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Filtering by Tag: wine

training + groceries + egg drop soup

Andrea

Hello my fellow bloggies!  Have you all had a good Saturday?  Mine started out gloriously...the hubb and I slept in 'till 10:30!!!  I cannot even remember the last time we slept that late!  My alarm went off at 7:30 to meet the training group for a run, but when I rolled over to check the temperature and saw that it was only 16* outside I rolled right back over and fell back to sleep!   We did get up and go for a run once it reached a balmy 25* at 11am.  Brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!  Today was supposed to be 2.5 miles and I mapped out a nice, although hilly, run for us around campus and some surrounding shopping areas.  When we first started I felt really choppy, like I couldn't get into the groove.  Things finally evened out and felt good after about 1/3 mile and stayed that way until about 1-1/2 miles, but then I got two horrible cramps, one under my ribs and one behind my hip bone.  Wierd, huh?  I had to stop to walk it off and decided to just walk the rest of the way back, so I only got about 1-3/4 miles in.  I was so bummed.  Especially after having such good runs this week.  I know sometimes you just have "off" days that can't be predicted or explained.  I remember even when I was having great 8-mile long runs I would have an "easy" 3-mile run a couple days later that I could barely finish.  What do you other runners do out there when you get a cramp mid-run? Breakfast:  I had 1/2 a banana about 30 minutes before my run, then had two Kashi Go Lean blueberry waffles afterwards. One was topped with 1 tbsp almond butter and the other with 1 tbsp apple butter, both with sliced pink lady apple. 081206-b1 Lunch:  Well, breakfast was kinda lunch since I slept so late, so my schedule was off all day.  I did make the horrible mistake of going grocery shopping while hungry, which resulted in several snacks that you will see shortly. I had the worst Whole Foods shopping experience today.  I'm still bummed out about it.  I've mentioned that we have a tiny store that doesn't carry a great selection of bars etc, but they are building a new store so I've just been hanging in there 'till its finished.  Over the couple of years that the hubb and I have been shopping at this Whole Foods they've taken away several products that I love dearly to make room for new or different products.  Some examples of products I love that I can no longer get at my store are:
  • Clif Nectar Cherry Pomegranate flavor
  • Clif Nectar Cranberry Apricot flavor
  • Newman's Own Salt + Pepper Pretzels
  • Nairn gluten-free Ginger Crackers
  • Nairn gluten-free Oat Crackers
And there are countless other things that other Whole Foods stores carry that mine does not.  Especially infuriating are the items that have coupons in the Whole Deal catalogs they pass out that I can't even get at my store.  So today, I had made a list that of course included Stoneyfield Oikos yogurt on it, but when I got to the yogurt aisle there was NO OIKOS!!!  I thought they must be out, until I noticed that the product's spot on the shelf was filled with something new and that there was no longer a tag for the OIKOS!!!  Incredulous, I asked the first WF employee I could find "what happened to the Oikos?!?!?!?!?!?" and he said "Oh, we started carrying this other product instead".  WHAT?!?!?!?!  I know I gave him the same look that my hubb gave me when I told him I had messed with his No-Bakes.  WHY would they stop carrying OIKOS?!?!?!?!  Its only the BEST YOGURT EVER!!!  I was seriously depressed for the rest of the trip.  It didn't help that my next item on the list was wonton wraps, which live on the dairy aisle just down from the Oikos.  When I got to their usual spot on the shelf there were none to be had.  I asked the same employee about wonton wraps and he said "yeah, I think that was another product that got bumped".  Ridiculous.  Not a wonton wrap to be seen in the entire store.   So, our grocery shopping trip today included three separate stores, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter (for oikos and wonton wraps) and Rebecca's Natural Foods (for dried pears, which are nearly impossible to find!!!).  Here's the loot: groceries-1 groceries-2 groceries-3 Yeah, this was a pricey trip.  Mainly because I had to stock up on some baking ingredients for the holidays and some specialty ingredients for BSI recipes I wanted to try out.  I don't have the energy to list all of the items so pictures will have to speak for themselves...  And I do have to give the nice employees at my Whole Foods credit.  When I went to Customer Service to fill out a form to get my Oikos back (yes, I did that), they offered to let me take a container of the new product that had replaced it to sample for free.  I thought that was mighty nice of them... groceries-4 I am intrigued...has anybody ever heard of  "icelandic style skyr" before?  This product had some amazing flavors, but I wanted to get the plain so I could do a true comparison to the Oikos I'm used to.  However, the Siggi's is a whopping $2.69 per 6 oz container, so even if I love it I won't be buying it.  I had a hard enough time paying $1.99 for Oikos, so $2.69 is out of the question! Oh, and this is what happens when you go to the grocery store(s) hungry: groceries-5 You buy ginger snaps from Whole Foods, apple chips from Harris Teeter and molasses clove cookies from Rebecca's.  All were amazing and satisfied the hubb's and my hunger in the car on the way home... Dinner:  I can only talk about part of the meal because the other part was a finalist in the BSI:Ginger contest this week.  I'm trying out several of the recipes being submitted so get them in ASAP so that I can try as many as possible!  :)  Tonight I made the best Egg Drop Soup ever.  I found this recipe so long ago that I can't even remember where I got it.  But trust me, it is SO GOOD.  If you like egg drop soup then you MUST try this recipe... Egg Drop Soup serves 2  Ingredients:
  • 4 cups chicken or veggie broth, divided
  • 3 quarter-size chunks of fresh ginger or 1/8 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh scallions
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1-1/2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
Steps:
  1. Reserve 3/4 cup of the broth, and pour the rest into a medium-size saucepan.  Stir in the salt, ginger and scallions and bring to a rolling boil.
  2. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining broth and the cornstarch until smooth.  Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk together using a fork.  Drizzle the egg a little at a time from the fork into the boiling broth mixture.  Egg should cook immediately.   
  4. Once the eggs have been dropped, stir in the cornstarch mixture gradually into the soup is the desired consistency.
  5. If fresh ginger was used, remove the chunks before serving.
081206-d7 081206-d8 It is so easy, so fast and soooooo yummy!  I'll have more pictures tomorrow night showing my whole dinner. I also had a glass of vino. 081206-d1 Ok, its time for bed.  Don't forget to get your BSI recipe in!!!
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bluegrass grill + tofu two ways

Andrea

Brian and I park about 1/3 of a mile from our offices every morning.  The walk to work is short and pleasant, but forces us to pass our favorite C'ville breakfast spot, The Bluegrass Grill.  The restaurant serves down-home breakfasts and is famous for their house-made baked goods, especially the honey wheat biscuits.  I dream about their biscuits.  Its impossible to get a table on the weekends without waiting an hour, so we don't get to go very often, but every morning as we walk by we say "we need to get up early one day and go before work".  After 6 months of talking about it, today was finally "one day".  We invited our good friend Amy to join us so it was the perfect start to a Friday morning, good food + good company. Breakfast:  Short stack of Honey Wheat Pancakes with fresh strawberries, real maple syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.  It was AMAZING.  I ate almost the whole plate.  :)  Surprisingly these puppies stuck with me from 8am until 1:30pm!!!  I thought for sure that I would be starving by 10. 081205-b1 Lunch:  Because I knew I'd be having a large, not-so-healthy breakfast I decided to keep lunch simple and satisfying.  I had a baked sweet potato in the fridge so tossed it in a bowl with 1/2 cup edamame and sea salt sprinkled on top.  Perfect. 081205-l1 And two more of the Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies from my co-worker... 081204-l41 Snack:  Nothing!  My lunch was so late that I didn't need one. Dinner:  Miso soup and pan-glazed tofu.   I wanted to use some of this guy in the spirit of this week's BSI... 081205-d1 I used my favorite recipe from Moosewood for Miso Soup with Tofu and Shitake Mushroom Broth. 081205-d3 And pan-glazed my tofu using this method, but with the following glaze.
  • 1/4 cup water (usually this would be veggie broth, but i'm out)
  • 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
081205-d4 081205-d5 081205-d6 And a lovely glass of cabernet. 081205-d2 Dessert: 1/2 cup fat free french vanilla Stoneyfield yogurt, 1 small pink lady apple and a handful of Annie's Honey Bunny Grahams. 081205-d7 Does anybody have any big weekend plans?  I am going to be a knitting machine...my goal is to start and finish a scarf this weekend that will be a Christmas gift.  I went to the yarn shop today during lunch to pick up a blend that I'm really excited about!  I finished a scarf last night that is also a Christmas gift, but I can't show it because I don't want to ruin the surprise for the recipient!  :) Have a great night! PS:  Kelly over at groundedfitness is giving away a danskin vest...check out her blog to see how you can win it!
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baby. got. back.

Andrea

I attended my first spin class tonight....oh. my. goodness.  It was one of the best workouts I've had!  The instructor (my friend) is amazing, the workout was fabulous, the music was perfect.  I mean, this was my first spin class, but tell me who wouldn't love a class that ended with rolling hills to the sound of "Baby Got Back"?!?  Perfect. Backtrack:  My eating schedule was all off today.  I think its because I got up early for my doctor appointment and wound up eating about 60-90 minutes earlier than normal.  Or maybe the breakfast cookie didn't fill me up enough...guess I'll just have to test another of those beauties out to see! I snacked on my banana around 10:30, but was still starving so ate my pita at 11:45.  1/2 of the pita was soggy so I wound up just eating the filling out of that half.  The tuna salad and broccoli slaw went perfectly together... 081120-l3 I was meeting Christine for a walk at 12:30 and didn't want to fill up too much, so I saved my apple and Oikos for after our exercise.  If I haven't mentioned it before, pink lady apple slices dipped in plain Oikos is divine.  :) 081110-s21 Christine and I walked 3 hilly miles in about 50 minutes.  I enjoyed having chatty girlfriend time even more than getting out for exercise during lunch...it was a perfect break in my day. For a snack about 1 hour before spin I ate a chocolate chip Z Bar. 081120-s2 My spin class was right after work, and when I got home Brian had dinner nearly ready!  Yummy fresh veggie stir fry on jasmine rice.  It was the perfect light meal for after my workout, and so beautiful! 081120-d2 081120-d1 081120-d3 He used:
  • broccoli
  • red bell pepper
  • carrots
  • mushrooms
  • onion
  • celery
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp spicy szechuan sauce
  • scallions and sesame seeds on top
I ate about 1/3 of it, on top of 3/4 cup white jasmine rice.  Paired with a small glass of wine. 081120-d5 And for dessert a Kozy Shack rice pudding cup with frozen blueberries on top. 081120-d6 It was a great day.  I love big activity days because I'm not as concerned with what I consume, and I've learned to still portion things appropriately and not go overboard.  It is a very satisfying feeling.  :) I'm still looking for some good upper body workout dvd's...anybody have any suggestions?  I'd like something to combine with my running, yoga and occasional spin class... Have a great night!
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