Last April Weekend

by Emily

Weekend Top Five:

{1} Smorgasburg is becoming a weekly event for us.

I got vegetable ramen with truffle oil.

And we got sugar on snow from Snowdays.

They serve it with a doughnut and a pickle! I’ve wanted maple snow candy try ever since I read about the Chippewa doing it in Caddie Woodlawn.

{2} Brunch at Bareburger.

I got a bellini.

And a Guapo Chop salad – romaine, queso fresco, pickled jalopeños, spicy pico de gallo, guacamole, tortilla chips, and avocado basil dressing. Plus there were gorgeous watermelon beet slices on top.

Plus cold-brew, obviously.

It wasn’t as amazing as the first time but you can’t beat that cup.

{3} Williamsburg love.

Sweet Leaf for coffees.

And our first trip to Oddfellows for ice cream.

Pecan pie and toasted marshmallow for me. It was amazing, second only to Ample Hills.

{4} Cookies!

Chocolate chip mug cookie.

Taro mochi.

I put it in the fridge and it was extra chewy and wonderful.

{5} We finally found good Chinese take-out in our neighborhood.

The take-out options around us are all pretty abysmal, but when a new spot popped up on GrubHub we decided to give it a try. I got bean jelly noodles with chili oil and sour and spicy cucumber.

They were delicious and we would totally order from there again.

22Apr2015

Gussied Up Mac & Cheese {Recipe Redux}

by Emily

From the Redux team: Go through your pantry, cupboards, freezer, or fridge; what ‘treasures’ have you found? Pick an ingredient/spice/condiment that’s been hanging out for a while and give it the attention it needs. Share a healthy recipe made using your new-found pantry prize.

One thing that is always present in my pantry is boxes of (whole grain) macaroni and cheese. Yes, the old-school kind with the powdered cheese. We like that the pasta is already portioned out – three to four servings-worth versus a 1 lb box – and only takes 6 – 15 minutes to cook depending on the brand, making it almost too easy to bypass to turn to take-out. We always have spices/sauces on hand and frozen chopped vegetables in our freezer, so we are always prepared to gussy up a box of mac for a quick and easy dinner.

Typically I like to pair the mac with canned smoked fish (another item that is a pantry must-have for us), but since I wanted to share this “recipe” with the wider Redux audience I decided to go vegetarian this time with a can of beans.

The great thing about this dish is that it is so easy to customize to accommodate what you have on hand. I tested the recipe with canned items but obviously you could sub in fresh varieties no problem. If using fresh broccoli, just precook it and add it with the other vegetables. I recommend ignoring the directions for adding milk and butter to make a cheese sauce and using sour cream instead, but if you don’t feel like buying sour cream this would still work if you made the sauce according to the back of the box.

Mexican Mac & Cheese, serves 4

6 oz box macaroni and cheese
2 heaping cups frozen broccoli
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
15.5 oz can low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup diced mild green chiles
(optional topping suggestions) caramelized onions, hot sauce, shredded cheddar, chopped avocado

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. When 3 minutes remain in the cooking time, stir in the broccoli and cook it along with the macaroni. Strain the cooked pasta and return to the pot.
Add sour cream and cheese packet (no milk or butter!) to the pasta. Stir in sauce, along with olives and chiles. Carefully fold in beans.
Divide pasta among 4 bowls and top as desired.

What items are always stocked in your pantry?

10Apr2015

Easter And Onward

by Emily

This post feels long, and I am le tired, so I will try to be less loquacious than usual.

Very chatty sidenote – how great are some of the words that describe how much a person does or does not talk?? Loquacious. Taciturn. Verbose. Gabby. Love them!

Real talk though: I somehow caught a springtime cold and I am cranky and sniffling and need to go to bed. I know I’ve wasted 60+ words on an intro, but I’ll try to let the pictures speak for themselves as much as possible.

breakfast

Vanilla iced coffee with vanilla milk.

Smoothie #1 – strawberry mint. Chocolate mint soy milk, frozen strawberries, and plain Greek yogurt.

Smoothie #2 – blueberry bliss. Frozen blueberries and dates with plain almond milk, plain Greek yogurt, and a little honey.

I made another batch of Community Coffee French Roast, this time in our coffee machine. Traditional/hot brewing did make this a little bitter, but it was still quite drinkable. Especially with skim milk and a splash of toasted marshmallow coffee syrup or a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar.

lunch

Subs with the in-laws for Easter. With chips and hard-boiled Easter eggs.

Coffee Chobani with Cocoa Coconut Renola and a Cara Cara. I am very picky about my coffee yogurts and this stuff was on point.

A half turkey sandwich from the cafeteria with seaweed salad and Easter candy delivered by a coworker.

I apparently don’t have a photo to speak for itself, but another day I packed a sandwich from home. An epic sandwich. Sweet cheddar and extra-sharp cheddar on a toasted English muffin. Swoon.

This mix was random, but it worked – spicy Thai chili tuna salad, brown sugar and sea salt seaweed, and a Cara Cara.

snack

Coconut water for rehydration.

These chips are amazing.

Coffee, always.

The husband and I are both obsessed with these two dessert items.

Plain Greek yogurt with butterscotch peanut butter and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs

I made How Sweet Eat’s Brown Butter Oatmeal Chunk Cookies for a birthday at work and they received rave reviews. I subbed vanilla bean paste for cinnamon, subbed dark chocolate chips for chocolate chunks, and made much smaller cookies (for a yield of 40 cookies versus her 15), and I recommend all three changes if you make a batch of your own.

I’m including two non-edibles that fed my soul. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman was like a grown-up version of Francesca Lia Block’s stuff. It was hard to put down; I read on the train and one night I had to sit in my car in the parking lot for twenty minutes to keep reading.

This lip-balm smells like my dreams.

dinner

Easter dinner.

Dessert was angel food cake layered with a yummy Cool Whip + vanilla pudding mix + shredded pineapple concoction.

An easy, amazing soup. I cooked shell pasta in chicken broth then dumped in sautéed chopped bok choy and green onions, shredded cooked chicken breast, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. My bowl was drizzled with sweet chili oil as well. Adam absolutely raved about this dish.

I turned the rest of my never-ending marinara sauce into a bastardized version of Jenna’s Channa Masala. On top of brown rice and roasted broccoli. Topped with plain Greek yogurt and sweet chili oil.

Safe Catch sent me a can of their wild skipjack tuna.

Please note: I was sent this product free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Seafood is a great thing to include in your diet. It is a lean protein, a good source of iron, and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately, due to the fact that seafood contains mercury, it may not be a good idea to consume it daily, and some varieties are safer than others. Canned tuna, for example, I have to tell my pregnant patients to limit to </ once per week. Safe Catch is a new, mercury tested, tuna brand that enforces a strict limit on the amount of mercury allowable in the fish that go into its products (their standards are 90% stricter than the FDA’s mercury safety limit of 1.0 parts per million). Also important – the fish is caught exclusively with pole and line from managed stocks.

I wanted to be able to really taste the tuna – we give it two thumbs up – so I made it into a super simple tuna salad.

Served on a challah roll with a side of roasted broccoli.

Last night was my sickest, and the husband worked overnight, so I made a(n incredibly tasty!) frozen meal from Trader Joe’s and called it a night. I also ate a bowl of cereal in bed.

There were entirely too many photos of my hands in this post.

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?

9Feb2015

Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

random facts

I finished reading my latest book on Friday – Fairyland, a memoir about growing up with an openly gay father in San Francisco in the 80’s. (Not much of a)spoiler alert – he dies of AIDS related complications. I was wracked with sobs for the last quarter of the book. Steve Abbot was a published author who kept detailed journals his entire adulthood and wrote copious letters to Alysia while she was in college, so she had a lot of source material to pull from which was nice; it was practically a biography within a memoir.
A big chunk of Saturday is missing because we went on a fun foodie tour and I am devoting a whole post to it. (coming tomorrow)
We upgraded our phones on Sunday. My new Galaxy is giant and tacky, obnoxiously gold.

breakfast

Adam and I tried the new raspberry white chocolate coffee from Dunkin’.

Our opinions ranged from good to meh. I still want to try the Starbucks version.

Cereal bowl.

Cocoa Pebbles and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes. Pebbles have absolutely no flavor and were deeply disappointing.

Oatmeal bowl.

Rolled oats – cooked in the microwave – with 1 heaping Tbsp each chopped pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, and brown sugar. Plus milk on top.

Coffee from 7-11 with wasabi almonds.

Yes, that was a terrible combination.

lunch

Chipotle!

White rice / chicken / black beans / sautéed veggies / fresh salsa / tomatillo salsa / sour cream / cheese. I would normally get lettuce but I split this bowl with Adam and he didn’t want it. I’ve stopped putting the corn salsa on my bowls in general because even though it’s tasty it isn’t really necessary to pile another carb on top of a rice bowl.

Adam went to a post-ABSITE surgical exam party and brought home leftover mini pizzas.

Paired with green juice.

NYC Jamba Juices recently introduced a new line of 12 oz Cold-Pressed Juice bottles and they sent me a $10 gift card so I could try them out.

I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The juices contain no preservatives and three servings of fruit and/or vegetables and each full bottle has between 140 to 190 calories.

Citrus Kick was way too spicy for me – Adam liked it but I just can’t do ginger – but I found Tropical Greens to be nicely balanced, neither two sweet nor too grassy. (There are four flavors in total; the two I didn’t try were Orange Reviver and Veggie Harvest).

dinner

We had another stupendous meal at Russ & Daughters.

The Breakfast Martini = Beefeater gin, jam, lemon juice, egg white, Pernod Absinthe, Angostura Bitters.

I adore cocktails with egg white. <– I was about to type that they will be hard for me to give up if I get pregnant! I guess the alcohol may also be an issue.

I ordered the Eggs Benny, which came with Scottish smoked salmon and sautéed spinach on challah.

No surprise, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise was loaded with flavor. <– more reasons I’m not chomping at the bit for a baby

Sunday night we made a nice, but less exciting dinner at home.

We were helped out by a jar of Sepo Sauce, a creamy garlic and horseradish spread that’s meant to be used as a dressing, dip, and/or sandwich spread.

Sepfonifiq sent me a jar of sauce free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The sauce has 150 calories and 2.5 grams saturated fat per 2-Tbsp serving, so it’s not any healthier than most typical dressings, but it packs a lot of flavor so you would rarely need to use any more than a serving.

We decided to go the bread and lettuce route.

A sandwich of part-skim mozzarella cheese, thick-cut uncured turkey ham steak, and whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread spread with Sepo Sauce and oven-toasted.

A salad of baby kale tossed in Sepo Sauce and topped with roasted broccoli and sweet and spicy pecans.

Plus we split a sumo mandarin on the side.

Sadly, we hated the thick cut turkey, which kind of ruined the sandwiches. We both got rid of the meat halfway through and ended up eating big desserts instead. But we loooved the Sepo as a dressing and were both blown away by the salad. I will definitely look forward to making that again.

Please cross your fingers that it’s not actually snowing in NYC right now?

7Feb2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Coffee, always.

The Hint of Honey Almond Breeze is coffee’s perfect companion. (note – I prefer the original to vanilla)

{2} Dates with turkey bacon.

I agree, everything on that napkin looks like a cockroach (dates one major downfall!), but the combination was delicious.

{3} Good lunches from the cafeteria.

A winning tuna salad sandwich and a giant burrito with chicken, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and tons of broccoli that they sweetly let me add from the salad bar.

{4} Berry yogurt bowl.

Fresh blues / Stonyfield Strawberry Oh My Yog! / Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes. I did not enjoy the sour, whole milk taste of the yogurt, but several coworkers tasted the cereal after I raved about it and wrote down the specs so they could buy some too!

{5} A meze plate.

All from Trader Joe’s – dates / green and orange bell peppers / baby carrots / dolmas / olives / kalamata olive hummus.

9Jan2015

Two By Two…

by Emily

…hands of blue <– name that show!

A short weekly wrap-up since my pictures were terrible, the two best from each category…

breakfast

I made wonderful coffee this week with the help of Grady’s Cold Brew Bean Bags. Paired with 1) A coconut berry smoothie.

Hint of honey almond milk, frozen strawberries and blueberries, and coconut butter. I love the way the coconut doesn’t totally blend in and you end up with little pockets.

2) A surprisingly good omlette from the cafeteria.

Eggs with onions and peppers.

lunch

1) A mix of seafood items from the caf made me feel fancy.

Tuna salad sandwich, lobster bisque, and a honey tangerine from home.

2) A snack plate that was actually the first half of lunch; I had Vietnamesse food at a party later.

Pretzels, turkey jerky, and cinnamon apples.

snack

1) The party was a goodbye party for my boss. I brought in cookies. Lavender chocolate caramel chip and my Smore’s Monster Cookies.

I ate way too much dough then stayed up half the night with a stomach ache/sugar high finishing the latest Kathy Reichs’ book.

2) More sugar?

I enjoyed these crispy m&m’s much more than I was expecting to.

dinner

1) Chipotle is always good.

White rice, pinto beans, veggies, corn and mild salsas, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.

2) This salad, sans chips, was good too.

My take on a copycat of TGIFriday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad.

Copycat TGIF Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad

chicken tenders
honey mustard – I used cranberry honey mustard which I highly recommend
chopped toasted pecans
baby spinach
dried cranberries
crumbled blue cheese
canned mandarin oranges
balsamic vinegarette

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour mustard and pecans into wide, shallow bowls.
Dip chicken into mustard, then into pecans, pushing gently to help set the nuts (I only coated one side of my tenders).
Place chicken on prepared baking sheet, naked side down. Bake for 27 – 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool before slicing.
Assemble salads with toppings.

instagram share

1) I bought these cards to brighten up my office for only 99 cents at Trader Joe’s.

2) I made up a joke! Adam hates me.

Could you identify the tv show from the quote?

8Dec2014

Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

coffee, coffee

So, you know how we’re obsessed with coffee? Like, problematically obsessed? I might like it as much as Diet Coke. This post is going to include a coffee brewer review. Adam, who drinks at least two cups a day, prefers his hot. I get iced 95% of the time, but when I’m home I’ll drink it hot if it’s fresh. Long story short – even though I mostly stick with cold-brew in my French press, we do in fact need a more traditional brewing option in the house. So when iCoffee offered to send me an Opus Single-Serve Brewer to review, I said “yes!”

Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

According to the company, the iCoffee system uses steam to help create a nice, smooth, non-bitter flavor. A patent-pending SpinBrew needle spins, steams and stirs the coffee inside of the single-serve cup, creating a mini-French Press effect that cannot be achieved by other brewers.

The Opus has a “Dial-a-Brew” control which allows you to customize strength and taste by choosing any brew size between 4 and 12 ounces in half-ounce increments. It can brew 10 ounces in less than 60 seconds, so it’s nice and quick. The drip tray is magnetic, so it can pull out to accommodate my tall go-cup.

They sent me a few cups to get me started. Adam had one of the Marley Coffees and loved it.

The Opus is cool because it is compatible with all k-type cups, including K-Cup, RealCup, OneCup and all private label cups (unlike the Keurig system that only uses K-cups). That said, I find single use cups to be insanely wasteful, the reason I accepted the brewer to review is because it is compatible with a reusable iCup.

I have made a few cups that way with the coffee we already had at home (marshmallow flavored!) and it’s all worked out quite well. I could see how the cup could have the propensity to break but replacements are only $12.95.

In short – we are fans! We would rate the system 4.5+ out of 5 and plan on giving it a permanent spot on our countertop.

copycat Chipotle bowls

Another thing we’re obsessed with? Loaded rice bowls from Chipotle. After making (multiple!) weekly Chipotle runs for the past several months it was time for us to finally make our own at home.

So many layers of flavor! Including:

jasmine rice with chopped cilantro and lime juice stirred in
sautéed mushroom, onion, and green pepper
corn sautéed with chopped jalopeño
black beans reheated with cilantro and lime juice
chicken that was marinated with lime juice, sugar, and green tomatillo salsa
shredded cheese, light sour cream, and homemade guacamole

So darn good!

And round two the next night – topped with green Tabasco – was just as good, maybe even better.

Plus we split a Warlock.

And a Mokaccino TCHO bar that we brought home from Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

Roasty good.

coffee and doughnuts

On Sunday we did a bit of a walking brunch around Chelsea in Manhattan. Stumptown Coffee –> Doughnut Plant –> Blue Bottle Coffee –> Doughnuttery. It was great fun!

We shared cold brew and an espresso at Stumptown.

It was my first time at the Ace Hotel, which is stunning.

Then made our way to Doughnut Plant.

We shared a hazelnut chocolate doughseed which was only ok.

And I got a Tres Leches filled caked doughnut that was amazing.

Best doughnut I’ve eaten all year. The filling was definitely reminiscent of Tres Leches and the doughnut had a great, crisp crust. I’ve been wanting to go get this flavor since last summer and it did not disappoint.

Doughnuttery ended up not appealing to us, but we did enjoy another cold brew from Blue Bottle.