Five Favorites For Friday

A new “favorites” series might be the answer for weeks where I don’t have it together to photograph most things. Weeks like this week, where terrible bedtime choices rendered me unable to do anything productive outside of 9-5.

I had a ton of fun and I ate a lot of things (all of the things!), and now I’ll share my five favorites with you guys…

1: Pineapple Noosa with multi-colored grapes.

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This new flavor was lovely. P.S. I also snagged a Target-exclusive, pumpkin Noosa that I am quite excited about.

2: Salads from Chipotle.

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Actually, I made Adam get Chipotle with me two nights in a row, so this actually may be more of an addiction than a favorite.

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Lettuce / pinto beans / grilled veggies / chicken / cheese / sour cream / corn salsa / mild salsa. Plus the ridiculously delicious, lime-y, salty chips.

3: Shredded chicken Bahn Mi and Thai tea with boba from Bahnmigos.

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I went to a stand-up show with a friend on Wednesday so I *had* to get dinner in Brooklyn. These guys make the best Bahn Mi; they have the perfect balance of flavors and ingredients (spicy Sriracha and tangy pickled veggies, crunchy baguette and silky mayo). That’s Mindy Kaling’s memoir in the background. It was also fabulous.

4: Brown sugar seaweed snack with TJ’s turkey jerky.

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Another good balance of salty to sweet. This was a nice mid-afternoon snack.

5: Amazing flavors from Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

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Adam and I split Thai tea and black sesame. This was the husband’s first visit but now he is as obsessed as I am. The flavors are so true to life!

Bonus: These hard candies are still rocking my world.

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If I had known how good they were going to be I would have bought multiple bags. I still can’t decide what flavor they are though,  because there is a lot of coffee roast for creme brulee.

Note: my favorite meal of the week was technically a romantic (poorly lit) dinner at Freeman’s. We shared Coho salmon with mustard sauce and five cheese mac and cheese. Plus chamomile infused scotch with grapefruit and honey. swoon

Weekly Wrap-Up; Greek Week

“Greek Week” because half of the eats in this post are Greek yogurt and the other half are dinners infused with Greek flavors.  It was a repetitious, but quite tasty, week.

No weekend post because I did all of my birthday excitement a week ahead of schedule.  Adam had a giant, two-day test this week so we’ve been keeping things low-key.  Unfortunately, I’ve also been feeling a bit under the weather.  I actually stayed home from work on Monday with a migraine.

This week I kept my meals a bit smaller and planned in more snacks.  This schedule worked well for me and is one I will probably continue next week too.  The random snacks mostly came from my UrthBox {UB}, another new thing that I’m a fan of.

Minus many, many unpictured troughs of coffee or popcorn, here are most of my bites for the past week…

breakfasts/lunches

Coffee and cherries.

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Coffee, Strawberry/Blueberry/Banana SMOOCH {UB}, and a Don’t Go Nuts Gorilla Power Bar.

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The bar was insane, it tasted like freaking coffee cake!

Chobani 4% plain with maple syrup and chopped red plum and dapple plucot.

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I tried the yogurt because it was a limited edition but I think I’m definitely a 0 – 2% girl; fuller fat dairy always tastes a little sour to me.

Fairway soursop yogurt with blueberries and roasted coconut and a Jax soursop coconut water.

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Another new item, Chobani Banana Maple with Steel Cut Oats plus blueberries.

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Not a fan.  I was expecting everything to be blended into a homogenous product but this was (strangely thin) yogurt with random clumps of soggy oats.

At least pink grapefruit – with more plum and plucot – is always delicious.

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On the only non-yogurt day, I made myself a “taco salad” from the cafeteria.  Romaine with black olives, red peppers, cheddar and pepperjack cheese cubes, avocado, and tons of salsa.

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Yeah, no.  The avocado was frozen (why on earth would you ever freeze avocado??!) and what I assumed to be salsa was actually roasted red pepper.  Yuck city.

snacks

Chameleon Cold Brew is (briefly) back in our life!  We carted a bottle home from Whole Foods in Philadelphia.

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Served iced with chocolate and skim milk.

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CCB is my favorite cold brew ever.  <– I looked up the website to link  toin this post and saw that they now make mocha and vanilla varieties and I’m basically dying

Thai coconut curry popcorn {UB}.

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Crème Brulee hard candies from Chinatown.

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So good.  They have a roasty, coffee-like flavor that is wonderful.

TJ’s turkey jerky with Mary’s Gone Crackers Everything Pretzels.

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Those pretzels are downright addictive, perfectly salty with great crunch.

dinners

Easy, vegan pasta bowls.

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Whole-wheat rotini with broccoli, roasted zucchini, and tons of marinara sauce.

Greek nachos!  I baked pita chips topped with three-cheese blend, crumbled fat-free feta, tomato, red, onion, and chickpeas that I tossed with lemon juice, evoo, and oregano.

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This meal was easy but super fun.

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And we took the leftovers on a picnic to Corona Park the next day.

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We tossed together the leftover red onion, tomato, chickpeas, and cheese with TJ’s Greek dressing, capers, cucumber, and spinach to make a tasty Greek salad.

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Everything was yummy and we had a wonderful time on our picnic, but we did totally end up going to Panera for food later that evening!

Spicy shrimp pasta bowls.

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This recipe was one of my favorites growing up, but I don’t think mine tasted as good as my mom’s does.

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***Whoops! If anyone decides to try this recipe – I meant to write 4 SERVINGS not cups of pasta.

You just toss everything together in a baking dish, cook, and serve on top of noodles with a little parmesan.  I also tossed a bunch of chopped spinach in with our bowls.

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Adam loved it, thanks, Mom!

When was the last time you went on a picnic?

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday Weather

It was a big week here, we had a birthday and a serendipitous, surprise visit!  I turned 29 yesterday; that sounds old, old, old.  I may not have a house or a baby, but I have a husband and a dog who I love beyond words so that feels pretty good for almost-30.

We didn’t have time for a real grocery trip after our Philadelphia weekend and we relied a ton on packaged and purchased food.  Here are some highlights…

breakfast

Coffee (I’m still doing the 1/2&1/2!) and a Blackberry Bliss Mama Chia.

DSC01401I probably wouldn’t have bought the chia on my own – it came in my UrthBox – but I ended up really liking it.

KIND Bar.

DSC01433Madagascar Vanilla Almond.

Birthday freebie coffee!  I love that Starbucks does that.  You’ll notice that I stuck with my birthday tradition of doing tacky, glittery nails.

DSC01447Venti iced skim latte with an extra shot of espresso, 2 shots of white mocha, and caramel drizzle.  I was buzzing.

And this doesn’t go here but speaking of sugar, I’m not sure I ate enough candy this week…

DSC01422DSC01407lunch

Oatmeal (with Cacao Bliss) and freeze-dried apples.

DSC01398That fruit is so flipping good.

Cereal and yogurt.

DSC01404Total on Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit.  I was equally impressed with the yogurt the 2nd time around.

Lots of packed snacks during a 4 hour afternoon meeting.  I ate a salad beforehand, and also required lots of coffee.

DSC01426Chocolate-covered gummy bears, applesauce, and Everything Pretzels from Mary’s Gone Crackers.  The pretzels were from a bag that the company sent me to try.

DSC01423Delicious!  I thought these were much better than the sea salt flavor I tried before, which wasn’t bad either.  These were just like eating a very crunchy everything bagel.  And still made with whole grains including brown rice, quinoa, amaranth and millet, and seeds including flax, sesame and chia, just like the original flavor.

My dietetics co-workers brought in lunch for my birthday!  They are pretty much the sweetest.

IMG_20140722_113456IMG_20140722_114820Salad with a great, thick balsamic glaze, homemade spinach and feta pastries, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert.  Everything was delicious; I tried to bring leftovers home for Adam and I ended up eating them all on the train!

dinner

Half salad and sandwich deal from Panera.

DSC01408I did the Thai chicken salad and the Thai chicken flatbread and was impressed with neither.

DSC01413DSC01418The sauce was too sour and the apple on the side was sadly the best part of the meal.

DSC01416Thankfully, things get much more festive from here.

On Wednesday, my parents were traveling to Ohio to visit my grandmother.  They were flying on miles so they had a long day with lots of connections, including a 3-hour layover at LaGuardia.  When the got off the plane in NY, they learned that inclement weather had grounded their final flight, and then would be stuck until the next morning.  Silver lining – they stayed at my house for the night and we got to visit and go out to birthday dinner!!!!

It ended up being the best “bad news” ever.  We teased them that they jinxed themselves by complaining about not making it out for Indian food during their June visit, so of course we had to take them for Indian food.

DSC01440It was too dark for pictures, but we shared several appetizers and a bunch of dishes and all left full and happy.  Everything was amazing and our waiter was the sweetest man.  Namaste is great.  We even found froyo nearby with birthday cake flavor.

DSC01445I topped my “cake” with marshmallow, strawberry pie filling, and a million sprinkles.

And I actually ended up having froyo last night on my real birthday was well.

DSC01450Frozen yogurt > cake!

For my birthday dinner we did takeout from Bare Burger.

DSC01455Turkey with ketchup mustard, spinach, tomato, a fried egg, and tons of pickles.

DSC01458We ate burgers and giant diet cokes while we watched Longmire and it was a great way to celebrate 🙂

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

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.

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

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

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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.

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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.

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

Sandwich.

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

Yogurt.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

Pasta that was simple but good.

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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.

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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.

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Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

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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.

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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??

Weekly Wrap-Up; Play It Again, Sam!

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.

DSC01115Please 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.

DSC01143DSC01166DSC01191These 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!

Nonni'sOn Tuesday, I mixed things up with a smoothie instead.

DSC01149Frozen 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.

DSC01105Bahn 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
  1. In a large bowl, combine carrots, cucumber, sugar, vinegar, and salt.  Let sit, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
  2. Drain all of the liquid off of the vegetables.
  3. 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.

DSC01125Wednesday 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

DSC01157I 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.

20140708_115949For Thursday, I packed leftover salad and the last of the cherries.

DSC01174But 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.

DSC01193At least I have a nice lunch waiting for me today!

snack

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

DSC01171The leftover ice cream sandwiches were not bad either.

DSC01150Jelly Belly.

DSC01168This yogurt bowl was the best thing of the week.  Fage 2% Greek yogurt with a layer melted Cacao Bliss underneath!

DSC01187Coconut water to rehydrate after a trip to the gym.  This TJ’s kind was delicious.

DSC01146Speaking 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.

DSC01163Apparently Adam does not want baked beans with his sweet potato again any time soon, but I thought they was good.

Salad night.

DSC01183Butter 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.

DSC01196Soft tortilla with shredded carrots and cabbage, mahi mahi, avocado sauce, green Tabasco, and cheese.

DSC01200Plus pineapple hard cider from ACE.

DSC01202ACE’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?

An American Recap

Beer, baseball, and the 4th of July!  I hope all of my US readers had a nice Independence Day.

I had a super fun three-day weekend.  I predict I will have had several coffees by the time this post goes live on Monday morning.

Some yummy moments…

On the Fourth, a friend and I drove up to the Hamptons to explore.  The hurricane limited our plans a bit and our free concert and fireworks were rained out, but we still managed to have a great time.  We went wine tasting at the gorgeous Wolffer Estate.

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And had lobster rolls by the beach.

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They came personal assembly style, huge hunks of lobster meat in a bowl of butter, and were more than worth the wade through the parking lot to get to them.

On Saturday, a high school friend came in from PA and took us to the Mets game.

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NY lost, but we still had a ton of fun.  We went out for drinks on the Upper East Side afterwards and got home after our bedtime.

Sunday was all about recovery and catch-up sleep.  Also baking!  I was recently sent a book to review – Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches {Cool Recipes for Delicious Dairy-Free Ice Creams and Cookies by Kris Holechek Peters.

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Please note – I received this book free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.

Peters is a vegan baker, blogger, and cookbook author and I think she nailed it with this book.  It includes 60 recipes for vegan ice creams and cookies.  The instructions are clearly written and none of the recipes involve anything too complicated.  Most of the recipes do not require crazy ingredients, though you will need a thickening agent – arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, guar gum – for most of the ice creams.

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The basics are all included – a variety of vanilla and chocolate cookies and ice creams – and there are some inventive ideas as well, like Pumpkin Snickerdoodle, Peach Rum Crumble, and Shirley Temple Sandwiches.  I chose to mix and match with two different recipes.

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The cookies from the Happy Birthday Batter Sandwiches and the Orange Coconut Cream Ice Cream from the Orange Dreamsicle Sandwiches.  Delish.

We stuck with preparing dessert and got take-out for dinner.

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Caesar salad and pizza from Luigi’s.

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Eaten in front of “21 Jump Street” which had funny moments but was overall pretty terrible.  I Netflixed it thinking I would see the sequel some time this week but now I’m not so sure.

Did you see any fireworks this weekend?

Three Day Week Wrap-Up

Today is the Fourth of July, and I took Monday off to play with my parents, so this work-week was only three days long for me; woot!  Only three days and it still took an embarrassing amount of coffee – with an even more embarrassing amount of sugar – to get me through.

I didn’t do the best job of documenting, but I do have photos of every single lunch and dinner.  And I won’t post details, but I do want to check in and mention that I’ve been consistent with my workouts ever since last week’s plea to hold me accountable.  Crossing my fingers that I keep my momentum going!

My lunches this week all included free samples from LÄRABAR.

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

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They sent me a box to introduce their new RENOLA – grain free granola made with non-GMO fruits, nuts, and seeds.

I think calling this “granola” may be a bit disingenuous, but it is a quite fabulous fruit, nut, and seed blend.  The texture is very pleasing; fantastically crunchy.  It did taste absolutely delicious on yogurt and in cereal though, so if you are turned off by your oats getting soggy in milk then this product would definitely be a good fit for you.  The pouches are nice and filling, thanks to 2 -3 grams of fiber and 5 – 8 grams of protein for 200 calories.

Tuesday, I had Cinnamon Nut with Cheerios and skim milk.

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Wednesday, I had Berry with Fage 2% plain Greek yogurt, Meyer lemon curd, and blueberries.

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And Thursday, I had Cocoa Coconut with vanilla bean Greek yogurt, roasted coconut, and blueberries.

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The coconut-heavy bowl was my favorite lunch of the week.

Snacks worth noting were all in the chocolate family.  A Lindt Dark Chocolate Cookie Bar.

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And a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.

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I didn’t have the candy and the stout at the same time but I totally should have.  I could not believe how yummy the beer was; it is rare that I finish a whole beer but this one I happily slurped down.

I think four days straight of all meals out with my parents helped get me in the kitchen mood because I managed to make an actual meal every night this week.

Tuesday was more on the semi-homemade side, we ate gussied up bowls of my leftovers from Sunday.

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I beefed up my leftover shredded Brussels sprouts with chopped baby spinach, dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, and a dressing blend of evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

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With a scoop of lobster mac and cheese on top.

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Just so good.  And it’s a testament to the “dressing” that I enjoyed the salad bites even more than the lobster mac.

Wednesday we had very monochromatic pasta bowls.

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Orecchiette with tons of artichokes – frozen from TJ’s that I sautéed in evoo with lemon juice – and lemon zest, browned butter, and toasted hazelnuts.

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I snuck my green into my appetizer.

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Nachos!  BBQ chips baked with chopped spinach and three cheese blend.

Last night I made a very loosely inspired version of chana masala.

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Chickpeas cooked with chopped onion, diced green pepper, garlic, tomato paste, and super spicy tamarind chutney.

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Served on brown rice with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt on top.  This meal was wicked good!  I went back for another bowl of just the veggie mixture because I couldn’t stop thinking about how tasty it was.  Go me.

P.S. Happy Independence Day to my American readers!

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Loved – {fill in the blank}

I’m behind on my posts because I’ve been playing hostess for my parents.  We were quite sad to see them go Tuesday morning, but we did manage to fit a TON into their five-night visit.  We made it to SoHo, Tribeca, Park Slope, Williamsburg, Huntington, and Port Jefferson, among other places.  And we ate and ate and ate.  Rather than a full recap, I want to share some of the things we loved this weekend…

(1) – Cheeeeese

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The four of us were very impressed with this cheese plate from C’est Cheese.

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The Taleggio and Comte were the group favorites.

We went to Luigi’s – to celebrate my parents’ last night and Adam’s last day as an intern! – and I ordered eggplant parmesan and the three of them ordered chicken parm.

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My sautéed spinach totally beat their house-made spaghetti, in my opinion.

(2) – Ice Cream

Every single day, at least one of us had ice cream.  <– the perfect way to vacation

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Grasshopper frozen yogurt from Emack and Bolios.

Ample Hills knocked everyone’s socks off because it is the best ice cream in the city.

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I got Peppermint Patty and Snap, Mallow, Pop.  {thank you, Jenna, for letting me know that those two flavors would work wonderfully together}

(3) – Ethnic Food

We did lunch at Katz’s Deli on Friday.

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Broccoli knish and with pickles for me.

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The counter system and Katz’s gives me serious anxiety, but the food is totally worth it in the end.  My parents loved their matzo ball soups.

Lunch at Smorgasburg on Saturday.

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You cannot go wrong with the duck bun – with sweet and spicy chili sauce – from Bite Size Kitchen.

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They are my very favorite thing from Smorgasburg.

The Halo Halo from Lumpia Shack is a close second though.

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What???

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Pip Snack kettle corn / ube foam / leche flan / shaved ice / ube (purple yam) / green market strawberries / coconut jelly / coconut strips / palm seeds / sweet bananas.

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It was just so ridiculous and wonderful.  Apparently palm seeds are delicious.

(4) – Seafood

We were pretty pleased with Schafer’s in Port Jeff.

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I had fantabulous lobster mac and cheese.

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My big chunks of fresh lobster were in a brie and mozzarella sauce, so this one probably could get filled under “Cheeeeese” too.  With shaved Brussels sprouts.

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The sprouts were raw, served with dried cranberries, green apple, candied walnuts, crumbled blue cheese, and lemon vinaigrette.

That meal was great, but it could barely compete with Luke’s Lobster.

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Ahhh!

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Extra vinegary cole slaw,

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and a 1/2 crab roll, lobster roll, and shrimp roll for each of us.

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We were all swooning over the lobster.  Do you see that claw?!

(5) – How Flipping Awesome My City Is

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I ❤ New York!