Daily Food - 6/14

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs and an apple.


Lunch: Leftovers from my mom's - what could be better? Creamed carrots and peas and dumplings, and a class of water. I also threw in some yogurt for protein.


With lunch I had a little pineapple upside down cake, also left over from my birthday.

Snack: I had some bolthouse farms protein mocha cappuccino flavor, and a black bean and cheese quesadilla on w whole grain tortilla.

Dinner: We made spaghetti squash on the grill, and then shredded it with some butter. With the smoky from the grill, I can't even tell you how good that tastes. Then we made some turkey legs. This was a first but they were on sale so we gave it a go. The Renn Faire has nothing on Dave, I have to say. These were smoky and delicious.


The Good: I walked twice today! Morning and evening! Most of what I ate was pretty solid. I have been reading labels a lot more.

The Bad: Probably the food I brought home from my parents, particularly the cake because I know it was made with cake mix, and I am not sure about the dumplings because I know they were the frozen kind (shh, don't tell.)

I'm Back!

Shew! I needed that break. I am not proud of what I ate, but sometimes when you have several hundred papers to grade and two graduations in one week, not to mention the rare freedom to actually go out to eat, you just need to let loose a little. Let's just say there were at least 3 stops at Hardee's that I am not proud of. And for the record, I didn't go on hiatus to "hide" the junk I was eating, I was just too busy to keep up with the blog.

But sweet summer has arrived.

Here is a little bit of what you missed...

Fortunately or unfortunately, my birthday is right before the end of the school year. Since it was a big one this year, I was determined to get away, which might be why I was so behind at school for the end of the year. But it was worth it. We went to Williamsburg, VA for the weekend and had a blast.

We stopped for Five Guys burgers on the way down. This looked like most of my meals this week.

And fries, of course...


This was my actual birthday lunch: A delicious veggie quiche with fruit and fruit bread. This was very tasty. It was full of nice crunchy veggies. It was kind of unexpected, and pretty light considering it was BOILING outside.

We also had a very nice dinner that night. It got destroyed before I could take a picture, but we had an appetizer of fried oysters and rockfish pizza, and then I had crabcakes on a bed of ham and cheese grits. I have eaten my share of crabcakes, but I never imagines how well they would go with the grits. Really delicious.

And this was my birthday dessert - a creme brulee sampler - there was a classic vanilla, honey ginger, and a chocolate raspberry. You can also see my Mint Julep in the background. When in the south...


Before we left Williamsburg the next day, we had lunch at one of the old-time taverns. This is a chicken pie and it was amazing. I also had the best pecan pie I have ever had in my life.
On the way home, we stopped at Jesse Wong's Chinese Kitchen (hey - it was there...) and I had singapore noodles. Not bad.

Skip ahead a week - this was my birthday part two. We went to my parents for my birthday celebration there, and stopped at Homegrown Cafe in Newark, my old stomping grounds. This was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived there, and still is. It doesn't hurt that most of their menu, if not all, is organic, local, and can be made vegetarian or vegan. These are veggie summer rolls. Very light, crispy, with some mint in them and a nice spicy sauce. I also had the falafels and their signature side salad. But there is no picture of the falafels. I once devised a plan to get my sister a job there so she could sneak me free falafels, so you should know that they do not stay on the plate long enough for a picture.

We were NOT planning on doing this, but the cupcake store is right next door to Homegrown. We were doing a great job of avoiding it, but then we saw the sign. It said "Margarita cupcakes" and there was no avoiding. And I am glad we didn't. I think this may be my new favorite flavor there. And at least we stayed healthy with some milk.

There were definitely some ups and downs this week. But that's behind me! So - moving ahead...

Hiatus

Sorry if I have disappointed any of my loyal followers, but this week has been absolutely insane! It is the last week of school so for any of you teacher, you know what it is like. I am going to take a break from this week, although I DO have pictures from my birthday weekend that I will put up when I get a chance to do anything other than eat, sleep, and grade! I will pick up again next week! Also, once school is out, I want to start doing more than just posting daily food, so let me know what questions you have and I will be happy to research them. And let me know what types of things you would like to see - info about bad ingredients, new recipes, etc.

New Recipe! - Coconut Shrimp Curry!

1-2 T olive oil
1 T curry
1/2 T garlic powder
1/2 T red pepper
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
any fresh or frozen veggies
1 can coconut milk
1 lb frozen shrimp

Add all the spices to the oil in a big pan. Let the spices kind of roast in the oil - it makes it so much better and it smells really great. Do NOT skimp on salt or this will taste gross. Toss in the veggies - I like a stir fry mix for frozen, or broccoli or snap peas fresh are good. Once those get started a bit, pour in the coconut milk and shrimp. Cook until the veggies are done and the shrimp is pink. Serve over rice.

Daily Food - 6/3

Breakfast: Ok, I am both ashamed and proud of myself here. There wasn't anything really appetizing to me in the house, and since we are in the middle of exams and I have most of the day free to work, I wanted to stop off and get a snack anyway. So yes, I grabbed junk for breakfast - this thing, a hostess cherry pie, and a big Turkey Hill iced coffee, which I think is mostly sugar. The proud part comes in when I took a big bite of this Oatmeal pie, which I have been craving ever since i bought it for my students, and it was disgusting. It left a gross film in my mouth. I think I am going to look for an oatmeal pie recipe, because they should not taste like THAT. After I ate that thing, I did NOT want the cherry pie. I think I am going to pass that along to the trash can tomorrow, or at least give it to one of my students.


Lunch: So, when you teach and you can make it out to lunch, it's super exciting! We love exam time just because we can get out of the building and have a semi-leisurely lunch. I went to my fave, Tropical Smoothie. This is a cup of lobster bisque, which is very good. I also had a Hawaiian Breeze smoothie and a Sesame Chicken salad which was also very tasty.

Snack: Also munched on some Chex Mix while grading.


Dinner: This was fantastic! I am going to post a recipe. This is a Coconut Shrimp curry that I make, and it was particularly good tonight for some reason.

The good: dinner was good. I am proud of my afterthought with breakfast even if I wasn't happy with my forethought. For take out, lunch was a good choice. Tropical smoothie does a good job with natural stuff.

The bad: Picking up the breakfast stuff even though I was yelling at myself in my head the whole time to put it back. Need a better snack than chex mix.

Daily Food - 6/2

Breakfast: More leftover crepes. This was it. I threw out the rest.

Lunch: Leftover pasta from last night. It was so hot I didn't even heat it up. Blech...

Snack: Hardees again. Like I said yesterday, the bad part of being late on the blogs is that when you write about something you did one day that wasn't great, it's only worse when you did the same thing the next day. I got a big lemonade and a small chicken finger.

Dinner: Dave wanted some wings, which used to be our weekly Wednesday routine, so we went out. Started with nachos, which is my favorite app!

Had two of these, and trust me, I needed them. They were as good as they look, too.


By the time the main course was served, it was dark outside, and since we were sitting outside, this is as good as the picture gets. But it was a reuben and curly fries, and I didn't really eat many of the fries.

The good: I didn't kill anyone today.

The bad: Everything else?

Daily Food - 6/1

Happy June!
Breakfast: more leftover crepes.

Lunch: I made a big salad with tuna, lettuce, and radishes. It was basically grabbing whatever I could find in the morning because I did NOT want PBJ.

Snack/Lunch 2: Hardee's. Got a giant tea and a grilled chicken sandwich.


Dinner: I have GOT to get Dave to stop taking pics for me when I am sitting across from the food. Blech. Anyway, we made some italian sausages from the farmer's market that were AMAZING. Half was hot and the other was garlic. Both were good but I really liked the hot. Then we mixed with some peppers, onions, garlic, sauce, and homemade tomato basil pasta from the farmer's market.

The good: hmm. Lunch was good. I think the salad was probably a better choice than the PBJ I usually have when there are no leftovers.

The bad: Breakfast, again. Too many carbs, especially sugar. Fast food - shame shame shame! (I wish I had done my blogs on time, because now I know what is going to happen tomorrow.) Dinner was ok, as far as being homemade and a god balance of lots of veggies, meat and carbs, but I always feel guilty when I eat a big bowl of pasta.

Daily Food - 5/31

Happy Memorial Day! This week has been a little insane, as you can see by me putting up my blog 3 days late. But teachers in June don't have lives. Well, until mid-June anyway...


I don't really have an excuse for today though. I didn't even leave the house, let alone the couch.
Breakfast was leftover crepes. Well, the batter, then I whipped these up.

Lunch - I had a leftover burger from last night with some leftover mushrooms.


Snack: I just had a little salad that was leftover from the other night. Are we seeing a theme?



Dinner - something new! Steak! This was a delicious, classic holiday meal. Sauteed spinach with garlic, and a roll, too.

Dessert: This stuff is the BEST. I love Haagen-Dazs Five brand - each flavor is only made with 5 ingredients - milk, sugar, cream, eggs, and whatever flavor it is. Might not be healthy but it definitely has a decent ingredients list! Anyway, we just tried the new lemon flavor and it is to die for. Mint is my other favorite in this brand.

The good: well, everything is homemade except the ice cream, which is at least all natural. Salad for a snack was a great idea, especially with the farmer's market lettuce. Love the peppery leaf lettuce.

The bad: Crepes for breakfast. Too much carbs and sugar and no protein.