Tag: Experiments

The vanishing weekend

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Ahhh, it’s tomorrow already?! How did that happen?

Things kept taking longer than I expected all day long, so I didn’t even end up leaving to go to the grocery store until about 6:30. My body’s used to dinner at that time, so I had a few early evening snacks to tide me over until I could really eat.

Two small dates with 1 tsp peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

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The last 1/2 cup of the pumpkin-banana yogurt mix I ate at lunch with 2 tbsp golean crunch sprinkled on top (and 2 sprinkled straight into my mouth :-D):

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And a Sunsweet One:

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Good thing I snacked — due to several complications in the self-checkout line at the store (HATE self-checkout), I didn’t get home until 8:30!

Loot includes 3 lbs apples (only $1.99), kale (for the BSI of course), 2 pears, 1 red onion, mushrooms ($.99), asparagus ($1.99/lb), 5 bananas, 3 sweet potatoes, 1 cucumber, whole wheat 8-inch pizza crusts (free thanks to my coupon from the Carrots ‘N’ Cake scavenger hunt prize pack), fat free feta, eggs, tomatoes on the vine, crunchy peanut butter, canned wild salmon :

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Total: $25.62!! Great price, even by my impossibly strict standards.

I set right to work cooking … and cooking … and cooking for the BSI. I nibbled the whole time I cooked, of course, so I wasn’t all that hungry by the time I was done — and it was 11pm by that point anyway. Still, I had no choice but to sample the finished products. Kale-Crust Pizza and Stuffed Kale Leaves:

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They were both MUCH more successful than I had anticipated! I wanted to eat a lot more after these bites, but I restrained myself because I am definitely not hungry and it is l-a-t-e.

For dessert, I broke out the next truffle in line from the BSI: Spinach prize Brandi sent. I present to you the Sassy Mango-Lime dark chocolate truffle:

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Inside:

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Mmmmmm, it was SO good. As a general rule, I love anything that combines fruit and dark chocolate. And the citrusy pep from the lime perfectly complemented the bittersweet richness of the dark chocolate. I actually only ended up eating half because I don’t want my fun with truffles to end! I had the half along with some Italian cookie chunks:

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And conversation hearts:

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OK, I’m off to see how much longer my eyes can stay open. Tonight will be round 2 of eye-masking, and I hope it is just as successful as last night! Tomorrow’s plan is homework, homework, and more homework. You’ll get to hear all about it — how did you ever get so lucky, right? — since I’m sure I’ll be eating the whole time :-D.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep

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9.5 hours!!!

Yes, that is how much sleep I got last night! 10:45 pm to 8:15 am.  Normally, I am up at 7 am with the sun, but the eye mask helped me get through that last hour (thanks, John!). I felt SO well-rested when I opened my eyes. After a bit of blog-reading, I launched a surprise breakfast attack through the rose branches:

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My breakfast inspiration came from SnackFace during the morning’s blog catch-up session. She’s been going wild with pumpkin yogurt the past couple of days. Reading her posts motivated me to pull myself out of bed and whip up some of my own.

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My mix included 1/3 cup of yogurt, 1/3 cup of pumpkin, 1/2 cup chopped grapes, and a sprinkle of Kashi GoLean Crunch!

I also had 1/3 of a toasted (burnt) wheat bagel with 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 chopped date, and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

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I like to eat my bagels in thirds. This is kind of a leftover habit from childhood — the slots in my toaster growing up were too skinny for a full 1/2 bagel. A third at a time is still my preference now, even though I’m sure I could easily fit 1/2 in the toaster. Vani commented on this bagel-style recently, and I thought I’d share my response with everyone! The smaller 1/3 portion not only allows me more flexibility to mix and match the bagel with other foods; it also creates a higher ratio of crunchy surface area to doughy inside. Also, because these bagels are refugees from a work event, I only have a limitied amount. Eating 1/3 bagel at a time makes them last longer. How do you like to eat your bagels?

On the side, I had soymilky decaf sweet coconut thai chai. And fun with matching dishware:

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Kate came over a little after 11 for our 8-mile run, and we just couldn’t WAIT to get started (that’s sarcasm). But I found us a charming route on mapmyrun that took us through all of the best Brooklyn neighborhoods — Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights — and the weather was perfect, so our run was quite enjoyable! Stats: 1 hour and 22 minutes, 653 calories, average heart rate 151, max 161. I got home and did my favorite post-run stretch: 20 minutes of Gentle Hatha Yoga.

Lunch was fun to assemble, thanks to last night’s leftovers. I made the cut again and split the salad down the middle (how exciting that the $8 I spent at dinner gave me enough food for three meals!):

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To reassemble the salad for today, I pulled all the salad greens out of the mix, including the side salad I swiped from Emily’s plate last night after she packed up her leftover wrap. (Side note: I don’t normally take food off the plates of people I am meeting for the first time, but an added benefit of blogger dinner was that my food companions already knew about my waste-nothing obsession!).

The greens went on a plate to wait. I separated and toasted the tortilla strips in a dry skillet to crisp them up again. While the chips were crisping, I also threw the salad in a pan to heat because quinoa, corn, and beans take kindly to warmth. I added some leftover Chinese food broccoli (after a quick roast to kill off any unsavory lurking bacteria) that my supervisor Heather rescued for me while carrying out her fridge-cleaning duties at work yesterday :-). Once heated, the salad went on top of the greens, and the tortilla strips went on top of everything:

(with water and more tea in the background)

(with water and more tea in the background)

Yum, this salad made excellent leftovers. And I still have more!

And of course, the afternoon also involved lunch dessert:

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I had 1/2 of each of mom’s treats that arrived on Thursday, heated in the oven to get the chocolate all melty:
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Along with more pumpkin yogurt that I mixed with 1/2 of this banana yogurt, also rescued from the work fridge. The sell-by date was Jan. 13, but unopened individually packaged yogurts seem to last forever. This one passed the sniff test. I topped the yogurt with a mountain of Italian cookie crumbs (still left from the work Valentine’s lunch), a piece of Blogger Secret Cupid hazelnut chocolate, and two conversation hearts:

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I know there was still sugar in all of that, but it was very controlled sugar instead of random snacking. I think this may be because, according to SweetiePie‘s comment here, I have sent the sugar monster to her house! Whoops! So sorry SP, but thank you for taking him off my hands :-D.

And now, it’s back to the great blog-catch-up of 2009! I also need to go back out at some point to buy kale so I can figure out what the heck I’m doing for
Beadie’s BSI. Back later!

Gourd hopes “squashed”

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As promised in my last post, dinner did involve plenty of experimentation with autumn decor:

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As part of my organization efforts over the weekend, I packed up a box full of pumpkins and gourds that came from Brigitte’s family’s farm sometime in September or October. The gourds had served us well in their provision of seasonally appropriate color for months, but I decided it was time for an update! Brig was planning to toss everything, but she knew I might take offense at that and instead handed it all over for the sake of my kitchen adventures. I got started on the process last night with the four cuties pictured above.

I chopped them all in half (except for the one with all the tumors that would not yield to the knife) and scooped out (and reserved) the seeds:

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They went face-down into a casserole dish with 1 cm water and roasted for 45 minutes at 375:

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I knew the pumpkins would be fine (my oven and I got VERY friendly with a 25-pound fresh pumpkin back in October), but I was mostly curious to see what would become of the gourds. I licked my finger after getting the seeds ready to toast and found the answer:

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Yes, the gourds went right into the trash. Along with the gourd seeds, which unfortunately contaminated all of the other seeds with their relentless bitterness. I was seriously running around the kitchen trying to get the taste out of my mouth. Note to self: no more gourds.

The pumpkins, however, met a different fate. I mixed them (skin and all) in a pot with two small chopped apples and 1/4 cup water and then simmered until it was all tender enough for an immersion blender:

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After blending, I taste-tested several times and added 3 chopped dates, 2 chopped prunes, the last 1.5 cups of my healthy cream cheese icing, and loads of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom). The result was a mildly sweet, comfort-food puree that could go either the entree route or the dessert route. I began with the entree because I like to do things in order.

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I had about 1 cup of the puree with a morningstar Asian veggie patty and half an orange:

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These flavors blended deliciously. I even dipped some of the veggie patty into the puree for fun … and it was definitely fun!

I still felt hungry after, so I decided to go the dessert route as well (did you ever doubt I would?). I had 1/2 cup of the puree (chilled) topped with Italian cookie crumbs:

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It did not let me down!

I slept well last night, relaxed in the knowledge that I had given the gourds a fair shot and that I will never need to wrestle with one again … unless you have experience with gourds and a different take on the matter? Let me know!

Be back later with brekkie and a workout 😀

Supporting roles

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In addition to the lunch and snacks I packed today, several supporting food items deserve appreciation and acknowledgement for getting me through! It started with a thick chunk of crunchy chocolate chip cookie that I discovered in one of the kitchens while filling my mug with tea water this morning. The cookie chunk became my 9:10 am snack:

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My orange came out to greet the world (and my mouth) at 10:30, and lunch took place at 12:30. As an intermediate course (or 3!) between my packed soup and yogurt, I enjoyed (seriously enjoyed) some of Mildred’s Chinese food broccoli:

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I love plain steamed broccoli, but there’s just something irresistible about how it’s done in a Chinese restaurant …

Myrna came along with her shrimp (!), beans, and rice, so I had some of that, too:

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And several (again, several = at least seven) pieces of Jessica’s cantaloupe:

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Then, Rosalie came straight to my desk with a box of Ghirardelli chocolates (!!) and gave me first dibs. I took one of each kind:

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They went into my empty tissue box because they’re wrapped and can stand to hang out for a little bit while I work through the unwrapped Russell Stover truffles I snagged yesterday. For lunch dessert, I extracted this from the tissue box:

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It turned out to be dark chocolate filled with vanilla cream … yum!

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At 2:30, the next round of packed snacks came up for air: green grapes and red pepper strips, just like yesterday. And also, I may have eaten my 3rd of 5 mints for the day:

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The real trouble began at 3:30 when Mildred came back into the office accompanied by evil in the form of rich, freezing, creamy, sugary deliciousness:

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Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I had about 1/3 cup and couldn’t help but crumble a butterfingery Russell Stover chocolate (you guessed it — from the tissue box) over the top:

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Ummmmm … and another 1/3 cup:

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Interestingly enough, the ice cream did have a positive side effect: it satisfied me enough for the rest of the day so that I was able to resist mindlessly inhaling the Z-bar I had packed :-).

I’m running somewhat behind schedule tonight, but I do know that dinner is going to involve serious experimentation with our apartment’s fall decor (that we finally decided to swap for some springier accessories!):

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Results of the experiment are forthcoming!

Things to do:

1. Caitlin is hosting a RoadID giveaway at Healthy Tipping Point, so go check it out!

2. Jamba Juice has coupons for $1 oatmeal again right here!

3. Now that Wednesday is over, do you feel like you’ve really jumped over the hump of the week? I do not …

Use what you got

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My lunches for the work week happened when I found an intriguing soup mix packet while cupboard-organizing the other day … probably left over from the roommates I had before the current ones, over 3 years ago! Because my apartment just kept getting sublet, there was never any sort of complete clean-out. Here’s the packet with some other soup ingredients:

soymilk, coconut, homemade (!) veggie broth, frozen work mystery meat from a while bag, coconut-ginger soup base

soymilk, coconut, homemade (!) veggie broth, frozen work mystery meat from a while back, coconut-ginger soup base

And:

chopped green pepper, chopped red pepper, chopped onion

chopped green pepper, chopped red pepper, chopped onion

I made this soup yesterday and sort of used the recipe on the soup mix packet, but mostly I did not. The veggies all got sauteed in canola until they were browned, at which point I added the meat and sauteed more until it was fully thawed and heated through.

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I did not have coconut milk, as requested by the soup base packet, so I kind of made some by simmering 1 cup of soymilk, 1 cup of water, 3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut, and 2 tsp of this guy I’ve had in the fridge:

img_4087It probably would have been delicious as it was, but I had to go and add the actual soup base packet to the pot:

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I knew pretty quickly that this soup was not going to be amazing because I could smell that fake lemony concentrate smell coming from the pot as soon as I dumped it in. But I forged ahead. Eventually, everything went into a big pot with the veggie broth (and loads more water because I was trying to dilute the packet), powdered ginger, and black pepper:

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It got pretty thin, so I added 1/2 cup whole wheat cous cous for quick thickening, and that seemed to do the trick:

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In the end, the soup turned out okay and I’ll definitely eat it, but I won’t ever use one of these packets again!!!!

My experimenting resulted in about six cups of soup, so two went into the freezer and the rest I’ll eat one cup at a time for lunches this week.

Along with the soup, I’ve packed a standard yogurt blend of 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 chopped date, cinnamon, chopped apple pieces, chopped strawberry pieces, and a sprinkling of kashi golean crunch over the top:

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I’ll be back later to report on snacks and any adjustments to the food plan. What’s your experience been with soup mixes/spice packets? Do you prefer seasoning yourself or using something pre-made?

Also, The Healthy Hostess is giving away Banana Nut Cheerios along with some fun kitchen goodies (including a banana tree!), so make sure to go check it out!