My eyelids are drooping …

January 23, 2009February 6, 20154 Comments

Ahhhhh it’s finally the weekend!! I’m planning on crashing just as soon as I’m done with this post — I feel like I could sleep for a year (though my body always wakes me up after eight hours, grrr).

Myrna and I had lunch together today before we started our group. I ate everything I packed (of course) plus a bit extra. Yesterday, a mom brought Myrna a big Mexican steak platter with homemade corn tortillas, steak (obv), salad, and rice:

After the potluck lunch we’d already had, Myrna could not even consider starting on this then, so she stuck it in the fridge for today and shared it with me while we ate and planned for our group. She gave me all the sauteed veggies (hidden amongst the steak in the picture) and this tortilla with fixings:

And she also gave me half of her banana that I topped with office peanut butter:

And since I spend so much time with this guy, here’s a shot of the candy jar that plagues me all day:

I think I had five mints and two fruity tootsies today …

Now that I’m constantly taking pictures of all the food I see, my coworkers can’t seem to stop offering me bites of what they have! A bunch of others ordered a different steak meal that they couldn’t finish, so the leftovers were sitting on my desk when I came back up after we finished the group. I’m not complaining! Here’s everything unpacked for display purposes tonight:

corn tortilla, steak, little rice, pork, salad, and two banana pieces (leftover from the group)

The salad, tortilla, banana, and rice went into the fridge for use this weekend. I chopped the meat into little pieces and put it in a snack baggie for freezing:

On my way home from work, I stopped into Whole Foods for a few items that are miraculously cheaper there. In the process, I ate a dinner of samples:

– 3 small pieces of chocolate from Azure Chocolat: Beauty Bark (“70% Belgian dark chocolate, dried wild blueberries, cacao nibs, fresh walnuts, golden flax, and grey sea salt” – phenomenal!), S’mores d’Azure (“fresh marshmallow and creamy chocolate ganache sandwiched between two Azure grahams smothered in Belgian milk chocolate”), and chocolate covered-graham (“freshly baked crispy graham laced with cinnamon and honey and smothered in Belgian milk chocolate”)

– 1 bite of each of the 4 flavors of Gnu Flavor & Fiber bars

– 2 pieces of baked seasoned tofu

– several teeny pieces of 3-year-aged gouda with flatbread crackers

– 4 cucumber slices with ginger miso dressing

– a sample cup of black bean loaf

Definitely a successful outing! Here’s what I bought:

unsweetened Silk, 2 packs extra firm tofu, whole wheat pastry flour, crunchy natural pb

Total cost: $12.

Once home, I made a little snack of the rest of last week’s yogurt batch (approx. 1/4 cup), half an apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom:

And now it is time to relax and hopefully catch up on lots and lots of sleep!

Mad dash …

January 5, 2009February 6, 20155 Comments

… in more ways than one!

I ended up eating both of my “emergency snack” mini muffins today around 5pm (along with a Russell Stover orange cream-filled chocolate from the box that materialized in the conference room right next to my desk) because Gina, Kate, and I decided that we would, in fact, meet for our 3.5 mile run through Central Park with the NIKE Running Club. We try to go a couple times each week, mainly because NIKE provides heaps of fresh fruit, bagels, muffins, and pastries after each run. I always stuff as much fruit as I can into my mouth (and sneakily pack more into my empty lunch tupperwares) and intercept the staff as they’re throwing out the leftover bread products so I can hand them to homeless people on the subway.

But tonight, we got bad news: no more food!!!! Gina, Kate, and I looked at each other in horror because that meant we had to run 3.5 miles, not only with no promise of food waiting at the end, but also with an hour + commute on the other side before we could get home for dinner. On the subway ride, we split an orange (also courtesy of the conference room at my work), but needless to say, I was ravenous when I got home at 8:45. But before eating, I had to prep tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch and also deal with this windfall of 13 overripe bananas I scored from a work donation:

bananas BEFORE ... not appetizing, I know

bananas AFTER, chopped for freezing ... still not appetizing!

I filled two 32 oz. yogurt containers. I know they don’t look great now, but they are going to make amazing banana bread oatmeal someday … just wait!

I had to think fast for dinner, since it was nearing 10pm. Even though I don’t have to get up at 5 tomorrow since I got my workout in tonight, I still need to be sleeping by 10:30 in order to be functional tomorrow. I stuck a dark chocolate pomegranate VitaTop in the oven for 15 minutes to get the chocolate chips all gooey, and then I sauteed half an apple and half a banana (I found some slightly less mushy pieces from tonight’s haul) in a tsp of canola oil until golden brown:

pre-work

step 1

step 2

step 3

Everyone knows that VitaTop + yogurt + fruit = brownie sundae!!

And now it is time for the mad dash to my bed. Good night!

In transit

January 3, 2009February 6, 2015Leave a comment

As planned, I boarded the 11 am bus today fully armed with a special mom-prepared lunch. Here it is pre-assembly last night:

turkey salad, 1/4 avocado, toasted whole wheat pita

And professionally arranged on a plate because I didn’t think the bus would have the right ambience (and because I would have felt silly taking 20 pictures of my sandwich in front of the little old lady sitting next to me):

I held off on breaking into it as long as possible (a whole hour and 20 minutes!) because I was worried about the onion causing smell drama on the bus. But hunger won out at 12:20, and I daintily opened the baggie . . . and inhaled the sandwich in approximately 30 seconds:

Notice the expertly chopped cabbage throughout (that was my contribution to the meal). Mmmmmmm. On the side, I had some crunchy green beans, a kitchen sink muffin, and a two hour nap (my other great love, after food and babies).

Next stop: Brooklyn!

Tattoo party!

December 29, 2008February 6, 20151 Comment

But let’s start at the beginning. After the wild night at my dad’s house the night before, I didn’t wake up until about 10:30 on the 27th! That’s unheard of for me — in my non-vacation life in NY, I wake up at 5am every morning (ack!) to go to the gym before work. I started the day with a big glass of water and my usual mug of tea with skim.

I set about preparing breakfast for my mom, John, and me with leftovers from the night before: more pie! We each got 2 slices’ worth, topped with toasted walnuts and accompanied by a greek yogurt/part-skim ricotta/banana/cinnamon sauce:

breakfast-plate

I was planning to head to my cousin’s house (and a mystery food schedule) for the night, so I had a quick and light lunch (leftovers rescued from my fridge in NY as I was running out the door last week) to tide me over:

steamed cabbage topped with 2T of Wholly Guacamole

At my cousin Rachel’s house, we spent a couple hours playing with her kids — Rachel’s 4-year-old Lilly helped me make a triple batch of these for my mom’s potluck Hannukah party the next day — and snacking on pistachios (unpictured) and chicken legs (unpictured again, but I had 3!) before we got to work on the main attraction. Rachel recently took up tattooing, and I just happened to have a little quarter-sized cupcake on my right front hip that needed some help. I’ve had the frosting filled in pink twice, and it has faded to almost nothing both times. Rachel promised she could remedy the situation with a “pinkalicious” color concoction. Here’s the masterpiece in progress:

tattoo

While I was under the needle, Rachel’s husband Rich set to work on a post-surgery feast:

verrrrrrrrry strong strawberry martini (to dull the pain)

giant chocolate chip pancake (after I had already eaten 2/3 of it). I cleaned the plate, of course!

Shortly after inhaling both of the above, my cousin Josh and I stumbled down to our respective couches. I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow!

Are you sure everyone gets along?

December 29, 2008February 6, 20152 Comments

As planned, my mom, stepdad, and I headed over to my dad’s house for a big family dinner! When we arrived, my stepmom had prepared quite a spread of scrumptious appetizers. I have no clue how much of this ended up going into my mouth, but I was certainly on a roll …

cheese-ball

My stepmom made this spread with fat free cream cheese, craisins, orange zest, and several other yummy touches. It tasted like carrot cake frosting!

sorpressata-cheddar-pineapple-olive skewers

Has anyone tried this before? It's the perfect salty-sweet-spicy combo.

And onto the main event:

Dad slicing some bakery fresh wheat ciabatta

Stepmom slicing terriyaki pork tenderloin (flanked by sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, and green beans)

My plate: heel of the bread, 4 slices tenderloin, roasted veggies (minus white potatoes -- LOATHE them!), and unsweetened applesauce

For dessert, we each had a slice of my very yummy and very healthy creation: Apple-Cranberry Pie with Millet Crust.

pie

pie-crust

Ensuing hilarity:

Angry mom trying to request a more flattering angle.

Dad sending a friendly message to the photographer (my mother)

Inauguration of the new camera’s self-timer feature:

Aunt Mary, stepmom, me, dad, mom, stepdad

Everyone: Aunt Mary, Rae Ann (stepmom), me, dad, mom, John (stepdad)

Following this wholesome family meal, we all retired to the living room so dad, John, and Rae Ann could break out the guitars. I napped on the floor in front of the roaring fire, waking up every so often for: