Tag: tea

Sample satisfaction

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On my way home last night, I stopped into a couple of grocery stores for about $11 worth of important items — milk and yogurt for making yogurt, part-skim ricotta (because it was on sale), and broccoli (because I needed greens!). I also collected a few samples along the way to incorporate into dinner:

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The plate includes a big ol’ pile of plain steamed broccoli, the rest of Myrna’s McDonald’s breakfast sandwich that she gave me yesterday when she got too full, and two little quiche samples — one sweet ham and one spinach — from Union Market.

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I don’t think I’ve had a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich since I was 7. My dad and I used to go on weekend mornings because I was a crazy picky eater (what happened??!) but I loved those biscuits more than anything. I would get mine with only an egg on it because I didn’t like sausage or melted cheese. I’m still not crazy about sausage, but, even though it’s not something I ever crave, this sandwich was definitely tasty! The biscuit was as good as I remembered.

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Dessert developed as I was getting the yogurt ready to go into the oven for overnight incubation. I’d picked up my two favorite brands to use as starters — Stonyfield and Ronnybrook — in fun flavors so I could play with the leftovers.

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I reserved the plain yogurt parts for yogurt making but kept the flavored fun parts (cream top, coconut pieces, chocolate-on-the-bottom) for me:

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I swirled in a bit of part-skim ricotta to make coconut-chocolate cheesecake yogurt and then dipped in a little sample sliver of peanut butter brownie from Union Market:

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I surrounded my brownie cheesecake bowl with fruit salad and a sample piece of cherry lattice pie, also from the market:

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Samples are so exciting!

For dessert #2 later, I had my leftover almond sunset tea from morning with two jasmine biscotti bites for dipping:

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What’s the best free sample, food or non-food, you ever got?

Pieces

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I had more prune groatmeal for breakfast this morning, but I switched things up on the flax oat bran side by mixing in 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tbsp PB2:

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I sprinkled some of the dry PB2 on top and then sprinkled hot water over that to enhance the peanut-flavor prominence. I find that PB2 often gets lost when I mix it in. If you look closely, you can see a bit of marbling from this highly intricate procedure:

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If you haven’t caught on already, I surrounded the oats with a ring of fruit salad and topped it all with unsweetened coconut:

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I had my glass of water and some soymilky almond sunset/black tea on the side:

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There was also some gymming somewhere in there: 20 mins on the Stepmill, hip abductor/adductor, glutes, and chest on the cybex, 15 minutes elliptical, stretching/abs, jogs there and back. Stats: 1 hour and 18 minutes, 519 calories, 133 average heart rate, 176 max.

I had a meeting all morning at work, so I was starving when it ended at 11. Myrna came over to donate the rest of her breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s since she couldn’t finish it. I had a couple teeny bites of sausage and then put the rest away for later:

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As my official healthy snack, I brought out a cup of pumpkin pie flax pudding:

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Shortly thereafter, some Reese’s pieces appeared on the fateful conference room table:

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I think Myrna was the culprit? Either way, I had four small handfuls:

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I had back-to-back visits planned that would keep me out of the office from 12:30 to 3:30, so I ate lunch at noon even though I wasn’t quite hungry yet. Lunch was made of leftovers and scraps, as usual.

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In class on Monday night, Lisa gave me a big slice of multi-grain bread that she had left over from her Hale & Hearty soup. I sliced the bread in half “the long way” to make two thinner slices of equal surface area. I started with one slice and topped it with leftover smoked salmon salad from last night’s Eggland’s Best event:

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I finished it with time to spare, and it was even more delicious than anticipated, so I ate the other half right then as well:

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(Side note: For more useful egg facts, check out Missy’s recap of last night!)

Followed by a mint to address the salmon-breath:

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When I got back from my visit at 3:30, I found a note from Deborah waiting for me at my desk: “Sarah, I have food left from lunch on my desk. You can come take.” Music to my ears, especially since Deborah had been waxing poetic about her mom’s stewed turkey during the morning meeting! I went to Deborah’s desk and helped myself to a bite of turkey with some of the accompanying rice and beans:

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I also had another mint and this pineapple candy:

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And I broke out my fruit somewhere in the 4:00 hour. An orange and fruit salad (which now includes the fruit salad I saved from the EB event last night):

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I’m actually hungry for dinner tonight, so that should be coming along soon. And thanks for all the eggciting (I promise I’ll stop with the eggsaggerated “egg” usage soon — it’s so addictive) egg recipes. I can’t wait to get started 🙂

Pieces or cups? I prefer cups, but I obviously don’t discriminate against pieces!

Endless groats and clothing mishaps

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Breakfast this morning was more prune groatmeal (could that name get any more appetizing?!) with flax oat bran:

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I added a sprinkle of fruit today to pretty things up.

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Plus the usual sunflower seed butter and unsweeetened coconut:

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img_8415And soymilky almond sunet/black tea combo and water on the side.

I love this flax oat bran combination. It thickens up so much over night that it’s almost hard to eat; I have to go slow so my mouth doesn’t get tired! And anything that makes me slow down when eating delicious food is my friend 🙂

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My pre-breakfast gym trip involved 20 minutes of bicycle, some arms and back on the cybex, 15 minutes on the precor elliptical, stretching/abs, and the jogs there and back. Stats: 1 hour and 17 minutes, 459 calories, 126 average heart rate, 162 max.

Also, for the past two mornings in a row, I have had wardrobe malfunctions that have required me to get out a needle and thread and sew things together that are already on my body while I’m racing arond to get ready. I am not impressed by this, and I hereby demand that my clothes start behaving, especially during the early morning hours. What was your most recent apparel crisis?

OMG, I almost forgot. Today is FREE CONE DAY!!!!! Going to look up closest Ben & Jerry’s now …

Right on schedule

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Well, everything’s back to normal with a full internship day on the horizon followed by class tonight. I spend 13 hours straight away from home on Mondays, and at least 3 of those hours take place on the subway! Sigh. Maybe I’ll have a car someday.

Breakfast this morning was more creamy oat bran with prune groatmeal topping, mmmm.

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Since I’m out of tofu, I made the oat bran a little bit differently last night. As usual, I cooked 1/4 cup oat bran with 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk on the stovetop, but I also added in 2 tbsp ground flax and an extra 1/4 cup water and let it boil for a minute. Once again, it thickened up successfully in the fridge overnight and reheated perfectly in the oven this morning.

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I topped the groatmeal with a spoonful of homemade sunflower seed butter and a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut:

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With a soymilked almond sunset/black tea combo on the side and a tall glass of water:

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I also went to this gym this morning and managed to enjoy it tremendously! My body has clearly missed it the past several days. I jogged there and back — the jogging still hurts, but I tried some of the simultaneous knee/butt kicks that Amy recommended to me last week, and they actually minimized the pain a bit and made me focus on lifting my legs up instead of just throwing them out in front of me … although I probably looked less than sane while doing them. Here are stats from the crazy jog, 20 minutes on the Stepmill at Level 11, two sets each of hip adductor, abductor, and glute machines, and 15 minutes on the elliptical cross-country program: 1 hour and 15 minutes, 588 calories (still WAY higher than normal), 145 average heart rate, 183 max (also higher than normal).

Some extra things to note:

First, biscotti bites are everywhere! Kelsey, winner of the jasmine tea biscotti bites in Meghann‘s bake sale, has received them and reviewed them here!

Next, To Be the Whole Package is hosting this week’s BSI contest. Go check it out and start thinking about your recipe!

Next next, enter the HangryPants Stonyfield giveaway by midnight tonight!

Finally, I’ve been tagged by Mara at What’s for Dinner? to complete this “Survey of 8s,” so here goes …

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

  1. income (start date of this is questionable …)
  2. the end of this semester
  3. the weekend!
  4. lunch
  5. Erin Gunn‘s wedding in October!
  6. consistently warm weather
  7. a life of traveling the world saving babies
  8. my next chance to sleep

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

  1. traverse the east coast (or at least the stretch between NC and NY)
  2. eat pancakes
  3. rock in a rocking chair
  4. take 3 trains (thank you, track construction) to get home from the airport
  5. cook
  6. nap on a plane
  7. unpack
  8. blog

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

  1. live alone
  2. use a car for errands once in a while
  3. run without pain
  4. travel the world saving babies (any ideas?) and eating fun food
  5. move south right now
  6. relax
  7. lie on a beach
  8. live closer to my family

(Note: I just realized that several of these wishes conflict! Hmmm, I am going to have to figure this out.)

8 Shows I Watch:

Is it completely terrible that I stopped watching TV when I started grad school in June 2007? There’s just no time! Sometimes I have the Food Network on for background noise.

8 People I Tag:

Many of you have probably been tagged already, so I’m just going to open the survey up to everyone reading this post! Let me know one thing you did yesterday, one thing you are looking forward to, and one thing you wish you could do (or more, if you feel like it!) 😀


Buffeting around town

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Wife and I arrived at the dinner reception location, Charlotte’s University Place Hilton, with about 45 minutes to spare, so we took a stroll along the boardwalk behind the hotel.

There were drummers, giant chess pieces, and lakefront perches:

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Just before 7, we wound our way back to the Lakeview Ballroom, collected our table assignment, and planted ourselves firmly at Table 7:

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Well, not all that firmly, since the hors d’oeuvres were calling us!

Crudites and grilled veggies:

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Crackers:

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CHEESE!

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Fruit (with an unpictured chocolate fountain!):

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Here’s my plate with grilled zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant; carrots and tomatoes with spinach-artichoke dip; two crackers with green cheese triangles (it was herby and so delicious!), cheddar cheese sticks, and dill havarti cubes; and grapes and strawberries:

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Servers came around with a couple more goodies, so I also had a smoked salmon-wrapped broccolini:

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And an antipasti skewer with roasted red pepper, artichoke heart, fresh mozzarella, olive, and sundried tomato (and my sweet tea in the background, finally!):

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I also got a small appetizer dessert plate with fruit and chocolate:

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img_8263The champagne toast was next, but I don’t like champagne (I know, I know, how is that possible?), so I had sparkling white grape juice. The toast from Ilin’s dad is when the waterworks started again. I’m such a sap for father-daughter stories!

When the toasts were finished, it was time for the dinner buffet! I filled my plate with Mediterranean salad (spinach, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, huge chunks of feta), caprese salad, asparagus with goat cheese and pinenuts, a mountain of sauteed veggies, and a small piece of salmon on a bed of spinach (there was also rice pilaf, beef, and chicken breast, but I passed on those because my goal was to leave the reception still able to walk on my own two feet):

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Everything was delicious, obviously.

For drool purposes:

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Dessert was more chocolate fountain!

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Our tablemate, Ilin’s friend Ivana, had the genius idea to fill a teacup with chocolate and use a roll from the dinner buffet to dunk!! I wish she had thought of that sooner because I was just on the cusp of overexpansion at this point and did not want to push it. I took a picture to document the brilliance:img_8287

With that, Wife and I said our goodbyes and went on our way back to Kristin’s house, stuffed but not overstuffed. Everything about the ceremony and the reception was so beautiful and perfect and sincere, and we had a lovely time. Congratulations, Ilin and Theo!

What’s your favorite item for chocolate fountain dipping? Mine is banana!