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!

28Mar2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Busy Busy

by Emily

Whew, has it been a busy week! I can’t even tell y’all, work has been wiping me out. <– Hence the 1.5 day late blog post.

Wednesday night I got home around 6:00, then sat at my desk with my boots and coat on until 8:00 when Adam got home and I finally had to get up! Then Thursday I managed to undress, and even get halfway into my gym clothes, before crawling under the covers and calling it a night.

Breakfasts

For the most part, I’ve stopped blogging coffee that isn’t extra exciting in some way, but you can assume I’m still obsessed and drink a cup whenever I can get my hands on it.

A NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel Bar.

Starbucks spectacular.

A tall nonfat iced vanilla macchiato.

And the almond blend.

Coffee and cereal.

Chocolate Krave, plus there was a packet of hot chocolate stirred into my coffee. And today I stirred hazelnut hot chocolate into hazelnut coffee and it rocked my face off.

Lunches

Leftovers.

A Cara Cara.

And the rest of the turkey reuben mac and cheese.

An awesome cafeteria lunch. I mixed together cream chowder and cheese soup, with popcorn on the side.

Cereal on the go.

Blackberries and a very unripe nectarine.

Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

And Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares and chia seeds.

I was starving by the time lunch rolled around so I also bought a biscuit from the cafeteria.

On Thursday I saw patients straight from 9 – 4. Then I had chocolate and diet soda at my desk while I charted and it was heavenly.

Snacks

Kiss Me Organics offered me a sample of their Organic Matcha powder. Adam is obsessed so I readily accepted.

I haven’t tried baking with it yet, but it blends perfectly into smoothies and lattes – both almond milk for me and skim cow’s for Adam. The flavor is delicious, not at all acrid like green tea can sometimes be. My only complaint is that the bag doesn’t list serving instructions or nutritional information.

Matcha in a smoothie. I did pineapple, tea, ice, vanilla almond milk, ice and Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

Good in theory but the lime flavor was a little too much.

Dannon coffee Greek frozen yogurt with lavender caramel and roasted peanuts.

I also ate about a million handfuls of peanuts this week because holy frick, salty peanuts are so good!

Inner Peas from Trader Joe’s = my new favorite snack. They are exactly the texture I like to crunch on.

Jelly Beans.

Strawberry jam with toasted marshmallow is the best.

Dinners

Adam worked Monday night so I made myself a giant bowl of cereal for dinner.

Heritage Flakes and Reese’s Puffs with vanilla almond milk, a giant nectarine, and half a pint of blackberries.

“Pad Thai” with shrimp and broccoli.

The quotation marks are because I used whole wheat linguine instead of the traditional rice noodles.

Sandwich night.

Sourdough toasted in the oven with strawberry jam, Bone Suckin’ mustard, and two slices of sharp cheddar, with a fried egg in the middle.

Is there a better combination than cheese, egg, and jam? I know ideally there would be a vegetable on that plate but when you consider that I slept through dinner the next night it doesn’t seem so bad.

And as soon as I hit publish I’m off to dinner with the husband. We are trying a Mexican place I’m quite excited about.

Have a great weekend!

11Jan2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; One Day Late

by Emily

Usually I get these posts up by Friday, but that implies that I was moderately functional on Thursday night. This week, I was not. In spite of being insanely tired all week (I got into a bad sleep habit pattern that snowballed), I did do pretty well on the food front – breakfasts most days, fancy-feeling dinners, the works.

work

Speaking of work… It’s going well. I feel like I am fully settled into my position. I am definitely missing the inpatient setting a lot, but I do feel like I’m getting to make a positive impact. Part of the reason I’m so passionate about pediatrics (my long-term career goals center around nutrition support and pediatrics) is because nutrition is so crucial during periods of growth. Well, working with prenatal patients means I’m counseling adults who are growing{babies!}. My clinic sees a great variety of clients; among other things, I’ve gotten to deal with anemia, diabetes, hyperemesis gravidarum, and pica. I’m still waiting on vegan diets, eating disorders, and maternal pku.

On a less serious note, I decided to stop Fashion Fridays. I’m just not that fashionable. And I’m really not that good with my camera, which meant I was taking blurry pictures that weren’t highlighting the cool details that make me love my outfits. I doubt anyone but my mom will miss this feature, but I just wanted to explain why it was going away.

breakfast

Coconut Macaroon Larabar and a short non-fat salted caramel hot chocolate.

Breakfast from the cafeteria.

Kashi Caramelized Onion Hummus Crisps and an apple. I enjoyed both.

Non-fat iced caramel flan latte.

This wasn’t as exciting as I wanted it to be. I asked for no whipped cream and they skipped my caramel drizzle too.

Two servings of S’mores Krave cereal with blackberries and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I didn’t like the original version of this cereal when I tried it last year but the s’mores kind is quite tasty. And for a “sugar cereal” it’s not even terrible, with 10 g of sugar per serving.

lunch

Monday.

0% Fage with mango and soursoup,

a super juicy pear,

dried clementines,

and Duane Reade milk chocolate with toffee and sea salt.

Tuesday, I ran out of time to pack.

A Chicken and Greens Cesar from Starbucks. I loved the use of kale in here, I didn’t know a Cesar could feel so healthy.

And a Strawberry Apple Crusher from TJ.

Wednesday.

Hickory smoked tuna with crackers,

and salted milk chocolate and a pear for dessert.

For Thursday, a jar of fresh pineapple.

A sandwich of Applegate Farms roasted turkey, dijon, and light jarlsberg on an everything ciabatta flatbread,

and some sesame roasted seaweed.

My coworkers were very curious about the seaweed; two of them even were brave enough to taste it, not that they ended up being big fans.

I didn’t have my camera yesterday, but I bought a slice of veggie pizza from the cafeteria for lunch. And, um, I also bought a doughnut for breakfast. I almost never eat doughnuts (I didn’t grow up with them) but I had randomly reeeeeeeeally been craving one so it was serendipitous that the cafeteria had cinnamon twists on the morning I couldn’t pack breakfast.

dinner

A fancy night.

We topped salmon with meyer lemon and this Dark Horse Smoked Brown Sugar before baking. We hardly ever make fresh fish at home and this was such a treat! The texture of properly baked salmon is swoon-worthy.

With a side of roasted broccoli,

and potatoes – mashed with butter, goat cheese, and tons of dijon mustard.

It was a great meal.

A tired night – I was too sleepy on Tuesday to even bother with dinner. Refer down to the “snacks” list below 🙂

A sandwich night.

Smokey tofu sandwiches were a total win.

We topped ciabatta flatbread with smokey tofu, light muenster cheese, and turkey bacon. The tofu was baked with a sauce I threw together – ketchup, maple syrup, and liquid smoke – and it turned out great.

Plus green beans.

A restaurant night.

Those are the complimentary yam chips that Laverne sets out, by the way, and they are fantastic.

For my meal, I ordered the Drunken Noodles with shrimp, extra spicy.

Oh boy, did they ever deliver on spice! The noodles were exactly to my liking, which is to say, almost unbearably hot! Adam took a tiny taste and was not happy. Thai iced tea helped me to cool down a bit.

And after dinner we went out for giant cups of froyo. Sadly, the evening took a sharp turn downhill from there. I made myself a much bigger froyo than I usually do, loaded up with all sorts of toppings, including, apparently, something that didn’t agree with me. Even if you’ve never thrown up after eating the spiciest meal of your life you can probably still picture it. I basically rolled around on the floor and screamed. <– sorry, husband!

snack

When I sent Adam to “the fancy store” to pick up salmon, he came home with this 26 month aged Beemster Dutch cheese as a surprise.

Do you see those salt crystals?! Love. We didn’t even use crackers, just ate big chunks all week long.

Vivaloe Watermelon Aloe. Surprisingly, Adam liked this even more than I did.

We both have been missing the variety of boba we could get in bubble tea in Buffalo and the chunks of aloe are a nice substitute.

Onto the chocolate portion of our show… My last Alter Eco Velvet Truffle.

I’m amazed these lasted so long in the house (they are outstanding), but it seemed like we just kept on bringing home new treats.

Like the Lime Splash Lindt bar that I obviously had to buy because, hello, it’s new.

Two thumbs up. And I know that the cover photo makes him look like a creeper, but I’m currently loving Grant Achatz’s memoir, Life, On The Line.

Finally, my (sugared up) take on Something Swanky’s Single Serve Skinny Brownie Batter.

5.3 oz vanilla Greek yogurt + 1 Tbsp brown sugar + 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar + 1 and 1/2 Tbsp almond meal + 1 Tbsp Dutch cocoa powder = brain exploding goodness!

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!

25Nov2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; A Fabulous Date

by Emily

This weekend was downright fabulous! I’m still not feeling quite 100% from my cold – you’ll notice that fruit and veggie consumption was still abysmal – but I felt well enough to have lots of fun. Having Adam home on break has been indescribably wonderful❤. And tomorrow my parents come to visit (and will be joined later in the week by two sets of aunts and uncles) for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!

breakfast

Yogurt bowl.

TJ 0% honey Greek yogurt topped with two sliced kiwis.

Sunday breakfast.

We toasted the last of the garlic and cheddar beer bread in the oven with some Smart Balance Light.

With a sliced Cameo apple on the side.

And a cup of cafe con leche.

The coffee was part of a sample that Maison Camus sent me.

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

I had not heard of Maison Camus before they reached out to me, but apparently they are an independent, family owned Cognac house. Their coffee is grown sustainably – no herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides, and they stick to a strict growing process to minimize environmental impact and preserve biodiversity. The beans are grown at high altitudes (primarily in Costa Rica and Guatemala) and they use small-scale farmers who they pay fair wages.

I haven’t opened the French Roast yet but we loved the Signature Blend. My first tasting thought was “smooth,” and it was fun to see that match the company’s description (the French Roast is described as bold and I’m quite looking forward to it). I did put a bit of SCM in my coffee but I took a few sips black and was thrilled with the lack of bitterness. I drank two big mugs. Adam, who drinks at least 3 cups of coffee a day and is a much more discerning drinker than I, was very impressed as well.

lunch

Breakfast for lunch but not brunch.

Seedy bread with Smart Balance Light,

and eggs scrambled with tons of corn (cooked with evoo, tons of Sriracha, and a bit of sugar).

Don’t turn your nose up at the sugar; I realize it’s something I’m not exactly short on in my die,t but with the chili sauce it makes the corn perfect.

On Saturday I took Adam on a date that ended up being one of our best days ever. We decided the last time we had such a good time was on our last trip to Toronto. We drove up through Long Island to Port Jefferson.

The town was gorgeous and quaint, and we even came across a fire pit offering free marshmallows for roasting!

After we licked all the burnt sugar off our fingers we headed over to C’est Cheese for lunch.

My girlfriend (who lives in Buffalo but grew up in LI) used to babysit for the owners and recommended it to us. We were grateful for the intel because we had an amazing meal.

Adam and I shared… A beer sampler.

{South Hampton Double White, Smuttynose Brown Dog, Frambois, Port Jeff Porter}

The Smuttynose was his favorite and the porter was mine, which was funny because we both didn’t care for the others selection. The frambois was enjoyed by all though and was an excellent palate cleaner.

A bowl of New England Clam Chowder.

Adam ate this all on his own but he said it was excellent.

The Somerset sandwich – Melted aged cheddar, sun-dried tomato pesto, black olive tapenade, and fresh basil.

The aged cheddar on our sandwich was actually our very favorite cheese of the day, though it had a lot of competition.

A cheese sampling.

{Truffle Tremor, Taleggio, Pecorino Toscano, Scharfe Maxx, Vlaskaas, 2 year Grafton, Harbourne Blue}

The sampling is a plate of seven assorted cheeses that changes each day. We loved our selection. And we came home with leftovers so the fun could continue the next day. The fun continued that day as well; we finished out our date with a trip to “Thor” and popcorn for dinner.

On Sunday we had leftovers to look forward to.

We chopped up the last of our cheese plate and put it on top of crockpot cranberry chicken (scroll down to dinner) and jasmine rice.

This was so good we both wished we had leftovers of our leftovers.

dinner

I only have one meal in this category! The other days we did big, late lunches and just snacked (popcorn and bananas foster!) for dinner. Thankfully this one meal was a winner, though not very photogenic.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken = put 1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast into the crockpot and top with 14 oz fresh cranberries and bbq sauce (we used Whole Food’s Korean style) to cover, then cook 4 hours on “high.”

So simple, but so good. Adam raved about this meal and went back for both 2nds and 3rds. The green on the bottom was frozen spinach that I cooked with evoo, lemon juice, craisins, and smoked almonds.

drink & dessert

The gingerbread cookies from Cheryl’s (thanks again, Barb!) are perfectly soft and spicy.

I’ve already bought a whole slew of gingerbread flavored goodies and I’m excited to announce that I’ve decided tomorrow is the perfect time to start opening them.

Grande, non-fat, eggnog latte.

I got this with a 50% off coupon and I was glad because I didn’t love it this year. Somehow it wasn’t sweet at all, which was very strange with the eggnog flavor.

Another sample, Rave Review Original Culinary Spirits sent me a box of booze for cooking.

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

We had a lot of fun setting up a bourbon tasting.

Bourbon isn’t my favorite kind of whiskey, and on first taste I preferred Rave Review to the competitor. I rarely give a bad review (I’m excitable and pretty easy please), but I have to say that after heating I hated it! The flavor was almost savory?! which we think was related to the blend of spices. That said, I could see how it could be good in a savory dish, and I do plan on cooking with it.

On the positive side, we made Bananas Foster with the Rum and I’m giving that two thumbs up.

I basically followed Alton Brown’s recipe, except I skipped the banana liquor and used cinnamon instead of all spice.

Served over vanilla ice cream, this was wonderful. I’m pretty sure we’ll be making another batch next weekend.

Finally, have you seen the new limited edition winter flavors from Polar?

Toasted coconut was good but champagne strawberry is out of this world. The flavor is great and the scent is just ridiculous. I will also be searching high and low for fudge cheesecake, obviously.

Do you ever cook with booze, or do you just drink booze while you cook?

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.

11Oct2013

Do You Remember When People Used To Blog 3x A Day?

by Emily

Do you remember when people used to blog three times a day? Yeah … I can’t even handle once a week! I don’t have a wrap-up, but I did manage to get 2 – 3 items from each category, and the stuff I do have to share was all awesome. Here we go –

breakfast

1. Pumpkin pie (crisp?) in a bowl.

I topped some TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt (3/4 of the container or so; the serving seems oddly large to me) with some of my Simply Sweet Granola and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I made my oats a little too toasty, but I was very pleased with the yogurt.

2. Pumpkin Pie Through A Straw.

That’s right, I cracked open my first can of pumpkin!

I’ve made this smoothie for years and it is a total winner. The husband is usually not as into the pumpkin thing as I am and he likes this even more than I do.

3. Sundae on a Wednesday.

This was the most dessert-y of the “dessert” breakfasts but it was still pretty healthy.

Wallaby low-fat maple yogurt topped with Crispy Green bananas (former freebie), and melted Biscoff Spread.

snacks

1. Cinnamon Crunch Somersaults and a caramel macchiato.

I made so many updates to my coffee (a little more of this, a little less of that) that it was basically a big cup of espresso and caramel, aka perfection.

The crunchy portion of this snack was brought to you by this generous package I received from Somersaults:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently had their top flavors certified as GMO-free and expanded their retailer list to include Target and Costco and they’re trying to spread the word about their good news. Fun snack facts – a serving of Somersaults has as much protein as a serving of almonds (with half of the fat) and they are a good source of fiber and vitamin E. Also they are Adam’s very favorite snack!

I thought that the Cinnamon Crunch (a new flavor this year) was great; a good blend of sweet and seedy.

2. Cinnamon Pumpkin Beer Bread.

Just Beer Bread made with a pumpkin beer and a layer of cinnamon sugar (we used cinnamon maple sugar) on top.

Quite good with schmear of butter.

3. An actual sundae.

Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Greek Frozen Yogurt with melted Biscoff Spread; I was all about the Biscoff this week.

I bought the frozen yogurt by chance (I needed vanilla frozen yogurt for my pumpkin smoothie and this was all I could find at the store near my house) and ended up adoring it. The flavor was so complex!

lunch

1. Sandwich success.

I’ve been planning this sandwich combo for weeks, ever since a serendipitous trip to Trader Joe’s.

A whole wheat Bagel Thin topped with Applegate Farms roasted turkey, TJ’s pumpkin butter, and a TJ’s mini brie bite.

The brie and pumpkin butter mash-up was just as good as I thought it would be.

Roasted green beans on the side,

and TJ’s Hawaiian Style BBQ Potato Chips.

This was a fun lunch to munch through.

2. A trip to Chobani Bar in SoHo.

A girlfriend and I took the train into the city from Queens. We snacked on Somersaults on the way in.

She had never tasted them before but was an instant fan.

A quick walk down Prince Street and we were at Chobani.

The space was very pretty, but strangely they had no seating. We ended up finding a nice spot on a sunny stoop.

I ordered a half-size of toasted coconut and pineapple. Plain yogurt topped with pineapple, toasted coconut, and Turkish hazelnuts. It comes with light agave nectar but I asked that they leave it off.

I was very impressed with my bowl; the pineapple was so sweet! My friend got the same thing and I did and she liked it too. We both agreed that we probably wouldn’t go back but that we were glad we went.

dinner

1. Mac and cheese, please.

This combo of ingredients made for one heck of a dinner –

While my mushrooms were browning…

I ate ~~some of~~ the rest of the bbq chips,

and opened a Pumking.

I agree with what I’ve read online, this year’s batch wasn’t the best. I really enjoyed it the first few minutes but after that I grew tired of the flavor. In fact, most of the bottle ended up in my cinnamon pumpkin beer bread. At least my dinner was good.

Salads on the side. A romaine blend dressed with a sprinkle of salt and 1 tsp each honey and olive oil.

My salad was technically on the bottom, not the side. I topped my greens with mac (Annie’s Shells and White Cheddar, with spinach, mushrooms, and Bela smoked sardines) and then topped my whole bowl with crumbled goat cheese.

2. Taco night.

I recently received a package from Ortega to help me celebrate National Taco Day:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They sent along some recipes on which they collaborated with Chef Aarón Sánchez, including this vegetarian one –

I really liked the sound of it, but you know I had to put my own spin on the recipe.

Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos, serves 3

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
medium sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 jalapeño peppers, diced
15.5 oz can low-sodium black beans (don’t drain!)
1 packet Ortega 40% less sodium taco seasoning mix
9 Ortega yellow corn taco shells
4 oz raw baby spinach
3 oz crumbled feta cheese

Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown, 5 – 7 minutes.
Add garlic and jalapeños and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Stir in beans (liquid and all) and taco seasoning mix and cook an additional 10 minutes. Mash up some of the beans with the side of your spatula while you stir.
Heat taco shells according to package instructions.
Stuff the bottom of each taco with spinach. Spread the bean mixture evenly among the tacos on top of spinach. Top tacos evenly with feta cheese.

We loved them! The beans were delicious, if I do say so myself. And the taco shells were wonderful; they seemed to hold together much better than ones I’ve used in the past.

life

1. The house.

Three full months of living here later, we finally bought shelving for the living room.

There’s not a lot on them right now (I managed to find spaces for all of our books in the office in the interim) but it’s nice to have one less blank wall.

2. The man.

I didn’t talk about it on the blog, but a month or so ago Webster had a cluster seizure. It was very scary, and more importantly, it meant that we had to start medically treating his epilepsy. He’s been on medication for more than a month now and he has been seizure-free the entire time (yay!).

Feeling better has given him time to focus on his other interests, like sitting with his butt up in the air like a total weirdo.

What’s going on in your life? Tell me something good from the last week?

30Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Lots Of Repetition

by Emily

Let’s start with dinner first and work our way backward, since lunches were all some form of leftovers from dinner. Usually my meals are all over the place, but this week there was a lot of repetition.

First – and this is the meal that spawned the lunches – we made pineapple stir-fry over brown rice.

We kept things very simple which I think was a major improvement over stir-fries we’ve made in the past. Pineapple, broccoli, and straw mushrooms with baked tofu (400* for 40+ minutes, drizzled in honey and soy sauce) in a quick sauce of pineapple juice, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and corn starch.

Usually I get sick of our stir-fries after the first few bites, but this dinner I enjoyed the whole way through.

One night I made easy eggs. I don’t remember what Adam ate, but definitely not this; he’s not the biggest ~~Korn~~ corn fan.

2 large eggs scrambled in evoo with corn (Trader Joe’s frozen fire-roasted corn, that I adore by the way. Cooked with a little sugar and Sriracha), dried basil from my grandma’s garden(!!), and shredded parmesan.

Eggs are so nice for dinner.

You already saw our roasted garlic pesto with bow-ties and spinach.

The husband got all of the leftovers and I was very jealous.

Last night we got all fancy and shared a cheese board for dinner.

We did minneola,

green pear,

Pink Crisp apple,

Blue Diamond Sesame Seed Artisan Nut Thins (former freebie alert),

and of course, cheese.

The cheese guy at Whole Foods was so helpful to us. Plus he let the husband have a million samples, so Adam was basically in love. We decided to go with one hard and one soft. A 3 year aged Gouda,

and a Soignon goat brie.

Both were fantastic. This meal was so much fun!

I have two lunches to share this week, both stir-fried rice. I know that on Monday I drank a third sugary iced coffee in leu of lunch, but I cannot for the life of me remember what I ate on the fourth day?! Whenever we would discuss food recalls in class I always thought it was silly that people had such a hard time completing them, but now that I’ve stopped daily blogging it has become much harder to recall my meals!

First up, a traditional.

Leftover brown rice with pineapple, peas, carrots, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and 1 large egg.

The pineapple got sort of caramelized and was fabulous.

Next, fried rice that was a bit out of the box.

Leftover brown rice, corn, spinach, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, rice, vinegar, and 1 large egg.

I really thought that this iteration was going to be amazing but somehow the flavor ended up being pretty dull.

A friend had some good news to share early this week, and we celebrated with beer and bubble tea (of course). The beer was that nougat beer I keep prattling on about, so I’ll just show you a picture of my gorgeous tea.

Strawberry black tea with boba and lychee jelly from Hanco’s.

Another afternoon, the family took a walk to get ices.

I went with a sour cherry and cola water ice.

Not as good as the strawberry-cola combo I had the last time.

Now evening treats. The froyo place near our Whole Foods gives a discount if you bring a receipt from the Starbucks next door and that’s what spawned this idea – the sort-of affogato.

A little bit of vanilla froyo topped with a drizzle of fudge sauce and a solo shot of espresso.

Finally, caramel corn.

I cannot stop eating this, so I guess it’s time to give you the recipe. It is too simple.

Caramel Corn, serves 1 – 2

1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
4 – 6 cups (popped) popcorn
salt, to your tastes

Heat the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, until melted. Stir in SCM and continue to cook until thickened, 40 – 75 more seconds. Drizzle over prepared popcorn and salt to your tastes.

I’ve made this recipe in larger batches and you can too; all you have to do is keep the ratios the same while increasing as needed. The leftover caramel corn stores great in a sealed container on the counter for up to 5 days.

Like lunch, these pictures are all pretty similar. In fact, the base of these three breakfasts stayed the same the whole week!

Overnight oats: 1/4 cup dry oats, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, and 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk; stored in the fridge overnight in an almost-empty nut butter jar (~1 serving left). Topped with blueberries before serving.

The only thing that changed was the jars. Barney Butter Crunchy Almond Butter.