Baked Oatmeal

Hey Everyone~

I've been kinda obsessed with "baked" oatmeal lately. I based my recipe from Tina's Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal; however, I didn't have any pumpkin on hand so I went without. Basically I scrambled an egg, added 1/4 tsp of baking powder and a packed of Quaker Delights Hazelnut Latte Instant Oatmeal, a few chocolate chips for good measure ;-) and cooked on high in the microwave for 2 minutes.

I then topped with a dollop of greek yogurt and lots of fruit!

The end result is very sponge like, I think I'm going to try this again using flax seeds to replace the egg; however, I do like the extra protein the egg adds to the "cake" so we will see.

I'm on the road again this afternoon. Philadelphia tonight and then my Mom, sis, and I are headed to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washtington D.C. for a couple of days.

Nicole

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday!

Hope everyone had a great week. I was going through the pictures on my camera and as fast as I thought the week went I forgot about half the things I did. Such as dinner with 2 of my former RA friends on Monday night, which featured veggie lasagna:

cupcakes from Tribeca Treats:

and a not super sweet Riesling:

Currently I'm in lab staining a few tissue sections so I can image them tomorrow. I was hoping to take care of it yesterday, but after staying out til 4am on Friday I was definitely dragging and opted to sleep. Good thing too because I think I'm catching my roommate's cold. As soon as I took a sip of water this morning I could feel the burn of my throat, yuck.

After church this morning I nearly ran to Bonobo's for a blue mango smoothie, my throat was screaming for nutrients:

Hit the spot, and so simple, blueberries, mango, and coconut water. My throat also wanted something carby so while grabbing a few things from WF I also enjoyed a vegan date scone, which was amazing (no photo)! Have I ever mentioned how much I love scones, definitely my favorite baked good. I think I'm going to have to whip up a batch soon :)

That's all for now! Going to turn up the volume on my itunes and have a private dance party in the lab, fingers crossed no one comes in to see me making a fool of myself ;-)

Oh, music related bit- Phoenix released "Live from Sydney" an 8 song live album on their site, no strings attached! Check it out here.

The Great Outdoors

The weekend was so beautiful, and I was able to spend a great deal of it outdoors. Well that is in between two long Megabus rides full of people who find it okay to spend the entire time on their cell phones! What happened to quiet rides, or privacy. I really don't care to hear you gossip about your friend's boyfriend's issues. I also don't care to hear you poorly sing/rap along to your blasting tunes, I'm pretty sure those activities are reserved for car rides when you are solely in the company of your friends. Ok, rant over.

My bus into the city on Friday was late due to crazy traffic. I left NYC at 1:45 pm and didn't make it to 30th st until after 5! By the time I made it to my hometown it was 6:30 and I was starving, thankfully my Mom packed me a salad and grapes, and we were able to continue on our errands. Thanks Mom!

Saturday was also full of lots of errands but we also made our way to Wayne in order to stop at Great Harvest. I've been dying to try this bread; I've heard so many great things on other blogs. I ended up purchasing the honey whole wheat and a cinnamon scone. Both are outstanding! Wish I bought more to freeze.

Despite only living, maybe 45 minutes from Wayne, we've only been there in passing. The town had a cute city center, so after our bread purchase we walked around a bit.

Loved this candy store, may have taken advantage of the stock candy selection.

After a few other errands we picked up my sister and headed to dinner. Originally we had intentions for a 5 course Moroccan dinner, but my sister had been hopping from one Rita's water ice to another with her youth group (on the first day of spring each year this local chain gives out free water ice). Although she only had 1.5 they had also gone for pizza beforehand. My mom and I were quite hungry, but we decided to put off the Moroccan dinner for my next visit and tried out The Village Tavern, a place we've passed several times but never considered until a family friend raved about the food. We didn't know what to expect, but the place was amazing! They had a wide selection on the menu including several vegetarian options. After some debate I ended up ordering the Portobello Mushroom Burger with sweet potato fries. The food was simple but delicious and full of veggies. The mushroom was juicy, but the sandwich also included roasted peppers, and a large portion of wilted spinach, mmm.

Afterwards I made it to Target and stocked up on spices, tea, and coffee. Then I met up with Sarah so we could finally see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Again, I didn't know what to expect, I've been hearing so many bad things. While it was definitely odd, would you expect differently from Tim Burton, I thought it was pretty good. The ending seemed rushed, just a way to draw things to a quick close. But the Mad Hatter was amazing, the movie would not have been the same without him!

Sunday, was a bit more low key. After church we decided on a whim to head to Peace Valley Park to get some more Vit D. Usually we like to pack lunches/picnic when we go out after church but since there was no planning we picked up a couple of foot long veggie delights from Subway.

After walking around a bit to let our food digest we turned up the energy expenditure with some wiffle ball and frisbee.

Then it was back to Megabus, for another wonderful commute :(

Ahh...currently the temps are about 20* lower and it's rainy. That's actually a good thing, I'm not tempted by the sun to go outside and avoid lab work.

Have a great day!

Nicole

It's Official

I'm registered for the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 22nd...just 2 months away :-/ Since I'm going to Philly this afternoon, I decided to do my long run this morning. The goal was 6 mi, I think it ended up being a bit more than 4 because I got lost in the park, I was also exhausted. This was my first outdoor run since last October!!

I've been really apprehensive about getting back outside, scared that I couldn't handle the adjustment. That turned out to be not such a challenge after all, as far as pushing myself to run. The biggest task I need to focus on is pacing myself. I find it rather difficult to run slow, but at this point I'm not able to cover as much distance unless I slow myself down. I really need to invest in a garmin , but that kind of goes against the saving money thing...I need to think about this a bit.

I'm so excited to be going home for a few days. I can stock up on kitchen essentials and my mom wants to try a new Moroccan restaurant in our area, I love that she is willing to try new things! I also hope to spend a great deal of time outdoors, the weather is going to be gorgeous!!

Yesterday, a coworker and I decided to go off campus for lunch. I decided to take her to a sushi place close by that has super cheap lunch specials.

I ordered the 2 roll special with a small salad. Don't know what happened to my sushi pictures? But here is the salad:

Upon returning to work I was able to check a few things off my list but the beautiful sun staring down upon me made it hard to concentrate. I decided to go home and get some reading and writing down, which I somewhat did for about 45 minutes while snacking on 2 Pepperidge Farm deli thins with almond butter and chocolate chips. I'm actually glad that was the last of these deli thins. I much prefer the similar product by Arnold's, Pepperidge Farm's product is too sweet for a bread.

This snack settled the slight craving for sweets I had and fueled me for my spin class and 2 mi run. I had considered eating one of these Ghirardelli chocolate squares that I received for free while walking to the sushi place, but I didn't want that much of a sugar run and opted for my deli thins instead. But I like the little says on the wrapper..."A nice 'win' no matter what the score."

Post workout I had a green smoothie in mind, but I was running late for a school talk. As a result I wasn't able to blend up this concoction until after 9 pm! I also ended up using kale instead of spinach which just didn't work for me :( I ended up eating half of it, half of a banana, and some Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips. Oh well, can't win them all.

Gotta run, still need to pack and head out the door for Pa.

Nicole

Oats in a Jar

Hey! How did everyone celebrate St. Patrick's Day? I opted not to do the bar scene thing last night because, as I keep hinting at, I have been having the worst week of sleep for various reasons.

Yesterday while at work I could not stop yawning. When 2pm rolled around I felt like I had been in the lab for a decade. I considered taking a nap, but I really wanted to analyze my data so I ran home (I live close to my school) and made use of the rest of my ice coffee. It did the trick and kept me focused for the rest of the day, I also save 2+ dollars, and I'm all about saving right now.

After work I laced up my green sneakers and met my friend Ena for a killer chisel class followed by a 3 mi easy run on the treadmill and .5 mi cool down. When I returned home I refueled with a really green monster, but forgot to take its picture.
The spirit of all things green continued this morning when I used my microplane to add cinnamon to my oats via cinnamon sticks. I'm all out of powdered cinnamon!! I'll have to grab some when I'm in Philly this weekend (I'll be hitting up Target to replenish my cooking basics).

I was able to fall asleep before 12 am last night (first time in a week!), did not wake once in the middle of the night, and slept until 8:21 am. I'm also taking it slower this morning, usually I'm in lab by now, but given that my hours are flexible sometimes it's nice to ease into the day.

For breakfast I made use of my nearly empty PB jar and had oats in a jar. This was the first time in over a month I had old fashion oats. I've been eating a lot of oat bran, and I definitely think I prefer the bran, I feel like it has a natural sweetness and less chewy?

Ok, time to get myself into gear.

Nicole

Calm

I definitely need some calm! I've been feeling pretty anxious the last 24 hours and without going into details, involves my focus on the negatives rather than all the positives in my life, I need to make that transition.

Backing up, the last two days have been pretty full. Yesterday I went to a talk by Chris Mooney who was speaking about his new book Unscientific America, and it was pretty good. I received a free autographed copy and cannot wait to read it! Also, not going to lie, he was kinda cute.

Later in the evening I met with a few friends to make some homemade strawberry ice cream using my friend Jen's ice cream maker. So simple, sugar, strawberries, splash of balsamic vinegar, and plain yogurt. It was so light and refreshing, the way all ice cream should be!

Blending up the strawberries:

Into the machine:Swirl, swirl, swirl:
And time to enjoy!

We also attempted to make gel electrophoresis cookies, but the night was getting late and the cookies were never iced, but ideally they were supposed to look like this here.

Action shot of batter mixing:

Final cookies, we got tired of squares (I guess we lack patience after hours in the lab) and made other shapes as well:

Today after highs and lows in the lab I met up with some of my past RAs for a NYU alumni event. The event was about 40 blocks away (about 2 miles) so I enjoyed the beautiful weather by walking instead of taking the bus. So glad I did, I miss seeing the sun!

NYU provided quite the spread! I miss my days as a RA!!

I also set up my fundraising page for my trip to Peru. Check it out here.

Trying to find sleep, haven't had much luck the last few nights.

Nicole

As promised a food post

Hey all-

As I mentioned in the last post I was involved in my school's student recruitment the last two weekends. As a result I was able to see two broadway shows. God of Carnage which is now featuring Lucy Liu, and the new musical Memphis which opened fall '09. I absolutely loved Memphis which is about the birth of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s. The singing and dancing were outstanding and the dialogue was pretty humorous. I see a Tony nomination!!

As much as I enjoy recruitment I'm glad it's only a two week event. I ended up staying up until 5am Friday night/Saturday morning but couldn't sleep beyond 8:30am. Then I headed out into the Monsoon that hit the northeast last night for my friend's birthday party, but didn't stay out too late given my lack of sleep from the prior night (actually the night before as well) and loss of an hour due to the time change.

Today I started the day off with a large cup of coffee with almond milk.

I ended up doing my grocery shopping for the week at the local Food Emporium rather than heading cross or downtown for either Whole Foods or Trader Joes. As a result I ended up buying more frozen than fresh vegetables:

A)For the the price, frozen is generally much cheaper than fresh.

B)Food Emporium doesn't always have the best selection, although their local and organic options have increased since I first moved into the area.

C)Unless you know your vegetables are locally grown or organic, frozen vegetables actually have a higher nutrient content since they are picked at their prime and snap frozen to lock in the freshness. On the other hand the fresh produce is usually picked before it's ripe and generally matures via synthesized chemicals.

While shopping I was going to skip on my milk purchase because their soy, almond, and rice milks are about 2x what I pay at either TJ or WF. However, right before walking away from the dairy section I was surprised to see the new Almond Breeze's larger cartons of almond milk. For a half gallon I paid 3.99, not bad since the normal 32oz packing cost 1.99. I'm curious how much the half will cost at WF. Actually I'm curious how much it cost not in NYC, everything is so expensive here.

For dinner tonight I made two sides dishes that I have not whipped up for quite some time; they accompanied my baked tofu.

1st up sweet potato casserole with ginger snap crumble, modified original recipe found here. While this took a bit more work than my roast sweet potatoes, it was a nice Sunday evening treat.

Next up, kale chips. Simply wash kale and remove from stem. Place into a 350* oven until crisp.

Viola! I love kale chips, the taste of the green completely changes upon baking. I would say bake for about 5 minutes and then check them out, if they aren't crunchy enough then pop them back in, but I prefer chips that aren't too dark. I think I baked mine a little too long this go around and as a result only ate about 3/4 of my batch.

Off to bed I go, need to get back to normal sleep routine for the work week.

Nicole