Tag: colleagues

Friday and Monday collide

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First things first: don’t forget to go visit Meghann’s Bake Sale and place a bid on my biscotti bites (or one of the other amazing treats up for auction) to support leukemia research!

Next, what is wrong with my body?? The pain in my leg has migrated to the back top of my right thigh and become super sharp every time I take a step! And I went so easy on it this morning at the gym. I’m back on the ice pack and ibuprofen now — hopefully it is better in the morning. Ugh.

Anyway, today’s food!

My morning yogurt snack today included a one-cup mixture of plain Oikos (yes, even I need to take a break from making my own sometimes), ricotta, mashed banana, chopped dried apricot, strawberries, nutmeg, cardamom, and a sprinkling of Total Cranberry Crunch (it’s good, but it’s no golean crunch):

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I opened a new pack of mints:

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And proceeded to eat all 12 (though, to be fair, it took me from 10am to 7pm to accomplish this mind-boggling feat).

I was so excited to eat today’s lunch because it included delicious leftovers from Friday’s shower! My main course incorporated Maria’s Mediterranean-ish pasta. Just like I did for dinner last night, I combined Maria’s pasta with some of my roommate Tara’s similarly seasoned whole wheat pasta for an extra punch of whole grain satisfaction. I further bulked the pasta with cooked chicken that I found in my freezer left over from still another work event 🙂 Today’s cup:

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On the side, I had 1/2 cup of asparagus and portabello with curry butter from Saturday:

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And some lettuce and tomatoes from Deborah’s salad:

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Mildred brought in leftovers from her husband’s birthday part this weekend, so obviously that involved me having tastes of her yucca and chivo:

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And lemony birthday cake, with a thick layer of custard (ahhh, yum!) in the middle:

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Mid-afternoon, Nydia presented me with some pastelon de calabaza that she made over the weekend:

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It’s lightly sweetened cinnamony pumpkin layered with seasoned ground meat and perfectly salty-sweet, mmmm.

I’m pretty sure I was saying, mmmmmm, all day long.

I was still hungry (seriously, when will my appetite realize I am not working out the way I was before??), so I had my packed serving of Newman’s spelt pretzels with 2 tbsp of Inginia’s guacamole from Friday.

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And right before I left, I had a Teddy Graham courtesy of Katty:

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And a Newman’s chocolate alphabet cookie courtesy of me:

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Dinner at class involved more of Friday’s bounty: Maria’s salad plus some slices of spicy tamale and manchego cheese samples from the gourmet deli:

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Ahhh these tamales were delicious but WAY spicier than the rest!! My mouth was on fire for 10 minutes. In fact, it was post-salad that I ended up inhaling the rest of my pack of wintergreens. I needed ice!

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On the side, I had about 1/4 cup of Emily’s chicken vegetable soup from Hale & Hearty:

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For dessert, I ate this PistachiOh! Dr. Weil bar that Melissa brought to the blogger brunch a few weeks back:

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I loved the spices in there. I’m pretty sure cardamom was involved.

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And these sample crumbs of Tate’s Bakeshop cookies, also from the gourmet deli:

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(I know they look huge, but they were really more like the size of my thumbnail!)

And near the end of class, I was completely dragging and in pain and falling asleep and even feeling slightly delirious with fatigue, so I ate the rest (12 or so) of those Newman’s chocolate alphabet cookies to snap me out of it. Their oreo-ness did the trick.

And check out this AHHHHHHmazing Fage giveaway going on at The Hungry Yogini. Free yogurt for a month?? I might just die of happiness if I win that one!

And you can also win some Annie’s treats at Danica’s Daily!

I am going to sleep with my fingers crossed that (1) my leg starts doing what it’s told, (2) I win those giveaways, and (3) someone bids on my biscotti bites!

What are you crossing your fingers for today?

Elastic waistband, please

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By the time I got home from work today, my pants no longer fit! I can’t believe I’m showing you this picture, but I feel like it’s important I accurately represent myself when I say I feel expanded. I’m not talking about: Oh, I’m so bad. I ate two cookies today. (P.S. If you’ve been reading along, you know I would never say that anyway!) I’m talking about: Ohhh, I really enjoyed my food today … but maybe too much because now I feel decidedly uncomfortable!

The day began with another bowl of black and white protein porridge since it was such a hit on Wednesday:

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I can’t get over the contrast:

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img_7224Now, I want the real deal!

Once at work, I opened up the next flavor of Newman’s Own Organics breath fresheners. I think I ate four of these peppermints over the course of the day.

Today was another brown bag staff lunch. I ate the collard greens, vegetarian baked beans, and cornbread that I packed:

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Plus 1/2 cup cooked spiced apples with 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing and a sprinkling of golean crunch:

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And then it was time for communal treats: fruit salad and pecan pie!!!

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Obviously, I had seconds:

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I took that picture of plate #2 in the elevator, and a woman in there asked, Oh, are you documenting your lunch? I said, Yes, I am … and every other meal, too!

After lunch, Mildred, Jessica, and I got to work decorating the nursery room for Heather’s surprise baby shower.

As I filled the goodie bags, some of the candy that was supposed to go into the bag went into my belly:

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And then it was time for the shower! Myrna finally managed to get Heather down into the room sometime around 3:30. We surprised her … but not enough to make her go into labor (phew):

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Here’s the “snack” spread with Maria’s green salad and pasta, Mildred and Myrna’s chicken and cheese empanadas, tamales, myrna’s flan pudding, Inginia’s guacamole, tortilla chips, Deborah’s fruit salad, mini-quiches and jalapeno poppers:

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More:

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My plate — a big one this time — with (clockwise from top) pasta salad, fruit salad, empanada with green sauce, tortilla chips, guacamole, 1/2 tamale, and flan pudding:

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I had another plate just like it.

Plus two bowls of salad like this:

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img_7264And Myrna’s homemade pina coladas made a repeat appearance, yum!

Beryl led us in some games — I won a bar of soap because I remembered all my nursery rhymes! — and then it was time for dessert 😀

Look at the magnificence:

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I had a bowl with one slice of chocolate mousse cake:

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And one slice of custard fruit tart (my favorite dessert!):

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I had another slice of fruit tart after that 😀

After we packed up all the leftovers, I somehow wound up coming home with a ton of food, including 11 empanadas (now in my freezer), 4 tamale halves, 4 cups of green salad, 2 cups of pasta salad, 1/2 cup fruit salad, 1/2 cup guacamole, and 1 cup of flan pudding. How did that happen?? 😛

I turned the flan pudding into my Friday night project. When I got home, I mixed the pudding with two cups of healthy cream cheese icing and two eggs. I put the mix to the side and then pressed a bunch of crumbled graham sticks (that have been in my freezer since some time in January) into the bottom of a pie plate with a bit of millet (for crunch) and canola (for glue and nonstick-ness). I baked the crust for 10 minutes at 450. Before and after:

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Next, I poured the batter on top:

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I baked for one hour at 375 and then turned the oven off, cracked the door, and let it sit in there for another hour:

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(That dark spot is a raisin from the cream cheese icing. It’s not an ant. In case you were wondering.)

And now I have a beautiful and healthy(er) cheesecake. I sliced it into 12 pieces and put it in a container for the freezer (because I do not need any more dessert right now)!

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There were crumbs left in the pie plate. I obviously ate them:

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And now I really wish my leg would let me run!! The weather was beautiful earlier this evening (before the flood started), and I was so jealous of all the runners out for their dusky jogs. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m at least elliptical-ready by Monday!

I’m also not sure if I’ll ever be hungry again (I know, I say that all the time), but I guess we’ll find out about that soon enough.

When will YOU be hungry again?

And if you haven’t entered the giveaway yet, hurry up because there are just two days left!

Whirligig + reviews

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Ahhhhhh, I haven’t stopped moving all day. My commenting and replying are temporarily on hiatus as I try to climb over this mountain of work. I will catch up on everything ASAP, I promise!

And by the way, every single one of the selections you’re submitting for the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway is making me drool. If only I could afford the whole line of products …. Keep those wish lists coming!

Breakfast feels like it happened about 10 years ago, but I’m pretty sure it was delicious:

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I hope you can see the striking resemblance to a black and white cookie because that’s what I was going for:

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The “white” contained 1/2 cup Healthy Cream Cheese Icing topped with unsweetened shredded coconut. The “black” contained 1 cup protein porridge mixed with 2 tbsp raw chocolate mousse, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp PB2 powder — topped with Hershey’s Kiss shavings and a hefty spoonful of extra dark cashew-almond butter:

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The cashew-almond butter is delicious, but I keep expecting it to taste like chocolate fudge (even though I’m the one who made it!) because it is SO dark.

Oh, by the way, today is April Fools Day, if you did not get the memo! I clearly hadn’t gotten it at 7am because my dad (of the no-brown-foods and almost-birthed-you-in-the-Dining-Room fame) got me with a trick for, ohh, the 27th year in a row. You’d think I would have caught on by now! This time, he emailed to tell me that something was wrong with the blog because every time he typed in the address, Kristie’s blog popped up instead! I replied that he must be mistaken and maybe he had accidentally clicked on one of her comments? It never even crossed my mind that this could be a trick. He’s so good at getting in there with something subtle and just believable enough!

picture-425Anyway, that breakfast kept me so full all morning (as it should have — holy protein plus no cardio in days!) that I didn’t even need my typical morning snack. Plus, I was racing around crazily what with my visits and work to make up from Monday. My “injury” was kind of giving me a lot of pain today — I think I overdid it with the hobnobbing around town last night plus the nonstop visits today that required loads of traversing East Harlem from end to end on foot.

In lieu of a snack, I opened a pack of Newman’s Own Ginger Mints and maybe ate 4-5 over the course of the day. Again, they’re not sugar-free, but neither are the seven pieces of candy I usually swipe from Belkis’ candy jar on a daily basis. This seems like a healthier alternative … plus I love ginger, and these ginger mints taste like the root itself has been shaved right into the mix!

Lunch was a repeat of what I had yesterday: collard greens and baked beans from Monday and Myrna’s rice and salad from yesterday.

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The whole early childhood department at my office ate lunch together today in honor of April Fools, so I also got to try some coconut water and a big hunk of fresh coconut meat from Jessica:

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Mmm, it was tasty!

Next, I enlisted the captive audience in helping me with more product reviews. First up:

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Rosey said:

I like the chocolate on the outside, but I don’t like the caramel. And I usually like caramel.

I had to try one for myself, obviously:

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I thought it was delicious, but I tend to not be all that picky when it comes to chocolate and caramel!

Next:

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Sarah (the other one) said:

Oh, wow! This is different from Reese’s. It actually tastes like real, creamy peanut butter inside. I like it.

Sarah ran out and gave one to Erik in Environmental to try. He said:

Holy sh**!! This is amazing.

I tried one, too (obviously again):

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I second the other reviewers’ sentiments. I’m not going to judge when it comes to chocolate and peanut butter!

Finally:

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This review needs no words, as Heather and the baby are clearly in ecstasy. Just to bring the point home, Heather said:

These are good. They are a good chocolate-y dessert.

Rosey and Jessica said:

They taste like shortbread cookies with chocolate in them.

Sister Suzanne said:

I like them because they’re not too sweet.

Sarah (the other one) added:

Yes, a good snack treat.

I ate four.

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To me, they tasted like the cookie part of an Oreo. Again, not going to complain!

Immediately following lunch, I raced across el barrio for my 2pm visit. I ended up staying a little late because the mom needed help with something, so I decided to bus it back to the center to make my 3:30. I had to run to catch the bus. OWWWWW. And I was still 10 minutes for the session!

I had my “morning snack” of fruit salad (the end of it), yogurt + ricotta + lemon curd, and granola at 4:30.

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Quickly followed by an orange:

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As I mentioned earlier, I brought in the leftover risotto and lamb from last night to share with everyone at lunch, but there was still quite a bit left at the end of the day. I shot a quick email to Gina and Kate (with whom I had to break dinner plans last night for the event) to see if they’d be interested in an impromptu dinner party of leftovers. Gina couldn’t make it, but Kate was up for the re-enactment challenge which will be coming soon (as in sometime tomorrow) to a blog near you (ummm, this one).

The week is halfway done. Are you running behind, ahead, or right on schedule?

(And you know I’m going to keep reminding you about the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway in every post until Sunday!)

Live from the ice pack

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Though I probably also could have titled this post: How to double your size in five days or less. On a positive note, though, it is a (thankfully!) rare experience for me to be physically unable to engage in vigorous excerise, and I might as well enjoy the expansion by continuing to eat as I normally do (and then some) and getting an extra half hour of sleep … in theory 😀

The work day started like any other: with tropical fruit salad, lemon curd + part-skim ricotta + yogurt, and granola.

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I actually ran out of time to finish this before my 11am visit, so I saved the last two bites for lunch dessert later.

Lunch at 12:30 was a repeat of yesterday’s southern comfort in slightly smaller portions with 1/2 cup sweet collard greens, 1/2 cup baked beans, and 1/4 giant piece of cornbread:

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To supplement, I also had about 1/3 cup of Myrna’s Dominican rice and fish:

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And one cup of her salad:

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Aren’t those cabbage ribbons beautiful? Myrna brought me enough of this rice and salad for tomorrow’s lunch, too. My coworkers treat me too well!!

Also, I probably had 4-6 of these guys throughout the day:

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Loving the cinnamon mints!

When the mid-afternoon nibbles hit around 3, I had another serving of the Newman’s white cheddar soy crisps I reviewed yesterday with about 2 tbsp homemade guac:

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While the soy crisps still tasted delicious, I have to add one complaint. The bag claims to hold 3.5 one-ounce servings. I actually used a food scale (for once) to measure one ounce of these crisps … and it definitely involved about half the bag!!! While I’m delighted that so many light and puffy soy crisps can squeeze into one serving, I’m bummed that I’m only getting 2-ish servings from what is supposed to be a 3-ish servings bag! And that’s using Newman’s serving guidelines — not even my own. Hmph.

Moving on, I had to leave my internship today at 3:30 to head to a mandatory seminar on working with aging populations at Hunter. I was thrilled to find that I was passing by Butterfield Market (aka my weekly supplier of manchego cheese samples) during their Passover Menu Tasting that I’ve seen them advertising on the sidewalk for a couple of weeks. How fortuitous … especially since Passover is my favorite holiday in the world due to the food that comes with it (and probably also because I am always so freaking starving after all the seder-ing that matzo becomes the most delicious delicacy EVER)!

Since I definitely needed more food (because eating is fun and not because I was hungry, obviously), I stopped in for “a little bit of everything, please.” Butterfield did not hold back:

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That plate included (in no particular order) gefilte fish, beef brisket, boneless chicken with apricot glaze, zucchini “linguine” with fresh herbs (YUM!), apple matzoh kugel (the BEST of the plate’s contents … but still no better than Aunt Sherye makes it), caulifower kugel with toasted pecans, and a non-Passover Ritz cracker with pate.

That could have been dinner, but why stop?? Especially when I had a fun dinner trick up my sleeve ….

To be continued!

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

Reminders:

1. Enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

2. Do you want to win the chocolate-covered vegan in a box? I know I do …

Southern comfort and a GIVEAWAY!!

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Before you find about about the giveaway, of course, you get to hear about the yummy lunch I cooked heated.

This lunch was inspired by the south because (1) I wish the weather here were warmer, (2) I love country music and that’s something southern, too, and (3) I’m temporarily (I hope) an invalid and happened to have some frozen and canned ingredients on hand that fit this theme brilliantly.

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That’s right, collard greens, baked beans, and cornbread!! YUM 😀

I made and froze these sweet collard greens a few weeks ago (remember when I brought home those huge bags of them from the food pantry overflow at work?) using Kath’s recipe here.

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Seriously delicious. If you ever find yourself with collard greens on your hands, img_6940this is the way to cook them!

I also rummaged around and found this can of fat free vegetarian baked beans in the cupboard that didn’t really seem to belong to anyone. Since it didn’t belong to anyone, it belonged to me:

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And on the side, I had 1/2 piece of the cornbread that I brought home and froze after dinner at BBQ two weeks ago:

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Perfect! I felt like I was in Arkansas or somewhere while I was eating this 😛

Earlier, I snacked on two biscotti bites (and a piece of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that “broke off” when I was rummaging through the freezer cookie bag for the bites) with this delicious Tazo tea sample I had lying around:

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Normally, I’m not into fruit teas … but something about the lemony-mango-ness of this tea reeled me in, and I loved it. It would be amazing in oatmeal, I’m sure. Look at the gorgeous color!

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OK OK, I suppose it’s time. You all know how I LOVE my whole grains (case in point: this morning’s protein porridge). Well, Bob’s Red Mill, home of what is probably the most extensive selection of whole grains/seeds/nuts/beans/baking mixes/flours ever, has generously offered to send FIVE lucky readers a full package of the food item of their choice (from the list of categories I just mentioned). This is a very exciting giveaway because it means you could pick out a familiar staple (such as oats) to replenish your supply … or you could go totally wild and experiment with something new (my suggestion) like whole grain chocolate cake mix or organic amaranth grain.

How to enter:

Step 1. Visit the Bob’s Red Mill website and select the one food product you would most like to try (again, from the list of categories I mentioned above).

Step 2. Leave me a comment with your selection!

Step 3. Link back to this contest on your blog to help me spread the word! If you like me, you can also add me to your blogroll, but this is not mandatory as that is a very personal decision 😛 If you don’t have a blog, email me at talesofexpansion@gmail.com after you leave your comment to let me know this is the case and that you still want to enter.

Step 4. I will randomly choose the five winners Sunday, April 5, so you have until NOON on that day to enter.

While you’re busy contemplating your next whole grain experiment, I will be at my doctor’s office. I’m so relieved I was able to get an appointment this afternoon — hopefully I can make it there without getting stuck on the subway steps … and hopefully the injury is just a simple muscle issue that will fix itself with rest. Eeek!

Ready, set, go!