Tag Archives: sweet

Grump Grump Galumph

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I feel like all I managed to do today is eat a bunch of junk.  I certainly didn’t manage to find my good cheer.  Or a clever, interesting blog post.  This is definitely one of those days that I would usually just not document but I’m making a bigger effort (25th birthday goal) to post everything.

Jordan almonds, x2.

Fruit slices.

Lunch was inspired by two things; my desire to use these adorable squash I picked up at the Farmer’s Market,

and my need to recreate my favorite Subway sandwich.  Those two goals came together nicely.

I roasted the squash,

and combined half a can of tuna with miracle whip and pickle relish, on a soft bun, topped with tons of red onion.

I had a bit of tuna salad that I ate straight from the bowl and it also got a big dose of red onion.

Altogether it was a tasty, filling lunch.

Nerds.

This popcorn gets irritatingly burnt.  I turned it off even before the popping stopped and it still was smoking.

This Lindt Ice Coffee candy bar was also disappointing, it had a strange sour taste that made me want to rinse out my mouth.

I misread my crockpot dinner directions and ended up with a major time fail.  Dinner came from a local spot down the street.  A buffalo chicken sandwich,

and some of these –

Ugh.

What is something that makes you giggle even when you are in a bad mood?

48hours of Fun

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Aaaargh!  Two (FULL) days worth to recap?  I actually debated not writing this post but I’ve blogged every single eat since my 25th birthday and I’d like to keep that streak going.  I’m keeping this one pretty dry though.

-~-Sunday-~-   We did lots of sharing so my photos are more of a basic representation than a spot on accurate one.

We started with breakfast from Pano’s.

I ordered the Artichoke Omlette, which came with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, and a a touch of basil pesto.  I also requested that they add broccoli and only use half cheese, pepperjack, i.e. there is cheese on the top but not the middle.

With some hasbrowns,

and a slice of sourdough.

Delicious, but I couldn’t come close to finishing; we packed up the second half for the husband. 

By the way – our leftover situation this week was ridiculous, at one point our fridge had 8 to-go boxes in it!!!

We spent a looooong time at a nearby outlet mall, which was tiring but amazing.  At some point I ate this baggie of dried fruit (kiwi, apricot, hibiscus).

And we had to at least get appetizers at Cozumel’s.

Complimentary chips and salsa,

Maryland Blue Crab and Avocado Handrolls.

I love how Cozumel’s has healthified Mexican food; the rolls were not fried, contained no creaminess or cheese, were stuffed with sprouts, and were totally tasty.

My plate –

Dinner ended up being a bit of a fiasco, everything closes on Sunday here!  We drove around for hours looking for a place and the husband’s new phone came in totally handy.  In the end we headed to Jack Astor’s, which was the perfect choice.

We shared lobster and crab dip as an appetizer.

For my meal I ordered the chicken fajitas, which came with cheese, sour cream, onions and peppers, lettuce, salsa, and smokey bbq sauce.

I never order fajitas but assembling my own meal was totally fun.  I ate two fajitas and then packed the rest up to add to our to-go boxes.

-~-Monday-~-   We had to get up super early to take my parents to the airport (boo!) so Adam and I stopped at a bagel place on the way home and got a tomato pesto bagel with salmon shmear to share.

We also split the leftovers of my omlet from Sunday.

It was actually a pretty great breakfast.

I was starving (all day, it was insanely annoying) so I also finished off the rest of my chicken fingers from the other night.

The husband headed to work and I passed out.  I didn’t wake up until around 1 and then I spent the rest of the day sneezing.  It was out of control, I sneezed at least 50times yesterday!  I don’t know what allergy flared up but I felt like death warmed over and even had to skip a friend’s birthday party last night because I couldn’t control all the snot running down my face (gross, sorry!)!

Mid sneezes and tissues I did find time to eat a bunch of crap.  Strawberry yogurt bar from Lindt.

This came from the outlet store and rocked my socks.  It was a single serving (love) and was creamy, and tangy, and crunchy, and perfect.

A piece of whatever this is –

my parents brought it; sort of tastes like a dried crepe with sesame seeds?

An entire bag of chips!

A small piece of banana bread with Smart Balance Light.

Dinner was at least healthy (and epic).

I topped a small bed of lightly dressed spinach with roasted yellow beets,

purple tomatoes,

crumbled goat cheese,

and candied pecans.

OMG!

The combo was out of this world, yellow beets are 10x better than regular ones.

Oh, and I also had a bowl of SmartPop kettle corn.

-~-Today-~-   I’m not sure what the day holds.  I have a terrible case of grumpies for some reason.  I have a dinner I’m excited about cooking and a trip to the gym is definitely in order because I haven’t worked out in 2 days.  We shall see….

48hour recap = 4 reader questions

  1. Have you ever tried beets?  Yellow beets?
  2. What is your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
  3. What is your favorite flavor of Lindt truffle?
  4. Are you attending BlogHer this weekend?

Blazing a Trail Through Buffalo

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How is everyone’s weekend going?  It’s been another amazing but packed day around here 🙂  It’s a late night and tomorrow’s an early morning, so I’ll try to keep this snappy.  That’s not to say I won’t take a moment to brag about some of the final birthday swag….

Like another bear for the window sill.

Or a shower-time bear!

And our snazzy new doormat.

Ok, ok, I’m done! 

Yesterday, since Adam met up with us from work, we ended up leaving a car at my parents hotel.  That meant that this morning Adam and I could run over to the hotel to meet my parents, then take the car to drive us all to breakfast; it was the perfect plan!

I covered the 1.8miles in ~20minutes.  It was great to run twice in a row, but I’m taking tomorrow off to give my calves a chance to unclench 😉

We did breakfast at the Spot so I ordered a grande skim iced latte,

and a maple pecan scone.

The scone was delicious but pretty filling so I ate half and gave the rest to the husband.

Once everyone got showered we headed out for a full Buffalo day.  We walked along Elmwood, and got some great veggies at the Farmer’s Market.

We drove up to a park on the lakefront.

We ooohed and awwwed at the Falls.

In the middle of all the sight-seeing we had to make a stop at Delish to get my parents some locally made ice cream.  I went a slightly different route –

YUM!  That’s a yellow cupcake with passionfruit icing.

The icing was practically juicy, I was swooning!

Sometime in the afternoon I also pulled out an Amazing Grass Green Superfood Bar.

I actually didn’t mind the “green” taste as much as I thought I would, the nuts totally helped to make it enjoyable.  Nonetheless, I could still only handle half of it!

We dropped my parents off to shower before dinner and when we got back to the house I realized I was starving.  Except that starving was an understatement, I was basically drunk with hunger!  The poor husband managed to scrounge up a piece of sourdough pizza foccacia bread for me.

We went to dinner at J.P. Bullfeathers and my dad ordered the fruit and cheese plate, asap, before I tried to gnaw off my own arm!

Here’s my plate –

The smoked gouda – swoon, again – calmed me down but I was still hungry enough that I had a hard time focusing on the menu.

Obviously, since I ended up with Jack Daniels chicken fingers!

They weren’t bad, but it was a strange order for me.  I ate two pieces of chicken and shared the rest.  The fries were demolished however, when I have blue cheese sauce for dipping I lose all control!

We walked around a bit and then headed back to the marina to check out part of the Garden Walk.  We caught someone else enjoying dinner.

That bunny was going to town on the flowers, so cute!

In addition to the exciting exploration, we ended the night with a trip to Wegmans so I could do next week’s grocery shopping.  I know that sounds like a strange stop but since my parents live outside the continental US it was actually pretty exciting for them!

Bed.Time!

What was the highlight of your Saturday?

Mixed Metaphor Magoo

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Our evening plans ended up all wonky, but you gotta roll with what life throws you!  <– mixed metaphor much?  We had to go get some keys made at the last minute (don’t ask, I am a bit irritated with our new apartment) and I had to scrap dinner and workout plans.  Here’s what I did do –

  • get to take a walk with the husband
  • make the tastiest eggs I’ve ever fricking eaten
  • bake up some banana bread

I don’t know what my problem is today, I’ve been sooooo hungry!  Perhaps delayed hunger from two days of hard workouts?  I’m going to bust my butt tomorrow morning so I guess that means I’ll be extra hungry for yummy meals during my parents’ visit 🙂  I made a big (random) snack bowl this afternoon.

A mix of sour cream and onion Goldfish, cinnamon chips, dried kiwi, and dried apricots.  Bowls like this make me adore my kitchen scale with tare function all the more – if I had to eyeball those servings I would have ended up with a much larger bowl!

Dinner was basically epic. <– Caitlin is right, sometimes this is just the only word.

I melted .5T of butter in my skillet, cooked up some chopped green tomato and avocado, then scrambled in two eggs.  I tried to scramble the whites and leave the yolks alone until the last minute and the dish ended up being amazing.  Topped with some Newman’s Own Chunky Salsa.

On the side I had some Boulder Canyon Balsamic Vinegar and Rosemary potato chips; I did not measure that serving and I’m pretty sure I ended up eating more than recommended.

For dessert I ate a slice of banana bread fresh from the oven.

The recipe comes from Cooking Light but I added some chocolate chips to appease the husband.  Very tasty.  Note – if you decide to make your own beware, an hour cook time was way too long for our oven.

I also got to try another one of blogland’s obsessions –

PB cups made with MaraNatha.

The husband and I split the cups and we do NOT plan on spending $6 to get a jar, I just don’t see the obsession!

Do you have a kitchen scale?  What sort of things do you weigh with it?  Also, can someone explain the MaraNatha obsession to me?

A Grass Powered Day

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It’s been one of those run-around errands days and I’m not gonna lie – it was nice to have a busy day that didn’t involve carrying things!

I drove the husband to work this morning and then drove to Barnes and Nobel and perused the “For Dummies” selection.  Sadly I didn’t find quite what I was looking for; I’m updating the blog this summer and I’m feeling very overwhelmed.  Does anyone with technical know-how feel like taking on a charity case???

Mid-errands I snacked on a Green SuperFood Chocolate Whole Food Energy Bar.

During vegan month Brandi kindly got us some samples from Amazing Grass.  Disclaimer – any AG products you see on the blog for the next bit will have been free samples.

This was my first time trying the AG bars and I actually quite liked it –

There was a good mix of “green” and sweet that balanced perfectly and I loved all the nuts.  Plus it had 5grams of protein and was loaded with micronutrients.

Next I headed to an out of the way mall to see if this rumor was true –

It was!  It was! It was!

I have been lamenting the lack of froyo in Buffalo for months (ever since I got self-serve froyo in Orlando) so this rocked my socks.  It was no Menchies, but still pretty fantastic.  I got a small serving of tart (plain) with strawberries, mango, kiwi, and oreo.

Smile indeed!

My errands took me to the bank, the drugstore, the co-op and finally to my kitchen table where I laid out the plethora of clippings for the magazine binder.

My goal is to get all of that in before school starts in September.

I pulled out another AG sample for the rest of lunch.

Pomegranate Mango Infusion Amazing Meal.  I smoothied it up with 1/2cup frozen strawberries, 1cup Silk Almond Milk, and 1/2cup water.

I thought I was going to hate it but I totally didn’t!  Be warned though, it was a bit chalky, you definitely needed some extra liquid.

I also spent some time at the stove, whipping up a batch of fruit topping for waffles and yogurt throughout this week.

This batch included a mix of plums, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries; I can’t wait to dig in tomorrow.

I came back to Adam’s school to pick him up and stopped in the computer lab to register for my final course (there was a waiting list that just opened up).  Now that my schedule is complete I’m a bit nervous: 16credits including Organic Chemistry and Anatomy, yikes!

Our final errand of the day was grocery shopping, so you know dinner came a la Wegman’s hot bar.

I was hungry, my plate ended up beyond loaded!

An assortment of Chinese chicken (aka fried and unhealthy),

roasted veggies,

chili garlic eggplant (not fried, I don’t know why it looks like that),

and raw kale salad.

All de-Lish!

I’m actually blogging on Wegman’s wifi, I’ve gotta go get my groceries!

Do you prefer ice cream or frozen yogurt?  I’m a froyo girl all the way.

On the Move

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Thanks for all the birthday wishes guys!  Even though it didn’t feel very celebratory, I ended up having a pretty good 25th birthday; I like things low-key.  We are 99.9% moved but the last two days have been H-A-R-D!  We did everything but the kitchen yesterday, the kitchen today, and our pictures need to be hung sometime this week.

I must have been nervous/excited because I slept maybe 40minutes Friday night.  I actually got out of bed at 3:40am to take a shower.  Our U-Haul pick-up was at 7am so it was an early morning.  Don’t we look excited?

I did manage to have a pretty good breakfast though.

Fage with Strawberry,

and some blueberries (I didn’t eat the whole pint, but I didn’t want to diry a bowl to put them in).

And I even managed some birthday flare – glitter painted nails.

We were 100% focused on moving so breakfast ended up having to hold me over until late evening.  I did grab a few chunks of watermelon mid-morning though.

And I drank this G-2 throughout the day.

Moving was a serious workout and the husband and I were both sweating bullets so we knew we’d need to replenish some electrolytes.

We moved and we moved and then we moved so more.  Then finally (8pm!) it was time for dinner.  It was my birthday so we got a little gussied.

But after some rain, and some raising of fists to the sky and proclaiming that it shouldn’t rain on birthdays, we moved the party to Cheesecake Factory.

There was a 60minute wait (keep in mind that we last ate at 8am) so we found our way to the bar.  I got a passionfruit mojito because it was made with Cruzan rum.

And then I was drunk.  The combo of not sleeping, not eating, busting my butt all day, and then booze was just too much for me, I could barely keep my eyes open at the table!

We finally got seated and Adam and I practically cheered when the bread basket was brought to the table.

He also shared one of his avocado eggrolls with me.

Dinner –

I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich,

with a green salad on the side.

At that point I was too tired to be very hungry, so I ate all of my salad but only 1/3 of my sandwich.  But what’s a birthday without (cheese)cake?

We got the caramel pecan turtle cheesecake to split.

It was tasty but too much, I took 3 bites and wrapped the rest up for Adam.  Bed never felt so good!

This morning I took a walk in search of breakfast.  The co-op is only .9miles from my new apartment, this could be dangerous!  Sadly the co-op wasn’t exactly bursting with fruit that didn’t require a utensil so I headed to Starbucks.  It might be baby food, but it’s still fruit!

I also got an egg white, spinach, and feta wrap.

Again today we were too busy for lunch, but I did grab some chocolate chip cookies (baked fresh for the husband prior to the move).

The only real snafu in the move so far is that when I turned on my oven to make dinner this evening the fire alarms went off.  Fun fact: the alarms in our apartment are electronic so taking out the battery doesn’t shut them up 😦 We turned it on twice and both times there was no smoke but still deafening noise.  We called to have it taken care of tomorrow and I plopped my “oven roasted” asparagus into a pan to cook on the stove.

I also ate the rest of my buffalo chicken sandwich (with blue cheese dressing).

Not a bad dinner at all.

We don’t have internet set up yet so the husband dropped me off at the Spot so I could blog.  We should be getting it hooked up on Tuesday but I’ll be checking in sporadically until then.  Be on the look out tomorrow for pictures of the new apartment and a giveaway!

What’s the worst moving snafu you’ve encountered?  Last year our BUDGET (hate them) truck leaked and ruined our matress, but other than that we’ve been pretty lucky.

Distractable Me

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The range of activities today mean that I have very few pictures, but considering the late hour it’s just as well.  We did a lot of indulging today too, but since we move on my 1/4 of a century I’m basically declaring it Birthday Week! 😉

Yesterday I had breakfast for lunch, and today I had lunch for breakfast.

I ate the 2nd half of my tasty turkey sandwich,

alongside three carrots.

We ended up not moving at all today, which was great because moving yesterday was even more of a workout than I had thought; I’m so sore!  My legs practically feel like they did after my half marathon, which is I guess is what living on the top floor without an elevator will do to you.  I’m always glad to squeeze in the incidental exercise, and today I was glad to squeeze in more time finishing my paper.

The main reason we switched our plans is that we were off being *movie stars!*  Some of our friends are involved in shooting an orientation video to show to first year medical students and they called this morning to ask us to help out.  Adam and I got to shoot a library love scene ❤

Afterwards we were in a movie frame of mind and we ended up heading to the theatre to watch Despicable Me.  The husband and I split a big tub of popcorn but it was too dark to photograph.  Poor nutrition aside, the movie was a good decision; it was so cute!  We highly recommend it, even to grown ups (although it’s also worth noting that it is a great kid’s movie, it was funny without relying on inappropriate adult humor).

When we got home I made myself a sliced Gala apple with 2tsp of TJ’s Sun Butter.

Dinner got out of whack because of my paper writing, but we did make a trip to DQ for (16oz) Oreo Cheesequake Blizzards.

What can I say, it was another bogo birthday week coupon!  I did manage to control my spoon and only eat half though, the rest is in the freezer waiting for me for another day.

When I did finally finish my work the husband threw me together a quick dinner.

Nobody makes sunny side up eggs like Adam does!  The bread is from a thin sliced loaf of rosemary and olive oil; we tasted a sample on Saturday and it was so good we knew we had to buy it.

Can you keep it to one day or do you celebrate a Birthday Week as well?

The Brock Brought It

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I actually ended up passing out without eating dinner yesterday, so that’s where the evening post was.  Do you ever get too tired for dinner?

Today was the first day (of many days) of moving.  Ugh, ugh, ugh!  We’d want to use the moving truck only for things that have to be moved by truck, so we are trying to get all the little stuff over there this week.  Today we made a big dent in the office.  My eats were kind of all over the place, as I imagine they will be this entire week.  At least I’ve found that moving will be a more than adequate workout 🙂

Maple Walnut Cookie Bar.

12oz Jamocho shakes, a la birthday month gift certificates.

Wegman’s salad bar.

Goat cheese stuffed zucchini blossom,

broccoli and wok seared veggies,

sweet and sour chicken.

I quickly realized that I had taken too much food, but the husband was more than happy to finish off the last 1/3 for me.

My greatest creation, another sundae bowl.

Usually I make these with a little bit of homemade key lime pie ice cream and a lotta bit of 0% Plain Oikos, but today’s ratio was the reverse, making it more of an actual sundae.  Topped with blackberry topping and a grumbled graham square.

This was also the last of the ice cream, I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little heartbroken.

Dinner was very late but also exciting; a trip to JP Bullfeathers for the sandwich I’ve been dreaming about the past month.

The Brock – a turkey paninni with cole slaw and 1000island dressing.

It was just as delicious as I’d imagined but 10:30 was a little late for dinner so I ended up eating half and bringing the rest home.

Tomorrow is going to be another full day, we want to move all our storage bins and I’ve got a paper due on Monday.  I hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

Which sandwich topper do you prefer: cole slaw or sauerkraut?