Easter Brunch

by Emily

I hope everyone had a hoppy Easter! Our day was quite nice; tasty food, nice weather, and tons of tv.

Adam’s parents sent us $ in lieu of an Easter basket so I got to go to brunch with my handsome husband.

He took me to Left Bank, a spot he’s been to with friends (working weekends means I usually have to skip brunch, boo!) and was dying to share.

The space was gorgeous and the menu had lots of offer. Plus, they brought yummy lemon poppy-seed bread.

Adam ordered a mimosa while I went with an extra-spicy bloody mary,

but we were on the same page when it came to food.

We both ordered the Seafood Benedict,

crab cakes topped with poached eggs and [citrus] hollandaise. <– I asked for regular hollandaise, served on the side please!

The dish came with sides of fruit and hash browns and was quite good.

I saved one of my crab cakes for Adam but devoured my eggs.

Meals where you soak up yolks are my very favorite!

The rest of our day was gloriously low-key. We knew we were going to hunker down on the couch, so we made sure to take the dog on a quick walk first. I got an iced, non-fat, caramel macchiato on the way home.

Why yes, I did ask for extra caramel – it was Easter dammit and no one bought me any candy!

Minus a few hours spent on a take-home exam, we spent the rest of the day screaming at the characters on “Battlestar Galactica.” My food totally fit the tv marathon vibe… Chips.

Leftover buffalo chicken mac and cheese. (recipe’s coming this week, promise!)

And no-bake brownie batter. (recipe’s coming as soon as I work out the kinks!)

Readers who grew up with the whole bunny thing; do you still get an Easter basket?

26Mar2013

Two Meals At One

by Emily

Our last day in Charleston was our best day yet! Technically we’ve got tomorrow morning as well, but we head for the airport before 6 am so I don’t have high expectations. It was our best day of vacation, but I can’t give this post the love it deserves because I still have to pack! Keeping it quick…

Workout – 25 minutes on the stationary bike.

Breakfast – Virginia’s on King.

My plate.

2 sunny side up eggs.

Hash browns.

Grits.

Homemade biscuit (with butter and jam).

I basically licked my plate clean!

Fun 1 – Middleton Place.

Fun 2 – A stop at Sonic for a big Coke Zero with strawberries.

Fun 3 – We explored some more downtown and stopped at a coffee shop to warm up. While we were hanging out we just might have designed some Easter eggs.

Dinner – Breakfast was so good that we headed back to Virginia’s for a 2nd meal! Our instincts weren’t wrong, they brought us tasty cornbread (studded with broccoli!) with butter.

We also shared an order of pimento cheese with flat bread.

I went full-on Southern for my final meal.

Fried catfish.

Sweet potato fries.

And baked mac and cheese.

When in Rome. Everyone shared bites and agreed that my plate was amazing.

See you in Buffalo!

26Mar2013

Charleston, Day 1 And 2

by Emily

Hello from the South! I’m blogging in a spring-ish 50-something degrees (it’s better than Buffalo!). Actually, I’m blogging from Adam’s computer this trip, so I’ve got to keep things quick. We are having a terrific, delicious time.

Breakfast day 1 – brunch at the famous Hominy Grill.

I got a(n extra spicy) bloody mary.

And a bowl of she crab soup.

Charleston is famous for its she crab soup; this bowl was super creamy and loaded with pieces of crab. I adore anything with sherry.

We ordered a piece of buttermilk pie for the table.

But it was much drier and less custard-y than we were hoping so we all just took a small taste.

It was a rainy first day so we did lots of inside and driving activities. We got in some good sight-seeing and scoped out a few spots to hit up during the rest of our trip.

One of our stops was Whole Foods for stocking up on goodies. <– chocolate coconut butter packets, it’s good to have you back in my life!

There was froyo next door.

I didn’t really love any of the flavor offerings so I got a small cup of cheesecake yogurt with tons of popping boba.

Can’t go wrong with boba.

We went to Hyman’s Seafood for dinner and they brought us complimentary hush puppies.

Best hush puppies ever; they had the perfect amount of sweetness.

We also started with fried pickles.

Lots of fried food in that dinner. I got french fries as my side,

with steamed shrimp.

Every component of my meal ended up smothered in tartar and cocktail sauce. I’m a girl who loves her condiments.

I was exhausted by the end of the day and crashed into bed hard. Let’s pretend it was the 20 minute stationary bike ride I started the day with, and not the heavy dinner!

Day 2 we skipped the gym and slept in. Instead I made it a healthy morning by starting my day with an apple.

Then we headed to Bakehouse for breakfast.

The offerings were as delicious as the space was adorable. The cookies and bars looks amazing but the closest we came to them was splitting a caramel marshmallow.

I also did a toasted marshmallow cappuccino.

Adam and I shared breakfast.

We had a mixed berry scone.

And a piece of Greek turkey strata.

It was a great breakfast.

We spent our second day exploring on foot. King Street and Meeting Street provided lots to look at.

We even got to see dolphins!

I couldn’t get a picture to save my life, but we saw lots of waving flippers and even a mama/baby combo.

Tastes from the day included…. Praline,

a drop of the spiciest hot sauce available (I stuck a toothpick in it and touched it to my tongue; I honestly didn’t think it was that hot!),

honey,

an Earl Grey macaron (<– squeeee!),

a KIND bar,

and some watermelon Zots from one of the many old-time candy stores.

All good, but I am definitely a lunch eater; when we got back to the hotel to change for dinner I was starving. Enter the perfect snack –

Diet coke and Cacao Bliss? Yes please!

But I sure was glad I saved room for dinner. We had an incredible Southern meal at Magnolias.

Bread with ridiculous cream cheese herb butter came when we sat down.

And we ordered a pimento cheese plate to start.

Sadly, the cheese wasn’t quite as sharp as I was hoping for, but everyone else at the table loved it. Pimento cheese was at the top of my to-do list for the Southern vacation though, so I hope to try again tomorrow.

I ordered a Bellini to drink (champagne/peach nectar/and a touch of grenadine),

but ended up swapping with Adam halfway through for his vodka/creme de cassis/pineapple juice martini.

For dinner I went with the “Fresh, Local, and Vegetarian.” You can’t go wrong with a name like that!

Sautéed spinach, fresh corn salad, roasted carrots, fried green tomatoes with jalopeño pimento cheese, and mashed potatoes.

We were too stuffed for dessert, though the menu listed a cream cheese pecan brownie with white chocolate ice cream that I’ll probably be dreaming about!

In fact, I’d like to be dreaming now; goodnight!

Have you ever been to Charleston? Is there anything we just can’t miss on our last day?

21Mar2013

Eggstra Special

by Emily

This is an extra-special post – it’s the first one I’ve managed to get up all week!

I had a giant presentation to give on Tuesday, an important quiz on Wednesday, and on Monday the dog had another series of 2 am seizures. Yay. <– sarcasm

Since the start of this rotation all of my classmates have reported getting to bed by/before 10pm but I’ve stubbornly, stupidly stayed up until at least 12. I’d been doing ok, but my weeks of lost sleep and this week’s trifecta of late nights hit me hard on Wednesday. I wandered around in a daze all day yesterday and then hurried home and got into bed at the record-breaking hour of: 7pm! I got up for an hour or so around 9pm, but went back to bed for an amazing 10 hours total!!!

I felt much better today. So of course I’m staying up late. What can I say, I’m an idiot.

After that long introduction, let’s do this quickly… Coffee at the hospital.

Dark roast with french vanilla creamer. The sweetened creamer is not a habit I want to get into, but while I’m somewhere without milk it is fun.

I had cafeteria pizza for lunch, but I didn’t think about taking a picture until after my plate was bare. Whoops.

Plus candy.

And when I got home I had this bowl of goodness.

A serving of Liz Lemon Froyo, a Dannon Oikos Toasted Coconut Vanilla Greek Yogurt, sliced mango, and fresh blackberries.

It was yumtastic.

For this evening’s fun, we dyed Easter eggs.

Except that it wasn’t fun at all.

Because my “hard-boiled” eggs were raw. And we were all hungry.

But they were pretty, and Adam salvaged a few by breaking the partially cooked eggs into a skillet and making us dinner.

We had fried eggs,

with white toast with Earth Balance.

And big salads – baby spinach, pink salt, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and homemade maple vinaigrette (1 tsp sweet hot mustard, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 2 Tbsp rice vinegar; shaken and split into two portions).

With quinoa dark chocolate for dessert.

Goodnight, Webster!

12Mar2013

Shades Of White

by Emily

My 2nd day as a soon-to-be surgeon’s wife was good but busy. I have a gigantic quiz tomorrow and we have to score at least a 90% on it to remain in our program. <– yikes!

No breakfast again. I do have some bars in my cabinet but the mornings are my busiest hours and I don’t remember to eat and even if I did I wouldn’t have the time. Instead I just really enjoy my lunch.

On today’s menu – a (2 Tbsp of) chunky peanut butter and (2 slices of) turkey bacon sandwich (Thin).

A green pear.

And a package of seaweed snacks.

I also grabbed a coffee.

A mix of regular and decaf with hazelnut creamer. I started adding a scoop of ice to my cups – after watching a classmate do it the other day and being impressed with her genius – and it makes my coffees so much more enjoyable. I definitely prefer my “hot” beverages luke-warm.

In the afternoon I snacked on a scoop of 1% cottage cheese with half of a Liberte coconut yogurt and a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

I realize the picture doesn’t really show any of that though; my camera doesn’t do shades of white.

<– Sidenote: I’ve decided that my first foray into fiction is going to be a book titled 50 Shades of White, the pendulum swing from 50 Shades of Grey. It will be 500 pages of a waspy couple having missionary-style sex and peeing with the door closed. You’d read that, right? 😀

Other afternoon snacks included a handful of tortilla chips,

and a stolen square of Adam’s Godiva Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Bar.

I wanted to snack after dinner too, but it’s better that I didn’t because I already ate enough today. Sometimes nibbling helps me focus on studying but our pantry is looking ruff…

Don’t worry, our dinner was better than that joke.

I had a handful of Terra Thai Basil Curry Vegetable Chips.

A pile of roasted green beans.

And 2 turkey egg cups.

{Inspired by this recipe} We put two slices of turkey inside each of our muffin tin cups / filled the bottoms of chopped sautéed mushrooms and green onions and shredded cheese / topped each cup with an egg / then baked for 30ish minutes in an oven preheated to 350 degrees.

I spent the rest of the evening cramming and I’ve got to get back to it. Tomorrow’s quiz is on the macro- and micronutrient values for the serving sizes per food group for a diabetic and renal diet. Lots and lots of numbers to know; we can’t all lay around on the job…!

4Mar2013

Poor Puppy

by Emily

I had a few silly things to complain about, but the dog had another seizure today so that kind of all pales in comparison. He’s doing ok now but we are going to have to meet with the vet soon and possibly rethink our strategy.

Regardless, it’s been a long day and just want to go to bed. Keeping this quick…

Kit’s Organic Chocolate Almond Coconut Bar.

Pear.

Honey wheat Sandwich Thin with white bean truffle spread and tempeh. (I ate the tempeh raw and I am officially never doing that again – I am still sooooo bloated and sick.)

1/2 serving Green and Black 70% Dark Chocolate.

Dannon Oikos Cafe Latte Greek Yogurt with Cascadian Farm Dark Chocolate Almond Granola. Both are heavenly and the combo was fantastic.

Leftover stir-fry. The last 2 servings each of roasted broccoli, white basmati rice, and copycat CF spicy cashew chicken went into a skillet with 1 tsp sesame oil and 2 large eggs.

Ridiculous cookie.

Please go give your pets a big smooch for me.

3Mar2013

And We’re Off!

by Emily

Today was officially my first day off (from both school and work) since January 20th! 42 days straight!!! I didn’t even work full shifts for most of those days but it was still nice to have 24 hours all to myself for a change.

We didn’t do anything all that exciting with our newfound free-time but it still felt pretty damn nice. We did a major grocery trip, started watching Battlestar Galactica (please tell me that the episodes are faster paced than the movie?!), and Adam currently has the guys over for poker.

Breakfast was a bowl of peanut butter and bananas, squared.

2% Banana Chobani Greek Yogurt topped with a sliced banana, 1 tsp of melted peanut butter and 1 crumbled Cascadian Farm Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bar.

So flipping good.

Lunch was even better.

I took enough Pho home last night for Adam and I to both have lunch with the leftovers. I beefed mine up with some roasted broccoli and a soft-boiled egg. Plus more Sriracha, of course.

The entire bowl was delicious and the egg yolk melting into the broth was so amazing that it almost made me cry.

For dessert we shared this plate of samples.

Oh Nuts! offered to send me their Passover Cake & Cookie Sampler and I happily accepted.

Neither of us liked the brownie piece (too dry) but we thought that the jam in the sandwich cookie and raspberry jelly roll was nice. By the by, everything was gluten-free and kosher.

I also had an Adora calcium disk.

I am going to try to remember to take one every day for the next while, but I probably won’t blog about it again.

Dinner ended up being a (giant!) container of hot bar.

A little bit of mac and cheese and brussels sprouts and a bunch of chicken. Apparently I was in the mood for protein.

I made the poker players some Mac and Three Cheese Cups but they were gone before I could snag one. That’s a good sign!

What’s your longest run without a day off?

27Feb2013

Coconut Chocolate Lavender

by Emily

Howdy! I have not been following my sleep schedule – – at all – – but I can say that today was quite productive. Every item on my list is now to-done!

The dog has been getting in and out of bed all night long recently and between that and my usually fitful sleep, mornings have felt very difficult this week. I barely had time to make it to work today so I had to take breakfast with me on the walk. This Wegman’s Bean and Cheese Burrito was good but not great.

Something about the flavor and texture made me long for a beverage, and I ended up exploding pinto beans all down the front of my winter coat.

I ate a Honeycrisp apple mid-morning.

Then I spent the rest of my day holed up in the basement like a retail hermit. We got in tons of tons of shipments on Monday and I opened and priced 99% of them today.

I never did have time for lunch at work (I kept my packed food in the fridge for an easy lunch tomorrow!) and I ended up doing double dinners. First was Wegman’s hot bar on a mini-date with the husband.

Wok-seared veggies,

and chicken dumplings and chicken salad.

Adam and I are obsessed with the dumplings’ dipping sauce and the combination of the sauce stirred into my chicken salad was the bomb.com. <– legit, it tasted so good that was the first expression that popped into my head!

I also ate a big bag of Easter candies from the bulk bins and gave myself a stomach-ache.

A little pain was worth it, the sugar rush totally helped me through the remainder of my internship journaling. Minus breaks for making food and eating food, I chugged away for the remainder of the evening.

Our home dinner was vegetable fried rice.

In the wok (for 2) –

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
~1 heaping cup peas
~1 heaping cup roasted broccoli
~1.5 cups leftover brown rice
1 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp Sriracha
3 large eggs

The dish had the potential to be great, but it was way too salty. It’s been awhile since I’ve used fish sauce and I forgot what a sodium-punch it packs. I ate a little less than 2/3 of my plate.

Dessert was a giant, delicious cookie.

Coconut Chocolate Lavender Cookies = this recipe for single serve cookies plus 1 tsp minced culinary lavender and chopped Sweetriot 70% dark kickin’ coconut chocolate subbed in for chocolate chips.

We were both big fans of the big cookies and big taste.

The winner of my Hey Shuga! giveaway is:

(#1) Jenny, shoot me an e-mail with your mailing address.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: eggs

Easter Brunch

Two Meals At One

Charleston, Day 1 And 2

Eggstra Special

Shades Of White

Poor Puppy

And We’re Off!

Coconut Chocolate Lavender