Here’s a rundown of the foods I found at work in the first half of this week that helped power me through the papers, presentations, employment challenges, and wayyyy too many food babies.
Lunch in Monday’s parents’ group with Inginia:
The salad was a mix of my CSA salad and Inginia’s organic salad (hers had apples in it, mmm!):
We only had a budget of $4 for the group this week, so Inginia and I put together the two small salads we’d brought, and she gathered some things from the food pantry and whipped up this deeelicious macaroni with lots of spices, tomato sauce, and salami:
The moms (and I!) ate it allllllll up 😀
For dessert, we had tinned mandarins. This made me giggle (Gina and Kate, you’ll understand!) because at the Food Film Festival, we actually watched a short film about mandarins in cans and how the slices are so perfectly extracted from their outer membranes. If you’ve ever tried to do this with a fresh mandarin, you’ll know you end up with a huge mess. We found out that the secret to the perfectly peeled tinned mandarin is …
… a lye bath that burns off/digests the membranes! YUM.
I also did this more times this past week than I’d like to remember:
(Fork dipped in office chunky peanut butter and then dipped in office bag of slivered almonds, mmmmmmmmm.)
On Tuesday (the day we ate outside with the statue), Pura let me in on the tip that Lucia (the one who had the baby shower) had brought in leftover jello from her family shower the weekend before. Yeah, yeah, you’re thinking, who gives a beeeeep about jello? But, this was not just any jello! Lucia’s husband made this jello from scratch (perhaps using a recipe similar to this one?) in the colors of her shower: pink and yellow.
Plus candy (times 27?) from Belkis’ candy jar:
You can’t really go wrong with peanuts and sugar 🙂
Deborah and I shared a Quaker peanut butter granola bar from Jessica:
(Hi Deborah!)
And then Eric bit the bullet and opened up this crazy mystery snack that had been sitting on the conference room table all day:
I started with three — they tasted like cinnamon sugar donuts that had gotten hard as rocks:
But I kind of liked them. So I had another one and dipped it in office peanut butter:
And then I said what the heck, and I just ate the whole bag:
At lunch, Nydia supplemented the chicken/tomatillo/rice I’d packed with half of her chicken and avocado salad:
I followed it up with this random granola bar that somebody left at my desk when I was on vacation in May:
(I love how my desk receives anonymous food drops :-D)
In class Tuesday night, I had my CSA salad, supplemented with office almonds and the leftover bits of Deborah’s salad from lunch (including a few bites of chicken):
Y mas gelatina!
And finally, on Wednesday, Mildred’s daughter Adriana spent the day in the office with us since she’s on vacation from school. Mid-afternoon, she came around and handed out none other than …
… melty ice cream sandwiches!!!
So, in conclusion (or not really in conclusion since I haven’t even gotten to Thursday’s goodies yet), no sleep + school stress makes Sarah mindlessly eat more sugar than normal (if that was even possible). What happens to your appetite when you are sleep-deprived?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
sleep deprivation does the same thing to my appetite…i become a sugar monster!
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I am the opposite when sleep deprived- I don’t feel like eating anything (or sleeping, weirdly enough…just want to lounge around doing nothing!)
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The mystery snack looks really good.
And that pasta looks great too, although I don’t know that I’d like the salami combo.
I think any shock to my body – sleep deprivation, bad moods, etc makes me crave sugar.
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If I miss sleep I definitely eat more than usual!
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I get STARVING when I don’t get enough sleep…especially for anything sugary or carb-y. It’s bad news bears 🙂
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Interesting about the mandarins. I’ve actually always wondered that.
When I don’t sleep, it’s a scary sight! I would say it definitely makes me hungrier (well, it makes me eat more…not sure if it is actual hunger!).
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Way to go being adventurous!!! I wouldn’t have tried the mystery snack 🙂 I get completely sugar hungry when I’m sleep deprived!
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Yeah, the sugar cycle is a vicious bitch. But you’ve been gettin’ your greens so I wouldn’t let it bother you…more than it already does (?). I do admire your tomatillo creation from before. My first tomatillo experience was provided by Kashi, believe it or not, atop their Mexicali frozen pizza thing, which is DELICIOUS. Love at first bite! Since then tomatillos have been added to my list of ingredients-that-sell-a-menu-item-to-me. It holds company with things like manchego and eggplant. 🙂 Hope you have something fabulous planned for your holiday weekend!
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That little macaroni concoction looks yummy!
When I’m sleep deprived, I’m incredible grumpy, and I want to eat cereal with milk. And microwave popcorn.
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Lots of peanut deliciousness!
I completely understand what you mean about exhaustion+snacking. My senior year I was running around busy with standarized tests, cross country, college apps, the works and I couldn’t say no to sugary cakes I didn’t even like or pieces of cookie etc. I’ve found that it helps a lot by snacking smartly so I’m less tempted by treats that don’t even mean much to me.
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OOOOh I am loving the macaroni dish. Good pasta is so satisfying and wonderful. I am also loving the almond dipped pb fork. Anything with a jar of pb and stickable foods is a 10 in my book.
Sleep deprivation = either BIG appetite or no appetite at all. However, I prefer the BIG appetite just because I like to eat 🙂
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My appetite goes through the roof when I am sleep deprived! Sometimes I confuse being “tired” with being “hungry”, which I need to stop and think about sometimes.
That’s interesting about canned mandarins. I’m actually planning on having some tomorrow in a broccoli salad!
I LOVE melted ice cream sandwiches…yum!
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I love the membranes on citrus fruit, I prefer it with!! I’ve never even thought of making homemade jell-o before – that’s awesome!
I get craaaazy hungry when I’m sleep deprived. There’s a hormonal explanation for it. Twice a week, I have to be up at 4am for work, and it feels like I spend the whole day eating. I don’t have the strength to fight it, so I just eat up 😉
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Oh my gosh, that’s a scary question ;). I want to eat everything in sight when I’m tired! It’s crazy how much it affects my (and most other peoples) appetite.
Have a great fourth of July weekend!
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OMG, I am dying over here! Mary Janes were (are) one of my faves and I haven’t seen them in years!!
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I think i agree with you sleep deprivation makes me eat more of sugary stuff!
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love the peanut butter dipped in sliced almonds. that’s totally something i would do. peanut butter is great for picking up the crumbs at the bottom of bags too 😉
when i’m sleep deprived I want everything carby that there is.
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Ewww, tinned mandarins, haha! Love ice cream sandwiches, though!
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