SnOMG.

We woke up to about 20" of snow this morning and it's still coming down hard!  I have never seen anything like this.  It's definitely interesting with the puppy.  He loves it! 


Yesterday I had some yogurt flakes cereal as a snack.

And a Powerhouse Salad with my champagne and pear dressing instead of the one that it comes with.

And did you know that yesterday was National Nutella Day?  It was a great excuse for an afternoon snack of a mini bagel with Nutella.  Mmmm.

And then I got a little bit adventurous for dinner.  I had seen a lot of magazine and blog features on polenta lately, and I really wanted to try something with it!  I wanted to play it a little safe in case we didn't like it.  I made some marinara sauce with this recipe (I used more garlic and added 1T of brown sugar).  Then I made some turkey meatballs and grilled the polenta for about 5 min on each side (I used the kind in tube form from TJ"s).  Topped with parmesan and it looked like this:

This was so yummy!  And it was a really great alternative for pasta (only 70 cals per serving).  I have a lot of polenta left so you'll probably be seeing it again!

My wonderful brownie for dessert.

 

I wanted something comforting for breakfast, so I made Cream of Wheat with brown sugar, vanilla, flax, and cinnamon.  Plus a little bit of Smart Balance on top.

And I just had a blueberry wheat bran muffin from TJ's.

 

G thinks that we don't have any food in the house and that we need to go to McDonald's or 7-11 for lunch.  I disagree.  We have a ton of food for today.  Maybe tomorrow, but I still doubt it.  Maybe I can get some snow pics for later.

Question:  I'm thinking about getting a smart phone.  Anyone have one?  I'm a little concerned about the data plan and don't know if it's worth it.

Preparing for snowmageddon.

Wow, everyone here is sort of going nuts about the snow.  Part of me is looking forward to an excuse to stay in all weekend-- I have a lot of reading and cleaning and movie watching that I could do!  I just hope that it's fun-ridiculous and not scary-ridiculous.


Yesterday at the hospital, you could definitely tell that everyone had the snow in the back of their minds.  It must suck to have a loved one in the hospital during a blizzard, let alone any other time.  I brought my lunch/snacks:

Salad with carrots, sunflower seeds, and TJ's champagne pear vinaigrette (awesome, by the way); raspberry Chobani; apple; Kashi; and flax pumpkin bread.

After internship I realized that I really needed to get some dog food.  I probably picked one of the most inconvenient PetSmart's to go to, in terms of location related to my apartment (I have NO sense of direction).  But I also decided that if we get snowed in and can't go food shopping that we still have food for a few dinners at home.  So instead of food shopping for a couple of meals last night, I got take-out so that food can last longer into the weekend (confused?).

I decided to pick up Egyptian Pizza.  Since we had pizza earlier this week, I got G a chicken kebob and myself the Middle East Combination Platter which came with "A lovely combination of falafel, grape leaves, hummus, foul, babaganush, tahina, egyptian house salad, feta cheese, and homemade pita bread"

Was I crazy about this?  No.  I've had much better.  Baba's was much better.  Nothing stood out.  The grape leaves were seasoned very strangely to me.  The falafel was alright.  BUT I don't want to pass total judgment until I try their pizza because their brick wood-burning oven looked and smelled amazing (I LOVE the smell of wood stoves).  So for now: Egyptian Pizza... meh.  But maybe in the future we can get along.

I made the night all better by eating a brownie, which was a lot different at room-temperature and very delicious:

I just finished working out and eating breakfast which was cinnamon swirl bread with PB.

Anyone else psyching up for this snow?  I am putting on my game face and ready to have an ultimate snow day experience.  I don't really know what that means, but I'll let you know :)

One year of CookEatReadSleep!

Hello lovely people!  Today is a special day because it is my one year blogiversary!  It's kinda crazy that I've been doing this for a year.  One year of tracking, "meeting" all of you, and weirding out my friends when I take pictures of my food :)


I'm going to have something special posted a little later, so make sure to check back!

Yesterday for lunch I had a can of Amy's Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable.

I enjoyed this soup a lot!  I didn't add any hot sauce to it like I did the other one because it already had a good amount of spice to it.  I liked that the veggies had grill marks on them, it really does taste fresh.

I also had a piece of flax pumpkin bread that I made yesterday.  It's vegan, and it has a "healthy" taste to it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

I went on a voyage to Trader Joe's to get a few things that I needed/wanted.  I also got lost on the drive back, but that's a different story and really not out of the ordinary for me.  I decided to get a fun cheese while I was there and I picked out a white stilton with orange and dates.  I had some with some crackers.

This cheese is so sweet!  You really need a nice salty cracker to cut it.  Or it would be good on a salad.

For dinner I made Ina's Chicken Picatta and broccoli. 

I love this chicken, but G said it was too lemony. 

I was apparently in a baking frenzy yesterday, because I also made these Sweet and Salty Brownies.  I had one with some milk.

 

They were still pretty warm when I had mine, so I couldn't really detect the different textures.  We'll see how they are today :)

I just had a signature bowl of oatmeal for my busy day.

I got so much done yesterday, but I feel like I still have a million things to catch up on.  I'm pretty sure I'm getting snowed in again this weekend, so that will be a good time to catch up.

And to make you drool (or maybe not), check out this grilled cheesecake and cookie cake pie.  Would you ever consider making these?  I would, but I would probably feel disgusting after I ate them.

Productivity is key!

These have been a busy (but productive!) couple of days for me.  I have actually been doing my readings for classes and trying to stay up-to-date with everything.  It's so much harder now that I'm living with my boyfriend and have all of these extra chores that come with having my own apartment and a puppy.  But I'm trying!

The other night, I made these corn and shrimp quesadillas with avocado and onion salad.  The recipe was in Every Day w/ RR's February issue.

Sometimes I don't really like RR's recipes.  They have too much going on or something.  But I liked these!  I really liked all of the lime flavors.

Monday: Oatmeal.

 

Leftover soup.

Peach Chobani.  Yum!

And then what?  Another RR recipe?  Even BETTER than the other one?  Behold: Bowties, Brussels Sprouts and Candied Almonds.

I am sort of in love with this recipe.  I didn't think that it was going to be anything special, but it turned out being fantastic!  I used feta cheese and roasted the almonds myself.  Speaking of those almonds, I ate WAY too many of them all that day.  I'm hiding them from myself now.

 

Plus, my new obsession in a new flavor.  Oatmeal raisin Otterbein cookies.

I should have a Baltimore cookie party.  Which by the way, Otterbein cookies are on the list of 100 things Baltimore foodies should do!

Yesterday: Oatmeal.

 

My lunch and snacks.

Ginger terriyaki veggie cake, blueberry Chobani, pumpernickel pretzels, kiwi, carrots, apple, and cherry chocolate Kashi.

For dinner, G had really been wanting to try the new Dominos pizza.  Before dinner I had a small salad.  I got a Pacific Veggie pizza with thin crust, spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and black olives with feta and provolone cheeses.  It's advertised on a parmesan crust, but I'm not sure I got that.  I also left off the roasted red peppers.

 

I had three pieces like that.  

The verdict: this was a really good pizza!  And not just for a chain restaurant.  I was really impressed with the ingredients and the textures of everything.  And go Dominos for being a little innovative!  I still have some leftovers, but I'm probably going to try to keep myself away from them today.

I also had 2 of those Otterbein cookies last night.  Addictive.

I just finished some cinnamon swirl toast with smart balance and a kiwi for breakfast.

I've been pretty good with counting my calories for the past couple of days.  I really need to be a little more strict about it until I get myself into a better place. 

Does anyone use The Daily Plate?  I am loving the changes that they have been making to the site.  I am hoping to get a new phone this month and I think the changes are going to make it really accessible on the go!  

Do you use apps or programs for every day things like eating or working out?  Which ones?  I love The Daily Plate, UrbanSpoon, Super Cook, and Calorie Count!

Meh-food weekend.

Hey blog world.  It's the end of the weekend and I am not too happy about it.  I'm excited to watch Worst Chefs in America tonight (anyone else watching it), but not excited about my first full week back to classes.  Yuck.  I haven't been eating the most healthy foods and I've been pretty snacky over the weekend, so hopefully getting back into my routine will help with that.


Yesterday I had a tangerine and a soup (Savory Morrocan Stew that I got the recipe from Women's Health), lite Caesar salad, and bread (x2).

Later on I had a chocolate peanut butter chip Vitatop.

I liked it because it wasn't overly rich, but it has enough chocolate to satisfy the craving.  Yumm.  I just wish they were a little less expensive :(


For dinner, I tried my Crock Pot again.  We weren't too impressed.  I made apricot chicken with egg noodles and broccoli.

Everything that I make in there ends up tasting the same.  I have a couple more recipes that I want to try out, but that might be the end of the Crock Pot after that.


Ollie has been giving us a really hard time over the past couple of days.  A lot of barking and jumping.  People must think we're horrible pet-owners because I don't think they realize he's still a puppy.
 

This morning I made apple pancakes with this recipe.



This is the second time that I have made them and I really love them!

We went out to Wegmans for lunch/grocery shopping.  I tried the corn and crab chowder and the salad bar this time.

I really don't know if I'm crazy about their bars.  The salad was good, but nothing really special.  Maybe this was just meant to be a sub-par food weekend.

Dinner was buffalo sloppy joes with Old Bay waffle fries.

Plus I just ate a "creme brulee" that I made from a kit that I got from Whole Foods, but my camera's battery died.  Only about 1/2 of the sugar caramelized before I got too scared that they would catch on fire under the broiler.  A little too eggy for me.  Wonder what G will think of them...

Have a lovely week!  And everyone going back to school tomorrow, I feel for you!

Aquarium and Diablita!

Happy weekend!  I am so glad that it's finally here and I don't have many things that I need to do.  I mean, there are a lot of things I should do, but I'll get to them :)


Yesterday I needed to pick up a few things from the store.  I planned on going to TJ's, but once I started driving I decided that was too far and I went to Whole Foods instead.  On the way I crunched on apple crunchers.

There have been times that I have not been happy with the WF in Harbor East, but I was loving it yesterday!  Maybe because it was the morning and a weekday?  I hate peak-grocery-shopping hours.

When I got back, I made a panini out of turkey, artichoke hearts, mayo, and mozzarella cheese.  I love my Griddler.  And I think this was the best panini I've made on it yet!

My afternoon snack before my class orientation was applesauce bread.

Then I stole Kat's idea and we headed out to the Aquarium!  We haven't been in about a year, and it was awesome that it was only $8!  Not even as crowded as I thought it would be.  I ate another vitamuffin on the way so I wouldn't be dieing to eat dinner.


Here are some of the photos that actually turned out:

It was fun!  The jellyfish exhibit was especially cool and we hadn't gotten to see it last time we were there.


For dinner, I wanted to try a restaurant that I had been reading a lot about online and was pretty close by: Diablita in Little Italy.  We hadn't been to a Mexican restaurant in Baltimore since we moved here and I really wanted to find one that we could like.  That is not what we found.


The restaurant itself was really cute.  Great exposed brick walls and nice lighting.  The staff was super friendly and helpful.  But the food.  Not so much.


We started off with drinks and appetizers.  I got a pomegranate margarita, which was easily the best part of the meal.  G got a classic margarita and it was also really good.  We settled on trying to trio of salsas, which came with Smokey chipotle, red chile diablo, tomatillo verde, and assorted house-made chips (sorry about the horrible photos).

I liked the tomatillo verde and the chipotle salsas.  G only liked the verde.  Both of us thought the red chile diablo was awful.  To me, it tasted like cold pasta sauce.  There was no kick to any of these either, and we like spicy food, especially in a Mexican restaurant (even if they are trying to do some kind of "fusion" thing).

For dinner, I had the Chipotle Chicken Salad tacos, which were described as having traditional guacamole, red skin potatoes, romaine, chile-honey vinaigrette and served on grilled white corn tortillas with rice & beans, pico de gallo and cilantro sour cream.

 

I wasn't impressed with these either.  They were served at room temperature (which I figured because of the "salad") and they just weren't anything special.  I couldn't identify any unique flavors or textures.  Basically, I could have made these.  The rice was dry and not hot.  G got a burrito and he wasn't crazy about it either.  We were a little puzzled over why there wasn't any hot sauce on the tables (again, Mexican restaurant?) and the food runner even seemed perplexed about us asking for it.  Maybe they don't want us to compromise the food's "integrity".  The hot sauce helped, but not enough.   We had thought about trying their churros, but decided to throw in the towel.  For everything we got, the bill was a little much, but that was probably because of the drinks.  I would say, try them for brunch because that menu looks nice.  Go to the bar for drinks.  Maybe try their desserts.  But their dinners are nothing special.  So now we need to find another Mexican restaurant...

So instead, we stumbled to the nearby Whole Foods (again) and got cookies.  I got a snickerdoodle, which is pretty much an American churro, right?

Oh well.  I'm still glad we went because I love trying new restaurants!  We also passed by Milan, which is getting a lot of hype because they just opened.  I wonder how that is...

Breakfast was more cinnamon with cinnamon-sugar toast with Earth Balance.

I feel like I'm on the edge of a flood with my school work, so maybe I'll get cracking on that.  Have a good weekend!

And of course my question today is: Do you know of a really good Mexican restaurant in the Baltimore area?