From the monthly archives:

June 2009

On the Road Again… delayed

by eatingbirdfood on June 30, 2009

I felt like a true DC native as I walked to the Metro this morning in my black suit. Although, people may have realized I wasn’t actually a true Washingtonian considering I was wearing flip-flops with my suit. I had to do it! My feet are sensitive (I get blisters faster than you can say Dr. Scholl’s) and I was going to be standing on concrete for 8 hours in the heels I had neatly packed in my bag. Plus I didn’t feel as though heels were necessary for the Metro.

But, before leaving for the conference, I cooked up 1/2 cup of steel cut oats in water with 1/2 of a banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dollop of pb.

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Oh so chewy! I’m not sure I prefer steel cut over regular oats or oat bran, but it’s fun to switch it up from time to time.

After a quick metro ride I was at the convention center and talking to folks about education technology and the software that my company sells. Apparently today was busier than yesterday at the booth, which was a good thing because the morning went by rather quickly and lunch arrived just when I really needed to sit down and rest. I walked around the convention center food booths and decided I didn’t want to pay $8.00 for a greasy garden patty (one of the few veggie options besides plain side salads). I ventured out towards Chinatown looking for a Cosi or a Chop’t. I kept seeing people with those bags so I know they must have been around there somewhere but I never found the actual shops. I ended up at Starbucks and it was good, but it was pretty pointless for me to leave the convention center because there was a Starbucks right inside.

I went for the Power Protein Plate, one of Starbucks Healthy Breakfast Items, which includes 1 whole wheat mini bagel, a packet of PB,  2 slices of cheese, 2 apple slices, a small bunch of grapes, and a hard boiled egg.

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For a little under $5 I got a really filling lunch, plus they were playing Paul Simon’s Kodachrome so that pretty much made the extra walking in heels worth it. It was the perfect portion for lunch and I would definitely buy it again. I stayed full all afternoon and only snacked on a few Life Saver mints that I snagged from other vendors. Although, when the conference ended at 5 I was pretty exhausted and needed a snack.

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I ate an Apple Cinnamon PURE Bar as I walked to the Metro station. I’m pretty sure that I mentioned it before but I’m not in love with the PURE bars. I find them to be just okay, but today the Apple Cinnamon flavor tasted remarkably good- maybe I just really needed a snack but I’m now, pretty much certain, that the Apple Cinnamon is the one flavor I would consider buying!!

I was planning to leave DC this evening after the conference. I hung around until dinner time – 7:30PM to beat the rush hour traffic. One of Isaac’s house-mates cooked up a rather tasty dinner of vegetable sauce with eggplant, turnip greens, red peppers, onions, summer squash, nutritional yeast, and other spices- I’m actually unsure of what all was put in it, but it was served over whole grain pasta and tasted quite yummy.

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I was all ready to leave with my belly full of pasta but due to the current weather conditions- pouring rain- I’ve decided just to stay one more night in DC and head back home and straight to work in the AM.

Happy Humpday!

{ 11 comments }

Avocados, Avocados, Avocados

by eatingbirdfood on June 29, 2009

Last night, Isaac was in charge of the house dinner for he and his house mates. The house dinner must be vegan, per house rules, and of course, I was more than happy to help out. We couldn’t decide whether to do bean burgers with b-nut squash fries (everyone needs a little b-nut fries in their life) or the quinoa dish I had made last week. When it came down to crunch time grocery shopping the quinoa dish won. And, I’m happy to say the Greek Quinoa with Avocados proved to be quite delicious again, even with tripling the recipe and sans the feta.

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The quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) with avocado was served on a bed of spinach and zucchini with a side of my fav- Roasted Broccoli. I felt like I was on Next Food Network Star. Isaac had talked up my cooking and the blog to his house mates before my arrival. So, needless to say I was nervous cooking dinner for them.  No worries though, the Quinoa did not disappoint and everyone loved it! If you haven’t tried Quinoa this is a great dish to start with because it’s quite easy, very tasty, and will have you wanting to make more.

Before dinner we went to a drum circle at a nearby park. It was so cool. There were a TON of people from every different nationality joined together drumming and dancing. And the drumming sounded awesome- it brought back memories from an African drumming class I took in elementary school.

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Isaac went off to school today and I worked from “home” -aka, his summer home. I went for a nice walk this morning before work. I was going to run, but yesterday was my first real run since my knee injury and my shins were so sore this morning that I decided just to take it easy and walk. I walked around the neighborhood, to the National Zoo (it’s super close) and then found a big hill to walk up- that got me sweating!

For breakfast I made some steel cut oats with a banana – so chewy! And for lunch I whipped up a kale salad massaged with 1/4 of an avocado, topped with leftover cold quinoa and tomatoes. On the side I had another 1/4 of the avocado and some All-Bran Crackers.

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The All-bran crackers are too sweet and highly addictive. I went back for more- 2 TIMES!

Tonight we’ll be having dinner (made by someone else in the house). I’m pretty sure it’s going to invovle tofu and spaghetti squash! Later were heading out to meet up with some friends from the area for salsa dancing!! Tomorrow I’ll be working at a conference here in DC then heading home. Gotta get home to Olive – I miss her.

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DC Living

June 28, 2009

This weekend I decided to make a trek up non-scenic, traffic laden I-95 to visit my love- he is spending the majority of summer living in DC for a training program. What was suppose to be a 2 hour trip took me 3.5 hours (lots of traffic)-  it’s cool though I was able to catch [...]

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Busy Up in Here

June 24, 2009

As most of you know I’ve been extremely busy, but with that said, I’ve still had to time to create some delicious eats. For instance, the breakfast below is what I like to call The Lean Banana Split – all the flavors of a banana spilt but with less calories, more protein and fiber, and [...]

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Fit for a King and Skinny Dipping

June 22, 2009

I simply love my Dad and have always been “Daddy’s Little Girl” so I was excited when I found out he was coming to visit for Father’s Day. As a token of my appreciation I gave him some “Simply the Best” Trail mix from Trader Joe’s, among other things, and also made some yummy appetizers [...]

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Veg Out

June 20, 2009

Things have been a tad on the busy side here, hence my lack of posting. I’ve been witnessing first hand just how much work can be crammed into one summer course. Oh well, the course is for good cause and the great news is that I do have some delicious eats to share with you [...]

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