Category Archives: Uncategorized

Loves Of Late

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Just wanted to pop in and share a few of the things that are rocking my world lately.  I highly suggest making them a part of your upcoming weekend.

1. Neil’s Puppet Dreams.

A YouTube series that features Neil Patrick Harris acting alongside puppets.  It’s smart and funny (and punny!) and occasionally Neil’s equally adorable husband pops in for a cameo.  The video embedded above is my favorite {I laughed so hard at the penis puns that Adam came in from the other room to make sure I was ok} but if you haven’t seen Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” then the intro won’t be as earth-shatteringly funny to you.

2. Life.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????This NBC crime drama was canceled in 2009 but is currently available on Netflix Instant-Watch.  This show is funny like you wouldn’t believe and you end up loving all of the characters a surprising amount.  I watched the finale the other day and was very pleased with it.  I even went so far as to tell Adam that (aside from Whedon’s stuff) this might be my all-time favorite tv show!

3. The gummy candies in the Nice! line from Duane Reade.

duane reade candyThe gummy cola bottles are the best I’ve ever had (even better than Haribo, shockingly) and the chocolate dipped gummy bears are simply the best candy of all time.  I am obsessed with them.  Pick up a few bags this weekend for while you’re watching “Life” and “Neil’s Puppet Dreams!”

Sunday In The Kitchen

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No full wrap-up for this weekend; a good high school friend was in town for his birthday and Adam stayed out so late on Friday night that Saturday became a sleep recovery day.  I am going to share Sunday, because I pulled out the big guns and had a very productive kitchen session –

DSC05695Recently, Oh!Nuts.com reached out to me to see if I would like a few items to help with my holiday baking.  I happily accepted, then thought long and hard and finally settled on the two items I needed most in my life – a cookie and a nut butter.  Here’s what they sent me:

Cinnamon Pecans {for cinnamon maple pecan butter}

DSC05702Almond Flour {for lavender and salted caramel macarons}

DSC05699Note – these products were provided to me free of charge.  All opinions are my own.  I was not provided further compensation for writing this post.

Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter

DSC05711These cinnamon pecans are so crunchy good; I was very pleased to have some left in the bag when I was done making my nut butter.

This Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter tastes like fall in a spread.  The cinnamon and maple would pair perfectly with pumpkin butter or hot pepper jelly for an amazing but unconventional PB & J.  The butter is definitely on the sweeter side, so feel free to pull back on the maple a bit if that’s not your thing.

Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter

  • 3 heaping cups cinnamon pecans
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Place pecans in the base of your food processor and process until no large pieces remain (don’t worry about making butter until the oil is added).  Add oil and maple syrup to the nuts and process until smooth.

DSC05715I couldn’t wait to try it out, so I put a big scoop on top of a bowl of TJ’s vanilla bean Greek yogurt, alongside a small scoop of pumpkin butter.

DSC05718Delicious.  I loved how gritty the pecan butter is.

Lavender and Salted Caramel Macarons

DSC05729I used Jenna @ Eat, Live Run‘s recipe for macarons as my template.  I am not going to repost that here in full, instead I will direct you to her recipe and list my modifications below.  Unless otherwise noted, follow her directions.

macaron modifications

  • Jenna’s base recipe is here – http://www.eatliverun.com/video-411-raspberry-rose-macaroons/
  • skip her filling entirely, I’ve included the recipe for my salted caramel filling below
  • instead of the rose extract and red food coloring, use 1 tsp lavender flavoring and 3 drops each red and blue food coloring
  • I recommend making a size/shape template on the back of your parchment paper.  I found that tracing a mini candle from Bath and Body Works with permanent marker worked perfectly for me
  • for my oven, Jenna’s baking time was wrong, wrong, wrong; I had to throw out my entire first batch!  I recommend cutting the cooking time in half and then checking the cookies every minute thereafter (8 minutes seemed to be the correct amount of time for my oven)

DSC05706DSC05709caramel cream cheese filling

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 4 Tbsp prepared salted caramel sauce
  • (optional) 2 drops yellow food coloring

In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together sugar and cream cheese.  Add caramel and food coloring and continue to beat until smooth.

DSC05738The final combination of lavender cookie and salted caramel filling was to die for.

DSC05734DSC05735I can’t believe I’ve never seen this flavor combination before.  My macarons were not necessarily the prettiest, but they weren’t that difficult to make and they made my taste buds very, very happy!

Have you ever made your own macarons?

Weekly Wrap-Up; One A Day

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I don’t have a ton to share this week; we ate pizza a lot (I don’t know how I don’t have a single photo of that?!) and I somehow ended up with only seven photos.  One for each day of the week!

One: Chipotle.

DSC05620Someone (ahem) ate all of the casserole my mother-in-law baked me so I had to get last-minute dinner takeout.  I hadn’t really eaten Chipotle before beyond the occasional stop in for a diet soda on a road trip, but lately I am all about their chicken.  Whatever they marinate their meat in is sooooo flavorful.

DSC05624Plus my rice bowl – chicken, rice, salsa, corn, roasted veggies, and cheese – was so giant that I was able to take a 1/3 out for the next day’s lunch and still have a huge dinner.

Two: Truffle sampler.

DSC05627Many rounds of this last week.

Three: Two part breakfast.

DSC05632I had a sliced honeycrisp,

DSC05634dipped in (melted) Vanilla Bean + Espresso Barney Butter.

DSC05638DSC05628I am in total love with the VBEBB; crunching through the coffee grounds is very texturally pleasing.  Though I will note that it is not sweet at all which always surprises me.

I finished up breakfast (and the espresso theme!) with Starbucks on errands.

DSC05640A giant one since I had a freebie on my card.  A non-fat caramel macchiato with two shots of gingerbread instead of the vanilla.

DSC05642New favorite drink.  Even the barista commented on what a good idea it was.

Four: Bread trio.

DSC05645End pieces of TJ’s Three Seed and Honey Bread topped with Smart Balance Light, grape Crofters, and pumpkin butter.

Five: Soup night.

DSC05654Pacific Vegetable Lentil & Roasted Red Pepper Soup.  <– Adam and I split the cartoon and both were impressed with it (and I don’t even like lentils)

DSC05657Soft pretzel stick with aged Havarti.

DSC05658And a Tusker to share.

DSC05660We’ve been hoarding that beer for months and it made the move with us from Buffalo.  Tusker has previously been in my top-three beers list but just like the pumpkin beers this seemed sour to me.  I guess I just haven’t been in a beer mood this fall.

Six: Cheese plate.

DSC05669More aged Havarti,

DSC05671with TJ’s Everything Crackers,

DSC05673and a nice pear.

DSC05675We’ve been all about the fruit and cheese this year.  The crackers were good, but a bit too strong on the carraway for me.

Seven {in Heaven}: ‘Mallow shake.

DSC05677Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Frozen Greek Yogurt with skim milk and tons of roasted marshmallows.

DSC05679I used too much milk and we ended up with frothy flavored milk instead of shakes, but the flavor was to die for.

P.S. I ate a bag of kettlecorn for breakfast while I wrote this post.  I need to get my life in order.

Around The Web

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Things to Make You Think –

Due a lack of standard practice for labeling, some “Greek Yogurts” are thickened with additives instead of via the traditional straining process

A RD debunks some common myths about type II diabetes

The recent cuts to SNAP have put increased strain on local food banks

Schools in Utah try new methods of getting students to actually eat healthier cafeteria lunches

Things to Make You Giggle –

three writers walk into a bar...source

evidence based protestsource

are you human shapedsource

the plot thickenssource

I cannot even tell you, all four of my “giggles” made me laugh my head off!

Weekend Wrap-Up; A Visit From The In-Laws

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We had a lovely family weekend!  Laughs were had, great food was eaten, and lots of celebrating was completed.  Adam’s parents drove up Saturday morning to check out our Long Island life.  The weather is just starting to get cold, but we kept things climate-controlled with driving tours of the city (Central Park and spins down Park Ave and Lexington) and the Long Island (the coast!).  I’ve been dying to take pictures of our gorgeous, changing leaves so it was especially nice to have Adam behind the wheel.

breakfasts

Breakfast by buffalo.

DSC05476A cup of coffee (a buttered rum blend from Target that had a rubbing alcohol taste we both hated) sweetened with SCM and lightened with skim milk.

DSC05479And a very nice, pumpkin-pie-esque yogurt bowl.

DSC05482TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt topped with some Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and a dollop of sour cream whisked with brown sugar.

DSC05483The cereal bites were my favorite.

Breakfast in the leaves and on the go.

DSC05513Iced coffee with maple syrup and Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.  For some reason I enjoyed the buttered rum far better leftover the 2nd day.

DSC05520Overnight oats.

DSC05517A nearly empty Biscoff jar was filled with raw oats, almond milk, and chia seeds and then pumpkin Greek yogurt was stirred in the next morning.

DSC05515Very good, but I finally decided that this yogurt is a bit too sour for me, and I’m glad it’s gone now.

I normally try to stop after 1 (large) coffee so I don’t lose sleep, but I couldn’t turn down a 2nd when I received this e-mail:

DSC05525Free?  Yes, please!

DSC05546I got a non-fat caramel brulee latte and loved it before ultimately determining that this flavor is too sweet, even for me.  When December rolls around I’ll stick to eggnog lattes.

Cereal squared.

DSC05596A packet of Vanilla Blast Snackimals that I got “trick or treating” at Whole Foods.  <– such a good marketing idea; I loved it and now plan on buying a box and if I hadn’t tasted it I definitely would not have thought to purchase this particular cereal

DSC05587And a serving of Adam’s Boo Berry.  <– not gonna lie, I liked this layer quite a bit too!

DSC05589I topped my big bowl with raspberries and skim milk.

DSC05594I almost went back for seconds, I enjoyed this so much.

lunches

Sunny side salad.

DSC05491Baby spinach dressed with pink salt and 1 tsp each evoo and honey, topped with TJ’s 90 days aged crumbly Gorgonzola (a cow and sheep’s milk blend) and a sunny-side up egg.

DSC05497I made that egg myself and was so proud, usually Adam has to make them if we eat anything but scrambled!  And a Sweet Tango on the side.

DSC05499This variety might be topping Honeycrisp this season.

Bareburger.

DSC05539DSC05537I got a small Cobb salad.  Baby romaine / Wisconsin blue / turkey bacon / hard-boiled egg / Hass avocado / grape tomatoes / raw red onion / buttermilk ranch

DSC05545I had them sub in aged fig balsamic for the ranch, but I ended up not even using it because the salad was so good naked.  I need to find better lettuce for salads at home!

Plus Adam and I split a side order of spicy pickle chips.

DSC05541Out of this world, nice and crunchy.  His parents loved their burgers as well; Bareburger is becoming our go-to place to take out-of-towners.

Señor Nacho.

DSC05578DSC05576DSC05573I ordered another salad.  Iceberg (boo nutritionally but nice and crispy) topped with pico de gallo, lime, queso fresco, and avocado.

DSC05580Plus a plate of Maduros which I shared with the table.

DSC05582I love sweet plantains.  We were all impressed with SN, and plan on going back.

dinners

Leftovers magic.

DSC05506We turned our Halloween mac & cheese leftovers into something magical by burning cooking them in a skillet with evoo, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and eggs.

DSC05505Topped with sour cream and Sriracha, the former of which was a big mistake.

I didn’t have to cook.

DSC05606My MIL always brings Adam pot roast when she visits and this time she made me a dish too.  Seasoned chicken on spaghetti with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.

DSC05613For our vegetable component we ate the rest of my salad, topped with honey, evoo, and tons of blue cheese.

DSC05609Those big chunks of cheese were outstanding.

desserts

Cookie monster ghost.

DSC05584My MIL delivered sugar cookies that had been beautifully decorated by our nieces.

Cake(s).  There was a lot to celebrate this weekend.  My MIL’s birthday is today {Happy Birthday, Barb!} so Adam and I fulfilled her life-long tasting dream and picked up slices of cheesecake from Juniors.

DSC05529DSC05531Traditional and chocolate swirl.

DSC05563But since they weren’t sure when we’d get together next, my in-laws also came prepared to celebrate Adam’s December birthday (plus Christmas and our anniversary!) too.

DSC05561Look at the giant slice of cake Adam served me alongside my cheesecake tastes!

DSC05568I left behind most of the cake, but you better believe I ate all of the frosting.

The new best thing ever.  I reheated my leftover plantains in a skillet with a bit of butter and brown sugar and then cooled them down on a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Honey Vanilla Caramel Frozen Greek Yogurt.

DSC05600Surprisingly, this dish was Adam’s idea!

leaves

DSC05551DSC05521DSC05485DSC05532

Insta-Wrap-Up; III

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I haven’t actually been on my Instagram account that much lately.  Let’s just be honest – this post is an excuse to share dog pictures.  Webster hasn’t been getting that much blog love lately but my cell phone has been stocked with the cuuuuuutest shots.

{scroll down to the bottom if all you’re looking for is puntastic, meta Halloween costume pictures}

dogtastic

webster4websterwebster3webster2signs of fall

signs of fallpumpkin hand sanitizeris it weird that I’ve already purchased (and filled out) my 2014 planner?

plannersHalloween

hot dog halloween2halloween candyhot dog halloweenDid you dress your pet up this year?

Weekly Wrap-Up; All Hallow’s Eve

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Did you do anything exciting this Halloween?  We definitely did not!  I didn’t carve a pumpkin (Adam did a very nice one though), I didn’t pass out candy, I didn’t wear a costume… I didn’t even manage to wear orange and black.  In theory Halloween is one of my favorite holidays {I live for all things themed} but I always get lazy with execution.  At least I had my month of pumpkin brews.  And we certainly ate enough candy!

breakfast things

Breakfast at the ‘Bucks.  <– please don’t call it that

DSC05386Coffee for rent; a blonde roast with 3 sugars and lots of skim milk.  I have a very hard time drinking hot coffee unsweetened, it tastes much more bitter/sour than iced to me.

DSC05392Honeycrisp.

DSC05391Coconut Macaroon, a NEW flavor of LÄRABAR über that I found.  The uber line makes my favorite Larabars and I thought that this flavor was spot on.

DSC05389Plus I had another “coffee” after I left.

DSC05396I didn’t think this Harney and Sons Organic Coffee Tea actually tasted much like coffee, but the tea flavor was very nice.  I like my (bottled) teas just a bit sweet, with honey or cane sugar instead of an artificial sweetener.

Another morning I tasted the other new flavor.

DSC05440The Sticky Bun flavor was fine, nice even, but the taste was total pecans, not a hint of cinnamon to it.  I bought both flavors in duplicate when I spotted them though so expect to see this again.

On a similar note – I also didn’t think that this Brown Cow Cream Top Coffee Yogurt tasted enough like coffee.

DSC05437But it was still nice topped with honey and roasted peanuts.  I just haven’t found a coffee flavored yogurt that can match the Dannon from my childhood.

lunch and dinner things

A home version of a Moe’s bowl.

DSC05411I ate chips and salsa while I cooked to stay on theme.

DSC05401The chips were Garden of Eatin’ with Chia Seed.

DSC05403They aren’t listed on the website(?) but they are worth checking out if you spot them at your store.

Our homemade bowls were just as delicious as the original.  We used a base of TJ’s organic jasmine rice (<– microwavable!).

DSC05407Topped with taco turkey: 98% lean ground turkey cooked with diced green pepper, chicken broth, and Ortega Taco Seasoning.

DSC05413Spinach: I stacked the leaves and then sliced.  We loved it served this way!

DSC05417Caramelized onions: I always cook them this way now.

DSC05420Cheese: TJ’s 2% Mexican 4 Cheese Blend.

DSC05421And cream: a dollop of low-fat sour cream.

DSC05425All stirred together it was quite good, but this meal could have used some hot sauce.

More chia chips, this time as nachos for lunch.

DSC05428Chips with the cheddar/gouda blend melted on top in the oven.

DSC05433Plus a Sweet Tango on the side for juice.

DSC05431I made Adam loaded nachos with our taco turkey leftovers and he was crazy for them.

Whole Foods hot bar.

DSC05464Kale salad, Cesar salad, roasted butternut squash, and macaroni and cheese.

DSC05466The squash and Cesar bites were my favorite.

pumpkin(g) things

DSC05472I bought this “Halloween shapes” macaroni to serve on Thursday because we are pretty much five years old.

DSC05448I think I ended up making a pretty grown-up meal out of it.

DSC05452Salad on the bottom.  Baby spinach with gorgonzola dressed with a sprinkle of pink salt and 1 tsp each honey and evoo.

DSC05455Topped with pasta.  Mac and cheese with edamame, browned mushrooms, and a can of Bella smoked sardines in lemon olive oil.

DSC05458I am still shocked that my palate has matured enough for sardines.

Dunkin Donuts pumpkin white chocolate iced coffee with skim milk.

DSC05446Just pretend that sleeve is orange!

Harpoon Pumpkin UFO.

DSC05462This was my favorite pumpkin beer of the season but I still shared a lot of it with the husband.

ACE Pumpkin Hard Cider.

DSC05442This was definitely just apple cider with pumpkin spice (we were expecting a much squashier flavor) but it was very good.  My favorite pumpkin alcohol by far this year.  <– I actually finished my whole serving instead of passing it to the husband.

P.S.  Stay tuned for a quick post tomorrow morning, featuring… Webster in his Halloween costume!

Weekend Wrap-Up, Tres Días

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This weekend was nice and quiet, with an emphasis on the nice.  We kept things very low-key, with one day of errands and one day around the house, but had a nice time just being with each other.  I’m not saying we didn’t bicker {oh gosh, did we ever!} but we did really enjoy one another’s company.

On Saturday, we went on the best, most ridiculous, dinner date to the Cheesecake Factory.  I started out not being able to take pictures but by the end of the meal I didn’t even want to take pictures because it would have distracted from my time with the husband.  Sidenote – am I just getting old or do they keep it really dark in there?!  We were making each other laugh so hard.  We shared several things and came home with tons upon tons of leftovers.  Dessert (our second (third?!) of the day) was the best part.  The waitress came over to tell us about a s’mores cheesecake with ganache and toasted marshmallow fluff and I interrupted to say that we were exploding, but by the time she got back with the bill Adam ordered us a slice!  Ridiculous.  And delicious.

Here are some of the bites that I did manage to photograph…

Fall flavors yogurt bowl.

DSC053260% plain Fage topped with pumpkin butter, toasted pecans, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

DSC05329Fage is so nice and creamy.

Tropical trip yogurt bowl.

DSC05360Muller Pineapple Passion Fruit Greek Corner topped with half a banana and some chopped mango.

DSC05361I am very excited about the mango left in the fridge.

Brinner, aka breakfast for dinner.

DSC05336Potatoes, sliced and roasted in pink salt, dried rosemary, and olive oil.

DSC05343For the eggs; frozen spinach cooked in chicken broth with eggs scrambled in – eggs whisked with low-fat sour cream and smoked paprika – and a 2% Mexican 4-cheese blend tossed in towards the end.

DSC05346Lately I’ve been loving adding something creamy like cottage cheese or sour cream to my scrambled eggs.

Pumpkin beer.

DSC05334Sam Adam’s Fat Jack Double Pumpkin.

DSC05333Unfortunately I haven’t been loving the pumpkin brews this season; they all start to taste a sour to me a few sips in.  Adam got the lion’s share of this bottle.

Ice cream. Ben & Jerry Chocolate Peppermint Crunch.

DSC05348I bought this to make a milkshake for the husband with but I ate several bowls of it this weekend.  The chocolate is so dark and the mint swirl is just like the inside of a Jr Mint.

Tres Leches!!

DSC05349From the Buttercooky Bakery.  They served it with fruit on top and a layer of dulce de leche in the middle.

DSC05353Tres Leches is both of our number one favorite dessert (usually we prefer different sweet things, though I have gotten him sucked into my s’mores obsession).

Hot bar from Whole Foods.

DSC05324I did roasted broccoli, a small scoop of Cesar salad, a big scoop of kale salad, and two fried plantains for dessert.

DSC05318With a fancy bottled drink.  Plan Tea Organic Black Tea with Vanilla and Basil.

DSC05323The tea made this meal feel extra special!

Cheese plate.

DSC05365We each had our own.  Adam got asparagus and matzoh with his basics and my extras were green beans and persimmon. Honeycrisp.

DSC05375TJ’s Cheddar and Gruyere Mélange Cheese.

DSC05367Alter Eco Dark Velvet Truffle.

DSC05384Roasted green beans.

DSC05378And a nice, mushy persimmon.

DSC05381I really liked the flavor of the flesh (I’ve tried an unripe persimmon and it sucks all of the moisture out of your mouth), but I’m still not sure whether or not I was supposed to eat the hard skin.  I picked it off with my fingernails but it didn’t make for the nicest eating experience.

Next weekend my in-laws are coming for their first LI visit!  I just hope we have some nice week days in between.