Tag Archives: yam

Double Sushi Day

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Hello from yesterday!  I had a good evening (mostly) but didn’t get a chance to post until today.  My clinic hours went well; it is always great to get a chance to talk with professionals in my field.  The RD I was with yesterday owns her own private practice and she had lots of great advice.  She also helped talk me down a bit about next summer’s certification exam.

As I headed out the door around 4 pm yesterday I was so hungry I thought I might have a fit.  I knew we had plans to grab an early dinner before the health fair but I also knew that I might drive off the road if I didn’t get something to eat.  I ended up taking a Mint Chocolate Chip Luna Protein bar from the cabinet.

Yuck City!  This is the 2nd flavor I’ve tried from that line and both bars had an awful “fake protein” taste to them.  I love Luna but I think I’ll stick to their normal line.  I was so hungry that I did eat the whole thing though.

I was glad that I choked down the bar because dinner ended up being pretty lame.  We stopped at Wegmans for hot bar but there wasn’t much time and I panicked and grabbed my 2nd serving of sushi for the day.  A Thai sweet potato roll with brown rice.

With a (half decaf) coffee with skim milk and two sugars.

While we were at the health fair another RD who was doing a cooking demo brought me over a small plate of her black bean dip.

It was good and our table was nicely situated to watch her work.  She does the cooking classes at Tops Grocery, a job I would love to have some day.

The health fair wrapped at 9pm and as I was driving home I felt like I was going to burst out of the seatbelt because my stomach was so full.  I had to drive home to pick up Adam and then we ran to the store for a quick errand (he accidentally took my cottage cheese container for lunch instead of his leftovers!) and by the time we were home for good I was practically in tears.  I don’t know whether it was the protein bar, the decaf coffee, or the double dose of sushi rice but my stomach was super bloated and painful.  Ugh!  I felt so sick that I brushed my teeth and then jumped straight into bed.

Thankfully today I’m feeling good.  I even started my morning with a run.  1.2 miles in ~12 minutes.  I left my keys with the husband so I only had time for one loop but then I went back and grabbed the dog for a quick walk.  Followed by a short session of strength and stretch moves.  I’m hungry!

Weekend Woot-dates

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Did everyone have a good weekend?  I didn’t get much work done, but the food and fun categories were filled to the brim!  We are starting another take-out reduction challenge and we definitely made the most of purchased meals this weekend 😉

Saturday morning I got up and went for a run!

The gym wasn’t open yet so I did my CT10k workout out in the wild at Delaware Park.  I forgot my watch at home and ended up having to count to 150 in my head as I switched from walking to running intervals.  I’m not sure how accurate I was but it was a great way to keep my thoughts occupied.  All total I did 4 miles in 53 minutes.  The wind was out of control and it ended up being a resistance workout of sorts; it was actually super fun to keep pushing through.

I drank the 2nd half of my G2 during my run.

And then I had a big iced coffee with English toffee syrup and Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk in the car.

In the car because we were heading to Toronto!

Last month I promised Adam all-you-can-eat sushi as a reward for participating in vegan month.  We failed at vegan month (recap post to come), but I figured he still deserved his reward for trying, especially since our fails were mostly due to my fat/laziness and not his lack of committment.  My parents sent us $ for Valentine’s that perfectly covered the cost of our fun international date, so off we went.

Lunch was delicious, way too many bites to even attempt to recap.  Adam and I did a lot of sharing, but the spread below shows everything I at least tasted.  Adam had many, many, other bites that I didn’t photograph.

Yum!  I’m still a little stuffed just thinking about it.  But we did find room for dessert.

Thank goodness, because this was actually the best cup of froyo I’ve ever had.  I thought I was going to die from a happiness overload.

A small serving of tart plain yogurt topped with fruit, sprinkles, and a huuuuuuge pile of popping boba.

I was grinning wider and wider with every bite.

After our drive home and an extreme shopping session at Wegmans, I did end up with room for a late dinner.

On that plate was a buffalo chicken sub with blue cheese and an order of fries.  Devoured.

Sunday has been spent on the couch.  Adam is starting a new project this week, in addition to the general being a med student craziness, and we took full advantage of today’s free hours for cuddling and sci-fi.

I did venture outside for brunch though.  My old friend Katie was back in town for a visit!

That sort of fun calls for a Bloody Mary, extra spicy.

Finding a Sunday brunch spot without a 45 minute wait took some doing, but we ended up having a great meal at Panos.

I got the kid’s meal 1-1-1.  A sunny side up egg, a pancake, and hash browns.  Then I smothered everything in syrup.

Every bite was delicious and I seriously considered licking my plate clean!

During the afternoon I ate a bowl of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2-Ingredient Ice Cream.

x2.  That stuff is ridiculous good.

Adam had an evening meeting so I pushed back our dinner plans and ordered Chinese.  Told you I was taking advantage of my last days with take-out!  Once our food gets here we are watching our last ever episode of Stargate: Universe and eating crab rangoons.  Yippee!

Are you a sci-fi tv fan?  Did you watch any of the Stargates?

Take Me Out To The Crowd

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We were lateto bed last night and now I’m late to blog.  An 8:00pm grocery trip required a stop at Starbucks for soy frappuccinos.

Starbucks only caries vanilla soy milk which is annoying at times, but did make drink taste like it was fancy and vanilla flavored.

I did eat dinner last night, but I didn’t blog because I was deep in Firefly Lane for tonight’s book club.  I had a great salad to start.

Romaine lettuce topped with ~ 2 Tbsp each buckwheat groats, peanuts, raisins, and Wegman’s Thai Peanut Sauce.

The Wegman’s peanut sauce was great.

Not quite as good as mine, but nicely flavored and with only 25 calories per Tbsp.

And the husband helped me out and roasted up plate of vegetables too.

Half a sweet potato and a bunch of okra, both dipped in ketchup.

And the book?

Finished.  Start to finish in one evening, all 479 pages of it.

I think I made a mistake reading The Help in one sitting because now my friends don’t get the book club books to me more than a day or two ahead of time!  But Firefly Lane was a story I’d want to read straight through anyway.

We had a late start this morning and basically slept through breakfast.  I did have this handful of pretzels when I got up though.

And we went straight-up fancy for lunch.  Roasted asparagus,

and three pieces of Ballpark Tofu.

Another recipe page that needed updating.  Check it out if you like tofu, mustard, pretzels, or any combination of the above.

I also made a pie.

But you’ll have to wait until after book club for the recipe.  I know I could have typed it up this afternoon, but when there’s a new Ryan Reynolds movie in town you get your butt to the theatre.  Particularly when Denzel Washington is going to be staring too.

“Safehouse” was not great, but definitely good.  And let’s be honest, I’d watch practically anything if it meant splitting Five Guys fries with Adam as a movie snack.

Definitely good.

Have you read Firefly Lane?  Did you see “Safehouse” yet?  Thoughts?

Day Of Work

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After two very (very, very, very) lazy days, it was time for a day of work. This Sunday was all about getting things done. I –

  • put away two loads of laundry
  • did some dishes
  • ran some errands
  • organized my school binder
  • made all of my note cards from last week’s notes
  • did a case study for clinical practice
  • made a delicious dinner

Breakfast was worth a thumbs up too.

I stirred a Liberte Coconut Yogurt into a big scoop of 1% large curd cottage cheese, topped with shredded sweetened coconut.

The coconut flavor was nice, but the resulting texture was mind-blowing. Too creamy for words.

In between errands and school work was lunch.

I picked up a grab bag-style to-go container from the Co-op.

A salad of yam, corn, and black beans; cilantro tofu; peanut tofu with lots of broccoli; and a little bit of vegan pasta salad.

We took Webster with us on our walking errands and his little sweater was so becoming!

He’s still not 100% down with snow, and shivers like a total wimp.  I tease him mercilessly, telling him that his ancestors in Germany only used to hunt badgers in a climate-controlled living room.

While we were out I found a new M&M variety – Dark Chocolate Mint!

Delish.  These had just the right level of chill to them.

Sometime between the lunch and dinner hours we had salads.

Romaine with chopped cucumbers and a dressing made of the remains of the yogurt Caesar shaken with evoo and cider vinegar.

Dinner was a real winner.

For 4 servings of creamy, cheesy, buttery, vegetarian yet protein-rich pasta, combine –

  • ~ 4 servings of small shape pasta, cooked
  • ~ 1.5 cups peas
  • 2 pint mushrooms sautéed with chopped green onion and 5 Tbsp butter
  • 4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 12 oz 0% Plain Fage

So much yum! I didn’t tell the husband that there was plain Greek yogurt (which he thinks he hates) in the pasta and I didn’t hear any complaints. I think pasta with peas and cheese might be our favorite dish.

I’ve got to get back to work; I’m going to hit with week with running start!

Which flavors of M&M’s have you gotten to try?  I think I’ve had them all – regular, peanut, almond, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, cinnamon, and coconut – the only flavor I missed with strawberry pb which I never found despite hours of searching!

I Spoke Too Soon

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My teeth may hurt, but not eating dinner just wasn’t going to fly.  I drove my friend home just after 8 and realized that not only was I hungry, I was probably going to cry if I didn’t get food immediately.  So to Wegman’s hot bar I went.

At least I stuck with soft things.  Cooked sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash, plus green beans almondine.

One of the veggies (potatoes, I think) had a thick, sweet sauce that leaked over everything and tied the whole plate together.  Yum.

Sweet potato, butternut squash, pumpkin, or carrots; what’s your favorite orange veggie?

Shoulda Known, Part II

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I should have known that the puppy would be a bad influence.

A sleeping Webster on the couch meant I read blogs until Adam came home instead of studying.

I should have known that the gym is always the best stress reliever.  I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical and all my test worries just slipped away.

I should have known to give Adam better instructions.

He didn’t have to go in until a bit later today so I left him instructions for putting dinner in the crock pot.  The recipe called for 3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter which we didn’t have.  We did have chunky peanut butter (which I thought he’d use) and honey peanut butter (which he actually used).  I gave him some serious grief this afternoon, but …

I should have known that the husband is always right.

The soup was delicious.  We made the African Peanut Stew from Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.  We skipped some of the spices, used honey pb, and only used half of the chicken the recipe called for.  It ended up being delicious.  Plus asparagus.

It was a good dinner.  And I even had dessert.

I should have known that I’d end up eating even more calories than I burned.

I’ve been eyeing these M&M blondies ever since the semester started and when I spotted one in the bookstore on the way home from the gym I just had to get it.

I should have known that “She’s Out of My League” would be funny and cute.  My ratios of watching to studying aren’t quite where I’d planned!

Goats In The Grass

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So that turtle sundae was about as amazing as an afternoon snack gets.  My finger scooped several more tastes of the coffee caramel throughout the afternoon!

Thankfully I was looking forward to dinner, in large part due to my most recent co-op discoveries.

First, a maple yogurt from Maple Hill Creamery, made with organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

I so wanted to love this.  This was my first time trying any dairy product sourced from 100% grass-fed cows.  To give you some short background info, grass-feed cows provide different nutrient content (via meat and milk) than their “traditionally” fed counterparts.  Eating polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as omega-3 and omega-6) is essential for a healthy diet, but the ratio of those PUFAs is important as well.  The typical Western diet has a greater ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s and does not fall within the healthy range of the 1:1 – 1:4 ratios.  Milk from grass-fed cows provides a healthier 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.  Plus, Maple Hills Creamery is a NY company with great business practices that I’d love to support. 

However, I just didn’t enjoy this!  I want to try MHC again and I definitely want to try 100% grass-fed dairy again, but I just don’t enjoy flavored non-Greek yogurt that much.  The flavor of this was way to sour for me, no sweetness or maple flavor at all.

Once I realized that I couldn’t eat more than a bite of my yogurt – and more than a bite of 50% of my dinner calories – I ended up stealing from Adam’s packed lunches.

I know that doesn’t look very fancy but I promise it was good.  The husband threw chicken breast, carrots, and sweet potatoes into the crock pot and cooked until delicious.  Then topped the final dish with a healthy dose of A-1 Steak Sauce.

I ended up going back after a few bites for a dollop of sour cream to balance out the A-1, but overall I loved this.  The melded flavors of the sweet potato and chicken were amazing.

The second half of dinner was the real winner though.  Cue my new favorite salad.

A romaine base, topped with 1 Tbsp of Catalina dressing, craisins, groats, and goat cheese.

Can we talk about the goat cheese?  This was the co-op purchase that panned out.

A Double Cream Chevre from First Light Farm and Creamery.  A local business with sustainable business practices, and the producers of the best flipping goat cheese I’ve ever eaten!  I was dying eating my salad.

This was so creamy and rich!  Locals – buy some asap!

Fillo Me Up

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When Adam got home at 3 o’clock (two hours late, I might add) we realized that neither of us and had eaten all day and we were both starving.  Waiting for dinner wasn’t an option because of our stomachs, eating at home wasn’t at options because of our pantry, and grabbing food close by wasn’t an option because we’re growing tired of Elmwood take-out.  To the internets!

I found a Groupon for Mississippi Mudds that we could buy and use this afternoon so we headed out.

The food was cheap and sounded good so we were excited to try something new.

Adam and I got a spread to share and headed to the roof for a meal with a view.

Problem # 1 – The complete and total bee infestation at Mississippi Mudds scared us back inside in a matter of minutes.  Problem # 2 – The food was freaking bad.

I ordered the seafood salad sandwich.

I knew that there was a chance of the fake crab mix but this was basically egg salad!  I ate about 1/3 before giving up.  Plus, even with my small serving I was left completely nauseous which means I’m probably sensitive to one of the preservatives in the fake crab mixture.  <– yet another reason it’s better to eat whole foods

Adam and I also split the sweet potato fries with honey and butter (on the side).

I imagine it’s hard to produce a product that is both undercooked and burnt but they managed.  The fries were cold too, which was pretty much the final straw for us.  We’d give Mississippi Mudds a 1.5/10; the only positive was that we used a Groupon so we only had to pay 50%.

So in spite of our efforts to branch out, the bulk of lunch ended up coming from our old standby.  Wegman’s hot bar can basically do no wrong.  I got a broccoli mixture and a cauliflower mixture, plus some apple cider sweet and sour chicken.

Still cheap, but now healthy and delicious!

I have a less busy weekend with time for school work so I spent my afternoon watching tv instead of studying.  I’m typically not an emotional eater (I eat junk because it makes me happy, not because I’m sad) but I will admit that the full glass of Arnold Palmer the dog spilled on the couch did push me towards the this mint chocolate chip swirl cupcake.

I ate the top half of the cake with icing, because that’s the good part anyways.

The husband and I weren’t hungry again for dinner until pretty late in the evening so we wanted something quick.  Thank you HLS swag bag, for the mini fillo shells.

Our final meal was “Strawberry Fields” themed.

We baked the mini fillo shells with chunky peanut butter, diced strawberries, and a sprinkle of brown sugar.

I ate 6 (technically two servings for 90 calories total) and the pb&j feel was perfect.

On the side we had salads with leftover diced strawberries.

Also romaine lettuce, roasted buckwheat groats, crumbled blue cheese, and Newman’s Own Light Caesar Dressing.

Cheese plus fruit (particularly blue or goat cheese with any type of berry) is a combo that never fails.

Fellow HLS attendees; what did you do with your fillo shells?