Tag Archives: yogurt

Crazy Week Was Crazy

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Phew, am I glad that’s over!  Ha!  Not really; this week was crazy but the year is bound to only get crazier.  And I didn’t even have that much going on with school last week.  I did, however, work every single free day.  Also, the husband’s residency applications went out today.  <– giant stressball

Here’s what’s been going on:

  • I haven’t blogged since Wednesday
  • I didn’t work out a single time last week (insert major sad face here)
  • I didn’t do any enough school-work
  • I worked my butt of at work-work
  • I put in a lot of hours helping the husband to finalize his application and edit his personal statement
  • I had to videotape myself giving the husband a nutrition education (it was hilarious)
  • I didn’t eat anywhere near enough the past few days and I’ve been out of control cranky
  • I went to the co-op and stocked up on organic ramen so I never have to skip so many meals again (I was truly that busy)

I don’t have time to do a proper recap but I have taken a photo of every food item that’s passed my lips so I am damn well going to blog them!

Thursday

My clinical group toured the food bank as part of our community rotation.  I car-pooled with a friend and we used a BOGO coupon for iced coffees with skim milk along the way.

We discovered that Got Milk’s Magic Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Straws turn iced coffee into something magical.

So flipping good!

We spent the 2nd half of our food bank visit sorting tomatoes.  It was nice to help out but I had to squelch some major throwing urges.

Lunch was plain yogurt with 2 Tbsp flax and chopped plum and nectarine.

Dinner was Jenna’s Baked Polenta with Mushrooms, Gorgonzola Cheese, and Tomato Sauce.

I made a bunch of changes but the basic recipe was still hers.  My updates –

  • made 4 servings
  • 1 cup of polenta (cooked without butter)
  • 2 pints mushrooms (sautéed in 1 Tbsp butter 1st)
  • 1.5 cups marinara
  • 1 cup gorgonzola
  • cooked 20 minutes

It was really, really good!

Friday

I ate a strange lunch-breakfast in class.  A 2 slices of Applegate Farms turkey on a Sandwich Thin with yellow mustard and 2% colby sandwich.

Roasted seaweed.

An apple.

And apple month candy.

This didn’t fill me up at all and I ate lunch an hour later.  And by ate I mean shoved into my face in under two minutes.  A Wegman’s Low-fat Honey Yogurt.

A Fiber One cookie.

And a Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter squeeze packet.

That Justin’s isn’t even like Nutella, it is frosting!!

Baked polenta leftovers for dinner.

Plus leftover pizza dipped in 1000 island dressing an hour later because I was still hungry.

Saturday

…was ridiculous.  0% Chocolate Oikos.

A plum.

A Honey Low-fat Yogurt with Banana Chobani Flip.

This product is so new that it’s not even on their website but I sure hope they keep making it.  The mashed banana was strangely delicious.

However – I ate all three of those items at work.  And then I didn’t eat anything else all day.  My day went – get up. work, work, work.  edit Adam’s applications.  bed.  He may have slept on the couch.

Sunday

Two breakfasts to make up for yesterday’s lack of calories.  1 serving of Special K Vanilla Almond in Blue Diamond’s almond/coconut milk blend.

Chopped plum and apricot on top of a strawberry 0% Oikos.

Nature’s Path Apple Pie Crunch Plus Chia Bar.

I only bought this because I was having an Apple Month frenzy, but I actually loved it.  The bars were crunchy without being too crumbly and the apple spice flavor was subtle.  Plus, 3 grams each protein and fiber.

I bought a Raaw Passion Fruit Wheatgrass drink at work.

I used to love Jamba’s oj and wheatgrass shots with a passion (ha!) and I adore passion fruit so this was the perfect thing for me.  If the co-op keeps stocking them I will certainly buy one again.

Adam handed me three gummi mice this afternoon.  (His nickname for me is Mouse.)

We had to videotape our interview when I got home from work and it ate up most of the afternoon.  More time was spent giggling than recording!

We split take-out from Vasilis Express for dinner.

A Chicken Souvlaki Wrap,

plus Greek Fries, aka fries smothered in Greek dressing and feta.

When we went to pick up our food we spotted this –

And we had ice cream before dinner (Turkey Hill Double Dunker).

It was mocha ice cream with crunchy cookie and cookie dough and it was ridiculous.

I had my class review at The Spot this evening so I had another iced coffee with skim milk and a magic straw.  I didn’t manage to photograph but I imagine most of you can use your imaginations.

The end?

This post was terrible.  Much too long, poorly written, and exceptionally boring.  I apologize for making you read my food diary.  The end.

Let Apple Month Begin!

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When I go more than a day without blogging I do really miss it.  It’s clearly going to be an adjustment a year from now when I have a baby (hopefully) and a job (even more hopefully).

It’s felt like a long week (already!) and I only had time to pack one meal this morning so I went with breakfast.

A 1.5% Pineapple Oikos,

and a granola bar.

Today’s classes went well and I had time to run a few on-campus errands before work.  The mini grill from my confession post was part of a project I completed last night.  One of our clinical community assignments was to create an educational bulletin board on a nutrition topic.  I went with healthy grilling.

I had a friend snap a picture of me with it for my portfolio.

This assignment felt stressful because there is so much going on this month, but it was actually kind of nice to revisit my teacher days.

My options were limited and “lunch” ended up being this bag of Smart Fries.

They were fairly similar to packing peanuts but somehow that wasn’t a bad thing.  The flavor was mild but savory and a 1 oz serving (110 calories) included 60-something pieces.

I came home from work to a package from my mom celebrating the arrival of Apple Month.

Too funny that this box came on the same day that I had already blogged about being ready for apple goodies.  I took a few tastes as a snack.

Plus a few bites of Adam’s (not so good) mango.

I was glad that I didn’t snack too much because dinner ended up being a work of art.

Taste-wise it was art, that is, I know that the pictures are fairly dark and unappetizing.

(Ingredients that follow are listed for both Adam’s and my servings together.)

A bag of fresh baby spinach was steam-sautéed in evoo and chicken broth, then tossed with a big handful each blue cheese crumbles and dried cherries.

An amazing smokey fish salad.

A 6.7 oz can of Trader Joe’s Smoked Herring was mashed with lemon juice, Miracle Whip, smoked paprika, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, and 1 shredded green bell pepper.

We used the small holes on our cheese grater to shred the veggies and they ended up being an amazing addition.

A 1/2 serving of Special K crackers for dipping.

Delicious, delicious, delicious!

Have you ever had to make a bulletin board display?

Rocking Around The Clock

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The upcoming week is going to be busy, busy, busy and apparently today was the start of the craziness.  It’s not a good feeling to leave the house at 8:10 on a Saturday and already be running behind!

While running errands I did stop in at Dunkin Donuts to use a coupon I had for iced coffee.

With skim milk and toasted almond syrup.  The barista (are they still called baristas if it’s Dunkin?) gave me a giant sheet of new, exciting coupons so I’ll probably be back in the near future.

After running errands I ran to work (literally) in the pouring rain.  I packed a Oikos Low-fat Pineappe Greek Yogurt for breakfast.

Holy crap, it was good!  I couldn’t stop mmmmmning.  It was so thick, creamy, and sweet that it almost reminded me of a piña colada.

Adam ate my last serving of eggplant (jerk!) so I got co-op hot bar for lunch.

1 falafel, sesame cashew noodle salad with tons of veggies, 2 grape leaves, and some chicken salad.  The veggies in the noodles and the almonds in the chicken were my favorite bites.

When I got home from work, Adam and two of our friends were on the couch watching a movie.  Patrick and Michelle brought pizza!

I had a veggie slice,

plus a simple salad of romaine, flax, and lite honey mustard dressing.

Buffalo people – the pizza was from Mister Pizza and it was great.  The crust was somehow both thick and crispy and it was loaded with vegetables.

Our friends were over because we had purchased a Groupon together…

for rock climbing!  We climbed for two hours and it was exhausting and so much fun.

This year has been a total bust in the workout department but I actually felt like I did a little better this time than I did the last time I tried.  I mastered one fairly hard wall (ie not a kid’s wall!) and I was so proud of myself when I made it to the top.  At one point my arms and legs were so wide I was practically into a split.  <– bad ass

I’m going to make myself do a 4-minute workout and then I’m going to go pass out.  Good night!

First First Friday In Allentown

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You know how I got into bed way too late last night?  Well I stayed up an hour even later pinning desserts.

For reals.  Stupid, but have you discovered Serious Eats yet?  It could have been the 2 am browsing, but I’m officially a giant fan.  Fun aesthetic, beautiful pictures, delicious recipes and reviews.

This morning was rough but I woke up by “snoozing” on Twitter in bed and that helped me ease into the day.  Congratulations, Kath and Matt!

I ate breakfast on the walk to school.

My Müller Splendid Strawberry Früt Up yogurt was, in fact, splendid.  It’s a strawberry mousse on top of regular yogurt (as in not Greek) and the yogurt was ridiculously, delightfully thick.  It felt like a total treat – a real treat, like pudding, not like when people try to say that fruit is dessert – and was only 140 calories.

My classes went well (I didn’t fall asleep once, I swear!) and before I knew it I was walking to work.  Sidenote – I work every day except for my clinic days (T/R) from now through next Sunday and I’m a little anxious to see how that’s all going to go down.

Lunch was packed for work.

An apple,

and a Raw Revolution Chocolate Coconut Bar.

It was good I didn’t bring more because I barely had time to eat that, there were lots of boxes today.

Adam meet me on foot at the end of my shift and we headed out to cross off another birthday list item.

This was our first First Friday and we both had a great time.  I’m sad I couldn’t take art pictures because we saw some great stuff.  I did manage to take quick snaps of my bites though.

Mostly cheese and its accompaniments, plus a small pour of wine.  And we went to one open house that was giving out free popsicles.

All in all it was a fabulous time.

However – working 7+ hours and then walking 4.5+ miles was a little too much for my feet.  I whimpered the last five blocks or so getting home.  My 4-minute workout plans are out of the question and even though I’m starving I’d rather skip dinner than have to walk somewhere to get it.  Boo.

Does your town do any type of First Friday event?

[Food] For Thought

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Food

Hello, hello.  Today’s activities would be tricky (and boring!) to explain so I’ll stick with the food.  One note – My stomach was bothering me all afternoon but the main reason I didn’t eat any veggies is because my bag of green beans had gotten slimy and gross.  Here we go…

Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar.

Turkey sandwich – Sandwich Thin, 2 slices of Applegate Farms Smoked Turkey, 1 slice pepperjack cheese, strawberry jam.

The last of my Mike and Ike’s.

The last of these Barbara’s cheese puffs, about half a serving.  Funny story – Adam had a friend over (just one) on Monday.  He bought two bags of snacks, the cheese puffs and some salt and vinegar chips.  All that was left is what I ate today, and that only survived because he knew I wanted to taste them.

A low-fat coffee yogurt with honey-roasted peanuts and honey.

A dapple plucot.

A cheese sandwich – an onion roll with about 2 oz of melted cheese (a mix of extra-sharp cheddar, 2% swiss, and 2% provolone).

A Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burger with 1000 island dressing.

3/4 of a Jamocha Shake that Adam surprised me with when he came home.

Food for Thought

Since I didn’t have much in the way of content for this post, here are the links to a few articles I think you guys might find interesting:

Burgers and Boba

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I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day.  We got the holiday off, which meant I had time to go on a date with the husband and catch up on school-work.

I started my day with a 0% lemon Oikos.

I was so thrilled to see the new Oikos flavors on our shelves!  This was smooth and creamy with just a bit of tart flavor.  I have the pineapple variety waiting for me in the fridge as well.

Plus the last of my Chameleon Cold Brew with skim milk and ice.

I’m not sure if it’s because I used a bigger ratio of coffee:milk today or if it’s an effect of the bottle sitting open for a week, but today’s cup was more bitter than my previous ones.  Nonetheless, I’m still very sad to see the coffee go.  I’ve marked it on the 9/23 week’s list in advance to celebrate the end of my retainers.

When we walked around the park a few weeks back, both Adam and I had a major hankering for a zoo trip.  After running an errand this morning, we decided we should take advantage of the husband’s rare day off and go for it.

We were disconcerted by the wrap-around-three-blocks line,

but quickly got over it when we found out that Tops was offering special $1 admission for the day.

Score!  They were hosting a few games on the premises as well and I won this cup of Mike and Ike’s.

I ate half during our visit and think that the sugar helped me make it through the heat.

We saw so many animals!

My favorite reptile is the Dab Lizard and I was thrilled to catch a glimpse of one today.

Do you have a favorite reptile.

I packed a big bottle of water in my purse but rocking jeans was a big mistake; I was dripping the minute we stepped out of the car.

Since a mid-day shower was required anyway, I tried my hand at this 4-minute workout –

Holy crap!  I was basically dying by the end.  The husband and I have decided to do it 3x/week.  4-minutes is always doable.

Lunch was sushi from Wegman’s.

Pssst, Buffalo peeps, this another item with money off from the student coupon packet.

This afternoon, I finally did something with these purchases from our trip to Toronto’s Koreatown.

Taro milk tea + rainbow boba = mmmmmmn!

It was too much fun (and a cross-off on a birthday list goal!) to have made these items from scratch.

I spent most of my evening hard at work, but did find time to make a great dinner.

Roasted green beans,

and a Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burger.

I ate mine on an onion roll with extra sauerkraut, Swiss, and 1000 island dressing.

Reuben Stuffed Turkey Burgers, serves 6

  •  lb 94% fat-free ground turkey meat
  • 1 cup sauerkraut, squeezed to remove as much liquid as possible
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1.5 tsp dried caraway seeds
  • 3 (1 oz)-slices Swiss cheese
  • 2 Tbsp thousand island dressing
  1. Slice cheese into quarters; you should end up with twelve 1inch x 1inch squares.
  2. Place meat, sauerkraut, egg, breadcrumbs, and caraway seeds in a large bowl.  Use your hands to mix until well combined.
  3. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, divide the meat mixture evenly into twelve 1/4-cup portions.  Flatten six of the portions into patties.
  4. Place 1 tsp thousand island dressing and two cheese squares in the center of each flattened patty.  Top with remaining portions, pressing on the edges to “seal” the patties.
  5. Place a greased grill-pan over medium-high heat.  Cook burgers until browned and fully cooked through; 5-8 minutes on each side.

I’m off to join Adam and Webster on a walk!

Are you a reuben sandwich fan?

Sunday To Go

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One day to go before the fall semester begins.  I wish today could have been full of adventure, but sadly I worked, errand-ran, and ate a lackluster dinner.  Ho-hum but part of the time was spent with the husband so it wasn’t terrible.

I did not get in bed last night as planned.  In fact, I stayed up past the boys leaving and the husband falling asleep.  Today I am le tired and the bags under my eyes are gigantic.  I hope to get in bed nice and early on Sunday because it’s bad enough to go back to school fatter, I hardly need to look worn down too.  At least my hair is finally growing out of its awkward stage!

In spite of the sleepiness, I did manage to make breakfast before work.

Plain fat-free yogurt topped with 1 Tbsp ground flax, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and some canned tropical fruit mix.

I was glad to have eaten because work was pretty crazy; the Elmwood Arts Festival is this weekend so there were lots of people wandering in.

I plan on checking out the festival tomorrow and today I did snag a $1 orange San Pellegrino.

I saved my fair-food eating for tomorrow and packed a sandwich for lunch.

A Sandwich Thin with 2 slices of turkey, a slice of pepperjack, and strawberry jam.  Plus a Raspberry Fields Honest Tea to drink.

I probably should have gone with coffee instead because I was dead on my feet by the time my shift was over.  Also, ready to gnaw off my arm.  I bought a giant slice of cheese pizza (folded and eaten New York style) on the walk home.

I shared ~ 1/4 with Adam which was a true testament of love.  Dinner was fair away and not awesome and I ended up very pleased with this impulse purchase.

We ran errands this evening, including a purchase of ink that has left me crossing my fingers that the printer was out of ink and not actually broken.  I’m too tired to check now but printing is early on my agenda tomorrow.

On our grocery errand (which was stupid because we have to go back tomorrow too) I bought a fun-size peanut butter Snickers.

I only ate half; apparently they aren’t very good.

Dinner wasn’t good either.  Well, parts of it were.  For example, my low-fat (because it was made with skim milk and low-fat froyo) chocolate coffee milkshake was pretty tasty.

1.5 thumbs up, Lake Effect Diner.

And I was so pleased to see this on the menu –

It encouraged me to order non-vegeterian, in the form of a Chicken Souvlaki Wrap.

“Grilled marinated chicken breast, shredded lettuce, green bell pepper, black olives, diced tomato, crumbled feta cheese and Greek Dressing in a grilled herb wrap.”

I added cucumber and pepperoncini to mine, a good idea since otherwise the sandwich would have been completely tasteless.

The feta was bland and it probably would have helped it there had actually been Greek dressing on the wrap.  I only ate half and left feeling pretty unsatisfied.

I shouldn’t even complain though because my meal was at least edible.  Adam’s bacon and sausage were burnt to a crisp and his “sunny side up” eggs were cooked through.  Yucky.  Lake Effect, we thought you had such potential!

Speaking of potential, I’m not going to live up to mine at yoga tomorrow morning if I don’t get in bed this instant.  Good night!

Locals, are you attending the art festival this year?  Did you eat anything I just have to try tomorrow?

Curry And Lemongrass, Too

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The past 48 hours haven’t been all that exciting, but they have been busy.  Work, fun, then work.  No working out, unfortunately.  I’m not even going to attempt a workout before my early shift tomorrow either.  I do have big goals for next week though, because I’m hoping to get myself started on a healthy schedule (re: bedtime, working out, and cooking dinner) in the week before school starts.

Thursday’s breakfast was a yogurt bowl.

Note – I’ve eaten a LOT of yogurt the past two days, be prepared.

This bowl was Wegman’s Low Fat Honey Yogurt topped with sliced yellow plucot and white nectarine and 1 Tbsp ground flax.

It was so good I did a similar breakfast the next day and plan on buying more of the honey yogurt asap.

I spent Thursday morning curled up on the couch with a Patricia Cornwell novel.  I’m hoping to blog quickly to get in bed with that same novel!  Reading and eating made for my perfect morning.

I took a reading break to walk the dog and snagged this white chocolate macadamia cookie from the co-op.

I should have made time for a real lunch instead of a cookie because I was starving by the end of my shift.

I had evening plans with friends and knew I would be too cranky to function so we stopped at Code Blue for juice along the way.

My customized drink included kale, spinach, collard greens, carrot, and watermelon.  So tasty and the fun ingredients were very exciting to try.

And it didn’t matter that we stopped for juice because our plans were a total bust.  We’ve been excited about seeing Salt-n-Pepa for a month but it just didn’t pan out.  The line was three times longer than the amount of people let in.  Boo!  But we did catch a few lines of “Let’s Talk About Sex.”

I got home late and had pizza for dinner.

1.5 (big) slices total.  Buffalo and bbq chicken flavored.

I spent the night by myself because the husband had 24-hour call (more like 32 hour call!) and the dog and I slept very fitfully on the couch.

Today’s breakfast was a repeat of Friday’s.

Wegman’s Plain Fat-Free Yogurt, sliced white nectarine and yellow plucot, and 1 heaping Tbsp each ground flax and Biscoff spread.

Then more yogurt for lunch.  Coffee with a honey stick and honey-roasted peanuts.

The honey + peanut + coffee yogurt combo is a childhood favorite of mine.

At work I drank a Big Gulp of diet pop and split this bag of mini Rolos with my co-worker.

I also had a jalapeño cheddar bialey in the afternoon (with a slice of pepperjack).

Adam requested Thai food for dinner and since he came home from a 32 hour shift and did the laundry, Thai food it was.

I got veggie Pad See Eiw.  The husband ordered and we forgot to say “extra veggies” for me so I was pleasantly surprised to see my plate chockfull of the green stuff.

From Sun Restaurant, by the way.  The noodles get a 10-out-of-10 but the sauce only got a 5.

Ben and Jerry’s for dessert.

Coffee Caramel Buzz.  Better than Bonaroo Buzz but not as good as Schweddy Balls.  <– I have officially eaten too much ice cream!