The Art of the Bagel: NYC breakfasts

This morning after my run, I walked with my mom to pick up a big bag of bagels ("Are they fresh?" "Of course, Lady"), a clay-like brick of fresh cream cheese, and 4 kinds of smoked salmon (nova, gravlax, pastrami, and regular salted lox).
Sadly, I was feeling the aftermath of yesterday's indulgence, and all I really wanted was a nice big bowl of yogurt, cottage cheese, and grapenuts.
All the same, I appreciated that artistically inspiring image that is the bagel with lox and cream cheese, especially with a bite taken out of it. My cousin made fun of me to no end, but can you not see the beauty here?

LATKES!!!

Whew, I'm exhausted! I spent a good 4.5 hours just walking without sitting down once! I slept in because I watched Gossip Girl until 1 am.... guilty pleasure guilty pleasure... then I walked into my mom's study to check on her to find her watching the SAME THING (but a few episodes behind me)!!!
Because I slept in so late, I had a relatively light breakfast: cottage cheese with a little yogurt (not Greek, which is rare), 1/2 banana, blackberries, grapenuts, pecans, and sliced almonds.
I needed to get out of the house... this is what happens when I sleep in-- I feel like I've wasted the day! I decided on a whim that Jewish or not, I would be celebrating Christmas this year by buying people presents! I braved the freezing cold weather in my warmest clothes, gloves, a scarf, and a hat, and took the bus downtown. I spent ages gazing at presents I knew I couldn't afford, but eventually I was pretty successful. I left at around 11:45 and I didn't get home until after 4:00. I didn't stop for lunch or anything! I did, however, grab a quick nonfat decaf mocha (not pictured... I didn't sit down, remember?), which warmed me up considerably.
However, when I got home, I was STARVING! I scarfed down the rest of the lentil chestnut soup, graham crackers and peanut butter, and an apple.

This still didn't really fill me up (moral of the story: bring a snack), but I knew dinner would be relatively soon, so I didn't eat anymore. It's a good thing I didn't, because tonight's dinner was fantastic!!!
I only really need to eat latkes once or twice a year, due to being so rich. Tonight we had latkes with homemade apple/pear sauce and Greek yogurt (full fat because when you just have a dollop it makes all the difference... I wish it had been sour cream, though, for the full Jewish effect).

We also had a beet soup with beet greens, like a faux borscht, which we also ate with a little yogurt.

I had 1 1/2 latkes, and believe me, I was stuffed! These latkes still weren't as greasy as most, though, which is why they're not 100% golden and crispy.
On the side we had an arugula salad with candied walnuts.


My parents thought this was a weird meal because there was no main course, but that didn't even occur to me! To me, it seemed perfectly balanced and filling. I didn't even think of having dessert.
But I did have a tangerine.

MINUS 2 DEGREES?

Yes, that is how cold it was today. So freezing that the wind was blowing chunks of hail in my face. The outside running is postponed once again. My mom and I went to the workout room, but for some reason it was also FREEZING in there... guess the radiator was off? Also, something is seriously wrong with my knee. Probably shouldn't have pushed myself when I knew it was hurting, because now I feel like I have shin splints. I wonder what's wrong...
I only did 25 minutes on the elliptical, then did a faster mile on the treadmill... I don't understand. it seems like I can run a 7 minute mile outside, but when I do that on a treadmill, it feels like I'm full-out sprinting...
(Before I left I had half of a rotting banana)
Breakfast was a pretty small bowl of oatmeal-- strawberries, the other 1/2 of the banana, 1/2 cup skim, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup cottage cheese (cept then I went back and got more because it didn't really fill me up), vanilla, strawberry jam, and peanut butter.

I TOOK MY MOM TO SEE TWILIGHT TODAY! Before the show, we stopped at the most awesome place to open in Hyde Park yet: Zaleski and Horvath Market Cafe.

I knew there was a gourmet foods store opening, but not that it would be so AWESOME! Check out the shelves:
They also have great coffee, sandwiches, soups, salads, and cookbooks.
My mom got a ham sandwich with a bunch of fancy spreads and cheese (She really is eating more meat than usual) and a cappucino.
I ordered a panini on whole wheat with eggplant, red pepper spread, muenster, and greens.
Both sandwiches came with a side sample: my mom got coleslaw and I got veggie slaw, which had chickpeas, raisins, carrots, and all the things i love.
I fell so in love with this place that I APPLIED FOR A SUMMER JOB! I'm not sure what I would do, but that would be amazing if I could work there... put my blog URL on the app...


I rarely eat cheese, but that little bit of cheese in the sandwich kept me full for a good 7 hours! Is this the secret of life?
After Twilight (Which my mom loved, but she kept laughing during all the romantic/suspenseful scenes and I had to keep yelling at her. It would be "hurry! she only has minutes left!" and my mom would start laughing loud enough that everyone could here... I see where I get my cynicism from) we went shopping... I got some amazing Lulemon leggings on sale. It was so unbelievably cold...
While I was cooking, I had an apple.

Happy Hannukah!

For dinner, I made Deborah Madison's lentil-chestnut soup with fennel, which I've made once before. It's perfect for winter, with the chestnuts giving the same starchy sweet flavor that sweet potatoes do (we use Chinese vacuum-packed chestnuts).
We also had brown rice and stir-fried watercress.
It's been ages since I really indulged in some dessert, so tonight I had a big bowl of ice cream: Purely Decadent Cherry Nirvana (nondairy) and nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt (I may or may not have gotten another scoop of this afterwards)... my sweet tooth is now at peace.

The mother is back

It's been great... relaxing, shopping, eating, etc. I know I didn't blog yesterday, but when I went out to dinner I didn't bring my camera, so I used my mom's iPhone, and then we had to transfer the photos... okay I'm blabbering.
Saturday:
THE LAKE WAS COMPLETELY FROZEN! I worked out, looking out the window wishing it were warm enough to run outside :(
But I did run a fast mile on the treadmill and then did 40 minutes on the elliptical and upper body weights.
Breakfast was a huge bowl of cottage cheese, yogurt, grapenuts, half a banana, blackberries, strawberries, and peanut butter (But I still ended up getting more... I was hungry!)
My mom got back after breakfast. She seemed pretty tired...
For lunch we all scrounged for leftovers. I continued to eat up that tempeh that never seems to go bad... on a wrap with watercress and hummus. Plus carrots and celery with the last of the hummus, and a little bit of the leftovers my parents were eating.

A little later: a big mug of hot chocolate and an apple.

My mom had a haircut a little while later, and while she was at the salon, my dad and I did some shopping... I got some really awesome Adidas boots, as well as some functional stuff: pajama bottoms, gloves, etc.
I was going to cook my mom dinner, but we ended up staying out pretty late... we decided to go celebrate her return at Cuatro, a kind of "new Latin" restaurant in the South Loop.
I actually wasn't feeling that hungry-- I definitely ate lighter than my parents.
To start with, we had two salads:
ensalata de xuxu: broiled, spice-rubbed chayote squash, baby spinach, cucumbers, pear tomatoes, queso frito, and a bitter orange vinaigrette.

ensalata de palmitos: hearts of palm marinated in spicy escabeche, piquin shrimp over arugula and iceberg lettuce, pineapple-honey vinaigrette (aa, where is the photo??).
Main courses-- portions were huge! Luckily I ordered relatively lightly... not so with my parents, who were feeling carnivorous.
My dad-- 16 OZ PORK CHOP! Of course, he didn't eat all of it, but that is 4 times hte normal portion... it was roasted with sugar cane, served with plantain mole, green beans, and yuca cake.

I tasted the mole (although later I found out it had chicken stock in it) and apparently it has 27 ingredients!
My mom ordered a short-rib special that was served with avocado salsa and rice... unfortunately, the photo of it has disappeared!
I ordered seafood stew with scallops, shrimp, tilapia, squid and mussels in a tomato-coconut broth with fried plantains and coconut rice. Of course, the broth was incredibly rich... The rice was fragrant and the fried plantains had no taste whatsoever-- neither sweet nor salty... more like a baked potato, but in a good way! The squid on the top scared me... turns out it was stuffed! I mainly ate the scallops and tilapia and let my parents eat some of the rest. I really wasn't as hungry as I normally am, but this was a huge portion!
We ordered one dessert that I had one bite of... really wasn't in the mood! We had creme brulee (yerba mate-perfumed) with a pineapple confit bottom and cinnamon shortbread cookies. Creme brulee has never been my favorite dessert, but this was delicious... the cookies tasted basically like apple pie.

Monday and Tuesday in a Nutshell

SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN POSTING! Now I can post to my heart's content because all my final papers, tests, projects, etc, are OVER! This calls for a celebration... anyways, last night and the day before I was working on my English project, which was actually a research paper on the history of the whale as food-- it included lots of weird recipes, as well as some politics and social history. I really liked the way it came out, so I might even post it on the blog, if people don't find it too boring. Anyways, I'll do Monday and Tuesday before I blog today.
Monday
Breakfast-- gingerbread, blackberries, a tangerine, and Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of grapenuts.

Lunch-- A Caprese sandwich with spinach and hummus to get the spinach to stick... unfortunately, I also added some balsamic, and since this wasn't sturdy bread, when I unwrapped it it kind of fell a part. Guess it's a good thing I take my lunch photos in the morning.

Snack-- A sliced apple, some Greek and Black's, another tangerine, some graham cracker sticks, and a spoonful of peanut butter, with some chai and soy milk. This was incredibly satisfying, but actually pretty light.

Dinner-- Good old comfort Chinese food:
Bok choy and mushrooms
Spicy eggplant, green peppers, and smoked tofu
With nutty brown rice.
Dessert-- grapes


Tuesday


Breakfast: can't get enough gingerbread! This time with this new "skyr" that I bought at Whole Foods-- it's basically Icelandic yogurt... I think the only difference in ingredients is some vegetable rennet. It tasted a bit more substantial, even though it was fat free... a bit like fromage blanc. It's too expensive to have all the time, but every once and a while would be nice. Also had blackberries and a banana with peanut butter.





Snack: Tuesdays I always need a snack because I have all my classes and thinking is tiring. I had a Kashi bar (Trying to use these up).
Lunch: Leftovers! And an apple
I got a pretty good workout yesterday. In yoga we did a Power Yoga video, and then I went home and ran a mile on the treadmill, then did 40 minutes on the elliptical. Sweating feels so good!
My snack was, of course, cottage cheese and grapenuts with blackberries, strawberries, and almonds.
Dinner: My dad made pineapple fried rice, but the problem with fried rice is every bowl I have, I get hungrier! I don't understand why that is... I always feel like I need to have different components to a meal, because I eat more slowly that way. Either way, this rice was packed with vegetables and protein, but it didn't really fill me up. I tried to have some kimchi on the side, but the flavors totally clashed.
The rice had: a combination of all our leftover rices: white, short-grain brown, and brown basmati
eggs
A tiny bit of shrimp
Green peppers
Fresh pineapple
Red onions
carrots
Flavorings: fish sauce, a kind of Thai seasoning (not curry)

Dessert: 2 tangerines (only 1 shown) and some hot chocolate