My Giant Post Disappeared, OMG

Uggggggggh! Welp the title kind of says it all. I spent more than an hour last night recapping all of the fabulous eats from last week and the post has disappeared. I’m dying, dying!

Photo-dump style, here are a few key players…

Amazing fruit salad with blueberries, strawberries, banana,  orange, and toasted coconut.

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Pumpkin yogurts for lunch.

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Plus two cafeteria winners.

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First pumpkin smoothie.

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So much good candy, including trail mix with pb pretzels, raisins, and candy corn m&m’s.

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Duh.

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The best pumpkin brew of the season so far.

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A salad bar lunch date at Whole Foods.

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Smorgasburg eats! Duck buns and other good but not as good buns (peanut chicken for me and pork belly for Adam) smothered in amazing chilli sauce.

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Plus an awesome good batch ice cream sandwich of coffee ic, caramel, and espresso beans on salted brown butter cookies.

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A fantastically “fall” meal that Adam said made him feel like a forest troll. Shredded brussels sprouts sautéed with turkey bacon, roasted butternut squash, baby spinach, shredded chicken, barley, sweet and spicy pecans, honey mustard dressing, and pomegranate.

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Delicious Greek Tofu Pie that I promise to retype the recipe for tonight.

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That is most of it. I hate computers!

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

I give the last three days an A+!  I had a very inconveniently timed doctor’s appointment on Friday and it made more sense to take a vacation day than try to fit the travel time into a work day.  Serendipitously, Adam had switched some shifts with a coworker who was going to a wedding and he had most of the three off as well.  Yippee!

I’m going to do this post old school, stream of consciousness style, though there are some holes as this definitely does not show every single thing that I ate…

Friday, once I had finished up with the dermatologist and Adam had rested up from his overnight shift, we headed into Manhattan.

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Our destination was Krispy Kreme, and these limited edition Ghostbusters donuts.

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I ain’t afraid of no donut!  They were filled with marshmallow crème and were actually kind of amazing; maybe my favorite donuts I’ve ever tasted.

We wandered around Penn Station, then did lunch in Koreatown.  We had a(n impulse-bought) Groupon for food and booze at Boss Lounge.

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I ordered a Pinch Me, which had Grey Goose, lychee, and grenadine.

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Adam and I shared a kimichi and cheese roll.

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As well as seaweed and tofu salad.

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The tofu was silken and strangely sweet.  The husband loved it.

Afterwards we explored Koreatown a bit more.  We split a kimchi bun from a food court we want to go back to asap.

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Tried whatever the heck this was?!

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The top is mango and red bean but we couldn’t identify the white – chewy and gelatinous – stuff.  Neither of us could bring ourselves to swallow it!

And had a coffee popsicle from Tous les Jours for dessert.

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Every single thing we’ve tried from TlJ has been awesome.  Adam took home cheese buns that he adored and I’m kicking myself for not buying a milk bun.

For dinner, we made our way over to Hardings’s.

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Whiskey sour made with fresh lime, cane sugar, and egg whites!

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Adam had yummy, crispy salmon and I did a fun combo of appetizers.

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Pumpkin pie soup with spiced whipped cream.

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And kale salad with chickpeas, Marcona almonds, shaved sunchokes, and lemon vinaigrette.

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Ahaha, I didn’t realize until I reread the menu to write this post that those white shreds were sunchokes and not really stale parmesan.

Afterwards we trained it over to Lexington (and Dylan’s Candy!), then walked back to our car across the Queensboro Bridge.  It was a lovely nighttime walk but my calves are sooooo sore now!

We were parked in Long Island City and we stopped at The Baroness for a nightcap on the way.

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We want to go back for a cheese plate immediately, but for now we shared a cute beer sampler.

Saturday was supposed to be spent at Smorgasburg, but yucky, rainy weather scared us back to Long Island.  Instead we ran local errands – groceries were shopped and both of our cars now have changed oil.

We had baked potatoes for brunch.

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I swear that there is a potato under there.  Topped with butter, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, leftover kale salad, jalopeño, sour cream, and a fried egg.

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We poked the yolks into our buttered potatoes and it was pretty great.

We spent the evening cuddled on the couch with GIANT plates of nachos.  I also ate this licorice mix.

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We are now completely caught up on new fall tv.  The Chicago’s (PD and Fire) are my favorite so far.

We had more to-do’s to check off on Sunday, and headed back into the city so I could buy a winter coat.

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Train fuel = toasted everything bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese.

We considered getting Chobani but the line was too crazy, so instead we got froyo.  Pumpkin pie and praline topped with caramel, toffee, Butterfinger, yogurt chips, and mochi.

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Our bowls were tasty, and even better, free.  The last time I was at Yogurtland I was a hot mess and I dropped my credit card into my yogurt and the cashier felt so bad for me that he gave me a handful of vouchers for free yogurt.

I had several coffee this weekend (duh!), but the best was actually from 7-11.

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Cinnamon coffee with pumpkin pie creamer and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I ate fruit salad while I prepped a batch for the upcoming week.

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And we made big, hearty bowls for dinner.

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Sprouted red jasmine rice // frozen spinach sautéed with bbq sauce, browned mushrooms and tons of onions // red lentils cooked with cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika, curry powder, and more sautéed onion // sour cream and Sriracha on top.

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We ate our warm meal while we worked on the winter-y activity of swapping out our summer wardrobes.  I still don’t have a ton of cold weather gear but I am excited to have my boots back out.

Back in the “old days,” blog posts always ended with a question:

Have you swapped out your summer and winter wardrobes yet?

Seven Sweet Snacks; Weekly Wrap-Up

I don’t have a ton to share this week.  I certainly ate enough – including a truly disturbing amount of potato chips – but I didn’t get a picture of much.  All I have for you today is seven great snacks…

TJ’s nacho kale chips.

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These are definitely the best variety of packaged kale chips that I’ve tried.  Crispy but not crumbly.

Guava-cheese empanada on the train.  Guava and cheese are the perfect pair, I don’t know how this combo was not more popular back home.

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I really wanted to love the book in the background – a collection of essays from the former food writer for “Vogue” – but it was hard not to hate it back.  Steingarten was hilariously wry and quite thorough, but his intense vitriol against all nutrition experts turned me off.

Cherry Pistachio Quaker Oatmeal with coconut butter.

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Technically lunch, not a snack, but coconut butter on oats is too tasty not to rave about.

A Stumptown Cold Brew box with a Honeycrisp.

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Uggh.  My favorite coffee drink with my favorite apple variety was almost too much happiness.

We said goodbye to Apple Month with caramel apple floats!

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Vanilla ice cream in Jones’ Carmel Apple Soda.

Then it was time for pumpkin.  Like this pumpkin pie donut from Dunkin’.

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This was actually not great – it was horrifying and neither Adam nor I wanted a second bite – but you know I have to mention all of the on-theme goodies I sample in the fall.

My pumpkin spice latte was a total win {#basic}.

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I had a freebie so I went all out – venti iced non-fat latte with two shots of pumpkin spice, an extra shot of espresso, and salted caramel drizzle.

Have you had a PSL yet this fall?

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Had Visitors

On the excitement front this weekend – Adam’s parents came to visit!  We are going to see all of my in-laws soon for Thanksgiving, but it was good to catch up with the parents now before the craziness of eleven of us under one roof.  We had them Friday night through Sunday afternoon and we got to show off LI.

lunches

Packed for Friday – an AriZona Oak Tea and 2% Fage with a big baggie of pomegranate arils and chopped fruit punch plucot.

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I also bought mac and cheese and some greens from the cafeteria.

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Heartbreakingly, I think this was my last yogurt bowl with plucots for this season, the produce sections have all seemed to have moved on.

We had so much fun last weekend that we did a repeat this Saturday and drove the husband’s parents up to…

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Montauk!

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We went to the beach, the lighthouse, and of course, Lunch.

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Adam and I shared a buttery hot lobster roll,

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and a bowl of lobster chowder.

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My favorite part is the whiffs of sherry.

And that’s not a foamy beer head,

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we drank a chocolate egg cream for dessert.

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You could tell that it was made with Hershey’s (a true EC has U-Bet), but Adam was still a fan.

We kept things low-key before goodbyes on Sunday and hung out around the house.  Take-out from Luigi’s fit the bill.

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I had a side salad, a buffalo chicken slice, and a Magic Hat Wilhelm Scream that I split with my m-i-l.

snacks

Breakfast at my desk on Friday.  An iced Americano (with skim milk and cream) with a sticky-sweet Dark Chocolate Peanut Larabar.  –Ummm, and I just noticed on the site that Lara has new Pumpkin Pie and Gingerbread flavors!!  How do I find those immediately?–

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Sweet = Haribo Licorice Wheels plus some of the Mini Gold Bears that my s-i-l sweetly sent us.

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Salty = TJ’s pea crisps.

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Coffee from 7-11 is kind of amazing.

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Adam and I are embarrassingly into the Almond Joy Creamer they have there.  And our location has pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie creamer, and (free!) pumpkin spice syrup.  What, what?!

dinners

Dinners were the least exciting meals of the weekend.  Friday night we kept thing simple while we finished our last-minute cleaning.

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A toasted sandwich of caramel apple swirl bread, herbed sliced turkey, light Havarti, and TJ’s sweet and spicy jalopeño jelly.

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With baby carrots on the side.

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Simple but good.

Saturday we went out to Tavern 18.

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I had a beer that was pretty good.

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And a Thai Noodle Salad that was pretty terrible.

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No veggies, no flavor, and I keep forgetting that I kind of hate Soba noodles.  I’m into pasta that is chewy, while Soba tends to fall apart in your mouth.

No complaints about dessert though!  The best thing about Tavern 18 is that it is spitting distance from Ralph’s Ices.

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Dulce de leche and pumpkin pie for me.  I practically licked the cup clean.

I didn’t want my awful leftovers to go to waste, so I gussied them up into something moderately edible for dinner last night.

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+ roasted broccoli and cauliflower and loads of creamy Sriracha sauce (tons of Sriracha whisked together with smoked brown sugar, mayo, and a little canola oil).

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Hot sauce can hide a multitude of sins.

P.S. It is October first on Wednesday!  <– in other words, it is three days until I drink pumpkin beers and pumpkin spice lattes like crazy

Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

Soooo, that title probably could have worked for any week this year, huh?  What can I say, the addiction is not lessening.  I will totally cop to the fact that I allot more of my budget to coffees than clothing or shoes {priorities}.

DSC02458I have a good mix of meals to share today, including several that I definitely want to make again soon!  I could not wake up enough in the mornings for any breakfast shots, but overall I caught a good amount of the week on film…

lunch

Fantastically thick and creamy yogurt.  Coffee Fage Fruyo with a Honeycrisp and an AriZona Oak Reserve Tea.

DSC02460Plus a red pear and a turkey jerky stick that I snacked on later.

Salad from the cafeteria.

lunchRomaine topped with red onion, kidney beans, shredded cheddar, black olives, and too much blue cheese dressing.  Plus bbq chips on the side.

Apple themed oats.

DSC02509Apple & Cinnamon Quaker (which was gummy and not good) with a banana-applesauce and the last of my caramel apple candies.

Brunch.  Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and a chocolate croissant.

DSC02526I was randomly extra hungry on Thursday morning so I went down to the cafeteria for a late breakfast.  I ended up getting slammed with follow-ups all afternoon and having to skip lunch, and serendipitously my late breakfast kept me from chewing off my own arm.

snacks

Gotta start with the coffee line-up!  From worst to best.  Starbucks Hazelnut Doubleshot was very meh.

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DSC02517I was a little sick of it by the end, but the coconut cream did a great job of keeping things creamy.  Nonetheless, the winner = Blue Bottle.

DSC02467These little milk boxes kill me and this was wonderfully creamy, sweet, and roasty.

Adam has a weird obsession with Au Bon Pain and he sweetly brought me home one of the pumpkin bunt cakes he’s been loving recently.

DSC02487I’m just not a huge cake person, but I loved getting a surprise treat.

The last of the Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato, topped with some melted (chunky/flax/chia)peanut butter from TJ.

DSC02494I’m glad I tried this with the end of the container or I would have gone back and made more!  Best combo ever.  Adam’s a little wary of the chunky pb but even he thought this was good.

Leftover slice of mushroom and olive pizza.

DSC02468Clover honey straw.  <– please note: I wouldn’t normally eat this straight like a total sugar freak, but it split open while I was trying to pack it in a lunch

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DSC02529The strangest pairing of the week was also the best.

DSC02498DSC02500Nonni’s Banana Dark Chocolate Almond Thins spread with Port Sault cheese were delicious.

dinner

A fantabulously fall salad.

DSC02479This was so flipping yummy that we ended up making it two nights in a row.

DSC02482Baby arugula and spinach blend topped with maple balsamic, pea shoots, Port Sault cheese, pomegranate arils, sweet and spicy hazelnuts [baked with canola oil, honey, cayenne pepper, and salt] , and roasted delicata squash [with coconut oil, cinnamon, and curry powder].

DSC02485The pizza on the side was this mushroom and black truffle flatbread from Trader Joe’s.

DSC02474All-in-all, a great meal.

Wednesday night I went out in Williamsburg for a friend’s birthday.

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And last night I threw together some fancied up macaroni.

DSC02536DSC02533Annie’s Shells and Cheddar with TJ’s smoked herring and some chopped up pea shoots.

DSC02534Pea shoots do not belong in pasta, but Adam seemed to like it.  I smothered my bowl in smoked brown sugar and Sriracha.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

I had a perpetual case of cranky-face this whole past week.  Nothing concrete set it off – Adam and I haven’t had a fight in ages, the dog hasn’t been being a little monster, and my work week was pretty varied so it was more interesting and less stressful than usual – but I was constantly in a bad mood.  I was also super hungry all week, which I guess probably was a trigger for some of my ire.  It was a real bummer.

Rather than trying futilely to fight it, I plan on giving in and wallowing.  I’m going to spend the next two days eating pizza and catching up on tv in the hopes that the grump works its way out of my system by Monday.

In the meantime, here are a few things that did make me smile last week…

{1} The best breakfast.  How flipping cute are these Stumptown Cold Brew boxes???

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Adam and I geeked out when we spotted them at WF.

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And it was totally delicious; sweet and creamy.  My Bananas Foster Larabar Uber wasn’t bad either.

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To quote Lara – “It’s basically bananamazing!”

{2} The most on-theme lunch.  Blueberries and caramel apple pie Greek yogurt, plus licorice and caramel apple Twizzlers for later.

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I loved the licorice; apparently I am a fan even when it’s not enrobed in candy coating (though that’s not to say that I didn’t also eat Good & Plenty several times this week!).  I was not a fan of the yogurt, though I can’t say that was really a surprise.  In my endless quest to try every apple(pie) flavored item on the market there are bound to be a few losers.

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Worst of all, it didn’t even fill me up, I got fries from the cafeteria as well.

{3} The best lunch.  This day’s break was much more satisfying, the honey-chia combination was killer.  I will be pairing those two up again soon.

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With blueberries and a Hemp & Chia O’Coconut snack on the side.

{4} The best dinner.  Eaten in two courses.  First, a snack plate of baby carrots, buffalo blue cheese pretzel nuggets, TJ’s turkey jerky, and Tribe roasted vegetable hummus.

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Then later, pizza pizza – buffalo chicken – and a side salad.

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From Luigi’s if any locals are looking for a recommendation.  The crust was so good; chewy almost like Naan!

{5} The best dessert {of the season}.  I know, I know, I’m eating pumpkin in September, but the Ralph’s location near our apartment closed early last fall and it’s essential that I get my fill of this goodness before it goes away.

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Salted caramel pretzel and pumpkin pie cream ices.  <– best flavor ever.

What do you do to help yourself get over it when you’re feeling cranky?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Five Favorites

On Saturday, I kept myself busy with errands and drinking all the coffee.

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On Sunday, we went for a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

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Oh my goodness.  The weather was absolutely beautiful but we both agreed that three hours was too long – I am going to do my best not to sit today!

Here are my five favorites from the weekend…

{1}  Rose Apriums, an apricot-plum blend.  They are similar to the Plucot/Pluot (my favorite fruit of all time) but more apricot than plum.  Wonderful.

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I packaged materials from home and ate them in a tasty granola bowl at work on Friday.  2 chopped Rose Apriums, 1/2+ cup KIND Banana Nut Clusters, and skim milk.

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Another summer fruit worth mentioning is the Sonya apple. They are perfectly sweet, and juicy without being drippy.

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The book in the background is my final recommendation. It is a compilation of food writing – book excerpts, magazine articles, blog posts – from 2013, divided into sections about meat, eating local, home cooks, etc, and it has been delightful to read. Now I want to get my hands on some of the other years.

{2}  A copy-cat ABP bbq chicken salad.

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I enjoyed this salad so much when I sampled it at Au Bon Pain, I knew I would have to recreate it at home.

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A romaine base topped with ranch dressing, corn, cucumber, tomato, three-cheese blend, and chopped chicken that was tossed with TJ’s Carolina bbq sauce.

{3} Green eggs (no ham).

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An easy dinner that tasted so good. I sautéed frozen spinach and corn with evoo, dill, a pinch of sugar, and green Tabasco, then tossed in chopped chicken and chunks of raw goat’s milk cheese, and scrambled in two eggs.

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Corn is so freaking good in scrambled eggs.  I like it when everything gets a bit charred before you add your eggs.

{4}  A killer sandwich from Bareburger, the Big Bacon Blue burger with a few modifications.

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I ended up with grilled chicken, turkey bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, smokehouse sauce, and blue cheese.

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I was swooning over this sandwich; it ended up being the best “burger” I’ve ever eaten. I’m pretty jazzed about that season drink in the background too – to be shared in September!

{5}  Chicago Mix from Trader Joe’s. You can’t go wrong with a caramel corn/cheddar popcorn blend.

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After our bike ride, Adam and I spent Sunday on the couch with “The Office,” and the popcorn was thoroughly enjoyed.

Any summer goods you want to recommend?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Knock On Wood

My office (not our clinic but specifically my office in the clinic) didn’t have power for two painful days this week and it made things a little crazy.  Fingers crossed, I think we have the problem fixed for good now.

My head was kind of all over the place – I accidentally ate pizza three meals in a row, Monday dinner through Tuesday lunch! – so I don’t have a ton to share, but I am pretty jazzed about the things I did photograph…

breakfast

I made amazing cold brew this week.

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Starbucks espresso roast (in this ratio) with maple cinnamon sugar dumped in with the grounds.

I wish I had a bigger French press because day 2 of leftover coffee was just as delicious.

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With a yummy Sonya apple.

Coffee and cereal from the cafeteria.

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That coffee contained a horrifying amount of sugar; the sugar lid popped off while I was pouring and I didn’t have time to get back in line.  I totally drank it, but I’m taking it as a sign that I should just go back to not putting sugar in my coffee.  (I used to sugar 1/10 times and lately it’s been more like 8/10.)

Coffee with dried Jackfruit and chocolate milk.  Speaking of the sweet stuff, it’s amazing that I didn’t get a headache from this sugar bomb breakfast.

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No granulated sugar but I did do two pumps of cinnamon dolce – and an extra shot of espresso! – since this was a freebie cash-in.

lunch

You’ll spot tea in all of my lunch pictures, so I’ll start by mentioning the sweet box I received from AriZona.

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Please note – I received the tea free of charge to review.  I was not provided further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

They recently launched a new line of OAK Reserve Teas – black tea steeped with American Oak chips during brewing.  I am pretty picky about black tea, but I have to say that I loved these!  I was very impressed.  I was expecting the flavor to be smoky, but it was more woodsy?!  The lemon was my favorite; mellow versus sour and the citrus played nicely off of the oak.  They are made with maple sugar and that flavor definitely comes through in a pleasing way.  The lemon and lightly sweetened both have 75 calories and 22 mg of caffeine per bottle, which I think makes them an ok candidate for an “everyday drink.”  The unsweetened has zero calories, and rather than adding fake sugars they let the tea stand on its own.  <– love!  I am obsessed with the fact that manufacturers make “diet” drinks with nonnutritive sweeteners versus occasionally just cutting back on or leaving out the sugar entirely

The PR rep sent me a recipe for a cocktail that sounds pretty darn yummy (look at the bottom of this post), but Adam just dumped some Johnny Walker into the lemon variety one evening and was quite pleased with the final result.  We both plan on purchasing the teas with our own money once this very generous shipment runs out.

Back to lunch.  Oikos Caramel Macchiato Greek Yogurt with 2 dapple pluots and KIND Banana Nut Clusters.

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This lunch was great.  The granola (a former freebie) was wonderful; the best variety of KIND granola that I’ve had yet.  The banana came through strongly but not at all in that fake “banana” flavoring way.  I was kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed it.  I am excited to eat more of all of these lunch components again.

Chocolate Strawberry yogurt (I guess this flavor is new?) with blueberries and pomegranate.

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I never think about pomegranate for my lunch yogurts, but the little pops were delightful.

Chobani Coconut 2% Greek Yogurt with blueberry, pomegranate, and roasted coconut chips.

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Best lunch of the week.

snacks

This happened more than once…

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I am basically heartbroken to have eaten the last of my Chinatown crème brulee (or maybe coffee?) flavored hard candies.

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Pea protein chips from my 2nd Urthbox.

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Guava and cheese empanada on the train.

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dinner

Is anyone at all surprised that we ate Chipotle for dinner?

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My usual salad combo.

Not a lot to share in this category this week.  You know we did Chipotle a 2nd night too. One night I ate pizza.  And tonight (I’m writing to you from Thursday) I made a spinach salad with blue cheese, sweet and spicy pecans, dried cranberries, and lavender salt.

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It’s packed to-go because one of the husband’s friends invited us over for dinner.  I am super awkward about taking food photographs in front of new people, so that’s all she wrote!

Oaked Cocktail Recipe

  • 1 oz Amaretto Liqeuer
  • 2 oz AriZona OAK Brewed Tea  (Emily note – use the unsweetened variety or skip the sugar)
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 mint sprig

oak