Tag Archives: sweet

Short On Dinner

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10pm is not technically late, but it feels late, and there’s really no good reason I’m not in bed already so I’ll keep this quick.

We had to take our cars in to a shop this morning (nothing big, just yearly brake, oil, and other things I’m sure I don’t know because I’m such a girl) so we brought them both at once and made an event of it.  Drive in, walk 8 blocks to Starbucks, study, walk back, drive home.  While we studied I made sure to hydrate and caffeinate.

That is a big bottle, but it looks extra big because my non-fat latte is a short, not a tall.  Did you know that all the locations in America carry short cups, they just don’t advertise them?

We had movie plans with friends so it was a quick turnaround once we made it home.  I snacked on baby carrots on the drive.

The husband and I were both a little irritable at the thought of watching a movie without lunch but thankfully(?!) Adam got the time wrong anyways and we had an extra hour or so to kill at the mall.  We ended up going to Jack Astors for lunch.

The husband and I split the Crispy Honey Sesame Chicken.  This was chicken with carrots, green onions, snow peas, red peppers, and bean sprouts in what was billed as a Thai-honey sauce.

The chicken was tasty and the veggies were good, but the sauce ended up tasting like bad American-Chinese food.  We cleared the plate though.

We also split some Reese’s Pieces at the movies.

Sucker Punch, by the way.  The movie was visually stunning and the musical score was fantastic, but the plot was soooo slow.

Things took a bit of a downward turn from there productivity-wise, but honestly any day I spend with the husband is a good one.  I made a major dinner fail.

I used the last of most of the ingredients, trying to make a mini pizza with sharp cheddar and an egg on top.  First I had a cooked pizza with a raw egg on top.  Then I had a cooked egg with a burnt hockey puck on the bottom.  I didn’t even take a picture it was such a disaster.

But, good news – when dinner fails you can finally go get that ice cream you’ve been waiting for.

A kid-sized mint ice cream with Oreo from ColdStone.

Mint ice cream is my favorite, but only when it’s green  🙂

Maybe I should eat some fruit tomorrow?!  We really did try to get me real dinner, but 40 frustrating minutes in the car later determined that Buffalo isn’t exactly a mecca of healthy take-out and I was better off just going to bed.

So I better get going to bed!

Did you know about the short, aka the”real” small, from Starbucks?  What size do you normally order in coffee?

Measure It Monday

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It’s hard to measure where I am in my sickness because my symptoms keep changing.  I feel much more perky but my congestion and seal-cough continue.  I would say I’m 2-3 days from well?  Hopefully!

One vestige of deathly sickness that remains is my complete and total lack of interest in breakfast.  As a future RD I know the morning meal is important, but I just can’t make myself eat it right now.  I did get a big coffee when I got to campus though.

Grande nonfat latte with 1 pump of Irish Cream syrup, delicious.

As foretold, lunch was dinner’s twin.  A serving of Newman’s Own 4 Cheese Pizza,

and roasted green beans.

Plus some fruit snacks my mom sent during the break between classes.

We’re learning about breast-feeding in my Nutrition Throughout the Life-cycle class and it is so interesting!  The benefits of breast vs. bottle are immeasurable, even more vast than I had previously thought.  Plus we are exploring (just a bit) the socioeconomic factors that come into play.  Fascinating!

Random sidenote – I walked to and from school today in jeans and Adam’s sweatshirt, no coat!  Boo-yah.  The temperature is set to drop again tomorrow but I’m getting very excited about spring.

While prepping dinner I snacked on (an exact) serving of Popcorners.

Do you measure out things like chips, or just eat from the bag?  I only put my hand in a bag of chips if I’m planning on eating the entire thing, which I sometimes do!  Otherwise I always use my food scale to measure out a serving.  When it comes to snack foods like chips, the difference between 1-2 servings in satiety and satisfaction is nill, but the caloric difference can be huge.

Dinner was quick and easy but so tasty and wonderful.

Only 4 ingredients and no measuring required.

Goat cheese tortellini, butter toffee almonds, cubed butternut squash, and balsamic vinegar.

Cook the pasta as directed.

Roast the squash.  Actually, roast the squash, get nowhere, and finish it off in pan with a bit of butter.

Reduce the vinegar.

Combine everything (plus nuts) and fall in love.

This was perfect; a little savory and a little sweet.  Plus, you really can’t go wrong with goat cheese.

I made myself a broiled grapefruit for dessert.

But then I discovered that I hate grapefruit.  Oh well, at least I know.

Instead I had a cupcake.

Not just a cupcake though.  I just took the picture to show you guys how cute and perfect it was.

Instead I crumbled it over a Stonyfield 0% Chocolate Underground Yogurt,

for a much less cute, much more delicious treat.

Say it with me – “Mmmmmn!”

What sort of foods do you measure?  Do you use cups/spoons or a food scale?  I measure cheese, snack items, cereal, peanut butter and maple syrup.  Plus a few other things I’m sure I’m forgetting.

Sweet Sore First Day of Spring Sunday

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Can I tell you guys how sore my legs are?!  Moving around involves lots of lurching and waddling.  My longest runs before I got sick were about 2miles so the 5k was long comparatively.  Speaking of tired things, I kept us up past 3am the last few nights with my coughing, so we’ve both been a little tired.  The cure for that was a nice long, college-style sleep-in until noon.

When we did get up we had some errands to run that took us towards Wegman’s hot bar.

I got a nice mix of veggies,

and a few pieces of sweet and sour chicken.

I also snacked on a Crunchie Bar for dessert.

More candy from England (via Canada), this honey sponge candy is so crunchy and good!

Dinner was easy-peasy, and cheesey.

4-cheesey!  Newman’s Own Four Cheese Pizza.

I was sent a free coupon for the pizza through the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

The cheese mix was tasty, but the crust was a little bit squishy.

I ate my serving with some roasted green beans.

It ended up being a tasty meal,

which is good, because I’ve packed the exact thing for lunch tomorrow!

In sweet Sunday spirit, we also made cupcakes.

Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Topping.  The recipe came from Shape magazine.

I followed the recipe exactly for a change, except that I made 16 cupcakes instead of throwing some of the batter out.  <– Seriously the stupidest instruction I’ve ever read; why on earth would you instruct readers to throw out part of the batter?  Just say the recipe makes 16 servings instead of 12.  And even with “extra” cupcakes we still had frosting left over, making it even stupider!

Stupid recipe or not, it was a stupendous recipe.  The frosting tasted exactly like marshmallow topping!

I enjoyed one cupcake for dessert.  I was going to have another, but chocolate cupcakes don’t really throw me, so instead I ate a pinch bowl of icing.

Perfection.

What did you do to celebrate the first day of spring (today)?

Exotic Culinary Exploration

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After our race this morning – and a very long recovery in the shower – we spent the rest of the day doing exotic culinary exploration.  If you want to get technical, our culinary travels took us to Jamaica, England, Korea, and Canada.  If you want to get really technical though, just Canada.

On our way out of town we had an errand at a local bakery and ended up sharing this neat cookie.

Pink always tastes good!

Since parts of Canada are only a 30 minute drive away, we occasionally get Groupon offers for places ‘up north.’  When one came up for a Jamaican spot, my homesickness forced me to bite.  And thus we headed to Kool Katz.

It was a low-key spot and the wait staff was so friendly.  We ordered a random sampling of familiar dishes.  I went with a veggie pattie (fried dough stuffed with seasoned veggies),

And a jerk shrimp skewer appetizer (jerk = a fantastic spice rub).

I also shared bites of Adam’s curried chicken with beans and rice and tostones (fried plantains).

Everything was tasty, but honestly the best dish at the table was this side of cole slaw.

It was tart instead of creamy and full of juicy pieces of citrus fruit.  Best cole slaw I’ve ever had!  Overall the meal was good, but it didn’t fill the urge we were looking to satisfy.  Different places around the Caribbean often serve the same types of dish, but Jamaican style is just not the same as St. Thomian.

While we were in Canada we took advantage of some great views of Niagara Falls, as well as proximity to exotic candies.

While we hung out this afternoon I polished off the Cadbury Pep Bar (England).

The Pep Bars are basically York Patties, but better!

This evening we met up with a big group of friends at Koreana for some tradition Korean fare.

I ordered a spicy chicken dish that came with sticky rice.

It was ok, but the spice level wasn’t as intense as I was looking for and I ended up leaving half of it on the plate.  Thankfully the company was amazing as always.

When I got home I supplemented my dinner with some baked fries.

Now I’m done.  It was nice to be hungry after yesterday’s incurable bout of satiety 😉

Have you ever eaten Jamaican food?  Korean food?

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

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The healthiness level of my food consumption today mirrors the level of health I felt all day.  That is to say, not very healthy at all.  I feel rough.  It’s rough being sick for 16 days straight.  It’s rough finding out that I have a C average in two of my main classes because I’ve had so many tests fall in those 16 days.  It’s rough having a music exam that I literally only had 1 feasible hour to study for.  Long Wednesdays are always rough.  You get the picture.

Breakfast started out well with a big Granny Smith apple dipped in a serving of natural honey peanut butter.

But as I got closer to leaving my sore throat was begging for a cookie dough ice-cream sandwich.

I guess it’s a good thing the treat we’re obsessed with only has 160 calories?

I totally couldn’t get it together to pack lunch and ended up at Taco Bell on campus of all places.  Once there, I proceeded to drive the workers crazy by knowing only that I wanted a chicken burrito and asking the ingredients in all the varieties.  I believe what I ended up with was a chicken grilled stuft burrito.

Question – why the heck do we have to go with “stuft,” stuffed is literally one letter more?  Also, why was this so monsterous?  I nibbled away for a solid 45minutes (I knew dinner would be iffy so I wanted to make sure I was very fueled) and I still conceded defeat to the final quarter.

Dinner was in fact the definition of iffy. 

Buffalo wing and blue cheese chips.  They confirmed both that my cold has killed my taste buds and that I’m a terrible healthy living blogger when I’m sick.

Did I mention that I’m sick?

What do you like to eat when you’re sick?  Other than really disliking salads, I don’t have any “sick foods.”  It seems like I should be eating normally because my sickness is in my chest/head and not my stomach, but in fact I’ve coughed so hard that I’ve made myself throw up every day of the last 16 days.  It’s been fun around here.

Also

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I forgot to mention this morning that my fancy new breakfast bowl came courtesy of CSN Stores.

Adam and I both love the square shape of it.

Adam and I both also love these –

Like a lot.  I ate one shortly after what I deemed an acceptable amount of time after breakfast.

Also lunch.

Tasty, tasty lunch.  All this grilled cheese does is win.

On two slices of rye I skillet cooked thousand island dressing, 1.5 ounces of extra sharp cheddar, the last of the sauerkraut, and 2 slices of 2% swiss cheese.  It was epic.

Also baby carrots dipped in blue cheese.

Also from CSN Stores.

Also, would someone cross their fingers that my sinus headache goes away so I can study?

Stuffy – Shake – Salmon

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Did you miss me?  I hope not; no one should be sorry I took a blog break this weekend!  I did not have funny stories to tell.  I did not have great workouts to recap.  I did not create new inventive recipes.  I did not eat anything resembling healthy.  I did however, throw up, and cough, and continue to be sick.  Ugh!

I’m still sick today, but I’m definitely (finally!) on the upswing.  My cold’s moved to my head which means I’m driving everyone crazy honking like a goose, but I can sort of talk again.  And I made it to all three of my classes today.

When I got to campus this morning I stopped by the yogurt place for a chocolate milkshake, made with skim milk.

It was a strange breakfast, but the flavor/texture was exactly what I was craving and felt great on my throat!

Lunch was leftover roasted green beans, which are still delicious even when served cold,

and a nice crisp Fuji apple.

I ate so slowly that I ended up finishing my apple to class and it was pretty darn thrilling not to have to deal with retainers for the time being.

I know I’m getting better because while walking home at 4:30 I realized I was starving.  I haven’t been hungry in two weeks!  I swung by the pizza place near our apartment for a buffalo chicken slice with blue cheese.

I had them cut it in half (the picture shows both halves) and my mini slice was perfect to tide me over until dinner.

Dinner was an old favorite, Shallotta Salmon Burgers.

Eaten on a bed of salad.

Greens lightly dressed with Newman’s Own Light Raspberry Walnut Dressing, buttermilk blue cheese crumbles, and some roasted golden beets.

I didn’t actually manage to eat very much of that, but it was fun to sit down to a nice plate of food!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go blow my nose!

What’s your go to milkshake order?  There’s a place back home that mixes booze into their milkshakes and they can’t be beat!  I always always request skim milk in my shake though, wherever I am.

I Can’t Operate Machinery

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It’s Friday-Friday-Friday!  It’s been a long and fruitful day around these parts.  I did too much yesterday though, and I was definitely paying for it this morning – I got out of bed at 7 but only made it as far as the couch!

Thankfully by the time my one class came around I was able to make it to campus.  Walking to campus sucked, but it meant I got an opportunity to copy/photocopy all of my missed notes from various friends.  Well not all, music is kind of a lost cause!  And I got the good news that our Biochem test is pushed back, so I only have one exam next week 🙂

Walking back from campus in the hail (ouch!) wasn’t fun either, but I made it to Elmwood and got a nice set of work done.  I nibbled while I worked, first a black bean burrito from Elmwood Taco and Sub.

My hand’s there to show size.  It was sort of a strange burrito – just a tortilla with plain black beans and a slice of cheese – but it ended up being perfect for my sick stomach.

Next I walked over to Starbucks for a plain iced black tea with honey.

The honey worked about as well as you’d imagine it would it an iced drink, but it was a nice idea in theory.

I ordered after 2 so I got to choose a mini treat for free.

Note – I thought the box was so cute I actually brought it home!

I went with the salted caramel bar.

Divine!  I told Adam later that this was in my top 10 tasted cookie bars.

I cranked out some good notecards (I’m only halfway done though, missing nutrition classes is hard) and then the husband picked me up around 5:30.  Then we headed to Walgreens where I caved and finally bought some Niquil.  I’m not anti-medicine, we’re just too poor to buy any; but my coughing was driving Adam made so we bit the bullet.  I took some just before starting this post, we’ll have to see if I pass out mid-way!

I waited until after preparing dinner to dose myself in any case.

Roasted asparagus.

Sidenote – this is Adam’s favorite veggie, probably actually his favorite food, period.  If you know a veggie hater have them try roasted asparagus!

Reubens  <–swoon–>

On two thin slices of rye went Applegate Farms Organic Chicken, two slices of 2% swiss, a handful of sauerkraut, and a serving of 1000 island dressing.  Then we sandwiched and pressed in the George Foreman Grill.

So good!  Reubens, whether turkey or chicken or tempeh, or sauerkraut or cole slaw, always rock my socks.

And Zzzzzzzzzz…..

Do you take medication when you’re sick?  Why or why night?