Weekly Wrap-Up; Just Desserts

by Emily

As I was looking through my camera, I thought – “I have enough pictures of sweet stuff to fill a whole post;” so I wrote one just for them. These treats were spread out over the course of a week or so, but still, holy sugar rush, Batman!

Once I started writing, I was glad that I decided to let the sugar shine. This post has a recipe, a theme, and two recommendations for NYC spots that are worth hoping on a plane for, more than enough for one day.

The recipe is for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Popsicles.

They have a Greek yogurt base and are technically healthy enough to eat for breakfast but it was more fun to call them dessert. I did something amazing with them that I’ll share further down…

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Popsicles, makes 3-5 pops, depending on the size of your molds

1 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
1/4 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup light brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until homogenous.
Pour into popsicle molds.
Freeze until fully hardened, 6 hours minimum.

I know the weather is starting to get too chilly for frozen stuff, but the flavor profile is spot on for Fall.

Speaking of Fall, it’s Apple Month!

Can I rave about my three new favorite things?

These De-Lish apple caramels (from Duane Reade) are out of control.

Perfect caramel texture – chewy without sticking in your teeth – with just a hint of apple tang. I even baked some into cinnamon caramel apple cookies with moderate success.

But then I gave Adam one to try and it was all over; he finished the bag practically before I could blink!

And the Russell Stover apple caramel was even better.

I honestly would have preferred it without the chocolate coating, but the caramel inside was the best I’ve ever had.

Finally, I know I’ve gushed about the Granny Smith Polar before, but now I’ve taken it to a whole new level of amazing.

If you do go ahead and make my Cinnamon Brown Sugar Popsicles, pretty please use one as “ice” in a glass of Granny Smith Polar Seltzer so your life can be forever changed?

Also life changing was our visit to Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn.

That, my friends, is a kid’s cup of Salted Crack Caramel Ice Cream. “Salted butter caramel ice cream with pieces of Deb’s famous crack cookies (saltines, butter, sugar, chocolate).”

My final New York recommendation for this week is Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine, a bakery in SoHo.

They make our very, very favorite cupcakes; they’re the best in the city and also the cheapest! Adam got a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting.

And I finally ignored the cupcakes’ siren song and tried something I’ve been coveting for years –

A shot of The Nog: pumpkin cake, eggnog pudding, and whipped cream.

This trifle sooooo lived up to my fantasy. Normally I wouldn’t dare eat pumpkin before November or eggnog before December, but this was totally worth breaking my food theme rules for!

What’s the #1 dessert spot you recommend to people visiting your town?

13Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Fun Fruit

by Emily

Not too much excitement this week – as the title implies, literally the most thrilling thing in this post is grapes. It was a week of great dinners, but I’m missing every breakfast so I figured it would be easier to recap via numbered list than in categories.

{1} Frog Hollow plums.

I tried Frog Hollow produce at the first FoodBuzz Festival and it’s been near to my heart ever since.

{2} Super exciting cotton candy grapes with a boring cheese quesadilla.

The quesadilla was just a flour tortilla, sprinkled with a Mexican cheese blend and folded in half, cooked in a little canola oil.

The grapes were these guys –

I’d been seeing them make the rounds on Instagram and was so excited to spot them at my Whole Foods. The taste is just slightly sweeter grape, but the smell is totally cotton candy. Even Adam, who’s not a grape lover, was a fan.

{3} Dipping the grapes in peanut butter makes a mind-blowing snack.

It helps if you have extra-awesome peanut butter too; homemade honey roasted peanut butter with cotton candy grapes equals a classed-up, deconstructed pb&j.

{4} Melted cheese makes an even better snack.

Blue Diamond Flax Artisan Nut Thins (former freebie) with extra-sharp New York cheddar melted on top. Note – the flax ended up being our favorite variety the nut thins by far. It had a great saltiness to it. I don’t have a single picture because every damn time I made this I was blown away by how molten hot our new microwave makes our plates.

{5} New yogurt variety.

Siggi’s 2% Mango Pineapple yogurt (does anyone know why this flavor is not listed on the website?) did not disappoint. I do enjoy the flavor of fat-free yogurts, but Siggi’s 2% varieties have been far superior.

{6} Banoffee pie chocolate bar.

My parents sent us this from Amsterdam.

{6} Creamy pasta bowls.

I basically re-made the sauce and pasta base of my vegan mac and cheese, but with Mozzarella Vegan Gourmet Shreds. Then I tossed in 20 oz of browned mushrooms a blend of collard greens, kale and mustard greens (a blend bag from the frozen section at WF). The mushrooms were the best part, as always.

The final dish wasn’t necessarily bad, but we both wanted it to be better.

{7} #6 was infinitely better as jazzed-up leftovers.

I tossed in olive oil, dried rosemary, turkey pepperoni, and garlic (I grated it with my microplane and it was awesome), and then put it all in a casserole dish with some extra-sharp cheddar on top and rebaked until crispy.

This meal we couldn’t get enough of. And the roasted yellow zucchini on the side was nothing to sneeze at either.

Adam put his leftover leftovers in the fridge and I totally snaked them for lunch the next day.

{8} Lunch at the Peanut Butter Co.

I got a fluffernutter with White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter.

Out of this world. It was so packed with marshmallow that even I couldn’t quite finish it!

{9} Take-out from Laverne.

I got Pad See Ew with mock dock and we were both very pleased with it.

Their menu is an impressive blend of French, Thai, and Japanese and we definitely want to go there asap. Psssst; read the description of this roll – D’ Artagnan Roll: Inside: foie gras marinated in truffle oil mixed with chopped black winter truffles, garlic and yellowtail. Topped with black caviar and seared yellowtail served with miso-abolone sauce(!!!!!!).

{10} Pizza eggs.

Let’s not even pretend like I didn’t save my favorite for last.

Have you tried the cotton candy grapes yet?

12Sep2013

Random Rants

by Emily

I don’t know how much this comes across on the blog, but people in my real life know that I pretty much hate everyone. For funsies, I thought I’d share a few of my random pet peeves here today.

1. People who say “vaca” when they mean “vacay.”

Vacay = the annoying abbreviation for vacation. Vaca = the Spanish word for cow. Twittiots, unless you’re physically riding a cow, you are on vacay.

2. Airline passengers who use the overhead space improperly.

Like the stewardesses announce every single flight, you are supposed to put your smaller items under the seat in front of you and save the overhead space for items that won’t fit under the seat. When you put your coat in the overhead – everyone else hates you.

3. Starbucks baristas who ignore you when you order “with room.”

I appreciate that Starbucks is watching their bottom line and baristas don’t want customers to go completely crazy at the milk bar, but if I order my drink “with room” and you hand me a cup that’s filled to within 1 cm of the top, I’m going to dump out even more coffee than necessary and go ahead and upgrade my iced coffee to a free latte.

4. People who don’t understand the Saltine Challenge.

Anyone can fit all of the crackers into their mouth within the time limits, the challenging part is actually swallowing them. You did not beat the challenge unless your crackers are gone and your mouth is empty.

What are some of your random pet peeves? Let the hate flow through you…

9Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

by Emily

This week’s eats were all about the cheese and carbs {see also: several servings of unpictured pizza and popcorn}. I’m missing many of the day-time meals but I managed to capture every single dinner for a change.

breakfast

Apple and honey french toast for Rosh Hashanah.

I soaked a slice of Trader Joe’s sourdough in 1 large egg, a splash of milk, vanilla extract, and some cinnamon maple sugar and then cooked it in 3/4 Tbsp butter. After my toast was frenched, I tossed a chopped Pink Lady apple in the rest of the Tbsp of butter with a little more cinnamon maple sugar. Then I topped my french toast with my cooked apples and drizzled the whole thing with honey.

Delish.

Tropical smoothie courtesy of the husband.

He said Thai young coconut, frozen mango and banana, lime juice, and sweetened condensed milk all went in the blender.

On the weekend we ate eggs as a family.

For two, I scrambled together 4 large eggs with salt, pepper, 1 slice of 2% provolone, and a big scoop of 2% cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese is my favorite scrambled egg addition; normally it tastes very sweet to me but in eggs it is so cheesy!

Plus toast with Strawberry Crofter’s on the side.

lunch

Leftover mac and cheese that I attempted to stir-fry.

I reheated the mac in canola oil with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Sriracha and then scrambled in an egg. I’m not sure this dish really worked.

This next one looks like a “snack” picture, but I did in fact drink giant coffees for lunch two days this week. I had several errands that ended up running long.

The one pictured was a clover-brew of their Hawaiian blend, which was fantastic. And yesterday I cashed in a drink freebie so I went big – venti non-fat iced latte with an extra shot of espresso and 2 shots of salted caramel(!!).

snack

Microwave mug cookie.

Number 2 Pencil is basically a single-serve cookie genius.

Milk drink.

This was a China Town find. ‘Twas very thick and sweet.

ZICO latte.

This flavor might even be better than their chocolate coconut water.

Sourdough with Smart Balance Light.

If I’m eating bread with butter (versus jam) I almost never toast it, for some reason I prefer my buttered bread raw.

Froyo.

Another snack that was on repeat this week.

dinner

You already saw our vegan mac and cheese.

Served with roasted green bean fries for our green.

We ate our fries right off of the baking sheet, like animals. We don’t have a dishwasher and plates are annoying to wash, damn it.

Salad and casserole night.

Adam said that my Cheesy Eggplant Bake is my best recipe, and that’s really saying something because I even cut back on the cheese this time.

Served with side salads.

Romaine lettuce blend, hemp hearts, cucumber, TJ’s peanut dressing, and Iberico cheese.

The dressing did NOT go with the rest of the salad but it was all we had.

The cheese was from this TJ’s pack that fancied up our whole week.

Kale nachos.

A kale chip base topped with broccoli, roasted corn, and melted cheese.

This was one of my better ideas.

Pizza on a quesadilla.

Inspired by Jenna’s idea, but particularly this comment.

I made quesadillas with flour tortillas and TJ’s reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend. Then topped them with Tj’s fat-free refried beans, ground turkey (99% fat-free, cooked with taco seasoning), sliced orange bell pepper, and manchego cheese.

With roasted kale on the side.

I told you this was a cheesy week!

fun

We put up a photo wall.

An assortment of pictures from college (round 1) to now, “framed” with washi tape.

It may not be perfect, but we love it. And it was so nice to add a pop of color to our drab living room.

We saw a racoon in our parking lot.

This may be the first little bandit I’ve actually seen in person, which is funny because I’m completely obsessed with them.

We went on a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

Bike riding in the park may just be my favorite activity. I’ve chosen it for my birthday several times now.

Happy Monday, everyone!

5Sep2013

Vegan Gourmet Shreds Giveaway

by Emily

***Update – #10 won and she’s been contacted. Better luck next time 🙂

Recently, someone from Follow Your Heart, maker of the new Vegan Gourmet Shreds, contacted me about doing a review for the product launch.

VGS are dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and Non-GMO Project verified. To celebrate the launch, Follow Your Heart is hosting a recipe contest to encourage consumers to swap out the cheese in their favorite recipes.

I received a box to help me with my contest entry, and you can too.

One reader will receive the items shown above. All you have to do is comment on this post telling me which recipe you would like to veganize. All comments must be received before 1 p.m. EST on Saturday, September 7th. Winner will be chosen by random selection.

For my contest entry, I made over my Cheesetastic Mac and Cheese.

I will be honest that I was not a fan of the Shreds when raw and I didn’t have high expectations for this recipe. But then they melted beautifully and worked like a charm. The end result got both the husband’s and my stamp of approval.

Vegan Cheesetastic Mac and Cheese, serves 4 -6

8 oz short-cut whole wheat pasta, prepared according to box directions
4 Tbsp vegan butter substitute
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1.5 cups plain unsweetened almond milk
4 oz Cheddar Vegan Gourmet Shreds
4 oz Fiesta Blend Vegan Gourmet Shreds
large red onion, roughly chopped
4.5 oz can diced green chiles, drained

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk flour into melted butter and continue to cook until browned, 2 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk almond milk into roux. Cook until mixture is thickened. Reduce heat to low and stir in Cheddar Vegan Gourmet Shreds and Fiesta Blend Vegan Gourmet Shreds. Continue stirring until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in onion, chiles, and cooked pasta. Serve with your favorite hot sauce.

Remember, all you have to do to be entered to win is leave a comment on this post!

Note – I received these samples of these products free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

4Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

by Emily

I’ve been all over the place lately so there are a lot of gaps in my reporting. We ate a bunch of junk recently and most of it didn’t make it to the camera. Adam is on a slightly less time-consuming rotation this month and we have been making the most of our time together. Here are a few of the highlights since I last checked in –

{1} Homemade nachos.

I’ve been missing ETS since the move, but these nachos were delicious, and certainly much healthier than the ones with a pound of cheddar that I used to buy in Buffalo.

Leftover tortilla chips from a Moe’s run, baked with roasted corn, broccoli, and the last of the aged Gouda from our cheese plate.

{2} Rosemary beer bread.

Just my favorite beer bread recipe with a few Tbsp of chopped rosemary (from my grandma’s garden!) tossed in.

I had to buy a giant bag of self-rising flour so expect to see more of this.

{3} CrispRoot snacking.

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

CrispRoot is a company that makes ridged cassava root chips. They come in Sea Salt, Original, BBQ Bliss, and Thai Ginger. All of the flavors are dairy- and gluten-free, contain no trans fat, have 150 kcals and 6-7 gram saturated fat per serving, and have 2x the fiber and 30% less fat than most potato chips.

We were not fans of the Thai Ginger, but the other flavors we would definitely purchase on our own. I couldn’t taste much of a different between original and sea salt, both had a pleasing saltiness and good crunch.

{4} Baking fail.

I was attempting to make brown butter coconut rice krispies treats.

I don’t know what went wrong, but no. No.

{5} Chicken Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.

This idea was such a win.

Click here for the recipe.

{6} Abandoned principles.

I have very strict holiday food rules. September is Apple Month. October is Pumpkin. December is Eggnog, Gingerbread, and Peppermint. November may overlap with October and December. I might have started hoarding pumpkin products last week, but you are not supposed to eat them until October! But then the PSL anniversary hype was so big, and I caved.

Grande, non-fat, white chocolate, pumpkin spice latte, you were worth my abandoned principles.

{7} Chinatown in Manhattan.

We split a Pat Bing Soo with red bean and strawberry jelly.

And drank coconut water straight from the source.

The only drink that can possibly beat a coconut with a straw in it is diet coke from the fountain, and even that’s a close race.

{8} Lunch with friends.

Some of our Boston favorites were in town so we ventured into Manhattan to spend the day with them. We had lunch at a spot near Times Square with rooftop seating. Adam and I shared everything because we’re so ~~poor~~ close. Cider, pierogi, and chicken fried rice.

We went to dinner at a place in SoHo that had the best food and the worst lighting. Adam and I split lobster truffle mac and cheese and I’m kicking myself that I don’t have a picture.

{9} Grand Army Plaza’s Farmers’ Market.

I think those pictures speak for themselves. I was practically in tears with liking those flowers so much!

What was your last major baking fail?

30Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Lots Of Repetition

by Emily

Let’s start with dinner first and work our way backward, since lunches were all some form of leftovers from dinner. Usually my meals are all over the place, but this week there was a lot of repetition.

First – and this is the meal that spawned the lunches – we made pineapple stir-fry over brown rice.

We kept things very simple which I think was a major improvement over stir-fries we’ve made in the past. Pineapple, broccoli, and straw mushrooms with baked tofu (400* for 40+ minutes, drizzled in honey and soy sauce) in a quick sauce of pineapple juice, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and corn starch.

Usually I get sick of our stir-fries after the first few bites, but this dinner I enjoyed the whole way through.

One night I made easy eggs. I don’t remember what Adam ate, but definitely not this; he’s not the biggest ~~Korn~~ corn fan.

2 large eggs scrambled in evoo with corn (Trader Joe’s frozen fire-roasted corn, that I adore by the way. Cooked with a little sugar and Sriracha), dried basil from my grandma’s garden(!!), and shredded parmesan.

Eggs are so nice for dinner.

You already saw our roasted garlic pesto with bow-ties and spinach.

The husband got all of the leftovers and I was very jealous.

Last night we got all fancy and shared a cheese board for dinner.

We did minneola,

green pear,

Pink Crisp apple,

Blue Diamond Sesame Seed Artisan Nut Thins (former freebie alert),

and of course, cheese.

The cheese guy at Whole Foods was so helpful to us. Plus he let the husband have a million samples, so Adam was basically in love. We decided to go with one hard and one soft. A 3 year aged Gouda,

and a Soignon goat brie.

Both were fantastic. This meal was so much fun!

I have two lunches to share this week, both stir-fried rice. I know that on Monday I drank a third sugary iced coffee in leu of lunch, but I cannot for the life of me remember what I ate on the fourth day?! Whenever we would discuss food recalls in class I always thought it was silly that people had such a hard time completing them, but now that I’ve stopped daily blogging it has become much harder to recall my meals!

First up, a traditional.

Leftover brown rice with pineapple, peas, carrots, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and 1 large egg.

The pineapple got sort of caramelized and was fabulous.

Next, fried rice that was a bit out of the box.

Leftover brown rice, corn, spinach, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, rice, vinegar, and 1 large egg.

I really thought that this iteration was going to be amazing but somehow the flavor ended up being pretty dull.

A friend had some good news to share early this week, and we celebrated with beer and bubble tea (of course). The beer was that nougat beer I keep prattling on about, so I’ll just show you a picture of my gorgeous tea.

Strawberry black tea with boba and lychee jelly from Hanco’s.

Another afternoon, the family took a walk to get ices.

I went with a sour cherry and cola water ice.

Not as good as the strawberry-cola combo I had the last time.

Now evening treats. The froyo place near our Whole Foods gives a discount if you bring a receipt from the Starbucks next door and that’s what spawned this idea – the sort-of affogato.

A little bit of vanilla froyo topped with a drizzle of fudge sauce and a solo shot of espresso.

Finally, caramel corn.

I cannot stop eating this, so I guess it’s time to give you the recipe. It is too simple.

Caramel Corn, serves 1 – 2

1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
4 – 6 cups (popped) popcorn
salt, to your tastes

Heat the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, until melted. Stir in SCM and continue to cook until thickened, 40 – 75 more seconds. Drizzle over prepared popcorn and salt to your tastes.

I’ve made this recipe in larger batches and you can too; all you have to do is keep the ratios the same while increasing as needed. The leftover caramel corn stores great in a sealed container on the counter for up to 5 days.

Like lunch, these pictures are all pretty similar. In fact, the base of these three breakfasts stayed the same the whole week!

Overnight oats: 1/4 cup dry oats, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, and 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk; stored in the fridge overnight in an almost-empty nut butter jar (~1 serving left). Topped with blueberries before serving.

The only thing that changed was the jars. Barney Butter Crunchy Almond Butter.

Jif Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Spread.

Skippy SuperChunk with Honey.

All delicious, but the last was my favorite because that’s my favorite butter. I’ve got to get working on more jars!

So there you have it; lots of eggs, rice, corn, and oatmeal. Which food made a lot of repeat visits on your plates this week?

29Aug2013

Roasted Garlic Pesto With Spinach And Bow-Ties

by Emily

Last night’s dinner was too good not to deserve a post all of its own.

When a representative from Carapelli Olive Oil contacted me about sending over a sample, I knew immediately what I was going to make.

Actually, before the pesto, the very first thing I did with the extra virgin olive oil was use it in a bowl of stove-top popcorn. I usually pop my ‘corn in canola oil and I definitely noticed that this bowl had a different, delicious taste. This olive oil has a smooth flavor that works well with fresh dishes, aka you can cook with it but it’s also nice enough to pour over things that you’ll be serving cold.

Please note – I received a bottle of Extra Virgin Carapelli Olive Oil free of charge to review on the blog. I was not paid to write this post. All opinions are my own.

My aunt Margie – who makes the best pesto I’ve ever tasted before I made this roasted garlic version – always serves her pesto over bow-tie pasta, so that’s how I serve mine too.

We drained our pasta over a big bunch of spinach so it got nice and wilted, tossed it all back in the pot with the pesto, then topped our bowls with extra cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Roasted Garlic Pesto, serves 4-6

1 Tbsp plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large bulbs garlic (you want to end up with ~ 20 cloves)
4 oz fresh basil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
Peel back several layers of skin from the garlic cloves; you want to reduce the amount the burns in the oven but leave enough layers intact that the cloves are still held together.
Slice off the tops of the garlic bulbs, exposing most of the cloves in each bulb. Place bulbs on a baking sheet, and drizzle a Tbsp of oil over the exposed garlic.
Roast garlic for 40 minutes.
Set roasted garlic aside. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, gentle squeeze the base of each bulb and the cloves should slide right out.
Place basil and remaining 1/4 cup oil in the bowl of a food processor and process 30 – 60 seconds, until smooth.
Add roasted garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, and salt to the bowl and process until well-combined, scraping down the sides occasionally.