Dinner at Kanki

Entree: Rice and Veggies... cooked in front of us...with separately cooked Salmon and Filet Mignon. ( I am allergic to shellfish so I had to have the meat cooked separately in the back, everyone else had their shrimpees cooked on that grill in front of us.)

Appetizers: Salad with Ginger Dressing and Soup ( I had about half of each) and a glass of Merlot.
The logical side of me told me I shouldn't have gotten the wine with my migraine earlier today. The excedrine helped wonders and caffeine as well ( coffee i took with me on campus ) however, I really wanted it! And I hate to deprive myself given that I felt in the mood for it. I drank lots and lots of water too. So I am feeling much better.

It was FANTASTIC to have dinner with Jeff, Andrea, Hanz, Ed, Nick,and Dan.I love all of our friends dearly, they are just the most wonderful amazing people and I would spend everyday with them if I could.

Long day of studying ahead tomorrow. Hopefully I wake up without a migraine!

Deep Fried

Tailgate Time!..

Me and Jeff...

This is one of his best friends' Hanz, our other friends Nick and Brit in the back! Like the weather in the back too? It threatened us early ( hence the poncho) but then poured shortly after this!
Here is what is in that drink I'm holding- Blueberry Vodka and Pomegranate Fuze... I had this and a beer (someone else has the picture) . We didn't really have much to drink because we were so involved with the fryer/cooking

Andrea, Hanz, Me, KC Mo

Lalala... now its time to get serious with ....

The deep fryer

But Before all of that.....

We decided as a group friday night to borrow jeff's parents deep fryer and fry turkeys for the tailgate. We had to head to the tailgate by noon and I woke up at 9:30 am ( late night!) - and immediately decided to get in a great workout to start the day out right!

Body: Biked 10 miles (Random hill) and Elliptical 30 minutes- Fantastic Sweat!
Mind: I read one article before I left for the gym!
Soul: SO Excited to have my lovely friends all together in one place today! It was SO MUCH FUN!

After the gym I fueled up on oikos organic vanilla, some mixed nuts, some kashi blueberry cereal, and some peanut butter all mixed in there

I was told I had to name the first turkey- and since we needed peanut oil for the fryer- I named it "Peanut". Then, the second turkey came out and I was asked to name that one!- At that point, I asked "How many turkey's do we have?!?" because I thought we bought 1.. They said "3"..... So after pondering while they were prepping #2- I called out "Butter... the first one was Peanut, this one is Butter and the third one can be.... Jelly! We can have peanut, butter and jelly!"

Here is What I Ate:
Veggies, A little ranch, a couple thin slices of cheese, a few triscuits

Piece of Turkey ( Peanut) and a fried mozzarella stick

French Fries! I had that big on on the right - yes I only had one- I saved the rest for Andrea who was arriving late ( I was completely happy with eating one because I also ate a cheese stick, and turkey- no need to go overboard but no need to deprive myself of goodies!)

Not pictured: I had a big slice of Butter... and a big slice of Jelly

Some of the goodies that people brought to fry- Jalepeno poppers, a mini pizza ?, hot dogs, sausages... the fries..Here are the turkeys:
"Peanut" - in all his rubbed glory

"Butter"

"Jelly"
So we researched how to fry the turkey.
As a disclaimer, I am not a professional turkey fryer person and PLEASE research on your own how to fry it properly. It is a very dangerous activity, too much oil can overflow and potentially cause fires. You can gage how much oil you need to cover the turkey but filling your fryer with un-flammable WATER and your turkey. You also do not want to use a frozen turkey as it can catch on fire.
So, here is what we did... We used three large jugs of peanut oil and filled our pot with it, heated it up to 350 degrees ( took about 30 minutes). We rubbed the turkey with zataran's cajun seasoning. We dunked each down into the hot oil jacuzzi for 4-5 minutes per pound..."Peanut" weighed about 6.5 pounds so it took about 30 minutes. "Peanut" "Butter" and "Jelly" were all just turkey breasts, which made the process much easier and worthwhile because you filled up and heated up the fryer with $50-60 of oil, you should get your money's worth out of it right!

So this is just a description of how we fried the turkeys- super enjoyable time although it was rainy and chilly!

Friday night

We all went out to a new bar in town after lots of catching up at our place- Here is our newly engaged friends, hee heee , they both closed their eyes!

Tuesday

Lunch:

The leftover tuna from yesterday mixed with Annies Organic Mac n Cheese (1/2 serving) mixed with some heated up veggies ( broccoli, peas, asparagus). I made the Annies Mac n Cheese Sauce with 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt and the last of our nonfat sour cream ( 2 T ish)

Almond Joy Fun Size and An Apple!

Dinner:
("down low"... "how low can you go" )

Steak with loads of veggies (onions, mushrooms, bell p

epper blend, broccoli) with salad (Earthbound Organic Spring Mix) and mushrooms and tomato and some of me leftover Annies from lunch


"Up High Now yall...take it back one time... two hops two times" ( its from a song that popped into my head when I took the pictures)


Anywhooo....Yes, I am a big leftover person! I hate wasting food and don't mind the redundancy ever so often- I think I eat enough variety overall so I'm not worried about it. To be completely honest though, I usually make enough so that there will be leftovers so Jeff can take it to work for lunch ( save some $$$). i.e he doesn't like tuna or kashi pilaf or having yogurt or pumpkin oats for lunch and I do so we make it work!

Oh my... such a big election and I have to voice my opinion because I can, because this is my blog, and I really don't like EITHER candidate! Gasp!

I strongly feel that Obama has absolutely no clue how to make these so called "changes" that he is all about saying he will do- he has no experience and has yet to discuss any specifics on HOW he is going to change ( other than saying hes going to give 95% of people a tax cut) ! Biden I believe is a great choice and has experience. At the same time, Mccain does have a history agreeing with Bush (who I never voted for) but Palin I believe can make strong gains with the areas of Special Needs Education/Families ( a cause close to my heart). The biggest dissapointment with these two candidates was that BOTH their campaigns were AWFUL in negativity and pitting against each other to make "Americans" believe they are a better choice. Neither candidate gave me a sense of what they will actually do to make change happen- they just said that their opponent couldnt.


Anyhow, those are my feelings and I certainly would be happy with someone other than Bush in the hot seat for the next 4 years!

Very Veggie Loaded!

Lunch...

"steak" strips ( morningstar farms fake steak strips- vegetarian 100% but contains gluten)

small slice of corn filled cornbread

goddess dressing in a 2 tablespoon dish for dipping

Red Bell Pepper

Snap Peas

Purple Cabbage

Celery

Tomato

Onion

Sweet Potato Fries

Chili and Cornbread

Accomplishment feels spectacular!!! unfortunately, I have had sniffles all day and my head felt "swirly" in class... sigh.. that fishing in the rain on the beach this weekend probably wasnt the best idea ...oh well... I knew I wanted to something "warm" like a stew/soup/chili for dinner....

Lunch:
Flat Out Light Wrap
4 Egg Whites , Hard boiled
Hot Sauce
Mustard
Steamed Asiam Veggies ( corn, red pepper, waterchestnuts, snap pea, edamame)
Banana w organic peanut butter

Pre-Class Snack:



Body:
Strength: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps and Hamstrings
Cardio: 7 mile RUN!!! Plus 10 minutes on the elliptical
mile1 9:00 min

mile2 8:40 min

mile3 8:40 min

mile 4 8:20 min

mile 5 7:53 min

mile 6 7:00 min !!!!

mile 7 7:30
My knees felt fantastic during the run but did start feeling achy later this afternoon while walking to class. I really paced myself and tried hard not to run faster for the first 3 miles ( I hate feeling like I am running slow... so I usually just run fast and get pumped the faster I go)


Mind:
-Found great back up articles for minority health but still not one good one

-Finished reading Slow Food Nation this morning, exam tomorrow and paper for Slow Food Nation due next week.

-Reading Organic, Inc after posting!
-Class today was about Unnatural Causes of death and Socioeconomic status ( income and education level combined essentially) being the strongest predictor of health & longevity
-Suduko!

Soul:

I <3>



Came up with a game plan with Jacob's "team" for therapy... I am pysched to help out 2 hours + during the mornings... I think I was getting stressed with the idea of weekends/evenings his mom wanted because it was too hard for me to fit it all in- but in the mornings I can fit in two hours and will be HAPPY to have some more money flow!


Cooked healthy chili and Momma Mo's cornbread "puddin" Laural- style...

My Dinner Bowl: w/ TJ nonfat greek plain

Into the crock pot I put:
1 can organic chili beans

1 can rotel chunky tomatoes and green chiles

1 16 oz can tomato sauce

However much of Hot Sauce ( I like about 2 tablespoons, Jeff likes 5)

In the pan I threw 1/4 chopped onion with 2 cloves of garlic, added ground meat ( I used 93% lean but i like ground turkey and for more people I use the next fat level because its not very much different ( an extra 20-30 cal/serving) until brown... added a tablespoon of chili seasoning and to taste : cumin and chili powder

Then I put the pan mixture into my crock pot, stir and cooked on low for 4+ hours.

I did something new this time though- I cooked and added organic red lentils! They came out like a green mush and I pretty sure I did something wrong- but I threw in three servings of them into the crock pot after everything else ...



So then for the easiest most delicious cornbread pudding ever...
Here is Momma Mo's Southern Recipe

2 boxes Jiffy Corn Mix

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup butter

1 can cream corn

1 can fresh kernel corn

...Add it all together mix well, Bake at 350 for 40 minutes

Here is what I did today:

Ingredients:
( I use this 4 inch high, 10 inch round corningware b/c it fits into my toaster oven)
1.5 cup yellow self rising cornmeal

1 cup whole grain organic flour

1 tsp salt

1 Tb Smart Balance 50/50

2 eggs or egg beater substitute

1/2 cup Nonfat SourCream

1/2 cup Plain Nonfat 0% Greek Yogurt

1 can cream corn

1 can whole kernel corn


Melt tablespoon butter into the pie dish/casserole dish, roll it around to coat. I added the egg beaters, sour cream, yogurt and mixed. Then added both cans of corn. In a separate bowl I mixed the dry ingredients, then added the dry to the wet. Mixed it all and baked for 45 minutes at 350. I mixed the center halfway through baking.

Here I come Organic, Inc.