Thursday, July 24, 2014

Throwback Thursday: A Childhood Treat

When I was younger, summertime meant my mom would make one of my favorite desserts. It was so simple it seems silly to base an entire post on it, but after suggesting it to Shen recently I had a craving and decided to go ahead and make it. Truthfully, I don't know if it is supposed to be enjoyed on it's own or as an accompaniment but I definitely enjoy it either way. So today, I'll be showing you some macerated strawberries.

I feel like this is so simple it's borderline embarrassing to devote and entire post to it. But it's so damn good I think you'll love it and if you guys try it after this post then I've done my job. All you need is a lb of fresh, ripe strawberries, one small lemon and about 3/4 tbsp of sugar. You slice your strawberries, squeeze your lemon on top, sprinkle with your sugar and mix. Then you let the magic happen. Let the strawberries sit (I usually keep mine in the fridge) for a few hours and they get tender, sweeter and a syrup pools around them in the bottom of the bowl.

That is all there is to it. After you have your tender berries and sweet syrup you can eat them in countless ways. Spoon your berries on top of waffles or pancakes, enjoy on its own, top with whipped coconut cream or if you really want to indulge... spoon it on top of some ice cream (or banana soft serve). Oh, they also taste great on top of cake with some vegan whipped cream ;)

I attempted to get a before and after photo of the berries but they didn't come out great. I don't think you can see the difference or the amazing syrup but I'll show you anyway.


This is the before picture. Normal berries with a little glisten of lemon juice.


Here is the after. Softer berries, different color and you can kind of see the syrup. It's so simple but it's so good and in my house it means summer is here.

Clearly I've enjoyed some of my berries since I made them and I figured I would show you how I decided to eat them...


That's right, I decided to top my Trader Joe's Chocolate Sorbet with a healthy dose of these strawberries. You can definitely see the syrup in this (horrible, sorry!) photo. Chocolate and fresh strawberries is one of my favorite flavor combinations so this was definitely a great treat!

I hope you guys will give this super easy treat a try. I hope you are all doing well! 



Monday, July 21, 2014

Grocery Haul: Trader Joe's

Hey everyone! I'm back with another quick post. Today I have a grocery haul to share with you. I've been doing my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's for the past few weeks because it is much more cost effective. I won't lie, I've missed the large variety of organic produce that Whole Foods offers but my wallet has been appreciating the switch.


I didn't actually buy any Meatless Meatballs but I immediately thought of Shen when I saw them and decided to snap a pic. I'm glad that you'll be able to get them again Shen!


I was a little disappointed in the organic fruit selection. I think this was mostly because I was able to get the most amazing organic peaches there just a few weeks ago and now every stone fruit they had was conventionally grown. It bummed me out but I didn't get it because I just can't bring myself to get conventionally grown dirty dozen fruits or veggies. I did get a few great things like strawberries, bananas, basil, grape tomatoes, lemon, cucumber, carrots and avocados. Mmm.


For grocery items I decided to splurge on some faux meat and decided to go for the TJ's version of Gardein Chick'n Tenders. Same taste and half the price, you have to love that! I'm also not really a pasta eater so I don't know what possessed me to get this gluten free pasta but I added that in to my cart as well. The Mediterranean hummus is one of my favorite commercial hummus' so I picked up a container of that. I've never tried the Chocolate Sorbet but how can I turn down chocolate sorbet made with coconut milk?! I hadn't seen this before either so my curiosity got the best of me. I finally finished my last tub of EB so I picked up another one. I've never had the whipped version, I hope it's good!

That's pretty much it for my haul. I'm trying to get back on track with my posting and I already have and idea for my next one so hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later! Shen, you inspired the next one so I hope you like it! See you soon!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Short and Sweet

Hello friends! I don't really have a whole lot of updates for you, just a couple of pictures I took throughout the week. No food, just fun. As the title suggest, this post will be short but hopefully you enjoy the few pictures I have to show you.


I babysat for Delilah early in the week and I got a big thumbs up so I figured I'd share it with you :) I can't believe how big she has gotten and she is so funny. 


This was on my way home from work one day this week. We had a few gross stormy days and it is starting to look ominous here. 


This morning we had a large family brunch (11 people) on a hotel rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. This is the view from where we were sitting. As you can see we had an absolutely gorgeous day.


The rest of the view from our table. Such a beautiful day.

I didn't really want to take a picture of my food with so many people sitting around me and I figured you've all seen a fruit bowl before so I decided against it. I'm going to Trader Joe's tomorrow so if I remember and I'm not feeling too lazy I'll take a picture for you. 

I hope you have all been having a great summer so far. Sorry I haven't been posting much, I'm starting to feel better so hopefully more frequent posting will be in my future. 

Have a great night! I hope you have a great Monday tomorrow.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Long Time No See

It's been a while, eh? I was not intending to be on hiatus but unfortunately my body made the decision for me. I wasn't feeling too great the past few weeks but it seems to be turning around. I suspect my Vitamin D levels plummeted again because I was EXHAUSTED all the time. My appetite was non-existent. My hair was falling out by the handful so I had about 8 inches cut off. This usually helps but I was still pulling handfuls of hair out on a daily basis which really creeped me out so I realized that Vitamin D may be the problem. I've been taking it daily for the past week or week and a half and I feel a million times better. Hopefully I'll continue to feel better but I figured that since I was already feeling a lot better I'd pop in to say hello and show you a totally random mix of pictures I've collected over the past few weeks.


I've shown you a few cars that are being worked on across the street and when I saw these three lined up I had to take a picture because they are all really cool cars. The one on the far left is still my favorite by far but I think the rusted truck is really charming and the purple car is very cool and retro looking.


This was from when I baby sat for sweet Tyler a few weeks ago. I love his face.


Sleepy puppy. This poor guy had to tough it out here while TJ got to enjoy a weekend in the Hamptons. I think Tyler enjoyed the peace and quiet though :)



This picture is actually really exciting for me for a random reason. It's part of my random red light series. The sunset was really gorgeous that night but I was most excited because I had the energy to actually go out after work and get something done rather than just go straight home to bed. This was probably at about 8:00 pm I want to say? I love that sunset is so much later now. This, by the way, is on the home from Whole Foods.


Since I'm a mug/cup slut and a big fan of flip flops this cup was perfect for me. It's a really large BPA free mug that I got for about $3.50 (it was 30% off and I had a few $$ left on a gift card so the out of pocket price was $3.50). I can't wait to use it.


As I mentioned, I haven't had much of an appetite so I've been picky about meals lately. Avocado toast has been a staple and this sandwich just came out too pretty not to photograph. It is sliced avocado, tomato, salt and pepper on a slightly toasted ciabatta roll. So good. 

That's all for this random update. Hopefully it won't be as long before my next post. I hope you are all doing well and staying cool in this yucky heat/humidity!