Month: March 2009

Layers upon layers upon layers

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Remember when I was panicked earlier in the week about not having enough food due to lack of grocery shopping? Yeah … I needn’t have worried.

The lunch I’ve been carrying around since Wednesday got pushed to the side again today for some more urgent delights :-). Vianni brought in her famous shrimp, veggies, and rice for me to sample. I had about 1/2 cup:

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She also brought me the actual seasoning packet that she uses to flavor many of her dishes (featured here and here and here). I’m so excited that I can now Viannify my food!!!

Next, Belkis gave me an entire chicken and salsa fajita left over from a meeting yesterday! It was very cutely cut into little pieces like sushi:

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I ate it cold because the microwave was otherwise occupied, but it was delicious and very filling!

All of this eating took place as part of a new “event” my agency is trying out to build community amongst employees: brown bag staff lunches every other Friday. You bring your own lunch (or the lunch with which your amazing coworkers have provided you) to the meeting, and a few people also bring desserts (like the angel food cake here) and snacks to share.

I did my part to make sure that no snacks went to waste. Multiply what you see here by about three (or more!). I had honey pretzel twists with spinach dip, cheez-its with spinach dip, cinnamon nut rugelach with nutella, and coconut cookies with more nutella (again, x3!):

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In my parents’ group with Myrna, I continued the streak by taking part in group snack: apples and peanut butter! I probably had the equivalent of one chopped apple and 1 tbsp peanut butter (unpictured):

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After all of this, I was able to control the sugar insanity for the duration of the afternoon. I only ate two mints today, a record! Around 4:00, instead of going for the candy jar, I went for my dates and prunes:
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img_5196After I left work, I headed downtown to meet Erin Gunn (yes, of German food fame!). I was early and decided to go find samples kill some time in Whole Foods. I sampled buttered Irish soda bread, a handful of wasabi peas, 2 sandwich cookies, cashews, and cucumbers in miso dressing. I also bought the pineapple (only $2.99!), cashews, and almonds to the right. The dates, avocados, and cocoa powder came from Morton Williams where I stopped on my way home post-Erin Gunn. These foods are more expensive than what I normally buy, but again, I only spent $5 on groceries last week, so I have a little wiggle room this week! Grocery total so far: $22.

Since I was the farthest thing from hungry ever, Erin and I split a pot of tea and a salad at teany (review to come shortly) and then headed over to Kenny’s Castaways for the main event: a show by her friend’s band, Wesley Jeremiah.

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Erin had beer; I had water (pretty standard unless there’s karaoke involved …):

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(Keep in mind that, throughout all of this, I was lugging around a pineapple, among other things. I felt kind of like Baby with her watermelon.)

img_5197I got home around 10:30, just in time to help my roommate Brigitte with the first of her birthday celebrations (her birthday is on Thursday). Brigitte’s friend Katie is staying with us and made a surprise birthday cake for tonight.

I “agreed” to have just a little teeny piece. Until I realized that this was not just a regular cake but rather a no-bake chocolate-wafer-and-whipped-cream cake … aka a giant log of oreo goodness. I added another little piece to my little piece. And another little piece to those pieces.

Here’s my tower:

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There were chocolate and peanut butter shavings on top …

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And layering perfection:

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Good thing Kate and I have 9 miles planned for tomorrow morning :-D.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday night!

Guest Post: Erin’s Tale of Expansion

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You’ve heard me talk about my friend Erin Gunn many times. She’s one of my oldest and favorite friends from high school, and she still lives semi-close to me now. I like to plan escapes to her house when I need a break from the city (and when I miss her), and she always takes such good care of me, even going as far as overnighting my camera battery to me when I forgot it there last month! Here’s your chance to meet Erin for yourself as she shares her very own tale of expansion.

Ever since our family trip to Germany in October of 2006, we’ve been in love with the culture, particularly the beer and the food!

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Mike and I recently visited my sister Catherine in Maine, and we came up with the idea of recreating our time in Germany with a homemade German feast. Catherine and I went crazy taking pictures of our night because we were so excited about sending them in to TOE!

For an appetizer, I made potato pancakes: basically just grated potato and onion fried on each side until golden brown and served with applesauce. We ended up adding mustard because it tasted amazing mixed with the applesauce.

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Throughout the evening, we sampled some dunkel (dark beer) and wiesse (hefe weizen) beers.

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For the main course, I battered and fried some schnitzel (chicken) and we had bratwurst baked in kraut with beer and onions.

Catherine made an amazingly easy spaetzle (short noodles) using flour, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. You push the dough through a colander — or a pizza pan in our case — into boiling salted water, and it makes these cute little noodles. Once cooked, you toss it with some butter and pepper.

Kip, my brother-in-law, made his gram’s famous stuffed cabbage. It’s a whole lot of seasoned meat rolled into a cabbage leaf and cooked for an hour or so in rich tomato sauce. Definitely a hearty side dish!

Here’s the whole meal together:

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We all ate until we couldn’t move.

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Gretchen, my niece, didn’t seem too impressed with the spread … guess she’s not ready for spaetzle just yet.

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After dinner, we had some store-bought streudel (you can’t make everything) and listened to our favorite record.

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The next morning, Catherine made an amazing “hash.” She thin-sliced sweet potatoes and cooked them with sausage and tons of spices. The breakfast was served with a fried egg and topped with fresh chopped tomato and jalapeno.

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It was the perfect German feast!

Erin, thanks for sharing your meal! T.O.E. always accepts submissions for guest posts. If you have a tale of expansion you’d like to share, email a description and pictures to talesofexpansion@gmail.com.

And go check out the new Foods That Fit — and celebratory giveaway contest — right here!

Sprinkles, icing, and parental advice

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As of Wednesday night, I did not feel like the week was moving quickly AT ALL. But as of this morning, I feel like it has flown! How did that happen?

Quick rewind to last night. Dinner was simple but delicious. I had a morningstar asian veggie patty (the last one — so sad!), half of a baked sweet potato dolloped with plain yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon, and a market sample toastie with sample cheese:

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I was clearly in a frozen treat mood yesterday, so I got some homemade froyo going in the freezer while I was eating dinner. This mix included 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, 1/2 cup pumpkin (for volumizing purposes), 1 tsp peanut butter, and a chopped piece of lindt hazelnut chocolate. Oh, and also a market sample almondine cookie. And light whipped cream. And more sprinkles (because my dad told me that brown foods don’t look pretty or appetizing on the blog).

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And then I had one more piece of hazelnut chocolate because I really wanted it:

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This morning at the gym, I did arms and steps and racked up the following stats: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 435 calories, 126 average heart rate, 170 max.

And breakfast was the same it’s been all week. Doesn’t taste old yet, though! (I don’t think my crockpot oats will ever taste old to me.) One cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, unsweetened coconut, crumbled grahams, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin seeds:

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And can’t forget the soymilky black tea on the side:

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I ate strategically to make the cream cheese icing outlast the oats because I had a plan for breakfast part 2! I mixed the rest of the icing with about 2/3 cup of canned pumpkin and the appropriate spices for a bit of pumpkin pie pudding 🙂

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On an unrelated sidenote, my mom left me a comment yesterday and said, among other things: “Wow, are you giving me such great cooking and eating ideas. I love it and you, too! Love and xoxoxoxox, om.” A second later, she left this comment: “I don’t mean the yoga om, obviously. It’s a typo. Mom.” I thought that was a very cute mom moment, and I had to share!

Funny how both of my parents showed up in this post. Have you received any useful/funny parental or family input this week?


With sprinkles on top

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Thursday is my wake-up-to-sunlight day, and I love it! I got up at 6:30 this morning so I could enjoy a sunrise run through the park. My motivation faltered significantly when I got outside and felt how cold it was. All my muscles tightened up, and my legs just did not want to move! But I told myself I could run as slow as I wanted and turn around if I needed to, and I ended up doing a whole lap of the park plus a teeny bit extra. It was so gorgeous out there with everything all snow-covered … but it was kind of lost on me because I am ready to see some green! Stats: 4.1 miles, 45 minutes, 342 calories, average heart rate 144, max 169.

I had planned to do the 20-minute Gentle Hatha #1 yogadownload when I got home, but I just didn’t have it in me! I did a few pigeons, dogs, and child’s poses on my own instead.

Breakfast was another cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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With 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cumbled graham sticks, cinnamon, and ginger:

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And soymilky black tea:

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During class, I snacked on 1.5 black bean-salmon patties dipped in 2 tbsp peanut-butter-pumpkin-roasted-red-pepper-hummus:

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Don’t judge. It was delicious.

I also ate 2 dates and 2 prunes for snack dessert:

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We had advisement after class, so I brought along a full lunch to carry me through, including what I made Tuesday night when I realized how low on produce I was. After rummaging through the depths of my cabinets and freezer, I came up with a can of chickpeas, a box of frozen spinach, and a can of tomato sauce. Seemed like cause for Indian food to me! I quickly threw together this dal with some adjustments (scallions in place of the onions I didn’t have, tomato sauce in place of the tomatoes I didn’t have, cardamom plus every spice in my cabinet in place of the garam masala I didn’t have, sweet potato pieces because I did have them and thought they’d be fun in it) and added in about 3/4 cup cooked brown basmati rice. Here’s today’s one-cup portion:

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With my “pumpkin plus” yogurt:

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After advisement, Emily, Lisa, and I stayed on to touch base for the group presentation we’re giving next week (about infant adoption, yay!). I was thoroughly drained when it was all said and done and needed some Tasti-D stat:

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I got a swirl of dulce de leche and burnt sugar (which, in reality, tasted like fancy names for vanilla and chocolate). But it was still very tasti:

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With sprinkles on top, obviously, because what is ice cream without sprinkles?

I’m finally home and contemplating things like dinner and the Fridayness of tomorrow.

What do YOU put on top?

Bien grande

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That title applies to my lunch …

And subsequently to my stomach.

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When Mildred and I left the site visit this morning, it was just about time for lunch. Her husband works in the neighborhood where we were, so he came and joined us for an impromptu Mexican feast. I was actually just going to eat the lunch I had packed while they ordered their meals, but Mildred insisted that I “let” her treat me … so I did. I’m nothing if not compliant ;-). I ate loads of those chips above — they were still hot! — and most of the guacamole and salsa.

I ordered the most beautiful chicken quesadilla:

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(By the way, this was a real Mexican restaurant with no sort of fancy whole wheat, fat-free/soy cheese, yogurt-instead-of-sour-cream options. Sometimes, you just need to roll with it!)

I ate the whooooooole thing. Riccardo got another dish of guac, and I used that to smother the quesadilla post-picture, too 😀

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Plus tostones (x3!):

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And some of Riccardo’s fish (x2!) and all of the onions and peppers that came with it (unpictured):

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On our way out, I grabbed this candy to eat because it was pretty:

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Phew, I was F-U-L-L. No need for dinner tonight. Thank you, Mildred, for supporting me through two whole meals!! The lunch I had packed is resting securely in the fridge at work to await Friday’s lunch (no work tomorrow because I have class).

Back at the office, however, I did still go a little sugar-wild with a strawberry lollipop:

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And a baby Heath bar bite:

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And approximately four unpictured mints. And the two dates and two prunes extracted from my packed lunch:

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I’m home now and snuggled in my pjs with a mug of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and an evening palate cleanser of 1/3 cup yogurt mixed with about 2 tbsp of my morning pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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What size is your belly today, and why?

(Pssssssst, have you seen the new developments at Healthing It? Go check now because there may me something (i.e. something free!) in it for you …)