Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

by Emily

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

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

lunch

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

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

Salad from the cafeteria.

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

Apple themed oats.

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

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

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

snacks

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

But I was quite excited to spot this new item at Konditori –

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leftover slice of mushroom and olive pizza.

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

Coffee yogurt.

The strangest pairing of the week was also the best.

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

dinner

A fantabulously fall salad.

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

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

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

All-in-all, a great meal.

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

No photos because I am socially awkward enough without the food photography, trust me.

And last night I threw together some fancied up macaroni.

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

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

Have a great weekend!

25Aug2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Five Favorites

by Emily

On Saturday, I kept myself busy with errands and drinking all the coffee.

On Sunday, we went for a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

Oh my goodness. The weather was absolutely beautiful but we both agreed that three hours was too long – I am going to do my best not to sit today!

Here are my five favorites from the weekend…

{1} Rose Apriums, an apricot-plum blend. They are similar to the Plucot/Pluot (my favorite fruit of all time) but more apricot than plum. Wonderful.

I packaged materials from home and ate them in a tasty granola bowl at work on Friday. 2 chopped Rose Apriums, 1/2+ cup KIND Banana Nut Clusters, and skim milk.

Another summer fruit worth mentioning is the Sonya apple. They are perfectly sweet, and juicy without being drippy.

The book in the background is my final recommendation. It is a compilation of food writing – book excerpts, magazine articles, blog posts – from 2013, divided into sections about meat, eating local, home cooks, etc, and it has been delightful to read. Now I want to get my hands on some of the other years.

{2} A copy-cat ABP bbq chicken salad.

I enjoyed this salad so much when I sampled it at Au Bon Pain, I knew I would have to recreate it at home.

A romaine base topped with ranch dressing, corn, cucumber, tomato, three-cheese blend, and chopped chicken that was tossed with TJ’s Carolina bbq sauce.

{3} Green eggs (no ham).

An easy dinner that tasted so good. I sautéed frozen spinach and corn with evoo, dill, a pinch of sugar, and green Tabasco, then tossed in chopped chicken and chunks of raw goat’s milk cheese, and scrambled in two eggs.

Corn is so freaking good in scrambled eggs. I like it when everything gets a bit charred before you add your eggs.

{4} A killer sandwich from Bareburger, the Big Bacon Blue burger with a few modifications.

I ended up with grilled chicken, turkey bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, smokehouse sauce, and blue cheese.

I was swooning over this sandwich; it ended up being the best “burger” I’ve ever eaten. I’m pretty jazzed about that season drink in the background too – to be shared in September!

{5} Chicago Mix from Trader Joe’s. You can’t go wrong with a caramel corn/cheddar popcorn blend.

After our bike ride, Adam and I spent Sunday on the couch with “The Office,” and the popcorn was thoroughly enjoyed.

Any summer goods you want to recommend?

25Jul2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday Weather

by Emily

It was a big week here, we had a birthday and a serendipitous, surprise visit! I turned 29 yesterday; that sounds old, old, old. I may not have a house or a baby, but I have a husband and a dog who I love beyond words so that feels pretty good for almost-30.

We didn’t have time for a real grocery trip after our Philadelphia weekend and we relied a ton on packaged and purchased food. Here are some highlights…

breakfast

Coffee (I’m still doing the 1/2&1/2!) and a Blackberry Bliss Mama Chia.

I probably wouldn’t have bought the chia on my own – it came in my UrthBox – but I ended up really liking it.

KIND Bar.

Madagascar Vanilla Almond.

Birthday freebie coffee! I love that Starbucks does that. You’ll notice that I stuck with my birthday tradition of doing tacky, glittery nails.

Venti iced skim latte with an extra shot of espresso, 2 shots of white mocha, and caramel drizzle. I was buzzing.

And this doesn’t go here but speaking of sugar, I’m not sure I ate enough candy this week…

lunch

Oatmeal (with Cacao Bliss) and freeze-dried apples.

That fruit is so flipping good.

Cereal and yogurt.

Total on Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit. I was equally impressed with the yogurt the 2nd time around.

Lots of packed snacks during a 4 hour afternoon meeting. I ate a salad beforehand, and also required lots of coffee.

Chocolate-covered gummy bears, applesauce, and Everything Pretzels from Mary’s Gone Crackers. The pretzels were from a bag that the company sent me to try.

Delicious! I thought these were much better than the sea salt flavor I tried before, which wasn’t bad either. These were just like eating a very crunchy everything bagel. And still made with whole grains including brown rice, quinoa, amaranth and millet, and seeds including flax, sesame and chia, just like the original flavor.

My dietetics co-workers brought in lunch for my birthday! They are pretty much the sweetest.

Salad with a great, thick balsamic glaze, homemade spinach and feta pastries, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. Everything was delicious; I tried to bring leftovers home for Adam and I ended up eating them all on the train!

dinner

Half salad and sandwich deal from Panera.

I did the Thai chicken salad and the Thai chicken flatbread and was impressed with neither.

The sauce was too sour and the apple on the side was sadly the best part of the meal.

Thankfully, things get much more festive from here.

On Wednesday, my parents were traveling to Ohio to visit my grandmother. They were flying on miles so they had a long day with lots of connections, including a 3-hour layover at LaGuardia. When the got off the plane in NY, they learned that inclement weather had grounded their final flight, and then would be stuck until the next morning. Silver lining – they stayed at my house for the night and we got to visit and go out to birthday dinner!!!!

It ended up being the best “bad news” ever. We teased them that they jinxed themselves by complaining about not making it out for Indian food during their June visit, so of course we had to take them for Indian food.

It was too dark for pictures, but we shared several appetizers and a bunch of dishes and all left full and happy. Everything was amazing and our waiter was the sweetest man. Namaste is great. We even found froyo nearby with birthday cake flavor.

I topped my “cake” with marshmallow, strawberry pie filling, and a million sprinkles.

And I actually ended up having froyo last night on my real birthday was well.

Frozen yogurt > cake!

For my birthday dinner we did takeout from Bare Burger.

Turkey with ketchup mustard, spinach, tomato, a fried egg, and tons of pickles.

We ate burgers and giant diet cokes while we watched Longmire and it was a great way to celebrate 🙂

23Jul2014

Weekend Wrap-Up, Fun In Philly

by Emily

My 29th birthday is tomorrow and the husband and I celebrated a weekend early with a trip to Philadelphia.

It was a quick visit, we drove in on Saturday and out on Sunday, but it ended up being one of the best weekends we’ve had in years! It was great to have two full days to moon at each other. We spent pretty much every second walking and/or eating <– our two favorite things!

I didn’t take many site-seeing photos, but I had to snap some pictures of the beautiful mosaics at the Magic Gardens.

We loved our last visit to Philly, so we repeated a lot of the same stops. We even stayed at the same (perfectly located) hotel.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best luck with orders at our restaurant meals. I actually had to make a second stop to eat after both dinner and lunch. Thankfully, our fabulous bites in between meals more than made up for the less good dishes. I’ll write this post from worst to best.

Supper was near the Magic Gardens and the menu looked good, so we went there for {Sunday brunch}. I had a glass of sangria and was a little bit tipsy for the drive home!

Sangria Blanca – seasonal sangria made with sauvignon blanc, cantaloupe, honey dew, cucumber, lemon, limoncello, and honey mint simple syrup over ice topped with club soda.

We shared a deviled egg flight that was only so-so.

And my chicken salad sandwich sounded good in theory, but was totally flavorless. “Pastrami” Chicken Salad Sandwich – toasted grain bread, 1000 island dressing, caraway slaw, pickles / served with duck fat fries.

Those were so not duck fat fries! I ate a few bites, then got Whole Foods hot bar for the road. Adam loved his red velvet pancakes though.

I was so excited to get the vegetarian cheese steak from Carmen’s in Reading Terminal for {lunch on Saturday}.

I’ve been dreaming about this sandwich ever since I had it back in 2011.

It was ok, but sadly not as good as I remembered. The last time they charred the seitan more.

{Dinner} at FARMiCia has become a Philadelphia tradition for me.

I get the croquettes every time, but I just wasn’t a fan of this version.

Why would you serve corn and rice balls on top of more corn?! Carb City. The best thing about the fall version of dish is the buttery spinach bed.

The rest of the meal was wonderful though. Adam and I split a cheese plate to start.

The salty sheep’s milk cheese went perfectly with the sweet apple chutney.

I had a very refreshing watermelon mojito.

And we finished with cream cheese ice cream that was mind-blowing.

Gah! I could not stop swooning over that ice cream. This restaurant would have been worth the stop for dessert alone.

We stopped in at an adorable bar near our hotel on the way to dinner to split a flight of beer.

And then stopped back afterwards for nightcaps.

Then I iced my knees and ate bar food in bed and all was right with the world.

Our yummiest tastes were the things we ate while we walked around. Like the watermelon, spinach, and kale juice from Sip N Glo.

This was 80% fruit and normally I would be mad that it wasn’t more greens-based but you can’t complain about fresh watermelon juice.

A great iced cup from Old City Coffee.

And a Vietnamese coffee from The Last Drop.

Ending on a sweet note, a S’mores Bar from Flying Monkey Bakery.

S’mores with sprinkles! This tasted like honey and was ridiculous good. Adam and I both thought it was the best thing we ate all weekend.

22Jul2014

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve been pretty busy and I’m running a bit behind, but I ate some really yummy things last week so I didn’t want to skip the post. Here are some faves from last Monday through Friday…

break the fast

A purple smoothie.

Frozen blueberries and strawberries with maple syrup and vanilla almond milk.

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar, a Pink Lady apple, and iced coffee from Starbucks. I poured a splash of half and half into my coffee by accident last week and it ended up tasting so yummy that now it’s turned into a bad habit!

Day 2.

Caramel Almond & Sea Salt KIND Bar {former freebie}, a very juicy nectarine, and cafeteria coffee with skim milk and a splash of half and half.

ladies who lunch

Cafeteria meal.

Salad with broccoli, black-eyed peas, cheddar, balsamic, and a scoop of egg salad. Plus fries dipped in honey mustard on the side.

Sandwich.

Leftover bbq chicken on a Bagel Thin. With bread and butter pickles, chips, and cherries.

Yogurt.

Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Greek Yogurt with KIND Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds {former freebie} and cherries on the side. The yogurt was a limited edition that needs to become part of the permanent line-up. It was freaking incredible, sweet and tangy with little pieces of citrus spread throughout. I must find the watermelon variety.

snack attack

Chocolate-covered pretzels from Wegman’s.

I brought Adam some back from my Buffalo trip and made the mistake of tasting “just one.” Those things are addictive! It’s a good thing I didn’t do a taste-test in the store or I would have brought home pounds of them.

Trader Joe’s makes the best turkey jerky I’ve ever tasted.

I don’t know how the keep the texture sooooo soft.

Chocolate covered strawberry floats! Chocolate frozen yogurt in strawberry Crush.

We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

It was insane how much this tasted like a toasted marshmallow. It was pretty intense though, there is no way I could have finished more than half of this.

Baby spinach salad.

With sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, shredded carrot, evoo, honey, and lavender salt. My best salad combo to date.

dining on dinner

Salad atop salad.

The base was baby spinach with dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

Topped with pulled bbq chicken (and a pile of salt and vinegar chips in the back). Just boneless, skinless breasts cooked in the crockpot, shredded, and tossed with TJ’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

The sauce was wonderful, very sweet and a little spicy.

Pasta that was simple but good.

Whole-wheat rotini with browned mushrooms, ground turkey (sautéed with tons of garlic and dried oregano), frozen spinach, low-fat sour cream, and a can of tomato sauce.

This was one of those meals that seemed like it would need more flavor but then you kept eating until you were furiously scraping the bottom of the bowl.

National Thai with a girlfriend. I got spicy noodles with veggies. They were super chewy, had a good variety of vegetables, and were actually spicy; I’m pretty sure National has become my favorite Thai spot in the city.

Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

We ended up finding passable mango mojitos at a tiny Mexican spot in Park Slope. Their menu also mentioned watermelon daiquiris, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back again this Friday.

what’s happening

I was getting into such a great groove with my workouts, but then I got excited and upped the length of my runs too quickly. My right knee was horrifically swollen and the husband told me to stay out of the gym until the inflammation went down. Boo!!! I took a week completely off from exercise (minus a few long walks this weekend) and popped anti-inflammatories and iced like crazy. I’m going to start back in with short, easy workouts this week and continue to ice regularly. I’m going a little stir-crazy so please cross your fingers for me!

On a more positive note, I just finished reading Fault Lines by Nancy Huston and I’m recommending it to pretty much everyone.

It’s a story about a family and each section of the book is told from the perspective of a different generation. Huston did a great job of building the story in layers. The parts of the story that were told through the lens of childhood were wonderfully done.

It is my 29th birthday this Thursday. We can’t fit in any celebrating this week so Adam and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia this past weekend. I gave that its own post because this one was getting too long, but we had a wonderful time.

Have you spotted the new Chobani varieties in your area yet? Has anyone tasted watermelon??

15Jul2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Driving Me Crazy

by Emily

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind; I had a orthodontic emergency that sent me back to Buffalo at the last-minute. That trip ate up a fair amount of time – I spent more hours in the car roundtrip than I actually did in Buffalo! – so I don’t have a ton to share. My time in Long Island was pretty low-key.

Here are some of the highlights…

I am a big fan of Lindt’s “Hello My Name Is” line and Adam and I both loved this salted caramel bar.

We got Chinese take-out for dinner that was only so-so. My steamed broccoli with brown garlic sauce (and white rice) was delicious,

but the soup that was supposed to turn that into a full meal was basically dirty water with raw veggies floating in it. You win some, you lose some.

A much more amazing meal came out of our own kitchen.

Sautéed cabbage and turnip greens. I just cooked the veggies in some evoo and salt and they were delicious!

Plus onion-packed eggs.

Eggs scrambled with tons sautéed sweet onion and spring onions, sliced turkey, and cheese.

On Saturday we went into Brooklyn for Coney Island on Tap.

There weren’t a ton of beers I cared about (minus two watermelon brews!) so I mostly stuck with ciders.

Though I managed to drink just enough to later get into a hilariously intense fight with the husband over who would get to pee first! Afterwards we had frozen yogurt,

and Bareburger for dinner.

I couldn’t get a very good picture but I had a turkey burger (no bun) with pepperjack, turkey bacon, sweet apple grilled onions, red piquante peppers, avocado, and smoked paprika mayo. It’s my birthday next Thursday and I’ve already decided that I’m going to celebrate with Bareburger.

My road trip was a little ridiculous, like I said, I spent more time in the car than I did in Buffalo. I basically mainlined candy and coffee for two days.

But my orthodontist hooked me up, and even with gas and tolls I saved more than $1,000 by making the trip. And I got to stay with newlywed friends and see their gorgeous new house.

And we went to Thai Orchid, which I had been severely missing. My girlfriend and I both started with the soup special, broth with noodles, bok choy, tons of crabmeat, and great shrimp wontons.

I went with my old favorite for dinner, Pad See Ew with extra veggies.

It was fantastic, totally worth the whirlwind visit! 😉

20Jun2014

Long Week Wrap-Up; Something Blue

by Emily

My first post since last Thursday, since the week/end flew by. Really the whole month of June feels like it’s flying by!

In spite of being busy, I did manage to photograph every single thing I ate Monday – Thursday, minus one cup of iced coffee. <– go me! That’s in sharp contrast to Saturday and Sunday, when I took exactly two photos:

Baked brie that I shared with a girlfriend at C’est Cheese. It was delicious, obviously. We were in Northern Long Island on a Saturday because our friends Kim and Dan were getting married!

Kim is seriously the classiest person I know so their wedding was, of course, amazing. I felt too weird to take a picture of my plate at the table of college friends we didn’t know, but the food was delicious.

I spent Sunday lazing around the house, eating potato chips. But come Monday, I got myself together. Here’s the recap…

breakfasts

The food stand at my LIRR station sells iced coffee now! This would be more exciting/a bigger bummer for my wallet except that they only have coffee creamer, no skim milk, so I doubt I’ll get it that often.

I had a 2nd coffee (with chocolate milk) when I got to work. <– the only food item that escaped my camera this week

Breakfast at my desk.

Coffee, a peanut butter & strawberry KIND bar, and a red pear that I gave up on after two bites because it was just too drippy with juice to manage at my desk.

Smoothie time. Frozen raspberries, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a big scoop of Cacao Bliss.

The coconut butter froze into delicious little balls embedded throughout the smoothie. Kind of like the old Orbitz drinks!

Chocolate malted coffee.

I stirred a scoop of malt powder into chocolate milk before mixing it into my cold brewed coffee. This was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

lunches

A winning yogurt bowl.

Plain Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of Meyer lemon curd and 1/2 a pint of fresh blueberries.

Cafeteria salad.

Greens topped with balsamic dressing, pickled veggies, tons of pickles, and big scoop of chicken salad.

Vita Coco coconut water latte plus homemade “instant” oats.

Just rolled oats, freeze-dried strawberries, cinnamon maple sugar, and a Tbsp of malted milk powder that I covered with hot water from the cafeteria.

Thursday was insanely busy and my lunch plans went out the window. When I finished my final gestational diabetes education I did eat cereal at my desk at 3pm.

That Special K was pretty good. And now I have my packed lunch ready and waiting for me tomorrow.

That yogurt bowl is going to be goo-ood.

snacks

Last week I bitched about my insane afternoon hunger so this week I leaned into the problem and packed smaller lunches to accommodate many (many, many) snacks when I got home. Though these jelly beans were actually eaten at work.

The 2nd half of a package of TJ’s Inner Peas.

Cinnamon pita chips with TJ’s honey goat’s milk gouda. <– ridiculous

Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

Lemon pie milkshake, aka my best idea ever (rivaled only by the malted coffee!).

We blended vanilla bean ice cream, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, Meyer lemon curd, and Cascadian Farm Graham Crunch cereal and it was flipping fantastic.

dinners

This frozen entrée of white fish with zucchini and pesto was quite lovely.

The fish didn’t do much for me, but the squash/sauce bites were delish.

Plus, how great is this ingredient list?

The 2nd half of that dinner had a decidedly less short ingredient list.

But my Lean Cuisine stuffed pretzels were tasty nonetheless.

More homemade Pad Thai.

This time with shiitake mushroom, broccoli and tofu.

The tofu was Nasoya Sprouted Tofu Plus that I topped with a mixture of Sriracha, smoked brown sugar, and rice vinegar before baking.

Gardein Mandarin Crispy Chick’n that we bulked up with roasted broccoli.

Plus frozen kale cooked with peanut sauce and crushed peanuts.

All together this was nice.

Adding vegetables to frozen meals is a good compromise between my desire to eat a healthy dinner and my desire to come home and sit on the couch without pants.

I hate to end this post on a blah note, but Adam worked Thursday night and my single lady dinner was pretty lame. The last serving of broccoli and chick’n,

with popcorn,

and this embarrassing little bowl of melted coconut oil with Dutch cocoa powder and sugar.

Mom, Adam has leftover Pad Thai so I did not leave him stranded for “dinner” when he gets home in the morning!

Were you a fan of the Orbitz soda? I would totally buy it now if it was still available.

14Jun2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster

by Emily

O. M. G. I was so flipping hungry all week, it was annoying. I was basically starving. <– if you haven’t seen CK Louis’ SNL intro monologue yet, go watch it immediately.

Stream of consciousness style, here is a sampling of some of this week’s insane snack consumption…

Other bars for breakfasts came courtesy of this sweet samples package from KIND.

I’ve flirted with loving different brands bars off and on, but throughout the years KIND products have remained some of my very favorites, so I was thrilled to try some of their new products. The two newest bar flavors are ridiculous good. They are all low in sugar – 5 grams of sugar or less and they don’t use artificial sweeteners – and are a good source of fiber and protein. Adam and I were both impressed by the Caramel Almond & Sea Salt.

And Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond knocked my socks off. New all-time favorite! This is what I always wish mocha would taste like.

Their Grain Clusters, basically granola, are a unique blend of gluten-free oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat; each 50g serving provides more than one full serving of whole grains. The Fruit and Nut Clusters made great yogurt bowls for lunches this week.

With blackberry lime Greek yogurt and blueberries plus a sour sop coconut water on the side.

And with sour sop yogurt(!!!) with blueberries and Cacao Bliss.

On Tuesday I did a salad from the cafeteria. Topped with pickled vegetables and a big scoop of chicken salad.

On Wednesday Adam had the day off so we met up for a lunch date!

Our meals cost only $10 each for huge plates of noodles and an appetizer.

And on Friday I packed Fage with passion fruit and clementine, nectarines, and TJ’s freeze-dried apples.

The apples were insanely good and I want more immediately. I planned on supplementing my smaller lunch with food from the cafeteria but it was a coworker’s last day so I had cake instead.

In spite of my copious snacking, I was too hungry to properly deal with dinner during the first half of the week.

My Bare Burger turkey burger – with smoked mozzarella, fried onions, all of the pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup – was amazing and I ended up ordering one two days in a row!

When I finally did get around to making my own dinners like an adult, I had an assist from Pirate’s Booty.

They just introduced a line of macaroni and cheese and they sent me some samples to try out. The price, flavor, and texture were very comparable to other boxed mac and cheese options, but Pirate’s Booty uses organic pasta and contains no artificial colors or flavors.

We ended up with two very fancy feeling semi-homemade dinners.

Night one, I stirred roasted mini heirloom tomatoes in to the mild cheddar macaroni.

On top of spinach salads – baby spinach topped with chopped pecans, crumbled blue cheese, 1 tsp each honey and evoo, and a sprinkle of truffle salt.

Night two was another side-by-side bowl of greens and ‘cheese.

My veggie side was a simplified take on Jenna’s baked beans.

I just baked chopped kale with a can of beans, cup of whiskey maple bbq sauce, a scoop of Bone Suckin’ Mustard, and a ton of chopped garlic.

My pasta was aged white cheddar shells with TJ’s frozen mushroom medley and some sweet cheddar.

Delicious! I plan on buying both the shells and the mushrooms this weekend so I can make this meal again.

What is your family’s favorite way to gussy up boxed macaroni and cheese?

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: eggs

Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

lunch

snacks

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Five Favorites

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday Weather

breakfast

lunch

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up, Fun In Philly

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

break the fast

ladies who lunch

snack attack

dining on dinner

what’s happening

Weekend Wrap-Up; Driving Me Crazy

Long Week Wrap-Up; Something Blue

breakfasts

lunches

snacks

dinners

Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster