Chocolate + Coffee, Chocolate + Peanut Butter

by Emily

Highlights from the past week…

Personal Life:

We had several boons come together in the last week or so. Related – I am waaaay overdue on sharing some big life updates. In short, the highlights are –

Adam is officially a board-certified surgeon (woo-hoo!)
Adam got his dream job and is all set up to be a critical care attending in New York this summer (woo-hoo!!)
We’ve lined up our New York apartment
Our lease here was a month short but we’ve finally lined up a place to live in Charlottesville in July

Television:

I finally talked Adam into watching “Hart of Dixie” with me and he is as smitten as I am! Related – read this Buzzfeed article.

The Bob Dylan cover in this terrible WGU commercial makes me ugly cry every single time I hear it.

Food:

This was one of my best coffee combos this year, Dark as Dark with chocolate milk.

Related – Whole Food’s hazelnut mochas (with light syrup, extra espresso, and ice) are freaking delicious.

Both of our moms went a bit overboard and we are drowning in Easter candy. The highlight, as always, is these pectin jelly beans.

And the low was these terrible new m&m’s.

Still loving these Stinger peanut butter cracker bars.

Related – I finally found these in a snack-sized kids portion and now I am eating even more of them.

We had a duo of fruity beers that did not disappoint. Abita’s Lounging Iguanas pineapple coconut IPA is a 10/10.

Pizza night. A simple turkey pepperoni pizza on Trader Joe’s cauliflower crust plus a simple side salad.

Trader Joe’s vegetable biryani with vegetable dumplings frozen meal.

I made a veggie take on this fire chicken with cheese.

With tofu instead of chicken, plus roasted broccoli and Japanese sweet potato.

19Apr2019

BBQ Chips, BBQ Beans, BBQ Nachos

by Emily

Highlights from the last week include several new (to me) things…

I don’t usually show my at-work meals, but I wanted to share one of the perks of working in the South – biscuit breakfast sandwiches in the hospital cafeteria. This had turkey chorizo sausage, a cage-free fried egg, and cheddar.

These Don’t Go Nuts granola bars have the best texture, almost like a streusel.

Other snack highlights include this assortment of bbq flavored crisped chickpeas and corn.

Chocolate beers and hibiscus drinks. I loved the s’mores beer, liked the tea, and hated the other two.

My aunt shared a recipe for Chicken Provencal Soup with us and we loved it for dinner. It’s packed with potato, diced tomato, onion, carrot, and celery. I dipped some naan in my broth.

We made fantastic bbq bowls another night. Collard greens and celery (sauteed with lemon, garlic, butter, and harissa hot sauce) // shredded chicken (cooked in the crock pot with ketchup, yellow mustard, brown sugar, cayenne, paprika, and red onion) // baby heirloom tomatoes // and smoked paprika candied pecans. Remind me to cook more collards!

We turned our leftovers into something fantastic with the help of these two products. 1) Hickory BBQ kettle chips that Boulder Canyon sent me to sample. FYI – Boulder Canyon chips are – certified gluten free – trans fat free -vegan – kosher – made with green energy. They had a good amount of smoke and tang and weren’t greasy at all. Bonus, my bags, at least, had tons of foldsies! 2) Borlotti beans that we bought at Mekelburg’s just because the box was so pretty.

BBQ kettle chips + beans + leftover chicken + roasted corn + sharp cheddar + smoked paprika = nachos!

8Apr2019

Party Peeps

by Emily

7 highlights from the last 7 days…

Chocolate chip banana bar. I found it in our hospital’s cafeteria but apparently it’s such a new product it hasn’t made it to the website yet.

Crazy freeze-dried fruits from Trader Joe’s. The dragonfruit wasn’t a fit for my tastes but the grapes were sweet and amazing.

Birthday cake Peeps! Look at their adorable sprinkled butts!

Kung Fu Tea. Almond milk tea (half sweet, extra ice) with Oreo and aloe jelly.

Squid ink pasta with tahini sauce, 5 spice tofu, roasted zucchini, and chili oil.

Slow-cooked parmesan garlic chicken and potatoes + broccoli. We didn’t brown our chicken and it still came out great.

Greek salad – romaine and cucumber with TJ’s Greek feta dressing, green olives, crispy cheese bites, and roasted chickpeas.

Have a great week!

25Feb2019

Cheese In All Its Forms

by Emily

Highlights from a lazy weekend…

Chocolate Stumptown cold brew + a peanut butter chocolate chip Perfect Bar. <– my two favorite flavors from each company

Mild cheddar Just the Cheese snack. <– my official favorite flavor from my box of samples

Garlic and chive cheese + a chicken sesame bbq Epic Bar. <– my favorite flavor from Epic

Grilled cheese + maple vanilla coconut chips.

Plain Icelandic yogurt with yellow plum and chocolate caramel sunflower butter honey. <– do NOT recommend those honey packets

I am still having a Brazo’s Tacos obsession.

Chicken and Mexican-style street corn frozen meal + a guava kombucha. <– my favorite Synergy flavor, other than grape chia

I made the quickest nachos dinner ever, by buying bbq chips and then filling a box at the Whole Food’s hot bar with shredded cheddar cheese, black beans, corn, red onion, and roasted bell peppers. 5 minutes in the oven later…

22Feb2019

I Like My Snacks Like My Jokes – Cheesy

by Emily

There was not a lot of excitement in dining the past week – I was fighting a cold over the weekend and my taste buds were out of whack, plus Adam has been out of town at a surgical conference the past week and I am unable to adult without an audience. All that is to say I mostly ate take-out and crackers the past seven days. I didn’t bother taking photos of my “meals,” but I did have several snacks worth sharing!

Snack themes include: cheese / coffee / chocolate + nut butter / yogurt bowls.

This Suju Uber Greens juice was the closest I got to a vegetable over the weekend.

I received a verrrry exciting box of samples {these products were provided to me free of charge / no other compensation was provided / all opinions are my own} this week – Just the Cheese, aka 100% Wisconsin cheese baked into bars and mini bites. They are gluten-free and trans-fat free and damn delicious. Paired with an apple or some nuts they feel like a solid mini meal, the bars especially are quite satisfying.

I believe I have tried every crispy cheese product on the market at this point and I can confidently say Just the Cheese is the best. Per the company – “While most “cheese crisps” are air-dried, Just the Cheese® is oven baked, caramelizing the cheese which results in a cheesier flavor and crunchier texture.” <– it’s true!

Aged Cheddar (my favorite flavor so far!), Grilled Cheese, and a honeycrisp apple.

Wisconsin Cheddar and a side of Webster.

Coffee combo for the week – Lavazza espresso and chocolate milk.

This cold brew coffee drink from Koia was a caffeine failure; why is it so god-awful sweet?!

Another loser was this almond butter chocolate bar, we are obsessed with Epic’s jerky bars in this house but this was too sticky for my tastes.

Meanwhile, I am still obsessed with these dark chocolate almond Perfect Bars. They taste like straight-up cookie dough.

And I’m newly obsessed with these pb cups from Theo. They are palm oil free and they are shaped like hearts!

Liberte coffee bean yogurt with honey and peanuts.

Plain Greek yogurt with banana, granola, and coconut cacao bliss.

8Feb2019

Smoky Salsa Sustenance

by Emily

This was a good week in home-cooking! And snacks. And ice cream. Highlights include…

Tortuga coffee with half and half. I brewed it with a bit of vanilla bean powder.

These peanut butter cookie dough protein bars are legit.

We roasted Japanese yams with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika and they were delicious; just amazingly creamy.

Trader Joe’s honey hedgehog butter cookies. Just a little bit savory and sweet.

Freeze-dried banana slices.

These Jalapeño Popper Turkey Burgers are one of the best recipes on my site. With roasted broccoli.

Okonomiyaki! With purple Japanese yam, roasted green cabbage, and green onion. Topped with Kewpie and Sriracha.

Plus Thai iced tea on the side.

We made the best tacos I’ve ever eaten, hands down. Filled with a loose take on this slow cooker chicken taco recipe. We used chicken thighs, taco seasoning, paprika, garlic, lime, serrano pepper, sweet onion, and red and yellow bell pepper.

Topped with cheese, sour cream, and a loose take on this smoky salsa roja recipe. We used extra chipotle and subbed in lime and brown sugar for vinegar and molasses.

IPAs on the side.

For nacho night we baked our flour tortillas into chips. Topped with cheese, sour cream, homemade salsa, and black beans sauteed with green onions and serrano pepper. Plus a side of roasted green beans.

Happy weekending!

4Feb2019

Strawberry Guava Passionfruit Mango Banana Pineapple Coconut Plum

by Emily

There was not much excitement around here this weekend, Adam was out of town and I worked a Sunday coverage shift at work (and it was a particularly long and harrowing day!) – I mostly ate frozen meals and snack foods. Here were the highlights…

How many drinks do I need to pack for a weekend work day? Unsurprisingly, I’m a pretty big fan of the new strawberry guava diet coke.

I tried the new cinnamon shortbread latte from Starbucks (with half syrup and double espresso), it’s pretty good.

My 1st year working as a teacher in New York I ate about a million protein bars and lately I’ve gotten back on that train.

Yogurt bowl wins. Trader Joe’s guava passion fruit whole milk Greek yogurt (it’s amazing!) with sliced mango and TJ’s freeze-dried banana slices.

Wallaby caramelized pineapple Aussie creme yogurt with chopped black plum and shredded coconut.

Spicy shrimp tempura sushi from Whole Foods.

Kashi Mayan Harvest bowl. 7/10 on the frozen meal scale.

Red’s chicken and Mexican street corn (8.5/10). Severe with roasted broccoli. That whole plate got topped with copious amounts of Kewpie and Sriracha.

1Feb2019

7 For 7

by Emily

Long time no blog! Here were 7 highlights from the past 7 days…

{1} This chocolate chip cookie dough chia bar is quite tasty. With a pinata apple.

{2} We finally went to Paradox Pastry and now it’s my new favorite place. The nutella hand pie and birthday cake macaron we shared were out of this world delicious and I wanted to try pretty much every item on the menu.

{3} We went on a crepe date at The Flat.

Shredded chicken with brie and local Jams by Daniel.

The Owl Man = milk chocolate, cinnamon, and marshmallow fluff.

{4} My mom sent some Rothschild Farms raspberry honey mustard dip in my stocking this year and it’s like snacking on my childhood. Pretzels for dipping are nonnegotiable but baby carrots aren’t bad either.

{5} Dinner bowl #1 – Stir-fried cauliflower rice (with soy sauce, rice vinegar, cashews, and eggs) with Trader Joe’s Mandarin orange chicken-less morsels.

{6} Dinner bowl #2 – Broccoli rice and shredded carrots stir-fried with zhoug sauce // honey garlic chicken thighs – thighs, garlic, honey, and soy sauce put in the crock pot on low for 8 hours // bok choy sauteed in some extra sauce // a fried egg.

{7} My cousin introduced us to Peter Chang’s. We had sweet glutinous rice cakes and I had numbing shredded duck. Szechuan chili is such a fun spice sensation.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: bar

Chocolate + Coffee, Chocolate + Peanut Butter

Personal Life:

Television:

Food:

BBQ Chips, BBQ Beans, BBQ Nachos

Party Peeps

Cheese In All Its Forms

I Like My Snacks Like My Jokes – Cheesy

Smoky Salsa Sustenance

Strawberry Guava Passionfruit Mango Banana Pineapple Coconut Plum

7 For 7