experiment

Tonight I experimented. It did not go so well x_x

But let’s back up to my afternoon snack. My afternoon snack tasted like VICTORY!

After my roommate made that stupid macaroni, I was like CARBS CARBS CARBS CARBS SWEETS SWEETS SWEETS SWEETS! I DON’T WANT TO WORK OUT, I JUST WANT A BROWNIE! This probably had a lot to do with the time of the month it is, ahem. So I said “okay Ileana, you haven’t worked out in a week, and you’ll feel SO GREAT after you work out! And then you can get a brownie if you want to! But first work out, for its own merits!”

So I did, and my workout felt great, and then I wasn’t even craving sweets anymore!

     

So I had some protein and carbs, the ideal post-workout snack, in the form of Trader Joe’s trail mix! Delish!

 

 

I also had some seltzer with it, cause I’m all for hydration but I’m bored with water. This was kind of an impulse buy, actually, but I love seltzer!

So okay, back to my dinner experiment… these:

 

That says “Pickled String Beans”, sorry for the shrink wrap. So my stepmom is Chinese, and she is not a big chef, but her sister, who stayed with us last summer, is, and she made these CRAZY WONDERFUL string beans stir fried with chilis and garlic, and they had a pleasantly sour taste and these looked like them, so I thought, hey, I’ll make authentic Chinese food! I heated up 1/2 tsp of veggie oil to super hot, threw in the garlic, threw in the chilis and then QUICKLY added the green beans to avoid toxic chili air (although I still made my roommate cough, oops!).

They turned out gorrrrrrrrrrrgeous with the little flecks of pepper, in my opinion

  

But the taste…. was salty salty salty salty sour sour sour sour sour not good. I tried to choke down some, but it just wasn’t worth it. And honestly I wish I hadn’t even had that, cause now I feel like I’m MADE of salt, and I’m sure I’ll be mad bloated tomorrow, because my body needs no excuse to retain water. I believe I’ll be double fisting seltzer and tea for the rest of the evening.

So I ate my other two things, which were… brown rice and brown rice, basically. Tempeh, sauteed in cooking spray and sprinkled with soy sauce (tasty but almost ridiculously filling), and brown rice that just for fun I tossed with sesame oil and minced green onion (that was GOOD! I have no complaints about that one!)

So, whatever, sometimes experiments fail.

UGH I feel SALTY!

hot new hummus

Wow, my roommate is making blue box macaroni and cheese and I usually can’t STAND it but for some reason it smells really good! (My roommate eats JUNK!). Anyway, it’s good I’m about to get outta here and go to the gym! I have an afternoon off because my boss has an off site meeting. Thank goodness! I’m way behind on school work, and I haven’t been to the gym in a week!

Also, I got a job! The one I interviewed for on Monday! They liked me! Yay!

Lunch today featured a fun new hummus flavor.

 

It was not bad! I know people tend to have very strong feelings about cilantro, but I thought the blend of flavors in this was very nice. And on sale!

In a big, gorgeous tasting platter! With a Trader Joe’s tortilla, cut into chips and baked at 400 with a sprinkling of chili powder until toasty; cucs; carrots; and green pepper. I used up a little bit of my old hummus that I had left, but the container was looking a little sketch, so I tossed the rest.

 

On the side, my current yogurt brand (like I’ve said, I have no brand loyalty, and this was on sale).

  

This was good, though. Nice and creamy. I bought one of their vanilla ones, too, which I’ve had in the past, and it is almost frighteningly creamy and pudding-y. It tastes SO UNHEALTHY, yet it isn’t! Eating it is slightly psychologically weird.

To finish, I wanted a bit of sweetness, so I had some dried apricots. Vair nice.

perfectly ripe

Today’s breakfast featured my first fresh strawberries of the spring :D They were perfectly ripe! Sweet, super juicy, and delicious! I try to eat seasonally, because it’s such a win win- your fruit is from closer to home (these were at least from America), it’s fresher, and it’s cheaper!

 

Along with the last of my Fiber 1 Honey Clusters (about 1.3 cups) and some milk!

Hope everyone has a good day!

mondo excitamundo!

I feel like food bloggers are divided into two categories: those obsessed with Barney Butter and those who haven’t tried it.

I gots me a free sample!

    

That cute lil packet is only 90 calories (I actually ended up only using half, first of all cause it’s a BIG PACKET due to almond butter being slightly less calorically dense than peanut butter and also because I want to try this stuff in as many applications as possible- I have two packets, so we’ll see how long I can make them last!)

My first taste was on the utensil God gave me. It was yum!

 

Then I had it shmeared on 3/4 of an apple I had (I know I eat weird portions of fruit- 1/2 or 1/4 at a time. This was leftover because I had 1/4 of it last night to supplement a granola bar when I wanted something fresh and cool. Basically I have culinary ADD and like to have lots of little bites of things, so it results in things like 3/4 of an apple and 1/2 packets of barney butter sitting around in my fridge!)

So. Barney Butter. I’m having a hard time thinking of words to describe it. Rich is one. Sweet is another. Honestly, though, the best I can think of is… grown up. It’s like peanut butter got a pedigree. It’s lighter on the palate but subsequently richer, if that makes sense? And there’s something almost… smoky? I’m having a seriously difficult time of this, so I’m relieved I am not finished with my sample- maybe I’ll be more articulate the next time I try it!

I also had another Maria cookie with this, because I was still feeling peckish and realized that I really hadn’t eaten much today, oi. I did have a skim chai latte in the interval between lunch and dinner (I was doing really awesome fieldwork! I’m an anthropology minor, and I’m taking a class on American culture, and we have to go out in Boston and study people!) but still… small meals, moderately small snacks. I still need to ingest more! I keep forgetting I’m no longer trying to lose weight! Oi.

deconstructed sammich

My dinner had the idea of a sandwich (bread, protein, flavorful spread) but was kind of rearranged.

 

For our topping, we have Kath inspired mashed beans and pesto. I took 1/2 a cup of my leftover garbanzos and zapped them with a tablespoon of pesto (I bought a whole buncha basil in like September at the farmer’s market, made pesto, froze it, and voila, summer flavor year-round) for like 1 minute, and mashed them together, along with a little bit of water. Then shmeared on the english muffin. Soooooooooo good! Very savory and filling

My vehicle for this was an experimental new purchase- these guys were on sale. I have always adored Thomas’ regular English muffins, but, yknow, fiber.

 

Why Thomas! 100% whole wheat! These were pretty good, but I’m saving my full product review for my second muffin, because the pesto and garbanzo flavors were so strong I didn’t really taste the muffin. Texture was nice though!

  

On the side, I made my FAVORITE carrots. Steam some chopped up carrots (this was probably a cup and a half or so?). Heat up 1/2 a tsp of butter on medium. Throw in finely minced garlic (half a small clove) and some minced fresh ginger (1/2 a teaspoon or so?). Let the garlic and ginger flavors infuse the butter. Toss in the steamed carrots when they’re done (it takes 10 minutes or so, depending on how small you chop them- the smaller they are, the more surface area gets coated with the yummy butter, so keep that in mind- whole baby carrots are too big, in my opinion). Cook together until the smell is so irresistible you can’t stand it anymore!

 

All together. A lovely dinner- two awesome flavors; pesto and ginger-garlic butter.

neeeeeeeeervous

Yesterday I went to work and my immediate supervisor and the person I work in the cubicle next to were out with one of those SERIOUS stomach viruses.

I, of course, IMMEDIATELY started feeling queasy.

I’m also feeling queasy and nervous because I have yet ANOTHER phone interview at 2. I’m thrilled to be of such interest to potential employers, but it means I’m constantly keyed up!

I finally bought milk, so breakfast was a classic: peanut butter and banana oats.

I actually haven’t bought fresh bananas yet (due to my very complicated grocery shopping plan: one place has the cheapest milk but another has the cheapest banana) but I had one that had been ripe before I left for a long weekend so I’d mushed and frozen it, so I thawed that and made my oats with it and they were especially lovely and sweet!

Lunch was faux chicken nuggets and a big sweet potato with yogurt and cran-apple butter. I had mustard with the chicken nuggets- I am not a ketchup person. Never have been, probably never will be. It’s weird, because I like tomatoes and I like sour.

When I was younger, I ate sweet potatoes like it was going out of style. My dad literally started calling me sweet potato. I went through a period where I didn’t eat them as much (I think my family just quit buying them for some reason?) but now I love them as much as ever. This combination of toppings was *quite* delicious, I will have to make it again! It’s also pretty beauteous, color wise. Especially on the blue plate!

Eurgh, wish me luck on my interview!

thrown together

I threw dinner together based on my need to use up some more of my massive bag of spinach, the fact that it’s still rainy and gross, and a vague craving for white beans.

Et voila.

We have basmati rice (white, because I’ve been meaning to use it up and cause it was already after 7 as I was starting this and I was hungry!) cooked with 2 dried apricots and some cinnamon (I love Indian rice pudding but don’t have the kind of devotion it’d require to make it- but this had some of the same flavors and was easy!). I topped it with a little bit of butter, because the only thing better than basmati with a little bit of butter is… basmati with a lot of butter.

As for the curry, I threw together some chopped onion (2 tbsp or so?), a clove of garlic, minced, and a coupla pinches each of cumin and curry powder (I’m hesitant to give my curry powder measurements, because I took my current jar from my Dad, who got it when he was living in Hong Kong, and it is OH MY GOD SPICY) in 1/2 tsp olive oil. Then I added massive quantities of spinach (it kept wilting down, I have no idea how much I put in! Look at the final volume and it’s at least double that!), 1/2 cup of garbanzos (canned, but I found out Goya makes a low sodium version! Goya beans are the most delicious! And, incidentally, the cheapest), and 2 tbsp each crushed tomato and plain yogurt. Cooked it all together for awhile. Delish!