New favorite kitchen tool

Lets be honest, one of the best parts of getting married is getting to register for all of those random gadgets you have always lusted over but never had an excuse to buy for yourself. 
It turns out some of the best items are not even the super expensive ones. 

Back in the day, I worked at a Starbucks, where my coffee obsession reached new heights as I delved into deeper knowledge and appreciation for lattes, cappuccinos, and macchiatos.   I had never truly known the value of steamed/ whipped milk until then. 

I actually went out and purchased a fancy-schmancy espresso maker/ milk steamer so I could make delicious coffee drinks at home. Turns out those machines take a lot of effort to clean and work. That machine currently resides in my fathers basement (along with a juicer I bought that also takes way too much effort to clean). 

My mother-in-law Alina owns a cute little frother that makes a delicious "cafe con leche"  - so I added a frother to my registry. Thats to Elizabeth (of Don't White Sugar Coat it) I am now the  proud owner of a hand held frother! via Amazon.com 

The Areolatte froths so well! In general, whole milk/ higher fat milk froths better than nonfat / lower fat milk. But the areolatte has been quite good at frothing my soy and almond milk. That paired with a spoonful of pumpkin puree and coffee- topped with cinnamon! Yum!! 

Check out that delicious froth! 

What is your favorite / most used kitchen appliance? 

Coffee's Health Benefits: Antioxidant Series

Coffee, is a great love of mine. Its warm, tasty, wakes you up, and is great to dip things in.

Other than all of those benefits, didja know coffee also contains molecules that are antioxidants?? (See my last post for my attempt at explaining antioxidants.)

Coffee contains these wonderful compounds called polyphenols. And in fact- coffee consumption actually provides more than 60% of antioxidants consumed in America.

Epidemiological studies have shown that coffee consumption correlated with less ‘oxidative stress’, aka, less cells with their identity stolen, and less inflammation.

Sometimes coffee gets a bad wrap, in regards to it staining teeth, or its caffeine being bad if you have high blood pressure, but overall it’s hard to really analyze coffee. Many studies looking at specifically at coffee consumption in humans is difficult to translate, because often coffee drinkers also have other negative lifestyle factors such as smoking, or not consuming many fruits and vegetables.

Looking at coffee in animal studies, in vitro (just looking at the cellular interactions), and some human studies have shown positive results for coffee as an antioxidant. Coffee has been associated with decreased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, liver disease and type II diabetes. It does this through preventing oxidative reactions, or stopping free radical reactions.

Currently there is no absolute proof that coffee is beneficial, however, it is known that the antioxidant polyphenol compound does exist in the beverage. More well controlled human studies are needed.

But in my opinion, if you enjoy your daily cup of java, go ahead and enjoy :) your body just might thank you later.

Photo by Jessica Leibowitz @ MyCameraEatsFood.com

Wrong Side of the Bed

Today I woke up in an unnecessarily bitter mood.

Jordan had slept over and had trouble sleeping, and then woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and as the saying goes "misery loves company" so he took me along for a grumpy morning.

Once he was gone, I was faced with a mountain of dishes in the sink, and dishes I had previously washed piled up in the drying rack. Some of these were mine of course, but being in a grumpy mood, I washed them all while bantering madly to myself of how I always get stuck doing everything around the house, when I am the one that has the most to do! Geez I just took the trash and recycling out last night too, and cleaned the bathroom which looks like crap again because Sookie likes to throw litter!

I then took the feminist approach and assumed the boys were leaving all of the house work for me to do because I am the only girl and clearly they must think I am only good for domestic purposes.

After settling down from my pity-party, I comforted myself with a nice breakfast of left over
home-made cottage potatoes (aka homefries :P ) and my last egg, over-easy, with some ketchup and a cup or 3 of Pumpkin Spice coffee. I think its the cold, but I have been craving really "breakfasty" breakfasts lately.




After breakfast I headed out to Framingham to get some school work done and go to class. I brought an apple and nutrigrain bar as some brain food.


Despite my snacking I was definitely in need of some more substantial lunch when I got home. I mixed up some more left over Spaghetti + mixture of frozen veggies + Vegan Chili, and some extra spaghetti sauce, and then added some 50% reduced fat Cabot Cheddar Cheese (currently on sale at Shaws.)

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In the mix: Broccoli, Asparagus, Green Peppers, and carrots... I wish I had a few other colors in there, but the chili livened up the mix.
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Vegan Chili
(Its always frozen come photo-op time!)

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Nomnomnom. It was very good.

I may have snacked on a mini bag of popcorn with chocolate chips and raisins while watching "Charlie Bartlett" and cleaning the apartment (SEE!! AGAIN!)

Tonight I am heading to Gloucester so it I wait that long to eat I'll just go get to steal J.'s food, a rare and exciting treat :)


And just to confirm, I am no longer bitter, and am in a much better mood, and now off to take my Sports Nutrition Quiz!

Let the Tuesdays Begin!

This semester I am again teaching Exercise Physiology. This time I was lucky enough to have all of my labs scheduled on one day; Tuesdays.

I am very happy I don't have to commute to BU multiple days a week, however, it does mean I have to be here for a very long day.

My labs are at 8am-10am, 12pm-2 pm and 6:30pm-8:30pm. Factor in that I have to get here AT LEAST half and hour early to set up, and it takes about an hour to commute by walking and T to get here = Long Long day.

And consequently, since I am working on budgeting my food money better= lots of food to pack!
I was also STARVING last night when I packed my lunch, which might have lead me to overpack a bit....

Since I passed out so early last night, without accomplishing much prep for lab today, I was up at 5 and hit the road by 6! Consequently, I of course started off with some coffee,( pumpkin spice flavored), with nonfat lactaid milk and splenda.


For breakfast I had a nutrigrain bar on the train ride here, and then after my first lab tucked into some Cheerios and Fiber One, with nonfat, plain yogurt, and a big banana.


I also brought some fruity snacks of a small green apple, and 2 lil' tangerines (which were sooo seedy!).


I had several cups of tea to satisfy the need for warmth, and prevent me from buying a cup of coffee. I am also developing a very sore throat (NOT AGAIN!!) So I hoped that would help a little.


For lunch I brought some of my Vegan Chili, with added whole wheat spaghetti and extra carrots and tomato sauce. It was nice and hearty and warm for a cool day in the lab (outside was actually really nice out today, for January, but inside. burrr.)



I also brought a pack of Lorna Doones - in case a sweet craving struck, but alas I wound up eating them mindlessly when I was on hold with the insurance company instead >___<
I am now finally home at 8:30 pm.... and am considering soup for my sore throat. My body is just exhausted and I can't wait to snuggle and pass out.

Zzzz....

Ugh!!

Day two of school, and stressed out and exhausted!

Not so much because of school, but more so because of all of the driving I have been doing.

After my extended getting lost trip yesterday morning, I still agreed to go with J. to Gloucester, provided I was back home by 11:30 am to get to FSC for my 12:30 class.

Which made yesterdays total driving: Somerville -> Worcester ->Framingham -> Somerville -> Gloucester = about 120 miles, excluding the trip back to Somerville and Framingham this morning.



Of course we were subject to Murphy's Law when first J.'s mothers car battery died, and J. had to spend the morning fixing it, and the 128 was underconstruction and all backed up... getting me back to Somerville a little late and consequently to class late, again.

Today was two hours of metabolism. ::Yawn:: I do sorta enjoy the topics, but it's a very dry topic. Thankfully the professor is nice and relatively interesting, and helps to make the topics more understandable and interesting, but you can only do so much with ATP, Ribosomes, Kinase, and phosphoinositides.

The worst part about being late today was I was SOOO HUNGRY and tired throughout class. We did have breakfast, but being the frequent snacker than I am, by the end of the class at 2:30, I was not a happy camper. I have also developed an even stronger coffee addiction than usual and I missed my morning cup (or 6) of coffee, so staying awake through two hours of Biochemistry was no easy task!

I had originally been intending to check out the FSC gym after class today, but given my hunger and caffiene withdrawl symptoms, I opted to grab a snack instead.

I had a Mocha Odwalla Bar and a Cuppa Joe (which I took pics of on my phone, however, apparently forgot to save them)



The Mocha Odwalla Bar was heavenly! I had been soo hungry and it fulfilled my desire for food and coffee flavor at once. As I usually say, I am not a huge bar person because I am much more into volumetrics and enjoy eating larger quantities of food, but a bar was perfect for this situation.- quick, easy, nutritious and filling. I have enjoyed every flavor Odwalla Bar I have tried thus far, this and the Green Superfood one are probably my favorites. They have a nice soft, moist texture, and are big enough to make me feel like I have gotten my 200+ calories worth.

I was disheartened by the morning and lost the will to work out (which has been happening far to frequently lately.) so I just headed home instead, where I have since been being lazy and relatively unproductive unfortunately.

I need to get back on my game and get this semester started on the right foot!

Eclectic Edibles!

Based on my post a few days ago, I realized I could probably write an entire blog about salads, however, upon further consideration I realize I put so many various things in them they basically all wind up looking like a jumbled mess of vegetables and consequently all looking the same.

Nonetheless, I set off for lunch to make off a phenomenal salad.

I started by cooking the plantains J. gave me the other day, as at least one of them was looking sufficiently black and overly ripe.


I decided to fry them in a frying pan with a little vegetable oil, I got a bit distracted by doing dishes and they wound up rather burnt, but still tasty.


I also bought some bok choy recently so I steamed that.

Into the salad went:
Broccoli Slaw
Romaine Lettuce
Bok Choy
Plantain
frozen carrots (defrosted)
frozen corn
snap peas
olives
salsa
a couple raisins
pumpkin seeds
hot banana peppers
tiny bit of shredded cheddar cheese
rice vinegar

And the finished product:

and to pair with the salad I had a lovely cup of coffee, with soymilk and splenda, which admittedly was not the best combination with the salad, but it sure did hit the spot ;)

What's your favorite salad topping/ type of salad??

Hi Ho Hi Ho off to work I go!

Yesterday, I actually had to work (7 to 6!). I surprisingly enjoyed my 4 days off despite complaining that I was going to be bored in lonely.

Work started with coffee. A lot of coffee. With skim milk and twin sugar.


Then I had some cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and nonfat plain yogurt. I had let the frozen fruit defrost in the fridge over night with the yogurt so it was all runny and delicious, which sounds kind of gross- but its tasty I swear.

Lunch was a big old salad with mixed greens, frozen green beans, frozen mixed "ranchero" veggies, a tomato, raisins, sunflower seeds, and a packet of kraft light done right!
I love using frozen veggies in salads, one of my old roommates got me into it. It lets you have a much wider array of veggies in your salads since you can keep frozen vegetables for so much longer.

I was re-certified in CPR and the AED yesterday at work, but please, no one crash on me anyway!

After work, I was hungry! Again, I haven't been allowing myself to really go grocery shopping since I am trying to move out- so I decided to go to Subway. I usually do NOT eat out this much!

But I love Subway. I keep forgetting to take pictures....
I had a 6" on honey oat with every veggie except onions. I hate raw onions. Mostly because I have a bit of a tooth brushing compulsion and I can always taste the onion in my mouth for about ten days after I eat them. Ironically, for the condiment, I get the sweet onion sauce.


The rest of the evening will be in the post to come....