Lilveggiepatch » crackers

Even A Sick Girl's Gotta Eat!

lilveggiepatch — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:41:20 +0000

Good morning! How are you this fine Tuesday? I’m doing very well, thank you, although yesterday I wasn’t quite able to say the same. A few hours after I typed up yesterday’s post, I was struck down food poisoning! At least that’s what I think it is… all I know is that yesterday afternoon I was not a happy camper.

I still felt fine during breakfast, and had a smoothie-in-a-bowl: nonfat yogurt, 1 banana, frozen berries, and 1 scoop of peanut butter with a sprinkle of GoLean. I haven’t had a homemade smoothie in a while, and this was very refreshing.

As I was getting breakfast ready, I noticed a minor crisis: I am finally nearing the end of my Folger’s stash.

Ari and I are the only coffee-drinkers in our household, and since he’s been gone the majority of the last two months, I’ve pretty much consumed this entire tub myself! Oops. I’m going to try and pick up some new grounds today. What is your favorite kind of brew-at-home coffee? I’d love your suggestions!

After adequately caffenating myself, I promptly went back to sleep. When I woke up, I had an apple and got back to work. Someone once told me that apples and lemons can act as stimulants, so if you don’t want to overdose on coffee, you can snack on these instead. Has anyone else heard this?

Since I’d gotten up at 6:45 to read, I was more than ready for lunch by the time 11:00 rolled around. I did my best to wait until 11:30, then tore into my leftover seafood linguine. I don’t usually like to eat such heavy meals for lunch, but I didn’t want the seafood to go bad.

This put me right to sleep. Two naps in one day?! I should have known something was off… when I woke up, I had a bowl of nonfat yogurt, mixed berries, and bee pollen. If I didn’t have to worry about expense, I’d probably go through a quart of yogurt a day!

The trouble started a little later. I was doubled over in pain, incredibly nauseous, and… I’ll spare you the details, but I spent the rest of the day in the same spot in bed, too sick to sleep. Luckily I was able to find someone to cover for me at the restaurant, because there was no way I was up to serving people food. I don’t think the Department of Health would have wanted me to, either! I don’t know if it was the seafood (which I’d ordered on Sunday without thinking) or the bee pollen (I’ve suspected that it might be upsetting my stomach), but I think it had to have been something I ate that made me sick.

I somehow stumbled out of bed and around the corner to the drugstore to pick up a thermometer. No fever: 95.4, then 96.2 (I always have a really low temperature). In place of my usual go-to sick beverage, I sipped on a bottle of POMx Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea.

I also ate about half a box of Saltines; there’s nothing quite like enriched flour and high fructose corn syrup when you’re not feeling well.

I lazed around like a lump for the rest of the night, watching Gigantic and Gossip Girl. Forcing myself out of bed, I heated up half a can of Health Valley Corn & Vegetable soup (with Bragg’s and hot sauce).

I also had an Ezekiel English muffin (re-stocked my stash and the world makes sense again) with almond butter, black currant jam & honey.

For dessert, I had a Skinny Cow caramel-flavored Skinny Dipper. I really do not like these anymore; they taste too artificial and I think I overdid it in college. However, there are a few left in the freezer and I don’t want to be wasteful just throw them out.

Looking back, the only clue that I wasn’t feeling my best was the lack of vegetables in my diet. No matter how sick I am, I almost never lose my appetite!

I’m feeling 100% better this morning. My boss at my internship asked me to come in tomorrow instead of today, so I’ll have a chance to rest up completely. Later tonight, I’m going in to a fun event with Caitlin that I know you would all love!

Around the blogs: Missy is giving away some Zevia!

Have a great day

I'm On The Hunt I'm After You…

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:42:29 +0000

[Image Source]

Duran Duran or vampire fans fans in the house? I guess “werewolves” would be more appropriate, but Sarah‘s been raving about True Blood recently, and I’ve been watching in spurts. Good thing I don’t have schoolwork to be distracted from!

Yesterday we slept late, and by the time we got up and out, it was 1 PM. We decided to go to Brick, a nice bistro in Astoria, for brunch.

Ari and I enjoyed quite a bit of coffee (and I’ll probably get in trouble for posting this and the next photo of him… he wasn’t so pleased with them):

We split an order of bruschetta to start; I had one piece of toast and added a little olive tapenade (not pictured) to it.

We each ordered the special omelet (subbed with egg whites): zucchini, tomato, and smoked mozzarella. There was a little too much cheese for my liking, so I just pulled some of it out and ate the rest.

After brunch, we happened upon a street fair. We were full, but fresh watermelon sounded pretty tasty so we split a cup.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and wandered into Astoria Park. I’m glad we went; it was a beautiful day and it’ll be a prime picnic spot in the future. We ended up walking somewhere between 3 and 5 miles in high heat, so we definitely got our exercise in.

On the way home, we happened upon a really cute coffee shop that serves interesting drinks (watermelon blended with chardonnay), has WiFi, and has live music at night. I wish I’d taken down the name and address, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find it again.

I got an iced coffee with skim milk and one packet of Sugar In The Raw:

After doing a little cleaning when we got home, I was starting to get hungry so I had a Granny Smith Apple with chocolate PB2.

Then I did some work, caught up on some blog reading, and before I knew it I was so hungry I could have eaten every one in the house. Luckily, no one was home, so I had a pickle instead.

I was still starving, so I made a quick and easy stir-fry with ingredients we already had. I used 1/2 block extra firm tofu, 1/2 bag “Asian blend” frozen veggies (green beans, mushrooms, water chestnuts & broccoli), garlic, ginger powder, sesame oil, light soy sauce, srirachi sauce and a little cooking spray. I served it over Trader Joe’s Multigrain Pilaf (the TJ — cheaper— version of Kashi’s Moroccan Pilaf).

I was also having The Vegetarian’s Dilemma (tofu or hummus? hummus or tofu?) so I had a glob of hum with some stale crackers on the side.

For dessert, I had my Old Faithful: dried fruit (dates, prune, apricots) with almond butter and some dark chocolate (from Germany, pepper- flavored)

I spent the evening watching To Have and Have Not, a film that I discovered is none other than one of our very own Veggie Girl’s (AKA Liz) favorites! It was wonderful.

Well, I’m off to get my booty to the gym, try to socialize, and do some work. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Around the blogs:

Gina is giving away a cookbook by Sarma Melngailis (the founder and co-founder of One Lucky Duck and Pure Food and Wine)!

An Apple A Day is giving away Crofter’s fruit spread!

Bloodsuckers

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:02:55 +0000

Good morning, boys and girls! I hope your holiday weekends were relaxing and fun (if those two things go together in your life . My week is going wonderfully so far… with the small exception that the mesquitoes are out of control this year! I have bug bites in places that never see the sun, bug bites on my ear, in my hair… it stinks! But, it’s a small price to pay for a week on the beach.

The last two days have been a lot of fun: we’ve been catching up with people (there are between 40 and 60 here each day) we haven’t seen in a year, lounging, cooking… The way we do things here is each night, one “cooking crew” makes dinner for the rest of us. It takes a lot of work, obviously, to plan, cook, and feed for so many people, but we always have delicious, restaurant-quality food.

The first night is more of a pot-luck, so we had a Middle Eastern platter with hummus, pita, tabouleh, baba ganoush, pita, etc.

I also had a mixed greens salad and an orzo salad with cheese, tomatoes and olives. This is so good!

Desserts abounded, including my Aunt Mary’s famous chocolate chip cookies:

Brownies, chocolate chip blondies, and lemon squares:

There are also some 7-layer / Magic bars floating around here, but if they didn’t get caught on camera…

We found bottom-shelf vodka to make cocktails to bring to the beach to watch the fireworks:

Jenny + Marina:

We sat on the beach watching the fireworks for hours… unfortunately my camera isn’t sophisticated enough to show you how beautiful it was.

For breakfast yesterday, I had a bowl of Wheaties + Honey Nut Cheerios with 1/2 a banana and skim milk.

‘

We went upstairs to have lunch and cool off: leftover orzo (this will be the death of me, I swear!) and tuna salad. I ate them “wrap style” by rolling the salads up in tomato slices and lettuce weaves.

I had fresh grapes and blubes from the farmers market for dessert.

My dad got quite the haul at the Market… he brought this Super Charge Me-style oatmeal cookie for our cabin. I only had a nibble, but it was pretty delicious! I see its future as “oatmeal future” in the near future…

In the afternoon, Judy and I went for a nice run to look at the houses. We did about 2.5 miles (my HRM was out of it’s mind, AGAIN… Polar, expect a call from me today), and although it was pretty hot outside we ran in the shade and it was just perfect. I cranked out some 8 minute abs when I came back, then had a nice Red, White & Blue Parfait with Oikos nonfat Greek yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and a touch of brown sugar.

After showering and making myself presentable, I stumbled upon Bere, my 12 year old cousin, cleaning a Corona bottle. Bere took over Jenny and my job of saving all the bottles and cans and collecting them for deposit (we go through quite a few of these over the week…), but I might have to convince him that we need the money more than he does!

During the cocktail hour, I had a cheese plate with Manchego (my favorite!), Havarti, Blue, and Brie. I also had a piece of bread, a couple crackers and olives.

I also had a Shiner beer, which was very yeasty. It’s partly my fault for not following the directions and pouring half the beer out into a glass, swirling the rest in the bottle, and pouring it into the glass… but who wants to do that when they’re just trying to chillax with a brew? Hmpf.

George was the cooking crew leader last night and prepared a Mexican meal of Roasted Chicken, Red & Black Beans, Rice, and Tomato Salad. He was nice enough to make me a pot of vegetarian black beans, so I ate them with rice and about 20 tomatoes.

For dessert, we had vanilla ice cream and blueberries.

As I’ve said, I’m not going to be documenting everything here… I want to be able to enjoy my vacation, obviously, but I’ll also be finding a healthy balance by continuing to blog and maintain my exercise regime.

Today, July 6, is Mama Veggie Patch (MVP)’s birthday, so some festivities will ensue.

Enjoy your weeks!

79 Lobsters

lilveggiepatch — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:43:24 +0000

Good evening and happy Saturday night! The last two days have been a constant go, go, go! , so please excuse the posting delay.

Last night, Ari and I had the pleasure of joining fellow bloggers (out of order, sorry!) Heather, Caroline, Liz, Olga, Danielle, Katharine, Amelia, Dierdre, Diana and Marina, for dinner at Candle 79.

While we were chatting about food and foodies, the restaurant staff brought out an amuse bouche: curried lentil dip with onions on a homemade tortilla. Great start to a great night!

Ari and I split the Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Cake made with seasonal vegetables, red pepper-coconut curry, apricot-date chutney, and toasted almonds.

We also ordered the Wild Mushroom-saffron Ravioli with cashew ricotta, roasted tomato-truffle sauce, sautéed broccoli raab, and crispy capers.

The Chickpea Cake was my favorite, while Ari preferred the ravioli. Worked out perfectly!

I also stole one of Liz‘s quinoa-flax crisps, which reminded me a lot of Dr. Kracker’s.

It was such a pleasure to meet some of the ladies I’ve come to “know” so well. Hope to see you again soon! Thanks again to Heather for organizing a fabulous evening.

After dinner, Ari and I headed down to The Living Room to see Ari’s friend John‘s band play. On the way there, we noticed a lot of people stopping in the middle of the street, staring at the sky and taking photos. We were afraid there was some kind of apocalyptic happening going on, but instead we just saw these crazy clouds.

After the show, we went to a really cool bar for the after-party that was, back in the day, an authentic speak-easy. Pretty cool!

Then we headed to Brooklyn for the Swine Flu party. Unfortunately, a lot of people ended up not being able to make it, so it was a pretty small gathering. It was still fun, though, and the decor was awesome!

Cheese and raspberries were gobbled…

Notice the N1H1 cookies! Genius, right? So genius that I had to eat two

While Ari was in a deli picking up beer, I ended up finding some good bargains. Cheap Chobani, 1 lb of fruit salad for $1.99, and the best: about 20 medjool dates for $2.99! I’m such a dork, but I was really excited about that.

This morning I had a strawberry Chobani yogurt, fruit salad, and a slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and cinnamon.

I don’t remember ever having flavored Chobani before. I was a little skeptical about a fruit-on-the-bottom-style Greek yogurt, but I ended up really digging it! If I can ever afford it again, I’ll be picking up the other flavors.

After breakfast, we drove to Connecticut for a surprise birthday/graduation party. We stopped to pick up Ari’s parents at their friends’ house, and were greeted by a variety of Food Should Taste Good crackers and Sabra hummus. I was very happy.

The lady of the house whipped us up a delicious mushroom pizza.

I had a small slice.

After our “snack,” we got back in the car to to go the party. After arriving and saying our hellos, we made our way to the bar tent. There were coolers of red and white sangria:

Ari tapped the keg.

Over the course of the day, I had a cup of white sangria:

And a cup of red sangria.

I’m not usually a sangria person, but I wasn’t in the mood for beer. It was actually pretty refreshing!

They were serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and lobster. Guess what I got?!

Each mesh baggie was filled with steamed lobster, corn-on-the-cob, mussels, clams, and potatoes.

I made a huge mess, but it was amazing.

The birthday boy just graduated from dental school, so there was a red velvet “braces” cake:

There were also cute little graduation and birthday cupcakes.

The hat was too cute to pass up, so I had a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. (Ari was pretty enamored with the newborn baby.)

Ilana was also taken with Baby.

Beth & Abe had a blast.

The party was really fun, and it was so nice to get out of the city for the day. Don’t get me wrong: I love New York and I can’t imagine living anywhere else, but I need a mental health break from it from time to time.

We ate around 4, so my stomach felt a little off all day. I didn’t know if I should eat dinner, snack, or what! The perfect solution seemed to be fat free peanut butter frozen yogurt. Funny how that logic works, hmm?

All in all, it’s been a pretty great weekend. (Bonus question: how many times do I use “pretty” in this post? ) I have to be at work in less than 9 hours so I’m going to say goodnight and good luck!

Catch up with ya later, gators.

Some Days Are Better Than Others

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:39:55 +0000

Good morning, girls and boys! I hope you’ve all had lovely weekends and Father’s Days, and are starting your Mondays feeling refreshed and ready to begin the week. Yesterday (Sunday) was, frankly, a really bad day. Work was just awful. I don’t want to dwell on it, and I hate “bringing my work home with me,” so suffice it to say that I cannot wait for the day when I don’t have to wait tables to support myself. What a dream. Saturday, however, was perfect, so let’s start there instead.

Saturday’s breakfast was strange: sweet, sour & nutty oats.

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup waters
1 banana
1 plum
1 scoop PB
cinnamon

Somehow, the sweetness of the banana and the tart, fleshiness of the plum worked really well. I didn’t even remember that I hadn’t put any brown sugar or honey in to sweeten it!

After I ate breakfast and Ari had lunch (I’ve been getting up a lot earlier than he has and had breakfast so I can keep myself on a remotely normal schedule), we headed into the city to see The Hangover. It was a lot funnier than I expected it to be, but very foul, so if you get offended by college potty humor, I’d think twice before seeing it.

At the theater, we split a bag of Haribo gummies that I brought back from the Duty Free Shop at the airport in Berlin for precisely this reason. Yeah, that’s a lot of gummies. I also had a sip of Ari’s Coke Zero, but mostly stuck to slamming gummies

We had a late lunch at a make-your-own salad place nearby. Unfortunately, despite the many promising ingredients, it was one of the worst salads I’ve ever had.

In the bowl, went:

mixed greens
grilled shrimp (about 20)
blue cheese (“a little” ended up looking more like 1/2 cup)
walnuts (another 1/2 cup)
roasted red peppers
corn
fat free honey mustard dressing

I ended up picking out a lot of the nuts and cheese, and a couple shrimp. I was so upset I didn’t ask for the dressing on the side, because there was an inch-deep pool of it at the bottom and everything was dripping. Yuck!

But, Tasty D Lite (sorry, The Lite Choice) made it all better.

I got a small cup of hazelnut fudge topped with chocolate chips. (I knocked a lot of the chips into the trash… there were so many that I couldn’t taste the ice cream!)

After satisfying our sweet teeth, we went home to make a nice dinner for my mom. While shopping for groceries, we saw some copy cats:

I was really excited about this dinner. Ever since I saw Jenna‘s take on grouper, I knew I had to try it! The seafood department at my grocery store didn’t have grouper, so I got some halibut (“This is a fancy fish,” my mom said) instead.

I followed Jenna‘s instructions and marinated four filets in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and fresh rosemary and oregano.

Instead of traditional basil pesto, I went with Cibo Naturals‘ Cilantro Lime Pesto. I’ve used this brand before… they have a lot of interesting pestos and spreads. I smeared a dollop of this onto each filet:

Then I topped each piece with chopped sundried tomatoes, mixed olives, and a smidgen of feta. (For Ari, who doesn’t like things that are “white and creamy,” I used mozzarella, as per his request. His filet is the white monster second from the top.)

I baked the fish at 375 for about 15 minutes, or until a knife can be easily inserted into the center. What a pretty fish!

I also sautéed some mushrooms up for Ari (cooking spray, salt & pepper) and made a simple romaine/tomato salad with a dressing of white garlic basil vinegar, lemon-infused olive oil, grey poupon mustard, Newman’s Own limeade, and a pinch of ginger powder.

A nice dinner is not complete without nice bread; I had a hunk of toasted baguette and dipped it in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

To drink, we had some Kauri Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that my friend Howard gave me. It was very light and fresh, but a little spicy at the same time. It complemented the meal perfectly!

My mom picked up a delicious chocolate cake from Citarella’s for dessert.

We almost didn’t cut it in time…

It was made with three kinds of chocolate. Nomnomnom.

After dinner, I fell asleep while we all watched O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The concert that emerged from this movie was one of the first ones I ever saw! We stayed the night with my mommy, too, which was very nice.

And then Sunday started. I woke up 45 minutes late, fifteen minutes before I was supposed to leave to work the brunch shift at work. I still managed to make myself look halfway- decent, and whip up a good breakfast before racing out the door.

I’d made some rhubarb the night before, which I’d planned to use as a side dish but decided at the last minute to use it for breakfast instead. I used a 12-oz bag of frozen ‘barb and cooked it in 2/3 cup water, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 garlic clove, and 1 tsp of sugar. The garlic was quite a kick at 8:30 in the morning!

Into the breakfast bowl went:

1 container Fage 0%
blueberries
rhubarb
pecans
honey

At work, I had one of my snack baggies I prepared, thanks to your suggestions. Each has a handful of Puffins, diced dried apricots, prunes and figs, raisins and almonds.

I also had a small slice of of French toast made with baguette (not pictured), and an egg white omelet with veggies. I had a couple potatoes, but ended up having to stay an hour later than normal so the rest of them got cold.

As I said, work was not so great… it happens. I’m just lucky the restaurant is only a couple blocks away from my gym, because I really, really needed to burn off steam, and if it had been any further away I would have just gone home and stewed instead.

My workout was great, and was just what the doctor ordered. I warmed up with 20 minutes on the stairs, then did some arm work, 35 minutes on the bike, and one ab machine afterwards.

Total time: 1 hour 13 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 185

Average heart rate: 149

Calories burned: 647

My body was still really sore from “HPF” on Friday, and this pushed me over the edge. But, I get to be very demanding in terms of getting back massages!

When I went home, I made the most comforting meal I know: Gliding Calm tofu, a sweet potato with honey and cinnamon, and brown rice. For some reason, the tofu was a little dryer than usual, so I dipped it in Annie’s Lite Gingerly Vinaigrette. Perfect! (And if you’re wondering what’s on that little cracker, you’ll have to read on…)

I also snacked on a red bell pepper while getting dinner ready…

…and making some of Gena‘s favorite guacamole!

Lunch is going to be pretty damn fine!

Last night ended up making up for a not-so-great day. Ari and I had some wine and watched The Wrestler, which we both liked a lot.

I’m a big believer that starting the morning right will help shape your day into a great one. Last night, I stuck this guy into the fridge in hopes of besting yesterday’s ickiness.

Jim was made up of:

1/3 cup oats
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 banana
2 T skim milk
1.5 t peanut butter
cinnamon
apricot eyes, pecan nose, blueberry smile

The forecast looks good: today is going to be a good day. I have to do some reading for my internship, but I like doing that.

Have a great day!

Hitting the streets with Operation Beautiful

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:15:31 +0000

Good morning, lovelies! I love Saturday mornings before the day starts… the weekend seems endless! There’s a lot planned for the day, though, so here we go!

Yesterday I had the last of my Spicy Thai Coconut Corn Soup for lunch.

I ate it cold and added 1/2 avocado, tofu, tomatoes, cayenne pepper and LOTS of salt and pepper. It was mighty fine, if I do say so myself.

I also had an Axelrod vanilla yogurt…

… and some coffee. We’ve been making it at home more to save some dough…

As planned, we went to Hot Power Fusion (“It’s called HPF now, people,” my instructor said) yesterday afternoon. I figured the bathroom at the yoga studio was the perfect location for my first Operation Beautiful posting:

A few months ago, Caitlin posted a link to a video about the negativity that women have learned to feel for their bodies, about ending Fat Talk. Caitlin started her own project called Operation Beautiful, which incites women to leave positive affirmations for other women in public places like restrooms, locker rooms, even supermarkets.

Caitlin says: If my little blog only does one productive thing, I hope it helps readers realize how truly toxic fat talk is — it hurts you emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I want to reach as many people as possible with my End the Fat Talk message.

Here’s a video Caitlin made that articulates her mission far better than I ever could.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqOEP40Pmdg]

I went back after yoga to see if my note was still there, and it was!

As you can tell from my sweaty self, class was hard. HPF, while only 60 minutes (as opposed to normal Bikram’s 90) was a lot more challenging for me. I still found myself to be a lot more flexible than usual, but for some reason my balance really off for the first half of the class. It felt great to bend and sweat, though, and I think it made my cold a little weaker.

This guy was on fire yesterday! You should have seen him in Padangustasana… I was so proud.

I had half a Chocolate Chip Clif bar after class, but when I got home I was still starving, so I had a banana. I haven’t been so good about getting my fruits and veggies recently…

I met my friend Lisa for dinner last night at Citrus. As I’ve said, I’m really not a fruity drink person, but this Prickly Pear Martini (on the left) sounded so good! It’s made with Absolut Pears, Triple Sec, and Prickly Pear purée. Nom. Lisa got a Pineapple Margarita on the rocks… it was bomdiddlyicious as well.

I wasn’t really in the mood for chips, but I had two and dipped them in the warm, spicy bean dip that came with them.

I ordered the shrimp, corn & Poblano cheese quesadilla (topped with avocado and salsa) and added spinach to it. Again, I haven’t been good about getting my greens in…

I usually wouldn’t order this kind of a thing at a restaurant, but I’ve been pretty healthy most of the week (cocktails excluded) so I got what I really wanted. Lisa and I haven’t seen each other for six months, so we had a lot to catch up on… and ate veeeeery slowly. I savored every bite!

When I got home a few hours later, I was feeling snacky and had some Reduced Fat Triscuits (I never buy these myself… they’re too addicting!) and had them with Roasted Red Pepper Sabra. Mm-mm good.

Around the blogs: Remember my beautiful friend Sarah?

She’s started her own blog! Check her out at Sarah’s Balancing Act.

So close but yet so far…

lilveggiepatch — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:25:34 +0000

Yep, just one 10-page paper standing between me and my diploma. Such a small thing, but that’s what makes it so hard to do! I’m just going to stay up all night tonight and get it done… blaaaaah. Anyway, enough whining!

My grandparents and I had a really nice time at their club’s Mother’s Day Brunch. There were so many good things spread out on the buffet table; I loaded plate #1 with mixed greens, beets, cucumbers, carrots, asparagus, salmon and sundried tomato & feta orzo pasta salad.

I ordered a side of whole wheat toast, but it was so buttery! I only ate half of it, which I didn’t even really want, but I wanted bread.

Plate #2: grapes, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, pineapple.

Plate #3: More fruit and two small squares of nutty chocolate fudge.

I came home and took a turbo nap (2+ hours), woke up and made snack: sesame rye cracker with peanut butter, cinnamon and 1/2 banana.

Aside from one frozen banana in my freezer, there is no fruit in my apartment! I only have to get to Thursday, but I need some healthy snacking options so I think I’m going to need to get to the store. I’m going out to dinner with some friends tonight (and then writing my paper, I swear) but it’s kind of a burger joint so I have a feeling I might have a little trouble with the menu. I still have the bowling-ball-in-belly feeling leftover from last night’s beer/cereal-fest, but tomorrow’s the first day of “Senior Week” so I have a feeling maintaining healthy habits like diet and exercise is going to be a bit of a challenge. We shall see!

Hope you had a fabulous weekend and are enjoying the last dregs of Sunday

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.

Smile like it's Thursday

lilveggiepatch — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:47:40 +0000

Good morning! I hope you enjoyed fabulous evenings last night… sorry I didn’t post but I wanted to finish up my paper draft before I went to sleep. I always need some kind of closure before I get into bed or the whole next day is tense… kind of like the “Don’t go to bed angry” idea (which I also am a big proponent of). Anyway, today will be spent editing and then I get to turn it in and move on! Whew.

Yesterday I snacked on a banana with Barney Butter around 4:30. I made a big mess in the library!

There was some extra Barney leftover, so I spread it on two Ryvita crackers.

This ended up being a pretty big snack, but it held me over during the run I decided to go for on a whim. I almost talked myself out of going when I couldn’t find my headphones, but then I remembered the free ones that came with my make-up remover!

They’re actually pretty nice… they’re a little big for my ears but at least they didn’t slip out.

I turned around almost immediately when the sky started to get stormy, but then decided to be a big girl and stop making excuses. I went 2.5 miles and felt great after an almost month-long hiatus, and when I got home, there was a rainbow!

It just kept getting brighter.

I did 8-minute abs and was about 5 minutes into Yoga For Runners when my roommate came home. I was a little too self-conscious to Downward Dog-it in the middle of the living room with someone else there, so I stopped.

Dinner was the best crack wrap yet: Hummus, American + 4 Italian Cheeses on an Italian Herb Flatout. It tasted just like pizza! I’ve been having so many of these that pretty soon I’ll probably be screaming “NINETEEN!” and demanding Ari play “Pincher Pincher” with me on iChat.

I had a side romaine/tomato/green pepper salad with rice wine vinegar/sesame oil/sesame seeds/chili flakes and some steamed rebel carrots. Is it weird that I’ve been thinking about those carrots all day? (Don’t answer that.)

Had some carrot water (which is GREEN, incidentally) for Jess…

Hot sauce went everywhere. I don’t want to speak too hastily, but I think it may have replaced ketchup in my heart.

For dessert I had chocolate Gelati-da gelato with warmed berries, hot fudge, two pecans and shredded unsweetened coconut. All this talk about “big guns” made me go all out.

Once I pop, the fun don’t stop…

I haven’t had a breakfast cookie since February (I checked, to make sure I got the proportions right) so I made one last night and stuck it in the fridge.

1/2 cup oats
1/2 banana
1 tsp PB
1 scoop yogurt (milk is funk)
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
cinnamon
two raisins, one fig, one pecan

I haven’t had protein powder in a while, and my palate isn’t used to the taste so I ate Jim with some NSA wild berry applesauce. Really good combination!

Well, time to edit. What do you have planned for the weekend?

Check out Meghann‘s Blue Mountain giveaway and have a great day!

Surly Burly

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:15:46 +0000

Ooof, what a long day! I graduate a month from tomorrow… very surreal!

For lunch today, I had a salad with romaine, tomatoes, feta, onions, a Morningstar Farms Italin Herb Chik’n patty with ketchup and mustard, hummus, and a vinegar/sesame oil dressing.

I also had a yogurt:

And an almond truffle left over from Valentine’s Day!

I took a long nap and forced myself to go on a run when I woke up, probably somewhere between 2 and 2.5 miles. It was really hot! Now I know what all the Floridians are talking about.

I thought I wouldn’t need an afternoon snack, but I ended up getting really hungry so I had an apple:

And a granola bar. Much better!

I made a wrap to bring to the library, which I’d been looking forward to all day! Peanut butter, 1/2 banana, cinnamon and blueberry jam on a Flat-Out. Yum!

I also had some carrots.

The Senior Gift Fund at my school decided to bring us to the Surly Brewing Company to give us incentive to donate to our annual fund. They provided school buses, so the way over there was a bit of a party! I shared a 312 Goose Island on the way there.

While there, I had a few 3-oz samples.

Here’s the 16-grit (these are pretty strong; they have 10% alcohol):

A Cynic:

A Coffee Bender (which tastes just like cold press coffee):

I also had an American IPA (not pictured), which was a lot fruitier and lighter.

The founder and owner of Surly graduated from my college.

He sold their first brew in 2006, after sending out a home-brew instead of a birth announcement for his first son! What a great idea.

This was my first brewery tour; it was a lot of fun and really interesting to see the inside of a small brewing company. I have a few friends here who brew their own beer, and I think it was kind of inspirational for them to see it grow into a small business.

There were snacks at the brewery; I had some cheese and crackers and fruit and veggies (not pictured).

When I got home, I had some Stonyfield Farms After Dark Chocolate frozen yogurt with half of a chocolate chip Hot ‘n Healthy bar with canned peaches.

I’m zonked! Time for bed. Hope you had a great night!