Sugar, here I come!

Isn't that cute? It's how Jalene dries her socks!!!



I had a nice time at Brewberry's with Katey over coffee and homework. Luke wasn't working so I'm sure the "cardamiel" latte (cardamom, honey, espresso and milk) would have been better had he made it, but it was still pretty good.


I realized I'd forgotten something I needed for class (big surprise) so I went back home and ended up eating there (although I'd been prepared with a packed lunch bag!). I had leftover tempeh from last night (with yogurt and salsa) and a chobani with banana and honey.



After class Sarah, Carlye, Jalene and I all came back to our apartment to finish the baking project we'd started... cupcakes! There were several birthdays and karmic debts that needed to be repaid (like helping us move in, hauling furniture, etc.) and what better way to do it then bake? We used the Magnolia Bakery recipe to satisfy sweet teeth and my New York- withdrawal. I used the recipe reprinted in 52 Cupcakes' blog and found a lot of other decadent treats I can't wait to make. I followed the recipe exactly, except for substituting half the butter in the batter for applesauce.

Here's a little peek from the cupcake gallery:






I had to make sure they were edible gifts, so I practically snatched this one out of Sarah's hand.



SO GOOD, oh my goodness. I actually liked it better than the 'real' Magnolia cupcake! I also ate a ton of frosting... definitely a splurge, especially since I'm going to be cutting back on my workouts until my leg heals. But oh, it was so worth it. I saved a couple for me and Ari to have later, but I think this was one of the prettiest.

Our cafeteria was sponsoring local farms today, so I loaded up my plates with fresh veggies. We sat for over an hour as new people cycled into the table, so I probably ate more than I was hungry for, but oh well.

Salad: spinach, carrot, tofu, feta, cucumber, cabbage, beets. Dressing: oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard.


Butternut squash /apple/parsnip soup, acorn squash and honey-glazed carrots and turnips.

I was sort of craving something "real" and not sugary, so I just had an apple. This picture reminds me of a picture in The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown that I read when I was little.


Time to work and clean and get ready for Ari!

Pumpkin pie for breakfast!

I actually obeyed my alarm and got up at 7 this morning. I had a slice of 10 grain bread with PB and honey before heading over to the gym.


I used the elliptical instead of the bike today, to switch things up.

30:03 minutes
1.68 miles
263 calories

Strength
shoulder press- 3 x 10 @ 15 lbs
chest press- 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs
lateral pulldown- 3 x 10 @ 40 lbs
hip abductors, inner- 3 x 10 @ 90 lbs
hi abductors, outer- 3 x 10 @ 90 lbs

Core
straight-arm crunches- 3 x 20
knee raises w/ stability ball- 3 x 10
stability ball seated twist- 3 x 10
stability ball back extension - 3 x 10

I used the microwave today to save time. I made a big bowl of pumpkin oats, using:

2/3 cup oats

1 cup water

1/2 cup pumpkin

1 tsp flax seeds

1 tsp walnuts

1 tbsp brown sugar

handful raisins

dollop fat free plain yogurt

cinnamon


It was delicious. It felt so indulgent, like I was eating a real pie! I had a cup of this Pink Grapefruit Green Tea, part of the "Sip for the Cure" to benefit breast cancer. It was on sale at the grocery store a couple days ago, so I picked a box up. Pretty tasty!



Time to shower and get ready.... Ari will be here in less than 36 hours! I may be singing some Pointer Sisters in the tub...

Heating up on the color tv

I couldn't resist and had to catch up on my Gossip Girl tonight (sorry, Sarah)! Things are getting spicy!


I had a Pure Protein bar around 3:30, but I guess I must have thrown out the wrapper because I couldn't find it in my bag.

I decided to try again with tempeh tonight, so I whipped up a rice and beans based dish. I don't have to worry about getting enough protein tonight! This was sort of an "everything but the kitchen sink" dinner, but I liked it.

Here's what ended up going into it:

1 cup brown rice

2-3 tbsp olive oil

generous handful raisins

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

1-2 bay leaves

4 oz tempeh, cut into inch-long pieces

coriander, crushed

15 oz can black beans

medium tomato, diced

1/3 large onion

2 cloves garlic

salt, pepper, crushed red pepper to taste


Sauté rice and raisins in half the oil, 2-3 minutes. Add 3 cups water, cinnamon, bay leaf star anise, and cover. Bring to rapid boil, then turn heat down when steam starts to escape from the pot. Simmer about 40 minutes or until tender. Remove bay leaf, cinnamon and anise.

When rice is almost done, sauté onion and garlic in 1-2 tbsp oil. Add tempeh, salt, pepper, pepper flakes and sauté over medium until tempeh is golden brown on both sides.

Meanwhile, heat black beans in a sauce pan with salt and crushed coriander (just a pinch), until heated through.

Combine everything, top with tomato, and serve.

Note: I topped it with a little salsa, which I think made the perfect addition.

Here's what I ate:


... just kidding! Look how big this bowl is!!!



On the real, I had two servings about this size.



While I was cooking, I had a cup of carrots with about 1 tbsp of hummus.



I had a small glass of Shiraz to go with, for my heart. Always in the name of the ticker!



I was pretty full, but remembered my pumpkin loaf, so I had a thin slice.



I'm going to have a serious workout tomorrow that actually feels like it's worth it to get up so early and go to the gym. I don't know what it'll be, but (keeping my body in check) it'll be different than it's been. I'm meeting Katey at Brewberry's at 11 for our weekly "Katey date" so I've got to get a lot of work done before. I just heard my laundry go off... I feel so domestic tonight!

C-BS

I ended up having to come right back home after my first class because in my rush to get out the door I forgot a bunch of my stuff. Whoops! I had a soy baked ham sandwich with cheddar, tomato, mustard and nayonnaise on whole wheat. I was reluctant to fry the ham, or "to-ham" flavor, but it did not disappoint.

Hint: what did I bake?


The last dregs of butternut squash soup (with yogurt and sweet roasted red pepper):

I had a banana while watching the CBS interview with Sarah Palin and Katie Couric.... Enough said, but here's a re-cap.

This bike is wack!

There is absolutely no way it took me almost 26 minutes to bike less than half a mile. But that's what the machine said! So I'm just going to assume that something's wrong with it... it's teh same one I used yesterday, and I had the same problem, so you'd think I'd learn to get onto a new one but you know what they say about old dogs. So:

25:43 minutes
198 calories

Core
-straight arm crunches- 3 x 20
-knee raises w/ stability ball- 3 x 10
-stability ball seated twist- 3 x 10
-stability ball back extension- 3 x 10
-2 30-second plank holds

I had half a Clif bar for before my workout...




... and a nice bowl of oats when I got back.




-1/2 cup oats boiled in water

-1 tsp PB

-1 tsp flax

-1/2 banana

-brown sugar sprinkling

-splash of skim


I want to get out of the house fast so I can give myself enough time to walk.

Sugar and Spice and carbs, carbs, carbs!

Went to the cafeteria twice today, which I try to avoid (mainly because I only get about 5 a week). The choices on Saturday and Sunday nights are always pretty meager, and my stomach was still a little upset so I just wanted some cheesy pasta. They were offering a creamy pasta which I wouldn't have gone normally, but I wanted it today. I added some spinach, cottage cheese, tofu, and mixed it up and zapped it in the microwave until the cheese melted.


I also had a piece of whole wheat toast with PB and jelly...


... a grapefruit...


... and a cup of coffee with chocolate milk (although I only had about 1/3).


We watched White Sun of the Desert, which was, thankfully, only an hour and a half. I think it and The Scarlet Empress are my favorites so far. I came home and made Veggie Girl's pumpkin -pecan-raisin loaf. It was quick and easy to make, made the kitchen smell delicious, and had really tasty batter that I helped myself to quite a bit of.



Sarah came over and she, Jalene and I baked something that will be posted tomorrow (of which I also ate a lot of batter), and we split a slice of bread three ways. Mm-mm-good!


I'm really tired so I'm sure I'll have no trouble falling asleep. See you for breakfast!

Edited to add: I just burned my hand on the oven rack.... Clumsiness will make this my third oven-caused scar!

Truck on

My workout today was really weird. For some reason the bike didn't record the distance, so I really don't know how far I went. If I base it off of my previous time over the last couple days, I probably went about 8 miles. Here's what I do know:

43:24 minutes
366 calories

Strength
hip abductors (inner)- 3 x 10 @ 85 lbs
hip abductors (outer)- 3 x 10 @ 85
ab machine- 3 x 10 @ 40 lbs
chest press- 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
shoulder press- 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs

I don't know why, but this was just not a satisfying workout. Unfortunately, I can't really do anything about it since my leg has been in a lot of pain recently. The bike doesn't aggravate it so I don't think I need to stop altogether, but it's a little worrisome as the race is in 6 days. Before I left, I had a big cup of coffee and a banana.


I got a salad for "lunch" at 4 PM; the only dressing they had was fat-free Italian. In it was romaine, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, and cheese. I wish there'd been some protein... The only other option was a BLT salad, which I can't eat anyway.

I have a film screening at 7 tonight; I don't think I'm going to eat dinner before that but I'm going to try to find a Clif bar somewhere. The profs usually bring cookies, but I'm going to try to be strong. My stomach is feeling a little funky after the salad so I probably don't want sweets anyway.

Marina and I are studying for our French test tomorrow. The semester's going to accelerate (in terms of work) pretty quickly starting this week, unfortunately.

Fruit overload

I got up early(ish) to get to the cafeteria as soon as it opened so I could get a start on my work (and avoid lunchroom chaos). I got egg whites cooked to order, but they were already separated so I must have gotten about 6! I ate them on a toasted honey wheat English muffin with Earth Balance, with ketchup to garnish (surprise, surprise). I also got a HUGE bowl of fruit, since I only really get bananas, with grapes, watermelon (I think I'm starting to like it more), cantaloupe, honeydew, and strawberries. They used to have pineapple, but since it has to be imported they're limiting the days we get it to reduce the "carbon footprint."

Look at all that egg- it's folded over three times!


I only had a few sips of the milk because I was so full of fruit. I didn't finish the coffee either, so I'm sure I'll be making a run for some in a couple hours. I'm in the library like a good little student, so off the internet I get!

We have real furniture!!!

I'm writing this from an actual desk! We finally got all "our" furniture (left-behinds from the building Michelle manages) so the house is going to be a lot more organized. But oh my gosh, what a debacle it was getting all the stuff inside! Let's just say it took burly men and a whole lot of courage. (Actually, if we'd broken the front door- which has beveled glass- it would have taken bravery to conquer the repair bill.)

Here we are in front of the couch/desk/tv "unit"- filled truck (Jalene's cousin and his friend helped us out, and Greg refused to be in the picture so he's behind the camera):


I had half a Clif bar in between the moving, but I didn't take a picture, sorry.

Megan came over tonight for dinner and studying (in an attempt to be productive on a Saturday night). I made a stirfry with tempeh, boiled zucchini and carrots, olive oil, cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Ketchup may or may not have come out during the meal to season the veggies.... It tastes better, I promise! I also cooked up some gnocci from my favorite frozen pasta brand ever:

I've only had their ravioli before, but this was pretty good. I topped it with an olive oil sauce with sweet roasted peppers, garlic, basil, and onion, and parmesan at the very end.

After dinner we somehow started talking about ice cream, and how I've never been to this famous St. Paul creamery, Izzy's, and after checking to make sure it was still open we headed over. Although I didn't go to the gym today and am still feeling a little guilty about it, the ice cream was SO GOOD. I got a big scoop of pumpkin (delicious, and spicy!) and a small scoop of chocolate almond. I decided at the end that I wanted hot fudge (once you get this far, why not live it up, eh?) and the girl working there let me have it for free. Thanks, Izzy's! It was the perfect amount, and it's late enough that I know I won't be puttering around in the kitchen looking for something to nosh on.



Back to the grind....

Busy Bee

There was a really cool photography exhibit in the basement of the museum... it's too bad my parents are coming after it will be over, because I'm sure my dad would have really enjoyed it.

We came back STARVING, and had a quick lunch of butternut squash soup, tofu, and a slice of 10 grain bread. And, of course, two cute little pickles. I also had a glass of NSA pomegranate juice, which was good but a little too sweet (sweetened with Splenda, which I'm not a fan of).


Today's working out to be very busy, so I probably won't get to the gym until closer to dinner.

Russian Morning

I was so sad to wake up and find out that Paul Newman had died. I might watch Cool Hand Luke tonight in memoriam.

We have a field trip to the Russian Art Museum today. Jalene wanted to go too, so we're going to drive down there in a little bit. I woke up to pretty bad pain in my leg; I think it's worse when I've been sitting or lying down and not putting my weight on it. I've been taking ibuprofen every day, but I haven't really been noticing any difference. I hope it's better by my race next Saturday...

We're running pretty low on all our cereals, so I mixed Special K, Mueslix and Oatmeal Squares with skim milk.



I think I'm going to need to brew some coffee before we go, because I feel exhausted! I got about 9 hours of sleep so this doesn't really make sense...