Tag Archives: sweet

Delightful Dippables

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As I mentioned early, today was a snow day, and a glorious snow day it was!  Not a lot of work got done, but you know how it is.

I did make a very successful (vegan) lunch.

With a nice roll up (a play on a dish I love that my mom makes with cream cheese for parties).  Spread a tortilla with humus – Tribe Roasted Garlic, – chopped green peppers, and radish sprouts.

Tightly roll up and chop using a big scary knife.

Lay out like a fancy sushi roll.

Eat the unsightly ends.

I also ate half of a piece of vegan jerky I split with the husband.

I paired my roll up with some roasted kale.

And dipped everything in some Stubbs bbq sauce.

It was a tasty, tasty lunch.

Later in the afternoon I snacked on 1.5 servings of Newman’s Own Spelt Pretzels.

With a chocolate soy pudding and a diet pop.

Of course, I dipped the pretzels into both the pudding and the soda.  Sooo good.  Honey wheat pretzel sticks dipped into diet cherry coke is my favorite snack on Earth.

Dinner was a repeat plate.

Leftover baked beans,

leftover caramelized onion mashed potatoes with a dab of Smart Balance Light,

and some sugar-free applesauce topped with a few Maple Mini Wheats and red hots.

Again, delicious, delicious.

What do you like to dip pretzels in?  Before you hate – have you ever tried pretzels dipped in diet pop?

Matching Meals

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There was no Saturday post because I just couldn’t figure out the logistics of it.  Two things were happening yesterday – I was starving and my teeth were killing me.  This meant I started 80 different food items, then gummed at them pathetically before moving on.  I just didn’t know how to blog it without saying “I ate two bites of this, and three bites of that..” a million times.

But today, today was definitely worth blogging.  The husband and I ate matching meals all day!  That’s not to say he didn’t eat several things that I didn’t (or that he was particularly excited about this) but for the most part our meals were twins.

We started our day with hot chocolate.

Made stove-top style with skim milk, sugar, and Green and Black cocoa powder.

I’ve been loving the cocoa lately, and this homemade version might have been my best cup yet.

We also had yogurts.

I ate the Liberte, 0% Strawberry.

The Liberte yogurts are sooooo rich and creamy but they generally have a lot of saturated fat so I was thrilled to find this 0% one.

Then we had matching lunch plates.

Leftover mini cheesy meatloafs with roasted sweet potato fries.

This meatloaf was good the first day, but it definitely got better after sitting in the fridge.

We watched some “X-Files” while we ate, then headed to my campus to get some schoolwork done.  I hit up the gym while we were there. A quick treadmill work out – warm up + run 1mile (9.10) + incline walking – 2.5miles and 35minutes. Followed by a quick stretch and a few planks.

For dinner we went to Cheesecake Factory to use up the last of our Christmas gift certificates.

We shared an order of avocado egg rolls.

If by shared you mean split 1-5 and include Adam growling at me while I ate my one.

Our dinner plates weren’t exactly identical, but we did share many bites.  I ordered my favorite, the fresh vegetable appetizer salad,

and Adam got the spicy cashew chicken.

We had a lot of fun sharing, and we’ve both got lunch leftovers for tomorrow!

Plus we split a cookie dough cheesecake for dessert!

Would you ever be interested in seeing a day of Adam’s meals?

Chew On This

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So this is going to be my smile for approximately the next year –

That’s actually more of a grimace, but you get the point.

If you are thinking “this is a food blog, I don’t care about your embarrassing mouthware!” then chew on this fun fact- most of the nutritional problems in the elderly are directly related to issues with their teeth.  Dietetics definitely recognizes the link between the health of your teeth and your overall health; we had several lectures last semester devoted to dental carries alone.  As much as I wish they wouldn’t, my trips to the orthodontist are definitely going to have an impact on the way I eat in the coming months.

I can take the retainers out to eat and brush my teeth, but ideally they need to be in my mouth as many hours a day as possible.  This has a couple of scary effects on my diet –

  • I can no longer be a grazer.  In order to maximize my retainers-in-mouth time I need to generally stick to three meals and day and they need to be as short as is realistically possible.
  • I cannot really eat during my classes.  I suppose I technically could, but I don’t plan on taking out my retainers in the middle of a lesson.  I’m not really sure how this is going to work, especially with my 6-8:40pm class.

After I was done reliving my teens I spent the morning running random errands.  We’ve got quarters for laundry, a new stock of stamps, and my mouth looks like it belongs on someone who gets felt up in the hallway; done and done.

My mouth doesn’t really hurt yet (it will), but the crunchy salad I had planned for lunch was not happening.  I ended up walking down the street for a slice of buffalo chicken pizza.

Followed by some nice cold ice-cream.

And I’m glad that lunch was calorically heavy because it ended up also being dinner.  I’m not sure whether it’s the after-effects of yesterday’s migraine, all the extra spit I have going, or a combination of both, but the thought of eating dinner was just sickening.  I’ll have an extra big breakfast tomorrow!

Suggestions needed!  What the heck should I do about eating on campus?

Like a Saftey

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Confession – in order to write my clever title I had to Google “football players who tackle.”  And I was a cheerleader.

Anyway, that’s what this weekend has been about, tackling my to-do list:

Hooray!

I tackled two weeks worth of laundry (actually, the husband tackled this, but I folded!),

I tackled the pile of outgoing mail,

I tackled my huge stack of unsorted magazine clippings,

I tackled my planner for the semester,

And more!  I didn’t work the whole weekend, but I did more in two days than I’ve done in two weeks.

Breakfast this morning had a mix of carbs and protein to fuel me up.

That’s a plan fat-free yogurt with Crofter’s Strawberry Jam stirred in, topped with Kashi H2H and some chunky peanut butter.

So good!  Peanut Butter and I have totally resparked our love affair lately.

Around noon I headed out to run some errands at school and replenish our food stores.  Wegman’s was terrible this afternoon – the hot bar was barely stocked and the store was packed.  Nonetheless, I managed to carve out a booth of calm and spend an hour tackling my NYE resolution to read more.

Eating materials, hot bar Asian style veggies, potatoes, and sweet and sour chicken.

Reading materials, The Food of a Younger Land, Mark Kurlansky.

When I got home from pushing my way through the hoards I snacked  on a mini bag of kettle corn and a glass of skim milk.

Dinner involved some prep throughout the day – chicken getting soft and shreddable in the crock pot, red onions caramelizing on the stove – but the end result was beyond worth it –

Bbq chicken pizza with caramelized red onions and gouda!

I topped a store-bought crust with caramelized red onions, shredded chicken tossed with bbq sauce, and gouda, and 10minutes later I had pure, steamy bliss.

Bliss served with a side of roasted asparagus.

It was a pretty heavenly dinner.

Dessert was from the bulk bins; yogurt pretzels, chocolate pretzels, and a piece of local sponge candy.

I’ve got to go shower and get my beauty sleep; school starts tomorrow!

Snow Filled Saturday

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Howdy all, happy Saturday!  It’s been chilly and busy ’round these parts.  I had lots of errands to run, but more on that later (tomorrow).  Basically I have today and tomorrow to tackle this monster to-do list –

Before I got started on my errands I grabbed this coconut aloe juice.

So good, the best coconut (or aloe) drink I’ve had yet!

The weather was insane today, whiteout for miles.  

It took me forever to get the five miles to the post office, probably because I was only going 10miles an hour!  At least the bad weather meant that this adorable snowflake ended up on my steering wheel –

I snacked on a bag of kettle chips when I got home.

And made myself a Peanut Noodle Lean Cuisine for lunch.

This was actually very good, the sauce was mild but nice.

I also snagged a minneola.

And while I was ruthlessly cutting down my magazine clipping I snacked on a 7-Layer bar.

Then came dinner.

A recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray, Stir-Fried Pasta Primavera (sorry I can’t link to this recipe).

I basically followed Ray’s lead, with a few healthy changes:

  • I wanted 3 big servings (vs. 4), so added a bit more veggies and used a bit less pasta
  • subbed parsley for basil
  • subbed light for heavy cream

The end result was delicious.

I almost never order cream sauces when dining out but lately we’ve been loving them at home.

What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today?

Representative, REPRESENTATIVE!

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Woo-whee, today has been a frustrating day!  This morning I lost two hours of my life to customer representatives, two hours I’ll never get back.  Can I just say – I hate automated phone systems!

I didn’t have time to go to the grocery store until much later than planned, so most of the day’s eats were random things from my almost bare fridge.  1.5Tbsp of cheese spread with Mary’s Gone Crackers.

A mug of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows.

And the last of the Plain Siggi’s.  I introduced Siggi’s to Adam this week and he totally fell in love, I’m so proud!

I drizzled the last serving with honey and a serving of chunky pb.

Divine.

We couldn’t get to the store until after 7pm, so we ended up picking up dinner at Moe’s while we were out.

Chips, queso dip, and a buffalo chicken burrito.

For dessert I munched on the random grab bag of candy I picked up from the bulk bins.

And we watched Futurama while we ate, it was the perfect evening to counteract my  annoying morning!

Pizza for Breakfast and Presents for Dinner

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I’ve got to cover breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, so hang in for a longish post.  Thank goodness I don’t do things like work out or leave the house, there’d just be too much to say!

Breakfast (late breakfast) was one of my favorites, Pizza Eggs.

Eggland’s Best scrambled up with turkey pepperoni, sharp cheddar, and marinara sauce.  To die for.

Making it even better, I’ve discovered the best way ever to scramble – leave the yolks set (almost like you are making fried eggs) and scramble just the whites.  Then, at the last minute, scramble in the yolks.  Allowing the components to cook apart for a while takes eggs to a whole ‘nother level!

Lunch covered another favorite technique, my new favorite for tuna salad.

I call this “Last Date Tuna Salad;” my regular recipe – canned tuna, miracle whip, and tons of pickle relish – taken over the edge with the addition of lots and lots of chopped red onion.  Try it, you’ll thank me, just don’t kiss anyone right after lunch!

Aside my salad was a piece of ciabatta bread, toasted and buttered.

It was a smelly tasty lunch.

I had to eat a peppermint stick to slay my breath before the husband came home!

I also nibbled through the last two cookies this afternoon.

Remind me how I haven’t made every last one of Jenna’s recipes yet?

Then came dinner.

My generous parents know we’re too poor for healthy seafood (and I’m too much of a girl for sardines), so they gifted us with “charge some salmon to the credit card one night, and marinade it in the maple dill dressing from your stocking” for Christmas. <– Yes, this was a stocking gift; and yes, they’re a little crazy.

Alongside we roasted up some asparagus,

and mini yellow potatoes.

And then there was snack.  For dessert we sampled a new flavor of Pop Chips.

Think early bedtime thoughts for me please; tomorrow I’m going to try to get up and be a real girl, maybe I’ll even leave the couch house!

The 24 Hour Post

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In order to tell today’s tale I have to start with last night’s.  Adam went out to play poker with the boys until all hours of the night and I stayed at home and watched the first half of several tv shows (seriously, how can “Chuck” be so bad?!?).  I sent him with cookies and everyone raved about them, by the way.

Around 1 o’clock in the morning I sidled up to another bowl of pasta, with some chopped up sharp cheddar and turkey pepperoni added into the mix.

Delicious, and serendipitous because we woke up too late for breakfast.  A middle of the night meal can count as the morning’s breakfast, can it not?

Today, in the day time, I did make myself an orange julius, but other than that I wasn’t quite able to get a handle on at home food.

Tangy and creamy all at once makes me a happy sipper.

Around 3 we headed to the mall on a whim, and took in a showing of “The Dilemma.”  Not ground-breaking, but certainly a cute movie.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more jazzed about my movie snack than the actual picture though.

A glorious mix of gummi cola bottles, sour gummi cola bottles, and cherry sour gummi cola bottles.  The gummi cola bottle genre is my very favorite kind of candy; probably why I was able to take down a 1/2 pound’s worth 😉

While we were out we called some friends on another whim, and ended up with a big group dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was great to catch up with people, particularly since I haven’t really been leaving the house the last week!

I had a slice of sourdough. (Why is CF always so darn dark?)

And my favorite salad of all time for dinner.

The fresh vegetable salad – asparagus, green beans, tomato, cucumber, roasted beets, apple, edamame, radicchio, romaine, and white cheddar – with a side of spicy peanut vinaigrette.

It’s insane to me that this monster is an appetizer salad, I’ve got more than half of it left, sitting in the fridge for tomorrow!  I did help myself to many (unphotographed) bites of the husbands spicy cashew chicken as well.

Ok movie, good food, great friends; what more could a girl want?

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Updated to add – yeah, I totally finished off that salad!