Chocolate and Wine...

Last night after dinner Ky and I both worked a bit, and then decided we wanted some wine, and I wanted something sweet.

So, we went down the road to The Village Pump, and picked up this pinot noir

I could only think of one way to describe it.... light. Very, very light. All the way to the finish of each sip, it was very mellow, but still nice.

Ky and I split this guy:

Didn't look at the nutritionals, sorry!

After some relaxing together, we turned in and slept a good nine hours. I had a luna to start my day:

This morning I was really itching to finish my paper, so I skipped the gym and after showering on campus (1.5 months no hot water) I worked from 10:30-5 on my paper. Whew! Almost there!

I had leftovers for lunch at 11:30:

I just nuked the chicken, but I heated 2/3 cup of chickpeas on the stove and stirred in a HUGE handful of spinach. Yum!

Oddly, I was pretty hungry again at 1:30, like serious growling just 2 hours after lunch. I decided I wanted more veggies:

Sauteed carrots, red pepper, onion, and mushrooms with lots of black pepper. Yum!

At 4:30, I WAS STARVING AGAIN. Like, on the verge of painful. So, I gave in and had an early dinner. I decided my body really wanted some carbs, so I had a target brand pasta thing:

It was a mushroom sauce on pasta, basically the same thing as the mushroom gnocchi I made last week. When I cooked it, again I only used 1/2 the seasoning packet and just added my own black pepper.

It was okay... the sauce was scant (b/c I omitted half the seasoning) and glue-like. Do not recommend!

Now I am settling in after class (that went even later than usual!), and aiming to finish my paper TOMORROW instead. Wish me luck!

3,000+ Leg Lifts in 30 minutes...

Not sure if you knew, BUT I LOVE THE ARC TRAINER. After filling up on an unpictured 1/3 bowl of savory oatmeal, I hit the gym:

• 3o minutes arc trainer, level 9 weight loss

I think I like it because I notice a big change already in my thighs, abs, and badonkadonk. On the arc trainer you almost lean back while doing 100+ strides a minute, so if you are on a higher level of intensity, you are seriously doing leg lifts for 30 minutes. It really works your core because you have to keep your balance while constantly moving. Loves it.

After the gym I ran to grocery store, sorry no photo session today. I was too busy! In fact, by the time I went to the gym, went to the store, unpacked everything, and started dinner prep, it was already 12:30. The last thing I wanted to do was waste more time cooking something for lunch, so I hopped in the car and did a bad BAD thing:

$1 4-piece chicken nugget and $1 small fries. :-) I'm quite happy with myself! Plus 2 cans of diet coke (don't judge!)

I worked until 4:30 pm, when I grabbed a banana and picked up Ky.

Then, it was time to make my Indian feast! Several weeks ago Kyle and I got some Indian seasoning packets from My Organic Market (MOM's), because they had to be super healthy. Last night when making our grocery list, I decided to base a few dinner/lunches on them.

When I started looking at the recipes, I was shocked. The chicken wanted 3/4 cup of oil, and the chickpeas 1/3 cup. That is a hell of a lot of oil; even divided up into 6 servings. So, I got creative and changed the recipes to be a LOT healthier!

Yogurt Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients*

• spice packet
• lg container greek yogurt
• 1 1/4 lb chicken tenders/breasts (tenders are easier to chunk!)

• 8 oz tomato sauce
• 1 can no-salt tomatoes
• 1 cup yellow onion diced
• 1 small can green chiles
• 1-2 minced garlic cloves

*THERE IS NO GINGER IN THIS DESPITE THE PHOTO

Directions:

1. Stir spice packet into greek yogurt; let sit overnight in fridge

2. Mix in tomato sauce to make it creamy, then add chicken. Let sit in fridge for 4-6 hours.

3. Heat a skillet on medium heat with 1 tbsp oil, sauté onion until translucent

4. Add in chiles and garlic, cook until garlic is fragrant 30-60 seconds (DON'T BURN IT!)

5. Stir in can of tomatoes with juices

6. Add in chicken in yogurt marinade (either dump it all, or fish out chicken if you don't want it too creamy)

7. Stir well, bring to boil, then simmer and cover, stirring every few minutes

8. Test chicken 15-20 minutes later to see if cooked through

Spiced Chickpeas

Ingredients

• spice packet
• 2 15 oz cans chickpeas
• 1 can no salt added tomatoes
• 1 cup diced yellow onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 small spoonful of ginger paste

Directions

1. Mix spices with canned tomatoes

2. Mix in Chickpeas; cook immediately or let marinate in fridge

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil on medium heat; sauté onion until translucent

4. Add in garlic and ginger, stirring to blend

5. Add chickpea mixture, bring to boil then simmer while stirring occassionally

6. Let heat through for 20 minutes

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 english cucumber, diced
• 2 diced tomatoes
• 1/3 diced red onion
• 1 tbsp greek yogurt
• cilantro to garnish

Directions

1. Mix all diced veggies together with yogurt and cilantro

I served the meal with Jasmine rice, which came in little boil-able packets:

I made one packet which had two servings. Then I garnished each dish with cilantro:

My plate of rice, cucumber salad, chicken, and chickpeas:

It was all really good, and despite not having that traditional oily finish, it was very tasty! I am excited to see how the spices develop over the next few days. I have some great ideas for more meals with the leftovers :-)

Now I am off to do more work, what else? Just a few more days, then I am home free (literally). Looking forward to relaxing in Durham with my parents this weekend!!

Regular Blogging to Resume after 4/23...

I am so over school. Sometimes I wish I was still working 9-5. Only sometimes :-)

Friday morning I woke up and had a lovely bowl of oatmeal, and was ready to take on the arc trainer, my new best friend!

However, Kyle misplaced my headphones when he took his iPod this weekend, so when we got to the gym he gave me to iPod sans a very important component. Yes, I know. He is fabulous for letting me use his iPod basically whenever I want. So I really can't get mad. Buuuuut I can't exercise inside to save my life without something to distract me!

So, in my uber-bratiness, there was no workout. It worked out fine, I had a TON of work to do. I took a break for some leftover pasta sauce (recycled photo!)

I worked through the afternoon, and had some spicy peanuts around 5:30:

We tried a new (to me!) place in town... The Jungle Grille. It was okay; not amazing but did the trick.

I had the Jungle Steak Sandwich (sirloin, provolone cheese, grilled veggies, tomatoes):

I ate half of it, plus half of our fries + gravy:

When we got home, I had some sparkling white wine

while we finally watched Alice in Wonderland. Did you know I adore Alice, and once dressed up as her for halloween?

Don't mind Kyle. He was dressed as Mr. Slave from South Park. See the resemblance?

Ah, memories. Anyway, it was a fun night!

I got up to hit the gym at 8:30am... and FORGOT BREAKFAST. Bad bad BAD idea.

• 20 minutes arc trainer, weight loss setting level 8
• 25 minutes stationary bike, level 12

I was pooped by the end because I had no fuel. So I was ready for a huge lunch of chipotle:

+ some guac on top!

Kyle and I spent the afternoon quietly working on our respective papers. I got restless working in his office (cement walls with no windows :-(), so I went on a 2 mile walk around campus/town.

I had a small bowl of oatmeal when we got home at 5:30 because I was starving after 1) no breakfast 2) 2 exercise sessions 3) we ate lunch at 11am... I devoured 1/4 cup prepared oatmeal.

Kyle was in charge of dinner, and he made a seafood orzo based on a meal he got in Durham a few months ago:

Orzo mixed with shrimp, scallops, sauteed red pepper/onion/mushroom with spinach folded in so it wasn't too limp. It was really good! I ate all the scallops, shrimp, and veggies, but left a good bit of orzo on my plate.

Had some yummy beers as we watched Sideways. I thought the movie was a little slow, but okay.

This morning we slept in until 11:30... UNHEARD OF for me. I was, of course, starving! I made a fabulous bowl of savory oats :-)

I sauteed 1/3 diced red pepper and diced onion in a little butter, and removed it; then cooking 1/2 cup oats with 1/5 cups water in the same pot. When the oats were done I mixed the veggies back in with 2 tsp soy sauce and a sprinkle of pepper. Topped with a fried egg a la Ky.

This was AMAZINGLY GOOD. I also had a small portion of fried purple potatoes:

Plus a GIANT red bull:

Late afternoon snack was sauteed baby carrots, diced red pepper, and onion with 1/3 cup leftover plain orzo and a big handful of spinach mixed in:

My body had been screaming for veggies, and this shut 'er up!

Dinner was a delish turkey sammie:

1 slice turkey, 1 slice pepper jack cheese, spinach, onion, tomatoes on a multi grain thomas bagel thin... plus some cholula on the side! I misted each side with a bit of cooking spray, and flipped it on a skillet a few times. Now I am stuffed!

Off to read and try to get through this week... My paper is due Friday at 5pm.... then I am cruising!

It's ALMOST the weekend!

Last night Ky and I watched an "advanced" copy of Up in the Air last night... it was actually pretty good; I'm not sure why Anna Kendrick (twilight girl) was worthy of Golden Globe and Academy Award noms, but it was good nonetheless.

Before the movie, I had a mini-bag of popcorn:

And the Artichoke-Tomato Sauce I made this weekend:

I made it even heartier by mixing in a huge scoop of spaghetti squash and 1/2 bag of fresh spinach. I had about 2 oz of whole wheat pasta underneath my massive mound of veggie goodness!

Ky and I also went through some wine, as is evident from this photo taken this morning :-)

I went with Ky to his post-op check this morning, so I didn't have time for the gym. I did have time for McDonalds... OOPS! No pic...

I had a late lunch (like, 2?!) of the last bit of chicken verde, and was upset to find we accidentally threw out our spinach.

Plus a FUZE!

Dinner was great... we ordered from Hanami, I couldn't get those yummy udon noodles from last week off my mind!

This week we got the yaki udon noodles with shrimp (love that they do not charge extra for shrimp as opposed to chicken or beef!!) and a dinner box.

Based on our past experience, we knew that getting a dinner box each was waaay too much food, and here is the proof!

Yaki Udon:

Dinner Box:

Green salad + Ginger Dressing

Miso Soup

California Roll

Negimaki Beef (Scallions wrapped in beef) + rice, Tempura Shrimp + veggies, and Mini Dumplings

Everything was really really good for college town delivery sushi, except the negimaki. It was that or teriyaki, and I didn't want my entree covered in sodium high teriyaki sauce. I mean, look how good this picture of negimaki looks I found today:

Ours had very thin layers of beef, and the scallions looked and tasted burnt. At least everything else was tasty!

My plate:

I also had the salad and gave the miso to Kyle. Still not a very "green" day... need to remedy that tomorrow!

Now I am going to relax and read for class; intense paper writing days tomorrow and Friday :-(