Beam Green

It is much much too late so this will be a quick post (I am sorry it’s been so sporadic lately!).  This morning for breakfast I had a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar on the train.

This flavor was only ok.  It doesn’t even come close to pb cookie!

For lunch I packed a Jazz Apple and a lowfat strawberry yogurt.

The yogurt was Wallaby.

It was pretty tasty, and I liked the chunks of strawberry, but it was too thin for my liking.  I also ate a serving of Doctor Kracker Cherry Seminola Crisps.

Today was a ridiculous “school” day.  We were told point blank not to teach this week and babysitting is getting pretty boring.  I did manage to clean/close up my entire room today though, so that’s done.  I brought in Newman-O’s to bribe my kids into cleaning.

I enjoy these, but stuck to one cookie.  They taste like Oreos but have a deeper flavor, like the cookie is dark instead of milk chocolate.  I’ve also been carrying this tin of mints around this week and it’s been rocking my socks, they have the perfect amount of cool mintiness.

Plus, my nickname for A is Ice Bear so the tin alone makes me smile.

After a lazy hazy school day things got very busy after school.  I rushed home right at 3 for a dentist appointment.  My mouth is in good shape but I do need to make flossing more of a priority.  Next up was a trip to Dashing Diva; my eyebrows were so out of control I didn’t even want to attempt to deal with them!  I also got my nails done.

Bright purple to celebrate a fast-approaching summer!  My final event was Beam Green in Manhattan.  I stopped and got a pizza toastie for the train ride up.

This is basically just a pizza sandwich style – sourdough, marinara, mozzarella.

I am saving my thoughts on the event for tomorrow, but for now I’ll mention that I had a green juice and it was delicious.

A met me at the Subway when I got home (at 11!) and we made a quick stop and I picked up dinner.

I ate about half of this Vegan Chicken Lo Mein for a 300calorie serving.

And now I need to shower and collapse into bed.  Tomorrow will be better, I swear!

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Newman’s Own Organics Rocks My Socks

There are so many things to be excited about in this post I don’t even know where to begin!  My train breakfast was a favorite,

Peanut Butter Cookie is my favorite Lara flavor by far.

School was easy today – I taught 2 periods, had 2 periods of graduation rehearsal, and then had a half day.  We had a quick labeling assignment to do and then I had the afternoon to start cleaning my classroom.  I gave Mr. H 99% of my stuff so I’m glad all the chart paper I slaved over will not be going to waste.

For lunch I went the trail mix route.

I call this Peanut Better Trail Mix.  1/4C each peanuts, dried blueberries, and pb m&m’s for a filling 570 serving.

This was bigger calorie-wise and smaller volume-wise than what I usually pack but I ended up feeling in good full-ness and enjoyment.  I also had a baggie of green grapes.

 The school provided lunch, which I obviously skipped, but I did eat a slice of unphotographed cheese cake.

I left for home promptly at 3o’clock and got slammed with a migraine before I even made it in the front door.  I almost missed my fun activity but thank goodness medicine and a nap kicked in on time.  This didn’t hurt to perk me up either.

When I saw fellow Brooklyn bloggers getting Newman’s Own Organics boxes (complete with fancy mints I’d never seen before) a while back I was quite jealous.  Several people recommended that I ask for my own and I decided to plead wildlynicely request my own sample.  Sally more than generously agreed and I expected a small sampling.  Holy frick.

Re-dic-u-lous amount of food.  A and I were deeply struck by the generousity.  Expect to be seeing a ton of Newman’s Organic Own products in my posts for the next 10 years 🙂

I floated on a cloud of thankfulness and happy thoughts to my next activity – another fitness first, this time with Vani.  We did a 45 minute spin class at Crunch.  This was my 1stish try at spinning and I sucked but I also loved it.  My history?  My mommy loves to spin but I’ve always been a bit scared of it.  

The one time I did go to a class with her I was the youngest person in the room by at least 20years and the worst by at least 50 gasps per minute!  I did my best to keep up but about 5 minutes in my foot slid out of the strap and my knee slammed into the handle.  What’s worse than getting your butt kicked by the last generation?  Having to leave early, bloody! 

This time I still sucked, but I made it through the entire class, all limbs intact.  Sadly, we have no more gym membership as of July 1st but I am going to try to attend a few gym classes over the next two weeks.

After class Vani and I walked down to 7th Avenue for some fresh juice.  I got carrot-papaya-apple.

This was the perfect pick me up.  Plus it filled me up and basically became dinner.  I did have about 1/4 of A’s tuna salad sub when I got home.

And A spent the rest of our evening doing some serious discussing.  There is a LOT going on right now with plans for next year and I got some very interesting news today.  Hopefully by the end of the week I should be able to give you guys some updates.

Now it’s much too late and I’ve got to hurry to bed, night!

Have you ever tried spinning?  What’d you think?

Freaks!

Are you a freak?  This post is going to be freakishly big because I didn’t post yesterday.  A and I’ve been up to lots of stuff, trying to stretch out the long weekend as loooooong as possible.  We did lots of eating, which we slightly countered with lots of walking, but I feel like this is a good week to get back to healthy habits!

On Sunday we slept in (I stayed up past 3 with my Scrubs marathon!) and then A and I finally made it to this historic spot.

On the way there we split a ww bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

The cream cheese had real strawberries in it!

I at all of mine and a few bites of A’s half too.

A 45minute later we were in the land of dreams – Coney Island!  The had a fabulous day, seeing the sites, eating the food, boozing it up, and riding the rides!  We spent some time exploring the streetside first.

 

And then we wandered down to the ocean and the boardwalk.

Next it was time for Beer Island.

 

The bartender was super nice and let A and I sample all of the Coney Island brews.

 

A got the Blockhead Ale and I ended up with the Albino Python.

It was good, but I got about 1/3 through before I gave mine to A.

Then we split a fresh-squeeze lemonade.

And I had my share of this FOOT of strawberry daquari.

 

We had a great time on the boardwalk – I love old food signs.

Then it was time for the attractions! 

We played some games, rode the Wonder Wheel,

 

saw a freak show,

and rode the Cyclone.

 

We did the Cyclone last and good thing, I was all shook up!  I love rollercoasters but this wooden guy beat you up, my neck still hurts!

We left the park around 4 and I’d waited too long to eat so I had one of A’s chicken fingers.

On the subway home I ate a pecan roll I bougth at the famous candy store.

Once we got back to our ‘hood it seemed like time for more sweets so we split a small peanut butter cookie dough ice.

I had never heard of “ice” before I moved to NYC but basically they have less cream than ice-cream.  Plus check out the nutritional stats –

This was soooo good, I’d been craving frozen yogurt and this more than hit the spot.

After we freshened up at home we went out for a long walk.  Midway I stopped at a small Jamaican spot and bought a fresh soursop juice.

Yum!  Soursop is my favorite, this made me miss home so much.

We walked up to the Arch to see the fountain on for the first time this spring.

We got a late dinner from a local Chinesse place – I had Kung Pow Tofu.

Not good at all.  Help me!  Does anyone know of a good Chinesse place in Brooklyn?

Sunday morning we slept in again – gotta stretch out that weekend! – then finally got up and did a little school work.  We decided to honor our Burrito Bar obsession with an early lunch – how can you not love a spot with complimentary homemade salsa and chips?

A and I split a smoothie – Cher’s Forever Young, orange juice, orange sherbet, soymilk.

 

Yum, I’ve been craving smoothies since our blender died, we would usually be making so many right now.  I went simple for A but I will be going back to get one with actual berries.

For lunch I ordered the turkey mini burgers.

They were 6 burgers with different toppings (lowfat sour cream, guac, and cheese) that came with french fries.

Everything was good, but for some reason my appetite hadn’t kicked in yet – I ate 4 mini burgers and only a few fries.

Then A and I headed up to the city for another doctors appointment for my foot.  I limped out sadly so A took me to Wendy’s for a frosty (small, with cookie dough).

I realize I basically ate this yesterday, but it’s the weekend damnit!

When we came home I had to finally crack down and do some school work.  My plans are done for the week, all my materials have been copied, and I’ve done 85% of my posters.  While I worked I ate some SmartFood.

I treked to Staples for my copies and then A and I went to Starbucks to knock out our grading.  I had a snack while we worked – fresh fruit, cookies, ice h2o.

The fruit cup tasted as if it was on its last legs but I knew I needed the fruit so I ate it.

And I had a package of (130calories) toffee caramel shortbread cookies for a much needed (scoff!) dessert.

We were finally finished at 9:30 so I could devote my attention to more important things, like food blogging!  Dinner’s plan was sandwiches so I broke out some Quorn Chick’n Nuggets.

I cooked 5nuggets, let them cool, and sliced them up.  Then I tossed them in a sauce made from 1.5T SmartBalance Light and 6 healthy dashes of Tabasco Chipolte.  Then I placed them on a bun with mayo – which meant I got to use my new mayo from Blue Apron.

Finally, I topped the whole thing with some blue cheese crumbles.

And what better side for a Buffalo Chick’n Sandwich then fries (Five Guys) drenched in balsamic vinegar.

 

I more than made up for skipping my fries at lunch.  All together.

And my computer is slower than molasses so this post took long as heck and it’s time for bed!  Sleep tight kiddies!

Rock Star

The day is done and I am a Rock Star!  I am 100% + done with school for this week.

This morning I worked straight through breakfast but around 1 I prepared lunch for A and I.  We bought this Arnold Everything Rye bread on Thursday so we knew we wanted sandwiches.

Tuna salad!  We use a little bit of mayo and a LOT of pickle relish in our tuna salad.

I sprinkled hot paprika on my portion, I had about 1/2 a can (since A ate 1.5cans!)

{More his/hers} I added salt and pepper and cheddar cheese to the bowl after I took my portion out.

I ate my sandwich along with a sliced plum and some Dirty Salt and Vinegar chips.

All together.

I did morework and a little later I made this split-tastic bowl.

A sliced banana, a sugar free banana fudge pudding, 1 crunched double stuff oreo, and a few cinnamon brown sugar almonds.

.more work.

When I was 80% of the way done I went to the gym.  I did 35minutes on the treadmill – 1minutes walking/2minutes jogging for 3.4miles.  Then I did 5minutes of abs and stretching on the mat and 5minutes of arms on the machines.  In spite of being a total fat ass for the last 6months we discovered I can now do 40lbs on some of the arm machines – more rock starness!

After the gym I walked to Staples to do work and to Union Market to buy fruit and a surprise for A, I also bought this Naked Gold Machine Juice for the walk.

Then home, and then to Starbucks to do my final piece of work.

I ordered a tall nonfat iced latte so I wouldn’t feel bad sitting at a bench but A came down a bit later and drank 90% of it.  I made grade reports for all of my students that show every assignment so far this semester and the grades they earned on them.  I have high hopes that kids do make-up in the next 2weeks but it looks like I will be failing a lot students my FINAL QUARTER of teaching.

Once done I came home and made a late lame/awesome dinner.

This was Tofu -Deveganized!  I drained and pressed a block of extra-firm tofu then cut it in half.  Then I cut a hole in the side of the block, careful not to cut through to the other side.  In the hole I stuffed turkey pepperoni and reduced fat mozzarella cheese.  I covered the hole with a small slice of tofu, rolled the block in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in .5t evoo.

Awesome.

On the side sauteed A and I some frozen broccoli rabe with wasabi sesame seeds and then added in the leftover dipping egg for the last few minutes of cooking.

It was inedible – the frozen rabe was cheap and it was all bitter bitter stems.  This dish was more bitter than a fat wife whose ex-husband just married an 18year old.  My other failure was the Stonewall Kitchen Wasabi Mustard I tried to use as a dipping sauce, also terrible.  But the tofu?

Fabulous.  I would, however, recommend baking at 450* for 30minutes instead of frying, I was pressed for time.

I tried a few sips of A’s beer but ended up going with a diet Dr Pepper cherry.

I totally had to have dessert. Turkey Hill Mint Choco Chip ice-cream with 2 double stuffs crunched over the top.

Mint chip is a favorite of mine but this might be the best kind I’ve ever had, go Turkey Hill!

A and I have super fun plans to celebrate a work free day tomorrow, I can’t wait!  Sweet dreams all.  I will end with some bonus questions –

1. What are you excited for on Sunday?
2. What do you put in your tuna saldd?
3. What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?

Doubles and Debacles

I realize I’ve been away three days, but this post is a double because it will just cover the last two.  I’ve been super busy (and tired), but I’m sorry I’ve been a boring blogger.

Thursday morning I had the best train breakfast ever.

Boomi Bars (maple pecan) officially rock my socks!  This was crunchy is the most amazing way and the flavors, salty and sweet, were perfect.

For lunch I packed the 2nd serving of my Pimento Shmento Red Pepper Spread,

along with a serving of Doctor Kracker, a mini almond sample, and a small apple.

I also ate this SmartFood sample for dessert, tasty!

I had to stay late after school for a Smart Board training, and I didn’t get home until after 6.  Somehow I managed to make myself do schoolwork (I’ve been rocking it out this week) before A convinced me to get Thai food for dinner.  We just got a big $ refund from A’s grad school so it seemed like a good way to celebrate.

I went veggie-crazy for dinner.  I had steamed veggie dumplings,

and a carrot and cabbage spicy salad.

So good!  The dumplings were nice and chewy and the salad was like a super spicy (non-mayo-y) slaw.

After dinner we went to the grocery store (at 11:30pm!!!) to do our shopping for next week.  On the way home I rounded out my small dinner withmore veggies, this time the unhealthy kind!

The pizza place we are obsessed with makes the best fries.

For dessert I broke out a grocery store purchase (with a coupon from SWITP)

Jell-O Sugar Free Banana Fudge Supreme Pudding.  I had a cup with Oreos crunched in.

You can also visualize an extra 5 oreos, oops.

Friday morning had a bumpy start – my alarm on my cell phone didn’t work and I way overslept, I ended up throwing my cell phone and breaking it in half!  Yes, I do have a temper, but I was particularly angry because I’ve spent so much time this week doing work in advance for next week and I was so proud of myself for getting up early on a Friday.  I hated myself for the last 1.5years because I always oversleep and this week I’ve been actually getting up and then the alarm doesn’t work!?!

I was 15minutes late to work and I didn’t get to eat anything all day.  After school I came home to meet A to buy a new phone and then I finally got something to eat!  A was super excited about the Grand Canyon Dinner for some reason so we went there.

I ordered the New York Pannini – turkey, bacon, tomato, American cheese, and roasted onions with a side of Russian dressing.

I modified my order for turkey bacon and no butter on the bread.  It was pretty tasty.

A’s meal came with dessert so we split the blueberry pie.

 

I’ve never had canned pie filling before and I was pretty surprised at how sticky it was!

After dinner we walked home and I fell asleep, at 7o’clock!  I must have been exhausted because I was O-U-T out!  I woke up this morning and got started on work, which is why I am not talking about today until later.  I will however tell you a story…..

The Dumpling Debacle

Or as I am calling it, the Foie Gras Faux Pas.  As you guys know, I am semi-vegetarian.  I eat fowl and fish but haven’t eaten pork or red meat (mammal) since the summer before 8th grade.  As it is, I don’t eat a ton of fish and not all that much fowl, I eat a lot fake meats.  But I especially, do NOT eat duck, as they are my favorite creatures on Earth.  I ate duck at a fancy Chinese restaurant once when I was 13 and my aunt and uncle had taken me to NY for my birthday and I cried for days!

Now, you remember the fabulous chicken dumplings from the FoodBuzz event.  The beyond delicious ones I ate two of?  I found out towards the end of the event that they were in fact chicken FOIE GRAS dumplings!  I ate tortured duck?!?!  And loved it!  I would never seek out foie gras (it is so inhumane that even some full-blown meat eaters are againstit) but I have to say, I’m a little glad I tasted it accidentally.  I am such a foodie and there are a lot of big items I’ll never try because I stopped eating “meat” so young – oxtail, marrow, proscutio, etc.  Don’t think I’m a monster!

If you are semi/vegetarian/vegan – have you ever had any accidents?

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?

EatingJunk

Going back to school after a day of hooky went pretty smoothly.  I even managed to wake up on time this morning without too much pain 🙂  I’ve been reading rave blog reviews of Balance Bars Cookie Dough so I tried one out for my train breakfast this morning.

My thoughts?  Holy frick this is the best thing ever!  I know I’ve raved about the Balance Honey Yogurt Peanut flavor before but this kicked that one’s butt!  This is still not something I would eat super regularly (4grams saturated fat) but if I’m ever craving cookie dough I know where to go.

I don’t have a photo, but for honesty’s sake I have to mention that when I went to the vending machine to buy a diet coke on my prep I totally got suckered in by a bag of Core Crazy Skittles.  Thoughts?  I drink too much diet coke AND eat too much candy!

For lunch I packed a bit more healthily – a medium apple,

1serving of Doctor Krackers Cherry Seminola,

and a Stonyfield Farms Pom Berry fatfree yogurt.

It’s a good thing lunch was good, because my mixed class was ca-razy this afternoon.  We had researchers from Stanford sitting in the back and while they were in the room I counted 20+ n-words, more than 40+ curse words, and at least 8incidences of violence.  Mind you, 90% of this was one student!  There was no security on the floor, and security wouldn’t come, so disrupt he did.

The nice thing about deciding to take a year off is that now I can be totally zen through these situations.  That is not to say, however, that I don’t have soul-crushing guilt about the fact that kids who come to my class to learn are often impacted by the kids I can’t control!!!

I stayed a little bit after school to set up for tomorrow and call some parents (a student read a sex novel through 90minutes of poetry work and screamed at me when I asked her to put it away) and then I headed home.  A and I ran some quick errands in the gorgeous weather, but first I snacked on a serving of the Quakes Rice Snacks my aunt left at my house this weekend.

I like that a reasonable serving size was only 70calories, and the flavor was nice and cheesy, but I’ll take Popchips over these any day!

I also ate a small serving of baby carrots.

And it’s possible I felt the need to mash these Rochers into my Jelly Belly Butter Popcorn Pudding for a third snack.

I also did mass amounts of random noshing every time I entered the kitchen.  Amid all the eating I did manage to grade a test and get my materials together for tomorrow.

My food choices went even further downhill for dinner – grilled cheese sandwich with oven baked yam fries.

I used a medium yam for the oven fries and for my grilled cheese I did 2slices of ww bread, sharp cheddar, a little bit of fatfree mayo, and a big dollop of pickle relish.  I usually cook my grilleds in a dab of SmartBalance but apparently we are all out, so I used 1t evoo. (Actually, I prefer to make them in a toaster oven, but that appliance obviously isn’t going to reside in my studio-size kitchen.)

After dinner I took a walk with A to pick up the aformentioned missing SmartBalance.  It wasn’t the healthiest day.  In fact, the healthiest thing I’m going to do is head to bed now, good night!

 

What extras do you put on your grilled cheese sandwiches?

Have kids (or eat off the kids’ menu)?  Read this.

Has everyone seen the Flogg that Tina is giving away?  I need this!