Turkey Week Eats

by Emily

I hope that all of my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We didn’t do anything fancy to celebrate, but I sure was thankful for the four-day workweek! My million-point list of things I’m thankful for also includes this gorgeous city…

Random Thoughts

I made the toffee candy for a work birthday party, this time following the original recipe.

I think my version with graham crackers and pretzels is better, the saltines got a bit soggy.

I reread To Kill a Mockingbird this week in anticipation of starting Go Catch a Watchman and cried on the train at least ten times.

TKM is one of my favorite books but I had forgotten what a fabulous writer Harper Lee is in the few years since I had last reread it. Atticus is my all-time favorite character. I love him even more than Ghosh from Cutting for Stone.

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Daytime Eats

This week’s tea – Adagio’s Pumpkin Spice (former freebie).

With treats from the birthday party… including pie made with fresh coconut

Or with pumpkin applesauce and biscotti.

This week’s coffee – Community Coffee’s Breakfast Blend with skim milk and sugar.

Cafeteria lunch salads. Romaine, blue cheese dressing, carrot, cucumber, tomato, olive, pickle, black eyed peas, and pasta salad.

Romaine, ranch, carrot, cucumber, tomato, olive, pickle, corn salsa, cheddar, and chickpeas.

Romaine, blue cheese dressing, carrot, olive, tomato, cucumber, corn, cheddar, and cole slaw.

And home on Turkey Day I was thankful for yogurt bowls.

Plain Greek yogurt topped with cranberry sauce, pomegranate, chia seeds, and praline pecan maple granola. Best bowl of the year.

Nighttime Eats

I met up with girlfriends for drinks early in the week. Pork Slope never disappoints. They had Sorachi Ace, Adam’s favorite beer which is now my favorite beer. It just goes down so easily!

I also had a ridiculous fall shandy – gin, maple bitters, simple syrup, lemon juice, and cider.

Dinners were all about the bird! We cooked turkey breasts in the crock pot on Sunday and then shredded them into meals all week.

Turkey tossed with TJ’s whole-wheat butternut squash goyza on top of sautéed shredded Brussels sprouts with pecans.

Topped with gruyere cheese and cranberry sauce.

Turkey tossed with bbq sauce on a brioche bun (toasted with Smart Balance) with cranberry sauce and goat’s milk brie.

With roasted green beans on the side. Year’s best sandwich!

For Thanksgiving dinner we decided to go super traditional – nachos. TJ’s stuffing flavored kettle chips topped with turkey, gruyere, smoked paprika, and cranberry sauce.

With hericot verts roasted with shallots. So much better than the usual meal! Plus pumpkin pie,

aka Rogue’s Pumpkin Patch Ale.

Friday night, once the turkey celebration was over, Adam and I went on a dinner date in the Lower East Side. Coffee while we walked around Chinatown.

Ice cream at Ice & Vice. Milk Money = toasted milk, sea salt, and chocolate ganache and Shade = smoked dark chocolate with caramelized white chocolate ganache. I’m usually not one for chocolate ice cream but this was fantastic.

Then dinner at Mission Chinese Food. With complimentary dumplings to start.

I ordered the Tea Ceremony – matcha, melon, and fizzy wine.

We shared the green papaya salad with smoked chicken, green tomato, peanuts, and pickled tea leaves.

And I ordered the spicy peanut noodles, with cucumber, mint, and numbing oil.

They were chewy, savory, and beyond tingly; numbing oil is good but intense! The mint was really wonderful with the spice. All in all a good meal, though not as epic as the thousand-plus articles I’d read about the restaurant would have had me believe.

23Nov2015

A Menagerie Of Markets

by Emily

Adam and I went to four different holiday markets/festivals/fairs this weekend. We didn’t actually purchase anything (other than food!) but it was fun to window shop.

Bryant Park Winter Village.

Union Square Holiday Market. <– this one was the best

Holiday Fair at Grand Central.

And Urban Space – Vanderbilt. <– this one was just a food court

We also had double pizza and hot chocolate! Here is some of the other good stuff…

lunch

Hospital cafeteria – fish taco salad.

Greens with ranch, guacamole, corn and tomato salsa, cheddar, and a piece of white fish and a hard-boiled egg.

Urban Space: Asia Dog. We got the Ginny – kimchi and seaweed flakes – on top of an amazingly smoky chicken dog. With a Genny cream ale!

We also got pizza from Roberta’s.

Cheesus Christ = mozzarella, taleggio, parmigano, black pepper, and cream = my favorite pizza.

Root & Bone – Mascato and macaroni and cheese with a biscuit and thyme crust.

The sweet wine went very well with the cheese.

dessert

Froyo. They had Nutella crunch.

With all of the sprinkles.

Boba Guys’ NYC pop up. Boba Guys is a San Francisco company that uses loose leaf teas and local milks. We loved them on our SF visit last fall.

We got Horchata and Thai Tea.

Hot Chocolate with a ginormous marshmallow from City Bakery.

The chocolate is very dark and the marshmallow is very sweet so together they are perfect. However, this couldn’t hold a candle to…

…Max Brenner‘s drinking chocolate.

Best drink, best dessert, best chocolate item of all time. I can barely drink it because I have to stop and die of happiness after every sip. It is sooooo thick, and sweet but not too sweet.

dinner

Milkflower – more pizza.

S.T. the Ghost = Grafton cheddar, mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and burnt honey. This sounds like it should be my favorite pizza, but sadly it wasn’t.

We also had lackluster pasta; bucatini with tomatoes, chili, olive oil, and stracciatella cheese.

We loved the look of Milkflower but the meal just wasn’t as fantastic as it sounded. Dessert was on point though.

Chocolate budino (pudding) with espresso cream and Maldon sea salt. The components went together amazingly; the salt took the pudding over the top.

Sandwich night – roasted turkey and avocado on a brioche bun (toasty baked with Smart Balance) with Sriracha mayo.

Plus apple and baby carrots on the side.

Partial Thanksgiving dinner – another easy night, thanks to cranberry sauce and chicken sausage and cornbread stuffing from Trader Joe’s.

Plus great salads. Arugula / maple pumpkin seeds and rosemary sunflower seeds / dried cranberries and fresh pomegranate / cheddar / honey, evoo, balsamic, and lavender salt.

NYC friends – are there any other hot chocolates I need to check out??

20Nov2015

BEC, FTW

by Emily

Big life change alert – I have a new job. As of Monday this week I officially transferred over to the inpatient nutrition team full-team. I am very sad to no longer be working with prenatal clients on an outpatient basis but the job opened up I knew that it was time for me to get back to my roots with acute care. My new job lets me work with and learn from other Dietitians on a daily basis and gives me exposure to a much greater scope of practice. I’m excited about it.

My new job comes with a nice perk – free meals from the cafeteria, so you are going to see some big changes in my weekly lunches. And this transition week was unbelievably busy so there were a lot of bites that missed the camera. You’ll just have to picture a lot of snacking, both candy at my desk and copious taste-testing while preparing dinners. Plus a lot more coffee, of course. Here the bites I did capture…

breakfast

Coffee! With a SweeTango apple.

Or a Nonni’s caramel apple biscotti and a persimmon.

Or a Fiber One cheesecake strawberry bar and a persimmon.

This week’s coffee masterpiece was Grady’s Cold Brew with skim & vanilla almond milks.

lunch

My old team brought in a giant cake on my last day. So sweet!

I ate a serious amount of frosting.

Now that I’m “buying” lunch instead of packing my yogurt bowls {tear!} you’re going to see a lot of salads and sandwiches. Romaine / ranch / cheddar / chickpeas / veggies / cole slaw.

Romaine / ranch / corn salsa / peppers / maple pumpkin seeds.

Plus chocolate a new coworker brought me.

Yesterday I had a simple sandwich. Toasted wheat bread, mayo, turkey, pepperjack. Plus a carton of chocolate milk.

Apparently I’m six.

dinner

In spite of the fact that Adam and I both had crazy weeks, our dinners were all winners. We let the crockpot help out one night. Chicken breasts topped with bbq sauce and fresh cranberries and set on low for 8 hours.

We’ve made this dish three winters in a row now and it is always wonderful. Served with roasted green beans and TJ’s sprouted California rice. And a Warlock pumpkin stout.

We used leftovers in our BECFR, aka Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Fried Rice.

Rice stir-fried in olive oil with turkey bacon and chunks of cheddar and eggs. Roasted cruciferous veggies on the side.

I’ll toot my own horn – cheese in fried rice is freaking genius. We tried to watch “Fresh Off the Boat” while we ate but I was mmmning so loudly that we kept having to pause.

Finally, a quick salad.

Baby spinach / feta dressing / cucumber / pumpkin seeds / roasted coconut chips / avocado / turkey bacon / and goat’s milk Brie.

It’s been an exciting work-week but I am feeling ready for the weekend!

16Nov2015

Weekend’s Best…

by Emily

{Brunch} Adam and I had a great meal at Burnside Biscuits.

A great, giant meal. The Full Ration = 2 pieces of black tea, lemon, and thyme brined fried chicken; pimento cheese biscuits; and sunny side up eggs.

Plus a salty dog.

Everything was yummy, the chicken was both succulent and crispy.

{Lunch} Yogurt bowl. Honey Greek yogurt with pumpkin puree and maple pecan granola.

Plus a persimmon. Plus an apple and a cup of earl grey moonlight as a snack.

{Dessert} Birthday cake frozen yogurt with Nutella sauce.

Plus mochi and Reese’s cup.

{Dinner} Cheeseburger fried rice.

This was a homemade success. Brown jasmine rice stir-fried with eggs, tomato, basil, onion, cheddar cheese, and lean ground turkey.

Broccoli on the side.

The addition of cheese to the fried rice was a good one. We have a similar meal planned for next week now.

13Nov2015

This Week’s Top Five; Product Reviews Galore

by Emily

I didn’t plan on doing a bulk review, I just happened to use a lot of new product samples this week. It works out well for those of you who hate product reviews because you can just skip this post and miss a whole set at once.

Disclosure – all of the starred (**) items in this post were provided to me gratis to review. I was not given further compensation for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

Reminder – I only tasted one flavor each of the sauces and teas; I will continue to blog about the other varieties as I try them.

{1} Starbuck’s Chicken Santa Fe Sandwich

Not a freebie, just a product I’m obsessed with. I don’t even have them heat it up! The combo of crispy bell peppers, chewy flatbread, and creamy green-chile spread is so darn tasty.

{2} Pumpkin coconut chia yogurt bowl

This was the week’s best lunch, though that’s not much of a victory considering the fact that I ate cold pizza at my desk for lunch on two separate occasions. TJ’s coconut yogurt with pumpkin puree, roasted coconut chips, and chia seeds.

{3} Arbonne Essentials Protein Shake Mixes**

While I don’t think that protein powders are necessary for most people – you can meet your needs with whole foods! – I acknowledge that they can be a good option when you are in a rush or eating on the go. I am never going to bring eggs on the train but I can certainly pack a smoothie for my commute. Each packet provides 20 grams of vegan protein and 2 grams of fiber for 160 calories and 3.5 grams of unsaturated fat. <– mixed in a glass of cow’s milk that would provide more than 50% of my protein needs for the day.

Making protein smoothies is exactly what I did this week. Vanilla protein powder with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and ice.

The next day was the same, but with chocolate. And with a chocolate cranberry biscotti on the side.

These certainly did fill me up, I didn’t even have room for coffee one day. I thought the flavor was passable but not fantastic, but it is worth noting that these powders are sweetened with cane sugar and stevia and I generally can’t stand the taste of stevia. I haven’t tried the daily fiber mix yet but I will report back when I do.

{4} Adagio Teas**

Adagio is a company that sells loose-leaf teas sourced directly from Artisan farmers. Their product selection is divided up very helpfully, the website lists teas by type (white, black, oolong, etc, including a variety of tea blends) and they have several sampler variety packages as well as the option to purchase a small sample of each type of tea (and they list the cost per cup for each option). Also cool? There is a section of the site where consumers can design and list their own blends and there is an immense selection of fandom blends. I basically had a heart attack over all the Supernatural and Buffy options but I decided to stick with the simpler stuff for now.

Adagio offered me a gift certificate and I was able picked a variety of teas. I also ordered some paper filters to brew them in. <– I’m sold, the filters were easy to pack and worked perfectly.

I don’t usually drink a ton of tea (duh, I’m a coffee fanatic!) but I’m hoping including a cup or two in the afternoon at work will help me to get closer to actually drinking enough water each day. This week I packed my paper filters with Earl Grey Moonlight.

Since the tea is loose you can see the citrus rind and blue cornflowers in with the black tea leaves which I thought was fun. It was no coffee, but this was the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. My sample pouch will make 10 very reasonably priced 20 cent cups. I’m looking forward to teatime next week.

{5} Bertolli Riserva pasta sauces**

The newest line from Bertolli is made with artisanal ingredients and no artificial colors. The 24 oz bottles retail for ~$5.99 which is comparable to other similar (but less delicious) options. Flavors include Marinara with Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese, Balsamic Vinegar with Caramelized Onions, Asiago Cheese with Artichokes, and Porcini Mushroom with White Truffle Oil.

They all sound pretty wonderful to me but I decided to go simple and try Marinara first. Each half cup serving has 110 calories. Unfortunately each serving also has 450 mg of sodium (more than 20% of the no more than 2 grams of sodium most people should limit themselves to each day), but the sauce is so rich and yummy that a little goes a long way – we used the marinara in 5 dinner servings this week and still have a good third of the bottle left.

We let the sauce shine on a plain – but fantastic! – pizza first. TJ’s frozen crust topped with sauce, fresh mozzarella, and torn fresh basil.

Then we gussied it up with veggies and meat for pasta bowls.

Roasted zucchini and tomato + sautéed ground turkey with basil and yellow onion + tossed with marinara / served on whole-wheat rotini / with sharp cheddar on top.

The final product was full of umami. These bowls were the best meal of the month!

What was your best meal so far this month?

9Nov2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Time with my husband.

Adam has been on his break for the past two weeks and we have had the absolute best time going out on date nights after my work days. I love every single minute with him!

We loved the minutes so much that I couldn’t be bothered to take out my camera most of the time. We ate some really fantastic meals over the past week and this post only has photos of three of them. Plus an Instagram shot of the best ice cream of all time –

Ice & Vice rocked our freaking faces off. We got a fantastic trio: Milk Money = toasted milk, sea salt, dark chocolate ganache; Splinters = smoked whiskey barrel wood, cracker jack brittle; 9 am = vietnamese coffee, doughnut truffle. All three were amazing (Milk Money was best) and they went together perfectly.

{2} An eggcellent meal at Egg Shop.

I got the drink special – Vodka, St. Germain, fresh lemon juice, watermelon, mint, and a prosecco float.

And we started with the poached burrata -yolk stuffed burrata cheese, crispy chickpeas, tomato agrodolce, and truffle toast. This was our first time trying burrata and it was wonderful.

For dinner I got roasted Brussel sprouts with lemon vinaigrette and two poached eggs.

This dish was so simple, just veggies with eggs, and so delicious, one of my favorite restaurant plates of all time. I was literally shoveling it into my mouth.

{3} Emily loves pizza at Pizza Loves Emily.

<– actually our meal was only ok, but the wordplay was too great to pass up. Our Modern (double sauce, mixed herbs, garlic, basil, double pecorino, onion, and Sichuan oil) was light on cheese and a little burnt.

My drink was great though.

Dune Deck – Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, lime, and spiced grenadine. I’ll love you if you stick a Luxardo cherry in my drink.

{4} Dinner at home.

I’ll pat myself on the back, this was one of the best meals of the week.

Roasted green beans and Naan from La Brea Bakery.

Scrambled eggs with shredded chicken breast and sharp cheddar.

I cooked the eggs on high heat so they were almost burnt and we loved them.

{5} Yogurt bowls for lunch.

Strawberry Fage with pumpkin o’s, pecans, blackberries, and pomegranate.

A very spring-y blackberry and lemon mix.

And then it was back to fall with pomegranate, chia seeds, pecans, and maple pumpkin seeds.

Now it’s back to work. I hope everyone has a nice week!

4Nov2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Date night in Chelsea.

Last Friday we went on a fabulous Manhattan date after work. The High Line at sunset.

Gansevoort Market for an Oreo whoopie pie(at The Bruffin).

Chelsea Market for Ramen (at Mok Bar). Vegan miso ramen – Kombu shiitake doenjang broth / tofu / triple seasonal vegetable / crispy potato. Made un-vegan with a poached egg on top.

And finally a trip through the Whitney Museum.

The 6th floor was my favorite.

{2} City desserts.

The Fat Witch is making sparkly green Emerald City Witches, aka mint chip brownies.

And Brooklyn Cupcake‘s cakes are on point.

We tried french toast, tres leches, and guava cheese!!

{3} Pota-topia potato bowls.

I got waffle fries with all of the veggies, smoked gouda, and truffle aioli.

We were very impressed. Our mall’s food court has gotten downright fancy.

{4} Pumpkin yogurt bowl lunch.

Whole Foods pumpkin spice yogurt, chia seeds, maple pumpkin seeds, and TJ’s pumpkin o’s.

Fun, but I pretty much hate the texture of regular (not Greek) yogurt.

{5} Pumpkin beer on Halloween.

We spent Halloween afternoon in Williamsburg checking out the fantastic hipster costumes. We enjoyed mead and a Chelsea Brewing Company pumpkin pie beer while playing games at Barcade.

Plus we had a very taste lunch at Sugarburg. <– we will be back!

29Oct2015

St. Thomas, October 2015

by Emily

Adam and I took a long weekend and went home to visit my parents last Friday. It was great! We hit the beach, tried some new restaurants and ate at old favorites, caught up with family, and just had a fabulous time.

Here were some of the highlights…

Lots of fancy coffee.

Including an almond joy iced latte from Barefoot Buddha. Alongside a Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich, aka the – egg frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, chipotle aioli, tomoto-onion coulis, fresh spinach – sandwich I ate on my wedding day!

Bailey’s Delight milkshake from Udder Delight.

Rum and cokes from Woody’s happy hour.

Maple shortbread cookies my mom makes every year.

Pumpkin Chobani with homemade chocolate chip cookie and candied walnuts and ground flax.

Fish tacos on the beach at Iggy’s.

Quick dinner at home for board game night.

Turkey Reuben with smoked turkey, gouda, and cole slaw on rye. Plus green beans sautéed with almonds. And we had locally made chocolates for dessert.

A delicious dinner at The Long Board in St. John. The Carib Sour = Bullet bourbon, Luxardo amaretto, lemon juice, honey, egg white, and whiskey barrel aged bitters.

We started with fried plantains and chicken wings with mango glaze and garlic-lemon aioli.

And my dinner was a salad with romaine, red cabbage, shredded carrot, wakame seaweed, sriracha, crispy wonton, ginger mandarin vinaigrette, and Korean bbq chicken.

Everything was wonderful, just like our trip!