A long trail of goop

Happy Wednesday! I got a whole 15 extra minutes of sleep this morning because I had to meet a coworker at 9:30 for a site visit close-ish to my apartment before we went up to the office together. Fifteen minutes made a big difference — so much more sunlight! Gym was arms and steps — stats: 1 hour and 9 minutes, 424 calories, 128 average heart rate, 175 max.

Breakfast was the flavor of the week: pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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With the usual extras of 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 crumbled graham sticks, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, coconut, ginger:

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And soymilky black tea hot chocolate on the side:

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I decided last minute that I wanted hot chocolate instead of tea, so I dumped my soymilky black tea into a saucepan and whisked in 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp sugar in the raw, 1 tsp chunky peanut butter, cinnamon, and cayenne to make my favorite spicy cinnamon pb hot chocolate:

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I also put a squirt of light whipped cream on top, but it melted too fast for me to get a picture! The best part about making cocoa with this way is the treat at the end — a long trail of peanutty chocolate goop at the bottom of the mug:

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Mmmmmmm!

Which bite do you prefer most — the first or the last?

ALERT: Lindsay has an exciting giveaway featuring oats — how relevant, right? — on her blog Love of Oats right now! Hurry to enter before 5pm!

Patty-cake

But not the kind of cakes I usually fall prey to at work, thank goodness!

Mid-morning snack was more “yogurt of the week,” aka fresh pumpkin yogurt with every fruit/spice under the sun and golean crunch:

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Really one of the most delicious combos in the world. Anything with yogurt and golean crunch (especially when it’s had the chance to get soggy) takes the cake, HA.

And then came the real cakes! Three (yes, three — need to get my apple in somehow!) Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties:

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Lunch was super short on fresh produce since I have none in the house (since I basically decided I didn’t need to grocery shop over the weekend and did not adequately think through the week!), but my coworkers helped me out as usual. In addition to my wrinkly roommate grape tomatoes, I also ate the tomato slice from Myrna’s sandiwich and some of Belkis’ steamed veggies:

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Dessert was a special treat from the tissue box! A dark chocolate caramel Ghirardelli Square from Rosalie:

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And then, throughout the afternoon, I stumbled upon dessert numbers 2 through 5 because Belkis refilled her candy jar and I took a candy with me for moral support each time I needed to leave my desk and/or brave the artic chill outside:

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(Don’t be fooled by the mini-pictures. Those are some sizable candies!)

Mid-afternoon snack was another desperate attempt for produce/protein. I had 3 Kavli crispy thin crackers (in pieces) with a combo of pumpkin, roasted red pepper hummus, and peanut butter that I whipped together from the ends of containers last night (there are about 2 tbsp in that little cup):

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And a later mid-afternoon snack (or another throughout-the-day snack, as it turned out) of toasted pumpkin seeds, two dates, and two prunes

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Which I followed with a little spoonful (maybe 1/2 tbsp) of office peanut butter (aka crunchy skippy):

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I don’t know what the deal was today — I was so munchy! My lunch didn’t do its job, and I don’t have all the produce on hand for snacking like I usually do. What was I thinking?? I don’t have time to go to the store, so I’ll have to scrounge around for something extra tonight.

My final snack of the work day was this 100 calorie candy pack that’s also been hiding in my tissue box:

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I was excited about this pack because Oreos (or any cream-filled sandwich cookie, really) are my favorite type of cookie. But while these candies were filled with that unique chocolate-cookie crunch, the most critical component of the cookie was missing: the cream!! Serious oversight on the part of the 100 calorie people. If that chocolate coating is supposed to stand in for the cream, it does a poor, poor job of it. An Oreo is not an Oreo without the cream.

When I got home, I started rummaging through all my emergency “shelf-stable” food to see what I could rustle up as a lunch supplement for the rest of the week. I’m excited about what I made … but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the debut ;-).

Dinner was the last of my asparagus, steamed, with a piece of baked sweet potato and a toasted morningstar farms Asian veggie pattie (and a sprinkle of my homemade parmesan of course):

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Mmmmm, love those patties!

Dessert was a return of my favorite combo: 2/3 cup golean crunch (the rest of the box) mixed with 1/2 cup of yogurt. I let it sit and “marinate” while I cooked the lunch food and dinner, so it was perfectly tender when I finally got around to it:

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Ahhhhhh, so good! I could eat Kashi GoLean Crunch for every meal and still be such a happy camper.

Is there a food that you can imagine eating at every meal without getting bored?

Back to bundled

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I had to resort to layers again this morning to get to the gym. I thought we were past all this nasty weather! I did the 45-minute treadmill run (still love it!). Stats: 1 hour and 4 minutes, 501 calories, average heart rate 145, max 175.

Breakfast was more pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup yogurt, unsweetened coconut, crumbled graham sticks, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and ginger:

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With soymilky tea and water:

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Some other things:

– How weird is that West 53rd Street will now be known as U2 Way?

– Vegan fashion expert and occasional T.O.E. guest poster (here and here), The Professional Vegan, has ventured into the kitchen once again. Check out her latest projects!

– Win a chance to make your own granola at Fit for Free!

Can you make the cold go away?

No rest for the snowy

Just as I predicted this morning, today was business as usual (40 minute subway delay aside, grrrrr). By the time I got to work, I didn’t even have time for my usual snack before running out for my first visit at 10:45! I dove into lunch when I got back around 12:30.

The other half of yesterday’s quesadilla, deconstructed :-):

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And a cup of fresh pumpkin yogurt (also with apples, banana, dates, prunes, golean crunch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves — I clearly went a little ingredient-happy, but it was delicious!):

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The end of my baby carrots (still left from last week’s work meeting) and a tbsp peanut butter:

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Lunch dessert was one prune and one date (saved the others for dinner):

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And a big strawberry lollipop to power me through the freezing, windy 20-minute snow- and slush- walk to my afternoon visit:

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Sadly, the mom was not home. All that sloshy walking for nothing! Except the exercise, I suppose. Maybe it balanced out the lollipop?

I was legitimately hungry from all the “exertion,” so I had this bar around 3:30:

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Again, it was tasty … but too processed for me to want to go out and buy it for real.

At about this point, I realized I had not planned so well for the day. I think I was kind of expecting something to get cancelled along the way (don’t know why since nothing ever does around here), but no go! The only thing that got cancelled was the Monday parents’ group with Inginia, during which I usually partake in one of Inginia’s scrumptious group lunches! With no group and my evening class still on at Hunter, I was definitely short a meal.

I contemplated my food planning failure while chewing on this fruity tootsie:

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I came to the conclusion that there was no way around having to spend some money, which I figure is ok since I only spent $5 on groceries this week anyway (a gallon of milk for yogurt and a can of black beans for the BSI) — though I might need to tend to that now that I see how low on food I really am!

Anyway, here’s the dinner I managed to put together for class:

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I paid $4 for that baby cup of white bean, broccoli, and sun-dried tomato soup from Hale & Hearty:

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Plus my weekly manchego cheese samples from Butterfield Market:

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An apple from home (my last one — what will I do tomorrow??):

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My other prune and date and two Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookie pieces (also samples from the market!):

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And somehow, Emily couldn’t finish the oatmeal raisin cookie that she brought to class as her dinner, so she let me do the honors.

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Thanks, Emily!

And that’s that! I did a bit more nibbling tonight as I prepped tomorrow’s lunch (think big spoonfuls of pumpkin yogurt and golean crunch falling into my mouth by accident …) which I hope gets me through the day without necessitating any more extra expenditures!

Here are some things that are more noteworthy than my evening nibbles:

1. Spiceaholic at One Bite at a Time is hosting this week’s BSI. Make sure to visit her so you can find out the new secret ingredient! And congrats to Becca for winning last week’s contest with her Black Bean & Avocado Cornmeal Muffins!

2. Comment for a cause! All you have to do to contribute to this food drive is leave a comment for the very generous athlEAT here.

3. Finally, go win some more bars with Strawberry Shortstuff. She has tons to give away!!

Do you ever get tired of free stuff? I do NOT! 😀

Snow blah blah blah blah

Spring, come back. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

My alarm went off at 5am this morning for the gym. I pulled the curtain aside and saw this:

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Grrrrrrr. If you don’t have night vision (what’s wrong with you???), that’s about six inches on my balcony railing. I knew the sidewalks and roads would not have been shoveled/plowed yet and decided to forgo exercise. I set the alarm for another hour, but I could not fall back asleep!! I hate that.

At 6am, it looked the same but lighter:

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So, we have six inches, and NYC public schools are closed due to weather for the first time in five years. But I’m pretty sure my agency is still open, and I’m pretty sure that Hunter won’t be canceling evening classes. So it’s business as usual for me!

Breakfast was a cup of the pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats I made yesterday:

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Dressed up with 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 crumbled graham sticks, unsweetened coconut, pumpkin seeds, ginger, and cinnamon:

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With tea and snow:

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Do you have special snow plans today?

(You should make sure these plans include visits to see the most extensive giveaway ever at One Frugal Foodie AND the brilliant 200th post-iversary celebration prize pack at Krista’s Kravings.)