Month: April 2009

Con dulce, por favor

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It’s been another sugary day around these parts!

Someone brought in Whole Foods mini-pumpkin muffins this morning and planted them right on the conference room table (aka an inch away from my desk). These muffins never really tempt me, though, since the ingredient list is right there and sugar is first on it. I always get so disappointed in WF when I see that. I did, however, take up a crumb collection and eat that once all the muffins were gone:

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Just before lunch, Myrna came around handing out a fun new food tool to everyone that Tupperware sent her because she started doing Tupperware sales. I had packed the perfect snack to test it out. Just watch the magic here:

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Pretty amazing, right? So I’m now the proud new owner of an orange peeler 🙂 I shared some orange and ate the rest:

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For lunch, I had another mama creation that came home with me from MA on Sunday: a cup of chicken, kielbasa, and root vegetable casserole.

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I also had another bite of Vianni’s tuna noodle salad:

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And 1/2 cup of Myrna’s rice and beans:

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And pulled a teeny bit of Myrna’s taaaaaaasty saucy chicken off of this bone:

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I also had my fruit salad + yogurt + golean crunch (from MA, too — I go grocery shopping in my mom’s fridge at the end of every visit):

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img_7938The star of the meal, however, was clearly Mildred’s husband’s habichuela con dulce (a traditional Dominican dessert drink that appears between Ash Wednesday and Easter and that I’ve raved about here and here). I definitely refilled my cup three times. The best comparison I can come up with is that it is like drinking liquid pumpkin pie. In other words, habichuela con dulce is delicious beyond your wildest dreams.

Two of my afternoon visits ended up canceling, so I accompanied Mildred on hers. Both happened to take place in excruciatingly hot apartments. When we finished, Mildred decided that she needed ice cream and that I did, too. Here’s my kiddie scoop of Rocky Road, courtesy of today’s sugar fairy:

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Now, I have not had Rocky Road ice cream in forever, and I’ve probably never had it from Baskin Robbins, but I have to say that this was the best Rocky Road I’ve ever had. It was amazingly creamy, and what’s more, the marshmallows were perfect little pockets of fluffiness! Every other time I’ve had Rocky Road, the marshmallows have been so frozen and mixed in that they weren’t even identifiable as such.

Around 3:30, I broke out another of the cheese sticks that mom sent back to NY with me. The m&m mug and I fought over who would get to eat it, but I won of course. It was no contest, really.

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In my final sugar hurrah of the work day, I heard Jessica whispering something about chocolate cake from down the hall. I got up to investigate, and she informed me that it was Cleo’s birthday in Preventive and they were struggling with a cake overage. We went upstairs together to assist.

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Cake rescued; crisis averted.

Umm, this spoonful of whipped vanilla frosting is on my camera for some reason. I don’t know why? 😛

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I got home and prepped a necessarily light dinner of salad, jasmine tea biscotti bites, and leftover almond sunset tea from this morning. Dinner enjoyed the company of my new Easter decorations: a straw bunny from dad and stepmom, a Lindt dark chocolate bunny from step-grandma, and a spread-eagle bunny planter also from step-grandma:

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The salad contained lettuce, arugula, 1 tbsp Newman’s dried berry blend, 1 tbsp peanut roasted chickpeas, grated homemade parmesan, and a drizzle of Annie’s lite gingerly vinaigrette:

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A few more tbsp of the chickpeas went directly from jar-to-mouth 🙂

What sweet things did you eat today?

Cake and cookies

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After the exercise class last night, I was only slightly hungry (and mostly tired) so I put together a little snacky plate with healthyish cheesecake, peanut roasted chickpeas, and prunes and apricots with PB2.

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There’s also a little piece of the caramel-nut-chocolate candy (on the stick) that my step-uncle gave me for Easter yesterday.

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As I mentioned, I took the Open Cardio Gyrokinesis class last night at the Madison Park location of kinespirit, a fancy gyrotonic studio, with the coupon that Melissa from Fitness NYC brought to the blogger brunch last month. Melissa very accurately reviewed and described the class here.

My experience was pretty much identical to Melissa’s (although my instructor was Christina). I was exhausted yesterday after work and almost didn’t go to the class at all, but I’m so glad I did! It was gentle and easy on my body and my poor strained glutes and hamstrings, yet it somehow snuck in a vigorous abs and arms workout I didn’t even realize I was getting. As Melissa explains in her review, gyrotonic seems sort of in the same family as pilates, although it is definitely NOT pilates. I was apprehensive going into the class because I don’t normally frequent this type of out-of-my-budget small private studio, but Christina and the rest of the staff were very welcoming, and I felt comfortable right from the start! Definitely check out Melissa’s review that I mentioned above and go experiment with some gyrotonic if it sounds good!

This morning …

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I’m quite enjoying this almond sunset tea! I probably need to rename it almond sunrise tea.

My breakfast cookie was such a success yesterday that I replicated it exactly for today’s breakfast:

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In case anyone is struggling with breakfast cookie texture, I’ve noticed a few key tricks that seems to help tremendously in solidifying the cookie in the fridge overnight:

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(1) As you mix the “cookie dough” the night before, it should be as close as possible to the consistency of real cookie dough. You should be able to pick up all the dough in your hands, roll it into a ball, and flatten it onto a plate. (For me, this involves adding no more than 1/2 tbsp of liquid, if even.)

(2) The addition of dried fruit works wonders because it helps the oats soak up all the moisture.

(3) Frosting makes everything better.

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I had a boat egg on the side again as well.

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Brandi asked yesterday why I called it a “boat egg.” Does anyone else do this? I thought it was a common thing, but maybe it’s just a weird family thing! My parents always called hard-boiled eggs sliced this way “boat eggs” when I was little. I think they did this for two reasons: (1) they sort of resemble little canoes in looks and in the way they slide around the plate (right?) and (2) it made the eggs more exciting for me to eat, along the same lines as “broccoli trees.”

Do you remember fun food names from your childhood that helped motivate you to eat?

Nut safety (and a winner!!)

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First things first. It’s time to announce the winner of the Everybody’s Nuts Pistachi-YES giveaway! Random.org has made its selection from the 93 entries (including comments, link-backs, and emails from non-bloggers), and the winner is #78:

Amie: The nut recall makes me sad because then nuts get a bad name. :(

Amie, I will be emailing you soon to arrange for delivery of some safe and disease-free nuts 😛

Onto the food!

As I was sipping my sugar cookie sleigh ride tea at 9:23 am this morning, I noticed one of the nurses set a promising foil-wrapped platter down on the other end of the conference room table, along with a pile of plates and knives. This could only mean one thing: cake. I didn’t want to seem too eager, so I whispered across to Rosey that there was cake in the conference room, and she hopped right up and headed down to get the ball rolling. And it turned out to be banana walnut, yum! Here’s my piece, heated in the microwave and then slathered in whipped vanilla frosting that I found in the fridge:

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The cake kept me going until lunchtime, when I broke out another fun treat: butternut squash, ground beef, and eggplant shepherd’s pie from mom! She packed this big slice in the food bag I brought home from MA yesterday.

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I think there’s kale in there, too? I had it on a bed of arugula. It was perfect and yummy and tasted like mom’s cooking because that’s what it was. I wish I had more!

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I also had a bite of Vianni’s tasty tuna macaroni salad:

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And finished Mildred’s salad for her:

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And two of Mildred’s daughter Adriana’s chicken nuggets:

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I haven’t had chicken nuggets in years! Somehow, they tasted better than I remember …

Post-lunch was a blood orange. I shared half with my coworkers (finally, they liked the looks of something I brought in!) since they were intrigued by the color. None of them had ever seen or heard of a blood orange before.

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I also had some blurry yogurt art made from fruit salad and yogurt that traveled from MA to NY with me yesterday:

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I was hungry again by 2:30 and had a cheese stick, also courtesy of mom:

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The final mom treat of the day came at 4:30. I broke up two of mom’s kitchen sink muffins (she sent me home with a ton yesterday!) and spread about a tbsp of cashew-almond butter over them before microwaving to get it all melty, YUM:

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It’s probably worth mentioning that I left my Newman’s mints at home by accident, so lots of other candies made their way into my belly throughout the day.

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I stayed late at work because I was planning to go to the 6:30 gyrotonic class at Kinespirit with the free coupon Melissa gave out at the blogger brunch last month. I was somehow still feeling a little bit underfed when I left work and knew I would need to last until I got home at 8:30, so I had an emergency spoonful of the office’s extra chunky Skippy:

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That did the trick!

I was very unsure of what to expect from the gyrotonic, but it ended up being just what I needed tonight. I’ll have to talk about it more in my next post because I’m too tired now!

What’s the best exercise class you’ve ever taken?

Icy toes

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Brrrrr, my toes feel like they’re about to fall off! Why is it sooo cold again?! I had to return to all the layers for my jog to the gym this morning. Once there, I just did 25 minutes on the Stepmill since I got the strength out of the way in MA yesterday. Then, it was time to come home for breakfast!

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img_7853I had a perfect breakfast cookie waiting in the fridge this morning. No need to freeze this one! The cookie included 1/3 cup of Bob’s Red Mill extra thick oats, 1/3 mashed banana, 1 tbsp almond-cashew butter, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tbsp Newman’s dried berry blend, and the teeniest splash of soymilk. On top, I spread 2 tbsp PB2 (reconstituted with a splash of soymilk) and some nuts from the Easter candy my step-uncle gave me yesterday:

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For extra staying power, I had a boat egg on the side with spray butter and freshly ground black pepper:

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Plus another exciting new tea! I emailed Celential Seasonings a while back to say that I couldn’t find their dessert teas anywhere, so they sent me an entire box of Almond Sunset. I know this is breakfast time and not dessert time, but I had to try it out right away. I’m glad I did!

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And now, it’s time to head back to work. I always feel so out of sorts after extra days off. It’s hard to re-adjust! Plus, I’m fuh-reeeeeeeeeeeezing.

Do you go out in search of day-after-Easter candy sales?

Last chance for safe pistachios! Get your entry in by 6pm tonight.

Phew, that was close!

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Today had the potential to be yet another monster of an expansion day, but my tummy is kind of relieved that it was not!

When I got up this morning, I went downstairs (ohhh, to live in a multi-level house again …) to the living room so I could do my Self Challenge 2009 workout. What can I say … I’m serious about fixing my legs! I can feel my poor little muscles getting stronger again, too, and I was able to do some of the exercises that hurt too much to do last week, yay!

My dad picked me up a bit after 11 am, and we headed over to LA Roberts, a NaMA (that’s coolspeak for North Attleboro, MA) restaurant, to enjoy Easter all-you-can-eat brunch with Rae Ann (my stepmom) and her family.

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Some background on LA Roberts: it was the fanciest place in town in 1987. In 1987, I distinctly remember that the all-you-can-eat brunch included yogurt because it was the only thing I would eat. The famed LA Roberts brunch seems to have devolved over time because there was no yogurt this morning, hmph. Nor was there cereal, toast, peanut butter, or jam.

The brunch did, however, come through with lots of lukewarm serve-yourself buffet platters full of foods that are not my favorite: ham, sausage, hash browns, other potato things, scary quiche. Because I’m good at scavenging, however, I put together a lovely little big spread.

Let’s play a game. I’ll show you a picture of the item, and you see if you can guess what it is. I’ll provide the answers at the end.

Item #1:

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Item #2:

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Item #3:

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Item #4:

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Item #5:

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How do you think you did?

The answers, clockwise from the beans: (1) baked beans (I found them in a tin between the maple syrup and the whipped cream, hmmm), (2) broccoli (I spooned out all the broccoli from a giant vat of chicken penne alfredo), (3) fruit salad topped with apples in syrup (I found this teeny bit of fruit salad on a table by itself in the corner, floating in a flood of its own juices … or the juices of its originating can), (4) piece of berry scone (yes, the scones were pre-cut into fourths, but that ended up being fine with me since it was actually too sweet, if you can believe that coming from me, the cake queen. I ate half and gave the other half to my dad), and (5) the star of the show, a slice of French toast with thawed frozen strawberries.

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I think I managed to do pretty well for myself, and I was pleased the the food was good enough to eat but not good enough to lead to further expansion.

The company was also quite enjoyable. My step-uncle (?) David brought bunny ears for everyone to wear. My dad was serious about arranging his perfectly. It was clearly a multi-step process:

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img_7833As soon as we finished eating and the bunny ears were properly arranged, we all headed back to my dad and stepmom’s house to relax for a few before I had to leave to catch the bus. I received some fun Easter goodies that will surely be making an appearance quite soon.

At 2:15, dad and I left to go pick up my mom so they could both take me to the bus station in Providence. I heard through the grapevine that, after the big drop-off , my mom went back to my dad’s house to hang out with my stepmom’s family and they all passed a lovely afternoon together.

What a whirlwind trip! It’s relatively easy to get to MA from here, but I so rarely have the time and it always ends up being very rush rush rush. I hope I can go back for a more leisurely visit this summer!

As you know already, my bus came equipped with Wi-Fi. So excited that Peter Pan is moving with the times! If only my computer could have lasted longer without a charge …

On the bus, I ate my packed “snunch” of 1/2 cup matzo muesli with 1/2 cup plain yogurt and a cup of fruit left from yesterday’s chocolate fountain. Pardon the blur. We had some bumpy roads, and I wasn’t about to wait for smoothness to dive into this!

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I got back to my apartment just before 8 and made a little snacky plate while I raced around to get ready for the week. The plate included the final two pieces of pumpernickel baguette with cashew-almond butter and coconut, a pile of peanut roasted chickpeas, and some overflow fruit salad from home that I couldn’t fit into a container for the fridge.

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I also had this itty bitty piece of a slice of my mom’s birthday cake.

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She saved and froze (now you know where my dessert-freezing compulsion comes from) the slice for me from her birthday celebration with my step-dad’s family. Wallen, step-grandpa (I’m realizing I’ve never had to explain these family members in writing before, so I’m suddenly having to concoct labels I’ve never actually used!), makes the most amazing chocolate fudge frosting from scratch, so my mom requests it on yellow cake every year.

I’m in bed now and it’s wayyyyyyyyyy past my bedtime — not how I wanted to start the week! — so I need to hit the sheets stat.

What is your favorite activity when traveling as a passenger in any kind of vehicle? Sleeping is mine.

Don’t forget about the pistachios!