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I cannot even tell you, all four of my “giggles” made me laugh my head off!
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.
Breakfast by buffalo.
A 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.
And a very nice, pumpkin-pie-esque yogurt bowl.
TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt topped with some Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and a dollop of sour cream whisked with brown sugar.
The cereal bites were my favorite.
Breakfast in the leaves and on the go.
Iced coffee with maple syrup and Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. For some reason I enjoyed the buttered rum far better leftover the 2nd day.
Overnight oats.
A 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.
Very 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:
Free? Yes, please!
I 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.
A 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
And a serving of Adam’s Boo Berry. <– not gonna lie, I liked this layer quite a bit too!
I topped my big bowl with raspberries and skim milk.
I almost went back for seconds, I enjoyed this so much.
Sunny side salad.
Baby 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.
I 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.
This variety might be topping Honeycrisp this season.
I got a small Cobb salad. Baby romaine / Wisconsin blue / turkey bacon / hard-boiled egg / Hass avocado / grape tomatoes / raw red onion / buttermilk ranch
I 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.
Out 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.
I ordered another salad. Iceberg (boo nutritionally but nice and crispy) topped with pico de gallo, lime, queso fresco, and avocado.
Plus a plate of Maduros which I shared with the table.
I love sweet plantains. We were all impressed with SN, and plan on going back.
Leftovers magic.
We turned our Halloween mac & cheese leftovers into something magical by burning cooking them in a skillet with evoo, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and eggs.
Topped with sour cream and Sriracha, the former of which was a big mistake.
I didn’t have to cook.
My 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.
For our vegetable component we ate the rest of my salad, topped with honey, evoo, and tons of blue cheese.
Those big chunks of cheese were outstanding.
Cookie monster ghost.
My 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.
Traditional and chocolate swirl.
But 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.
Look at the giant slice of cake Adam served me alongside my cheesecake tastes!
I 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.
Surprisingly, this dish was Adam’s idea!
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
signs of fall
is it weird that I’ve already purchased (and filled out) my 2014 planner?
Halloween
Did you dress your pet up this year?
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 at the ‘Bucks. <– please don’t call it that
Coffee 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.
Honeycrisp.
Coconut 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.
Plus I had another “coffee” after I left.
I 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.
The 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.
But 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.
A home version of a Moe’s bowl.
I ate chips and salsa while I cooked to stay on theme.
The chips were Garden of Eatin’ with Chia Seed.
They 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!).
Topped with taco turkey: 98% lean ground turkey cooked with diced green pepper, chicken broth, and Ortega Taco Seasoning.
Spinach: I stacked the leaves and then sliced. We loved it served this way!
Caramelized onions: I always cook them this way now.
Cheese: TJ’s 2% Mexican 4 Cheese Blend.
And cream: a dollop of low-fat sour cream.
All stirred together it was quite good, but this meal could have used some hot sauce.
More chia chips, this time as nachos for lunch.
Chips with the cheddar/gouda blend melted on top in the oven.
Plus a Sweet Tango on the side for juice.
I made Adam loaded nachos with our taco turkey leftovers and he was crazy for them.
Whole Foods hot bar.
Kale salad, Cesar salad, roasted butternut squash, and macaroni and cheese.
The squash and Cesar bites were my favorite.
I bought this “Halloween shapes” macaroni to serve on Thursday because we are pretty much five years old.
I think I ended up making a pretty grown-up meal out of it.
Salad on the bottom. Baby spinach with gorgonzola dressed with a sprinkle of pink salt and 1 tsp each honey and evoo.
Topped with pasta. Mac and cheese with edamame, browned mushrooms, and a can of Bella smoked sardines in lemon olive oil.
I am still shocked that my palate has matured enough for sardines.
Dunkin Donuts pumpkin white chocolate iced coffee with skim milk.
Just pretend that sleeve is orange!
This was my favorite pumpkin beer of the season but I still shared a lot of it with the husband.
This 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!
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.
0% plain Fage topped with pumpkin butter, toasted pecans, and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Fage is so nice and creamy.
Tropical trip yogurt bowl.
Muller Pineapple Passion Fruit Greek Corner topped with half a banana and some chopped mango.
I am very excited about the mango left in the fridge.
Brinner, aka breakfast for dinner.
Potatoes, sliced and roasted in pink salt, dried rosemary, and olive oil.
For 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.
Lately I’ve been loving adding something creamy like cottage cheese or sour cream to my scrambled eggs.
Pumpkin beer.
Sam Adam’s Fat Jack Double Pumpkin.
Unfortunately 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.
I 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!!
From the Buttercooky Bakery. They served it with fruit on top and a layer of dulce de leche in the middle.
Tres 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.
I did roasted broccoli, a small scoop of Cesar salad, a big scoop of kale salad, and two fried plantains for dessert.
With a fancy bottled drink. Plan Tea Organic Black Tea with Vanilla and Basil.
The tea made this meal feel extra special!
Cheese plate.
We each had our own. Adam got asparagus and matzoh with his basics and my extras were green beans and persimmon. Honeycrisp.
TJ’s Cheddar and Gruyere Mélange Cheese.
Alter Eco Dark Velvet Truffle.
Roasted green beans.
And a nice, mushy persimmon.
I 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.
I don’t have a ton to share, but I’ve got to do it in reverse because lunches were leftovers. It was a boring week, but I’ve got some news to share coming up soon and the next three weekends are slated to be fun.
My mom sent us the Haribo Smurfs.
I thought they were cuter than the were tasty, but Adam was crazy for them.
This ice cream was more my speed.
Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! is one of my B&J favorites that recently moved from scoop shop only to pints. I normally hate chocolate chunks in ice cream but instead of being teeth crushingly frozen these are melty and crunchy with espresso.
I ate this bowl with a giant diet soda while we watched “Teen Witch” and was in total heaven.
Green Curry Fritters from Cooking Light.
We love this recipe. I substituted ground turkey for chicken, skipped the sesame oil, and increased the portion size a bit, but otherwise followed the recipe.
With a dipping sauce of ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, and brown sugar,
and carrots on the side when my planned vegetable failed.
Apparently spaghetti squash season is over.
Two bowls.
My Turkey Reuben Mac & Cheese was a total recipe winner.
And the greens we ate on the side weren’t half bad either.
Frozen spinach and kale cooked in chicken broth with lemon juice and feta.
“Burger and fries.”
Green beans roasted with pink salt and smoked paprika,
plus an absolutely amazing sandwich.
A green curry fritter on half a TJ’s soft pretzel stick with brie and pumpkin butter.
The mix of flavors was out of this world.
Lunch to go – eaten on the subway in Manhattan.
A sandwich repeat.
A honeycrisp apple.
And a serving of Dutch Cocoa Somersaults.
The somersaults were my favorite component; they have a great roasty chocolate flavor without being sweet.
Adam and I split a pumpkin pie bagel with NY cheesecake cream cheese from Panera.
Just look at that streusel –
This was delightful.
I bought the dog new food and water bowls.
Such a silly thing, but they make me so happy!
A girlfriend and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday.
I love this city.
I love this city.
I love this city.
Is there nowhere that my love of turkey reubens won’t take me?
This recipe is basically a turkey reuben sandwich in a bowl, except that it’s better than a sandwich because instead of bread you have a big bowl of pasta and you still get the rye bread taste thanks to the caraway seeds.
You might notice that the ratio of ingredients seems a little different from most mac & cheese recipes – that’s because the sauce is less of a sauce and more of a big, gooey pile of melted cheese. <– oh yeah!
Turkey Reuben Mac & Cheese; serves 4 – 6
Potential Alterations:
Happy Hump Day! <– I hate that expression but love the alliteration
I just wanted to pop in a share a few of the things that I’ve been especially jazzed about lately.
1. nick reboot.
A site that streams Nickelodeon content (and commercials!!) from the 1990’s. It is available 24 hours a day, free of charge. You can’t select content or search for specific shows, but that’s pretty much how tv works. I’ve watched Hey Dude, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Salute Your Shots, and The Wild Thornberries. You’ll thank me for this recommendation, but say goodbye to your productivity!
2. The latest edition to my kitchen –
Epicurean has a line of state shaped cutting boards and they recently added the great city of B-Lo.
We love it! Adam and I both have missed Buffalo a ton since our move and it’s nice to have a visual reminder of “home.” When we moved to Buffalo 4 years ago for Adam’s medical schooling he had to drag me kicking and screaming out of the city, but over the years Western New York definitely found a place in my heart.
3. This series of pictures of Misha Collins being adorable with a pig.
I’ve blogged many times about my love of pigs, but did you know that Adam and I are newly obsessed with Supernatural? We are catching up on Netflix and it just may be my new favorite show (after Scrubs and everything by Joss Whedon).
What was your favorite Nick show in the ’90’s?
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Eating Chalk 