Tag Archives: sandwich

I Made Coq Au Vin!

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What a day; I’ve been a busy bee since literally the minute I got out of bed!  I realize I didn’t do anything major – and most of you have jobs – but lots of little things added up and I feel accomplished and exhausted.  I don’t loving doing one long post a day but that will probably have to be the schedule once school starts anyway.

I had a scary doctor’s appointment across town this morning which meant I got to drive along the water.

I also got to eat breakfast in the car, in the form of an 18 Rabbits Cheeky Cherry Chocolate Granola Bar.

This was awesome; the perfect amount of chew with a little bit of tang from the cherries and a little bit of sweet from the chocolate.  Plus for 240 calories this was very filling.  I know I live for Cookie Dough Balance Bars and Chocolate Coconut Covered Lara Bars, but when it comes to straight up granola bars 18 Rabbits takes the cake oat.

My doctor’s appointment wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t as scary as it could have been.  I had a bump on my hand that needed a biopsy so 2 needles, 1 scalpel, and a band-aid later I was done.

It hurts a bit, but felt a little better once I could get home and pretty it up.

Did you know we only have children’s band-aids in our apartment?  I’m going to hit up a drug store tomorrow but Adam’s going to have to wash my hair tonight because those cuties are not water-tight.

On the way home I stopped at the gym to complete a workout session for the study I’m participating in.  We fuel with three different drinks and then walk on the treadmill for and hour at our heart rate range and take some notes on exertion levels.  Today I fueled with this 24 oz mystery beverage that I believe was water and apple juice.

I walked on the treadmill at a 5% incline for an hour and 2.9 miles.

I had to hurry to shower when I got home because I was meeting friends, but I was heading back to the gym after lunch.  It was the perfect time to try out the Champion tank every blogger’s been raving about.

I picked this up at Target the other day and I’m in love.  You know I’m all about the blouse-tank.

This may be my new favorite top for play and workouts; it was so comfy.  Plus, two different homeless guys stopped me to tell me I looked hot, so I’m giving this two thumbs up.

For lunch I met up with a few school friends at Coles.  It was so great getting a chance to catch up with a few people I haven’t seen all summer.  I ordered off of the specials menu.

A sandwich of grilled salmon in a sweet glaze with pickled veggies, and french fries.

This was okay, but the sauce was oddly sweet.  The best part was actually the spicy mayo which wasn’t even mentioned on the menu.  I ate about 2/3 of everything.

After lunch I headed back to the gym for my real workout: a running session on the treadmill.  It was pretty hard (being fat isn’t fun!) but I made myself stick to the same goal as Sunday of minimum 5 minutes running, maximum 2 minutes walking.  I did 4 miles in 42 minutes, 22 seconds.  Seven miles in one day probably wasn’t my best idea though, my back is killing me.

I was starving when I got home and dinner took for-ev-a so I ate a few snacks while I cooked.  Watermelon chunks stolen straight from the big container.

And two servings of Trolli Soda Poppers.

P.S. These aren’t bad, but they’re no gummi cola bottles.

1.5 hours later – seriously – it was time for dinner.  I made Coq au Vin!

Casey (who I had an obsessive girl crush on) made this during Top Chef and I’ve wanted to try it ever since.  I used Cooking Light’s Easy Coq au Vin recipe and my only changes were subbing in turkey bacon and using chicken breast instead of thighs and drums.

This was very good, but I’m not sure it was quite good enough to excuse the long cooking time; we’ll have to see how it does as leftovers.  At least the multiple sessions of simmering gave me time to handle my to-do’s around the house.

For my greens I made a tasty side salad.

A romaine base with Newman’s Own Light Cesar, roasted edamame, and roasted buckwheat groats.

The groats might be too savory for yogurt but I think they’re my new favorite salad topper.

I’d like to say I’m going to bed now but Adam’s still not home and I can’t wash my own hair.  But since my husband’s been at the hospital for upwards of 12 hours I guess it’s hard to complain about my day!

Change Up Your Plans

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One good turn deserves another, so we started our day with more booze.

With my Brewfast stamp still fresh on my hand, natch.

Drinks two days in a row, or martinis any day, is usually not my style, but we were at a well-known martini bar and when in Rome.  Adam and I just had to split the Pineapple Upside-down Cake, vanilla Smirnoff shaken with grenadine and pineapple juice and topped with a cherry.

It was delicious and totally fun to try something new.

Adam and I met up at Cecelia’s Ristorante with our friend Danielle for brunch around 11.  Adam and Danielle have both had martinis at Cecelia’s before and were total fans but today we wanted to check out the food.  Sadly, brunch is apparently only a Sunday thing but since it was lunch time at that point anyways it was probably just as well.

The husband and I both got the Hickory Smoked Pulled Chicken sandwich.

3 hour smoked whole chicken pulled off the bone, Carolina red sauce and homemade cole slaw.  With a side of homemade butter pickles.

Not as good as THE sandwich from Taste of Buffalo, but still pretty darn good.  The chicken was nice and soft and the Carolina red sauce was sweet and smokey; plus cole slaw on a sandwich is always a win.  I practically licked my plate clean.

The next this on the agenda was a work out which was supposed to be easy but of course it wasn’t.  I’m participating in a fueling study through my Department (which basically involves walking on the treadmill for an hour and taking some notes) and I ran into some issues.  Heres how my workout ended up actually going –

  • walk from home to the gym
  • spend 5 minutes on the treadmill figuring out that I couldn’t do the study today
  • walk from the gym to home to put the special drink for the study back in the fridge
  • work up a sweat getting annoyed about missing a workout
  • walk 2 miles to the tennis courts where Adam was playing with friends
  • spend 45 minutes getting a lesson in tennis basics

We bought me a cheapie racket recently and I’m so excited to get to play tennis with the husband!  I’m bad, but not as bad as we’d thought I’d be, and our lesson today was a ton of fun.  He totally kicked my butt.  [We also kicked my knee’s butt but I’m icing as I type and keeping my fingers crossed.]

After a quick shower we headed to the mall and I refueled with ice cream.

These Friendly’s mini take-home sundaes are seriously to die for, I was basically in heaven.  This had 340 calories and it was sooo worth it.

We were headed to the mall so I could cash in my birthday gift from my parents, new running shoes.  I’m super excited to take them for a spin tomorrow.  My parents also told us to take their credit card to a movie so we took in a showing of “The Change Up.”  Hy-STARE-icle!  No “Friends With Benefits” but definitely laugh-worthy.  Also definitely worth getting home at 10pm without dinner.  We just ordered a large pizza, which I plan on devouring and blogging about in the morning.  G’night!

Courageous

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Hello, hello!  I’m not sure how it’s become Thursday, but it all feels very sudden.  Probably because I haven’t had a whole lot on my agenda this week.  I’m excited to have a bunch of to-do’s to tackle in the remaining month before school.

I didn’t make dinner (or blog) last night because I got hit with another migraine.  I don’t get them all the often any more but when I am struck it seems to happen in sets.  I took medicine in time to still have an evening, but our dinner plans were ruined.  Instead we got take-out.

That’s a buffalo chicken sub and french fries from Jim’s Steak-Out.

I also ate half of a Rollo McFlurry, but the pic is on Adam’s cell phone and he’s not home.  I’ve been obsessing over these ever since I saw them advertised last month, but it ended up only being ok.  I love caramel, but vanilla ice cream just doesn’t do it for me.

Fast-forward to this morning when I enjoyed a bowl of Fiber Plus Caramel Pecan Crunch with skim milk.

For lunch I decided to try these Soy Boy Okra Courage Burgers I’ve had in my freezer for months.

I tried mine toasted, on a bun with a slice of sharp cheddar and a drizzle of ketchup.

I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.  The nutrition stats (130 calories and 13 grams of protein per patty) are great but the flavor didn’t blow my mind.  I think I’d like to try one on something less bready before I make an official decision.

I did love pile of roasted green beans I had on the side.

It’s official: roasted green beans win the Emily’s Favorite Veggie award.  I’m also in love this new plate I got at Anthropologie on my birthday.

I’m keeping the afternoon low-key (ie watching tons of “Charmed”), but at some point I am going to finish making my #tgfa cookie balls so I can mail them out to the winner tomorrow.  I’d also like to make that dinner, but let’s not write anything in stone! 😀

What is your favorite veggie?  Roasted green beans top my list, but eaten straight-up I’m obsessed with baby carrots.

Easy Eats

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I accomplished so much yesterday that today was actually a bit boring.  I’ll take it though.  And I’ll definitely take the fact that I had to skip today’s workout because my abs were so sore from yesterday’s 90 minute hot yoga session.  Whoop!

Breakfast was easy and summer-y.

1.5 servings of cinnamon Puffins, .5 serving of oats and honey Bear Naked Granola (which is like a Tbsp, seriously?!), chopped plum and white apricot, and skim milk.

For a mid-morning snack I measured out 2 servings of the peanut brittle popcorn my in-laws gave me for my birthday.

This stuff might be dangerous.

Lunch looked borning.

But looks can be deciving.  That’s not pb & j.

That’s a mini kaiser roll topped with Nutty Guys honey roasted peanut butter, crushed up honey wheat pretzels, and a drizzle of honey.

And what goes with a peanut butter (pretzel, honey) sandwich better than milk?

In my fabulous new glass from Anthropologie.

Milk also goes well with cookies.

But those aren’t for me (though I did eat a few cookie’s worth of dough!), I baked them up for The Great Fundraising Act.

Instead of cookies, Adam and I snacked on hummus this afternoon.

Not just any hummus though, Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus that I got to try for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program.

Usually I’m too cheap to buy hummus because you can make it easily at home, but I think it’s time to update my policy!  Adam and I both thought this was delicious; creamy with a great roasted flavor.  The pine nut was a great new twist, though Adam thought it wasn’t as zesty as the garlic variety we used to buy.  Plus at 80 calories per 2 Tbsp serving it’s a nutritional steal.

I ate my serving(s) with some baby carrots.

Keeping up the easy eats theme of the day, dinner was leftovers.

I piled the steamed collard greens, millet, and baingan bharta into one bowl, topped with tons of Sriracha.

Easy, like your mother.  Ba dum ching!

Vacation At Home

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Some people find that having visitors is stressful, but I think it gives you a great opportunity to be a tourist in your own city.  It does help that my visitors are my (funny, easy-going) parents and they pay for everything!  When you have guests it’s like you get to take a vacation at home because they force you to view your city with fresh eyes.

Let me tell you though, vacationing at home can be exhausting! We’ve been falling into bed after 1 am every night and this post is two days in one because I just couldn’t make myself sit down at the computer before bed last night.  Even with double content I’ve got to keep this quick because otherwise it’ll be another post-1 am bedtime and my parents leave early tomorrow.

Tuesday morning started with a very unvacation-like trip to the orthodontist.  But then I took my parents to breakfast at Sweetness 7 Cafe.

S7C is a totally adorable coffee and crepes place; I plan on bringing a good book and camping out for the day eating crepes very soon.

I ordered an iced black tea,

and my parents and I split 2 crepes 3 ways.

Kiss Me I’m Irish – plain crepes with syrup and a cracked fried egg in the center.

Irish Blessing – caramelized fresh apples with melted brie.

Apparently we went Irish for breakfast, and the choice served us well.  I don’t have much experience for comparison but these are the best crepes I’ve ever had; so eggy!

After breakfast we walked a third of the loop around Delaware Park so my parents could see the Buffalos.

I continued to get my sweat on by taking advantage of their hotel gym while they got ready for the day.  30 minutes on the elliptical at random level 6.  It was amazing to have access to a tv at the gym, especially because I was the only one in there and I could control the remote.

Our next activity was a trip to the Albright Knox Gallery.

I wanted to snap a picture of practically everything, but I controlled myself and stuck to a few favorites.

The first day with a new set of retainers is always super painful so I went with a liquid lunch.

A Vega Vanilla-Almonde Shake and Go Smoothie packet that I grabbed from the co-op on a whim.  The flavor was good but not great, and this didn’t do an awesome job of sating my hunger, but I was definitely pleased with this –

And it’s just as well that I was left a bit hungry, because my best meal of the year was coming for dinner.  Don’t let the pictures fool you (why are restaurants always so darn dark?!), Scotch and Sirloin is basically a must-go!  I never would have ventured there if it hadn’t been for Groupon, but I am so glad that I crossed my fingers and bought the deal.

Adam and I split a bowl of crab bisque to start.

I also got a plate from the salad bar.

Romaine with mushrooms, artichokes, cucumber and French dressing.  Plus a slice of the best bread I’ve had since Great Harvest, super duper doughy.

For dinner my dad and I split the two best things on the menu: Fried shrimp,

and the double lobster tail with drawn butter.

Like butter dipped in butter!  We were so impressed with this meal, I can’t even tell you.  I ended up eating three fried shrimp,

most of one lobster tail,

and all of the veggies.

For dessert we ended up at a candy shop on Elmwood with an ice cream counter.

I went with Ciao Bella Gelato, a half scoop each of key lime pie and malted milk ball flavors.

Fashion note – How cute is the back of this shirt?!

I actually bought this years ago in college but it has a strange, unflattering band around the waist so I’d worn it maybe once or twice.  I can’t believe it took me so long to think of pairing it with a high-waisted skirt.

We sat outside of The Spot to eat our ice cream and I also drank a small, non-fat, iced Chai.

– – – Insert time (not enough!) to sleep. – – –

I picked my parents up bright and early this morning for breakfast at Panos.  I got the 2-2-2; french toast, sunny side up eggs, and hash browns.

I ended up eating one egg, 1 piece (1 half slice) of french toast, and all of my potatoes.  The amount of leftover food was a little annoying considering I ate exactly the portion of the 1-1-1 – from the kids’ menu – that they wouldn’t let me order.  However, after taking a bite of my dad’s blueberry pancakes I decided that Pano’s can do no wrong and a little wasted food isn’t a big deal.

Coffee #1 of the day was a tall iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

Did I mention that I’m exhausted?

My parents are sleeping at our apartment tonight so I took advantage of their gym one last time before they checked out.  10 minutes of walking on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical.  I also carried both of my parents’ suitcases up our three flights of stairs and I’d like to count that as strength training!

Our big activity for the last vacation day was a long walk down Elmwood.  We stopped in to basically every store and I definitely discovered a few hidden gems.

Mid-afternoon we grabbed lunch from the Globe Market.

1/4 lb each peanut noodles and Thai vegetable salad.

Meh.  It wasn’t terrible but I’m honestly not a big fan of Globe.

Whether due to hunger or exhaustion or increased physical activity, hunger hit me hard this afternoon. We ran a bunch of random errands and during that time Adam and I split some new flavors of candy,

and I drank a chocolate milk.

Dinner at Chester’s Cajun Grill was a meal Adam and I had been looking forward to ever since we tried the Smoked Bourbon Chicken Sandwich at the Taste of Buffalo.  Of course we had to get the sandwich.

It wasn’t good!!  I can’t even tell you how said this made us.  It wasn’t terrible, but we could only rate it a 5/10 and the sandwich we tried at the festival was a 9.5/10.  I ate most of my meal but only because I was hungry; even the fries were pretty tasteless.

Thank goodness we had good company.  We ended our evening with a final trip to the Spot to sit and talk; we are going to miss my parents so much when they fly home tomorrow!  Coffee #2 – a grande, iced Americano with skim milk and two sugars – was actually consumed at 11 pm so I could make it through this post.

And I’m done; phew!

Treat Upon Treat

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Is it okay if I start every post this week with “phew?”  Having visitors is the best kind of exhausting fun.  Especially exhausting if those visitors are my parents and we aren’t just counting the hours until they leave!  My mom, dad, Adam and I always have the best time exploring.  Adam and I aren’t technically on vacation, but we sure ate like we were.

My eyes shut way past 1 am last night and picking my parents up this morning felt like a total feat.  Iced coffee (Wegman’s version of Jamaican Me Crazy, with skim milk) was necessary.

I also split a poppy seed bagel with cream cheese with my dad.

Wegman’s bakery never fails to impress; the bagels were the freshest of fresh and this was so chewy and good.

I made dinner at our apartment tonight and I took my parents on the tour de Wegmans while we picked up the necessary provisions.  When you live on St. Thomas, stateside grocery stores are seriously exciting.

I ate an apple en route to our main activity for the day,

the outlet mall!  Niagara has the best outlet mall ever, with deals from Coach and Juicy Couture to Banana Republic and J. Crew.  We stuck more with the 2nd two, since Adam and I were on a mission to get (affordable) professional clothing for this year.  We both will be working in the hospitals and we both need to step up our wardrobes from last year.  I’ll have to take pictures of my outfits on internship days this semester, apparently I’m making this the year of grey pants!

We stopped by the Lindt outlet and we all picked a piece of candy to try.

I went with this guy, who was stuffed with hazelnut cream and marzipan.

Around lunch-time I took a few bites of my parents’ Teriyaki chicken from the food court.

But I had my eye on another prize.

A Ben and Jerry’s location?!  With several “scoop shop only” flavors?!  Gah!  I got a kid’s cup with Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz and Coconut 7-Layer Bar.

Ah-mazing.  Our freezer makes everything that isn’t single-serve icy and crappy and it was so exciting to get ice-cream that was “fresh.”  I gleefully told Adam (several times) that it was like Ben and Jerry’s fresh off the vine!  Sidenote – when I say things like that sometimes I can see Adam grimace in physical pain over how fat and dorky I am.

Our next stop was to Hertel Ave to check out the Italian Festival.

So fun.  And a lot bigger than I was expecting; it felt like we just kept walking.  We saw several fun treats,

but headed home for food since dinner was already in the crock-pot.  I made my parents pulled chicken with my 1000 Island BBQ Sauce,

corn on the cob,

and tossed salad with romaine, walnuts, baby carrots, and sun-dried tomatoes.

Such a yummy summer meal.

These pulled chicken sandwiches (with homemade bbq sauce natch!) are my favorite thing we make.

I topped my side salad with Newman’s Own Lite Caesar dressing and wheat germ.

I grew up eating wheat germ on salad and I think I need to get back in the habit, it makes the best topper.

We were all stuffed after dinner so we took a walk before dessert.  I drank a Moroccan Mint iced tea from The Spot but I forgot my camera and my glass was sucked dry before we got home.  However, if you are at The Spot this summer definitely get the Moroccan Mint, just brewed and served over ice it actually tastes sweet.

Not as sweet as goodies from the Italian Festival though.

I ate the butt end of a delicious eclair.

What a way to end the day!

Adam has school tomorrow so my parents and I might have a more low-key day.  We’ll still have fun on our own of course, but maybe I can give my feet a rest.

Tastes So Good Makes A Grown Man Cry

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It’s summer!  I know that’s been official for a while, but the tasty produce available here has me absolutely convinced.

I know it’s late afternoon, and not morning, but my first meal of the day was not eaten until after 1pm because apparently I’m having a lazy day.  I also know that it’s Thursday, not Wednesday.  We got some news yesterday and I took the day off of blogging in lieu of family time.  And speaking of family time, my parents are coming this weekend!

Ok, enough segues, lunch.

1.5 oz of Cabot 50% reduced white cheddar cheese and a schmear of Crofter’s grape fruit spread on sourdough.  Jam and cheese make the perfect sandwich combo.

For dessert, a huge bowl of local cherries from the co-op.

As I said, summer is here!

Taste of Buffalo

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It’s been a fabulous Saturday!  It’s always great spending time with the husband (he’ll have most weekends off during this section of his clerkship) but it was nice to have fun activities to do as well.

After yoga I had to shower, go to the campus library to do some printing, go to the post office, and go to the bank before I could get my hands on some food.  Thank goodness our first fun activity was the Taste of Buffalo, a food festival with offerings from all the local restaurants.

We bought 30 tickets (ie spent $15) and we’re very impressed with what we were able to get on such a cheap date. 

Buffalo natives – if you haven’t been yet please keep in mind that Adam used more than half of our tickets so my food eaten isn’t totally representative of $7.50 spent.

P.S. I need to be honest about what a fatty dork I am; I printed off the menu from the website and arrived at the festival with a circled, highlighted list –

Adam and I shared and I ended up with many fun bites.  One bite of fried cheese ravioli from Cecelia’s.

One tiny bourbon glazed shrimp from The Grill at the Dome, which was the biggest waste of money of the day.

A small glass of berry chai smoothie that Lipton was handing out for free.  This free sample was actually the 2nd best thing I had all day!

Adam and I split this smoked bourbon chicken sandwich from Chester’s Cajun grill and it was the #1 favorite for both of us.

Half of a gourmet watermelon popsicle from Sweet Melody.  This was delicious and I wish I could have downed the whole thing but it was just too drippy.

Among other things the husband also tried catfish nuggets and a huge cup of Cuban roasted pork.  We definitely discovered a few restaurants that we want to go check out.

We parked near our old apartment and walked to the fair which meant we got in a little more than 2 miles in total wandering.  It was just hot enough that stopping at The Spot for a diet pop on the walk back was pretty damn exciting.

As we talked about our favorite bites we realized that I hadn’t actually gotten all that much to eat (Adam was stuffed!), so I grabbed hot bar when we were picking up groceries.

Peak of season delicious watermelon and pineapple,

plus a random assortment of veggies.

During our downtime this afternoon I also snacked on a serving of coffee ice cream with blueberries and chocolate syrup.

You wouldn’t expect that combo to work but it totally did.

Dinner was also an expected win.

Breaded buffalo chicken – Marinate.  Roll in panko.  Bake at 350* for 38 minutes.  Eat dipped in blue cheese dressing.

Plus asparagus that we threw into the oven during the chicken’s last 20 minutes.

The chicken was taken totally over the top thanks to a sample of KC Masterpiece Buffalo Marinade from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

I always forget how much marinating does for the texture of chicken, it was like butter!  The marinade itself was tasty too, a nice vinegary buffalo without an excess of spice.

For our evening entertainment we cashed in a Groupon for a Broadway light show at the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium (conveniently located on my campus).

I really don’t want to share my opinion because Adam and I actually hate most musicals, which obviously colors our review.  I will say that the show was not the most exciting hour I’ve ever spent, and Adam claims to be having Vietnam War-esque flashbacks.  The high point of the activity was that the husband and I got to say planet-AIR-ium to each other a million times.  <– don’t get it?  watch this.