Tag Archives: rice

Not My Birthday

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It’s Adam’s birthday so I’m going to keep this post quick and cursory.  Well, it’s sort of his birthday.  But not really.  I’ll explain in a minute.

This morning was about as lazy as it gets.  I stayed in bed until past noon and it was glorious.  Then Adam and I headed out for a late lunch at Mangoz, a new Jamaican place in our neighborhood.

We split a plate of stewed chicken with plantains and beans and rice.

It was amazing.  The best Caribbean food either of us has had since leaving home.

And they had pink Ting.

We’ll be back.

My one accomplishment today was a quick trip to the gym.  30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  And I did some studying while I worked out.  Followed by a super quick stretch/strength session.

But that was sort of where the productivity ended.  We decided to spend the day doing fun stuff (in celebration of Adam turning 26 tomorrow).  Adam opened all of his presents a day early.

And I even made an effort to fix my hair.

We went to the mall so Adam could use a gift certificate at Dicks, and cashed in a coupon for Aunt Annie’s as well.

We split this pretzel, slathered in mustard.

The husband’s choice for birthday dinner was Indian food.  I got a fig lassi.

And we split a paneer pakora (fried cheese) for an appetizer.

I got the vegetable Korma, with extra okra, for dinner.

I demolished it.  I made three plates, and ate every last drop (literally!).

I made myself a little bit ill, but that didn’t stop me from drinking 90% of this coffee milkshake I “shared” with Adam.

Whoops.  And now we’re gleefully watching tv.

It’s been a good day, even if it’s not my birthday (or the husband’s!).

I Was Told There’d Be Book Club

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Book club was a success!  And Adam got off of his shift early and got to spend the afternoon with me, so it was a great day all-around.

I got up early to do some final cleaning (when people come over I like to pretend that we’re not slobs) and snacked on a bag of popcorn and a slice of 2% provolone while I worked.

I also did some major 2-for-me-and-1-for-the-bowl-ing while I prepped the fruit salad.

At 10 my friends arrived and we feasted.

We may not have really talked about the book (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) but at least we had some good eats!

My plate had potatoes,

fruit salad,

cheesy baked eggs,

and a crepe (so cool!) with Biscoff spread on the inside.

We also made hibiscus mimosas.

It was all great fun.  No people pictures though because we suck at remembering to take them.  I always have my camera with me (duh) so I need to do a better job at snapping candids.

We book clubbed until after 3pm and then my cultural meal pattern group and I baked some Irish soda bread to bring to our presentation tomorrow.  By the time they left I was starving again and my study motivation was seriously waning.  But I have an important cumulative exam – spanning two semesters and material from 2 courses – tomorrow.  What to do, what to do?

Somehow the husband and I decided that the solution was to go out to dinner and study at the table while other people prepared our food!

We went to an all-you-can-eat sushi spot that has a longish wait between courses and it was actually perfect.  I’m not prepared for tomorrow by any means, but I got a lot more done than I would have at home.

I also ate a lot.  I just plain don’t have time to break the pictures down, but here’s a shot of what I ate.

Wow!  Highlights included edamame, tamago (sweet egg) sushi, and tempura zucchini.

And we stopped at Wegmans for a candy cane for dessert.

Sweet dreams!

Happy Thanksgiving

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We’re in Miami!

Can I just say, how little I did I manage to pack for two people for four days?

And that’s with the husband’s giant boy clothes taking up extra space.

Our day of travel went smoothly, minus my yogurt (in a perfect peanut butter jar!) getting tossed at security. We slept though the first flight and then spent three hours walking around the Chicago airport.

We got a strange 8am meal, splitting a Baja chicken burrito from Burrito Beach.

I asked for chicken, red rice, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, and roasted veggies.

Supplemented with a tangerine packed from home.

I was pleased with the job I did packing food for this trip.

(Adam also had a downright gourmet salad in my backpack.)

I ate a sandwich – Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna, Crofter’s Grape Spread, everything Bagel Thin – on flight number two.

Plus Peanut M&Ms bought from the airport.

I also started reading the all time funniest book ever on the plane.

Clearly Webster liked it too.  I laughed aloud so many times I’m sure our seatmates were thinking of muzzling me.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and hugging my parents at the gate.  We are so freaking excited to be with them (especially in Miami!).

Our first stop was a nice walking tour of our old haunt, the U!

So fun to see how the campus had changed in little ways.  I will admit to becoming a bit nostalgic when we walked past the building where I took all of my English classes.  Plus it’s fun that Adam and I got to date here for four years.

Our next stop made my heart sing.

Self-serve froyo is high on my list of things to be thankful for!  I did keep the serving small though (we were about to head out to a nice Turkey Day dinner!); dolche de leche and taro froyo with fruit, a smidge of marshmallow, sprinkles, and lots of popping bobba.

If we manage to sneak in a froyo every day of the visit I think this will end up being the best vacation ever.

For dinner we headed to the Chart House.

The shirt that Adam has on here is actually the one he got married in!!!

I started my meal with a Blue Moon.

And a really great roll with butter.

And for dinner I went traditional.

Sliced roast turkey,

cornbread stuffing,

mashed potatoes,

cranberry relish,

and creamed spinach.

The spinach was soooo good, but overall I probably ordered the wrong thing since I actually hate most Thanksgiving foods.  I only ate a 1/3 or so of my plate; but at least I won’t have regrets about “missing”anything, and Adam is thrilled with his plate of leftovers.

My meal came with pecan pie.

But there wasn’t a preference issue that kept me from eating this, the pie was just plain nasty.  Store-bought (crappy store-bought) pie, Chart House?  You can do better.

But what really matters on Thanksgiving is family, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite people.  And I hope all of you, Americans or otherwise, got to spend the day with your nearest and dearest too.

Quick Trip To Canada

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I went to Canada today!

We didn’t really do any exciting abroad things, but we did snap pictures as we drove past the falls.  We were just making a quick trip up to the International Marathon Expo.  I offered to drive up so that blog friends Katy and Holly could pick up their packets.

I actually was planning on running the half marathon with them until not too long ago, but that’s another story for another time.

Prior to our drive, Adam and I hit up the farmers’ market in search of eggplants.  We had success.  We also found breakfast.

The husband and I split this locally made cheddar-rosemary scone.

It was crumbly and delicious.  I need to put “make scones” on my life to-do list.

Then after Canada we headed to the grocery store.  Adam and I both got totally sucked in by this register line purchase.

We split the box 60:40 (his favor), but both took at least a nibble of all four flavors.

When we got home I made myself a plate of grilled cheese epicness for lunch.

2 mini sandwiches (that’s a small plate) of sourdough bread with cheddar, 2% mozzarella, and pickled jalapeno slices.

I cooked the sandwiches in a skillet with another smaller skillet pressed on top and they turned out so crispy. 

Plus melty, cheesy, and spicy.

With a cookie for dessert.

We had dinner planned but Adam was absolutely desperate to get back to India Gate.  We compromised by eating some veggies at home first.  In the form of salads.

This was an amazing salad too.  A Romaine lettuce base topped with groats, roasted zucchini, goat cheese, and champagne dressing.

The cheese was more of the world’s best goat cheese from First Light Farm and Creamery.

This time a double cream chevre with garlic and dill.

And the dressing was a Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program sample from Marzetti’s Simply Dressed Line.

Nutrition –

From the accompanying literature – “Marzetti Simply Dressed is made with a minimal number of all-natural ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil (a source of Omega-3 ALA) and sea salt, and does not contain any preservatives, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, or artificial flavors or colors.”

After all that it’s ironic, but my only complaint was with one of the ingredients!  The dressing contained xantham gum (which I’m not opposed to in principle and do use occasionally in smoothies) and it made it way to viscous.  The thick, goopy, snotty (sorry) texture is not what I’m looking for in a dressing.  But the flavor was nice without being overpowering.  And I only needed 1.5 Tbsp (less than 80 calories) to feel like my whole salad was properly dressed.

‘Twas good all together.

But we hung out a bit too long between our salad course and the rest of our meal because we definitely had room for dessert, drink, and appetizer!

We started with Paneer Pakora, hhome-made cheese dipped in chickpea batter and deep-fried.

This was like the Indian spin on fried mozzarella sticks.  Here’s my serving –

We also ordered a fig lassi.

It was creamy with nice back hints of fig and these great little pieces of chewiness at the bottom.

We meant to share this 50:50 but I took a much larger portion because my meal was hot-hot-hot.

It’s not on the menu, but they were happy to hook me up with Tofu Vindaloo.

Vindaloo is a spicy, tomato based sauce that I’ve been dying to try because it’s notorious for melting your face off.  I ordered mine “hot” hot and while this was spicy it still wasn’t quite the heat level I was hoping for.  I’ve found outside of Thai food other types of heat just feel a little flat to me.

Adam repeated his order from last time, Chicken Makhani, boneless skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter, cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins.

My meals have all been good but I think there is really no way to beat this dish!  The cashews and raisins are little bits of chew embedded in every bite.

The bits of chew theme continued with fantastic rice.

I told Adam during this meal that chewiness is my favorite texture sensation.

Here was plate number 1 –

Rice, tofu, plus a taste of the Makhani sauce.  I ended up also topping my vindaloo liberally with raita to help cool things down.

For plate number 2 I ended up just layering all of the components into a pile.

It was a great combination of flavors.  And we came home with leftovers so we’ll have happy taste buds for lunch tomorrow too.

We didn’t want to kill the date-night vibe so we ended with dessert.

Gulab Jamun, deep-fried milk balls in a sweet syrup.

These were like little donuts with the slightest flavor of milk, like tres leches light.  The syrup had some sort of spice in it and lent another nice layer of flavor.  It was a fun end to a fun meal.

Which Indian dish should I check out next?

Tervis, Tastes, TV

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Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog!  Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow.  I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis.  Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot.  Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth.  Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes.  Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!).  We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy!  And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice.  The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top.  The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished!  Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh.  All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with!  Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful.  And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV.  Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle.  Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both.  Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Green Dog?

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If I start this post by saying I haven’t been very productive today, will that be too predictable?!  I’m in a cold-weather/program-frustration/lack-of-exercise induced rut!  But I’m making a commitment to going to bed early and pushing my way out of it tomorrow.

At least all of my eats today were tasty.  Like my in-class breakfast trio.

Wegman’s Plain 0% Greek Yogurt (which is quite good and can hold its own against the big brands; though it is more similar to Chobani than Fage as it is less thick),

Fiber One Honey Squares Cereal sample (this had a gross fake-sweetener aftertaste – Sucralose was on the ingredient list – but was very filling for 80 calories),

and a honey stick.

Since my trio only had about 200 calories or so, I supplemented breakfast with a Banana Nut Bar that Odwalla generously sent me to try out.

Love!  I actually tried this in college (the first time!) and loved it then too.  220 calories, .5 grams of saturated fat, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein.  Plus it packs good amounts of many vitamins, including 25% daily value each of calcium and folate and 50% vitamin e.  The bar is chewy and a bit crumbly, just like banana bread!  I shared bites with two classmates who agreed that this was the best fake (<– aka not literally just a banana) banana flavor ever.

My breakfasts held me over nicely too; I had to run several errands after class and I didn’t get to eat lunch until close to 2:30.  Actually, my breakfasts held me over well until around 1, and then I was cranky.  I went frozen meal quick for lunch.

Another Lean Cuisine win, Chicken Enchilada Suiza.

I supplemented this meal with popcorn.

There’s always room for Jell-O popcorn.

I took the doggy on a long walk this afternoon (that’s productive!) and before I knew it the husband was home and it was time for dinner.

No matter what little tweaks you make to the ingredients, turkey Reubens are always good!

This guy was GH sourdough bread, 1000 island dressing, sauerkraut 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey and Maple Turkey, and 2 slices of 2% Swiss.  I ate at least another slice worth’s of bread in nibbles, Great Harvest is seriously the best.

With roasted green beans on the side.

A winner of a dinner.

Blue Fish, Red Fish, Green Dog?

Calling all pet owners, we could use some advice.  How do you clean up after your dog while staying green? 

Adam and I pride ourselves on being pretty environmentally friendly but Webster seems to have doubled our plastic and paper consumption.  Since he is home by himself for long stretches of time (and since he is a small dog with a small bladder in a third floor apartment) he has to do about 50% of his “business” inside the apartment.  When he’s not out on a walk, he “goes” on pee pads.

I don’t feel bad about using these because they are basically unavoidable and we have him reuse each one two or three times.  However, being the asshole that he is, only about 2/3 of his going takes place on the pee pads.  The rest of his business goes on the floor.  Number 2 requires a baggie and Clorox wipe (don’t worry, we use a different brand without harsh chemicals, I’m just too lazy to look up the name of them) and number 1 requires several paper towels and wipe.  I’ve thought about using paper towels for pick-up at home (wasting more paper but conserving plastic), but on walks we have to use a baggie.

For the past few months we’ve been leaving our reusable bags at home and reusing the plastic bags we take home from the grocery.  This is the cheapest solution but Adam and I both felt badly about how wasteful it was.  When we ran out of baggies and were forced into purchasing some I think we both were a little relieved (and we’ll go back to reusable bags for groceries).  In fact, one of my errands today was purchasing these –

These Green Bone bags are biodegradable and made from cornstarch.

So that’s an improvement but I’m still hoping to find a better solution.

Pet owners, how do you take good care of your furry friends while still taking care of the planet?

The Pumking and I

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Has October become synonymous with winter in your neck of the woods too?  It’s so freaking cold here I’m actually blogging in bed!  We aren’t planning on switching our summer for winter wardrobes until next weekend and I’m not quite sure how we’ll get through to then.  I’m keeping this post quick before my laptop dies.

I did not get near enough schoolwork done this afternoon.  I did drink some milky tea,

and get in a session at the gym.  30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  I started to read The Help while I ellipticized.  I’m only 5 pages in but I’m already loving it.  I’m not loving that it’s 500+ pages long; normally that would thrill me but I have to finish it by next Friday for book club!

For weekend fun, we met up with two other couples at The King and I for dinner.  People have praised The King and I as the best Thai in Buffalo for years; I’m so glad we finally got a chance to go.  And the food was pretty dang delicious.

I stole several bites of Adam’s Tom Yum soup.  The famous Thai soup, slightly sour and spicy with fresh mushrooms, tomato, chili, lemongrass, galangal, and lemon juice with cilantro, scallions, and chicken.

I loved how tangy this was, totally umami.

My tactic to trying out a new Thai spot is to order either the Pad See Eiw (my favorite meal on Earth) or an extra spicy dish (to gauge what they deem “spicy”).  Tonight I went the spicy route.  I ordered the vegetarian Pud Met Ma Muang.  Steamed tofu sautéed with cashew nuts, mushroom, bamboo shoot, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, baby carrots, and Thai basil leaves in a hot chili sauce.  I ordered 5-star spicy and extra veggies so they added chili, Napa cabbage, and zucchini.

Loved it!

I would only call this 3-star spicy but I’m rating the dish 5-stars for satisfaction since the veggies were so good.  Other Thai places in Buffalo load up their dishes with onions, it was great to have an actual plate of vegetables!  Plus everything, tofu included, was cooked perfectly.

I basically licked my plate clean, plus several scoops from the communal rice bowl.

We will definitely be coming back soon.

None of the couples were ready for the night to be over so we all headed to Dolci for gelato.

The worker graciously let me taste several flavors (including Sriracha-coconut!!) until I came upon two that made my heart sing.

Burnt caramel and Pumking Ale.  The burnt caramel was obviously the best because you just can’t top that flavor but the Pumking Ale was amazing as well, and the combo was divine.  The Pumking had just hints of booze and pumpkin and it was almost fizzy!  I totally confirmed my suspicion that I can’t make it through this October without some Southern Tier.

What’s the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

We Didn’t Have To Make Dinner

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Can I just confess that I’m actually not thank goodnessing for Friday?  I’m not ready for the weekend yet.  I really wish it was Wednesday and I could relive Thursday but chose to do some freaking work instead of being a lazy.  Ce la vie.

For breakfast I brought the last 1/3 serving or so of leftovers from last night (pasta with peas, spinach, and nutritional yeast).

This was very pleasing to eat cold for some reason.

Plus the very last serving of dried hibiscus.

So sad, I’d give anything to live near a Trader Joe’s!

I also got to supplement with coffee; my first class teacher was an hour late this morning (flat tire) and I had time to go with a friend to the bookstore coffee shop.

With skim milk.  I post coffee pics because of the milk (I post everything with calories minus my vitamins and random nibbles…and days I don’t post at all!) but I realize that these mug shots are less interesting than the traditional kind.  I probably should have just skipped mentioning this one all together because I didn’t get to finish it before I went to the Dietetics computer lab and I threw half of it away.  Usually I eat and drink in the lab like a rebel but they mentioned it in the meeting yesterday and I was so so glad that I’d thrown mine out when a professor came in and yelled at a few classmates.

We were in the computer lab for my 2nd class but I ended up staying late and finishing an entire assignment that isn’t due for another 2 weeks!!!  I was so proud of myself.  And so glad that the husband nicely waited to pick me up.  <– he drove me to and fro today because I’m wearing a backless top in spite of the 45* morning  <– it is September and I will wear my September clothes, damnit!

Adam took the dog to the vet before he picked me up; someone is so excited about being cone and stitch-free!

That’s Webster sticking his whole head under the crack in the bathroom door!

I didn’t get home until past 3pm and I was more than ready for lunch.  Green grapes.

Plus leftover vegan Philly filling topped with a dollop of light sour cream and tons of Sriracha.

Meh.  Even with the sriracha this was bland and the texture just wasn’t right.  I ate about half before moving on to other leftovers; 2oz of bread (also from the Phillys) microwaved with Smart Balance Light.

Chewy bread makes me happy; Adam and I have both been craving pizza with good crusts all week.

We made plans with friends to come over for dinner last week, but Adam told me at 5 o’clock that the boys were also coming over for poker later so we had to do an emergency run to the store.  I was getting pretty hungry so I was thrilled to be handed a Wegman’s sushi sample.

I also snagged cookies; a whole wheat butterscotch drop and a cinnamon nut rugelach.

This was actually my first time trying rugelach and now I’m smitten; it was so chewy! 

Patrick and Michelle came over this evening but THEY cooked for US!  They brought over supplies and equipment; it was so much fun to watch some legit steaming take place in my kitchen.

They ended up putting together a great meal.

Sticky rice,

steamed shrimp and some stir-fried veggies,

and steamed tilapia with a spicy black bean sauce.

The fish was like butter; so creamy and good.  Thank you so much guys!

My only contribution to the meal was dessert,

but Patrick ate at least 3 S’more Oat Balls so I think I did good.  I stuck to one but I will note that I brought some in to my school friends this morning and they all gave good reviews as well.

The boys are (loudly) playing poker in the living room so I’m going to stay up and try to get some work done before my busy weekend begins.  I just spent 45 minutes catching up on the phone with my parents too.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!