“It’s A Miracle!”

by Emily

Who else has obsessively binge-watched their way though the entire first season of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” already? We finished the whole thing over the weekend. We loved it! I’m considering a rewatch. I hate the two trial episodes – I thought they were god-awful, truly some of the worst television I’ve ever seen – but I adored everything preceding them. The 10 second concept makes my life. Unsurprisingly, this is another smart and funny win from Tina Fey.

The theme song has permanently ear-wormed its way into my brain.

Related, Lisa – Born Round was amazing!

I read it on the train and then would sit in my car in the parking lot for at least 20 minutes each night to keep reading. I’m pretty sure Bruni should be giving TED Talks for all would-be crash dieters, emotional eaters, and aspiring journalists.

breakfast

I did the chocolate milk and iced coffee combo two days in a row.

Paired with a Special K protein bar both days.

Not the best bars – for taste or ingredient list – but they were free in the cafeteria and I had some extra morning hunger this week.

Another day I did hot chocolate mix in hot coffee with a lot of milk on top.

So basically just the lukewarm version of my chocolate milk and coffee.

My breakfast plan for St. Patrick’s Day was a green smoothie. Then I hit the snooze button and the plan was iced coffee with green dye in my milk. Then I hit the snooze button five more times and I barely managed to get coffee, ice, and boring plain milk into my cup.

…and then I also got Starbucks once I got off of the train.

I usually don’t let myself do two coffees in the morning, but I had stayed in bed until literally 10 minutes before I needed to be in the car so clearly it was a double coffee kind of morning. And yes, mom, I fixed my hat hair before I saw patients.

lunch

Thankfully the cafeteria totally came through and helped me get some green-theme on St. Paddy’s Day.

My bagel was topped with pepperjack, sliced turkey, mayo, mustard, and frisee lettuce. Plus baked onion rings on the side.

Blood orange Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and blackberries and a fresh mandarin orange on the side.

I can’t believe I had only ever eaten canned mandarins up until this year, they are my new favorite citrus.

Tart cherry Noosa with coconut butter, homemade butterscotch peanut butter, and a Pinata apple.

We are loving the new 4 oz Noosa packs. Noosa is Adam’s top favorite yogurt – in fact it’s one of his favorite foods in general – but the original packages were a bit too large to enjoy on the go.

Vanilla-caramel yogurt with blackberries and 18 Rabbits caramel apple granola.

I loved the flavor of the grass-fed yogurt but I’d still be a little nervous about trying it plain.

snack

Popcorn / all-time best Easter candy / beer…

All good.

A small but gourmet sandwich.

Toasted whole-wheat with Applegate Farm herb sliced turkey, mayo, and leftover carmelized onions.

Weird pasta salad from the cafeteria.

Why do they keep putting croutons in pasta??

An Austrian iced coffee.

Aka coffee (delicious Grady’s cold-brew in this case) with ice, (skim) milk, and (vanilla-caramel) ice cream.

dinner

Asian-style baked shrimp bowls.

From the bottom up, I filled my casserole with quartered bok choy, sliced wild mushrooms, chopped orange and yellow bell pepper, shrimp, fish sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, canola oil, and Sriracha. Then I baked it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

Served on top of brown rice cooked in chicken stock.

Leftover bbq salads.

Spicy, local arugula topped with bbq sauce, cucumber, avocado, bell pepper, caramelized onions, and TJ’s fire-roasted corn cooked with turkey bacon.

These were some of the best salads we’ve made in months.

The next night I did a 180 from salads and made my grandma’s recipe for an awesomely retro chicken and rice casserole.

Complete with condensed soups, chow mein noodles, and crushed chips on top. I swapped half of the rice for shredded cauliflower but otherwise did not healthy it up at all.

Served with green beans baked with fish sauce, honey, Sriracha, and evoo.

We ate casserole the next night too.

And we will probably been eating casserole the next few nights as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, good luck getting that song out of your head!

2Mar2015

Veggie Lovers Pizza Mac & Cheese + Browned Butterscotch Peanut Butter Recipes

by Emily

It was a low-key weekend – we never left Long Island – but I do have two legitimate recipes to share. They’re very good! Next weekend we have multiple city trips planned so I wanted to make the most of my free time in the kitchen.

This weekend I…

…Had a yummy breakfast at work.

An opal apple and chocolate biscotti dipped in coffee. I threw out the coffee as soon as my treat was gone, I just can’t do the hot stuff. I made up for it with several iced coffees enjoyed during errands-running on the weekend.

One of many.

…Enjoyed an even better work lunch. 1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp cocoa nibs.

Just shake it together and cover with hot water when it’s time for lunch. The crunchy chocolate bites were amazing; nibs are so much better in oatmeal than chocolate chips.

…Discovered my new favorite hard candy – Ice Chips.

Please note – Ice Chips Candy reached out to me about doing a review and provided the above product samples free of charge. I was not given any further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Ice Chips, which come in small chips shaped like shards of ice, are made of xylitol which is an anticariogenic sugar alcohol (i.e. eating gum or candy made with xylitol before acidogenic foods can help to reduce the formation of dental carries or cavities). Xylitol is as sweet as table sugar but contains fewer calories so two Ice Chip candies only contain about 5 calories and if you ate an entire tin – as I was tempted to! – it would be about 125 calories. <– don’t do that though, sugar alcohols give many people diarrhea when consumed in excess

The texture of the chips is freaking amazing, hard enough to suck on but they break apart in a really pleasing way when you crunch them. And their flavor game is on point – my favorite so far are Coffee ‘n Cream and Lemon, but I am really looking forward to Eggnog.

I also really liked this egg.

I don’t even care that I’m a month early, birthday cake is a stupid Easter flavor! It was really yummy though.

…Processed up some tasty (browned butterscotch)peanut butter.

All you need is a food processor, 4 Tbsp browned butter, 1 cup light brown sugar, and 1 lb roasted, salted peanuts.

I’m planning on packing the peanut butter with Greek yogurts for lunches this week.

…Drank a smoothie in the snow. Not the best weather for it, but smoothies are always good.

This one had (frozen:) blackberries, dates, and soursop puree, and Hint of Honey almond milk.

…Cooked green eggs and ~~ham~~ toast.

The eggs were scrambled with spinach and leftover mushrooms and asparagus from Thursday’s dinner.

The best buttered toast.

Inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s “The Bread” we butter our toast first and then bake it.

…Drank a killer strawberry mojito.

The dream team was Cruzan Key Lime Rum and Strawberry Minta soda. With frozen strawberries instead of ice to keep things cool without watering it down.

…Checked out The Little Beet at the newly revamped mall food court.

The new options were all awesome, there is a potato place that looks very unhealthy but very delicious. Adam had a cheesy meal at Melt Shop.

And I got a trio of charred string beans, charred kale, and buckwheat soba noodle salad.

The kale was soooo good, a little bit spicy and much more flavorful than the kale chips we make at home.

…Made gooey macaroni and cheese that tasted like a pizza!

Veggie Lovers Pizza Macaroni and Cheese; serves 4 – 6

6 oz short-cut pasta
4 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
1 cup sliced, canned mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced black olives
25 slices turkey pepperoni, sliced in half
2 Tbsp salted butter, chopped into smaller pieces
2 heaping Tbsp flour
1 3/4 cups skim milk
5 oz reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded
5 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
1 cup marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Prepare an 8×8 inch casserole dish with baking spray. Mix the mozzarella and cheddar together and put aside 1 large handful (2 oz).
Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan (large enough for all of your ingredients) over medium-high heat. Whisk flour into melted butter to form a roux. Cook 60 – 90 seconds, whisking constantly, until roux has darkened to a sandy tan color. Whisk milk into roux and cook 1 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened. You shouldn’t have any lumps, but if you do now is the time to whisk them out.
Reduce heat to low and add 8 oz of cheese to the sauce, working in 3 small batches and stirring until the cheese has fully melted.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked pasta, vegetables, and pepperoni. Pour mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
Top the casserole with an even mixture of marinara sauce, followed by the remaining 2 oz of cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned.

27Feb2015

Home Again, Home Again

by Emily

I am feeling much better now, though the week did feel very long to me. Here’s to hoping the weekend feels long too! I have not been to the grocery store since a week before I left for St. Thomas, but somehow we made it through.

breakfast

Adam sweetly helped ease me back in to normal, non-vacation life by driving me in to work on Tuesday. We made a doughnut date of it!

Pecan praline beignet for me. Doughnut Plant is great so it’s super fun that there’s a location right near my hospital now.

An apple and a hot chocolate.

Less exciting than doughnuts, but still good.

Iced coffee with chocolate milk and a bar.

I loved the Oatmega bar in theory, but unfortunately it was insanely fishy. I just couldn’t do it. I ended up going down to the salad bar for a snack in the late morning.

Cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds packed a protein punch (8 grams of protein if you assume 2 Tbsp of each) to make up for the bar I threw away.

lunch

Salad bar and french fries.

Baby spinach topped with cucumber, olives, broccoli, a marinated veggie mix, and balsamic dressing. The blob in the left corner is fried plantains.

Salad bar and blurry Chipotle leftovers.

Baby spinach with ranch and a bit of extra cheese, topped with my dinner leftovers.

Oatmeal day. Quaker cherry pistachio oatmeal topped with coconut butter with a cinnamon applesauce on the side.

This was the day I had my salad breakfast snack so I did manage to hit up the salad bar three days in a row, a feat that feels extra impressive when you remember that my stomach was still a bit iffy.

dinner

Chipotle night. We legit eat Chipotle at least once a week, it’s a problem.

Brown rice with sautéed veggies, pinto beans, chicken, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and all of the salsas. The three salsa combo was key to helping me enjoy the brown rice (I really prefer white rice but brown is a whole grain so it has more protein and fiber).

We did a pre-dinner dessert date at Ample Hills.

I didn’t love the red velvet, but their caramel and honey flavors are all deep burnt sugar good.

Adam was on call on Wednesday and I definitely made myself a big bowl of chia pudding for dinner. Thank goodness for those lunch salads, eh?

Gina’s recipe base – 3 Tbsp of chia seeds in 1 cup of Hint of Honey almond milk with a splash of vanilla and honey whisked in. I topped my bowl with Girl & The Fig salted fig caramel and it was flipping amazing.

Last night’s dinner came straight from the freezer. Salmon patties from Whole Foods plus asparagus and a mushroom medley from Trader Joe’s.

The patties were unpleasantly dry so I made a dipping sauce of mayo, garlic aioli, pickle relish, and smoked paprika.

I drank a Genny Cream Ale while I cooked.

And ate a zoo of gummies for dessert while we watched the “Parks and Rec” finale.

Omg. The P&R finale basically killed me – I loooved it. Every single detail was perfect, down the very last second of the ending being a sweet moment from Ben. LOVE.

Do you watch “Parks and Recreation?” What’d you think of the finale?

14Feb2015

Weekly Wrap-Up? Yes Please!

by Emily

happenings

As promised, here is a picture of my gaudy new cell phone –

I’m liking it more now that I’ve gotten used to the new system.

This week I gave an hour-long nutrition presentation at a women’s shelter near the hospital. We talked primarily about added sugars, reading nutrition labels, and the plate method.

I opened with an activity where we compared the sugar content of different beverages.

I started reading Amy Poehler’s memoir, Yes Please. I am halfway through and completely smitten.

It is just as hilarious and inspiring as you’d expect it to be. And her relationship with Seth Meyers – he guest writes a chapter – makes me love both of them more if that’s even possible.

breakfast

Coffee and a chocolate coconut water.

Latte and an Opal apple.

Stumptown cold-brew box with turkey jerky and dates.

Coffee (duh!) and yummy hot chocolate with marshmallows that the hospital administration had for employee appreciation day.

They also had a bunch of cookies out, but it was 9 o’clock in the morning and one of the midwives brought in bagels for the clinic so I went with one of those instead.

I definitely made the right choice, my pumpernickel bagel was splendidly chewy. Also – I poured my marshmallow cocoa into my coffee after it had cooled down and it was ridiculous.

lunch

From home – yogurt bowl.

Blueberries, Heritage Flakes, and a Dannon butterscotch Greek yogurt.

From the cafeteria – a turkey sandwich and baked fries.

My sandwich had turkey, provolone, mayo, mustard, lettuce and red peppers and my fries had a side of blue cheese.

From home – another yogurt bowl.

An Opal apple and plain Fage with amazing 18 Rabbits Caramel Apple Granola.

From the cafeteria – a giant chicken quesadilla.

With cheese, chopped bell peppers, and sour cream and guacamole on the side. I planned on only eating half because it was quite big, but it was so good I ended up demolishing the whole thing.

Dinner leftovers (see the scrambled egg night) on top of spinach with ranch, chopped carrot, and cucumber from the cafeteria.

The salad bar packed lunch mash-up was perfect, I’ll have to remember to repeat it the next time I’m getting tired of my yogurt bowls.

snack

Adorable gummies from last weekend.

Baby carrots and dip.

I made an oatmeal chocolate chip mug cookie. It was quite enjoyable but basically raw so not a recipe for sharing.

Jarlsberg mini cheese.

Chocolate milk.

Coffee with almond milk.

Sundaes that Adam and I made with this dream team:

Girl & The Fig’s salted fig caramel is perfect.

dinner

Bibimbap bowls. I couldn’t get a great picture, but these were sooo good. Runny egg yolk goes wonderfully with spice.

Jasmine rice with rice vinegar // baked tofu cubes // broccoli and baby kale sautéed with canola oil, a bit of sugar, and tons of Sriracha // chopped sesame seaweed // and a sunny side up egg.

We used the leftovers the next day for another Asian-ish dinner.

Leftover rice and veggies stir-fried with sautéed onion, eggs, fish sauce, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

Plus “beef and broccoli” aka chicken with broccoli and cauliflower.

I way overcooked the chicken and this was not very good.

I guess the next day was pretty similar as well. I sautéed chopped seitan, corn, and spinach in evoo and Sriracha and then scrambled in eggs and part-skim mozzarella.

It tasted so much better than it looked.

Chipotle in front of the tv on Friday. We were supposed to go into Brooklyn but it was terrifically cold outside and changing into pajamas just sounded too good.

Chicken rice bowl with sautéed veggies, three types of salsa, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce. Plus chips. There’s a giant diet coke just to the right of that photo ❤

Have you read any actor memoirs that you loved? I was a HUGE fan of Mindy Kaling’s too and I’m excited for Tina Fey’s next.

26Jan2015

Weekend Wrap-Up; Marshmallow Madness

by Emily

I am not 100% yet, but I am feeling much better. 90%? Poor Adam, though, has gotten my cold x2, complete with an ear infection. It’s put a real damper on how much sympathy I’m able to get! At least we were both in the mood for a quiet, lazy weekend.

breakfast and lunch

Friday at work I had a Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar with WF’s Citrus Blend Italian Sparkling Mineral Water.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing tops Diet Coke, but I am really loving those sparkling waters. The strawberry flavor is the best.

Then for lunch, Grape Chobani with KIND Raspberry Chia Seed Clusters, an apple, and a Vita Coco Café.

Again, not as amazing as iced coffee, but the espresso coconut water mash-up is damn good.

And I did have iced coffee this weekend. With skim milk and vanilla creamer.

Plus peanut/butter toast and a mini cheese for brunch.

That is the only weekend breakfast or lunch picture I have because mostly we snacked on random things.

Also I made and ate a lot of brownies (see below…).

dinner

Friday night we turned to the freezer for dinner.

TJ’s vegan orange chicken was alright paired with broccoli.

But it was basically the least filling thing on the planet. We both ended up making sandwiches too.

Fancy pb&j for me.

Saturday night was just straight fancy.

I made baked shrimp! Shrimp, chopped bell pepper, evoo, fresh cilantro, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne, lime juice, and a sprinkle of chopped butter, baked at 425* for 12 minutes. Served on top of jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock.

This was tasty, healthy, and oh-so quick to prepare. Triple win.

Sunday I started dinner in the car home after the world’s longest trip to Trader Joe’s. Apparently people are freaking out about our potential blizzard. By the by, please, please, please cross your fingers that it doesn’t blizzard!

After my pretzel roll I made a spinach salad.

With balsamic vinaigrette, pomegranate, goat’s milk cheddar, and sweet and salty pecans.

snacks, aka marshmallow madness

My mother-in-law sent us a cute Valentine’s card and some strawberry Peeps.

They were yummy, but the marshmallow extravaganza was just beginning… we also had a big container of fluff!

So I made the very best brownies I’ve ever tasted.

Triple chocolate fudge with a layer of marshmallow fluff in the middle.

Recipe is coming tomorrow and it is absolutely fantastic, I promise.

In the meantime, I did something else with the fluff.

Oh yes, I did. Malted Marshmallow Coffee Creamer. If you put skim milk, marshmallow fluff (1:2 ratio with the milk), and malted milk powder (1:4 ratio with the milk) in the blender you can put it in your coffee and pretty much die of happiness.

We used 2 cups skim milk, 1 cup fluff, and 1/4 cup malted milk powder, but as long as you follow the ratio above you can make a smaller or larger batch, no problem. I highly recommend it!

23Jan2015

Weekly Wrap-Up; On The Mend

by Emily

I am still a teensy bit sick, but thankfully I am feeling much, much better than last weekend. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll be back to 100%!

breakfast

My first day back, when I came in feeling just terrible, my coworker surprised me with a bagel with lox and cream cheese.

So sweet of her, and very serendipitous since I hadn’t managed to get coffee, let alone breakfast.

Adam drove me into work on Wednesday since he had errands to do in Brooklyn, so we went in early and made a date of it.

Doughnut Plant!

I got a coconut cream filled and a Valrhona hot chocolate. Plus we stopped for an iced coffee along the walk.

This was so much fun, I cannot even tell you; morning date for the win.

Yesterday I randomly woke up feeling sooo hungry so I pieced together a big breakfast in the cafeteria.

Coffee with chocolate milk,

and scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, and a croissant.

lunch

Veggie pizza from the cafeteria.

This was good, but it had corn on it which I found to be an incredibly strange topping choice. Not that I don’t love corn, but on a pizza??!

Wednesday I brought an apple and a Jarlsberg Cheese Mini (more on that in a minute…) from home.

Plus a salad from the cafeteria that I apparently don’t have a picture of.

Yesterday was another apple, plus an Apricot Ancient Grains Chobani with TJ’s Pumpkin O’s and KIND Banana Nut Clusters.

I liked the Chobani much more than the one with oats I tried previously. The pieces of apricot were quite nice.

snack

I don’t usually drink coffee after 4 pm but I ended up getting iced decafs twice this week because I was so obsessed with the idea of coffee flavor in the evening.

With skim milk and a splash of cream.

Another night we had smoothies for our creamy drink fix.

Chocolate peppermint soymilk with frozen strawberries and plain Greek yogurt.

Back to that cheese…

Jarlsberg recently started making minis and they sent me some to try.

For full disclosure I will tell you that Adam didn’t like the flavor (“too mild”) but I did, and I thought the texture was great (firm bite – you could squeeze it between your fingers and the wheel held its shape – but very creamy). 70 calories per mini wheel, for a nicely portable snack.

Caramel apple plate,

Caramel pecan popcorn and apple slices sprinkled with caramel cinnamon sugar.

I brought that adorable shaker back from San Francisco’s Japantown.

Related note – this salted caramel hand sanitizer smells beyond amazing.

Another souvenir from our SF trip, Ruby Grand dried nectarines from Frog Hollow.

Served on with vanilla shortbreads for a very fancy, only slightly Georgia O’Keefe-y snack plate.

dinner

An easy dinner for the first night I cooked after take-out for every meal all weekend.

Salad with honey mustard dressing, parmesan, dried blueberries, and sweet and salty pecans.

Eggs with sautéed onion and TJ’s canned mackerel scrambled in. Plus turkey bacon.

I cooked the bacon first so everything in my eggs was infused with that flavor.

Date night at Pequeña in Brooklyn.

We started with an order of the fried sweet plantains.

Pretty good, but I think I would have to go back home to really get my plantain craving satisfied.

I ordered veggie quesadillas for my entrée – Pan Fried Tortillas Stuffed with Oaxacan String Cheese And Zucchini, Peppers, Mushroom, Onion, and Squash. Topped with Salsa Roja, Queso Fresco and Cilantro.

I always cook my quesadillas in a pan, but apparently “pan fried” here meant legit deep fried quesadillas. They were tasty but also a bit ridiculous; I ate one plus the filling out of the other.

I’m writing this post before dinner on Thursday, but it’s gotten pretty late and I’m leaning towards a big salad and an old-school pb&j. 🙂

9Jan2015

Two By Two…

by Emily

…hands of blue <– name that show!

A short weekly wrap-up since my pictures were terrible, the two best from each category…

breakfast

I made wonderful coffee this week with the help of Grady’s Cold Brew Bean Bags. Paired with 1) A coconut berry smoothie.

Hint of honey almond milk, frozen strawberries and blueberries, and coconut butter. I love the way the coconut doesn’t totally blend in and you end up with little pockets.

2) A surprisingly good omlette from the cafeteria.

Eggs with onions and peppers.

lunch

1) A mix of seafood items from the caf made me feel fancy.

Tuna salad sandwich, lobster bisque, and a honey tangerine from home.

2) A snack plate that was actually the first half of lunch; I had Vietnamesse food at a party later.

Pretzels, turkey jerky, and cinnamon apples.

snack

1) The party was a goodbye party for my boss. I brought in cookies. Lavender chocolate caramel chip and my Smore’s Monster Cookies.

I ate way too much dough then stayed up half the night with a stomach ache/sugar high finishing the latest Kathy Reichs’ book.

2) More sugar?

I enjoyed these crispy m&m’s much more than I was expecting to.

dinner

1) Chipotle is always good.

White rice, pinto beans, veggies, corn and mild salsas, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.

2) This salad, sans chips, was good too.

My take on a copycat of TGIFriday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad.

Copycat TGIF Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad

chicken tenders
honey mustard – I used cranberry honey mustard which I highly recommend
chopped toasted pecans
baby spinach
dried cranberries
crumbled blue cheese
canned mandarin oranges
balsamic vinegarette

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour mustard and pecans into wide, shallow bowls.
Dip chicken into mustard, then into pecans, pushing gently to help set the nuts (I only coated one side of my tenders).
Place chicken on prepared baking sheet, naked side down. Bake for 27 – 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool before slicing.
Assemble salads with toppings.

instagram share

1) I bought these cards to brighten up my office for only 99 cents at Trader Joe’s.

2) I made up a joke! Adam hates me.

Could you identify the tv show from the quote?

5Jan2015

Hello, 2015! Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

It’s 2015!!!

My new year is off to a good start; I rearranged a few areas in the apartment that have been driving me crazy and have even been to the gym a few times. I opened the year with a trip to the movies to see “Wild” with friends. We all enjoyed it, even those who hadn’t read the book.

I’ve done plenty of good eating this year too…

breakfast

Coffee coffee.

With vanilla sugar.

And vanilla creamer.

Yep, I’m still deep in my vanilla obsession.

Which is why I bought this French vanilla yogurt.

With a seckel pear.

Another day I stirred vanilla bean paste into plain 0% Chobani.

It was delicious topped with blueberries, toasted walnuts, and maple syrup.

Pumpkin smoothie.

Canned pumpkin – the final can that’s been waiting in the pantry – with Greek yogurt, frozen banana, maple syrup, cinnamon, and Almond Breeze Hint of Honey. This was thin but so tasty.

Adam and I split this latte and donut.

Dough‘s mocha crumble did not disappoint.

lunch

A killer sandwich.

Turkey, sharp cheddar, banana peppers, and strawberry jam.

Plus apple slices with cinnamon maple sugar.

Black-eyed pea salad {BEP, green pepper, sharp cheddar, green Tabasco, and smoked almonds}.

And trail mix {peanuts, smoked almonds, dried blueberries, and birthday cake M&M’s}.

Another sandwich with sliced apple.

Fried egg with mayo and mustard.

If I had rye bread this would be the exact sandwich my dad cooked for me when I was growing up. His specialties were sandwiches – fried egg and grilled cheese (with pickle relish!).

snack

A trip to Ample Hills for the good stuff. Butter pecan brittle and salted crack caramel.

Chocolate covered potato chips. I measured out exactly one serving – these are Adam’s favorite thing ever and he was very kind to share.

Turkey jerky.

Chocolate-covered gummy bears = yum!

It’s possible I splashed cookie-flavored coffee creamer into diet coke and it was the best thing ever…

Dooo itttt!

dinner

You have to eat black-eyed peas on the first for good luck in the new year. I had mine mixed with green pepper, tomato, hot sauce, mayo, and cheddar on top of sprouted brown rice and chopped spinach.

The dog even got his own little serving!

I stuck a fork in my bowl, but I actually scooped my meal with bbq kettle chips.

It was a great pairing.

Friday we did salads for course 1; spinach with peanut sauce, chopped apple, and kasha (roasted buckwheat groats).

Followed by chicken patties from Trader Joe’s and cheesy fries.

The fries were great – just frozen from Trader Joe’s that we baked with shredded cheddar and gouda.

We celebrated round 2 of our anniversary on Saturday. When we watched our wedding video last weekend, we were reminded that I talked about eating pizza and watching Scrubs in my vows (really, I did!) and we realized that pizza and Scrubs would be a good anniversary activity. We got a variety of slices from our favorite pizza place in our old neighborhood and had a great time.

I got a green juice {spinach, kale, cucumber, and pineapple} to get in some veggies while we were picking up our pie.

Adam was on call on Sunday but I figured that I should start off 2015 by breaking my streak of chips and cheese for single lady dinners and cooking a real meal.

Spinach salad with balsamic, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and pecan crusted chicken tenders. I dipped the chicken in cranberry honey mustard before I dredged it in chopped pecans and it came out amazingly.

Woot, woot!

I hope that everyone is having a great year.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: apple

“It’s A Miracle!”

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Veggie Lovers Pizza Mac & Cheese + Browned Butterscotch Peanut Butter Recipes

Please note – Ice Chips Candy reached out to me about doing a review and provided the above product samples free of charge. I was not given any further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Home Again, Home Again

breakfast

lunch

dinner

Weekly Wrap-Up? Yes Please!

happenings

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Marshmallow Madness

breakfast and lunch

dinner

snacks, aka marshmallow madness

Weekly Wrap-Up; On The Mend

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Two By Two…

Hello, 2015! Weekend Wrap-Up

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner