Last week, I went to Trader Joe’s and this is what I found!
The new Trader Joe’s opened on the Upper East Side a couple months ago and I love it. It is spacious, gorgeous, and of course, has the best things you never knew that you needed!
The other night, out of the blue, I received a text from my college best friend:
Love getting texts like this — not only because it helps me with the blog, but I also LOVE planners, and love paper supplies, so this interested me right away!
Since Omicron is keeping so many of us home more than we want to be, now is a great time to catch up on books! So, here are the books I am hoping to read this month (or honestly, season…).
1. Going There
From “Vegan At Times,” I found this recipe that is easy, filling, and delicious. A sweet potato, peanut butter, and banana sandwich. It is definitely unique, but so good that I plan to have it in rotation as an easy breakfast, snack, or lunch!
Look at it — so colorful and delicious!
Ingredients:
Every morning for the past several years, the first thing I do is complete the mini NY Times crossword puzzle. I have a competition on who can do it fastest with my brother and father and send them my times when I am proud of them (anything under 40 seconds). I usually can tell how smart I am going to be that day based on my success on the mini crossword. I have it as an app on my phone, but you can also do it on the computer. It is fun, addictive, and not time consuming — which I love!
In the app, there is also the bigger crossword (thanks but no thanks) and Spelling Bee!
One of my favorite Hanukkah / Christmas / Holiday presents was the new cookbook “Vegan, at Times” by Jessica Seinfeld. All of the recipes look delicious and the first one I made, Buffalo Cauliflower, is so delicious that I imagine all the other recipes are just as tasty and good. So flavorful, semi healthy, a great way to eat cauliflower, and something different! Here is the recipe for buffalo cauliflower!
A new cookbook that I love! Can’t wait to try all the different recipes!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great and restful holiday season! ….and here we are, 2022! so….Where Should We Begin?
but first….this! Isn’t this so funny and SO true! I think this is the reason I am not doing New Year’s Resolutions. This is just too funny and so true.
My favorite restaurant in NYC is ABCV. It is an all vegetarian restaurant with so much flavor and deliciousness. Everything they make is incredible and one of my favorite items is the pea hummus. So I decided to try to make my own! It definitely isn’t as good as ABCV, but I was very happy with the result!
Ingredients:
* bag of frozen peas
* can of drained garbanzo beans
* 1-4 tablespoons of Olive oil
* a spoonful of tahini
* lots of salt
* a huge handful of mint
* juice from one lemon
Whenever I walk down the streets (of any city), I love to look at all the stickers on any type of sign on the street. It is fun to see the creativity and thoughts lying around. I always take pictures of the ones I love (yes, weird), simply to have food for thought. So a couple weeks ago, on my street corner, I found this sticker.
Same shit, different outfit. @mylifeinyellow. I was intrigued! Such a fun little quote.
And randomly, that night, I took a red eye to Paris. That same day, I saw this:
Over Thanksgiving break, I decided it was time to start my food hunts again in NYC to find “the best ofs.” Last Winter, I found the best dumplings, the best pizza, and the best Italian Food. So, this time, I thought it would be fun to find the “best Vietnamese” in Manhattan. It was a throw back to when I was pregnant with my 12 year old, and only wanted gazpacho and Vietnamese Summer Rolls…..So after reading several articles and reviews, we headed down to 6th Street in the Lower East Side to Banh Mi Zon to pick up a selection of items.
Vietnamese sandwich — perfect crusty bread with vegetables and meat. Loved every bite.
One of my downfalls is that if I go in to a gourmet grocery store searching for one specific item, I leave with a huge bag. Especially if I am hungry. So the other day when I was on the way to my daughter’s school pick up and I went in to a get a watermelon lime juice (yes very specific), I walked out with every new sweet item I could find. My favorite was edible cookie dough, Do! I had heard about this phenomenon, and actually seen the lines at their downtown location, but I had never tried it. And of course, once I tried it, I fell madly in love, and have since returned to buy various flavors. The most recent purchase was their seasonal flavors of Pumpkin and Apple Pie.
Seasonal Flavors
Thanks to a girls trip, I discovered a new life changing app, Tricount. This app helps organize the expenses for all the different people involved. For example, this past weekend, instead of four people constantly splitting the bill, we just rotated who paid what and put it in the app. At the end of the trip, it calculated who owed what to whom. It was also very helpful as different people were present for different portions of the expenses, and this helped keep track of it all.
Girls trip — where I was introduced to Tricount!
Many people comment to me that Natori bras are only made for smaller chested women. But truth is, Natori makes bras for EVERYONE! Big small petite large, everyone! A dear friend of mine has a much bigger chest size than I do — and here is her testament. Thank you!!!
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I am such a loyal Josie Girl follower that I regularly purchase many of the fun products she recommends. My latest purchase based on Josie Girl’s reco? Ruth & Dottie pencils for holiday gifts for my team at work – so cute! Alas, there is one category of recommendations by our beloved Josie Girl that falls on flat on my ears every time: bras.
Why, you ask? Well, I was naturally endowed with a 34DDD chest, so the Josie Girl’s favorite bras like the Flora and the Feathers would not exactly “hold up” for me. So, for any loyal Josie Girl followers who love the Natori brand but have bodacious boobies that need better support than some of the “daintier” bras offer, I highly recommend my all-time favorite Natori bra: the Bliss Perfection.
Bliss perfection!
It is so blissfully perfect…
My mother is the best at sending care packages as everything she puts in them are unique and cool. The most recent care package included the new Amanda Gorman book, vintage stickers, notebooks, and whimsical, fun pencils. I love these pencils — not only because they are functional and have a purpose — but because they are happy, joyful, and make you smile!
Sprinkle fairy dust on a gold pencil! SCREAMS JOY! I love this!
I have been on a mission to cleanse my closet of clothes that no longer suit me by sorting through every article of clothing and deciding whether to keep, donate, sell, or alter. In this process, I found so many shirts that I LOVED but the silhouette was too long (because I used to wear a lot of long shirts with skinny jeans). So I took a handful of shirts to the tailor (if in NYC, I love Alteration Specialists — across the street from our apartment!) with high waisted pants and asked them to crop them. Yep, a 40 something year old wearing cropped shirts. I am so happy to recycle (upcycle!) clothes and I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe. Take a look at my awkward selfies in cropped shirts — and I highly recommend the process of making new from something old! Here they are!
I love this shirt and finally have so many different pants that it will work with.
Last week when I gave myself a self closet cleanse, I realized that all my camisoles were worn out, stained, and too long. Since I wear camisoles under my clothes all winter long to keep me warm, I went on to Natori.com to search for the perfect new camisole to replace all the tired old ones. And sure enough, I found the elite lace trim v-neck cami, so I bought one in black and one in white. This camisole is the perfect layer or pretty enough to wear alone.
The perfect fit as it is cropped and sits just below the waist line. The straps are adjustable.
Here are the beauty products that I am loving this season!
Here are the six products that I am loving right now!
A couple weeks ago on a beautiful Fall day, I got off at the wrong subway stop (to go to Trader Joe’s) and ran into a dear old friend, Christine, whom I had not seen in a decade. (A decade!) It was one of those powerful encounters that both brought us to tears as we were SO happy to see each other and be reconnected. She is magic — and everything around her is positive, joyful, and magical. Long story short, turns out Christine is now a full time bad a$$ actress as well as a baker (a good friend to have). She makes the most incredible cookies and granola (my favorite food group) and you can’t stop eating her creations. And she sells them!!!!! Savouries! Get them!
Savouries! Rosemary Cookies and granola.
The only bra I EVER wear is the Natori Feathers bra, but after reading a post on Cupcakes and Cashmere about the Natori Flora Bra, I decided to copy her and give it a try. And yep, I am now a convert and love the Flora bra almost as much as I love the Natori Feathers bra. Both are basically the perfect bra.
Innovative molded, floral lace overlays smooth cups for a seamless edge that disappears completely under clothes.”
I blinked, and here we are in mid October. I know that as you get older, the time starts to fly by, but really, in the past year, it feels like a month ago was yesterday! And it literally feels like school JUST started, but here we are almost Halloween (gulp, my least favorite holiday). Here is what I am loving this month!
1. The Night She Disappeared (on audible)
Almost 3/4 of the way done with this book (listening to it) and I am now a huge fan of audible books and this story! A must read (or listen to!)
This past weekend, I completed my 16th marathon and my 5th (or 6th) Chicago Marathon. It was a crazy busy weekend with first a visit from my beloved brother and his wife, Cruzzie’s 12th birthday, and then flying to Chicago and running the marathon and flying home. It was overall a great full weekend and now I am exhausted!
The expo was INSANE. Usually, I am in and out in 20 minutes, but due to COVID regulations and checking proof of vaccine, it was incredibly delayed. Took over 2 hours to pick up my number. And always awkward for me to ask a stranger to take a picture of myself holding up my number, but hey, YOLO.
So, my marathon is 4 days away, and I just went to buy new AirPods so I could listen to music the whole route. Here is what I will be listening to! Enjoy!
My last long run’s view.
Last Winter, on our “best pizza” of NYC, we wound up deep in Brooklyn at Di Fara. It truly was the most amazing pizza I have ever had, even with the hour long drive. So as soon as I found out that Di Fara had a pop up for 3 weeks in Manhattan, I jumped at the opportunity for us to go. Definitely worth it as still the best pizza I have ever had.
Located in the Lower East Side, this pop up, is basically an office building with a security guard who has someone come take our order. You can also get pizza from Roberta’s (but Di Fara is way better).
I love it when things just work out and you don’t expect it! Yesterday, I was ordering a cake for my son’s birthday from a Gluten-Free Local Bakery (that I posted about in May 2020) and then decided to take the subway down to Trader Joe’s (yes second visit this week), but got off at the wrong train stop. As I emerged from the train, I realized that the Union Square Green Market was taking place and that Knead Love (where I was in the process of ordering Cruz’s 12th birthday cake) had a booth!
I mean — gluten free carbs and hot pink? Everything about Knead Love, I love (and yes I need love!)
During graduate school the only place I grocery shopped was at Trader Joe’s– it is where I got EVERYTHING. Vegetables, pre packaged food (I lived on their burritos and enchiladas), muffins, granola, everything. And yet since then, I rarely go as there is not one close by and I like things where I pick the quantity myself. That said, I was reintroduced to Trader Joe’s and it inspired me to try it again. I have gone twice in the past two weeks and I love it — not for everyday grocery shopping, but for random snacks and food to hoard in my house (I hoard food).
Huge bag of goodies — and SO inexpensive — less than 50 dollars!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!
