I figured it out!

Ahh, this post is going to take me forEVER! I’ve had such a variety of nibbles today. Somehow, eating other people’s food never gets old 😛

I had my yogurt at around 10 this morning during our department meeting. In addition to 1/2 cup plain yogurt, the mix included chopped pear (wrinkled and rescued from roommate who got it for free with an order of sushi!), chopped banana (from Belkis yesterday), nutmeg, and 1 tbsp or so of golean crunch:

I was already hungry again when the meeting ended at 11:30, so I dove right into my cup of fresh pineapple — topped with about 1/4 cup of my supervisor Heather’s leftover Nature’s Path granola that didn’t fit in her yogurt during the meeting:

We broke for lunch around 12:30. I had the last cup of my spinach-chickpea dal:

Plus about two cups of the grilled chicken salad that Myrna couldn’t finish:

Dessert was a Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate square from Rosalie:

Afternoon snack #1 was two teeny pieces of pineapple cake that Belkis made:

Belkis was very excited to share her cake because she just learned how to bake (she’s a master chef of bean-based Dominican dishes as you may recall, though). She made the cake all by herself from a boxed mix and was super proud that it worked and tasted good. She was especially pleased to see me licking the foil:

And then a mom came through the office selling candy to raise money for her kids’ school. I did not buy any, but plenty of my coworkers did. Inginia bought a snickers bar and sliced off this little piece for me:

I know it looks enormous, but it really was less than an inch long …

When I got hungry again around 3, I had this 1/2 cup of veggies left over from Mildred’s lunch:

I went out for a great visit immediately post-veggies. I’m doing a video project with one family that involves videotaping the parents interacting with the 7-month-old baby in 10-minute segments for us to watch all together later. They had so much fun being movie stars!

When I got back at 4:15, I had my final-ish work snack of 3 Kavli crispy thin crackers spread with 1/2 mashed banana (also left from Mildred’s lunch) and 1/4 cup chocolate mousse:

(Dad, I’m sorry it’s so brown!!! But chocolate tastes too good to eliminate based on color alone 😀 )

Also, I think Brach’s candy should start paying me, because all of this found its way from Belkis’ candy jar to my mouth at some point today. Chocolate mint, ice blue mint, cinnamon, star mint, and orange center hard candies:

Dinner started early tonight. Mildred and I picked up Pura on our way out of the office, and Pura happened to mention that they had just celebrated Kathy’s birthday … and had leftover rellenos! Mildred and I both snapped to attention when we heard that, so Pura set us up.

We each had a slice of rellenos maduros (sweet plantain relleno stuffed with ground meat, yummmmm!):

And split this slice of rellenos de papa (potato relleno stuffed with ground meat):

On the walk to my apartment from the subway, I stopped into the gourmet market for 3 miniscule sample cubes of cheese, samples of marinated mushrooms, and an entire ginger-lemon cookie’s worth of sample pieces:

And, waiting for me when I got home, I found more samples (what a day, right??). New tea flavors are so exhilarating:

I proceeded to make myself dinner #1273 which consisted of 2/3 of a sliced apple toppped with cinnamon and 2 tbsp chocolate mousse:

I can’t get enough of that mousse!

I may have also eaten a little chunk of chocolate while preparing (spoiler alert!) tomorrow’s breakfast, and I definitely nibbled on all the components of tomorrow’s lunch as I got that ready, too. My belly is so content!

Oh, I almost forgot! I figured out what went wrong with the basil-spice meringue kisses the other day! They collapsed because I did not add any cream of tartar, duh. I decided not to use it at the last minute when the whites whipped up so fast and sturdily, but I think the “mix-ins” were too heavy to keep the meringues afloat while they baked. I tried it again tonight with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, and they held their form! I sampled one right out of the oven:

Perfect! I’ll get the recipe up a bit later. Of course, the BSI: Basil ship has sailed (and very deliciously, I might add, thanks to Brandi’s basil-strawberry scones), but I still have time to get in my entry for the Eggland’s Best Egg Recipe competition! 😀

Phew, are you sick of reading about all my food yet??

It would be so amazing if I could go to bed right now, but alas, I have to go pretend to read an article for tomorrow’s class enough to write a passable summary of it, blech. I’m planning on an 11pm bedtime so I can get up at 7 for a run before I have to leave. And the clock starts ticking NOW!

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