It is currently 57 degrees in NYC, and I am FREEZING.

I don’t usually venture into colored fonts, but that blue was necessary to represent my current state of hypothermia. (I hope you’ve caught on to my tendency to exaggerate, and perhaps let it rub off on you…)

I am, however, cold enough that I’ve busted out my winter warm-me-ups. If I cared to commit social cyber suicide, I’d document and share my absurdly heinous—yet effectively toasty—outfit. Think the opposite of Ms. Snackie’s nuevo outfit segment, and more along the frumpy lines of camp sweatpants, a men’s North Face fleece and dead sexy wool socks. I know, I know, I’m such a catch.

I promise I do not don this get-up when I gallivant the streets of New York; its oversized, homeless-chic glory is reserved for immediate family, close friends and boys I’m certain won’t be scared off.

Anyway, I’ve been procrastinating writing this post for a solid two hours because looking at yesterday’s food pictures are worsening my hypothermic state :( . Alas, I kind of like you guys, so I’ll brave the cold and do this thing.

The chill-inducing photos to which I’m referring mostly concern my morning java. Wednesday’s weather was equally as arctic (read: 59 degrees) as today’s. But, when I woke up, it was pretty sunny out. And, sometimes, I foolishly assume beaming sun = warm weather. Not so, kiddies.

Going with my assumption that we were having one of those “taste of summer” fall days, I opted for the iced goods.

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Decked with whipped cream and cinnamon because I was still young and naive  disillusioned and giddy over the make-believe warm weather.

As I pondered breakfast possibilities and sipped on my summery beverage, my dear father came home from his run and informed me that it was (Kev Thug’s words) “freaking nippy out.” Initially I giggled because I’m an immature 12-year-old boy and think the word nippy is hilarious. Soon enough I was overwhelmed by a dark Zoloft cloud of sadness as I made the connection that:

  • nippy is not actually a provocative word—but rather a descriptor for cold weather
  • cold translates to my comfortably crisp fall day being a façade
  • nonexistent warm weather makes decadent icy drinks sort of uncalled for and instantly less enjoyable

Womp womp.

Optimist that I am, I got over it pretty quickly and allowed for my decadent morning to continue in warmer form.

Oat bran, mi amor.

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In the mix: 1/3 oat bran cooked with 3/4 cup water, salt, half of a thinly sliced banana and vanilla extract; on top: other half of the banana, PB&Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams and cinnamon.

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Dreamy. That was my last sample packet of Dark Chocolate Dreams—which I haven’t been able to find in stores. Bummer—but not sure I’m enough of a chocolate fiend to justify ordering a jar. Has anyone tried Better ‘N PB’s chocolate PB? I see it everywhere and am imagining that it tastes similar—si o no?

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At its best when the bowl’s a mess. I know most of you are oat bran pros, but for those who’ve yet to hop on the OB bandwagon, I highly recommend cooking thinly sliced banana into your bran. I’m really not a fan of cooking my oats with milk—but the melted banana adds the perfect amount of sweet creaminess.

I was pretty busy yesterday but I broke for a mid-morning snack plate of almonds, raisins and dried cherries.

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I think this is the only time in my life that I’ve portioned out nuts (as opposed to my standard hand-in-the-can approach) because the almonds hailed from a 100-calorie pack. Not sure where those came from because I never buy 100-calorie anything—but I may need to start taking the portioned-out approach with my nut-munching (I don’t know why I intentionally select word combos that provoke immature smirks & the insuppressible need to blurt out TWSS). I’m pretty sure I usually consume 4x what was in the 100-calorie pack on a non-indulgent snack session. Probably not advisable.

Throwing the gluttonous revelation on the backburner, I’d just like to proclaim my love for dried cherries. These ones are from a pre-packaged bag and very good—but the best ones I’ve tried to-date are from Publix’s organic section. I discovered them on vacation in Florida, and now I have yet another reason to resent the fact that there is no Publix in NY.

Onto lunch:

While deciding what I was in the mood for, I snacked on some creepy gray apples.

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…which weren’t actually creepy gray apples. They just happened to land on a fun-to-photograph red plate :) .

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This was a crispy gala with cinnamon. Shocker. Galas are my numero uno apple. I’ve got love for some others—specifically Honey Crisps, Pink Ladies and Braeburns—but I’m very picky about my apple’s texture. I need it to be really crispy, and I detest even slightly mushy manzanas. Through my many years of apple eatin’, I’ve found that galas are the most reliably crispy. With that, I conclude my apple thesis.

For lunch I decided to dig into my bagel stash and recreate a sandwich that sort of got me through college. As I’ve said, I’ve never been big on bagels. However, on my campus, the easiest and quickest fuel option was Einstein’s Bros Bagels. They offered one bagel option that grew to be my beloved regular because it was so packed in the innards department that the bagel itself wasn’t overwhelming for a ratio-driven freak like myself.

This life-changing bagel-wich was their Tasty Turkey—an asiago bagel with turkey, a load of fresh veggies and an onion & chive cream cheese.

I’m pretty sure my tendency to try smearing cream cheese on anything at least once roots from my love of le Tasty Turkey. I don’t think I’ve actually had one since my sophomore year, so I decided to have a D.I.Y. Tasty Turkey for lunch.

I opted for one of Kim’s onion bagels—toasted.

Sandwich assembly got a bit challenging. How was I to fit this…

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…plus turkey and cream cheese

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…on this?

Scaling back on my already-chopped abundance of veggies was out of the question. So I worked it out.

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On one side: turkey, cucumbers, onions and half the tomatoes. On the other: a generous smear of cream cheese and the rest of the toms.

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Piled high, but all the goodies fit!

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Not that they didn’t completely crowd the hole (TWSS, just in case you needed a reminder to watch The Office tonight… I also want to take this opportunity to say Hola and I love you to my amazing grandparents, who are avid readers and probably a little confused and grossed out by some of my distasteful humor.)

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I sometimes forget why I stop eating foods that I love so dearly. This sandwich was on point. If any of you love cream cheese as much as I do, I strongly urge you to get in the D.I.Y. zone and make this. (I do wish I’d had the onion & chive cream cheese, though.)

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The onion bagel was really good. The wheat is still my favorite so far because I like its texture best—but this packed some always-welcome onion-y flavor.

En route to a meeting I had yesterday afternoon, I dug into this (lo siento for the crinkled wrapper but I dug it out of my bag after devouring the bar).

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Clif Mojo Mixed Nuts! How have I never eaten this before!? The bar was essentially whole pieces of cashews, almonds and pecans—plus PRETZELS! I’m a little freaked out because I sort of feel like Clif tapped into my foodie fantasies and created a dream-come-true bar out of my most revered ingredients. I haven’t had any of the other Clif Mojos in a while but I think this might be my new favorite.

While preparing dinner, I ate my weight in figgies.

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Figs are legitimately gorgeous. You know they’d win the best looking superlative in fruit high school.

I currently have a loco amount of zucchinis, so dinner part I was one zucchini, sliced and grilled to charry perfection with some ketchup for dipping.

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This is my interpretation of cheetahs that have ODed on green monsters ;) . They were INCREDIBLE. I reeeeeally love charred zucchini.

So much so that I added an entire second grilled zucchini to an amazing grilled salad.

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In the mix: approx. 4 cups of fresh spinach (in hiding), one zucchini sliced and grilled, grilled onion, balsamic marinated roasted shrooms, grilled cherry tomatoes, hard-boiled egg white and black beans. Dressed in the standard celery salt and honey-balsamic uniform.

The salad had an entire layer of grilled zucchini—which made it easy to get some in every bite!

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And this beauty?

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One very thick slice of sweet onion—grilled on each side for 3 minutes (and clearly doused in balsamic).

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Last night’s perfect bite: a little spinach (just because it was there), shroom, cherry tom, zucchini, beans and egg. In other words, almost every ingredient in the salad pushed onto a fork.

I don’t know how many times I can profess my love for grilled veggies in salads before you start tuning me out—but the combo is SO GOOD!!!

I was really full, but lately I need something post-dinner. I’ve never been a dessert person, and I’m not sure when this little habit came to fruition. But, somewhere along the line, I’ve developed a “what’s next?” attitude to dinner.

At least last night’s next was healthy—albeit summery and probably not the most effective remedy for my hypothermic condition…

Creepy gray watermelon.

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Gotcha again.

Normal pink watermelon that wasn’t very vibrant or photogenic (probably because it wanted to remind me that ‘tis no longer the season for H2o-melon).

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It was actually sweeter than any watermelon I had this summer, and muy delicioso—so there’s a little rebuttal to NYC’s decision to skip fall and dive head-first into winter weather.

Ok, this was the longest post ever. I’d intended to thank the lovely Whitney for an unexpected Kreativ blogger award—and pass it along to some of my favorite food blogistas. But, since I’m already on the verge of publishing a novel, I’ll save that for mañana.

Enjoy La Oficina tonight!

-Shivery Sarah

Recipe, Uncategorized

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October 1, 2009

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