Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

by Emily

Who else has been hitting the chocolate eggs this week? Easter candy abounds! We are spending the holiday with my in-laws – all three of our nieces! – so I’m going radio-silent on the blog front this weekend to focus on family time. I’m planning on skipping my weekend post, I’m not even packing a camera, and I’ll be back with a weekly wrap-up next Friday.

breakfast

Iced Americano with chocolate milk.

I tried the cafeteria breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with turkey and veggie sausage. The coffee cup held wonderful Cisse milk chocolate vanilla bean hot chocolate.

lunch

Oatmeal.

Quaker Honey and Almonds with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

And an apple.

Plus I snagged this delicious, thick!, strawberry lemonade from the cafeteria.

Egg salad.

We made awesome egg salad for lunches this week; medium-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and green and red pepper, miracle whip, pickle relish, mustard, and dill. Packed in a whole wheat pocket thin.

Plus wasabi seaweed and grapes.

The next day was chicken salad. A whole wheat bagel thin with chicken salad, fontina cheese, and pickled jalopeños.

Plus an apple to take away some of the heat. Peppers were the perfect addition to that sandwich.

I packed cookies, but I put them aside for a treat my coworker brought it, an Easter bun with cheese.

snack

Easter candy, duh.

Juicy bears.

Cafe Dada iced coffee that the husband sweetly delivered when he picked me up from work one day.

Cookies.

Cereal bowl.

This was a sample of Graham Crunch from Cascadian Farm with vanilla almond milk.

Very tasty. This stuff is just begging to be made into cereal s’mores bars.

I made my new favorite milkshake for Adam and myself.

Coffee frozen Greek yogurt with chocolate milk and toasted coconut.

Bubble teas from Kung Fu Tea. Coffee milk tea for me.

dinner

Dinner at a diner.

I got an eggplant parm panini.

It was yummy but ridiculously filling.

And then we had pie!

Cream pie! My slice was banana cream.

It was flipping fantastic.

Chicken salad.

Big piles of Nana’s chicken salad.

With roasted green beans.

On Wednesday we went to Williamsburg for dinner with a girlfriend. She took us to Snacky.

It was fantabulous. The space was adorable and the menu was all my favorite things. Adam and I split a salad with seaweed and sesame dressing.

And I got a rice bowl with spicy bbq miso chicken, plus kimchi and a fried egg.

I swooned my way through that bowl. It was perfect, exactly my favorite meal.

And we made similar(ish) bowls for dinner at home the next day.

A hash of chopped sweet potato, browned mushrooms, sliced spinach, green onions, and smoked trout with rosemary and smoked paprika. Topped with a fried egg.

Put an egg on it!

Have a great weekend!

16Apr2014

Our Weekend Trip To Buffalo

by Emily

We moved from Buffalo to Long Island almost 10 months ago now and we felt overdue for a visit! Adam is on Spring Break this week so I took a personal day on Friday and we made the 8 hour drive back “home.”

It was a great weekend. I’m still pretty sick so we kept things low-key and it ended up being a wonderfully relaxing trip. And we still had time to cross off all of the must-do’s on our list. We ate all of the food we were missing, walked down Elmwood, visited my old job to get all nostalgic and purchase some terrific toys, attended a baby shower for two dear friends, went out drinking with the whole crowd, and took a long walk around the park to look at the buffalo.

Here were the food highlights…

Bubble tea from Gin Gin.

I got vanilla-almond milk tea with tapioca and popping boba.

Thai Orchid for the best Thai food ever.

My tofu Pad See Ew did not disappoint. So chewy!

SPoT for breakfast.

Iced coffee and a Mike’s sandwich on an everything bagel.

Juice at Ashker’s. A blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, and carrot.

We split a duck feast at Blue Monk. Duck Reuben and Duck Poutine.

And on the way out-of-town Danielle took us to Aroma for a brunch that would have been a weekly tradition had we known about it while we still lived in Buffalo.

That Buffalo Bloody Mary had gorgonzola and Frank’s in it! And my salad came topped with artichoke hearts, calamata olives, fried leeks, tomatoes, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, balsamic vinaigrette and a poached Oles Farm free-range egg.

It was a fantastic, delicious visit.

The long car rides weren’t even that bad – honestly they were sort of fabulous – thanks to the audiobook I was sent to review. Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons is an exciting debut novel about medicine and moral dilemmas in which a surgeon must confront, outwit, and overcome deadly threats to his patients and himself. The audiobook is voiced by Robert Petkoff, who has voiced countless thrillers, including those of Michael Palmer.

This was our first time listening to an audiobook and I think we are officially hooked. It made the time fly by. Time for a book review…

cons –

Some of the medical terms were mispronounced – fascia, parenteral nutrition, rhabdomyolysis – and it was distracting.
The author was weirdly obsessed with hairdos; there was only one lone character, out of every single other character both big or small, whose hair we didn’t get a description of.

pros –

The story completely sucked us in, we would sit in the car for at least five additional minutes whenever we reached a destination!
The experience of being a surgical resident was very accurately captured, Adam couldn’t believe how spot-on the author managed to be.
Most of the medical plot was fairly accurate as well.

Overall I’d recommend reading, or listening to, Doing Harm.

Do you ever listen to audiobooks?

11Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; All By Myself

by Emily

Adam is on spring break right now so I gave him my free ticket voucher and he spent a week in St. Thomas with my parents. They are all disgustingly in love with each other and had a fabulous time. Meanwhile I was home alone but at least I had the dog.

Furry cuddles totally got me through. And I definitely took advantage of meals as a single lady.

breakfast

Fruit and yogurt bowl.

A strawberry Fage topped with fresh pineapple and cara cara orange.

A lackluster morning.

A bottle of iced coffee that I thought tasted artificial and threw out halfway through.

And a NuGo bar that was nowhere near as tasty as their salted pretzel variety.

Smoothie.

Coffee greek yogurt with frozen blackberries, toasted coconut, and chocolate milk. <– Fantabulous

Smoothie 2 was frozen mango, blackberries, and spinach with coconut water.

Have you tried the ice cream coffees from Dunkin? This was butter pecan.

I tried the cookie dough last weekend too and it was legit amazing.

lunch

Salad day.

Arugula with carrots, pea shoots, honey roasted almonds, buckwheat groats, blue cheese, dried blueberries, and vinaigrette.

Plus a cara cara orange and tamarind balls from home.

My coworkers are mostly all from the Caribbean as well and they were thrilled that I shared my tamarind shipment.

Oatmeal and apples.

Cherry Pistachio from Quaker.

And Cherry Vanilla from Big Slice.

This was the first flavor of these kettle cooked apples that I didn’t like.

Sandwich spread.

An everything bagel thin with strawberry jam, sharp cheddar, smoked turkey, and banana peppers.

Plus spicy peanut cucumber salad.

And raspberry candies and the last orange.

snack

Paper bag popcorn.

Prune chocolates my Russian coworker shared.

I ate this entire bag of Inner Peas in one sitting.

It was pathetic but also delicious.

I topped with cool tub of fig yogurt with white chocolate chips and toasted coconut.

Cookie mugs rocked my face of this week.

I use this recipe, but swap the ratio of white to brown sugar.

Do ittttttt.

dinner

Salad night.

I had a TJ’s pretzel bread in the car as an appetizer.

Then topped a giant bowl of arugula and pea shoots with medium-boiled eggs, blue cheese, turkey bacon, shredded carrot, yogurt blue cheese dressing, and truffle salt.

And now medium-boiled eggs are my new favorite thing.

A combination of nibbles. Pretzels straight from the bag.

A granny smith dipped in peanut butter and lavender caramel.

And baby carrots with red pepper hummus.

Green eggs ~~and ham~~.

Eggs scrambled with okra, arugula, and swiss cheese.

Soup’s up.

This poblano and corn chowder was delicious.

And now we’re off to do fun spring break stuff!

6Apr2014

Weeklong Wrap-Up; The Top Five

by Emily

It took a week longer than I’d hoped, but I’m back to feeling 100%! The alternative title for this post was “Cough Drop Chronicles.”

In the interim between this post and the last, I ate a ton of food but didn’t have it in me to capture most of it. Adam and I made amazing, ridiculous nachos – maple bacon kettle chips baked with a blend of eight cheeses – but I shoveled them into my mouth before there was time to let them cool, let alone be photographed. On Saturday I went to a wedding shower that served lunch – awesome lobster ravioli with big shrimp on top – but the only person I knew beforehand was the bride-to-be so I was too embarrassed to get out my camera.

Instead of a full post, here are my “top five” from the past week.

1. Liquid breakfast. I was feeling my sickest on Monday and these three beverages were all consumed over the course of the same morning.

Green smoothie. Frozen spinach, mango, and coconut water.

Lavender GT Kombucha. I shared this with Adam and he actually liked it even more than I did.

“Mocha.” Hospital coffee with a chocolate soy milk.

2. Sweet stuff. These three desserts were the very best of the week but only the tip of the iceberg in terms of consumption. I made it through by having a cough drop or hard candy in my mouth pretty much all waking 12 hours a day.

Nunu caramel dark chocolate bar. <– made in Brooklyn

Whole Foods peanut butter sandwich cookie. This was basically a giant, soft peanut butter cup.

Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Banana Chip Gelato.

3. Another beverage/sweet.

Arizona Fudge Float Sparkling Soda. This was practically a can of egg cream!

4. Salmon and salad.

Coho salmon that I (over)baked with smoked brown sugar, soy sauce, and green onions.

Plus a cucumber salad of thinly sliced cucs, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and sugar.

5. Dinner at Pizza Loves Emily.

This Brooklyn spot was seriously adorable inside.

We got a lavender lemonade.

Crispy Sprouts.

apples, chilis, black sesame, fish sauce

And the Emily white pizza.

mozzarella, pistachios, truffle sottocenere, honey

31Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; I’ve Got Recipes To Share

by Emily

Like the title says – “I’ve got recipes to share!” I managed to whip up some really great meals this weekend. That accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider the cold I’m working through. <– let’s consider my horn fully tooted, huh? I was talking to my dad on Saturday morning about how glad I was to have missed Adam’s recent bout of illness and by that night I felt terrible. Unfortunately I’ve felt progressively worse since. Hopefully tomorrow will put me on the upswing.

breakfasts and snacks

Recipe #1 – Almond Joy Baked Oatmeal.

This stuff was yummy. Click the link above for the recipe.

Green apple slices dipped in melty peanut butter.

We tried a new type of citrus from Whole Foods, pixie tangerines. They were great; nice and sweet with no seeds.

Healthy or sick, I’m all about the coffee. Iced brown sugar cinnamon latte from Dunkin.

Tall iced vanilla macchiato from Starbucks just a few hours later. I asked for regular drizzle but sugar-free syrup and it was a definite improvement.

And a clover-brewed Kona blend during my last set of errands the next day.

A handful of chocolates.

Adam and I split this Southern Hibiscus and Peach Milk Chocolate Bar. There were little bits of chewy peach embedded throughout.

I made the best milkshake. Dannon Oikos Café Latte Greek Frozen Yogurt blended with chocolate milk and toasted coconut. It rocked my socks off.

I had several sips of the husband’s Polar Vortex.

Usually we don’t have the same taste in beers but we both thought this Dunkel Lager was delicious.

dinners

Our Mexican dinner fell through on Friday. Several false starts later, we ended up at Mint.

I had Jack Daniels Honey with mint, lime, and simple syrup to drink.

On my plate was rice with sauce from Adam’s chicken and a big pile of bhindi-do-pyaza – okra sautéed with onion and tomato.

Our food was good but it was so flipping loud in there that I’m not sure we’ll ever go back.

Dinners at home were much better. Like Sweet Onion, Bacon, Blue Cheese Burgers.

On a slice of buttered, toasted sourdough with a pile of pea shoots on top.

And last night we had shrimp and veggie (white)rice bowls.

I used this recipe as a guide but went with pepper jelly and grapefruit juice.

Plus we bulked our bowls up with roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Adam said I hit it out of the park! That was the last of our big bag of frozen shrimp and I definitely want to buy more.

Did you make anything great this weekend?

28Mar2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Busy Busy

by Emily

Whew, has it been a busy week! I can’t even tell y’all, work has been wiping me out. <– Hence the 1.5 day late blog post.

Wednesday night I got home around 6:00, then sat at my desk with my boots and coat on until 8:00 when Adam got home and I finally had to get up! Then Thursday I managed to undress, and even get halfway into my gym clothes, before crawling under the covers and calling it a night.

Breakfasts

For the most part, I’ve stopped blogging coffee that isn’t extra exciting in some way, but you can assume I’m still obsessed and drink a cup whenever I can get my hands on it.

A NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel Bar.

Starbucks spectacular.

A tall nonfat iced vanilla macchiato.

And the almond blend.

Coffee and cereal.

Chocolate Krave, plus there was a packet of hot chocolate stirred into my coffee. And today I stirred hazelnut hot chocolate into hazelnut coffee and it rocked my face off.

Lunches

Leftovers.

A Cara Cara.

And the rest of the turkey reuben mac and cheese.

An awesome cafeteria lunch. I mixed together cream chowder and cheese soup, with popcorn on the side.

Cereal on the go.

Blackberries and a very unripe nectarine.

Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

And Quaker Brown Sugar Oatmeal Squares and chia seeds.

I was starving by the time lunch rolled around so I also bought a biscuit from the cafeteria.

On Thursday I saw patients straight from 9 – 4. Then I had chocolate and diet soda at my desk while I charted and it was heavenly.

Snacks

Kiss Me Organics offered me a sample of their Organic Matcha powder. Adam is obsessed so I readily accepted.

I haven’t tried baking with it yet, but it blends perfectly into smoothies and lattes – both almond milk for me and skim cow’s for Adam. The flavor is delicious, not at all acrid like green tea can sometimes be. My only complaint is that the bag doesn’t list serving instructions or nutritional information.

Matcha in a smoothie. I did pineapple, tea, ice, vanilla almond milk, ice and Fage lime 2% Greek yogurt.

Good in theory but the lime flavor was a little too much.

Dannon coffee Greek frozen yogurt with lavender caramel and roasted peanuts.

I also ate about a million handfuls of peanuts this week because holy frick, salty peanuts are so good!

Inner Peas from Trader Joe’s = my new favorite snack. They are exactly the texture I like to crunch on.

Jelly Beans.

Strawberry jam with toasted marshmallow is the best.

Dinners

Adam worked Monday night so I made myself a giant bowl of cereal for dinner.

Heritage Flakes and Reese’s Puffs with vanilla almond milk, a giant nectarine, and half a pint of blackberries.

“Pad Thai” with shrimp and broccoli.

The quotation marks are because I used whole wheat linguine instead of the traditional rice noodles.

Sandwich night.

Sourdough toasted in the oven with strawberry jam, Bone Suckin’ mustard, and two slices of sharp cheddar, with a fried egg in the middle.

Is there a better combination than cheese, egg, and jam? I know ideally there would be a vegetable on that plate but when you consider that I slept through dinner the next night it doesn’t seem so bad.

And as soon as I hit publish I’m off to dinner with the husband. We are trying a Mexican place I’m quite excited about.

Have a great weekend!

24Mar2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Snoozy Saturday

by Emily

My predicted “hours in the kitchen” did not end up coming to fruition this weekend. Instead, I got the tail end of Adam’s cold and spent almost all of Saturday and Sunday in bed. Saturday I got up twice to pee and once to eat a huge bowl of cereal and other than that I was under the covers until the husband got home for dinner! I don’t have a ton to share in this post, but at least I got to snuggle with Webster!

Dinner from the Trader Joe’s frozen aisle.

Pad See Ew with veggies and tofu.

And frozen asparagus cooked with lime juice and honey roasted almonds.

The asparagus was pretty mushy, but we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the noodles. Sidenote – I impulse bought TJ’s “Inner Peas” at the store this weekend and was impressed with them as well.

My very last peppermint divinity candy.

I’m sure my parents won’t mind sending me more next December, right guys??

Sushi take-out from Kisso on Saturday.

I got the vegetarian special,

and an order of vegetable goyza.

The dumplings were great. I shared with Adam because they reminded me of the dumplings we were obsessed with from Wegman’s hot bar. Then we shared a bag of Juicy Bears 🙂

Sunday I made it out of bed and off to the store – with very necessary pit stops to shower and caffeinate – so I could make dinner at home. My Turkey Reuben Mac and Cheese.

I subbed in Orecchiette for macaroni and added broccoli and truffle salt.

We had a round of creamy pink grapefruit spritzers for drinks/dessert.

Yum!

Outside of your college years, when is the latest you’ve ever slept in?

21Mar2014

Weekly Highlights

by Emily

I don’t have enough pictures to constitute a wrap-up post this week, but I am going to share some of the highlights. What you’re not seeing is all of the meals that I purchased out – which was pretty much all of them. Also three million pieces of gummy candy, give or take.

This week was very busy; I literally just was not home most nights to cook my own food. And the few I was home, Adam was working at night so my motivation to cook my own food was quite low. One day I had last-minute shopping errands. One day I had a professional development on nutrition for cardiovascular disease (<– it was great!) that kept me in Manhattan until after 10 pm, meaning I didn’t get back home again until almost midnight. And one day I had to go back to the salon to fix my janky hair.

I couldn’t get a good picture, but all of the color bled out of the front leaving me with gray/green pieces that looked highly unprofessional. Now I’m back to boring brown and the purple will be sorely missed!

Here were some of the very best bites from this week…

Rice bowls three days straight? Why not?

A strawberry aloe yogurt drink that I split with Adam.

A fantasmic cup of Quatro Leches (Tres Leches plus dulce de leche) that I found at the grocery store.

A delicious packed work lunch of oatmeal with kettle-cooked apples.

And last, but certainly not least, a Creamy Pink Grapefruit Spritzer. Which, ps, Adam liked so much he actually asked for the recipe and made one on his own.

That’s all, folks! I have looks of kitchen time planned for my weekend so I promise the next wrap-up will have a little more ~~tofu~~ meat.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: sweet

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Our Weekend Trip To Buffalo

Weekly Wrap-Up; All By Myself

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weeklong Wrap-Up; The Top Five

Weekend Wrap-Up; I’ve Got Recipes To Share

breakfasts and snacks

dinners

Weekly Wrap-Up; Busy Busy

Breakfasts

Lunches

Snacks

Dinners

Weekend Wrap-Up; Snoozy Saturday

Weekly Highlights