Tag Archives: vegan

A Few Of My Favorite Things

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We had quite a lovely time this past weekend; several long walks, lots of dog cuddles, and I had at least six of my favorite foods.  Five highlights include…

{1} The new cold brew can from Partners Coffee.

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{2} A coffee date at Rose Wolf.  We had a quad iced latte with skin milk (<– #1 favorite thing) and a whipped coffee with oat milk and vanilla.

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{3} The ET Stay Home series from Evil Twin is our new all-time favorite in beer.  We were over the moon for #8 (a sour ale brewed with pineapple, guava, hot chili peppers, and conditioned on marshmallows) and #9 (a sour ale brewed with brown sugar, apples, apricots, almonds, and milk sugar).

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{4} Halo Halo from Pig and Khao.  Shaved ice with leche flan, ube ice cream, and macapuno.

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{5} My favorite thing I’ve eaten all year = the dumpling collaboration from Pizza Loves Emily and Mimi Chengs.  Pat LaFrieda dry-aged beef, Grafton aged cheddar, crushed pretzels, caramelized onions, and Emmy Sauce.

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Cola In My Beer And Oats In My Coffee

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We officially went back at the hospital full-time this week and I’m not going to lie, the transition was rough.  Sitting in the ICUs means I have to wear an N-95 mask all day long which comfortwise is a big change from charting in my kitchen next to an iced coffee.  Thankfully I had a few days off mid-week so I was able to ease into it.

Highlights…

This week’s coffee combo was Starbucks cold brew with the super marshmallowy Chobani chocolate oat milk.

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On my days off I brewed my Cafe Nguyen Phin coffee.  <– still loving this

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Lemon & lavender yogurt with blueberries and white chocolate macadamia granola.

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I went grocery shopping mid-week which meant our Trader Joe’s snack stash is fully stocked.  I recommend this new nut mix.

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The homemade coffee cookies and cream ice cream went away quickly.

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Cherry cola beer from Evil Twin.

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Channa masala with cauliflower rice.

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Whole-wheat spaghetti with pasta sauce, kale, and TJ’s soyrizo.

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Thai take-out; cashew chicken with basil fried rice.

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Coffee Cookies And Cream

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Food highlights from the weekend included —

We celebrated National Doughnut Day one day late with a s’mores doughnut from Dough Hut.

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Plain skyr yogurt topped with fruit salad (mango, kiwi, plum, blueberries, lemon juice, and honey).

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This nut mix was great, it had just enough savory to offset the sweet.

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These brown sugar boba popsicles knocked our socks off.  How did the keep the frozen tapioca so chewy and wonderful??!

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Also I made ice cream.  Two-ingredient no-churn ice cream infused with coffee and espresso and layered with crushed Oreo.  It was amazing.

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Kettlecorn with Korean chili flake.

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Veggie tacos.  Baked tortillas with cheese / corn and kale / chorizo-style seitan / homemade salsa.

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Kimchi In My Ramen And My Burger

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Real Stuff — This was a hard weekend in the United States.  I don’t think my voice adds anything to the discussion but I do want to use my (small) platform share some posts with my white readers:  A Guide to White Privilege // How to be Actively Anti-Racist // 10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship.

Fluff — Some highlights from the past few days…

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We took a social distancing walk across the Williamsburg Bridge to get take-out to eat in Thompkin’s Square Park and I must have said four-thousand times how much I love NYC.

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Nowon was ridiculously fantastic.  I had charred broccoli with sesame caesar, perilla, anchovy, parmesan, and seaweed and a double cheeseburger with american cheese and kimchi mayo.

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Still loving making Phin coffee.

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This new Chobani chocolate oat milk is insane.  It tastes like chocolate marshmallows!

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This yogurt bowl tasted like summer.  Plain Greek, honey, cinnamon, and fresh mango.

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Chicken and kimchi ramen with brown sugar milk tea with boba.

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The best thing I ate all weekend = this taco.  Stuffed with Kewpie, Crystal hot sauce, and soft-scrambled eggs with gouda.

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It’s Not Delivery, It’s Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough

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I made some damn delicious meals this weekend; all of my dinners were winners.  I am midway between my bimonthly grocery trips now though so we’ll see how next week goes.

Highlights include…

Phin coffee.  We are head over heels for this system, the results are so velvety!

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We ate yogurt bowls as a family.  Mine had 2% Fage, honey, candied walnuts, cinnamon, espresso powder, and blueberries.

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TJ’s vegan tikki masala.  9/10.

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Leftover turkey meatballs.  This simple batch – seasoned with salt, pepper, TJ’s umami powder, and Korean chili flakes – turned out so good.

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We made Hummingbird High’s small batch brownies and they were hands-down the best brownies I’ve ever eaten.  Insane.  I added espresso powder and didn’t have any cocoa powder and they were next-level fudgy.

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Greek veggie bowls.  Cucumber, baby tomato, roasted chickpeas, olives, fresh mint, TJ’s Greek feta salad dressing, and TJ’s zhoug.

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Pizza salad!  Romaine, Greek feta dressing, roasted tomatoes, sharp cheddar, and pepperoni croutons (aka turkey pepperoni that I baked until crispy).  Plus homemade garlic knots.

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I made stromboli!  With turkey, turkey pepperoni, and mozzarella.  Plus roasted green beans.

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Important update – this is how the dog likes to spend most of his time, on my lap, under a pillow.

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Coffee, Coffee, Coffee*

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*please read the title to the tune of the Brady Bunch’s “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”

It was an exciting week in home entertainment for us – I started watching Schitt’s Creek, and of course fell in love, and borrowed my mom’s Prime log-in to binge watch all of Absentia.

It was also an exciting week in home caffeination – I had a different (fancy!) coffee drink every day.

Highlights include…

Dalgona coffee!  Here is an explainer.  I used instant espresso powder and looooved it.

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Lavendar latte.

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Vietnamese coffee made with a phin filter.

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Lavazza espresso.

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2% plain Fage Greek yogurt with blueberries, candied walnuts, cinnamon, and maple syrup.

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With blueberries, cinnamon, maple, candied walnuts, and maple walnut granola.

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If you think the dog doesn’t get his own yogurt and berries bowl you’re crazy.

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Soft-scrambled eggs with mozzarella and Korean chili flakes / tater tots with Sriracha, Kewpie, and furikake / baby carrots.

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Egg and cheese onion bagel with soft-scrambled eggs with mozzarella plus Sriracha and mayo.

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The Starburst soda pop flavored jelly beans are pretty darn good, especially the cola and lime flavor.

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Number 2 Pencil’s single-serve chocolate chip cookies are fantastic.  I added rainbow sprinkles and espresso powder.

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Local pizza with fried chicken, roasted zucchini, and hot peppers.

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Giant salad bowl – romaine lettuce, Trader Joe’s balsamic and fig dressing, Trader Joe’s zhoug, celery, tater tats, and turkey meatballs (made with panko, egg, Trader Joe’s umami powder, and Korean chili flakes).

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Giant salad bowl – romaine, balsamic, zhoug, celery, candied walnuts, fresh mint, and baked seitan.

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I’d say “have a great weekend,” but doesn’t every day basically feel the same at this point?

Virtual Road Trip

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One silver lining to not getting to see any of my friends in person for the discernible future is that we’ve been doing a better job of connecting long-distance.  I spent hours on the phone with a childhood friend the other day and Sunday morning my cousin and I took an online yoga class together.  <– super fun fact? The yoga class was actually being taught by another one of my childhood friends!  Plus, I know that I am insanely lucky to be in such a good marriage, I’m at home with my favorite person on earth.

This weekend we took a trip to Virginia in the form of some of our our favorite drinks.  Coffee from Black Hand.

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Rum from Vitae.  With cinnamon coke and lime!

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We’ve been drinking a lot of fancy packaged coffees to help me deal with my withdrawal from coffee shop quad iced lattes.

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I used the last of my fresh berries in this yogurt bowl.  Plain Greek with maple, cinnamon, and TJ’s mixed nut butter.

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Delivery successes.  Bubble tea.

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Tons of Mexican food.

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Menemen, loosely based on this recipe.  I used sumac, chili flakes, pepper, smoked paprika, and fresno chilis.  Plus TJ’s rose fingerling potato chips, which were crazy addictive, I went back for thirds.

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TJ’s vegan orange chicken served on a big bed of green beans in gojuchang.

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An Oatsome Good Time

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Highlights from this week include – a day trip into Brooklyn // tons of tortilla chips and salsas // a product review.

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Oatsome sent me a carton of their oat-milk to try {I was provided no additional compensation and all opinions shared are my own}.  I have a three pronged review –

  • 1) Taste: the flavor is similar to skim milk in that it is not strong at all; I could definitely identify that oats were involved but it wasn’t “oat forward.”  It was inoffensive in coffee and cereal which is basically what I’m looking for in my non-dairy milks.  I could not get it to foam for coffee, likely due to its low protein content.  Tastewise, Oatsome is definitely my new favorite non-dairy option.  Typically I won’t order at coffee shops that don’t stock skim milk but I would consider places with oat milk more regularly now.
  • 2) Nutrition: one cup of Oatsome contains 130 calories and 2 grams of protein.  It does not contain dairy, nuts, or added sugars and it is gluten free.  It’s a low sodium option with 60 mg per cup.  Oatsome is fortified with calcium (provides 20% DRI), vitamin D (provides 10% DRI), riboflavin (provides 40% DRI), and vitamin B12 (provides 40% DRI).  For vegans, it is awesome that this is fortified with B12.  However, for anyone who depends on dairy to help meet their daily protein needs at 2 grams per cup Oatsome probably isn’t the best choice (versus skim milk with 8 grams protein per cup).
  • 3) Environmental impact: oats require 80% less water to grow than almonds.

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I had Oatsome in a cup of espresso roast with brown sugar.

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And in a bowl of Heritage Flakes with blueberries.

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Vanilla bean Greek yogurt with blueberries and a honey tangerine.

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An egg sandwich from Golda with muhumarra, kashkaval, dill, sumac’d onion, and beef bacon.  Plus a salted tahini oat milk latte!

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Baby carrots and roasted broccoli dipped in Asian ginger dressing.

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Homemade chilaquiles.  We used yellow and orange bell pepper, serrano pepper, sweet onion, leftover salsa, and tortilla chips.  Topped with eggs, homemade cilantro crema, and Cholula.

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Nacho night.  Tortilla chips, black beans, poached chicken thighs, sauteed onion and poblano pepper, cheese, Trader Joe’s salsa, and sour cream.

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