Okonomiyaki And Almost Green Papaya Salad

by Emily

Loves of late – “Making It” (again), I am sad this season is almost over. Also “Stan Against Evil;” I just learned that the 3rd season premiers on Halloween and I could not be more excited.

Flavor themes this week – cream cheese, salmon, bacon, cabbage, coffee (always)

Here were the highlights…

Coffee = cold pressed Brooklyn Roasting Company.

On the snack front, the hospital cafeteria stocks a big variety of yummy trail mixes and I am obsessed with them.

And this month’s Snack Crate was from Japan and it was super exciting.

Jalopeno popper chicken. Chicken baked with a topping of cream cheese, jalopeno, cheddar, and turkey bacon. Plus roasted green beans.

Salmon strata. This recipe, but I subbed in cream cheese for cheddar and added dill. Also I added an extra egg and used fat-free half and half in place of a 1/2 cup of milk which made the custard extra creamy. Pro tip – we used Trader Joe’s white whole wheat and it was perfect. Plus cherry tomatoes and roasted zucchini.

Frozen salmon burgers (which frankly weren’t that good) on a delicious slaw. I made green papaya salad but with cabbage.

Americanized okonomiyaki, I used russet potato with turkey bacon and sharp cheddar.

28Aug2018

Weekend Things

by Emily

4 things I loved this weekend that weren’t food:

{1} Clothing – the anthropomorphic pizza t-shirt from Roberta’s that is officially my favorite thing I’ve ever owned.

{2} TV show – “Making It,” aka the best reality show ever created. It’s super talented crafters making amazing projects that are rife with puns and have a million creative details plus unscripted Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler saying hilarious and supportive things.

{3} Buds – these splendid flowers from Trader Joe’s. I don’t even like roses but these take my breath away.

{4} Movie – Crazy Rich Asians. This film was stunningly gorgeous, uproariously funny, and so darn touching that a moment towards the end brought the whole theater – including Adam and I – to tears. Go see it!

4 edible things I loved this weekend:

{1} A two-tone vanilla rose smoothie. Banana, Greek yogurt, coconut milk, and vanilla bean // with strawberries, plums, and rosewater.

{2} Coffee themed snacks. Chocolate-covered beans from Shenandoah Joe’s. <– I am obsessed

A quad iced latte with a truffle.

Kung Fu Tea oreo slush with tapioca and coffee flavored popping boba.

{3} Tacos from Brazos. We shared grilled tilapia with red cabbage slaw, avocado sauce, radish, and lime / mashed potato, yam, mushrooms, cilantro, spicy honey, and jalopenos / and chicken with black beans, roasted corn, avocado, and jack cheese.

{4} Brunch at Fry’s Spring Station. They improved upon fried chicken and waffles with smokey pimento cheese and candied pepper honey.

24Aug2018

Buchi, Boba, Bacon

by Emily

Highlights from a yummy week…

Coffee combo = Brooklyn Roasting Co with sweetened condensed milk, shakerato style.

This pineapple + mint Buchi is my new favorite kombucha.

Kung Fu Tea served me a fantastic bubble tea, rosehip milk tea with coconut jelly and boba.

Chipotle salads are possibly one of my top five favorite foods. Romaine, chicken, fajita veggies, pinto beans, hot salsa, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese.

Homemade green curry. Chicken sausage and zucchini / on cauliflower rice / with green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, and lime.

Tasty egg sandwiches. Seeded challah rolls with fried eggs, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, and mayo and gojuchang. Plus the simplest salads – romaine with ranch.

Dinner out at Bebedero.

We had great drinks – a paloma with mezcal, rosemary, and black sea salt and tepache, a fermented pineapple drink.

And I had nachos with cheese sauce and house-pickled jalopenos.

17Aug2018

Pizza Pizza

by Emily

Flavor themes from the week – cherries and cheese. These were the highlights…

Brooklyn Roasting Co coffee. After this I have one last tin left from NY… guess we need to take another trip soon!

It was a good week in snacks, thanks in part to a fun package full of goodies from my parents. Including cherry cola Mike & Ikes and delicious chocolate-covered dried cherries.

Two new to us snacks, salted caramel Somersaults (<– best flavor yet!) and Sweet Sapphire grapes.

Another new flavor, sesame bbq chicken Epic bar.

I cooked salmon for dinner one night. Roasted coho topped with a vegan scallion pesto – food-processed pine nuts, parsley, sauteed green onions, and evoo. Plus homemade cole slaw. The sauce was great, but sadly the salmon was fairly flavorless without it.

The rest of the week dinners were all about pizza! I loosely followed this recipe for pepperoni pizza macaroni and cheese. Whole wheat shell pasta > macaroni pasta. Pro tip – any time I make macaroni and cheese (or any roux thickened sauce) I always substitute low-fat condensed milk for the recommended liquid. The results always taste fantastic and it means we don’t have an open container of whole milk in the house which is great because both Adam and I dislike it. Plus roasted zucchini.

Meat lovers pizza. Frozen crust from Trader Joe’s / we added tomato paste while we sauteed some chicken sausage and added that to our marinara sauce / topped with turkey pepperoni and turkey bacon / plus mozzarella and cheddar. With roasted green beans.

What is your favorite pizza topping? Apparently mine is bacon!

13Aug2018

Dachshund Diaries

by Emily

Top five from this weekend…

{1} It was the seventh anniversary of Webster’s buyday! <– click that link for some amazing baby dachshund photos

We ate some bacon-flavored wet food.

And frolicked in the dog park. There were no other dogs there, so it was basically Webster’s ideal afternoon

{2} We found our new pizza spot – Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie.

Such tasty crust! We had the Annie Oakley – spicy buffalo chicken breast, pineapple, pickled jalapeno, mozarella, and cheddar. I did not know that spicy pizza was what was missing from my life! Plus we had a pink lemonade sour.

{3} Wegman’s bakery bar now has caramel stuffed brownies and cookie dough stuffed brownies and they are damn good.

{4} We also loved this caramel pecan ice cream.

{5} Simple salad dinner. Sweet baby lettuce / baby carrots / pine nuts / ranch / herbed turkey. With homemade cheesy garlic bread.

3Aug2018

Hell Of A Halvah

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

It’s really lovely to have a husband who arranges me flowers and buys me cupcakes when I’m cranky! Related note – it’s also really nice to live walking distance from Sweethaus because apparently they are our favorite cupcakes on the planet.

Random drink assortment from work, the lemon rose blossom water was surprisingly delicious.

Weirdest/most exciting snack award goes to – this Japanese candy we brought home from NY. It was like a fun dip but with a cola flavored lollipop and fizzy milk powder.

Fantastic product sample – Absolutely Gluten Free sent me their newest snack item: TahiniBARs. Halvah is a candy made of sesame paste and it is both Adam’s and my very favorite treat.

The TahiniBARS come in vanilla, pistachio, and cocoa nibs. They are certified kosher, dairy free, and gluten free. Each serving has 100 calories.

We LOVED them! They absolutely stacked up to the halvah I grew up eating and the artisinal varieties we’ve had in NY.

One of my favorite ways to eat halvah is crumbled up in yogurt, so one day I made an absolutely ridiculous snack – plain Greek yogurt / vanilla TahiniBAR / Soom chocolate tahini spread / red plum and green pluot. Delicious.

We had some tasty dinner too. Like bbq chicken fried rice. Fried rice / carmelized red onion / shredded rotisserie chicken / fresh corn / collard greens cooked with rice vinegar / bbq sauce / eggs.

Jalopeno popper pasta, loosely inspired by this recipe. We used whole-wheat shells, turkey bacon, no cream, and less cheese; plus I topped mine with panko. With roasted zucchini.

Leftovers with an assortment of baby wines. I do NOT recommend the rose.

Homemade buffalo chicken dip / scooped with baby carrots and potato chips / celery sauteed with butter, salt, pepper, and celery seed.

I’m trying out a recipe that sounds super fun this weekend, so please cross your fingers for me that it turns out!

30Jul2018

My Kingdom For A Coffee

by Emily

Random things from the weekend…

We tried what felt like a million different coffees. I have yet to find a local ready-made option that can keep up with Grady’s. Iced Vietnamese latte from Cville Coffee.

Iced latte from Grit.

Ice latte from Feast.

Muddy Waters was meh.

But much improved with a large scoop of violet marshmallow ice cream!

We had really good bagels at Bodo’s. Everything with olive cream cheese. They are made fresh all day long and the texture is perfection.

And only ok doughnuts from Duck. Strawberry glazed with rainbow sprinkles and marshmallow drizzle. I did not like that they were served fresh – aka hot – because it ruined the frosting.

I made a delicious vegetarian dinner. Cauliflower rice roasted in the oven / baked extra-firm sprouted tofu / scallion peanut salsa loosely based on this recipe.

I am incapable of having peanuts in the house and not eating five plus handfuls per day.

We went back to Maya and loved it a 2nd time! We had two fantastic appetizers: a local mushroom plate with Sharondale Farm mushrooms, pork belly (for Adam!) spring onion grit cake, buttermilk curd, sunflower seed and sundried tomato pesto, and lemon parsley aioli // pimento cheese fritters(!!!) with hot pepper jelly and chive sour cream.

I had the crab cakes for dinner, with sweet corn and green tomato chow-chow, smoked onion aioli, and mache. Plus sauteed broccoli and leafy greens.

And we somehow also ate peanut butter fluff pie for dessert.

How is it possibly already August this week??!

27Jul2018

Supermoon And Sprinkles

by Emily

It was my birthday!

The day itself was pretty ho-hum – I worked an extra-long day, it rained like crazy, the cupcake shop I planned on visiting closed early without warning – but it’s always nice to have survived another year! And my pre-birthday trip to New York was pretty fabulous; I am glad I got my good weather then.

Highlights from the week…

Pathetically, I ate this strawberry Airhead as my birthday-day dessert.

But later in the week we splurged on this $9 pint of marshmallow and violet ice cream. <– best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, including the stuff I ate at a Jeni’s in Ohio last fall

Lately in coffee, I’ve tried and been disappointed by several packaged options.

At least I fulfilled my favorite birthday tradition – freebie Starbucks quad iced latte with sprinkles on top.

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I made a cocktail with this dream team –

We got salad bowls at Chipotle with so much cheese on them it was almost too much, almost.

My birthday dinner was our first – mightily successful – trip to Beer Run. They’re kind of famous for their nachos.

And I had a salmon bahn mi (with pickled strawberries!) that was pretty good.

Plus a key lime brown sugar margarita and a key lime pie tart ale.

Yesterday we slow-cooked a delicious dinner. Brown sugar garlic chicken thighs. I added smoked paprika, but otherwise followed the recipe. With roasted broccoli with crock pot drippings and Sriracha.

Less than 12 hours to the weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: sweet

Okonomiyaki And Almost Green Papaya Salad

Weekend Things

Buchi, Boba, Bacon

Pizza Pizza

Dachshund Diaries

Hell Of A Halvah

My Kingdom For A Coffee

Supermoon And Sprinkles