Tag Archives: sweet

Buffalo Mini Meet-Up

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Buffalo has finally arrived to hot hot summer weather (ie we hit the high 80’s today) and it was the perfect afternoon for a sundae.

I ate exactly one serving of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and was pleasantly surprised by how large the serving was (when I’m not eating it by the container, ice cream is one of the things I use my food scale for).  My bowl was super bulked up by the additions of chocolate syrup, a tiny crumble of coffee cake, and a nice juicy plucot.

I’m loving the summer produce today, this was the first plucot I didn’t taste and toss this year!

This evening was spent at my first blogger meet up!

L to R – Katy (a reader), me, and Katie (a reader and IRL friend).  A few people had to bail at the last minute so it was a pretty teeny “meet up” but the small group meant we could have a real conversation, yay!  Of course I was lame and akward and I’m sure I could have used the buffer of a crowd, but I had a great time.

We went to Saigon Cafe since they can work with meat-eaters and veggies alike. Katy ordered the summer roll appetizer and shared a piece with me.

And I ordered the Pad See Eiw special – extra veggies, level 5 spicy – for my dinner.

Extra veggies meant tons of squash which was delicous, and this actually had a bit of spice to it (though no where near as much as I’d like).

Good food, good conversation, good meet-up!

Katy and Katie both had long walks home so I went with them.  We stopped at the Co-op like good healthy living blog readers should.  I went home with Katie to try on her Lululemon Ta-Ta Tamer.  I loved it (yay!), but determined that my boobs are ginormous (yay?).

Taste of Buffalo

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It’s been a fabulous Saturday!  It’s always great spending time with the husband (he’ll have most weekends off during this section of his clerkship) but it was nice to have fun activities to do as well.

After yoga I had to shower, go to the campus library to do some printing, go to the post office, and go to the bank before I could get my hands on some food.  Thank goodness our first fun activity was the Taste of Buffalo, a food festival with offerings from all the local restaurants.

We bought 30 tickets (ie spent $15) and we’re very impressed with what we were able to get on such a cheap date. 

Buffalo natives – if you haven’t been yet please keep in mind that Adam used more than half of our tickets so my food eaten isn’t totally representative of $7.50 spent.

P.S. I need to be honest about what a fatty dork I am; I printed off the menu from the website and arrived at the festival with a circled, highlighted list –

Adam and I shared and I ended up with many fun bites.  One bite of fried cheese ravioli from Cecelia’s.

One tiny bourbon glazed shrimp from The Grill at the Dome, which was the biggest waste of money of the day.

A small glass of berry chai smoothie that Lipton was handing out for free.  This free sample was actually the 2nd best thing I had all day!

Adam and I split this smoked bourbon chicken sandwich from Chester’s Cajun grill and it was the #1 favorite for both of us.

Half of a gourmet watermelon popsicle from Sweet Melody.  This was delicious and I wish I could have downed the whole thing but it was just too drippy.

Among other things the husband also tried catfish nuggets and a huge cup of Cuban roasted pork.  We definitely discovered a few restaurants that we want to go check out.

We parked near our old apartment and walked to the fair which meant we got in a little more than 2 miles in total wandering.  It was just hot enough that stopping at The Spot for a diet pop on the walk back was pretty damn exciting.

As we talked about our favorite bites we realized that I hadn’t actually gotten all that much to eat (Adam was stuffed!), so I grabbed hot bar when we were picking up groceries.

Peak of season delicious watermelon and pineapple,

plus a random assortment of veggies.

During our downtime this afternoon I also snacked on a serving of coffee ice cream with blueberries and chocolate syrup.

You wouldn’t expect that combo to work but it totally did.

Dinner was also an expected win.

Breaded buffalo chicken – Marinate.  Roll in panko.  Bake at 350* for 38 minutes.  Eat dipped in blue cheese dressing.

Plus asparagus that we threw into the oven during the chicken’s last 20 minutes.

The chicken was taken totally over the top thanks to a sample of KC Masterpiece Buffalo Marinade from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

I always forget how much marinating does for the texture of chicken, it was like butter!  The marinade itself was tasty too, a nice vinegary buffalo without an excess of spice.

For our evening entertainment we cashed in a Groupon for a Broadway light show at the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium (conveniently located on my campus).

I really don’t want to share my opinion because Adam and I actually hate most musicals, which obviously colors our review.  I will say that the show was not the most exciting hour I’ve ever spent, and Adam claims to be having Vietnam War-esque flashbacks.  The high point of the activity was that the husband and I got to say planet-AIR-ium to each other a million times.  <– don’t get it?  watch this.

The Newest Thing

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Remember cake balls?

Of course you do, everyone and their mother made them.

Forget about those.  Cake balls are tired.  These are the newest thing –

Cookie balls.

When I made funfetti sugar cookies for Adam to bring people as a thank you gift last week, I was under the impression that Adam ate sugar cookies.  Apparently not.  I don’t either, so it appeared that the other half of that 48-cookie batch was going to waste.  Apparently not.

Cookie balls

  • 15 sugar cookies (preferably ones with sprinkles)
  • 1/3 cup vanilla frosting
  1. Use a food processor to pulse cookies into large crumbs.  The mixture doesn’t have to be perfectly homogenous, but should resemble rough sand.
  2. Pour cookie crumbs into a bowl and use your hands to combine with frosting.  Roll into balls and freeze.

I was going to dip these in chocolate originally, but they were just so darn good I couldn’t stand to mess with them!  They taste like creamier sugar cookies and take on the crumbly texture of pecan sandies.

You’re welcome.

Happy 4th of July

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America the beautiful.

Adam and I had a great July 4th, I hope you guys and your families did as well.

Apparently my husband is a bad influence; I was dressed in running clothes when he pulled me back into bed this morning!  It got too hot outside to run so instead we ate leftovers on the couch.

Cheesecake Factory’s spicy cashew chicken might actually be better the 2nd day.

We had to grocery shopping this afternoon and I snacked on an (American as apple pie) apple along the way.

Like my red, white, and blue?  Being able to dress in theme colors is my favorite part of any holiday.

We celebrated Adam’s day off for the holiday with our favorite activity – a nice long walk.  Midway we split a Sprecher Orange Cream Soda.

Soon enough it was time for red, white, and dinner.

Blue corn tortillas, filled with crumbled tofu cooked in red enchilada sauce, topped with (white) sour cream.

We used this Frontera red chile enchilada sauce and it ended up being pretty flavorless, boo.

Plus some roasted brussels sprouts.

Sadly it was a kind of meh dinner overall.

Normally this wouldn’t have been near enough food for me but thankfully we did a lot of baking today, and I did lots and lots of nibbling!

Kath’s honey crunch peanut butter –

My newest invention that’s bound to be the new big thing (I’ll tell you more tomorrow) –

4th of July cupcakes –

The cupcakes were simple white cupcakes with vanilla frosting, turned festive when dyed red, white, and blue and swirled together.

So fun!

Also fun?  We’re watching “Newsies” this evening!

Psych!

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I know I said I was going home.  As I got into my car this morning I thought “I could be fun to stay longer…,” so I did!  I’ll go home tomorrow.

I think my delicious breakfast helped to put me in the vacation mood.

0% Plain Greek Gods Yogurt with berries, plucot, and the last of the Great Harvest Granola.

So sad!

My last bowl with it was fantastic though.

I was super glad I stayed when we ventured to a great outdoor mall (I snagged the perfect shoes for my hospital rotation) and spotted this –

First we had lunch.  This is a half portion (I split with my mom) of poached eggs with hollandaise, potato, spinach, asparagus, and artichoke.

Pretty good, but dessert was better.

I seriously don’t know what I’m going to do in Buffalo for the next year without froyo?!

After some more family time, we headed to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.  I snagged one of these cheddar biscuits.

And went seafood delight for dinner.

I was seriously shocked by how good this food was; I must have exclaimed how much I enjoyed my meal at least five times during dinner!

Grilled green beans,

grilled zucchini,

and grilled bbq salmon with shrimp.

Yum, yum, yum; the zucchini was my favorite.

Ok, now I promise to go home tomorrow!

Grog Not Groggy

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After my run this morning I joined my parents for an hour and a half bike ride.  I burnt the crap out of my forearms yesterday so I ended up biking in 85* weather in this –

Worth it.  We rode all around the path and over some gorgeous bridges.  I so wish I’d had my camera but I couldn’t figure out a place to put it.

We came home for a refreshing breakfast.

0% Plain Greek Gods Yogurt with a strawberry honey straw, blueberries, peach, and Great Harvest granola.

I have maybe a half serving of granola left and my heart is breaking.

Getting lunch was not my strong suit today and I will admit that I was a little cranky this afternoon.  We did do some fun things though, like explore a neat farmer’s market.

I grabbed an iced coffee from a stand at the market.

But traded iced in for hot as soon as I saw this –

Grog style coffee?!  With a little skim milk.

I swear it did taste like buttered rum!

We also traveled to the mecca.

I bought sushi (spicy and regular brown rice California rolls) for lunch but I only ate three pieces.

Yucky City, way too much (mushy) rice.  If I had been closer to the store I would have returned it but I was eating on the car ride home.

I split these Sunkist gems with my dad for dessert.

Yum City.

My grumbling tummy was very happy when dinner was served.

Side salad with peas, radishes, spicy ranch, and dill cheese curds.

Corn on the cob so tasty it blew the corn I bought in Buffalo out of the water.

And quesadilla with sautéed onions and peppers, turkey sausage, shredded chicken, and colby and sharp cheddar cheese.

With a small turtle blizzard for dessert.

I’ve been pretty well fed this vacation.  Nonetheless, I can’t wait to go home to my husband tomorrow and hear about his first week back at school!

Funfetti

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Sprinkles, sprinkles for everyone!

I spent my afternoon baking homemade funfetti cookies for Adam to bring to school tomorrow.  All I had to do was pour a bunch of sprinkles into this sugar cookie dough.  The end product was pretty and delicious.

I only ate one finished cookie, I kind of overdid it on dough.

Worth it.

I barely had time to pause from baking before I had to make dinner.

Open-faced chicken sandwiches with two kinds of “fries.”

Oven roasted green beans,

and Ore-Ida Sweet Potato Fries.

The sweet potato fries were a sample from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.

I liked the nutritional stats and ease with which they came together.  The taste and texture were pretty much identical to restaurant sweet potato fries.  Unfortunately, when you order sweet potato fries in a restaurant they are disappointingly mushy and these were no exception.  If you are someone who loves restaurant sweet potato fries then I highly recommend this product, but I’ll keep making mine from scratch.

My “sandwich” was just a slice of sourdough bread topped with pulled chicken.

Nothing fancy, but I did make the bbq sauce from scratch.

Pomegranate BBQ Sauce, makes 1.5 cups

  • 8 oz pomegranate juice (I used Blueberry POM Juice)
  • 8 oz can tomato sauce
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 5 Tbsp granulated sugar
  1. Pour juice into a small saucepan over high heat and bring to a rolling boil.  Cover and cook until liquid has reduced to 1/4 the original amount.
  2. Add remaining ingredients to pan and stir to combine.  Continue to simmer for 5-7 minutes until sauce has reduced and thickened.

Don’t Let Your Eyes Fool You

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I’m not blind, what a relief!  Actually, it turns out I’m slightly nearsighted in my left eye but have better than 20:20 in my right eye, which averages out to perfect vision.  ie, I’m almost 26 years old (July 24th) and I still don’t need glasses! 8)

I had my eyes dillated so I had to walk around the mall a bit before I could drive.  I bought myself a frozen lemonade.

Pretty good, but not the one I’ve been pining for; I drank half.

I also wandered into heaven the new Anthropologie store.

It was painfull for me to wander around without trying anything on!  I always tell the husband that what I’m shooting for in life is to be just rich enough to shop at Anthropologie and J. Crew exclusively.  I did snag a bowl on sale for $3.

After the mall I had to head back to Wegmans; Adam needs me to make cookies for some of the boys who helped out with the ceremony yesterday.  I got lunch while I was there.

Sauted rappi and grilled veggies.

Plus oreo coffee panna cotta (<–oh. my. god.) for dessert.

Don’t let your eyes fool you, the serving was 50% smaller than it looks and the taste was 200% more delicious than it looks!  But yes, lemonade and panna cotta within the same afternoon did make my tummy hurt.

I’m glad my eyes are in shape because I’m watching “Across The Universe” as I blog and it’s pretty visually stunning.

Do you wear glasses or contacts?