Valentine’s Weekend

by Emily

Did everyone have a good Valentine’s Day? I hope you got a kiss from your sweetheart, or even better – ate some chocolate kisses and conversation hearts!

Adam and I had a fabulous weekend. Thank goodness for Presidents’ Day off, even though he worked a 30-hour shift on Sunday – and I spent the day sans pants, in bed, eating Thai take-out – we still had two days to have fun in the city. The best part of the weekend was probably Monday night though, we cuddled on the couch eating Chipotle and watching the SNL 40th anniversary show. I’m typing this post up while we watch but so far I am in absolute nostalgia heaven! Here are some of the weekend highlights…

We were not grumpy about getting coffee.

Adam is obsessed with their flat whites.

We made pink Valentine’s Day smoothies.

Frozen raspberries, plain Greek yogurt, fresh dates, and Hint of Honey Almond Breeze. Perfect blend (get it?? blend) of sweet and sour.

We checked out the Cupcake ATM from Sprinkles.

So cool, Adam loooved it. We tried the Cuban Coffee, “Belgian light chocolate cake topped with powerful dark roast coffee frosting and subtle notes of cinnamon and cocoa.”

I didn’t care for the cake but the frosting was wonderful.

We went out for a very romantic Valentine’s dinner of beer and Thai food. First Left Hand Milk Stout on draft.

Then we checked out the highly recommended Pure Thai Cookhouse. My Pad See Ew was tasty,

but for “Thai spicy” it could have packed a lot more heat. I did not even need this Thai iced tea.

We did try to get ice cream afterwards though.

Try being the operative word. I had such high expectations for Ben & Jerry’s new Speculoos (aka Biscoff!) flavor but it ended up being inedible; terribly ginger-spicy. Instead we made amazing sundaes at home.

Talenti cookie dough gelato, Girl & the Fig salted fig caramel, and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs.

We went to Serendipity.

I’ve never strayed, I always order the Summer Bries sandwich which comes with turkey, apple, sprouts, brie, and Russian dressing on raisin pumpernickel.

We tried something new for dessert, the Insanity Sundae.

Pecan pie, butter pecan ice cream, wet walnuts, whipped cream, and hot fudge. It was insane, we could barely make a dent in it.

Speaking of sweets and love – check back in this afternoon, I’ve got a giveaway coming!

14Feb2015

Weekly Wrap-Up? Yes Please!

by Emily

happenings

As promised, here is a picture of my gaudy new cell phone –

I’m liking it more now that I’ve gotten used to the new system.

This week I gave an hour-long nutrition presentation at a women’s shelter near the hospital. We talked primarily about added sugars, reading nutrition labels, and the plate method.

I opened with an activity where we compared the sugar content of different beverages.

I started reading Amy Poehler’s memoir, Yes Please. I am halfway through and completely smitten.

It is just as hilarious and inspiring as you’d expect it to be. And her relationship with Seth Meyers – he guest writes a chapter – makes me love both of them more if that’s even possible.

breakfast

Coffee and a chocolate coconut water.

Latte and an Opal apple.

Stumptown cold-brew box with turkey jerky and dates.

Coffee (duh!) and yummy hot chocolate with marshmallows that the hospital administration had for employee appreciation day.

They also had a bunch of cookies out, but it was 9 o’clock in the morning and one of the midwives brought in bagels for the clinic so I went with one of those instead.

I definitely made the right choice, my pumpernickel bagel was splendidly chewy. Also – I poured my marshmallow cocoa into my coffee after it had cooled down and it was ridiculous.

lunch

From home – yogurt bowl.

Blueberries, Heritage Flakes, and a Dannon butterscotch Greek yogurt.

From the cafeteria – a turkey sandwich and baked fries.

My sandwich had turkey, provolone, mayo, mustard, lettuce and red peppers and my fries had a side of blue cheese.

From home – another yogurt bowl.

An Opal apple and plain Fage with amazing 18 Rabbits Caramel Apple Granola.

From the cafeteria – a giant chicken quesadilla.

With cheese, chopped bell peppers, and sour cream and guacamole on the side. I planned on only eating half because it was quite big, but it was so good I ended up demolishing the whole thing.

Dinner leftovers (see the scrambled egg night) on top of spinach with ranch, chopped carrot, and cucumber from the cafeteria.

The salad bar packed lunch mash-up was perfect, I’ll have to remember to repeat it the next time I’m getting tired of my yogurt bowls.

snack

Adorable gummies from last weekend.

Baby carrots and dip.

I made an oatmeal chocolate chip mug cookie. It was quite enjoyable but basically raw so not a recipe for sharing.

Jarlsberg mini cheese.

Chocolate milk.

Coffee with almond milk.

Sundaes that Adam and I made with this dream team:

Girl & The Fig’s salted fig caramel is perfect.

dinner

Bibimbap bowls. I couldn’t get a great picture, but these were sooo good. Runny egg yolk goes wonderfully with spice.

Jasmine rice with rice vinegar // baked tofu cubes // broccoli and baby kale sautéed with canola oil, a bit of sugar, and tons of Sriracha // chopped sesame seaweed // and a sunny side up egg.

We used the leftovers the next day for another Asian-ish dinner.

Leftover rice and veggies stir-fried with sautéed onion, eggs, fish sauce, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

Plus “beef and broccoli” aka chicken with broccoli and cauliflower.

I way overcooked the chicken and this was not very good.

I guess the next day was pretty similar as well. I sautéed chopped seitan, corn, and spinach in evoo and Sriracha and then scrambled in eggs and part-skim mozzarella.

It tasted so much better than it looked.

Chipotle in front of the tv on Friday. We were supposed to go into Brooklyn but it was terrifically cold outside and changing into pajamas just sounded too good.

Chicken rice bowl with sautéed veggies, three types of salsa, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce. Plus chips. There’s a giant diet coke just to the right of that photo ❤

Have you read any actor memoirs that you loved? I was a HUGE fan of Mindy Kaling’s too and I’m excited for Tina Fey’s next.

12Feb2015

What I’m Loving Around The Web

by Emily

A mash-up of my lists of blog posts/jokes that I think are great and my rambling posts about things that are rocking my world. In list format, unorganized, and in no particular order, 10 things from the recent internets that give me good feels…

{1} Farrah of Fairyburger, a third year medical student, wrote a guest post on Hypertension Prevention. {via Zen & Spice}

{2} I don’t know if this is true, but I hope with all of my heart that it is. {source}

{3} Raise Healthy Eaters lists Five Popular Pieces of Nutrition Advice That Fall Short. She updates these old-standbys to help them more realistically apply to your life.

{4} Everyone knows that the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird is maybe coming out this summer, right?? This book was actually written first, and I really hope that Lee actually consents to its release because TKM is one of my all-time favorite books and I so want to be excited. Buzzfeed published a round-up of some important TKM quotes.

{5} I cannot think of a better way to describe my life in twenty words; this is me – {source}

{6} This is also me – {source}

{7} Meals for Miles explains why Dietitians hate Diets That Are “Free” of Something. Instead she recommends foods to add to your diet.

{8} On a related note, A House in the Hills posted a tongue-in-check Definitive Guide to Healthy Eating. I love the way she showcases all of the conflicting, confusing, “healthy eating” advice.

{9} This is so true! Mine’s a tie between the stegosaurs and the pterodactyl, fyi. {source}

{10} Buzzfeed posted Neil Degrasse Tyson giving an epic explanation of the meaning of life.

10Feb2015

Sweeter Than Sugar Valentine’s Tour With Sugartooth

by Emily

Last Saturday, Adam and I were invited on a sweet dessert tasting tour of in the city.

Sugartooth Tours, formed by best friends who bonded over a love of theatre and ice cream, offers several NYC-based dessert tours. Right now all of the tours take place in Manhattan, but Allyson gave me the inside scoop that they are testing out a Brooklyn tour to be debuted this summer. Some of the tours include a Village Cupcake Crawl, an Ice Cream Summer Sundays Frozen Treats Tour, several mixed treats tours around Hell’s Kitchen, Broadway, and Chelsea/the West Village, and the option of personalized itineraries for small group celebrations.

The tours range in size from 3 – 16 people and are guided by one of the knowledgeable and friendly co-founders. You walk from nosh to nosh – usually 6 stops in total and no more than 2 miles – learning about the history of the neighborhood on your way. It takes about 2 and half hours from start to finish. Tickets are $50 per person and include all tastings. You also have a bit of time at the stops to purchase additional items to take home if you are so inclined, but there is definitely no pressure to buy anything.

The Chelsea/West Village option, the Sweeter Than Sugar Dessert Tour, is available year-round at 4pm on Sundays. For a limited time, they have updated it with a Valentine’s theme for the upcoming Festival of Love and Candy. The updated tour includes Valentine’s history trivia – most of it more gory than gushy – and is taken in pairs so you can experience the fun with your sweetheart (or your mom, no judgment!). This is the tour we were invited to take.

Special hours for the Sweeter Than Sugar Valentine’s Tour are February 13th, 14th, & 15th at 5:30 PM and February 14th & 15th at 2PM. If you’re interested, you can sign up on the website here.

General thoughts on the tour:

Adam and I both had a wonderful time (the 2.5 hours flew by) and agree that we would like to check out Sugartooth Tours again on our own this summer.
The tours run rain or shine, so be sure to dress accordingly. We got lucky with a “warm” 40 degree night, but you kept moving when you were outside so there wasn’t much time to get cold.
Bring water! Sugar makes me quite thirsty.
We ended up taking home lots of leftovers, so save yourself some extra room in your bag.

The stops:

{1} We started at City Cakes, who are known for their gorgeous cake decorating but have also branched out into giant 1/2 pound cookies that are baked 3 times and reshaped in between trips to the oven.

Some of the flavors included chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, ginger spice, triple chocolate with clove, and peanut butter with Reeses Pieces. Adam I got red velvet stuffed with cream cheese frosting.

Crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, this was delicious. Note – you got the entire cookie, they just cut it in halves so you can eat while you walk.

{2} Next we headed into Chelsea Market to Amy’s Bread for hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.

Their hot chocolate is pure ganache mixed with steamed milk. It wasn’t as gloriously thick as the stuff from Max Brenner, but it was flavorful and not too sweet. The marshmallows were the best we’ve ever had. Adam usually turns up his nose at marshmallows on cocoa but even he loved it.

Note – we were encouraged to fill up the (full-sized) cup, and even refill for the road, but I was trying to pace myself.

{3} Then we trekked on the High Line – gorgeous at night – to Sugar Factory, a Vegas import famous for their rhinestone-bedazzled lollipop sticks, of course.

They also had giant walls of candy and we were given small take-out boxes and told to go crazy.

They had a good variety, including cola bottles, chocolate-covered gummy bears, and several themed options for Valentine’s.

{4} Heading into West Village, we stopped at Chocolate Bar where we were taught the proper way to taste a truffle. CB was a cute spot, boasting many nicely wrapped, fun flavors.

Adam was enticed into buying (and eating) a full-sized candy bar!

They had a good variety of truffles, and I choose grapefruit and cajeta.

Cajeta = condensed milk caramel = Mexican dulce de leche = swoon.

{5} Allyson noted that you pretty much have to include macarons, and they felt that Sugar & Plumm has the best in Manhattan.

They have some inventive flavors – strawberry poppyseed, violet blackcurrant, chocolate-covered banana! – and are made in New Jersey so they don’t suffer from a long shipping time from France.

I very much enjoyed the salted caramel and Adam, who “hates” macarons, went back for seconds of the pistachio!

{6} Finally, we ended at Sweet Revenge for chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes. They are known for their cupcake and wine or beer pairings so we had the option of paying extra for the recommended Malbec or Hefeweizen, but everyone on our tour opted to take their cupcake to go.

So, six; apparently six desserts is overkill 😉

Please note – Sugartooth Tours brought Adam and I on the tour free of charge so we could see what it was all about. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

9Feb2015

Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

random facts

I finished reading my latest book on Friday – Fairyland, a memoir about growing up with an openly gay father in San Francisco in the 80’s. (Not much of a)spoiler alert – he dies of AIDS related complications. I was wracked with sobs for the last quarter of the book. Steve Abbot was a published author who kept detailed journals his entire adulthood and wrote copious letters to Alysia while she was in college, so she had a lot of source material to pull from which was nice; it was practically a biography within a memoir.
A big chunk of Saturday is missing because we went on a fun foodie tour and I am devoting a whole post to it. (coming tomorrow)
We upgraded our phones on Sunday. My new Galaxy is giant and tacky, obnoxiously gold.

breakfast

Adam and I tried the new raspberry white chocolate coffee from Dunkin’.

Our opinions ranged from good to meh. I still want to try the Starbucks version.

Cereal bowl.

Cocoa Pebbles and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes. Pebbles have absolutely no flavor and were deeply disappointing.

Oatmeal bowl.

Rolled oats – cooked in the microwave – with 1 heaping Tbsp each chopped pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, and brown sugar. Plus milk on top.

Coffee from 7-11 with wasabi almonds.

Yes, that was a terrible combination.

lunch

Chipotle!

White rice / chicken / black beans / sautéed veggies / fresh salsa / tomatillo salsa / sour cream / cheese. I would normally get lettuce but I split this bowl with Adam and he didn’t want it. I’ve stopped putting the corn salsa on my bowls in general because even though it’s tasty it isn’t really necessary to pile another carb on top of a rice bowl.

Adam went to a post-ABSITE surgical exam party and brought home leftover mini pizzas.

Paired with green juice.

NYC Jamba Juices recently introduced a new line of 12 oz Cold-Pressed Juice bottles and they sent me a $10 gift card so I could try them out.

I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The juices contain no preservatives and three servings of fruit and/or vegetables and each full bottle has between 140 to 190 calories.

Citrus Kick was way too spicy for me – Adam liked it but I just can’t do ginger – but I found Tropical Greens to be nicely balanced, neither two sweet nor too grassy. (There are four flavors in total; the two I didn’t try were Orange Reviver and Veggie Harvest).

dinner

We had another stupendous meal at Russ & Daughters.

The Breakfast Martini = Beefeater gin, jam, lemon juice, egg white, Pernod Absinthe, Angostura Bitters.

I adore cocktails with egg white. <– I was about to type that they will be hard for me to give up if I get pregnant! I guess the alcohol may also be an issue.

I ordered the Eggs Benny, which came with Scottish smoked salmon and sautéed spinach on challah.

No surprise, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise was loaded with flavor. <– more reasons I’m not chomping at the bit for a baby

Sunday night we made a nice, but less exciting dinner at home.

We were helped out by a jar of Sepo Sauce, a creamy garlic and horseradish spread that’s meant to be used as a dressing, dip, and/or sandwich spread.

Sepfonifiq sent me a jar of sauce free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The sauce has 150 calories and 2.5 grams saturated fat per 2-Tbsp serving, so it’s not any healthier than most typical dressings, but it packs a lot of flavor so you would rarely need to use any more than a serving.

We decided to go the bread and lettuce route.

A sandwich of part-skim mozzarella cheese, thick-cut uncured turkey ham steak, and whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread spread with Sepo Sauce and oven-toasted.

A salad of baby kale tossed in Sepo Sauce and topped with roasted broccoli and sweet and spicy pecans.

Plus we split a sumo mandarin on the side.

Sadly, we hated the thick cut turkey, which kind of ruined the sandwiches. We both got rid of the meat halfway through and ended up eating big desserts instead. But we loooved the Sepo as a dressing and were both blown away by the salad. I will definitely look forward to making that again.

Please cross your fingers that it’s not actually snowing in NYC right now?

7Feb2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Coffee, always.

The Hint of Honey Almond Breeze is coffee’s perfect companion. (note – I prefer the original to vanilla)

{2} Dates with turkey bacon.

I agree, everything on that napkin looks like a cockroach (dates one major downfall!), but the combination was delicious.

{3} Good lunches from the cafeteria.

A winning tuna salad sandwich and a giant burrito with chicken, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and tons of broccoli that they sweetly let me add from the salad bar.

{4} Berry yogurt bowl.

Fresh blues / Stonyfield Strawberry Oh My Yog! / Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes. I did not enjoy the sour, whole milk taste of the yogurt, but several coworkers tasted the cereal after I raved about it and wrote down the specs so they could buy some too!

{5} A meze plate.

All from Trader Joe’s – dates / green and orange bell peppers / baby carrots / dolmas / olives / kalamata olive hummus.

2Feb2015

Weekend Wrap-Up; My Camera Went MIA

by Emily

Moving to Long Island has done something to my brain! <– real talk, please let’s just pretend that this problem is a LI thing and not the fact that I turn 30 this year

Prior to 2013, I had lost/seriously misplaced one item in my entire life: a pair of flip-flops at a party in high school. Also I had to have my dorm keys replaced in college after Adam kicked them into a lake, but those weren’t technically missing, they just weren’t accessible. But lately? I’m an absentminded disaster. Last year, on my very first day at the hospital, I lost a brand-new scarf. This December, I lost a brand-newish i-pod somewhere between my apartment and the gym. And this weekend I misplaced my camera. Not lost, thankfully, because it turned out that I had just left it in the husband’s car, but since he then drove that car to 30 hour shift this is my long-winded way of telling you that I don’t have a ton of pictures from this weekend. I am missing a lot, especially since I didn’t deem things like the four slices of cinnamon toast I ate for dinner on Saturday instagram-worthy.

How often do you lose track of your stuff? Someone tell me they left their baby on the bus so I’ll feel better!

breakfasts and lunches

Coffee! This was a freebie so I went a bit crazy – a large iced latte with extra espresso.

Those Starbucks workers get very snarky once you start asking for that much espresso.

Yet another good reason to have coffee at home instead.

Starbucks iced (but from home!) with Hint of Honey Almond Breeze and fat-free half and half.

Fruit and yogurt bowls ruled my work lunches. Grape Chobani with pomegranate and a Zing Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bar on the side.

Stonyfield Chia and Red Berry Greek Yogurt with fresh strawberries and the last of the TJ’s Pumpkin O’s.

Several coworkers commented on this lunch; I guess they aren’t used to chia?!

The best was clearly brunch at Rabbit Hole with a girl friend. I got the Eggs Norwegian, aka a Benedict but with lox instead of bacon and served on a biscuit.

Sooo good. But the drink in the background was even better – Champagne, St. Germaine, and grapefruit. We both got one and thought that they were just great.

snacks

We tried some fun drinks while we were in Chinatown.

Yeeech! The sugar cane was terrible. But we only spent $1 so it was worth a shot.

Adam bought Gushers!!

They weren’t as good as I remembered, but it was still a fun throwback.

Coffee is always good.

The Blue Bottle in Williamsburg made me my New Orleans with skim milk. Frankly, I would have accepted almost anything at that point though – first my friend and I stopped at one coffee shop that was out of ice and another that poured me a giant glass of whole milk with a smidge of coffee in it.

dinner

I made us great pasta bowls one night. Box mac and cheese gussied up with canned smoked trout, chopped spinach, sautéed bell peppers and garlic, and tons of caramelized onions.

I doused my bowl in green Tabasco.

Adam and I finally got to try Pies and Thighs for dinner.

I got the Chicken Biscuit.

Fried cutlet with honey butter and hot sauce on a biscuit.

Plus a really amazing salad.

Collard greens with avocado, pickled red onions, and smoked coconut. Adam and I could not get over how delicious it was; I really want to remake it at home.

With banana cream pie on Nilla Wafer crust for dessert.

Yum. ♥

29Jan2015

Random Thoughts

by Emily

{with some random rants and a few photos from my phone}

I haaaaate when people leave their shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot. Way to waste parking spaces because you’re too lazy to function. Especially because most people only are buying a bag or two; why the heck do you even need to wheel that to your car?! Use your arms so I don’t have to hate you!

I also hate the fact that this is my only post for the week because I’ve been in the mother of all bad moods and I was too cranky to do a wrap-up.

Part of why I’m cranky is the fact that I had to waste a vacation day on Tuesday because our clinic was closed for the “blizzard.” But I do love that I got to spend that day like this –

And I’m glad that I took the dog on an extra long walk on Monday because while it may not have been the predicted snowpocalypse, the weather was bad enough that we didn’t leave the house at all on Tuesday.

Here is how Adam and I prepared for the inclement weather, by the way –

That Lindt Hello popcorn bar was terrible. Adam liked it, but the flavor was way too true to life: I don’t want to taste popcorn when the texture in my mouth is creamy not crunchy.

These Dang coconut chips were perfectly crunchy, and tasty.

We started watching “Backstrom” this week and I’m not sure I’m going to like it even though I love Hart Hanson (creator of “Bones.”). I’m going to give it three episodes, but I didn’t like “The Finder” at all either.

But Brooklyn-99 has been rocking my face off, per usual.

That’s all 🙂