I’m a Chickpea Kind of Chick

I did go to the Spot as planned, but first I had a few other things on the agenda.  Like eat a lemon poppyseed cookie –

And do the quickest gym trip ever: 11minutes (1.14miles) on the treadmill followed by 10minutes of strength training.  I was on a tight schedule and I didn’t want to do much anyways because I’ve got the strangest interval session ever planned for tomorrow morning.

My study session went very well, and while I was there I ended up accidentally ordering a FEAST.

The diet coke was obvious, but the roasted red pepper hummus sounded tasty so I ordered that as well.  I had no idea it was going to be so big!

I ate 3 breadsticks and ~2-3T of hummus, thankfully Adam showed up later to finish off the rest.

I enjoyed a cara cara orange when I got home,

and then I made a delicious dinner, officially checking off all my to-do’s for today, yay!  We had the 2nd half of this box of falafel mix to use up,

but this time we fried the falafels.  Which was hella fun because it meant we got to use our tongs for the first time.

Frying produced such better results than when we baked them.  Our side dish was delicious too, against all odds.  I made Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas, and Olives from Cooking Light, but I realized to late that my olives were not pitted.  I went ahead with the dish, sans olives, but I cooked it for about twice as long as the recipe recommended.

All total dinner was a raging success!

Pretty good for a Monday 🙂

What is your favorite way to eat chick peas? I like falafel the best, then hummus, but I want to experiment more with roasted.  That method is taking blogworld by storm and I think if I slow-roast it could become a favorite.

Packed Snacks Save the Day

It’s been a great day of family fun.  Bowling was great; especially because we had the bumpers up so I scored more than a 40 for a change!

While at the alley I snacked on a Buddy Fruit pouch.

Mushed fruit pouches are kind of my favorite thing but I never buy them because of the packaging waste.  However, the road trip seemed like a good excuse and it was a nice treat.

I tried to eat this Chocolate Green Superfood bar.

Eeeeeeyuck!  I had a bite, and I regretted it, the flavor tasted way off to me.

Unfortunately the superfood bar had been my main plan for the evening and I was starving by the time we made it to dinner.  I had a slice of bread (x2).

I’m not 100% that this was vegan but I was starting to feel faint by the time we sat down.

For my meal I ordered a plain veggie wrap.

Another failure; the wrap was chunks of cold lettuce with cooked peppers, which I hate.  I demolished the fries but couldn’t even choke down half of the sandwich.

Thankfully I had a better back up plan for dinner.  I’ve been eyeing these Allergaroo packages for months and I was glad to have an excuse to buy one.

The nutritional stats were pretty impressive and the meal was super tasty and ready in under a minute.  It would be super easy to stir in some veggies to this too.

All total this was probably my hardest day of the vegan challenge.  I am still pretty hungry (starving actually) and will definitely do some snacking this evening.  We are heading home tomorrow so I’ve got to soak in some family time but I’ll do a snack recap in the morning.  Good night!

What “for kids” foods are you a fan of?  I kind of love them all 😉

Hello from Ohio

Howdy folks, happy Friday!  Sorry for such a late post, our internet has been going in and out intermittently and this morning it was finally just off.  We picked a great weekend to be at someone else’s house computerwise, right now I’m using my brother-in-law’s internet 🙂

It’s been kind of long crazy day.  I did manage to make it to the gym though.  Since dinner last night looked like this –

I ate a pack of Luna Sport Moons on the walk to the gym.

I then I did a quick 2miles (we were already running late) on the treadmill.  All total with warm up/cool down my stats were 2.3miles and 25minutes.  I was so happy to have gone but now my left leg hurts so badly.  I’m going to do a post soon talking about the running situation.

After a quick shower, and an even quicker packing session, we were on the road.  We got into Ohio right at dinner time so we met the family at a local restaurant.  I was so hungry I ate my fruit bowl before I even remembered to snap a picture.

Even though we were at an “American” style dinner (the rest of the family had bacon cheese potato skins and french onion soup) I managed to find a good vegan meal.

Roasted veggies with terriyaki sauce on garlic rice.  I demolished it.

My sil and niece actually had a small party to go to after dinner but my bil took Adam and I to pick up some movies and games.  We stopped at the grocery store for snacks and booze and I managed to pick up some produce as well.  I have a bag of snacks from homw though so I’m not too worried about the food situation.

As I write this I’m nibbling the other half of my vegan chocolate peanut butter rice krispie.

I might have a few snacks while we all hang out but I’ll do a recap in the morning.  I hope everyone’s week ended well!

What is your favorite diner order?  I order blintzes whenever I can, or a good tuna melt.  I’m also a big fan of handspun black and white milkshakes.

Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

Good evening everyone!  I feel exhausted and gross (still?!?!) so I’m keeping this quick in the hopes that I get to bed soon.  I always say that, it never happens, and still I keep on hoping.  It’d be like not clapping for fairies to admit I’m an “early to bed early to rise” loser.

Our grocery trip went well.  The communal coin jar was full and Coin-Starring it paid for our groceries 🙂

This afternoon Adam and did all sorts of healthy stuff like take a long nap and split this Jokerz bar (i.e. a vegan Snickers).

It was good but not great, I’m not sure why they went with mockolate instead of just dark chocolate, I had about 1/3.

For dinner I made Tomato, Dill, Lentil Soup from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.  It had a 60minute simmer time though so I had a small bowl of cereal while I waited.

1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch with plain, reduced fat soymilk.  Two notes here – 1. I know Kashi has honey in it; honey and gelatine are still on the menu here, even during the vegan challenge.  2. Always measure your cereal.  You guys know I am not any sort of dieter, but I always measure my cereal.  Many (healthy) varieties are still calorie dense and it is such an easy item to overeat.

Followed by a small serving (1/2cup) of the aforementioned soup.

I’m not gonna lie, I was saving myself for dessert.

Thank You AngelaTo Die For Cocoa, from Oh She Glows

·         Ingredients:

  •  
    • 3/4 cup coconut milk (full strength, not light!)
    • 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or any milk)  I used plain, fat free soy
    • 1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
    • Pinch of sea salt to bring out the sweetness
    • 3 tablespoons of maple syrup
    • marshmallows and cacao nibs/chocolate chips to garnish (optional)

Directions: Throw all ingredients into a pot and whisk like crazy. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for several minutes while whisking to remove clumps.

I poured it in one big mug but I’ll probably drink 1/2 – 3/4 and then put it in the fridge for the husband.  A perfect (super) sweet note to end the day! 

What do you do with your lose change?

Mini Explosions

I did not have another mimosa last night, but did make a decidedly Northern dessert.

Mmmn.  However, today was NOT feeling as romantic.  It seemed like everything I touched today exploded!  I was cleaning up messes and putting out (metaphorical) fires all over the place.

For starters I was running late for volunteering so I made my breakfast smoothie a bit smaller than usual.

1cup frozen mixed berries + 1cup plain fat free soy milk + 1T fat free sugar free jello powder.

It was super tasty, but I spilled 1/3 of it all over the counter 😦

I managed to clean up the mess and get to the hospital on time though.  And they actually had a lot for me to do at volunteering which was nice.  Not nice, was 30minutes after my shift when I was still there and I started panicking about getting home in time to make my important phone calls.  No worries though, it’s President’s Day, no one was open.  Boo 😦

And I was supposed to submit my college application today but since there was no one to help me override the system I have to wait until tomorrow to imput my Caribbean high school into the online form.  I did some major damage on this bag of chips during the whole 2hours of failure.

At least they were vegan!  Next I tried to recreate last night’s dessert, only to have it explode all over my microwave.

On the plus side, now my microwave is sparkling, and I put it to good use on a late lunch.

Tandoor Chef Vegetarian Pad Thai is seriously my favorite frozen meal of all time and it’s super awesome that it’s vegan too.  If you see it at your grocery store, buy it!

I had hoped to go to the gym today finally but I’m feeling just under the weather enough still that it seemed like a bad idea.  I would kill for a diet soda so maybe I’ll at least get in another walk (I walk to/from volunteering).  Other than that the plan is dinner and bed.  See you then.

Anything explode on you today?  I’m all ears if you want to gripe about it?

A Tropical Getaway

I may be stuck in Buffalo until spring break but tonight’s meal felt like a tropical getaway!  And what better day to celebrate the sunny Caribbean than a day that’s all about romantic getaways?!

Every single aspect of tonight’s meal was tropical and tasty.  We started with a Uniq fruit as our appetizer.

We have tried Ugli fruits before, but this was our first Unique.  It was a little too bitter/sour for me.  We each ate 2-3slices from the mound and the rest got packed away.

Dinner was much more successful.

Lime Ponzu broccoli with walnuts,

and my Coco Loco Tofu.

Everything together was delicious.

Coco Loco Tofu is my favorite tofu recipe, it is the perfect blend of savory and sweet.  For the side dish I sautéed a big bag of frozen brocoli in clementine olive oil, then added a few walnuts and some Kikoman Lime Ponzu Sauce.

The sauce came from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program and was the perfect addition to our Caribbean night.

Even our drinks were tropical!  We made hibiscus mimosas.

I’ve carried this hibiscus juice from Brooklyn and I was almost sad to open it.

For the mimosas we used a little extra oj because the champagne (from our wedding!) wasn’t cooled, with a splash of hibiscus juice.

Wonderful!

I’ve got to work on my lab before we head to bed, but I’ll probably be pouring a 2nd mimosa!  Have a great night lovers!

How did you celebrate Valentine’s today?

New and Exciting

Just before 2am last night I got completely caught up with all of my reading.  The sad thing is that I love the reading and find it really interesting so there is zero reason why I should have been behind in the first place!

In spite of sleep-deprevation I was pretty proud of my wardrobe choices, my outfit was actually inspired by a magazine article, something I never do (new).

I couldn’t get a good picture,

but you can see what I was going for.

My layers might have been a bit thick though, by the time I got my coat on I felt like the kid from A Christmas Story.

For breakfast I grabbed a biscuit with a little honey.

And I realized I was getting nothing done quickly at home so I grabbed some snacks and headed to school an hour early to study there.

I ate the Kind Bar during Chem at 5 and it was great but sadly the grapes when straight into the trash.  I’ve been hearing for years how amazing frozen grapes taste but they made me gag.

To make up for my (overall) lack of produce I snagged lunch from the cafeteria.

A garlic wrap with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, banana peppers, black olives, and a little bit of sesame dressing.

I saved the banana for Anthro, alongside a large skim latte.

I was planning on attending a review session for the exam after class but I was the only loser who showed up so I told them to cancel it, boo.  I got lots of work done on my own but the large coffee might have been a bad idea, I was literally shaking!  I grabbed a snack from the vending machine to eat in the car in the hopes of evening out.

Soooo glad I tried this, this was a new brand to me and these are literally the best chips I’ve ever tasted!  They were so tangy, and ridged like Ruffles but super thick.  Plus, the bag had less than 200calories (comparable sizes seem to be 300+).

After classes I came home, picked up the husband, and headed straight to the gym.  My new playlist helped me power through my workout; it was a great mix of old and new music with a good range of tempos.

40 minute playlist

  1. Wavin’ Flag – K’naan
  2. I Know You Want Me – Pitbull
  3. Whine Up – Kat DeLuna feat. Elephant Man
  4. Promiscuous – Nelly Furtado and Timberland
  5. What’s in the Middle – The Bird and the Bee
  6. This is Why I’m Hot – Mims
  7. Into the Ocean – Blue October
  8. Sugar, We’re Going Down – Fallout Boy
  9. Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
  10. TiK ToK – Ke$ha
  11. Swing – Savage and Soulja Boy

The plan was treadmill time but both my shins were killing me so I took several long walks to loosen them up.  In the end I did 52minutes, 4.5miles follwed by pt and some abs work.

Running killed my appettite, but I was hungry for ice-cream.  I tried a new product – Cyclops Strawberry Greek Style Frozen Yogurt,

in a (new) ice-cream bowl from my grandma.

I had a half cup (plus a little) serving.

This was delicious!  I loved the flavor although I wish it had been creamier, this was more like ice-cream than froyo.

In addition to taking a shower I also have to do my lab flow-chart for tomorrow morning before bed, gotta run!

Are you tired of the long, lame-o posts?  Here’s what’s coming up soon on Eatventures –

  • Wedding recap posts, complete with pictures
  • a 2week vegan challenge
  • a road trip to visit my in-laws
  • my first, untrained for, half marathon…
  • …and a trip to FL
  • as well as a trip home to St. Thomas

Better than Bonobo’s

Today has been another mish-mash day.  I feel like this whole week is going to be crazy until I take my tests next Thursday and Friday.  It doesn’t help that my insomnia is back in full-force: going to bed at 10:30 meant falling asleep past 2am and waking up after 10.   Unfortunately, I actually haven’t even really started studying yet because the whole day has been swamped with errands. 

Thankfully we did have time for a bit of fun during those errands.  Like getting a Valentine’s gift from my parents when we went to the post office.

And enjoying lunch from Wegman’s salad bar.

Veggies = steamed broccoli, squash, and mushroom.

Protein = a tiny bit each tofu, tandori chicken, and general tso’s chicken.

We enjoyed a treat post shopping, Green and Black Milk Chocolate Peanut Bar.

My parents have been raving about this ever since we gave my dad one for Christmas, it has carmelized peanuts and sea salt!  My portion-

My lunch was pretty small, especially since I didn’t have breakfast so I knew I needed a snack as well.  We turned this,

into this.

The world’s best smoothie contained the flesh and water from 1 young coconut, with 6oz of lowfat plain yogurt, half a tray of ice, a drizzle of honey, and a huge shake of cinnamon.

Mmmmn.  Seriously, people who want to try the coconut chai from Bonobo’s, make this!

The rest of the day is going to be some sort of mix of studying, cleaning, dinner and gym.  See ya later.

Coconut, love it or hate it?  I LOVE it!  I can’t think of a single application I don’t adore it in.