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?

4Nov2013

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

by Emily

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

breakfasts

Breakfast by buffalo.

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

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

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

The cereal bites were my favorite.

Breakfast in the leaves and on the go.

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

Overnight oats.

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

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

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

Free? Yes, please!

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

Cereal squared.

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

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

I topped my big bowl with raspberries and skim milk.

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

lunches

Sunny side salad.

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

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

This variety might be topping Honeycrisp this season.

Bareburger.

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

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

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

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

Señor Nacho.

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

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

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

dinners

Leftovers magic.

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

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

I didn’t have to cook.

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

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

Those big chunks of cheese were outstanding.

desserts

Cookie ~~monster~~ ghost.

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

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

Traditional and chocolate swirl.

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

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

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

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

Surprisingly, this dish was Adam’s idea!

leaves

25Oct2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Over The Bridge And Through The City

by Emily

I don’t have a ton to share, but I’ve got to do it in reverse because lunches were leftovers. It was a boring week, but I’ve got some news to share coming up soon and the next three weekends are slated to be fun.

dessert

My mom sent us the Haribo Smurfs.

I thought they were cuter than the were tasty, but Adam was crazy for them.

This ice cream was more my speed.

Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! is one of my B&J favorites that recently moved from scoop shop only to pints. I normally hate chocolate chunks in ice cream but instead of being teeth crushingly frozen these are melty and crunchy with espresso.

I ate this bowl with a giant diet soda while we watched “Teen Witch” and was in total heaven.

dinner

Green Curry Fritters from Cooking Light.

We love this recipe. I substituted ground turkey for chicken, skipped the sesame oil, and increased the portion size a bit, but otherwise followed the recipe.

With a dipping sauce of ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, and brown sugar,

and carrots on the side when my planned vegetable failed.

Apparently spaghetti squash season is over.

Two bowls.

My Turkey Reuben Mac & Cheese was a total recipe winner.

And the greens we ate on the side weren’t half bad either.

Frozen spinach and kale cooked in chicken broth with lemon juice and feta.

lunch

“Burger and fries.”

Green beans roasted with pink salt and smoked paprika,

plus an absolutely amazing sandwich.

A green curry fritter on half a TJ’s soft pretzel stick with brie and pumpkin butter.

The mix of flavors was out of this world.

Lunch to go – eaten on the subway in Manhattan.

A sandwich repeat.

A honeycrisp apple.

And a serving of Dutch Cocoa Somersaults.

The somersaults were my favorite component; they have a great roasty chocolate flavor without being sweet.

breakfast

Adam and I split a pumpkin pie bagel with NY cheesecake cream cheese from Panera.

Just look at that streusel –

This was delightful.

other

I bought the dog new food and water bowls.

Such a silly thing, but they make me so happy!

A girlfriend and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday.

I love this city.

5Oct2013

Last Week’s Highlights

by Emily

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

leftovers for lunch

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

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

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

Lacking in veggies but quite good.

the pumpkin line-up

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

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

Froyo.

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

Froyo was good, but nothing beats pumpkin ice.

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

stir-fried mac

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

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

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

saltine challenge

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

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

fancy fish

This dinner came straight out of EveryDay with Rachael Ray.

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

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

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

And we loved the bok choy.

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

dinner in Manhattan

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

{that’s sunset at Chelsea Pier}

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

Here’s a little blurb from the press release –

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

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

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

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

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

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

The drinks we were handed upon arrival helped.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pizza was very good.

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

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

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

My pistachio was tasty.

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

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

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

13Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Fun Fruit

by Emily

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

{1} Frog Hollow plums.

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

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

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

The grapes were these guys –

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

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

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

{4} Melted cheese makes an even better snack.

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

{5} New yogurt variety.

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

{6} Banoffee pie chocolate bar.

My parents sent us this from Amsterdam.

{6} Creamy pasta bowls.

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

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

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

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

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

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

{8} Lunch at the Peanut Butter Co.

I got a fluffernutter with White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter.

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

{9} Take-out from Laverne.

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

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

{10} Pizza eggs.

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

Have you tried the cotton candy grapes yet?

9Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

by Emily

This week’s eats were all about the cheese and carbs {see also: several servings of unpictured pizza and popcorn}. I’m missing many of the day-time meals but I managed to capture every single dinner for a change.

breakfast

Apple and honey french toast for Rosh Hashanah.

I soaked a slice of Trader Joe’s sourdough in 1 large egg, a splash of milk, vanilla extract, and some cinnamon maple sugar and then cooked it in 3/4 Tbsp butter. After my toast was frenched, I tossed a chopped Pink Lady apple in the rest of the Tbsp of butter with a little more cinnamon maple sugar. Then I topped my french toast with my cooked apples and drizzled the whole thing with honey.

Delish.

Tropical smoothie courtesy of the husband.

He said Thai young coconut, frozen mango and banana, lime juice, and sweetened condensed milk all went in the blender.

On the weekend we ate eggs as a family.

For two, I scrambled together 4 large eggs with salt, pepper, 1 slice of 2% provolone, and a big scoop of 2% cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese is my favorite scrambled egg addition; normally it tastes very sweet to me but in eggs it is so cheesy!

Plus toast with Strawberry Crofter’s on the side.

lunch

Leftover mac and cheese that I attempted to stir-fry.

I reheated the mac in canola oil with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Sriracha and then scrambled in an egg. I’m not sure this dish really worked.

This next one looks like a “snack” picture, but I did in fact drink giant coffees for lunch two days this week. I had several errands that ended up running long.

The one pictured was a clover-brew of their Hawaiian blend, which was fantastic. And yesterday I cashed in a drink freebie so I went big – venti non-fat iced latte with an extra shot of espresso and 2 shots of salted caramel(!!).

snack

Microwave mug cookie.

Number 2 Pencil is basically a single-serve cookie genius.

Milk drink.

This was a China Town find. ‘Twas very thick and sweet.

ZICO latte.

This flavor might even be better than their chocolate coconut water.

Sourdough with Smart Balance Light.

If I’m eating bread with butter (versus jam) I almost never toast it, for some reason I prefer my buttered bread raw.

Froyo.

Another snack that was on repeat this week.

dinner

You already saw our vegan mac and cheese.

Served with roasted green bean fries for our green.

We ate our fries right off of the baking sheet, like animals. We don’t have a dishwasher and plates are annoying to wash, damn it.

Salad and casserole night.

Adam said that my Cheesy Eggplant Bake is my best recipe, and that’s really saying something because I even cut back on the cheese this time.

Served with side salads.

Romaine lettuce blend, hemp hearts, cucumber, TJ’s peanut dressing, and Iberico cheese.

The dressing did NOT go with the rest of the salad but it was all we had.

The cheese was from this TJ’s pack that fancied up our whole week.

Kale nachos.

A kale chip base topped with broccoli, roasted corn, and melted cheese.

This was one of my better ideas.

Pizza on a quesadilla.

Inspired by Jenna’s idea, but particularly this comment.

I made quesadillas with flour tortillas and TJ’s reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend. Then topped them with Tj’s fat-free refried beans, ground turkey (99% fat-free, cooked with taco seasoning), sliced orange bell pepper, and manchego cheese.

With roasted kale on the side.

I told you this was a cheesy week!

fun

We put up a photo wall.

An assortment of pictures from college (round 1) to now, “framed” with washi tape.

It may not be perfect, but we love it. And it was so nice to add a pop of color to our drab living room.

We saw a racoon in our parking lot.

This may be the first little bandit I’ve actually seen in person, which is funny because I’m completely obsessed with them.

We went on a three-hour bike ride in Central Park.

Bike riding in the park may just be my favorite activity. I’ve chosen it for my birthday several times now.

Happy Monday, everyone!

4Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

by Emily

I’ve been all over the place lately so there are a lot of gaps in my reporting. We ate a bunch of junk recently and most of it didn’t make it to the camera. Adam is on a slightly less time-consuming rotation this month and we have been making the most of our time together. Here are a few of the highlights since I last checked in –

{1} Homemade nachos.

I’ve been missing ETS since the move, but these nachos were delicious, and certainly much healthier than the ones with a pound of cheddar that I used to buy in Buffalo.

Leftover tortilla chips from a Moe’s run, baked with roasted corn, broccoli, and the last of the aged Gouda from our cheese plate.

{2} Rosemary beer bread.

Just my favorite beer bread recipe with a few Tbsp of chopped rosemary (from my grandma’s garden!) tossed in.

I had to buy a giant bag of self-rising flour so expect to see more of this.

{3} CrispRoot snacking.

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

CrispRoot is a company that makes ridged cassava root chips. They come in Sea Salt, Original, BBQ Bliss, and Thai Ginger. All of the flavors are dairy- and gluten-free, contain no trans fat, have 150 kcals and 6-7 gram saturated fat per serving, and have 2x the fiber and 30% less fat than most potato chips.

We were not fans of the Thai Ginger, but the other flavors we would definitely purchase on our own. I couldn’t taste much of a different between original and sea salt, both had a pleasing saltiness and good crunch.

{4} Baking fail.

I was attempting to make brown butter coconut rice krispies treats.

I don’t know what went wrong, but no. No.

{5} Chicken Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.

This idea was such a win.

Click here for the recipe.

{6} Abandoned principles.

I have very strict holiday food rules. September is Apple Month. October is Pumpkin. December is Eggnog, Gingerbread, and Peppermint. November may overlap with October and December. I might have started hoarding pumpkin products last week, but you are not supposed to eat them until October! But then the PSL anniversary hype was so big, and I caved.

Grande, non-fat, white chocolate, pumpkin spice latte, you were worth my abandoned principles.

{7} Chinatown in Manhattan.

We split a Pat Bing Soo with red bean and strawberry jelly.

And drank coconut water straight from the source.

The only drink that can possibly beat a coconut with a straw in it is diet coke from the fountain, and even that’s a close race.

{8} Lunch with friends.

Some of our Boston favorites were in town so we ventured into Manhattan to spend the day with them. We had lunch at a spot near Times Square with rooftop seating. Adam and I shared everything because we’re so ~~poor~~ close. Cider, pierogi, and chicken fried rice.

We went to dinner at a place in SoHo that had the best food and the worst lighting. Adam and I split lobster truffle mac and cheese and I’m kicking myself that I don’t have a picture.

{9} Grand Army Plaza’s Farmers’ Market.

I think those pictures speak for themselves. I was practically in tears with liking those flowers so much!

What was your last major baking fail?

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.

Jif Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Spread.

Skippy SuperChunk with Honey.

All delicious, but the last was my favorite because that’s my favorite butter. I’ve got to get working on more jars!

So there you have it; lots of eggs, rice, corn, and oatmeal. Which food made a lot of repeat visits on your plates this week?

Eating Chalk

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Weekly Wrap-Up; Lots Of Repetition