Tag Archives: sweet

Best Ever

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It’s a good thing I decided not to blog after dinner yesterday because we ended up staying out for drinks!  It was a late, fun night.

We started our evening with dinner at Las Culebrinas, Adam’s favorite Cuban place on the planet.  They have rolls with the best garlic butter.

We also ordered some appetizers to share.

Fried plantain with shrimp in red sauce and mozzarella sticks.

For dinner I got Mahi Mahi crusted in corn flakes and topped with a honey mustard sauce.

It was a little too fried for me but the sauce was so good.

And it came with a side salad with great dressing.

We did lots of sharing (though no one went near Adam’s beef because he was moaning so loudly – and whispering sweet nothings to his chocolate flan – and we were all a little afraid).  I ended up eating the equivalent of 3/4 of my plate.

Afterwards we walked around Coconut Grove for some more people watching.  And somehow ended up at Uncle Moe’s for drinks.  Like the Cow Tipper.

Here’s a shot with my hand for size comparison.

My mom and I split this one, obviously.  It was tasty, but not as strong as it sounds.

Which is good, because I was feeling good this morning.  I decided to skip the hotel breakfast, which was lackluster yesterday, and get in a quick gym trip instead.  15 minutes on the treadmill for a bit over a mile.

I ate my stolen pear for breakfast.

Along with a NuGo Dark bar packed from home.

And we stopped by our old favorite Thai place for a bubble tea smoothie.

Strawberry coconut smoothie with bobba.

So freaking good!

Plus a few peppermints for freshness.

Amid the day’s exploration we also spent some time at the mall. I know shopping seems like a strange vacation activity, but my parents live on an island so it’s more exploratory for them than the beach. My dad shared a pretzel with me while we were there.

I ate about x2 what’s pictured. We were practically frozen so I also bought an earl grey with steamed skim milk.

A few stops later, and we were at my favorite place on the planet.

Where I made the biggest cup of froyo I’ve ever eaten.

Everything chocolate and caramel, smothered in marshmallow.

Heaven. Pure heaven.

And the evening only got better. The plan was to go to Joe’s Stone Crab, but a 2-hour wait scared us away. The disappointment was very serendipitous, because we ended up having a best ever dinner at Joe’s less formal take-away spot next door. You ordered your food at a counter and brought it to the booth yourself and it ended up being just perfect.

To start, Adam and I split a seafood bisque.

It was creamy and tangy with big chunks of fish.

Then the four of us split an order of stone crab.

Stone crab is like the best crab you’ve ever had, on steroids. It is meaty, yet tender and buttery.

I got most of two claws, dipped in butter and mustard.

I drank a spicy bloody Mary with my food but I was too excited about the crab to remember to photograph before a few sips in.

For the rest of the meal, my mom and I split two sandwiches.

The shrimp po boy and the lobster Reuben.

The po boy was good, though I mostly ate the shrimp out of the bun, dipped in remoulade.

The Reuben was out of this world. Everything that’s good about a Reuben but with the added amazingness of lobster.

Everyone kept laughing at me for chewing with my eyes closed but I just couldn’t help it. The big pieces of meat were absolutely perfect.

I thought I couldn’t be happier, but then Adam bought me this t-Rex juice container.

Best trip souvenir ever.

My favorite activity in any city is bike riding, and for the hour after dinner that’s just what we did.

It was so much fun, though our times in the sand basically left my thighs burning! Then we spent another hour walking down the club strip on South Beach for the ultimate people watching. It was the best vacation day ever.  The best.

Lincoln On South Beach

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The day’s not yet done, but I can already tell that I won’t feel like blogging after dinner so I wanted to get a post in now.  This vacation is tiring me out, whee!

We started the morning with complimentary breakfast. I made oats to eat, and stole a pear and some granola for later.

I topped my oats with skim milk and peanut butter.

Plus had a cup of hot chocolate.

And then we went to the gym! I realize the first morning of a vacation is an odd time to break my months’ long gym hiatus, but what can I say? There was one in-house, Adam could go with me, and Sleepwalk with Me by Mike Birbiglia was begging to be read. I actually extended my workout so I could finish the book; 45 minutes on the stationary bike.

Our first stop of the day was Lululemon for an exciting Christmas gift. I also grabbed a piece of candy.

Then we spotted a Whole Foods, swoon.  The husband and I about died over these –

But then we found the crackers Adam has been lusting after and my favorite Pumpkin Protein drink from Odwalla.

We split it.

The husband and I, I mean, though we did consider giving a sip to our new friend.

You know our next stop was my favorite.

I think I got more toppings than froyo.

Rainbow sprinkles, popping bobba, and marshmallow with a bit of plain tart yogurt.

And our day’s activity was one of my favorites: wandering up and down Lexington Ave on South Beach.

Lexington is the best spot in Miami for people and puppy watching.

We spent the day walking, shopping, and eating; it was perfect.  I split this Chocolate Cherry Tort Lara Bar with Adam.

And when he stopped for Cuban coffee I snagged this Mamey smoothie.

I’ve wanted to try Mamey fruit for years and after this drink I’m still not quite sure what it is!  The taste was almost a watermelon-pumpkin mix.

I also stole a small square of Adam’s chicken parmesan pizza.

And bought a small bag of cola gummies.

I think I’ll be ready for something savory for dinner 😉

Do you people watch?  Where’s the best spot for it?

Happy Thanksgiving

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We’re in Miami!

Can I just say, how little I did I manage to pack for two people for four days?

And that’s with the husband’s giant boy clothes taking up extra space.

Our day of travel went smoothly, minus my yogurt (in a perfect peanut butter jar!) getting tossed at security. We slept though the first flight and then spent three hours walking around the Chicago airport.

We got a strange 8am meal, splitting a Baja chicken burrito from Burrito Beach.

I asked for chicken, red rice, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, and roasted veggies.

Supplemented with a tangerine packed from home.

I was pleased with the job I did packing food for this trip.

(Adam also had a downright gourmet salad in my backpack.)

I ate a sandwich – Applegate Farms Turkey Bologna, Crofter’s Grape Spread, everything Bagel Thin – on flight number two.

Plus Peanut M&Ms bought from the airport.

I also started reading the all time funniest book ever on the plane.

Clearly Webster liked it too.  I laughed aloud so many times I’m sure our seatmates were thinking of muzzling me.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and hugging my parents at the gate.  We are so freaking excited to be with them (especially in Miami!).

Our first stop was a nice walking tour of our old haunt, the U!

So fun to see how the campus had changed in little ways.  I will admit to becoming a bit nostalgic when we walked past the building where I took all of my English classes.  Plus it’s fun that Adam and I got to date here for four years.

Our next stop made my heart sing.

Self-serve froyo is high on my list of things to be thankful for!  I did keep the serving small though (we were about to head out to a nice Turkey Day dinner!); dolche de leche and taro froyo with fruit, a smidge of marshmallow, sprinkles, and lots of popping bobba.

If we manage to sneak in a froyo every day of the visit I think this will end up being the best vacation ever.

For dinner we headed to the Chart House.

The shirt that Adam has on here is actually the one he got married in!!!

I started my meal with a Blue Moon.

And a really great roll with butter.

And for dinner I went traditional.

Sliced roast turkey,

cornbread stuffing,

mashed potatoes,

cranberry relish,

and creamed spinach.

The spinach was soooo good, but overall I probably ordered the wrong thing since I actually hate most Thanksgiving foods.  I only ate a 1/3 or so of my plate; but at least I won’t have regrets about “missing”anything, and Adam is thrilled with his plate of leftovers.

My meal came with pecan pie.

But there wasn’t a preference issue that kept me from eating this, the pie was just plain nasty.  Store-bought (crappy store-bought) pie, Chart House?  You can do better.

But what really matters on Thanksgiving is family, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite people.  And I hope all of you, Americans or otherwise, got to spend the day with your nearest and dearest too.

Roasty, Cheesy

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We have a 6am flight tomorrow, I should already be in bed!  But since I still plan on showering, nail painting, and watching Castle before bed I guess I shouldn’t worry about it 😉

Taking the dog this afternoon was hard!  I definitely dropped him off with a bag of stuff like a crazy person.  And the husband and I have both said at least twice this evening that we miss him.

I had to go pick up Adam after taking the dog and I stopped at the Co-op in between for a soda.

Orange cream just sounded right.  I also snagged a sample of their pecan pie.

Ah-mazing!  It was all I could do not to buy a whole pie.  And way to go on the gigantic sample sizes, Co-op.

Dinner was a roasty, cheesy, winner.

Baked potato topped with butter, sharp cheddar, and roasted broccoli (with truffle oil!), plus more broccoli with cheese on the side.

‘Twas very good.  And reminded us both that we love baked potatoes and should make them more often.

We also split this bar.

There were little bits of crunchy peppermint embedded throughout; awesome.  Normally I couldn’t stand to open something this Christmas-y before December, but I really wanted dessert!

If I don’t get to blog, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Tomorrow!

Yes, You Want Cake

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This post is for Katie. And for everyone – not to worry, I did eat food-food today, I just wanted to get this posted asap so y’all could enter the giveaway.

What do you get when you combine these things?

Cake!

Seriously.

My mother-in-law made this one Thanksgiving and it blew my mind. There’s also a ton of varieties on the internet, going as Crockpot Cake or Dump Cake. You can pair any combo of cake mix and pie filling that suits your fancy, so the possibilities are practically endless. And you basically just dump everything in your crock pot and go.

I had a very hard time picking a flavor combo – carrot cake mix + pineapple filling? devil’s food cake mix + cherry filling? spice cake mix + apple filling? – but in the end I decided to use Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix and Comstock Premium Strawberry Pie Filling.

I brought my cake into class today (I actually I made it during class in the back of the room!) and everyone loved it. The 18 of us finished every last bite!

Crock Pot Cake

  • 1 box Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix
  • 21 oz can Comstock Premium Strawberry pie filling
  • 8 Tbsp butter, chopped
  1. Spray the inside of your crock pot with baking spray.
  2. Pour pie filling into the bottom of the crock pot.
  3. Combine butter and cake mix and sprinkle on top of pie filling.
  4. Cook, 2 hours on the low setting.

Giveaway

I received my cake mix and pie filling for free as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program and they want me to share with you guys too.

Three readers will receive two coupons for a free box of Duncan Hines cake mix. To enter to win –

  • leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite kind of cake is
  • post a link to this giveaway on Twitter, and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’ve done so
  • post a link to this giveaway on Facebook, and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you’ve done so

You can do any or all of the above to enter. Contest ends Wednesday, November 23rd at 2pm EST.

Delirious Dinner

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I’m going to go ahead and apologize in advance for the plethora of typos that will most likely pepper this post.  Between my 4+ hour sleep deficit and wracking my brain all day for answers to two major tests, I’m a bit off my game.  And the husband was on a 24-hour shift last night and he’s wrecked as well.  Our joint delirium made for an interesting afternoon.

But first, lunch.

Despite appearances, that’s not a yogurt.

It’s also not a 6oz container but a big guy, stocked with last night’s roasted dinner leftovers.

These were still good cold, but I had to shovel them in at 10am which felt a little odd.

I want to think my tests went well, but honestly I’m not sure I even remember.  Thanksgiving break is going to be all about catching up on sleep.

When I finished my make-up exam at 3, I picked up the husband so we could do a quick grocery restock.  My gnawing hunger led me to the gingerbread men.

Such a good idea.  Adam ate his buttons, and thought this was so funny he made me snap a picture.

I told you we’re tired.

Except that tired is the understatement of the century.  Between bad luck, Adam’s distraction, and my complete and utter confusion at life, we went to three different grocery stores and somehow ended up with nothing more than a bag of pears to show for it.  Frick.

Some complaining, more confusion, and lots of aimless driving later, and we managed to end up at a Chinese buffet for dinner.

We were totally drawn in by the bubble tea.

Adam and I split this Taro one.

The food wasn’t necessarily good, but it certainly wasn’t bad either.  Not healthy at all and a miserable lack of vegetables, but overall we had a nice dinner.

Green beans, baked salmon, 2 stuffed mushrooms, and a crab rangoon.

Sushi, chicken with broccoli, and some cheesy crab salad that blew my freaking mind.  It was so rich I couldn’t even eat all of what’s shown but I was seriously in heaven.

Tiramisu, pineapple, glazed banana, pudding, coconut gelatin.

I had lost steam by dessert and shared .25 – .5 of this with Adam, but I did devour the coconut jell-o.

I love buffets because getting to try little bits of lots of things makes my soul happy.  If I could find a buffet with actual healthy options I think my heart would explode with joy.

And sleep in 3, 2, 1 …

How do you feel about buffets?  What dish do you always look for on the line?

No Sleep Makes Strange Cravings

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Hello, hello. It’s been a long time (48+ hours!) since I’ve posted and it’s felt even longer. It’s been a crazy couple of days. My meals since I last blogged have been anything but impressive, but it kind of made me want to post all the more since I’m trying to put it all out there. I will add the disclaimer though that this is a *do not as I do* post 😉

I didn’t tell y’all last time, for obvious security reasons, but Monday was Adam’s 1st 24-hour shift at the hospital. It went very well, but I’m still glad that he’ll get to sleep at home most nights this year! I was tired, he was tired, the dog was tired.

<– That’s the scene I walked in on Tuesday afternoon. Swoon.

I had a ton of schoolwork to catch up on and was worried about sleeping without Adam so I pulled a bit of a 24-hour shift myself and only slept 2 hours on Tuesday night. <– this was a terrible idea, but more on that in a minute. I studied mostly standing at the mantle, which was lovely, and had a civilized midnight snack of tea with skim milk and dark chocolates.

Since I packed lunch before my all-nighter, Tuesday’s meals got off to a good start. I mixed together a Stonyfield 0% Chocolate Underground Yogurt with pumpkin puree and the end result was pretty amazing.

I also packed some citrus.

I ended up eating just the tangerine and giving away the orange.

And I bought a coffee – with tons of skim milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon – during a break in class.

Brunch was tasty, but not very filling, so when I came home to my sleeping family I stole a slice of Adam’s Newman’s Own White Pizza.

I also ate this fruit packet.

Wednesday (today) involved a major test and a major paper, so working on practically zero sleep Adam and I knew to grab hot bar for dinner Tuesday night.

An Indian dish and some tofu,

veggies,

which included some “Asian” Brussels sprouts that we so wildly good I almost drove back to Wegman’s to buy more!

I also snacked on a bowl of pretzels and coffee & cream malted milk balls.

And then the evening took a turn South. It’s possible I had a full-scale meltdown and confirmed that I’m now too old to pull all-nighters. Writing my paper involved such dramatic sobbing that I had to reprint a copy of my article because I got it wet with tears. Pathetic, I know.

When I did wrap things up, around 2am, we both celebrated with bowls of Lucky Charms.

Thanks for the cereal, husband, and for loving me in spite of me!

Tuesday I was too tired to be tired (if that makes sense) but today I felt every single missed hour of sleep. Meet breakfast –

And lunch –

Why, yes, classmate wondering why I’m photographing two bags of combos at 10am, I do write a healthy living blog.

But my paper was turned in and my test was at least passed, so today wasn’t a total fail. All I wanted to do at 4:30 when class finished was go home and sleep, but instead I headed to work. Tonight was my final shift which was actually sort of sad. I suppose I won’t miss random strangers calling me an asshole and hanging up, but the whole getting paid thing was nice.

When I got out at 9, I picked up Adam so we could fulfill the strangest food craving I’ll ever have – a McDonald’s Fillet-O-Fish Sandwich.

I hate McDonald’s. I’ve never even tasted this sandwich before. But for some reason I was smelling it all afternoon and it was driving me crazy.

This wasn’t even good (I was right, McDonald’s is gross) but at least I can move forward now.

P.S. I still have to shower (it’s after midnight) and tomorrow I have to *start* studying for Friday’s giant test so if you think tonight’s post was whiney and/or incoherent you probably should wait to read again until this weekend!

Have you ever craved a food that you’ve never tasted before?

He’s Back!

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No, not me (I’m a she if you didn’t know!), my computer!

He’s back from the place that drained my wallet Best Buy’s Geek Squad and feeling better than ever.  I’m glad to have a working computer again, though I did learn a few things in his absence –

  1. If it’s not Google-_________, WordPress, Slate, Hotmail, or another of the select few, I’m not opening it on my laptop.  That’s what fancy cell phones and school accounts are for.
  2. I need want to spend more time away from the computer.

How much of your free time would you say you spend staring at a screen (tv, computer, or cell phone)?

I spent 7:30 am – 9:30 pm out of the house and my eats today were decidedly pathetic.  Cheese, and carbs, and hey I did the best I could on the run!

Breakfast, consumed during a break in class #1, was a leftover serving of mac ‘n cheese.

And lunch, consumed during the break between class #2 and 3, was a Cookie Dough Balance Bar.

And after all my raving over how this bar is my favorite thing ever, I’m pretty sure they’ve changed the recipe!  This was overly chemical and just not good.  What gives?!?  I don’t even know how I’m going to break the news to Adam.

In between lunch and dinner, insert a group meeting, an hour spent writing my personal reflection on the Chili Sale, a trip to the mall in torrential downpour to pick up my computer, and three-hour shift at work.

Unsurprisingly, dinner came from the frozen section.

A Newman’s Own White Pizza, purchased with a free coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

I ate my single serving on a too-big plate so that we could reuse the plate for Adam’s big serving and save a dish.

Soooo good.  The portion didn’t feel very big but it was less about being unsatisfied and more about really wanting to keep eating the delicious flav-a.  If I’m not going deep dish, I want my crust to be crispy and this definitely delivered.  The cheese had a great sour, tang to it that I couldn’t get enough of and the red sauce wasn’t missed at all.

For my side I tried to recreate Saturday’s salad.

Romaine base topped with crumbled blue cheese, chopped Gala apple, groats, and Wegman’s Yogurt Casaer Dressing.

It was very good, but I realized too late that dressing with honey and vinegar probably would have taken it over the top.

Dessert was two coffee malt cookies.

I’m going to be up half the night chipping away at schoolwork and it’s likely I will continue to do some snacking.  I’ll update in the morning as need be.  Good night!