Coconut Caramel

Hi, there! It was a great week in snacks and eclectic dinners. We also ate an obscene amount of late-night pizza take-out but I took no pictures.

Highlights included…

Fruit salad! Fresh blackberries and Golden Nugget Mandarins dressed in maple and key lime juice.

Peanut-themed bars. Both were great.

Sparkly beverages. Both were good but not unmissable; surprisingly I prefer the original hibiscus water.

I recently bought coconut caramel from a Filipino store and, of course, it featured heavily in this week’s snacks.

Like kaya toast – whole wheat toast with coconut caramel, banana, and cinnamon.

And in yogurt bowls with blackberries and Whole Food’s Vietnamese coffee granola.

Boba milk tea mochi. These had just enough sweetness and just enough chew, I would definitely buy them again.

Adam is pretty sure he loved this Whole Food’s cinnamon bun kettle corn but he can’t be certain because I ate all of my portion and the majority of his too!

Cheeseburger inspired pasta bowls. Whole-wheat rotini / ground turkey cooked in a sauce that included tomato paste and yellow mustard / roasted baby tomatoes / baby spinach / chopped pickles / chopped white onion / smoked cheddar cubes.

Insanely good turkey meatloaf seasoned with hoisin sauce, cheddar cubes, and roasted sweet onion. Plus roasted purple and orange cauliflower.

Daring vegan chicken nuggets (10/10!) / roasted zucchini and brussel sprouts sautéed with a spicy black bean and nut butter sauce / homemade honey mustard.

Trader Joe’s Frozen Aisle Wins

TGIF! Highlights from this week included…

Perfectly ripe champagne mangos. In a yogurt bowl with plain skyr, chia seeds, and granola.

Blue Point’s Gelato Drip double IPA was good but not as good as I was expecting.

Synergy’s Bloom kombucha (with elderflower, jasmine, and violet) was twice as good as anticipated. Floral and sweet, it’s my new favorite.

Whole Food’s cinnamon roll chocolates were a 7/10.

But these Trader Joe’s frozen egg tarts were a 13/10! They could hold their own with any of the ones I’ve had from Portuguese bakeries.

Roast Sandwich shop sandwich-salad combo take-out with a theme – bbq chicken crunch wrap, bbq chicken crunch salad, bbq potato chips.

Trader Joe’s turkey corndogs and veggie and sunflower seed bites plus roasted orange cauliflower, broccoli, and romanesco (plus leftover fry sauce – which I order every time I get Roast, regardless of if I get fries).

I took a naked food of the Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes so I could show you guys what they look like. Then I dressed them up with Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.

Best meal of the week – hashbrown, roasted brussel sprouts, soft-scrambled eggs. Topped with a mix of fry sauce, chili crisp, and rice vinegar.

Crumbs

This is an early post because it’s a short week – I am heading to Ohio today to visit my grandma! And my mom will be there too!

Pre-vacation highlights included…

This week’s coffee combo.

We brought home brigadero balls from Cafe Patoro and they were great. The caramel was my favorite.

I made a batch of milk crumbs and obviously put them on everything. Like an ice cream sundae with the last brownie.

And an insane yogurt bowl sundae with vanilla bean Greek yogurt, nut butter, and chocolate peanut butter granola.

Simple but great dinners this week. From the Trader Joe’s freezer section – veggie and sunflower seed bites and turkey corn dogs. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Faro / sriracha mayo salmon / spiralized zucchini / furikake / kimchi.

Homemade butter chicken. With roasted cauliflower rice and I added toasted cashews after I took that photo.

Banoffee

I spent 99.9% of the weekend cuddled up with the dog eating take-out sandwiches. Aka the last few days have been perfect aka I have very little to share in this post. Some non-sandwich highlights included…

Banoffee inspired everything. Latte – banana milk, caramel sauce, salted caramel pour-over.

Chia pudding – chia seeds, vanilla almond milk, mace, sea salt, fresh banana, caramel sauce.

Smoothie – frozen banana, vanilla almond milk, plain Greek yogurt, cinnamon, caramel sauce.

And I did cook one dinner! Sautéed Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch mix and green onions / nuac cham sauce / smoked turkey breast / dried cherries / toasted almond slivers.

Poppy, Peppermint, Pink Lady

Some highlights from this week include…

This week’s coffee was a gift from home!

Other drinks of note – lemon lime sparkling matcha / blueberry lavender kombucha / peppermint watermelon sparkling water.

I am very into these Barebell protein bars, the vegan hazelnut nougat flavor was great. Paired with a Pink Lady apple.

We made poppy seed cookies! They were delicious.

And I used leftover poppy seed filling in a yogurt bowl with lemon skry, granola, blackberries, and cinnamon.

For dinners this week we made some old favorites (and got a lot of take-out!). Buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. With roasted cauliflower and broccoli.

Jalapeno popper turkey burgers. With roasted baby cauliflower and honey mustard sauce.

Of Champions

Breakfast highlights from a lovely weekend…

Homemade maple vanilla matcha latte.

Hometown Bakeshop. We shared a great egg sandwich – over-medium eggs on a cheddar biscuit with cheddar, turkey bacon, and smoked aioli.

Plus a funfetti scone.

Pilar Cuban Eatery.

I had a cafe con leche with condensed milk! Plus a pink flamingo – mezcal with guava and lime.

And shredded beef for breakfast, with sweet plantains, avocado, and black beans and rice. This was almost as good as the Cuban food of our Miami days!

It’s So Cold Outside!

Some highlights from this week include…

A very-berry smoothie. Frozen triple berry blend plus grapes, chia, brown sugar, and ube flavoring.

Some exceptionally good bars (plus mandarin oranges). Both were filling, sweet but not saccharine, and had a nice chewiness. 10/10, would buy both again!

Fun lattes from Grind House. This was raffaello-inspired, with coconut and white chocolate.

Still on my take-out sandwich obsession. This was a bbq chicken crunch wrap.

Homemade pasta. Whole-wheat spaghetti with sautéed mushrooms and ground turkey with smoked paprika, mace, and garlic plus sour cream and parmesan.

Taco night. Seasoned ground turkey on flour tortillas with sour cream and Whole Foods’ roasted chipotle salsa (our favorite). Plus tiny tomatoes and roasted cauliflower.

Breakfast For Dinner And Flowers For Lunch

Some highlights from the past week…

Ben and Jerry’s new tiramisu ice cream is 10/10.

Caribbean-inspired snacks. Guava paste + mozarella cheese. And hibiscus things.

Breakfast for dinner. Avocado toast (on rye, with turkey bacon) and fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, mandarin, and banana). Plus a Bloody Mary! P.S. No, this single slice of toast was not enough dinner. I had other items planned but I had my cocktail before I started cooking and I ended up eating the tiramisu ice cream instead!

Big salads. Trader Joe’s herb salad mix with balsamic fig dressing, baby corn, blue cheese, peanuts, chickpeas, and ground black garlic.

Pasta night. Udon noodles with sautéed shitake and oyster mushrooms with cream cheese, lemon, and gojuchang; topped with kelp granules. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

A take on okonomiyaki with roasted cabbage and turkey bacon. Topped with Sriracha, Kewpie, furikake, and bonito flakes.