This Week’s Top Five

{1} My coffee combo.

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Community Coffee with cocoa powder, maple cinnamon, cream, and milk.

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The cocoa doesn’t really mix in with the cold coffee but it’s still good.

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Now I want to do a coconut-cocoa coffee next.

{2} Bars.

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Most nights this week I was soooo hungry when I got home and having these to grab saved me from some major hangry fits.  Not that we still didn’t go get Chipotle instead of cooking two nights in a row.

{3} This lunch.  Trimona plain yogurt with Heritage Flakes, chia seeds, and chopped emerald beauty and honey punch pluots. <– how great are those names??!

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Plus a bourbon brown butter caramel and a salty caramel apple taffy for dessert.

{4} This fancy Thursday night dinner.

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I sautéed spinach with minced ginger, garlic aioli, and evoo, then tossed in gnocchi and roasted zucchini.

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Topped with this hot smoked sockeye from Trader Joe’s.

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Best meal of the week!  The salmon was wonderful; I love hot smoked because it has a similar flavor to lox but not the slimy texture.

{5} Caramel apple Peeps.  OMG.

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These were seriously delicious; are all Peeps this yummy??  They were puffy and not too chewy and they had a perfect balance of sour dust to sweet caramel fudge.  I’m awarding this best purchase yet for Apple Month.

This Week I Loved…

the start of apple month

September 1st means I go crazy eating all things {caramel} apple!

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And breaking into this stash makes me feel less awkward about my growing pile of pumpkin items.

everything by George Ezra

But especially “Blame It On Me.”

my breakfast combo

Fiber One reached out to me about sending samples of their newest product – Cheesecake Bars!  I am not one to turn down something that has 5 grams of fiber and tastes like cheesecake.

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They come in strawberry and salted caramel and they are freaking delicious.  Each moderately sized bar has 150 calories.  They certainly aren’t as healthy as a bowl of oatmeal, but I can handle the 3.5 grams of saturated fat occasionally for something quick that keeps me full through the morning and really does taste like dessert.

I paired a caramel bar with a caramel macchiato one morning and it was a bit too much but also amazing.

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But most mornings I kept my coffee pairing low-key, Community Coffee with cream and milk.

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Yum, I love it when we have (fat-free) half and half in the fridge.

yogurt bowls

2% Fage with strawberries and Heritage Flakes.

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Plain Skyr with cotton candy grapes(!!!) and sea salt caramel apple granola.

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Omg, kids, the granola was insanely good.  It took a lot of self-control not to go through and pick out all of the caramel bits.

salads

Loaded from the cafeteria.

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Greens with ranch, peppers, tomato, cucumber, black bean and corn salsa, green olives, cheddar, and Sea Salt SuperSeedz from home.  The pumpkin seeds gave this just the right amount of crunch.

At home.

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The little strawberry glass is holding strawberry beer – Abita’s* deliciously juicy Strawgator.

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And my “salad” – which had no greens because we ran out of spinach – was tons of chopped cucumber and sweet red pepper topped with TJ’s insanely spicy Sriracha ranch, shredded cheddar, roasted pecans, and a huge pile of pulled chicken with roasted garlic and honey bbq sauce.

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Also I ate Chipotle salad two days in a row.  No shame.

* apparently Abita makes a milk stout?!  I want it so badly I can practically taste it.

Weekly Wrap-Up, Weddings Have Great Food

breakfast

Coffee.  With Hint of Honey Almond Milk and a GoMacro Bar.

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Or seltzer and an applesauce.

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Or chocolate milk.

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Another morning I tried to do the coffee + chocolate milk combo but my cafeteria was out of milk so I just drank it black and I had a stomach ache for the rest of the day.

lunch

Yogurt.  Strawberry Fage with plucots and pumpkin seeds on the side.

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Oatmeal.  Quaker Summer Berry oats with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter on top and plucots on the side.

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Sandwich.  A monster from the cafeteria with spicy turkey and fresh mozzarella on a brioche roll.

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Leftovers.  Egg salad (see below), TJ’s Crispy Broccoli – which I dumped into the egg salad! – and an apple.

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snack

Salty.

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Sweet.

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dinner

I am missing many photos from the start and end of this week, but I did a pretty good job capturing the middle days.

Monday my camera was dead all afternoon and through the evening.  You didn’t miss much though, I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches in bed.  Then I ate a second dinner of Thai take-out.  Also in bed.  Related fact – I have been burning through episodes of “Body of Proof” at an alarming rate.  It’s bad; not just the fact that I’m watching the show obsessively, but the show itself, is bad.

Tuesday was frozen shrimp goyza from Trader Joe’s.

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We sautéed broccoli and bok choy with ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, and soy sauce and served our pan-fried goyza on top.

I woke up early Wednesday morning to hard-boil eggs for salad.

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This was eggs with minced red bell pepper, mayo and a healthy dollop of sesame gojuchang which gave the salad a great spice and a little bit of smokiness.

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With roasted green beans on the side.

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Roasted green beans have always been one of my favorite foods but now that I’ve started topping them with sliced shallots they’re on a whole new level.

Thursday night I was way less pathetic, but I still don’t have any pictures.  A Buffalo friend came into town and took me to a wedding.  The event was in LIC at The Foundry and it was beyond gorgeous but way too dark for food pictures.

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I ate hummus, cocktails, mini cupcakes, and all the other wedding trappings but the only photo I have is a blurry shot of my friend and me.

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Fun fact – I met her straight from work and I had to get dressed in a Barnes and Nobel bathroom.  I am the classiest.

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I took today off to spend the morning with my girlfriend before she drives home so I have this whole Friday ahead of me to watch Body of Proof do fun stuff in the city!

(Frozen)Yogurt

breakfast

Coffee!

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With caramel.

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Or with Hint of Honey Almond Milk and plums.

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Or a Clif Bar.

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Also one morning my coworker brought in yummy poppy-seed Danish.

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lunch

I had a really great sandwich with spicy sliced chicken, pickles, and fresh mozzarella from the cafeteria.

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The other days I did yogurt bowls featuring the new blended flavors from Chobani.  Coffee with plums and KIND peanut butter granola.

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Mixed berry with blueberries, raspberries, multi-grain o’s and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

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And vanilla with more berries and bran flakes.

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The texture of the 2% yogurt was seriously creamy and good.

dinner

I can’t show you Monday/Tuesday’s dinner because it is my Recipe Redux for this month.  I will show you some of the tasty stuff we had with it though… Like roasted green beans on the side.  I added thinly sliced shallots and they got insanely crispy, crunchy, good.

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And frozen yogurt for dessert.  With all of the chocolate toppings.

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We liked the Nutella on top so much we ended up going back again the next night.

Wednesday was Webster’s Buyday (the anniversary of the day we brought him home) so we made a special dinner with some of his favorite foods – Nachos!  Chips with cheese, broccoli, cilantro, and chicken (pronounced chick-ON chick-ON in this house).

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He even had his own little dish.

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And of course we got Chipotle.

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Of course.

random thoughts

I am so freaking excited that Target is doing away with gender-based labeling in some of its children’s aisles!  When I worked at a toy store in college I hated when people would come in and ask for “boy toys” or “girl toys.”  This awesome graph sums up my thoughts pretty well –

gender based toys

I’ve already seen some pumpkin beers and it is taking all of my self-control to not start stockpiling.  I’ve told myself that I’m waiting until mid-September.

Poorly Drawn Lines is always hilarious but I feel like this week’s comics have been especially great.

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We had dessert every single night this week.  I want to nip that daily habit in the bud, but I also have fifteen plus new ice cream joints that I want to visit before summer ends.

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This Week I…

…Made a Redux recipe that I can’t post yet so I don’t have much to share today.  Also we got Chipotle twice.

…Love love loved some of Polar’s summer seltzer flavors.

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You can’t go wrong with fizzy strawberry.

…Finished season 3 of OITNB.  I wasn’t a fan.  But of course I kept watching and will still watch season 4 next year.  I hated every single major decision Piper made this season!

…Tried the last three flavors from my GoMacro sample package.

Cashew butter (sweet rejuvenation) tastes exactly like a pureed cashew so your level of love for cashews would definitely affect your enjoyment of this bar.

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Peanut butter (protein replenishment) wasn’t my favorite; it was too boring.

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But banana + almond butter (prolonged power) was amazing; it tastes like a dried banana!  The texture works perfectly here.

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P.S.  My coffee this week was Brooklyn Roasting Co’s Peru blend cold-brewed with cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla bean.  So good.

…Ate a veggie and cheese omelet for breakfast the next day and it was like I hardly knew myself.

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I have to give the cafeteria credit though, this was delicious.

…Read this Buffy the Vampire Slayer article on Buzzfeed and wondered how it’s possible that anyone has a favorite character that isn’t Anya.  From any show ever, not just Buffy.  Though Kitty from That 70’s Show is also pretty wonderful.

…Ate some amazing yogurt bowls for lunch.

Soursop yogurt with plucot and white nectarine and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

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Salted caramel Greek yogurt with KIND peanut butter granola and a white nectarine.

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Plain Siggi’s with plucot and yellow nectarine and a giant chocolate chip cookie.

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We baked Take a Megabite’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies and they are fantastic!  And yes, I totally crumbled that cookie into my yogurt.

…Adore LL Cool J for giving me Lip Sync Battle.  Celebrities compete against each other in choreographed lip syncing madness and it is hilarious.  My love for Anna Kendrick grew exponentially when she killed it against John Krasinski, but Anne Hathaway’s “Wrecking Ball” is clearly the standout performance of the season.

…Packed for Buffalo.  Some friends and I are driving there for a visit today!

I’d Have To Say April 25th

This was the most boring week of the month (July includes my trip to Maryland, a trip to Buffalo, a visit from my parents, and my 30th birthday!) but Adam and I kept things fun with lots of little dates.  Honestly, I have more fun going to the grocery store with my husband than I would have doing almost anything with someone else, so grabbing donuts before work with him is pretty thrilling.

breakfast

Breakfast note 1 – I stuck with a coffee combo that worked: Dark Roast Community Coffee with skim milk and fat-free half and half.  The coffee bag says to use 2 Tbsp grounds to 6 oz water and I use 3 Tbsp and my crappy coffee machine and it comes out perfect for my tastes.

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Breakfast note 2 – the GoMacro bars in this post are another former freebie.  The flavors I had this week were my new favorites, they had a lot more texture than the previous ones I tried.

Coffee, cinnamon applesauce, and GoMacro apples + walnuts (morning harvest).  They should have just called this flavor “apple pie” because that’s what it tasted like.

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An aprium – apricot-plum hybrid like a pluot but more apricot than plum – and GoMacro sesame butter + dates (sweet revival).  Sesame butter is a bit sweeter than other nut butters naturally; I’m having a hard time explaining the flavor of sesame butter but it is what this bar tastes like.

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Doughnut Plant date before work.  The fresh lavender flower flavor was tasty but the yeasted doughnut was too big for me for breakfast, I’ll have to stick to the cake varieties unless another really fun flavor pops up.  Adam had the chocolate chip cookie special and was basically swooning.

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Freeze-dried Fuji apple slices and GoMaco granola and coconut (balanced goodness).  The oats gave this a great consistency.

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That pop of pink is a new notebook from Target.  I’m obsessed.  I also bought a new day planner.

lunch

I was all about the sandwiches this week.  Caprese sandwich from the cafeteria.  Tomato, basil, mozzarella, and spinach.

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The plainest sandwich ever, also from the cafeteria.  Turkey, cheese, and mayo on a white roll.  I didn’t even have a fruit, vegetable, or whole grain on the side.  I badly sunburned my knees last weekend, long story, and I was feeling a little under the weather that day.

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Starbuck’s Thai-style peanut chicken wrap.  I was impressed with this, all of the fancy new foods looks pretty good.

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Lunch date at La Bagel Delight.  We spit a poppy seed bagel with lox and dill cream cheese.

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On Friday I did get back to my yogurt bowl roots.  2% Lingonberry & Strawberry Siggi’s with chopped aprium and pluot and KIND peanut butter granola.

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Kids, that granola is ridiculous – somehow it tastes like cookie dough?!

snack

Saturday – July 11th or 7/11 – was 7-11 Day so I got a free small slurpee.  Sour Patch watermelon and Coke were amazing together.  Also, I eat my fair share of sugar but half of a small slurpee kind of makes me want to die so I’m horrified by the existence of that extra-large cup.

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Guava cheese empanada.  I will be so sad if this food truck moves away from my LIRR station.

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Ice cream date.  We got raw egg topped with salted caramel, sesame honeycomb, and Luxardo cherries.

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Morganstern’s ice cream is indescribably chewy, it is truly some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  And I cannot get over those cherries.

Have you seen this cute iced drink promotion at Starbucks yet?  Those ice cube stickers kill me.

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Maple latte.  With a sky-blue straw that made me so happy!

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I took a girlfriend to Nunu so I could try that spicy beer again.  And I forgot to write down the name for a 2nd time.  I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did when it was paired with chocolate; a full pint by itself was a bit much to get through.

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A chocolate chip cookie and a GoMacro cherries + berries (sunny uplift).  I was expecting to hate that flavor but it was actually yummy, the cherries were nice and tart and it had some oat texture.

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That cookie was totally not homemade.

dinner

My family sent me home from Solomon’s with some of my uncle’s amazing crab cakes.

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Best meal of the week.

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We sautéed the crab in a mix of melted butter and evoo.

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Served with a caprese-style salad on the side.

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Red and green lettuce mix dressed with truffle salt, evoo, and balsamic vinegar and topped with Kumato tomato and mozzarella.

Date night in the Lower East Side.  We got bowls at Korilla and they were so freaking good!  Sticky rice, gojuchang chicken, red kimchi, cucumber kimchi, monterey jack cheese, and a fried egg.  Plus Korean bbq and hot sauces.  My mouth was on fire and I was in heaven.

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We cooled down at Snowdays.  Black sesame shaved ice with sweetened condense milk, mochi, and Fruity Pebbles.

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We had parked in DUMBO so we got to walk home over the bridge.  It was so hot and sticky but still super fun.

Another day, another bowl, this time a Chipotle date on our couch.

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I got salad with peppers and onions, chicken, mild salsa, green salsa, sour cream, and cheese.  Plus chips and a giant diet coke on the side.  We go to Chipotle so often that the counter staff recognizes us, which is the most embarrassing thing on earth, but we can’t stop!

The opposite of date night, I made this dinner by myself while Adam worked a 30 hour shift.

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My Cheesy Eggplant Bake with diced yellow onion and light Havarti added in so I could use up some leftovers.

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Plus a great salad.

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Red and green lettuce // dressed with lavender salt, evoo, honey, and balsamic vinegar // topped with sweet and spicy pecans, dried bing cherries, and chia seeds.

Any other drink freebie deals I should know about for this summer?

Start Of A Three-Day Weekend

My clinic is closed on Friday in celebration of Independence Day tomorrow so today is the start of a three-day weekend for me.  Woo-hoo!  Adam has to work, unfortunately, but I am hitting the road and heading to Solomons, Maryland to spend the weekend with my aunt and uncle at their cabin.  It’s been way too long since I last saw my cousins and I am very excited.  My aunt tipped me off that the “drink special” for the weekend is bourbon slushies so I’m pretty thrilled about that too.

Snacks and cafeteria lunches didn’t make it into this post so I’m skipping a good 45% of what I ate this week…

breakfast

Three things you need to know before we talk about breakfast:  1) I bought Rainer cherries and they have been sweet, delicious, and totally worth the $6 price tag.  2)  My coffee combo was solid this week – double-strength brewed Community Coffee Dark Roast with chocolate milk and fat-free half and half.

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3) GoMacro sent me a sampler box of mini MacroBars in 11 fun flavors.  All MacroBars are USDA organic, non-GMO project verified, kosher, gluten-free and vegan certified.  I like that GoMacro company buys fair trade products and their boxes are biodegradable and made from 100% post-consumer corrugated waste.  All of the flavors I’ve tried thus far have been very homogenous in texture, smooth like a paste (but good and not gross like I’m making it sound here!) so they don’t crumble at all but they also don’t stick to your teeth or fingers which I deeply appreciate.

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Please note – I was sent a box of mini bars free of charge to sample.  I was not provided further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Chocolate coffee and peanut butter chocolate chip (protein pleasure).  My favorite flavor thus far, the base of this one is basically just like eating super thick peanut butter.

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Cherries and cashew caramel (protein paradise).  This was my least favorite flavor, though it still was not bad, because it didn’t have much going on; when something calls itself caramel I’m looking for it to be pretty darn sweet.

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Coffee, cherries, and sunflower butter + chocolate (protein purity).  I know the names are super cheesy but a full-size of this flavor does offer 10 grams of protein for 260 calories.

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A big day, cherries, mozzarella stick, coffee, and almond butter + carob (wholehearted heaven).  Surprisingly, this was my favorite flavor, it had a nice sweetness to it.

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Why yes, I did go through and pick out all of the “blank and chocolate” flavors first.

lunch

Maple mixture.  Maple Greek yogurt with KIND maple chia granola and fresh pomegranate.

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The yogurt, from Green Mountain Creamery, was soooo smooth.  It’s just nonfat milk and maple syrup with live cultures.

On Wednesday, I prepped my lunch and left it on our butcher’s block in the kitchen while I went to get dressed.  Five minutes later, the dog had eaten my lunch.  He is a little monster but I still have absolutely no idea how he managed to get himself up on the block!  I kicked the dog (kidding!!) and rushed off without food.  The point of that long story?  I ate ice cream for lunch and it was fantastic.

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Scoops is the new pop-up ice cream shop from Greene Grape.  My toasted green tea scoop (from Phin & Phebes) was extra fun with rainbow sprinkles.

Then it was back to yogurt.

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Evolve Kefir‘s strawberry Greek yogurt was very pleasant with yellow plucot and KIND granola.

dinner

Pizza night.  We made four cheese pizza – low-fat mozzarella, fresh mini mozzarella balls, pepperjack, and sharp cheddar – on TJ’s whole-wheat crust and it was ridiculous.

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Pizza.  But x2 because we ate the entire pie and we were so sick and it was so worth it.

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Plus roasted veggies because we are healthy like that.

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Kalettes (the kale + Brussels sprout hybrid which I’ve decided I don’t enjoy) and yummy zucchini.

Big salad(s) bonanza.

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We tore up heads of TJ’s Smallish Gems Sweet Lettuce and topped them with champagne vinaigrette, sweet and spicy pecans, pomegranate, and cucumber.

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Plus tuna salad on the side.

Casserole night was planned so Adam will have lots of leftovers while I’m away this weekend.

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My Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta that I snuck a bit more veggies into with the addition of sautéed onion and yellow and orange bell peppers.

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Plus roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

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Fun nutrition fact – there is a dose dependent inverse relationship between broccoli consumption and colon cancer.

real talk

I finished Bossypants and I laughed out loud on the train like a crazy person adored it.  The chapter where she responds to some of her internet critics had me in stitches.  Even the lines about feminism/gender politics in America/women in comedy that make you want to put your fist through a window if you think about it too much managed to be witty.  And now I really want to rewatch 30 Rock.

I bought this NY skyline bag from Fishs Eddy to store small items in my purse and it makes me happy every time I put on lipstick/grab a pen/check my cell phone, which is approximately 8 million times a day.

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I finally started Orange is the New Black and I’m going to make my way through the season quickly but I’m kind of over it.  Is there going to be a season 4, because I feel like they need to wrap things up?  There are moments that are incredibly funny but in general this season is a bit too sad for me.  My kind of television sads come from the fact that Joss Whedon thinks all great romances have to end in a horrifying and sudden death, I’m not so keen on the children visiting a prison on Mother’s Day and being panicked by their parents dropping to the dirt during a lockdown.

Do you watch OITNB?  What are your thoughts on season 3?  <– no spoilers, please!

Random Ruminations

giveaway winner {congrats!}

And the cookbook giveaway winner is… Brittney.  Brittney, e-mail me with your mailing info so you can enjoy making your ice creams!

{yummy} weekend eats

Friday breakfast: Americano with milk, string cheese, and an Enzo Bar from Lola Granola.

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The bar was amazing; honey, vanilla, and cinnamon oats.

Saturday was a similar deal: Clif dark chocolate peanut butter bar with a clover brew of Starbuck’s Italian roast.

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Friday’s dinner – the only dinner I managed to photograph – was boring but good.

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Spinach salad with pepitas and roasted green beans dressed with evoo, honey, and lavender salt.

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Toasted sourdough turkey sandwich with pepperjack and strawberry jam.

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Spicy and sweet always makes the best sandwich.

Stumptown cold brew and fresh cherries for an afternoon snack.

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We spotted this Sour Patch slurpee and bought one immediately.  It was sour!  Neither of us wanted more than a few sips but it was fun to try.

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We did a similar maneuver the next day with frozen yogurt.

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The salted chocolate chip cookie dough was fantastic!  I topped mine with cookie dough (duh!), blondie, mochi, and Nutella.

We ventured into Astoria on Sunday; Sugar Freak for a Louisiana brunch.

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That’s a “swamp juice” and it was exactly as disgusting as you’d expect.  Maybe even more so actually, you guys know how much I love things that are over the top sweet and even I couldn’t bring myself to take a third sip.

I got a grilled chicken Po’Boy to eat.  That, I could finish!

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The side salad came with pecan vinaigrette that was the best part of the meal.

Afterwards we stopped by Kinship for coffees like we were just the coolest.

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Two thumbs up for the cold brew, Stumptown again.

random facts {about me}

We were glad to have a low-key, boring weekend because 3 out of 4 in July include major plans (including my 30th birthday).

I am so excited about the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling.  I got all teary-eyed on the train reading the news.  This is definitely the proudest moment America has had so far this decade.

We only have a few old Criminal Minds left and we are pretty devastated about it.  But…

Rookie Blues is back!!! My Canadian cop show is the best thing on summer television.  I haven’t watched the first episode yet because I’m hoping if I save it for an elliptical session it will lure me back to the gym after a lazy week off.

I finally started reading Tina Fey’s Bossypants and it is just as hilarious and wonderful as I had expected.

I am obsessed with advice columns (Dear Prudence is my favorite!) so I read Dear Abby every morning but I think I need to stop because most of her advice is so terrible that it makes me huffy with anger on my way to work.

Sunday afternoon we went on a date to the Queens County Farm Museum and it was pretty much the best thing ever.

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I got to pet the pigs!!!  Animals – mostly French Bulldogs and Dachshunds but sometimes pigs – seem to sense my intense, unhealthy love for them and give me lots of petting time.  The piggies laid up against the fence so I could really go to town patting their flanks and scratching behind their ears.

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Yay!  So much fun.

Which farm animal do you most want to cuddle?