Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

by Emily

This week’s eats were all about the cheese and carbs {see also: several servings of unpictured pizza and popcorn}. I’m missing many of the day-time meals but I managed to capture every single dinner for a change.

breakfast

Apple and honey french toast for Rosh Hashanah.

I soaked a slice of Trader Joe’s sourdough in 1 large egg, a splash of milk, vanilla extract, and some cinnamon maple sugar and then cooked it in 3/4 Tbsp butter. After my toast was frenched, I tossed a chopped Pink Lady apple in the rest of the Tbsp of butter with a little more cinnamon maple sugar. Then I topped my french toast with my cooked apples and drizzled the whole thing with honey.

Delish.

Tropical smoothie courtesy of the husband.

He said Thai young coconut, frozen mango and banana, lime juice, and sweetened condensed milk all went in the blender.

On the weekend we ate eggs as a family.

For two, I scrambled together 4 large eggs with salt, pepper, 1 slice of 2% provolone, and a big scoop of 2% cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese is my favorite scrambled egg addition; normally it tastes very sweet to me but in eggs it is so cheesy!

Plus toast with Strawberry Crofter’s on the side.

lunch

Leftover mac and cheese that I attempted to stir-fry.

I reheated the mac in canola oil with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Sriracha and then scrambled in an egg. I’m not sure this dish really worked.

This next one looks like a “snack” picture, but I did in fact drink giant coffees for lunch two days this week. I had several errands that ended up running long.

The one pictured was a clover-brew of their Hawaiian blend, which was fantastic. And yesterday I cashed in a drink freebie so I went big – venti non-fat iced latte with an extra shot of espresso and 2 shots of salted caramel(!!).

snack

Microwave mug cookie.

Number 2 Pencil is basically a single-serve cookie genius.

Milk drink.

This was a China Town find. ‘Twas very thick and sweet.

ZICO latte.

This flavor might even be better than their chocolate coconut water.

Sourdough with Smart Balance Light.

If I’m eating bread with butter (versus jam) I almost never toast it, for some reason I prefer my buttered bread raw.

Froyo.

Another snack that was on repeat this week.

dinner

You already saw our vegan mac and cheese.

Served with roasted green bean fries for our green.

We ate our fries right off of the baking sheet, like animals. We don’t have a dishwasher and plates are annoying to wash, damn it.

Salad and casserole night.

Adam said that my Cheesy Eggplant Bake is my best recipe, and that’s really saying something because I even cut back on the cheese this time.

Served with side salads.

Romaine lettuce blend, hemp hearts, cucumber, TJ’s peanut dressing, and Iberico cheese.

The dressing did NOT go with the rest of the salad but it was all we had.

The cheese was from this TJ’s pack that fancied up our whole week.

Kale nachos.

A kale chip base topped with broccoli, roasted corn, and melted cheese.

This was one of my better ideas.

Pizza on a quesadilla.

Inspired by Jenna’s idea, but particularly this comment.

I made quesadillas with flour tortillas and TJ’s reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend. Then topped them with Tj’s fat-free refried beans, ground turkey (99% fat-free, cooked with taco seasoning), sliced orange bell pepper, and manchego cheese.

With roasted kale on the side.

I told you this was a cheesy week!

fun

We put up a photo wall.

An assortment of pictures from college (round 1) to now, “framed” with washi tape.

It may not be perfect, but we love it. And it was so nice to add a pop of color to our drab living room.

We saw a racoon in our parking lot.

This may be the first little bandit I’ve actually seen in person, which is funny because I’m completely obsessed with them.

We went on a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

Bike riding in the park may just be my favorite activity. I’ve chosen it for my birthday several times now.

Happy Monday, everyone!

4Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

by Emily

I’ve been all over the place lately so there are a lot of gaps in my reporting. We ate a bunch of junk recently and most of it didn’t make it to the camera. Adam is on a slightly less time-consuming rotation this month and we have been making the most of our time together. Here are a few of the highlights since I last checked in –

{1} Homemade nachos.

I’ve been missing ETS since the move, but these nachos were delicious, and certainly much healthier than the ones with a pound of cheddar that I used to buy in Buffalo.

Leftover tortilla chips from a Moe’s run, baked with roasted corn, broccoli, and the last of the aged Gouda from our cheese plate.

{2} Rosemary beer bread.

Just my favorite beer bread recipe with a few Tbsp of chopped rosemary (from my grandma’s garden!) tossed in.

I had to buy a giant bag of self-rising flour so expect to see more of this.

{3} CrispRoot snacking.

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

CrispRoot is a company that makes ridged cassava root chips. They come in Sea Salt, Original, BBQ Bliss, and Thai Ginger. All of the flavors are dairy- and gluten-free, contain no trans fat, have 150 kcals and 6-7 gram saturated fat per serving, and have 2x the fiber and 30% less fat than most potato chips.

We were not fans of the Thai Ginger, but the other flavors we would definitely purchase on our own. I couldn’t taste much of a different between original and sea salt, both had a pleasing saltiness and good crunch.

{4} Baking fail.

I was attempting to make brown butter coconut rice krispies treats.

I don’t know what went wrong, but no. No.

{5} Chicken Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.

This idea was such a win.

Click here for the recipe.

{6} Abandoned principles.

I have very strict holiday food rules. September is Apple Month. October is Pumpkin. December is Eggnog, Gingerbread, and Peppermint. November may overlap with October and December. I might have started hoarding pumpkin products last week, but you are not supposed to eat them until October! But then the PSL anniversary hype was so big, and I caved.

Grande, non-fat, white chocolate, pumpkin spice latte, you were worth my abandoned principles.

{7} Chinatown in Manhattan.

We split a Pat Bing Soo with red bean and strawberry jelly.

And drank coconut water straight from the source.

The only drink that can possibly beat a coconut with a straw in it is diet coke from the fountain, and even that’s a close race.

{8} Lunch with friends.

Some of our Boston favorites were in town so we ventured into Manhattan to spend the day with them. We had lunch at a spot near Times Square with rooftop seating. Adam and I shared everything because we’re so ~~poor~~ close. Cider, pierogi, and chicken fried rice.

We went to dinner at a place in SoHo that had the best food and the worst lighting. Adam and I split lobster truffle mac and cheese and I’m kicking myself that I don’t have a picture.

{9} Grand Army Plaza’s Farmers’ Market.

I think those pictures speak for themselves. I was practically in tears with liking those flowers so much!

What was your last major baking fail?

11Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; In August

by Emily

First of all, I need to announce the winners for my Müller Yogurt giveaway: lucky numbers 2, 3, and 6. Grace, rachelesimms, and Jenny, shoot me an e-mail with your mailing addresses so I can get your coupons out!

This wrap-up spans more than one week and while this obviously wasn’t everything that I consumed, I ate a lot of really good stuff so the volume of pictures was a little overwhelming. I didn’t try to break this post up into breakfast/lunch/dinner, instead I’ll keep things loosely chronological.

-1- I made a cheese quesadilla on a Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Flour Tortilla with Rolled Oats and Flax Seeds with sliced apple on the side.

There were lots of Trader Joe’s (TJ’s) goodies eaten recently and we were very impressed with all but one of them. The texture of the tortilla definitely helped make my plain cheese quesadilla a little more interesting.

-2- Alvita Tea sent me some of their tea.

Alvita makes single-herb teas that are third-party certified organic, gluten-free and kosher. When I returned the e-mail offer for free samples, I requested teas that would be good iced during this hot summer, so they sent me Ginger-Peppermint, Passionflower, and Raspberry.

I loved the flavors of Passionflower and Raspberry, but Ginger-Peppermint was too much spicy ginger for me. Adam loves that flavor though, so if you are a ginger fan I would recommend it. I did try the flavors hot (aka by following the brewing instructions) but the pictures were boring so instead I’ll show you two ways I served the tea cold.

First, Ginger-Peppermint iced tea.

Whenever I make iced tea I toss 2 tea bags per ~6 oz cold water in a glass and let it sit until the color looks right to me. This oh-so-scientific method has never failed me!

Next, Passionflower “Thai” iced tea.

For this tasty treat, I followed the brewing instructions but tripled up on tea bags. Then I chilled my tea concentrate and served it with a couple of tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk. Quite delicious.

-3- I made the best flipping sandwich I’ve ever had.

I know that’s a big claim, but it’s so true. I mashed a can of TJ’s Smoke Trout with Miracle Whip, spread my trout salad between two pieces of whole-wheat bread with three slices of sliced Velveeta, and cooked it in a skillet with a little butter.

Served with baby carrots and sliced pepper.

My sandwich was so smokey and gooey! I want another can of that trout asap. This was actually the first sandwich with Velveeta I’ve ever had (I don’t know that either of my parents have ever tasted processed cheese food, we never had it in the house growing up). The cheese was leftover from another recipe and while I would not buy it again, it did make this sandwich mighty good.

-4- The dog and I were kicked out of the apartment one afternoon while our tub was being redone.

We went to Shake Shack for their outdoor seating and I got a chocolate-vanilla twist with chocolate toffee and cheesecake blondie stirred in.

I know that looks amazing, but in spite of the promising flavors the taste just wasn’t good. I threw out 2/3 of it; after it melted all over me first, of course. I think I am officially done giving that Shake Shack location more chances. But bad food doesn’t really matter when your lunch date is this cute –

Those eyes!

-5- I made two smoothies, one bad and one good. The bad was frozen mixed berries with frozen spinach and orange-mango juice.

Adam loved his glass, but I drank mine purely for the nutrients.

The good was this strawberry almond smoothie.

Frozen strawberries with Barney Butter Crunchy Almond Butter, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

-6- Another food served in two rounds – salad. Thankfully both of these iterations were amazing. Salad one,

was lettuce, homemade croutons (leftover torn french bread tossed with evoo, salt, and pepper and baked at 375*), shredded carrots, chopped green pepper, TJ’s Greek Style Feta Dressing, and Hemp Hearts.

The Hemp Hearts made the salad with their unique flavor and texture. I got this sample package at the co-op and if I can’t find this product at Whole Foods I might just go back to Buffalo to buy more!

Salad two,

was lettuce, shredded carrots, smoked gouda, feta dressing, and toasted almond slivers.

The ratio of fatty toppings to healthy greens in this salad was way off, but it tasted soooooo good.

-7- We ate tofu nuggets and roasted brussels sprouts for dinner.

I got really sick of roasted brussels sprouts a few years ago and I think I finally have my taste for them back.

The nuggets were extra-firm tofu that I’d sliced and frozen (freezing tofu gives it a great spongy texture when it’s cooked) then coated in corn starch and cooked in canola oil.

My attempt at a sweet and sour style sauce wasn’t very good, but the “nuggets” of tofu were pretty exciting.

-8- I made a winner of a dinner with a meal that was quick, easy, tasty, and healthy.

Bowls of barley topped with TJ’s Smoked Herring (that we mashed with a little Miracle Whip), TJ’s Sweet Sesame Seaweed, a drizzle of Sriracha, and a soft-boiled egg.

This was the best dinner of this post! We stirred our bowls so everything got coated in egg yolk and the flavor was fantastic.

-9- I discovered my new favorite combination of cereals: half a serving of Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola with a serving of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Honey Puffs.

The Kashi cereal almost reminded me of Smax. That bowl was topped with skim milk and chopped nectarines.

-10- I finally did a work out.

Barre3 is promoting their 7-Day Body Blast program and they offered me a complimentary month of online workouts.

Barre3 is a unique fitness system combining the arts of Pilates, yoga and ballet barre work. I took a class the last time I was in the city and loved it. The monthly subscription is only $15 and it gives you access to a myriad of online workouts. You can select 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 minute classes, choosing to focus on a specific set of muscles or on working your whole body. The videos are great and the oral instructions are clear enough that once you’ve done a workout once or twice it is easy to follow along without having to watch the movements on a screen.

I’ve done the Ballet Fit (40 minutes) class twice. It is a total body workout with a good mix of arms, legs, and core work. There are lots of pulses so it ends up being pretty good cardio too. I intended to branch out so I had more to review, but I loved the Ballet Fit class so much the first time that I wanted to do it again. Plus, I’m trying to get better so I don’t have to keep pausing the video every five minutes to die.

All you need for the online workouts is a mat (I ended up tossing my shoes), some light weights, a pillow*, and a chair/couch/counter to serve as a bar. *They recommend a core ball but I found a folded pillow worked just fine in a pinch.

-11- I finally found a good combo for homemade egg cream.

Chocolate Nesquick and plain seltzer worked like a charm.

Even Adam, who normally hates my egg cream attempts, thought this was good.

-12- A friend and I had a great night in Williamsburg. We explored on foot, then settled on Mizu for dinner. I got a Hijiki salad to start.

Black seaweed with carrot and tofu.

I didn’t like my salad – which had a strange, woody aftertaste – but my Futu Maki was delicious.

Crab stick, cucumber, avocado, egg, and pickles.

The sweetness of the tamago made the wasabi extra delicious. And fun gum with the bill is always good.

Afterwards we were very lucky to spot a sign for snow cones at Handsome Dan’s.

I got an earl grey snow cone with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.

Are you freaking kidding me?!

We walked over to the water on our way home and the view of the skyline was even more exciting than our snow cones.

I ♥ New York.

-13- I made another really good sandwich.

A Whole-Wheat Sandwich Thin topped with smoked turkey, smoked gouda (from TJ’s), and Crofter’s Strawberry Spread.

The smokey-sweet thing will always be my favorite.

-14 – We pulled out our popsicle molds.

These dulce de leche lemon popsicles are insane.

I had a little extra “batter” that I poured in my iced tea and it knocked my socks off.

-15- I made tropical fruit salad.

2 bananas, 2 minneolas, 2 kiwis, and a handful of TJ’s Roasted Coconut Chips.

Leaving berries out of this salad made the leftovers feel a lot fresher than usual.

-16- We ate a dinner dipped in ketchup.

Kale chips,

with TJ’s Mahi Mahi Burgers.

I ended up only eating one of my burgers, so I ate the leftover for lunch the next day with the rest of the fruit salad.

The Mahi mahi was simple but good with a little Miracle Whip on a Sandwich Thin.

This was the one product that I don’t think we’ll buy again; the patties were greasier than I’d like even though the nutritional stats were good. It was nice to feel fancy with lots of fish this week.

That’s all she wrote!

Wow. I need to blog more often; what a terrifyingly long post.

4Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday, Buffalo, Brooklyn

by Emily

First things first: Hi, Jill! Hi, Nikki!!

Now then. Everything in this wrap-up is on the go {go, go!}. The end of July/beginning of August was definitely a fun time for me. I turned 28, traveled back to Buffalo for five days, and continued the excitement when I got home with some fun trips to Brooklyn. I’ve made some really tasty meals at home over the past few days too, but I’m going to save them for a subsequent post since this one’s so full. Off we go!

Birthday

Adam got home at 7 am that morning, so we kept my entrance into 28 pretty low-key. I had three birthday objectives…

Glitter nails (which I painted on the subway to the complete horror of the man sitting across from me),

froyo,

and my free Starbucks birthday drink.

A venti non-fat latte with 1 shot each hazelnut and white chocolate syrup and a nice message to boot.

If you haven’t registered a Starbucks card yet you need to do so; the perks are amazing.

Adam had to go into work that night, but I got to have a very special celebration with some family and friends from St. Thomas.

My aunt and a family friend and her son were all in the city for summer courses/internships and they took me to the very famous Lombardi’s for pizza.

My veggie slices were good, but Pinos is definitely better.

Afterwards, we went somewhere very exciting for dessert.

Rice to Riches has been on my “must-try” list since the first time I lived in the city! After the long wait it did not disappoint.

The space was great and my pudding (with a candle on top!) was delicious.

I got a diva-sized (aka small) caramel rice pudding that was awesomely creamy. I will not be waiting another six years to go back, that’s for sure.

Then I took the train home by myself at 2:00 in the morning and got up the next day and drove to Buffalo.

Buffalo

I got lucky and Jean Inman* (a review course for the Dietetics registration exam I have to take) and a good friend’s wedding fell on the same weekend, so I only had to make the 7-hour drive back to Buffalo once this summer. Not that I’m going to lie – I have been missing the walkability, charm, and fantastic Thai food of Buffalo enormously since the move!

My long weekend was a glorious whirlwind of class, food, friends, and booze, but I had too much fun to take many pictures so I’m just going to share some highlights.

My friend’s wedding was gorgeous, of course.

The bride and groom did so many adorable, sweet things during the ceremony that even I got a bit teary eyed.

On my first night in town I met up with my old coworkers for dinner at Blue Monk (I miss those girls!).

We waited more than an hour for our table and were deeply, dramatically hungry so this shared basket of duck poutine disappeared in about a minute.

My friend and I also shared a grilled cheese that was pretty ridiculous.

On a later day, another group of friends and I walked over to Saigon Cafe for Thai food. I know I hated Saigon but on my final visit I was finally a fan! My previous complaint was that their “five-star spicy” was basically unseasoned but this order of Pad See Eiw was so hot that it practically blew smoke out of my ears.

I cooled down my mouth with drinks at Founding Father’s, a bar I loved as much the second time as the first.

Founding Father’s is near the top of the list of things I’ll miss about Buffalo. Amazingly, I don’t think I ever really blogged about the place I’ll miss the most: Mezza, my number one favorite place in Buffalo. The food isn’t out of this world, so the bar is kind of a hidden gem, but the drinks are well-made and astonishingly cheap and the bartenders are very cute. If you live along Elmwood I highly recommend giving Mezza another chance if it’s not already your favorite.

On Sunday, I headed up to Canada to visit the cabin a friend’s family own right along the beach.

It was great to have the sand all to ourselves for the afternoon.

On my last day in town I had coffee at Sweetness_7 with two of my favorite people.

I walked the loop around the perimeter of the zoo and said goodbye to the official buffalo of Buffalo on my way out of town.

It felt like a poetic way to make my final exit from the city that became my home over the last four years.

*Fellow future RDs – I highly recommend doing Inman when you are ready to prepare for the exam. I haven’t taken the test yet, but the course made me feel 100x better about having to start studying after a summer’s break. The class is actually taught by {the} Jean Inman and she is absolutely fantastic. Please feel free to e-mail me if you want more info; I can’t recommend it enough.

Brooklyn

One of my Buffalo friends is moving to the city now too {thank, God!} and I met up with her at Sea Thai on Wednesday night.

We went out for drinks afterward so we decided to split dinner to help spread our money a little further and eliminate the hassle of carrying around leftovers. Lettuce wraps – chicken & peanut wrapped in rice skin and lettuce with red vinaigrette tomato sauce.

And tofu Bangkok Panang Curry – medium spicy curry with string beans and lime leaf.

Plus the best (read: sweetest!) glass of Thai Young Coconut I’ve ever had.

The atmosphere in Sea is great and I want to head back soon for Drunken Noodles.

I was loving Williamsburg while we walked around that night, so it was great that I spent Adam’s day off on Saturday there as well.

I was just too flipping excited about Smorgasburg, a food market that set up near the Brooklyn Flea Market. Basically it’s a park loaded with stand of delicious, delicious food.

We shared {among other things} frozen s’mores;

Smorgasm and Salted Sailor. I ordered chocolate and Adam ordered caramel but we switched one bite in when we realize our favorites were the opposite.

An Arnold Palmer Kelvin Slush with caramelized pineapple.

The texture was perfect.

And a mini cone of sweet corn and Old Bay ice cream.

This had just enough spice and was not at all weird like Adam thought it would be.

The best bite(s) of the day was “cheese pop.”

Does any food not get better once you put it on a stick?? I wish I could remember the name of the vendor because the workers were so sweet.

Check out our lunch view –

Getting to stuff myself with cheese right along the water is basically as good as it gets!

NYC readers, have you been to Smorgasburg yet?

Buffalonians, what do you think of Mezza??

23Jul2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; By The Book

by Emily

This week I’m going to do some book reviews.

Full disclosure – I was not paid to write this post but all three of the books were sent to me free of charge to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

Book 1 – Austrian Desserts: Over 400 Cakes, Pastries, Strudels, Tortes and Candies by Toni Mörwald and Christopher Wagner

Overall Thoughts: I am thrilled to add this to my collection; I love a nice weighty cookbook! This book is packed with recipes, divided neatly into sections like “Cake, Tarts, Schnitten, and Strudel;” “Cookies and Candies;” and “Ice Cream, Sorbet, Granita, and Parfaits.” I don’t have any background in Austrian baking, but the recipes are written in such a clear, straightforward way that I would feel confident tackling any of them. There are a few history blurbs but overall the writing is to the point, which I appreciate. The color photographs are gorgeous.

Recipe: Sour Ice Cream with Lime

Recipe Reflections: With just three ingredients – low-fat sour cream, simple syrup, and fresh lime – this is the easiest ice cream I’ve ever made. But the ease didn’t make it any less tasty. Sweet and sour were perfectly balance here and the mouthfeel was nice and creamy with no ice crystals. I cut the recipe in half without incident.

What I Want to Make Next: Lavender Ice Cream, Plum Kolach, and Buttermilk Mousse with Honey.

Book 2 – CopyKat.com’s Dining Out at Home Cookbook 2, by Stephanie Manley

Overall Thoughts: This is the 2nd book from CopyKat.com that seeks to recreate recipes from popular restaurants. There are recipes inspired by more than 60 restaurants, including Starbucks, Sonic, and Cheesecake Factory. The book is divided into sections by types of foods, i.e. “Drinks,” “Appetizers,” “Desserts,” and so on. I don’t really eat at most of the restaurants featured here, but if your family regularly eats out at (popular chain) restaurants and is looking to cut back this book would be a great starting point. There are no photographs but you don’t need them as a starting point anyway because the dishes are all things you’ve seen before (that’s the point!).

Recipe 1: (Panera Bread) Broccoli Cheese Soup

Recipe 1 Reflections: I’ve never tried the original, but we flipping loved this recipe. The soup was sooo thick and perfectly creamy but without being too heavy. The flavor was astonishingly “meaty,” and the vegetables all reached the perfect texture – soft but not mushy. I used fat-free half & half instead of full-fat and I recommend this substitution. Adam and I both thought this was the best soup we’ve ever made. I cut the recipe in half without incident.

Recipe 2: (Cajun Cafe) Bourbon ~~Chicken~~ Tofu

Recipe 2 Reflections: I went with chicken instead of tofu here but feel like I still got a good idea of the recipe. This wasn’t bad, certainly, but we did not enjoy it as much as the soup. The sauce got very salty if you let it reduce too long, and we had already subbed in low-sodium soy sauce.

What I Want to Make Next: (The Melting Pot) Wisconsin Trio Fondue, (P.F. Chang’s) Lettuce Wraps, and (Red Lobster) Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

Book 3 –The No-Cook, No-Bake Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes for When It’s Too Hot to Cook, by Matt Kadey

Overall Thoughts: This cookbook has 101 oven-free recipes and includes color photographs of 80 of them. It’s divided into four sections – “Breakfast and Brunch,” “Starters and Sides,” “Main Dishes,” and “Desserts.” I really appreciated how healthy all of the recipes in this cookbook were. Usually I make substitutions to lower fat, calories, or sodium when I cook, but I couldn’t find a single recipe in this book that it seemed necessary to alter (for health reasons that is, I did make some pantry-related substitutions).

Recipe 1: Mango Fool

Recipe 1 Reflections: I’ve never eaten a Fool before, but this basically ended up being flavored Greek yogurt. The ginger and orange juice definitely helped boost the mango flavor into something extra-special. This took about a minute to come together, and I plan on making it again.

Recipe 2: Avocado Fruit Salad

Recipe Reflections 2: My fruit all looks a little pink because I had to substitute frozen berries when my blackberries caught a case of mold. I also subbed almonds for walnuts. I can’t say that I loved the savoriness of the avocado, but I did enjoy it more than I was expecting too. The overall blend of textures and flavors was fantastic; this felt very fresh and zingy.

What I Want to Make Next: Machta Mango Shake, Cucumber Seaweed Salad, and Tex-Mex Chipotle Beans.

Do you like to cook straight from recipes or do you prefer to wing it in the kitchen? Where do you tend to get your recipes – cookbooks, food blogs, or family and friends?

19Jul2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Sweet and Spicy

by Emily

This “week’s” wrap-up actually spans most of two weeks. I know I went MIA (sorry, mom!) but I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. We have a lot of personal stuff happening this month and most of it is frustrating. But there is good stuff this month too – like my 28th birthday and an upcoming trip back to Buffalo!

For having eaten two weeks worth of meals (plus, I am sooo not one of those “I’m too sad to eat” folks!), I don’t have a ton to share this post. We did a lot of take-out and none of it was blogworthy, or even edible; we threw out a really annoying amount of food. But even though the take-out situation in our neighborhood is dire, I do have some really tasty things to recap….

fruit salad for the fourth

I went all patriotic and made a lovely red white and blue fruit salad with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and sweetened shredded coconut (all mascerated with a little sugar and lime juice).

It would have been even more lovely consumed on the 4th, but we got busy moving and ended up eating red, white, and blue on July 6th.

The salad was especially nice with skim milk and Impact Maple Oat granola.

these tasty dinners were also eaten after Independence Day

I’m not sure what I was picturing because I knew we had to drive to PA and back, but I bought stuff for the grill to eat with our fruit salad. Neither of these meals were eaten before the 7th, and we still haven’t fired up the grill, but they both sure were tasty.

Everything hot dogs and sautéed swiss chard.

I added way to much Worcestershire to the chard and it was sort of terrible, but we ate it anyway to get our greens in.

But the dogs were amazing. I got the “everything dogs” idea from a Good Housekeeping.

Turkey dogs in toasted buns topped with onion cream cheese sauce – yellow onions sautéed in butter with low-fat cream cheese stirred in, plus a little light cream to loosen up the sauce – and poppy seeds.

Patty melts with kale chips.

Whole-wheat bread with 1.5 Trader Joe’s turkey burgers, ketchup, and sliced cheese.

The burgers were a higher fat % than what we usually buy and they sicked me out to cook, but the patty melts in the end were very good.

The kale chips were amazing.

I always used to burn kale chips into tiny shards of cancer but I did some Googling and think I finally found the right method.

getting saasy

The nice people at Saas Hot Sauce sent me some bottles of the hot stuff to review recently.

Please note – these products were sent to me free of charge to review. All opinions are my own.

Saas is a LLC started in 2010 by a group of students looking to raise money for charitable donations (particularly to help protect traditional cultures around the world). It comes in Original and Onion and Garlic. They use no chemical additives or stabilizers in their sauces.

I love the company’s values and practices, but I have to say – this stuff is hot! A little drop definitely goes a long way. I am a spice lover and it was pretty intense for me, so while I do recommend Saas products, if you have a wimpier mouth please be careful.

For some reason the hot sauce just screamed “quesadillas!” to me, so that’s what I made for dinner… several days in a row. Original Saas went in hot wing quesadillas.

Shredded rotisserie chicken mixed with Saas, blue cheese dressing, and mild cheddar.

Onion and Garlic Saas went in black bean quesadillas.

Smushed black beans with Saas, salt, lime juice, and sharp cheddar.

All of the cheesy triangles were quite pleasing; quesadillas were definitely a good idea.

two more home-cooked dinners

First, a mac-n-cheese style casserole of farro (the 10 minute bag from Trader Joes, so easy!), cheese sauce, and swiss chard.

I made the cheese sauce out of roux, light cream, sriracha, black pepper, sharp cheddar, and parmesan.

We both liked it but if I make the dish again I would add more spice, you need a lot of flavor to stand up to the stronger taste of the farro.

The best meal of this post is the next one, and it was super easy and healthy too. Bbq kale and white beans with cheesy corn.

For the kale, I filled my 8×12 casserole dish with torn dinosaur kale, then topped it with a can of cannelloni beans, some chopped onion, and a bottle of honey bbq sauce before baking in a 350* oven.

I wrapped our corn in foil and threw it in the oven with the kale. Mine got a layer of Sriracha mayo, parmesan cheese, salt, and black pepper before it was foiled. Delicious!

If I had known how easy it was to cook in the oven I would have been making corn all of the time.

glug, glug, glug

Lots of excitement in the beverage category this week. I found several new favorites. First, we headed over to Sweet Adele’s one afternoon for bubble tea.

They also have amazing looking fruit slice candy that I want to go back for immediately. On that visit I got a lavender milk bubble tea.

What?! The flavor was more sweet than floral but it was still very exciting.

Also exciting was 7-11 day, aka July 7th (7/11).

I got a small cherry/cola for my free slushie.

There is just no topping the cherry/cola combo {more on that later}.

Finally, I found my new favorite Polar flavor.

I know I have a new favorite every week but seriously, green apple seltzer is amazing.

empanadas in the city

On Saturday Adam had a coveted weekend day off so the three of us headed into the city.

Let’s be real – blurry or not, this is the best picture anyone will ever take of Webster and me.

We walked pretty far from the car to our final destination and the dog was such a little trooper about riding in my purse! He was so adorable we could barely handle it.

The walk was worth my aching shoulder because we ended up with a great meal. The PR team for Nuchas contacted me and asked if I would like to come by for lunch.

The following meal was provided to me free of charge to review on the blog. As always, all opinions are my own.

Nuchas, started by Argentine-born Ariel Barbouth, is a empanada company in the city. They have a food truck, a Time Square kiosk, and a catering division. They bake their empanadas instead of frying them so the goods are actually pretty healthy (and portable!). They have meat-based, vegetarian, and even vegan options.

Adam and I got four empanadas to share.

See how they label them with a little embossed letter? Too cute.

The Argentine.

Pat Lafrieda’s ground beef, onions, peppers, scallions, potatoes & olives. White dough.

This one was all Adam, obviously. He was a fan, and said it had good flavor without being too spicy. There was a nice amount of meat too; they didn’t load it up with potatoes like some places try to do.

The Portobello.

Portobello mushrooms, spinach, onions, mozzarella & fresh herbs. Spinach dough.

Again, good flavor and a nice amount of filling. The cooked spinach wasn’t watery at all and this felt healthy while still tasting good. This flavor was the husband’s favorite.

The Spicy Cheese.

Assorted cheeses & caramelized onions. White Parmesan dough.

I don’t know what spices were used here, but I was a big fan. This flavor was my favorite, but it is worth noting that it was too hot for Adam’s taste.

The Cranberry, Apple, & Nutella.

Granny smith, cranberries, pear, nutella & chocolate. White almond dough.

It was fun to try a dessert empanada. This was like a slice of apple pie with nutella on top, and really, what dessert isn’t better with some nutella on top?

All in all, we were very impressed with Nuchas. We both plan on going back and spending our own money the next time we head into Time Square.

the sweet stuff

Three things to share this post in the sweets category; all will be happening again.

I spent a ton of money buying local yellow cherries at Whole Foods one day and then promptly forgot about them for the rest of the week. By the time I got to the bag, the cherries were still edible but too soft to really be enjoyable, so I baked them into a yummy dessert.

I modified this recipe from Eat, Live, Run to make a single-serve cherry clafoutis.

I could not even believe how simple this was to make.

My birthday is next week, and some of my favorite family members sent me this fun package to celebrate.

Danny Macaroons are actually made locally in NYC (which means we can get more, whee!).

The flavors were crazy, and included chocolate-dipped, Bailey’s, chocolate, and other fun combinations. This salted caramel macaroon was the best cookie I’ve had in my life.

There were two salted caramels but I ate them both before Adam even got home from work.

Finally, there is an ice shop near our apartment and we are officially obsessed.

They have a million flavors and they are all exciting. Shown here is toasted marshmallow with key lime cream ice.

That’s a small by the way; such a good deal for $3. Marshmallow was great, obviously, but last night I had the best thing ever and now I’ll never be able to order anything else again – cola and strawberry water ice. <— to die for

What is your very favorite flavor combo for frozen treats?

27Jun2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; St. Thomas

by Emily

In the middle of moving… we snuck home for a quick vacation! Adam starts his general surgery residency on Monday so we kept things very low-key, but it was great to be home.

The next few days will be fairly ridiculous, but it was worth it. Today (in like 20 minutes, gotta keep this quick!!) we head to the airport and fly to Pennsylvania. We get in around 10 pm, then have to drive overnight back to Buffalo. Then tomorrow morning, after a night of driving (in separate cars, natch), we have to finish packing. My to-do list for Friday is running off the page of my day planner. Then on Saturday we move to Long Island. Yeesh!

Like I said, I have to keep this quick, but I want a short record of our fun – – –

There were issues with our flight down and Adam and I had to sit separately on the plane, but they rewarded us with free drink tickets.

I felt very fancy with my in-flight Bloody Mary.

At Home

Most of our meals were out and about, but one night we got “chicken man” to eat at home.

St. Thomas definitely had the first food trucks, we’ve been buying bbq chicken from a truck for as long as I can remember.

I had chicken, cole slaw, a roll, and extra sauce.

Another night we had pie and prosecco.

My mom’s key lime pie was great,

but we were not fans of Cupcake Wine’s prosecco. Everything else I’ve tried from them has been on the sweet side but this was incredibly dry.

We liked the Moet & Chandon White Star Champagne (left over from our wedding!!!) much more.

Enjoyed with take-out from China King.

Adam and split cashew chicken and crab rangoon.

On the Go

On Sunday we ferried over to St. John for Food Fair.

I got a veggie patty (pronounced like paté),

and a soursop juice.

I’ve been wanting fresh soursop for months and this hit the spot.

One day I took advantage of the lack of open container laws and drank a Heinekin Light while we wandered downtown.

And another Adam and I split an Udder Light shake from the dairy.

If you ever visit St. Thomas, the local dairy makes the best milkshakes in the US.

Last night I got a painkiller at Fat Turtle.

We met up with a good friend from high school and it was great to catch up.

Restaurant Meals

We had to go to Barefoot Buddha for breakfast; I like their Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich so much that I ate it the morning I got married.

Adam and I shared a sandwich,

and a Vietnamese latte.

All of our other meals had good food, but better scenery.

Plantains at the place that used to be Fungi’s.

Sandwiches – we split a jerk chicken and a local fried fish – at Megan’s Point.

And a local fish sandwich at Sangria’s.

Sometimes I can’t believe I chose to move away!

10Jun2013

Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve stopped doing daily posts for the time being, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped eating – and occasionally photographing – delicious things. Once we’ve moved and things have settled down I’ll try to post more regularly, but for now I want to at least do a weekly wrap-up of some of the more scrumptious things I’ve eaten. I’m going to borrow the style of Kath’s Lately posts for these.

A lot is missing, I don’t have any lunches and several slices of pizza went uncaptured, but here are some of the highlights from last week…

Breakfasts

I bought an amazing container of fresh blackberries early in the week and enjoyed them greatly. They started getting soft so I put the last few servings in the freezer and I’m very much looking forward to reheating them. First up, Dannon Oikos Café Latte Greek Yogurt with blackberries and a blend of peanut and coconut butter.

Cinnamon Pecan Special K with Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and more blackberries.

This cereal is so tasty; it’s got a granola-like texture but with far less calories.

A Dr. McDougall’s Peach and Hemp Oatmeal, eaten at work with a packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

This oatmeal couldn’t hold a candle to my beloved Quaker cups. It was quite gummy and strange, though I did eat all of the bites with hazelnut butter on them 😉

Snacks

I finally got a chance to try some of my shipment of the Larabar ALT line. Lemon Pound Cake and Peanut Butter Cookie.

The verdict was – I’m a fan; though I’ll admit to being less excited to try the other two flavors. The texture was gritty sand, but in a great way, and the flavors were spot on. I shared the lemon bar with a coworker and she said to tell y’all she liked it a lot.

On Monday, Adam, a friend, and I drove over to Williamsville to check out one of our new froyo spots – Red Mango.

I did plain tart with tons of popping boba. They had kiwi boba, a new experience for me. Confession time though: I couldn’t finish that whole cup! Who am I??

Dinners

Also on Monday, we spent the evening with another group of friends, saying goodbye to a doctor who was heading off to California. As Adam and his friends all head off to their residencies we are having to say a lot of goodbyes. We ate dinner at Mezza.

A Shish Tawouk wrap – cubed marinated chicken breast, garlic spread, sweet coleslaw, and French fries, all wrapped together and grilled – with a Feta Fattouch salad. My food was delicious, as was the diet coke with strawberry vodka I sipped from the bar.

We drank at Blue Monk before heading to dinner and I tried my first taste of mussels.

I’ve always been wimpy about shelled seafood, but they were fantastic! It helped that they were cooked with Ommegang Witte, lemon, leeks, garlic, parsley and cream.

We also ate dinner out last night. I’ve wanted to try 99 Fast Food for years and Sunday after work it was finally my time. Unfortunately all of the pho was made with beef broth so I couldn’t partake, but I did have a nice meal of tofu broccoli ginger stir-fry.

We tried a Vietnamese Pudding for dessert.

It was more of a drink than a pudding, red bean with sweetened coconut milk.

On Friday night I hurried home from work so we could get a little gussied.

My bosses generously gave me their tickets to the Mash Bash, an army-themed fundraiser.

I was literally the only person in the room not in green, so embarrassing!

There wasn’t a ton of food there that I could eat, but each ticket came with two drinks and Adam ate my share of pulled pork sandwich.

Most of my home-cooked meals flopped this week, but I did have one success with a little help from Coleman’s Mustard.

The company sent me a tin of powder to try {free sample, please note!}, along with a recipe for dressing –

Colman’s Chili Vinaigrette

4 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Colman’s Original Powdered Mustard
4 “splashes” mild green Tabasco sauce
½ cup lemon juice
2 tsp. honey

I whipped up a batch for salads; a spring lettuce based topped with English Cotswold cheese, buckwheat groats, and roasted asparagus.

It was a good week!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: coconut

Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

fun

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

Weekly Wrap-Up; In August

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday, Buffalo, Brooklyn

Birthday

Buffalo

Brooklyn

Weekly Wrap-Up; By The Book

Full disclosure – I was not paid to write this post but all three of the books were sent to me free of charge to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

Book 1 – Austrian Desserts: Over 400 Cakes, Pastries, Strudels, Tortes and Candies by Toni Mörwald and Christopher Wagner

Book 2 – CopyKat.com’s Dining Out at Home Cookbook 2, by Stephanie Manley

Book 3 –The No-Cook, No-Bake Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes for When It’s Too Hot to Cook, by Matt Kadey

Weekly Wrap-Up; Sweet and Spicy

Please note – these products were sent to me free of charge to review. All opinions are my own.

The following meal was provided to me free of charge to review on the blog. As always, all opinions are my own.

Weekly Wrap-Up; St. Thomas

At Home

On the Go

Restaurant Meals

Weekly Wrap-Up

Breakfasts

Snacks

Dinners