New Noosas

by Emily

I’m free (again)! After a short return to work I’m back on vacation for the next week, woo-hoo!

Honestly? I need a vacation. I was only back at work three days but I stayed late for more than an hour on Thursday and Friday and now I’m tuckered out.

Thankfully I had a few exciting things to get me through my week. Like a luscious line up of fun new beverages: Black Hand nitro cold brew / Secret Squirrel Vietnamese iced coffee / La Colombe triple draft latte / Maeil caramel macchiato / Harmless Harvest strawberry coconut water.

And an extra exciting package of product samples from Noosa.

Noosa yogurt is already pretty much angel pudding, so when they offered to let me try their new line of Noosa Mates (yogurt with premium mix-ins) I jumped at the chance.

They were even better than anticipated! Loved them all. I was happy with the portion of both yogurt and toppings and each one has between 240-270 calories. Banana Chocolate Peanut with Guittard chocolate chips and salted peanuts.

Honey cranberry almond with pepitas and granola.

Coconut almond chocolate.

Maple ginger with candied ginger and gingersnap crumble. I wasn’t expecting to like this because I think that I think that ginger is too spicy, but it was delicious! The candied ginger was chewy and delightful.

Honey pretzel peanut.

I ate some fun stuff on my free days too. Like doughnuts (which were just awful, but how cute is that pink wall?!).

And a trip to Red Hook.

We had key lime pie from Steve’s.

And crab sandwiches from Brooklyn Crab. Snow crab roll with Cholula-orange aioli.

Alaskan king crab roll with warm butter and chives.

Plus cole slaw.

And a Passion Paloma with mescal, passionfruit puree, and grapefruit soda.

Plus we stopped at Baked for coffee and brought home a grasshopper bar for dessert later in the week.

After a long span of eating every meal out, I was excited to make us a fancy dinner.

Smoked turkey kielbasa with onions and bell pepper.

Plus pommes aligot <– super cheesy potatoes. I loosely followed this recipe. I had to lighten up a few ingredients to accommodate what we had in the fridge (less butter, 2% milk instead of cream, low-fat three cheese cheddar blend) and it was still insanely yummy.

I served my leftovers piled all together in a bowl with smoked paprika maple mayo on top.

By the end of the week I was so exhausted by my three days of work that I got Chipotle instead of cooking anything! Rice / sautéed veggies / chicken / pinto beans / corn salsa / spicy salsa / sour cream / cheese.

Have a great weekend!

31Jul2017

New York Staycation

by Emily

To finish out my birthday week, my parents came into town for a quick visit. It was great to get to spend time with them, and we had a tons of fun in the city.

With travel, we got to spend about four days together. Our big walking day started in Brooklyn and included a trip across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Brookfield Place and the Occulus, Chelsea Market, a stroll through Greenwich Village, and time in Washington Square Park.

We also had a fantastic northern Long Island day, complete with the Roosevelt House, Lavender by the Bay, a fresh raspberry pie, and a sunset on the water.

Our meals were all wonderful, but sooo poorly lit, so sorry in advance for the blurry photos. Here were the food highlights, alphabetically…

Brigadeiro Bakery. My parents loved them as much as we do! Adam and I shared coffee, oreo, and key lime pie.

Crabby Jerry’s.

We shared coconut shrimp. And I had a surprisingly delicious blacked salmon Cesar salad.

Mile End Deli. You have to get poutine.

We also had an heirloom tomato salad with avocado and pistachio ramp pesto.

And I had the grandpa sandwich – smoked turkey, turkey leg rillettes, pickles, and mustard, on rye.

Pineapple Express. The dairy-free pineapple soft-serve was wonderfully creamy.

Russ and Daughter’s Café. Kippered salmon and smoked salmon spread with everything bagel chips.

Latkes with sunny side up eggs and the best ever Nova smoked salmon.

And we shared halvah ice cream with sesame and caramel for dessert.

Savauge. We shared sourdough with house-cultured butter.

Roasted cauliflower with broccoli pesto and spiced pistachios.

And I had the single-best chicken of my life. With hen of the woods mushrooms, broccoli rabe, and brown butter.

Thomas’ Ham and Eggery Diner. I had a wonderful egg sandwich with swiss, avocado, and housemade chicken sausage.

Van Leeuwen for ice cream. We also had a great scoop at Ample Hills.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

27Jul2017

Virginia Vacation

by Emily

My week off from work has been pretty great so far!

Monday was my birthday. I kept tradition going and enjoyed my free Starbucks birthday drink (quad nonfat iced latte) with sprinkles on top.

Adam and I took a quick three day trip to Virginia. Road trip essentials include…

Snacks (highlights were sweet chili Doritos and Koru apples).

Coffee (mojito black tie from Peet’s aka cold brew with sweetened condensed milk and mint).

Music. I full-on head banged down the highway for a few hours thanks to our excellent music selections, including Betty Who, The Offspring, and this Regrettes song I’m obsessed with –

Richmond food highlights…

The coffee at Black Hand might be our all-time favorite. We swooned over our choices and left with several bags of beans.

Lunch at Urban Farmhouse. I had a pimento cheese grilled cheese with local tomato and salad with cucumber, mint, and feta.

One of my cousins lives in Charlottesville and she drove down for the day to spend my birthday with me. We had an amazing dinner at Saison. My Fuentes Fizz was smoky and delicious – Mezcal, Velvet Falernum, Cherry Herring, lime, grapefruit, egg whites, and soda water.

We shared grilled okra and peaches to start.

And I had the crispy rice bowl with fermented chili sauce, oyster mushrooms, pickled vegetables, and a poached egg.

Dessert was just ridiculous.

Panna cotta with honey glass and honey powder!

Charlottesville food highlights…

Bagels at Bodo’s, where they ship in New York water for their dough. I had an everything bagel with olive cream cheese and it was wonderful.

Froyo at Arch’s. Dulce de leche and cake batter with Oreos and a huge scoop of gooey brownie batter on top.

We had dinner at Mas with my cousin and her boyfriend.

I was too busy enjoying the company to take pictures (plus we ordered a million different plates!) but everything was fantastic. The shrimp were out of this world.

Now TODAY, I get to go pick up both Webster and my parents! Enjoy the rest of your week!

24Jul2017

Freedom!

by Emily

I’m on vacation! Friday was my last day of work for 11 glorious days! I prepped for vacation by eating all of the ice cream last week 🙂

For a work-week this past week was not a bad one. Adam and I were off together on Wednesday and got do some Lower East Side wandering. And over the weekend we did some Long Island exploring. Plus I met with friends for brunch. And ate all the aforementioned ice cream.

Last week’s flavor themes: (Stumptown) coffee // ice cream // cheese // corn // egg. Highlights…

Brunch at The General Greene. I had the farro bowl with pesto, roasted sweet potato, avocado, and a poached egg.

Black Brick Coffee just might be our new favorite spot. It’s a neat space and my Stumptown latte was ridiculously good.

Trader Joe’s new coconut cold brew coffee is pretty tasty, especially with chocolate milk.

Vanilla bean yogurt with blackberries, granola, and chocolate tahini.

Plain Greek yogurt with black plum and Oreo cheesecake.

Sandwich with curly fries. Spicy chicken / mayo and mustard / lettuce / pickles.

Because I don’t eat enough nachos at home, they were a special in the cafeteria this week. Pinto beans and cheddar with olives, corn, bell pepper, and onion.

Our Long Island exploration took us to both Farmingdale and Babylon. We had a flight of craft beers at Lithology. My favorite was the honey rye with rosemary, followed closely by the sour farmhouse ale.

We also did lunch at Swell Taco.

My burrito was giant and packed with grilled chicken, refried pinto beans, rice, veggies, salsa fresca, sour cream, and Monterey jack.

I’ve seen multiple foodie instagrammers try to say that Ben’s compares with Levain <– NO. PSA – this was not good. These cookies were greasy and terrible and I threw mine out after two bites and still had a stomach ache.

We checked out the Filipino goodies at Johnny Air Mart and snacked on calamansi soda and Polvorón shortbread.

Bubble tea from Vivi. Grapefruit Yakult with crystal boba and coconut jelly.

Brigadeiro Bakery taught me that I actually don’t like ice cream as much as I think because apparently brigadeiros are my favorite dessert. <– they are a condensed milk candy so that’s not that surprising

Stumptown coffee soft serve with sprinkles and cookie dough at Scoops.

Birthday cake soft serve with sprinkles at Milk Bar.

Cookie dough with toasted coconut soft serve at Stew Leonard’s. This was both the best soft serve and the best edible cookie dough we’d ever tasted.

Sweet milk and browned butter pecan ice cream at Malai.

BBQ chicken salads. Baby romaine with ranch / cheddar / cucumbers / leftover cole slaw / shredded chicken with Korean bbq sauce.

Bean and chicken bowls. Sautéed onions and green pepper / cheddar / shredded chicken with cilantro sauce – cilantro, roasted jalapeño, canola oil, honey, and salt / pinquito beans from Susie Q.

The beans were a kit sent to me to review. They came with a premixed seasoning packet (mild red chili, onion, garlic, and select spices) so they were a snap to prepare, and much tastier than canned beans. They kept their shape after cooking and were firm but not chewy or mealy. <– I would buy these with my own money

I know these eggs look god-awful, but they were amazing. Scrambled with unsulfured chicken hot dogs / kimchi / and cheddar.

Dinner at Colonia Verde. This restaurant is insanely gorgeous, Adam and I were in heaven.

I drank the Patient Extra – Cachaca, Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit, lime, and citrus bitters, which was fabulous.

And ate duck confit tacos and grilled sweet corn salad with carmelized pepitas, cotija cheese, and mint.

P.S. It’s my birthday today!!

18Jul2017

Tastes Like Summer

by Emily

This post is a day late and a dozen pictures short, but I worked the weekend shift so it is what it is. The good news – now this is a four day work-week with Wednesday off. The better news – starting this Saturday I’m on vacation! <– I’m taking a looong, overdue break, practically three weeks off (I’m off two full weeks with a three-day week in between).

Here were the bite highlights from last week…

Soursop smoothie. <– creamy, but not flavorful and not as exciting as I was hoping for

Coffee, coffee, coffee.

Nectarine Siggi’s with chopped angelcot (aka white apricot) and Heritage Flakes.

Vanilla Greek yogurt with dulce de leche and blackberries and apricot.

Pesto pasta from the cafeteria. With peas, cheddar, and tomato.

Drinkable vanilla Siggi’s / rice crackers / yummy Ruby cherries.

I’m not even close to sick of watermelon yet this summer.

If I had to pick a favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s this would be it.

Crunchy cola marshmallows; I’m not sure how many other people would like these, but they are pretty much my new favorite thing.

Curried cauliflower salad.

I very loosely followed this recipe. With uncured chicken hot dogs.

I made the fanciest salmon dinner. And it didn’t even take that long!

Salmon roasted in thyme honey balsamic vinaigrette with roasted kumato tomatoes with balsamic.

Miso-glzed radishes. <– apparently we love radishes, who knew!

Maple baked beans (pinto beans, maple turkey sausage, maple syrup, cayenne, red pepper, and more) and homemade cole slaw with golden raisins.

With a s’mores beer to round out the campfire vibe.

P.S. I’m turning 32 in less than a week, my birthday is next Monday!

9Jul2017

Watermelon Week

by Emily

I did not do the best job of capturing the past week – I have a whopping 3 photos from the past 7 days. At least all three pics are of staple items and/or July 4th excitement?

{1} Coffee! (<– always coffee) I am still loving my Whole Food’s dark roast.

{2} Cheeeeeeese. My cafeteria has these cheese and cracker cups that are just the best thing ever on afternoons when I feel like I need a snack.

{3} I worked on the 4th but I still managed to have ~~fresh watermelon~~ watermelon seltzer and watermelon yogurt with berries and ~~s’mores~~ maple marshmallows.

Better luck this week!

5Jul2017

Beans, Beans, Every Flavor Beans

by Emily

I worked straight through Saturday to Thursday last week and it tired me out (hence the late post!).

The good news is that my work schedule meant I had a three day weekend. And the better news is that I used my extra day to go on a quick trip to CT with Adam. In other weekend excitement – we took the dog into the city to visit a dog park (he was not a fan).

Food themes for the week were beans and more beans, candy and more candy, and coffee (always coffee). Here were the highlights…

Breakfast at Blue State Coffee in New Haven. I had an egg and cheese sandwich on sourdough and an iced latte.

Stumptown coffee.

Pitaya smoothie with frozen cherries and cookies and cream pudding. (<– bought the pudding on a whim, hated it, and was too cheap to toss it, but it was actually wonderful in the smoothie).

Brunch at Fat Goose.

I had a sparkling Paloma.

And the foie gras panna cotta(!!!). With strawberries, rhubarb, jam, and buttered challah.

It was amazing. And even better, there was a dog in my lap while I ate it!

He got a bite of my ice cream for being a well-behaved brunch companion.

Lemon yogurt with blueberries and maple granola.

Plain yogurt with chocolate tahini, blueberries, and cotton candy grapes.

Adam and I tried Costa Nova Waffle on an errands day. They have tasty Portuguese coffee. We had a crispy waffle with s’mores and a soft waffle with twix and both were delicious.

Road trip snacks.

Milk candy! Japanese Hokkaido and Polish sesame milk caramels.

These Haribo grapefruit candies are insanely good.

Froyo on a hot day – birthday cake with mochi, nonpareils, and cereal marshmallows.

Turkey BLT pasta (inspired by this Cooking Light recipe). Whole wheat shells / turkey bacon / wilted arugula / roasted heirloom tomatoes / tossed with mayonnaise and salt and pepper.

Salmon bacon sandwiches!

Brioche buns with mayonnaise and gojuchang / sharp cheddar / a fried egg / and TJ’s salmon bacon.

With roasted green beans.

Red beans and rice (loosely inspired by this Serious Eats recipe). Celery, green pepper, and onion cooked in evoo / salt, pepper, cayenne, and smoked paprika / with TJ’s turkey summer sausage / and red kidney beans / served on brown jasmine rice.

White beans with turkey bacon, celery, and gojuchang. Plus sweet potato cheese fries.

Dinner in New Haven. We got Thai takeout – chicken pad see ew and pad thai – to eat in our hotel room in front of the cable tv.

Plus ice cream that was fantastically creamy and good, cookie dough and coffee oreo for me.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

28Jun2017

Butter Pecan Mochi

by Emily

Apologies for another late post! Honestly? When I get home from work I get into bed fully dressed with a snack for at least 30 minutes and sometimes I just don’t get up again to do anything productive! I know I haven’t really blogged about some of the big recent changes at work, but suffice to say I am tired. <– but also really happy to be busy and getting some exposure to new things

Some of my favorite bites from the [last] week…

Watermelon kefir is an excellent idea. P.S. When I went to the Lifeway website I discovered that they apparently make an eggnog kefir and now it’s pretty much all I can think about.

I was all about the premade coffees this week and they were surprisingly delicious. Starbuck’s dark roast iced coffee.

Caribou vanilla iced coffee.

Cafeteria baked potato bar. With sour cream, cilantro, cheese/sauce, and salsa.

Yummy yogurt bowls. Coffee Chobani with chocolate tahini, maple granola, and walnuts and an eve apple.

Blood orange Chobani with Heritage Flakes and sunshine raspberries.

Whole Foods hot bar = black bean sauce broccoli, green beans, curried cauliflower, pasta salads, sweet chili tofu.

Plus I tried their mocha ice cream in butter pecan and black sesame. <– this might be my new favorite thing

Blue chip nachos! With corn, cheddar, black beans, and fresh tomatoes. I dipped them into roasted tomato salsa.

I bought a bag of rolls at our grocery’s bakery ($1.69 for a variety pack of six?!) and we became obsessed with turkey and cheddar sandwiches. The key is spreading the bun with a mix of mayo and gojuchang.

I made a simple veggie and tofu bowl that was our favorite dinner of the week.

Chopped raw bok choy with TJ’s sesame soy ginger vinaigrette / TJ’s teriyaki baked tofu / crispy edamame – tossed with evoo and salt and baked at 400* for 20 minutes / black sesame seeds.

Leftover sesame noodles with chili oil with baked tofu and crispy edamame.

A dinner in parts: Adam had to take a super quick trip to Delaware this week and I worked out my schedule to tag along. We started with Mile End in Brooklyn for appetizers. Garlic knish.

Brussel sprouts salad (with a mix of raw and roasted!) with labne, sumac, and honeycomb and pumpernickel powder. It was amazing.

Mid-dinner dessert stop for churros with dulce de leche at the new DeKalb Market Hall.

And finally Grain in Newark. I had a great whiskey sour.

And the best crab cake sandwich of my life; it was absolutely packed with crab meat, no filler to be found.

Enjoy the rest of your week!