September, 2009

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Grandma + Mom = Stocked Fridge

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Helping my grandma today was super fun, and I even got to stop by my parents on the way home! I snacked on these all morning:

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And we still have MORE apples!

My mom wasn’t home but my Dad was:) I took my grandma to the grocery store (only one of my FAV activities!) I grabbed a couple of things I was going to buy while at the store, and she was so sweet that she bought them for me! She also gave me a bunch of food AND some pie plates. She lives alone so she can NEVER get through her food before it goes bad so always tells me to take whatever! Grandma’s are awesome:) I made her a quesadilla with some new tortillas I got! They are La Tortilla Factory, multigrain, made with EVOO and HUGE! And just so you know, she is not at all a fan of fresh fruits and veggies! Rasberries and bananas are the only thing she “forces” herself to eat!

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I made myself a tortilla-pizza with one whole red bell pepper and a 1/4 cup parm + mexican cheese blend mix. She has a toaster oven that makes the tortilla so crispy!!

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Does it look like a sun or a person’s head and hair?! I thought it was cute :)

Here is what my sweet grandma bought me/gave me + the baking sheet and cooling rack from my mom that she had left for me!

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Like my Halloween muffins liners?! I feel baking in my future! Plus my girlfriend at work has already requested something!

After helping my grandma, I went to my parents house. My Dad and I caught up for a while, I haven’t seen my parents for a couple weeks! :( There fridge was totally stocked, and my mom is always so sweet to let me take some fruit/veggies home when I come over. Even though she wasn’t there! (sorry mom, but thanks!) Moms are the best! Here is what I figured was okay to take because there were surplus’s :)

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My mom made those pickles! She does it every year and they are the BEST pickles ever!! Marinated with bell peppers, onion, jalepenos and more! My boyfriend and I have been waiting because the cucumbers have to “pickle” forever! They will be ready on the 4th! yay! Also included are some mushrooms, bell pepper, lemons, walnuts, cherry tomatoes, on the vine tomatoes, shredded cheese, swiss cheese squares, an avocado, little baby plums (?), carrots, grapes, broccoli and vegetarian baked beans! I am SOOO excited!! Yummy food!

When I left my parents I went straight to the parking permit place for school (I went in the morning and the line was out the door!). I was able to get one, thank goodness, as school starts manana! I am excited yet overwhelmed at the same time. I have school from 10:30-11:20am and then 1:30-3:20pm and THEN I have work from 4-8pm! (everyday except friday and the weekends.) I plan on staying on campus between classes to get homework/blogging done! I am actually really frustrated though because I am not going to have time to do any Pilates during the day:( Or go running! This summer I was running 3-5 times per week and doing Pilates 3 times per week! It felt SO good to move my body so much! This is going to be/already is a huge change for me! My appetite will not be nearly as much fun to blog about:( Hopefully on the weekends I will have time to prepare some yummy extravagant meals again! My eats might be boring during the week, sorry!

Enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you tonight for dinner/snacks!! I have to go to work now!

xo,
Dara

Freezer Burn

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Finally home! After work (I work from 4-8pm and get home around 8:30 usually) I truly wasn’t hungry, but figured I should make something because, well, because! I still haven’t gone to the store to restock my veggie/FOOD supply so it was time to brainstorm, yet again.

I knew I had some beautiful pesticide free grown apples from my and the boyfriend’s adventure this weekend! ( I am saving the adventure for a separate post!) So I washed and chopped some of those up!

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Do those look amazing or what?! I grabbed the rest of my zucchini + onion from earlier (last one!) and then found some broccoli in my freezer… well it was completely freezer burned and my mom always tells me that that ruins the flavor however I HATE wasting food! I decided a broccoli stir fry was in order, to this I also added some collard leaves for wilting.

I sautéed a tsp of sesame oil with the onions + zucchini + freezer-burned broccoli + collards. At the end I threw in a couple tablespoons Newman’s Own Lighten Up Sesame Ginger Marinade.

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I had a bad “mom is always right” feeling about the broccoli (which was making crazy mushroom type noises!) so I made a “back up” plate which consisted of: Kale Chips + Seaweed Salad (from the weekend adventure!) + the apple! And Hot Apple Mustard Sauce for dipping (tastes like spicy apple sauce! soooo GOOD) Doesn’t it kind of looks like Peanut Butter??
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Oh and a glass of pinot noir of course!

The boyfriend thought the stir fry was “bomb,” but after a few bites it started to become wierd to me! I blame the freezer burned broccoli! It was for sure a texture/flavor thing that got me. I ended up not eating too much stir fry. I knew the time had come to say goodbye my freezer-burned broccoli (I had a HUGE bag), but no worries, I compost everything!!! ps: that is where the rest of the stir fry went too :(

Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent freezer burn to your precious veggies???

OH, and after I did have my last two gluten-free cinnamon thins! I will be reviewing these later! :)

Bed-time! I have to get up early and clean up around the house and tomorrow I am taking my grandma to do some shopping/errands!! (she is 87!! and of course does NOT drive!!) should be a fun adventure! I will post what we decide to eat together!

xo,
MVFK aka Dara (pronounced like Sarah with a D!)

flat out wraps save the day!

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Hello Bloggies!

I have been reading tons of food blogs now for about 6 months and decided it was time that I myself take the “plunge”. I am mostly going to use my blog to show you guys my eats while being a full time student, working part time at a Pilates studio after school and finding time to run and do Pilates! I hope you enjoy. So I actually just returned yesterday from a weekend away in the most beautiful place ever!! (more on that later) When we got home (ROAD TRIP) I had about 45 minutes to make something to eat as I was quite hungry and KNEW that working for four hours while being exhausted would make me ravenous!

So, on the drive home I snacked on a spinach flavor Flat Out Wrap, plain (can you tell i was getting hungry….?) ;)

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Well soon enough we arrived home and because I was SO hangry I grabbed one of my trail mix cookies I made last week to tide me over while I chopped my veggies!

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These were inspired by Oh She Glows

Then it was looking in my fridge for something…anything! Well, I found half of an onion, part of a rotting zucchini (in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag, I thought these would help!), some celery (also on it’s last leg) as well as some hummus and feta. Well I got to chopping and decided the hummus would make a great base for a flat out wrap pizza! Especially because my wrap flavor of spinach. I decided on a Greek theme for today’s pre-work meal.
Layer 1: about 2 tablespoons of hummus. (Oh, and i decided to just do half of a pizza b/c i ate all the wrap coming home and didn’t want to get burned out when this is one of the only things left in my kitchen!)
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Then I added the veggies and spices! (zucchini, onion, red pepper flakes, basil, thyme, garlic powder, and Mediterranean sea salt! I am all out of oregano and this saved the day!) Oh and feta cheese of course, about 2 tablespoons. After being in the oven for about 10 minutes, and then 10 min again because my Feta wouldn’t brown:( I got this…

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upclose
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With the rest of my yummy’s
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Celery, a huge tomato and hummus for dipping!

Like my zucchini “pepperoni’s?” okay maybe a stretch…. Anyway, this was very good AND filling, I knew i wouldn’t be getting hungry at work! The only problem was the hummus got so slippery and gooey that the tortilla wasn’t very firm or pizza-ish like it normally is with cheese. Next time I think I would toast the wrap in the oven first to firm it up a tiny bit then add all the toppings. Thoughts??

Okay I will be back later to share with you my post work dinner (8:30pm!!) and stay tuned for my amazing eats and adventures from this last weekend in that oh so beautiful place!

Love,
MVFK

hmm…maybe I need a new nickname, MVFK doesn’t work as well as all of your abbreviated names out there :( Oh well! “see” you soon!!

this is my picture

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

fruits & veggies