Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

coffee, coffee

So, you know how we’re obsessed with coffee? Like, problematically obsessed? I might like it as much as Diet Coke. This post is going to include a coffee brewer review. Adam, who drinks at least two cups a day, prefers his hot. I get iced 95% of the time, but when I’m home I’ll drink it hot if it’s fresh. Long story short – even though I mostly stick with cold-brew in my French press, we do in fact need a more traditional brewing option in the house. So when iCoffee offered to send me an Opus Single-Serve Brewer to review, I said “yes!”

Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

According to the company, the iCoffee system uses steam to help create a nice, smooth, non-bitter flavor. A patent-pending SpinBrew needle spins, steams and stirs the coffee inside of the single-serve cup, creating a mini-French Press effect that cannot be achieved by other brewers.

The Opus has a “Dial-a-Brew” control which allows you to customize strength and taste by choosing any brew size between 4 and 12 ounces in half-ounce increments. It can brew 10 ounces in less than 60 seconds, so it’s nice and quick. The drip tray is magnetic, so it can pull out to accommodate my tall go-cup.

They sent me a few cups to get me started. Adam had one of the Marley Coffees and loved it.

The Opus is cool because it is compatible with all k-type cups, including K-Cup, RealCup, OneCup and all private label cups (unlike the Keurig system that only uses K-cups). That said, I find single use cups to be insanely wasteful, the reason I accepted the brewer to review is because it is compatible with a reusable iCup.

I have made a few cups that way with the coffee we already had at home (marshmallow flavored!) and it’s all worked out quite well. I could see how the cup could have the propensity to break but replacements are only $12.95.

In short – we are fans! We would rate the system 4.5+ out of 5 and plan on giving it a permanent spot on our countertop.

copycat Chipotle bowls

Another thing we’re obsessed with? Loaded rice bowls from Chipotle. After making (multiple!) weekly Chipotle runs for the past several months it was time for us to finally make our own at home.

So many layers of flavor! Including:

jasmine rice with chopped cilantro and lime juice stirred in
sautéed mushroom, onion, and green pepper
corn sautéed with chopped jalopeño
black beans reheated with cilantro and lime juice
chicken that was marinated with lime juice, sugar, and green tomatillo salsa
shredded cheese, light sour cream, and homemade guacamole

So darn good!

And round two the next night – topped with green Tabasco – was just as good, maybe even better.

Plus we split a Warlock.

And a Mokaccino TCHO bar that we brought home from Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

Roasty good.

coffee and doughnuts

On Sunday we did a bit of a walking brunch around Chelsea in Manhattan. Stumptown Coffee –> Doughnut Plant –> Blue Bottle Coffee –> Doughnuttery. It was great fun!

We shared cold brew and an espresso at Stumptown.

It was my first time at the Ace Hotel, which is stunning.

Then made our way to Doughnut Plant.

We shared a hazelnut chocolate doughseed which was only ok.

And I got a Tres Leches filled caked doughnut that was amazing.

Best doughnut I’ve eaten all year. The filling was definitely reminiscent of Tres Leches and the doughnut had a great, crisp crust. I’ve been wanting to go get this flavor since last summer and it did not disappoint.

Doughnuttery ended up not appealing to us, but we did enjoy another cold brew from Blue Bottle.

I told you we have a coffee problem!

city living

We may not have gotten Doughnuttery, but it brought us into Chelsea Market which we loved the crap out of.

It was gorgeous (Christmas decorations!),

and there were so many tasty things that we want to try.

We’ll be back.

Instead we headed uptown to Xi’an Famous Foods for hand-pulled noodles.

Flipping yum! I went with the vegetarian spicy noodles and they rocked my socks off. The chew was out of control.

Meanwhile Adam was positively swooning over his pork bowl.

Then we went to Rockefeller Center and stared at the tree.

I ♥ New York!

26Nov2014

The Girl In Sonoma {San Francisco}

by Emily

Our last two days were spent enjoying the beauty of California wine country. And eating. So much eating! We were trying to pack in as much fun as possible on our last full day and we went a little crazy ordering food. We definitely didn’t finish everything shown, but we did eat quite a lot.

We started Friday with coffee,

and fruit and bread.

We split a Satsuma, an unpictured banana, and a rosemary roll from ACME Bread Company.

We saved the sourdough roll for an amazing lunch of bread, cheese, and chocolate.

Plus earl grey panna cotta for dessert.

We had the Cowgirl Creamery Mount Tam fresh from the source because we were there for a history lesson and cheese tasting.

Best tour of the trip!

After cheese, it was time for wine, with a tasting at Matanzas Creek.

The grounds were gorgeous and the wine was de-lish! We liked it so much we even bought a few bottles to bring to Thanksgiving.

Next up was beer (and more cheese!) at Lagunitas Brewing Company. Brown Shugga was my favorite, unsurprisingly.

They had pretzels out for palate cleansing between tastes,

but we also got a big plate of cheesy nachos.

This was the point in the day where I was getting a little too full!

But we forged ahead with a trip to Bouchon Bakery for a butterscotch éclair.

And finally settled in at The Girl and the Fig for an outstanding dinner.

Those light green olives were shockingly good.

I had to get a lavender mojito, it was made with Cruzan rum!

We started with a cheese plate with apple, house-made fig cake, spiced nuts and baguette.

We choose a P’tit Basque sheep’s milk, Bohemian Creamery’s The Bomb goat’s milk, and a Bleeting Heart Moolicious Blue. Because we had to fit cheese into every single meal that day.

Adam and I shared for dinner. Local mushroom raviolo with sunchoke purée, truffle pesto, local mushrooms, and chicories.

And the house-smoked trout sandwich with farm egg salad, caper aioli, pickled red onion and dill.

Both were absolutely amazing. The sauce under the pasta and the pickled red onions on the trout totally made the dishes.

We got an after-dinner drink with Firelit coffee liquor and Sailor Jerry rum.

And had dessert that was my favorite dish of the entire trip. Chocolate and salted fig caramel trifle with cocoa nibs and Italian meringue.

Adam was amazed by the nibs and I was obsessed with the marshmallowy meringue. Plus we came home with a jar of their salted fig caramel.

We had such a wonderful dinner at The Girl and the Fig that we ended up going back for brunch on Saturday! We met up with a medical school friend who is doing his residency in Fresno and he said The Girl was his favorite Sonoma spot.

Fig Fashioned.

Mussels and frites for the table, which I was totally brave about and ended up loving.

And the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life.

We left completely stuffed; the three of us were barely able to get coffee, hours later.

Our flight was a red-eye and it didn’t leave until after 10 pm so we were able to spend the whole day catching up. Our friend chose to spend his one day off for the week with us so we were thrilled to make the most of it.

A perfect end to a perfect vacation!

17Nov2014

Weekend Top Three

by Emily

{1} I made my Buffalo Chicken Baked Pasta. But I made this version cheesier.

Like, soooo cheesy; I accidentally spilled in most of the bag of cheese when I meant to do an extra sprinkle.

I also added more buffalo wing sauce, a bit more spinach, and swapped in whole-wheat pasta, ranch, and lean ground turkey for chicken breasts.

It was delicious.

{2} We soothed our fiery mouths with pumpkin beers.

All four ended up being fantastic. I wasn’t expecting to love the ales because I tend to prefer stouts and ciders, but they were some of the best pumpkin brews of the season.

{3} I found on-point bubble tea right next to my work.

One of the doctors told me about it and I might have to give her my firstborn. Awesomely chewy boba and tons of flavor options (they even had pumpkin!). Shown above is strawberry rose black tea with tapioca and rainbow jelly.

4Nov2014

Halloween Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

Did everyone have a spooky weekend? Or at least eat lots of candy? I didn’t dress up this year and I didn’t manage to eat a single piece of candy, boo! The whole weekend was pretty lame, frankly. Saturday I spent hours holed up with a friend working on some continuing education credits. And Sunday Adam and I were both a bit under the weather so we took advantage of the time change to catch some extra z’s.

Here were a few fun things…

Hallow’s Eats

Breakfast was on theme. Coffee with chocolate soy milk, an apple, and a Clif Monster Chocolate Mint Z Bar.

The bar was so good, I need to find more of this flavor.

Dinner too. A tasty bowl of leftovers.

Pasta with roasted broccoli, browned mushrooms, rock cheddar, fancy evoo, and turkey bacon (my new favorite kind, from Wellshire).

And I may not have eaten candy, but I did go to Snow Days for shaved ice.

Roasted black sesame ice with mochi and sweetened condensed milk. It was amazing. The ice is sliced into sheets rather than crushed and the texture is totally unique.

Say Cheese

When I was done with my work on Saturday, Adam and I drove up to Port Jeff for a dinner date at C’est Cheese. We shared a beer sampler.

And a cheese plate.

Plus the Spanish Salad.

Field greens / Manchego / orange slices / red onion / black olives / honey tarragon vinaigrette.

Burgers With Bear

We did Sunday brunch at Bare Burger. I got the Western – turkey burger, no bun, with turkey bacon instead of pork and maple horseradish mustard subbed for smokehouse sauce.

With giant bowls of froyo for dessert.

Dinner was Chipotle but I’ve promised to stop blogging about that!

Raw Review

Finally, a product review. I was sent a free sample of Maui Brand Raws Turbinado and Whites Crystallized Natural Cane Sugar.

I received these products free of charge but I was not provided with any additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Available on Amazon and in some stores, their sugar cane is grown and processed on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The sugars are non-GMO and vegan (<– not all granulated sugar is vegan).

I tried the sugars (which come in convenient 10 calorie to-go packages) in iced coffee,

and chocolate chip cookies,

and was quite pleased with their functional properties compared with regular sugar. I’m a fan.

31Oct2014

Best Pizza Ever; Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

Happy Halloween!

Things were busy, busy, busy, busy this week at work. <– if you don’t read that in the voice of the magician from “Frosty the Snowman” then you didn’t have a childhood and you need to go rent the movie immediately!

As I’ve mentioned, my clinic is transferring over to an electronic medical record system at the end of this year. The nutrition department needs a new charting form (built from scratch) to accommodate our specific patient population, but since I am the entire department things have been pretty hectic. Plus we are in the middle of planning a big event and I randomly had a bunch of newly diabetic patients this week.

Additionally, I do some consulting work on the side reviewing nutrition educations and I had a big batch of articles to get through this week. I really enjoy the work – did you know that I did some editing/reviewing for a famous Caribbean author as a child? – but it can be hard to get motivated to get myself back into work mode once I’m home and changed into Adam’s sweatpants at the end of the day. Snacks help.

My meals were all totes amaze this week and/but you will see quite a bit of repetition…

breakfast

Vega Peanut Butter Cup Bar and an orchard apple.

Iced coffee with chocolate soy milk and an apple.

Orchard apples and espresso with milk and sugar.

The energy shot in the middle was a sample from my Urth Box and it was a giant nope.

lunch

Yogurt bowl. It’s funny, at least once a week someone will comment about how good my yogurt lunch looks.

Dannon Pumpkin Pie Greek with fresh blackberries and TJ’s Pumpkin O’s. Plus a candy corn salt water taffy.

Take-2.

With TJ’s pumpkin Greek and Pop Rocks.

Dark Chocolate Mint bar from Zing.

This was all I had time to eat on Thursday but it kept me full all afternoon. Thanks, 10 grams of protein.

snack time

Lindt’s “Hello My Name Is” bars are pretty much my favorite. Cookies and Cream!

An “Apple Pie A la Mode” = honeycrisp apple cider + RumChata + Goldschläger.

Locally-made yogurt.

Trying to bribe myself into doing my freelance work, I … stole some of Adam’s Cheetos (we both are a little bit insane about themed foods),

Ate licorice bears,

And dipped a big, sliced apple into butterscotch peanut butter.

The apple dippers beat out my other snacks in nutrition and flavor.

dinner

We made Rachael Ray’s Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage using this fun pasta as our base.

We tend to rarely repeat recipes but this is one we’ve made several years in a row now (back in the day!).

So good. I subbed TJ’s soy chorizo for sausage and fat-free half and half for cream but otherwise followed the recipe.

Round 2.

I made a big bowl of leftover pumpkin pasta and leftover white cheddar macaroni with spinach, topped with chunky cranberry apple sauce that one of my nutrition co-workers made for me.

Adam was not willing to put fruit on his pasta, but my bowl was delicious.

Pizza Night!

Ugh. These came out so flipping yummy and neither Adam or I could shut up about it. We loaded them with ridiculous toppings and they probably ended up being far more caloric than delivery but they were also the best pizzas we’ve ever eaten. We used a ball of dough from Trader Joe’s and it split perfectly into two nicely sized pizzas.

Traditional – marinara sauce / low-fat shredded mozzarella / sautéed green pepper rings / tons and tons of mushrooms browned in butter.

Plus, slightly less traditional.

Oh yes, you know I went there! The best pizza I’ve ever eaten ever including the amazing, giant slices of Buffalo chicken from Zetti’s – pumpkin puree / low-fat shredded mozzarella / TJ’s Pacific Rock cheddar / onions sautéed with liquid smoke and smoked brown sugar / tons of crumbled turkey bacon.

Plus we had sautéed kale on the side, with liquid smoke, maple syrup, and more bacon.

For nutrition.

We also shared a Warlock.

Best of the season! There wasn’t actually much pumpkin flavor, this was just a really delicious stout.

Round 2.

Leftover pizza.

Kale chips with truffle salt and roasted broccoli with bbq.

The pizza was just as swoon-worthy eaten cold. How do I get more, immediately? And we ate this while watching “Nightmare Before Christmas” so I was pretty much exploding with excitement. <– picture strange, giddy laughter and me singing along with my mouth stuffed full of pizza.

What was on the best pizza you’ve ever eaten?

27Oct2014

Apples All Around; Long Week Wrap-Up

by Emily

We have been enjoying the heck out of my apple picking haul. There were a few days last week when I ate an apple with all three meals! Too bad my husband’s a doctor, I don’t want to keep him away!

I haven’t blogged a recap since last Sunday so I’ve got quite a bit to share…