New York Beanery‘s fall special line-up includes a tasty caramel apple iced latte.
Trader Joe’s frozen Southwestern style chicken quesadillas are actually pretty good. Served with smashed avocado with lemon, salt, and a Caribbean pepper blend.
These crispy tacos from Guac Shop were better. With tofu, sweet potato, cabbage, and cheese.
Buffalo chicken baked pasta. Whole-wheat macaroni, roasted cauliflower rice, sauteed ground chicken with celery, poblano pepper, scallion, cream cheese, and Franks, topped with shredded cheese.
P.S. Yes, writing this post totally put me in the mood for some kind of apple pie chaco-taco situation.
This week had a snack theme (apples!) and a dinner theme (seafood)! Here were some highlights…
Apple energy drinks. The Alani was too sour for me this year (does it seem different than last year to anyone else?) but I ended up really liking the Bloom.
I made an iced matcha spritzer with apple cider and lemon seltzer. P.S. I also made spiced apple brown sugar syrup this week – equal parts cider and brown sugar cooked down with some ground cinnamon and nutmeg – it was good in coffee and great in Diet Coke.
High Tide’s yuzu sparkling water is a new favorite.
Apple snack plate – Cripps Pink apple, Fix and Fogg super crunchy peanut butter, Whole Food’s apple cinnamon mini rice cakes.
This furikake snack mix from Trader Joe’s is hands-down the best snack mix we’ve ever tasted; it’s almost impossible to keep your hands out of.
On-theme peelable gummies make my heart happy.
I hated this dinner – udon noodles with a sardine-scented red sauce – so much I wouldn’t eat it and got pizza instead, but I am including this picture as a reminder to myself that oven-roasted baby broccoli is delicious and we should make it more often.
Crab pasta (that I actually liked). Buckwheat soba noodles and roasted zucchini with sauteed shallots and garleek with crab, butter, evoo, cream cheese, white pepper, gochujang, brown sugar, and lemon juice.
Salmon avocado toast. Toasted sourdough / mashed avocado with salt, pepper, gochugaru, and lemon / Trader Joe’s hot-smoked sockeye salmon. Plus roasted adult broccoli. No, this was not enough food for dinner. Yes, I loved the new cantina chicken chalupas I ended up getting at Taco Bell.
P.S. We are staying on theme this evening and heading out to a fun sushi dinner at Kissaki to hopefully eat all the rest of the fishes.
It wasn’t an exciting weekend; Adam worked and I spent a bunch of time working on a project for work. We did go out for a Sea Cliff date Friday night after work though! Some highlights…
My coffee needed more coffee, but the flavor of the milk in Dunkin’s new cereal milk iced latte is a 10/10!
This root beer float latte was ok, but less successful. Dr. Brown’s root beer (good, but possibly not sweet enough for this), espresso, and sweetened condensed milk.
Yogurt bowl du jour, skyr with blueberries and Rainer cherries, with Trader Joe’s chocolate coffee granola.
Sea Cliff Shave Ice! We shared cola and coffee with ice cream, mochi, and condensed milk.
Dinner at Sarin (our favorite Thai spot in Long Island). Tod Mun Pla fish cakes that came with an amazing plum sauce.
Pad Kee Mao with beef.
Leftover fish cake / sauteed green beans that were oddly terrible (I didn’t eat them!) / Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes (one of my faves, super duper filling) with Kewpie and Sriracha.
Cold Stone’s new root beer ice cream was a a letdown but we topped it with sweetened condensed milk and sprinkles from home and that was delicious.
An 11/10 dinner at Mama Chan’s, a homestyle Chinese and Taiwanese spot in Long Island. Their drinks were tasty and packed a punch. Haiku – bourbon, muddled mint and lemon, cassis, and ginger liqueur.
Green tea margarita with tequila, triple sec, lime, and agave.
Pan-fried rice cakes with scallion oil.
Scallion pancake beef wrap with scallions/hoisin sauce. This was perfection, super rich without being greasy.
Sauteed string beans.
Sauteed Chinese broccoli.
Fried black sesame mochi to end the night.
An epic plate of leftovers – rice cakes and green beans with peanut noodles from last week (topped with chili crisp and Sriracha!).
P.S. We got the Buzz’d Coffee tiramisu iced latte monthly special sans camera and it was delightful.
My first week in my new decade was a good one! Here were some food highlights…
Yogurt bowl of the week – plain skry, Trader Joe’s chocolate coffee granola, and tons of blueberries.
My snack theme was bananas. Everything but the bread! If you’re feeling inspired, Hummingbird High makes our go to recipe. Banana bread trail mix = banana chips, cinnamon Life cereal, walnuts, and chocolate chips.
Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream with fresh banana, leftover birthday dirt, peanut butter, and chocolate shell.
Adam liked the “Dirty Banana” cocktail on our cruise ship so much he ordered it twice in a row! Our version was better. Frozen bananas blended with chocolate ice cream, sweetened condensed milk, Kahlua, and dark rum.
Turkey larb inspired baked meatballs. The balls were ground turkey, panade, egg, toasted rice powder, white pepper, fish sauce, garlic, crunchy chilis, gochugaru, and brown sugar. Served with sauteed cabbage with red onion, lime, and seasoned cashews.
A perfect mix of leftovers. Cabbage / Chuko Ramen‘s vegetarian Mapo Tofu (fried tofu and mixed vegetables tossed in a Szechuan chili sauce with mustards greens, scallions and rice) / Rolo’s crispy potatoes.
A loose take on these tomato beans. We used cannellini beans, skipped the basil and nutritional yeast, added Juanita Piquante peppers, and measured nothing. Served with roasted broccoli/cauliflower and sourdough bread from Radio Bakery.
Cold peanut noodles. Buckwheat and brown rice soba / quick-pickled cucumbers / roasted zucchini / sauce – peanut butter, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, rice vinegar, lime juice, ginger, and white sugar / sesame seeds. I topped my bowl with tons of Sriracha and it was delicious.
These Smash Bites are hard to find but they are a great snack. This flavor – peanut butter and concord grape jam) is my favorite.
Plain skyr with blueberries, blackberries, and homemade meyer lemon curd.
Homemade amaretto sours! I used meyer lemons, rose syrup, and added vodka.
Homemade cinnamon brownies with crumb cake topping. I left the eggs out of the batter like an idiot but they were still quite good.
We got For Five vodka pasta over the weekend and it was both surprisingly good and surprisingly good reheated.
Congee (brown rice cooked slowly with chicken broth, ginger, and white pepper) topped with a take on Thai basil turkey (ground turkey sauteed with dark soy sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, onion, and basil) with a fried egg and some crunchy chili flakes. Plus roasted purple cauliflower.
Sesame herb salads. Raw cabbage, boy choy, green onions, red bell pepper, poblano pepper, Fresno chili, and cilantro / dressed with sesame oil, lime juice, yuzu ponzu, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and Sriracha / with baked chicken, Whole Food’s sesame seaweed cashews, and sesame seeds.
Peanut butter red curry noodles. Brown rice Pad Thai noodles / baked extra-firm tofu / sauteed cabbage, bok choy, spinach, green onion, and cilantro with white pepper and rice vinegar / sauce – peanut butter, red curry paste, lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and water.
We had a wonderful NY weekend, complete with trips to Red Hook, Brooklyn and Astoria, Queens!
Some highlights…
Blueberry muffin frozen coffee. Coffee blended with frozen blueberries, frozen banana, vanilla protein powder, malted milk powder, and butter extract.
Humble Cafe iced matcha latte with guava syrup. This was fantastic. Plus a matcha mochi cookie.
Homemade chocolate banana iced matcha. Water and milk blended with frozen banana, chocolate protein powder, Dutch-processed cocoa powder, and brown sugar, topped with a shot of matcha.
I have been coveting From Kora since 2020 and they finally have a storefront so we tried a little of everything. Ube Babka Swirl with and ube butter filling / a special – laminated pastry with short rib, mushrooms, and bearnaise / Chocolate Chunk Cookie / Leche Flan Ni Lola, a brioche doughnut topped with caramel and some of the best flan I’ve ever had / Coffee Cruller / Calamansi Rosemary Cornbread Sable. Our standout favorite was the babka followed by the sable. It all traveled/kept well.
Between the Bagel Seoul Meets Bagel – a toasted everything with American cheese, spicy mayo, bulgogi, and kimchi. This was amazing; it was Adam’s favorite thing of the weekend a close second to the babka for me. The owner also handed out delicious bulgogi arancini and Nutella banana pudding. P.S. my photo does not do justice to how huge this was!
Red Hook Tavern. We, of course, got the burger but were actually a bit disappointed; our patty was overdone and we didn’t love the volume of raw onion.
On the other hand, their cavatelli with oxtail ragu and garlic breadcrumbs is one of our favorite pastas in the city.
No post from me last week because we were on vacation! On a cruise!! In Alaska!!! It was a great trip and we had a fabulous time. We saw two glaciers and tons of animals (including but not limited to whales, dolphins, sealions, and orcas!).
Here were the highlights this week back at home, mostly things that scream *SUMMER!*…
Watermelon cotton candy. The texture of this Charms brand was perfection.
S’mores-y things. I also opened my very last bag of Ben & Jerry’s s’mores cookie dough bites!
Summer-flavored energy drinks and seltzers.
We tried the Shake Shake Dubai chocolate shake. Our location’s chocolate shell was not successful/crackable. I thought it was good but needed way more chocolate.
Before we got groceries we got giant take-out salads from Guac Shop. Mine had romaine (with honey mustard dressing added at home), fajita veggies, corn, cabbage, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno, pico de gallo, mango salsa, roasted tofu, shredded cheese, and crispy tortilla strips.
Esquites-style pasta. Brown rice udon / roasted super-firm tofu / garlic sauteed spinach / and a loose take on esquites – fresh corn sauteed with poblano pepper, green onion, cotija cheese, Duke’s mayo, lime, gochugaru, and salt and pepper.
BBQ chicken salad. Baked chicken, corn, poblano pepper, green onion, sweet gherkin pickles, smoked almonds, and bbq kettle chips dressed with a mix of plain skyr, Dukes, Dijon, and Whole Food’s Memphis-style bbq sauce. Plus green beans (steamed then sauteed with mustard, honey, and chili crisp).
Eating Chalk 