Weeklong Wrap-Up; The Top Five

by Emily

It took a week longer than I’d hoped, but I’m back to feeling 100%! The alternative title for this post was “Cough Drop Chronicles.”

In the interim between this post and the last, I ate a ton of food but didn’t have it in me to capture most of it. Adam and I made amazing, ridiculous nachos – maple bacon kettle chips baked with a blend of eight cheeses – but I shoveled them into my mouth before there was time to let them cool, let alone be photographed. On Saturday I went to a wedding shower that served lunch – awesome lobster ravioli with big shrimp on top – but the only person I knew beforehand was the bride-to-be so I was too embarrassed to get out my camera.

Instead of a full post, here are my “top five” from the past week.

1. Liquid breakfast. I was feeling my sickest on Monday and these three beverages were all consumed over the course of the same morning.

Green smoothie. Frozen spinach, mango, and coconut water.

Lavender GT Kombucha. I shared this with Adam and he actually liked it even more than I did.

“Mocha.” Hospital coffee with a chocolate soy milk.

2. Sweet stuff. These three desserts were the very best of the week but only the tip of the iceberg in terms of consumption. I made it through by having a cough drop or hard candy in my mouth pretty much all waking 12 hours a day.

Nunu caramel dark chocolate bar. <– made in Brooklyn

Whole Foods peanut butter sandwich cookie. This was basically a giant, soft peanut butter cup.

Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Banana Chip Gelato.

3. Another beverage/sweet.

Arizona Fudge Float Sparkling Soda. This was practically a can of egg cream!

4. Salmon and salad.

Coho salmon that I (over)baked with smoked brown sugar, soy sauce, and green onions.

Plus a cucumber salad of thinly sliced cucs, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and sugar.

5. Dinner at Pizza Loves Emily.

This Brooklyn spot was seriously adorable inside.

We got a lavender lemonade.

Crispy Sprouts.

apples, chilis, black sesame, fish sauce

And the Emily white pizza.

mozzarella, pistachios, truffle sottocenere, honey

31Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; I’ve Got Recipes To Share

by Emily

Like the title says – “I’ve got recipes to share!” I managed to whip up some really great meals this weekend. That accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider the cold I’m working through. <– let’s consider my horn fully tooted, huh? I was talking to my dad on Saturday morning about how glad I was to have missed Adam’s recent bout of illness and by that night I felt terrible. Unfortunately I’ve felt progressively worse since. Hopefully tomorrow will put me on the upswing.

breakfasts and snacks

Recipe #1 – Almond Joy Baked Oatmeal.

This stuff was yummy. Click the link above for the recipe.

Green apple slices dipped in melty peanut butter.

We tried a new type of citrus from Whole Foods, pixie tangerines. They were great; nice and sweet with no seeds.

Healthy or sick, I’m all about the coffee. Iced brown sugar cinnamon latte from Dunkin.

Tall iced vanilla macchiato from Starbucks just a few hours later. I asked for regular drizzle but sugar-free syrup and it was a definite improvement.

And a clover-brewed Kona blend during my last set of errands the next day.

A handful of chocolates.

Adam and I split this Southern Hibiscus and Peach Milk Chocolate Bar. There were little bits of chewy peach embedded throughout.

I made the best milkshake. Dannon Oikos Café Latte Greek Frozen Yogurt blended with chocolate milk and toasted coconut. It rocked my socks off.

I had several sips of the husband’s Polar Vortex.

Usually we don’t have the same taste in beers but we both thought this Dunkel Lager was delicious.

dinners

Our Mexican dinner fell through on Friday. Several false starts later, we ended up at Mint.

I had Jack Daniels Honey with mint, lime, and simple syrup to drink.

On my plate was rice with sauce from Adam’s chicken and a big pile of bhindi-do-pyaza – okra sautéed with onion and tomato.

Our food was good but it was so flipping loud in there that I’m not sure we’ll ever go back.

Dinners at home were much better. Like Sweet Onion, Bacon, Blue Cheese Burgers.

On a slice of buttered, toasted sourdough with a pile of pea shoots on top.

And last night we had shrimp and veggie (white)rice bowls.

I used this recipe as a guide but went with pepper jelly and grapefruit juice.

Plus we bulked our bowls up with roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Adam said I hit it out of the park! That was the last of our big bag of frozen shrimp and I definitely want to buy more.

Did you make anything great this weekend?

7Mar2014

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

by Emily

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

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

breakfast

And I started my Monday off so well.

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

Tuesday went downhill.

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

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

lunch

Monday.

GoPicnic Box.

And a Cara Cara.

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

Tuesday.

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

With more Cara Cara love.

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

Thursday.

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

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

junk

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

That habit needs to die, immediately.

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

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

Chocolate covered pretzels are also candy.

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

dinner

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

Topped with chicken, caramelized onions, and bbq sauce.

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

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

Then we had a wonderful dinner at Calexico.

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

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

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

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

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

16Feb2014

Wrap-Up; Will You Be My Valentine?

by Emily

Hi there!

Long time no blog.

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

emmy’s

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

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

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

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

The texture was wonderfully thick and smooth.

work lunches

Yogurt day.

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

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

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

Boxed to go.

Minneola,

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

and a go picnic box.

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

Cereal and milk.

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

I bought a milk cartoon from the cafeteria.

new things

Birthday Cake M&M’s.

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

Lady Alice apple.

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

Rockin’ Nut Road Snickers.

Sweet! The marshmallow was great.

pizza pizza

Isn’t homemade pizza just the best?

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

Green olives are my favorite topping.

Morton’s birthday

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

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

Manhattan meals

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

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

And to drink we split an iced Blue Bottle coffee.

Good God, I love Blue Bottle so much!

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

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

Puddin’, from Puddin’.

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

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

Dinner with a Groupon at S’mac.

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

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

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

31Jan2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Feeling Fizzy

by Emily

Hey there! The weather has not warmed up yet (though we are promised a week of mid-30’s to come!) but, as predicted, I am in a much better mood* than I was during my last wrap-up. My dietitan side wants to attribute my good feelings to getting in more produce this week!

*I am probably going to exclaim that “____________ was soooooo good!” a million times in this post and I feel the need to disclaim that this is not just my bubbly persona, I had lots of really tasty things this week.

Breakfast

Half of a Gnu Fiber Love Blondie Bar and a skim black tea latte.

I went with tea only because I had a coupon but I ended up thinking that it was quite nice. The bar on the other, was very meh.

A short skim latte.

I almost never drink hot coffee but in the moment it sounded good. Probably because I was still thinking about how nice the foam was with my tea.

A fantabulous smoothie.

Frozen blueberries, a frozen banana, Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 2 Tbsp Vanilla Bean and Espresso Barney Butter, and a Coco Café Coconut Water Café Latte. The coffee + almond combo was perfection.

Lunch

Lunch 1.

Strawberry Rhubarb Noosa Yogurt (pssst, all Noosa shown in this post are former freebies).

I had never tried rhubarb before this but if it tastes in pie like it does in this yogurt then I’m sure I’d be a fan. Plus baby carrots and green pepper with Bolthouse Farms Blue Cheese Yogurt Dressing for dipping.

And a Pink Grapefruit Cascade Ice Water.

Oh gosh, the pink grapefruit, sooooo good. I don’t even usually like grapefruit but this knocked my socks off. This bottle was part of a very sweet box Cascade Ice Waters sent me this week.

Being a fan of all thing fizzy, I knew I would like them, but I’ve been shocked by just how good they are. I enjoy all of the flavors I’ve tried so far a bunch.

Lunch 2.

A Mango Noosa with some toasted coconut on top.

An Asian Pear and a banana fudge cereal bar (warmed, for the win!).

And a Lemonade Cascade Ice Water.

Super refreshing. These drinks don’t taste “diet” at all. <– usually my complaint with beverages other than diet coke.

Lunch 3.

More veggies with dip.

A mineola.

And leftovers.

…from a dinner you’ll see in a sec.

Dinner

Here’s that dinner I was talking about. A poorly-lit date to Namaste that I’m going to share anyway because it was the best Indian food we’ve ever had.

We went with a Groupon that let us get a bunch of courses. Including wine.

Riesling wasn’t actually the best pairing with my spicy food but I shared with Adam and he shared sips of his mango lassi with me.

Our Shrimp Bhuna appetizer was ridiculous. The sauce was amazing.

Dinner was great too.

I a pile of Okra Masala next to rice that I topped with some of Adam’s Chicken Shahi Korma.

Delicious. My dish was perfectly spiced. This was the best okra I’ve ever had and you know I love okra.

Plus they brought us creamy rice pudding for dessert.

Namaste, we will be back! {again, and again, and again}

A quick and easy dinner at home.

Herring salad – canned, smoked herring mashed with Miracle Whip, dijon, and pickle relish.

Orange honey cabbage – shredded cabbage and chopped celery sautéed in evoo and then cooked with a sauce made of orange juice, honey, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and corn starch.

Plus dried clementines so that my plate didn’t look like it belonged to someone edentulous.

I wasn’t feeling any of my piles, sadly, but Adam loved this meal.

The last dinner I have to share was a loser too.

I topped leftover creamy mushroom casserole with truffle salt and a sunny side up egg but my favorite flavors weren’t enough to make up for the lackluster casserole underneath. We shared this cutting board of pineapple as an appetizer and that wasn’t great either.

Maybe I’m actually being picky this week?

Snack

Adam and I tried the new Butterfinger Cups.

Not fans; they were actually too spot on, the flavors were so recognizable as Butterfingers and Reese’s Cups that it was weird to be eating them mashed together.

Peppermint divinity candy, on the other hand, is always good.

Thanks for sending it, parents! P.S. Fellow NYCers – if you come across divinity candy somewhere in our fair city please let me know!

Margaritas!

Made with Cascade Ice Margarita Sparkling Cocktail Mixer, a splash of orange juice, fresh lime, and tequila.

I don’t even like margaritas (I drink them from one bar only, always with Herradura) and I thought these were out of control.

I haven’t seen the Cascade Ice cocktail mixes at my store but I am buying more of this as soon as I can find it.

Homemade ice cream that was a total success.

Amazingly, I managed to make the best coffee ice cream we’ve ever had.

Coffee Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, serves 4 – 6

1 and 1/2 cups fat-free half and half
heaping 1/4 cup coffee grounds
12 oz can evaporated low-fat milk
1/3 cup and 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 Tbsp vodka
3 large egg yolks
1 cup crushed Oreos (we used Mega Stuffed by any kind works)

Place coffee grounds and half and half into the base of your French press. Stir. Cover (do not insert the press at this point) and store in the fridge overnight, at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.
Press grounds and pour coffee-infused half and half into a medium saucepan.
Whisk evaporated milk, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, vanilla bean paste, and vodka into half and half. Heat mixture until tiny bubbles begin to form around the edges of the pan, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove pan from heat and set aside for 10 minutes.
While the milk mixture cools, whisk 1/4 cup sugar into egg yolks in a large bowl.
Slowly stream the milk into the eggs, whisking constantly. Be sure to temper the eggs by starting with a very small amount of the hot liquid and gradually adding more.
Return mixture to pan and cook another 5 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
Place pan into a large bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, until cool, 20 – 30 minutes.
Pour cooled base into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Transfer finished ice cream to a large storage container and fold in crushed Oreos. Serve immediately or freeze.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

27Jan2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Is Winter Over Yet?

by Emily

Ugggh, this week. Let’s not even front, last week was ridiculous. Nary a vegetable to be found. There will be no “healthy living blogging” in this post, in fact, there will barely be blogging of any sort because I couldn’t be bothered to snap pictures of 60% of my week.

The insane snow and brutal cold just killed my will to live{a healthy lifestyle}. We’ve got another week of icy cold coming up, but at least my mood seems to finally be on the upswing!

Here is some of what I ate over the past seven days, though like I said, a lot of it -mostly cheese – missed the camera…

things that were ridiculous

“Breakfast” at the hospital.

And I washed that twist down with an 8 am diet soda. I usually don’t even like donuts – I’m not sure what my new obsession with these guys is – and I need to go back to eating them never.

A carbtastic “dinner.”

Annie’s Real Aged Cheddar Mac and Cheese – topped with more cheese – and a big bowl of popcorn.

A mug cake.

Number 2 Pencil really knows what she’s doing!

Thai turkey nachos.

Ruffled chips baked with sharp cheddar, green onions, and lean ground turkey cooked with ginger and green curry.

I know most people don’t think that everything works as nachos but the flavors actually went really well here.

An attempt at dessert from Martha’s Bakery.

The tres leches was both dry as hell and studded with canned peaches. No. I don’t know why we are having such a hard time getting a good slice of tres leches!

things that were (somewhat) healthy

The only thing that saved me at all was that Noosa sent me a very generous shipment of their delicious yogurts.

Here what the company had to say: “Unique, Aussie-style Noosa Finest Yoghurt brings out the decadent side of yogurt in a whole new way. It’s made in small batches, set, and infused with honey to give it a delicious sweet-tart tang, with a smooth, velvety texture that sets it apart from the throng.Noosa is made on-site at the family-owned Morning Fresh Dairy in Bellvue, Colo., and is free of artificial ingredients of any kind. Noosa’s 100% natural fruit purees are made with the highest quality, best-tasting fruit on the market. It’s now available in nine flavors nationwide, including: NEW Tart Cherry, NEW Lemon, Passion Fruit, Blueberry, Mango, Raspberry, Strawberry Rhubarb, Peach, and Honey.”

Here’s what I had to say: YUM! I had tried the honey Noosa in the past (and loved it) but the fruit on the bottom flavors have been blowing my socks off. They are just sooooo creamy and delicious. I’m not going to go through them one by one, because I have loved them all. My only complaints are that Noosa doesn’t make any low-fat varieties and yogurt is packaged in a very large serving, which means that this stuff ends up being a pretty big calorie commitment. However, it is a big serving for the calories and the yogurt is quite filling. I wouldn’t make this my only yogurt choice but I will definitely be buying more with my own money.

Here’s what Adam had to say: “OMG, YUM!!! Can I have more?!” It is definitely worth noting that the husband says Noosa is the best yogurt he’s ever had. He is 100% obsessed with it and has been plowing through the flavors at lightening speed.

Blueberry Noosa for breakfast.

I probably also had coffee with this.

Work lunch 1.

Raspberry Noosa with fresh blueberries and a side of Haribo Juicy Gold Bears.

The raspberry flavor was both Adam’s and my favorite.

Work lunch 2.

Honey Noosa with a Honeycrisp and a banana fudge cereal bar.

I microwaved the cereal bar for 60 seconds and it was insane, totally worth bringing in a plate to work for.

Casserole.

I had been looking forward to making this casserole – a mix of roasted broccoli, celery, sautéed mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, crumbled tempeh, brown rice, and light mozzarella – for more than a week, but the end result was so bland that I am not even going to share the recipe with you.

Boo.

My best coffee idea yet.

An iced Americano (with some skim milk) with fat-free chocolate milk. I don’t like “mochas” at all but when I add my own chocolate milk to coffee it is magical.

Lemon Noosa with toasted coconut on top.

This was basically crust-free pie, delicious crust-free pie.

How does the cold affect your healthy living goals?

3Jan2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Hello, 2014!

by Emily

Hello from a new year! Like I said in my last post, I am very excited to have welcomed ’14. We didn’t do anything exciting for NYE (we were in bed watching Vines by 11), but we started the year off right with a fun day on the 1st.

Resolutions, Past and Present

I didn’t set any resolutions last year, but since 2011 it’s been a yearly goal to read a book a month. I missed January and February, but overall I did pretty well with 20 books read in 2013:

March

Last to Die – Tess Gerritsen (f)

The Bone Bed – Patricia Cornwell (f)

June

97 Orchard – Jane Ziegelman (nf)

Spiced: A Pastry Chef’s True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen – Dalia Jurgensen (m)

July

The Perfect Husband – Lisa Gardner (f)

The Third Victim – Lisa Gardner (f)

Alone – Lisa Gardner (f)

August

Hide – Lisa Gardner (f)

The Neighbor – Lisa Gardner (f)

The Next Accident – Lisa Gardner (f)

The Killing Hour – Lisa Gardner (f)

September

Fiction Ruined My Family – Jeanne Darst (m)

October

Live to Tell – Lisa Gardner (f)

Love You More – Lisa Gardner (f)

Catch Me – Lisa Gardner (f)

November

Bones of the Lost – Kathy Reichs (f)

December

Brain on Fire – Susannah Cahalan (m)

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – Alexandra Fuller (m)

Dust – Patricia Cornwell (f)

Wild – Cheryl Strayed (m)

This year I did decide to set a few new year’s goals for myself, though I won’t be typing them all out here. Basically I want to lose some of the weight I’ve been steadily putting on the past three years / continue my book reading goals / and start chipping away at the continuing education requirements for my Dietetics registration.

Fashion Friday

Last Friday.

Monday.

Tuesday.

A day off on Wednesday.

Welcoming in a new year at work on Thursday.

Breakfasts

Since part of this post is from last year you won’t really see this go into effect, but I think I am going to make more of an effort to eat breakfast on workdays. I’ve been getting insanely hungry every afternoon and I think running out of time for breakfast most mornings is partially to blame.

Giant non-fat latte with 2 shots each peppermint and white chocolate.

Coconut coffee and a pear.

The Vanilla Coco Cafe was delicious, even better than the original.

My pear was tasty too, but eating it gave me such bad heartburn that I almost got off of my train to throw up! I’m not sure what the deal with that was.

Lunches

I made a big batch of roasted veggies this week, enough to pack for three days of lunches. Butternut squash and green beans (and broccoli that I burned the crap out of so only 1-3 stalks ended up in each lunch). I stuck with the winning formula of veggies + a fruit + candy the whole week.

Monday.

Veggies with smoked almonds and Sriracha mayo. Plus tangerines and Chinese candy.

Tuesday.

Veggies with pistachios and champagne pear vinaigrette. Plus mint m&m’s and an Autumn Glory apple (<– they taste like cinnamon!).

Thursday.

Veggies with smoked almonds and bbq sauce. Plus gummies from Dylan’s and another cinnamon-y apple.

On Wednesday, Adam and I went into the city for lunch at Serendipity3.

The Christmas decorations were out of control, it was gorgeous in there.

We shared a frrrozen hot chocolate that was delightful.

I got my favorite sandwich for lunch, the Summer Bries – smoked turkey, sliced apples, melted brie and alfalfa sprouts, served on raisin pumpernickel with Russian dressing.

Yum! I shared about 50% of my sandwich with the husband, but it was ok because I stole some of his curry sauce to drizzle on my salad.

Snacks

I don’t have any pictures because I haven’t been bringing my camera to work, but let me just tell you – I’ve been eating so much freaking junk on the train! Like I said earlier, I am super hungry all afternoon, and I end up buying food the minute I escape the hospital. It is a bad bad habit.

Strawberry Champagne Polar to make work on NYE feel a little more festive.

Actual champagne. We drank Moet & Chandon on our honeymoon and now it feels extra special.

Numi Chocolate Pu-erh Tea with honey.

Plain Greek yogurt with blackberries and maple syrup.

Seltzer and a candy cane.

Gummi cola bottles (Adam bought me an array for our anniversary), eaten nightly this week while playing Sonic. <– best thing ever

Dessert hour with Adam at Cafe Dada.

We split a diplomat pastry,

and both had cafe cortados.

They use Blue Bottle Coffee as their espresso and it is divine.

Dinners

I don’t have pictures from Monday and Wednesday and without them I honestly can’t remember what I ate those nights. I ate a small serving of mac and cheese from Panera on NYE, but I’m sure I had something with it and I can’t remember what! When I used to blog every day I didn’t realize how much the act of picture-taking helped to cement the meals in my brain.

An easy favorite. Farro topped with smoked herring, sweet sesame seaweed, Sriracha, and a soft-boiled egg.

Black eyed peas for the new year. In a skillet I randomly tossed together – BEP, green pepper, plum tomato, green onion, turkey bacon, smoked paprika, green Tabasco, and plain Greek yogurt. On top of jasmine rice.

Leftover farro, stir-fried with peas.

I know I didn’t give a ton of dinner description, but I starting realizing just how long this post is!

Don’t forget to enter my Eggland’s Best giveaway.

1Nov2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; All Hallow’s Eve

by Emily

Did you do anything exciting this Halloween? We definitely did not! I didn’t carve a pumpkin (Adam did a very nice one though), I didn’t pass out candy, I didn’t wear a costume… I didn’t even manage to wear orange and black. In theory Halloween is one of my favorite holidays {I live for all things themed} but I always get lazy with execution. At least I had my month of pumpkin brews. And we certainly ate enough candy!

breakfast things

Breakfast at the ‘Bucks. <– please don’t call it that

Coffee for rent; a blonde roast with 3 sugars and lots of skim milk. I have a very hard time drinking hot coffee unsweetened, it tastes much more bitter/sour than iced to me.

Honeycrisp.

Coconut Macaroon, a NEW flavor of LÄRABAR über that I found. The uber line makes my favorite Larabars and I thought that this flavor was spot on.

Plus I had another “coffee” after I left.

I didn’t think this Harney and Sons Organic Coffee Tea actually tasted much like coffee, but the tea flavor was very nice. I like my (bottled) teas just a bit sweet, with honey or cane sugar instead of an artificial sweetener.

Another morning I tasted the other new flavor.

The Sticky Bun flavor was fine, nice even, but the taste was total pecans, not a hint of cinnamon to it. I bought both flavors in duplicate when I spotted them though so expect to see this again.

On a similar note – I also didn’t think that this Brown Cow Cream Top Coffee Yogurt tasted enough like coffee.

But it was still nice topped with honey and roasted peanuts. I just haven’t found a coffee flavored yogurt that can match the Dannon from my childhood.

lunch and dinner things

A home version of a Moe’s bowl.

I ate chips and salsa while I cooked to stay on theme.

The chips were Garden of Eatin’ with Chia Seed.

They aren’t listed on the website(?) but they are worth checking out if you spot them at your store.

Our homemade bowls were just as delicious as the original. We used a base of TJ’s organic jasmine rice (<– microwavable!).

Topped with taco turkey: 98% lean ground turkey cooked with diced green pepper, chicken broth, and Ortega Taco Seasoning.

Spinach: I stacked the leaves and then sliced. We loved it served this way!

Caramelized onions: I always cook them this way now.

Cheese: TJ’s 2% Mexican 4 Cheese Blend.

And cream: a dollop of low-fat sour cream.

All stirred together it was quite good, but this meal could have used some hot sauce.

More chia chips, this time as nachos for lunch.

Chips with the cheddar/gouda blend melted on top in the oven.

Plus a Sweet Tango on the side for juice.

I made Adam loaded nachos with our taco turkey leftovers and he was crazy for them.

Whole Foods hot bar.

Kale salad, Cesar salad, roasted butternut squash, and macaroni and cheese.

The squash and Cesar bites were my favorite.

pumpkin(g) things

I bought this “Halloween shapes” macaroni to serve on Thursday because we are pretty much five years old.

I think I ended up making a pretty grown-up meal out of it.

Salad on the bottom. Baby spinach with gorgonzola dressed with a sprinkle of pink salt and 1 tsp each honey and evoo.

Topped with pasta. Mac and cheese with edamame, browned mushrooms, and a can of Bella smoked sardines in lemon olive oil.

I am still shocked that my palate has matured enough for sardines.

Dunkin Donuts pumpkin white chocolate iced coffee with skim milk.

Just pretend that sleeve is orange!

Harpoon Pumpkin UFO.

This was my favorite pumpkin beer of the season but I still shared a lot of it with the husband.

ACE Pumpkin Hard Cider.

This was definitely just apple cider with pumpkin spice (we were expecting a much squashier flavor) but it was very good. My favorite pumpkin alcohol by far this year. <– I actually finished my whole serving instead of passing it to the husband.

P.S. Stay tuned for a quick post tomorrow morning, featuring… Webster in his Halloween costume!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: coconut

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