St. Thomas; Tuesday Morning – Thursday Morning

by Emily

We’re here. We’re here, we’re here, we’re here! We’re also busy; this will be a quick recap post.

Tuesday morning at the airport, Adam and I did a good job putting together breakfast from our packed snacks. We split the Orange Cranberry Cliff Bar,

and shared sharp cheddar, baby carrots, and a gingergold apple throughout the morning.

Our flights went well, and on our layover I found a Salsarita’s for lunch.

(Delicious) chips with spicy salsa,

and a chicken burrito with black beans, a little bit of rice, corn salsa, red onions, medium salsa, and shredded cheese.

So tasty and fresh, especially for a plane meal! I ate about half of everything.

Before we knew it we were in my childhood home. Being handed homemade toffee,

and finding gifts on our pillows.

I could get used to this! The husband and I did some wrapping of our own too.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

Spicy chicken with whole-wheat linguine,

mushrooms and broccoli with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds,

and mandarin oranges.

We ate all squished together in a clump, because someone decided to start a puzzle at the table 😉

For dessert my dad and I opened up these Klick Halva Truffles.

Adam went out (late!) with some of our guy friends from high school, but I stayed home rereading All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein and laughing at the notes I wrote in the margins while writing a 15page final paper on it.

Wednesday morning was all about dinner leftovers for breakfast.

And 10minutes of strength and stretch moves. My goal for vacation is to (at minimum) get in a good stretch every day.

For lunch, we headed to Barefoot Buddha, my favorite restaurant.

I split a passionfruit smoothie with the husband,

and a bagel sandwich with my mother.

Yuuuuuuuum.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on errands, including finding a gloriously huge pile of Achie comics (donated to my mom’s library),

and getting all of our wedding rings polished.

Plus testing saved maple sugar cookies from Thanksgiving.

Out of the freezer, still good!

For dinner we headed to Island Time Pub with my aunt and cousins (2sets, one local, one visiting). The lighting was awful, but the dark did mean we got to enjoy these sailboat sail “trees.”

Adam and I split a Caesar salad, with green peppers and mushrooms added.

And a buffalo chicken pizza.

I had these two slices plus a third.

I also had two black and cokes with dinner.

After that I was the designated driver, so even though we were out with friend until almost 1, I stuck to diet coke.

This morning began with a workout. A good workout 🙂 St. Thomas isn’t exactly map-my-run-able and I don’t have a Garmin, so we are focusing on time instead of distance. We had my mom drive us down to the nearby beach so we could run (not that we ran I’m the sand, just near the beach). In the end we ran for 20minutes and walked for 18minutes. Then we slowly walked up the HUGE hill home; I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow. All total, 60monutes of activity, which felt great.

Breakfast was Greek Gods honey Greek yogurt, topped with some blueberries and banana.

I’ve spent the morning running errands with my mom, including a trip to school so I could write this post.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what?!?

What’s the best airplane food you’ve ever had? The worst?

20Dec2010

Drilling for Coal

by Emily

Ta-ta for now, Buffalo! We packed in another full day and body, mind, and spirit are all willing and ready for a trip tomorrow to St. Thomas! Errands of both the boring and holiday variety, elfing, and celebrating are all complete……now I’ve just got to worry about packing!

We started our morning with a little anxiety, and got all the not-so-fun stuff out of the way first. Brat that I am, whenever someone talks about scares at the dentist I always blurt out “I’ve never even had a cavity!” Well fate finally decided to shut me up, and today I got my first filling. My cavity was teeny tiny so it ended up being quick and painless but I about scared myself to death in anticipation.

Fun fact – I was totally dressed as an elf today. As I said to the husband; “if you’re gonna get drilled you might as well dress in costume!”

Yes that does look like a dressing room mirror, our main errand of the day was trip to the mall!

That crazy Christmas-week-at-the-mall feeling is probably why we thought sharing a mini Reindeer Blizzard was a good breakfast.

This had caramel, pie pieces and toasted coconut so I was expecting to like it more than the husband, but he went to town, practically ripping the spoon from my hand!

Waiting to find a Christmas party outfit until the day before we left probably wasn’t my brightest idea, but I ended up getting 2 super cute outfits!

Also on the agenda was Adam’s belated birthday lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Sourdough bread with butter.

And one of the husband’s avocado eggrolls.

For my meal I ordered the lunch portion of the barbecue ranch chicken salad.

It was ok, I mostly ordered it for the corn and black beans, but the dressing was lacking the tang I was looking for.

Seriously though, this is the half-portion?!?

I couldn’t even eat half of this monster. Though I did have room for a couple of the husband’s fries.

For dessert, we split a peppermint stick courtesy of J.Crew.

Honestly JC, you don’t have to bribe me, you’re already my favorite!

I thought I was stuffed, but after lots and lots of mall-walking (maybe those grandma’s in the ’90’s were onto something?!) I was ready for a snack when we got home.

Two servings of Silk Soy Nog with nutmeg.

Leftover cheeseball.

I wasn’t going to share this recipe because it’s both simple and similar to one’s found online, but so many friends raved about it at the party that I figured I should –

Spicy Creamy Cheeseball

16oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese (aka neufchatel cheese)
1/3 cup hot pepper peach preserves (I used Stonewall Kitchen’s)
2Tbsp chopped white onion
1Tbsp chopped long hot pepper (if you use the spicier jalapeno I’d cut back a little)
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
3Tbsp chopped pecans

Allow the cream cheese to soften. Add all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well to combine; we found it was most effective to use our hands. Shape into a ball if desired, and store in the refrigerator until serving.

My plan for dinner is the rest of my lunch salad. I planned on blogging it, but – it’s 9pm now, I still haven’t packed, we have to leave the house at 5:30am tomorrow; you do the math! Speaking of spotty posting, I just want to give you guys a heads up that my posts will be sporadic during my days in the islands (like anyone cares!). I’ll recap everything in full, but I’ll be doing fewer, longer posts.

See you from the beach!

15Dec2010

Tastes Tropical

by Emily

Whooops, tomorrow’s my last early morning of 2010 and I’m late to bed! I need to get showered and bedded so I do well on my presentation tomorrow. And also so I remember to wear a watch, which I never do but need to for said presentation.

I spent most of my evening reorganizing all of my notecards and binders, for an OCD-freak like me it was pretty glorious. I also worked on an application, finished my project, and went to UPS.

By the time we were headed home with our package the husband and I were both snippy with hunger, so he made a pit stop at Moe’s. I stuck with my dinner plans, but I did devour a TON of his tortilla chips.

My salad was much more exciting in my head before I realized that there were chips in the other room.

Still pretty good though. A butter lettuce base with Newman’s Asian Sesame dressing, orange slices, peas, and pulverized coconut.

Tasted light and tropical.

My whole meal was pretty tropical actually, because my protein/dessert (<– it can be both!) was 2% Plain Chobani with key lime pie.

Yuuuuuuuum! This combination is seriously even better than just straight up key lime pie.

Think well-spoken thoughts for me tomorrow, please!

Have you ever had key lime pie? Lots of people in my food lab had not, which surprised me.

14Dec2010

Holiday Dishes and Demons

by Emily

Do you have your holiday dishes out yet? Other than the reindeer stuff (very nice, Kate Spade bowls and mugs) from my mom this little tree is my only piece.

It made lunch feel festive.

Although, lunch was pretty exciting (to me) all on its own.

Sandwich/salad, sandwich/soup, and soup/salad combos always feel like lunch at a restaurant to me.

My salad was a butter lettuce base with Newman’s Own Asian Sesame Dressing, Sahale Snacks Valdosta Pecans, and a bit of pulverized coconut.

I don’t eat salads at home that much – something about the lettuce skeeves me out – but this was a great combo.

My sandwich was a grilled cheese with tomato.

I spread two slices of Nature’s Pride Oatmeal bread with Miracle Whip, topped with tomato slices and two pieces of 2% provolone, then spread the outside with Smart Balance Light and pan-fried.

Yum! The husband took a big bite (I made him a pretty gourmet mini-pizza for his lunch) and declared it delicious.

We watched TV while we ate. Sidenote – has anyone seen the “Family Guy” or “American Dad” Chirstmas specials this year? I think Seth McFarlane has some holiday demons, yikes!

Back to work!

25Nov2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

by Emily

I hope everyone enjoyed their turkeys/tofurkeys and had a good day of family time!

We had a great holiday. We ate with a family friend who hosted the big meal at noon; it seemed a little odd to eat that early, but it was nice to have the rest of the day free.

Adam and I actually started off our day with a little activity; my grandparents live right off of a path so we walked over for a run. We covered 2miles total (in the rain!) and had a lot of fun.

We kept breakfast small because of our early meal.

A mixed bowl of Frosted Flakes and Blueberry Special K with berries,

and a small glass of oj.

Before I show you my lunch (Thanksgiving) plate, I should probably prewarn you – I hate Thanksgiving! I like the idea of being thankful and getting together with loved ones, but for all the foods I love, I pretty much hate the traditional Turkey Day fare. Which I suppose works out because I’m the only one who never leaves the meal feeling stuffed!

Sweet potato casserole, a roll, a deviled egg, marshmallow salad, corn casserole, and a bunch of green beans. Sans turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes I managed to put together a pretty good meal 🙂

The dessert table was gorgeous, but my pumpkin love affair doesn’t extend to pie!

I did eat a Halloween reject when we got home though.

In the afternoon we took my grandma to see “Love and Other Drugs.” It was funny and sweet, but *disclaimer* basically just one long sex scene! So, um, don’t take your grandma 😉 (she enjoyed it!)

Dinner’s feast was much more my scene.

Leftover salad from yesterday,

roasted red pepper and tomato soup,

and the best grilled cheese I’ve ever eaten.

Seriously. Pumpernickel rye bread spread with honey mustard, topped with 2 slices of extra sharp cheddar and spicy pickles, grilled on a skillet with a bit of butter.

Oh.my.god!

Dessert was a small slice of coffee cake.

Not gonna lie, I cut this slice out from the middle of the cake so I could get that big chunk of topping!

Good family, good food, good day.

Don’t forget, you have one more day to enter my giveaway.

24Nov2010

Tastes Like the Holidays

by Emily

Hello from Ohio! The drive was long, but I genuinely love every moment I get to spend with the husband so the six+ hours flew by! We’ve been having a great time with my family since we got here; not to make you jealous, but I kind of have the best grandparents ever 😉

Before we piled into the car we tried to make up our lack of sleep by stopping by Starbucks for some red cups.

There’s nothing I don’t love about holiday flavors/decorations at Starbucks! This was an Awake Tea Latte with skim milk and 1 pump of gingerbread syrup.

On our 1st stop I picked up a small string cheese.

And our 2nd gas stop lead us here –

Would the husband and I like to split a small, low-fat, eggnog milkshake with local ingredients? Yes, please!

This was so good! No offense Starbucks red cups, but this is how you start the holiday season off right!

We arrived at my grandparents’ house after lunch so I held myself over to dinner with an apple from my snack bag and a couple dark chocolate covered pretzels.

I made up a big batch of deviled eggs (our contribution to tomorrow’s meal) and snacked on an egg and an olive while I worked.

I also had several other nibbles that escaped the camera.

For dinner my grandma whipped up a feast.

Huge, tasty, healthy; we are treated like royalty here!

Salads with toasted walnuts, blue cheese, pear, and homemade cranberry dressing.

Chicken pot pie casserole with a puff pastry top (stuffed with broccoli, red pepper, onion, and water chestnuts).

And brussels sprouts with butter, lemon, and capers.

My grandma is an amazing cook and Adam and I couldn’t stop raving about how delicious everything was. I only stopped myself from taking seconds because I had already seen the dessert.

Oh yes, there was dessert.

Crumb topped apple pie with homemade butterscotch sauce.

Holy god. I left behind my crust (I hate crust) but other than that I practically licked my plate clean!

And then we spent the rest of the evening getting trounced in Euchre. ‘Twas fun.

We are heading to bed “early,” because I actually have to get up and work on Orgo tomorrow. Boo. Hope everyone has a happy holiday!

What food tastes like the holidays to you?

14Nov2010

Plug, Plug, Plug

by Emily

Is everyone having a good weekend? In spite of my vacation status I was actually super busy working all day, plugging away at my homework. I got a lot accomplished, but that’s not to say I didn’t have some fun too 😀

For breakfast I dug into the oatmeal packet stash I brought with me.

This wasn’t all that filling, but thankfully we ate on my niece’s schedule so lunch and dinner both came a bit earlier than usual.

After breakfast we all headed to the Y to watch my niece’s cheerleading practice; it was a ton of fun to watch the little girls be active. The lunch choice was less exciting, more fast food. I went with another grilled southwest chicken salad.

This just wasn’t as thrilling the second day in a row, I ended up leaving more leftovers than usual.

Normally I would be totally bummed to have to have McDonald’s twice in 2 days, but this definitely helped to soothe my pain –

You better believe Adam and I both spent some time on the jungle gym with our niece!

Honestly, all that crouching and climbing actually felt like a pretty good workout!

The fun continued with some bowling, but I had to pass in favor of being an uber-nerd…

Don’t judge the girl on her laptop in the bowling alley, I completed an important assignment!

Dinner took us to Adam’s favorite Mexican place on the planet. I’m less of a fan because the vegetarian options are lacking but he was so excited that it was worth it. I ate my fair share of chips and salsa.

And for my meal my vegetarian plate came with 1 chile relano, 1 cheese enchilada, and rice and beans.

It was basically a big plate of cheese. Yum/yuck! I demolished my chile relano but let the husband take home 1/2 of my enchilada and 2/3 of my beans and rice.

Normally I’d been all junked out after that dinner but Michael found me jalapeno poppers with cream cheese and there’s no way I was passing that action up.

Soooo worth my months’ long obsession with getting my hands on cream cheese jalapeno poppers!

I completed all of my assignments for one of my classes, I got to run around with my niece, and I got some ccjp; ’twas a great day 😀

What’s the strangest place you’ve ever worked? Shock me- bowling alley, poolside, a wedding?!

13Nov2010

We’re All Winners Here

by Emily

I got my baby back, and I don’t mean ribs! It feels so good to have my laptop back 😀 Although things aren’t quite back to normal……I’m blogging from Ohio!

The weekend worked with everyone’s schedules so we drove down to visit our in-laws and niece.

I was running around all morning like a crazy person trying to get things ready for our last-minute visit. Packing, loads of dishes, clearing out the trash, and more. I was so busy I didn’t even have time to eat. Reason #12679459 why I probably shouldn’t be a healthy living blogger – I didn’t have time to eat, but I did make time for this –

And time to set up to take a picture with my chin.

Priorities, people!

I came home in between classes this morning to pack, and thank goodness because this was on my doorstep –

Did you know I won a case of Chobani? If not you should probably start following me on Twitter. We had to write an ode to our favorite flavor and I cinched the win with this bit of prose –

I’m so excited to taste so many new (to me) flavors!

Adam picked me up from class this afternoon and we got on the road right away. The stretch of highway between here and Michael’s house is positively barren foodwise but I finally accepted that it would be McDonald’s or nothing. Thankfully I remembered that their salads are actually not bad.