28 posts tagged “food”

Today I Like:

 

     Charter will soon be gone from my life!

     Caribou Coffee

     Cool-looking, long painted fingernails of uniform length, despite the fact that they interfere with almost everything I do.

     Cherries….dark red, sweet, & juicy.  And on special at the grocery store.  Yum!

     Cottage cheese & red peppers

     Copious amounts of Diet Pepsi

     Cleaning supplies – from my Norwex party I got a free mop, cleaning cloth, body cloth, laundry detergent, and most of a jar of cleaning paste (as in I only had to pay for a bit of it…I am getting a full jar J).  I also bought some dryer balls so I don’t have to use fabric softener on my towels yet hopefully they won’t be scratchy.

     Cake…as in my birthday is tomorrow!  Not like I’ll do anything but it’s fun just the same.  I might buy myself this for a present.

     “C”-ing (OK, that was a stretch) a new number on the scale this week.  I’ve now officially hit the twenty-pounds-lost mark.

 

Today I Don’t Like:

 

     Logging on to my school email this morning and realizing that I have to take a final tomorrow!  It was on the schedule I got at the beginning of the semester but still it sneaked up on me.

     Lake cabin party for work that I’ll be missing tonight due to the aforementioned lack of planning on my part.  L

     Losing my Charter email address after tomorrow.  It’s hard to try to notify everyone when I get a new one.

     Labor – as in work, as in sitting at my desk today when I’d rather be at home studying or sitting out in the sun (or both)!

This week is Rochesterfest, our city's celebration of itself.  It lasts a whole week and has some cool stuff scattered throughout.  For example, a parade that I got to be in one year, walking along next to the blood donation float & handing out stuff.  One very cool Rochesterfest tradition is to block off two blocks downtown for A Taste of Rochester.  If you've ever been to A Taste of Chicago, this is similar (although about one-one hundredth the size).  A lot of it is fair food, basically.  There's also a stage to showcase the local talent, and the local news also broadcasts from that street for the week.  People milling about, and all the food you can eat.  It's fun.

At work we always make it a point to visit Rochesterfest for lunch at least once a year.  Today was the day, since my friend Kris had an all-day meeting and she's the one who never wants to go eat fair food.  I know, I can't figure it out either.  South Beach Diet be darned, today I was going to splurge.  And if I'm going to cheat, I'm going to make it count.  So after carefully perusing the long aisle of vendors, I settled on a basket of cheese curds.  Now, if you're not from Minnesota, you may not be familiar with the pure wonderfulness that is a cheese curd.  Think cheese, cheddarish in flavor, slightly rubbery in texture, deep fried to a golden deliciousness.  Salty and greasy and melty and hot.

I paid the typical overcharge and took my first bite.  Imagine my pleasure to discover that not only did I hold deep-fried cheese in my hand, but garlic-flavored deep-fried cheese.  I could've melted on the spot.  I don't know when I've beheld such a taste sensation.  It's all the things I love.  Grease, salt, garlic, cheese.  Need I say more?

My stomach is definitely feeling it now, as I'm no longer used to greasy food (the malt I followed it up with could also have something to do with it), but I would go back downtown right now for another round of these babies if only I had another $4.50 on my person.  Alas, 'tis not to be, and to ease the guilt of yummy food, I'm now drinking a Low-Sodium V-8.

PS - I guess since it's Tuesday, I can make this post serve double-duty by making my Things on Tuesday list.  I'll make it short & sweet:

Love:

  - Garlic-flavored cheese curds
  - Chocolate mint malts

Loathe:

  - The rock that's now in my stomach
  - That cheese curds have to be only an occasional treat

I am eating a ripe, red strawberry as big as my head.  I can barely get my mouth around it.  Juice is dripping down my hand.

Just thought I'd share.

I wasn't going to do this today (because if I do it every week I'll become predictable), but what the hey.  Here goes:

Today I loathe:

• Spending all day at work reading about FDA inspections.  I'm writing a mock inspection for our students to do as a learning tool.  Important stuff, but reading about the FDA all day sure makes me tired.
• That I slept horribly last night and as a result am quite tired today.
• That it's only Tuesday (see above bullet item).
• Being unmotivated to study for my coag final.
• Bad hair days.

Today I love:

• Red wine.
• The killer lasagna I have in the oven.  I can't wait to eat it!!
• That I fixed a door at work today.
• Long, painted fingernails, makeup, great shoes, jewelry, and other things that make me feel like a girl.
• The color scheme we've decided on for our bathroom.
• My kids.
• Spring - finally!  I'm even ok with those fabled April showers, as long as they're not snow showers.

That'll do it.  :)  Gotta go get my lasagna out of the oven.

 

It's not often that I actually do something worth writing about on a weekend, so when I do it's definitely getting a blog entry. 

We had a nice family weekend.  On Friday I took a half day since it was the last day of Spring Break for Brian and the kids.  We went up to the Twin Cities for the afternoon.  We'd debated museums and zoos, but in the end decided to save those endeavors for warmer weather and to take the kids to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America instead.  Plus, that's what they chose. 

It's about 50 miles from here to the southern edge of the Cities, and about halfway lies a town named Cannon Falls.  Since this was a day meant for fun, we decided to stop at the Cannon River Winery, located in a renovated downtown building.  We got to taste three wines each, and ended up buying two.  They also let us wander around their tasting room/dining room/winemaking area.

 

 

 

 

 

After that stop, we proceeded along US 52 to St. Paul, from whence we commenced travel on Interstate 494 to St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb.  Our next stop was a place we've been wanting to visit for quite some time, not only for the cheap wine but also because we thought they would have some fun, SBD-friendly items:

 

We found some fun trail mixes and whole grain pastas, not to mention some chip/snack options for those days when you just need something.  I was disappointed that most of their sauces and salad dressings contained a lot of sugar.  I thought for a store that seems to stress "natural" and "organic" and "healthy" items there would be less sugar.  Oh well.  It was fun anyway.

So from Trader Joe's it was back down to Bloomington: next stop Ikea!  Such a fun store.  You can get a lot of stuff there for cheap.  I've only bought little things like towels and gadgets there.  I haven't bought furniture there - most of it is too contemporary for my taste, but I always like to look.

I got that cast iron skillet for 8 bucks!  And a set of 6 little wine glasses for 3 bucks.  We wanted some smaller ones for diet (read: portion control) issues.  Joey could've gone to the kids' area.........

.....but decided to stay with the rest of us.

Overall, they were very patient because they knew that after Ikea would be the rides!

Nickelodeon Universe is an indoor amusement park that's located smack in the middle of the Mall of America.  Once upon a time it was known as Camp Snoopy and had a cute Peanuts-woodsy-camp feeling to it.  Now it's true Nick.

 

 

 

 

The kids had to choose their rides carefully because we are mean parents and refused to spend unlimited amounts of money on overpriced rides.  They chose the Farily Odd Coaster first.

 

 

Then they were on to their next ride.

 

 

After that it was time for supper.  The kids wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe, but when we got there and saw the line of people waiting for a table, we quickly decided to implement Plan 2.  Only we didn't know what Plan 2 was.  We had passed a little walk-up fast food place that boasted of healthy food so we went there.  Brian and I were able to get something that was fairly SBD-friendly, and even the kids found something they could/would eat.  After that Brian took the kids back to Nick Universe for one more ride while I went up to the third floor to check out my favorite store, Nordstrom Rack.  This is Nordstrom's outlet store and it is wonderful!  Normally I can find at least 5 great pair of shoes when I go there (unfortunately I don't buy 5 great pair) but this time despite 6 aisles of size 10 shoes there wasn't really anything that really struck me.  I did, however, find two awesome skirts and a sweater, all for 60% off the lowest marked price (who needs rides when you can get bargains like that!).  Before I was done there, Brian and the kids showed up.  The kids were exhausted and more than ready to go home.  I paid my bill and we hit the road.  It was a fun day.

On Saturday we were out and about running errands.  We decided that since we were in the winery-visiting mode, we would take in a local one that just opened this year.  It really felt like a start-up place.  The guy's tasting room was in his garage.  It had been fixed up and was quite clean so it wasn't gross or anything, just not what you'd usually expect.  I wonder if he'll build a "real" tasting room after he becomes a little more established.  His wines were good, though.  We bought a white grape wine (Edelweiss, a hardy grape hybridized for wine and the ability to survive northern climates) and a rhubarb wine.  He showed us his vats and told us one or two things about the winemaking process that we didn't know - something we might be able to try at home.

Today was a really thought-provoking church service.  Tonight we were supposed to have our small group Bible study.  There are four couples and right now we're watching a DVD series called The Truth Project.  One couple said this morning that they wouldn't be able to make it, then another couple decided later in the afternoon that they wouldn't make it either.  They just got home from vacation so I'm sure were exhausted.  So that left us and the couple that was hosting it tonight.  Their kids are about the same ages as ours so they told us to bring the kids and we'd watch the DVD anyway.  When we got there, one of the kids opened the case....and the DVD was gone!  It must have still been at one of the other couples' houses.  So we just hung out and had dessert while the kids played.  It was a nice time.

And now, it's bedtime!  Good night.

Things I love:

• Let the demo begin!  Brian is using his spring break week to start tearing out walls for the bathroom remodel.
• Cinnamint tea from Caribou.  I think I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating.  If you appreciate herbal teas at all, you must try it.
• Healthy food that actually tastes good.  I made a killer lasagna last night with lots of veggies & whole wheat noodles.  I did use Italian sausage, though.  Even Picky Bailey liked it!
• My coag test this morning.  I think I did well!  It was easier than I expected.
• It's Steve and Janie's anniversary!  I love that they found each other.
• The B-52's have a new CD out.  I'm streaming it right now.  I'm only on the first song but I love it!  It sounds pretty much like their 80's stuff, which in my book is great.
• Raising Sand, a duet CD by Robert Plant & Allison Krauss.  Whoever thought of putting the two of them together is a genius!  One of my favorites is below.  I think it's actually used in a commercial of some kind.  (I'm not sure who that guy in the picture below is but if you click the video you can hear the song.  You will see pictures of RP & AK.  I had to link to YouTube because while I think I'm going to download the whole CD, I haven't yet.)

 

Things I loathe:

• All the mess from the aforementioned remodel.  I hate sheetrock dust.  I hate it.  I suffer through because the end result will be well worth the hassle.
• Snow on April 1.  I only wish it were a joke.  I heard it's supposed to be in the fifties by Friday.  We'll see.
• Speaking of commercials, there's this one for Benadryl where the person can't sing at all.  I think it's intentional, like it's supposed to be cool or edgy or something, but it just comes across as tone-deaf.  I wonder if that means I'm getting old.  (Back in my day, people who sang could actually sing!.....well, not really.  Anyone remember Tiffany?)

Hey, how 'bout that?  The good outweighs the bad!

So Brian and I - well, I - decided that we're going to do the South Beach Diet.  I'm not really excited about it, because I don't really have the energy to deprive myself, but it's time.  It needs to be done.  We both need to lose weight.  Oh, to be one of those who can eat whatever they want and not gain weight.  But it's not in my genes (jeans?).  Time to suck it up.

SBD isn't too bad.  I signed up for their online program for long enough to familiarize myself with the program and beyond the first two weeks I think it seems very do-able.  The first two weeks you basically deprive yourself of all carbs, after which you can start to reintroduce fruits, starchy vegetables, and "good" carbs.  We did Atkins for about 4 months back in 1994 and we did pretty well but eventually failed because when it came down to it, we missed breads & carbs too much.  I'm hoping this can be more of a long-term thing.  The nice thing about SBD is that you're allowed to cheat, just as long as it's not often and not bad.  So if we decide that we just have to have some mozzarella sticks, then by golly, we're going to have them!!  And I don't have to give up my beloved wine either, although I will try to cut back to 1-2 glasses per week.  (SBD says you can have 1-2 glasses per day with meals, but to me that sounds like a lot of calories.)

The two biggest challenges for me are going to be to drink 2-3 liters of water every day (I like water, I just hate running to the bathroom constantly, plus it makes me cold if it's not room temp), and eating 4.5 cups of vegetables every day.  There's a whole huge list of vegetables you can eat in Phase 1 but most of it is either weird (okra, bok choy, kohlrabi - who eats this stuff?) or things that seem more to me like salad garnishes than real vegetables (shallots, capers, fennel - would you make a side dish out of this?)....plus a few things I've never even heard of (chaote, nopales - huh?).  But even if we choose to not be adventurous, we can still do fine sticking to our basic green beans, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, and tomatoes.  And V-8 counts.  I love that stuff.

Since today is Day 1 of Phase 1, and Phase 1 is all about breaking your dependence on refined starches & sugars, I'm feeling quite tired.  I also have a headache, which may or may not be related to the diet, but it makes it that much harder to work.  I have to teach a lab at 4:00 and I hope I'm not brain-dead by then.  I'll have a snack beforehand, but a handful of green peppers will only take you so far.  Tonight after I get home, we get to do our grand SBD kickoff trip to the grocery store.  That'll be fun.  I'm one of those lucky few who actually likes to grocery shop.

Oh yeah, goals.  I'm not good at setting goals.  But if I had to put a number on it, I'd say I'd like to lose about 25 pounds.  I'd settle for 15.  Brian's got more to lose, so I'd like to see him lose about 30.  On Atkins, we stalled out at 15 and 30 pounds respectively - a lot of which we think was probably related to the fact that we weren't exercising.  We have that going for us this time around.  We're not ready to run a marathon by any stretch of the imagination, but we try to do something most days of the week. 

It's going to be a long, slow, difficult process full of sacrifice and self-discipline.  Two of the things I hate the most.  Wish me luck.  I have a bad attitude but at least I have this going for me: I'm not all motivated right now only to lose it later.  I will do this with the same dogged, feet-dragging determination that I bring to my classes.

Aren't I lazy?  :)

Allow me to recap my afternoon.

I left work around 2:00 because Bailey was in a play that her class was putting on.  I have to say, she's got some potential as an actress.  She was very natural in her acting, voice inflections, facial expressions.  A skill I've never had.  I was proud.  :)

Brian and I met at her school and afterwards, he went home and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  While I was in the produce aisle, a woman started talking to me about something she'd seen in the deli and how good it looked.  I agreed, it did sound good, and I went on my way.  As I finished the next aisle, I decided that what the lady was talking about really did sound good, so I made my way back to the produce aisle to get some portobello mushrooms.

As I was in the checkout line, my phone rang ("I could while away the hours, conferring with the flowers, consulting with the rain....." that is my ringtone.)  Brian was talking to me on his cell while simultaneously talking to his buddy Nelson on the regular phone.  Nelson was coming over later but he needed a cake to bring to some friends of his and could I pick one up?  As luck would have it, Hy-Vee had $5 cakes right inside the door and they let me pay for one and pick it up on the way out.  (Boston Cream cake...yum!) 

I got home and a bit later, Nelson came over.  He took his stocking hat off....displaying a completely shaven head!  It shocked me, but he wears it well.  Brian, for some unknown reason, wondered if maybe he should shave his head too.  They were concerned about getting my permission, which I found a little bit funny since while I'd ask Brian's opinion before changing my hair, I wouldn't ask his permission.  I didn't care...he can do what he wants with his hair.  And I'm all for spontanaeity.  It makes life fun!  Not like it won't grow back anyway, if he decides he doesn't like it.

So while I made my mushrooms*, Nelson took to my husband's head.  Brian wanted to chronicle the process from hairball to hairless.  Erego:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think?

I have to say, I don't mind it.  I might even like it - I'm not sure yet.  He kinda looks like he could beat the crap outta ya, doesn't he?  :)  He and Nelson are out now, doing who-knows-what....he had to make sure to wear a stocking cap too.  

Now, the kids are getting ready for bed, after which we will have some cuddle time while we watch an episode of The Muppet Show.  This is the good stuff.

*The mushrooms were portobello caps stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, crab meat, and tiny shrimp with a dash of creole seasoning, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and baked.

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

Butter.

I love it.  I will not give it up.  Nothing compares to that melted butter on warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread...mmmm.....or on a baked potato.....or in the skin of baked potato (try it if you never have).....mmmmm

Once as a young child, I was once caught by my mother eating a stick of butter.

It must be my Swedish heritage, but I think butter is straight from God.  As a matter of fact, my kitchen has some Swedish designs in it, and one of them is a trivet that hangs on my wall.  It says "Food should be cooked with butter and love."  My cooking motto!  (Actually, I cook with margarine and oil more than butter because butter burns, but I like the sentiment.)

I know, it's not supposed to be good for you.  I've tried those so-called "butter replacements" out there and they taste like margarine.  I can believe it's not butter, thank you very much.

Today was sandwich day.  Sandwich day is awesome when you actually have the stuff to make good sandwiches.  I had a turkey & swiss on toasted whole wheat bread.  Joey was more adventurous in making his.  He told me it was called a "Hidden Sandwich" which meant that he took two slices of cheddar cheese and folded them in half.  Inside one fold he put grape jelly, and inside the other he put this chocolate-banana spread stuff.

 I said to him that it sounds like a hidden surprise sandwich.  He said, "No, it's not a surprise for me because I know what's in it."  Can't argue with that logic, I guess.  Here's his concoction: As he was eating it I asked him if he liked it.  He said, "Yeah.....kind of."