Gourmand on the Go

by Emily

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 –

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 –

Still delicious though.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

25Aug2010

Healthy BBQ Chicken Sandwich: How To

by Emily

First, you’ve got to meet a boy (or girl!).

Trick said boy into marrying you.

Put a crock-pot on your wedding registry.

Place two thawed, humanely raised, skinless, boneless chicken breasts (~1.5lbs) in the bottom of said crock-pot.

Pour in enough reduced sodium chicken broth to cover both chicken breasts.

Do some salt and pepper action.

Set your crock-pot for 8hours on low and walk away.

Meanwhile, join Foodbuzz. Attend the 1st Blogger Festival and bring home a bottle of Maple Barbeque Sauce with Horseradish.

Join the Tastemaker Program and receive a sample of Arnold’s Multi-Grain Sandwich Thins.

Go back to your crock-pot and remove cooked chicken to a plastic container and shred using two forks.

Pour your bbq sauce (approx. 10Tbsp) over the shredded chicken.

Plate.

I recommend serving alongside a green, perhaps some roasted asparagus?

Roasted figs with goat cheese and honey for dessert.

Live happily ever after.

Of course that’s all subject to some personal interpretation, but those are my basic steps! 😉

24Aug2010

A Cautionary Tale

by Emily

So this afternoon, after I spent the entire day rocking my running skirt, I got sucked into blogs and didn’t realize until 5:40 that my campus gym closed at 6pm. Fail. I can’t take a day off from exercise, because one turns into twenty, so when I found a post-card in the mail informing me that our old gym membership expires on the 28th it felt very serendipitous. We loaded into the car and set off toward a healthy evening.

I was hungry by then, so during the ride I ate a Banana Soy Joy bar, pulled from my BlogHer stash.

Meh, at the time I didn’t love or hate it.

We didn’t have much time at the gym so I tried to bust my butt the entire visit. “California Girls” by Katy Perry is surprisingly motivating, as is this song. 30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6. I did a mix of backward and forward pedalling, as well as some sprint intervals. I ended my visit with 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.

As I stretched my legs I felt an unpleasant tightness in the back of my neck. During my sit ups I started to feel nauseous. While we were leaving the gym I could taste that stupid Soy Joy bar through all the water I was chugging. And five minutes later we were pulling over so I could throw up. Mega fail.

We haven’t quite narrowed it down, but basically I have an intolerance for some food preservative(s). I also have a major allergy to some specific preservative that is found in Hawaiian Punch products, but that’s another story. I’ve eaten other Soy Joy bars before without incident, but the Banana flavor is definitely off-limits for me from now on.

By the time I had pulled myself together and Adam had stopped at Walgreens to purchase himself a snack (thanks for the concern, husband!) I realized that I would not be able to stomach the dinner we had planned. No, the only thing that would do was jalapeno poppers, with cream cheese, NOT cheddar. I know some people would feel sick just at the thought of eating poppers, but they were literally the only thing that appealed to me.

I’ll make a very long and sad story short – three stores (and some time on Yelp) later we claimed defeat. Adam told me I had to eat something for dinner, and also to stop whimpering or I was going to be walking home, so I went the Buffalo sauce route, a close 2nd to jalapeno. I was starving at that point, and a bit unreasonable as well, so dinner was a huge buffalo chicken finger sandwich and a huge thing of french fries. Ultra mega fail.

Clearly I hated it.

24Aug2010

Around the Globe

by Emily

I was hanging around the house this afternoon, checking some e-mails, eating some popcorn,

getting half-dressed for the gym and trying to decide whether to head there or pick up my stuff at the tailor first. When Katie g-chatted me about lunch who was I to say no? Even if it meant I ended up going out in public in this –

A running skirt for running errands? Not a good look for me! Although I ended up doing so much walking that I was almost glad not to be sweating in my jeans.

Globe Market is conveniently located between our two apartments so we decided to meet up there. I’d never been before so I thought I’d sample the menu with a half sandwich/soup combo.

Vegan gazpacho.

Green apple and brie sandwich.

I ended up with a ton of food. Sadly I wasn’t that impressed with any of it though. The gazpacho was ok, but it was practically tasteless compared with the bowl Benji served me the other day. And the apples in my sandwich tasted like they were rotten! The best part of my meal was actually the bread that come with my soup, airy and delicious! I left behind a lot of food –

It was good to catch up with Katie though.

A fun story from my teacher days – On one of our many professional development days a workshop let out early. This meant that we had to stay on school campus but didn’t have anything specific to do. The nicest facility in the school was the basketball court so someone suggested a game of Around the World. I have to mention here that I worked in a rough neighborhood and my job was pretty intense – most of the staff consisted of very large black men. I actually was the only caucasian female employed by the school the two years I worked there. I did not win that game of Around the World, not by a longshot, but I did hold my own. The look on some of my fellow teachers’ faces when they realized they just got schooled by a little white girl in a mini skirt (it was a no student day)? Priceless.

21Aug2010

Brawler’s Deli Might Need a Restraining Order Against Me

by Emily

In spite of getting in bed past pumpkin time last night, we’ve managed to have a full and productive Saturday. Fun too!

We had to take both cars in for inspection/oil change/ka-ching, ka-ching 😦 so we decided to make a date of it and spend the wait time walking around our old neighborhood. It took more than 3hours for the cars to be done so we managed to do a lot of walking. We saw some fun stuff in our travels –

We also stopped in at Pearl Street for brunch. We didn’t know beforehand, but Pearl Street just opened a deli in their beer basement so we got to try out the new spot.

Brawler’s Deli just may be our new favorite place! I’m a fan of any restaurant that puts turkey ruebans on the menu,

and this was the best reuban I’ve ever had. The biggest too! I took a shot next to my hand for comparison.

I only ate half of my reuban and I was stuffed. Not so stuffed, however, that I couldn’t tell Adam at least a bazillion times how in love with my sandwich I was! He ate the 2nd half (in addition to his own food!!) and quickly concurred. There was just enough sauerkraut to add tang without slime and the thousand island dressing was rich and creamy. I forgot to ask for no butter on my bread but in the end the bread was so perfect I’m glad I didn’t mess with it; great rye that was so satisfyingly crunchy. Usually the turkey is an afterthought for me when I eat a rueban (thousand island dressing, rye bread, swiss cheese; who gives a hoot about the turkey?!) but we both agreed that it was the best part of the sandwich.

Adam described it as dry but super-thin cut. We were so impressed we actually asked the guy behind the counter what kind it was so we could buy our own! It turns out that the deli actually roasts it themselves, which means we’ll have to go back again soon if we want more. The end point of this saga is – Local readers, go to try this spot immediately!

Adam headed to the lab and my inspected, oil changed, something elsed that cost a bunch of money car and I set off on errands. I did the grocery shopping, but I also hit up a different store to use the Coin Star machine. I won’t gush any more in this post, but I’ll give you a heads up that going to a new store finally allowed me to find mini ice cream cups in the flavors I’ve been looking for; expect a full update in a future post.

As soon as I hit publish I’m going to do a 10minute strength session, take a quick shower, and pick up the husband at the lab – we’ve got a dinner date!

Gush for me, what’s the best sandwich you’ve ever eaten and which restaurant served it to you?

9Aug2010

Bites and Bytes

by Emily

This morning we lazed around and then headed to a late brunch lunch at Panos. I LOVE being able to walk to the restaurants on Elmwood! I also love new swag t-shirts.

We were so ready for food by the time our lunch arrived, V for Victory!

I went with the turkey rueban which came with fries.

Tasty, tasty stuff; you can never go wrong with a rueban. I ate about 85% of my food before proclaiming defeat.

We ran some errands (and I got like 8 different forms of bad news, boo!) and then decided that both of us were up for a milkshake so to Coldstone we went.

I ordered a small coffee + cheesecake ice cream blend with Oreos.

Yums! I always request skim milk when I order a milkshake; I’m all for “spending” calories on ice cream, but milk?!

It’s going to be a lazy day around here because tomorrow a group of us is heading up to Toronto. Be on the look out for some MEGA changes to Eatventures this afternoon; while I have Camile here as a tech guide I’m doing some major blog overhaul!

9Aug2010

I Am NYC Homesick

by Emily

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?

6Aug2010

BlogHer Day1

by Emily

We’ve been having a great (busy) time here at BlogHer. We’ve learned a few new things, met some interesting people, and got a ton of swag. Plus we’ve walked and walked, so I’m in heaven.

Last night was a healthy living blogger fail. No lunch and vodka and popcorn for dinner? No, no, no, no! I felt like I was going to throw up when it got in bed and my rumbling tummy kept me up half the night. My poor sleep and poor nutrition also kept me from being able to run this morning, meaning it’s been almost a week since my last workout. It didn’t feel good, and it would have been so easy to just be healthy last night. I’m hoping wisdom came with my 25th birthday because I’m really trying to take this lesson to heart.

This morning I was so hungry I could barely see straight, so I loaded up a breakfast plate once we reached BlogHer.