Tag Archives: sweet

Cruciferous Cooked In Cider

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This afternoon I decided to forget the fancy coffee for the sake of my wallet and find something to snack on at home instead.  Hello, cookie box!  I went with a buttercream frosted cinnamon pumpkin cookie.

Yum!  The cookie was cakey with great aftertastes of pumpkin and the frosting was thick!  We are loving Cheryl’s especially because they include a nutrition panel on each cookie and don’t contain trans fat.

Thank you for the Halloween gift, in-laws!

I also ate a red plum on our way to store.

We only needed to pick up a few things but I’m glad we went because we ended up finding lots of Monday afternoon deals, including 50% off Justin’s almond butter.

Dinner included hot dogs, baked beans, and apple cider stewed cabbage – the fall fantasy meal!

The baked beans were a vegetarian Wegman’s brand, I had a half cup with 2 chopped Applegate Farms Uncured Turkey Hot Dogs.

The beans were only ok but I think the hot dogs were good, it’s been so long since I’ve had one I can’t really remember them!

Since I was eating my dog via beans I nibbled on a bun with Smart Balance Light while I cooked dinner.

I’m glad I kept these components separate because I had a bite of Adam’s bunned dog and was underwhelmed.

The apple cider stewed cabbage was overwhelmingly fantastic though.  I cooked 1 lb of coleslaw mix (chopped cabbage and carrots) in 2 cups of fresh apple cider until tender.  Then strained off the liquid and sautéed with salt and 4 Tbsp of butter until crispy and almost burnt.

Ah-mazing!  I ate my entire huge pile.  I wasn’t planning on using that much butter but I let what I had out get too hot and it ended up being such a tasty mistake.

It was quite the good dinner.

What’s not good is how much I have to do before my tests.  The plan is to stay up another hour or so, then get up early(ish) to continue to work.  I have a bunch of errands to run tomorrow afternoon and I’d like to be on the review/paper-writing portion of my to-do’s at that point.  Wish me luck!

Fun fact – cruciferous veggies include (among others) horseradish, kale, collard greens, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, and mustard seeds!

The Circle Of Life

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“From the day we arrive on the planet

And, blinking step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the Circle of Life”

I just can’t stop singing!  It’s possible I’ve hummed straight through my day.  Other than “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” was the Disney movie with my favorite music.

Backing up to where we left off yesterday, I spent some time (not enough) with these –

I popcorned while I studied.

I hated it.

Plus 100 calories worth of Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% chocolate topped with a smear of Biscoff spread.

Adam was in surgery until late so the meet-up plan involved friends picking me up and all of us getting together with Adam whenever he could make it.  The husband had told me to be ready at 5:45 so a bit after 4 I took Webster out on a long walk.  We were heading home around 5 when I got a call from our friend Patrick – “Eithan said to tell you he’s running late, they’ll probably get you around 5:30.”  5:30 you say?  Whoops! 

Thankfully I’d already showered in the morning so I didn’t take all that long to gussy.  I even managed heels and mascara.

Ready on time, we set off to Pearl Street Grill and Brewery for dinner before the show.  Thankfully, Adam got out early enough to meet us for dinner so we did a little sharing.  I ordered the Gobbler (turkey burger) with a side salad subbed instead of fries for veg.

I was not expecting such a large plate of greens though!  In the end I ate ~ 1/3 of the husband’s chicken fingers and fries,

all of the salad (with brown sugar rum vinaigrette!),

and 2-3 bites of the turkey burger.

Adam was more than happy to take care of the rest for me.  We were with a great group of friends – 2 couples of regulars plus another 2 couples who were friends of friends – so even dinner was fun.

Getting to the theatre was a bit of an ordeal – it’s possible all of the girls had to sprint 2 blocks in high heels! – but all that really matters is we made it.  This was my first time seeing “The Lion King” and I thought it was great.  Knowing the music from the movie and being able to sing along (silently!) definitely helped to keep me engaged.  My favorite part of the show was actually the visual appeal; the costumes for the elephants and giraffes were truly breathtaking.  I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go.  Though now Adam and I are desperate to see the movie to hear the songs again!

It wasn’t the earliest bedtime and my 6am alarm felt a little … rough.  Thankfully I thought ahead so all I had to do was put on shoes, grab my bags, hop in the car, and stumble to the gym.  My notecards and I spent some time on the treadmill, more for a wake up and study review than workout purposes.  2 miles walked, 35 minutes.  A quick change and face wipe bath later and I was ready for my exam.

Before the test I ate this White Chocolate Macadamia Chewy Nut Bar Odwalla sent me to sample.

This was sweet, but not too sweet, and a little bit nutty.  I couldn’t savor it the way I would have liked because our test was about to begin, but it did hold me over well through the morning.  210 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat for 25% each daily value of calcium and folate (<– important for baby making).  The white chocolate macadamia flavor will be hitting stores this month; look for it!

My test went alright, not great but not terribly either.  The subjects covered included the clear liquid diet, parenteral feeding, and Latin roots for medical terms, among other things, so no matter how the test went I know it’s all material I will be seeing again. 

I had time for a quick break and then it was on to class #2 and a group presentation.  Our non-nutritive sweeteners group had to present our findings from the last test lab as well as information on the options available to our future clients.  We were the very first group to go which was a little nerve-wracking but the TA said we did a good job.  We also did our 2nd set of sampling today, this time with commercially made products. 

The class had to analyze original and sugar-free versions of cola, yogurt, ice-cream, jell-o, and chocolate syrup.  Normally we can just take small tastes in lab but since I’ll have to write up a report for this one I needed to take really good notes which meant eating all of the samples, even the nasty ones.  And most of them were nasty.  <– Word to the wise – don’t even waste your time with Hershey’s sugar-free chocolate syrup, yuck city. 

Since I didn’t have time to photograph everything I ate (which ended up having to be a lot) I gave myself the afternoon off from blogging as well.  I will note though, that lunch included many handfuls of salty nuts and a big bag of chips to help balance out all that sweet!  And other than eating and dog walking I didn’t accomplish a blessed thing.  We have two huge exams and a paper due next week and I needed some time for tv watching before my long-weekend study session begins.

Dinner was similarly low-key.

The Tandoor Chef veggie Pad Thai is seriously better than most of the Thai available in Buffalo.

Yums.

On my extra-sweet day, check out what arrived in the mail –

Adam’s mom sent us a haul of cookies!  It’s taking a lot of self-control but we are going to wait until the coffee caramel is finished before having at them.  And on that note, we are off to have sundaes!

Which sugar-free products do you use?  Do you prefer the taste or are you diabetic/looking to cut calories?

Today Was The Day

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Hello, hello!  I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, or rather I traveled to school the right way today.  By walking!

I’ll be glad to have my car and parking permit when the weather gets a bit more blustery, but for now I think I’ll try to hoof it more often.  The weather was crisp and cool, and the 20 minutes of travel gave me time to clear my head.  Plus, it’s better for both my body and Mother Earth’s.

I ended up not really packing breakfast or lunch, but doing a brunch-type meal during my first class.  Roasted green beans are delicious, even leftover and cold, but they did feel a little gaggy at 8am.

I pushed through, because I knew something better was coming.

I know that cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin looks unassuming, anything but!

I toasted him and spread one side with the most amazing goat cheese and the other with reduced fat pumpkin cream cheese.  The combination was out of this world.

Confession – I bought the cream cheese in early September while we were visiting my grandparents in Ohio.

I brought it back home to Buffalo and squirreled it away until Pumpkin Month.  It was still good.  And it was good.

Finally I packed a crunchy Sweet Tango apple,

which I ate during the 3-hour break.  We have a tough test coming on Friday so I crunched while I studied.

It’s possible my friends and I didn’t spend the entire three hours with our noses in books.  Gossip, Grey’s Anatomy, and Biscoff Spread discussion might have filled some time as well.  Especially when we realized that we made plans to get cupcakes more than a month ago and they still hadn’t come to fruition.  We decided today was the day.

First we had to get through 2 more classes.  Class #1 answered some really interesting questions I’ve always had about starvation mode and weight loss, and class #2 handed back last week’s exam that I scored a 96% on.  Something to celebrate!

As soon as we were dismissed a group of us hit the Elmwood strip and walked down to Zillycakes.

I can’t believe that I’ve lived in Buffalo for three years and hadn’t gone in here yet; the inside was adorable.

Janessa and I decided to split to maximize our flavor sampling potential.

2 minis and full, which ended up being the perfect serving of cupcake when shared.

We had 1) a mini vegan pumpkin with vegan brown sugar and spice icing.

I ate this first because I was expecting the least of it, but this flavor actually ended up being my favorite.  The icing was perfectly spiced and crunchy in a really pleasing way.

2) A mini caramel apple cupcake with salted caramel buttercream and toffee bits.

This was my least favorite, but it was still delicious.  There were pieces of dried apple in the cake which we both loved.

3) A full-sized mudd cupcake with dark chocolate ganache.

The cake was studded with Oreo crumbles, just like dirt pudding!  I liked the icing but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.  It was like a dark chocolate pudding but I always thought that ganache was supposed to have a more thick, stiff texture?  Either way, it was delicious.

Wednesday’s class doesn’t get out until 4:30 so after cupcaking and taking a long walk with the husband and dog it was time for dinner.

We cooked up a box of mac and cheese with ~ 2/3 cup each frozen edamame and frozen veggie blend (carrots, peas, corn, green beans, lima beans).  We got 2.5 servings out of a 2 serving box so beefing vegging things up certainly helps to spread your dollars and calories.  I topped my serving with a dollop of sour cream and a liberal sprinkling of Sriracha.

Mmmmmmn.  I ran several sprints with the dog though (he was unusually energetic today) and my smallish serving was not enough.  I ended up going back to the kitchen for the last slice of GH sourdough spread with Smart Balance Light.

Now I’m perfectly satisfied.

Have you ever had ganache?  What’s it like?

Godiva Mocha Pecan Turtle Sundaes

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As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program I was sent the latest seasonal flavors of Godiva Coffee.  These products were enjoyed free of charge.

As soon as I saw (smelled!) the Godiva Caramel Pecan Bark Coffee I knew I wanted to make something sweet.  Like really sweet.  Like turtle sundaes.

These sundaes came together perfectly!  The salt in the toasted nuts helps to balance the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients.  The coffee in the caramel comes through clearly without throwing off the other flavors.  This is a delicious twist on the standard turtle.

Godiva Mocha Pecan Turtle Sundaes, serves 4

  • 1/2 cup shelled pecans
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp canola oil
  • 2 cups vanilla ice cream
  • 1/4 cup fudge sauce, heated
  • 1/4 cup Java Pecan Bark Caramel Sauce, heated  (see below for recipe)
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Roughly chop pecans, running knife through 3-5 times.
  3. In a small bowl, toss together chopped pecans, salt, brown sugar, and canola oil. 
  4. Spread nut mixture on a prepared baking sheet and bake 6 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
  5. Divide ice cream equally among 4 bowls.  Top each bowl with an equal amount of fudge sauce, caramel sauce, and toasted nuts. 
  6. Swoon.

Java Pecan Bark Caramel Sauce

  • 4 Tbsp brewed Godiva Caramel Pecan Bark Coffee
  • 1 cup light cream
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  1. Stir 1 Tbsp of prepared coffee into the light cream.  Set aside.
  2. Place a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat.
  3. Pour sugar and remaining 3 Tbsp prepared coffee into the saucepan and bring to a boil; do not stir!  Boil for 5-6 minutes, until the sugar has begun to caramelize.  The boiling caramel will look like the froth on top of a root beer float when it is finished.
  4. While beginning to whisk, carefully stream coffee/cream mixture into the boiling caramel.  Boil 10 more minutes, whisking constantly.
  5. Remove from heat and immediately transfer to a heat-proof storage container.
  6. Let cool at least 20 minutes (to allow to thicken) before serving.

The finished caramel sauce will keep up to two weeks when stored, tightly sealed, in the fridge.  Sauce is delicious on top of sundaes or used as dip for fall fruits.

10/90 Work To Sleep

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I spent basically the whole day napping with the dog and the husband.  It was epic.

Just like next week will be an epic fail as I try to work around all the stuff I didn’t do.

I swear the cold just makes me go into hibernation.  My appetite was all over the place too.  We started our “morning” with hunks of sourdough dipped in herbed olive oil.

Off all the things my body could have demanded at 45* degrees in October, next came ice cream.

I topped Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Roll ice cream with hot fudge and Heath crumbles.

When we did make our way out of the cave it was to go to the movies.  50/50 was great; very touching and funny.  I love Seth Rogan in everything he does but it was nice to get to see him play a new role.

We also made a weekly trip to Wegmans.  They were out of eggplant entirely which through our meal plan for a loop, but I think we worked it out.  We didn’t get any hot bar (more on that tomorrow) but I did buy 50cents worth of Halloween candy.

50cents for $100 worth of happiness.  I live for theme things.

Following the theme, Adam and I split a pumpkin beer when we got home.

Shock Top’s Pumpkin Wheat was wonderful.  Not bitter at all like some pumpkin beers I’ve tried.  I think I actually liked this variety better than traditional Shock Top.

For dinner we made this tofu quiche.

Same recipe as last time, though I did leave out the milk this go-round.

It was quite good; very cheesy.  A good hibernation food.

How did you celebrate the start of October?

The Pumking and I

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Has October become synonymous with winter in your neck of the woods too?  It’s so freaking cold here I’m actually blogging in bed!  We aren’t planning on switching our summer for winter wardrobes until next weekend and I’m not quite sure how we’ll get through to then.  I’m keeping this post quick before my laptop dies.

I did not get near enough schoolwork done this afternoon.  I did drink some milky tea,

and get in a session at the gym.  30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  I started to read The Help while I ellipticized.  I’m only 5 pages in but I’m already loving it.  I’m not loving that it’s 500+ pages long; normally that would thrill me but I have to finish it by next Friday for book club!

For weekend fun, we met up with two other couples at The King and I for dinner.  People have praised The King and I as the best Thai in Buffalo for years; I’m so glad we finally got a chance to go.  And the food was pretty dang delicious.

I stole several bites of Adam’s Tom Yum soup.  The famous Thai soup, slightly sour and spicy with fresh mushrooms, tomato, chili, lemongrass, galangal, and lemon juice with cilantro, scallions, and chicken.

I loved how tangy this was, totally umami.

My tactic to trying out a new Thai spot is to order either the Pad See Eiw (my favorite meal on Earth) or an extra spicy dish (to gauge what they deem “spicy”).  Tonight I went the spicy route.  I ordered the vegetarian Pud Met Ma Muang.  Steamed tofu sautéed with cashew nuts, mushroom, bamboo shoot, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, baby carrots, and Thai basil leaves in a hot chili sauce.  I ordered 5-star spicy and extra veggies so they added chili, Napa cabbage, and zucchini.

Loved it!

I would only call this 3-star spicy but I’m rating the dish 5-stars for satisfaction since the veggies were so good.  Other Thai places in Buffalo load up their dishes with onions, it was great to have an actual plate of vegetables!  Plus everything, tofu included, was cooked perfectly.

I basically licked my plate clean, plus several scoops from the communal rice bowl.

We will definitely be coming back soon.

None of the couples were ready for the night to be over so we all headed to Dolci for gelato.

The worker graciously let me taste several flavors (including Sriracha-coconut!!) until I came upon two that made my heart sing.

Burnt caramel and Pumking Ale.  The burnt caramel was obviously the best because you just can’t top that flavor but the Pumking Ale was amazing as well, and the combo was divine.  The Pumking had just hints of booze and pumpkin and it was almost fizzy!  I totally confirmed my suspicion that I can’t make it through this October without some Southern Tier.

What’s the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

Blog Reading for Cultural Expansion

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I was not very productive today.  Just ask the homework that has to be done this weekend and the run that has to be done tomorrow!  But I cuddled with my puppy, had a good class at school, and got my teeth fixed; so the day wasn’t a total wash.

It’s possible I even started the day off in poor form.  I had to give a presentation in class today so I headed in early.  Sidenote – don’t you love my semi-professional outfit?  I felt like fall!

On my drive to school I realized (for the first time in three weeks of making the same drive) that I pass a Wilson Farms.  WF has my favorite coffee so I knew a stop was in order.  Unfortunately I just kept acting dippier.  First, I got a pumpkin spice latte when it is still apple month!  Next, I walked past at least five signs proclaiming “free 16 ounce coffees for all,” and poured, and paid for, a 20 ounce coffee.  Frick!  The cashier thought I was nuts. 

At least it was delicious.  I did half pumpkin spice coffee (unsweet) and half pumpkin spice cappuccino (sweet) and it was perfection.

And minus my caffeine shakes, our presentation went great.  The class all had to evaluate each other and Janessa and I got nothing but good reviews.  It helps when you bribe them with food!

That’s marble halvah (a sweet, sesame based treat) that we brought in to showcase as one of the foods from our Jewish Food Habits presentation.  A few people found the aftertaste to be strange, but most of the class loved it.  Halvah is one of my very favorite sweets and I ate at least two servings.

During our 10:30 break I also wandered over to the campus Freshens for a smoothie.

I ordered the Maui Mango (Mango, Strawberries, Bananas, Passion Fruit, Juice Blend & Booster) but I think they gave me the wrong cup because all I could taste was peaches.

It wasn’t very good and probably ended up only drinking about half.  I looked up the nutritional info which stated ~300 calories per smoothie, so I still can’t figure out why it was so disgustingly sweet.

Our class today was a lot of fun.  In addition to Judaism there were presentations on 7th Day Adventist, Mormon, Greek Orthodox, Native American, Alaskan, and Rastafarian food selection and restrictions.  I didn’t really learn anything new, but it was all fun info to revisit.  It’s always interesting to me how much cultural background knowledge I seem to have compared to my friends (who know all sorts of things about other subjects that I know nothing about).  I’m not sure if it’s from my interest in Anthropology or from the diverse places I’ve gotten to live.  I grew up with Rastafarians and have read a lot about Native American cultures but my exposure to Mormons has been through blog friends.  Reading blogs has definitely been a factor in introducing me to new things!

Lunch was easy and soft to chew.

I don’t eat a ton of “diet food,” but I actually really enjoy some Lean Cuisine flavors.  The Roasted Turkey is a favorite.

Confession?  The stuffing in there is actually my very favorite of all the stuffings (homemade included) I’ve ever tried!

I also took several soft bites of Biscoff straight from the jar for dessert.

After my teeth were fixed I could finally move on to foods with chew and crunch factor for dinner.

Mango, pineapple, tiny piece of watermelon.

Udon noodles, a veggie eggroll, and more veggies – including some very tasty bok choy – hidden on the bottom.

Note – when I made this plate I still thought I was running or I probably wouldn’t have gone quite so heavy on the carbs.  But then in rolled a big storm and out rolled not being a big fatty.  At least I’m excited to get tackling my to-do’s tomorrow!

Mormon, 7th Day Adventist, Native American, or Rastafarian – do you follow any bloggers who have these backgrounds?

Sharing is Caring

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***Bad blogger alert!  Bad blogger alert!***  I haven’t done a full-day post since Tuesday!  I got a new (final?!) set of retainers that made solids a no-go for two days and Thursday and Friday we did lots of food sampling in class that I couldn’t photograph.  I realize my life’s not at all that interesting but there is something almost lonely about skipping posts.  Plus, my mom has called me twice this week to check that I’m not dead.

I plan on getting back the posting everything I eat as of tomorrow, 3 tests next week be damned.  For now I’ll just share the important things that you missed.

#1 – Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte Larabars are awesome.

Larabar sent me a fun package the other day to celebrate their newest flavor.

Chocolate Cherry Torte is my new favorite; it even edges out the other dessert flavors!

The date flavor was nice and mild which allowed this to taste more like dessert than a snack (sometimes I find the overwhelming datiness of Larabars to be a little gaggy).  The chunks of cherry were nice and big and they gave this a great, tart flavor.  Plus there were TONS of chocolate chips!

#2 – Biscoff x Biscoff = Heaven.

Do you remember when my friend Janessa made Oreo balls with Biscoff spread in them?  Well that gave me a terribly wonderful idea.  Her birthday was coming up (it was today actually!) so somehow I managed to patiently wait.  Biscoff Balls!

I food processed one package of Biscoff cookies, mixed the crumbs with 6 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese and ~1/3 cup Biscoff spread, and rolled the dough into balls.  They were amazing!

#3 – Time with friends makes me happy.

<– That’s Holly, my new friend from The Frozen Pineapple with whom I shared dinner last night.  She is another future RD who recently moved to the area and I’m looking forward to spending more time with her.

I also went to a comedy show with the husband and several other couples last night, and to a birthday breakfast with school friends this morning!  I didn’t snap a single picture and I’m so sad about it.  My school friends and I actually decided today that I needed to start blogging group shots when we go out so we actually have some pictures with each other!

What’s new with you?