Marshmallow, Marzipan, Matcha

It was a low-key but tasty weekend! Highlights include…

Iced matcha lattes. I can’t believe that I wasn’t a matcha fan until so recently.

(P)Pb&J toast. Toasted whole wheat bread with mixed nut butter and a mix of strawberry jam and poppy seed filling.

An almond-y yogurt bowel. Vanilla skyr, fresh strawberries, maple almond butter granola, and chopped marzipan.

S’morenola! Aka granola s’more nachos aka my new favorite snack. I broiled vanilla bean marshmallows and chopped chocolate on granola. It was wonderful, and yes, I ate it with milk.

This single-sheet pan dinner was so easy and so filling. I roasted Seemore chicken parm sausages with Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi and kale gnocchi, then tossed with red sauce.

Buffalo chicken casserole. We baked together whole-wheat rotini pasta, ground chicken cooked with buffalo sauce, sautéed onion and celery, roasted cauliflower rice, cheddar, and blue cheese.

Poppy, Peppermint, Pink Lady

Some highlights from this week include…

This week’s coffee was a gift from home!

Other drinks of note – lemon lime sparkling matcha / blueberry lavender kombucha / peppermint watermelon sparkling water.

I am very into these Barebell protein bars, the vegan hazelnut nougat flavor was great. Paired with a Pink Lady apple.

We made poppy seed cookies! They were delicious.

And I used leftover poppy seed filling in a yogurt bowl with lemon skry, granola, blackberries, and cinnamon.

For dinners this week we made some old favorites (and got a lot of take-out!). Buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. With roasted cauliflower and broccoli.

Jalapeno popper turkey burgers. With roasted baby cauliflower and honey mustard sauce.

Ube, Dulce, Leche

Weekend highlights…

We were snowed in Friday and Saturday (and ate a million snacks and cuddled in bed catching up on The Great North!) but Sunday we were able to take a trip into Brooklyn to marvel at Industry City.

We made ube dalgona iced lattes.

And bought a dulce de leche iced latte from The Flour Shoppe.

Vanilla skyr with Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter, granola, and banana. Related note – I also had a yogurt bowl with nut butter and chopped up peanut butter cups and it was fantastic.

The very first thing I did in preparation for the winter storm was panic-buy my favorite ice cream.

Kinako mochi.

Cake in a jar (chocolate cake and 4 leches!) from Parva Bakeshop.

I tried all of the beef at Hometown BBQ. A smashed burger and a brisket taco!

Roasted zucchini with parmesan / soft-scrambled eggs / rye toast with strawberry jam.

Nut Butter Cups

Highlights from a low-key weekend…

I made a peanut butter iced latte!

Strawberry cheesecake oatmeal bowl with cream cheese and caramelized bananas.

Yogurt bowl with cinnamon, coffee cake, and blueberries.

Snack highlights; sweet.

And savory.

Our Whole Foods’ hot bar is rarely open so when it is I impulse buy all the things.

Two kinds of takeout sandwiches (brisket grilled cheese with mushrooms on sourdough // chicken panini with truffle artichoke spread) with two kinds of carrots (sautéed with celery // raw baby carrots).

Chestnut, Coquito, Eggnog, Mint

This post includes highlights back through last weekend; it was Adam’s birthday and I didn’t want to waste his time blogging. We had a wonderful weekend including great weather for two days of long walks in Brooklyn, lots of delicious meals, a trip to Sundays in Brooklyn’s Snow Days in Brooklyn winter pop up (which included egg nog soft serve and a Dark and Snowy cocktail, among other things), and a drive-through holiday light show.

Highlights…

Breakfast at Ursula. We split a pine needle mocha(!!).

And a cream cheese frosting stuffed cinnamon roll(!!!).

And I had a sandwich with scrambled egg, cheddar, and green chile on housemade brioche.

Chestnut and vanilla iced latte from Nerd Be Cool.

A Christmas yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s eggnog Greek yogurt with kiwi, pomegranate, and granola.

See also – plain Greek yogurt with honey, cinnamon, granola, kiwi, pomegranate, and fresh mandarin.

We went to Oddfellows for a scoop of coquito ice cream.

And Brooklyn Cupcake for a coquito cupcake. Plus flan and guava cheese, since it was a birthday!

We really loved this chocolate mint sparkling water.

Trader Joe’s Thai tea mini ice cream mochi.

These chip-stuffed Reese’s cups were just as good as I thought they would be! Completely worth the months of gas station stops to search for them.

We were also pretty pleased with these Dove truffles.

I ate an obscene amount of take-out this week but here were two really good “homemade” dinners. Chili cheese fries plus roasted romanesco.

Cold silken tofu with chili oil (I used urfa pepper paste with garlic oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, and scallions) plus sautéed eggplant, bok choy, and red bell pepper with ginger and peanuts.

With Cranberry On Top

What an odd-feeling week; Adam and I came back from vacation and then immediately both went to work on Saturday, then it was a holiday week which always feels special even though we both worked, and tomorrow we are heading to Pennsylvania for a belated holiday celebration with all of my in-laws. But first, tonight we are meeting out of town friends for Her Name is Han, which should be quite fun.

Highlights from the week include – mostly things that were on-theme!

I want to say I don’t have a limited/seasonal release item problem but this year I stockpiled things that were on-theme for Thanksgiving, so you tell me. My Christmas collection is also pretty robust.

I needed special coffee to ease back into work so I pulled out Hudson Opera House Espresso beans from our last trip to Hudson Roastery.

Perfect Bar’s new chocolate toffee flavor was yummy (still can’t compete with the cookie dough one though).

See also – I liked Barebell’s holiday crisp even better. I couldn’t totally identify the flavor profile – coconut? – but it was creamy and delicious.

Yogurt bowl. With pumpkin seed butter, cranberry sauce, and maple and almond butter granola.

Peanut brittle Reese’s?! I actually loved these (still not as good as the pretzel cups!).

Homemade bbq turkey and black bean chili. Topped with cheese, cranberry sauce, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet jalapenos.

Plus herbed stuffing veggie chips.

Salads. Sweet baby lettuce with black garlic balsamic vinaigrette, Trader Joe’s maple roasted almonds, smoked turkey, and roasted butternut squash.

Plus a mix of stuffing chips; we much preferred Trader Joe’s to the Whole Foods version.

Nachos! Stuffing chips with cheese, cranberry sauce, and smoked turkey.

Peanut Butter, Pretzel, Pumpkin

Highlights from the past week – – –

Pumpkin spice latte smoothie! Canned pumpkin, plain skyr, coffee, cold brew powder, ice, cinnamon, maple, and brown sugar.

This week’s coffee joy.

Pumpkin spice Chobani with s’more granola.

Plan Siggi’s with pumpkin seed butter. Plus an apple and a pumpkin spice chocolate cookie. P.S. This recipe made some of my favorite cookies of all time, so butterscotchy!

I am 100% obsessed with these pretzel-stuffed peanut butter cups. I bought bags of minis for work and home.

I saved the best pumpkin beers for last – Abomination Brewing’s Forbidden Pumpkin pumpkin milkshake IPA and Schlafly’s pumpkin ale.

Trader Joe’s Turkey Day quesadilla.

This is to remind me to get takeout from Roast more often! Adam and I split cheesy turkey and roast beef sandwiches, plus fries.

My favorite sheet pan hash combo – roasted bok choy and sweet potato plus smoked salmons (hot smoked Atlantic and salmon candy).

Pumpkin pasta. Whole-wheat rotini with ground turkey cooked with pumpkin puree, sour cream, and chili oil. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Squash

Highlights from a nice weekend…

A coffee menagerie.

Drip Coffee has gotten a lot of good press and I see why – this oat milk latte was smooth and delicious!

Bars – pumpkin pie was good, chocolate seed and oats was great.

It was Sweetest Day on Saturday so Adam and I went on a date to Laderach to buy an unreasonable amount of chocolates.

Golden Years in Brooklyn for a classic cheeseburger with fries.

Plus not-so-classic Cuba Libre with fernet and Paloma with mezcal and jalopeno.

Dinner at Kings Co Imperial. Guangzhou Layover – mezcal, plum, Campari, and Strega.

Crispy oyster mushrooms with Sichuan chili pepper.

Chinese eggplant with garlic and kung pow sauce.

Chicken dumplings in cinnamon oil.

Noodles with mushrooms.

Best meal of the weekend was this homemade dinner. Curried chicken salad with celery, toasted almonds, and dried apricots, plus roasted yellow squash and delicata squash with cinnamon, urfa chili, and gochugaru.