Tag Archives: turkey

St. Thomas; Thursday Afternoon – Friday Afternoon

by

It’s Christmas Eve! I can hardly believe that 2010 has flown so quickly. My family throws a big Christmas party this evening, so Thursday afternoon was spent on errands and party prep. Lunch was eaten on the fly. Slice of cheese pizza with baby carrots.

Followed by the last of the gingerbread granola, with skim milk, a few hours later.

With one serving of Junior Mint Peppermint Crunch for dessert.

For dinner, Adam and I headed to the Caribbean Saloon. Generally the Saloon isn’t much to write home about, but their buffalo chicken sub is to die for!

I left most of my sub roll and half of my fries, but gobbled up that extra spicy chicken (dipped in blue cheese!).

Later, Adam and I drank some of this strawberry lemonade while watching “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

It was a surprisingly good movie for getting us in the holiday spirit. We’ve got “Scrooged” on Netflix too.

This morning we got up bright and early to get in some activity. If you have a light exercise day, what better place to spend it than this???

We spent an hour walking up and down the beach. The uneven, squishy sand is the equivalent of cranking up the resistance on the elliptical. Disclaimer, we did spend some time taking pictures too –

After an hour of walking, the final leg if our workout was the walk home. We were only a mile away (this distance we could measure with the car), but steep is greater than length. We had to defeat two major hills.

Thank goodness there were things to distract us.

Does anyone have any idea what this is supposed to indicate?!??

And then we were home.

We’ve spent the day on party set up (and naps) so I mostly grabbed bites where I could.

Though I decided to be sensible and grab an actual sandwich (mini, turkey breast, with cucumber, pickles, red onion, and bbq sauce) from Subway before I went overboard on the cookies and dips.

Going overboard on cookies and dips is a party activity 😉

If you celebrate, I hope you have a merry Christmas tomorrow!

St. Thomas; Tuesday Morning – Thursday Morning

by

We’re here. We’re here, we’re here, we’re here!  We’re also busy; this will be a quick recap post.

Tuesday morning at the airport, Adam and I did a good job putting together breakfast from our packed snacks.  We split the Orange Cranberry Cliff Bar,

and shared sharp cheddar, baby carrots, and a gingergold apple throughout the morning.

Our flights went well, and on our layover I found a Salsarita’s for lunch.

(Delicious) chips with spicy salsa,

and a chicken burrito with black beans, a little bit of rice, corn salsa, red onions, medium salsa, and shredded cheese.

So tasty and fresh, especially for a plane meal!  I ate about half of everything.

Before we knew it we were in my childhood home.  Being handed homemade toffee,

and finding gifts on our pillows.

I could get used to this!  The husband and I did some wrapping of our own too.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

Spicy chicken with whole-wheat linguine,

mushrooms and broccoli with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds,

and mandarin oranges.

We ate all squished together in a clump, because someone decided to start a puzzle at the table 😉

For dessert my dad and I opened up these Klick Halva Truffles.

Adam went out (late!) with some of our guy friends from high school, but I stayed home rereading All But My Life, by Gerda Weissmann Klein and laughing at the notes I wrote in the margins while writing a 15page final paper on it.

Wednesday morning was all about dinner leftovers for breakfast.

And 10minutes of strength and stretch moves.  My goal for vacation is to (at minimum) get in a good stretch every day.

For lunch, we headed to Barefoot Buddha, my favorite restaurant.

I split a passionfruit smoothie with the husband,

and a bagel sandwich with my mother.

Yuuuuuuuum.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on errands, including finding a gloriously huge pile of Achie comics (donated to my mom’s library),

and getting all of our wedding rings polished.

Plus testing saved maple sugar cookies from Thanksgiving.

Out of the freezer, still good!

For dinner we headed to Island Time Pub with my aunt and cousins (2sets, one local, one visiting). The lighting was awful, but the dark did mean we got to enjoy these sailboat sail “trees.”

Adam and I split a Caesar salad, with green peppers and mushrooms added.

And a buffalo chicken pizza.

I had these two slices plus a third.

I also had two black and cokes with dinner.

After that I was the designated driver, so even though we were out with friend until almost 1, I stuck to diet coke.

This morning began with a workout. A good workout 🙂 St. Thomas isn’t exactly map-my-run-able and I don’t have a Garmin, so we are focusing on time instead of distance. We had my mom drive us down to the nearby beach so we could run (not that we ran I’m the sand, just near the beach). In the end we ran for 20minutes and walked for 18minutes. Then we slowly walked up the HUGE hill home; I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow. All total, 60monutes of activity, which felt great.

Breakfast was Greek Gods honey Greek yogurt, topped with some blueberries and banana.

I’ve spent the morning running errands with my mom, including a trip to school so I could write this post.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what?!?

What’s the best airplane food you’ve ever had? The worst?

A Pre-(Impromptu)Party Post

by

Ooof!  So far we have packed this winter vacation full of fun.  I’ve been AWOP (<–away without posting) so I’d love to give you guys a full recap, but frankly, we’ve got a party to throw!  Yes, the party is tonight, and yes, it was planned, um, today.

Yesterday evening we took my in-laws out to dinner at Pearl Street.  (No you didn’t miss a lunch post, I just didn’t eat lunch.)  I ordered a turkey reuben.

There isn’t actually a turkey reuben on the menu, but PS is fabulous so when I asked to sub turkey for corned beef they happily complied.

With cole slaw on the side.

We had some time to kill so we headed to Starbucks where I ordered a short, skim, salted caramel hot chocolate.

Then we headed to see….. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra!

No photography was allowed during the show, but I promise you it was as aesthetically pleasing as it was easy on the ear.  I didn’t recognize all of the music but the show closed with scores from “The Nutcracker” and “Messiah” and everything was wonderful.

During intermission, the husband and I split a cranberry juice with champagne.

Fast-forward to a morning that came way too quickly, and the husband and I were out the door to see his parents off.

We were out and about too early for Target, so while we waited for paper plates and napkins to become available we stopped into Bagel Jays to split a rye bagel with lox spread.

Delish!  The rye bagel was a pretty exciting concept.

During the fray I did take time to cash in a Groupon for a mani/pedicure.

And to grab lunch from the Wegman’s hot bar.

But then it was back to work!

We’ve got things mostly done now, so I took a break for blogging and dinner.

The other half of my turkey reuben was delicious.

But this microwaved frozen okra was not.

Even spicy paprika couldn’t save it.  I forced down half to get in my greens, but this was slime city.

And now I’m looking forward to seasonal beer, mint chocolate cake balls, and hot pepper peach cheese-ball!

And the Camera Ran Away with the Hairbrush

by

There was no day post today because my camera battery needed to charge.  Really I think suicide was a last-ditch effort on the battery’s part to avoid involvement in my train wreck.  It’s probably a good thing the earlier half of the day went without photographs.

I ate chips for breakfast – embarrassing.

I met Katie for lunch at Moe’s – repetitive.

And I did it all still in my clothing from the day before – why am I allowed to leave the house?

Thankfully the husband’s parents came into town for a belated birthday celebration and that got me to pull my act together.  I even took a shower.

Because if cake’s not worth clean hair, then what is?

First though, was dinner.  We needed quick wait, accessible parking, and good food – Jack Astor’s.  With lobster and crab dip to start.

I ate this plate x2.

And then I proceeded to terrorize the wait-staff.  Diet Roy Rodgers, please.

Once we got that figured out (diet soda, grenadine, cherry on top) I cobbled together a meal using pieces from three different menu items.

The end result was delicious.  A turkey burger with white cheddar, jalapeno zucchini relish, and fig jam.

I ate all of my turkey/toppings, half of my bun, and half of my fries.  Truth be told, I did not need the fries, but malt vinegar was available and I feel the end tummy ache was worth it.

After dinner we did a driving tour of Christmas lights. 

I couldn’t get pictures from the moving car, but the trees on Elmwood are just gorgeous!

Then we headed back to the hotel room for cake.  Actually, Chocolate Decadence to be exact.  “4 layers of chocolate sponge cake filled with whipped ganache, frosted in chocolate butter cream. Garnished with chocolate buttons and drizzled chocolate.”

I only ate a few bites of my piece (I wasn’t kidding about that tummy ache!) but it was pretty divine.

We spent a long time talking to my in-laws, hence the midnight post.  It’s been a fun day, and if I want tomorrow to be fun as well I’ve got to get to bed!

Almost Done!

by

I’m done!  Well, almost done; I have a presentation tomorrow morning but it’s so easy I can basically say – “I’m done!”

This morning started off with a seasonal favorite,

nog overnight oats.

Last night I mixed together 1/4 cup oats and 1/2 cup Silk Soy Nog, and this morning I stirred in a Yoplait Fiber One Vanilla yogurt and a healthy shake of nutmeg.

Topped with Christmas sprinkles, of course.

I headed to campus early today, I was on foot and I wanted to make sure I had time to return my book rentals and gym it before my exam.  Book buy-back was a total failure, but the gym was a success.  I took my notecards to the treadmill for 45minutes of brisk walking on a slight incline.  2.6miles later, and I knew my stuff.

Sort of.  My exam was pretty polarized – I got a definite 100% on all the cumulative material but I’m pretty sure I failed all of the new material.  Which is extra embarrassing because the new material was on reproduction.  I failed an exam on the menstrual cycle?  Way to be a 25-year-old FEMALE, Emily. 

Also fun?  When you fumble on the treadmill and your “vagina” notecard goes flying back into the cute boy working out behind you and he has to get off of his elliptical to bring it to you.  “Oh god, I have an Anatomy exam today!  I’m not studying up for a sex change, I swear!”  Way to make it less awkward, Emily.

I had a short break between the my exam and meeting with my presentation group, so I dug into my lunch from home.

That baggie of carrots was consumed alongside Monday’s sandwich twin, Arnold’s Whole Grain White Sandwich Thin, 1 slice 2% Provolone, 3 slices Applegate Farm’s Turkey Bologna.

Good lunch, good meeting, quick walk home, and I’m done!

A question for the females (Adam knows more than me and it’s embarrassing, so no men allowed) – if you had to take an exam on your reproductive cycle, how do you think you’d do?

Combatting Stress

by

Today has been a big day – I had a nutrition final, a break, and then my Organic Chemistry final.  I knew 8am – 3pm was going to be a stressful, so I did my best to combat my lack of cheer.

Like wearing a nice pink shirt (new from Hanukkah).

And having Adam stop at Starbucks on his way to dropping me off at school (grande non-fat eggnog latte).

My first exam went pretty well, 84% at very minimum.  Sidenote – when I take multiple choice tests I always keep a tally of questions I’m not certain of so that I can calculate my lowest possible score.  Does anyone else do this?  Anyway, my class grade before the final was a 100%, so I’m not too worried.

Then I crammed.  Not gonna lie; I did not study Organic this weekend.  I really have no explanation or excuse for my study habits this semester; all I can say is that I’m pretty disgusted with myself.  I quit my job to go back to school, next semester I plan on treating school like it’s my job (because it is!).

For my mid-cram lunch I packed a ‘new things sandwich.’

1 slice 2% Provolone cheese and 3 slices Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna on an Arnold’s Whole Grain White Sandwich Thin.

The star of the show sandwich was definitely the Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna.

I’ve never actually tasted bologna before, but this was delicious!  There was a fabulous smokiness to it.

Does anyone else see that sandwich smile?

I also packed a baggie of baby carrots on the side,

and a 60% Cacao Ghirardelli square.

I probably should have packed more chocolate, because then I headed to Organic 😉  It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible either.  I asked the teacher to look over my test at the end and he said that I wasn’t ridiculous.  Supposedly we can get our grades tomorrow, so I’ll be waiting with pretty bated breath.

Then I headed to the gym to work off the rest of my stress.  I did an intervals session on the treadmill –

  • 1 minute walking / 2 minutes running
  • x 13 (39 minutes)
  • with cooldown = 45 minutes, 4.0 miles

I had to wait on campus for Adam to pick me up (it’s 10* out there!) but as soon as this is posted I’m getting into the shower and then into my baking clothes!

Nightmare Before Christmas

by

There was no blog post yesterday because I was so exhausted that I bumbled around all day without really doing anything!  We set our alarms for 8am and at 10:00 the husband was shaking me awake and I had no recollection of turning off the alarms.  Finally the husband remembered – after I told him I couldnt’ study because I was too tired to lift my arms – that I had such a bad nightmare on Saturday night that my moaning and flailing woke him up.  I don’t remember that either, but he told me I looked pretty pitiful.

When I got up today, the idyllic scene outside my window was like something out of one of my nightmares –

Yes, it’s gorgeous.  But – that’s the kind of snow you make cocoa and cuddle by the fireplace in, not the kind of snow you walk 30minutes through to Organic Chemistry!

But after Sunday’s #fail I was determined to make the best of today; even though I woke up at 9:30!  I started my day with some good stretching.  Not gonna lie, then I started my day with this (after brushing my teeth of course!) –

Sorry I’m not sorry (thanks, Rachel), Cherry Coke Zero is my version of the dog with a barrel around its neck.

Then I dressed for battle.

I take the dull out of bundling! (Say that out loud for me, pretty please?)

Oh yes, those are children’s snow boots.

Even my boots couldn’t fully save my trek though, it sort of sucked 😦  When I lived in Brooklyn and everyone walked it was kind of fun, but here, where I’m the only one in the snow, it’s a bit embarrassing.  At least I never really felt cold, probably because I got so sweaty; galumphing is a good workout!

I got to school early to pick up a portfolio (100%, booyah!) and then used the space before class to try to make up yesterday’s lost study time.  While I worked I snacked on a serving of Kugel.

I also drank a medium skim gingerbread latte (half pumps) and got distracted talking with a friend.

During Anatomy (87% with the curve on Friday’s test, booyah!) I slurped down a Revolution Foods Fruit Mash-Up.

As soon as classes were over, and I confirmed with the husband that he could pick me up from school, I got my study on.  I’m disappointed in myself that I screwed around so much it took me until after 7 to finish my notecards.  I’m proud of myself that when I was done at 7 I headed to the gym anyways!

I took my notecards on the elliptical – 35minutes, random, level 6.

We got home close to 9:00 and I’m pretty proud of the dinner I pulled together – fruits, veggies, and dessert!  First was a green purple monster.

This bad boy was a blend of frozen spinach, frozen blueberries, orange juice, Silk Almond Milk, and honey.

I gave the husband the extra and he loved it as well (although his did have a little extra sugar blended into it!).

Next up was a taste of the South.

I randomly picked up this can of Hoppin’ John when it was on sale a few weeks ago.  I’ve never eaten (heard of) Hoppin John before so I pretty much stuck with the directions on the can –

I did a 1/2 batch (one can) topped with Applegate Farms turkey bacon, Sriracha, and a little brown sugar.

I portioned half of it into a bowl, and tried something new.

Pretty good, who knew I liked black-eyed peas?!

Dessert was “new” as well, but there was never any question about liking it.

Oh. My. God.

This, my friends, is a (half)-batch of Jenna’s Caramel Sauce.

Well, that’s what’s left of the batch after Adam and I got to it.  It has a deep, decadent flavor and is sweet and rich.  Make it, make it, make it, make it!

Eaten drizzled (liberally) over a small bowl of vanilla ice-cream with lots of sliced strawberries.

Really it was just an excuse to eat some strawberries 😉

Yum!  Quite a pleasing dinner indeed.

Now I’ve got to hurry to shower so I can get to bed like a girl with an important test tomorrow.

Have you ever tried (heard of) Hoppin’ John?

Nutella Makes it Bella

by

I knew my mother-in-law was a generous lady, but when she sent us home from Thanksgiving with this mostly full (huge) jar of Nutella she sealed the deal.

Yum!  When the family was taste-testing my brother-in-law came up with the perfect description for Nutella: it’s like the inside of a Ferrero Rocher!

This morning I spread ~1T of the good stuff on a toasted Sandwich Thin.

This to-go breakfast felt pretty gosh darn decadent.

In between classes I also had a Peach Chobani.

Then after class I headed the gym.  With finals coming up my goal is to become the queen of the quick workout.  Treadmill : 25minutes: 2.45miles.  Done and done.  I’m going to do some strength training throughout the afternoon as well.

Lunch was an on the spot masterpiece.  Wondering what to do with those thanksgiving leftovers?  Ponder no more.

Leftover rigotoni pasta topped with shredded turkey, cranberry dressing, a bit of parmesan cheese, and a few chopped pecans.

This dish tasted even better than the Turkey Day meal!

I’ve got a lot of work to do today and I’m still feeling hungry so I see a lot of snacking in my future….

What is your favorite thing to do with Turkey Day leftovers?