Like a Saftey

Confession – in order to write my clever title I had to Google “football players who tackle.”  And I was a cheerleader.

Anyway, that’s what this weekend has been about, tackling my to-do list:

Hooray!

I tackled two weeks worth of laundry (actually, the husband tackled this, but I folded!),

I tackled the pile of outgoing mail,

I tackled my huge stack of unsorted magazine clippings,

I tackled my planner for the semester,

And more!  I didn’t work the whole weekend, but I did more in two days than I’ve done in two weeks.

Breakfast this morning had a mix of carbs and protein to fuel me up.

That’s a plan fat-free yogurt with Crofter’s Strawberry Jam stirred in, topped with Kashi H2H and some chunky peanut butter.

So good!  Peanut Butter and I have totally resparked our love affair lately.

Around noon I headed out to run some errands at school and replenish our food stores.  Wegman’s was terrible this afternoon – the hot bar was barely stocked and the store was packed.  Nonetheless, I managed to carve out a booth of calm and spend an hour tackling my NYE resolution to read more.

Eating materials, hot bar Asian style veggies, potatoes, and sweet and sour chicken.

Reading materials, The Food of a Younger Land, Mark Kurlansky.

When I got home from pushing my way through the hoards I snacked  on a mini bag of kettle corn and a glass of skim milk.

Dinner involved some prep throughout the day – chicken getting soft and shreddable in the crock pot, red onions caramelizing on the stove – but the end result was beyond worth it –

Bbq chicken pizza with caramelized red onions and gouda!

I topped a store-bought crust with caramelized red onions, shredded chicken tossed with bbq sauce, and gouda, and 10minutes later I had pure, steamy bliss.

Bliss served with a side of roasted asparagus.

It was a pretty heavenly dinner.

Dessert was from the bulk bins; yogurt pretzels, chocolate pretzels, and a piece of local sponge candy.

I’ve got to go shower and get my beauty sleep; school starts tomorrow!

Blojo, It’s Not What You’re Thinking

I don’t know what my deal is lately, I have lost all my blojo (that’s blog mojo, fyi).  Sometimes I run out of time to blog, or sometimes I’m just too lazy, but the other day I actually forgot to blog before bed.  That’s crazy!  As I spend my last days before the semester begins relishing my time as a slug, I guess my eats have been pretty forgettable though.  Sort of like the pizza we ordered for dinner tonight 😉

While we wait for that delivery, I might as well fill you in on my day.  Like breakfast.

A slice of cinnamon sugar toast with Smart Balance Light, on a rye/pumpernickel swirl.

Plus a tasty yogurt bowl; 0% Plain Oikos, honey, pb, and a chopped banana.

This was the high point of my day nutritionally, – which shouldn’t be hard because Greek yogurt is pretty nutritionally impressive – mostly because lunch came in the form of corn, popped and kettled.

And several handfuls of cheezits.

Hello, carbs.

It’s time for another trip to the store but with 10* weather I’m having a hard time finding the motivation (hence the pizza dinner delivery).  However, I realize that the lack of fruits and veggies is effecting the rest of my motivation; the motivation that gets me off the couch or prompts me to write a decent blog post.  Dare I say school on Monday might be the best thing to happen to me all month?

How do you keep up your blojo?

Representative, REPRESENTATIVE!

Woo-whee, today has been a frustrating day!  This morning I lost two hours of my life to customer representatives, two hours I’ll never get back.  Can I just say – I hate automated phone systems!

I didn’t have time to go to the grocery store until much later than planned, so most of the day’s eats were random things from my almost bare fridge.  1.5Tbsp of cheese spread with Mary’s Gone Crackers.

A mug of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows.

And the last of the Plain Siggi’s.  I introduced Siggi’s to Adam this week and he totally fell in love, I’m so proud!

I drizzled the last serving with honey and a serving of chunky pb.

Divine.

We couldn’t get to the store until after 7pm, so we ended up picking up dinner at Moe’s while we were out.

Chips, queso dip, and a buffalo chicken burrito.

For dessert I munched on the random grab bag of candy I picked up from the bulk bins.

And we watched Futurama while we ate, it was the perfect evening to counteract my  annoying morning!

STT; Tuesday Night – Wednesday Afternoon

One by one, all of our fancy anniversary plans fell through. In the end, we got takeout and played board games with my parents. It was perfect.

Tofu pad thai, cashew chicken, and crab Rangoon.

I did some snacking earlier in the afternoon as well; half a sandwich for lunch was not cutting it.

Apple slices, beer bread with cheese,

and a brownie.

And during board games I showed the husband how much I love him by letting him share my favorite thing on earth –

This candy is basically just a cake of sugar soaked in peppermint oil, it’s fantastic. Minty and crunchy, it reminds you of getting your teeth brushed at the dentist in the best possible way.

Breakfast this morning was 0% Fage with half a sliced banana and a piece of coffee cake.

I also took some gingerbread coffee with skim milk to go while running errands with my dad.

For lunch I toasted a huge chunk of beer bread and topped it with hot pepper raspberry jam and melted swiss.

Yum!

The rest of the day brings a swim (we’ve gotten in a small workout every single vacation day, I’ll be darned if I miss today!), a movie, and dinner.  I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last day here!

What do you do to celebrate anniversaries?

STT; Merry Christmas – Sunday Afternoon

I hope everyone had happy holidays!  Adam and I have been feeling extremely blessed.  I’m also feeling busy, I hate how brief I have to make these recaps!

Ok, back to Friday afternoon.  Since we had already paid the daily admission fee, Adam and I headed back to Magen’s beach.  He swam, I read a magazine, and we both clapped in delight over these signs –

On the way back, we had to hit up an island institution.

Going to St. Thomas without making a stop at the dairy is practically criminal!  Adam and I split a Bailey’s Delight, made with rum raisin ice cream, egg nog, and brandy.

Then it was time for the final prep for our big Christmas Eve party.  A family friend who knows we usually just have to scrounge on the 24th brought over turkey chilli with kidney beans for dinner.

The rest of the evening’s eats were indeed party food.  I have no pictures from the actual party, but you can assume I ate at least one of everything, and that it was all delicious!

My hot pepper peach cheese ball.

Baked spinach and artichoke dip.

Baked brie topped with cranberries and walnuts.

Dippers.

Pinwheels.

Fixings for mini turkey sandwiches.

Mini bagels with cream cheese and lox.

Frosted shortbread.

Snowballs, macaroons, and 7-layer bars.

We were also fully stocked with booze.  I spent most of my evening carrying around a tray of tequilla shots – it’s a Christmas tradition!  And while I did manage to skip that particular tradition, I got so wasted on orange juice with Goldshlager (don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it!) that Adam had to pour me into bed.

Christmas morning began the best possible way – with a light workout!  Adam and I ran for about a mile near the beach, then hiked the mile home.  It was a short workout, but considering that we had double hangovers and presents to open, I’m pretty proud of us.

A small glass of egg nog was consumed during stockings,

and then a lovely breakfast before presents.

Sidenote – our family does stockings, breakfast, then presents.  Always.  What was your Christmas morning tradition?

Gingerbread coffee with 2% milk,

a small plate of eggs with red and green pepper and Applegate Farms turkey bacon,

and a 0% Plain Chobani with a slice of coffee cake.

I should have given myself a bigger serving of eggs, I gave away most of my bacon/yogurt/cake.  In spite of our refreshing run, I think my nighttime imbibing had made me a little picky.

Not too picky, however, to turn down a big handful of maple sugar cotton candy(!!).

After present opening (which was plentiful – thank’s mom and dad!) there was lunch.

Apple slices and baby carrots,

and crackers with leftover hot pepper peach and spinach dip.

Plus dessert.

Dinner was consumed at my aunt’s house, with a large group of family and friends.

Plus a slice of garlic bread,

and a slice of delicious yellow cake with blueberry jam and vanilla buttercream.

I helped with the frosting, pulling a recipe from Eat, Live, Run that was to die for.

This morning started with another light workout.  Adam and I walked up and down the beach for 45minutes, then hiked the mill uphill homeward.  I wore my heart rate monitor and was pleasantly surprised that our 1hour, 11minute workout killed 290calories.  It’s nice to know that our sand trudging burned up more than the back of my leg muscles.

Lunch was leftovers. 

Turkey chilli,

 and macaroni and cheese made with swiss cheese, chives, and white truffle flavored oil.

Sidenote – my cousin made the mac and cheese for Christmas dinner and the husband liked it so much he went back for thirds!

I also ate the final serving of Junior Mints,

which helped fuel me up for…. a long nap!

We are at school now, and rest of the day’s agenda is movies, dinner, maybe drinks with friends.  See you soon!

Tastes Tropical

Whooops, tomorrow’s my last early morning of 2010 and I’m late to bed!  I need to get showered and bedded so I do well on my presentation tomorrow.  And also so I remember to wear a watch, which I never do but need to for said presentation.

I spent most of my evening reorganizing all of my notecards and binders, for an OCD-freak like me it was pretty glorious.  I also worked on an application, finished my project, and went to UPS.

By the time we were headed home with our package the husband and I were both snippy with hunger, so he made a pit stop at Moe’s.  I stuck with my dinner plans, but I did devour a TON of his tortilla chips.

My salad was much more exciting in my head before I realized that there were chips in the other room.

Still pretty good though.  A butter lettuce base with Newman’s Asian Sesame dressing, orange slices, peas, and pulverized coconut.

Tasted light and tropical.

My whole meal was pretty tropical actually, because my protein/dessert (<– it can be both!) was 2% Plain Chobani with key lime pie.

Yuuuuuuuum!  This combination is seriously even better than just straight up key lime pie.

Think well-spoken thoughts for me tomorrow, please!

Have you ever had key lime pie?  Lots of people in my food lab had not, which surprised me.

Almost Done!

I’m done!  Well, almost done; I have a presentation tomorrow morning but it’s so easy I can basically say – “I’m done!”

This morning started off with a seasonal favorite,

nog overnight oats.

Last night I mixed together 1/4 cup oats and 1/2 cup Silk Soy Nog, and this morning I stirred in a Yoplait Fiber One Vanilla yogurt and a healthy shake of nutmeg.

Topped with Christmas sprinkles, of course.

I headed to campus early today, I was on foot and I wanted to make sure I had time to return my book rentals and gym it before my exam.  Book buy-back was a total failure, but the gym was a success.  I took my notecards to the treadmill for 45minutes of brisk walking on a slight incline.  2.6miles later, and I knew my stuff.

Sort of.  My exam was pretty polarized – I got a definite 100% on all the cumulative material but I’m pretty sure I failed all of the new material.  Which is extra embarrassing because the new material was on reproduction.  I failed an exam on the menstrual cycle?  Way to be a 25-year-old FEMALE, Emily. 

Also fun?  When you fumble on the treadmill and your “vagina” notecard goes flying back into the cute boy working out behind you and he has to get off of his elliptical to bring it to you.  “Oh god, I have an Anatomy exam today!  I’m not studying up for a sex change, I swear!”  Way to make it less awkward, Emily.

I had a short break between the my exam and meeting with my presentation group, so I dug into my lunch from home.

That baggie of carrots was consumed alongside Monday’s sandwich twin, Arnold’s Whole Grain White Sandwich Thin, 1 slice 2% Provolone, 3 slices Applegate Farm’s Turkey Bologna.

Good lunch, good meeting, quick walk home, and I’m done!

A question for the females (Adam knows more than me and it’s embarrassing, so no men allowed) – if you had to take an exam on your reproductive cycle, how do you think you’d do?

Take-home Test Tuesday

The husband and I (he was home from school too) had a nice lazy morning today.  Lots of kissing, no rushing, and plenty of staying in bed until 9.  I wish I could relax all day; to bad I’ve got a take-home test to tackle and my most important exam tomorrow!

I knew I needed a breakfast that was healthy, hearty (protein), and a little fun too.

Mission accomplished.

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail asking me if I’d like to try the new yogurts from Yoplait and Fiber One.  I’m pretty loyal to Greek yogurt, but when I stray Yoplait almost never lets me down (their Greek is pretty great too!).  Pretty soon, Vanilla and Strawberry arrived in the mail.

The yogurt is also available in Key Lime and Peach.  Sidenote – I will definitely be on the lookout for key lime, yum!

I was disappointed by the ingredients list (Michael Pollan would not be impressed), but definitely pleased by the nutritionals.

Since 50calories is a little low for breakfast to me, I decided to try both flavors in today’s bowl.

P.S. That meant that my breakfast based had 10grams of fiber and 6grams of protein, booyah!

Eaten atop a sliced banana, under a sprinkle of gingerbread flax granola.

Mmmmn.

I wasn’t expecting to be all that impressed with the flavors – I take my fake sugars in diet soda, thank you – but I was very pleasantly surprised.  The strawberry had big chunks of real strawberry and the vanilla was lushiously creamy.  Plus they were pretty thick, for non-Greek. 

I’d say B+.  If you usually eat plain yogurt (especially Greek) I wouldn’t make a permanent switch.  But if you are a flavored yogurt eater then these are a definite upgrade.

My morning’s also included some Wegman’s eggnog coffee with skim milk and nutmeg.

Fully caffeine buzzed, I’m off to hit the books!

What kind of yogurt do you eat?