A Week in the Food Diary of... a Law Student during Finals

Week 2: A Week in the Food Diary of... a Law Student During Finals
The food thoughts of a female law student at the beginning of finals (back in December) residing in the balmy sunshine of Florida.

Sunday:
Morning: I started off by getting up early and pulling out the cookbooks in preparation for two weeks of studying hibernation with my study buddies (T and K). I knew I'd be feeding the three of us, so I wanted to stock up on some goodies that would be good not just the first time around, but could be remade into some other meal. I bought stuff for snacks as well as meals. I got some hummus, carrots, goat cheese, and lots of 100 calorie packs. I plan on making the roast chicken recipe given to me tomorrow for dinner, and then turning the leftovers into chicken soft tacos the following night.

11 am: I got home and was famished. So I made myself a little turkey sandwich on italian bread. I love when Publix puts out their fresh bread, so good! It had some spicy honey mustard, oven roasted turkey, cracked pepper turkey, and spinach. Then I had a cup of tea (green tea) with honey, since I still have a little cold that I'm trying to kick.

1:30 pm: T decided she was hungry, so she went to her apartment and brought up some thanksgiving leftovers. She had turkey and veggies and a piece of bread. She also brought me some leftover brisket, which I promptly heated up in the microwave and devoured. I washed that down with what will likely be the first of many cherry coke zeros.

Dinner: Dinner was surprisingly tasty. Fitting in this year's theme of trying to be healthy, I made grilled salmon with salt and pepper, oven roasted potatoes, and some mushrooms and spinach sauteed in garlic. It was deeeelicious. Very light. I had a little of my no pudge brownie for dessert (made some for T too).

Monday:
Morning: This morning for breakfast I had a special K protein bar. They're quite tasty if you haven't had one. The consistency is not what you'd expect from a bar. It's really chewy and as if you're taking a huge bite out of a big sandwich. It's weird. But it's filling and tides me over for awhile.

Midday: For lunch I made sandwiches for T and me on some tasty italian bread, roast turkey, pepper crusted turkey, tomato, spinach, and the most delicious avocado ever. Washed it down with some obviously fabulous cherry coke zero. Just awesome :)

Dinner: Continuing in my theme of healthy home cooked meals, I made roast chicken, old bay fries, and salad. The salad was scrumptious! It consisted of spinach, mushrooms, apple slices, craisins, and a small bit of crumbled goat cheese. Topped off with my own homemade dressing.

The dressing is something my mom has been making ever since I was a kid. It's so easy and it works on just about any salad. You take equal parts of a mustard (i use honey mustard) and something sweet (such as apple butter, jelly, etc) then you add olive oil and balsamic vinegar (sometimes I use white wine vinegar because it's a little sweeter). Then mix and serve. The potatoes were old bay fries, also an oldy but a goodie. Take potatoes, cut into about 8 slices, like steak fries. Place them on the baking sheet and then absolutely cover them in old bay.

The chicken proved to be the most challenging. Whether because my oven was being obnoxious or because I underestimated the amount of time, I simply couldn't get the center of the chicken to cook. I ended up serving the rest of the chicken and tossing the center back into the oven (to be used on tonight's dinner of chicken tacos). The girls seemed to enjoy everything. The potatoes were a particular hit. Everyone is always looking for a healthy twist on the french fry, and these seemed to be it.

Tuesday
Morning: Bright and early, I met a friend for breakfast. We hit up a random diner on the beach. I don't think I'll be returning there. It looked promising, because it was pretty crowded. However, we sat down and ordered. I had corned beef hash with poached eggs and home fries. The eggs were overcooked (which is sad because i love the yolk) and the hash was some of the worst I've ever had. I ate the eggs (because I try to do protein at breakfast) and devoured the home fries. I was fortunately full after that. Definitely wouldn't recommend the 11th street diner in South Beach. Yucky! Plus it ended up being over $40 for two for breakfast.

Post-Finals Note: So, after Tuesday morning, things started to fall off a bit. My fabulous law student friend made notes to herself of what she ate and when, but with the whirlwind known as studying for law finals, the notes never quite made it to me and the notes became lost in the shuffle of outlines, highlighters, and flags. This is probably quite true to form for law final studying and definitely an accurate representation of what it is like to be a law student!