WIAW #41: Dinner with Friends

December 9, 2015December 8, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

Phew, we made it to Wednesday! Ever have those weeks where each day seems like two to three days? And by the time you get to Wednesday it feels like it should be a Friday? Yup, that’s me this week. Work, real life and personal life are getting a little crazy thanks to the holiday season and end of the year coming soon and I am SO ready for Friday!

I somehow missed last week’s WIAW. Whoops! Blame it on a busy week? So I’m back! With not a very exciting day, but a day that includes going to dinner with friends, so there’s that. And some hummus. Because what day is complete without some hummus? Amiright?

For breakfast, I started the day with some yogurt and fruit. I mixed plain Greek nonfat yogurt with some fruit I leftover from a weekend yogurt parfait and a pear. Delicious. But I can’t remember the last time I had my staple of eggs and veggies for breakfast!

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I had a lunch meeting that day, and we ordered in from Tomaydo Tomahdo. I got their southwestern salad, minus the tortilla crunches, and it was pretty good. I like the cilantro dressing and had some of it on the side. Any salad with a ton of cheese is a good salad in my mind 🙂

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I still got hungry later and had an apple, some nuts and a cookie for a snack.

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For dinner, I had a plans to meet up with some girls at Taza, my favorite Lebanese restaurant. They have THE BEST hummus in town and we shared some hummus, falafel (not pictured) AND a salad with feta (yum) and chicken.

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And that was about it! I love love love some hummus right now and it definitely hit the spot. And those pitas. They were like pillows!!

Middle eastern food – yay or nay?
When you order lunch in, do you have a go-to order?
Tell me something about your week!

WIAW #40: White Pizza

November 25, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

It’s the BEST DAY of the week! Do you know why? Not only is it What I Ate Wednesday (and as you know, I really really love seeing everyone’s meals. I’m a food stalker like that), but it’s also my Friday because tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Here’s to a productive, short day in the office and then a great few restful and thankful (and stuffed) days off.

For breakfast, I started the day with some yogurt and fruit. I mixed plain Greek nonfat yogurt with some random fruit I had on hand (not your typical yogurt fruits, if you know what I mean – look) and some granola. Yum. Still not feeling the breakfast eggs and veggies.

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Lunch was a salad. And not just any salad. I had done some meal prep over the weekend and made myself an AMAZING salad. It had feta cheese, chicken that B had roast, some avocado, tomatoes, sweet potato, artichoke hearts and more. Look at it.

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In the container it doesn’t do it justice. Look at it on the plate! Such a ginormous glorious meal.

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I was pretty full after that but still managed to have some pear and nuts for a snack.

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For dinner, I had a board meeting and it was held at a restaurant. So I ordered their pizza happy hour special. It was a white pizza which was super cheesy and garlicky – but it was a white pizza. Do you like white pizzas? I love marinara sauce so much that I really can’t understand the purpose of a white pizza. Basically it was like thin cheesy garlic bread which was good – but still not pizza. Oh don’t worry, I ate it, along with some bread before the pizza came out for a carbalicious dinner.

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When I got home, B was eating some of the cookies I had baked over the weekend, so of course I had to partake. Yum.

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And that was about it! A day with some more veggies – but still not as much as I typically eat. Nut definitely a carbalicious day!

Do you like white pizza? Or do you prefer pizza with tomato sauce? Tomato sauce is the best part of the pizza. I prefer that. That’s also why I’m not a fan of buffalo or barbecue chicken pizzas. No sauce!
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? I’m a stuffing girl 🙂

WIAW #39 – A SOUPer potluck

November 18, 2015November 17, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

If you read my last week’s post, you saw that I wasn’t having veggies. A shocker for me – I eat veggies at least three meals a day typically (plus snacks), but last week, they just didn’t appeal to me. Good news – I’m back on the veggie bandwagon! I still haven’t been feeling them in the morning and haven’t been doing eggs, but on this day (Tuesday), I had them twice in one day. Woohoo! I’m almost back!

Here are Tuesday’s meals. It includes some veggies AND a work potluck where we all brought in soup to share!

For breakfast, I started the day with some yogurt and fruit. I mixed plain Greek nonfat yogurt with some canned pumpkin, cinnamon and Hemp Hearts and it was delicious! Does pumpkin count as eating veggies for breakfast?

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Lunch was our potluck! I had brought in a chicken gnocchi soup, but also tried some beef stew, veggie chili and gluten-free matzo ball soup. Plus some homemade fudge for dessert. And a side of raw veggies. And bread. Yup, that was a delicious lunch and I ended up in a food coma.

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homemade peanut butter fudge!

For a snack, I had an apple. I forgot to take a picture, so here’s my mostly eaten apple from Monday. I also had some tea.

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B made me dinner! And here are some more veggies. He made salmon and broccoli and shallots and asparagus. It was so good! I’m so glad to be eating more veggies again.

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I also had another small bite of fudge. SO. GOOD.

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And that was about it! A day with some more veggies, thank goodness. Back on the vegetable bandwagon!

Have you ever made fudge? What’s a good recipe?
What’s another creative potluck my office should do? We do themes…we’ve done crockpot, salad, and soup!

WIAW #38 – LOVE me some hummus

November 11, 2015November 10, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 11 Comments

I haven’t been feeling the vegetable love lately. I know – shocker – I tend to eat tons of veggies, starting my day usually with eggs and veggies and spinach, having a salad for lunch AND plenty of veggies for dinner. But not lately. But what I do love is hummus. I don’t eat it NEARLY enough and I’ve been realizing that lately. Anyway, for this week’s WIAW, I knew I had to have some hummus in my life.

Since I wasn’t in the mood for veggies in the morning, I decided on something sweeter – some yogurt, berries and some mixed candied nuts on top of the yogurt. I saw some limited edition apple cinnamon greek yogurt and tried it out. Not bad! Enjoyed it with some herbal tea.

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Lunch was semi-on-the-go. I had a busy day and didn’t have time to take a real break, so I opted for some almond butter, cashews (not pictured), crackers and an apple.

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Before dinner, I had some more tea and part of a chocolate chip cookie. So good.

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I also tried some of these flavor changing Tic Tacs. They start out tasting like peach and then go to lemonade flavored!

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For dinner, B and I hit up Aladdin’s and I finally got my hummus fix! We started with pita and hummus and then I got the baba ghannouj wrap.

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And that was about it! A perfectly delicious day. Without too many vegetables 🙂

Some questions for you:

Do you like hummus and baba ghannouj? Which do you prefer?
Do you find that some days it’s hard to get in all your veggies? What do you do?

WIAW #37 – Sick (but still good eats)

November 4, 2015November 3, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

Can you believe it’s WEDNESDAY already? I really can’t. Mostly because my week has been a little crazy and out of ordinary – I’m sick. I came down with a cold late last week, and then a sore throat and then .. pinkeye. I know. Gross. I didn’t even know that adults can really get pinkeye – but I assure you (and the nurse assured me) – they can, especially if they already have a cold. TMI?

Anyway, between work, going to the doctor, and catching up on much-needed sleep, I still managed to find time to share my WIAW eats 🙂 This is Monday’s eats – the day I went to see the nurse and found out I really did have pinkeye.

The day started out like any other. B made me breakfast and I enjoyed egg whites with hot peppers, spinach and other veggies. I also had a cup (or 2) of herbal tea and honey. It felt so good on my sore throat!

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I also figured I should have some Vitamin C, so I had a clementine.

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Around lunchtime I headed to the Minute Clinic to see what was up with my throat and my eye. It took 2 hours to be seen, so I was HANGRY when I got out of there. I scarfed down my lunch. B had made me a salad and a veggie burger, and I topped it with leftover tomatoes/eggplant that I had cooked for dinner a few nights earlier. Plus some hummus. May sound weird but it hit the spot.

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I also had a tiny bite of leftover carrot cake from B’s mom’s house. B had taken home a slice for himself and saved me a bite. 🙂 carrotcake

Snacks during the afternoon included some cooked delicata squash with cinnamon and sugar.

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And some pre-cut fruit (I’m lazy) from the West Side Market.

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For dinner, B made some roasted chicken and sautéed broccolini, bok choy and other veggies. If you’re counting, that’s THREE MEALS he made me on Monday. Whoops. I swear I’m a grown adult and can take care of myself.

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After dinner I snacked on some snickerdoodles (maybe more than one) and a few bites of pecan brittle I had picked up in New Orleans (cue last week’s WIAW).

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And that was it!

Some questions for you:

When was the last time you had pinkeye?
Does someone make your meals for you?

WIAW #36 – A Few Days (and Meals) in New Orleans

October 28, 2015October 25, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Warning: This will be a slightly different-than-typical WIAW. How so? My typical WIAW posts involve me showing you a snapshot of a day in my life. It’s typically a work day and I share with you my breakfast (usually egg whites and some veggies), lunch and dinner. Today, instead, I bring you a few random meals from my past few days in New Orleans! I neglected to take photos of every single meal, but you can see here the photos of a few meals I enjoyed on my girls weekend and trip to the Big Easy (full post here)!

This was one of my dinners – blackened fish on top of a potato cake. It came served with a “corn salad” – I guess the few kernels on top count, right?

fish on potato cake

While in New Orleans, I of course had to have a cup of seafood gumbo and a po boy. So here you go – one day’s lunch:

crawfish po boy and gumbo

I didn’t get a picture of my meal at Shaya, but the food was amazing. So you can instead see Melgar and Alisa and their food – a chicken schnitzel sandwich and a falafel sandwich:

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Drinks at Shaya. Cheers to 17 years of friendship!

Dessert one night – pecan pie, topped with ice cream AND a praline. Oh my goodness. So so sweet! pecan pie and wine

The combination platter at the Gumbo Shop. It was red beans and rice and jambalaya.

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Beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde. I went there three times on my visit! cafe dumond2

AND – not quite as pretty, but here was one of my airport meals. I settled with Au Bon Pain and got their southwest chicken salad and fruit cup. Ahh, airport food.

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And that’s a wrap! Some things enjoyed in New Orleans that didn’t get photographed include a Hurricane a Hand Grenade and other super wayyy-too-sweet drinks that you can walk outside with, pralines, pecan brittle, a fattoush salad and more.

Some questions for you:

Have you been to New Orleans? What type of food did you enjoy?
When you travel by air, do you have a go-to restaurant/meal that you always have?
Do you have a favorite creole or cajun dish?

WIAW #35 – Wine and Double the Candy

October 21, 2015October 14, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

I can’t believe I FORGOT to do WIAW last week! How can that be? Welp – to be honest, life/work/etc. got crazy and Wednesday came and went without a WIAW. Sadness. I know. Forgive me?

Hopefully you do – because I’m back on the WIAW bandwagon now!

Breakfast look familiar? Yup. It’s my traditional, breakfast made by B – eggs with hot peppers, spinach and other veggies. I was particular hungry this morning so I had a handful of nuts too.

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I opted for an apple at my desk for a midmorning snack.

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For lunch, I had some grilled chicken, leftover tomato/zucchini pie, peppers and onions and half of a sweet potato. It was SO good.

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And then one of my favorite snacks – delicata squash roasted with honey and cinnamon. I’m addicted to delicata squash right now.

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And then a coworker came around the office with a big bag of peanut M&Ms … of course I took some!

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After work, I had plans to grab drinks with a coworker. I LOVE getting wine at our local grocery store, Heinen’s. You just put your card into the machine and boom- a glass of wine! And not a bad view. Such a pretty grocery store 🙂

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B also made me dinner. I came home to some breaded chicken over stewed zucchini and tomatoes. Sorry for the poor lighting. But it was delicious.

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I was craving some candy so for dessert I had a mini Take 5 and some candy corn. Candy twice in one day 🙂

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And that was it! A WIAW Wednesday that was perfectly delicious. Wine and candy twice in one day? Yum!

Some questions for you:

Have you had delicata squash?
What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

WIAW #34 – An Actual Real Wednesday

October 7, 2015October 5, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 11 Comments

I’m excited to bring you a WIAW post that is an actual REAL Wednesday of eats. I know – I typically share Mondays, or Tuesday, or even Thursdays … but here is a REAL Wednesday!

I had a breakfast meeting scheduled in the morning at one of my favorite downtown spots, Restore Cold Pressed. I go there probably too often for my wallet to like, and it was nice to introduce someone new to the juice/smoothie/acai bowl/avocado toast joint. I of course got an acai bowl with granola, almond butter and blueberries. Confession: I saved about half for breakfast another day because they’re pretty big and too good not to savor!

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For lunch I was pretty excited – B had prepared some grilled chicken a few nights before for lunches, so I took that with leftover cauliflower, kabocha squash and sweet potato. Such a good meal! I love lunches like this.

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Snacks during the day included:

Some mixed nuts (about a handful) 20150930_135918

An apple, grapes and a sweet/salty bar. 20150930_140219

For dinner, I had put some turkey chili in the crockpot and it was ready for when we got home. #Winning

I topped it with some cheese.

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And dessert was about a serving or so of candy corn. ‘Tis the season! 20150930_201753

And that was it! A WIAW Wednesday that’s actually a Wednesday.

Some questions for you:

Do you like candy corn?
What’s your favorite kind of squash?

WIAW #33 – Notsomeatless Monday

September 30, 2015September 29, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

Goooood morning and happy WIAW. This What I Ate Wednesday post was Monday’s eats. Yum yum.

If we’re being honest (and that’s what WIAW is all about right?), I would tell you that I had fully intended to have a complete Meatless Monday. It’s been ages since I did, and I had plans to fill the day with vegetarian goodness. I was going to meal-prep on Sunday and have an amazing Monday (and other days this week) of eats.

Sunday meal prep didn’t happen. We did make it to the West Side Market but since we had walked there, we only picked up a few items. And then we watched the Browns game and went to B’s parents house for dinner so productivity went out the window (full weekend recap is here).

So here you go. A not-so-Meatless Monday for What I Ate Wednesday (are you still following?).

Breakfast started with egg whites with hot peppers and some pepperoni in the eggs. B makes my breakfasts and surprised me with the pepperoni (leftover from our pizza night Saturday). So I guess you could say I was doomed for my Meatless Monday from the start? It was very delicious, though AND had some great veggies on the side.

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For lunch, I had no groceries. (see above – no meal prep and not much food from the Market …) SO I opted to take a walk with some coworkers to one of my favorite and most-underrated downtown lunch spots – Stone Oven! I picked up Janea’s Salad, which is my favorite. I know I’ve shared it before. It’s chicken, feta, roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, croutons, tabbouleh and great dressing and bread. It is a hearty salad and I ate the entire thing over about the course of 2 hours in between and during meetings. And yes, there was chicken so again, not-so-meatless.

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Snacks that afternoon included some fruit and nuts. Yum!

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For dinner, I finally got my act together and hit up Heinen’s on my way home from work to pick up some supplies and I made a vegetarian curry dish. It was really good! I stir fried some veggies (green beans from the local farm stand, onion, pepper, sweet potato and carrots) and topped them with a green coconut curry sauce and mixed in some freekeh. I’m definitely going to be sharing the recipe soon – so easy and so good. I even had enough for leftovers for lunch the next day!

green curry over freekeh

No day is complete without dessert. For dessert I made myself a mini ice cream sundae with vanilla maple Arctic Zero. I topped it with some chocolate and white chocolate chips, as well as some peanut butter and a bite of a Take Five.

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And that was it! A pretty good Monday – even if it didn’t end up being meatless after all.

Some questions for you:

Do you participate in Meatless Mondays?
Do you meal prep or plan in advance?

WIAW #32 – Clambake Season

September 23, 2015September 20, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 13 Comments

Happy WIAW! Today’s What I Ate Wednesday is a fun one – it was last Thursday, which was the day of my office clambake. Have you ever been to a clambake? I had been to lobster bakes when I lived in Boston, but clambakes are a seasonal regularity here. And each year my office has one and they are delicious.

The day started out a little different from usual. Instead of eggs, I had a smoothie bowl. It was a mix of frozen fruit and some protein powder, topped with chia seeds and flaxseed.

Oh, and some coffee mixed with cinnamon. So delicious!

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For lunch, I had a salad, leftover chicken sausage and a sweet and salty peanut bar.

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Snacks during the afternoon included some kombucha, peanut M&Ms and an apple.

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i ate more than these but forgot to photograph them at first

Then it was time for the clambake. Appetizers and beer first:

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And then clambake time. Clams, chicken, corn and sweet potato.

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There were so many dessert options. Cherry pie, brownies, cookies and s’mores. I opted for the s’mores. I LOVE roasting marshmallows and these were perfectly roasted.

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