Tag: tea

Just call me Popeye

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Breakfast this morning was another new and exciting (to me!) creation:

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I got up at 5 to go to the gym, got all my layers on, jogged there in the 30 degree weather … and found six other people waiting outside the locked and gated entrance! My gym is supposed to open at 5am on Mondays, and it was definitely 5:20 by this point, grrrrr. I gave it a few minutes, but every moment counts at that time of day, so I eventually gave up and jogged my creaky crunchy knees back home. It probably worked out better anyway since it gave me time to do the beginning Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com — my knees needed the rest!

So back to breakfast, yet another work of art inspired by Heather and her spinach oats!

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If you recall, I brought home a giant packed bag of fresh spinach leaves last week when we had extra in the food pantry at work. Despite diligently incorprating the spinach into salads all weekend, I barely made a dent! So last night, I made 1/2 cup stovetop oats custard-style and also added about four cups of spinach, half of a giant grated carrot, and a chopped apple. When everything was wilted and cooked, I immersion-blended my heart out. With the heat off post-blending, I mixed in another 1/2 cup oats (for texture), 1/2 giant mashed banana, 1/2 giant chunked banana, vanilla, cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon curd, and 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut. The whole thing made just under 4 cups of oatmeal.

This morning, I heated 3/4 cup of the mix, set it on a bed of lemon yogurt (yogurt + more lemon curd + cinnamon), and topped it with strawberries, vanilla-almond granola, more coconut, and a big ol’ spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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And you know the soymilky black tea was not far behind:

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Thanks for yet another delicious breakfast idea, Heather!

I’ll be back much much later tonight because I’ve got class after work. Can I just say how much I love these endless Mondays??

Where do you go when you leave work at the end of the day?

Munchy brunchy bunch

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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

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

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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:

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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.

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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:

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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??

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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.

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(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):

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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:

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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:

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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:

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(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:

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

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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!!

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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.

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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):

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

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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:

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

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Dessert #1 was a mini breakfast dessert cookie:

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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.

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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:

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

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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.

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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?

ewardAlso, 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!

Changes

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Breakfast was wild and different today.

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But first I went to the gym for 30 minutes on the stepmill (total gym stats: 52 minutes, 358 cal, 136 ave hr, 171 max) and then came home to do the Yoga for Runners #1 20-minute download because I’ve been feeling so old and creaky lately.

And then came the wild and different breakfast with 1/2 cup lemon curd yogurt topped with chopped mango, strawberries, and cinnamon:

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And the best part: 1/3 toasted blueberry bagel with a spread composed of about 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 1 tsp goat cheese, and 1 tsp lemon curd. I topped it with more sliced strawberries and cinnamon:

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Mmmm, it was so good! Need to do more with this combo …

And, because I can’t start the day without oats in some form, the last balsamic-strawberry oatie with a tsp of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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This breakfast was definitely less whole-grainy that my typical bowl of oats, but I feel completely satisifed now. We’ll see how I am in a couple of hours!

As much as I’m annoyed by the snow right now, it is not the first time that spring has started with nasty winter weather. There’s nowhere to go but up! Is it springy where you are?

Don’t fear the curd

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My oats this morning were partly overnighted and partly cooked … and they spontaneously took shape as one of my favorite desserts of all time 😀

Last night, I mixed 1/4 cup steel-cut oats with 2 tbsp soymilk, 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp yogurt, 1 small chopped apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and cloves.

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This morning at the gym was arms + steps/elliptical: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 392 calories, average heart rate 119, max 179. When I got home, I transferred the bowl of oats from the fridge to the oven for 30 minutes covered at 375 while I got ready.

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Post-oven, the oats went on a bed of lemon custard (1/3 cup yogurt mixed with 1 tsp lemon curd). I topped them with 2 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses, 2 balsamic-strawberry oaties with homemade cashew-almond butter tips, and another dollop of my forbidden food:

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YUM! It was warm and fluffy and tasted like lemon meringue pie 😀

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Many of you commented that you’ve never heard of lemon curd but that it sounds gross. Leave it to the British to give something so heavenly a name like curd. However, if you like lemon pudding, lemon cake, lemon meringue pie, or any other lemon-themed dessert, really, I’m pretty sure you’d be a fan of lemon curd.

What are some foods that you love despite their off-putting names?

Giveaways of the Day:

1. YOUBars and YOUShakes at Run to the Finish.

2. Coupons for free yogurt (enter before 3pm EST) at Say Yes to Salad.