Weekly Wrap-Up; All By Myself

by Emily

Adam is on spring break right now so I gave him my free ticket voucher and he spent a week in St. Thomas with my parents. They are all disgustingly in love with each other and had a fabulous time. Meanwhile I was home alone but at least I had the dog.

Furry cuddles totally got me through. And I definitely took advantage of meals as a single lady.

breakfast

Fruit and yogurt bowl.

A strawberry Fage topped with fresh pineapple and cara cara orange.

A lackluster morning.

A bottle of iced coffee that I thought tasted artificial and threw out halfway through.

And a NuGo bar that was nowhere near as tasty as their salted pretzel variety.

Smoothie.

Coffee greek yogurt with frozen blackberries, toasted coconut, and chocolate milk. <– Fantabulous

Smoothie 2 was frozen mango, blackberries, and spinach with coconut water.

Have you tried the ice cream coffees from Dunkin? This was butter pecan.

I tried the cookie dough last weekend too and it was legit amazing.

lunch

Salad day.

Arugula with carrots, pea shoots, honey roasted almonds, buckwheat groats, blue cheese, dried blueberries, and vinaigrette.

Plus a cara cara orange and tamarind balls from home.

My coworkers are mostly all from the Caribbean as well and they were thrilled that I shared my tamarind shipment.

Oatmeal and apples.

Cherry Pistachio from Quaker.

And Cherry Vanilla from Big Slice.

This was the first flavor of these kettle cooked apples that I didn’t like.

Sandwich spread.

An everything bagel thin with strawberry jam, sharp cheddar, smoked turkey, and banana peppers.

Plus spicy peanut cucumber salad.

And raspberry candies and the last orange.

snack

Paper bag popcorn.

Prune chocolates my Russian coworker shared.

I ate this entire bag of Inner Peas in one sitting.

It was pathetic but also delicious.

I topped with cool tub of fig yogurt with white chocolate chips and toasted coconut.

Cookie mugs rocked my face of this week.

I use this recipe, but swap the ratio of white to brown sugar.

Do ittttttt.

dinner

Salad night.

I had a TJ’s pretzel bread in the car as an appetizer.

Then topped a giant bowl of arugula and pea shoots with medium-boiled eggs, blue cheese, turkey bacon, shredded carrot, yogurt blue cheese dressing, and truffle salt.

And now medium-boiled eggs are my new favorite thing.

A combination of nibbles. Pretzels straight from the bag.

A granny smith dipped in peanut butter and lavender caramel.

And baby carrots with red pepper hummus.

Green eggs ~~and ham~~.

Eggs scrambled with okra, arugula, and swiss cheese.

Soup’s up.

This poblano and corn chowder was delicious.

And now we’re off to do fun spring break stuff!

10Apr2014

Around The Web

by Emily

things to make you think:

A post from Real Mom Nutrition – Too Much of a Good Thing: Why Calories Still Count

A cute PSA from Farm Sanctuary about the intelligence of pigs

A lesson on privilege from the Hipster English Teacher

thinks to make you giggle:

source

9Apr2014

Vote For Me?

by Emily

If you thought that my Pink Grapefruit Spritzer sounded sweet, then please head on over to Cascade Ice’s Facebook page and vote for me.

Or feel free to tell me in the comments that I’m a hack and I add sweetened condensed milk to entirely too many things. It’s up to you!

P.S. It’s impossible to add SCM to too many things; it’s the nectar of the Gods!

8Apr2014

{Life In Lists} My Favorite…

by Emily

Writing Sunday’s post ranking my top-five tastes from the previous week put me in a list-making mood. Seriously though, when am I ever not in a list-making mood?!

For funsies, I thought I’d list my top-five favorites in some general categories. The lists themselves are not in sequential order. I forced myself to work off of the top of my head and then step away because I knew otherwise I’d drive myself crazy. Limiting myself to five things was really tricky, even without additional time.

favorite movies

“Crazy/Beautiful” <– I saw this more than once while it was in theatres
“Friends with Benefits” <– this one too
“High Strung”
“Super Troopers”
“Euro Trip”

favorite songs*

*not necessarily my favorites, but definitely the songs I’ve been most obsessed with over the past five years

“New Slang” – The Shins
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
“Come Around” – Rhett Miller
“A Light on a Hill” – Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s
“Alive with the Glory of Love” – Say Anything

favorite tv shows

“Scrubs” <– all but #4 of my favorite songs were from this soundtrack
“Bones”
“Parks and Recreation”
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
“Stargate: Atlantis”

favorite memoirs

Black Boy – Richard Wright
Wasted – Marya Hornbacher
Possible Side Effects – Augusten Burroughs
Talking with My Mouth Full – Gail Simmons
All But My Life – Gerda Weissmann Klein <– if I had gone to grad school this book was going to be the cornerstone of my thesis

favorite foods

iced coffee
diet soda
soft-cooked eggs <– sunny side up, soft boiled, and poached
broad rice noodles
popcorn

favorite moments*

*picking favorite moments would be impossible; Adam and I declare pretty much every weekend to be “the best weekend ever!” These are just moments that were lovely and wonderful and what they all have in common is that they were events that took my breath away with relief

Marrying Adam
Getting hired as a teacher in NYC before I graduated …. and then the day I told my principal I was leaving
Finishing a half marathon <– this wasn’t exactly life changing but I did get my favorite tattoo in celebration of it
Learning that I was accepted to the Dietetics Coordinated Program and three years later learning that I had passed the registration exam
Match Day, when Adam learned that he was accepted to his first choice residency program (and also when he was awarded The Department of Surgery Chair’s Award for Academic Excellence in Surgery)

Tell me in the comments – what is your favorite food, song, tv show, memoir and/or movie?

6Apr2014

Weeklong Wrap-Up; The Top Five

by Emily

It took a week longer than I’d hoped, but I’m back to feeling 100%! The alternative title for this post was “Cough Drop Chronicles.”

In the interim between this post and the last, I ate a ton of food but didn’t have it in me to capture most of it. Adam and I made amazing, ridiculous nachos – maple bacon kettle chips baked with a blend of eight cheeses – but I shoveled them into my mouth before there was time to let them cool, let alone be photographed. On Saturday I went to a wedding shower that served lunch – awesome lobster ravioli with big shrimp on top – but the only person I knew beforehand was the bride-to-be so I was too embarrassed to get out my camera.

Instead of a full post, here are my “top five” from the past week.

1. Liquid breakfast. I was feeling my sickest on Monday and these three beverages were all consumed over the course of the same morning.

Green smoothie. Frozen spinach, mango, and coconut water.

Lavender GT Kombucha. I shared this with Adam and he actually liked it even more than I did.

“Mocha.” Hospital coffee with a chocolate soy milk.

2. Sweet stuff. These three desserts were the very best of the week but only the tip of the iceberg in terms of consumption. I made it through by having a cough drop or hard candy in my mouth pretty much all waking 12 hours a day.

Nunu caramel dark chocolate bar. <– made in Brooklyn

Whole Foods peanut butter sandwich cookie. This was basically a giant, soft peanut butter cup.

Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Banana Chip Gelato.

3. Another beverage/sweet.

Arizona Fudge Float Sparkling Soda. This was practically a can of egg cream!

4. Salmon and salad.

Coho salmon that I (over)baked with smoked brown sugar, soy sauce, and green onions.

Plus a cucumber salad of thinly sliced cucs, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and sugar.

5. Dinner at Pizza Loves Emily.

This Brooklyn spot was seriously adorable inside.

We got a lavender lemonade.

Crispy Sprouts.

apples, chilis, black sesame, fish sauce

And the Emily white pizza.

mozzarella, pistachios, truffle sottocenere, honey

31Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; I’ve Got Recipes To Share

by Emily

Like the title says – “I’ve got recipes to share!” I managed to whip up some really great meals this weekend. That accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider the cold I’m working through. <– let’s consider my horn fully tooted, huh? I was talking to my dad on Saturday morning about how glad I was to have missed Adam’s recent bout of illness and by that night I felt terrible. Unfortunately I’ve felt progressively worse since. Hopefully tomorrow will put me on the upswing.

breakfasts and snacks

Recipe #1 – Almond Joy Baked Oatmeal.

This stuff was yummy. Click the link above for the recipe.

Green apple slices dipped in melty peanut butter.

We tried a new type of citrus from Whole Foods, pixie tangerines. They were great; nice and sweet with no seeds.

Healthy or sick, I’m all about the coffee. Iced brown sugar cinnamon latte from Dunkin.

Tall iced vanilla macchiato from Starbucks just a few hours later. I asked for regular drizzle but sugar-free syrup and it was a definite improvement.

And a clover-brewed Kona blend during my last set of errands the next day.

A handful of chocolates.

Adam and I split this Southern Hibiscus and Peach Milk Chocolate Bar. There were little bits of chewy peach embedded throughout.

I made the best milkshake. Dannon Oikos Café Latte Greek Frozen Yogurt blended with chocolate milk and toasted coconut. It rocked my socks off.

I had several sips of the husband’s Polar Vortex.

Usually we don’t have the same taste in beers but we both thought this Dunkel Lager was delicious.

dinners

Our Mexican dinner fell through on Friday. Several false starts later, we ended up at Mint.

I had Jack Daniels Honey with mint, lime, and simple syrup to drink.

On my plate was rice with sauce from Adam’s chicken and a big pile of bhindi-do-pyaza – okra sautéed with onion and tomato.

Our food was good but it was so flipping loud in there that I’m not sure we’ll ever go back.

Dinners at home were much better. Like Sweet Onion, Bacon, Blue Cheese Burgers.

On a slice of buttered, toasted sourdough with a pile of pea shoots on top.

And last night we had shrimp and veggie (white)rice bowls.

I used this recipe as a guide but went with pepper jelly and grapefruit juice.

Plus we bulked our bowls up with roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Adam said I hit it out of the park! That was the last of our big bag of frozen shrimp and I definitely want to buy more.

Did you make anything great this weekend?

28Mar2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Busy Busy

by Emily

Whew, has it been a busy week! I can’t even tell y’all, work has been wiping me out. <– Hence the 1.5 day late blog post.

Wednesday night I got home around 6:00, then sat at my desk with my boots and coat on until 8:00 when Adam got home and I finally had to get up! Then Thursday I managed to undress, and even get halfway into my gym clothes, before crawling under the covers and calling it a night.

Breakfasts

For the most part, I’ve stopped blogging coffee that isn’t extra exciting in some way, but you can assume I’m still obsessed and drink a cup whenever I can get my hands on it.

A NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel Bar.

Starbucks spectacular.

A tall nonfat iced vanilla macchiato.

And the almond blend.

Coffee and cereal.

Chocolate Krave, plus there was a packet of hot chocolate stirred into my coffee. And today I stirred hazelnut hot chocolate into hazelnut coffee and it rocked my face off.

Lunches

Leftovers.

A Cara Cara.

And the rest of the turkey reuben mac and cheese.

An awesome cafeteria lunch. I mixed together cream chowder and cheese soup, with popcorn on the side.

Cereal on the go.

Blackberries and a very unripe nectarine.

Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

And Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares and chia seeds.

I was starving by the time lunch rolled around so I also bought a biscuit from the cafeteria.

On Thursday I saw patients straight from 9 – 4. Then I had chocolate and diet soda at my desk while I charted and it was heavenly.

Snacks

Kiss Me Organics offered me a sample of their Organic Matcha powder. Adam is obsessed so I readily accepted.

I haven’t tried baking with it yet, but it blends perfectly into smoothies and lattes – both almond milk for me and skim cow’s for Adam. The flavor is delicious, not at all acrid like green tea can sometimes be. My only complaint is that the bag doesn’t list serving instructions or nutritional information.

Matcha in a smoothie. I did pineapple, tea, ice, vanilla almond milk, ice and Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

Good in theory but the lime flavor was a little too much.

Dannon coffee Greek frozen yogurt with lavender caramel and roasted peanuts.

I also ate about a million handfuls of peanuts this week because holy frick, salty peanuts are so good!

Inner Peas from Trader Joe’s = my new favorite snack. They are exactly the texture I like to crunch on.

Jelly Beans.

Strawberry jam with toasted marshmallow is the best.

Dinners

Adam worked Monday night so I made myself a giant bowl of cereal for dinner.

Heritage Flakes and Reese’s Puffs with vanilla almond milk, a giant nectarine, and half a pint of blackberries.

“Pad Thai” with shrimp and broccoli.

The quotation marks are because I used whole wheat linguine instead of the traditional rice noodles.

Sandwich night.

Sourdough toasted in the oven with strawberry jam, Bone Suckin’ mustard, and two slices of sharp cheddar, with a fried egg in the middle.

Is there a better combination than cheese, egg, and jam? I know ideally there would be a vegetable on that plate but when you consider that I slept through dinner the next night it doesn’t seem so bad.

And as soon as I hit publish I’m off to dinner with the husband. We are trying a Mexican place I’m quite excited about.

Have a great weekend!

26Mar2014

Confessions XV

by Emily

Click here to read Confessions part I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, and XIV.

Confession #1 – I can never remember whether or not the song is “Pompeii” and the band is Bastille or vice versa, but I am obsessed with it all the same.

Confession #2 – Reading Jane Borden’s debutante-in-NYC memoir, “I Totally Meant to Do That,” made me wish I had more southerner in me than my love for pulled chicken and fried okra. That’s not all that scandalous. Here is the real confession: when I am (1) tired, (2) drunk, or (3) fake polite I speak with a disturbingly authentic southern drawl. I used to work 10+ hours shifts at a bar that encouraged imbibing and catered exclusively to obnoxious tourists; hitting the trifecta meant that I would introduce myself to my tables and the folks from Alabama would always exclaim “you sound just like us!!”

Confession #3 – When you wash your hands you are supposed to sing “Happy Birthday” twice to make sure that you do it long enough. I felt silly singing to no one and hand-washing is about killing not birthing so now when I wash my hands I sing “Happy Deathday, dear germs…” x2.

Confession #4 – The Buzzfeed article linking to old Disney shorts pretty much made my life. When I was a kid I had a VHS recording of some Scooby Doo episodes and the short I embedded below, “Applecore,” was also on the video. I got so nostalgic rewatching it 20 odd years later.

Confession #5 – Even though Webster is of German stock, he shivers like a little girl whenever he goes outside in the winter. Some times I tease him that he is a chilly dog. Then I tell him he wishes he was a chili dog because then he’d be nice and warm. Then I laugh hysterically at my own punny joke and the dog gives me this face:

Bonus Confession – I have to Google “Roman Numerals” every time I write one of these posts.