Lilveggiepatch » brownies

Well, this is embarrassing…

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:56:05 +0000

After all of your great advice about fitting exercise into a busy schedule and even sleeping in my gym clothes, I slept through the alarm and didn’t make it to the gym before work! (I did get there after 5, though, so all was not lost).

Yesterday I was in a rush to get out the door; luckily breakfast was a no-brainer. I took Ari’s rejected breakfast cookie…

… and turned it into a Breakfast Cookie Parfait! I just cut it up and layered it with nonfat plain yogurt and a little cinnamon. It was yummy and filling; I think I may eat it this way more often!

At work, I snacked on a Fuji apple (cut into slices to minimize loud crunching).

For lunch, I had leftover tofu, cheezy “pasta” and an orange.

I made the “pasta” by tossing a package of angel hair Shirataki noodles with Elise’s cheeze sauce and cherry tomatoes. I was a little skeptical about the “cheeze” at first, but I really liked the taste! And I love having Shirataki noodles for lunch… I tend to prefer to eat heavy pastas for dinner instead of early in the day, and this was nice and light.

Anticipating my post-work sweat sesh, I snacked on a Green Superfood Chocolate Whole Food Energy Bar around 3. The last time I ate this bar I wasn’t crazy about it, but I really like it now. The first bite is a little odd, but then it’s smooth, rich and fruity.

At the gym I did 13 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes on the stairs, arms + abs. Not bad for a total body workout in under an hour!

I met my parents for dinner at Regional, an Italian restaurant on the upper west side. We started with rustic bread and garlicky bean dip… (Still learning this camera… sorry again about the lighting!)

We shared a mixed green salad with beets and gorgonzola cheese three ways.

We also split a side of sautéed broccoli rabe.

For my entrée, I ordered spaghettini with frutti di mare. The pasta was cooked perfectly, but the seafood was tough and overcooked. The restaurant was pretty crowded and we’ve never had this problem before; I’ve worked in restaurants before and I understand that this happens sometimes. I still ate almost all of it.

After dinner we walked to Tasti D Lite for frozen yogurt. It was way too cold to eat on the walk home, but I ate my cup of peanut butter and coffee and cream with chocolate chips as soon as I warmed up.

I slept for a glorious 8 hours and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. My mom and I made steel-cut oatmeal and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.

My bowl had:

steel-cut oats cooked in skim milk + water
1 tsp chia seeds
1/3 banana
warmed frozen strawberries
walnuts
cinnamon
brown sugar

We also sampled my dad’s Turkish flagel (flat bagel) with sour cherry jam.

I went to the soup kitchen, then headed to Brooklyn to have lunch with my little red-headed friend at Kiku, the Japanese restaurant we discovered (and loved!) but couldn’t recall the name of. We figured out that when it comes to Japanese food, you can get a FABULOUS lunch for under $10! The same meal, while still a great deal, is at least $5 more expensive at dinner-time.

My meal came with salad + miso soup…

My Lunch Box came with California rolls, salmon teriyaki + vegetables, edamame, shumai and rice. I took the rice home but ate everything else.

Even though we were pretty full, our playdates are never finished without a treat. We popped in to Marquet Patisserie, an adorable bakery that transported me right back to the streets of Paris (where I studied abroad).

I had a chocolate brownie with crushed peanuts.

The late lunch + snack held me over so well that I wasn’t ready to eat dinner until after 9 o’clock. And then I had what I can assure you, nine days yet, was The Most Random Meal of 2010:

Egg whites scrambled with a Dr. Praeger’s Tex-Mex Burger with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese…

… and shredded broccoli stalks with miso-tahini dressing (tahini, apple cider vinegar, ginger, miso paste, agave nectar, salt). It’s better than it looks!

Inspired by all of Erin‘s pudding creations, I whipped up one of my new favorite desserts using two of my (formerly) not-so favorite products.

Tofu “pudding”

1/3 block silken tofu
1 T Chocolate PB2
1/3 packet stevia

Mix to combine. Enjoy!

This was the first time I’ve actually enjoyed stevia! I don’t really like powdered sweeteners (I don’t normally take sugar in my coffee or tea, and often find sugar substitutes to be too sweet). However, blended with the tofu and PB2. As long as I don’t think of PB2 as a peanut butter substitute, I can enjoy it mixed in to other things. Peanut butter is what it is, and shouldn’t be messed around with. Just sayin’!

I also ate about 15 of these throughout the day. It will be a sad day in the LVP household when go out of season.

I’m watching Jackie Brown in bed and getting ready to go to sleep. I think I’m going to pull out my mat and do a quick YogaDownload Lunar Flow.. tomorrow will be a busy day, and it always helps me relax!

Hope you had a great night

Early to bed, early to rise…

lilveggiepatch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:11:39 +0000

Is it wrong that it’s only 9:15 and I’m considering going to sleep as soon as I Love You, Beth Cooper (one of the silliest movies I’ve seen) is over? When sleep calls, I’m not one to ignore it!

Yesterday I got up early, packed up, had a quick breakfast and headed out. I toasted an Ezekiel English muffin and topped one half with a light Babybell cheese and egg whites and the other with peanut butter and raspberry jam. Fun fact: I lost my first tooth in a Babybel cheese!

I met my mom at our voting station to do my duty, then took care of some paperwork so my visa will be in order for Russia. I still can’t believe I’ll be there in less than a month! I also can’t believe the high will be 9˚ Fahrenheit. Brr!

Mama brought me a Jonagold to help me sign and date papers for the embassy. It was hard work!

When that was all taken care of, we set off in search of a great coat for an even better price. We found a good one at The North Face, but are going to keep checking around some more. Who makes your warmest coat?

We broke for lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. Because it’s a chain restaurant, they’re required to post the calories in all of their dishes. Their meals are really healthy, but it’s nice to be reminded of what’s inside your food!

My mom and I split the seasonal appetizer special: red quinoa with roasted beets and butternut squash.

I only had a couple bites because my entrée was huge! I ordered the shrimp salad with avocado, mango, and salsa. It was mighty fine… I ate every scrap.

We were full, but not too full for dessert We set off in search of frozen yogurt, and bumped into Ada on the way! To celebrate her 19th birthday, she’d just gone on a 13 mile run!
Ada had also just come from The Lite Choice, and told us the flavors were worth the trip. I got a small cup with Oreos ‘N Cream and Espresso Truffle.

After our treat, I left my mom and went across town for physical therapy. I have another appointment tomorrow to see how my therapist thinks I’m doing after my fifteen minutes on the treadmill… I’m very optimistic! In the past month, I have been to four different branches of my gym. The one I went to yesterday was by far the biggest, but it was also the most confusing! I literally got lost in the locker room. Twice. What do you like most about your gym?

When I got home Ari had some errands to run so I tagged along. I brought an apple with cinnamon for the ride, and for the second time in a row, Ari ate half of it! I think I’m rubbing off on him

Since The Upwelling is going to be on the road for the next month, Ari and I decided to go out to dinner to spend a little time together to get away the craziness of packing. He had a few things to do before we could go, and my stomach couldn’t wait. I ripped into Josh’s bag of barbecue-flavored pretzel thins… I’m not a huge fan of bbq-flavored chips, but I could have eaten the whole bag. I don’t know what it is about flat pretzels, but they really get me going!

Ari was craving chicken parm so we went to the diner for dinner. Now, while I love going there for eggs, something feels a little off about eating there for a meal other than breakfast. It turns into a more upscale restaurant, but I’m just not a fan of their post-brunch fare. We still had a very nice time.

All dinner entrées come with soup or salad, and I went with salad. Hello, onions! (Sorry, boyfriend.)

Nibble at the dinner roll… starting to feel those pretzels!

For my main, I ordered the pecan-crusted ahi tuna in a balsamic-fig reduction with Mediterranean orzo and cherry tomatoes. It was good, but very filling. Orzo is such a confusing (but delicious!) grain… it looks just like rice but I always forget it’s actually pasta! I also forget how much I like it. I’m going to see if I can find a whole wheat variety at the grocery store.

I ate about 2/3 of this and boxed the rest up.

For dessert I had a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Everything But The… ice cream with a warmed up Edgie brownie. No one will ever accuse me of not knowing how to indulge!

Now that Ari’s gone for a little while, I’m going to be cooking a lot more and eating out a lot less. We like to eat home-cooked meals when he’s home, too, but we’re on such different schedules that it’s often hard to coordinate dinner. It’s a goal of mine to cook more frequently when we’re both around… I’m pretty sure that any dish with mushrooms in it is a safe bet

Hope you had a fabulous day. Bonne nuit

Fifteen Minutes

lilveggiepatch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:57:09 +0000

Hey there! How was your Tuesday? Mine began in a hurry and ended with ice cream, and now I’m in bed watching Michael Clayton. Ari’s leaving tomorrow to go Vigilante and we’ve all got things to do, so this is going to be a quickie!

Yesterday started off on a good note with a generous portion of Oats In A Jar.

In the mix:

PB jar w/ about 1 T PB
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup skim milk
2 dried apricots
1 dried fig
dried cherries

Mighty fine, I tell ya. I should finish jars of nut butter every day!

After breakfast, I hustled over to Starbucsk to get some work done. I sipped on a Grande Skim Misto with a shot of espresso for a few hours…

… and spaced my lunch out over about four hours to maximize my efficiency. Every 100 pages, for example, I could eat another part of my meal. It’s a pretty good trick! I had honeydew…

… samples of marble cake and hazelnut-espresso truffle drink (too sweet for me)…

…mixed greens with fake chicken nuggets…

TJ’s plain nonfat Greek yogurt with YouBars‘ Chocolate Peanut trail mix…

… rebel carrots…

… and a grapefruit. When I was really young I used to snack throughout the day rather than have square meals, and there’s something to be said for this! It works nicely when I’m trying to be productive, but I think I prefer eating three times a day, plus snacks. Do you eat three meals or snack throughout the day?

Dinner was a really, really big salad. I love these! I eat almost an entire head of romaine or bag of spinach at a time.

In the mix:

1 handful spinach
4 romaine leaves
1 sweet potato
1 Gala apple
1 TJ’s frozen salmon patty
dulse flakes
cilantro-chili vinaigrette

I overdid it on dessert a little bit… I just kept going back for more Edgies! My tum was a little unhappy with me when I went to bed, but I’m pretty sure the brownies were worth it

I thought I was going to wait until tomorrow to share this with you, but today my physical therapist gave me the okay to run. With the exception of the two minutes I ran on the treadmill during my first therapy session, I haven’t really run since I hurt my knee during my 10K race. My therapist only let me run for 15 minutes, but it felt great! I didn’t feel any pain in my knee, and felt proud that I had followed the doctor’s and therapist’s orders to stay off my legs until the time was right. But baby, I’m back!

What made you proud today?

Gym Class Heroes

lilveggiepatch — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:07:08 +0000

Good evening and happy Monday! I hope the start to your week- and your November- is going swimmingly. It’s strange to think that another year is almost over already, and I feel like I only just graduated! I have two bits of news… one I’ll share now, and one that’s going to wait until the end of the post.

As you know, I’ve been devoting most of my time recently to researching and applying for jobs. I recently applied to an entry level job at Wine Spectator, and the editor who looked over my application noted, after browsing through the blog and reading my cover letter, noted that while I have a clear and definite passion for food, my interest has not been directed towards wine. While I may not get this particular job, I’ve decided that I do want to take a more active pursuit towards learning about wine. Wine has always been important to my family, but with the exception of knowing that Malbec is from Argentina, Vouvray is from the Loire Valley and 2007 was a good year for white, I know next to nothing. So I’ve decided to take a proactive approach! I’m going to take advantage of the free tastings that go on every day around the city, and I’ll do my best to have some inkling about the wine I pluck off the $10-and-under shelf at the liquor store. In the next few days, I’ll add a special tab on the blog devoted purely to vino in order to chronicle my progress. I don’t know where this will take me, but since I have a little more time on my hands due to unemployment, I’m excited to learn a useful skill and pursue a new hobby!

Anyway… let’s jump back a bit.

Yesterday I was awakened quite early as Ari left for a morning meeting. Musicians keep very strange hours, I tell ya! Since I was already up, I decided to make a breakfast cookie to plop in the fridge while I went back to sleep for a few hours.

Jim was made of:

1/3 cup oats
1/2 banana
2 T skim milk
1/2 packet YouShake Vanilla Dream protein powder
1 t peanut butter
toppings: cinnamon, 2 prunes, 1 fig, 1 pecan

I also broke into my new McNulty’s Sumatra coffee to get my buzz on. And on and on.

Finally found a real solution to the Ester-C problem… POM Wonderful‘s Pomegranate Nectarine juice (which the company sent to me a few weeks ago) is sweet enough to completely mask the taste! I simply dissolved 1/3 teaspoon of Ester-C into 1/4 cup of juice and gulped it down as fast as possible. All I was left with was a pleasant fruity taste!

After I finished up breakfast, I looked at the time, packed my gym bag and hustled out the door to make a 12:15 60 minute Pilates class in the city. I got there five minutes early and went into the studio with my jacket, bag and shoes still on so that I could reserve a spot on the floor. Class had already started! I was a little annoyed- I didn’t want to disrupt the class, but it was early! It was also pretty warm and really stuffy, and I thought about asking the instructor to turn off the heat. After ten minutes, we still hadn’t moved to the mat to work on our cores and instead seemed to be moving through a Vinyasa flow. I turned to the girl next to me and whispered, “This isn’t Pilates, is it?” She shook her head and whispered, “Nope, it’s hot yoga!” Oops. I really love Bikram, but had I known I would be taking the class I would have hydrated, brought water with me, and not just had half a pot of coffee! Still, I’m glad I stayed for the full 90 minutes, and even more glad that I didn’t pass out from dehydration!

When class was over, I went home to have lunch and get some work done. I was surprised with festive snail mail from my girlies, which brightened up my day.

I hadn’t brought any food with me, so I rooted around in the freezer to check out the pickings. Not bad! I found bulgur pilaf with mixed vegetables, to which I added raisins and cilantro:

I also found sweet potato soup with navy beans from the Moosewood Cookbook, which I also added cilantro, peanuts and raisins to.

I washed it all down with Natural-flavored Zevia:

Not bad for an improvised lunch!

A little later, I snacked on a Jonagold apple while I did some work.

I’m pretty sure Ari had dinner while it was still light out, so I made a big orange salad with cilantro-chili vinaigrette for myself.

In the mix:

two handfuls of spinach
1 sweet potato, microwaved and diced
1 orange
1 Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burger
shredded carrots

I made the cilantro-chili vinaigrette with:

1/2 T toasted sesame oil
1 T olive oil
2 Trice vinegar
1/2 t Sriracha sauce
1/2 T raw blue agave nectar
1 slice red onion
handful cilantro
1/2 t chili flakes

It was enjoyed with a bowl of leftover miso soup and Christina Yang.

For dessert, I had 1/2 each of a brownie and blondie Edgie.

We watched half of Good Bye Lenin! before tuckering out for the night. It’s been on my Netflix queue for years, but I’m really glad we finally saw it! Or, half of it at least

Onto the second bit of news! My dad called today with a proposition. He’ll be traveling to Russia in December for work and offered to take me with him. Let me think… yes!!! We’ll be in Moscow for four days, then we go to St. Petersburg for two. Not only do I get to spend some much-needed quality time with Daddy-O, but I’ll also get to see my Sarah!!! I can’t wait. Life is good!

Girl's Night at Quantum Leap

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:40:08 +0000

Hey there, and happy weekend! Life has gotten in the way, yet again, of my regular posting schedule. I think once I’m settled in a routine it’ll get back to normal, but until then, I’ve just got to learn to be flexible and go with the flow. I’ve got a great giveaway in store for you to supplement your already fabulous days, so keep reading!

Yesterday I was in the mood for something a little different for breakfast, so I made a HUGE cereal bowl… the picture doesn’t do the size justice, so trust me on this one! I mixed Kashi GoLean, some kind of raisin bran, and granola, topped it all with banana, and added a generous portion of skim milk.

I had an errand to run in the city, and took the most roundabout route getting there. I rode four trains, when I’m pretty sure I would have been fine on two! It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve lived here my entire life and still have the worst sense of direction and navigation. I packed my lunch to go (salad with romaine, carrots, broccoli, Morningstar Farms Black Bean Burger & TJ’s three-layer hummus).

I also brought an apple and a peach-flavored Chobani yogurt.

I ended up eating while standing on the corner of Canal & Lafayette… since when did eating a meal on a crowded city street become the norm for me?

Again, I found myself close to the gym with my heavy gym bag, but all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. So that is just what I did. When I woke up, I snacked on a Ginger Snap Larabar, said hi to this guy…

…before heading into the city to meet some lovely blogettes at Quantum Leap. I was a little late when I got there, but immediately felt right at home with Missy, Elise, Marina, Ada, Olga, and Megan and had a great time chatting with everyone. Ada and I ordered the same Tofu & Veggie Salad:

This came with marinated vegetables, grilled tofu, bean salad & tahini cole slaw, with balsamic and carrot-miso dressing on the side.

To be perfectly honest, this salad just didn’t do it for me. There were only three small pieces of tofu, and I didn’t find the vegetables to be particularly flavorful. Strangely, it filled me up pretty fast and I only ate about half of the salad. Everyone else’s food looked pretty good, though, so I do want to go back to Quantum Leap to try out some other things.

Poor Ellie organized the whole event and ended up hurting her back and hip and spending the day in the ER! She was greatly missed.

Most of the girls went out for ice cream afterward, but I left to meet Ari and go to a housewarming party in Williamsburg. We didn’t stay very long (“We just want to warm the house, not make it too toasty,” said Ari) and I had about half of a vodka-soda. When we got home, we dug into the brownies from Liz. I had one Cookies & Cream brownie and half of a Chocolate one.

I also had a sip of wine, but I wasn’t feeling the alcohol… I really just wanted to go to sleep! Yes, I’m turning into a bit of a ninny, but so be it I took the day off from exercising yesterday and haven’t done anything physical yet today (other than cleaning). When I skip one day, it’s always pretty difficult for me to go the next. I don’t want to do anything too strenuous that would ruin my race game tomorrow, but I think an easy two miles should be fine. We’ll see. It’s turning out to be a very lazy day here at LVP headquarters!

And now for the giveaway! Chobani has graciously offered to send one lucky reader a case of Greek yogurt. To, simply comment on this post. For an extra entry, link back on your blog (if you have one), or post the contest on Twitter and leave another comment to let me know you did. Contest ends Monday October 12 at 10 PM EST. Good luck!

His Girl Friday

lilveggiepatch — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:06:33 +0000

Hello there boys and girls, and happy Friday! How are you today? I’m just fine, although I knocked myself a little out of whack when I overslept, and my schedule is a little funky! Oh well, no matter.

Yesterday I woke up at a normal time, and made a normal bowl of fruity oatmeal.

I used:

1/2 cup of oats
1/2 cup water
TJ’s Mangolicious blend
1 peach
1 scoop of peanut butter

After a little computer work, I accompanied the boy to the diner where he enjoyed a nice egg sandwich. Then I hopped on the train and went to visit my poodle. When I got there, I was greeted by many goodies! I found the Zevia sodas (and cute T-shirt) I won from a contest Missy hosted…

A NuNaturals stevia sampler I won from Averie‘s contest…

POM Wonderful‘s new Kiwi and Nectarine flavored pomegranate juice…

A variety of Greek yogurts from Chobani…

And, best of all, gourmet Brownie Points brownies from Liz!

Pretty good mail day, dontcha think?!

I incorporated both new items and tasty leftovers into a fabulous lunch, starting with Daddy-o’s spicy corn chowder…

Gliding Calm tofu with brown rice, mango chutney & peanut sauce…

Low-Fat Pineapple Chobani, which I LOVED (review to follow)…

…. And Ginger Ale Zevia. Full review to come as well, but I did not like this at all.

While I ate, I read some more sad news about the demise of Gourmet magazine.

A little later, snacked on an apple to hold me over on a mid-distance run.

I tried to warm up slowly, run 3 fast miles, and cool down with one more mile. It was hard to pace myself without knowing for sure how fast I was going. When I got home, I was pretty pleased with my statistics; seems like I did pace myself pretty well.

Total distance: 4.54 miles

Total time: 43:41

Maximum heart rate: 181 (91%)

Average heart rate: 166 (84%)

Calories burned: 455

I finished up a baggie of baby carrots while packing up and getting ready… these are the perfect quick snack, except when you have bad allergies. Sneezing while chomping on carrots makes for a HUGE mess.

I hurried back home just in time to have dinner with Ilana. We heated up leftover cassoulet and steamed some broccoli. Ilana was finally introduced to the hippie juice, and I think she liked it!

After dinner, we dug into Liz‘s brownies while we watched Grey’s Anatomy and Project Runway.

There were a lot of flavors, and I wanted to taste them all…

These were so freaking good. The hit of the night seemed to be Cookies & Cream… it tasted just like the middle of an Oreo! I can’t wait to dig into the rest of them. Holy yum, Liz!

I stayed up kind of late, and ended up eating another giant apple before bed.

Off to go meet some lovelies for dinner! What are you up to this weekend? I have my 10K on Sunday, but that’s about it! Have a great night

Stealing Beauty

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:40:33 +0000

Good morning, friends! If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my giveaway! It will change your life.

I can’t believe it’s already Monday… and there’s only one more Monday of August! Where has the summer gone? I guess I’ve done a lot… I’ve been to Germany, Michigan, Utah, and Maryland… it’s just strange to know that it’s almost Fall. Autumn is actually my favorite season, though… I love the feeling of a “fresh start” that a new school year always gave me, pulling out my sweaters, drinking hot Chai, Halloween, MY BIRTHDAY… so yeah, I’m pretty excited for the weather to change, now that I think about it!

Yesterday, I met my friend Lisa for brunch at the Manhattan Diner. I haven’t seen her since June, and it was so nice to catch up. Neither of us had fully recovered from the shock of being awake, so we drank lots of coffee.

We both ordered the same thing: an omelet made with organic eggs, avocado, pepper jack, carrots, and zucchini, with a side of mixed greens. We also both doused our eggs in hot sauce and ketchup… we’re fated to be friends

The bread was good, but nothing beats my beloved toast from the usual place, so I only had one slice.

All of that coffee was just what I needed, so after I left Lisa, I went home to gear up for a run. I haven’t really exercised since my yoga class on Thursday, and although I walked about 7 miles throughout the weekend, I needed to feel the cardio burn. It was great! It started raining towards the end of my run (about 3.1 miles) , but it actually felt really refreshing. I came home a sweaty beast, but with enough energy to do my 8-minutes abs exercise, which I’ve sorely ignored lately.

Total time: 37:53 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 195 (98%)

Average heart rate: 165 (83%)

Calories burned: 405

By then, I was ready for a snack. I made a BIG bowl of plain Chobani, 1 banana, 1 nectarine, and a drizzle of pomegranate syrup. It was perfect! My dad reminded me the other day how versatile (and yummy) pomegranate syrup is. It’s also relatively inexpensive ($5/bottle), so I’d encourage you to try it if you haven’t already!

I was feeling industrious, so I made some of Gena‘s homemade raw almond milk. I’d left the almonds soaking overnight, so this was easy-peasy and took almost no thought whatsoever! I don’t have a nut-milk bag, but a conventional strainer did the trick.

I let it strain through while I showered and packed up, and by the time I was ready to go, I had beautifully separated almond milk. I saved the “nut meat” as well… I’m planning on making some Bonobo-style nori wraps! (Note: this is 1/2 Gena‘s recipe.)

I made it home just in time to meet some friends for dinner. We went to Brick Café, and although the service was a little slow, it worked out perfectly because we got to catch up and gab a lot. It was pretty much everything a Sunday evening should be: good food, good friends, and relaxation.

I started with a piece of baguette, smeared with a generous portion of olive paté.

I was a little boring and just ordered the tuna niçoise salad (mixed greens, hard-boiled eggs- yolks removed, asparagus, olives, and potatoes), but it was good! I wasn’t a fan of the creamy dressing, so I just asked for oil and vinegar instead.

Once home, I curled up with an almond butter-smeared VitaBrownie and watched Stealing Beauty. I really liked the film! I want to go back to Europe.

I didn’t sleep too well… I woke up at 4 AM with some of the scariest nightmares I’ve ever had, involving… Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Denny, why do you do this to me?!

Have a happy Monday

Chelsea Girls

lilveggiepatch — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:28:11 +0000

Good morning, ladies and gentleman! I am SO excited for today. It’s Friday, I slept in, I have the next three days off work, and my little red-headed friend has come home!!! It’s going to be a great weekend. What do you have planned?

Yesterday I experimented a little with my breakfast. I had a lot of leftover rice in the fridge that I wanted to get rid of… I often make too much of things like grans and beans, and they end up going bad. Anyway, I decided to try making a breakfast cookie with rice!

1/3 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 banana
2 T skim milk
1 T PB2
toppings: cinnamon, dried apricots, dried cherries, 1 walnut

This was actually pretty good! It ended up being a lot creamier than the cookies made with oats. I would definitely make it again… don’t you love coming up with new uses for leftovers?

I ended up making it to my yoga class just in time, with only enough time to stash my stuff in a locker. I did a 60 minute Vinyasa flow… I was definitely rusty, but it felt great to get back into it again. The class was a little unconventional… the instructor played lots of music, like L7 and Ella Fitzgerald. I really want to start taking more yoga classes. This may be a steep goal for me, in terms of time, but I would love to be able to go to a class at least once a week. Yogadownload.com is great, but a class is such a different experience.

I was pretty hungry after class, so I picked up an apple at a fruit stand on the street.

After I showered and made myself presentable, I met Caitlin for lunch at Chelsea Market. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I’d never been there before! It’s a big arcade-style collection of specialty food shops, cafés and bakeries; each place, like the Ronnybrook Milk Bar, is very “New York” in its nature. After we looked around at everything (a terrible thing to do when you’re hungry!) we settled on Amy’s Bread.

I’d been to their Hell’s Kitchen location before, and my dad used to pick up their olive and chocolate twists on the way home from work, but it had been a while. Everything looked incredible!

It was hard to decide what I wanted, but I ended up going with a salad. This had romaine, avocado, cannelini beans, roasted tomato and zucchini, toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and a lemon vinaigrette.

It came with an olive roll.

It was a perfect lunch.

When we finished, we set off in search of dessert. Hooray for Thursday Treat Day! First, we went to Eleni’s, a picture-perfect cookie and cupcake shop.

Their cookies looked too pretty to eat…

… and their cupcakes were GORGEOUS. (See those Obama cookies?!)

I decided that one dessert was not enough for me, so I got one of their “Petit Sin” brownie bites with walnuts. Caitlin got a beautiful chocolate cupcake with white buttercream… they made a funny picture next to each other!

It must have been fate that we ended up at Eleni’s, because they were selling a Manhattan Cupcake sampler pack

Next up, we went to Fat Witch Bakery for brownie samples.

Caitlin has raved about these brownies for years, so I was really excited to try them! They were pretty good, but I think my Eleni’s bite was a little better. And I’m going to be a bit of a snob here and say that the brownies my mom and I make are pretty hard to beat!

My next and final dessert stop was at L’Arte del Gelato.

I was really full at this point, but thought that I should have gelato. Riddle me that!

I got a cup with 1/2 peach sorbetto and 1/2 chocolate hazelnut. This was amazing! The peach sorbetto was fat-free, and so full of flavor.

We finally left Chelsea Market and walked up to the High Line to move a little and check out the new site which just opened on June 9.

We’re going to picnic up here next time.

Can’t you just see Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda lounging on these chic chaises?

Eventually I had to leave for work, so I walked across town to the East Side to the restaurant. While there, I snacked on a Maple Nut Clif Bar. Love these!

The restaurant was pretty slow last night… I was able to leave at 9, though. I made a decent amount of money for the time I was there, and got to watch Project Runway! Do you watch the show? What did you think? Do you have any favorite designers so far?

I took my dinner to go last night. Ramon made me a mixed green salad with walnuts, beets, Italian tuna (!), oranges, and Bufala mozzarella. I added a little hummus to it at home… it may sound strange, but tuna + hummus is a great combination!

I made a BIG yogurt bowl for dessert with nonfat plain, a peach from the Farmer’s Market, peanut butter and cinnamon.

I ate a little more than usual yesterday and was pretty much in a constant state of full-ness since lunch. I still woke up hungry for breakfast this morning, though!

Hope your Friday is off to a great start. Have a lovely day!

The Domestic Cowgirl

lilveggiepatch — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:14:21 +0000

Good morning, darlings! I went to bed last night during a storm, which makes me sleep harder and I just could not get up this morning! Yesterday I also extended my Snooze’s life for as long as possible, before finally getting up and making a pre-running snack.

Prune + almond butter. Heaven on earth.

My run was good! I had to stop for traffic a little more than usual, but I have so much more confidence in my running since this past weekend. I really want to sign up for a race, as long as I tell myself that I will train for it properly so I don’t injure myself again like last year.

Total time: 21:23 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 195 (98%)

Average heart rate: 178 (89%)

Calories burned: 253

Breakfast was another awesome Amazing Grass shake.

Amazing Grass Kidz Chocolate Superfood
1 banana
1 T chocolate PB2
4 oz water
splash of coffee

It was smaller than yesterday’s and not nearly as thick, but it was still good. Not enough coffee to keep me going, however… I stopped for some on the way to my internship.

At work, I made a couple post office runs, and took advantage of the time outside to refuel with some grapes. It was incredibly humid, so these were the perfect snack! Cool and refreshing.

Lucky for me, my mom was able to meet me for a quick lunch at Cowgirl, a Tex-Mex style restaurant in the village. (Photo borrowed from here.)

Everything inside was “Western”-themed, from the antler-shaped chandeliers to the cowgirl pin-ups.

I ordered a home-made black bean veggie burger with melty fontina cheese…

… with a salad.

I’d thought the burger would come plopped on top of a salad, but this was just fine. Notice the jelly jars the drinks come in (and my fleeing bun)!

I only ended up eating about 1/4 of the bun, though… it was a lot of food.

My boss surprised me by sending me home pretty much as soon as I walked back into the office. What a gift!

I had a lot of household chores on my to-do list, so I went back home to get some things done. I ate an apple while admiring my new stack of books… I love working in publishing! I don’t have time to go to the library, but then again… I don’t really need to!

Then I got down to work. Here’s what needed to get done:

Blog posting
Blog commenting
E-mail catch-up
Cleaning room (enough said)

Take out trash/recycling
Make dinner
Enjoy an evening on my own!

It’s funny how you have to schedule in time for yourself, huh?

In the middle of my computer work, I whipped out Angela‘s Glo Bar.

It was delicious! Peanut butter and coconut go so well together.

It was already time for dinner by the time I got my housework done. I couldn’t decide what I wanted, so I combined a few things that I had.

I made lettuce wraps with brown rice, black beans, tomato, mango, lime, Daisy Brand cottage cheese, and cilantro.

I doused it in hot sauce, then mixed it all up and made a big mess.

YUM!

Dessert was equally awesome: a healthy brownie sundae!

I somehow managed to get my hands on one of Amie‘s raw agave brownies at the Summit, and ate it on top of a huge bowl of raspberries. I added a few dollops of nonfat plain yogurt and a drizzle of agave, and voila! A deliciously perfect sundae.

It was a great day. I love when I have time to get done the things that have been nagging at me for days!

Have a great Wednesday! Enter K’s cookbook givewaway, and your day will get even better

Is there anything I'm going to miss?

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:20:52 +0000

I couldn’t find this on YouTube, but it’s worth watching for a trip down memory lane.

It’s one of the first songs I remember seeing on Pop-Up Video. Whatever happened to that show? It was so good! I also remember seeing Marcy Playground and Meredith Brooks on there… oh, I hate getting old.

Anyway, happy Friday night! A week from today my family will be here (!) so this is pretty much my last “real” Friday in college. Appropriately, this will be a doozy of a photo post… I’m going to have to get a space upgrade for my Wordpess account soon!

I went to Whole Foods today and pretty much stuck to my list, which is something to be celebrated. There were tons of samples:

Trout spread:

Spicy guacamole (I really wanted an avocado but these were all really hard, so a really nice WF man went “to the back” and found one for me. Thanks, WF man!):

Spanish cheese:

Food Should Taste Good chips:

More cheese:

I went to the cafeteria for lunch today. The had big soft pretzels; even though these are on every street corner in New York, I never really crave or eat them! Ever since Meghann, Jenna, and Caitlin have been raving about their Greenwise pretzels, though, I’ve been craving them.

I made a salad with spinach, carrots, cukes, cauliflower, celery, and a jalepeño. They had dijon (my favorite mustard) for the pretzels, so I made a delicious mustard/lemon juice/olive oil vinaigrette.

Tofu cutlet with “salsa verde” :

I ate about 2/3 of the pretzel; half with mustard and half with peanut butter and jelly.

… and finally, a grapefruit.

I first read about black bean brownies in Hungry-Girl a few years ago. After seeing Angela’s batches a few weeks ago and Lindsay’s yesterday, I decided to try them myself.

I used the Happy Herbivore recipe, and followed her directions with the exception of swapping brown rice syrup for agave nectar.

I also, once again, didn’t read the directions properly and forgot to mix in the oats until the batter was already in the pan.

The batter was really good, but when baked the brownies themselves didn’t have a whole lot of taste and were kind of dry. Sad, but I’m not giving up yet!

I snacked on an orange while I was eating batter baking and cooking.

My friends Becky and Sarah had a lovely potluck tonight. I brought the “brownies” and some cheesy green (read on).

There was red vino:

Spinach salad with strawberries, cucumbers and gorgonzola:

I made a plate with a Barefoot Contessa pasta salad Becky made, salad, oranges and quiche.

Gina has been raving about quiche recently, so I decided to whip one up. I used the same original recipe that she did, but also made my own substitutions. For the cheese and dairy, I used 1/2 cup manchego, 3/4 cup nonfat cottage cheese, 1 cup nonfat yogurt, and 2 tbsp 4-cheese blend; for the spices, pinches each of nutmeg, cumin and cayenne. The color was a little too light, so I added 1/2-1 cup broccoli florets to the mix.

It was really good! It ended up tasting more like a soufflé; whipped and very light and an excellent side.

I also had a bowl of black bean soup with cheese that Sarah made:

More oranges, salad, and chips (potato + yellow corn) and salsa.

For dessert, I had a frosted pumpkin square my friend Krista made:

She’s writing a cookbook called “The Book of Nom.” Genius. Nomnomnom.

Finally, even though I was insanely full, I had a dark chocolate truffle that Carlye brought.

I definitely ate a lot tonight and didn’t make it to the gym as I’d planned, but I had a really nice night with my friends. There is so much love in sharing a home-cooked meal! Anyway, I’m going to hit the hay and get up early to work, work it out, pack, etc. Hope you had a faaabulous night.