Warm weather here I come!

Today I had 4 classes before I was off to Arizona! I am going to visit my best friend who moved there when I was a freshman. We talk on the phone everyday and try to visit eachother every other month. She is still my best friend! I am SO excited to get out of the cold weather, even if it is just for 5 days. The weather forcast for Tucson, Arizona says its about 80 degrees there today! Whoo Hoo!!

I had such an easy time waking up this morning, because I was looking forward to my trip (and breakfast too)! I knew I probably wouldn't get a chance to eat lunch until I was settled in the airport (and I have no idea how long that might take) so I figured an oatmeal breakfast would be a good choice to tie me over. I had a de-li-cious bowl of oats this morning!

My bowl consisted of the following:
-1 packet plain instant oatmeal
-2/3 cup of water
-a handful of raspberries
-tbsp of shredded coconut
-a spoonful of peanut butter


It was delicious! Around 10:15 I was in Spanish class. I had made cookies for my class last night. I made 48 cookies. 24 chocolate chip and 24 sugar cookies with sprinkles. I treated myself to a sugar cookie, and I also had a bottle of Diet Snapple I snagged from the school store because I was thirsty as could be!
Here's a look at the cookies-


Now I am off to the airport. See you for a high-flying lunch! (Ok, that was corny)

Food, Research Papers, Hospitals

Yesterday after breakfast I proceeded to work on my research paper. I got A LOT of notes and research done, as well as the first two pages written. It felt so good to actually get something done so I can at least say that I've started it. Doesn't it feel better when you don't fully procrastinate? =)

While I was working on my paper I was getting a hankering for a treat I made. It you remember back to Christmas time I made a Black Forest Trifle (brownie pieces, lite cherry pie topping, cool whip). Well everyone fell in love with it at Christmas including me. The leftovers lasted FOREVER and I snacked on them for a good two weeks. Well the other day I decided I wanted to recreate a smaller version of this fab dessert. I halved the recipe and made a mini version for me to have as a dessert for the week. Now where I am going with this is- I had a few bites mid morning. I know, SO BAD! But it was delish and totally worth it.

For lunch I had just heated up some leftover Amy's Chunky Vegetable soup and made a seafood salad wrap when my mom's friend called and asked us to meet her at Cosi for lunch. I packed up my meal and put it in the refrigerator and we headed out. At Cosi I had my favorite sandwich, a Fire-Roasted Veggie warmed on Whole Grain with baby carrots. I was a little chilly so I had green tea to drink. It was a good lunch and we were surrounded by two good friends!

After lunch my mom decided a Dunkin Donuts stop was completely necessary. At DD I treated myself to a small coffee with skim milk and Splenda. I think this is my new favorite way to drink coffee!

For the rest of the afternoon I did some homework and relaxed until about 5PM when we got a call from my aunt who works at the nursing home where my grandmother is. My grandmother has water on the brain and severe dementia, and she was doing really scarily bad all of a sudden. My aunt called her PCP who got her directly admitted to Hartford Hospital. My family quickly rummaged through the fridge to grab dinner. I had my meal from lunch that I didn't get to eat. 

Amy's Chunky Vegetable soup and a seafood salad wrap.

Contents of the wrap:

-1 Joseph's Flax Oat Bran and Whole Wheat Tortilla Wrap

-A large scoop of premade seafood salad from Shaw's

-baby spinach

-sliced onion

This was delicious and filled me right up. After dinner I took a few more yummy bites of trifle for dessert. Shhh!

I had a snack when I got back from the hospital, but I was tired and forgot to photograph it- sorry! I had a Yoplait Light Thick & Creamy (my fav yogurt) with a (new for me) bar. I tried the Kashi Crunchy! Chocolate Caramel bar.

Serving Size: 1 bar (45g)

Calories: 150

Calories from fat: 25

Total Fat: 3g

Saturated Fat: 2g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 220mg

Total Carbohydrate: 28g

Dietary Fiber: 6g

Soluble Fiber: 1g

Insoluble Fiber: 5g

Sugars: 14g

Protein: 8g

At the first bite I didn't really like the bar much. But as I kept eating it I grew to appreciate it. I didn't love it by any means, but I'd eat it again.

After I had my snack I felt much better, and hit the hay for some much needed rest! This morning I was running a little late so I didn't get a picture of breakfast. But I had a bowl of Quaker Oats with some DaVinci Sugar Free Vanilla syrup mixed in, along with a mini box of raisins and a scoop of pb. Yum!

Wow! It's been forever!

It's been forever since I last blogged! I woke up this morning thinking about how much I wanted to get a post in! I really do miss blogging my eats everyday, but at the same time I think it has been really good for me this past month not to expend so much energy on my food. I think I am going to continue on this path, while maybe posting every once in a while.

I took a "well day" off of school so I could work on a HUGE history research paper I haven't started. I woke up at about 9:15. I was a little bit hungry, nothing major. I wanted something carby and sweet and I knew exactly what was calling my name. A cinnamon bun with streusel topping! I picked these up when we went to Shaw's yesterday. They just looked way too yummy. These are surprisingly not too bad for you. They clock in at around 210 calories and 6 grams of fat. Not bad for a morning breakfast splurge!

Quite the way to start the morning!

annoucement!

I will be taking a week long break. My friend is coming to visit and I would like to spend some time and focus on her because I really never see her. I will be back after school starts!

I'm a horrible blogger

With all the company here I have been very picture-shy and haven't taken any photos of my eats! I'll still give a quick recap of yesterday and today, and I promise to get back in full-gear ASAP.

For breakfast yrdayeste morning my dad and grandfather went out to Bagels Plus to grab what ended up being an assortment of thirteen bagels for a house of 6 people! Funny, because we ended up eating less than half of them! Everyone only ate about 1/2-3/4 of a bagel. Only 2 people ate a full one. I had a half of a plain bagel with some fat free cream cheese and a nice bunch of grapes. I also enjoyed my morning jasmine green tea with breakfast.

For lunch I decided I needed to sneak away from company and met my friend, Katie, down at Cosi for lunch. I got a Bombay Chicken Light Salad with Etruscan Whole Grain bread. I ate pretty much my whole salad and about 1/2 of my bread. I just might have ordered a bottle of diet coke too =)

Around 3:30 or so in the afternoon I decided I was really hungry. I had a slice of rye bread with warmed kapusta and a tomato slice on top. Perfect!

I ended up going to the movies with my dad last night. We were going to go to dinner, but we really weren't that hungry so we decided that movie theater junk would be enough. We saw Marley and Me. It was so adorable! I cried of course, but I loved the movie. I had gotten the kids pack popcorn, which came with a fun size candy and a soda. I had a choice between Skittles and M&Ms. I chose M&Ms and a Diet Coke for my drink. (I also snuck a water in from home). This was such a yummy treat- something I really rarely have.

When I got home I was actually starving though since I didn't have a full dinner so I tried out my new panini maker! I made a nutella-banana panini with about a tbsp of nutella and 1/2 a smashed banana. Grilled to perfection and sprinkled with powdered sugar-

I also had a yogurt.

I felt much better after this. I ended up snacking on a Honey Nut Cherrios Milk & Cereal bar around midnight or so while I was up watching movies and such. Overall, I felt like it was a pretty good day and very intuitive.

I realized this evening that the past few days have been filled with food splurges. AKA I have been eating lots of treats I don't normally eat. I decided that it is the holidays and that I am going to enjoy myself. When I go back to school I will probably naturally go back to eating healthier but for now I am really enjoying myself. On that note, my day did start off fairly healthy today. I had my favorite Sunday breakfast of a egg-in-toast-hole. In other words, an egg fried in a slice of bread with a slice of Veggie Pepperjack cheese melted on top. I enjoyed this with a Cranbran Vitatop and a mug of jasmine green tea. 

My mom and I ended up leaving the house around noon to go visit my grandmother at the rehab center and take her out for the day. On the way I had some diet iced green tea. By the time we got there, got her up and going, and made our way to the car it was about 2PM. I was so hungry by this point, and we had to figure out what we were going to do for lunch. We found a Friendly's, so we pulled on over! Here goes my splurges for the day....

I ordered from the kids menu, because I am just too cool. I ordered the mac and cheese and a side of mixed vegetables. I ate all the veggies and about half the mac and cheese. When it was time for dessert I decided it was really time for a treat. I flat out made the decision that I really want to let go of my ED for good, which entails doing normal things like having ice cream at Friendly's. I tried the Birthday Cake Friend-Z. This was vanilla soft serve swirled with frosting, pound cake, and sprinkles. AHHH IT WAS DELICIOUS! Not only and I so proud of myself for ordered a dessert and eating it, I enjoyed it immensely!

We ended up taking my grandmother to Wal-Mart after lunch to do a little shopping and to just get out a little considering she's been cooped up. That went fine, but was a bit of a tedious process since she can barley walk.

We finally got home around 6:45PM and were exhausted! I relaxed on the couch while catching up on blogs for a while and helped my mom do her puzzle. Around 8:30 we decided we were finally hungry again. We whipped out all the Christmas leftovers and made a plate. I had a small plate filled with butternut squash, turkey, cranberry sauce, and a slice of rye bread with warmed kapusta and tomato. YUM!!  

I will probably have a snack later, probably something easy like a yogurt/granola bar or something. Night everyone!

the craziness never ends!!

So 30 people finally leave our house last night, just in time for house guest this morning! Phew! My grandparents came in from Philly this morning to stay with us the night. 

This morning I got up about 9AM and took a nice hot shower. I was happily surprised to find a nice loaf of Raisin Babka sitting on the counter top. My aunt brings Babka every Christmas (we're a big Polish family), and I always look forward to enjoying a slice. This morning I chose to have some for breakfast. I had a slice of Babka toasted with some Brummel and Brown margarine on top. I also had some cottage cheese, grapes, and jasmine green tea on the side.

 Healthy and delicious!!

After breakfast, my mom, sister, and I went out to run some errands. We went to the car wash, Wal-Mart, the grocery store, Victoria's Secret, and the liquor store. We had to get a bottle of wine for my grandfather's birthday ad PJs for my grandma's birthday. We went to Wal-Mart for some fabric for my sewing machine and propane for my dad, and the grocery store for lunch fixings. We got bread, rolls, roast beef, and chips for lunch. I also grabbed some Yoplait and YO Crunch yogurts as well as some more quick, frozen meals for my sister and I while we were there. 

When we arrived home my grandparents pulled in the driveway on cue. We gave our hugs, and then opened our Christmas presents. They got me a beautiful new Cole Haan bag. It's a roll bag, and it's just GORGEOUS. I love it! Around 1:15-1:30 or so, my dad and I started making some turkey salad with the leftover turkey from yesterday. We chopped up turkey, celery, and onions and added some Kraft Light Mayo. After it was done, everyone started assembling sandwiches. Now my lunch today was a huge treat for me. Way back when I was a little girl my great great aunt used to make something called Kapusta. It is a Polish dish made of sauerkraut and yellow peas. Ever since I was a toddler I LOVED it! My aunt used to make it for me every year on my birthday and Christmas, but since she passed I barely ever get it. Her daughter surprised me with a batch yesterday! I was beyond excited. It is traditional to eat it with rye bread, so I picked up some light rye at BigY when we were there. Now that we have that cleared up, my lunch consisted of a slice of rye spread with warm Kapusta and tomato slices. I also had a half of a turkey salad sandwich on light oatmeal bread, and a diet coke. It was a delicious make-your-own sandwich kind of lunch!!

After lunch my grandmother helped me figure out my new sewing machine, and I spent a few hours trying to cut out patterns while getting frustrated with fabrics. Around 4PM I went downstairs to grab a golden delicious apple to snack on, and the headed back up to struggle some more!

Something weird happened around 5:30- I BECAME STARVING. Insatiably starving. Everyone was snacking on veggies/dip and wine, so I had a handful of baby carrots and some celery with about 2 cherry tomatoes. I was still hungry and we weren't having dinner until 7-7:30 so I had a new yogurt, a YO Crunch Oreo.

 It was delicious and I felt much better afterwards. We sat around, talked, and laughed until about 6:45, when we finally left the house for dinner. We went to the country club. We belong to the Golf Club of Avon. 

We started off our meal with some appetizers. We ordered the Thai Shrimp Sizzle. The description was: Tender Gulf Shrimp Sizzled with Thai Chili Paste and Coconut Milk served with Sticky Rice. I had one shrimp off the plate, and oh my god I cannot describe how amazing the flavor was! They offer an entree sized portion of this, and I think I might get it next time! We also ordered the fried calamari. It was very different from any other calamari I've ever had (I had 2 small bites) but the flavor was so good and it actually might have been some of my favorite calamari ever. The breading was light and the spices were right on. 

I ordered the Sea Bass special for my dinner, as did my grandmother, mom, and my mom's friend. Our meal came with a salad that happened to be one of the most interesting salads i've had in a long time. It was served with a whole pear, strawberries, and slivered almonds over arugula with a strawberry vinaigrette (I got on the side). I really enjoyed this salad.

The main meal was, obviously, sea bass. It was presented over a sweet potato mash with some mixed vegetables and a Blood Orange Citrus Jus. All four of us who ordered this loved it. It was phenomenal!

After dinner we had coffee. I ordered a coconut rice pudding but didn't like it so my grandma and mom split it. Everyone else got hot fudge sundaes. I was a little bummed about the dessert, but it worked out. We had to pick up my sister from a movie. She hadn't eaten dinner and wanted to stop at McDonalds. I saw it as the perfect opportunity to snag an ice cream cone. Mine looked a little something like this-

Now I am just relaxing in my room, catching up on blogs, and chatting with friends. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more pictures of my eats. Night everyone!

Frosty the snowman

Is my all-time favorite Christmas movie that I watched today. I love Frosty!

I went grocery shopping with my mom all morning. It literally took us forever. We finally got home around 1:15, $400 and 2 grocery stores later. It was insane. When we got home we organized the refrigerator and freezer while unpacking the groceries. That took a while in itself. When we were at the grocery store, I picked up a premade sandwich that I could eat fast. I heated up some Campbells Light Italian Style Vegetable Soup and had a bowl of that with 1/2 of the very large sandwich. It was yet another soup/sandwich day! What can I say? Soup and sandwich is favorite lunch combo. Seriously, I could eat it everyday!

The sandwich I got was ciabatta bread with mozzarella, spinach, roasted red peppers, and a pesto sauce. It was literally amazing and I would definitely buy it again if I needed something quick (or even if I didn't).

 

And lunch all together with a diet satan....

This was a lot of liquid by the way, my tummy was bloated afterwards!

After lunch I relaxed, talked to some friends, wrapped some presents, and baked. I made a black forest trifle, chocolate chip cookies, and some cupcakes. I took pictures of all the goodies. The cupcake tray picture was hard to decipher, so I took a picture of one cupcake instead.

I made a plate of these babies--

I also made a plate of Christmas chocolate chip cookies--

And a black forest trifle. Made with brownie pieces, whipped topping, cherry pie filling, and shaved chocolate--

I actually made the cupcakes with a can of cranberry seltzer instead of eggs and oil. I always do this and nobody can ever tell! While making these I snacked on this plate of goodies-

A chocolate Vitamuffin and a chocolate covered donette. I also had a mug of black hazelnut coffee.

 Around 6pm we all decided we were famished. We had the Christmas Eve dinner of champions- FROZEN PIZZA. Wow. We're so lame. We had a Primo Chicken Caesar pizza, a Kashi Thin Crust Roasted Vegetable pizza, and my dad had an individual Red Baron French Bread pizza. I had 2 slices (about 1/4 of the pie) of the Kashi Roasted Vegetable. It was definitely a dinner on the light side, but I'll have a bigger night snack later.

 My mom and I both fell in love with this. It was actually delicious! I also indulged in an extra half of a Diet Coke after dinner because, well, it's Christmas Eve and I deserve it! There was also the other dozen of my cupcakes cooling that had not yet been decorated. I snuck one, frosted it and put some festive sprinkles on top. Perfect Christmas Eve dessert!

After eating my cupcake I helped my dad make make-ahead mashed potatoes, an apple pie, and a pumpkin pie. I ended up being starving later from my small dinner, so I has a pouch of Annie's Easy Mac mixed with broccoli and peppers. This definitely fixed my hunger. A little later on I had a yogurt too. I didn't take a picture of these two snacks because I figured you know what they look like.

We're getting up early at 7 AM so I am off to bed! There will probably be no post or pics tomorrow due to craziness. Merry Christmas!!