Month: March 2009

Subway sleeper

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Breakfast this morning was my final portion of Almond-Infused Rosemary-Lemonade crockpot oats:

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I’m really so pleased with how these turned out — I think lemon is going to be making more appearances in my oats! The long slow cook in the crockpot seemed to take away all of the sourness, leaving just a sweet, lemonade-y taste of summer — something I definitely needed this morning after my foray to the gym in weather that has returned to the 20s!

With the oats, I had 1/2 cup yogurt, 3 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses, 1 tsp of my properly creamed homemade almond-cashew butter, unsweetened coconut, and 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola:

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With water and soymilky black tea on the side!

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At the gym, I did my arms and steps: 1 hour and 15 minutes, 440 calories, average heart rate 126, max 165. During what was supposed to be my mini-vacation from meaningful thought on the Stairmill with Us Weekly, I got worked up about all the drama with Rihanna and Chris Brown. Sure, them getting back together sends a terrible message to all young girls out there about accepting domestic violence, but who is reporting this message??? THE GOSSIP MAGS!! Can they please quit tossing around blame and instead examine why and how they play a role in allowing the values of celebrities to dictate those of the world?

So, thank you, Us Weekly, for giving me that glorious, much-needed 30-minute mental break this morning. … Just kidding.  I had to take my mental break on the subway instead and snuggled into my scarf and coat for a solid 30 minute nap from Bleecker to 116th. Take that, trashy magazines! I will be coming after you when I wake up with no purse and no shoes …

Where and how do you take your mental breaks?

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

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That’s what my oven sounded like all night last night!  I’ve had so many kitchen adventures in the past 12 hours, and they’re all starting to pile up on me. Here’s a long and time-consuming quick recap.

I baked my BSI: Strawberries entry (recipe to come soon) yesterday afternoon and had to taste-test half of one right out of the oven:
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Mmmm, I have so many ideas for how to incorporate these into my meals/desserts! I also had plenty of the batter while mixing. The batter may have even tasted better than the finished product 🙂

Next, I tried my first ever RiceWorks brown rice chip in Sea Salt flavor while I packed tomorrow’s lunch — it was tasty enough, but I probably wouldn’t ever spend money on a bag of these (I got the bag for free with a coupon).

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Dinner last night was all courtesy of my trusty oven. I slathered half a block’s worth of tofu slices with Country Bob’s all-purpose sauce and baked until crispy. I had half of the tofu I cooked with half of a grilled portalbello mushroom cap that roommate Tara asked me to take care of for her before it went bad (the other half of each will make an appearance in my lunch later today … I think), quartered and roasted brussels sprouts, a few salvageable chunks of Brigitte’s romaine from the crisper, and a sprinkle of my homemade parmesan
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Blackened edges are my favorite!

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Dessert was a compilation of treats. I toasted the end slice of Brigitte’s gram’s zucchini bread and topped it with 2 tbsp chocolate mousse and 2 chopped strawberries.

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On the side I had the other half of my BSI: Strawberries creation.

How rich does this look?? (And it tasted even richer!)

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Oh, and remember when I conceded defeat to my cuisinart mini-prep plus when all it gave me was nut dust (delicious nut dust, to be fair) instead of the butter I was after?? Reading Heather’s post last night got me inspired to try again. I roasted up a load of cashews and almonds and threw them back into the processor — this time for nearly 10 minutes (I had to hold the button down the whole time because that’s how fancy my kitchen appliances are), as per Heather’s instructions — and it actually worked!! Look at the creamy nut butteryness:

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Thank you, Heather, for helping me emerge victorious from the food processor battle. Never again will I pay too much money for nut butter that cannot possibly compare to homemade.

I had to try some right away on top of a date. I swear there’s a date hiding somewhere under there. (And yes, you still see some nut dust — it’s from the side of the processor bowl that I obviously scraped clean before washing because crumbs are not allowed to go down the drain.)

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And I probably also had a small spoonful of vanilla ice cream with a chopped Hershey’s Kiss right before I went to bed …

Today’s biggest news is that, oh my goodness, I have giveaways coming out of my ears! A rundown:

  1. Click here if you like donuts because Food Snob has two dozen of them!
  2. And click here if you’re hangry because you’re out of juice and want to be able to make your own.
  3. Click here if you’re feeling short on southern charm (or if you just really like New Orleans cuisine).
  4. Click here if you’re into granola customization (and who isn’t?).
  5. Click here if you love seasonal produce, especially of the sort that means spring is here!!
  6. And finally, click here if you are not opposed to birthdays and chocolate

Phewwwww, I’m ready to go back to bed after explaining all of that! But, alas, it is time to go to work :-). I’ll be back later with breakfast, a workout, and potentially some surprise food encounters.

How have your kitchen appliances come through for YOU?

Belly respect

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Usually, I try to hold out on eating until the very very end of class because I want my lunch to carry me through until I can get home — especially if I have to stay at school a little bit later. Today, however, I knew I’d be leaving right at 1pm and coming home for a run. I’ve been reading Intuitive Eating, and I decided to take the authors’ advice and “honor my hunger” even though it came earlier than normal.

I started at 11:15 with 2 tbsp homemade guac and my last 2 Kavli crispy thin crackers:

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I waited a few, but the hunger was still around. I broke into part two at 11:30. It might make you gag even though it was delicious, so skip on ahead if odd food combos make you ill. Last night, I scrambled an egg yolk left from making the basil-spice meringue kisses with a sweet ‘n’ spicy black bean-salmon patty and frozen peas! I also mixed in half of a chopped apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

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I ate it cold in class … because I was in class. It was strangely satisfying, and I wanted more when I finished. But there was no more!

And 15 minutes later, I was onto the yogurt — same mix as yesterday with chopped pear, chopped banana, nutmeg, and golean crunch:

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At 12:02, I honored my real dessert craving with a chocolate heart:

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Normally, having an entire hour left of class with no food to keep me busy would make me restless to no end, but I felt so comfortable that I was able to be more focused on the discussion than I usually am. I think I will start honoring my hunger when it happens more often :-D.

When I got home at 2, I stovetop-popped a single serving bag (rescued from work!) of microwave kettle corn and sprinkled it with cinnamon and cayenne:

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Mmmmmm, kettle corn is amazing.

I had a couple bites of yogurt and granola while packing lunch for tomorrow, and then I decided to get some errands taken care off on this rare free afternoon.  I ran the long way to the grocery store — approx 4 miles out of the way around the park, to be exact. This run was perfect — it was mid-40s, sunny, not a cloud in sight, and I just enjoyed the weather and being out among the living in the middle of the day! I spent most of the run thinking up ideas for this week’s BSI: Strawberries, and I ended up going way faster than normal. I’m so glad I changed my mind about forcing a run this morning when I knew I hadn’t had enough sleep! Stats: 4.28 miles, 42 minutes, 367 calories, average heart rate 157, max 173.

Groceries included a gallon of milk, 3 lbs apples, strawberries, asparagus, brussels sprouts, avocado:

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Grocery Total: $15.57

I’ve been having a lazy afternoon/evening of cooking and baking (nibbling all the way of course), and I’ll be getting around to some dinner eventually … along with an on-time bedtime, wooooooooooot 😀

How did you honor your hunger today?

Classy classy

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Good morning! Before I get started on today, I just want to mention that I have entered Saturday’s crazy pre-run breakfast — the pb-pumpkin hummus on a toasted bagel with a sweet ‘n’ spicy black bean-salmon patty open-faced sandwich — into The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition #5 – Sandwich contest!

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If you can’t remember how gorgeous this sandwich was, here’s a visual reminder:

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And just to be specific about it all, the pb-pumpkin-hummus spread contains 1 tbsp of each of those 3 components, along with hefty sprinkles of cayenne and cinnamon, yum!! Now I want one of these sandwiches again …

But, I’ll have to make do with this breakfast cookie (oh darn, hehehe):

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Today’s cookie contains 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1/2 mashed banana, 2 tbsp unsweetened soymilk, 1 chopped piece of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, and 1 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds.

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I finally got the proportions of dry-to-wet correct, so no freezer necessary today! It was hard enough from the overnight in the fridge. But I’m also kind of thinking that I might like it better with that extra frozen ice-creamy texture …

Mmmmmm, chunk of hazelnut chocolate hanging onto the edge:

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On the side, I had a pot of tea made from the Yogi Himalayan Apple Spice tea sample I received last night:

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The tea was ok. It just tasted like regular old herbal apple spice tea. I guess the big selling point is supposed to be that it also contains black tea and has caffeine — it’s part of the “revive” series — but again, nothing particularly special about the flavor.

I was planning to go for a run this morning, but I didn’t get to bed until pretty late last night because I was up working! Adjusted plan is to do the run when I get back from class this afternoon — which may actually work out better since it will be sunnier and warmer then. I’ll be back post-run with a report on the day!

(And p.s., I had this little dish with about 1/4 cup of pineapple and 1 tbsp granola before I went to bed last night:

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If I even have the slightest bit of hunger in my belly at bedtime, I can’t fall asleep!)

Can you sleep when your tummy is growling?

** Also, go check out The Fitnessista because she, too, has “comfort” up for grabs today! **

I figured it out!

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Ahh, this post is going to take me forEVER! I’ve had such a variety of nibbles today. Somehow, eating other people’s food never gets old 😛

I had my yogurt at around 10 this morning during our department meeting. In addition to 1/2 cup plain yogurt, the mix included chopped pear (wrinkled and rescued from roommate who got it for free with an order of sushi!), chopped banana (from Belkis yesterday), nutmeg, and 1 tbsp or so of golean crunch:

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I was already hungry again when the meeting ended at 11:30, so I dove right into my cup of fresh pineapple — topped with about 1/4 cup of my supervisor Heather’s leftover Nature’s Path granola that didn’t fit in her yogurt during the meeting:

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We broke for lunch around 12:30. I had the last cup of my spinach-chickpea dal:

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Plus about two cups of the grilled chicken salad that Myrna couldn’t finish:

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Dessert was a Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate square from Rosalie:

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Afternoon snack #1 was two teeny pieces of pineapple cake that Belkis made:

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Belkis was very excited to share her cake because she just learned how to bake (she’s a master chef of bean-based Dominican dishes as you may recall, though). She made the cake all by herself from a boxed mix and was super proud that it worked and tasted good. She was especially pleased to see me licking the foil:

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And then a mom came through the office selling candy to raise money for her kids’ school. I did not buy any, but plenty of my coworkers did. Inginia bought a snickers bar and sliced off this little piece for me:

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I know it looks enormous, but it really was less than an inch long …

When I got hungry again around 3, I had this 1/2 cup of veggies left over from Mildred’s lunch:
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I went out for a great visit immediately post-veggies. I’m doing a video project with one family that involves videotaping the parents interacting with the 7-month-old baby in 10-minute segments for us to watch all together later. They had so much fun being movie stars!

When I got back at 4:15, I had my final-ish work snack of 3 Kavli crispy thin crackers spread with 1/2 mashed banana (also left from Mildred’s lunch) and 1/4 cup chocolate mousse:

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(Dad, I’m sorry it’s so brown!!! But chocolate tastes too good to eliminate based on color alone 😀 )

Also, I think Brach’s candy should start paying me, because all of this found its way from Belkis’ candy jar to my mouth at some point today. Chocolate mint, ice blue mint, cinnamon, star mint, and orange center hard candies:

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Dinner started early tonight. Mildred and I picked up Pura on our way out of the office, and Pura happened to mention that they had just celebrated Kathy’s birthday … and had leftover rellenos! Mildred and I both snapped to attention when we heard that, so Pura set us up.

We each had a slice of rellenos maduros (sweet plantain relleno stuffed with ground meat, yummmmm!):

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And split this slice of rellenos de papa (potato relleno stuffed with ground meat):

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On the walk to my apartment from the subway, I stopped into the gourmet market for 3 miniscule sample cubes of cheese, samples of marinated mushrooms, and an entire ginger-lemon cookie’s worth of sample pieces:

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And, waiting for me when I got home, I found more samples (what a day, right??). New tea flavors are so exhilarating:

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I proceeded to make myself dinner #1273 which consisted of 2/3 of a sliced apple toppped with cinnamon and 2 tbsp chocolate mousse:

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I can’t get enough of that mousse!

I may have also eaten a little chunk of chocolate while preparing (spoiler alert!) tomorrow’s breakfast, and I definitely nibbled on all the components of tomorrow’s lunch as I got that ready, too. My belly is so content!

Oh, I almost forgot! I figured out what went wrong with the basil-spice meringue kisses the other day! They collapsed because I did not add any cream of tartar, duh. I decided not to use it at the last minute when the whites whipped up so fast and sturdily, but I think the “mix-ins” were too heavy to keep the meringues afloat while they baked. I tried it again tonight with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, and they held their form! I sampled one right out of the oven:

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Perfect! I’ll get the recipe up a bit later. Of course, the BSI: Basil ship has sailed (and very deliciously, I might add, thanks to Brandi’s basil-strawberry scones), but I still have time to get in my entry for the Eggland’s Best Egg Recipe competition! 😀

Phew, are you sick of reading about all my food yet??

It would be so amazing if I could go to bed right now, but alas, I have to go pretend to read an article for tomorrow’s class enough to write a passable summary of it, blech. I’m planning on an 11pm bedtime so I can get up at 7 for a run before I have to leave. And the clock starts ticking NOW!

** If you could use a little comfort in your life, click here for a chance to win it!**