Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

by Emily

I had a perpetual case of cranky-face this whole past week. Nothing concrete set it off – Adam and I haven’t had a fight in ages, the dog hasn’t been being a little monster, and my work week was pretty varied so it was more interesting and less stressful than usual – but I was constantly in a bad mood. I was also super hungry all week, which I guess probably was a trigger for some of my ire. It was a real bummer.

Rather than trying futilely to fight it, I plan on giving in and wallowing. I’m going to spend the next two days eating pizza and catching up on tv in the hopes that the grump works its way out of my system by Monday.

In the meantime, here are a few things that did make me smile last week…

{1} The best breakfast. How flipping cute are these Stumptown Cold Brew boxes???

Adam and I geeked out when we spotted them at WF.

And it was totally delicious; sweet and creamy. My Bananas Foster Larabar Uber wasn’t bad either.

To quote Lara – “It’s basically bananamazing!”

{2} The most on-theme lunch. Blueberries and caramel apple pie Greek yogurt, plus licorice and caramel apple Twizzlers for later.

I loved the licorice; apparently I am a fan even when it’s not enrobed in candy coating (though that’s not to say that I didn’t also eat Good & Plenty several times this week!). I was not a fan of the yogurt, though I can’t say that was really a surprise. In my endless quest to try every apple(pie) flavored item on the market there are bound to be a few losers.

Worst of all, it didn’t even fill me up, I got fries from the cafeteria as well.

{3} The best lunch. This day’s break was much more satisfying, the honey-chia combination was killer. I will be pairing those two up again soon.

With blueberries and a Hemp & Chia O’Coconut snack on the side.

{4} The best dinner. Eaten in two courses. First, a snack plate of baby carrots, buffalo blue cheese pretzel nuggets, TJ’s turkey jerky, and Tribe roasted vegetable hummus.

Then later, pizza pizza – buffalo chicken – and a side salad.

From Luigi’s if any locals are looking for a recommendation. The crust was so good; chewy almost like Naan!

{5} The best dessert {of the season}. I know, I know, I’m eating pumpkin in September, but the Ralph’s location near our apartment closed early last fall and it’s essential that I get my fill of this goodness before it goes away.

Salted caramel pretzel and pumpkin pie cream ices. <– best flavor ever.

What do you do to help yourself get over it when you’re feeling cranky?

22Jul2014

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve been pretty busy and I’m running a bit behind, but I ate some really yummy things last week so I didn’t want to skip the post. Here are some faves from last Monday through Friday…

break the fast

A purple smoothie.

Frozen blueberries and strawberries with maple syrup and vanilla almond milk.

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar, a Pink Lady apple, and iced coffee from Starbucks. I poured a splash of half and half into my coffee by accident last week and it ended up tasting so yummy that now it’s turned into a bad habit!

Day 2.

Caramel Almond & Sea Salt KIND Bar {former freebie}, a very juicy nectarine, and cafeteria coffee with skim milk and a splash of half and half.

ladies who lunch

Cafeteria meal.

Salad with broccoli, black-eyed peas, cheddar, balsamic, and a scoop of egg salad. Plus fries dipped in honey mustard on the side.

Sandwich.

Leftover bbq chicken on a Bagel Thin. With bread and butter pickles, chips, and cherries.

Yogurt.

Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Greek Yogurt with KIND Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds {former freebie} and cherries on the side. The yogurt was a limited edition that needs to become part of the permanent line-up. It was freaking incredible, sweet and tangy with little pieces of citrus spread throughout. I must find the watermelon variety.

snack attack

Chocolate-covered pretzels from Wegman’s.

I brought Adam some back from my Buffalo trip and made the mistake of tasting “just one.” Those things are addictive! It’s a good thing I didn’t do a taste-test in the store or I would have brought home pounds of them.

Trader Joe’s makes the best turkey jerky I’ve ever tasted.

I don’t know how the keep the texture sooooo soft.

Chocolate covered strawberry floats! Chocolate frozen yogurt in strawberry Crush.

We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

It was insane how much this tasted like a toasted marshmallow. It was pretty intense though, there is no way I could have finished more than half of this.

Baby spinach salad.

With sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, shredded carrot, evoo, honey, and lavender salt. My best salad combo to date.

dining on dinner

Salad atop salad.

The base was baby spinach with dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

Topped with pulled bbq chicken (and a pile of salt and vinegar chips in the back). Just boneless, skinless breasts cooked in the crockpot, shredded, and tossed with TJ’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

The sauce was wonderful, very sweet and a little spicy.

Pasta that was simple but good.

Whole-wheat rotini with browned mushrooms, ground turkey (sautéed with tons of garlic and dried oregano), frozen spinach, low-fat sour cream, and a can of tomato sauce.

This was one of those meals that seemed like it would need more flavor but then you kept eating until you were furiously scraping the bottom of the bowl.

National Thai with a girlfriend. I got spicy noodles with veggies. They were super chewy, had a good variety of vegetables, and were actually spicy; I’m pretty sure National has become my favorite Thai spot in the city.

Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

We ended up finding passable mango mojitos at a tiny Mexican spot in Park Slope. Their menu also mentioned watermelon daiquiris, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back again this Friday.

what’s happening

I was getting into such a great groove with my workouts, but then I got excited and upped the length of my runs too quickly. My right knee was horrifically swollen and the husband told me to stay out of the gym until the inflammation went down. Boo!!! I took a week completely off from exercise (minus a few long walks this weekend) and popped anti-inflammatories and iced like crazy. I’m going to start back in with short, easy workouts this week and continue to ice regularly. I’m going a little stir-crazy so please cross your fingers for me!

On a more positive note, I just finished reading Fault Lines by Nancy Huston and I’m recommending it to pretty much everyone.

It’s a story about a family and each section of the book is told from the perspective of a different generation. Huston did a great job of building the story in layers. The parts of the story that were told through the lens of childhood were wonderfully done.

It is my 29th birthday this Thursday. We can’t fit in any celebrating this week so Adam and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia this past weekend. I gave that its own post because this one was getting too long, but we had a wonderful time.

Have you spotted the new Chobani varieties in your area yet? Has anyone tasted watermelon??

11Jul2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Play It Again, Sam!

by Emily

This week’s meals were so good that I went ahead and had most of them a 2nd time. Always nice when you can make leftovers work in your favor. And I even have a recipe to share.

breakfast

Breakfasts came from this sweet package courtesy of Nonni’s – Biscotti Bites.

Please note – I was sent these products free of charge to sample. I was not provided with additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently introduced two new flavors: Double Chocolate Salted Caramel (salty and sweet, with the occasional extra-exciting pocket of caramel) and Very Berry Almond (sweet in an understated way; nice for breakfast). All three flavors have ~40 calories per cookie.

I packaged them up for breakfasts at work. With coffee, of course.

These were not quite as good as the amazing Almond Thins, but I was still a fan. Want to try some for yourself? Nonni’s is hosting a giveaway –

To encourage fans to experience the fresh-baked greatness for themselves, Nonni’s Biscotti is hosting a series of giveaways on their social pages. The “Who’s on top?” giveaway will begin July 14, where fans can help Nonni’s decide which of Nonni’s three Biscotti Bites flavors is the most favored, for a chance to win free products!

On Tuesday, I mixed things up with a smoothie instead.

Frozen blueberries and banana with vanilla almond milk, maple syrup, and lavender. YUM!

lunch

Lunches were all about the (chicken)salad. I made another Asian-inspired take on the classic. This time, I borrowed the flavors from our favorite Vietnamese sandwich – the Bahn Mi.

Bahn Mi Chicken Salad, Yields: 6 servings; Hands-on Time: 15 minutes

2 cups shredded carrots
1 and 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup Sriracha

In a large bowl, combine carrots, cucumber, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Let sit, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
Drain all of the liquid off of the vegetables.
Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss until well-combined.

On Monday, I brought a bigggg bowl of chicken salad, with a piece of baguette, and fresh cherries.

Wednesday was chicken salad on a bagel thin with butter lettuce, plus cherries, and McClure’s Bloody Mary Chips. <– the chips were spicy, but not as flavorful as I was hoping they would be

I don’t have access to a fridge on Tuesdays, so I did regular green salad from the cafeteria. With black-eyed peas, pickled jalopeños, shredded mozzarella, and Italian dressing on top.

For Thursday, I packed leftover salad and the last of the cherries.

But then after a very quiet morning we were slammed all afternoon and I didn’t have time for lunch. I ended up eating coffee and a KIND bar at my desk while I worked.

At least I have a nice lunch waiting for me today!

snack

Several slices of leftover pizza, which grew on me once it was cold.

The leftover ice cream sandwiches were not bad either.

Jelly Belly.

This yogurt bowl was the best thing of the week. Fage 2% Greek yogurt with a layer melted Cacao Bliss underneath!

Coconut water to rehydrate after a trip to the gym. This TJ’s kind was delicious.

Speaking of the gym, I’ve been keeping up with it! I realized that yesterday had been 20 days since I started getting activity back into my life; another ten days or so and hopefully a month of being consistent will help the habit stick!

dinner

I was tooting my own horn pretty loudly every evening this week; these dinners were all fantastic. That said, I apparently don’t have pictures from Monday night and I cannot for the life of me remember what we ate! Probably more chicken salad.

These bowls seem like a mishmosh of ingredients, but everything went together well. Kath’s low and slow sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, and canned baked beans, topped with shredded cheese, pickled jalopeños, and plain Greek yogurt.

Apparently Adam does not want baked beans with his sweet potato again any time soon, but I thought they was good.

Salad night.

Butter lettuce and shredded cabbage topped with Hemp Hearts and Mahi Mahi – I baked the fish with lemon juice, coconut oil, and smoked paprika. For our dressing, I mashed together tons of ripe avocado with lime juice, hot sauce, salt, fresh cilantro, and evoo. Everything tossed together was ah-mazing.

We morphed our salad leftovers into tacos the next night.

Soft tortilla with shredded carrots and cabbage, mahi mahi, avocado sauce, green Tabasco, and cheese.

Plus pineapple hard cider from ACE.

ACE’s website informs me that they sell a honey apple cider. I’m going to need to find that immediately.

Does your family rely on leftovers or do you crave something new each night?

14Jun2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster

by Emily

O. M. G. I was so flipping hungry all week, it was annoying. I was basically starving. <– if you haven’t seen CK Louis’ SNL intro monologue yet, go watch it immediately.

Stream of consciousness style, here is a sampling of some of this week’s insane snack consumption…

Other bars for breakfasts came courtesy of this sweet samples package from KIND.

I’ve flirted with loving different brands bars off and on, but throughout the years KIND products have remained some of my very favorites, so I was thrilled to try some of their new products. The two newest bar flavors are ridiculous good. They are all low in sugar – 5 grams of sugar or less and they don’t use artificial sweeteners – and are a good source of fiber and protein. Adam and I were both impressed by the Caramel Almond & Sea Salt.

And Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond knocked my socks off. New all-time favorite! This is what I always wish mocha would taste like.

Their Grain Clusters, basically granola, are a unique blend of gluten-free oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat; each 50g serving provides more than one full serving of whole grains. The Fruit and Nut Clusters made great yogurt bowls for lunches this week.

With blackberry lime Greek yogurt and blueberries plus a sour sop coconut water on the side.

And with sour sop yogurt(!!!) with blueberries and Cacao Bliss.

On Tuesday I did a salad from the cafeteria. Topped with pickled vegetables and a big scoop of chicken salad.

On Wednesday Adam had the day off so we met up for a lunch date!

Our meals cost only $10 each for huge plates of noodles and an appetizer.

And on Friday I packed Fage with passion fruit and clementine, nectarines, and TJ’s freeze-dried apples.

The apples were insanely good and I want more immediately. I planned on supplementing my smaller lunch with food from the cafeteria but it was a coworker’s last day so I had cake instead.

In spite of my copious snacking, I was too hungry to properly deal with dinner during the first half of the week.

My Bare Burger turkey burger – with smoked mozzarella, fried onions, all of the pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup – was amazing and I ended up ordering one two days in a row!

When I finally did get around to making my own dinners like an adult, I had an assist from Pirate’s Booty.

They just introduced a line of macaroni and cheese and they sent me some samples to try out. The price, flavor, and texture were very comparable to other boxed mac and cheese options, but Pirate’s Booty uses organic pasta and contains no artificial colors or flavors.

We ended up with two very fancy feeling semi-homemade dinners.

Night one, I stirred roasted mini heirloom tomatoes in to the mild cheddar macaroni.

On top of spinach salads – baby spinach topped with chopped pecans, crumbled blue cheese, 1 tsp each honey and evoo, and a sprinkle of truffle salt.

Night two was another side-by-side bowl of greens and ‘cheese.

My veggie side was a simplified take on Jenna’s baked beans.

I just baked chopped kale with a can of beans, cup of whiskey maple bbq sauce, a scoop of Bone Suckin’ Mustard, and a ton of chopped garlic.

My pasta was aged white cheddar shells with TJ’s frozen mushroom medley and some sweet cheddar.

Delicious! I plan on buying both the shells and the mushrooms this weekend so I can make this meal again.

What is your family’s favorite way to gussy up boxed macaroni and cheese?

30May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

by Emily

Today does not feel like a Friday to me at all (tomorrow, technically, while I’m writing this post). I keep being pleasantly surprised, a perk of the Monday off.

This was a strange week for me in terms of hunger; y’all know that I usually eat enough food to sustain a small village, but thanks to a migraine and a day of leftover migraine ickiness my hunger has been on hiatus. Thanks to less food eaten, and less time since my last post, I actually have photos of 95% of my eats! All you’re really missing is several more iced coffees with skim milk and nibbles while I cooked the dinners.

Off we go…

I am obsessed with Brooklyn Roasting Company and Adam sweetly surprised me with a tin of their Iris Espresso {maple / sugar-plum / cocoa / spice} this weekend.

I was so excited about it that I woke up early enough on Tuesday to brew and drink a cup of coffee before leaving for work! This blend is legit, even from our crappy coffee maker this was my favorite cup of BRC yet.

Even leftover the next day, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and SCM, it was delicious.

Cafeteria lunch.

Sweet onion kettle chips and a cup of buffalo blue cheese soup from the cafeteria.

Do you remember the cup of amazing bbq sauce that Fletcher’s sent me home with? We used it in amazing sandwiches.

This was the best meal of the week.

We doused some chopped roasted chicken in our sauce, then served it on onion buns with a schmear of Miracle Whip.

The veggie component was baby bok choy, mushrooms, and shredded carrot, cooked with evoo, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and hot pepper jam, with sesame seeds and fried shallots tossed in at the end.

I don’t cook bok choy enough, it’s one of my favorites.

Yogurt lunch. I stirred together fresh blueberries, a mix of Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares, and a pineapple Chobani. Plus an apple on the side.

I didn’t think to check the label before I bought it, but apparently the new 100 calorie Chobani line is sweetened with stevia and monk fruit?! Yuck. I hate the taste of stevia, but realized it was in there too late after everything was stirred together.

I had big plans for Wednesday’s dinner – I was going to make two sets of meals so I was prepped for the rest of the week – but instead I rolled around with a migraine. When I finally was ready to eat it was after 10 pm, so I just made a sandwich.

I’m not really complaining though, at least it was an exciting sandwich.

French toast bagel topped with 2 slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey, an egg, and 1 oz of Brie.

Oatmeal lunch.

Blueberry hazelnut oatmeal from Quaker topped Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter to continue the theme. Plus an Ambrosia apple that was sweet and juicy.

Dipping snack.

Baby carrots with Sabra olive tapenade hummus. I liked the blend of two of my favorite Mediterranean flavors.

Ridiculous cookies.

Adam and I aren’t quite sure what to think of them. 150 calories for 2 cookies is pretty horrifying when you realize the cookies are practically silver dollar sized.

Last night I made the easier of Wednesday’s planned meals.

The Za’atar veggie burgers were part of my box from Sweet Earth Foods.

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

The burgers were nowhere near as good as the terrific bacon, but they weren’t bad. Sadly the flavor was fairly “Bland, now with spices.” But I liked the textural aspect of the flax seeds. And they cooked up very quickly, making them an easy 230 calorie, 6 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein vegan option. I went back and topped mine with mustard.

On the side was TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch Collection – kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and green and red cabbage – sautéed with champagne pear vinaigrette, chopped pecans, and dried blueberries.

I forgot our fresh corn on the cob in the fridge, but we didn’t even miss it once we tasted how good the vegetables were. I highly recommend adding dried blueberries the next time you sauté greens.

FYI – I wrote a guest post on prenatal nutrition on Kath Eats.

10May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; NYC Loves

by Emily

Heeeeey! Long time no blog! Adam’s brother was in town last weekend for a fabulous, whirlwind visit and we’ve been pretty busy ever since. I’ve been bone-achingly tired all week, but it was more than worth it to get to share some of our favorite parts of Brooklyn with my brother-in-law.

It’s been forever – and I have not been photographing 90% of what goes in my mouth – so I’m just going to go through the major highlights from the past week. This post is part Weekly Wrap-Up, part Loves of Late…

Smorgasburg in Williamsburg

Fellow New Yorkers, have you made it to Smorgasburg yet?! If not, you’ve got to get on that! Assembling on Saturdays in the East River State Park and Sundays at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5 (DUMBO), this parking lot full of food vendors will knock your socks off. I get legitimate anxiety trying to decide which fabulous things to taste.

Here is just a small sampling of some of the tasty things we tried last weekend. Yellow plum and chai shaved ice from People’s Pops.

Blue Bottle, obvs.

A Bahn Mi chicken hot dog from Asia Dog.

Sugar cane lemonade.

And the boardwalk fries from Home Frite.

{from the website: malt aioli made with Brooklyn Brewery Beer and fries seasoned with hickory smoked salt and malt vinegar powder}

Heavenly.

We also had biscuits, Horchatta, and other things I’m sure I’m forgetting.

Mixology Class at Harding’s

Happily for me, I recently received a media invite to attend the first of Harding’s monthly mixology classes.

Please note – I attended this event free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here is what they have to say about the class –

Americana-chic Flatiron parlor, Harding’s, is shaking up the first Tuesday of each month with the launch of a new hands-on mixology class series. Starting Tuesday, May 6, Harding’s head mixologist will lead participants through an interactive 1-hour session to instill the building blocks of mixology (for instance, the difference between bourbon and rye, and why James Bond should have ordered his martinis “stirred—not shaken”), fundamental mixology techniques, and the methods behind three seasonally inspired cocktails, each month built around a new theme: … June will illuminate the lighter, brighter side of whiskey. In July, spicy jalapeno and ginger-infused cocktails will most certainly set off fireworks. [August covers infusions and September will go back to the basics with classic cocktails.] Complimentary light snacks will also be provided.

May’s class was all floral pairings – lavender and rosewater – aka it was perfect for me. My thoughts… I loved it! The classes cost $35 per person and I think that price is more than worth it; you have the opportunity to drink a minimum of 10 oz of liquor and Derrick Turner – head mixologist for Harding’s and teacher of the class and creator of the cocktails – was both funny and informative. P.S. The light snacks? Included soft pretzels with dipping sauce.

We learned, among other things, how to use a cocktail shaker, what makes bourbon different from vodka, and how to do a bar pour {8 seconds = 2 oz = 1 pour}.

We made three drinks, all of which were fantastic. For obviously reasons, I’m just naming a few components and not giving the entire recipes.

#1: Suzanne Collins, a Tom Collins with rose water and pink peppercorn. And a candied orange topper.

#2: Roseberry, a whiskey drink with raspberries, rosemary, and lavender. <– this one was clearly my favorite

#3: Maidens Blush, vodka with cherry liquor and sparkling Brut.

And at the end of the class we got to go one-on-one with the other participants in a cocktail making challenge.

My sparkling vodka, lemon, lavender cocktail did not win, but when they saw how jazzed I was about the lavender simple syrup they packaged the rest up for me to take home!

TLDR? Mixology class at Harding’s / more than worth the $35 / go get wasted, in a classy, educational way / then eat soft pretzels.

Frozen Treats in NYC

Have you seen the Buzzfeed article 44 Frozen Treats You Need to Try in NYC This Summer? Uggh. I am determinedly working my way through them one by one. I’ve already crossed off a slightly concerning amount.

This week I conquered #15 – the alcoholic Kelvin Slush from Pork Slope.

They had frozen mint juleps for the Derby. I went back two days in a row and am basically heartbroken that the julep won’t be a part of the regular menu.

#30 – Fruit soft-serve at Chloe’s.

I got a banana and dark chocolate swirl. It was fine, but nothing I would go back for, though Adam loved his strawberry mango.

And #35 – gummy bear cream ice from Ralph’s.

This gummy creamy marriage was everything I was hoping it would be. I normally hate vanilla ice creams but the milky base used here was the perfect complement to the bears.

What is rocking your face off in your city this summer?

18Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

by Emily

Who else has been hitting the chocolate eggs this week? Easter candy abounds! We are spending the holiday with my in-laws – all three of our nieces! – so I’m going radio-silent on the blog front this weekend to focus on family time. I’m planning on skipping my weekend post, I’m not even packing a camera, and I’ll be back with a weekly wrap-up next Friday.

breakfast

Iced Americano with chocolate milk.

I tried the cafeteria breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with turkey and veggie sausage. The coffee cup held wonderful Cisse milk chocolate vanilla bean hot chocolate.

lunch

Oatmeal.

Quaker Honey and Almonds with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

And an apple.

Plus I snagged this delicious, thick!, strawberry lemonade from the cafeteria.

Egg salad.

We made awesome egg salad for lunches this week; medium-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and green and red pepper, miracle whip, pickle relish, mustard, and dill. Packed in a whole wheat pocket thin.

Plus wasabi seaweed and grapes.

The next day was chicken salad. A whole wheat bagel thin with chicken salad, fontina cheese, and pickled jalopeños.

Plus an apple to take away some of the heat. Peppers were the perfect addition to that sandwich.

I packed cookies, but I put them aside for a treat my coworker brought it, an Easter bun with cheese.

snack

Easter candy, duh.

Juicy bears.

Cafe Dada iced coffee that the husband sweetly delivered when he picked me up from work one day.

Cookies.

Cereal bowl.

This was a sample of Graham Crunch from Cascadian Farm with vanilla almond milk.

Very tasty. This stuff is just begging to be made into cereal s’mores bars.

I made my new favorite milkshake for Adam and myself.

Coffee frozen Greek yogurt with chocolate milk and toasted coconut.

Bubble teas from Kung Fu Tea. Coffee milk tea for me.

dinner

Dinner at a diner.

I got an eggplant parm panini.

It was yummy but ridiculously filling.

And then we had pie!

Cream pie! My slice was banana cream.

It was flipping fantastic.

Chicken salad.

Big piles of Nana’s chicken salad.

With roasted green beans.

On Wednesday we went to Williamsburg for dinner with a girlfriend. She took us to Snacky.

It was fantabulous. The space was adorable and the menu was all my favorite things. Adam and I split a salad with seaweed and sesame dressing.

And I got a rice bowl with spicy bbq miso chicken, plus kimchi and a fried egg.

I swooned my way through that bowl. It was perfect, exactly my favorite meal.

And we made similar(ish) bowls for dinner at home the next day.

A hash of chopped sweet potato, browned mushrooms, sliced spinach, green onions, and smoked trout with rosemary and smoked paprika. Topped with a fried egg.

Put an egg on it!

Have a great weekend!

16Apr2014

Our Weekend Trip To Buffalo

by Emily

We moved from Buffalo to Long Island almost 10 months ago now and we felt overdue for a visit! Adam is on Spring Break this week so I took a personal day on Friday and we made the 8 hour drive back “home.”

It was a great weekend. I’m still pretty sick so we kept things low-key and it ended up being a wonderfully relaxing trip. And we still had time to cross off all of the must-do’s on our list. We ate all of the food we were missing, walked down Elmwood, visited my old job to get all nostalgic and purchase some terrific toys, attended a baby shower for two dear friends, went out drinking with the whole crowd, and took a long walk around the park to look at the buffalo.

Here were the food highlights…

Bubble tea from Gin Gin.

I got vanilla-almond milk tea with tapioca and popping boba.

Thai Orchid for the best Thai food ever.

My tofu Pad See Ew did not disappoint. So chewy!

SPoT for breakfast.

Iced coffee and a Mike’s sandwich on an everything bagel.

Juice at Ashker’s. A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, and carrot.

We split a duck feast at Blue Monk. Duck Reuben and Duck Poutine.

And on the way out-of-town Danielle took us to Aroma for a brunch that would have been a weekly tradition had we known about it while we still lived in Buffalo.

That Buffalo Bloody Mary had gorgonzola and Frank’s in it! And my salad came topped with artichoke hearts, calamata olives, fried leeks, tomatoes, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, balsamic vinaigrette and a poached Oles Farm free-range egg.

It was a fantastic, delicious visit.

The long car rides weren’t even that bad – honestly they were sort of fabulous – thanks to the audiobook I was sent to review. Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons is an exciting debut novel about medicine and moral dilemmas in which a surgeon must confront, outwit, and overcome deadly threats to his patients and himself. The audiobook is voiced by Robert Petkoff, who has voiced countless thrillers, including those of Michael Palmer.

This was our first time listening to an audiobook and I think we are officially hooked. It made the time fly by. Time for a book review…

cons –

Some of the medical terms were mispronounced – fascia, parenteral nutrition, rhabdomyolysis – and it was distracting.
The author was weirdly obsessed with hairdos; there was only one lone character, out of every single other character both big or small, whose hair we didn’t get a description of.

pros –

The story completely sucked us in, we would sit in the car for at least five additional minutes whenever we reached a destination!
The experience of being a surgical resident was very accurately captured, Adam couldn’t believe how spot-on the author managed to be.
Most of the medical plot was fairly accurate as well.

Overall I’d recommend reading, or listening to, Doing Harm.

Do you ever listen to audiobooks?

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

break the fast

ladies who lunch

snack attack

dining on dinner

what’s happening

Weekly Wrap-Up; Play It Again, Sam!

breakfast

Please note – I was sent these products free of charge to sample. I was not provided with additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekly Wrap-Up; Snack Monster

Weekly Wrap-Up; Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

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

Weekly Wrap-Up; NYC Loves

Smorgasburg in Williamsburg

Mixology Class at Harding’s

Please note – I attended this event free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Frozen Treats in NYC

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Our Weekend Trip To Buffalo