Tag: yogurt

Mad dash …

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… in more ways than one!

I ended up eating both of my “emergency snack” mini muffins today around 5pm (along with a Russell Stover orange cream-filled chocolate from the box that materialized in the conference room right next to my desk) because Gina, Kate, and I decided that we would, in fact, meet for our 3.5 mile run through Central Park with the NIKE Running Club. We try to go a couple times each week, mainly because NIKE provides heaps of fresh fruit, bagels, muffins, and pastries after each run. I always stuff as much fruit as I can into my mouth (and sneakily pack more into my empty lunch tupperwares) and intercept the staff as they’re throwing out the leftover bread products so I can hand them to homeless people on the subway.

But tonight, we got bad news: no more food!!!! Gina, Kate, and I looked at each other in horror because that meant we had to run 3.5 miles, not only with no promise of food waiting at the end, but also with an hour + commute on the other side before we could get home for dinner. On the subway ride, we split an orange (also courtesy of the conference room at my work), but needless to say, I was ravenous when I got home at 8:45. But before eating, I had to prep tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch and also deal with this windfall of 13 overripe bananas I scored from a work donation:

bananas BEFORE ... not appetizing, I know

bananas BEFORE ... not appetizing, I know

bananas AFTER, chopped for freezing ... still not appetizing!

bananas AFTER, chopped for freezing ... still not appetizing!

I filled two 32 oz. yogurt containers. I know they don’t look great now, but they are going to make amazing banana bread oatmeal someday … just wait!

I had to think fast for dinner, since it was nearing 10pm. Even though I don’t have to get up at 5 tomorrow since I got my workout in tonight, I still need to be sleeping by 10:30 in order to be functional tomorrow. I stuck a dark chocolate pomegranate VitaTop in the oven for 15 minutes to get the chocolate chips all gooey, and then I sauteed half an apple and half a banana (I found some slightly less mushy pieces from tonight’s haul) in a tsp of canola oil until golden brown:

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pre-work

step 1

step 1

step 2

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step 3

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Everyone knows that VitaTop + yogurt + fruit = brownie sundae!!

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And now it is time for the mad dash to my bed. Good night!

Plugging away

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It’s back to the grindstone today. Thank goodness I still have a couple more weeks until class starts!

As usual, my mid-morning snack was homemade yogurt that I prepared with fruit last night. Yogurt mix-ins at the ready: 1/2 banana (1/4 mashed, 1/4 chopped), chopped small apple, cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla extract:

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I mixed the above into a cup of yogurt and divided the mixture between two one-cup tupperware containers. The containers had a bit of space at the top still, so I added some grapes and cherries:

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snacks for Monday and Tuesday

Lunch was more turkey soup with an apple for dessert. For a mid-afternoon snack, I packed a snack baggie of green beans and baby carrots. Here it is stacked last night and ready to go to work (the mini-Luna is a back-up emergency snack, but I actually swapped it with two mini muffins post-photo):

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Breakfast:

As planned, I was back on my 5 am wake-up schedule for this morning’s workout: five-minute jog to the gym, 10 minutes of arms with free weights on an aerobics step, 30 minutes stairmaster, 10 minutes stretching/abs, and the five-minute jog home.

I had prepped this morning’s breakfast last night: a half cup of mom’s cooked grainmeal, topped with 1/4 chopped banana, the last five cherries, and 2/3 chopped apple. I put it in the fridge in an oven-safe bowl before I went to bed last night so that all I had to do was pop it in the oven for 30 minutes at 375 when I got back from the gym:

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Topped with a half cup of yogurt and a sprinkle of cinnamon this morning:

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Hope you’re having a good day!

A little too much …

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I wanted to save the rest of the turkey soup from MA to have for lunch this week, so dinner tonight was more fun with crudites! I mixed the cauliflower from home with two Tbsp of herb hummus (also from home), sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and grated homemade cheddar cheese (thanks to my cheesemaking kit):

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I roasted the cauliflower on BROIL until the smoke alarm went off, about seven minutes:

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On the side, I had about a half cup of homemade yogurt (procedure to come :-)) with blueberries and cherries:

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And another mini muffin. All together:

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Dessert was a pile of grapenut pudding:

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I actually was not hungry at all for dessert and probably should have had half as much as I did, but I’m planning to go to the gym at the crack of dawn tomorrow and I don’t want to be hungry while I’m there (and the pudding tasted too good to stop!).

Bedtime!

Tea tragedy

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While I was away, my hand-painted teapot mysteriously exploded. I spent the morning trying to glue it back together:

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So, instead of drinking tea this morning, I enjoyed my breakfast in a teacup:
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Plain yogurt with the rest of last night’s vitatop mixed in (I think I will call it cookies ‘n’ cream yogurt) and cherries from MA on the side. From above, along with a poinsettia leaf:

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There may be nothing more photogenic than a cherry:

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I kept it light because a big brunch with the NYU girls is just around the corner!

City farming

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Hauling (almost) the entire contents of a refrigerator along with two weeks worth of (now clean) laundry across NYC boroughs via the subway system is SO fun. Once isn’t enough, so I do it about four times a year. The best part of today’s journey was when I got stuck with my bags in the turnstile at Port Authority. I couldn’t move forward. I couldn’t move back. My bags were clearly too big for the small space. I had visions of spending the night trapped between the bars, hearing Brooklyn-bound A trains (or “D trains running on the E line in place of the A due to track construction”) whizzing by without me on board. The more I struggled, the more I seemed to stick. Passersby glanced at me with amusement as they uselessly shuffled along. I heart New York.

Finally, something in the refrigerator on my back gave way, and I stumbled through. Both of my trains arrived promptly, a fellow passenger helped me carry my bags up to street level in Brooklyn, and I arrived at my apartment just under an hour later. Phew.

After all of that urban excitement, I felt the need to get some dairy farming underway. It’s an overnight process, but here’s a hint for now:

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Details to come tomorrow …

Once I’d gotten my dairy project settled in its incubation stage, I unpacked my refrigerator bag from MA and threw a very quick dinner together. Turkey soup:

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Peach pie:

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And homemade chocolate pb froyo (a partially frozen mash of plain yogurt, vanilla, and chocolate peanut butter Vitatop:

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Good night!