While I’m gone

May 2, 2009February 6, 201520 Comments

Warning: this is going to be a long post! Feel free to read it in pieces over the course of several days because I might not be back for a while (ahhhhh final papers). You can even comment multiple times if you get overwhelmed. I won’t mind 😉

Yesterday was a looooooooooooong day full of unfixable issues with families. I wish I had a magic fix-it button because some things are not fair. At least my office knows the healing powers of food. I’m way luckier than I deserve! 🙂

Before the office and after the gym, I had breakfast at home and used up some things I’ve had hanging around. I toasted the little piece of ciabatta with tomato pesto (from the sandwich leftovers Emily gave me in class on Monday) and topped it with a hard-poached EB egg (and sprinkles of cayenne and freshly ground black pepper).

On the side, I mixed the apple half I forgot to eat yesterday morning with half of a banana I had languishing in the fridge and topped it with 1/3 cup yogurt-PB2 sauce and cinnamon/cardamom:

I washed it all down with soymilky almond sunset tea and iced white peony tea.

At the gym, I did 20 minutes on the new arm-y elliptical, hips and glutes on the Cybex, and 20 more minutes on the regular elliptical, plus abs/stretching and the walk there and back. Stats: 1 hour and 8 minutes, 339 calories, ave hr 116, max 155.

First snack of the day at work was my yogurt (plus ricotta, flax, and sliced banana) which, if you can recall, I had topped with the other half of my Just Fruit Munchies from Just Tomatoes when I packed lunch on Thursday.

Because I had placed this freeze-dried fruit on top of the yogurt, half stayed crunchy and half got soft. I loved the textural variety! Plus, it got all swirly when I mixed it in:

Lunch was leftovers from my dinner Thursday night. I cooked up 1/2 cup of dry lentils to mix with the cup of couscous I brought home in order to convert it into a nutritional powerhouse. I had about 1/4 cup of the couscous-lentil mix with the little piece of salmon from Gina’s meal:

Along with a cup of the veggie stew:

So good! Leftovers are the best.

Nydia also brought in a TON of beans, rice, and pork for me to taste (made by her very culinarily-gifted mom). These containers were FULL when they arrived with Nydia this morning:

I didn’t want to put off eating the salmon because fish leftovers don’t stretch as long as other foods, so I packed up a bunch of this masterpiece to take home and shared the rest with everyone else. I also had several spoonfuls. So good! You’ll be seeing more of this soon, for sure.

Beryl wanted me to take a picture of her spicy chickpeas from the Indian restaurant, so she let me have a tasty tasty tasty tasty bite 🙂

We ate lunch during the every-other-week optional staff brown bag, so desserts also made an appearance. I had a piece of cinnamon sugar muffin, a piece of chocolate-tangerine cookie (and another piece unpictured), more muffin, and a piece of oatmeal raisin cookie:

Later in the afternoon, Belkis split an extra orange and gave half to Jessica and half to me:

And Carlos came around selling chocolate bars for his son’s school. I did not buy any, but Rosalie (aka my chocolate fairy) bought two and materialized at my desk asking which I wanted: chocolate almond or chocolate caramel. That’s right — she was offering me an entire bar! I opted for half and half, so we split and shared each bar. I had a square of each (no, not the whole thing!):

The rest is now safely in my freezer 🙂

I also ate the orange I had packed. Peeler in action:

At 4:30, one of my favorite announcements of all time came over the loudspeaker: Attention staff, the informal staff gathering in the lobby has begun! I don’t know how I wasn’t aware of this one in advance (especially after the sushi success at the last one), but it was definitely news to me! I grabbed Katty, and I think it took us negative 10 seconds to fly down the four flights of steps. Here’s what was waiting:

YES, homemade taquitos (“por favor, dos por cada persona”), fresh salsa, fruit, cheese, crackers, crudite, chips, cookies …

Here’s my first plate:

And my second plate (don’t tell!):

Check out the expertly crunchy wrappage:

I also had a slice of cheddar. It was so sharp it made my jaw ache. I LOVE good cheddar.

That was obviously dinner, but I still had room for dessert (number 3?) when I got home. I finished off my yogurt (1/4 cup), my chocolate-pb-flax egg custard (2/3 ramekin), and my last bits of Holiday Inn cinnamon bun (1/2 bun). It’s a dessert jungle!

Frostiiiiiiiiiiing:

Perfecto. I spent the rest of the night sipping tea and NOT eating any leftover pieces of Easter candy or anything … Umm, right.

And a late-night snack of 1/2 cup Kashi golean crunch with 1/4 cup soymilk and water:

I’m off to my second (and last) Physique 57 class followed by free tangomonium (thanks for the tip, Kate!). From there, I’ll be disappearing for real into a black hole of final-paper-disastrousness, probably until Monday morning. Don’t miss me too much!

What will you be doing while I’m gone?

P.S. I’m famous!

Why is that thing green?

April 30, 2009February 6, 201522 Comments

As promised, the rest of the recycled balls came into play this morning for breakfast.

I had a small but loaded breakfast cookie. The overnight mix contained 1 tbsp ground flax, 1 tbsp oat bran, 2 tbsp extra thick rolled oats, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 tsp south-of-the-border pistachio butter, and 1 chopped Hershey’s Kiss. This combination made for perfectly-textured dough this morning:

I frosted the cookie with 1/3 cup PB2 healthy cream cheese icing and topped it with 1/4 of Sunday’s Holiday Inn cinnamon bun:

And, of course, the remaining balls:

I brought my cookie to the couch to eat it with the almond sunse/black tea, the white peony iced tea, and The Today Show. I forgot about the apples up on the table and then realized I wasn’t actually hungry for them. They went back in the fridge for tomorrow.

I had to be up at Hunter at 9 again this week for a workshop on government benefits. I thought I was being so clever bringing my laptop up there so I could blog at the same time … but the wireless was blocked in that room!!! The nerve. They actually want us to pay attention. Hmph.

During the workshop, I ate an orange. If you’re not sure what an orange looks like, I ate one on Tuesday, so you can feel free to backtrack if you need the visual reinforcement.

For lunch, I had the last half cup of Thai seafood coconut curry/grilled veggies from Hunter’s lobby mixed with the half cup of chicken noodle soup that also came my way Monday night at Hunter, courtesy of Emily:

You might think that’s a weird combination, but it was actually delicious. I should be using coconut milk more often in my life. Too bad Turtle Mountain ignored my request for samples to review. I could have had an official Thai coconut milk curry vs. Turtle Mountain coconut milk curry face-off. Their loss.

The exact same yogurt/ricotta with flax, Pb2, and banana that I had yesterday followed the soup.

Speaking of samples, I received a package from the more agreeable Just Tomatoes today. They sent me a variety of their products to try, the most exciting being pineapple powder … which seems like PB2 in pineapple form but better than PB2 because it’s pineapple and it has absolutely nothing added. I can’t wait to try it out. Pineapple cream cheese icing, anyone? Ohhhhhh, that would be SO good on carrot cake. But I’m getting carried away.

I opened up the mixed fruit munchies packet and used half for tomorrow’s yogurt (I’m excited to see how the freeze-dried fruit absorbs the moisture from the yogurt overnight) and half for an afternoon snack with a splash of soymilk:

Mmmm, so good. Especially the pineapple flavor that completely pops. I had a few dry, too — also delicious!

Once I recovered from the freeze-dried fruit lovefest, I headed out to the gym. Thursday is usually my outdoor running day, but running has been causing me too much pain lately and I opted for the gym machines instead (this made me sad because the weather was perfect for running). I did 30 minutes on the Stepmill, 15 minutes on the rower, and 15 minutes on the elliptical plus a bit of abs and stretching. I walked to and from the gym and did not jog because, again, jogging hurts! Stats: 1 hour and 40 minutes, 517 calories, 118 average heart rate, 162 max.

On the way home, I stopped into Union Market for samples of marinated mushrooms, Piave cheese, and these two little desserty treats:

That chocolate chip brownie piece was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. And sooo chocolate-y:

I was hoping the green thing would be marzipan-related, but it was just lime cheesecake. Still, I enjoyed every morsel.

What’s the most surprising cheesecake flavor you’ve ever encountered? Did you eat it?

Intermission

April 28, 2009February 6, 201521 Comments

I’m surfacing for just a moment to do a quick recap of the day, and then I’ll be back into the school/work/sleep abyss for the next 24 hours!

Breakfast was more cinnamon bun on flax-oat bran:

With 1/2 sliced apple and 1/3 cup yogurt for dipping, all dusted in cinnamon:

To hold me over until lunch, I had yogurt/ricotta with flax, pb2, banana, and strawberries (from Hunter’s lobby last night):

Lunch was more Thai coconut seafood curry, mixed with the veggies from Hunter’s lobby:

Veggies make everything prettier, don’t they?

I also had a spoonful of Belkis’ perfect perfect meat and rice:

And a salad composed of leftover salad bits from Mildred, Jessica, and yesterday’s mangu lunch. I topped the salad with some of the innards of the chicken, tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwich piece Emily gave me in class last night:

I have an identical salad waiting for me in the fridge for tomorow 🙂

Later in the afternoon, I had an orange:

And another pb-chocolate-apple parfait:

I also opened up my first tin (as opposed to roll) of Newman’s Own Organics peppermints. They’re so cute — just like little Altoids:

I had a bunch during the day. I did not count.

When I got home this evening, I prepped food for tomorrow and then headed out for some exercise. I jogged for 25 minutes until the pain won out, and then I switched to walking for another 20. Somewhere in there, I did 10 reps of the inchworm exercise that Olga told me about.

When I arrived back at the apt, I had a serving of the same chocolate-pb-flax custard that’s in the parfait above with a couple little slices of banana, a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut, and a tsp of pb2:

OK, off to report for bed duty so I can wake up tomorrow and do it all again. Ahh, I can’t wait until this semester is over and the papers are behind me!

A non-mentally-taxing question for tonight: How many separate things did you eat today? According to this entry, I ate 10. That might be a record low!

Didn’t eat everything …

April 27, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

When I got to work this morning, there was a message waiting for me from my 11am visit: “Sarah, don’t eat lunch today. I’m cooking for you.”

And here’s the homemade mangu that greeted me when I arrived at their apartment:

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Before you get all bent out of shape, I promise I have not been manipulating my clients into giving me their food when they can barely buy enough for themselves! This mom has been trying to feed me for weeks, especially since we were planning on ending at the end of my internship (not so now, since I’ve been hired and all. It seemed to mean a lot to her that I let her do this for me, so I finally gave in, sigh.

And ohhhhhhhhh my goodness! I’ve tried (and loved) mangu two times before when my coworkers have shared with me, but I’ve never had it homemade … which actually tasted better, even though I didn’t think that was possible!

The plate on which she served the feast (above) could have been a serving plate, but it was all for me! I almost had a heart attack just looking at it. I ate about half of the mangu, all of the little sausages, and half of one of the ham(?) pieces on the side.

The mom also made salad, thank goodness! I had about two cups of this:

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As if that weren’t enough, she packed me a big container to go with what I could eat, plus a good two cups more of salad and her homemade tostones, of which I later ate two:

While we ate, I gave their three-year-old free reign with my camera, resulting in about 80 of these:

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After my heavier than heavy lunch, I committed myself to produce for the rest of the afternoon with baby carrots from Jessica and my orange:

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Umm, I meant that I committed myself to produce until Jennifer came through the office with a box of Good Humor cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream bars. I actually turned one down, but Jessica still sliced me about an inch of hers so I could take part:

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On the way to class, I stopped into the market and noticed that they had goat gouda samples today instead of the manchego. I obviously had to try:

In class, my dinner started with leftover green salad from Mildred’s lunch today mixed with about 1/3 cup edamame salad from Deborah’s lunch today:

Main course was the leftover Thai seafood curry (shrimp, scallops, calamari, white rice, coconut milk) that my mom and John brought me this weekend. Yesterday, I bulked it up with brown basmati rice and broccoli to boost nutrition and stretch it through more lunches. Tonight’s cup:

Dessert was a cup of yogurt/part-skim ricotta with cinnamon, PB2, and 1/3 chopped banana:

What I did not eat today (but will eat eventually):

the rest of the lunch I packed (more fruit and a parfait identical to the one I made last night; both still in the work fridge for tomorrow’s lunch)
2/3 cup of Vianni’s special rice (in my freezer now). OK, I had two little tastes before I put it away. It’s TOO good.
leftovers from my mangu lunch (salad‘s in the work fridge for tomorrow; mangu/tostones/ham are in my freezer)
2/3 cup Hale & Hearty chicken vegetable soup and 1/4 Hale & Hearty chicken basil tomato pesto sandwich Emily couldn’t finish in class (soup is in my fridge; sandwich insides are heading to work tomorrow to dress the salad in #3 above; bread has been broiled to crunchiness and will be joining the carb-bag-club in the freezer soon)
event leftovers that I encountered in the lobby of Hunter after class tonight: 1 cup grilled veggies extracted from the pile of mangled sandwiches and wraps (mixed into the remaining Thai seafood curry to stretch it even further), strawberries (in tomorrow’s yogurt), and two large and gooey brownies (cut into 5 pieces and in my freezer’s cake container). There might have actually been 6 pieces of brownie before one of them landed in my mouth along with all the m&ms that were garnishing it …

What didn’t YOU eat today?

Layers of stress

April 27, 2009February 6, 201520 Comments

I did go out for a breather last night to combat the homework- and heat-induced hallucinations … and ended up running 3.2 miles! This was a very exciting accomplishment, 12-minute miles and all, as the chafing of my shirt against my arms was more painful than my aggravated muscles. Stats: 38 minutes, 304 calories. I hope this improvement keeps up!

I came back and made a complicated snack to keep my mind off the final paper drama. These were some of the things I used: chocolate-peanut butter-flax egg custard, a mom-gifted apple, and the rest of Vani‘s crunch time peanut butter.

Here’s the scoop on the chocolate-peanut butter-flax egg custard. My roommate Tara had three egg yolks left from her breakfast yesterday morning, so I whisked those over low heat with 1 cup unsweetened soy milk, 1/2 cup water, 2 tbsp ground flax, 2 chopped dates, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp PB2. Once the mix thickened, I ran the immersion blender through it for good measure and poured it into three small ramekins to go into the fridge.

For last night’s purposes, I used half of one of the ramekins as the inspiration for this parfait:

For the other layers, I used (1) half of the apple, shredded and mixed with the pb and (2) 1/3 cup total of yogurt mixed with part-skim ricotta and 1 tbsp pb2.

I topped it all off with a biscotti bite for fun.

That mind-blowingly delicious parfait distracted me from school stress for about 30 blissful minutes. When the bliss wore off, I pulled out this little slice of frozen cake from my mom’s birthday 🙂

And then I went to sleep since I knew I wasn’t going to get anything else done!

This morning at the gym, I did 20 minutes Stepmill, legs/chest on Cybex, and 15 minutes elliptical, along with stretching/abs and the jog/walks there and back (hurt again this morning, grrrrr). Stats: 1 hour and 16 minutes, 475 calories, 129 average heart rate, 172 max.

Breakfast was ready to go straight out of the fridge because I prepared it last night, and the day is too hot for hot oats! On the stovetop, I cooked 3 tbsp oat bran and 1 tbsp ground flax with 1/4 cup soymilk and 1/2 cup water. When it was done, I mixed in 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta and lots and lots of cinnamon. I ate it cold this morning topped with 1/4 chopped cinnamon bun from the hotel buffet and more cinnamon.

Icing!

I mixed it all up to eat:

On the side was half of a thinly sliced apple with cinnamon and a tsp of south of the border pistachio butter:

And white peony iced tea (with green in the background!!):

This week is going to be full of research madness. I may never surface again. HA, I’ll probably be back tonight. But if I seem to disappear into a black hole without warning, please don’t be alarmed. I’m just hyperventilating somewhere.

Are you hyperventilating about anything today?

FYI, you can get a free sample of KFC’s new grilled chicken today!

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Tag: grains

While I’m gone

Why is that thing green?

Intermission

Didn’t eat everything …

Layers of stress

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