Mid-Week Wrap Up; Visitors In Town

by Emily

My parents got in on time Monday night and we’ve had a great time showing them around. They visited us in the city the years we lived in Brooklyn, but Long Island is a new family destination. And two sets of aunts and uncles get here tomorrow morning! Since I knew I’d have lots of good food to share with visitors in town I decided to post in smaller mid-week wrap ups this week.

Here’s some of what my mouth’s been up to…

Coffee from 7-11 with Cinnabon creamer.

I’ve been wanting to try that damn creamer for months and I ended up hating it so much that I threw out my whole coffee halfway though. Boo. But at least I can stop pestering Adam to walk to 7-11 with me.

A gingerbread lunch feast.

An awesome sandwich of Applegate Farms Herb Turkey Breast, reduced fat cream cheese, and banana peppers on Pepperidge Farm Gingerbread Swirl Bread.

Plus sliced Sweet Tango apple.

And Gingerbread Twix.

These holiday Twix are sooooo good. I wouldn’t normally eat a Twix but the gingerbread spice is wonderful.

We went to Great Neck for my parents’ first night’s dinner. Bareburger, of course, because that’s our go-to spot for out-of-towners. We shared the fried zucchini to start.

I’ve decided that the Western turkey burger (sans bun) is my favorite variety. The fried pickle on the side is too fun.

And despite the cold we wandered over to 16 Handles after dinner.

Sugar-free praline with chocolate pretzels, salty almonds, and peanut butter sauce.

For their 2nd dinner we went our favorite Italian spot, Luigi’s.

That focaccia is great. As was the Tuscan salad my mom and I split.

Baby spinach with breaded artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, gorgonzola dolce, pine nuts, and balsamic vinaigrette.

We all shared some fresh mozzarella too.

I stuck with the cheese theme for dinner. Spinach, ricotta, and goat cheese ravioli (house-made!) in a champagne truffle cream sauce.

It was very rich but very good. The sauce was truffle heaven.

I did have enough room left over to dole out a round of RumChata after dinner.

I was introduced to it as “the snickerdoodle shot” and that name is very apt. Adam and I both put some in our coffee too and decided that we’ll be doing that regularly.

I don’t know what the plan is for tomorrow (with 10 people for dinner) but the next day’s Thanksgiving, whee!

25Nov2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; A Fabulous Date

by Emily

This weekend was downright fabulous! I’m still not feeling quite 100% from my cold – you’ll notice that fruit and veggie consumption was still abysmal – but I felt well enough to have lots of fun. Having Adam home on break has been indescribably wonderful❤. And tomorrow my parents come to visit (and will be joined later in the week by two sets of aunts and uncles) for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!

breakfast

Yogurt bowl.

TJ 0% honey Greek yogurt topped with two sliced kiwis.

Sunday breakfast.

We toasted the last of the garlic and cheddar beer bread in the oven with some Smart Balance Light.

With a sliced Cameo apple on the side.

And a cup of cafe con leche.

The coffee was part of a sample that Maison Camus sent me.

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

I had not heard of Maison Camus before they reached out to me, but apparently they are an independent, family owned Cognac house. Their coffee is grown sustainably – no herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides, and they stick to a strict growing process to minimize environmental impact and preserve biodiversity. The beans are grown at high altitudes (primarily in Costa Rica and Guatemala) and they use small-scale farmers who they pay fair wages.

I haven’t opened the French Roast yet but we loved the Signature Blend. My first tasting thought was “smooth,” and it was fun to see that match the company’s description (the French Roast is described as bold and I’m quite looking forward to it). I did put a bit of SCM in my coffee but I took a few sips black and was thrilled with the lack of bitterness. I drank two big mugs. Adam, who drinks at least 3 cups of coffee a day and is a much more discerning drinker than I, was very impressed as well.

lunch

Breakfast for lunch but not brunch.

Seedy bread with Smart Balance Light,

and eggs scrambled with tons of corn (cooked with evoo, tons of Sriracha, and a bit of sugar).

Don’t turn your nose up at the sugar; I realize it’s something I’m not exactly short on in my die,t but with the chili sauce it makes the corn perfect.

On Saturday I took Adam on a date that ended up being one of our best days ever. We decided the last time we had such a good time was on our last trip to Toronto. We drove up through Long Island to Port Jefferson.

The town was gorgeous and quaint, and we even came across a fire pit offering free marshmallows for roasting!

After we licked all the burnt sugar off our fingers we headed over to C’est Cheese for lunch.

My girlfriend (who lives in Buffalo but grew up in LI) used to babysit for the owners and recommended it to us. We were grateful for the intel because we had an amazing meal.

Adam and I shared… A beer sampler.

{South Hampton Double White, Smuttynose Brown Dog, Frambois, Port Jeff Porter}

The Smuttynose was his favorite and the porter was mine, which was funny because we both didn’t care for the others selection. The frambois was enjoyed by all though and was an excellent palate cleaner.

A bowl of New England Clam Chowder.

Adam ate this all on his own but he said it was excellent.

The Somerset sandwich – Melted aged cheddar, sun-dried tomato pesto, black olive tapenade, and fresh basil.

The aged cheddar on our sandwich was actually our very favorite cheese of the day, though it had a lot of competition.

A cheese sampling.

{Truffle Tremor, Taleggio, Pecorino Toscano, Scharfe Maxx, Vlaskaas, 2 year Grafton, Harbourne Blue}

The sampling is a plate of seven assorted cheeses that changes each day. We loved our selection. And we came home with leftovers so the fun could continue the next day. The fun continued that day as well; we finished out our date with a trip to “Thor” and popcorn for dinner.

On Sunday we had leftovers to look forward to.

We chopped up the last of our cheese plate and put it on top of crockpot cranberry chicken (scroll down to dinner) and jasmine rice.

This was so good we both wished we had leftovers of our leftovers.

dinner

I only have one meal in this category! The other days we did big, late lunches and just snacked (popcorn and bananas foster!) for dinner. Thankfully this one meal was a winner, though not very photogenic.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken = put 1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast into the crockpot and top with 14 oz fresh cranberries and bbq sauce (we used Whole Food’s Korean style) to cover, then cook 4 hours on “high.”

So simple, but so good. Adam raved about this meal and went back for both 2nds and 3rds. The green on the bottom was frozen spinach that I cooked with evoo, lemon juice, craisins, and smoked almonds.

drink & dessert

The gingerbread cookies from Cheryl’s (thanks again, Barb!) are perfectly soft and spicy.

I’ve already bought a whole slew of gingerbread flavored goodies and I’m excited to announce that I’ve decided tomorrow is the perfect time to start opening them.

Grande, non-fat, eggnog latte.

I got this with a 50% off coupon and I was glad because I didn’t love it this year. Somehow it wasn’t sweet at all, which was very strange with the eggnog flavor.

Another sample, Rave Review Original Culinary Spirits sent me a box of booze for cooking.

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

We had a lot of fun setting up a bourbon tasting.

Bourbon isn’t my favorite kind of whiskey, and on first taste I preferred Rave Review to the competitor. I rarely give a bad review (I’m excitable and pretty easy please), but I have to say that after heating I hated it! The flavor was almost savory?! which we think was related to the blend of spices. That said, I could see how it could be good in a savory dish, and I do plan on cooking with it.

On the positive side, we made Bananas Foster with the Rum and I’m giving that two thumbs up.

I basically followed Alton Brown’s recipe, except I skipped the banana liquor and used cinnamon instead of all spice.

Served over vanilla ice cream, this was wonderful. I’m pretty sure we’ll be making another batch next weekend.

Finally, have you seen the new limited edition winter flavors from Polar?

Toasted coconut was good but champagne strawberry is out of this world. The flavor is great and the scent is just ridiculous. I will also be searching high and low for fudge cheesecake, obviously.

Do you ever cook with booze, or do you just drink booze while you cook?

11Nov2013

Sunday In The Kitchen

by Emily

No full wrap-up for this weekend; a good high school friend was in town for his birthday and Adam stayed out so late on Friday night that Saturday became a sleep recovery day. I am going to share Sunday, because I pulled out the big guns and had a very productive kitchen session –

Recently, Oh!Nuts.com reached out to me to see if I would like a few items to help with my holiday baking. I happily accepted, then thought long and hard and finally settled on the two items I needed most in my life – a cookie and a nut butter. Here’s what they sent me:

Cinnamon Pecans {for cinnamon maple pecan butter}

Almond Flour {for lavender and salted caramel macarons}

Note – these products were provided to me free of charge. All opinions are my own. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post.

Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter

These cinnamon pecans are so crunchy good; I was very pleased to have some left in the bag when I was done making my nut butter.

This Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter tastes like fall in a spread. The cinnamon and maple would pair perfectly with pumpkin butter or hot pepper jelly for an amazing but unconventional PB & J. The butter is definitely on the sweeter side, so feel free to pull back on the maple a bit if that’s not your thing.

Cinnamon Maple Pecan Butter

3 heaping cups cinnamon pecans
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Place pecans in the base of your food processor and process until no large pieces remain (don’t worry about making butter until the oil is added). Add oil and maple syrup to the nuts and process until smooth.

I couldn’t wait to try it out, so I put a big scoop on top of a bowl of TJ’s vanilla bean Greek yogurt, alongside a small scoop of pumpkin butter.

Delicious. I loved how gritty the pecan butter is.

Lavender and Salted Caramel Macarons

I used Jenna @ Eat, Live Run‘s recipe for macarons as my template. I am not going to repost that here in full, instead I will direct you to her recipe and list my modifications below. Unless otherwise noted, follow her directions.

macaron modifications

Jenna’s base recipe is here – http://www.eatliverun.com/video-411-raspberry-rose-macaroons/
skip her filling entirely, I’ve included the recipe for my salted caramel filling below
instead of the rose extract and red food coloring, use 1 tsp lavender flavoring and 3 drops each red and blue food coloring
I recommend making a size/shape template on the back of your parchment paper. I found that tracing a mini candle from Bath and Body Works with permanent marker worked perfectly for me
for my oven, Jenna’s baking time was wrong, wrong, wrong; I had to throw out my entire first batch! I recommend cutting the cooking time in half and then checking the cookies every minute thereafter (8 minutes seemed to be the correct amount of time for my oven)

caramel cream cheese filling

1 cup powdered sugar
4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp prepared salted caramel sauce
(optional) 2 drops yellow food coloring

In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together sugar and cream cheese. Add caramel and food coloring and continue to beat until smooth.

The final combination of lavender cookie and salted caramel filling was to die for.

I can’t believe I’ve never seen this flavor combination before. My macarons were not necessarily the prettiest, but they weren’t that difficult to make and they made my taste buds very, very happy!

Have you ever made your own macarons?

25Oct2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Over The Bridge And Through The City

by Emily

I don’t have a ton to share, but I’ve got to do it in reverse because lunches were leftovers. It was a boring week, but I’ve got some news to share coming up soon and the next three weekends are slated to be fun.

dessert

My mom sent us the Haribo Smurfs.

I thought they were cuter than the were tasty, but Adam was crazy for them.

This ice cream was more my speed.

Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! is one of my B&J favorites that recently moved from scoop shop only to pints. I normally hate chocolate chunks in ice cream but instead of being teeth crushingly frozen these are melty and crunchy with espresso.

I ate this bowl with a giant diet soda while we watched “Teen Witch” and was in total heaven.

dinner

Green Curry Fritters from Cooking Light.

We love this recipe. I substituted ground turkey for chicken, skipped the sesame oil, and increased the portion size a bit, but otherwise followed the recipe.

With a dipping sauce of ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, and brown sugar,

and carrots on the side when my planned vegetable failed.

Apparently spaghetti squash season is over.

Two bowls.

My Turkey Reuben Mac & Cheese was a total recipe winner.

And the greens we ate on the side weren’t half bad either.

Frozen spinach and kale cooked in chicken broth with lemon juice and feta.

lunch

“Burger and fries.”

Green beans roasted with pink salt and smoked paprika,

plus an absolutely amazing sandwich.

A green curry fritter on half a TJ’s soft pretzel stick with brie and pumpkin butter.

The mix of flavors was out of this world.

Lunch to go – eaten on the subway in Manhattan.

A sandwich repeat.

A honeycrisp apple.

And a serving of Dutch Cocoa Somersaults.

The somersaults were my favorite component; they have a great roasty chocolate flavor without being sweet.

breakfast

Adam and I split a pumpkin pie bagel with NY cheesecake cream cheese from Panera.

Just look at that streusel –

This was delightful.

other

I bought the dog new food and water bowls.

Such a silly thing, but they make me so happy!

A girlfriend and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday.

I love this city.

21Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

by Emily

It’s 2 in the afternoon, so allow me to say “good morning!” Does that sound strange to anyone? Adam worked nights Friday through Sunday so we’ve been keeping a vampire’s schedule. There’s been a lot of this –

I don’t like it when he’s gone, my sleep pattern is all out of whack and I definitely live like a teenager when he’s not around. Case in point – Saturday night I watched terrible movies (“One for the Money” and “Abduction”) and ate candy (Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered gummi bears) for dinner.

I ate a lot (a lot) of junk this weekend, but I did manage to throw some pretty gourmet meals in there as well. If last week was all about the jalapeño, this was the weekend of bacon!

breakfasts

On the go.

We had to eat on the way while running errands so I made us something portable. A terrible, god-awful smoothie.

Pumpkin, frozen kale, frozen banana, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and a bit of maple. This had such potential but the kale didn’t fully blend and chewing threw it was horrifying. I forced down 90% for the nutrients, but did not enjoy it.

My TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar was much better.

I thought the filling was great; sweet and spicy. And how cute is the labeling?!

We bought these when we were a little loopy from sleeplessness and Adam thought the pun was seriously the funniest thing ever. We spent the rest of the evening making variations on this joke – “A strawberry asks a pumpkin on a date… what happens next?”

Another kale fail.

I just could not win on the kale front this week. Again, these eggs had potential, but there just seemed to be sooooo much kale and we both hated them.

Offending eggs.

Delicious turkey bacon.

Side of grapes.

At least the other components were good. And I shared many bites of egg with the dog, who was such a good boy about eating his greens!

lunches

On Saturday two of our good friends from Buffalo (who are now living in Rochester for medical residency) came up to visit. We met up for a lovely lunch at Bareburger.

I got the Western Burger, with a turkey burger, sans bun. Smoked mozzarella / ~~country~~ turkey bacon / house-made Carolina slaw / smokehouse sauce / topped with a crispy, spicy pickle spear.

So fricking good! That hunk on the side was my pickle, which blew my mind.

A sandwich at home.

A whole-wheat bagel thin with turkey bacon, brie, and pumpkin butter.

This combo was ridiculous.

Plus the last of the grapes.

I have not been eating enough fruit this fall and it was nice to have something other than apples in the house.

dinners

More greens, more grapes.

A big pile of chicken salad.

Kale chips.

This was the only iteration of kale that I actually enjoyed this weekend.

The carb portion of dinner was consumed in the car on the way home from the store.

Adam and I split a TJ’s soft pretzel stick and loved it. Great chew!

I even whipped myself up a drink while I made dinner.

October is National Caramel Month and Sobieski sent me some samples of their Karamel Vodka to celebrate.

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here was my attempt at a Caramel Apple Cocktail –

2 oz Sobieski Karamel Vodka
2 oz Sour Apple Pucker
splash Polar Granny Smith Apple Seltzer

The vodka was good, but next time I’d go with a 2:1 ratio of vodka to Pucker, the sour apple flavor was a little strong!

Soup’s up.

Last night we ate big bowls of my Loaded Potato Soup.

Truffles for dessert.

I’ve raved about Alter Eco’s Silk chocolate line in the past and they sweetly sent me some of their newest product – Dark Velvet Truffles.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The truffles, which are also available in Black, are organic, fair trade, and non-GMO. They are made with coconut oil, a more sustainable option than palm kernel oil (I didn’t taste any coconut flavor).

I thought that the truffles were great; nice and creamy! The husband hates dark chocolate as a rule, but loved the Silk bars so I will have him try one of the truffles and report back.

Have a great week!

5Oct2013

Last Week’s Highlights

by Emily

I didn’t have enough to share to call this a “wrap-up,” but I did want to blog a few of my favorites that managed to make it in front of the camera. I have some stuff happening in my personal life right now (some good, mostly bad) that I don’t want to share on the blog and I appreciate your patience with my limited posting.

leftovers for lunch

I made the most of restaurant leftovers with this compilation meal. The last of some Pad See Eiw with tofu,

a slice of focaccia from our Italian meal (it was still soft!!),

and from home a Pink Crisp apple with crunchy Barney Butter.

Lacking in veggies but quite good.

the pumpkin line-up

I’m listing these from bad to ~~good~~ great. Tazo Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Latte.

I mixed mine as 1/2 cup tea and 1.5 cups Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and hated it. Admittedly I made mine too weak, but I made Adam’s extra strong (with skim milk) and I didn’t like that one either. The flavor was just too “dirty” for me. But Adam loved both versions – and drank both our drinks in one sitting – and is excited for the rest of the carton so it’s not a total loss.

Froyo.

A tiny bit (this cup cost $1.75!) of pumpkin spice and cheesecake swirl topped with toasted coconut, graham cracker, and caramel sauce. This combo was a total winner.

Froyo was good, but nothing beats pumpkin ice.

Pumpkin on top with toffee crunch on the bottom. Usually I can’t eat a whole small cup but I wolfed this down and I think I could even finish two scoops of just pumpkin! My friend Kim informed me that Ralph’s Ice is totally a thing and now it feels even more exciting.

stir-fried mac

This was one of those mash-up meals that doesn’t seem like it will work but just does.

Leftover pasta – Annie’s mac and cheese with greens, edamame, and smoked trout – reheated in a skillet with evoo, tons of Sriracha, and a sprinkle of sugar; with one large egg scrambled in at the end. I know that the sugar sounds strange but I promise the final flavor is perfection.

Do you see that brown piece by my hand that looks like bacon? It’s not bacon, it’s smoked trout that got extra-crispy. <– swoon

saltine challenge

I surprised Adam with fancy sardines and since we had Saltines in the house it was time for a challenge.

You know from reading my rant that I’m a stickler for the rules so I have to admit – we both totally failed. Our mouths were still full of approximately 1.5 crackers each when the timer buzzed.

fancy fish

This dinner came straight out of EveryDay with Rachael Ray.

I even took a break from my rebellious side and followed the recipe exactly.

Well, mostly exactly, we skipped the brown rice and used baby bok choy instead of the big guys. But the end result was delicious.

Our glaze didn’t thicken the way it was supposed to, but the fish had a great, flaky texture.

And we loved the bok choy.

Adam has even requested that baby bok become a weekly staple!

dinner in Manhattan

On Wednesday, I was invited to a press event in Manhattan so I brought a girlfriend with me for a fun evening in the city.

{that’s sunset at Chelsea Pier}

The event was to celebrate the launch of Donatella Arpaia’s new kitchen line with HSN (http://hsn.com). The line is available starting this Monday (October 7th) so they held a gettogether to showcase some of the new products.

Here’s a little blurb from the press release –

The exclusive collection from the Iron Chef judge, restaurateur, author and culinary personality will include studded stoneware, table linens and Italian food items.

Named by Zagat as the “Hostest with the Mostest”, Donatella Arpaia has a reputation of fusing Italian tradition with modern, glamorous style. Her new collection brings added sparkle to the kitchen with a chic home pizza oven and luxurious rhinestone stoneware including platters, ceramic dishes and ramekins.

Additionally, Donatella has taken the guess work out of traditional Italian cooking with her authentic Italian food offerings, featuring a variety of fresh pasta sauces, flavorful pizza crust mixes and her award-winning meatballs. With food preparation and presentation already made easy, the collection is completed with sets of cotton placemats and napkins on tear off rolls.

We got off of the train with time to kill so we wandered around a bit before the event (hence the gorgeous sunset views from the piers).

I needed some veggies in my life so we hit up Liquiteria for juice.

I wasn’t loving all of the beets and ginger on their menu so I made a custom blend – spinach, kale, and pineapple. Amazing! But I had eaten froyo and a giant coffee (seriously giant, there was a mix-up and I ended up with 4 extra shots of espresso in my latte!) for lunch so with the concentrated energy in the juice I was practically buzzing by the time we got to the event.

The drinks we were handed upon arrival helped.

That is not a cherry (sadly), but a cherry tomato.

The event was held at Donatella’s restaurant, which was freaking gorgeous.

The lighting wasn’t kind to my crappy photography skills, but I did my best to take some shots of the pretty tables.

The tear-off napkins were very fun, though I don’t think that bedazzled cookware is exactly my style.

Most of the apps showcased products that will be available on Monday. I took a fried oyster to be brave,

but my first bite was all fried coating and I lost my nerve and threw out the rest before I ate any meat.

The pizza was very good.

The dough – which you just add water to and then bake – was the best part; chewy and flavorful but not too salty. My friend and I both gave the jarred sauce served with the pasta two thumbs up as well.

They told us to take cupcakes (from the fantastically sparkly display) for dessert.

They plan to add cupcakes (mixes?) to the line later this year.

My pistachio was tasty.

Afterwards we stopped in at the famous Cafeteria for a drink on a whim.

Our carafe of white peach sparkling mojito was refreshing but weak. But we were the only twosome in the room who wasn’t on a first date so the good eavesdropping more than made up for the lack of alcohol.

I hope everyone else had a nice week too! Did you do any good eavesdropping?

1Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; October Is Here!

by Emily

It’s possible I’m a little excited about the arrival of Pumpkin Month. Check out my stash –

So much squashy goodness!

Now a little bit about the end of September…

breakfast

I’ve only got one meal to share here, in contrast with the full “dessert” section (whoops!). Adam had a “golden weekend,” aka both Saturday and Sunday off, so we spent our mornings catching up on sleep.

This breakfast was more of a brunch, but either way it was a winner.

Müller Greek Corner Pineapple Passion Fruit Yogurt (former freebie) topped with sliced starfruit and a packet of Crispy Green Pineapples.

Isn’t starfruit (also known as Carambola) gorgeous?

Did you know that I used to sell starfruit when I was a kid? We had a tree in our backyard and I would take the harvests to the local grocery stores.

The freeze-dried pineapples were part of a sample box from Crispy Green.

I received these samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Crispy Green is a company that sells freeze-dried fruits. They are vegan and certified kosher and the ingredient list is nice and simple – just fruit. What really sold me was the texture, I swear that the apples and pears were almost juicy! More on them in a minute though.

lunch

Veggies.

Acorn squash. I baked half of my squash for 30 minutes at 350*, cut side down, then flipped it over and filled the cavity with pistachios, raisins, and maple syrup, and baked for another 20 minutes.

Plus broccoli that I roasted alongside the squash.

And a red pear.

So nice to have a mid-day meal that’s so packed with nutrients.

Less nutritious but still delicious, Taco Bell.

I got a vegetarian Cantina Bell burrito and was actually very impressed. The burrito had fresh corn and great guacamole.

The greatest sandwich.

Sweet and savory, for the win. Caramel apple swirl bread topped with Applegate Farms Smoked Turkey, TJ’s Lite Havarti, and pickled banana peppers.

The husband got and identical ‘wich and he raved about it. Plus we shared more Crispy Green fruits on the side. Asian Pear,

and Apple.

They both were packed with flavor but so far Asian Pear is my favorite.

dinner

Mac remix.

A box of Annie’s Shells and Aged Real Cheddar gussied up with TJ’s smoked trout, frozen edamame and a greens mix, and 1 oz of Chevre.

I have pantry back-ups of all of the ingredients and a see a redo in our future.

A cider soaked meal.

I marinated some extra-firm tofu in TJ’s Spiced Apple cider (plus honey and hot sauce) before ~~burning~~ baking in the oven.

Shredded cabbage was sautéed in the tofu marinade and then topped with salty peanuts.

And this lovely squash was sprinkled with salt and cinnamon and roasted alongside the tofu.

I filled in the space in the center of the plate with Dinosaur Roasted Garlic Honey BBQ Sauce for dipping.

A meal out on the town.

We finished our two-day weekend with a dinner out on the town at Luigi’s.

We were brought an amazing basket of fresh bread.

And we shared a Tuscan salad to start.

baby spinach / breaded artichoke hearts / roasted peppers / gorgonzola dolce / pignoli nuts / balsamic vinaigrette

I got handmade Papardelle with shrimp and lobster in a fresh plum tomato cognac cream sauce from the specials menu for my meal.

It was delicious! The homemade pasta had great bite and the seafood was juicy and perfect. Plus the portions were huge; I shared many tastes with Adam and still came home with a full serving of leftovers. {Mom and Dad, we want to take you here when you visit!}

dessert

Adam went out to celebrate a birthday with his fellow interns and he brought me home cake.

I’m not a huge chocolate fan but I’m a sucker for jam in the middle.

I brought him home vegan ice cream sandwiches.

Tofutti is currently celebrating their 30^th anniversary and they sent me some coupons.

I received these samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Ice cream sandwiches are Adam’s favorite and he was very impressed with how close to the original this (minty) version came.

I thought the Cuties had great flavor and texture – and I’m not even an ice cream sandwich lover – but 180 calories for the small size seemed a little steep.

I will definitely buy them again for the husband though.

To finish the post – the best thing ever.

Adam and I split an ice the other day to celebrate the first day of fall. Dulce de leche topped with pumpkin pie.

Oh. My. God. The pumpkin pie ice was ridiculous! The best tasting ice I’ve ever had and those brown areas were crunchy streusel that was just over the top. We were both swooning!

What pumpkin goodies are you excited for this month?

20Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Mid-September

by Emily

I feel like I don’t have anything to say here so I’ll just get to it. You saw how clever my title was.

^breakfasts^*

Amazing oatmeal.

In the bowl were unsweetened almond milk, banana hunks, oats, chia seeds, tons of cottage cheese, and the very last of the sweetened condensed milk.

Food Emporium Trading Company Vanilla Granola with Almonds and Pecans in skim milk.

Berry yogurt bowl.

Wallaby low-fat vanilla bean yogurt with blueberries.

This Wallaby was one of the best yogurts I’ve ever tasted! The flecks of vanilla bean throughout felt quite fancy.

^lunches^*

Chinese food.

Cheese and greens eggs.

Eggs scrambled with cottage cheese, greens (a frozen blend from Whole Foods), and 2% provolone.

Carrot salad.

Matzo crackers.

A sheet of Egg and Onion Matzo with Cabot Light Sharp Cheddar melted on top,

and a sliced Jazz apple.

Adam doesn’t like matzo prepared with egg (he’s crazy!) so we eat it as crackers in our house.

^snacks^*

Organic India is promoting their gift baskets for the upcoming holiday season and they offered to send me some products from their Tulsi Tea Line to review.

Please note – these teas were sent to me free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

So far I’ve tried the Green Tea, which cold-brewed beautifully. Usually I’m not a green girl (it’s Adam’s favorite) but I loved this one. The flavor is completely devoid of the acridness that I usually taste in green teas. I used it in tasty tea spritzers.

Green tea + Polar Mandarin Seltzer.

Hot beer bread, straight from the oven, with Smart Balance Light.

Cola hard candies.

These guys have the best fizz!

^dinners^*

Different Chinese food.

Pasta toss.

Bow ties with corn and broccoli, tossed in browned butter.

Thai crunch salad.

Romaine topped with sliced chicken (marinated in TJ’s spicy peanut vinaigrette, then baked), edamame, shredded cabbage, salted peanuts, and more spicy peanut vinaigrette.