Royal Weekend; Highlights

Normally I am a Brooklyn girl, but over the three-day weekend I spent some time loving Queens.  One day for Flushing and one for Astoria.  Also Adam and I both had Monday off and we spent the day eating our way from Chelsea to SoHo!

Here are the highlights, minus several ice cream stops and several more coffees…

Doughnut date!

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Chocolate salted caramel from Dough and a latte from Blue Sky.

Fancy yogurt bowls.

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Plain Siggis + 2 types of plucot + chia seeds + crumbled graham cracker pie crust.

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The crust was leftover from a failed s’mores cookie batch I attempted last week.

Brunch with a girlfriend at Burnside Biscuits.  We both got Salty Dogs.

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And I got a classic (duck fat!) biscuit with a sunny side up egg and sharp cheddar.

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Related:: Adam and I went to Sweet Chick for a dimly lit dinner and had duck sloppy joes.  Also two different cocktails with sherry!

Sandwiches at BEC = bacon, egg, and cheese.

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I got a Junior with turkey bacon.

Sandwiches at Blue Ribbon.  I got the pulled bbq chicken with cole slaw on top.

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BRFC feels pretty chain restaurant/fast food but the sandwich was delicious.  The bun was meh (I rarely eat the bun on a sandwich like this anyway) but the chicken was juicy with some perfectly charred crispy bites.

Presso Coffee is the cutest and their maple lattes are on point.

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Related:: another day I got a quad nonfat latte from Kinship Coffee Cooperative that was super good.

Oreo milk tea with boba and pudding from Kung Fu Tea.

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We explored the New World Mall food court and want to go back asap.

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We didn’t stop to eat that day though, our hearts were already set on Xi’an Famous Foods.

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Their spicy hand-torn noodles make the most satisfying dish you’ve ever tasted.

Trader Joe’s chile relleno is the best frozen meal ever.

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I would give this dish two thumbs up if I thought a restaurant had made it fresh.

Important note – you can buy cups of edible cookie dough.

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Just fyi.

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Enjoy the rest of your week!

This Week I Loved…

the start of apple month

September 1st means I go crazy eating all things {caramel} apple!

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And breaking into this stash makes me feel less awkward about my growing pile of pumpkin items.

everything by George Ezra

But especially “Blame It On Me.”

my breakfast combo

Fiber One reached out to me about sending samples of their newest product – Cheesecake Bars!  I am not one to turn down something that has 5 grams of fiber and tastes like cheesecake.

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They come in strawberry and salted caramel and they are freaking delicious.  Each moderately sized bar has 150 calories.  They certainly aren’t as healthy as a bowl of oatmeal, but I can handle the 3.5 grams of saturated fat occasionally for something quick that keeps me full through the morning and really does taste like dessert.

I paired a caramel bar with a caramel macchiato one morning and it was a bit too much but also amazing.

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But most mornings I kept my coffee pairing low-key, Community Coffee with cream and milk.

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Yum, I love it when we have (fat-free) half and half in the fridge.

yogurt bowls

2% Fage with strawberries and Heritage Flakes.

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Plain Skyr with cotton candy grapes(!!!) and sea salt caramel apple granola.

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Omg, kids, the granola was insanely good.  It took a lot of self-control not to go through and pick out all of the caramel bits.

salads

Loaded from the cafeteria.

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Greens with ranch, peppers, tomato, cucumber, black bean and corn salsa, green olives, cheddar, and Sea Salt SuperSeedz from home.  The pumpkin seeds gave this just the right amount of crunch.

At home.

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The little strawberry glass is holding strawberry beer – Abita’s* deliciously juicy Strawgator.

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And my “salad” – which had no greens because we ran out of spinach – was tons of chopped cucumber and sweet red pepper topped with TJ’s insanely spicy Sriracha ranch, shredded cheddar, roasted pecans, and a huge pile of pulled chicken with roasted garlic and honey bbq sauce.

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Also I ate Chipotle salad two days in a row.  No shame.

* apparently Abita makes a milk stout?!  I want it so badly I can practically taste it.

Weekly Wrap-Up, Weddings Have Great Food

breakfast

Coffee.  With Hint of Honey Almond Milk and a GoMacro Bar.

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Or seltzer and an applesauce.

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Or chocolate milk.

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Another morning I tried to do the coffee + chocolate milk combo but my cafeteria was out of milk so I just drank it black and I had a stomach ache for the rest of the day.

lunch

Yogurt.  Strawberry Fage with plucots and pumpkin seeds on the side.

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Oatmeal.  Quaker Summer Berry oats with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter on top and plucots on the side.

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Sandwich.  A monster from the cafeteria with spicy turkey and fresh mozzarella on a brioche roll.

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Leftovers.  Egg salad (see below), TJ’s Crispy Broccoli – which I dumped into the egg salad! – and an apple.

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snack

Salty.

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Sweet.

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dinner

I am missing many photos from the start and end of this week, but I did a pretty good job capturing the middle days.

Monday my camera was dead all afternoon and through the evening.  You didn’t miss much though, I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches in bed.  Then I ate a second dinner of Thai take-out.  Also in bed.  Related fact – I have been burning through episodes of “Body of Proof” at an alarming rate.  It’s bad; not just the fact that I’m watching the show obsessively, but the show itself, is bad.

Tuesday was frozen shrimp goyza from Trader Joe’s.

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We sautéed broccoli and bok choy with ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, and soy sauce and served our pan-fried goyza on top.

I woke up early Wednesday morning to hard-boil eggs for salad.

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This was eggs with minced red bell pepper, mayo and a healthy dollop of sesame gojuchang which gave the salad a great spice and a little bit of smokiness.

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With roasted green beans on the side.

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Roasted green beans have always been one of my favorite foods but now that I’ve started topping them with sliced shallots they’re on a whole new level.

Thursday night I was way less pathetic, but I still don’t have any pictures.  A Buffalo friend came into town and took me to a wedding.  The event was in LIC at The Foundry and it was beyond gorgeous but way too dark for food pictures.

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I ate hummus, cocktails, mini cupcakes, and all the other wedding trappings but the only photo I have is a blurry shot of my friend and me.

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Fun fact – I met her straight from work and I had to get dressed in a Barnes and Nobel bathroom.  I am the classiest.

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I took today off to spend the morning with my girlfriend before she drives home so I have this whole Friday ahead of me to watch Body of Proof do fun stuff in the city!

(Frozen)Yogurt

breakfast

Coffee!

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With caramel.

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Or with Hint of Honey Almond Milk and plums.

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Or a Clif Bar.

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Also one morning my coworker brought in yummy poppy-seed Danish.

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lunch

I had a really great sandwich with spicy sliced chicken, pickles, and fresh mozzarella from the cafeteria.

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The other days I did yogurt bowls featuring the new blended flavors from Chobani.  Coffee with plums and KIND peanut butter granola.

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Mixed berry with blueberries, raspberries, multi-grain o’s and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

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And vanilla with more berries and bran flakes.

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The texture of the 2% yogurt was seriously creamy and good.

dinner

I can’t show you Monday/Tuesday’s dinner because it is my Recipe Redux for this month.  I will show you some of the tasty stuff we had with it though… Like roasted green beans on the side.  I added thinly sliced shallots and they got insanely crispy, crunchy, good.

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And frozen yogurt for dessert.  With all of the chocolate toppings.

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We liked the Nutella on top so much we ended up going back again the next night.

Wednesday was Webster’s Buyday (the anniversary of the day we brought him home) so we made a special dinner with some of his favorite foods – Nachos!  Chips with cheese, broccoli, cilantro, and chicken (pronounced chick-ON chick-ON in this house).

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He even had his own little dish.

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And of course we got Chipotle.

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Of course.

random thoughts

I am so freaking excited that Target is doing away with gender-based labeling in some of its children’s aisles!  When I worked at a toy store in college I hated when people would come in and ask for “boy toys” or “girl toys.”  This awesome graph sums up my thoughts pretty well –

gender based toys

I’ve already seen some pumpkin beers and it is taking all of my self-control to not start stockpiling.  I’ve told myself that I’m waiting until mid-September.

Poorly Drawn Lines is always hilarious but I feel like this week’s comics have been especially great.

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We had dessert every single night this week.  I want to nip that daily habit in the bud, but I also have fifteen plus new ice cream joints that I want to visit before summer ends.

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Weekend Highlights + What’s In My Bag?

In alphabetical order, because why not?…

Brunch in SoHo.  I took a friend to Freeman’s.

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I had the poached eggs with sourdough toast and cheddar grits.

Chipotle.  Finally, we hadn’t been in almost a month!

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Chicken salad bowl for me with all of the toppings.  Plus way too many chips.

Chocolate-cherry smoothie.

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Frozen cherries and dates, cocoa powder, and vanilla almond milk.

Cookies with M&M’s.

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Have you made Number 2 Pencil’s awesome “single serve” recipe yet?  Put it on your to-do list.

Fast dinner thanks to Trader Joe’s freezer section.

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We had mahi burgers,

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plus veggies in garlic butter sauce.

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Popcorn.  Made on the stove.  <– so much better than the microwave bags

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Random – I swapped out my purses for the week so I figured I’d do one of those “what’s in my bag?” photos.

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Camera / day planner / book for the train (this week it’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog) / sunglasses / cell phone / keys / etc.  It is easy to switch up my bags because all of the ecetera lives in that Brooklyn bag and can easily move from purse to purse.

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Pens / gum / lip stuff / band aids / hair tie / hand sanitizer.

Salad and sandwich night.

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Arugula topped with toasted, shredded Brussels sprouts, sweet and spicy pecans, and honey and evoo.

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The amazing sandwiches were thanks to TJ’s new pastrami-style smoked salmon

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Inspired by the Pastrami Russ at Russ and Daughter’s Café.

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Pastrami-style lox on buttered and toasted pretzel rolls with pickles and muenster cheese.

Sprouted trail mix from my aunt.

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It is similar to “Gorp” and very yummy.

Turkey and cheese roll-ups.

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Yogurt bowl.

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Plain yogurt with chopped nectarines and dulce de leche.

What’s in your bag?  What items are always with you?

Lunch N Oats

breakfast

This week’s coffee (a mix of Community Coffee and Brooklyn Roasting Co) was iced with milk (a mix of vanilla almond milk and skim).  Sweetened with honey – meh.

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And maple – yum!

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And paired with watermelon juice.

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And an apple.

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lunch

2% Lingonberry Strawberry Siggi’s with chopped apricot and plum and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

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The rest of the week was all about the oats.

Chocolate chip oats with peanut butter and diced apricot stirred in.  Plus goats milk maple caramels on the side.

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Coconut maple oats with purple rose plums(!!) and chocolate pumpkin seeds.

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And oats from home.  With freeze-dried strawberries, chia seeds, chocolate covered cocoa nibs, and chocolate chunks.

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snack

Delicious nougat bar my parents bought me at BRKLYN Larder.  Adam bought me Luxardo cherries for my birthday there too and I am so excited to start using them.

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Iced Americano with cream.

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Herbed turkey and Havarti roll-up.

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I ate several handfuls of prunes this week.  The snack situation was getting pretty bleak.

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But then we bought the new Reuben lays.

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It was amazing, if you were blindfolded you still would totally taste rye bread and thousand island dressing.  If they were kettle chips instead of the flimsy regular kind they’d be my new favorite.

dinner

Leftovers from Sunday.  Whole-wheat penne topped with sautéed turkey, mushrooms, and onions in marinara sauce.

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Eaten cold, out of the Tupperware, in front of the open fridge.  It’s kind of crazy how classy I am.

The next night really was pretty snazzy though.

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Lemon Pepper Baked Shrimp with shredded Brussels sprouts and barely.

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Recipe HERE, this cooks in less than 30 minutes.

Then we had big salads with red curry turkey burgers on top.

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Arugula blend topped with TJ’s Asian Sesame Vinaigrette, sliced cucumber, and baked shredded Brussels sprouts and broccoli.  Two notes – 1) baking the shredded B sprouts is my new favorite thing; 2) I bought TJ’s Thai-style chili and lime cashews to put on the salads and they were so spicy even I couldn’t eat them.

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The patties were lean ground turkey with tons of parsley and green onions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, red curry paste, and ground ginger.  Cooked in coconut oil.

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We were supposed to have this meal two nights in a row but we snacked on the 1st round of patties while we assembled the salads (and the dog ate an entire patty that fell on the ground!) and there ended up only being enough leftovers for one.  Really I won out though because this chile rellano from TJ’s was darn good.

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Best frozen meal ever.

Finish this thought – this weekend I am excited to…

Buffalove

This weekend some friends and I traveled (many hours!) back to Buffalo for a quick visit.  It was fantabulous!  We got lucky with good weather, caught up with great friends, and hit up almost every place that we’d been missing.  We didn’t take even a single group photo because apparently we’re old, but a good time was had by all.

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I didn’t get any people pictures and I didn’t take many food shots either.  Here are a few things I did capture…

Mike’s sandwich – a toasted bagel with cheese, cream cheese, and a fried egg – at SPoT Coffee.

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Plus we got coffee there every morning because it was roasty and delicious.  Clearly I can get amazing coffee in NYC but SPoT is still one of the main places I miss.

Green juice at Ashker’s.

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Spinach, kale, cucumber, pineapple, and mint.

Drinks at Blue Monk which now offers 5 oz pours.

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Shown is a very tasty Downeast Cider.

Crepes at Sweetness 7.

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Mine was topped with syrup and a fried egg.

Hot bar at Wegman’s, of course.

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We actually went to Wegman’s twice!

We also went to the Co-op, walked up and down Elmwood Ave, and did a round of lemon drop shots for my upcoming birthday ♥

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I’d Have To Say April 25th

This was the most boring week of the month (July includes my trip to Maryland, a trip to Buffalo, a visit from my parents, and my 30th birthday!) but Adam and I kept things fun with lots of little dates.  Honestly, I have more fun going to the grocery store with my husband than I would have doing almost anything with someone else, so grabbing donuts before work with him is pretty thrilling.

breakfast

Breakfast note 1 – I stuck with a coffee combo that worked: Dark Roast Community Coffee with skim milk and fat-free half and half.  The coffee bag says to use 2 Tbsp grounds to 6 oz water and I use 3 Tbsp and my crappy coffee machine and it comes out perfect for my tastes.

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Breakfast note 2 – the GoMacro bars in this post are another former freebie.  The flavors I had this week were my new favorites, they had a lot more texture than the previous ones I tried.

Coffee, cinnamon applesauce, and GoMacro apples + walnuts (morning harvest).  They should have just called this flavor “apple pie” because that’s what it tasted like.

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An aprium – apricot-plum hybrid like a pluot but more apricot than plum – and GoMacro sesame butter + dates (sweet revival).  Sesame butter is a bit sweeter than other nut butters naturally; I’m having a hard time explaining the flavor of sesame butter but it is what this bar tastes like.

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Doughnut Plant date before work.  The fresh lavender flower flavor was tasty but the yeasted doughnut was too big for me for breakfast, I’ll have to stick to the cake varieties unless another really fun flavor pops up.  Adam had the chocolate chip cookie special and was basically swooning.

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Freeze-dried Fuji apple slices and GoMaco granola and coconut (balanced goodness).  The oats gave this a great consistency.

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That pop of pink is a new notebook from Target.  I’m obsessed.  I also bought a new day planner.

lunch

I was all about the sandwiches this week.  Caprese sandwich from the cafeteria.  Tomato, basil, mozzarella, and spinach.

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The plainest sandwich ever, also from the cafeteria.  Turkey, cheese, and mayo on a white roll.  I didn’t even have a fruit, vegetable, or whole grain on the side.  I badly sunburned my knees last weekend, long story, and I was feeling a little under the weather that day.

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Starbuck’s Thai-style peanut chicken wrap.  I was impressed with this, all of the fancy new foods looks pretty good.

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Lunch date at La Bagel Delight.  We spit a poppy seed bagel with lox and dill cream cheese.

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On Friday I did get back to my yogurt bowl roots.  2% Lingonberry & Strawberry Siggi’s with chopped aprium and pluot and KIND peanut butter granola.

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Kids, that granola is ridiculous – somehow it tastes like cookie dough?!

snack

Saturday – July 11th or 7/11 – was 7-11 Day so I got a free small slurpee.  Sour Patch watermelon and Coke were amazing together.  Also, I eat my fair share of sugar but half of a small slurpee kind of makes me want to die so I’m horrified by the existence of that extra-large cup.

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Guava cheese empanada.  I will be so sad if this food truck moves away from my LIRR station.

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Ice cream date.  We got raw egg topped with salted caramel, sesame honeycomb, and Luxardo cherries.

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Morganstern’s ice cream is indescribably chewy, it is truly some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  And I cannot get over those cherries.

Have you seen this cute iced drink promotion at Starbucks yet?  Those ice cube stickers kill me.

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Maple latte.  With a sky-blue straw that made me so happy!

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I took a girlfriend to Nunu so I could try that spicy beer again.  And I forgot to write down the name for a 2nd time.  I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did when it was paired with chocolate; a full pint by itself was a bit much to get through.

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A chocolate chip cookie and a GoMacro cherries + berries (sunny uplift).  I was expecting to hate that flavor but it was actually yummy, the cherries were nice and tart and it had some oat texture.

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That cookie was totally not homemade.

dinner

My family sent me home from Solomon’s with some of my uncle’s amazing crab cakes.

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Best meal of the week.

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We sautéed the crab in a mix of melted butter and evoo.

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Served with a caprese-style salad on the side.

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Red and green lettuce mix dressed with truffle salt, evoo, and balsamic vinegar and topped with Kumato tomato and mozzarella.

Date night in the Lower East Side.  We got bowls at Korilla and they were so freaking good!  Sticky rice, gojuchang chicken, red kimchi, cucumber kimchi, monterey jack cheese, and a fried egg.  Plus Korean bbq and hot sauces.  My mouth was on fire and I was in heaven.

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We cooled down at Snowdays.  Black sesame shaved ice with sweetened condense milk, mochi, and Fruity Pebbles.

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We had parked in DUMBO so we got to walk home over the bridge.  It was so hot and sticky but still super fun.

Another day, another bowl, this time a Chipotle date on our couch.

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I got salad with peppers and onions, chicken, mild salsa, green salsa, sour cream, and cheese.  Plus chips and a giant diet coke on the side.  We go to Chipotle so often that the counter staff recognizes us, which is the most embarrassing thing on earth, but we can’t stop!

The opposite of date night, I made this dinner by myself while Adam worked a 30 hour shift.

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My Cheesy Eggplant Bake with diced yellow onion and light Havarti added in so I could use up some leftovers.

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Plus a great salad.

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Red and green lettuce // dressed with lavender salt, evoo, honey, and balsamic vinegar // topped with sweet and spicy pecans, dried bing cherries, and chia seeds.

Any other drink freebie deals I should know about for this summer?