This Post Is {Pea}Nuts

by Emily

We got home from Philadelphia after midnight on Monday and Tuesday morning definitely felt a little rough. I had clinical practice all day so I had to solider through, but I became pretty much worthless the minute I got home. Same story this evening. However, I promise that if you make it through this post there will be two tasty peanut-y recipes waiting for you at the end!

Caffeine was a necessity Tuesday morning. My friend and I shared this Silk Dark Chocolate Pure Almond milk in our coffees.

My other hospital eats included… An Apple Cinnamon GoGo Squeez.

An Enjoy Life Rice Milk Chocolate bar.

And a KIND Almond & Apricot Bar.

The KIND bar was the best. The name only references almonds and apricots but the base was pure coconut! It reminded me of a macaroon. I bought another one at the store today and I’m pretty jazzed about it.

When I got home I had a serving of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola with Blue Diamond Almond/Coconut Milk and fresh blackberries.

Plus a serving of Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream with peanuts on top.

My 2nd tasting of this ice cream left me with the same impression as my first; it’s awesome.

Dinner was awesomely quick and easy.

A microwaveable Punjab Eggplant dish from Trader Joe’s (I ate the whole package),

with a serving of pita chips for crunch.

I ate another serving’s worth of chip crumbles straight from the bag.

Wednesday’s meals were even better than Tuesday’s, but they did get off to a late start. I’ll skip a long story about my unsuccessful breakfast and just say that I didn’t get to eat today until I got home from school. And I got home after class, lab, and several hours working on a group project.

I was hungry as hell and thrilled that my dinner plans could come together in under 15 minutes.

I updated my Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles recipe (shared at the end of this post) and was pleased with the results.

If we call that my “3pm breakfast,” then the food I ate from the hot bar while we were grocery shopping was lunch.

Farro with mushroom and spinach,

and sautéed green beans.

Both were quite tasty. This may have been the first time I’ve ever eaten farro and I enjoyed how creamy it was.

Dinner was snacks and beer. I got out my food processor for some peanut grinding took several taste tests at every stage of peanut butter production.

This honey roasted peanut butter comes together in a snap but it is one of Adam’s favorite things that I make (recipe is shared below). I also made Webster some pupsicles; if I have to clean the food processor I’m going to make sure I really use it first! <– let’s be real; I’ve never cleaned the food processor, Adam always does it

We split a Wolaver’s Pumpkin Ale that was the perfect blend of sweet and spice.

Then we started a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale that I didn’t enjoy and passed off to Adam.

You would not even believe how many pumpkin beers I still have left!

As promised, recipes…

Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles, serves 2

4 oz dry linguine
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups frozen broccoli
2 tsp canola oil
4 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2.5 tsp sugar
(optional) dash red pepper flakes
(optional) 1-2 Tbsp peanuts

In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, tamari, vinegar, sugar, and red pepper flakes if using. You may want to microwave the bowl for 30 seconds or so to help loosen the peanut butter.
Cook pasta according to package directions. When 5 minutes of cooking time remain, add frozen veggies to the boiling water and stir. Drain and set aside when pasta is finished.
Once pasta is cooked, heat canola oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add cooked pasta and veggies to the pan. Cook 3 – 5 minutes, until the noodles start to get a bit crispy.
Pour sauce over pasta and toss to combine. Continue cooking for 5 – 7 minutes, until desired consistency is reached. My family likes to cook it until the sauce starts to form a crust on the pasta, but this dish is ready to serve as soon as everything is tossed together.
Serve and top with peanuts if desired.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

1 lb honey roasted peanuts (I highly recommend Trader Joe’s if you can get them)
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt

Put peanuts into food processor and process 1 – 3 minutes until mostly smooth.
Add remaining ingredients and process until fully combined.

7Nov2012

Feeling Blue

by Emily

My pain pills (which I think I don’t need any more, yay!) have made my appetite all sorts of wonky these past two days. And some life stuff has made me super cranky. I hate feeling like I have to post when I’m in a bad mood, but so many of the things I ate (of the very many things I ate!) have been winners that I want the post for my own memory. This will be detail-light though.

Honeycrisp.

Rockstar Juiced.

Winter outfit.

My downgraded hand bandage.

Organic Rice Divine Mud Pie Ice Cream (1 cup). This stuff was ah-mazing. The texture was reminiscent of Italian Ice and peanut butter-chocolate is always a winning combo. I especially liked the cookie pieces.

A healthy lunch.

Roasted green beans dipped in ketchup,

and Cilantro Lime Bean Burgers with Citrus Guacamole.

An entire bag of bbq Popchips for dinner.

Melted peanut butter with powdered sugar and good cocoa. This snack is ridiculous good but also just ridiculous. I need to quit cold turkey.

Chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar.

Happy Tot Blueberry, Apple, and Purple Carrot squeeze pouch (FNCE sample).

Vegan almond joy.

Supplement sampling at clinic. Not vegan but also not optional.

Veggie sub – lettuce, tomato, red pepper, jalopeño, banana pepper, pickles, and yellow mustard – from the hospital cafeteria.

Amy’s vegan mac and cheese.

Honey roasted peanuts. By the by, honey is still on the table, so to speak, this Vegan Month.

Tempeh Brown Rice Casserole.

P.S. I am so flipping nervous about what election results we are going to wake up to tomorrow. Anyone else?

1Nov2012

Webster’s First Halloween

by Emily

You can tell that this post was a terrible decision since it’s 2 o’clock in the morning. I’ll try to keep it quick.

You can tell that tomorrow is the first day of Vegan Month because I managed to eat two yogurts, buffalo chicken pizza, cheesecake, and a milkshake.

You can tell that it’s Halloween since I pulled out ~~all of the stops~~ some of the stops.

Black and orange outside clothing.

Black and orange inside clothing.

And earrings that look like candy corn.

Plus, my exam this morning was positively spooky! 😦

Before the exam, I got up and had breakfast. A big bowl of Liberte Coconut Yogurt plus 1% large curd cottage cheese.

Plus coffee with skim milk.

When I got home – my exam went ok, my quiz went not ok, our lab activity took forever – I had more yogurt. Apple Cinnamon 0% Chobani with honey roasted peanuts and a drizzle of honey.

I ran a few errands the afternoon. The most exciting was the orthodontist appointment; not only am I cleared for 12 more weeks of nights only, but I won a contest!

$30 to Best Buy. I was so excited, I never win anything!

Lunch was pizza.

I tried to really think about the foods that were going to tempt me during November. A buffalo chicken slice from Zetti’s,

with baby carrots and blue cheese for dipping.

Halloween candies for dessert.

Then it was time to dress my favorite dog up in his first costume. We went meta this year…

A hot dog in a hot dog costume!

Webster was flipping adorable – several cars honked and gave us thumbs up! – but it was cold and wet and he was so mad at me by the time we got home!

Thankfully Adam’s arrival (he was away on an interview the past two days) cheered us both up. He came bearing cheesecake!

That was literally the best slice of cheesecake I’ve ever tasted but I already had my sights set on something else so I took a few bites and left the rest for the husband.

My plan for dessert? Pumpkin Coffee Caramel Chocolate Milkshakes!

Ben and Jerry’s Caramel Coffee Buzz blended with skim milk and pureed pumpkin (with chocolate syrup on the glass). It was delicious and just what I needed to power through the last two hours of working on a final project. The perfect way to end my dairy consumption for the month.

Happy Halloween!!

16Oct2012

Bread In Chocolate, Mystery Burgers, And Thickened Pepsi

by Emily

I have got to stop falling asleep without blogging! Some days (many days) are crazy and boring and I skip posting. Other days are crazy and delicious and make me want to blog. But two crazy and delicious days in a row makes for one loooooong recap!

Monday

Breakfast was all about the FNCE samples. Gross was the Strawberry Del Monte Squeezable fruit.

There was a flavor there that I just didn’t care for. Almost savory?!

Great was the Jamba Juice Fruit-i-licious Probiotic Trail Mix (I ate the whole bag, or 2 servings).

It had tons of fruit and nuts and just enough chocolate to be fun.

I planned on making dinner before I went to work so I made a quick trip to the store on my way home from school. Coffee with skim milk to warm me up when I got home.

Archer Farms’ Cinnamon Vanilla Nut is the best flavor I’ve ever gotten from Target.

My lunch snack was a sweet tasting plate.

A sliced banana with crunchy honey pb,

and half of a Theo Bread and Chocolate Bar.

I love this bar! Normally 70% would be a little dark for me but the saltiness of the bread really brings out the sweet in the chocolate.

I also ate a 100-calorie bag of kettle corn.

I managed to get dinner made, but not with much time to spare; I ate on the walk to work!

Roasted green beans,

and a turkey burger on a bun with sharp cheddar and Miracle Whip.

I’m going to stay cryptic and just say “burger” because this recipe was so tasty that it warrants its own separate post tomorrow. I know most people scan these long recaps and I do NOT want this burger recipe to get lost!

After work, I ate a slice of turkey while I packed Adam’s lunch.

And that was it. It was quite lucky that I ate dinner for lunch because otherwise I would have gone to bed hungry.

I got my flu shot Sunday morning. PSA – Flu shots save lives. Even if you aren’t worried about the flu, you should get the shot because it helps protect the people around you. That said, I am having a major adverse reaction to my flu shot!

I couldn’t get a picture that really shows anything (it is surprisingly tricky to photograph your upper arm), but imagine a giant, raised, red area around my injection site. It itches like crazy and is making me insane. Adam didn’t see my reaction until Monday night but as soon as he did he fed me an allergy med and put me in bed.

Tuesday

When I say that Adam “put me in bed” on Monday night, it is worth mentioning that he let me pass out teeth unbrushed, jeans still on, and alarm clock unset! I managed to make it to school on time but I was very confused this morning!

There wasn’t much time for breakfast so I grabbed a Chocolate Zico Coconut Water,

and an Odwalla Chocolate Almond Coconut Chewy Nut Bar (a FNCE sample).

Dee-lish-us! The bar immediately moved to my “top five bars” list (now that Balance Bars aren’t good there is a major hole to fill!). It tasted like real food, really tasty real food.

We were on campus today so I also got to cash in a free coffee card at the book store.

3 shots of espresso with tons of vanilla sugar and skim milk. And then I twitched wildly for the rest of the day…

Instead of clinical practice at the hospital, today we had an intensive lecture on enteral and parenteral nutrition – i.e. feeding through a tube into the GI tract or through a vein. It is insanely complicated but at least I think the calculations are a ton of fun. I’m certainly not the smartest person in our program (not by a long shot!) but when we do any sort of math I’m usually the first person in the room to finish. Who knew as I struggled through 9th grade pre-calculus that I’d grow up to get all tingly over formulas?!

Another fun part of the day? A rep from Nestle came in and showed us some different products. We got to taste thickened water and thickened diet pepsi (honey consistency) –

Their commercial thickener is just xantham gum – like I used to use in my smoothies! – plus a few preservatives.

Also fun was the longer lunch period that let my friends and me go to Wegman’s.

I hadn’t packed food so this was very serendipitous.

Buffalo chicken chowder,

and a green veggie brown rice sushi roll with spicy mayo on the side for dipping.

Between buffalo sauce soup, spicy mayo dipping, and the wasabi that I slathered on top of my sushi, this lunch left me sweating!

I stole a fun sized candy bar from my friend for dessert.

Ignore my sandals, and note that I bundled up today for Fall.

Fall is here exhibit b – tea with skim milk and cinnamon sugar.

Fall is here exhibit c – the apple crumble candle I burned while I studied.

Fall is here exhibit isn’t she done with this gag yet?! – an apple crumble yogurt bowl.

This is another dish I plan on making often. A 0% Plain Greek yogurt topped with cooked apple (a chopped Sweet Tango microwaved for 2 minutes with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp agave) and crumble (KIND Oats and Honey Clusters granola, a FNCE sample).

The rest of dinner was a random assortment of snacks while I studied. A chocolate chip cookie dough mini Larabar (FNCE sample).

A mini tortilla with 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey and melted sharp cheddar.

Cold, leftover green beans for veggie needs.

And a 100-calorie bag of kettle corn.

As I said, looooong! Like hot-dog-dog long.

Have you ever had an adverse reaction to the flu shot?

18Sep2012

Candied Bacon Pancakes

by Emily

I know that title drew you in, but a lot of stuff happened before the pancakes; it’s been two days! It’s only Tuesday, but am allowed to say that this week sucks? I still haven’t worked out (in fact, I slept through my last unlimited yoga class this morning and I’m so sad), I started reviewing class notes for upcoming tests and realized that I’m starting three weeks too late, and I’m in a terrible mood. I wish I had a day to catch up but instead I had to go to stupid meetings and tomorrow I have to go on even stupider errands. Bah!

Yesterday, I had a 0% Plain Oikos with a honey stick for breakfast.

Plus a Mott’s Caramel Hot Spiced Cider.

This appears to be another product so new that it’s not on the website. It was also the start of an appletastic lunch.

Nature’s Path Apple Pie Crunch Chia Plus Bar (I’m loving these; my favorite parts is definitely the chia seeds),

GoGo Squeez Cinnamon Applesauce Packet,

and Apple Month candies.

Plus more candy in the form of a serving of Caramel Apple Sugar Babies when I got home from work.

They were the best Apple Month Candy yet!

Also when I got home from work, I had a total meltdown and Adam saved the ~~day~~ dinner by remembering our Living Social deal to SoHo Burger.

There was actually some nonsense with the deal and I’m pretty annoyed with SoHo Burger as a business, but the food was good and I need to get to bed soon so nevermind.

Adam and I split a Gimme Smore Spiked Shake. (I ate 45%) Chocolate fudge, roasted marshmallow, graham crackers, vanilla ice cream, Bacardi Select Dark Rum.

And an order of the Truffle Tater Tots. (I ate 30%) New twist on classic house made tater tots seasoned with truffle oil, parmesan cheese and parsley.

For my meal I did a burger and a salad.

A side Caesar (I ate everything but the croutons),

and a “naked,” aka without a bun, Turkey Burger. (I ate 95%) 8oz fresh organic turkey breast topped with brie cheese and cranberry chutney.

We shared our leftover burger bites with the dog when we got home and he was very happy to see us indeed.

I got in bed the minute we got home. Literally; I gave the dog his treats and then handed the husband my dress from under the covers! And then I stayed there through my alarm clock and didn’t get up until I was an hour late this morning. And I’m still tired.

Coffee with skim milk and a pb-chocolate magic straw was clearly how I needed to start my day.

Then I had a dipping plate.

2 servings of baby carrots,

in 3 servings (for only 150 calories!) of Cedar’s French Onion Yogurt Dip.

The dip was tangy, creamy, and delicious, and yet another product not found on the company’s website. <– what is up with that lately?!

And a Butterfinger Pumpkin.

Speaking of unhealthy (but delicious) things, I impulse-bought lunch while I was making a much-needed grocery trip this afternoon. Mac and cheese and sweet and sour chicken. I didn’t have my camera and I can’t get the phone photo to format so you’ll just have to take my word that it was ridiculously unhealthy.

Speaking again of stupid but tasty purchases – I bought two more pumpkin beers!

Dinner was a two-course breakfast affair. First, eggs.

Spinach and bok choy cooked in evoo and salt with eggs with light half & half and crumbled blue cheese.

Then candied bacon pancakes with a little maple syrup.

That picture wasn’t worth the wait, was it?

6Sep2012

Cheesy Eggplant Bake With Salad

by Emily

Nutrition (education, access, etc.) for underserved populations is topic that is important to me. It’s the reason I quit my job as a teacher and the reason I’ll someday go back to teaching again, though my new lessons will be about healthy eating instead of English. So, when Romano’s Macaroni Grill contacted me to see if I would write a post about their current partnership with Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry, I jumped at the opportunity.

Disclaimer – I am not being personally compensated for this post, though they will make a donation as thanks for my participation. This is just a subject to which I am glad to bring awareness.

Here’s how it works – Macaroni Grill is enlisting the food blogger community to help end childhood hunger with a single post. By simply tagging #macgrillgive to a recipe, message or photo of their favorite Italian meal on their blog, Macaroni Grill will donate $50 to connect a child to up to 500 meals. Readers can go into the restaurant and donate $2, and get $5 off their next meal; OR – share an artist inspired image from our Mac Grill Give Facebook Gallery and we’ll help connect a kid with 1 meal.

Here are some facts from No Kid Hungry –

48.8 million Americans—including 16.2 million children— live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, they struggle with hunger at some time during the year.
Food insecurity—the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food— exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.
Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents (35.1% of female-headed households with children are food-insecure) and among Black and Hispanic households.
Food insecurity is most common in large cities but still exists in rural areas, suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities. 25 % of households with children living in large cities are food-insecure.

My favorite (homemade) Italian meal is my Cheesy Eggplant Bake.

It is so cheesy, hearty, and filling; you would never guess that each serving has less than 200 calories. Being cooked in the marinara sauce makes the eggplant extra creamy and delicious.

What goes better with rich, cheesy food than a nice green salad?

On the side, we had romaine topped with ground flax, buckwheat groats, and lite honey mustard dressing.

It was an easy, tasty, wholesome meal.

Cheesy Eggplant Bake, serves 4

1 to 1.5 pounds thinly sliced eggplant (approx. .25 inch thick)
1 cup tomato sauce
6 slices 2% provolone

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.
Layer eggplant and tomato sauce into an 8×8 inch casserole dish; placing tomato sauce as the bottom and top layer. You’ll most likely end up with three even layers of eggplant if your eggplant was sliced thinly enough.
Bake 40 minutes.
Remove from oven, top evenly with cheese, and return to oven for 10 additional minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

8Aug2012

Chicken Chicken

by Emily

Please note – if you were my dog you would read that title as “chick-ON chick-ON,” since that is what we say whenever we feed him chicken.

Not a lot has gone down in the two days since I left Ohio, but there were a few highlights. I did get to eat lots of chips and several large diet sodas.

Our drive back to Buffalo and my parents’ flight home went off without a hitch.

My dad drove the whole way home for me and I finished knitting my scarf!!!

The fine people at Honest Tea noticed that I can’t help but buy a beverage whenever I walk past the co-op and sent me a few new flavors to try.

I got a new retainer, hopefully my last new retainer ever. *fingers crossed*

We had to take the dog to the vet to get a cyst on his tail lanced and it was the grossest/coolest thing ever.

Poor baby!

The vet trip actually happened today and it’s a good thing that went well because it was pretty much all I accomplished today. I didn’t get much sleep at my grandma’s house (I was on the couch and there was cable) and I stayed up too late again last night and crashed hard today.

I did manage a good, late breakfast.

Oh, Green Monster, I love you so. My original recipe is still my favorite. 1 frozen banana + 1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup oj.

So ~~green~~ good.

I also ate half (aka 1 serving) of this Honey Noosa Yoghurt.

I got lunch from the hot bar while I was grocery shopping (hey, that’s an accomplishment!).

Two types of chicken,

plus roasted veggies.

I tried to get a skinny caramel macchiato as an afternoon snack but I ended up throwing it out after a few sips.

This drink was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted. It was super sour, but like there was something wrong with the coffee, not the milk. And I used part of a birthday gift card so it was extra sad.

Dinner was more chick-ON.

Baby carrots,

honey mustard for dipping (Ken’s Lite and it was very good, if you’re wondering),

and two servings of Wegman’s chicken nuggets.

I’ve been wanting nuggets for days and these hit the spot.

Tomorrow’s plans include not sleeping through yoga, medicating the dog, a shift at work, and a fun nighttime event with the husband.

What is your favorite sauce for nugget dipping?

4Aug2012

TJ, Totally Jazzed

by Emily

The past few days have been a ton of fun. I’ve done a lot of eating!

Yesterday morning I got started on one of my 27 things.

I knit a few things as a kid and it seemed to come back to me pretty quickly. My grandma has had to help with a couple of disasters though.

I had yogurt for breakfast and moved on to another kind of yogurt for lunch.

Self-serve for the win. I did a mix of desserty flavors topped with all of the chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel things.

‘Twas good, but whenever I go crazy decadent I always realize that I like my plain tart with fruit and boba the best.

Our Friday activity was The Greene. We went for shopping, walking, and people watching. And eating. We got Turkish for dinner at Pasha Grill.

They gave us delicious bread with sun-dried tomato oil for dipping. My piece, x2.

I should have held off on the basket because I ended up needing bread with my dinner as well.

I ordered the cold appetizer sampler as my entrée. [clockwise]

Hummus – pureed chick peas with a hint of garlic, tahini, fresh lemon juice, and olive oil.
Pilaki – pinto beans with carrots, green peppers, and diced potatoes in a light tomato and olive oil sauce.
Tabuli – cracked wheat tossed with tomatoes, sweet onions, fresh peppers, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil.
Haydari – thickened homemade yogurt with fresh dill, mint, garlic, and walnut.
Eggplant with tomato sauce.
Babaganush – smoked eggplant puree flavored with tahini, olive oil, and garlic.
Ezme – finely chopped tomatoes, onions, walnuts, and hot peppers, mixed in olive oil and herbs.
Dolmasi – grape leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts, raisins, and flavorful herbs.