As usual around here, last week was full of coworker-sponsored snacks, and it all culminated in a full-blown feast on Friday 😀

On Monday, Jessica and Rosalie supplemented my lunch with salad and a piece of chicken quesadilla, respectively:

One of these days, I promise I will accidentally-on-purpose forget to pack a lunch just so that I can buy a whole quesadilla for myself.

Rosey was way beyond generous and brought in the rest of the best tres leches cake ever … plus she let me “lick the pan” which was full of condensed milk and at least another slice of cake!

Tuesday and Wednesday included a Maria biscuit from Lillian, buttered toast from Nydia, and three bites of donation overflow donuts from the advocacy kitchen:

(Side note: I thought I lost my work ID and key card last week. Surprise, surprise … they were found in the advocacy kitchen.)

On Thursday, Belkis brought in cassave, a traditional Dominican bread made completely of yucca:

I had some plain, and it was very dry and crackerish … but once I took Belkis’ “traditional Dominican” suggestion to try it with avocado and Myrna’s “traditional Dominican” suggestion to try it with peanut butter, I could definitely see the appeal:

Rosey and Maria shared their tostones, and Lillian and Nydia shared their maduros:

(Avocados and plantains in the same day??? How did I get so lucky?! :-P)

Jennifer showed that she’s a healthy snacker with her banana, and Jose modeled Lillian’s latest health food store purchase: all natural and organic macaroons.

The only ingredients in these macaroons were unsweetened coconut, honey, and egg whites … and they were beyond delicious:

I had three!

Finally, Friday morning was our big department breakfast in honor of Maria’s rapidly progressing pregnancy. You’ve already seen the recycled muffins that I contributed, and I also brought in my very own homemade authentic Dominican (there’s a lot of Dominican authenticity going on in this post!) chicken and cheese empanadas:

OK, maybe I did not make the empanadas myself, but they are still authentic, Dominican, and homemade … by Mildred and Myrna! I rescued them from Heather’s baby shower in the beginning of April and have been storing them in my freezer ever since. For the breakfast, I let them thaw in the fridge overnight and then put them in the work oven at 375 for 20 minutes so they got crispy. Everyone agreed that these four-month-old empanadas tasted as though they were fresh out of the fryer 🙂 The freezer is an amazing contraption.

Jessica was also feeling inspired for this breakfast, so she brought it all the necessary supplies for chocolate-covered strawberry and mango skewers and enlisted my help:

We only had a few close calls with burning chocolate before we got it down to a science and created our sunshine platter of sophistication:

Once we got everything set up in the conference room, we invited Maria in … and she pretended to be surprised:

Here’s the full spread with mangu, eggs, fried cheese, ham, and homemade farina from Myrna; babybel and cracker barrel cheddar (the best kind ever) cheeses from Lillian; “my” empanadas and muffins; bagels and assorted cream cheeses from Jennifer; Jessica’s chocolate sunshine skewers; and assorted juices:

I gathered a bit of [almost] everything for myself: farina (sooo good — Myrna made it with cinnamon, sugar, and milk), a cheese empanada with cheddar on top, a bite of egg/fried cheese/ham, mangu, Beryl’s corn muffin (a late arrival to the table but worth the wait — they were spiced with nutmeg and had me returning to the conference room table for more all afternoon), and a dark chocolate skewer:

(I don’t think I need to mention that I had two more bowls of farina, two more skewers, and about 4 more muffins!)

One of the cream cheeses was cheesecake-flavored, so I had to test out a dollop with a bite of mango:

It was yummy enough to make me scared of what would happen if I ever bought this for myself!

At the end of breakfast, the environmental boys were only too happy to help us out with the leftovers which made me very happy because it meant that less food would be calling me all afternoon from the infamous conference room table. Erik and Roberto posed with their fruit and muffins for a somewhat unfortunate photo:

I gave them a chance to redeem themselves, and it was only partly successful:

I feel so lucky that my job involves people who love to make food and people who love to eat food. Can you imagine a more rewarding work environment? (I’m sure the rewarding factor has nothing to do with the fact that we all save the world on a daily basis …) 😛

What part of your life requires/involves the highest level of group effort?

Wednesday was another bakery donation delivery day at work. When I got home with my collection of overflow baked goods and saw that I couldn’t squeeze one more smushed muffin into the freezer, I knew that a big freezer clean-out adventure was in order. I combined the day’s goods with the backlog in the freezer and divided everything into four bowls:

I had muffins (blueberry, cranberry, zucchini, carrot, chocolate, corn, and cinnamon):

Cakes (donation sponge cake and Maria’s tres leches cake):

Donation peanut butter cookies:

And frostings! (a combination of actual cream cheese, cream cheese frosting, buttercream frosting, and lemon icing):

Frosting seemed the easiest way to start, so I immersion-blended the collection into this creamy perfection:

I stuck the frosting in the fridge and set to work on the muffins.

I immersion blended the giant bowl of muffins with two eggs, baking powder, and water until it reached the consistency of thick muffin batter. I pressed about half of the batter into this parchment lined brownie pan:

The brownie pan went into the oven at 375 for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I spooned the rest of the batter into 12 mini muffin cups (unpictured — I dropped them off with the self-proclaimed “sober hippies” who sleep on the street by the Broadway-Lafayette entrance to the F train) and 8 regular muffin cups. I made a little well in the center of each regular muffin and dropped in a bit of apricot jam:



Now, this was not just any apricot jam! This was authentic Russian apricot jam from Olga:

Much to my surprise, the jam had whole apricots in it!

I made sure that an apricot piece found its way into the center of each muffin because we can’t have any baked goods feeling left out!

I set the muffins to the side and moved onto the bowl of cake. I used an electric blender to whip the cake crumbs with two eggs, baking powder, yogurt, and water until I got a cake batter consistency:

Next, I spooned just enough cake batter onto each muffin to cover up the jam:

The muffins went into the oven (still at 375) for 30-40 minutes, as did a parchment-lined brownie pan full of cake batter:

When the oven finished its work, I had a recycled-cake cake and a recycled-muffin cake:

I slathered the muffin cake with a thick layer of the cream cheese frosting and topped it with the cake cake:



I covered the top of the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting …

… so that all the peanut butter cookie crumbs would stick!

I had to, errrr, trim off the ends so that things would be even (and so that I could taste-test, of course):

Ahhhhh, this was soooooo good … but I had to stop myself from eating it all, so I quickly offered it up to Tara for use at her BBQ on Saturday, and she accepted and saved me from disaster!

As for the muffins, I brought them to my department breakfast/baby shower part 2 for Maria on Friday morning (more on that later) before I had taste-tested them, so I didn’t know what to expect.

These muffins actually tasted decent, believe it or not. The apricot chunk in the middle was an excellent touch!



As Nydia said, “Hmmm, these are surprisingly good!” Up next … the full breakfast recap 😀

What is your favorite thing to recycle?

This past week involved quite a number of exciting drink adventures! In addition to the jasmine iced tea with fresh coconut water and watermelon ice cubes, I also worked my way through the Amazing Meal drink packets from Amazing Grass.

After having successfully imbibed all of the lighter “green superfood” drink powders as snacks, I knew I liked the flavor of these and decided to take the plunge with these more substantial “meal” powders. I had a lot of last-minute food prep for class and work trainings this past week, so these packets served me well on my long days with limited refrigeration options and increased portability needs!

Each of these drinks corresponded pretty closely in flavor to its superfood counterpart, so nothing surprised me in terms of taste or color. I forged right ahead with the straight powder + water mixture.

Here’s the original:

The chocolate (my favorite of the bunch!):

And the pomegranate-mango (my least favorite but still enjoyable):

While we’re on the subject of Amazing Grass, I also had a chance to try the green superfood bars:

They both did their job in a pinch, and I approved of the taste and texture of both. Somehow, these bars tasted sort of like wine to me. I don’t like wine, but I like wine-flavored things, so I was happy!

The only real difference between the two seemed to be the chocolate coating on the chocolate bar, and that made me happy, too:

My mornings saw quite a bit of tapioca ball action, thanks to Elisabeth‘s shipment:

These instant green tea tapioca balls were so easy — five minutes in boiling water produced the ideal level of chew:

I’m obviously clairvoyant because I swiped some extra thick straws last time I was at the bubble tea place just in case a need arose …

Lo and behold, my very own personal thick straw came in quite handy with my jasmine iced tea and green tea balls. Who needs to spend $5 for the tapioca ball experience in a restaurant when it can be re-created so seamlessly at home?!

I also gave the balls a shot with some of the green tea powder that Elisabeth sent in the package:

Of course, I had to compare it with my own homemade green tea powder:

Can you tell which is which?

The powder and the balls complemented each other effortlessly … and I felt energized by the thought of the high antioxidant concentration entering my bloodstream.

The balls also made their way into a watermelon shake that consisted of two immersion-blended watermelon ice cubes and two cups of water:

I am definitely going to be repeating this one!

Finally, I needed some serious assistance via caffeine on Tuesday when I was stuck in an alllll day training followed by an alllll night class. In addition to my jasmine tea in the morning and two venti unsweetened black teas from Starbucks (yes, I know, I’m really doing my part to support the little guys), I also broke down for a tall light java chip frappuccino.

What kind of drinking have you done this week?

Breakfast and dessert are obviously the two most important meals of the day. Without them, how would we know when a new day has begun or an old day is ready to end? 😛

Speaking of endings, I made myself a very exciting dessert this week that started with a pile of frozen coconut chunks and a pile of frozen mango chunks:

After a little immersion blend, I found myself drooling over a perfect bowl of coconut-mango sorbet …

… and decided to incorporate it into a Sarah-style neapolitan cup:

Left to right: coconut-mango sorbet, chocolate frosting, and froyo’d yogurt with blueberries and cherries.

With a little sprinkle of hemp on top for fun:

The majority of the week’s breakfasts involved brilliantly farm-fresh CSA eggs!

Poached on half of a rescued bagel from the freezer bag:

With green tea yogurt, mango, and blueberries:

My usual poached egg eating system involves pre-slicing so I can ensure that every bite of bread has a piece of egg to go with it:

Scrambled with CSA parsley and homemade parmesan:

With nutmeg-topped pineapple and coconut chunks:

And green tea yogurt with mango and cardamom:

And a crepe egg with CSA parsley, balcony basil, and pine nut hummus:

Speaking of hummus …

… check out what Diana delivered to me at our Brooklyn blogger dinner on Monday!

She’s been keeping some of her hummus overflow in the freezer for me for weeks, and I was thrilled to finally collect it 😀

Nothing like the beauty of hummus ice cream …

I was especially excited for the hummus because I know how perfectly it would complement my fresh and crunchy CSA cucumbers! It did not let me down:

Finally, just because it is so cute, I thoroughly enjoyed snacking on my CSA baby golden plums this week:

How do you bookend your days?