Tag Archives: yogurt

Back to the City

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After a final car trip this morning, we are home again!  I’m excited to be back (I was actually a little bit homesick this weekend), but that doesn’t mean I’m not super excited to head to St. Thomas on Weds 🙂

This morning we headed out the door bright and early (8am) and made our way back to NYC.  I brought a 0% Oikos Vanilla to eat in the car,

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and supplemented it with oj and an Amazing Grass packet.

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I liked this berry flavor a lot more than I did the plain one.  I found it a little too sweet, but apparently not too sweet to keep me from eating one of the hubby’s maple candies during the ride.

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Once we made it home sweet home we got right down to business – we had to sign/mail our lease for the Buffalo apartment (yippee!), pick up some 2day essentials at the store, and get an insurance check for our car.  FYI – Adam’s parents are amazing and bought us a car our senior year in college (no car was not an option because I had to drive to my internship so they totally saved my butt).  They have driven it for the past two years while we lived in the city but now we have a car again, which is pretty exciting.

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I ate 1.5slices of cheese before we took the car,

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and taking the car took us to 15th street so we took the opportunity to go to our favorite Thai place, Watana.  I got the lunch special, which was pretty exciting.

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My meal was Pad See Eiw chicken.

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It came with a side salad,

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soup,

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and a veggie spring roll.

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Everything was delicious, this lunch totally rocked my socks.  I loved all of the different veggies and the smaller portion of noodles was great because I have zero self-control when it comes to broad rice noodles.  I actually did take about 1/4 of the meal to go, but I attacked it within the next two hours.

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Before we drove home we did dessert Expansion style, by hitting up Union Market for cake samples.

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I had a killer headache all afternoon so I lazed around the house room and enjoyed the comfort of my own couch.  Reruns of Bones kept me pretty happy, as did my yummy snacks.

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3 strawberry chocolates,

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and a marzipan pig.  I also ate about 10, unphotographed, pieces of saltwater taffy.

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After that I made a strange sounding but great tasting bowl – 0% Plain Fage, tons of blueberries, a few pine nuts, and a smidge of maple syrup.

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The mix of flavors and textures in this was perfect.

Plus some protein plus pretzels from Newman’s Own Organics.

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These were hands down the best pretzels I’ve ever had, they had a great salty almost sour flavor.  I ate about 2x what was pictured.

Later in the evening I ate a small bowl of granola for “dinner.”

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Then I was (finally) productive again by writing my thank yous.  We made the mail drop off trip a stroll, ending at Starbucks for a nonfat iced half pump white chocolate mocha.

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P.S. I was making serious eyes at the husband’s dinner during this post and while I was blogging he darted out of the house and brought me back this –

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yums.  I almost never drink sugar soda but I adore dipping my pizza crusts and coke coke (rather than diet) is just a little more special for that classy activity.

Vacation Reflections

  • especially for the lack of good choices available, I did a pretty good job of getting in fruits and greens
  • packing a few of my own snacks helped me a lot (hello Amazing Grass packets)
  • when I get frustrated my food choices go downhill – I did pretty well at breakfast and lunches but after a day of dodging unhealthy choices I get frustrated and end up eating a bunch of crap.  I’d be better off having a few smaller indulgences throughout the day than, for example, eating chicken fingers with fries and mac and cheese for dinner
  • the above point is especially important when I am feeling bored in the evening
  • even when I can’t fit in a full workout (like my Saturday run, with hills, go me!) I would be better off squeezing in 2 or 3 minutes here and there

I have another trip coming up, right before my 24th birthday, so I will have to keep these reflections in mind; it’s a learning curve here!

Fun Hap’s in Bloggerland

  1. Mr. and Mrs. Hangry are giving away some MojoMix.
  2. Eat Live Run is helping us uncultured drinkers to figure out wine.
  3. An Apple a Day has 2 fun giveaways, Sahale/Ooba and Crofter’s spread.

Quick Quick

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I don’t have much to post, but it is so exciting being in a house with internet that actually works that I wanted to do a quickie.  We’ve had a relaxed morning – I slept in past 10:30! – and we are headed to a movie this afternoon.  After that my sister/brother-in-law, the husband, and I are making the 6hour drive to their parents’ house in Virginia.

Last night I ate a sliver of rocky road fudge after my dinner post –

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And this morning I had a 0% Strawberry Oikos (fruit on the bottom) –

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My sister-in-law is so sweet that she bought Greek yogurt for me to have while I am here.  The husband’s family has very different eating habits from me (not super healthy, a lot of meat) but they’ve really made an effort to make me feel welcome.  Also, this yogurt was fantastic.  Oikos offers the only organic Greek yogurt on the market and I enjoyed stirring the fruit (more like a jam) up from the bottom.

Stir ya later!

How does your eating style differ from your family/your in-laws?  What do you do to make things work?

Nooners

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My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning and Adam and I slept in until noon!  It is clear that we are on summer vacay?  As exciting as our late start was, it pushed the whole day back and made everything rushed (still worth it though, it was a happy mistake!).  Art imitates life, and this post will be a little rushed as well.  [Note – as I reread to proofread this post it actually is pretty long, ya me]

After getting out of bed (at noon!) I made some Buffalo business calls and then hurried to Starbucks to meet a former coworker for a study date.  I did brunch from Starbucks, a reduced fat breakfast sandwich with egg whites and turkey bacon.

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This wasn’t bad (and it wasn’t expensive, less than $4) but it wasn’t as good as the wrap from the other day.  I had it with a grandeunsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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Ms. N and I studied from 1:30 – 4:30; she is taking the MCAT soon so she’s doing sciences as well.

After my study date I met the husband for some errands and a walk (2.2miles roundtrip) to Atlantic Center.  We had to spend outside of our budget, pulling out the credit card instead of our weekly $200, but there were some items I’ve needed for forever –

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– bras, underwear, and yoga mats!  I have a very unattractive habit of sticking my hand down the front of my top to pull at my uncomfortable older bras so Adam was more than happy to get me some new ones!  I’ve never owned a yoga mat (I got two b/c the cheap ones were so cheap it made more sense to buy two and layer) before but my floorworkfrom the 10minute strength challenge is killing my knee and back bones!

After we walked home I tucked into a Yoplait Fat Free pineapple upsidedown cake yogurt.

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Then I did my packing for tomorrow, we are not leaving the house until after 1pm tomorrow and I am so proud of myself that I packed today – in college I would have flights home for which the car service would pick me up at 5am and I wouldn’t start packing until 4:50am!  All total we have more than 18hours (via bus and car) on the road this weekend so I had to pack reading materials and snacks for the husband and myself.

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I also half-wrapped my niece’s 4th birthday gift –

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We got her two Raggedy Anne books with a Raggedy Anne doll and some candy hearts (one of the books is about how she gets her candy heart).  My brother-in-law makes a big fuss about how “books are for suckers” so I’ve gotten his daughter a book for every single present we’ve given her!  We always do a book and an accompanying doll and it’s become a good tradition.

We are pretty much out of food so I had the world’s lamest dinner, a cup of CambellsChicken and Egg Noodle soup withsome oyster crackers from when I had soup at a restaurant a month or so ago (I thought of you when I took them Sarah!).

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The soup was pretty terrible, it had a strong, strange herb flavor so I ended up adding Saltines too to help cover the flavor.

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While I ate I worked on some applications for Buffalo things.  After dinner I took a walk with the husband to drop off the mail, I was still a little hungry from my small dinner but the walk helped subdue my stomach.

I couldn’t commit to 10minutes of strength training but I took breaks while writing this post and completed 100reps of arm exercises with my 5lb weights and held one 60second plank.

FYI – This will be my last post until tomorrow evening, we are going on a short vacation!  We are leaving tomorrow to visit Adam’s sister in PA and then traveling with her to VA to meet up with all the rest of the in-laws.  It’s a pretty quick trip, we come home Monday, but it should be fun.  I’ll see you when we get there!

What kind of gifts do you give to youngin’s?  I’ve become a big fan of the book/doll combo, it encourages reading and the doll is more meaningful when connected with a favorite story.  I’ve given our niece The Hungry Caterpillar with a stuffed caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See? with a teddy bear, and more.

Sweet, Spicy, Sesame, Tangy

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After the morning my day got pretty crazy; I’m glad I got my work-out in early!  Before my shower I scarfed the other 2/3 of my Cliff Bar.

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This had too much sugar to be a regular choice but it was very tasty.

My next course of action was to do some planning for my classes next year – I am attending a university in Buffalo as a non-degree seeking student so that I can complete some prerequisite courses for PA and RD programs.  The plan is to work part-time, volunteer (which I still need to figure out), and take classes.  As a non-degree I can’t officially register for classes until August 1st.  Well, when I went to look at the course offerings today to make a rough schedule I found out that almost every class I need is already full; by August 1st I doubt I will be able to enroll in anything!  I wigged out and cried for a good 10minutes before the husband convinced me that I just had to suck it up.  If I can’t take classes in the fall it will suck and I’ll be sad but I don’t have any control over that situation.  If I can’t take any courses I will have to work full-time, which will help us save money, and get my nutritionist certification, which I am interested in and excited about.  I’m scared that this could push back my loooooong journey towards a new career but I’ve got to roll with the punches.

After I pulled myself together I ate 1/2 of this (small) container of stir fry leftovers.

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Then we packed up our cart and headed to the post office.  The postal service in this (expensive!) neighborhood is shockingly bad, I’ve never been in when there wasn’t a line out the door.  Whether rain, snow, sleet, or long waits, nothing could stop our errands so we prevailed.

During the trip I drank this My Smoothie juice box.

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I knocked out two servings of fruit with this, woot!

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Finally, it was time to head to *bucks to get my study on.  I went with economics to choose my snack –

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an iced coffee (I added my own skim milk) and a rice-crispie bar were my cheapest choice at $4 and 300calories.  I studied from 3 – 7 straight, another woot!

My husband is the nicest man on earth so he did my laundry for me while I was studying, when I got home all I had to do was fold and hang 🙂  Post-laundry I started watching a riveting episode of Bones, I am so hooked on that show!  I paused during a commercial to eat a Yoplait Light and Fit strawberry shortcake yogurt.

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I’m not going to be able to afford Fage and Oikos as much next year (Greek yogurt doesn’t really fit into a budget unless you find a sale) but I think I’ll be a-ok with all these Yoplait Light varieties.

During a later commercial I ate my green veggie from dinner as an appetizer – Spicy Sesame Beans.

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I had a bag of mixed beans and carrots in my freezer that I heated in a skillet with a little evoo.  I topped my portion with a dab more evoo, some wasabi sesame seeds, and some red pepper flakes.

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Spicy spicy!

After my socks were fully rocked off by Bones we got started on dinner.  I received a package from Nakano with coupons and recipes yesterday so I used that for inspiration.

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I will say though, my chicken recipe was clearly all mine own – Apple Pretzel Chicken, 3servings

  • 1/2C Stonewall Kitchen caramel apple butter
  • 3T Nanako rice vinegar
  • 1C Newman’s Own Mighty Mini Pretzels, crushed
  • 1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
  1. Preheat oven to 375* and prep a baking sheet with foil and spray.
  2. Mix apple butter and vinegar in a low bowl and pour pretzel crumbs into another low bowl.
  3. Drudge chicken through wet and then dry bowls.
  4. Cook for 30minutes.

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I took a pretty small portion but it was delish, the perfect mix of salty and sweet!

For my side dish I tried to follow a recipe a little bit,

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but still but a pretty big twist on it.  Not only was I missing several ingredients, the original recipe called for (regular) potatoes with the skins peeled off.  I never follow that step in any recipe, why would I spend cooking time making something less healthy by peeling away fiber?  What I ended up with was Tangy Stovetop Sweet Potatoes, 2servings

  • 1large sweet potato, cubed  [note, I think I actually used a yam but that didn’t fit with my title alliteration]
  • 1/3C Nanako rice vinegar
  • 3T water
  1. Heat 2T evoo over medium heat in a skillet.
  2. Add potato cubes to the pan and cook for 5-7minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up and brown bits.
  3. Season with salt and paprika.
  4. Pour vinegar and water into the pan and cook until all the liquid is gone.

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Yums!  Here was my plate:

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Before you get all judgey about the expanse of brown, remember that I ate my greens as an appetizer 🙂

My internet is ridiculous so this post took forever but there are still some to-dos left on the list for the night – 1) brush my teeth asap so I can put my retainers in to get some of the intense pain out of the way before sleep time (my braces experience was so ridiculous I can’t even get into it, but suffice to say I stopped sleeping in my retainers in college and now my perfect teeth are going crooked).  2) tuck into my stack of magazines……I didn’t say they weren’t fun to dos!  Sweet dreams all.

Do you ever peel fruits or veggies?  Why or why not?  Other than kiwis – which many bloggers actually down fur and all – I enjoy the tasty fiber whenever it’s available.

Verdict? Amazing

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Who guessed that my exciting package was from Amazing Grass?  You would be correct!

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We decided not to open the huge jar we bought until after the move to Buffalo.

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For now I have to be excited with the sample packets that they sent.

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I did some work on the computer before dinner and I snacked on this Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy in cinnamon roll.

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Yums, I saw this flavor floating around blog world a few months ago and was so jealous.  It lived up to my expectations.

For dinner we decided to go with stir fry to help use up some ingredients from the pantry, mainly –

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I very loosly followed a recipe from a magazine, but mainly was directed by the ingredients on hand.  We started by draining, pressing, and cubing a block of extra firm tofu.  Then we shook the cubes with some cornstarch.

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Next we added some sesame seeds (the last of the seeds + some wasabi sesame seeds) to the bag.

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We used the wok to brown the tofu in a little bit of evoo.  Then we removed the tofu from the pan and replaced it with 16oz of frozen veggies.  After the veggies cooked up we poured in some stir fry sauce, about 2/3 of a cup.

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I had combined our two sauces (with a smidgeof soy sauce) before I realized that the veggie bag actually came with a sauce packet, whoops!

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Finally we added the tofu back to the pan, stirred to combine, and voila.

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My serving, topped with a little red pepper.

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After dinner I hung out in front of the tv, has anyone else gotten into Make It or Break It?  I know it’s for teenagers but I get very easily pulled in to anything with gymnastics.  Growing up on an islands it wasn’t an interest I really got to pursue but I did go to gymnastics camp the summer before 6th grade.

I made myself a super impressive plate of cookies and chocolate milk while I watched.

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The cookies were a serving each of 2 varieties of Newman’s Own Organics.

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Verdict?  Rocked my socks!  The pb cookies had a great roasted flavor to them and the chocolate chip ones were nice and crumbly.

The chocoaltemilk was skim milk with an Amazing Grass Kidz packet.

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Verdict?  Impressive, although I don’t know what the difference between regular and “kidz” will be.  It was a little grassy but I actually liked that part of the flavor.

After my snack Adam and I took a quick stroll around the ‘hood for funsies and now it’s time for bed.  Sweet dreams!

P.S.  Everyone has seen the constantcoverage of MJ’s death, but who else has seen this?!  No matter what you think of Jackson as an artist (and I 100% believe that personal failings do not take away from professional talent), I have been disgusted by the nonstop media coverage of his death.  1) He was 1 person, do we seriously not have anything more important to talk about?  2) Even if it wasn’t weird to focus on a story like this Jackson was accused of being a pedophile.  What is wrong with our country that we would glorify a man with this reputation?  What message are we sending to young viewers, let alone viewers who have suffered abuse?

1, 2, 3

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Good morning!  I need to start by going back to last night.  My husband love me very much, and is ok with the fact that he is my 3rd love.  So he delivered the first two to me last night.

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Devoured.  Also last night, I assembled these ingredients.

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Nonfat plain Fage, 1/4C oatmeal, 1T ground flax, a few unsweetened dried blueberries, and a sliced plum equaled this bowl of muesli this morning.

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The flavors were good but it was very thick, I don’t think I can do both flax and oats.

As soon as this post is up and I am dressed I am heading out to do some studying, see ya later!

What do you love?

I Didn’t Have to Go to School Today

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The title doesn’t really relate to anything, I’m just still excited about it 🙂

My parents really wore us out, we stayed in bed until 11am getting our sleep on!  When I did finally wake up I had a killer headache that knocked me back into bed for most of the day.  When I did finally get up we had no food so breakfast/lunch was this –

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I ate one row of this Riter Sport bar.

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I took care of some business and did some cleaning and then Adam and I headed to Trader Joe’s to fix the food situation.  I needed to eat something so I made a cup of this before I left.

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Vanilla hempmilk and No Sugar Added Strawberry CIB are a bad combo, lesson learned.

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I choked it down (with a fish oil pill) but I did not enjoy it.

We had a great time at Trader Joe’s but it took forever.  We went to Staples first so I could redeem a coupon and then we did some serious aisle wandering.  I was starving by the time we got home.  I ate this Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy Yogurt in cherry cobbler.

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Yums!  This is a 100calorie product that I am 100% behind.  I found this on a big sale the other day so expect to see a lot of them!  I also ate a serving of this TJ’s sliced Asiago cheese.

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Next we headed out for an easy run.  We did 2miles around the ‘hood.  My goal for June is to get back into running.  Here is my training schedule – I will do 3-4 runs per week

  • week 1 – 2miles
  • week2 – 3miles
  • week3 – 3.5miles
  • week4 – 4miles
  • week5 – 4.5miles

I have really bad joints so I’m forcing myself to really take it easy and be careful with them.

When we got home we got right down to dinner.  I ate a serving of these Newman’s Own Organics Spelt Pretzels.

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These are so tasty, they are my favorite type of pretzel.

Dinner was quick, easy, and delicious.  We threw together these ingredients in under 15minutes.

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We cooked the mac following the box directions and added 1.5C of frozen artichoke hearts in the last 3minutes.  After draining the pasta we stirred in the cheese powder and 1can of boneless skinless tuna.  I ignored the directions at that point, skipping the milk entirely and subbing evoo for butter. 

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Finally I topped my serving with 1.5T seasoned bread crumbs, 1T goat cheese, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

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This was so satisfying and delicious, I even made a recipe page for it!

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After a much-needed shower, it will be time for bed.  I have an early morning planned for tomorrow so I’ll see you then 🙂

What is your favorite thing to add to mac and cheese?  We always do canned tuna or salmon and some sort of veggie.

The Wright Stuff

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Today was my parents’ last day visiting us and we packed as much in as possible!  I love how my family vacations, we try to see (and taste!) everything.  While today involved more indulging I would say that for a vacation day I did a pretty good job of balancing things out.  It’s seemed like we’ve had a lot of celebrations lately and it’s hard to know where to draw the line with fun foods.  Today was the right balance of fun without going overboard.

This morning Adam and I walked over to the train to meet my parents (they took a cab from the hotel because we’ve walked them a little too much!).  I did a train version of pb and j for breakfast.

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Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar with a Stoneyfield Lowfat Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie.  This was a great combo but a little too satisfying, I shared half of the drink with the husband.

Our first activity ending up being the most fun we’ve had this whole visit – a 2 hour bike ride through Central Park!  I’m not going to lie, I don’t really know how to ride a bike!  Growing up on an island it wasn’t possible very often and the last time I was on a bike at all was at least five years ago.  We had a wobbly start but I sucked it up and did my best and after 15minutes or so I was loving it!

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We moved pretty quickly so we saw a lot in the 2 hours.  Our most fun stop was at the Hans Christen Andersen “Ugly Duckling” statue.

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My mom is a librarian so she was right at home 🙂

After we dropped off the bikes Adam and I were starving so we hit up the other Subway.

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I got a 6inch turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, banana peppers, and chipotle sauce.  Yum.

After that we did some major city exploring.  We went to the Guggenheim Museum which was tons of fun.  My favorite artists were Van Gogh and Degas, but we also learned a lot of interesting facts about Frank Lloyd Wright (the architect who designed the museum).  We used the free audio tour and it really added to my enjoyment.

After that we went to St. John’s Cathedral.  Gorgeous!  While we were inside it started pouringso we ended up waiting out the storm for more than 30minutes.  During our wait the church was suddenly filled with what looked like peasants who used a time machine – they were extras from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (with Nicholas Cage!) that was filming nearby!

When the rain finally calmed down a bit we got only midly soaked getting to dinner.  Our destination was the Pacific Grill in South Street Seaport.  I was starving again by the time we got to dinner and I attacked this bread with butter.

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I ordered a diet coke to drink but Adam and my dad got a bucket of beer and I helped myself to one.

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For my meal I went traditional with fish and chips.

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This was tasty but way too heavy; I gave my dad 1 (of 3) of the fish sticks and shared my fries with Adam.

Afterwards we went back to my parents’ room to say goodbye.  We hung out for a bit just chillaxing (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take a quick nap).  I ate some Goldfish crackers from my parents’ plane trip before my nap.

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Around 11 we said our final goodbyes and walked home.  It would be sad but we are seeing them again soon.  And I will see you again soon, in the morning!

A heads up, fun things on the summer agenda –

  1. Family reunion with Adam’s family in Virgina at his parents’ new home
  2. 1week visit to St. Thomas to see my parents
  3. Moving (to a soon to be announced location!)