When It Snows It Blizzards*

by Emily

When it comes to the big, important stuff – having jobs, our health, and a great marriage – Adam and I know that we are unbelievably lucky. That said, man oh man, this week was annoying. The snow has been relentless, I wore my favorite sweater to work only to get to the cafeteria and douse myself head to toe in balsamic vinegar, Adam had to have both of his big toe nails emergently removed, and my car has a flat tire. When it rains it pours*. I’m pretty sure I have never been so glad for a weekend!

There was a lot of stress snacking going down this week that I didn’t do the best job of photographing, but I am going to recap the most delicious things…

breakfast

Iced coffee on the train and plain yogurt with peanut butter at my desk.

I had a ridiculously amazing coffee combo this week… Cold-brew with chocolate milk and toasted marshmallow coffee syrup!

So insanely good.

Are you admiring my nails? Scroll to the last section of this post.

snack

GH Cretors elevated our snacking game by sending me a big box of the two flavors from their new organic line – Simply Salted and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Note – the popcorn was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Pre-popped popcorn can never really compare to freshly popped, but these are definitely the best bagged varieties we’ve ever tried. They are nice and crisp. Adam – who likes to pretend that he doesn’t like popcorn – was crazy for them, so that’s saying something. We preferred the Simply Salted because the EVOO was good, but not quite as flavorful. Both are organic and kosher and have 40 calories per cup.

I surprised my sore husband with a giant, sweet latte.

I got myself a rocky road latte as well. Meh.

We tried the hazelnut torte bar from Lindt’s new “Creation” line.

Now I want the crème brûlée flavor!

I’m still loving the Ice Chips.

Lemon was a very nice way to transition back from lunch to work this week.

lunch

Fage with raspberry and butterscotch peanut butter.

The citrus fruits shown in my lunches this week are fresh Mandarins from Trader Joe’s that were wonderful. Very sweet and juicy with almost no seeds.

Baked yucca fries from the cafeteria. I had about double what’s shown because I started eating before I sat down.

They were paired with the salad that ruined my outfit.

TJ’s egg white salad and popcorn.

The egg salad was practically inedible; whyyyy was there so much turmeric??

Popcorn, Applegate Farm sliced turkey, mini Jarlsberg, and olives.

The tasting plates were fun, but I was missing my yogurt bowls.

dinner

If you judge a dish by how good it tastes cold and leftover, straight from the casserole dish – I definitely do! – then my pizza mac and cheese was a real winner.

Adam heated his serving up, but he also recommends that you try the recipe.

Chipotle night. I ate a giant rice bowl with chicken, veggies, and pretty much all of the toppings.

Our neighborhood is pretty much a food wasteland, but I think Chipotle would be Adam’s first pick even if we lived somewhere with more going on!

This was our best dinner of the week:

Roasted broccoli and kalettes (aka kale-Brussels sprout hybrids).

Southern pickle “fried” chicken. <– I am so proud of this one; check the recipe sidebar!

I served mine on a toasted, open-faced sandwich with a bit of mayo.

Last night we had fabulous kale salads.

I massaged a bunch of kale with Sepo sauce in the morning and then tossed it with roasted broccoli, cubed avocado, and roasted coconut chips when it was time for dinner.

We were supposed to have chicken on top of our salads but I accidentally left the remaining tenders sitting out on the counter overnight so instead I had a grilled cheese sandwich while I wrote this post.

fancy nails

So my jazzy nail polish? Actually nail wraps from Jamberry.

One of the girls I used to cocktail waitress with is a Jamberry consultant (her sales page is what I linked above) and she sent me a sample kit so I could try them out. I am pretty amazed by how easy they are to put on; really not tricky or time-consuming at all, maybe almost as easy as ~~slopping~~ painting on polish. Plus they are very cute! I will definitely buy some to try again.

P.S. Thanks to Way Back Machine, I was able to find my old employee profile (click to enlarge) –

Omg!

2Feb2015

Weekend Wrap-Up; My Camera Went MIA

by Emily

Moving to Long Island has done something to my brain! <– real talk, please let’s just pretend that this problem is a LI thing and not the fact that I turn 30 this year

Prior to 2013, I had lost/seriously misplaced one item in my entire life: a pair of flip-flops at a party in high school. Also I had to have my dorm keys replaced in college after Adam kicked them into a lake, but those weren’t technically missing, they just weren’t accessible. But lately? I’m an absentminded disaster. Last year, on my very first day at the hospital, I lost a brand-new scarf. This December, I lost a brand-newish i-pod somewhere between my apartment and the gym. And this weekend I misplaced my camera. Not lost, thankfully, because it turned out that I had just left it in the husband’s car, but since he then drove that car to 30 hour shift this is my long-winded way of telling you that I don’t have a ton of pictures from this weekend. I am missing a lot, especially since I didn’t deem things like the four slices of cinnamon toast I ate for dinner on Saturday instagram-worthy.

How often do you lose track of your stuff? Someone tell me they left their baby on the bus so I’ll feel better!

breakfasts and lunches

Coffee! This was a freebie so I went a bit crazy – a large iced latte with extra espresso.

Those Starbucks workers get very snarky once you start asking for that much espresso.

Yet another good reason to have coffee at home instead.

Starbucks iced (but from home!) with Hint of Honey Almond Breeze and fat-free half and half.

Fruit and yogurt bowls ruled my work lunches. Grape Chobani with pomegranate and a Zing Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bar on the side.

Stonyfield Chia and Red Berry Greek Yogurt with fresh strawberries and the last of the TJ’s Pumpkin O’s.

Several coworkers commented on this lunch; I guess they aren’t used to chia?!

The best was clearly brunch at Rabbit Hole with a girl friend. I got the Eggs Norwegian, aka a Benedict but with lox instead of bacon and served on a biscuit.

Sooo good. But the drink in the background was even better – Champagne, St. Germaine, and grapefruit. We both got one and thought that they were just great.

snacks

We tried some fun drinks while we were in Chinatown.

Yeeech! The sugar cane was terrible. But we only spent $1 so it was worth a shot.

Adam bought Gushers!!

They weren’t as good as I remembered, but it was still a fun throwback.

Coffee is always good.

The Blue Bottle in Williamsburg made me my New Orleans with skim milk. Frankly, I would have accepted almost anything at that point though – first my friend and I stopped at one coffee shop that was out of ice and another that poured me a giant glass of whole milk with a smidge of coffee in it.

dinner

I made us great pasta bowls one night. Box mac and cheese gussied up with canned smoked trout, chopped spinach, sautéed bell peppers and garlic, and tons of caramelized onions.

I doused my bowl in green Tabasco.

Adam and I finally got to try Pies and Thighs for dinner.

I got the Chicken Biscuit.

Fried cutlet with honey butter and hot sauce on a biscuit.

Plus a really amazing salad.

Collard greens with avocado, pickled red onions, and smoked coconut. Adam and I could not get over how delicious it was; I really want to remake it at home.

With banana cream pie on Nilla Wafer crust for dessert.

Yum. ♥

8Dec2014

Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

coffee, coffee

So, you know how we’re obsessed with coffee? Like, problematically obsessed? I might like it as much as Diet Coke. This post is going to include a coffee brewer review. Adam, who drinks at least two cups a day, prefers his hot. I get iced 95% of the time, but when I’m home I’ll drink it hot if it’s fresh. Long story short – even though I mostly stick with cold-brew in my French press, we do in fact need a more traditional brewing option in the house. So when iCoffee offered to send me an Opus Single-Serve Brewer to review, I said “yes!”

Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

According to the company, the iCoffee system uses steam to help create a nice, smooth, non-bitter flavor. A patent-pending SpinBrew needle spins, steams and stirs the coffee inside of the single-serve cup, creating a mini-French Press effect that cannot be achieved by other brewers.

The Opus has a “Dial-a-Brew” control which allows you to customize strength and taste by choosing any brew size between 4 and 12 ounces in half-ounce increments. It can brew 10 ounces in less than 60 seconds, so it’s nice and quick. The drip tray is magnetic, so it can pull out to accommodate my tall go-cup.

They sent me a few cups to get me started. Adam had one of the Marley Coffees and loved it.

The Opus is cool because it is compatible with all k-type cups, including K-Cup, RealCup, OneCup and all private label cups (unlike the Keurig system that only uses K-cups). That said, I find single use cups to be insanely wasteful, the reason I accepted the brewer to review is because it is compatible with a reusable iCup.

I have made a few cups that way with the coffee we already had at home (marshmallow flavored!) and it’s all worked out quite well. I could see how the cup could have the propensity to break but replacements are only $12.95.

In short – we are fans! We would rate the system 4.5+ out of 5 and plan on giving it a permanent spot on our countertop.

copycat Chipotle bowls

Another thing we’re obsessed with? Loaded rice bowls from Chipotle. After making (multiple!) weekly Chipotle runs for the past several months it was time for us to finally make our own at home.

So many layers of flavor! Including:

jasmine rice with chopped cilantro and lime juice stirred in
sautéed mushroom, onion, and green pepper
corn sautéed with chopped jalopeño
black beans reheated with cilantro and lime juice
chicken that was marinated with lime juice, sugar, and green tomatillo salsa
shredded cheese, light sour cream, and homemade guacamole

So darn good!

And round two the next night – topped with green Tabasco – was just as good, maybe even better.

Plus we split a Warlock.

And a Mokaccino TCHO bar that we brought home from Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

Roasty good.

coffee and doughnuts

On Sunday we did a bit of a walking brunch around Chelsea in Manhattan. Stumptown Coffee –> Doughnut Plant –> Blue Bottle Coffee –> Doughnuttery. It was great fun!

We shared cold brew and an espresso at Stumptown.

It was my first time at the Ace Hotel, which is stunning.

Then made our way to Doughnut Plant.

We shared a hazelnut chocolate doughseed which was only ok.

And I got a Tres Leches filled caked doughnut that was amazing.

Best doughnut I’ve eaten all year. The filling was definitely reminiscent of Tres Leches and the doughnut had a great, crisp crust. I’ve been wanting to go get this flavor since last summer and it did not disappoint.

Doughnuttery ended up not appealing to us, but we did enjoy another cold brew from Blue Bottle.

I told you we have a coffee problem!

city living

We may not have gotten Doughnuttery, but it brought us into Chelsea Market which we loved the crap out of.

It was gorgeous (Christmas decorations!),

and there were so many tasty things that we want to try.

We’ll be back.

Instead we headed uptown to Xi’an Famous Foods for hand-pulled noodles.

Flipping yum! I went with the vegetarian spicy noodles and they rocked my socks off. The chew was out of control.

Meanwhile Adam was positively swooning over his pork bowl.

Then we went to Rockefeller Center and stared at the tree.

I ♥ New York!

10Nov2014

Lunch And Learn; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

I spent Friday and Saturday in New Jersey at a pediatric nutrition conference getting my learn on. A girlfriend, a co-worker, and I all went together and we had a very nice time. It stinks to lose a Saturday to “school,” but the lectures did include pediatric nutrition support, oncology, failure to thrive, and GI disorders; all big interests of mine. The conference ran for 8 hours each day but since it was only an hour or so away from the city I did get to have some fun with the husband in the evenings too.

Here are five favorites from the weekend…

{1} Saturday’s breakfast.

Getting to Jersey for the conference meant waking up by 5:30 both Friday and Saturday. On a typical workday, I should be up by 6:50; 50% of the time I set my alarm for 5:20, and 100% of the time I wake up after 7:10, so I was understandably a bit worried about the early wake-ups. I was excited about the conference so I managed, but Saturday was easier because Adam drove us in and I was looking forward to time in the car with him.

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the new cookie lattes – Snickerdoodle and Sugar Cookie – which were only okay,

and at La Bagel Delight for an everything bagel with jalopeño cheddar cream cheese.

That was great, obviously.

{2} Conference eats.

I didn’t do the best job of packing breakfast/lunch the first day and was not very happy throughout the afternoon. On Saturday, the three of us used the break to drive to Chipotle for a real lunch.

My friend and I split a rice bowl, which is always good.

And, as we were driving home I spotted a Sonic!!

Strawberry diet cokes are flipping amazing. My friend thought I was crazy for freaking out when we saw the sign, but once she tasted it she got it.

{3} Dinner in Koreatown.

Friday night, I met Adam in Penn Station (we took the train that day) and we walked over to Koreatown for dinner. There is a food court there that we had been dying to try.

We shared a steamed red bean bun.

Then got big bowls of bibimpap for dinner.

Mine, with tofu and tons of kimchi, was delicious.

We tried a canned coffee for dessert.

And stopped at Tous le Jours for mochi to share as well.

The chocolate was good but the maple was better. Soooo chewy.

{4} Sushi in Park Slope.

Saturday we ended up at Yamato, a favorite spot of Adam’s from when we lived in Brooklyn.

Salad with ginger dressing to start.

Veggie roll combo.

The cucumber avocado roll was the best, but I smothered everything in wasabi.

Plus we stopped and got hot chocolate for dessert.

That’s a homemade marshmallow!

{5} A package from Dannon Creamery.

Dannon’s newest line, Dannon Creamery sent me a super cool box of samples.

These desserts were sent to me free of charge to review. I received no further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

DC makes cheesecakes made with Greek yogurt plus three flavors of pudding, all averaging about 200 calories per serving/cup. I had tried the strawberry cheesecake on my own in the past and didn’t like it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the two other flavors I’ve tried so far.

Lemon cheesecake was opened pretty much the minute I got the package.

Nothing artificial about the topping and the mouthfeel of the cheesecake was great; I’m a fan!

I also quite enjoyed the dark chocolate pudding (with a leftover chocolate chip cookie).

I’m looking forward to the other flavors.

27Oct2014

Apples All Around; Long Week Wrap-Up

by Emily

We have been enjoying the heck out of my apple picking haul. There were a few days last week when I ate an apple with all three meals! Too bad my husband’s a doctor, I don’t want to keep him away!

I haven’t blogged a recap since last Sunday so I’ve got quite a bit to share…

breakfast

An apple and a latte.

Round 2; this was homemade cold-brew with Hint of Honey Almond Breeze.

Then the next day I did skim milk and maple syrup. Also delicious.

An almond croissant with more coffee.

Latte from David’s Tea while we walked around Park Slope.

Cream of Earl Grey is the best.

lunch

Sandwich and salad day. I think this is the largest lunch I’ve ever packed. A pumpkin spice English muffin (<– oooh!) with pumpkin butter, roasted turkey, and sharp cheddar.

Spinach salad with blue cheese, dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, and honey mustard dressing.

Oatmeal and an apple.

I’ve decided that I hate that line of Quaker instant oatmeals but it was already waiting in my pantry so I gussied it up with chia seeds, butterscotch chips, and dried cranberries.

Pumpkin yogurt bowl.

Pumpkin Chobani with TJ’s Pumpkin O’s amd butterscotch peanut butter. Plus an apple, of course, though that was actually a SweeTango from a grocery trip before I had my orchard haul.

Cafeteria day.

Salad bar and baked onion rings.

Sunday brunch at Talde. There was pickled ginger in my Bloody Mary.

We also shared a French Press of Illy.

Fried avocado bao to share.

And Korean chicken wings with waffles for me.

With coconut brown butter, yum!

snack

An orange selection.

Sweet stuff.

Pumpkin Noosa with butterscotch peanut butter.

Duh.

TJ’s Cookies and Cream Butter. <– ahhhhhhhh

This jar lasted Adam and me less than a week!

dinner

A roasty fall meal.

Squash with cinnamon and smoked paprika. This was our first try roasting kombucha and it was good, though not quite worth the hype in my opinion.

Asparagus sautéed with Bone Sucking mustard sauce and sliced almonds.

And a big slice of my cheesy eggplant bake.

We made this version in a pie dish and with mozzarella instead of provolone but it still ended up being delicious.

With Naked Flock pumpkin cider to share.

My co-worker brought me back the cider from the orchard where she went apple picking!

Leftovers night. Eggplant bake side-by-side with tuna casserole, topped with additional cheese and crushed Cheez-its.

I know that looks like a giant bowl of melted cheese, but I swear the layer underneath was mostly veg. Plus we did salads for some green. Spinach, chopped carrots, and edamame with sesame soy ginger vinaigrette.

And a totes amaze apple cocktail.

Honeycrisp cider with Apple Pie Moonshine. I also did a splash of Goldschläger.

Chipotle. Let’s be real, we got rice bowls two nights in a row.

We shared some pumpkin brews to keep things fall-ish.

Soup’s up.

The TJ’s pumpkin soup was too thin and basically inedible.

But my sides were awesome. Three cheese grilled cheese = sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and blue cheese on wheat bread.

And sliced apple. I’m sure you’re not surprised that I ended up dipping my slices in melted cookies and cream butter.

Mac and greens (and cheese!).

Standby spinach salad – with dried blueberries, blue cheese, lavender salt, evoo, and honey – on the bottom.

And mac and cheese – Pirate’s Booty aged white cheddar mac with tons of spinach, extra cheese, and Sriracha – on top.

Adam hates when I pile things on top of one another but mac and salad go together really well. You should try it!

What was the best fall flavor you had this past week?

29Sep2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Had Visitors

by Emily

On the excitement front this weekend – Adam’s parents came to visit! We are going to see all of my in-laws soon for Thanksgiving, but it was good to catch up with the parents now before the craziness of eleven of us under one roof. We had them Friday night through Sunday afternoon and we got to show off LI.

lunches

Packed for Friday – an AriZona Oak Tea and 2% Fage with a big baggie of pomegranate arils and chopped fruit punch plucot.

I also bought mac and cheese and some greens from the cafeteria.

Heartbreakingly, I think this was my last yogurt bowl with plucots for this season, the produce sections have all seemed to have moved on.

We had so much fun last weekend that we did a repeat this Saturday and drove the husband’s parents up to…

Montauk!

We went to the beach, the lighthouse, and of course, Lunch.

Adam and I shared a buttery hot lobster roll,

and a bowl of lobster chowder.

My favorite part is the whiffs of sherry.

And that’s not a foamy beer head,

we drank a chocolate egg cream for dessert.

You could tell that it was made with Hershey’s (a true EC has U-Bet), but Adam was still a fan.

We kept things low-key before goodbyes on Sunday and hung out around the house. Take-out from Luigi’s fit the bill.

I had a side salad, a buffalo chicken slice, and a Magic Hat Wilhelm Scream that I split with my m-i-l.

snacks

Breakfast at my desk on Friday. An iced Americano (with skim milk and cream) with a sticky-sweet Dark Chocolate Peanut Larabar. –Ummm, and I just noticed on the site that Lara has new Pumpkin Pie and Gingerbread flavors!! How do I find those immediately?–

Sweet = Haribo Licorice Wheels plus some of the Mini Gold Bears that my s-i-l sweetly sent us.

Salty = TJ’s pea crisps.

Coffee from 7-11 is kind of amazing.

Adam and I are embarrassingly into the Almond Joy Creamer they have there. And our location has pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie creamer, and (free!) pumpkin spice syrup. What, what?!

dinners

Dinners were the least exciting meals of the weekend. Friday night we kept thing simple while we finished our last-minute cleaning.

A toasted sandwich of caramel apple swirl bread, herbed sliced turkey, light Havarti, and TJ’s sweet and spicy jalopeño jelly.

With baby carrots on the side.

Simple but good.

Saturday we went out to Tavern 18.

I had a beer that was pretty good.

And a Thai Noodle Salad that was pretty terrible.

No veggies, no flavor, and I keep forgetting that I kind of hate Soba noodles. I’m into pasta that is chewy, while Soba tends to fall apart in your mouth.

No complaints about dessert though! The best thing about Tavern 18 is that it is spitting distance from Ralph’s Ices.

Dulce de leche and pumpkin pie for me. I practically licked the cup clean.

I didn’t want my awful leftovers to go to waste, so I gussied them up into something moderately edible for dinner last night.

+ roasted broccoli and cauliflower and loads of creamy Sriracha sauce (tons of Sriracha whisked together with smoked brown sugar, mayo, and a little canola oil).

Hot sauce can hide a multitude of sins.

P.S. It is October first on Wednesday! <– in other words, it is three days until I drink pumpkin beers and pumpkin spice lattes like crazy

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.

4Aug2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Two Thumbs Up

by Emily

It was a lazy, low-key weekend so I don’t have a ton to share. I just wanted to pop in with a few of the things that rocked my face off. We had a few loser meals and moments, but overall times were good.

In the lows list… This alcoholic beverage. A girlfriend and I found a little bar in Park Slope with watermelon daiquiris and margaritas. Sounds good, right?

No. The bartender used some nasty, fake syrup and the end result was like frozen children’s cough syrup.

Related to the alcoholic beverages, Adam and I got Wendy’s for dinner on Friday. And now I remember why we haven’t been eating fast food for past six months. I did have a very tasty Frosty float, but the food was not good.

Saturday’s dinner was lame as well, because Adam worked a 24-hour shift so I ate popcorn in my underwear while watching the last of “Orange is the New Black.” <– how good is OTNB??! It took me forever to get into it but now I totally get the obsession

But then Sunday I had a fairly good rice bowl.

Always good to end the weekend with some vegetables.

Other tasty things… I have one serving left of my Chameleon Cold Brew.

It has been so yummy with chocolate milk.

I had cereal for breakfast at work on Friday and I enjoyed it a surprising amount.

I am not usually a big cereal person because I don’t find it to be all that filling, but after Total Raisin Bran and raspberries and I didn’t get hungry again until it was time for a late lunch.

And what a lunch it was! I found the Watermelon Chobani!

{with cherries and Jax chocolate coconut milk} It was good, but after all my anticipation, it wasn’t quite as amazing as the pink grapefruit is.

Other amazing things… We saw “Guardians of the Galaxy” last night and it was so funny. One of the more hilarious movies I’ve seen in the past year. Oh God, Chris Pratt. And I saw “Sex Tape” last weekend and that also made me laugh out loud. If you are on the fence I recommend heading to the theatre for both.

TLDR? Wendy’s is bad. Watermelon Chobani is good, but not as good as pink grapefruit. “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Sex Tape” were both amazing.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: avocado

When It Snows It Blizzards*

breakfast

snack

Note – the popcorn was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

lunch

dinner

fancy nails

Weekend Wrap-Up; My Camera Went MIA

breakfasts and lunches

snacks

dinner

Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

coffee, coffee

Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

copycat Chipotle bowls

coffee and doughnuts

city living

Lunch And Learn; Weekend Wrap-Up

These desserts were sent to me free of charge to review. I received no further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Apples All Around; Long Week Wrap-Up

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Had Visitors

lunches

snacks

dinners

Weekend Wrap-Up; Last Days Of Summer

lunch

snacks

dinner

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.

Weekend Wrap-Up; Two Thumbs Up