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?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Driving Me Crazy

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind; I had a orthodontic emergency that sent me back to Buffalo at the last-minute.  That trip ate up a fair amount of time – I spent more hours in the car roundtrip than I actually did in Buffalo! – so I don’t have a ton to share.  My time in Long Island was pretty low-key.

Here are some of the highlights…

I am a big fan of Lindt’s “Hello My Name Is” line and Adam and I both loved this salted caramel bar.

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We got Chinese take-out for dinner that was only so-so.  My steamed broccoli with brown garlic sauce (and white rice) was delicious,

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but the soup that was supposed to turn that into a full meal was basically dirty water with raw veggies floating in it.  You win some, you lose some.

A much more amazing meal came out of our own kitchen.

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Sautéed cabbage and turnip greens.  I just cooked the veggies in some evoo and salt and they were delicious!

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Plus onion-packed eggs.

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Eggs scrambled with tons sautéed sweet onion and spring onions, sliced turkey, and cheese.

On Saturday we went into Brooklyn for Coney Island on Tap.

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There weren’t a ton of beers I cared about (minus two watermelon brews!) so I mostly stuck with ciders.

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Though I managed to drink just enough to later get into a hilariously intense fight with the husband over who would get to pee first!  Afterwards we had frozen yogurt,

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and Bareburger for dinner.

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I couldn’t get a very good picture but I had a turkey burger (no bun) with pepperjack, turkey bacon, sweet apple grilled onions, red piquante peppers, avocado, and smoked paprika mayo.  It’s my birthday next Thursday and I’ve already decided that I’m going to celebrate with Bareburger.

My road trip was a little ridiculous, like I said, I spent more time in the car than I did in Buffalo.  I basically mainlined candy and coffee for two days.

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But my orthodontist hooked me up, and even with gas and tolls I saved more than $1,000 by making the trip.  And I got to stay with newlywed friends and see their gorgeous new house.

And we went to Thai Orchid, which I had been severely missing.  My girlfriend and I both started with the soup special, broth with noodles, bok choy, tons of crabmeat, and great shrimp wontons.

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I went with my old favorite for dinner, Pad See Ew with extra veggies.

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It was fantastic, totally worth the whirlwind visit! 😉

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?

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!

Long Week Wrap-Up; Something Blue

My first post since last Thursday, since the week/end flew by.  Really the whole month of June feels like it’s flying by!

In spite of being busy, I did manage to photograph every single thing I ate Monday – Thursday, minus one cup of iced coffee.  <– go me!  That’s in sharp contrast to Saturday and Sunday, when I took exactly two photos:

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Baked brie that I shared with a girlfriend at C’est Cheese.  It was delicious, obviously.  We were in Northern Long Island on a Saturday because our friends Kim and Dan were getting married!

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Kim is seriously the classiest person I know so their wedding was, of course, amazing.  I felt too weird to take a picture of my plate at the table of college friends we didn’t know, but the food was delicious.

I spent Sunday lazing around the house, eating potato chips.  But come Monday, I got myself together.  Here’s the recap…

breakfasts

The food stand at my LIRR station sells iced coffee now!  This would be more exciting/a bigger bummer for my wallet except that they only have coffee creamer, no skim milk, so I doubt I’ll get it that often.

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I had a 2nd coffee (with chocolate milk) when I got to work.  <– the only food item that escaped my camera this week

Breakfast at my desk.

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Coffee, a peanut butter & strawberry KIND bar, and a red pear that I gave up on after two bites because it was just too drippy with juice to manage at my desk.

Smoothie time.  Frozen raspberries, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and a big scoop of Cacao Bliss.

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The coconut butter froze into delicious little balls embedded throughout the smoothie.  Kind of like the old Orbitz drinks!

Chocolate malted coffee.

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I stirred a scoop of malt powder into chocolate milk before mixing it into my cold brewed coffee.  This was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

lunches

A winning yogurt bowl.

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Plain Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of Meyer lemon curd and 1/2 a pint of fresh blueberries.

Cafeteria salad.

pickle salad

Greens topped with balsamic dressing, pickled veggies, tons of pickles, and big scoop of chicken salad.

Vita Coco coconut water latte plus homemade “instant” oats.

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Just rolled oats, freeze-dried strawberries, cinnamon maple sugar, and a Tbsp of malted milk powder that I covered with hot water from the cafeteria.

Thursday was insanely busy and my lunch plans went out the window.  When I finished my final gestational diabetes education I did eat cereal at my desk at 3pm.

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That Special K was pretty good.  And now I have my packed lunch ready and waiting for me tomorrow.

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That yogurt bowl is going to be goo-ood.

snacks

Last week I bitched about my insane afternoon hunger so this week I leaned into the problem and packed smaller lunches to accommodate many (many, many) snacks when I got home.  Though these jelly beans were actually eaten at work.

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The 2nd half of a package of TJ’s Inner Peas.

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Cinnamon pita chips with TJ’s honey goat’s milk gouda.  <– ridiculous

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Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

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Lemon pie milkshake, aka my best idea ever (rivaled only by the malted coffee!).

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We blended vanilla bean ice cream, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, Meyer lemon curd, and Cascadian Farm Graham Crunch cereal and it was flipping fantastic.

dinners

This frozen entrée of white fish with zucchini and pesto was quite lovely.

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The fish didn’t do much for me, but the squash/sauce bites were delish.

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Plus, how great is this ingredient list?

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The 2nd half of that dinner had a decidedly less short ingredient list.

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But my Lean Cuisine stuffed pretzels were tasty nonetheless.

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More homemade Pad Thai.

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This time with shiitake mushroom, broccoli and tofu.

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The tofu was Nasoya Sprouted Tofu Plus that I topped with a mixture of Sriracha, smoked brown sugar, and rice vinegar before baking.

Gardein Mandarin Crispy Chick’n that we bulked up with roasted broccoli.

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Plus frozen kale cooked with peanut sauce and crushed peanuts.

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All together this was nice.

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Adding vegetables to frozen meals is a good compromise between my desire to eat a healthy dinner and my desire to come home and sit on the couch without pants.

I hate to end this post on a blah note, but Adam worked Thursday night and my single lady dinner was pretty lame.  The last serving of broccoli and chick’n,

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with popcorn,

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and this embarrassing little bowl of melted coconut oil with Dutch cocoa powder and sugar.

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Mom, Adam has leftover Pad Thai so I did not leave him stranded for “dinner” when he gets home in the morning!

Were you a fan of the Orbitz soda?  I would totally buy it now if it was still available.

Weekly Wrap-Up Mini

Last night I went to write my Weekly Wrap-Up post, and….. I deleted everything on my camera.  Whoops!  All I have are the photos I had uploaded earlier in the week.  I figured I’d share a few snippets from earlier this week as a mini wrap-up.  Sound good?

An awesome “pb&j” smoothie.

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Frozen raspberries and dates with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Snack-time at work.

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Fruit gummies, salmon jerky, pretzels, and applesauce.  Part of this snack was a free sample sent to me from Mary’s Gone Crackers.

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The Sea Salt Pretzels are organic, kosher, vegan, and gluten-free.  Their unique texture is a mash-up of whole grain brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, amaranth, millet and chia seeds.  A pretty solid ingredient list!  I ate them straight, as well as crumbled into a yogurt bowl, and decided I was a fan.

Another good snack is Ambrosia apples.

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I’ve only seen them at Whole Foods this summer but they are worth the extra driving time because they’re so sweet and juicy.

We discovered that there is a Grimaldi’s location just minutes from our house.

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We’ve never been to the original DUMBO location, but we were pretty darn impressed with this outpost.  We had a nice house salad.

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And a pizza with mushrooms, garlic, and black olives.

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The olives were ridiculous good – like little briny prunes!

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We will definitely go back.

I actually ended up having pizza for four different lunches and dinners this week so you really didn’t miss much in this mini wrap-up.  The next night I did 1 am pizza after rushing back into the city to see The Stationary Set.

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My childhood best friend is with the lead singer but this was actually the first time I had heard them play live.  Loooooooved it!  Important to note – I brought a girlfriend who is much cooler than me to the show and she loved them as well.  They have a new album out, I’m buying it this weekend and you should check it out too.

How many days in a row would you guess your longest pizza eating streak to be?

Weekend Wrap-Up; Sunday Smorgasburg In DUMBO

Another wonderful weekend!  Amazingly, the husband and I are still not sick of each other, so when he has a weekend day off it is better than fricking Christmas.  He worked Saturday while I slept until noon and cleaned and grocery shopped and then Sunday was family fun day.

We’ll start with a snack review.  Polar’s new Georgia Peach Seltzer is delicious.

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Very juicy, though the flavor almost reminded me of bananas.

This Trader Joe’s microwave popcorn is also nice.

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My favorite thing is the packaging, honestly.

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I hate how ridiculously convoluted microwave popcorn nutrition labels are but this one was crystal clear.

And the birthday cake stuffed cookies are not good.

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Of course I ate two more servings before I came to that conclusion… for research.

The cheap fresh blueberries from Trader Joe’s are great now.  No more mushy berries.

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Shown on a bowl of cereal – a serving each Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes and Honeycomb with marshmallows – with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I suck at including pictures, but I actually am (relatively) good at eating my vegetables.  Go ahead and picture several servings of olive hummus with raw veggies this weekend and a big salad from the cafeteria for Friday’s lunch.  Much better.

Friday night started with green juice.  A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, parsley, and apple.

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We needed it to offset the next round of drinks.

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We spent a glorious evening on the patio at Bierkraft.  A girlfriend met up with us after work, and we befriended the couple who shared our table, and we all laughed and shared restaurant recommendations for hours.

Highlights from the night were 21st Amendment Brewery’s Hell or High Watermelon.

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And this Reindeer’s Revolt that stole my heart.  It was malty and sweet with just a bit of spice.  Though I’m not sure why Bierkraft had two freezer’s worth of Christmas beers in the first week of June.

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We also had amazing frozen margaritas, ill-advised rounds of shots, and an awkward dinner at Calexico.  I drunkenly ordered the only thing on the menu that I would never eat and sat there like a weirdo while the waitress boxed up the entire dish minus two bites at the end of the meal.  Whoops.

Saturday’s dinner was a winner; and yes, it bums me out that that rhymed.

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It was just a really yummy, summery combination of foods.  Leftover veggies, cruciferous crunch with pecans and blueberries.

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The last of the rotisserie chicken, scrambled into eggs with brie, dill, and coconut oil.

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And corn on the cob, oven-roasted with Miracle Whip, sea salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and sharp cheddar.

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I am so flipping glad that it is corn on the cob season again.  Learning how easy it is to cook in the oven was a great discovery last summer.

On Sunday we took the dog into Brooklyn for Sunday’s Smorgasburg.

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DUMBO is gorgeous, it is one of my favorite nyc neighborhoods.

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I ate a fantastic lemonade with watermelon and mint.  Served with a bubble tea straw for the big, juicy chunks of melon.

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And a really terrible taco.  The edamame and corn were inexplicably neither cooked nor seasoned.

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Thankfully Adam made much better choices – miso chicken taco, ginger bourbon pecan pie, rhubarb Columbian soda – and was willing to share.

We took the dog exploring, then made our way to Luke’s Lobster.

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We shared a combo and were both swooning.  This was the best lobster roll I have ever eaten, including one I had at a shack on the harbor in Boston.

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They serve it fairly plain, just with lemon butter and secret spices, and the freshness of the lobster meat shines through.  We plan on taking my parents for one the minute their airplane lands later this month.

Where were you served the best lobster roll you’ve ever eaten?  If you’re into that kind of thing…

Weekend Wrap-Up; Frozen

Good morning!  I’m excited to report a fabulous Saturday and Sunday.  Adam had a golden weekend – both days off – and we made the most of it.  I only have photos of a fraction of our eats (among other things, we went to Bareburger twice) because I was too busy/excited/drunk to bother, but here are some of the highlights…

The only homemade meal we had all weekend was actually one of the best.

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We shared a sandwich of fried egg, fontina cheese, mustard, and the rest of the Sweet Earth vegan bacon on pumpernickel rye swirl.  Homemade egg sandwiches are always wonderful, but the sweet and smoky flavor of the “bacon” took this one to a new level.

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Plus a lavender lime spritzer.

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Fresh lime juice, lavender simple syrup, maple, water, and seltzer.

Another shared sandwich, the shredded chicken from Bahnmigos.

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Adam had resisted joining me for Bahn Mi for weeks, but now that he’s tasted it he is completely obsessed.  You just cannot beat Srircha, mayo, and pickled veggies on that crusty French bread.

We have to get Ample Hills when we’re in Park Slope.

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Butter Pecan Brittle and Salted Crack Caramel for me.  I also tasted the peppermint patty flavor and now I’m pretty desperate to go back and get a cup of that.

A trip to Manhattan for the Central Park Zoo.

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A lot of exhibits were closed, so that was a bummer, but we loved getting to walk around the park.

Dinner at Farmacy was disappointingly lackluster, especially since it’s our new favorite spot.

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My caramel coffee egg cream was nice,

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but the grilled cheese was meh.

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Maybe it was just me though, Adam liked both of our sandwiches and thought I was crazy.

On Sunday we had brunch right on the water at Sheepshead Bay, then drove over for an afternoon at Rockaway Beach.

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We hit up two frozen treats from the Buzzfeed list.  {#12} Frozen pink lemonade from Bungalow Bar was a little watery but very pink.  The bar was right on the water!

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And {#14} Connolly’s Bar made the best frozen piña colada I’ve ever had.

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Plus we explored the area and hit up Rockaway Taco, which was pretty much beyond words.

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The fish tacos were perfection.

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And we both loved our juice.

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Pineapple mint for Adam and watermelon for me.  Love.