Tag Archives: sweet

Allentown Art Festival

by

I’m sticking with the “work hard, play harder” theme since today’s agenda included only a trip to the Allentown Art Festival and an evening shift at work tonight.  I had my day of fun, and now I’m heading to work at 4.

I stayed up way too late last night like a crazy person and I was definitely dragging this morning.  I didn’t wake up until after 10 and after taking care of some to-dos I needed to head out without eating breakfast.  I knew today was the perfect day for some portable nutrition –

On my walk down Elmwood I stopped in at Organic 3 Cafe‘s newest location.

It looked great inside and the staff were all super friendly. 

They let me customize the Go Green drink and I ended up with a blend of apple, carrot, cucumber, spinach, and kale.

Perfection!  I felt a million times more awake after I drank this, I’ve been missing green juice so much living in Buffalo.

I continued down Elmwood until it was time to cross over to Delaware and into the festival.

There wasn’t as much I liked as last year but I did spot a few fun things.

And I even bought something! 

A mug (not this exact one).

I also bought a bunny dog (brown sugar grilled carrots in a hot dog bun),

and a fresh-squeezed lemonade.

This wasn’t the frozen lemonade I’ve been pining for but it was refreshing.  I believe that there is frozen lemonade at a stand at the mall, so I’ll have to do some shopping to fill that craving.

I did squash another craving though.

Adam used the word “marshmallow” at least 15 times in a conversation yesterday and I thought I was going to die if I didn’t eat a rice krispies treat.  I stopped at the Co-op my way home today for a chocolate covered one.

Craving killed, all though it did get my wheels turning about baking these at home soon.

I’ve been really taking it easy workout-wise because I’m trying to give my knee a break, so it was great to get some movement in today.  All total I walked ~4.5 miles getting to and around the festival.  I even got in some weights since I thought it was a good idea to buy a 6-pack when I was still a mile from my apartment.

All that movement got me hungry for dinner, but I’ll have to blog it later because I backed myself into a corner timewise.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

My Friends, Ben and Jerry

by

I know I said I was excited about blogging again, but I was more excited about sharing dinner with my friends in less than ideal table lighting.

I met up with a group of girlfriends from school and we had a great time playing summer catch-up.  I ordered a tuna melt (sourdough, no butter; with cheddar cheese).

I ate half and then brought the rest home to the husband.

Such a random diner order but it definitely hit the spot.  Sidenote – once I occurred to me to ask for no butter on my bread I started enjoying restaurant sandwiches 80% more.

Adam and I are spending the rest of the evening watching “That 70’s Show” with our new best friends.

I know, I know; it’s totally time for us to stop splitting a pint of ice-cream like that’s normal healthy behavior, but Maple Blondie?!

What’s your favorite flavor from Ben and Jerry’s?  Bonaroo Buzz is topping the charts for me, but I’ll let you know in the morning if Maple Blondie edges it out!

That Which Shall Not Be Blogged

by

Blogging lunch is hard because of not blogging yesterday.  Blogging breakfast was impossible because I slept through it, but that’s another story!

I did eat lunch though, and it requires that I go back to what I did 24 hours ago.  Which was go on a date to the Spot with Adam to get a Funghi Pizza before work.

Mozzarella cheese with an assortment of roasted and fresh mushrooms finished with extra virgin truffle oil drizzle.

I ate the leftovers today for lunch.

Delicious, especially when I dipped the crusts in my Cherry Coke Zero.

Yesterday before work I also did some baking,  Jenna’s sunflower butter cookies.

I forgot to flatten the first trays with a fork before baking (what? I’ve never made peanut butter cookies before!) and the cookie balls that resulted were nice and doughy on the inside.

I ate two small ones for dessert with lunch today.

Also good with Cherry Coke Zero!

I realize that this was a lame quick post, but I’ve gotta say that I’m enjoying blogging again after my short break.  I really enjoy being a (mostly)-three-meals-a-day blogger, rather than a once in a while poster.

Bloggers – what percentage of your meals do you blog?  Readers – do you prefer all-of-the-time bloggers, or once that post just snippets.

Southern Style

by

The other day when I made the 1000 Island BBQ Sauce I knew I’d need to think of a good way to use it.  Adam and I put our heads together and we decided that bbq pulled chicken sandwiches would be the way to go.  This morning I put some chicken in the crockpot, and this evening we took a quick walk to pick up some key supplies.

I also munched on some Dirty BBQ Chips on the walk to get myself in the mood.

Once home it was easy as pie to shred the chicken, toss with the bbq sauce, and place on a bun with thin sliced red onion and bread and butter pickle slices.

Tasted as good as pie too.

On the side I cooked up some shredded brussels sprouts with black truffle oil and browned butter.

Divine!  Please do try out the recipe, it turns brussels sprouts into a whole new vegetable.

This is exactly the kind of meal I look forward to on a summer day.

Easy, tasty, and healthy.

We watched “That 70’s Show” while we ate; we recently discovered it on Netflix Instant Watch and I’m falling in love with it all over again.

Soon enough, it was time for dessert.

Southern Coke Sundaes.  I’ve been turning this idea about in my head for a few weeks and it tasted just as good as I’d imagined.  The recipe is a play on the southern tradition of dumping salted peanuts into bottles of Coke.  When my mom told me she did that as a kid I was skeptical, but sundae-style it totally works!

Did you (or your parents) ever put peanuts in Coke?

Almost Off

by

I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’m off for the next three days; wahoo!  Today basically has felt like a day off anyways since I’ve got laundry to put away and some things to clean and I’ve successfully ignored it all.  I also skipped the gym so I could give my knee one more day’s rest before I run 5 miles tomorrow.

Adam and I both had nightmares last night that effected our sleep and when we rolled out of bed after 10:30 this morning I was nightmarishly hungry.  Enter a crunchy bowl of cereal with cool skim milk.

We’ve got a Wegman’s brand crunchy oatmeal cereal and Cinnamon Pecan Special K and I had a serving of each.

I don’t eat a lot of cereal but sometimes it sounds so good.

I also noshed on a big pile of baby carrots with blue cheese.

There was only one serving of food left for dinner tonight (we went to town on those sloppy joes yesterday!) so I left it for Adam and walked to the Co-op to pick up hot bar.

Curry chicken salad, tofu with okra, bbq temph, southwestern baked yams,

cashew broccoli salad, grape leaves.

For dessert I made the “punch” that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I had a sip at an event a few months ago.

Vanilla ice cream with orange juice and Sprite.

Frothy!

What is your favorite kind of punch?

That Sounds Dirty

by

My shift last night went great, but when I got home to bed that’s when it felt like the real work began**.  I’ve been having a terrible time sleeping lately and it’s driving me crazy.  I’ve always struggled with bouts of insomnia, but I’m fairly certain this week’s sleeping difficulties are tied to skipping the gym.  Even though I was tired (obviously), and it’s technically a free day in my training plan (the whole week has been “free” apparently), it was pretty easy to convince myself to work out this morning once I made the no gym = no sleep connection .

Once I got the husband up**, we were off for a 9am run.  We ran 2 miles down Elmwood and back for a 4 mile run.  4 miles in 44:53. Yikes, holy skipped training days, Batman!

After a quick shower and a date with some ice** we retraced our running steps so I could pick up a few things at the Farmer’s Market and Co-op.  The Farmer’s Market was a gigantic puddle, but we had more luck on the rest of our stops.

We split a grande (non-fat, half syrup) iced caramel macchiato.

And bought some brunch from the Co-op.

I knew my dinner was going to be veggie-heavy so I loaded up on protein.  Pad Thai noodles,

mango cashew curry chicken salad,

waldorf chicken salad,

and pea and radish salad.  That stuff in the corner was Adam’s tofu.

We ate at a table outside in the sun and it was glorious.

The real excitement came at dessert though, they have my new favorite candy bars back in stock!  Adam and I split one for funsies when we got home.

Mmmmmn!  <– things that make you go oh god, yes!**

I spent some time cleaning the apartment this afternoon, balanced with time spent curled up with a few magazines, and then it was time for lunch/dinner.

I had a neon eggplant and some purple kale (yay, colors!) to use up and the first place my mind went was honey sesame eggplant.

First I saute/steamed the eggplant and kale in a bit of sesame oil and water.  Next I tossed the veggies with a mix of tamari, rice vinegar, and honey.  Finally I topped them with some crunchy sesame seeds.

Not my most amazing combination ever, but good enough and at least it was quick.**

Gotta get in your veggies!

I’ve got one more shift at work tonight and then I’ve got the day off tomorrow, yippie.  I’m off to be a working girl**.

**that sounds dirty

The Gym of Life

by

Today makes the fourth training day in a row I’ve skipped.  <– arrrrgh!  This week has been a combination of genuine leg pain and genuine laziness.  On the bright side, my legs are so sore from my shift last night that I’m counting work as at least a half workout.  The restaurant is split into two levels, with the dining area upstairs and the bar and kitchen downstairs.  This means that I go up and down the stairs 8 million times a shift.  Yay for the gym of life.

This morning I made Adam an Orange Dream Machine knock off (vanilla ice cream, orange juice, and vanilla protein powder) and I drank the extra.

This is going on the ‘to make again’ list.

Adam and I had some errands to run, which culminated in a trip to Wegmans to pick up lunch.  While we were there I grabbed and iced coffee, Wegman’s version of Jamaican Me Crazy with skim milk.

Not as good as the Wilson Farms’ one sadly.

Lunch was great though.

Fruits – berries, pineapple, cinnamon banana.

Steamed broccoli, grilled squash, succotash, and cashew chicken with tons of celery picked out of the container.

Plus a white chocolate toffee cookie.

The perfect end to lunch/dinner.  Hopefully it will hold me over through work, it’s going to be a busy shift!

It Got Away

by

Hello, hello!  I swear that I didn’t skip my post/giveaway this morning because I was sulking; the day just got away from me!  First things first though, thank you so much to all of you who offered me advice in the last post.  I blog for me (and my mom and grandma!), but I also blog for you guys, and I always want to do my best.

I mentioned that the day got away from me, and if I’m honest, it started getting away from me last night.  When Adam got in bed at 10pm I so wanted to be the type of person who got in with him and got a good night sleep.  But that’s not who I am.  I’m the type of person that stays up until 2am watching Missing.  I’m also the type of person who eats the last banana split cupcake at 2am.

That’s just me.

I actually woke up raring to go this morning (probably nerves) but I ended up skipping my planned 4-miler anyways because my knee feels funky again.  I’m hoping to double up on cardio tomorrow to make up for the lost day, fingers crossed!

Today was my first training day at work and since I was going to be busy through lunch I knew I needed a big, hearty breakfast.

Yum and yum.

I sautéed a crumbled salmon patty with three tablespoons of spicy corn relish and when I started to get a good char I scrambled in two eggs and ~ 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

I’m in love with this dish.  I haven’t eaten the corn relish “raw” yet, but it is so darn good in eggs.

I also ate a 0% Fage with soursop.

Which, thankfully, pushed me to enough food to get me through the lunch rush.

— Insert 11 – 2:30 training at the newest restaurant on Elmwood. —

When I got home I had time to split this taffy candy with Adam,

before we had to head to his dentist appointment.  <– ironic, right?

I obviously didn’t have to go, but I’m co-dependent, so I ignored my growling belly and hopped in the car.  I brought a chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar,

but I had to split it with Adam because it’s too darn good not to share.  Tastes just like a Girl Scout Samosa, I swear!

Unfortunately, I let myself get waaaay too hungry and my food choices have gone a little downhill.  I got a good balance of veggies and protein in my Wegman’s hot bar,

but I shoveled it into my face the minute we got back to the car!

I also bought a pecan pie bar from the Co-op.

I can’t even tell you how much self-control it took not to eat this in the car too.

And now (as soon as I hit publish) I’m going to eat some popcorn.  Boo-yah.  Clearly I need a more effective way of dealing with lunches on work days.

Just for funsies; what are some of your favorite blogs to follow?