Tag Archives: sauce

Attitude Adjustment

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Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.  ~ Yogi Berra

Baseball, running, swimming, whatever your physical activity of choice, I’m convinced that Yogi had it right.  Proper fueling aside, the success of any given workout really comes down to your attitude.  Today’s swim, for example, had all the makings of a bad workout.  I had to share my lane for a while and I felt really slow and cumbersome.  But today was the very last time I’ll have access to the UB pool and I wanted to make the best of it.

55minutes later I had swam 60lengths and I felt great.  Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

It’s a little less exciting when you realize that 60lengths is still only 4500feet.  I swam for almost an hour and I still didn’t finish a mile?!?  Once I see the pool at Buffalo State if I decide to keep up my pool work outs I think some swimming lessons are in order 😉

I told myself I could get an iced coffee if I stayed in the pool for an hour (sometimes bribing works too!) so I stopped into Dunkin Donuts on the way home.

They were less than pleased with my modified order, which ended up being basically a mash-up of three different drinks.  A medium dark roast iced latte with skim milk, no sweetener, and coconut flavoring.

In the end, the lunch I made once I got home was far more exciting than the coffee.

I swear on a stack of cases of diet coke that there is nothing more tasty than a veggie bowl!  It seems like if it has veggies and is cooked in a skillet it’s going to taste delicious.  Today’s mix was something random from the top of my head and I am a genius, just putting it out there! 

  1. I put 2/3cup frozen peas in a skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Once they de-iced I removed the peas from the pan and added 2t of evoo.
  3. Then I added 1 small neon eggplant, chopped and a sprinkle of salt.
  4. I let the eggplant cook, cook, cook; 5-7minutes until it the edges were getting nice and burnt.
  5. Meanwhile I whisked together a mixture of ketchup, honey, and oj in a small bowl.  (approx. 3T ketchup, 2T orange juice, and 1T honey)
  6. Finally I reduced the heat to medium-low and poured my sauce over the eggplant.  I gave them a minute to get acquainted before I put the peas back into the mix and gave a few stirs.

Man, oh man, oh man!

The rest of the afternoon looks like a mix of the binder project and my continued swooning over lunch.  Peace!

What helps you to have a really good workout?  Do you have a personal mantra?

Hitting the Dessert

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Thanks for all the support on my weight gain post, you guys are the best!  However, not one of you commented on the Cartman tie-in, apparently your senses of humor are a little more mature than mine?

Since today was my last day of volunteering I made full use of my lunch voucher and got a slice of the awesome cafeteria pizza.

I rounded it out with veggies at home.

Kale chips,

and part of a red bell pepper and baby carrots,

dipped into some homemade 1000island dressing (1T miracle whip, 1T ketchup, 2T pickle relish).

It ended up being quite the good lunch.

And a serving of Theo Bread and Chocolate bar for dessert.

I also had a bag of Pretzel M&Ms while I worked on my recipe binder.

Once the husband got home at 7 I got dinner in the oven before heading to the gym.  Note – I did some snacking while I cooked (1handful of chips, 1/2handful of cheese, and 2spoonfuls of filling).

If I’ve said it once I’ll say it a million times (sorry!) being able to move again feels great!  I will never take fitness for granted again.  I had a few twinges in my leg today so I did keep it easy though.  25minutes on the elliptical at level 5.  Followed by 10minutes of arms/abs/stretching when I got home.

By the time I got out of the shower dinner was looking pretty darn tasty.

The recipe comes from Everyday with Rachael Ray, Chicken Salsa Verde Bake.  It is definitely NOT terribly healthy, but it’s the last thing I’ll cook before Vegan Month so I went all out for the husband.  You can click the link (recipe name) for the recipe but here were my changes –

  • I boiled the chicken instead of pan cooking it
  • I used 1.5lbs of meat and subbed in a 15oz can of black beans to fill in the rest of the protein
  • I used low-sodium beans
  • I subbed in shalots for the onion
  • I used low-fat sour cream

It’s calorie-dense, but very filling and delicious.  A good mix of creamy yet crunchy and tangy and spicy yet creamy.

I ate half a red pear alongside my portion.

Dinner = done.

Hope everyone else is having a *sweet* start to their week!

What is your favorite South Park episode?

Fantastic Fettuccine

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Happy Friday!  The husband and I are cuddling up to watch the latest “Bones” as soon as I’m done so I’ll keep this quick.

Tonight’s dinner recipe came from Cooking Light, Fettuccine Alfredo with Bacon.  Click the name for a link to the recipe.  Per usual, here were my changes:

  • Subbed in 6slices of extra-lean turkey bacon (and 2T butter); and stirred the bacon into the pasta
  • Subbed in 1/3cup chopped red onion for garlic
  • Subbed in fat free milk
  • Skipped the addition of cooking water

Our meal was fantastic!

I had a small serving of pasta with roasted asparagus on the side.

The pasta was creamy and chewy and oh-so-tasty!  It was filling without being too heavy and the sauce turned out perfectly.

I thought I hated Alfredo sauces, but I think maybe I just needed bacon 😉 Plus I’m not at all a fan of full-fat dairy so the fact that this had skim milk instead of cream was perfect for me.

And the asparagus was outstanding.

This was the first time we tried roasting and of course it was the best ever; roasting is my favorite method for every veggie.  It ended up almost hollow.  The stems were wilted and perfect and the tips were amazingly carmelized and crunchy.

Can you tell I was in love with dinner?

I’ve got mid-show dessert planned already.

Single-serving of dulce de leche ice-cream is sure to hit the spot.

I hope everyone else had a great Friday!  See you Saturday.

What is your favorite ‘lightened up’ dish?  Do you enjoy ‘lite’ options or would you rather indulge sparingly? 

P.S. My camera was charging but I also ended up snacking on a big bowl of popcorn and a serving of blue corn chips.

Shaken, Not Stirred

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I didn’t get as much done this morning as I could have hoped, but it was certainly an improvement on my track-record of late.  I have my final Chemistry quiz (and lab!) tomorrow, for which I began studying making up reading for at the oh-so-responsible hour of 10:00 this morning.

My breakfast wasn’t really big enough so I did some snacking while I studied.  Half a package of chocolate covered espresso beans; I can’t believe how long I’ve had these sitting in my cabinet.  [My camera ate the photo, but if you click the link there is an original picture of them there]

As well as some homemade trail mix;

1/2 cup Kashi H2H, 1/6cup dried cranberries, 1T cinnamon chips.  I liked this combination a lot.  I always make my own trail mixes because they tend to be healthier than store-bought, but I end up putting so many healthy items in that the serving size becomes unhealthy.  Today’s mix had ~200calories and still managed to interest my taste buds.  Sometimes simplicity is better.

I worked on my lab-work all morning then threw some veggies in the oven while I took a much needed shower.  I emerged much cleaner, and quite excited about my roasted veggie salad lunch.

Romaine lettuce base topped with roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and yellow squash.

I roasted extra veggies so I could put some pre-made in the fridge for the rest of the week.

I ‘made’ extra of my salad dressing as well.  I was in the mood for blue cheese but I’m not one of those bloggers who like my lettuce dry; I knew I would need to spread my dressing further in order to get enough of it.  So for two servings (today and tomorrow) I shook together 2T blue cheese dressing with 2T vinegar.

Whenever Adam and I finish a jar, canister, or what-have-you we always wash it out and save it to be reused.  It is a convenient way to be green, and save some $.

Speaking of saving money, I can tell this is going to be a snacky day so I thought ahead this time and threw some snacks into my purse already.  I’m heading to campus to pick up the husband before Anthropology and Chemistry, I’ll let you know what I ended up snacking on when I get back for dinner.

Does your family reuse containers or do you just trash them?

Fancy Friday

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It’s officially the weekend!  My laptop recycling went well, they even gave me back the hard drive which I thought was pretty cool.

I had a coupon to Aunt Annie’s so while we were at the mall we enjoyed some pretzels.

I had 2/3, with mustard.

When we got home we got right now work on dinner which ended up being a pretty fancy affair.

Salad with homemade dressing and oven “fried” brie.

And the husband made salmon patties.

It all came together to make quite the meal.

Oven “Fried” Brie

  • President Brie Logs
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
  1. Cut brie log into 1/2inch slices.
  2. Dip slices in egg and then dredge in bread crumbs.
  3. Place breaded brie on a foiled, sprayed cooking sheet and bake at 450* for 10minutes.

The dressing was inspired by our “finished” container of Jack Daniels mustard.

To the remains of the mustard I added 2t clementine oil, 2t red wine vinegar and shook.  I also pulled out the last of the 1000island dressing from last week for salmon patty dipping.

Adam and I are watching the latest episode of “Bones” and then the plan is to be in bed before 10:30.  Tomorrow is a busy day.

Do you ever make your own salad dressing.  Any combos you’d like to recommend.

Blizzard Provisions

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I haven’t accomplished much since breakfast.  But really I can’t blame myself for being distracted – it is practically blizzarding outside!  Maybe not a blizzard to you Northerners, but the snow is coming down sideways and that’s enough for an island girl like me!

I wasn’t sure what I wanted for lunch, but when I saw a yam on the counter I knew there wasn’t really a choice.

Even more exciting that sweet potato fries is the fact that my oven is glowing purple like that for the picture.  I chopped up a small sweet potato, sprayed and sprinkled liberally with evoo and salt, and put it in a 475* oven for 30minutes or so.

It took longer than I expected and I ended up having a few snacks.  First, I tried this new cheese.

Kerrygold Aged Cheddar.

I only had a small square, but I know this will go perfectly in a grilled cheese sandwich sometime later this week.

Post-cheese, I was admiring the holiday tea set my m-i-l gave me,

when I remembered something very seasonal I had forgotten in the cabinet:

Rice Nog!  I’m not gonna lie, I bought this in October and squirreled it away for the proper season.  Be warned, this is good, but not even close to Silk’s Soy Nog.  I had 1 cup, which I heated for a minute in the microwave before topping with nutmeg.

I ate it by the window, but I didn’t need a warm to drink to remind me why I’m glad to be inside today –

Eeek.  Sweet potato oven fries were the perfect warm meal.

I made some – better tasting than looking – Thousand Island Dressing for dipping purposes.  2T sweet pickle relish, 1T lite Miracle Whip, 1T ketchup.  There ended up being way too much, you could probably cut those measurements down to teaspoons.

If you’re wondering why I squeezed the taters onto that small plate, it’s because I was reusing my apple plate for this morning.  I’m into dish conservation!

I’ve got lots of cleaning and a little bit of class work to do before I have to run some errands.  Thank goodness Adam is driving me tonight, there is no way I’d be going out alone!  I probably would choose to not go out at all but tonight is my final lab (yay!) and I have to check out in person or face a $100 fine.

Are you stocked up on “in case of emergency” provisions?  What items does your family stock?  We are not stocked, a fact we need to rectify this weekend.  There’s really no excuse, my dad has called to remind me at least 10 times since November!

Read Head

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It was an interesting if not entirely productive morning.  My computer had an incredibly annoying virus which I dealt with, but which took forever.  I was freezing – in spite of the heat being on and my turtleneck – so I curled up on the couch with a comforter and a book.  So cozy!  I fell asleep for a bit and was woken up by UPS –

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Yay!  And then I finished my book!  I have always loved to read, I devour books, but it’s been forever since I’ve been able to just curl up with one for hours.  I read Madness, Marya Hornbacher’s (second) memoir.  It was good; very sad, but interesting.  I read her first memoir, Wasted, when I was in middle school and it seriously changed the way I thought about literature.  Hornbacher is such a beautiful writer, her style is all off the place and full of vivid descriptions, it’s perfect for me.

The rest of the afternoon, unfortunately, was completely killed by a migraine 😦  I’ve grown out of them for the most part, and now they are pretty responsive to Ecedrin Migraine, but they still eat up a few hours.  When Adam got home around 5 I realized that part of the problem was having not eaten since breakfast so we split a Granny Smith apple.

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I spread my portion witha 100calorie pack of Justin’s Organic Honey Peanut Butter.  I love pb on tart apples.

Our main fun for the evening was a trip to the grocery store so we made a weekly meal plan and off we went.  I love doing errands with my husband so much!!!  The grocery store is one of my favorite places, especially because they gave me several free samples today 🙂

Dinner was eaten in a strange series of courses, all of which were quite good.  I was at the stove, so I ate most of them there, which was actually sort of cathartic.  Btw, I was at the stove because I was making Adam a Wholly Wholesome Pumpkin Pie.

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The husband is a crazy-face; he is obsessed with pumpkin (“punkin” he says) pie but won’t let me make it from scratch because apparently that would be gross?!

First dinner course, 2 celery stalks with 1t light chunky blue cheese dressing.

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My huge package this afternoon came from Dr. McDougall’s.  I had never heard of their soups before, but when they sent me a description and asked me if I wanted some samples I happy obliged.  I tried veggie today.

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The company was quite sweet, and sent me this pretty place setting from Crate & Barrel.  So fall-ish!

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I liked the nutritional stats on the soup, and almost never eat one portion when it comes to soup, so I ate the whole box.

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It was quite good.

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Third course, and the other reason I was at the stove, was bbq cabbage.

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I didn’t measure anything but I’ll give you the basic steps/ingredients.  Heat Smart Balance Light in a pan over medium-high heat.  Add 1/2 head chopped napa cabbage.  Cook for 2-3minutes before adding 1/2 – 1 cup of water and covering.  After sufficient steaming time, douse with worchestire sauce, hot sauce, honey, ketchup, and apple cider vinegar.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 7-10 more minutes.  Delish, it ended up being like I imagine Kim Chi would taste.

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Finally, I ate 1.5 servings of Synder’s Buffalo Wing pretzels while Adam and I watched the new episode of Bones.

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The perfect date evening!

It’s too bad I spent most of my day asleep, because now I have more to do this weekend, but I do feel well-rested.  We have a lot planned for tomorrow, all of which I’m pretty excited for.  Happy weekending everyone!

Who is your favorite author? As I mentioned, I have a reading obsession, but Hornbacher is definitely one of my favorites.  I am also a big fan of C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Gregory Maguire, and Kurt Vonegut.

Eat Up the Fridge

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I was very productive on the business-front (although registration for classes does not look promising) but my split study schedule might have been a bad idea.  By the time I got back to Starbucks in the afternoon it was packed.  I roamed all the coffee bars in the area and it took me until 4:45 to find one that wasn’t sardined with Park Slope stay-at-home-mommies.

I drank a Fizzy Lizzy Tangerine while I worked and did manage to get some good studying in until Adam came to meet me at 6.

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This drink was real juice with fizzy water and had 100% daily dose of vitamin C for 100calories.

Our fun plan was to hit up a beer tasting at a place on 5th Avenue but that fell through.  When we got there we learned that 1. the tasting was an hour later than listed online, and 2. they don’t have a full liquor license so we couldn’t sit and drink beers while we waited.  Our make-up plans were much better though 🙂

We took the looong walk (3miles total) to 7-11 for my version of heaven.

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I got a Big Gulp of diet coke and it made me smile the whole walk home.  And, we stopped in at a local playground so I could do what I’ve been dreaming of for the past two years…

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…climb the mini rock wall!  It was everything I had hoped for.  We also tried to do the monkey bars but I was way too weak, children’s game are good workouts.

I was very hungry by the time we got home so I ate 5 of Adam’s Saltines,

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and another kiwi bowl.

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Dinner was a ‘use up the fridge’ effort that ended up being amazing.

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My plate had –

  • 1/3C cooked wheatberries
  • ~2/3C sauteed peas and artichoke hearts
  • 1/2 can of tuna
  • the last jalopeno chicken sausage
  • and tasty sauce (for 2 servings I shook together 2T red wine vinegar, 1T lemon juice, 1T evoo, 1shake oregano and paprika)

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This was so yummy!  It was a great mix of textures and the flavors blended together really nicely.

Tonight I would like to do a mini workout (seriously mini, like 20 sit-ups) and I will probably have a small snack/dessert if fullness doesn’t kick in after 20minutes.  I am also determined to go to bed early!

Have you had any recent ‘eat up the fridge’ successes?