Long Week Wrap-Up; The Perfect Date? I’d Have To Say April 25th.

by Emily

Woah! It’s been almost two weeks; this is going to be a loooooong post, and that’s after I cut out a whole bunch of stuff. I left in lots of coffee, dinners in bowls, and tasty medjool dates. I’ve had a bad case of the Blogging Blahs recently and I just can’t get myself to sit down and write. Even though I’m not talking about it much, we have been eating fancy meals and doing fun things. Like spending last Saturday in Manhattan…

On our way to the theatre!

We saw Bullets Over Broadway and loved it. Zach Braff – one of my idols – played the lead and the show was super funny.

Here is some of what’s gone on {my plate} since I last posted – –

breakfasts and lunches

Amazing hot chocolate and a vanilla almond KIND bar.

Smoothie = frozen banana, dates, vanilla almond milk, vanilla almond butter, cinnamon-maple sugar, and vanilla bean paste.

Yogurt bowl. 2% Fage topped with cooked strawberries, chopped date, and pecans.

Yogurt lunch.

Dannon coffee Greek yogurt,

plus dates with sweet and spicy pecans, and an apple.

Super salad. I packed spring mix topped with blue cheese, sweet and spicy pecans, and chopped apple, then added some Italian dressing from the salad bar at work. P.S. The cafeteria was on point this week; I bought several cheesy slices of pizza and had creamy lobster bisque with giant pieces of meat.

Lunch with Au Bon Pain. They sent me some coupons to try out their new late spring menu.

We tried the Sriracha Chicken Sandwich—all-natural chicken with Sriracha sauce, pickled banana peppers, arugula, tomatoes and lemon aioli on a baguette. Interesting, but not too spicy for the husband.

A Lemon and Sweet Cheese CroisBun – flaky croissant blended with butter bun, filled with sweet cheese and lemon curd.

And an Arnold Palmer with their black currant iced tea.

Everything was really yummy, but we were pretty annoyed because the location we chose was out of the new salads, both of which sounded amazing.

[BBQ Chicken Salad—all-natural chicken marinated in barbecue sauce, romaine, roasted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, three-cheddar blend and light ranch dressing. Fresh Fruit & Baby Kale Salad—fresh watermelon, strawberries, mandarin oranges, feta and sliced almonds on a bed of baby kale and balsamic vinaigrette.]

I will not be going back to that location, but I will be heading to ABP for a salad asap.

drinks and desserts

Many iced lattes with my magic milk straws.

Also the cookie dough iced coffee from Dunkin is still great.

And this double espresso over ice – with skim milk and sugar – from Café Dada that filled me with joy.

We are officially giving two thumbs up to Rice Dream’s Horchata.

Adam actually liked it even more than I did.

Still working my way through Buzzfeed’s Frozen Treat’s list; #33 was cholado from Las Americas Bakery.

We got Raspado, shaved ice with homemade fruit syrup and sweetened condensed milk.

Caramel date shake – sea salt caramel gelato blended with dates and skim milk.

Frozen hot chocolate from Tim Horton’s. Please note – they sent me a free coupon so I could sample this new product.

It wasn’t as good as the frozen hot chocolate, but it was definitely delicious. We would plan on purchasing them again this summer. The fudge on top was out of control.

This cookie dough candy was as good as you’d expect it to be. <– i.e. if that sort of thing sounds good to you then you’ll probably like it but if you thought“dear god, why would you dip cookie dough in chocolate” then you’ll probably think it’s too sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed half and then was happy to throw the rest away.

Brooklyn Farmacy is officially our new favorite place.

A family restored the 1920’s pharmacy and turned it into a soda fountain heaven. The music, fixtures, and staff wardrobe are all throw-backs to the ’20s but in a way that is touching and kitschy rather than cheesy (think classy, not Johnny Rockets).

We shared a hibiscus float and a maple egg cream that were both indescribably good.

We practically ordered a second round!

dinners

Farro bowls. Leftover farro tossed with soy sauce and rice vinegar / sautéed shiitake mushrooms and shredded carrots / sauerkraut sautéed with Sriracha and sugar / sliced cucumber / and a fried egg.

Here it is before the egg went down.

Pasta bowls.

Whole wheat linguine / spinach and roasted broccoli / sauce made of a raw egg cracked into the hot pasta plus a splash of milk and huge handful of shredded swiss cheese / topped with panko fried with evoo, smoked paprika, and truffle salt.

Burrito bowl at Calexico. Rice / black beans / guacamole / cojita cheese / avocado sauce / and jalopeños.

Old-school burger and fries at Bareburger. Turkey burger – on a bun! – with pickle chips, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and ketchup. Just like a McDonald’s burger from when I was a kid.

Cheese plate! Assembled entirely of items from Trader Joe’s.

Dates, salmon jerky,

orange slices, pear,

rosemary crackers,

and Italian truffle cheese.

The cheese was an early appetizer for our sushi night.

I got a pickle veggie roll and a non-authentic fried stuff roll. Both were only ok. We had sushi a couple of times over the past weeks and none of it has been very good.

A fancy dinner, after our date at the theatre, at Stone Park Café.

We started with a salad of baby arugula, toasted pecans, artichoke hearts, and blue cheese vinaigrette.

And the scallop and marrow tacos. Uggggh. These were insane.

I had seared Catham cod with Odessa eggplant, baby bok choy, and lemon gremolata. Apparently this was the first time I tasted cod outside of fish and chips?! SPC is one of our favorite restaurants in the city so I know this was good, but I wasn’t a big fan.

Adam’s dinner blew mine out of the water. Butternut squash and thyme ravioli with brown butter, pine nuts, and mixed mushrooms.

Thankfully he was very generous with shared bites.

Are you sick of this post yet? That’s all she wrote!

3May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Recipes, Redone

by Emily

Hey there! I’m a few days late with this post because the dog had a vet appointment late Thursday night. He had to get about a million shots – we did all of his blood draws and vaccinations in one fell swoop – but was such a little trooper. He is so freaking cute!

Things were good with the human members of the house as well. I remade two of my old recipes this week with great success. It was a busy but satisfying week at work. And now my brother-in-law is here to play! I’m saving our Friday night fun for Monday’s weekend post, but here is the last week…

breakfast

Tropical smoothie.

Crushed pineapple, frozen banana, toasted coconut, and vanilla almond milk. I should have added nutmeg to this because that’s what I put on my piña coladas.

Fancy fruit salad.

This salad was insane and I need to make it again immediately. Blackberries, minneola, lime juice/zest, maple syrup, toasted coconut, and hemp hearts.

Plus a Blueberry Oat Almond THINaddictive.

The thin was part of a sweet box of samples that Nonni’s sent me.

Their sweet and crunchy biscotti almond thins – which have only 100 calories per package and less than 2 grams of saturated fat – are out in two new flavors: blueberry oat and banana dark chocolate. I was a fan of both.

lunch

Asian and apples.

My Pad See Ew leftovers were still great cold.

With Brown Sugar Sea Salt Seaweed Snacks and a Lady Alice apple.

I made my own to-go oatmeal bowls this week! 1/3 cup of rolled oats and 1 Tbsp of malted milk powder, plus toppings. I took them to work in glass Tupperware and then put enough hot water (for the tea in the cafeteria) in the bowl to just cover the oats. By the time I got back up to my department they were perfect! I will probably still buy the packaged ones as well, but this was a very exciting development.

Berries and cream oatmeal = white chocolate chips and freeze-dried strawberries.

The rest of my fruit salad was wonderful at lunch.

Crushed pineapple,

fruit salad,

and a peach Fage,

were all stirred together into a tasty bowl.

Homemade oatmeal part deux.

Crushed pecans, dark chocolate chips, and toasted coconut.

Plus an apple.

snack

Afternoon espresso when I really wanted candy.

I compromised by putting an obscene amount of sugar into my coffee.

Honestly, I had terrible bedtime habits all week and my afternoons took a lot of coffees. Made even more exciting by the Cookies and Cream Magic Straws from my Easter basket.

A Banana Dark Chocolate Almond THINaddictive.

I was expecting to like this flavor the most but ended up preferring the blueberry; this was good but the banana was a tiny bit fake tasting.

Pink Lady. I have been loving apples recently.

We made milkshakes.

Café Latte Frozen Greek Yogurt, chocolate milk, malted milk powder, and ice.

And speaking of milk, I ate about a million cookies this week.

Don’t forget, you have until Monday to enter my giveaway.

dinner

My first recipe redo.

Shallotta Salmon Burgers. They aren’t orange fyi, that’s just bad lighting.

Shredded Brussels sprouts cooked with coconut oil, crushed pecans, chopped celery, and swiss/gruyere cheese.

I added too much oil to my veggies and they were good but a little ridiculous.

My other recipe redo was my Healthy Spinach Pesto.

A total success, stirred into pasta with broccoli and tons and turkey bacon.

I’m off for family fun time! xoxo

29Apr2014

My Top Ten From NYC’s Green Festival

by Emily

This past weekend I attended the NYC Green Festival, the largest and longest-running festival on sustainability and green living. This year’s festival featured nearly 100 food exhibitors specializing in local, artisanal-crafted foods, vegan/vegetarian cuisine and organic food products, a sustainable beer and wine garden, and a vegan food court.

Note – I received a complimentary invite and Adam and I attended free of charge.

We tried a lot of tasty things, too many to catalog –

So instead of going through them all, I’ve chosen my top ten favorites.

My Top 10 Favorites from Green Fest

1. Coco Jack coconut opener works like a charm. You use the mallet to hammer in the jack and in just a few steps you have an opened Thai young coconut.

I opened this bad boy all by myself, without making a total mess.

2. Coconut Bliss is the best vegan ice cream we’ve ever tried. It is made of coconut milk and is free of soy, dairy, and gluten.

Adam was in love with his chocolate salted caramel and the mint galactica was the best mint chip, vegan or otherwise, I’ve ever tasted.

3. All of the vegan options from Daiya impressed us. Also dairy, soy, and gluten free. Adam thought the cheddar style slices tasted fairly “real.”

And he loved all of the pizzas.

The strawberry cream cheese style spread was identical in texture to the original. It would be great on sandwiches.

4. Dang Caramel Sea Salt Coconut Chips were crunchy and sweet.

I’ve been eyeballing up this item at Whole Foods for months, now it is actually going into my cart.

5. Explore Asian’s Mung Bean Fettuccine is gluten-free but the texture was perfect. Each 2 oz serving has 25 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber for 182 calories.

6. Gardein’s Mandarin Crispy Chick’n had nice texture as well. I thought this tasted better than traditional orange chicken. Each serving has 150 calories, 7 grams of protein, and no saturated fat.

7. Gnosis chocolate is made with {organic, vegan, kosher, ethically sourced} raw cacao.

This was one of those wonderful dark chocolates that magically has a milkiness to it. Even Adam, a proclaimed dark chocolate hater, enjoyed the Fleur de Sel.

8. Alive and Radiant’s Hibiscus and Pink Peppercorn Kale Krunch had a fun pink tinge.

The floral and spice balanced each other nicely and these were crunchy but didn’t shatter to bits when you tried to take a bite.

9. Nib Mor is a start-up from Long Island that uses organic, non-GMO, Fair Trade and gluten-free ingredients.

The 72% Dark Chocolate Mint bar was delightfully cool and minty. And I am practically going to die if I can’t get my hands on their drinking chocolate immediately.

10. Soom Tahini is a family business, started by the three Soom sisters.

This was the perfect note to end on because the Soom chocolate sesame butter was my favorite bite of the entire day!

This was basically a jar of liquid halvah – aka my heaven.

Apparently I’m into coconut, mint, and chocolate – not a big surprise!

25Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Eggs And Easter Candy

by Emily

I’m bouncing back from a bad migraine this afternoon so this post might be lacking my usual witty prose (<– just go with it). I don’t want to think that too much sugar may have been a potential trigger for the migraine, but it will probably be hard to convince you otherwise once you finish the post 🙂 Also, upon completion I am forced to note that 90% of these pictures are pretty god-awful. The food was yummy though, I swear!

lunch

Oatmeal Monday.

Apple on the side.

Quaker Summer Berry Oatmeal,

topped with Reese’s eggs.

I read the egg carton further that night and discovered that they contain trans fat, dun dun dun! – so I had to throw the rest out. My only hard and fast nutrition rule is never eat trans fats.

Spicy Sandwich Tuesday. A whole wheat Sandwich Thin with Applegate Farms Herbed Turkey, Fontina cheese, strawberry jam, and pickled jalopeños that seemed to have retained a lot of their heat.

I cooled down with cinnamon applesauce.

And crunched through kale chips.

Worst. Photo. Ever.

Egg Salad Wednesday.

This batch of egg salad was made with tons of caramelized onions, miracle whip, smoked paprika, and raisins. It was fabulous stuffed inside a Pocket Thin.

With the rest of the kale chips and an apple.

Leftovers Thursday.

See more of this casserole down in dinners.

With a wonderfully crisp Lady Alice apple and Haribo colas.

Last of the Egg Salad Friday, aka today.

This time with a slice of Fontina.

dinner

Stir fry night.

Served on top of packaged Kung Pao noodles.

My ‘fry contained edamame, bamboo shoots, straw mushrooms, and pineapples, cooked in pineapple juice and green curry paste.

I usually try to put too much into my stir fries and I end up hating them; this simple version was fantastic.

Stir fry leftovers.

My veggies, plus steamed sweet potato chunks, and fish sauce and soy sauce, cooked in evoo, with an egg at the end.

A winning new recipe.

Turkey Reuben Casserole.

Click here for the recipe.

Plus spinach and baby kale sautéed with evoo and dried blueberries.

Let’s be real, I pretty much choked down those greens.

Chipotle post-migraine.

Brown rice with peppers, chicken, lettuce, cheese, and lots of mild salsa.

snacks, aka Easter candy

I made a Cadbury Cream Egg Cream. What?!

It actually didn’t work all that well, I felt like my eggs got burnt in the microwave, but I salvaged it with a bit of chocolate milk. Adam and I were both pretty pleased with the final result.

Speaking of candy eggs, these Ferrero ones from my basket were sure gone in a hurry.

Just like a Rocher but without the nut in the center.

Grape Crush licorice.

When I veered away from the Easter goodies my snacks went horribly awry. I got an email from Dunkin that a Coolatta would earn me 25 bonus points and, sucker for loyalty rewards that I am, I had to get one.

Disgusting. It wasn’t homogenous at all; the coffee, milk, and sweetener separated into terrible layers.

That was a bad note to end on, but overall it was a tasty week.

18Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

by Emily

Who else has been hitting the chocolate eggs this week? Easter candy abounds! We are spending the holiday with my in-laws – all three of our nieces! – so I’m going radio-silent on the blog front this weekend to focus on family time. I’m planning on skipping my weekend post, I’m not even packing a camera, and I’ll be back with a weekly wrap-up next Friday.

breakfast

Iced Americano with chocolate milk.

I tried the cafeteria breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with turkey and veggie sausage. The coffee cup held wonderful Cisse milk chocolate vanilla bean hot chocolate.

lunch

Oatmeal.

Quaker Honey and Almonds with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

And an apple.

Plus I snagged this delicious, thick!, strawberry lemonade from the cafeteria.

Egg salad.

We made awesome egg salad for lunches this week; medium-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and green and red pepper, miracle whip, pickle relish, mustard, and dill. Packed in a whole wheat pocket thin.

Plus wasabi seaweed and grapes.

The next day was chicken salad. A whole wheat bagel thin with chicken salad, fontina cheese, and pickled jalopeños.

Plus an apple to take away some of the heat. Peppers were the perfect addition to that sandwich.

I packed cookies, but I put them aside for a treat my coworker brought it, an Easter bun with cheese.

snack

Easter candy, duh.

Juicy bears.

Cafe Dada iced coffee that the husband sweetly delivered when he picked me up from work one day.

Cookies.

Cereal bowl.

This was a sample of Graham Crunch from Cascadian Farm with vanilla almond milk.

Very tasty. This stuff is just begging to be made into cereal s’mores bars.

I made my new favorite milkshake for Adam and myself.

Coffee frozen Greek yogurt with chocolate milk and toasted coconut.

Bubble teas from Kung Fu Tea. Coffee milk tea for me.

dinner

Dinner at a diner.

I got an eggplant parm panini.

It was yummy but ridiculously filling.

And then we had pie!

Cream pie! My slice was banana cream.

It was flipping fantastic.

Chicken salad.

Big piles of Nana’s chicken salad.

With roasted green beans.

On Wednesday we went to Williamsburg for dinner with a girlfriend. She took us to Snacky.

It was fantabulous. The space was adorable and the menu was all my favorite things. Adam and I split a salad with seaweed and sesame dressing.

And I got a rice bowl with spicy bbq miso chicken, plus kimchi and a fried egg.

I swooned my way through that bowl. It was perfect, exactly my favorite meal.

And we made similar(ish) bowls for dinner at home the next day.

A hash of chopped sweet potato, browned mushrooms, sliced spinach, green onions, and smoked trout with rosemary and smoked paprika. Topped with a fried egg.

Put an egg on it!

Have a great weekend!

16Apr2014

Our Weekend Trip To Buffalo

by Emily

We moved from Buffalo to Long Island almost 10 months ago now and we felt overdue for a visit! Adam is on Spring Break this week so I took a personal day on Friday and we made the 8 hour drive back “home.”

It was a great weekend. I’m still pretty sick so we kept things low-key and it ended up being a wonderfully relaxing trip. And we still had time to cross off all of the must-do’s on our list. We ate all of the food we were missing, walked down Elmwood, visited my old job to get all nostalgic and purchase some terrific toys, attended a baby shower for two dear friends, went out drinking with the whole crowd, and took a long walk around the park to look at the buffalo.

Here were the food highlights…

Bubble tea from Gin Gin.

I got vanilla-almond milk tea with tapioca and popping boba.

Thai Orchid for the best Thai food ever.

My tofu Pad See Ew did not disappoint. So chewy!

SPoT for breakfast.

Iced coffee and a Mike’s sandwich on an everything bagel.

Juice at Ashker’s. A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, and carrot.

We split a duck feast at Blue Monk. Duck Reuben and Duck Poutine.

And on the way out-of-town Danielle took us to Aroma for a brunch that would have been a weekly tradition had we known about it while we still lived in Buffalo.

That Buffalo Bloody Mary had gorgonzola and Frank’s in it! And my salad came topped with artichoke hearts, calamata olives, fried leeks, tomatoes, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, balsamic vinaigrette and a poached Oles Farm free-range egg.

It was a fantastic, delicious visit.

The long car rides weren’t even that bad – honestly they were sort of fabulous – thanks to the audiobook I was sent to review. Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons is an exciting debut novel about medicine and moral dilemmas in which a surgeon must confront, outwit, and overcome deadly threats to his patients and himself. The audiobook is voiced by Robert Petkoff, who has voiced countless thrillers, including those of Michael Palmer.

This was our first time listening to an audiobook and I think we are officially hooked. It made the time fly by. Time for a book review…

cons –

Some of the medical terms were mispronounced – fascia, parenteral nutrition, rhabdomyolysis – and it was distracting.
The author was weirdly obsessed with hairdos; there was only one lone character, out of every single other character both big or small, whose hair we didn’t get a description of.

pros –

The story completely sucked us in, we would sit in the car for at least five additional minutes whenever we reached a destination!
The experience of being a surgical resident was very accurately captured, Adam couldn’t believe how spot-on the author managed to be.
Most of the medical plot was fairly accurate as well.

Overall I’d recommend reading, or listening to, Doing Harm.

Do you ever listen to audiobooks?

11Apr2014

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!

6Apr2014

Weeklong Wrap-Up; The Top Five

by Emily

It took a week longer than I’d hoped, but I’m back to feeling 100%! The alternative title for this post was “Cough Drop Chronicles.”

In the interim between this post and the last, I ate a ton of food but didn’t have it in me to capture most of it. Adam and I made amazing, ridiculous nachos – maple bacon kettle chips baked with a blend of eight cheeses – but I shoveled them into my mouth before there was time to let them cool, let alone be photographed. On Saturday I went to a wedding shower that served lunch – awesome lobster ravioli with big shrimp on top – but the only person I knew beforehand was the bride-to-be so I was too embarrassed to get out my camera.

Instead of a full post, here are my “top five” from the past week.

1. Liquid breakfast. I was feeling my sickest on Monday and these three beverages were all consumed over the course of the same morning.

Green smoothie. Frozen spinach, mango, and coconut water.

Lavender GT Kombucha. I shared this with Adam and he actually liked it even more than I did.

“Mocha.” Hospital coffee with a chocolate soy milk.

2. Sweet stuff. These three desserts were the very best of the week but only the tip of the iceberg in terms of consumption. I made it through by having a cough drop or hard candy in my mouth pretty much all waking 12 hours a day.

Nunu caramel dark chocolate bar. <– made in Brooklyn