Weekend Wrap-Up; A Visit From The In-Laws

by Emily

We had a lovely family weekend! Laughs were had, great food was eaten, and lots of celebrating was completed. Adam’s parents drove up Saturday morning to check out our Long Island life. The weather is just starting to get cold, but we kept things climate-controlled with driving tours of the city (Central Park and spins down Park Ave and Lexington) and the Long Island (the coast!). I’ve been dying to take pictures of our gorgeous, changing leaves so it was especially nice to have Adam behind the wheel.

breakfasts

Breakfast by buffalo.

A cup of coffee (a buttered rum blend from Target that had a rubbing alcohol taste we both hated) sweetened with SCM and lightened with skim milk.

And a very nice, pumpkin-pie-esque yogurt bowl.

TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt topped with some Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and a dollop of sour cream whisked with brown sugar.

The cereal bites were my favorite.

Breakfast in the leaves and on the go.

Iced coffee with maple syrup and Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. For some reason I enjoyed the buttered rum far better leftover the 2nd day.

Overnight oats.

A nearly empty Biscoff jar was filled with raw oats, almond milk, and chia seeds and then pumpkin Greek yogurt was stirred in the next morning.

Very good, but I finally decided that this yogurt is a bit too sour for me, and I’m glad it’s gone now.

I normally try to stop after 1 (large) coffee so I don’t lose sleep, but I couldn’t turn down a 2nd when I received this e-mail:

Free? Yes, please!

I got a non-fat caramel brulee latte and loved it before ultimately determining that this flavor is too sweet, even for me. When December rolls around I’ll stick to eggnog lattes.

Cereal squared.

A packet of Vanilla Blast Snackimals that I got “trick or treating” at Whole Foods. <– such a good marketing idea; I loved it and now plan on buying a box and if I hadn’t tasted it I definitely would not have thought to purchase this particular cereal

And a serving of Adam’s Boo Berry. <– not gonna lie, I liked this layer quite a bit too!

I topped my big bowl with raspberries and skim milk.

I almost went back for seconds, I enjoyed this so much.

lunches

Sunny side salad.

Baby spinach dressed with pink salt and 1 tsp each evoo and honey, topped with TJ’s 90 days aged crumbly Gorgonzola (a cow and sheep’s milk blend) and a sunny-side up egg.

I made that egg myself and was so proud, usually Adam has to make them if we eat anything but scrambled! And a Sweet Tango on the side.

This variety might be topping Honeycrisp this season.

Bareburger.

I got a small Cobb salad. Baby romaine / Wisconsin blue / turkey bacon / hard-boiled egg / Hass avocado / grape tomatoes / raw red onion / buttermilk ranch

I had them sub in aged fig balsamic for the ranch, but I ended up not even using it because the salad was so good naked. I need to find better lettuce for salads at home!

Plus Adam and I split a side order of spicy pickle chips.

Out of this world, nice and crunchy. His parents loved their burgers as well; Bareburger is becoming our go-to place to take out-of-towners.

Señor Nacho.

I ordered another salad. Iceberg (boo nutritionally but nice and crispy) topped with pico de gallo, lime, queso fresco, and avocado.

Plus a plate of Maduros which I shared with the table.

I love sweet plantains. We were all impressed with SN, and plan on going back.

dinners

Leftovers magic.

We turned our Halloween mac & cheese leftovers into something magical by ~~burning~~ cooking them in a skillet with evoo, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and eggs.

Topped with sour cream and Sriracha, the former of which was a big mistake.

I didn’t have to cook.

My MIL always brings Adam pot roast when she visits and this time she made me a dish too. Seasoned chicken on spaghetti with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.

For our vegetable component we ate the rest of my salad, topped with honey, evoo, and tons of blue cheese.

Those big chunks of cheese were outstanding.

desserts

Cookie ~~monster~~ ghost.

My MIL delivered sugar cookies that had been beautifully decorated by our nieces.

Cake(s). There was a lot to celebrate this weekend. My MIL’s birthday is today {Happy Birthday, Barb!} so Adam and I fulfilled her life-long tasting dream and picked up slices of cheesecake from Juniors.

Traditional and chocolate swirl.

But since they weren’t sure when we’d get together next, my in-laws also came prepared to celebrate Adam’s December birthday (plus Christmas and our anniversary!) too.

Look at the giant slice of cake Adam served me alongside my cheesecake tastes!

I left behind most of the cake, but you better believe I ate all of the frosting.

The new best thing ever. I reheated my leftover plantains in a skillet with a bit of butter and brown sugar and then cooled them down on a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Honey Vanilla Caramel Frozen Greek Yogurt.

Surprisingly, this dish was Adam’s idea!

leaves

28Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up, Tres Días

by Emily

This weekend was nice and quiet, with an emphasis on the nice. We kept things very low-key, with one day of errands and one day around the house, but had a nice time just being with each other. I’m not saying we didn’t bicker {oh gosh, did we ever!} but we did really enjoy one another’s company.

On Saturday, we went on the best, most ridiculous, dinner date to the Cheesecake Factory. I started out not being able to take pictures but by the end of the meal I didn’t even want to take pictures because it would have distracted from my time with the husband. Sidenote – am I just getting old or do they keep it really dark in there?! We were making each other laugh so hard. We shared several things and came home with tons upon tons of leftovers. Dessert (our second (third?!) of the day) was the best part. The waitress came over to tell us about a s’mores cheesecake with ganache and toasted marshmallow fluff and I interrupted to say that we were exploding, but by the time she got back with the bill Adam ordered us a slice! Ridiculous. And delicious.

Here are some of the bites that I did manage to photograph…

Fall flavors yogurt bowl.

0% plain Fage topped with pumpkin butter, toasted pecans, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Fage is so nice and creamy.

Tropical trip yogurt bowl.

Muller Pineapple Passion Fruit Greek Corner topped with half a banana and some chopped mango.

I am very excited about the mango left in the fridge.

Brinner, aka breakfast for dinner.

Potatoes, sliced and roasted in pink salt, dried rosemary, and olive oil.

For the eggs; frozen spinach cooked in chicken broth with eggs scrambled in – eggs whisked with low-fat sour cream and smoked paprika – and a 2% Mexican 4-cheese blend tossed in towards the end.

Lately I’ve been loving adding something creamy like cottage cheese or sour cream to my scrambled eggs.

Pumpkin beer.

Sam Adam’s Fat Jack Double Pumpkin.

Unfortunately I haven’t been loving the pumpkin brews this season; they all start to taste a sour to me a few sips in. Adam got the lion’s share of this bottle.

Ice cream. Ben & Jerry Chocolate Peppermint Crunch.

I bought this to make a milkshake for the husband with but I ate several bowls of it this weekend. The chocolate is so dark and the mint swirl is just like the inside of a Jr Mint.

Tres Leches!!

From the Buttercooky Bakery. They served it with fruit on top and a layer of dulce de leche in the middle.

Tres Leches is both of our number one favorite dessert (usually we prefer different sweet things, though I have gotten him sucked into my s’mores obsession).

Hot bar from Whole Foods.

I did roasted broccoli, a small scoop of Cesar salad, a big scoop of kale salad, and two fried plantains for dessert.

With a fancy bottled drink. Plan Tea Organic Black Tea with Vanilla and Basil.

The tea made this meal feel extra special!

Cheese plate.

We each had our own. Adam got asparagus and matzoh with his basics and my extras were green beans and persimmon. Honeycrisp.

TJ’s Cheddar and Gruyere Mélange Cheese.

Alter Eco Dark Velvet Truffle.

Roasted green beans.

And a nice, mushy persimmon.

I really liked the flavor of the flesh (I’ve tried an unripe persimmon and it sucks all of the moisture out of your mouth), but I’m still not sure whether or not I was supposed to eat the hard skin. I picked it off with my fingernails but it didn’t make for the nicest eating experience.

Next weekend my in-laws are coming for their first LI visit! I just hope we have some nice week days in between.

21Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

by Emily

It’s 2 in the afternoon, so allow me to say “good morning!” Does that sound strange to anyone? Adam worked nights Friday through Sunday so we’ve been keeping a vampire’s schedule. There’s been a lot of this –

I don’t like it when he’s gone, my sleep pattern is all out of whack and I definitely live like a teenager when he’s not around. Case in point – Saturday night I watched terrible movies (“One for the Money” and “Abduction”) and ate candy (Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered gummi bears) for dinner.

I ate a lot (a lot) of junk this weekend, but I did manage to throw some pretty gourmet meals in there as well. If last week was all about the jalapeño, this was the weekend of bacon!

breakfasts

On the go.

We had to eat on the way while running errands so I made us something portable. A terrible, god-awful smoothie.

Pumpkin, frozen kale, frozen banana, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and a bit of maple. This had such potential but the kale didn’t fully blend and chewing threw it was horrifying. I forced down 90% for the nutrients, but did not enjoy it.

My TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar was much better.

I thought the filling was great; sweet and spicy. And how cute is the labeling?!

We bought these when we were a little loopy from sleeplessness and Adam thought the pun was seriously the funniest thing ever. We spent the rest of the evening making variations on this joke – “A strawberry asks a pumpkin on a date… what happens next?”

Another kale fail.

I just could not win on the kale front this week. Again, these eggs had potential, but there just seemed to be sooooo much kale and we both hated them.

Offending eggs.

Delicious turkey bacon.

Side of grapes.

At least the other components were good. And I shared many bites of egg with the dog, who was such a good boy about eating his greens!

lunches

On Saturday two of our good friends from Buffalo (who are now living in Rochester for medical residency) came up to visit. We met up for a lovely lunch at Bareburger.

I got the Western Burger, with a turkey burger, sans bun. Smoked mozzarella / ~~country~~ turkey bacon / house-made Carolina slaw / smokehouse sauce / topped with a crispy, spicy pickle spear.

So fricking good! That hunk on the side was my pickle, which blew my mind.

A sandwich at home.

A whole-wheat bagel thin with turkey bacon, brie, and pumpkin butter.

This combo was ridiculous.

Plus the last of the grapes.

I have not been eating enough fruit this fall and it was nice to have something other than apples in the house.

dinners

More greens, more grapes.

A big pile of chicken salad.

Kale chips.

This was the only iteration of kale that I actually enjoyed this weekend.

The carb portion of dinner was consumed in the car on the way home from the store.

Adam and I split a TJ’s soft pretzel stick and loved it. Great chew!

I even whipped myself up a drink while I made dinner.

October is National Caramel Month and Sobieski sent me some samples of their Karamel Vodka to celebrate.

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here was my attempt at a Caramel Apple Cocktail –

2 oz Sobieski Karamel Vodka
2 oz Sour Apple Pucker
splash Polar Granny Smith Apple Seltzer

The vodka was good, but next time I’d go with a 2:1 ratio of vodka to Pucker, the sour apple flavor was a little strong!

Soup’s up.

Last night we ate big bowls of my Loaded Potato Soup.

Truffles for dessert.

I’ve raved about Alter Eco’s Silk chocolate line in the past and they sweetly sent me some of their newest product – Dark Velvet Truffles.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The truffles, which are also available in Black, are organic, fair trade, and non-GMO. They are made with coconut oil, a more sustainable option than palm kernel oil (I didn’t taste any coconut flavor).

I thought that the truffles were great; nice and creamy! The husband hates dark chocolate as a rule, but loved the Silk bars so I will have him try one of the truffles and report back.

Have a great week!

18Oct2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Jalapeño Business

by Emily

Lots of repetition on the food front this week – eggs, cheese, kale, and jalapeño were the featured players! And this is another recap that’s light on content; lots of take-out and several late nights (and therefore late mornings) are to blame. I’ve got the 10 items I did manage to photograph ranked increasingly by greatness.

{1} Pumpkin oats.

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!?

{2} Baked tomatoes with egg and cheese with a side of kale chips.

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.

{3} White Chocolate Candy Corn M&M’s.

Regular m&m’s don’t really thrill me but this seasonal variety (along with the mint dark chocolate) is delicious.

{4} Taco night.

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.

{5} Chicago Mix.

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.

{6} Eggs for breakfast.

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.

{7} Cheesy mac.

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.

{8} Whole Foods hot bar.

Kale salad with a bit of mac and cheese. Plus fried plantains for dessert.

Ugh, plantains are too good. So sweet and chewy.

{9} Everything bagel with jalapeño cheddar cream cheese.

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.

{10} Homemade nachos with candied jalapeños.

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.

What was the single best thing you ate this week?

5Oct2013

Last Week’s Highlights

by Emily

I didn’t have enough to share to call this a “wrap-up,” but I did want to blog a few of my favorites that managed to make it in front of the camera. I have some stuff happening in my personal life right now (some good, mostly bad) that I don’t want to share on the blog and I appreciate your patience with my limited posting.

leftovers for lunch

I made the most of restaurant leftovers with this compilation meal. The last of some Pad See Eiw with tofu,

a slice of focaccia from our Italian meal (it was still soft!!),

and from home a Pink Crisp apple with crunchy Barney Butter.

Lacking in veggies but quite good.

the pumpkin line-up

I’m listing these from bad to ~~good~~ great. Tazo Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Latte.

I mixed mine as 1/2 cup tea and 1.5 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and hated it. Admittedly I made mine too weak, but I made Adam’s extra strong (with skim milk) and I didn’t like that one either. The flavor was just too “dirty” for me. But Adam loved both versions – and drank both our drinks in one sitting – and is excited for the rest of the carton so it’s not a total loss.

Froyo.

A tiny bit (this cup cost $1.75!) of pumpkin spice and cheesecake swirl topped with toasted coconut, graham cracker, and caramel sauce. This combo was a total winner.

Froyo was good, but nothing beats pumpkin ice.

Pumpkin on top with toffee crunch on the bottom. Usually I can’t eat a whole small cup but I wolfed this down and I think I could even finish two scoops of just pumpkin! My friend Kim informed me that Ralph’s Ice is totally a thing and now it feels even more exciting.

stir-fried mac

This was one of those mash-up meals that doesn’t seem like it will work but just does.

Leftover pasta – Annie’s mac and cheese with greens, edamame, and smoked trout – reheated in a skillet with evoo, tons of Sriracha, and a sprinkle of sugar; with one large egg scrambled in at the end. I know that the sugar sounds strange but I promise the final flavor is perfection.

Do you see that brown piece by my hand that looks like bacon? It’s not bacon, it’s smoked trout that got extra-crispy. <– swoon

saltine challenge

I surprised Adam with fancy sardines and since we had Saltines in the house it was time for a challenge.

You know from reading my rant that I’m a stickler for the rules so I have to admit – we both totally failed. Our mouths were still full of approximately 1.5 crackers each when the timer buzzed.

fancy fish

This dinner came straight out of EveryDay with Rachael Ray.

I even took a break from my rebellious side and followed the recipe exactly.

Well, mostly exactly, we skipped the brown rice and used baby bok choy instead of the big guys. But the end result was delicious.

Our glaze didn’t thicken the way it was supposed to, but the fish had a great, flaky texture.

And we loved the bok choy.

Adam has even requested that baby bok become a weekly staple!

dinner in Manhattan

On Wednesday, I was invited to a press event in Manhattan so I brought a girlfriend with me for a fun evening in the city.

{that’s sunset at Chelsea Pier}

The event was to celebrate the launch of Donatella Arpaia’s new kitchen line with HSN (http://hsn.com). The line is available starting this Monday (October 7th) so they held a gettogether to showcase some of the new products.

Here’s a little blurb from the press release –

The exclusive collection from the Iron Chef judge, restaurateur, author and culinary personality will include studded stoneware, table linens and Italian food items.

Named by Zagat as the “Hostest with the Mostest”, Donatella Arpaia has a reputation of fusing Italian tradition with modern, glamorous style. Her new collection brings added sparkle to the kitchen with a chic home pizza oven and luxurious rhinestone stoneware including platters, ceramic dishes and ramekins.

Additionally, Donatella has taken the guess work out of traditional Italian cooking with her authentic Italian food offerings, featuring a variety of fresh pasta sauces, flavorful pizza crust mixes and her award-winning meatballs. With food preparation and presentation already made easy, the collection is completed with sets of cotton placemats and napkins on tear off rolls.

We got off of the train with time to kill so we wandered around a bit before the event (hence the gorgeous sunset views from the piers).

I needed some veggies in my life so we hit up Liquiteria for juice.

I wasn’t loving all of the beets and ginger on their menu so I made a custom blend – spinach, kale, and pineapple. Amazing! But I had eaten froyo and a giant coffee (seriously giant, there was a mix-up and I ended up with 4 extra shots of espresso in my latte!) for lunch so with the concentrated energy in the juice I was practically buzzing by the time we got to the event.

The drinks we were handed upon arrival helped.

That is not a cherry (sadly), but a cherry tomato.

The event was held at Donatella’s restaurant, which was freaking gorgeous.

The lighting wasn’t kind to my crappy photography skills, but I did my best to take some shots of the pretty tables.

The tear-off napkins were very fun, though I don’t think that bedazzled cookware is exactly my style.

Most of the apps showcased products that will be available on Monday. I took a fried oyster to be brave,

but my first bite was all fried coating and I lost my nerve and threw out the rest before I ate any meat.

The pizza was very good.

The dough – which you just add water to and then bake – was the best part; chewy and flavorful but not too salty. My friend and I both gave the jarred sauce served with the pasta two thumbs up as well.

They told us to take cupcakes (from the fantastically sparkly display) for dessert.

They plan to add cupcakes (mixes?) to the line later this year.

My pistachio was tasty.

Afterwards we stopped in at the famous Cafeteria for a drink on a whim.

Our carafe of white peach sparkling mojito was refreshing but weak. But we were the only twosome in the room who wasn’t on a first date so the good eavesdropping more than made up for the lack of alcohol.

I hope everyone else had a nice week too! Did you do any good eavesdropping?

20Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Mid-September

by Emily

I feel like I don’t have anything to say here so I’ll just get to it. You saw how clever my title was.

^breakfasts^*

Amazing oatmeal.

In the bowl were unsweetened almond milk, banana hunks, oats, chia seeds, tons of cottage cheese, and the very last of the sweetened condensed milk.

Food Emporium Trading Company Vanilla Granola with Almonds and Pecans in skim milk.

Berry yogurt bowl.

Wallaby low-fat vanilla bean yogurt with blueberries.

This Wallaby was one of the best yogurts I’ve ever tasted! The flecks of vanilla bean throughout felt quite fancy.

^lunches^*

Chinese food.

Cheese and greens eggs.

Eggs scrambled with cottage cheese, greens (a frozen blend from Whole Foods), and 2% provolone.

Carrot salad.

Matzo crackers.

A sheet of Egg and Onion Matzo with Cabot Light Sharp Cheddar melted on top,

and a sliced Jazz apple.

Adam doesn’t like matzo prepared with egg (he’s crazy!) so we eat it as crackers in our house.

^snacks^*

Organic India is promoting their gift baskets for the upcoming holiday season and they offered to send me some products from their Tulsi Tea Line to review.

Please note – these teas were sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

So far I’ve tried the Green Tea, which cold-brewed beautifully. Usually I’m not a green girl (it’s Adam’s favorite) but I loved this one. The flavor is completely devoid of the acridness that I usually taste in green teas. I used it in tasty tea spritzers.

Green tea + Polar Mandarin Seltzer.

Hot beer bread, straight from the oven, with Smart Balance Light.

Cola hard candies.

These guys have the best fizz!

^dinners^*

Different Chinese food.

Pasta toss.

Bow ties with corn and broccoli, tossed in browned butter.

Thai crunch salad.

Romaine topped with sliced chicken (marinated in TJ’s spicy peanut vinaigrette, then baked), edamame, shredded cabbage, salted peanuts, and more spicy peanut vinaigrette.

Veggie pizza.

Melts.

A big hunk of beer bread topped with trout salad (TJ’s canned smoked trout mashed with Miracle Whip) and 2% provolone then stuck under the broiler.

The last dinner won best meal of the week. This will be making a reappearance on the meal plan for sure.

13Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Fun Fruit

by Emily

Not too much excitement this week – as the title implies, literally the most thrilling thing in this post is grapes. It was a week of great dinners, but I’m missing every breakfast so I figured it would be easier to recap via numbered list than in categories.

{1} Frog Hollow plums.

I tried Frog Hollow produce at the first FoodBuzz Festival and it’s been near to my heart ever since.

{2} Super exciting cotton candy grapes with a boring cheese quesadilla.

The quesadilla was just a flour tortilla, sprinkled with a Mexican cheese blend and folded in half, cooked in a little canola oil.

The grapes were these guys –

I’d been seeing them make the rounds on Instagram and was so excited to spot them at my Whole Foods. The taste is just slightly sweeter grape, but the smell is totally cotton candy. Even Adam, who’s not a grape lover, was a fan.

{3} Dipping the grapes in peanut butter makes a mind-blowing snack.

It helps if you have extra-awesome peanut butter too; homemade honey roasted peanut butter with cotton candy grapes equals a classed-up, deconstructed pb&j.

{4} Melted cheese makes an even better snack.

Blue Diamond Flax Artisan Nut Thins (former freebie) with extra-sharp New York cheddar melted on top. Note – the flax ended up being our favorite variety the nut thins by far. It had a great saltiness to it. I don’t have a single picture because every damn time I made this I was blown away by how molten hot our new microwave makes our plates.

{5} New yogurt variety.

Siggi’s 2% Mango Pineapple yogurt (does anyone know why this flavor is not listed on the website?) did not disappoint. I do enjoy the flavor of fat-free yogurts, but Siggi’s 2% varieties have been far superior.

{6} Banoffee pie chocolate bar.

My parents sent us this from Amsterdam.

{6} Creamy pasta bowls.

I basically re-made the sauce and pasta base of my vegan mac and cheese, but with Mozzarella Vegan Gourmet Shreds. Then I tossed in 20 oz of browned mushrooms a blend of collard greens, kale and mustard greens (a blend bag from the frozen section at WF). The mushrooms were the best part, as always.

The final dish wasn’t necessarily bad, but we both wanted it to be better.

{7} #6 was infinitely better as jazzed-up leftovers.

I tossed in olive oil, dried rosemary, turkey pepperoni, and garlic (I grated it with my microplane and it was awesome), and then put it all in a casserole dish with some extra-sharp cheddar on top and rebaked until crispy.

This meal we couldn’t get enough of. And the roasted yellow zucchini on the side was nothing to sneeze at either.

Adam put his leftover leftovers in the fridge and I totally snaked them for lunch the next day.

{8} Lunch at the Peanut Butter Co.

I got a fluffernutter with White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter.

Out of this world. It was so packed with marshmallow that even I couldn’t quite finish it!

{9} Take-out from Laverne.

I got Pad See Ew with mock dock and we were both very pleased with it.

Their menu is an impressive blend of French, Thai, and Japanese and we definitely want to go there asap. Psssst; read the description of this roll – D’ Artagnan Roll: Inside: foie gras marinated in truffle oil mixed with chopped black winter truffles, garlic and yellowtail. Topped with black caviar and seared yellowtail served with miso-abolone sauce(!!!!!!).

{10} Pizza eggs.

Let’s not even pretend like I didn’t save my favorite for last.

Have you tried the cotton candy grapes yet?

9Sep2013

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!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: eggs

Weekend Wrap-Up; A Visit From The In-Laws

breakfasts

lunches

dinners

desserts

leaves

Weekend Wrap-Up, Tres Días

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

breakfasts

lunches

dinners

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Weekly Wrap-Up; Jalapeño Business

Last Week’s Highlights

leftovers for lunch

the pumpkin line-up

stir-fried mac

saltine challenge

fancy fish

dinner in Manhattan

Weekly Wrap-Up; Mid-September

^breakfasts^*

^lunches^*

^snacks^*

Please note – these teas were sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

^dinners^*

Weekly Wrap-Up; Fun Fruit

Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

fun