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).
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Very into these chocolate peanut butter squares at the moment.
I even put one in a yogurt bowl – with vanilla bean yogurt, cinnamon, banana, and plum.
Yogurt bowl with plain Greek, pumpkin seed butter, pumpkin spice granola, and gumdrop grapes.
This week’s sparkling matchas – yuzu and mango.
This week’s pumpkin beers – the seasonal ale and imperial stout from Southern Tier.
These veggie crisps are great at baseline and even better with homemade guacamole.
I had orange juice in the house for the first time in years so I took the opportunity to make creamsicle milkshakes.
I made an amazing sundae with the guava and soursop ice creams from this fantastic line. Plus sweetened condensed milk, multi-grain Cheerios, and Luxardo cherries.
Brussel sprouts roasted with grapes, turkey kielbasa, white cheddar, and sweet and spicy pecans.
This citrus rice – I skipped the carrots and subbed almonds for cashews – with sautéed fennel and kielbasa. This was our first time cooking fennel – I used the bulb and the fronds – and we loved it.
One-tray sheet-pan hash – potato, sweet potato, red onion, bell peppers, sharp cheddar, and pinto beans, topped with guacamole, sour cream, hot sauce, and heirloom baby tomatoes.
Pumpkin spice Greek yogurt with Cheerios and pumpkin spice granola.
Very into these cheeze stuffed pretzels this week. They are vegan but I definitely melted regular sharp cheddar onto them.
I also turned them into pizza trail mix! With sundried tomatoes, baru baru nuts, and crispy cheese bites.
Sautéed ground turkey with bbq sauce / roasted broccoli romanesco / sautéed TJ’s cruciferous crunch blend / sharp cheddar / Caribbean beans and rice – brown basmati, pink beans, onion, ginger, habanero, and coconut milk.
A crockpot take on this pineapple chicken / riced cauliflower / roasted butternut squash.
Adam invited me on a dinner date but there was hour+ traffic in all directions so instead we got Whole Foods hot bar and watched Castle… it was perfect!
Homemade sparkling mango iced matchas. Can we talk about the fact that I did not drink matcha before this July??! I had a yuzu matcha at Ume and I am obsessed now.
The perfect work snack. My coworkers had somehow never eaten Cow Tails before but they were very into these caramel apple ones.
Whole Foods hot bar – yellow squash and zucchini, curried cauliflower, roasted potato wedges, and three types of chicken salad.
Chicken tenders, pretzels, and roasted yellow squash and zucchini, with pimento cheese.
Take-out pizza – buffalo chicken and a vodka grandma slice – with leftover roasted yellow squash and zucchini. I probably should vary my vegetables a bit next week!
Is it obvious from my dinner choices that Adam has been out of town at a conference all week?! 🙂
Eating Chalk 