Tonka Tonka

by Emily

Remember how I said I was out of shape? But I trucked ahead and did that Pilates workout yesterday? Today I feel like I was hit by a truck!!! I seriously didn’t get out of bed until noon and I’ve been shuffling around the apartment like an old lady. This feeling is the reason why I don’t want to work out today, and exactly the reason why I’m going to work out today. Like I said before, I never want to feel like this again.

Plus, it seems to be effecting my fashion sense.

Breakfast got slept through, so I started the day with lunch.

Split Pea Soup is always one of those things I’ve been curious about but unable to try, due to the usual inclusion of ham bone. This cartoon Dr. McDougall’s sent to me is actually vegan. However, I topped my bowl with turkey pepperoni and Kerrygold Dubliner Irish Stout cheese.

It was ok, but I haven’t been missing as much as I thought – the best part was the cheese and pepperoni! I ended up only eating half of the cartoon, so I am pretty sure a snack is on the near horizon. I’ll see you then!

Do you like split pea soup? What is good/bad about it?

25Nov2009

Road Tripped

by Emily

We are in Ohio! My grandmother’s internet isn’t the best and it’s been a long day so I won’t be able to be as detailed as I would like. It’s been a good day though 🙂

We got up at 6:30 this morning and were out the door before 7am. The trip was 400+ miles so we had to get an early start. I packed up food for the road, a la Thanksgiving Challenge, threw on a sweatshirt and split.

I had some am amazing grass – 1banana, 1scoop grass, big pour skim milk, 8 ice cubes, blender.

I was so proud of the husband for drinking some too!

A few hours later I ate a yummy leftovers sandwich.

1.5 buffalo blue bean patties on toasted bread with honey and jack daniels mustard.

We split the driving fairly evenly – 2hours Adam, 2hours me, 2hours Adam. The switches were a nice excuse for pee and diet soda breaks!

When we got in to Piqua my grandparents had a great lunch ready for us.

Carrot and dill soup was delicious.

And the two-cheese grilled cheese were so nice and gooey.

There were also spicy bread and butter pickles and sunchips on the table.

I ate more chips throughout the day than was a good idea!

To drink I had half of Adam’s holiday Coke,

and I split a lime beer with my grandmother.

For dessert I had a cherry cordial from the box of candy we brought as our hostess gift.

We had a great time hanging out with my grandparents. We played Euchre and my grandpa bought us all fun lotto cards!

I didn’t win, but it was nice to dream.

My aunt and uncle drove up this evening and we all had a great dinner together (more soup and sandwiches!).

The soup was white chicken chili,

and the sandwiches were pulled chicken – I think we are done with chicken for a bit!

I also had one delicious deviled egg.

Dessert was homemade old fashioned cream pie.

It was awesome, but the crust was store-bought so I just scraped out the filling.

Plus coffee with 2% milk.

Look at their adorable sugar bowl!

Now it’s almost 10 and I would love to get in bed! Overall it’s been a fabulous (filling) day! My grandmother is such a good cook and it’s so great to be with family.

What do you usually pack for road trips?

24Nov2009

An Early Thanksgiving

by Emily

I’m too stuffed to be sad! I have so much to talk about in this post and I’m so excited (and so drunk) that I know things will be left out.

This afternoon I picked up the husband and we headed to my imaging appointment. We were in the waiting room forever so I ended up snacking on an Apricot Pumpkin Prana Bar.

Good. And the good – but not surprising – news is that I don’t have a blood clot. Unfortunately, this meant I didn’t really get more information. I don’t know how I feel about the doctor who saw me yesterday so I actually made another appointment, this time with a sports medicine doctor, for Monday. Sadly, I decided to push back training one more time, so that I will have still been on a break when I meet with this new doctor. 😦

When we got home I started packing and one of Adam’s friend’s came over to hang out. He gave the buffalo blue bean patties a rave review!

Once he left it was time to get gussied for date night.

When I introduced the Thanksgiving Challenge I warned you guys that we had a dinner out pre-planned, a reward for a check from my old job. Tonight was the night.

We went to Juniper, a place on Elmwood that serves 100% local food. Nothing comes from more than 50miles away. Their menu changes seasonally, and the entire concept has had me in a tizzy for months. Our date did not disappoint! For starters, I was in love with the ambiance.

I even loved the look (and labeling!) of the menu! [i. porridge / ii. relish / iii. bird’s work / iv. aristology / v. fixations]

I actually don’t like Turkey Day food all that much (gasp) and this ended up being my mini-Thanksgiving. We ate so much food! I am beyond sad that my camera isn’t better, because my shots aren’t that great. It feels imperative that y’all understand how fabulous this was!

I started the evening with a glass of Dr. L, reisling.

Yums, I thought I wasn’t a wine drinker but I really really enjoy reislings. Wine hits me pretty hard though, halfway through dinner I was definitely nearing wasted. Adam got a beer made with Kona Coffee that was pretty kick ass as well.

And soon homemade foccacia and evoo were delivered to the table.

I ate the piece shown x2, dipped in oil.

The husband went soup and salad for his appetizer route. romaine ‘taco white anchovy, oven dried tomato salsa, peccorino.

I only took a small bite but it wasn’t really my thing.

mushroom pearls miso, ginger, barley.

This soup was fabulous. I only took a few bites because I knew he loved it but it was so nice and meaty!

For my appetizer I went slightly less traditional, bobo’s not wings eggplant tempura, vitamin f, grilled celery.

Ohmyfrickinggod! This rocked my socks. I would eat chicken wings every meal if the chicken wing part of the equation didn’t slightly skeeve me out, so this was perfection. This appetizer made the top three list of best things I’ve ever eaten. It was spicy and crunchy and perfect. I demolished it.

For entrees Adam got the chicken little poussin, chevre, rosemary smokies, fig jam.

Delish. The meat was super succulent and the fig jam was as good as you would imagine. Adam said his favorite component of the evening was the dark meat of his chicken. He ate every single scrap of meat he could find, and even did the wishbone with me!

I won! I wouldn’t have mattered though, I definitely have everything I could wish for.

I ordered the ponzu salmon bok choy, forbidden rice, pickled lime.

I was pretty stuffed at this point so I only ate about 1/3 of mine. I asked for my fish well done and I thought it was cooked perfectly. The lime flavor on the veggies was out of this world.

Honestly though, the best thing on the table wasn’t even the entrees. It was this random bowl of roasted squash.

Holy frick!!!!! This is literally the best thing I’ve ever eaten. When I took my first bite I made Adam stop talking for a minute so I could just sit there.

We were pretty stuffed at this point but we knew we had to try dessert. Adam got the chocolate ‘bomb.’

I know this sounds crazy from a food lover, but I really don’t like chocolate cake! I took a small nibble, and I could tell it was good, but it just wasn’t my thing. He loved it though. It had Grand Marnier and candied orange peel on top. The homemade lavender chocolate ice cream was ridiculous.

I went with my favorite, trio of creme brule vanilla bean, cinnamon, pumpkin.

Gah! Indescribable. I don’t know how I managed to let Adam split this with me. I was most excited for the cinnamon, but pumpkin ended up being out of this world. This was another moment when I just had to sit in silence.

I honestly can’t describe how much I enjoyed this meal. I must have thanked Adam 20times during dinner for putting up with my out of control joy! I was in love with everything in my mouth. I felt so thankful.

Now that we are home I need to finish packing quickly and get to bed. The plan is to leave before 7am tomorrow and I do not want to be a sleepy driver. I will hopefully be doing regular posts this weekend but depending on the internet situation there may just be a big recap. Whatever may happen, I hope all my readers and their families have a fabulous Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite restaurant? I loved everything about Juniper – the decorations, the flavors, and the ideals. The only other place I feel so strongly about is Serendipity in New York City.

23Nov2009

Liver Spots

by Emily

There were all sorts of goods and bads today but I’ll try to focus on the goods. Like, for example, the fact that it’s Turkey Day week!

I went ’80’s style when I got dressed today, all I needed was my old Doc Martin boots!

Now that I live in Buffalo I wear sandals every day, but when I was growing up in the Caribbean I went through an intense Doc Martin phase. I guess I like anything that’s out of season!

I was in desperate need of greens/fruits so I made a smoothie for the road.

1C frozen blackberries, a scoop of Chocolate Amazing Grass, and some skim milk. I loved how purple it got!

I arrived at school really early so I walked around with Adam for a bit before heading to my appointment.

Fun fact #1 – my leg hurts like crazy. Fun fact # 2 – according to the RN at the health center I have a varicose vein! It’s not a terrible one, and at this stage my insurance won’t cover removal. They are hereditary and my teaching career (on my feet nonstop from 7-5) is a big factor, as well as my years as a waitress. She said I need to wear support hose and supportive shoes, but wouldn’t give me information about how long that would need to happen. If a month or so will ‘fix’ me then I’m all for it, but if it’s a rest of my life thing I’d rather keep with my sandals and just have the surgery when it gets worse. I have an imaging appointment tomorrow to make sure I don’t have a blood clot and I’ll get more information then.

I’m not going to lie, it’s a good thing Adam drove me to class because I bawled all the way there. I’m able to put up with a lot of pain, but having a yucky old lady problem pisses me off! I don’t want to wear support hose! I sort of lost it. I think things will be better once I get more information tomorrow.

The good news is that physical activity can’t make it worse. I try to be very careful of injury (that’s why I took time off when the leg pain started) because I would never want to permanently side-line myself. However, I am ridiculously stubborn and am pretty good with putting up with pain. I decided last week that I would always stop running if I would cause permanent injury by not taking a break, but that if I could safely run through the pain I would do so. Therefore, 7 out of 10 leg pain be damned, half marathon training is back on!!

I recomposed myself once I got to campus, but definitely bought this bag of Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos to ease my sorrows.

($1, Challenge Balance – $79.24 ) I ate about half the bag – go me for not just downing the whole thing.

At 6 I got more good news when Caroline showed up with her laptop, class was cancelled! Adam was already at the gym with a friend so she offered to take me home. We made a pit-stop at the mall (shopping for her bf) so that was fun.

Dinner was more good news. Delicious, all around! The first course was Dr. McDougall’s Soup.

Adam had Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato and I had Chunky Tomato.

I almost never eat ‘mater soup but I love it.

The second/main course was my newest creation.

Buffalo Blue Bean Patties, serves 4

2 15.5oz cans black beans we use low sodium
1/2 cup, plus 2T buffalo wing sauce we used the sauce from Anchor Bar, the birthplace of Buffalo wings
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbles
salt and pepper, to season

Preheat the oven to 450*. Foil and spray a baking sheet.
Empty bean cans into a colander and rinse thoroughly – this is a heart healthy step, reduce your sodium intake.
Pour beans and 2 cups wing sauce into a blender and puree. If you have a rickety blender you may want to do this in two batches.
Empty blender into a large mixing bowl. Add rest of wing sauce and eggs, stir. Add bread crumbs, stir. Add cheese and fork to combine.
Using your hands, form 12 patties out of the bean mixture.
Put patties on prepared sheet and bake for 20minutes, it is not necessary to flip them during baking.

I ate mine with the sad remains of our ketchup (that’s a small plate).

Man they were good! I don’t want to toot my own horn, but this was such a good idea! They were also very filling, I ended up only eating 2.5.

You what what else is a good idea? The big bowl of popcorn I’m about to make! Yes, I used up the big bag of ‘corn my in-laws brought me just last month!

Have a good night folks!

What makes you feel old? I’m 24, I’m not cool with the idea of support hose! Teenage entertainment makes me feel old too, shows like “Gossip Girl” just make me uncomfortable!

13Nov2009

Soup, Salad, Samples

by Emily

Lunch was eaten in stages. First, a full cartoon of Dr. McDougall’s Minestrone Soup.

It was good, but a bit brothy.

I had a Zevia Twist along the side.

Second, was a fantabulous salad.

This salad was socks-rocking; lettuce base, shredded carrot, lite blue cheese dressing, dried fig, chopped pear.

8Nov2009

Dinner with Outstanding in the Field

by Emily

Tonight was amazing! I am so sorry for another lame post, I truely truely am. I get so excited about food but I have so much to say that it is too much and I’m exhausted.

Dinner was put on by Outstanding in the Field (a very locavore, farm to table, excited about sustainability organization) and was held at Greenleaf Warehouses. The setting was legit a warehouse, I love industrial/fashionable settings.

You can just go ahead and multiply this glass of vino by 3.

And I had 1 shrimp crisp,

and a whipped tuna cracker.

Dinner was family style, so we got to serve ourselves. First was a pickled veggie plate Ahi tonnato on pain de mie with gochukaura and parsley.

I loved how spicy everything was.

Next was soup Mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms.

It was very similar to a miso but the mushrooms had an insanely lemon taste. This was the only thing I didn’t love.

Then they brought out udon noodles with fresh calamari Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisee & yellow pear tomato with chojang & sesame vinaigrette.

I was very nervous about it but Jenna convinced me to try a taste.

So glad I did! I actually really liked the calamari but the soba noodles were the best, very doughy and raw. Plus the dish had a good spice kick.

Then came salmon and mushroom risotto Salmon baked with dashikombu, fried garlic and Japanesse curry powder / Mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice, crispy maitake mushrooms.

I don’t know why I took such a tiny serving, but it was delicious. I love love loved the curry powder.

There was oxtail, but I obviously ignored it, and then came out a platter of brussels sprouts Roasted brussels sprouts, ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, bonito flakes. Jenna told me there was short rib in them, so I resisted. But brussels sprouts are in my top five all time food favorites, so I finally said f’ it and ate one. Delish. Then the waitress came by, and said “vegetarian.” So I loaded up a plate.

So.Fricking.Fantastic. They tasted like McDonald’s fries, which sounds awful but was just amazing. However, apparently, so not vegetarian. They definitly had pork in them. Which makes me quite sad 😦

Finally, dessert. Ah dessert Koshihikari rice pudding, cookie crumble, and warren pear.

I love rice pudding, but the pear, oh the pear! I had a bite of pear at the farmer’s market this morning and I’ve been telling people all day that it was seriously the best thing I’ve eaten out here. The dessert was from the same farm!!! I was in heaven.

Before we headed out they did Foodbuzz awards which was a lot of fun. I definitly congratualate some very deserving winners!

A bus ride later, Camile and I walked the mile back to our hotel for the last time. On the way home I just might have seen a 7-11 and shrieked at the top of my lungs. Bosenberry and cola, oh yeah.

Even more exciting? Getting in bed now! Tomorrow morning there is a goodbye breakfast and then I fly all day long and get back home at midnight! I have a big test on Monday so I’m not sure what the posting situation will be. I hope everyone else’s weekend ends well!!

Challenge Balance – $31.71

27Oct2009

Shorty Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

by Emily

What is with my head!?! I had another (much smaller) headache and I actually took a nap when I was supposed to be working! Oh well, I might as well move on rather than dwell.

Lunch was good.

I had a carton of Dr. McDougall’s Lentil Soup.

Half a slice of Naan from Wegmans.

And a Black Cherry Zevia to drink.

While I ate I watched “Trauma” on Hulu. The episode got me thinking about this article I read in Reader’s Digest – 911 Calls Gone Tragically Wrong. Have you read this? It’s a little scary. I want it in my head that 911 workers are well paid and capable.

I have a meeting at 2 with one of the departments I’m applying to, wish me luck! Afterwards I am getting some resumes printed and mailed, and then hopefully getting some fricking work done!!

Question of the day (Before my mom asks) – Who knows how this title fits with this post?

19Oct2009

Curried Chicken and Cider Soup

by Emily

I totally lied when I said I was going right to class. That was the plan, but I was so cold (inside my house, with the heat on) that I just couldn’t bring myself to go outside yet! I sat on the couch and read my book.

Heat seems like it is going to rock my socks, it’s a memoir about, among other things, training as a prep chef for Mario Batali. I am all about memoirs and food, so it seems like the perfect fit.

Once I did get off the couch and get dressed I realized I was wearing an outfit from my teaching days and the whole thing felt sort of surreal.

I don’t know if anyone read my job identity search post this morning, but the one thing I do know is that do not want to teach! I swear I sort of have PTSD from my experience!

Also, I was super hungry so I packed myself a snack for the road –

1 oz buffalo wing pretzels with some turkey pepperoni (don’t worry mom, I only ate at lights!).

That totally did not cut it though. After I finished printing at the library I set off in search of food. I ended up with an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese.

Class went well, we are studying electron orbitals which I love – it’s like a puzzle! When I got home at 9 I got right to work on dinner. We made Curried Chicken and Cider Soup from “Everyday with Rachael Ray” (click on the name for the recipe link).

I skipped the cumin, and substituted 1C of water with 1C extra cider, but otherwise I followed the recipe. I topped my bowl with buffalo wing pretzel nuggets for a crouton-like effect.

I don’t think I would have liked it without the added spice, it was pretty sweet, but with the addition it was perfect.

Afterwards I had this fun drink I bought a while back.

It’s not really Sangria, more like strawberry soda. It’s from Japan and was totally cool; you had to pop the top to release a marble.

I was supposed to paint my nails tonight but it is almost 11 so it looks like I’ll be heading straight to bed. Tomorrow I have a gym trip planned, plus tons and tons of schoolwork, and hopefully some job searching. Sweet dreams!

Do you like buffalo wings? I’m not a huge wings fan but I love buffalo sauce!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: soup

Tonka Tonka

Road Tripped

An Early Thanksgiving

Liver Spots

Soup, Salad, Samples

Dinner with Outstanding in the Field

Shorty Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

Curried Chicken and Cider Soup