Tag Archives: vegan

A Bevy Of Beverages

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My favorite bites this week were actually sips!  {I really want to make an “all about the beverages/Benjamins, baby” joke here but I’m holding myself back}

Highlights…

My new all-time-favorite coffee combo = Grady’s Cold Brew concentrate with the new Chobani sweet cream creamer.

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This week’s yogurt bowl combo was vanilla bean Greek yogurt with fresh blackberries and Trader Joe’s peanut butter with chia and flax.

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A girlfriend and I (and her baby!) met up in Nomad for lunch.  Salads at Made Nice – I had the frisee romaine with potato croutons, egg, and buttermilk vinaigrette.

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Ice cream at the new Milk Bar flagship – I had cornflake soft serve with fudge and sprinkles.

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New favorite kombucha is this juicy one with watermelon, hibiscus, and green tea.

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Milkshake IPAs (aka IPAs with lactose) are my favorite and this Gotta Get Up To Get Downstate guava one from Swiftwater is 10/10.

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I just discovered an amazing Asian grocery store near our apartment so we had some pretty great snacks this week.  Like numb and spicy hot pot chips.

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And yogurt gummies and passion fruit gummies.

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Easy dinner from the Trader Joe’s freezer section – meatless breakfast patties and cauliflower pancakes.  Plus roasted green beans and a dipping sauce made with honey habenero hot sauce.

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Chicken and waffle nachos!  Multigrain waffles, waffle flavored chicken bites, cheese, scallions, and a maple Cholula aioli.

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Have a great weekend!

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Ramen And Tacos

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We had a great weekend full of yummy city eats thanks to time spent in Astoria, Cobble Hill, and LIC.  Five highlights include…

{1} Doughnuts from Sugar and Water.  A cake doughnut crusted in sprinkles and a doughnut-croissant hybrid covered in chocolate.

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{2} Coffee from Velvette Brew.  This is my new favorite quad nonfat iced latte in NYC!!

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{3} Brunch at Leyenda.  Their cocktail menu is amazing; my paloma was made with housemade grapefruit soda!  And I had breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs with kale, requeson cheese, avocado, and pickled onion.  They came with an avocado-tomatillo salsa that everyone at the table was wild for.

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{4} Ice cream from Malai.  Rose with cinnamon roasted almonds // non-dairy cinnamon with black salt caramel.

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{5} Dinner at Mu Ramen.  The entire meal was a breathtaking 10/10 but the highlight was these scallion and corn okonomiyaki with smoked trout salad, tobiko, bonito flake, and foie gras syrup.

 

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Oahu Part III, Fun Places We Ate

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We were blown away by how good everything we ate on this trip was!  Hawaiian chefs are absolutely killing it.  The next time we go back to Hawaii I would strongly consider returning to Oahu just to revisit some of these spots!

I really tried to limit my picture taking and this post will be a million pages long if I list out every single thing we ate so this will just be the highlights of the highlights…

** Kona Coffee Purveyors.

Nitro Kona coffee with a black sesame kougan amann (not shown).  Affogato.

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** Leonard’s Bakery.

This malasada (Portuguese doughnut) stuffed with guava cream was my favorite bite of the entire trip.

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** Matsumoto Shave Ice.

This was my favorite shave ice of the trip; the flavors were spot on and the ice cream was wonderfully chewy and a great foil to the ice.  Guava, passion fruit, and strawberry on top of vanilla ice cream and topped with condensed milk.

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** O’Kims.

Dumplings stuffed with king oyster mushroom, button ear wood, yellow squash, zucchini, and truffle paste, topped shoyu jelly and pickled dikon.

 

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Korean fried chicken with gochujang, housemade gnocchi, brussel sprouts, purple rice, and kimchi.

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** The Pig and the Lady.

Midday Run – mezcal, passion fruit, vanilla, habanero, and lemon (not shown).  Le Swoon – Kohana rum agricole, Okinawan sweet potato, pandan, coconut milk, cinnamon, lime, and aphrodite bitters.

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Chocolate banana tart with Valrhona dark chocolate cremeux, chocolate cookie crust, fresh banana and banana marmalade, toasted hazelnuts, and tamarind caramel.

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** Piggy Smalls.

This was hands down our best meal of the trip!  We ordered all the things.  Brussel sprouts with makrut lime, peanut, fried shallots, cabbage slaw, and pickled red onions.

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Stir-fried ramen noodles with aged garlic shoyu, Chinese chives, pickled fresno chile, and shrimp.

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Lychee infused milk cake with blueberry compote, lychee chantilly cream, and lemon citrus streusel.

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Hanoi egg coffee, Kona dark roast poured on whipped egg yolk and vanilla bean.

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** The Surfing Pig.

Best cocktails of the trip.  I drank way too much prior to our 10 hour red-eye flight.  The bartender was crazy talented and also maybe my new favorite person – she hugged us on our way out.  Smoked rosemary mezcal margarita.  I also had a spicy paloma with mezcal (not shown).

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** Waiola Shave Ice.

Guava and passion fruit with vanilla ice cream, condensed milk, and housemade mochi.

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Hot Sauce And Cinnamon Gum

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Flavor themes from this week include – hot sauce, coffee, chocolate.

Highlights…

Fun in coffee.  Iced with fancy egg nog.

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I had forgotten how much fun it is to have a milk frother!

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This bottled New Orleans coffee was delicious and contained 10 grams of protein.

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Seasonal fun at Doughnut Plant – a marzipan star and a mint tree filled with chocolate pudding.

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Still obsessed with these cookie dough Perfect Bars.

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Plain2% Greek yogurt bowl with chocolate sunflower seed butter and fresh blueberries.

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Just before I left VA one of my officemates got me hooked on cinnamon gum and lately I have been loving this version from Mentos.

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It was Adam’s birthday this week!  He got multiple cakes at work and brought me home a delicious slice of s’mores cheesecake.

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Amy’s tortilla casserole with black beans frozen meal.  Topped with copious amounts of Cholula.

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Shredded potatoes with smoked mackerel salad and soft scrambled eggs.  Topped with furikake.

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Breakfast cheese fries.  Sweet potato waffle fries with cheddar, eggs, maple chicken sausage, broccoli, and shishito peppers.  Topped later with Kewpie and Sriracha.

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My current favorite sheet-pan hash is Japanese sweet potato + bok choy + green onions.  Plus salmon candy and cashews on top.  Topped with furikake, Kewpie, and Sriracha.

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I made a yummy version of this baked Spanish rice recipe.  I added fish sauce and green olives and subbed in vegan soyrizo for chorizo.  Topped later with Cholula.

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FYI – there will be no post this weekend for the best reason ever: I am going home for a few days with a couple of NY friends!  Ocean, rum, and warm weather, here we come!

Apple Pumpkin Chia Chocolate

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The eight best things I ate this week –

(1) Chobani pumpkin and spice yogurt with (2) pecan butter and (3) a Lady Alice apple.

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(4) Siggi’s pumpkin and spice yogurt with (5) chocolate sunflower seed butter.  <– the sunbutter was the best thing of the week!

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(6) Vanilla chia pudding and (7) a SnapDragon apple.

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It was a (8) sandwich week for dinner.  Whole-wheat brioche buns with Kewpie mayo, smoked turkey, and Whole Foods’ plant-based smoked gouda.

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Breakfast Totcho Hash

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2/3 of what I have to share this week (yes, I did the math) is appropriately on theme for October!  Other fun in fall includes…  Pumpkin-scented sanitizers.

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And an orange-y yellow nail polish (Urbanized by Cirque Colors).

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Food highlights include…

The original bests in packaged cold brew – Stumptown and Blue Bottle.

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Wegman’s pumpkin pie yogurt with blackberries and maple pecan granola.

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Wegman’s pumpkin Greek yogurt with almond butter and honey butter almonds.

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A hazelnut, coffee, maca bar and some surprisingly good chickpea-based cookie dough.

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Two best pumpkin beers so far this season – coffee Pumpking and Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.

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Breakfast totcho sheet pan hash!  I baked sweet potato tots, with peppers, onion, cheddar, and scrambled eggs and it was delicious.

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It was so yummy it was even good mashed in a container and served leftover.

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A Perfect Weekend

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An ideal weekend would involve time with my boys, but this weekend did include several (quite yummy) snack items from the Perfect Snacks company!  Also a trip to the Farmer’s Market, an afternoon of day-drinking with my cousin, and a Sunday shift at the hospital.  Also, apparently, me being way too excited about everything I ate.

Highlights…

Cinnamon bears with espresso is the best combo.

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Whole Foods uses a chocolate powder – versus a syrup – in their iced mochas and I am obsessed with them.

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This local cold brew – with chicory, cinnamon, and lavender! – was pretty good too.

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Still obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie dough bar that has no internet presence (they seem to be sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s?).

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Breakfast biscuit from Ace with pimento cheese, a sunny side up egg, and jerk chicken.

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Perfect for Apple Month – a caramel apple cocktail from Vitae!  Vitae Golden Rum, Zirbenz Pine Liquor, lemon juice, salted caramel syrup, and cinnamon apple cider.

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Still obsessed with the IPAs at Hardywood.

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These new peanut butter cups are extra-strength delicious!  They aren’t overly sweet and they don’t contain any palm oil, my two requirements in peanut butter cups.  They’re still not a “health food,” but compared with Resse’s they do have an extra 3 grams of protein and 10 grams less sugar.

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The last of my superior salad mix – romaine with Greek feta dressing, chorizo seitan, honey butter almonds, celery, and zhoug.

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Superior Salads

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Fun things from this week: It’s Friday! // I have plans to see my boys again in less than 15 days! // Yesterday I went to Hardywood with a coworker for happy hour and free pretzels and pimento cheese. // I finally made it to the farmer’s market that sets up on the hospital grounds and had a really excellent iced mocha with macadamia milk. // The weather is starting to get a bit cooler but still isn’t cold yet.

Highlights included…

Local nitro cold brew with maple.

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Nothing beats Stumptown.

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Strawberry lingonberry yogurt with chocolate peanut butter is a pretty great combination.  Plus a Pazazz apple.

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Bars on bars.

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I had some really excellent topping ingredients on hand so I made this a week of salads.  Honey butter almonds and zhoug are fantastic on their own and even better when paired together.  Especially with a fun variety of proteins!

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Romaine / Greek feta dressing / zhoug / honey butter almonds / baby tomatoes / chorizo seitan.

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Romaine / champagne vinaigrette / zhoug / honey butter almonds / celery / vegan chicken salad.

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Romaine / champagne vinaigrette / zhoug / honey butter almonds / baby tomatoes / turkey pepperoni.  <– pro tip: if you bake pepperoni at 350 degrees for 15 minutes it turns into pepperoni chips!

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