Tag Archives: salad

Ending Sandwich Week with a Full Court Press

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Okey doke; It’s Friday night, I have a Modern Family and CSI to catch up on, and a husband waiting on the couch!

I had a ton of reading to do today before class so breakfast at home was a no-show.  I did however get all my reading done, and I learned a lot about nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners (with and without calories).  Because knowledge is power – The ADA says that

  • There is no definitive link between obesity and sweeteners alone
  • Your body knows no difference between sugars; an apple or a soda, the sugars are all processed the same (that’s not to say that the fiber, and nutrient piece doesn’t matter)
  • There is no proven link between sweeteners and hyperactivity in children,
  • but there is some evidence that suggests a link to depression
  • Stevia has yet to be approved by the FDA

I had just a few minutes after class to pick up my portfolio project (100%) and grab food before heading to a group meeting.

PB&J wasn’t the healthiest option, but it was the cheapest, and not the unhealthiest.

Hours later, when I got out of Anatomy all I could think about was going home.  I was hungry, tired, and cold and the last thing I wanted to do was go work out.  But I told myself if I went to the gym I could buy a cookie, so I did!

We are actually running in a 5k next weekend (what, another race I’m not prepared for!?!?) so I’m trying to be gentle to my legs this week; expect to see a lot of walking breaks on the treadmill.  Today’s workout was all about the intervals –

5minutes walking, 1 running, 1w, 2r, 1w, 3r, 1w, 4r, 1w, 5r, 1w, 5r, 5w.  So, 15minutes walking, 20minutes running, 35minute workout.

Adam picked me up from the gym and we spent forever driving around, accomplishing nothing.  Sometimes it’s nice just to be together.  Plus, we split some chewy Starbursts.

When we got home it was more than time for a salad.

I topped a bed of dressed spinach with craisins, blue cheese, and some almonds from Sahale Snacks.

Divine.

Since it’s the last day of Sandwich Week I decided to go out with a bang –

or a press rather; paninis!

Step 1 – Spread some thin sliced sourdough with dijon mustard and hot pepper peach preserves (or any kind of preserve really, you just want to give it a bit of sweet).

Step 2 – Add a few pieces of thin-sliced turkey.

Step 3 – Crumble on some blue cheese.

Step 4 – Top the cheese with some thinly sliced pear.

Finally – close and press.

This sandwich was fantabulous!  The texture of paninis always drives me wild and the combo of flavors was perfect; a bit spicy, a bit sweet, and bit salty.

Make this at home!  Send me pictures!

We’re going to go find a fountain diet coke and then cuddle up on the couch.  Have a great Friday night!

An In and Out Post

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Can I do 100 words or less?

We had a late dinner party to attend yesterday so I did some random snacking to tide me over until 9pm.

Two of our Russian friends provided a traditional ethnic feast.  My plate included potatoes with mushrooms, salad, and bellinis with caviar (omg, the caviar!).

The table also had liver and onions and tongue!!!

We didn’t get home until after 2am – I was the only non-drinker in the room – and even abstaining from alcohol couldn’t keep me feeling peppy today.  Let’s sum Sunday up with more random snacking.

Also picture and unphotographed glass of chocolate milk and several extra handfuls of peanuts.

Word Count – 111

Scotty Doesn’t Know

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We had an impromptu date night tonight; the husband called up another couple on a whim and invited them over for dinner and “Eurotrip” watching.  Actually, Michelle was feeling sick, but the boys and I whipped up a pretty good meal as a threesome!  (maybe we got in the cramming position…..clearly I’m still a bit delirious!)

Before that though, we made a few trips and finished all of our grocery shopping for the week.  Hunger final hit while in Target so I grabbed a single serving pita chips and red pepper hummus from the cafe.

De-lish-us!  I am continually impressed by Target. 

For dinner I made Chicken Cutlets with Fig Compote (recipe from Family Circle),

Adam made some roasted sweet potatoes,

and Patrick made a side salad.

We did good!  I took small servings because my cold has made my appetite all wonky.

And I still couldn’t even finish what I took, I left ~1-2bites of everything.

I didn’t actually fit in a stretch session, but we got in a pretty good workout of side-splitting laughter!  “Eurotrip” is one of my favorite movies; “here’s a fun fact – you made with your sister man!”  Actually, in order, my favorites are –

  1. Super Troopers
  2. Eurotrip
  3. The Hangover
  4. Knocked Up

I’m a bit of a guy in my entertainment choices 😉

We’ll say I worked up an appetite chuckling, because I did find room for dessert!

I’ve been waiting to make Rachel’s Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies since I bookmarked them months ago!

Mmmmn, you can’t go wrong with pumpkin and butterscotch and the texture of these was awesomely cakey.

Tomorrow morning I’ve got to get up early to go to a 5k Heart Walk, yikes!  I’m going as part of a service group I joined so I can’t bow out, let’s hope I’m feeling healthy in the morning.

Be honest, did I get “Scotty Doesn’t Know” stuck in your head?

Fall Fruit Panzanella, Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador Entry

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Panzanella is an Italian creation known as “bread salad.”  The savory dish typically involves tomatoes and summer vegetables.  I decided to put my own spin on it, and created a sweeter salad to showcase some fall fruits.

This recipe is for six servings, but can easily be multiplied for a larger crowd (or divided for a single serving).  The dish is lightly sweetened and can work as a heathy dessert or component of dinner or breakfast.

Fall Fruit Panzanella, serves 6

  • 6 slices Nature’s Pride 100% Whole Wheat bread
  • 6 Tbsp chopped walnuts
  • 6 Tbsp butter or butter substitute
  • 2 cups uniformly chopped pears – I recommend Bosc, but the mild Asian would work as well
  • 2 cups uniformly chopped apples – Honeycrisp, Gala, or any non-sour variety will do
  • 6 tsp brown sugar
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 pinches salt
  1. Lightly toast slices of bread.  Remove the crusts, and cube bread into small uniform pieces.  Each slice should yield approximately 20 cubes; it is easiest to stack the bread and cut all at once.
  2. In a skillet over medium heat, toast the chopped walnuts.  This should take 2-3 minutes; the walnuts are finished when you just start to smell them toasting.  Set aside the toasted walnuts.
  3. Reduce heat to low and melt the butter, swirling to coat the bottom of the skillet.
  4. Add chopped apples and pears to the melted butter.  Cook 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fruit has just started to soften.
  5. Add cubed bread to the fruit in the skillet.  Sprinkle in cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt and toss to coat everything evenly.
  6. Continue to cook the mixture, on low heat, for 1-2 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld.
  7. Remove panzenella from skillet and top with toasted walnuts.

Note – this recipe is my entry to be a Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador at the 2010 Foodbuzz Festival.

P.S. Voting for Project Food Blog opened today, please vote for me if you think I have what it takes – http://www.foodbuzz.com/project_food_blog/challenges/1/view/363

Holiday Dinner

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Today was an auspicious date – National Cheeseburger Day.

Or was that Cheeburger?

Cheeburger, Cheeburger seemed like the perfect spot to celebrate such an event.  Adam and I were both a little underwhelmed by the food (and service!) quality this evening, but the menu process is a lot of fun and his parents had a really good time.

I ordered the turkey burger platter for dinner, mostly because I needed to get in some veggies in the form of a side salad.

I split with Adam and served him most of the cheese, 90% of the balsamic vinegar, and all of the croutons.  Here is what I ate –

I actually looked at the menu ahead of time this afternoon, and the husband was so proud when I ordered my milkshake without a choices anxiety attack.

That’s a half-serving shake, cinnamon bun and marshmallow flavored, with skim milk substituted in.

The burger toppings were a bit more of a struggle.  I looked like I was cramming for the SAT when the waitress came to the table, but I ended up putting together something good.  Here is the platter –

My turkey burger,

which came topped with….

cheddar cheese, peanut butter, and jalapenos!  The rest of the table couldn’t believe my order but I thought the combination was great.  The different kinds of saltiness worked together well and the creaminess of the pb kept the peppers from being too spicy.  I ate two bites with the bun before I scrapped it, but I finished every last bite of the turkey patty and toppings.

Along with the side salad the platter also came with fries, which came with a side of creamy horseradish sauce.

I planned on eating 1 or 2 and sharing the rest, but no one else wanted any and when the piece de resistance came to the table I knew I was beat.

Nothing beats french fries drenched in malt vinegar.  I ended up eating about 1/3 of them.  All in all, especially given the location, I think I kept things pretty healthy.  Could have been better, but could have been worse too.

By the way; I just did this –

Wish us luck!

Gourmand on the Go

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I left the house more than 20 hours ago, good golly it’s been a full day!  Another clue that things were busy – 1o0% of my food was eaten on the go today.  I would say I’m definitely mastering the art of eating healthy on the fly.

This morning’s breakfast contained some pretty snazzy components –

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a chocolate Oikos, 3 dried figs, 1/4 cup of homemade granola, and a plucot.  Things got less fancy in a hurry when I had to load those guys into a to-go cup –

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Still delicious though.

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I didn’t have time to finish before my first class started so I had to throw out some of my stellar combo, but breakfast on the go is a work in progress.

Lunch was identical to the other day; Whole Grain Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle cheese wedge, and three slices of turkey.

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I hate to be repetitive but I see many more of this exact sandwich in my future; it’s just so good!  I thought I was going to hate the Arnold’s Sandwich Thins (I got them as a free sample from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program), but they are actually exquisitely doughy.  They remind me a lot of when I was a kid and a I would mush a piece of bread up into a single, delicious square.

I did mix up my side though, a sliced cuc.

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Classes were pretty intense; I finally attended my last nutrition lecture and it’s going to be a lot of work.  I’m taking 7 courses this semester (several are 1-credit labs) and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed.  As soon as classes were done today I curled up with my planner, binder, and a computer to map out my assignments for the semester.  Todoist was key.

I was stuck at school until 5pm (rain) so I ended up searching the food court for sustenance.  Thank goodness I gave it another chance, I found a build your own salad place.

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Romaine base, 2 servings of roasted veggies, green bell peppers, carrots, red onions, and blue cheese crumbles with a bit of balsamic.  It came topped with a tasty breadstick.

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We were only home a minute or two before we headed back out.  Our dinner plans were Korean night with a group of friends.

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Gleesh our friends are good cooks!  My bowl was sticky rice with carrots, cucumbers, kim chi, garlic paste, nori, and an egg.

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Yum!

Korean night eventually turned into boys’ only poker, and I sat on the couch catching up with the girls until after midnight.

Adam insisted on pizza on the way home (guess which one of use was drinking instead of driving?!) and I wanted to take part in the fun so I had him cut a slice in half for me.

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Tasty bbq chicken pizza, without undoing my day’s worth of healthiness.  I mostly wanted a taste anyways.

It’s another busy day tomorrow, Bedtime, Bedtime, Bedtime!

Have you ever tried Korean food?  What’s your favorite dish?

Cheeburger Cheeburger

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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

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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!