Hungry Tiger

If you know what the title of this post means, I’m sorry.  Ha Ha.

But that’s what I felt like (again) today.  I had 4 meals (not snacks, meals) AFTER dinner alone.

OK, so back to the beginning…

Hump day started off with an early morning wake up call.  Someone’s gotta save lives.

To get me going, I went with a Trilogy Kombucha.  This is my FAVE flavor by far.  Mmmm…

I had packed my lunch before, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

I bought a big ‘ol container of “tropical” trail mix to tide me over.  Even though I’m still on the fence with certain nuts, I know they can hold my appetite, so I think it’s a great go-to when my appetite is hungry tiger hippie status.

What exactly qualifies a mix as tropical?  Brazil nuts?  Papaya?  I don’t know, it seemed pretty standard as far as dried fruit/nut mixes go…but whatever, beggars can’t be choosers. 

I polished the entire thing off, as well as my whole packed lunch by 1 pm.  FYI, the “new” super protein odwalla bars are the merely smaller versions of the former ones (with a new wrapper).

Business/Economics 101 says fool the customers into thinking something is new and improved with a flashy new packaging, while simultaneously saving money by charging the same price for a smaller version of the product.  Hmmmm…not a fan of this policy, but I can’t deny my love for odwalla is still going strong.

Anyways, I scrounged this up…vegan options are minimal at the hospital, but if you know the right people (wink wink), you can move mountains…ok, ok, I discharged a patient on a veggie diet before lunch came, and they still brought her tray.  The hospital is WAY too cheap to donate ANYthing to the starving nurses fund – believe me, I’ve tried!!

Sorry about the not-so-hot blackberry photo…

I stopped here (AGAIN) on my way home from work, to get my Kombucha fix.  Don’t be deceived by the hole-in-the-wall appearance.  This place has all the products that Whole Foods has, MINUS the massive lines.  Is two Kombuchas a day too many?

Anyways, when I got home, I had to eat something right away to prevent myself from chewing my arm off.

Roasted red pepper Sabra on Alvarado Street bread, plus apple slices for max dipping pleasure.

Kyle was already home and munching on these…

…so I couldn’t help but have a few (hundred) handfuls.

DARN IT! 

The good news: Newman’s Own does cookies right.

The bad news: I hadn’t even eaten a proper dinner and I managed to down well over half of the bag. 

To get some decent (not processed) calories in, I made an avocado mash containing an ENTIRE avo, shredded carrots, and clover sprouts…which I then piled on top of 2 slices of Alvarado Street bread.  On the side, I had the last of my home-made seitan.

After dinner I went dessert crazy.  First up, dates stuffed with carob chips.

Then, I had a big bowl full of strawberries with stevia and cinnamon sprinkled on top, and more carob chips tossed in after.

But the treats didn’t stop there.  And I’m glad they didn’t because as a result, I discovered an amazing new dessert!  Dried mango with PEANUT BUTTER!  It reminded me of PB+J with the sweetness of the dried mango and the crunchy nutty peanut butter.  YUM.

As if that weren’t tasty enough.

…it evolved into something even BETTER (clearly carob chips go with everything).

After a few more of these, I called it a night.  Hungry tigers have to go to bed eventually.

It’s sunny honey

Sunday came and went and I think I hardly blinked!  Normally weekends that I work creep by so sloooooooowly, but this weekend was over in a flash, which is fine by me, since I have Monday off. 

Sorry to the rest of you with normal work schedules!

Back to Sunny-day, though.

SO excited to try my cute ‘lil tub-o-Tribe hummus. LOVE me some humdaddy, right Brooke!

I sliced an apple up for increased dunking pleasure, but the hummus made it’s way to the salad more than anything else…

YUM!

I also had a new CLIF flav – Cranberry Apple Cherry.  Mr. Clif can do no wrong.  It was the perfect chewy consistency, kind like a cobbler, but in bar form.  Blueberry crisp is still my number one, but this will def be purchased again. 

There are dried papaya spears and organic sugar coated ginger cubes in the bag on top (that’s so effing foggy it can hardly be considered a ziplock).  Let’s just say, I can prob skip the Kombucha for today because of all the probiotics growing on that year old baggie. 

At what point does the excuse of being a hippie cross the line to becoming a homeless person?

I may just be there.  And yet, I still saved the baggie for tomorrow.

Nothing too thrilling to report on the job front.  I had one patient sign out AMA today (against medical advice), but he wasn’t a cardiac surgery patient, so I wasn’t too worried.  He was one of the psych patients I mentioned yesterday…and seriously HOW do you reason with a man who says he has to leave because in the middle of the night someone put a knife to his throat?  Ummmm…pretty sure that’s not in the night RN’s job description.  I managed to convince him to stay for a few IVs worth of electrolytes, but after a lifetime on acid, there’s only so much of the liver you can salvage in 48 hours…if you haven’t heard of hepatic encephalopathy, look it up – if that doesn’t convince you to stay off drugs, I don’t know what will.

By the time I got home, my tummy was grrrrowling, so I threw a plate of randoms together asap, including:

My last home-made seitan cutlet :(

A shredded zucchini, broccoli slaw, and carrot salad (vampires beware – I took off my knuckle with the peeler, so there was some added iron in there too…). 

Alvarado Street bread with the rest of the Sabra hummus solo.

THEN (as if I hadn’t already reached my hummus capacity for the day…) I opened another SABRA container.  Can you believe this was my first time I trying the roasted red pepper flavor!?!?

Holy Yum!  I couldn’t stop myself from chowing down.

After this slice, I couldn’t stop!  I had THREE more!

Mmm…

While I ate, Kyle turned on True Blood (apparently he discovered Season 1 On Demand, and made his way through 8 episodes this weekend…).  See, I’m not the only one with an addictive personality!  Obsessed much?  Next thing I know, I got sucked in (pun VERY intended). 

Dessert #1

Dessert #2

Dessert #3 – ick!  Sorry Erin, but these are just not able to satisfy my PM sweet tooth.  I can handle one piece MAX, and then I start coughing hacking up a lung.

Enough salads already

Up at 5.  Out the door in under 30.  Not a record, but not too shabby either.

I got to downtown way earlier than usual, so the bucks wasn’t open yet (eek!)…good thing I had Bruno’s to the rescue.  I’ve raved before, so my love for this tiny place is no secret, a small steamy coffee turned that frown upside down :)

Here’s my latest read.  I heart David Sedaris!  Makes the loss of express trains on the weekends somewhat tolerable. 

I managed to avoid the local trains today, so all was good.

Anyways, I enjoyed the above pre-packed eats throughout the day.

Cookies ‘n Cream LUNA = soooooo good!  This was the first Luna bar that I have been satisfied with!

One side was coated in white frosting, and the other side was chocolate crispy bar drizzled in more frosting.  Yes please!

I would DEF buy this one again, and it held me over nicely until lunch time.

I had a big ‘ol java over ice, too…while reading, eating, and people watching at Bruno’s.  My lunch salad was great and all, but I think I’ve had my fill of greens for a while.

I had TONS of psycho patients today.  It wasn’t too bad, though, because even though I wanted to pull my hair out at times, I wasn’t very busy, so it was also on the amusing side.  BTW, when I say “psycho” patients, I really mean it.  They had serious neurological issues (which means I’m not a bad person for talking crap about them, ok).

On the way home from work, I did a naughty thing…

Who knows what the people on the subway thought of me taking a pic of my Kombucha in my lap.  After I snapped the photo, I proceeded to open the drink, at which point it exploded all over me.  My paper thin scrubs were NO help whatsoever…and yet, all I could think of was how I lost $1 worth of my precious drink!!!!

I was ready for dinner when I got home, so I was happy that I had some food already prepared. 

Quinoa, chickpeas, and a heapin’ spoonful of sabra LOVE.

In order to avoid beige overload, I added in some shredded carrots.

Yeahhhh boiiiiiiiiiiii…

Obviously, this only fueled my stomach the beast more.  Enter course two. 

Philly cheese steak.  Strike that.  Toasty, melty veggie slices with seitan – that’s more like it   :)

How could I ignore my sweet tooth on the late night?  I couldn’t decide between two desserts, so I had both!

First, sliced apples, pears, and strawbz.

Second, Fig Newman's with peanut butter.

Is it totally ridiculous that I made a sammie with cookies and PB?!

Don’t worry, I already know the answer to this one.

Holy crap you’re hot!  Thanks for the shout out It’s A Wrap, clearly all my sassy blogger buddies deserve this, how could I choose!

Thursday, Wednesday, it’s all the same

Even though I had today off of work, I still had to set my alarm because I had an appointment.  So I was up and at em with the roosters pigeons (?), which was kinda nice because I rarely get to see my K love in the AM.  He made a massive pot of java, which I had with minimal frills (I was lazy and didn’t feel like frothing).

Crossword & coffee makes E a happy hippie :)

Yesterday’s oats were so bomb.com that I decided to repeat the morning routine.  This time I went with nanner slices, cinnamon, almond milk, and stevia.

I debated straightening my hair for all of 4 minutes, and then decided the dermatologist wasn’t THAT special.  I mean, sure med school is hard and all…but don’t expect me to bow at your feet make myself presentable for you.

Random rant to follow, scroll away if you are only here for the food:

I don’t understand HOW medical offices get SO behind.  I mean, I work in the hospital, so I empathize with healthcare professionals (let’s face it, all patients aren’t as delightful as you would hope), but come ON…can you just pretend that you care about being punctual?  I always try to get the earliest appointments (less time to get behind), so I don’t even want to think of when the poor suckers with afternoon appointments get seen. 

So, this morning I got to the doctor’s office a bit earlier than my appt (9:15 am), and watched the clock tick tock tick tock for a full hour before they finally called my name (45 minutes after my 9:30 appointment)…I guess there are some things that will never change – one of them being the tedious snail’s pace that the delinquent clerks at the front desk are so set on keeping. 

I didn’t get out until 11, and since I was already in Union Square, I couldn’t help but do a little retail therapy (not that the news was bad, but I have some thinking to do)…

In case you didn’t know, 14th St/Union Square is packed with my fave stores….so which temptation did I give in to? 

Whole Foods?  Nope! – I know, I know!  [insert gasp here]

Lululemon?  Nope!

Barnes & Noble?  Yep :)

I could have perused the aisles for hours, but I managed to keep it to 30 minutes and $30.  Success!

I had this ‘lil bugger when I got home.  GNU Foods flavor & fiber Cinnamon Raisin bar.

Meh.  It was a bit smaller and more bland than my odwalla love…the super protein flavor odwalla bar is more sugar-y, but in a good way, not a HFCS way.

Pros: The “It works!” quote in the top corner of the wrapper ‘aint no lie (wink wink) – granted I had a heaping bowl of oats for brekkie, so I think I’ve hit my fiber max for the day (hahaha, yeah riiiiight, as if I have a fiber max)! Cons:  As I mentioned before, it’s a bit small (I prefer the extra kcals in the odwalla bar if it keeps my tummy satisfied longer).  Also, it’s not as sweet as I was hoping it would be.  But that’s just me :)  In the end, I don’t think I’d buy it again.

Gym time!

I was pretty lazy today, and my workout was lackluster at best. 

I zoned out to Paris Hilton’s BFF show and the Duel while sweating out on the elliptical…pretty sure my IQ is significantly lowered from such thought provoking entertainment.

I went hummus cuhhhraaaazay when I got home.

Falafel veggie burgers!  Seriously? Seriously!

I had a couple mini falafel balls with some petite carrots, apple slices, and a toasted english muffin – all submerged in some FABBY sabra love!

I just had to dive back in with more apples.  Luuurve me some sabra!

All gone (tear).

I accomplished some very super duper important tasks after my late lunch.  Cleaning.  Cooking.  Wedding church research.  I felt like quite the housewife. 

I had a multi-course dinner.  Not even the Queen of England eats this well!  Trust me, she would be way jealous if she knew the vegan yumminess she was missing out on.

Course 1: Home-made seitan cutlet with re-thawed “cheesy” cauliflower mash, topped in a mini-mogul of vegan parm.

 

Course 2: Steamed green beans with more “cheesy” cauliflower.

Course 3: Red bell pepper

Psych!  (not that it’s that abnormal to make a bell pepper into a meal)  But, I did make a reeeedik sized salad (with a whole lotta crunchy bell pepper).

I bought the (above) gorgy beast yesterday, but was trying to hold off since we still have half a green bell pepper in the fridge.  But isn’t it purrty?  How could I resist that cute little spiral tendril and the shiny red exterior…so I sliced and diced my way to salad bliss!

I told you!!  This salad is SO big you can’t even SEE that there’s a bell pepper buried in there.  I can’t even begin to recall the ingreds, just assume if you can buy it in the store, it’s in the salad.

By the by, I’ve been downing chickpeas like it’s my j-o-bizzle, forcing me to make them (from the dried beans) on a daily basis now…I just finished my first bag today!  Clearly I’m obsessed.  So much cheaper!!

I was about to pop after this nosh-fest…but eventually I found the room for a bowl of melon (dessert is a non-negotiable in my book). 

It looks small, but this is actually about two cups of fruit. 

Are you proud of me for going a whole DAY without Kombucha?!