Tag Archives: salad

Tastes Tropical

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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.

Holiday Dishes and Demons

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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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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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.

Tastes Like the Holidays

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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?

Plug, Plug, Plug

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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?!

We’re All Winners Here

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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.

I got the Southwest salad with grilled chicken and was totally pleased.

My late lunch held me over well and I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer or I would have gnawed my arm off by dinner time.

The plan was to see a movie tonight so dinner came from a mall food court.  I ended up managing to find a pretty nice little natural burger spot.

I ordered a non-cow (veggie) burger with pickles and bbq sauce.

Nothing gourmet, but it was the best food court meal I’ve ever had.  The pickles were thick cut and fantastically crunchy.

During the movie Adam and I split this box of Crazy Core Skittles.

And the movie?  We saw “Skyline” which I can only describe in one word – no.  Just no, it was baaaaaaaad, please don’t subject yourself to it!

Finally, the winners of my Terra giveaway, via a random integer generator –

Congrats to Paige (#1), Monica (#12), Erin (#23), Katie (#24), and Kristy (#27).  E-mail me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) with your address guys!

I’m so glad to be back blogging! ❤

Happy Halloween

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We haven’t done loads of studying (I have another test on Friday), but it has been a good day.  Besides, Halloween is about eating loads of crap, and I’ve done that!

Have you ever had Halloween oats?

This was actually my first attempt at making a double batch – I’m doing something very fun with the second bowl tomorrow! – and I think it went well.  For two bowls I stovetop cooked 2/3 cup oats, 1 & 1/3 cup liquids (a mix of skim milk, unsweetened Silk almond milk, and water), 1 banana, and a pinch of salt.  And then in honor of Halloween I topped today’s bowl with the last vegan pumpkin pecan blondie.

Delish!

Brunch/the first half of lunch were turkey corn dogs from Jimmy Dean.

And then I brought out of my salad leftovers from last night.

A little soggy, but still good!

I also split a bag of cheetos with the husband.

And what’s the 31st without candy?

Mmmmn!

Have you eaten any Halloween candy yet today?

Spooky Saturday

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It’s been a full and fabulous day!  A race, some shopping, good eats, going out with friends; yup, it was pretty perfect!

Our morning started bright and healthy with the Jack O’ Lantern 5k.

The course looped 3.1 miles around Goat Island (Niagara Falls) and was beautiful.

I split a Cliff Crunchy granola bar with the husband on the drive up.

Today’s race had everything going against it – I had to run alone (Katie had to back out at the last minute and the husband wanted to actually run), the lack of bathrooms meant my full bladder bothered me the entire course, I was slow as all get out, and it was frigid out.

But you know what?  Even a terrible run is still a great one!

I don’t know my exact time but, it was something less than 31:20, I’ll take it!  I was terrified of coming in last (ask me to tell you that story sometime!) but I ended up only coming in behind 75% of the racers.

We hit up the food tent afterwards – Adam housed at least two sandwiches – and I ended up eating part of an ice pop.

I didn’t really it get it together to eat a real meal after that and my hunger ended up hitting hard later in the day.  The husband requested a pumpkin chocolate milkshake (he’s a genius!) and I did take a few sips of that before we headed to the grocery.

Adam had to go into the lab in the afternoon so I went with him and did some school-work.  I packed a snack for while I studied.

Apple slices and baby carrots dipped in a serving of sun butter.

Unfortunately this was around the time my hunger hit and I ended up not getting much work done.

Afterwards we headed to the mall to pick up a few things.  We must have done at least 4 full loops of the mall and by the time we stopped at Cheesecake Factory I was ready for diner!

Bread, x2 with butter. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, I don’t know why CF is always so darn dim!)

I ordered off of the appetizer menu for dinner and my salad was still huge!

The Fresh Vegetable Salad – Asparagus, Green Beans, Tomato, Cucumber, Roasted Beets, Apple, Edamame, Radicchio, Romaine and White Cheddar All Chopped with Pomegranate Vinaigrette.  I subbed in spicy peanut vinaigrette for my dressing, which somehow also got me edamame; score!

This is sooooooooo good.  <– That’s what I said to Adam at least 10 times during dinner 🙂  Huge as it was, I still managed to finish 2/3 of it.  I have a nice takeout container for lunch tomorrow as well.

I stole a few of Adam’s french fries too.

After we got home a couple of friends came over and we hung out for a bit before heading out to some nearby bars to check out people’s costumes.  We had a lot of fun, but I didn’t bring my camera so you’ll have to take my word for it – I’ll show you my “costume” tomorrow!

While we were out, Adam and I split a Woodchuck Cider.  And once home I ate part of a vegan pumpkin pecan blondie.

What a day, what a day.