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This post actually starts on Sunday evening (4/17). My friend from England came to spend the evening and the night but since she was pretty tired from a lot of travelling and couch surfing, I decided to make matzoh ball soup while she rested. The beginning of the soup is actually described in the previous post.

Adding the vegetables to the broth and the herbs to the matzoh ball mix was a great idea. So was making the matzoh mix into 12 as opposed to the reccomened 9 balls. I even brought some in for a coworker this morning and he loved it =)

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After the soup was done, my friend and I headed out for beer, then mussels and beer. I understand that I've been developing a pattern, but she wanted it so we went. We went to the new beer garden in midtown, Bierhaus, and it was pretty great. The beer was good, though not cheap and the menu LOOKED really good. on top of that, they had these great long tables and it looked just like a Munich beer hall! I would highly reccommend coming here with a group!

After a good beer and conversation here, we headed to BXL East, an oldie but a goodie. You may remember from a previous post a visit to the Mussel Pot, which was not recalled with fondness. The reason is because we have begun to compare all mussel places to THIS mussel place. Between the tastiness of the mussels, the plentifulness of the portions, the abundance of delicious beer choices and the relative reasonability of the price, I just don't see why we even go anywhere else for our beer and mussel nights.

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After two high-percent-alcohol beers and a belly full of mussels and french fries, we decided to walk the 2 miles or so back home. Getting home, my friend got into bed but I was told that Boyfriend wouldn't be home all day for passover preparations so I continued to make Passover foods. I started my haroset.




Haroset (or Apple, Walnut, Honey Dip)
Ingredients (from the left): cinnamon, ginger, splash of red wine (3/4 glass?), apples (6 small-medium sized), walnuts (chopped).

Not pictured: honey, agave nectar (sub for sugar!)

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All of that made this bowl of haroset (this is a biiig bowl!). Unfortunately, it looks like this....Well at least it tastes good!

I brought some of this to work too but I suspect it's appearance might put some people off....

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In the morning, I took a super-early trek to hot yoga (knowing of course that I had to eat AND exercise defensively for the upcoming two family dinners!) and managed a 4 mile run in the middle of the day (ate lunch at desk in order to double up on exercise).  This was all to attempt to counteract the extreme weight damage done by copious beer and mussel consumption. Extreme. =(
I then spent all day worrying about how I was going to get everything together, but it all worked out. Here it is boys and girls!


Herbed Roasted Potatoes
This is a combination of 6 red and 6 yellow potatoes, each about the size of a tomato. They're all cut into about 6 pieces and thrown into two baking dishes (it doesn't have to be a single layer, not piled all on top of each other!)

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I seasoned them with a good spray of olive oil (seriously, that olive oil sprayer is probably one of my most useful kitchen gadgets!), thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. Lots of salt, lots of pepper.

Into the oven they went, 450 degrees. It's supposed to take 45 minutes but really it took a lot longer since we had to lower the temperature to cook some meat and kept opening the oven to check on things!

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Here they are in leftover form this morning. As you can see, not much was left, so I think I can safely assume that this was a success.

I still wouldn't consider these "healthy" but with only a small bit of olive oil (I'm guessing about 1tbsp total for all of these potatoes) and just some seasonings, it probably doesn't get much better for potatoes.

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Beef Rib Eye Round Roast
Here's our roast. It's a beef rib eye round (I've never heard of this before either) which is kind of a midpriced meat. Boyfriend received a meat thermometer at our housewarming party so we've instituted the "Man Make Meat" rule in our household. This bad boy is sitting on a bed of onions and a few unchopped garlic cloves, seasoned VERY liberally with salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary (dry).

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We cooked it until the meat thermometer told us it was 140 degrees inside (this is supposed to coincide with a medium rare?!?) and let it rest for about half an hour before slicing.

The thing bled like crazy but was actually kind of overdone =( Guess we'll only take it to 135 degrees next time?

It was enjoyed by all but then, Boyfriend's family likes their meat cooked fully through. I like mine to practically moo at me!

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Finally, the grilled asparagus. These were just long asparagus spears sprayed with olive oil (seriously, buy a sprayer!) and seasoned with lemon-pepper seasoning, salt and garlic powder.

I used a grill pan on medium heat and when they were softening up I poured on some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

Notes on asparagus: when trimming your asparagus, take one piece of asparagus and bend it till it snaps. The part that snaps off is the tough woody stem that is practically inedible. Trim the rest of the asparagus accordingly.

Notes on lemon juice: Usually I use the stuff that comes in the plastic yellow lemon but we happened to have run out and had a real lemon rolling around in the bottom of the fruit drawer. If you're using a real lemon, make sure to squeeze it cut side up so the seeds don't wind up in your dish!

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After dinner it was time for dessert! It so happens that I love the flavor of banana paired with chocolate, and both of those things are kosher for passover. So...here it is, Dessert Bruschetta

2 sliced bananas on matzoh.



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Coated in melted-then-cooled dark chocolate. Sprinkled with walnuts. Clearly this isn't the same batch. Batch #1 didn't get photographed and this is the batch I made for personal consumption after passover.
That matzoh at 12 o' clock didn't get bananas and is just a piece of matzoh covered with chocolate and walnuts. Still delicious.

Notes on melting chocolate:
I. Fashion yourself a double boiler. You can do this by simmering water in a pot and 1) holding a smaller pot over it or 2) putting a glass or metal bowl (NOT PLASTIC) over the simmering pot and that way you don't have to hold it at all!

II. Make sure there is no water in the top pot/bowl or the chocolate will behave in a strange way! The chocolate will do all the work for you.

III. Place whatever you're drizzling/covering with chocolate on wax/parchment paper.

IV. To drizzle dip a spoon into the melted chocolate mix and just wave it over whatever you want to drizzle. Leave yourself plenty of extra paper on the sides, this can get messy. Drizzling is the easiest way to make something look decorative and altogether pretty.

Well folks, this was a pretty hefty post. Tonight's post will be short.

 
There's so much to catch up on, I'm just going to stick with cooking and a few other tidbits here and there. Last night we went to Ravagh, a Persian place for dinner and it was AMAZING. I had a walnut pomegranate chicken stew with a sweet and sour cherry rice that was fantastic. I will definitely be making a similar rice dish soon.

We also converted the Mango Chicken Salad into Island Rice with Chicken and I realized what this was missing: ginger!! Will fix soon. But now, lets talk about today!

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Today I had a nice oatmeal breakfast and ran a good 5.2 miles before lunch. Boyfriend and I went grocery shopping in preparation or hosting Passover Seder for his parents and my dad, who is coming to the dinner stag. My mom will be jealous that he met Boyfriends parents but she hasn't yet!

Anyway, the menu for 6 people is as follows:
Kale Chips and Cheese for a cocktail-hour style snack
Matzoh Ball Soup
Gefilte fish, Russian smoked fish, some sort of matzoh ball cake as appetizers
A beef round eye roast (courtesy of Boyfriend) with roasted potatoes, asparagus and a green salad for a main course
Matzoh banana/chocolate/walnut bites and macaroons with fruit as dessert.

As a bonus, a friend of mine from England has come to stay with me for the night so I am putting out kale chips for her too. Ok, let's talk Kale Chips!

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Here's the bunch of Kale (about $2). This will eventually make a single bowl of chips. Big sad face there, but they are so good! And I can only imagine that the caloric value is pretty pretty good.

Here's what you do:

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1. Tear the kale off of the stem/vine part in larger-than-bite-sized pieces.
2. Place in metal pans (it doesn't have to be a single layer) and allow to dry.
**Alternately, stick in the oven on the keep warm setting for 20 minutes**

3. Spray (or drizzle) with a ***LITTLE*** olive oil, sea salt, lemon pepper seasoning

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4. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, occasionally tossing.

5. Be patient it WILL crisp and REALLY shrink.

6. Optional: before the last 5 minutes in the oven, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese. This makes a big difference!!

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Then Boyfriend and I decided to take a walk in the park to see Spring in action. We saw a lot of weddings in action instead! But also pretty flowers. =)

NYC in springtime is a freakshow of weather, with one day being cold rainy and miserable and the next being beautiful, sunny and heavenly.

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Rebecca from England arrived a bit late and wanted to relax a bit so I made her some Pumpkin Cake with coffee and we noshed on the kale chips too. While she rested, I began to make matzoh ball soup.







I used a package mix but added a few enhancements.
From the left: bay leaf, italian seasoning, the soup/matzoh ball mix, olive oil and in the center a carrot, a leftover 2/3 white onion and 2 eggs.

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The matzoh balls call for vegetable oil but I went with olive oil (I'm sure it'll have a better taste!) and I threw in a tbsp or so of Italian Seasoning into the mix.

For the soup, I threw in the package mix like the box said but also chopped up this giant carrot (into thirds) and threw in the onion. We have 6 people coming over, so I made 12 matzoh balls in place of the reccomended 9 (why 9?!?). The end result: stay tuned!

 
FYI, the lack of new posts has everything to do with my laziness. May as well admit it. Ok, new resolve starting....NOW!

So, just as a recap of the past few days, I DID cook, but didn't take pictures. I made Kale Chips, which were an amazing crunchy salty snack (though to be fair I ate the whole bowl as dinner...) that is so healthy it's shocking that it tastes good at all. For skeptics, I know it's good because Boyfriend couldn't stop grazing on them even though they were my dinner! But, I will be making them again soon for passover, so stay tuned.
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Last night, we went to Mussel Pot for dinner. Because I had finally reached the pre-move-in-weight I wanted to totally go nuts, and boy was this NOT the place to do it! Also, afterwards, my pre-move-in-weight was gone and I did not feel it was worth it. =(

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things about mussels is being able to dip some bread/fries into the sauce they come in. Well, these were neither saucy, nor did they come with good bread or fries. We ordered fries (decent) and occasionally had bread brought to us (stale).
For a mussel place, they should be ashamed of their beer menu and in the end, we were so disappointing, we went across the street to PinkBerry for dessert instead of trusting them. Big big thumbs down. If you're reading this and want to know a GOOD mussel place? Try BXL East in the east 50's. Amazing mussels, amazing beer....I don't even see why we tried something new!

Ok, on to what I've heard people actually want to read about...

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After last night's all-out dinner with beer, wine, mussels, fries and dessert, I wanted to take it easy tonight. The cake at work didn't help, but I did a 4.6 mile run and felt pretty good. Dinner tonight was a bastard child of the Thai Mango Salad and Rachael Ray's recipes. It helped that we already had most of the stuff lying around.

The Chicken Mango Salad (serves 2 + leftovers)
2 turkey breasts marinated in honey mustard marinade (any somewhat sweet marinade will work)
1 mango, chopped
1/3 white onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, finely diced (optional!)
2 scallions, chopped
Fruit/Nut/Seed mix (throw in at the end depending on how you like it)
Greens mixture
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg to taste

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Instructions
1. Chop the 2 turkey breasts into bite sized pieces and place in a ziplock back with marinade, 30 min-all day
2. Chop up the white onion coarsely, place in pan with non-stick spray and sautee until translucent (3-4 minutes)
3. Throw in the turkey and the chopped up mango, scallions and jalapeno if you like things hot! Add salt/pepper/nutmeg to taste.
4. Consider pouring in a little water if you want a saucy salad topping (doubles as dressing, no extra dressing calories!)
5. Set up your salad bowl: lettuce mixture at the bottom, throw in the fruit/nut mixture, top with contents of pan. Mix, enjoy =)

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Dinner tonight is a stay-home affair as last nights comedy-dinner-music evening turned out to be a little much for me as I was dozing off at Terra Blues! They didn't have coffee =(

Boyfriend claims to have enjoyed the salad. Actually I used a whole jalapeno and while I do like things spicy, this may be a bit much for the general public.

Notes: I think this would also go really well over some rice or even wrapped up with some pepper-jack cheese in a taco/burrito situation!

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Then I made dessert. I have been craving pumpkin for so long and found a few recipes, notably from KathEatsRealFood that make a sort of pumpkin pie filling for a fraction of the calories!

I thought it was phenomenal, though by my traditional rating system, Boyfriend was not amused, so I can't really tell on this one. He claims he doesn't like pumpkin.

Anyway, here it is, pumpkin cake. It was a big bowl full of delicious for only about 120 calories!

Pumpkin Pie Filling Fake-Out
1/2 cup pumpkin (do NOT use pumpkin pie filling!)
1/4 cup egg whites
1.5 packets sweetener
Cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup (this is reduced calorie/reduced sugar, tastes just as good as the real thing)

Mix all this into a bowl (use a bigger bowl than you think, it rises!) and microwave for about 3 minutes, consider stirring halfway through.


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This not pretty. But imagine if I had wiped off the edges and put a tiny garnish on it! Cinnamon stick? Sprig of parsely/mint? Marshmallows?!?

Even a graham cracker crust! Mmmm.....

But tonight it's just plan. It tastes better than it looks. Like pumpkin pie filling, without the butter/eggs/guilt!

Enjoy! I will be spending the rest of the night enjoying my full belly, a good movie and knowing that this whole meal was completely guilt free (this means no butter, sugar, oil or red meat). Score!

Tomorrow: Morning yoga, dodgeball, birthday dinner out. Maybe I'll figure out something to make for lunch!

 
Finally had the time (well I don't really make anything that takes a lot of time) and the motivation (no leftovers for lunch) to get cooking again. I've been in a big dipping mood lately, so I decided to make Broccolli Dip! I really wish those scallions from Tuna Burger night didn't wilt almost immediately.

Just as a matter of course, let me once again explain why ANYONE can make and pack a nutritional healthy lunch, no matter how busy. Last night I worked until 8:30pm, went to a bar to say hi to Boyfriend and steal a sip of beer, bought stuff for broccolli dip and breakfast, got changed and ran 5 miles (!!!), then came home, made, watched a little Chopped (while snacking...grr...), made broccolli dip, showered and was in bed before midnight. A nutritious lunch and breakfast can be fit into any schedule without giving up sleep or other priority things!

So without further ado....
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Creamy Broccoli Dip

Ingredients (left to right): fat free cream cheese with a lemon on top, lemon pepper seasoning (obviously I just use this on everything), sea salt, scallions and the star of this dip: broccolli.
Forgotten ingredients: garlic powder, balsamic vinegar, extra lemon juice, dash of skim milk.

Instructions: Chop all the broccolli into floret sized pieces (i.e. just use the tree parts!). Boil some water in a pan big enough to hold the broccolli. While the water is boiling, finely chop the scallions (i used 3 pieces, with the whites) and mix them all into the tub of fat free cream cheese.
** This winds up making an extra treat: fat free scallion cream cheese. It becomes super creamy once you mix it and will go great with Smart Bagels or can be put onto some potato skins (soon to come, am craving them!)***

Once the water is boiling, drop in the broccolli and let it hang out for about 5-6 minutes. Don't overcook the broccolli, it will lose it's taste!

Once the broccolli is cooked, combine the broccolli, 1.5 heaping tbsp scallion cream cheese, juice and zest of one lemon, 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, a splash or two of skim milk and salt/lemon-pepper/garlic powder into a blender and let it rip. (These quantities are all for 2 heads of broccolli and makes a thickish dip. For a creamier dip

Note: I find that after blending I have to taste and adjust the seasonings, but I like it pretty acidic so I usually add more lemon juice and more vinegar. If you like it soupier, add more milk or even just water.

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I took 1/3 of the resulting dip with six rice crackers (110 calories worth) to lunch. This probably comes out to less than 250 calories. Guess that means I can have a nice dessert yogurt with it! =)

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On another note, my friend, lets call him The Chef has asked me if blogging is helping me keep my weight in check and/or changing my eating habits. Yesterday, I answered him that I'm not sure. But three days ago, I got back to the weight that I was before I moved in with Boyfriend and have stayed that way for 3 days so....I guess it IS working. Success.

 
So I really haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately, and have instead focused on eating. Two days ago I stepped on the scale and saw good news looking back at me so I behaved stupidy.

Lunch and breakfast weren't too evil.

First a 40 minute ellipical session then cottage cheese with some blueberries and cereal for breakfast, great. Leftover tuna burger for lunch (it was even better the next day, even Boyfriend agreed!!) and I was still doing pretty well. But then...then I headed home and as I walked I could feel a craving coming on. Damn you, hormones! I came home and had so many snacks I am ashamed to even admit it. I had everything from chips and salsa to fruits to chocolate. =( 

I tried to make up for it with a trip to hot yoga, but I think that by the time I had finished dinner, I had sealed the deal on a day of poor eating hygeine. Oh but dinner! I gotta tell you, I had been skeptical of vegan food for years and years, much to the chagrin of my vegan friend, but THIS place, V-note, was amazing. Expensive, but amazing. I had a pistachio and pepper dusted tofu with a crepe filled with root vegetables on top of some sort of heavenly mushroomy lemony sauce. Crusting tofu! What an idea! I guess maybe the black sesame seeds wont go to waste after all. 

This is turning out to be a really boring blog post but as I'm stuck in the hospital tonight, I have nothing better to do but blog. 

Today: Egg and salsa omelet on a smart bagel (these ARE smart! 100 calories, all the taste of a bagel but thinner) plus a handul of frosted mini wheats, then the leftover tofu and crepe for lunch. LOTS of snacks (including-not together-cheese, dried mango, clementines, chocolate and jelly beans....seriously if I have to keep admitting this, I am going to stop doing it!). Still no regrets there because the prospect of dinner is growing dimmer and dimmer as my call night goes longer and longer. Still hoping for a trip to the gym but that's not looking so great either.

Sigh, I'm signing off, hoping for a reasonable evening.

 
 
That omelet carried me way through the day and only a handful of snacks and a 5.3 mile run later, I went on a long walk. Having some personal stuff on my mind and feeling sad for a friend of mine who was having a tough time and doesn't deserve it, I kind of wandered aimlessly around my neighborhood and various health food stores without any particular goals in mind. 

It was Sunday and I eventually decided that I would look for some sushi-grade tuna for a tuna burger recipe I had wanted to try for some time. Sushi-grade tuna on a Sunday? Even in Manhattan this wasn't going to be a walk in the park! But sure enough, 6 supermarkets and health food stores later I had amassed the ingredients for a dinner that is completely contrary to what I normally do.

I picked up things that I doubt I'll be using too often and things that I know will go bad before I have a chance to use them. Still, I hadn't done any special-occasiony dinners in a long time and thought that cooking might relax me.  
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The Panko Crusted Tuna Burger
Ingredients (left to right): Sushi-grade yellowfin tuna (at just over $10 for what wound up being dinner for 2 and also lunch, I'd say it was not too bad!), scallions (these will go bad before I use them), garlic, wasabi mustard (THIS was a wise purchase), low sodium soy sauce, black sesame seeds, panko bread crumbs, wine (for personal consumption).
 
1. Coarsely chop of the tuna (1lb=4 burgers)
2. Chop 1 or 2 scallions (depending on how oniony you like things) withe white ends
3. Add the tuna and the scallions to a food processor (this is the second of three kitchen gadgets I will use), add 2 tbsp soy sauce (for 1lb tuna!) and a squirt of the wasabi mustard. Pulse until the tuna chunks are more manageable.
4. In a shallow dish/bowl put in the panko bread crumbs and a handful of the sesame seeds until you have something that looks like this

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4. In a shallow dish/bowl put in the panko bread crumbs and a handful of the sesame seeds until you have something that looks like the picture
5. Form the tuna into patty and roll around in the breading mixture. It might look pretty fragile, but it's really pretty hardy.
6. Drop each patty into a pan (with non-stick cooking spray) and cook on medium heat for about 2-3 minutes each side, depending on how done you like your tuna. If you love your burgers well-done, do 4 minutes.

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Voila! (this is awful photo lighting, but these are really cute little guys with the black sesame seeds).

Note: regular sesame seeds are probably just as good, much cheaper and easier to find, but not as pretty. Consider poppy seeds.

The Sauce: Super easy, and probably so versatile!
1 part wasabi mustard
1 part balsamic vinegar
whisk
That's it.

We even wound up dipping our grilled asparagus that went with the meal ("hummus" serving #3-still rockin' at 4 days old- was the appetizer).
 
Finished off the weekend with the end of Toy Story 3, which in my opinion has so many adult themes that I'm surprised people let their kids watch this movie!

Tonight is vegan dinner with my ex-sorority sister, so though I will not be cooking, I will be trying seitan for the first time, so I'll let you know how that goes!

Till next time!
 
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We finished off last night with some hookah and tea (yes, those are his and hers mugs!) and amazingly, my scale did NOT reflect last night's excess!

Today, I had to have a solo breakfast while Boyfriend visited his parents. Their cat died last week =(
Even though I had a snack and a coffee with him, I knew I'd want a warm filling breakfast before I headed off to the gym and did all my chores on Sunday. Bah, I hate cloudy rainy Sundays when you are FORCED to do chores.

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Here is my eggy, bacony, bready, fruity breakfast. 300 calories in the end (S!

From the left: green apple (for after!!), measuring cup, eggs-in-a-carton (you can use real eggs!), salsa (I like the corn and black bean kind), PAM non-stick spray.

In the center: one strip turkey bacon, one TJ deli flat

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This is my 1/2 cup (2 servings or 2 egg equivalent) eggs + 2 tbsp salsa + salt, pepper, Italian seasoning mixture in the measuring cup. I just use it as a bowl so I have less cleanup!

Notes
1. Use as much or as little salsa as you want. This is a great place to use the more liquidy part of your salsa that you always have too much of.
2. use whatever seasonings you like, I also put in a few dashes of hot sauce!

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Put the bacon in the microwave for 1 minute covered with a paper towel, tear it up into little pieces.
Spray a pan down with PAM (this is a small pan but I think I overloaded it, so my suggestion is to use slightly less than 1/2 cup of egg beaters or a medium pan), turn heat on medium and throw in the egg mixture, followed immediately by the bacon pieces, evenly dispersed.

This may seem ridiculous to most, but if you don't normally make omelets, just wait until the edges start to get a paler yellow just push them inwards and let the runny stuff seep through.

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In the end, I put 2/3 of it on the deli flat and had 1/3 left over to eat plain. This is a LOT of food for 230 calories! And it has protein, vegetables (I bet you didn't know that salsa is an amazingly healthy condiment!!), protein again (bacon) and whole wheats (deli flat)

Other notes: I don't think this needs cheese and I don't think I'd be able to taste it over the bacon, but if you're a vegetarian, a few little cheese slices or a sprinkle of grated cheese (thrown on at the end!) would make this equally yummy.

I confess, I did some snacking before and after this, not because I was hungry but because I was bored =( =(
Still, I made my 12 o'clock gym time and ran 5.3 miles (+12 minutes on the stairmaster because I had a magazine and I just wanted to finish it). Tonight is a cooking-in dinner night, so I'm debating between something in a tuna or maybe a turkey sausage....side of "hummus" with veggies.

Adios!
 
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Dodgeball has got to be one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. I play with ZogSports which is an amazing social, sporty group activities organization. They have something similar in most cities, it's pretty ubiquitous.

I first played for my team, the Ballbarians, in fall 2009 and my team wound up asking for me back, so I rejoined and it's been great. My team is composed of a motley crew of couples in their late 20's/early 30's and younger professionals. Our league is super competitive but there are more laid back teams too. We spend an hour pummeling another team with styrofoam balls then head out to a place called 1-2-3 Burger-Shot-Beer which has amazing cheap beer towers and delicious affordable food! None of this is healthy.

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Today, though, we didn't do any socializing after the game (we drew and didn't particularly distinguish ourselves today).

So I decided to get myself a snack before my run at one of those pay-by-the-pound delis (from 12 o'clock): 1 chicken wing, 1 california sushi roll, 1 tomato and mozarella round, 2 slices portabello mushroom and 1 baked (?) cauliflower piece.

This was pretty filling (add in a handful of jelly beans) and I headed off for what I had thought would be a 5 mile run but I powered through a 6th and felt great!



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I felt so great that I didn't even feel that guilty about this GIANT bag of Jelly Beans I bought that will hopefully last a loooong time (with self control) and not a really short time (if I am silly and eat too many every day).

Between lunch and the time I'm writing this, I've probably taken up another handful. Meh.

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So after a loooong debate about what we were going to do tonight, Boyfriend and I decided on a comedy club, then changed our minds to dinner out and a movie then eventually scrapped it all to join two friends for a Vietnamese feast in the deep bowels of Chinatown.

In preparation, I filled a flask with chocolate vodka (YES! They have this!!). This was a double thumbs-up because it was both budget friendly and waist friendly. I got to modulate my own alcohol consumption (though, to be fair, this means I just upped the alcohol:diet coke ratio) and therefore my diet coke consumption. Furthermore, the vodka has a lot less sugar than wine or beer!

We had a soup with all sorts of cow parts that we would normally never think of eating, a curry stew, beef cubes and a catfish bowl. I must say, the food was delicious and I'm sure that tomorrow when I step on the scale I will rue this night, but just now, I'm going to be happy with knowing that I'll just have to keep the week days healthy.



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I am quite looking forward to Monday's night out with my ex-sorority big sister for a vegan meal (she is a vegan, but I'm happy to be vegan for a night!).

 
Touche hormones, Touche.

I almost completely forgot about you and was ready to blame my eating/exercise habits for the scale being mean to me for the last couple of days. But they were, staring me in the face in the mirror, the little red bumps on my face telling me that yes, indeed, hormones DO need to be acknowledged. Thank you, hormones, for the reminder. I'll also go ahead and blame you for my scale being unimpressed with my self control.

Speaking of self control...

Yesterday was the medicine-sponsored happy hour and Republik Beergarden (definitely not worthwhile, small claustrophobic place with terrible beer selection!)

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My goals: 2 big beers/3 small beers/3 well drinks. (/=OR not AND!!!), 3 finger food samples, small healthy dinner
My achievements: 2.5 big beers, NO finger foods, 2 sushi rolls (though one was kind of big and had tempura in it)

Actually because this was a combination of 2/6 salmon avocado, 3/6 white tuna, 6/16 of two special rolls, it felt great because of all the variety!

But this story is about my greatest success of the evening. After sushi, I still wanted dessert. I didn't need it but I wanted it, and felt like I deserved it. The sushi place didn't have anything appealing, and I really wanted something warm. So I went home, chopped up a green apple, heated it in the microwave and poured some caramel syrup on it.

Lesson: Do NOT heat green apples. They lose their flavor AND become rubbery.
Success Story: Despite dessert still being a little tasty, I left most of it. It wasn't what I wanted and didn't taste good enough to keep eating. So I stopped. If you're consistently capable of this, kuddos. Me, this represents a great success. So.... ;-)

I happened to be trolling the web today at work and found an interesting article about self control, though only semi-specific to dieting: Self-Control Article in Time Magazine. The gist is that self-control is a limited quality, so if you use up all your self control making healthy eating choices, you will be cranky and aggressive elsewhere. Yeah....I'm sure low blood sugar etc has NOTHING to do with that!  Anyway though, I am hoping that by developing a long-term healthy eating habit diet, I can avoid using up my limited self-control on healthy and low-calorie breakfasts/lunches (because my body will be getting what it needs and that's that).
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The scale didn't give me any words of encouragement this morning, and I'm going to try to be good today with nice normal meals, exercise, no snacking and enjoying the evening how I want to.

Here's breakfast: 2/3 cup fat free cottage cheese (also strongly preferred to it's fatty cousin), microwaved frozen blueberries, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup of oatmeal on top for crunch and some calorie-free chocolate syrup. Giant bowl=200 calories. I think with the coffee and some upwards rounding, I'm going to give this morning 250 calories.

And now....off to dodgeball, where I hope to dodge, duck, dip and dive my team to success! More on this later tonight.

 
I thought I was so good yesterday with keeping my calories low, my exercise high and my snacking to a minimum. It seems that my scale disagrees. =(

I went to bed last night knowing what my day would hold: work until 5, haircut, then happy hour. A medicine-sponsored happy hour with free beverages and probably fried food. A potential disaster. So I set my alarm for 6am and hoped to get a run in.

I did! 3 miles before work! The plan was to have a snack before the run and a real breakfast afterwards. Instead I just had all the food I had planned to eat before work before the run. Fail.
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This is actually a shot of breakfast AND lunch. This TJ's cereal is only 90 calories for 2/3 cup and is delicious and satisfying. The yogurt (caramel!) was also pretty reasonable. But then I had the add-on (blueberries and cereal) pictured on the left. Ok, lets call this whole shebang 350 calories. I finished off with a huge sweet coffee as I went to work.

For lunch (on the right) there's the tupperware of hummus and a bunch of veggies (purchased pre-cut from supermarket...laziness...) and the second to last muffin. Actually when I opened this baby up I found soooo many berries inside. It was the jackpot muffin. Sorry Boyfriend.

The good news is that even though I was somewhat hungry after this meal, knowing what I had in store for the rest of the night and being trapped in the lab prevented me from snacking.

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So now I'm off to haircut+happy hour. But I'm not done. I have goals. Hopefully if I publish them I'm going to feel bad about breaking them and having to write about it tomorrow. But I wont make it too hard on myself! 2 beers (if large) or 3 beers (if small) and only 1 sample of any fried foods that are around. Unless there is no variety (I bet there will be wings!), in which case, 3 finger foods.

Note: While I do not condone having alcohol calories in lieu of food, they ARE calories (especially in beer) and they are carbohydrates and used as such by your body. If you've given yourself enough protein/fiber/fruits/veg during the day, liquid carbs do still count and if you're full (and not drunk), you don't have to feel PRESSURED to eat.

Ok, wish me luck! (and a flattering haircut!)

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    Author

    I'm a recent graduate from medical school and a pathology resident living in New York City. Like most girls living in the city, I've found that a lot of my social life revolves around the regular consumption of high-calorie food and alcoholic beverages. I've decided to start a blog about how I am trying to beat the bulge by eating and cooking defensively between social engagements and how even a busy girl can fit exercise into a busy life.

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