Didn’t eat everything …

April 27, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

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:

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:

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:

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:

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

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

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)
2/3 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.
leftovers from my mangu lunch (salad‘s in the work fridge for tomorrow; mangu/tostones/ham are in my freezer)
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)
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?

Layers of stress

April 27, 2009February 6, 201520 Comments

I did go out for a breather last night to combat the homework- and heat-induced hallucinations … and ended up running 3.2 miles! This was a very exciting accomplishment, 12-minute miles and all, as the chafing of my shirt against my arms was more painful than my aggravated muscles. Stats: 38 minutes, 304 calories. I hope this improvement keeps up!

I came back and made a complicated snack to keep my mind off the final paper drama. These were some of the things I used: chocolate-peanut butter-flax egg custard, a mom-gifted apple, and the rest of Vani‘s crunch time peanut butter.

Here’s the scoop on the chocolate-peanut butter-flax egg custard. My roommate Tara had three egg yolks left from her breakfast yesterday morning, so I whisked those over low heat with 1 cup unsweetened soy milk, 1/2 cup water, 2 tbsp ground flax, 2 chopped dates, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp PB2. Once the mix thickened, I ran the immersion blender through it for good measure and poured it into three small ramekins to go into the fridge.

For last night’s purposes, I used half of one of the ramekins as the inspiration for this parfait:

For the other layers, I used (1) half of the apple, shredded and mixed with the pb and (2) 1/3 cup total of yogurt mixed with part-skim ricotta and 1 tbsp pb2.

I topped it all off with a biscotti bite for fun.

That mind-blowingly delicious parfait distracted me from school stress for about 30 blissful minutes. When the bliss wore off, I pulled out this little slice of frozen cake from my mom’s birthday 🙂

And then I went to sleep since I knew I wasn’t going to get anything else done!

This morning at the gym, I did 20 minutes Stepmill, legs/chest on Cybex, and 15 minutes elliptical, along with stretching/abs and the jog/walks there and back (hurt again this morning, grrrrr). Stats: 1 hour and 16 minutes, 475 calories, 129 average heart rate, 172 max.

Breakfast was ready to go straight out of the fridge because I prepared it last night, and the day is too hot for hot oats! On the stovetop, I cooked 3 tbsp oat bran and 1 tbsp ground flax with 1/4 cup soymilk and 1/2 cup water. When it was done, I mixed in 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta and lots and lots of cinnamon. I ate it cold this morning topped with 1/4 chopped cinnamon bun from the hotel buffet and more cinnamon.

Icing!

I mixed it all up to eat:

On the side was half of a thinly sliced apple with cinnamon and a tsp of south of the border pistachio butter:

And white peony iced tea (with green in the background!!):

This week is going to be full of research madness. I may never surface again. HA, I’ll probably be back tonight. But if I seem to disappear into a black hole without warning, please don’t be alarmed. I’m just hyperventilating somewhere.

Are you hyperventilating about anything today?

FYI, you can get a free sample of KFC’s new grilled chicken today!

Time crunch, crunch time

April 26, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

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?

It’s genetic

April 26, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

My mom and John got stuck in quite a bit of NJ Turnpike traffic last night and didn’t get to Brooklyn until around 8:30 or 9. I snacked on the orange pieces I saved from Friday’s work event while I waited:

When they did arrive, I decided we should take advantage of the car and go to a restaurant in a nearbyish neighborhood that’s a little awkward to get to on foot or on the bus. I’ve wanted to try Picket Fence for a while, so that’s where I directed us. As soon as we pulled up outside, I knew we had made the right choice. Look how charming:

Restaurants with homey charm and cozy glows are always instant hits with me. They could have fed me dog poop at this point, and I wouldn’t have noticed. OK, maybe I would have noticed a little bit.

We requested a spot in the garden since it was still in the 70s, even at the late hour!

And they brought free plain popcorn (the perfect whole grain pre-dinner snack) to the table while we waited:

Mom and I shared the apple salad with Granny Smith slices, arugula (my favorite green!), red onions, grape tomatoes, blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette on the side:

I ordered the special: blackened red snapper with pineapple glaze over ratatouille.

This was perfect! Geez, I’m sorry I’m being so positive. If there was one drawback to my dinner, it was that it made me think of Rudolph with that half of one grape tomato sitting on top.

I also had a teeny bite of mom’s pan-seared scallops.

Scallops are my favorite seafood, but things often go wrong in preparation. Not so with these. They were brilliantly crisped on the outside!

And a teeny bite of John’s crab cakes:

Also verrrrrrry tasty.

So, it’s safe to say we were pleased with our food (even though it took forEVER to come out):

We picked one dessert to split three ways. We almost ordered two but then decided that one would probably suffice. Take a look at these “picket fence” dessert menus. Can you guess what we got?

We actually ordered the special: banana bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Mmmmmmmmm, it was warm and gooey (and melty by the time I finished photographing and let the vultures have at it!):

Mom and I had a spoon Olympics battle at the end for all the drips:

I’m not used to having to compete for my plate-cleaning title! Mom did claim, however, that she is the original plate scooper, and I guess she has a point there. She did come first!

Speaking of letting nothing go to waste, mom and John have been busy raiding Holiday Inn Expresses and their continental breakfasts up and down the East Coast over the past week for all sorts of goodies to bring to me! Left to right: leftover Thai coconut seafood curry, jam/honey/pb/syrup, tea, thank you mints, skim milk, fruit cups, apples, banana, instant oatmeal, instant cheddar grits, microwave popcorn, breakfast muffins, and loads of cinnamon bun-scented hotel toiletries!

Now you know why I turned out the way I did. Thanks, mom!

Why did you turn out the way you did?

Nuts, balls, and freebies

April 25, 2009February 6, 201524 Comments

So last, night, even through I was all caked up, I managed to have one last little snack before I went to bed: the last 1/2 cup of my chocolate peanut butter frozen yogurt (unfrozen) from a couple nights ago.

So so so so so so delicious. And there’s not even anything junky in it! Maybe I need to start having chocolate peanut butter frozen yogurt at every meal …

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 even though I had time to sleep until 8. I love waking up to sunlight because it’s so easy — I just wish the sunlight didn’t arrive until at least 7:45 on weekends! Around 8, I made a too-much-cake-upset-tummy-settling bowl of oat bran:

On the stovetop, I whisked 1 egg, 1/4 cup soymilk, and 1/4 cup water over low heat until it thickened custard-style. At that point, in went 2 tbsp oat bran, 1 tbsp ground flax, cinnamon, nutmeg, 1/4 cup pumpkin, and a chopped Medjool date. Once it got “mealy,” I immersion blended to make it creamier:

Around the outside is 1/3 cup of yogurt mixed with 1 tbsp PB2 (and sprinkled with unsweetened coconut):

With soymilky celestial seasonings almond sunset tea:

After breakfast, I headed up to Physique 57 for for the first of my two free classes with the coupon that Melissa handed out at the blogger brunch last month. I was quite a bit nervous for this class because I’ve been reading the reviews of it by some of my other NYC ladies — Ashley, Diana, Dori, Missy, Sara — and they scared me with their talk of quivering thighs and name-brand designer gym clothes! But, the class ended up being much more manageable than anticipated. Granted, I had sweat running down my face and I was certainly quivering at points throughout (I was also convinced my legs would burst into flame at any moment) but always had time to recover — and no one laughed at my four-year-old gym clothes from Target 😀 The instructors were helpful, patient, and encouraging, and I really enjoyed the class. I’m going back next Saturday for #2. Thanks, Melissa!

From Physique, I headed up to meet Vani at Penn Station, where we had planned to collect Danielle from the NJ Transit for our lunch date. Collection was successful, and the three of us enjoyed a summery (apparently, there will be no spring in ny this year??) 30-ish block walk from there to Peanut Butter & Co for lunch. Now, I’ve always wanted to eat at PB & Co. … yet I’ve somehow never managed to do so despite living in the city for nearly nine years, four of which were spent within a five-block radius of the darn place!

It was so airy and bright and cute inside:

We ordered our food and then took pictures of it (though I think the best part of this picture is the random crazy child in the background) 🙂

I got a The Heat Is On sandwich with whole wheat bread, spicy pb, pineapple jam, and pieces of chicken breast:

The sandwich came with chips and carrot sticks, but I don’t like chips so I got it with extra carrots instead:

Mmm, simple on the outside but full of bite and zing on the inside. I kept offering Vani bites by accident and then forgetting she was vegan. Even though I couldn’t share with Vani, she shared some of her sampler platter with Danielle and me:

What a great deal — all 8 flavors with plenty of extra to take home! I had some on a celery stick:

And some on a melba toast:

When we finished at PB & Co, Danielle requested we make a pit stop at Tasti-D since she’d never been. While there, I had a sample of their peanut butter flavor (because there’s no such thing as too much pb!).

Vani and I spotted some balls across the street, so we raced over to get in on that action. I ordered an unsweetened almond milk tea. We posed with our treats:

Next, we made a super-exciting stop at CVS so I could buy a box of band-aids since my feet were struggling to adapt to their first flip-flop experience of the season. Once I applied about 30 bandages, we were off again … this time to the Union Square Greenmarket. Somehow, I managed to get my hands on a million samples as we strolled the grounds. I don’t know how that happened. Scoring samples is very unlike me 😛

Vani, caught in the act:

All in all, it was a super fun day full of sunshine, perfect company, and peanutbuttery food.

In your opinion, what are the three most necessary components of an excellent day?

I’m off to take a very necessary shower and get ready for dinner. My mom and stepdad are passing through the city tonight as part of their massive East coast return road trip — Providence to Atlanta and back, all driving, stopping at several points along the way to visit family and friends — and staying overnight in Brooklyn. I need to think of a good place for us to go. Hmmm …

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Category: Food

Didn’t eat everything …

Layers of stress

Time crunch, crunch time

It’s genetic

Nuts, balls, and freebies

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