Good and Bad, all at the same time!

Sorry for no posting yesterday; the Snowtorious B.I.G. was a force to be reckoned with.

Remember how on Thursday night I was excited to lounge in bed and watch my stories like an old person? Well, no such luck. I wound up going to the grocery store to get what we needed for the weekend. My roommate Nick said the lines were crazy, so I figured I would rather just get it over with. I wish I had brought my camera.... it was MADNESS!

• I had to wait 20 minutes for a cart before finally stalking someone to get theirs
• The store was out of milk, eggs, chicken, and canned soup
• Costco was also in bad shape; they were sending people to smaller stores because COSTCO ran out of milk!
• I waited in line for 1.5 hours; I got in line at the very back of the store, and it took forever to get up there (I read a magazine to kill time, lol).

It's funny, my roommates are all from New York, and they think its insane how people are acting. They don't seem to understand that 4 inches, let alone 30 inches of snow is almost unheard of here, so people just don't know what to do other than stock up and hibernate.

So, on to Friday... Guys, this was a BAD FOOD DAY. I mean, bad. If I was actually following a strict diet, Friday was the equivalent of having fallen off the wagon and been run over. Twice.

1. I didn't eat before I went to the gym. Bad news. Don't ever do that. I started strong walking on the elliptical at 4.0 mph, on a 2.5 incline. After 30 minutes, I thought I was going to die. Not good. I only made it for 10 minutes on the bike I was so weak.

2. I was ravenous when I got home, and got to work on Asiago Mac and Cheese from my new magical website.

I followed all of the directions exactly, except I did not top it with bread crumbs and bake it. I really don't like bread crumbs on mac and cheese; it ruins the texture for me.

This recipe was VERY easy, and tastes amazing! I wish I had taken pics as I made it, but it is also VERY FAST. The most time consuming part is shredding the cheese, but even that is quick because asiago is so soft and crumbly.

I also liked using evaporated milk; I have to wonder if that is the key to making a good, rich, creamy cheese sauce. I usually wind up with a few lumps, or flour chunks, but this was amazingly smooth and well blended. I had one bite of this before...

3. Kyle thought we should save the mac and cheese for later, and grab something out while things were still open. We went to Wendy's, because it was right by Target and did not look crowded. I got the spicy chicken sandwich combo (no mayo) and a diet coke:

It was 1:30pm at this point, and I had been up since 9, and had a 40 minute workout that I had not satisfied. I ate it all. I'm not happy about it, but I did!! Haha, nah this combo isn't THAT bad, but it would have been better without the fries. Also, that is NOT mold on the bun.

At Target, we grabbed some candles just in case, as well as some entertainment. Mexican Dominos, and the Harry Potter 1-6 DVD set.

It was only $50, so we just went for it.

As we started watching The Goblet of Fire, our roomie Brendan showed up with a fabulous surprise... BOJANGLES!!!!

4. A southern right of passage, Bojangles is my absolute favorite fast food. And there is only one within 50 miles of here, and Kyle hates it. Soooo, I hardly ever get it. B went to Duke for undergrad, so luckily he sees the light. I ate a handful of their cajun spiced fries. Ordinarily I would never have fast food twice in one day, but I mean, they are effing good! And I never get them, so, yeah. I am fine with my fast food binge.

Honestly, part of the problem was also that I didn't eat until 1:30, my body just went in hunger auto-pilot, I think.

After that, we began our snow celebration. The players: Kyle, Chris, Brendan, Jess, Nick, and myself. We stocked up on booze, good food, and games for the weekend.

I myself stuck to some Frontera Carmenere, but we had beers of every variety, vodka drinks, martini's... you name it, we had it, lol.

5. For dinner we finally dug into the mac and cheese, and it was GREAT! I had a bowl of it, and wish I had actually cut up some tomatoes to mix in. It had a good, mild spice and a great creamy texture. Also, cavatappi is by far my favorite pasta, so I was in heaven! The crab was also excellent in this sauce.

After that, we broke out the Mexican Dominos, or Mexican train. Kyle and I were the only ones who had played before, but we had a great time teaching everyone and we all really got into. Everyone loved it!

6. I didn't snack at all, even though there were chips and chicken wings around. I felt pretty gross after my carb-a-holic day, so I took it easy.

After Mexican Dominos we switched over to Beer Pong, where Nick and I dominated. Kind of like last fall:

You can't beat us. Well, you can. But rarely. Very, very rarely.

Last night was a great night full of awesome people ready to make the most of being SNOWED IN!

10am Friday morning:

10pm Friday night:

1pm Saturday afternoon:

The snow is more than half-way up the fence!

Pretty :-)

7. In preparation for our big outing, we had a fabulous brunch! There was soy chorizo with mushrooms and onions:

2 eggs + 4 egg whites with bruschetta and texas pete:

2 bananas and a handful of blueberries:

Mimosas!

I had a 1/3 of the eggs, 1/3 of the chorizo mix, a scoop of fruit, 1 piece of toast, and a mimosa. Mmmmmm!

We needed that fuel because Ky and I decided to brave the snow (which is still falling!) and go for a walk.

So, I did get in some exercise, we walked about 1.5 miles down to 7-11 and back. Kyle wanted coffee, and I wanted a red bull so we braved the storm. It was gorgeous (as you can see from the pics), but also a great work out because even thought it was a short distance, it is hard walking through snow! It was pretty flat on the roads, but look at how hight it is on me:

It is easily up to my waist, but the bank I was standing in was so high that I was standing on several packed inches even though I sunk down quite a bit!

When we got home, I had a jumbo sugar free red bull:

Whew! Well, I'm off to make the most of our electricity while we are lucky enough to have it. For those of you also in the storm, be safe and have fun! Everyone else, well, I can't say I'm jealous because I'm having a great time!

Quick post!

I am WIPED guys! I am ready to veg out in bed watching TV for the rest of the night.

On my way to my 4:30 class I had a Luna bar. Sooooo good.

I also had a skim vanilla latte (sorry, I am not on the ball with photos lately!)

When I got home from class at 7:30 I was STARVING, and made this beauty:

A grilled TJ's chicken patty on a bed of greens and chopped grape tomatoes, with 2 tbsp of spicy hummus and 2 tbsp bruschetta mixed together into creamy goodness!

(I seriously need to find a better photo setting than my "food" one. Lame.)

I am on a spicy hummus/bruschetta mix. Sadly, the hummus is almost gone! Will I survive snowpocalypse part two?!

I also had a scoop of slow-churned chocolate ice cream:

I'm off to watch The Deep End, Grey's and The Real Housewives of OC.

Everyone bundle up, and get ready for the blizzard!

It is effing cold in this library!!

I am currently hiding out in the UMD library before my 4:30 class. It is seriously as cold in here as it is outside.

Yesterday, I didn't get the urge to snack, so I had a big mug of tea:

I also didn't want to spoil my appetite because we were going to Franklin's for dinner! I really like Franklins; it has a cool decor, a neat souvenir/liquor store, some exoctic food, and good drafts.

Before we went to dinner, we met one of our good friends, Paul, at the Cornerstone for happy hour. Paul just moved back to the area after working in Michigan for a while, so we were really excited to see him!

I had some WEAK vodka tonics, while the boys tried different drafts:

We also ordered some appetizers. Kyle wanted mozzarella sticks, and I wanted fries so we ordered both:

We had no clue the mozzarella sticks would come with fries, too! Oh, well. I had a little less than half of my steak fries, and a bite of a mozzarella stick. Kyle took care of everything else :-)

After happy hour, sadly we didn't go to Franklin's :-(. Kyle was full from our appetizers, so we headed back to the house. But almost as soon as we got home Kyle was ready to eat. So, we had (what else?) Chipotle. It was a lot closer than other places, and given that it was almost 9 our options were limited. Hopefully I'll get to Franklin's soon!

Sorry for lack of photo... I forgot to grab my camera. I had a bol with black beans, steak, tomatoes, and corn. No rice. And a water on the side.

Waking up today and checking the weather, it looks like a HUGE storm is coming to the area again tomorrow (12-30 inches!), so I wanted to make sure I got to the gym today and (hopefully) tomorrow in case we get snowed in this weekend.

I did 20 on the elliptical, and 3o on the bike while I read for class. Before the gym I had a piece of Tuscan toast with a little bit of butter:

It wasn't super filling, so when I was done working out I had an early lunch at 11:15:

A piece of tuscan bread with spicy hummus, bruschetta, and spinach with a banana on the side. Sooooo good! The spicy hummus and bruschetta are perfect together. I with I had made a whole sandwich, though.

At the library, I am currently snacking on a bag of TJ's trail mix:

Yum. Yes, it's against the rules but I figure if the librarians don't feel the need to observe the quiet rule here, then I can eat dried fruit and nuts on my own photocopies. Hrrmph!

What to do before class; read for my seminar paper or catch up with online TV episodes.... hmm, I wonder!

Ta da!!!

We have an oven!

Not a great oven, but an oven none-the-less. We were so excited that it showed up at 7 last night, I decided to sautee the salmon steaks rather than grill them.

These are two southwestern seasoned salmon steaks from TJ's. As soon as the plastic was off an amazing aroma came out. Since the steaks were pretty heavily seasoned and had reserve juices, I only did one turn of the pan of evoo and added 1/2 cup of white wine.

After I had flipped the steaks a few times, I added some spinach and tomatoes to wilt on top:

Then placed the salmon and veggies on a bed of lime basmati rice:

Mmmmmm. Soooo good. I served myself the "bigger" half of my salmon, and even though it looks like a lot of rice it was just over 1/3 of the bag. The salmon was perfectly flakey, and very spicy! The tomatoes and spinach cut the spice perfectly :-)

I also served us up a piece (more like scoop) of the cheesecake. It was very smooth, almost pudding like. I loved it with the cinnamon crust, though.

This morning, we had a snow delay! For once they did a decent job plowing the roads, so College Park is drivable. I had a luna and vitamin for breakfast, but have no photo.

I hit the gym at 10, and did 20 and 20 on the elliptical and bike. I felt distracted the whole time though; I can tell I am doing something right because right now my thighs feel like I have strapped 20 lb weights to them! Also, my yoga from yesterday is definitely working my upper body because I am a little sore in my shoulders today. Go, progress!

When I came back from the gym, I opened the door to smell gas. Lots and lots of gas. So, I got to stand outside in the cold and snow, completely STARVING because I got out of the gym an hour later than usual. I mean seriously!! First we are punished for a month without a stove, and then it leaks gas?! COME ON!!!

While I waited outside for the gas co. I snacked on trail mix and a banana:

The banana was not perfectly ripe, but I was so hungry I didn't care!

After the gas co came and fixed the problem (one of the flames was not lit, so gas leaked from the specific line), I finally got to make lunch!!! At the gym I had been plotting my lunch, and it was everything I hoped for:

I grilled a TJ's chicken patty on the grill, and put it on a piece of toasted tuscan bread with spinach and bruschetta. The chicken patty was too big to put on the bread, so I cut it in half and topped the extra with bruschetta. This was sooooo good. I would have used two pieces of bread, but I was a little full from my banana.

On the agenda for today is airing out the house (sooooo cold), reading for tomorrow's class, then happy hour with some great friends I see way too rarely. Have a good one!

Happy Birthday to...

It's Kyle's birthday today, so in between school work I have been busy in the kitchen all day.

First, though, back to last night. As I said Kyle and I were celebrating a bit last night because I have class tonight, so we popped open our Chateau vino and had a few honey bunnies as a late night snack:

This morning I got up and made a game time decision to not go to the gym, but work out at home. I love the gym, but between a 40 minute workout, shower, and getting ready I am there for almost an hour and half sometimes. I just had too much else to take care of today!

For breakfast I had the rest of my Luna from yesterday along with a HUGE banana and a multi-vitamin:

Then I got to work on Kyle's birthday cheesecake.

Ordinarily I would have made him a strawberry cake, but since we HAVE NO OVEN, I was forced to get creative. So, I perused the internet for ideas, and settled on a no-bake cheesecake. The following is not a recipe from any particular site; more of a hodge podge of recipes.

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

• 16 oz cream cheese ( I used a 1/3 less fat, but if you want it more solid get regular)
• 1 tub frozen whipped topping
• 2 cartons of strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 20 graham crackers (crushed in a bag with a rolling pin)
• 1 stick butter

For the crust:

1. Melt stick of butter in the dish you will serve the cheesecake in

2. Crush 20 graham crackers in a bag. I used cinnamon ones by accident; if you use plain add 1/4-1/2 cup sugar to sweeten them up if you want. I left them as is.

3. Mix the graham crackers (and sugar) with melted butter until lightly damp, but still crumbly.

4. Press mixture to bottom and sides of the pan

5. Put in the fridge to set until filling is done

For the Filling

1. Let cream cheese and whipped topping soften as you make the crust and cut strawberries

2. Trim and chop about half a container of strawberries and put in food processor

3. Blend on low until it reaches a liquidity, yet slightly chunky texture

4. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and strawberry puree together until mixed and pink throughout

5. Next, add in about 2/3 tub of whipped topping. I slowly beat it in until I got to a consistency I wanted. Less if you want the filling to be super firm, more if you want it to be lighter

6. Smooth into pan over a SET crust

In my case I didn't make it super smooth, because I topped it with a layer of strawberries:

Easy as pie. Or cheesecake. Definitely not what I wanted to make, but who would have thought we would be sans oven for a month?

After that, I had a remake of last night's dinner for lunch:

Only difference was it was a little heavy on the chorizo/lentils. There was enough left over for a big portion, or two too tiny ones.

Dessert was fresh cut strawberries left over from my cheesecake, blueberries, and a tsp of sugar:

I love how a little sugar makes a nice glaze for the fruit :-) Look at me! I had two big servings of fruit despite not being all over the challenge anymore...

I spent a few straight hours doing work for my class tonight, and when I was done I did some exercise.

I got this DVD about a year ago, and I really like it. I have never been to a yoga class, but I have had enough practice with different poses through dance and aerobics that I feel okay practicing on my own with this beginning DVD. All the poses are very simple, and have very good verbal/visual instructions. Ordinarily I would not recommend doing yoga DVDs at home if you are unseasoned, but this one is basically light stretching and is not very complicated.

I did 30 of the 50 minutes. I have to say that I can REALLY feel it in my legs. I have not done yoga since summer, but I felt a lot going on in my arms, legs, and back in just 30 minutes. Gotta love it!

After my light workout, I set to work on the birthday festivities. My class started at 7:15, so I had less than two hours with Kyle once he got home from work. So, I wanted to make the most of my time by having appetizers ready.

Pita chips with guacamole, bruschetta, spicy hummus, and red pepper hummus:

Shrimp cocktail with a ketchup, horseradish mustard, and texas pete dip:

And finally, our Blue Newt White:

And when Kyle came home, I had one more surprise... as I was setting up I talked to my prof about my car trouble, and she said class was most likely cancelled because of the snow tonight!

So, I got to spend tonight with Kyle :-)

Well, I'm off to cook dinner, catch you guys on the flip side!

Monday, funday.

Today flew by!

Kyle and I slept in because we were worn out from this weekend, so I felt rushed this morning. I grabbed a Luna Peppermint Stick Bar as I was getting my things together, and I had so much going on I only ate half of it before I put it down and rushed out the door.

Doesn't it just look like a crumbled oreo cookie? Sooo goooood.

I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, with a new record! I bumped up my resistance level to 8, and did 2 miles in 18 minutes :-) I'm pretty happy with myself! After that, I did 30 on the bike. Sadly, I have to use some of my gym time to read for class/my seminar paper.

After the gym, I was STARVING because of my tiny breakfast and lack of snack. Since the house is bare of anything edible, Kyle and I went out to lunch today. We went to Jason's Deli because we were both craving a soup and sandwich. I made my own half sandwich of turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, pico, and quac in a wrap with a cup of poblano corn chowder:

The sandwich was a huge let down. I expected the turkey to be meh, but when you pay an extra .89 cents for guac and pico EACH, you expect them to use more than a tiny dab of it. It was pretty flavorless. The soup was really good, though!

Kyle had a new item, the chicken adobe pizza. He was kind enough to let me have a bite:

It was okay, but the BBQ sauce was waaaaaaay too sweet. What is with me? I can't stand sweetness for some reason!

I had a little of their free fro-yo for dessert :-)

There was actually a sign on the self-serve yogurt station that there is no high-fructose corn syrup in it, and there are 5 grams of fat and 170 calories per 4 oz. I ate just the "muffin" top... you can tell there is fat in it because it is so rich and creamy!

After lunch I grabbed a grande soy awake tea latte, which I didn't like so much because it was really frothy from the soy. I have to say I prefer milk, especially skim all the way. Must be because I was brought up on 2% milk from Harris Teeter. Mmm.

I had a meeting on campus, so I walked back in the sunshine and glistening snow. On top of 30 minutes of gym cardio today, I walked about ~1.5 miles or so around campus and town. I am really feeling it in my legs! I am really happy!

After my meeting, we finally went to the grocery store for a REAL shopping trip for the first time in weeks. Oh, Trader Joe's, how I missed you!

• yellow onions
• spring green mix x2
• baby spinach
• orange/tangerines
• bananas
• blueberries
• mushrooms
• grape tomatoes
• guac kit with ripe avocados!!!

Lots of meat and other deli items....

• milk
• wasabi mayo (we plan to make a light chicken salad with that)
• pesto marinated chicken
• soy chorizo x2
• buffalo burgers
• roasted chicken breast
• jalapeno chicken sausage
• chicken patties
• southwest marinated salmon
• roasted red pepper and spicy hummus

Grains overload! We are still oven-less at DAY 30. And our landlords have their voicemail full, and will not answer to phone calls or emails. Therefore, we had to stock up on pre-prepared foods :-(.

• an assortment of Lunas
• sea salt pita chips + garlic and herb pita chips
• organic sugar
• multi-vitamins :-)
• multi-grain pilaf x3
• brown rice x3
• black lentils x4
• lime pilaf x2
• TJ's pre-measured trail mix packets (cost the same as buying a bag of same amount)
• whole wheat tuscan bread

Then finally, a few necessary indulgences:

• TJ's three pepper salsa
• TJ's roasted garlic salsa
• TJ's Bruschetta. I. Can. Not. Get. Enough.

This was definitely one of those weeks where I wanted to eat everything out of the fridge asap. I am going to have some amazing meals this week!

For dinner, Kyle was tired of my raving about the joy's of grilling soy chorizo and veggies, so I made big ole salads again.

As I made the guac and soy/veggie mix, we snacked on some appetizers:

It was a mix of sea salt/garlic herb pita chips with roasted red-pepper hummus, spicy hummus, and bruschetta. These were new hummus' to us; but I almost always like ones like this where you mix in the spices/seasoning upon opening (Sabra is a favorite!. The red pepper was pretty meh, a little sweet ( I am SUPER sensitive to sweetness lately!) but I LOVED THE SPICY HUMMUS. It has a pup of mint at the beginning; it actually reminded me tzatziki sauce. Very good, I recommend it if you have a TJ's nearby!

We also broke into our vino from this weekend, and had some of the Red Newt White. This is very mellow.... sweet, but with a nice pop of fresh flavor on your palate. I'll be honest, since I will be in class for a big chunk of Kyle's birthday tomorrow, we are celebrating some tonight, too :-)

So, I made the quac, happy TJ's finally had some avocados that were not little green rocks. I prepped the soy chorizo and onion, adding some mushrooms at the last minute to try it out. I got out the lettuce, put it on the plates ONLY TO FIND IT WAS MOLDY. GROOOOOOOSSSSSSS.

I know TJ's is cheap, but come on! My spring mixes were not supposed to be up until 2/8, and they were both damp upon opening with little brown clumps of rotten lettuce throughout. Arggggh. Buyer beware; TJ's is cheap, but a lot of their meats, produce, and perishable items go up rather quickly. If you are buying items with a shelf-life, I have always found it is best to buy things you plan to eat within a few days of purchase just to be on the safe side.

So, we had plain spinach as a base:

I put ~2/3 cup of grilled chorizo/onion/mushroom and black lentil mix on my salad, with a big scoop of quac, some 3 pepper salsa, and fresh cut tomatoes. Soooo, sooooooo good! The best part? Kyle likes it, too! Muahaha. I'm slowly making him eat healthy, too....

So, a recap of last weeks challenge:

With the exception of Saturday, I managed two servings of fruit a day (including a fruit smoothie yesterday, and dried fruit some days). However, I still don't REALLY like fruit. Dried fruit is okay, but I prefer veggies bar none. However, bananas will always do the trick for me now :-) I think it is because they are not juicy, and also not sweet.

So, what is this week's challenge?

A simple one. This week I will eat a multi-vitamin every day, and keep it up past this week. Sounds simple, but I think it is important. There are days I get very little calcium, and my mom is scared I won't have kids without lots of folic acid. So, I am going to take one TJ's Women's Once Daily Multivitamin and Dietary Supplement every day this week, and hopefully get into a long-term habit. Wish me luck!

Now we are winding down for the night, considering opening our Blue Newt White as well. We shall see!

Kyle's Birthday is tomorrow.... lot of surprises and yummy eats for sure!

PS: A Magical Find...... a blog devoted to Macaroni and Cheese! Eeep! I heart macaroni and cheese! This blog will feature one new mac and cheese recipe for 30 days, featuring all kinds of cheeses. How fantastic?

MAGIC BLOG!