Goodbye November!

Seriously, this is the last day of November?  I went into my class today and my professor started talking about our review for our final that's next week?!  I have no idea how this month/semester went by so quickly!  It feels like I just moved!

I need to go grocery shopping, so my meals today have been leftovers and a little random.  Breakfast was a ww english muffin with half PB and half apple-cranberry chutney with an apple.

When I got home from class, I had a banana yogurt with dried fruit.

Lunch was a repeat from last night

And then I had a quick run over to Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee since I ran out of creamer (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Did I mention I live nextdoor to a DD?  Not to mention a Starbucks, too...

The guy made this thing waaaaay to sweet, but I'm a junky so of course I'm drinking it.  Anyone doing the Cyber Monday thing?  I did most of (hopefully all of) my online shopping over the holiday, so I'm not paying too much attention.  I just need to go to class at 2 and then buckle down on some work for the rest of the night.  Oh yeah, and grocery shopping.  I see TJ's in my future :)

Thanksgiving recap!

Hello!  Wow wow wow I have been a little bit busy over this little Thanksgiving break!  I really hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and able to spend time with their families and friends in good health. 

It's probably best for me to recap Thanksgiving and then move on.  I love my mom's cooking and Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday with my family.  We don't have many family traditions, and our family is pretty small, so Thanksgiving always means a lot to me.  My mom cooked pretty much everything, except I baked the pies and made the cranberry sauce.

Here's some photo evidence of the awesome food, including what I had.

It really was a nice dinner and as you will see, I made it last all weekend.  Friday was cranberry oats, Thanksgiving sandwich, and more Thanksgiving food.  These are the only kind of leftovers I really like.

Saturday we took Ollie to the beach.  He had a lot of fun!

I had toast for breakfast and (more) leftovers for lunch.

We had pizza and salad for dinner.  I got pineapple chicken.

My dinner tonight was a Bertolli frozen entree.  I got a little scared when I took it out of the bag.

But it looked ok with my asparagus and tasted alright.  This was a total impulse buy and I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I would buy it again.

I hope to hear more about everyone's holiday!  I can't wait to get some more inspiration from everyone.

Gobble gobble!

Happy Turkey Day!  Definitely one of my favorite holidays.  How could you not love a holiday that revolves around cooking and eating?  I got down to my parents' house on Tuesday morning and I've been relaxing and taking the dog around ever since.  Here's a quick visual recap of the eats:

 

This is going to be a long day of cooking (hopefully Mom will let me help her).  I really need to work on a paper, too and get the dog out for a walk.  Let's see how it goes!  We eat Thanksgiving dinner in the evening, but I know that a lot of people eat it in the afternoon.  What does your family do?

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Cleanin' and snackin'.

First off, I'm wondering if anyone can offer me any words of wisdom about Blogger vs. Wordpress.  I'm thinking about moving the blog, but I'm not completely convinced yet.

Anywho, I definitely snacked my way through this afternoon.  Before I went to my workshop, I had some leftover chicken florentine.  It really doesn't look too appetizing, but I promise it still tasted good.

I also had an apple.

The workshop on play therapy was really interesting.  It seems like something that I would be interested in becoming certified in down the road.  The presentation also focused on a second year program for students who want to subspecialize in maternal and child health, which I am 99.9% positive I want to do.  I had a brownie concoction and a cookie at the workshop.

Back at home, I snacked on some TJ's PB&A mix.

Dinner was chicken bruschetta rolls with broccoli and cauliflower.

Dessert was pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with milk.  These babies are really good heated up.

Other than that, I've been cleaning and preparing for my travels with Ollie tomorrow down to my parents house.  The ride will be about 2.5 hours and it's just the two of us.  Any last minute puppy travel tips?

Hope your work week isn't too much longer!

Happy happy!

This is a very exciting Monday since it's my only work day this week!  I got up when Ollie started whining to go out this morning and then the only other things I need to do today are go to a workshop on Play Therapy and go to class to turn in my project.  Easy!

Breakfast this morning was nice and seasonal.  Oats with pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, cranberry/pomegranate, and a ginger snap.

Yum! 

Hopefully I can get some major cleaning done today!  Our apartment looks like a tornado went through it.  Happy Monday!

Yippee!

Mini happy dance!  I am very glad that I got down to business and finished my project!  And it actually looks nice!  I just hope that my professor thinks so, too!

As an afternoon snack today, I had some TJ's bananas and cream yogurt with pecans.

I switched to this yogurt a while ago and I really like it.  It's full-fat, but it's small, and I think the trade-off is fine.  I still feel satisfied after eating them and they taste great.

During one of my breaks I made these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with pecans.

They are really cakey and not like normal cookies.  I added a lot of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon to the recipe and they're yummy!  I've had 4 throughout the day.

Dinner was tofu stir fry with rice.  I made a separate one for G with shrimp since he was a little skiddish about the tofu.

First time that I've made anything tofu since last semester!  I overcooked this a little, so it wasn't great, but I have a lot left to try stuff with.  How long does tofu keep?  I'm afraid it's going to turn while I'm at home.

I am really excited about this coming week.  I wish I was going home tomorrow, but it's a better idea for Ollie to get him adjusted to the house for a whole day.  Just look at how big he's getting already!

 

Goodnight all!  Have a great short week!

Sunday morning.

Happy Sunday!  As SOON as I am done publishing this post I will be getting down to business with my chart on radical behaviorism (how can something with a name like that be so lame?).

Ollie woke us up this morning and after his walk and breakfast I made a bowl of oats with 1/2 banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, and TJ's cranberry/pomegranate blend, and PB.

I don't have time to make stovetop oats anymore during the week, so this was a nice Sunday treat.  After 20 minutes of yoga, playing with Ollie for a while and being the amazingly over-excited dog-parent that I am, lunch was a turkey sandwich on wheat with spinach and TJ's cranberry and apple chutney.

I had never tried this chutney before, but it's really good!  It has a nice cinnamony spice kick to it that warms up the flavor nicely.

I'm planning on making a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies during my work break.  I hope they turn out well.  What's your favorite fall seasonal ingredient?  I love pumpkin, but I am also really starting to like pecans.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Oh well...

I didn't get any work done today.  I feel a little disappointed in myself, but I'm also glad that I got to relax and spend time with my doggie and G.

We went for a long walk in Fells Point today.  While we were down there, we got frozen yogurt from Mr. Yogato.  I really love this place.  Besides the awesome yogurt and toppings, it's just cute.  They have little trivia challenges and stuff and they really just try to make it fun.  I got a small tangy yogurt with kiwi and coconut.  Plus, they have a "freebies" area, so I got some chocolate jimmies and marshmallows, too!


I was very happy to go to Trader Joe's today.  I haven't been in weeks and weeks and I have had major withdrawal issues.  Even though I'm going to my parents' house on Tuesday morning, we were really hurting in the food department for the next couple of days.  I got some fun stuff :)

We saw these Pastry Pups at TJs and decided to give them a try.

I had 2.  They were pretty good-- I think they'd make a good party snack/appetizer.

Dinner tonight was actually made from ingredients that I already had on hand.  I modified this recipe a little bit and made a chicken florentine.

I loved this recipe!!!  I usually don't like chicken that I make that much, but this was really delicious.  I don't know if G liked it too much, but he's not crazy about spinach and mushrooms.

Dessert WAS from TJ's.  This was one of those products that I have seen a million times and never put in my cart, but today I was feeling it.  Trader Joe's Apple Blossoms.

Perfect.  These are truly amazing.  If you haven't tried them, you need to.  And they're super cheap!

Ok, the rest of the night is going to be slow and hopefully I can crack down tomorrow and get this done... because it's due Monday.  Good night!

Should vs. reality

What I should be doing:
      Finishing my projects so I can relax and get ready for Thanksgiving at home with my family.
What I have been doing:
      Jumping around online and watching all of the Food Network Thanksgiving specials.

Last night I had dinner at my friend's house for her Shabbat with some other friends who I haven't seen for a while.  The dinner itself was great!  It was completely vegan and the veggies came from a farm where she has been working and living.  So cool!  It was so nice to get out and see people and catch up.  I promised to host a dinner party soon :)

We have no food in the house!  Specifically no fruit or veggies, which makes me feel yucky.  I'm making due with what I have until I can do a small grocery shop later.  I'll be home mose of the week, but G will be here, so I have no idea how much food to get (I have a feeling that he'll be ordering in...).

Breakfast was an egg english muffin with 1 egg and 1 white and some cheddar cheese.

I had a bar a little later on.

Lunch was some TJ's lobster ravioli with EVOO.

And some focacia sticks with hummus.

By the way, I'm not crazy about these sticks.  I'd definitely recommend going with pita chips.

I also did a 20 minute detox yoga session and I think we're going to go on an Ollie walk a little later on.  I can't wait until I am through with these projects, though!

Re-commitment

This end of the semester has started to wear down on me a little bit for the following reasons:

1. Huge amount of work that I have been putting off!  That includes a chart that I have to make for my human behavior class (like the ones you buy at book stores that explain an entire subject on an 8.5" x 11" card) and a 20-page psychosocial assessment that I have to write for a module of my practice class that ended two weeks ago... grr.
2. I love my puppy, but he's a handful!  It breaks my heart that I have to crate him in order to get work done.  He's already 11-weeks old!
3. The research that I am supposed to do for my scholarship.  The woman that I work for does not give me clear guidelines and it's really hard.
4. I have gotten way off path on eating healthy, whole foods and being physically active.
5. Money... ugh, I'm a grad student, need I say more?

Besides all of that, I feel like I just have been building up a lot of stress inside.  I really want to recommit to eating well and being more active.  I also NEED to get yoga back into my routine.  It's so easy to forget how much better it makes me feel.  I did it for 20-minutes earlier and I already feel a little better.  I also need to get some sort of date night situation worked out because me and G have been on constant puppy patrol!

As a part of all of this, I think it's important that I start blogging more, especially with my food intake.  I am not at a weight or lifestyle that make me happy right now.  I have been eating tons of JUNK for the past couple of weeks, too.  So this is my official recommitment and a hope that I can get myself wedged back into this blogging community :)

Anyway, for lunch today I finished off the chicken noodle soup that I had made earlier in the week:

This was really good!  I will definitely be making this again in the winter (or before!).  I also had some peanut butter and crackers.

And some frying cheese with a little bit of honey.

This cheese is awesome and so good with honey, syrup, or preserves.

I have gotten a good chunk of work done today, so hopefully that's a good sign for the rest of the weekend!  I am going to a Shabbot dinner at my friend's house, so I probably won't be taking any photos out of respect for her orthodox jewish beliefs. 

And thanks for reading my little vent session :)