Month: April 2009

Why is that thing green?

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As promised, the rest of the recycled balls came into play this morning for breakfast.

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I had a small but loaded breakfast cookie. The overnight mix contained 1 tbsp ground flax, 1 tbsp oat bran, 2 tbsp extra thick rolled oats, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 tsp south-of-the-border pistachio butter, and 1 chopped Hershey’s Kiss. This combination made for perfectly-textured dough this morning:

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I frosted the cookie with 1/3 cup PB2 healthy cream cheese icing and topped it with 1/4 of Sunday’s Holiday Inn cinnamon bun:

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And, of course, the remaining balls:

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I brought my cookie to the couch to eat it with the almond sunse/black tea, the white peony iced tea, and The Today Show. I forgot about the apples up on the table and then realized I wasn’t actually hungry for them. They went back in the fridge for tomorrow.

I had to be up at Hunter at 9 again this week for a workshop on government benefits. I thought I was being so clever bringing my laptop up there so I could blog at the same time … but the wireless was blocked in that room!!! The nerve. They actually want us to pay attention. Hmph.

During the workshop, I ate an orange. If you’re not sure what an orange looks like, I ate one on Tuesday, so you can feel free to backtrack if you need the visual reinforcement.

For lunch, I had the last half cup of Thai seafood coconut curry/grilled veggies from Hunter’s lobby mixed with the half cup of chicken noodle soup that also came my way Monday night at Hunter, courtesy of Emily:

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You might think that’s a weird combination, but it was actually delicious. I should be using coconut milk more often in my life. Too bad Turtle Mountain ignored my request for samples to review. I could have had an official Thai coconut milk curry vs. Turtle Mountain coconut milk curry face-off. Their loss.

The exact same yogurt/ricotta with flax, Pb2, and banana that I had yesterday followed the soup.

img_9000Speaking of samples, I received a package from the more agreeable Just Tomatoes today. They sent me a variety of their products to try, the most exciting being pineapple powder … which seems like PB2 in pineapple form but better than PB2 because it’s pineapple and it has absolutely nothing added. I can’t wait to try it out. Pineapple cream cheese icing, anyone? Ohhhhhh, that would be SO good on carrot cake. But I’m getting carried away.

I opened up the mixed fruit munchies packet and used half for tomorrow’s yogurt (I’m excited to see how the freeze-dried fruit absorbs the moisture from the yogurt overnight) and half for an afternoon snack with a splash of soymilk:

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Mmmm, so good. Especially the pineapple flavor that completely pops. I had a few dry, too — also delicious!

Once I recovered from the freeze-dried fruit lovefest, I headed out to the gym. Thursday is usually my outdoor running day, but running has been causing me too much pain lately and I opted for the gym machines instead (this made me sad because the weather was perfect for running). I did 30 minutes on the Stepmill, 15 minutes on the rower, and 15 minutes on the elliptical plus a bit of abs and stretching. I walked to and from the gym and did not jog because, again, jogging hurts! Stats: 1 hour and 40 minutes, 517 calories, 118 average heart rate, 162 max.

On the way home, I stopped into Union Market for samples of marinated mushrooms, Piave cheese, and these two little desserty treats:

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That chocolate chip brownie piece was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. And sooo chocolate-y:

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I was hoping the green thing would be marzipan-related, but it was just lime cheesecake. Still, I enjoyed every morsel.

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What’s the most surprising cheesecake flavor you’ve ever encountered? Did you eat it?

Recycled balls

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(What kind of blog is this anyway?)

Before we get into the sloppy seconds, let’s start at the beginning …

Yesterday evening, I met up with my favorite Brooklyn bloggers — Vani, Emily, and Diana — at Hanco’s, the latest go-to spot when in need of a ball-fix. The ladies all ordered sandwiches, but I got this beauty of a salad:

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My salad contained lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, grape tomatoes, and mint leaves and was topped with roasted peanuts and fried red onion (though now that I think about it, I’m not sure the salad had any onion at all) with Vietnamese vinaigrette on the side. For $2 extra, I got some tofu on it. I know $2 is pricey for a few little slivers of the ‘fu, but given that the salad was only $4,50 to begin with, I decided I could splurge.

Obviously, we weren’t going to go to Hanco’s and not order the balls. I got an unsweetened (except for the natural sweetness from the fruit) lychee black tea. And then I arranged a color-coordinated photo shoot for it.

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We also enjoyed a high level of success with the self-timer:

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Once we had worked out way through the teas, Diana came through with themostamazingcookiesever, maple-nut oaties that Heather had sent her.

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I had three. Each one looked like this and tasted like perfection:

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And then came the ball recycling. Diana had some balls left in her cup, and I wasn’t about to let them slip unappreciated into a landfill! I brought them home, gave them a little rinse, and set a few up in a snack for last night (and saved the others for a more exciting job this morning).

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Last night’s snack involved yogurt, ricotta, and PB2 (ummm, is that the third time I ate this yesterday??) with a ball smiley face and overzealous cinnamon freckling.

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There were some other exciting things that came home with me.

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Diana brought her Newman’s Own mints for me because, while she is partial to gum, I obviously love these mints and eat them nonstop. Thanks, Diana! My supply was running low, but I am no longer anxious about that. Phew.

The rest of the loot is from Emily. I won her book giveaway last week, so she brought my prize to dinner … along with some other fun goodies, like a beautiful big envirosax bag (super handy for an expansion expert such as myself!) and some fun bookmarks. Plus, check out her stationery! Can you tell she’s a teacher (though not for long!) or what?

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Clearly, reading is sweet!

What else do you think is sweet? Or, if you’re feeling feisty, when are sloppy seconds ok with you?

Dancer and prancer and donner …

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And that title does not in any way refer to me actually dancing. Because you should know that I absolutely cannot dance in a way that doesn’t make me look like I need to be in a hospital stat.

Anyway, breakfast …

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Breakfast was none other than the dazzler I’ve been eating all week: cinnamon bun on flax-oat bran.

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This time, I put 2 tbsp part-skim ricotta in the center (instead of mixing it in) to increase visual appeal:

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Part 2 was half of a sliced apple with 1/2 cup yogurt/ricotta and a tbsp PB2 (ahhh addiction alert!):

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I also made it to the gym this morning. I had to walk there because of the groin issues, and it was much colder out than I had anticipated. Could have used my fleece! Anyway, once there, I did 20 minutes on the new elliptical that has an arm workout setting (yay for multi-tasking), hip ab/adductor and glutes on the Cybex, 20 minutes on the regular elliptical, stretching/abs, and the jog ouch walk back.

No shocker on my morning snack around 10:30. I had yogurt/ricotta with flax (some mixed in and some on top), PB2, and sliced banana:

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At noon, we had a meeting with snacks provided. Here’s my plate (I am considering this my lunch appetizer course) with carrots, salsa, tortilla chips, and an apple:

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After that, I had two more chips and two more helpings of carrots with salsa (and I also grabbed another apple to take home!).

Main lunch course was Thai seafood coconut curry with the repurposed veggies:

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And a piece of Jessica’s orange:

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And about an hour later, there seemed to be a second wave of lunch going on. My afternoon visit had gotten cancelled, so I joined the group with my donation salad:

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In the process, Nydia hooked me up with about two cups of grapes. Obviously, they’re not all pictured.

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Grapes are so easy to pop. I’ve mindlessly eaten two pounds of grapes on more than one occasion in the past … just because they’re there and so yummy. Like popcorn.

And then, Pura, the trouble-maker, came up and dropped some donated Dancing Deer cookies on the dreaded conference room table. Once again, the infamous view from my desk:

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I wrapped up one of each (sugar Cookie-Lime, Chocolate-Tangerine, and Molasses-Clove) for later and then broke off a bite of each from the remaining cookies:

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The cookies kept taunting me throughout the afternoon. I had this peanut butter Fiber One bar that Jessica gave me yesterday because I was actually feeling hungry (sometimes, several pounds of produce leaves me with an emptyish feeling in my stomach that I just can’t tolerate!) and I didn’t want to accidentally eat all three packages of cookies.

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I won’t lie, though. I kept going back for one more bite and one more bite and one more bite until I had eaten the rest of that Molasses cookie. Eric from the environmental department came by (I can usually count on him to house food upon request when I need it to disappear from my sight) and finished off the pack of chocolate cookies. I claimed the crumbs:

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When I left work at 5, there were three cookies left. Rosey, Rosalie, and Nydia forced me to take them home with threats that the cleaning lady would just end up throwing them out. I had no choice! So the pile of sugar in my freezer is now six cookies larger. It’s a rough life …

Whew, this post got really long really fast. And I still have way more to say because the food didn’t end there. I think I need to save it for tomorrow, though!

Obviously, there’s a stockpile of cookies and caked in my freezer. Do you have anything stockpiled?

Intermission

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I’m surfacing for just a moment to do a quick recap of the day, and then I’ll be back into the school/work/sleep abyss for the next 24 hours!

Breakfast was more cinnamon bun on flax-oat bran:

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With 1/2 sliced apple and 1/3 cup yogurt for dipping, all dusted in cinnamon:

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To hold me over until lunch, I had yogurt/ricotta with flax, pb2, banana, and strawberries (from Hunter’s lobby last night):

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Lunch was more Thai coconut seafood curry, mixed with the veggies from Hunter’s lobby:

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Veggies make everything prettier, don’t they?

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I also had a spoonful of Belkis’ perfect perfect meat and rice:

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And a salad composed of leftover salad bits from Mildred, Jessica, and yesterday’s mangu lunch. I topped the salad with some of the innards of the chicken, tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwich piece Emily gave me in class last night:

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I have an identical salad waiting for me in the fridge for tomorow 🙂

Later in the afternoon, I had an orange:

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And another pb-chocolate-apple parfait:

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I also opened up my first tin (as opposed to roll) of Newman’s Own Organics peppermints. They’re so cute — just like little Altoids:

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I had a bunch during the day. I did not count.

When I got home this evening, I prepped food for tomorrow and then headed out for some exercise. I jogged for 25 minutes until the pain won out, and then I switched to walking for another 20. Somewhere in there, I did 10 reps of the inchworm exercise that Olga told me about.

When I arrived back at the apt, I had a serving of the same chocolate-pb-flax custard that’s in the parfait above with a couple little slices of banana, a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut, and a tsp of pb2:

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OK, off to report for bed duty so I can wake up tomorrow and do it all again. Ahh, I can’t wait until this semester is over and the papers are behind me!

A non-mentally-taxing question for tonight: How many separate things did you eat today? According to this entry, I ate 10. That might be a record low!

Didn’t eat everything …

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When I got to work this morning, there was a message waiting for me from my 11am visit: “Sarah, don’t eat lunch today. I’m cooking for you.”

And here’s the homemade mangu that greeted me when I arrived at their apartment:

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Before you get all bent out of shape, I promise I have not been manipulating my clients into giving me their food when they can barely buy enough for themselves! This mom has been trying to feed me for weeks, especially since we were planning on ending at the end of my internship (not so now, since I’ve been hired and all. It seemed to mean a lot to her that I let her do this for me, so I finally gave in, sigh.

And ohhhhhhhhh my goodness! I’ve tried (and loved) mangu two times before when my coworkers have shared with me, but I’ve never had it homemade … which actually tasted better, even though I didn’t think that was possible!

The plate on which she served the feast (above) could have been a serving plate, but it was all for me! I almost had a heart attack just looking at it. I ate about half of the mangu, all of the little sausages, and half of one of the ham(?) pieces on the side.

The mom also made salad, thank goodness! I had about two cups of this:

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As if that weren’t enough, she packed me a big container to go with what I could eat, plus a good two cups more of salad and her homemade tostones, of which I later ate two:

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While we ate, I gave their three-year-old free reign with my camera, resulting in about 80 of these:

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After my heavier than heavy lunch, I committed myself to produce for the rest of the afternoon with baby carrots from Jessica and my orange:

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Umm, I meant that I committed myself to produce until Jennifer came through the office with a box of Good Humor cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream bars. I actually turned one down, but Jessica still sliced me about an inch of hers so I could take part:

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On the way to class, I stopped into the market and noticed that they had goat gouda samples today instead of the manchego. I obviously had to try:

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In class, my dinner started with leftover green salad from Mildred’s lunch today mixed with about 1/3 cup edamame salad from Deborah’s lunch today:

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Main course was the leftover Thai seafood curry (shrimp, scallops, calamari, white rice, coconut milk) that my mom and John brought me this weekend. Yesterday, I bulked it up with brown basmati rice and broccoli to boost nutrition and stretch it through more lunches. Tonight’s cup:

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Dessert was a cup of yogurt/part-skim ricotta with cinnamon, PB2, and 1/3 chopped banana:

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What I did not eat today (but will eat eventually):

  1. the rest of the lunch I packed (more fruit and a parfait identical to the one I made last night; both still in the work fridge for tomorrow’s lunch)
  2. 2/3 cup of Vianni’s special rice (in my freezer now). OK, I had two little tastes before I put it away. It’s TOO good.
  3. leftovers from my mangu lunch (salad‘s in the work fridge for tomorrow; mangu/tostones/ham are in my freezer)
  4. 2/3 cup Hale & Hearty chicken vegetable soup and 1/4 Hale & Hearty chicken basil tomato pesto sandwich Emily couldn’t finish in class (soup is in my fridge; sandwich insides are heading to work tomorrow to dress the salad in #3 above; bread has been broiled to crunchiness and will be joining the carb-bag-club in the freezer soon)
  5. event leftovers that I encountered in the lobby of Hunter after class tonight: 1 cup grilled veggies extracted from the pile of mangled sandwiches and wraps (mixed into the remaining Thai seafood curry to stretch it even further), strawberries (in tomorrow’s yogurt), and two large and gooey brownies (cut into 5 pieces and in my freezer’s cake container). There might have actually been 6 pieces of brownie before one of them landed in my mouth along with all the m&ms that were garnishing it …

What didn’t YOU eat today?