Category: Food

Longer than necessary

17 Comments

Ahhh the trains today were out of control! Delays all morning, delays all night. Reason #56498 to leave NYC. Alas, I’ve got many months of grad school to go.

My morning fruit ‘n’ yog was so pretty that I had to take a picture of it from the side:

img_6514

My 1/2 cup of fruit salad was the same combo I’ve been eating all weekend — pineapple, mango, banana, plum, strawberries, grapes — and I topped it with plain yogurt + lemon curd + cinnamon and a sprinkle of golean crunch.

img_6515

Mmmmm, yogurt perfection.

Plus a pre-visit sugar fix:

img_6516

While on my visit this morning, the mom basically deposited a hefty square of tres leches cake onto my lap. How could I refuse? Obviously, I couldn’t.

I love tres leches cake — it’s probably the most moist cake you can imagine, given that it’s soaked in condensed milk and all. Mmmm, again. Unfortunately, I don’t take my camera with me to visits, so I didn’t get to capture the beauty on film/memory card/whatever it is. However, Beryl was just about to tuck into a banana-rum mini-bundt cake when I got back to the office, and she generously offered to let me take a picture before she demolished it. So, in lieu of the tres leches cake I did eat, here’s the banana-rum cake I did not eat:

img_6524

Lunch during the parents’ group today was a low-key affair since only a couple moms came in. I had a cup of raisin bran with 1/2 cup 1% milk and a few banana pieces:

img_65211

And then, I ate the rest of the banana smothered with about 2 tbsp peanut butter (aka perfection) and an orange:

img_6517

I probably ate another orange’s worth of wedges after that, too. Girl loves her fruit 🙂

A boredom lollipop:

img_6522img_6523

Later in the afternoon, I broke into the Quackers samples that Melissa brought to yesterday’s blogger brunch:

img_6526

Ooooh, they were so good! I made a little dip for them out of goat cheese, plain yogurt, dried basil, and freshly ground black pepper. Perfection again (there was lots of it going around today, apparently).

A breath-freshening mint:

img_6528

I inhaled pretty much all my dinner right at the start of class tonight. The spread included a cup of roasted veggies:

img_6534

With manchego cheese samples from the gourmet market:

img_6536

Two stuffed collard greens leaves:

img_6537

I made these with the same method I used for my Stuffed Kale Leaves, and I stuffed them with some of the mixed-grain salad I made last weekend.

img_6541

Hiding under the stuffed collard greens is some scrumptious roast chicken left from Mildred’s lunch today:

img_6538

The chicken couldn’t have come at a better time because I was feeling a little bit low on protein!

Dessert was a few banana and orange pieces left from the parents’ group this afternoon.

img_6529

And look what was waiting for me when I got home!

img_6543

My prize package from Abbie’s Foods That Fit giveaway!! I’m so excited for all of these treats: cocoa java almonds, 2 oatmeal squares, PB2, single-serve nutella, single serve Barney Butter (which I’ve never tried!), and sugar cookie sleigh ride (just as I’m running out of my last box of it … SO perfect) 😀

I was stilla bit hungry, so I actually broke into the almonds as part of this little snack set:

img_6548

The ramekin on the left has two more stuffed collard greens, and the ramekin on the right has 1/2 cup fruit salad with a mix of above-mentioned almonds, trail mix, and vanilla-almond granola.

But I wasn’t quite done! Last treat of the night:

img_6550

A chocolate macaroon from One Lucky Duck, another of the samples Melissa brought to lunch yesterday. Ahhh, this was so dense and chocolate-y. I want 10 more of them now.

But what I really really want more than anything else is go to bed. So that’s what I’m off to do!

And make sure you go check out julie golean because she is giving away HER favorite things, and her favorite things look pretty tasty 😀

Just call me Popeye

12 Comments

Breakfast this morning was another new and exciting (to me!) creation:

img_6512

I got up at 5 to go to the gym, got all my layers on, jogged there in the 30 degree weather … and found six other people waiting outside the locked and gated entrance! My gym is supposed to open at 5am on Mondays, and it was definitely 5:20 by this point, grrrrr. I gave it a few minutes, but every moment counts at that time of day, so I eventually gave up and jogged my creaky crunchy knees back home. It probably worked out better anyway since it gave me time to do the beginning Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com — my knees needed the rest!

So back to breakfast, yet another work of art inspired by Heather and her spinach oats!

img_6506

If you recall, I brought home a giant packed bag of fresh spinach leaves last week when we had extra in the food pantry at work. Despite diligently incorprating the spinach into salads all weekend, I barely made a dent! So last night, I made 1/2 cup stovetop oats custard-style and also added about four cups of spinach, half of a giant grated carrot, and a chopped apple. When everything was wilted and cooked, I immersion-blended my heart out. With the heat off post-blending, I mixed in another 1/2 cup oats (for texture), 1/2 giant mashed banana, 1/2 giant chunked banana, vanilla, cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon curd, and 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut. The whole thing made just under 4 cups of oatmeal.

This morning, I heated 3/4 cup of the mix, set it on a bed of lemon yogurt (yogurt + more lemon curd + cinnamon), and topped it with strawberries, vanilla-almond granola, more coconut, and a big ol’ spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter:

img_6510

And you know the soymilky black tea was not far behind:

img_6504

Thanks for yet another delicious breakfast idea, Heather!

I’ll be back much much later tonight because I’ve got class after work. Can I just say how much I love these endless Mondays??

Where do you go when you leave work at the end of the day?

Weekend remainders

17 Comments

More photos from yesterday …

Taken by photographer/organizer extraordinaire Melissa: Ashley (reader), me,
Dori, Missy, Danielle, Ashley, Gena (the Raw Foodist and soon-to-be-blogger), Mark, Heather, Shane, Emily, Amelia, Vani, Olga

pics-0031

And waiting in the subway station with Vani and Emily, my fellow slopers:

hpim2176

I eventually got around to another salad-infused dinner last night and finished up the contributions that I got from Inginia and Nydia Friday at work.

img_6487

This salad had greens, peppers, cranberries, corn, garlic-lemon juice, goat cheese, strawberries, roast chicken, s&p, and a drizzle of Annie’s Lite Gingerly Vinaigrette:

img_6493

Dessert came in the form of another salad!

img_6498

This combo of fruits made me feel like I was in Costa Rica, sigh. My fruit salad contained pineapple, mango, plum, grapes, strawberries, orange, and banana. I topped it with a mix of plain yogurt, lemon curd, and cinnamon. Plus a sprinkle of coconut and vanilla-almond granola because I couldn’t stop.

And yes, I did balance the bowl on the TV so that I could capture the last whimpers of natural sunlight for the day:

img_6502

I cooked a few things for the week (and nibbled on them, too, obv), including the latest oatmeal which will be along in my breakfast shortly!

Did you make any new friends this weekend?

Munchy brunchy bunch

21 Comments

I’m back from the blogger brunch — what a fun group of girls (and boy)! We met at Counter, an East Village vegetarian restaurant. While the service left quite a bit to be desired — at least five orders got messed up, and poor Dori didn’t get her food until after pretty much everyone else had finished eating! — the company was wonderful and my meal at least tasted delicious. My people-photography skills are lacking, but here’s what I was able to get.

Left to right: Danielle, Ashley, Melissa, Gena (the Raw Foodist and soon-to-be-blogger), Mark, Heather, and Shane

img_6459

Left to right: part of Amelia‘s eye, Vani, Olga, Amie, reader Ashley, me

img_6460

Not pictured but also there: Dori, Missy, and Emily

I ordered the Moroccan Tagine: poached eggs in a rich tomato-pepper stew & grilled flatbread. The flatbreads came haphazardly tossed on a separate plate, so I arranged them around my stew dish for better visual effect:

img_6464

This. was. SO. GOOD. If you ever go to Counter (which I’m not sure I’d recommend after experiencing their lousy service, even taking into account that there were 16 of us), you must order this dish.

img_6465

The stew was spicy and flavorful and thick, and the flatbreads complemented it perfectly. (I also ate one of the flatbreads with a smear of strawberry butter because I could not pass that up when I saw it!)

I inhaled my food because it was yummmmmy and I was hungry (the accidental 10.5 miles was starting to catch up with me), but everyone else was still eating and I was jealous. I checked out the spread and noticed a meal down at the other end that I couldn’t quite identify:

img_64691

It almost looked like a big hunk of steak, but I thought that was highly unlikely with us being at a vegetarian restaurant and all. I called down to Danielle to see what she had ordered. FRENCH TOAST!! She offered me a bite, and my spoon and I were down at her plate in under 5 seconds 😀

Of course, once I successfully filled my spoon with gooey French toast delight, I started talking to Heather (who also accidentally ran 10 miles this morning!! we’re so going to wipe the floor (is that even an expression?) with the Brooklyn Half Marathon) about Providence and waving my spoon all around. I ended up dropping my gooey French toast bite onto Missy! (Sorry, Missy!) Should have seen that one coming …

Danielle immediately offered up another bite of her French toast because she’s AMAZING (Danielle, I’m so bummed we didn’t get to chat — I call dibs on the seat beside you at the next blogger event!) and then she offered me the REST of her plate because she was FULL. How could I refuse??

img_6471

It tasted like it looked: DELICIOUS. Warm, dense, gooey, maple-y, banana-y. From the menu: a delicious vegan twist on classic French toast with banana flambe. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

img_6470

(I’m pretty sure I smeared strawberry butter all over this guy, too )

Thanks again, Danielle! That French toast definitely bumped me up into the “satiated” category!

Vani, Emily, Missy, and I headed down toward the F train when we left the restaurant at 3:30 (yes, we were all there gabbing for over 2 hours! Sooo glad I wrote my midterm yesterday. Olga still has one to write tonight, ack. You can do it, Olga!!). Emily needed gelato, so we stopped into Sugar where I drooled over the dessert case and then got scolded by management for taking this picture (and about 12 others):

img_6472

I also tried a bite of the pannacotta gelato, which Emily ended up ordering. Mmmm, it was good. Next time!

When we left Sugar, I crossed the street too fast, as usual, and the smarter and safer girls were left behind on the other side:

img_64761

Once back in the Slope, Emily and I peer-pressured Vani into trying the balls at Hanco’s. I think she’s going to be hooked! Emily boldly ordered the egg yolk soda:

img_6478

I took a couple sips — it was kind of like a cross between egg nog and and egg cream. It was definitely yolky, but also sweet and a little fizzy. It was different, but I liked it.

I ordered an unsweetened milkless coconut tea:

img_6481

(It was still milky and sort of sweet because I’m pretty sure the coconut tea powder they use has both milk and sugar already built into the blend.)

I got home and took stock of all the goodies that Melissa and Missy were able to procure for us. Weil bars, a Z-bar, treats from One Lucky Duck, and free passes for fitness classes in the city:

img_6483

This little guy was so cute that I had to sample him right away:

img_6486

And now I think I’m already getting hungry again for dinner! Hmmm, what to eat, what to eat …

What is your worst restaurant service story?

Accidental 10

19 Comments

Let me just preface this by saying, I am not the kind of girl who runs 10 miles by accident. I am more likely to accidentally eat something like this:

img_6448

In second grade, it took me a full 3 seconds longer than the rest of the class to run the 50-yard dash, and my fear of running was born. However, something has changed in the past year, and not only do I find myself training for a half marathon, but I also woke up this morning with the urge to run.

I’ll just do 5 miles, I thought to myself. But then I made it over the Brooklyn Bridge and figured I might as well go back over to the other side and run to the next subway stop instead of taking the train back from the city. By the time I got to the next stop, I was hungry and really had to go to the bathroom and decided it would be quicker to run home than to deal with the slow Sunday subway schedule. I thought I’d done 8 or maybe 9 miles … but I gmapped it and found 10.5!! How did this happen?? Craaaaaaaaazy. Anyway, stats: 1 hour and 46 minutes, 876 calories, average heart rate 151, max 173.

Obviously, I spent most of the run dreaming about this:

img_6445

A Fitnessista breakfast cookie made with:

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 large mashed banana
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup super-thick homemade Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter

I was feeling feisty after my surprise run, so I made “frosting” with my last PB2 sample packet and 1.5 tbsp yogurt and smothered the cookie with it. I also couldn’t help adding a chopped square of Godiva dark chocolate and one mammoth strawberry‘s worth of slices.

img_6442

I’m just about to head out to the blogger brunch, and I will be ready to eat for sure! As even more proof that I’m crazy, I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, so I spent all of Thursday afternoon baking a million batches of teeny Earl Grey Biscotti Bites (but with jasmine tea in place of earl grey):

img_6457

In reality, I multiplied the recipe by six and not by a million, but that certainly was enough to keep me busy! Each pack only has four little bites (and the 5 non-blue packages have wheat-free and vegan versions — oat flour instead of whole wheat and all canola instead of canola/butter combo — because I imagine there will be a few vegans in the bunch), but something is better than nothing!

Hope you’re having a great Sunday!

I know you all accidentally grocery shop, but do you accidentally exercise, too?