I had very important hotel breakfast plans this morning.
I hopped out of bed at 7:30, threw on some running gear, grabbed an expandable bag (hotel buffets and I get along very well) and went for a nice and easy jog (1.3 miles, 15 minutes, 128 calories, average heart rate 154, max 165) up to the Holiday Inn Express where my mom and stepdad were staying so I could join them for the breakfast buffet.
While there, I had a packet of instant oatmeal with 1/2 of a chopped banana and a couple splashes of skim milk. It looked so plain that I considered sprinkling froot loops on the top for color but then thought better of it and crumbled some cranberry muffin and warm cinnamon bun (thanks for the idea, Brandi!) on top.
On the side, I had an interesting egg (it almost had a pancake texture, so I bet it the egg batter had flour or something in it as a thickener) that was folded in half with velveetaish cheese inside. I unfolded, removed the cheese, and gobbled up the remaining eggcake:
The dazzling spread:
I stuffed the other half of the cinnamon bun (plus one more for luck!) into a travel cup to bring home 🙂
Yummm, I predict more cinnamon bun oatmeal on the horizon!
Obviously, the cinnamon bun was not all I brought home. With mom’s help, I stuffed the expandable bag with more oatmeal packets, mini-muffins, oranges, apples, lots of bananas, milk, and yogurts. The buffet did have hard-boiled eggs, but I passed on them since I have enough eggs already!
Once my mom and John got all packed, they drove me (and the goods) back to my apartment, popped in for a glass of white peony iced tea and some biscotti bites, and then continued on their way back up to Massachusetts. An endless trip for them (Massachusetts to Georgia and back … in the car!), but a pleasantly short and sweet visit for me 🙂
I recently (as in four days ago) realized that the final paper for one of my classes is due a week from tomorrow instead of at the end of May (panic panic panic panic), so researching for that was first on my agenda as soon as the fam took off. Of course, I kept finding other things to do, like sweep the floor. (Sweep the floor??? I NEVER sweep the floor. Obviously, I’m desperate.)
At some point, I got hungry again. I considered my new “groceries.” I’d brought four Dannon fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts back from the buffet. I don’t really like flavored yogurt, so I opened each of the containers, extracted the “plain” yogurt part, and combined all the syrupy fruit parts in one container that went into the freezer for a future project. I mixed the still-sweet-berry-tinged “plain” parts with my authentically plain homemade yogurt to decrease the sweetness and sugar content per serving.
For my first lunch, I had 1/2 cup of the resulting yogurt mix with the rest of this morning’s cranberry-orange muffin crumbs and a dollop of the PB & Co. crunch-time peanut butter that Vani “forced” me to take home from her lunch yesterday.
On the side, I had an orange:
With white peony iced tea:
A little while later, the next installment of lunch was due. I had just cooked a bunch of brown basmati rice to mix with the leftover coconut seafood curry that my mom and John brought me yesterday (I’ll be using this curry for the week’s lunches). I had about 1/2 cup of the cooked rice left, so I mashed in half of the overripe banana mom brought yesterday along with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a splash of soymilk.
I topped my banana rice pudding with a dollop of part-skim ricotta and another dollop of Vani’s pb.
And, because I was trying to do some work for school and also trying to avoid doing it, I got “hungry” again very soon. I had three little rye toasties topped with sofrito sauce and a sliced air-damaged cheese stick that mom left behind for me. Five minutes in the broiler took care of the damage 🙂 I topped my crispy sofrito-cheese toasts with freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper:
Then I brought a slice of healthy cheesecake out of the freezer to let thaw. Well, I actually didn’t quite let it thaw before I started in on it.
I did keep it up on the kitchen counter though, forcing myself to eat it slowly, one bite at a time, over the next hour every time I got up to do something else.
And now, I’m trying to take slow and deep breaths and tell myself that I will get all my work done in time. I feel on the verge of insanity, so a fresh air break may be in order. We’ll see.
Is your crunch today coming from food, stress, or both?
I cannot handle how CREATIVE you are, Sarah!! No joke! Separating the yogurt from the fruit on the bottom, to throwing a cinn roll on top of oats, to just all of your leftover snags!!!! YOU’RE MY IDOL! 🙂
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You are so clever, I can’t wait to see what you do with the fruit from the bottom of your yogurt!
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FOOD….because of stress! lol Coolio site! 😀 Gotta love hotel b-fast bars!
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I have been writing a 20 page paper due Monday since 11 a.m. this morning. It is now 8 p.m. and I’m not done.
STRESSSSSS
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I’m impressed with your one-bite-at-a-time approach to the cheesecake! And, generally, your ability to keep things like cheesecake in the apt.!!
My “crunch” is coming from the cereal I just had for dinner 🙂
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I totally thought about you today while at a baby shower. There was tons of food leftover and I offered to take it off their hands!!! SCORE! 😉
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I agree, you are so creative with food (and obtaining food, hehe)
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how is possible that everyday you have such a food feast!? that’s unfair!!! 😀
don’t stress out, just make a good plan with timeline, stick to it and you’ll finish all the work! 🙂 good luck!
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I think a Froot Loop garnish might have sent me into a laughing fit to end all fits. So funny! Your oats look great, and it sounds like you certainly made the most of the buffet.
I love the melted cheese. It’s so nice when you can just cook something that you might not necessarily want to eat otherwise in order to avoid wasting food. Good for you and hooray for your creative and tasty looking eats!
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love the cinnabun cup!
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You are so amazing and creative. I love your posts.
I have definitely been getting “hungrier” with all my paper writing. It’s crunch in both ways for me!
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What on earth are you going to do with the fruit from the yogurt!? I am definitely intrigued.
Using cleaning to procrastinate is something I do often, like I can’t answer work emails unless I get on the kitchen floor on my hands and knees and scrub until they are shining.
Eating is a much more fun way to avoid work in my opinion!
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Its the last week of B block so its basically finals…but at least I start more food related classes next week.
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Awww I’ve loved reading about you and your family, and how you’ve TOTALLY taken after your mama’s saving ways. So cute!
How genius to separate the yogurt like that? Brilliant. OH, and LOVE the cinnamon roll goodness.
Um, I’m feeling the stress crunch. Kinda. I’m also kind of worn out at this point in the school year, so I don’thave the same energy to be super stressed.
Good luck with the research!
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cinnamon roll ON oatmeal – good, right? I’m glad you tried it 🙂
I hope everything goes well today and that it’s a little less stressful!
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