Hey crawlers,

I am quickly blogging from work (looking rather suspicious) because of this amazing cup of coffee I am drinking from starbucks. Usually before work I stop by s-bucks for the cafe americano, but today I tried the clover brewed three region blend and well, its delightful!! I have never seen one of these clover machines, apparently it uses all this crazy vaccuum technology to create the “perfect cup of coffee” its really cool to watch, and the barrista who made it for me was so cute and trendy and adorable that I may have a girl crush…

If a starbucks near you has this clover machine try it out! delish!!!

sarah

People give me crap for it all the time. But my healthy choice of the year is trying to get as many helpful micro-organisms into my tummy as possible. I know it sounds crazy, but seriously these little guys have been keeping me happy and healthy for months now. At first eating probiotic food is was a little tough, but soon enough I became somewhat addicted and had a hard time going without

Here are my two regular pro-biotic-full brands. Synergy Kombucha and Siggis Icelandic Style Skyr. Both have become regular dining staples. Also recently I have tried a new brand of kombucha which is a lot less…. intense. Its called Bucha, I am almost skeptical because it doesn’t have that raw, strands of bacteria taste. But for beginner biotics I truly recommend it. 

maybe next time you are crawlin’ at wholefoods pick some up, I promise its pretty good. 

Stay hungry kids,

Sarah

Today as I sat at my desk, biding my time until my lunch break, I got to thinking about all the things we do to get to college, or at least what I did to get to Syracuse. I played sports, was in clubs, did community service, and spent weekends filling out college applications, I stayed up late hanging out with friends and doing homework but was still up early enough so I could look somewhat presentable by my 8 am class. I did it all (us college kids all did), and I did all of that so I could get to college, where I engage in no physical activity (let alone organized sports), joined a bunch of clubs(but never go to their meetings), and if I have to wake up before 11am monday-thursday or at all friday-sunday there’s going to be big trouble.

Which leads me to my problem as I enter the workforce as an intern. Among other responsibilities that I have, the most daunting one is that I have to wake up at  6am, and not only that but i have to be productive and peppy by 8, because I am the small blonde intern and thats what I am paid to do. Being productive and peppy could be bearable except for one new quirk I developed in college, for reason unbeknown to me, I can’t eat before 11am, blame it on the late classes or the semi-regular hangovers, but at 6:30am food doesnt seem appealing.  This is a concept beyond all human understanding because food is always apealing. right? Wrong, when I wake up I feel as though I have just gotten off my 3rd ride on the magic teacups at Disneyland after eating a carne-asada chimichanga. (maybe I’m one of those people who eats *mexican food* while sleeping, and one day I will wake up with an empty pantry and 12 extra pounds on my thighs…oh god… did I ever mention that I am a hypochondriac?)

Anyways, I have started myself on a program, because first of all I like programs and also because there is know way on Gods green Earth I’d ever skip a meal. I call this program the prisoners diet. I have a full glass of water and toast (or toasted challah with butter) to calm me in my rather nauseous and crabby state at 6:30am, I give myself 30 minutes to digest and then I get on the bus to work. And yes, this prisoners diet is livable, but thats no way to live! I am not in prison yet!

So, I’d like to move forward, become a morning person and enjoy the most important meal of the day. If anyone has any, I’d like some suggestions of light light light breakfasts (ie. ones that don’t involve too much thought, too much flavor, or too much chewing) that can miraculously keep me feeling energetic and happy until my 11:30 lunch break email me lifeisafoodcrawl@gmail.com

now on to enjoy some postwork foodcrawlin’

sarah

Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t go more than a couple minutes without eating something or I get really cranky. So to avoid exposing my new colleagues to my crankiness, I packed myself an afternoon snack (thoughtful, I know). I brought strawberry yogurt and some Fiber One cereal to mix in. Whoops, Sarah knows what I’ll be doing in roughly 30 minutes. Anyway, it wouldn’t be a food crawl if I stopped at lunch. So while I can’t actually ‘crawl’ from one eating location to another, I’m making do at my little desk in this lovely purple office.

Here I am on my third day of my super-glam-PR internship (that’s only a slight exaggeration) eating lunch at my desk, contemplating my lunchtime routine. The other women and man (there’s only one) in my office tend to bring lunches, stash them in the Fridge and around noon they all go into the kitchen area, gather around the table to enjoy their microwaved veggie burgers, salads, english muffin creations, etc.

On my first day of work a few ladies took me out to The Gatehouse, a nice casual place specializing in fresh, organic ingredients. I ordered the seared Ahi tuna over ratatouille and grilled veggies. Yum. A girl’s gotta be economical though, so since then I’ve brought my lunch and ate at my desk.

Everyone here is perfectly friendly, but as the intern I feel it would be too bold to just plop down next to the Account Executives uninvited. So here I sit, with my baby carrots and black bean dip, apple, almonds and my cup of tea plotting how I will become an included member of the lunching ladies of the office.

this was my favorite song in elementary school…. explains a lot right?

The benefit of Chelsea being older than me, is that she is wiser than me and always has lots of advice. The (read: ONLY) benefit of Chelsea living on the other side of the coast of me is that she experiences life 3 hours ahead of me, and then I am able to eagerly follow in her lead.

Example A. Sunday Brunch. Example B. this post. Back to Example A., being that it was our first Non-Ernie Davis Dining hall brunch, both of me and Chelsea were a little nostalgic. Along with the brunch nostalgia something rather incredible was happening at the Rudolph household that morning, my whole family was there. 

Coming from a family that has two homes on opposite sides of the coast, a daughter in college, a son at his first job in a brand-news new city, a father who “travels for a living” and a mother who “lives in the fictional world” (her words not mine). To have us all in one place is rare, and to have us all at the home, where I was raised was even rarer. So since Chelsea had texted (not bbmed) me earlier saying she was baking, I too decided to bake (in a somewhathealthful manner just like Chelsea) in order to celebrate sunday-funday. See she’s older, wiser, and always ahead. 

I made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 

I used a whole bag of chocolate chips, all the bananas in the house (about a cup and  a half), one egg, apple sauce in the place of vegetable oil (because we had none in the house and its cuts out transfat, win win!), yogurt, flour, and this new sugar called sucanat which though is a weird texture is fab to bake with. 

the result was a moist, super chocolate-ey, super banana-ey loaf of fun to accommodate the multiple cups of coffee/tea, and multiple anecdotes we had to share. As both my mom and the somewhat ironic folk band that everyone claimed they “discovered” last summer, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros say, “Home is wherever I’m with you.” Wherever my family may be, whether its Porte Colborne Ontario, the Sydney Harbor, or JFK Airport. If we’re together, and food is involved, we feel right at home.

Here I am world, entering the blogosphere with a tale of one of my favorite meals. Brunch. In college, brunch means braving the aching in my head to drag myself to a wondrous place called Ernie Davis Dining Hall with all my best girlfriends. Here, we feast on the endless cornucopia of delicacies furnished by Syracuse University Food Services.

After a week of being home from college, I was feeling a little nostalgic for my weekend brunch ritual. My friend Emily suggested that a few of our best friends from high school should get together for brunch. Emily has a discreet tattoo and sometimes dies her hair purple, you would like her. Anyway, I eagerly volunteered to have the fiesta at my house. I perused the recipe archives of foodtv.com and bethenny.com for inspiration and decided upon the following menu:

Le Brunch Menu

• Veggie and Feta Fritattatatata

• Caprese Salad

• Almost-Vegan-Highly-Experimental Muffins

• Fruit Salad with Papaya Vinaigrette (Emily brought it)

• MIMOSAS!

Let’s start with the Fritattatatata (or fritatta).
For my frittata, I used a variation on Bethenny Frankel’s “Easy and Impressive Frittata” but I ended up tripling the recipe to have enough for me and my 4 guests. For my veggies I used chopped green bell pepper, tomatoes, onion, garlic and some shredded zucchini. I forgot to preheat my oven until the eggs were already in the pan, so they did sit for longer than I would have hoped but still received rave reviews from my loyal friends.

Caprese Salad
This was very easy but looked quite elegant. I used plum tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella from Wegmans (obvs). I tried to cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into slices of the same width, and layered them with the basil leaves to create a nice platter with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Muffins
I made blueberry and apple cinnamon. I followed our dear Ina Garten’s recipe for blueberry coffeecake muffins but I used whole wheat flour and raw sugar instead of their more refined counterparts. Instead of sour cream, I used plain greek yogurt and instead of butter I used Smart Balance. I also used 3/4 cups of smashed banana instead of 3 eggs, just to see if it would work. Despite all my substitutions, it worked!! They did taste healthy because of the whole wheat flour, but still very yummy!

Fruit Salad
Emily’s mom made this. It was a mixture of all kinds of fruits with a homemade papaya vinaigrette! Yum!!!!

Mimosas
Half champagne, half OJ…..A-MAZING

So there you have it everyone, a recipe for a successful weekend brunch with friends. Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers to food crawling!

Chelsea