The Slanted Woods {San Francisco}

Wednesday morning we stopped at Peet’s for an eggnog iced coffee to go with my Ferry Building farmer’s market pear.

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Then we made our way over the bridge through the pouring rain,

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and up to Muir Woods for a stunningly beautiful hike.

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We bought trusty $4 ponchos to get us through the 4+ miles in the downpour, but I wasn’t able to take many pictures.

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Mostly we just got shots of Adam and me being goofballs.

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We got completely soaked but still had a wonderful time.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel to dry off before our late lunch at Coqueta, a Spanish tapas place that knocked our socks off.

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My cocktail – cream sherry, Luxardo amaretto, sherry vinegar, Manchego, and golden raisins – was one of the best I’ve ever had.

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We split a variety of small plates, all of which we enjoyed greatly.

Huevos Nacional – deviled eggs filled with spring pea, smoked pimenton alioli, on pickled saffron potatoes and olive oil poached bonito.

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Housemade potato chips with shaved Manchego and vermouth vinegar salsa.  A play on bagels and lox of smoked salmon, queso fresco, and truffle honey.

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Wild and cultivated mushrooms with garlic, chili, and sherry.

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And Catalan-style vineyard greens with a caper-raisin puree, raisins, pine nuts, and garlic.  <– my favorite dish of the day

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For dessert we did caramel popcorn with Manchego cheesecakes that were amazing caramel lollipops with a liquid cheese filling.

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And churros with drinking chocolate and a mixed berry powder for dipping.

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Every last bite of this meal was inventive, fresh, and freaking delicious.

After more walking,

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a stop at Humphry Slocombe for fluffernutter ice cream with butterscotch sauce, (<– Adam got ice cream almost every day)

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and a New Orleans style coffee from Blue Bottle,

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we were ready to drink our dinner at 21st Amendment Brewery.

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21st Amendment brews Hell or High Watermelon, one of my top favorite beers, so we were excited to taste our way through their menu.

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We shared Hell or High Watermelon, Vina, Framboise Forte D’or, Belgian Chocolate Stout, and a yummy honey meade from a guest brewery.

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Also, a giant plate of fried cheese curds.

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Ridiculous!  And we were completely sober by the time we finished the 4 mile trek back to the hotel.

Thursday morning I fueled up with a praline chestnut latte and a local apple.

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Plus a great rose macaron that we picked up along the way.

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But the super steep hills still totally kicked my butt.

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We were supposed to spend the morning in Golden Gate Park but unfortunately the crazy rain scared us away.  We ended up eating our way through Japantown.

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And actually even getting some Whole Foods hot bar while we hid and tried to keep dry.

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Thankfully our afternoon plans were an indoor tour/tasting at Anchor Brewery.

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We had a great time and definitely recommend it.

The rain cleared up in the afternoon while we spent some time in Chinatown.

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And Boba Guys served us the best bubble teas of the year.

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My almond milk coffee with boba and housemade almond jelly was delicious.

Then we were back to the Market Building where we couldn’t resist a final Vietnamese iced coffee from Out the Door.

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An ironic choice considering our dinner reservations.

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The Slanted Door has been on my list for years and it did not disappoint.

Piña colada – El Dorado 3 year white rum, house coconut cream, fresh pressed pineapple juice, pineapple gum, and lime.

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Adam got a truly fabulous steak and I did three veggie options for my meal.  Fried kabocha squash – palm sugar & lime caramel sauce, thai basil.

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A green papaya salad –  pickled carrot, rau ram, crispy shallot, roasted peanut – that was my favorite dish of the day.

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And the Catalan Farm spicy broccoli – braised tofu, lion’s mane mushroom.  The spongy mushrooms were so cool!

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We did another round of churros for dessert.

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As well as a brown butter cake trifle with huckleberries, lemon curd, and hibiscus meringue.

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The meringues were as tasty as they were gorgeous.  A great way to end our fourth day!

Apple Picking; Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend I got to cross something major off of my fall bucket list – apple picking!

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I drove upstate to Lawrence Farms with some girlfriends and we came home with pounds and pounds of tasty apples.

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I also snagged Adam and I two pumpkins for carving next weekend.

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Check out my gorgeous haul (this is only a portion of it, the rest went into the fridge) –

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So far, my favorite variety is the Candy Crisp.

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Yum!  We had a ton of fun and I definitely want to repeat this activity next fall.

I don’t have much to share for this post, just three things.  I’m a bit under the weather and I spent almost all of Sunday tucked in bed.

Breakfast on the go.

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A smoothie  – water and meat from a Thai young coconut with canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, frozen banana, and maple syrup – and a Clif Maple Nut bar that I shared with the husband.  The bar was much better than the smoothie, which did not emulsify at all.

Getting in my green before a dinner of orange hues.

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Spinach salad with sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, and buttermilk blue cheese, dressed with honey, evoo, and lavender salt.

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The oil came home from Italy with a friend and it was fantastic.

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Our main course was tuna casserole that I made and froze awhile back, so I don’t totally remember what was in it.  Definitely tuna, barley, spinach, green onions, peas, water chestnuts, roasted garlic and mushroom condensed soup, cheese, and crushed Cheez-Its on top.

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Plus carnival squash that we roasted with salt, smoked brown sugar, liquid smoke, and maple syrup.

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Dinner was delicious.  Sweet and smoky squash with cheesy casserole?  You can’t really go wrong!

Best bite of the week goes to dessert from Ample Hills.

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I got a kids’ cup of pistachio and honey and the flavors went together perfectly.

Hopefully I am over the hump with my sickness now.  The temperatures are finally dropping here and I really don’t want a cold to go with the cold!

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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!

Seven Sweet Snacks; Weekly Wrap-Up

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

TJ’s nacho kale chips.

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

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

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

Cherry Pistachio Quaker Oatmeal with coconut butter.

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

A Stumptown Cold Brew box with a Honeycrisp.

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

We said goodbye to Apple Month with caramel apple floats!

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Vanilla ice cream in Jones’ Carmel Apple Soda.

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

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

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

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

Have you had a PSL yet this fall?

Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

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

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

lunch

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

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

Salad from the cafeteria.

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

Apple themed oats.

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

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

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

snacks

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

DSC02512But I was quite excited to spot this new item at Konditori

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leftover slice of mushroom and olive pizza.

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

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DSC02529The strangest pairing of the week was also the best.

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

dinner

A fantabulously fall salad.

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

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

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

DSC02474All-in-all, a great meal.

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

DSC02515No photos because I am socially awkward enough without the food photography, trust me.

And last night I threw together some fancied up macaroni.

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

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

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Wrap-Up; October Came Early in Montauk

The husband and I had quite the nice weekend.  <– do I always say that??!  A day of errands and a day trip up to Montauk.  We got to stick our toes in the sand!

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We also had some tasty eats.

Here’s how most of the last two days looked…

Errands day opened with a late brunch bowl at home.

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Apple Cinnamon Chobani topped with toasted coconut and pomegranate arils.  There was also a big blob of Wild Friends Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter hidden underneath the fruit.

Snacks of the day included two types of goodies from Haribo,

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and a Honey Crisp Crispin that I shared with the husband.

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This is our absolute favorite hard cider.

I also hungrily tore off bites of pretzel roll on the drive home from grocery shopping.

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I went late in the day and Trader Joe’s was getting slammed. Probably because the shelves all seemed to be brimming with new pumpkin goodies!

Dinner was an Apple Month special (unlike what’s coming in the rest of this post!).

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A toasted sandwich of Applegate Farm Smoked Turkey, TJ’s Light Havarti sliced cheese, and TJ’s hot pepper jelly, on Pepperidge Farm Caramel Apple Swirl Bread.

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Plus TJ’s nacho kale chips and baby carrots on the side.

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This sandwich was so yummy; love the spicy-sweet pairing.

Our drive to Montauk was nice and speedy (only about 2 hours; a Montauk local told me that traffic to the Hamptons cuts back nearly 2/3 after Labor Day) but it did require a little coffee.

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We shared some Vanilla Chameleon Cold Brew with skim milk and chocolate milk on the drive up

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and we got more of the good stuff locally while we walked around a ritzy shopping area.

We did lunch at Lunch, a lobster roll place right on the beach.

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Adam was all about the hot lobster roll.

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He shared a few hunks of buttered meat with me (gah! yum!), as well as his cole slaw.

I know it’s only September, but there were two fantasmic sounding pumpkin items on the menu, and who knows when I’ll go back to Montauk, so I couldn’t pass them up.  Pumpkin and crab soup.

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And Post Road Pumpkin Ale with a cinnamon-sugar rim.

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OMG.

After lunch, a drive to the lighthouse, and a quick stop at the beach, we got more beer at the Montauk Brewing Company.

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Their tasting room was quite cheap – $8 for 4 pours – and you even got to keep your glass.

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I will definitely order their Driftwood Ale if I see it on menus in the city.

A final coffee for the road – I love Hampton Coffee Company

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and we were on our way home.

We did dinner in front of reruns of “Chopped.”  We went high-brow with the food so it would match up with the high standards of the Chopped judges.

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Pizza Hut pizza and Cupcake Wine Moscato.  Keeping it classy.

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!