Chicken Wing Style Meatballs

This week’s top three were tippity-top good!  Sweet and spicy, my favorite combo…

{1}  Fluffy cloud sesame vanilla yogurt bowl goodness.

TJ’s vanilla bean Greek yogurt with halvah cotton candy folded in.

IMG_0971

{2}  Chocolate chip vanilla chia pudding.

Chia seeds + vanilla hemp milk + mini chocolate chips.

IMG_0954

{3}  Chicken wing style meatball dinner.

Inspired by this Spicy Habenero Wing Sauce I got from Moore’s Marinades.  <– free sample alert – this product was provided for me without charge to review, I was not given any additional compensation for this post and all opinions are my own.

IMG_0930

I made spicy meatballs with wing sauce, ground chicken, and celery and onion (the veggies were minced and cooked in butter first).  I used panade instead of breadcrumbs and they ended up being the juiciest, best meatballs we’ve ever made eaten.

IMG_0947

Seriously, Adam and I ate the whole batch in one night because we kept going back for more!

IMG_0938

Served with an on-theme side, sautéed carrot, celery, and spring onion.

IMG_0951

Have a great weekend!

Smorgasburg, Greenport, And The Weekend’s Top Five

{1}  A day trip to Greenport.

Greenport is one of Adam’s favorite Long Island areas and we finally had a Sunday together to go explore.

IMG_0918

IMG_0911

IMG_0904

IMG_0897

IMG_0925

IMG_0929

We walked on the pier, walked on the beach, ate a kind of meh breakfast in town, plus got a great iced latte and an almond croissant.

IMG_0893

IMG_0899

Aaaand a toasted marshmallow iced latte that knocked our socks off.

{2}  Our 1st kolache experience.

So exciting!

IMG_0872

I’ve been dying to try one ever since I started following Kylie and Brooklyn Kolache did not disappoint.

IMG_0874

We did one sweet and one savory – poppy seed and turkey, egg, and cheese – plus a delicious brown sugar iced latte.

{3}  Our 1st Smorgasburg visit of the season.

It was a good one!  We hit up Duck Season for duck fat fries with confit and a sandwich with confit, pickled cabbage, gojuchang, and craklins.

IMG_0878

Ube Kitchen for Halo Halo.  It was a nice dessert, but not Halo Halo – there was no nata de coco, no palm seeds, plus it had granola in it, and almond milk instead of condensed milk.

IMG_20170429_145128_568

Plus we got impossibly smooth coffee from Ministry of Kaapi.

{4}  BBQ chicken salad.

Baby romaine dressed in yogurt ranch, shredded chicken in Korean bbq sauce, cucumber, sharp cheddar, and smoked paprika.

IMG_0867

This was actually the appetizer course for a meal that included cheese fries and buffalo chicken wings!

{5}  A toasted marshmallow smoothie/shake.

Toasted marshmallows, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and vanilla hemp milk.

IMG_0852

It was wonderful.

P.S. This is currently the view when I step out my front door!!

IMG_0859

Halvah Cotton Candy

Here were this week’s top five bites –

An egg and cheese roll from a truck in Brooklyn.  This edge bite does not give an accurate picture of just how wonderfully cheesy it was.

IMG_0820

Kiwi Chobani with Heritage Flakes and a Minneola.

IMG_0805

Sweet Cream Liberté with maple quinoa granola and some Golden Nugget tangerines.

IMG_0829

A loose take on this recipe for vegan menemen with silken tofu.  I couldn’t find urfa chiles so I substituted smoked paprika and some raisins and somehow it came out great.

IMG_0847

With roasted zucchini and toasted bread with olive oil.

IMG_0842

Halvah floss (aka cotton candy!).

IMG_0835

I Can’t Choose A Favorite!

This is a longer wrap-up (Monday through Sunday) and I ate too many yummy things to chose a single favorite for my post title.  I’ve got my top three – 1) Thai-style crab fried rice, 2) roasted garlic bread, and 3) black sesame shaved ice.

Here were the highlights…

Killer coffee combo – Volcanic roast with chocolate milk.

IMG_0701

Usually I just have coffee for breakfast or eat something on my train, but this week the cafeteria sounded amazing first thing in the morning.  Eggs and hashbrowns, with humus.

IMG_0793

Cafeteria lunch, a spicy chicken sandwich on ridiculously cheesy bread with mustard, lettuce, and bell pepper.

IMG_20170420_145419_024

Last weekend I spent forever trying to make coconut curd.  I didn’t make jam, but I did filthy every last inch of my stovetop.  My experiment didn’t work, at all, but I did kind of like the end result – a vaguely sweet, egg, cake.

IMG_0676

I enjoyed my “jam” in lunches all week.  Like with vanilla bean yogurt and blackberries.

IMG_0689

And plain yogurt, berries, maple quinoa granola, and black sesame seeds.

IMG_0708

Whole Foods hot bar lunch.

IMG_0769

Sesame broccoli, turkey salad, and cole slaw.

IMG_0773

Plus a maple soda that was not as exciting as I was expecting it to be; it had an off-putting aftertaste.

IMG_0776

Snack time.  Ice cream = maple walnut and a white chocolate vanilla marshmallow flavor.

IMG_0779

Milk bun.

IMG_0792

Crème brulee milk stout.

IMG_0709

My workweek dinners were on point!  Like crab fried rice with roasted broccoli and sliced cucumber.

IMG_0717

I loosely followed this recipe, except I used brown rice and waaaay more crab.  It was fantastic.

IMG_0729

Vampire killer, I roasted three whole heads of garlic for this recipe.

IMG_0730

Garlic turkey meatballs with red sauce and roasted zucchini.

IMG_0746

And amazing homemade garlic bread – I mashed butter and roasted garlic and then slathered it on sliced sourdough and baked until delicious.

IMG_0751

Even our leftovers meal was tasty.  Cheese tortellini with meatballs, peas, roasted garlic, and red sauce.

IMG_0764

One night I had dinner out with a coworker.  We checked out the new Brooklyn MŏkBar location.  They have a liquor license now, and I got a yummy vodka “cloudsicle.”

IMG_0753

Plus chicken ramen with kimchi and poached egg.

IMG_0758

And the new Brooklyn Snowdays location was right next door!  Black sesame shaved ice with oreo, mochi, and condensed milk.

IMG_20170419_184546_591

Plus a dinner date with the husband.  Brinkley’s has Genesee Cream Ale on draught!

IMG_0781

We got pimento cheese dip and duck fat fries to start and I dipped my fries in the pimento cheese and pretty much died of heart failure happiness.

IMG_0784

Plus fish tacos with mahi, guacamole, and pineapple salsa.

IMG_0788

The other two dinners were decidedly less exciting.  Like Chipotle take out.  And more hot bar.  Yes, I went to Whole Foods two different days, it was an exciting week.  I was too busy at work yesterday to break for lunch so by the time I got dinner I ate a giant plate of all of the things.

IMG_0799

Now it’s two days of work before a break on Wednesday.

Have a great week!

IMG_0697

Duck Hash At Colonie

I hope everyone had a nice Easter!

IMG_0658

We had friends in town from PA and had a great weekend doing our favorite things with them – walking and eating!

Friday night highlights:  Grand Army / Barcade / Brooklyn Star

My drink at Brooklyn Star was packed with exciting stuff, including aperol and papaya puree.  Plus we had spicy duck wings which are 10/10.

IMG_20170414_203616_248

Saturday highlights:  Sweetleaf / Ice & Vice / Chelsea Market / John’s on Bleecker / we walked across the Williamsburg Bridge, on the water through Battery Park, then over to Brookfield Place and through the Oculus building

Ice and Vice did not fail to impress the out-of-towners.  I got a scoop of Shade (smoked dark chocolate with caramelized white chocolate ganache) in a sesame cone.

IMG_20170415_144654_141

John’s was actually a pizza place that they introduced to me!  Our pie, topped with green peppers, was delicious, and I plan on going back.

IMG_0661

Sunday highlights:  Colonie

All four of us ordered the duck hash at Colonie, it’s that good.

IMG_0666

Adam and I had some fun on our lonesome too.  Like talking a (sweltering!!) walk in Brooklyn and getting coffee and baklava.

IMG_0671

IMG_0670

And I made us a very Easter-y salad for dinner.  Greens + fresh cilantro + spring onion / tossed with homemade creamy lemon poppy seed dressing / topped with fresh peas / and medium-boiled eggs.

IMG_0678

Have a nice week!

Chocolate “Cheesecake” Oatmeal

Kids.  Work is really freaking stressful this month.  My goodness.  I had Wednesday off this week (from working the previous weekend) and I practically spent the whole day in a coma.  And yesterday I bought multiple coffees before 10 am.  I promise to whine about post a work sitch update sometime soon, but for this post I’m keeping things short and simple.

Some of the best things I ate this week…

Oatmeal with chia seeds, two kinds of chocolate chips, and a scoop of cream cheese.  It was heavenly.

IMG_0602

Mango yogurt with Luxardo cherries, plus I added a banana from the cafeteria at work.

IMG_0629

Another dessert-y lunch, plain Greek yogurt with cookie butter, granola, and a Pink Lady apple.

IMG_0594

My mother-in-law sent us a giant box of sugar cookies for Easter.  Both of our mothers still send us Easter baskets, actually, there’s a lot of candy in this house!

IMG_0597

Leftover cheddar bbq meatloaf with roasted green beans.  Adam butchered the meatloaf getting it out of the dish and then mashed it onto my plate because I pretty much live like a princess.

IMG_0609

<– that was sarcasm, but I really am pretty spoiled.  Case in point – honey beer with dinner.

IMG_0615

Sweet potato fries with tons of extra-sharp cheddar and ground turkey with Korean bbq sauce.  I realize that the photo is pretty rough, but it was one of the yummiest things I ate all week.  We highly recommend the frozen fries from Trader Joe’s.

IMG_0638

Hot pasta salad.  I sautéed big chunks of green bell pepper and onion in tons of olive oil and smoked paprika, tossed with crispy roasted chickpeas, and cheese tortellini.

IMG_0651

Are you dying eggs this weekend??

Pastrami Smoked Salmon On Sourdough

Once again, this title reflects the most exciting thing I ate in this post.  Honestly though, everything I ate this weekend was pretty darn tasty!

Iced coffee with cake popsicle used for ice.  <– gaaaaah!  so swoontastic!

IMG_0529

Perfectly sweet just enough sour smoothie – passionfruit sorbet / plain Greek yogurt / frozen blueberries / princess flavoring / water.

IMG_0548

Snacky lunch at work.  Mandarin, uncured turkey pepperoni, yummy cinnamon roll Chobani.

IMG_0522

Cafeteria sandwich.  Spicy chicken, pesto, red pepper, and tomato, on an insanely cheesy roll.

IMG_20170408_165203_305

Mr. Flip sandwich from Flip Bird – pulled rotisserie chicken, harissa honey, pickled coleslaw, sambal mayo, and a piece of crispy skin.  It was a 10/10.

IMG_20170409_155733_915

Dinner from the freezer – ice cream and a naan pizza.

IMG_0555

The cilantro pesto pizza – which I got with a free coupon given to me for review – was delicious, the flavor was a bit spicy, which was a nice surprise.

IMG_0563

Lox and cream cheese on a bagel sourdough toast.

IMG_0536

This pastrami-style smoked salmon from Trader Joe’s is my all-time favorite smoked salmon.

IMG_0541

Served with a quick salad of tomato, cucumber, cilantro, green onion, olive oil, and Himalayan salt.

IMG_0546

I made a recipe!  Cheddar bbq turkey meatloaf.

IMG_0573

I ate all of the crispy cheese bits that started to burn to the pan and was sooooo happy.  Plus roasted broccoli.

IMG_0580

Do you have a favorite type of smoked fish to recommend?

Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese

This post contains a week’s worth of wrap up – not just the sandwich – but the sandwich was awesome so it stole the title.  Maybe I’ll make a thing of it and start titling all of my weekly posts after the best bite?

Yummy things…

Our very last cup of chicory coffee from Café du Monde.  <– boo!  With a mandarin.  I spilled the 2nd to very last cup all over the counter and down the side of the fridge, so that was fun.

IMG_0481

More chicory coffee, in yogurt form.  With KIND maple quinoa granola and chocolate-covered cacao nibs.  Plus a Pacific Rose apple.

IMG_0452

The best chips of all time – honey butter flavored from Trader Joe’s.  Excluding, obviously, the freshly made honey butter chips served at Oiji.

IMG_0456

Another Trader Joe’s win – Kona coffee cookie mocha swirl ice cream.

IMG_0504

Homemade treats make the best snacks though.  I threw a wedding shower for one of the ladies at work this week and contributed cookie butter bars and brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

IMG_0487

The eponymous sandwich!

IMG_0461

Served with roasted brussel sprouts with paprika and Old Bay seasoning – to keep the seafood theme going.

IMG_0463

Toasted sourdough with crab rangoon in between.  The filling was a mixture of cream cheese, lump crab meat, green onion, minced ginger, brown sugar, and soy sauce.  They were wonderful.

IMG_0470

I loosely followed the recipe for Eat, Live, Run’s lemon brown sugar chicken.

IMG_0493

I added sliced green onions to the casserole dish and used extra smoked paprika, but primarily I swapped in MAPLE sugar for brown sugar.  Delicious.  We spooned the sauce on top of our veggies.

IMG_0498

Another night I loosely followed the recipe for Bon Appétit’s marinated beans.  Great northern beans with evoo, rice vinegar, cilantro, green onion, and gojuchang.  I served the beans on top of roasted green beans and sweet potato fries.

IMG_0515

With a sour beer on the side.

IMG_0518

I work the next five days, but I hope everyone else has a lovely weekend!