Tag Archives: justin’s

Tuesday Treasures: Foodie Edition

I’m so happy that you all enjoyed my recap of the CT NOW Love Your Body 5K! Not only am I proud to have run it in less than 30 minutes, but I am still feeling inspired by the message behind the event. Being surrounded by so many others who share my passion for self love is pretty powerful.

I went to visit Heather a couple of weeks ago (you can read about some of our shenanigans on her blog) and came home with some amazing new memories created with her, her boyfriend Matty, and her best friend Raquel. But I also came home with far less money (lose) and a crapload of foodie treasures (win). Obviously I decided to share said treasures with you today just so I could use alliteration in this post title.

Of course whenever visiting Heather, we make it a point to visit Wildflour, a vegan bakery, cafe, and juice bar, while blogging in bliss. The vegan eats at this place are incredible and if you are ever in the Providence, RI area, I highly recommend passing on any of the restaurants by the mall and making the short drive to Pawtucket, RI to visit Wildflour (and the vegan restaurant next door, Garden Grille). Whenever I go there I leave with $30-$50 worth of goodies to take home and devour (as slowly as I can because I want it to last). This trip was no different. Here’s my haul:

  • a slice of whole wheat cheese-less butternut squash & broccoli flatbread
  • pineapple coconut jerky (YES)
  • raw garlic tomato kale chips (so far I’ve tried this flavor, garlic, and pizza…must try salt & vinegar and nacho still)
  • soba noodles with slaw (bottom left)
  • tofu tuna-style salad topped with carrots, served over greens (bottom right)

I threw MANY of these goodies into my lunch salad beasts and am in fact still working through the soba noodles (my first time having them and they are very interesting but it’s taking me awhile to use them since I’m not a huge noodle person). Pictured above is the entire container of the tofu “tuna” salad, thrown into a bowl and amped up with more greens and veggies. It was incredible!

I dreamed of dipping the pineapple coconut jerky into plain Chobani from the moment I purchased it, and that’s just what I did for a nighttime snack. However I was foolish to think the four pieces of jerky above would be enough with all that Chobani. I ended up polishing off the whole bag on that fine evening 🙂

The flatbread was a great carby option for me this past Saturday when my stomach wasn’t feeling well, and I enjoyed half the kale chips on the way home from Heather’s (great road trip snack) and half at work one day while at my desk typing away.

I’ve tried the Dino Smoothie (almond butter, banana, almond milk, spinach, kale, blueberry) at Wildflour before and though I ADORE it, I wanted to go for something new and had a mean green craving! So this time while blogging there I snacked on the Sillyantro (spinach, kale, parsley, cucumber, OJ, ginger). The ginger was just what my sensitive stomach  needed and the OJ was the perfect hint of fruit to balance out those greens. I wish a juice bar like this existed near me!

I always get a large black slow-pour coffee and vegan scone to keep me company as I blog with Heather, but they didn’t have my usual (spinach and mushroom) that day. No worries, another savory beauty awaited me…the above broccoli cheddar (vegan of course) scone. Holy moly! I always dip my scone in that heavenly coffee and was happy to try a new flavor.

Wildflour was also bustin’ out the free samples that day. I’m not a huge raspberry fan but the above gluten-free razberry cheesecake brownie sample rocked my world. The real star though was a sample of this beauty…

That seems like a steep price but I’d say it’s worth every penny. The above pumpkin cheesecake is made with tofu and Heather promised it’d make me swoon. My BB never breaks a promise!

The two of us also made a fun little trip to Whole Foods, where I happened upon a gem I’ve been anxiously awaiting to try since I first heard about it a month ago…the limited edition Cedar’s PUMPKIN SPICE HUMMUS! I also purchased two squeeze packs of Justin’s Honey and Vanilla Almond Butters – perfect for sampling these new-to-me flavors. Heather also gifted me with a jar of garlic-stuffed olives she had at her house, because she knows olive garlic (haaaaa).

I have been dipping many-a-vegetable into the hummus. So incredible. I love dipping savory food into a slightly-sweet dip. Last night I was even dipping chicken into it.

I was pretty proud of the below epic snack combo that I came up with at work one day last week. I peeled the banana, put vanilla almond butter on each bite, and topped it off a pretzel stick. Legendary! I just finished the vanilla yesterday and next up will be the honey AB.

Finally, Heather, Matty, and I ventured to Trader Joe’s right before I went home so that she could do some grocery shopping and I could shop for things I didn’t need.

  • BBQ Popped Potato Chips – SO MANY CHIPS IN A SERVING #win
  • Nacho Kale Chips – Only $4…the Wildflour bag I got was about $8. Just to give you an idea of how crazy this deal is.
  • Savory Thin Mini Edamame Crackers – These kinda remind me of rice crackers. We’ll see how they are!
  • Balela Middle Eastern Salad – All things Caitlin. Chickpeas, cilantro, tomatoes, black beans, and fabulous flavor. This stuff has made it into all my salads and I’ll be sad when it goes bye-bye.
  • Olive Tapenade – WOW I love olives and this has been great in my salads, on bread, on meat, you name it. Another sad face when this guy goes.
  • Hot & Sweet Mustard – I’ve heard so much about this gem from many favorite bloggers like Katie! I am a mustard fiend and am gonna bust this open when I finish my current jar.

And okay, I was in Massachusetts in the company of TJ’s wine. So much CHEAP wine. In CT, our grocery stores can’t sell wine (we only just got Sunday sales, talk about behind on the times). So I picked up the above three bottles of Charles Shaw (Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz) for $2.99 each and the Blue Fin 2011 Pinot Noir for $3.99. You may recall that I sampled the Cab recently and was super impressed. Can’t wait to give the Merlot and Shiraz a spin. Also had the Pinot Noir and wow, I sure can see why it was a whole dollar more expensive 😛 GREAT stuff and I don’t even usually like Pinot Noir (too light).

Mother-daughter wine glass sizes 🙂

FINALLY my last Tuesday treasure in foodie land is the below gem from my town’s farmers’ market. I spontaneously stopped by on Saturday after the 5K (notice my Team #AmazingMe tee!) since it’s right by my usual weekend study spot, Daybreak Coffee Roasters. Can you believe this guy was just $3?! He was in a bucket with a bunch of other smaller butternut squash that were the same price. NO brainer, I picked out the biggest squash in the pile! Just to make my girl Lisa proud of me. And apparently it was the last day of the market so good thing I stopped by! Hello fate.

Oh how I love a vegetable that’s bigger than my head.

My mom is away for the week but once she returns, we have big plans for this big squash. I hear that the skin tastes tres gross so does anyone have any tips on easy squash peeling-and-roasting? Who has some recipes I can try? I already know I want to do quesadillas but need more ideas because this is one big squash!

Which of my Wildflour goodies would you like to munch (or sip) on most?

What was your last gem of a find from Whole Foods and/or TJ’s?

Tell me about your most recent farmers’ market purchase!

February Foodie Pen Pals

Don’t forget to read last night’s post about Daily Feats, a new social networking rewards site that helps you meet your goals AND earn bonus points to use towards rewards and/or charitable donations. The post contains a code good for 50 free bonus points at (also free) registration!

And you can find out what I got my foodie pen pal, Halley of Blunder Construction, here!

Not only do I get a Birchbox every month, but I also get an even better kind of box – from my Foodie Pen Pal! Lindsay of The Lean Green Bean has taken on QUITE the project – she now has over 200 participants! Bloggers and blog readers alike can participate (just last month, a reader without a blog did a guest post for me so that she had somewhere to share what I sent her).

This month, my pen pal was Julia of A Girl with a Stethoscope. She is a new graduate nurse with a love for running and eating. One of my favorite things about this program is the way it connects me with other bloggers and their blogs that I may never have found! I really like her blog AND her taste in food…check out all the goodies she sent me!

First glance inside…ooh…

  • Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile Herbal Tea: YES I am so excited to try this! I adore honey vanilla teas and the fact that this is decaf will make it perfect to enjoy in the evenings. I have loose leaf herbal tea but to be honest, have not made a single cup because I have been to lazy to prepare loose leaf! Maybe I’ll start drinking tea more often now that I have a bagged variety.
  • Rhythm Superfoods Sweet Potato Chips: I was super psyched to try these out, but they weren’t exactly my cup of tea (wrote that and then realized that phrase would fit better in the above bullet) because despite the fact that these are the Sea Salt variety, they weren’t salty enough! However I’m sure someone in my house who isn’t as hopelessly salt-addicted as me will end up polishing these off. The whole bag has just 100 calories!
  • Kaia Foods Sprouted Sunflower Seeds: I know many bloggers out there are addicted to sunflower seed butter, and sunflower seeds themselves. I honestly haven’t tried the butter and have not had plain sunflower seeds since I was a picky elementary school kid who only ate Wonder Bread and buttered pasta. SO, what I’m trying to say here is, I’m very excited to try these because a) I’m way more open-minded now and b) these are a Cocoa Mole flavor! I think that these sunflower seeds would go GREAT in a plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese snack.

  • Barbara’s Snackimals: Funny story, I remember seeing these in Whole Foods when I was shopping for my foodie pen pal this month, and being curious about them. How convenient that Julia got me a snack bag! Another great mix-in for Greek yogurt/cottage cheese messes, or something nifty to keep in my cubicle for those emergency hunger situations. The vanilla flavor is definitely what I would have chosen myself.
  • Nature’s Path Love Crunch Granola: And the snack ingredients keep on coming! Love the Dark Chocolate & Red Berry flavor…it reminds me of chocolate covered strawberries! I bet adding some chocolate syrup on top of this granola would be amaaaazing, maybe on top of a berry crisp…ooh, my recipe mind is churning!
  • Justin’s Nut Butters: I saved the BEST for last! I have always wanted to try Justin’s nut butters and finally can. Julia was kind enough to send me several varieties! Even though I’m more of a PB fan, I am pleased to announce that I have started with the Classic almond butter variety and have been enjoying it on bananas. I don’t think I’d ever have it on something like bread, but paired with a sweeter component like fruit, the roasty salted almond flavor is definitely better to me than the last time I tried almond butter.  I’m sooooo excited to try the chocolate hazelnut butter too. I think I’m going to save it for last!

This month’s foodie pen pal package was great, and I already can’t wait for March. I also can’t wait to find out how my pen pal, Halley of Blunder Construction, likes her package – I think it’s the best one I’ve ever put together. Thanks again to Julia for going above and beyond, and sending me some fab goodies!

A little blurb from Lindsay herself to get you motivated to sign up: If you’re interested in participating for March, please send  an email to Lindsay at [email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
–WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT.

Have you ever tried any of the products I received?

Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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