Tag Archives: salad

Cheeburger Cheeburger

by

When I was still living in Brooklyn, Missy wrote a post about an incredible burger place she frequented.  The menu was huge and you could choose as many things as you wanted from a long list of toppings.  But it was in Queens, and no one goes to Queens unless they live there, so I put it out of my mind.  Until today…

Wonder of wonders, Buffalo hosts something exciting: Cheeburger Cheeburger!

The location was small but the 50’s style decorations totally set the mood.

Plus the hostess offered to take my picture with the giant cheeseburger so it was pretty much a love affair from then on.

We were having dinner with Adam’s friend from the lab and her husband, so I was trying to pretend that I was cool, but who wouldn’t geek out at the sight of this –

It was all downhill from there, I actually clapped my hands when my shake was brought to the table.

I went with a half order (I forgot to request skim milk, boo) of amaretto, marshmallow, oreo.

Yuuuuuuuuuuum!  I agonized over the choices but I think this was a pretty good combination.  The amaretto flavor was pretty heavy though, when we go back again I might just get unadulterated marshmallow.

I’m going to be totally honest with you guys and cop to the fact that made my dinner selections before we even got there.  I read the menu like a novel (it’s practically that long!) and hemmed and hawed in front of my laptop in the privacy of my own living room.  My indecision is embarrassing enough at a normal restaurant, going to Cheeburger Cheeburger unprepared would have been disastrous.

I think I did a pretty good job of ordering in the end.

If nothing else I certainly took advantage of their ‘as many toppings as you like’ policy!  I went with a turkey burger patty on a salad with the following toppings –

  • banana peppers
  • dried cranberries
  • 2 onion rings
  • pineapple
  • roasted red pepper
  • grape tomatoes
  • mushrooms
  • artichoke hearts
  • red onion
  • black olives
  • chick peas
  • cucumber
  • jack/cheddar cheese
  • (there was also 1000island dressing on the side but I didn’t use it)

And by the time I was done with my shake and burger I was so full that I could only manage 3 little bites of my salad!

Worth it.  We packed up the salad for Adam’s lunch tomorrow and I thought that the turkey burger was divine so it all worked out.  I practically had to be rolled out of there though.

My goal bedtime is 11pm, ready – set – go!

If you went to Cheeburger Cheeburger what toppings would you order for your burger/salad?

Icing or Cake

by

This post comes from back in Buffalo.  We made it (mostly) in one piece.  More on that later though.

I want to preface this post with recognition of the fact that the husband and I eat very differently than the rest of his family.  Our preferences, nutrition goals, and food values are all very different.  This means that when we are with his family I have to weigh being rude or being a bother with eating in a way that makes me feel happy and healthy.  I try to satisfy myself in a healthy way and also not to offend anyone.  I did my best to balance both of those goals this weekend.

When we went to the store Friday night my brother-in-law did warn me that I needed to buy breakfast so I was more than prepared for that.  I got to try a couple of new things 😀  – – – Side note; walking through the yogurt aisle in his grocery store practically gave me an aneurism because I was so jealous of the immense Greek yogurt variety.  – – –  Like Fage 2% with blueberry.

I was so excited for this but I ended up being a bit disappointed.  It wasn’t terrible, but the blueberries had a weird bitter taste.  The strawberry Fage has such a great balance of sweetness and tang but it just didn’t work here.

I had much more success with Oat Revolution instant oats, cinnamon roll flavor.

The texture was way more complex that regular instant oats, definite upgrade!

Adam and I drove around with his brother helping to pick up things for the party but we also found time to play on the swing set with our niece.

Excuse the closed eyes, swinging as high as I could was glorious but sunny.  We swung for an hour which ended up feeling like a bit of a workout.  We also worked on handstands and cartwheels.  Just throwing it out there – my fitness goal for the next 4months is to be able to do a proper handstand and cartwheel again.

Lunch.

I grabbed two small slices of pizza with ranch and a little serving of pasta salad.

Our niece had an iCarly birthday cake.  I requested a tiny corner piece.

It ended up being mostly icing, which was exactly what I wanted!

Saturday evening the grandparents babysat and we went on a movie date with Adam’s brother and his wife.  We saw The Expendables which was adequately funny.  There are so many movies coming out that I’m excited about.  I packed a Toffee Chocolate Power Bar as my movie snack.

When we got home I ate another two small slices of pizza for dinner but they somehow escaped the camera.

This morning I started my day with a Yoplait Plain Greek Yogurt with a grape honey stick.

Everyone was in a hurry to get on the road but we did make time to go to the in-laws’ favorite spot for breakfast.  It was a buffet but sadly most of the options were meat based.  I ended up putting together a pretty good plate.

Veggies, scrambled eggs, and a biscuit with honey.  And a second plate full of fresh fruit.

Why, oh why was 90% of the fruit bar canned in heavy syrup?  I would have loved peaches or strawberries.

I had one final coupon to use so we stopped at McDonalds at lunchtime.  My coupon was for a premium salad so I got a Southwest Salad with grilled chicken.

I have a lot of issues with some of the offerings at McDonald’s so I wanted not to like this but I just can’t give this salad a bad review.  Honestly?  It was freaking amazing.

The lettuce was super fresh and the salad was loaded with black beans and roasted corn.  The dressing came from Newman’s Own and even if you did slop a lot on there were only 100calories in the pack.  The tortilla strips added crunch and the perfect amount of heat.  I was pretty much in love!  With grilled chicken (and the dressing packet) the salad came out to only 320calories, and it was very filling.  Even though I loved it I was so full that I only could finish ¾ of it.

Now we’ve made it safely home and I’m headed off to the grocery store.  That was supposed to be a Monday errand but instead I’ll be meeting the glass repair guys to deal with the giant crack that resulted when a rock kicked up by a truck (in the left lane like a jerk!) met our windshield.  Here is a question dear readers – do you have glass coverage included in your auto insurance?  Repair is going to be a hassle, but at least it’s free.  I highly recommend you check out your policy.  Fun fact – Adam was actually going to remove glass coverage from our policy on Friday, but while he was on the phone I told him not to.  Thank goodness!

Which do you prefer, the icing or the cake?  I’m an icing girl!  To the chagrin of classroom mothers, when I was a kid I would like the tops off of cupcakes and throw the rest away!

Oh, Canada

by

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?

I Am NYC Homesick

by

I had an amazing time at BlogHer, but it’s always great to be back to reliable internet home!  I hate to rush through a recap of a good time, but it’s after midnight and I did miss my husband!

If Thursday night was a healthy living fail, Friday night was a blogger fail – I forgot my camera!  We attended an art gallery at BlogHer and then walked down to Lexington Ave for some fabulous Thai food.  I stuffed myself silly 🙂  When Camile e-mails me her photos I’ll post some up later.

Saturday morning there was a long lull between breakfast and the first session so we decided to walk over ‘late’ and just pick up breakfast along the way.  I got a bagel with egg and turkey bacon, no cheese,

and a Zico coconut water.

Everything was super tasty but I knew the expo hall had samples waiting so I stuck with half of my bagel.

Later in the morning I sampled a new “dessert” line from Yoplait.

So good, I can’t wait until these come to Buffalo.

Lunch was vastly improved over the first day as well.

A bean salad with yellow raisins,

green beans,

and a small piece of salmon.

For dessert I grabbed a Jello Mousse Cup, also good.

Later in the afternoon I also snagged a blondie,

and a baggie of apple slices.

At 5, Camile and I met up with a group of bloggers for some green juice and a power walk.

[thanks for the group shots, Kath!]

I went with spinach, parsley, carrot.

I’ve been missing green juice like crazy since we moved to Buffalo, so this hit the spot!

We walked around Central Park for an hour or so, then hightailed it back to our hotel so we had time to make it back to converge with the group for dinner.

We went to Eatery, which was wonderful.

I ordered the Adobe Salad, which came with grilled chicken, smoked bacon, jack cheese, blue tortillas, black beans, buttermilk dressing, and honey chipotle dressing.

The honey chipotle was out of this world.  I ate about half of my salad in total.

We spent some time at the BlogHer Gala (mostly people watching and marveling at the mommy bloggers boogieing down) and then made the long walk back to our hotel.  To say we were delighted to find a Pinkberry mid-trip would be an understatement.

Just yum.

I got a small original (tart) froyo, topped with yogurt chips, coconut, and praline crunch.

OMG.

This morning Yelp turned up a brunch spot right down the road with tons of rave reviews, Penelope.  It was set up like a country kitchen and the eclectic touches abounded (the coffee cups didn’t match!).

It was too freaking adorable.

And my brunch was out of control.

FBLT – fakin’ bacon, avocado, lettuce, and tomato with black pepper balsamic mayo, served on sourdough with homemade french fries.

Delicious.  The mayo put it over the top.  It was monstrous too; I only ate a couple of fries but I still could only down 3/4 of the sandwich.

On the way out we stopped by the killer dessert case,

and 7.5hours in the car later I was splitting a peanut butter blondie with Adam.

During that 7.5hours I also consumed a Rockstar.

Camile had read about JP Bullfeathers on my blog and requested that for dinner.  I don’t know what is up with me and chicken fingers lately but I went with the buffalo chicken sub.

With blue cheese for dipping, duh.

I spent the rest of the evening showing the husband my swag.  Oh gosh, you guys, the swag!  I’ve decided I have a mildly unattractive level of excitement about the freebie coupons.  Could be a problem.

Do you have a favorite brunch spot in your neighborhood?

48hours of Fun

by

Aaaargh!  Two (FULL) days worth to recap?  I actually debated not writing this post but I’ve blogged every single eat since my 25th birthday and I’d like to keep that streak going.  I’m keeping this one pretty dry though.

-~-Sunday-~-   We did lots of sharing so my photos are more of a basic representation than a spot on accurate one.

We started with breakfast from Pano’s.

I ordered the Artichoke Omlette, which came with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, and a a touch of basil pesto.  I also requested that they add broccoli and only use half cheese, pepperjack, i.e. there is cheese on the top but not the middle.

With some hasbrowns,

and a slice of sourdough.

Delicious, but I couldn’t come close to finishing; we packed up the second half for the husband. 

By the way – our leftover situation this week was ridiculous, at one point our fridge had 8 to-go boxes in it!!!

We spent a looooong time at a nearby outlet mall, which was tiring but amazing.  At some point I ate this baggie of dried fruit (kiwi, apricot, hibiscus).

And we had to at least get appetizers at Cozumel’s.

Complimentary chips and salsa,

Maryland Blue Crab and Avocado Handrolls.

I love how Cozumel’s has healthified Mexican food; the rolls were not fried, contained no creaminess or cheese, were stuffed with sprouts, and were totally tasty.

My plate –

Dinner ended up being a bit of a fiasco, everything closes on Sunday here!  We drove around for hours looking for a place and the husband’s new phone came in totally handy.  In the end we headed to Jack Astor’s, which was the perfect choice.

We shared lobster and crab dip as an appetizer.

For my meal I ordered the chicken fajitas, which came with cheese, sour cream, onions and peppers, lettuce, salsa, and smokey bbq sauce.

I never order fajitas but assembling my own meal was totally fun.  I ate two fajitas and then packed the rest up to add to our to-go boxes.

-~-Monday-~-   We had to get up super early to take my parents to the airport (boo!) so Adam and I stopped at a bagel place on the way home and got a tomato pesto bagel with salmon shmear to share.

We also split the leftovers of my omlet from Sunday.

It was actually a pretty great breakfast.

I was starving (all day, it was insanely annoying) so I also finished off the rest of my chicken fingers from the other night.

The husband headed to work and I passed out.  I didn’t wake up until around 1 and then I spent the rest of the day sneezing.  It was out of control, I sneezed at least 50times yesterday!  I don’t know what allergy flared up but I felt like death warmed over and even had to skip a friend’s birthday party last night because I couldn’t control all the snot running down my face (gross, sorry!)!

Mid sneezes and tissues I did find time to eat a bunch of crap.  Strawberry yogurt bar from Lindt.

This came from the outlet store and rocked my socks.  It was a single serving (love) and was creamy, and tangy, and crunchy, and perfect.

A piece of whatever this is –

my parents brought it; sort of tastes like a dried crepe with sesame seeds?

An entire bag of chips!

A small piece of banana bread with Smart Balance Light.

Dinner was at least healthy (and epic).

I topped a small bed of lightly dressed spinach with roasted yellow beets,

purple tomatoes,

crumbled goat cheese,

and candied pecans.

OMG!

The combo was out of this world, yellow beets are 10x better than regular ones.

Oh, and I also had a bowl of SmartPop kettle corn.

-~-Today-~-   I’m not sure what the day holds.  I have a terrible case of grumpies for some reason.  I have a dinner I’m excited about cooking and a trip to the gym is definitely in order because I haven’t worked out in 2 days.  We shall see….

48hour recap = 4 reader questions

  1. Have you ever tried beets?  Yellow beets?
  2. What is your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
  3. What is your favorite flavor of Lindt truffle?
  4. Are you attending BlogHer this weekend?

Prioritizing

by

Today has been such fun!  It’s felt packed, but in the best way possible.  First things first, let me announce the CSN Stores giveaway winner –

Clare (#14) please send me an e-mail – emilyhwaxATgmail.com – so I can get you your prize.

This morning actually felt a little stressful; I way overslept and was trying to squeeze in lunch plans, a workout, apartment cleaning, showering, and being on time to pick my parents up from the airport.  I’m really proud of myself though because I made exercise a priority.  I realized that Katie wouldn’t be upset if I made our lunch date a maybe, and my parents wouldn’t care if the apartment was messy, but I would care if I skipped my run.  So I went!  And I ended up having time to (quickly) do everything else too.

I did cut my length though, which ended up being for the best because my calves were stupid tight.  I didn’t manage my times as much, just ran and walked whenever I needed to.  In the end I did ~1.6miles and 20minutes.

I kept my lunch date, and picked Katie up for a trip to Panera.

I did the half/half deal; half a strawberry, poppy seed, & chicken salad,

with half a turkey and artichoke pannini,

with an apple as my side.

The sandwich was gooey and crunchy and perfect but the salad was NOT good.  I ended up leaving 95% of my salad even though the other half of my tray was practically licked clean.

After dropping Katie off I went to the husband’s computer lab to print off airport directions; what, I’ve only lived in Buffalo a full year?!?  We had a fun time showing them the town, we hit up the mall, Target, Allentown, the Erie Marina, and finally had a fabulous dinner at Pearl Street Cafe.

There was a long wait so we went the bar so that my parents could try some of the microbrews.  I went the tall Johnny Walker Black and Coke route.

Drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk, drunk!  I did not eat enough today to functionally handle this big drink and the poor husband definitely dealt with me being a little loopy during dinner 😉

Foodwise my mommy and I split a small Chicken Cheddar Pizza.

It came with broccoli and black olives, a fantabulous combination.

I had this slice times 2 –

As well as a few big bites of Adam’s lobster ravioli.

It was a perfect “Welcome to Buffalo” dinner.

How do you make exercise a priority?

On the Move

by

Thanks for all the birthday wishes guys!  Even though it didn’t feel very celebratory, I ended up having a pretty good 25th birthday; I like things low-key.  We are 99.9% moved but the last two days have been H-A-R-D!  We did everything but the kitchen yesterday, the kitchen today, and our pictures need to be hung sometime this week.

I must have been nervous/excited because I slept maybe 40minutes Friday night.  I actually got out of bed at 3:40am to take a shower.  Our U-Haul pick-up was at 7am so it was an early morning.  Don’t we look excited?

I did manage to have a pretty good breakfast though.

Fage with Strawberry,

and some blueberries (I didn’t eat the whole pint, but I didn’t want to diry a bowl to put them in).

And I even managed some birthday flare – glitter painted nails.

We were 100% focused on moving so breakfast ended up having to hold me over until late evening.  I did grab a few chunks of watermelon mid-morning though.

And I drank this G-2 throughout the day.

Moving was a serious workout and the husband and I were both sweating bullets so we knew we’d need to replenish some electrolytes.

We moved and we moved and then we moved so more.  Then finally (8pm!) it was time for dinner.  It was my birthday so we got a little gussied.

But after some rain, and some raising of fists to the sky and proclaiming that it shouldn’t rain on birthdays, we moved the party to Cheesecake Factory.

There was a 60minute wait (keep in mind that we last ate at 8am) so we found our way to the bar.  I got a passionfruit mojito because it was made with Cruzan rum.

And then I was drunk.  The combo of not sleeping, not eating, busting my butt all day, and then booze was just too much for me, I could barely keep my eyes open at the table!

We finally got seated and Adam and I practically cheered when the bread basket was brought to the table.

He also shared one of his avocado eggrolls with me.

Dinner –

I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich,

with a green salad on the side.

At that point I was too tired to be very hungry, so I ate all of my salad but only 1/3 of my sandwich.  But what’s a birthday without (cheese)cake?

We got the caramel pecan turtle cheesecake to split.

It was tasty but too much, I took 3 bites and wrapped the rest up for Adam.  Bed never felt so good!

This morning I took a walk in search of breakfast.  The co-op is only .9miles from my new apartment, this could be dangerous!  Sadly the co-op wasn’t exactly bursting with fruit that didn’t require a utensil so I headed to Starbucks.  It might be baby food, but it’s still fruit!

I also got an egg white, spinach, and feta wrap.

Again today we were too busy for lunch, but I did grab some chocolate chip cookies (baked fresh for the husband prior to the move).

The only real snafu in the move so far is that when I turned on my oven to make dinner this evening the fire alarms went off.  Fun fact: the alarms in our apartment are electronic so taking out the battery doesn’t shut them up 😦 We turned it on twice and both times there was no smoke but still deafening noise.  We called to have it taken care of tomorrow and I plopped my “oven roasted” asparagus into a pan to cook on the stove.

I also ate the rest of my buffalo chicken sandwich (with blue cheese dressing).

Not a bad dinner at all.

We don’t have internet set up yet so the husband dropped me off at the Spot so I could blog.  We should be getting it hooked up on Tuesday but I’ll be checking in sporadically until then.  Be on the look out tomorrow for pictures of the new apartment and a giveaway!

What’s the worst moving snafu you’ve encountered?  Last year our BUDGET (hate them) truck leaked and ruined our matress, but other than that we’ve been pretty lucky.

You’re Like School In Summer*

by

*A hypothetical, cracking wise, unseen you; obviously, my blog readers have loads of class!

I did, however, spend this summer day at school.  And I don’t mean online class school – which I’ve been heavily slacking off in, remind me to buckle down please? – I mean literal, classrooms, 18-year-old-make-make-me-feel-very-old students, school.  Yes, today was Transfer Orientation Day.

I’m not going to bore you with the whole recap, but the very exciting points are –

  • I’m not the oldest person in my major; many people seem to be my age and I’m even younger than a few!
  • I think I’m going to adore most of my classmates, Dietetics seems like a fun group.
  • Our program director recognized me.
  • I am so excited to head back in the fall!

I don’t really do the stale donut thing so I packed a Chocolate Chip Brownie Lara Bar sample for breakfast.

Fab-u-lous!  Best damn brownie I’ve ever had, granted, I hate brownies 🙂

Lunch was buffet style and I filled up a pretty good looking plate –

Aaaaand then the fire alarm went off and they evacuated us, which meant I threw most of my uneaten lunch in the trash.  I ate most of the salad and veggies, all of the watermelon, a bite of the macaroni, and none of the cupcake.

He husband dropped me off in the morning, so when orientation finally let out (it was fun, but 8am – 2:30pm, really?) I set off on my 2.5mile walk home.  Once we move I won’t be able to count my to/from school trips as incidental exercise any more since it is a gloriously short 8minute walk to BSC from our new apartment!

I’ve been doing some organizing but my lack of  a full lunch finally forced me to settle down for a snack.  I went with a sundae of sorts.

A container of Pomegranate Passionfruit Siggis yogurt, a little bit of homemade key lime pie ice cream, blackberry topping, and some graham cracker crumble.

I’ve got a super random dinner that I’m quite excited for, I’ll see you then!

What was/is your favorite thing about YOUR college?