Tag Archives: vegan

Drilling for Coal

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Ta-ta for now, Buffalo!  We packed in another full day and body, mind, and spirit are all willing and ready for a trip tomorrow to St. Thomas!  Errands of both the boring and holiday variety, elfing, and celebrating are all complete……now I’ve just got to worry about packing!

We started our morning with a little anxiety, and got all the not-so-fun stuff out of the way first.  Brat that I am, whenever someone talks about scares at the dentist I always blurt out “I’ve never even had a cavity!”  Well fate finally decided to shut me up, and today I got my first filling.  My cavity was teeny tiny so it ended up being quick and painless but I about scared myself to death in anticipation.

Fun fact – I was totally dressed as an elf today.  As I said to the husband; “if you’re gonna get drilled you might as well dress in costume!”

Yes that does look like a dressing room mirror, our main errand of the day was trip to the mall!

That crazy Christmas-week-at-the-mall feeling is probably why we thought sharing a mini Reindeer Blizzard was a good breakfast.

This had caramel, pie pieces and toasted coconut so I was expecting to like it more than the husband, but he went to town, practically ripping the spoon from my hand!

Waiting to find a Christmas party outfit until the day before we left probably wasn’t my brightest idea, but I ended up getting 2 super cute outfits!

Also on the agenda was Adam’s belated birthday lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  Sourdough bread with butter.

And one of the husband’s avocado eggrolls.

For my meal I ordered the lunch portion of the barbecue ranch chicken salad.

It was ok, I mostly ordered it for the corn and black beans, but the dressing was lacking the tang I was looking for.

Seriously though, this is the half-portion?!?

I couldn’t even eat half of this monster.  Though I did have room for a couple of the husband’s fries.

For dessert, we split a peppermint stick courtesy of J.Crew.

Honestly JC, you don’t have to bribe me, you’re already my favorite!

I thought I was stuffed, but after lots and lots of mall-walking (maybe those grandma’s in the ’90’s were onto something?!) I was ready for a snack when we got home.

Two servings of Silk Soy Nog with nutmeg.

Leftover cheeseball.

I wasn’t going to share this recipe because it’s both simple and similar to one’s found online, but so many friends raved about it at the party that I figured I should –

Spicy Creamy Cheeseball

  • 16oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese (aka neufchatel cheese)
  • 1/3 cup hot pepper peach preserves (I used Stonewall Kitchen’s)
  • 2Tbsp chopped white onion
  • 1Tbsp chopped long hot pepper (if you use the spicier jalapeno I’d cut back a little)
  • 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
  • 3Tbsp chopped pecans

Allow the cream cheese to soften.  Add all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well to combine; we found it was most effective to use our hands.  Shape into a ball if desired, and store in the refrigerator until serving.

My plan for dinner is the rest of my lunch salad.  I planned on blogging it, but – it’s 9pm now, I still haven’t packed, we have to leave the house at 5:30am tomorrow; you do the math!  Speaking of spotty posting, I just want to give you guys a heads up that my posts will be sporadic during my days in the islands (like anyone cares!).  I’ll recap everything in full, but I’ll be doing fewer, longer posts.

See you from the beach!

I’m Done!

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For real this time – I’m done!  I’m done!  I’m done!

And, in further cause for celebration – I found out I scored a 93% with the curve on the Anatomy final, which means my final grade for the semester was a 87%!  And I think we did a great job on our presentation today.  Booyah!

This morning started off with a chocolate mint strawberry smoothie.

For two (I love that Adam likes these!) we mixed 2 cups of frozen strawberries and 2 cups of chocolate peppermint soy milk.  I know that picture is a little grim, but that what it’s like outside in Buffalo at 7am and 12*.

Our final presentation went well; not gonna lie, I think ours was the best.

Plus, I might have bribed everyone by brining in Tamarind Candy!

After a quick meeting I was free, free, free!  I spent almost an hour walking down Elmwood, just happy to be outside.  I can’t believe I don’t have class again until late January.  Or that I’m going to St. Thomas next week!

Lunch needed to be walking distance from the apartment, celebratory, and in my budget.

Chicken fingers drenched in Buffalo sauce?  Don’t mind if I do.

I scarfed this entire thing, got a bit sick to my stomach, and was totally in heaven.  All I need now are some sweatpants.

When does your holiday break start?

No Complaints About the Food

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Today was – – – tiresome?  It wasn’t a terrible day, but I certainly have a lot of complaints about it!  I woke up to the realization that I’m getting sick, I felt sick all day, we were so busy all day that I couldn’t study for Monday’s two finals, and in the midst of not studying I found out that I got a B in my Anatomy Lab…  Boo.

One thing I have no complaints about is breakfast.

Kath‘s oat smoothies are genius!  And my holiday twist was pretty darn smart too 😉  This was a leftover serving of oatmeal, 1 frozen banana, and 2/3cup Silk Soy Nog, with a healthy shake of nutmeg.

Mmm-mmn!  The nutmeg totally took it to Christmas morning.  So did these pepermint flavored Now and Laters.

And then I was out of the house for the rest of the day.  We had lots of errands and doctors appointments, all of which moved like molasses.  Adam has a birthday tomorrow (25!) and I’ve got an idiopathic bone lesion.  Fun.

Lunch from Wegman’s salad bar was a bright spot.

But since I didn’t eat “lunch” until 4pm my hunger was so out of control that this barely filled me up.

A slice of buffalo chicken pizza was soon to follow.

Not gonna lie, this slice of pizza was not cooked and I went ahead and ate it anyway.

Adam headed to a coffee spot to study after the grocery, but I knew my best course of action was to get myself into my pjs and tuck into a large bowl of vanilla bean with caramel sauce.

Yep.  I’ll be on the couch if you need me!

Nog Makes It Nice

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I love egg nog.  Like, a lot.  If I wasn’t so obsessed with keeping holidays within their “slots” I’d probably drink it year round.  But then there’s also that whole ‘fitting into my pants’ issue.  Which is what makes this product so amazing.

Silk Soy Nog.  95% as tasty as the original, and the nutritional stats are 95% better than the original.

It is so fabulously tasty, and healthfully low-fat that it even works well as a breakfast staple.  Overnight oats anyone?

Soy nog overnight oats are so good that I’ve basically stopped eating regular o.n.o. the rest of the year!

Yesterday evening I stirred together 1/3cup oatmeal and 2/3cup Silk Soy Nog and put them in the fridge overnight.  This morning I stirred in 1 Low Fat Vanilla Stonyfield and a dash of nutmeg.  Topped with holiday sprinkles, of course!

Packed into a go-cup for the car.

I ate in transit so I could cram for my test once I got to school.  I think I did pretty well, ~B, there were a few questions on there that we had not covered at all in class so that was frustrating.

My schedule today was class – break – meetings – break – evening class.  I used my first break to study for my upcoming Anatomy practical.  Fueled by Reese’s Pieces.

ET made me do it!  I ate about half of this bag, or approximately 1.5servings.

Just in case you aren’t sure that I’m a dork, I have to show you that I was taking my notes with a peppermint scented red and green striped pen –

‘Tis the season!

My meeting concerned the application process for the program I’m applying to (due the first week of the spring semester) and gave me major anxiety.  I have a lot to do over Christmas break.

My plan for the second break was to get a veggie sub and study for Orgo.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that “a little bbq sauce, please” was code for “please dip my entire sandwich in sauce, thereby making it impossible to eat and work at the same time.”

That messy monster contained green pepper, red onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, pepperjack, and bbq sauce.

Sidenote on the sandwich – what I really wanted was an enchilada burrito from Taco Bell.  I hate most fast food but, not gonna lie, I sort of love Taco Bell.  But I recently realized that just because Taco Bell isn’t McDonalds (eww), doesn’t mean that their chickens are any tortured.  If I only buy “humane” meat to cook at home then I shouldn’t eat “evil” meat just because I’m not at home.  Obviously there are road trips and restaurants and other people’s houses, but I should probably be done with Taco Bell 😦

My night class went quickly, and then I came home to a quick but random dinner.

Actually, we were both starving, so while we cooked the husband and I split a quicksadilla (that’s a tortilla with sharp cheddar microwaved in it).

When I was at my grandparent’s house for Turkey Day, they served the tastiest brussels sprout dish.  I wrote down the recipe – by Cat Cora for a magazine – to make again when we got home.

3 lbs brussels sprouts
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp capers

Prepare brussels sprouts by peeling off the outside leaves and cutting off the steam.  Using a paring knife, mark the core where the stem was with an X.  Cut the sprouts in half.
In a 4-qt saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil.  Season with 1 Tbsp salt.  Blanch sprouts for 10minutes or until fork-tender.
In a 10-inch saute pan, brown the butter and add sprouts.  Cook over medium-high heat until caramelized, 10minutes.
Remove from the heat and add the capers and lemon juice.  Season with remaining salt.
Serves 8.  Per serving: 130calories, 5g protein…

I have to warn you about my entrée – it tasted better than it looked.

There was a serving each left of kugel and hoppin’ john…

…so I put them together!

The sweet and spicy mix was actually very tasty.

I’m almost definitely going to have a repeat of last night’s dessert (vanilla ice-cream with strawberries and homemade caramel sauce) but I have a few assignments to tackle so I’m going to say “goodbye” to blogland now and switch into work-mode.  See you in the am!

***Via random integer generator, the winner of my OhNuts! giveaway is #8 –

Yvonne, please e-mail me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) so I can get you your prize!

Going Out with a Bang

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Thanks so much for the encouragement on my last post!  Although, it seemed like many of you thought I was stressed; I was actually being matter of fact.  And I matter of factly failed my test this afternoon 😉 😦

Breakfast at Starbucks ended up being a success.  I got a tall, non-fat latte,

and a slice of gingerbread.

Then I brushed my teeth in the public bathroom and spit Scope in the parking lot like a total creeper 😉

My breath was fresh, but the dentist did give me the bad news that I got my first ever cavity.  I knew it was coming (they’ve been “keeping an eye on” that spot for a year and a half) but I’m still a little nervous about getting drilled.

After my appointment I headed to Wegman’s for a great hot bar lunch.

An assortment of veggies plus a few pieces of sweet and sour chicken,

with fruit for dessert.

I left my car parked at Wegman’s, which meant I got to walk to school for the slaughter (Orgo exam), and then walk back to do my grocery shopping.  I love walking so much, I hope this “nice” weather holds out!

When it was all said and done I ended up with a ‘you shouldn’t grocery shop hungry’ candy bar.

Delish, like honeycomb enrobed in chocolate!

I also ate a bowl of random cereals (Barbara’s Shredded Oats, plus Kashi H2H and Strawberry Flakes) with Silk Almond Milk.

I’m not sure why I was so hungry, but I’m glad I ate because I had a lot to do in the kitchen.

I’m at the point where I transfer my obsessive love from fall foods to holiday foods, and I wanted to end the season with a bang.  There’s no better way to go out than P-U-M-P-K-I-N, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!  (Can you tell I watched “Bring it On” during dinner?)

Hello there.

We made Rachael Ray’s Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage.

We subbed rigotoni for penne and vegan crumbles for sausage, but other than that we pretty much followed the recipe.

Delish!

For dessert I went with more pumpkin, (and more Rachael Ray, come to think of it) Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Muffins.

I skipped the frosting, these babies are perfect without it!

I had two.

Now I’ve got to go to bed, go, go, to bed!

Were you a cheerleader in highschool?

Facts of Fall

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There is nothing pumpkin can’t do.

The weather in Buffalo today was beautiful!  In lieu of a formal workout, Adam and I took a long walk to soak it in.

Today included too much snacking and not enough studying.

The words in this post are lacking (just wrote “snacking,” whoops!), but I will at least show you everything I ate today; plus some “Fall” photos for funsies.

Arnold’s WW Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow Blue Cheese, 3 slices of turkey.

Mini Vanilla Tootsie Roll, x2.

Baby carrots and ranch.

Small slice of pizza from the school food court where we were studying.

Leftover Loaded Potato Soup (make it, seriously!).

Waffle fries (more potatoes?!) doused in salt and vinegar.

Allie’s Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Blondies.  Note – I halved the oil, substituted the spices (little bit of pumpkin pie spice, lotta bit cinnamon and nutmeg), and used light brown sugar and these still came out fabulously!

What signs of fall are popping up in your area?  What’s been your favorite pumpkin goodie so far this season?

Frozen Feet

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Has everyone done the Friday dance?  I’m sure glad for the weekend!  I actually have a ton to do the next few days so I made sure to include some relaxation in today’s plan.

My morning was a little too relaxed; leaving my warm bed feels bad, but running around like a headless chicken trying not to be late feels worse!  After I went to the trouble of buying a banana last night I couldn’t even get it together to make breakfast this morning.  Also, 30minute walk in 40* weather, not a sandals time.  Who knew!  😉  At least my tortured toes gave me a good excuse to buy a coffee before class.

A medium skim latte with sugar-free English toffee syrup. 

We had a guest speaker this morning who works in pediatric nutrition; she was fascinating!  The teacher of my Friday course is super energetic and excited about Dietetics and the speakers she brings in have all been just as enthusiastic.  They make me really excited about my future career!

After class I met up with my group; we have a poster presentation on November 19th and we are already 2/3 of the way finished.  I had ~ an hour between our meeting and Orgo so I made the best use of the time possible – I went to the gym!

I told you guys if I take a day off it turns into a month!  I had been going regularly (and loving it!) and after my I’m sick/I have 5 tests/OMG week I haven’t been in 16 days.  I know that I feel 100% better when I’m working out regularly so I’m going to try really hard to make sure I stick with it.  I didn’t have a ton of time today so I tried to use it wisely on the treadmill –

  • 5minute warm up (walking)
  • 20minutes running
  • 3minute cool down (walking)

In my 28minutes I covered 2.58miles, not terrible!  I’m actually running a 5k in a couple of weeks so hopefully that will keep me motivated.

I didn’t ever get it together to get food so I bought myself a Lemon Lime G-2 post gym.

It kept me hydrated but by the time Anatomy started my hunger had zapped my energy.  My class notes today are baaaaad.

A freezing, sideways raining walk home later, and I was heating up a Chicken Enchillada Suiza Lean Cuisine.

I needed some time to reheat while I refueled so Adam and I caught up on a bit of tv.  Has anyone seen the most recent CSI: Las Vegas?  Terrifying!  I also snacked on some Halloween candies,

a small handful of Southwest Cashews from Sahale Snacks,

and the last honey vanilla caramel apple.

The granny smith was the best yet!  I really, really, really recommend trying these.

Then it was time for business, we got out our fall decorations and finally switched out our summer and winter wardrobes.  My toes were oh so glad to see my Uggs!

Before catching up on “Bones” (love) we did find time to make a pretty snazzy dinner.

That’s Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage from Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals.

We basically followed the recipe, although we used a bit less meat and pasta than called for.  Actually, we didn’t use meat at all; I couldn’t find any turkey sausage without pork casing so instead I swapped in some Gimmie Lean vegan meat substitute.

We also used the big can of local canned pumpkin I bought when I was panicking over the possible Libby’s shortage.

The flavor was spot on, but the texture wasn’t quite as velvety as the good stuff.

But the dish was still damn tasty.

This is one of the recipes Adam and I used to make all of the time when we were living in Brooklyn, it’s an old favorite.

I still have to shower and make our grocery list before bed, but I’m hoping to turn in before 11.  Amid a heap of homework, I signed up to volunteer at a health fair tomorrow.  What’s on your agenda for the weekend?

Pour Some Sugar On Me

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I’ve had that ubiquitous Def Leppard track stuck in my head all weekend.  Around midnight on Saturday I even requested it be added to the party playlist!  And “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a fitting anthem for this evening as I’m currently buzzing from a major sugar high.

Let’s cover dinner first shall we?

The tofu I was pressing earlier was cooked up this evening into my fabulous Coco Loco Tofu.  If you haven’t tried this recipe yet I highly recommend it; it’s the dish that got the husband hooked on tofu!

We used the remaining coconut marinade to cook down a big batch of kale.

The creamy (coconut), tangy (rice vinegar) sauce was the perfect complement to the kale.  Sometimes I hate how much greens cook down though; I swear that is a big serving of veggies!

I was ravenous while we were cooking dinner so I made myself a tiny bowl of 0% Plain Oikos with homemade chocolate pb, Crofter’s strawberry spread, and a pinch of shredded coconut.

Tasty, but ruined my appetite for the main event; I ended up only eating 2/3 of my tofu and sharing the rest.

I worked up an appetite for dessert stirring, stirring, stirring in the kitchen.  40minutes later I was rewarded with caramel apples!

I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray for Honey-Vanilla Caramel Apples.  I decided to make a half batch of apples (Adam won’t eat any) and save the rest of the caramel for other means. 

Granny Smith, Paula Red, Crispin.

I haven’t tasted an actual apple yet because I made myself too sick on caramel, but I can already tell you that this recipe is a keeper!  The honey vanilla caramel is divine and it was easy as pie to make.  There is a fabulous deep roasted flavor that makes it addictive; there was a lot of this –


Healthy dinner, check; most of my school work up to date, check; satisfied sweet tooth, check plus!

Caramel, candied, or naked, how do you prefer your apples?