Tag Archives: bar

Things From The Week

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Hello, hello!  I have a mere five things to talk about today, I was too busy with lots of little things last week to take many pictures.  I mostly wanted to check in and reassure y’all (MOM) that I’m out of my funk.  We spent the weekend eating tons of pizza and finishing up “The Office” and it totally cured my bad mood.

thing #1 – TV

Loooooooved the ending of The Office!  Pam was kind of starting to drive me crazy in the last seasons, but I thought the finale was perfect.  Both the wedding and the cameo made me cry!

thing #2 – Bars

Lots of on the go bites this week, and these were two of the best.  Zing Dark Chocolate Hazelnut.

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I liked the chewiness.  And I was quite pleased by this –

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I also loved the KIND Honey Smoked BBQ Bar, though I accidentally deleted the picture of it.  This savory line is perfection for the times you want the convenience of a bar but not the typically sweet flavor.

thing #3 – Yogurt

I found the pumpkin spice Chobani!!!  But you know I won’t eat that until October, so more importantly, I found the Apple Cinnamon Chobani.

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It was very delicious paired with pomegranate arils.

thing #4 – Baking

Part of what was keeping me busy this week were the three September birthdays in the Nutrition office.  I made a big batch of my Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins and they got good reviews.

thing #5 – Coffeeeeee

I found Chameleon Cold Brew in NYC, finally.  Yippee!

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I also scored more Stumptown boxes and the Blue Bottle boxes, so I’m going to have some extra-fancy caffeination next week.

Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

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I had a perpetual case of cranky-face this whole past week.  Nothing concrete set it off – Adam and I haven’t had a fight in ages, the dog hasn’t been being a little monster, and my work week was pretty varied so it was more interesting and less stressful than usual – but I was constantly in a bad mood.  I was also super hungry all week, which I guess probably was a trigger for some of my ire.  It was a real bummer.

Rather than trying futilely to fight it, I plan on giving in and wallowing.  I’m going to spend the next two days eating pizza and catching up on tv in the hopes that the grump works its way out of my system by Monday.

In the meantime, here are a few things that did make me smile last week…

{1} The best breakfast.  How flipping cute are these Stumptown Cold Brew boxes???

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Adam and I geeked out when we spotted them at WF.

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And it was totally delicious; sweet and creamy.  My Bananas Foster Larabar Uber wasn’t bad either.

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To quote Lara – “It’s basically bananamazing!”

{2} The most on-theme lunch.  Blueberries and caramel apple pie Greek yogurt, plus licorice and caramel apple Twizzlers for later.

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I loved the licorice; apparently I am a fan even when it’s not enrobed in candy coating (though that’s not to say that I didn’t also eat Good & Plenty several times this week!).  I was not a fan of the yogurt, though I can’t say that was really a surprise.  In my endless quest to try every apple(pie) flavored item on the market there are bound to be a few losers.

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Worst of all, it didn’t even fill me up, I got fries from the cafeteria as well.

{3} The best lunch.  This day’s break was much more satisfying, the honey-chia combination was killer.  I will be pairing those two up again soon.

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With blueberries and a Hemp & Chia O’Coconut snack on the side.

{4} The best dinner.  Eaten in two courses.  First, a snack plate of baby carrots, buffalo blue cheese pretzel nuggets, TJ’s turkey jerky, and Tribe roasted vegetable hummus.

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Then later, pizza pizza – buffalo chicken – and a side salad.

luigis

From Luigi’s if any locals are looking for a recommendation.  The crust was so good; chewy almost like Naan!

{5} The best dessert {of the season}.  I know, I know, I’m eating pumpkin in September, but the Ralph’s location near our apartment closed early last fall and it’s essential that I get my fill of this goodness before it goes away.

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Salted caramel pretzel and pumpkin pie cream ices.  <– best flavor ever.

What do you do to help yourself get over it when you’re feeling cranky?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Attack Of The Killer Sandwiches

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Did everyone have a great weekend?  Mine was low-key but good; I got my hands on not one, but two of my top favorite sandwiches, so that was nice.  The weekend following a three-day weekend always feels a bit too short!  Assume many, many coffees went unphotographed.

breakfast

Iced coffee and I ate the top off of this cappuccino muffin.

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I’m not really a muffin fan but I had been craving one like crazy all week and Friday seemed like a fun time to give in.

Peanut butter chocolate chip bar from GoMacro.

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This came in my Urthbox but I would buy it again on my own.  Eaten on the go because I spent most of Saturday helping a friend move.

lunch

I packed a nice yogurt bowl for work on Friday, with sliced plucot and a Jax banana coconut water on the side.  The bananas foster yogurt was good, but a bit too sweet (note – if it’s too sweet for my tastes it is way too sweet for 90% of the adult population).

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Plus brown sugar sea salt seaweed snacks and caramel apple Twizzlers for the afternoon.

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Both snacks got two thumbs up.

Green juice from Foragers.  Kale, spinach, cucumber, pineapple, and mint.

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I’ve been wanting to go to Foragers for ages so it was good to try out the juice bar.  They have so much fancy stuff, including this super-soft apple caramel I bought the husband.

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I also scored myself a licorice.

snack

Chocolate-covered bears are always good.

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I finally got to make the chia tea lemonade.

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Quite nice!  I will definitely do this again.

Orbit gum loses its flavor and get’s hard too chew very quickly, but it’s neat that my gum is on theme for the month.

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I handed my girlfriend a piece of gum, right after I let her use my apple scented hand sanitizer, and she cracked up.  I might be a bit obsessed.

dinner

We got take-out from Bareburger to go with our “The Office” marathoning.  I ate baby carrots in the car so I could get some veggies in.

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We sat at the bar while we waited.  I got a peach julep slush.  swoon

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My sandwich was grilled chicken topped with smokehouse sauce, blue cheese, sautéed mushrooms, turkey bacon, and fried onions.  {my favorite “burger”}

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Ridiculous.  It is the Big Blue Bacon with modifications to make it pork-free, if you want to try one for yourself.

Adam worked overnight on Saturday and I got home late so I went with my old-standby dinner.

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Plus turkey jerky… for protein.

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I’m not even embarrassed, popcorn’s a whole grain.

Sunday we went to Fletchers.  {my favorite bbq}

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I got the chopped chicken sandwich, which I smothered in pickled jalopeños and their amazing bbq sauce.

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Plus banana puddin(g) for dessert.

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I just wanted to taste the pudding – we were planning on stopping for pie afterwards – but it was so flipping good that I couldn’t stop eating until I basically licked the bowl clean!

Weekly Wrap-Up; Appletastic

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I don’t have a ton to share today – it’s only been two days since my last wrap-up and I didn’t photograph snacks at all – but what I do have is appletastic.  More than 50% of these eats involved apple in some form!  Let’s do this post old-school style…

Wednesday morning I made myself a go-cup of iced cold brew with vanilla almond milk.

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A few minutes after I snapped that picture I spilled the entire thing in my lap.  Whoops.

It was a good day to lose my coffee because I had a nice breakfast already packed for work.

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2% Coconut Chobani topped with two types of sliced plucot and some fresh raspberries.  I’m honestly not sure what I’m going to do when plucot season ends, they are my very favorite.  I’ve even gotten the husband hooked on them, finally.

I had an extra-busy morning at work playing catch up.  On Tuesdays I do coverage care on inpatient floors in the hospital so I’m not in the clinic.  Usually I only miss 1 or 2 new patients because that’s our slow day, but this week we got slammed, and I came in on Wednesday to several charts on my desk.  I spent the morning trying to call people to set up appointments but of course none of the numbers on file worked.  <– major flashbacks to my teacher days!

Lunch was apple walnut oatmeal with TJ’s freeze-dried apples.

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Appletastic!  {I promise to stop saying that now.  At least for this post.}

I thought I was fine without my morning coffee, but I practically missed my train home because I was so desperate to get a cup.

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Adam was working a 24-hour shift so I was on my own for the evening.  Fueled by caffeine, I had grand plans of hitting the gym and then cooking a respectable meal to leave in the fridge for the husband.  Really though, I ate two bags of microwave popcorn for dinner after reading this Buzzfeed sad Buffy Tumblr round up and crying so hard that I upset the dog.

Yesterday morning I had much more success with my java.  Coconut iced coffee – cold brew with Almond Joy creamer, skim milk, and coconut water – for the win.

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Plus a KIND apple cinnamon & pecan bar.

Lunch stayed on theme.

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An apple cinnamon raisin Fage with an acutal apple.  Plus I ate Good & Plenty and Diet Dr. Pepper at my desk while I charted at the end of the day.  I’m not sure what my deal is but I have been crazy obsessed with licorice lately.  I knew my lunch wasn’t big enough so I had also packed a seaweed snack for the afternoon but then I couldn’t bear to have anything but G&P.

Dinner came from the grill.  Our unseasonably warm weather has the upside that it encourages outdoor cooking.

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Jennie-O recently sent me some coupons, so the timing was perfect.  P.S.  The timing is good for your too, Jennie-O is running a sweepstakes through September 14th.

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Please note, I purchased the turkey with a free product coupon.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

My burger making skills?  Not so perfect.  There’s a reason that Adam is usually in charge of the grill.  I thought I had a genius idea, to make the patties out of just lean ground turkey, Worcestershire sauce, bbq sauce, and crumbled blue cheese. 

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Without bread crumbs or some other binder, the patties were wet and strange and they never did quite become burgers.  Next time I’ll use one of their recipes.

Our Moa kiwi hard cider definitely took some of the sting out of my failure.

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And overall dinner was pretty delicious.

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These were the two best looking patties, if that tells you anything.  I ended up smothering them in more bbq sauce.

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Plus corn on the cob – grilled in tin foil packets with evoo and truffle salt.

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And asparagus – marinated in evoo and Bone Suckin’ mustard before it went on the grill.

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Not bad, not bad at all.  And while I wrote this post I snacked on a small bowl of melted peanut butter (TJ’s chunky pb with chia and flax) with chocolate chips.

Can you even believe that tomorrow today is Friday?  Thank heavens for the short weeks that follow three-day weekends!

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday Weather

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It was a big week here, we had a birthday and a serendipitous, surprise visit!  I turned 29 yesterday; that sounds old, old, old.  I may not have a house or a baby, but I have a husband and a dog who I love beyond words so that feels pretty good for almost-30.

We didn’t have time for a real grocery trip after our Philadelphia weekend and we relied a ton on packaged and purchased food.  Here are some highlights…

breakfast

Coffee (I’m still doing the 1/2&1/2!) and a Blackberry Bliss Mama Chia.

DSC01401I probably wouldn’t have bought the chia on my own – it came in my UrthBox – but I ended up really liking it.

KIND Bar.

DSC01433Madagascar Vanilla Almond.

Birthday freebie coffee!  I love that Starbucks does that.  You’ll notice that I stuck with my birthday tradition of doing tacky, glittery nails.

DSC01447Venti iced skim latte with an extra shot of espresso, 2 shots of white mocha, and caramel drizzle.  I was buzzing.

And this doesn’t go here but speaking of sugar, I’m not sure I ate enough candy this week…

DSC01422DSC01407lunch

Oatmeal (with Cacao Bliss) and freeze-dried apples.

DSC01398That fruit is so flipping good.

Cereal and yogurt.

DSC01404Total on Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit.  I was equally impressed with the yogurt the 2nd time around.

Lots of packed snacks during a 4 hour afternoon meeting.  I ate a salad beforehand, and also required lots of coffee.

DSC01426Chocolate-covered gummy bears, applesauce, and Everything Pretzels from Mary’s Gone Crackers.  The pretzels were from a bag that the company sent me to try.

DSC01423Delicious!  I thought these were much better than the sea salt flavor I tried before, which wasn’t bad either.  These were just like eating a very crunchy everything bagel.  And still made with whole grains including brown rice, quinoa, amaranth and millet, and seeds including flax, sesame and chia, just like the original flavor.

My dietetics co-workers brought in lunch for my birthday!  They are pretty much the sweetest.

IMG_20140722_113456IMG_20140722_114820Salad with a great, thick balsamic glaze, homemade spinach and feta pastries, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert.  Everything was delicious; I tried to bring leftovers home for Adam and I ended up eating them all on the train!

dinner

Half salad and sandwich deal from Panera.

DSC01408I did the Thai chicken salad and the Thai chicken flatbread and was impressed with neither.

DSC01413DSC01418The sauce was too sour and the apple on the side was sadly the best part of the meal.

DSC01416Thankfully, things get much more festive from here.

On Wednesday, my parents were traveling to Ohio to visit my grandmother.  They were flying on miles so they had a long day with lots of connections, including a 3-hour layover at LaGuardia.  When the got off the plane in NY, they learned that inclement weather had grounded their final flight, and then would be stuck until the next morning.  Silver lining – they stayed at my house for the night and we got to visit and go out to birthday dinner!!!!

It ended up being the best “bad news” ever.  We teased them that they jinxed themselves by complaining about not making it out for Indian food during their June visit, so of course we had to take them for Indian food.

DSC01440It was too dark for pictures, but we shared several appetizers and a bunch of dishes and all left full and happy.  Everything was amazing and our waiter was the sweetest man.  Namaste is great.  We even found froyo nearby with birthday cake flavor.

DSC01445I topped my “cake” with marshmallow, strawberry pie filling, and a million sprinkles.

And I actually ended up having froyo last night on my real birthday was well.

DSC01450Frozen yogurt > cake!

For my birthday dinner we did takeout from Bare Burger.

DSC01455Turkey with ketchup mustard, spinach, tomato, a fried egg, and tons of pickles.

DSC01458We ate burgers and giant diet cokes while we watched Longmire and it was a great way to celebrate 🙂

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

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I’ve been pretty busy and I’m running a bit behind, but I ate some really yummy things last week so I didn’t want to skip the post.  Here are some faves from last Monday through Friday…

break the fast

A purple smoothie.

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Frozen blueberries and strawberries with maple syrup and vanilla almond milk.

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

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Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar, a Pink Lady apple, and iced coffee from Starbucks.  I poured a splash of half and half into my coffee by accident last week and it ended up tasting so yummy that now it’s turned into a bad habit!

Day 2.

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Caramel Almond & Sea Salt KIND Bar {former freebie}, a very juicy nectarine, and cafeteria coffee with skim milk and a splash of half and half.

ladies who lunch

Cafeteria meal.

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Salad with broccoli, black-eyed peas, cheddar, balsamic, and a scoop of egg salad.  Plus fries dipped in honey mustard on the side.

Sandwich.

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Leftover bbq chicken on a Bagel Thin.  With bread and butter pickles, chips, and cherries.

Yogurt.

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Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Greek Yogurt with KIND Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds {former freebie} and cherries on the side.  The yogurt was a limited edition that needs to become part of the permanent line-up.  It was freaking incredible, sweet and tangy with little pieces of citrus spread throughout.  I must find the watermelon variety.

snack attack

Chocolate-covered pretzels from Wegman’s.

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I brought Adam some back from my Buffalo trip and made the mistake of tasting “just one.”  Those things are addictive!  It’s a good thing I didn’t do a taste-test in the store or I would have brought home pounds of them.

Trader Joe’s makes the best turkey jerky I’ve ever tasted.

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I don’t know how the keep the texture sooooo soft.

Chocolate covered strawberry floats!  Chocolate frozen yogurt in strawberry Crush.

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We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

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It was insane how much this tasted like a toasted marshmallow.  It was pretty intense though, there is no way I could have finished more than half of this.

Baby spinach salad.

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With sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, shredded carrot, evoo, honey, and lavender salt.  My best salad combo to date.

dining on dinner

Salad atop salad.

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The base was baby spinach with dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

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Topped with pulled bbq chicken (and a pile of salt and vinegar chips in the back).  Just boneless, skinless breasts cooked in the crockpot, shredded, and tossed with TJ’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

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The sauce was wonderful, very sweet and a little spicy.

Pasta that was simple but good.

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Whole-wheat rotini with browned mushrooms, ground turkey (sautéed with tons of garlic and dried oregano), frozen spinach, low-fat sour cream, and a can of tomato sauce.

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This was one of those meals that seemed like it would need more flavor but then you kept eating until you were furiously scraping the bottom of the bowl.

National Thai with a girlfriend.  I got spicy noodles with veggies.  They were super chewy, had a good variety of vegetables, and were actually spicy; I’m pretty sure National has become my favorite Thai spot in the city.

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Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

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We ended up finding passable mango mojitos at a tiny Mexican spot in Park Slope.  Their menu also mentioned watermelon daiquiris, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back again this Friday.

what’s happening

I was getting into such a great groove with my workouts, but then I got excited and upped the length of my runs too quickly.  My right knee was horrifically swollen and the husband told me to stay out of the gym until the inflammation went down.  Boo!!!  I took a week completely off from exercise (minus a few long walks this weekend) and popped anti-inflammatories and iced like crazy.  I’m going to start back in with short, easy workouts this week and continue to ice regularly.  I’m going a little stir-crazy so please cross your fingers for me!

On a more positive note, I just finished reading Fault Lines by Nancy Huston and I’m recommending it to pretty much everyone.

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It’s a story about a family and each section of the book is told from the perspective of a different generation.  Huston did a great job of building the story in layers.  The parts of the story that were told through the lens of childhood were wonderfully done.

It is my 29th birthday this Thursday.  We can’t fit in any celebrating this week so Adam and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia this past weekend.  I gave that its own post because this one was getting too long, but we had a wonderful time.

Have you spotted the new Chobani varieties in your area yet?  Has anyone tasted watermelon??

Weekly Wrap-Up; Play It Again, Sam!

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This week’s meals were so good that I went ahead and had most of them a 2nd time.  Always nice when you can make leftovers work in your favor.  And I even have a recipe to share.

breakfast

Breakfasts came from this sweet package courtesy of Nonni’s – Biscotti Bites.

DSC01115Please note – I was sent these products free of charge to sample.  I was not provided with additional compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

They recently introduced two new flavors: Double Chocolate Salted Caramel (salty and sweet, with the occasional extra-exciting pocket of caramel) and Very Berry Almond (sweet in an understated way; nice for breakfast).  All three flavors have ~40 calories per cookie.

I packaged them up for breakfasts at work.  With coffee, of course.

DSC01143DSC01166DSC01191These were not quite as good as the amazing Almond Thins, but I was still a fan.  Want to try some for yourself?  Nonni’s is hosting a giveaway –

To encourage fans to experience the fresh-baked greatness for themselves, Nonni’s Biscotti is hosting a series of giveaways on their social pages.  The “Who’s on top?” giveaway will begin July 14, where fans can help Nonni’s decide which of Nonni’s three Biscotti Bites flavors is the most favored, for a chance to win free products!

Nonni'sOn Tuesday, I mixed things up with a smoothie instead.

DSC01149Frozen blueberries and banana with vanilla almond milk, maple syrup, and lavender.  YUM!

lunch

Lunches were all about the (chicken)salad.  I made another Asian-inspired take on the classic.  This time, I borrowed the flavors from our favorite Vietnamese sandwich – the Bahn Mi.

DSC01105Bahn Mi Chicken Salad, Yields: 6 servings; Hands-on Time: 15 minutes

  • 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 1 and 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 16 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped
  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/4 cup Sriracha
  1. In a large bowl, combine carrots, cucumber, sugar, vinegar, and salt.  Let sit, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
  2. Drain all of the liquid off of the vegetables.
  3. Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss until well-combined.

On Monday, I brought a bigggg bowl of chicken salad, with a piece of baguette, and fresh cherries.

DSC01125Wednesday was chicken salad on a bagel thin with butter lettuce, plus cherries, and McClure’s Bloody Mary Chips.  <– the chips were spicy, but not as flavorful as I was hoping they would be

DSC01157I don’t have access to a fridge on Tuesdays, so I did regular green salad from the cafeteria.  With black-eyed peas, pickled jalopeños, shredded mozzarella, and Italian dressing on top.

20140708_115949For Thursday, I packed leftover salad and the last of the cherries.

DSC01174But then after a very quiet morning we were slammed all afternoon and I didn’t have time for lunch.  I ended up eating coffee and a KIND bar at my desk while I worked.

DSC01193At least I have a nice lunch waiting for me today!

snack

Several slices of leftover pizza, which grew on me once it was cold.

DSC01171The leftover ice cream sandwiches were not bad either.

DSC01150Jelly Belly.

DSC01168This yogurt bowl was the best thing of the week.  Fage 2% Greek yogurt with a layer melted Cacao Bliss underneath!

DSC01187Coconut water to rehydrate after a trip to the gym.  This TJ’s kind was delicious.

DSC01146Speaking of the gym, I’ve been keeping up with it!  I realized that yesterday had been 20 days since I started getting activity back into my life; another ten days or so and hopefully a month of being consistent will help the habit stick!

dinner

I was tooting my own horn pretty loudly every evening this week; these dinners were all fantastic.  That said, I apparently don’t have pictures from Monday night and I cannot for the life of me remember what we ate!  Probably more chicken salad.

These bowls seem like a mishmosh of ingredients, but everything went together well.  Kath’s low and slow sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, and canned baked beans, topped with shredded cheese, pickled jalopeños, and plain Greek yogurt.

DSC01163Apparently Adam does not want baked beans with his sweet potato again any time soon, but I thought they was good.

Salad night.

DSC01183Butter lettuce and shredded cabbage topped with Hemp Hearts and Mahi Mahi – I baked the fish with lemon juice, coconut oil, and smoked paprika.  For our dressing, I mashed together tons of ripe avocado with lime juice, hot sauce, salt, fresh cilantro, and evoo.  Everything tossed together was ah-mazing.

We morphed our salad leftovers into tacos the next night.

DSC01196Soft tortilla with shredded carrots and cabbage, mahi mahi, avocado sauce, green Tabasco, and cheese.

DSC01200Plus pineapple hard cider from ACE.

DSC01202ACE’s website informs me that they sell a honey apple cider.  I’m going to need to find that immediately.

Does your family rely on leftovers or do you crave something new each night?

Long Week Wrap-Up; Something Blue

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My first post since last Thursday, since the week/end flew by.  Really the whole month of June feels like it’s flying by!

In spite of being busy, I did manage to photograph every single thing I ate Monday – Thursday, minus one cup of iced coffee.  <– go me!  That’s in sharp contrast to Saturday and Sunday, when I took exactly two photos:

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Baked brie that I shared with a girlfriend at C’est Cheese.  It was delicious, obviously.  We were in Northern Long Island on a Saturday because our friends Kim and Dan were getting married!

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Kim is seriously the classiest person I know so their wedding was, of course, amazing.  I felt too weird to take a picture of my plate at the table of college friends we didn’t know, but the food was delicious.

I spent Sunday lazing around the house, eating potato chips.  But come Monday, I got myself together.  Here’s the recap…

breakfasts

The food stand at my LIRR station sells iced coffee now!  This would be more exciting/a bigger bummer for my wallet except that they only have coffee creamer, no skim milk, so I doubt I’ll get it that often.

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I had a 2nd coffee (with chocolate milk) when I got to work.  <– the only food item that escaped my camera this week

Breakfast at my desk.

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Coffee, a peanut butter & strawberry KIND bar, and a red pear that I gave up on after two bites because it was just too drippy with juice to manage at my desk.

Smoothie time.  Frozen raspberries, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a big scoop of Cacao Bliss.

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The coconut butter froze into delicious little balls embedded throughout the smoothie.  Kind of like the old Orbitz drinks!

Chocolate malted coffee.

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I stirred a scoop of malt powder into chocolate milk before mixing it into my cold brewed coffee.  This was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

lunches

A winning yogurt bowl.

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Plain Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of Meyer lemon curd and 1/2 a pint of fresh blueberries.

Cafeteria salad.

pickle salad

Greens topped with balsamic dressing, pickled veggies, tons of pickles, and big scoop of chicken salad.

Vita Coco coconut water latte plus homemade “instant” oats.

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Just rolled oats, freeze-dried strawberries, cinnamon maple sugar, and a Tbsp of malted milk powder that I covered with hot water from the cafeteria.

Thursday was insanely busy and my lunch plans went out the window.  When I finished my final gestational diabetes education I did eat cereal at my desk at 3pm.

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That Special K was pretty good.  And now I have my packed lunch ready and waiting for me tomorrow.

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That yogurt bowl is going to be goo-ood.

snacks

Last week I bitched about my insane afternoon hunger so this week I leaned into the problem and packed smaller lunches to accommodate many (many, many) snacks when I got home.  Though these jelly beans were actually eaten at work.

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The 2nd half of a package of TJ’s Inner Peas.

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Cinnamon pita chips with TJ’s honey goat’s milk gouda.  <– ridiculous

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Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

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Lemon pie milkshake, aka my best idea ever (rivaled only by the malted coffee!).

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We blended vanilla bean ice cream, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, Meyer lemon curd, and Cascadian Farm Graham Crunch cereal and it was flipping fantastic.

dinners

This frozen entrée of white fish with zucchini and pesto was quite lovely.

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The fish didn’t do much for me, but the squash/sauce bites were delish.

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Plus, how great is this ingredient list?

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The 2nd half of that dinner had a decidedly less short ingredient list.

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But my Lean Cuisine stuffed pretzels were tasty nonetheless.

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More homemade Pad Thai.

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This time with shiitake mushroom, broccoli and tofu.

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The tofu was Nasoya Sprouted Tofu Plus that I topped with a mixture of Sriracha, smoked brown sugar, and rice vinegar before baking.

Gardein Mandarin Crispy Chick’n that we bulked up with roasted broccoli.

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Plus frozen kale cooked with peanut sauce and crushed peanuts.

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All together this was nice.

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Adding vegetables to frozen meals is a good compromise between my desire to eat a healthy dinner and my desire to come home and sit on the couch without pants.

I hate to end this post on a blah note, but Adam worked Thursday night and my single lady dinner was pretty lame.  The last serving of broccoli and chick’n,

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with popcorn,

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and this embarrassing little bowl of melted coconut oil with Dutch cocoa powder and sugar.

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Mom, Adam has leftover Pad Thai so I did not leave him stranded for “dinner” when he gets home in the morning!

Were you a fan of the Orbitz soda?  I would totally buy it now if it was still available.