An American Recap

by Emily

Beer, baseball, and the 4th of July! I hope all of my US readers had a nice Independence Day.

I had a super fun three-day weekend. I predict I will have had several coffees by the time this post goes live on Monday morning.

Some yummy moments…

On the Fourth, a friend and I drove up to the Hamptons to explore. The hurricane limited our plans a bit and our free concert and fireworks were rained out, but we still managed to have a great time. We went wine tasting at the gorgeous Wolffer Estate.

And had lobster rolls by the beach.

They came personal assembly style, huge hunks of lobster meat in a bowl of butter, and were more than worth the wade through the parking lot to get to them.

On Saturday, a high school friend came in from PA and took us to the Mets game.

NY lost, but we still had a ton of fun. We went out for drinks on the Upper East Side afterwards and got home after our bedtime.

Sunday was all about recovery and catch-up sleep. Also baking! I was recently sent a book to review – Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches {Cool Recipes for Delicious Dairy-Free Ice Creams and Cookies by Kris Holechek Peters.

Please note – I received this book free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

Peters is a vegan baker, blogger, and cookbook author and I think she nailed it with this book. It includes 60 recipes for vegan ice creams and cookies. The instructions are clearly written and none of the recipes involve anything too complicated. Most of the recipes do not require crazy ingredients, though you will need a thickening agent – arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, guar gum – for most of the ice creams.

The basics are all included – a variety of vanilla and chocolate cookies and ice creams – and there are some inventive ideas as well, like Pumpkin Snickerdoodle, Peach Rum Crumble, and Shirley Temple Sandwiches. I chose to mix and match with two different recipes.

The cookies from the Happy Birthday Batter Sandwiches and the Orange Coconut Cream Ice Cream from the Orange Dreamsicle Sandwiches. Delish.

We stuck with preparing dessert and got take-out for dinner.

Caesar salad and pizza from Luigi’s.

Eaten in front of “21 Jump Street” which had funny moments but was overall pretty terrible. I Netflixed it thinking I would see the sequel some time this week but now I’m not so sure.

Did you see any fireworks this weekend?

4Jul2014

Three Day Week Wrap-Up

by Emily

Today is the Fourth of July, and I took Monday off to play with my parents, so this work-week was only three days long for me; woot! Only three days and it still took an embarrassing amount of coffee – with an even more embarrassing amount of sugar – to get me through.

I didn’t do the best job of documenting, but I do have photos of every single lunch and dinner. And I won’t post details, but I do want to check in and mention that I’ve been consistent with my workouts ever since last week’s plea to hold me accountable. Crossing my fingers that I keep my momentum going!

My lunches this week all included free samples from LÄRABAR.

Please note, the RENOLA was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They sent me a box to introduce their new RENOLA – grain free granola made with non-GMO fruits, nuts, and seeds.

I think calling this “granola” may be a bit disingenuous, but it is a quite fabulous fruit, nut, and seed blend. The texture is very pleasing; fantastically crunchy. It did taste absolutely delicious on yogurt and in cereal though, so if you are turned off by your oats getting soggy in milk then this product would definitely be a good fit for you. The pouches are nice and filling, thanks to 2 -3 grams of fiber and 5 – 8 grams of protein for 200 calories.

Tuesday, I had Cinnamon Nut with Cheerios and skim milk.

Wednesday, I had Berry with Fage 2% plain Greek yogurt, Meyer lemon curd, and blueberries.

And Thursday, I had Cocoa Coconut with vanilla bean Greek yogurt, roasted coconut, and blueberries.

The coconut-heavy bowl was my favorite lunch of the week.

Snacks worth noting were all in the chocolate family. A Lindt Dark Chocolate Cookie Bar.

And a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.

I didn’t have the candy and the stout at the same time but I totally should have. I could not believe how yummy the beer was; it is rare that I finish a whole beer but this one I happily slurped down.

I think four days straight of all meals out with my parents helped get me in the kitchen mood because I managed to make an actual meal every night this week.

Tuesday was more on the semi-homemade side, we ate gussied up bowls of my leftovers from Sunday.

I beefed up my leftover shredded Brussels sprouts with chopped baby spinach, dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, and a dressing blend of evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

With a scoop of lobster mac and cheese on top.

Just so good. And it’s a testament to the “dressing” that I enjoyed the salad bites even more than the lobster mac.

Wednesday we had very monochromatic pasta bowls.

Orecchiette with tons of artichokes – frozen from TJ’s that I sautéed in evoo with lemon juice – and lemon zest, browned butter, and toasted hazelnuts.

I snuck my green into my appetizer.

Nachos! BBQ chips baked with chopped spinach and three cheese blend.

Last night I made a very loosely inspired version of chana masala.

Chickpeas cooked with chopped onion, diced green pepper, garlic, tomato paste, and super spicy tamarind chutney.

Served on brown rice with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt on top. This meal was wicked good! I went back for another bowl of just the veggie mixture because I couldn’t stop thinking about how tasty it was. Go me.

P.S. Happy Independence Day to my American readers!

2Jul2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Loved – {fill in the blank}

by Emily

I’m behind on my posts because I’ve been playing hostess for my parents. We were quite sad to see them go Tuesday morning, but we did manage to fit a TON into their five-night visit. We made it to SoHo, Tribeca, Park Slope, Williamsburg, Huntington, and Port Jefferson, among other places. And we ate and ate and ate. Rather than a full recap, I want to share some of the things we loved this weekend…

(1) – Cheeeeese

The four of us were very impressed with this cheese plate from C’est Cheese.

The Taleggio and Comte were the group favorites.

We went to Luigi’s – to celebrate my parents’ last night and Adam’s last day as an intern! – and I ordered eggplant parmesan and the three of them ordered chicken parm.

My sautéed spinach totally beat their house-made spaghetti, in my opinion.

(2) – Ice Cream

Every single day, at least one of us had ice cream. <– the perfect way to vacation

Grasshopper frozen yogurt from Emack and Bolios.

Ample Hills knocked everyone’s socks off because it is the best ice cream in the city.

I got Peppermint Patty and Snap, Mallow, Pop. {thank you, Jenna, for letting me know that those two flavors would work wonderfully together}

(3) – Ethnic Food

We did lunch at Katz’s Deli on Friday.

Broccoli knish and with pickles for me.

The counter system and Katz’s gives me serious anxiety, but the food is totally worth it in the end. My parents loved their matzo ball soups.

Lunch at Smorgasburg on Saturday.

You cannot go wrong with the duck bun – with sweet and spicy chili sauce – from Bite Size Kitchen.

They are my very favorite thing from Smorgasburg.

The Halo Halo from Lumpia Shack is a close second though.

What???

Pip Snack kettle corn / ube foam / leche flan / shaved ice / ube (purple yam) / green market strawberries / coconut jelly / coconut strips / palm seeds / sweet bananas.

It was just so ridiculous and wonderful. Apparently palm seeds are delicious.

(4) – Seafood

We were pretty pleased with Schafer’s in Port Jeff.

I had fantabulous lobster mac and cheese.

My big chunks of fresh lobster were in a brie and mozzarella sauce, so this one probably could get filled under “Cheeeeese” too. With shaved Brussels sprouts.

The sprouts were raw, served with dried cranberries, green apple, candied walnuts, crumbled blue cheese, and lemon vinaigrette.

That meal was great, but it could barely compete with Luke’s Lobster.

Ahhh!

Extra vinegary cole slaw,

and a 1/2 crab roll, lobster roll, and shrimp roll for each of us.

We were all swooning over the lobster. Do you see that claw?!

(5) – How Flipping Awesome My City Is

I ❤ New York!

23Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Farm Fresh

by Emily

Just the highlights…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garden Medley:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<^> Saturday’s dinner.

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

A big pile of green curry turkey salad.

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

<^> Sunday’s dinner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

9Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Loki

by Emily

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

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

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

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

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

And tofu Pad See Ew.

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

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

And I finally got to try the bbq chicken salad.

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

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

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

Snack ~~plate~~ napkin.

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

Something cool on our dog walk.

You can’t beat gummi bear cream ice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even better than the first rendition.

How many weddings are you scheduled to attend this summer?

2Jun2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

by Emily

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

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

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

This Trader Joe’s microwave popcorn is also nice.

My favorite thing is the packaging, honestly.

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

And the birthday cake stuffed cookies are not good.

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

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

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

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

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

We needed it to offset the next round of drinks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

30May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

by Emily

Today does not feel like a Friday to me at all (tomorrow, technically, while I’m writing this post). I keep being pleasantly surprised, a perk of the Monday off.

This was a strange week for me in terms of hunger; y’all know that I usually eat enough food to sustain a small village, but thanks to a migraine and a day of leftover migraine ickiness my hunger has been on hiatus. Thanks to less food eaten, and less time since my last post, I actually have photos of 95% of my eats! All you’re really missing is several more iced coffees with skim milk and nibbles while I cooked the dinners.

Off we go…

I am obsessed with Brooklyn Roasting Company and Adam sweetly surprised me with a tin of their Iris Espresso {maple / sugar-plum / cocoa / spice} this weekend.

I was so excited about it that I woke up early enough on Tuesday to brew and drink a cup of coffee before leaving for work! This blend is legit, even from our crappy coffee maker this was my favorite cup of BRC yet.

Even leftover the next day, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and SCM, it was delicious.

Cafeteria lunch.

Sweet onion kettle chips and a cup of buffalo blue cheese soup from the cafeteria.

Do you remember the cup of amazing bbq sauce that Fletcher’s sent me home with? We used it in amazing sandwiches.

This was the best meal of the week.

We doused some chopped roasted chicken in our sauce, then served it on onion buns with a schmear of Miracle Whip.

The veggie component was baby bok choy, mushrooms, and shredded carrot, cooked with evoo, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and hot pepper jam, with sesame seeds and fried shallots tossed in at the end.

I don’t cook bok choy enough, it’s one of my favorites.

Yogurt lunch. I stirred together fresh blueberries, a mix of Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares, and a pineapple Chobani. Plus an apple on the side.

I didn’t think to check the label before I bought it, but apparently the new 100 calorie Chobani line is sweetened with stevia and monk fruit?! Yuck. I hate the taste of stevia, but realized it was in there too late after everything was stirred together.

I had big plans for Wednesday’s dinner – I was going to make two sets of meals so I was prepped for the rest of the week – but instead I rolled around with a migraine. When I finally was ready to eat it was after 10 pm, so I just made a sandwich.

I’m not really complaining though, at least it was an exciting sandwich.

French toast bagel topped with 2 slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey, an egg, and 1 oz of Brie.

Oatmeal lunch.

Blueberry hazelnut oatmeal from Quaker topped Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter to continue the theme. Plus an Ambrosia apple that was sweet and juicy.

Dipping snack.

Baby carrots with Sabra olive tapenade hummus. I liked the blend of two of my favorite Mediterranean flavors.

Ridiculous cookies.

Adam and I aren’t quite sure what to think of them. 150 calories for 2 cookies is pretty horrifying when you realize the cookies are practically silver dollar sized.

Last night I made the easier of Wednesday’s planned meals.

The Za’atar veggie burgers were part of my box from Sweet Earth Foods.

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

The burgers were nowhere near as good as the terrific bacon, but they weren’t bad. Sadly the flavor was fairly “Bland, now with spices.” But I liked the textural aspect of the flax seeds. And they cooked up very quickly, making them an easy 230 calorie, 6 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein vegan option. I went back and topped mine with mustard.

On the side was TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch Collection – kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and green and red cabbage – sautéed with champagne pear vinaigrette, chopped pecans, and dried blueberries.

I forgot our fresh corn on the cob in the fridge, but we didn’t even miss it once we tasted how good the vegetables were. I highly recommend adding dried blueberries the next time you sauté greens.

FYI – I wrote a guest post on prenatal nutrition on Kath Eats.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: greens

An American Recap

Please note – I received this book free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

Three Day Week Wrap-Up

Please note, the RENOLA was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Loved – {fill in the blank}

(1) – Cheeeeese

(2) – Ice Cream

(3) – Ethnic Food

(4) – Seafood

(5) – How Flipping Awesome My City Is

Weekend Wrap-Up; Farm Fresh

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

Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster

Weekend Wrap-Up; Loki

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

Weekly Wrap-Up; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

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