Tag Archives: veggies

May 10th – May 16th: Eat 2 Cups of Vegetables Each Day

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I’m challenging myself to eat a more healthy diet this month.  You can check this post for more information, but essentially I am turning to the USDA’s food pyramid for inspiration.  This week’s goal is to hit or surpass the daily recommended allowance of veggies.

Here is a chart from MyPyramid.gov with the recommended allowances –

Since I’m a woman in my 20s my goal will be to eat at least 2.5 cups of veggies each day this week.  The pyramid divides the veggie requirement into 4 subgroups – dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, dry beans and peas, and starchy vegetables – I’ll try to spread my consumption across all four groups.

Here are some examples of what “1cup” of means for the common veggies-

The website has good tips for including mores servings into your diet.  Just like last week with fruit, I’ll being give my own ideas for squeezing in vegetables as well.

[All images and facts in this post sourced from http://www.mypyramid.gov]

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

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It is soooooo windy here today!  I’m a little afraid that if I take a nap I’ll wake up exclaiming “we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto!”  Or maybe that’s just on my mind because the latest episode of “Bones” had a witch in red slippers 🙂

However,  as always, hunger > bad weather so we braved the gales and headed to the grocery store.  Our weekly salad bar trip is kind of my favorite date!

I didn’t eat breakfast so I really made lunch count!  A little bit of general tso chicken,

a big scoop of ginger eggplant (the same pretty healthy, super tasty stuff from last week),

a bit of broccoli,

and some delicious fresh fruit, i.e. mango, watermelon, and pineapple.

Yums!  It made perfect fuel for sale scouring.  I also had a few undocumented samples.

Now we are going to follow the yellow brick road on down to the movie theater.  Hope everyone else is having a great Saturday!

Fruit eaten so far today: ~1.5cups

*****Updated to add –

Everything I didn this weekend seemed to be very picture unfriendly – dark movie theatres, bars, etc – so I decided to spare you the bad pictures and start fresh on Monday.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Like Swallowing Barbed Wire

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This is my final post.  It’s likely Adam and I will both be dead by morning.  You’ll see……  Also, I’m keeping this quick because I’m blogging mid-couch time.

For the husband’s main course I made him something fabulous looking out of leftovers – chicken, bacon, condensed mushroom soup, broccoli.

I also baked up the last three slices of bacon for myself.

It was the protein of my dinner!

For Adam’s side and my main course our plan was to try something new – baby artichoke hearts.

They took forever to make, because we peeled them, and cut off the thorny tips, and cut out the fuzzy thistle.  While we worked I got in my fruits for the day –

1 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen blackberries, 1cup calcium + vitamin d oj, and 1t xanthan gum all went into the blender for a fantastically purple smoothie.

And much, much, much later dinner came out of the oven.

Roasted artichokes and potatoes with evoo and salt.

Great sounding concept right?  We loosely followed a recipe from Cooking Light, very closely following the artichoke instructions.  Not so much.  The potatoes were fantastic but the artichoke hearts were difficult to choke down.  I abandoned my plate halfway through, although I did eat another 2 servings of potato.

Now the husband and I are both clutching our stomachs in pain.   😦  We are going to cuddle and cry on the couch until bedtime.  A big bowl of popcorn will probably be involved as well, because I’m still hungry and because I feel like my stomach wants me to scrape it out.

Have you ever cooked baby artichokes?  What on earth did we do wrong?

Fruit eaten today: 2.5cups

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming

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Most of my laziness comes from my perfectionism.  Does that not make sense to you?  I get so obsessed with everything being “just so” that I have a hard time tackling projects if things are not perfect.  Which makes no sense at all!  Think people who are waiting until Monday to start their diet.  They’d be better off eating a bit more healthfully on not-the-start-of-a-new-week-Thursday than waiting until Monday’s magical fresh startiness and bingeing in the meantime.

It’s sort of like what happened to my studies this year.  I’d tell myself I’d be cracking down on the 20th of the month, and I’d have a glorious time fooling around until then.  Then the 20th would come and I’d oversleep, or fight with the husband, or waste too much time online and things wouldn’t be “perfect” anymore.  So I’d tell myself I’d be cracking down on the 25th (I have a thing with 0/5#s) and the cycle would begin again.

I’ve always known this was a terrible personality trait.  But recently I’ve really, really worked at changing, and it feels great!  For example, I probably could have gotten a 100% on my Anthro final, easily.  But I screwed around all week (and took care of some pressing but secret to-dos!) and didn’t study.  Last night I was so disgusted with myself I told the husband I just wanted to forget about it and watch Buffy all evening.  Instead, he offered to study a bit with me and we reviewed my old tests.

And you know what?  I’m pretty sure I got an A on my final today!  It’s not the 100% I could have earned, but an A is pretty darn good, and it’s a lot better than what I would have gotten had I not tried at all.

A similar thing happened with my workout.  Through a series of stupidity, I didn’t eat breakfast, couldn’t purchase food on campus, and was stuck in the library without food waiting for the gym to open.  By the time I got to the pool I was starving and I kind of wanted to just throw in the towel.  But I knew it was my last chance to get a swim workout so I tried to make the best of it.

In the end I did 40 lengths in 35minutes – a fabulous workout!  I pushed myself really hard and it felt amazing.

Around 3:30 I did finally get some food!  Since we studied yesterday, today we celebrated Seis de Mayo!

I know, why is he with me?  Getting dressed straight from the pool leaves me a bit ragged around the edges.  What better spot for a Mexican celebration than Cozumel?  Cheers!

I got a sweet margarita.

Chips!

I hadn’t eaten all day and I was a bit drunk so there was some concern that I would dive headfirst into the basket.  Instead, after a couple of bites I portioned out a serving onto a separate plate.

I took the same strategy with the chips I stole from Adam.

And for my meal I ordered the California Quesadilla.

WW tortilla with roasted red pepper, grilled eggplant, and goat cheese?  Yes please!

I ended up eating half of my meal and sharing the rest with the husband, the margarita was pretty filling.

I had a great time with the husband and it felt wonderful to celebrate the end of my time at UB.  Now I have one month before I start summer classes at BSC.  Although now I have a more current goal – eat some fruit today!

Do you ever find yourself putting things off until the timing feels “perfect?” 

Ah-Mazing!

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Every single thing I’ve eaten this evening has been amazing!!!  I feel like all I’ve done the last hour is “Mmmn” and “Ahh!”

First off, dinner.

Asparagus cooked in clementine oil.  I poured the oil in a skillet over medium high heat, added the asparagus and put a lid on it.  10minutes later the asparagus was perfectly steamed and charred.

Along side bacon, ranch, and chicken mac and cheese.

No words.

The Bacon, Ranch, and Chicken Mac and Cheese was a recipe from Cooking Light.  My changes –

  • subbed in 4 slices of 99% lean turkey bacon
  • added 1T of butter, and a bit more flour as well
  • skipped the dill and the salt

Next time I think I would substitute sharp cheddar in as well, I like my cheese with a little more bite.

After dinner I realized I hadn’t hit my daily fruit goal.  So I opened the gates to heaven with the world’s best dessert.

Stonyfield Fat Free Chocolate Underground Yogurt with 1/2 a banana and 1/2cup raspberries.  The “cherry” on top?

Biscoff spoon!  I’m not sure I could be much more contented.

Eat More Fruit Tip # 4 – I’m not going to recommend eating fruit for dessert (how sad!), but fruit can be delicious incorporated into dessert.  Fresh berries on ice-cream, a banana spread with Nutella, the sky’s the limit.

We have Buffy watching on the agenda and an early bedtime.  I realized that I’ve yet to study for my Anthro final on Thursday, whoops!  So I guess that’s the plan for tomorrow.

What’s your favorite kind of mac and cheese?  It’s not something I would eat all the time, but West Indian style mac and cheese tops anything I’ve ever had stateside.  It’s not runny at all and it has a super thick crust baked on top.  Some of my favorite childhood memories involve getting mac and cheese from the grocery store deli and eating it in the car on the way home.

Fruit eaten today:  2cups

Can’t Top This

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I didn’t eat any more fruit today, which was fine because I was already 1cup over my goal.  However, I did get in some veggies, in the form of ……. pizza!

I ate this slice x2.

Adam and I went over to a friend’s house for an impromptu movie night and the 4 of us ended up splitting a veggie – onions, black olives, green olives, banana pepper, jalapeno – pizza.

We just got home (10:30) and I still have to shower so I’ll keep this short and sweet.  I’ll try to be in bed shortly and I hope all my readers have sweet dreams!

What is your favorite pizza topping?  Mine are green olives and pineapple.

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.