Tag Archives: cheese

Highlights From OBX

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Hey there!  Long time no see!  It has been, and is going to be, a crazy summer.

Among other things, I went to the Outer Banks last week (whee!).

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My in-laws took Adam and me for a couple of days and we had a glorious time.  We beached,

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climbed the sand dunes,

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got a large chocolate-strawberry diet coke from Sonic that rocked my face off,

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and met a Flutter Pony.

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You don’t even want to know how excited I was about that damn horse statue.

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We went to climb the sand dunes in between my spotting the pony and taking my picture with it and I muttered to Adam about The Smooze the whole time.  <– if you got that reference I will kiss you on the mouth

I know I’m behind the times, but I want to post some of our trip eats highlights anyway, mostly so I have a record of them for the next time we visit OBX.  This was a trip where sharing meant caring; the only meals Adam and I didn’t split were dessert!

Lunch at Mulligan’s.

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Coastal Carolina She-Crab soup.

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This was basically a giant bowl of crab meat; ah-maze-ing!  We also swooned over the sherry floater.

California style fish tacos.

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Soft tortillas with local fried fish, cilantro-lime slaw, pico de gallo, and Cajun tartar sauce.  This was our first meal in NC and it set a great tone for the rest of the trip.

BBQ at Sooey’s.

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Pulled chicken platter with cole slaw, hush puppies, and fried okra.

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This stop was a repeat from my first OBX visit and I’m so glad we went back.  Those were the best fried okra I’ve ever had, I was shoving them into my mouth by the handful!

Breakfast at The Dunes Restaurant.

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We got the Greek omelet (spinach, tomato, and feta) with asparagus.  It came with hash-browns and a side and since we were splitting they let us do one hotcake and one biscuit.  Even with two of us eating we couldn’t finish that giant plate of food.

Froyo at The Surfin’ Spoon.

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Such good topping options! I got a little bit of yogurt with marshmallow fluff, peanut butter topping, bananas, and reese’s peanut butter cups.

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Like a fluffernutter in froyo form!

Also, froyo at Wild Berry.

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The yogurt flavors weren’t anything new, but the toppings bar boasted sweetened condensed milk!!!  I was definitely in heaven.

All in all, it was a tasty, terrific trip.

Spinach And Sprouts Scrambled Eggs

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This post comes to you from breakfast.  Adam and I both had the morning free so I scrambled us up some eggs.  I know the sugar sounds weird, but go with it, the sweetness just works.

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Whisk together 4 large eggs, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1 Tbsp granulated sugar, and a pinch of salt.

Sautée 3 cups raw baby spinach, 1 cup radish sprouts, with 1 Tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread.

Scramble egg mixture into cooked veggies.  Fold in 1 cup shredded parmesan.  Serves 2.

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Love Factually

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Facts:

Dark chocolate and I have been having a moment lately.

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Whenever I rock one of Adam’s t-shirts I always double up on eye makeup to try to compensate.

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Kim and I spent five straight hours at Panera on Friday and I still am utterly confused by our final projects for this portion of the semester.

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Adam and I were supposed to go to Toronto for pat bing soo this afternoon but the weather froze us out so we went to Gin Gin for red bean bubble tea instead.

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The new grocery store in Orchard Park is amazing; Wegmans and Whole Foods wrapped up all in one.

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This is the closest I’ll come to an egg cream while we live in Buffalo.

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Classed up mac and cheese is super easy and tasty {boxed mac and cheese / peas / smoked kippered herring / capers / parmesan / panko / red pepper flakes}.

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Watching “Buffy” with Adam is even better the 2nd time around.

On The Run

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This morning Adam, Webster, and I headed to the park.  They went frolicking and I went running.  I started the Couch-to-10k plan, again.  I refuse to go back to week one (I’ve started the plan four times in as many months, it’s embarrassing at this point) so I did the first day of week two – intervals of 4 minutes walking / 1 minute running, x 8.  Plus 5 minutes of straight running at the end as I hurried to find a dog and husband who are bad at following directions!  I was great to be outside.

The rest of the day included schoolwork, a shift at work, and an evening of tv.  In fact, we are mid-Bones right now so I’m keeping this short.

Here’s what I ate…  An Alter Ego Mini Dark Velvet chocolate bar.

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This stuff was amazing, the perfect blend of milk and dark chocolate.  It had dark’s tang with the creaminess of milk.  Total love.

Soft pretzel.

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Vegan chicken nuggets with some sharp cheddar.

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A Salty Peanut Awesome Bar.

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This would have been awesome, but the whole flax seeds kind of ruined it for me.  Nonetheless, this Yumvelope (the source of the bar and the candy) was a good one.

Hot bar (two of the wontons were Adam’s).

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Two kinds of sautéed veggies plus a piece of sweet and sour chicken.

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.15 lb of gummi candy.

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A giant slice of Buffalo chicken pizza with blue cheese for dipping.

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I am, in a word, stuffed.

Today

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Some of the things I thought today –

Man, it has been a looooong time since I last blogged.

I made the right decision.  Part of the reason I’ve been blogging AWOL is because I was making a giant, life-changing decision and I’m pretty sure positive I made the right one.

The end of this semester is going to be insane.  We have two business plans to create in the next month and we were told to expect 40 plus hours of work each week on top of our clinical hours.

Some of the things I did today – 

Went to my first day of clinical practice in long-term care.

Took a glorious, 70* walk on Elmwood with my husband.

Attended night class.  With the curve I scored a 100% on the first exam!

What I ate today – 

A mealy apple.

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A packet of Artisana Cacao Bliss.

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Chocolate Almond Coconut Clif Mojo Bar.

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A low-fat strawberry milk.

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A (salted caramel chocolate nougat) candy from the latest Yumvelope.

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Veggies from Globe Market, ~.25 lb each.

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Thai carrot salad,

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and Greek vegetable salad.

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Lays Chicken and Waffles potato chips.

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Dinner.

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Amy’s Alphabet Soup,

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and a soft pretzel with yellow mustard.

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I also thought a lot about the tragedies at the Boston Marathon today.  If you or anyone you are close to were effected, please know that you are in my thoughts.

Bloody {Mary} Sunday

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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?

Buffalo Chicken Mac And Cheese

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When I made this dish last weekend I was not planning on sharing the recipe, I just really wanted Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese.

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But then I took my first bite and fell head-over-heels in love.  Several of you requested the recipe on the blog and Instagram, and who am I to say no?  This recipe is not, I repeat not healthy.  But it is tasty, yummy, cheesy, spicy, decadent, comforting, and delicious.

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And it gets even better leftover.  Particularly when you steal cold bites from the casserole dish the next morning.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, serves 4

  • 4 oz uncooked miniature shell pasta
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 Tbsp canola oil
  • 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast; cubed
  • 8 oz 1/3-reduced-fat cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup reduced-fat ranch dressing
  • 3/4 cup medium-strength Buffalo sauce
  • 8 oz extra-sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 3 oz blue cheese crumbles
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Prepare a 8×8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
  2. Prepare pasta according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
  3. Melt butter and oil in a large skillet with a lid over medium-high heat .  Add chicken cubes to skillet, cover and cook 3-4 minutes on each side.
  4. Remove cooked chicken from pan and reduce heat to medium.  Place cream cheese, ranch dressing, and Buffalo sauce in skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until combined.  Add all but a handful of the cheddar and stir until melted.
  5. Remove skillet from heat and stir in cooked chicken and pasta.
  6. Pour mixture into baking pan.  Top with blue cheese, remaining cheddar, and green onions.
  7. Bake 30 minutes.

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What’s your favorite comfort food?  Mine clearly all involve cheese!