Tag Archives: turkey

Up All Night

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…well not quite, but I did come close!  It’s possible I underestimated how many statistics problems were due!  Here are the totals –

Hours slept: 3.5; from 5:30 am to 9am

Assignments completed: all

Coffees consumed: 2, with skim milk and sugar

Snacks nibbled: 1 plate of pretzels with yellow mustard

Minutes wasted on Pinterest: too many!

The morning came quickly but I’ve actually felt pretty good all day.

The t-shirt bustle is the fashion industry’s equivalent to caffeine.

Oh, and I had caffeine too.

I shook a packet of Starbucks Caramel Via Iced Coffee with a bottle of water and was very impressed.  Everything went into solution with no grounds left behind and the flavor was great.

I think, fingers crossed, that my statistics exam was a success as well.  I was not as triumphant on the meal front though.  I only had time to pack one set of meals (actually I packed it yesterday, but whatever) and too little sleep and two few calories made the afternoon feel pretty long.  It was a good meal though.  Sliced cucumber.

A Sandwich Thin with Applegate Farms roasted turkey and maple apple chutney.

And the last of my Canada candy.

I shared a gummi bottle with a friend and she was dully impressed.

I ate my packed meal at 4:45 when we finished with clinic and then had to sit through my night class with a growling stomach.  By the time I got home I knew the only way to keep from going crazy was to use one of our restaurant meals this evening.  We didn’t have time to eat in and we aren’t allowed to do take out so we turned to Wegmans.  I was eating this veggie sushi the minute we got in the car!

And ate this frozen meal practically the minute we got in the house.

It wasn’t anything amazing but the nutrition stats were not terrible.

And soon after I tucked into a giant plate of pizza bagels.  No picture because the husband delivered me my plate like an awesome, but I ate two servings worth (~540 calories).  I think I’m all caught up on food now.

And now I should probably try to catch up on sleep!

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter?

Has Been And Will Be

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Howdy!  It has been – and will be – a long day, so I’ll keep this quick.

My morning started with a trip to the gym.  My CT10k plan called for 11 sets of 3 minutes running / 2 minutes walking, but today was my worst workout ever so I had to mix it up a bit.  My calves were soooooo tight.  I ran and walked super slowly and stopped practically every 5 minutes to stretch but my legs just wouldn’t feel right.  I ended up doing 6 sets of 3/2, followed by 30 minutes of slow walking with my notecards, and then another 6 sets of 3/2.  90 minutes and 6.7 miles in total.  And after my walk home my legs now feel completely better; weird!

I drank a grape G2 while I was at the gym.

Technically this was a drink purchase but I’m not going to count it.  I was feeling very light-headed so calories were a necessity and not just a desire for something other than water.  I am going to buy a few larger (read cheaper unit cost) G2s next time I’m at the store though.

I ate lunch on my walk to school, or at least attempted to.  First, a delightfully crunchy pink lady apple.

Next, I packed a B’More Skyr Vanilla Smoothie.

I had such high hopes – the packaging was neat and I adore Siggi’s skyr yogurts – but alas, stevia.  Yuck, I wish I had looked at the ingredient list more carefully.  I had to throw the drink out after just two sips.  Then I spent the rest of the afternoon bemoaning our no-take-out challenge; I didn’t have anything else to eat and I was starving!

I stayed strong though, and even managed to focus intently for my test.  I’m never really sure, but I think this one went much better than the last few.  Fingers crossed.

And in even better news, the husband got out early from the hospital in time to drive me home from school.  Thus bringing me to food 90% more quickly.

Those are cola gummis I got in Toronto and they were fabulous.  I have the rest of my stash packed for lunch tomorrow and I just can’t wait.

I also made an extraordinary sandwich.

A Sandwich Thin topped with Applegate Farms roasted turkey, sharp cheddar, and tons of sliced sweet pickles.

Mmmmmmmn!  When I was in middle school I’d occasionally pack pickle and cheddar sandwiches for lunch and they are still rocking my socks today.

My delicious sandwich was eaten on the go.  It was warm enough this afternoon to walk Webster sans coats!

We still have more freezing days ahead of us, but it was nice to get a little taste of spring.

Dinner was an oldie but a goodie.

Easy Peasy Peanut Noodles, with an updated recipe page.

Plus the last serving of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2 Ingredient Ice Cream for dessert.

I’m pretty sad to see it go.

We’ll call dinner carbo-loading for the marathon night ahead of me.  The things I have to get done for tomorrow list includes studying for my first stats test, three homework assignments for clinical, and a major assignment for management.  And the number things on the list I’m done with is – zero.  Whoops!  Guess I needed to do some work last weekend.

I’m not sure when (or if!) I’ll get to bed but I foresee some midnight snacking in my future.  Sweet dreams to the rest of you!

Cloud 6ish

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Holy crap!  It’s late at night and we just got some terrible money news so this post is going to have to be quick before it devolves into the blogging equivalent of sobbing.  Not pretty.

Statistics was fine, as of right now it seems like I can understand the concepts.  The hospital was fine, though we do have a lot of work to do.  My evening class was more anxiety ridden than fine; among other assignments we will have to create a 6-week staffing schedule for an imaginary clinic, figure out the budget for that clinic, and create an imaginary business plan.  Yikes!

We had an hour break between clinic and evening class when I could eat my packed lunch.  A turkey bagel sandwich.

That’s a toasted whole wheat multi-grain bagel topped with strawberry cream cheese and 2 slices of Applegate Farm’s roasted sliced turkey.

A baggie of roasted green beans.

And 4 gummi cola bottles.

The gummies were amazing, but I bought them in Toronto so it’ll be awhile before I can get more.

When I got home from class I ate a Voskos 0% Honey Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt.

This was amazing.  Seriously.  The texture was pillowy like a cloud!  I do love other Greek yogurts but this was totally different and yet equally amazing.  If the sour cream-like texture of Fage bothers you, then I highly recommend trying out Voskos.

Which Greek yogurt variety/brand do you recommend for good texture?

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

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Physical activity is a funny thing.  I went to a 60 minute hot yoga class today.  I was dreading it all morning, and sure enough, when I got there it sucked.  I felt like I was going to pass out the entire time and spent most of the class in child’s pose.  It was my worst practice to date.  But by the time I was done, I was so happy that I went.

When I got home from the yoga class that was both frightful and fantastic, I made a smoothie for breakfast.

1 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese, 1 frozen banana, 7 oz frozen soursop pulp, and nutmeg (for garnish).

The flavor wasn’t quite right but the texture was luscious.

And nutmeg on creamy drinks, especially piña coladas!, is the best.

Adam and I ran a few errands in the snow and then it was time for a double-decker lunch.

On a hamburger bun with schmear of sour cream, 2 nacho turkey burgers topped with 1 oz of melted sharp cheddar.

It was totally swoon-worthy.  The burgers are nice and juicy but have this great chew from the chips too.

I’m glad I made the patties small and stackable.

For dessert, Adam and I each had a mug cake.

I followed the basic recipe, with the inclusion of a handful of chocolate chips.

Dinner was one of my older recipes that I decided to revisit.

Green Tuna Enchiladas!  I updated the recipe page too.

I had two enchiladas and some roasted brocoli on my plate.

It was a good, green meal.

But I wasn’t feeling satisfied.  In fact, I’ve had a gnawing hunger all day, and I know it’s not thirst in hunger’s clothing because this pitcher and I have been fast friends all day.

That h2o is spiked with limes and sugar cane, fyi.

So I honored my hunger and  finished up my dinner with some leftover beans and rice with sour cream and cheddar cheese.

Now I’m done.

What do you do when you’re hungry when you “shouldn’t be?”

Not Yo Mama’s Turkey Burgers

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Three posts in one day?!?  I’m on a roll!  And since I didn’t have it together to eat before late afternoon, this is actually everything I ate today.  Sidenote – my #2 goal for the next 30 days is to blog every single day/eat.  My #1 goal?  Involves my ass and the gym.

Since I waited too long to eat I was absolutely starving.  I ended up eating a 6-inch tuna sub, with vinegar and red onions, while I cooked dinner.

It was tasty, and it kept me from gnawing my own arm off.

Dinner was a good’un.  Quick, delicious, and it involved two brand-spanking-new recipes.

Emily- and husband-approved.

New recipe 1 was Nacho Turkey Burgers, makes 8 small burgers

  • 1 lb 94% fat-free ground turkey
  • 1 large egg
  • 60 grams crushed tortilla chips
  • 1/4 cup medium, chunky style salsa
  • 3/4 cup Mexican shredded cheese blend
  • 1 tsp evoo
  • 8 hamburger buns
  • guacamole (optional)
  • sliced cheddar (optional)
  • hot sauce (optional)
  1. In a large bowl, combine turkey, egg, chips, salsa, and cheese until a homogenous mixture is achieved.  Use your hands to shape into 8 equal-sized patties.
  2. Heat evoo in a grill-pan over medium-high heat.  Working in small enough batches as to not overcrowd the pan add patties to pan.
  3. Cook burgers until browned and fully cooked through; 5-8 minutes on each side.
  4. Serve cooked burgers and top as desired.

New recipe 2 was served atop the burgers, Citrus Guacamole.

  • 2 medium-sized ripe avocados
  • 1 tomatillo, minced
  • 1 small lemon, juiced
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. Place avocados in a medium bowl and mash with a fork, leaving some chunks.
  2. Stir in tomatillo, lemon juice, and salt.  Serve immediately.

Both recipes ended up turning out really well!

I love it when my kitchen experiments work out.

I had one nacho turkey burger, on a bun with citrus guacamole,

a serving of rice and beans (just rice with a can of black beans stirred in during the final minutes of cooking) topped with another dollop of guac,

and some roasted asparagus.

The citrus-salt theme was carried nicely throughout the entire meal.

For dessert I nibbled on a few chocolate covered pretzels.

We’re currently making our way through the “Aliens” movies, so “Aliens, 2” was our dinner entertainment.  Webster thought it was thrilling.

He’s such a cutie.

So, about that hair cut.  A month or so ago, this exchange took place on Yes I Want Cake –

Katie got her cut soon after, and it looked fantastic.  I’d just given to Locks of Love, but after some time enjoying my new hair, I was ready.  What do you think?

I love it!

Wednesday – Thursday, Still On The Move

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Hello again from another location, this time Ohio.  Once we get home from here we have a day trip to Toronto and then I’m staying put until the end of break!

Wednesday

Yesterday was Adam’s and my 4-year wedding anniversary, aka our 9-year anniversary of being together!!!  It’s crazy to think that we’ve shared so much of our lives.  Sappy sidenote – I am grateful every day that I get to spend with my husband.  I am so thankful that the man I love is handsome and funny in addition to being intelligent and kind. </sap>

I had an early morning orthodontist appointment and we had to do a grocery restock and then we reunited with another man I love.

I sort of want to get those pictures framed.

Adam and I spent our anniversary doing our favorite things – namely tons of eating good food and cuddling on the couch watching good tv.  A big, made from scratch breakfast felt downright gourmet.

For the eggs, we went to the deli and requested two, 1/4 inch-thick slices of honey roasted turkey.

We chopped them up and sautéed them in a bit of butter, then scrambled in 4 large eggs.

Out of control delicious.  I quit eating most meat (mammals) before I had gotten to try everything and I suspect that I would really enjoy ham.

We also had hash browns made with white potatoes, onion, red bell pepper, 2 Tbsp of butter, and 2 tsp of chipotle oil.

Adam bought me some fourth year gifts for our anniversary.

A book with a sweet inscription, persimmons for fruit and rugelach for flour (substituted for flour because we were going out-of-town).

I’ve been picking up the persimmons and deciding that they were too expensive to splurge on for weeks at the grocery, so they were such a nice surprise.  We split part of one persimmon but decided that it wasn’t ripe enough yet.

Adam was careful to buy squishy ones because once in the city, before we knew better, we tried to eat an unripe persimmon and about died when all the moisture was sucked from our mouths!  This one had a good flavor but was still a little cotton-mouthy.  So we washed it away with rugelach.

The snack was perfect to bring us into lunch.

I had an Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna sandwich on half a cheddar jalapeno bialey with a little bit of Miracle Whip.

Plus a huge pile of roasted green beans.

Adam hates jalapeno but knew I’d like that bialey more than the others and I gave him the half with more cheese, so we both compromised in the name of love.

It would have been easy and fun to go out for a romantic dinner, so I’m extra proud of us that we stayed home and cooked together instead.

I started by steam-sauteing 3 chopped zucchini in a bit of chicken stock.  Then I finished them off with 1 Tbsp of evoo and this packet of Garlic Gold I got in my HLS swag.

I was expecting to adore the Garlic Gold after all the love it got in the healthy living blog community, but we found it to be pretty “meh.”

We set the cooked zucchini aside and while Adam boiled 3 servings of pasta I made a roux with 2 Tbsp of butter, 2 Tbsp of flour, and 1 Tbsp of milk.  Into that, I whisked 1 cup of skim milk and 1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  Once the sauce came together all we had to do was toss it with the cooked squash and pasta.

We topped our bowls with a bit of panko and more cheese.

Dinner was great, definitely as good as anything we would have gotten in a restaurant.  This was on the healthy side, but now I am absolutely going to make a similar sauce and use it in oozey, gooey mac and cheese.

We stayed up later than planned watching “That 70’s Show,” which was good for anniversary fun but bad for me working out this morning.  I can’t do anything active here in Ohio and I’m worried that all my vacation workout momentum will be for naught.

Thursday

Today was a day of many meals.  Due in parts to time of the month and restlessness from 7 hours in the car.  And we got junky food too; a healthy living blog no-no but an unavoidable part of existing in the real world.

Chicken biscuit from Chick-fill-a.

The leftover serving of dinner.

A juicy pear.

Animal crackers split with Adam (70/30 his favor).

Mid-way we got to stop for froyo.

I got eggnog and toffee mocha yogurts, topped with candy bar pieces and some marshmallow topping.

Alas both of my flavors were too spicy and I ended up throwing most of mine away.  It was a sad day indeed.

But hundreds of miles later we found a Sonic and I ordered a diet coke with strawberry that totally made up for it.

Adam and I also split fries and chicken tenders.

Good thing my grandma served a lateish dinner, huh?

Webster was a perfect angel for 95% of the drive.

We even got to take him in to meet my grandpa this afternoon.  I like it when all the men in my life are well-acquainted.

Per usual, my grandma made a great dinner.

Side salad,

cooked spinach with feta and cherry tomatoes,

truffle mac and cheese to make up for Adam not having any on Christmas,

and italian breaded chicken, 

which I only could eat a few bites of because I felt like food was coming out of my ears.

After dinner, Nana and Adam worked on a 750-piece puzzle while I wrote this monster post.  I hate all these super long posts I’ve been writing lately!  I know none of my readers are interesting in scrolling for hours, but since I use my blog as a journal I don’t want to skip days that are so great.  I promise to get back to a less annoying schedule once I’m home for good.

Merry Christmas In St. Thomas

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I hope everyone is continuing to have happy holiday season!  I know that booze and beaches don’t feel very winter-holiday festive to most of my readers, but to me they feel like home.  We’ve done lots of traditional food and family this year too.  If Adam had been home this would have been my perfect Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Saturday morning, after my run, we met up with my aunt and cousins (the visiting set) for breakfast at Barefoot Buddha.  I got an iced coffee with Silk soy milk.

Barefoot Buddha is my favorite restaurant in St. Thomas (I ate the Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich on the morning of my wedding!) and our meal did not disappoint.  My mom and I split two sandwiches so we could get lots of flavor.

The wrap special had tons of veggies, sesame tofu, and a peanut sauce.

And the Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich had egg, turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, and a chipotle aioli.

Yum and yum.

The day was spent on holiday preparations and I ate a handful of carrots at one point for some crunchy energy.

Then it was time to celebrate.

My family has thrown a big (tequila shot flowing) Christmas Eve party for as long as I can remember and it felt a little strange not to have one this year.  But the visiting family came over for dinner and then a big group met for drinks at the Island Time Pub and it was nice in a new way.

We had Hanukkah dinner leftovers for dinner.

Salad,

a little bit each of pineapple chili salmon and sour cream dill salmon,

and more potato latkes.

I also had a 7-layer bar and a small slice of “crack pie” before we headed out.

Then I had a great time getting to drink and chat with a bunch of family and friends.  O-bomb shot,

black and coke,

jack and ginger.

Funny, I did not end up running Christmas morning 🙂

Christmas

Christmas with my parents was perfect, though Adam was very missed.

Great minds think alike – my mother and I ended up buying each other the same doxie pen!

While we unwrapped I had a coffee with eggnog,

and a cherry cordial straight from my stocking.

Then our visiting family came over for breakfast.

Turkey sausage,

egg and cheese casserole,

half a mini bagel with cream cheese,

and a piece of 7-layer bar.

Plus a piece of sour candy cane my cousins brought me later.

Then Christmas afternoon was spent on the water.

Fun fact – here is a (far away) shot of the beach where Adam and I got married!

A Christmas tradition is to spend the day in “Christmas Cove.”  There were 40+ boats all connected together but I never did get a good shot.

The crystal light-vodka-whatever I was handed may have had something to do with that.

Is there anything more perfect than Christmas at the beach?

After we washed off the salt, everyone went to my (St. Thomas based) aunt and uncle’s house for Christmas dinner.

Before we headed over I made myself a plate of apple slices and latkes,

but the combination of booze and sun must have hit me hard because I hit the fruit and cheese spread like there was no tomorrow.

Everyone was (lovingly) teasing me about the blog so I did manage to take a picture of every single (9!) cracker/cheese bite!

But I did keep my dinner plate simple.  One thing for health and one thing for fun.

A big pile of salad,

and a big pile of truffle mac and cheese.

The husband is going to be so very jealous; last year he finished off three plates of that macaroni!

After a long-long day we just had to squeeze in one more piece of festivity, so my mom and female cousins and I went out for girly embarrassing drinks.

That’s a virgin pina colada, and even sans alcohol it was a little too much for me.  Merry Christmas indeed!

Monday

Today is my last day on island, so I made sure to get an early start.  My amazing mother drove me to school before 8 so I could get in final run on the field.  ~1 +ish mile ran.  I forgot my sunscreen so I kept it short.  Now as soon as I get some party pictures e-mailed I’m off to soak up as much family time as I can.

Do you Christmas/Hanukkah traditions include any beach time?

Cheesy Bacon Horsey Dip

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I came up with his combination on a whim the morning of our holiday party and it ended up working perfectly. This dip is creamy and cheesy with just a bit of bite from the horseradish.  If you choose to omit the bacon and Worcestershire, 3-4 Tbsp of soy sauce would give a comparable yet vegetarian sense of umami.

We paired ours with pretzel chips and carrot sticks.

Cheesy Bacon Horsey Dip

Yield: 1.5 cups; Prep Time: 15 minutes

  • 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1 and 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
  • 1/2 cup Miracle Whip or reduced fat mayo
  • 1/2 cup parsley, roughly chopped
  • 2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
  • 3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 5 slices turkey bacon, roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and use mixer on medium speed to combine.  Place in a covered container in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.

You could also use a food processor but be careful not to overmix; you want some chunks of bacon embedded throughout.