Apples All Around; Long Week Wrap-Up

We have been enjoying the heck out of my apple picking haul.  There were a few days last week when I ate an apple with all three meals!  Too bad my husband’s a doctor, I don’t want to keep him away!

I haven’t blogged a recap since last Sunday so I’ve got quite a bit to share…

breakfast

An apple and a latte.

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Round 2; this was homemade cold-brew with Hint of Honey Almond Breeze.

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Then the next day I did skim milk and maple syrup.  Also delicious.

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An almond croissant with more coffee.

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Latte from David’s Tea while we walked around Park Slope.

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Cream of Earl Grey is the best.

lunch

Sandwich and salad day.  I think this is the largest lunch I’ve ever packed.  A pumpkin spice English muffin (<– oooh!) with pumpkin butter, roasted turkey, and sharp cheddar.

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Spinach salad with blue cheese, dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, and honey mustard dressing.

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Oatmeal and an apple.

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I’ve decided that I hate that line of Quaker instant oatmeals but it was already waiting in my pantry so I gussied it up with chia seeds, butterscotch chips, and dried cranberries.

Pumpkin yogurt bowl.

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Pumpkin Chobani with TJ’s Pumpkin O’s amd butterscotch peanut butter.  Plus an apple, of course, though that was actually a SweeTango from a grocery trip before I had my orchard haul.

Cafeteria day.

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Salad bar and baked onion rings.

Sunday brunch at Talde.  There was pickled ginger in my Bloody Mary.

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We also shared a French Press of Illy.

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Fried avocado bao to share.

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And Korean chicken wings with waffles for me.

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With coconut brown butter, yum!

snack

An orange selection.

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Sweet stuff.

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Pumpkin Noosa with butterscotch peanut butter.

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Duh.

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TJ’s Cookies and Cream Butter.  <– ahhhhhhhh

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This jar lasted Adam and me less than a week!

dinner

A roasty fall meal.

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Squash with cinnamon and smoked paprika.  This was our first try roasting kombucha and it was good, though not quite worth the hype in my opinion.

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Asparagus sautéed with Bone Sucking mustard sauce and sliced almonds.

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And a big slice of my cheesy eggplant bake.

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We made this version in a pie dish and with mozzarella instead of provolone but it still ended up being delicious.

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With Naked Flock pumpkin cider to share.

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My co-worker brought me back the cider from the orchard where she went apple picking!

Leftovers night.  Eggplant bake side-by-side with tuna casserole, topped with additional cheese and crushed Cheez-its.

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I know that looks like a giant bowl of melted cheese, but I swear the layer underneath was mostly veg.  Plus we did salads for some green.  Spinach, chopped carrots, and edamame with sesame soy ginger vinaigrette.

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And a totes amaze apple cocktail.

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Honeycrisp cider with Apple Pie Moonshine.  I also did a splash of Goldschläger.

Chipotle.  Let’s be real, we got rice bowls two nights in a row.

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We shared some pumpkin brews to keep things fall-ish.

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Soup’s up.

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The TJ’s pumpkin soup was too thin and basically inedible.

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But my sides were awesome.  Three cheese grilled cheese = sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and blue cheese on wheat bread.

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And sliced apple.  I’m sure you’re not surprised that I ended up dipping my slices in melted cookies and cream butter.

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Mac and greens (and cheese!).

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Standby spinach salad – with dried blueberries, blue cheese, lavender salt, evoo, and honey – on the bottom.

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And mac and cheese – Pirate’s Booty aged white cheddar mac with tons of spinach, extra cheese, and Sriracha – on top.

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Adam hates when I pile things on top of one another but mac and salad go together really well.  You should try it!

What was the best fall flavor you had this past week?

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!

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; 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; Attack Of The Killer Sandwiches

Did everyone have a great weekend?  Mine was low-key but good; I got my hands on not one, but two of my top favorite sandwiches, so that was nice.  The weekend following a three-day weekend always feels a bit too short!  Assume many, many coffees went unphotographed.

breakfast

Iced coffee and I ate the top off of this cappuccino muffin.

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I’m not really a muffin fan but I had been craving one like crazy all week and Friday seemed like a fun time to give in.

Peanut butter chocolate chip bar from GoMacro.

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This came in my Urthbox but I would buy it again on my own.  Eaten on the go because I spent most of Saturday helping a friend move.

lunch

I packed a nice yogurt bowl for work on Friday, with sliced plucot and a Jax banana coconut water on the side.  The bananas foster yogurt was good, but a bit too sweet (note – if it’s too sweet for my tastes it is way too sweet for 90% of the adult population).

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Plus brown sugar sea salt seaweed snacks and caramel apple Twizzlers for the afternoon.

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Both snacks got two thumbs up.

Green juice from Foragers.  Kale, spinach, cucumber, pineapple, and mint.

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I’ve been wanting to go to Foragers for ages so it was good to try out the juice bar.  They have so much fancy stuff, including this super-soft apple caramel I bought the husband.

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I also scored myself a licorice.

snack

Chocolate-covered bears are always good.

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I finally got to make the chia tea lemonade.

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Quite nice!  I will definitely do this again.

Orbit gum loses its flavor and get’s hard too chew very quickly, but it’s neat that my gum is on theme for the month.

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I handed my girlfriend a piece of gum, right after I let her use my apple scented hand sanitizer, and she cracked up.  I might be a bit obsessed.

dinner

We got take-out from Bareburger to go with our “The Office” marathoning.  I ate baby carrots in the car so I could get some veggies in.

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We sat at the bar while we waited.  I got a peach julep slush.  swoon

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My sandwich was grilled chicken topped with smokehouse sauce, blue cheese, sautéed mushrooms, turkey bacon, and fried onions.  {my favorite “burger”}

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Ridiculous.  It is the Big Blue Bacon with modifications to make it pork-free, if you want to try one for yourself.

Adam worked overnight on Saturday and I got home late so I went with my old-standby dinner.

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Plus turkey jerky… for protein.

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I’m not even embarrassed, popcorn’s a whole grain.

Sunday we went to Fletchers.  {my favorite bbq}

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I got the chopped chicken sandwich, which I smothered in pickled jalopeños and their amazing bbq sauce.

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Plus banana puddin(g) for dessert.

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I just wanted to taste the pudding – we were planning on stopping for pie afterwards – but it was so flipping good that I couldn’t stop eating until I basically licked the bowl clean!

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

Five Favorites For Friday

A new “favorites” series might be the answer for weeks where I don’t have it together to photograph most things. Weeks like this week, where terrible bedtime choices rendered me unable to do anything productive outside of 9-5.

I had a ton of fun and I ate a lot of things (all of the things!), and now I’ll share my five favorites with you guys…

1: Pineapple Noosa with multi-colored grapes.

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This new flavor was lovely. P.S. I also snagged a Target-exclusive, pumpkin Noosa that I am quite excited about.

2: Salads from Chipotle.

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Actually, I made Adam get Chipotle with me two nights in a row, so this actually may be more of an addiction than a favorite.

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Lettuce / pinto beans / grilled veggies / chicken / cheese / sour cream / corn salsa / mild salsa. Plus the ridiculously delicious, lime-y, salty chips.

3: Shredded chicken Bahn Mi and Thai tea with boba from Bahnmigos.

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I went to a stand-up show with a friend on Wednesday so I *had* to get dinner in Brooklyn. These guys make the best Bahn Mi; they have the perfect balance of flavors and ingredients (spicy Sriracha and tangy pickled veggies, crunchy baguette and silky mayo). That’s Mindy Kaling’s memoir in the background. It was also fabulous.

4: Brown sugar seaweed snack with TJ’s turkey jerky.

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Another good balance of salty to sweet. This was a nice mid-afternoon snack.

5: Amazing flavors from Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

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Adam and I split Thai tea and black sesame. This was the husband’s first visit but now he is as obsessed as I am. The flavors are so true to life!

Bonus: These hard candies are still rocking my world.

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If I had known how good they were going to be I would have bought multiple bags. I still can’t decide what flavor they are though,  because there is a lot of coffee roast for creme brulee.

Note: my favorite meal of the week was technically a romantic (poorly lit) dinner at Freeman’s. We shared Coho salmon with mustard sauce and five cheese mac and cheese. Plus chamomile infused scotch with grapefruit and honey. swoon