Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster

O. M. G.  I was so flipping hungry all week, it was annoying.  I was basically starving. <– if you haven’t seen CK Louis’ SNL intro monologue yet, go watch it immediately.

Stream of consciousness style, here is a sampling of some of this week’s insane snack consumption…

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Other bars for breakfasts came courtesy of this sweet samples package from KIND.

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I’ve flirted with loving different brands bars off and on, but throughout the years KIND products have remained some of my very favorites, so I was thrilled to try some of their new products.  The two newest bar flavors are ridiculous good.  They are all low in sugar – 5 grams of sugar or less and they don’t use artificial sweeteners – and are a good source of fiber and protein.  Adam and I were both impressed by the Caramel Almond & Sea Salt.

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And Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond knocked my socks off.  New all-time favorite!  This is what I always wish mocha would taste like.

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Their Grain Clusters, basically granola, are a unique blend of gluten-free oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat; each 50g serving provides more than one full serving of whole grains.  The Fruit and Nut Clusters made great yogurt bowls for lunches this week.

With blackberry lime Greek yogurt and blueberries plus a sour sop coconut water on the side.

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And with sour sop yogurt(!!!) with blueberries and Cacao Bliss.

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On Tuesday I did a salad from the cafeteria.  Topped with pickled vegetables and a big scoop of chicken salad.

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On Wednesday Adam had the day off so we met up for a lunch date!

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Our meals cost only $10 each for huge plates of noodles and an appetizer.

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And on Friday I packed Fage with passion fruit and clementine, nectarines, and TJ’s freeze-dried apples.

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The apples were insanely good and I want more immediately.  I planned on supplementing my smaller lunch with food from the cafeteria but it was a coworker’s last day so I had cake instead.

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In spite of my copious snacking, I was too hungry to properly deal with dinner during the first half of the week.

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My Bare Burger turkey burger – with smoked mozzarella, fried onions, all of the pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup – was amazing and I ended up ordering one two days in a row!

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When I finally did get around to making my own dinners like an adult, I had an assist from Pirate’s Booty.

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They just introduced a line of macaroni and cheese and they sent me some samples to try out.  The price, flavor, and texture were very comparable to other boxed mac and cheese options, but Pirate’s Booty uses organic pasta and contains no artificial colors or flavors.

We ended up with two very fancy feeling semi-homemade dinners.

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Night one, I stirred roasted mini heirloom tomatoes in to the mild cheddar macaroni.

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On top of spinach salads – baby spinach topped with chopped pecans, crumbled blue cheese, 1 tsp each honey and evoo, and a sprinkle of truffle salt.

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Night two was another side-by-side bowl of greens and ‘cheese.

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My veggie side was a simplified take on Jenna’s baked beans.

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I just baked chopped kale with a can of beans, cup of whiskey maple bbq sauce, a scoop of Bone Suckin’ Mustard, and a ton of chopped garlic.

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My pasta was aged white cheddar shells with TJ’s frozen mushroom medley and some sweet cheddar.

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Delicious!  I plan on buying both the shells and the mushrooms this weekend so I can make this meal again.

What is your family’s favorite way to gussy up boxed macaroni and cheese?

Insta-Wrap-Up; VI

I am a day behind on my weekly wrap-up but it should be coming tomorrow, pinky promise!  Instead, I thought it was high time to share some of what I’ve put on Instagram over the past month(ish).

NYC things.

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I saw the Mystery Machine!

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Has the new meaning of “liked” made it into the dictionary yet?

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I liked this frozen yogurt.

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You know I’ve got to show off my handsome boy.

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This comic from Poorly Drawn Lines really cracks me up for some reason.

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What percentage of your summer instagraming do you suppose will consist of beer and/or froyo?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Loki

We had a nice, low-key weekend around these parts.  Nothing major, though we did manage to get in good food, good beer, and an extra-long walk with the dog.

I spent Saturday afternoon volunteering at my hospital’s health fair discussing body fat percentages and BMI.

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And Sunday we spent hours at the mall getting my dress for a wedding next weekend.

Here’s some of what I ate around shopping and volunteering…

Lunch at National Thai in Fort Greene.  We shared chicken satay.

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And tofu Pad See Ew.

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Our noodles were perfectly done; they were nice and chewy.  And they gave us a large enough portion that even sharing the meal we had enough leftovers to make dinner the next night.

Lunch at Au Bon Pain at the mall as a reward for finding an appropriate dress.  We shared a Caffe Viennese.

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And I finally got to try the bbq chicken salad.

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It was even more delicious than predicted.  The bbq chicken was great and there was soooo much of it.

Smoothie time.  Frozen raspberries with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and the last serving or so of a can of light coconut milk.

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Adam loved it but this was actually too coconut-y for me.  I’m slightly amazed by that because later the same day I topped cold cereal with coconut butter and loved it.

Snack plate napkin.

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Mary’s Gone Crackers Sea Salt Pretzels, Chocolove Espresso Dark Chocolate, and sliced cheese.

Something cool on our dog walk.

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You can’t beat gummi bear cream ice.

Whenever we go to Trader Joe’s we split a coffee and/or giant soda and it makes grocery shopping feel much more like a date than an errand.

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That was a clover brew of the Bourbon Brazil blend, with sugar and skim milk.

On Saturday, we were invited back into Brooklyn for a gorgeous bbq for dinner.

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Our friend’s sister’s boyfriend is a chef and the food was ridiculous – also poorly lit, and therefore unpictured.  We had homemade Cesar salads, grilled radicchio, and grilled leeks and green onions with romesco sauce.

With a little love, our Thai leftovers made us a great dinner on Sunday.

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I stir-fried them with shredded carrots, broccoli, and egg in evoo, green curry, and galangal (Thai minced ginger).

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Even better than the first rendition.

How many weddings are you scheduled to attend this summer?

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Weekly Wrap-Up Mini

Last night I went to write my Weekly Wrap-Up post, and….. I deleted everything on my camera.  Whoops!  All I have are the photos I had uploaded earlier in the week.  I figured I’d share a few snippets from earlier this week as a mini wrap-up.  Sound good?

An awesome “pb&j” smoothie.

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Frozen raspberries and dates with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Snack-time at work.

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Fruit gummies, salmon jerky, pretzels, and applesauce.  Part of this snack was a free sample sent to me from Mary’s Gone Crackers.

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The Sea Salt Pretzels are organic, kosher, vegan, and gluten-free.  Their unique texture is a mash-up of whole grain brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, amaranth, millet and chia seeds.  A pretty solid ingredient list!  I ate them straight, as well as crumbled into a yogurt bowl, and decided I was a fan.

Another good snack is Ambrosia apples.

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I’ve only seen them at Whole Foods this summer but they are worth the extra driving time because they’re so sweet and juicy.

We discovered that there is a Grimaldi’s location just minutes from our house.

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We’ve never been to the original DUMBO location, but we were pretty darn impressed with this outpost.  We had a nice house salad.

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And a pizza with mushrooms, garlic, and black olives.

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The olives were ridiculous good – like little briny prunes!

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We will definitely go back.

I actually ended up having pizza for four different lunches and dinners this week so you really didn’t miss much in this mini wrap-up.  The next night I did 1 am pizza after rushing back into the city to see The Stationary Set.

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My childhood best friend is with the lead singer but this was actually the first time I had heard them play live.  Loooooooved it!  Important to note – I brought a girlfriend who is much cooler than me to the show and she loved them as well.  They have a new album out, I’m buying it this weekend and you should check it out too.

How many days in a row would you guess your longest pizza eating streak to be?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

Another wonderful weekend!  Amazingly, the husband and I are still not sick of each other, so when he has a weekend day off it is better than fricking Christmas.  He worked Saturday while I slept until noon and cleaned and grocery shopped and then Sunday was family fun day.

We’ll start with a snack review.  Polar’s new Georgia Peach Seltzer is delicious.

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Very juicy, though the flavor almost reminded me of bananas.

This Trader Joe’s microwave popcorn is also nice.

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My favorite thing is the packaging, honestly.

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I hate how ridiculously convoluted microwave popcorn nutrition labels are but this one was crystal clear.

And the birthday cake stuffed cookies are not good.

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Of course I ate two more servings before I came to that conclusion… for research.

The cheap fresh blueberries from Trader Joe’s are great now.  No more mushy berries.

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Shown on a bowl of cereal – a serving each Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Honeycomb with marshmallows – with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I suck at including pictures, but I actually am (relatively) good at eating my vegetables.  Go ahead and picture several servings of olive hummus with raw veggies this weekend and a big salad from the cafeteria for Friday’s lunch.  Much better.

Friday night started with green juice.  A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, parsley, and apple.

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We needed it to offset the next round of drinks.

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We spent a glorious evening on the patio at Bierkraft.  A girlfriend met up with us after work, and we befriended the couple who shared our table, and we all laughed and shared restaurant recommendations for hours.

Highlights from the night were 21st Amendment Brewery’s Hell or High Watermelon.

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And this Reindeer’s Revolt that stole my heart.  It was malty and sweet with just a bit of spice.  Though I’m not sure why Bierkraft had two freezer’s worth of Christmas beers in the first week of June.

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We also had amazing frozen margaritas, ill-advised rounds of shots, and an awkward dinner at Calexico.  I drunkenly ordered the only thing on the menu that I would never eat and sat there like a weirdo while the waitress boxed up the entire dish minus two bites at the end of the meal.  Whoops.

Saturday’s dinner was a winner; and yes, it bums me out that that rhymed.

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It was just a really yummy, summery combination of foods.  Leftover veggies, cruciferous crunch with pecans and blueberries.

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The last of the rotisserie chicken, scrambled into eggs with brie, dill, and coconut oil.

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And corn on the cob, oven-roasted with Miracle Whip, sea salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and sharp cheddar.

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I am so flipping glad that it is corn on the cob season again.  Learning how easy it is to cook in the oven was a great discovery last summer.

On Sunday we took the dog into Brooklyn for Sunday’s Smorgasburg.

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DUMBO is gorgeous, it is one of my favorite nyc neighborhoods.

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I ate a fantastic lemonade with watermelon and mint.  Served with a bubble tea straw for the big, juicy chunks of melon.

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And a really terrible taco.  The edamame and corn were inexplicably neither cooked nor seasoned.

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Thankfully Adam made much better choices – miso chicken taco, ginger bourbon pecan pie, rhubarb Columbian soda – and was willing to share.

We took the dog exploring, then made our way to Luke’s Lobster.

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We shared a combo and were both swooning.  This was the best lobster roll I have ever eaten, including one I had at a shack on the harbor in Boston.

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They serve it fairly plain, just with lemon butter and secret spices, and the freshness of the lobster meat shines through.  We plan on taking my parents for one the minute their airplane lands later this month.

Where were you served the best lobster roll you’ve ever eaten?  If you’re into that kind of thing…

Weekly Wrap-Up; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

Today does not feel like a Friday to me at all (tomorrow, technically, while I’m writing this post).  I keep being pleasantly surprised, a perk of the Monday off.

This was a strange week for me in terms of hunger; y’all know that I usually eat enough food to sustain a small village, but thanks to a migraine and a day of leftover migraine ickiness my hunger has been on hiatus.  Thanks to less food eaten, and less time since my last post, I actually have photos of 95% of my eats!  All you’re really missing is several more iced coffees with skim milk and nibbles while I cooked the dinners.

Off we go…

I am obsessed with Brooklyn Roasting Company and Adam sweetly surprised me with a tin of their Iris Espresso {maple / sugar-plum / cocoa / spice} this weekend.

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I was so excited about it that I woke up early enough on Tuesday to brew and drink a cup of coffee before leaving for work!  This blend is legit, even from our crappy coffee maker this was my favorite cup of BRC yet.

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Even leftover the next day, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and SCM, it was delicious.

Cafeteria lunch.

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Sweet onion kettle chips and a cup of buffalo blue cheese soup from the cafeteria.

Do you remember the cup of amazing bbq sauce that Fletcher’s sent me home with?  We used it in amazing sandwiches.

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This was the best meal of the week.

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We doused some chopped roasted chicken in our sauce, then served it on onion buns with a schmear of Miracle Whip.

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The veggie component was baby bok choy, mushrooms, and shredded carrot, cooked with evoo, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and hot pepper jam, with sesame seeds and fried shallots tossed in at the end.

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I don’t cook bok choy enough, it’s one of my favorites.

Yogurt lunch.  I stirred together fresh blueberries, a mix of Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares, and a pineapple Chobani.  Plus an apple on the side.

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I didn’t think to check the label before I bought it, but apparently the new 100 calorie Chobani line is sweetened with stevia and monk fruit?!  Yuck.  I hate the taste of stevia, but realized it was in there too late after everything was stirred together.

I had big plans for Wednesday’s dinner – I was going to make two sets of meals so I was prepped for the rest of the week – but instead I rolled around with a migraine.  When I finally was ready to eat it was after 10 pm, so I just made a sandwich.

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I’m not really complaining though, at least it was an exciting sandwich.

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French toast bagel topped with 2 slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey, an egg, and 1 oz of Brie.

Oatmeal lunch.

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Blueberry hazelnut oatmeal from Quaker topped Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter to continue the theme.  Plus an Ambrosia apple that was sweet and juicy.

Dipping snack.

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Baby carrots with Sabra olive tapenade hummus.  I liked the blend of two of my favorite Mediterranean flavors.

Ridiculous cookies.

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Adam and I aren’t quite sure what to think of them.  150 calories for 2 cookies is pretty horrifying when you realize the cookies are practically silver dollar sized.

Last night I made the easier of Wednesday’s planned meals.

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The Za’atar veggie burgers were part of my box from Sweet Earth Foods.

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Please note – this item was sent to me free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

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The burgers were nowhere near as good as the terrific bacon, but they weren’t bad.  Sadly the flavor was fairly “Bland, now with spices.”  But I liked the textural aspect of the flax seeds.  And they cooked up very quickly, making them an easy 230 calorie, 6 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein vegan option.  I went back and topped mine with mustard.

On the side was TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch Collection – kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and green and red cabbage – sautéed with champagne pear vinaigrette, chopped pecans, and dried blueberries.

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I forgot our fresh corn on the cob in the fridge, but we didn’t even miss it once we tasted how good the vegetables were.  I highly recommend adding dried blueberries the next time you sauté greens.

FYI – I wrote a guest post on prenatal nutrition on Kath Eats.

Sonic-Style Strawberry Diet Coke {Recipe Copycat}

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Diet coke with ice and a straw is my number one, all time, top, take only it to a deserted island, favorite food.  My favorite-favorite is Diet Cherry Coke (which you cannot find anywhere these days) followed closely by Diet Coke with a splash of Strawberry Crush.  Given that information, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I am completely obsessed with the Strawberry Diet Cokes from Sonic Drive-In.

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Whenever we drive within 50 miles of a Sonic I always drag my road trip buddies in for a large one.

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Sadly (stupidly) there are no locations in NYC, so I’ve had to wait for my next fix.

I’m not very good at waiting though.  So I decided to take matters into my own hands and come up with a copycat recipe to make at home.  Please note – I’m using “recipe” pretty loosely here, these strawberries are not exactly complicated.

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Strawberry Diet Coke, serves 4

  • 16 oz fresh strawberries, cored and chopped
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Place berries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 – 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved completely and the berries have started to weep.  Remove from heat and let cool before storing* in a sealed container in the fridge.  *Be sure you get the berries and the liquid, that syrup is where a lot of the flavor ends up.

Put ice and prepared strawberries in the bottom of your cup.  Pour desired soda on top – you don’t have to use Diet Coke, I guess.  Drink with a straw.

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Yum!  These turned out perfect.  If I had crushed ice then they would be just as good as the original.

And you know I had to find a way to involve sweetened condensed milk.  See below for a Berries and Cream variation.  Even if you’re not a SCM addict, including the vanilla bean paste in the regular recipe would be a nice touch.

Recipe Variation – Strawberries and Cream Diet Coke

After berries have cooled, stir in 1 tsp vanilla bean paste.  Once you’ve assembled your berries, ice, and soda, drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top.

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Weekend Wrap-Up; Frozen

Good morning!  I’m excited to report a fabulous Saturday and Sunday.  Adam had a golden weekend – both days off – and we made the most of it.  I only have photos of a fraction of our eats (among other things, we went to Bareburger twice) because I was too busy/excited/drunk to bother, but here are some of the highlights…

The only homemade meal we had all weekend was actually one of the best.

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We shared a sandwich of fried egg, fontina cheese, mustard, and the rest of the Sweet Earth vegan bacon on pumpernickel rye swirl.  Homemade egg sandwiches are always wonderful, but the sweet and smoky flavor of the “bacon” took this one to a new level.

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Plus a lavender lime spritzer.

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Fresh lime juice, lavender simple syrup, maple, water, and seltzer.

Another shared sandwich, the shredded chicken from Bahnmigos.

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Adam had resisted joining me for Bahn Mi for weeks, but now that he’s tasted it he is completely obsessed.  You just cannot beat Srircha, mayo, and pickled veggies on that crusty French bread.

We have to get Ample Hills when we’re in Park Slope.

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Butter Pecan Brittle and Salted Crack Caramel for me.  I also tasted the peppermint patty flavor and now I’m pretty desperate to go back and get a cup of that.

A trip to Manhattan for the Central Park Zoo.

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A lot of exhibits were closed, so that was a bummer, but we loved getting to walk around the park.

Dinner at Farmacy was disappointingly lackluster, especially since it’s our new favorite spot.

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My caramel coffee egg cream was nice,

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but the grilled cheese was meh.

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Maybe it was just me though, Adam liked both of our sandwiches and thought I was crazy.

On Sunday we had brunch right on the water at Sheepshead Bay, then drove over for an afternoon at Rockaway Beach.

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We hit up two frozen treats from the Buzzfeed list.  {#12} Frozen pink lemonade from Bungalow Bar was a little watery but very pink.  The bar was right on the water!

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And {#14} Connolly’s Bar made the best frozen piña colada I’ve ever had.

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Plus we explored the area and hit up Rockaway Taco, which was pretty much beyond words.

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The fish tacos were perfection.

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And we both loved our juice.

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Pineapple mint for Adam and watermelon for me.  Love.