Woody's Oasis in East Lansing

Woody's is one of my favorite places to eat in East Lansing. It helps that they have about three locations around campus. It also helps that they are cheap. Last year, the vegetarian pita wraps, including the very filling falafel and spicy falafel, were only $2.95 and the meat ones, including chicken and steak with different sauces, were $3.95. This year they have gone up about 50 cents I think, so still a good deal.

The mujadara or lentil pita is also good and my favorite meat ones are the spicy steak and mediterranean chicken, which comes with a garlic sauce. Eggplant is sometimes good, but sometimes too greasy. It's also sort of a toss up as to how big your pita will be; they range from about two to three inches in diameter. If I am really hungry or need the meal to tide me over for awhile, I go with either a meat or a falafel pita. Also, be sure to request turnips in your pita. They are these hot pink pickled things and really make the sandwich special.

Another great deal at Woody's is hummus and pita. Hummus is very filling and, as one of my friends likes to remind me, has a lot of fiber. Besides the original flavor, there is also garlic hummus, which is great, and spicy hummus, which sometimes has too strong a bell pepper flavor for my taste.

Dinner--or any other excuse to get a plate--at Woody's is also great. My favorites are the vegetarian grape leaves and vegetarian kibbee. Each entree is about $10 at the Grand River location and comes with a salad (my favorite is the yogurt salad which has cucumbers) and hummus. The grape leaves can serve two and I think the vegetarian kibbee could serve three. If you have never had kibbee before (I hadn't until a few weeks ago), it is like mashed potatoes but with a middle Eastern flavor. It tastes a bit vinegar-y to me.

(The plates at the international center are $6 and include a smaller sized entree, and two sides [salads, fries, hummus].)

As you can see from the picture, the Grand River location also has a bar, which is very important. And they have drink specials.

Coffee...

The stomach problems are increasing my coffee spending. There's free coffee at work and I used to keep some fat free half-and-half in the fridge, but now that's out. I was drinking soy mochas everyday. Oh, that's no good... at least the campus coffee shop doesn't charge extra for soy. Still... if I buy one drink a day, that's like $20-25 for the week, $80-100 for a month, and about $1000 for a year.

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes...

I could try to make myself feel better by saying that I'll de-caffeinate over the summer but somehow I doubt that's true. Between my independent study, prepping for my exam (eek!), and teaching, I think I'll be just as busy as I am during the school year!

One possible solution: I'm taking some soy milk in this week so we'll see how that goes. But really, I could have been brewing coffee at home over the weekend. But I don't because I'm also sort of concerned that the drip coffee is harder on my stomach. And I know I can't finish the bag before we leave for the summer. And even if we were not leaving, I can never finish the bag before it loses its taste (although I did buy a new container to store the coffee in the freezer. It's my new strategy for next fall). Oh, and soy caramel lattes from Seattle's Best taste better.

Any suggestions for how I can cut costs, keep myself caffeinated, and keep my tummy and tongue happy?

Stomach Problems, Lactose Intolerance, and Yogurt

*sigh*
It's been pretty eventful around here. I think this is about my third week of stomach problems. I think it is lactose intolerance or something--since my dad has it and the web says over 90% of Asians have it. I am hoping it's temporary though--it could be stress or the antibiotics I was on... although I swear the stomach problems started before that...

Anyway, I'm on a steady diet of 1-2 servings of yogurt a day. It seems to work. Probiotics and all that. Apparently they are good bacteria or something. The opposite of antibiotics?

I also learned that it is good to eat yogurt when you are on antibiotics because it can help counter the job antibiotics do on your good bacteria.

So I'm having soy milk in my coffee and just being careful about the other dairy I eat. And everything is mostly okay. I'm eating Yoplait. I like cherry, vanilla, orange creme, apple, and peach. I just realized that the Light has aspartame in it though so I am going to switch to regular. And I'm also considering checking out Dannon since it is on sale.