Tag Archives: rice

Frozen Feet

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Has everyone done the Friday dance?  I’m sure glad for the weekend!  I actually have a ton to do the next few days so I made sure to include some relaxation in today’s plan.

My morning was a little too relaxed; leaving my warm bed feels bad, but running around like a headless chicken trying not to be late feels worse!  After I went to the trouble of buying a banana last night I couldn’t even get it together to make breakfast this morning.  Also, 30minute walk in 40* weather, not a sandals time.  Who knew!  😉  At least my tortured toes gave me a good excuse to buy a coffee before class.

A medium skim latte with sugar-free English toffee syrup. 

We had a guest speaker this morning who works in pediatric nutrition; she was fascinating!  The teacher of my Friday course is super energetic and excited about Dietetics and the speakers she brings in have all been just as enthusiastic.  They make me really excited about my future career!

After class I met up with my group; we have a poster presentation on November 19th and we are already 2/3 of the way finished.  I had ~ an hour between our meeting and Orgo so I made the best use of the time possible – I went to the gym!

I told you guys if I take a day off it turns into a month!  I had been going regularly (and loving it!) and after my I’m sick/I have 5 tests/OMG week I haven’t been in 16 days.  I know that I feel 100% better when I’m working out regularly so I’m going to try really hard to make sure I stick with it.  I didn’t have a ton of time today so I tried to use it wisely on the treadmill –

  • 5minute warm up (walking)
  • 20minutes running
  • 3minute cool down (walking)

In my 28minutes I covered 2.58miles, not terrible!  I’m actually running a 5k in a couple of weeks so hopefully that will keep me motivated.

I didn’t ever get it together to get food so I bought myself a Lemon Lime G-2 post gym.

It kept me hydrated but by the time Anatomy started my hunger had zapped my energy.  My class notes today are baaaaad.

A freezing, sideways raining walk home later, and I was heating up a Chicken Enchillada Suiza Lean Cuisine.

I needed some time to reheat while I refueled so Adam and I caught up on a bit of tv.  Has anyone seen the most recent CSI: Las Vegas?  Terrifying!  I also snacked on some Halloween candies,

a small handful of Southwest Cashews from Sahale Snacks,

and the last honey vanilla caramel apple.

The granny smith was the best yet!  I really, really, really recommend trying these.

Then it was time for business, we got out our fall decorations and finally switched out our summer and winter wardrobes.  My toes were oh so glad to see my Uggs!

Before catching up on “Bones” (love) we did find time to make a pretty snazzy dinner.

That’s Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage from Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals.

We basically followed the recipe, although we used a bit less meat and pasta than called for.  Actually, we didn’t use meat at all; I couldn’t find any turkey sausage without pork casing so instead I swapped in some Gimmie Lean vegan meat substitute.

We also used the big can of local canned pumpkin I bought when I was panicking over the possible Libby’s shortage.

The flavor was spot on, but the texture wasn’t quite as velvety as the good stuff.

But the dish was still damn tasty.

This is one of the recipes Adam and I used to make all of the time when we were living in Brooklyn, it’s an old favorite.

I still have to shower and make our grocery list before bed, but I’m hoping to turn in before 11.  Amid a heap of homework, I signed up to volunteer at a health fair tomorrow.  What’s on your agenda for the weekend?

New Fish, Blue Fish

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For dinner tonight we took Adam’s parents to the new sushi spot that just opened on Elmwood, Blue Fin.

My camera was dying and the lighting was low, so please excuse my poor photography.  The meal was delicious; I got one healthy roll and one fun roll.

For health, I ordered a California hand roll.

Hand rolls are my favorite sushi order, I love the texture of the nori.

For fun I ordered a roll to split with Adam.  This bad boy had asparagus, cream cheese, white fish, massago, eel sauce, spicy mayo, and tempura; I believe it was called the Blue Mountain Roll.

It was a great mix of flavors and textures, but very heavy; if you are ordering sushi to be healthy please be aware that rolls with cream cheese are neither traditional nor low-calorie.  They are tasty though!  I ate three pieces.

We were given chocolate with the bill.

We took the in-laws to Delish for local ice cream after dinner.  It was too cold outside for that to appeal to me, but I did pick up an adorable mini casserole dish!

They were on sale and I’ve been wanting one forever.

My mother-in-law is amazing; she was in the kitchen all day yesterday and she brought us pounds (literally!) of tasty foods.  She actually brought so much we can’t eat it all this week!  I portioned out the chilli into baggies in one cup servings and have them on a cookie sheet in the freezer.

That’s how I deal with all soup/soft leftovers, once they are frozen they are a cinch to stack and store.

I did a little bit of school work when we got home and I snacked on a snickerdoodle from my m-i-l.

I didn’t actually eat much real food today so I probably should have skipped the cookie; I’m learning.  We’ve got breakfast plans at 7 tomorrow so I’ve got to get to bed.  Sweet dreams all.

What is your favorite sushi order?

Gourmand on the Go

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I left the house more than 20 hours ago, good golly it’s been a full day!  Another clue that things were busy – 1o0% of my food was eaten on the go today.  I would say I’m definitely mastering the art of eating healthy on the fly.

This morning’s breakfast contained some pretty snazzy components –

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a chocolate Oikos, 3 dried figs, 1/4 cup of homemade granola, and a plucot.  Things got less fancy in a hurry when I had to load those guys into a to-go cup –

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Still delicious though.

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I didn’t have time to finish before my first class started so I had to throw out some of my stellar combo, but breakfast on the go is a work in progress.

Lunch was identical to the other day; Whole Grain Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese wedge, and three slices of turkey.

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I hate to be repetitive but I see many more of this exact sandwich in my future; it’s just so good!  I thought I was going to hate the Arnold’s Sandwich Thins (I got them as a free sample from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program), but they are actually exquisitely doughy.  They remind me a lot of when I was a kid and a I would mush a piece of bread up into a single, delicious square.

I did mix up my side though, a sliced cuc.

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Classes were pretty intense; I finally attended my last nutrition lecture and it’s going to be a lot of work.  I’m taking 7 courses this semester (several are 1-credit labs) and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed.  As soon as classes were done today I curled up with my planner, binder, and a computer to map out my assignments for the semester.  Todoist was key.

I was stuck at school until 5pm (rain) so I ended up searching the food court for sustenance.  Thank goodness I gave it another chance, I found a build your own salad place.

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Romaine base, 2 servings of roasted veggies, green bell peppers, carrots, red onions, and blue cheese crumbles with a bit of balsamic.  It came topped with a tasty breadstick.

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We were only home a minute or two before we headed back out.  Our dinner plans were Korean night with a group of friends.

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Gleesh our friends are good cooks!  My bowl was sticky rice with carrots, cucumbers, kim chi, garlic paste, nori, and an egg.

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Yum!

Korean night eventually turned into boys’ only poker, and I sat on the couch catching up with the girls until after midnight.

Adam insisted on pizza on the way home (guess which one of use was drinking instead of driving?!) and I wanted to take part in the fun so I had him cut a slice in half for me.

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Tasty bbq chicken pizza, without undoing my day’s worth of healthiness.  I mostly wanted a taste anyways.

It’s another busy day tomorrow, Bedtime, Bedtime, Bedtime!

Have you ever tried Korean food?  What’s your favorite dish?

I Envy No Man

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It’s almost Friday!  Weekends have been pretty much meaningless to me this past unemployed year, but now that I’m starting back to school next Monday they are exciting again.

I spent forever running errands today because parking was ridiculous everywhere I went.  Also helping orphans catching up on “Make it or Break it.”  I managed to make time for some amazing meals though; I’m seriously excited about every single thing I ate today.

Chicken Enchilada Suiza Lean Cuisine.

Frozen meal win, this was delicious.  A chicken enchilada with cheesy sauce,

and a pile of rice that got mushed around in the cheese sauce.

With an Orange Zevia (free sample).

I’m usually not one for orange sodas but this guy was totally thirst quenching.

Also, a mini bag of kettle corn.

I spent some time wifing it up in the kitchen, baking some chocolate chip cookies for the husband.  I stole a tiny one.

I would have eaten more, but I had already stashed 2T of dough away into the freezer for something amazing.  Keep reading…

Dinner was kinda off the hook.

Think tasty leftovers x10billion.  I topped a bed of roasted green beans with 1cup of corn, a serving of shredded bbq chicken, and some homemade bbq sauce.

Shredded chicken, corn, and roasted green beans are all pretty big favorites of mine and together they were unstoppable!  The balance of spicy-salty-sweet was perfect here.

But nothing was topping dessert.

I’ve had food-processor-envy all year, but tonight I envied no man; tonight, I got to make Gena’s famous banana soft-serve!

Only my batch was extra fabulous because it also had frozen cookie dough blended in.

This bowl was 2frozen bananas and 2.5T frozen cookie dough.  Swoon!

Have you gotten to try banana soft serve yet?  Thoughts?

Tru Tortilla Chip Craving

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I managed to hold off my snacking urge all afternoon, but we did decide to switch up our weekly meal plan and head to some take out!  Dinner is being repurposed for my lunch tomorrow and my restaurant leftovers are going toward the husband’s lunch so in the end it all works out.

We went with Moe’s, always a good choice.

I was in the mood for a quesadilla but instead I ordered something I was sure to have leftovers with; a rice bowl.  I topped my rice with black beans, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, onions, cheese, lettuce, jalopenos, black olives, medium salsa, corn salsa, and cilantro.

The flavor storm was great and as predicted my rice bowl ended up ginormous.  I ate about 1/3 and packed the rest up for Adam.

I probably should have stopped there but I got a side of queso dip so I also scarfed a sort of disgusting amount of free tortilla chips.

Soooooo full.

We are currently Netflixing the show “Tru Calling;” we are only 1 episode in but it seems pretty good!

Oh, Canada

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Tuesday was so absolutely busy that it’s taken me ’till halfway through Wednesday just to sit down and do the recap!  I’m not even worrying about today’s posts until later, I think this one will be looooooong enough.

Yesterday morning Camile, Adam and I piled into the car bright and early to pick up Benji; oh yes, we were going to Canada.

Actually, first we stopped by the American side of the Falls.

Adam and I, in our typical fashion, forgot our passports so while he ran back home the rest of us wandered across the bridge to a view of the Falls I hadn’t seen before.  Mother Nature knows where it’s at, everything was gorgeous.

For our car breakfast I packed a Cookie Dough Balance Bar,

and a Blueberry POM to split with Adam.

POM Wonderful recently sent me this new juice variety to sample.  I tend not to drink a lot of juice but POM has such concentrated nutrient value that I think it does have a place in a healthy diet.  Plus, juice usually doesn’t register fullness with most people but POM has such a strong flavor that I think it contributes to satiety.  The four of us agreed that while the blueberry was good, we liked the original variety better; the berries gave a bit of an aftertaste.  We also thought that it was too strong, we cut ours with water and enjoyed it better that way.

We crossed the border into a pretty touristy area, but the four of us definitely enjoyed marveling at the wax sculptures, the kooky decorations, and all the offerings at the gigantic Hershey’s store.  Everyone was hungry and ready to get out of the heat so we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

I enjoyed all the decorations and special effects, but thought that the menu was pretty overpriced.  Adam and I decided to split an entrée.

Splitting was a good decision, our meal was giant!  It ended up being wonderful though.  We shared pasta with peas, shrimp, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes.  We both adore sun-dried tomatoes and we felt like the food was pretty high quality.  Splitting worked out perfectly; I gave Adam all of the shrimp and most of the pasta and he let me go to town on all of the veggies.

Next we drove to Toronto!  I loved it!  Adam, Benji, and I kept asking each other all day why we didn’t just live there?!  Toronto seemed like a very walker-friendly city, we saw tons of bikes, there were a bazillion cute stores, the food options were great, and everyone was so nice.

We walked all day, my idea of heaven!  We started in Chinatown; I went into a small grocery store which was probably a mistake because now I’m dying to get back to shop.  You could buy Bobba!  Adam insisted that it wasn’t a kitchen necessity, but we did get some bubble tea.

I got a small passionfruit black tea with tapioca, yum!

We had to walk to see the CN Tower.

Tickets to get in were $20, so we spent some time craning our heads back and walked around the lobby instead.  I met a very fuzzy bear, which might have made Adam a bit jealous 😉

Afterwards we wanded around what I guess was the fashion district (there was also a button).

Fabulous, is pretty much the only word for dinner.

We searched for vegetarian Poutine and came up with Utopia Cafe.  Perfect crispy fries topped with vegetarian gravy and big cheese curds?  Fabulous.

I was so excited to get to try this classic (usually the gravy is meat based).  The four of us split a basket for an appetizer and now we all want to go back.

Our entrées were fantastic as well.  I got the curried chick pea and potato burrito.

The entrées all came with rice and beans and a green salad.

My burrito tasted so much like the roti I grew up eating, I felt like I was back in St. Thomas!  The potato and chick peas were cooked in a spicy coconut curry with raisins and served with some chutney.

I ate all of my salad, most of my rice (Adam happily scarfed down the rest), and half of my burrito.  I’m already excited about eating the second half for dinner tonight.

Then we piled back into the car for the drive back to reality the U.S.

Have you ever been to Canada?

We All Scream for a Completed To Do List

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My to-do list took a slight turn, but it’s been a busy, productive day nonetheless.  I did lunch on-the-go while we were at campus doing my printing.  Pink Pineapple Funky Monkey,

and a Carrot Cake Lara Bar.

Yum, on both counts.

I spent the afternoon working and organizing (and marveling at our ice cream maker!) and we decided to move the schedule around and do some moving work this afternoon.  I had to fax something from Office Max so we did a little Target trip and also spent some time mapping out our new rooms.  It stinks to have to double pay rent, but having access to both apartments for the full month of July is definitely less stressful than trying to move all at once.

In the end, we went to the new apartment –> Target –> new apartment –> Bed Bath and Beyond.  We also managed to check every single item off of our to buy list, phew!  It felt really good to get that all done.  Excitement aside, we didn’t finish up until after 9pm so we ended up getting a late dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

I had some of the famous bread with butter.

And then we did lots of sharing.  An endive small plates salad (with blue cheese and pecans) to start.

And entrée split down the middle.

The husband gave me one of his avocado eggrolls,

and we split the spicy cashew chicken.

Mmmn, this is my very favorite thing at CF and it was nice to split so I wasn’t tempted to eat too too much.  We ended up with a nice plate of leftovers for Adam’s lunch tomorrow too.

When we finally got home we had dessert: that ice-cream I’ve been yapping about all day –

We used a recipe from Rachael Ray Magazine, Key Lime Pie Ice Cream.  The husband didn’t want graham crackers so I left them out and sprinkled some on top of my dish.

We enjoyed some Futurama reruns whilst mmmn and ahhhing.

Afterwards (way way too late) I talked him into doing a quick mini workout with me; 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.  Bedtime is imminent.

What is your favorite flavor of ice-cream?  My real favorite is plain (tart) froyo!

We Like To Ride

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Almost magically, we spotted a Chipotle around 7:30 yesterday.

Real food on a road trip?!?  Count me in!  I got a vegetarian burrito bowl.

Underneath all that lettuce was rice, black beans, guacamole, roasted corn salsa, and fresh tomato salsa.

It was the perfect fuel to get me to Ohio.  Perhaps a bit too much fuel, because we ended up keeping my parents awake chatting until almost 2am!

My mom was able to lure me out of bed at 8am with the thrill of a bike ride.  My grandparents live right next to a fabulous running/bike path; I’m so jealous!  My mom and I started our day off right with a good workout – biked 7.6miles.

Now I’m off to find breakfast before we start the rest of the day’s activities.  Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!