Fruit In My Purse, In My Chocolate

by Emily

I should NOT be blogging right now but I needed a study break! Tomorrow is going to suck; I’ll leave it at that.

Breakfast was grabbed quickly but ended up being good. A Revolution Foods Organic Berry MashUp.

I’ve seen some chatter on the internet about how lame it is for grown women to eat “baby food” but all I have to say to that is – sorry you don’t know what’s good? These are delicious and if you can find another way for me to stick a half cup of berries straight into my purse, I’m all ears.

Plus a sample box of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola from HLS.

This was so crunchy and tasty that I actually snapped a picture on my phone to remind myself to buy more!

Since you can already see my warm jacket peeking out from those pictures I’ll admit defeat and show you bundled up look –

It was in the low 30’s today, there could have been snow! There’s even another shirt on under that top layer (which was Adam’s!).

Not to worry, no one could see that I was wearing stripes + stripes + plaid, that layer was purely for bundling.

Towards the end of our 4-hour class our instructor took us on a field trip across campus to see some of the research posters being presented by faculty from across the disciplines. We got out of class early and they had food, score!

Fruit,

veg (that brown stuff is a hummus based sauce),

bit of pasta salad and a turkey sandwich with chipotle mayo.

The photos make everything look a bit bigger than it was in real life, this was a smallish lunch. Good thing I supplemented it with Combos.

I’m having a Combos thing this week, so sue me.

The hours of 12 – 3 were spent hard at studying with some friends in a computer lab.

So. Much. Material!!!

Cherry cordials when I got home.

If this evening goes like I think it’s going to I suspect this will not be the only dessert I have today…

25Oct2011

With A Cherry On Top

by Emily

Man, oh man! I was at school for 12+ hours today. 2 of my meals came out of vending machines. 0 of my photos are attractive. Basically if you look at the numbers this post is going to suck.

Breakfast from three angles, none of which are pretty.

Basically I put Plain Silk Almond Milk, chia seeds, and a chopped nectarine into a jar in the fridge and let the mixture thicken overnight. It was pretty good. I’ve got a fun idea for a chia seed recipes that I’ve had running through my head for the past week.

When I ate in class I topped the mixture with this granola sample from HLS.

I also packed an Oldwalla Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut Fiber Bar, also from HLS.

This tasted good but breakfast did not hold me over at all. Midway through our 4 hour class I ran to the vending machine and bought these peanut butter crackers.

If I had known what lunch and dinner were going to look like I probably would have done something different.

Class got out at noon and I had an advising appointment at 1:30 and a club event at 6:30 so I figured I’d stay on campus and study and go to the gym. Not only did I not ever get to the gym, I’m still 10 pages of notes away from being done with my notecards! Somehow everyone in my class is shocked by how much material is going to be on Friday’s exam!

Honey Mustard Pretzels and Peanut M&Ms, vending machine dinner of champions.

And when I got to the event this evening I made myself a small plate of snacks.

Our club advisor actually got us all together to watch a movie for funsies. She picked “The Gods Must Be Crazy II” which I ended up loving. It was cute, touching, and 80’s humor funny. Plus part of the storyline centered around the San/Bushmen of the Kalahari and I’m obsessed with them.

When I dragged myself back to my car (12 hours later!) I discovered a ticket on my windshield! It was for my expired car registration (another really frustrating story) which pisses me off because I don’t see why the campus police have authority over anything other than parking permit issues. I’m going to argue it tomorrow but I came home in a sour mood.

And then Adam met me at the door with candy!!!!!

I mentioned this weekend that I’m one of the few people who really likes cherry cordials and he surprised me with a box of them.

So good. He’s the best.

I may not have made it to the gym but when we took the dog on a quick walk I sprinted a few blocks with him, so I’m going to call it good. At least I made a little use of the sports bra I’ve been rocking all day!

Have you ever seen “The Gods Must Be Crazy?”

Cherry cordials; love ’em or hate ’em?

22Oct2011

Quick Trip To Canada

by Emily

I went to Canada today!

We didn’t really do any exciting abroad things, but we did snap pictures as we drove past the falls. We were just making a quick trip up to the International Marathon Expo. I offered to drive up so that blog friends Katy and Holly could pick up their packets.

I actually was planning on running the half marathon with them until not too long ago, but that’s another story for another time.

Prior to our drive, Adam and I hit up the farmers’ market in search of eggplants. We had success. We also found breakfast.

The husband and I split this locally made cheddar-rosemary scone.

It was crumbly and delicious. I need to put “make scones” on my life to-do list.

Then after Canada we headed to the grocery store. Adam and I both got totally sucked in by this register line purchase.

We split the box 60:40 (his favor), but both took at least a nibble of all four flavors.

When we got home I made myself a plate of grilled cheese epicness for lunch.

2 mini sandwiches (that’s a small plate) of sourdough bread with cheddar, 2% mozzarella, and pickled jalapeno slices.

I cooked the sandwiches in a skillet with another smaller skillet pressed on top and they turned out so crispy.

Plus melty, cheesy, and spicy.

With a cookie for dessert.

We had dinner planned but Adam was absolutely desperate to get back to India Gate. We compromised by eating some veggies at home first. In the form of salads.

This was an amazing salad too. A Romaine lettuce base topped with groats, roasted zucchini, goat cheese, and champagne dressing.

The cheese was more of the world’s best goat cheese from First Light Farm and Creamery.

This time a double cream chevre with garlic and dill.

And the dressing was a Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program sample from Marzetti’s Simply Dressed Line.

Nutrition –

From the accompanying literature – “Marzetti Simply Dressed is made with a minimal number of all-natural ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil (a source of Omega-3 ALA) and sea salt, and does not contain any preservatives, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, or artificial flavors or colors.”

After all that it’s ironic, but my only complaint was with one of the ingredients! The dressing contained xantham gum (which I’m not opposed to in principle and do use occasionally in smoothies) and it made it way to viscous. The thick, goopy, snotty (sorry) texture is not what I’m looking for in a dressing. But the flavor was nice without being overpowering. And I only needed 1.5 Tbsp (less than 80 calories) to feel like my whole salad was properly dressed.

‘Twas good all together.

But we hung out a bit too long between our salad course and the rest of our meal because we definitely had room for dessert, drink, and appetizer!

We started with Paneer Pakora, hhome-made cheese dipped in chickpea batter and deep-fried.

This was like the Indian spin on fried mozzarella sticks. Here’s my serving –

We also ordered a fig lassi.

It was creamy with nice back hints of fig and these great little pieces of chewiness at the bottom.

We meant to share this 50:50 but I took a much larger portion because my meal was hot-hot-hot.

It’s not on the menu, but they were happy to hook me up with Tofu Vindaloo.

Vindaloo is a spicy, tomato based sauce that I’ve been dying to try because it’s notorious for melting your face off. I ordered mine “hot” hot and while this was spicy it still wasn’t quite the heat level I was hoping for. I’ve found outside of Thai food other types of heat just feel a little flat to me.

Adam repeated his order from last time, Chicken Makhani, boneless skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter, cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins.

My meals have all been good but I think there is really no way to beat this dish! The cashews and raisins are little bits of chew embedded in every bite.

The bits of chew theme continued with fantastic rice.

I told Adam during this meal that chewiness is my favorite texture sensation.

Here was plate number 1 –

Rice, tofu, plus a taste of the Makhani sauce. I ended up also topping my vindaloo liberally with raita to help cool things down.

For plate number 2 I ended up just layering all of the components into a pile.

It was a great combination of flavors. And we came home with leftovers so we’ll have happy taste buds for lunch tomorrow too.

We didn’t want to kill the date-night vibe so we ended with dessert.

Gulab Jamun, deep-fried milk balls in a sweet syrup.

These were like little donuts with the slightest flavor of milk, like tres leches light. The syrup had some sort of spice in it and lent another nice layer of flavor. It was a fun end to a fun meal.

Which Indian dish should I check out next?

21Oct2011

Health Fair Fare

by Emily

Good morning! I’m especially chipper today because I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep last night. I always turn into a bit of a bear at the slightest hint of cold but it appears this year my body requires a full-scale hibernation!

Yesterday morning did get off to a good start with a yogurt bowl. Into the last ~ serving of Wegman’s 0% Greek yogurt I stirred 1 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and 2 Tbsp Silk Plain Almond Milk.

Then I plopped in a big handful of raspberries before the mix had time to resolidify.

And since I used up the last serving I could use the container as my bowl; portable, yo.

Note: I use the word “yo,” unironically, often. If we’re going to be friends you should know.

We have our Coordinated Program stuff on Thursday which usually means a 4-hours-straight block of class, but yesterday we technically got out a bit early because we were putting on a health fair! The program was split into two projects this semester – one group is organizing the chili sale (my group) and the other group organized an on-campus health fair – but everyone in the class ultimately participates in both. I think the Health Fair group did a great job!

The fair was professional and I was especially impressed with all of the non-dietetics students for how interested they were in learning about nutrition. I was at the “quiz” table (not shown) and it was a ton of fun.

We didn’t really have time for lunch but I did snag a baggie of baby carrots from one of the other tables.

Plus we all hit up the bake sale.

Our pumpkin fudge pops were a hit! I also ate most of this carrot cake bar my friend Hillary made.

Yum. We laughed that it wasn’t really dessert, just that I was making sure I got in my orange veggies for the day!

We recently got a recall notice for the husband’s car so I spent my afternoon out at the Toyota dealership. I did a little bit of studying and made the best meal I could from the vending machines.

I brought Adam home a handful of those pretzels but it was too late, he had already eaten two big servings of leftover African Peanut Stew, aka both of our dinners. I was pretty tired and I couldn’t get take-out so instead of grumping around all evening I just got into an early bed.

And since clearly getting up at 5am this morning was easier that most, I had time for breakfast at home today.

I mixed a Stonyfield Low-Fat French Vanilla Yogurt with pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin, then topped with 1/4 cup of All-Bran Bran Buds and 1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut.

This was like mousse with crumb topping … sort of! I do adore that Bran Bud cereal though.

I’m done with class at 1pm today and I’m hoping to bang out a lot of work for next week’s test. We are getting back our 2nd test from last week today and considering how bad the 1st one was I bet I’ll be motivated.

Which has more caffeine (no looking it up!) a grande coffee from Starbucks or a Red Bull energy drink?

19Oct2011

My Chemical Romance

by Emily

Can we just not talk about the fact that my diet today consisted of sugar, caffeine, and Lean Cuisine? Goodbye phytochemicals, hello chemicals!

And I was even more of a disaster yesterday. (<– hence, no post) The dog ate some very important notes and made me sooooo mad! By the time I finished cleaning up I just went straight to bed! Thank goodness I ate a whole bag of chips for lunch so I was covered calorically 😉

I didn’t prepack lunch so this morning I grabbed what I thought was an apple off my shelf. Nope.

Since I had no other food in my bag I did end up eating Good & Plentys at 8am! I totally deserved the sugar-induced buzz/headache that followed.

Speaking of sugar, how cute are these?

There is a bake sale going on tomorrow and Janessa and I are bringing in cake balls.

Pumpkin cake, homemade cream cheese frosting, a dip in dark chocolate, and fall colored sprinkles!

We baked all through our break so I couldn’t get food, but I did make time for Starbucks.

That’s a grande, non-fat, caramel macchiato with pumpkin spice subbed in for vanilla syrup. Genius!

School got out at 4:30 and then Adam and I had to get our flu shots and spend some time switching out our summer and winter wardrobes. The seasons have officially changed!

I was beyond ready for dinner by the time I sat down to eat at 8pm.

These Thai -style Chicken Spring Rolls from Lean Cuisine rocked my socks.

I ate 6 (aka two servings) minus 1 for the husband who has become a recent Lean Cuisine addict. I know that the sodium content sucks but they are all so dang good and our grocery store always has great sales. Plus, for my personal diet I’m more concerned with saturated fat content than sodium.

Dipped in homemade peanut sauce these made a nice, satisfying dinner.

P.S. My mom just called to ask why there was no “Window Shopping Wednesday” post today. Because I spent all day thinking it was Tuesday!?!

16Oct2011

Tervis, Tastes, TV

by Emily

Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog! Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow. I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis. Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

1 cup skim milk
2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot. Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes. Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!). We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy! And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice. The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top. The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished! Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh. All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with! Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful. And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV. Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle. Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both. Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

15Oct2011

Happy Sweetest Day

by Emily

Did you tell the people in your life that are sweetest how you felt about them today?

I woke Adam up with candy on his pillow.

He didn’t get me anything (in spite of a few pointed comments about the upcoming holiday!) but he did accompany me in blustery weather for a walk to the co-op. And we shared an apple like sweethearts.

Not “Lady and the Tramp” style because that would be messy but trading bites at least.

And we shared this sour candy goo.

The candy was made with real fruit juice (the first 5 ingredients were all natural) and only had 38 calories but we felt like it needed a few more chemicals because it was a little thin.

We did not share this half sweet coffee.

The husband doesn’t like pumpkin spice. <– crazy

Next we took a Living Social deal on a date to Paige’s Paradise.

DO NOT RECOMMEND! Everything was tiny and poorly managed and we would want waaaay more to do if we were paying the full $20 a pop. But we did have fun being together, and Adam had fun kicking my butt at both mini golf and indoor rock climbing.

I was hungry all through the morning and by the time we got home not eating enough today (or really yesterday!) hit me hard. I made a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin with a few slices of 2% cheese immediately.

And heated up this Lean Cuisine lasagna soon after.

Plus two cookies – salted caramel and a butter cream ghost – for dessert.

My sweetie actually drove to Ohio this evening to see “The Thing” in theatres with his brother (<– crazy), so dinner was on my own.

The last ~2.5 servings of Doritos straight from the bag.

Tomorrow needs to include –

veggies!
laundry
more movement
note-card making
more veggies!

<– and “laundry” should probably be on there twice too! Do your jeans stretch out upon wearing? My favorite pair is fantastic out of the dryer and loose within an hour of being put on. And I’ve had them on, growing progressively looser, for going on three days!