Hello, 2017!

by Emily

How is everyone’s year going?? So far, the word for my 2017 is tasty.

Here are some culinary highlights from the first week…

Coffee first, always coffee. Espresso roast and chocolate milk before work.

I also had the best iced latte of the year from Birch; their shots are extra strong and roasty.

Adam and I both had Monday off of work and we started our new year with a trip to Serendipity 3.

Veggie chili for my lunch.

I kept lunch boring because I was focused on the main event – sundae funday! A giant scoop of peanut butter pie with hot fudge and bananas. <– swoon city

Work lunches were centered around a box of free product review samples I received from ips snacks. The snacks – crisps and popcorn – are all made with whey protein and pack at least 5 grams of protein for </ 150 calories.

I have to admit that I liked the snacks a lot more than I was expecting to. The salted popcorn was honestly the best bagged popcorn Adam or I have ever tasted! It was filling, satisfying, and totally delicious. The chips would rate poorly if I compared them to chip-chips, but score a 9/10 as snack crisps. Very few snacks, especially ones that pack less than 200 calories, keep me full enough in the afternoon that I don’t consider gnawing my own arm off on the train, but these did the trick.

I packed crisps and fruit to pair with toasted turkey and cheese cafeteria sandwiches. BBQ chips and a cara cara.

Sea salt and black pepper chips and an Asian pear.

Snack attack. Popcorn and a honey kolsch.

Yogurt bowl with plain Greek, chocolate tahini, sliced snap dragon apple, chia seeds, cinnamon, and sweet and spicy pecans.

I was killing it with dinners this week. Three different veggie-forward, flavor-loaded, 10/10 dishes! When I made fried green onions last week I saved the infused oil and that’s what I used for cooking this week. First, a simple salad to start off the new year.

Oak leaf lettuce, TJ’s Greek-style feta dressing, cucumber, dill, and roasted chickpeas. With hibiscus kombucha on the side.

Next up, spicy cabbage salad with turkey and peanuts from Bon Appétit. I only ever read this magazine on plane rides but this recipe alone would be worth the subscription cost!

I doubled up so that we could get 4 big dinners out of it, and roasted the cabbage so it was less voluminous, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly <– something I rarely do.

Served with cheesey breadsticks, aka pizza dough rolled up with an obscene amount of cheese.

Finally, I tried my hand at shakshuka. Based loosely on the recipes from Serious Eats and My Name is Yeh, my version had red bell peppers, red jalapeño pepper, and serrano pepper.

Served with hunks of sourdough.

I’m excited to do a little more exploring in the kitchen this new year. My meal plan list for the next month or so includes menemen, mapo tofu, kaya jam, okonomiyaki, and chilaquiles!

31Oct2016

Top Ten Last Week

by Emily

{1} Kobrick Coffee

I stepped up my espresso game with their housemade chocolate milk. Adam and I were both swooning after every sip.

{2} Pumpkin yogurt bowls

2% Fage with pumpkin puree and pumpkin butter, cinnamon, slivered almonds, and pumpkin spice granola. With an Asian pear.

Plain Siggi’s with pumpkin x2, pumpkin spice cheerios and frosted mini wheats, and a few candy corns. With a gingergold apple.

Pumpkin Chobani with cereals and another apple.

{3} Bobwhite Counter

Fried chicken sandwich with pickles and pimento cheese.

{4} Pumpkin Smoothie

We make at least one every October. Pumpkin puree, plain Greek yogurt, cinnamon, maple syrup, and vanilla almond milk.

{5} Xzibit “Pimp My Ride” style Reese’s

Reese’s stuffed with Reese’s Pieces. My peanut butter cup obsession usually does not extend beyond Justin’s minis but I am bewitched by these; the bit of crunch takes the cups to a whole new level.

{6} Molly’s Cupcakes

They have a whole slew of gooey stuffed cupcakes.

Cake better was perfection!

{7} Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Unsurprisingly, Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess)’s 1st memoir did not disappoint. I added her 2nd book to my Christmas list less than halfway through.

{8} Nachos

I turned my copycat Chipotle bowl leftovers into nachos. Nachos > salad bowls. Tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, black beans, corn, sautéed onions and peppers, and shredded chipotle honey lime chicken.

{9} C’est Cheese

Adam and I had a weekday off together and we spent several hours of it on the phone dealing with our retirement accounts. We desperately needed booze and cheese afterwards so we headed to Port Jefferson for lunch. Baked brie with raspberry jam.

Beer flight – Post Road Pumpkin / Telekinesis sour / Framboise / Imperial Biscotti Break stout.

Plus a Spanish salad with mandarin oranges, Manchego, olives, and a honey tarragon vinaigrette.

{10} David Pumpkins

Bless you, SNL, this is my new favorite thing.

{Bonus} Be sure to check out SaveTheDay.Vote, Joss Whedon’s super PAC that produces short PSAs about the importance of voting (for Hillary). The subject matter is sobering but somehow the videos are all still laugh out loud hilarious. Whedon is already my role model, and I am so impressed with all of the celebrities to chose to participate.

P.S. Happy Halloween!

22Oct2016

Pumpkin Nice Latte

by Emily

How are we more than halfway through October? And less than three months away from the end of 2016?? I can’t handle it! Here was this week…

I had leftover sweetened condensed milk from a recipe so I put it in TJ’s coffee concentrate. Then I spent the entire morning certain I was going to die but also overcome with glee.

This Target brand salted caramel hot chocolate is delicious. Apparently I was into my morning sugar this week.

Yogurt bowls for lunch. All on theme, thank you. Chobani pumpkin with pecans and pumpkin spice cheerios and frosted min wheats. Plus an Asian pear.

TJ’s pumpkin yogurt with more cereal and an apple.

Noosa pumpkin with pumpkin spice granola and pumpkin seeds.

TJ’s caramel apple yogurt with Heritage Flakes and sliced almonds. This was the best of the apple yogurts, fyi.

It was a snack-heavy week, here were the highlights –

Related – a new pretzel shop opened right above my train and it is a problem.

Most dinners this week were weaksauce. Adam and I both get a bit bummed out as the weather cools down and we’ve had a hard time motivating ourselves in the kitchen. Case in point – I ate nachos two days in the row.

At least these nachos had turkey breast on top. And eggs with spinach in them on the side.

Another night I made a super simple turkey and cheddar toasted sandwich.

Inspiration did finally come, in the form of a box of lemons. Limoneira sent me a sample of their citrus. Limoneira Company is a 124 year old international agribusiness dedicated to sustainability. Their lemons are quite tasty, almost sweet.

I made Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken. Served with roasted broccoli and lemon pepper cauliflower rice.

Also Dulce de Leche Lemon Popsicles.

Cross your fingers for me that the weather’s nice in NYC today, if there’s no rain I’ve got a fun activity planned.

8Oct2016

Double Chocolate Cherry and Pumpkin Spice

by Emily

We’re a week into Pumpkin Month and I still haven’t cracked open any of my pumpkin beers! I have, however, purchased more (I spotted Schlafly in Manhattan – finally! – and couldn’t pass it up). Thankfully I consider November gourd drinking time as well.

I didn’t do the best job with photos, but here were some of my eats last week…

Home-brewed coffee (espresso roast with fat-free half and half) with honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice.

I dumped most of that yummy coffee into my purse and consoled myself with espresso and chocolate milk when I got off the train.

Pumpkin spice coffee with pumpkin juice that ended up being too spicy for me. I wanted it to taste like that amazing pumpkin smoothie Odwalla used to sell.

I also was NOT a fan of the pumpkin pie Quest bar, big surprise. My coffee and chocolate-covered almonds were still a good snack though.

As was this pear and Epic Bar combo.

Liberte lavender! yogurt with banana and almonds for lunch.

My other yogurts for the week came in the form of a product review – i.e. sent to me free of charge, with no additional compensation for this post. Greek Gods yogurt is both Adam’s and my absolute favorite so when they offered to send me their three newest chocolate flavors I jumped at the opportunity.

Because they’re made with whole milk, the yogurts have too much saturated fat for me to consider them an everyday staple, however, as a treat they are fantastic. Compared with ice cream they have less than half the saturated fat and calories (and double the protein) and 100% of the flavor and creamy decadence. Like I said, Adam and I both consider them to be the most pleasing yogurts on the market. And we have been eating them everyday this week!

Chocolate Cherry I decided to use in a smoothie recipe. For 2 – blend 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup frozen dark cherries, and 8 ounces chocolate milk. Yum!

Chocolate Strawberry I topped with freeze-dried strawberries, chocolate-covered cocoa nibs, and pecans.

And Chocolate Mocha turned into pumpkin spice mocha, with pumpkin spice granola and pepitas on top.

Dinners were weak this week. I made this ridiculous grilled cheese sandwich – Havarti and sharp cheddar on cinnamon swirl bread – three nights in a row!

And leftovers saved me from having to cook the only meal that counts as a meal. Pumpkin sausage pasta and broccoli salad were weirdly fantastic together. Topped with smoked paprika and shredded cheese.

Last night we went to Biang! We split shredded potatoes and garlic bok choy and I had Mt Qi spicy pickled veggies on hand-pulled noodles. My elbow was practically touching the girl next to me, so no photos.

Today, we’re hoping to go to Smorgasburg and dinner in Williamsburg. Have a great weekend!

16Sep2016

Palm Seed Fun

by Emily

This post is running a little late because I am too – I have the day off! Working last Sunday earned me a long weekend today. It’s actually an extra-long weekend because I’m off Monday as well, I’m going to Ohio tomorrow to visit my grandma. Today, I’m going to have some fun with Adam and Webster.

Highlights from this week…

I didn’t snap any iced coffee photos this week, but I promise it was consumed in substantial quantities. There’s a chance I stayed up far too late watching Road Rules on YouTube one night. <– not worth the exhaustion, that show spent way more time on relationship drama than I had remembered.

Apple oatmeal, with an Asian pear.

My Filipino coworker brought me in some palm seeds and I bought them to good use. Chia pudding with palm seeds and banana.

Yogurt with palm seeds, Luxardo cherries, Cherrios, and an orange.

Another treat from the Philippines, polvoron, or powdered milk candy. They were fantastic, crumbly and milky in such a pleasing way.

More candy, Justin’s peanut butter cups (I’m still obsessed with these) and a milk popping candy. Sparkling water and diet coke are two of my favorite things and when you drink them together – as in at the same time, not in the same cup – they both taste even better.

Other snacks included apples we picked ourselves.

And the best microwave popcorn we’ve ever popped. This tasted almost as good as stove-popped.

We kept dinners super simple this week. Leftover smoked trout casserole, eaten cold out of the pan.

Salmon salad sandwiches – canned salmon with mayo, mustard, and pickle relish – on toasted TJ’s quinoa bread.

My most complicated night involved potato vareniki which cook in about 5 minutes. Tossed with shredded rotisserie chicken / sautéed celery / garlic kale / and a sauce made of cream cheese and chicken stock.

I’m off to go start my day off!

10Sep2016

It’s Apple Month!

by Emily

Can I show off my apple-themed haul?? I’m quite excited about it.

And fittingly, we are driving upstate to go apple picking this afternoon.

So far the gum has been my favorite, though I haven’t tried any of the ciders yet. I went out for drinks with a friend last night and had a regular (red apple) Angry Orchard that was unpleasantly sweet so I’m hoping green apple has some tartness to it.

Apple pie bar and a Gala apple.

Caramel apple bar with green apple sparkling water and some honey peanut butter. With an Asian pear.

Caramel apple pie cheesecake from work.

I did eat a few things that weren’t apple-flavored. Like a giant plate of buffalo chicken pizza! With salads from the Whole Food’s bar, Caesar, kale, and corn.

Blueberry cheesecake smoothie. Frozen berries, vanilla almond milk, cream cheese, and lemon syrup.

Green bean dinner bowl. This turned out way better than I was expecting, especially because the green beans were a bag of fresh beans that got tossed into the freezer last week when they started getting old. They would have been too mushy roasted, but were perfect with an egg on top.

Sautéed green beans tossed with turkey bacon, mustard, and lemon juice // pan toasted whole-wheat panko // fried egg // smoked paprika.

Everyone go eat an apple!

8Apr2016

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

by Emily

{1} Stumptown’s newest cold brew box – coconut.

{2} This week’s homemade coffee blend – chocolate milk and espresso roast.

{3} Giant veggie omelet for breakfast at work. They are made fresh to order and are by far the best dish coming out of the cafeteria.

{4} Garlic veggie pizza with a side of brussels sprout salad.

{5} Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with strawberries, praline pecan granola, walnuts, and chocolate covered cacao nibs.

{6} Oatmeal bowl. Oats, chia seeds, strawberries, and cookie butter. Simple, but this was the best oatmeal of the year.

{7} This month’s Skoshbox. There were chocolate-covered potato chips!

{8} Biscoff chocolate chip mug cookie.

{9} Trader Joe’s frozen “pizza.” The crust was a bit floppy but the sauce had good spicy kick to it.

{10} Creamy tomato turkey. Sautéed ground turkey with browned mushrooms, roasted plum tomatoes, tomato paste, sour cream, tons of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Plus roasted zucchini. I made a truly excessive amount of this dish and even after a couple of meals there’s still some left for next week.

{Bonus} Non-food Entertainment Top Five

{1} “Hart of Dixie.” I finished it last week but it I’m still not over it, the storyline was just so fun! It was such a feel-good show, I really enjoyed watching something that wasn’t heartrending for a change (<– Whedon fan).

{2} Slate. The source of 95%+ of my news plus the amazing Dear Prudence advice column (<– her response to “Too High” was spot on!).

{3} Girls with Slingshots. Another soap opera! This webcomic series is on long-term hiatus but you can start at the beginning and read through the archives.

{4} Serious Eats. The source of 95%+ of my food-based news and cravings. This is one of the sites I check every morning during my train ride, I’d hate to miss an article like the Nacho Showdown.

{5} Taylor Swift’s hilarious Apple Music commercial.

29Jan2016

Salads, Berries, And Chocolate – Post Blizzard Eats

by Emily

Fun fact about how old I feel – I spent an hour digging out my car on Sunday and it took until midweek before I could get up from my chair without audibly groaning. This was my first year (ever! I grew up on an island) having to do it and now I totally understand why so many people have heart attacks each winter.

daytime eats

The LIRR was still closed on Monday but thankfully Adam was around to drive me to work. Silver lining – I spent extra time with the husband and we got to eat doughnuts for breakfast.

I got an iced latte and a black sesame cream doughseed.

Tuesday was much less exciting, coffee with vanilla almond milk and a piñata apple (Let’s be real though, I’m always excited about coffee!).

And coffee with fat-free sweetened condensed milk in it is downright thrilling. Plus a protein bar and a pear.

More SCM love and more strawberry seltzer.

Speaking of strawberry, this week’s tea – white strawberry. This was a particularly pretty blend.

The most exciting breakfast of all involved halo halo. Plus cereal and chia seeds. I’m still not sure if my Filipino coworker was impressed or horrified that I was putting it on plain Greek yogurt!

I packed a couple homemade “instant” oatmeal bowls this week. Rolled oats, nonfat milk powder, brown sugar, chia seeds, and pecans, mixed with hot water at work. One day was freeze-dried raspberries with a peach on the side.

The other was strawberries with a tangelo.

I also brought in brownies! I made a double batch of milk crumbs (from Milk Bar) and dumped them in my favorite brownie batter along with some caramel chocolate chips. They got rave reviews from my coworkers.

And apparently I missed them when they were gone because one day I bought chocolate cookies and an iced coffee for a train-ride snack.

Lunches also included a slice of ridiculously overcooked veggie pizza.

And a delicious salad topped with falafel and giant scoops of tzatziki and tabbouleh.

nighttime eats

Adam had to take me home from work on Monday too – my train didn’t start running until the absolute last second on Tuesday morning – which meant we got to do a dinner date as well. The streets were still crazy so we decided to eat wherever we could park. We found a spot next to… Ramen Yebisu.

I got the veggie miso ramen with shitake mushroom, scallion, onion, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and kelp. With an egg on top. It was good, but just couldn’t compare with the epic ramen they serve up the road at Chuko.

I went out on Thursday too. I met up with friends for drinks and dinner after work. Drinks were bourbon, lemonade, and iced tea slushies at Pork Slope. Dinner was obscenely cheesy sandwiches at Melt Kraft.

I got the Melter Skelter (<– ha!), raclette cheese, pickled green tomatoes, jalapeño, bbq chips, and watercress.

So good. The pickled tomatoes were a really nice contrast to the rich cheese and chips are always a good sandwich topping.

Another night, Adam ate leftovers and I ate a guava cheese empanada on the train. We sat together for our salad course though.

Arugula with sweet and spicy pecans, chia seeds, and golden raisins, dressed with lavender honey, evoo, balsamic, and lavender salt.

Plus we shared new gummies.

My salad was spicy sweet and these were sour sweet.

I did manage to cook one real meal. I put chicken breasts in the crockpot in the morning along with a jar of salsa and tons of chopped bell peppers and onion – plus a little bit of salt and evoo – and came home to this –

Served with TJ’s Cuban black beans and tons of cheese on top.

We have really been loving the crockpot this winter, all of our best chicken has come out of it.

One more day of work and then I’m spending my weekend being low-key and boring, running errands and catching up on tv.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: pear

Hello, 2017!

Top Ten Last Week

Pumpkin Nice Latte

Double Chocolate Cherry and Pumpkin Spice

Palm Seed Fun

It’s Apple Month!

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

Salads, Berries, And Chocolate – Post Blizzard Eats

daytime eats

nighttime eats