Eat food. [Not] too much. Mostly plants.

March 25, 2009February 6, 201518 Comments

I am so full of produce right now!

We had a lunchtime meeting (with snacks provided!) in one of the nursery rooms at noon today. Here are my goods aligned on the mini-ironing board:

picture-337

First up was leftovers from yesterday‘s lunch: a variety bowl of my roasted veggies, Myrna’s chicken/rice/corn, and Belkis’ moro de habichuela.

picture-334

Next: baby carrots and red peppers with a big pile of salsa for dipping.

picture-339

I had two plates just like this.

And finally, grapes, apples, and an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (baked by the nurse Sarah using the recipe on the Quaker canister, sooooo good).

picture-338

I probably had two plates more of apples and grapes (and I wrapped up some extras, along with two cookies to take home after the meeting :-)! ).

I snacked on more leftover produce as the afternoon continued. Grapes and red peppers:

picture-340

Plus approx a cup of Inginia’s chicken and veggies soup with kale, spinach, and mushrooms:

picture-342

Pura came through our floor around 2 to to inform us that there was banana bread pudding from Sylvia’s … as in the queen of soul food. This was amazing amazing pudding — complete with Nilla wafers all over the top! I had about 1/4 cup in the moment and packed up another cup to take home.

picture-343

And then some more produce around 3pm:

picture-344

Plus a chocolate star mint:

picture-345

And my gold medal winning gymnastics yogurt + fruit salad doing its mat routine because it really wanted to show off its toned underside:

picture-347

A 4:30 strawberry on steroids from Vianni:

picture-351

And finally, a baby orange soda candy:

picture-350

So much faster to do a post on the work computer than on my computer at home! I’m staying here a little late tonight because I’m meeting Gina and Kate at 7 for a delectable three-course meal as part of Dine In Brooklyn, the most wonderful week of the year. You can be sure I’ll be reporting back on the food excitement!

Also, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know about the next bake sale Meghann is hosting on April 6 to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as part of Team in Training for her upcoming marathon. To support her cause, I’ll be putting three dozen of my Jasmine Tea Biscotti Bites up for auction. These bites are a delicious and healthy treat and have been taste-tested by a number of my fellow bloggers — Kath, HangryPants Heather (aka my self-proclaimed big sister), and Olga — to rave reviews. Please consider supporting Meghann (and giving yourself a fun treat) by bidding on my bites when the time comes!

I’m off to dinner now! Yay for three courses :-D.

How many servings of fruits/veggies did you get in today??

Misplaced birth

March 24, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

The spinach oats kept me going until about 10:30 this morning — 3 to 3.5 hours seems to be the most distance I can get out of a bowl of oatmeal. Fine with me since the hunger means I get to start eating earlier 😀

I had a small chopped apple with one of the packets of Barney Butter that came in my Foods That Fit prize pack.

It was my first time trying Barney Butter, and I was enough of a fan to pull apart the little packet post-squeeze and make sure I took care of every last one of the 90 calories in there!

As tasty as the BB was, I don’t think I’d buy it. It has a bunch of unnecessary ingredients in it that I’d rather get from, say … cake! My nut butter can keep being made out of just nuts, thank you very much.

I was hungry again by 11:30 and decided to honor the feeling pronto with lunch #1: three more of the stuffed collard greens that I described last night and a sampling of my roommate Tara’s baby hydroponic tomatoes because she told me they were blogworthy and I agreed.

The green ones look like mini-watermelons — so cute!

I ate real lunch at about 12:30 and, since I am once again the luckiest girl in the world with the most amazing coworkers, Myrna cooked last night and brought in a TON of food for me! I shared it with Vianni, and there was still some leftover to put toward tomorrow’s lunch. Here’s my bowl:

My roasted veggies are in the back, and Myrna’s culinary masterpieces are in the front: rice with corn, potatoes, and chicken breast. I don’t even like potatoes, but Myrna seasoned these so beautifully that I actually ate all the skinny burnt pieces I could get my hands on.

Myrna supplemented the food she cooked with her leftover mangu from yesterday, be still my heart. I had about a cup of it.

Next, Belkis appeared with her famous black beans and rice. I was in heaven and had about 1/2 cup:

And for dessert, another tongue-painter candy:

I have to say that I was kind of nervous about these “paint” candies because having a bright tongue could potentially challenge my credibility with clients, but I’m so weak when it comes to strawberry-flavored candy! Luckily, there was no lasting damage to my oral pigmentation yesterday OR today.

I had to leave for another visit around 1:40 and could tell hunger was coming back for me, so I ate my pretty yogurt before I left:

A number of you commented yesterday about how delicious my yogurt breakfast combo looked when I ate this for a morning snack. I would just like to clarify that never in a million years would this itty bitty container with 1/2 cup fruit and 1/2 cup yogurt suffice for breakfast! It’s all about the oats 😀 That’s why they get their own post. I just use the yogurt as a tasty vehicle to keep the munchies at bay inter-meal!

And an on-the-way-to-the-visit breath freshener 😉

When I got back to the office at 3:30, I had another super exciting treat waiting! Belkis’ cousin had stopped by with some freshly made habichuelas con dulce, YUM. I inhaled about a cup. Look at those big chunks of sweet batata!

Perhaps I should have been born in the DR. Mom and dad, what were you thinking with the whole Massachusetts thing?

I had one more candy before calling it a day:

I’m going to go out on a very sturdy limb and say that habichuelas con dulce is my new favorite dessert drink (my old and other favorite dessert drink is the balls of course). What is your favorite dessert drink?

Now I’m home, and I just remembered I have an assignment for class due Thursday that needs to get done stat!! Ahhhh, I’m off to go bury my head in the books … or the overpriced coursepack, as the case may be. I hate remembering things like this last minute! I’ll be back eventually with dinner because I’m 150% sure I’m about to eat in 3 …2 … 1 …

Longer than necessary

March 23, 2009February 6, 201517 Comments

Ahhh the trains today were out of control! Delays all morning, delays all night. Reason #56498 to leave NYC. Alas, I’ve got many months of grad school to go.

My morning fruit ‘n’ yog was so pretty that I had to take a picture of it from the side:

My 1/2 cup of fruit salad was the same combo I’ve been eating all weekend — pineapple, mango, banana, plum, strawberries, grapes — and I topped it with plain yogurt + lemon curd + cinnamon and a sprinkle of golean crunch.

Mmmmm, yogurt perfection.

Plus a pre-visit sugar fix:

While on my visit this morning, the mom basically deposited a hefty square of tres leches cake onto my lap. How could I refuse? Obviously, I couldn’t.

I love tres leches cake — it’s probably the most moist cake you can imagine, given that it’s soaked in condensed milk and all. Mmmm, again. Unfortunately, I don’t take my camera with me to visits, so I didn’t get to capture the beauty on film/memory card/whatever it is. However, Beryl was just about to tuck into a banana-rum mini-bundt cake when I got back to the office, and she generously offered to let me take a picture before she demolished it. So, in lieu of the tres leches cake I did eat, here’s the banana-rum cake I did not eat:

Lunch during the parents’ group today was a low-key affair since only a couple moms came in. I had a cup of raisin bran with 1/2 cup 1% milk and a few banana pieces:

And then, I ate the rest of the banana smothered with about 2 tbsp peanut butter (aka perfection) and an orange:

I probably ate another orange’s worth of wedges after that, too. Girl loves her fruit 🙂

A boredom lollipop:

Later in the afternoon, I broke into the Quackers samples that Melissa brought to yesterday’s blogger brunch:

Ooooh, they were so good! I made a little dip for them out of goat cheese, plain yogurt, dried basil, and freshly ground black pepper. Perfection again (there was lots of it going around today, apparently).

A breath-freshening mint:

I inhaled pretty much all my dinner right at the start of class tonight. The spread included a cup of roasted veggies:

With manchego cheese samples from the gourmet market:

Two stuffed collard greens leaves:

I made these with the same method I used for my Stuffed Kale Leaves, and I stuffed them with some of the mixed-grain salad I made last weekend.

Hiding under the stuffed collard greens is some scrumptious roast chicken left from Mildred’s lunch today:

The chicken couldn’t have come at a better time because I was feeling a little bit low on protein!

Dessert was a few banana and orange pieces left from the parents’ group this afternoon.

And look what was waiting for me when I got home!

My prize package from Abbie’s Foods That Fit giveaway!! I’m so excited for all of these treats: cocoa java almonds, 2 oatmeal squares, PB2, single-serve nutella, single serve Barney Butter (which I’ve never tried!), and sugar cookie sleigh ride (just as I’m running out of my last box of it … SO perfect) 😀

I was stilla bit hungry, so I actually broke into the almonds as part of this little snack set:

The ramekin on the left has two more stuffed collard greens, and the ramekin on the right has 1/2 cup fruit salad with a mix of above-mentioned almonds, trail mix, and vanilla-almond granola.

But I wasn’t quite done! Last treat of the night:

A chocolate macaroon from One Lucky Duck, another of the samples Melissa brought to lunch yesterday. Ahhh, this was so dense and chocolate-y. I want 10 more of them now.

But what I really really want more than anything else is go to bed. So that’s what I’m off to do!

And make sure you go check out julie golean because she is giving away HER favorite things, and her favorite things look pretty tasty 😀

Munchy brunchy bunch

March 22, 2009February 6, 201521 Comments

I’m back from the blogger brunch — what a fun group of girls (and boy)! We met at Counter, an East Village vegetarian restaurant. While the service left quite a bit to be desired — at least five orders got messed up, and poor Dori didn’t get her food until after pretty much everyone else had finished eating! — the company was wonderful and my meal at least tasted delicious. My people-photography skills are lacking, but here’s what I was able to get.

Left to right: Danielle, Ashley, Melissa, Gena (the Raw Foodist and soon-to-be-blogger), Mark, Heather, and Shane

Left to right: part of Amelia‘s eye, Vani, Olga, Amie, reader Ashley, me

Not pictured but also there: Dori, Missy, and Emily

I ordered the Moroccan Tagine: poached eggs in a rich tomato-pepper stew & grilled flatbread. The flatbreads came haphazardly tossed on a separate plate, so I arranged them around my stew dish for better visual effect:

This. was. SO. GOOD. If you ever go to Counter (which I’m not sure I’d recommend after experiencing their lousy service, even taking into account that there were 16 of us), you must order this dish.

The stew was spicy and flavorful and thick, and the flatbreads complemented it perfectly. (I also ate one of the flatbreads with a smear of strawberry butter because I could not pass that up when I saw it!)

I inhaled my food because it was yummmmmy and I was hungry (the accidental 10.5 miles was starting to catch up with me), but everyone else was still eating and I was jealous. I checked out the spread and noticed a meal down at the other end that I couldn’t quite identify:

It almost looked like a big hunk of steak, but I thought that was highly unlikely with us being at a vegetarian restaurant and all. I called down to Danielle to see what she had ordered. FRENCH TOAST!! She offered me a bite, and my spoon and I were down at her plate in under 5 seconds 😀

Of course, once I successfully filled my spoon with gooey French toast delight, I started talking to Heather (who also accidentally ran 10 miles this morning!! we’re so going to wipe the floor (is that even an expression?) with the Brooklyn Half Marathon) about Providence and waving my spoon all around. I ended up dropping my gooey French toast bite onto Missy! (Sorry, Missy!) Should have seen that one coming …

Danielle immediately offered up another bite of her French toast because she’s AMAZING (Danielle, I’m so bummed we didn’t get to chat — I call dibs on the seat beside you at the next blogger event!) and then she offered me the REST of her plate because she was FULL. How could I refuse??

It tasted like it looked: DELICIOUS. Warm, dense, gooey, maple-y, banana-y. From the menu: a delicious vegan twist on classic French toast with banana flambe. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

(I’m pretty sure I smeared strawberry butter all over this guy, too )

Thanks again, Danielle! That French toast definitely bumped me up into the “satiated” category!

Vani, Emily, Missy, and I headed down toward the F train when we left the restaurant at 3:30 (yes, we were all there gabbing for over 2 hours! Sooo glad I wrote my midterm yesterday. Olga still has one to write tonight, ack. You can do it, Olga!!). Emily needed gelato, so we stopped into Sugar where I drooled over the dessert case and then got scolded by management for taking this picture (and about 12 others):

I also tried a bite of the pannacotta gelato, which Emily ended up ordering. Mmmm, it was good. Next time!

When we left Sugar, I crossed the street too fast, as usual, and the smarter and safer girls were left behind on the other side:

Once back in the Slope, Emily and I peer-pressured Vani into trying the balls at Hanco’s. I think she’s going to be hooked! Emily boldly ordered the egg yolk soda:

I took a couple sips — it was kind of like a cross between egg nog and and egg cream. It was definitely yolky, but also sweet and a little fizzy. It was different, but I liked it.

I ordered an unsweetened milkless coconut tea:

(It was still milky and sort of sweet because I’m pretty sure the coconut tea powder they use has both milk and sugar already built into the blend.)

I got home and took stock of all the goodies that Melissa and Missy were able to procure for us. Weil bars, a Z-bar, treats from One Lucky Duck, and free passes for fitness classes in the city:

This little guy was so cute that I had to sample him right away:

And now I think I’m already getting hungry again for dinner! Hmmm, what to eat, what to eat …

What is your worst restaurant service story?

Guess what!!

March 21, 2009February 6, 201521 Comments

I’m DONE!! I finished the midterm tonight at 8:32 😀 So much faster than I expected, yayyyyyyyyy. And I’ve been on a roll with “relief” eating, but I’m stuffed now, so I think I’m through for the night!

As I predicted, lunch 2 came less than 10 minutes after my last post: my final fajita wrap sampler.

It was still delicious, but after eating it three days in a row, I’m glad it’s gone!

Sometime a little bit later, I had these Earl Grey Biscotti Bites (x2):

With chocolate tea (black tea, soymilk, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne):

For dinner, I turned Mildred’s Dominican beans and pork (brought home from work yesterday) into a soup by adding veggie broth, a handful of spinach, and two crushed tortilla chips:

Soooo tasty. And I love how my coworkers keep feeding me all weekend long 😛

Dessert #1 was a mini breakfast dessert cookie:

The cookie was a mix of 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, 1 tsp goat cheese, 1 tsp lemon curd, 2 tbsp Greek yogurt, 1 chopped strawberry, 1 chopped square of hazelnut chocolate, and 1 tbsp vanilla almond granola. After letting the cookie “set” in the freezer for 20 minutes, I topped it with the last of my chocolate mousse mixed with 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and unsweetened coconut.

I ate the cookie faster than the mousse, so dessert #2 was a piece of chocolate chip blondie from the freezer bag of desserts mashed into the remaining mousse:

And, ummm, dessert #3 was a slice of chocolate chip brownie with chocolate frosting, also from the dessert freezer bag:

Dessert #4 (I was in a celebratory mood!) was a spoonful of vanilla ice cream with an almondine cookie … you guessed it — from the freezer bag.

And I’m pretty sure I had a piece of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, too. But like I said, I am now officially stuffed, so that should be the end of that! I’m lounging on the couch with a mug of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and taking care of some other odds ‘n’ ends.

How many desserts did you eat tonght?

eward Also, a big, enormous thanks to Kailey for my second “eward” in one day! I LOVE reading Kailey’s blog SnackFace — she’s probably the busiest person on the face of the planet, but she manages to squeeze everything in with such a fun attitude 🙂

Tomorrow’s the big brunchy brunch, planned by organizational genius Melissa from Fitness NYC, and I’m so excited to meet all you NYC bloggies!

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Tag: snacks

Eat food. [Not] too much. Mostly plants.

Misplaced birth

Longer than necessary

Munchy brunchy bunch

Guess what!!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: