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!
Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is an infinite, constant number (i.e. the number goes on forever and it’s the same number for all circles of all sizes). π equals 3.1415926535897932384626etcetera,etcetera. Because of this, math-lovers and sugar-aficionados alike celebrate March 14 (3/14 = 3.14) as Pi Day each year. This year was extra special because it was a once-a-hundred-years opportunity to celebrate a full five digits (3/14/2015 = 3.14[.]15). Adam and I partook in both dessert pies and pizza pies to mark the occasion.
Pi Day
Adam and I knew that we wanted to go for the double, so we headed to Park Slope, where both our favorite pie place and pizza place reside. We were clearly not the only ones to have this idea –
Malted chocolate pecan for him and buttermilk chess for me. The crusts suffered a bit from what must have been a major uptick in production (Blackbirds was offering a 3 slices for $14 special) but the fillings were amazing as always.
Bbq chicken for me. Adam got more because he has π memorized beyond the first three digits 😉
Dinners in Bowls
I’m not so big on plates -I also prefer chopsticks to forks – and it feels like we eat the majority of our dinner out of bowls. Extra-credit if the food is layered into the bowl instead of served as a homogenous dish. Our dinners last weekend hit both counts.
We even ate dessert in bowls.
The ice cream was good, but nothing about it was “Tres Leches.” Boo.
Spicy sweet potato bowls.
baked yam
creamy Sriracha sauce – Sriracha, mayo, and honey
sautéed broccoli – in soy sauce and rice vinegar
sunny side up egg – fried in coconut oil
This was… not good. The idea was good, I think, but the broccoli was freezer-burnt and the potatoes were old.
Our bbq bowls were much, much better.
brown rice cooked in chicken stock
bbq pulled chicken – cooked in the crockpot with stock and smothered in TJ’s bbq sauce
collard greens sautéed with bbq sauce and turkey bacon
tons of caramelized sweet and red onions (cooked like this)
shredded sharp cheddar
We’re going to put our leftovers on top of salad later this week and I’m pretty excited about it.
DUMBO Fun
Drinks in DUMBO.
I am obsessed with Brooklyn Roasting Company‘s coffee and we finally made it to their roaster/café. I wish I had taken photos because the space was gorgeous and inviting, but we loved our beverages.
Iced Maple Shay for me = espresso with cream and real maple syrup. Amazingly, it was too sweet and creamy for me to finish.
Our next stop was the antithesis of maple and cream, green juice from Forager’s.
Kale, spinach, cucumber, and papaya. I will not be getting papaya again; I always like to include one sweet and juicy component in my green juice (carrot, apple, watermelon, etc) but the papaya did not bring any brightness to the party.
Williamsburg Fun
Sunday brunch and brunch dessert (<– that’s not a thing!) in East Williamsburg. We ate at Brooklyn Star where Adam was 99.9% sure that Emma Stone was at the next table. It wasn’t her, but it sure was her doppelgänger.
The bourbon bon bon – bourbon, iced coffee, sweetened condensed milk – was the menu item that called me in.
Nope! I love bourbon, and I love iced coffee, but apparently I don’t love them together.
My kale salad stole my heart though.
You can’t see it under the giant cheese crisp, but there was raw kale with lemon vinegarette, roasted peanuts, and golden raisins. Best kale salad ever. I know I say that every time, but this one was my new favorite.
When it comes to the big, important stuff – having jobs, our health, and a great marriage – Adam and I know that we are unbelievably lucky. That said, man oh man, this week was annoying. The snow has been relentless, I wore my favorite sweater to work only to get to the cafeteria and douse myself head to toe in balsamic vinegar, Adam had to have both of his big toe nails emergently removed, and my car has a flat tire. When it rains it pours*. I’m pretty sure I have never been so glad for a weekend!
There was a lot of stress snacking going down this week that I didn’t do the best job of photographing, but I am going to recap the most delicious things…
breakfast
Iced coffee on the train and plain yogurt with peanut butter at my desk.
I had a ridiculously amazing coffee combo this week… Cold-brew with chocolate milk and toasted marshmallow coffee syrup!
So insanely good.
Are you admiring my nails? Scroll to the last section of this post.
Note – the popcorn was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
Pre-popped popcorn can never really compare to freshly popped, but these are definitely the best bagged varieties we’ve ever tried. They are nice and crisp. Adam – who likes to pretend that he doesn’t like popcorn – was crazy for them, so that’s saying something. We preferred the Simply Salted because the EVOO was good, but not quite as flavorful. Both are organic and kosher and have 40 calories per cup.
I surprised my sore husband with a giant, sweet latte.
The citrus fruits shown in my lunches this week are fresh Mandarins from Trader Joe’s that were wonderful. Very sweet and juicy with almost no seeds.
Baked yucca fries from the cafeteria. I had about double what’s shown because I started eating before I sat down.
They were paired with the salad that ruined my outfit.
TJ’s egg white salad and popcorn.
The egg salad was practically inedible; whyyyy was there so much turmeric??
Popcorn, Applegate Farm sliced turkey, mini Jarlsberg, and olives.
The tasting plates were fun, but I was missing my yogurt bowls.
dinner
If you judge a dish by how good it tastes cold and leftover, straight from the casserole dish – I definitely do! – then my pizza mac and cheese was a real winner.
Adam heated his serving up, but he also recommends that you try the recipe.
Chipotle night. I ate a giant rice bowl with chicken, veggies, and pretty much all of the toppings.
Our neighborhood is pretty much a food wasteland, but I think Chipotle would be Adam’s first pick even if we lived somewhere with more going on!
This was our best dinner of the week:
Roasted broccoli and kalettes (aka kale-Brussels sprout hybrids).
Southern pickle “fried” chicken. <– I am so proud of this one; check the recipe sidebar!
I served mine on a toasted, open-faced sandwich with a bit of mayo.
Last night we had fabulous kale salads.
I massaged a bunch of kale with Sepo sauce in the morning and then tossed it with roasted broccoli, cubed avocado, and roasted coconut chips when it was time for dinner.
We were supposed to have chicken on top of our salads but I accidentally left the remaining tenders sitting out on the counter overnight so instead I had a grilled cheese sandwich while I wrote this post.
fancy nails
So my jazzy nail polish? Actually nail wraps from Jamberry.
One of the girls I used to cocktail waitress with is a Jamberry consultant (her sales page is what I linked above) and she sent me a sample kit so I could try them out. I am pretty amazed by how easy they are to put on; really not tricky or time-consuming at all, maybe almost as easy as slopping painting on polish. Plus they are very cute! I will definitely buy some to try again.
P.S. Thanks to Way Back Machine, I was able to find my old employee profile (click to enlarge) –
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 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).
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?
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!
