Happy Mother's Day! May 9th

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day and spent time with their mommies! I know I did. :) It really is remarkable how much mothers do! I know I'm always amazed! Here are my eats from this weekend...

Yesterday I had my usual lunch at Qi Asian Eatery. It's really convenient living so close to this place! lol

Afterwards I stopped by Baked By Melissa (their new Union Square location, which happens to be right down the block from Qi!). I just HAD to try their new pancake flavor (that I found out about through my friend, Missy's blog). Plus, I was in luck because they had a few special Mother's Day flavors as well! :)

Cupcakes from left to right: cinnamon, cookie dough, chocolate chip pancake, peanut butter cup, red velvet cake, and a special edition Mother's Day one (chocolate with vanilla frosting). I really liked the new pancake one!

For dinner last night I had Mom's eggplant parmesan. :)

And dessert was a cheesecake blondie that I got from Whole Foods the other day...

This morning I made Mom breakfast... cinnamon rolls!

For lunch I had a Trader Joe's spinach and mushroom quiche...

Notice one of Mom's Mother's Day presents in the pic. The ladybug timer! We needed a new one and I found it one day at Pearl River Mart (one of my favorite stores :).

For dinner we tried an Italian restaurant down the block from us called Gene's. It's on West 11th St. off 6th Ave. in Greenwich Village. It was supposed to be good, being that it was there since 1919! I got the penne alla vodka.

Unfortunately, much like my Mom's dish, I found it bland and almost "watered down." Not very good. Oh well!

And let us not forget that I am too, a mother. A pet mother. :) Peanut was reluctant to take his "Mommy and Me" picture today. lol

But he was a "ham" for the camera later! I LOVE this pic of him. He's actually smiling!! :)

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! :)

Brunch, Blog Lunch, & Baked Goods! February 1st

Can't believe February is here already! It is the best month of the year after all (and I say that because my birthday is this month... although getting older is not that thrilling anymore. lol) But I digress... I really want to thank everyone for their responses to my last post about birth control pill issues! It seems you all confirmed what I already knew-- I'm not alone! Nearly EVERY woman I know on them, is suffering in one way or the other because of them. It's really such a shame... The ironic thing is, women used to do much better on them! And that's back when they were supposedly stronger (like in my mother's generation), so go figure! I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing, but I'm glad to be off those damn pills. I feel SO much better already, and it hasn't even been 2 weeks since going off them!

Anyways, yesterday I went to brunch at one of NYC's most popular vegan restaurants, Blossom (on 9th Ave. between 21st & 22nd St. in Chelsea). I haven't been there since LAST winter, which is why I haven't featured them on my blog before. I'm glad that I went again, because they really do have the BEST french toast and the quality of their food is terrific (even though their service is a little lacking).

I got the french toast with berries, and instead of getting the tempeh bacon that comes with it, I asked them to substitute it for soy sausage (because I really didn't like the tempeh bacon when I got this dish before). And it turns out I was much happier with the soy sausage (they're the small little triangular bits at the 4 corners of the plate in the pic).

For dinner Mom made vegetarian lasagna (which has mushrooms instead of meat). I had some last night, and will be having left overs tomorrow night too-- it's that good!

At brunch yesterday I decided to text my friend Missy (who runs the Missy Maintains blog) and asked her if she wanted to meet me for lunch at Sea Thai Bistro today. She couldn't wait to go back, and neither could I, since we hadn't been there since October (see here)!

For my appetizer I got the usual spring rolls of course! :)

And my entree was my new favorite-- broad rice noodles with broccoli, egg, & black soy sauce. It was delicious as always!

After lunch on my way home I made a quick detour... I felt like something sweet, so I went to the NEW Baked By Melissa that opened up on 14th St. right by Union Square! There used to just be the stand in Soho, but now they've opened up a whole store!! And when I saw this I thought... God help me! Especially since I live so close by to this one! lol

I got 6 mini cupcakes in these flavors (from left to right): s'mores, cookie dough, red velvet cake, peanut butter cup, cookies & cream, and one of their newest flavors, cinnamon (which might just be my favorite!).

We still have some boxes to sell and get rid of since we called our move "off." But Peanut has been having a field day, as boxes are one of his favorite things! :)

Where's Peanut?!

Here he is on top of the un-opened boxes... he loves to chew them, but in this pic he looks like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth!

What did I do, Mummy?!

That's all for today my lovelies! And please keep the comments coming! I love to hear what my readers think, experience, etc. (and I try to answer your questions in the comments, so please check back!).

Happy New Year! January 1st 2010!

Happy New Year everybody! Still can't believe it's 2010. I watched the ball drop on TV last night, followed by some old Honeymooner episodes! Mom made some Bacardi mixers (lol), but neither one of us got drunk per-se. More like mildly tipsy. This was good, because I had to actually pull myself together this morning to get ready for the blog lunch, which was hosted by the lovely Lynn from The Actor's Diet blog. It was a pleasure meeting her and the other bloggers. So, without further adieu, here are my first eats of 2010!! :)

I woke up early-ish this morning despite being up late, so I made a belgian waffle that I got from the Westside Market the other day. I topped it with a little butter & maple syrup and had orange juice with it.

The blog lunch was at noon at Spring Street Natural in Soho (at the corner of Spring & Layafette St.). I was the first one there, as I'm only 2 subway stops away! But soon the rest of the bloggers showed up. There were supposed to be 7 of us, but ended up being 5. I almost liked the fact that there were less of us, because sometimes I think at really huge blog meet-ups, you don't get to have as good of a conversation with everybody!

We started off with the lovely bread basket...

For my entree I ordered the frittata... it was very good, but I thought it would be thicker. It was basically just eggs with broccoli & other veggies in it. (Oh, and that's a dollop of ricotta cheese on top.)

My frittata also came with a side order of fries... I only ate some of them because even though they were good, they were too soggy for my liking.

After lunch, I walked back some of the way home with Ada from the NYCollegEats blog. (I had previously met her at the October blog dinner at Quantum Leap.) She wanted to stop by Baked By Melissa, the mini cupcake place in Soho. When she got her cupcakes I couldn't resist getting some too! I chose these flavors: cookies & cream, cookie dough (which I got 2 of), s'mores, red velvet cake, and cinnamon (a new holiday flavor!). They are delicious, although not the best value (6 tiny cupcakes are $5.50!).

When I got home, Peanut was playing his usual bathroom games. (Note how he always looks NOT pleased about being caught. haha)

For dinner I had an Amy's Baked Ziti bowl, along with an orange. (I also had a small piece of chocolate after dinner - not pictured.)

I was still quite hungry tonight, so my snack was more like a breakfast! I had a Food for Life cinnamon raisin ezekiel english muffin with pb & j, and a Stoneyfield peach super smoothie (which Peanut LOVES btw!).

And finally, Lynn was very prompt in sending us e-mails with the picture of us from the lunch today. I'd like to thank Lynn again for everything!! Here's the pic of us, along with a list of the bloggers that attended.

Lynn ~ The Actor's Diet

Chelsea ~ Chelsea's Chew and Run Fun

Nathalie ~ Freddie

Ada ~ NYCollegEats

I had a lot of fun! I want to arrange a meet-up one of these days too... maybe after I move! That's all for today!

Daily Eats ~ July 24th

I'm going to run some errands this morning, and then in the afternoon it's off to the Apple store! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they're able to fix my computer easily (and of course, cheaply). If you didn't see my post yesterday, my Safari browser is not working properly anymore, and it's causing my computer problems whenever it's running. So for now I'm on Firefox, until I see a "Mac Genius." So wish me luck!

Breakfast:
I had 2 De Wafelbakker organic blueberry pancakes, that I turned into chocolate chip pancakes, by topping them with chocolate chips. I also added some fresh blueberries to them, maple syrup, and dollops of whipped cream. I had some apple juice with it as well.


Lunch:
I had a Lean Cuisine Deep Dish Spinach & Mushroom Pizza for lunch. I got this on sale last week. This is really good pizza and doesn't taste like your typical diet food. It comes out nicely in the microwave too... (you can see how the box transforms into a plate to microwave it on in the pic below).


I was out nearly the whole afternoon... what I thought was a simple problem with Safari (Mac's web browser) turned out to be far worse than that. My "Mac Genius" informed me that my computer was on the verge of collapse. So the only thing to do was to replace the hard drive. I had gone through this last August, so technically it hasn't even been a whole year yet! But let me tell you, I cannot express how nice, hardworking, and virtually perfect the wonderful people at Apple are. I rarely feel the need to write a glowing review, but I just cannot get over what happened today. Not only was my "Genius" (named Peter-- what a nice guy!) discovered the problem right away, but he gave me yet another FREE hard drive repair-- incredible! And that is not the most amazing part (if you can believe it!). Even though it took 2 hours to fix, instead of 1 like they initially had hoped, I came back to the store to find that they upgraded the system in my Macbook (which costs HUNDREDS of dollars!), but they basically GAVE ME A NEW COMPUTER. This sounds like a joke, but I am NOT kidding you!!! My computer looks brand new. The keys type better, and the operating system is brand new-- with a new desktop and everything! And guess what? I walked out of there with my new & improved (or just plain new!) computer and didn't pay them ONE penny. I was nearly weeping with joy. I told the cab driver about it on the way home and even HE couldn't believe it! lol So to say that I recommend the Apple store in Soho is an understatement. These people are angels. Non money grubbing, hard working, incredible angels! So that's my fantastic story about a bad day turning good. I hope you enjoyed it! :)

The greatest store on the planet -- Apple Soho.

Snack:

While I was out in Soho killing time (and I had time to kill-- 2 hours worth!), I stopped by this amazing new cupcake place. It's called Baked By Melissa and it's right off Broadway. I got a box of 6 mini cupcakes for $5.50. Expensive, I know, but I was treating myself (because that's when I was feeling sorry for myself earlier, before I knew that the blessed people at Apple would give me a new computer!). They let you choose the flavors. Now 6 cupcakes sounds like a lot-- but they are TINY-- literally one bite (or less, because you could eat two at a time! lol). I got these flavors: cookie dough, peanut butter & jelly, red velvet, cookies & cream, s'mores, and peanut butter cup. Yum!

I am mad at myself, because when the woman gave these to me, this box of cupcakes looked like it came out of a magazine! In a few seconds I had accidently shaken it around I guess, and as you can see, no more pretty cupcakes. :( They were tasty though! :)

Dinner:

I had a dinner tonight that I loved as a kid... 2 "S" shaped hotdogs with french fries. This time I used Yves "Good Dog" veggie dogs, with 2 Pillsbury breadsticks, and I had organic french fries alongside (with ketchup for dipping).

Snack:

I made a vegan yogurt parfait with a WholeSoy & Co. vanilla yogurt, cinnamon walnut granola from the Organic Grill, berries, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Here's a picture of Peanut cuddling on Mom earlier...

I have a lot of catching up to do with my "new" computer... I now have the Mac "Leopard" instead of "Tiger," and they informed me that I'll be able to upgrade to "Snow Leopard" in September! Am I nuts, or is this just getting too complicated? lol Anyways, I'm glad I have a working computer, and that the people at Apple are super nice. That's all for today, my lovelies!