Great Expectations

by Emily

Nothing went as planned today, in a perfectly great sort of way. I ended up not lying down – exhausted from my foodgasms – as Adam came home with the mail which included an unexpected check from my old job. Yays! I’m not going to lie about how excited I was about that $, I got a little bit teary.

I was in such a good mood I even “wasted” a cute outfit on class.

Don’t worry, there are flip flops below that blazer.

Class unexpectedly was let out early, and I ended up at a friend’s house with Adam for an unplanned study session. I love sitting and listening to the studying med students so much, it is so interesting! And I got a lot of my own reading done.

We didn’t get home until 11, and my planned dinner of frittata leftovers got gobbled up by the husband. I was pissed that I had to eat another Sunshine Burger for dinner! 🙂

Dipped in some stolen Arby’s sauce.

I used less sauce than anticipated, and couldn’t bear to throw the extra away, so I smothered a small turkey sandwich with it.

I was still a little hungry anyway so this actually worked out well.

That seemed to be the theme of the day, things going better than planned. One of my favorite quotes (and in general I’m usually not too keen on ‘God’ quotes) is “If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.”

What got REplanned in your day today?

18Nov2009

Foodgasms

by Emily

Good afternoon! Today has been nice and productive; I mixed together a schedule of work and fun and this online stopwatch has been crucial.

Amid the work has been the cleaning of the kitchen, the completion of the laundry, and a major chunk of Chemistry reading.

During some of the fun (NCIS watching) I shared a cup of tea and honey with the bears.

Did you know that Ulrick moved all the way from Brooklyn with us? Unfortunately the tea didn’t really rock my socks.

I guess I only like Yogi if we are still talking about bears!

A bit later I had a strange snack that was exactly what I was craving (yes, in my dirty tea mug) –

Sliced bell pepper and 1/2C stuffing bread crumbs with 1T prepared pesto (from the Foodbuzz Festival!). It sounds strange but it was a craving-fulfilling, 100ish calorie snack that held me over until lunch.

And what a lunch it was. OhMyGosh. It’s funny because Jenna and Brandi both talked about how much they enjoy food – like really really enjoy it, more than just ‘oh this is good,’ like foodgasms – in posts today and now I’m going to do the same. Sometimes I get so excited about what I’m eating that I flap my arms like a deranged bird. Today’s lunch was super simple and yet it elicited tons of flapping.

Today felt life-changing. Today was the day I tried Sunshine Garden Herb Burgers.

Holy frick. I didn’t think it was possible to get so excited about a veggie patty but I’ve managed. This might be my new favorite food. It’s not, because I love roasted brussels sprouts and broad rice noodles too much to demote them, but it’s close.

I microwaved one patty and ate it on white toast with Jack Daniels mustard.

One of the best sandwiches ever. Chewy and hefty and the mix of flavors was to die for. I love love loved the vinegary kick from the mustard and burger. I almost got up and made myself a second sandwich.

And then I remembered dessert.

This is the best idea I’ve ever had.

Ricemellow, the filling scooped out of a slice of ‘Smores Pie, and a few chocolate chips. Melted in the microwave for 20seconds. It was like ‘smores x1million.

I love my readers. I really do. So I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you to make some good decisions. #1 – Make ‘Smores Pie. The recipe is here. It’s from my grandma, it’s easy, and I’ve literally never met someone who didn’t like it. #2 – buy this:

It’s vegan, it tastes like marshmallow fluff, and it is socks rocking. I’ll be honest, even if it wasn’t wonderful I’d like it just because I’m in love with the packaging. Seriously though, go buy it and report back to me.

That is all. I got myself so excited I just may need to go lie down. I will get up in time for class at 6:30 though, and I’ll see you for a dinner post this evening.

Is there a food YOU would like to strongly recommend today?

6Nov2009

We Are Here!

by Emily

I’m finally in California! I’ve been waiting for this since I was a kid! I need to finish getting ready so I’ll keep it quick, but I wanted to check in.

My flights went well, things were nice and uneventful. Because of the challenge (I’m not gonna lie, I love airport food, it is totally worth the money to me usually) I tried to pack all of my own snacks for this travel day. I’m not quite sure how things will work on my return flights, but I do have some bars stashed in my suitcase.

I ate breakfast before I got on my first flight, a crumpet(!) topped with Crofter’s Superfruit Spread and an egg.

I cooked the egg in the microwave – small bowl, crack, stir, salt & pepper, 45second nuke – and it worked out very well. I was worried about how well this would keep as ‘leftovers’ but it was pretty tasty. I’ll be doing the micro method more often.

I ate a sandwich on my second flight. For my sandwich I packed 3slices of turkey on 2slices of bread, with a packet of horsey sauce from Arby’s to squeeze on in flight.

My long flight (5+hours) went well. I watched “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Masectemy” on my laptop and bought a “Real Simple” and “Bon Appetit” that kept me very occupied.

Camile and I met up in the airport and headed to our hotel via the BART. We are sharing a room and the receptionist was totally sweet and upgraded us to a king bed.

I think the room is gorgeous, it is tiny, but well decorated. Plus the front desk has awesome candy.

As soon as our bags were dropped off we headed out to explore the area around our hotel – Market Street. I munched on an apple from home to hold me over.

Now we are finishing getting ready for the first Foodbuzz event, a cocktail party! I am so excited to meet all the bloggers! I’ll be back with a recap this evening.

What eats do you pack for travel?

1Nov2009

Happy 80th Nana!

by Emily

Hello, hello, hello! Sorry to skip out for the weekend but I had a fabulous time. I flew to Ohio (with a bunch of other family members) to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday. We did party/family time all weekend, which meant TONS of cake! I missed the husband a lot but I had a great time, my family is so funny! This post won’t be as detailed, due to length, and if you get too bored skip to the bottom to find the winners of the Zevia contest.

Friday we had to get up nice and early to make it to the airport for my 6:35am flight. I was hungry when I got to the airport but it seemed early and I knew I would sleep my first flight so I decided to wait.

On my layover I got egg and cheese on a cheddar jalopeno bagel.

It was very tasty but I dropped half on the floor so I only ate half of it.

I was so excited when I finally got in to the Dayton airport!

My mom and grandma picked me up and we drove over to Tipp City to do some shopping (also the location of my grandmother’s surprise party!). We saw all sorts of fun things.

Nana (grandma) was impossible to get to her surprise party, she kept insisting the chosen restaurant was too nice, too slow, etc. I finally had to pretend I was going to pee my pants if we didn’t at least go in to the restroom! When she saw all of her friends she was so surprised she cried!

My mom and my aunt (who flew up with my mom a few days earlier than me) did such a good job planning and decorating!

We did a party lunch at Coldwater Cafe and it was very nice. I got a bloody mary to drink.

And for lunch I split – more halfs! – a turkey pannini (with artichoke spread and cheese) with my mom.

I ignored the chips but the sandwich was great.

My grandmother cried when she opened her presents and again when they brought in the cake!

I am not really a chocolate cake fan so I took a small bite and then packed up the rest to bring home to Paps (grandpa). I also packed up all the bread from the table baskets. My family teased me but they are either going to use it again, ewww, or throw it out, wasteful.

We got to go home long enough to pick up my grandpa and then we – me, my mom, my aunt, my grandparents, and the dog – squeezed into the car for a long drive to Toledo where my uncle lives. I seriously can not handle how funny my family is, we had such a good time!!

We were running late when we got there so we had a quick dinner from Wendy’s. I got a baked potato with broccoli and cheese.

I also ate one of my pumpkin cheesecake cupcake/muffins, so good!

My uncle is a high school football coach so we went to watch his team. It was their last game of the season, against their biggest rival, and they whooped them, so it was a lot of fun. My uncle had the marching band play happy birthday to Nana and she cried again!

After the game we went to a ‘end of season’ party my uncle was throwing for the other coaches. I had a small vodka and coke,

and a small slice of pizza.

And then there was more cake and more tears!

Quite a night was had by all 🙂

For Saturday breakfast I had an English muffin with homemade strawberry jam and scrambled eggs.

We spent the morning having family time before we headed to another birthday party, this one for my cousin’s baby! Lunch was buffet style at the party.

Cheesy potatoes,

fruit,

and veggies.

And of course more cake – I just ate the icing off this piece.

Over the course of the party I sipped a beer

and had a good time hanging with my mommy and grandma.

My mom, aunt, and I (all Virgin Islanders) walked to and from the party because it was so exciting to be cold! It was sad saying goodbye to my cousins but then the six of us packed back into the car and headed back to my grandparents’ house. More uproarious fun was had, including the hilarious/horrifying realization that my grandmother – who was driving – talks with her hands a lot!

It was Halloween, so I broke out some fancy chocolate I bought for the occasion.

We all had a small piece.

When we got home we had to rush to get dressed before meeting my grandparents’ best friends for dinner. It was a great last meal. I had a bloody mary again, to which I added a ton of Siracha and sizzled my mouth off!

My grandmother shared her side salad with me,

and she and Rose gave me their martini olives.

They are both amazing and both happen to read the blog, hi guys!

I also had a small piece of bread.

I was torn on ordering but when the waitress said unlimited toppings on the flat bread pizza I was sold! I asked for roasted red pepper, green peppers, red onions, caramelized onions, tomato, spinach, and mushrooms.

Mmmn. I ate 3/5 pieces.

It was another late night and I think we left my grandparents thoroughly exhausted!

This morning my mom and I both had 6:50 flights so it was another early trip to the airport. Goodbyes were easy; I see my grandparents for Turkey Day and my mommy and aunt for Christmas!

For reasons explained in the next post, I packed my own breakfast. A banana from my grandmother’s house,

and a seasonal Pumpkin Spice Cliff Bar from home.

My flights were all blissfully uneventful. I was very excited to see the husband at the airport. Apparently he went to a Halloween party last night so I’ll have to track down some pictures of his costume. He made himself spaghetti this weekend so I had a big bowl of that (doctored with mozarella and red pepper flakes) while I wrote this monster post.

My fingers are exhausted, it is definitely time to say Goodbye! I will “see” you all this evening, hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Zevia Winners

I used a random integer generator to choose the winners.

Runners Up who receive a mixed six pack

(#18) Annalene – i actually have tried Zevia before & I have to say that while they may take some time to getting used to the flavor after the initial drink or 2 these are actually quite good! my favorite is the lemon lime
(#5) Jenny – I would love to try the all-natural diet sodas. I work the night shift, and am obsessed with my diet Pepsi….but always feel guilty about the weird ingredients and colorings.
(#17) Erin – I really want to try this stuff since I love the occasional diet coke.
(#2) Holly – I’d love to win – this soda has been all over blogs and I’ve never tried it!
(#14) Erin– Zevia sounds great!

Grand Prize Winner who receives a mixed case

(#9) Molly – Sounds good!

Winners – shoot me an e-mail (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) by Tuesday morning to claim your prize!

20Oct2009

Ice Ice Baby

by Emily

It’s been a busy, but random. I had plans of getting up early but the husband felt like studying until 1am last night which totally threw me off. When we were in the city and my job was crazy he was always mad at me for staying up until 4am while he tried to sleep (especially difficult in our one room apartment!). Here, where he is in medical school and I do nothing am not, the situation is reversed. We have multiple rooms now but I’ve found I have a hard time falling asleep without him around – cheesy relationship moment alert!!!

When I did get up at 10 this morning I went straight to the phone for the next 3 hours! I don’t know if I actually accomplished that much, but at least I got the ball rolling! My hunger was totally off and I ended up eating the last serving of pretzels for breakfast!

Unhealthiness aside, here is a healthy tip: buy a food scale! I’m not saying you need to be obsessive and measure everything you put in your mouth, but things like pretzel nuggets add up faster than you think – a serving of those bad boys is ONE ounce. Once you are eating pretzels straight out of the bag for breakfast, there is no way you are going to pull out a measuring cup. But plopping the bag on the food scale? Easy. (P.S. My scale read 1 and 1/4 oz, so with the weight of the bag I had a perfect serving left)

At 1pm – once I had at very least left a message with every single number on my list – I set out for the gym sat on the couch and kissed Adam and stole some slices of his turkey pepperoni. I ended up pushing the gym back to the end of the evening in favor of going to the post-office and being dropped off at the Spot. I worked on Chemistry by myself for a while before Caroline met me for some group studying. By myself I got a late lunch.

A big diet coke and a turkey cajun wrap (turkey, lettuce, tomato, pepperjack cheese, cajun sauce, ww wrap).

The salad looked over-dressed so I didn’t even taste it, but I demolished the sandwich.

During my social studying I also had a medium pumpkin pie latte (pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon; 1pump syrup, skim milk).

Yums.

Caroline dropped me off at home at 9 and after so very brief glancing at the magazines I got in the mail we set out for the gym. It was about time too, I’d been rocking this look since 10am!

I always work out in baggy t-shirts but I went ahead and bought some running tank tops last weekend. Somehow I feel more “official,” not that I look too fine in that picture!! I’ll show you all of my new finds as I wear them; this one was $4 at Target.

On the treadmill I did 10minute warm up – 20minute run – 5 minute cool down. In the end the totals were 3.25miles and 361 calories. My legs are still crazy bothering me (my knees, hips, ankles often hurt but lately it is an intense pain in my calves!). I did a lot of stretching when I got home and now I am trying icing them.

We’ll see how it goes.

I can’t believe I’m doing such a late recap post but considering that dinner just kind of never happened I guess it’s not that surprising! I got a lot done today, but tomorrow is still going to be jam-packed. We just found out our in-laws are visiting this weekend which makes this week even busier. I’ve got to go deal with my ice bags and take a shower, see you in the am!

Do you ice? Any tips for me?

15Oct2009

Savory Instead of Sweet

by Emily

Hello, lunch-eaters! My morning has gone well; it looks like the notecards won’t be finished until tomorrow but my labs are totally up to date. My pumpkin pudding smoothie held me over well but I did snack on a bowl of red grapes while I worked.

By noon it was time for lunch. When I received a Nature’s Pride sample as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program I actually was sent two loaves. I seem to hardly ever eat bread and I was worried that Adam would move too slowly and we’d develop a mold problem, so into the freezer one loaf went. Once we were ready for more bread we simply moved the loaf down to the fridge and gave it a few hours to defrost. This is a good solution if you find a bread(product) sale at your grocery store too.

bread

With 12 Grain I made a yummy french toast, so I knew that would be good for 100% Whole Wheat as well. But I was feeling adventurous. Which led to…….

savory french toast! I sanwiched sliced turkey, Crofter’s North American Superfruit Spread and dijon mustard between two slices of Nature’s Pride Whole Wheat. Then I dipped the ‘wich in a mixture of egg/.5C chicken broth. I cooked it for ~3minutes on each side in a pan with .5T Smart Balance Light. Finally it got topped off with maple syrup, Chipotle Tabasco, and squeeze cheese.

Mmmn. I loved this mess mix of flavors! Next time I would leave off the sqeeze cheese (which I mostly ate around anyway), but we had it and it looked fun. I doused it with hot sauce the the spice/egginess combo was perfection.

I am watching an episode of “Mercy” while I eat my lunch and then it’s back to work. I think I will cook dinner before I leave for class, but I’ll post it this evening. All that really matters is that I remember my lab goggles!

Have you ever tried savory french toast? What’d you think? {I realize this is similar to a Monte Cristo}

7Oct2009

Random

by Emily

I have not gotten near enough done today (unless you count the huge stack of magazines I powered through as an accomplishment) so this post needs to be quick. All of my food choices have been unbelievably random today.

“Breakfast” was the last serving of Food Should Taste Good Lime Chips.

For lunch I followed last night’s theme and did some more using up. The last Flat Out wrapped around the last Boca Spicy Chik’n Patty, with lettuce, carrots, cheese, and buffalo sauce.

For fruit I made a smoothie – 1C passionfruit pulp, 1 fat free plain Oikos, big splash oj, drizzle honey.

And I snacked on a Healthy Hazel Boomi Bar sample.

I’ll be back after class this evening.

Tell me one random thing about yourself. I’ll go first – My middle name is Helen.

29Sep2009

Pizza Party Part Deux

by Emily

I haven’t gotten much work done but the rain was the perfect atmosphere for watching some “tv.” In the hours after breakfast I was starving so I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar.

These are seriously the best things on Earth!

Lunch was inspired by leftover pizza ingredients and these guys.

I was excited about these Boca Spicy Chik’n Meatless Patties, but a little concerned by this warning –

I read through all the ingredients and have no idea what this is about. Does anyone else know? I combined spice + pizza for one super sandwich.

I rolled a patty in a Flat Out with ~2T each pizza sauce, shredded carrots, 2% colby jack cheese, and Anchor Bar Buffalo Sauce.

I ate some leftover peppers from last night alongside.

Quite a good lunch.

Dessert was pretty good too.

Purely Decadent Non-Dairy Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream with Crofter’s Superfruit North America Spread.

The skies are looking a little less foreboding so I might make it to the gym today after all. My other focus of the day is chemistry. See you for dinner.

For Funsies – What is your favorite animal? In no particular order, I love duckbilled platypuses, spiny echidnas, otters, and pigs.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: sandwich

Great Expectations

Foodgasms

We Are Here!

Happy 80th Nana!

Zevia Winners

Ice Ice Baby

Savory Instead of Sweet

Random

Pizza Party Part Deux