Turkey Week Eats

by Emily

I hope that all of my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We didn’t do anything fancy to celebrate, but I sure was thankful for the four-day workweek! My million-point list of things I’m thankful for also includes this gorgeous city…

Random Thoughts

I made the toffee candy for a work birthday party, this time following the original recipe.

I think my version with graham crackers and pretzels is better, the saltines got a bit soggy.

I reread To Kill a Mockingbird this week in anticipation of starting Go Catch a Watchman and cried on the train at least ten times.

TKM is one of my favorite books but I had forgotten what a fabulous writer Harper Lee is in the few years since I had last reread it. Atticus is my all-time favorite character. I love him even more than Ghosh from Cutting for Stone.

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Daytime Eats

This week’s tea – Adagio’s Pumpkin Spice (former freebie).

With treats from the birthday party… including pie made with fresh coconut

Or with pumpkin applesauce and biscotti.

This week’s coffee – Community Coffee’s Breakfast Blend with skim milk and sugar.

Cafeteria lunch salads. Romaine, blue cheese dressing, carrot, cucumber, tomato, olive, pickle, black eyed peas, and pasta salad.

Romaine, ranch, carrot, cucumber, tomato, olive, pickle, corn salsa, cheddar, and chickpeas.

Romaine, blue cheese dressing, carrot, olive, tomato, cucumber, corn, cheddar, and cole slaw.

And home on Turkey Day I was thankful for yogurt bowls.

Plain Greek yogurt topped with cranberry sauce, pomegranate, chia seeds, and praline pecan maple granola. Best bowl of the year.

Nighttime Eats

I met up with girlfriends for drinks early in the week. Pork Slope never disappoints. They had Sorachi Ace, Adam’s favorite beer which is now my favorite beer. It just goes down so easily!

I also had a ridiculous fall shandy – gin, maple bitters, simple syrup, lemon juice, and cider.

Dinners were all about the bird! We cooked turkey breasts in the crock pot on Sunday and then shredded them into meals all week.

Turkey tossed with TJ’s whole-wheat butternut squash goyza on top of sautéed shredded Brussels sprouts with pecans.

Topped with gruyere cheese and cranberry sauce.

Turkey tossed with bbq sauce on a brioche bun (toasted with Smart Balance) with cranberry sauce and goat’s milk brie.

With roasted green beans on the side. Year’s best sandwich!

For Thanksgiving dinner we decided to go super traditional – nachos. TJ’s stuffing flavored kettle chips topped with turkey, gruyere, smoked paprika, and cranberry sauce.

With hericot verts roasted with shallots. So much better than the usual meal! Plus pumpkin pie,

aka Rogue’s Pumpkin Patch Ale.

Friday night, once the turkey celebration was over, Adam and I went on a dinner date in the Lower East Side. Coffee while we walked around Chinatown.

Ice cream at Ice & Vice. Milk Money = toasted milk, sea salt, and chocolate ganache and Shade = smoked dark chocolate with caramelized white chocolate ganache. I’m usually not one for chocolate ice cream but this was fantastic.

Then dinner at Mission Chinese Food. With complimentary dumplings to start.

I ordered the Tea Ceremony – matcha, melon, and fizzy wine.

We shared the green papaya salad with smoked chicken, green tomato, peanuts, and pickled tea leaves.

And I ordered the spicy peanut noodles, with cucumber, mint, and numbing oil.

They were chewy, savory, and beyond tingly; numbing oil is good but intense! The mint was really wonderful with the spice. All in all a good meal, though not as epic as the thousand-plus articles I’d read about the restaurant would have had me believe.

20Nov2015

BEC, FTW

by Emily

Big life change alert – I have a new job. As of Monday this week I officially transferred over to the inpatient nutrition team full-team. I am very sad to no longer be working with prenatal clients on an outpatient basis but the job opened up I knew that it was time for me to get back to my roots with acute care. My new job lets me work with and learn from other Dietitians on a daily basis and gives me exposure to a much greater scope of practice. I’m excited about it.

My new job comes with a nice perk – free meals from the cafeteria, so you are going to see some big changes in my weekly lunches. And this transition week was unbelievably busy so there were a lot of bites that missed the camera. You’ll just have to picture a lot of snacking, both candy at my desk and copious taste-testing while preparing dinners. Plus a lot more coffee, of course. Here the bites I did capture…

breakfast

Coffee! With a SweeTango apple.

Or a Nonni’s caramel apple biscotti and a persimmon.

Or a Fiber One cheesecake strawberry bar and a persimmon.

This week’s coffee masterpiece was Grady’s Cold Brew with skim & vanilla almond milks.

lunch

My old team brought in a giant cake on my last day. So sweet!

I ate a serious amount of frosting.

Now that I’m “buying” lunch instead of packing my yogurt bowls {tear!} you’re going to see a lot of salads and sandwiches. Romaine / ranch / cheddar / chickpeas / veggies / cole slaw.

Romaine / ranch / corn salsa / peppers / maple pumpkin seeds.

Plus chocolate a new coworker brought me.

Yesterday I had a simple sandwich. Toasted wheat bread, mayo, turkey, pepperjack. Plus a carton of chocolate milk.

Apparently I’m six.

dinner

In spite of the fact that Adam and I both had crazy weeks, our dinners were all winners. We let the crockpot help out one night. Chicken breasts topped with bbq sauce and fresh cranberries and set on low for 8 hours.

We’ve made this dish three winters in a row now and it is always wonderful. Served with roasted green beans and TJ’s sprouted California rice. And a Warlock pumpkin stout.

We used leftovers in our BECFR, aka Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Fried Rice.

Rice stir-fried in olive oil with turkey bacon and chunks of cheddar and eggs. Roasted cruciferous veggies on the side.

I’ll toot my own horn – cheese in fried rice is freaking genius. We tried to watch “Fresh Off the Boat” while we ate but I was mmmning so loudly that we kept having to pause.

Finally, a quick salad.

Baby spinach / feta dressing / cucumber / pumpkin seeds / roasted coconut chips / avocado / turkey bacon / and goat’s milk Brie.

It’s been an exciting work-week but I am feeling ready for the weekend!

9Nov2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Time with my husband.

Adam has been on his break for the past two weeks and we have had the absolute best time going out on date nights after my work days. I love every single minute with him!

We loved the minutes so much that I couldn’t be bothered to take out my camera most of the time. We ate some really fantastic meals over the past week and this post only has photos of three of them. Plus an Instagram shot of the best ice cream of all time –

Ice & Vice rocked our freaking faces off. We got a fantastic trio: Milk Money = toasted milk, sea salt, dark chocolate ganache; Splinters = smoked whiskey barrel wood, cracker jack brittle; 9 am = vietnamese coffee, doughnut truffle. All three were amazing (Milk Money was best) and they went together perfectly.

{2} An eggcellent meal at Egg Shop.

I got the drink special – Vodka, St. Germain, fresh lemon juice, watermelon, mint, and a prosecco float.

And we started with the poached burrata -yolk stuffed burrata cheese, crispy chickpeas, tomato agrodolce, and truffle toast. This was our first time trying burrata and it was wonderful.

For dinner I got roasted Brussel sprouts with lemon vinaigrette and two poached eggs.

This dish was so simple, just veggies with eggs, and so delicious, one of my favorite restaurant plates of all time. I was literally shoveling it into my mouth.

{3} Emily loves pizza at Pizza Loves Emily.

<– actually our meal was only ok, but the wordplay was too great to pass up. Our Modern (double sauce, mixed herbs, garlic, basil, double pecorino, onion, and Sichuan oil) was light on cheese and a little burnt.

My drink was great though.

Dune Deck – Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, lime, and spiced grenadine. I’ll love you if you stick a Luxardo cherry in my drink.

{4} Dinner at home.

I’ll pat myself on the back, this was one of the best meals of the week.

Roasted green beans and Naan from La Brea Bakery.

Scrambled eggs with shredded chicken breast and sharp cheddar.

I cooked the eggs on high heat so they were almost burnt and we loved them.

{5} Yogurt bowls for lunch.

Strawberry Fage with pumpkin o’s, pecans, blackberries, and pomegranate.

A very spring-y blackberry and lemon mix.

And then it was back to fall with pomegranate, chia seeds, pecans, and maple pumpkin seeds.

Now it’s back to work. I hope everyone has a nice week!

1Oct2015

Goodbye, Apple Month

by Emily

Can you believe that it is already October?! Time has felt like it is flying ever since we moved back to the city but this year in particular is booking it. Never mind the fact that I am somehow 30 years old even though I still feel like high school was maybe six years ago tops.

breakfast

I kept this week’s coffee combo simple –

I wanted to be able to get a good feel for this stuff –

This was the perfect month to review* Rigoni di Asiago’s Dolcedì sweetener because it is made of apples! 10 kilograms of organic apples go into 1 kilogram of Dolcedì.

The liquid sweetener is USDA certified organic, gluten-free, vegan, and kosher, and can be used in the same ways you would use table sugar (1 teaspoon of Dolcedì would substitute for 1 teaspoon of sugar, a 1:1 ratio) in hot and cold drinks. It has 15 calories per Tbsp (table sugar has 15 per teaspoon). You can also use it in baking but I haven’t tried that yet.

The liquid is sweet but flavorless so it really doesn’t alter the taste of your drink – unlike honey and agave – and I found that it quickly dissolved completely into solution in my iced coffee. I don’t typically sweeten my drinks but when I do I would definitely use the Dolcedì again in the future.

Along with my sweetened coffees I had bars

and orchard apples.

We were not impressed with the scant variety available for apple picking but these ended up being some of the best apples any of the four of us have ever eaten.

lunch

Plain yogurt with blueberries and pomegranate, sea salt caramel apple granola and chia seeds, and an apple on the side.

Plus I brought in turtle pretzel magic bars for my coworkers and I totally snagged one for after lunch.

The other days I stuck with THIS for dessert –

Omg.

Kodiak flapjack on the go and TJ’s freeze-dried Fuji apple slices.

I hated the pancake cup – it was like choking down raw batter – but those apples are amazing. I shared a taste with two coworkers who said they were the best they’ve ever had.

Plain Siggi’s with blueberries, strawberry preserves, and caramel apple granola and chia seeds.

The caramel apple chia combo has rocked my world this month, though I have had to start carrying floss in my purse to deal with errant seeds.

“dinner”

Dinners this week were exceedingly weak. Apparently our busy weekend of walking wore us out because Adam and I have been unbelievably tired. Like on Monday we got into bed at 7:30 pm tired. And then on Tuesday we took a nap before bed. I guess maybe I do feel thirty!

Monday I ate a Starbucks chicken Santa Fe sandwich on the train.

It was good, and thank goodness because when I got home I ate this strawberry Cow Tail under the covers.

Hence “dinners.”

Tuesday I at least legitimately included some vegetables in my snack-based dinner. Carrots with hummus.

Several rounds of pretzels with string cheese.

And roasted green beans.

This was actually a pretty balanced meal.

And Wednesday I cooked a grown-up dinner.

Can you call heating up a package of TJ’s Palak Paneer cooking?

I had to make the brown jasmine rice and roasted zucchini we served it with so I’m counting it.

With a dollop of goat’s milk yogurt on top. And my final La Brea Bakery review* on the side – flatbread.

They were all good but this was our favorite bread so far. It had that perfect naan texture, fluffy yet chewy. And the flatbread includes sprouted whole wheat flour (along with white flour) which made the flavor just a bit more interesting. A+.

P.S. Now it’s October it is finally Pumpkin Month!!!

*These products were provided to me free of charge to review. I was not provided any additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

19Sep2015

This Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Coffee.

I know this gets repetitive but coffee is just so freaking good!

The winner this week was the double espresso with ice and cream from a coffee shop near my hospital.

{2} Chocolate with pretzels.

I brought the toffee candy to work and my co-workers lost their minds over it. We did too; it was a good thing I got it out of the house or I think Adam and I could have finished the tray in a day or two.

Also yummy pretzel chocolate from Lindt.

Yes, I had dessert every evening this week.

{3} Apple month stuff.

Apple-pear pouch. I sprinkled the SuperSeedz on a pretty killer salad from the cafeteria salad bar.

Salted caramel apple granola (with chia seeds) on my yogurt.

And this apple explosion lunch.

Caramel apple oatmeal, TJ’s freeze-dried apples, and Salty Road caramel apple taffy.

{4} Loaded baked potatoes.

These bowls were fantastic.

Baked potato / roasted broccoli with green onions / homemade baked beans / topped with plain yogurt, sharp cheddar, and green Tabasco.

For the baked beans: Sauté tons of white and yellow chopped onions. Add sliced turkey hot dogs, pinto beans, and tomato sauce and let things cook for awhile. Then season with brown sugar and Gochujang.

They were so yummy I ate the leftovers cold.

{5} Dinner at Mile End.

Mile End Delicatessen is my new favorite deli, which is a big deal because the place I grew up going to had a pickle bar! MED did have tasty hibiscus beer…

And poutine made with smoked chicken gravy.

And roasted cauliflower with caraway honey, harissa paste, and toasted pistachios. This had the best texture, crunchy on the outside and silky soft in the middle.

I ordered the turkey reuben for dinner.

Did not disappoint.

{Bonus} New CDs.

My parents are amazing, and they send us mixed tapes all of the time. They both made new ones recently so this is how my mother labeled them –

Lol!

4Sep2015

This Week I Loved…

by Emily

the start of apple month

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

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

everything by George Ezra

But especially “Blame It On Me.”

my breakfast combo

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

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

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

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

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

yogurt bowls

2% Fage with strawberries and Heritage Flakes.

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

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

salads

Loaded from the cafeteria.

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

At home.

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

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

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

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

24Aug2015

Weekend Highlights – Rockaway Beach And Roberta’s

by Emily

We have got to squeeze every last drop of fun out of this summer before fall hits. We made the most of our weekend with a beach trip and ice cream all day every day.

I’ve been crazy hungry lately so these pictures are just a drop in the bucket, but here are the highlights…

Coffee! While I made my grocery list.

The Vietnam blend from Starbucks is great with cocoa, cinnamon, and sugar.

And the maple latte at Caffé Bene is on point.

Toasted turkey cheese sandwich.

Multi-grain bread with smoked turkey, colby jack, mayo, and lots of pickles.

Plus roasted broccoli on the side.

More roasted broccoli (and more of that plate).

This time with truffle salt.

And Applegate chicken nuggets with a Sriracha honey mustard dipping sauce.

Frozen yogurt. Birthday cake topped with chocolate stuff and Nutella.

Pizza from Roberta’s. We will definitely be back! Cheesus Christ = mozzarella, taleggio, parmigiano, black pepper, and cream.

Sunday afternoon we went down to Tacoway Beach. They put rum in our watermelon juice and guacamole on our fish tacos.

Plus we got Tostilocos, a big back of chips, black beans, seasoned cabbage, cojita, and Japanese peanuts.

Then we spent some time on the beach.

And stopped by Connolly’s for the all-time best frozen piña coladas.

Have a great week!

31Jul2015

My Year Is Off To A Good Start

by Emily

enjoyed all week

Coffees. Also naps.

Apparently my parents wore us out; I had a to take a nap before I could make dinner the first three nights of the week.

Diet chocolate soda from Polar.

I know it sounds a little strange but we were fans.

Our leftovers from The Smith. Eaten cold while standing in front of the open fridge.

My mac and cheese was fantastic leftover and so was my mom’s Mexican corn.

A big box of free samples {free as in provided free of charge / no other compensation for this post / yada, yada } from Super Seedz.

I wouldn’t have thought of pumpkin seeds as a favorite of mine but I’ve loved all of the flavors we’ve tried so far. Flavor options include: Really Naked, Sea Salt, Cinnamon & Sugar, Coco Joe, Tomato Italiano, Curious Curry, Somewhat Spicy and Super Spicy. They pack a nutritional punch – see the infographic (provided by the company) below – and Super Seedz are allergen friendly – peanut-free, tree nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free, fish-free, shellfish-free, soy-free and made with gluten-free ingredients.

breakfast

After we dropped my parents at the airport on Monday, Adam and I went on a doughnut(plant) and coffee date before work. Because apparently we hadn’t eaten enough crap over my birthday weekend.

My strawberry-filled vanilla got two thumbs up.

As did my maple latte from Gorilla.

Coco pumpkin seeds and cold-pressed watermelon juice.

TJ’s came through on this juice, it was wonderfully refreshing.

Chocolate-cherry smoothie.

Vanilla almond milk with coco powder, frozen cherries, and dates. I enjoyed this combo and want to make it again soon.

Snack plate.

A cheese stick, cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds, and a medley of grapes.

lunch

Chocolate chip cookie oats.

With an apple and coco pumpkin seeds.

Sweet and spicy tuna salad.

With grapes and cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds.

I didn’t have to provide my own lunch the rest of the week! I attended a lunch-and-learn on malnutrition in surgical patients on Tuesday.

They gave us education, salad, and yummy sandwiches with hummus and roasted eggplant. And I mainlined coffee (with tons of milk and cream) when I got back to my desk.

On Thursday the hospital threw an employee appreciation bbq.

Very sweet!

dinner

Pizza, pizza.

We used TJ’s frozen crusts and were so impressed with how they turned out. Topped with marinara, mozzarella, and tons of garlic and onion sautéed mushrooms.

Plus super simple salads on the side.

Just arugula blend with ranch dressing. They were a bit depressing. But we also had beer.

I carried this Southern Tier Compass all the way back home from Buffalo but unfortunately it was a bit hoppy for our tastes.

Burger night.

I made my Buffalo Blue Bean Burgers. They don’t look like much but this is one of my best recipes!

With a trio of roasted veggies: Brussels sprouts, green beans, and broccoli.

Served with maple bacon kettle chips, aka my favorite chips because they are the best chips of all time.

They were doing a promotion and handing out mini bags at my railroad station and it was very exciting.

Last night I met up with a girlfriend for dinner in Brooklyn. We checked out Elbow Room, the mac and cheese window at Morgan’s BBQ.

Milk stout.

Old School Mac – NY state sharp cheddar, béchamel, and garlic breadcrumbs.

With collard greens that were spicy and vegetarian. Dinner was good but dessert was better.

Salted crack caramel and honey peanut butter ice creams from Ample Hills. But they were supposed to have key lime pie ice cream available and they didn’t so now I need to go back immediately and it’s a problem.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: beans

Turkey Week Eats

Random Thoughts

Daytime Eats

Nighttime Eats

BEC, FTW

breakfast

lunch

dinner

Last Week’s Top Five

Goodbye, Apple Month

breakfast

lunch

“dinner”

*These products were provided to me free of charge to review. I was not provided any additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

This Week’s Top Five

This Week I Loved…

Weekend Highlights – Rockaway Beach And Roberta’s

My Year Is Off To A Good Start

enjoyed all week

breakfast

lunch

dinner