Question of the Evening:

How awesome are QUESADILLAS?!?!?

My response: HOLY YUM!!! Man, they are GOOD! 

Tonight, Mal and I made quesadillas for dinner. We used our Griddler, which worked great to grill, melt, and warm our quesadillas to perfection! Check out that melty cheese! 

Inside was spinach, red onions, black beans, shredded cheese, and salsa. Delicious! 

Lunch

I ate lunch at my desk today, which I really wanted to stop doing after starting my new job, but I suppose as long as it doesn’t happen too often, it’s okay, right? Plus, I’m sure there will be days at this job where I won’t have a chance to leave my desk! I guess, I should be prepared for it! 

Today’s lunch: Homemade salad with spinach, red peppers, cucumbers, red onions, snap peas, and sliced almonds. 

Also: Liberte peach yogurt, which was very, very peachy! The smell (and flavor, a little bit) reminded me of those strong-smelling gummy peach rings. 

Lunch finale: Vanilla Macadamia Luna Tea Cake, which I loved! (It’s the first one I’ve tried.) The tea cake was almost like a cookie– sweet, chewy, and topped with frosting!

Afternoon Snack 

On my break, I popped into Tealuxe for some coconut-flavored tea, which was called Royal Coconut (bold pouchong tea flavored with fresh coconut). It was tasty, but the flavor was more “floral” than coconut. I’m not sure whether I will order it again. 

With my tea, I snacked on some red grapes. 

Benefits of Ceramic Mugs

Seeing this sign in the office kitchen today totally made my day!  (It was stuck to the coffee-maker.) I love that my new office is trying hard to be green! 

Almost Friday, guys! Good night! 

I can be so high maintenance when it comes to coffee!

I worked as a barista at Starbucks for about 3 years, so I am familiar with all of their drinks and customizations. And, of course, you guys know that I love to be creative with my food! Beverage customization just comes naturally to me! Check out the doozie that I ordered this afternoon:

If you wanted to order this drink, you would ask for a “decaf, tall, sugar-free vanilla, soy milk, misto.” Okay, that is totally ridiculous! I admit it! In plain English, the drink that I ordered is half decaf coffee, half soy milk with vanilla flavoring added in. Anyway, this is part of my afternoon snack.

Since we are on the Starbucks subject– has anyone tried this Espresso Truffle beverage? Apparently, it is Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate with a shot of espresso. Sounds divine!

Lunch

Today’s lunch was another grab-and-go at 7:45 this morning. I need to try a little harder in the lunch department!

Part one of lunch was a toasted Van’s waffle with Teddie peanut butter spread on top. I left my waffle in the toaster oven a little too long and the edges burnt! Thankfully, it smelled like a toasted pastry, so no one in my office complained. I’m sure you office people are with me about the burnt popcorn smell! It’s gross and lingers for-ever, right?

Lunch also included vanilla Stonyfield yogurt with chopped apple, cinnamon, and sliced walnuts.

The yogurt combo was a mushy mess! It wasn’t pretty, but it tasted great!

With waffle and PB…

My high maintenance coffee is holding off my hunger well. I have a JamFrakas bar if I get the grumbles later on this afternoon.

Nutrition for Your Skin and How Not to Get Sick

This article was packed with great info!

Five foods that perk up your skin

A number of foods contain elements that can contribute to maintaining healthy skin, including legumes, avocados, soybeans, nuts, egg yolks, salmon, green tea, pomegranates and tomatoes.

What are your tips and tricks for keeping your skin healthy and beautiful?

I love that I got Mal into eating oatmeal for breakfast. After listening to me rave about oats for months and months, he finally gave them a try, and he’s been hooked ever since! However, he’s quite the oatmeal monster! Look what I found this morning when I went to cook-up my morning batch of oats. (Luckily, we had another huge canister in the cupboard!)

Mal makes oatmeal like a guy. He just pours oats right from the canister into a big Tupperware container, which he takes to school and cooks there. No measuring, no fun add-ins, no nothing. Just oats in a Tupperware container to go. I, however, make oatmeal like a girl. I use a measuring cup each morning to portion-out 1/2 cup of dry oats. I add in all of my fun ingredients (fruit, nuts, etc.), cook in the microwave, pour into a nice, neat bowl, (take a million photos), and enjoy. Who would have guessed that the genders eat oatmeal so differently!?!

My oat bowl this morning was a wonderful mix of sweet, smooth, and chewy. Inside my bowl was raisins, dried cranberries, ground flaxseed meal, and honey…

… which was topped with vanilla yogurt “icing” and cranberry sauce.

A very holiday-esque bowl of oatmeal! 

Favorite Products of 2008

Tayna from Iateapie.net (one of my favorite websites!) recently asked me to share my 5 Favorite Food Products of 2008 with her to feature on her site. (She is highlighting various food bloggers all December long.) This morning, Tayna featured my top 5 selections! I’m sure you guys can probably guess which products made my list, especially which product took place numero uno! Be sure to check it out!

Question of the Day

What are your top 5 food products from 2008?

I just got back from a leisurely, but invigorating walk outside. It’s chilly in Boston today, but bearable, even for someone like me who is always cold. The start of my walk was a little nippy, but once I got moving, I was able to enjoy the brisk air, scenery, sunshine (got my vitamin D for the day!) and the late-November weather. I’m loving our mild winter!!!

Walk stats:

• Distance: 2.47 miles
• Time: 34:55
• Pace: 14:07 min/mile
• Calories: 242 

Thanksgiving Continues

We still have quite a few leftovers from Turkey Day in the fridge. Love it! Today’ lunch was a mini reenactment of the big feast!

Cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes… 

With turkey and stuffing… I love Thanksgiving leftovers– just reheat and enjoy all over again!

After my walk, I made myself a quick snack of vanilla Stonyfield yogurt with Kashi Go Lean Crunch as well as a mug of Ginger Peach White Tea, which warmed me right up. 

Mr. Mal and I have a low-key evening at home planned for tonight. We’re debating making Christmas cookies– it’s not too early, right?

Good morning! Sorry about not posting last night. I worked at Healthworks and got home late, so I was really tired by the time that I ate dinner and got settled. Sleep was priority numero uno.

Quick recap of yesterday’s eats:

• Lunch: Sweet potato “disks,” Stonyfield yogurt with TJ’s high fiber “twig” cereal, a spoonful of peanut butter, and a Cocoa Mole Larabar (not a fan of this one!)
• Snack: An orange and a piece of Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf with peanut butter spread on top
• Dinner: Buffalo-cheddar cheese toast and handful of peanut butter-filled pretzels

Yesterday wasn’t the healthiest day food-wise, but I was so busy, I’m glad that I got to eat at all!

Mr. Mal had his own plans for food tonight (take-out from the sub shoppe), so I was on my own for dinner. I was hungry, but not at all in the mood to make anything elaborate for dinner. I can be so lazy when it comes to preparing meals, especially when I am tired, so I kept dinner nice and simple: half of a ham and sweet onion jam sandwich on whole wheat, carrot sticks, TJ’s peanut butter-filled pretzels…

…and the BEST butternut squash soup! The Pacific Natural Food’s Organic Creamy Butternut Squash soup was delicious and satisfying with a slightly nutty taste and hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. The ginger flavor was actually quite strong, but very enjoyable… if you like ginger, of course. 

Mal suggested that I make a “Soup Nazi” reference in tonight’s blog, so here goes: “No soup for you!” 

After dinner, I had a small scoop of Stonyfield vanilla yogurt with ginger granola and a scoop of Barney Butter. I am so full now! 

Stoneyfield Winners!

Thanks to all 267 of you who entered the contest today! I loved reading all of your yogurt additions– I have lots of new things to try now!

To determine the winners, I used the Random Integer Generator. So, without further ado, here are the winning random integers:

223

8

115

51

87

WINNERS: Please email me your full name and mailing address to tina@carrotsncake.com. Congrats!!!

P.S. How hilarious is Ellen!?!?! I am watching her 900th episode show (from our DVR) right now, and it’s SO HYSTERICAL!!! Mal and I are cracking up!

My Review

I tried my first Oikos Greek Yogurt (vanilla flavor) yesterday afternoon. The vanilla, which is just 20 calories more than the plain, has an impressive 15 grams of protein, 20% of your daily recommended calcium, and is DE – LIC – IOUS!!! It’s an awesome yogurt with a terrific, rich flavor, and a creamy and very smoooooth, almost custard-like texture. The consistency sort of reminds me of vanilla pudding, but the taste isn’t as nearly as sweet. In fact, the vanilla flavor was subtle and very natural tasting. The vanilla flavor, in particular, would make a wonderful dessert (or snack) with granola, berries, or chocolate chips mixed in! Oikos also comes in plain, honey, and blueberry flavors. I’ll be sure to review each as I try them.

If you’re curious, in comparison to Fage, Oikos is a little more tart tasting, but has a much smoother consistency– more “melt in your mouth” than Fage.

And, finally, the especially wonderful thing about Oikos is that it’s organic, which means it’s better for the earth and for you!

Stonyfield Blogger Bites

The Stonyfield website has all sorts of cool stuff on it, including a store finder, coupons, and recipes. Their newest website feature is a recipe submission tool, called “Blogger Bites,” where blogger recipes will be featured on the recipe homesite and will link back to the blog it came from. If you come up with a recipe using yogurt and want to submit it, you can do so here. Stonyfield gets over 300,000 hits on their recipe page alone each month and it could be a good way to increase traffic to your site.

Giveaway Details!!!!!

To enter the Stonyfield contest just leave a comment about your favorite yogurt add-ins by 5:00pm today. I will randomly choose 5 winners at tonight’s dinner post. The lucky winners will each receive a Stonyfield hat, a free Oikos coupon, and a Stonyfield coupon book. Wahoo!!!

I’ll start: My favorite yogurt add-ins are cereal, Barney Butter, and peanut butter and chocolate chips!

GUYS! I have a new computer!!!! It’s incredible! I ended up buying the 13-inch MacBook, and I’m already totally in love with it! Thanks to all of you who added your two cents about Macs– you were SO RIGHT! I still can’t believe I have a new computer! I’m so excited!!! But guess who is even more excited than me? Mr. Mal is psyched to finally get his laptop back. Being a blogger and all, I would completely dominate his laptop, so he’s glad to have it back! 

I’ve mostly used PCs all of my life, so I still have a long way to go with learning all there is to do on my new Mac. (I already figured out how to add a Christmas Countdown widget to my dashboard! Watch out! ) Apple offers free workshops on all sorts of topics to help consumers learn new skills, so hopefully, I will have some time in the next couple of week to attend one. I’d love to learn some new tricks!

Squash Polenta with Asparagus and Feta 

Lunch was so delish today! I’ve been meaning to make polenta again for awhile now– I’m so glad I finally did! It’s such a quick and easy meal option… as well as being super filling! It sits in my stomach like a rock! 

After cooking the polenta (about 1/3 cup), I mixed in 1/4 cup of canned squash, a few spears of frozen asparagus, and topped it all with feta crumbles. It was such a yummy combination! 

My “dessert” was a piece of warm Squash and Prune Bread slathered in Smart Balance. I love the warm, sweet prunes throughout the bread– they’re so soft and chewy. 

Small World

We’ve all had those “small world” encounters, like when your old coworker went to high school with your husband’s college friend, who he met freshman year. It happens all the time, right? Anyway, a gal who I went to high school with works for Stonyfield Farm now, and recently stumbled across my blog. Sarah does public relations for the brand and has been doing some blogger outreach to create buzz for Stonyfield’s Oikos Greek Yogurt. She offered to send me coupons for Oikos and other Stonyfield products. I’m already a huge fan of Stonyfield, so it was an offer that I couldn’t refuse! 

In addition to coupons, Sarah also sent me two branded Stonyfield knit hats. 

Mal “called” the green one as soon as I took it out of the package!  

Also inside was a cute little reusable bag that expands to a much larger bag when needed. I already tossed this in the glove compartment of our car for future use. 

Stonyfield goodies + various flavors of Oikos, fat free yogurt, and smoothies…

I love greek yogurt, so I’m really looking forward to trying the Stonyfield brand! Oikos Greek Yogurt reviews to come soon! 

THANK YOU, SARAH and STONYFIELD!!! :)  

Back later with dinner!

Today’s lunch was a veggie smorgasbord!

One of my main reasons for starting Carrots ‘N’ Cake was to increase the amount of fruits and veggies in my diet. I figured a food blog would keep me accountable. I’ve always been a fairly healthy eater, but I never made fresh produce a big part of what I ate. Of course, this goal is still a work-in-progress for me, but I’m getting better each day. I’m finally beginning to plan my meals around fruits and veggies, instead of just adding them to a meal, which I think is the key to incorporating more into my diet.

Lunch included warm sweet potato “disks,” inspired by Emma at Gliding Calm. This morning before work, I sliced-up the sweet potato, laid the pieces on a cookie sheet, popped it in the oven on 400* for about 15-20 minutes, and reheated at work. It was an easy and healthy lunch addition.

Lunch also included a piece of whole wheat toast with pepper jack cheese melted on top. Pepper jack cheese is definitely a new obsession of mine!

I also had raw green and red pepper pieces and carrots sticks with veggie hummus on the side. Again, I need to emphasize the amazing-ness of whole carrots. They’re frickin’ delicious! Apparently, I have been missing this awesome carrot flavor for years! I splurged this week and bought the organic variety, which was only $0.20 more. Totally worth it!

I loved lunch today! It was “my type” of meal– a variety of flavors and textures, tasty, and satisfying!

“Dessert” was something new this afternoon: Enjoy Life Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies.

Nutritional Info:

Serving Size 2 cookies (28g)
Servings per container 6
Calories 130 Calories from fat 40
Amount per serving – %DV
Total Fat 4.5 – 7%
Saturated Fat 0g – 0%
Cholesterol 0mg – 0%
Sodium 110mg – 5%
Total Carb 21g – 7%
Dietary Fiber 2g – 4%
Sugars 10g
Protein 1g
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 2%
Iron 6%

Ingredients:

Sorghum Flour; Date Paste; Grape, Apple and Pear Juice Concentrates; Brown Pure Cane Sugar; Expeller-Pressed Vegetable Oil (Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil); Natural Rice Dextrin; Ground Flaxseed; Water; Xanthan Gum; Baking Soda; Vanilla; Salt; Cinnamon; Rosemary Extract

NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL ANYTHING, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE GLUTEN FREE, CASEIN FREE

My review:

You guys know how I love (all) cookies… and I can add these gluten-free snickerdoodles to the list!

I found this 2-cookie (controlled portion) package while shopping at Stop & Shop this past weekend. I hadn’t eaten a snickerdoodle in years and these were easily transportable and fairly inexpensive ($0.99), so I figured I might as well give them a shot.

When I opened the package, I was surprised by the size of these cookies– they’re teeny tiny! However, they are nice and thick, so I literally sunk my teeth into them. The packaging was shaped into two separate compartments to protect these soft-baked cookies… and for good reason because these cookies are SUPER soft! They have an excellent soft texture– very moist and chewy; not at all gritty. In fact, they didn’t crumble at all.

The flavor of these cookies is wonderful too! They are sweet and spicy, like an authentic snickerdoodle. They are also a little fruity-tasting (probably from the date paste), and are coated with a light sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar on top. They remind me a lot of soft gingerbread cookies, and they didn’t taste at all like they were gluten-free.

My afternoon snack is a container of Stonyfield Lotsa Lemon yogurt with TJ’s “twig” cereal. I’ve really been into lemon-flavored things lately. Is that weird?

After work tonight, I’m headed HOME! I’m so psyched to spend tonight at home with my husband! Yipee!

I’m feeling blah (and sort of hopeless) this afternoon. I’m not sure what’s up… I think it might have to do with my job. I wish I knew what I wanted to do with my life! Sometimes, I feel like I am never going to figure it out. Anyway…

Lunch was another yummy homemade salad with baby spinach, feta, and dried cranberries. I LOVE this combo– so many fun flavors!

Salad + leftover pasta with ground turkey meat sauce, which I have been eating for days now. I just hate to see food go to waste.

I finished up lunch with half of a cinnamon chip muffin– the office treats just never end!

Afternoon snack + HW snacks for later tonight: Stonyfield yogurt, TJ’s “twig cereal,” an orange, and a Larabar. It’s going to be a rough night at HW– I just want to be home watching the election results come in! There are plenty of TV’s at HW, but it’s still going to make me nuts not having constant access! Grrrrr.

I apologize for such a negative and unexciting post. I’m feeling pretty blue. Sorry, guys. Let’s hope my mood improves soon!