In Recovery

The parentals have departed, so my playtime at the mall and basketball court is now officially ended. As a result, I have been playing catch-up for the past 48 hours, doing homework and attending to things that I have been conveniently ignoring for the past few days.

In addition to recovery from my responsibility-free weekend, I am also recovering from my back injury. Somehow I managed to strain my piriformis muscle; I am not happy about this unfortunate circumstance as it makes running near impossible. I waited at Duke Student Health for 3 hours (!) today...let's just say sitting in a cheap waiting room chair all afternoon did not help my condition at all. At least I got my stats homework done in the meantime!

OK, enough of my pesky pessimism...let's get to the fun stuff--food!

Friday
Owing to the fact that I did not get dessert at Taverna Nikos, I decided I could still have my evening shake. This one had a frozen banana, soymilk, chocolate rice protein, and "special dark" cocoa powder; I also had a dark chocolate kiss which I plunked in the bottom of the glass. It makes for a nice surprise when I reach the bottom of the glass:)
Saturday
I had a busy day planned with Mom and Dad, so I prepared my breakfast the night before by making some overnight oats. I combined some of Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain cereal with rice milk, dried cherries, and cinnamon. Despite having plenty of time to soak up the goodness, the cereal ended up quite liquid-like the next morning. Ultimately, I heated it for a while in the m-wave to soak up some moisture. I topped the cereal with pecan halves and served it alongside a big Rome apple.
After an afternoon spent at the basketball court, we returned to my apartment for a breather. I prepared a ridiculously simple meal while here: hummus sammie, Romaine with lentils, and a banana with cashew butter. Yawn. To compensate for the boring nature of this meal, check out some pics from the game (the Blue Devil is "surfing" on members of the Duke Marching Band):
We headed out for some shopping and dinner at a place I've mentioned before, Elmo's Diner. This time, I ordered a bowl of the veggie chili and the spinach salad with pecans. Unfortunately, the waitress got my order wrong so the chili came with all the fixins' (cheese, sour cream, chives, etc.), and my salad arrived with gobs of dressing. I requested a new salad but just scraped off the superfluous toppings on the chili. Everything still tasted delicious!
We headed out to Chapel Hill for some nighttime entertainment. I was still sporting my "Cameron Crazie" shirt from the basketball game, so I attracted some mean-spirited glances from our UNC rivals; I was invading their turf. Nonetheless, I fully enjoyed myself thanks to a visit to the Yogurt Pump. I got some Ghiradelli Chocolate frozen yogurt with mini M&Ms. I apologize for the crappy picture, but I assure you that it was quite the treat!
Sunday
With the parents gone, I settled into a day of reading...and reading. Before chapel, I made a batch of applesauce oats, using that Bob's Red Mill cereal again. The PB helped a little bit, but in general, this was not a stellar dish.
Lunch was a little better. Due to the sudden dip in temperature, I wanted something warm and comforting. I made a simple tomato soup out of leftover tomato sauce, veggie broth, oregano, and garlic (with broccoli added in), and I served it alongside a grilled Tofurky sandwich, orange slices, and almonds. Eclectic, but tasty.
I had another rushed dinner before chapter last night, although this one was more creative than last week's. I made hummus pizzas out of a split pita, hummus, sliced olives, and tomato. On the side, I had some greens and a plain yogurt with plenty of wheat germ.
The shake last night was pretty much identical to Saturday's, except for the addition of strawberries; this turned out to be an excellent variation. Strawberries, bananas, and chocolate make for a lovely flavor trio.
Monday
I never have the energy for anything other than cereal on Monday mornings. Today's bowl featured Puffins and Cheerios (happily reached the end of the box--this cereal has gotten way too boring for me!). I topped the bowl with dried cherries and rice milk and served it with an apple and Sunbutter.
My "lunch" did not actually pass my lips until 5 PM today, due to the excessive wait at the health clinic. As a result, I just grabbed easy to prepare items that would satisfy my angry tummy: Pacific Foods Butternut Squash Soup with walnuts and cinnamon, toast, Romaine with soynuts, and an orange.
After my dining committee meeting, I headed to the gym and then hit up the salad bar (another habit reserved for Mondays). My salad featured spinach, garbanzos, mushrooms, red bell peppers, and broccoli. I also finagled some amazingly ripe honeydew melon.That's some key lime pie yogurt with chopped almonds on the side; this key lime flavor is fast becoming a favorite!


I (and my back) are pooped, so I am going to sign off now. But first, get excited for the return of more creative smoothies, as my shipment of hemp protein arrived today:
Oddly enough, the arrival of hemp protein made my day significantly better...Ciao!

Weekend Wrap Up

I had a full and enjoyable weekend. I kicked it off right by heading to the farmers' market with my mom on Saturday morning. We got some hefty tomatoes, mixed squash (including patty-pan!), rainbow chard, and oregano and mint plants (Sorry, no pictures!). Later, I went to the university gym with my sister and her husband (we are all attending the same university for our various degrees). I also went to a health food store with my dad that night, where I got a new flavor of Spirutein (Chai Latte), some roasted red pepper hummus, Ezekiel bread, and a few other goodies. Overall, Saturday could be summarized as a health nut's dream:)

Sunday was my mom's big day, of course, and our celebration was a success. We went over to the soon-to-be newlyweds' house for dinner, presents, and ice cream cake. Although my sister hasn't moved in yet, she has managed to get it looking picture-perfect. It seriously looks like a page out of Pottery Barn--Kudos, Katie! To cement her status as a domestic goddess, Katie made her favorite dish: macaroni and cheese. I didn't have any, but it was a beautiful dish that was enjoyed by all who indulged in it. I'll post pics of my plate later in this post, but for now here are a few of the family. No two people ever seem to be looking at the camera at the same time, but such is life:) My brother-in-law Ryan wanted his picture to be on the blog--he's the one staring into an abyss next to the cake.


Rewind: here's what I've been eating, starting with Friday night.

Friday
My evening smoothies have been a lot more healthful lately, mostly because I discovered that adding fruit makes them quite delicious. I'm not a big fan of fruit with chocolate (other than bananas), so I have kept them strictly fruity. Friday's included raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. You know the rest.
Saturday
Before heading out to the farmers' market on Saturday, I had a quick breakfast of whole wheat toast with sunflower seed butter and watermelon. This kept me full for a while.
Lunch consisted of some oven-roasted Tofurky I found in the freezer stuffed into an Ezekielpita with mushrooms and lettuce. I had a yummy salad on the side with chunks of avocado.
For dinner, I made my own lentil dip out of lentils, lemon juice, mushrooms, sauteed onion, fresh oregano, and garlic; I used whole wheat Pitettes as dippers. I had sliced tomatoes (from the farmers' market) with basil and a side salad as well.
The evening smoothie was blue all over, with blueberry Spirutein, frozen blueberries, nonfat organic plain yogurt, and granola--in a blue cup, of course.
Sunday
For lunch on Sunday, I finally tried kale chips! I got some strange looks from the fam when I whipped this one up. "You're eating what?!" I prepared mine with garlic salt and some steak seasoning (how ironic is that?). They were perfectly crunchy--thanks for the recipe, Kath! I enjoyed these as a side dish to homemade lentil-tomato soup, whole wheat toast, and a pear.

As I mentioned above, we were over at Katie's house for dinner. Since the family would be having steak, I picked up some Helen's Kitchen Tofu Steaks. My dad saw these featured on the Today Show on Saturday morning, and directed me to their website. These were a winner! Next time I might try one with marinara sauce though. I also had some of my sister's salad, which had romaine, feta, pecans, and strawberries. I elected to eat mostly strawberries and PECANS, however. I love that combination. We ordered a frozen yogurt cake from TCBY for my mom, as per her request. It was chocolate vanilla crunch flavor, I believe. I hadn't planned on having any, but my mom served me a sliver, so I ate it to make her happy. I was expecting it to be delicious, but it was actually kind of meh. I still managed to polish it off though:)

Monday
Today was another parfait day for breakfast. This one had plain soy yogurt, crumbled Weetabix, and mixed berries. Sunshine makes it taste even better.
Before heading to class, I had a roasted red pepper hummus sandwich and a salad with broccoli, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and walnuts. I spritzed the salad with balsamic vinegar (I keep it in a small spray bottle called a Misto). I also had some apple slices.
Tonight's dinner was inspired by what the family was having: paninis! My mom bought some frozen chicken-mozzarella flatbread paninis at Sam's the other day, so I decided to make my own version. Mine had farmers' market zucchini, organic mozzarella, and a Quorn cutlet in a whole wheat tortilla. I had some freezer burned green beans, a side salad, and a handful of cashews to balance the meal.
Whew! Marathon post again--sorry. If you're still reading (or even if you're not), have a great evening!