Windfall

January 22, 2009February 6, 20156 Comments

Today’s winnings:

7 banana nut odwalla bars, 17.6 oz Fage 0%, 6 caramel nut brownie mini-luna bars, 32 oz. homemade Dominican beans (habichuelas?), leftovers from lunch (rice, tamale de pollo, chicken, baked ziti)

7 banana nut odwalla bars, 17.6 oz Fage 0%, 6 caramel nut brownie mini-luna bars, 1 banana, 32 oz homemade Dominican beans (habichuelas?), leftovers from lunch (rice, tamale de pollo, chicken, baked ziti)

Total cost: $0!! How is that possible? Let’s start at the beginning …

I got up at 5 again this morning for the gym. I debated skipping it and going back to bed, but I knew that today would be full of dangerous unlimited food situations — and I have a tendency to go into survival mode in those situations and eat like I will never see food again. Sooo, to the gym I went. For time’s sake, I skipped the weights and just did the jog there and back, 30 minutes StairMaster, and stretching/abs. Stats: 59 minutes, 390 calories, 134 average heart rate.

After the gym, I had a milky mug of nutcracker sweet tea and zoomed up to East Harlem for the parents’ group. Most of the families who use the services at my agency are Mexican immigrants, so the home visitors often organize groups for the parents to help alleviate their social isolation. This Thursday morning relaxation group is one of the most popular, so I wanted to take advantage of my last class-free Thursday today (classes start next week) and finally go see what it was all about! The parents arrived, and we all chatted over breakfast. I was expecting a typical spread of muffins, bagels, danishes, etc. But we had pancakes, Trader Joe’s nonfat French vanilla yogurt, canned peaches, and scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and cheese!

Plate #1

Plate #2

Plus more nibbling. In total, I probably had about three of these:

One cup of this:

And 2/3 cup of this:

I don’t like coffee, but it was fuhr-eeeeeeeeeezing in there, so I held/gulped nearly a full cup of it:

I started getting ready to leave a little before noon so that I could make my lunch engagement, and on my way out, my coworker Inginia gave me the unopened Fage to take home!!! Inginia also had me try some of this amazing dish she made from a Lebanese friend’s recipe … which she hopefully remembers to bring in for me tomorrow because it was delicious. It had wheatberries, garbanzo beans, and spinach:

So, after stuffing my face for nearly three hours with all of this scrumptiousness, I hightailed it back over to the agency for our potluck lunch in honor of a coworker who is transitioning to a different department. We had Belkis’ homemade Dominican beans, Midred’s homemade baked ziti, tamales de pollo, Dominican rice, and chicken:

Because I love my camera’s macro setting, you get to look at the chicken inside the tamale:

And the cheese on the ziti:

And the calabaza in the beans:

Somewhere in here, Belkis revealed that she had made a second container of the beans (see display of “winnings” above) just for me because she knew how excited I was about them! Don’t I have amazing coworkers? She also gave me the banana!

And then the salad arrived, so I had a second plate with more tamale, beans, and a mountain of green:

I was pretty stuffed at this point, but the baked ziti was smack in front of me and I kept pulling off the crunchy pieces from the top as we chatted because it doesn’t count if it never touched my plate ;-). And then it was time for dessert! We had an oreo cake:

Rosa (the honoree) and Beryl (the cake-cutter)

My piece(s):

I ate some more:

Plus one of Heather’s peanut butter pumpkin blondies that I made for the event:

I had to run out for a visit at 1:30, and when I got back an hour later, there were only two blondies left! (I had cut them into teeny pieces so there were initially about 25.) I had one with a mug of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea:

And then I, um, ate the last one, you know, because it was lonely …

While I was gone, the leftover ziti had miraculously moved to the end of the conference room table so that it was right next to my desk. I continued pulling off noodles throughout the afternoon. (Was I hungry? Of course not.) And after each noodle (or four), I ate a mint candy from Belkis’ candy jar to communicate to my mouth that lunch was over. Six (or maybe more) times. I finally wrapped up a bowl of leftovers (again, refer to “winnings” picture) to bring home.

At 3:00, the all-staff meeting began, and that’s where I grabbed the 7 Odwalla bars (meant for snacking during the meeting) with the help of Mildred, who knows how to look out for the penniless intern :-). I also may or may not have inhaled a handful of mini pretzels.

Needless to say, the running club was a must tonight. Kate and I boldly did a whole four miles (but only because the options were 4, 5, or 6). Stats, including a 6-minute warm-up: 44 minutes, 374 calories, 152 average heart rate. And the mini Lunas were waiting for us when we got back to Niketown!

I’m still full nearly 12 hours after lunch. I did not overdo it to the fullest extent of my expansion abilities, thank goodness, but I certainly ate more than necessary. And now I need to go collapse into bed because eating is hard work and I am drained!

Una fiesta nueva

January 21, 2009February 6, 201510 Comments

With all my ingredients from last night’s fiesta de cumpleanos on hand, tonight was the perfect opportunity to try out Caitlin’s baked taco trick that has been floating around everywhere! In an oven-safe bowl, I placed the other homemade whole wheat tortilla, black beans, guacamole, salsa, one of last night’s egg yolks (yes, just the yolk, but yolks are full of nutrition, too!), grated homemade cheddar, and regular store cheddar:

While the taco shell was crisping in the oven, I sliced another 1/3 of the plantain. This time, I cut the plantain in thin vertical slices the way Aurora, my homestay “mother” from when I was in Peru this summer, used to do it:

On the side, I had a few corn chips I made the other day. I was out of cornmeal, so instant grits had to do the job! I used equal parts grits and boiliing water (3 Tbsp of each in this case), simmered the mixture until thickened a bit more, and spread it on an oiled pizza stone:

I baked this at low heat for a long time while I did other things (maybe 250-300 for an hour?) and used a spatula to gently loosen it from the stone once it dried out enough. I let it cook on the other side for a while longer until it was completely crispy and then broke it into little pieces.

Tonight’s plate:

I’m so excited that the taco shell held its form! Here it is a bit closer:

And the plantains!

Any meal that includes avocado and plantains is bound to be a winner!

And for dessert, I had a toasty fig VitaTop with 1/4 cup cinnamon sauce (cinnamon + yogurt + part-skim ricotta):

Honorable Mentions

Today at lunch, my coworker Belkis offered me 1/4 of her big, juicy blood orange. I said no.

Just kidding! Here it is:

I was so excited about the orange that Belkis couldn’t stop feeding me (it’s not enough that I eat at about five candies from her candy bowl every single day) and had me taste some of her “Dominican-style” oatmeal. She said she used a packet of Quaker, but I didn’t really see any oats in there — only some warm cinnamon-y vanilla pudding-y goodness:

Tomorrow is going to be a wild card food day at work. I’m sitting in on the parents’ relaxation group in the morning where there will be breakfast, and then we’re having the potluck lunch (the reason for last night’s blondie-baking) at noon. I may not get around to posting everything until late tomorrow night, but anticipate some food excitement when I finally do!

First-ever T.O.E. guest post: Meet Gina

January 21, 2009February 6, 20155 Comments

Don’t you love that the acronym for my blog is “TOE”? I know I do.

Anyway, since both breakfast and lunch today were exactly the same as breakfast and lunch yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to bring in a guest post!

Gina and I have embarked on many food adventures together since we met in college. You’ve actually already met Gina, too, most recently at this dinner. Over the weekend, Gina emailed to present me with the first official TOE-inspired meal along with a real, live tale of expansion from the frontlines, yay! Here’s what Gina had to say:

Your pancake breakfast inspired me! Chris made pancakes Sunday (not from scratch but from Aunt Jemima mix, so I’m sure not as healthy) and I added some strawberries from the frozen Dole ones I bought at Fairway AND I made peanut butter sauce! I did not have any yogurt so I mixed peanut butter and milk and heated it up a bit in the microwave to thicken it. Here it is!

Gina’s Tale of Expansion: Caruso’s Ristorante Italiano

These pictures (which did not come out very well because I did not set the camera properly and the lighting was bad, so most of them are blurry and dark) are from Caruso’s Ristorante Italiano in Warminster, PA. My grandparents are regulars at this restaurant, and we’ve had other family parties there before. It’s a pretty typical Italian place, and I believe the people who own it are Sicilian because all the pictures on the wall are from Sicily. Everything on the menu sounds so good and my grandfather told us to order whatever we wanted. There was no set menu. The restaurant is BYOB so we brought our own wine, although we are not big drinkers (we’re much bigger eaters!!!). We had 3 tables, a total of 22 people.

My grandfather had pre-ordered appetizers for the tables. I forgot to take pictures of those, but they were these HUGE plates of mussels, baked clams, calamari and (randomly) broccoli. Plus, he also ordered a couple orders of chicken fingers with fries and mozzerella sticks for the “kids.” Remember, these were just the appetizers! I was not at the kids’ table, but I had 2 mozzerella sticks, a TON of mussels, 2 baked clams, some calamari and some broccoli, which was quite good because the sauce was all garlic and tomatos. YUM!

I had ordered a cup of crab chowder because my grandfather was telling us how good it was, so that came next. The soup was good and thankfully it was a pretty small cup. Then, I also had a side salad before my entree came out because the meal came with a salad! Needless to say, I was already full before my entree even arrived.

The first picture is of my meal, Veal Oscar: veal with crabmeat and asparagus in a white wine sauce over pasta:

veal

So yummy. I thankfully restrained myself from eating it all and took about half home. I think almost everyone had to take some of their food home because the entrees were VERY generous and we had already eaten all that food before the main courses.

The next picture is a very blurry shot of angel hair pasta with crabmeat and shrimp in a marinara sauce:

angel-hair

This is a special that’s not on the menu but that they prepare for my grandfather every time he goes to the restaurant. I told you he’s a regular! As you can tell, my family quite enjoys seafood!

Then I took pics of the desserts because they were pretty.

Chris's tiramisu

my chocolate mousse cake (but it tasted a bit of coffee with not enough chocolate and mousse in my opinion)

my aunt's cheescake with raspberry sauce

my grandmom's spumoni (ice cream with raspberry and chocolate sauce)

I was SO full after this meal! I should have taken a picture of my expanded stomach because it was certainly VERY expanded. I don’t know how I managed to eat that dessert — it was just such an overabundance of food! This is a typical family party for my Italian side of the family though. Even when we cook at someone’s house, there’s always way too much food and way too much dessert, in addition to way too many appetizers so that I’m already full by the time we eat dinner. Such is life in an Italian family!

Thanks for contributing, Gina! If anyone else out there has a tale of expansion to share, let me know in a comment and I’ll email you back!

Happy birthday, Emily!! (plus Mexican food and blondies)

January 20, 2009February 6, 201511 Comments

Today is my sister Emily’s birthday. I considered joining my family for the celebration dinner tonight. But then I remembered it is in San Francisco. And I am in New York. Not possible. However, armed with the knowledge that they are all right now enjoying each other’s company and something deliciously Mexican here (siblings, I will expect full reports on your feast!), I decided to join the birthday dinner in spirit with my own Mexican feast.

But first … a disclaimer. Because tonight is a work night and a 9pm bedtime night (which I’m already past, ahhh!), time was of the essence and I had to cut some corners, the horror! You’re about to see a lot of packaged foods, but just know that my preference would have been to use dry beans and homemade cheese and to make my salsa and guac from scratch!

So before I left work, I hit up the grocery store next to my office for a giant plantain, a can of black beans, two mini cans of tomato sauce (so I don’t end up in this situation again, plus they were only 20 cents each!), a small container of part-skim ricotta, and a pack of four little zucchinis for the BSI contest (assuming I get to it in time!):

I spent $6.44, bringing the week’s grocery total up to $23, still significantly under-budget, yay!

I did manage to make my whole wheat tortilla from scratch since it’s quick enough to do and I only needed one (not a pack of eight). I first got the idea for making these a several months ago from Heather at HangryPants who linked to this recipe from King Arthur flour. I kind of made it up as I went along tonight since, again, I did not need to make eight wraps. I used 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1 Tbsp olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and just enough water to turn it into dough. I actually ended up with enough for two little balls:

I covered the bowl with a plate to let the balls rest for 30 minutes and started on project #2 of the night: Peanut Butter Pumpkin Blondies, also from Heather! I was clearly meant to make this recipe tonight because I had exactly what I needed — and not a drop more — for most of the ingredients. I used my last cup of pb, my last cup of pumpkin, my last cup of white chocolate chips (ok, roommate Brigitte’s last cup of white chocolate chips), and my last two cups of whole wheat pastry flour. I got a little worried when the recipe said to pour and my batter looked like this:

But I scooped it all into a parchment-lined 9×13 baking dish and tossed it into the oven so I could get back to the burrito-making. Oh, but first, I had to deal with the batter clear space. Here’s what the counter looked like:

Because I do not permit food waste in this house apartment, I rubber-spatula-ed everything within an inch of its life and put it in this little ramekin for safe-keeping:

mmmmm, batter!

Back to the dinner prep, I floured a cutting board and rolled out the two little dough balls until they were thinner than paper, almost transparant, and cooked them one at a time on a dry, non-stick pan:

When both sides were browned to my liking, I chose the bigger wrap and placed it on foil on a cookie sheet:

And topped it with 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup Wholly Guacamole! (thawed from a tub that I rescued from a work party last month and froze), 2 Tbsp salsa (again, thank you Brigitte!), and one slice of some sort of Kraft fat free mystery cheese that never goes bad (thank you, Tara!):

I wrapped it in burrito shape and formed the foil around it in a little cocoon to hold it in place:

At this point, the buzzer went off for the blondies, so I took them out to cool and put the foiled-burrito-on-cookie-sheet in to heat through and get melty for five minutes. During those five minutes, I prepared 1/3 of my enormous plaintain by slicing it in diagonal rounds and browning both sides in a teeny bit of oil in the pan. Once the sides were sufficiently browned, I added a little water to the pan to soften the slices some more:

Meanwhile, I tried to use my nana-clip to keep the cut end of the plantain fresh. Needless to say, it was too small:

can you spot the blondies cooling in the top right corner?

When the plantains finished cooking, I quickly threw the egg yolks left over from the blondies into the pan for a scramble:

I figured the protein would come in handy soon, so the yolks are now safely refrigerated.

Five minutes later, everything was in order: the blondies were cooling, the plantains were browned, the burrito was hot and melty and topped with sour cream plain yogurt, and I could finally sit down to eat. Oh wait, I had to take 30,000 pictures first:

Cross-section:

It was delicious, obviously.

Now, dessert may come as a total and complete shock to you, so make sure you’re sitting down. I ate some freshly baked blondie:

No, not the whole pan!

No, not a whole row either! (That one’s for Brigitte in return for her white chocolate chips, sugar, and full stick of butter!)

I cut a little piece of blondie for myself and also had the, er, “crumbs” that just weren’t fit for public consumption. And don’t worry — I didn’t forget my ball of batter!

Em, I was singing happy birthday to you while I took this picture!

Closer:

Are you drooling yet?

Mmmmmm, what a perfect birthday celebration dinner! I am definitely feeling the sugar right now, but it’s nothing a little 5am gym action won’t fix :-). Thanks for the recipes, Heather!

I’ll leave you with a rare all-siblings photo from this time last year when I was able to make a birthday visit:

niece Ella, me, sister Allie, brother Chad, bday girl Emily, niece Dixie, brother Mark

clockwise from bottom: niece Ella (being tortured, clearly), me, sister Allie, brother Chad, bday girl Emily, niece Dixie, brother Mark ... yay family!

Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Emily! I love you and wish I were there!