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.
Sadly this item was so far from greatness as to just be bad. The bowl had such potential: oats, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, chia seeds, cottage cheese, a smidge of vanilla extract and maple syrup, coconut, crunchy Barney Butter, and pumpkin.
It was terrible. The pumpkin was sooooooo savory and squashy. And this was a fresh can of Libby’s too!?
This was a recipe from Cooking Light but I threw away the magazine and I can’t find it online.
The dish turned out very well but apparently I’m not a huge fan of baked tomatoes.
Regular m&m’s don’t really thrill me but this seasonal variety (along with the mint dark chocolate) is delicious.
Leftover taco shells topped with Ortega Thick and Chunky Salsa and stuffed with eggs – scrambled with spinach and jalapeños. We continued to be impressed with the taco shells and the filling was delicious, including the little bit of extra I stuck on the side of my plate.
We definitely need to do taco night more often.
Adam and I were obsessed with the caramel and cheddar “golden mix” from the popcorn shop and the Buffalo mall and this will substitute nicely.
Eggs scrambled with sautéed kale, cottage cheese, and Parmesan.
Plus a baby apple.
This was a winner, and you’ll see most of the components again in #7.
Annie’s Mac and Cheese with peas, Parmesan, and eggs (scrambled with cottage cheese and jalapeño).
Stirring the eggs into the pasta was so genius, I’m never serving macaroni the traditional way again. And the parm was grated by hand, making this feel extra fancy.
Kale salad with a bit of mac and cheese. Plus fried plantains for dessert.
Ugh, plantains are too good. So sweet and chewy.
This was from La Bagel Delight, a spot in Park Slope that makes the best bagels in the city. They blend the cream cheese in shop, look that those giant hunks –
Fabulous.
How could nachos with candied jalapeño possibly not be the single best thing I ate all week?
Some roasted green beans,
piled next to nachos. Late July Multigrain Chips with 2% sharp cheddar and candied jalapeños.
Yummmmmmm.
Wallaby low-fat maple yogurt
Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Greek Frozen Yogurt
Jasmine Tulsi
Eating Chalk 