Can’t Hold a Candle

Un-Frickin-Believable Day!  Every single minute of this day has rocked my socks (and some of my best friends will be here in mere minutes!)!

I had plans of getting up for a run this morning but I’ve had a really hard time falling asleep this week and I ended up sleeping way in (the lack of exercise was the only un-awsome thing today).  When I did finally get up it was time to do so I scurried out the door and ate another train breakfast.

Lara bars are just so good, Coconut Cream Pie is one of my favorite flavors.

I don’t know whether the universe decided to finally cut me a break or what but today was my best day all year.  Every single class was quiet for 2 straight periods and 95% of my students read the entire story, answered every question, and volunteered to share out.  If I had been grading today I would have legitimatly given almost every single student a 95-100%.  I was seriously so happy all day.  I have no idea what worked so well, my lesson was on folktales (we just finished a few weeks on fairy tales).  We took notes on key elements, I did a short read aloud, and then the kids read a (longish!) folk tale on their own and analyzed it.  I think part of what helped is that most people stop teaching in June so they were taken off gaurd by the fact that I am still full-force doing lessons.

For lunch I did another museli, this one was much more pleasing than the last.

Nonfat plain Fage, chopped nectarine, 1/4C oats.

I also added a dollop of Stonewall Kitchen Triple Berry Preserves.  I had a bunch of kids in my room at lunch and they were very curious about what I was eating – museli is beyond strange to them!

I stayed after school a little bit to work with students and then headed to the train with some coworker friends.  Somehow I ended up talking two of them into getting a drink with me even though we all had to hurry to other plans.  We stopped at a place in the Slope and I got the best strawberry mojito I’ve ever tasted.  I also ate some communal chips and salsa.  Sorry for no photos – my camera stays home some school days.

I didn’t have much time to relax by the time I got home but I did send some e-mails and eat a few of these Chocorooms.

Then A and I freshened up and headed into the city.  We’ve been planning this date for weeks and I was very excited.  I love going to the Upper East Side, even the subways are fancy!

Our final destination?

 

Candle Cafe.  An organic, vegan, spot that serves mostly local food.  I don’t know how I managed to drag my husband here but he ended up loving it!  A got the potato cauliflower soup as an appetizer.

I had a few bites and it was great.  At this point they dimmed the lights and my pictures go steadily downhill.  I was excited most about this:

I took a flash picture so you could catch the true oranginess.

Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie.  Holey frick; sweet potato, vanilla help milk, cinnamon, and maple syrup.  This was too delicious, I couldn’t stop raving about it.

For dinner I ordered the Indian Plate.

It was basically a sampler – potato cauliflower curry, black-eye pea marsala, yellow basmati rice, date raisin chutney, cabbage sald and parata bread.

It was fabulous!  This was my first major foray into Indian and I am hooked (Brooklyn blogger gals, I am so excited for next week!).  The bread was out of this world, my favorite thing was the curry.  I left all of the rice untouched but I basically licked the rest of the plate clean

A and I were pretty stuffed at this point but we were on a roll so we got dessert.  I ordered the cherry chocolate cheesecake.

I thought it was pretty good but A fell in loooove and made me switch after a few bites.  I ended up with his chocolate mousse.

Which I actually liked better, love how that works out!  All total I ate about 1/3 of each desserts.  We brought the rest home for my friends who are coming in tonight.

Stuffed to the gills, but in a healthy feeling way, we headed back home.  Now we are waiting for my girlfriends to get in, their flights were delayed so we decided a cab was a better idea than meeting them at the airport.  I’m not sure what my blogging will look like over this weekend, but I will try to at least do a big recap.  I am so excited!

Back to Basics

After all of the indulging over the week (and the last week/month/year!) I was more than ready to get back to the basics today.  I’m often torn – I know I’m probably leaving nyc in July and I want to experience as much as possible, but at the same time this is my life and I’m getting tired of feeling out of shape and out of sorts.  Two of my best friends are coming to visit in 10days and I know we’ll be doing lots of eating and drinking so this is a good time to get myself resettled.

A and I could not get out of bed this “Monday” morning – we stayed in bed past 7!  I woke up at 6 and then proceeded to have a terrible nightmare while I snoozed.  My dream was so upsetting I actually felt out of it my whole way to school.  My Boomi Bar did snap me out of it a little though

I tried the Macademia Paradise today, even though this is my least favorite flavor of the three I tried so far it is still good!

For lunch I prepped a museli last night,

Nonfat plain Oikos Greek yogurt, 1/4C oatmeal, 1small banana, and some Nuts Online dried blackberries.  My parents bought me these berries as a gift so I’ve been trying to enjoy them but I’ve decided that they are inedible; they were so sour I had to eat around the parts of the mix that they touched.  It was still delish though.

I also packed a blood orange but I was so busy helping kids that I never got a chance to eat it, it is on my desk for tomorrow.

I stayed after school for about an hour helping kids and when I got downstairs I got the fun news that final grades are now due on Thursday.  Yes, that is Thursday as in all of my final grades are due 2 days from now.  Yes, that is Thursday as in we will be having a month of school in which the students will not be graded.  Fun stuff.

I was super hungry when I got home so I made the mother of all “snacks,” this thing had courses!  1st course – the last scrapings of the Smuckers Natural Honey Peanut Butter jar, about 1.5T total.

2nd course – sliced pear with walnuts and blue cheese crumbles.

This was very tasty – the only improvement could have been a little drizzle of fresh honey but unfortunately I’ve been out of that for months.

3rd/dessert course – strawberry chocolates and my vitamens.  The candies kind of look like carrots, which makes me smile.  But the picture will not load, which makes me not smile.

I did some stuff for school applications (I am hitting all sorts of walls!) and then A and I headed to the gym.  I went to a 60minute Pilates Mat Class that kicked my patootie.  No matter how busy life is the last 5weeks of school I am making a commitment to fitness, I never want to be this out of shape again.

We took a long walk home to pick up Emily crack, a.k.a. diet soda, and then got started on dinner.  I based my meal around this More Than Tofu Spicy Thai Tofu.

I baked my tofu for 30minutes at 475*.  A chopped yam joined tofu in the sauna, along with some purple asparagus.  Meanwhile, we heated some frozen collard greens in a pan uptop.  I seasoned my greens with maple syrup and red pepper flakes, then topped them with yam and tofu.

My bowl had half the tofu package and half of the medium yam – so tasty! 

I ate the roasted purple asparagus as my side.

And a tall glass of skim milk.

All together.

It was a pretty great dinner if I do say so myself!

I can’t really start grades until tomorrow because kids still are handing things in and I know tomorrow night is going to suck so tonight I’m going to shower and watch Adult Swim!  I hope everyone else had a pleasant start back to the work week.

How do you balance fun foods with real life?

…and if they don’t dance then they’re no friends of mine

This is my usual late night post but at least I am getting home from an activity rather than schoolwork!  My weird hunger has not died down yet and I am getting a little frustrated – boo!

This morning for train breakfast I tried another Boomi Bar, this time in Almond Protein Plus.

Tasty tasty!  But still not as good as the maple pecan one I had the other day, best.bar.ever!

For lunch I made a RaNdOm museli.

1/4C oats, plain So Delicious coconut milk yogurt, 1sliced plum, and a small handful of unsweetened dried blueberries.

 

As much as I enjoy all things coconut, I think coconut milk yogurt is not my favorite.  I always prefer the texture of Greek and this has a slightly odd aftertaste. I would eat it again, but not all the time.

I packed 1 serving of Doctor Kracker Cherry Seminola Crisps with my lunch.

My day went pretty well, a couple periods got eaten up by a school-wide test and my classes (and me!) were calmer than usual.  I left fairly quickly after school so I could get home in time to head out to Williamsburg to meet a friend.

While at home I met A for my walk.  I was so hungry I was unable to make healthy choices so I bought an everything bagel with jalopeno cheddar cream cheese.  I ate half on the walk home.

And then totally stuffed the other half in my face as soon as I got home!  For living in NY, it’s a little sad how rarely I ate fresh (or even un-fresh) bagels.  The cream cheese had the best kick!

For dinner I left A to fend for himself and headed to Williamsburgto meet up with one of my best friends from high school who lives in NY as well.  We don’t see each other as often as we would like because we are both so busy but it is always great to catch up.  I have been craving cashew chicken so we went to a Thai spot (whose name I am blanking on).  My pictures are terrible because it was a hipster spot with dim lighting

 

so so Bloody Mary

cashew chicken with a side of brown rice.  I loved that the rice portion here was actually reasonable.

We spent a long time talking and then I visited her apartment so I didn’t get home until after 10.  I bought this guava aloe on the way to her apartment.

 

It is time for bed.  Sweet dreams all!

What is your favorite Thai order?  I love cashew chicken but I am all about the noodles.  I went through a Pad Thai faze, but now I am into broad rice noodles with seitan.

Random BAM shots -

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

First things first – if you had the same kind of crappy eating day as me and are actually feeling crappy about it please stop over to this fabulous post a la Caitlin.

For train breakfast this morning I had an Odwalla Chewy Nut Bar (am I the only one who giggled there?  anyone?)

I am a fan of this, I like any nut-heavy (more giggles) bar.

School was interesting.  For some reason the copy room didn’t make my copies (that I put in 8am Friday!) for first period and I had to totally change up my lesson.  Next my boy’s class was completely and typically out of control.  Atypically, I made the principal come in and confiscate everyone’s cell phones and ps2s – there are now a lot of angry 8th graders.

The collection/complaining lasted through my lunch so I ended up not eating this random assortment until the end of the day.

I tried a So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt in Pina Colada.

I love this quote.

For fruit I had an Odwalla (I’m not sure why I had so much Odwalla today) Orange Honey Passion Juice.

 

And dessert was a pb candy cane from my Blue Apron spree.

Yum!

I stayed late after school to redo my bulletin boards and meet with some students.  What is going to be sucky when I quit my job is that my hyper-critical administration actually likes me.  Apparently my old administrator was having a convo with the guidance counselor about how sad she was I was off the floor because I was available to the kids instead of bolting after school (I moved floors this year from 7th-8th grade) and then he came upstairs and saw me meeting with kids.  Actually, I wish they liked me less, then maybe they’d believe me that I have zero control and actually Help me!

By the time I finally got home it was after 6:30 – boo!  A was a sweetheart and met me at my train and I went to Barnes and Nobel and spent way too much $.

The third book was free!  On the walk home I ate these bbq Popchips.

 

Once home I had some school work to do and I decided it was absolutely necessary that I read my new issue of Health with Mariska Hargitay and Sarah Chalke!  I also snacked on A’s leftover pizza crusts.

I dipped them in Diet Dr Pepper Cherry – I always dip my pizza crusts in soda, I also dip pretzels.  What do you dip?

Later in the evening I ate this SWITP sample – a Belly Bar.

It was meh.

And much much later, too late, I decided to make dinner.  My favorite cooking method is oven roasted so that was the focus – sprayed foiled pan, chop food, baking spray and salt, 30minutes at 475* – perfection.

I did 1yam baked fries, cauliflower, and the leftover half block of tofu.

The tofu I sprinkled with this.

And I made DIP out of a lot of ketchup and a little maple syrup and Tabaso Chipotle.

And now it is fully time for bed.  Sleep tight!

Random BAM pics:

Long/Quick, Jumbo Shrimp

Hello there!  This could be a looooong post so I’m going to try to keep it brief as I recap the last 2days – I’ve been extra hungry so there’s been a lot of food! :)  I’m going to focus just on eats.

For yesterday’s [Tuesday] train breakfast I ate a almond sample and a Soy Joy Apple bar.

I actually got this free in the park after SWITP.  It was very very tasty but I was surprised to see so much dairy (butter, parmesan cheese?!) in a SOY bar.

For lunch I packed a small apple,

a Nacy’s Strawberry Yogurt,

and an Ooba.

All together.

I love mixing jam into yogurt so I liked the idea of Nancy’s yogurt.  It was good, but better in theory, it ended up being a little sweet.  I think that is because I’m usually mixing into Greek yogurt which has more of a tang.  Ooba rocked my socks!  Jenna posted about this a while back and I’ve been jealous for months – when I saw it in a store here I practically peed my pants!  It was every bit as good as imagined – sweet without beeing too sweet, perfectly fizzy.

I was starving and lunch didn’t even make a dent so I ended up getting a single serving of Cheez-Its and a Strawberry Rice Crispies Treat out of the vending machine.

After school I rushed to the train to head to Manhattan.  My exciting event was the FoodBuzz 1millionth post celebration at David Burke Townhouse.  I got there a little early so I made a few fun Manhattan stops.  I stopped in at Dylans and bought A a gift.

And I got a machta energy boost from Jamba Juice.

Then I headed over to the amazing, astonishing, fabulous, fantastic David Burke Townhouse.  I’m going to say in advance that my pictures (grainy and blury because of bad light) don’t even begin to do the food or decor justice.  The restraunt is modern American and the decorating is egg-cellent.

There were a lot of people at the event – food buzz staff and bloggers – and I had some really great conversations.  I got a chance to hang out with Missy, Vani, Sarah, and Diana which was fun and I met Melanie for the first time.  I also spotted an instructor from SWITP and had a long conversation with her!

There were several bars around the restaurant and they had Prosecco (one of my favorites) and fabulous signature lychee martinis.  I had one of each.

In the back room tables of food were set up that blew my mind:

 

There was crab and tuna sushi, oysters, crab legs, HUGE prawns, lobster, and more.  Waiters were also walking around with trays of hot food.  Lobster was everywhere and the egg theme was continued in a truely impressive way.  Everything was basically bite-sized.  Here is what I ate:

crab leg, tuna sushi

prawn, chicken dumpling (I actually had one more unpictured dumpling too, ask me about the dumpling tomorrow, I have a story)

lobster scramble

lox, cracker, creme fresh

lobster flan

crab sushi

lobster dumpling

 chicken and shrimp sate

best crab cake ever

crab leg, tuna sushi

After dinner waiters came around with trays of amazing desserts.  Diana and I were laughing that no matter how full we were we would eat if something new came by (and I did!)  Here are my dessert eats, also all bite-sized:

apple tart

strawberry cheesecake pop

 

butterscotch panna cotta

chocolate cheesecake pop

donut thing – bombolini

grapefruit bar (I wanted to love this – gold dust! – but I actually spit this out!)

Also, instead of mints at the door they had peanut brittle!

The even was 5-7 but I actually didn’t leave until close to 7:20 – I had a great time, thank you so much FoodBuzz!

It took me a long time to get home and an even longer time to wait for A to get home from the city and I ended up being hungry before bedtime!  I was super classy and and this turkey cheddar Lunchable.

I also had Picnic bar (with peanuts and raisins!), my treat from Dylans.

This morning I ate my EAS sample bar for train breakfast.

 

And for lunch I packed the rest of the blackberries,

and this strawberry yogurt.

This True yogurt was vegan and very tasty, I loved the chunks of real strawberry!

After school my insane hunger continued so I had several snacks.  I started by making lunch for tomorrow out of this stuff.

*Note1, I bought Weight Watchers Mexican because it was on sale, my suggestion for the recipe is sharp cheddar.  Note2, I ate about 1/3C of cheese while I was cooking.

Pimento Shmento Spread, serves 2 (x’s amounds as needed)

• 1/3 C small chopped roasted red pepper – about 1 pepper, I patted mine dry with papertowl
• 2/3C shredded reduced fat cheddar
• 2t plain nonfat yogurt

Stir gently to combine.

I ate one serving on a serving of Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crisps.

I microwaved it for 30seconds – ooooh, melty! – and ate with a small apple.

I also had a 1/2C serving of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry with unsweetened almond milk,

and a spoonful of pb (I told you I was hungry!)

Then I met A at the gym.  When I got there I really wasn’t feeling it, today left me in a really bad mood, but I am so glad that I stuck it out!  I did a 10minute run on the treadmilll.  Then 10minutes on the stairstepper at level 9; I didn’t love this, I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be staying “up” or let the pedals go to the bottom.  Plus I couldn’t balance without holding on and I know that decreases your actual work out.  Next I did 20minutes of arms on the weight machines, and finished up with 10minutes of abs and stretching on the mat.

When I got home I ate 1serving of jalopeno poppers,

this dark chocolate flower from Godiva (from the Always Infinity event),

and finally this frozen pad thai.

In and of its self it was ok, but this was the worst frozen pad thai I’ve ever had.

Also today, I wrote my plans for next week!  I’m ready for bed.  Sorry for the long/quick post, love ya!

SELF Workout in the Park

What a great spring day!  We had good weather, good work-outs, good eats.  I woke up around 7:30 and even though I wasn’t hungry yet I knew I wanted to eat before I left for the park.  I used this nonfat plain Greek Gods Greek Yogurt as my base.

Then I added 1/4C Kashi Blueberry and 1/2C fresh blackberries.

Mmmm.  The berries were a little sour so I added a small drizzle of maple syrup over the top.

Then I headed up to Central Park for SELF Workout in the Park.  The event started at 11 but registration opened at 9 so I aimed to get there a little before 10.  Standing in line was pretty brutal, there was no registration, you signed up for classes when the event opened.  I did, however, meet another girl who was there alone so we decided to spend the day together – we had a really great time and it was fun to meet a new friend.  I also worked out with Amelia and Melissa during the event!

They had the area split into three parts – the quiet zone, the rebounding zone, and the main stage.

You had to sign up for rebound and quiet classes (limit 1per person) but could wander to the main stage as you wished.  I ended up taking 4 20minute classes.

1. Rock Bottom – I have always heard friends who went to other colleges rave about this class so I was really looking forward to it.  I did not, however, realize it was not a mat class – at least I gave the people behind me a good laugh!  My legs were on fire, there is no way I could have done a full 60minutes of this!
2. Ballet Pilates – I loved this.  Pilates is my favorite workout and this was basically a regular class with more toe raises and squats mixed in.
3. Beach Body – this was another cardio class but I managed to make it all the way through!  Lots and lots of squats.  The instructor had us do the motions of tricep/bicep reps without weights and by the end I was dying!
4. Urban Rebounding – this class took place on mini trampolines!  The instructor had great energy which made it even more fun.  I appreciated that this was easy on my joints, however, the boobies and the bladder?  Not so much.  I felt like I was going to pee my pants halfway through, I should Not have chugged my water before this class.

All in all I had a really great time in all of the classes.  Even though I am super out of shape, I got in a great work out.  Seeing little snippets of things exposed me to some classes that I wouldn’t have thought I would be interested in.  I realized that I’m missing out on something not attending group cardio classes.

Throughout the day in between classes my new friend and I hit up the sample tables.  We hit them hard!  During the event I ate 1mini EAS sample,

and two of these truevia dipped strawberries.

In addition to hitting up the tables during the event, as we were walking around at closing people were giving us handfuls of products!  Check out my final haul -

 

 

I am pretty psyched about all of this!

At 3 when the event ended I walked 10blocks to meet A who had come up to the city to hang out.  Due to some train issues we took a long time to get home – we ended up having to walk from Atlantic Center!  By the time we got home I was pretty beat.  I was replenished in a hurry by this bad boy though.

I bought this young Thai coconut at Whole Foods and I’ve been excited about it all week.  I drank the water with a crazy straw,

and scraped out most of the flesh with a spoon.

Yum!

I spent the late afternoon organizing somethings around the house and hanging out with A.  It was getting later and later and before it was time to shower I realized I had to have a snack.  I adore jalapeno poppers but you can never find them without cheddar cheese so when I spotted this the other day I knew I had to buy it.

I ate 4 poppers as my snack.

By the time I got out of the shower A said we had to order dinner, he was too hungry to wait for me to cook.  I took the opportunity to try out Dao Palate, a new all-vegan spot in Park Slope.  I ordered the General Tso’s Soy Protein.

 

I know this wasn’t the healthiest of choices but I didn’t get much to eat today so it’s ok.  The meal came with miso soup,

and brown rice.

I ate all of the broccoli, 3/4 of the “meat,” and just a few bites of the soup and the rice.

Tomorrow is a busy day, next week is an actual full week of school!  I’m hoping to get up early, but we’ll see.  Sleep tight!

Do you enjoy group cardio classes?

Ice-Cream Man

After my last post I realized I wasn’t starving, but that I should probably eat before I was.  I had 1.5T of this fabulousness.

A little later I ate the champagne mango I found at Whole Foods the other day.

I was so impressed at A’s mad slicing skills – usually we get 1bite of flesh per mango!

This was delish, but tasted just like a regular mango to me.  Has anyone else tried this? Thoughts?

Then A and I skilled more than 20minutes wrestling (no, I’m not being cute trying not to be dirty, I actually mean wrestle – A and I have a long history of beating the crap out of each other).  He totally won, our longstanding date-breaking with the gym means that he’s fatter and I’m weaker!

After my “workout” I headed out to do some grocery shopping.  We needed almost nothing for next week but A was going to the movies and I was going alone so I made an event of it.  I stopped in all the “hippie” stores to peruse before I went to Key Foods for $17 in staples!

On the way home I spotted an ice-cream truck!

This was so Park Slope!  Van Leeuwen is all-natural and stocks grown-up flavors.

I got a small espresso and giandujia (chocolate hazelnut) – yum!

Just as I paid A swooped in from out of nowhere to steal a few bites!  Kicking my butt made him so late his movie was sold out so he walked home with me while he waited for the next show.  After I said goodbye to A and put away my groceries I got started on dinner.

First I sliced up these guys, put them on a sprayed, foiled baking sheet, sprinkled with a little salt, and put in the oven at 450* for 25minutes.

I ended up eating all of the green and yellow squash and 1/2 of the tempeh.  While I was baking I cracked open our new beer – Abita Strawberry Beer.

Tasty, tasty!  I didn’t necessarily get strawberry, but it tasted like summer and went down easy.  I’m someone who usually only drinks half a beer but this I finished and almost went back for a 2nd of!

When the roasting was done I put my veggies on a plate and got started on my open faced sandwich (inspired by this kerf’wich).  I toasted 1 slice of rye bread, spread it with pumpkin butter, laid down 1/2 a package of the sliced baked tempeh, topped with 1oz sharp cheddar, and baked for 5minutes.

Yum!  All together now.

Roasted squash is one of my favorite veggies and this sandwich was frickin amazing – I could never go raw!  If you are a fan of the salty/sweet combo you must try this!

I am all packed and excited for tomorrow (SELF Workout in the Park) so once I get a shower it is time to laze in bed with my book.  Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Have you tried tempeh yet?

A Story in Three Parts

First off, major love to whomever can tell me what book the title today comes from.  Because I have three major points today, and I’m too short on time to do a full recap, I’ve decided to divide this post into three parts.

Workin’ It Out

Today’s workout was abso-frickin-lutly fabulous!  I am so glad I tookthe time for myself to go to the gym.  I know this week will be gym light (I am going back to the doctor’s yet again tomorrow to deal with the stupid wart on my foot) but my goal for the rest of the year is to make it as much as possible.  I am such a happier (healthier!!) person when I am in shape.

Today I started with a 30minute Abs and Stretching Class at Crunch.  When class was over I hit up the treadmill for a 35minute interval session – I do 2minutes jogging/1minute walking.  For 35minutes I did 3.5miles and burned est. 300calories. I’m trying to build back into running while being cognisantof my bad joints, so you will be seeing a lot of intervals.  The 35minutes flew by with my fabulous gym mix:

1. “I Will Follow You into the Dark” – Death Cab for Cutie
2. “Rock Lobster” – The B52’s
3. “O… Saya” – AR Rahman and MIA (Slumdog soundtrack)
4. “Vitamen S” – Cham
5. “Loose Lips” – Kimya Dawson
6. “Crank That” – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em
7. “Get Loose” – The Salads
8. “Heartless” – Kanye West
9. “Stolen” – Dashboard Confessional
10. “Paper Planes” – MIA

Eats

Today started normal but ended with Insane hunger.  I’m not sure why my hunger has been so wonky this year (starving or nauseous and hardly ever just normal) but in honor of upcoming bikini season (19days until vacation!) I think I will just be ignoring any craziness for a bit.

Breakfast

For train breakfast I ate a new bar that Melissa brought to brunch yesterday.

It was good.  I liked the taste and the chia seeds gave it a great chew texture.  My only complaint is that it was pretty sticky and I like to read while I eat on the train.

Lunch

Lunch was a plethora of fruitiness.

Dannon Light & Fit Pineapple Coconut Yogurt.

I hate this brand of yogurt usually (I don’t tolerate fake sugar outside of my diet cokes) but the seasonal flavor looked intriguing.  It actually wasn’t bad, the chunks were downright delicious.

A minneola.

I brought and extra and gave it to kids working in my room at lunch, upon which I learned that about 1/2 of them did not know how to peel an orange!

And finally 1/4C unsweetened dried pineapple from TJ’s.

Snacks

{Unphotographed = 1fun sized chocolate from a student + a disgustingly large handful of nuts}

A caramelapple bar spread with a bit of pb.

Dinner

I did a dinner in three parts to0.  We did three salads, three courses.

Course 1 -

A small salad of lettuce and shredded red cabbage topped with 15spritzs of Balsalmic Breeze dressing and a few banana chips.

Course 2 -

A serving of pasta salad.

A made this from a kit from Target.  It was only ok, we have two more varieties of kits in our pantry and we are not sure what to expect.

Course 3 –

 

Juicy Chicken Salad, serves 4

Places the following ingredients in a bowl and stir together gently.  You can eat right away or make a day in advance to allow flavors to combine.

*4 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
*6oz plain nonfat Greek yogurt
*1/2C pickle relish
*3/4C halved green grapes
*1t paprika

Vegan Challenge Reflections

(Sorry this is a day late)  I hope you all enjoyed the 2week vegan challenge.  I know that I did!  While I have decided NOT to be vegan for life I enjoyed the two weeks and definitely learned a few things.  I outlined a few off my final ideas below.

What I’m Keeping

1. Variety!  During the challenge I really pushed myself to shake up my lunch rut and I’m glad I did.  Our dinners were fun too.  Even though there were a few flops (tofu scramble), some recipes have become new favorites (strawberry tofu club).
2. Fake meat.  I knew I was a tofu fan, but I had no idea how enjoyable some of the other forms of vegan protein could be.  Fakin’ bacon rocked my socks, and the soy chorizo dish I made was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

What I’m Losing

1. No ovo.  I like eggs, they are a healthy source of protein.  Plus they are in all of my favorite Thai dishes, life without authentic Pad Thai just isn’t worth it!
2. The dairy to soy conversions.  There are many soy products (tofu, soy pudding, edamame) that I greatly enjoy and plan on consuming for life.  However, withthe research still at a stall about the point at which soy becomes a cancer risk rather than help I don’t want to over-indulge.  I have a high risk of cancer anyway, my genes and I grew up in an intense sun area, which is part of why I am concerned with a healthy diet.  Since I enjoy regular dairy I do not want to consume an excess of soy simply to keep animal product off my cereal.
3. …..more specifically, soy yogurt.  Besides the fact that it lacks the tangy flavor and high protein of Greek yogurt, soy yogurts were impossible for me to find without added sugar.  Consuming extra sugar to get a taste I find second rate seems silly.

What I’m Changing

As you guys know I am mostly vegetarian.  I don’t consume a ton of fish/foul and I haven’t eaten mammals since the summer before 8th grade.  Part of the reason for this (in addition to tastes and health) is that I am unable to make peacewith the idea of eating a mammal.  Pigs are officially smarter than human babies.  While I don’t judge what anyone else eats, I am just not cool with that.  Besides a long long conversation about the treatment of animals breed for food.  I realize you could question why chickens/turkeys/fish are not worthy, honestly I’m not sure.  I feel ok about eating them though and it adds convenience to my life.

As far as animal products go, I do not have a moral issue with consuming them.  My issue lies in the treatment of the source of these foods – cows and chickens raised for eggs and milk.  On a related note, I do not usually consume organic products (my budget will not allow it), although I try to when I can.  A and I discussed this during our challenge, and I realized I see a pretty big difference between pesticides on the outside of a peach and antibiotics that are fed to a cow before she produces milk.  Therefore, A and I have decided to consume dairy/meat less often so that we will be able to afford organic in these products.  We are also going to make a more conserted effort to buy only from companies that provide humane conditions for their farm animals.  I realize that many of my points of view are rationalizations that work only for me.  I am not here to tell anyone what to do, I just wanted to share my own reflections from the 2week challenge.

What are your thoughts on consuming animals/animal products?

What are your thoughts on organic products?

Now It’s Saturday

Fabulous, work-freeday!  It’s kind of sad that I gave myself a “three day weekend” and I will still be slammed with work on Sunday, but so be it.  The plan for now is to wake up early so I can get some things done before the blogger meet up.

Today finally felt like Spring and A and I took advantage of it by taking a long stroll around our neighborhood.  We hit up the farmers’ market, a new lunch spot, and stopped in several local stores.  We even bought some wine

At the farmers’ market we bought some cider to share,

but before I could take a sip I spotted the Monster promotional truck so I drank half of that instead.

Our final destination was Pizza Plus, a local spot we heard of recently that offers vegan pizza (in addition to some regular pies that look fabulous!).  We ordered a small soy cheese with artichokes and black olives.

I ate two small slices.

While A and I agreed that regular cheese would be better than soy, this pizza was still pretty fabulous.  They had an awesome variety of toppings and even though we have mad love for the pizza spot on the corner, we will definitely try Pizza Plus again.

After pizza we hit up Hancos, a new bubble tea spot in our neighborhood.  I frickin love bubble tea so I was quite excited to read about this spot from Sarah.  Not only is it bubble tea, but they allow you to sub soy or skim in milk teas and to order drinks unsweetened, score!

This was a small original milk tea, with soymilk, unsweetened.

Poor A will never hear the end of me whining to go here!

We stopped into Barnes and Nobel on the way home (I currently have 5 unread health/fitness magazines, is that a problem?) and then I hurried to Crunch for a 45minutes Pilates class.  When I got home A and I watched “In Pursuit of Happyness.”  This movie was supercute, I think Will Smith is such a great actor and his son did a really great job.  I was also smitten with the big bowl of ‘corn A popped for me!

Later in the movie I ate dinner, a repeat of last night.

Sauce, vegan meat, veggie cheese, ww pasta, and roasted veggies.  I drank some unsweetened vanilla almond milk with cinnamon on the side.

And as I post I’m eating a bowl of PB Puffins with fat free soymilk.

It’s also possible I ate 3Newman’s O’s today without photographing them.  As depressing as it is that I basically finished the bag on my own this week I am glad to have them out of the house!

Sorry for such a quick post, but A set up his x-box with Sonic for me and I’m pretty psyched!  Can’t wait to see some of you tomorrow!

1. Sonic or Mario?
2. NYC bloggies – are you coming to brunch tomorrow?

P.S. Christine and Vani - I picked you for an interview, check your e-mail!

I Love You, Weekend

What a day, what a day!  I kept turning to A (he was home from school because he had a doctor’s appointment for her hurt back) and saying “I can’t believe it’s not Saturday yet!”  It was like a fake butter commercial, but with more enthusiasm!

After my post this morning I headed out to the gym.  I snacked on this blueberry Z-bar for fuel while I walked.

This was a bar fail.  I’m a huge Clif fan but I will not be trying the z-bar again.

I planned on running at the gym but when I discovered that my i-pod was dead I totally lost my mojo.  I ended up being motivated by a People in the magazine rack to do 20minutes, level 8, on the stepmill.  I followed it up witha 5minute abs and stretching session.  Every time I make it back to the gym I remember how much I adore it, I need to stop letting work rule my life.  With 20days until I’m back in a bikini I can’t think of a better time to get motivated.

After the gym A met me at the grocery store and we stocked up on dairy goods for next week.  I’ll be giving my reflections on Sunday, but I can say now that A is not a vegan at heart.  After my shower we decided to enjoy our weekday together by heading to ‘Snice (we are getting a little obsessed)!

I tried the Vegan Tempeh Reuben.

Holy frick, so good!  I adore rubens, I’ve never had a real one because I stopped eating meat (mammals) before 8th grade, but turkey reubens rock my socks.  I am already excited for the one I will get at a place back home that uses cole slaw instead of ‘kraut.  This guy had the fabulous addition of sprouts.

I ate 90% of the sandwich and 15% of the salad.  A and I also split a Malted Milkless Shake.

This really did taste like the inside of a Malted Milk Ball.  The sweet stuff didn’t end there though.

We headed to the movies from lunch, and on the way we stopped in at Union Market.  I spotted this Ugli fruit, I’ve never tried one before, but I had to buy it!

Look at the size of it compared to my hand!  I am super excited to peel this big mama open.

We saw “I Love You, Man” which was fabulous.  Paul Rudd is such a great actor.  My only complaint is that they really went for the awkward moment comedy.  I am really unable to handle embarrassing tv/movie situations.  I almost never get embarrassed in my own life but when characters are in awkward moments I just die – I actually covered my ears during the wedding toast moment! 

For snacks I bought a large diet coke (obvi!) and brought along a mini bag of Ike and Sam’s kettle corn.

I almost never eat pre-prepped popcorn – if you’re going to be obsessed go for the real stuff – but I wanted to try this brand and it did not disappoint.  I also bought a vegan brownie from ‘Snice.

Tasty, tasty.

We fiddle-faddledaround a bit when we got home and got a late start on dinner.  Thankfully, it was an easy prep (with leftovers for tomorrow too!).  We made ww pasta, topped with fire roasted tomato and garlic pasta sauce, and this new buy.

This Gimmie Lean fake meat ranks pretty high on my fake meats scale; better than the beef strips but not as good as the fakin’ bacon.

I topped my bowl with a slice of veggie cheese and some roasted yellow squash and zucchini.

It was very satisfying and I am look forward to eating it for dinner tomorrow.

A is watching “Princess Bride” on TV and it is definitely sucking me in so I’ve got to go.  I’ll see you in the AM for a fun breakfast.

What genre of movie do you enjoy?  I am all about the comedy, other than Zach Braff (frickin’ unbelievably genius, his musical pairings are beyond brilliant) Jude Apataw is my favorite director.