Weekend Wrap-Up; Farm Fresh

by Emily

Just the highlights…

<^> I went strawberry picking with a girlfriend on Sunday. This activity has been on my radar for years and it was nice to finally give it a go.

I’m not really sure what the two of us were picturing though, because I definitely rolled up in sandals and a long scarf (with a giant iced coffee and a huge purse).

After we went back to the car to regroup, we got down to business (literally down, strawberry picking meant an hour crouching in the dirt!) and both came away with big cartons of tasty berries.

Glover Farms, if anyone local wants to go themselves. We’d recommend it.

<^> As of June 2nd, Jamba Juice has added a fresh-squeezed juice menu at over 500 locations nationally. They sent me a gift card so that I could try some out. The card got here just in time, because I was at two different locations with Jambas this weekend so I was able to try two options.

Please note – I received a gift card so that I could sample the juice menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Let’s start with the negative – these drinks are not juices. They juice the fruits, carrots, and beets, but then that juice is put into a blender with the greens, making this item a smoothie. I started this argument with an employee and eventually gave up, but fresh-squeezed juice does not involve a blender. Period.

That said, inaccurate marketing aside, the drinks were quite tasty and healthy. Both flavors I tried had a good balance of sweet to green. And every 16 oz “juice” has 2 full servings of fruit and/or vegetables for minimal caloric cost. Tropical greens:

Super greens/apple/pineapple/chia. 210 calories in a 16 oz.

Garden Medley:

Super greens/carrot/apple/chia. 170 calories in a 16 oz.

<^> I haven’t blogged about them much, but I have been loving the almond thins that Nonni’s sent me.

The banana chocolate flavor is legit. And I’m usually annoyed by things that are put in 100 calorie packages but the serving size feels perfect here.

<^> I ate homemade nachos while I watched the 2 hour season intro of Rookie Blue and I practically cried I was so happy. Summer tv at its best.

I also had an episode of Awkward. Best. Night. Ever.

<^> I finally got to try Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

Now I totally get the hype; I tasted Zen Butter – sesame and peanut butter – and it was worth the buzz. I chose taro and black sesame for my cup though. The black sesame was amazing, super roasty and crunchy.

<^> Saturday’s dinner.

Asian flavors night. Bok choy sautéed with green onions in evoo. Towards the end I tossed in some thinly sliced Persian cucumbers that I quick-pickled in sugar and salt for 20 minutes.

A big pile of green curry turkey salad.

The salad was so good it’s getting its own recipe page. I promise to get that up on the blog tomorrow.

<^> Sunday’s dinner.

Such a summery – vegetarian – plate! Corn on the cob, of course.

With bbq tofu. I rubbed TJ’s super firm extra-protein tofu with a homemade spice blend {brown sugar, smoked paprika, cumin, and curry powder} and baked it off before tossing the slices in a skillet with some bbq sauce.

Plus we had chard sautéed in evoo with salt, toasted hazelnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup.

That teensy pile of greens was what happened when I cooked down this big bunch.

I bought my greens at a tiny farmer’s market that was happening at the farm museum near my house.

My chard was picked the same day I bought it! The only thing fresher is my strawberries 🙂

Have you ever picked your own berries? We have our eye on apples this fall.

9Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Loki

by Emily

We had a nice, low-key weekend around these parts. Nothing major, though we did manage to get in good food, good beer, and an extra-long walk with the dog.

I spent Saturday afternoon volunteering at my hospital’s health fair discussing body fat percentages and BMI.

And Sunday we spent hours at the mall getting my dress for a wedding next weekend.

Here’s some of what I ate around shopping and volunteering…

Lunch at National Thai in Fort Greene. We shared chicken satay.

And tofu Pad See Ew.

Our noodles were perfectly done; they were nice and chewy. And they gave us a large enough portion that even sharing the meal we had enough leftovers to make dinner the next night.

Lunch at Au Bon Pain at the mall as a reward for finding an appropriate dress. We shared a Caffe Viennese.

And I finally got to try the bbq chicken salad.

It was even more delicious than predicted. The bbq chicken was great and there was soooo much of it.

Smoothie time. Frozen raspberries with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and the last serving or so of a can of light coconut milk.

Adam loved it but this was actually too coconut-y for me. I’m slightly amazed by that because later the same day I topped cold cereal with coconut butter and loved it.

Snack ~~plate~~ napkin.

Mary’s Gone Crackers Sea Salt Pretzels, Chocolove Espresso Dark Chocolate, and sliced cheese.

Something cool on our dog walk.

You can’t beat gummi bear cream ice.

Whenever we go to Trader Joe’s we split a coffee and/or giant soda and it makes grocery shopping feel much more like a date than an errand.

That was a clover brew of the Bourbon Brazil blend, with sugar and skim milk.

On Saturday, we were invited back into Brooklyn for a gorgeous bbq for dinner.

Our friend’s sister’s boyfriend is a chef and the food was ridiculous – also poorly lit, and therefore unpictured. We had homemade Cesar salads, grilled radicchio, and grilled leeks and green onions with romesco sauce.

With a little love, our Thai leftovers made us a great dinner on Sunday.

I stir-fried them with shredded carrots, broccoli, and egg in evoo, green curry, and galangal (Thai minced ginger).

Even better than the first rendition.

How many weddings are you scheduled to attend this summer?

2Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

by Emily

Another wonderful weekend! Amazingly, the husband and I are still not sick of each other, so when he has a weekend day off it is better than fricking Christmas. He worked Saturday while I ~~slept until noon and~~ cleaned and grocery shopped and then Sunday was family fun day.

We’ll start with a snack review. Polar’s new Georgia Peach Seltzer is delicious.

Very juicy, though the flavor almost reminded me of bananas.

This Trader Joe’s microwave popcorn is also nice.

My favorite thing is the packaging, honestly.

I hate how ridiculously convoluted microwave popcorn nutrition labels are but this one was crystal clear.

And the birthday cake stuffed cookies are not good.

Of course I ate two more servings before I came to that conclusion… for research.

The cheap fresh blueberries from Trader Joe’s are great now. No more mushy berries.

Shown on a bowl of cereal – a serving each Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Honeycomb with marshmallows – with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I suck at including pictures, but I actually am (relatively) good at eating my vegetables. Go ahead and picture several servings of olive hummus with raw veggies this weekend and a big salad from the cafeteria for Friday’s lunch. Much better.

Friday night started with green juice. A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, parsley, and apple.

We needed it to offset the next round of drinks.

We spent a glorious evening on the patio at Bierkraft. A girlfriend met up with us after work, and we befriended the couple who shared our table, and we all laughed and shared restaurant recommendations for hours.

Highlights from the night were 21st Amendment Brewery’s Hell or High Watermelon.

And this Reindeer’s Revolt that stole my heart. It was malty and sweet with just a bit of spice. Though I’m not sure why Bierkraft had two freezer’s worth of Christmas beers in the first week of June.

We also had amazing frozen margaritas, ill-advised rounds of shots, and an awkward dinner at Calexico. I drunkenly ordered the only thing on the menu that I would never eat and sat there like a weirdo while the waitress boxed up the entire dish minus two bites at the end of the meal. Whoops.

Saturday’s dinner was a winner; and yes, it bums me out that that rhymed.

It was just a really yummy, summery combination of foods. Leftover veggies, cruciferous crunch with pecans and blueberries.

The last of the rotisserie chicken, scrambled into eggs with brie, dill, and coconut oil.

And corn on the cob, oven-roasted with Miracle Whip, sea salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and sharp cheddar.

I am so flipping glad that it is corn on the cob season again. Learning how easy it is to cook in the oven was a great discovery last summer.

On Sunday we took the dog into Brooklyn for Sunday’s Smorgasburg.

DUMBO is gorgeous, it is one of my favorite nyc neighborhoods.

I ate a fantastic lemonade with watermelon and mint. Served with a bubble tea straw for the big, juicy chunks of melon.

And a really terrible taco. The edamame and corn were inexplicably neither cooked nor seasoned.

Thankfully Adam made much better choices – miso chicken taco, ginger bourbon pecan pie, rhubarb Columbian soda – and was willing to share.

We took the dog exploring, then made our way to Luke’s Lobster.

We shared a combo and were both swooning. This was the best lobster roll I have ever eaten, including one I had at a shack on the harbor in Boston.

They serve it fairly plain, just with lemon butter and secret spices, and the freshness of the lobster meat shines through. We plan on taking my parents for one the minute their airplane lands later this month.

Where were you served the best lobster roll you’ve ever eaten? If you’re into that kind of thing…

11Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; All By Myself

by Emily

Adam is on spring break right now so I gave him my free ticket voucher and he spent a week in St. Thomas with my parents. They are all disgustingly in love with each other and had a fabulous time. Meanwhile I was home alone but at least I had the dog.

Furry cuddles totally got me through. And I definitely took advantage of meals as a single lady.

breakfast

Fruit and yogurt bowl.

A strawberry Fage topped with fresh pineapple and cara cara orange.

A lackluster morning.

A bottle of iced coffee that I thought tasted artificial and threw out halfway through.

And a NuGo bar that was nowhere near as tasty as their salted pretzel variety.

Smoothie.

Coffee greek yogurt with frozen blackberries, toasted coconut, and chocolate milk. <– Fantabulous

Smoothie 2 was frozen mango, blackberries, and spinach with coconut water.

Have you tried the ice cream coffees from Dunkin? This was butter pecan.

I tried the cookie dough last weekend too and it was legit amazing.

lunch

Salad day.

Arugula with carrots, pea shoots, honey roasted almonds, buckwheat groats, blue cheese, dried blueberries, and vinaigrette.

Plus a cara cara orange and tamarind balls from home.

My coworkers are mostly all from the Caribbean as well and they were thrilled that I shared my tamarind shipment.

Oatmeal and apples.

Cherry Pistachio from Quaker.

And Cherry Vanilla from Big Slice.

This was the first flavor of these kettle cooked apples that I didn’t like.

Sandwich spread.

An everything bagel thin with strawberry jam, sharp cheddar, smoked turkey, and banana peppers.

Plus spicy peanut cucumber salad.

And raspberry candies and the last orange.

snack

Paper bag popcorn.

Prune chocolates my Russian coworker shared.

I ate this entire bag of Inner Peas in one sitting.

It was pathetic but also delicious.

I topped with cool tub of fig yogurt with white chocolate chips and toasted coconut.

Cookie mugs rocked my face of this week.

I use this recipe, but swap the ratio of white to brown sugar.

Do ittttttt.

dinner

Salad night.

I had a TJ’s pretzel bread in the car as an appetizer.

Then topped a giant bowl of arugula and pea shoots with medium-boiled eggs, blue cheese, turkey bacon, shredded carrot, yogurt blue cheese dressing, and truffle salt.

And now medium-boiled eggs are my new favorite thing.

A combination of nibbles. Pretzels straight from the bag.

A granny smith dipped in peanut butter and lavender caramel.

And baby carrots with red pepper hummus.

Green eggs ~~and ham~~.

Eggs scrambled with okra, arugula, and swiss cheese.

Soup’s up.

This poblano and corn chowder was delicious.

And now we’re off to do fun spring break stuff!

17Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Equations With Pie

by Emily

Happy Monday, all! Did everyone else enjoy Pi Day on Friday (March 14 –> 3/14 –> 3.14)? People usually celebrate the date by eating pie and/or pizza{pie}. We went with the sweet variety, though now that I think about it we had pizza over the weekend too.

In random order, here are the eats I have to share…

lunch

Friday at work.

A pepperoni and cheese snack box,

and a GT’s Synergy Grape Chia Kombucha.

We got lunch at Noodle & Co. while running errands on Saturday.

I got the Japanese pan noodles – caramelized udon noodles in a sweet soy sauce, broccoli, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, Asian sprouts, black sesame and cilantro.

I paid for extra veggies, which got me a whopping 3 tiny pieces of broccoli. We were not impressed.

dinner

Easy dinner on Friday to leave room for pie.

Eggs scrambled with kale and corn.

Pizza on Saturday. My half was topped with mushroom.

I got my veggies in the form of Sweet Greens.

Sunday was Chipotle take-out.

I planned on saving half of my meal for Adam (he was working the night shift) but I ended up eating every single bite of rice bowl and chips!

It doesn’t look like much, but my “meat” was sofritas – shredded tofu braised with chiles, poblanos, and spices – and it was delicious.

brunch

Au Bon Pain debuted a new seasonal Spring Menu on March 10th and they sent me a gift certificate so I could review their newest bakery item. – please note: I was able to sample the new items free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own. –

Adam and I decided to do a late Sunday morning brunch.

Coffee – a skim, iced Caffé Viennese – and a Sweet Cheese CroisBun, aka their new croissant and sweet bun hybrid.

The outside was wonderfully flakey and sweet but the inside was what really shined. The sweet cheese was sooooo moist – the main reason I usually don’t eat Danish is because they tend to get dried out, but this was amazing. There was a sweet cheese and strawberry variety that looked yummy too.

I also got a Sesame Ginger Chicken Salad.

Very good as well. The seasoning on the chicken provided so much flavor. Other options from the new menu include a Chicken Wasabi Wrap and Black Currant Iced Tea that I quite want to try.

snackage

Pi Day celebration from Four & Twenty Blackbirds.

I got our slices to-go but the space was super adorable and I am dying to go back.

Oatmeal black bottom – I didn’t love the texture of the oats within the pie but Adam was a big fan –

Salted honey – custard with the perfect balance of salt and sweet –

Lemon chess – my favorite variety; packed with pucker –

We were both very pleased. And we sat on the couch, holding hands, eating pie, and watching tv, so it was pretty much the best night ever.

And on Saturday I put the leftover lemon chess pie in vanilla bean Greek yogurt.

Perfection.

On Sunday, a girlfriend and I went to a gelato making class.

We came home with 4 pints each.

The class was fun, but I’m honestly not that thrilled with the taste/quality of my pints. At least we went on a Groupon.

The highlight of my weekend – other than time with the husband, obvs – was getting my hands on this:

Diet cherry coke slurpee, for the win! It tasted like dreams. Even my friend, who’s not an addict like I am, said it was tasty.

What was the highlight of your weekend?

21Jan2014

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

My first long weekend as a worker bee was fabulous. Friday through Monday were packed with fun (and food!). Adam and I managed to spend a ton of time together. <– heavenly Here’s some of what we ate…

breakfasts

Breakfast in Park Slope with Adam and a girlfriend.

I got poached eggs with toast, hash browns, turkey bacon, and a mimosa.

Sadly our meals were all slightly burned and boring. Win some lose some. The iced coffee we got from Cafe Dada afterwards was a total win.

They have almond milk on their milk bar!

Speaking of almond milk, that’s what I put in my homemade iced coffee, cold pressed for the win.

Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. Plus some maple syrup.

And almond milk went in my cereal too – Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes with bunches of blueberries.

That cereal has stayed my favorite for months.

Another day another coffee. This time with a banana and fudge cereal bar.

The bar was de-lish. I am eagerly looking forward to microwaving one and eating it warm.

lunches

Friday’s lunch at the office.

Leftover mac with sardines and broccoli.

And a Wallaby low-fat Greek yogurt with strawberry.

Hot bar date at Whole Foods in SoHo.

I choose 2 vegan dumplings, a scoop of macaroni and cheese, and made a salad with mixed greens, balsamic, olives, and blue cheese.

Plus Adam and I split a Raspberry Chia Kombucha.

dinners

It’s been crazy cold in our area recently and we’ve both been craving soup. So I whipped up an Asian-inspired batch of the hot stuff. With a creamy soft-boiled egg cracked on top.

It was so good I even recorded the recipe.

Asian-Inspired Soup; serves 2

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 fresh jalepeños, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sliced green onions
5 oz bok choy, sliced lengthwise in quarters
1/4 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch each salt and pepper
3 cups broth
3 oz stir-fry noodles
{Optional toppings} Sriracha, sliced green onions, soft-boiled eggs

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add jalepeños, green onions, and bok choy to oil and cook until softened, 3 – 5 minutes.
Add all spice, cloves, cinnamon, salt and pepper to vegetables and stir to combine.
Add broth to pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
When the broth has reached a boil, add noodles to pot and reduce heat to bring the soup to a simmer. Continue to simmer until noodles are softened, 3 – 5 minutes.
Serve and top as desired.

Another night we went all fancy (sort of) with polenta (sort of) stacks.

Layers 1, 3, and 5 were sliced polenta baked with dried basil and mozzarella. Layers 2 and 4 were lean ground turkey sautéed with evoo, thinly sliced garlic, thinly sliced turkey pepperoni, and marinara sauce.

The pepperoni totally made it. Roasted broccoli on the side.

And the last night of the weekend we did take-out from Yesterday’s Diner.

Adam and I split a turkey burger with mozzarella and french fries. We love their turkey burgers. And it helps that they send a juicy pickle and blue cheese dressing for dipping.

snackage

This section is full of love! Like this snack plate of super sharp cheese with Honeycrisp apple.

Haribo Juicy Gold Bears became my favorite gummi.

The texture is perfect – chewy and firm with no teeth sticking – and they are sooooo juicy.

The rest of the treats are all mint based, since I’m having a total love affair with the frosty flavor lately. The best froyo ever.

Mint with chocolate crunch, yogurt chips, and hot fudge.

A fabulous first trip to Emack and Bolio’s with Adam.

He got ice cream that he deemed the best he’s ever had and I went with a scoop of grasshopper pie frozen yogurt.

We also got a chocolate egg cream that was the best we’ve ever had. We want to go back immediately.

Finally, a vegan mint cream cookie sandwich from Babycakes.

Are you a mint fanatic too or is it too toothpastey for you?

16Jan2014

Livin’ Lean With Trader Joe’s {Book Review}

by Emily

I recently was contacted about doing a review of Jamie Davidson’s new book, Livin’ Lean with Trader Joe’s. Since January is the month of resolutions to eat better/lose weight/get healthy/et al, it seemed like the perfect time to share my thoughts with you guys. I even have a sample recipe for you.

Note – I was sent a PDF copy of the book to review, free of charge. All opinions are my own. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

About: The Author

Jamie has a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and has been teaching people how to eat nutritiously and conveniently for over 20 years. She is also the author of Quick and Healthy Meals from Trader Joe’s and Simmering Solutions, Healthy Slow-Cooker Recipes. I don’t believe that she has any formal chef training, but she is quite adept at putting together meals that are balanced and flavorful while still being healthy. While I think that Registered Dietitians should be the gold standard source for nutrition advice, Jamie’s background makes her far more qualified than most of the other authors of this season’s diet advice.

My Thoughts: The Book

Two thumbs up! Adam and I loved all of the recipes that we tried – they were tasty, healthy, and a snap to prepare.

The first few chapters of the book focus on Jamie’s advice for weight loss and healthy living, followed by a comprehensive collection of more than 150 recipes. As a Registered Dietitian, I think that her philosophy is solid. She promotes exercise and a balanced diet (note – “diet” as in a lifestyle or way of eating, not meaning a short-term, quick-fix “diet”) and doesn’t make outrageous claims. She does a great job of explaining why and how her recipes can help you lose weight.

Many of the recipes are simple assembly and prep, and if you are a more advanced cook this book may be too basic for you. But if you are struggling in the kitchen or have made a recent commitment to prepare healthier meals – whether you are looking to lose weight or just lead a healthy life – I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing this book.

The Goods: Recipes I Made

{1} Lentil Tapenade (Wrap).

This recipe combined some of Adam’s favorite flavors – lentils, olive tapenade, and feta – that I would not have thought to put together on my own. It took less than 5 minutes to throw together and we loved the final result.

The recipe was for a wrap, but we made a (double) batch of the spread and served it as part of a cheese plate instead.

Lentil tapenade, buffalo blue cheese kettle chips, green grapes, pesto gouda, and an amazing goat’s milk cheddar.

{2} BBQ Chicken over Polenta.

This was one of those basic prep recipes; not something I would normally look for in a cookbook but a great find on a late night when I would have ordered take-out (for 8 billion calories) but spent 5 minutes throwing this together instead (for less than 200 calories a serving with 16 grams of protein).

Served with green beans.

FYI, I did skew my serving ratio a bit towards chicken versus polenta.

{3} Really Low Fat Greek Yogurt Dressing.

Served on a salad, obviously. With romaine, smoked almonds, raisins, and pesto gouda. I liked the tang of this a lot. And I loved that there were only about 35 calories a serving, because the husband tends to coat his salads in dressing.

Served with…

{4} Eggless Egg Salad.

This was our favorite recipe of the bunch. It has a tofu base, but an avowed tofu hater wouldn’t know it was in there until you told them. I don’t usually put so many veggies in my egg salad (though I totally should) so I tasted this before I added in most of the produce and yep, it tasted just like egg salad!

This was delicious, and vegan to boot. Definitely a recipe I plan on making again. And you can make it too, since Jamie said it was ok to share the recipe with you guys (click on the image to enlarge) –

Did you make any health related resolutions this New Years?

23Dec2013

Week Long Wrap-Up; But I Am Le Tired

by Emily

In spite of actually getting enough sleep for the first time in ever, I was astonishingly tired this week. Like too tired to play on my phone when I got in bed at night, which is huge for me. Probably related to the astonishing amount of junk I ate this week, most of which I didn’t have the energy to photograph. Or perhaps just living like a grown-up finally sinking in. Nonetheless, when I thought about writing a “Weekly Wrap-Up” post on Thursday, I crawled into bed instead. FYI – I did select the book winners and they’ve already been contacted.

le work eats

Some breakfasts and lunches shown here. I did not do a great job of packing this week. We had two free lunches in a row, but unfortunately neither offered a ton that I could/would eat. And I tried to buy lunch in the cafeteria one day and it did not go well at all. There were several days where I was cranky all afternoon and then snacking like crazy the minute I could get my hands on food. Like the day I ate an entire bag of fruit gummis on the train…

Leftover chana masala with tangerines.

Lunch from our holiday party. Salad, shrimp, and rigatoni. With a side of present in our great gift exchange. I didn’t snap any pictures, but my boss brought in Baked by Melissa for dessert and that was fun.

Jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese bagel with fresh pineapple.

My coffee of choice this week was an iced Americano with extra espresso, skim milk, and four sugars.

Yogurt, mango, and peppermint divinity that knocked my socks off.

le work outfits

le dinners

I didn’t have it in me to cook and we ate too many meals out this week. It would have been fine for the fun, except of course they were largely terrible. Thankfully my desire to get in the kitchen seems to be renewed by my week of bad restaurant meals. <– I say as I eat cheese and crackers and a beer for dinner

We went to a Cuban place in Park Slope as a belated birthday dinner for Adam.

I got a painkiller to drink, which wasn’t half bad.

But I misread the menu and ordered a chile relleno that was stuffed with calamari. I don’t eat calamari. The waiter was out-of-control terrible so we were not surprised when he didn’t comment on my plate going back to the kitchen mostly untouched (not that this mistake was their fault!).

We made a dessert effort with flan and tres leches, aka flan and a kitchen sponge soaked in scm. Yuck!

At least we enjoyed our company immensely! And the walk back to the car was gorgeous and we picked me up a jaloepeño cheddar bagel that was delicious.

We tried again another night with a Groupon I bought for a Mexican spot in Roslyn.

We shared a truffle mushroom quesadilla that was perfect.

And my 2nd go at chile relleno was much better, if still not great.

Another night we stayed home but got Chipotle.

I was irritated with the amount of guacamole she glopped on at first, but once I realized it was in fact $2 and not free I was glad that they didn’t skimp.

I’d been having a love affair with their chicken but somehow this rice bowl just didn’t knock my socks off.

The best thing we ate all week was the night we stayed home.

Leftover chana with onion relish and a big scoop of plain Greek yogurt.

le snacks

A cookie to stay on theme while we watched “Frosty.”

A lemonade milkshake.

I used way too much lemon juice to vanilla ice cream and this was actually inedible, but it was fun in theory and an idea I plan on trying again in different proportions.

A Buffalo chicken quesadilla (former freebie) from Red’s.

White chocolate peppermint frozen yogurt with cheesecake chips and snowcaps.

We also tried the Scotchy Scotch Scotch (on top of chocolate peanut butter swirl) from Ben and Jerry’s. I took a few bites and Adam swooned over the rest. This flavor is definitely for butterscotch lovers.

This Cider Boys Magic Apple, apple strawberry hard cider, was outstanding. I want to try the cinnamon flavor like crazy.

le weekend in the city

Yesterday we headed over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree.

I can not even tell you how gorgeous the city was this weekend; I squealed with delight every time we rounded a corner. Also it was 65 degrees and I was in sandals!

We were in Manhattan because Au Bon Pain invited me in to try some of their new holiday menu.

Note – Au Bon Pain provided me coupons with which I could try the new menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

Here are the current ABP special menu additions –

Chicken, Mushroom and Swiss Sandwich– all natural chicken, spinach, Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms and tomato spread on a sprouted grain roll

Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake – holiday mini bundt coffee cake filled with cinnamon spice and topped with walnuts

Egg White and Mushroom Frittata Breakfast Sandwich – egg whites, sautéed mushrooms, spinach and cheddar on a sprouted grain roll

Gingerbread Cookie – A hand decorated cookie rich with molasses

Greek Vanilla Yogurt and Triple Berry Parfait

Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread – chocolate dipped shortbread sprinkled with peppermint topping

Pumpernickel Bagel – bold and distinctive flavor from rye flour and molasses

Thai Coconut Shrimp (gluten free) – a blend of petite shrimp, red peppers, carrots, bamboo shoots and lemongrass in a coconut and curry broth with a touch of spice

Adam and I shared so we could try three things.

The Chicken, Mushroom, and Swiss Sandwich.

They were out of the rolls so ours was served on cibatta bread. I thought this was good, but I’m not one to get too excited about a chicken sandwich. Adam loved it. He ate part of my half and even considered getting a second one.

The Thai Coconut Shrimp soup.

This one I liked more than the husband. The flavor was full of lemongrass and not too spicy. Very filling for only 170 calories in a medium bowl.

The Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread.

We both loved dessert. The shortbread was so thick that it was the main flavor instead of chocolate or peppermint, but thankfully it was quite a tasty shortbread. Each cookie has 390 calories which I didn’t think was too bad considering how big they are.

It was dark after we finished eating and the lights were even better on the walk home.

I ❤ New York

P.S. Bonus points if you know what the title alludes to!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: corn

Weekend Wrap-Up; Farm Fresh

Please note – I received a gift card so that I could sample the juice menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Weekend Wrap-Up; Loki

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

Weekly Wrap-Up; All By Myself

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Equations With Pie

lunch

dinner

brunch

snackage

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

breakfasts

lunches

dinners

snackage

Livin’ Lean With Trader Joe’s {Book Review}

Note – I was sent a PDF copy of the book to review, free of charge. All opinions are my own. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

About: The Author

My Thoughts: The Book

The Goods: Recipes I Made

Week Long Wrap-Up; But I Am Le Tired

le work eats

le work outfits

le dinners

le snacks

le weekend in the city

Note – Au Bon Pain provided me coupons with which I could try the new menu free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post. All opinions are my own.