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WIAW: Put a Fried Egg On It

January 31, 2013 By 4 Comments

Hiya eaters!

I haven’t done a WIAW in a hot minute, so why not, right?

Oh, and I didn’t have anything exciting to blog about because I eat a lot of leftovers that I top with fried eggs. Because really, what doesn’t taste better with a little runny yolk? (I should add that to my food manifesto.)


Breakfast:

Shredded, roasted Brussels sprouts baked with two eggs.

Shredded, roasted Brussels sprouts baked with two eggs.

Speaking of fried eggs…

Seriously, this was a coincidence. I didn’t remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday when I wrote that intro.

On the side I also had a Clementine (because all those Brussels sprouts are only 1 Zone block of carbs, can I get a #HotDamnHoory!).

Work:

Grande whole milk latte and a messy desk.

Grande whole milk latte.

I was out of creamer and forgot to add fat to my breakfast, so this happened. For the first time since before Christmas.

Yes, I am proud of that.

Lunch:

Vinegar baked chicken, spicy peach seitan, and a kale salad.

Vinegar baked chicken, spicy peach seitan, and a kale salad.

Since we all know that grocery shopping on an empty stomach is bad, so I treated myself to the Whole Foods hot bar. For the first time since before Christmas.

As you noticing a pattern? I eat more convenience foods when school is in.

Snack:

WINE GUMS!!!

WINE GUMS!!!

My friend Polly is a freaking angel and brought me a big bag of my FAVORITE gummies from England — wine gums! So I ate a few too many of these.

Dinner:

Homemade pizza with chorizo, peppers, onions, and fresh mozzarella.

Homemade pizza with chorizo, peppers, onions, and fresh mozzarella.

I had a kneading breakthrough last week, so I had to see if extra kneading improved my pizza dough.

It totally dinner. The chorizo helped, too.

And that officially makes this pizza the second tastiest thesis homework yet! (Though I’m baking cinnamon rolls tomorrow, so that might change.)

Your turn, eaters:

Do you eat leftovers as is or you do jazz them up a bit?

What’s your favorite candy?

*Bonus* Would you be interested in me sharing my thesis recipes?

Later eaters!

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Two Tips Tuesday

November 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

G’evening eaters!

I’m fading fast, despite the fact that I really didn’t do anything today. But you’ll hear about all that tomorrow.

I promised you two tips/tricks from my Thanksgiving and here they are. (Oh, and this isn’t going to become a regular thing. I just like alliteration and triplets so I added “Tuesday” to the title.)

1) Everyone loves risotto, right? It’s thick and creamy and unbelievably comforting.

Unfortunately, the way it’s usually made require lots of milk and cream and butter and cheese. Now if you know me at all, you know that I don’t have a problem with any of those things, but they can be the kind of specialty ingredient that go bad after you’ve used the splash or two a recipe calls for. And they’re not super flavorful on their own, so you have to add extra ingredients. And if you’re cooking for a crowd then chances are at least one person is going to be vegan, lactose intolerant, or doesn’t like cow’s milk.

That’s a whole lot of reasons not to make risotto.

Or it could be a whole lot of reasons to make risotto with broth and pureed soup!

Yup, that’s my risotto trick. I forgo the dairy and alternate splashes of broth (chicken or vegetable, depending on the crowd you’re serving) and pureed soup.

For Thanksgiving I used some butternut squash soup and vegetable broth to accommodate my vegan guest. And just for funsies I chopped up a mix of dried wild mushrooms and tossed them in dry. They soaked up the liquid and added a little mushroomy background without adding lots of blah tasting water, like if you soak them before hand.

That mushroom bit is another trick I use often, but that’s not the second trick for tonight. Nope…

2) Does your chocolate ever seize up when you’re trying to melt it? It happens to me about half the time and, honestly, I’ve got no clue why. Here’s what happened on Thanksgiving in case any of you can tell me:

I was melting dark chocolate chips with coconut oil in a crock pot. Everything was melting just fine. I decided to thin out the chocolate a bit with coconut milk. And immediately it seized up into an angry little ball.

Like I said, I’ve got no clue why that happened. Chocolate is a mystery to me.

But now, at least I know that adding a little room temperature brewed coffee helps smooth out seized chocolate. Luckily I had some on hand and after a little stirring the chocolate was almost as good as new. It wasn’t perfect, but it certainly wasn’t an angry little ball of fucked up-ness like it was before.

And that’s all I’ve got for you tonight. I’m sure at least one of these tips will eventually come in handy. Heck, if I was better at this whole internet thing I could make some awesome pinterest-able graphic.

But if I was better at this whole internet thing I probably wouldn’t cuss so much, so I’ll call it a draw.

Your turn, eaters:

Got any good little tips for me?

What’s something you wish you had a magic tip for?

G’night eaters!

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WIAW: And Then The World

November 22, 2012 By 1 Comment

Howdy eaters!

I’m home alone and I’ve lost count of how many episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent I’ve watched. My guess is that it’s more than four. In a row.

I’ve also been walking into rooms all day and taunting my dog with “You a puppy. You’re just a little puppy.”

Please don’t ask me why I’m doing any of this. Clearly I don’t know how to handle alone time anymore.

(Episode five is starting now.)

Anyway, let’s talk about yesterday.


Breakfast #1:

Do I even need to tell you about the apple and pb?

Crossfit:

Class yesterday day was fun, but it could have been more fun. It was fun because the WOD included double down wall ball shots, which is squat-throw-squat-catch instead of traditional wall ball shots of squat-throw-catch.

It could have been better, though, if I wasn’t still sporting a gnarly bruise down my spine from where the chiropractor worked on my scar tissue, which prevented me from doing wall ball sit ups (it’s exactly like it sounds), but are tons of fun.

Yes, I kind of love wall ball things.

Well, except running with wall balls. That still sucks.

Breakfast #2:

A hardboiled egg.

I was half running around to get to the dog park on time and half dilly dallying on the computer, so I ate a half assed breakfast of a hard boiled egg, a carrot, a hunk of cold turkey, and a few bites of pie.

Dog park:

Using a French press makes me feel sophisticated.

With the colder weather the dog park has become a really great way to spend a morning. I fill up a hot mug of coffee and Charlie runs and wrestles his big butt off.

But then he gets to sleep all day.

Lunch:

A fried egg on top of sausage and cornbread stuffing.

Lunch was a little earlier than normal and definitely a little rushed, but still extra delicious. Under that fried egg is the last of the stuffing, which I have decided is definitely not going to be a Thanksgiving-only food in my house.

Snack:

I ate a Balance bar while working on a group project. I really need to break my bar habit, but they’re tasty and convenient and on sale for less than a dollar each right now.

Dinner:

A Firecracker pizza with ground beef instead of anchovies from Sticks and Stones pizza.

Nothing says, “Let’s celebrate the fact that our days weren’t stressful at all” like ordering take out. Too bad this pizza was a little on the soggy side.

Dessert:

Whole Food's apple pie.

And nothing says, “Diabetes who?” like pie.

Good habit:

Since we’re all supposed to be “falling into good habits” on WIAW, I thought I’d finally start a good habit. So every Tuesday I’m going to floss my teeth. I know I should do it more (and if my father, who flosses once or twice a day, is reading this he’s probably running for the bathroom), but I wouldn’t want to get too crazy. So for now I’ll floss once a week. And maybe eventually I’ll floss twice a week.

And then, Pinky…the world!

Your turn, eaters:

Do you know what TV show that line is from?

What’s a habit you should break or start?

G’night eaters!

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Things That Make Me Smile, 3

June 29, 2012 By 2 Comments

G’day eaters!

I think today is when the big heat wave is supposed to hit the southeast, but right now (at 9am) it’s still pretty mild. That’ll change soon, I’m sure, but Leon is on deck for Charlie’s next walk, so I don’t mind…yet.

Anyway, life has been going pretty great lately and I haven’t done one of these posts in a while, so I figured today was high time I spread some love and happiness around.

Right?

Right!

Oh, and if you missed the first two editions, check them out here and here.

  • Soy coffee creamer!

For so long I was suffering from funky soymilk in my coffee because the soymilk I love — Edensoy, because it’s cheap, clean, and higher in protein than most — doesn’t really work well with coffee. So a couple of weeks ago I bit the $2 bullet and bought soy coffee creamer.

It was beyond worth it. And speaking of coffee…

  • My French press.

I went French press rather than drip machine because we already have a ridiculous number of appliances. I was going to buy a Bodum, but then I saw this OXO. Not only was it something like $5 cheaper and smaller (I’m the only coffee drinker), but it has this false bottom-thing.

This goes into the glass and clips on the top, then when it’s time to clean it you can pick up almost every single grind at once. For someone who HATES cleaning up coffee grinds, this is so amazing!

  • Sunflowers.

This bundle was $5 at the farmers market and I couldn’t resist. They’ve lasted almost 2 weeks (this picture is from Day 1) and are just plain lovely. And speaking of sun…

  • L’Oreal Sublime Sun face sunscreen.

After Bliss discontinued my beloved Sun Ban Face sunscreen, I was at a loss for a good, everyday sunscreen. Everything I tried was way too heavy and greasy, especially since most of the time I mix a bit with my daily moisturizer. But then I found this!

It feels a bit too sunscreen-y when you first put it on, but after it sinks in you’ll hardly notice it. My only qualm is that it runs a bit when you sweat a lot, but what sunscreen doesn’t?

  • That I finally got this picture of Charlie.

My dog is weird for many reasons. One of those reasons is how he lies around the house.

Doesn’t it look like he has no arms?

Yeah, they’re behind him. This is one of his favorite ways to lie and it cracks me up to no end every time I see him twisted like a pretzel in the middle of the floor.

Alright eaters, that’s it for today’s edition. I’ll catch up with you on Sunday from Virginia Beach! I’m so excited!

Your turn:

What’s something that has been making you smile lately?

Do any of these things make you smile? Anything make you frown?

Later eaters!

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WIAW: But Tuesday

October 26, 2011 By 4 Comments

Greetings eaters!

Woohoo, it’s Wednesday! That means tomorrow I’m waking up at the crack of dawn to board a plane to Atlanta before boarding a plane to Orlando!

Have I mentioned that I’m jazzed to hang out with other college newspaper nerds?

Because I am!

But before the fun can start, I had to do some running around…yesterday.

Yeah, whenever I write a WIAW post it’s about WIATuesday. That may be cheating, but it still counts.

Breakfast:

PB and a honey crisp.

I woke up wanting eggs, but not craving them. I probably should have gone with eggs.

Once I took the spoon out of my pb, I drank some coffee.

Coffee with a dash of soymilk.

1) Is it weird that I don’t like to drink coffee before or with breakfast, but only after?

2) Since I’ve been making mugs in ceramics class, I’ve been borderline obsessed with the relationship between the vessel and the handle. This is a balanced relationship and allows for both handle-holders and cuppers.

Snack:

Honey graham Halo bar.

I won a box of assorted Pro Bar Halo bars in a Vegan MoFo giveaway. While the bars aren’t as orgasmically blissful as I had been hoping, they are good. And full of real food. And extra tiny.

The last part isn’t that great, but oh well.

Exercise:

I had planned on doing a lower body strength workout after Zumba, but my not good knee was bothering me on the way to class. So I decided to listen to my body and skip the second workout.

Lunch:

Cinnamon vinaigrette beet and kale salad with BBQ toast.

This salad was delicious, just like the first time I ate it. But like every salad, I need something on the side to help fill me up when I get tired of the green stuff.

Today’s side was the butt slice of Genesis bread with BBQ sauce.

Yes eaters, I really will eat BBQ sauce with just about everything.

No eaters, I don’t have a problem.

Mild self-mockery:

I wrote an article (which I’ll pass along as soon as it runs) on men’s health. So to promote my article, and bring a little fun to a heavy topic, I had this headshot taken.

You can look just like me for $4.99 from Party City.

It will run at the top of my article. And on the web. Oh the things I do for my job.

Socialization:

Red cappuccino with almond milk and an extra red shot.

After I peeled off my ‘stache, I met up with Maddie for some chitchat. And some non-caffeinated sipping.

Dinner:

Pizza with spinach, onion, artichoke, and black olives.

I should have eaten something healthier. I should have eaten some of the food in my fridge in case it goes bad by the time I get home on Sunday. But salad, eggs, or sweet potato didn’t sound appealing in the least.

And this was free.

So there you have it, eaters. A not too crazy, but certainly not boring day in my little old ‘Baby life.

Did I bore you?

And do you ever do slightly embarrassing things for work? If so, please do tell me about them.

G’night eaters!

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