Weekly Wrap-Up; Merry Christmas

by Emily

I hope all of my Christmas-celebrating readers had a merry week! We celebrated one day early, but had a lovely Christmas all the same. Our best one ever, maybe! Lots of nibbles are missing from this post (candy! Chinese food!), but here are the basics from the week –

Fashion Friday

Short week celebration flair.

Christmas Eve.

‘Twas the day after Christmas and all through the office…

Breakfast and Lunch

An on-theme Luna Bar.

2% Fage with Honey, an apple, and a leftover ABP chocolate peppermint shortbread. I also bought a piece of pizza from the cafeteria but I didn’t have my camera with me.

Leftover pizza that was in my mouth before it could make it to the plate. x3

The last of the 0% plain Chobani with sliced banana, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup.

An apple, Chinese candy, and a tasty turkey sandwich of Applegate Farms smoked turkey, light Jarlsberg, and dijon on a bagel thin.

Snacks Galore

The husband and I shared a Peppermint Dazzler.

Also adorably tiny chocolate Santas.

This halvah came in my stocking (thanks, mom!).

Dinner

Adam worked all day on Christmas but we both had half days on the 24th so we celebrated a day early! Honestly the best gift of all was getting to spend a weekday afternoon with my husband.

But our new tradition of (homemade) pizza for Christmas Eve dinner was pretty great too!

We tried our hand at 2 ingredient pizza dough.

Topped with marinara, tons of sautéed mushrooms and green onions, and freshly grated gouda.

I’m always a fan of sautéed mushrooms (and gouda!) but the dough was out of this world. I quickly declared this the 2nd best pizza I’ve ever had and the best meal of the month.

With our pizza we drank big glasses of eggnog,

and split a Shiner Cheer.

The beer was so peachy good.

Opening presents was a ton of fun. Our families were too good to us.

We’re terrible at waiting so we exchanged anniversary presents (ours is this Saturday) that night as well. The modern 6th wedding anniversary present is candy – the traditional is iron – so that’s what we gave each other. Adam’s snack shelf has ruthlessly encroached onto coffee territory.

For Webster we spent $20 replacing an old favorite, Pig.

New Pig was rated 8/10 on the durability scale. He lasted less than 3 minutes.

The dog is a monster.

I was home on Christmas, so I spent hours in the kitchen making homemade tomato sauce. Served on pesto tortelloni from TJ’s.

I don’t know quite what went wrong, other than too much onion and crushed red pepper, but I basically made homemade salsa.

This was not a success.

Dinner for last night was supposed to be more “pasta sauce,” but I just could not bring myself to eat it again. Instead we got Thai take-out; Pad See Ew and Cashew Shrimp.

Much better.

What is your Christmas dinner tradition?

13Dec2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Burritos And A Birthday

by Emily

I’m (almost) through my 2nd week! How long do you think I’ll have to be back at work before I stop counting? My guess is at least a month.

About the title… The birthday was Adam’s. My husband turned 28 on Wednesday so for the next 6 months I’ll stop being the older woman.

That picture is from BDL; i.e the years Before Doctor Life. He is on a very busy rotation now so unfortunately we didn’t have time for anything too festive. He got a disgusting amount of Taco Bell and we watched “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.”

The burritos were from Red’s All Natural.

They recently sent me some free-product coupons so that I could try out the goods. All Red’s products are 100% all-natural, preservative-free and made with antibiotic-free and hormone-free meat and rBGH-free cheese. I love the company’s philosophy and practices and I liked the burritos too (though admittedly not quite as much as their ideals).

So far I’ve tried two varieties. I microwaved one burrito and baked the other. The nuked one was a little mushy, but not at all chewy like some lower-quality tortillas tend to get in the microwave. The one I baked got perfectly crispy and nice. Both had good ingredient combinations but sadly I found the flavors to be a bit one-note. It is also worth pointing out that the burritos are giant, more than 500 calories each which is a lot for one meal component. However, they are also very, very filling – I shared both of mine with Adam because I could not finish. If you have someone to split with they are a great option but if you are purchasing them to eat alone just be mindful. <– they also have 5 oz burritos available in some varieties!

Overall, I am giving the two I tried a positive review (just not glowing). I am looking forward to trying some of the other varieties and I will definitely be sharing them on the blog when I do.

Fashion Friday

A new polka dot dress, from the Gap.

I tilted my head funny in the picture, but I actually got several compliments on my bun piled high on my head.

I usually don’t button my cardigans, but I liked it here.

Another new dress. It’s cuter in person than in the picture. The husband loved it and bought it for me with some of his birthday money ❤

The Gap sales rack has been very kind to me this season. Even with my newbies, however, I’ve pretty much gone through my entire closet in the two weeks, so we’ll see how long “Fashion Friday” continues to last.

Breakfast

Cookie Dough Balance Bar.

I think they changed the recipe again. It’s not quite as glorious as my old memories, but a big improvement over the really gross ones I was finding a year or so ago.

Giant coffee.

I was cashing in on a freebie so I went all out. Venti, non-fat, iced latte with 2 shots each gingerbread, white chocolate, and (extra) espresso.

Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna Bar.

I never eat this flavor because it feels so seasonal, but it is one of the best. The mint is nice and cool.

Lunch

Monday. Looks like breakfast but was actually lunch. Quaker Cherry Pistachio Oatmeal.

And ~~the big apple~~ a big apple.

I’ve got to buy more oat go-cups; this was super portable and easy to just fill up with hot water in the cafeteria.

Tuesday.

Pizza with mushrooms and black olives.

And grapes.

These grapes are HUGE. They’re a seedless “holiday” variety.

Wednesday.

More leftovers.

Tangerines.

I promise, that cabbage was so much better than it looks.

Thursday.

More grapes.

And an everything bagel thin with leftover smoked tofu and light havarti.

I left this “raw” and the thins are definitely much, much better when toasted.

Snacks

Just like last week, picture lots of lunch assembly bites. This first one was an after dinner treat though. Looks like a root beer float…

But actually it’s Vanilla Porter with French vanilla ice cream.

I was pretty proud of this idea but it probably would have been a little better in milkshake form with a mix of beer and milk.

An Andes tree.

This was weirdly exciting. I’ve really been craving mint lately.

These gorgonzola cracker crisps have been a favorite for munching.

I love how big the serving size is here.

Dinner

Best dinner of the week, hands down.

Soy Boy organic Smoked Tofu that I sautéed in evoo.

With shredded (frozen) cabbage that we cooked in canola oil with salty peanuts and fresh edamame. We dumped in a bunch of miso orange dressing at the end and let it reduce, and the whole thing was heavenly.

I never seem to repeat meals any more but I do really want to make this again.

Salad and a burrito.

Romaine with groats and maple tarragon dressing.

Red’s Turkey Burrito.

This was the one I microwaved.

Cereal night on Adam’s birthday.

Two servings of Love Crunch Gingerbread Granola with vanilla almond milk and sliced banana.

Plus a big glass of eggnog during “The Grinch.”

This meal was missing vegetables, but that just didn’t feel festive! Thankfully this was the day I had my veggie-heavy lunch.

Chicken Burrito.

Apparently that was the only picture I have from last night?! I meant to eat it with salad but ended up having cheese and crackers instead.

Do you have any exciting plans for this upcoming weekend?

6Dec2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; I Survived!

by Emily

I survived my first week of full-time work! Well, almost; I’ve still got to get through today. And I am very excited to hit the couch as soon as I get home. TV, how I’ve missed you! {Random Note – “Mom” on CBS? So flipping good. I laugh out loud over and over again. Also “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” randomly got really good too. It seemed like a train wreck at first but they’ve pulled it together; it’s another llol situation.}

I do plan on sharing a bit more about work as time goes on. And I’ll definitely post a picture of my office (I have an office!) once I get it all set-up. I have some work outfits at the start of this post though, and I’ll try to keep that going.

Last week’s eats were fairly boring, but I’m proud of how (relatively) healthy I managed to keep things. And I even captured 95% of what went in my mouth on film. What you don’t see is the snacking I did before dinner every night while I packed my lunch. Also there was coffee. So, so much coffee.

fashion friday

New navy, polka dot top from the Loft.

I didn’t realize how similar day 2’s look was to day 1.

My mom got me this mint cardigan on her trip to Amsterdam.

I wish my pictures were clearer so you could see details like this fun neckline.

And Friday’s look will get looped to next week.

breakfast

As of now I’m eating on my train ride so things have to be portable. Sticky Bun Larabar Uber.

Still not my favorite flavor, but I liked it better than the first time I tried it.

Pecan Pie Clif Bar.

Such a fun seasonal flavor. I really hated the gingerbread and spiced pumpkin ones, but this was delicious.

Super smoothie.

Frozen strawberries with plain Greek yogurt and chocolate peppermint soy milk. Adam and I love this blend.

lunch

Lots of repetition here but I changed up little details to keep things interesting. Turkey sandwich round 1.

A Sandwich Thin with Applegate Smoked Turkey, Crofter’s Grape, and a TJ’s goat cheese medallion.

With a cameo apple.

And a baggie of Angie’s Iced Gingerbread Kettle Corn.

The husband and I both love this popcorn; not too sweet or spicy. It’s not on their website but I found my bag at Target.

Butternut squash round 1.

Roasted butternut squash with chopped spinach and craisins with WF’s Korean BBQ Sauce on top.

On the side,

another cameo apple and a baggie of Salty Pepper Somersaults.

Turkey sandwich round 2. This time with a slice of light havarti, banana peppers, and a bit of Miracle Whip.

Plus a pair of tangerines.

And Twix Gingerbread.

This meal was the week’s winning lunch.

Butternut squash round 2.

With TJ’s Champagne Pear Vinaigrette in place of bbq sauce.

And a side of tasty mango.

The flavors here were good but this meal was a little too mushy overall.

dinner

These are all single girl dinners; I was on my own every night this week. Adam had a week straight of night shifts and with my new schedule we literally saw each other for less than 30 minutes a day. I miss him!

Soup night.

My box of pumpkin soup from TJ’s was terrible.

It was weirdly sweet and I ended up throwing out the majority of my bowl. My side made up for it though.

The last of the tortilla chips with fancy cheese microwaved on top.

Sandwich night.

My sandwich was a little burnt, but oh-so-good. I mashed together a can of Smoked Trout with Miracle Whip and smoked paprika and then put it between two pieces of gingerbread swirl bread with a slice of light havarti and cooked the whole thing in a pan with a little butter.

With a giant pile of kale chips on the side.

The smokey-sweet combo on my sandwich was amazing.

Egg night.

Two eggs scrambled with evoo, frozen roasted corn, chopped jalopeño, sugar, and Sriracha.

Another kale pile.

With popcorn.

For the whole grains, of course.

Fun night. Yesterday I met up with a friend who works in Park Slope for dinner. I had some time to kill before she got off so I walked a ton (my feet are still killing me!) and got the best cup of frozen yogurt.

Eggnog and praline yogurts with pralines, toffee, and malt balls. Fan-freaking-tastic!

Then we went to Song for Thai food.

My “Spicy Noodles” weren’t spicy at all, but they were nice and chewy and I came home with leftovers for lunch. It was great to see a friend on a “school night.”

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my coffee giveaway. You’ve got until 2 pm Saturday to comment.

15Nov2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; How Is It Mid-November?!

by Emily

I keep thinking “I can’t believe it’s October!” but actually we are in the middle of November. This year is flying!

This week makes another wrap-up that is pretty light on content/photos. We are in the middle of yet another big life change and I’ve been all over the place. All over the place, figuratively speaking. Literally I’ve been in the apartment. On the couch. Eating. Have I mentioned that none of my pants fit?

Here’s some of what I’ve been eating (and eating, and eating)…

I discovered that my leftover salted caramel cream cheese macaron filling makes a pretty awesome fruit dip.

I even gave it its own recipe page.

With green apple.

And since there was clearly more dip than apple, I also dunked in some TJ everything crackers.

So good. There was a lot of this snack this week. Another day I topped the caramel with a dollop of my cinnamon maple pecan butter.

Spoonful by spoonful, the pecan butter container is getting pretty empty!

I loved this chocolate raspberry breakfast.

TJ European Style Low-fat Chocolate Yogurt topped with fresh raspberries, a scoop of Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola and a spoonful of cinnamon maple pecan butter.

And cold (we were out of ice) coffee with skim milk on the side.

I planned on using SCM in my coffee but it exploded everywhere when I heated it in the microwave. Just as well because the chocolate yogurt was pretty sweet. I was impressed with the yogurt, I’ll have to check out some other varieties of their European style.

I’m going through some of my old recipes to reshoot the photos, and this week I made my pesto pasta casserole.

That picture’s not too great though, is it? And I used a bottle of pesto from Trader Joe’s that we both hated and it basically ruined the dish. Boo. But on the positive side, I think this was the very first TJ product that we didn’t love.

Another old (old blog!) favorite, turkey cheese crisps.

Classed up with crumbled blue cheese and a drizzle of honey when they came out of the oven.

The honey was sent to me from Golden Blossom Honey. {This product was sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.}

The GBH is a 100% American-made product with a signature patented blend composed of extra-white clover, sage buckwheat, and orange blossom.

My blue cheese and honey crisps were definitely a better dish than the original. The honey earned two thumbs up from me; the flavor was unique, but not savory the way I find some orange blossom honeys to be.

Our fridge is very bare, and I finally ate the frozen meal I bought the day we moved in, a Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake. Plantains, roasted sweet potato, black beans and kale with a spicy ancho sauce served over 7 Whole Grains & Sesame Pilaf, amaranth and polenta topped with a pumpkin seed garnish.

This is on my top-5 list for frozen entrees, both flavor and texture are great. Not quite large enough for dinner for me though. I planned on eating it with this truebar,

but it was disgusting so instead I ate a slice of seedy bread with Smart Balance Light and smoked gouda.

Much better! Though I was still feeling snacky after dinner and ended up eating a bag of Smart Fries as well.

I love those. I need to get to a 7-11 asap so I can buy more.

One night we got take-out from Jessie’s.

My fries with blue cheese for dipping were the best part, but my sandwich was pretty good too.

They have a fun group of Turkey Day inspired specials right now! My sandwich was turkey with stuffing and cranberry dressing on top. I want to go get the salad special soon, it has cornbread stuffing croutons.

The best sandwich of the week was one I made myself.

A slice of TJ seedy bread (one cut in half since this bread is much larger than the kinds I usually eat) with Applegate Farms smoked turkey, cream cheese, blue cheese, grape Crofter’s, and banana peppers.

So many good flavors. Having banana peppers in the house for sandwiches has been fun.

Number 1 food of the week?

Lavender and Salted Caramel Macarons. Obviously.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

1Nov2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; All Hallow’s Eve

by Emily

Did you do anything exciting this Halloween? We definitely did not! I didn’t carve a pumpkin (Adam did a very nice one though), I didn’t pass out candy, I didn’t wear a costume… I didn’t even manage to wear orange and black. In theory Halloween is one of my favorite holidays {I live for all things themed} but I always get lazy with execution. At least I had my month of pumpkin brews. And we certainly ate enough candy!

breakfast things

Breakfast at the ‘Bucks. <– please don’t call it that

Coffee for rent; a blonde roast with 3 sugars and lots of skim milk. I have a very hard time drinking hot coffee unsweetened, it tastes much more bitter/sour than iced to me.

Honeycrisp.

Coconut Macaroon, a NEW flavor of LÄRABAR über that I found. The uber line makes my favorite Larabars and I thought that this flavor was spot on.

Plus I had another “coffee” after I left.

I didn’t think this Harney and Sons Organic Coffee Tea actually tasted much like coffee, but the tea flavor was very nice. I like my (bottled) teas just a bit sweet, with honey or cane sugar instead of an artificial sweetener.

Another morning I tasted the other new flavor.

The Sticky Bun flavor was fine, nice even, but the taste was total pecans, not a hint of cinnamon to it. I bought both flavors in duplicate when I spotted them though so expect to see this again.

On a similar note – I also didn’t think that this Brown Cow Cream Top Coffee Yogurt tasted enough like coffee.

But it was still nice topped with honey and roasted peanuts. I just haven’t found a coffee flavored yogurt that can match the Dannon from my childhood.

lunch and dinner things

A home version of a Moe’s bowl.

I ate chips and salsa while I cooked to stay on theme.

The chips were Garden of Eatin’ with Chia Seed.

They aren’t listed on the website(?) but they are worth checking out if you spot them at your store.

Our homemade bowls were just as delicious as the original. We used a base of TJ’s organic jasmine rice (<– microwavable!).

Topped with taco turkey: 98% lean ground turkey cooked with diced green pepper, chicken broth, and Ortega Taco Seasoning.

Spinach: I stacked the leaves and then sliced. We loved it served this way!

Caramelized onions: I always cook them this way now.

Cheese: TJ’s 2% Mexican 4 Cheese Blend.

And cream: a dollop of low-fat sour cream.

All stirred together it was quite good, but this meal could have used some hot sauce.

More chia chips, this time as nachos for lunch.

Chips with the cheddar/gouda blend melted on top in the oven.

Plus a Sweet Tango on the side for juice.

I made Adam loaded nachos with our taco turkey leftovers and he was crazy for them.

Whole Foods hot bar.

Kale salad, Cesar salad, roasted butternut squash, and macaroni and cheese.

The squash and Cesar bites were my favorite.

pumpkin(g) things

I bought this “Halloween shapes” macaroni to serve on Thursday because we are pretty much five years old.

I think I ended up making a pretty grown-up meal out of it.

Salad on the bottom. Baby spinach with gorgonzola dressed with a sprinkle of pink salt and 1 tsp each honey and evoo.

Topped with pasta. Mac and cheese with edamame, browned mushrooms, and a can of Bella smoked sardines in lemon olive oil.

I am still shocked that my palate has matured enough for sardines.

Dunkin Donuts pumpkin white chocolate iced coffee with skim milk.

Just pretend that sleeve is orange!

Harpoon Pumpkin UFO.

This was my favorite pumpkin beer of the season but I still shared a lot of it with the husband.

ACE Pumpkin Hard Cider.

This was definitely just apple cider with pumpkin spice (we were expecting a much squashier flavor) but it was very good. My favorite pumpkin alcohol by far this year. <– I actually finished my whole serving instead of passing it to the husband.

P.S. Stay tuned for a quick post tomorrow morning, featuring… Webster in his Halloween costume!

21Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

by Emily

It’s 2 in the afternoon, so allow me to say “good morning!” Does that sound strange to anyone? Adam worked nights Friday through Sunday so we’ve been keeping a vampire’s schedule. There’s been a lot of this –

I don’t like it when he’s gone, my sleep pattern is all out of whack and I definitely live like a teenager when he’s not around. Case in point – Saturday night I watched terrible movies (“One for the Money” and “Abduction”) and ate candy (Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered gummi bears) for dinner.

I ate a lot (a lot) of junk this weekend, but I did manage to throw some pretty gourmet meals in there as well. If last week was all about the jalapeño, this was the weekend of bacon!

breakfasts

On the go.

We had to eat on the way while running errands so I made us something portable. A terrible, god-awful smoothie.

Pumpkin, frozen kale, frozen banana, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and a bit of maple. This had such potential but the kale didn’t fully blend and chewing threw it was horrifying. I forced down 90% for the nutrients, but did not enjoy it.

My TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar was much better.

I thought the filling was great; sweet and spicy. And how cute is the labeling?!

We bought these when we were a little loopy from sleeplessness and Adam thought the pun was seriously the funniest thing ever. We spent the rest of the evening making variations on this joke – “A strawberry asks a pumpkin on a date… what happens next?”

Another kale fail.

I just could not win on the kale front this week. Again, these eggs had potential, but there just seemed to be sooooo much kale and we both hated them.

Offending eggs.

Delicious turkey bacon.

Side of grapes.

At least the other components were good. And I shared many bites of egg with the dog, who was such a good boy about eating his greens!

lunches

On Saturday two of our good friends from Buffalo (who are now living in Rochester for medical residency) came up to visit. We met up for a lovely lunch at Bareburger.

I got the Western Burger, with a turkey burger, sans bun. Smoked mozzarella / ~~country~~ turkey bacon / house-made Carolina slaw / smokehouse sauce / topped with a crispy, spicy pickle spear.

So fricking good! That hunk on the side was my pickle, which blew my mind.

A sandwich at home.

A whole-wheat bagel thin with turkey bacon, brie, and pumpkin butter.

This combo was ridiculous.

Plus the last of the grapes.

I have not been eating enough fruit this fall and it was nice to have something other than apples in the house.

dinners

More greens, more grapes.

A big pile of chicken salad.

Kale chips.

This was the only iteration of kale that I actually enjoyed this weekend.

The carb portion of dinner was consumed in the car on the way home from the store.

Adam and I split a TJ’s soft pretzel stick and loved it. Great chew!

I even whipped myself up a drink while I made dinner.

October is National Caramel Month and Sobieski sent me some samples of their Karamel Vodka to celebrate.

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here was my attempt at a Caramel Apple Cocktail –

2 oz Sobieski Karamel Vodka
2 oz Sour Apple Pucker
splash Polar Granny Smith Apple Seltzer

The vodka was good, but next time I’d go with a 2:1 ratio of vodka to Pucker, the sour apple flavor was a little strong!

Soup’s up.

Last night we ate big bowls of my Loaded Potato Soup.

Truffles for dessert.

I’ve raved about Alter Eco’s Silk chocolate line in the past and they sweetly sent me some of their newest product – Dark Velvet Truffles.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The truffles, which are also available in Black, are organic, fair trade, and non-GMO. They are made with coconut oil, a more sustainable option than palm kernel oil (I didn’t taste any coconut flavor).

I thought that the truffles were great; nice and creamy! The husband hates dark chocolate as a rule, but loved the Silk bars so I will have him try one of the truffles and report back.

Have a great week!

27Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; A Trip To Ohio

by Emily

Last week was quite a good one for me. I passed my Registration Exam and then flew to Ohio to visit my grandma. Good times all around! It was also a busy week, so please excuse the many gaps in my reporting (for example, my grandma served me dessert at least twice a day, every day of my visit and I think I managed to snap a photo of just one sweet bite).

Dietetics students – feel free to leave a comment/shoot me an e-mail if you’d like some more details on the studying process for the exam. Otherwise, here we go…

Breakfasts

{1} A tropical smoothie.

I blended up frozen mano chunks, oj, and Müller low-fat Greek yogurt with honeyed apricot.

{2} Berry topped cereal.

Kashi Honey Puffs and Nature’s Path Bran flakes with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, blueberries, nectarine, and a sprinkle of sugar.

{3} Yogurt bowl day one.

Chobani 2% Apricot Greek Yogurt topped with sliced banana and red plum. Not only did a find a few good, new flavors of yogurt while in Ohio, but these plums were the best (read: juicy without being drippy and nice and sweet) I’ve ever had. The apricot flavored Chobani was nice as well.

{4} Yogurt bowl day two.

Liberté Peach and Passionfruit Non-fat Greek Yogurt topped with more fantastic red plum. Liberté makes Greek yogurt now?! My heart practically leapt out of my chest.

Lunches

Lots of meals out in this category, much fun was had.

{1} California Pizza Kitchen, Queens.

Adam, ever the traditionalist, shared a slice of his Roasted Garlic and Chicken Pizza with me. The pizza was yummy, but I went with a salad.

CPK’s Thai Crunch Salad is a thing of wonders, the edamame, peanuts, and wonton strips give it great crunch. And that giant plate was a half portion! Adam and I both ate some at lunch and then there was enough leftover for him to eat the next day as well. This meal was actually eaten the day before my exam. The husband quizzed me a bit over our meal but largely I took things easy that day; either you know it or you don’t!

{2} Bareburger, then 16 Handles, Long Island.

After I passed my exam, a very sleepy husband took me out to celebrate. He worked all night, then came home and drove me to my test, so it was perfect to go somewhere that loved bears for lunch (my nickname for him is Bear).

Bareburger is a NY chain that focuses on organic, humanely sourced foods. Their meat options include wild boar, elk, and ostrich! I went “boring” with a turkey burger.

The Maui Wowie (sans bun) was far from boring; it was topped with smoked mozzarella, turkey bacon, grilled pineapple, fried onions, fire-roasted red pepper, and buttermilk ranch.

It was freaking delicious and we want to go back again {and again, and again!}.

You can’t celebrate without froyo.

We went to 16 Handles afterward and rocked my face off. The topping options were out of this world.

I got pecan praline yogurt (!!!) topped with Coney Island Crunch trail mix and bananas foster banana chips! Re-dic-u-lous.

{3} Bakehouse, then Jenni’s Splendid Ice Cream, Troy.

Bakehouse is a fantastic bakery and cafe in Ohio. My grandma took me there the minute I stepped off the plan and we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch.

I had a cup of gazpacho,

and we split a Vegetarian Sandwich.

Cheesy-good was definitely the theme of this visit.

We digested by walking around and looking at Troy’s newest sculpture installations.

They were sooooo realistic, my grandma definitely tricked me a few times into thinking we were heading towards real people.

Then we went for Winan’s for dessert because…

they sell little containers of Jeni’s ice cream!

The black coffee flavor was perfection. I’ve been reading rave reviews of Jeni’s in magazines and blogs for years and now I totally get the hype.

{4} First Watch, Dayton.

I had never heard of First Watch – a breakfast/lunch only spot – before but they served up quite a fine half salad/half sandwich combo for lunch.

The Santa Fe Salad was nice and spicy (and also flipping loaded with chicken, no one person would possibly want that much on one salad),

and any place that serves turkey reubans along the traditionals wins my heart.

{5} My grandma’s kitchen, finally a home-cooked lunch.

A bit of avocado, a cob of my spicy, cheesy baked corn,

and chicken salad.

Nana’s chicken salad – made with mayo, sliced grapes, and toasted pecans – is one of my all-time favorite dishes.

Drinks and Snacks

{1} Mango Hi-Chew.

I am just too glad to be back in the city where there are Hi-Chews at every corner store. Mango was nice and juicy, but I won’t be satisfied until I find the yogurt flavor I used to love.

{2} Trader Joe’s Roasted Seaweed Snack.

My seaweed consumption has gone way down now that I’m not packing lunches for school so this was a nice treat.

{3} Maple-Glazed Pecan and Sea Salt KIND Bar.

My bar consumption is also on the decline, but this flavor was by far the best KIND bar I’ve ever had.

{4} Bourganel’s Nougat Beer.

A friend took me to Bierkfraft – an awesome bar/beer merchant in Park Slope – to celebrate my new credentials and we discovered our new favorite thing.

I grabbed this Bourganel Beer Nougat on a whim (always try to drink booze that tastes like dessert, that’s my motto) and it was out of control. Normally I leave a lot behind when I drink a beer, but this bottle was drained before it could even get warm. My friend adored it as well; we ended up buying a second bottle to split after our first round!

{5} Kahlua Ready-to-Drink White Russian.

I have looked for these bottles all summer after spotting one in a magazine and I finally hit pay dirt in Ohio!

Dinners

{1} Sushi.

The night before my exam, I got take-out from A-Chiban. Mango-inari, fish tempura, and a veggie roll.

The mango was slimy and terrible, but everything else was good.

{2} Spicy.

Spicy, cajun shrimp over angel hair,

with tossed salad and citrus green beans.

{3} Casserole.

Cucumber and tomato salad, cornmeal-breaded baked summer squash,

and creamy chicken casserole.

Among the ingredient list for the casserole were swiss cheese, white wine, and stuffing. My grandma is an amazing cook.

{4} Plane food.

My kiku apple was crunchy and sweet, and the leftover chicken salad served on cranberry poppy-seed bread made for an amazing sandwich.

My sandwich was on the small side, but not to worry, I bought chips (um, and pizza) at the airport!

Do you have a favorite dish that a certain family member will always prepare for you?

10Jun2013

Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve stopped doing daily posts for the time being, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped eating – and occasionally photographing – delicious things. Once we’ve moved and things have settled down I’ll try to post more regularly, but for now I want to at least do a weekly wrap-up of some of the more scrumptious things I’ve eaten. I’m going to borrow the style of Kath’s Lately posts for these.

A lot is missing, I don’t have any lunches and several slices of pizza went uncaptured, but here are some of the highlights from last week…

Breakfasts

I bought an amazing container of fresh blackberries early in the week and enjoyed them greatly. They started getting soft so I put the last few servings in the freezer and I’m very much looking forward to reheating them. First up, Dannon Oikos Café Latte Greek Yogurt with blackberries and a blend of peanut and coconut butter.

Cinnamon Pecan Special K with Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and more blackberries.

This cereal is so tasty; it’s got a granola-like texture but with far less calories.

A Dr. McDougall’s Peach and Hemp Oatmeal, eaten at work with a packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

This oatmeal couldn’t hold a candle to my beloved Quaker cups. It was quite gummy and strange, though I did eat all of the bites with hazelnut butter on them 😉

Snacks

I finally got a chance to try some of my shipment of the Larabar ALT line. Lemon Pound Cake and Peanut Butter Cookie.

The verdict was – I’m a fan; though I’ll admit to being less excited to try the other two flavors. The texture was gritty sand, but in a great way, and the flavors were spot on. I shared the lemon bar with a coworker and she said to tell y’all she liked it a lot.

On Monday, Adam, a friend, and I drove over to Williamsville to check out one of our new froyo spots – Red Mango.

I did plain tart with tons of popping boba. They had kiwi boba, a new experience for me. Confession time though: I couldn’t finish that whole cup! Who am I??

Dinners

Also on Monday, we spent the evening with another group of friends, saying goodbye to a doctor who was heading off to California. As Adam and his friends all head off to their residencies we are having to say a lot of goodbyes. We ate dinner at Mezza.

A Shish Tawouk wrap – cubed marinated chicken breast, garlic spread, sweet coleslaw, and French fries, all wrapped together and grilled – with a Feta Fattouch salad. My food was delicious, as was the diet coke with strawberry vodka I sipped from the bar.

We drank at Blue Monk before heading to dinner and I tried my first taste of mussels.

I’ve always been wimpy about shelled seafood, but they were fantastic! It helped that they were cooked with Ommegang Witte, lemon, leeks, garlic, parsley and cream.

We also ate dinner out last night. I’ve wanted to try 99 Fast Food for years and Sunday after work it was finally my time. Unfortunately all of the pho was made with beef broth so I couldn’t partake, but I did have a nice meal of tofu broccoli ginger stir-fry.

We tried a Vietnamese Pudding for dessert.

It was more of a drink than a pudding, red bean with sweetened coconut milk.

On Friday night I hurried home from work so we could get a little gussied.

My bosses generously gave me their tickets to the Mash Bash, an army-themed fundraiser.

I was literally the only person in the room not in green, so embarrassing!

There wasn’t a ton of food there that I could eat, but each ticket came with two drinks and Adam ate my share of pulled pork sandwich.

Most of my home-cooked meals flopped this week, but I did have one success with a little help from Coleman’s Mustard.

The company sent me a tin of powder to try {free sample, please note!}, along with a recipe for dressing –

Colman’s Chili Vinaigrette

4 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Colman’s Original Powdered Mustard
4 “splashes” mild green Tabasco sauce
½ cup lemon juice
2 tsp. honey

I whipped up a batch for salads; a spring lettuce based topped with English Cotswold cheese, buckwheat groats, and roasted asparagus.

It was a good week!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: bar

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Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

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