Tag: nuts

Endless groats and clothing mishaps

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Breakfast this morning was more prune groatmeal (could that name get any more appetizing?!) with flax oat bran:

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I added a sprinkle of fruit today to pretty things up.

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Plus the usual sunflower seed butter and unsweeetened coconut:

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img_8415And soymilky almond sunet/black tea combo and water on the side.

I love this flax oat bran combination. It thickens up so much over night that it’s almost hard to eat; I have to go slow so my mouth doesn’t get tired! And anything that makes me slow down when eating delicious food is my friend šŸ™‚

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My pre-breakfast gym trip involved 20 minutes of bicycle, some arms and back on the cybex, 15 minutes on the precor elliptical, stretching/abs, and the jogs there and back. Stats: 1 hour and 17 minutes, 459 calories, 126 average heart rate, 162 max.

Also, for the past two mornings in a row, I have had wardrobe malfunctions that have required me to get out a needle and thread and sew things together that are already on my body while I’m racing arond to get ready. I am not impressed by this, and I hereby demand that my clothes start behaving, especially during the early morning hours. What was your most recent apparel crisis?

OMG, I almost forgot. Today is FREE CONE DAY!!!!! Going to look up closest Ben & Jerry’s now …

Right on schedule

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Well, everything’s back to normal with a full internship day on the horizon followed by class tonight. I spend 13 hours straight away from home on Mondays, and at least 3 of those hours take place on the subway! Sigh. Maybe I’ll have a car someday.

Breakfast this morning was more creamy oat bran with prune groatmeal topping, mmmm.

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Since I’m out of tofu, I made the oat bran a little bit differently last night. As usual, I cooked 1/4 cup oat bran with 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk on the stovetop, but I also added in 2 tbsp ground flax and an extra 1/4 cup water and let it boil for a minute. Once again, it thickened up successfully in the fridge overnight and reheated perfectly in the oven this morning.

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I topped the groatmeal with a spoonful of homemade sunflower seed butter and a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut:

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With a soymilked almond sunset/black tea combo on the side and a tall glass of water:

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I also went to this gym this morning and managed to enjoy it tremendously! My body has clearly missed it the past several days. I jogged there and back — the jogging still hurts, but I tried some of the simultaneous knee/butt kicks that Amy recommended to me last week, and they actually minimized the pain a bit and made me focus on lifting my legs up instead of just throwing them out in front of me … although I probably looked less than sane while doing them. Here are stats from the crazy jog, 20 minutes on the Stepmill at Level 11, two sets each of hip adductor, abductor, and glute machines, and 15 minutes on the elliptical cross-country program: 1 hour and 15 minutes, 588 calories (still WAY higher than normal), 145 average heart rate, 183 max (also higher than normal).

Some extra things to note:

First, biscotti bites are everywhere! Kelsey, winner of the jasmine tea biscotti bites in Meghann‘s bake sale, has received them and reviewed them here!

Next, To Be the Whole Package is hosting this week’s BSI contest. Go check it out and start thinking about your recipe!

Next next, enter the HangryPants Stonyfield giveaway by midnight tonight!

Finally, I’ve been tagged by Mara at What’s for Dinner? to complete this “Survey of 8s,” so here goes …

8 Things Iā€™m Looking Forward To:

  1. income (start date of this is questionable …)
  2. the end of this semester
  3. the weekend!
  4. lunch
  5. Erin Gunn‘s wedding in October!
  6. consistently warm weather
  7. a life of traveling the world saving babies
  8. my next chance to sleep

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

  1. traverse the east coast (or at least the stretch between NC and NY)
  2. eat pancakes
  3. rock in a rocking chair
  4. take 3 trains (thank you, track construction) to get home from the airport
  5. cook
  6. nap on a plane
  7. unpack
  8. blog

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

  1. live alone
  2. use a car for errands once in a while
  3. run without pain
  4. travel the world saving babies (any ideas?) and eating fun food
  5. move south right now
  6. relax
  7. lie on a beach
  8. live closer to my family

(Note: I just realized that several of these wishes conflict! Hmmm, I am going to have to figure this out.)

8 Shows I Watch:

Is it completely terrible that I stopped watching TV when I started grad school in June 2007? There’s just no time! Sometimes I have the Food Network on for background noise.

8 People I Tag:

Many of you have probably been tagged already, so I’m just going to open the survey up to everyone reading this post! Let me know one thing you did yesterday, one thing you are looking forward to, and one thing you wish you could do (or more, if you feel like it!) šŸ˜€


I’m back …

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But not forever! My trip to Charlotte was perfect — as has been every trip to the “south” I have ever taken — and I am pretty confident that I’ll be heading in that direction again once I am done with grad school next year.

Wife and I woke up this morning to the sound of coffee beans grinding and pancake batter stirring! Kristin and Dustin were hard at work in the kitchen above us šŸ™‚

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I topped my two blueberry pancakes with ICBINB and lite syrup:

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And while we’re on the topic of Kristin and Dustin’s aboveness and beyondness as hosts throughout this entire trip, there’s more! Wife’s car wouldn’t start yesterday when we were on the way to the wedding, so Dustin drove us the 30 minutes to the wedding and dropped us off so we wouldn’t be late. Later, he and Kristin drove back out with both of their cars so that they could leave one for us to use for the rest of the night!

While waiting for AAA to arrive this morning, we all relaxed in the kitchen with our tea (and coffee for the others), our pancakes, and the pretty birds right outside the balcony:

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Because Wife had to wait for the towtruck (and her car was out of commission, obviously), Kristin had to drive me to the airport. Add another star to the list of aboveness and beyondness!

I am so aware that I keep gushing about everyone on this trip … but between Kath‘s tour guiding and company on Friday, Wife’s willingness to drive up from GA and incur the wrath of the evil automobile spirits to go to the wedding with me, and Kristin and Dustin’s generous and fun hosting, I have never experienced such a hefty dose of hospitality in my life!

Once I got through security at the Charlotte airport, I finally got to enjoy some of the luxurious rocking and free wireless that I kept hearing about:

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As I rocked and blogged, I oranged with the orange that I had initially packed for Friday’s flight:

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And granola bar’d with this peanut butter granola bar that Kath and I scooped up from a free samples basket at Earth Fare on Friday:

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And chocolated with this Ferrero Rocher that Wife brought for me from GA, courtesy of Ted:

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An impressively well-rounded airport lunch if I do say so myself!

On the plane, I had a 1 oz. package of JetBlue cashews while I worked my way through Gastropolis:

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I’m a fan of the JetBlue unlimited airplane snacks deal (obviously). From the two flights, I collected four more bags of cashews and one mini-bag of chocolate chunk cookies:

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The other goodies that came back with me include a jar of PB2 from Kath and a belated Christmas present from Wife of a cupcake potholder (in the back), key lime jam (!!!) from her trip to Madison, and homemade black raspberry jam from Ted’s aunt. Thanks for the treats, ladies (and JetBlue)!

Due to the usual weekend subway delays, detours, and cancellations, I didn’t get home until about 6 and had to rush to unpack my suitcase, pack lunch/dinner for tomorrow, and make dinner for tonight. With no time to hit the grocery store, I had to rely on the freezer, a can, and a couple of promotional items I have received recently:

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While I sauteed the three grain tempeh in a pan with olive oil and minced garlic, I dumped the mushroom “agnolotti” that Foodbuzz sent into a saucepan with boiling water and half a box of frozen peas I found. I mixed everything together at the end (minus the pasta water) and then made a crazy sauce from 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 2 tbsp sofrito, and a splash of unsweetened soymilk (for thinning). I saved most of it for the week’s lunches, but I had to sample a little scoop topped with homemade parm for dinner:

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The tempeh gave good texture and chew, and the wild mushroom flavor held its own. Plus, there’s pretty much no way to go wrong with pumpkin or sofrito separately, so why not put them together?

My main dinner event consisted of about 1 cup of fruit salad (mango, blood orange, strawberries, and blackberries), an overturned container of honey Oikos so that the honey took on an “icing” role (loved how this flavor was still plain yogurt with the honey on the bottom of the container), and a tbsp of ground flax with cinnamon:

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Now I have to race to get ready for bed. This is going to be a week for getting back on track — and it starts with getting eight full hours of sleep tonight!

What’s your goal for this week?

Happy tears

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The hospitality just knows no bounds around these parts!

Check out what was waiting for us when we ambled into the kitchen Saturday morning:

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Kristin had arranged an entire tea and coffee display (complete with a “good morning and how-to” note!) to greet us if we woke up before she and Dustin did. I chose a chai tea bag with a bit of skim:

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For breakfast, Kristin whipped out a box of Trader Joe’s banana bread mix. She’s so stocked! We mixed banana chunks into the batter and sprinkled slivered almonds over the top because we’re fancy like that. While the bread was baking, I licked the batter:

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Kristin then proceeded to make us a beautiful breakfast appetizer plate with expertly arranged cinnamon-sprinkled apples:

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And peanut butter!

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Oooh, that bread smelled so good coming out of the oven. There’s something about boxed mixes that is just too delicious and addictive!

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There were gooey pieces and crispy pieces.

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And lots and lots and lots and lots of peanut-butter-covered pieces!

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After breakfast, Kristin, Wife, and I took a lovely two hour stroll through a nearby park, greenway, and neighborhood. We saw the prettiest bungalow houses all with rocking chairs comfortably nestled into their wraparound porches. I kept saying I expected little old ladies to pop out and invite us in for sweet tea. Sadly, neither the old ladies nor the sweet tea made an appearance.

Wife and I returned to our “suite” after the walk to start getting ready for the wedding. Mid-prep, Kristin came knocking at the door with a plate in hand: “It’s going to be a while until you guys eat, so I brought you some snacks.”

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As you can see, Kristin went all out with these “snacks”! The plate included piping hot mushroom empanadas and onion jam ricotta tarts. I think I had 1.5 of each.

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Who thinks Kristin needs to open a bed and breakfast? I do! I’d be first in line for a room.

Also mid-prep, I received an exciting message from Erin Gunn‘s boyfriend Mike: “She said yes!” Ohhhhhhh my goodness!!! Of course, I called Erin immediately and confirmed the engagement news and cried and jumped up and down and flapped my arms around because I was (and am) so happy for her. Congratulations, Erin!

Erin’s engagement news was a good warm-up for Ilin’s wedding, during which I also lost quite a bit of fluid via the ol’ tear ducts. Do you cry at weddings?

I’m off to go to sleep, finally, but I should be back tomorrow with the full wedding recap. In the meantime, go visit Emily at Super Caloric Chalk Dust for a shot at winning her first ever giveaway!

Southern hospitality, part 2

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After Wife collected me from Kath‘s house yesterday, we made our way over to her friend Kristin’s house across town. So many things have worked out perfectly for this weekend: my JetBlue gift certificate that covered airfare, the last minute plans with Kath yesterday, Wife being able to drive up from GA, her friend Kristin (and her husband Dustin!) living here and offering to put us up — I think Charlotte is my lucky city šŸ˜€

Kristin had the guest room perfectly coiffed and ready for us:

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Don’t be jealous, Ted šŸ˜‰ (That’s Wife’s boyfriend.)

We all spent much longer than we realized chatting and snacking on some very mature appetizers of mixed nuts and pimento olives:

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Then, we headed to a late dinner at 131 Main, an uptown Charlotte restaurant with a fire pit!

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I ordered the Crab Cake Salad with mixed greens, fresh corn, herb vinaigrette, and whole grain mustard sauce (I got the dressing/sauce on the side):

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Look at all the meat in that crab cake!! I felt like I had died and gone to Maryland.

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The salad spent some time warming its toes by the fire:

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(Speaking of corn and toes and fun food names like boat eggs and broccoli trees, my mom used to call my toes corn niblets when I was little because they were so teeny and short. Just thought I’d throw that out there.)

Wife couldn’t quite finish her cedar plank salmon with whole grain mustard butter and wild rice salad, so I took care of the rest for her:

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It was tough choke down, but I took one for the team and found a way somehow.

For dessert, the three of us split the homemade key lime pie with graham cracker crust. It was a huuuuuuge slice:

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Mmmm, look at that crust. It was so thick and crunchy — the best part!

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It was past 11 when we got back to Kristin’s house and fell right into bed (or blogged, as the case may be).

I’m not sure what the plan is for the rest of the morning; the afternoon/evening will be quite full with wedding events. Can’t wait!

What is your luckiest region of the US?