Tag Archives: soup

I’m Like Wolverine

by

My first day back to humanity was eased along by a lunch date with a friend from school.  In advance – thank you to anyone who gets me out of the house in the next three weeks!  We met at Starbucks (parking!) since the plan was to find a lunch deal somewhere along Elmwood.  One false start at Cecelias (no lunch hours) and we ended up at Wasabi, which was an excellent choice.

The 2-Roll lunch special came with miso soup.

I’m still too chicken for raw, so I went tasty but tame for my two rolls.

An asparagus roll,

and a spicy, crunchy crab roll.

Smothered with wasabi, of course.  Both rolls were totally delicious.  The asparagus had a great tangy, pickled aftertaste and the crunchy in the crab was light and fresh.  I would have licked my plate clean but dutiful wife that I am, I brought home one piece of each for the husband.

Adam was home at a lunch time hour because today was the last day of his family med rotation.  After a final tomorrow he starts psychology on Monday, whoop.  In the meantime though, we are heading to Brewfest tomorrow night.  I’m so excited; our tickets earn us twenty 3oz tastes!

Back at lunch, Donna and I walked back to Starbucks to say goodbye.  I snagged a grande, iced, black tea for my walk home.

I’ve been craving tea like crazy lately, I think I need to whip out my pitcher so I can make some iced at home.

I actually got home from lunch around 3, but I didn’t blog right away because I sustained a major injury –

Apparently I really had to pee, because in my rush to take off my jeans my thumb nail sliced a chunk out of my finger.  I keep my nails pretty short but this sort of thing still happens to me all the time, it’s so frustrating!

Have you ever injured yourself with your own nails?

Buffalo readers – ever been to Brewfest?  What should I expect?

Not So Souper

by

I waited too long to eat this afternoon and ended up crazy, ravenously hungry.  I ate two Dr. Kracker pumpkin and cheddar flat breads.

Adam and I also finished off the last of his chips and french onion dip (probably 2-3 servings each).

True Story – I poured the chip crumbles into the last of the dip and ate the mixture with a fork; it was epic.

Not the best pre-run meal, but aching belles be damned, we ran anyway.  2 miles down Elmwood in 20:40.  I may have been running 7 miles in May, but we are starting from scratch fitnesswise.  We made a loop that hit 2 miles halfway through the 2nd lap, so with our walk home we brought our total to 2.8 miles (4 miles total today).

Our dinner plan was a simple soup, so we showered and got bed-ready as soon as we got home.

I’m not gonna lie, I moved this meal up in our weekly meal plan so I could use my new mug I scored at an antique store for $1.

To fill my cute mug, Manischewitz minestrone.

I’m not gonna lie, this soup was inedible.  I undercooked it but I’m pretty sure it would have been terrible regardless.  Gag me with a spoon, literally!

After we poured dinner down the train I was ready for bed, both in dress and energy level.  All the food in the house required time to become meals and take-out was money we didn’t want to spend.  So I threw a cardigan on over my nightgown and we headed to the Co-op.  Which is how I ended up making my final walk down Elmwood (5 miles total for today!) in this –

This is my life people, some times I’m embarrassing trend-setting in the name of food.

And Adam and I ended up splitting a bagel with cream cheese for dinner.

It was perfect.  But veggies are high on tomorrow’s agenda.

Make Like A Banana And Split

by

Oh my goodness, I am just too excited!  My baking project turned out so well that I’m going to hurry through blogging dinner so I can tell you about it.

Dinner wasn’t bad.

It’s just that nothing can compare to cupcakes.

I made this lentil soup packet from Manischewitz.

And Adam and I split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza as our carb.

Done and done; now I can talk about dessert!

Do you see why I was excited?

It’s been forever since I’ve eaten an actual banana split, but once I got the idea of Banana Split Cupcakes into my head I couldn’t get it out!

Banana Split Cupcakes

  • 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 large bananas, well mashed
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
  • 12 Tbsp hot fudge sauce
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 5 oz vanilla bean ice cream, fully melted
  • maraschino cherries
  • rainbow sprinkles
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Line a cupcake tray with 12 paper liners.
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl combine mashed banana, white sugar, egg, and melted butter.  Stir to combine, then fold in flour mixture and mix just until smooth.  Fold in walnuts.
  4. Fill each cupcake liner halfway with batter.  Spoon 1 Tbsp fudge sauce into each cup.  Top with remaining batter.
  5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to completely cool before icing.
  6. While cupcakes are cooling, use an electric mixer to beat together softened butter, powdered sugar, and melted ice-cream.  (This icing will keep best if stored in the fridge rather than at room temperature).
  7. Ice cupcakes then top with cherries and sprinkles as desired.

I wasn’t sure how the ice cream icing would work, but it ended up being perfect.  And it goes without saying that a layer of fudge in the middle of a cupcake is pure joy.

I ate two cupcakes (and did lots of nibbling) and it’s definitely time for me to put in my retainers so I don’t eat a third one!

For your own good, I beg of you; make these yourself this weekend!

She Ain’t Messing With No Court Jester

by

No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger.  I started dating Adam when we were still in high school.  I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!).  But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”

And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto.  And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.

Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.

First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip.  While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.

I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).

In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.

I also munched on half a leftover turkey reuben.

And then, we were at Medieval Times!

I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.

We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.

The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony.  The best part was definitely the horses though.  And dinner was surprisingly good.  No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –

None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!).  We started with tomato bisque,

and garlic bread,

both of which were only ok.

And then my meal blew me out of the water.

Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.

Dessert was an apple tart.

It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.

Smarties make the drive go so much faster!

We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home.  I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.

I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!

Have you ever been to Medieval Times?

In the Nutritional Know

by

Hello, hello. I want to tell you guys that I’ve got to hurry because of family time, but really I need to go finish making notecards! Don’t worry, we got plenty of fun time in as well.

Our vacation theme of mini mishaps continued – we wanted to work out on the great path behind my grandparents’ house, but Adam left our bag of running gear at home!  In keeping with my pessimistic optimism, I’m going to assume that means that I’m still too sick to run and it’s good that I couldn’t.

I wasn’t hungry for breakfast, but I did snag a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

The whole family (grandparents, mom, husband, me) piled in the car for lunch at a neat spot in Troy.

The Bakehouse was right up my alley; adorable, lots of offerings, and freshly baked bread!

I went with a half soup/sandwich combo for lunch.

A cup of turkey corn chowder,

with half a sandwich of turkey, aged swiss, cole slaw, and thousand island dressing on pumpernickel.

I only ate about half of the soup, because it was a little creamy for me, but the sandwich was perfection!  The reuben – sauerkraut + cole slaw is my absolute favorite.

Actually, my absolute favorite used to be the English toffee bars sold at Starbucks.  They were removed from the menu a while back and I’ve been in mourning ever since.  The Bakehouse had the exact replica –

Split four ways.

OMG!  I love love love this bar, crunchy toffee inside a chewy blondie!

I cleansed my palate with some Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape.

We’re fancy like that.

We did some antiquing (Zzzz), and also made it to a matinée of “The Lincoln Lawyer.”  I feel like the opening wasn’t given a lot of fanfare (I only heard about the movie because I’m obsessed with Michaela Conlin), but the movie was so good!  The perfect mix of funny, touching, and tense.  I highly recommend.

We headed to Applebees afterward for dinner.  Chain restaurants aren’t exactly my speed, so I ordered using the nutritional info as my guide.  Looking for entres 500 calories or less led me to the Teriyaki Shrimp Pasta (440 calories).

This was actually very good!  Whole wheat pasta, teriyaki sauce, and grilled shrimp with broccoli, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas.

I pretty much ignored the pasta, but I devoured my shrimp and veggies.

I tried to keep dinner light because I knew we were heading to George’s (<– Dairy Queen without the franchising) after dinner.

I ended up with a small snow storm (blizzard) with butterfingers and reeses cups.

I planned on sharing with Adam, but um, yeah…

We’re headed back to Buffalo tomorrow, with a few fun stops along the way.

If a restaurant offers nutritional info do you utilize it?  How much does the info affect your ordering?

Eating Like A Sick Person

by

For the last 48hours I’ve been eating like a sick person.  And that’s exactly the way I feel – sick, sick, sick!  This is terrible news for my exercise announcement that was supposed to occur tomorrow, and even worse news for my huge test on Wednesday.  Thankfully the husband has been taking good care of me, including picking me sick people food to eat.

Yesterday I had rainbow sherbet.

This bowl x2.

And organic chicken noodle soup.

Unphotographed but eaten in this space was a spoonful of marshmallow topping.  It coated my throat and for one whole minute I felt good!

I also had an onion bun with Smart Balance Light.

And a Coke for dinner.

I much prefer the taste of diet, but I don’t mind the flavor of regular coke.  The reason I never drink regular is because when I’m sick it makes my throat feel 2x better and I’m afraid if I drink it on random days it will lose its elixer-like quality for me!

After I fitful night I got up this morning and took a (soooo needed) shower, before the husband settled me down on the couch with some mac and cheese.

When he got back from the lab he handed me another glass of Coke.

And for dinner he managed to make me some normal people food.

In my box of samples from Applegate Farms were two kinds of sausages, turkey and pork.

You guys know I don’t eat mammals for personal reasons, but did you know that the husband does?  Sidenote – not often though, and I’m super proud for how much he’s basically quit eating red meat since we met. 

I generally don’t mind, but the one type of meat I wish he wouldn’t eat was pork.  I love pigs.  Love them.  I plan on having two as pets and I’ve already got their names picked out.  In fact, I told the husband before we married to be sure he would be ok with having pet pigs once we could afford them, because if not that was a deal-breaker for me.  So obviously, I wish he wouldn’t chow down on our future pets.  But the husband is a grown man, and he gets to choose his own diet.  He doesn’t eat it often, and out of deference for me he only eats pork when we are sure it is ethically sourced.  I’m good with that plan.  Thankfully, Applegate Farms makes products we can both agree on (Applegate Farm’s promise to their consumers).

I had scrambled eggs,

and 1.5 servings of Savory Turkey Breakfast Sausage.

My sausages had just a bit of spice and good chew.  The one meat meat product I miss from when I was a kid is sausage and these came pretty close to what I’ve been searching for.  I also added some (unphotographed) maple syrup to my plate for dipping.

Adam ate the same meal, but with slightly more food, and pork instead of turkey.

He said the pork sausages were spicier than the turkey but still good.  He liked the consistency of the texture a lot.

I’m going to eat a final bowl of sherbet, go to bed early and cross my fingers I feel better in the morning!

What animals don’t you eat, and why?

These Photographs

by

My title is both one of my favorite songs (Joshua Radin, woo!) and a nod to the fact that my eats today were not at all pretty (in any sense of the word).

I’m not sure why I keep trying to pack breakfast when I’m leaving with Adam in the morning.  My plan is always smoothies and my plan always falls through sometime between the 2nd and 3rd alarm clock snooze.  My lack of packed breakfast leads me to talk to you all about pretzels.  Have you talked with your kids about pretzels yet?

Let’s talk Snyder’s of Hanover Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces.  1st, what they are not – vegan.  Also not – a (not vegan either) candy bar.  But they are – the only non-candy bar food available on campus before my 9:25 lab.

I ate them.

I did pack a lunch, but it wasn’t pretty.  Inside this ugly photograph lies a tasty lunch.

A Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin with an eggplant burger and a bit of Stubb’s BBQ Sauce.

I also packed a pair of clementines.

Sadly within three minutes of eating lunch I was starving again.  That’s approximately one hour into my five-hour break if you’re keeping track.  I’m pretty gosh darn glad I ate the pretzels, otherwise I might have chewed off a leg.

When I got home from my final class dinner was the first thing on my mind.

That will be my final bowl of Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup.  It was still delicious, but enough is enough.

My plans for the evening include a shower, hopefully starting a new book, and dessert.  If dessert is just ok then I’ll mention it in the morning.  But if it’s as good as I think it’s going to be – it’ll deserve its own post!  Keep your fingers crossed!

What is the ugliest thing you eat?

L-O-O-O-N-G Long Day

by

Welp, my long day was exactly that – loooong!  Even though I’m not in class the whole time, being on campus from 11-8:40 is definitely rough.  I think having a snow day last Wednesday made it seem even harder, so hopefully next week will be a little easier!

I was running late this morning so lunch was simple, but it got the job done.

A big serving of unsweetened applesauce with red hots,

topped with (3/4 serving of) Maple Brown Sugar Mini Wheats and (1/3 serving of) Multi-grain Cheerios.

It actually ended up being a pretty great lunch.  FYI – Mini Wheats aren’t actually vegan (they contain gelatin, I’m an idiot), but we are going to finish what we bought.

I also packed a 2nd snack for my 2hour break before my final class.

This Blueberry Muffin Lara Bar actually wasn’t as good as the first one I tried.  It was almost grassy tasting?!  I was hungry though so I still ate it all.

I ate my snack at 5pm and then five hours later I ate dinner.

Holy god was I ever hungry for dinner!  I couldn’t eat right away when I got home because I had to complete a lab assignment for tomorrow, pack my bag, make Adam dinner (he’s obsessed with peanut sauce and not so obsessed with the soup so I made him a fresh batch of sauce to eat on tofu for dinner)…..

By the time I got around to eating dinner – on my feet, over the stove, cooking Adam’s lunches for the rest of the week – my Kale and Roasted Vegetable Soup was more of a mash, but it was still delicious.

Hands down, best soup I’ve ever had.

Just to give everyone a head’s up, I won’t be able to post until dinner time tomorrow.  You know, because people will be crying their eyes out if they can’t read my morning post 😉

How many meals a week would you say you eat standing up?