Tag Archives: veggies

Pickle Honey Mustard

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It was an eclectic but tasty week. P.S. My best meal was at The Tyger catching up with out of town family (two sets of aunts and uncles!) – best bite was specifically the “Morning Glory,” stir-fried water spinach, with chili, garlic, and shrimp paste – but I took a long walk first and didn’t have my camera. Some highlights…

Smash Foods sunflower butter and strawberry jam bites. These are in my top-five favorite “bars.”

I always have to eat at least one yogurt bowl a week – plain Greek with blueberries, blackberries, and Heritage Flakes cereal.

I think every baked good is better mixed with plain Greek yogurt! This was a cookie dough chocolate cake (plus 99 Acres chocolate sunflower seed butter and blackberries).

Boba tea from Gong Cha. I did an iced black milk tea with black and white bobas <– the mix is definitely the way to go.

Turkey cheeseburger meatballs (ground turkey, salt, white pepper, panko bread crumbs, cream, ketchup, sesame seeds, chopped pickles, and sharp cheddar) with baked fries (tossed in smoked paprika and ranch seasoning) and the best snap peas (sauteed until almost charred with crumbly gouda, walnuts, and gochugaru).

Nachos! Whole Food’s honey mustard kettle chips with gruyere, gouda, chopped cornichon and sweet gherkin pickles, sauteed poblano pepper and green onion, and tofu cubes (marinated in pickle juice, baked, then sauteed with the best sauce – Trader Joe’s dill pickle mustard, gochujang, rice vinegar, honey, and a bit of water). Plus roasted broccoli.

Loaded tuna salad – canned tuna, chopped pickles and Trader Joe’s sweet and hot jalapenos, crunched honey mustard chips, pickle mustard, mayo, and Greek yogurt – with baked green beans.

Pierogi, Calzone, Hot Pockets

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This week’s dinner theme has to be my most unhinged — foods in an edible package. I am mentally categorizing “edible packages” as packets, by the way (i.e. no turducken!).

Mochi-wrapped ice cream. This milk tea flavor from Bubbies was fantastic and these are possibly the best ice cream mochi I’ve ever eaten.

Gummy mangos in an edible candy peel. The peelable gummies from Walgreens are top tier. It was a yummy week!

Rice noodle rolls with shrimp. From Trader Joe’s.

Soup dumplings. We went to Nan Xiang to try their chicken soup dumplings and thought they were great.

We also had their mustard greens with tofu skin and edamame which were good.

And their stir-fried rice cakes with shredded beef which were only ok.

And ube bao stuffed with red bean paste (more packets!).

Potstickers. Trader Joe’s chicken and vegetables. Paired with roasted broccoli and a dumpling salsa inspired by Leah Cohen (crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, gochugaru, sugar, Fly by Jing Sichuan chili oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, and green onions).

Tortellini. Whole Foods kale and cheese. We tossed them with orange baby tomatoes, roasted zucchini, baked chicken, sharp cheddar cubes, and a green sauce (fresh baby spinach food-processed with evoo, chili oil, sesame oil, salt, garlic, and walnuts).

Samosas. Trader Joe’s mini vegetable ones. Paired with curry cauliflower (roasted cauliflower sauteed with evoo, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and Jamaican curry powder) with pickled red onions and fried eggs.

P.S. We’re going to Queens for empanadas tonight. Other than the other thousand varieties of things stuffed into pastas, did I miss any??

CarbohyGREAT

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Some yummy things from a perfect weekend…

Dayglow Coffee. Warhol – espresso, cream, citrus, cinnamon, and vanilla. Morning Show – distilled coffee, orange, condensed coconut, and passionfruit. We were delighted with these.

Humble Cafe is our favorite local Long Island coffee spot. Ice latte with pandan syrup and a taro mochi cookie.

Bagel Joint. We got a Thai iced tea egg cream.

And a duck egg everything bagel with ramp cream cheese and tuna bacon.

DSK Brooklyn. Adam had German beers and I had a shockingly good chicken bratwurst (on a pretzel bun with mustard!).

Pasta Night date night. My Daddy Issues cocktail had bourbon, coconut washed Campari, lime, and ginger beer.

We split the salted cod fritters special.

Roasted brussels sprouts in chili crisp.

Pesto pasta – radiatori in basil pesto with pecorino and poached tomatoes.

And the Big Ragu – rigatoni with golden tomato sauce, slow braised beef ragu, and Parmesan cream.

We of course also had to go to their origin restaurant – Ciao Gloria – earlier in the afternoon. Granita (slushie espresso with sweetener and oat milk) and a espresso chocolate chip cookie and a blondie with tahini and jam. Excellent.

Rita’s Pizza. This was my favorite meal of the food-filled weekend! La Rita – orange marmalade reduction, fontina, caramelized onions, thyme, duck prosciutto, Truffleist duck mousse.

Obviously we got The Sundae – maple and vanilla soft serve twist with hot fudge, torched marshmallow fluff, Luxardo cherry, chocolate pearls, and a waffle cup.

Word Salad

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We don’t always have a weekly dinner theme (often!) but I do have several queued up in a row. This week was SALAD…

Fruit salad skyr bowl. Plain Siggi’s with blueberries, blackberries, mango, and kiwi.

Candy salad! A mix of Nerds Easter items and sour tropical Mike and Ike’s (<– wonderful).

Dinners are listed from least to most favorite (though we quite enjoyed them all). Shredded tofu salad. Super firm tofu (shredded and tossed with evoo, hoisin, and gochujang and then baked until crispy) with roasted cabbage, scallions, bell peppers, and peanut sauce (chunky peanut butter, lime juice, rice vinegar, horseradish Sriracha aioli, sugar, and a bit of water).

Lox bagel inspired salad. Romaine, roasted garlic dijon dressing, hot-smoked sockeye salmon, Biena everything chickpea snacks, capers, cucumber, and pickled red onion.

Nacho chicken salad. Baked chicken, poblano pepper, tomato, scallion, black beans, sharp cheddar, Quest nacho cheese and loaded taco flavored protein chips, plain skyr, mayo, lemon, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Plus roasted cauliflower.

Loaded tuna salad. Canned tuna and smoked trout with mayo, dijon, salt and pepper kettle chips, scallions, sweet baby gherkins, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet pickled jalapenos. Plus a big pile of roasted green beans.

Sub, Hoagie, Grinder, Hero

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It is no longer coat weather in NYC, woo-hoo! Other highlights from the week…

Banana bread frozen coffee. Coffee blended with ice, cream, frozen banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter extract, and vanilla protein powder.

The rest of the week I did this cookie x cookie combo. The Javy cookies and cream coffee concentrate and Chobani cookie dough creamer were both good but not great.

Beautiful nougat candies my parents made for Easter.

This week’s dinner theme was sandwiches so of course I had some peanut butter and jelly snacks. Yogurt bowl – plain skyr with chunky peanut butter, concord grape jam, and blueberries.

Reese’s peanut butter and jelly big cups(!!!). These were 10/10’s (but still not as good as the chip ones!).

Egg salad. Whole-wheat bread with egg salad (hard-boiled eggs, mayo, Dijon mustard, plain skyr, scallion, poblano, and cornichons). Plus baby carrots and blueberries.

Turkey meatball. Brioche buns with Trader Joe’s pizza sauce and baked turkey meatballs (with pizza cheese, panade, and tons of garlic). Plus roasted broccoli.

Spicy chicken. Whole wheat bread, baked chicken (marinated in yogurt and Sriracha), chunky peanut butter, Kewpie, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy jalopenos, and sharp cheddar. Plus steamed green beans sauteed with caramelized kimchi and Dijon mustard.

Tuna smash-melts. Tuna salad (canned albacore tuna and smoked trout, capers, scallion, sweet gherkins, mayo, Kewpie, Dijon mustard, and paprika) and sharp cheddar on a brioche bun that I squashed in a skillet with butter. Plus roasted zucchini.

Hoppy Easter

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Somethings from this week, mostly on-theme and/or coffee…

No one is surprised that I’ve been buying Easter candies for months.

I also have been saving up lemon and coconut bars. The Melo bars are all 10/10 but the lemon flavor is actually my favorite. I also was very pleased with how lemony the 88 Acres one was.

Buzz’d Express Coffee‘s marshmallow Peep cold foam cold brew is maybe my favorite coffee of 2025.

I also made my own version with toasted birthday cake Peeps blended into an iced coffee with cream, sugar, vanilla bean powder, and vanilla extract.

Coconut water with dalgona-style espresso (9/10).

A spring-y cottage cheese bowl with leftover fermented banana cake, kiwi, blackberries, and edible flowers.

Trader Joe’s dried baby pineapples. These are nicely sweet and chewy.

We tried the rice paper noodles hack with brown rice spring roll wrappers (loved it, the chew was perfect). Stir-fried with Pad See Ew sauce, baked chicken, green onion, broccolini, and egg.

Buffalo chicken cabbage bowls. I made a cole slaw with green cabbage, green onion, tomato, Greek yogurt, mayo, dijon mustard, vinegar, white pepper, sugar, and blue cheese. Topped with baked chicken that I tossed in a skillet with butter, dijon, and Frank’s buffalo sauce.

Sheet-pan hash. Sprouted extra-firm tofu baked with brussels sprouts, yam, green onion, blue cheese, and Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pecans. I topped my bowl with honey and chili crisp.

Pizza night! Two-ingredient crust plus two ingredients (garlic and onion powder) / Trader Joe’s pizza sauce zhuzhed up with tomato sauce, roasted garlic, and urfa pepper / pizza-blend shredded cheese / sauteed mushrooms (a frozen blend with white, crimini, portobello, and shiitake) with green onions, gochugaru, and butter. Plus roasted yellow cauliflower.

Deux Decades = Twenty Years

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It was a great weekend. We spent some time in Ridgewood and also checked out the fabulous orchid show at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. Food highlights…

We bought this fancy grape jam in Hudson and I was excited to use to use it.

Like in a pb&j bowl with yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh blueberries, and smooth and chunky peanut butter.

And in an iced coffee (with vanilla cold foam).

The best coffee of the weekend had blueberries in it! I blended cold coffee with frozen blueberries, brown sugar, skin milk, and vanilla protein powder.

I also had a nice latte from Honeymoon Coffee (<– super cute spot). Enjoyed with some flan from a bakery in Ridgewood. We stirred some of the caramel into the latte and that was obviously great.

Evil Twin is our favorite New York brewery and this was one of our best trips to date – so many fun sours!

Cheesy tots. Baked potato tots with roasted cauliflower and tons of sharp cheddar. And Sriracha horseradish aioli, furikake, gochugaru, and sesame seeds.

Cafe Deux. I got their burger which was double Wagyu patties, house aioli, and cheddar with tons of fries. I also stole several bites of Adam’s soft-scrambled eggs and toast with local jam.

Plus we shared a great brownie sundae with their flourless chocolate cake and Cafe Panna vanilla ice cream.

Decades Pizza. The pizza was wonderful but I was drawn in by this drink – Pink Moon Sour = amaretto, contratto bitter, lemon, and marshmallow cream! The drink on the left was cold brew with honey, nutmeg, and soda.

We shared and loved a bunch of things. Our favorite dish of the night was the arancini with hazelnut pesto, Calabrian chili, and pecorino.

Roasted carrots and asparagus with whipped ricotta and pesto oil.

Mushroom pie – blue oyster mushrooms, garlic, cream, mozzarella, and parmigiano.

And a special pie with Calabrian chili and tons of green onions.

And we got fermented banana cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.

Our leftovers were perfect for Sunday dinner. Plus sauteed asparagus with toasted almonds, garlic, lemon, yellow mustard, and dijon.

Damn The Man

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For being the 1st week back from a vacation this week felt painless! Here were some food highlights…

Even our leftovers from dinner at Theodora were fantastic. This was laffa with lamb, tahini, amba, and shifka.

A grown up takes on a cafeteria favorite – two bougie Gushers-inspired candies. Both were great.

I loved these sweet cinnamon bun flavored protein pretzels.

It was Rex Manning Day this week so I baked cupcakes for work (because there are 24 usable hours in every day!). Peanut butter cupcakes (boxed yellow cake mix baked with milk substituted for water, butter substituted for oil, an extra egg, and 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter) with chocolate frosting. They were fantastic, amazingly the texture was perfect.

And we, of course, ate a bunch of pizza and watched Empire Records! This plate was chicken and waffle (possibly my all-time favorite slice of pizza, the chunks of waffle felt artisanal and there was maple syrup!) and buffalo chicken. Plus spicy green beans (steamed and then sauteed with Sichuan peppercorn, gochugaru, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, yellow mustard, dijon, and Sriracha.

The rest of our dinners were on the theme of school cafeteria lunches! Like a take on Salisbury Steak. Turkey patties (with ground turkey, panade, grated white onion, dijon, ketchup, and garlic) with a tomato gray (roux, water, tomato sauce, dijon, dark soy sauce, and low-sodium oyster sauce). Served with roasted broccoli and potato tots.

Macaroni and cheese. My mac and three cheese muffins. I substituted extra-sharp cheddar for parmesan because it was all we had. We used Goodles Loopdy Loos.

Fish sticks. Cornmeal crusted served with cocktail sauce and a side of roasted cauliflower.