Tag Archives: oats

Eggcellent Eats

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We bought tons eggs and dye for Easter this year, and of course, never did a darn thing with them.  The dye is in our “holidays bin” for next year, but the eggs had to be cooked. And so, I enjoyed hard-boiled eggs as a meal almost every day this week.

I was also all about the Cara Cara oranges and Medjool dates. It’s starting to taste like summer!

stuff

I started Ruth Reichl’s first autobiography on the train and I think I’m in love.

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She is so funny, and I love any story about food!

We were insanely busy at work all week and I’m dying. That’s why this post is a day late (and is short about 10 more coffee and candy pictures), because I did sessions with 18 patients on Friday – many of them with gestational diabetes – and when I got home I just wanted to lie down.

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breakfast

I made an awesome cold-brew blend this week: Community Coffee French Roast and BRC Peru with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice.

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Served on ice with S’mores Milk and skim milk.

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So good.

I am almost through my Nonni’s Biscotti sample shipment and I am going to buy more when we’re out.

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They are yummy, even when not dipped in coffee.

I discovered the magic that is dates dipped in peanut butter.

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lunch

Kimchi noodle bowl.

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The Cara Cara was the best finish for my perfectly burning mouth.

I brought TJ’s cashew butter and tahini kale chips and crispy broccoli snacks (<– they’re back!!) to crunch on top of salad bar.

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With a big scoop of macaroni salad.

This tasting plate wins best lunch of the week.

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Dates / turkey bacon / hard-boiled egg / crispy broccoli / orange.

But this triple – chocolate oatmeal bowl wins a close second.

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Rolled oats with a heaping Tbsp of hot chocolate mix, chocolate-covered cocoa nibs, and dark chocolate chips.

And this busy day “lunch” was a loser. Vanilla soy milk at 11 am.

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And Easter candy at 4pm when there was finally a lull.

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dinner

Omg. Kids! I made the tastiest stroganoff-inspired noodle bowls ever. Adam and I could not get over them.

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Served in heaping scoops on egg pappardelle.

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Yummy Stroganoff-ish Pasta, serves 4

  1. Heat 1 Tbsp evoo in a large skillet over high-medium heat.  Add 20 ounces sliced white mushrooms, and a big pinch of salt, and cook until the mushrooms have lost their juices and browned, stirring regularly (10 – 13 minutes).  Deglaze the pan with a healthy pour of cream sherry.  Remove mushrooms from pan and reduce heat to medium-high, adding an additional Tbsp evoo if needed.
  2. Add 1 lb lean ground turkey and two large shallots, chopped to the pan.  Season with pepper and 1 Tbsp smoked paprika.  Cook 5 minutes, stirring regularly and breaking up the meat into small pieces with the side of your spatula.  Stir in 1/2 Tbsp ground garlic, 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce, and 1 Tbsp soy sauce.  Continue to cook, stirring regularly, until meat is cooked through (5 – 7 more minutes).
  3. Reduce heat to low and stir in 3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream.
  4. Serve on top of pasta of choice.

The leftovers were still great.

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Served on top of spinach salad. Plus, those of us who can eat chocolate had Lindt caramels for dessert.

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We had cobb salad.

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Baby spinach with balsamic / roasted asparagus / turkey bacon / avocado / TJ’s cave-aged blue cheese / hard-boiled eggs.

And egg salad.

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Eggs with shredded carrot, chopped green pepper, mayo, pickle relish, garlic mustard, dill, tumeric, smoked paprika, and s & p.  With great seeded crackers my parents sent us for Easter.

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And roasted broccoli and green beans.

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Egg salad is good – and I wasn’t even tired of eggs yet! – but roasted green beans are always the best part.

Then we finished the week out with Chipotle.

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Enjoy your weekend!

Oats And Easter Candy

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I wrote this post at midnight on Saturday… while I ate dinner/my first meal of the day… it’s been kind of a rough week.  Hopefully I’ll be in a better mood while this is auto-publishing because I should be in the car on my way to Easter celebrating with the husband’s family.

I’m missing a ton of photos from the week (chips and dip!) and posting two days late, so I almost skipped this post, but some of these eats (chocolate + oat bowls!) were just so good.

breakfast

Community Coffee sent me a variety of their ground coffees to try.

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This was a free product sample that I’m reviewing for no additional compensation.  It will take me some time to make it through them all, but I will let you know as I open each bag.

This week I cold-brewed the French Roast.

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Quite nice!  Roasty and not acrid at all.  I am going to make a (hot) batch in the coffee machine soon and I will let you know if that changes my opinion, but for now we give this two thumbs up.

Gevalia almond milk iced coffee.

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The flavor was good but not great.  The 9 grams of protein made it a good breakfast though.

Iced coffee and peanut butter toast with condensed milk from the tea place near my work.

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I threw out my crusts and my office smelled like a peanut all day!

lunch

Banana walnut oatmeal with a minneola and Cadbury mini eggs.

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Cabury mini eggs win for best holiday candy ever.

Wild berry oatmeal with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter.

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I 100% bought the oatmeal because it had a bear on the package, but it ended up being pretty tasty.

Turkey sandwich, citrus, and malted eggs.

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That’s a toasted English muffin with Smart Balance and Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

Yogurt bowl.

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2% Greek with pomegranate and marble halvah.  <– my best idea ever

Chicken sandwich from the cafeteria.

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An everything bagel with mayo, mustard, spicy chicken, Munster cheese, and fancy lettuce.

snack

Coffee all day every day.

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Worth mentioning were this short, skim caramel macchiato.

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And the fact that Hungry Ghost has Stumptown cold brew on draft.

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Easter candy.

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Turkey jerky.

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Ample Hills!

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Salted crack caramel + salted honey with honeycomb and chocolate-covered potato chips.

dinner

Chipotle, because heaven forbid we go longer than five days without rice bowls.

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Or salty lime chips, or giant diet cokes.

I made us a huge batch of marinara sauce in the crockpot.

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It was a great idea in theory, but I didn’t season the sauce enough and the end result was very “meh.”  Too bad we ate it three days in row for dinner and still have gallons left.

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The best part of that meal was our side dish –

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roasted broccoli with pesto gouda melted on top.

On a much more exciting night, I had drinks with a girlfriend at my favorite Brooklyn bar – Pork Slope.  No photos, but I had a Keegan’s Mother’s Milk Stout on draft that rocked my socks off.  Then we met up with Adam for dinner at Talde, Pork Slope’s Asian-American sister.

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That’s my Navy Grog {Diplomatico rum, honey syrup, lime and grapefruit juices} and kale salad {cantaloupe, pickled beets, candied almonds, creamy ponzu}.  I am going to be heartbroken when we move on from our national kale obsession.

Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate.

Birthday Cake Coffee And Jelly Bean Gum

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Random notes:

  1. A bunch of bites slipped past the camera this weekend, though per usual, the majority of them were coffee and candy.
  2. I had big plans for excitement in the city this weekend and the snow (in March?!  seriously?) throw me off my game.  We did make it to the Lower East Side for a 2nd trip to Adam’s new favorite restaurant though.
  3. I binge-watched my way through the first 9 episodes of “Fresh off the Boat” and thought it was great.  The book has been on my Amazon wish-list for ages, and we recently visited BaoHaus, so it’s safe to say I’m currently infatuated with Eddie Huang.

Eats:

Double espresso with skim milk (over ice) at work.

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I’m not super hungry most mornings, but I try to get in a full 8 oz serving of dairy in my coffee.  The 8 grams of protein and 90 – 130 calories usually hold me just fine until my early lunch.  Usually.  I was so hungry all day on Friday that I was practically crying.

My lunch was delicious.

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Fresh blueberries on top of lemon Chobani with a  side of sugar cookie kettle corn.

But soon after lunch I was miserable.  And I took lunch an hour earlier than usual so it was looong afternoon.  I bought this thing of cheese and crackers from the cafeteria, scoffed at how ridiculously large the serving size was, and finished the whole thing 30 minutes later.

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And 30 minutes after that, I was buying coffee and a KIND bar for my train ride.

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Plus I ate Easter candy both before and after dinner.

My dinner, that in retrospect definitely could have used more protein, was a good one though, if a bit scattered.

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Salad = baby kale, cubes pesto gouda, dried blueberries, buckwheat groats, and honey/evoo/lavender salt for dressing.

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Our pasta bowls were more of the same; pesto gouda and baby spinach, along with tons of caramelized onions – finished with cream sherry! – and whole wheat boxed mac and cheese with a few giant shells thrown in for good measure.

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I was still hungry when we went to bed!  Thankfully I felt back to normal by Saturday morning.

My picture-taking motivation went downhill at that point – when I woke up to almost-April snow my plans to go to the gym, clean the floors, and generally accomplish anything all seemed to disappear – but I do have shots of the good stuff.

Adam loved the oatmeal raisin cookie smoothie that I made for my last Recipe Redux post a ton, so this weekend I worked up an official recipe.

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I made mine with plain almond milk.  ‘Twas good.

This gum is great.

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Doesn’t taste like a jelly bean, but it has a great, tart flavor.

Starbucks reached the 20th birthday of the Frappuccino last week and they celebrated with a limited-edition birthday cake flavor… with pink raspberry whipped cream!

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I asked for them to make me one into a skim iced latte.  So good.  Still ridiculous, but slightly less ridiculous.

I made Pinch of Yum’s Bourbon Chicken for Sunday dinner, though I trashed mine up a bit by substituting in turkey breast and Jim Beam’s Maple Bourbon.

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Served with brown rice and roasted broccoli, under a healthy drizzle of sauce.  My mother – a maple fanatic – bought me the bourbon for Christmas and I have so many cocktail ideas for it.

We had another amazing meal at Pig & Khao.  Adam is obsessed with this place and I don’t blame him.

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That’s my Reisling and our order of fried mantao buns.

The husband had a giant plate of pork leg, and I ordered the Khao Soi – red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, and shallots.

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I don’t even like red curry (understandably, the menu is mostly meats so there aren’t a ton of options for me) but I loooved this.  The flavors are just so balanced; you leave feeling unbelievably satisfied.

We had to make room for Halo Halo though!

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Shaved ice, leche flan, ube ice cream, macapuno (coconut), and pinipig (toasted puffed rice).  My favorite desserts are bat ping so, choclados, and halo halo, clearly I am all about shaved ice and sweet milk.

Did you try the birthday cake Frappuccino?

Five Things Better Than Easter Candy

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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.

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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.

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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.

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2% Plain Fage with my browned butterscotch peanut butter swirled in.

{4}  Fresh blueberries.

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This low-brow cereal bowl – eaten at my desk while I worked – was one of the best things I ate all week.

{5}  The Duck, Duck, Gouda from Bare Burger.

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A fried egg sandwich with duck bacon, gouda, and sweet tomato jam??  I was in heaven.

Have you gotten into the Easter candy yet?

Two For One {Recipe Redux}

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And one for all!

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?!

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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.

Chia “Rice” Pudding

Servings: 2; Prep Time: 5 minutes; Cook Time: 10 minutes

  • 1.5 cups skim milk
  • 3 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 3 Tbsp light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Bring milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Whisk chia seeds into milk and continue to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
  3. Meanwhile, beat the egg in medium bowl.
  4. Whisk brown sugar into milk mixture.
  5. Slowly stream half of the milk mixture into the egg, whisking constantly so the egg doesn’t begin to cook.
  6. Whisk the egg mixture back into the pan and continue to simmer, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes.
  7. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins.

The pudding does not need to thicken or set so it can be served immediately.

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And the next day – – –

Oatmeal Cookie Smoothie

Servings: 1; Prep Time: 5 minutes; Hands-On Time: 3 minutes

  • 1/3 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup milk of choice
  • heaping 1/2 cup leftover chia rice pudding
  • small frozen banana
  • (optional) 2 Tbsp maple syrup or 2 pitted medjool dates
  1. Place oats and milk in your blender and let sit until softened, 3 – 5 minutes.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

I recommend trying it without the optional sweetener first and blending that in later at the end if you decide it’s needed.

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How do you feel about leftovers?  Love the convenience or hate the thought of a dinner repeat?

“It’s A Miracle!”

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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!

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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.

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Paired with a Special K protein bar both days.

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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.

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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.

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…and then I also got Starbucks once I got off of the train.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

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All good.

A small but gourmet sandwich.

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Toasted whole-wheat with Applegate Farm herb sliced turkey, mayo, and leftover carmelized onions.

Weird pasta salad from the cafeteria.

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Why do they keep putting croutons in pasta??

An Austrian iced coffee.

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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.

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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.

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Served on top of brown rice cooked in chicken stock.

Leftover bbq salads.

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Spicy, local arugula topped with bbq sauce, cucumber, avocado, bell pepper, caramelized onions, and TJ’s fire-roasted corn cooked with turkey bacon.

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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.

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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.

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Served with green beans baked with fish sauce, honey, Sriracha, and evoo.

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We ate casserole the next night too.

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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!

Veggie Lovers Pizza Mac & Cheese + Browned Butterscotch Peanut Butter Recipes

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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All you need is a food processor, 4 Tbsp browned butter, 1 cup light brown sugar, and 1 lb roasted, salted peanuts.

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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.

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This one had (frozen:) blackberries, dates, and soursop puree, and Hint of Honey almond milk.

…Cooked green eggs and ham toast.

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The eggs were scrambled with spinach and leftover mushrooms and asparagus from Thursday’s dinner.

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The best buttered toast.

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Inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s “The Bread” we butter our toast first and then bake it.

…Drank a killer strawberry mojito.

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The dream team was Cruzan Key Lime Rum and Strawberry Minta soda.  With frozen strawberries instead of ice to keep things cool without watering it down.

…Checked out The Little Beet at the newly revamped mall food court.

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The new options were all awesome, there is a potato place that looks very unhealthy but very delicious.  Adam had a cheesy meal at Melt Shop.

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And I got a trio of charred string beans, charred kale, and buckwheat soba noodle salad.

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The kale was soooo good, a little bit spicy and much more flavorful than the kale chips we make at home.

…Made gooey macaroni and cheese that tasted like a pizza!

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Veggie Lovers Pizza Macaroni and Cheese; serves 4 – 6

  • 6 oz short-cut pasta
  • 4 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
  • 1 cup sliced, canned mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup sliced black olives
  • 25 slices turkey pepperoni, sliced in half
  • 2 Tbsp salted butter, chopped into smaller pieces
  • 2 heaping Tbsp flour
  • 1 3/4 cups skim milk
  • 5 oz reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded
  • 5 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 1 cup marinara sauce
  1. 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).
  2. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked pasta, vegetables, and pepperoni.  Pour mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
  6. Top the casserole with an even mixture of marinara sauce, followed by the remaining 2 oz of cheese.
  7. Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned.

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Home Again, Home Again

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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!

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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.

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Less exciting than doughnuts, but still good.

Iced coffee with chocolate milk and a bar.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

We did a pre-dinner dessert date at Ample Hills.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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And ate a zoo of gummies for dessert while we watched the “Parks and Rec” finale.

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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?