Happy Endings

Morning, chickadees! How is your week going? Mine has been hard, and although each day has felt quite long, it’s just flying by. What’s one thing you’re excited for today?

I had every intention of waking up at 5:45 yesterday to work, but unfortunately Snooze and I had a pretty serious flirtation and I didn’t end up rolling out of bed until almost 7. Whoops!

This weekend I tested out a Chocolate Cherry Bomb for the first time, and I loved it! My own version is a little different; I find that I’m not really satisfied if I only have a smoothie for breakfast, so I made my CCB lighter so I could add another component to my meal: a bagel thin with peanut butter, 1/2 topped with Scottish honey and 1/2 spread with mixed fruit jam.

My green guy contained:

• 3 cups loosely packed spinach
• 15ish frozen cherries
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp honey

Delish!

It almost turned into “one of those days” after I left the house: I was halfway down the block before I realized I’d forgotten my lunch in the fridge and had to go back, I left my MetroCard in a different coat pocket and had to buy a new one, and, later in the day at work, the copy machine and I got into quite the disagreement.

But, little things, like this skim iced coffee (with one packet of raw sugar) bring me back to the happy place.

At work, I snacked on a particularly sweet and juicy navel orange and a Golden Delicious apple.

Return of the perfect lunch! After a spell of weak mish-mosh work lunches, this restored my faith.

Mary’s Gone Crackers were on sale at Whole Foods the other day, so I brought some with a serving of baba ghanoush. To keep it from making a mess in my lunch bag, I wrapped the glob tightly in saran wrap and twisted the edges shut.

YUM. Cocktail foods during the work day? You betcha!

I also packed an orange & ginger Siggi’s; these cost $3 a container everywhere I’ve seen them, so if I hadn’t had a coupon from Amie I probably wouldn’t have bought it, although I’ve always been curious! Danielle and I both thought it was pretty tart, but I liked that it wasn’t overly sweetened. I would love to try out their other flavors, but it’s too darn expensive!

The main event was a big spinach salad (1/2 bag) topped with leftover scallops and veggies (and a noodle or two that snuck in the bowl).

Later in the afternoon I snacked on a Chocolate Cherry Almond Luna Protein bar.

After work, I rushed home to walk them pooch and then meet Ari at Joe’s Pub for Happy Ending, a music and reading series. I didn’t actually know that Happy Ending was happening that night; I thought we were just going to see Christina Courtin! Lucky me: Adam Haslett (You Are Not A Stranger Here), Sam Lipsyte (Homeland, The Ask) and Zoe Heller (What Was She Thinking? Notes On A Scandal, The Believers) were all reading! It was a lot of fun to both hear great music and see some of my favorite authors read.

We ate at the venue, but I couldn’t snap a photo during the reading. I had a massive grilled veggie + goat cheese panini on baguette... it took me over 30 minutes to eat!

After the show, we went to Stogo for dessert. This is one of my favorite treat spots in the city, and I haven’t been for quite some time! I was pretty excited for the Bananas Foster + Oatmeal Cookie cup I ordered.

Unfortunately, the server mixed up my order and gave me Key Lime instead of Oatmeal Cookie, and I didn’t realize until I’d left the store. It was a little sad how sad I was about it… especially after spending $6.25! But… it’s only ice cream. Right?

Exciting food news: Deep Chocolate Vitatops (one of my favorite flavors of Vitamuffins) are now available in 12-packs in Midwestern Costco! Almost wish I were in still in Minnesota so I could pick up a box. To celebrate, Vitalicious is generously giving away a box to one lucky US reader! Want to win? Just leave a comment on this post! For an extra entry, Tweet about this giveaway and/or link back to it in your own post, if you have a blog.

Off to work! Have a great day