4/27 Recap

For breakfast yesterday I had some savory oats:

Then hit the gym:

• 30 minutes on the arc trainer

I REALLY could tell I had not worked out much the past few weeks when I went in yesterday. I definitely need to get back on track!

Lunch was a limp spinach, tomatoes, and turkey salad. Eh. No pic, sorry!

Dinner was home-made fried rice with tofu, carrots, onion, peas, and egg. I am not putting the recipe because I tried to make it low sodium, and it wound up being very bland.

4/26 recap

Monday I woke up at 7am to take my car to get it inspected. I promptly went back to sleep and slept through my normal breakfast time.

At 11:30 Ky and I went to Saladelia, a great med cafe. I got a cold plate of chicken salad, black bean salad and taboleh:

I ate about 2/3 of it.

On the road I had a coffee (sorry no pic!) and then an early dinner of CHIPOTLE!

4/25 Recap

I got up around 8:30 on Sunday, and had the rest of my luna from Saturday:

At 11:30 we went to brunch at Rick's Diner. I was a bit apprehensive because I have known people who worked there and said the food was made with TONS of oil. But it's only one meal, right?

I had the special Coastal Benedict, which was two crab cakes with an egg, bacon, and hollandaise on top of each. Plus I had the hash-brown casserole for my side:

It was not good. When you order a crab cake, you expect for it to be firm and CAKE like; not mush. Also, the hollandaise was flavorless. I ate about 1 1/3 of the crab cakes and half the hash browns. Plus 1.5 cups of coffee:

After brunch Ky and I decorated for the graduation party that night, and hit up TCBY for a mid-afternoon snack! I got the parfait, which is 3 toppings and 2 sections of fro-yo.

M&Ms + white chocolate mousse + PB cups + chocolate + oreos. Decadence at it's finest.

That evening the whole family got together for a Graduation Party of sorts. Mom, Dad, Zach, Mirya, Jessea, Shel, Kyle and I got to celebrate. The May 2010 Graduates:

• Jessea, BS from Duke
• Kat, MA from UMD
• Kyle, PhD from UMD
• Mirya, PhD from Claremont

So, we had a grilling frenzy! We had a ton of appetizers set out when everyone arrived, but I got no photos because I had only a few chips. I was in the kitchen trying to make sense of our grilling fiesta.

We made chicken kebabs, tuna kebabs, and veggie kebabs. For the tuna I made a special marinade:

Rice vinegar, lime juice, low-sodium soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and red pepper. I brushed the marinade on and let them marinate for a few hours in the fridge:

Half the chicken was marinated in BBQ:

And the other half was in vinaigrette:

The veggies were grilled with a little EVOO:

The finished products + some rice on the side:

My plate:

I had a Red Stripe while cooking:

And switched to wine in my special Grad glass later:

We also got a cake!! It was too late to order a cake, so I decorated it myself:

It was a really nice, really fun night!

4/24 Recap

Ah, Durham. How I've missed you. I totally did not appreciate my hometown enough growing up there!

On Saturday am I had half a luna:

Then we went to the Fish Shack for lunch, a new addition the Q-Shack, a BBQ place. We started with an order of hush puppies, split between me, Kyle, and my mommy:

Perfect for dipping in spicy cocktail sauce!

I got fish tacos with a side of fried okra (a southern fave)

Was not impressed; I didn't realize the fish tacos would be fried, and the provided almost no tomato garnish for them. Sadly just about everything on the menu looked fried.

Kyle and I hit up Harris Teeter for some supplies, and I had a sample sugar cookie:

When we got home, Ky and I opened some wine for us and my dad, plus some bread and tapenade, which aparently I took no photos of.

Dinner was out at a new Indian place Sitar. Sadly, it was a buffet which we were not prepared for considering it was dinner time. I took a little scoop of each item that was NOT fried:

It looks like a lot, but it is mostly veggies, and I got no bread or rice. I ate about 2/3... some of the stuff was good, some was pretty bland. I would have liked to order off the menu, but we had three separate people come by our table to "make sure we knew there was a buffet." As in, DO NOT order off the menu.

After dinner we hung out with the parents, and of course had more wine :-)

4/23/10 Recap

Yeah.... it was a BUSY few days... but I'm back!

Rewind to last Friday, 4/23.

I got up had a bowl of savory oats:

What up Elmo?

Yeah, the kids paper plates/bowls are MAD cheaper than the regular ones.

Oh, a note on that. Our house is in foreclosure, meaning our hot water will never be fixed before our lease ends. This means showers at the gym, paper plates, and a total of 2.5 months, or 85 days without hot water.

I hit the gym:

• 30 minutes arc trainer, level 8 weight loss setting

Then walked around campus, stopping for a few minutes to grab a coffee and do a few quick edits:

After I handed in a few things, I walked some more (about 20 minutes total) and went to run a few errands and grab a quick lunch from Wendy's, a spicy chicken sandwich (sans mayo and bun) with a side salad and my own vinaigrette:

I spent the afternoon packing, and went without a snack. Dinner was D.P. Dough... yum!

Cheese, sausage, onions, hot sauce calzone... the "Danger" Zone. Delish. So bad, but so good!

After dinner we hit the road for NC and got there right before midnight, and I had 2 Tsing Taos upon arrival:

4/23 recap donnnne!

Shenanigans

So, yesterday I sucked it up and finished my paper! I have a little bit more busy work to do (title page, etc) but the writing and reworking is OVER.

Very happy.

To get me over the finish line I had a fabulous lunch at 11:30:

The last 4-5 pieces of chicken, the last scoop of chickpeas, 1/2 cup of rice, and a ton of spinach. Yum, and devoured instantly.

I didn't get a snack because Ky had me pick him up mid-afternoon, and we of course had to get some vino to celebrate my big accomplishment! I set up a little wine tasting for us and our roommate, Chris:

3 pinot noirs:

low sodium triscuits with laughing cow and baby bel cheeses:

In terms of the wine, the gnarly head was the cheapest, and the grossest. We didn't have more than 1/3 the bottle all night. The best was the parker station, which was the least alcohol tasting of the three.

Dinner was an amazing chunky super veggie pasta sauce!

I cut up and sauteed these veggies in some evoo and hot pepper flakes:

When the veggies were tender, I added in these spicy chicken-turkey meatballs:

I cut them up to stretch em out!

Last but not least, 1 can of no-salt tomatoes and 2/3 jar of vodka sauce:

It was a yummy delish success! I had a few scoops on 2.5 oz whole wheat pasta:

I might have had some seconds.... :-) I love chunky pasta sauces; so much more filling so you eat less pasta and more veggies!

This am I woke up and was not feeling so hot; despite my paper being done I have a million other things going on in my life that are stressing me out. It's almost like now that my paper IS done, it's finally time to deal with everything else. But that is for another day!

I had a pity party and skipped the gym, and around 11 I went and got comfort food:

And settled in to work on a few more projects until my class at 4:30. Ky got chipotle for HIS dinner, so I was on my own and grabbed a burger:

(Not my actual photo!) I got fries, too, but they were really mushy and salty, so they got tossed.

Now I am in bed, and I think I am gonna call it a night and get a nice solid night of sleep in before I'm on the go all day tomorrow.

Can't wait to see my family and PUPPY this weekend!!!!