Tag Archives: restaurant food

The Last Three Days I’ve Been…

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…all over the place!  Figuratively speaking.  I don’t know where my head is but my meals have been less than impressive; lots of junk food, not a lot of veggies, and I keep forgetting to eat breakfast.  Adam was preparing for an important exam and between that, getting used to working, and obsessing over some new books, I’ve felt a little crazy.  It is what it is.

Friday

This was a no breakfast day.  And I didn’t manage to pack lunch before work either.  I ended up grabbing a mix of co-op salad bar.

Cucumber salad, farro salad, vegan pasta salad, and a few dolmas.

Plus a Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea.

When I got home I had chip and dip leftovers.

Plain low-fat yogurt with banana slices and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.

And a giant bowl of frosted flakes with skim milk.

I guess I didn’t have it together for dinner either.

Saturday

I ate breakfast!  Cottage cheese stirred into a Liberte Coconut Yogurt.

But I packed the stupidest lunch of all time.

A Plum Kids Strawberry Lemonade Yogurt Mashup,

and a Fiber One cookie.

Supplemented with an iced Earl Grey with skim milk.

And the last of my chips and dip when I got home.

Saturday morning Adam took the biggest, 8+ hour, most important exam he’ll take in his entire life (seriously, he’s done nothing but study the past month) so we went out for a celebratory dinner with another couple that night.

I made a small plate from the communal cheese board.

And drank a (giant?!) glass of riesling.

For dinner I ordered the pesto spatzle.

I loved the idea of the innovative pesto (romaine! pistachio! mint!) but sadly didn’t enjoy the execution.  You know that I can throw down with some heavy food but this dish was missing some desperately needed acid to cut through the richness.  I ate a few bites and figured that my chip appetizer would keep me from starving 😉

Sunday

I started my morning with Harvest Bay Coconut Water,

and chicken salad.

Plus a shake shared with the husband.

(Thank you birthday freebie coupons!)

Mid-day I headed to yoga.  60 minute hot yoga class.  Love love loved it.  This was definitely the high point of the last few days.

Then we had more ice cream; I can’t resist the allure of birthday freebies.

That’s a kid’s size vanilla frozen yogurt with reeses pb cup and cookie dough.

Veggies, chicken, and macaroni were consumed on a shopping trip.

Plus a mug of cocoa at home.

It was delicious but unnecessary.  As I wrote up this recap I was fairly disgusted by the amount of sugar (and chips!) I ate over the past three days.

Around 7:00 we hunkered down in the kitchen for a mega cooking session.  Three dishes were on the agenda – tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s dinner, and tuna casserole to freeze for Adam for the week I’m in Ohio.  Two out of three worked out.  After spending a lot of time making Janetha’s cauliflower crust pizza I covered it in marinara that turned out to be covered in mold.

Uggggh!  Adam threw out our dinner and I threw a fit on the floor.  I took a giant bite of marinara sauce before I spotted the mold so a lot of histrionic gagging went down.

Then a bunch of other shit happened and many hours later I ate nachos for dinner.

The end.

Sushi Date

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I had a bunch of errands to run and yesterday somehow felt really busy.  No post because I never actually ate any meals, mostly I took random spoonfuls of cookie butter and stole salt and vinegar chips from the husband.

Instead of a recap I’ll share a few of the highlights –

#1 – I met up with a few friends and over coffee we finally figured out our room situation for FNCE – the AND’s yearly conference.  Three (maybe four!) of us are going and we managed to find something safe and affordable.

#2 – My easy errand took me to the mall.  I am loving the “birthday month” deals that have been rolling in.  I’ve wanted this Sugar lip duo from Fresh for years and Sephora just gave it to me for free!

#3 – While I was at the mall (see #2) I drank something that has changed my life forever.  Peanut butter frozen hot chocolate from Dairy Queen.

Since the first sip it’s basically been all I’ve been able to think about.  I’ve already started trying to figure out how to recreate it at home.

Today was fairly lame on the food fruit.  The things I ate were all great but I didn’t eat all that much.  Quality over quantity?

A small bun with ~1 Tbsp evoo for dipping.

Juicy green pear.

Bottle of Classic Green Tea from Honest Tea.

Dinner was extra exciting because we made a quick turnaround on a recent Groupon purchase and headed out to eat.

We were both impressed with Sakura Sushi.  The service, speed, and food were all good.  The menu boasted a bunch of fun rolls (like the “Buffalo Roll” with spicy fried tuna!) but Adam and I both stuck with what we knew.

I got a green salad with ginger dressing to start.

And a Spicy Crunch Salmon Roll.

Deep fried salmon / mango / tempura flakes / spicy sauce.

Yum!  It wasn’t the easiest thing to eat like a lady, but the taste was worth the mess.  I obviously could have gotten something healthier but this was a nice compromise between a plain roll and the cream cheese stuffed, whole roll tempura options that I was eyeing.

We had to spend a little bit more money to use up our Groupon so the husband and I split a dessert.

Coppa Mascarpone – a chocolate cream, followed by a smooth mascarpone cream, topped with amaretto cookie crumbs and chocolate curls.

It was fun way to end the date.

Adam and I have skin checks across town tomorrow morning and I am determined to get in bed so that our wake-up isn’t brutal.  I’ll be dreaming of peanut butter frozen hot chocolate!

I Swallowed (A Wine Tasting Recap)

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What a fun day!  It included booze, friends, and cookies, so you know it was a winner.  I didn’t do the best job photographing but today was one of those days when it is more important to live it than blog it.  I guess that’s true for all days really!

I have no excuse for the past two days because I think blogging a recap would have been my most exciting event, sadly.  I was lazy not busy.  But I do have two new recipes to share this week.  Two recipes for two days seems fair.

We had to do a major cleaning job on the apartment this morning but we did find time for a dog walk.  Breakfast on the go.

Adam and I split this Mango Noosa Yoghurt (there are two servings per package) and we were both big fans.  So thick and creamy!

I read up on the company and I really like their policies.  I just wish the ‘gurt was available in low-fat.

Today my friends and I cashed in a big group Living Social deal and hopped in two town-cars for a winery tour.  We got picked up at my place so every one came up for some sweet treats first.

We had (unphotographed) “virgin mimosas” of oj and vanilla club soda and I baked two treats.  How Sweet Eats’ Chocolate Drenched Coconut Oatmeal Squares.

And cookie dough truffles (recipes is one of the two promised for this week).

Both were big hits!  HSE is basically a genius; I subbed in unsweetened coconut but otherwise I left her recipe alone.  Adam complained about helping me bake on Saturday night but after he tasted the goods he shot me death-eyes when I tried to send friends home with leftovers!  I ate two of each all total for the day.

Then we were off for three hours of wine tasting.

We hit up three wineries, all of which had a great selection.  Between the seven of us there was a large range of preferences.  Rachel likes super dry and I like super sweet so the two of us ended up swapping glasses a couple of times.  I don’t really drink wine so it was nice to have little tastes to see what I like; I even tried a couple of reds!  The craziest ones were Schulze Wines’ crackling sweets.

I especially liked Niagara Landing’s Rosebud line and even came home with a bottle.

And I paid $2.50 extra at one spot for this mini glass of ice wine.

All total I had 13 tastes and I didn’t spit once!  I probably should have though, it wasn’t an insane amount of alcohol but all 13 were sweet and I felt pretty sick by the time I got home.

I ate a mac and cheese muffin (the 2nd recipe),

and then crashed hard on the couch.

When I forced myself up two hours later I knew there was no way I would be cooking the soup on my meal plan.  Instead we went to Moe’s.

My vegetarian burrito had rice, black beans, sautéed mushrooms/peppers/onions, cheese, corn salsa, and guacamole.  It was just what I needed.

I’m feeling loads better now.  But I am hoping to turn in early because I’ve got a busy to-do list for tomorrow.

Have you ever been to a wine tasting?  Did you spit?

Lunch In The Cafeteria

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Hello, again!  Long time no see; or at least it has felt long to me.  There is some stuff going on that has made it in my best professional interest to skip posting, so that’s where I was the past two days.  I obviously can’t share but I promise you’re not missing anything too juicy.  And now I can come back!

This week of summer school we are observing institutional food-service operations.  I’m at the campus dining hall and I’m loving it!  Everyone else is at a health care organization and I was worried about doing something different, but I ended up exactly where I’m supposed to be.  Everything I’ve experienced so far has been amazing and today I basically walked around with my mouth hanging open.  I’ll admit that my expectations were not very high but I’ve actually been beyond impressed.  I went into dietetics more excited about clinical work than food-service and this experience is totally challenging my previous ideas.

Breakfast was eaten on my walk to school.

ZonePerfect recently sent me a sample of their Perfectly Simple line.

Tagline – “A few wholesome ingredients. 10 grams of protein. What could be simpler?”  Sounds good to me!

Unfortunately when I tried the Cranberry Almond flavor earlier this week I ended up throwing it out after just one bite.  The cranberry flavor was too strong for me; but I hate cranberries, so if you’re a fan of them this might be a plus for you.  I didn’t have high hopes for Toasted Coconut but I ended up quite liking it.

I wouldn’t call the ingredient list “natural” but it was nice and short.  The date paste wasn’t hidden but the bar didn’t have the same flavor or stickiness of a Larabar either.  The toasted coconut was tasty.  For 200 calories this was pretty filling (thank you, 10 grams of protein).

I also had a coffee with skim milk on campus.

I’ve always loved the fact that our food court has a Spot Coffee and I learned more about that relationship today.

Lunch was eaten in the cafeteria.  A Zucchini and Squash Blend with Vegetable Egg Frittata.

Plus a skim milk/chocolate milk mix over ice.

I’ve so missed the milk machine from my days of undergrad at UM!

My meal was delicious, by the way.  The food service department here does a really amazing job of using tons of local sourced produce, dairy, and eggs.  Plus they only buy cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free meat.

When I got home in the afternoon I snacked on small bowls of leftovers.

Rice with spicy chicken.  Followed by the last small serving of Tex-mex chicken soup.

I am so sad to see this go!  Especially because Adam said not to save the recipe because it was too spicy for him.

Dinner was pretty similar to my snacks, but Indian.

I topped brown rice and roasted eggplant with a serving of Kohinoor India on a Platter Paneer Butter Masala.

This stuff was fabulous!  My roasted eggplant wasn’t very good (I baked it in Worcestershire sauce and honey and it ended up spicy and chewy) but the sauce was totally able to carry it.

It’s close to bedtime but we are going to walk the dog and we may get some chocolate!

Rested Recap

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Hey there!  It’s been a busy few days so I’m having to do a multi-day recap post here.  Thankfully I don’t have too too much to say.  It’s been fun though.

Thursday I did breakfast to go.

The last of a jar of crunchy pb (~ 1-2 Tbsp) filled with a 0% strawberry Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of raw oats, and 1/4 cup of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

Lunch was roasted broccoli with peanut sauce.

This combo was delicious, even cold.

And some gummi cola bottles.

The amount shown there is about 1/2 of what I brought back from Canada; I should have bought more!

When I got home Adam and a nice surprise for me –

The hospital he’s doing his current rotation at has a great cafeteria that sells our favorite pizza in Buffalo (legit!).

And then I fell asleep at 5pm.  I was feeling super tired throughout the day and the minute I sat down on the couch I was done for.  I slept from 5 – 10, got up to get ready for bed, and went back to sleep!

Don’t worry, I more than made up for any missed dinner calories on Friday.  The amount of junk I ate was so disgusting that it ended up being almost impressive!  Everything was delicious (duh!) but I think my body would appreciate a few more veggies.

It was National Donut Day and I had to partake.

That donut was rich I couldn’t even finish it.  I’m just not a donut girl, my consumption for the year is officially over 🙂

But sweet coffee?  Dont’ mind if I do.

I got a large Black Cocoa iced coffee with skim milk.  Adam got this (Men in Black!) special the other day and I was so good I had to have one of my own.  The lady who served us told me they were only making them through this week so taste one while you can.

Lunch was fresh-cut pineapple,

and a Cherry Cobbler Larabar Uber.

It was good but not as tasty as Bananas Foster.  Again, lots of big nuts and almost no date flavor.  And the cherries were tart and sweet.  Somehow it didn’t have quite enough flavor though.

School went really well on Friday.  I am ServSafe certified, woot!

Some friends and I celebrated after class.  Bloody Mary at Pano’s.

x2.  And then I was drunk.

I also took them to check out Nickel City Cheese and Mercantile.  In addition to having great stock the owners are fantastic.  My friends bought an aged cheddar and a gouda each and the man behind the counter had us do lots of swoon-worthy tasting.  I also brought home a treat for Adam.

He brought a treat for me too!

I happily ate that slice but then I had to tell him to stop bringing me pizza so I don’t get fat…ter.

Then we tried my treats.  A blue cheese and dark chocolate and goat cheese honey milk truffle!

We took one bite of each but I think I was a bigger fan than Adam.  They were a little strange but sooooo good.  The creaminess of goat cheese makes a perfect truffle center.

We had a gift certificate to use so we went on a dinner date to Romeo and Juliet’s Cafe.

I started with bread; one slice with garlic and a second with butter.

And for my meal I ordered the Baked Eggplant Parmigiana.

Oh. My. God.  I left the pasta to the side (who eats pasta when there are layers of eggplant and cheese available?!), shared a few cherished bites with Adam, and then demolished the rest.

We took dessert to go.

That ball was a peanut butter mousse with chocolate ganache.  Ridiculous.

I wanted to post last night but unfortunately I passed out then as well.  The dog has been shedding a lot more recently (this is our first June with him) and I may be the tiniest bit allergic to him.

So now it’s Saturday.  I’ve eaten a bowl of Maple Brown Sugar Mini Wheats with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk,

and I’m ready to conquer the day.  Conquer may mean errands or may mean tv, we shall see.

We’re Home From Toronto!

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Did you know we were away?  I hope not, I tried to keep that under my hat.  We found a great deal for hotel/dinner/a movie on Living Social so we took a quick trip.  After two glorious days of mini-vacation now we’re home again!

We actually got back to Buffalo this afternoon but the day’s been packed and I’m just now sitting down.  I’m going to do a mega vacation recap tomorrow, so for today I’ll stick with things consumed on US soil.

Like the medium Americano with skim milk and two sugars that Adam and I split just minutes after crossing the border.

For some reason I’d been craving milk and coffee all weekend and this hit the spot.

We also split a pack of Snyder’s Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Pieces.

They were okay, but basically tasteless compared with the honey mustard ones.

On a healthier note, I drank this sludge.

It was actually delicious.  I mixed this pack of Amazing Grass GREENSuperFood into orange juice and a bit of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

I got the idea from the way Jamba Juice used to sell wheatgrass.

Most of the afternoon was spent on errands but I did sneak in a stroll.  We did a ton of walking this weekend but my legs wanted to stretch out after ride home.  Plus, I spotted this from the car and I really needed to check it out –

Awesome.

Our late lunch was stir-fried rice.

Into the pan went varying amounts of –

  • evoo
  • sliced carrots
  • frozen peas
  • leftover rice
  • eggs
  • tomato
  • pineapple
  • rice vinegar

Topped with Sriracha.

It was quite good.

With two gummi bottle candies for dessert.

The red and blue was disgusting but the cola one was great.

We weren’t ready for the fun to end so we headed out to dinner.

Adam opened up my “Buffalo to Try” bookmarks and picked at random.  We ended up at Black Rock Kitchen and Bar.

It was fun but the final consensus is that we won’t be back.  Everything was good-ish but somehow not quite right.

We started with a cheese plate.

And I ordered the shrimp po’ boy.

I traded half of my sandwich for Adam’s eggplant panini with tomato, pesto, and marscapone.

All total I ate the equivalent of 3/4 of a sandwich.  Nothing was bad but the flavors were all slightly too strong; lots of pepper.

We split a bowl of mint chip when we got home.

This wasn’t quite right either.  You can’t win them all!

Double Day, Double Shower, Double Shot

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The two-days-in-one post is because I passed out – on the couch, fully dressed – before I could blog last night.

Backing up to yesterday afternoon… I decided to eat a snack at home before I went on my errands.  A mini bag of popcorn; I believe it was butter flavored because it didn’t taste like kettle corn but I got a big pack with both and the bags aren’t labeled and it drives me crazy.

I started a book while I munched and that meant that errands never happened because once you pick up the last book of the HungerGames trilogy you don’t put it down until it’s done.  <– true story  After love-love-loving the first book I was actually pretty disappointed by the ending of the series.  I don’t want to give anything away here, but I would love to discuss it more in the comments.  I personally was very surprised by some of the choices the author made toward the end.

People who read the Hunger Games trilogy – what did you think of the last book????

While I read I also took alternating bites of a Honeycrisp apple and the last of the Cookie Butter (~1 Tbsp?).

So good.  I prefer the original Biscoff spread to the TJ’s stuff but I was sad to see it go since I won’t be able to purchase it again for a long time.

Dinner was supposed to be quick and easy.

I made an attempt at mozzarella sticks by cutting up string cheese, dipping the pieces in egg white and panko, and baking at 400*.

Nothing like the original (which I actually don’t really care for) but tasty in their own way.

The main dinner component was supposed to be soup.  I served Adam and myself each 2 servings of Imagine’s Organic Creamy Brocoli Soup.

Not a fan.  I want to mention that Adam liked it and ate his whole bowl.  I took two bites and the 2nd bite was only because I really hate to waste food.  When I bought it I thought the texture was going to be thick.  Thin soups, outside of broth with stuff in it, totally set off my gag reflex.

I ended up going to Mezza for take-out for dinner.

It was frustrating to waste the money but my meal was quite tasty.

I got the Chicken Shawarma.

Grilled chicken on a grilled pita with garlic spread, cole slaw, tomatoes, pickles, and tahini sauce.  It was great, especially the cole slaw and pickles, but I’d ask for it without garlic sauce next time because my breath was ridiculous.

My sandwich came with a side of fries.

I ate them all but really I should have skipped them; I already ate cheese sticks!  Then I passed out on the couch.

Today started with a run.  I did ten sets of 1:30 running and 3:30 walking for 50 minutes and 3.9 miles.  Then I took shower #1.

I didn’t have time between my workout and my first errand to make food which sucked because once I left the house I was gone for hours.  I had an appointment to get the oil changed on Adam’s car and then I had to go to the tailor and the Sprint store (Monday’s errands).

I dropped off the car and spent the 40-minute wait taking a great walk.

I made a pit stop for coffee and then kept moving.  A Vietnamese latte from Sweetness_7 Cafe.

After the tailor (I need to learn how to hem my own pants!) I headed back to the Sprint store.  I had to leave my phone with them for another hour but I think that it is finally officially fixed.

While I waited for my phone I grabbed lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger.

I felt a little strange all by myself but I had a book in my purse to keep me company.

I ordered a turkey burger with cole slaw, pickles, onions, and jalopeños.

It was a good combination of toppings, if I do say so myself!  I moved the bun to the side right away but other than that I ate every last bite.

Shot of espresso #2 (not literally but just go with it) was consumed when the husband got home and we shared a frozen coffee.  I blended up a packet of Starbucks Caramel Via, a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, 2 cups of skim milk, ~2 Tbsp English Toffee syrup, and lots of ice.

So darn good.  We split it but both kept yanking the cup back from one another.  The English Toffee syrup is something I’ve been trying to get Adam to taste for forever (like the wakame) and he loved it!

Shower #2 was due to workout #2; the husband and I headed to the tennis courts.  I’m pretty good at serving and pretty terrible volleying but he’s hoping to get me to playing shape by the end of the summer.  Right now it’s an extra good workout with all of the running for lost balls.  We “played” for one hour.

We were very hungry for dinner and thankfully it ended up being delicious.

Pretty too!  When I make an especially beautiful plate of food I’m so sad not to have the photography skills to properly capture it.

Roasted zucchini.

~ 2/3 cup cooked brown rice.

An egg.

But not just any egg.

A soft-boiled egg!  (Thanks for the recipe, Jenna!)

And then I smothered the whole bowl in Sriracha.

The end.

Plus two small cookies from Romeo and Juliet’s Cafe for dessert.

A thumbprint and a fig cookie.  I brought Adam home a box from the event last Thursday and apparently he won’t eat the fig ones so they’re mine.

Whew, that was a long post!

Sunday Disposition

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Welcome, weekend warriors!

No Saturday post because I spent most of the day moping around the house.  Little was accomplished, though I did get the laundry done.

I got so sick of myself that I made damn sure to have fun today.  And I’ve been thinking positive thoughts about the upcoming week as well.  I want to make sure my last 8 days before summer school are as productive/relaxing/fun/healthy as possible.

We got this morning off to a tasty/healthy start with sludge smoothies to go.

Enjoyed out of repurposed jars instead of fancy stemware because we were on a family walk.

In the blend were unmeasured amounts of frozen banana, frozen blackberries, frozen spinach, and oj.

Plus a piece of rye bread with strawberry jam and Smart Balance Light when we got home.

Our new jam is the store-brand version of Crofter’s (ie organic and with no added sugar) and sadly it’s not very good.

Lunch was consumed out of hand.  A slice of pizza (now you see what we did on Saturday!),

a Cara Cara orange,

and half of this package of mint m&m’s.

I’ve never been a huge m&m person but these mint ones are fantasmic.  Perhaps because they are dark chocolate?  They are one of the few (the only?!) desserts that actually tastes better to me in small quantities.

We walked to dinner and surreptitiously enjoyed Black Jack Colas along the way.

We went on a sushi date.

Kunis has been on our “Buffalo: Go To” list for months and I’m glad we finally gave it a shot because it was great and we’ll definitely be back.

I ordered three small plates to make up my meal.  First, Wakame Salad.

Seasoned and dressed seaweed, with sesame and chili flakes.  I’ve been trying to get Adam to taste seaweed salad for years and now that he finally did he’s officially obsessed (we stopped at the co-op on the way home because he was hoping to find more!).  I will say that Kuni’s version was one of the best I’ve ever had.  But – the photo isn’t deceiving you, it was a ridiculously small portion.

My soup course was a bowl of Udon.

Thick white flour noodles in a light broth, topped with sweetened tofu, wakame and scallions.  At $3.75 this huge bowl was a steal.  The sweet tofu wasn’t my favorite but the slightly sweet and sour broth was great.

Finally, a veggie roll.

It had asparagus, mushroom, and some pickled vegetable that I’m not remembering.  Be forewarned – the wasabi at Kunis is fresh!  I gobbed it on the way I usually do and my first bite almost killed me.  It wasn’t necessarily spicy – in fact we both noticed that this wasabi put no spice on your tongue and was strangely sour – but a bunch of it stuck to the roof of my mouth and I started choking and breaking out in a cold sweat.  Adam said my face was BRIGHT red!

We had a great walk home; Kuni’s is just far enough away to be fun.  My dinner was good but on the smaller side and my mouth didn’t feel done so I ate a mug of cereal when we got home.

1 cup of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat with skim milk.  Aaaaand, scene.