Tag Archives: salad

Kool And The Gang

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Q: Do you know what these two things have in common?

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A: I used the Kool Aid to (re)dye my hair!

I never captured it in a photo, but over the last week or so I lost 90% of my purple and was left with a lot of white/grey streaks.  Since I don’t have an appointment to go back to brown for another two weeks, this wasn’t exactly a good thing.  So last night the husband helped me sit with my head in a bowl of concentrated Kool Aid.

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It was windy today!

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I’ve still got some white but overall it looks much better.  We’ll have to see how long the color lasts.  I used to dye my highlights with Kool Aid in high school and I remember getting at least a couple of weeks out of it.

The hair photos were taken on my way to work.  I woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather; I had a fever and I was super achy all over.  Adam fed me an aspirin and I stayed in bed until the last possible second.  I’m feeling much better now {knock on wood}.  And thankfully I was only working a partial shift.

I skipped breakfast for bed and was very excited about food when I got home this afternoon.

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1/3 cup of Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola with Naked Vanilla Oat Milk and tons of chopped dapple plum and nectarine.

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Plus lots of tea.  A cup of Revolution Tea Lavender Earl Grey,

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and a cup of chai with 1 tsp honey an hour or so later.

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I carried the lavender theme over to my snack as well.

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My mom got these floral candies from a student whose parents are from Japan.

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My dad says they all taste like peach, but I swear the ones I tried had subtle differences.

We spent a long-ish time on errands this evening and I got a small plate of hot bar to keep from getting too cranky.

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Maple cinnamon roasted sweet potatoes plus sautéed veggies and 3 pieces of General Tso tofu.  It’s been ages since we’ve roasted sweet potato fries and we definitely need to make them again soon.

Dinner didn’t take very long to prepare once we got home, but it sure was good.

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I had 1.5 servings of Wegman’s Don’t Be a Chicken Meatless Nuggets dipped in honey.

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They were great, far more enjoyable than I ever find chicken nuggets to be.

I made use a hot spinach salad for our veggie component.

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(recipe to follow) We loved it.  The spinach was super creamy and there was such a good mix of textures.

Dinner didn’t really fill me up though, and I ate some Smart Fries while I wrote this post.

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Much better.

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Hot Spinach Salad, serves 2

  • 1 Tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter
  • 1 pint white mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 3 heaping cups raw baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup smoked almonds
  • 1 Tbsp evoo
  • 2 heaping Tbsp vegan sour cream
  1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown mushrooms with butter and salt.
  2. Add spinach to mushrooms, tossing until greens are completely wilted.
  3. Add remaining ingredients to pan and cook 1 more minute, stirring regularly.

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I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Have you ever dyed your hair with Kool Aid?

And A Class To Go Before I Sleep

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My mom texted to check on me after I didn’t post last night, but I promise I wasn’t snowed in/buried alive/on a bender – I’ve just been busy!  Monday wasn’t quite as crazy as Sunday, but I am getting this post up early before night class so I have some tiny chance of painting my nails this evening.  If I miss another holiday colors polish opportunity I will be so sad.

Sunday I ate this Tandoor Chef Vegetable Pad Thai for breakfast.

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Not traditional “morning food,” but one of the best frozen entrées ever.  It is a little calorie-dense at 490kcal a package, but the texture and flavor makes it taste like a splurge and not a sad frozen dinner.

I tried to take a cup of my latest impulse purchase to work with me, but ended up passing Adam my glass after one sip.

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I love Silk’s almond milks but I think I am just not a soy milk girl; this had such a strong aftertaste to me.  Thankfully the husband enjoys it so our carton won’t go to waste.

Adam and Webster picked me up from work, and we got this box from the co-op hot bar on the way home.

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Vegan “cheesy” pasta and 3 stuffed grape leaves, shared 70-30 my favor.

We also split this Opal apple.

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It is fun to try new varieties, but we probably won’t get this one again for the increased price versus “regular” apples.

I was tired from work, and really didn’t want to go to the gym, so I bribed myself with this Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter packet.

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That stuff is just chocolate frosting, I swear!

At the gym, I finished my first week of CT10k workouts.  4 minutes walking/1 minute running, x 8.  Except I shouldn’t listen to Fiona Apple while I run because I’m obsessed; I ended up running for 10 minutes straight in the middle of my workout.

Dinner was all over the place, but the components were all good.  A handful of baby carrots.

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Pizza crusts stolen from the husband.

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A bit of Chocolove Currants and Almonds in Dark Chocolate.

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Who knew I loved currants?  They definitely helped break up the intensity of the bar.

Finally, we made tasty smoothies.

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Thai young coconut, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, and a bit of brown sugar.

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Adam has recently decided that he is obsessed with Thai young coconuts, so expect to see more of these.  Especially since our coconut was so exciting – it was pink!

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Apparently it’s a common variation relating to the varied levels of phenol found in the coconuts.

Today I grabbed a Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar for breakfast.

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I attended a workshop on TPN in the morning so I got to eat in the hospital rather than my car, which was nice.

Lunch was another tasty black-eyed pea salad.

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Black eyed peas with bread and butter corn, green pepper, smoked almonds, and green Tabasco.  I made a big batch so my lunch for the next two days is already packed.

With a serving of the dark chocolate for dessert.

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And when I got home I ate a pear.

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I took care of a few things for school when I got home from the hospital, and sudddenly I was starving.

Dinner was pretty lame, but I’m in a hurry trying to get to school so I can finish some reading before class.

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And lame doesn’t mean it didn’t taste good!

A box of Health is Wealth Asian Spring Rolls,

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with a dipping sauce of chunky peanut butter and Smart Balance Light.

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Mmmmmmn!

P.S. – You can still win!  Comment on this post before midnight for a chance to win a copy of the “Petite Treats” cookbook.

Last Friday Night

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I spent Friday night getting a little drunk.  Mind you, not so drunk that I would actually want to listen to Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night.”  We did watch some bad stand up comedy on Netflix though.  <– Tim Minchin, not as funny as this joke would lead you to believe.  (It’s so dirty, don’t click, Nana!)

Yesterday, Bitchtastic

Friday morning started with a Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bar on the way to the hospital.

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I had plans for a morning gym session but when I saw the weather report I decided to sleep in instead.  We got really lucky here, the snow was annoying but not anything dangerous.

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I had a nice day at the hospital in spite of the weather.  I got to chart on several interesting patients and had a little more practice with doing pediatric TPN orders.  I love the nutrition support aspect of dietetics but children are really different from what I’ve done with adults.

Lunch was a simple salad.

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Chopped green pepper and cucumber with evoo, Sriracha, and some salty peanuts.

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What a winning combination!

Plus a GoGo Squeez Cinnamon Applesauce packet.

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Great on the go, but not as amazing as the pile of fruit I had when I got home.

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Underneath my mounds of blue and blackberries was Naked Vanilla Oat Milk, a little honey, and 1/4 cup each All Bran Bran Buds and Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola.

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So flipping good.  And it was a good thing I got in a healthy snack because my responsible food choices took a downhill turn during the rest of the evening.

I blame the Bitch Bubbly.

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A girlfriend came over and she, Adam, and I drank the bottle in mimosas.

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The sparkling wine was pretty bad, but our next round was fantastic –

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Sips Lavender Lemondrop Sparkling Cocktails!  This was so fun, and quite delicious.  I described it to my coworker today as “Kate Spade’s Four Loco.”  I would definitely buy them again.

But maybe I’d eat dinner first next time.  My evening meal ended up being… A slice of bread with Smart Balance Light,

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and a huge bowl of popcorn with melted Earth Balance.

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Major thanks to the husband for making me two bowls of popcorn; I spilled that first one within a matter of minutes!

Fashion Friday

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Today, Tofutastic

Saturday’s meals were a little healthier.  Still very tasty though.

For breakfast, Adam and I split a great pb & j.

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With a pear on the side.

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I worked today, but only a half shift, so I had time to get lunch from Wegman’s hot bar.  Some tofu and veggies in mushroom dashi with two pieces of inari.

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I did lots of Googling, and as far as I could tell mushroom dashi is just mushroom stock, so I’m still not sure what that yummy sauce was.

We made tofu for dinner too.

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A bed of cabbage —a bag of “Asian Slaw” mix cooked with a bit of Earth Balance with caramelized onions tossed in towards the end— topped with walnuts —cooked in a skillet with salt and sugar— and tofu —super firm tofu cooked in the skillet we used for the onions, finished with a sauce of tamari, rice vinegar, sesame oil, Sriracha, honey, and orange juice.

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I was glad I added the nuts at the last-minute to help break up the texture.  The flavors were spot on though.

I had Goody Good Stuff Tropical Fruit for dessert.

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Adorable, and much firmer than the other varieties.

Was your area hit with this weekend’s crazy weather?

Ball Of Stress

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I’ve been trying to let myself sleep in as late as possible this week and bars help me do that. I ate this White Chocolate Macadamia Clif Bar in the car on the way to the hospital.

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I’m feeling a lot better from Monday but I’m still making a point of not skipping breakfast.

For lunch I veganized my favorite bean salad by swapping out cheese cubes for spicy Nayo.

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Black eyed peas + chopped green pepper + smoked almonds + spicy Nayo.

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Nothing is ever as good sans cheese but this was still pretty damn good.

With a Mango Coconut Sparkling KeVita.

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And cola breeze and sour mix and match gummies for dessert.

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I found these Goody Good Stuff Gummies at 7-11.

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They are vegetarian and pretty good, though they are a little soft for my tastes. The husband loved them though; he had one taste and rest of my bags were gone.

I am having a really great time at the pediatric hospital, but I have to admit that I am really stressed out right now. There are a lot of things happening in my school and personal life at the moment that are freaking me out. I can’t talk about any of it on the blog, but I will say that I am a giant ball of stress. My stomach hurts all of the time.

Thankfully I had the afternoon free to decompress. I did some fun baking (and tasting!).

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Then I brought a friend some of my baked goods and we had a mutual vent session.

And I walked to and from the gym. The icy patches made the trips take forever, but it was a good way to clear my head.

At the gym, I did another Couch to 10k treadmill workout. 4 minutes of walking / 1 minute running, x9.

I ate these Darrell Lea Strawberry Licorice while I cooked dinner.

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I kept it simple.

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Adam and I shared a package of Tasty Bite Channa Masala – bulked up with some frozen veggies – over a package of brown rice.

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Easy peasy.

What do you do to let off steam when you are feeling stressed?

All Over The Place

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I’ve been all over the place the past two days, figuratively speaking.  Literally, I’ve been in Buffalo, at work or in my apartment.  Influencing the craziness of my eats?  I started a 20 Day Vegan Challenge on Sunday, I was so hungry yesterday I thought I might actually eat a horse if one happened to gallop near me, and today I woke up far under the weather.  What can you do?

Sunday was fairly ridiculous.  In spite of being vegan and staying home from the Super Bowl party I definitely still managed to match the rest of America’s Super Bowl Sunday caloric intake.

Banana Bread Lara Bar.

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Chips.

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Summer roll from the co-op.

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Fancy bread with olive oil, x2.5.

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Vegan almond joy bar.

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Gummies.

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If my summer roll hadn’t been packed with veggies I probably would have had to turn in my diploma!

Then I got into bed at 9:30 pm Sunday night and barely made it out by 7:15 today.  I don’t seem to be sick with any typical flu-like symptoms {knock on wood} but I am tired beyond reason.  I swear to God I didn’t spend Super Bowl Sunday eating chicken wings and getting wasted, but when I woke up this morning I felt like I was drunk!  It took me 10 minutes to really figure out where I was and I stayed in a haze for most the morning.  And super embarrassingly, I almost passed out in the ICU during rounds!  Hopefully no one else noticed but the RD I was with said I got very pale for a few minutes.

I grabbed a (non-diet) Dr. Pepper during a quick break and that helped get my blood sugar back up.

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Lunch was a simple salad – romaine, raw veggies, pickled beans, and low-fat raspberry vinaigrette.

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And I had a bowl of cereal when I got home.  A serving of Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola topped with blackberries and Simpli Vanilla Naked Oat Milk.

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The granola was some of the best I’ve ever had!

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It held up in the milk without being too hard and it was loaded with big pieces of coconut.

I ate half of this Enjoy Life Ricemilk Chocolate bar while I did some history reading.

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And kept dinner simple with an Annie Chun’s Korean Kimchi Soup Bowl.

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I still had some reading to do for class so I needed to keep things quick.

Don’t ask me how I managed to drag myself to the gym after my night class, but I did.  I am hoping to start up with the Couch to 10k program again.  Today was 1 minute running/4 minutes walking, x 8.  Except a great song came on and I ended up just running the last five minutes.

I was starving when I got home so I ate a slice of bread with Smart Balance Light while I packed our lunches.

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All that stands between me and bed is a shower!

Did you watch the Super Bowl?  What’d you snack on during the game?

Fashion Friday

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The hospital was great today.

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I got to chart on several patients and I saw some really interesting cases; everything from cancer to Crohn’s, to burns.

If you think I actually got in bed early last night… you haven’t been reading my blog very long!  Of course I stayed up another hour and of course I was exhausted this morning.  I had to grab breakfast on the go, a Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Bar.

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The taste was good and I loved chewing through the chia.  The bar only had 100 calories, but it did provide 4 gram each fiber and protein and 1000 and 800 mg respectively omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Nutrition fun fact – it is important to get healthy fatty acids in your diets, but did you know that the ratio of omega 6:3 matters too?  It should be about 1:1 but most Americans get too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3.

I also had a big cup of coffee at the hospital.

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Half vanilla cappuccino (sweetened) and half caramel nut coffee (flavored beans).

I may have packed lunch yesterday, but it wasn’t much help sitting in my fridge all day!  Instead I got a salad from the salad bar.

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Spring mix topped with tomatoes, banana peppers, french dressing, and scoop of cole slaw.

I wasn’t interested in my packed-but-forgotten turkey sandwich when I got home, but I did eat my Pink Lady apple.

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Plus a Caramel Pineapple Chobani Bite topped with some KIND Maple Walnut Clusters with Chia & Quinoa.

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<– heavenly

Dinner was a big slice of pizza.

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Buffalo chicken with blue cheese for dipping.

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This will be my last slice for a little while (I’ll explain soon) and I really enjoyed it.

Fashion Fridays

This post was pretty short, so I figured I’d share my “professional” look with you all.  I hope at least a few readers (hi, Nana! hi, Mom!) would like to see what I wore to my first week at the hospital.

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tues

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thursday

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Fact 1 – Lose-fitting tops with fun neckline details are pretty much my uniform.

Fact 2 – I know my mirror is filthy.  Sometimes I hold Webster up to the mirror to see “the other dog” and I don’t always have time to clean off his nose smudges because by “sometimes” I mean daily.

Peachy Bean

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Since I didn’t have time for breakfast yesterday, I made myself get up even earlier today.  6:40, ouch!  <– yes, I know for most people that’s not actually early

Rounds start earlier today though so I need to leave the house earlier than yesterday too.  Make breakfast, eat breakfast, post breakfast, leave earlier?… I’ll keep this quick!

A smoothie for breakfast.

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Into the blender (for 2):

Like peach pie.  Sort of.  If peach pie had too much protein powder in it and tasted like chemicals.

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I forced most of it down so I won’t be hungry all morning.

what i’ll be having for lunch…

Today’s lunch is going to be amazing, I’m sure of it.  I’m bringing back my new favorite salad.  There is healthy stuff on the bottom, I swear.

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Black eyed peas + chopped green pepper + chopped Kerrygold Vintage Dubliner + smoked almonds + green Tabasco.

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Clifford the Big Red Pear.

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Milk and dark toffee candy.  More on that in a minute.

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I’ll see you after I finish my 2nd day of dietetic internship!

p.s. My word-play in the title is making me want to experiment with putting fresh peaches into barbecue baked beans.

back to the candy…

The toffees were actually part of a sample from SurprisesByMail.com.  Note – I received the sample free of charge to review.  All opinions are my own.

Here was the info I received from the company:

SurprisesByMail.com offers a variety of gift boxes filled with your choice of goodies, a perfect gift for anyone this Valentine’s Day, from mom to a significant other. Pick out your Valentine’s favorite treats; from sweets, to chocolates, fudge, baked goods, nuts, dried fruit, pretzels and more. Boxes can be customized even further with personal messages and images. Available in four affordable box options.

And here is what I got:

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Two different boxes, one with dark chocolate nonpareils and another with a candy assortment (milk and dark chocolate covered Oreos, toffees, caramels, and some buckeyes).

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Pros: the packaging was cute and fun, both candies felt high-quality and were very tasty, and the site has a good variety of options that are fairly priced.

Cons:  though it is cute, the multiple layers of packaging are pretty wasteful; I wish that the service was a bit greener.

Have you ever gotten any mailer gifts?  My mom got me two subscriptions for Christmas; one to Birchbox (loving it!) and other to a natural snacks company.

Winter Weight Gain

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I came through my first full-time day at the hospital with flying colors!  Well, I guess I was a little in the gray when I ran out of time in the morning and had to skip breakfast, but that was the only hiccup.  I had fun, learned a lot, and made it through 8 – 4 without thinking longingly of my couch once!

We were busy on rounds (walking around the floor and listening to the medical residents give an update on all of the patients) all morning and I was too busy to miss breakfast.  Then I got to grab a tea latte from Tim Horton’s while we charted.

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My earl grey with frothed skim milk was great.  And the RD let me chart on a patient!  I’ve got to do a lot of work independently to meet all of my internship curriculum goals so it was a good sign that they let me hit the ground running.  In the afternoon, among other things, I observed a gestational diabetes education that I’m eager to try on my own.

I was worried about finding a table in the packed cafeteria, but thankfully the RDs invited me to sit with them for lunch.  I’m with a different person each day of the week so it was great to get to meet some of them in advance.

I packed a really tasty sandwich.

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A multi-grain Sandwich Thin with Crofter’s strawberry preserves, 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey & Maple Turkey, Cabot’s 50% reduced sharp cheddar, and pickled jalopeños.

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A pack of Annie Chun’s Sesame Roasted Seaweed Snacks.

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And a Trader Joe’s 100-calorie milk chocolate bar.

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This lunch was perfect – fun, healthy, and it helped fuel my brain through its first afternoon of actual thought!

Before I knew it, the day was over and Adam was picking me up.  His lab was closed for Martin Luther King Day and I was thrilled that he could drive me because it is brutal outside.  My phone’s weather forecast for Wednesday is a giant, ominous looking snowflake.

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My workday may have flown by, but our errands took forever.  Adam and I ended up splitting an ice cream Twix bar while we were out and about.

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He {claims that he} hates Twix bars so the sharing portions were in my favor.

I also snacked on a Caramel Pineapple Chobani Bite with the last of the blackberries.

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This snack was so flipping good, I can’t wait to eat the rest of the pack of Chobani and I must buy more fresh berries immediately!  The caramel gave the yogurt a little extra sumthin’ sumthin’ compared to the regular pineapple variety and the entire gorgeous carton only has 100 calories.  Plus it smelled delicious and made me want a big slice of cheesecake.

– – – Sidenote:  Why, oh why did I keep scrolling through Chobani’s website?  I need the Key Lime Crumble and Almond Coco Loco Flips, need.  I’m sure they won’t hit Buffalo for another couple of months and I’m basically going to die. – – –

Dinner was a big salad with some confusion about its roots.

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Inside the jumble –

  • baby spinach
  • peanut sauce
  • 1 Tbsp ground flax
  • chopped green pepper
  • chopped red onion
  • buckwheat groats
  • chopped honeycrisp
  • leftover 1000 island bbq sauce pulled chicken

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Somehow all of those flavors just worked together.

I’m still feeling a bit hungry but I did a lot of nibbling while I assembled dinner and tomorrow’s lunch so I’m closing my kitchen for the day.  I’ve been steadily gaining weight since we moved to Buffalo but recently my unhealthy habits have been out of control and I’m officially too fat for some of my work pants.  Pride and health may not have motivated me (though they really should of!) but my wallet sure does – it’s time to lose some weight!  I’m not planning on going on a diet, far from it,  I’m just going to stop being ridiculous.  Wish me luck?

Did you gain any weight over the winter holidays?