Lazy Sunday

Today was cold and rainy... and I did not leave my apartment once.
I spent the day doing some more studying and grading papers.

I started off the day pretty well with some fruit, nonfat yogurt, and fiber one, and a cup of tea:


For lunch I tried to make up for yesterdays disgracely lacking veggies by caramelizing a red onion, and cooking a red and green pepper, and some portabello mushroom, then serving over spinach and about 1/2 cup rice and lentils, and topped with hot sauce.


A lovely veggie feast!

Unfortunately it then started to go down hill. I had a chocolate craving and tried to appease myself with some chocolate soymilk:

But it wound up with another bowl of chocolatey special K! (no pictures)
And 2 caramel calcium chews.
And finally some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips plain.


I wasn't feeling so great (shocking, I know) so I had about 10 vitamin C drops and a couple cups of Celestial Seasonings English Toffee Dessert Tea. Yummy. Highly recommended.


Dinner and/or my 11pm snack was a strawberry nutrigrain bar- it wasn't intentional, but it was on my desk as I was studying and it seemed to enter my mouth before I actually thought about it. I clearly have no self control. I am always amazed by those people who can actually keep a candy dish on their desk. Mine would obviously not stay full long!

Enjoy your last hour of the weekend, almost time for a case of the Mondays :(

Got Milk?

As a follow up to my Adora Disk food review, I would like to take a moment to appreciate calcium supplements and calcium from whole food sources in general. 

I work on a research floor at MGH, and last year, for the fun of it I had a DEXA scan (Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry which is basically a machine that does a scan and gives you a picture of how dense your bone is along with your body fat composition.) Anywho, I was assessed to have Osteopenia- which is low bone density at any age. It is not as serious as Osteoporosis but it can escalate.

Basically the way bone growth works is you have until your late 20s to build up bone mass. You are constantly breaking down bone and building it back up, but you can still gain bone mass until then. Once you get to be about 30 years old, its all down hill from there. You can still maintain your bone mass, but you can not add to it. Which is why its so important to build up your bone mass before then, if you start off with low bone mass before you are 30 you are much more likely to develop osteoporosis.

I thought I had a pretty good diet and consumed enough calcium and workout enough, but apparently not. I figure if I had low bone density, there are tons of people out there who don’t know they have osteopenia. The problem with DEXA scans, or other ways to have your bone density checked is that they are really expensive, and not covered by insurance, except sometimes after the age of 50- which makes NO SENSE! Why bother to even check when its so late in the game?

So I am on a mission to get everyone I know (preferably before the age of 30) to build up as much bone mass as possible! How do we do this:

Increase Calcium intake: You need at least 1000-1200 mg/ day (depending on age and gender).

Ways to increase your calcium intake include eating more dairy products such as low fat milk, yogurt, and cheese . If you are lactose intolerant (like me…) or a vegan/ vegetarian, there are still plenty of other modified and fortified products such as lactiad, soy milk, some orange juice, cereals etc. Check out the 3 a day campaign for more tips: http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/nationaldairycouncil/health/ThreeADay

Calcium is in some vegetables (check it out: http://www.citracal.com/Calcium/Foods/Vegetables.aspx) but the calcium that is in these is MUCH less bioavailable- meaning that your body can’t use them as well. So if you are a vegan, vegetarian or just don’t like dairy please don’t rely on these. I am all about the veggies, but your bones need more than this.

If you do not think you can eat enough calcium in your diet, supplements are another way to go (and probably wouldn’t hurt anyway.) they have them in pill form, and chewable form, and as I reviewed: chocolate form :)

Vitamin D is also vital for bone health. So make sure you intake it with calcium or throughout day.

On top of calcium and vitamin D, weight bearing exercise is key to building bone. Partaking in “pounding” activity, in which you body is bearing a lot of weight is great for building bone (not always for your joints, but there’s never a win-win situation is there? ) So exercises like jogging are great for your legs and hips to build bone, and performing weight lifting, or other weight bearing exercises your upper body are vital. 

(http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1725287)

Something Old, Something New

Today started off with studying for my counseling Midterm (monday) over a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of Rooibos tea with soymilk and splenda.



The oats contained:
- 1/2 cup dry oats
- 1 small banana
- 1 tb almond butter
- ~ 10 craisins
- ~ 10 raisins
- 10 butter scotch chips
- a lot of water

I have this problem where I do not drink enough water- so to counter act that I water down all of my food (that is able to be watered down...) to attempt to get more water into my day- which is why my bowl of oats looks kind of murky and excessive.

And here is a lovely plant on my kitchen table. My roommate brought it home, a woman at her work gave her a random tree branch and told her it would bloom in water, and alas, it has bloomed! It might have better been displayed if we actually had a vase and not a tiki cup but nice to have some plant life around nonetheless.

I then met up with a friend for a study date.

When I got home at 5 I was STARVING! I'm the type that generally eats every 2 hours, so to go from 9 am to 5 with out eating was quite a feat!
So I snacked on some mixed fruit (Same as the last few days, with plain nonfat yogurt, and some TJ's fiber cereal.

I was meeting up with some friends so I was trying to not eat a full meal... but a sweet craving took hold and I might of had a small bowl of Special K cereal with some chocolate syrup and chocolate and butterscotch chips again :/
This is why I should not be allowed to have cold cereal in the house!

My friends Ariane and Jake came to visit me. Ariane I went to school with from kindergarten to 12th grade, Jake through high school, so its nice to still get to hang out with them. Of course as soon as they got here they informed me they were starving- so we went out for pizza.
We went to T- Anthony's and got some french fries and a pizza- 1/2 cheese, 1/2 mushroom, and we annihilated it all :) Sometimes you just got to splurge.

Ari and Jake decide to show how not to behave in a restaurant:


Over dinner we contemplated what we should do next. Ariane threw out the idea we should get tattoos!
So we did.
It wasn't totally impulsive, we have been saying we were going to get them since the summer, but we always decided this at the most inopportune times, so this time we just went with it. The idea had originated from birds, and got narrowed down to feathers- since we have both been crazy bird people for quite some time, and as from the notebook, "if I'm a bird your a bird" and of course, "birds of a feather..." etc. and so on.
Here was my nervous face before getting started:

During the tattooing process I almost passed out so I had to take a break, drink some water (I drank like 4 cups, so apparently I didn't even need to water down my oatmeal this morning!) and have a glucose tab and a butterscotch candy. I was busy not passing out so i didn't photograph those haha.
Excuse my muffin top. I really need to lay off the pizza.
And so today was filled with old friends, and new ink :) and more reason why I should really hit the gym tomorrow....
and ended the night with a couple cups of chamomile tea;
off to study some more! I know- a rousing end to a saturday night :)

Climb Away!

This week I started taking a rock climbing class! We started off with some basic knot tying, and learned the belay commands. Then I actually got to try climbing!

It definitely takes some getting used to actually ‘trust’ the rope and that you aren’t going to fall and go squish. I’m generally not really afraid of heights, but it was unnerving when I looked down and realized I was two stories up.

The class I am in is small – only three people including me, the other two have already done some rock climbing so I’m feeling a little behind all ready.- but that just means I’ll have to practice more! I really have to get used to the fact that I can use my legs, I kept trying to pull myself up with my arms- and I am not very strong! I think my foot surgery was a bit of a downside, since it was hard to put all of my weight on my right toe.

I won’t get belay certified for another few weeks, but I can go bouldering- which is basically just climbing to a lower height without any ropes or anything. I can’t wait to actually get good enough to go on a real rock! But that probably won’t be for a while… I have heard there is some great bouldering in Quincy so maybe if I stay around for the summer I can go check that out.

Anyone let me know if they want to come play with me!

Dinner at the Marlborough Manor

I made the attempt to photograph everything I ate today again.
Fridays are always my super fun 11 hour work day at the hospital... most of which includes sitting in front of a computer, reading what other people eat, which unfortunately often leads to eating an excessive amount. To prevent this, I try to not pack too much food, and try to pack healthier foods.

Today (a bit repetitive from yesterday ) started with 2 cups of fruit, about the same mix as yesterday: cantaloupe, apple, pear, orange, grapefruit, strawberries, pluot, Followed by a Lemon L ight and Fit and Some Trader Joes Fiber Cereal:


At work I also had two cups of tea (I believe it was peach ginger), and a lovely piece of chocolate, which seemed to have made it into my mouth before I thought to take a picture of it (whoops!)

I was suppose to be hosting dinner for a couple friends from Douzo, but plans got changed a little bit. I wound up going over to my friend Jenny's (from Douzo) humble abode (The Marlborough Manor...) and her fabulous boyfriend Buddy made us a delicious feast (now i really can't have them over my house because I will never be able to compete with his cooking ability!

We started off with salads - which I "made"- aka- stuck lettuce on a plate.
They were made of spring greens, goat cheese, tomato, croutons, and topped with some Brianna's Zesty French Dressing:




Here's a picture of Jenny Posing with her new Zesty French Dressing (which is advertised to be great on tomatoes! therefore the salad had the addition of tomatoes at the last minute)

Salad was followed by some Italian Bread, baked with seasoned olive oil and mozzarella (?) cheese. We let buddy do the cooking, I really have no idea what I was putting in my mouth half the time, but it was all fabulous, so whatever it was was a great creation! and of course always better when someone else its cooking. :)

The main course was Fettucini, with a homemade sauce made with red wine, fresh tomatoes, scallions, basil, and some light cream.
On the side was a some freshly cooked chard - it was my first time eating chard- but I basically knew it was green and leafy and so it was love at first sight <3. style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Sx67TVreX_3aYmzOTpJjzvNz0YBitSU1lqol27ed0UJaYpAvB5DuemFqgJQ2u9AROWn-WVKxxlYGX7KSV1q8nXW0_RlSuII1PZEwFdwZGHM5dVgd0iar0x7DN41ETtrDNPkv8qgqzP3w/s320/SDC10058.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318095176637602770" border="0">
Note: Generally this is not how a plate should look, the veggies should take up about half the plate and then try to cut down the amount of carbs. At least the sauce is full of veggies too :)
And here is the master chef enjoying his creations:
Along with cooking us all a lovely meal, Buddy also provided the entertainment with some live guitar playing on a fancy 7 string guitar (show off.. I can't even handle the 6 strings!)
And there may have also been a glass or two of wine along with the meal :)

Nearing the end of the night Jenny got ambitious to bake a cake! So we did (from a box...) So we went to a mixing and a baking.
We then unfortunately realized how long cakes take to bake so I had to leave to catch the train home before it was done cooking, but overall it was delightful time :) I said i needed to rent a buddy for my own personal use, but then I realized that was clearly not true- as I can just go there and steal their foo



I really cannot comment to much on the nutritional content of my day, since I was not terribly involved in the preparation of any of the food today, but I did at least start off the day well, and did not binge eat at work, and dinner did contain a good amount of veggies!

Happy friday :)

Blog Beginnings...

I first got into food blogs by accident.

I work as a research diet technician, and I have to analyze study participants food diaries. So, one day I was trying to find the nutrition info for some Trader Joe’s Product, and the first website that came up was the blog Carrotsncake http://carrotsncake.com/ which had done a review of the particular food I was looking for.

It didn’t help me analyze the food per say- but it did get me hooked on food blogs! My two faves are now carrotsncake.com and katheats.com. I don’t allow myself to look at too many- because I think I would become addicted- though I think by creating a blog I probably and allowing for the addiction to set in as well.
Any way- my favorite bloggers tend to say everything they eat in a day! So I decided to try it out because I finally got a new camera! Nathan and I had one, but it unfortunately was run over by a car…

I figured it wouldn’t be appropriate to snap photos in the middle of class or wherever I wind up eating, so I just took pictures of everything the night before when I pack out my days food. (Since Thursday are my unpleasant day of class 9 am- 9 pm.)

I started off with about 2 cups of mixed fruit, including: grapefruit, strawberries, pluot, apple, pear, grapes and cantaloupe. – The large variety is namely due to Shaw’s discounted produce mixed variety bags. Fruit is delicious, and when I eat two cups I feel so full from all of the water and fiber, but then in about an hour, I am always hungry again, since again it is mostly water, and carbohydrate. To give it more staying power I usually mix it with yogurt, but when you’re on the go its hard to get the most ideal meal (I already look like a crazy bag lady!)



Lunch was around 2 pm: I had a delicious Tofu Sandwich! Made of 2 slices trader joe’s whole wheat high fiber bread, 2 slices barbequed-baked tofu, and some roasted veggies- mostly carrots, and some extra bbq sauce on top.


For a snack I had a cherry vanilla light and fit yogurt with some Trader Joe’s high fiber cereal, and some carrots. Carrots have been on sale the last few weeks at Shaw’s, so consequently, I keep buying carrots. But I’m really sick of eating raw carrots- and they aren’t the most ideal snack for in class since there’s no real way to eat them quietly, so I stuck them in the microwave for about 3 minutes. It was a nice change.

The carrots were still a little steamy when I took the picture:

I unfortunately ate all of the food I brought with me before 5 pm, which would have made for an unpleasant night class so I picked up a Superfood Odwalla Bar. It may be green but its delicious!


After class (which I may or may not have dunked out of an hour early :/ ) I decided to have some left over lentils and rice with some more roasted veggies:

And finally for dessert: Some Special K Vanilla Almond Milk, with almond milk, chocolate and butterscotch chips and chocolate sauce:

Baking Vegan

I am not a vegan. I have, however, developed a new love of vegan baking!

In general, I am not the best baker, because I refuse to measure ingredients, and in normal baking, the measurements are actually pretty important in order to get the correct chemical reactions, such as between the eggs, and sugar and baking soda. Vegan Baking still has some of these factors, but not nearly to such a great extent as regular baking.

My roommate has this fabulous Vegan Cookbook: Veganomicon.

(http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X) We have both made quite a few delicious recipes from the book so far, but I must say their cookie recipes are definitely some of my faves.

Making vegan cookies is really simple, really the only difference from regular cookies is substituting real milk for soy or almond milk, using oil instead of butter, and using flax seeds instead of eggs.

I really like that this cookbook suggests using some healthier ingredients such as substituting whole wheat pastry flour in place of plain white flour. You can’t even taste the difference in the cookies and you’re getting in a serving of whole grains!

The best part of vegan baking? Eating the uncooked batter without a fear of salmonella :)

I wouldn’t want to be giving way these great authors recipes, but here’s one cookie recipe I typed up for a friend (who I made these biscotti for, and they received excellent reviews). It’s really like publicity because once you try these babies, you’ll definitely want to go out and buy the cook book!

Chocolate HAzelnut Biscotti Form Veganonicon: The ultimate VEgan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1/3 cup soy or almond milk

2 tb ground flaxseed

¾ cup plus 2 tb sugar

½ cup canola oil

½ ts vanilla extract

½ ts almond extract

1.5 cups all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tb arrowroot powder or cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

½ ts salt

1 cup whole raw hazelnuts (I made then with whole one time- but I found that lead to them breaking a lot when I cut then- so if you can find chopped I would recommend that)

Preheat over 350*

Lightly grease cookie sheet

- In large bowl whisk milk and flaxseed about 30 seconds

- Add sugar, oil, extracts until smooth

- Sift flour and cocoa powder, arrowroot/cornstarch, baking powder and salt

- Stir to mix until dough comes together

- Knead in hazelnuts very briefly to form a stiff dough.

- On a baking sheet form a rectangle about 12” long and 3-4” wide

- Bake for 28 minutes

- Top may crack slightly

- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes

- Turn up oven to 375 *

- Transfer biscotti to cutting board

- With a sharp knife cut ~1/2” slices

- Put back on to baking sheet cut side down

- Bake 12-15 minutes or until desired crispness is achieved.

- Remove from oven, cool, store in air tight container.

Enjoy :)