Yesterday I got up early, packed up, had a quick breakfast and headed out.  I [...]]]> 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

Yesterday I overslept my alarm by TWO HOURS, so I was very happy to [...]]]> Once again, I am blown away by how sweet you all are.  Thanks so much for being so nice and understanding, and sticking with me even though I’m not always able to give you my 100%.  You make me blush!

Yesterday I overslept my alarm by TWO HOURS, so I was very happy to have followed my rules and prepared a breakfast cookie the night before.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 2 T skim milk
• 1 T PB2
• 2 strawberries (topping)

Reading furiously must make burn more calories, because I was a hungry girl all morning! A couple hours after breakfast, I had a cup of TJ’s Organic Nonfat Greek Honey Yogurt.

An hour or so later, I had a Golden Delicious apple:

I finally finished my work around 2.  (On days I work at the restaurant, I like to eat lunch as late as possible since I eat dinner at 11 or later.) I took Jess‘s suggestion and made a Meatless Meatball sandwich, on a wrap (microwaved, not grilled, to save time) with hummus and light munster cheese.

I also had a huuuuuge arugula salad with red and yellow pepper, sprayed with Bragg’s.

It didn’t make the photo, but I smothered the wrap in salsa and Frank’s Red Hot.

At work, I snacked on a fig bar.  I first heard about these from our favorite Michigan girl, and I just love them! They’re like big, smushy Fig Newtons.

We weren’t very busy at work last night, but the hours actually flew by pretty quickly and I was surprised when it was time for Ramon to ask what I wanted for dinner.

He made me a big salad with mixed greens, vegetables, and a can of imported Italian tuna (in oil). Very yummy!

On my walk to the subway, I stopped at the deli across the street from the restaurant for a fruit cup.  I ate it all in less than five minutes! It’s hard to beat fresh fruit.

All in all, a busy, but not bad, day.  And hey, at least I’m not bored! I’m enjoying an evening to myself tonight, watching Fracture.  I do love me some Ryan Gosling

Been in my head… dance with it!

Thank you so much for your sweet comments about my less-than-stellar few days at work this past week.  I try to leave work at “the office” (in this case, the restaurant), and I know I shouldn’t let these things get to me, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.  Anyway, [...]]]> [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whbTXgYOXgI]

Been in my head… dance with it!

Thank you so much for your sweet comments about my less-than-stellar few days at work this past week.  I try to leave work at “the office” (in this case, the restaurant), and I know I shouldn’t let these things get to me, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.  Anyway, I love you guys.

Yesterday was another hot bowl of cereal, since I haven’t had time to go grocery shopping yet.  I can’t wait to have a breakfast cookie again!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• cinnamon
• TJ’s Mangolicious mango/berry blend
• 1 tsp almond butter

In my rush to get to work, I left my camera on the kitchen counter.  At the restaurant, I had a cappuccino when I got there, a slice of a personal Margherita (mozzarella, tomato and basil) pizza around 3, and an egg white vegetable frittata (an omelet, but baked) for lunch at 4:30.

I brought my huge gym bag to work, but remembered that I’d forgotten socks and other crucial under items.  I walked to Gap after work to pick some up, but by the time I got there I felt like my legs were about to fall off and decided that going to sleep would be better than an excruciating workout.  I hopped on the train, had a little chocolate, and took a two-hour nap.

I felt very refreshed upon waking, and more than ready to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with Ari, his brother, and his bro’s fiancé.  After reading a lot of mediocre reviews of the movie, I was pleasantly surprised and ended up really enjoying it.  The adolescent drama was even better than the last installment, and, as Ari said, “the camera work was really good” (he didn’t read the books, so he was a little lost).  I used to buy the books at midnight when they came out, so it’s pretty strange that it’s taken me so long to see it.  Anyway, if you’re an HP fan, go, go, go!

I didn’t end up eating dinner until we got back (my tummy was a-rumblin’ throughout the movie), so I made a quick and easy dinner at 11:30- a wrap microwaved and smooshed with pepper jack, hummus, mushroom burger, and spinach, topped with salsa.

I had some grapes on the side:

Because it was so late, I ended up eating really fast and getting into bed 10 minutes after I finished.  As a result, I didn’t feel so hot and was pretty uncomfortable lying there and trying to fall asleep.  One day I will chew my food slowly, like a normal person…

All in all, it was a pretty good Sunday.  Work was good and I got to see some important people in my life while enjoying magic and wizardry. What more can ya ask for?

Around the blogs: Check out the trailer for Lynn‘s new movie! It looks fabulous, and so exciting that we “know” her!

Hope you’re having a great Monday!

Whew, talk about a bum day.  It felt like a weekend in college: stumble out of bed, scarf down breakfast, and go back to sleep for a few hours.  Yep, insomnia has returned.  Neither Sleepytime nor Sweet Dreams teas has been working, so I’ve had to turn to more medicinal remedies… those aren’t [...]]]>

Whew, talk about a bum day.  It felt like a weekend in college: stumble out of bed, scarf down breakfast, and go back to sleep for a few hours.  Yep, insomnia has returned.  Neither Sleepytime nor Sweet Dreams teas has been working, so I’ve had to turn to more medicinal remedies… those aren’t working so well either.  Ari’s teeth are still really bothering him, so we watched Band of Outsiders and waited for sleep to come.  Hopefully tonight, since I got a run in, it’ll be a little easier.

Breakfast was a cookie I made a couple days ago, but it still tasted good!

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 T chocolate PB2
• 2 T almond milk
• toppings: cinnamon, 1/2 peach

I woke up around 12:30 or 1, disoriented and a little miffed I’d let myself sleep so long because today is my only day off until next Wednesday, and I’m pretty sure I have to work that night.  Anyway, I didn’t know what I was in the mood for (we’re in a bit of a grocery slump), so I made the exact same thing I had for dinner last night: a heated wrap with a Morningstar Farms Mushroom Lovers Burger, spinach, hummus, pepper jack and salsa. If it ain’t broke…

I also had an apple while watching some more True Blood:

After lounging around in my gym clothes for several hours, I pushed my booty out the door for a run. The mapping is a little confusing for the route I take, but I think it’s about 2 miles or so.  Elise mentioned that Jillian Michaels has free weekly podcasts, so I downloaded one and listened to it on my run.  Having never watched The Biggest Loser, “Shred”-ed, or asked myself, “WWJD?” , this was my first JM experience.

I think I liked it! I didn’t get through the whole podcast, but so far I have learned one important thing: Do not consume caffeine after 3 PM. Period. Even though I just had an iced tea yesterday at 5, I was so wired and had a terrible time falling asleep last night.  In high school, I would literally drink four thermoses full of black coffee throughout the school day (don’t ask me why), but I guess my tolerance for caffeine has been severely broken down.  By keeping you awake at night, you not only miss out on sleep (obviously) but your cells don’t have time to rejuvenate.

After my run, I did 8-minute abs, level 2.  After almost 6 months, I still pant through the bicycle crunches.  I hate them! Is there an exercise move that you dread every time?

Total time: 31:49 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 198 (100%)

Average heart rate: 170 (85%)

Calories burned: 357

For some reason, I was absolutely ravenous for the rest of the day.  I snacked on a banana with almond butter around 4:30, but by 6 I was starving again.

I was starting to get some serious cabin fever from being in the house all day, so I went into the city to meet my mom for dinner. Unfortunately, she’s had a pretty bad migraine all day and had to leave to go home.  My meal was too hot to be put in a take-out container, so I quickly ate and brought my mom her food.

I ordered tofu nabe and a piece of salmon sashimi:

I forgot to put use “udon” (big, thick Japanese noodles) into my order, but the brothy soup was still good on its own.  The dish was huge, and the bottom was covered with about a pound of cabbage.  I probably ate half.

When I went home, I grabbed some dried fruit and nuts from the pantry that my parents got at the Co-Op for me for home #2:

Charley also needed a walk (and a haircut… that makes two of us), so we strolled around the park for a little.

On the way back over the bridge, I met up with Greg for some Tasti D.  I got a small cup with half peanut butter, half dutch chocolate, and peanut butter chips.  Artificial or not, I missed this stuff.

On our walk, we happened upon this gem of sidewalk art.  Pretty snazzy, hmm?

Now I’m back home, cozy in bed, watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the 754th time and hoping my mind will be wiped clear for just one night so I can get some sleep.  I’m working a lot the next few days, so this rest would be greatly appreciated!

In unrelated news…

Check out Ari! The Upwelling is featured on Seventeen.com’s Band Spotlight.

Have a great night. Bonne nuit

Sorry for disappearing yesterday… somehow the hours just got away from me.  It was a beautiful day, though, so I’m not going [...]]]> Sounds like summer, hmm? As much as I love squash and the like, I’m going to be sad when summer’s fruits and vegetables are no longer.  Maybe I should pick up canning!

Sorry for disappearing yesterday… somehow the hours just got away from me.  It was a beautiful day, though, so I’m not going to complain about it.  What I will moan about a little, however, is that my camera is dying.  Crucial functions are no longer working, so the photo quality is pretty crummy.  Guess I’ll be picking up some more shifts at the restaurant…

For breakfast yesterday, I made breakfast cookies for me and Ari.

Ari’s was made according to the usual method, but I experimented with mine a little bit.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp PB2
• 2 T almond milk
• 1/2 scoop protein powder (I just bought a new kind, vanilla-flavored Designer Whey… not what I wanted, but it was on sale)

• toppings: cinnamon, 1/2 peach

After fumbling around on the computer for an embarrassingly long time, I headed down to the gym.  I did 16 minutes on the stairs at level 10 (whew!), arms, 3 minutes of running at 6.5 and 9 minutes walking at 4.0 at a 4% incline, and abs.

Total time: 58:05 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 191 (96%)

Average heart rate: 155 (78%)

Calories burned: 551

On the way out of the gym, I snacked on an apple:

I had some things to pick up chez maman et papa (read: magazines), so I brought my leftover stir-fry uptown and heated it up with a scoop of Thai red curry paste:

To rehydrate the veggies and keep them from sticking the pan, I added a couple tablespoons of skim milk and the last of the bag of Trader Joe’s Multigrain Pilaf.

I’ve been so thirsty lately, so I had about a gallon of water (with said reading material):

For dessert, I had a mango with a little sea salt:

A little later, I met up with my Greg at Starbucks.  I got a Grande Unsweetened Passion Tea Lemonade and sucked it down pretty fast on a stoop.

I had a lot of reading to do and limited time, so after leaving Greg I went home to get some work done.  Midway through, I broke for a quick dinner: spinach with salsa, hummus, a Laughing Cow wedge, grapes, and a chik’n patty.  Is it weird that fake chicken is one of my favorite things to eat?

For dessert, I had dried fruit, dark chocolate, and almond butter.  One day I’ll change, but that day is not today.

We tried to watch a movie and go to bed early, but Ari’s having some wisdom teeth issues and I’m still an insomniac, so morning came waaaay too early.  I had every intention of getting up to run- and I even did get out of bed and put on my gym clothes- but my eyes were burning and I just couldn’t get myself out the door.  Tomorrow is another day.

We went to the diner for breakfast… A was looking pretty unhappy because of his teethies so I was nice and didn’t photograph him this time.

Our omelets (egg whites with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and feta) took a while to come out, so I ate it in 5 minutes flat so I wouldn’t be late to work.  Oof.

I also inhaled some buttery whole wheat toast on my way out the door.

I stopped at a bakery on the way to work and picked up a seeded roll to eat the oysters with.

A while ago I won one of Erica‘s contests, and she sent me PeTA’s Vegan College Cookbook.  I vaguely remembered a pickle/chickpea salad (and I think Erin made something similar a while back), so I whipped up one of my own.  It was pretty good, although not the most aesthetically pleasing things:

• 6 oz plain Chobani Greek yogurt
• 1/2 can chickpeas
• 1 BIG garlic dill pickle
• two shakes cumin
• two shakes rice wine vinegar

I ended up only eating a few bites of oysters and half the roll, but I scarfed down the salad and apple.

Later on, I snacked on a Chocolate Brownie PURE bar.

Nutrition facts can be found here.

Pros: Dense dark chocolatey taste, with walnutty hunks.  Very fudgy, like a “real” brownie.

Cons: Like Larabars, it’s a little high in calories to use as an end-of-the-meal treat.

Would I buy this again? Yes, for a satisfying chocolate fix.  However, I’m still having a hard time tracking these down and have only found them in one Trader Joe’s.

After work, I met up with Caitlin for coffee.  We went to Third Rail, a coffee shop in the West Village that’s only been open for 11 days.  I got an iced coffee with skim milk and sugar in the raw:

After a lot of window shopping (and sighing), we stopped at Caitlin’s for a pit stop, where she kindly fed me a banana.

After leaving her house, I went to McNally Jackson Books for a reading from Heavy Roation, a collection of essays of authors reminiscnces of records that changed their lives.  Each story was accompanied by the song featured in it, the highlight of which was a cover of the Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back.” You’d be amazed how high the [male] singer could sing!

The reading didn’t end until 8:30, by which point I was beyond ravenous.  I raced home and grilled a wrap with spinach, pepper jack, hummus and a Morningstar Farms Mushroom Lovers Burger.

I ate it with a side of more spinach dressed in rice wine vinegar and sesame oil.  I ate it all fast, standing over the sink, like Diane Lane in Must Love Dogs.  Yep.

Dessert was the same as last night (scroll up), but I was really craving some Tasti D.  Maybe tomorrow.

Off to bed.  Hope you had a great Tuesday!

Evening! Thanks so much for your kind comments earlier about my less-than-stellar meals of late.  One of the reasons I started the blog was to encourage myself to come up with new and interesting recipes that can be made quickly, healthily and cheaply, to adhere to the student’s budget and schedule.  While this [...]]]>

Evening! Thanks so much for your kind comments earlier about my less-than-stellar meals of late.  One of the reasons I started the blog was to encourage myself to come up with new and interesting recipes that can be made quickly, healthily and cheaply, to adhere to the student’s budget and schedule.  While this mentality is more than applicable to my broke, post-graduate self, I can tell it’s going to be a lot more difficult because I’m living with several other people and I don’t have as much time.  This will be a challenge, but I know it can be done!

This morning (well, more like afternoon… we’re all friends here so I can be honest ) I headed to the gym to complete Day 2 of Gina’s Summer Shape-Up.  I’m a few weeks behind, but it’s better late than never! Today’s session was elliptical-heavy, but she split it up so it never got boring.  I’m excited for Day 3! Unfortunately, my HRM was ONCE AGAIN off it’s cork. I’m going to call Polar tomorrow if I have time… it’s so frustrating! I probably burned about 400-500 calories; this may be a good thing for me, since it’s forcing me to think more about how each exercise makes my body feel rather than how many calories I’m torching.

I was ravenous when I got home, so I whipped up some egg whites with mixed mushrooms, tomato, and a Laughing Cow Light cheese:

I also had some rebel carrots and two huge pickles.

Axelrod Mixed Berry yogurt:

Everything (sans le yaourt) got smothered with hot salsa.

A few hours later, I met my mama at Lincoln Center for a Q&A session with the cast of the current production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come And Gone.  It was really interesting to hear the actors discuss the play right before seeing it and having just read it. The panel was also right across the street from Josephina, another restaurant in the Josie’s/Citrus group.

Like Josie’s, Josephina’s bread selection is fabulous.  My mom and I decided we needed to taste each one; from the left we have raisin, olive, cheese and multi-grain. Also like Josie’s, we were brought a vegetable spread (I think it was either red pepper or sundried tomato) instead of butter.

I pinched off about 1/4 of each.  I think the cheese was my favorite, but they were all mighty fine.

For my entrée, I ordered the Natural Choice Grilled Scottish Salmon.  It’s antibiotic and hormone- free, and comes with a lima bean-corn-orka succotash & green pea coulis.

The salmon was perfectly tender and juicy, and the succotash was delicious! It was, however, an enormous piece of fish.  I ate about 2/3 and brought the rest home to eat for lunch tomorrow.

I dragged my mom to Pinkberry on the way to the subway.  I got a small Original yogurt with raspberries and chocolate chips. Hit the spot!

If you’re in the NYC area and like theater, I highly reccommend seeing Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. The acting is superb, and the story is brilliantly haunting.  If you’re not here to see it in person, read the play! That’s an order.

When I got home I was starting to get hungry again so I snacked on an orange (minus a section or two, which will be featured in tomorrow’s breakfast).

Well, that’s it for me.  I’m still figuring out my weekend plans, but I’m excited for Friday no matter what I’m doing! What’s going on in your neck of the woods for the last days of May?

To get ready for your jazzy weekend, head over to Mara‘s blog and enter her cute foodie charm giveaway!

Night!

I went out to get a dress to wear for graduation today and didn’t know what time I’d be able to eat lunch, [...]]]> Good afternoon, blog friends! I hope you’re thoroughly enjoying your Thursday.  I just found a whole page of “soup jokes” by typing my title into Google. Dorkusmalorkus, as Ari would say.

I went out to get a dress to wear for graduation today and didn’t know what time I’d be able to eat lunch, so I had a banana. It’s not as old as it looks… I stuck it in the freezer so it wouldn’t go bad and it turned brown instead.

For some reason completely unknown to me, I’ve been craving Chipotle recently.  Yes, Chipotle! I’ve only had it once before, and that was about four years ago, so this is pretty strange.  But a craving is a craving and I wasn’t going to ignore it! There was a Chipotle on the street I was shopping on, so I got a salad:

• romaine
• black beans
• sautéed veggies
• tomato salsa
• tomato hot sauce
• guacamole (I took a bunch of it off to save for later… there was almost twice as much as what you see there)

I ended up getting a really good deal on a very pretty dress at J. Crew.  The dress is bought, so I guess I’m really graduating…

About an hour later I started to get hungry again (must be all the paper-writing) so I had some leftover Quick Spring Pea Soup. The garlic has really set in since Monday… I hope I don’t smell like a pizza place during Step!

Well, back to work. It’s a gorgeous day here… hope it’s nice where you are, too!