Aka Miracle Berries aka Synsepalum dulcificum, a plant whose berries don’t taste sweet on their own, but have a compound (Miraculin) that binds to sweet receptors on the tongue and makes acidic foods which are ordinarily sour be perceived as sweet.
Please note – I was sent the berries free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.
You eat the pulp, not the seeds, and the effect lasts about an hour. They recommend trying the berries 1-2 at a time with foods such as citrus fruits, yogurt and kefir, and vinegar, so we set up a little tasting station.
It totally worked!! The limes and plain yogurt were both sweet and delicious. I could definitely see this working as a great way to get kids interested in trying new foods. I am excited to have the berries in my freezer so I can continue trying them out on different things.
…I also ate things that were sweet all on their own – cookies!
Many, yummy cookies. Like a chocolate chip cookie sandwich from Whole Foods.
And macarons from the tea place near my work. We tried milk chocolate marshmallow, Nutella, and cream brulee.
Marshmallow was the best, of course.
…We went to Smorgasburg
Per usual, we focused on duck buns and iced coffees.
We also went to Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory – – and hated it. I have no idea how that place always has such a long line.
…I got a summery green pedicure
I sipped a delicious cold-brew iced coffee from Bareburger while I got my toes done.
That cup – squee!
…I ate leftovers that weren’t half bad
I drizzled leftover egg salad with Sriracha, served with leftover roasted green beans and buttered whole-wheat cinnamon swirl toast.
Roasting veggies is the real miracle, how can leftover green beans taste so good?!
…The dog ate wet food and this happened:
I tied his ears back so he could eat mess-free. What a cutie!
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.
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.
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.
A bunch of bites slipped past the camera this weekend, though per usual, the majority of them were coffee and candy.
I had big plans for excitement in the city this weekend and the snow (in March?! seriously?) throw me off my game. We did make it to the Lower East Side for a 2nd trip to Adam’s new favorite restaurant though.
I binge-watched my way through the first 9 episodes of “Fresh off the Boat” and thought it was great. The book has been on my Amazon wish-list for ages, and we recently visited BaoHaus, so it’s safe to say I’m currently infatuated with Eddie Huang.
Eats:
Double espresso with skim milk (over ice) at work.
I’m not super hungry most mornings, but I try to get in a full 8 oz serving of dairy in my coffee. The 8 grams of protein and 90 – 130 calories usually hold me just fine until my early lunch. Usually. I was so hungry all day on Friday that I was practically crying.
But soon after lunch I was miserable. And I took lunch an hour earlier than usual so it was looong afternoon. I bought this thing of cheese and crackers from the cafeteria, scoffed at how ridiculously large the serving size was, and finished the whole thing 30 minutes later.
And 30 minutes after that, I was buying coffee and a KIND bar for my train ride.
Plus I ate Easter candy both before and after dinner.
My dinner, that in retrospect definitely could have used more protein, was a good one though, if a bit scattered.
Salad = baby kale, cubes pesto gouda, dried blueberries, buckwheat groats, and honey/evoo/lavender salt for dressing.
Our pasta bowls were more of the same; pesto gouda and baby spinach, along with tons of caramelized onions – finished with cream sherry! – and whole wheat boxed mac and cheese with a few giant shells thrown in for good measure.
I was still hungry when we went to bed! Thankfully I felt back to normal by Saturday morning.
My picture-taking motivation went downhill at that point – when I woke up to almost-April snow my plans to go to the gym, clean the floors, and generally accomplish anything all seemed to disappear – but I do have shots of the good stuff.
Doesn’t taste like a jelly bean, but it has a great, tart flavor.
Starbucks reached the 20th birthday of the Frappuccino last week and they celebrated with a limited-edition birthday cake flavor… with pink raspberry whipped cream!
I asked for them to make me one into a skim iced latte. So good. Still ridiculous, but slightly less ridiculous.
I made Pinch of Yum’s Bourbon Chicken for Sunday dinner, though I trashed mine up a bit by substituting in turkey breast and Jim Beam’s Maple Bourbon.
Served with brown rice and roasted broccoli, under a healthy drizzle of sauce. My mother – a maple fanatic – bought me the bourbon for Christmas and I have so many cocktail ideas for it.
We had another amazing meal at Pig & Khao. Adam is obsessed with this place and I don’t blame him.
That’s my Reisling and our order of fried mantao buns.
The husband had a giant plate of pork leg, and I ordered the Khao Soi – red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, and shallots.
I don’t even like red curry (understandably, the menu is mostly meats so there aren’t a ton of options for me) but I loooved this. The flavors are just so balanced; you leave feeling unbelievably satisfied.
We had to make room for Halo Halo though!
Shaved ice, leche flan, ube ice cream, macapuno (coconut), and pinipig (toasted puffed rice). My favorite desserts are bat ping so, choclados, and halo halo, clearly I am all about shaved ice and sweet milk.
Let’s be real – I’ve eaten a lot of Easter candy this week. Here are five things that taste better than Easter candy…
{1} TJ’s Espresso Pillows.
I realize that these are still candy, but they felt like a very fancy way to end my lunch hours. They are a bit smaller, and crunchier than typical chocolate-covered espresso beans.
{2} Homemade oatmeal bowls on the go.
1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp chocolate-covered cocoa nibs. I fill my bowl with hot water from the cafeteria (for tea) and have a yummy bowl of oats by the time I get back to my lounge.
{3} Peanut butter yogurt.
2% Plain Fage with my browned butterscotch peanut butter swirled in.
{4} Fresh blueberries.
This low-brow cereal bowl – eaten at my desk while I worked – was one of the best things I ate all week.
Who else has obsessively binge-watched their way though the entire first season of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” already? We finished the whole thing over the weekend. We loved it! I’m considering a rewatch. I hate the two trial episodes – I thought they were god-awful, truly some of the worst television I’ve ever seen – but I adored everything preceding them. The 10 second concept makes my life. Unsurprisingly, this is another smart and funny win from Tina Fey.
The theme song has permanently ear-wormed its way into my brain.
Related, Lisa – Born Round was amazing!
I read it on the train and then would sit in my car in the parking lot for at least 20 minutes each night to keep reading. I’m pretty sure Bruni should be giving TED Talks for all would-be crash dieters, emotional eaters, and aspiring journalists.
breakfast
I did the chocolate milk and iced coffee combo two days in a row.
Paired with a Special K protein bar both days.
Not the best bars – for taste or ingredient list – but they were free in the cafeteria and I had some extra morning hunger this week.
Another day I did hot chocolate mix in hot coffee with a lot of milk on top.
So basically just the lukewarm version of my chocolate milk and coffee.
My breakfast plan for St. Patrick’s Day was a green smoothie. Then I hit the snooze button and the plan was iced coffee with green dye in my milk. Then I hit the snooze button five more times and I barely managed to get coffee, ice, and boring plain milk into my cup.
…and then I also got Starbucks once I got off of the train.
I usually don’t let myself do two coffees in the morning, but I had stayed in bed until literally 10 minutes before I needed to be in the car so clearly it was a double coffee kind of morning. And yes, mom, I fixed my hat hair before I saw patients.
lunch
Thankfully the cafeteria totally came through and helped me get some green-theme on St. Paddy’s Day.
My bagel was topped with pepperjack, sliced turkey, mayo, mustard, and frisee lettuce. Plus baked onion rings on the side.
Blood orange Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and blackberries and a fresh mandarin orange on the side.
I can’t believe I had only ever eaten canned mandarins up until this year, they are my new favorite citrus.
Tart cherry Noosa with coconut butter, homemade butterscotch peanut butter, and a Pinata apple.
We are loving the new 4 oz Noosa packs. Noosa is Adam’s top favorite yogurt – in fact it’s one of his favorite foods in general – but the original packages were a bit too large to enjoy on the go.
Vanilla-caramel yogurt with blackberries and 18 Rabbits caramel apple granola.
I loved the flavor of the grass-fed yogurt but I’d still be a little nervous about trying it plain.
snack
Popcorn / all-time best Easter candy / beer…
All good.
A small but gourmet sandwich.
Toasted whole-wheat with Applegate Farm herb sliced turkey, mayo, and leftover carmelized onions.
Weird pasta salad from the cafeteria.
Why do they keep putting croutons in pasta??
An Austrian iced coffee.
Aka coffee (delicious Grady’s cold-brew in this case) with ice, (skim) milk, and (vanilla-caramel) ice cream.
dinner
Asian-style baked shrimp bowls.
From the bottom up, I filled my casserole with quartered bok choy, sliced wild mushrooms, chopped orange and yellow bell pepper, shrimp, fish sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, canola oil, and Sriracha. Then I baked it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
Served on top of brown rice cooked in chicken stock.
Leftover bbq salads.
Spicy, local arugula topped with bbq sauce, cucumber, avocado, bell pepper, caramelized onions, and TJ’s fire-roasted corn cooked with turkey bacon.
These were some of the best salads we’ve made in months.
The next night I did a 180 from salads and made my grandma’s recipe for an awesomely retro chicken and rice casserole.
Complete with condensed soups, chow mein noodles, and crushed chips on top. I swapped half of the rice for shredded cauliflower but otherwise did not healthy it up at all.
Served with green beans baked with fish sauce, honey, Sriracha, and evoo.
We ate casserole the next night too.
And we will probably been eating casserole the next few nights as well!
Hope everyone has a great weekend, good luck getting that song out of your head!
It was a low-key weekend – we never left Long Island – but I do have two legitimate recipes to share. They’re very good! Next weekend we have multiple city trips planned so I wanted to make the most of my free time in the kitchen.
This weekend I…
…Had a yummy breakfast at work.
An opal apple and chocolate biscotti dipped in coffee. I threw out the coffee as soon as my treat was gone, I just can’t do the hot stuff. I made up for it with several iced coffees enjoyed during errands-running on the weekend.
One of many.
…Enjoyed an even better work lunch. 1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp cocoa nibs.
Just shake it together and cover with hot water when it’s time for lunch. The crunchy chocolate bites were amazing; nibs are so much better in oatmeal than chocolate chips.
…Discovered my new favorite hard candy – Ice Chips.
Please note – Ice Chips Candy reached out to me about doing a review and provided the above product samples free of charge. I was not given any further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
Ice Chips, which come in small chips shaped like shards of ice, are made of xylitol which is an anticariogenic sugar alcohol (i.e. eating gum or candy made with xylitol before acidogenic foods can help to reduce the formation of dental carries or cavities). Xylitol is as sweet as table sugar but contains fewer calories so two Ice Chip candies only contain about 5 calories and if you ate an entire tin – as I was tempted to! – it would be about 125 calories. <– don’t do that though, sugar alcohols give many people diarrhea when consumed in excess
The texture of the chips is freaking amazing, hard enough to suck on but they break apart in a really pleasing way when you crunch them. And their flavor game is on point – my favorite so far are Coffee ‘n Cream and Lemon, but I am really looking forward to Eggnog.
I also really liked this egg.
I don’t even care that I’m a month early, birthday cake is a stupid Easter flavor! It was really yummy though.
…Processed up some tasty (browned butterscotch)peanut butter.
All you need is a food processor, 4 Tbsp browned butter, 1 cup light brown sugar, and 1 lb roasted, salted peanuts.
I’m planning on packing the peanut butter with Greek yogurts for lunches this week.
…Drank a smoothie in the snow. Not the best weather for it, but smoothies are always good.
This one had (frozen:) blackberries, dates, and soursop puree, and Hint of Honey almond milk.
…Cooked green eggs and ham toast.
The eggs were scrambled with spinach and leftover mushrooms and asparagus from Thursday’s dinner.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Prepare an 8×8 inch casserole dish with baking spray. Mix the mozzarella and cheddar together and put aside 1 large handful (2 oz).
Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan (large enough for all of your ingredients) over medium-high heat. Whisk flour into melted butter to form a roux. Cook 60 – 90 seconds, whisking constantly, until roux has darkened to a sandy tan color. Whisk milk into roux and cook 1 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened. You shouldn’t have any lumps, but if you do now is the time to whisk them out.
Reduce heat to low and add 8 oz of cheese to the sauce, working in 3 small batches and stirring until the cheese has fully melted.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked pasta, vegetables, and pepperoni. Pour mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
Top the casserole with an even mixture of marinara sauce, followed by the remaining 2 oz of cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned.
I made a batch of my Buttered Rum Raisin Cookies for a birthday and work and my coworkers all gave rave reviews.
Sia
When it comes to all things pop-culture – including but not limited to music, Netflix-exclusive tv shows, memes, and modern slang – Adam is usually a month or two behind the other American 20-30 year olds. This past week, I’ve gotten him up to speed on Sia and now we’re both obsessed. Her sound is unique, the work she’s showcased of Maddie Ziegler’s is breathtaking, and when you compare her artist persona to someone like Kanye she seems like a dream. I for one adore the mega-bangs; the focus is on her art instead of her looks and they are somehow just not as douchetastic as the Daft Punk helmets. Sidenote – to be fair to Adam, he actually has been listening to Sia for the past 5 years, even if he wasn’t aware of it, ever since we loved her music in “Dollhouse.”
Spiced iced coffee
I cold-pressed a big batch of espresso blend with cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. This was delicious; I want to add some spice to all of my future brews.
Turkey sandwiches
An onion roll with turkey, lettuce, red pepper, pickles, pepperjack, and mayo from the cafeteria. And turkey sandwiched between whole-wheat bread that was oven-toasted with butter and gouda at home. The toasted sandwich was divine; I almost considered making myself a second round when I was finished eating!
Weight Watchers commercials
I think that these commercials are amazing; they manage – in a quick, funny! way – to really get at a lot of the social and emotional factors that contribute to overeating.
Minta – a mint flavored soda line made with fruit juice and cane sugar – recently sent me a box of Original, Strawberry, and Lemon to sample for the blog. I am not exactly looking to add a non-diet soda to my daily life, but I love that these use cane sugar instead of HFCS and I think they are definitely a great treat. The Original and Strawberry have 100 calories and 25 grams of sugar per 10 oz can (Lemon has only 80 calories because it has less sugar, 19 grams). They are freaking delicious; like the best mojito you’ve ever had! Adam was expecting to hate them – “mint soda? that sounds disgusting” – but he was smitten after his first sip.
Berry chia yogurt bowls
Fage with fresh blackberries, white chia seeds, and Heritage Flakes was my lunch order this week. The tablespoon of chia really helped to make these more filling than my past yogurt bowls.
Yes Please
I finished Amy Poehler’s book and I loved it even more than I had anticipated. She managed to make me laugh, cry, and seriously take stock of what I want out of myself and my life.
I had a turkey burger with pimento cheese, duck bacon, stout onions, and horseradish remoulade. It was delish.
The anticipation of a mini tropical vacation!
If the weather cooperates, I will be on a plane by the time you are reading this post. It’s my mom’s birthday this Sunday and I surprised her by booking a ticket home for a long weekend. St. Thomas, here I come!
Did everyone have a good Valentine’s Day? I hope you got a kiss from your sweetheart, or even better – ate some chocolate kisses and conversation hearts!
Adam and I had a fabulous weekend. Thank goodness for Presidents’ Day off, even though he worked a 30-hour shift on Sunday – and I spent the day sans pants, in bed, eating Thai take-out – we still had two days to have fun in the city. The best part of the weekend was probably Monday night though, we cuddled on the couch eating Chipotle and watching the SNL 40th anniversary show. I’m typing this post up while we watch but so far I am in absolute nostalgia heaven! Here are some of the weekend highlights…
We were not grumpy about getting coffee.
Adam is obsessed with their flat whites.
We made pink Valentine’s Day smoothies.
Frozen raspberries, plain Greek yogurt, fresh dates, and Hint of Honey Almond Breeze. Perfect blend (get it?? blend) of sweet and sour.
So cool, Adam loooved it. We tried the Cuban Coffee, “Belgian light chocolate cake topped with powerful dark roast coffee frosting and subtle notes of cinnamon and cocoa.”
I didn’t care for the cake but the frosting was wonderful.
We went out for a very romantic Valentine’s dinner of beer and Thai food. First Left Hand Milk Stout on draft.
Then we checked out the highly recommended Pure Thai Cookhouse. My Pad See Ew was tasty,
but for “Thai spicy” it could have packed a lot more heat. I did not even need this Thai iced tea.
We did try to get ice cream afterwards though.
Try being the operative word. I had such high expectations for Ben & Jerry’s new Speculoos (aka Biscoff!) flavor but it ended up being inedible; terribly ginger-spicy. Instead we made amazing sundaes at home.
Talenti cookie dough gelato, Girl & the Fig salted fig caramel, and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs.
We went to Serendipity.
I’ve never strayed, I always order the Summer Bries sandwich which comes with turkey, apple, sprouts, brie, and Russian dressing on raisin pumpernickel.
We tried something new for dessert, the Insanity Sundae.
Pecan pie, butter pecan ice cream, wet walnuts, whipped cream, and hot fudge. It was insane, we could barely make a dent in it.
Speaking of sweets and love – check back in this afternoon, I’ve got a giveaway coming!
