Tag Archives: veggies

So. Much. Coffee.

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The week’s almost over!  Last night we did indeed walk the dog straight to snacks.

A diet pop and a York Peppermint Patty for me.

The three of us sat on the couch and watched “Solitary.”  I discovered the show and watched the first season on my own and now that we’re on season 2 I’m sad to say that my opinion is going downhill.  For such a big committment and such a tiny prize ($50,000 for the winner) I feel like the challenges should focus on resilience and conviction.  Now that they are becoming fitness competitions I’m losing interest.

I’m not sure why Adam found it necessary to take an hour-long shower after we stayed up late watching tv, but when the alarm went off at 6:00 this morning I wanted to punch him in the face.  I basically guzzled caffeine all day and then he brought me home pizza so we’re okay now!

Coffee count – #1: A medium iced coffee with french vanilla creamer for funsies.

#2/3: A small coffee with chocolate milk, x2.

#4: A Medium coffee with skim milk and three sugars.

I spent most of my day peeing and I’m still twitching.  Worth it.  Apparently I like my drinks sweet in the summer; I’m going to have to watch that habit.

Pre-coffee I did get in a workout. 30 minutes on the elliptical at random level 6.  Plus arm strength moves on the machines.

For breakfast I had the last bit of spicy chicken and rice.

Lunch was from the dining hall again.  Spicy tofu with sautéed peppers and onions plus broccoli cooked with cherry tomatoes.

I thought the food was good and most of the students I surveyed agreed with me.  Part of my summer school assignment was supposed to be analyzing patient surveys about hospital tray service.  I had to tweak the survey form a little bit to make it fit, but the same general ideas about food temperature and serving size applied.

When I got home in the afternoon I ate my slice of husband-delivered cheese pizza.

He only has a few more shifts at the hospital with the great cafeteria so I’ll take advantage while I can.

Our dinner casserole was assembled yesterday and all we had to do today was bake, easy peasy.

In the dish (the casserole dish!) was –

  • 4 cups cooked brown rice
  • 8 cups raw baby spinach
  • 2 cups roasted broccoli
  • 1 poblano pepper, diced
  • 1 lb tempeh, roughly chopped
  • 3 cups Imagine Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup
  • (1 cup crushed Monterey Jack Cheez-Its)

Mix.  Put in a 13×9 casserole dish.  Sprinkle with crushed Cheez-Its.  Bake 25 minutes at 400*.  Serves 6.

On my new plate.

It was closer to healthy than tasty, but it worked.

With a handful of candy-coated sunflower seeds for dessert.

Have you watched/heard of “Solitary” yet?

Lunch In The Cafeteria

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Hello, again!  Long time no see; or at least it has felt long to me.  There is some stuff going on that has made it in my best professional interest to skip posting, so that’s where I was the past two days.  I obviously can’t share but I promise you’re not missing anything too juicy.  And now I can come back!

This week of summer school we are observing institutional food-service operations.  I’m at the campus dining hall and I’m loving it!  Everyone else is at a health care organization and I was worried about doing something different, but I ended up exactly where I’m supposed to be.  Everything I’ve experienced so far has been amazing and today I basically walked around with my mouth hanging open.  I’ll admit that my expectations were not very high but I’ve actually been beyond impressed.  I went into dietetics more excited about clinical work than food-service and this experience is totally challenging my previous ideas.

Breakfast was eaten on my walk to school.

ZonePerfect recently sent me a sample of their Perfectly Simple line.

Tagline – “A few wholesome ingredients. 10 grams of protein. What could be simpler?”  Sounds good to me!

Unfortunately when I tried the Cranberry Almond flavor earlier this week I ended up throwing it out after just one bite.  The cranberry flavor was too strong for me; but I hate cranberries, so if you’re a fan of them this might be a plus for you.  I didn’t have high hopes for Toasted Coconut but I ended up quite liking it.

I wouldn’t call the ingredient list “natural” but it was nice and short.  The date paste wasn’t hidden but the bar didn’t have the same flavor or stickiness of a Larabar either.  The toasted coconut was tasty.  For 200 calories this was pretty filling (thank you, 10 grams of protein).

I also had a coffee with skim milk on campus.

I’ve always loved the fact that our food court has a Spot Coffee and I learned more about that relationship today.

Lunch was eaten in the cafeteria.  A Zucchini and Squash Blend with Vegetable Egg Frittata.

Plus a skim milk/chocolate milk mix over ice.

I’ve so missed the milk machine from my days of undergrad at UM!

My meal was delicious, by the way.  The food service department here does a really amazing job of using tons of local sourced produce, dairy, and eggs.  Plus they only buy cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free meat.

When I got home in the afternoon I snacked on small bowls of leftovers.

Rice with spicy chicken.  Followed by the last small serving of Tex-mex chicken soup.

I am so sad to see this go!  Especially because Adam said not to save the recipe because it was too spicy for him.

Dinner was pretty similar to my snacks, but Indian.

I topped brown rice and roasted eggplant with a serving of Kohinoor India on a Platter Paneer Butter Masala.

This stuff was fabulous!  My roasted eggplant wasn’t very good (I baked it in Worcestershire sauce and honey and it ended up spicy and chewy) but the sauce was totally able to carry it.

It’s close to bedtime but we are going to walk the dog and we may get some chocolate!

Wakeful Weekend

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In solidarity with the husband I kept his vampire/emergency room doctor schedule and stayed awake all Friday night.  I ate a big bowl of popcorn, discovered Solitary, read a book… it was great.  Except that the rest of the weekend ran together in a big fog so I guess it was not so great.  I didn’t do much, but here’s what I ate Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday.  I ate a bowl of Maple Brown Sugar Frosted Mini Wheats and All Bran Bran Buds with skim milk for breakfast.

Split a PB & J’s candy bar with Adam.

This was super fun.

Made a to-die-for bagel sandwich.

A toasted Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin topped with a wedge of Laughing Cow Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese Spread (two thumbs up), turkey pepperoni, and melted white sharp cheddar.

Discovered another new froyo place.

I got coffee and coconut yogurt topped with toasted coconut, oreo, marshmallow cream, hot fudge, and candy-coated sunflower seeds (<– freaking awesome topping idea!).

And I ate a big thing of black bean nachos for dinner but was so tired at that point that I forgot to take a picture.

Sunday.  Here is how Adam’s Sunday morning went – drive home from the hospital / say hi to me and tell me about how his night went / fall asleep in bed without covers because I had all of the sheets out with me on the couch

Here’s is how my Sunday morning went – wake up and realize it’s light out (think “don’t freak out) / check my phone and see that it’s 9:30 am (think “don’t freak out”) / notice a 6:30 am text from Adam saying he was heading home / freak out / scream, waking up the husband in the bedroom

Apparently I was talking to him in my sleep!  I used to do that a lot of mornings in college but back then it was more inconvenient than scary.  I still don’t remember talking to him but I am so flipping glad that he was home safe.

For breakfast I made the husband some “I’m Glad You’re Not Dead Honey Roasted Peanut Butter.”

1 lb of TJ’s honey roasted peanuts, 3 Tbsp canola oil, 3 Tbsp honey.  I took several taste-tests for quality purposes (about 2 Tbsp worth) and it was delicious.  I washed it down with a pear that I somehow didn’t photograph.

Lunch was an Annie Chun’s Pad Thai Noodle Bowl.

It was good but not “60% of your daily value of sodium good,” yikes!

I spent the afternoon exploring the Allentown Art Festival with a friend.  We didn’t buy anything but it was fun to wander; almost six miles were covered on foot!

Dinner was leftover soup.  Topped with tons of lime and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

We have one more serving left and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m not quite full though and if I finish tomorrow’s assignment in time I’m going to grab a snack.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

**updated to add –

Homemade pb and chocolate chips were melted and consumed while I finished my work.

Froyo On A Friday

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It’s been a fabulous Friday!  Any Friday that starts a three-day weekend is bound to be good, but this one was fun all on its own as well.  I went on two dates with the husband, spent the afternoon at the mall with some friends, and ate lots of tasty food.

Lots and lots of tasty food.

We had errands to run this morning and while at Wegman’s we purchased chocolate croissants.  fatty pro tip – the best chocolate croissants in town are at Wegman’s bakery

We walked with the dog to Starbucks for espresso.  A doppio with skim milk and sugar.

Then we breakfasted on croissants and espresso in the sunlight.  It was just as wonderful as it sounds.  We finished our grocery shopping on foot, with the dog, with a sweet espresso buzz, and felt very European.

I spent my afternoon with two friends at the mall.  We also went to The Christmas Tree Store (which sells discounted products and actually no Christmas trees) which was ironic because when Janessa and I went to the mall originally we got so lost that we ended up at The Christmas Tree Store, i.e. about as far away from the mall as you could possibly get.  It was beyond pathetic.  We were 45 minutes late to meet Kim and laughing so hard that we cried.

When we finally made it to Galleria we rewarded our superior navigation skills with froyo.  I had coconut and plain tart with tons of strawberry and mango boba.

This was both of my friends’ first times trying self-serve froyo and popping boba and thankfully they were big fans.

I didn’t do much shopping at the mall but I did see many cute items; lots of lace things to covet!  And I purchased a pretty plate from Anthropologie that was 50% reduced.  Buffalo people – Anthro currently has lots of reduced-price stuff on the main floor in addition to the sale room.

At home I ate slice of cheese pizza leftover from yesterday’s lunch.

And a coffee yogurt with roasted peanuts and honey.

This combo has been one of my favorites since I was a young child.

Date number two was a walk down Elmwood.  It wasn’t an aimless amble, we had a very specific destination in mind –

Chow Chocolat for iced hot chocolates!

I got peanut butter and Adam got salted caramel and we switched halfway through.

The drinks were made-to-order with real chocolate and were rich but not too sweet.  They were heavenly.

Dinner was a toss-together.

I boiled six-cheese tortellini with a frozen green bean and carrot mix, then tossed the cooked past and veggies with marinara sauce.  Nothing special but it did the job.

I left behind the last quarter or so of my portion because I’m going to tuck into a biiiiiig bowl of popcorn as soon as this post is up.

Pop… pop… pop!

Zombies Don’t Feel So Fresh

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Hello, hello!  No post yesterday due technical difficulties.  P.S. “technical difficulties” is a fancy way of saying “I’m an idiot and when I plugged in my camera I somehow deleted all of my pictures.”

That wasn’t even the stupidest thing I did all afternoon.  We were eating M&M’s on the couch and I didn’t realize that I had spilled a handful until I saw the dog licking them.  I picked them up immediately (because chocolate and dogs don’t mix) but we have no idea what I did with them next.  We finally determined that I must have eaten them.  That’s right, I basically took food out of the dog’s mouth and ate it.  Yum.

Yesterday was a disaster any way.  We did not run.  We did eat nachos.  Like, ridiculous nachos; they were almost too cheesy.  Oh, and I fell asleep on the couch at 5pm again.  I don’t know what my deal is lately but I’m so tired I feel like a zombie!  I seem to be a little bit allergic to the dog but overall this has been my best summer ever as far as allergies go.  And while summer school is easy I don’t feel like I’m not doing enough and I’m certainly not doing too much.  I don’t know why I feel so tired all of the time.

For breakfast a Roasted Nut Roll Larabar Uber was packed.

The last of my Uber line samples, this flavor is my 2nd favorite after Bananas Foster.  The mix of nuts included almonds, pecans, peanuts and macadamia nuts.  It tasted almost like one of those pecan roll candies with the white stuff in the center!

I should mention that the husband was the one who sweetly did the breakfast packing.  Unfortunately I requested an apple to go with my bar and he provided a rock-hard nectarine instead.  No fruit for me.

Lunch was a very special feast.

One of our classmates owns the famous, local restaurant Romeo and Juliet’s Cafe and she brought us in a spread.

I had veggie pizza,

a stuffed pepper,

and salad.

And then I couldn’t help going back for a 2nd slice of pizza.

The stuff on the side is honey mustard dressing and house-made red pepper flake mayo.  I dipped my crust in the sauces and was in absolute heaven.

She brought in dessert too.

I finally ate my first cannoli!  Loved it!

I bought espresso to drink with my dessert like a real Italian.

A double shot with tons of skim milk and a few shakes of vanilla sugar.

Continuing the excitement, we watched a movie in class this afternoon (it was appropriate, it was a food movie!).  Fresh is a documentary that examines the pros and cons of organic versus factory farming and looks at our country’s food system as a whole.  A lot of cool people took part in it, including Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin.  We all really enjoyed the movie and I highly recommend that you check it out.  None of the information was really new to me but it was a great reminder that I need to do a better job of sticking with my principles when we go out to eat.  Adam and I only purchase humanely raised meat to cook at home and ideally that is the only type of meat I ever want to consume.

Even more exciting, we got the news that we are getting the day off tomorrow.  I am going to go to the mall with some friends and I couldn’t be more jazzed.  <– honestly, I clapped my hands and squealed when someone suggested it and I have no idea why because I’m not even going to be buying anything

I had big plans to make up yesterday’s run this afternoon and it just didn’t happen.  Actually, I got up and dressed in running clothes this morning (shoes, sports bra, everything) and made it as far as the couch.  I thought I would be able to redeem myself after class but I was dreading the run.  Every time I got up to go I just felt sad.  I need to do a better job of pushing through and working out more consistently (more in general!) but I love running so much that I hate to do it when I’m not going to enjoy it.

I did finally make that soup though.

Tex-Mex Chicken Soup from Cooking Light.  It was very good but not great.  I was mostly to blame for leaving out important ingredients.

my (mostly stupid) changes to the recipe

  • used 1/2 Tbsp less evoo
  • subbed green bell pepper instead of red (do you have any idea how expensive red pepper are?!)
  • subbed pickled jalapeño
  • skipped the cumin, cilantro, and queso (again, $)
  • skipped the tomato
  • used homemade shredded chicken and stock

I liked the spice level, especially with the pops of sweet corn.

I know this sounds strange, but I think I would have liked it better without the chicken!

Also this happened.

Yuck.

Finally, a product update – Smoke and Ashes from China Glaze’s Capitol Colours line (as seen in this post) has a great slate color but it chips like crazy.

Do not recommend.

Wow, that was a long post!

Have you seen “Fresh” yet?  What did you think?

Off Plan

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Adam was on call last night and sleeping by myself did not go as well as planned.  To start, the dog and I stayed up until 1 am painting my nails and watching “Drive Me Crazy.”  And it didn’t seem like I was sleeping poorly but when the alarm went off this morning I wanted to punch it in the face.  I knew by the first snooze that I needed to update my workout and breakfast plans.

Instead of a run, I did 10 minutes of strength and stretch moves.  Not gonna lie though, I don’t think I could have done more than 10 minutes even if I’d had the time!

Instead of a yogurt bowl at home I took breakfast to-go.  A Naked Green Machine that Adam brought me home from the hospital.

And an Apple Turnover Larabar Uber.

The bar was tasty though a bit stickier than I’d like.  The flavor wasn’t really apple, instead it was chock-full of raisins.

Lunch was simple but good.

Roasted broccoli,

topped with Makhani sauce.

With Junior Mints (Canada style!) for dessert.

When I got home from class I snacked on mango slices.

Yuuuuuum!  We almost never buy mango (and Adam has to cut it for me when we do!) but it is the perfect blend of tart and tangy.

Plus bread with olive oil.

And a small slice of pizza.

It was less than a dollar but it wasn’t very good and I shouldn’t have eaten it no matter how hungry I was.

I had homemade soup planned for dinner but then the husband ate a bunch of food and came home stuffed.  I moved the soup to tomorrow and instead I got a $6 fish taco for dinner.

This was more enjoyable than the soup would have been anyhow!

Did you follow your meal plan for dinner this evening?

Rested Recap

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Hey there!  It’s been a busy few days so I’m having to do a multi-day recap post here.  Thankfully I don’t have too too much to say.  It’s been fun though.

Thursday I did breakfast to go.

The last of a jar of crunchy pb (~ 1-2 Tbsp) filled with a 0% strawberry Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of raw oats, and 1/4 cup of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

Lunch was roasted broccoli with peanut sauce.

This combo was delicious, even cold.

And some gummi cola bottles.

The amount shown there is about 1/2 of what I brought back from Canada; I should have bought more!

When I got home Adam and a nice surprise for me –

The hospital he’s doing his current rotation at has a great cafeteria that sells our favorite pizza in Buffalo (legit!).

And then I fell asleep at 5pm.  I was feeling super tired throughout the day and the minute I sat down on the couch I was done for.  I slept from 5 – 10, got up to get ready for bed, and went back to sleep!

Don’t worry, I more than made up for any missed dinner calories on Friday.  The amount of junk I ate was so disgusting that it ended up being almost impressive!  Everything was delicious (duh!) but I think my body would appreciate a few more veggies.

It was National Donut Day and I had to partake.

That donut was rich I couldn’t even finish it.  I’m just not a donut girl, my consumption for the year is officially over 🙂

But sweet coffee?  Dont’ mind if I do.

I got a large Black Cocoa iced coffee with skim milk.  Adam got this (Men in Black!) special the other day and I was so good I had to have one of my own.  The lady who served us told me they were only making them through this week so taste one while you can.

Lunch was fresh-cut pineapple,

and a Cherry Cobbler Larabar Uber.

It was good but not as tasty as Bananas Foster.  Again, lots of big nuts and almost no date flavor.  And the cherries were tart and sweet.  Somehow it didn’t have quite enough flavor though.

School went really well on Friday.  I am ServSafe certified, woot!

Some friends and I celebrated after class.  Bloody Mary at Pano’s.

x2.  And then I was drunk.

I also took them to check out Nickel City Cheese and Mercantile.  In addition to having great stock the owners are fantastic.  My friends bought an aged cheddar and a gouda each and the man behind the counter had us do lots of swoon-worthy tasting.  I also brought home a treat for Adam.

He brought a treat for me too!

I happily ate that slice but then I had to tell him to stop bringing me pizza so I don’t get fat…ter.

Then we tried my treats.  A blue cheese and dark chocolate and goat cheese honey milk truffle!

We took one bite of each but I think I was a bigger fan than Adam.  They were a little strange but sooooo good.  The creaminess of goat cheese makes a perfect truffle center.

We had a gift certificate to use so we went on a dinner date to Romeo and Juliet’s Cafe.

I started with bread; one slice with garlic and a second with butter.

And for my meal I ordered the Baked Eggplant Parmigiana.

Oh. My. God.  I left the pasta to the side (who eats pasta when there are layers of eggplant and cheese available?!), shared a few cherished bites with Adam, and then demolished the rest.

We took dessert to go.

That ball was a peanut butter mousse with chocolate ganache.  Ridiculous.

I wanted to post last night but unfortunately I passed out then as well.  The dog has been shedding a lot more recently (this is our first June with him) and I may be the tiniest bit allergic to him.

So now it’s Saturday.  I’ve eaten a bowl of Maple Brown Sugar Mini Wheats with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk,

and I’m ready to conquer the day.  Conquer may mean errands or may mean tv, we shall see.

Chicken Makhani At Home

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Hello, hello!

I managed another morning workout today, though I overslept a bit and didn’t have a ton of time.  25 minutes on the elliptical, level 6 random.

Breakfast was exciting; our teacher kindly brought in bagels!

I had an everything bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

I totally used the cream cheese to “sop up” the fallen sprinkles of onion and poppy-seed.  My friend Hillary and I laughed because when we finished eating her plate was spotted and mine was bare.

We are getting ServSafe certified in summer school and we did our first 8 hours today.  I took the course in college when I worked at the on-campus bar but I mostly seem to remember the strange questions.  For example – When can raw, unpackaged meat be offered for self-service? (answer found at the bottom of this post).

Lunch was tasty, but I went more than a little overboard on the sodium.

3 oz of bread and butter pickle slices.

1 serving of pretzel twists.

2 servings of turkey pepperoni.

Mustard to dip it all in.

I didn’t even finish the last quarter of the pretzels and pepperoni and I joked that I could actually taste the hypertension.

Our new classroom (we switched rooms three times the first day!) was freezing so I also bought a coffee for warmth.

With skim milk and three sugars.

Speaking of sugar… I got a coupon for a free donut from Dunkin yesterday and you know I wasn’t going to turn that down.

That star is an Undercover Black Cocoa Donut.  It was delicious.  Like seriously delicious.  And I actually don’t even like donuts; craving one felt like the strangest thing ever.

And since I don’t like donuts (you know I’m a froyo/Ben and Jerry’s/bubble tea girl) I’m able to say with a straight face that dinner was even more delicious.

Adam and I have been super obsessed with Indian take-out this year, particularly chicken and paneer Makhani.  It tastes fantastic but the habit is expensive and I don’t even want to know how many calories we’re taking in.  We can’t seem to shake the addiction so it seems like the solution needs to be making our own Indian dishes at home.

I’m not ready to make the sauces from scratch but I picked up this Butter Chicken Simmer Sauce from Patak and I think we’re in business!

It was very creamy and just a little bit spicy.  And for 150 calories for a third of the bottle it’s not as scary as the restaurant version!

I started dinner by rehydrating a handful of raisins in hot water.  Meanwhile, I toasted a handful of cashews in a big skillet.  I added the raisins, ~7 oz of chicken, 1 Tbsp butter, and 1 cup of sauce to the skillet and let it simmer for a bit.  I served my portion on top of a pile of roasted broccoli.

Delicious.  Seriously delicious.

Answer: At Mongolian barbeques