We moved! On Saturday, June 29th, we did a final pack-up and traded in our Buffalo life for one in Long Island/Queens. Things have been crazy, and I have a lot to figure out still, but I think we’re going to like it here.
We were lucky to have no major issues with the move, but every little thing that could go wrong certainly did! Lots of rain, miscommunication with companies, and sleepless nights. I was very glad that a friend tagged along on my drive to the city to help me with Webster.
I have eaten an insane amount of food over the past week (moving is hungry business!) but I’ve been too busy to capture most of it on film. I also don’t have apartment pictures to share with y’all yet (sorry, Nana!). Here is what I do have to share…
A Random Snack
Getting all of our stuff out of my in-laws’ basement involved multiple 3+ hour trips. Between traffic, tolls, accidents, tailgaters, and our general level of frustration, these trips were pretty brutal. Staying awake involved lots of caffeine and munching (case in point – one day I ate a bag of Cheetos for lunch and a bag of Cheez-its for dinner!). One bright spot in the mandatory snacking was this bag of Sponch cookies.
I hadn’t seen this brand in Buffalo, but if you spot them in your area – get them! They are shortbread cookies topped with marshmallow, coconut, and jam.
So flipping good.
A Few Free Samples**
**The products mentioned in this section of the post were provided for me to sample free of charge. All opinions are my own.
Right before the move, someone from Best Price Nutrition contacted me to see if I would like to try a couple of products. The timing was perfect because their box beat me to the new apartment and we lived the first few days without any of our kitchen boxes. They sent me some sample sized vitamins and whey protein.
The vitamin packs were from the Nature’s Way Alive! Once Daily Women’s line.
Nutritional note – the stats on this vitamin make it a pretty good daily multivitamin, but if I was going to take it regularly I would definitely continue my additional fish oil and vitamin d supplementation.
The whey protein packs were great for breakfast during my first days. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Isoflex Citrus Peach flavor.
It had a good zinginess but the aftertaste was too strongly “protein powder.” Plus it didn’t mix all that well.
I mixed the Isoflex Banana Creme Supreme with skim milk and enjoyed it much more than the other flavor.
It was nice and creamy and probably would have worked really well in a smoothie.
On the body and mind front – Yoga Download offered me a coupon code to try one of their classes.
You guys know that I’m terrible at making it in to scheduled yoga classes (I only attended one class during my last unlimited two month pass!!) so the idea of online classes appeals to me.
Yoga Download offers yoga, pilates, meditation, and other fitness classes. They have a variety of free classes, and the other classes are priced based on whether you choose to download the class or watch it online one time only. Also for many classes you can choose audio-only or video/slideshow. You can filter the classes by ability level and intensity and most of the yoga classes come with a downloadable position guide.
I downloaded Basic Mat Pilates, an advanced beginner class. Verdict – I liked it. The class was easy enough for me (maybe a tiny bit too easy) but still provided a good stretch and core workout. The video was of an instructor and two students so you got a couple of examples of good form. I plan on doing the workout again, as well as looking into some of the free yoga classes.
Our First Meal in Long Island
Once we unpacked our cars we loaded back in (dog and all) to head to dinner. Shack Shake was one of my favorites in the city so we hit up a Long Island location.
Strawberry and black & white shakes,
plus cheese fries to share.
Sadly nothing was as good as we remembered; I didn’t even finish my shake. I want to go back to the original location soon and see if it holds up to my memory.
Our First Meal Cooked in our New Apartment
Four cheese Sacchetti with mushrooms, spinach, and a lemon cream sauce.
I went to Whole Foods and got a little crazy.
I cooked the pasta according to the package then tossed it with mushrooms (sauteed in butter), spinach (sauteed with lemon juice), and cream sauce (butter, light cream, and lemon zest).
Those little presents of pasta are ridiculously tasty.
Our First Froyo
I was under the impression that the self-serve trend hadn’t hit NYC yet but luckily I was very mistaken. One of our first discoveries in our new neighborhood (though not walking distance like on Elmwood, boo!) was Twist.
They have toasted marshmallow frozen yogurt. And now I can die.
Our First Trip Back “Home”
On Adam’s first day off we headed back to our old stomping grounds – Park Slope. 7th Avenue is one of our favorite spots on the planet and we were excited to check out some of the new spots that had popped up in our 4 year absence. We ate/walked/ate/walked and so on until we were stuffed to the gills!
Pino’s pizza <– best pizza in NYC.
My spinach white slice did not disappoint.
Butter Lane Cupcakes was new to us but we’ll be going back.
We split an Elvis; a banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and mini marshmallows.
The cupcake was my new favorite, the big pieces of banana embedded throughout were amazing.
Finally, we headed down to 5th Avenue for Sky Ice, a Thai ice cream spot that Serious Eats recommended.
One scoop of durian and one scoop of thai iced coffee ice cream.
The flavors were so spot on that it basically blew my mind. I want to go back to try the thai iced tea flavor asap.
Also, we found our new desk right in front of our old apartment!
What are the odds of that?!
American readers, how did you celebrate July 4th this year?
Eating Chalk 