A Play by Play

by Emily

I realize that my back hurts and that I am extremely exhausted.

I accomplish absolutely nothing all evening.

I mumble something incoherent about tuna salad and the husband makes himself a can.

I eat 90% of it.

The end.

10Sep2010

Friday (Mostly) Freebie

by Emily

So it’s been 14 hours since my last post, also 14hours since I last sat at my laptop; yikes! I’m a bit concerned that this semester is basically going to be insane. My packed lunch was tasty, I guess, I’m not really sure since I inhaled the sandwich while running to class. The cucumber slices were good, but perhaps a bit loud for crunching during Orgo; insert red face here. I did squeeze in some Friday fun though.

After my last class ended (3pm) Adam came over to my campus for a study session with me. I am so much more focused when the husband is next to me, probably because I’m not texting him! A little after 5, I headed to the gym. 30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6. I wasn’t so lethargic today so I was able to run interval sprints for the last 10minutes or so.

After a shower we headed to the mall to Johnny Rockets.

I came home from BlogHer with coupons for 2 free meals so we made that our dinner date. Usually JR would not be my first choice, but I’m kind of cheap 😉 Adam and I decided to do some sandwich splitting –

I got the #12 turkey burger,

and he ordered a tuna melt on sourdough.

He loved the melt (I thought the tuna tasted funny) and I thought the turkey burger was actually pretty fabulous, not too greasy at all. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy pickles on burgers. I ate ~ 1/3 of each sandwich and half of my fries.

Since all we had to pay was the tip we brought the evening’s cost up to a grand total of $6.71 by splitting a mini Brownie Batter Blizzard.

Cons – I don’t like brownies so I’m not sure why I thought I’d like this (I ate about 1/3 of it though). Pros – our DQ has mini Blizzards now, yippie!

Does your DQ offer the mini? What is your Blizzard order?

4Aug2010

Grump Grump Galumph

by Emily

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?

29Jul2010

Like Ice Cream

by Emily

Today has been sort of … lame! I guess maybe I should call it low-key? I do have some baking and a workout on the agenda for this evening, but other than that, zilch. The real excitement starts tomorrow when my parents get here for a visit! They’ll be in town all weekend -yay! – and then the next weekend is BlogHer and a visit from two of my best friends. I’m so excited!

I always say Siggis yogurt is so thick it looks like ice cream, so this morning I served my breakfast out of an ice cream bowl!

That’s a Pomegranate Passionfruit Siggi with a bit of fruit topping.

I will admit, it was a lot more fun to eat with my fancy spoon 🙂

I had a lunch date that got canceled at the last minute (seriously Katie, don’t worry about it, I was running soooo late) so I buckled to my near obsession with getting another tuna salad sandwich with red onion.

The red onion makes the sandwich. On a similar note, I would consider myself a cheese fanatic (my husband calls me mouse!) but I didn’t miss the cheese on this sandwich at all. I am going to offer everyone the advice that you should consider whether or not it will actually make a difference in the sandwich before you blithely pile on the cheese.

I did the combo (fountain diet soda? yes please!) so I also had this baggie of apple slices.

Not a bad lunch at all.

Are you going to be attending BlogHer???

27Jul2010

The Devil Went Down to Georgia…

by Emily

We have internet! And I cooked dinner in my oven! A banner night all around 🙂

On my walk home this afternoon I realize that it had been 6hours since breakfast and was going to be another 4 until dinner, definitely time for lunch! I made a stop into Subway.

I got a 6inch tuna salad sub with oil and vinegar and red onions. I think the combo of tuna salad and red onions is just to die for!

I got a meal (hello, fountain diet soda!) so I also got some Baked Lays.

I took me a while to get hungry but once I was I got HUNGRY! I also ate a serving of Goldfish,

and two cookies (yes in my Goldfish bowl, we have a tiny dishwasher I can’t be dirtying things left and right!).

Thankfully I was still hungry for dinner because dinner was a freaking masterpiece!

Every single component was through the roof tasty and the combination all together rocked my socks. Plus, you know any meatless meal that the husband raves about is a winner.

My Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers,

Unfried Green Tomatoes from Cooking Light,

and 2 deviled eggs, recipe below.

Made for quite the pleasing meal.

The husband is obsessed with deviled eggs and since I won a year’s worth of Eggland’s Best it’s hard to turn down his request. Tonight I tried out a new recipe that I thought up at the bar at Cheesecake Factory the other night;

Dirty Martini Deviled Eggs

1 dozen large eggs
2T olive brine
2.5T blue cheese crumbles
2T mayo
6 pimento stuffed olives, halved

Hard boil your eggs. My method is to place the eggs in water in a big pan, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and cover for 15minutes. If you run cool water over the eggs when the time is up they will be easier to peel.
Peel eggs and slice in half lengthwise.
Dump yolks into a medium bowl and mash together with brine, blue cheese, and mayo.
Spoon the yolk mixture back into the whites and top each egg with an olive half.

I’ve got my 2nd shower of the day and I’ve promised my pack-mule of a mover husband a back massage. Then it’s off to bed so I can hopefully make it to an early morning tomorrow.

Deviled eggs; like ’em, love ’em, or hate ’em?

P.S. I apologize for the brain worm title, I’ll be singing that song all night too!

16Apr2010

Late Night, Lady Business

by Emily

I realize it’s a bit ridiculous that I’m blogging – let alone awake – at 1am, but I’m hoping this well serve as a ‘final shut down’ activity for my brain. We got home late and I got into a homework productivity groove that I didn’t want to abandon for sleep. After a solid 3weeks of slacking in my classes I’m ready to dive into the books again 🙂

I abhor when bloggers discuss their lady business online, but I need to mention mine to address the hungry beast issue. I was starving again today. After the 8th-million time I mentioned this to the husband he expressed some concern; both for my health and my ever-expanding-ass. When I defended my hunger (No, it’s not just that I think it’s funny to see whether or not you’ll still love me if I get fat. Yes I’m really really hungry. No I really ate people food today, not just popcorn. No I don’t have kidney disorder, stop being such a medical student!) I realized we had the same conversation last month. And roughly the same time the month before that. So, the point of that rambling paragraph was to share my hypothesis that my hunger spike is related to my cycle. And now I’m ending the lady business discussion.

Breakfast was 1cup Kashi H2H with fresh raspberries.

I added a couple shakes from our cinnamon-sugar duck to keep things interesting.

And yes, I did use skim milk, I just wanted to snap a dry shot first.

Within 20minutes of breakfast I ate a salt water taffy.

<begin day-long snackage here> And the last serving of TJ’s Gummy Tummies.

And the last of the lemon curd (~2-3T) with some Biscoffs.

The lemon + gingersnap combo sort of rocks my socks, I have several awesome dessert recipes whirling ’round my head.

I picked the husband up before class and stopped at Starbucks in an attempt to go green(x2).

For Tax Day Starbucks was giving free coffee to anyone who brought in their own mug.

Great idea in theory, not so great in practice – I spat out my one and only sip more quickly than you can imagine. I am usually not a Starbucks hater but this was nasty bitter. Thankfully the amazing array of snacks now available at the counter more than makes up for bad free coffee. I snagged a package of Sahale BBQ Almonds to eat during Anthro.

Mmmn. I adore Sahale Snacks, I haven’t bought them in ages but I mentally added them to next week’s grocery list upon my first tasty bite.

In between classes I ran some errands around campus with the husband. Our travels to the copy shop led to the discovery of an adorable Japanese spot.

Bubble tea on campus?!?! I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that I didn’t know about this until my 2nd to last week at UB!

Almond flavored milk tea with bobba = huge smile from Emily.

I’m not really sure if it was lunch or dinner, but at 5pm I split a $5 Footlong with the husband.

My half, tuna with provolone. Not the healthiest option from Subway by far, but the husband is kind of obsessed with them and they are pretty darn tasty. Plus they are pretty much the only thing I really eat with mayo and I have one maybe once every few months.

I also snacked on a HUGE marshmallow dream (i.e. rice krispies from Starbucks) bar during Chemistry but it had to go unphotographed. The boys near me were being rude and loud and I felt bad pulling out a camera with the professor staring at my section.

The reason for our late homecoming is that we had to head to the mall after class. The husband has a strange obsession with dorky sports (he used to be a championship ping-pong player!) and we had to hit up Dicks so he could buy a myriad of rackets. I don’t think the man has touched a basketball since high school but he now plays ping-pong, tennis, and squash on a weekly basis!

During my monster homework session (10pm – 1am) I snacked on a big bowl of fresh-cut pineapple.

And that’s all she wrote, sweet dreams folks!

*Note* I hate these long posts and my goal (at least for this weekend) is to go back to 3-a-days. However, I’ll be at the hospital most of tomorrow for my bone scan so don’t expect to hear from me. But do wish me luck! 🙂

6Apr2010

Nightmares and Dream Recipes

by Emily

Let me get my whining out of the way so I can get on to the good stuff: my leg hurts / I’m not getting my to-dos done and I’m going to fall behind in school / I felt exhausted and awful all day.

I actually did get into bed before 10pm last night, a first of its kind achievement for me. However, then I had another first – a nightmare! I used to have night-terrors when I was really young, but this was my first ever bad dream that I could remember. Basically, I went to the fertility doctor and found out I couldn’t have babies with the husband. I was telling my dream-mom how helpless I felt when I woke up in the middle of the night in tears! I don’t even know where in my psyche this came from, the husband and I don’t have babies on our radar (I’m not even taking folic acid yet!).

The good stuff –

Today’s outfit sort of thrills me –

Stripes, high-waist, and pockets; oh my!

Understated but green bowl aside, breakfast was pretty thrilling as well.

I topped the last of the Fage (~1/2cup) with 1 cup (frozen, defrosted) berries and 3 heaping spoonfuls of lemon curd.

My, oh my this was good 😀

My busy sit/stare agenda filled up all my lunch making time, and I ended up grabbing a mango mix1 to go.

I ended up not loving the flavor and giving half of it to Adam. To quell my rumbling tummy I ended up buying a Slim Fast Cookie Dough Bar.

It was tasty, but I have about a trillion bars in my cabinet at home; I need to make carrying one in my purse a habit.

Later during my second class I snacked on some yummy dried fruit.

Kiwis and hibiscus, my favorites.

When we got home the husband whipped up some deviled eggs.

He was super generous (deviled eggs are pretty much his favorite) and let me share one.

I also did some unphotographed nibbling while I cooked dinner. Which was fricking fabulous by the way.

Green Tuna Enchiladas (click here for the recipe link), serves 4.

1 T evoo
1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
2 10 oz cans tuna
1/2 cup plus 1 cup green tomatillo salsa
8 small corn tortillas
3T half and half
3/4 cup shredded taco cheese (montery jack would work well too)

Preheat the oven to 350*. Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat.
Add onion and peppers to oil and brown, about 7 minutes.
Add tuna and 1/2 cup salsa to veggies and cook 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.
Spoon 2 T filling into each tortilla and place into a 8x11inch casserole, seam-side down.* **
In a separate bowl, stir together last cup of salsa with half and half. Spoon mixture over enchiladas.
Sprinkle cheese evenly over casserole and bake 20minutes.

* Too keep tortillas from cracking and breaking, it is helpful to cover them with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30seconds.

** If you have extra filling it would go deliciously stuffed into a pita sandwich

I paired my serving with a batch of kale chips,

for a tasty, tasty dinner.

Speaking of tasty things –

I wanted to let you guys know that my recipes for Italian Style Gumbo and Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta have also been posted (click the names for recipe links). Seriously, those two dishes were the best things I’ve ever made! Please, please get the recipes and try them yourselves, they are dreams come true.

I’ve got lots of lab work due tomorrow so I’m going to make like a banana and split.

Do you ever make up your own recipes or do you tend to do things by the book? A lot of my creations are ideas from magazines that I’ve seriously altered; usually made healthier and/or spicier.