an adult tuesday

So, my last post was a little confusing, but completely on purpose. Wait, that doesn’t make a ton of sense in itself. But…oh, never mind. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up to be a volunteer for a new community kitchen that opened in town. They have an amazing collection of cookbooks, give free lessons 4 times a day, 5 days a week, and use all organic produce and ingredients.

Oh, and this guy:

image source

Seriously.

The Kitchen’s goal for this week is to have 1,000 (or 2% of) people in Huntington cooking, and so a cook-a-thon was thrown! From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., there was a cooking class held every 30 minutes, taught by Jamie, for free. They made a beef and scallion stir-fry with noodles, and it smelled amazing – going outside was torture!

We had a great turn-out; the firefighters and the media came out, and by 3 p.m., we’d had 250 people cook. Considering 20-30 people were cooking at one time, that’s crazy!

So, did I meet him?

YES!

He’s super-sweet, and at one point, he even called out to me from the stage, and was all, “darling, are you okay? we having fun?”. Oh yeah, we totally bonded. I’m bummed I wasn’t able to get a picture with him, but he was running around like a madman, and I hated the thought of bugging him like the crazy foodie fangirl that I am. I did get the next best thing, though.

Yup, totally posing with his shirt. Love the fact that I looked thrilled beyond belief. For a shirt. I’m such a weirdo!

After coming home and eating dinner, E dragged me away. Don’t I look terrified?

Just kidding! It was more like a treat…AVENUE Q!

The show was amazing. The puppets were incredible (and I hate puppets!), the songs were amazing, and it was just darn plain funny. I would definitely recommend it, but not to young children, anyone uptight, or those who have no sense of humor.

Now for the food!

9:15 a.m. Kashi GoLean and Honey Sunshine, with a teeny banana on its last legs, pecans and nonfat milk

12:25 p.m. Clif Mountain Mojo Trail Mix bar – sheer heaven!

12:50 p.m. ‘Bucks’ Grande Passion Tea with 1 Splenda

4:35 p.m. Worst lunch ever! Benny’s Hickory Chicken sandwich, no bacon and no Swiss and a garden salad with no cheese and ginger dressing on the side. Seriously disappointing – too much bbq sauce, stale bread, off salad dressing, and obviously cheese. Ugh. I ate all the veggies, 1 tsp of dressing, all the chicken (with half the sauce wiped off) and half the bun. Everything else got tossed, although I able to salvage the cheese for E’s next lunch, which was about 1/4 cup’s worth.

Now some girls are all about little blue boxes, but for me, my heart melts for a certain medium red one.

Oh yeah. The fastest way to my heart is chocolate-covered fruit, and to me, Edible Arrangements is king. The best part? Thanks to Facebook, it was free. Definitely had to sample to make sure it was up to par.

5:20 p.m. Granny Smith covered with dark chocolate. I was a good wife, and split it with E.

6:30 p.m. Cedarlane LF chicken burrito. I’ve never had a Cederlane product that I didn’t like, and this was no exception. A little spicy, a lot of chicken. Almost too much chicken, but can there ever be too much? This guy was small but filling, especially with Blue Smoke salsa and shredded mozz on top.

7:00 p.m. And of course, fruit for dessert! Dark chocolate-covered pineapple, split with E.

Now there may or may not have been a junior whopper, no mayo, consumed after the show, on the way home at around 11 p.m. Not ideal, but it happened. Just saying.

Who’s your foodie rock star?

Mine are definitely Jamie Oliver, Rick Bayless, Grant Achatz, Giada deLaurentiis, and Paula Deen. Edited to add Martin Yan, Alton Brown and Michael Smith – how could I have forgotten? Thanks for reminding me, Susan!

on the road again

I made a pretty important decision this morning – I’m not tracking my food or exercise intake all weekend. I tend to get a little obsessive, and I’m trying to eat like a normal person, and normal people to obsess over or record every bite and step. Don’t worry – I’m not going to take this as an excuse to shovel down everything in sight! I will pay attention to what I eat, and enjoy every bite, meaning if I don’t enjoy the first taste, there will be no second. We’ll see how this works; if nothing else, it’s an interesting experiment!

We headed down the road pretty late yesterday, and kept waiting and waiting until we were finally both so hungry we couldn’t stand it. We headed over to a Burger King, where I had a pretty mediocre grilled chicken sandwich. Other than it not being the best of condiment choices, I really dislike mayo on most things, so I just got mustard instead.

Thankfully, I’d made my favorite fruit salad earlier in the day, so E and I munched on that for a little while – it definitely made up for the earlier sandwich! Apple, pear, walnuts and cinnamon mixed together with a small container of vanilla Oikos – super simple and delicious!

Side note: Oikos has got to be my favorite yogurt of all time. It’s thick. tangy, high in protein, fat free and low in carbs, and is a great substitute for sour cream or mayo. Love it!

An hour or so later, we got pretty munchy, and broke into the Krinkle Sticks. OMG, these were amazing, and were like a thicker Pringle! Light, crisp and totally yummy, they’re also gluten-free, cholesterol free, dairy free and vegetarian, which means pretty much everyone can enjoy them. E and I were totally fighting over the bag, and it fulfilled both of our snacking needs. It really is Snacident Prevention!

After all that driving it felt really nice to have a room.

Especially one with a view!

We got a corner room on one of the top floors, and the views of downtown are amazing, especially at night. Too bad the internet’s ridiculously expensive! As soon as we checked in, we headed down to the convention, picked up our passes, and headed to the food court to get some dinner. Sushi and Thai? Yes please!

I had an order of salmon and avocado sushi, which was really fresh and tasty.

E and I also shared a plate of veggie Pad Thai – really flavorful, but didn’t taste the same without lime juice, crushed peanuts and tofu.

Tattoo conventions are some of my favorite places on Earth – great people, amazing artists and a heck of a lot of fun. We spent a fair amount of our time at Innerstate, a new live painting exhibition. 40 of the world’s best tattoo artists paint live for 5 days straight from morning to midnight, with convention attendees streaming in and out and a DJ spinning tunes. I honestly could’ve stood there and watched for hours, and we’ll probably be back today and tomorrow. This painting by Muriel Zao had me entranced:

Finished off the night with a trip to the bar, which is always the most popular part of the convention! Started off with some bar mix and a Pearl Harbor Punch – Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, pineapple juice, sweet and sour , a grenadine float and a cherry. Fruity and tangy, this went down like nothing at all! At 92 proof, one was enough for this lightweight!

We needed sustenance to even out all the booze, so E and I split an order of veggie nachos, which were the cheesiest nachos I’ve ever had! I ate a little less than half.

We’re heading to a tea house today for brunch, but expect a recap tonight! If you know of anywhere totally awesome in Columbus, OH that we should check out, leave a comment or e-mail me at livelaughgrow AT gmail DOT COM.

back in the saddle

I cannot believe it’s Thursday already – The week’s just flown by!

I was really bummed out from not being able to be in the gym all week, but today I bit the bullet, sucked it up, went and had a blast. I did two classes – weighted workout and express fitness, and mixed up my pre-class cardio by doing a little stair climber and cross trainer and the good ol‘ treadclimber. I don’t know how accurate the calories burned on Fitlinxx are because today, with everything combined, it came out to 1146, which just seems crazy! I’m thinking of possibly getting a Polar or something similar to monitor calories burned and heart rate, but I still haven’t decided yet. Also, I have a confession to make: I took yoga last week and didn’t hate it. There, I said it. Don’t get too excited, though, I was under duress! It’s definitely nice to know that yoga’s there when I need it to be, instead of forcing myself to do it every week. It totally takes the stress out of “de-stress”.

We picked up my mom at the airport last night, and are we glad to see her! She brought us each some really cool gifts (which she totally didn’t have to do!), including our very first kiddush cup, some really cool books, and my absolute favourite pumpernickel bagels and whole-wheat challah rolls! Nothing says home like fresh baked goods, so they’re definitely appreciated. I just have to make sure to freeze them ASAP before I eat them all, which would definitely be bad news bears.

My appetite seems to back, which is awesome, but now I have to be careful to not eat everything in sight! I weighed myself today and I’m down another 2 pounds, so the week off hasn’t hurt me, which I’m so very thankful for.

Latest eats!

Tuesday

Breakie!
Kashi GoLean, the last of the Strawberry Glucerna, fresh strawbs, walnuts and nonfat milk, 294 calories

Lunch!
canned salmon mixed with dijon, a little light mayo, sriracha, herbs and paprika on a light italian FlatOut wrap with a mango and string cheese, 357 calories

Dinner!

Jimmy John’s Turkey Tom with extra veggies and avocado instead of mayo

with half an oz of skinny chips!
calories? 423

The day’s total was 1075 calories, which is way way way too little, even if I was sitting around all day. Not healthy!

Wednesday

Breakie of Kashi GoLean, the last of the Cinnamon Life, walnuts, strawbs and nonfat milk for 348 calories. Cereal just doesn’t taste like cereal without walnutty goodness!

Lunch was super-boring; a Boca Chick’n patty on whole grain white bread with garlic and herb Laughing Cow for 335 calories

I got pretty hungry right before we left for the airport, so I grabbed one of E’s crunchy granola bars for 95 calories. Maple and brown sugar = delicious!

My mom’s flight kept getting delayed and we were hungry! I had about 5 oz. of this Bud Light Lime, although it wasn’t very good.

I also had a side salad – radishes, carrots, green peppers, tomato lettuce, and red onion, pepped up with a dash of parm, some black pepper, and about a tsp of Golden Italian dressing. I also had 3 slices of pepperoni, 2 slices of thin salami and about 1/4 cup of diced lean ham on top. This ‘snack’, with beer, came out to 293 calories.

Mom came bearing trail mix! I had a giant cashew out of the bag for 8 calories

We were all starving at this point, and headed back to Bluegrass for a late dinner. I had all of the salad and goat cheese with 2 Tbsp. worth of the homemade super-chunky amazing blue cheese dressing, 2 slices of the bacon, and half the sandwich with 1 Tbsp. of sun-dried tomato mayo. This sandwich was the bomb! It had lemon-thyme roasted chicken, field greens, tomato and onion on some amazing french bread – now I know why they call it the Perfect Chicken! I wasn’t going to eat the bacon, but once I took a bite and it was seriously the best bacon I’ve ever tasted. Local and nitrate-free, it was porky perfection! With a bite of my mom’s burger (meat only), dinner, part 2 came out to 579 calories.

The day’s total came out 1657 calories – a little higher than I’d like, but still within range. I’m just glad my appetite’s back!

recap – saturday

Saturday didn’t start out as well as I thought it would. We woke up bright and early (like 6 a.m.) to eat, get ready and be on time for boot camp (at 8), and I went from “I’ll go and do what I can” to “I can’t make it down the stairs to the front door” in about 15 minutes’ time. Needless to say, I went back to bed, and didn’t wake up until almost noon! E still wasn’t home, so I called him while I made a simple breakfast – Strawberry Glucerna with chopped walnuts and skim milk for 266 calories.

I had lost my voice, so E couldn’t understand a word I was saying, but explained everything when he came home. Apparently, our trainer had decided that in the last 30 minutes of the session, they’d head out on a 5 mile walk around town, but didn’t tell any of the participants about it. Even though it was supposed to end at 10, it didn’t end until 11:45, by which point most of the participants’ families were calling them frantically, worried that something had happened. I appreciate the trainers’ efforts into mixing things up at the bi-monthly workouts, but this seemed to be a little ridiculous. E wasn’t in the best of moods when he got back, so we decided to work on the garden for a little bit, potting our herbs and our patio tomatoes. We needed some potting soil from Home Depot, and on the way there, stopped for lunch at Panera. I wasn’t really hungry, but hadn’t had an appetite all day, so I figured it was better to eat then to skip a meal. I ordered the LF chicken noodle soup with a side of baguette and opted for an iced green tea at the last minute. I ate 2/3 of the soup and 3/4 of the bread with a couple dips of E’s tomato soup and all of the tea for 325 calories.

E had picked up a little poison oak over the last couple of days, so we stopped at CVS for some meds, and I picked up a diet Pepsi, which actually made me feel a whole lot better.

We ended up out in the yard for 5 or 6 hours without even realizing it! We took a quick break at 6:30 pm to watch this week’s episode of the show (with our little interview), and headed back outside. ended up running to the store around 8:30 pm for some twist ties and pots to finish potting the rosemary and oregano and to stake the tomatoes. I still wasn’t hungry, but E was starving (which he should’ve been!), so we grabbed some food on the road – Arby’s. I’m not one to sit around and put ‘fast’ food down, because lord knows, there are days when it comes in handy, with or without planning, and Saturday was one of them! I had a regular roast beef, 1/2 packet of ‘horsey sauce’ (horseradish mayo) and 1/3 of a medium curly fries for 482 calories.

For some reason, while we were waiting for SNL, I got absolutely starving for the first time all day. I totally wanted comfort food, and something fast and warm, so I heated up a strawberry Bagelful, which was perfect, for 200 calories.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been happy with the day’s eats, but when all was said and done, I was under my targets in calories, fat, the whole yard, so it actually wasn’t too bad. The only thing I was really missing was fresh produce, but in all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have eaten any with the way I was feeling! I definitely let my body have what it wanted, and while I hope not to make a habit of it, seemed to work. All in all, the day’s totals were 1273.

Digging the Daregal

A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Matt.
Matt, as it turns out, works for Daregal, a company that specializes in fresh frozen herbs.
Matt wanted to know if I’d like to try out these oxymoronic herbs, and tell y’all about them.
And be completely honest about the whole thing.
I bet you could tell how quickly I said yes, huh?

Herbs, for me, are like water and air. I can’t function without them, and am beyond annoyed when I run out. I also try to keep as much salt out of our food as possible, so herbs are the be all and end all around here. I use a lot of dried herbs, which are great in the long run – shelf-stable, convenient, and easy to use. Sometimes, though, a girl just needs some freshness in her life. Fresh herbs around here are really expensive and can be hard to find. They also seem to go bad in our fridge rather quickly, putting a damper on our wallets.

Enter Daregal and their ingeniousness (and generosity!).
Not only did I receive 6 varieties to sample, but they were the full-sized containers! Shipped with dry ice, I received Dill, Oregano, Italian Parsley, Cilantro, Basil and Original Blend (a combination of basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme).

As you can see, in my enthusiasm, I swiftly opened every single container upon arrival as quickly as my hands would move. I’ve been using these babies in everything lately, and I’ve got to tell you, I’m beyond satisfied. Not only do the herbs keep beautifully in the freezer for up to 36 months, but they’re super-convenient! Pre-chopped, it’s so simple to just throw them in any dish, and they defrost instantaneously. Also, because they’re lightly misted in vegetable oil before packaging, there’s no clumping inside the container – just shake and use. I’ve also tasted them on their own, and not only do they look like fresh herbs, they taste like them, too – amazing!

I’ve sprinkled dill on brown rice, cilantro on nachos, and on roasted vegetables for a quiche. My absolute favourite combination so far was today’s post-workout snack – nonfat Greek yogurt, honey, sliced strawberries and basil. This just screamed summer, and was incredible; the basil brought everything together without being overpowering. I could seriously eat this every single day. So cheery and yummy! Plus, how beautiful and fresh does that look?

Now for the downside.

For now, the only stores where Daregal herbs are sold are A&P, D’Agostino, Giant Food, Kings, King Kullen, Stop and Shop, Waldbaum’s and Shaw’s, none of which are in our area. You can also buy them online at Daregal, but with shipping it becomes a little pricey. Well worth it, but pricey.
Also, I’d love to see mint and chive added to their product line, because I’d be on it like peanut butter on toast!

When it comes down to it, I would totally buy these herbs. They’re delicious, convenient and ‘shelf’-stable, and the quality is exceptional. Seeing as my biggest issue is that it’s a PITA for me to get another batch, I don’t know that I’ve ever been this satisfied with anything before. They would make a great gift, and they’re worth trying – I’d be shocked if you weren’t completely satisfied.

Right now, Daregal is hosting Gourmet Sweepstakes 2009, where they’re giving away an 8-pack of fresh frozen herbs every week (I’ve totally entered). Plus, Daregal does offer some great deals:

• buy any 4, get any 1 free
• buy any 6, get any 2 free
• buy an 8, get any 3 free
• buy any 12, get 4 free

Since I’ve gotten a few e-mails on my lack of food posts lately, I’ll leave you with one of our favorite dinners of this week, Spaghetti Sauce Sandwiches. Served on Ezekial with a little 2% shredded cheddar on top, these were totally satisfying, quick to make and great as leftovers. It would also be really good on top of pasta or over some rice or a baked potato.

I used Morningstar Farms Griller Crumbles instead of ground turkey or beef, and it was a great substitution – they looked and tasted like the real thing, and was better for you, too. What more can you ask for?

Spaghetti Sauce
makes 4 servings

• 2 cups Morningstar Farms Griller Crumbles
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 16 oz. no salt added tomato sauce
• 1 cup tap water
• 1 tsp. dried Italian Seasoning blend
• 1 Tbsp. each of Daregal basil, oregano and Italian parsley
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 bay leaf

1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat, and spray with nonstick cooking spray or olive oil.
2. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5-6 minutes.
3. Stir in garlic powder and Italian seasoning blend, and saute for another minute.
4. Add in the crumbles, and stir until defrosted and they begin to brown.
5. Pour in the tomato sauce and the water. Add in the balsamic vinegar and the bay leaf, stir and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
6. Add in the basil, oregano and Italian parsley, and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Serve!

nutritional information per serving:
106.9 calories, 1.9g fat, 1.5g polyunsaturated fat, 0.4g monounsaturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 260.8mg sodium, 111.1mg potassium, 13.4g carbohydrates, 3.7g fiber, 4g sugar, 9.6g protein
12% Vitamin A, 59.7% Vitamin B-12, 23.2% Vitamin B6, 9.5% Vitamin C, 15.6% Iron