Mellow

Weekend highlights include…

A ridiculous coffee daily. This was phin-brew with espresso powder, caramel, and half and half. I also made an iced coffee with fluff(!) and had a great Oreo cold foam cold brew from Wired.

Strawberry cheesecake smoothie bowl! Plain Greek yogurt, almond milk, cream cheese, brown sugar, chia seeds, and frozen strawberries; topped with maple pecan granola.

Fluffernutter dessert smoothie. Plain Greek yogurt, almond milk, frozen banana, peanut butter, and toasted marshmallows.

P.S. This Fix and Fogg super crunchy is the best peanut butter I’ve ever tried.

Also, the Half Day green tea with honey and ginsing is the best canned tea I’ve ever tried.

So excited about summer fruits. Green plucot + a blood orange.

We ordered crystal candies from Silky Gem and were big fans. We actually tried to make these ourselves a few weeks ago and they did not work out. The crunchy outside and chewy/soft interior make a great contrast.

Hash leftovers with roast sauce.

I made jalopeno popper turkey meatloaf! It was amazing and Adam and I both went back for seconds. Ground turkey, panko bread crumbs, ketchup, diced pickled jalopenos, jalopeno juice, chopped white onion, egg, and diced sharp cheddar. With roasted orange and purple cauliflower on the side.

Tastes Like Summer

Highlights from a tasty July week…

Coffee combo – Trader Joe’s dark roast with Chobani oatmilk horchatta.

We ordered marshmallows!

Vanilla Greek yogurt bowl with white peach, passionfruit, and fluff.

Toasted banana bread with marshmallow/fluff.

Summery drinks for a walk around our neighborhood – Blue Point Rainbow Italian Ice Sour and a vodka cocktail with fresh watermelon.

Adam and I are both head over heels for these vegan sweet potato cheese puffs.

Roasted garlic chicken sausage on a hot dog bun with Kewpie and kimchi. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Turkey sloppy Josephines! With roasted rainbow cauliflower.

Sheet-pan hash. With yellow potato, zucchini, green onion, pobablo pepper, fresh corn, chicken sausage, and sharp cheddar.

Trader Joe’s Guajillo Salsa

Highlights from a tasty week…

Still in love with these pie cookies from Whole Foods – they are shortbread with jam (raspberry, pineapple, or guava!) and streusel; I’m obsessed.

Nacho night! Tortilla chips with cheese (sharp cheddar, swiss, and gruyere) and black beans topped with salsa, sour cream, radish, tomato, and spring onion.

Plus a green juice for health.

And a sparkling tequilla canned cocktail for fun.

Chicken and veggie bowls. Shredded chicken (a mix of white and dark meat, cooked in the crockpot), roasted zucchini, black beans, roasted bell peppers and yellow onion, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, cheese, radish.

Chilaquiles. Tortilla chips, chicken, peppers and onions, salsa, and cheese; topped with roasted zucchini, a fried egg, radish, sour cream, and Crystal hot sauce.

Sandwich Week

This is a delayed post because we got back from vacation and both immediately had crazy work schedules including weekend coverage. But I declared last week “Sandwich Week,” which meant that all of our take-out was actually on-theme!

First – vacation was amazing. Truly one of the best weeks of our lives. We road-tripped to Provincetown Cape Cod –> Boston –> Portland, Maine –> Hudson, NY –> home. We got lucky with beautiful weather, admired astonishingly pretty flowers/landscaping, and ate some of the best meals of our marriage. I don’t have a single photo to share but I will link to some of our favorites.

  • Cape Cod: Bookstore (great lobster rolls and view) / Scott’s Cakes (yellow cake with pink buttercream only, best I’ve ever tasted)
  • Portland: Bao Bao (our favorites – bang bang chicken salad, crab rangoon spring rolls) / Crispy Gai (wonderful Thai, plus cocktails) / Duck Fat (duck on duck on duck poutine) / HiFi (all-time best doughnuts) / Izakaya Minato (amazing crudo and okonomiyaki) / Time and Tide (inventive lattes)
  • Hudson: Breadfolks (all-time best pastries) / Gracie’s Lunchonette (our favorites – pink horchatta iced latte, tuna melt with freshly baked tuna) / Kitty’s (Adam’s favorite meal of the week; our favorites – potato chips with dip and salmon roe, crispy broccoli) / Lil’ Deb’s Oasis (caribbean/eclectic, one of my favorite restaurants on earth)

Second – Some non-sandwich highlights from the past week…

This week’s coffee combo.

It’s stone fruit season! I will be snacking on nectarines, peaches, plums, and plucots for the foreseeable future.

Malted blueberry smoothie. Frozen blueberries with chocolate milk, plain Greek yogurt, and malted milk powder.

I scored cake-flavored beer that wasn’t a stout and loved it.

Boozy cherry coke slushy – frozen cherry coke cubes, frozen cherries, Luxardo cherries, and vodka.

Breakfast for dinner with freezer-staples the night we got home. Hashbrown and Trader Joe’s gojuchang veggie mix with soft-scrambled eggs.

Plus a brinner cocktail with decaf iced coffee, amaretto, coffee liquor, and sweetened condensed milk.

Finally – SANDWICH WEEK! Definitely a little inspired by Trader Joe’s sourdough bread.

Roasted sliced turkey, turkey bacon, strawberry jam, honey dijon. Plus roasted green beans.

Soft-scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon salad. That green pile in the back is sauteed shredded brusell sprouts with shallots and dried cherries.

Heirloom tomatoes, gojuchang mayo, smoked sliced turkey, turkey bacon. Plus baby cucumbers with Bitchin Sauce.

Shake Shack cheeseburger and fries. We also shared an oreo funnel cake milkshake that was surprisingly delicious.

Take-out from Roast – aka our ultimate sandwich experience. Their roast beef melt is my all-time favorite. With fries and roasted green beans.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired trail mix. Meat stick, cheddar moon cheese, dill pickle flavored almonds.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired salad. Local lettuce with honey mustard dressing, baby tomatoes, dill pickle almonds, dill pickle slices, turkey meatballs (seasoned with dill pickle juice and yellow mustard), sharp cheddar, and homemade croutons with furikake.

Supernova

Important things first – Adam and I are both off from work next week! We have a little (lobster roll-centric) road trip planned but mostly we are excited to be together multiple days in a row!

Some highlights from this week…

Coffee combo. Loved the coffee, do not recommend the milk.

Adam was away a few days doing something for his parents and I mostly adulted and cooked dinners. Mostly.

California roll bowls. Imitation crab stick, avocado, cucumber, and green onion tossed with Kewpie, Sriracha, rice vinegar, and furikake. Plus a side of seaweed.

Hot and cold tofu – silken tofu topped with a mix of green onion, chili crisp, urfa chili paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Plus roasted cauliflower.

Pesto, Pasta, Peanut Butter

Highlights from the week…

Smoothie A – frozen cherries with plain skyr and chocolate milk.

Smoothie B – frozen mango and blueberries with plain Greek yogurt, key lime juice, and honey.

I 100% topped skyr with a chopped-up Reese’s cup. Plus nectarine, chia seeds, and honey.

The Flowers of Life Kombucha did not impress – vaguely tasted like ginger and was not at all floral – but Adam and I both enjoyed the Concord Grape.

Sparkling yuzu matcha. I still can’t beleive that I only started liking matcha in the past few years.

I made egg casserole with shredded mozarella, roasted zuccini, and chives. And I made homemade dumb bread! Served with golden nugget madarin.

Leftovers (topped with chili crisp) with yellow heirloom tomato with salt and Korean chili flake.

Whole-wheat spaghetti with a homemade spinach and pesto sauce plus shredded chicken and extra parmesan and pine nuts.

Trader Joe’s frozen Tteok Bokki (rice cakes in spicy sauce) with chicken, zuccini, and mozarella.

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.

Candy Chaos

I worked five days through the last weekend, which is just a normal workweek, but something about the Thursday-Monday schedule is exhausting! Hence the late post. Also all the take-out this week in lieu of cooking!

Adam and I both had the weekend nights off and we went on some great dinner dates! And did some wonderful exploring around Bushwick, aka the best street art neighborhood in New York.

Other highlights from the week included…

Wycoff Star quad iced latte, best coffee of the month.

About Time Coffee‘s Summer Breeze – cold brew with tangerine and cola.

Still very into these Barebell protein bars, the vegan ones in particular are delicious and filling.

New favorite, old favorite – Pazzaz apples are crunchy and juicy / the potato chip peanut butter cups are the best candy of all time and I eat at least one a week.

These new cola Sour Patch Kids are delicious too.

A Spring moment – lavender vodka in homemade rose lemonade.

Caffe Panna affogato special – Candy Chaos; candy-studded ice cream, chocolate ice cream, graham crunch, mini Reese’s cups, Rolos, panna, caramel, and espresso.

Dinner at Faro. I had vodka in a great housemade citrus soda with lime, lemon, and orgeat.

Roasted beets with almonds, ricotta, strawberry and vinaigrette / sourdough sesame focaccia.

Adam had pasta with rabbit (yuck) and we shared bucatini with confit chicken, basil, pecorino, and chili flakes and mafalde with braised short rib and chili pangrattato.

We had the “chocolate” for dessert – hazelnuts, chocolate cremeux, olive oil cake, dulce de leche, and cocoa crumble.

We had a wonderful dinner at Piggyback but it was too dark for photographs. The hands-down best dish was the deconstructed pho – fried rolled noodles, choy sum, soy marinated beef, and a concentrated pho broth sauce. We also had this tuna tartare with yuzu soy vinaigrette, Asian pear, and shisho.

A homemade meal! Hedgehog baked tofu with sauce and sautéed bok choy and celery.