Tag Archives: sweet

A Beautiful Buffalo Day

by

Oh My Lord, it has just been the most beautiful sunny day here!  I finally feels like summer! (As it rightfully should, I mean, it’s almost freaking June!)

The husband ended up getting a ride to school in the AM which is just as well because I got up at 8o’clock in the morning and watched the Grey’s Anatomy finale and cried for 2 hours.  I don’t even like Grey’s Anatomy!  I think it will be a very good thing when I have classes and to-do’s like normal 25 year olds 😀

Amid my girl-fest was breakfast.

Stonyfield Fat-Free French Vanilla Yogurt with Total and blueberries.  Two things: 1. French vanilla yogurt is kind of amazing, it can’t compare to plain Greek, but I think it might be better than plain regular.  2. You will be seeing a lot of Total round these parts as I’m trying to finish it before the end of the month.  More on that below.

I did head to campus around 11 though, so I could hit up the pool for a swim work out.  I did 30lengths in 25minutes and they totally kicked my butt!  I am finding more and more that I really love swimming; it just feels so good!  I push myself to go as fast as I can for 10lengths and then I take a minute to catch my breath.  I only have until June to use the facilities at UB and I’d really like to get in a longer swim if I can next week.

After I de-chlorined I met up with Katie for lunch.  I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture, but we ate on a bench in the sun on Elmwood and it was glorious!  Sadly, the food selection at the Co-op today couldn’t match the company or the setting in quality, but I did my best.

A vegan biscuit, veggies, a stuffed grape leaf, and some coconut curry tempeh.

Thank goodness I bought a Kombucha to drink too or I would have been gnawing my arm off in hunger!

The Divine Grape held me over pretty well, but I did pick up a fun dessert to bring home.

Theo Bread and Chocolate Bar.

I loved this concept!  The packaging is so cute and the bar itself is delicious.  The 70% dark chocolate has that great almost sour flavor and the bread was more like little crunchy pieces.

I had half.

As I mentioned above, I’m trying to kill my box of Blueberry Pomegranate Total before June.  This is because I’m doing a fun food challenge with Allison – June is Vegan Month!  I’ll share more about the challenge later (we’d love for every/anyone to join us!!!) but for now we are asking for help.  We both know the basics of what’s vegan and what isn’t – the Total has milk solids which is why it’s off-limits – but we want to make sure we don’t miss anything.  Allison gave this example: I’m afraid I’m going to miss some 8 syllable ingredient on a list, like “dyrocxybyfliophbianiateratenpous”, eat it, only to find out that the word is just a fancy way to say “milk”.  Mama Pea’s wise advice was to avoid packaged foods as much as possible, which bypasses this issue and is healthier in general.  The problem is that June is also the month in which I’ll have class during lunch time 5 days a week, so no-packaged foods just won’t be realistic.

Do you have any advice/tips/hints for us?

Winner of a Dinner

by

My dentist appointment went great and my pearly whites are in tip-top shape!

However, my pre-appointment anxiety was enough that even with a clean bill of health already I plan on stepping up my flossing routine to more than a couple times a week!  I’m no Jessica Simpson, but sometimes I definitely phone in the effort.

I stopped on the way home and grabbed an insanely huge Big Gulp of Diet Coke (swoon) and it’s been work, work, work ever since.  Some of my accomplishments include –

  • purchasing a ‘welcome to the world’ gift for my newest niece
  • organizing my e-mail inboxes
  • submitting my health insurance waiver and other soon-to-be-a-freshman-again business
  • sending some blog e-mails
  • putting away 2 loads of laundry and unpacking from last weekend
  • making a pie, with a homemade crust
  • going to the grocery store to rebuy half the ingredients for the above pie
  • cooking a winner of a dinner
  • precooking most of tomorrow’s dinner

Whew!  Done, done, and done; don’t even tell me diet coke isn’t superwoman fuel 😀

“Lunch” never really happened (probably something to do with the Big Gulp caffeine buzz) but I did get a few snacks in there.  I was feeling particularly hungry when the husband came home this afternoon with leftover chips from a meeting but I stopped myself before I went big gulp on the chips by portioning some out onto a plate.

I also had an Amazing Grass packet, shaken together with 8oz of calcium + d oj and 5oz of H2O.

The packet was part of my secret valentine bloggie gift.  I wouldn’t say I liked the taste, but I didn’t mind it either, and the nutritional stats were amazing, tee hee.

Dinner was a last minute idea that ended up being an absolute winner.

Roasted asparagus [spritzed with evoo and salt, 25minutes @ 425*] as a side,

with Pizza Eggs!!!

I came up with the recipe on a whim because I had leftover egg whites to use up from the pie and I ended up telling Adam that this is my favorite thing I’ve ever made!

  1. I combined 1egg and 5whites with salt, pepper, and dried oregano and whisked everything together.
  2. Then I melted 1T of butter in a pan over medium-high heat.
  3. I poured the egg mixture into the pan and scrambled with a spatula until they were mostly set, 1minute.
  4. Finally I added 1/2 cup marinara sauce; 20pieces of turkey pepperoni, halved; and 2oz of extra sharp cheddar, chopped to the pan.  I stirred everything together for 1minute before removing from the heat and plating.

I took a break after dinner to start working on tomorrow’s dinner, and then it was time for dessert.

The pie is “Fresh Lime Pie” from the book pie pie pie; easy homemade favorites by John Phillip Carroll.  I can’t post the recipe for the filling here, but that is my very favorite baking book and I highly recommend that you purchase it.  I can, however, give you the recipe for the crust, because I subbed out the book’s recommendation for my own creation: Biscoff crust (recipe posted below)!

The ginger and lime flavor went together like pb&j or bread and butter!  I’ve been dreaming of this combination ever since I dipped Biscoff cookies into homemade lemon curd a month or so ago.  Be warned though, it was super sour.

Biscoff Crust, or Sweet Ginger Pie Crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 350*.  Place 3/4 of a stick of butter into a pie pan and put the pan into the oven while it heats.
  2. Meanwhile, crush a package of 30Biscoff cookies into fine crumbs.  A food processor would be the easy choice here, but dumping the cookies into a large heavy-duty baggie and crunching with a rolling pin works just as well.  Or if you’re really ghetto like me, you could use a plastic cup for your rolling pin.
  3. When the butter is melted dump the cookie crumbs into the pie pan.
  4. Use your fingers (don’t be a wimp!) to incorporate the melted butter into the crumbs, and then press the mixture so it spreads evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan.
  5. Bake for 11minutes.
  6. Let cool before adding filling to the crust.
  • the crust needs no further baking, but can withstand another 20minutes or so if the filling requires it
  • if you are using a flimsy single use pie pan it can be helpful to put it in and out of the oven on a baking sheet

I had a couple good, if not obvious, ideas whilst baking that I’d like to share.  1. Lay all of your ingredients out ahead of time so you’re sure you have what you need and everything runs smoothly.

2. Save the “shells” of juiced citrus to add some zing to glasses of water.

Do you have any baking tips to share?

Is Your Choice Behind Door A or Door B?

by

It’s been a great day of family fun; we played board games, watched the Discovery Channel, and I got to see my niece get her ballet pictures taken.

I brought my own breakfast from home (picked up from the hospital cafeteria at volunteering) so I was sure to have something healthy to start my day.

Quaker Instant Oats Express in Baked Apple.

This was actually seriously delicious.  I tend to avoid instant oats unless I’m traveling because of the added sugar but this ended up being a really nice treat.  And the fiber/protein content led to enough fullness that it was almost a trade-off for the sugar.

Unfortunately I just can’t jive with the waste of packaging or I would make this a regular thing.

Lunch was a 6inch turkey sandwich from Subway.

Topped with pepperjack, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, banana pepper, red onion, pickles, cucumbers, and honey mustard.

The worker was annoyed that I packed so much on but my sandwich ended up being tasty and filling.

I ate part of a small bag of Cheetos with my sandwich.

I only ate half, because I realized that with Cheetos the enjoyment-to-unhealthiness ratio quickly shifts from left to right.  I’m never going to stop eating crap completely, but I’m really trying to make an effort to regularly check-in with myself about whether or not the treat is worth it.  I think it’s (more than) ok to occasionally eat things with no health benefit, but it only makes sense if there is a happiness benefit.

On the way to the mall I sucked on a blow pop.

Why were we at the mall you ask?  Black light mini golf, duh!

They managed to squeeze 18 holes into the course.

I have a dorky child-of-the-80’s obsession with black lights and the aquatic theme was pretty tacky-fabulous.

After we worked up a sweat, of sorts, we headed to dinner. 

The in-laws’ pick was Cici’s Pizza, which was a new experience for the husband and I.  I was excited about the buffet aspect (I loooove choices and small tastes) but pretty disappointed in the lack of veggies.  I genuinely don’t understand only offering iceberg lettuce at a salad bar!  I will admit that I was pleased to see everything small-sized; the pizza pieces were tiny so you could try a bunch without eating too much.  I was super hungry but I didn’t want to go crazy so I decided to do two runs of healthy food first.

Small plate of salad.

Small bowl of chicken soup.

After I filled up a bit on soup and salad, then I got pizza.

Sadly I wasn’t really in love with either of these, the crust was pretty soggy and disappointing.  I ended up picking at 2/3s or so before moving to dessert.

Dessert, however, was pretty darn good.

I skipped the soggy crust but I loved eating the strusel topping and the cinnamon roll was great, super duper cinnamon-y.

Unfortunately I did too good of a job not overeating; I ended up not eating enough!  When I got home I broke out a Fruit and Nut KIND bar from my from-home-snack stash.

Holy yum!  KIND bars are always good but this flavor was socks rocking delicious; I love that the use apricot in addition to dates for stickiness.

There will most likely be some snacking tonight, I’ll recap in the morning.  Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

Veggies eaten today: ~2cups

What is your thought on “treats” (candy, cookies, chips, extra cheese, or whatever your preference is)?  Should you cut them out completely, enjoy in moderation, or go hog-wild?  What works, or doesn’t work, for you?

On The Road Again

by

We had a nice drive to visit the in-laws this afternoon and even made it to Ohio in time for dinner!  We split driving responsibilities 60/40 because I have the best husband in the world.  While he drove I ate some fresh mango,

and part of a cheese stick.

And while I drove Adam shared a few of his Pretzel M&M’s with me.

These are new variety and they are go-oood!  I love chocolate pretzel confections and this might be the best kind I’ve ever tried.  The consistency was like a whopper and it was a good balance of salty and sweet.

Once we got to Ohio we met the in-laws for dinner at Adam’s favorite Mexican place.  I went with an order of veggie fajitas.

Astonishingly my meal was pretty healthy; lots of veggies.  I wrapped 4 tortillas around broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and onions and beans and guacamole.

It’s likely I’ll do some snacking this evening, but I’ll update later if when that happens.

Veggies eaten today: 2.5cups.

What is your order from the local Mexican joint?  I adore chile relanos but they aren’t the healthiest, I try to at least always get something with lots of veggies.

P.S. Iowa Girl is giving away some Cascadian Farms goodies.

Beans and Bloggers

by

Lunch and dinner today had a lot in common; both involved beans and both were inspired by some of my favorite bloggers.  I think my favorite thing about blog-land is all the fun things I’ve been inspired to try.  Green monsters, running a half marathon, Greek yogurt, nut-butter crusted parsnip fries……

Lunch came from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point.

I love sweet potatoes and I love baked beans, but I don’t think I would have come up with pairing them all on my own.  I used one big sweet potato (13oz) and 1/2 cup of baked beans.

The flavor combination was perfect, I prefer sweet potatoes sweet to savory (i.e. with butter and brown sugar to ketchup or salsa) and this was the perfect blend.  Plus I loved how much it looked like a papaya 😉

I spent my afternoon cleaning, confirming that I don’t have skin cancer, and running errands; all whilst listening to Regina Spektor, who(m?) I’m obsessed with.  I did not get ready for our trip tomorrow, but that’s what tomorrow is for, right?

Dinner was supposed to be a bean burger recipe that Allison of Green Dog Wine raved about.  But one of the reasons I’m obsessed with Allison is that she does cool things like go out to restaurants in the middle of the week, so when the husband begged for suggested Cheesecake Factory I wasn’t too hard to convince.

The best thing about CF is the bread.

I had one slice of each type.  As well as one of the husband’s avocado eggrolls.

For dinner I went with the spicy cashew chicken.

This meal is sooooooo unhealthy but we got to CF like once a year so I’d rather get my favorite thing.

I only ate half of my meal though, because I knew we were ordering dessert.

White chocolate caramel macadamia cheesecake.

The husband and I split it, minus the whip cream.

It was great to go on the mid-week date with the husband!  And my food was delicious, but honestly when it was all said and done I wished I had just ordered a salad.  I’m finding it’s harder to enjoy “splurges” when everything I eat is unhealthy (duh!).  I am so ready to get back to the old me!

Veggies eaten today: 1.5cups, not exactly killing this goal

What is your favorite item from the Cheesecake Factory?

Breaking the Fourth Wall

by

I’m very open on my blog, probably to a fault.  I share about my lady business and even my fights with the husband.  There is nothing in my personal life that I chose not to share with the blog.  However, I did manage to mature before Facebook, and there are things from my business life that I have the savvy not to share.

Which in general wouldn’t be a problem, except that sometimes these things involve frustrating long errands and news that makes me irritated and sad.  And these feelings and errands do end up impacting what/how I eat, which is the focus of the blog.

For today, I’ll apologize for being vague, and ask that you don’t request an explanation for my strange eats and short post.  Thank you.

Breakfast = vending machine pastry while I was stuck waiting for an appointment.

This actually wasn’t terrible, but I was pretty annoyed to not be filled up by a 450calorie “breakfast.”

Starbucks for caffeine.

Grande iced Americano with skim milk.

{insert 4 hour nap here}

Dinner = grilled turkey sandwich on sourdough (no butter) with swiss, 1000island dressing, and tomatoes.

Veggies eaten today: 1cup, of potatoes, which count but still boo.

If you are a blogger, are there any parts of your life you choose not to share?  Why or why not?

Ah-Mazing!

by

Every single thing I’ve eaten this evening has been amazing!!!  I feel like all I’ve done the last hour is “Mmmn” and “Ahh!”

First off, dinner.

Asparagus cooked in clementine oil.  I poured the oil in a skillet over medium high heat, added the asparagus and put a lid on it.  10minutes later the asparagus was perfectly steamed and charred.

Along side bacon, ranch, and chicken mac and cheese.

No words.

The Bacon, Ranch, and Chicken Mac and Cheese was a recipe from Cooking Light.  My changes –

  • subbed in 4 slices of 99% lean turkey bacon
  • added 1T of butter, and a bit more flour as well
  • skipped the dill and the salt

Next time I think I would substitute sharp cheddar in as well, I like my cheese with a little more bite.

After dinner I realized I hadn’t hit my daily fruit goal.  So I opened the gates to heaven with the world’s best dessert.

Stonyfield Fat Free Chocolate Underground Yogurt with 1/2 a banana and 1/2cup raspberries.  The “cherry” on top?

Biscoff spoon!  I’m not sure I could be much more contented.

Eat More Fruit Tip # 4 – I’m not going to recommend eating fruit for dessert (how sad!), but fruit can be delicious incorporated into dessert.  Fresh berries on ice-cream, a banana spread with Nutella, the sky’s the limit.

We have Buffy watching on the agenda and an early bedtime.  I realized that I’ve yet to study for my Anthro final on Thursday, whoops!  So I guess that’s the plan for tomorrow.

What’s your favorite kind of mac and cheese?  It’s not something I would eat all the time, but West Indian style mac and cheese tops anything I’ve ever had stateside.  It’s not runny at all and it has a super thick crust baked on top.  Some of my favorite childhood memories involve getting mac and cheese from the grocery store deli and eating it in the car on the way home.

Fruit eaten today:  2cups

Sunday Night Dinners

by

I hope everyone has had a great weekend!  It’s been an interesting Sunday around here; both Adam and I barely got any sleep last night so the whole day has felt like a dream.  As thrilled as I am about the warming weather, we are in that strange time where a blanket is too heavy but a sheet is too light and we don’t know whether we want to turn on the heat or the ac.  Hopefully we’ll get things figured out by tonight!

We slept in and lounged around so I didn’t eat until close to noon and I ended up having breakfast and lunch in reverse.  Lunch first –

Eggplant, and yam, and brussels sprouts, oh my!  I tried to mix up my seasoning with balsamic vinegar and sadly this wasn’t as tasty as my usual veggie skillets so I’ll spare you the recipe.  It sure looked pretty though.

Probably because it wasn’t the taste I was expecting, lunch didn’t satisfy me at all.  I ended up eating ‘breakfast’ a little later.

1cup Kashi H2H with 2T dried cranberries and 1T cinnamon chips.  And skim milk of course.

The cereal did the trick.

My parents, who don’t do a whole lot of cooking, always make fish on Sunday nights and have a fancy dinner.  Sadly this tradition began after I moved out, which is probably why it hasn’t caught on in my house.  We have things like Dairy Queen for Sunday night dinner.

We had to repark the car for the weekday morning so Adam suggested taking a drive and we ended up at DQ.  I’d be lying if I said that my turtle blizzard didn’t feel like the perfect dinner!

I’m glad I got in some veggies at lunch, but I didn’t eat a single piece of fruit today.  Healthy living fail!   And an issue I’m actually going to address in another post later today.  Be on the lookout for it this evening.

Does your family have any special traditions for Sunday night dinners?