Weekend Wrap-Up; Five Favorites

by Emily

On Saturday, I kept myself busy with errands and drinking all the coffee.

On Sunday, we went for a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

Oh my goodness. The weather was absolutely beautiful but we both agreed that three hours was too long – I am going to do my best not to sit today!

Here are my five favorites from the weekend…

{1} Rose Apriums, an apricot-plum blend. They are similar to the Plucot/Pluot (my favorite fruit of all time) but more apricot than plum. Wonderful.

I packaged materials from home and ate them in a tasty granola bowl at work on Friday. 2 chopped Rose Apriums, 1/2+ cup KIND Banana Nut Clusters, and skim milk.

Another summer fruit worth mentioning is the Sonya apple. They are perfectly sweet, and juicy without being drippy.

The book in the background is my final recommendation. It is a compilation of food writing – book excerpts, magazine articles, blog posts – from 2013, divided into sections about meat, eating local, home cooks, etc, and it has been delightful to read. Now I want to get my hands on some of the other years.

{2} A copy-cat ABP bbq chicken salad.

I enjoyed this salad so much when I sampled it at Au Bon Pain, I knew I would have to recreate it at home.

A romaine base topped with ranch dressing, corn, cucumber, tomato, three-cheese blend, and chopped chicken that was tossed with TJ’s Carolina bbq sauce.

{3} Green eggs (no ham).

An easy dinner that tasted so good. I sautéed frozen spinach and corn with evoo, dill, a pinch of sugar, and green Tabasco, then tossed in chopped chicken and chunks of raw goat’s milk cheese, and scrambled in two eggs.

Corn is so freaking good in scrambled eggs. I like it when everything gets a bit charred before you add your eggs.

{4} A killer sandwich from Bareburger, the Big Bacon Blue burger with a few modifications.

I ended up with grilled chicken, turkey bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, smokehouse sauce, and blue cheese.

I was swooning over this sandwich; it ended up being the best “burger” I’ve ever eaten. I’m pretty jazzed about that season drink in the background too – to be shared in September!

{5} Chicago Mix from Trader Joe’s. You can’t go wrong with a caramel corn/cheddar popcorn blend.

After our bike ride, Adam and I spent Sunday on the couch with “The Office,” and the popcorn was thoroughly enjoyed.

Any summer goods you want to recommend?

22Aug2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Knock On Wood

by Emily

My office (not our clinic but specifically my office in the clinic) didn’t have power for two painful days this week and it made things a little crazy. Fingers crossed, I think we have the problem fixed for good now.

My head was kind of all over the place – I accidentally ate pizza three meals in a row, Monday dinner through Tuesday lunch! – so I don’t have a ton to share, but I am pretty jazzed about the things I did photograph…

breakfast

I made amazing cold brew this week.

Starbucks espresso roast (in this ratio) with maple cinnamon sugar dumped in with the grounds.

I wish I had a bigger French press because day 2 of leftover coffee was just as delicious.

With a yummy Sonya apple.

Coffee and cereal from the cafeteria.

That coffee contained a horrifying amount of sugar; the sugar lid popped off while I was pouring and I didn’t have time to get back in line. I totally drank it, but I’m taking it as a sign that I should just go back to not putting sugar in my coffee. (I used to sugar 1/10 times and lately it’s been more like 8/10.)

Coffee with dried Jackfruit and chocolate milk. Speaking of the sweet stuff, it’s amazing that I didn’t get a headache from this sugar bomb breakfast.

No granulated sugar but I did do two pumps of cinnamon dolce – and an extra shot of espresso! – since this was a freebie cash-in.

lunch

You’ll spot tea in all of my lunch pictures, so I’ll start by mentioning the sweet box I received from AriZona.

Please note – I received the tea free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently launched a new line of OAK Reserve Teas – black tea steeped with American Oak chips during brewing. I am pretty picky about black tea, but I have to say that I loved these! I was very impressed. I was expecting the flavor to be smoky, but it was more woodsy?! The lemon was my favorite; mellow versus sour and the citrus played nicely off of the oak. They are made with maple sugar and that flavor definitely comes through in a pleasing way. The lemon and lightly sweetened both have 75 calories and 22 mg of caffeine per bottle, which I think makes them an ok candidate for an “everyday drink.” The unsweetened has zero calories, and rather than adding fake sugars they let the tea stand on its own. <– love! I am obsessed with the fact that manufacturers make “diet” drinks with nonnutritive sweeteners versus occasionally just cutting back on or leaving out the sugar entirely

The PR rep sent me a recipe for a cocktail that sounds pretty darn yummy (look at the bottom of this post), but Adam just dumped some Johnny Walker into the lemon variety one evening and was quite pleased with the final result. We both plan on purchasing the teas with our own money once this very generous shipment runs out.

Back to lunch. Oikos Caramel Macchiato Greek Yogurt with 2 dapple pluots and KIND Banana Nut Clusters.

This lunch was great. The granola (a former freebie) was wonderful; the best variety of KIND granola that I’ve had yet. The banana came through strongly but not at all in that fake “banana” flavoring way. I was kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed it. I am excited to eat more of all of these lunch components again.

Chocolate Strawberry yogurt (I guess this flavor is new?) with blueberries and pomegranate.

I never think about pomegranate for my lunch yogurts, but the little pops were delightful.

Chobani Coconut 2% Greek Yogurt with blueberry, pomegranate, and roasted coconut chips.

Best lunch of the week.

snacks

This happened more than once…

I am basically heartbroken to have eaten the last of my Chinatown crème brulee (or maybe coffee?) flavored hard candies.

Pea protein chips from my 2nd Urthbox.

Guava and cheese empanada on the train.

dinner

Is anyone at all surprised that we ate Chipotle for dinner?

My usual salad combo.

Not a lot to share in this category this week. You know we did Chipotle a 2nd night too. One night I ate pizza. And tonight (I’m writing to you from Thursday) I made a spinach salad with blue cheese, sweet and spicy pecans, dried cranberries, and lavender salt.

It’s packed to-go because one of the husband’s friends invited us over for dinner. I am super awkward about taking food photographs in front of new people, so that’s all she wrote!

Oaked Cocktail Recipe

1 oz Amaretto Liqeuer
2 oz AriZona OAK Brewed Tea (Emily note – use the unsweetened variety or skip the sugar)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 oz lemon juice
1 mint sprig

18Aug2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Last Days Of Summer

by Emily

I don’t know how it got to be mid-August already, but we are doing everything we can to make the most of our last days of summer. This weekend we grilled, ate too many bowls of ice cream, and even got our toes wet going stand up paddle boarding!

SUP has been on my bucket list for years and I am so thrilled I finally got to try it out. I loved it! Amazingly, given my general level of grace and athleticism (level: zero), I didn’t fall once.

We had an absolute blast and the hour flew by. SUP is definitely something I want to do again. I can see how on-board yoga would be a ton of fun too.

Here are some of our sunny eats…

lunch

A pink grapefruit bonanza Friday at work. Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Yogurt with two sliced red plums and Polar Pink Grapefruit Seltzer on the side.

I ran out of time in the morning to also pack an afternoon snack and, duh, this wasn’t enough food. Enter candy at my desk.

I’m not a big black licorice person either, but I don’t know how anyone dislikes Good & Plenty.

A strangely satisfying sandwich.

I put two split hot dogs on a Bagel Thin (toasted with butter) with shredded light three-cheese blend and balsamic ketchup and this throw-together-the-last-of-the-fridge-contents-before-grocery-shopping sandwich ended up rocking my face off.

snacks

Friday’s at-work breakfast. <– I wake up too late for breakfast most weekend days so I couldn’t make this a category

An Amazing Grass Chocolate Superfood packet (from Urthbox) with vanilla soy milk and a Pink Crisps apple.

I was all about the coffee this weekend. I ended up calling Adam on the ride home from work practically crying while I stared at a McDonald’s coffee advertisement. This home-brewed Starbucks espresso blend with fat-free sweetened condensed milk hit the spot.

I did go to McDonald’s for a $1 iced coffee the next morning though. Meh. These guys were much better.

All shared with the husband, who is another raging java addict.

It is fair to say that I was also all about the ice cream.

I’m retty damn excited about that Horchata spiced Blue Moon as well! I had Strawberry Biscoff Sour Cream Gelato over warm double-chocolate sour cream brownies two nights in a row.

The brownies were just the Baker’s One Bowl recipe with a heaping cup each chocolate chips and low-fat sour cream stirred into the batter once it was mixed up.

To end the weekend, on Sunday we went big before we went home, with Pat Bing Soo from Tous le Jours.

Now I get why people rave about TlJ, that bowl was Adam’s favorite shaved ice yet. Milk and strawberry shaved ices topped with scm, vanilla ice cream, red bean, watermelon, mocha, strawberry, kiwi, and mango. Everything was delicious but we could barely make a dent in that monster!

dinner

Friday, we ate the last of our veggie, turkey, and marinara pasta bowls.

This meal is really a better fit for fall and you will definitely be seeing it again in the months to come.

On Saturday, we grilled.

Adam did an awesome job making dinner and then the three of us ate our meals outside (the boys also had steak).

My plate had grilled asparagus, zucchini, and turkey hot dogs, oven-roasted corn on the cob, a few sautéed mushrooms (topping for the steak), and Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce for dipping.

We marinated the asparagus in A-1 citrus marinade and tossed the squash in evoo before grilling. Everything came out fantastically. I can’t believe we lived in this apartment for more than a year before we fired up our grill!

And on Sunday, we went out in the city. Haru unveiled a new Times Square Location and a new seasonal cocktail this summer and they invited me in to check them both out.

The restaurant is down a side street and out of the tourist foot traffic of Times Square and the location is quite pretty.

The lighting was terrrrrrrible for photos – too yellow for my crappy camera and nonexistent photog skills – but good for eating, and the tables were nicely lit at 7pm. I hate eating a meal in the dark. The music was unobtrusive – mellow and pretty quiet. I hate dark rooms and loud noises because I basically like to dine like an 80-year-old.

Adam ordered hot sake and said it gave him a nice warm feeling.

I am not a sake girl, but I stuck my tongue in and did have to agree that it was smooth.

I, of course, went with the seasonal cocktail – The Red Lotus.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, I have the recipe to share with you!

Yum! The drink was not too sweet but it felt nice and juicy. It went down very easily. I adore lychees and am always sad that you don’t see them on more menus but now that I have the recipe I can make this drink at home.

Adam started with the miso soup.

He said it was what you would expect.

And we shared an order of the appetizer special – Lobster Gyoza.

Holy lobster meat, ~~Batman~~ Aquaman! The dumplings were bursting with lobster – this dish is a steal for just $10. The gyoza were a good size and they were easy to bite; I hate struggling with stringy foods and chopsticks. The flavors were very straightforward, which let the lobster shine.

The husband went with the sushi for dinner. 2 tuna / whitefish / yellowtail / albacore tuna /shrimp / tobiko / and a tuna roll. (I count an extra piece but I’m not sure what it was.)

His fish was fresh and flavorful. Adam said the size, texture, and temperature were all good. Usually you see yellow caviar instead of red so he was very excited about his tobiko roll.

I did the vegetarian sushi.

Avocado / eggplant / shitake mushroom / tofu / asparagus / oshinko / inari / and an avocado cucumber roll.

My plate looks simple, but this was the best veggie sushi I’ve had in years. The rice was nicely seasoned and the vegetables were all cooked beautifully. The mushroom had an almost smoky flavor and that bite of eggplant was the best tasting vegetable I’ve had at a restaurant this year!

All in all, we both agreed that the menu was straightforward but on point. Haru isn’t doing anything unique – there weren’t any specialty rolls that thrilled us – they are doing the basics incredibly well. We’ll be back!

Please note – I dined at Haru free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

The Red Lotus Seasonal Cocktail, for 1

2 oz. peach vodka
1 oz. cranberry juice
3 lychees
1 lime wedge
1 lychee for garnish

Muddle lychees and shake with vodka, juice and syrup. Squeeze in some lime, drop the wedge in and shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish the drink with lychee for soothing effect.

25Jul2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday Weather

by Emily

It was a big week here, we had a birthday and a serendipitous, surprise visit! I turned 29 yesterday; that sounds old, old, old. I may not have a house or a baby, but I have a husband and a dog who I love beyond words so that feels pretty good for almost-30.

We didn’t have time for a real grocery trip after our Philadelphia weekend and we relied a ton on packaged and purchased food. Here are some highlights…

breakfast

Coffee (I’m still doing the 1/2&1/2!) and a Blackberry Bliss Mama Chia.

I probably wouldn’t have bought the chia on my own – it came in my UrthBox – but I ended up really liking it.

KIND Bar.

Madagascar Vanilla Almond.

Birthday freebie coffee! I love that Starbucks does that. You’ll notice that I stuck with my birthday tradition of doing tacky, glittery nails.

Venti iced skim latte with an extra shot of espresso, 2 shots of white mocha, and caramel drizzle. I was buzzing.

And this doesn’t go here but speaking of sugar, I’m not sure I ate enough candy this week…

lunch

Oatmeal (with Cacao Bliss) and freeze-dried apples.

That fruit is so flipping good.

Cereal and yogurt.

Total on Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit. I was equally impressed with the yogurt the 2nd time around.

Lots of packed snacks during a 4 hour afternoon meeting. I ate a salad beforehand, and also required lots of coffee.

Chocolate-covered gummy bears, applesauce, and Everything Pretzels from Mary’s Gone Crackers. The pretzels were from a bag that the company sent me to try.

Delicious! I thought these were much better than the sea salt flavor I tried before, which wasn’t bad either. These were just like eating a very crunchy everything bagel. And still made with whole grains including brown rice, quinoa, amaranth and millet, and seeds including flax, sesame and chia, just like the original flavor.

My dietetics co-workers brought in lunch for my birthday! They are pretty much the sweetest.

Salad with a great, thick balsamic glaze, homemade spinach and feta pastries, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. Everything was delicious; I tried to bring leftovers home for Adam and I ended up eating them all on the train!

dinner

Half salad and sandwich deal from Panera.

I did the Thai chicken salad and the Thai chicken flatbread and was impressed with neither.

The sauce was too sour and the apple on the side was sadly the best part of the meal.

Thankfully, things get much more festive from here.

On Wednesday, my parents were traveling to Ohio to visit my grandmother. They were flying on miles so they had a long day with lots of connections, including a 3-hour layover at LaGuardia. When the got off the plane in NY, they learned that inclement weather had grounded their final flight, and then would be stuck until the next morning. Silver lining – they stayed at my house for the night and we got to visit and go out to birthday dinner!!!!

It ended up being the best “bad news” ever. We teased them that they jinxed themselves by complaining about not making it out for Indian food during their June visit, so of course we had to take them for Indian food.

It was too dark for pictures, but we shared several appetizers and a bunch of dishes and all left full and happy. Everything was amazing and our waiter was the sweetest man. Namaste is great. We even found froyo nearby with birthday cake flavor.

I topped my “cake” with marshmallow, strawberry pie filling, and a million sprinkles.

And I actually ended up having froyo last night on my real birthday was well.

Frozen yogurt > cake!

For my birthday dinner we did takeout from Bare Burger.

Turkey with ketchup mustard, spinach, tomato, a fried egg, and tons of pickles.

We ate burgers and giant diet cokes while we watched Longmire and it was a great way to celebrate 🙂

22Jul2014

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve been pretty busy and I’m running a bit behind, but I ate some really yummy things last week so I didn’t want to skip the post. Here are some faves from last Monday through Friday…

break the fast

A purple smoothie.

Frozen blueberries and strawberries with maple syrup and vanilla almond milk.

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar, a Pink Lady apple, and iced coffee from Starbucks. I poured a splash of half and half into my coffee by accident last week and it ended up tasting so yummy that now it’s turned into a bad habit!

Day 2.

Caramel Almond & Sea Salt KIND Bar {former freebie}, a very juicy nectarine, and cafeteria coffee with skim milk and a splash of half and half.

ladies who lunch

Cafeteria meal.

Salad with broccoli, black-eyed peas, cheddar, balsamic, and a scoop of egg salad. Plus fries dipped in honey mustard on the side.

Sandwich.

Leftover bbq chicken on a Bagel Thin. With bread and butter pickles, chips, and cherries.

Yogurt.

Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Greek Yogurt with KIND Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds {former freebie} and cherries on the side. The yogurt was a limited edition that needs to become part of the permanent line-up. It was freaking incredible, sweet and tangy with little pieces of citrus spread throughout. I must find the watermelon variety.

snack attack

Chocolate-covered pretzels from Wegman’s.

I brought Adam some back from my Buffalo trip and made the mistake of tasting “just one.” Those things are addictive! It’s a good thing I didn’t do a taste-test in the store or I would have brought home pounds of them.

Trader Joe’s makes the best turkey jerky I’ve ever tasted.

I don’t know how the keep the texture sooooo soft.

Chocolate covered strawberry floats! Chocolate frozen yogurt in strawberry Crush.

We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

It was insane how much this tasted like a toasted marshmallow. It was pretty intense though, there is no way I could have finished more than half of this.

Baby spinach salad.

With sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, shredded carrot, evoo, honey, and lavender salt. My best salad combo to date.

dining on dinner

Salad atop salad.

The base was baby spinach with dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

Topped with pulled bbq chicken (and a pile of salt and vinegar chips in the back). Just boneless, skinless breasts cooked in the crockpot, shredded, and tossed with TJ’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

The sauce was wonderful, very sweet and a little spicy.

Pasta that was simple but good.

Whole-wheat rotini with browned mushrooms, ground turkey (sautéed with tons of garlic and dried oregano), frozen spinach, low-fat sour cream, and a can of tomato sauce.

This was one of those meals that seemed like it would need more flavor but then you kept eating until you were furiously scraping the bottom of the bowl.

National Thai with a girlfriend. I got spicy noodles with veggies. They were super chewy, had a good variety of vegetables, and were actually spicy; I’m pretty sure National has become my favorite Thai spot in the city.

Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

We ended up finding passable mango mojitos at a tiny Mexican spot in Park Slope. Their menu also mentioned watermelon daiquiris, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back again this Friday.

what’s happening

I was getting into such a great groove with my workouts, but then I got excited and upped the length of my runs too quickly. My right knee was horrifically swollen and the husband told me to stay out of the gym until the inflammation went down. Boo!!! I took a week completely off from exercise (minus a few long walks this weekend) and popped anti-inflammatories and iced like crazy. I’m going to start back in with short, easy workouts this week and continue to ice regularly. I’m going a little stir-crazy so please cross your fingers for me!

On a more positive note, I just finished reading Fault Lines by Nancy Huston and I’m recommending it to pretty much everyone.

It’s a story about a family and each section of the book is told from the perspective of a different generation. Huston did a great job of building the story in layers. The parts of the story that were told through the lens of childhood were wonderfully done.

It is my 29th birthday this Thursday. We can’t fit in any celebrating this week so Adam and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia this past weekend. I gave that its own post because this one was getting too long, but we had a wonderful time.

Have you spotted the new Chobani varieties in your area yet? Has anyone tasted watermelon??

11Jul2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Play It Again, Sam!

by Emily

This week’s meals were so good that I went ahead and had most of them a 2nd time. Always nice when you can make leftovers work in your favor. And I even have a recipe to share.

breakfast

Breakfasts came from this sweet package courtesy of Nonni’s – Biscotti Bites.

Please note – I was sent these products free of charge to sample. I was not provided with additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently introduced two new flavors: Double Chocolate Salted Caramel (salty and sweet, with the occasional extra-exciting pocket of caramel) and Very Berry Almond (sweet in an understated way; nice for breakfast). All three flavors have ~40 calories per cookie.

I packaged them up for breakfasts at work. With coffee, of course.

These were not quite as good as the amazing Almond Thins, but I was still a fan. Want to try some for yourself? Nonni’s is hosting a giveaway –

To encourage fans to experience the fresh-baked greatness for themselves, Nonni’s Biscotti is hosting a series of giveaways on their social pages. The “Who’s on top?” giveaway will begin July 14, where fans can help Nonni’s decide which of Nonni’s three Biscotti Bites flavors is the most favored, for a chance to win free products!

On Tuesday, I mixed things up with a smoothie instead.

Frozen blueberries and banana with vanilla almond milk, maple syrup, and lavender. YUM!

lunch

Lunches were all about the (chicken)salad. I made another Asian-inspired take on the classic. This time, I borrowed the flavors from our favorite Vietnamese sandwich – the Bahn Mi.

Bahn Mi Chicken Salad, Yields: 6 servings; Hands-on Time: 15 minutes

2 cups shredded carrots
1 and 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup Sriracha

In a large bowl, combine carrots, cucumber, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Let sit, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
Drain all of the liquid off of the vegetables.
Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss until well-combined.

On Monday, I brought a bigggg bowl of chicken salad, with a piece of baguette, and fresh cherries.

Wednesday was chicken salad on a bagel thin with butter lettuce, plus cherries, and McClure’s Bloody Mary Chips. <– the chips were spicy, but not as flavorful as I was hoping they would be

I don’t have access to a fridge on Tuesdays, so I did regular green salad from the cafeteria. With black-eyed peas, pickled jalopeños, shredded mozzarella, and Italian dressing on top.

For Thursday, I packed leftover salad and the last of the cherries.

But then after a very quiet morning we were slammed all afternoon and I didn’t have time for lunch. I ended up eating coffee and a KIND bar at my desk while I worked.

At least I have a nice lunch waiting for me today!

snack

Several slices of leftover pizza, which grew on me once it was cold.

The leftover ice cream sandwiches were not bad either.

Jelly Belly.

This yogurt bowl was the best thing of the week. Fage 2% Greek yogurt with a layer melted Cacao Bliss underneath!

Coconut water to rehydrate after a trip to the gym. This TJ’s kind was delicious.

Speaking of the gym, I’ve been keeping up with it! I realized that yesterday had been 20 days since I started getting activity back into my life; another ten days or so and hopefully a month of being consistent will help the habit stick!

dinner

I was tooting my own horn pretty loudly every evening this week; these dinners were all fantastic. That said, I apparently don’t have pictures from Monday night and I cannot for the life of me remember what we ate! Probably more chicken salad.

These bowls seem like a mishmosh of ingredients, but everything went together well. Kath’s low and slow sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, and canned baked beans, topped with shredded cheese, pickled jalopeños, and plain Greek yogurt.

Apparently Adam does not want baked beans with his sweet potato again any time soon, but I thought they was good.

Salad night.

Butter lettuce and shredded cabbage topped with Hemp Hearts and Mahi Mahi – I baked the fish with lemon juice, coconut oil, and smoked paprika. For our dressing, I mashed together tons of ripe avocado with lime juice, hot sauce, salt, fresh cilantro, and evoo. Everything tossed together was ah-mazing.

We morphed our salad leftovers into tacos the next night.

Soft tortilla with shredded carrots and cabbage, mahi mahi, avocado sauce, green Tabasco, and cheese.

Plus pineapple hard cider from ACE.

ACE’s website informs me that they sell a honey apple cider. I’m going to need to find that immediately.

Does your family rely on leftovers or do you crave something new each night?

26Jun2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; By The Day

by Emily

This is a short “week” because my weekend technically starts tonight (Thursday night) – my parents are coming into town and I took Friday and Monday off. Woo-hoo!!

And since I managed to photograph every single thing over the past three days (minus tons of water and diet coke), I thought it would be fun to do an old-school recap and go by the day rather than grouping things into meal categories.

Monday

Breakfast at my desk, iced Americano and fat-free chocolate milk for the win.

Lunch was one of those yogurt bowls I’ve been loving lately.

TJ’s 0% Honey Greek Yogurt with strawberries {that I picked myself!} and some granola from my KIND package. I used Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds this week and was a big fan; this flavor had some nice tang compared with the first bag I tried.

It was a fabulously busy day at work and I ran around all afternoon. I’m usually not involved with the Labor and Delivery floor, but I’ve recently started following my Gestational Diabetes patients when they go inpatient so there is better continuity of care. Getting out of the clinic is always nice because it breaks up the day. And it’s good to have a little more time to go over the education when we are in a hospital room and not my office where other clients knock at my door right and left.

I ate some of the green curry turkey salad, straight from the container, the minute I got home.

I was feeling snacky, and there were already leftovers for Adam to eat, so I decided to do a series of snack plates for dinner. First, a Jazz apple with Mary’s Gone Crackers Sea Salt Pretzels and TJ’s Teriyaki Turkey Jerky.

I don’t know how TJ’s gets their jerky to stay so soft, but that stuff is delicious.

Next up was a bowl of cucumber salad.

I let some thinly sliced Persian cucumbers hang out with some sugar (1 tsp of sugar per cup cucs) for a bit then folded in tons of Sriracha and crushed peanuts.

And I ended the night with nachos, aka the craving that lead me to a snack-style dinner in the first place. 2 servings of potato chips baked with 2 servings of low-fat three cheese blend.

The chips were part of the rather embarrassing “reduced guilt” line and they were amazing.

I read the bag very carefully before deciding to give them a try; the chips are made using less oil (I have no idea how) but no scary ingredients like Olestra. The flavor was identical to TJ’s normal kettle chips and the texture was slightly crunchier, which I think is an improvement. I will definitely buy them again.

Tuesday

Astonishingly, I woke up early enough on Tuesday to go outside for a quick run. I only had time for 15 minutes of actual running amid my walking, but the weather was gorgeous and getting out there was glorious. I have been on a total workout hiatus since our move (almost a year ago!!) but starting Saturday I have been making a concerted effort to get back into the habit. <– hold me to that, please!

I was home and dressed in time to blend up this swampy smoothie.

It was only slightly better than it looked. Frozen strawberries with honey, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and Kiss Me Organics Matcha Powder.

Since Tuesday is my inpatient day, I packed a lunch that didn’t need the fridge.

An apple cinnamon oatmeal bowl with Cacao Bliss and a pear on the side.

I always want to tell you guys more about what I’m doing at the hospital but I like my job and want to keep it so it’s best to follow HIPAA.

I can say that I charted on an impressive 10 patients and I left the hospital a little late which caused me to miss my train. While I waited to get home I purchased some fun snacks. A blackberry mojito tea (sans lemonade) from Starbucks.

And a bag of the new York Patty minis.

I had searched for that stupid candy for weeks and was thrilled when I spotted it at Target. Yorks are my favorite chocolate-based candy.

When I got home I made green curry.

I sautéed shredded carrot, green onion, broccoli, and peas in evoo; then whisked together a can of light coconut milk with tons of green curry paste and a little galangal and brown sugar; then let everything simmer for a while. Served on a bed of brown rice.

So flipping good. And I didn’t even follow a recipe so I’m pretty proud of myself. Adam wasn’t home because he was on nights all week but I watched “Longmire” while I ate which was a nice substitute. Are you watching that yet? It is super good; there was a scene in the 2nd episode of this season that made both of us cry!

Wednesday

I slept in until the last possible minute yesterday so I did another breakfast at my desk.

Coffee and a Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond KIND Bar (former freebie). I’m still completely awed by how wonderful this flavor is.

Back to my old standby for lunch.

Fage 2% Greek Yogurt with Meyer lemon curd, granola, and strawberries.

We have no food because we’ll go out to eat with our guests, so I planned on buying food on my way home but ran out of time for anything but coffee (with skim milk and sugar).

I had to do my best to cobble dinner together. Lean Cuisine stuffed pretzels and baby carrots with hummus.

Not too terrible, but if I’d thought ahead I would have eaten a salad at lunch.

I also ate chocolate-covered gummy bears while I wrote this post.

🙂

Do you guys miss my old style of posting or are you happier with the new wrap-ups?

23Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Farm Fresh

by Emily

Just the highlights…

<^> I went strawberry picking with a girlfriend on Sunday. This activity has been on my radar for years and it was nice to finally give it a go.

I’m not really sure what the two of us were picturing though, because I definitely rolled up in sandals and a long scarf (with a giant iced coffee and a huge purse).

After we went back to the car to regroup, we got down to business (literally down, strawberry picking meant an hour crouching in the dirt!) and both came away with big cartons of tasty berries.

Glover Farms, if anyone local wants to go themselves. We’d recommend it.

<^> As of June 2nd, Jamba Juice has added a fresh-squeezed juice menu at over 500 locations nationally. They sent me a gift card so that I could try some out. The card got here just in time, because I was at two different locations with Jambas this weekend so I was able to try two options.

Please note – I received a gift card so that I could sample the juice menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Let’s start with the negative – these drinks are not juices. They juice the fruits, carrots, and beets, but then that juice is put into a blender with the greens, making this item a smoothie. I started this argument with an employee and eventually gave up, but fresh-squeezed juice does not involve a blender. Period.

That said, inaccurate marketing aside, the drinks were quite tasty and healthy. Both flavors I tried had a good balance of sweet to green. And every 16 oz “juice” has 2 full servings of fruit and/or vegetables for minimal caloric cost. Tropical greens:

Super greens/apple/pineapple/chia. 210 calories in a 16 oz.

Garden Medley:

Super greens/carrot/apple/chia. 170 calories in a 16 oz.

<^> I haven’t blogged about them much, but I have been loving the almond thins that Nonni’s sent me.

The banana chocolate flavor is legit. And I’m usually annoyed by things that are put in 100 calorie packages but the serving size feels perfect here.

<^> I ate homemade nachos while I watched the 2 hour season intro of Rookie Blue and I practically cried I was so happy. Summer tv at its best.

I also had an episode of Awkward. Best. Night. Ever.

<^> I finally got to try Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

Now I totally get the hype; I tasted Zen Butter – sesame and peanut butter – and it was worth the buzz. I chose taro and black sesame for my cup though. The black sesame was amazing, super roasty and crunchy.

<^> Saturday’s dinner.

Asian flavors night. Bok choy sautéed with green onions in evoo. Towards the end I tossed in some thinly sliced Persian cucumbers that I quick-pickled in sugar and salt for 20 minutes.

A big pile of green curry turkey salad.

The salad was so good it’s getting its own recipe page. I promise to get that up on the blog tomorrow.

<^> Sunday’s dinner.

Such a summery – vegetarian – plate! Corn on the cob, of course.

With bbq tofu. I rubbed TJ’s super firm extra-protein tofu with a homemade spice blend {brown sugar, smoked paprika, cumin, and curry powder} and baked it off before tossing the slices in a skillet with some bbq sauce.

Plus we had chard sautéed in evoo with salt, toasted hazelnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup.

That teensy pile of greens was what happened when I cooked down this big bunch.

I bought my greens at a tiny farmer’s market that was happening at the farm museum near my house.

My chard was picked the same day I bought it! The only thing fresher is my strawberries 🙂

Have you ever picked your own berries? We have our eye on apples this fall.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: apple

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Please note – I received the tea free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

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Please note – I dined at Haru free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Please note – I was sent these products free of charge to sample. I was not provided with additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

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Please note – I received a gift card so that I could sample the juice menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.