Tag Archives: veggies

They Were The Worst Of Plans, They Were The Best Of Plans

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Contrary to this morning (when my grand plans were thwarted), my terrible evening plans failed for the better.  Sometimes when things run off course you end up in a much better place.

I needed a win after my lame shift, so I decided to spend time on an activity I knew I could do well –

reading magazines on the couch.  I also lifted my mood exponentially by breaking in to my Co-op best-ever candy bar stash.

I ate it slowly, with a fork, over 45 minutes of magazine reading and was practically in heaven.

But I guess I wasn’t feeling angelic, because the end result of our dinner plans was me getting in a screaming match with Adam over the best way to measure flour.  Seriously.

I stormed out of the house in a dramatic huff and ended up at Talking Leaves, sitting a table on the sidewalk with my book and a drink.

Like I said, a better place.  Though it was even better once the husband joined me, finishing off the other half of my iced coffee with Irish Cream.

We sat long enough for me to finish my book.  <– not Sloane Crosby’s best showing; I Was Told There’d Be Cake was far superior, How Did You Get This Number? was more whining than funny

It was too late to make dinner at that point, so instead we headed to Saigon Cafe for Thai food.

I strayed from my go-to order of broad rice noodles and went with Pad Krapow – chicken with spicy basil sauce.

I asked for extra veggies and extra spicy.

I got enough veggies, but unfortunately the spice level was much closer to bland than “Thai spicy.”  I housed the entire plate, but my spice tooth is still begging to be satisfied.

Actually, I was randomly so I hungry that I surprised the husband with how much food I wolfed down.  I shared most of my rice with him, but I killed my meal and stole several bites of his Pad Thai to boot.

Adam and I wandered down Elmwood in search of chocolate ganache (I’m not sure what sparked the craving but my spice needs seemed to be linked to a desire for deep chocolate) and finally settled for a Starbucks salted caramel bar mini.

I’ll let the chocolate thing go, but I still need to find something to smoother in Sriracha, soon!

Instead of dinner at home we somehow ended up with drinks, dinner, and dessert; at three locations natch.  Regardless of the fact that he knows nothing about flour, I think a date with the husband is always a better plan!

At Least It Wasn’t An Egg Salad Sandwich

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Our evening plans took a sharp turn, and this is a much different blog post than I planned on writing.  I’ll have to make/blog my dessert idea later this week, but we had a great time.

We walked down Elmwood, then walked back to the apartment before we decided that we were hungry for sushi.  After a slightly longer walk, unfortunately we were greeted with this –

No matter.  A slightly longer walk still and we made it to Tokyo Shanghai Bistro.

We’d never been to TSB before, and picked it on a whim, but the complimentary appetizer was a good sign.

I knew dessert was in my future so I went with two small rolls for dinner.

A shitaki mushroom roll,

and a veggie roll with crab and egg.

It wasn’t the best sushi I’ve ever had – both rolls were strangely chewy – but I slather on so much wasabi it barely matters!  I probably wouldn’t go back for sushi, but we spotted some great looking tofu at another table so I think we’ll try again next time we’re in the mood for Chinese.

By the time we were back home from dinner we’d walked another 2 miles.  Bringing our grand total to 6+ miles walked today.

At one point early in our travels I decided that it was absolutely essential that we buy the locally made mini cheesecake we’d been eyeing at Wilson Farms.

We both took a few bites but it wasn’t very good.

What, you mean you wouldn’t look for quality cheesecake at the gas station?!?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve purchased at a gas station?

The Gym of Life

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Today makes the fourth training day in a row I’ve skipped.  <– arrrrgh!  This week has been a combination of genuine leg pain and genuine laziness.  On the bright side, my legs are so sore from my shift last night that I’m counting work as at least a half workout.  The restaurant is split into two levels, with the dining area upstairs and the bar and kitchen downstairs.  This means that I go up and down the stairs 8 million times a shift.  Yay for the gym of life.

This morning I made Adam an Orange Dream Machine knock off (vanilla ice cream, orange juice, and vanilla protein powder) and I drank the extra.

This is going on the ‘to make again’ list.

Adam and I had some errands to run, which culminated in a trip to Wegmans to pick up lunch.  While we were there I grabbed and iced coffee, Wegman’s version of Jamaican Me Crazy with skim milk.

Not as good as the Wilson Farms’ one sadly.

Lunch was great though.

Fruits – berries, pineapple, cinnamon banana.

Steamed broccoli, grilled squash, succotash, and cashew chicken with tons of celery picked out of the container.

Plus a white chocolate toffee cookie.

The perfect end to lunch/dinner.  Hopefully it will hold me over through work, it’s going to be a busy shift!

Workin’ Girl

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Yikes, my first real shift at work left me pretty tired!  Hopefully this job will force me to get my sleep schedule in order.

I had to skip another day at the gym and I haven’t been getting very good sleep lately so I spent most of the day napping, summer vacation-style.  That would have been all good except that I realized an hour before I had to head to work that eating would be good.  I did my very best to squeeze enough my needed calories and food groups.

First up, a protein packed yogurt bowl.

This guy was a fun, filling mix.

  • 1 sliced banana
  • 1/2 cup 0% Fage
  • 2 Tbsp raisins
  • 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2.5 Tbsp Smuckers Natural PB with Honey

 The combination was great; I think I’m going to start adding raisins to all my yogurt bowls.

I also made a veggie plate.

Roasted brussels sprouts,

and roasted potatoes drizzled with truffle oil.

Thankfully I found that this held me through all 7 hours at work.  It helped that I was too busy to get hungry too.

I’m probably going to be working 4 night shifts a week and I’ll be doing a late, huge lunch on those days.  Hopefully, like tonight, I won’t be hungry for dinner when I get off work and I’ll be able to simply blog, shower, and get to bed.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

Shower and sleep time!  P.S.  The giveaway winners are –

It Got Away

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Hello, hello!  I swear that I didn’t skip my post/giveaway this morning because I was sulking; the day just got away from me!  First things first though, thank you so much to all of you who offered me advice in the last post.  I blog for me (and my mom and grandma!), but I also blog for you guys, and I always want to do my best.

I mentioned that the day got away from me, and if I’m honest, it started getting away from me last night.  When Adam got in bed at 10pm I so wanted to be the type of person who got in with him and got a good night sleep.  But that’s not who I am.  I’m the type of person that stays up until 2am watching Missing.  I’m also the type of person who eats the last banana split cupcake at 2am.

That’s just me.

I actually woke up raring to go this morning (probably nerves) but I ended up skipping my planned 4-miler anyways because my knee feels funky again.  I’m hoping to double up on cardio tomorrow to make up for the lost day, fingers crossed!

Today was my first training day at work and since I was going to be busy through lunch I knew I needed a big, hearty breakfast.

Yum and yum.

I sautéed a crumbled salmon patty with three tablespoons of spicy corn relish and when I started to get a good char I scrambled in two eggs and ~ 1oz of extra sharp cheddar.

I’m in love with this dish.  I haven’t eaten the corn relish “raw” yet, but it is so darn good in eggs.

I also ate a 0% Fage with soursop.

Which, thankfully, pushed me to enough food to get me through the lunch rush.

— Insert 11 – 2:30 training at the newest restaurant on Elmwood. —

When I got home I had time to split this taffy candy with Adam,

before we had to head to his dentist appointment.  <– ironic, right?

I obviously didn’t have to go, but I’m co-dependent, so I ignored my growling belly and hopped in the car.  I brought a chocolate dipped coconut Luna Bar,

but I had to split it with Adam because it’s too darn good not to share.  Tastes just like a Girl Scout Samosa, I swear!

Unfortunately, I let myself get waaaay too hungry and my food choices have gone a little downhill.  I got a good balance of veggies and protein in my Wegman’s hot bar,

but I shoveled it into my face the minute we got back to the car!

I also bought a pecan pie bar from the Co-op.

I can’t even tell you how much self-control it took not to eat this in the car too.

And now (as soon as I hit publish) I’m going to eat some popcorn.  Boo-yah.  Clearly I need a more effective way of dealing with lunches on work days.

Just for funsies; what are some of your favorite blogs to follow?

I’m Hungry and I Suck

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My legs have been feeling pretty good, but this afternoon 2nd day hunger hit me hard!  I didn’t plan on eating while I was out of the house, so I left my camera at home to charge, but by the time I got to the grocery store at 5:30 I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.  Thank goodness for cell phone cameras and thank goodness for hot bar.

That’s my usual mix.  It’s hard to see portion sizes in the photos but that’s ~2/3 of what I usually get, it wasn’t supposed to be dinner.

I also impulse-bought this So Delicious Chocolate Coconut Milk from the fridge by the register.

It was pretty good.

I ate my Co-op candy bar before I went to the mall and it was fricking amazing.

That white stuff tasted like pillowy, marshmallowy nougat!  I “mmmmn’d” my whole way through.

I threw together dinner fairly quickly but it ended up being a good meal.

Salad – arugula, green bell pepper, cucumber, and poppy seed dressing.

I made this salmon patty recipe, but subbed green onions for shallots because our shallots were moldy.  <– what is happening in this house?!

Plus Adam and I split a cheddar cheese bialy.

Best part of the meal, hands down.

No one is entering my recent giveaways, boo.  I would really appreciate some feedback on why/how I suck.  There’s another one tomorrow, please let me know what I could do to make it better!

Don’t Believe The Picture

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My restock walk ended up being a bust, I’ll have to go to the real grocery store this afternoon.  At least I got in my walk though!  And I did pick up a few goodies.

Like my favorite coffee.

And this neat looking candy from the Co-op.

I’m sure I’ll break into that soon!

I came home for lunch before I head out to the mall.

I know you won’t believe me looking at that picture, but this lunch was goo-ood!

I sautee-steamed 1 neon eggplant and 1 zucchini, then tossed with a few glugs of Worchestershire sauce and  the last of the Newman’s Own Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce.

This kind of dish is my very favorite way to eat veggies!  Seriously, ignore the way it looks and make it yourself at home!

I’m going to watch another Missing, and then I’m off to the mall!  Don’t forget to enter my Applegate Farms giveaway!!!

Make Like A Banana And Split

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Oh my goodness, I am just too excited!  My baking project turned out so well that I’m going to hurry through blogging dinner so I can tell you about it.

Dinner wasn’t bad.

It’s just that nothing can compare to cupcakes.

I made this lentil soup packet from Manischewitz.

And Adam and I split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza as our carb.

Done and done; now I can talk about dessert!

Do you see why I was excited?

It’s been forever since I’ve eaten an actual banana split, but once I got the idea of Banana Split Cupcakes into my head I couldn’t get it out!

Banana Split Cupcakes

  • 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 large bananas, well mashed
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
  • 12 Tbsp hot fudge sauce
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 5 oz vanilla bean ice cream, fully melted
  • maraschino cherries
  • rainbow sprinkles
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Line a cupcake tray with 12 paper liners.
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl combine mashed banana, white sugar, egg, and melted butter.  Stir to combine, then fold in flour mixture and mix just until smooth.  Fold in walnuts.
  4. Fill each cupcake liner halfway with batter.  Spoon 1 Tbsp fudge sauce into each cup.  Top with remaining batter.
  5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to completely cool before icing.
  6. While cupcakes are cooling, use an electric mixer to beat together softened butter, powdered sugar, and melted ice-cream.  (This icing will keep best if stored in the fridge rather than at room temperature).
  7. Ice cupcakes then top with cherries and sprinkles as desired.

I wasn’t sure how the ice cream icing would work, but it ended up being perfect.  And it goes without saying that a layer of fudge in the middle of a cupcake is pure joy.

I ate two cupcakes (and did lots of nibbling) and it’s definitely time for me to put in my retainers so I don’t eat a third one!

For your own good, I beg of you; make these yourself this weekend!