Tag Archives: yogurt

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

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This is a “Do as I say, not as I do” post.  The past 48 hours have been… strange.  I feel like crap mentally and physically and I’ve been eating crap.  I’ve been weirdly, intensely thirsty all day; like I want to pour a milkshake down my throat all day long (which I basically did!).  I get sort of depressed every fall about missing teaching and I might be panicking a bit about the start of my last year of school.  So I’ve been eating only crap and lots of crap.  Lots of crap because apparently crappy food isn’t all that filling.  Do we think I said crap enough times for this post month?

as I say –

  1. Don’t drink your calories.
  2. It’s okay to have a treat, but probably not more than 3 1 a day.
  3. Skipping breakfast might set you up to make bad choices the rest of the day.
  4. Sometimes you should eat fruits and veggies just for the nutrients, even if you’re not feeling them at the moment.
  5. It’s ok to feel hungry sometimes.

as I do –

Friday’s “breakfast” was wasabi trail mix, ~5 oz worth in total.

And two pieces of the amazing sea salt caramel my parents brought from Canada.

Lunch was a quick run to the co-op hot bar during work.

Chicken salads and veggie salads.

The kale was the best (take note, Emily!)

I did another try at a caramel macchiato in the afternoon, this time at The Spot.

Does that look like an iced caramel macchiato?  No.  And it was disgusting anyway; there were at least 5 inches of straight foam.  I took three sips and dumped the rest down the sink.

I didn’t eat enough during the day and that is where the bad dinner decisions started.  Adam had to pick me up from work so we could run errands across town that took forever, I started to have a tantrum, and somehow we ended up at Arby’s for small Jamocha shakes.

Um, and also mozzarella sticks.

I hate mozzarella sticks.  But these were actually pretty good.

I’ll start Saturday’s recap by saying this – Friday was healthy in comparison.  But at least I finally had a sweet coffee win.

I gave up on caramelmacchiatos and moved on to a tall white mocha coconut frappucinno.

For lunch at work I packed a plain 0% Greek yogurt with a honey stick,

and a Fiber One chocolate chip cookie.

I also bought a Synergy Grape Chia Kombucha.

And on the way home I had this, because two milkshakes a day is totally normal and healthy.

Seriously though, this was actually a good decision because it was outstanding.  This sign has been calling to me for days –

“Emmmmmmily.  ‘Greek iced coffee milkshaaaaaake.’  You’re not even sure what that means but you need it.”

But I still didn’t eat any real food and I ended up eating half of this candy bar while we were on a never-ending trip to Target.

I did eat a real food dinner, but it is dark and stormy (honestly it is, I’m not trying to be cute) and my pictures were disgusting.  Go ahead and try to imagine a plate of chicken nuggets and baby carrots.  I’m also 90% sure that you should imagine some popcorn in the near future too.

Who’s up for fruits and veggies on *Monday?  Me!  (*Note – I would say tomorrow but tomorrow my in-laws are coming to take us out for bbq for my belated birthday lunch and lets be real.)

Chicken Chicken

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Please note – if you were my dog you would read that title as “chick-ON chick-ON,” since that is what we say whenever we feed him chicken.

Not a lot has gone down in the two days since I left Ohio, but there were a few highlights.  I did get to eat lots of chips and several large diet sodas.

Our drive back to Buffalo and my parents’ flight home went off without a hitch.

My dad drove the whole way home for me and I finished knitting my scarf!!!

The fine people at Honest Tea noticed that I can’t help but buy a beverage whenever I walk past the co-op and sent me a few new flavors to try.

I got a new retainer, hopefully my last new retainer ever.  *fingers crossed*

We had to take the dog to the vet to get a cyst on his tail lanced and it was the grossest/coolest thing ever.

Poor baby!

The vet trip actually happened today and it’s a good thing that went well because it was pretty much all I accomplished today.  I didn’t get much sleep at my grandma’s house (I was on the couch and there was cable) and I stayed up too late again last night and crashed hard today.

I did manage a good, late breakfast.

Oh, Green Monster, I love you so.  My original recipe is still my favorite.  1 frozen banana + 1 cup frozen spinach + 1 cup oj.

So green good.

I also ate half (aka 1 serving) of this Honey Noosa Yoghurt.

I got lunch from the hot bar while I was grocery shopping (hey, that’s an accomplishment!).

Two types of chicken,

plus roasted veggies.

I tried to get a skinny caramel macchiato as an afternoon snack but I ended up throwing it out after a few sips.

This drink was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted.  It was super sour, but like there was something wrong with the coffee, not the milk.  And I used part of a birthday gift card so it was extra sad.

Dinner was more chick-ON.

Baby carrots,

honey mustard for dipping (Ken’s Lite and it was very good, if you’re wondering),

and two servings of Wegman’s chicken nuggets.

I’ve been wanting nuggets for days and these hit the spot.

Tomorrow’s plans include not sleeping through yoga, medicating the dog, a shift at work, and a fun nighttime event with the husband.

What is your favorite sauce for nugget dipping?

TJ, Totally Jazzed

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The past few days have been a ton of fun.  I’ve done a lot of eating!

Yesterday morning I got started on one of my 27 things.

I knit a few things as a kid and it seemed to come back to me pretty quickly.  My grandma has had to help with a couple of disasters though.

I had yogurt for breakfast and moved on to another kind of yogurt for lunch.

Self-serve for the win. I did a mix of desserty flavors topped with all of the chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel things.

‘Twas good, but whenever I go crazy decadent I always realize that I like my plain tart with fruit and boba the best.

Our Friday activity was The Greene.  We went for shopping, walking, and people watching.  And eating. We got Turkish for dinner at Pasha Grill.

They gave us delicious bread with sun-dried tomato oil for dipping.  My piece, x2.

I should have held off on the basket because I ended up needing bread with my dinner as well.

I ordered the cold appetizer sampler as my entrée.  [clockwise]

  • Hummus – pureed chick peas with a hint of garlic, tahini, fresh lemon juice, and olive oil. 
  • Pilaki – pinto beans with carrots, green peppers, and diced potatoes in a light tomato and olive oil sauce.
  • Tabuli – cracked wheat tossed with tomatoes, sweet onions, fresh peppers, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil.
  • Haydari – thickened homemade yogurt with fresh dill, mint, garlic, and walnut.
  • Eggplant with tomato sauce.
  • Babaganush – smoked eggplant puree flavored with tahini, olive oil, and garlic. 
  • Ezme – finely chopped tomatoes, onions, walnuts, and hot peppers, mixed in olive oil and herbs.
  • Dolmasi – grape leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts, raisins, and flavorful herbs.

Delicious, delicious, delicious!  The babaganous and ezme were my favorites.  I did a pretty good job on my meal too.

Plus 3 more pieces of bread for dipping.  My only complaint about the dish is that it didn’t come with pita bread.

Iced Vanilla Rooibos Latte for dessert.

Plus a small square of chocolate,

and tastes of nougat that my parents brought from Canada.

End scene.

I started today with a 1 hour bike ride with my parents.

I had a small plate of food at home to tide me over.

Baby carrots,

and pretzel bread with beer cheese.

Then I ate my way through our day’s destinations.

A giant diet pop with strawberries at Sonic.

Fun stop #1 was the 2nd Street Market.

I got an arepa with cheese, black beans, and plantain.

I’ve always wanted to try an arepa so this was fun, but a little too “bready” for me; I left the bottom half of my corn cake behind.

Then I spotted Sweet P’s and my mom and I split a sea salt caramel popsicle.

Yuuuum!

Fun stop #2 was Trader Joe’s.

We loaded up a cart and I also got some brown rice sushi for the road.

TJ’s has some of the best packaged food ever but their sushi always has too much rice.  I ate half and saved the rest for later.

Dinner was an insane summer feast.

Cantaloupe,

my grandma’s delicious chicken salad (she always makes it with toasted pecans and grapes and this time she added dried cranberries),

unfried green tomatoes,

and buttered corn on the cob.

I mmmmmmmmmn’d my way through the whole meal but the corn practically killed me!

I had a big cup of Heath Bar ice cream for dessert.

Good as well, duh.

Tomorrow is our last day of family time and then on Monday we hit the road.  I’m sad to be leaving my grandma but glad to be returning to my boys.

EWT

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Eats:

Starbucks White Chocolate Energy Double Shot.

A strawberry shake (made with fresh strawberries!) split with my dad.

A rice bowl.  Brown rice, black beans, chicken, sautéed onion and pepper, lettuce, corn salsa, spicy sauce.

Pasta dinner.

Salad.

Whole-wheat spaghetti with marinara, ground chicken, peppers, and mushrooms.

Bread with butter.

2% Fage with Strawberry for breakfast this morning.

Workouts:

1 hour bike ride – lots of gliding but on a high gear – both Thursday night and Friday morning.  My butt is soooo sore!

Thoughts:

I miss my boys like crazy.  My grandma’s dog sits on the top of the couch just like Webster.

Finally, a message to my husband –

Sun Shine

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My parents didn’t actually come to visit, not yet anyway.  They will be here soon (hopefully!) and it was a good day nonetheless.

Breakfast bowl.

Plain yogurt, sliced plums, fat-free sweetened condensed milk, and cinnamon.

1 – Cinnamon on yogurt is awesome.  2 – Having an open thing of SCM in the fridge has also been awesome.

When visitors come to town Adam and I like to pretend that we don’t regularly live in squalor so we cleaned the house.  Or rather, Adam cleaned the entire house and I made the bed and put away my own laundry.

Whatever, that bedspread hasn’t been on straight since the last time my parents were here.

For lunch we split a Mike’s Sandwich from The Spot.

I ordered, and when Adam asked me what we got I told him “a bagel with cholesterol, topped with cholesterol.”  Basically it’s an everything bagel with 2 eggs, melted provolone, and cream cheese.

It’s as amazing as it sounds.

Also amazing, was my workout.  60 minutes of hot yoga.  My standing series was pretty wobbly today but I made it further in a few of the seated poses than I have before.  I always leave the hot yoga classes feeling really, really happy.

Around 5, my dad called with some news.  The good news was they were still paying for dinner.  The bad news was they wouldn’t be eating with us.  I’m pissed that we lost a whole evening of visiting and fingers are crossed that they’ll be here at 10.

But we did have a fantastic dinner.  I keep a running list of ‘places to try’ on my cell phone and today we crossed off Sun Restaurant.

Sun sells Burmese and Thai cuisine and we tried a bit of both.

We started by sharing La Peth Thoat.  Burmese-style pickled tea leaf salad combined with crispy chana dal pea, fried garlic, onion, tomato, cabbage, peanuts, and lime juice.

I strongly liked it, Adam loved it.  The tea leaves and cabbage were delicious with the lime and the fried chickpeas (crispy chana dal pea) were fun to try.

I got Pad See U – ordered “Thai spicy” – as my entrée. Thai-style stir-fried wide rice noodles with thick sweet soy sauce, egg, broccoli, Napa cabbage, and bell pepper.

This was the best Thai food we’ve had in Buffalo!  My noodles were cooked perfectly and the dish was actually spicy.  I loved it.  I ate 2/3 of my plate and only managed to stop because I am so looking forward to having leftovers.

We split a Taro Custard for dessert.  Thai-style taro custard cake with coconut milk.

We’ve had this dessert at a couple of restaurants now and I think it’s just not our thing.  We both love the bites of taro but we always end up leaving food behind.

Please cross your fingers for us that my parents get in on time so we can have fun tomorrow!

My Last Day At Twenty-Six

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Tomorrow I begin my twenty-eighth year!  Isn’t it weird how you’ve starting a year that’s older than your age?!  Today was low-key but good, a great way to wrap up 26.

I started my day with a trip to the gym, sort of.  I overslept, then I had to drive Adam’s car and couldn’t park in the gym lot, then the parking machine stopped taking my money halfway through… blah, blah, blah; I only had 16 minutes to work out.  But I made the most of them!  16 minutes on the elliptical at random level 10, with several rounds of sprint intervals.

I had to hurry because I had a 10am appointment at the Sprint Store.  Yes, again.  Several new parts later, my phone is working again.  Thank goodness for phone insurance.

I ate a big bag of green grapes on the drive.

And made a delicious mug of caffeine when I got home.

Strong cinnamon vanilla nut coffee (brewed with cinnamon!) with 1 Tbsp fat-free sweetened condensed milk.

It was amazing!  But I don’t think I enjoyed myself as much as the dog, who was breakfasting on a ginormous bone.

Gah, cuteness overload!

I got called in early to work so there was no time for a sit-down lunch but I ate this pb&j LARABAR on the walk.

A pallet of boxes came in today so I spent my entire shift tagging and sorting new inventory.

The husband and dog met me after work for a walk and when I got home at 8pm I was glad to have dinner ready and in the fridge.  Pasta with Daily Garnish’s Creamy Vegan Sweet Potato Sauce.

I skipped the Earth Balance, used dark raisins, and topped my serving with 1 tsp chipotle oil, but other than that I followed Emily’s lead.  It ended up being a very good meal.

Plain yogurt with honey and chopped nectarine for dessert.

I’m ready for another year!

The Last Three Days I’ve Been…

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…all over the place!  Figuratively speaking.  I don’t know where my head is but my meals have been less than impressive; lots of junk food, not a lot of veggies, and I keep forgetting to eat breakfast.  Adam was preparing for an important exam and between that, getting used to working, and obsessing over some new books, I’ve felt a little crazy.  It is what it is.

Friday

This was a no breakfast day.  And I didn’t manage to pack lunch before work either.  I ended up grabbing a mix of co-op salad bar.

Cucumber salad, farro salad, vegan pasta salad, and a few dolmas.

Plus a Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea.

When I got home I had chip and dip leftovers.

Plain low-fat yogurt with banana slices and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.

And a giant bowl of frosted flakes with skim milk.

I guess I didn’t have it together for dinner either.

Saturday

I ate breakfast!  Cottage cheese stirred into a Liberte Coconut Yogurt.

But I packed the stupidest lunch of all time.

A Plum Kids Strawberry Lemonade Yogurt Mashup,

and a Fiber One cookie.

Supplemented with an iced Earl Grey with skim milk.

And the last of my chips and dip when I got home.

Saturday morning Adam took the biggest, 8+ hour, most important exam he’ll take in his entire life (seriously, he’s done nothing but study the past month) so we went out for a celebratory dinner with another couple that night.

I made a small plate from the communal cheese board.

And drank a (giant?!) glass of riesling.

For dinner I ordered the pesto spatzle.

I loved the idea of the innovative pesto (romaine! pistachio! mint!) but sadly didn’t enjoy the execution.  You know that I can throw down with some heavy food but this dish was missing some desperately needed acid to cut through the richness.  I ate a few bites and figured that my chip appetizer would keep me from starving 😉

Sunday

I started my morning with Harvest Bay Coconut Water,

and chicken salad.

Plus a shake shared with the husband.

(Thank you birthday freebie coupons!)

Mid-day I headed to yoga.  60 minute hot yoga class.  Love love loved it.  This was definitely the high point of the last few days.

Then we had more ice cream; I can’t resist the allure of birthday freebies.

That’s a kid’s size vanilla frozen yogurt with reeses pb cup and cookie dough.

Veggies, chicken, and macaroni were consumed on a shopping trip.

Plus a mug of cocoa at home.

It was delicious but unnecessary.  As I wrote up this recap I was fairly disgusted by the amount of sugar (and chips!) I ate over the past three days.

Around 7:00 we hunkered down in the kitchen for a mega cooking session.  Three dishes were on the agenda – tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s dinner, and tuna casserole to freeze for Adam for the week I’m in Ohio.  Two out of three worked out.  After spending a lot of time making Janetha’s cauliflower crust pizza I covered it in marinara that turned out to be covered in mold.

Uggggh!  Adam threw out our dinner and I threw a fit on the floor.  I took a giant bite of marinara sauce before I spotted the mold so a lot of histrionic gagging went down.

Then a bunch of other shit happened and many hours later I ate nachos for dinner.

The end.

Bowls, Bites, Beans, And Books By Burroughs

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Hello, Sunday Monday!  Since I worked on Saturday and was off today, this was technically my Sunday.  Today I ate lots of good things and yesterday I cooked lots of good things.  Yesterday’s kitchen-time included coffee concentrate, dog treats, popcorn, and frozen peanut butter hot chocolate (most of those are being blogged later this week which is why I didn’t blog yesterday; whew!).

The coffee concentrate actually wasn’t very good, though the drink I made with it today was tasty.

Cold coffee instead of iced because I used the ice trays for the frozen dog treats.  In with my weak concentrate was skim milk, 2 Tbsp chocolate milk, and 1 Tbsp fat-free sweetened condensed milk.  With all of those tasty milks it kind of didn’t matter that the coffee wasn’t strong enough.

Breakfast was a two bowl affair.

A big bunch of green grapes.

And 5 oz of plain low-fat yogurt with 1.5 Tbsp Jif Chocolate Hazelnut Spread and a big sprinkle of cinnamon.

The chocolate hazelnut spread is basically a problem; I’ve eaten half a jar with a spoon in the past week!

Adam talked me into pizza for lunch.

Buffalo chicken,

blue cheese,

baby carrots.

I asked Zetti’s to cut my slice because I planned on only eating half, but as you can see that dream died before I even made it home.

Since I didn’t have to work, I filled my day with super important things like grocery shopping and laying on the couch to read an entire book.  It was an important book.

Sellevision is Augusten Burroughs‘ first novel and since I’m obsessed with his memoirs it’s been on my “to read” list for years.  I loved it.  I’m so awed by Burroughs that I have a hard time describing why he’s so amazing.  So instead of trying to recap the book for you on my own, I’m going to share an excerpt from one of his memoirs, Possible Side Effects.  (Things you need to know – Burroughs was an alcoholic.  In the chapter this excerpt is from he writes about drinking, not taking care of himself, wanting to write but not knowing how to begin, and getting locked out and having the locksmith think he was robbed because his apartment was such a mess.)

Instead of folding all the debris in the room into huge plastic trash bags, instead of giving myself a clean slate, I just sat down.  And I wrote:

“You exposed your penis on national television, Max.  What am I supposed to do?”

The line came to me automatically.  I didn’t look for it.  It was simply there.  So was the line that followed: “I didn’t expose it, Howard.  It just sort of … peeked out.”

A show host on a  home shopping channel being confronted by his boss, after the host’s penis slipped out from beneath his robe on the air, in front of millions of viewers.  Sooner or later, this was bound to happen, wasn’t it?  On live television.

Silly.  It made me laugh.  I hadn’t laughed for a year.  I kept writing.

I wrote until seven that evening.  Then I drank.  But I never reached my Place.  Instead, I thought about what I’d written during the day.  I went to bed.

The next day, I wrote more.  I started drinking later in the evening and I drank less.

By the third day, I wrote until midnight and I didn’t drink anything at all except lime seltzer water.

By the seventh day I had written a book.  At least, I thought it might be a book.  It contained one hundred and fifty pages and they were in order.  That’s more than a monkey could do.

I called it Sellevision.

I did not drink.

Love, love, love!

Transitioning now from books to beans… Adam loved our dinner.

I tried to update my recipe for vegan black bean burgers and ended up with a new, better recipe.

Cilantro Lime Black Bean Burgers, serves 4

  • 29 oz can low-sodium black beans
  • juice and zest from 1 lime
  • 1 Tbsp minced cilantro
  • 1 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 3 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp evoo
  1. In a large bowl, mash beans with a fork.  You don’t want to eliminate all of the whole beans (the texture will be better if you don’t!), just get things “mushy” enough that patties can be formed.
  2. Stir lime juice and zest, cilantro, chia seeds, and flour into beans.  Form bean mixture into 8 patties.
  3. Heat evoo in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Working in batches, cook bean burgers for two minutes on each side.

I served our burgers on big, fluffy buns, with a slice of tomato and pepperjack cheese.

And tomorrow I’m going to try something really fun with the leftovers!

Have you read any of Augusten Burroughs’ work?