Superior Salads

by Emily

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.

Nothing beats Stumptown.

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

Bars on bars.

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!

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

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

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!

23Sep2019

Quality Time

by Emily

It was the best weekend ever; my boys came to visit me!!!!!

The three of us had just the absolute best time. It helped that we ate and drank such yummy things but mostly it was great to hold Adam’s hand while Webster sat in my lap.

We really made the most of Charlottesville too, we went to our two favorite restaurants and our two favorite drink spots, walked a ton downtown, ran at Riverside Park, and even went to a polo match with a group of my coworkers.

Highlights (including some random things I ate on Friday) include…

An Apple Month breakfast, Trader Joe’s caramel apple yogurt with cinnamon cereal.

Brunch at Quality Pie. We split an egg and cheese biscuit and salmon with scrambled eggs and cream cheese on rye.

Also a chocolate chip cookie.

Hail Merry cookie dough bites.

Beers at Hardywood. Tropic like it’s Hot sour with dragon fruit, blueberry, passionfruit, and pineapple // Tropication IPA // The Great Return IPA // Raspberry Short Kate milkshake IPA brewed with milk sugar and fresh raspberries.

Cocktails at Vitae. S’mores = smoked rum, chocolate bitters, marshmallow simple syrup, orange, and a graham cracker rim.

Hawaiian take out from Mochiko. Mochiko fried chicken with cucumber kimchi, slaw, and rice. Plus a passionfruit shortbread bar.

A simple salad at home. Romaine with champagne vinaigrette, celery, cashews, and curried chicken salad.

Dinner at Little Star = the best meal of the weekend and also maybe the best thing I’ve eaten in 2019. We ordered all of the things but it was serendipitous that we overordered because now Adam has dinner for tonight after his long drive.

Heirloom tomatoes with strawberries, house-made ricotta, basil, red wine dressing and chili flakes.

French fries with tarragon aioli.

Esquites, sweet corn with spring onions, Kewpie mayo, chili corn hot sauce, cilantro, and green onion.

Braised lamb with pasilla de Oaxaca romesco, butter braised leeks, and sweet onions.

Chicken with mojo verde, brown butter, and crispy epazote.

Local coffee.

Basque cheesecake.

20Sep2019

I Needed My Coffee

by Emily

Fun fact – I had an amazing time last weekend! It was fantastic to see my friends and Traverse City is quite possibly my new favorite place (we walked a ton (by the lake!) and drank cocktails with coffee, Mexican Coke, and locally-made vodka, so how could it not be?!).

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Not so fun fact – I spilled an entire coffee yesterday morning and ruined everything in my purse including my dayplanner/brain and camera. The only thing that’s really missing from this post is the fun lunch I ate at the farmers’ market with my coworker yesterday, but I’m not sure what my plan will be for this weekend since I hate taking photos on my phone.

Here were the highlights before the flood…

Grady’s Cold Brew really is the best, and I say that even I smelled like it all day at work.

Berry breakfast. Cereal and milk with blueberries.

Yogurt bowl 1 – Fage, blueberries, vanilla peanut butter.

Yogurt bowl 2 – Trader Joe’s vanilla skyr, red plum, walnut butter.

I finally ate my first fresh apple of the month, a crunchy Pazazz apple.

I had the day off on Tuesday and I took myself to breakfast at Quality Pie. Tortilla with egg, chicken, queso, and salsa verde.

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Graeter’s makes my new favorite s’mores ice cream. It contains no palm oil and the marshmallows are unbelievably soft.

Related – sadly I can’t recommend this; the texture was actually great but the only flavor present was coconut.

I am still obsessed with these seaweed chips. BBQ is even yummier than the original flavor.

This is the easiest dinner on earth but it tastes soooo good. Throw Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi on a baking sheet with some turkey pepperoni, bake at 450 for 20 minutes, top with pizza sauce.

Super salad – romaine, champagne vinaigrette, maple roasted walnuts and cranberries, chopped celery, vegan “chicken salad.”

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13Sep2019

Freeze Dried

by Emily

How did my short three-day week feel soooo long?! I am off again today because I’m actually heading to Traverse City, Michigan for the weekend to visit one of my best friends from when I was a kid. So excited! I will not be taking pictures though – I got such a cheap ticket that I don’t even get a carry-on, just a purse, so I won’t be spending space on a camera.

This week my snacks heavily featured super random dried / freeze-dried / turned-into-chips things. Highlights include…

Freeze-dried fuji apples from Trader Joe’s + chicken chips.

Trader Joe’s crispy broccoli.

Trader Joe’s freeze-dried grapes + seaweed chips + chicken jerky.

Also plain Siggi’s with fresh blueberries and Wild Friends chocolate peanut butter.

And I ate the rest of my leftovers from last week (sheet pan hash + tabbouleh + zhoug) and immediately added more zhoug to my grocery list for next week!

10Sep2019

A New York Weekend

by Emily

I spent a long weekend visiting my boys in New York and had the best time ever! I walked a ton, caught up with friends, ate all the things, slept with Webster pressed up against my ribs, and got to hold my husband’s hand while we talked about his new gig – perfect!

Highlights included…

A 7 mile walk down through Chelsea and across the bridge into Williamsburg.

Iced lattes! Terremoto and Cafe Leon Dore.

Danish chocolate cinnamon swirl at Ole and Steen.

Brunch with a former coworker at Penelope. I love taking people there because they are always blown away by how cute it is. And my croissant sandwich with scrambled eggs, cheddar, and pesto was delicious.

Lunch at the new Xi’an Town. Cold fried hand ripped noodles with veggies plus cucumber salad.

Dinner with friends at Gertie. I had the blue plate special – rotisserie chicken, local green beans, and schmaltzy fried potatoes.

A half pound pink velvet cookie stuffed with cream cheese frosting from City Cakes.

The best thing we ate all weekend = ice cream from Spoons. Vanilla soft serve blended with sprinkles and Fruity Pebbles and topped with torched marshmallow!

6Sep2019

Apple Of My Eye

by Emily

It was a good week in theme snacks, snacks in general, actually!

Today is National Coffee Ice Cream day and since I love coffee, and ice cream, and coffee ice cream (and dulce de leche!) I jumped at the chance when My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream offered to send me a box of samples to celebrate. My/Mo Dulce de Leche = coffee ice cream, wrapped in mochi dough, with a caramel core. I 10/10 loved them. Hands down the best mochi I’ve ever eaten. Now I’m dying to find their seasonal flavors!

Meanwhile, in Apple Month… I ate a bag of Trader Joe’s freeze-dried honeycrisp apples that I forgot to take a picture of but totally recommend. Also, pink lady kombucha and Siggi’s with apple.

Other snack highlights include… cold brew with salted caramel dark chocolate milk.

Black sesame cheese crisps.

Cookie dough Perfect Bar with a maple chicken jerky.

Birthday cake marshmallows (while reviewing glycolysis!).

I really loved my dinners this week, thanks in no small part to the fact that they were all smothered in Trader Joe’s zhoug sauce. Salads with romaine, baby heirloom tomatoes, TJ’s Greek feta dressing, TJ’s turkey summer sausage, tabbouleh, zhoug.

The best sheet pan hash I’ve made yet – summer sausage, potato, sweet potato, green onion, and cabbage.

2Sep2019

It’s Apple Month!

by Emily

It was a good weekend. The 4 miler race was fun (we walked at a leisurely pace and I ended up going for a run afterwards but I had a really great time hanging out with some of my coworkers who I don’t get to see often) and my shift on Sunday went off without a hitch. And now it’s Apple Month!

My theme month food hauls will be a bit more subdued for now since I can’t push the leftovers off on Adam, but I still have to celebrate.

And I kicked the month off with an apple cake doughnut from Sugar Shack.

Other food highlights from the weekend include… Yogurt bowls. Chobani vanilla and cinnamon with maple cashew butter and blackberries.

My parents got me a giant box of fancy marshmallows for my birthday so that’s 90% of what I’ve been eating! Standouts include this peanut butter dipped in chocolate.And this cake flavored marshmallow dipped in white chocolate and stuffed with birthday cake cookie dough!Trader Joe’s scallion pancakes are always exciting. Or maybe Kewpie and Sriracha are exciting?I made that black eyed pea salad I’m obsessed with (original recipe = BEP, green bell pepper, smoked almonds, Dubliner cheese, Cholula) and ingredient shortages caused me to sub in tamari almonds and Sriracha which was even tastier.

23Aug2019

BLT FTW

by Emily

Life highlights from the past six days –

I survived my 2nd week without my boys. Adam has been super sweet about sending me a million photos of the most handsome dog in the world!
I’ve had a ton of TPNs at work lately and I realized the other day just how comfortable I feel managing them now – I will never stop being grateful for this job opportunity, I have grown so much as a clinician the past year.
I saw, and loved, The Farewell. Such a sweet, funny movie; I can’t recommend it enough.
I went to a free yoga class with one of my coworkers and loooooved it! I had forgotten about just how much I enjoy yoga. I haven’t been in several years and it seems my balance has gotten much worse but my flexibility has gotten much better – I got myself into camel pose easily and comfortably.

Food highlights –

All of the coffee.

Hey Day Cold Brew.

Black and white ~~milkshake~~ cold brew – Grady’s with vanilla bean powder and chocolate milk.

Still obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie dough Perfect Bar that seems to only be sold at Trader Joe’s and has no internet presence.

This mango and nut mix is perfectly spicy-sweet.

This yogurt bowl was amazing. Strawberry quark with pluots, maple cashew butter, and homemade chocolate chip cookie.

I had a great assortment of gummy candies for the movie, lots of cola options.

These s’mores mochi have graham cracker ice cream and and a marshmallow center and all three of us thought they were fantastic.

Raspberry Short Kate! Hardywood‘s newest IPA brewed with milk sugar and raspberry.

Whole Foods hot bar – kale salad, cabbage crunch salad, carrot and harissa salad, breakfast potatoes, chicken sausage – with a side of chicken and waffle chips.

A swoon-worthy sandwich – local heirloom tomato, turkey bacon, and kewpie mayo on a bun.

BLT salad. Sweet baby lettuce with champagne vinaigrette, heirloom baby tomatoes, bacon, Dubliner cheese, and hickory smoked peanuts. Plus spicy roasted okra that my cousin made.

Leftover salad with delicious crab cakes that my cousin made.

Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes with mayo, sriracha, and a side of roasted green beans.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: veggies

Superior Salads

Quality Time

I Needed My Coffee

Freeze Dried

A New York Weekend

Apple Of My Eye

It’s Apple Month!

BLT FTW