Tag Archives: sweet

Appetizing Arithmetic

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The baking bug has been gnawing at me lately and I finally ceded to its siren song today (holy figurative language Batman, that’s a lot of mixed metaphors!) –

Maple Walnut Cookie Bars.

The recipe was a mash-up (involving multiplication and division) of several things, I loved it in theory but the execution was a little off, probably because of our terrible oven.  I’ll wait to share until I’ve worked out all the kinks.  Imperfection didn’t keep me from enjoying a bar (or 2!) though.

This recipe is not healthy by any stretch, but if you check out Van’s Blog I have an article there about how Low Fat Doesn’t Mean Low Flavor.

You’re Like School In Summer*

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*A hypothetical, cracking wise, unseen you; obviously, my blog readers have loads of class!

I did, however, spend this summer day at school.  And I don’t mean online class school – which I’ve been heavily slacking off in, remind me to buckle down please? – I mean literal, classrooms, 18-year-old-make-make-me-feel-very-old students, school.  Yes, today was Transfer Orientation Day.

I’m not going to bore you with the whole recap, but the very exciting points are –

  • I’m not the oldest person in my major; many people seem to be my age and I’m even younger than a few!
  • I think I’m going to adore most of my classmates, Dietetics seems like a fun group.
  • Our program director recognized me.
  • I am so excited to head back in the fall!

I don’t really do the stale donut thing so I packed a Chocolate Chip Brownie Lara Bar sample for breakfast.

Fab-u-lous!  Best damn brownie I’ve ever had, granted, I hate brownies 🙂

Lunch was buffet style and I filled up a pretty good looking plate –

Aaaaand then the fire alarm went off and they evacuated us, which meant I threw most of my uneaten lunch in the trash.  I ate most of the salad and veggies, all of the watermelon, a bite of the macaroni, and none of the cupcake.

He husband dropped me off in the morning, so when orientation finally let out (it was fun, but 8am – 2:30pm, really?) I set off on my 2.5mile walk home.  Once we move I won’t be able to count my to/from school trips as incidental exercise any more since it is a gloriously short 8minute walk to BSC from our new apartment!

I’ve been doing some organizing but my lack of  a full lunch finally forced me to settle down for a snack.  I went with a sundae of sorts.

A container of Pomegranate Passionfruit Siggis yogurt, a little bit of homemade key lime pie ice cream, blackberry topping, and some graham cracker crumble.

I’ve got a super random dinner that I’m quite excited for, I’ll see you then!

What was/is your favorite thing about YOUR college?

We All Scream for a Completed To Do List

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My to-do list took a slight turn, but it’s been a busy, productive day nonetheless.  I did lunch on-the-go while we were at campus doing my printing.  Pink Pineapple Funky Monkey,

and a Carrot Cake Lara Bar.

Yum, on both counts.

I spent the afternoon working and organizing (and marveling at our ice cream maker!) and we decided to move the schedule around and do some moving work this afternoon.  I had to fax something from Office Max so we did a little Target trip and also spent some time mapping out our new rooms.  It stinks to have to double pay rent, but having access to both apartments for the full month of July is definitely less stressful than trying to move all at once.

In the end, we went to the new apartment –> Target –> new apartment –> Bed Bath and Beyond.  We also managed to check every single item off of our to buy list, phew!  It felt really good to get that all done.  Excitement aside, we didn’t finish up until after 9pm so we ended up getting a late dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

I had some of the famous bread with butter.

And then we did lots of sharing.  An endive small plates salad (with blue cheese and pecans) to start.

And entrée split down the middle.

The husband gave me one of his avocado eggrolls,

and we split the spicy cashew chicken.

Mmmn, this is my very favorite thing at CF and it was nice to split so I wasn’t tempted to eat too too much.  We ended up with a nice plate of leftovers for Adam’s lunch tomorrow too.

When we finally got home we had dessert: that ice-cream I’ve been yapping about all day –

We used a recipe from Rachael Ray Magazine, Key Lime Pie Ice Cream.  The husband didn’t want graham crackers so I left them out and sprinkled some on top of my dish.

We enjoyed some Futurama reruns whilst mmmn and ahhhing.

Afterwards (way way too late) I talked him into doing a quick mini workout with me; 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.  Bedtime is imminent.

What is your favorite flavor of ice-cream?  My real favorite is plain (tart) froyo!

Taking a Page from Janetha

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Meals

Quaker Express Cinnamon Roll oatmeal.

Gelati from Rita’s,

coconut cream ice with soft serve twist.

Tasty, tasty dinner.

Sliced cucumber,

and veggie pizza.

Times that pizza by 2, I was starving!

Moves

1hr +ish of speed walking around the neighborhood with Adam. 

Sample

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It’s been a fun evening but I probably should have been in bed hours ago so I’ll try to keep this short 😉

When the husband got home this afternoon we took a much-need 1hour nap.  Then we geared up to go to the gym.  I realize today probably didn’t provide the best circumstances for a work out (lack of sleep, not a lot of food) but I’m finding that if I take even one day off from gyming it that one day turns into two, and three, and so forth.  It’s like my lack of motivation snowballs.  So for the next 30days or so – the amount of time it takes to form a habit – expect to see some sort of formal workout from me every day.  Even if it’s just 10 minutes of stretching, hopefully making it “official” will keep me motivated.

Today’s workout was 30minutes on the elliptical.  I set the machine to level 6 random, and did backward pedal/forward pedal intervals as well as several sprints.

I gave it my all and was so tired afterwards I had a hard time raising my arms to wash my hair in the shower!  I think I managed to look pretty cute though, dontcha think?

The only thing I like more than ruffles is trying out new restaurants with the husband and that is precisely what tonight’s date entailed.

We’ve had SAMPLE on our radar ever since we wandered past it last month during the art festival.  The concept is that you get to SAMPLE a lot of little tastes.  It’s like tapas but the serving sizes are even smaller, single portion, no sharing.

The husband and I are a unit though (gag) so we managed to share a bit.  Like the cheese plate we split –

Carmelized onion, goat cheese, and roasted pear butter pannini.  Housemade ricotta cheese with fire roasted pineapple chutney. Aged provolone “fondue” with roasted tomato & basil pesto and baguette cubes.  I ate about 1/3 of this; it was ok, but nothing exceptional.

Or the 2-for-1 rum drink special that prompted us to order strawberry mojitos –

The husband’s entrée consisted of little sandwiches and “lots” of meat –

Cuban sandwich, steak frites, beef on weck, and pulled pork.

I got one sample plate to taste, Fish and Chip –

Beer battered salt cod served on a crispy potato guafrette with napa cabbage cole slaw.  The cole slaw was crazy good, but I was glad to only have a small bite of the fried fish.

I took the healthy route for my meal and choose something of the “Small Plate” menu instead of the “Sample” options.  Beet salad –

Tender green salad with roasted beets, gorgonzola cheese, and beet vinaigrette topped with housemade candied walnuts.  This was very good, but certainly not the best salad I’ve ever had.  I prefer this combo with goat cheese.

For dessert we split the Sample Some More –

Housemade graham crackers, chocolate peanut butter cream, bruleed vanilla marshmallow with dark chocolate sauce, and peanut brittle, served with dark hot chocolate.  This dish was a winner, you can’t go wrong with ‘smores!

In the end we agreed that we had a good time but probably wouldn’t go back (unless it was to sit at the bar and eat dessert).  The concept was wonderful but the execution wasn’t quite there.

I knew Adam would still be hungry but in my effort to feed him I shared too much of my salad and ended up a bit hungry myself.  We drove around for awhile and ended up grabbing a 4-piece chicken nugget kid’s meal at Wendy’s.

I know a lot of bloggers wouldn’t eat Wendy’s, period, but I was actually pretty proud of myself for this choice.  My meal wasn’t quite big enough so I had hunger and not appetite (look at that nutrition vernacular!) and this was a reasonable little meal.  We are going out of town again this weekend so our fridge is pretty bare and I can’t think of any fast food option that would be a better choice than a kid’s meal.  I could have probably done without the fries but Wendy’s fries are sooo good – I like the extra squishy ones – and I did share some with the husband.

How do you get/stay motivated for your work outs?  Any tips for me as I get back into shape?

Long but Loving

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Hello again!  I hope that everyone got over the week’s hump nicely.  I’ll describe my situation succinctly: I will never put off my work for 4 days in a row again!  It’s been a painful experience that I don’t want to soon repeat.  The last 48hours have been stressful, but my eats have all been so good that there was no way I wasn’t posting them; hence the long recap post.

Wednesday morning I made a breakfast that was truly a thing of beauty –

A serving of Van’s Belgian Waffles topped with 2T maple syrup, the last of the strawberry sauce, fresh blueberries, and a cinnamon sprinkle.

Gah!  I always used to think that I didn’t like waffles, pancakes, etc, but that was just because I didn’t know to top them off with fruit and cinnamon.

{study, study, study}

Lunch was some Allergaroo Spyglass Noodles.

These were super tasty, and just the right about of food.

I wanted to keep lunch light because it was Katie’s birthday last week and we had a cupcake date.  It ended up being too hot for cupcakes, but locally made ice cream certainly fit the bill.

I got a small scoop of A Date at the Zoo, coconut ice cream with wine poached dates, brazil nuts, and chocolate chips.  Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds!

{study, study, study}

When hunger hit (hard) later in the afternoon I sliced up a big plate of cucumber to munch while I studied.  Unphotograhed accountability note – I also ate ~ 1/3 of a salmon patty straight from the container.

The water-dense snack was a good choice, because when the husband got home at 6 we headed out for a run.

I didn’t wear my watch, so I have no idea what the times are, but it was a good workout.  We did a mix of running and walking (with a few stops so I could fuss with my socks, eek I’m not sure if it’s the shoes or the socks but something with my new shoes isn’t working) and covered 3miles in total.

When you have good leftovers a healthy tasty dinner can literally be less than 2mintues away!

Over a bed of spring mix lettuce I combined 2/3cup microwaved frozen corn, a salmon patty, and a big scoop of medium chunky salsa.

The flavors of this salad went together so well!  It filled me up but it tasted so good that I kept scraping at my plate so I wouldn’t lose any of it 🙂

{study, study, study} um, {study, study, study, study}

That’s right folks, I pulled an (almost)all-nighter!  I stayed up until 4am doing the reading I should have done over the weekend.  Ugh.

I fell into bed for 6hours or so and then got right back to my books.  My messed up sleep schedule messed with my hunger in turn, and breakfast just didn’t sound good.  I did nibble on a serving of Jammie Dodgers throughout the morning though.

Around 2:30 I was finally caught up on the reading, which meant that I was ready to study for and take my test, jeez!

I did break for lunch though.  I pulled a carton of Dr. McDougal’s Lentil Soup out of the depths of my fridge.

I gussied it up with a chopped string cheese, a dollop of plain Siggis yogurt, and some Sriracha.

With a Savory Kathy’s Krackers Flax Snax on the side.

All together now –

Then it was more studying, yadda, yadda, yadda, and FINALLY I took my exam.  And I’m pretty sure I got a 100%, phew!

and if you’ve stuck around through all of that, I’d like to reward you with some recommendations…..

A Few of My (Current) Favorite Things –

1. The new fishy measuring spoon set my mom sent me.

They are available at Fred Flare, but I have heart palpitations whenever I view the kitchen section of that store so I can’t give you an exact link!

2. This College Humor Article about us 90’s kids.

Although I was actually always partial to Treasure Mountain, the article is hilarious.

3. The free online game Red Remover –

It is based on actual principles of physics, it is wickedly entertaining, and it’s flipping adorable.

Any current loves you’d like to share with me?

Red, White, and Late

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I hope everyone and their families had an incredible Independence Day.  No July 4th post for me, mostly because I was so ashamed by my lack of red, white, and blue foods; I always stick to theme!  We did dress festively though,

some of us more than others 😉

We did eat in an, ahem, celebratory fashion though, so I woke up today feeling pretty bloated and gross.  No better cure than testing out the new running shoes (an early birthday gift from my parents).

Since it was 10am already but we didn’t want breakfast before our run the husband and I split this pack of energy gels.

They were a free sample but I would probably buy them again, they tasted more like candy than gels and didn’t sit heavy in our stomachs.

I decided the safest route for new shoes was short intervals –

  • 5minute walking warm up
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute walk
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 3minute walk
  • 5minute run
  • 5minute walking cool down

All total we covered 3miles in 39minutes.  I’m unsure about my new shoes still, they were far more supportive but I ended up having to stop and mess with my right foot halfway through because of a big blister forming on my right pinky, I’m hoping from my new socks.

After a quick shower we headed out to meet our friend Danielle for brunch.  I had a ton of work to do today (and did NOT get enough of it done!) but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity since the husband had the day off from the lab.  We headed to Panos.

I was feeling stressed about my work, but that’s nothing an extra spicy bloody mary can’t fix.

All the breakfast options were pretty big, but thankfully I talked the waitress into letting me order off of the kid’s menu.

I ended up with the 1-1-1.  One egg, sunny side up,

one piece of french toast,

and I subbed in hash browns for my one piece of meat.

I smothered everything in maple syrup and devoured, delicious!

While I was home not working I did random snacking.  Blue and I had some Rainbow Nerds.

A serving of Jammie Dodgers biscuit cookies.

An onion roll with Smart Balance, x2 actually, this was quick and tasty.

And I finally got in my red, white, and blue!

Siggi’s vanilla yogurt with strawberry sauce and blueberries.

O-M-G, so fabulous!  Doesn’t the yogurt just look like a scoop of ice-cream?!  The texture is practically like cream cheese!  The strawberry sauce I actually whipped up yesterday, the recipe comes from Healthy Food for Living.  I had to add ~1/4t of xanthan gum to keep it from being too liquidy, but other than that I highly recommend trying it yourself.

The husband came home this evening (he went to a water park with some friends) and insisted on getting me some veggies; my knight in shining arm took me on his steed to the Co-op hot bar.

I got a little bit of turkey Tetrazzini,

a piece of eggplant parmesan,

2 stuffed grape leaves,

and some side salad.

Now I’ve got to get to bed on the double, I panic a little bit whenever I think about how much work I have to do tomorrow!

Did you do anything fun to celebrate the Fourth?

Caramel Crab and Beef on Weck Roll

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It’s been a busy past 24hours, the husband I have managed to pack in a LOT of fun!  We started by staying up half the night watching “Dollhouse;” what are we, in college?!?  Adam shared one of his Kashi cookies with me around 1am.

This “morning” didn’t begin until after 10am 😉  But I did start the day off right with a tasty breakfast sandwich.

An onion roll topped with Crofter’s Superfruit Spread, a slice of reduced fat colby jack cheese, and 2 eggs.

I use the microwave method for the eggs (which I whisked a bit of Buffalo sauce into) and they came out so fluffy.

Then we piled in the car for another mini roadtrip.  Adam’s friend from his lab invited us to her wedding reception and it was held upstate.  They actually got married in St. Thomas (hometown represent!) a few months ago, so the party had a tropical theme.

The husband and I split a strawberry daquiri,

and a small plate of chocolate fountain food.

We actually cut out early and missed dinner, so we decided to get sushi once we got back to Buffalo.

The husband has been craving sushi so we checked out a place we walked by a few weeks ago, Sea Bar.  They had great aqua accoutrements,

and complementary spiced popcorn.

For our actual appetizer the husband and I split a Miso Caramel Crab roll.

So tasty!  The roll was tempura’d with cream cheese, green onions, and crab, then topped with miso spiked caramel.

The four bites were enough to satisfy my sushi fix, so I went with salmon for dinner.

It came well done with roasted pineapple salsa and egg fu young.  I passed the eggs to Adam but devoured my fish.

Among other things, the husband ordered a Beef of Weck roll.

Fun!

After dinner we kept the date going with a trip to Delish for ice-cream.  I got a Love Potion # 9,

sweet cream raspberry ice cream with lavender.  Swoon, the lavender gave such a great aftertaste.

The salmon and ice cream were quite tasty, but honestly, I’m still flipping starving!  I’ve been hungry since I went to bed last night and it’s been driving me crazy.  Once I get this published I’m actually going to go get a sandwich!

What is your favorite type of sushi roll?  I’m not often brave enough to go beyond veggies, but one time in Brooklyn Adam and I had a roll with bananas in it that was divine.