Pineapple Fried Rice

Happy Monday!

This weekend flew by! On Friday night I just stayed in with BF and we ate leftover Mediterranean food while watching  Workaholics (great show, check it out if you like ridiculous humor!). 

On Saturday, I went out to Hotel Chantelle for a friend's birthday. This place is great - it has a gorgeous rooftop (where we ate dinner), a bumpin ground floor with loud music and a loud, grimey basement perfect for dancing and sweating profusely - all tied together with a cool crowd. Overall, an awesome place :)

Tonight I decided to use up some of the random food I had at my apartment and make pineapple fried rice! it turned out really well and I made enough for lunches the rest of the week! Score!

I used: 

• long grain brown rice
• 3 brown eggs
• vegetable broth to cook the rice in
• trader joes teriyaki baked tofu
• trader joes soyaki sauce (the best!)
• frozen mixed peppers
• frozen green beans broken into little pieces
• chopped walnuts
• red chili flakes
• garlic salt
• 1 can of pineapple chunks in 100% juice
• the juice from the pineapple
• white onion
• 2 pieces of fresh garlic
• garlic olive oil

this stuff takes FOREVERRRR to cook but has a great texture

Tofu chopped into cubes, diced onion, chopped walnuts and of course, garlic!

After prepping the above, I did the following:

1. Before cooking other ingredients, I started the brown rice in a pot with vegetable broth. I really like this brand but it takes almost an hour to cook. So annoying but worth it.
2. Once the rice was almost finished I started by browning the onion & garlic in the garlic olive oil.
3. Added my frozen vegetables until they were a little burnt. 
4. Added the 3 eggs and let them cook. 
5. Add chopped walnuts & tofu until browned. Sprinkle with garlic salt and set aside
6. Opened the can of pineapple chunks (hate that word) and poured the juice into a glass. Drank half :)
7. Poured a bit of soyaki sauce and pineapple juice both into the rice and into the egg & veggie mixture.
8. Browned the pineapple
9. Add it all together and top with chili flakes & garlic salt et voila!

Dinner for 1 plz :)

This was really, really good. 

 Since this is packed with protein and good for you grains, it makes a balanced meal. I was full after eating about a cup of this creation! Obviously if you're going to do something similar, you can sub tofu for something else and eliminate nuts / garlic if needed. I rarely follow recipes so I'm not sure what amounts of each ingredient I actually used and will likely never be able to replicate it haha.

What are some of your go-to meals when you're trying to clear your fridge? Do you follow recipes? I have a couple cans of beets if anyone has suggestions :)

Post Wisdom Teeth: Day 5

Hi there!

Happy Wednesday :) 

It has been 5 whole days since I had all of my wisdom teeth removed! 

I can't say that I miss them but it is certainly strange not having them in my mouth anymore. When speaking to people, I have to concentrate on my saliva distribution because at any moment I can have a very unattractive spit issue (spissue?). In good news, it gives me something to talk about with people that I normally struggle to maintain conversation with. A blessing in disguise?

I'm still not able to eat normally and it's driving me bonkers. In addition to copious amounts of oatmeal, mashed potatoes, ice cream and pain killers I have been surviving on the below:

Microwaved avocado with cheese, Annie's Mac and Cheese with Ketchup & Garlic Salt (obvi) and Blockbuster DVDs from my local Duane Reade kiosk

Work has been interesting! Example from today, a friend asked me if I want one of her spicy almonds (which I always do, naturally) and I had to say no. A whole new Caitlin haha. Yesterday I tried eating a banana with a spoon at my desk and almost cried it hurt so bad. Such a wimp!

I'm feeling like an old lady this week. I'm not supposed to work out until Friday so my evenings have been consisting of Netflix, Hulu, DVDs, playing with Eloise (aka, being a crazy cat lady), taking pain meds prescribed by the oral surgeon and basically eating an all carb diet because I can't chew real food yet. Not f-ing cool. 

As a side note, do any of you watch The Bachelorette? This season has been incredibly fantastical :)

Any self admitted trashy TV lovers out there? 

I need a pick me up that doesn't involve food, shopping or exercise - suggestions please???

Along the Hudson River

I'm lucky to have an office that is a 15 minute walk to the Hudson Pier boardwalk. It's so pretty and is a really interesting place to explore, especially in the summer. This walk is definitely one of the ways that I escape reality during the day. 

Here are a few things I saw at lunch today...

a building on the west side highway

An old body shop by the west side highway

tugboats on Hudson Pier

My dream apartment - right along the water

From a lounge chair on the pier

I brought a notebook to attempt a sketch at the above. no laughing ;)

Cool right? I felt like I took a mini vacation on my lunch break. A bit of fresh salty air and sparkling water will do the trick! I used my new photo editing BFF PicMonkey for these. 

Do you take walks at lunch? 

Where do you escape to?

Cool!

Hi there!

I found a really cool (free) photo editor that I thought I would share with anyone out there who actually reads my blog :) Its called PicMonkey!

Look what I made!

 Check it out: http://www.picmonkey.com/#

What photo editor do you use? I'm still new at this so I'd love any tips :)

Wisdom Teeth Oatmeal

Hi there! This past Friday I had my 4 wisdom teeth pulled. Compared to other procedures I've had done, the pain was a lot more manageable than I had expected. 

The biggest issue I have had? Finding stuff I can eat that I can actually stomach while on pain meds that won't irritate my sore mouth! Over the weekend BF did a great job being a nurse. He made smoothies, mashed potatoes and kept the vitamin water flowing :) I've been feeling like I haven't had anything fresh or real all weekend (except for fresh smoothies care of BF and soup from a carton.)

This morning I tried something a little more adventurous and I was actually able to eat (almost) all of it! 

Wisdom Teeth Oatmeal

You need:

• Quaker oats quick 1 minute oatmeal. About 1/4 cup
• Zico Chocolate Premium Coconut Water
• Blueberries (handful)
• Strawberries (3 or 4)
• Nut butter

Prep your quick oats in the microwave

Grab your handy dandy magic bullet & add fruit

Add a bit of Zico - my new favorite thing!

Just a little bit - drink the rest :)

Blend it all up!

  Add your berry and coconut water mixture to the cooked oatmeal, stir & add peanut butter. Voila! It tasted better than anything I've eaten in a while.

Mmmmm - Muffin idea?

Enjoyed this with my first coffee since Thursday!

 And just because - here is a picture of my kitchen!

 More importantly, here is a picture of Eloise!!

So angelic :) She was also a great nurse!

 I am off work today but have a meeting downtown at 2:30 that I have to go to. I'm happy that my face isn't too puffy or bruisey!

Can you recommend anything (besides soups and smoothies) that I should try while I'm healing?

Have you tried chocolate coconut water? Are you addicted?

Got Any Snax?

A confession: I can't be trusted with snacks. 

An open bag of crackers? I go to town until I have to have the bag moved far, far away. Any type of snacky chip or crunchy thing? Unstoppable. Don't even get me started on nachos. I am a self admitted snack monster. Why? I think it is because they're so much more fun than a regular meal, they come in pretty packaging AND there are so many different kinds. 

On the odd occasion that I decide that I'm feeling in control and need a cool snack, I make sure to:

1) split with a friend, preferably BF

2) make sure they're really good snacks

The other day, BF and I went to a local Bodega near his apartment to prepare for a rainy day / night watching movies. 

When picking out snacks, I try to get things that tastes awesome, are new and things that I can justify as "kind of healthy". Here are some of the cool items we picked up:

Chilli lime Popchips (love) & vegan jerky

+ Parmesan Thin Crisp Triscuits and Jalapeno Tribe Hummus

Popchips are one of my new addictions. My favorite flavors are BBQ and Salt & Vinegar - this kind wasn't too exciting compared to some of the others BUT dunked in hummus, they were pretty good!

The stars of the show? The vegan jerky!

I had never had these fun little pieces of vegan jerky by Stonewall's. They were only $2.99 each and I just had to have them. I picked out 2 flavors: "Spicy 'Chicken'" and "Country Bacon". I really liked both of these, they had very different flavors and textures. The bacon flavored jerky was super smokey and very tough. The chicken flavor was spongier and had a juicier texture; in terms of taste it was nothing like soy chicken that I have had before.

BF hated them - he tried the chicken jerky and actually spit it out. Note, BF is a BBQ loving boy :) BUT I really liked them!

Here is what they looked like:

You can get these on Amazon if you can't find them at stores near you. They would make a great afternoon snack at work.

I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday so I haven't been eating many solid foods! Today I was able to have some mashed potatoes and was pretty stoked about that!

What are some of your favorite snacks?

Have you gotten your wisdom teeth pulled? How did it go?

East Village Saturday

This past Saturday, BF and I decided to enjoy the nice weather by exploring Alphabet City.

He lives in the area and I absolutely love the neighborhood. We picked up lunch, a couple beers and set out for Thompson Square Park for a picnic & quality people watching time!

A little live music makes everything 10x better

Yummy veggie wrap, a pickle and chips! 

Perfect Bud light lime weather!

 After we ate lunch, we were caught a few rays and then decided to explore a street art competition surrounding the park. The participants hung huge canvases on the outer fence and did their thing while spectators watched. Very cool!

 

He was using a zillion different spray paint colors

Holes cut in the fingernails so the trees behind showed through!

Add caption

A nice little getaway without actually leaving :)

How was your weekend?