Tag: veggies

Layers upon layers upon layers

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Remember when I was panicked earlier in the week about not having enough food due to lack of grocery shopping? Yeah … I needn’t have worried.

The lunch I’ve been carrying around since Wednesday got pushed to the side again today for some more urgent delights :-). Vianni brought in her famous shrimp, veggies, and rice for me to sample. I had about 1/2 cup:

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She also brought me the actual seasoning packet that she uses to flavor many of her dishes (featured here and here and here). I’m so excited that I can now Viannify my food!!!

Next, Belkis gave me an entire chicken and salsa fajita left over from a meeting yesterday! It was very cutely cut into little pieces like sushi:

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I ate it cold because the microwave was otherwise occupied, but it was delicious and very filling!

All of this eating took place as part of a new “event” my agency is trying out to build community amongst employees: brown bag staff lunches every other Friday. You bring your own lunch (or the lunch with which your amazing coworkers have provided you) to the meeting, and a few people also bring desserts (like the angel food cake here) and snacks to share.

I did my part to make sure that no snacks went to waste. Multiply what you see here by about three (or more!). I had honey pretzel twists with spinach dip, cheez-its with spinach dip, cinnamon nut rugelach with nutella, and coconut cookies with more nutella (again, x3!):

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In my parents’ group with Myrna, I continued the streak by taking part in group snack: apples and peanut butter! I probably had the equivalent of one chopped apple and 1 tbsp peanut butter (unpictured):

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After all of this, I was able to control the sugar insanity for the duration of the afternoon. I only ate two mints today, a record! Around 4:00, instead of going for the candy jar, I went for my dates and prunes:
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img_5196After I left work, I headed downtown to meet Erin Gunn (yes, of German food fame!). I was early and decided to go find samples kill some time in Whole Foods. I sampled buttered Irish soda bread, a handful of wasabi peas, 2 sandwich cookies, cashews, and cucumbers in miso dressing. I also bought the pineapple (only $2.99!), cashews, and almonds to the right. The dates, avocados, and cocoa powder came from Morton Williams where I stopped on my way home post-Erin Gunn. These foods are more expensive than what I normally buy, but again, I only spent $5 on groceries last week, so I have a little wiggle room this week! Grocery total so far: $22.

Since I was the farthest thing from hungry ever, Erin and I split a pot of tea and a salad at teany (review to come shortly) and then headed over to Kenny’s Castaways for the main event: a show by her friend’s band, Wesley Jeremiah.

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Erin had beer; I had water (pretty standard unless there’s karaoke involved …):

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(Keep in mind that, throughout all of this, I was lugging around a pineapple, among other things. I felt kind of like Baby with her watermelon.)

img_5197I got home around 10:30, just in time to help my roommate Brigitte with the first of her birthday celebrations (her birthday is on Thursday). Brigitte’s friend Katie is staying with us and made a surprise birthday cake for tonight.

I “agreed” to have just a little teeny piece. Until I realized that this was not just a regular cake but rather a no-bake chocolate-wafer-and-whipped-cream cake … aka a giant log of oreo goodness. I added another little piece to my little piece. And another little piece to those pieces.

Here’s my tower:

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There were chocolate and peanut butter shavings on top …

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And layering perfection:

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Good thing Kate and I have 9 miles planned for tomorrow morning :-D.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday night!

Sprinkles, icing, and parental advice

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As of Wednesday night, I did not feel like the week was moving quickly AT ALL. But as of this morning, I feel like it has flown! How did that happen?

Quick rewind to last night. Dinner was simple but delicious. I had a morningstar asian veggie patty (the last one — so sad!), half of a baked sweet potato dolloped with plain yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon, and a market sample toastie with sample cheese:

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I was clearly in a frozen treat mood yesterday, so I got some homemade froyo going in the freezer while I was eating dinner. This mix included 1/3 cup healthy cream cheese icing, 1/2 cup pumpkin (for volumizing purposes), 1 tsp peanut butter, and a chopped piece of lindt hazelnut chocolate. Oh, and also a market sample almondine cookie. And light whipped cream. And more sprinkles (because my dad told me that brown foods don’t look pretty or appetizing on the blog).

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And then I had one more piece of hazelnut chocolate because I really wanted it:

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This morning at the gym, I did arms and steps and racked up the following stats: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 435 calories, 126 average heart rate, 170 max.

And breakfast was the same it’s been all week. Doesn’t taste old yet, though! (I don’t think my crockpot oats will ever taste old to me.) One cup of pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats with 1/2 cup healthy cream cheese icing, unsweetened coconut, crumbled grahams, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin seeds:

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And can’t forget the soymilky black tea on the side:

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I ate strategically to make the cream cheese icing outlast the oats because I had a plan for breakfast part 2! I mixed the rest of the icing with about 2/3 cup of canned pumpkin and the appropriate spices for a bit of pumpkin pie pudding 🙂

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On an unrelated sidenote, my mom left me a comment yesterday and said, among other things: “Wow, are you giving me such great cooking and eating ideas. I love it and you, too! Love and xoxoxoxox, om.” A second later, she left this comment: “I don’t mean the yoga om, obviously. It’s a typo. Mom.” I thought that was a very cute mom moment, and I had to share!

Funny how both of my parents showed up in this post. Have you received any useful/funny parental or family input this week?


Bien grande

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That title applies to my lunch …

And subsequently to my stomach.

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When Mildred and I left the site visit this morning, it was just about time for lunch. Her husband works in the neighborhood where we were, so he came and joined us for an impromptu Mexican feast. I was actually just going to eat the lunch I had packed while they ordered their meals, but Mildred insisted that I “let” her treat me … so I did. I’m nothing if not compliant ;-). I ate loads of those chips above — they were still hot! — and most of the guacamole and salsa.

I ordered the most beautiful chicken quesadilla:

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(By the way, this was a real Mexican restaurant with no sort of fancy whole wheat, fat-free/soy cheese, yogurt-instead-of-sour-cream options. Sometimes, you just need to roll with it!)

I ate the whooooooole thing. Riccardo got another dish of guac, and I used that to smother the quesadilla post-picture, too 😀

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Plus tostones (x3!):

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And some of Riccardo’s fish (x2!) and all of the onions and peppers that came with it (unpictured):

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On our way out, I grabbed this candy to eat because it was pretty:

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Phew, I was F-U-L-L. No need for dinner tonight. Thank you, Mildred, for supporting me through two whole meals!! The lunch I had packed is resting securely in the fridge at work to await Friday’s lunch (no work tomorrow because I have class).

Back at the office, however, I did still go a little sugar-wild with a strawberry lollipop:

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And a baby Heath bar bite:

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And approximately four unpictured mints. And the two dates and two prunes extracted from my packed lunch:

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I’m home now and snuggled in my pjs with a mug of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and an evening palate cleanser of 1/3 cup yogurt mixed with about 2 tbsp of my morning pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats:

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What size is your belly today, and why?

(Pssssssst, have you seen the new developments at Healthing It? Go check now because there may me something (i.e. something free!) in it for you …)



Patty-cake

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But not the kind of cakes I usually fall prey to at work, thank goodness!

Mid-morning snack was more “yogurt of the week,” aka fresh pumpkin yogurt with every fruit/spice under the sun and golean crunch:

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Really one of the most delicious combos in the world. Anything with yogurt and golean crunch (especially when it’s had the chance to get soggy) takes the cake, HA.

And then came the real cakes! Three (yes, three — need to get my apple in somehow!) Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties:

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Lunch was super short on fresh produce since I have none in the house (since I basically decided I didn’t need to grocery shop over the weekend and did not adequately think through the week!), but my coworkers helped me out as usual. In addition to my wrinkly roommate grape tomatoes, I also ate the tomato slice from Myrna’s sandiwich and some of Belkis’ steamed veggies:

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Dessert was a special treat from the tissue box! A dark chocolate caramel Ghirardelli Square from Rosalie:

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And then, throughout the afternoon, I stumbled upon dessert numbers 2 through 5 because Belkis refilled her candy jar and I took a candy with me for moral support each time I needed to leave my desk and/or brave the artic chill outside:

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(Don’t be fooled by the mini-pictures. Those are some sizable candies!)

Mid-afternoon snack was another desperate attempt for produce/protein. I had 3 Kavli crispy thin crackers (in pieces) with a combo of pumpkin, roasted red pepper hummus, and peanut butter that I whipped together from the ends of containers last night (there are about 2 tbsp in that little cup):

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And a later mid-afternoon snack (or another throughout-the-day snack, as it turned out) of toasted pumpkin seeds, two dates, and two prunes

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Which I followed with a little spoonful (maybe 1/2 tbsp) of office peanut butter (aka crunchy skippy):

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I don’t know what the deal was today — I was so munchy! My lunch didn’t do its job, and I don’t have all the produce on hand for snacking like I usually do. What was I thinking?? I don’t have time to go to the store, so I’ll have to scrounge around for something extra tonight.

My final snack of the work day was this 100 calorie candy pack that’s also been hiding in my tissue box:

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I was excited about this pack because Oreos (or any cream-filled sandwich cookie, really) are my favorite type of cookie. But while these candies were filled with that unique chocolate-cookie crunch, the most critical component of the cookie was missing: the cream!! Serious oversight on the part of the 100 calorie people. If that chocolate coating is supposed to stand in for the cream, it does a poor, poor job of it. An Oreo is not an Oreo without the cream.

When I got home, I started rummaging through all my emergency “shelf-stable” food to see what I could rustle up as a lunch supplement for the rest of the week. I’m excited about what I made … but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the debut ;-).

Dinner was the last of my asparagus, steamed, with a piece of baked sweet potato and a toasted morningstar farms Asian veggie pattie (and a sprinkle of my homemade parmesan of course):

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Mmmmm, love those patties!

Dessert was a return of my favorite combo: 2/3 cup golean crunch (the rest of the box) mixed with 1/2 cup of yogurt. I let it sit and “marinate” while I cooked the lunch food and dinner, so it was perfectly tender when I finally got around to it:

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Ahhhhhh, so good! I could eat Kashi GoLean Crunch for every meal and still be such a happy camper.

Is there a food that you can imagine eating at every meal without getting bored?

No rest for the snowy

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Just as I predicted this morning, today was business as usual (40 minute subway delay aside, grrrrr). By the time I got to work, I didn’t even have time for my usual snack before running out for my first visit at 10:45! I dove into lunch when I got back around 12:30.

The other half of yesterday’s quesadilla, deconstructed :-):

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And a cup of fresh pumpkin yogurt (also with apples, banana, dates, prunes, golean crunch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves — I clearly went a little ingredient-happy, but it was delicious!):

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The end of my baby carrots (still left from last week’s work meeting) and a tbsp peanut butter:

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Lunch dessert was one prune and one date (saved the others for dinner):

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And a big strawberry lollipop to power me through the freezing, windy 20-minute snow- and slush- walk to my afternoon visit:

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Sadly, the mom was not home. All that sloshy walking for nothing! Except the exercise, I suppose. Maybe it balanced out the lollipop?

I was legitimately hungry from all the “exertion,” so I had this bar around 3:30:

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Again, it was tasty … but too processed for me to want to go out and buy it for real.

At about this point, I realized I had not planned so well for the day. I think I was kind of expecting something to get cancelled along the way (don’t know why since nothing ever does around here), but no go! The only thing that got cancelled was the Monday parents’ group with Inginia, during which I usually partake in one of Inginia’s scrumptious group lunches! With no group and my evening class still on at Hunter, I was definitely short a meal.

I contemplated my food planning failure while chewing on this fruity tootsie:

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I came to the conclusion that there was no way around having to spend some money, which I figure is ok since I only spent $5 on groceries this week anyway (a gallon of milk for yogurt and a can of black beans for the BSI) — though I might need to tend to that now that I see how low on food I really am!

Anyway, here’s the dinner I managed to put together for class:

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I paid $4 for that baby cup of white bean, broccoli, and sun-dried tomato soup from Hale & Hearty:

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Plus my weekly manchego cheese samples from Butterfield Market:

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An apple from home (my last one — what will I do tomorrow??):

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My other prune and date and two Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookie pieces (also samples from the market!):

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And somehow, Emily couldn’t finish the oatmeal raisin cookie that she brought to class as her dinner, so she let me do the honors.

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Thanks, Emily!

And that’s that! I did a bit more nibbling tonight as I prepped tomorrow’s lunch (think big spoonfuls of pumpkin yogurt and golean crunch falling into my mouth by accident …) which I hope gets me through the day without necessitating any more extra expenditures!

Here are some things that are more noteworthy than my evening nibbles:

1. Spiceaholic at One Bite at a Time is hosting this week’s BSI. Make sure to visit her so you can find out the new secret ingredient! And congrats to Becca for winning last week’s contest with her Black Bean & Avocado Cornmeal Muffins!

2. Comment for a cause! All you have to do to contribute to this food drive is leave a comment for the very generous athlEAT here.

3. Finally, go win some more bars with Strawberry Shortstuff. She has tons to give away!!

Do you ever get tired of free stuff? I do NOT! 😀