Tag Archives: sweet

Epic Fail?

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It took me so long to get going this morning (food blogs? guilty!) that I was actually hungry before I left.  I dealt with it by eating a hunk of sourdough flatbread.

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I don’t care what it was supposed to be like, this was good!  I’m going to try to do it right next week, but I will greatly enjoy eating this with the dip I’m planning on making tomorrow.

For actual lunch I ordered a sandwich from the coffee shop below my apartment where I went to study.

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It came with three bean salad, which I disliked and only took one bite of, but the sandwich I adored.

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Roasted eggplant with hot sauce and blue cheese on a whole wheat bun.  This is a combo I will be recreating!

I studied for about 1.5hours before I realized I was too distracted and should go home.  On the way out I bought a cupcake.  Homemade chocolate cupcake with real strawberry icing, who in their right mind would pass that by?  It was pretty delish, but I left a fair amount of base, because I don’t really like cake (which makes it even stranger that I keep ordering cupcakes!)

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It’s possible my attitude of whimsy seeped into the rest of my day and I watched Bones reruns instead of studying…..

Around 4 I got gussied and headed out to meet Adam and another med school event, at Steer, this one to celebrate the first full week of school.  I drank a Rolling Rock,

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and a had a small plate of veggies and pizza.

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We stayed ’till around 7:30 then ran home so Adam could get a sandwich before we went to our next meet-up.  I grabbed a PB Gnu bar to eat in the car.

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But was very underwhelmed and ended up giving half of it to Adam.

We got to Pearl Street Brewery around 8:30 where we had a very fun meet-up.

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Sarah is in town with one of her best friends because her friend is getting married and her sister who lives in Buffalo is making the wedding cake.  Confused?  Everyone was really nice and funny and it was great getting to catch up with Sarah.

I ordered an Oatmeal Irish Stout,

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but everyone else was drinking something called “The Widow Maker.”

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For eats I got an Fresh Apple and Pear Salad.

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Apples and pears sauteed in rum and brown sugar served over mixed greens and topped with toasted pecans and fresh goat cheese; with brown sugar rum vinaigrette.

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It was frickin fabulous!  I ate about 3/4 of it and only didn’t take the rest home because I knew it’d get soggy.  P.S. That brown rectangle is one of Sarah’s portabella mushrooms cooked in beer.

A med school friend came by and met us so after dinner we stayed for a game of pool, and ended up leaving around 11:30.  And now it is way too late and time for bed, toodles!

2nd Monday

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This needs to be a quickie because Adam and I got waaaay too sucked in to Bones reruns and now it’s late.  I swear to Gouda I will be actually posting on Thursday, and there is even a revelation to come.

Espresso Chip Gnu Bar for breakfast.

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White pizza with black olives for lunch.

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After volunteering I did some errands/busywork, including spending quality time with my dough starter and running to the store for more flour.  Adam totally convinced me to get Wegman salad bar (he didn’t have to twist my arm!).

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I knew this was snack and not a meal, so I didn’t do (heavy) veggies but took one bite only of things that looked good.  Adam and I split a hibiscus tea lemonade.

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We also did the ‘fill your own bag’ candy aisle.

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My mini bag cost 63cents!

Dinner was actually made yesterday.

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This was a recipe from the July/August edition of Fitness Magazine.  It was a cinch to make, it came together so quickly (yesterday!)  I’m posting the recipe below, along with my modifications.

Mediterranea Chicken and Pasta, 4servings

  • 1 6oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, chopped, liquid reserved
  • 1T evoo
  • 12oz skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (we used a few ounces less because there was some yuckiness (skin?) that had to be cut out)
  • 3cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I used 1.5T chopped jarred garlic)
  • 1/4C chicken broth
  • 1/4C dry white wine
  • 1t dried oregano
  • 1 7oz jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into strips (I used an extra oz or so)
  • 1/4C pitted kalamata olives (I used Manzanilla with pimentos because they were a bazillion times cheaper)
  • 3C hot cooked penne pasta (whole wheat, of course)
  • 1/4C crumbled feta cheese (optional, we skipped this)
  1. Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade, and chop them.  In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; and chicken and garlic.  Cook and stir until chicken is brown.  Add the reserved artichoke marinade, broth, wine, and dried oregano.
  2. Bring to a boil; reduce heat.  Simmer, covered, 10minutes.  Stir in chopped artichokes, roasted peppers, and olives.
  3. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over pasta.

Nutritional facts per serving for original recipe – 347calories, 26g protein, 38g carbohydrats, 9g fat (1g saturated), 3 g fiber.

I had a small serving.

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After dinner, still during Bones, I ate a mini ice-cream sandwich from So Delicious.

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Good night!

Argh to Ahhhh

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What a long and exciting day it has been!  I’ll start from the begining…..we were up too late after the semi-formal and I was not feeling it this morning.  I felt so gross I almost called in from volunteering, but I knew it was more about being tired than being contagious.  I told myself that I would suck it up and go and planned a reward/major sugar and caffeine rush for breakfast.  I ate a Cliff Mojo Trail Mix Bar on the walk to the hospital.

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Adam had been driving me but it’s only about a half a mile a way.  I should have walked further though, because when I got to the hospital I ordered this –

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cookies and cream javalanche (i.e. frozen coffee).  Oh man, I felt like a 24year old and not a college kid because this made me so sick!  I got about 3/4 through before I threw in the towel but I spent the first hour or so of volunteering wishing I had somewhere quiet to puke!

Volunteeringwas much better today than it had been, because I finally had a bit more to do.  I spent several hours making catheter packs and the repetition was very cathartic.  There was some sadness and hubbub because a DNRpatient coded but getting to see all the UB med students rush in the room got me so excited about my husband 🙂

For lunch I let my uber unhealthy breakfast guide me away from pizza and toward the sandwich counter.

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Sliced turkey with spring mix lettuce, sun dried tomatoes, and chipotle sauce on pumpernickel bread.

When I got home I found a very exciting package, and a review is to come.

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I also had to go to the post office to pick up more excitement from my parents.

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(Among other things) they were in San Francisco last weekend and they sent me all of these goodies they bought along the way.  I also got an Amazon order with two books my mom had bought me for my birthday that were on hold.

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Right now my “to read” bookshelf is packed 🙂

As soon as we got home from the post office we had visitors!  Adam’s mom and dad came up for his white coat ceremony tomorrow and they are staying with their friend Peg in Warsaw.  The three of them drove over tonight to meet us for dinner.  We hung out and showed them our new digs before we walked across the street for dinner here –

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We tried Tempo, and Italian spot on our block, and looooooved it.  We sat on the patio which was gorgeous.

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It came up that I had a food blogand we ended up gettingto meet the chef!  If that wasn’t exciting enough he sent out an extra course for us to sample.  All in all the service was impeccableand the experience was amazing.

I nused a glass of riesling, Richter Porter, Germany, throughout dinner that I adored.

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Soon after we were seated we were delivered an antipasto plate – eggplant tapenade, fresh feta, olives – and some fresh homemade foccacia.

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Here was my plate –

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For my first course I ordered the eggplant antipasto fried eggplant/goat cheese/olive tapenade/sun dried tomato vinaigrette/baby greens.

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How gorgeous is that?!?

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The eggplant was unbelievably fresh and the tanginess of the sauce complimented the dish wonderfully.  I ate it all except for a few shared bites.

After the appetizers the chef sent out three plates for our table to try.

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Respectively they were: a. gnocchi in a favabean sauce, beef carpaccio, and a zucchini stuffed with bacon risotto.

Since I don’t eat mammals there were parts I couldn’t eat, but I had small tastes of each –

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The gnocchi was a-maze-ing.  It was the best texture ever, chewy and airy all at the same time.  I realize the bacon was cooked into the the risotto but I said screw it and just sort of ate around it, it was creamy and smokey and great.  And my husband said the beef reminded him slightly of salmon and was delicious.  We just couldn’t get over how fresh everything tasted.

For my entree I ordered the Gnocchi Pomodoro housemade gnocchi/pomodoro sauce/fresh mozzarella.

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I couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful all of the dishes were.

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The gnocchiwas amazing, as before, and the best way to describe the pomodoro sauce is that it tasted made from scratch.  We were getting stuffed at this point and I still managed to eat all but a few bites, though I did peel away most of the cheese.

Stuffed, however, does not mean too stuffed for dessert!  My mother in law ordered a trio of sorbets, best she’d ever had she said, and Peg raved about the cannolli but I was too busy swooning to taste anybody else’s!

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Butter Pecan Gelato with biscotti and housemade fudge sauce.  Adam and I split this but if I hadn’t been so stuffed I probably would not have let him have any!  The gelato was great (again, it was just so clearly homemade) but nothing on this Earth is as good as that frickin’ fudge sauce.  The very best comparison I can make, which doesn’t even begin to do it justice, is that it reminded me of baking chocolate squares, if they were somehow the most amazing thing on Earth.

Adam actually commented after dinner how much he enjoyed watching me enjoy my food 🙂

We walked our guests to their car and since I was too close to exploding to sit back down we spent 20minutes taking a nice walk around our neighborhood.  I called my parents to thank them for the gifts and swooned about dinner all over again.  Now Adam is studying and I am going to do some blog business and then aim for a 10pm deadline.  Sweet dreams.

When was the last great meal you had?  Other than tonight’s amazingness, and the world’s best sandwiches at Serendipity, I would say this meal.

Bad Etiquette?

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When Adam got home we spent some time cuddling/discussing his day and then I made some business phone calls.  Among other things, calling Budget insurance which is being ridiculous; our mattress was ruined on the move due to a leak and making a claim has been impossible.

I decided to eat my Newman’s Own Organic 77% Chocolate bar as a pick me up before our run.

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I had half of it (serving size was the entire bar), and oh yes that is sunflower seed butter spread on those two pieces!

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Unfortunately, my pick me up was more of a weigh me down, as now I am having major tummy troubles.  I love love love Newman’s Own Organic products but the last time I had one of these bars I had stomach issues too so I have to think there is a problem with them.  Has anyone else tried these and had issues?

To be honest I was feeling pretty lazy anyways so I am (almost) glad to have an excuse not to exercise!  I very happily filled the time pouring through cookbooks and making a list of “to try now” recipes!

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Over the course of the evening I ended up looking through every single cookbook and now I have quite an exciting list.

In the middle of it all I drove Adam out to his event.  When I got home I walked to the gas station across the street to buy cheese for tomorrow and I ended up walking to Arbys for dinner on a whim.  I got flustered so I decided to do 5-for-5 but when I realized there was no chicken on that menu I got even more flustered and I ended up ordering this –

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Left to right: onion rings, curly fries, mozzarella sticks, jamocho shake, diet dr. pepper.  I ate a few bites of everything (except for the shake which I had 90% of and the pop which I had 100%) and then threw the rest in the trash –

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  1. I know that was a major waste of food
  2. I am aware that I am a totally fattie
  3. I realize this is totally against food blogger customs (which is kind of sad actually, I wonder how many readers look at some of the bigger name blogs and feel crappy because they actually eat fast food more than once a millenia?)

I wasn’t hungry for real food but I did manage to prep my ingredients for breakfast tomorrow morning.

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We are having (better) eggs tomorrow so I sliced 2ish oz of Hellva Good Sharp Cheddar Cheese and sauteed ~1.5C of kale in 1t evoo and 4-5T water.  Not only will things be quicker tomorrow but I am much more likely to get up and make a healthy breakfast if I know I’ve already done some of the work.

I’m going to hang out while I wait to pick up the husband and my goal continues to be bed before 11 – I’ve made it the past two nights, but hopefully tonight I’ll actually fall asleep then!  Sweet dreams.

How often do you eat fast food?  We do not eat fast food all that often (especially because other than Wendys it doesn’t do much for me, making it not a “splurge” but a waste) but we do rely on it from time to time.  There are places I will not eat at because of ethical issues – hello kfc – but other than that I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.  I grew up eating pretty healthy, but once a week my family would go out to dinner.  For a while when I was 6-8ish we didn’t have much money but we continued the tradition by going to McDonalds once a week.  Those 5chicken nuggets didn’t do irreparable damage and I have fabulous memories with my mom and dad.

Excited!

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First things first, my exciting news – one of my best friends and I just registered for the Disney Princess Half Marathon in March!  I am super excited but very nervous.  I am sure you will hear lots lots more about it in the upcoming months, especially once I start my training in September.

My parents had lots of excitment for us at the post office –

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They sent magazines, books, bath products, and a huge stack of cookbooks I’ve stored at home for the last few years.

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That isn’t even all of them, some didn’t make the cut!

They also mailed the two adorable vases I bought an Anthropologie years before I had anywhere to put them.

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Now they are right at home on my cookbook shelf 🙂

Adam and I spent some time talking about his first day and looking over his schedule and then we got started on dinner.  We made a recipe from the March issue of Fitness in under 30minutes!  I’ll post the recipe below but just to warn you, I’m not so big on measuring – I used way less cilantro and peanuts than called for, and more chicken because the husband scoffed at the suggested portion.  Also, where it called for sesame oil and red pepper I used 1t of the chipotle oil* my mom sent instead.

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Here was my portion –

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It was pretty darn delicious.

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Cilantro Chicken with Peanuts, serves 2, from the March ’09 issue of Fitness

  • 8oz skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into strips
  • 1t cooking oil
  • 2t reduced sodium soy sauce
  • 1t rice vinegar
  • 1/2t roasted sesame oil
  • 1/4t crushed red pepper flakes
  • 3/4C fresh cilantro leaves
  • 2C Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
  • 2T dry roasted peanuts
  1. In a medium nonstick skillet, cook chicken over medium-high heat 3-4minutes, or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.
  2. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and pepper.  Stir and cook 1 more minute.
  3. Remove from heat.  Stir in cilantro.
  4. To serve, spoon mixture over cabbage and sprinkle on peanuts.

If you follow the recipe the nutritional stats per serving are: 231calories, 30g protein, 6g carbohydrates, 10g fat (2g saturated), 4g fiber.

After dinner I ate a serving of Lindt mini truffles (180calories for 3, in fantastmic flavors like cappuccino, caramel, and hazelnut) before I got ready to go out.

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Adam had a first day of medical school mixer at a bar nearish our apartment.  I wore my new perfume – how cute is that packaging?

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And my new favorite shirt.

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I met a lot of neat people, it seems like he has a pretty great class.  We stayed until almost 10 playing pool and chatting.  I drank this x2 –

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The bar made its own microbrews, I had a Blueberry Blonde Ale and an Irish Oat Stout.

My goal is bedtime by 11 again, especially because I’m hoping to get up and cook Adam breakfast tomorrow.  Sweet dreams all!

Have you ever run any sort of race?  How did it go?

Leftovers and Virgins

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I was feeling a little off last night and that carried over because I was still exhausted when I woke up…. at noon!  It’s ok though, here was the view out of my window at 1pm –

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It’s normal now but the weather was crazy for a little bit, we are going to have to get lots and lots of lamps this winter!

Adam and I took advantage of the inhospitable outside and watched “40 Year Old Virgin.”  I ate my Cheesecake Factory leftovers, spicy cashew chicken, while we vegged.

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I also ate a mug of our homemade mint cookies and cream ice-cream.

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So now it’s 3 and the weather has cleared up.  Tomorrow is Adam’s first day of medical school and my first day of volunteering.  I’m not sure where the afternoon will take us but I’m sure it will be fun!

Do you like raunchy movies or chick flicks?  My husband loves chick flicks, for which I tease him mercilessly, but I like raunchy comedies.  “Knocked Up” is pretty much my favorite movie of all time but I also love “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

Was That a Mall or a Chamber of Hell?

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Lordy, lordy, lordy, what a day!  I want to say things picked up from their low point but that would really be a lie.  I will say that the husband and I are very good at (and used to) making the best of things, so even frustrating situations can be laughed at.

Number One on our fun agenda was using an exciting wedding gift to make…..homemade ice-cream!  I’ll talk about that more later but suffice to say that poor communication between Adam and I led us to throw out an entire bowl of ingredients and have to start over from scratch.  Our emergency grocery store trip put us way behind schedule and we got to Fun Activity Number Two – the mall – much later than planned.

Somehow, Fun Activity Number Three was a total sucess.  We saw “Julie and Julia” which rocked my socks 🙂  I thought the book was better than the movie, but the movie was still great.  It was funny and touching and the husband and I thought that Julia and her husband were the cutest couple ever.

Our main purpose for coming to the mall was to find me an outfit for a semi-formal Adam’s first week of med. school.  That activity took all day.  I’m not big on shopping anyway so having eaten nothing all day it was very very tedious.  We went to every single woman’s store in the mall and I was in tears by the end of the day.  At our very last stop however, our 2nd trip to Banana Republic, I finally found a dress that worked!  It’s not perfect, but at least I won’t go naked, I’ll show you guys pictures next week.

In the interim I at least did some unnecessary, but totally necessary, shopping.  A stick perfume I needed and a hair clip I needed –

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plus the cutest top ever on sale at the Gap –

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After our final shopping sucess our Final Fun Activity was dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  I started with a major serving of bread, sourdough is my favorite.

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For dinner I ordered Spicy Cashew Chicken which used to be my favorite Factory meal.

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I knew I would devour it so I asked for a box with my meal and took half of it out before I even started.

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It was delicious!

Nothing could compete, however, with homemade ice-cream!

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I cobbled together a base recipe from a few sources (and made some changes based on what we could find during our emergency trip) and then we added in crunched Newman’s Own Organic Mint Newmanos.  So good!  The next time I make ice-cream I am going to try it with skim milk but I figured I would follow a traditional recipe the first time around.

Mint Cookies and Cream, makes 1 quart

  • 8-10 mint oreo-ish cookies
  • 4large egg yolks
  • 3/4C sugar
  • 1/4t salt
  • 2 1/4C half and half
  • 3/4C 1% milk
  • Ice water
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/4C sugar, and the salt.
  2. In a medium saucepan, whisk the half and half, milk, and remaining 1/2C of sugar over medium heat until just begining to simmer, about 5minutes.
  3. Add to the egg mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour into the saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens, about 8minutes.
  4. Pour the custard into a bowl set in an ice water bath.  Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
  5. Use an ice-cream machine to process the custard according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
  6. Fold in crunched cookies after removing from machine into an air-tight storage container.

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We are eating ice-cream and watching “My So-Called Life” and at this point, the day looks pretty good!  Hope everyone else had a good Saturday, see you tomorrow!

Have you ever made your own ice-cream?  What flavor would you most like to try?  I was saying to Adam today that I can’t believe no one has made a maple waffle ice-cream yet, I think that will be my next venture!

pasTa

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I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love!  If I could run off with a smoothie without hurting Adam’s feelings I would, but more on that later…

Our errands went ok, we have to go back to the post office tomorrow but we dropped off our donations at Goodwill and got the things we needed at Target.  I also got majorly suckered into some candy –

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York Patties used to be my favorite candies and an ad in a magazine at Adam’s doctor’s office totally got me craving one – way to go former communication majors!  I also ate some of the husband’s mini truffles (x3).

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For dinner we made AnTEAoxidant Pasta (my name, recipe courtesy of an old Self magazine).  So good!

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I had my portion with a big glass of iced h2o.

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AnTEAoxident Pasta, serves 4  (I made some changes to the recipe, mostly to make it lower fat and to accommodate our lame pantry, so I’m posting the changed recipe below)

  • 6 green tea bags
  • 2.5C dry ww penne
  • 2C chopped broccoli
  • 2C chopped kale leaves
  • 1 14.5oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 3/4C fat free ricotta
  • 4t evoo
  • 1T balsamic vinegar
  • 1T chopped garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste

>Bring 6C of water to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add tea bags; turn off heat and let steep for 5minutes.  Discard tea bags and bring back to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to package directions.  Add in broccoli and kale in the last three minutes of cooking.

>Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine tomatoes, ricotta, oil, vinegar and garlic; mix well.  Drain pasta and cooked vegetables; add to bowl and toss well.

It was good, but nothing on this Earth is as good as this smoothie –

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  • 1small banana
  • 1C Goya frozen soursop pulp
  • 3/4C So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk

Holy frick it is good! 

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Soursop is so good, it is my favorite childhood taste memory.  Legend has it that soursop makes you sleepy which is the idea tonight.  We are watching more “My So-Called Life” and then I am trying to get to bed by 10.

What is your favorite childhood taste memory?  Mine is soursop juice and baked macaroni and cheese from the old grocery store back home.  When I went out shopping with my parents around lunch time my dad would buy it for me and I would eat it with my fingers in the car!