Random thoughts, sugar, meat and recipe

I forgot to update on the sugar challenge, let's just sum it up with "I really love chocolate" and chocolate with peanut is pretty much my favorite food of all time. I craved chocolate chip cookies all week and so all in all, it's pretty darn tough to eat 6 tsp or less of sugar. But, it does make me appreciate my sweets even more :)

The majority of my patients are on Medicare and getting their diet/social history I've learned that oftentimes trips to the grocery store might only happen 3 times a month. A MONTH! I probably end up going 3x a week. Between transportation issues, food stamps and such, my patients are at the mercy of frozen, canned and packaged foods (lets be real, even if I didn't work and had all the time in the world I wouldn't food prep an entire month's worth of food from fresh produce within 3 days of grocery shopping to then freeze). I can't go one day without a fresh piece of fruit so the reality of living that way hits hard, it's also an interesting thought to try to live that way. Maybe next month? Although really, to go without fresh bananas and apples (applesauce just isn't the same thing!).

I've been really bad about putting up new recipes, now that my apartment is all set up and I'm getting settled at work, I'm getting back into looking up recipes and going actual grocery shopping (my $50+ grocery bill today attests to that!).

 

A glimpse of my new home! It's really spacious and the high ceilings and windows make it feel even roomier. I have a huge closet you can't see, built in shelves (I'll have to get a snap of that once my pretty plates are up), the table and chairs I found at this furniture store in Keene (Penelope's) and was on sale for $80 and best of all, it fit in my car! The people at the store were super friendly, I stopped by several antique stores and consignment shops and I could easily start amassing too many things. I'm trying to figure out the lamp situation but that's a work in progress :)

But  back to food, now that I eat meat but am too squeamish to handle raw meat, rotisserie chickens are my new favorite buy and there's tons of ways to use all the meat. I get a baby bird for under $5 at the store and I take off all the meat (took me 10 minutes, I know because I was also hardboiling eggs at the same time). I shred most of it for quesadillas, soups, salads, etc. The bigger pieces are great for sandwiches or wraps. Here's a slideshow with 55 ideas for a rotisserie chicken. I ended up going for the chicken and sausage jambalaya (it's kind of scary how much meat I eat these days, although I would say at least 50% of my meals are still vegetarian, I made this yummy mac and cheese last night...).

This was my lunch all put together. I made some adjustments to the recipe (I couldn't help myself, and I was too lazy to buy everything I needed).

Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya
Serves 4 (a generous 1 1/4 cup serving)

Ingredients
Olive oil
Heaping spoonful of minced garlic
Half an onion, chopped
Half a bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
4 oz fully cooked chicken sausage (it was two links in my package), sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 cup water
14.5 oz vegetable broth
Handful fresh spinach
Dash of red chili pepper flakes
14.5 oz (1 can) diced tomatoes
1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken

In a large pot saute chicken sausage in garlic and olive oil, mix in vegetables and saute until tender. Add brown rice, water and broth, bring to a boil then simmer for about 30 minutes or until the rice is done (I'm wondering if leaving the rice a bit uncooked would lessen the amount of broth the rice soaks in later). Add spinach leaves around the last 10 minutes of the rice cooking so it can cook down. When the rice is done, add the red chili pepper flakes, tomatoes and chicken, bring to a boil then eat (or let cool and freeze/refrigerate). Add hot sauce as desired.

sugar challenge: day 1

Good morning! It's day 1 of the sugar challenge and today I'm focusing on breakfast. When grocery shopping, aim for buying packaged foods where sugar or any sugar related term is not in the first 3 ingredients (ingredients are listed by weight). The shorter the ingredient list, the better off you are and if you know exactly what each ingredient means, even better.

Breakfast

Overnight Oats

• 1/2 cup Quaker Quick Oats (oats is the only ingredient, naturally has 1 g sugar) vs. Quaker Instant Oatmeal Apples and Cinnamon (12 g sugar)
• 1 cup Silk Organic Unsweetened Soymilk (no added sugar, naturally has 1 g sugar) vs Silk Vanilla Soymilk (8 g sugar)

  

  top: unsweetened, bottom: vanilla

• Banana
• Vanilla Extract
• Cinnamon
• Total added sugar: o g vs. ~18 g

PB and toast

• 1 English Muffin Thomas Plain English Muffin (1 g sugar) vs. Thomas Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice English Muffin (4 g sugar)
  
• 2 T Teddie's All Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (1 g sugar- need ingredient list picture) vs. JIF Creamy Peanut butter (3 g sugar)
• **JIF Natural Peanut Butter and Simply JIF still contain added sugar
• Apple slices
• Total added sugar: 0 g vs. 5 g

Yogurt Parfait

1 cup Cabot Low Fat Plain Greek Yogurt (6 g sugar) vs. 5.3 oz Chobani Blackberry Fruit on the Bottom Greek Yogurt Cup (12 g sugar) vs. 5.3 oz Chobani Simply 100 Key Lime Cup (7 g sugar) vs. 6 oz Yoplait Light Blackberry (10 g sugar)- all the Chobani cups are less than the Cabot serving size, but contain more sugar- aim for vanilla or plain and add or control the added sugar amount with maple syrup or honey

1. Cabot Plain 2. Chobani Blackberry 3.Chobani Simply 100 4. Yoplait

3/4 cup Kashi Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon Oat Cereal (5 g sugar) vs. 3/4 cup Honey Nut Cheerios (9 g sugar) *Watch out for granola bars and granola, they can be surprisingly high in added sugar

Total added sugar:5 g vs. around 15-20 g

Surprising sources of sugar article:

WebMD

Other options for breakfast such as French Toast, pancakes, waffles can also be hidden sugar bombs. Best bets, save those for weekend splurges and make your own so you can control how much sugar you add. Top with fresh (or frozen thawed fruit) to cut down on how much syrup you add. Breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage, etc are also great alternatives (and eggs for breakfast have been shown to keep you fuller for longer compared to bagels). Watch out for frozen breakfast sandwiches and meat substitutes, those can include sugar (and a lot of sodium as well).  

2 pm update: I think my sodium intake may be increasing with my ability to eat sweets, or it might be a reaction to having something feel restricted. Another good bet, use raisins instead of dried cranberries in your oatmeal or granola, as you can find raisins with no added sugar but I've never found dried cranberries without added sugar. I also have a baby shower tomorrow and the gluten free brownies I'm bringing break my added sugar max in just 1/12 of the package!

Ain't she sweet

I've been working as an RD for two weeks now and it occurred to me that I'm spending an awful lot of time covering food groups, sodium and sugar intake. Writing down diet recalls that typically include multiple cups of coffee with multiple spoonfuls of sugar along with multiple cans of soda, I wonder how hard it would be to follow the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended guidelines for added sugar intake. I'll come back to that in a sec, but first, some basics:

• naturally occurring sugars are those found naturally in foods = fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose)
• added sugar are those included in foods or beverages in processing or consuming = granulated sugar, honey, maple syrup, sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, etc (here's a list of what to look for in an ingredient list for added sugars)
•  The average American consumes about 22 tsp of added sugar a day (20% more than we ate in 1970) and is an added 350 calories (source)

Don't get me wrong, I love sugar, ice cream, chocolate, maple syrup on my yogurt are probably in my top 10 favorite foods, but it's an interesting challenge, can I eat as healthy as the numbers I spout out to my patients? Or am I also falling to the hidden calories of my food?

The challenge: For 5 days (Monday Oct 13-Friday Oct 17) eat within or less than the daily guidelines for added sugar intake. WHO's recommended guideline is 6 tsp total for an adult, American Heart Association (AHA) recommends no more than 6 tsp (24 grams)  for women and 9 tsp (36 grams) for men per day (I'll let the guys out there decide which number they follow). There are 4 grams of sugar per teaspoon in case anyone wants that math for when you read the nutrition label.

So where is added sugar in your life?

• Sugar is listed under total carbohydrates on the nutrition facts label (hopefully if and when the new one comes out "added sugar" will be included in that separate designation)
• Sugar, or other names of it (found here) are also found in the ingredients list. Sugar alcohols do not have to be legally listed on the ingredient list, look for words that end in "ol" like sorbitol
• Major sources of added sugar in our American diet: soda, energy drinks, candy, baked goods, fruit drinks (not the 100% fruit juices), dairy desserts
• Sugar is also added to foods like pasta sauce, bread, soy sauce, granola, cereal and peanut butter! Check the ingredient list

 What does this mean for me and doing this challenge?

• Buying plain yogurt and adding vanilla extract and ripe bananas for sweetness
• As "added sugar" is not a label on the nutrition facts yet, if the ingredient list includes any sugar or any of the related words, I will count all the sugar into my total (e.g. flavored yogurt typically is higher in sugar than plain yogurt b/c of the jam made with fruit = eating plain yogurt and adding my own sweetness through fruit)
• Lots of whole foods
• No sweets
• Eating all my food with added sugar this weekend before the fun starts (I'm just kidding, freeze what you can and feel free to push the challenge off until your fridge is no added sugar friendly!
• Reading labels, for instance, the two jars of jam I bought...

The purple label is for the jar on the left and it has cane sugar listed as an ingredient as well as sugar in the orange zest (yes, count the ingredients in parentheses, it was used to make ingredients). While the bottom label is made with fruit juice concentrates. If you look at the sugar content though, the top one is actually less sugars for the same amount of jam ;) So pick your battles, the goal is 6 tsp (24 grams in one day, or 9 tsp if you're a man)! This could also mean I'll be making peanut butter sandwiches with slices of apples or bananas in place of jam since my bread also contains sugar...it's all about balance!

So who's with me? I'll try to update each day of the challenge with more tips and tricks for decreasing your sugar amount (and for someone that likes sugar in her coffee, 1 packet = 1 tsp).

Living life in the fast lane

Which means the meals have to be quick quick quick! I got the job offer for the per diem position with the Community Health Team at Springfield Hospital! Even though it's part time and might never amount to anything more, I'm really excited about the people I'll get to work with and finally finally getting to work in the career I want and helping people who might not ever get this opportunity without this awesome program. It's my next big adventure! As is moving, studying and going through orientation all in one week. Yup, in less than a week I'll be living in New England again (VT vs NH as yet to be determined, eeep!)

Bittersweet as I'm leaving all my friends and family in the area, but I'm hoping to earn my hardcore stripes by surviving another winter (wish me luck!).

Haven't been to the grocery store recently b/c I wasn't sure about the job and didn't want to fill the house with goodies that M wouldn't know what to do with! I'm really bummed to lose my never ending grocery budget...

This recipe is adapted from Eating Well. I really don't notice a difference between using mayonnaise vs. yogurt in these cooking situations. So sub in an extra scoop of health into your life :)

I chose to bake them because my abilities in keeping burgers from falling apart in a pan are pretty slim, and so I broiled it for a minute or two at the end with some Cabot cheese slices on top. I added arugula for greens and a slices of onion with the sauce because that's they way they like it.

Back to studying for me, huzza huzza, happy eating!

Sneaking in veggies

This is a great recipe for getting those who don't like veggies to eat some more. It's also good for people who are missing teeth (lots of soft squishy textures, haha, I'm catering to D here). M loves alfredo sauce and I made that package of alfredo (bleh) maybe a week ago, but it's definitely not nutritionally friendly. I've seen lots of recipes floating around about cauliflower alfredo sauce and we had this beautiful head in the fridge, so of course, it had to happen (anything to avoid studying management, anything). Plus, after a weekend chock full of meat (I think I ate a whole cow) I'm pretty much obsessed with vegetables right now.

I followed the sauce recipe exactly from pinch of yum. I would add more garlic next time to get more garlicky goodness. I also mixed in arugula while the sauce was still hot and some parmesan cheese.

I must have been Italian

We always joke that M must have been Italian in a past life b/c she loves cheese and breads and all the wonderful starches that we think of when we think Italian food. And I'm pretty sure I inherited that past life (I keep typing pasta instead of past and have to keep deleting!). This is gonna be short and sweet, b/c if you know anything about me, you know I'm not a night owl. So right to the food!

I realized once I covered the noodles with sauce and cheese that you couldn't tell they were lasagna rolls, haha, oh well, it was fun. The sauce was from a jar (I was going semi homemade a la Sandra Lee) but the sauce was Harris Teeter and I can't remember what it was called (will try to find it) and it had a great spiciness to it! Usually nothing tastes spicy to me but this was good.

I should be good and give you the nutrition information but I can't find the jar and as usual this recipe could be made in all sorts of ways. This was my first time using cottage cheese for the majority of the cheese filling and I have to say, I couldn't taste a difference, so sneak in some healthiness in your life! You save yourself saturated fat, but be warned, you will more than double your sodium intake, so pick your battles. Using part skim or low fat dairy products also helps shave a lot of calories (especially in the fat department) and in a dish this mixed you can't tell. If you really don't want to give up all your whole fat cheese (sometimes if you're doing like a cheese plate, never go for skim) then do half skim and half whole milk! Something is better than nothing. And adding more veggies to a dish never hurt anyone :)

"Rice" & Beans

Nothing much to mention today, gave up on walking and studying and went for a run instead :) Over a week of just walking and studying and running feels like the best present ever. It also helps my music has entered the 21st century!

I'm all about not wasting food and the half a head of cauliflower kept staring at me from the fridge. I'm running low on food ideas (still haven't repeated!) but my protein sources are also becoming limited in the house (I refuse to go grocery shopping until all the vegetables lying around are gone, this might take awhile b/c those silly cucumbers). Not that I'm sure M&D are testing my food for a balanced plate, but I care!

I finally got around to trying to make my own tortillas (more about that later), but first I want to talk about my filler. I won't have nutrition facts b/c I'm not entirely sure how many servings I ended up with...sorry!

This is a great dish by itself as a salad, wrapped into a burrito or on the side of some cheese quesadillas. Feel free to change up the ingredients or add more spices based on your preference. I think I got about 6 cups. If you want to get crazy, make it a filler for tacos.

I've heard making corn tortillas is very easy, but I never knew just how easy (it's just the process of flattening them enough that's tricky). This recipe comes from the lean green bean. I used only half the salt amount and I think it tasted fine. I also only had corn meal so I ground that a bit through the food processor to get it to be as fine as corn flour. I doubled the recipe but only made 8 tortillas total (her recipe makes 8 per recipe) b/c my small ones made the ittiest little tortillas ever and I wanted tacos. Will have to figure out how much I can flatten before I tear them apart. I used plastic wrap as a base and a square of parchment paper for the top to flatten the balls out, and I think the parchment paper sticks to the wheels less. Once these bad boys were done, I topped with the "rice" and beans, leftover brussels sprout salad and some hot sauce :) Yum!

I love leftovers!

Traiteur

Cajun/Creole for a man or woman who is a traditional healer. Why I want you to know this? B/c apparently I'm supposed to know this. When people give me that confused look when I say I'm studying to be a dietitian, it might have something to do with that. I'm all for being well-rounded and knowing lots of information pertinent to helping people but it's stuff like that and mellorine (ice cream made with vegetable oil instead of butter fat- I don't believe it's been manufactured since rationing went out the window during WWII) that make me lay my head on my study notes and wonder if this is all going to get in my head.

Clearly, I'm going to remember all the really weird obscure things and forget things like sarcopenia. But, knock on wood, at least if I pass, I'll be very very knowledgeable in all things random and slightly food related.

Picking up groceries today, went to Harris Teeter (HT) in the new shopping plaza by Turf Valley (has anyone else seen all those changes?? I want to check out the restaurant that has the outdoor fireplace, so nice and cozy looking- maybe not in this 90+ heat, but you know, when it's cooler).

Anyway, this sign caught my eye. There's painted white stripes right by the entrance to HT and you pull your car up to this sign, push the button and an HT personal shopper will bring your groceries out to you! I actually like this more than delivery b/c I could do it on my way home. Haha, I'm relishing suburbia. I think I was born for the suburbs.

It feels like there's grocery stores everywhere now though, but I suppose everyone wants one in walking distance or something. It's hot here, did I mention that? Like too hot for me to turn on the oven hot. So lunch got cobbled together (I've sort of fallen flat on cooking lunch and dinner, all you homemakers out there, bravo to making 3 meals a day).

No oven, no problem. My usual go-to tuna salad mix-in, Greek yogurt, is all out, so I used hummus to make the tuna salad (go for it! especially those protein happy ones out there). Topped with some good sharp cheddar and broiled in the mini oven (I know, I said it was too hot, but the little one doesn't count ;). On the side I put together a raw Brussels sprout salad- food process the Brussels sprouts (make sure to get the core, grated parmesan, onion, hardboiled egg, and a bit of dressing (olive oil + lemon juice + pepper) and wha-la, salad!

In case you haven't figured out my love for the Vitamix yet, I blended frozen slices of a super ripe yellow peach with some of the vanilla soy milk to get this nice frozen yogurt/sorbet/sherbet thing. If I was really ready for my test, I would know what to call this based on its ice/fat/milk content. Haha. Hopefully, tomorrow! Stay cool.

Sleeping in

I slept until 6:30 this morning! To most of you, that probably sounds ridiculous and not like sleeping in at all, but when my average wake up time this month has been 3 or 4 am, I'm pretty durn proud of myself. This also means I didn't get in my usual 2 hours of walking around the basement listening to my Inman review, but I'm not gonna complain. It's butterflies and rainbows today :)

It was kind of chilly this morning when I chose not to workout and attempt (aka, fell asleep) to read the review notes and I had a hankering for soup. I figured I would just take the can of tomato soup in the pantry from eons ago (more on that) and just add some pasta and veggies and have it all prepped and ready for lunch. Luckily, I checked the expiration date (remember that whole canned food lasts for a year?) and it was expired TWO years ago. Bah humbug. So that meant plan B, make my own soup. Haha, plan B in normal brain logic would have been to think of something else to make. But I had this huge thing of cherry tomatoes from Costco that were ready to call it quits and there was no lettuce or cheese to make salad, so I figured I'd try my hand at soup. I'd made potato and leek soup once (yum yum!) but that was with a broth. Luckily, s4 had left behind some flavor packets (which I didn't realize until after I put a packet in, that it too was expired, but only by almost a year...so only sort of going to make everyone sick...). Anyone else have a Vitamix? I'm so happy the day we decided to get M&D one, that meant I got to blend up everything to wonderful creamy dreamy smoothness.

 Back to cooking, M&D came home from golf and decided they had to get yardwork done in the middle of the day, aka, I hauled outside and cut the grass (thanks for the vitamin D intake). By the time we got back inside, we were sweating like whatever animal sweats a lot (b/c I've been told pigs do not sweat like that) and soup was not going to happen until later. Since the Vitamix is so wonderful I whipped up some healthy ice cream. I don't know if it's b/c the "ice cream" is green but this tastes just like the melon bar popsicles we used to get as kids at the Korean grocery store. M agrees with me, so it's not just my crazy head.

Once the ice cream was out of the way and we were all showered and a bit cooler (summer time always means sweating after showers...I'm looking forward to fall and pumpkin everything!) it was finally time for soup!

This soup is definitely cobbled together from all the odds and ends hanging around in the kitchen, so I'm not going to have a recipe for you guys. But if you ever have the random assortment of veggies that I did here's kind of a breakdown of how this soup came about:

Dice 1/4 medium onion and saute in a large pot with olive oil and garlic until translucent.
Add about 2 pints tomatoes (I had cherry tomatoes, don't worry about having to peel them) and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil then transfer contents to a blender (Vitamix!) and blend until smooth.
Pour contents back into the pot and add black pepper,salt, vegetables of your choice (I had leftover roasted cauliflower and corn and frozen mixed greens) + 1 cup milk + 1 flavor packet (I had vegetable Swanson)
Bring pot to a boil.
Meanwhile, boil some pasta in a separate pot and rinse in cold water. When you're ready for soup, add to the amount of soup you will eat (or else your noodles will soak up all the liquid and become bulgy like chef boyarde ones).

As I'm always worried about how much salt I'm adding, I did minimal salt and topped the soup with parmesan cheese instead. Much tastier :) And aren't the Seattle Space Noodle pastas so cute?? It's been a long time coming for those to get cooked up! This was a great recipe to use up some of the ingredients in the house. And now I have an idea for dinner tonight (or maybe lunch tomorrow...depends on how full we all are from lunch, haha). Happy cooking~

Rain, rain, rain go away

It's been raining all day...sprinkle sprinkle, drizzle drizzle, pour pour. I think it's finally giving up now, but it's made for a very mind numbing studying (circles in the basement).

Peaches were on sale at the new Whole Foods in Columbia (69 cents/lb!) so of course, in true M fashion, we bought a case. Lol. And since it's been raining and there's only so much studying I can do (read- until I fall asleep) baking or cooking had to happen. I got the cooking part down, and M&D wanted to finish off the Popeyes chicken so they ended up with dessert!

I snagged this Upside-down Peach Cake recipe with some changes from Taste of Home. Most of the changes were due to my inability to work with a recipe as is, and with the lack of ingredients in the house. I got to use up the rest of the honey lemon butter from the zucchini bread and it actually worked great in this (the lemon rind really works well), but it's not necessary. I was also trying to make it healthier since no matter what I do, M&D will eat it all within seconds- so I subbed out most of the butter for Greek yogurt and ran out of sugar so used less. The cake is actually more bready but it's got a nice dense tangyness to it. I also didn't bother with peeling the peaches because I figured it would get softened in the baking process enough that I wouldn't notice (unlike apples, I would always peel apples for pie).

As usual, the nutrition facts are per my calculations and may not be exact.

Happy Saturday! I hope your day is dry and tasty :)

A little of this, a little of that

I think I may have gotten a bit carried away at the grocery store with the fruits and vegetables (not that the bushel of peaches and 40 ears of corn bought by M are helping matters). I hate wasting food, so this stuff is going to get prepped and eaten (not too sure about the cucs though, I'm really not a fan, any ideas?). I'm also trying to work through the things hanging around the pantry (did you know canned food is good for only a year? I mean, I guess a year is a long time, but still, sometimes that last can of tuna just doesn't want to go away). So today's lunch is a mish-mash of all things in the house. Case in point- the starch:

S4 left some food here after she moved from Cleveland to Boston and one was a package for fettucine alfredo (you don't even want to know the nutrition information). But M is a huge fan of cream sauces and I figured if I didn't add the butter and split the package in thirds (it's set for serving 2) no harm no foul, or at least less. Be warned, as I forgot, milk will foam and go crazy when it boils. But I cooked up the pasta per the directions (minus the butter) and then added some cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (the pasta just looked so sad and colorless!).

To buffer the small pasta serving (which at 1/2 cup is technically a serving of grains, how sad), I wanted to up the veggies (and also get protein). Man, I need to stop studying for this RD exam, it's kind of infiltrating all food fun. But I roasted the carrot sticks again (with less oil this time, much better) and finally got to try roasted brussels sprouts with bacon (the turkey bacon from first Costco trip- Thanksgiving here we come!). Oven at 425F, sprinkle some salt and pepper and 20 minutes (stirring the veggies up at 10 minutes). Why does bacon cooking have to smell so much?

I actually think I get a better crisp to the brussels sprouts sans bacon, but M&D were happy campers. I'm just happy I got a nice balanced and super colorful meal cooked today :)

What's lurking in your pantry and can I come play in it?

Isn't it summer?

I think I've turned on the oven almost everyday since I've been home and I should really cut that out since I can sit absolutely still and sweat buckets. I just can't help it!

Baked up these bad boys into healthier fries. Carrots on the left and the enigmatic Korean sweet potato on the right. Preheat the oven to 425F, cut your vegetables into size of your choice (e.g. for the largest part of the carrot, I cut lengthwise 3x). Lightly toss in oil and salt and pepper (or whatever spices touch your fancy). Then bake for about 20 minutes (flip halfway through so they can brown evenly). My carrots were kind of limp, but I think it's b/c I got a bit carried away with the oil.

As promised, the black bean burger actually as a burger (does it still count as a burger if the protein isn't sandwiched between burger buns???). Some lettuce, melted cheddar cheese (Cabot seriously sharp!) and onions, and wha-la. Would have also been great with some guacamole or spiced mayonnaise, but didn't want to scare the parents too much.

A "dietitian" walks into a grocery store...

I have a problem...I suppose not really a problem, but a confession. They say never to go grocery shopping when you're hungry b/c you're liable to buy everything in sight b/c you want food NOW. Well, when I'm hungry and I'm in a grocery store I walk out with nothing. I mean nada, zilch, zip, zero. I'm so overwhelmed by the choices and I can never figure out what I'm in the mood for (sweet, savory, salty, chewy, crunchy, smooth, microwaveable, healthy, the litany goes on and on). So then I just wander and wander and just leave b/c it's better to make no choice than the wrong choice (at this point, feel free to think I'm slightly wacky, I would completely understand).

I'm not saying it makes any sense, but that's how I roll when I'm hungry (you should see me try to pick out a birthday card in the card aisle). But when I'm not hungry, man, I can go to town in a grocery store. I can wander for hours and ooh and ahh over all the fun products and buy a little of everything.

Case in point- Whole Foods opened today in Columbia and it was so much fun! Maybe because I can't remember the last time I was in a WF, but there was food to sample, and a beautiful cheese section, and pretty layouts, oh man, I want to go back tomorrow and check out the other aisles!

There was the olive bar and the pasta bar and the salad bar, so much food everywhere! Not that my unemployed self can afford any of the fun stuff, but it's nice to have a place that sells bulk (although Roots in Clarksville does that as well). And when I want to treat myself to something small, it's a great place to find something interesting (although could not find my Maine Root!).

Knew I was getting Indian in about 30 minutes so I resisted the urge to buy some sweets, but these all looked pretty amazing. I did find some Vermont beef jerky (finally got to try it!) and bought some Turkish dried figs. Gobble gobble drool :) I am a happy camper.

*I put dietitian in quotes b/c I can't call myself one yet, but hopefully soon!

Bring the bar home

Anyone ever had a crab dip pretzel? Based on where I've seen it and the recipes, I'm guessing it's a Maryland thing (go Maryland!). Looney's in CP was a favorite during happy hour, and even though the crab dip had a happy hour special, there was something decadent and deliriously delicious about soft salty pretzel heaped with cheesey crab dip (can you tell I'm completely obsessed with food yet?). I never knew buying crab meat was so expensive! We got a pound for $25 at Wegmans (love that place). This recipe is built off McCormick with Parmesan cheese and hot sauce added (b/c you can never have enough cheese or heat). This recipe could not be easier. We didn't get the easy pretzel kit (find it in the baking aisle) b/c we were too hungry, so added veggies, crackers, and chips to the side. Yum.
I typically troll social media at night before going to bed (so many no-no's about that statement) and came across this recipe I think on instagram. Zucchini Bread with Lemon Honey Butter from foodnetwork and since it's the season of overwhelming zucchini and I love bread, why not :) I don't know if it's b/c I only had olive oil, but the bread tastes slightly salty. Will fiddle with it again, but man, is this bread good fresh from the oven spread with the butter. It's quick and easy to make to, so no excuses!

Happy Monday, I'm off to study!

3 miles down, 10 to go

Got in my first run in awhile today, my heel is feeling a bit iffy, but I did this crazy thing of signing up for another half marathon next month...oy vey. Should be interesting.

So yesterday, M&D got invited out to dinner for tonight and they both said "we will be fasting until that dinner" which means it would be a rest day for me! Then M decided fasting between breakfast at 4 am and dinner at 5 pm was just a bit crazy and said she wanted lunch. Then after I had made this light but tasty lunch (and made just enough for two) D said he was hungry (and then I ended up with leftovers, fail!).

This recipe couldn't be simpler and it's great for a hot summer day when you don't want to turn the oven on. I had hardboiled eggs hanging out in the fridge + leftover julienned veggies from the spring rolls + leftover peanut sauce = perfect "asian" egg salad mix. I filled romaine lettuce up with it (b/c those are also hanging out in the fridge) and then wanted some sort of side to hold M and my bottomless stomach through til dinner (or at least my peach snack later in the day!)

I'm trying to convince M to let me buy regular sweet potatoes (the orange ones), but she doesn't understand and since it's their money, I will gladly use what's available. These are Korean sweet potatoes (I have no idea what their scientific name is, but that's how they're listed at the Lotte) that I peeled them cut into fry wedges. Tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and then baked at 400F for about 30 minutes (I flipped them three times in that period). I love baked potatoes, if you find the sweet spot in your oven, usually at the lower racks, you get that nice crispy outside. I used the mini convection thing we have b/c there was no way I wanted to turn on the big oven with the heat! Happy Sunday! I have dinner to myself tonight, maybe pb&j??