Tag Archives: peppers

I Am A Little Stitious

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Hello, 2024! I am not superstitious, but I do like to start every new year with a run and some traditionally lucky foods. This year we got in black eyed peas, collard greens, and grapes. Plus something sweet for a sweet year!

Highlights from a tasty week…

1/1/24 brunch date at For Five while I set up my planner.

I got a roasted turkey sandwich with cheese, sprouts, and avocado.

Plain skyr with strawberries, persimmon, and sugar cookie granola.

These jelly sakes are my favorite drink. Related – we played trivia at a bar midweek and got to try Abomination Brewing’s Christmas cookie Fog Nog (fantastic).

Hawaiian fruit jellies; the starfruit and passionfruit ones were obviously the best.

The best snack plate of the year – Trader Joe’s Chicken Tikka samosas (with spicy truffle mayo and plum sauce) / Lolliberry strawberries / jam grapes.

Not a bad runner up – soy marinated eggs / cucumber / cheddar.

Dinner on the 1st – sauteed collard greens with green onion and garlic and black eyed pea salad with garlic and black pepper almonds, green bell pepper, Kerrygold Dubliner cheddar, and mayo and chipotle Cholula.

We tried the Bombay Sando from Oak and Orange – toasted ciabatta with grilled chicken, amul cheese, seasoned potatoes, pickled red onions, and a housemade chutney. Plus the best green smoothie I’ve ever made – frozen spinach, banana, and cherries, fresh tangerine, and water.

Sheetpan hash. Roasted brussels sprouts, grapes, poblano peppers, sweet potato, and chili verde chicken sausage with green onion and dried cranberries. I went back and topped this with a maple-Cholula aioli.

Bunches And Tons

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Posting a day early because it’s our wedding anniversary (!!) and we are going out to a camera-free dinner! 

Yummy things from this week…

I made cinnamon chestnut scones. 

Gnubees lemon coconut fruit shake. Not super exciting but a pleasant flavor and a good pre-gym snack for us.

I really liked the new bananas foster Chobani Greek yogurt. It was a tiny bit too sweet for toppings but a really nice flavor. With persimmon, tangerine, and sugar cookie granola.

No one is surprised that I’ve expanded fancy holiday nachos to include red and green nachos for Christmas! These were loaded – and giant – and delicious. Potato chips / sharp cheddar / sauteed dinosaur kale / chopped broccoli rabe sauteed with tons of garlic / red baby bell peppers sauteed with Trader Joe’s sweet and hot pickled jalapeños / fennel duck sausage.

Sushi roll (ish) bowls. Brown rice mixed with roasted cauliflower rice and rice vinegar — we loved this and want to do it again / furikake / canned tuna and salmon with Kewpie and Sriracha / chopped baby cucumbers with sauteed orange bell pepper, rice vinegar, sugar, and Sriracha / avocado / sesame seeds / pickled ginger.

We turned our leftovers (cauliflower/rice, kale, garlic broccoli rabe, and duck sausage plus eggs, soy sauce, and Sriracha) into the best fried rice!

‘Twas Christmas

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Merry Christmas to all my readers who celebrate! Some fun things from the past few days…

Dalgona iced latte with eggnog!

I was off from work on Friday and I took some review materials to a local coffee shop for a cinnamon iced latte and a matcha sugar cookie.

Lunch at Sup Vietnamese. I got the shaking beef.

And a Thai iced tea.

A very orange tasting plate dinner. Baked wontons / baby bell peppers / crispy baked chicken fingers with panko, egg, flour, sisig seasoning, and smoked paprika / a ranch onion dip situation with sour cream, Kewpie, ranch seasoning, chives, sautéed shallot, and white cheddar.

These Muddy Bites were a 9.5/10, very satisfying.

We went out as a family to admire Christmas lights with cups of drinking chocolate — our favorite holiday tradition after Thanksgiving nachos!

(Pepper)Mint To Be

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Highlights from a tasty week…

Peppermint coffee – candy cane cold brew from Blank Street.

This week’s home coffee combo wasn’t my best. I did not care for the Browny cold brew, too sour. The Ronnybrook egg nog was crazy thick, almost too thick, so it was good but not my favorite.

Peppermint breakfast – a chocolate mint Perfect Bar and a peppermint mocha La Colombe can.

Peppermint doughnut – Doughnut Project‘s peppermint bark.

Peppermint watermelon is my favorite Aura Bora seltzer flavor.

Peppermint booze – Smirnoff peppermint vodka with lime and club soda (and food coloring!).

Six Point Bone Chill pear and spruce double IPA (8.5/10).

Peppermint mini meringues – from Trader Joes. 

Peppermint ice cream – with candy cane bits, fudge, and cookies.

I had the day off on Thursday and spent the afternoon admiring decorations in the city and got lunch at Chelsea Market. Very Fresh Noodles‘ very spicy vegan dan dan mian. These were super spicy and numbing and wonderful and topped with crunchy soybeans and cucumber salad that were the perfect foils.

It was Adam’s birthday on Monday and his dinner choice was Subway. I got a tuna salad sub with mustard, pickles, banana peppers, and cheese. Plus leftovers from Sunday in Brooklyn – brussel sprouts and the amazing roast chicken.

And I made him his favorite cinnamon brownies – just the Bakers Chocolate one-bowl recipe with 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of nuts and 2 tsp of cinnamon extract instead of vanilla.

Salad #1 – romaine / homemade ranch dressing – sour cream, dijon mustard, ranch seasoning / red bell pepper / pickled banana peppers / homemade croutons / baked chicken – marinated in Greek yogurt and banana pepper juice.

Salad #2 – romaine / homemade ranch dressing – sour cream, Cholula, lime, ranch seasoning / sauteed ground turkey with Rotel / avocado / hot honey cashews.

Salad #3 – mixed greens / homemade miso dressing – with brown sugar, lime, rice vinegar, and soy sauce / homemade baked wonton crisps with togarashi / cucumber / water chestnuts / baked extra-firm tofu coated in a mix of honey mustard pretzel and roasted seaweed.

Thankful 2023

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I hope all of my American readers had a lovely Turkey Day! My parents flew up yesterday evening and we got to spend the holiday together. They are here through the long weekend and it is going to be a great visit. I am feeling extra grateful for family time this year – my grandmother passed away earlier this month at 94 years old. I am obviously sad, but mostly I have been feeling thankful. Thankful that I had my grandmother until my late thirties and she remained her funny, gracious, smart as a whip self until the end. Thankful she died so soon after her birthday and we had all just gotten to see her. Thankful we had such a perfect last visit – I took her out for lobster and she ate every bite and we went to a family birthday dinner and she and I shared nachos and had a wonderful talk about her life and my grandpa.

I am also grateful for cheese and good coffee, both of which I got to enjoy this week! Highlights included…

Look at my impressive stash of on-theme snacks! I was very pleasantly surprised by the popcorn.

And drinks!

Wired Coffee‘s holiday specials include a tiramisu cold foam and it was just divine.

Plain skyr with fresh persimmon, maple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and granola.

Roast‘s holiday specials are unmatched – Thanksgiving crunchwrap with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry jam, crispy onions, green beans, and stuffing / potato croquettes with cheddar, green onion, and a side of ranch. Plus homemade green beans – sauteed with garlic, lemon, and honey dijon.

This stuffing-inspired fried cauliflower rice was one of the best dishes I’ve ever made. Riced cauliflower stir-fried with smoked turkey, celery, yellow onion, portabella mushroom, butter, dried cranberries, spiced pecans, and eggs.

But the best dish of the week was Thanksgiving nachos. These nachos are at least a quarter of why my parents wanted to brave the cold and visit now. Trader Joe’s stuffing chips, white cheddar, swiss, gouda, smoked turkey, poblano peppers, and cranberry sauce. Plus sided of roasted cauliflower and brussel sprouts.

Plus for dessert we ate Ben & Jerry’s pecan pie ice cream (I thought it was only fine, basically butter pecan, but my mom and Adam were fans) with homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Cinnamon And Sugar Cookie

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Things from the weekend…

I signed up for an online CEU in GI Nutrition this weekend. The speakers were former UVA colleagues so that was neat! It was four+ hours on a Saturday though so I needed a fun breakfast – Adam and I split a Roast breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, avocado, crispy potato, peppers and onions, hot sauce aioli, and I added sliced turkey) and fries.

Starbucks’ new sugar cookie cold foam is tasty but not as good as chocolate or pumpkin. Sandwiched between shots of espresso and cinnamon dolce sprinkles.

I made a dalgona iced coffee with cinnamon and chocolate milk (YUM).

Paired with an 88 Acres oatmeal chocolate chip bar that was also quite cinnamon-y.

I paired Whole Food’s hot bar chicken tenders and charred broccoli – and a hard boiled egg – with every kind of dipping sauce (ranch, blue cheese, Roast house sauce, honey mustard, bbq).

Dinner at Sandro’s, which someone at work highly recommended for Long Island Italian.

It was good! I got garlic broccoli rabe and the Mafaldine pasta with pesto, tomato sauce, Stracciatella, and toasted pine nuts. This was so satisfying.

Squash Your Winter Blues

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It’s a short work-week for me because tonight I head to Ohio to celebrate my grandmother’s NINETY-FOURTH birthday! She moved into an assisted living facility that she loves since I last saw her and I am so excited to catch-up!

Highlights from an incredibly tasty week…

Pumpkin smoothie – pumpkin puree, cottage cheese, maple syrup, cinnamon, and ice.

We consumed our spookiest pumpkin beers while watching Goosebumps (Roadsmary’s Baby – 9/10 and Howling Gourds – Adam’s favorite). Also mystery-flavor, black-tinted Fanta!

I made a batch of the best-ever pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

It’s Pumpkin Month but my apple line-up was top-notch. Snap Dragon, Cosmic Crisp, and Lady Alice.

These Trader Joe’s Crunchy Curls are probably the most satisfying snack food; 12/10, perfect crunch, texture, and flavor.

How cute are these little strawberry gummies I found at Target??!

Pumpkin chili! Ground turkey, pink beans, yellow onion, bell peppers, chicken broth, pumpkin puree, tomato paste, fish sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper, urfa chili, gochugaru, smoked paprika, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Topped with cheese, sour cream, and pickled jalopenos.

Plus we snacked on Trader Joe’s pumpkin tortilla chips with salsa while we cooked.

Egg tofu with mushroom gravy. I used shitake and brown beech mushrooms and served on top of riced cauliflower. We loved this (especially topped with Sriracha and chili crisp).

Winter veggie sheet-pan hash. I roasted butternut squash, Trader Joe’s cruciferous crunch mix, and chicken and mushroom sausages with sweet and spicy candied pecans and sharp-cheddar. Topped with a miso maple mustard vinaigrette.

Pumpkin GOAT

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Highlights from the weekend…

Pumpkin Noosa (the best pumpkin yogurt of the month) with caramel apple granola.

Pumpkin spice Chobani with apple pie granola and frozen/warmed berries and cherries. Plus a pour-over coffee with a cinnamon and vanilla bean cold foam!

Southern Tier is the greatest of all time when it comes to pumpkin flavored alcohol.

Paris Baguette brie and cranberry croissant. This was great. I also tried an everything cream cheese croissant from Whole Foods that was only ok.

Perfect peanut butter and berry layers bar. Delicious. I’ve been very into things with a jammy layer recently (I had a Jenny’s doughnut ice cream over vacation with a mind-blowing jam swirl).

Someone at work gave Adam these spicy cashews and they are hands-down the best nuts I’ve ever eaten.

Good enough to salvage this very lackluster Cup Noodles flavor.

Taco bowls. Roasted cabbage with Sichuan pepper salt, cilantro, and lime / turkey sauteed with yellow onion, poblano pepper, and spices / double roasted tomato salsa / everything and the elote dip / sharp cheddar.

Enchilada-inspired casserole. Trader Joe’s black bean and cheese taquitos baked with a topping of roasted zucchini, leftover turkey, salsa, sour cream, and cheese. <– I will be making this again