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?

Before I get to talking about this week’s school-stress-induced junk-fest, I feel the need to take you through round 2 of healthy things I made and ate. The green-power continued with this week’s spin on CSA salad enhanced, once again, by my CSA bok choy blossom centerpiece:

(The flowers are edible, but I thought they looked prettier on the table than in my tummy.)

The salad had a base of CSA mesclun and CSA spinach, and the topping of the week consisted of a sauteed mix of spinach stems, kale, bok choy, and garlic scapes (all CSA); mom’s herb-infused olive oil; dried cranberries; CSA snap peas; red wine vinegar; cooking sherry; coarse sea salt; freshly ground black pepper; and freshly grated homemade parmesan:

In the center, I added a teeny bite of the lasagna I rescued during work-fridge cleanout last week and some leaves of homegrown basil courtesy of my fire escape garden:

Plus a few carefully selected arugula leaves from the fire escape garden:

Sigh, such a satisfying salad, the product of sweat and tears that were not my own 😛 …

My other feat of scrumptiousness (there are so many that it’s hard to keep track) looked like this:

Who loves farm-fresh CSA strawberries? I do, I do!

The yogurt part was actually a peanut butter-yogurt-chia mix. Tara left behind about 1/4 jar of Jif peanut butter when she moved. I don’t go for the Jif on its own so much, but it was tasty tasty mixed with yogurt! I added chia seeds for their thickening powers, and the concoction lasted me a good three days.

This time, I added dried apricots to the berries:

(Do you see my strategic positioning of the bowl in the center of the tablecloth design?)

If you are topping-identification-challenged, those white bits are unsweetened shredded coconut:

There was a night that I mixed the pb-yogurt-chia with cocoa powder and a smidge of honey and froyo-ed it (freeze for 20-stir-freeze for 20-stir), topped it with a spoonful of real vanilla ice cream, and sprinkled chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and cinnamon:

Just as I can stare at avocado all day, I can stare at chocolate all day:

Here are those circles-of-decreasing size again. Such a recurring theme around here!

Oh, another thing. (I know … this is way too much for one post. But I have so much to say still!) I’ve also been enjoying my iced white peony tea all week, thanks to this excellent straining spoon that I found on the street a couple months ago. (It also comes in handy for extracting poached eggs from boiling water.) Step 1 = Pour:

Step 2 = Remove spoon:

Speaking of things I found on the street, these joined the collection the other day:

And the last thing (I promise?)! When the pb-chia-yogurt ran out, I had to think fast. I blended a sweet potato with yogurt, spices, and vanilla; froyo-ed it, and topped it with a square of Newman’s Own espresso dark chocolate (I also followed it with like 4 more squares of the chocolate with the reasoning that the espresso would help me stay awake to finish my paper, and then I went right to bed.) and a packet of Fitnutz Pro:

I am lucky there are so many reasons to say YUM in my life.

Classily arranged on my cinder block, errrrrrrr, table …

The rain brigade says bye byeeeeeeeeee …

Did you make anything this week? I made the tent‘s cinder blocks serve as a photography table …

So, the paper is done!!! And I am way beyond sleep-deprived. And it will take my body 10 years to recover from all the sugar I’ve downed in order to get through this. And I still have a presentation to give tonight. But, after that, I will be school-free for four whole days. That means I will have a four-day vacation from getting utterly drenched in torrential downpours on the way from work to class only to sit in an over-air-conditioned room for 3.5 hours.

I may have been smiling on the outside, but I was crying on the inside.

So were Deborah, Lucia, and Pura:

Anyway, I’ve at least been pairing my sugar overages with some green. When I eat too much junk, it’s always in addition to and not instead of a healthy base. Hopefully, my body will thank me by not letting diabetes spontaneously develop overnight.

My packed lunches this week involved a variation of this recipe for Catfish and Tomatillo Salsa from EatingWell. Except I used chicken instead of catfish because that was what I had. And I completely ignored every part of the recipe except the part that told me what to put in the salsa. Well, that’s sort of a lie. I used more tomatillos and more onion than the recipe required because I wanted to use everything. By the way, if you don’t know about tomatillos, you should get acquainted.

They resemble green tomatoes on the outside and somewhat on the inside, but the flavor is more like a Granny Smith apple.

I used two of my CSA garlic scapes in place of the garlic, and I also had to improvise when the recipe wanted japapenos and I did not have any. Instead, I poured in this super spicy green salsa that Lillian had left over from her tacos last week at work:

I chopped 1.5 chicken breasts (I’ve had them in my freezer since November at least!) and placed them on the bottom of a baking dish. The huge pile of salsa went on top.

I covered the dish and baked for 40 minutes at 400, and then I uncovered the dish and broiled for an additional 15 minutes to get this:

For the side, I decided to mobilize the rice I’ve been storing in my freezer for months. I defrosted Vianni’s veggie rice and chicken (and you know this is old because Vianni left my agency over six weeks ago!), Myrna’s rice and sardines, and stepdad John’s leftover coconut curry rice from a Thai restaurant and mixed them all together with BRM triticale berries to satisfy my whole-grains-loving conscience:

For an extra kick, I mixed all the rice-y goodness with the last of the TJ’s SPICY jalapeno-lime salsa (the origin of those orange bits in the picture above) from Elisabeth.

Outdoor patio lunch in action (the same day, incidentally, that afore-mentioned perfectly-timed-with-my-commute flood drama took place):

Food marriage has a much higher rate of success than people marriage:

As I’ve mentioned before, my agency has very Catholic roots and was started by nuns. This pious (?) man is probably a prominent Catholic figure, and he watched vigilantly over our lunch:

Word is, if you stare long enough, he actually starts to move closer. A religious miracle or a trick of perception? You decide. Or, if you don’t want to talk about religion and miracles, you can just tell me your best caught-in-the-rain story …

Thanks to my CSA share, eggs have been playing quite the starring role in my life over the past few weeks.



When I buy eggs from the grocery store, I have no problem letting them hang out in my fridge for several weeks as I slowly work my way through them. (These eggs lasted me for six weeks!) With these fresh eggs, however, I’ve been feeling the pressure to use them while still at their peak!



My dad always told me: when in doubt, boil water … so that’s what I’ve been doing with these eggs! It doesn’t hurt that my favorite way to eat an egg is poached 😀

Ellie recently asked me how I poach my eggs. I actually have an excellent Revere-ware pan with six egg poaching cups that used to belong to my grandma … but the truth is that I prefer free-style poaching because I love the wispy bits of egg white that form. I boil a bunch of water in a saucepan and then crack the egg right into it:



I like my eggs “hard-poached” and not runny (Brandi and Olivia are probably experiencing a succession of massive heart attacks at that statement), so I usually let them cook for about 8 minutes. Sometimes I turn the heat down and cover the pot, and sometimes I just let it boil uncovered the whole way through. I guess it depends on my mood.

And a sampling of my poach egg perfection over the past week …

On half of a toasted sandwich thin with three-leaf pesto, all over 1/2 cup of habichuelas I rescued from the work fridge during the weekly clean-out last Friday:

Somehow, I always end up arranging my food in circles of decreasing size. I wonder if this is a habit I’ve developed to facilitate photography for the blog? I don’t think I used to do this!

I topped the poached egg stack with freshly ground black pepper, freshly ground coriander, and homemade grated parmesan.

The absolute perfect internal texture for me:

On the side, I had a teeny teeny bite of lasagna that I also rescued from the work fridge on Friday!

Poached egg on a sandwich thin, round 2 (with my CSA bok choy blossom centerpiece!):

This time around, I spread the toast with the pesto and 1/8 of a mashed avocado, mmmmmmm:

I could stare at avocado all day long …

One of the beauties of free-style poaching, this yolk decided it wanted to sit on top in a giant ball:

Again, internal perfection:

I can’t stop with the photos!

Finally, I incorporated the poached egg into Vani-inspired savory oats topped with a Brandi-inspired egg (though the non-runny part is Sarah-inspired, of course):

In the overnight mix of oats, I combined 1/4 cup Scottish oats, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, coriander, oregano, coarse sea salt, a drizzle of my mom’s homemade herb-infused olive oil, and steamed spinach:

In the morning, I topped the oats with another fun free-style poached egg shape, 1/8 avocado, freshly ground coriander, and freshly grated homemade parm:

These oats were amaaaaaaaaazing — Vani, you’re a genius! — and I’ve been eating them for breakfast all week:

(That’s not a runny yolk! It just shifted in the course of photographic manipulation.)

OK, time for work and then more paper-writing all night long. This paper is due tomorrow, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can get it done! I miss sleeping, and you don’t even want to know what’s happened to my eating habits with all of this late-night work … but I’m hoping everything can get back to normal by the weekend for a little reprieve before summer session 2 starts next Tuesday!

Do you eat eggs? Why or why not? If you do eat eggs, what is your favorite egg style?

… but only when it’s the most efficient way to get there!

Sunday morning, I took a little study break (that ended up taking way longer than expected) for a free sample of Ben & Jerry’s new “flipped out” ice cream cup!

The ice cream giveaway was on the complete opposite side of the park from where I live (about two miles away), so the most efficient way to get there was literally to jog. The B&J truck was supposed to be there from 11-1, so Gina and I planned to meet there at 10:45 in case of a crowd. I arrived right on time and joined Gina on a bench while setup took place.

And took place.

And took place.

Meanwhile, tortured thoughts of my unwritten paper were running through my head.

Gina and I got restless and posed in front of the “flipped” Brooklyn Bridge.

Finally, at 11:45, the samples were ready! We collected our ice creams, bowls, spoons, and coupons …

… and headed to one of the little tables B&J had set up specifically for the event.

Gina gave a demonstration of proper “flipping” procedure:

Mmmmmmm, gooey chocolate.

It was yummy (and yay for free!), but the brownie pieces did taste a little off. They probably would have been much better if I had let the ice cream thaw a little before eating it, but I was too impatient. I had really been wanting to try the peanut butter flavor, but chocolate brownie was all they had. It was free and allowed me to get a mini-workout in, though, so I won’t complain!

Gina and I walked back through the park toward my neighborhood (everyone was out picnicking!) while we ate our ice cream.

I left Gina at the subway station and came back home to work on the paper. My planned one hour ice cream adventure took two, but I won’t complain about that, either!

Thanks to Julie, my former classmate-turned-reader (Hi Julie!), for tipping me off about the event. It was a perfect excursion to break up the paper-writing monotony.

Of course, ice cream always needs to go along with cake. Even if ice cream and cake can’t be eaten at the same time, they should at least be eaten within 24 hours of each other. I took care of that requirement on Saturday afternoon with this slice of heaven:

If you’ve been following along with Olivia as you should be, you’ll know that she held a John and Kate divorce viewing party last week and made a special John and Kate Plus Cake to celebrate. I wasn’t at the party, but Olivia (incredible hostess that she is), thought to save me a slice without me even requesting it first! The cake made its way to me via Kate’s freezer after our CSA pickup on Saturday. The cake was of stroke-inducing deliciousness caliber. How could it not be? Moist dark chocolate cake base:

Peanut butter-mascarpone icing:



And peanut m&ms:



Does it get better?? Probably not. Mmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmm. Thanks Olivia!

And because I’m all about balance, I might as well throw some green in here for you, too.



Saturday’s CSA loot included mesclun, spinach, baby bok choy, kale, 1 baby zucchini, eggs, garlic scapes, snap peas, strawberries.



I love the baby bok choy flowers, so pretty!



Plus, my arugula garden on the balcony is coming along nicely:

As is the garden of some people who like to rub in how they can afford access to actual naturally-occurring dirt in NYC whose backyard faces my balcony:



Yay for health 😀

How have you created balance lately? And what makes you run?