So complicated

January 31, 2009February 6, 20154 Comments

Complication #1 involves my camera, and you all were thisclose to not finding out what I ate yesterday. But since I’m determined not to ruin anyone’s weekend by keeping my food secret, I have found a temporary solution! More on that eventually …

Complication #2 involves my computer. After nearly 4.5 years of flawless charging, my power adapter has decided it wants to ruin my life. It’s been steadily declining all week but has reached a new low today. Because I have to hold the cord to the computer in a crazy gymnastics formation, I am forced to type with only the index finger of my left hand … and I’m a righty. I never learned how to type correctly, so my pointer finger is the only one that knows where all the keys are. So please forgive me for making this post light on words and heavy on photos!!

Rewinding to Friday morning …

7:20 am breakfast – last cup zucchini-lime cheesecake oatmeal, 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese frosting, 2 chopped strawberries, two crumbled graham sticks unsweetened coconut, cinnamon:

12:30 pm lunch –

GC baked tofu + roasted veggies:

Yogurt with ricotta, apples, banana, strawberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger:

Veggies from Thursday night:

Half cup tabbouleh salad from coworker Nitza:

Two candies from the candy jar:

2:30 pm snack – apple with pb:

4:30 pm snack – giant orange (look at all the babies in front!!)

I lost my mind for the last hour of work while I was catching up up notes and engaged in a little candy madness. I’ve been overdoing it on the candy this week, but there’s an explanation! Before Christmas, I stashed/hid a whole bunch of candy (left over from the parties we held for the families) in the empty tissue box on my desk and immediately forgot about it … until I accidentally discovered it again this week! And ate it all. Here’s SOME of what happened yesterday afternoon:

Now that the tissue box is empty, the candy problem should be solved …

(Ahhhhh, my computer charger now will not work AT ALL. I hope the new one arrives soon! Switching to roommate Brigitte’s computer …)

6:30 pm dinner – Pizza & Brew

After work, I subwayed up to the Bronx where Erin Gunn and her boyfriend Mike picked me up and took me out to dinner (thanks, guys!!) at Pizza & Brew, an Italian restaurant in Yonkers. I was ravenous and ate the lemon wedge from my water AND the lemon wedge from Mike’s water:

I know you’re not supposed to eat these lemon wedges in bars/restaurants anymore because they’re full of germs, but when hunger calls …

My entree came with a side salad that had chickpeas — how exciting!

I ordered Bluefish Marechiare (fresh fillet sauteed with capers, olives, and mushrooms in pomodoro sauce served over linguini) but asked for it with polenta instead of pasta. Yummmm, it was so good! And enormous:

I almost cleaned my plate, except for a little sauce and some of the olives:

Oh wait, never mind. I DID clean my plate. Crusty bread always saves the day:

I really don’t know how I finished this. I was a bottomless pit yesterday!! It was probably enough food for three meals, but I didn’t even feel stuffed when I was done — just perfectly satisfied.

Erin got Fettuccini con Funghi (homemade noodles with sauteed assorted mushrooms in a light pink cream sauce):

And Mike got Catfish Caruso (sauteed fresh fillet with vodka lobster sauce and baby shrimp served over rice primavera):

Erin and Mike could not finish their meals (lightweights) and had to take over half home.

We had initially planned to go to bowling and karaoke, but our lazy grandma-ness set in (and Erin’s car getting a flat tire validated our laziness) and we just wanted to do nothing. While waiting for AAA to arrive at Erin and Mike’s condo, we watched Mike do some yoga on Wiii (is that the correct number of i’s?) Fit:

And I shared my next Quaker True Delights bar with them: Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut. This one had much more even (and heavy!) distribution of nuts, though I think chunks of real banana would have been a good addition (instead of what seemed just some essence of banana spread throughout):

so many nuts!

look, it's glowing!

Later, when Erin went out to meet AAA and get her tire taken care of, I snuck into the fridge and found a jar of Hershey’s Hot Fudge which I quickly put to use with a bit of pb:

Isn’t that a beautiful sight??? We were in bed by 11:15, and I ended up sleeping for over eight hours for the first time in … well probably since the last time I was at Erin’s since she always sets me up with light block curtains :-). It was glorious. To be continued …

Ding ding ding ding!

January 29, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

(That’s the sound of the food jackpot bell ringing.)

*** Hurry up and submit your BSI: Dates entries! The contest is open to everyone, even if you don’t have a blog. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check here for more information and a running list of submissions. Please help by spreading the word on your blogs!!***

And welcome to all of my new readers! This is my first time at the computer since I left this morning, so it might take me a couple days to get to everyone’s comments. It’s past my bedtime!

I’ve been on a free food roll this week, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Excellent news for the budget, but I don’t know how long I can keep up this pace — I feel like I’ve only had about 30 waking seconds in my apartment all week. I’m going to work on zooming through today’s food recap. It’s a long one!

I left class on the Upper East Side at 1 to head to a doctor’s appointment in Bay Ridge for 3 (basically opposite ends of the earth, if you’re not familiar with NY). Since I was going to be switching trains at Union Square anyway, I decided to turn my oatmeal-for-$1 coupon into lunch at the Jamba Juice there. With tax, the oatmeal actually came to $1.08, but since I found $1.50 on the ground in a subway station yesterday (I know!! Who drops $1.50 in quarters and dimes and leaves it???), I’m considering it free. I got the banana oatmeal with brown sugar crumble:

Needing a place to sit and eat, I strategically maneuvered myself (and my oatmeal) over to the Whole Foods next door where I knew side-dish-potential would be high. And oh my goodness, did I hit the jackpot!! I sneakily collected samples in a container meant for the fresh-ground almond butter and then parked myself in the cafe upstairs to enjoy my complete and balanced meal. Clockwise from top left: maple ham, veal scallopini, grapefruit slices, orange slices, ginger snap pieces, lemon snap hearts:

And the real winner: drinking chocolate!

Because I like to live on the wild side, I retrieved the peanut butter from my stash of what-if-I-can’t-find-free-food backup snacks (carrots, apples, pb, and raisins).

Can you guess what I did??? Banana brown sugar oatmeal + pb + drinking chocolate:

Yum yum yum yum yum yum.

On my way out of WF, I discovered that two new samples had surfaced. I didn’t want them to feel left out, so I got one of each. Pumpkin-seed black bean burger and buffalo chicken with blue cheese:

I hopped back on the subway to continue the odyssey to Bay Ridge. At the doc’s office, I had a blue raspberry mini candy cane from the receptionist’s desk to mask my buffalo-breath:

After the doc, I headed back into the city (eating my carrots and apples on the way) to meet my friend Rami for tea at Grey Dog in the village. Rami and I became friends in an NYU elevator in September 2001 when I discovered he was studying abroad here from Australia … where I was planning to study the next semester! Here we are dancing at his wedding this past summer (he’s second from left):

boys

And here’s Rami’s grilled chicken press:

And my Earl Grey with skim and 1/2 pack of sugar in the raw:

If you know any baby boomers in need of boomer-related services, Rami can help at Boomerater.com :-). And, a special shout out to Rami’s wife Ali who also reads the blog. Hi Ali!

When Rami and I finished catching up, I met Gina and Kate a few blocks away for yet another NYU Alumni event: a workshop on age-defying fitness by Marilyn Moffat. In the interest of time, I’m going to skip a review of the talk’s content and just cut right to the food. My plate included broccoli, grape tomatoes, red and yellow pepers, cauliflower, carrots, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, cantaloupe, almonds, triangle of swiss cheese, 3 cubes of cheddar, goat cheese crusted with freshly ground black pepper, and raisin walnut bread:

plate #1

The goat cheese and the raisin walnut bread were definitely the stars:

So I spread one on top of the other, added the final backup snack of raisins, and had three more slices:

Plus plate #2 (bread pictured is part of the 4 slices total):

I ate several more handfuls of unpictured produce plus this cookie that made me miss fall:

And since I’m always thinking of the future, here’s what I brought home:

goat cheese, cheese chunks, almonds, bread (now in the freezer), carrots/peppers/cauliflower for work snacks tomorrow, and zucchini for cooking

So like I said, it’s been a long and busy day — academically, socially, gastronomically, transportationally, etc. — but I’m no poorer than I was yesterday!!

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post tomorrow since I’m going straight up to Yonkers after work to visit Erin Gunn (one of my oldest friends from home and my other half-marathon-training partner) for bowling, karaoke, and a Saturday morning 5-mile run. I’ll be back with a full report later on Saturday, along with a special announcement about the prizes I have selected for the BSI contest. The submissions list is growing, so get your entries in ASAP!

Restaurant Review: Gusto Organics

January 29, 2009February 6, 20156 Comments

Last night after the NYU mentoring session, Kate and I headed over to Gusto Organics, NY’s first USDA certified organic restaurant, for an event hosted by NYU’s new Green Alumni Network. NYU has really been pushing the school spirit lately with all these food-containing events! While I didn’t actually have to pay for anything at this restaurant, my experience last night definitely made me want to return.

The latest craze in restauranting seems to be food with a philosophy. Gusto has jumped right onto that bus with the motto, “changing the world one meal at a tiime.” The decor was warm and peaceful with a candlelit feel and natural accents:

Kate and I had some of everything. We split four delicious empanadas, the flavor complexity of which no photo can possibly capture:

1/2 bruchetta-filled empanada; 1/2 ground meat-filled

1/2 cheese-filled

'nother 1/2 meat-filled

pretty exterior

And a square of verrrrrrrry thin crust cheese pizza:

And two squares of grilled veggie pizza with zucchini and eggplant, mmmm:

I had two more squares after this. And then I was on a roll, so I peeled the veggies off of probably 5 more slices and ate them :-). Gusto also had free sangria for the event!!

I drank about half of this before I remembered I don’t like wine. So I poured out the liquid and ate the fruit. And did the same for another glass:

So anyway, with such prompt service and quality taste for a free event, I can’t imagine the possibilities for an actual paid meal! My NYU undergrad degree may be the reason I’m poor, but that school is certainly doing its part to keep me from starving now :-).

On the way out, I found a box full of pins for all different ny neighborhoods … including mine! Now I can rock my slope pride in style:

The meal plan today is wayyyy up in the air since my schedule involves a lot of commuting (slope to upper east side to bay ridge to village and back to slope) until 9ish again with food appearing at various junctures along the way. I’ll come back eventually to let you know how it all pans out!

Happy lunch thwarted

January 28, 2009February 6, 20155 Comments

… by an even happier lunch!!

*** But first, remember to get cracking on your date recipes for those BSI submissions. The contest is open to everyone, even if you don’t have a blog. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check here for more information along with a running list of submissions.***

Now back to lunch. Upon her arrival at work this morning, my coworker Vianni made a beeline for me and immediately started unloading tupperwares onto my desk, before she even took off her coat: “Sarah, I have food for you!” Do I not have the most amazing coworkers ever? I left my tofu and veggies in the fridge to eat on Friday (no internship tomorrow because I have class) and replaced them with Vianni’s home cooked meal. She made gandules guisados:

And this amazing spicy (as in very seasoned — not spicy hot) chicken:

It was delicious. Thank you, Vianni!

Danger, Danger, Danger

Then, my very sweet yet evil coworker Jessica broke out this canister of candy cane caramel corn that she had gotten as a Christmas gift.

I started out conservatively by crumbling a few pieces on top of my yogurt. From there, things started to deterioriate very rapidly. Here’s a quick photo recap of some damage:

Next up was the candies: lots of pillow mints from the candy jar, a random iced tea flavored candy (that tasted exactly like iced tea!), and a mini candy cane:

After work and a whole lot of subway drama, I made it downtown to the NYU career center to be an informal mentor for an hour to give advice about grad school and working in the non-profit arena. But I think the students were giving me more advice than I was giving them, haha! While there, I snacked on two more mints and a chai tea (made with skim milk and 1/2 pack of sugar in the raw) and swiped four bags of mini honey grams for another time:

From there, Kate (of running club fame) and I hopped over to a nearby organic restaurant for the first event of NYU’s Green Alumni Network. We had a delicious and free dinner that will be showing up in restaurant review form shortly!

After dinner, I got home and made a little desserty snack of two broken pieces of the new honey graham sticks and a tablespoon of my healthy cream cheese icing:

And now I’m finally done for the night. Sleep tight!

Piece(s) of cake

January 27, 2009February 6, 201510 Comments

But first, a BSI update:

The Blogger Secret Ingredient contest is now up and running, and the ingredient of the week is dates! I love dates. Especially first ones because I generally don’t have to pay for dinner when I’m on them :-). JOKE (sort of). Anyway, Tri to Cook has gotten the ball rolling with a re-submission from a former BSI: Date & Butternut Squash Puree. What are your date tricks?

Now, onto the cake …

That’s right, more cake arrived on the conference room table right next to my desk today! When it rains it pours. I still had last night’s post-sugar reaction in the front of my mind, so I decided to take a moment and decide how to proceed instead of losing my head and going into my free-food survival mode.

The best way to contemplate this type of decision is with a healthy and hearty snack. I carefully sliced my apple into many pieces, spread peanut butter on each individual slice, and stuck the raisins one-by-one on top of the peanut butter as I glared at the cakes out of the corner of my eye and sent them this message via brain waves: Cake, you don’t bother me and I’m in no rush to see you because I am savoring a beautiful snack without your help right now:

ants on apples

I’m sorry, cake. You can’t hold a candle to this crunchy peanut butter bliss:

I thought a little bit harder while working on this mini chocolate ball from Belkis:

And then I stopped pretending that I don’t love cake. Because I do love cake, and I wouldn’t be me if I let this opportunity slip by. I got one plate of cake. And then another. And then another. In the end, I collected three plates of cake (one piece of peach cake and two pieces of real authentic carrot cake):

But score one million for me because these beauties went right into my emptied lunch tupperwares rather than into my belly! Right now, they’re resting comfortably in my freezer so that they are ready for their next assignment when I am.

Lest you think that I’m a saint, immune to refined sugar in all its forms (though how you could think that if you read this blog, I don’t know), this end of a piece did go into my belly:

It is carrot cake, after all. And nothing beats carrot cake with real cream cheese icing … except maybe my oatmeal-turned-carrot-cake.

I followed the carrot cake with a palate-cleansing mini candy cane because I hadn’t already eaten five pillow mints or anything:

Next up was running club, and ohhhh man, did my legs feel like lead tonight! I was lagging wayyyy behind the rest of the group, and this super classy dude to my left kept spitting every 10 seconds. I almost told him to swallow it, but instead, I let myself lag even more to get some distance. Do you know how unnerving it is to have a constant spitting sound three inches away from your left ear? Ick, I’m getting chills thinking about it. At least I finished the run! Stats for four miles plus an additional seven-minute warm-up/jog: 51 minutes, 415 calories, average heart rate 150, highest heart rate 173.

On the subway ride home, I dove into the giant orange I had packed plus my first Quaker True Delights bar sample: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond. Before I say anything else, this bar was DELICIOUS. It did not have the vague berry-ness of other granola bars but rather a very specific and natural raspberry flavor enhanced by the visible raspberry (and dark chocolate, of course) chunks:

However, I couldn’t help but notice that this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond bar was lacking the critical almond component — I couldn’t even detect any essence of almond flavor. And I was looking! In fact, not until the very last bite did I discover any evidence at all:

Again, the bar was delicious, but it needs either renaming or more almonds (obviously, my preference is the latter!).

After the subway, I raced home, packed (and nibbled on) tomorrow’s lunch, showered, and now it is finally bedtime. This week has been going non-stop, and it’s only Tuesday, ahh!

Good night!

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Tag: dinner

So complicated

Ding ding ding ding!

Restaurant Review: Gusto Organics

Happy lunch thwarted

Piece(s) of cake

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