Birds Eye Take Two

by Emily

Tonight for dinner we tried the second half of the Birds Eye Chef’s Favorites sample I was sent as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. To read my thoughts on the line as a whole (convenience, nutrition, etc) please read this post.

On the left is Lightly Sauced Primavera Vegetable Risotto.

Sadly, this was the one variety I didn’t love. The white rice/carrot/pea combo reminded me too much of fried rice and it was a bit gummy. I should note, however, that the husband thought it was pretty good, better than the other risotto in fact. I only ate half of my serving and he happily finished it off. Each serving contains 180 calories, 4 grams of protein and 14% of your daily sodium.

On the right is Lightly Sauced Roasted Red Potatoes and Green Beans with a Parmesan Olive Oil Sauce.

I was a bigger fan of this one. The potatoes were neither mushy nor too firm and the sauce was good without being heaving. 120 calories, 3 grams of protein, and 12% of your daily sodium per serving.

To enlarge our meal Adam and I also split a thing of spicy lump crab roll.

The sushi from Wegmans is shockingly good.

My facial appointment went well this afternoon; definitely not something I would pay a full price for but fun to use a Groupon on. I’m pretty sure the lotion she used with end up making me break out but the shoulder massage was greatly appreciated.

I had to stop by the co-op this afternoon and I was so hungry I ended up buying a small box of hot bar and inhaling it on the walk home.

Adam confirmed my suspicions that walking whilst eating does make you a fatty but it was totally worth it. I got waldorf chicken salad and a few tortellini.

I’m going to wrap this post up now because (surprise, surprise) I still haven’t packed. I’ve got to go figure out what I’m going to wear this weekend!

Are you going to the Healthy Living Summit? If you see me there pretty please say hello; I’m terrible with faces and I’m afraid I’m just going to be stuck in a corner by myself!

17Aug2011

Birds Eye Blue

by Emily

Tonight, we dined in the future! Well sort of, we tried the new Chef’s Favorites line from Birds Eye that won’t hit stores until September. I was sent an exclusive free trial to sample as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

Initial thought – I think this line is a wonderful idea. Each bag contains two servings and cooks in the microwave in approximately 5 minutes. The veggies are flash frozen and the ingredients are mostly natural, 99% just like a home-cooked meal. The meals cook right in the bag, so you don’t have to dirty any dishes or really do anything. Two bags come together to make a nice meal (with a protein ideally) in approximately 10 minutes, and those 10 minutes are basically hands-off. All of which is to say, if you have a few of these in your freezer there’s no way to say “I’m too tired for dinner, let’s get take-out.”

On the left is the Lightly Sauced Mushroom and Green Bean Risotto.

It contained a few iffy ingredients (xanthan gum, modified food starch, maltodextrin) but overall was like what I’d make at home. The taste was pretty similar to what I’d make on my own (after way more work!) too. Not the best risotto of all time, but very creamy and with a good ratio of rice to veggies. Each serving had 170 calories, 5 grams of protein, and only 18% of your allotted sodium.

On the right is Lightly Sauced Creamed Spinach.

This was nice and creamy though the spinach did have a little bitterness. Each serving contained 90 calories, 3 grams of protein, and only 14% of your allotted sodium.

Together, this made a tasty meal.

Wins all around, I say.

The calories in dinner were pretty light though (~270), so I supplemented with beer.

Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is in my top five for favorite beers.

We also had j-e-l-l-o for dessert.

This afternoon I made up a box of pina colada jello with half water and half club soda for some fizz.

‘Twas good.

Two final notes: 1 – We are currently half way through “Blue Valentine” and I’m loving it. All this point I can’t decide if it’s really hopeful or really sad, maybe both. 2 – Webster’s godmother asked for a picture that shows how big he is –

4Aug2011

I’m Like Wolverine

by Emily

My first day back to humanity was eased along by a lunch date with a friend from school. In advance – thank you to anyone who gets me out of the house in the next three weeks! We met at Starbucks (parking!) since the plan was to find a lunch deal somewhere along Elmwood. One false start at Cecelias (no lunch hours) and we ended up at Wasabi, which was an excellent choice.

The 2-Roll lunch special came with miso soup.

I’m still too chicken for raw, so I went tasty but tame for my two rolls.

An asparagus roll,

and a spicy, crunchy crab roll.

Smothered with wasabi, of course. Both rolls were totally delicious. The asparagus had a great tangy, pickled aftertaste and the crunchy in the crab was light and fresh. I would have licked my plate clean but dutiful wife that I am, I brought home one piece of each for the husband.

Adam was home at a lunch time hour because today was the last day of his family med rotation. After a final tomorrow he starts psychology on Monday, whoop. In the meantime though, we are heading to Brewfest tomorrow night. I’m so excited; our tickets earn us twenty 3oz tastes!

Back at lunch, Donna and I walked back to Starbucks to say goodbye. I snagged a grande, iced, black tea for my walk home.

I’ve been craving tea like crazy lately, I think I need to whip out my pitcher so I can make some iced at home.

I actually got home from lunch around 3, but I didn’t blog right away because I sustained a major injury –

Apparently I really had to pee, because in my rush to take off my jeans my thumb nail sliced a chunk out of my finger. I keep my nails pretty short but this sort of thing still happens to me all the time, it’s so frustrating!

Have you ever injured yourself with your own nails?

Buffalo readers – ever been to Brewfest? What should I expect?

18Jul2011

Horribly Hilarious

by Emily

Just as needed, today was much more low-key than the first two days of my parents’ visit. Adam was at school all day so my mom and dad and I did some shopping, ate take-out at home, and saw a movie. It was just what ~~the doctor~~ my sore feet and back ordered.

For breakfast I ate the newest Clif Bar, Coconut Chocolate Chip.

I doesn’t taste like a samosa like the chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar, but it was still pretty darn tasty. Just enough sweet to be fun but not sickening.

My parents and I were at the mall for-ev-er, and I ended up making a lunch snack out of samples from the kitchen supply store.

Normally I’d be upset about not getting a more substantial lunch (or breakfast!), but I knew I had the filling meal coming for dinner.

Can you beat Moe’s rice bowls? I submit that you cannot. Rice, blacks beans, sautéed mushrooms and green peppers, corn salsa, lettuce, cheese, and cilantro.

Also amazing were the (serving’s worth of) chips I grabbed from the communal bag.

I loved getting to introduce my dad to Moe’s, you just can’t help but love it.

You can totally help but love this Eat More candy bar I bought in Canada this weekend.

I’m not even going to say what that looks like.

I took two (icky) bites and passed it off to the rest of the family to try. Just as well, I was much more excited about my movie candy.

Gummi cola bottles! To be accurate, gummi cola bottles, cherry gummi cola bottles, and sour gummi cola bottles; multiple varieties for the win!

The movie was also a good idea, we saw “Horrible Bosses” and all four of us loved it! John Francis Dailey (Dr. Sweets of “Bones”) is a great actor but he can co-write one hell of a screenplay too. The movie was dirty and guffaw-inducing, just my style.

Have you ever had a horrible boss? You didn’t kill them did you?!

15Jul2011

Leftovers For Brunch

by Emily

I still haven’t finished my June book (per my resolution to read one new book a month), so that’s where I was all morning. I wanted to do brunch today, rather than breakfast and lunch, so that worked out nicely with my schedule.

I’m going to yoga at 1:30 (first class since I tweaked my back, yay!) at the lunch-time timing had me worried. I want to be well fueled, but not full bellied. Chinese leftovers for brunch to the rescue!

My take-out dinner did in fact end up being good, although clearly I ordered too much since this plate isn’t even all of my leftovers.

On the agenda for today –

yoga
lots of cleaning the apartment before my parents get here
making the dinner I kept putting off
high-brow reading

4Jul2011

Happy 4th of July

by Emily

America the beautiful.

Adam and I had a great July 4th, I hope you guys and your families did as well.

Apparently my husband is a bad influence; I was dressed in running clothes when he pulled me back into bed this morning! It got too hot outside to run so instead we ate leftovers on the couch.

Cheesecake Factory’s spicy cashew chicken might actually be better the 2nd day.

We had to grocery shopping this afternoon and I snacked on an (American as apple pie) apple along the way.

Like my red, white, and blue? Being able to dress in theme colors is my favorite part of any holiday.

We celebrated Adam’s day off for the holiday with our favorite activity – a nice long walk. Midway we split a Sprecher Orange Cream Soda.

Soon enough it was time for red, white, and dinner.

Blue corn tortillas, filled with crumbled tofu cooked in red enchilada sauce, topped with (white) sour cream.

We used this Frontera red chile enchilada sauce and it ended up being pretty flavorless, boo.

Plus some roasted brussels sprouts.

Sadly it was a kind of meh dinner overall.

Normally this wouldn’t have been near enough food for me but thankfully we did a lot of baking today, and I did lots and lots of nibbling!

Kath’s honey crunch peanut butter –

My newest invention that’s bound to be the new big thing (I’ll tell you more tomorrow) –

4th of July cupcakes –

The cupcakes were simple white cupcakes with vanilla frosting, turned festive when dyed red, white, and blue and swirled together.

So fun!

Also fun? We’re watching “Newsies” this evening!

3Jul2011

Home Again, Home Again

by Emily

Another 7 hours alone in the car later and I feel I’m a bona fide road tripper. When Adam and I had to go from Pennsylvania to Miami back in college I drove about an hour total because I kept falling asleep at the wheel, but this trip flew by without incident. And yes, I really did go home today!

As proud of my driving prowess as I am, my food-on-the-go skills were seriously lacking. I’m the girl who brought bagged salad on an airplane, but today my traveling eats fell short.

I had a zero calorie Monster this morning but that was the only food I brought with me (minus the coffee cake my grandma packed for Adam in the trunk).

I stopped only once to gas up (holy gas mileage, ~~Batman~~ Pontiac Vibe!) and the rest stop was pretty much devoid of sustenance. I made a “mocha” with half super caffeine coffee and half hot chocolate.

And I ate 90% of this bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies on the 2nd half of my drive.

Ugh, this did not make me feel so good. Sugar rush and hunger pains make a bad combo.

I was practically light-headed while I unpacked this afternoon so I made myself a slice of sourdough with Smart Balance Light.

Much better.

Adam ate through our stores this last week so we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We knew the meal we planned on splitting was light of veggies so we actually swung by Wegman’s hot bar first for a healthy “appetizer.”

What’s shown was my serving. Plus more bread with butter.

We split the spicy cashew chicken, our very favorite CF dish.

The lighting makes this look gross but I promise it was great. Adam and I each ate about 1/3 and we’ll have tasty leftovers tomorrow.

Do you get tomorrow off of work? Any fun plans for the 4th?

1Jul2011

Grog Not Groggy

by Emily

After my run this morning I joined my parents for an hour and a half bike ride. I burnt the crap out of my forearms yesterday so I ended up biking in 85* weather in this –

Worth it. We rode all around the path and over some gorgeous bridges. I so wish I’d had my camera but I couldn’t figure out a place to put it.

We came home for a refreshing breakfast.

0% Plain Greek Gods Yogurt with a strawberry honey straw, blueberries, peach, and Great Harvest granola.

I have maybe a half serving of granola left and my heart is breaking.

Getting lunch was not my strong suit today and I will admit that I was a little cranky this afternoon. We did do some fun things though, like explore a neat farmer’s market.