Good Marital Advice

by Emily

First things first.

Q – Which has more caffeine (no looking it up!) a grande coffee from Starbucks or a Red Bull energy drink?

A – The Starbucks. 330 mg versus 80 mg. (source)

Also, I have no photos of my mid-day meal. Lunch was consumed via food lab samples and I didn’t have time to photograph. The lack of pictures stinks, but the meal was gooood. Today was the fat/fat substitute group’s lab and we made regular and reduced versions of ranch dressing, buffalo chicken dip, french toast, red velvet cupcakes, and grilled cheese sandwiches. In total I consumed about 3-4 big bites of each. The cupcakes were beyond nasty (both varieties) but the dip was ridiculous good and we all stood around taking bites long after we were done tasting! Plus I ate several pieces of sourdough while I was slicing bread for the sandwiches.

I had dinner all planned out but the husband arrived home from the hospital at 6pm and confidently declared that we were going out. A good wife never contradicts her husband.

We ended up at Thai Orchid and our meal was mind-blowing. Good call, honey!

I took a few bites of Adam’s Tom Kha soup.

And several more bites of his Pad Thai.

But mostly I was focused on shoving this into my mouth as quickly as I could.

Pad Kee Mao; spicy stir-fried flat rice noodles in chili sauce with broccoli, egg, onion, green and red peppers, and fresh hot basil.

I ordered mine tofu/vegetarian and Thai spicy so it came with extra veggies and burned my face off.

Heaven. I was dying with happiness with every bite I took.

Now we are going to catch up on “Modern Family” and stick some spoons into this –

Did you guess the answer to the caffeine question correctly?

7Oct2011

The Circle Of Life

by Emily

“From the day we arrive on the planet

And, blinking step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the Circle of Life”

I just can’t stop singing! It’s possible I’ve hummed straight through my day. Other than “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” was the Disney movie with my favorite music.

Backing up to where we left off yesterday, I spent some time (not enough) with these –

I popcorned while I studied.

I hated it.

Plus 100 calories worth of Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% chocolate topped with a smear of Biscoff spread.

Adam was in surgery until late so the meet-up plan involved friends picking me up and all of us getting together with Adam whenever he could make it. The husband had told me to be ready at 5:45 so a bit after 4 I took Webster out on a long walk. We were heading home around 5 when I got a call from our friend Patrick – “Eithan said to tell you he’s running late, they’ll probably get you around 5:30.” 5:30 you say? Whoops!

Thankfully I’d already showered in the morning so I didn’t take all that long to gussy. I even managed heels and mascara.

Ready on time, we set off to Pearl Street Grill and Brewery for dinner before the show. Thankfully, Adam got out early enough to meet us for dinner so we did a little sharing. I ordered the Gobbler (turkey burger) with a side salad subbed instead of fries for veg.

I was not expecting such a large plate of greens though! In the end I ate ~ 1/3 of the husband’s chicken fingers and fries,

all of the salad (with brown sugar rum vinaigrette!),

and 2-3 bites of the turkey burger.

Adam was more than happy to take care of the rest for me. We were with a great group of friends – 2 couples of regulars plus another 2 couples who were friends of friends – so even dinner was fun.

Getting to the theatre was a bit of an ordeal – it’s possible all of the girls had to sprint 2 blocks in high heels! – but all that really matters is we made it. This was my first time seeing “The Lion King” and I thought it was great. Knowing the music from the movie and being able to sing along (silently!) definitely helped to keep me engaged. My favorite part of the show was actually the visual appeal; the costumes for the elephants and giraffes were truly breathtaking. I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go. Though now Adam and I are desperate to see the movie to hear the songs again!

It wasn’t the earliest bedtime and my 6am alarm felt a little … rough. Thankfully I thought ahead so all I had to do was put on shoes, grab my bags, hop in the car, and stumble to the gym. My notecards and I spent some time on the treadmill, more for a wake up and study review than workout purposes. 2 miles walked, 35 minutes. A quick change and face wipe bath later and I was ready for my exam.

Before the test I ate this White Chocolate Macadamia Chewy Nut Bar Odwalla sent me to sample.

This was sweet, but not too sweet, and a little bit nutty. I couldn’t savor it the way I would have liked because our test was about to begin, but it did hold me over well through the morning. 210 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat for 25% each daily value of calcium and folate (<– important for baby making). The white chocolate macadamia flavor will be hitting stores this month; look for it!

My test went alright, not great but not terribly either. The subjects covered included the clear liquid diet, parenteral feeding, and Latin roots for medical terms, among other things, so no matter how the test went I know it’s all material I will be seeing again.

I had time for a quick break and then it was on to class #2 and a group presentation. Our non-nutritive sweeteners group had to present our findings from the last test lab as well as information on the options available to our future clients. We were the very first group to go which was a little nerve-wracking but the TA said we did a good job. We also did our 2nd set of sampling today, this time with commercially made products.

The class had to analyze original and sugar-free versions of cola, yogurt, ice-cream, jell-o, and chocolate syrup. Normally we can just take small tastes in lab but since I’ll have to write up a report for this one I needed to take really good notes which meant eating all of the samples, even the nasty ones. And most of them were nasty. <– Word to the wise – don’t even waste your time with Hershey’s sugar-free chocolate syrup, yuck city.

Since I didn’t have time to photograph everything I ate (which ended up having to be a lot) I gave myself the afternoon off from blogging as well. I will note though, that lunch included many handfuls of salty nuts and a big bag of chips to help balance out all that sweet! And other than eating and dog walking I didn’t accomplish a blessed thing. We have two huge exams and a paper due next week and I needed some time for tv watching before my long-weekend study session begins.

Dinner was similarly low-key.

The Tandoor Chef veggie Pad Thai is seriously better than most of the Thai available in Buffalo.

Yums.

On my extra-sweet day, check out what arrived in the mail –

Adam’s mom sent us a haul of cookies! It’s taking a lot of self-control but we are going to wait until the coffee caramel is finished before having at them. And on that note, we are off to have sundaes!

Which sugar-free products do you use? Do you prefer the taste or are you diabetic/looking to cut calories?

2Oct2011

10/90 Work To Sleep

by Emily

I spent basically the whole day napping with the dog and the husband. It was epic.

Just like next week will be an epic fail as I try to work around all the stuff I didn’t do.

I swear the cold just makes me go into hibernation. My appetite was all over the place too. We started our “morning” with hunks of sourdough dipped in herbed olive oil.

Off all the things my body could have demanded at 45* degrees in October, next came ice cream.

I topped Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Roll ice cream with hot fudge and Heath crumbles.

When we did make our way out of the cave it was to go to the movies. 50/50 was great; very touching and funny. I love Seth Rogan in everything he does but it was nice to get to see him play a new role.

We also made a weekly trip to Wegmans. They were out of eggplant entirely which through our meal plan for a loop, but I think we worked it out. We didn’t get any hot bar (more on that tomorrow) but I did buy 50cents worth of Halloween candy.

50cents for $100 worth of happiness. I live for theme things.

Following the theme, Adam and I split a pumpkin beer when we got home.

Shock Top’s Pumpkin Wheat was wonderful. Not bitter at all like some pumpkin beers I’ve tried. I think I actually liked this variety better than traditional Shock Top.

For dinner we made this tofu quiche.

Same recipe as last time, though I did leave out the milk this go-round.

It was quite good; very cheesy. A good hibernation food.

How did you celebrate the start of October?

1Oct2011

The Pumking and I

by Emily

Has October become synonymous with winter in your neck of the woods too? It’s so freaking cold here I’m actually blogging in bed! We aren’t planning on switching our summer for winter wardrobes until next weekend and I’m not quite sure how we’ll get through to then. I’m keeping this post quick before my laptop dies.

I did not get near enough schoolwork done this afternoon. I did drink some milky tea,

and get in a session at the gym. 30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6. I started to read The Help while I ellipticized. I’m only 5 pages in but I’m already loving it. I’m not loving that it’s 500+ pages long; normally that would thrill me but I have to finish it by next Friday for book club!

For weekend fun, we met up with two other couples at The King and I for dinner. People have praised The King and I as the best Thai in Buffalo for years; I’m so glad we finally got a chance to go. And the food was pretty dang delicious.

I stole several bites of Adam’s Tom Yum soup. The famous Thai soup, slightly sour and spicy with fresh mushrooms, tomato, chili, lemongrass, galangal, and lemon juice with cilantro, scallions, and chicken.

I loved how tangy this was, totally umami.

My tactic to trying out a new Thai spot is to order either the Pad See Eiw (my favorite meal on Earth) or an extra spicy dish (to gauge what they deem “spicy”). Tonight I went the spicy route. I ordered the vegetarian Pud Met Ma Muang. Steamed tofu sautéed with cashew nuts, mushroom, bamboo shoot, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, baby carrots, and Thai basil leaves in a hot chili sauce. I ordered 5-star spicy and extra veggies so they added chili, Napa cabbage, and zucchini.

Loved it!

I would only call this 3-star spicy but I’m rating the dish 5-stars for satisfaction since the veggies were so good. Other Thai places in Buffalo load up their dishes with onions, it was great to have an actual plate of vegetables! Plus everything, tofu included, was cooked perfectly.

I basically licked my plate clean, plus several scoops from the communal rice bowl.

We will definitely be coming back soon.

None of the couples were ready for the night to be over so we all headed to Dolci for gelato.

The worker graciously let me taste several flavors (including Sriracha-coconut!!) until I came upon two that made my heart sing.

Burnt caramel and Pumking Ale. The burnt caramel was obviously the best because you just can’t top that flavor but the Pumking Ale was amazing as well, and the combo was divine. The Pumking had just hints of booze and pumpkin and it was almost fizzy! I totally confirmed my suspicion that I can’t make it through this October without some Southern Tier.

What’s the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

17Sep2011

Blood From A Stone

by Emily

I stayed up until past 1:30 last night! I didn’t really get much work done but I did have fun eavesdropping on the boys’ funny poker smack talk. I planned on staying in bed for 8 hours but the husband got up with the dog and lured me from under the covers with farmers’ market trips and coffee.

He made me a warm to-go mug with Silk Almond Milk and English Toffee Syrup.

We bought a few things at the market but we did some giving too. Adam gives blood regularly and when he spotted the donation truck we popped in. I’ve never been able to give blood because my veins are tiny and wimpy – the last two times I’ve had to have blood taken for blood panels I had veins in both arms popped! One time I tried to give in college and the man meanly told me he wouldn’t be able to do it without a children’s needle and that I should work out more! But guess what I did today –

Booyah, I’m finally a blood donor! They had to (carefully) use a vein in a sort of odd placement – Adam said it was probably a branch of the cephalic vein – but I managed to produce a full pint! I think being a donor is really important, I’d also like to donate marrow in the future, and I am so excited to finally join the ranks of big kids who give blood.

When we got home I made a fantabulously tasty cereal bowl.

A serving of Barbara’s Vanilla Almond Shredded Wheat topped with a sliced plum, a sliced plucot, and more almond milk.

This combination of flavors and textures may actually be my favorite thing ever; the types of sweetness play off of each other so well.

I did a tiny bit of work in the morning and then Adam and I had errands to run. Our fridge was basically empty, which lead me to one of my more “creative” concoctions.

The last Tbsp of light sour cream with the last Tbsp of blue cheese crumbles, a few capers, and a dash of A-1 Steak Sauce. Spread on top of a Bagel Thin.

I actually thought the end result wasn’t bad, but Adam was in love with it so I ended up sharing most of the bagel with him.

I also ate this big bunch of grapes.

And this 2 oz mix of yogurt covered raisins, peanuts, and pretzels.

I needed more of a lunch though because I thought I was going to pass out from hunger by the time we got home. Thankfully we had 7pm plans so there was an excuse to have an early bird’s 5 o’clock dinner.

I am pretty much done with Saigon Cafe because their “Thai spicy” is apparently my mild and bland, but we had a Groupon so I gave it one last shot. Crisp tofu to start.

Deep fried tofu with peanut sauce, it’s hard to go wrong.

I ate four pieces of tofu with sauce.

For my meal I ordered the tofu tamarind, Thai spicy, with extra veggies.

What exactly would this dish have looked like without the extra veggies?!?

And, I’m done. Saigon Cafe does ok noodles dishes but their meals are always disappointing. I ate about half of my dish with two bites of rice and two stolen bites of Adam’s Pad Thai.

It was a double Groupon night and our main activity was Art By You.

They provide the materials and a quick lesson and you provide the talent, or not.

I went from this,

to this,

to this.

Let’s just say I’m artistically challenged! I had a great time though!

Adam thought it was fun too, and it was great to do something artsy with him.

We weren’t ready for the fun to end so now we’re cuddling on the couch and watching “That ’70’s Show.” I’ve been hungry all day so I did dinner take 2 from Moe’s.

That’s a kid’s quesadilla with corn salsa, plus chips with queso dip. I also snagged most of the husband’s chips too.

I’d like to say that I’m done but Adam put a frozen pizza in the oven and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up having some. I’m putting away the camera for now though. I’ll end with my favorite shot of the day. Whenever we leave him alone too long Webster gets into our reusable bags like an asshole. When we got home this evening he was stuck in one of them and wearing it like a cape.

I thought Adam and I were going to die laughing!

Have you ever donated blood?

22Aug2011

Healthy Living Summit 2011 Mega Recap

by Emily

This post is going to be huge, so there are a few facts I want to establish before I begin –

* The Healthy Living Summit (HLS) was fabulous and I had a wonderfully fun time. However, since I didn’t have internet all weekend this is going to be a monster post and I’m not going to include as many details as I’d like.

* I met and hung out with some amazing people. So many, in fact, that I think it makes the most sense for me not to link back to anyone.

* I snapped a photo of every piece of food that went into my mouth but I wasn’t so good on people or places; I was too busy enjoying those things to photograph them.

Okey doke, let’s start from the beginning…

So, this happened exactly halfway between Buffalo and Philly –

Usually a picture of a flat tire would be followed by many four letter words but the only one I could think of was l-u-c-k. My trip to Philly was greasy, two hours longer than planned and completely exhausting, but I actually started crying because I felt so grateful. The things I am thankful for –

It rained 70% of my trip but not a drop fell during the two hours I was standing on the side of the road changing my tire.
My tire blew on a small side road and not when I was going 70 mph on the highway.
I was able to take off the nuts and jack up the car all by myself, and if the tire hadn’t been completely rusted to the axle I probably could have done the entire thing myself like a total badass.
The nicest man on earth not only stopped to help me out, but drove back to his house for the sledgehammer it took to get my tire off.
The nice man gave me directions to his nice friends’ body shop, where they replaced my tire and fixed me up for only $20.

Isn’t the world amazing? Before the whole debacle I drank a guava Rockstar for breakfast,

and afterwards I shakily ate the half turkey sandwich with cheese and cranberry mayo that I packed from the Co-op.

And I made it (with aching forearms) to Philly with time to shower and change before the HLS cocktail party.

The drinks, provided by Drink Chia, were super tasty.

This cocktail was a mix (I believe) of Drink Chia, strawberries, and vodka. It tasted sort of like a bubble tea with mini bobba!

The food was pretty good as well.

I had a corn and crab fritter, a piece of pretzel crusted chicken, a few small bites, plus another piece of the chicken.

Everything was tasty but there wasn’t quite enough sustenance for dinner so a few of us ended up in the hotel restaurant for a late night snack.

I went with the s’mores mousse shooter.

Plus I scarfed up one of the Lindt truffles they brought with the bill.

It was a sweet end to the first day.

The next morning (Saturday) we were up bright and early for breakfast. Cereal with skim milk,

an Oikos drinkable yogurt with a juicy plum – sidenote, I feel like I had food dripping down my face this whole weekend! –

and a much-needed coffee.

Around this point I realized I probably should be snapping more pictures like a good blogger.

Though I did snag a shot of me with two of my roomies.

I didn’t love the Quaker Smashbar provided on the snack break so I only ate half of it.

But I did love the RD Quaker provided as the key-note speaker. She wrote a book on being a flexatarian and I loved her points about embracing plants more than avoiding meats. In fact, all of the sessions were pretty darn informative and inspirational.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

Side salad for greens,

quinoa salad, which had some sort of acid component that took it over the top,

and half a tofu sandwich on Great Harvest bread, squeal!

For dessert I grabbed a milk chocolate crunch Attune probiotic bar.

I had no idea these would be so delicious! I was very excited to see some coupons in my swag bag.

After the sessions we went to do some city exploring.

Here are all my roomates,

and here is the Liberty Bell.

I’m glad we sight-saw in the way that we did, because our travels took us to Farmacia for dinner.

Yum, seriously just yum x 1000. The wait staff was so sweet and accommodating of our 12-person party, the space was adorable, and the food was delicious.

I was ravenous and I think my heart actually skipped a beat when this bread and herbed butter were brought to the table.

I ate this slice times two.

Since it was a vacation I went with a John Daly to drink.

Sweet tea vodka and fresh squeezed lemonade, yes please! A few people sipped my drink and we all agreed it was the best Arnold Palmer ever.

And then came the food. Which was basically ridiculous.

I ordered the sweet corn and risotto croquettes. Which came with garden veggie ratatouille,

and sautéed spinach that blew my mind. It must have been the butter sauce that was floating on my plate.

The spinach was the best thing I ate all weekend, but the croquettes were perfect too; crunchy and creamy all at the same time. I ate 1.5 croquettes and all of my veggies and was basically in heaven.

You know I have to get self-serve froyo if I’m in a new city.

I got peanut butter, cream cheese (!!), and tart, topped with all the berries, caramel sauce, and sprinkles.

Fueled by sugar, a group of us stayed up until practically 3am! Normally a 3 am bedtime and 8 am Sunday workout would feel brutal, but I think I was too excited to be tired. I don’t have any pictures, but I did participate in the HLS 5k. A huge group walked/ran around the city including the Rocky steps.

When we got back it was time for oatmeal.

Topped with flax, cinnamon, and walnuts.

I also had about a billion mugs of Tazo Earl Grey tea with skim milk.

I am completely obsessed (I stole a few packets from breakfast!) and need to buy this asap.

After the festivities wrapped, a group of us did some more exploring around Philly.

This is what happens when you give bloggers a group photo-op –

For lunch we sought out Philly cheese steaks. I found success at the Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar.

This monster was vegan, but there is basically no way that the traditional meat sandwich could be better.

I left a lot of the bread, but gobbled up the “meat” which was crunchy in the most pleasing way. Such a great way to end the weekend!

Around 2 I made my final goodbyes and headed out. Though I did stop at Whole Foods for an Argo Tea Mojitea for the road.

It was very tasty, but my next two drinks were much more telling. A grande white mocha coconut frappuccino with 2 extra shots of espresso.

And a huge diet pop with a splash of cherry coke.

Can you say exhausted?! But I made it home in one piece and had a wonderful weekend to boot!

Did you attend HLS? What’d you think?

17Aug2011

I Lied

by Emily

I lied.

I know I said I wasn’t going to blog until Friday, but the minute I told myself I didn’t have to, then I wanted to. It’s like I just needed the freedom not to. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Anyway, I’m glad I decided to blog because I’m having a good day. This morning was full of excitement; I went with some friends to buy our lab coats for clinical.

Like a ~~boss~~ RD. Though I imagine I’ll look less silly when I’m not rocking jeans underneath. I’m just glad to have that trip out of the way before the school year starts.

My friend Hillary drove, so I walked to campus in the morning to meet up. Afterward I got dropped off at home to grab Webster for a walk and we ended up accompanying my friend Janessa back to campus. All total I made the trip three times, which is good practice since I plan on walking to class again this semester.

The non-canine walkers got Starbucks during the walk. I drank a tall white mocha frappuccino but I don’t have a photo because I still thought I wasn’t blogging. Here’s what you want to see a picture of anyway –

Have I mentioned I’m in love? We call him Webs, Dog, or Little Dude.

I’m glad that coffee fills me up because I had lots of little things to do on my computer, and I took Webster on another walk, and before I knew it 3 o’clock came without me eating any solid food. I was heading to the grocery anyway and luckily I found a magazine in our mailbox on the way so I grabbed hot bar for lunch.

Panang tofu, channa masala, and veggies from the cashew chicken.

plus fruit for dessert.

I had to replenish our stores so I could cook Adam casserole for while I’m gone. Speaking of which, I probably should start thinking about packing for HLS, huh?

Bloggers – how often would you say you just don’t feel like blogging? What helps you push through your rut?