Tag: Leftovers

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!

Making the cut

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P.S. I forgot to mention that I ate this garlic knot from Jessica sometime between the mangu and the cake earlier today . Isn’t it breathtakingly beautiful, though?

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OK, onto the main attraction! I met Vani and Emily for dinner tonight at ‘sNice, a vegetarian cafe here in the Slope. I recognized these girls right away from their blogs (well, ok, I had also already met Vani once before for our tea swap):

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(Vani is on the left; Emily is on the right.)

The menu was amazing — so many options! It took us at least 10 minutes to decide what to get. I finally ordered the quinoa salad with corn, black beans, tortilla strips, and avocado dressing:

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It was sooooo good!! Look at the exciting whole grain deliciousness:

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As if the waitress didn’t think we were already weird enough with our cameras, we also each asked for doggie bags up front. After my cake-fest this afternoon, I wasn’t playing! I immediately halved the salad and put some in a box to bring home. Here’s the other half that I drizzled with the avocado dressing (fyi, I usually prefer my salads dry, but this dressing was sooooo avocado-y and really made the salad):

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Did I just say I wasn’t playing? Yeah, that lasted until Vani broke out a bag of Jordan almonds. I think she had 5. I had the rest (I’m estimating 23?). So it appears that making the cut only works for some things (like salad and not like Jordan almonds):

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Here’s the last almond. I photographed it as a sign of respect at Vani’s suggestion before I made it disappear.

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Thank goodness I have my 8-mile run planned for tomorrow with Kate! (cue inner groan)

Anyway, it was so fun to see (and eat with!) these ladies in person. I loved hearing about their lives and how they ended up in Brooklyn, what they do now, what their future plans are, and more. We’ll have to do it again soon!

Yay for new blog friends 😀

I got home and packed away the leftovers, ate a million conversation hearts, and now am so going to disappear under the covers forever with my earplugs and eye mask. I hope these new bedtime accessories do the trick! Can you sleep through morning sun, or do you wake up at the first hint of light?

The sugar monster is back

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Ahhhh, must get a grip on the sugar craze!

My morning snack was this delicious strawberry Trio bar (once again from Tina’s Carrots ‘N’ Cake Valentine’s day prize package).

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This bar definitely tasted as good as it looks … real strawberry essence and packed with satisfying nuts and seeds and crunch:picture-026

In addition to my soup and yogurt, Myrna gave me some of her mangu (salted mashed plantains) and fried cheese, yummmmmm:

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And then, because there’s always something to celebrate at my office, I had three slices of angel food cake with thick thick chocolate fudge icing and chocolate-covered strawberries:

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And that totally set me off on a sugar binge for the rest of the afternoon! Before my visit, I had a Riesen and two big lollipops:

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And after my visit, I ate the grapes I packed and the rest of Heather’s skittles:

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Again, I need to get a grip. Hopefully all the sleep I get this weekend with my new eye mask will help bring back my sanity and self-control!!

Now, I’m off for a mini-blogger dinner with two lovely ladies: Emily of Super Caloric Chalk Dust and Vani from Fit for Free. You can be sure you will hear all about the meal when I get back!

Who has battle tips for fighting the sugar monster??

The best mornings start with pb

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But before breakfast, I continued my quest for pumped up workout intensity. I did arms and steps this morning, using higher weights on the arms like I did Wednesday. I went back to the “fat burner” program on the StairMaster (it actually has more speed and resistance variety than the “speed intervals” program), but I increased the level from 9 to 11. I certainly felt like I was working harder, but my HRM didn’t show as drastic of a change as I had expected: 1 hour and 10 minutes, 404 calories, 124 average heart rate, 178 max. I’ll keep working on it …

After the gym, I ate another overnight concoction of sorts. Last night, I mixed the last cup of “pumpkin plus” puree with 1/4 cup dry steel-cut oats. This morning, I put it in the oven for 30 minutes while I got ready and then topped it with 2/3 cooked apple, 1/4 cup yogurt (because the puree already had ricotta in it), 2 crumbled graham sticks, 1 spoon pb, cinnamon, and nutmeg:

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Sometimes I like my oats more pudding-y — like when I do them in the crockpot — but overnight steel-cut oats have a very satisfying chewiness to them:

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I had the oatmeal with a tall mug of black tea with soymilk and a tall glass of agua:

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Be back tonight with the rest of today’s food! Are you happy it’s Friday?

Ethically sound

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Yes, today was a day of ETHICS. My class had a guest speaker (aka the professor did not want to come in) to talk about ethics in social work for two hours, and then I had to go to a mandatory workshop for another two hours that also happened to be about social work ethics. I love when my days are so scintillating and jam-packed with variety. Ummmmm …

Anyway, I had a cup of green grapes during class at 11:30 to hold me over until lunch at 1:00 (the workshop didn’t start until 2:00). The girls and I (there are only five of us in this grad program) ate together and bemoaned the loss of our afternoon. In addition to my cup of coconut-ginger soup, I helped Emily finish the last 1/2 cup of her Hale and Hearty chicken barley soup:

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Today’s yogurt had 2/3 cup yogurt, 2 tbsp pumpkin, 1/2 chopped apple, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, and a sprinkle of golean crunch:

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I had dessert during the workshop: an orange, a Starburst from Lisa, and some m&ms from Emily:

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And then I ate this honey graham zbar from Tina’s Carrots ‘N’ Cake Valentine’s day prize package (Thanks, Tina! You sent so much that I think I’ll be thanking you every day for the rest of the year :-D):

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I ate the bar because I was a little bit hungry but mostly because I was bored. And then Emily couldn’t finish her m&ms, so I helped. Because I’m in a helping profession, and it was the ethical thing to do:

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We got out of the workshop a little bit early around 3:45, and I stopped at Union Square on the way down to Brooklyn so that I could get dinner part 1: oatmeal for $1 at Jamba Juice. I decided I’d had enough sugar for the moment, so I got the banana oatmeal with no brown sugar crumbles:

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I considered waiting until I got home to eat the oatmeal, but it was cold and windy out and the oatmeal was hot. In other words, I inhaled the whole cup while walking the two long blocks from University Place to Sixth Ave. This oatmeal is very stick-to-your-ribs-y, just the way I like it. (Vani, you should definitely give it another shot because it hasn’t been watery for me either time!)

There were two exciting packages waiting for me when I got home. First, my free sample of Quaker mini delights arrived! I love free things:

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But even more exciting was this care package from my mama!! In addition to two of her homemade Valentine’s treats, she sent two eye masks from my stepdad. I am soooooo going to be able to sleep late this weekend :-D.

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Mom’s treats included a chocolate-drizzled oat bake and a chocolate-drizzled kitchen sink muffin heart:

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I’ve been anticipating this package ever since she sent me these gorgeous pics of the treats just out of the oven earlier this week:

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Thanks for brightening my week, mom! I’ll be thinking of you as I eat these :-D.

Dinner part 2 was a bit of a repeat from last night. I had just over 1/2 cup of heated “pumpkin plus” puree with a toasted morningstar Asian veggie patty:

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Are you wondering what’s in the background?? Yes, it’s dinner part 3: the dark chocolate-covered orange slice that Brandi sent as part of my BSI: Spinach prize!

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So to review, I ate a lot, learned about appropriate social work behavior, and helped a friend. All in all, an ethically sound day…. Were you ethical today?

I’m off to go finish up some work homework and get into bed. I know I’m behind on blog- and comment-reading, but I will catch up this weekend, I promise.

Also, make sure you check out the amazing granola that is up for grabs at Mon’s Apetit!