Busy Busy Bee

I want to get my packing done this evening and I HAVE to squeeze in some quality time with the husband so I’ll keep this snappy.  `_< (oh yes, that was an alligator!)

I like to make to-go smoothies for breakfast on the mornings I have 8am lab.  My first proclamations were not wrong: I love Green Monsters!

This had 1 frozen banana, 1 cup oj, and 1 cup frozen spinach.  I took a better lit picture at la escuela to show of its Kermit-esque awesomeness.

I was in the bathroom because I realized I couldn’t not show you guys today’s layered look!

Love it!  Adam and Katie both asked me why I was dressed up today.

I was with Katie because we had a lunch date today!  I packed us a lovely spread from home to save a little $.

 Turkey and 2% provolone sandwiches with hot pepper peach preserves.

And caramel Oikos with blueberries.

We ate at the Wegman’s coffee bar area and Katie bought me a lovely Nutty Irish (hazelnut and Irish cream syrups) skim milk latte.

After lunch we walked around the store a bit and I managed to get some gifts for the friends I’m seeing tomorrow that I’m quite excited about.

On the way home we split this package of Newman’s Own Peppermint Cups.

Meh.  They aren’t bad I guess but I much prefer Yorks.

Adam had a suture clinic from 5 – 8 so he dropped me off at the Spot to do some studying.  I am completely caught up for Chemistry, yay!  I got dinner there, a Mike’s cheese and egg bagel sandwich.

Plus a skim iced latte.

Still on the agenda for tonight?

  • pack everything but my chargers into my suitcase
  • separate the laundry
  • paint my toe nails and shave my legs, eek!
  • cuddle with the husband and try not to cry about 12 days apart

Gotta get cracking!

*****Updated to add – packing is never fun.  Which is probably why this seemed like such a good idea –

Shamrock Shake!  😀

You Can’t Do It Without the Meat

Before I start – I also forgot the ricotta, which I realized as soon as the husband got back from the store.  He hates me a bit and our burger apparently didn’t quite follow the recipe!

As I said before, the plan for dinner was Turkey Burgers with Carmelized Onions and Blue Cheese (recipe here).  I’ve been craving turkey burgers since before the vegan challenge, which I swear I am going to recap soon, so this was the perfect dinner choice.

I had one burger on a bun with blue cheese spread and a few onions.

A stack of oven-baked fries.

And leftover veggies from the other night.

In spite of the small hiccup (who forgot the turkey and ricotta?!?) it ended up being the perfect dinner.

Sadly the burger did not kill my turkey burger cravings  😦  I know we left out ricotta but the recipe needed far more Worchestire for my tastes.  The fries were fantasmic though 🙂  We subbed in butter potatoes for russet and we not disappointed.  I don’t know why I ever eat fried fries, these are so much better!

Now the plan is to do my pt exercises, shower, and turn into bed.  Wish me luck actually falling asleep tonight!

What do you top your burgers with?  I almost never eat things on a bun, but usually I dip my patties into ketchup.

Me: 0, Hunger: 4

I’ve been super busy (and stressed) all day and that paired with my intense hunger somehow led to me eating 4 full meals today, whoops!  The amount of school work I have to do over the next few weeks (particularly while I’m home, boo) is sort of staggering.  I’m actually looking forward to seeing whether or not I rise to the challenge 🙂

I was feeling a bit empty still after breakfast so I grabbed a Yoplait Light Red Velvet Cake yogurt.

This wasn’t my favorite flavor, but I was pretty entranced by the color.

My study session ended up being split between two coffee shops.  First Starbucks, where I ate a low-fat egg white, spinach, and feta wrap with a nonfat tall latte.

Then the Spot where I had a Cajun Turkey Wrap (ww wrap, sliced turkey, pepperjack cheese, cajun sauce, l/t).

I ate 2/3 of the sandwich plus a 2nd diet coke.

Finally Adam picked me up around 7:30 and I headed off to get my “real” dinner.  We were so excited to try this newest location of …..

Moes!  I’ve been seeing the Florida bloggers gush about this place for years so I was super excited to try it out.  Adam and I were NOT disappointed.

I did some damage on the huge bag of chips the gave me,

but my main meal was this fellow –

A Junior Homewrecker (burrito – little bit of rice, black beans, tofu, cheese, salsa, cilantro).

Yum, yum, yum.

I would say it’s been a good day but I’m going to try to bang out some of my online Chem homework so my day seems far from over.  I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

What’s your opinion on “Fourth Meal?”  Just for Taco Bell or awesome idea?

Sweet Serendipity

After my last post I grabbed my People: Style Watch and headed out to the gym.  The magazine was a total clock-killer, if I hadn’t gone so close to closing time I would have been totally motivated to keep going.  As it was, I did 35minutes on the elliptical.  My machine said that was worth 3.3miles but I was going at a pretty easy pace so I’m not sure how accurate that is.  When I got home I did 25more minutes of strength training, stretching, and pt exercises.

After a quick shower it was time for a dinner I’ve been looking forward to all week; I finally recreated the Summer Bries sandwich from Serendipity3!  Serendipity is my favorite restaurant on the planet – the atmosphere is fun and the food is fabulous!  Plus it’s right off Lexington, one of my favorite streets on the planet!  Serendipity is the spot I always would take visitors when I lived in the city: click on the links to see the recaps for some of those fun meals link 1  link 2.

I own the cookbook and even in my hands their desserts are amazing.  However, while most people go to Serendipity for the ice-cream, I go for the sandwiches!  My very favorite – The Summer Bries – is what I recreated tonight.

*Note – dinner was delayed by a mold problem, ugh! and I snacked on a few Cedar’s pita chips and feta spread.  No pictures because I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening*

The sandwiches turned out divine!  Whole wheat raisin pecan bread with 98% ff turkey, apple, alfalfa sprouts, brie, and homemade 1000island dressing.  They got gooey in a 400* oven and turned into perfection.  I had two smallish sandwiches,

Plus some oven-roasted brussels sprouts on the side.

Such a good dinner!  I demolished the sandwiches but I did put back some of my mountain of brussels sprouts.

We are watching the season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so the bedtime goal is 11 – 11:30.  Sweet dreams.

FEST Check-in, Day 2

  • Food – pretty good, my goal was never to skip meals out, just to cut back on the take-out and “box” foods.
  • Exercise – great.
  • Sleep – poor.  11am is not when successful people wake up!
  • Time Management – see sleep.

Double Question Time!

  1. I know the calorie counts are suspect, but do you trust the miles counter on the elliptical machine?
  2. What is your favorite street in the US?  As much as I adore Lexington, my heart is forever devoted to Lincoln Ave in South Beach.  I think Lincoln is the best spot for people (and dog!) watching.

When In The Mall

Happy Saturday!  My 1am bedtime led to an 11am wake-up, less than stellar.  But Adam and I have certainly made the best of our quickly dwindling day – movie/lunch date at the mall!

Lunch was at our new favorite spot, Jack Astors.

I got an original Bloody Mary to drink.

It was good, but not spicy enough for my liking, I miss the drinks in NYC!

Next up was a small cup of beer and cheddar soup.

This was delicious, it was so nice and creamy.  There was a spot in Park Slope that had the best beer and cheese fondue and we sort of got to relive that with the soup.

And for my main dish I ordered a turkey burger.

I ate a few bites as a sandwich before tossing the bun and dipping the patty in ketchup.

We had more than an hour between lunch and our movie and we ended up walking aimlessly around the mall.  We had fun though.  We bought a hedgehog stuffed animal to help support an environmental group, who thinks the husband approves of that purchase??

And we split a Turtle Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

This was crazy good, my favorite ice-cream on the planet is sugar-free white chocolate from Freshens and this tasted sort of like that.  Plus you can never go wrong with dark chocolate and caramel 😉

You could go a little bit wrong with our movie choice though, When in Rome did not blow me away.  I hate sappy chick flicks but my love for Kristen Bell had clouded my judgement.  We had fun looking at the New York scenes though and the clothing in the movie was making me drool.

I am all about layering, too bad I can never pull it off!

The rest of the day looks pretty low-key, especially because Sunday is going to have to be study, study, study.  See you for dinner.

Do you eat buns/bread at restaurants?  Why or why not? 

Stupid Squared

It was a fun day, but not a very successful one 😦  Adam’s poor time management actually caused me to miss the gym, for the second day in a row.  I now have 50 – 2 days until my half and I’m freaking out.  But I guess I can’t criticize the hubby about watching the clock as I’ve been a major instigator in the fact that it’s after 1am and we’re still up.  And I still have to shower!

Hanging out this afternoon I snacked on a serving each of these guys –

Cedar’s makes the best Spinach Dip I think I’ve ever had.

Dinner was a “Cooking Light” recipe, Mao Pao Tofu.

The only substitution I planned was subbing turkey for pork.  Unfortunately I’m an idiot and I used double the meat called for but now at least we have extra leftovers.

It was good but not great; the texture was there but the seasoning was off.

Adam brought home his dessert – Brownie Obsession – from dinner last night and it ended up being so tasty that I ate more than half of it, whoops!  We devoured so quickly I didn’t get a picture so I pulled one from the website.

Delish!  Between SNL, Modern Family, and Scrubs we laughed hard it’s a wonder I managed to swallow my food 🙂

What is your favorite tv comedy?  Scrubs is near and dear to my heart (I mentioned it in my wedding vows!!!) but Modern Family has really blown me away.

Coffee and Coconut

Today has been the perfect kind of Saturday!  Cuddling up with Adam in front of the tv with funny shows and plates of food?  Count me in!

My parents gave us a purple french press for Christmas and we finally got to try it out.

Besides the fact that it makes me feel cool and European, the coffee (Kona, by the way) was much tastier and less bitter; win.  Per usual, I had mine with skim milk.

Alongside the joe we made eggs with turkey and cheddar sausage mixed in.

It made for a very nice breakfast.

Choking laughter at “Modern Family” worked up my appetite and I shared some of Adam’s Brushetta Chicken Pasta leftovers from last night.

But the real piece de resistance of lunch was this guy.

That guy is a Young Thai coconut.  I drank a little coconut water in the usual way,

but ultimatly I decided to do a smoothie.

1 medium banana, juice + meat from the coconut, 6 ice cubes, a little bit of honey, and a bunch of cinnamon went into the blender.

The result tasted like the coconut chai from Bonobos, LOVE!

My plans for the rest of the day include a work-out, some laundry, and a tasty dinner.  Happy Saturday!

Have you ever drank directly from the coconut?  Love it or hate it?

That’s What HE Said

Shortly after my last post, I enjoyed one of these –

Usually I wouldn’t boast about a pre-10am diet soda, but what I’m really showing off is the straw.

My mom bought me these reusable straws, with their own pouch!, for Christmas.  Now I can be green while slurping my favorite chemicals! 

I drink everything (water, milk, iced-coffe, soda) through a straw so this is a great area for me to look into reducing waste.  The straw didn’t feel too strange and I loved how cute it looked.  When I use regular straws I chew on the tips which the husband hates (wow, that got dirty in a hurry!) so maybe these will cure me of that habit.

Either way, the caffeine must have inspired genius because I had a great lunch.

I started with these Johnsonville Turkey and Cheddar Sausages.

I melted 1/2t Smart Balance Light over medium-high heat and then added 1/3 of a chopped green pepper and two chopped sausages to the pan.

Once everything was nice and browned I sprinkled on some Kernel Seasons Ranch seasoning.

Finally I topped the bowl with hot and chunky salsa.

Delish!  I really really liked the sausages, they had the best smokey flavor and the cheese gave a nice kick without being too goopy.

For dessert I had a 2% Pineapple Chiobani.

Buffalo Residents – Price Right on Elmwood currently has these for 99cents!

And now it’s off to the old chopping block, yikes!  I’ll be back for a tearful post this evening!