“School”

It is a late, late night.  I was at school for more than 12hours today – eeek!  I will try to keep this brief, I am long long overdue for cuddling with A.

For train breakfast I went with pb cookie bar version 2.0 –

Luna Bars are good, but this flavor is better in Lara Bars.

“School” (lets add some “”””””””””s) was ridiculous today.  There was not 1 single teaching period.  1-3 were used for predictive testing.  4-5 were graduation practice.  6 was lunch.  7-8 were for handing out yearbooks/caps & gowns.  The super fun part was that 4-8 I was in the library with all the kids who will NOT be graduating – good times.

Lunch went the museli route again.

Nonfat Plain Fage, 1/4C oats, 1/4C unsweetened dried blueberries, 1t triple berry preserves.  I love using leftover salsa jars as my to-go containers.

I also packed an apple to munch.

After “school” there was an awards ceremony from 6-8 so I stayed there.  I walked 8 blocks (through the serious ghetto) with 2 kids to pick up the balloons for decorations.  Picture the whitest girl you know walking through the yard of a housing project carring 25 shiny balloons.  Oh yeah.

While I decorated I snacked on a serving of Doctor Kracker Cherry Seminola Crips with 4 figs.

And around 5 Mr. B and Ms. M and I knew we needed to have a quick escape so we headed to a nearby diner for dinner.  The options were typical diner food and therefore dinner was lame.

I ate about 3/4 each of the chicken fingers and the fries.

I had a good time at the awards ceremony, it was fun to see some of the kids all dressed up.  I presented a set of awards but mostly I sat in the audience clapping loudly.  I shared these Sour Patch Kids with a coworker.

I didn’t get home until after 9 and then A and I had a loooong conversation – I have very interesting news that I will hopefully be sharing by the end of the week.  While I typed this blog post I ate three (a serving) strawberry chocolates.

And it’s bedtime.  Sweet dreams!

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!

Tattoos?

Our alarm didn’t go off this morning again (didn’t I just buy a new phone because of this?!?!?!) and I knew there was no way I could get to work on time, so I didn’t!  I called in sick.  I have 6 days left in my bank and I know I won’t be coming back next year so I might was well use them.  I’d like to say I did something fun with my found time but what I did was much more necessary – catch up on sleep.  I called in at 7:30 and got back in bed until 3:30!

When I woke up, 1 full school day later, I breakfasted on what I had packed for lunch, museli.

TJ’s Nonfat Honey Greek Yogurt, 4figs, a few walnuts, and a chopped pear.

I mixed/stored it in a leftover salsa jar.

Very tasty.

I’m not sure what the plan for the rest of the day is I want to go to the gym and there are several movies we want to see.  I’ll let you know in the evening, Happy Friday all!

Marybe wanted me to share my piercings, so here it goes –

• when I was 7 or 8 (mom?) all of my friends had there ears pierced so my mom finally caved and let me get mine too, which was fun because my best friend’s mom was a jewler so she did it for me
• a few years later (13? I have no memory) I got a second hole on each ear
• and when I was 15 my grandmother took me to get one more, on my left ear.  My parents said I couldn’t get another one so my grandmother said I could only get one!
• my 6th piercing is my belly button – when I was 15 my parents said I could do it if I attended Saturday math tutoring; Thank God math tutoring was canceled 2weeks after I got the piercing done!
• finally, my parents let me get a tattoo for my 17th birthday – I have a small star outline just below my left hip.  I didn’t realize at the time how common star tattoos are (I lived on an island, I was shocked when I got to college and saw that every girl at UM had a star tattoo!) but I’ve never regretted it for a moment, I love my tattoo.

What tattos or piercings do you have?

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 –

Blogger Meet-ups and Morning Bowls (and free stuff)

Sorry I didn’t post last night, I ended up getting home late and I’m trying to really honor bedtime so I’m ready to go back to school.  Yesterday evening I went up to Manhattan to attend the Always Infinity Blogger Meet-Up.  It was sponsored by Always (to promote their new product line, Infinity) and Doctor Rebbecca Booth (to promote her new book, The Venus Week).

The event involved cocktails, hors d’ouevres , and complimentary spa treatments.  Plus we heard from Dr. Booth and members of the Always team, and even got a swag bag!

The food was pretty good, Plate 1,

Plate 2.

Plus I had a glass of champagne.  And a mini chair massage that knocked my socks off!  I got to see Dori and Missy again, which was fun, and my coworker had a great time.  She got a fabulous looking French manicure.

Dr. Booth’s talk basically came down to discussing the ways women can look and feel their best.  You can get more info here, so I’ll just list some of the take-away points.

• avoid “white” food
• eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
• eat plenty of nuts
• if you are going to eat chocolate, make it dark chocolate
• supplements are our friends
• exercise, exercise, exercise

The swag bag was loaded with products that tied in with Dr. Booth’s suggestions.

I am going to start taking the fish oil supplements with dinner (and you know I’ll eat that candy!), but there is now a giveway at the bottom of this post!

After the event A met up with me (he took the train into the city with me and walked around) and we walked around Columbus Circle for a bit.  Then we hurried home to make it to a 10:10 showing of “Observe and Report.”  I was pretty excited to crack into my Easter candy,

my mommy got me Soda Pop Jelly Bellys, holy yum!  I packed 1serving of beans along with a Strawberry Rice Krispies treat.

And A and I split a large diet coke at the movie.  The movie, by the way, was awful.  I am really a huge Seth Rogan fan, and the individual actors technically acted well, but the movie was choppy and not very funny.  Plus the flasher scenes gave A nightmares!  I usually reward a movie for gratuitous nudity but this was just not cool!

I didn’t actually eat very much yesterday, so this morning’s breakfast was healthy and scrumptious – Carmel Apple Oats!

This was 1/3C oats cooked with a small banana.  I topped the oats with a splash of skim milk, a crumbled caramel apple bar and a heaping spoonful of Stonewall Kitchen Caramel Apple Butter.

Yum, yum, yum!

I have another busy day, so I’m going to tell you about the contest and be on my way.

EatingChalk’s first contest!

As you guys know, I got some exciting swag from the Always Infinity event.  I had a great time and I appreciated the way the freebies tied into Dr. Booth’s advice, but the books are just not for me.  [My friends and I don’t ever plan on sitting and discussing our cycles and though the cookbook has some yummy looking recipes many involve fake sugar which I just won’t do – diet coke doesn’t count :)]

So the contest, which runs until 8pm Wednesday, is for two books – The Venus Week and The No Sugar Cookbook.  To enter

1. leave a comment on this post telling me why you use (or why you don’t use) fake sugars – Splenda, Equal, etc.
2. link back to this contest from your blog OR cc me in an e-mail in which you tell three friends about EatingChalk

Good luck!

Thursday Morning – Saturday Afternoon

Holy frick I love vacation!  It’s Saturday, so everyone must at least have the day off from work, this won’t seem too much like bragging!  As promised I am doing a mid-trip update from the islands.  There is a lot to say, and I am still pretty sick (boo!) so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part.  I will say this –

1. I am on vacation
2. I get really really hungry whenever I fly
3. please, please, please, remember that this is not a Self blog, do NOT eat like me!

Thursday, plane day

We had a 9:55 flight so we had a rather low-key morning, sleeping until 6 on a travel day is almost unheard of.  A and I shared this juice while in the security line.

And I packed a snack (last serving of Mary’s Gone Crackers, 1Babybell mini, 1 clementine) for the first flight.

The clementine was super sour, almost like a lemon, so we ended up throwing it away.

I also packed this sampler from Emergen-C in order to stay hyrdated and bolster my immune system for the airport.

I also snacked on these airline biscuit cookies.

A always asks for two when he flies and I always make fun of him, but they were pretty delicious!

During our 4+ hour layover in Atlanta we got lunch at Panda Express.

I had steamed veggies with eggplant tofu and mandarin chicken.

A few hours later we got suckered in by a Freshens stand.

 

That was a “small.”  I want to mock the fact that they call that size a small, but I have to be honest and say that I demolished it.  I got a swirl of sugarfree praline pecan and fatfree white chocolate mousse.  This was the pinacle of holy yum.  I always see this place when I fly but never stop, stop!  The praline pecan is not to be missed.

Going much much further downhill in food choices I ate this entire bag of trailmix on the final flight.

And promptly ate the cookie A’s mom handed me when I got off the plane.

And then I made a plate of goodies that A’s family set up for us at the house.

Tons of fresh fruit, two crackes with hummus, two slices of cheese and 1slice of turkey.  And then I fell into a food coma and got the best night of sleep ever 🙂

Friday, St. John

Friday morning we took the car ferry over to St. John (the island next to St. Thomas) with A’s parents.  I don’t want to brag, but realistically, the pictures don’t even begin to do it justice.

I snacked on a Lara bar during the car ride.

We spent most of the day driving around the island sightseeing, A’s dad did an 8mile (uphill!) race last month and he drove us through the course.  I was feeling pretty sick so I actually was a party pooper and curled up in the back seat to sleep.  I did wake up for some key moments though –

pictures,

 

donkey feeding,

and lunch at Skinny Legs.

I ordered a side salad with grilled Mahi.

After lunch, and some more driving, we stopped in at Trunk bay for anther nap, this time on the beach!  Here was my view –

After that we packed back into the car and headed back to St. Thomas.  A and I left his parents at that point and went back to my house.  After some solid hanging out time with my mommy and daddy (seriously I have such a fun family, I couldn’t be happier with how while A fits in with all of us and how much fun we have together) we got dressed for dinner at my all time favorite spot – Lotus Sushi!

A ordered separatly, but my parents and I shared several things.  You can assume I ate 1/3 of each plate shown.

Dim Sum Gow Gees – crispy wonton dumplings filled with boniato potato/ jalopeno/Asian veggies/tamarind chutney.

Asian Trio – wasabi guacamole/togarashi black bean hummus/Asian salsa/wonton chips. (came with a basket of chips)

Soho House roll – smoked salmon/spicy blue crab/Asian slaw/scallion cream cheese/entire roll tempura/spicy yum yum& amai yuzu glaze.

Green Apple Pad Thai – crumbled egg/toasted peanuts/green apple croutons/pad thai sauce with chicken.

Chai Foam Chocolate Mousee.

After we took my parents home A and I met up with some old guy friends for a drink.

I actually had two of these – coke and Cruzan dark rum.

From there we moved the party to a beach to reminese.  The boys finished off most of five 6packs but I stuck to aloe juice.

Just was well, I wanted to be a safe driver at 4:30am!!!

Saturday, relax

This morning, we needed to sleep in!  It says something about how draing my job is that I can go to bed after 5 in the morning on vacation and wake up 1000000X more rested than I do at home!  I got my morning off to a healthy start,

I topped my banana oats (1/3C oatmeal cooked with 1small banana) with a splash of  2% mix and a big spoon of chunkey pb.

And then we got down to the serious business of decorating Easter eggs!

From there my parents took us to lunch at Deli Deck, a place in Havensite.  All of things I used to order were gone so the menu pickings ended up being pretty slim.  I got a buffalo chicken sandwhich.

I never eat the bun, but here is what was left when I was done.

My mouth was on fire so I bought a Fuze Refresh before I came to the library to write this post!

And now I’m here.  It’s been a fabulous time so far, in spite of the incredibly bad food choices I’ve been enjoying along the way!  I’ve got more fun to have so I’m going to split, hope everyone is having a great weekend!

What are your plans for Easter?

1, 2, 3

I made it to break!  Today was actually the sickest I felt, but knowing that it was “Friday” I was able to push through.  My lack of post yesterday was due to the fact that I was in bed before 9.  Thank God too, I can’t even imagine how I would have felt today without a healthy dose of shut-eye.

Yesterday morning I packed this on the train, a small banana and a Balance Honey Yogurt Peanut Bar.

I don’t a lot of Balance bars because they have 3.5grams of saturated fat.  However, they are hands down the best tasting bars on earth.  This flavor knocks my socks off.

Lunch’s flavor kept my socks firmly on unfortunately.  I tried a new yogurt brand and was muy unimpressed.

I like that fact that it was dairy and soy free, but the flavor was just off.  My two clementines were juicy as usual though.

A ate a lot more food than we were expecting this week so we actually ran out of meals early!  We ended up going for sushi last night while we were out on a drugstore run.  We went to Sinju, a place close to our house.

Here is my plate.

From left to right: California handroll, spicy crunchy salmon roll, broccoli tempura roll.  Delish.

I did manage to sneak in some snacks before my early bedtime though.  Easter candy,

and some paper bag popcorn.

This morning I packed an Iced Oatmeal Cookie Luna bar for my train breakfast.

I also cracked open this stash bright and early.

In spite of slightly reduced taste (I have no smell because I’m so stuffy) my lunch was a mega success!  You guys know I love pina colada flavored things, and today I went for double trouble.

Pineapple Coconut Light and Fit yogurt, 1/4C oats, 1T unsweetened coconut, TJ unsweetened dried pineapple, and a small banana.  So frickin’ good!

Try this mix at home!  Of course I had two clementines with it.

After lunch I had to give a presentation at our teacher meeting so I didn’t get a much needed chance to rest my voice.  This chocolate flower a student brought me made up for it though!

I didn’t eat it, but I did have two of these guys.

I got home as quickly as possible today, I am on vacation for a week and a half, woot!  At home I snacked on the few bites of leftover couscous A ate earlier this week.

We are out of food so I know I won’t have to cook dinner tonight 🙂  I do have an agenda though, I need to put some laundry away before I pack.  I like to be organized, but I am the worst procrastinator packer ever!  In college I would start packing for trips home literally 5minutes before my SuperShuttle pick up time!  I’m planning on being a grown up today and getting it done tonight though.  I also am hoping to get a pedicure!  Other than splurges on food, we haven’t bought much fun stuff this year.  I know how much happier I will be on the beach if my feet are pretty.

I’ve got to scadaddle, I’ll be back with a quick post later.

What are you celebrating this year: a. Passover, b. Easter, c. both, d. neither?

Truly Delight-Bowl

Morning all!  I hopped out of bed this morning and made myself a huge bowl of oatmeal to counteract no dinner last night.

I can’t share the recipe because I submitted it to a contest, but when I don’t win I will because it was delish!

I have parent teacher conferences today, from 5:30 – 8pm.  That means I do a normal school day, then stay an extra 5hours!  I packed gym clothes in my bag but I’m not sure the motivation will be there tonight!

I’ve got to run, have a terrific Tuesday!

Blue at Drury Lane

Good Morning(ish)!  I hope everyone had a fabulous Hump Day; I know I missed blogging yesterday, but here are some of the highlights

• I did absolutly, positively NO schoolwork
• A and I went to Target, spent our gift certificates, and got some exciting foodie items
• I saw “Confessions of a Shopahalic,” which was only ok; I went to see the clothing and frankly I didn’t think they were very cute!
• between the two of us, A and I finished all of the cookies he baked!!

Today (and tomorrow) will have to be productive if we want a nice weekend before we go back to the grind.  I woke up this morning and got started on my monster to do list. 

I good item to add to your to do list today is heading over to Oh She Glows to try to win some fabulous fit gear!  I tried to make it a bit more tropical, but I don’t think two candles will be enough 8)

I made a little batch of muffins using this Jiff mix.

So had had to incorporate them into my breakfast – Drury Lane Oats!

I cooked 1/3C of oats with a baggie of blueberries I froze when they were on sale.  Then I topped that with a splash of skim milk and 1t maple syrup.

Finally I crumbled a fresh muffin over the top.

Yumberries!

While I work I’m sipping on H2O laced with Emergen-C.  I’ll probably have a couple of these today.

Most of today will be devoted to school work and errands but I am hoping to squeeze a trip to the gym and some lunch in their as well.  See you late alligators!

What is your favorite kind of muffin?