening I’ll have to pack food.

When I got home this afternoon I made myself a Stonyfield Low-Fat French Vanilla Yogurt with a S’mores Cup crumbled on top.

This bowl was as big a fail as breakfast!  I just don’t like Stonyfield yogurt any more.  I love the company’s values and flavor offerings so I want to like it, but the texture isn’t right.  Checking the ingredient list I think it must be the pectin because the yogurt is thick in a gross goopy, snotty way.  It sort of reminds me of smoothies made with xanthan gum, and not in a good way.  I ate the top layer off – I wasn’t about to waste a S’mores Cup! – but had to throw away the rest of the yogurt.

Even though I was hungry, I managed to hop on another productive streak before dinner.  I cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and finished updating my clinic notebook.  And roasted some broccoli into perfection for dinner.

This easy leftover meal hit the spot.  A small serving of Orange Peel Shrimp, a 1/3 cup of rice, and a bunch of roasted broccoli all tossed together.

Yum.  But the rest of the day’s disappointing meals have caught up with me and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to eat a snack before bed.  Right now I’ve got to hurry into the shower so I’m ready for the 9pm State of the Union.  FYI – The 2012 State of the Union is live-streaming here for those of us that don’t have cable.

Have you eaten a Stonyfield yogurt recently?  What was your opinion?

Back to School

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It’s official, I’m back in school!

This morning brought about a million plan changes, but it all worked out in the end.  When Adam left (before sunrise) I couldn’t fall back asleep so I finished reading Kathy Reichs book #9 (Bones to Ashes) for an hour or so in bed.  I couldn’t fall at 5 am but at 8 am I couldn’t wake up!  I ended up getting out of bed 30 minutes before the yoga class I wanted to attend was slated to start.  I thought I could make it, so I slammed this breakfast to fill up my stores.

A Wegman’s Whole Wheat Multigrain with Cranberry and Pomegranate bagel with strawberry cream cheese,

plus a big glass of water.

But getting ready took too long and I made myself a little sick eating too quickly, and that plan had to be scrapped.  My original plan was to walk to school today, but when I saw the rain I realized it was time to reevaluate again.  I would eat a little more breakfast, take a shower, drive to school and read Kathy Reichs book #10 (Devil Bones), go to class, and then go to the gym at school before driving home.  (I had to go early because there wouldn’t be any parking closer to class time).  And that’s exactly what I did.

My brunch additions were a small apple.

And a 0% Exotic Fig Voskos Greek Yogurt.

The yogurt was great.  The taste wasn’t quite as good as the Greek Gods Fig Greek Yogurt (my all-time favorite), but the nutritional content was far superior.

Then I drove to school, walked the 20 minutes in the rain from my parking spot, and vowed never to drive to school after 8 am again.  Today’s class went well, but apparently this semester is going to be very, very, very hard.  I’m scared.

After class I headed straight to the gym.  35 minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.

I stopped at Wegmans for a late lunch on my way home.  I was only going so that I could sit in the comfy booths to finish the writing-intensive task of filling out my planner, but I ended up getting a pretty good meal.

Steamed veggies with a few pieces of kung pow tofu on top,

and two organic chicken dumplings.

Delicious, and it gave me the energy to power through some serious productivity.  I walked and bathed the dog, did the dishes, made dinner, and completed my first homework assignment of the year.  Woot!  Also, I found 15 minutes to make Adam this –

Dinner was even exotic.

I followed this recipe for Orange Peel Shrimp.  With a side of roasted zucchini,

and a 1/4 cup of whole grain texmati brown and rice red blend.

I used salad sized shrimp and subbed in mango butter for orange marmalade, but otherwise I followed the shrimp recipe.

The end flavor was delicious.  The sauce had a great tang and a good level of spice.  But I have to say that I think the recipe was poorly written.  If you decide to make the Orange Peel Shrimp (which I do recommend), I would suggest frying the shrimp in batches.  There is just no way to do 2 lbs at once without overcrowding the pan.  Also, do the shrimp first, set it aside, and cook the sauce in the same pan.  The cornstarch remaining in the pan is minimal, and does not cause the sauce to thicken to quickly; there is no reason to dirty two pans.

Dessert was two S’mores Cups.

If you can believe it, these are even better leftover!  More chewy than gooey, but definitely a bit easier to eat.  These cups are my favorite S’mores variation to date!

How often do you get Chinese take-out? 

Off With A Thud

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2012 started off with a resounding … thud!  We headed out this morning for a grocery trip, ran over a nail and saw blade (wtf?!), and spent the rest of the afternoon changing the husband’s tire and getting it patched.  Whoops!  In the spirit of being a more positive person, I found a few Pollyanna-type takeaways from our flat –

  1. Thank goodness the tire wasn’t rusted to the axle like the ones on my car, and we were able to change to the spare by ourselves (in the Wegman’s parking lot!).
  2. Since we were spending the afternoon at Mr. Tire we took my car in as well for winterizing, a task we had been putting off.
  3. I probably wouldn’t have spent the day cleaning the entire house, working out like a madman, or changing my entire life anyways; and having the excuse of being stuck with the car means I don’t have to feel bad about not doing those things!

Before the bad thing happened, I made myself a cup of White Christmas tea with skim milk.

I was starving at the grocery store and I’m glad I managed to grab some food from home before we headed out for three hours at Mr. Tire.  Adam and I each got a 1 oz serving of Lord Nut’s spicy bloody mary peanuts.

The nuts were a Christmas gift from my mom. 

They were good; the flavor was spot on but not too spicy for Adam.  My 2nd snack was also a Christmas gift.

Lara Bar kindly sent me some samples of their newest flavor, Cappuccino!

I think it is actually my newest favorite flavor.  This tasted the least like dates (my only complaint about Lara Bars is that some flavors are too strong with date) and the coffee flavor was there without being overwhelming.

We spent part of our wait-time wandering around outside in the rain, and ended up at Mustachio’s for slices of cheese pizza.

Also fun, when we stopped at the Co-op on our way home I managed to snag a sample of mint swirl brownie.

Sweet!

Since 2012 didn’t have the most auspicious start, I’m glad we ate a dinner geared towards bringing us luck.

We followed Jenna’s recipe for Hoppin’ John, with a few changes –

  • mixed everything together rather than making a relish
  • replaced two of the plum tomatoes with tomatillos (<– I highly recommend this change, it gave the dish a nice citrus flavor)
  • substituted brown rice with forbidden black rice for extra luck!

And if it wasn’t lucky, at least it was healthy and tasty.

Our plans for the rest of the evening include Netflix Instant Watch and this skillet cookie my sister-in-law gave us for Christmas.

2012, bring it on!

How’d you spend the first day of the new year?

Yes, You Want Cake

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This post is for Katie. And for everyone – not to worry, I did eat food-food today, I just wanted to get this posted asap so y’all could enter the giveaway.

What do you get when you combine these things?

Cake!

Seriously.

My mother-in-law made this one Thanksgiving and it blew my mind. There’s also a ton of varieties on the internet, going as Crockpot Cake or Dump Cake. You can pair any combo of cake mix and pie filling that suits your fancy, so the possibilities are practically endless. And you basically just dump everything in your crock pot and go.

I had a very hard time picking a flavor combo – carrot cake mix + pineapple filling? devil’s food cake mix + cherry filling? spice cake mix + apple filling? – but in the end I decided to use Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix and Comstock Premium Strawberry Pie Filling.

I brought my cake into class today (I actually I made it during class in the back of the room!) and everyone loved it. The 18 of us finished every last bite!

Crock Pot Cake

  • 1 box Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix
  • 21 oz can Comstock Premium Strawberry pie filling
  • 8 Tbsp butter, chopped
  1. Spray the inside of your crock pot with baking spray.
  2. Pour pie filling into the bottom of the crock pot.
  3. Combine butter and cake mix and sprinkle on top of pie filling.
  4. Cook, 2 hours on the low setting.

Giveaway

I received my cake mix and pie filling for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program and they want me to share with you guys too.

Three readers will receive two coupons for a free box of Duncan Hines cake mix. To enter to win –

  • leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite kind of cake is
  • post a link to this giveaway on Twitter, and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’ve done so
  • post a link to this giveaway on Facebook, and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’ve done so

You can do any or all of the above to enter. Contest ends Wednesday, November 23rd at 2pm EST.

He’s Back!

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No, not me (I’m a she if you didn’t know!), my computer!

He’s back from the place that drained my wallet Best Buy’s Geek Squad and feeling better than ever.  I’m glad to have a working computer again, though I did learn a few things in his absence –

  1. If it’s not Google-_________, WordPress, Slate, Hotmail, or another of the select few, I’m not opening it on my laptop.  That’s what fancy cell phones and school accounts are for.
  2. I need want to spend more time away from the computer.

How much of your free time would you say you spend staring at a screen (tv, computer, or cell phone)?

I spent 7:30 am – 9:30 pm out of the house and my eats today were decidedly pathetic.  Cheese, and carbs, and hey I did the best I could on the run!

Breakfast, consumed during a break in class #1, was a leftover serving of mac ‘n cheese.

And lunch, consumed during the break between class #2 and 3, was a Cookie Dough Balance Bar.

And after all my raving over how this bar is my favorite thing ever, I’m pretty sure they’ve changed the recipe!  This was overly chemical and just not good.  What gives?!?  I don’t even know how I’m going to break the news to Adam.

In between lunch and dinner, insert a group meeting, an hour spent writing my personal reflection on the Chili Sale, a trip to the mall in torrential downpour to pick up my computer, and three-hour shift at work.

Unsurprisingly, dinner came from the frozen section.

A Newman’s Own White Pizza, purchased with a free coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

I ate my single serving on a too-big plate so that we could reuse the plate for Adam’s big serving and save a dish.

Soooo good.  The portion didn’t feel very big but it was less about being unsatisfied and more about really wanting to keep eating the delicious flav-a.  If I’m not going deep dish, I want my crust to be crispy and this definitely delivered.  The cheese had a great sour, tang to it that I couldn’t get enough of and the red sauce wasn’t missed at all.

For my side I tried to recreate Saturday’s salad.

Romaine base topped with crumbled blue cheese, chopped Gala apple, groats, and Wegman’s Yogurt Casaer Dressing.

It was very good, but I realized too late that dressing with honey and vinegar probably would have taken it over the top.

Dessert was two coffee malt cookies.

I’m going to be up half the night chipping away at schoolwork and it’s likely I will continue to do some snacking.  I’ll update in the morning as need be.  Good night!