Tag Archives: rice

Boarding Time

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I started my morning with a shot of the Orange Dream Machine knock-off I made Adam.

He takes the Step I Board Exam on Saturday so we are testing out different breakfasts to find the perfect one for test morning.  This is a big-time important exam so he needs a breakfast that leaves him full and doesn’t make him have to go pee.  We’re also making sure he eats the perfect night-before dinner.  It’s the little things people!

The Step I Board Exam is similar to the MCAT exam, but more important and taken after your 2nd year of medical school.  Your Board score basically determines the rest of your career so, no pressure Adam!  Taking the exam also marks the “end” of your 2nd year of medical school.  The 3rd and 4th years you leave the classroom for rotations in different clerkships, ie hands-on experience.  In 3rd and 4th of medical school Adam’s schedule will be similar to what’s coming during residency – basically I’m becoming a single mom to Levinson.

Since Adam is taking his exam this Saturday, we have exactly one week of freedom before he starts back for his 3rd year of school (Adam is hosting a student clinician ceremony the Saturday before school starts).  Since I’m not dramatic at all, I’m calling this “the last week of our marriage.”  To celebrate/spend as much time together as possible, I took the week off of work and we are going on vacation!

  • 1 day in VA helping my in-laws move
  • 1 day exploring Charlottesville (a lot of programs on Adam’s list are at UVA)
  • 2 days in DC visiting my best friend from high school
  • 2 days in Maryland visiting family

It’s going to be a whirlwind and lots of driving but we are so looking forward to it!

Apparently I’ve also been looking forward to bed, because that’s where I spent my entire day!  I stayed up until 3 am last night because I have some sort of mental problem and then I napped the day away.  I did finally get up around 4 because I needed to make the husband dinner.  I nibbled on more mini candy bars while I cooked.

I wasn’t eating dinner at home because I had a date with Katie.  She’s moving at the end of the summer so hopefully we will get in a lot of meet ups before then.  We went to Saigon Cafe and split a spring roll for an appetizer.

I ordered the Spicy Rainbow – an assortment of vegetables stir fried with basil leaves in a hot sweet basil sauce, with white rice.

The dish is marked with two stars (= extra spicy) on the menu and I asked the waiter for “Thai spicy” and he grimaced like my face was going to fall off.  After the grimace, but before tasting my food, I ordered Thai Iced Tea to combat the spice.

No dice spice.  The veggies were good, but this wasn’t even close to being a little spicy, let alone Thai spicy.  So disappointing!

I ate about 2/3 of my food but after this and last week’s bland meal I’m going to take the hint and stop going to Saigon Cafe.  Can any Buffalo readers recommend a local Thai spot that actually brings the spice???

After dinner we took a nice walk down Elmwood, stopping for Ciao Bella gelato.

Key lime pie and dulce de leche for the win.

I actually walked Katie all the way back to her apartment where she loaned me some books so … I could get in bed early and read!  Be back in the am!

What time is your bed time usually?  What’s the stupidest reason you’ve stayed up too late recently?  I think reruns of Food Network Star takes the cake for me.

Rebel Without A Cause

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My productivity came to a sudden halt this afternoon when my body remembered that I put it to bed at 5am and rebelled.  And it rebelled hard, the closest I came to a workout was belly laughing at “That 70’s Show.”

Afternoon snacks included mini candy,

mini (coconut) milk,

and a white chocolate toffee cookie.

When it was 8:30 and dinner was still just a thought we decided to get rice bowls from Moe’s instead.

This bowl included:

  • rice (I asked for less than they usually give)
  • black beans
  • chicken
  • grilled mushrooms
  • cheese
  • sour cream
  • corn salsa
  • lettuce
  • olives
  • cilantro

It was delicious, though I did end up picking around most of the chicken.

Which saved me room for chips with queso.

I guess I’ve just got an extra big to-do list for tomorrow!

They Were The Worst Of Plans, They Were The Best Of Plans

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Contrary to this morning (when my grand plans were thwarted), my terrible evening plans failed for the better.  Sometimes when things run off course you end up in a much better place.

I needed a win after my lame shift, so I decided to spend time on an activity I knew I could do well –

reading magazines on the couch.  I also lifted my mood exponentially by breaking in to my Co-op best-ever candy bar stash.

I ate it slowly, with a fork, over 45 minutes of magazine reading and was practically in heaven.

But I guess I wasn’t feeling angelic, because the end result of our dinner plans was me getting in a screaming match with Adam over the best way to measure flour.  Seriously.

I stormed out of the house in a dramatic huff and ended up at Talking Leaves, sitting a table on the sidewalk with my book and a drink.

Like I said, a better place.  Though it was even better once the husband joined me, finishing off the other half of my iced coffee with Irish Cream.

We sat long enough for me to finish my book.  <– not Sloane Crosby’s best showing; I Was Told There’d Be Cake was far superior, How Did You Get This Number? was more whining than funny

It was too late to make dinner at that point, so instead we headed to Saigon Cafe for Thai food.

I strayed from my go-to order of broad rice noodles and went with Pad Krapow – chicken with spicy basil sauce.

I asked for extra veggies and extra spicy.

I got enough veggies, but unfortunately the spice level was much closer to bland than “Thai spicy.”  I housed the entire plate, but my spice tooth is still begging to be satisfied.

Actually, I was randomly so I hungry that I surprised the husband with how much food I wolfed down.  I shared most of my rice with him, but I killed my meal and stole several bites of his Pad Thai to boot.

Adam and I wandered down Elmwood in search of chocolate ganache (I’m not sure what sparked the craving but my spice needs seemed to be linked to a desire for deep chocolate) and finally settled for a Starbucks salted caramel bar mini.

I’ll let the chocolate thing go, but I still need to find something to smoother in Sriracha, soon!

Instead of dinner at home we somehow ended up with drinks, dinner, and dessert; at three locations natch.  Regardless of the fact that he knows nothing about flour, I think a date with the husband is always a better plan!

At Least It Wasn’t An Egg Salad Sandwich

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Our evening plans took a sharp turn, and this is a much different blog post than I planned on writing.  I’ll have to make/blog my dessert idea later this week, but we had a great time.

We walked down Elmwood, then walked back to the apartment before we decided that we were hungry for sushi.  After a slightly longer walk, unfortunately we were greeted with this –

No matter.  A slightly longer walk still and we made it to Tokyo Shanghai Bistro.

We’d never been to TSB before, and picked it on a whim, but the complimentary appetizer was a good sign.

I knew dessert was in my future so I went with two small rolls for dinner.

A shitaki mushroom roll,

and a veggie roll with crab and egg.

It wasn’t the best sushi I’ve ever had – both rolls were strangely chewy – but I slather on so much wasabi it barely matters!  I probably wouldn’t go back for sushi, but we spotted some great looking tofu at another table so I think we’ll try again next time we’re in the mood for Chinese.

By the time we were back home from dinner we’d walked another 2 miles.  Bringing our grand total to 6+ miles walked today.

At one point early in our travels I decided that it was absolutely essential that we buy the locally made mini cheesecake we’d been eyeing at Wilson Farms.

We both took a few bites but it wasn’t very good.

What, you mean you wouldn’t look for quality cheesecake at the gas station?!?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve purchased at a gas station?

Seis de Mayo!

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Okay, okay, so I’m a day late on my May 5th post.  Normally I hate to do long-overdue recap posts, but since my new 30 day goal is to post everything, here it is.  Quick sidenote – mad props to everyone who engages in drogging (aka drunk blogging); I wanted to share this yesterday but it was just not an option 😉

My classmates I add were touched by serendipity yesterday, when Cinco de Mayo and our last day of classes fell on the same day.  After a very long last day of classes (9:25 in the morning to 7 at night) we were able to head out for some much-needed celebration.

First, the morning.  Our last day of lab included drawer check out and a final exam.  I had a little extra time in the morning to study since I had to skip my workout (boo!), and I think I did pretty well on the exam.  I didn’t have it together for breakfast, but I did grab a medium iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

And it was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was down to my last sips; clearly I needed coffee!

Our last lab let out pretty early, and we were left with a six-hour break before our final evening class.  No problem, I took my friend Rachel on a mini tour of Elmwood!  We ambled down the street from school, stopping to visit a friend at work and hit up the Spot for a study session.  I grabbed some brown rice veggie sushi from the co-op for lunch.

And actually stopped at the co-op on the way back to school for dinner as well.

During my night class I noshed on Thai cucumber and peanut salad,

and some vegan pasta salad.

Suddenly we were taking our last quiz of the semester, packing up, and we were done with our first year of school!!!  I mean, there are finals next week, but still exciting.

Cinco de Mayo plans were supposed to include a holiday appropriate trip to Cozumel Bar, but a $10 cover later we ended up at JP Bullfeathers.

That was a Jack and ginger ale, but it tasted more like dirty water.  Weak drinks aside, JP Bullfeathers ended up being a perfect spot for our end of school celebration; not too packed for good conversation, but busy enough to still be fun.

We ended up sitting at a table and ordering some food as well.

My friend Janessa and I split the turkey and gorgonzola pannini,

which was delicious.  Turkey sandwiches seem to be my go-to restaurant order.

And how to do go out on Cinco de Mayo without margaritas?!

What’s the Spanish word for sloshed?  Let’s just say I’m glad I could walk less than a minute and be home!

I did stay up to share some dessert, of course.

That’s a caramelized macadamia nut and chocolate mousse tart that Adam brought home.

Now on to today.  In true college-girl fashion, I managed to stay in bed well past 1pm!!  It helps to have the bladder of a camel and a four-day break before finals begin.  🙂

Adam and made the executive decision that we needed a day together, so we took down a full season of Scrub’s recaps and an entire pizza.

That’s a bruschetta pizza topped with extra green olives, the best pizza topper ever.

The half a pizza pretty much covered all my food groups (what?! dairy, grains, veggies…) but I did sneak in one more veggie with a slice of carrot cake from the co-op.

A few facts – Carrot cake does to count as a veggie.  I think I need to be done with the co-op for a few days.  It was a glorious day with my husband.

Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

All Sorts of Win

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My day has been like Charlie Sheen, all sorts of winning!  Seriously though, it has been one of those days that are just randomly fantastic.  Good workout, mostly good food, good times with the husband…

Win #1 of the day was the realization that music makes my workouts fly by.  My i-pod broke months ago and my parents gave me an IOU for a replacement in my Christmas stocking but it’s taken me a while to finally cash it in.  I got a nano, in lime green, engraved with my phone # and part of my favorite quote from Robert Frost.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Once I got of Biochem this afternoon I headed straight to the gym, my new i-pod stocked with a new 30minute playlist –

  1. Sweet Light, The Chapin Sisters
  2. The Cave, Mumford and Sons
  3. Coming Home, Diddy
  4. Signal Fire, Snow Patrol
  5. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster, Geto Boys
  6. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
  7. My Dick, Dirt Nasty
  8. Somwhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

For 30minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  “What a Wonderful World” is actually the song Adam and I walked down the aisle to once we were married, and when it came on I started to cry!!!  I had to elliptisize as fast as I could to make myself stop being embarrassing (double win!).

Once I was home and showered I headed out on errands with Adam.  Win #2 was the free coffee I picked up at Starbucks for Earth Day –

Seasoned with a big pour of skim milk and two sugars.

Our errands included a trip to the mall for Adam to get an eye check up, where I sat in the food court for an hour and wrote notecards like a weirdo.  I may have looked like a creeper, but I actually got a lot done.

Not a win, was the fact that we were busy straight through lunch and ended up not eating anything.  By 5:30 when we left the mall I was having a definite panic attack of hunger.  I ended up randomly grabbing this Liquid Taffy candy to split with Adam.

Such a win!  The texture of this was divine; a velvety, less chewy taffy.

We continued dessert before dinner by splitting froyo.

Fat free chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with strawberries, sprinkles, and granola.

Total win!

Dinner, not such a win.  It was poised to be good…

We headed to Taste of Thai on Hertel (an avenue with tons of good-looking restaurants and next to no parking), where we split our regular order – Pad See Eiw with tofu,

and Cashew Chicken.

The dishes had tons of veggies (our complaint with Buffalo Thai has been the lack of veggies), but that’s where the compliments end.  The renditions were painfully inauthentic, and way too salty to boot.  Fail!

But being with the husband is always a win.  Especially for the rest of the evening, for which our big plans include the latest Community and the splitting of two mini ice creams.

This day has been sweet, in every sense of the word!

What was your most recent #win?

She Ain’t Messing With No Court Jester

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No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger.  I started dating Adam when we were still in high school.  I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!).  But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”

And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto.  And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.

Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.

First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip.  While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.

I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).

In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.

I also munched on half a leftover turkey reuben.

And then, we were at Medieval Times!

I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.

We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.

The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony.  The best part was definitely the horses though.  And dinner was surprisingly good.  No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –

None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!).  We started with tomato bisque,

and garlic bread,

both of which were only ok.

And then my meal blew me out of the water.

Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.

Dessert was an apple tart.

It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.

Smarties make the drive go so much faster!

We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home.  I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.

I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!

Have you ever been to Medieval Times?

Bakers Eat Bread

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I’ve been a busy bee this afternoon; a busy baking bee!

Lunch was simple but good.

A Thai chicken Lean Cuisine,

with 1.5 slices of beer bread with Smart Balance Light.

I made the loaf I beer bread for the husband’s lunches next week.

I followed my usual beer bread recipe, though I did skip the butter drizzle this time.  Adam said not to skip it again, but I didn’t think it made too much of a difference.  Don’t skip it if you’re making the recipe for the first time though, you’ve got to fall in love with the original first.

I also made a batch of Cooking Light’s Pistachio Chai Muffins. 

Only mine were Pistachio Green Tea Muffins.

I addition to switching from Chai to green tea, I also used half the amount of nuts and skipped the drizzle. 

My substitutions worked out well; I split a muffin with Adam (topped with maple jelly) and it was delicious.

Bakers eat a lot of bread, but they also take a lot of nibbles.  I’ve done my fair share of “tastes” while getting the food ready for Adam and his friends tonight.  On the menu for the poker game:

Oh yeah, you read that dessert correctly.  Check back for my dinner post if you want to be in hog heaven!