what i’m loving right now

(Or WAS, when I wrote this post.)

“Biscoff” spread!

The below photo is of Trader Joe’s version, what they call “Speculoos Cookie Butter.”  Not sure where the ‘speculoos’ comes from, but whatever.

Anyway, I’d been hearing a lot lately about Biscoff spread on Kath’s blog and Emily’s blog, and I’d seen it at Wegmans before, so I figured I’d pick up a jar next time I was there.

Well, when we swung into Ohio to stay with friends on the way home from Thanksgiving in Carmel, IN, Andrew and I met up with my dear friend, Susy, at Trader Joe’s and did some serious damage.  One of the things she threw into my cart was this spread.  (I didn’t even try to stop her.)

It tastes like crushed gingersnaps and is completely delightful mixed with cranberry sauce on a bowl of oatmeal. Very ‘fall.’

The only bad thing is that unlike peanut butter or almond butter, it doesn’t have any protein (less than 1 gram), so it’s not really a nutritional powerhouse or anything.  It’s basically just dessert to spread on breakfast foods.  Or any food, for that matter.

Like this morning, I spread a tablespoon on toast with the last of the Thanksgiving cranberry sauce (I’m almost embarrassed I’ve had it this long…  They’re pretty acidic–how bad can they be?).

On a side note, doesn’t the above meal (toast, half an orange and egg whites with cheese) remind you of a ‘balanced breakfast?’  I never got those sugar-cereal commercials that touted their product as part of a ‘balanced breakfast’ when they’d pan and have a shot of a bowl with orange juice an a muffin.  HA!

Anyway, if you think you’d like this kind of thing, be sure to pick up a jar of either TJ’s version or Biscoff at your local grocery store!

 

you know you’re addicted to granola when…

…you have multiple UNOPENED containers of it and you keep buying it.

Yes, I do.

These are all unopened.  Brand new.

BUT!  Before you judge, listen to me justify:

-the two bags on the left were from OpenSky and are a fundraiser for another blogger with cancer.  If I had cancer, I would want a nice stranger to buy granola to support me, too.

-the box in the front:  one of two I got for a steal at Wegmans shortly after we got here.  Granola is relatively pricey, and I was in a ‘quantity not quality’ kind of mood that day.

-the two boxes in the rear on either side:  Trader Joe’s finds from my trip in August.  Mango on the left (because I have an open jar of their mango butter with which I use to flavor plain yogurt, so it seemed like a nice pairing) and Ginger Almond on the right because, well, I love ginger and have never, EVER seen it in granola like this before.  Can’t wait to try it.

See?  Now doesn’t it all make sense?  Happy granola-eating to me 🙂

date night and how i’m going to make up for it today…

Andrew and I went on a date last night.  An actual date.  I don’t even remember the last time we had a “true” date.  Sure, we go out to dinners and movies all the time, but they never feel like a “date.”  It’s just not-eating-at-home, or grabbing something convenient, or going to see the new summer blockbuster with Andrew’s family.  I think because we can go out often, we DO go out often, which takes away some of the “special-ness” of it all.

So, we decided mini-golf would be our date.  It was a typical New York summer night; the temps have dropped again (thank goodness!) and I was in a t-shirt, pants and a jean jacket–can you believe it!  As always, I lost to Andrew, but perhaps played my best 18 holes EVER, so that was fun.  After golf we stopped into Target to explore the new “Fresh” section they just put in.  We shared a cherry ICEE and a bag of popcorn and walked up and down the aisles, which was probably more fun for me than for Andrew, but it was nice to see what they had.

We left with some odds and ends and then made ANOTHER stop…this time to get DESSERT.  (Not that I needed it, but I’d had a crazy craving for chocolate and we’d discussed going to Taffy’s; I needed no more persuasion than that!)

Taffy’s is a 60-year-old hot dog and milkshake stand that is now on the corner of a busy intersection in Orchard Park.  Strip malls filled with Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s, Lowe’s and the like have sprouted up around it, yet it remains a local favorite.  It’s a tiny building surrounded by four-person gliders with canopies–perfect for a summer day or night.

They’re known for their milkshakes; they have a menu with about a hundred (or more!) options, all divided by main ingredient, like fruit or chocolate.  Thank goodness!  I’m indecisive enough!

I got a Raspberry Truffle milkshake (raspberry and chocolate) and Andrew got a vanilla ice cream cone.  We split an order of cajun curly fries.  YUM.  We’ll definitely go back, and I’ll be bringing the camera because Taffy’s deserves a post of its own!

I’m still four pounds away from my goal (grrr), so in order to make up for last night’s overindulgence, I’m going LIGHT today.  Very light.

Breakfast was a banana (I love eating bananas plain when they are yellow with just the tiniest hint of green; once they have the brown dots all over them I tend to mix them into things or slice them on toast with peanut butter) and coffee.  After my workout, I fixed myself a fantastic, Kath-approved snack:

I mixed up plain lowfat yogurt, flaxseed meal, 1 tbsp chocolate chips and the last of my frozen cherries in the blender, then topped with the last of my Great Harvest Groovy Granola.  YUM.  The granola makes it pretty high in calories (220 for 1/2 cup) but it also keeps me full for awhile.

I’m planning on finishing up the last of my hummus and veggies for lunch, with some fruit.  I’m cooking here tonight, finally, and we’re having Trader Joe’s Mango Chicken Sausages (they’ve been living in the freezer since Ohio!) with barbeque chips and fruit for dinner.

I bought Birthday Cake-flavored Kefir at Wegmans yesterday (I know, it sounds weird) in hopes that if I poured it over fruit it would KINDA taste like ice cream.  We’ll see.