Easter And Onward

This post feels long, and I am le tired, so I will try to be less loquacious than usual.

Very chatty sidenote – how great are some of the words that describe how much a person does or does not talk??  Loquacious.  Taciturn.  Verbose.  Gabby.  Love them!

Real talk though: I somehow caught a springtime cold and I am cranky and sniffling and need to go to bed.  I know I’ve wasted 60+ words on an intro, but I’ll try to let the pictures speak for themselves as much as possible.

breakfast

Vanilla iced coffee with vanilla milk.

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Smoothie #1 – strawberry mint.  Chocolate mint soy milk, frozen strawberries, and plain Greek yogurt.

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Smoothie #2 – blueberry bliss.  Frozen blueberries and dates with plain almond milk, plain Greek yogurt, and a little honey.

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I made another batch of Community Coffee French Roast, this time in our coffee machine.  Traditional/hot brewing did make this a little bitter, but it was still quite drinkable.  Especially with skim milk and a splash of toasted marshmallow coffee syrup or a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar.

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lunch

Subs with the in-laws for Easter.  With chips and hard-boiled Easter eggs.

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Coffee Chobani with Cocoa Coconut Renola and a Cara Cara.  I am very picky about my coffee yogurts and this stuff was on point.

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A half turkey sandwich from the cafeteria with seaweed salad and Easter candy delivered by a coworker.

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I apparently don’t have a photo to speak for itself, but another day I packed a sandwich from home.  An epic sandwich.  Sweet cheddar and extra-sharp cheddar on a toasted English muffin.  Swoon.

This mix was random, but it worked – spicy Thai chili tuna salad, brown sugar and sea salt seaweed, and a Cara Cara.

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snack

Coconut water for rehydration.

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These chips are amazing.

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Coffee, always.

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The husband and I are both obsessed with these two dessert items.

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Plain Greek yogurt with butterscotch peanut butter and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs

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I made How Sweet Eat’s Brown Butter Oatmeal Chunk Cookies for a birthday at work and they received rave reviews.  I subbed vanilla bean paste for cinnamon, subbed dark chocolate chips for chocolate chunks, and made much smaller cookies (for a yield of 40 cookies versus her 15), and I recommend all three changes if you make a batch of your own.

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I’m including two non-edibles that fed my soul.  The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman was like a grown-up version of Francesca Lia Block’s stuff.  It was hard to put down; I read on the train and one night I had to sit in my car in the parking lot for twenty minutes to keep reading.

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This lip-balm smells like my dreams.

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dinner

Easter dinner.

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Dessert was angel food cake layered with a yummy Cool Whip + vanilla pudding mix + shredded pineapple concoction.

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An easy, amazing soup.  I cooked shell pasta in chicken broth then dumped in sautéed chopped bok choy and green onions, shredded cooked chicken breast, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  My bowl was drizzled with sweet chili oil as well.  Adam absolutely raved about this dish.

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I turned the rest of my never-ending marinara sauce into a bastardized version of Jenna’s Channa Masala.  On top of brown rice and roasted broccoli.  Topped with plain Greek yogurt and sweet chili oil.

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Safe Catch sent me a can of their wild skipjack tuna.

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Please note: I was sent this product free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Seafood is a great thing to include in your diet.  It is a lean protein, a good source of iron, and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.  Unfortunately, due to the fact that seafood contains mercury, it may not be a good idea to consume it daily, and some varieties are safer than others.  Canned tuna, for example, I have to tell my pregnant patients to limit to </ once per week.  Safe Catch is a new, mercury tested, tuna brand that enforces a strict limit on the amount of mercury allowable in the fish that go into its products (their standards are 90% stricter than the FDA’s mercury safety limit of 1.0 parts per million).  Also important – the fish is caught exclusively with pole and line from managed stocks.

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I wanted to be able to really taste the tuna – we give it two thumbs up – so I made it into a super simple tuna salad.

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Served on a challah roll with a side of roasted broccoli.

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Last night was my sickest, and the husband worked overnight, so I made a(n incredibly tasty!) frozen meal from Trader Joe’s and called it a night.  I also ate a bowl of cereal in bed.

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There were entirely too many photos of my hands in this post.

Oats And Easter Candy

I wrote this post at midnight on Saturday… while I ate dinner/my first meal of the day… it’s been kind of a rough week.  Hopefully I’ll be in a better mood while this is auto-publishing because I should be in the car on my way to Easter celebrating with the husband’s family.

I’m missing a ton of photos from the week (chips and dip!) and posting two days late, so I almost skipped this post, but some of these eats (chocolate + oat bowls!) were just so good.

breakfast

Community Coffee sent me a variety of their ground coffees to try.

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This was a free product sample that I’m reviewing for no additional compensation.  It will take me some time to make it through them all, but I will let you know as I open each bag.

This week I cold-brewed the French Roast.

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Quite nice!  Roasty and not acrid at all.  I am going to make a (hot) batch in the coffee machine soon and I will let you know if that changes my opinion, but for now we give this two thumbs up.

Gevalia almond milk iced coffee.

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The flavor was good but not great.  The 9 grams of protein made it a good breakfast though.

Iced coffee and peanut butter toast with condensed milk from the tea place near my work.

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I threw out my crusts and my office smelled like a peanut all day!

lunch

Banana walnut oatmeal with a minneola and Cadbury mini eggs.

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Cabury mini eggs win for best holiday candy ever.

Wild berry oatmeal with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter.

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I 100% bought the oatmeal because it had a bear on the package, but it ended up being pretty tasty.

Turkey sandwich, citrus, and malted eggs.

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That’s a toasted English muffin with Smart Balance and Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

Yogurt bowl.

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2% Greek with pomegranate and marble halvah.  <– my best idea ever

Chicken sandwich from the cafeteria.

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An everything bagel with mayo, mustard, spicy chicken, Munster cheese, and fancy lettuce.

snack

Coffee all day every day.

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Worth mentioning were this short, skim caramel macchiato.

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And the fact that Hungry Ghost has Stumptown cold brew on draft.

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Easter candy.

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Turkey jerky.

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Ample Hills!

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Salted crack caramel + salted honey with honeycomb and chocolate-covered potato chips.

dinner

Chipotle, because heaven forbid we go longer than five days without rice bowls.

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Or salty lime chips, or giant diet cokes.

I made us a huge batch of marinara sauce in the crockpot.

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It was a great idea in theory, but I didn’t season the sauce enough and the end result was very “meh.”  Too bad we ate it three days in row for dinner and still have gallons left.

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The best part of that meal was our side dish –

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roasted broccoli with pesto gouda melted on top.

On a much more exciting night, I had drinks with a girlfriend at my favorite Brooklyn bar – Pork Slope.  No photos, but I had a Keegan’s Mother’s Milk Stout on draft that rocked my socks off.  Then we met up with Adam for dinner at Talde, Pork Slope’s Asian-American sister.

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That’s my Navy Grog {Diplomatico rum, honey syrup, lime and grapefruit juices} and kale salad {cantaloupe, pickled beets, candied almonds, creamy ponzu}.  I am going to be heartbroken when we move on from our national kale obsession.

Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate.

“It’s A Miracle!”

Who else has obsessively binge-watched their way though the entire first season of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” already?  We finished the whole thing over the weekend.  We loved it!  I’m considering a rewatch.  I hate the two trial episodes – I thought they were god-awful, truly some of the worst television I’ve ever seen – but I adored everything preceding them.  The 10 second concept makes my life.  Unsurprisingly, this is another smart and funny win from Tina Fey.

The theme song has permanently ear-wormed its way into my brain.

Related, LisaBorn Round was amazing!

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I read it on the train and then would sit in my car in the parking lot for at least 20 minutes each night to keep reading.  I’m pretty sure Bruni should be giving TED Talks for all would-be crash dieters, emotional eaters, and aspiring journalists.

breakfast

I did the chocolate milk and iced coffee combo two days in a row.

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Paired with a Special K protein bar both days.

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Not the best bars – for taste or ingredient list – but they were free in the cafeteria and I had some extra morning hunger this week.

Another day I did hot chocolate mix in hot coffee with a lot of milk on top.

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So basically just the lukewarm version of my chocolate milk and coffee.

My breakfast plan for St. Patrick’s Day was a green smoothie.  Then I hit the snooze button and the plan was iced coffee with green dye in my milk.  Then I hit the snooze button five more times and I barely managed to get coffee, ice, and boring plain milk into my cup.

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…and then I also got Starbucks once I got off of the train.

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I usually don’t let myself do two coffees in the morning, but I had stayed in bed until literally 10 minutes before I needed to be in the car so clearly it was a double coffee kind of morning.  And yes, mom, I fixed my hat hair before I saw patients.

lunch

Thankfully the cafeteria totally came through and helped me get some green-theme on St. Paddy’s Day.

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My bagel was topped with pepperjack, sliced turkey, mayo, mustard, and frisee lettuce.  Plus baked onion rings on the side.

Blood orange Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and blackberries and a fresh mandarin orange on the side.

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I can’t believe I had only ever eaten canned mandarins up until this year, they are my new favorite citrus.

Tart cherry Noosa with coconut butter, homemade butterscotch peanut butter, and a Pinata apple.

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We are loving the new 4 oz Noosa packs.  Noosa is Adam’s top favorite yogurt – in fact it’s one of his favorite foods in general – but the original packages were a bit too large to enjoy on the go.

Vanilla-caramel yogurt with blackberries and 18 Rabbits caramel apple granola.

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I loved the flavor of the grass-fed yogurt but I’d still be a little nervous about trying it plain.

snack

Popcorn / all-time best Easter candy / beer…

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All good.

A small but gourmet sandwich.

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Toasted whole-wheat with Applegate Farm herb sliced turkey, mayo, and leftover carmelized onions.

Weird pasta salad from the cafeteria.

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Why do they keep putting croutons in pasta??

An Austrian iced coffee.

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Aka coffee (delicious Grady’s cold-brew in this case) with ice, (skim) milk, and (vanilla-caramel) ice cream.

dinner

Asian-style baked shrimp bowls.

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From the bottom up, I filled my casserole with quartered bok choy, sliced wild mushrooms, chopped orange and yellow bell pepper, shrimp, fish sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, canola oil, and Sriracha.  Then I baked it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

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Served on top of brown rice cooked in chicken stock.

Leftover bbq salads.

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Spicy, local arugula topped with bbq sauce, cucumber, avocado, bell pepper, caramelized onions, and TJ’s fire-roasted corn cooked with turkey bacon.

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These were some of the best salads we’ve made in months.

The next night I did a 180 from salads and made my grandma’s recipe for an awesomely retro chicken and rice casserole.

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Complete with condensed soups, chow mein noodles, and crushed chips on top.  I swapped half of the rice for shredded cauliflower but otherwise did not healthy it up at all.

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Served with green beans baked with fish sauce, honey, Sriracha, and evoo.

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We ate casserole the next night too.

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And we will probably been eating casserole the next few nights as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, good luck getting that song out of your head!

When It Snows It Blizzards*

When it comes to the big, important stuff – having jobs, our health, and a great marriage – Adam and I know that we are unbelievably lucky.  That said, man oh man, this week was annoying.  The snow has been relentless, I wore my favorite sweater to work only to get to the cafeteria and douse myself head to toe in balsamic vinegar, Adam had to have both of his big toe nails emergently removed, and my car has a flat tire.  When it rains it pours*.  I’m pretty sure I have never been so glad for a weekend!

There was a lot of stress snacking going down this week that I didn’t do the best job of photographing, but I am going to recap the most delicious things…

breakfast

Iced coffee on the train and plain yogurt with peanut butter at my desk.

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I had a ridiculously amazing coffee combo this week…  Cold-brew with chocolate milk and toasted marshmallow coffee syrup!

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So insanely good.

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Are you admiring my nails?  Scroll to the last section of this post.

snack

GH Cretors elevated our snacking game by sending me a big box of the two flavors from their new organic line – Simply Salted and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

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Note – the popcorn was sent to me free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Pre-popped popcorn can never really compare to freshly popped, but these are definitely the best bagged varieties we’ve ever tried.  They are nice and crisp.  Adam – who likes to pretend that he doesn’t like popcorn – was crazy for them, so that’s saying something.  We preferred the Simply Salted because the EVOO was good, but not quite as flavorful.  Both are organic and kosher and have 40 calories per cup.

I surprised my sore husband with a giant, sweet latte.

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I got myself a rocky road latte as well.  Meh.

We tried the hazelnut torte bar from Lindt’s new “Creation” line.

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Now I want the crème brûlée flavor!

I’m still loving the Ice Chips.

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Lemon was a very nice way to transition back from lunch to work this week.

lunch

Fage with raspberry and butterscotch peanut butter.

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The citrus fruits shown in my lunches this week are fresh Mandarins from Trader Joe’s that were wonderful.  Very sweet and juicy with almost no seeds.

Baked yucca fries from the cafeteria.  I had about double what’s shown because I started eating before I sat down.

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They were paired with the salad that ruined my outfit.

TJ’s egg white salad and popcorn.

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The egg salad was practically inedible; whyyyy was there so much turmeric??

Popcorn, Applegate Farm sliced turkey, mini Jarlsberg, and olives.

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The tasting plates were fun, but I was missing my yogurt bowls.

dinner

If you judge a dish by how good it tastes cold and leftover, straight from the casserole dish – I definitely do! – then my pizza mac and cheese was a real winner.

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Adam heated his serving up, but he also recommends that you try the recipe.

Chipotle night.  I ate a giant rice bowl with chicken, veggies, and pretty much all of the toppings.

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Our neighborhood is pretty much a food wasteland, but I think Chipotle would be Adam’s first pick even if we lived somewhere with more going on!

This was our best dinner of the week:

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Roasted broccoli and kalettes (aka kale-Brussels sprout hybrids).

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Southern pickle “fried” chicken.  <– I am so proud of this one; check the recipe sidebar!

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I served mine on a toasted, open-faced sandwich with a bit of mayo.

Last night we had fabulous kale salads.

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I massaged a bunch of kale with Sepo sauce in the morning and then tossed it with roasted broccoli, cubed avocado, and roasted coconut chips when it was time for dinner.

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We were supposed to have chicken on top of our salads but I accidentally left the remaining tenders sitting out on the counter overnight so instead I had a grilled cheese sandwich while I wrote this post.

fancy nails

So my jazzy nail polish?  Actually nail wraps from Jamberry.

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One of the girls I used to cocktail waitress with is a Jamberry consultant (her sales page is what I linked above) and she sent me a sample kit so I could try them out.  I am pretty amazed by how easy they are to put on; really not tricky or time-consuming at all, maybe almost as easy as slopping painting on polish.  Plus they are very cute!  I will definitely buy some to try again.

P.S. Thanks to Way Back Machine, I was able to find my old employee profile (click to enlarge) –

employee profile

Omg!

Weekend Wrap-Up

random facts

  1. I finished reading my latest book on Friday – Fairyland, a memoir about growing up with an openly gay father in San Francisco in the 80’s.  (Not much of a)spoiler alert – he dies of AIDS related complications.  I was wracked with sobs for the last quarter of the book.  Steve Abbot was a published author who kept detailed journals his entire adulthood and wrote copious letters to Alysia while she was in college, so she had a lot of source material to pull from which was nice; it was practically a biography within a memoir.
  2. A big chunk of Saturday is missing because we went on a fun foodie tour and I am devoting a whole post to it.  (coming tomorrow)
  3. We upgraded our phones on Sunday.  My new Galaxy is giant and tacky, obnoxiously gold.

breakfast

Adam and I tried the new raspberry white chocolate coffee from Dunkin’.

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Our opinions ranged from good to meh.  I still want to try the Starbucks version.

Cereal bowl.

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Cocoa Pebbles and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.  Pebbles have absolutely no flavor and were deeply disappointing.

Oatmeal bowl.

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Rolled oats – cooked in the microwave – with 1 heaping Tbsp each chopped pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, and brown sugar.  Plus milk on top.

Coffee from 7-11 with wasabi almonds.

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Yes, that was a terrible combination.

lunch

Chipotle!

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White rice / chicken / black beans / sautéed veggies / fresh salsa / tomatillo salsa / sour cream / cheese.  I would normally get lettuce but I split this bowl with Adam and he didn’t want it.  I’ve stopped putting the corn salsa on my bowls in general because even though it’s tasty it isn’t really necessary to pile another carb on top of a rice bowl.

Adam went to a post-ABSITE surgical exam party and brought home leftover mini pizzas.

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Paired with green juice.

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NYC Jamba Juices recently introduced a new line of 12 oz Cold-Pressed Juice bottles and they sent me a $10 gift card so I could try them out.

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I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

The juices contain no preservatives and three servings of fruit and/or vegetables and each full bottle has between 140 to 190 calories.

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Citrus Kick was way too spicy for me – Adam liked it but I just can’t do ginger – but I found Tropical Greens to be nicely balanced, neither two sweet nor too grassy.  (There are four flavors in total; the two I didn’t try were Orange Reviver and Veggie Harvest).

dinner

We had another stupendous meal at Russ & Daughters.

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The Breakfast Martini = Beefeater gin, jam, lemon juice, egg white, Pernod Absinthe, Angostura Bitters.

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I adore cocktails with egg white.  <– I was about to type that they will be hard for me to give up if I get pregnant!  I guess the alcohol may also be an issue.

I ordered the Eggs Benny, which came with Scottish smoked salmon and sautéed spinach on challah.

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No surprise, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise was loaded with flavor.  <– more reasons I’m not chomping at the bit for a baby

Sunday night we made a nice, but less exciting dinner at home.

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We were helped out by a jar of Sepo Sauce, a creamy garlic and horseradish spread that’s meant to be used as a dressing, dip, and/or sandwich spread.

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Sepfonifiq sent me a jar of sauce free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

The sauce has 150 calories and 2.5 grams saturated fat per 2-Tbsp serving, so it’s not any healthier than most typical dressings, but it packs a lot of flavor so you would rarely need to use any more than a serving.

We decided to go the bread and lettuce route.

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A sandwich of part-skim mozzarella cheese, thick-cut uncured turkey ham steak, and whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread spread with Sepo Sauce and oven-toasted.

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A salad of baby kale tossed in Sepo Sauce and topped with roasted broccoli and sweet and spicy pecans.

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Plus we split a sumo mandarin on the side.

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Sadly, we hated the thick cut turkey, which kind of ruined the sandwiches.  We both got rid of the meat halfway through and ended up eating big desserts instead.  But we loooved the Sepo as a dressing and were both blown away by the salad.  I will definitely look forward to making that again.

Please cross your fingers that it’s not actually snowing in NYC right now?

Two By Two…

…hands of blue  <– name that show!

A short weekly wrap-up since my pictures were terrible, the two best from each category…

breakfast

I made wonderful coffee this week with the help of Grady’s Cold Brew Bean Bags. DSC04887 Paired with 1) A coconut berry smoothie. DSC04853

Hint of honey almond milk, frozen strawberries and blueberries, and coconut butter. I love the way the coconut doesn’t totally blend in and you end up with little pockets.

2) A surprisingly good omlette from the cafeteria. 20150106_094337

Eggs with onions and peppers.

lunch

1) A mix of seafood items from the caf made me feel fancy. 20150107_134558(0)

Tuna salad sandwich, lobster bisque, and a honey tangerine from home.

2) A snack plate that was actually the first half of lunch; I had Vietnamesse food at a party later. DSC04898

Pretzels, turkey jerky, and cinnamon apples.

snack

1) The party was a goodbye party for my boss. I brought in cookies.  Lavender chocolate caramel chip and my Smore’s Monster Cookies.

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I ate way too much dough then stayed up half the night with a stomach ache/sugar high finishing the latest Kathy Reichs’ book.

2) More sugar?

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I enjoyed these crispy m&m’s much more than I was expecting to.

dinner

1) Chipotle is always good.

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White rice, pinto beans, veggies, corn and mild salsas, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.

2) This salad, sans chips, was good too.

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My take on a copycat of TGIFriday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad.

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Copycat TGIF Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad

  • chicken tenders
  • honey mustard – I used cranberry honey mustard which I highly recommend
  • chopped toasted pecans
  • baby spinach
  • dried cranberries
  • crumbled blue cheese
  • canned mandarin oranges
  • balsamic vinegarette
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour mustard and pecans into wide, shallow bowls.
  2. Dip chicken into mustard, then into pecans, pushing gently to help set the nuts (I only coated one side of my tenders).
  3. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet, naked side down. Bake for 27 – 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool before slicing.
  4. Assemble salads with toppings.

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instagram share

1) I bought these cards to brighten up my office for only 99 cents at Trader Joe’s.

cards from trader joes

2) I made up a joke! Adam hates me.

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Could you identify the tv show from the quote?

Five Things – Weekly Wrap Up

five things i ate last week

{1} Really great breakfasts.

I killed it on the breakfast front this week.  Two different days I managed to bring in yogurt (TJ’s strawberry and then 2% plain Fage) with tons of pomegranate and blackberries for topping.

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Plus I had cold-brew coffee with soy nog for the train.

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Another day I did toast, followed by a juicy apple, and caramel hot chocolate to spruce up my coffee at work.

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{2} Party food!

My lunches were a bit ridiculous this week, lots of work parties to attend.  First, the Dietitian party.

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My profession always has the best food.  Salad, fruit salad, glass noodles with shrimp, and chicken Pad Thai.

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Plus lots of dessert.

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And later in the week there was a hospital wide celebration.

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Salad, green beans, jerk chicken, eggroll, macaroni.  Plus a chocolate fountain.

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{3} Sandwiches, still.

The days without parties, I was still loving the cafeteria sandwiches.  Jerk sliced chicken with mayo, mustard, provolone, and lettuce.

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Plus a similar ‘wich with seaweed and a tangerine from home on the side.

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{4} Dinner at Whole Foods.

We went on the first night of Hannukah hoping to find lattkes on the hot bar.  No such luck, but we did make super tasty giant salad bowls.  P.S.  That seltzer was so good that I went back and bought a case of them!

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Salad base with yummy chipotle almond dressing, tons of shredded veggies, roasted veggies, and a big scoop of mac and cheese.

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And we stopped at Ample Hills to check out the seasonal flavor on the way home.

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Did not disappoint.

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{5} Super thick hot chocolate.

I made my own (super thick) hot chocolate.  But I messed up the proportion of things a bit so the recipe is still not ready to share.

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It looked good though!

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five things i read/watched/listened to

{1} “Take Me to Church” from Hozier.  I am still obsessed.

{2} “Snowfall” from Ingrid Michelson.  This is my all-time favorite “Christmas song.”

{3} Blood, Bones, & Butter, Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune’s memoir.  <– do not recommend.  Parts of the story were great, but I wasn’t a fan over her writing style and by the end I wasn’t a fan of her either.

{4} The mid-season finale of “Brooklyn-99.”  Loooove.

{5} “Rick and Morty,” an amazingly smart and funny cartoon that we just discovered.

five things from instagram

{1} My new favorite top ever, a sweater my parents sent me with a giant icebear.

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{2} I’m super proud of this wrapping job I did on my in-laws’ Christmas present… working a toy store over the holiday season in Buffalo definitely taught me a few things.

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{3} Another shot of that tasty marshmallow I ate in the Bryant Park Winter Village.

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{4} I like this drawing, but I took this photo back in November, before Thanksgiving!  Slow down!

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{5} Puppy love.  His fat little arms slay me.

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Have a great weekend!

The Girl In Sonoma {San Francisco}

Our last two days were spent enjoying the beauty of California wine country.  And eating.  So much eating!  We were trying to pack in as much fun as possible on our last full day and we went a little crazy ordering food.  We definitely didn’t finish everything shown, but we did eat quite a lot.

We started Friday with coffee,

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and fruit and bread.

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We split a Satsuma, an unpictured banana, and a rosemary roll from ACME Bread Company.

We saved the sourdough roll for an amazing lunch of bread, cheese, and chocolate.

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Plus earl grey panna cotta for dessert.

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We had the Cowgirl Creamery Mount Tam fresh from the source because we were there for a history lesson and cheese tasting.

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Best tour of the trip!

After cheese, it was time for wine, with a tasting at Matanzas Creek.

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The grounds were gorgeous and the wine was de-lish!  We liked it so much we even bought a few bottles to bring to Thanksgiving.

Next up was beer (and more cheese!) at Lagunitas Brewing Company.  Brown Shugga was my favorite, unsurprisingly.

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They had pretzels out for palate cleansing between tastes,

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but we also got a big plate of cheesy nachos.

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This was the point in the day where I was getting a little too full!

But we forged ahead with a trip to Bouchon Bakery for a butterscotch éclair.

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And finally settled in at The Girl and the Fig for an outstanding dinner.

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Those light green olives were shockingly good.

I had to get a lavender mojito, it was made with Cruzan rum!

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We started with a cheese plate with apple, house-made fig cake, spiced nuts and baguette.

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We choose a P’tit Basque sheep’s milk, Bohemian Creamery’s The Bomb goat’s milk, and a Bleeting Heart Moolicious Blue.  Because we had to fit cheese into every single meal that day.

Adam and I shared for dinner.  Local mushroom raviolo with sunchoke purée, truffle pesto, local mushrooms, and chicories.

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And the house-smoked trout sandwich with farm egg salad, caper aioli, pickled red onion and dill.

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Both were absolutely amazing.  The sauce under the pasta and the pickled red onions on the trout totally made the dishes.

We got an after-dinner drink with Firelit coffee liquor and Sailor Jerry rum.

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And had dessert that was my favorite dish of the entire trip.  Chocolate and salted fig caramel trifle with cocoa nibs and Italian meringue.

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Adam was amazed by the nibs and I was obsessed with the marshmallowy meringue.  Plus we came home with a jar of their salted fig caramel.

We had such a wonderful dinner at The Girl and the Fig that we ended up going back for brunch on Saturday!  We met up with a medical school friend who is doing his residency in Fresno and he said The Girl was his favorite Sonoma spot.

Fig Fashioned.

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Mussels and frites for the table, which I was totally brave about and ended up loving.

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And the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life.

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We left completely stuffed; the three of us were barely able to get coffee, hours later.

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Our flight was a red-eye and it didn’t leave until after 10 pm so we were able to spend the whole day catching up.  Our friend chose to spend his one day off for the week with us so we were thrilled to make the most of it.

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A perfect end to a perfect vacation!