Tag Archives: veggies

Sunday Night Dinners

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I hope everyone has had a great weekend!  It’s been an interesting Sunday around here; both Adam and I barely got any sleep last night so the whole day has felt like a dream.  As thrilled as I am about the warming weather, we are in that strange time where a blanket is too heavy but a sheet is too light and we don’t know whether we want to turn on the heat or the ac.  Hopefully we’ll get things figured out by tonight!

We slept in and lounged around so I didn’t eat until close to noon and I ended up having breakfast and lunch in reverse.  Lunch first –

Eggplant, and yam, and brussels sprouts, oh my!  I tried to mix up my seasoning with balsamic vinegar and sadly this wasn’t as tasty as my usual veggie skillets so I’ll spare you the recipe.  It sure looked pretty though.

Probably because it wasn’t the taste I was expecting, lunch didn’t satisfy me at all.  I ended up eating ‘breakfast’ a little later.

1cup Kashi H2H with 2T dried cranberries and 1T cinnamon chips.  And skim milk of course.

The cereal did the trick.

My parents, who don’t do a whole lot of cooking, always make fish on Sunday nights and have a fancy dinner.  Sadly this tradition began after I moved out, which is probably why it hasn’t caught on in my house.  We have things like Dairy Queen for Sunday night dinner.

We had to repark the car for the weekday morning so Adam suggested taking a drive and we ended up at DQ.  I’d be lying if I said that my turtle blizzard didn’t feel like the perfect dinner!

I’m glad I got in some veggies at lunch, but I didn’t eat a single piece of fruit today.  Healthy living fail!   And an issue I’m actually going to address in another post later today.  Be on the lookout for it this evening.

Does your family have any special traditions for Sunday night dinners?

You’re Too Kind

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I’m back!  I spent the last three days letting Chemistry make me her b***h, do I look any worse for the wear?

My final this morning actually didn’t go all that well, but at this point I’m glad to be done.  Plus, it’s hard to feel anything but grateful when I read over all the nice comments you guys left on my last post!  I loved all the sweet things you had to say, but do feel free to voice anything negative if you’re ever so inclined.  I always miss blogging when I’m away but I’ve especially been itching to get back today.  I also appreciated your support on my moderation plan, I’m pretty excited about it.

This morning before the slaughter final I ate a Hazelnut Bumble Bar for breakfast.

Then THREE HOURS LATER I was freeeeeeeee!  I actually have an Anthropology final next week but it’s pretty low-key so I’m letting the whimsy overtake me.

Adam and I had errands to run this afternoon so lunch was the soul-soother that is Wegman’s salad bar.

I had a little bit of broccoli,

some amazingly delicious roasted eggplant and squash (I almost went back to purchase more of this!),

Channa Masala,

and a half piece of Naan.

Lunch was fantastic, and our grocery shopping went pretty well too.  We purchased a bunch of fun things this week that I’m excited to blog about.  For example, Simply Lemonade Raspberry.

I generally try not to drink a lot of juice (although I’ve actually been trying to up my intake of calcium+vitamin d oj) but the Simply line is so perfect that I make an exception.  The lack of sugar overload is so refreshing.  I enjoyed a glass (8oz) during this post.

Mmmn, pink!

In spite of all our good finds, we had to make another stop on the way home to purchase our poultry.

I’d been having some misgivings about our Wegman’s chicken – skinless, boneless, breasts – for a while and after Adam watched the entire Earthlings movie last week he was easily convinced that we needed to step up our ethical purchasing power.  While I have no moral qualms consuming poultry (I’ll never eat pork or beef, i.e. mammals), I do take issue with not treating the chickens, whose lives we take, with respect.  From now on we’ll be purchasing our meat from the local co-op.  It costs a bit more, but I’m more concerned with the cost to my karma right now.

Free Bird.  Vegetarian fed, humanely raised, no growth hormones used.  Check, check, check.

To my omnivore readers – what kind of meat do you purchase?  What guides your choice money, morals, apathy, or a mix of all three?

And another thing – After reading some negative blog posts about product reviews (a whole ‘nother story) I got to thinking.  I occasionally review a sample or two that a company sends, but I’ve pretty much stopped reviewing the products I’ve purchased.  But I’m excited about food, and I feel like I have good great taste.  So for now on I will at least try to link to the website of products that I’ve purchased that I think are exceptional.

A Day That Wasn’t

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I accomplished less than nothing today.  Seriously.  And I seriously don’t want to talk about it.  😦 Boo, let’s just get to the food.

This morning I used the amazingness that is Thai young coconut,

to make this amazingness.

The world’s simplest, simply amazing smoothie contained the flesh and juice of one coconut, a big shake of cinnamon-sugar, and 1/2t xanthan gum (which still was a bit too much gum).  So simple and too tasty.

Dinner was courtesy of Wegman’s salad bar.  My one and only accomplishment today was getting the grocery shopping done.

Wok cooked veggies and blanched broccoli,

and amazingly delicious eggplant.

This is quickly becoming my favorite veggie!  I normally would stick to a smaller serving of something that looked fried, but Wegmans is becoming very nyc-ish and they had the nutritional info posted next to the dish – 140calories for 1cup.

Sorry to be in such an anti-stellar mood.  Hopefully a good night of sleep will set me right.

Do you ever have any days that aren’t?

P.S. I used the word “amazing” 4 times in that short post.  Who was an English major?!?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

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Don’t get too excited, no fairy tales here!  The title comes from our movie choice for the evening, I’m not feeling that creative.

I wasn’t feeling all that creative with dinner either, I almost exactly followed the recipe.  “The recipe” was from Cooking Light, Sausage-Fennel Subs.  My teeny changes were –

  • substituted 1T evoo for cooking spray
  • added ~1/2cup red bell peppers
  • skipped the garlic (we really ought to buy garlic again, it’s in pretty much everything)
  • used only 1 slice (per sandwich) of 2% provolone

I also added double the amount of sausage but that was unintentional, we have a lot of leftovers.  Thank goodness it was tasty!

As planned, after dinner we headed to Dolci for dessert.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting 😦  Although Adam did come home with a box of cookies.

Undeterred, we headed down Elmwood until we accosted a family with ice-cream cones and found out where they got them.  Delish it was!

Awesome, awesome idea – check out this flavor list of locally made ice-creams:

Oh yeah!  I chose salted caramel and was not disappointed.

We ooohed and ahhhed over our ice-cream and drove around doing some apartment hunting before we headed home to the Dwarves.  I ate a huge bowl of popcorn that somehow escaped the camera.

No cheating on wikipedia – can you name all seven of the dwarves??

One-a-Day, Fun-a-Day

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I couldn’t manage to make this a three-post sort of day, but it was a lot of fun!  Tomorrow and Monday are going to be all about Anthro so I’m glad I squeezed some joy in today.

When I woke up this morning I was so hungry I was actually a little angry about it!  Sometimes when I’m so hungry I feel like I could eat a horse I end up not eating anything at all because it seems like no matter what I try I’ll still be hungry!!!  Plus I knew I had a fun lunch date to look forward to 😉

Katie and I have been planning a trip to the hot bar at the Lexington Co-op for months.  The co-op only has outside seating and it was 45* outside today but that wasn’t going to stop us, we just bundled up!

And ordered hot coffee (with skim milk).

Foodwise I went with a bunch of fun tastes.

Stuffed grape leaves and some massaged kale,

An amazing falafel – it tasted like it was baked instead of fried and the outside was super thick and crunchy,

curried chicken salad, and chicken salad with almonds and grapes,

and some Thai cucumber salad with peanuts.

Yumtastic!  I adore meals where I get a bunch of different tastes, I find I feel much more satisfied.

Afterward I picked up some fun bargains at the co-op, as well as dessert.

That peanut butter swirl brownie was literally gone in less than 2minutes!

Later in the afternoon the husband and I headed to the movie theatre to see Kick Ass.  The movie was pretty kick ass (hehe) but holy moley was there a lot of explicit language and violence!

I too felt like a superhero when I got tonight’s dinner on the table.

The bacon fettuccine alfredo was almost tastier leftover than it was the first night.

And for our veggies I made the world’s best dish from yesterday’s lunch: kale and eggplant with worchestire and marinara; I left out the okra because the husband thinks it looks like spider eggs!

The pasta and the veggies ended up working together perfectly.

Dinner was a definite success.

However, a few hours later (now) I did end up feeling some hunger.  I knew I was heading to bed soon and didn’t want something heavy so I decided to try the packet of chocolate whey protein I picked up.

Shaken with 8oz of skim milk.

Meh?  It wasn’t bad, but I feel like there are a lot more exciting (natural?) sources of protein.  That’s not to say I wouldn’t try another variety though.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend thus far, enjoy your Sundays!

What is your feeling on protein powders?  Any recommendations (or warnings) for me?

Taming the Beast

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Sorry for the late post, I had 8am lab and my day ended up galloping off from there!  I was hoping my extreme hunger was a yesterday thing, but it ended up following me into today as well; I felt like I was trying to tame the beast!

We had a hard quiz this morning (the first of the semester I don’t think I got a 100% on, boo) so I started my day with some brain food in the form of a green monster.

1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup calcium/vitamin d oj + 1 frozen banana = tasty, healthy perfection!  I’m glad I experimented for the husband’s sake, but you just cannot improve on this recipe.

Normally GMs leave me satisfied until lunch, but today the beast was howling by the time I finished with lab around 11:30.  I knew I wasn’t going to make it at the gym without food so I fueled up at the mini cafe next to my class.

A cup of fruit salad and some Silk Soy Chocolate Milk.

Ready to go; I’ve got to give the snack a little credit for the fact that I had another great swim work out.  As promised – because I love you guys! – here’s a picture of me in all my dorky glory in my swim cap:

Actually, a lady walked by right as I took this picture so I had to explain to her why I was taking photographs in the ladies’ locker room.  She ended up giving me some great swimming tips and encouragement.  Although I’m still a little jealous of Meghann’s locker room social scene.

In the pool I did 32 laps (75ft each) in 28minutes.  The husband walked into the pool area in time for my last loop so I tried to haul ass; I could feel my heart pounding by the time I was done! 

We had to run some errands on the way home and Adam decided we were going to lunch.  He didn’t consult me and I had pool water dripping down my back but I’m still not complaining!  You’ll never guess the location he chose 😀

Yes, we went back to Cozumel again; yes, I did major damage to the chips.

I told you the menu is expansive, I tried yet another new item!  Veggie Chimis –

Nachos aside, I never order stuff like this and I quickly remembered why.  Unless we are talking  french fries I don’t like things that are fried, give me roasted or raw any day!  Thankfully it wasn’t all that greasy and the cheese was fairly under control.  Plus it was stuffed with mushrooms, zucchini, and summer squash.

I didn’t even taste my rice, who would want more carbs as a side with this?

My hunger was only temporarily quelled though, and a few hours later I was ready for more.  The husband I continued our fancy-free attitude and took a walk to Sweet Tooth.

I went with a small ice-cream which beyond hit the spot.

Cookies and cream with raspberry white chocolate swirl.  Holy yum!

I’m sure you’re shocked that I was still hungry for dinner a few hours later 😉  On the menu was this recipe for Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Jalapeno Salsa.  Two thumbs up!  If nothing else, I highly recommend making the salsa.

Here’s my plate:

I had a small piece of chicken,

with a side of roasted veggies drizzled in leftover glaze.

The glaze was awesome but I still could only choke down half of my veggies; I just did not like these!  The husband thought they tasted off too, we ended up throwing the rest of them out.

I was a little too fancy-free with the husband today and I’ve got a TON of work to do by the end of the week so I’ve got to run.

Do you like fried food?  How often do you eat it?  Other than nachos and french fries, yum, I genuinely don’t enjoy fried foods.  Although I do like typically fried foods if they’ve been baked (i.e. chicken nuggets).

Shaken, Not Stirred

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I didn’t get as much done this morning as I could have hoped, but it was certainly an improvement on my track-record of late.  I have my final Chemistry quiz (and lab!) tomorrow, for which I began studying making up reading for at the oh-so-responsible hour of 10:00 this morning.

My breakfast wasn’t really big enough so I did some snacking while I studied.  Half a package of chocolate covered espresso beans; I can’t believe how long I’ve had these sitting in my cabinet.  [My camera ate the photo, but if you click the link there is an original picture of them there]

As well as some homemade trail mix;

1/2 cup Kashi H2H, 1/6cup dried cranberries, 1T cinnamon chips.  I liked this combination a lot.  I always make my own trail mixes because they tend to be healthier than store-bought, but I end up putting so many healthy items in that the serving size becomes unhealthy.  Today’s mix had ~200calories and still managed to interest my taste buds.  Sometimes simplicity is better.

I worked on my lab-work all morning then threw some veggies in the oven while I took a much needed shower.  I emerged much cleaner, and quite excited about my roasted veggie salad lunch.

Romaine lettuce base topped with roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and yellow squash.

I roasted extra veggies so I could put some pre-made in the fridge for the rest of the week.

I ‘made’ extra of my salad dressing as well.  I was in the mood for blue cheese but I’m not one of those bloggers who like my lettuce dry; I knew I would need to spread my dressing further in order to get enough of it.  So for two servings (today and tomorrow) I shook together 2T blue cheese dressing with 2T vinegar.

Whenever Adam and I finish a jar, canister, or what-have-you we always wash it out and save it to be reused.  It is a convenient way to be green, and save some $.

Speaking of saving money, I can tell this is going to be a snacky day so I thought ahead this time and threw some snacks into my purse already.  I’m heading to campus to pick up the husband before Anthropology and Chemistry, I’ll let you know what I ended up snacking on when I get back for dinner.

Does your family reuse containers or do you just trash them?

One-Pot Wonder

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I am so sorry to rush through this post but the husband is working at the hospital tonight and I know if I want to get any work done at all I need to tear myself away from the computer immediately!

The morning was spent at an open house at Buffalo State.  None of the breakfast options really appealed to me but I did snag a big plate of fresh fruit.

When we got home the husband made himself a plate of green tuna enchilladas (and smushed it all up with his fork) which he then decided he didn’t want, so I ate them for my lunch.

This was the last of the leftovers and they will be missed, definitely a keeper recipe.

However, my mouth was on fire (our green salsa was a bit too spicy)!  I was so hot I finally pulled this box out of the freezer –

These ice pops traveled with us from Brooklyn to Buffalo unopened!  I tried the Dr. Pepper one today,

and I don’t know what I was waiting for; it was sweet and mouth-cooling all for 35calories.

While grocery shopping I tried a small bread + cheese sample,

and when we got home I opened up a Dannon Light and Fit Apple Pie Yogurt.

There was some major artificial sugar taste but the strong cinnamon and huge pieces of apple pretty much made up for it.  Plus anything with a SunButter spoon is good!

I also ate a small bowl of popcorn while we watched the 100th episode of Bones.

Anyone else a Bones addict?  What’d you think?????

Dinner was this recipe from “Rachael Ray Magazine” – Chicken Chutney One-Pot.

My changes; based on Adam’s tastes and our pantry –

  • we only used 1lb of skinless boneless chicken breast
  • 1T (vs. 2T) evoo
  • 1potato subbed in for the apple
  • skipped the ginger
  • skipped the cumin

I did serve the dish with some crusty bread though, smeared with roasted garlic.

I followed Ms. How Sweet’s garlic technique, she’s kind of a culinary genius.

And a side of roasted green beans.

Made for a very tasty dinner.

I will probably do a bit of snacking while I (hopefully) study this evening, I’ll update later if so.  Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

Do you read any food magazines?  I’m subscribed to Cooking Light and Rachael Ray, but I love to pick up Bon Apetit too whenever I can.

*****Updated – Unless eating ice-cream on the couch counts as tedious, I didn’t get a lot of work done last night.  I’m sure I’ll find other means of distractrion, but I’m taking the computer out of the equation for today; see you again Monday!