Tag: yogurt

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

18 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??

Food, doldrums, and a tale

10 Comments

Dinner last night was quick and easy because I was rushing to finish up that assignment. I had two more stuffed collard greens leaves:

img_6599

And two Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Black Bean-Salmon Patties with a thick layer of cinnamon-cayenne peanut butter between them:

img_6598

I see those weird looks you’re giving me, but come on, you know you want to try it!

Halfway through I remembered about the radishes and lettuce in the fridge I should be using, so they got inserted into the middle. Less pretty but more nutritious:

img_6603

Dessert was about 1/3 cup of my tropical fruit salad (look at that juice!) with a dollop of part-skim ricotta mixed with lemon curd and a sprinkling of granola/trail mix/cocoa java almonds:

img_6605

And dessert dessert — the One Lucky Duck blonde macaroon sample from Sunday’s brunch:

img_6606

This was delicious and made me think about how I really need to get into the macaroon-making business.

This morning, I slept in until 6 and then did the 20-minute Morning Flow #1 yogadownload. On top of feeling achy, I’ve been feeling unmotivated about the gym and just stretched too thin in general all week. The yoga was a good way to combine extra sleep with more gentle exercise … but I also keep finding myself trying to make deals in my head, i.e. you didn’t do cardio this morning, so no cake today if some shows up. I need to stop that!

I’m going to try to find some time this weekend to revamp the exercise routine because I think the biggest problem is that I’m getting bored.

And, of course, spinach oats yet again for breakfast! (Click here for the process.)

img_6609

Topped with strawberries, homemade almond-cashew butter, granola/trail mix, and unsweetened coconut:

img_6614

And I’ll leave you this morning with a mini Tale of Expansion from my good friend Wife, who you met in a couple photos here. Wife is in the process of getting her PhD (!!!!!) in Athens, GA, but she recently spent spring break in Tucson with her boyfriend. Here is what she had to say about that:

Ted and I went for high tea at the Tohono Chul Tea Room in Tucson over spring break. Not nearly as official and elaborate as the three tier Harrod’s affair when we were in London, but as you can see the scones still make me go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy.

arizona-march-2009-355

What makes YOU go crrrrraaaaaazzzzy?

Misplaced birth

15 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.

img_6566

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!

img_6569

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.

img_6567

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:

img_6570

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.

img_6572

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

img_6581

And for dessert, another tongue-painter candy:

img_6584

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:

img_6585

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 😉

img_6591

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!

img_6595

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:

img_6592

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 …

I’m addicted …

8 Comments

… to spinach oats! How weird is that?

img_6559

And the gym actually WAS open this morning! I didn’t except any probs today, though, since they’re actually open 24 hours during the week, starting Monday at 5am. Someone’s alarm must have forgotten to go off yesterday. It happens. Anyhow, today I tried to listen to my old-lady achy joints and did 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by a thorough stretching session (plus the jog there and back). Stats: 1 hour and 1 minute, 338 calories, 122 average heart rate, 171 max.

I prepared today’s oats the same way I had them yesterday, except that I mixed the granola sprinkling with a bit of trail mix:

img_6562

And my standard soymilky tea in front of the pretty window photo:

img_6554

I’m off to do some serious work! Are you working or pretending to work right now?

By the way, there are like a million amazing giveaways (thanks to An Apple a Day for putting them all in one convenient post for me to steal!) going on right now:

1. Too much fun stuff to mention at Missy Maintains.

2. Almonds up the Wazoo at Melissa’s Journey.

3. Ahhhh, a brand-new Vita-Mix (!!!!!!!!!) at Jumbo Empanadas.

4. Barney Butter at The Hungry Yogini.

5. A variety-filled goodie bag at meloncauliflower.

6. And another Quaker spa prize pack at Run, Eat, Repeat.

Good luck!!

Longer than necessary

17 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:

img_6514

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.

img_6515

Mmmmm, yogurt perfection.

Plus a pre-visit sugar fix:

img_6516

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:

img_6524

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:

img_65211

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

img_6517

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

A boredom lollipop:

img_6522img_6523

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

img_6526

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:

img_6528

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

img_6534

With manchego cheese samples from the gourmet market:

img_6536

Two stuffed collard greens leaves:

img_6537

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.

img_6541

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

img_6538

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.

img_6529

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

img_6543

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:

img_6548

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:

img_6550

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 😀