I Have a New Blog

http://eatventures.wordpress.com

Pretty please, update your blogrolls, googlereaders, etc.  Muchas Gracias!

Today

Today is Monday, June 29th and there are a few special things about this day:

1. It is exactly 25 days until I celebrate my 24th birthday on July 24th
2. This Monday I do not have to go to school, making it the first official day I am not a teacher.

I am heading towards a new home (we narrowed it down to spots in the NorthEast, you will find out soon I swear).  I am about to start a new year.  I am starting a new chapter in my career by going back to school.  This is the start of a new life, and I wanted to celebrate with a new blog.

This experience has been a joy and I hope you all will follow me to my next blog venture – http://eatventures.wordpress.com.

Thank You.

Highlights

It is late late late and I am tired tired tired of my internet so I’m going to give some foodie-rific highlights and leave it at that.  Use in your imagination to fill in the rest of the day, it was fabulous 🙂

Breakfast with my daddy for a belated Fathers’ Day.

Homemade strawberry cream popsicle from the flea market in DUMBO.

Pistachio cupcake from Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

Bubble tea in a can from Pearl River Market.

YUMS!

What was the foodie highlight of your day?

I Didn’t Disappear, I Swear!

I know, I know, I am terrible at this blogging thing!  It’s a good thing I have a blogging surprise coming up in the very near future 🙂  I’ve been surprisingly busy the last two days and I had some school food events at which I couldn’t take pictures so blog posts just weren’t working out.  I plan on actually returning tomorrow but I wanted to give some fun updates –

1. My students graduated this Monday (yes, school still goes until Friday; no, I don’t understand either) and it was a nice ceremony.  My principal got The Heights to come perform so that was fun.
2. We got to leave school at 1pm yesterday and I had a grand time getting a drink with my coworkers.
3. My coworkers are amazingly sweet and we are celebrating my escape by getting more drinks this Friday (I do regularly hang out with my coworkers anyway but Ms. M has been really nice about organizing this get-together)
4. My school day today was as such – 2hour breakfast, 3hour movie, lunch, 2hours on the field.
5. My parents come to visit this weekend and I’m super excited to see them.

That is all.

What are you most excited about today?

Sunday Side Up

Sunday night was our “going out night,” which clearly had something to do with why I didn’t post last night!  I actually didn’t drink very much, but I’m feeling a little sick this morning so I think there is something up with my stomach.  Yesterday was the best New York spring day.  Everything was just so wonderful, I got pretty choked up when I thought about moving away.

Sunday morning A worked on his ‘Husband of the Year’ award by making breakfast for my friends and I.

I was served 2 eggs sunny side up with toast with SmartBalance.  It was very yummy – A makes the best eggs.

After breakfast we headed out to do some NY exploring – we met up with some of K’s family in China Town!  Our first stop had to be bubble tea.

I got a strawberry milk tea with bobba,

delish!  We had a pretty great walk, we looped through China Town to Little Italy and finally into SoHo.  I took my first trip to the pearl trading company and feel in love – I even got some gifts for some of my fellow Brooklyn bloggers.

I took them to Economy Candy so they could get some gifts and then I continued to spread the obsession by showing everyone Sugar Sweet Sunshine.  You know I got a pistachio cupcake!

Seriously, I don’t even like cupcakes, but this might be my favorite dessert of all time.

Then it was time to head home and change for dinner.  K’s cousin lives in Williamsburg so we headed there for dinner and drinks.  We did dinner at Planet Thailand (where the first blogger meet up was).  I loved the way they incorporated beer bottles into the bar decor –

For my dinner drink I got a Dirty Jolly Rancher.

And to eat, Pad See Eiw.

I subsituted vegetarian duck for beef.  Somehow my drink had really kicked in and I was so tipsy by the time dinner came that I devoured the entire plate and felt very ill.  I ended up getting a diet coke at our next stop – Alligator Lounge.  But I did eat two slices of mini pizza.

Alligator Lounge gives you a free mini pizza with every drink you order!  Our next stop was even better though – Barcade.  1.  The outside wall is a mural made of beer bottle tops.

 

2. There is a Space Invaders scene in the bottle tops.

3. The reason for the Space Invaders is because Barcade is stocked with tons of old video arcade games!A caught a shot of me rocking out Tetris.

I also got my butt kicked in Quebert, Dig Dug, and several others.  All while enjoying an Abita Turbodog.

Abita Strawberry will always be my favorite, but for a dark beer this was pretty darn good!

We came home and crashed and today – I’m late and I’ve got to run, See Ya!

Freaks!

Are you a freak?  This post is going to be freakishly big because I didn’t post yesterday.  A and I’ve been up to lots of stuff, trying to stretch out the long weekend as loooooong as possible.  We did lots of eating, which we slightly countered with lots of walking, but I feel like this is a good week to get back to healthy habits!

On Sunday we slept in (I stayed up past 3 with my Scrubs marathon!) and then A and I finally made it to this historic spot.

On the way there we split a ww bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

The cream cheese had real strawberries in it!

I at all of mine and a few bites of A’s half too.

A 45minute later we were in the land of dreams – Coney Island!  The had a fabulous day, seeing the sites, eating the food, boozing it up, and riding the rides!  We spent some time exploring the streetside first.

 

And then we wandered down to the ocean and the boardwalk.

Next it was time for Beer Island.

 

The bartender was super nice and let A and I sample all of the Coney Island brews.

 

A got the Blockhead Ale and I ended up with the Albino Python.

It was good, but I got about 1/3 through before I gave mine to A.

Then we split a fresh-squeeze lemonade.

And I had my share of this FOOT of strawberry daquari.

 

We had a great time on the boardwalk – I love old food signs.

Then it was time for the attractions! 

We played some games, rode the Wonder Wheel,

 

saw a freak show,

and rode the Cyclone.

 

We did the Cyclone last and good thing, I was all shook up!  I love rollercoasters but this wooden guy beat you up, my neck still hurts!

We left the park around 4 and I’d waited too long to eat so I had one of A’s chicken fingers.

On the subway home I ate a pecan roll I bougth at the famous candy store.

Once we got back to our ‘hood it seemed like time for more sweets so we split a small peanut butter cookie dough ice.

I had never heard of “ice” before I moved to NYC but basically they have less cream than ice-cream.  Plus check out the nutritional stats –

This was soooo good, I’d been craving frozen yogurt and this more than hit the spot.

After we freshened up at home we went out for a long walk.  Midway I stopped at a small Jamaican spot and bought a fresh soursop juice.

Yum!  Soursop is my favorite, this made me miss home so much.

We walked up to the Arch to see the fountain on for the first time this spring.

We got a late dinner from a local Chinesse place – I had Kung Pow Tofu.

Not good at all.  Help me!  Does anyone know of a good Chinesse place in Brooklyn?

Sunday morning we slept in again – gotta stretch out that weekend! – then finally got up and did a little school work.  We decided to honor our Burrito Bar obsession with an early lunch – how can you not love a spot with complimentary homemade salsa and chips?

A and I split a smoothie – Cher’s Forever Young, orange juice, orange sherbet, soymilk.

 

Yum, I’ve been craving smoothies since our blender died, we would usually be making so many right now.  I went simple for A but I will be going back to get one with actual berries.

For lunch I ordered the turkey mini burgers.

They were 6 burgers with different toppings (lowfat sour cream, guac, and cheese) that came with french fries.

Everything was good, but for some reason my appetite hadn’t kicked in yet – I ate 4 mini burgers and only a few fries.

Then A and I headed up to the city for another doctors appointment for my foot.  I limped out sadly so A took me to Wendy’s for a frosty (small, with cookie dough).

I realize I basically ate this yesterday, but it’s the weekend damnit!

When we came home I had to finally crack down and do some school work.  My plans are done for the week, all my materials have been copied, and I’ve done 85% of my posters.  While I worked I ate some SmartFood.

I treked to Staples for my copies and then A and I went to Starbucks to knock out our grading.  I had a snack while we worked – fresh fruit, cookies, ice h2o.

The fruit cup tasted as if it was on its last legs but I knew I needed the fruit so I ate it.

And I had a package of (130calories) toffee caramel shortbread cookies for a much needed (scoff!) dessert.

We were finally finished at 9:30 so I could devote my attention to more important things, like food blogging!  Dinner’s plan was sandwiches so I broke out some Quorn Chick’n Nuggets.

I cooked 5nuggets, let them cool, and sliced them up.  Then I tossed them in a sauce made from 1.5T SmartBalance Light and 6 healthy dashes of Tabasco Chipolte.  Then I placed them on a bun with mayo – which meant I got to use my new mayo from Blue Apron.

Finally, I topped the whole thing with some blue cheese crumbles.

And what better side for a Buffalo Chick’n Sandwich then fries (Five Guys) drenched in balsamic vinegar.

 

I more than made up for skipping my fries at lunch.  All together.

And my computer is slower than molasses so this post took long as heck and it’s time for bed!  Sleep tight kiddies!

Bright Ideas

Hi there, I’m back for my pm post of the day.  It was a fun fun fun (i.e. lazy) Saturday.  I spent 90% of my time hanging out with A – I ❤ kissing my hubby!

Bright, totally normal, idea #1 – eating chocolate from Blue Apron for breakfast.

 

I really liked these little candies.  The inside had a kind of strange gummy texture but the flavors were good together.

Then A and I decided to go into the city for a late brunch.  On the way there we got lemonade.

When A bought his the woman said it was sugarfree so I decided to get some too.  After tasting it we found out that it was made with some sort of fake sugar and was not good at all; we each drank less than 1/3.  I need to make some homemade lemonade soon, it sounded so good! 

We hit up Freemans, a spot we had read about in SoHo.

 

It was gorgeous, it was an old home and it was decorated like an eccentric ski lounge.  The lighting was dim so my pics don’t begin to do justice.

I ordered Poached egg, a roasted tomato, cheddar cheese grits and buttered toast.

This was delicious!  I adore poached eggs and the bread was perfect for yolking.  I am sure the grits were good, but apparently I don’t like grits, so I ended up leaving most of them.

I ordered a Freeman’s Bloody Mary made with potato vodka, freshly grated horseradish and garnished with a caperberry.

It was only ok, the reason I have been liking Bloody Marys lately is for the spice and the horseradish in this kind of tapered off.

What was great was the next two drinks A and I shared: a Germain Fizz champagne, elderflower liquor, grapefruit and a Bourbon Tea Cooler bourbon, iced tea, pomagranate syrup.

 

The Germain Fizz was the best drink of the day (A also had champagne with absinthe), it was perfectly fizzy and sour.

I even got dessert, Bananas Foster with rum butterscotch sauce!

So frickin good!  A ate off all the ice-cream but I pretty much devoured the rest.  Kath posted about this dessert last week and I realized I hadn’t had it in forever – so glad I got to satisfy the urge.

I have to be honest, I was pretty wasted by the end of brunch.  I have always been a lightweight, even when I drank a lot, so at my current rate of less than one a week I am ridiculous.  I stumbled around SoHo laughing and fell asleep on A’s lap for the whole train ride home!  Not, however, before we stopped in at Boss Tweeds to play an arcade game!

 

When we got home (I had sobered up) we did some errands and hung out.  We watched a movie and my next bright idea (after candy and booze) was to eat a huge bowl of popcorn with melted SmartBalance for “dinner.”

Goooooood.  Not good was the movie, we rented “Rachel Getting Married” and I do NOT recommend it.  I love Anne Hathaway and I was really looking forward to this but it was so slow!  Has anyone else seen this flick?

A and I took a long walk around the ‘hood and our final bright idea was renting a Scrubs dvd.  Our brilliant plan is to stay up half the night cuddling and watching.  I love Scrubs with A so much I mentioned it in our wedding vows!  Hope everyone else has a comfy cozy night!

What are some of your guilty pleasures?  I am a (guilt free) popcorn, walks, and Scrubs fanatic!

Way To Go Bear!

Two grand things happened today – A graduated with a Masters degree in Education (not that he’s not heading back to grad school next year or anything) and we each got a free day off work to attend the ceremony.  A’s family came in for the ceremony and we made quite an event of the day.

We sucked as much sleeping in time as possible out of the morning and ended up running around like headless chickens to run our errands – picking up dry cleaning and buying a belated Mothers Day present.  The in-laws got to town in time for lunch so we headed to an Italian spot in the Slope.

Everything was tasty tasty.  They brought yummy bread to the table with dipping oil.

The special thing about this spot is that the dipping oil has tomato paste in it.  I ate one piece with dip.

And then a half a piece.

My lunch special came with an appetizer so I got the fresh mozzarella,

and I ate a piece of my s-i-l’s bruschetta.

For my actual meal I got grilled salmon with veggies.

The sauce was a balsamic reduction and it was delicious.

 

The service was good but it was soooo slow.  The guy was super sweet and brought us complimentary pours of a Port dessert wine.

Then we headed up to the city for graduation.  Pace held it at Radio City Music Hall this year which was pretty sweet.

The ceremony was super-long.  Myself, and several others!, caught a few zzzzz’s at several points!  I snacked on a Cookies and Cream Luna Bar to keep myself awake.

The in-laws and I actually left the ceremony a little early to grab Starbucks for the ride back.  I got a Frappuccino Light Coffee with an extra shot of espresso.

Since I’m the best wife ever I also bought A a tuna sub from Subway.  I took a few blurry bites in the car.

Once back in the Slope we went to an Italian Cajun spot (Two Boots) for dinner.

I ordered a Super Cajun Bloody Mary Absolut Peppar with our homemade spicy tomato juice mix, in a 16oz mason jar, garnished with house pickled okra & a Tomolive.

I am all about the Bloody Marys lately.  I never drank them before this year but I have really been digging the spiciness.

The in-laws ordered nachos for the table so I had a small plate.

And a second small plate with jalopeno salsa.

My meal choice was the Big ‘Ol Cobb Salad blackened chicken, avocado, tomato, bacon & pepper jack cheese over greens with a creamy green onion dressing.

I ordered mine without bacon and with dressing on the side.

They basically gave me a platter!  It was super tasty though; I used a few splatters of dressing but mostly enjoyed it with the creaminess of the avocado.  I only about about 3/4 so I went Sarah-style and packed up the rest to go.

Then we said our goodbyes and headed home.  We think A’s sister and her husband might come visit us next weekend so we are pretty excited.

Now we are watching “Red, White, and Brown” and I am eating a bag of Walkers chips from last weekend.

Prawn Cocktail yuminess.  And bed 🙂

Where did you graduate from?  I haven’t earned my masters yet and I got my undergrad from University of Miami.

FYI – Pretty Green Girl is giving away some pretty sweet soy stuff.  And Melissa is offering a chance to do a three day clense with Blueprint.  And Diana is giving away a Vitatops treasure trove.

More BAM’ness –

BAM!

This morning I woke up early to cash in my reward.  Why a reward, you ask?  Doing two years at this job has turned me into a barely function being (see exhibit 1million, my new phone) and I am celebrating of full week of being human.  1. I worked every day and have a work-free Sunday, plus I did extra.  2. I made it to the goshdarn gym!  I realize that 3times per week would make most bloggers panic but for me this year that is a frickin’ record!  I’ve had in my head all week that if I stuck to my plans I could do what I’ve been dreaming of for 1.5years – go to Blue Apron and buy everything I want.  Blue Apron is a foodie-tastic store in our ‘hood stocked with local stuff and fun goods from across the pond.

I shopped with Nate in mind, check out my spread:

As soon as we left the store I had one of A’s goodies,

maple candy.  And then A and I split one of my buys.

We still don’t know what this was, but it had pistachios in it and A thought it tasted like a Cow Tail.

Then we headed to fun activity # 2 – brunch at Dizzy’s!  There was a longish wait so they brought us scones outside, A and I split this one.

Once we got inside there were more goodies on the table –

I ate enough half a scone and half a muffin slathered with strawberry butter.

My meal also came with apple juice and peppermint tea; A drank most of them though.

I ordered the Eggs Ben a Diz, Florentine Style poached eggs on a toasted jumbo English muffin with spinach and topped with ancho lime holandaizz sauce, served with home fries.

So tasty.  I ordered the sauce on the side and ate it deconstructed style – spinach first with a bit of sauce and then the eggs broken onto bread.

The portions were huge!  I ate all the spinach and eggs but left 90% of the potatoes and bread.

Full, we walked through Prospect Park and to the Brooklyn Art Museum, BAM.

 

We were pretty thirsty from the long walk so A and I stopped into the cafeteria and split a GUS – Grown Up Soda – Cola.

We had a great time, the museum had 5 floors so there was more to see than I expected.  On the way home we stopped in at Tea Lounge and saw that their seasonal flavor was Pina Colada Green Tea,

who could pass that up?

And from there we’ve enjoyed some trashy fun – bad tv and crappy food 🙂  I ate a salted French caramel,

and made an open-faced sandwich out of turkey pepperoni, reduced fat mozzarella, and oregano.

Served with Dirty Salt and Vinegar Chips.

I ate 4 of A’s whole grain chicken nuggets,

 

and then A and I split this bag of Walkers Roast Chicken Chips.

Yum, yum.

On the agenda for the evening?  More of the same – we have a comedy from Netflix and there is a big bowl of popcorn calling my name, night!

Rock Star

The day is done and I am a Rock Star!  I am 100% + done with school for this week.

This morning I worked straight through breakfast but around 1 I prepared lunch for A and I.  We bought this Arnold Everything Rye bread on Thursday so we knew we wanted sandwiches.

Tuna salad!  We use a little bit of mayo and a LOT of pickle relish in our tuna salad.

I sprinkled hot paprika on my portion, I had about 1/2 a can (since A ate 1.5cans!)

{More his/hers} I added salt and pepper and cheddar cheese to the bowl after I took my portion out.

I ate my sandwich along with a sliced plum and some Dirty Salt and Vinegar chips.

All together.

I did morework and a little later I made this split-tastic bowl.

A sliced banana, a sugar free banana fudge pudding, 1 crunched double stuff oreo, and a few cinnamon brown sugar almonds.

.more work.

When I was 80% of the way done I went to the gym.  I did 35minutes on the treadmill – 1minutes walking/2minutes jogging for 3.4miles.  Then I did 5minutes of abs and stretching on the mat and 5minutes of arms on the machines.  In spite of being a total fat ass for the last 6months we discovered I can now do 40lbs on some of the arm machines – more rock starness!

After the gym I walked to Staples to do work and to Union Market to buy fruit and a surprise for A, I also bought this Naked Gold Machine Juice for the walk.

Then home, and then to Starbucks to do my final piece of work.

I ordered a tall nonfat iced latte so I wouldn’t feel bad sitting at a bench but A came down a bit later and drank 90% of it.  I made grade reports for all of my students that show every assignment so far this semester and the grades they earned on them.  I have high hopes that kids do make-up in the next 2weeks but it looks like I will be failing a lot students my FINAL QUARTER of teaching.

Once done I came home and made a late lame/awesome dinner.

This was Tofu -Deveganized!  I drained and pressed a block of extra-firm tofu then cut it in half.  Then I cut a hole in the side of the block, careful not to cut through to the other side.  In the hole I stuffed turkey pepperoni and reduced fat mozzarella cheese.  I covered the hole with a small slice of tofu, rolled the block in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in .5t evoo.

Awesome.

On the side sauteed A and I some frozen broccoli rabe with wasabi sesame seeds and then added in the leftover dipping egg for the last few minutes of cooking.

It was inedible – the frozen rabe was cheap and it was all bitter bitter stems.  This dish was more bitter than a fat wife whose ex-husband just married an 18year old.  My other failure was the Stonewall Kitchen Wasabi Mustard I tried to use as a dipping sauce, also terrible.  But the tofu?

Fabulous.  I would, however, recommend baking at 450* for 30minutes instead of frying, I was pressed for time.

I tried a few sips of A’s beer but ended up going with a diet Dr Pepper cherry.

I totally had to have dessert. Turkey Hill Mint Choco Chip ice-cream with 2 double stuffs crunched over the top.

Mint chip is a favorite of mine but this might be the best kind I’ve ever had, go Turkey Hill!

A and I have super fun plans to celebrate a work free day tomorrow, I can’t wait!  Sweet dreams all.  I will end with some bonus questions –

1. What are you excited for on Sunday?
2. What do you put in your tuna saldd?
3. What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?