Birthday Cake Coffee And Jelly Bean Gum

by Emily

Random notes:

A bunch of bites slipped past the camera this weekend, though per usual, the majority of them were coffee and candy.
I had big plans for excitement in the city this weekend and the snow (in March?! seriously?) throw me off my game. We did make it to the Lower East Side for a 2nd trip to Adam’s new favorite restaurant though.
I binge-watched my way through the first 9 episodes of “Fresh off the Boat” and thought it was great. The book has been on my Amazon wish-list for ages, and we recently visited BaoHaus, so it’s safe to say I’m currently infatuated with Eddie Huang.

Eats:

Double espresso with skim milk (over ice) at work.

I’m not super hungry most mornings, but I try to get in a full 8 oz serving of dairy in my coffee. The 8 grams of protein and 90 – 130 calories usually hold me just fine until my early lunch. Usually. I was so hungry all day on Friday that I was practically crying.

My lunch was delicious.

Fresh blueberries on top of lemon Chobani with a side of sugar cookie kettle corn.

But soon after lunch I was miserable. And I took lunch an hour earlier than usual so it was looong afternoon. I bought this thing of cheese and crackers from the cafeteria, scoffed at how ridiculously large the serving size was, and finished the whole thing 30 minutes later.

And 30 minutes after that, I was buying coffee and a KIND bar for my train ride.

Plus I ate Easter candy both before and after dinner.

My dinner, that in retrospect definitely could have used more protein, was a good one though, if a bit scattered.

Salad = baby kale, cubes pesto gouda, dried blueberries, buckwheat groats, and honey/evoo/lavender salt for dressing.

Our pasta bowls were more of the same; pesto gouda and baby spinach, along with tons of caramelized onions – finished with cream sherry! – and whole wheat boxed mac and cheese with a few giant shells thrown in for good measure.

I was still hungry when we went to bed! Thankfully I felt back to normal by Saturday morning.

My picture-taking motivation went downhill at that point – when I woke up to almost-April snow my plans to go to the gym, clean the floors, and generally accomplish anything all seemed to disappear – but I do have shots of the good stuff.

Adam loved the oatmeal raisin cookie smoothie that I made for my last Recipe Redux post a ton, so this weekend I worked up an official recipe.

I made mine with plain almond milk. ‘Twas good.

This gum is great.

Doesn’t taste like a jelly bean, but it has a great, tart flavor.

Starbucks reached the 20th birthday of the Frappuccino last week and they celebrated with a limited-edition birthday cake flavor… with pink raspberry whipped cream!

I asked for them to make me one into a skim iced latte. So good. Still ridiculous, but slightly less ridiculous.

I made Pinch of Yum’s Bourbon Chicken for Sunday dinner, though I trashed mine up a bit by substituting in turkey breast and Jim Beam’s Maple Bourbon.

Served with brown rice and roasted broccoli, under a healthy drizzle of sauce. My mother – a maple fanatic – bought me the bourbon for Christmas and I have so many cocktail ideas for it.

We had another amazing meal at Pig & Khao. Adam is obsessed with this place and I don’t blame him.

That’s my Reisling and our order of fried mantao buns.

The husband had a giant plate of pork leg, and I ordered the Khao Soi – red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, and shallots.

I don’t even like red curry (understandably, the menu is mostly meats so there aren’t a ton of options for me) but I loooved this. The flavors are just so balanced; you leave feeling unbelievably satisfied.

We had to make room for Halo Halo though!

Shaved ice, leche flan, ube ice cream, macapuno (coconut), and pinipig (toasted puffed rice). My favorite desserts are bat ping so, choclados, and halo halo, clearly I am all about shaved ice and sweet milk.

Did you try the birthday cake Frappuccino?

27Feb2015

Home Again, Home Again

by Emily

I am feeling much better now, though the week did feel very long to me. Here’s to hoping the weekend feels long too! I have not been to the grocery store since a week before I left for St. Thomas, but somehow we made it through.

breakfast

Adam sweetly helped ease me back in to normal, non-vacation life by driving me in to work on Tuesday. We made a doughnut date of it!

Pecan praline beignet for me. Doughnut Plant is great so it’s super fun that there’s a location right near my hospital now.

An apple and a hot chocolate.

Less exciting than doughnuts, but still good.

Iced coffee with chocolate milk and a bar.

I loved the Oatmega bar in theory, but unfortunately it was insanely fishy. I just couldn’t do it. I ended up going down to the salad bar for a snack in the late morning.

Cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds packed a protein punch (8 grams of protein if you assume 2 Tbsp of each) to make up for the bar I threw away.

lunch

Salad bar and french fries.

Baby spinach topped with cucumber, olives, broccoli, a marinated veggie mix, and balsamic dressing. The blob in the left corner is fried plantains.

Salad bar and blurry Chipotle leftovers.

Baby spinach with ranch and a bit of extra cheese, topped with my dinner leftovers.

Oatmeal day. Quaker cherry pistachio oatmeal topped with coconut butter with a cinnamon applesauce on the side.

This was the day I had my salad breakfast snack so I did manage to hit up the salad bar three days in a row, a feat that feels extra impressive when you remember that my stomach was still a bit iffy.

dinner

Chipotle night. We legit eat Chipotle at least once a week, it’s a problem.

Brown rice with sautéed veggies, pinto beans, chicken, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and all of the salsas. The three salsa combo was key to helping me enjoy the brown rice (I really prefer white rice but brown is a whole grain so it has more protein and fiber).

We did a pre-dinner dessert date at Ample Hills.

I didn’t love the red velvet, but their caramel and honey flavors are all deep burnt sugar good.

Adam was on call on Wednesday and I definitely made myself a big bowl of chia pudding for dinner. Thank goodness for those lunch salads, eh?

Gina’s recipe base – 3 Tbsp of chia seeds in 1 cup of Hint of Honey almond milk with a splash of vanilla and honey whisked in. I topped my bowl with Girl & The Fig salted fig caramel and it was flipping amazing.

Last night’s dinner came straight from the freezer. Salmon patties from Whole Foods plus asparagus and a mushroom medley from Trader Joe’s.

The patties were unpleasantly dry so I made a dipping sauce of mayo, garlic aioli, pickle relish, and smoked paprika.

I drank a Genny Cream Ale while I cooked.

And ate a zoo of gummies for dessert while we watched the “Parks and Rec” finale.

Omg. The P&R finale basically killed me – I loooved it. Every single detail was perfect, down the very last second of the ending being a sweet moment from Ben. LOVE.

Do you watch “Parks and Recreation?” What’d you think of the finale?

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. ♥

26Jan2015

Weekend Wrap-Up; Marshmallow Madness

by Emily

I am not 100% yet, but I am feeling much better. 90%? Poor Adam, though, has gotten my cold x2, complete with an ear infection. It’s put a real damper on how much sympathy I’m able to get! At least we were both in the mood for a quiet, lazy weekend.

breakfast and lunch

Friday at work I had a Coconut Chocolate Chip Clif Bar with WF’s Citrus Blend Italian Sparkling Mineral Water.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing tops Diet Coke, but I am really loving those sparkling waters. The strawberry flavor is the best.

Then for lunch, Grape Chobani with KIND Raspberry Chia Seed Clusters, an apple, and a Vita Coco Café.

Again, not as amazing as iced coffee, but the espresso coconut water mash-up is damn good.

And I did have iced coffee this weekend. With skim milk and vanilla creamer.

Plus peanut/butter toast and a mini cheese for brunch.

That is the only weekend breakfast or lunch picture I have because mostly we snacked on random things.

Also I made and ate a lot of brownies (see below…).

dinner

Friday night we turned to the freezer for dinner.

TJ’s vegan orange chicken was alright paired with broccoli.

But it was basically the least filling thing on the planet. We both ended up making sandwiches too.

Fancy pb&j for me.

Saturday night was just straight fancy.

I made baked shrimp! Shrimp, chopped bell pepper, evoo, fresh cilantro, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne, lime juice, and a sprinkle of chopped butter, baked at 425* for 12 minutes. Served on top of jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock.

This was tasty, healthy, and oh-so quick to prepare. Triple win.

Sunday I started dinner in the car home after the world’s longest trip to Trader Joe’s. Apparently people are freaking out about our potential blizzard. By the by, please, please, please cross your fingers that it doesn’t blizzard!

After my pretzel roll I made a spinach salad.

With balsamic vinaigrette, pomegranate, goat’s milk cheddar, and sweet and salty pecans.

snacks, aka marshmallow madness

My mother-in-law sent us a cute Valentine’s card and some strawberry Peeps.

They were yummy, but the marshmallow extravaganza was just beginning… we also had a big container of fluff!

So I made the very best brownies I’ve ever tasted.

Triple chocolate fudge with a layer of marshmallow fluff in the middle.

Recipe is coming tomorrow and it is absolutely fantastic, I promise.

In the meantime, I did something else with the fluff.

Oh yes, I did. Malted Marshmallow Coffee Creamer. If you put skim milk, marshmallow fluff (1:2 ratio with the milk), and malted milk powder (1:4 ratio with the milk) in the blender you can put it in your coffee and pretty much die of happiness.

We used 2 cups skim milk, 1 cup fluff, and 1/4 cup malted milk powder, but as long as you follow the ratio above you can make a smaller or larger batch, no problem. I highly recommend it!

27Dec2014

Season’s Eatings; Christmas Wrap-Up

by Emily

Merriment and good cheer all around! I hope my readers who celebrate had a merry Christmas. Adam, Webster, and I cuddled around the fireplace (Netflix had a fireplace video complete with crackles!) and had a grand time.

It’s been a busy week of eating, so instead of the typical wrap-up I’m just going to share some of the amazing seasonal goodies I enjoyed…

Lump of Coal dark holiday stout. So good, we were impressed.

Yes, you see crackers in the background. We made a cheese plate for Christmas dinner and it was just wonderful.

Stumptown Winter Cheer Cold Brew split with the husband on Christmas morning. Also so good, festive but not too spicy.

A big batch of cold brew which I mixed with low-fat eggnog for ahh-mazing breakfast coffees all week.

Paired with holiday bars.

Mint sparkling water from Whole Foods that rocked my face off. Not as good as the strawberry variety, but a close second, especially when paired with a candy cane that my coworker delivered.

Gingerbread Greek yogurt for lunch. I enjoyed this even more than I was expecting to because it was sooo thick.

Awesome pasta. Leftover snow-shape pasta tossed with turkey bacon, sautéed mushrooms, onion, and kale, and hunks of creamy blue cheese Cambozola.

Egg ‘n’ Grog pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Basically creamy, sweet rum in a gingersnap crust. Heavenly.

Growing up, for as long as I can remember, my family would open stockings and then eat scrambled eggs with red and green peppers before opening Christmas presents, so you know what we ate for brunch on Thursday.

Bonus – two off-theme snacks that were too good not to share. The juice bar at Whole Foods is great, unsurprisingly, but the make-your-own option was surprisingly cheap. I recommend this combo.

This Crispy, Crunchy, Mixed Fruit – coconut, pineapple, mango, and jackfruit – is fan-freaking-tastic! I seriously could not stop eating it. Crunch City.

Does your family have a Christmas food tradition?

15Dec2014

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas! Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

It’s only 10 days ’til Christmas! And Hannukah starts tomorrow! And it was Adam’s 29th birthday on Thursday! We had a lot to celebrate this weekend. The last three days have been fabulous. Lots of great meals, several at fancy restaurants, and they were usually followed by dessert!

Friday

Friday was a regular work day for me, but I had the excitement of knowing that the husband was coming to pick me up at the end of the day. The switch to an electronic medical record system has gone fairly well, by the way; fingers are still crossed.

I ran out the door late in a flurry so breakfast came from Starbucks.

Iced latte and a fruit pouch that was not great.

Lunch was pretty much the same thing, since I didn’t pack anything and made it down to the cafeteria late in the day.

Iced coffee + chocolate milk, an apple, and a Gingerbread Larabar.

Plus some of the RDs came up to visit me – they liked my tiny office! – and brought me candy.

I don’t know where my Russian coworker gets those caramels but they are great.

Adam met me after work and we spent the evening in the city. Our dinner reservations weren’t until 8:00 so we did dessert first on a visit to the Winter Village at Bryant – Brrrryant! – Park.

We got a dulce de leche cookie,

then warmed up with a lusciously thick drinking chocolate – and a marshmallow! – from the from the Max Brenner stand.

OMG. We have been buying and hating hot chocolate since San Francisco but this liquid gold was exactly what we’ve been searching for. Super thick and rich but not sickeningly sweet.

We had a mile-ish walk to dinner and I’m terribly sad that it was too cold for my camera because I was basically dying at the gorgeous lights along the way.

Tavern on the Green, Adam’s pick for his belated birthday dinner, was seasonally stunning as well.

I got a Queens cocktail – Bootlegger vodka, Velvet Falernum, sorrel hibiscus liquor, pomegranate molasses, and lemon juice. Yummy, and perfectly balanced.

We shared the scallops with citrus butter, capers, and fried shallots to start. I’ve been having a love affair with fried shallots lately.

None of the entrees jumped out at me so I ordered two veggie sides, crimini mushrooms with blue cheese and basil and broccoli rabe with lemon, garlic, and sea salt.

It was a great night.

Saturday

We had errands to run in SoHo on Saturday, so we parked in Brooklyn and took the train in and spent the day in the city.

There might have been booze in my coffee.

I bought a snickerdoodle lattee from Dunkin and added a healthy pour of Rumchata (aka the snickerdoodle shot) and it was damn good.

While we were in Brooklyn, we split a sardine Bahn Mi from Bahnmigos.

It was great! The little me who grew up in the Caribbean shunning seafood (whyyyy??) can’t believe I eat things like sardines and scallops now.

We did linner (super late lunch) at Freemans Restaurant.

Blue Ridge Fizz = apple brandy, maple, allspice, and champagne. Freemans is our favorite brunch spot in the city and their cocktails are always magnificent.

I got poached eggs with tomato stewed kale, crispy shallots(!!), and hollandaise on sourdough toast.

My eggs ended up being overdone but I forgave them because the kale was so good.

We went next door to Morganstern’s for dessert.

We shared a cup of American egg custard and durian banana ice cream. Soo creamy! And the flavors were very true to life.

After a bit more exploring, we did round 2 at Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

I got a shot of The Nog – pumpkin cake layered with eggnog pudding and whipped cream.

SSS never disappoints.

Sunday

Sunday was all about hanging out at home. We would have stayed in our pajamas all day, had my dinner plans gone better. We cuddled, watched tv, and got up some holiday decorations.

I woke up starving from our early dinner the night before so I made a big plate of eggs for breakfast.

Scrambled with chopped jalapeno, corn, sliced turkey, sour cream, and goat’s milk cheddar.

Plus Silk soy nog on the side.

Instead of toast, I snacked on a bag of salted caramel popcorn.

The plan for dinner was pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto but something went horribly wrong and my pesto was pretty much inedible.

Instead, we salvaged our veggie side,

and ventured out for Thai, stopping for mint chocolate froyo along the way.

Much better. Enjoyed in front of Scrubs – which we are rewatching for the millionth time – it was a great end to a great weekend.

12Dec2014

This Week I Loved…

by Emily

*Silk Soy Nog*

I adore eggnog, and this (vegan, 80 calories per half cup) stuff is at least 90% as good as the real thing. Enjoyed in both overnight oats and cold brewed coffee.

*Sandwiches from the cafeteria*

I didn’t pack lunch for most of the week because I bought a sandwich on Tuesday and got hooked. Turkey and provolone on an onion roll with mustard, mayo, and spicy banana peppers.

*Chips*

I had tortilla chips – with cheese and fresh salsa – with my sandwich one day and became a woman obsessed. I ended up making Adam a separate, grown-up person dinner and then eating chips and cheese several nights.

*Cola-flavored candies*

So good! Extra fizzy cherry cola Pop Rocks and cola float hard candies with a creamy center.

*A new book obsession*

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

I finished Cutting for Stone this week and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Author Abraham Verghese is a doctor as well as a writer and he did a skillful job of portraying the medical scenes in the story in clear and approachable way (most of the main characters are doctors so this came up a lot). The characters are all flawed but beautiful, and I fell head over heals in love with Ghosh.

What books have you loved lately?

5Dec2014

A Weak Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

I don’t have much to say or show, taking pictures was beyond me this week. Having to be a grown-up again after two weeks of vacation pretty much kicked my butt. I don’t have a single dinner shot but it’s no big deal because we ate Chipotle and/or pizza every night!

This week took so much coffee.