Tag: tea

Breakfast + breakfast

6 Comments

I finally got down to business this morning with homework. I still have lots more reading to do, but I finished a paper proposal that I need to turn in tomorrow, yay!  While I worked, I had soymilky chocolate caramel enchantment chai and 1/3 of the seedy bagel I rescued from work last week toasted with a tbsp peanut butter and 1/3 sliced banana:

img_3416

With cinnamon sprinkled on top of course:

img_3419

After I finished the proposal, I went out for some errands and stumbled into several cheese samples and this bite of cherry pie, mmmmm:

img_3425

I didn’t mean to do a big grocery shop and actually went into the store just for one thing, but I found all sorts of sales! Here’s the haul:

img_3428Two boxes golean crunch, unsweetened Silk (free with $8 purchase of the 2 goleans), 2 white grapefruits, pitted dates, morningstar asian veggie patties ($3.50 sale), grapes ($.99/lb!), asparagus ($1.99/lb!), 2 boxes frozen spinach ($.86 each!), yam, green beans, nonfat cottage cheese ($1.99), mints to refill Belkis’ candy jar, sugar-free mints for me (I’m hoping that the chemical sugar-freeness of them will slow me down on the candy consumption!).

Total: $26!!

Once home, I put together a quick lunch (or breakfast part 2) around 2:30. I had done some freezer maintenance earlier this morning and found tons of frozen fresh herbs that we’ve had in there for at least 16 months. So I made an herby scrambled egg with dill, basil, rosemary, and sage; the grape tomatoes I rescued from Hunter last week; and some freshly grated homemade cheddar and ground black pepper:

img_3442

I also made butternut squash fries with the remaining 1/4 squash from last night. I tossed the pieces of squash with olive oil, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, coarse sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper and roasted them for 15 minutes at 425:

img_3439

I enjoyed my meal with more tea and more “studying”:

img_3436

Back to work!

Question: Are your Sundays for productivity or for relaxation??

The end of an (oatmeal) era

13 Comments

I slept until 9 this morning!!! That’s a record — I usually only “sleep in” until 7:30 when the sun and the birds start coming out. Earplugs are saving my life, let me tell you.

Heather noticed that the little doll/decoration that I knocked over and had to glue back together on Thursday had red hair and wondered if people have been giving me red-haired things all my life since, you know, I’m a redhead. The answer, unfortunately, is no. This is why:

with siblings at high school graduation party in 2000 (I'm on the right)

with siblings at high school graduation party in 2000 (I'm on the right)

That’s right — in some sort of biological accident, I was born with BROWN hair.

On to the oats …

I was hungry the second I got out of bed, so I threw my last serving of gingerbread crockpot oats into the oven. You might be happy that these oats are gone since this is the sixth day in a row you’ve had to hear about them, but I am very sad to say goodbye :-(. I usually take a million pictures of my oats and then choose two to post, but today I can’t choose and I’m going to show you more. I won’t make a habit of this, I promise.

with 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 crumbled graham sticks, and more powdered ginger

with 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 crumbled graham sticks, and more powdered ginger

img_33272

img_33226

img_33251

img_33232

And tomato plant tea on the side:

img_33322

chocolate caramel enchantment chai with unsweetened silk

Around 11:30, I got hungry again, so I refilled the hot water in my tea and made a happy snack:

img_33333

A tbsp pb split between ants on a 1/3 banana log:

img_33374

And a juicy Medjool date:

img_33352

The existence of the Brooklyn half marathon may be up in the air, but I’m feeling psyched for my imminent 7-mile run in the sunny FORTY degrees we have going on outside. I think I’m going to be able to swap my running tights for capris today, yayyyyy!!

New woman

9 Comments

Last night’s bedtime snack:

img_3253

A dark chocolate Godiva heart filled with chocolate goo!

img_3258

YUM!

Onto today! Not only have I been taking pictures with my very own camera again (Erin, thanks again for sending the battery to me!), but I am also blogging from my very own computer! That’s right — my new adapter arrived today, so I could finally charge my latop again. My roommate Brigitte’s camera and computer have valiantly kept me afloat this past week (thank you, Brig!!), but it’s so nice to be back to my own gear. I feel like myself again!

I started this morning with my favorite 5am workout — 5 minutes jog to the gym, 15 minutes arms with free weights on an aerobics step, 30 minutes stairmaster, 10 minutes abs/stretching, 5 minutes jog home. Stats: 1 hour and 12 minutes, 422 calories, average heart rate 126, max heart rate 157.

Breakfast was more gingerbread spice crockpot oats:

img_3261

For this morning’s oats, I actually stirred in the egg yolk that was left from ravioli-making last night and then baked it at 375 for 40 minutes. Nothing goes to waste around here! With 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, two crumbled graham sticks, and more powdered ginger:

img_3262

I love love love gingerbread oatmeal. I would make it every week if I could. Come to think of it, why can’t I??

I ate lunch around noon, right before the parents’ group. Kale and date curry with brown basmati:

img_3270

Yogurt with apple, banana, raisins, cinnamon, ginger, and grumbled graham stick:

img_3273

Orange:

img_3286

I ate the equivalent of one more orange in the group :-O.

Jessica restocked Belkis’ candy jar, and it was suddenly full again today:

img_2223

I found (and ate!) some pretty crazy stuff. I had the standard three pillow mints of course:

img_3291

And a wild apple bubble-gum lollipop and a tootsie roll:

img_3296

Jujyfruits:

img_3293

Fangs:

img_3288

img_32891

And … wait for it … a chicken lollipop!!

img_3279

So weird, right? It actually tasted like canned peaches with a bit of heat to them. Here’s another angle:

img_3283

I might die tonight from the ingredients, but I think I’d be ok with that since at least I got to experience candy chicken on a stick first:

img_3276

After my final visit of the day around 4:30, I dug out my broccoli trees and hummus:

img_3294

And my apple:

img_3298

And with that, the week was over!!! Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh …

After work, I met Vani from Fit for Free briefly for a little impromptu tea exchange. She stopped by to pick up her participation gift from the BSI: Dates contest I hosted last week (Kath and I decided to split the tea portion of her winnings amongst the participants since she’s drowning in tea as it is!). Vani was so sweet (and beautiful!) in real life, and she brought me a little treat, too:

img_3299

Inside the package, I found an array of very useful tea types considering my frenzied pace lately. Calm bedtime tea, peppermint tea, pink lemonade emergen-c, organic Indian vanilla creme tea (wicked excited for this one!), and TJ’s pomegranate white tea:

img_3304

Thanks, Vani! I’m so excited to try these new flavors:-).

For dinner, I had the other half of my BSI Spinach entry: Citrus-Berry Spinach and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Balsamic Glaze:

img_33071

SO.

img_3308

GOOD.

img_3311

Thanks for choosing spinach as the ingredient, Brandi! Eating this was so fun :-).

Dessert was a chocolate fig vitatop with peanut butter and chopped apples:

img_3318

What a satisfying food day!

Tomorrow’s going to be a busy one, too … but fun busy (finally!). Among other things, Kate and I have a 7-mile run planned as part of our Brooklyn half marathon training, though HangryPants Heather has passed a rumor my way that the Brooklyn half is no longer happening??? I am off to go check into this now!

Sample day

9 Comments

Today, I ate everything I packed … plus more! I was so munchy all day long. Both of my visits today were completely in Spanish, so I think the extra mental-energy-burning made me hungry :-).

When I ate my mid-morning orange, I decided to try something crazy that I’ve seen Meghann do: top it with peanut butter:

img_3096

It was ok, but I still prefer pb on apples, bananas, and carrots!

Inginia brought in tastes of a healthy-ish sweet potato pie she made, so I had some as mid-morning snack #2:

img_3090

And mid-morning snack #3:

img_3094

After my lunch (kale + date curry and yogurt/fruit, exactly as planned), I also tasted a bite of Mildred’s homemade lasagna:

img_3098

YUM!

At 3:30, I dug into the carrot sticks with my peanut butter and raisins:

img_3099

I’ve never been a fan of celery, so this is my version of ants on a log. While I was eating it, I kept thinking of the story that my sister Emily told me about her trip to the Amazon and eating ants from the lemon trees there. I wonder if it is anything like eating raisins stuck to carrots with peanut butter?

At 4:10, I couldn’t hold out any longer and finally broke into the Quaker True Delights bar that I’ve been carrying around since Monday!

img_3101

The nuts in this bar were plentiful and evenly distributed, and there were loads of cranberries … but only cranberries! Where was the rest of the berry “mix” implied by the title?

img_3105

Honestly, this bar tasted kind of on the blah-side. Your regular run-of-the-mill granola bar. My favorite of the three has definitely been the dark chocolate raspberry almond bar … even though it only had one almond. I stick to my initial analysis that Quaker should drop the “almond” from the bar’s title because that would leave nothing to be disappointed about when the eater notices that it is almond-less!

Just before I left work, Inginia heated up her dinner, and I had to go investigate. As my last official bite of the work day (except for candy #6 from Belkis’ candy jar that flew into my mouth next), I had a taste of her tilapia with sofrito, garlic, and lemon juice:

img_3106

I think I need to do a coworker kitchen tour. They keep bringing in foods for me to try with the most delicious seasonings! And I love days like this that are full of such a variety of flavors. It was like sample day at Whole Foods :-).

When I got home, I put together a pretty odd dinner (accompanied by sugar cookie sleigh ride tea!):

img_3115

I sauteed the rest of the yellow squash (rescued from Hunter Monday night) with minced garlic, cilantro, canola oil, soy sauce, 2 tbsp of Vianni’s rice from yesterday, raisins (!!), and a fun twist: wasabi paste!

img_3111

I was in the mood for spicy/sweet/salty all in one dish, but I was apprehensive about how this mishmash of random things would taste:

img_3116

It was kind of ridiculously delicious.

For the side, I made an open-faced Banana Fudge Vitatop sandwich (one vitatop sliced down the middle) with a tbsp of peanut butter and sliced banana. I oven-ed the whole thing for seven minutes at 400 to make everything melty together:

img_3119

I want another one right now!!

But I’m trying to restrain myself. I may need to have a bite of frozen carrot cake in a minute though :-). We’ll see!

Do you prefer days full of random bites or days full of separate and complete meals?

The best laid plans …

8 Comments

(Don’t forget to go visit Brandi — She’s hosting this week’s BSI: Spinach!)

As usual, I have a food plan for today. And as usual, my generous coworkers may throw it into a tailspin :-D.

After the gym this morning (I did Tina’s 45-minute treadmill run for the 3rd time — love this workout! Stats: 1 hour, 6 minutes; 538 calories; 149 average heart rate and 183 max heart rate ), I came home to a gingerbread theme. A shower with this new soap that my stepmom Rae Ann gave me for Christmas:

picture-001

Followed by a cup of gingerbread spice crockpot oats topped with 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, more ginger, and two crumbled graham sticks:

picture-006

With Celestial Seasonings chocolate caramel enchantment chai + unsweetened Silk on the side:

picture-002

If you recall from yesterday, I crafted the main course of today’s lunch plan from the chicken + rice Vianni made (see previous post) and the other half of my kale + date curry:

img_3050

I left the above entree in the work fridge last night and gathered everything else I needed for today once I got home:

img_3065

orange (mid-morning snack), yogurt (lunch dessert), pb + raisins I've been carrying all week, carrot sticks (from Monday night's findings) for afternoon snack, end-of-day apple, and emergency granola bar

Today’s yogurt contains 1/2 cup plain yogurt, chopped apples and melon (both from Monday night‘s findings), raisins, almond extract, and nutmeg:

img_3062

I’ll report back later on how it all pans out!

Do you plan your daily food? How closely do you stick to your plan?