Tag Archives: salad

They Were All The Best

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What was the best thing you ate today?  If you’re a normal person you probably answered that pretty quickly.  But if you’re me, every single thing you ate was “the very best thing you ate today!”  If pressed, I guess I’d say the juice.  But that choice wasn’t easy.

My morning started off perfectly with a 60 minute hot yoga class.  I picked up a 30-day unlimited pass to Evolation Yoga on Groupon and I am so excited to get my yogi on this month.  Minus one child’s pose during the camel pose, I managed to huff and puff my way through the entire hour.

It’s a good thing that working out kills my appetite for a bit, because my day got away from me and food didn’t happen until the afternoon.  The husband was home from a night shift when I got back from yoga and I just couldn’t resist crawling into bed with him and the dog.

At 1:30 my friend Kim came by to pick us up and we set off for the hospital that we’ll be doing our clinical practice at this upcoming semester.  We’re all getting pretty nervous and we wanted to do a walk through to set our minds at ease.  I even put on my working-lady clothes so it would feel more like the real thing.

When we got home, the husband and I headed out to Ashker’s.

<– Fraggle Rock; love it!

He got a perfectly thick espresso and I got a juice!

My mother-in-law had to mail me a gift receipt and she sweetly included some fun $ with it.  As you’ll see, we took full advantage of it.

Ashker’s was great about letting me go off-menu and build my own juice.

Kale + spinach + cucumber + carrot.

So dang good.  Veggie juice might be the only thing on the planet I find more refreshing than diet pop!

Then we got Chinese take-out.  Beef and broccoli for Adam, a ridiculously giant plate of crab rangoon for me.

Holy frick you guys, I love crab rangoon so much.  Too much, in fact; I ate it at least once every other day during the first week of the new year.  Now you know why I wasn’t blogging much then 😉

That plate is special too.

Pink glass, which my mom actually collects, from right here in Buffalo.

Pretty nifty.

But I could have basically eaten off of the floor,

with rangoon it’s all good.

My late afternoon was spent on Pinterest.  I’ve been trolling people’s pages for weeks, it was high time for me to finally create my own account.

I made myself feel so full and disgusting with Chinese food that I thought I’d never be hungry again.  But several hours later we were out running errands and suddenly I was ready to gnaw my own arm off.  I made a 1 oz bag of trail mix and devoured it before I could even think about getting home to my camera.

The mix included sesame sticks, peanuts, and honey roasted sesame seeds.

And when Adam found a $10 pizza deal for any pizza with any toppings, I totally bit.  And totally ate a slice in the car on the ride home!  We had a nice dinner.

Romaine topped with celery, buckwheat groats, and yogurt Cesar dressing.

Pizza (3 slices total) with jalapeños and pineapple.

Totally delicious, thanks for the inspiration, Kath.

Moss No More

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Hello again, long time no see!  After a solid month of basically being a sloth, today was my first productive day in a long time and it felt good.

I spent four hours shadowing an RD who does nutrition counseling for some of the local public schools.  Such a neat job!  I got to sit in on several sessions, including one with a parent.  I had a great time learning more about another new job possibility, but I have to admit that being back in a public school setting did make me miss my teaching days.  Actually, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about teaching.  I’m not sure where I’ll end up at this point, but I do know that I have to finish this degree before anything else happens!

I did have time to eat before I left, but when I got home Adam and I split this persimmon.

This anniversary gift was finally ripe.  We scooped the flesh out with a spoon.

Very tasty, though not quite $5 tasty.  I’m glad I got to try this guy as a present.

I also had a salad for greens.

A romaine base topped with peanut sauce, craisins, and buckwheat groats.

And I did a bit of nibbling while I cooked up dinner.

Tonight’s meal was a blog-inspired affair!

Olive oil crackers from Yes I Want Cake.

Sweet Chicken Chili from Iowa Girl Eats topped with a bit of parmesan.

Those girls are so good, both recipes were delicious.

I’ve made the chili many times in the past (even the beef chili from the chili sale was inspired by the recipe) and I am so glad that I decided to be brave and try the crackers.  They had the perfect balance of crunch and chew!

After dinner I cuddled up to this bag of popcorn.

And now the kitchen is officially closed for the night and my retainers are in.  I’m off to paint my nails!

How many different types of jobs have you held?  If you’re a career-switcher, do you ever miss your old gig?

My list at this point includes editor, retail worker/cashier, ice cream scooper, waitress, note-taker, and teacher.

Mallrat

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Second suitor: if we were making whoopee–

What’s whoopee?

Um, you know, if we were being intimate–

What? Like f**king?

The above is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, “Mallrats.”  If you have yet to see that 1995 classic I urge you to put it on your to-do list.  That movie is all sorts of fabulous.

I thought of the quote today because I spent my afternoon wandering aimlessly around the mall.  I wasn’t there to shop, I wasn’t there to work, I was just there.  (<– movie tagline)

Backing up to this morning, I discovered that two wrongs can make a right.  The fact that I woke up after 10am made it way less weird that I started my “morning” by popping a Rolo pretzel bite into my mouth.

One of the boys brought the bites to Poker last night, thanks Patrick and Michelle!  I’d be feeling slightly more grateful if said poker game hadn’t run past 1am, but what can you do?

I continued the theme with a Zone Perfect Cashew Pretzel Bar for breakfast.

We were in the car because Webster has chewed through every single one of his toys in record time and we needed to make an emergency run to PetSmart.

Then Adam and a friend went to see a movie and I joined them for a trip to the mall! “Mission Impossible #2,458” took a little over 2 hours so I had plenty of time to mall-walk.  I didn’t snap any pictures, but I do have a couple of take-away tips:

  1. The samples at The Gourmet Chef are out of control while they roll out new products for the new year.  I didn’t snap any pictures for stealth’s sake, but I ate at least a mini meal’s worth.
  2. Bath and Body Works is having a gigantic sale right now.  I snagged some great smelling hand soaps for less than $3 a pop.

After my loop, I settled in with a book for lunch.  Lunch’s location was an unexpected bonus – Five Guys!!!

Five Guys’ fries make the top 20 list of things I miss most about living in Brooklyn.  They did not disappoint today either.  Squishy yet crispy, a proper amount of salt, and with the option of endless bottles of malt vinegar.

I ordered a medium but that bag was basically stuffed to the brim!  I didn’t finish them all, but I did a good enough job to make myself a little ill.  Totally worth it.

I also got a veggie sandwich.

The veggie option is basically just a hamburger bun with any/all of the available toppings.  You can also get it with cheese.  I ordered mine with mayo, lettuce, tomato, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and jalapenos that I eventually admitted defeat to and peeled off.

I passed the lunch hour munching and reading (my fourth Kathy Reichs book this week) and it was just great.  This afternoon brought more of the same, only this time the dog read with me.

Love him!

Dinner was easy.

A salad of Romaine, chopped celery, tomato, and 1.5 Tbsp of peanut sauce, topped with some leftover chicken (cooked in the crockpot with a gooseberry sauce from back home, then shredded).

And an onion roll with a bit of SmartBalance Light.

We watched the impossibly sad returning episode of “Grey’s” while we ate.

And I ate a Pep Bar (the British/Canadian version of a York Peppermint Patty) for dessert.

Now I’m looking forward to cuddling with the husband and catching up on Private Practice and Modern Family as well, with big bowls of popcorn in our laps.

five questions for Friday

  1. Have you seen “Mallrats” yet?  Favorite scene?
  2. Ever been to a Five Guys?
  3. What do you dip your fries in?
  4. Do you partake in store samples?
  5. Have you read any of Kathy Reich’s books?

The Final Location

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Today we traveled to the final location of our winter vacation.  It’s good to be “home” for good!  The last two days were spent with cold-like symptoms.  Hence the no-blogging, no-working, no-working out, and no-resolutioning.  Well, that’s no entirely true.  I have read a book a day from Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan series.  Each one is better than the last, I swear.

Anyway though, today, we were headed to Toronto. The morning got off to a rough start – I am feeling less than 100% still and it’s possible I’m cranky – but by 12 we were on the road. And by 12:30 we were back home getting our passports. But then, we were on the road.

A Big Gulp of Cherry Coke Zero did a lot to raise my spirits.

As did starting another Temperance Brennan book.

And before I knew it, we were there.

Our plan was to head to a neighborhood with froyo and then hunt for a late lunch there.  We weren’t certain what we would find, so we were thrilled to come across a cheap, all-you-can-eat sushi joint.

Just what the doctor ordered!  What?  Adam’s practically a doctor.

Everything was delicious.  I had … A small bowl of green salad.

Cheese wontons split with the husband.

A piece of tomago sushi (egg).

Two rolls split with the husband.  The Rock and Roll white fish, salmon, pepper, masago, cream cheese, tempura, eel sauce.  The Fire Roll crab meat, avocado, cucumber, masago, spicy mayo, tempura, eel sauce.

A Sakura Roll avocado, tempura bits, hot sauce.

Fried tofu split with the husband.

A piece of butterfish sushi.

Some baked eggplant and grilled veggies.

And finally spicy crab, tempura, and california hand rolls.

We got our money’s worth but weren’t too too stuffed; a perfect all-you-can-eat experience.

To clear some stomach room before froyo, we took a short walk down ultra-cool Bloor St.

And then finally it was time for Menchies.

I topped plain tart and hot chocolate yogurts with small amounts of Skor bar, hot fudge, Smarties, and crunchy pb, and large amounts of rainbow sprinkles and popping bobba.

Perfection.

We had an uneventful drive home and now the boys are over for a game of poker.  I’m banished to the office so it’s possible I’ll get a jump on some schoolwork, but it’s doubtful.  It’s looking like our late, big lunch with count for dinner, but if I end up munching on anything I’ll update.  Otherwise, catch you in the am!

What Was Lunch?

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I felt like today’s dinner and lunch sort of became an ambiguous blob that spread out across the afternoon.  I kept eating different pieces and it was hard to tell where one meal ended and the other began.  As you saw, I had a plate of cheesetastic mac and cheese around 2:00.

Then a while later I had a salad.

This was an especially good salad too.  A romaine base with 1.5 Tbsp of peanut sauce, 2 Tbsp of bloody mary peanuts, and a huge handful of chopped celery.

A while after that, I ate ~2 cookies’ worth of dough while helping Adam with some baking.

Next, I ate a bowl of leftover Hoppin’ John.

And finally I dipped Adam’s pizza crusts into diet pop, but didn’t snap a picture so you’ll have to use your imagination.  I’ll be honest that I planned on eating a bowl of ice cream too, but somehow that one got away from me.

You Say Pizza, I Say Piazza

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It was another great day here in Ohio.

Our last day, unfortunately.

For breakfast I poured a bowl of my grandma’s cereal mix (Cheerios, Special K, and Crispix by the looks of it) with some vanilla almond milk.

Lunch was a big salad – romaine, cherry tomatoes, and an Asian sesame dressing – with cold truffle mac and cheese crumbled on top.

Leftover mac is officially the new crouton.

I also had a glass of almond milk,

and a turtle for dessert.

We spent the afternoon switching out Christmas decorations, and the boys found a minute for a quick nap.

Then we were off to the movies.  We saw “We Bought a Zoo,” and all three of us thought it was great.  Very funny and touching.  My grandma handed me a mini York patty mid-movie that hit the spot.

Dinner was tasty as well, La Piazza in Troy.  I started with a house salad with honey mustard dressing,

and two slices of bread with garlic dipping oil.

For our main meal, Adam and I split two entres.  We shared, but both ate a larger portion of our “own” plates.  He had Smoked Chicken Ravioli (stuffed with smoked chicken, herbs, cheeses, tossed with tomato basil cream),

and I got the Eggplant Parmigiana (fresh eggplant sliced and baked with tomato basil sauce and three cheeses).

All the dishes were good, but now we are feeling a little weighed down with cheese.  In fact, I’m going to blame my heavy dinner for my complete and utter exhaustion at 9:45 pm.  Good night!

Wednesday – Thursday, Still On The Move

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Hello again from another location, this time Ohio.  Once we get home from here we have a day trip to Toronto and then I’m staying put until the end of break!

Wednesday

Yesterday was Adam’s and my 4-year wedding anniversary, aka our 9-year anniversary of being together!!!  It’s crazy to think that we’ve shared so much of our lives.  Sappy sidenote – I am grateful every day that I get to spend with my husband.  I am so thankful that the man I love is handsome and funny in addition to being intelligent and kind. </sap>

I had an early morning orthodontist appointment and we had to do a grocery restock and then we reunited with another man I love.

I sort of want to get those pictures framed.

Adam and I spent our anniversary doing our favorite things – namely tons of eating good food and cuddling on the couch watching good tv.  A big, made from scratch breakfast felt downright gourmet.

For the eggs, we went to the deli and requested two, 1/4 inch-thick slices of honey roasted turkey.

We chopped them up and sautéed them in a bit of butter, then scrambled in 4 large eggs.

Out of control delicious.  I quit eating most meat (mammals) before I had gotten to try everything and I suspect that I would really enjoy ham.

We also had hash browns made with white potatoes, onion, red bell pepper, 2 Tbsp of butter, and 2 tsp of chipotle oil.

Adam bought me some fourth year gifts for our anniversary.

A book with a sweet inscription, persimmons for fruit and rugelach for flour (substituted for flour because we were going out-of-town).

I’ve been picking up the persimmons and deciding that they were too expensive to splurge on for weeks at the grocery, so they were such a nice surprise.  We split part of one persimmon but decided that it wasn’t ripe enough yet.

Adam was careful to buy squishy ones because once in the city, before we knew better, we tried to eat an unripe persimmon and about died when all the moisture was sucked from our mouths!  This one had a good flavor but was still a little cotton-mouthy.  So we washed it away with rugelach.

The snack was perfect to bring us into lunch.

I had an Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna sandwich on half a cheddar jalapeno bialey with a little bit of Miracle Whip.

Plus a huge pile of roasted green beans.

Adam hates jalapeno but knew I’d like that bialey more than the others and I gave him the half with more cheese, so we both compromised in the name of love.

It would have been easy and fun to go out for a romantic dinner, so I’m extra proud of us that we stayed home and cooked together instead.

I started by steam-sauteing 3 chopped zucchini in a bit of chicken stock.  Then I finished them off with 1 Tbsp of evoo and this packet of Garlic Gold I got in my HLS swag.

I was expecting to adore the Garlic Gold after all the love it got in the healthy living blog community, but we found it to be pretty “meh.”

We set the cooked zucchini aside and while Adam boiled 3 servings of pasta I made a roux with 2 Tbsp of butter, 2 Tbsp of flour, and 1 Tbsp of milk.  Into that, I whisked 1 cup of skim milk and 1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  Once the sauce came together all we had to do was toss it with the cooked squash and pasta.

We topped our bowls with a bit of panko and more cheese.

Dinner was great, definitely as good as anything we would have gotten in a restaurant.  This was on the healthy side, but now I am absolutely going to make a similar sauce and use it in oozey, gooey mac and cheese.

We stayed up later than planned watching “That 70’s Show,” which was good for anniversary fun but bad for me working out this morning.  I can’t do anything active here in Ohio and I’m worried that all my vacation workout momentum will be for naught.

Thursday

Today was a day of many meals.  Due in parts to time of the month and restlessness from 7 hours in the car.  And we got junky food too; a healthy living blog no-no but an unavoidable part of existing in the real world.

Chicken biscuit from Chick-fill-a.

The leftover serving of dinner.

A juicy pear.

Animal crackers split with Adam (70/30 his favor).

Mid-way we got to stop for froyo.

I got eggnog and toffee mocha yogurts, topped with candy bar pieces and some marshmallow topping.

Alas both of my flavors were too spicy and I ended up throwing most of mine away.  It was a sad day indeed.

But hundreds of miles later we found a Sonic and I ordered a diet coke with strawberry that totally made up for it.

Adam and I also split fries and chicken tenders.

Good thing my grandma served a lateish dinner, huh?

Webster was a perfect angel for 95% of the drive.

We even got to take him in to meet my grandpa this afternoon.  I like it when all the men in my life are well-acquainted.

Per usual, my grandma made a great dinner.

Side salad,

cooked spinach with feta and cherry tomatoes,

truffle mac and cheese to make up for Adam not having any on Christmas,

and italian breaded chicken, 

which I only could eat a few bites of because I felt like food was coming out of my ears.

After dinner, Nana and Adam worked on a 750-piece puzzle while I wrote this monster post.  I hate all these super long posts I’ve been writing lately!  I know none of my readers are interesting in scrolling for hours, but since I use my blog as a journal I don’t want to skip days that are so great.  I promise to get back to a less annoying schedule once I’m home for good.

Merry Christmas In St. Thomas

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I hope everyone is continuing to have happy holiday season!  I know that booze and beaches don’t feel very winter-holiday festive to most of my readers, but to me they feel like home.  We’ve done lots of traditional food and family this year too.  If Adam had been home this would have been my perfect Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Saturday morning, after my run, we met up with my aunt and cousins (the visiting set) for breakfast at Barefoot Buddha.  I got an iced coffee with Silk soy milk.

Barefoot Buddha is my favorite restaurant in St. Thomas (I ate the Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich on the morning of my wedding!) and our meal did not disappoint.  My mom and I split two sandwiches so we could get lots of flavor.

The wrap special had tons of veggies, sesame tofu, and a peanut sauce.

And the Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich had egg, turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, and a chipotle aioli.

Yum and yum.

The day was spent on holiday preparations and I ate a handful of carrots at one point for some crunchy energy.

Then it was time to celebrate.

My family has thrown a big (tequila shot flowing) Christmas Eve party for as long as I can remember and it felt a little strange not to have one this year.  But the visiting family came over for dinner and then a big group met for drinks at the Island Time Pub and it was nice in a new way.

We had Hanukkah dinner leftovers for dinner.

Salad,

a little bit each of pineapple chili salmon and sour cream dill salmon,

and more potato latkes.

I also had a 7-layer bar and a small slice of “crack pie” before we headed out.

Then I had a great time getting to drink and chat with a bunch of family and friends.  O-bomb shot,

black and coke,

jack and ginger.

Funny, I did not end up running Christmas morning 🙂

Christmas

Christmas with my parents was perfect, though Adam was very missed.

Great minds think alike – my mother and I ended up buying each other the same doxie pen!

While we unwrapped I had a coffee with eggnog,

and a cherry cordial straight from my stocking.

Then our visiting family came over for breakfast.

Turkey sausage,

egg and cheese casserole,

half a mini bagel with cream cheese,

and a piece of 7-layer bar.

Plus a piece of sour candy cane my cousins brought me later.

Then Christmas afternoon was spent on the water.

Fun fact – here is a (far away) shot of the beach where Adam and I got married!

A Christmas tradition is to spend the day in “Christmas Cove.”  There were 40+ boats all connected together but I never did get a good shot.

The crystal light-vodka-whatever I was handed may have had something to do with that.

Is there anything more perfect than Christmas at the beach?

After we washed off the salt, everyone went to my (St. Thomas based) aunt and uncle’s house for Christmas dinner.

Before we headed over I made myself a plate of apple slices and latkes,

but the combination of booze and sun must have hit me hard because I hit the fruit and cheese spread like there was no tomorrow.

Everyone was (lovingly) teasing me about the blog so I did manage to take a picture of every single (9!) cracker/cheese bite!

But I did keep my dinner plate simple.  One thing for health and one thing for fun.

A big pile of salad,

and a big pile of truffle mac and cheese.

The husband is going to be so very jealous; last year he finished off three plates of that macaroni!

After a long-long day we just had to squeeze in one more piece of festivity, so my mom and female cousins and I went out for girly embarrassing drinks.

That’s a virgin pina colada, and even sans alcohol it was a little too much for me.  Merry Christmas indeed!

Monday

Today is my last day on island, so I made sure to get an early start.  My amazing mother drove me to school before 8 so I could get in final run on the field.  ~1 +ish mile ran.  I forgot my sunscreen so I kept it short.  Now as soon as I get some party pictures e-mailed I’m off to soak up as much family time as I can.

Do you Christmas/Hanukkah traditions include any beach time?