They serve it with a doughnut and a pickle! I’ve wanted maple snow candy try ever since I read about the Chippewa doing it in Caddie Woodlawn.
{2} Brunch at Bareburger.
I got a bellini.
And a Guapo Chop salad – romaine, queso fresco, pickled jalopeños, spicy pico de gallo, guacamole, tortilla chips, and avocado basil dressing. Plus there were gorgeous watermelon beet slices on top.
Plus cold-brew, obviously.
It wasn’t as amazing as the first time but you can’t beat that cup.
Pecan pie and toasted marshmallow for me. It was amazing, second only to Ample Hills.
{4} Cookies!
Chocolate chip mug cookie.
Taro mochi.
I put it in the fridge and it was extra chewy and wonderful.
{5} We finally found good Chinese take-out in our neighborhood.
The take-out options around us are all pretty abysmal, but when a new spot popped up on GrubHub we decided to give it a try. I got bean jelly noodles with chili oil and sour and spicy cucumber.
They were delicious and we would totally order from there again.
We bought tons eggs and dye for Easter this year, and of course, never did a darn thing with them. The dye is in our “holidays bin” for next year, but the eggs had to be cooked. And so, I enjoyed hard-boiled eggs as a meal almost every day this week.
I was also all about the Cara Cara oranges and Medjool dates. It’s starting to taste like summer!
stuff
I started Ruth Reichl’s first autobiography on the train and I think I’m in love.
She is so funny, and I love any story about food!
We were insanely busy at work all week and I’m dying. That’s why this post is a day late (and is short about 10 more coffee and candy pictures), because I did sessions with 18 patients on Friday – many of them with gestational diabetes – and when I got home I just wanted to lie down.
breakfast
I made an awesome cold-brew blend this week: Community Coffee French Roast and BRC Peru with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice.
But this triple – chocolate oatmeal bowl wins a close second.
Rolled oats with a heaping Tbsp of hot chocolate mix, chocolate-covered cocoa nibs, and dark chocolate chips.
And this busy day “lunch” was a loser. Vanilla soy milk at 11 am.
And Easter candy at 4pm when there was finally a lull.
dinner
Omg. Kids! I made the tastiest stroganoff-inspired noodle bowls ever. Adam and I could not get over them.
Served in heaping scoops on egg pappardelle.
Yummy Stroganoff-ish Pasta, serves 4
Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large skillet over high-medium heat. Add 20 ounces sliced white mushrooms, and a big pinch of salt, and cook until the mushrooms have lost their juices and browned, stirring regularly (10 – 13 minutes). Deglaze the pan with a healthy pour of cream sherry. Remove mushrooms from pan and reduce heat to medium-high, adding an additional Tbsp evoo if needed.
Add 1 lb lean ground turkey and two large shallots, chopped to the pan. Season with pepper and 1 Tbsp smoked paprika. Cook 5 minutes, stirring regularly and breaking up the meat into small pieces with the side of your spatula. Stir in 1/2 Tbsp ground garlic, 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce, and 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Continue to cook, stirring regularly, until meat is cooked through (5 – 7 more minutes).
Reduce heat to low and stir in 3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream.
Serve on top of pasta of choice.
The leftovers were still great.
Served on top of spinach salad. Plus, those of us who can eat chocolate had Lindt caramels for dessert.
We had cobb salad.
Baby spinach with balsamic / roasted asparagus / turkey bacon / avocado / TJ’s cave-aged blue cheese / hard-boiled eggs.
And egg salad.
Eggs with shredded carrot, chopped green pepper, mayo, pickle relish, garlic mustard, dill, tumeric, smoked paprika, and s & p. With great seeded crackers my parents sent us for Easter.
And roasted broccoli and green beans.
Egg salad is good – and I wasn’t even tired of eggs yet! – but roasted green beans are always the best part.
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!
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.
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.
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) –
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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).
Eating Chalk 