Team Espinoza

Our entire trip to New York, New York lasted 58 hours from the time we arrived at San Antonio Airport to the time we got back. It was an incredible and very tiring 58 hours.  I am still thankful that I didn’t have my baby in NY.  I am very pleased with what we were able to do and see considering I was very close to being 9 months pregnant.

I have so many pictures that I am dividing my New York City post into three: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

FRIDAY

We landed at Newark Airport around 9:00 p.m. and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, W Hotel, on Lexington Ave in Midtown East. The hotel has a club with a DJ, music videos, and a bar right when you walk in. Welcome to NY on a Friday night! We threw our bags into our small, contemporary room and headed straight to the subway station. Thanks to the app HopStop I knew exactly how to get to the restaurants I had planned to eat at in the NoLita neighborhood.

It felt like I was walking on a New York City set. It was surreal. Also, NY had a ton of different smells, trash on the curb, restaurants, strong perfume, disgusting exhaust from the carts of street vendors.

Our first stop: Lombardi’s for real NY style pizza.

Every pizza you order there is a margarita style pizza and then you can choose to add toppings. We added a meatball topping. The fresh mozzarella and basil is amazing.

The room we were sat in was tiny and HOT! The party at the table next to us was speaking in French.

One of the reasons why I chose Lombardi’s is because it was on the same block as Rice to Riches.

Rice to Riches: A rice pudding bar

Sample flavors include: Chocolate Hazelnut Bear Hug, Almond Shmalmond, Chocolate Chip Flirt, The Edge of Rum Raisin, Panna Cotta. Then you can add toppings.

Sampling Time!

Loving some Almond Shmalmond

The sign reads: “Mmm…Still has that new pudding smell.” Daniel LOVED his Almond Shmalmond and Understanding Vanilla.

We ate some pudding that night and put the rest on ice until the morning. Rice pudding makes an excellent breakfast.

On our way back to the subway station we stopped at a crepe place, because they had a real crepe hot plate.  I can’t ever say no to a Nutella crepe. We hoped it was more like the one we had in Italy, but the crepe was too thin. Now we know the best crepes really are in Paris and Italy.

It was almost 1:00 a.m. by the time we got back to the hotel and NYC was still hopping. However, we chose to sleep and get some rest for a long and exciting Saturday. Saturday’s post is coming up next!

Yum yum!

Amanda on the observation deck of Top of the Rock – Rockefeller Center

I’m totally obsessed with checking the weather forecast for our trip this weekend.

Last week I didn’t plan any meals and only bought a few things at the grocery store to get by. We ate out more than I would have liked and I felt guilty for not doing “my job.” In our division of chores, it is my role to make sure that my family has food to eat.

This week I planned the meals, made the grocery list, and Daniel did the grocery shopping on Sunday. It worked out! I am so glad I got back to meal planning this week.

There are a hundred ways to meal plan, but this is what I have found that works for me:

1. I meal plan around what proteins I have on hand and what proteins are on sale.  (Occasionally we do have meat-free meals like pasta.)

2. Once I pick the meats I look up recipes based on the protein and think about what sounds good.

I get my recipes from:

• My printed recipes stack. (I am currently working on putting all my favorite recipes in a binder.)

• The Pioneer Woman

• $5 Dollar Dinners cookbook and website

• Tasty Kitchen

• A Southern Fairytale Recipes

• AllRecipes.com

• I have heard good things about the recipes from Real Simple, but I forget to look there.

• Good ol’ Google. Google is where I found my favorite whole chicken recipe on E-How.com.

3. Once I have the recipes I want to make I then write all the needed items to make them on the grocery list.

4. I also assign a meal to a day of the week and put the list on the fridge, I don’t always make them on their assigned day, so I cross them off as I make them. I also don’t usually plan on the weekend, because we tend to eat out on the weekend,  get by on leftovers or meals of breakfast food.

My whole family are happy campers when I have meal planned and we have bought groceries. It’s nice knowing what meal options we have!

Do you meal plan? How do you do it?

Great article about building a workplace that doesn’t “suck”.
I think often about building a local team with an actual physical office, and I enjoy the perspective of people that have walked that road.

I woke up Friday morning and stumbled over to my desk for my quiet time. I started writing and then I looked up out the window. I wasn’t sure if the backyard was covered in ice or snow. I woke up Daniel and showed him. He confirmed it was snow! What? It snowed? He then ran off to get something.

He came back with my birthday present in an envelope. As I opened it this is what I saw…

WHAT!?!?!

And this is what I heard…

He had it queued up on his iphone.

WHAT!?!

He said he already bought the tickets. He has arranged child care. He told me when were leaving. He said he checked with the midwife and the airline to make sure I could fly.

First, I had to get over the fact that I was going to be in NYC hugely pregnant in a cold month. I have no coat, no boots! Can I buy them? Of course he said yes.

For 3 days this is all I could think about. OBSESSED would be a better word for it. I have never been to New York, but have loved it from afar for a while now. I love books, TV shows, and movies set in NYC. Largely due to Top Chef and Anthony Bourdain I have become a huge fan of a lot of chefs that are based in the city.  I seriously knew way too much about these chefs and restaurants for someone that had no intention of going there anytime soon.

We booked a 4* hotel in Midtown East for $100 a night through Priceline and BetterBidding.com. If you need a hotel consider naming your price through Priceline.  This is my 3rd time using it and I have been very pleased each time.

I made a reservation for us at Bar Boulud. I wasn’t able to get the time we wanted even 2 weeks ahead of time. A while ago I had a dream that I cooked with Chef Daniel Boulud and The Pioneer Woman. Crazy. This is one of his more casual, but nice French restaurants. Neither Daniel or I want to get super dressed up to go out. We will definitely get some amazing bagels, NY Pizza, and hit up a Momofuku restaurant while we are there. I’d also like to at least get dessert at WD~50. It is a molecular gastronomy restaurant by Wylie Dufresne. I am still working out the details.

Oh yeah and there are things to see like a Broadway show, the Empire State Building, and Central Park.

For now I have to work on getting over this upper respiratory and sinus infection. My obsession with planning was wearing me out. So I am resting, then boot shopping, and then planning out the few hours we have there. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

When I meal plan I like to do what I call “Chicken Week.” I buy a bag of chicken breasts and prepare them in different ways throughout the week. We are not tired of chicken at the end of the week, because it involves various cuisines from around the world. Also, my kids don’t always eat beef, but they will at least try a taste if they know it is chicken.

Here are 10 ideas that I pull from when I cook chicken breasts.

1. Chicken Parmesan

It is really easy and a family favorite. I love that you coat the chicken and bake it. No browning, then baking or complicated steps. I don’t follow the brands listed in the recipe, but it gives you the steps to follow.

2. Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

I have my husband grill the chicken breasts with a little olive oil. salt and pepper while I prepare the romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, croutons, and our favorite Caesar dressing. The kids eat the grilled chicken and I usually make a different side for them.

3. Curry Chicken with Rice

I made this recipe from A Southern Fairytale a few weeks ago. My kids ate chicken curry! The rice is amazing. I used plain ol’ McCormick curry spice, so it was a little bland for my husband. The recipe also calls for saffron which can be expensive. I had some in the pantry that I bought at an Indian market for ten bucks.

4. Creamy Chicken Mushroom Spaghetti

I made this last Saturday and it was so much better than I thought it would be. It is made in the crockpot. I used my electric hand mixer to blend the cream cheese and cream of mushroom soup to make sure that the cream cheese didn’t have lumps. You can cut the chicken with a fork. I even loved the leftovers, but then I love almost any pasta dish that is creamy and has mushrooms.

5. Chicken Stir Fry

Every time I make stir fry it comes out differently. Sometimes I use the stir fry sauce at the store and sometimes I don’t. I like to cook mine with broccoli, carrots, snow peas, and onion. It is great served with Japanese rice or Jasmine rice.

6. King Ranch Chicken

One of my husband’s favorites! I used one recipe for years and recently switched to this one on tastykitchen.com. However, I am still in search of the best King Ranch Chicken recipe.

7. Tequila Citrus Chicken

This is another recipe from A Southern Fairytale and I LOVED it! The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but I am sure it would be wonderful with chicken breasts. It is perfect in the Summer months. I haven’t made it in a while since I can’t have a margarita to go with the chicken, but even if you don’t use tequila I am sure it would be lovely.

8. Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

I made this a few weeks ago when my in-laws came over for dinner and everyone, including my kids, enjoyed it. I served it with Jasmine rice. You could probably steam or cook some broccoli in the sauce too. It was really easy to prepare and didn’t create a lot of dirty pots and pans.

9. BBQ Chicken

When we are truly desperate I bake some breasts in the oven with some BBQ sauce and cracked pepper for half an hour. Maybe we have had this one too many times, but it isn’t my favorite. Now I like it better when Daniel grills the BBQ chicken. I serve it with mashed potatoes and a veggie side.

10. Chicken Tortilla Soup

One of my favorites to serve to a large group. This recipe is Espinoza approved. I like the amount of heat in the soup. It is spicy, but not too spicy. I boil the chicken first and shred it by hand before making the soup. The hand fried tortilla strips and monterrey jack cheese are delicious on top!

Chicken breasts can be cooked in so many different ways! How do you like to cook them?