Dinner Bowl

Do you have a preference for tableware and/or flatware?  Whenever possible, I eat out of a bowl, preferably with chopsticks.  Probably because it’s easier to chase every last bite when the food can’t roll off of the plate!  All of my dinners this week were delicious and I think it’s not a coincidence that they were all served in bowls.

breakfast

This was a weird week for me, I ate breakfast – as in chewable breakfast, not just tons of milk in my coffee – almost every day.

Sonja apple.

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String cheese and my last mango coconut almond thin.  {p.s. Kate won the giveaway!}

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String cheese and a KIND Salted Caramel Popped Bar.  <– very tasty and packs 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein for 140 calories thanks to the blend of whole grains.

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Don’t get me wrong, there was coffee too!  This one was TJ’s cold-brew with skim milk and toasted marshmallow syrup.

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And this monster was a Starbucks reward freebie that I took full advantage of – venti skim iced latte with extra espresso.

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lunch

Yogurt bowls for the win.  Adam and I are both head over heels for the KIND granola.

Local vanilla bean Greek yogurt with KIND maple, chia, quinoa granola and yellow nectarine, black plum, and blueberries.

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Plain Fage Greek yogurt with KIND granola and red plum and yellow nectarine.  Plus a serving of Lindt Pink Explosion on the side.

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Honey Fage with blueberries and TJ’s bran flakes.

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And Tuesday I had catered lunch thanks to a malnutrition policy education that I attended.  Dessert was chocolate-covered marzipan that a sweet coworker snuck to me.

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snack

A picture’s worth a thousand words.  Apparently I was all about the freeze-dried produce.

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dinner

Another reason we both like bowl-style meals is that it’s nice to have our grain/protein/veggie components layered together rather than served in separate piles on a plate.  I like to get a little bit of each flavor in every bite.

Honey-chipotle chicken Chipotle style bowls.

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This week’s dinners had a lot of components so I’m going to break them down bullet-point-style.

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  • sautéed local Satur Farms energy greens – aka a kale, spinach, etc mix
  • sautéed onions and green peppers with cilantro and lime
  • TJ’s Cuban-style black beans
  • pan-fried chicken breasts that were marinated overnight in chipotles in adobo, honey, evoo, lime juice, sherry, minced garlic, smoked paprika, and salt and pepper
  • avocado
  • shredded cheese / low-fat sour cream / cilantro

We were out of the onion and pepper mix for day 2’s leftovers so instead I served all of the other components on top of big bowls of kale and broccoli sautéed with garlic and lime.  Still good!  We decided that my version was almost as good as Chipotle.

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Our rice bowls were a more Asian-inspired.  They would have been better with a runny egg on top but I was pleased with how incredibly juicy the chicken came out.

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  • brown jasmine rice
  • browned mushrooms
  • roasted broccoli
  • baked chicken that was marinated overnight in soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, Sriracha, canola oil, lime juice, sugar, and minced ginger
  • bok choy, celery, green onion, and cilantro sautéed with a bit of the sauce from the chicken

Even on my night out I ate dinner in a bowl.  I met friends at Hanoi and ordered the Veggie Spring Roll Bun – room temperature vermicelli, lettuce, cucumber, scallion oil, shallot, peanut, fresh herb, and nuoc cham sauce.

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Would you have guessed that there would literally be a chopped up spring roll on top of the dish?  We were surprised, but agreed that it was darn tasty.  The best part of the meal was dessert though.  Maple soft-serve from Corner of Vermont.

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We ate our ice cream on a leisurely walk down 5th ave in Park Slope and the whole thing felt wonderfully summery!

National Doughnut Day

Here’s a random and horrifying fact – I turn 30 next month.  What?!  How is that even possible when it feels like 1990 was only 10 years ago.  (<– it wasn’t.  it was 25 years ago.  like I said, horrifying.)

As I move my way up the hill at what feels like breakneck speed – next stop: over it – our summer is off to a pretty great start.  It’s hard to do things like maintain a weekly brunch and farmer’s market tradition with someone who works 25+ hour shifts on the weekends, but Adam is a total trooper and we still manage to have a good time.  Plus, the day I was alone I did errands at three different grocery stores so, you know, I lead an exciting life.

breakfast

Did you all celebrate National Doughnut Day?  I woke up an hour early so I could hit up Doughnut Plant on my way to work.

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They were giving away a mini cake doughnut (with sprinkles!) with all purchases.  It was delicious.

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I also got a skim iced matcha and a strawberry and cream doughseed.

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The strawberry glaze was tart and juicy and the filling was vanilla bean pastry cream, all together it was the best doughnut I’ve ever eaten.

During my never-ending errands I ate a protein bar,

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and a clover-brewed West Java roast with ice and skim milk.

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Plus, you know, you another coffee at my next stop.

lunch

I spent my workday on Friday in a breastfeeding education conference.  There wasn’t as much information about maternal intake and milk composition/supply as I had hoped, but the information about the benefits of breastfeeding, particularly in premature and small for gestational age infants, was quite interesting.  Plus, they provided lunch.

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Marinated veggie sandwich.  And I brought my own Mentos for dessert.

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The candy, plus lots of coffee, were essential; even if the material is of interest to me I have a very hard time sitting still to listen for hours in a row.

On Sunday, we brought the puppy into DUMBO.

DSC07838We got coffees at Brooklyn Roasting Company – skim Maple Shay for me.

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And then walked over to Smorgasburg for lunch.  The three of us shared duck buns.

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And an arepa.

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Aka acorn cake topped with Oaxaca cheese, chipotle mayo, and cilantro salsa.  Good, but I think I like pupusas better.

snack

Do you remember Slush Puppies?  So much better than Slurpees.

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This was horrible, but it was fun to try the throwback snack, even if I did have to carry around that burning cold packet for the rest of our walk.

We are both impressed with Angry Orchard’s seasonal summer honey cider.

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Impulse buy much?

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Lindt’s Hello line is on point.  Both bars were amazing; the pink one really did pop!

Coffee and a cookie.

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Molly’s Milk Truck coffee with almond milk and cinnamon plus a sticky strawberry jam sandwich cookie from Whole Foods.

dinner

Chicken and veggie soup.

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Every piece of this minus the broth came from our freezer but it was still flavorful and yummy.

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Chicken broth // TJ’s chicken and vegetable goyza // rotisserie chicken // bok choy, shitake mushroom, red pepper, and green onions.

Spicy eggs for my single lady dinner.

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Scrambled with collard greens and sweet corn plus shredded cheese, smoked paprika, and tons of sweet chili sauce.

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And crispy peas on the side.

Who’s surprised that we ate Chipotle for dinner last night?  No one?  Good.  🙂

Top Three Weekly Wrap-Up {And A Giveaway!}

My favorites from the past week…

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Top 3 Breakfasts

(1) Mango coconut biscotti* with my coffee.

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*free sample courtesy of Nonni’s, scroll down to the last section for more info

(2) Smoothie.  Hint of Honey almond milk with frozen blackberries, raspberries, and dates.

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(3) Cold brew.  Coffee concentrate cut with skim milk and maple water.

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Tops 3 Lunches

(1) Thanks, Starbucks.  A cherry, granola, and yogurt bowl that was quite tasty.

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Plus a Almond Coconut KIND bar.  An Airhead might have snuck in there too!

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(2) Starbucks again.  <– I didn’t have it super together this week.  But their kale chicken Caesar salad is damn good.

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(3) Apples and oats.  Quaker Apple Walnut Oatmeal topped with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter with TJ’s freeze-dried Fuji apples on the side.

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Top 3 Desserts

(1) Better than a brownie.  Lindt’s caramel brownie bar.

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(2) Hot fudge root beer floats.

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(3) Shake, shake, shake.  We had a tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer and we weren’t afraid to use it.

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Bourbon In My Coffee Breakfast Shake* = 1 cup vanilla ice cream, 2 oz maple bourbon, 2 oz iced coffee concentrate, 1 cup Frosted Flakes; serves 2.

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*not actually consumed at breakfast

Top 3 Dinners

(1) Chipotle.  My salad was on point – chicken, cheese, corn, sautéed veggies, mild salsa, green tomatillo salsa, and sour cream.

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(2) More “Mexican” food.

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Green chile and cheese pupusas.  Now I need to get my hands on my first fresh pupusa.

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Sautéed arugula tossed with avocado and crumbled kale chips.

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(3) Asian-inspired.  Every piece of this meal came out of our freezer but it was still one of the best of the week.

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TJ’s chicken and vegetable goyza.

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Frozen broccoli, celery, and spring onions that I cooked in canola oil then gussied up with a quick sauce (brown sugar, chicken broth, fish sauce, soy sauce, Sriracha, cornstarch) and some crushed peanuts.

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Plus 1 Giveaway!

As I mentioned above, I was sent a free sample of the newest flavor of Nonni’s THINaddictives – Mango Coconut.

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They are completely addictive – the perfect balance between chewy and crunchy and not too sweet to eat with breakfast (they have 100 calories per pack of three).  I ate them with pretty much every meal this week.

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Nonni’s gave me a chance to share the love with you guys too – Simply leave comment on this post before 10 am EST on Tuesday, June 9th for a chance to win your own box.

Not feeling lucky?  In celebration of the new flavor, Nonni’s THINaddictives is hosting Summer Giveaway on Facebook – 50 winners will be selected to receive a free box of the new Mango Coconut THINaddictives. There is also a $1 off coupon under their coupon tab.

It Was High Time To Hit The High Line

Five favorites from the weekend…

{1}  New yogurt flavors

Siggi’s never lets me down; the new whole milk mixed berries flavor tasted great paired with blackberries and bran flakes for work lunch.

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We also tried some goat’s milk yogurt from Coach Farm.

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The honey flavor was nice – not too sweet or sour – but I always miss the thicker texture of Greek.

{2}  Chipotle, always

Rice bowl with chicken.

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Enjoyed while watching “Criminal Minds.”  I think I’m finally getting Adam hooked on it too.

{3}  Green Juice

Spinach, watermelon, and lemon, from Juice Generation.  Yummy, though it was a little heavy on the fruit and light on the greens.

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The cashier was a boy from Puerto Rico (an island near St. Thomas), it was nice to reminisce with someone from (near) home.  We sipped while we shopped at the new Flying Tiger – so cool!

{4}  Dinner at the Green Table

A small farm to table spot in Chelsea Market.

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Drink: 77 Sour – Breuckelen ’77 whiskey, fresh lemon, local maple syrup, Hella citrus bitters.  It was delicious, the classiest whiskey sour of all time.

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Eat: Vegan “Pho” – napa cabbage, bok choy, tofu, mushrooms, lime, lemongrass, chili oil.  The flavors were great, but I was glad they put Pho in quotation marks because there was not a noodle to be found.  We totally got pizza once we were back in Brooklyn.

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Sweet: Chocolate Hibiscus Trifle – hibiscus Chantilly, pink peppercorn caramel.  The cake bites (which were gluten-free) were dry and terrible, but the hibiscus Chantilly cream was juicy and sweet, just like the apple ice wine I had with it.

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We probably won’t be back – based on the size for price of the entrées – but I’m quite glad that we got to enjoy the drinks and dessert.

{5}  Watching the sunset on the High Line

We got a plum jasmine shaved ice from people’s pops to crunch while we people and sky watched.

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Also juicy and sweet!  We need to get up there more often.