Roaming With The Roomie
Hey y’all. Lemme give you a low down on the weekend. I’m probably not going to have time to post my regular hilariousness(oh he thinks highly of himself). Well turn those frowns upside down, because I do have several product reviews ready to be posted that I’ll put up in place of my dailies, and hopefully be back and blogging by Monday. Get it? Got it. Good.
Yesterday was basically all a-go-go so I’m glad I fueled well, starting with this guy:
Homemade Lemon Cashew Nectar Bar
I had the other half of the bar from yesterday. Cleaning out your freezer definitely has its perks, like discovering tasty little goodies you forgot about. I grabbed this and felt like stretching my arch which gave me some trouble on the run by taking a walk. On the route I came across this lil’ bugger:
Catapillar
Was he not a little weird? His head and behind were bright green, and his mid section silver. I seriously thought he got a heavy dose of spray paint but it seemed au natural. The second I got home I needed to whip up a lunch to eat in the car.
Vegan Veggie Burger With Avocado, Jalapeno FSTG Chips
How can you ever go wrong with a nuked soy burger topped with avodaohmythat’sgood? I also gave the jalapeno Food Should Taste Good nachos a try because I wanted something spicy on my plate. My oh my did these deliver. At first I didn’t find them particularly flavorful and then I hit a pepper and got my wish and more. These might have been a little too intense to eat plain. I’d love to try them with a wet and chunky salsa. Mild will do–these definitely bring their own kick!
Well I ate in the car because we were on the way to my old stomping grounds.
Boston University
Honestly, I don’t think I gave myself enough time away from this place. It was nice seeing some of the old faculty but it had only been 3 months. I had much higher expectations of seeing all the same people even walking down the street whom I would pass daily last year. But the times have changed and a new bunch of froshes arrived and it just felt weird.
Well we only stayed at my school for 20 minutes before going to Boylston to meet up with my new roommate! I must admit: I was very nervous going into this and felt kind of awkward. Then I thought “You’re feeling awkward about meeting someone you’re going to live with for the next year?” Yeah, that definitely got me over it and I walked in with a positive mind. After a bit of searching, my mom and I found him and his mom and said our hellos. Right away they were starving so we brought them to Ufood Grill right around the corner to sit and chat. Turns out I’m basically living with myself! He’s very chill, a lover of good food, messy but not dirty, and did I mention chill? He’s actually 20 and spent the past 2 years at a school in Hong Kong. How cool’s that?! While we were learning about each other I grabbed a snack:
Tart & Raspberry FroYo Swirl
I never got these at Ufood because we always went for lunch and I would be full after my meal but I figured I’d get some today. It was deliciously tart, like a plain low-fat yogurt. We talked a bit more and found just how alike we are: Last month I showed my parents this restaurant and said I would be interested in eating there. Raw and vegan obviously didn’t appeal to my family enough for them to take me, but it turns out they went to that restaurant just last night after wandering around the city and coming upon it by chance–how random!
After that we walked around a bit and talked some more. They really wanted to see something famous so we took them to Mike’s Pastry:
Mike's Pastry
Where I had this:
Coffee And Bina's Peanut Butter Cup
Confession: The peanut butter cup was not from Mike’s; it was actually from Bina’s alimentari where we stopped at a bit earlier. Mike’s is authentic Italian-American treats, but Bina’s is the real Italian deal. Things there are made in such smaller batches and it’s so less commercial that it really comes out in the quality. Case in point: My roomate and his mom split a cannoli, but we forgot to tell them to ask for ricotta so they got the commercial cream filled ones, which just aren’t as good. Oh well, now they have something to go back for.
After that we walked around some more. These people really like to walk apparently. Don’t they run 6 miles in the morning? Haha I guess that’s just me. We ended up saying goodbye to them at their hotel and heading home rather late. We didn’t get home until 7:30 which none of us were expecting. I kind of threw this dinner up on the fly:
Bison Burger With Basil And Steak Sauce, Refried Pinto Beans, Yellow Corn FSTG Nachos
Let me tell you, this did NOT taste like a thrown-together-on-the-fly dinner. That was the last of the bison burgers I made a while back. So sad to see them go; what’s tastier than a patty you make with your own hands? And for nachos from a bag, those Food Should Taste Good chips tasted better than the stuff they make in house at most Mexican restaurants. It was crisp and not greasy, with that perfect corny taste. The flavor was good enough for it to be eaten on its own and subtle enough to enjoy refried beans with. Another Food Should Taste Good Winner!
Getting back so late, I had A LOT to catch up with on the web and what not. needless to say I needed a pick me up and turned to a pint.
Carrot Cake Ice Cream
What kind of pint did you think I’d be talking about? Of course I finished off the Rice Divine Carrot Cake ice Cream. I loved the bits of hermit cookie dough in this one and definitely want to try one of the company’s other fun flavors. Like I mentioned, my google reader was all in bold, but I worked my way through it. Afterwards I had soe good ol’ breads and spreads.
Toast With Almond Butter And Raspberry Jam, Deep Chocolate Vitatop
I nuked the vitatop for about 10 seconds more than normal and it came out amazingly soft and pillowy. Winner, winner, chicken dinner, as Guy Fieri would say. Salted almond butter and raspberry in my opinion is one of the best combinations out there; you get the saltiness and the tartness. It’s even better on Trader Joe’s 10 grain bread with sunflower seeds. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, that’s one loaf I definitely recommend trying out. i can’t believe there’s no Trader Joe’s in Providence! Argh, we’ll have to fix that.
This morning I told myself I’d be fine with 6.7 miles. But something inside me really wanted to go for it and capture that special moment last Friday when I broke double digits. After 6 laps I still felt really good so I went for it and ran 10.04 miles in 1:22:18. I’m having such a great runner’s high right now and I feel as though I can leave having conquered the neighborhood. Now I’m blogging with an incredibly healthy breakfast:
Stonyfield Creme Caramel Frozen Yogurt
JK. Not about the frozen yogurt, about the healthy breakfast thing. After 10 miles, I just want some quick sugar and probiotics. Don’t worry, I’ll fix myself a real breakfast filled with peanut buttery goodness once I’ve licked this cup clean.
P.S. Zevia giveaway!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )Going Farther, Getting Nuttier
I can’t wait until the end of this post to brag recap about today’s run, because I’m just too excited. Check this out:
10.05 miles in 1:20:12
A NEW PR! The farthest I’ve ever ran is 8.5 miles. This morning I planned 6 miles around the neighborhood, which is about 6.7. But on my 4th or 5th lap I felt so good that I started thinking(and me thinking is usually dangerous) “why wait until Saturday to do my long run? If I feel good now I should run what I’m feeling”. So I just kept going and going like the energizer bunny and 9 times around plopped me at double digits, and at 800: min/mile, a pretty great pace for me.
That excitement aside, let’s look at the food that fueled this morning… in a fun way. See? the name of this blog has a point. I was really sore after the run yesterday. I cut myself some slack and said no core for the day; I may not know how to take a rest day from running but I find the little ways to cut myself slack. I figured a walk around da hood would raise some spirits. I came by some awesome neighbors playing outside who lifted my mood, but the rest of me was still pretty shot after I got home so I sat down with a snack and some heavy reading.
Eat This Not That And A Peach
Have you ever held that book? The hard cover makes it heavy(and expensive :-(). Also, notice the keen placement of the peach. I will eat this and not that. I flipped through a few chapters–mostly looking at the pictures like I’m a 2 year old and this was Peter Rabbit. I was pretty stoked when I found this in the Best Drinks section:
Drink This: Best Bottled Juice--Odwalla Carrot Juice
You go, Odwalla carrot juice. Now just don’t be so expensive and maybe I won’t have to give you up when I go off to college. Seriously, if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it. I’ve used it as a post-run drink all summer since it has more potassium than OJ or a banana and has a naturally sweet flavor with almost 1 pound of carrots in each cup.
I grilled for lunch because I was having a Darius Rutker “It won’t be like this for long” moment.
Salmon Burger On The Grill
Do you think I could befriend the cooks at the Brown dining halls and use all their fancy crap for cooking and bond like we’re in some Disney Channel Original movie? It’s a thought…
Salmon Burger In FlatOut Wrap With Lime FSTG Chips, Salsa, And Avocado
I also thought I’d give the lime flavored Foods Should Taste Good nachos a try since lime is one of my favorite flavors(love that saltiness). Of course no chip taste test would be complete without salsa, which was habanero and lime because I’m that matchy-matchy, and some avocado. My first impression of the chips was that they had a good lime flavor, but were a little underseasoned. I added some salt and that fixed the problem. The texture was very crispy without tasting stale and reminded me of the fresh baked nachos from a Boston tacqueria, Fajitas And Ritas. I was really pleased with them overall and can’t wait to see how they stand up against the other flavors. Once I go through them all I’ll be ready to give a full review.
By the end of lunch time, the Kennedy’s were on all the local stations, so there wasn’t much reason to stick around watching TV. Yes, we all loved Senator Kennedy, but can’t the family get 24 hours of peace? We went to the Framingham farmers’ market, which had a solid attendance.
Framingham Farmers' Market Peppers
I knew I wanted to get some peppers to grill for dinner so I grabbed 3 of those, as well as an eggplant. I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet, but with so many recipes floating around the blogs I’m sure I’ll find something. We also got some sharp cheddar made from raw milk. Intriguing, no? On the way home we stopped by Super Stop And Shop were I was a super shopper. Super.
Kashi Cocoa Beach Granola, Smartfood Peanut Butter And Apple Popcorn, Elan Decaf Cappuccino Frozen Yogurt
I had a coupon for a free Kashi product so I went with their expensive granola which is never included in the sales. It has chocolate, almond, and coconut, so this will go well with… EVERYTHING. We had a coupon for a dollar off Elan’s which expires in 4 days–nice catch there. I love that this is Decaf Cappuccino flavored, as opposed to their coffee. I don’t think coffee ice cream would have enough to really keep me up at night, but better to be safe than hyper. And Smartfood apparently has a new flavor–peanut butter and apple. I couldn’t turn it down while it was still on the sale period.
When I got home I knew just what I wanted to make: Banana Goodness Bread
The Sugar
No sooner did we go through the last loaf that I was ready to make the next. I considered making slight alterations to the recipe to include my peanut flour. But I got some pleads requests to not change a thing, so I pleased my fans. That’s really all the added sugar that goes into the bread, yet it still comes out with a deliciously sweet flavor. This time I used unrefined sugar from the Whole Foods bulk bin.
The Secret Ingredient
I also changed up the yogurt from Vanilla Bean to Banana Vanilla. Sneaky, sneaky.
Oven Ready
The cinnamon sugar topping really adds the finishing touch. All it is is 5 grams of sugar with 1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon mixed in a bowl and sprinkled over.
Once that was in the oven I had a little something to hold myself over.
Elan Decaf Cappuccino Frozen Yogurt With Cinnamon And Midnight Moo
This came out really mocha-y and delicious, but I think next time I might forgo the chocolate sauce and just go with chocolate chips for the bit of texture difference. While I was waiting I got a little impatient and made another one of my favorite recipes while the baking supplies were out.
The Peanut Butter Boy's Scones
These scones are so delicious. I’ve developed an unexpected love of scones over the Summer. They’re just the ultimate food and can be breakfast, dessert, or a portable snack, so what’s not to love. The Peanut Butter Boy’s recipe for scones is definitely tied for my favorite with my own Loaded Scones. I made these vegan by swapping out the egg for flax and some water. Finally everything was baked.
Banana Goodness Bread And Peanut Butter Scones
Hiya, carbs. I’ll see you later tonight 😉 I also made myself a little let’s-eat-this-stuff-to-get-rid-of-it snack before dinner.
Peanut Butter And Apple Popcorn, Raspberries, Cinnamon Raisin Bread
I finished off the pint of raspberries I picked, and ate the butt(lol, butt) of the cinnamon raisin Vermont Bread Co. loaf. The popcorn was ok. It didn’t have a strong peanut flavor but reminded me of cracker jacks. And I loved the dried apple slices which were totally random and tart. My mom really loved it when I made myself a meatball sub for lunch last week and saw this as an easy dinner to cook great meal for the family.
Meatball Sub With Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Grilled Peppers
We also grilled the peppers from the farmers market and sampled the cheese. I’m not a cheddar aficionado, so I can’t say much about it other than it was really tasty. My mom who loves cheddar seemed incredibly impressed. Maybe raw milk is the way to go? The highlight of dinner came when we got a knock on the garage door, which was obviously the UPS man but my dad answered thinking it was someone coming to chat us up.
My Package
Naturally Nutty Nut Butters
If you’ve been reading this for a while, you might remember how I celebrated my first paycheck by buying 3 flavors of Naturally Nutty, which I reviewed here. Well to celebrate my last week of work I bought myself the 2 flavors I was really impressed by–Vanilla Almond Butter and Butter Toffee–as well as 3 new flavors–Honey Roasted Cinnamon, Mocha, and Vanilla Peanut Butter. As a special surprise, Katie from Naturally Nutty sent me a sampler of a new surprise sampler they’ll be releasing soon. Thanks, Katie! I love surprises and I don’t think anything will be more of a surprise than trying to guess what this could be.
Mocha Peanut Butter On A Split Scone
When the king of peanut butter’s recipe meets the queen of peanut butter’s peanut butter, you know it’s going to be good. I’ll save an in depth review for once I’ve tried all the new flavors. All I can say is the mocha definitely delivers the flavor it promises, and you can’t ask for more than that. To follow that off I did some more bread and spread lovin’.
Banana Goodness Bread With Dark Chocolate Almond Butter
Carrot Ginger Muffin Top With Smart Balance, Toast With The Surprise Peanut Butter
Going 18 hours without that bread was a sin. What was I thinking? Of course, I decimated the bananas in this house between that bread and freezing some for soft serve, so I should get on that today. Then I needed to try the surprise flavor, because when someone sends you an unlabeled jar in the mail with your name written on it, you need to taste it, right? 🙂 I had it along side a muffin top(which are 10 times better when they’re from an actual muffin) and some smart balance for a good comparison point. Again, I’m saving any detailed review for a special post, and I’m not sure how much about this flavor I should/am allowed to give away. All I can say is I’m 95% sure I’ve pinned it, it blew my mind, and I’ll DEFINITELY order a 15oz jar when it’s available.
So, ya’ll already know about this morning’s run. I wasn’t feeling any particular flavor for breakfast oddly, so I went with what was handy:
Cinnamon Raisin Bread With Honey Roasted Peanut Butter, Carrot Juice, Chocolate Banana Yogurt With Cocoa Beach Granola, Banana Bread
I also added a peach and threw some wheat germ and ground flax on the yogurt. I really liked my new granola, but it was almost a little too clustery for me. I like clusters and single oats, and this seems to be all clusters. I suppose that’s better than all oats. And the peanut butter is sweet and delicious with the cinnamon raisin bread. Today I plan on sitting on my heiny most of the day and admiring my mileage. That being said, bluefish is on sale and sounds like the plan for dinner so we’ll need to pick up that. And apparently yesterday was my 2nd most viewed day ever, which is awesome and so I thank you all for reading. I’ll try to keep it fresh and funky.
Go here for an exciting coupon giveaway: http://www.fitandfabulouslife.com/2009/08/27/another-coupon-giveaway/
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 11 so far )Flour Flying Everywhere
Yesterday morning I put on my work clothes and did some heavy lifting.
The Spare Bedroom
I can’t believe move in day is in less than 2 weeks? I feel wicked prepared, but also very not prepared. I have most of the big stuff, so today I focused on finding pencils, binders, etc., and moving that huge ass trunk. A hernia, fallen cactus, and 20 minutes later, I was spent. That’s enough for one day, right? I mean, it IS over a week away. I needed sunlight being trapped in that room so I stepped outside with a peach.
Going For A Walk
When I got back, we needed to go next door to let out our neighbors’ new cat. His name’s shadow, and he was a stray that’d been roaming the neighborhood for the past 2 weeks. Finally my parents and neighbors got wicked attached to them and apparently he’s been adopted. I’m pretty sure that breaks about 3 rules my parents taught me but apparently never learned themselves?
Shadow
After that I was pretty cranky, which definitely meant lunchtime. I tried making a salmon and tuna burger with our leftovers–bad idea. I should know not to take on difficult cooking projects when I really just want to eat, but I needed to relearn that. I settled for a pretty sweet reincarnation of pizza and wings.
Trader Joe's Individual Pizza Grilled With Buffalo Bleu Kettle Chips
What a knockout combo. Of course I grilled the pizza which gave the bottom that crusty, burnt flavor. We used to have pizza parlor pizza and wings every Tuesday. Looking back, that was fun, but definitely not healthy and something to eat every week. Plus, fresh basil? I would eat this meal in a heartbeat over that greasy stuff.
After “the soaps” we jumped in the car, swung by my grandmothers condo, and took her to Roche Bros. I needed something for some shopping energy.
Banana Goodness Bread
This loaf is definitely on its last leg. Roche Bros. was a reminder of why I’m not much of a fan of shopping other places than Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Does anybody else find it ridiculous that grocery stores these days have special sections for “natural” products? I mean, it’s a food store, you’d hope most of what’s in there is natural. But that’s just not the case these days. And Whole Foods is lovingly termed Whole Paycheck, but have you ever tried buying Whole Foods quality stuff at regular supermarkets? That’ll be your paycheck and your bonus. Whole Foods can actually be quite affordable; the trick is to shop the sales and use the coupons from companies/The Whole Deal and you can get some real bargains. That all being said, I did get some loot(with a little help from a stop at a natural food store on the way back)
Watermelon, Carrot Cake Ice Cream, Bulk Bin Oats, Cinnamon Sugar Grinder, Banana Vanilla Yogurt
The wallaby yogurt and spice grinder is for my next banana loaf–I am so on top of this planning thing. The oats were from the natural stores’ bulk bin, which are rocksome for getting high quality cheap grains and seeds. And the dairy free ice cream was another find from the natural food store.
Carrot Cake Ice Cream
How could I turn this down? I couldn’t obviously. Carrot cake is my favorite dessert so I needed to give it a try. The base was absolutely delicious, like a frozen form of carrot juice with cinnamon and nutmeg, and absolutely none of that soymilk flavor. In the ice cream was big globs of gingerbread dough, which were surprisingly soft and moist, almost like eating right out of a freshly mixed batch. Overall this was really good, but not quite what I was expecting. I love raisins and pineapple in my carrot cake, as well as a little cream cheese frosting. Still, this was great for what it was. The nutrition threw me off in a non-favorable way. No fiber or protein? That’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of non-dairy ice creams: Because you miss the nutrients from milk. Still, it was a great treat, just not something to be eaten if you’re looking to get filled up.
I also really wanted to try out my new peanut butter flour today, and one recipe instantly caught my eye. I majorly tweaked it to fit my particularities–aka no butter and low sugar. Even for being tweaked so much, these came out great.
Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops
Ingredients:
2oz Mighty Maple Peanut Butter
2oz reduced fat cream cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup peanut flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
Cinnamon sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350. In a bowl, blend the cream cheese and peanut butter with a mixer. Crack in the eggs and add the milk and maple syrup. Mix until well incorporated. In a seperate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Sift the dry into the wet and mix until fully smooth. Using an ice cream scoop, dump the dough onto lined cookie tins. Dust with cinnamon sugar and bake for 10 minutes or until puffed and firm.
Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops
I’ve never made muffin tops before, so I was a little dissappointed when these didn’t turn out just like the picture. But then I figured they probably used real muffin top tins, which apparently exist, so boo on them. While these cooled we had dinner:
Halibut, Watermelon, Asparagus, And Corn With Sunflower Butter
Yours truly grilled the watermelon using some fun kabobs. It makes them so juicy and sweet, almost like they were dusted with sugar. The halibut was ok, but when I heard how much wild halibut costs “on sale” my jaw hit the floor. Seriously? That’s a lot of nut butter. Speaking of nut butter…
Naturally Nutty Vanilla Almond Butter And Butter Toffee Peanut Butter
A package came for me at dinner time as well and it was this lovely gift bag from Katie over at Naturallynutty.com I ordered 3 of their flavors last month and wrote a review here. Katie loved my review and clearly figured out how much I LOVED these two flavors and was nice enough to send me 2 8oz jars! This package really threw me off at first, because I also am waiting for another ordered I placed to try 3 new flavors, which is apparently in UPS’s hands in Ohio at the moment. So much peanut butter! It’s a good problem to have, though, like a REALLY good problem. Thanks again, Katie! Now I have some jars to take to college and some to leave home. To anyone who hasn’t gotten a chance to try some of this peanut butter, I highly suggest treating yourself to some from their website. They’ve been my celebration-purchase of choice for my first and last week of work.
For dessert I needed carbs–loads of them for running. Obv, my favorite source is breads and spreads, so I loaded up on those.
Maple Peanut Butter Muffin Tops With Maple Agave Syrup
Frozen Cherries, Toast With Vanilla Almond Butter, Carrot Ginger Muffin Top With Cream Cheese
Hey, what’s that fruit doing there? Ever notice how the same food appears on every blog. Well, it’s quite simple. After reading all of each others blogs, how could we not get cravings for the food we see? Frozen cherries was all over blog world last night and nothing felt like it would hit the spot better. The muffin tops were really delicious–not much of a maple flavor but HUGE on the peanut butter and protein. I did some mental math and found out there’s at least 5 grams of protein per top. My one problem with muffin tops is that they’re ugly which is the only reason I don’t think I’ll be making them again unless I get my hands on a special tin.
Waking up this morning was an odd experience. Usually my alarm radio is playing Daughtry and having some light hearted talk about the Red Sox but today it was all reminiscing about Senator Kennedy. Reminiscing? It took me a while to put the pieces together and realized he passed away. I’m not a very political person in the least, but one thing I do remember is him taking the time to meet and shake the hands of my entire 7th grade class on a trip to DC, so he was definitely a great man by my standards.
Normally my mornings are pretty standard: Run 5-7 miles, shower, make breakfast, blog and eat, do my email/website round-up, all while watching my Regis, Kelly, and Rachael Ray. Not a bad life, right? 🙂 But this morning I had a bagel-hankering. After pleading for arranging a ride I was good to go for a new plan. I ran the first 3/4ths of the run I was planning but then took a turn and ended up at this humdinger of a place:
Panera Bread
It’s definitely been a while. I ran here at the beginning of the Summer but it was always a 2.5 mile walk back, and that just wasn’t a wise use of my time. I went in expecting to get a French Toast bagel but what was this? A new signature bagel? Cherry vanilla?! That’s definitely one of my top flavor combos so I knew I needed to order it. I got one of each, came home, toasted up half of each, and unleashed my armory of spreads.
Cherry Vanilla bagel With White Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter And Cherry Butter, French Toast Bagel With Pumpkin Butter And Mighty Maple, Carrot Juice
Breads and spreads make my life. I had an awful thought last night: What if my roommate is allergic to nuts? He’d be dead if he got within 10 feet of me. I’m sure he would have mentioned this in one of our emails, right? Here’s hoping. Today we’re totally hitting up a Farmer’s Market for some Great Harvest bread. This is a chain, but there are only 2 in all of MA and I’ve never tried them before. I think they’re good though, Kath from KERF seems to really like it.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )Beans And Bison
Thanks for all your advice on the virus. I ended up listening to my dad and downloading and installing Symantec Antivirus from the Brown website and that or something did the trick. I guess being related to a Director of Information Technology comes in handy when you’re not so hot at computers. While I was running 1000 different scans, I took a walk to clear my mind and snacked on this:
Blueberry Z-Bar
I really hope these go on sale somewhere soon because at 1-a-day this could become an expensive habit if I continue it into college. The walk wasn’t actually that relaxing because I came across a snake. I hate snakes; they’re kind of my biggest fear. That being said, though, I’m not too too afraid of them so maybe I’m braver than I give myself credited for. It was slithering into grass when I noticed it so I just kept walking and stayed a little closer to the road.
I got back and was really in the mood for a Trader Joe burger with the Whole Foods bun I always feel like I should eat but don’t get the chance to. of course someone had to throw the buns out THAT morning. Ugh, the excuse was so lame. A little mold never killed anybody… that I’ve met personally. I really wasn’t in the mood for anything else but had a pretty big deficit starting already and was getting hungry so I made a Snobby Joe and ate these Newman’s crisps I’d been eyeing:
Newman's Own Organic Barbeque Soy Crisps
Lunch
Ok, microwaving lentils for 10 minutes isn’t the proper or best way to cook them(they were still a little hard). But put 2 tablespoons steak sauce, 1/2 tablespoon ketchup and 2 teaspoons mustard on anything and all your problems kind of float away in a cloud of bliss…. Sorry I was just thinking about it and drifted off for a second. The soy crisps didn’t blow me away like I was hoping or their other products have. They had a great barbeque flavor in every bite, but left you with that soy aftertaste. I much preferred the white cheddar because it either didn’t have an aftertaste or the white cheddar was a nice subtle flavor which eased into the aftertaste. I still liked these chips, enough that I’d eat them again. And their a great source of veggie protein(7 grams per serving). But if I was looking for just a good barbeque flavor on a chip I’d go for Kettle Chips Baked Honey BBQ.
Naturally, in keeping with the theme of freezer cleaning, I had a little Stonyfield Java froyo.
Stonyfield Java Frozen Yogurt
I really loved the So Delicious Mocha Almond Fudge but my palate just needed something simple and refreshing and wasn’t up to the massive complex sweet and salty flavor so I stuck with the Stonyfield. It hit the tongue spot in the car on the way to Market Basket and Whole Foods in Bellingham. This is the perfect store combo because you never know what you’ll find at Market Basket and any of the staples you can fill in at Whole Foods across the street. Here was the notable loot.
Vermont Natural Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Ground Bison And Organic Omega-3 Eggs
We go through so much bread in this family. We’re going to turn into a bunch of loaves. This all-natural brand was on sale for 1.99 at Market Basket so I thought I’d try it; it’s a nice break from my cinnamon raisin english muffins. Getting the fancy-shmancy eggs was a bit of a battle with my mom but I won out. Normal eggs are fine with me for baking but I don’t eat many eggs straight and the ones I do I prefer be as healthy as possible. And the bison was for bison burgers of course! We also picked up some replacement buns so I’d get the lunch that never was. But first I needed a little something-something to power me through:
Banana Whip With Organic Chocolate Syrup
Things didn’t go as smoothly with my food processor as I would have liked(haha, get the pun?) but I got through. The Trader Joe’s organic syrup was an amazing find. It’s like 1/2 the price of any other brand and it’s all natural. I’ll admit their isn’t much difference between the first ingredient in this being sugar and the first ingredient in Hershey’s being high fructose corn syrup but it’s enough of a difference for me to have peace of mind. Back to the bison, I formed my first patties ever.
Bison Patties
We got 5 3.2-ounce patties out of the meat. 5 bison patties for 5 dollars is a great bargain these days and it was all super simple. I wasn’t sure what to mix in so these were all-meat. I was thinking of flaxmeal(I’m serious, keep with me here) because it would act as a binder and give the meat a grilled nutty flavor, but I wasn’t sure how the parents would like it. Here was my dinner plate:
Burger And Fries
I threw in some homemade Alexa’s sweet potato fries. They crisp up pretty nicely from the freezer to the oven. And the burger was really good, too. My mom for some reason thinks bison is this far-out-crazy meat and didn’t understand it–she asked if it was considered a red meat. She really liked it, though. Hopefully not enough to steal the 2 extra patties we made from me.
For dessert first up I needed to try out my new bread.
Cinnamon Raisin Bread And Peanut Butter
What to top this with was a bit of a no brainer, but I kept the spread light and only used 1/2 tablespoon because I really wanted to get a sense of the bread. The most obvious thing was how it was OA with raisins, major plus. The bread was a little tough–I think it needed to be toasted wither a little longer so it was really crisp or a little less so it was soft. Overall it was pretty nice, but unless it’s on sale more often, I’ll stick with my english muffins.
Next I tried another crazy runner concoction I heard about on the RW Forums:
French Toast Oatmeal
What is it exactly? 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal with an egg cracked in, lightly swirled, cooked until the egg is done, and topped with maple syrup and cinnamon. It didn’t actually taste like french toast, but it was pretty good. The egg wasn’t fully swirled in which I liked and made every bite unique. It tasted like having oatmeal, pancakes, and egg all on one plate and letting them intermingle with one another. I don’t eat eggs so often but this is how I’ll eat them from now on when I do. I also gave another Newman’s Own Organic product a try.
Newman's Own Organic Fig Newmans And Toast With The Bee's Knees
I knew I liked Fig Newtons but I did not know how much I love Fig Newmans. Straight out of the package, of course they were incredibly fresh and soft like pillows. The breading didn’t crumble until it hit my mouth and which point it sort of melted goodness. The fig filling tasted like real fig(and I should know considering the pints I’ve gone through this Whole Food sale period). And when fig is the 3rd ingredient, you know you’re getting good quality. Another noticeable flavor was the strong presence of vanilla. At first I wasn’t sure how to react to it. But after letting the flavors sit in my mouth, I realized the vanilla is really what make this taste like a cookie that just happens to be healthy as opposed to a healthy cookie. And with the simple and short ingredient list these clearly beat out the original fig newtons in my opinion.
Tuesday is kind of my “recharge day” when I basically make it a point to charge anything electronic. I’ve got my Garmin going now and my ipod’s next. Anybody else have specific days of the week where you make it a point to do something you could in theory do whenever?
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