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Ever have one of those days where you feel blue but you don't know why? That was me today!

I felt so out of it I wasn't even hungry until after 4pm. So, while I finished watching Julie and Julia, I had a protein bar.

Just like the bar, the movie was so-so. I read the book, based on Julie Powell's 2002-2003 blog before the holidays back when I first started thinking about food blogging. The basic premise of her blog/book is how she cooked all 524 recipes in The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child in only 1 year. The book is VERY light on Julia Child, and the movie has a lot more of Julia's life and development as a cook. Julie Powell, on the other hand, is well, not as impressive.

After the movie, I went to Target to grab a few things, including some weights!

These Reebok 3 lb weights were on sale for $4 each, so I got two of them. I have not yet started using the weight room at the UMD gym, mostly because I don't know how to use a lot of the machines very well, and even I know that is a dangerous activity if you don't know your limits or how they work!

Since I'm not sure when I'll figure that stuff out (probably not this semester!), I decided to get some small free weights to do some exercises at home. I did 2 sets of 25 each of bicep curls, lateral raises, and standing shoulder presses. I think I will try a few different exercises from this site. It has a lot of exercises with text descriptions as well as video tutorials.

I also like the idea of free weights because I don't want to get too toned; more like I want my arm to stop waving hello when my hand does. I want to get into the habit of doing 30-40 minutes of cardio 4-5 days a week along with 2-3 days of light upper-body toning. We all know that muscle burns fat, so I should pump it up!

For dinner tonight it was.... CHIPOTLE!

Uhg. I should just keep a stock photo of this. So long as we are oven-less, Chipotle will probably be frequent. Too frequent. I had my usual steak, black beans, corn, tomatoes, 1 tbsp sour cream blend. It kicked crappy Chipotle's butt from the other day!

And I had a yummy melted ~3.4 cup of creamy chocolate ice cream for dessert!

Now I'm off to relax a bit. I have a long, busy work day tomorrow. My first seminar paper meeting with my advisor and my first class are on Tuesday night, so I need to spend tomorrow and Tuesday finishing up some research and dotting my "i's" and crossing my "t's"!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday...

I start school again Tuesday... that'll be rough after a 6 week break! At least I only have two night classes, and I am planning to do a lot of work from home, which is great!

Be that as it may, I am trying to make the most of my last relaxed weekend by having fun and eating good food! Last night we went to this great Lebanese place in town. We have been there 3-4 times, and have always had great food, but there never seems to be anyone there.

Surprising, because the Mosaic Cafe is really good, and not that expensive! I got their salmon kebab for $11.95:

It was a very hearty plate with a nice piece of seasoned grilled salad, spicy cucumber salad, roasted veggies, and a huge scoop of rice. I ate all of the veggies, most of the salmon, and just a few bites of rice. The rice was good, but I wanted to get my carb fill from our side dish:

This was the mutaball appetizer, which is eggplant and tahini topped with evoo and seasoning. I love eggplant based dips, so I enjoyed this a lot! I scooped this up with half a piece of a pita-like bread.

After dinner, we went to hang out at home. Kyle and Chris were having beer, but I didn't really want something so filling. So, I went and made 2 of these guys:

Smirnoff Citrus Vodka and club soda. After looking at several sites for the calorie content in flavored vodkas, I feel that 90-100 calories per ounce is normal. Most shot glasses vary between 1.5 and 3 oz shots (single and double shots). For my drink, I measured out 1 oz in a measuring cup, and mixed it with a lot of club soda. I had two; they were very weak, but it did the trick!

I also had a sweetness craving last night, but instead of digging into the communal house stash of Christmas cookies and candies, I went for a banana. I hoped the natural sweetness would do the trick.

Not so much... I had two mini snickers that escaped my paparazzi lens.

We had a late night, so I slept in and made brunch for Kyle and I at 11:30:

It was a repeat of yesterdays eggs (1 egg, 1 egg white, with soy chorizo and hot sauce and milk mixed in), half an apple, one piece of buttered whole grain toast, a few bites of toast with strawberry preserves. I had a 10 oz glass of milk on the side :-)

Today is going to be dedicated to a little me time... Kyle is off watching football, and I am relaxing on my own in an empty house! I would have gone to watch the game, but I'm not quite ready to tackle the temptation to mindlessly drink and snack on the couch all afternoon.

I'm off to read, and if the weather holds, possibly a walk down the street to the get some coffee in a bit.

Later, gators!

Let's Go to the Mall, Everybody!!

Any HIMYM fans? No? Alright...

So last night, for date night, I FINALLY got some Chinese food! I have been craving it for ages now, and Kyle picked out a place that had great reviews just up the road in Laurel.

I was REALLY excited :-) xoxo

The place was in a sketchy-ish strip mall, but once in side there were several people placing take-out orders, which I always mark as the sign of a good Chinese restaurant.

We started with some hot tea and some plum wine to drink:

The tea was great, the plum wine not so much. We went with it because we were both considering cocktails that were mostly plum wine, and now I see why! It was very sickly sweet, made of grape juice, artificial plum flavor, and caramel as the main ingredients. I barely drank my initial pour. Blah!

Luckily, dinner was much better! For an appetizer we got the spicy chicken wontons:

The filling was a little chewy, but the plum broth was delicious! It had a lot of flavor without tasting salty, which I think is another mark of a great Chinese place because a lot of restaurants use sodium as their main flavoring agent. I split this with Kyle, having about 4-5 little dumplings (they were the size of a large grape).

Our entrees came, and Kyle got the chef special crab stuffed scallops in a spicy black bean sauce:

Now, those were not actually crab stuffed scallops; more like the scallops were in the middle of a light batter with shrimp paste. Non-the-less, they were tasty. Kyle let me have one... excellent black bean sauce!

I myself ordered my old-time favorite and stand-by chinese dish, Moo Goo Gai Pan:

Basically, Moo Goo Gai Pan is a dish of lightly sauteed (sometimes steamed) vegetables with chicken in a white sauce. This dish had LOTS of broccoli, carrots, snap peas, and bamboo shoots. At first I didn't like it because the initial taste I got was salty... not a good taste! As I ate, it went away. It was okay; the veggies were well cooked and there was not a ton of chicken, but I wasn't happy with the sauce. I ate almost all of the veggies, and had no rice after my crazy caloric lunch!

After dinner, we went home to have a nice, quiet date night at home for the rest of the night. I drank some more of the sparkling white wine from last night, and to commemorate Conan's last night on air, we split Kyle's leftovers from dinner (I had 1/2 cup rice mixed with black bean sauce, yum!)

When I woke up this morning, I wanted eggs. Problem? WE STILL DO NOT HAVE A FREAKING STOVE!!!!!!

So, I had to do what Kyle's Uncle Tom does... microwave them. I have not done this myself before, but I had to satisfy my craving, right?

The ingredients were simple, 1 egg and 1 egg white, a splash of milk, and then a chunk of this great soy chorizo from TJ's:

As a meat lover, I am surprised that this passed the test as being so delicious and worthy of being part of my regular cooking regime. I bought it for the first time ages ago when we were at TJ's and they had not regular pork chorizo. The first time I used it, it was in scrambled eggs and was delicious! It has a ton of flavor, and is low in fat, calories, and sodium.

I used about 2 tbsp of the chorizo, with all of the juices its packed in, and made sure to mix it, the milk, and eggs very well before microwaving it.

I nuked it for about 1.5 minutes, and it was very nearly cooked. I gave it another good stir, and put it back in for 30 seconds. Then, voila!

I topped the eggs of with some tomatoes, and had a banana and some milk on the side. Delish! The eggs look very brown because of the juices and seasonings from the chorizo.

A few hours later, Kyle and I decided we wanted to go down into DC to walk around, but wanted to have lunch at home to be 1) healthier, and 2) cheaper! I made us HUGE salads, that really hit the spot... we ate at 11:30, and I am still full at 5pm!

• Spring greens mix
• 1/2 cup of black lentils
• 1 TJ's pre-cooked chicken patty heated up on the forman
• 1/4 chopped red pepper
• handful of chopped grape tomatoes
• salsa
• sour cream
• humus mixed with hot sauce, sour cream, and salsa juice to make it more dressing-like

IT WAS SO GOOD. AND SO FILLING. The only change I would make is not to have that blob of sour cream. Aside from having it pre-mixed into the hummus, it didn't add much. The salsa, however, was great with the chicken!

After our HUGE lunch we headed down to DC, stopping at starbucks on the way:

I got a grande skim awake tea latte.... very, very good! I would get it again!

It took us almost two hours to drive downtown and find parking... we were seriously kicking ourselves for having not just taken the metro. I mean, honestly, it would have been a $4 roundtrip with no worry about parking meters. Stupid.

Anyway, we finally got there and decided to use our 2 hour parking limit to go to the botanical gardens and then walk up the mall.

So pretty! After perusing the gardens, we took an hour long walk up the mall and back to the car. It was a great day, not too cold when you were in the sun, and not very crowded walking around the mall.

Alright, off to recoup and then head out bowling with Jason and Lisa!

Early Posting...

Ciao!

Tonight will be a late one, so I thought I would go on and post everything pre-dinner.

I got up today at 8:30, but did not head to the gym. Instead I did some reading and had my FAVORITE Luna Bar for breakfast:

This is by far the best Luna Bar I've had, it's a little sweet but has a really good flavor. It actual reminds a bit of an oreo cookie bar. Mmmm!

I had a really good, solid workout today, one where your legs feel like jello when you're done! I did 2o minutes on the elliptical (missed that this past week!), and then 20 on the stationary bike. I felt great, sweaty, but great when done!

Afterwards, I didn't have a snack because the reason I went to the gym later than usual was so that I could meet Kyle for lunch right after. He took me to a place in town I hadn't been before, the Thirsty Turtle for their lunch special :-)

It was fatty and greasy, but delicious! The lunch special is a pint of beer and two slices of pizza for a miniscule $5!! I got a Stella on draft, and two slices of mushroom and onion pizza (I also ordered green peppers, but they were out). This was really good, and not so greasy once I wiped it down with my napkin.

I honestly didn't feel too bad eating just about all of it because I worked out for 40 minutes in the gym, then walked a mile to the Turtle, and then another mile back to my car after lunch. I think it balances it out!

In terms of a snack, I didn't really want one, and I also knew I would have a big dinner tonight. I just needed a little caffeine pick me up so borrowed one of our roommate's Coke Zero's:

Did the trick, but I wish it was coffee instead because of this cooold weather!

Kyle just got home, so it's time to get ready for date night!

Almost the weekend...

Hey guys! It has been a looong, busy day. But there was a TON of good food to get me through!

I got up and headed to the gym before 9am, and had a banana for a pre-workout snack:

I had a good workout today! I took yesterday off to be cautious of my ankle, but I felt good and strong today. I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes, then biked on low intensity for another 20. I had a good sweat listening to crazy ol' Ryan Seacreast on the gym speakers (I really need to get an mp3 player!).

After the gym, I ran a few errands, but forgot to pack a snack for after my workout. So, when I drove by Chipotle at 11am, I couldn't help myself. I really wish I had, though!

This was the WORST Chipotle I have ever had! Like I said, I got there right at 11, when they opened. Apparently, they don't necessarily make fresh food every day.... my steak was cold, and the corn and tomatoes were mushy like they were leftover from last night. Definitely disappointing!

Once home, I did a lot of reading for my seminar paper due in 3 short months (wish me luck!), and had a huge hunger pang at 2pm due to my early lunch and lack of breakfast. I made a pretty good combination, though:

I cut up an apple into chunks, sprinkled them with cinnamon and microwaved them for 1 minute, stirring them in the middle. They came out warm and soft, very similar to baked cinnamon apples. I topped them off with one of my yo Crunch cheesecake yogurts, and dug in! It was really good! I'm not much of an apple fan, but I liked them with a bit of sweetness from the cinnamon with the slightly tart yogurt. Plus the graham cracker crunch!

Dinner was spread out into two mini-meals, Kyle came home later than usual, and so I decided to have a salad at 5:30 to hold me over (of course he walked in the door right when I was done):

It was spring green mix, a 1/4 cup of black lentils, a scoop of humus, CHOLUA, and half of a red pepper. It was great, and very filling. It held me over until the rest of dinner, the last of the leftover indian lentils from the other night:

I have to say, it got better by the day due to the spices setting in. I think my initial upset was due to the fact that it didn't turn out like I expected... but sometimes kitchen disasters turn into great recipes.

I also mixed in a little bit of TJ's fully cooked rice:

We're running low on our TJ's goods... need to make another run soon. Espescially because we STILL DO NOT HAVE A STOVE. So, so, so, SO upsetting!!! I'm just as tired as using the Foreman or crockpot for every meal as you guys are probably getting look at them!! I promise that once I have access to a stove my meals will be a little bit more interesting. Arrgh.

Le sigh.

Instead of dessert I have opted for another guilty pleasure of mine, sparkling wine!

Did you know that there are laws in Europe against referring to Champagne and sparkling wine as the same thing?

Alright guys, it's a Grey's night so I am needed elsewhere. Have a good one, and a great start to the weekend!

Boring Day!

Hey guys! Not a very exciting or eventful day...

For breakfast I had my afternoon snack from yesterday, a bowl of multi-grain cheerios with skim milk and a banana (sorry for lack of photo!)

I was oddly not hungry until early afternoon. I had a hair appointment at 1, and only started to feel hungry when I was leaving at 2:30. So, once I got home I had some of last night's leftovers:

It tasted better after sitting overnight because the spices developed more flavor. I also added some Cholua hot sauce, and had it sans rice this time.

For a little sweetness:

Then for dinner, I felt the need to satisfy my roots with.... BRATS! My dad's family is from Wisconsin, so during the summers my dad would grill some brats up for us.

I used Johnsville Smoked Brats (lowest fat/cal/cholesterol of all the ones I perused), and soaked them in a shallow bowl of beer all day. I only had a Miller Lite on hand, but normally would use something like Yeungling. I then just tossed them on the Forman for a few minutes until they were sizzling and popping a little bit.

On the side I made the same grilled mashed potatoes from a few nights ago, and a spring mix/spinach salad with tomatoes, goat cheese, and balsamic vin.

It really hit the spot, but now I am super full!

Have a good night, everyone!

It's only Tuesday...

Here goes my day in one swoop!

I got up earlier than usual (7:45) and headed over to the UMD gym. Over the past few days, I've been able to walk more and more, but mostly flat footed so that I don't flex my ankle a lot. However, I would periodically stretch my ankle, and it would make these AWFUL sounding, loud pops every time. They hurt pretty bad, but my ankle would feel a bit better each time.

On my way, I had a Luna Bar. I really liked this one at first, but once I got more than half-way through, the white chocolate started to taste like an artificial flavoring. Yech! I didn't finish it.

So, today, I decided to see if I could use the treadmill or at least do some weights today. The ~5 min walk from the parking lot wasn't so bad, and once I was inside the heated locker room I began to feel better. I did 20 min of slooooooow walking on the treadmill, and then some upper-body weights (nothing fancy, just some curls, crunches, etc...)

My ankle felt tight after I got off the treadmill, but after stretching and a hot shower it felt like it had earlier this morning.

When I left, I had a few Annie's Organic Honey Bunnies. Love these!

I ran a few errands this morning, including one of my favorites... grocery shopping! Haha, ever since I was little my dad has been weary of taking me to the store; he claims the second he turns his back something randomly sneaks into the cart ;-). What can I say? I love food!

Dad, you would be proud today, I went in with a list and only got was on it! Kyle and I are trying to plan out our weekday meals so that we maximize what we buy, and minimize what we spend.

Produce:

• baby spinach
• spring salad mix
• jazz apples
• bananas
• 1 yellow onion/1 white onion
• grape tomatoes (uhg! why do all the tomatoes look so gross right now?!)
• carrots
• celeary
• green/red peppers
• red potatoes

Meat/Poultry

• 3 boneless chicken breasts
• smoked brats (healthiest looking ones in terms of fat/calories/sodium without getting chicken or turkey alternative)
• 1/2 lb peppercorn roast turkey (this GREAT on salads as well as sandwiches)

Dairy:

• gallon of skim milk
• goat cheese
• more yo Crunch!
• Slow Churned, rich and cream chocolate ice cream :-)

Grains/Non-perishable:

• whole grain bread
• red lentils
• Basmati ready rice (STILL NO STOVE!!!! ARRRRRGHHHHH!)
• ground corriander spice
• diced green chiles

I also got some frozen, steamfresh veggies and my guilty pleasure:

Don't look at me like that. you try going 2.5 weeks sans stove when you love you some pasta!

Once I put everything away, I had an early 11:30 lunch. I was a little annoyed about my ankle, not wanting to do research this afternoon, and I was in severe pasta withdrawal, so I just had a big scoop of mac and cheese (about 1-1.5 cups?) This stuff is AWFUL for you, but hey, what is life without a little indulgence?

After lunch I threw together our dinner... indian lentils in the crockpot. I followed the recipe exactly except I added 4 cups of broth and two cups of water. The house smelled GREAT, and I was really looking forward to dinner.

As my lunch was not even remotely protein filled, I was hungry ALL afternoon. For a snack I had a small bowl of multigrain cheerios with skim milk and a sliced banana at about 2:30.

At 5pm I looked in my crockpot to find a big, water, mushy, flavorless mess! I wish I had read the comments for this entry, because it seems that a lot of people had similar problems.

When Kyle got home, he added more of the spices originally used in the recipe, plus black pepper and cayenne pepper. I cut up some bell peppers to toss in.

During the extended cooking process, I had a granola bar. It's strange, but I actually prefer the generic brand of these by Rich Food (carried at Shoppers Grocery Stores). This Fiber One bar has a weird taste, but I can't quite put my finger on it....

Here is the finished dinner product....

We added some microwavable basmati rice, and had a glass of Frontera Carmenere. It was definitely salvagable, but I was really looking forward to having a consistency more like this:

Oh well, you win some you lose some! Hopefully I can try out some more Indian recipes when I have my STOVE back.

Off to enjoy some dessert, and TV for date night :-)

Back to the Grind

Quick dinner post (I'm blogged out after my afternoon entry! Must try to do it all in one swoop each day!)

For dinner, I had almost nothing left in the fridge to work with (despite our outing today, the grocery store just didn't happen).

All we had left was the final dregs of a few bags of greens, frozen buffalo burgers, hot dog buns, my leftover salad from last night, and some red potatoes.

As we are STILL without an oven, the Foreman was my only means of cooking.

I decided to mix all three remaining salads together (green mix, baby spinach, and iceberg) with a few carrots, onions, fresh parm, and one shredded piece of prosciutto.

Then, I wanted to use the potatoes, so I made roasted mashed potatoes. I have always just boiled potatoes for mashing, but have been interested in roasting them instead for quite a while.

So, I took:

• 3 red potatoes, halved and narrowly sliced
• 1 tbsp of evoo
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• 1 tsp of cajun seasoning (any spices will do!)

I then placed them on two sheets of tin foil and folded them into a packet the size of the Foreman grill face, and cooked them for ~20 minutes or so until they were very tender.

When they were all done, I smashed them with the bottom of a cup, and added 1 tbsp of unsalted butter and a splash of skim milk and stirred with a wooden spoon. In hindsight I would have sprinkled a bit more cajun seasoning in for more spice!

I then threw on two TJ's Buffalo Burgers.

These are GREAT! Considering they are frozen burgers, they have wonderful flavor and cook very nicely. They have mushrooms, onions, and white cheddar cheese mixed in and are about $7 for a pack of four. After having them for dinner once last week, too, Kyle and I have decided that they need to become a staple in our freezer!

My finished dinner (on some of my awesome new dinnerware!):

I had ~1 cup of potatoes, 1 piece of skim provolone cheese on my burger, and lots of salad drizzled with balsamic vin.

Kyle wanted some bread, so I had to get creative with what we had:

Haha :-)

For dipping, I had ketchup with some Cholua mixed in, and a new mustard we got: Emeril's Kicked up Horseradish Mustard. I love mustard, and I like horseradish, but it was waaay too much. I had to cut it with lotsa ketchup!

Now I am winding down for the night, and about to enjoy another Breyer's 100 cal yo crunch cheesecake yogurt.

Take it easy!