Let’s be real – I’ve eaten a lot of Easter candy this week. Here are five things that taste better than Easter candy…
{1} TJ’s Espresso Pillows.
I realize that these are still candy, but they felt like a very fancy way to end my lunch hours. They are a bit smaller, and crunchier than typical chocolate-covered espresso beans.
{2} Homemade oatmeal bowls on the go.
1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp chocolate-covered cocoa nibs. I fill my bowl with hot water from the cafeteria (for tea) and have a yummy bowl of oats by the time I get back to my lounge.
{3} Peanut butter yogurt.
2% Plain Fage with my browned butterscotch peanut butter swirled in.
{4} Fresh blueberries.
This low-brow cereal bowl – eaten at my desk while I worked – was one of the best things I ate all week.
From the Redux team: We’re all about cooking once and eating twice. In short, double dinners are better. Show us how you take a favorite recipe already on your blog – and ReDux the leftovers into a new dish. Or, whip up a new healthy recipe and give suggestions on how to make it a second meal. For example, slow cooker pot roast could become shredded beef tacos; or grilled chicken breasts might morph into chicken salad.
Rather than stretching a dinner, I set my sights on dessert. Who’s surprised there?!
I am a big rice pudding fan, so my Chia “Rice” Pudding is one of my favorite treats. This chia pudding is a quicker (tastier!) spin on rice pudding. Chia seeds replace rice for a pudding that is still chewy, creamy, and sweet. And since chia seeds are a great source of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids, this is pretty darn healthy for a yummy dessert.
Sadly, my husband is brave enough for chia seeds, but can’t stand good, old rice pudding, so I usually am enjoying the dish by myself. For this challenge, I morphed the unwanted 2nd serving of the pudding into a quick and yummy cookie flavored smoothie that is packed with fiber. The smoothie got rave reviews; ironically, my husband said it’s the best smoothie I’ve ever made! It really does taste just like a liquefied oatmeal cookie.
Who else has obsessively binge-watched their way though the entire first season of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” already? We finished the whole thing over the weekend. We loved it! I’m considering a rewatch. I hate the two trial episodes – I thought they were god-awful, truly some of the worst television I’ve ever seen – but I adored everything preceding them. The 10 second concept makes my life. Unsurprisingly, this is another smart and funny win from Tina Fey.
The theme song has permanently ear-wormed its way into my brain.
Related, Lisa – Born Round was amazing!
I read it on the train and then would sit in my car in the parking lot for at least 20 minutes each night to keep reading. I’m pretty sure Bruni should be giving TED Talks for all would-be crash dieters, emotional eaters, and aspiring journalists.
breakfast
I did the chocolate milk and iced coffee combo two days in a row.
Paired with a Special K protein bar both days.
Not the best bars – for taste or ingredient list – but they were free in the cafeteria and I had some extra morning hunger this week.
Another day I did hot chocolate mix in hot coffee with a lot of milk on top.
So basically just the lukewarm version of my chocolate milk and coffee.
My breakfast plan for St. Patrick’s Day was a green smoothie. Then I hit the snooze button and the plan was iced coffee with green dye in my milk. Then I hit the snooze button five more times and I barely managed to get coffee, ice, and boring plain milk into my cup.
…and then I also got Starbucks once I got off of the train.
I usually don’t let myself do two coffees in the morning, but I had stayed in bed until literally 10 minutes before I needed to be in the car so clearly it was a double coffee kind of morning. And yes, mom, I fixed my hat hair before I saw patients.
lunch
Thankfully the cafeteria totally came through and helped me get some green-theme on St. Paddy’s Day.
My bagel was topped with pepperjack, sliced turkey, mayo, mustard, and frisee lettuce. Plus baked onion rings on the side.
Blood orange Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and blackberries and a fresh mandarin orange on the side.
I can’t believe I had only ever eaten canned mandarins up until this year, they are my new favorite citrus.
Tart cherry Noosa with coconut butter, homemade butterscotch peanut butter, and a Pinata apple.
We are loving the new 4 oz Noosa packs. Noosa is Adam’s top favorite yogurt – in fact it’s one of his favorite foods in general – but the original packages were a bit too large to enjoy on the go.
Vanilla-caramel yogurt with blackberries and 18 Rabbits caramel apple granola.
I loved the flavor of the grass-fed yogurt but I’d still be a little nervous about trying it plain.
snack
Popcorn / all-time best Easter candy / beer…
All good.
A small but gourmet sandwich.
Toasted whole-wheat with Applegate Farm herb sliced turkey, mayo, and leftover carmelized onions.
Weird pasta salad from the cafeteria.
Why do they keep putting croutons in pasta??
An Austrian iced coffee.
Aka coffee (delicious Grady’s cold-brew in this case) with ice, (skim) milk, and (vanilla-caramel) ice cream.
dinner
Asian-style baked shrimp bowls.
From the bottom up, I filled my casserole with quartered bok choy, sliced wild mushrooms, chopped orange and yellow bell pepper, shrimp, fish sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, canola oil, and Sriracha. Then I baked it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
Served on top of brown rice cooked in chicken stock.
Leftover bbq salads.
Spicy, local arugula topped with bbq sauce, cucumber, avocado, bell pepper, caramelized onions, and TJ’s fire-roasted corn cooked with turkey bacon.
These were some of the best salads we’ve made in months.
The next night I did a 180 from salads and made my grandma’s recipe for an awesomely retro chicken and rice casserole.
Complete with condensed soups, chow mein noodles, and crushed chips on top. I swapped half of the rice for shredded cauliflower but otherwise did not healthy it up at all.
Served with green beans baked with fish sauce, honey, Sriracha, and evoo.
We ate casserole the next night too.
And we will probably been eating casserole the next few nights as well!
Hope everyone has a great weekend, good luck getting that song out of your head!
It was a low-key weekend – we never left Long Island – but I do have two legitimate recipes to share. They’re very good! Next weekend we have multiple city trips planned so I wanted to make the most of my free time in the kitchen.
This weekend I…
…Had a yummy breakfast at work.
An opal apple and chocolate biscotti dipped in coffee. I threw out the coffee as soon as my treat was gone, I just can’t do the hot stuff. I made up for it with several iced coffees enjoyed during errands-running on the weekend.
One of many.
…Enjoyed an even better work lunch. 1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp cocoa nibs.
Just shake it together and cover with hot water when it’s time for lunch. The crunchy chocolate bites were amazing; nibs are so much better in oatmeal than chocolate chips.
…Discovered my new favorite hard candy – Ice Chips.
Please note – Ice Chips Candy reached out to me about doing a review and provided the above product samples free of charge. I was not given any further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
Ice Chips, which come in small chips shaped like shards of ice, are made of xylitol which is an anticariogenic sugar alcohol (i.e. eating gum or candy made with xylitol before acidogenic foods can help to reduce the formation of dental carries or cavities). Xylitol is as sweet as table sugar but contains fewer calories so two Ice Chip candies only contain about 5 calories and if you ate an entire tin – as I was tempted to! – it would be about 125 calories. <– don’t do that though, sugar alcohols give many people diarrhea when consumed in excess
The texture of the chips is freaking amazing, hard enough to suck on but they break apart in a really pleasing way when you crunch them. And their flavor game is on point – my favorite so far are Coffee ‘n Cream and Lemon, but I am really looking forward to Eggnog.
I also really liked this egg.
I don’t even care that I’m a month early, birthday cake is a stupid Easter flavor! It was really yummy though.
…Processed up some tasty (browned butterscotch)peanut butter.
All you need is a food processor, 4 Tbsp browned butter, 1 cup light brown sugar, and 1 lb roasted, salted peanuts.
I’m planning on packing the peanut butter with Greek yogurts for lunches this week.
…Drank a smoothie in the snow. Not the best weather for it, but smoothies are always good.
This one had (frozen:) blackberries, dates, and soursop puree, and Hint of Honey almond milk.
…Cooked green eggs and ham toast.
The eggs were scrambled with spinach and leftover mushrooms and asparagus from Thursday’s dinner.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Prepare an 8×8 inch casserole dish with baking spray. Mix the mozzarella and cheddar together and put aside 1 large handful (2 oz).
Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan (large enough for all of your ingredients) over medium-high heat. Whisk flour into melted butter to form a roux. Cook 60 – 90 seconds, whisking constantly, until roux has darkened to a sandy tan color. Whisk milk into roux and cook 1 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened. You shouldn’t have any lumps, but if you do now is the time to whisk them out.
Reduce heat to low and add 8 oz of cheese to the sauce, working in 3 small batches and stirring until the cheese has fully melted.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked pasta, vegetables, and pepperoni. Pour mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
Top the casserole with an even mixture of marinara sauce, followed by the remaining 2 oz of cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned.
I am feeling much better now, though the week did feel very long to me. Here’s to hoping the weekend feels long too! I have not been to the grocery store since a week before I left for St. Thomas, but somehow we made it through.
breakfast
Adam sweetly helped ease me back in to normal, non-vacation life by driving me in to work on Tuesday. We made a doughnut date of it!
Pecan praline beignet for me. Doughnut Plant is great so it’s super fun that there’s a location right near my hospital now.
An apple and a hot chocolate.
Less exciting than doughnuts, but still good.
Iced coffee with chocolate milk and a bar.
I loved the Oatmega bar in theory, but unfortunately it was insanely fishy. I just couldn’t do it. I ended up going down to the salad bar for a snack in the late morning.
Cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds packed a protein punch (8 grams of protein if you assume 2 Tbsp of each) to make up for the bar I threw away.
lunch
Salad bar and french fries.
Baby spinach topped with cucumber, olives, broccoli, a marinated veggie mix, and balsamic dressing. The blob in the left corner is fried plantains.
Salad bar and blurry Chipotle leftovers.
Baby spinach with ranch and a bit of extra cheese, topped with my dinner leftovers.
Oatmeal day. Quaker cherry pistachio oatmeal topped with coconut butter with a cinnamon applesauce on the side.
This was the day I had my salad breakfast snack so I did manage to hit up the salad bar three days in a row, a feat that feels extra impressive when you remember that my stomach was still a bit iffy.
dinner
Chipotle night. We legit eat Chipotle at least once a week, it’s a problem.
Brown rice with sautéed veggies, pinto beans, chicken, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and all of the salsas. The three salsa combo was key to helping me enjoy the brown rice (I really prefer white rice but brown is a whole grain so it has more protein and fiber).
I didn’t love the red velvet, but their caramel and honey flavors are all deep burnt sugar good.
Adam was on call on Wednesday and I definitely made myself a big bowl of chia pudding for dinner. Thank goodness for those lunch salads, eh?
Gina’s recipe base – 3 Tbsp of chia seeds in 1 cup of Hint of Honey almond milk with a splash of vanilla and honey whisked in. I topped my bowl with Girl & The Fig salted fig caramel and it was flipping amazing.
Last night’s dinner came straight from the freezer. Salmon patties from Whole Foods plus asparagus and a mushroom medley from Trader Joe’s.
The patties were unpleasantly dry so I made a dipping sauce of mayo, garlic aioli, pickle relish, and smoked paprika.
I drank a Genny Cream Ale while I cooked.
And ate a zoo of gummies for dessert while we watched the “Parks and Rec” finale.
Omg. The P&R finale basically killed me – I loooved it. Every single detail was perfect, down the very last second of the ending being a sweet moment from Ben. LOVE.
Do you watch “Parks and Recreation?” What’d you think of the finale?
As promised, here is a picture of my gaudy new cell phone –
I’m liking it more now that I’ve gotten used to the new system.
This week I gave an hour-long nutrition presentation at a women’s shelter near the hospital. We talked primarily about added sugars, reading nutrition labels, and the plate method.
I opened with an activity where we compared the sugar content of different beverages.
I started reading Amy Poehler’s memoir, Yes Please. I am halfway through and completely smitten.
It is just as hilarious and inspiring as you’d expect it to be. And her relationship with Seth Meyers – he guest writes a chapter – makes me love both of them more if that’s even possible.
Coffee (duh!) and yummy hot chocolate with marshmallows that the hospital administration had for employee appreciation day.
They also had a bunch of cookies out, but it was 9 o’clock in the morning and one of the midwives brought in bagels for the clinic so I went with one of those instead.
I definitely made the right choice, my pumpernickel bagel was splendidly chewy. Also – I poured my marshmallow cocoa into my coffee after it had cooled down and it was ridiculous.
lunch
From home – yogurt bowl.
Blueberries, Heritage Flakes, and a Dannon butterscotch Greek yogurt.
From the cafeteria – a turkey sandwich and baked fries.
My sandwich had turkey, provolone, mayo, mustard, lettuce and red peppers and my fries had a side of blue cheese.
With cheese, chopped bell peppers, and sour cream and guacamole on the side. I planned on only eating half because it was quite big, but it was so good I ended up demolishing the whole thing.
Dinner leftovers (see the scrambled egg night) on top of spinach with ranch, chopped carrot, and cucumber from the cafeteria.
The salad bar packed lunch mash-up was perfect, I’ll have to remember to repeat it the next time I’m getting tired of my yogurt bowls.
Bibimbap bowls. I couldn’t get a great picture, but these were sooo good. Runny egg yolk goes wonderfully with spice.
Jasmine rice with rice vinegar // baked tofu cubes // broccoli and baby kale sautéed with canola oil, a bit of sugar, and tons of Sriracha // chopped sesame seaweed // and a sunny side up egg.
We used the leftovers the next day for another Asian-ish dinner.
Leftover rice and veggies stir-fried with sautéed onion, eggs, fish sauce, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.
Plus “beef and broccoli” aka chicken with broccoli and cauliflower.
I way overcooked the chicken and this was not very good.
I guess the next day was pretty similar as well. I sautéed chopped seitan, corn, and spinach in evoo and Sriracha and then scrambled in eggs and part-skim mozzarella.
It tasted so much better than it looked.
Chipotle in front of the tv on Friday. We were supposed to go into Brooklyn but it was terrifically cold outside and changing into pajamas just sounded too good.
Chicken rice bowl with sautéed veggies, three types of salsa, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce. Plus chips. There’s a giant diet coke just to the right of that photo ❤
Have you read any actor memoirs that you loved? I was a HUGE fan of Mindy Kaling’s too and I’m excited for Tina Fey’s next.
I finished reading my latest book on Friday – Fairyland, a memoir about growing up with an openly gay father in San Francisco in the 80’s. (Not much of a)spoiler alert – he dies of AIDS related complications. I was wracked with sobs for the last quarter of the book. Steve Abbot was a published author who kept detailed journals his entire adulthood and wrote copious letters to Alysia while she was in college, so she had a lot of source material to pull from which was nice; it was practically a biography within a memoir.
A big chunk of Saturday is missing because we went on a fun foodie tour and I am devoting a whole post to it. (coming tomorrow)
We upgraded our phones on Sunday. My new Galaxy is giant and tacky, obnoxiously gold.
breakfast
Adam and I tried the new raspberry white chocolate coffee from Dunkin’.
Our opinions ranged from good to meh. I still want to try the Starbucks version.
Cereal bowl.
Cocoa Pebbles and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes. Pebbles have absolutely no flavor and were deeply disappointing.
Oatmeal bowl.
Rolled oats – cooked in the microwave – with 1 heaping Tbsp each chopped pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, and brown sugar. Plus milk on top.
Coffee from 7-11 with wasabi almonds.
Yes, that was a terrible combination.
lunch
Chipotle!
White rice / chicken / black beans / sautéed veggies / fresh salsa / tomatillo salsa / sour cream / cheese. I would normally get lettuce but I split this bowl with Adam and he didn’t want it. I’ve stopped putting the corn salsa on my bowls in general because even though it’s tasty it isn’t really necessary to pile another carb on top of a rice bowl.
Adam went to a post-ABSITE surgical exam party and brought home leftover mini pizzas.
Paired with green juice.
NYC Jamba Juices recently introduced a new line of 12 oz Cold-Pressed Juice bottles and they sent me a $10 gift card so I could try them out.
I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
The juices contain no preservatives and three servings of fruit and/or vegetables and each full bottle has between 140 to 190 calories.
Citrus Kick was way too spicy for me – Adam liked it but I just can’t do ginger – but I found Tropical Greens to be nicely balanced, neither two sweet nor too grassy. (There are four flavors in total; the two I didn’t try were Orange Reviver and Veggie Harvest).
dinner
We had another stupendous meal at Russ & Daughters.
The Breakfast Martini = Beefeater gin, jam, lemon juice, egg white, Pernod Absinthe, Angostura Bitters.
I adore cocktails with egg white. <– I was about to type that they will be hard for me to give up if I get pregnant! I guess the alcohol may also be an issue.
I ordered the Eggs Benny, which came with Scottish smoked salmon and sautéed spinach on challah.
No surprise, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise was loaded with flavor. <– more reasons I’m not chomping at the bit for a baby
Sunday night we made a nice, but less exciting dinner at home.
We were helped out by a jar of Sepo Sauce, a creamy garlic and horseradish spread that’s meant to be used as a dressing, dip, and/or sandwich spread.
Sepfonifiq sent me a jar of sauce free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.
The sauce has 150 calories and 2.5 grams saturated fat per 2-Tbsp serving, so it’s not any healthier than most typical dressings, but it packs a lot of flavor so you would rarely need to use any more than a serving.
We decided to go the bread and lettuce route.
A sandwich of part-skim mozzarella cheese, thick-cut uncured turkey ham steak, and whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread spread with Sepo Sauce and oven-toasted.
A salad of baby kale tossed in Sepo Sauce and topped with roasted broccoli and sweet and spicy pecans.
Plus we split a sumo mandarin on the side.
Sadly, we hated the thick cut turkey, which kind of ruined the sandwiches. We both got rid of the meat halfway through and ended up eating big desserts instead. But we loooved the Sepo as a dressing and were both blown away by the salad. I will definitely look forward to making that again.
Please cross your fingers that it’s not actually snowing in NYC right now?
I am not 100% yet, but I am feeling much better. 90%? Poor Adam, though, has gotten my cold x2, complete with an ear infection. It’s put a real damper on how much sympathy I’m able to get! At least we were both in the mood for a quiet, lazy weekend.
Again, not as amazing as iced coffee, but the espresso coconut water mash-up is damn good.
And I did have iced coffee this weekend. With skim milk and vanilla creamer.
Plus peanut/butter toast and a mini cheese for brunch.
That is the only weekend breakfast or lunch picture I have because mostly we snacked on random things.
Also I made and ate a lot of brownies (see below…).
dinner
Friday night we turned to the freezer for dinner.
TJ’s vegan orange chicken was alright paired with broccoli.
But it was basically the least filling thing on the planet. We both ended up making sandwiches too.
Fancy pb&j for me.
Saturday night was just straight fancy.
I made baked shrimp! Shrimp, chopped bell pepper, evoo, fresh cilantro, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne, lime juice, and a sprinkle of chopped butter, baked at 425* for 12 minutes. Served on top of jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock.
This was tasty, healthy, and oh-so quick to prepare. Triple win.
Sunday I started dinner in the car home after the world’s longest trip to Trader Joe’s. Apparently people are freaking out about our potential blizzard. By the by, please, please, please cross your fingers that it doesn’t blizzard!
After my pretzel roll I made a spinach salad.
With balsamic vinaigrette, pomegranate, goat’s milk cheddar, and sweet and salty pecans.
snacks, aka marshmallow madness
My mother-in-law sent us a cute Valentine’s card and some strawberry Peeps.
They were yummy, but the marshmallow extravaganza was just beginning… we also had a big container of fluff!
So I made the very best brownies I’ve ever tasted.
Triple chocolate fudge with a layer of marshmallow fluff in the middle.
Recipe is coming tomorrow and it is absolutely fantastic, I promise.
In the meantime, I did something else with the fluff.
Oh yes, I did. Malted Marshmallow Coffee Creamer. If you put skim milk, marshmallow fluff (1:2 ratio with the milk), and malted milk powder (1:4 ratio with the milk) in the blender you can put it in your coffee and pretty much die of happiness.
We used 2 cups skim milk, 1 cup fluff, and 1/4 cup malted milk powder, but as long as you follow the ratio above you can make a smaller or larger batch, no problem. I highly recommend it!
Eating Chalk 