Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

by Emily

Who else has been hitting the chocolate eggs this week? Easter candy abounds! We are spending the holiday with my in-laws – all three of our nieces! – so I’m going radio-silent on the blog front this weekend to focus on family time. I’m planning on skipping my weekend post, I’m not even packing a camera, and I’ll be back with a weekly wrap-up next Friday.

breakfast

Iced Americano with chocolate milk.

I tried the cafeteria breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with turkey and veggie sausage. The coffee cup held wonderful Cisse milk chocolate vanilla bean hot chocolate.

lunch

Oatmeal.

Quaker Honey and Almonds with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

And an apple.

Plus I snagged this delicious, thick!, strawberry lemonade from the cafeteria.

Egg salad.

We made awesome egg salad for lunches this week; medium-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and green and red pepper, miracle whip, pickle relish, mustard, and dill. Packed in a whole wheat pocket thin.

Plus wasabi seaweed and grapes.

The next day was chicken salad. A whole wheat bagel thin with chicken salad, fontina cheese, and pickled jalopeños.

Plus an apple to take away some of the heat. Peppers were the perfect addition to that sandwich.

I packed cookies, but I put them aside for a treat my coworker brought it, an Easter bun with cheese.

snack

Easter candy, duh.

Juicy bears.

Cafe Dada iced coffee that the husband sweetly delivered when he picked me up from work one day.

Cookies.

Cereal bowl.

This was a sample of Graham Crunch from Cascadian Farm with vanilla almond milk.

Very tasty. This stuff is just begging to be made into cereal s’mores bars.

I made my new favorite milkshake for Adam and myself.

Coffee frozen Greek yogurt with chocolate milk and toasted coconut.

Bubble teas from Kung Fu Tea. Coffee milk tea for me.

dinner

Dinner at a diner.

I got an eggplant parm panini.

It was yummy but ridiculously filling.

And then we had pie!

Cream pie! My slice was banana cream.

It was flipping fantastic.

Chicken salad.

Big piles of Nana’s chicken salad.

With roasted green beans.

On Wednesday we went to Williamsburg for dinner with a girlfriend. She took us to Snacky.

It was fantabulous. The space was adorable and the menu was all my favorite things. Adam and I split a salad with seaweed and sesame dressing.

And I got a rice bowl with spicy bbq miso chicken, plus kimchi and a fried egg.

I swooned my way through that bowl. It was perfect, exactly my favorite meal.

And we made similar(ish) bowls for dinner at home the next day.

A hash of chopped sweet potato, browned mushrooms, sliced spinach, green onions, and smoked trout with rosemary and smoked paprika. Topped with a fried egg.

Put an egg on it!

Have a great weekend!

17Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Equations With Pie

by Emily

Happy Monday, all! Did everyone else enjoy Pi Day on Friday (March 14 –> 3/14 –> 3.14)? People usually celebrate the date by eating pie and/or pizza{pie}. We went with the sweet variety, though now that I think about it we had pizza over the weekend too.

In random order, here are the eats I have to share…

lunch

Friday at work.

A pepperoni and cheese snack box,

and a GT’s Synergy Grape Chia Kombucha.

We got lunch at Noodle & Co. while running errands on Saturday.

I got the Japanese pan noodles – caramelized udon noodles in a sweet soy sauce, broccoli, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, Asian sprouts, black sesame and cilantro.

I paid for extra veggies, which got me a whopping 3 tiny pieces of broccoli. We were not impressed.

dinner

Easy dinner on Friday to leave room for pie.

Eggs scrambled with kale and corn.

Pizza on Saturday. My half was topped with mushroom.

I got my veggies in the form of Sweet Greens.

Sunday was Chipotle take-out.

I planned on saving half of my meal for Adam (he was working the night shift) but I ended up eating every single bite of rice bowl and chips!

It doesn’t look like much, but my “meat” was sofritas – shredded tofu braised with chiles, poblanos, and spices – and it was delicious.

brunch

Au Bon Pain debuted a new seasonal Spring Menu on March 10th and they sent me a gift certificate so I could review their newest bakery item. – please note: I was able to sample the new items free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own. –

Adam and I decided to do a late Sunday morning brunch.

Coffee – a skim, iced Caffé Viennese – and a Sweet Cheese CroisBun, aka their new croissant and sweet bun hybrid.

The outside was wonderfully flakey and sweet but the inside was what really shined. The sweet cheese was sooooo moist – the main reason I usually don’t eat Danish is because they tend to get dried out, but this was amazing. There was a sweet cheese and strawberry variety that looked yummy too.

I also got a Sesame Ginger Chicken Salad.

Very good as well. The seasoning on the chicken provided so much flavor. Other options from the new menu include a Chicken Wasabi Wrap and Black Currant Iced Tea that I quite want to try.

snackage

Pi Day celebration from Four & Twenty Blackbirds.

I got our slices to-go but the space was super adorable and I am dying to go back.

Oatmeal black bottom – I didn’t love the texture of the oats within the pie but Adam was a big fan –

Salted honey – custard with the perfect balance of salt and sweet –

Lemon chess – my favorite variety; packed with pucker –

We were both very pleased. And we sat on the couch, holding hands, eating pie, and watching tv, so it was pretty much the best night ever.

And on Saturday I put the leftover lemon chess pie in vanilla bean Greek yogurt.

Perfection.

On Sunday, a girlfriend and I went to a gelato making class.

We came home with 4 pints each.

The class was fun, but I’m honestly not that thrilled with the taste/quality of my pints. At least we went on a Groupon.

The highlight of my weekend – other than time with the husband, obvs – was getting my hands on this:

Diet cherry coke slurpee, for the win! It tasted like dreams. Even my friend, who’s not an addict like I am, said it was tasty.

What was the highlight of your weekend?

7Mar2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Under / The Weather / Is Still Too Cold

by Emily

If you couldn’t guess from the title, my complaints this week are: a) it’s too cold outside and b) I’ve caught a cold. A.1 would be holy plastic, Batman, I’ve eaten a lot of packaged foods this week!

I’ve been eating {tons of junk} but not photographing so this will be a quick recap. Thankfully speed helps keep my complaining in check!

breakfast

And I started my Monday off so well.

Smoothie = Coco Café Vanilla Coconut Water Latte, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, and a scoop of peanut butter.

Tuesday went downhill.

Bagel with {tons of} cream cheese from a truck on my way to work.

And this morning I admitted defeat and got a giant latte with an extra shot of espresso. Sidenote – I want to try the vanilla macchiato at Starbucks ASAP.

lunch

Monday.

GoPicnic Box.

And a Cara Cara.

Readers who live within a feasible distance of Trader Joe’s – go get thee a bag of Cara Cara Oranges this very minute! They are sweet, seedless, and rocking my face off.

Tuesday.

An herb and garlic tuna packet scooped with TJ’s popped chips.

With more Cara Cara love.

Wednesday I felt so bad I actually called into work. I slept for most of the day and then hit the bed hard again by 10 pm that night. Boo.

Thursday.

A ranch tuna packet stirred into a mac and cheese cup.

Tuna was good, the macaroni was disgusting. The Cara Cara was fantastic, obviously.

junk

Please note – this post only shows a small sampling of the truly massive amount of junk I’ve been eating lately. Speaking of which… I have these {ridiculously delicious, like seriously out of control good} pretzel bites on the train at least twice a week.

That habit needs to die, immediately.

I’ve also developed a pretty hardcore Good & Plenty obsession this week.

As far as candy goes, this is hardly the worst because you get a very satisfying serving for 180 calories and no fat. But as far as being a healthy adult goes, I need to stop eating so much freaking candy.

Chocolate covered pretzels are also candy.

I actually ate these for dinner one night, but that was too depressing so I put them under this category instead. I am clearly struggling with being a grown-up during the weeks when Adam’s working nights and I’m left to my own devices.

dinner

I ate cereal (and/or candy) for dinner most nights this week but did get in two nights of people food. Like leftover pizza.

Topped with chicken, caramelized onions, and bbq sauce.

And last night Adam had business in the city so he swung by Brooklyn to pick me up from work for Date Night! Swoon!! We got in a freezing but enjoyable 2 mile walk, stopping along the way to split a green juice.

Kale/collards/romaine/cucumber/celery/parsley/green apple/lime.

Then we had a wonderful dinner at Calexico.

We wandered into it by chance after our first choice for dinner didn’t work out and I am so glad that we found it. We can’t wait to go back for margaritas and nachos.

For dinner last night, I did the black bean taco – guacamole, pico de gallo, cotija cheese, and “crack sauce.”

Plus the veggie special – fried brussels sprouts in chili and peanut salsa.

The food was fresh, inventive, and perfectly seasoned. I know my pictures were dark and blurry, but I was afraid if I didn’t blog this meal I would forget about it and I definitely want to remember this place. Calexico will be a repeat spot!

What bad habit do you need to start being more of a grown-up about?

3Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Purple Hair Don’t Care

by Emily

It’s been a fun weekend. On Saturday I did this again –

Welcome back, purple hair, I’d missed you.

Things have been pretty low-key since I last posted. Adam has an insane schedule for the next month and I was trying to soak up as much time with him as I could.

Plus we were pretty productive – we spent Saturday buying him 2 of the 3 pairs of shoes he desperately needs (new running shoes, comfortable shoes for the hospital, and days off shoes). We even made a trip to the gym. I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill, doing some half-hearted running intervals and incline walking. I can’t go back for a few days – I can’t wash my hair until the color sets so I don’t want to sweat – but it was a good start.

Here is some of what I did on the food front…

breakfast

Iced Americano with fat-free chocolate milk.

Still obsessed.

Baked oatmeal with maple and pecans for Sunday brunch.

I loosely followed this recipe. I cut back on the sugar and used candied pecans.

lunch

Thursday I had packed a lunch, but then when I went into the cafeteria to buy a drink the special called to me.

My baked potato with cheese sauce, broccoli, onions, and pickled jalopeños was delicious. Not as filling as I’d hoped though, I ended up buying a snack later that afternoon.

Friday my abandoned lunch from the day before was already in my office.

Quaker Summer Berry Oatmeal,

topped with Big Slice Cinnamon French Toast Kettle Cooked Apples.

The apples were delicious, their texture was perfect. I went to Target that very day to buy more. Coincidentally, the oat bowls were on sale and I got more of those too.

snacks

Iced coffee from Café Dada.

Yum x infinity. I salivate when I think about this coffee.

Adam and I split a rocky nut Snickers.

The marshmallow layer is crazy.

More sugar.

We are both completely obsessed with these Juicy Bears. They are so juicy!

dinner

A fancy Friday dinner.

Salad – arugula with yogurt blue cheese dressing, shredded carrot, and Emmy’s Blueberry Cashew Super Cereal.

With groats, raisins, cashews, and dried blueberries the cereal really seems like more of a salad topper anyway. Plus a reject piece of too small chicken from our new favorite recipe.

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken, serves 2 – 4

4 oz light feta cheese

2 Tbsp capers
10 queen sized pimento-stuffed green olives
medium lemon, juiced and zest (reserve both juice and zest)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbsp smoked brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Prepare a baking dish with cooking spray.
Place feta, capers, olives, and lemon zest into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until well-combined and no large chunks remain.
Using a serrated knife, slice into the side of each chicken breast until you are a quarter-inch from the other side. Basically you want to be able to open the breasts like little books.
Open the chicken breasts and place into the baking dish. Spread filling mixture onto one side of each breast, then close the “books.” Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the chicken, then drizzle with lemon.
Place baking dish into the oven and bake 40 – 45 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Saturday’s dinner was less exciting. More salad.

Arugula with carrots, blue cheese, sliced green olives, crumbled feta, and flax.

Plus eggs cooked with pizza sauce, more arugula and olives, and shredded Parmesan.

The olives seemed like a really good idea but in the end their juiciness was not appreciated in the eggs.

Last night I ate pizza for dinner.

Thank you, cheese, for being you!

Have you ever dyed your hair a crazy color?

16Feb2014

Wrap-Up; Will You Be My Valentine?

by Emily

Hi there!

Long time no blog.

I know I’ve ~~bitched~~ blogged about this before, but Adam’s schedule is killing me. And he’s on a particularly busy rotation as of last week – with an insane commute – and I’m kind of losing my mind. So I apologize for missing a post, but I just didn’t have writing in me. I also missed many photo opportunities this week. However, my valentine and I did have some great moments, so, in no particular order, is some of what I did capture…

emmy’s

Emmy’s recently stepped up their efforts to be environmentally and socially conscious and they sent me a box of samples to help spread the news.

From the company – Emmy’s Organics is a 100% vegan and gluten-free food company that prides itself on the quality, creativity & sustainability of the products it offers. The company uses only the finest non-GMO ingredients in everything produced. All packaging is made from biodegradable and earth-friendly materials. All goods produced are made in a vegan & gluten-free kitchen. For more information visit emmysorganics.com.

I opened, and devoured, the mint chip macaroons pretty much the second I got the box.

And the dark chocolate sauce was stellar on coffee ice cream.

The texture was wonderfully thick and smooth.

work lunches

Yogurt day.

Yogurt topped with fresh blackberries and a crumbled macaroon. The macaroon was coconut vanilla, my favorite flavor thus far.

And the yogurt was Greek God’s Honey Salted Caramel.

That stuff is crazy thick and the smell is out of control.

Boxed to go.

Minneola,

Crisp Apple Cascade Ice that I bought with my own money because I enjoyed my sample flavors so much,

and a go picnic box.

I got a bunch of these on sale the other day and I’m pretty excited about them.

Cereal and milk.

An apple and a chocolate chili macaroon – the first flavor I didn’t care for, way too spicy. And blueberry cashew super cereal which was loaded with buckwheat groats and dried fruit.

I bought a milk cartoon from the cafeteria.

new things

Birthday Cake M&M’s.

Meh. The flavored m&m’s, while exciting, are all way too sweet.

Lady Alice apple.

Sweet! The flavor is sweet instead of tart and the skin feels so much like an apricot.

Rockin’ Nut Road Snickers.

Sweet! The marshmallow was great.

pizza pizza

Isn’t homemade pizza just the best?

We topped Trader Joe’s garlic and herb dough with pizza sauce, light mozzarella, sliced green olives, and tons of sautéed mushrooms.

Green olives are my favorite topping.

Morton’s birthday

The Morton Salt girl celebrates her 100th birthday this year and the company sent me a giant tin stuffed with goodies to celebrate.

In 2014 they are introducing the industry’s first Garlic Sea Salt as well as gourmet-style grinders for sea salt, roasted garlic sea salt, and black peppercorn. Also, be on the look out for a brand facelift and these limited edition birthday packages.

Manhattan meals

We had brunch at Empire Biscuit that rocked our faces off.

Best biscuits ever! My (all butter, aka no lard) biscuit was topped with pimento cheese and black grape jam.

And to drink we split an iced Blue Bottle coffee.

Good God, I love Blue Bottle so much!

Another amazing, local coffee was espresso with skim milk from The Bean.

P.S. That was one of 4 coffees I had that afternoon. My coffee addiction is still raging.

Puddin’, from Puddin’.

Adam and I shared coffee pudding and dulce de leche pudding with salted caramel sauce.

This stuff was insanely rich but so good. We recommended Puddin’ to the family that took our table at Empire Biscuit and we ended up all showing up for dessert at the same time! They loved it too.

Dinner with a Groupon at S’mac.

We shared the Buffalo Chicken and the Parisienne – Creamy Brie, roasted figs, roasted shiitake mushrooms, and fresh rosemary.

The crusts were the best part of both. Adam is very jazzed about our leftovers.

What’d you do to celebrate Valentine’s this year?

4Feb2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Beers In Brooklyn

by Emily

‘Twas a super weekend, even if I didn’t watch a single second of a certain football game. We don’t have a cable hook-up! I would like to see if I can find the commercials somewhere online though.

My meals this weekend were the like Seahawks, unparalleled winners. Here’s some of what we ate…

lunch at work on Friday

A Tart Cherry Noosa.

An Asian pear.

And a flourless chocolate chip almond butter cookie.

I made the cookies for Adam but they were so good that I ended up stealing another one when I got home that afternoon! This recipe, but with Vanilla Bean + Espresso Barney Butter and half as many chocolate chips.

sweets and snacks

Cosmos.

With Cascade Ice Cocktail Mixer, a splash of oj, and vodka.

The fancy one was actually Adam’s, mine had ice and a straw.

But mine ended up being his too in the end; I am just not a cranberry person.

A serving of Red Velvet M&M’s (new flavor!).

They are very chocolate-y and also very headache-inducing.

A kid’s double scoop at Ample Hills Creamery on our date night. I had Sweet as Honey on the bottom – Homemade honeycomb candy (made with honey from bees at Queens County Farm) in a sweet cream ice cream – and Gather ‘Round the Campfire on top – Toasted marshmallow ice cream with chocolate-covered graham cracker.

I love this place! The flavors were perfect. I also tried a taste of the Peppermint Pattie and pretty much died.

cereal and milk {cereal and milk}

It’s back!

I know the box says “new!” but the raisin Frosted Mini Wheats were my number one favorite as a child. Also the only “sugar cereal” I can recall ever having in the house growing up.

With Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and blueberries.

a recipe revisit

I wanted to remake my Berry Better Than Spaghetti recipe so I could reshoot the photos (not that the new ones are all that great!).

I ended up making a few tweaks to the recipe too. It turned out fantastic!

coffee love

Medium non-fat cinnamon brown sugar latte at Dunkin Donuts.

I have been loving these lately but this one was too sweet. Speaking of… has anyone tried the cookie dough or brownie batter donuts at DD yet? I am seriously debating buying one.

Short nonfat caramel macchiato from Starbucks on errands.

Our Trader Joe’s is always a madhouse and I love it when the husband is available to wrangle the cart for me because it means I can have coffee while I shop.

Iced coffee with almond milk from Café Dada.

Love, love, love, love, love. There is just no beating Blue Bottle.

brunch in SoHo

A girlfriend and I met up at Penelope on Sunday.

I had the Andrey’s Egg Sandwich – Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and peppers, topped with ~~grilled chorizo~~ fakin’ bacon and sun-dried tomato pesto on a fresh-baked croissant. It was a strange order for me – I usually go with sunny side up eggs or something sweet – but very good.

beers in Brooklyn

Adam had the best date on Saturday, and I’m not just saying that because he got me tipsy! I managed to find my top 2 favorite beers! For reference, here’s my list –

Emily’s All-Time Favorite Beers Ranking

{1} Genesee Cream Ale

{2} Left Hand Milk Stout

{3} Heineken Light

{4} Red Stripe

{5} Abita Strawberry

{6} 21st Amendment Brewery Hell or High Watermelon

We started at Bierkraft, where I tried a Joe Mama’s Milk from Keegan Ales.

I couldn’t taste the coffee at all, but this was nice and smooth.

Then we headed down to Dinosaur BBQ,

where we found ($3) cans of GCA!

I also had a Left Hand Milk Stout with my dinner.

So much beer – for me – but it was all so good!

Dinosaur BBQ is actually from Upstate. They make our favorite bbq sauce but we never had a chance to visit the restaurant while we were in Buffalo. I was thrilled that a location popped up in our old Brooklyn neighborhood.

Adam and I split a sampler platter to start.

Shrimp boil, chicken wing, deviled egg, and a fried green tomato.

I got a pulled chicken melt as my meal. BBQ, caramelized onion, poblano peppers, and melted cheddar.

I skipped my bun and cheese but quite enjoyed the chicken. This definitely wasn’t the best barbecue we’ve ever had, but it wasn’t bad either. And we would go back for the beer menu alone.

What are your top favorite beers? Do you tend towards high or low ABV?

17Jan2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Lots Of Leftovers

by Emily

You saw most of this week’s eats yesterday, so this post is just to fill in the gaps. What you’re not seeing – the coffee. I was terrible about bedtime this week and the result was constant coffee consumption. This work week ended up being particularly busy, so it was serendipitous that I was extra-caffeinated.

snacks

Numi Cardamom Pu-erh Tea with skim milk.

Valentine’s style Junior Mints.

Junior Mints are my favorite chocolate candy, second only to York and Pep bars, and these were shaped like freaking hearts! Too exciting.

Popcorn with caramel and turkey bacon.

Does that goodness need more explanation?

stuff I didn’t cook

Brunch at Biscuits and BBQ.

Adam went super Southern with chicken and waffles,

while I got the bbq chicken sandwich.

It was good, but I was expecting the meat to be pulled and smothered and I probably would have ordered differently if I’d known it wasn’t. At least the serving was giant; Adam ate my 2nd half for lunch the next day.

We were mostly there for dessert anyway. I read a review in the Times that said Biscuits and BBQ had some of the best key lime pie the reviewer had ever tasted.

Yep. Key lime pie is my favorite dessert and this was definitely one of the best slices I’ve had. The only way it could have been better is if the traditional crust was a graham cracker crust – the way my mom makes it – because I like my extra-sweet with a side of extra-sweet!

Sushi take-out from Kisso.

I went with two boring, cooked rolls (both with tempura!) but Adam said his chirashi was the best he’s ever had.

leftovers for lunch

Since I made a different recipe each night for my book review, I ended up with lots of leftovers for lunches. Eating tapenade and tofu egg salad on my lunch break felt fancy!

A packaged lunch.

Roasted seaweed.

A Strawberry Apple Crusher.

And some Bumblebee Spicy Thai Chili Tuna with crackers.

I loooove that tuna, it is so flavorful.

An eggless lunch.

Leftover eggless egg salad.

Scooped with pita chips.

With a side of green grapes.

Crudités for lunch.

Leftover lentil tapenade with celery and baby carrots.

A giant honeycrisp.

And baby Lindt HELLO bars.

a dinner

The night I was left to my own devices in the kitchen I made mac and cheese and trees for dinner.

Just a box of this adorable winter shapes mac and cheese with 0% Greek yogurt, smoked paprika, a tin of Bella cayenne pepper smoked sardines, and broccoli roasted with truffle salt.

Gussied up box macaroni is the best easy dinner.

What’s your go-to order when you’re channeling the deep South? Adam does chicken and waffles while I like pulled chicken and fried okra.

16Jan2014

Livin’ Lean With Trader Joe’s {Book Review}

by Emily

I recently was contacted about doing a review of Jamie Davidson’s new book, Livin’ Lean with Trader Joe’s. Since January is the month of resolutions to eat better/lose weight/get healthy/et al, it seemed like the perfect time to share my thoughts with you guys. I even have a sample recipe for you.

Note – I was sent a PDF copy of the book to review, free of charge. All opinions are my own. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

About: The Author

Jamie has a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and has been teaching people how to eat nutritiously and conveniently for over 20 years. She is also the author of Quick and Healthy Meals from Trader Joe’s and Simmering Solutions, Healthy Slow-Cooker Recipes. I don’t believe that she has any formal chef training, but she is quite adept at putting together meals that are balanced and flavorful while still being healthy. While I think that Registered Dietitians should be the gold standard source for nutrition advice, Jamie’s background makes her far more qualified than most of the other authors of this season’s diet advice.

My Thoughts: The Book

Two thumbs up! Adam and I loved all of the recipes that we tried – they were tasty, healthy, and a snap to prepare.

The first few chapters of the book focus on Jamie’s advice for weight loss and healthy living, followed by a comprehensive collection of more than 150 recipes. As a Registered Dietitian, I think that her philosophy is solid. She promotes exercise and a balanced diet (note – “diet” as in a lifestyle or way of eating, not meaning a short-term, quick-fix “diet”) and doesn’t make outrageous claims. She does a great job of explaining why and how her recipes can help you lose weight.

Many of the recipes are simple assembly and prep, and if you are a more advanced cook this book may be too basic for you. But if you are struggling in the kitchen or have made a recent commitment to prepare healthier meals – whether you are looking to lose weight or just lead a healthy life – I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing this book.

The Goods: Recipes I Made

{1} Lentil Tapenade (Wrap).

This recipe combined some of Adam’s favorite flavors – lentils, olive tapenade, and feta – that I would not have thought to put together on my own. It took less than 5 minutes to throw together and we loved the final result.

The recipe was for a wrap, but we made a (double) batch of the spread and served it as part of a cheese plate instead.

Lentil tapenade, buffalo blue cheese kettle chips, green grapes, pesto gouda, and an amazing goat’s milk cheddar.

{2} BBQ Chicken over Polenta.

This was one of those basic prep recipes; not something I would normally look for in a cookbook but a great find on a late night when I would have ordered take-out (for 8 billion calories) but spent 5 minutes throwing this together instead (for less than 200 calories a serving with 16 grams of protein).

Served with green beans.

FYI, I did skew my serving ratio a bit towards chicken versus polenta.

{3} Really Low Fat Greek Yogurt Dressing.

Served on a salad, obviously. With romaine, smoked almonds, raisins, and pesto gouda. I liked the tang of this a lot. And I loved that there were only about 35 calories a serving, because the husband tends to coat his salads in dressing.

Served with…

{4} Eggless Egg Salad.

This was our favorite recipe of the bunch. It has a tofu base, but an avowed tofu hater wouldn’t know it was in there until you told them. I don’t usually put so many veggies in my egg salad (though I totally should) so I tasted this before I added in most of the produce and yep, it tasted just like egg salad!

This was delicious, and vegan to boot. Definitely a recipe I plan on making again. And you can make it too, since Jamie said it was ok to share the recipe with you guys (click on the image to enlarge) –

Did you make any health related resolutions this New Years?

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: chicken

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Equations With Pie

lunch

dinner

brunch

snackage

Weekly Wrap-Up; Under / The Weather / Is Still Too Cold

breakfast

lunch

junk

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Purple Hair Don’t Care

breakfast

lunch

snacks

dinner

Wrap-Up; Will You Be My Valentine?

emmy’s

work lunches

new things

pizza pizza

Morton’s birthday

Manhattan meals

Weekend Wrap-Up; Beers In Brooklyn

Weekly Wrap-Up; Lots Of Leftovers

snacks

stuff I didn’t cook

leftovers for lunch

a dinner

Livin’ Lean With Trader Joe’s {Book Review}

Note – I was sent a PDF copy of the book to review, free of charge. All opinions are my own. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

About: The Author

My Thoughts: The Book

The Goods: Recipes I Made