Tag: peanut butter

Scrappy afternoon

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Ayyy, I spent all day yesterday doing homework for my group presentation tonight. As I worked, I snacked. Homework and snacks are a match made in heaven. Am I right, or am I right?

I transferred Brigitte’s no-bake-cookies-and-cream birthday cake from its foil tin to covered tupperwares to allow for easier stacking. And then I licked the tin and the foil:

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And I also had this little end of the 2nd to last log of cake because it “didn’t fit” in the tupperware:

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I munched on a fresh pineapple core while chopping (and nibbling on) the rest:

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I made crockpot oats for the week and “sampled” some of the ingredients that you see here while I prepped, because have you ever been able to resist of pile of chopped dates and toasted almonds just sitting in front of you? Didn’t think so.

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After all of that food-prep snacking, dinner ended up being a pretty light (and late) affair. I had about 1/2 cup of this week’s oatmeal concoction (details to come in my next post) piping hot and straight out of the crockpot, topped with some Heather-inspired chocolate mousse and 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola:

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To make the mousse, I combined about 2/3 cup cooked whole wheat couscous (left over from roommate Tara’s lunches last week) with 1/2 an avocado, 1 tsp maple cream, 2 tbsp soymilk, and 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder:

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And because I couldn’t stop and I’m a volume fiend, I also added 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1/4 cup healthy cream cheese icing, and 1/4 cup pumpkin. Post-immersion blending:

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Hmm, looks suspiciously like chocolate frosting, right? These proportions made about 1 1/4 cups of mousse. I half-froze 1/4 cup, and that’s what I used to top my hot dinner oats. It was like an ice cream brownie sundae … except not on a brownie.

Anyway, the mousse was delicious, and I am now the world’s biggest fan of this avocado trick. Thanks, Heather!

Do you eat while you cook?

Clickity clack clickity clack

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That’s the sound of me typing all day long. Can you hear it?

I’ll give you one guess about the identity of my breakfast …

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Yes, another Fitnessista breakfast cookie! This one was a little bit unconventional, as it involved me repurposing one portion of last week’s pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats. Last night, I stirred together a cup of the oats, 2 tbsp nonfat powdered milk, 1 chopped square of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, and 1 tbsp peanut butter. It was super wet because the oats were already cooked, so I put it in the freezer overnight and let it thaw for about 20 minutes this morning before I ate it, topped with cocoa powder and healthy cream cheese icing 😀

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With soymilky black tea and extra icing on the side:

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More clickity clack clickity clack until I got hungry around 11:30. Lunch was a hodgepodge of fun treats:

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A bit of Rooms’ black bean salad from linner yesterday mixed with a spoonful of salsa and topped with plain yogurt and pumpkin seeds:

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And an approximately 2 tbsp mix of “overflow” pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats and yogurt topped with cardamom:

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And the best part: two baby raisin walnut toasts, one with homemade cashew butter (left) and one with homemade almond butter (right):
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That’s right, last night I attempted production of my own nut butters!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, especially after drooling over Heather’s recent nutty creations. Unfortunately, I think I need to concede defeat to my Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus and accept that I just don’t have the proper equipment for making nut-only nut butter. You can see the crumbly texture in the pictures above — which I love — but these butters are more the press-on-and-smush-down sort than the spreadable sort.

I know I could have added oil to pull things together, but I really didn’t want anything in there except for the nuts themslves! I finally compromised by adding a tablespoon of peanut butter (with peanuts as the only ingredient) to each batch, and the addition made my butters passably smushable — without the extra pb, they were just dry powders! Anyway, crumbliness aside, my homemade nut butters/powders are still delicious and were an excellent topping for the raisin walnut toasts this afternoon.

I was still hungry around 1, so I made a quick mix of 1/4 cup pumpkin, 2 tbsp healthy cream cheese icing, and 2 tbsp plain yogurt — topped with 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola and 1 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds:

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And now it’s back to the books.

I have two questions for you today:

1. Are you inside or outside?

2. Does the work ever end???

A good excuse

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Ohhhhh my goodness, this morning feels like 10 years ago. Thanks for sending so much running energy my way. I really felt it while I was out there!!

Before the run, I had to make sure I was sufficiently fueled of course 😀

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Breakfast was 2/3 toasted sun-dried tomato bagel topped with the 2 tbsp peanut-butter-pumpkin-roasted-red-pepper hummus and 1.5 black bean-salmon patties that I have been carrying around and trying to eat for lunch since Wednesday. On the side, I had 2/3 chopped apple (rescued from work yesterday!) with cinnamon and soymilky almond tea from last night. I actually got two more decently strong pots out of that one tea bag!

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And ok, ok, I couldn’t resist having one more little bite of Brigitte’s no-bake cookies and cream birthday cake log:

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And then it was time for the run!! (Well, it was time for the run about 75 minutes later — digestion is key.)

Kate and I had lunch plans pretty soon after the run, so I worked out a route for us that would streamline the process, allowing her to run the 2 miles from her apartment to mine to pick me up and avoid any subway drama. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I can’t believe we went from snow to tank-top weather in under a week!

From my place, we did a loop of the park and ran through industrial Brooklyn (breathtaking) to Red Hook. Kate tried to stop and walk after the park loop (to be fair, she had already run nearly 6 miles by this point), but I told her she wasn’t allowed and we would be beginning our downward slope any minute. She powered through like a champ, and her feeling of death became a distant memory.

Kate split off around my mile 6 to run home, and I continued on through the projects and exhaust-filled highways to more charming neighborhoods (including my own) to complete my own 9 . .. or 9.4 to be exact :-D. Yay, I’m so proud that I did it all!! Things got so much easier after the first 4 miles, and mile 7 was actually the easiest of the bunch. I remember thinking that I felt like I could run the whole things three times over and that the half marathon in May would be no biggie! That feeling only lasted for a mile 7, though. The last 2 miles were tough, but I ran by a lot of smiley babies (welcome to Saturday morning in the Slope) that kept me going. Stats: 1 hour and 36 minutes, 848 calories, average heart rate 157, max 178.

When I got home, I settled in for some Gentle Hatha #1 from yogadownload. Wow, yoga never felt so good! I’ve done this class several times, and this is the first time I wasn’t watching the clock and waiting for it to end. And then I ran around like a mad woman trying to get ready and ended up 40 minutes late for the lunch (details to come), whoops!! I used to be so prompt, but at least I had a semi-decent excuse.

What makes you late?

Layers upon layers upon layers

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Remember when I was panicked earlier in the week about not having enough food due to lack of grocery shopping? Yeah … I needn’t have worried.

The lunch I’ve been carrying around since Wednesday got pushed to the side again today for some more urgent delights :-). Vianni brought in her famous shrimp, veggies, and rice for me to sample. I had about 1/2 cup:

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She also brought me the actual seasoning packet that she uses to flavor many of her dishes (featured here and here and here). I’m so excited that I can now Viannify my food!!!

Next, Belkis gave me an entire chicken and salsa fajita left over from a meeting yesterday! It was very cutely cut into little pieces like sushi:

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I ate it cold because the microwave was otherwise occupied, but it was delicious and very filling!

All of this eating took place as part of a new “event” my agency is trying out to build community amongst employees: brown bag staff lunches every other Friday. You bring your own lunch (or the lunch with which your amazing coworkers have provided you) to the meeting, and a few people also bring desserts (like the angel food cake here) and snacks to share.

I did my part to make sure that no snacks went to waste. Multiply what you see here by about three (or more!). I had honey pretzel twists with spinach dip, cheez-its with spinach dip, cinnamon nut rugelach with nutella, and coconut cookies with more nutella (again, x3!):

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In my parents’ group with Myrna, I continued the streak by taking part in group snack: apples and peanut butter! I probably had the equivalent of one chopped apple and 1 tbsp peanut butter (unpictured):

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After all of this, I was able to control the sugar insanity for the duration of the afternoon. I only ate two mints today, a record! Around 4:00, instead of going for the candy jar, I went for my dates and prunes:
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img_5196After I left work, I headed downtown to meet Erin Gunn (yes, of German food fame!). I was early and decided to go find samples kill some time in Whole Foods. I sampled buttered Irish soda bread, a handful of wasabi peas, 2 sandwich cookies, cashews, and cucumbers in miso dressing. I also bought the pineapple (only $2.99!), cashews, and almonds to the right. The dates, avocados, and cocoa powder came from Morton Williams where I stopped on my way home post-Erin Gunn. These foods are more expensive than what I normally buy, but again, I only spent $5 on groceries last week, so I have a little wiggle room this week! Grocery total so far: $22.

Since I was the farthest thing from hungry ever, Erin and I split a pot of tea and a salad at teany (review to come shortly) and then headed over to Kenny’s Castaways for the main event: a show by her friend’s band, Wesley Jeremiah.

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Erin had beer; I had water (pretty standard unless there’s karaoke involved …):

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(Keep in mind that, throughout all of this, I was lugging around a pineapple, among other things. I felt kind of like Baby with her watermelon.)

img_5197I got home around 10:30, just in time to help my roommate Brigitte with the first of her birthday celebrations (her birthday is on Thursday). Brigitte’s friend Katie is staying with us and made a surprise birthday cake for tonight.

I “agreed” to have just a little teeny piece. Until I realized that this was not just a regular cake but rather a no-bake chocolate-wafer-and-whipped-cream cake … aka a giant log of oreo goodness. I added another little piece to my little piece. And another little piece to those pieces.

Here’s my tower:

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There were chocolate and peanut butter shavings on top …

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And layering perfection:

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Good thing Kate and I have 9 miles planned for tomorrow morning :-D.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday night!

Sprinkles, icing, and parental advice

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As of Wednesday night, I did not feel like the week was moving quickly AT ALL. But as of this morning, I feel like it has flown! How did that happen?

Quick rewind to last night. Dinner was simple but delicious. I had a morningstar asian veggie patty (the last one — so sad!), half of a baked sweet potato dolloped with plain yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon, and a market sample toastie with sample cheese:

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I was clearly in a frozen treat mood yesterday, so I got some homemade froyo going in the freezer while I was eating dinner. This mix included 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, 1/2 cup pumpkin (for volumizing purposes), 1 tsp peanut butter, and a chopped piece of lindt hazelnut chocolate. Oh, and also a market sample almondine cookie. And light whipped cream. And more sprinkles (because my dad told me that brown foods don’t look pretty or appetizing on the blog).

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And then I had one more piece of hazelnut chocolate because I really wanted it:

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This morning at the gym, I did arms and steps and racked up the following stats: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 435 calories, 126 average heart rate, 170 max.

And breakfast was the same it’s been all week. Doesn’t taste old yet, though! (I don’t think my crockpot oats will ever taste old to me.) One cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, unsweetened coconut, crumbled grahams, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin seeds:

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And can’t forget the soymilky black tea on the side:

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I ate strategically to make the cream cheese icing outlast the oats because I had a plan for breakfast part 2! I mixed the rest of the icing with about 2/3 cup of canned pumpkin and the appropriate spices for a bit of pumpkin pie pudding 🙂

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On an unrelated sidenote, my mom left me a comment yesterday and said, among other things: “Wow, are you giving me such great cooking and eating ideas. I love it and you, too! Love and xoxoxoxox, om.” A second later, she left this comment: “I don’t mean the yoga om, obviously. It’s a typo. Mom.” I thought that was a very cute mom moment, and I had to share!

Funny how both of my parents showed up in this post. Have you received any useful/funny parental or family input this week?