A Weak Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

I don’t have much to say or show, taking pictures was beyond me this week. Having to be a grown-up again after two weeks of vacation pretty much kicked my butt. I don’t have a single dinner shot but it’s no big deal because we ate Chipotle and/or pizza every night!

This week took so much coffee.

This non-fat eggnog iced latte was the best.

LÄRABAR sent me some of their new seasonal flavor, Gingerbread! It was yummy, and I loved how smooth the texture was.

A lunch.

That’s Wildwood Royal Thai Tofu with pumpkin butter and Sriracha mayo.

Apple, olives, cola float hard candies.

Bears.

I made caramel chip cookies.

Another lunch: 2% Fage with pumpkin butter and cookies, plus an apple.

I had to share this strawberry water because it was ridiculously delicious.

I hope everyone else had a good week!

1Dec2014

Thanksgiving Week

by Emily

Well, the two weeks are over and as of today I’m back at work. This was officially our best vacation of all time. You guys already know that San Francisco was wonderful and the past week visiting family in Ohio has been great as well. I didn’t want to take away any family time on snapping pictures, so I don’t have much to share about Thanksgiving. Instead, here are ten things about last week…

{1} We had to drive forever and a day to get to Piqua to visit my grandma. We packed some truly ridiculous car snacks.

{2} My grandma is a fantastic cook and she made us some great meals.

{3} She also introduced us to Basils on Market, a fun restaurant that served me a Tres Leches White Russian and cheese-stuffed gnocchi.

{4} We also got tasty coffee at Winans a few times. Adam was in love.

{5} But I preferred the iced latte with toasted marshmallow that I got at Sheetz.

{6} From my grandma’s we went to my brother-in-law’s for Turkey Day. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone, including our three nieces! Dinner was quite yummy. Adam and I brought wine, red and white, from Sonoma.

{7} For the first time ever, we did some Black Friday shopping. Barely. I needed to buy new bras and I planned to go on Saturday originally but then I felt silly going to the mall the day after the sales. We went late in the day when it wasn’t too crowded and I scored 4 new bras with a BOGO 50% off sale.

{8} Another long day of driving later, and we were home for round 2 of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie – Boulder Canyon’s Thanksgiving Feast in a Bag.

{9} We had beers with our chips. Coney Island Brewing sent me their newest seasonal flavor, The Plunge, a Belgian-style ale brewed with ginger, orange peel, and fennel. We were fans. I’m not always into Belgian ales but this was nice and light.

{10} Best thing of all: we’re finally back with our man!

20Nov2014

Loves Of Late, Winter Edition

by Emily

Some of the holiday-themed things that have been rocking my (warm, fuzzy) socks…

{1} Silk Holiday Nog

I am a total eggnog devotee – I can’t help but buy every ‘nog flavored item I spot – and I think Silk’s soy nog is better than any other iteration. It is just so darn good; super thick and sweet but only 80 calories per cup compared with more than double that in the original. And you can make the best overnight oats with it.

{2} Lay’s Wavy Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

Salty and sweet for the win. These have the perfect balance of chocolate to chip. I haven’t tried very many chocolate covered potato chips in my day, but these are definitely better than TJ’s kind. I don’t know why they are only available around Christmas, but Adam is ob-sessed with them.

{3} Old Factory Candles Gift Sets

Old Factory Candles (sold exclusively on Amazon) offered to send me one of their three-piece themed candle sets. Each candle burns for 20 hours and is hand-poured in the US with natural soy wax.

I chose “Happy Holidays,” obviously.

Gingerbread, Candy Cane, and Christmas tree. The ‘bread is sweet but not too spicy, the candy cane is pure peppermint goodness, and the tree totally makes up for the fact that we can’t have a real tree because the dog is a monster. I love them.

In fact, I’m such a fan I plan on buying more on my own. Just look at some of these clever lines – “Winter Wonderland” is hot cocoa, roasted chestnut, and first snow; “Coffee Shop” is coffee bean, hazelnut, and chai tea; and “High as a Kite” is cannabis, incense, and bag ‘o cookies!

P.S. Other than the candles which were sent to me to review, these products were purchased with my own money. I received no compensation (beyond the free goods) for this post. All opinions are my own.

19Nov2014

Pumpkin Beer Mini Round Up

by Emily

Let’s be real – this post isn’t for you guys, it’s for me. I needed a list of pumpkin beers to reference when I freak out next season because the first squashy brew has hit the shelves. Posting to the blog means that my personalized list will be readily pulled up on my cell phone. I promise the next post will be for you! Please do make recommendations in the comments though.

love it – must buy again

ACE, Pumpkin Hard Cider {#3}

Blue Moon, Cinnamon Horchata Ale (no, there’s no pumpkin, but this ale deserves a mention)

Great South Bay, Splashing Pumpkin (pumpkin ale)

Harpoon, Pumpkin Cider

Harpoon, UFO Pumpkin

Ithaca Beer Co, Country Pumpkin (pumpkin ale)

Rogue Farms, Pumpkin Patch Ale {#1}

Southern Tier, Warlock (imperial pumpkin stout) {#2}

like it – could take it or leave it

Elysian Punkuccino (coffee pumpkin ale)

Naked Flock, Pumpkin Cider

Port Jeff, Boo Brew

hate it – do not buy again

Captain Lawrence, Pumpkin Ale

Flying Dog, The Fear (imperial pumpkin ale)

Magic Hat, Wilhelm Scream

What are your favorite pumpkin beers?

14Nov2014

Weekly Wrap Up

by Emily

As of this morning, the cold of winter is finally here. Ugh. But I had a good final week of thin hoodies and no gloves. Good eats too! I did a lot of train eating – bars for breakfast, guava cheese empanadas… – but the LIRR was too packed for stealthy photography. Here’s what I did capture…

breakfast {coffee, coffee, coffee}

Never hot, I don’t care if it drops below zero, you can pry my iced coffee out of my cold, dead hands.

Chameleon cold brew with the last of the honey almond milk, which I loved.

Espresso! With milk and sugar.

I tried the chestnut praline latte from Starbucks. I really liked it.

Marshmallow cold brew.

lunch

Turkey, sharp cheddar, and pumpkin butter sandwich on a pumpkin spice English muffin. With an apple and bbq chips.

Plus the last cookie.

Maple raisin oatmeal with a red pear.

And an afternoon treat of Turkish coffee that a coworker brought in.

Dannon Creamery cherry cheesecake (yum, much better than the strawberry!) with chopped strawberries and blueberries. TJ’s kale chips. I passed the kale around the breakroom and my coworkers all said they might buy some themselves.

Dannon Creamery vanilla pudding with strawberries, plus the last of the kale chips and bbq chips. This was the best store-bought pudding I’ve ever tasted. And Adam stole the milk chocolate pudding and loved it.

I tried, and did not love, the new Coke.

dinner

When I got home on Monday, dinner was waiting in the crockpot for me.

Chicken with bbq sauce, smoked brown sugar, and fresh cranberries. I ate mine on a big bed of spinach.

We had salted caramel cheesecake and a yummy pumpkin beer for dessert.

Pizza and salad.

A giant bbq chicken slice from Pinos. The crust on these is amazing, super fluffy and light but still crunchy.

Plus Whole Foods hot bar – garlic broccoli, pickled cucumber, and salad with veggies on top.

We also got hot chocolate that we’d been excited about all week – supposedly it was made with ganache – that ended up being a big cup of hot milk.

You cant win ’em all.

10Nov2014

Lunch And Learn; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

I spent Friday and Saturday in New Jersey at a pediatric nutrition conference getting my learn on. A girlfriend, a co-worker, and I all went together and we had a very nice time. It stinks to lose a Saturday to “school,” but the lectures did include pediatric nutrition support, oncology, failure to thrive, and GI disorders; all big interests of mine. The conference ran for 8 hours each day but since it was only an hour or so away from the city I did get to have some fun with the husband in the evenings too.

Here are five favorites from the weekend…

{1} Saturday’s breakfast.

Getting to Jersey for the conference meant waking up by 5:30 both Friday and Saturday. On a typical workday, I should be up by 6:50; 50% of the time I set my alarm for 5:20, and 100% of the time I wake up after 7:10, so I was understandably a bit worried about the early wake-ups. I was excited about the conference so I managed, but Saturday was easier because Adam drove us in and I was looking forward to time in the car with him.

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the new cookie lattes – Snickerdoodle and Sugar Cookie – which were only okay,

and at La Bagel Delight for an everything bagel with jalopeño cheddar cream cheese.

That was great, obviously.

{2} Conference eats.

I didn’t do the best job of packing breakfast/lunch the first day and was not very happy throughout the afternoon. On Saturday, the three of us used the break to drive to Chipotle for a real lunch.

My friend and I split a rice bowl, which is always good.

And, as we were driving home I spotted a Sonic!!

Strawberry diet cokes are flipping amazing. My friend thought I was crazy for freaking out when we saw the sign, but once she tasted it she got it.

{3} Dinner in Koreatown.

Friday night, I met Adam in Penn Station (we took the train that day) and we walked over to Koreatown for dinner. There is a food court there that we had been dying to try.

We shared a steamed red bean bun.

Then got big bowls of bibimpap for dinner.

Mine, with tofu and tons of kimchi, was delicious.

We tried a canned coffee for dessert.

And stopped at Tous le Jours for mochi to share as well.

The chocolate was good but the maple was better. Soooo chewy.

{4} Sushi in Park Slope.

Saturday we ended up at Yamato, a favorite spot of Adam’s from when we lived in Brooklyn.

Salad with ginger dressing to start.

Veggie roll combo.

The cucumber avocado roll was the best, but I smothered everything in wasabi.

Plus we stopped and got hot chocolate for dessert.

That’s a homemade marshmallow!

{5} A package from Dannon Creamery.

Dannon’s newest line, Dannon Creamery sent me a super cool box of samples.

These desserts were sent to me free of charge to review. I received no further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

DC makes cheesecakes made with Greek yogurt plus three flavors of pudding, all averaging about 200 calories per serving/cup. I had tried the strawberry cheesecake on my own in the past and didn’t like it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the two other flavors I’ve tried so far.

Lemon cheesecake was opened pretty much the minute I got the package.

Nothing artificial about the topping and the mouthfeel of the cheesecake was great; I’m a fan!

I also quite enjoyed the dark chocolate pudding (with a leftover chocolate chip cookie).

I’m looking forward to the other flavors.

7Nov2014

No Sleep Till Brooklyn; Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

Oh my gosh, Brooklyn is so freaking great! <– I could probably just stop here, that pretty much sums up the salient points of this post

I was a little all over the place this week so I don’t have a ton of pictures to share, but Adam and I did go out to two amazing dinners that I need to rave about. Other than that, I have about 30% of breakfast/lunch/snacks.

The husband worked several overnight shifts this week and I took advantage of my alone time by making the super adult decision to stay up until 3am on a work night catching up on the entire new season of “Criminal Minds.”

source

Here are some snippets of cafeteria breakfasts…

That second thing was some biscuit/pastry Western omelet hybrid. Strange, but not bad.

And of course, there were many {many} coffees.

Yogurt bowl lunches…

KIND Banana Nut Clusters with my blackberries and butterscotch peanut butter with my raspberries.

And snacks at my desk…

I also bought the new peppermint cookie chocolate bites from Starbucks and they were great.

Now on to the good stuff, two amazing, fantastic, fantasmic, socks-rocking dinners in Brooklyn!

#1 Berlyn

This space was gorgeous. I couldn’t get any good shots of the décor (or the food for that matter!) but our table felt like it could be sitting in a clearing in some German forest.

I ordered the Hemingway Daiquiri and it ended up being the best cocktail I’ve ever been served.

The menu listed Caña Brava Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit juice, and lime juice, but I swear that I could also taste cinnamon in there. I liked it so much I kept us out late ordering a second round after dinner. Adam’s beer was amazing as well; I don’t remember it’s name but it positively reeked of honey.

We shared a house-made pretzel to start,

which came with the best honey mustard I’ve ever tasted. <– noticing a theme here?? I wouldn’t say that Berlyn is the best restaurant I’ve ever been to but many things on their menu were certainly the best ever in their categories.

Adam ordered pork schnitzel for his entrée so I decided to try two small dishes.

Potato pancakes that came topped with smoked trout and pickled cucumbers.

And fried Brussels sprouts with a pine nut aioli.

Best fried Brussels sprouts we’ve ever had and the aioli was seriously indescribably good. Adam and I both were gasping at how yummy it was.

The dessert course didn’t sound quite as terrific to us so we headed over to Four & Twenty Blackbirds for the best espresso in Brooklyn.

And came home with slices of pie to eat in front of “Brooklyn 99.”

My salted honey slice was legit.

#2 Thistle Hill Tavern <– from the owner of Talde and Pork Slope

I ordered a New Old Fashioned, which was made with Four Roses, Laird’s Applejack, maple bitters, lemon, and brown sugar.

So good, though bourbon is always good.

I started with the Kale Taco Salad. Kale dressed in salsa verde with cheddar, spicy pickled vegetables, and a fried tortilla.

This was the best kale salad I’ve ever eaten (<– I’ll stop now, promise!).

Dinner was the fish and chips with their famous salt and pepper fries.

I don’t know why I keep ordering fish and chips because I never eat much of the fried fish, but this was definitely the best version (sorry!) I’ve ever had.

Adam swooned his way through a slice of maple bourbon pumpkin pie,

but I held out for the best ice cream in the world, Ample Hills.

Good God. “No Sleep till Pumpkin” = coffee ice cream with pumpkin gooey butter cake and underneath was “PB Gets Fluffy” = marshmallow ice cream with chocolate flakes and homemade peanut butter cookie dough. Just fabulous. Neither of us could believe how good the pumpkin coffee flavor was.

What is the best restaurant in your city?

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.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: product review

A Weak Weekly Wrap-Up

Thanksgiving Week

Loves Of Late, Winter Edition

Pumpkin Beer Mini Round Up

love it – must buy again

like it – could take it or leave it

hate it – do not buy again

Weekly Wrap Up

breakfast {coffee, coffee, coffee}

lunch

dinner

Lunch And Learn; Weekend Wrap-Up

These desserts were sent to me free of charge to review. I received no further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn; Weekly Wrap-Up

source

Halloween Weekend Wrap-Up

Hallow’s Eats

Say Cheese

Burgers With Bear

Raw Review

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