Tag Archives: veggies

All Sorts of Win

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My day has been like Charlie Sheen, all sorts of winning!  Seriously though, it has been one of those days that are just randomly fantastic.  Good workout, mostly good food, good times with the husband…

Win #1 of the day was the realization that music makes my workouts fly by.  My i-pod broke months ago and my parents gave me an IOU for a replacement in my Christmas stocking but it’s taken me a while to finally cash it in.  I got a nano, in lime green, engraved with my phone # and part of my favorite quote from Robert Frost.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Once I got of Biochem this afternoon I headed straight to the gym, my new i-pod stocked with a new 30minute playlist –

  1. Sweet Light, The Chapin Sisters
  2. The Cave, Mumford and Sons
  3. Coming Home, Diddy
  4. Signal Fire, Snow Patrol
  5. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster, Geto Boys
  6. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
  7. My Dick, Dirt Nasty
  8. Somwhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

For 30minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  “What a Wonderful World” is actually the song Adam and I walked down the aisle to once we were married, and when it came on I started to cry!!!  I had to elliptisize as fast as I could to make myself stop being embarrassing (double win!).

Once I was home and showered I headed out on errands with Adam.  Win #2 was the free coffee I picked up at Starbucks for Earth Day –

Seasoned with a big pour of skim milk and two sugars.

Our errands included a trip to the mall for Adam to get an eye check up, where I sat in the food court for an hour and wrote notecards like a weirdo.  I may have looked like a creeper, but I actually got a lot done.

Not a win, was the fact that we were busy straight through lunch and ended up not eating anything.  By 5:30 when we left the mall I was having a definite panic attack of hunger.  I ended up randomly grabbing this Liquid Taffy candy to split with Adam.

Such a win!  The texture of this was divine; a velvety, less chewy taffy.

We continued dessert before dinner by splitting froyo.

Fat free chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with strawberries, sprinkles, and granola.

Total win!

Dinner, not such a win.  It was poised to be good…

We headed to Taste of Thai on Hertel (an avenue with tons of good-looking restaurants and next to no parking), where we split our regular order – Pad See Eiw with tofu,

and Cashew Chicken.

The dishes had tons of veggies (our complaint with Buffalo Thai has been the lack of veggies), but that’s where the compliments end.  The renditions were painfully inauthentic, and way too salty to boot.  Fail!

But being with the husband is always a win.  Especially for the rest of the evening, for which our big plans include the latest Community and the splitting of two mini ice creams.

This day has been sweet, in every sense of the word!

What was your most recent #win?

Smoothie Sucker

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At least once a week I put “smoothies!” on our meal plan for breakfast.  I would say the ratio of smoothies made to smoothies listed is something like 1:10.  Why am I such a sucker for the allure of morning smoothies?!  They sound so refreshing and tasty, but I never actually have time to make one, leaving me breakfastless and cranky.

Thankfully today I packed a pretty breakfast-y lunch, so I pulled that out a few hours early.

A berry flavored Revolution Foods squeeze packet,

and a 2% Mango Chobani.

With a small coffee (that large cup is half full) with two creamers.

I loved the new fruit packet flavor (on sale at Buffalo Tops!) but I wasn’t thrilled by the new-to-me Chobani.  I was expecting to love it because Pineapple is so good, but the texture just seemed strange to me.

Speaking of fruit, we had a fun lab today – finding the ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content of different food items.  It was an interesting lab; always nice to practice something that actually relates to my profession.  P.S. Tang has .023mg of vitamin C per mL.

I was a busy bee after lab, with work to complete, a trip to the health center, a date with the gym, and finally an impromptu lunch date with Adam.  I was at the health center for a required physical before I begin working in the hospitals during the Coordinated Program next year.  After I get a PPD test next week there will be nothing between me and clinical work!

Next up was the gym.  I’m not going to lie to you guys, this visit was hard!  I did interval sets on the treadmill, 1minute walking/3minutes jogging.  I hit 3miles just around my 9th set.  With a quick cool down for a total of 3.25miles and 35minutes.

Since I ate my lunch for breakfast, I made an impromptu lunch date with the husband.  Adam was my savior and drove my drippingly sweaty self home for a much-needed shower.  We set a timer as I got out of the car (he had to sit out in front of the house) and getting upstairs, undressed, showered, ready to go, and back downstairs took me 11minutes and 5seconds.  And I even made an outfit change!

Go speedy!

Yes, that picture is at Wegmans.  Yes, we do have a hot bar problem!

I know we should try someplace new, but we love all the options and the price is right.  I’d much rather take a bunch of little different bites than have one choice in bulk.  Today I got a random mix of tofu, chicken, and slaw,

with pretty much every kind of roasted veggie.

The veggies were fantabulous as usual, but I ended up leaving behind most of the other side; my slaw had ham in it!

It was great to spend some mid-day time with Adam, and even better to get to head back to school with some yogurt pretzels to munch on during my night class.

Having a snack definitely made the time go faster.

In no time at all we were home eating burritos.

It helped that I pre-made the filling yesterday so the burritos came together in a cinch.

We topped whole wheat tortillas with sautéed mushrooms and onions, black beans, corn relish, sliced jalopenos, and some shredded 2% sharp cheddar.

Then we pressed them in the George Foreman like what we see them do at Moe’s.

Plus a side of scoops tortilla chips with spicy salsa for authenticity.

Perhaps I should have saved this meal for May 5th?

And since I’m a bottomless pit, I’ve got a mug waiting for dessert.

I stirred hot cocoa mix into some 0% Plain Oikos, then topped with brownie crumbles and toasted coconut.  I haven’t tasted it yet, but I can pretty well guess that it’s going to be amazing.

I hope this means I’m all set up for sweet dreams!  But first, some reruns of “Iron Chef” on Hulu.

How often do you make smoothies?  How often do you purchase them out?

Why So Serious?

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No post yesterday, I was busy at the orthodontist getting a new retainer.  Unsurprisingly, losing my ability to snack without dealing with mouthgear or to freely sip diet coke all day put me in a sour mood.  It didn’t help that my orthodontist accidentally sliced open the side of my lip, the effect of which is twofold – 1) I look like the Joker; 2) I’m not even wearing the retainers today because I can’t open my damn mouth!

Breakfast was restricted to something I could eat with a straw –

Leftover vanilla coffee, maple syrup, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and lots of ice.

I couldn’t figure out what to pack for lunch, so I ended up ordering a nice flat quesadilla.

The Taco Bell workers were surprisingly accommodating and agreed to add all of their veggies (lettuce, tomato, and onions) to my cheese quesadilla.

I could only manage to eat half of it though, and even that took me 45minutes!

By the time my second nutrition class was over I was hungry and cranky.  In a not-so-nutritious move, I ended up carefully shoving chicken fingers and fries into my sore mouth.

My plan was to hit the gym between my afternoon class and Music, but a research presentation crisis took me to the library instead.  Just as well, since my greasy platter of food left me wanting to throw up anyway.

But I surprised myself by making it to the gym after my night class.  Normally my motivation wanes as the day goes on, but I knew I needed the mood-boosting effects.  It helped that he let us out of class an hour early!  I did 20 (difficult) minutes of jogging on the treadmill, followed by a quick cool down, for a total of 25minutes and 2.4miles.

When I finally got home at 9pm, I needed to spend some time in the kitchen, prepping for Adam’s lunch and tomorrow’s dinner.  I also had a few school loose ends to tie up for tomorrow, pushing this post even later.  As soon as I realized my early bedtime was shot, I begged Adam to take me to 7-11 for a diet pop, where this happened –

Cherry/Coke slushies make me giddy!

Now as soon as I hit publish I can’t wait to get showered and get in bed!

What is your slushie flavor (combo) of choice?

She Ain’t Messing With No Court Jester

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No one could accuse me of being a gold-digger.  I started dating Adam when we were still in high school.  I will stay with him through countless years of undergrad, Teach for America, medical school, residency, and grunt work before he becomes a wealthy doctor (my Jewish grandma would be so proud!).  But sometimes, like when he calls me in a tizzy, shouting “the radio says there’s a BOGO special at Medieval Times!,” I close my eyes and think “he’s going to be rich someday.”

And then I open them, and get busy buying tickets to Medieval Times and mapping out the drive to Toronto.  And I feel so lucky to get to spend 4 hours in the car with my funny, handsome husband, who also happens to be a total dork.

Seriously though, Adam has wanted to go to Medieval Times since he watched “Cable Guy,” and I was thrilled to help his dream come true.

First though, we had to clean up from the poker party and get in a grocery trip.  While we were at Wegman’s we picked up hot bar for the road.

I grabbed a random spread, including several veggies plucked from their meat dish counterparts (think chicken and mushrooms, not beef and broccoli).

In total, I ended up with kale, carrots, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, butternut squash, and green beans.

I also munched on half a leftover turkey reuben.

And then, we were at Medieval Times!

I don’t have any pictures of the show (the mood lighting was a little rough on my food photos as well), but I did take a few shots around the castle.

We had a great time walking around, although the blatant commercialism was a little frustrating; it would have been nice to see an exhibit that wasn’t trying to sell us something.

The show was a lot of fun though, packing with jousting and ceremony.  The best part was definitely the horses though.  And dinner was surprisingly good.  No silverware, metal plates, and huge pieces of meat –

None for me though, I actually pre-ordered the vegetarian meal (which p.s., was even tastier!).  We started with tomato bisque,

and garlic bread,

both of which were only ok.

And then my meal blew me out of the water.

Hummus with pita chips, rice pilaf, and a grilled veggie skewer (I got a fork!), all of which were delicious.

Dessert was an apple tart.

It was good, but I only took a few bites because I knew Adam and I were going to share some Canada candy on the car ride home.

Smarties make the drive go so much faster!

We were served dinner at 5, so unsurprisingly I was ready for a snack when we got home.  I snacked on spinach and artichoke dip with a serving of chips while I blogged.

I don’t think we’d ever go back (holy price tag, Batman!!), but it was a pretty fabulous day!

Have you ever been to Medieval Times?

A Food Log Food Blog

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So there’s thing 1 and thing 2. Thing 1 – we just got home after our second 9+ hour car trip in two days and I’m too tired to be clever. Thing 2 – due to inclement weather (nearby tornadoes!) we spent much of the weekend without power and my pictures are pretty dark and awful. But, here’s the thing – part of the reason I write this blog is as a food diary (accountability). Sometimes I feel so silly when I’m writing a post that isn’t funny or chockfull of useful ideas or amazing recipes, but I have to remember that I do this for me too. So, feel free to skip this weekend’s recap, or settle in for a food log post.

Friday

I made Adam and myself a huge iced coffee to split on the road.

Coffee + Silk Vanilla Almond Milk + maple syrup.

I also packed a sandwich for breakfast.

Sandwich Thin + Applegate Farms organic sliced chicken + a Light Laughing Cow.

I was randomly starving five minutes later and spent the rest of the day complaining about how hungry I was. Enter an early lunch from Sheetz. Cole slaw,

and a turkey sandwich, with cheddar, honey mustard, lettuce, and tomato, on a pretzel bun.

Bletch x2! Normally I’m really impressed by Sheetz, but this time not so much.

However, Adam and I did split some Reeses Minister that were freaking life changing!

When we saw them again at another gas station we even bought some to bring home.

When we got to Virginia, before a tornado(!!) knocked out the power, there was dinner waiting for us.

Salad,

chips,

and grapes.

Then we spent the night playing cards in the dark.

Saturday

I skipped breakfast in lieu of cuddling up to my books, but made time for a last lunch.

More salad,

a small slice of cheese pizza,

three shrimp with cocktail sauce,

and strawberries and melon.

I also had a cinnamon brownie (we baked them Thursday night to bring down) and some Ruffled for dessert.

I ate my fair share of junk on Saturday unfortunately. I don’t mind digging into desserts or snacks at all, but I prefer to nosh only on unhealthy things that I love, and I feel like I sort of just grazed.

In the afternoon we did get to go out for a short but nice walk with my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and niece.

I even ran several sprints with my niece, it’s so much fun getting little kids to be active.

We went out to dinner, where multiple peanuts we cracked.

Sagebrush is a steakhouse, but fortunately there was some chicken on the menu as well.

I started with a cheddar biscuit,

and a side salad with peanut vinaigrette.

Dinner was grilled chicken,

with bbq sauce,

and broccoli.

We stopped for gas on the way home and I grabbed a (half sweetened) coffee.

I also snacked on some Easter candy,

and this plate of chips x2.

Sunday

My in-laws whipped up breakfast before we had to hit the road.

Scrambled eggs, strawberries, and half a bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

I also ate an apple with cheese in the car,

and a medium plain coffee.

We sang along with the radio, listened to recordings of Adam’s lectures, and reviewed my music reading all afternoon. Then, according to plan we pulled into Grove City at 4:45 and grabbed a late lunch/ early dinner at Primanti Brother’s.

Adam grew up eating there and I’ve seen it on the Food Network so we were pretty excited.

I ordered the turkey and provolone cheese sandwich, which came piled with Cole slaw and French fries!

The bread was boring (and abandoned halfway through), but the slaw and fries were perfectly vinegary. I’d probably never want one again, but it was fun to try.

But the fun was just beginning. There was an outlet mall across the street so Adam suggested we take advantage of the great weather (75*) and walk around a bit. First, I love to walk with the husband. Second, we snagged a Silpat on sale.

And then I literally started hyperventilating with excitement… we spotted a self-serve froyo place!!!

You guys, I can’t even tell you! I got original tart and sugar-free praline, topped with hot fudge, marshmallow, butterfinger, strawberries, and a cherry.

This is the kind of “junk” I feel 100% good about eating.

I’m pretty sure I swooped the whole rest of the drive home.

We stopped for a mini grocery run at Wegmans, and also grabbed some Chinese food (which I’m just not going to blog); our early dinner was a bit too early 😉

If you have a blog, how much of its purpose is food log vs. fun?

Cheese and Bread

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I was sooo hungry all afternoon, it was a total I-would-gnaw-my-own-arm-off-if-I-could situation.  I guess cookies don’t make good lunches??  Nah!!!  But still, my hunger was so ridiculous that it totally distracted my from my work and now I really don’t know what to do tomorrow to fix it.  Cheese and bread!*

*”Cheese and bread” is a common exclamation in St. Thomas, where I grew up.  It can express any strong emotion, frustration or surprise for example.  I guess it’s sort of analogous to the Midwestern “golly gee whiz!”

Cheese and bread is also what I ate as a snack this afternoon.

That mess that looks like a smashed turtle (eww!) is actually a Sandwich Thin with 2oz of Cabot’s 50% reduced extra sharp cheddar melted on it.

It was tasty, but clearly not enough as I attacked this gigantic spoon of peanut butter next.

Thankfully Adam got home earlier than expected and I could start prepping dinner at 5:30.

I roasted up some broccoli,

and threw this Trader Joe’s purchase into the oven as well.

The Mandarin Orange Chicken did not disappoint.

The flavor and texture were spot on for (good) Chinese take out, and each serving had only 190 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat (I ate ~1.5 servings).

Overall it was a satisfying dinner.  But can you ever be too satisfied for dessert?

Even when you ate dessert for lunch, the answer to that question is still no!  Especially when it’s the best candy bar on earth.  These Cadbury Crunchie bars might be my new favorite thing.

I’m not sure how tomorrow is going to play out, but we are heading to VA at some point in the morning; we’ll be down there all weekend visiting my in-laws.  Unfortunately there is no internet available to me, so I’ll probably have to do a recap when we get back.  Maybe a short phone post or two for fun?

What’s a strange but fun expression from where you grew up?

Scarlet In The Face

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Boy was I red in the face about skipping a post last night!  Nah, not really 🙂  Actually we got home close to midnight and I knew I had an early morning so I made the healthy living decision to get to bed.  Sometimes I forget to prioritize sleep, which I’m sure relates to the fact that it’s a month later and I’m still coughing.

Back to yesterday.  My test went well.  Not as well as I would have liked, but at least this one I’m sure I passed!  Plus a test meant getting done with class early – I’m a super fast exam taker – which meant I had time to switch my music class to pass/fail (whew!) and get home to visit the husband (yay!).

I had just enough time for a bowl of freshly chopped pineapple before I had to head back to class.

My music class still feels long (at 6-8:40 it is long!), but now that I’m not terrified of what it’s doing to my GPA it feels a little less tedious.

We had to run to Walgreens across town, and I can pull up our Groupons on my phone, so we ended up going out to dinner at 9pm on a whim!

We headed to Scarlet, a cozy little spot that is actually right down the street from our old apartment.

The inside looks fun and inviting, and we always kicked ourselves for not walking over there last year, but after tasting the food it appears we didn’t miss out on much.  The meal wasn’t terrible, and there were highlights, but overall it was disappointing.  Buffalo restaurants all seem to have menus that read like New York hot spots and food that tastes like TGIFriday’s.  But it was fun to have a Wednesday night date with the husband regardless.

Before we realized everything on the menu was fried, we decided to split 4 appetizers.

Adam and I always just eat off of the same plate, so I’m not even going to attempt to show you portion sizes this post.

We started with complimentary bread with flavored butters (tomato, garlic, and honey).

Then Three Cheese Fondue,

Buffalo Shrimp,

Tempura Chicken Tikka,

and Artichoke Francaise.

The buffalo shrimp were a low-point.

The breading was thick and spongy, the sauce spicy in an overpowering way, and if you’re going to go ahead and serve these deep-fried then you might as well use blue cheese dip rather than haphazardly tossing on blue cheese like someone’s eating these with a fork.  We left the shrimp basically untouched and if all the food had been like this we probably would have left, but thankfully other things were a little better.

The chicken – the one thing we knew would be fried – was pretty good.

The peanut sauce had a nice back spice to it.

The artichokes came in a fabulously lemony butter sauce,

but again, we were expecting something that wasn’t fried.  I enjoyed the big, meaty pieces of flesh, but Adam – who usually adores artichokes – wasn’t a fan.

The high point of the meal was the fondue.

We never could identify what the three cheeses were, but this had great texture (no graininess) and paired well with the apple slices.  Adam scooped into the actual bread bowl a bit and declared it nice and doughy.

So overall not the best (or healthiest) meal, but still fun!

This morning I had to be up early to register for my Fall 2011 classes.  I got everything I wanted, yay!  Actually, I should say I got everything I needed; what I really wanted was a forensic psychology class, but it didn’t fit in my schedule.  If I had my druthers I would be able to take forensic psych and forensic anthropology, in addition to my other courses.

Life for the rest of 2011 planned out, I made a nice fruit salad for breakfast.

This was a mix of pineapple, Cara Cara orange, banana, honey, unsweetened shredded coconut, and a few honey peanuts.

The combination of flavors was great.  I almost never eat my fruit with a fork but it’s actually really satisfying.

What classes did you take just for fun in college? 

My first time around in undergrad I switched majors (communication –> education) after a year of taking almost all communication classes so I took the maximum number of credits each semester just to graduate on time.  Back then I was sad I didn’t get to take more English courses (my 2nd major).  Now that I’m back in school I took an Anthropology course just for fun, and plan on doing one again whenever it fits in my schedule.

Way Back Wednesday

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In spite of the title, I’m actually going to start with a bit of prognosticating.  Prognosticate: to predict according to present indications or signs; foretell.

If you knew what that word meant and are offended that I thought you might not, I’m sorry.  If you didn’t know what that word meant and are offended that I think it’s common knowledge, I’m sorry.

Apologies aside, what I’m trying to say is that I posted this lunch in advance.  While you’re reading, I’ll currently be eating leftover roasted green bean fries.

In a baggie for traveling ease.

Plus an eggnog flavored Nutrament.

I used to love these drinks as a kid, they are so tasty and good!  Plus they have the calories/nutrients to count as a meal, and with my big important test following lunch I need a meal I can sip.

Finally, I packed some dried kiwi and hibiscus to snack on during the break before my night class.

This will be my first time eating a Nutrament as a meal (rather than just for funsies because they’re delicious), so I’m hoping that’s enough food to get my through my looong day.

Since Wednesdays are both my long school day and a day I always pack a lunch, it makes sense to do a pre-lunch post.  Pre-posts are a little less interesting to me, so I’ve decided to spice them up with a new weekly blog series – Way Back Wednesdays.  Every Wednesday for the foreseeable future, I’m going to include a few pictures from LBL (Life Before Blogging) for your – and my! – enjoyment.

This week’s WBW, a few fun shots from our senior year of college at University of Miami (the U!).  Like a trip to the zoo on one of my parents’ visits.

Or this shot from Adam’s 21st birthday celebration.

That night was actually back home in St. Thomas, on Christmas break.

Where did you celebrate your 21st birthday?