Weekly Wrap-Up; Sweet and Spicy

This “week’s” wrap-up actually spans most of two weeks.  I know I went MIA (sorry, mom!) but I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  We have a lot of personal stuff happening this month and most of it is frustrating.  But there is good stuff this month too – like my 28th birthday and an upcoming trip back to Buffalo!

For having eaten two weeks worth of meals (plus, I am sooo not one of those “I’m too sad to eat” folks!), I don’t have a ton to share this post.  We did a lot of take-out and none of it was blogworthy, or even edible; we threw out a really annoying amount of food.  But even though the take-out situation in our neighborhood is dire, I do have some really tasty things to recap….

fruit salad for the fourth

I went all patriotic and made a lovely red white and blue fruit salad with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and sweetened shredded coconut (all mascerated with a little sugar and lime juice).

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It would have been even more lovely consumed on the 4th, but we got busy moving and ended up eating red, white, and blue on July 6th.

The salad was especially nice with skim milk and Impact Maple Oat granola.

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these tasty dinners were also eaten after Independence Day

I’m not sure what I was picturing because I knew we had to drive to PA and back, but I bought stuff for the grill to eat with our fruit salad.  Neither of these meals were eaten before the 7th, and we still haven’t fired up the grill, but they both sure were tasty.

Everything hot dogs and sautéed swiss chard.

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I added way to much Worcestershire to the chard and it was sort of terrible, but we ate it anyway to get our greens in.

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But the dogs were amazing.  I got the “everything dogs” idea from a Good Housekeeping.

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Turkey dogs in toasted buns topped with onion cream cheese sauce – yellow onions sautéed in butter with low-fat cream cheese stirred in, plus a little light cream to loosen up the sauce – and poppy seeds.

Patty melts with kale chips.

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Whole-wheat bread with 1.5 Trader Joe’s turkey burgers, ketchup, and sliced cheese.

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The burgers were a higher fat % than what we usually buy and they sicked me out to cook, but the patty melts in the end were very good.

The kale chips were amazing.

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I always used to burn kale chips into tiny shards of cancer but I did some Googling and think I finally found the right method.

getting saasy

The nice people at Saas Hot Sauce sent me some bottles of the hot stuff to review recently.

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Please note – these products were sent to me free of charge to review.  All opinions are my own.

Saas is a LLC started in 2010 by a group of students looking to raise money for charitable donations (particularly to help protect traditional cultures around the world).  It comes in Original and Onion and Garlic.  They use no chemical additives or stabilizers in their sauces.

I love the company’s values and practices, but I have to say – this stuff is hot!  A little drop definitely goes a long way.  I am a spice lover and it was pretty intense for me, so while I do recommend Saas products, if you have a wimpier mouth please be careful.

For some reason the hot sauce just screamed “quesadillas!” to me, so that’s what I made for dinner… several days in a row.  Original Saas went in hot wing quesadillas.

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Shredded rotisserie chicken mixed with Saas, blue cheese dressing, and mild cheddar.

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Onion and Garlic Saas went in black bean quesadillas.

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Smushed black beans with Saas, salt, lime juice, and sharp cheddar.

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All of the cheesy triangles were quite pleasing; quesadillas were definitely a good idea.

two more home-cooked dinners

First, a mac-n-cheese style casserole of farro (the 10 minute bag from Trader Joes, so easy!), cheese sauce, and swiss chard.

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I made the cheese sauce out of roux, light cream, sriracha, black pepper, sharp cheddar, and parmesan.

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We both liked it but if I make the dish again I would add more spice, you need a lot of flavor to stand up to the stronger taste of the farro.

The best meal of this post is the next one, and it was super easy and healthy too.  Bbq kale and white beans with cheesy corn.

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For the kale, I filled my 8×12 casserole dish with torn dinosaur kale, then topped it with a can of cannelloni beans, some chopped onion, and a bottle of honey bbq sauce before baking in a 350* oven.

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I wrapped our corn in foil and threw it in the oven with the kale.  Mine got a layer of Sriracha mayo, parmesan cheese, salt, and black pepper before it was foiled.  Delicious!

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If I had known how easy it was to cook in the oven I would have been making corn all of the time.

glug, glug, glug

Lots of excitement in the beverage category this week.  I found several new favorites.  First, we headed over to Sweet Adele’s one afternoon for bubble tea.

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They also have amazing looking fruit slice candy that I want to go back for immediately.  On that visit I got a lavender milk bubble tea.

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What?! The flavor was more sweet than floral but it was still very exciting.

Also exciting was 7-11 day, aka July 7th (7/11).

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I got a small cherry/cola for my free slushie.

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There is just no topping the cherry/cola combo {more on that later}.

Finally, I found my new favorite Polar flavor.

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I know I have a new favorite every week but seriously, green apple seltzer is amazing.

empanadas in the city

On Saturday Adam had a coveted weekend day off so the three of us headed into the city.

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Let’s be real – blurry or not, this is the best picture anyone will ever take of Webster and me.

dog in a bag

We walked pretty far from the car to our final destination and the dog was such a little trooper about riding in my purse!  He was so adorable we could barely handle it.

The walk was worth my aching shoulder because we ended up with a great meal.  The PR team for Nuchas contacted me and asked if I would like to come by for lunch.

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The following meal was provided to me free of charge to review on the blog.  As always, all opinions are my own.

Nuchas, started by Argentine-born Ariel Barbouth, is a empanada company in the city.  They have a food truck, a Time Square kiosk, and a catering division.  They bake their empanadas instead of frying them so the goods are actually pretty healthy (and portable!).  They have meat-based, vegetarian, and even vegan options.

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Adam and I got four empanadas to share.

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See how they label them with a little embossed letter?  Too cute.

The Argentine.

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Pat Lafrieda’s ground beef, onions, peppers, scallions, potatoes & olives.  White dough.

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This one was all Adam, obviously.  He was a fan, and said it had good flavor without being too spicy.  There was a nice amount of meat too; they didn’t load it up with potatoes like some places try to do.

The Portobello.

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Portobello mushrooms, spinach, onions, mozzarella & fresh herbs.  Spinach dough.

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Again, good flavor and a nice amount of filling.  The cooked spinach wasn’t watery at all and this felt healthy while still tasting good.  This flavor was the husband’s favorite.

The Spicy Cheese.

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Assorted cheeses & caramelized onions.  White Parmesan dough.

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I don’t know what spices were used here, but I was a big fan.  This flavor was my favorite, but it is worth noting that it was too hot for Adam’s taste.

The Cranberry, Apple, & Nutella.

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Granny smith, cranberries, pear, nutella & chocolate.  White almond dough.

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It was fun to try a dessert empanada.  This was like a slice of apple pie with nutella on top, and really, what dessert isn’t better with some nutella on top?

All in all, we were very impressed with Nuchas.  We both plan on going back and spending our own money the next time we head into Time Square.

the sweet stuff

Three things to share this post in the sweets category; all will be happening again.

I spent a ton of money buying local yellow cherries at Whole Foods one day and then promptly forgot about them for the rest of the week.  By the time I got to the bag, the cherries were still edible but too soft to really be enjoyable, so I baked them into a yummy dessert.

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I modified this recipe from Eat, Live, Run to make a single-serve cherry clafoutis.

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I could not even believe how simple this was to make.

My birthday is next week, and some of my favorite family members sent me this fun package to celebrate.

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Danny Macaroons are actually made locally in NYC (which means we can get more, whee!).

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The flavors were crazy, and included chocolate-dipped, Bailey’s, chocolate, and other fun combinations.  This salted caramel macaroon was the best cookie I’ve had in my life.

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There were two salted caramels but I ate them both before Adam even got home from work.

Finally, there is an ice shop near our apartment and we are officially obsessed.

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They have a million flavors and they are all exciting.  Shown here is toasted marshmallow with key lime cream ice.

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That’s a small by the way; such a good deal for $3.  Marshmallow was great, obviously, but last night I had the best thing ever and now I’ll never be able to order anything else again – cola and strawberry water ice.  <— to die for

What is your very favorite flavor combo for frozen treats?

Weekly Wrap-Up; My Apartment Is Packed But I’m Still Here

I know this is a short “week,” but my laptop has been out sick since last Friday and I’m excited to have her back.

The days since I last posted have been crazy; moving requires a lot of work!  And since we had to pack up so early I’ve been living out of a duffle bag in my own apartment.  The food situation has been pretty ridiculous.  Also, I said a lot of goodbyes this week and they all involved alcohol.  The dog has been judging me.

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Breakfasts

Cinnamon Pecan Special K with skim milk.

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I’m glad that cereal is so tasty, because it was one of the only foods left in the house.

The day I tried to go without cereal (and use up some odds and ends) I ended up with…  skim milk, ~2 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk, and malted milk powder.

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It wasn’t bad, but I won’t be making it a regular breakfast either.

(Non-alcoholic) Drinks

Not so good, was the Honeysuckle Pear Drink Chia.

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The flavor combo had such potential, but I would not have purchased it if I had noticed that it contained stevia and monk fruit extract.  You know what is already sweet?  Honeysuckle and pear juice.  Why not just leave the ingredients at that rather than adding (the terrible flavor of) sugar-free sweeteners?

Very good, was the Honest Fizz Orange Pop.

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I realize there is stevia in this one that I’m not complaining about, but this was delicious.  The flavor was a perfect match to Crush Orange Soda, just a tiny bit less sicky-sweet.  I will definitely look for it again.

Flipping amazing, was the Cucumber Melon Polar Seltzer.

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If you see this – buy it!  It smelled so much like a watermelon!  My co-worker tasted it and we both agreed that it was the best seltzer we’d ever had.

Lunches and Dinners

Like I said, pickings were slim, so dinner was either brinner – aka breakfast for dinner –  or food from a restaurant.

The last slice of Finish the Fridge Frittata with a white nectarine.

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I was loving nectarines earlier this summer but lately I haven’t had much luck getting one that isn’t squishy.

The best “yogurt” bowl I’ve ever made.  Frozen blackberries microwaved with a little sugar on the bottom, Chobani 2% Banana Greek Yogurt and low-fat cottage cheese in the middle, and granola on top.

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I was heartbroken when I realized I couldn’t make another one of these bowls until after we finish moving.

On Monday, a friend and I drove up to visit to friends who relocated to Rochester after graduation.  We had a really nice day, including lunch at Aladdin’s.

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My spread was the vegetarian combo.  I chose Dolmades, Babaganoush, and Spanikopita.

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The food was amazing and we got to sit right along the canal, so the view was too.

On Tuesday, my sweet coworkers took me out for an early goodbye dinner.  We started the evening at Cantina Loco.  I didn’t really enjoy my first experience at Cantina Loco but I am very glad that my coworker knew enough to drag me back.  Everything was delicious, especially the pitchers of margaritas.

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And the Nachos Locos.

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They were covered in pork but I was a trooper and picked it off because the nachos were just that good.

For dinner I ordered the California Fish Taco – Crisp Fried Fish, Cabbage Slaw,
Pickled Onion, Spicy Sauce.

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Delicious!

We went to Founding Fathers afterwards and I am kicking myself for not going sooner.  Great bartender, great drinks, and apparently great free popcorn that I somehow didn’t notice.  Among other things, we had a shot that was basically a liquified snickerdoodle!

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The bartender asked trivia questions all night, which I loved.  I even gave him two new questions to add to his rotation.  What do you call this “?!” punctuation mark?  [Answer at the end of this post]

One night I got a spicy cajun quesadilla from The Spot.

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The prices are a little high, but the Spot’s food is quite good.

Last night’s dinner was my final slice of Zetti’s.

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My white broccoli pizza was delicious, a good way to finish out my Zetti’s addiction!

See you next week!

Answer – an interrobang

Weekly Wrap-Up

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.

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

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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.

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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 lineLemon Pound Cake and Peanut Butter Cookie.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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We tried a Vietnamese Pudding for dessert.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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It was a good week!

A Final Trip To Toronto

We are leaving Buffalo in just three short weeks (there is a post on that to come!) and we’ve amassed a long list of “must-do’s” before we leave the area for good.  Topping our list was a final day trip to Toronto.

We headed North on Wednesday and ate, and walked, and ate some more!  Adam and I both decided that it was our best trip this year.

We started our travels at the St. Lawrence Market.

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How had I not heard about this foodie heaven before?!  It was a Canadian Reading Market or Faneuil Hall, packed with goodies.  Adam got freshly made potato and cheddar pierogi with fried onions and sour cream.

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I went with macarons.

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They were beyond swoon-worthy.  Maple toffee and Crème brûlée .

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The texture was perfect, and yet, the utterly amazing macarons were not even the best thing I ate all day.

From the market, we drove to Bloor Street, where we parked and continued on foot.  Usually we head to Bloor St. for froyo, but today we had a new destination.

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BNC Cake House has been on my to-do list for two long years, ever since I starred this post from Callie in my Google Reader.  Her description of Pat Bing Soo, or shaved ice, has basically haunted my dreams – “A bed of shaved ice … topped with red bean paste, assorted fruits, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and condensed milk.

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You guys, it was even better than I was hoping/expecting.

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The sweet condensed milk and tangy vanilla frozen yogurt melted down into the shaved ice and melded into something amazing.  The best analogy I have for the texture is to liken it to the Dairy Queen frozen hot chocolates I was obsessed with all year.

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We ate every single bite.

To finish the day, we walked over to Koreatown for some grown up food at Pho88.  Actually, I kept my sugar-buzz going just a bit longer with an egg yolk soda.

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I tried this drink for the first time way back in 2009 (that link goes to my old blog! when we were living in Brooklyn) but thanks to Pho88’s menu I finally know what’s in it:  club soda, egg yolk, and condensed milk.  I adored it, the flavor is lightened-up egg cream.

I ordered grilled chicken and spring roll vermicelli for my meal.

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I couldn’t eat much of my chicken since I’m not really a dark meat fan but that was fine, I mostly wanted to use the noodles and veggies as a base for all of the fabulous, spicy sauces sitting on our table.

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I may have left food on my plate but Adam’s was practically licked clean.

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He got grilled pork chop and rice with fried egg and he described his meal as “perfect.”

Perfect is how I would describe the day!  We laughed as we wandered through Koreatown that our very favorite way to vacation is to spend the days walking and eating.  Goodbye for now Toronto, I’m sure we will make our way back someday!

Have you ever tried pat bing soo?  What is your favorite vacation activity?

Ohio Surprise!

The past weekend I drove to Ohio to pay my mom and grandmother a surprise visit.  Adam was actually already with them hanging out but we weren’t sure about my work schedule so I didn’t want to tell them any plans.  The timing worked out at the last-minute and I showed up in the parking lot one night after dinner and scared the crap out of them.  {Surprise!}  It was great to get some family time.

I didn’t manage to snap many pictures, but we did have a fun weekend.

We went to Sonic and a giant strawberry diet coke rocked my face off.

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We checked out the sign that was dedicated to my grandpa who passed away last year.

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That field is named after him!

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And of course we made time for a trip to Trader Joe’s.

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I picked up some tasty stuff that I plan on blogging about soon.

P.S. After family time, Adam drove to meet up with friends for a Tough Mudder challenge.  He is officially a bad ass.

Bloody {Mary} Sunday

My big plans of knocking off some school work didn’t come to fruition, but I did manage to do some day drinking.  That’s a better use of time really, isn’t it?

I started the morning with this bowl of absolute incredibleness.

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Dannon Oikos Cafe Latte Greek Yogurt, 1/2 serving Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola, fresh blackberries, 1 tsp honey, 2 Tbsp coconut butter.

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Oh my goodness, you guys, the coconut butter.  I have been reading Kath talk about coconut butter acting as a magic shell for years but I never quite knew what she meant.  It was amazing.

I also snacked on (approximately 2 servings each) BBQ Pop Chips with reduced-fat french onion dip.

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If I had known I was going to have chips with dinner I might have done a veggie-based snack instead, but at that point I planned on having soup!  Sidenote – did you know that Pop Chips has a new ketchup flavor?!  I’m pretty sure that sounds terrible.

I spent my afternoon at work.  The weather has finally gotten the memo that it’s Spring so lots of people were out and about.

At the end of my shift some friends stopped by to invite me to Blue Monk.  They were having a Bloody Mary special, with celery, hot sauce, tomato, etc infused vodkas.

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A girl from our program sweetly got us a 2nd round so I ended up having two.

Bloody Marys make me crave stick-to-your-ribs food so instead of soup I ended up with Moe’s for dinner.  A rice bowl – rice / black beans/ sautéed onion / mushroom / green pepper / cheese / sour cream / guacamole / corn salsa.

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Plus chips with queso.

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Apparently there’s always room for chips.

Do ketchup flavored chips sound good to you?

Choco-Cherry Love

I’ve been skipping breakfast on most of the early mornings of my internship without incident, but today I ran into issues.  After a week of eating breakfast – giant, glorious, egg studded breakfasts – my body rebelled at today’s sudden fast.  I spent the first hour of my morning light-headed and nauseous, crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t pass out while reading charts.  Yuck.

All that is to say, I drank a regular sugar Pepsi for breakfast (I felt better almost immediately!), after breaking out in a very embarrassing cold sweat while talking with a doctor.  No photo because I was in a hurry to get back to work.

Lunch was nutritionally lame as well; I ran out of time to pack food this morning.

pizza pizza

At least the hospital cafeteria has good pizza.

When I got home this afternoon I made myself a Choco-Cherry Smoothie.

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1 heaping cup frozen sweet dark cherries // 1.5 heaping Tbsp Navita’s chocolate Protein Smoothie Mixer // 1 Tbsp U-Bet chocolate syrup // ~1 cup Silk Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Milk.

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It had so much potential but sadly my smoothie had absolutely no flavor.  It was basically ice water!  I’m not sure where I went wrong, but I drank the whole thing any way to get in the nutrients.

I spent my afternoon working on my thesis for the history class I’m taking this semester.  I am not enjoying having to write an actual paper; it’s been awhile!  I am hoping to plug away over the next two weeks though and get it done a little bit early so I can get it off of my mind.

I ate baby carrots with blue cheese while I worked.

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The perfect snack.

I spent the evening in night class.  We talked about the Holocaust today, which felt like a throw-back to my first time in college.  Did you know – when I thought about getting my Masters in English I planned on writing my thesis on Holocaust literature?

Then I hurried home to squeeze in a few episodes of “Battlestar Galactica.”  I enjoyed a sliced banana with peanut butter while I wrote this post.

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I’ve decided I’d rather paint my nails – a gorgeous, sparkly pink! – than eat a grown-up dinner, so that’s all she wrote.

Can you skip meals or does it make you too queasy?

Charleston, Day 1 And 2

Hello from the South!  I’m blogging in a spring-ish 50-something degrees (it’s better than Buffalo!).  Actually, I’m blogging from Adam’s computer this trip, so I’ve got to keep things quick.  We are having a terrific, delicious time.

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Breakfast day 1 – brunch at the famous Hominy Grill.

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I got a(n extra spicy) bloody mary.

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And a bowl of she crab soup.

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Charleston is famous for its she crab soup; this bowl was super creamy and loaded with pieces of crab.  I adore anything with sherry.

We ordered a piece of buttermilk pie for the table.

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But it was much drier and less custard-y than we were hoping so we all just took a small taste.

It was a rainy first day so we did lots of inside and driving activities.  We got in some good sight-seeing and scoped out a few spots to hit up during the rest of our trip.

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One of our stops was Whole Foods for stocking up on goodies.  <– chocolate coconut butter packets, it’s good to have you back in my life!

There was froyo next door.

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I didn’t really love any of the flavor offerings so I got a small cup of cheesecake yogurt with tons of popping boba.

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Can’t go wrong with boba.

We went to Hyman’s Seafood for dinner and they brought us complimentary hush puppies.

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Best hush puppies ever; they had the perfect amount of sweetness.

We also started with fried pickles.

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Lots of fried food in that dinner.  I got french fries as my side,

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with steamed shrimp.

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Every component of my meal ended up smothered in tartar and cocktail sauce.  I’m a girl who loves her condiments.

I was exhausted by the end of the day and crashed into bed hard.  Let’s pretend it was the 20 minute stationary bike ride I started the day with, and not the heavy dinner!

Day 2 we skipped the gym and slept in.  Instead I made it a healthy morning by starting my day with an apple.

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Then we headed to Bakehouse for breakfast.

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The offerings were as delicious as the space was adorable.  The cookies and bars looks amazing but the closest we came to them was splitting a caramel marshmallow.

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I also did a toasted marshmallow cappuccino.

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Adam and I shared breakfast.

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We had a mixed berry scone.

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And a piece of Greek turkey strata.

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It was a great breakfast.

We spent our second day exploring on foot.  King Street and Meeting Street provided lots to look at.

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We even got to see dolphins!

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I couldn’t get a picture to save my life, but we saw lots of waving flippers and even a mama/baby combo.

Tastes from the day included…. Praline,

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a drop of the spiciest hot sauce available (I stuck a toothpick in it and touched it to my tongue; I honestly didn’t think it was that hot!),

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honey,

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an Earl Grey macaron (<– squeeee!),

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a KIND bar,

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and some watermelon Zots from one of the many old-time candy stores.

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All good, but I am definitely a lunch eater; when we got back to the hotel to change for dinner I was starving.  Enter the perfect snack –

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Diet coke and Cacao Bliss?  Yes please!

But I sure was glad I saved room for dinner.  We had an incredible Southern meal at Magnolias.

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Bread with ridiculous cream cheese herb butter came when we sat down.

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And we ordered a pimento cheese plate to start.

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Sadly, the cheese wasn’t quite as sharp as I was hoping for, but everyone else at the table loved it.  Pimento cheese was at the top of my to-do list for the Southern vacation though, so I hope to try again tomorrow.

I ordered a Bellini to drink (champagne/peach nectar/and a touch of grenadine),

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but ended up swapping with Adam halfway through for his vodka/creme de cassis/pineapple juice martini.

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For dinner I went with the “Fresh, Local, and Vegetarian.”  You can’t go wrong with a name like that!

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Sautéed spinach, fresh corn salad, roasted carrots, fried green tomatoes with jalopeño pimento cheese, and mashed potatoes.

We were too stuffed for dessert, though the menu listed a cream cheese pecan brownie with white chocolate ice cream that I’ll probably be dreaming about!

In fact, I’d like to be dreaming now; goodnight!

Have you ever been to Charleston?  Is there anything we just can’t miss on our last day?