Category: Uncategorized

Luck of the Irish, partly

13 Comments

The other part, I suppose, would be luck of the Eastern European Jewish 😛

I went festive for breakfast this morning:

img_6146

But before breakfast, it was back to the gym! I did Tina’s 45-minute treadmill run. It had been a few weeks since the last time, and I had missed it! Stats: 1 hour and 3 minutes, 511 (yay, my birthday number :D) calories, 149 average heart rate, 180 max.

I considered eating guacamole for breakfast since I made so much of it on Sunday, but then I remembered all of the spinach I brought home from work last night! I blended about 2 cups of it with 1 small chopped apple, 1 cup plain yogurt, and lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.

With a sprinkle of granola and a spinach palm tree shamrock:

img_6145

On the side, I had three Balsamic-Strawberry Oaties spread with about 1 tbsp homemade almond-cashew butter:

img_6149

And I’m sipping/chugging my soymilky black tea as I type!

I don’t know what my schedule is going to be like this afternoon — I’m heading up to the Bronx for a lecture about working with bilingual children — so I thought it would be fun (well, fun for me, haha) to leave you with a retrospective of  St. Patty’s Days past.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 2004 (senior year spring break!):

sp2004

East Village NYC, 2005 (ship-load of Irish sailors unpictured 😉 ):

sp2005

Kinsale, Ireland, 2006 (a trip with Wife to visit the restaurant/bar where we used to waitress and the boys who looked after us):

sp2006

East Village NYC, 2007 (with Gina, Wife, and Kate):

sp2007

Coney Island, Brooklyn, 2008 (not St. Pat’s since my nightlife vanished with the wind when I began grad school, but Irish-themed night at the Brooklyn Cyclones!):

sp2008

The end! Enjoy your green day 😀

To-Do:

1. Check out the new BSI info here.

2. Join Vani’s Forbidden Foods Challenge!

Food rich, cash poor

18 Comments

I may not get paid in cash at my internship, but as you’ve all seen time and time again, I definitely get paid in food!

Before my 11:00 visit this morning, the standard morning snack came out to keep me going until lunch. I had a mug of Earl Grey to accompany my 2/3 cup yogurt with 1/2 small chopped apple, a sprinkle of vanilla-almond granola, cinnamon, and cardamom:

picture-199

Immediately after the visit, I ran down to join Inginia for our regular Monday parents’ group. Today was a special day because all of the kids in the group are turning two this month! We celebrated by making play-dough together 😀

Here I am with some ghost children and their moms (confidentiality and all …):

img_6014

The celebration continued with mac & cheese courtesy of Inginia’s culinary skills. She doctored a regular boxed mix with extra cheese, eggs, oregano, and black pepper:

picture-246

I had about two cups worth — it was so delicious! (no surprise there)

The best part of our celebration was cake-decorating!! Right before the group, Inginia baked a pineapple cake.

picture-261

We let the kids go to town with vanilla and chocolate frosting.

picture-265

I scraped the empty frosting jar clean, of course. It was ALMOST as satisfying as scraping a peanut butter jar clean 😉

picture-278

Next up were the sprinkles.

picture-286

Two! The finished product, plus the fancy custard-filled white cake one of the moms brought in:

picture-296

My small plate was bursting with pieces of each, plus more frosting scrapings from the spatulas.

picture-3211

We packed up the leftover cake for the families to take home, and then I filled this cup with all the rest of the crumbs and frosting still on the plates and savored every bite.

picture-328

(You might notice some suspicious chocolate cake crumbs in that cup that don’t seem as though they match up with either of the two birthday cakes (or you might not). Good eye! I randomly found a bag of chocolate cake crumbs in one of the kitchens at work and thought it would pair splendidly with my cup o’ frosting. I was right :D)

picture-329

Afternoon snack (as if I needed it) happened when Jessica brought out her baked batata! I loooooove me some batata, so I had about half of it:

picture-332img_6135

It was around this time that the best announcement of the day came on over the loudspeaker: “Attention staff: We have collard greens available in Advocacy. Please come down if you would like some.” You know I was up and running at that one!

The food bank delivery had come in for our pantry, but the pantry will be closed tomorrow … meaning that all the extra perishable produce had to go! I went down and Pura hooked me up with two bags. On my way out of the office later, I stopped into the Advocacy kitchen one more time to make sure nothing was in danger of rotting while the department is out “advocating” in Albany tomorrow, and my timing was perfect. Lucia loaded me up with another bag of collard greens, a tightly packed bag of fresh spinach, a bag of radishes, and three enormous carrots!

img_6143

(Also worth mentioning: I survived the day with only four mints from Belkis’ candy jar! Not sure how much of a sugar success that actually is given that I ate my weight in frosting earlier …)

Straggering under my heavy bags of books and produce (not complaining!), I speed-subwayed the 40 blocks from work to class and made it just in the nick of time. The group presenting tonight did a great job with their topic of addiction … including food addiction. We talked about my blog briefly (as a healthy example, of course ;)), so welcome HBII classmates if you’re reading!

I wasn’t all that hungry for dinner (understandably), so I had about 1/2 cup mix of mac & cheese left from the group, mystery fried rice left from Vianni’s lunch, and mixed-grain salad.

img_6136

I got hungrier near the end of class, so I also ate my cup of roasted veggies:

img_6141

And this cup of cantaloupe that was also left from the parents’ group:

picture-326

And now, it’s really really time for me to go to bed. I hope I fall asleep quickly tonight — yoga was nice this morning, but I missed my gym-time!

Do you have a morning routine that helps set you up for a productive day?

Awake

14 Comments

Before I get to today’s breakfast, remember that time I ate a week’s worth of food in the space of one hour? I know, I know. You’re saying, “Which time does she mean? There are millions!” Let me be more specific. I’m talking about this time. Well, you’re in luck! The full story of the evening, complete with pictures of the most beautiful food in the world pre-demolition, is now available in my guest post at For the Love of Oats. Get a napkin ready because you’ll need it to wipe the drool off of your desk.

Onto today:

img_5989

It took me HOURS to fall asleep last night. I don’t know what was going on, but it was well after 1am by the time I dozed off! I knew an extra hour of sleep and yoga would serve me better than 5am cardio, so I got up at 6:15 and did the beginner Power Yoga #3 from yogadownload.com. I had a delicious Fitnessista breakfast cookie (and pb2 experiment #3) waiting for me when I was done:

img_5988

This slab of perfectio contained 1/2 cup oats, 1 packet chocolate pb2, 2 tbsp homemade chocolate mousse, 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 4 chopped strawberries, 2 chopped toasted almonds, and one chopped date.

img_5993

I decorated the top with a square of Godiva dark chocolate and a dollop of plain yogurt (which I also used to “ice” the edges of the cookie):

img_5990

It had solidified well after a night in the fridge, but I popped it in the freezer
for 20 minutes or so before eating because I prefer it half-frozen. I’m pretty sure this was my best breakfast cookie combo yet. The pb flavor really came through (much more than it did yesterday with a similar combo in hot oatmeal form) — in fact, the cookie was reminiscent of peanut butter-chocolate-strawberry cheesecake! It made me thrilled to be awake 😀

I kept things steamy with a mug of soymilky black tea (and the triumphant return of morning sunlight!) on the side:

img_5985

I love starting my day with a million pictures of oats 😀 (Speaking of which, don’t forget to check out my guest post at For the Love of Oats!)

What makes YOU thrilled to be awake?

P.S. …

1. Check out Vani’s brilliant, healthy, and fun Forbidden Foods Challenge. This is hands-down the BEST blogger challenge I’ve seen!

2. Thinspired is giving away some exciting British snackaroos!

No sugar; extra balls (+ laundry Qs answered)

24 Comments

I met Gina, JQ, and Di this afternoon at Tea Spot, a teashop in the village, to celebrate Di’s engagement. Here’s the guest of honor modeling her tea ring:

img_5968

We had to order our teas two at a time so that the other two could guard the table because tables are hard to come by around here. I had been planning to order a regular ol’ pot of earl grey, but Di started asking the guy behind the counter about frappe-y drink possibilities. Good thing she did, becaue the menu gave no indication of the fanciness available!

The guy was very helpful (there’s just something about a man behind a bar, is there not?) and opened several barrels of their loose leaf tea blends to waft the tantalizing scents in our direction. He explained that we could choose to mix any of the blends with fancy tea powder (the kind that is sweet and milky already when you add water to it). Di got almond cookie with taro powder, and I got creme de chocolate with taro powder. When we were through, we sent Gina and Q up to Chris at the bar, and they came back with butter toffee/taro and coconut/taro. We did a little merry-go-round of taste tests — all delicious!

img_5969

Also, Beadie’s earrings made their public debut, earning a number of appreciative comments:

img_5971

As Chris, our barista(o?), had warned us, the teas tasted strikingly similar to the addictive blend present in bubble tea. I knew in advance that this would be a problem, as I was out-of-my-mind addicted to the tapioca balls all throughout college, thanks to my old roommate Ilin who introduced me to them freshman year. I left the teashop with an uncontrollable craving for the real deal and stopped into Hanco’s, the bubble tea cafe that just opened in my neighborhood (yay! except that it took the place of the Tea Lounge, which was way better) on the way home to satisfy the urge. I ordered an unsweetened jasmine tea (because the bubbles are sweet enough all on their own) with extra balls:

img_5975

I saw those flowers when I walked in and chose a yellow straw for color-coordination purposes. Also, inspired by pretty green girl and St. Patrick’s Day (I am part Irish, after all), I greenly saved my cup from the Tea Spot so that Hanco’s could refill it instead of giving me more plastic.

The balls masquerading as a biology experiment:

img_5976

I made another stop at the laundromat to check in on the status of my clothes and found that they were, in fact, washing my clothes for me and told me they’d be done in an hour. Total cost? $21 … exactly three times what I pay to do it on my own! Eek! Oh well — it wasn’t in my budget, but this one-time expense won’t break me, and I’ll be more careful next time. Plus, I saved so much money on groceries Friday night that things should balance out. More good news: not only did the laundry man avoid putting my delicates in the dryer, but he actually lectured ME because he could tell that one of my wool sweaters had been dryer-ed in the past! And now everything is folded, so I don’t have to spend tons of time putting stuff away right this minute to keep it from wrinkling.

I spent a good chunk of time tonight getting food and lunches ready for the week. The veggies I scored Friday night got roasted. Before:

img_5977

After:

img_5981

I used half of this giant avocado to make more chocolate mousse a la Heather. Before:

img_5979

After:

img_5980

With the other half of the avocado, I made asparagus guacamole, a trick I’ve heard about before but never tried. I needed enough guac for a week (and I knew that half an avocado, no matter how gigantic, would not cut it), so I threw in a bunch of steamed asparagus to make it stretch.

Before (1/4 avocado + steamed asparagus):

img_5982

After (post-immersion blending):

img_5983

After after (mixed with salsa, the other 1/4 avocado because I like it chunky, lime juice, s&p, and red pepper flakes):

img_5984

I had a few bites — the asparagus flavor came through slightly (which is fine with me since I love asparagus), but it’s still definitely guacamole :-D.

I had been planning to eat some of the roasted veggies and guac for dinner, but after the balls and all the nibbling-while-cooking, I wasn’t hungry at all. I almost ate it anyway since it was all prepared and ready to go, but I listened to my intuition (thank you, Intuitive Eating) and realized I just wasn’t interested. I will save it for when I am hungry and can really enjoy it.

It’s past my bedtime as usual, so I’m headed straight to bed!

How do YOU feel about the balls?

Nuts for salad + laundry debacle

10 Comments

My second PB2 experiment took place this morning when I decided on the world’s best oatmeal combo: pb-chocolate-banana.

img_5952

In the pot, I cooked 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats with 1/2 cup unsweetened silk, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 whipped banana, 1/4 chunked banana, dash salt, and 1 packet chocolate pb2. The cooked oatmeal went into the bowl on a bed of 1/2 cup yogurt, and I garnished with 2 sliced strawberries, unsweetened coconut, 1.5 chopped pieces of lindt hazelnut chocolate, and unsweetened cocoa powder.

img_5951

Yum! But, I couldn’t really taste the pb2 chocolate and peanut flavors that strongly. If I were to make this bowl of oatmeal again, and I probably will, I would mix cocoa powder into the pot to cook with the oatmeal and save the pb2 to pour on top. Mixing it in led to too much flavor dilution!

For lunch, I had the grilled chicken/chicken parm leftovers salad that I brought home from my coworkers on Friday. I actually only used half of the chicken that was on the salad and saved the other half for tomorrow. I bulked up the salad with the grape tomatoes, radishes, chopped endives, and cheese cubes from Friday night and topped it with a drizzle of Annie’s lite gingerly dressing I found in our fridge + freshly ground black pepper.

img_5958

Post-picture, I decided I needed more crunch and added two chopped and toasted almonds to the top 😀

My eyes were bigger than my stomach (as my dad would say), and I made a second course that consisted of the rest of the chicken parm toast with homemade almond-cashew butter + the last cup of Friday night’s leftover fruit salad and a sprinkling of vanilla-almond granola.

img_5959

I ate the toasts and realized I felt full, so I held off on the fruit salad for another hour or so until I was ready.

img_5961

Here’s another picture, just because I’m not looking forward to going back to my paper as soon as this post is done.

img_5964

I’m leaving in a little while to meet the comm girls for coffee in honor of Diana’s recent ENGAGEMENT :D, and then it will be back home and to the books!

In unrelated news, I went to do my laundry this morning only to find the big metal gate down and the laundromat dark and empty. I spotted the manager parked a few cars down and went to inquire. Apparently, the metal gate was broken and he couldn’t get in! He told me to leave my clothes with him and come back tonight to get them. I was caught off guard, so between that and the language barrier, I got flustered and agreed. But now I’m thinking: (1) Is he going to wash my stuff for me and then charge me by the pound (which will undoubtedly cost more than I normally pay to do it myself)?; (2) Are all my clothes going to shrink because he doesn’t know what can go in the dryer and what can’t?; and (3) Was I completely off-base, and did he just mean he would hold onto my laundry until later so I didn’t have to drag it all the way back home, and I’ll still need to do it myself tonight?

Yes, I could just go back over there and check, but I’m feeling lazy and the suspense is more fun. What do YOU think will become of my laundry?