laniloa

I had a wonderful crab roll at the LSF here in Cambridge last night. It had far more lump crab then I would have expected for the price. The outdoor bar has re-opened for the season and it was a lovely night.

Chicken with a lemon, basil, wine sauce rattatouille whole wheat orzo done risotto style chocolate bread pudding Outstanding companionship of three classmates I'll miss dearly!

That sounds wonderful, Zora. I'm going to give it a try when I have friends over for dinner on Wednesday. For an early Cinco de Mayo dinner tonight I have made cocoa-cinnamon-chile brownies. The apartment smells fantastic.

My students have a long simulation tomorrow, likely to go past midnight, and I have to work on emptying my pantry as school comes to an end. Put the two together and you get -- a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal-cherry cookies, regular and mint brownies. Glad I'm baking today and not tomorrow when it is supposed to hit 90 degrees.

Stuffed with cheese but don't know what kind. Definitely a fluffy batter and a thin, spicy ranchero sauce. The platter with all the peppers lined up was gorgeous.

No idea what they stuffed the chiles with and they were fried in some sort of batter with a sauce. The wife's family is from Guadalajara and I'm not sure where my classmate is from but they've all been in the US for a while (family in LA and San Antonio) so that is probably where the chimichangas entered the picture.

Was lucky enough to be invited over to a Mexican classmate's house for dinner. His wife and visiting mother-in-law made chimichangas, mole chicken, and chile rillenos. I drank at least a gallon of jamaica. Best part -- they sent me home with leftovers.

I have zero portion control when it comes to comfort food. Other stuff doesn't phase me. I've invited a few friends over for dinner tonight and they'll polish off the excellent fresh mozzarella I bought under the delusion that I could eat it in small bits. Hungry friends might be the best portion control! I get to indulge in what is calling my name and they are thrilled to have a home-cooked meal (an astonishing number of my classmates don't do ANY cooking).

Broccoli instead of fries counts for more then a baby step! Putting together healthy lunches has been the easiest part of this for me. Part of it is that the school cafe isn't all that good. There are a ton of places around school but that adds up pretty quickly. Living without an income is a great motivator! Actually, I am working part-time this semester so I'm "splurging" on more fresh veggies instead of frozen, additional condiments to perk things up, and making sure that my few meals out are worth it.

The Charles was gorgeous but after a few days of spring teasing, it was back to winter. Biting wind and 30 degrees just sucks but the temps will creep up as the week continues. I think I'm going to start taking the scenic route to and from school and add a mile or two to my commute. Makes it seem simpler then bona fide exercise. I'll also see if any of my classmates want to start doing something before school - I think you are right that having a commitment to someone to show up will help a lot.

Well, two weeks of mid-term hell and post-mid-term celebrations have taken their toll. There is also that little mattter of a basketball tournament with hours spent on my ass, in a bar with friends. When I weighed myself this morning I was up 3.5 pounds. This is a good reminder that my exercising and eating patterns were right on the edge for weight loss. Despite the snow flurries yesterday, spring is definitely in the air and I'm ready to be outside more. Homemade pizza, as delicious as it is, just isn't my friend. I have one batch of dough still in the freezer and, if I use it at all, it'll be mini-pizzas. Or maybe I should invite friends over and feed it to them! I started my turnaround this morning with a long walk along the river.

Oh man...that's awful. After my shifts with the Beluga whales at the NY Aquarium, our group would head over to Totonno's. We always said we were going to try something different until we walked past someone eating one of their pizzas and we just had to have it. Add in a salad of some sort and their fantastic house made ice cream and we could all forget we reeked of fish and were exhausted.

Yea! I'm very happy to have some company here. I backslid a little this week thanks to mid-terms, getting shafted on my paycheck , and some personal junk that had me craving too much comfort food. On the bright side, I had to dress up to introduce a guest speaker yesterday and NONE of my dress pants fit and my go-to blazer was swimming on me...made it seem like an 80s cut with massive shoulder pads. Dug deep into the reserves for a blazer that hadn't fit in 2 years was but was too cute to give away. I'm going to have to check out those WF soups. I could stash a couple at school for the days I wind up staying late without planning. Would save me from stopping for crap on the way home or eating too late. I haven't been able to get into a more regular exercise routine. How are you not only sticking to it but adding to it?

I love Ting. Great straight or as a mixer. I used to find it at Rodman's or at the big Giant in Bethesda behind the shopping strip with Barnes & Noble.

Bummer. TJs has the lowest price of KA flour around me...$3.69 for 5# bag.

I don't know -- will have to check it out. Citrus travels better in my backpack then a lot of other fruit. I went to Trader Joes earlier to pick up more olive oil and steel cut oats and they had bags of blood oranges and tangerines -- 6 for $2. Also bags of pink lady apples -- 8 for $3. It'll be a fruity week. I've already stashed a bunch in my locker at school so I have no excuse. The veggies weren't looking so great there so I'm going to try to head out to a great green-grocer tomorrow if I can get through all my homework. Otherwise my walk tomorrow will be to Whole Foods.

I was already dreading getting on the scale on Monday because I've had a carb happy week -- much homemade pizza was involved. I've also started to use up pantry items as the end of school approaches. I am amazed at the food I have accumulated in such a short time. Buying things when on sale does have a drawback. I decided that it was better to just get the weigh-in out of the way so that I could get back on track over the weekend while I had more time. Much to my surprise, I was down a little over a pound. My total loss is now 19.8 pounds. I am running out of pants and pretty much living in jeans! Once I drop 20, I will reward myself with some new pants that fit. My next change is to increase my fruit and vegetable consumption. Over the January term I'd gotten very good about bringing two fruit and veggie snacks with me to school each day. I've let that slide over the last month. It is too easy to grab a cookie when there are no good tangerines around.

Nope. Had some for dinner last night and there was no hint of mushiness. Of course, I'm closer to the source so they may have been fresher.

Socks

Thanks! Just join me here on the thread. Even when no one responds it helps to know I'm going to report it and I always know that some people are following along even without a response.Getting disciplined about lunch was easier then I thought -- I got bored of the limited options available at school and know that if I go off campus it'll cost me dearly for only slightly better stuff. For dinner I've found that even just a little something to punch it up keeps it from getting boring. I have in my freezer brown rice, rattatouille, turkey bolognese, pesto (w/o cheese - don't care for it), frozen wild caught shrimp, roasted tomatos, confit onions, a few kinds of chicken and buffalo sausage and lots of stock. All has been packaged in individual servings. Take the humble chicken breast -- I can suate with a pan sauce of whatever condiment strikes my fancy (ginger, mustard, lime juice, chile, cumin, tarragon, etc.) Brown rice and a veg and I'm set. Can't be bothered to make a veg? Salad will do. A little of that sausage thrown into a whole wheat orzo done rissotto style with some asparagus. Lightly wilt some spinach, add some shrimp (poached, sauteed, whatever), some grape tomatos, and blood orange sections with a blood orange-shallot vinagrette. I try to package and store 1-2 meals for each one I make so that I don't eat the same thing two nights in a row. When all else fails -- frittata or soup with whatever leftover veg is in the fridge or some rattatouille. If my stomach is growling already when I walk home, I try to keep an apple in my backpack to stop me from the siren call of quick and easy crap along the way. Or I make it in the door and throw together a quick salad.

Down another 2.6 pounds. I've been asked to help teach a class way on the other side of campus and that has added another mile or so to my daily walking 4 days a week. The weather is slowly starting to warm up and the ice is off the sidewalks which just makes me want to walk even more. I've added two more pairs of pants to the can't wear anymore pile. I've also pulled out two more from the haven't been able to wear these in years pile. I've been eating very simply lately. My schedule has shifted to later in the day and I just don't feel like cooking much by the time I get home. By doing a little prep on the weekend I've kept from getting bored with the simple stuff and turning to crap instead. I've also been very dilligent about bringing sandwiches or salads and fruit to school for lunch. Throw in the extra daylight and I'm a happy camper.

Not difficult considering what uni is!

This poor little satellite, and the team who worked on her, has had a rough time. A picture of the trauma here. That was a bad day at work. I'm glad to see her go.

N-Prime

Wound up at Rendezvous in Central Square last night. Had previously only had drinks and dessert there which were good but not great so I hadn't returned. Glad I gave it another chance. Split a Maine lobster and shrimp salad with blood orange, pomegranate, and frisee. This was outstanding. I'm considering going back for this tonight. The sweet shrimp, tangy orange, and peppery frisee made for a great blend. This was followed by duck three ways -- breast, confit, and garlic sausage. The sausage and confit were great, the breast was kind of bland. This dish fell flat because of the mushy, heavy beans with 2 small bits of carrot it was served on top of. I know it is winter and this screams hearty, but I thought it really needed something green to round it out. Serve half the beans and add some braised greens - still hearty but better balance. Dining companion got some sort of cod dish and cleaned his plate in a blink of an eye. He was also very pleased with his Storm King Stout.