staying hungry : YouBars!

The amazing family I nanny for gave me the perfect present for my birthday…literally something that I’ve wanted to order for EVER…

YouBars!!!

As per their website, YouBars are “fresh, customized energy bars based on the belief that nobody else should decide what tastes good to us or what is good for our bodies.”

And this is what makes them so wonderfully different:

With You Bar®:

• You choose the ingredients and the bar size.
• You view the nutrition facts of your custom energy bar while you are creating it.
• Your box of custom nutrition bars is hand made fresh-to-order and shipped to your door with a satisfaction guarantee. If you don’t love your custom protein bars, you’ll get a new box free of charge.
• Your customized nutrition facts and your chosen protein bar name are printed on each individual protein bar package.
• Friendly telephone customer support is available to answers questions and provide helpful recommendations.

YouBar has a bunch of popular bars to choose from, and they also make customizable trail mixes and protein shakes. But I think the beauty of the company is the build-a-bar service, which is what my gift certificate let me try!!!

People. This was a wonderful experience.

Ok, so, first of all, there are like a million ingredients to choose from. Give or take a few. But you get to choose a base, proteins, nuts, fruit, sweeteners, seasonings, grains, and super healthy infusions…basically everything you could ever ask for in an energy bar. What I loved most about the process was that they keep a running nutritional profile on the side so you always know what the nutritional content of your bar is based on the ingredients you’ve chosen. How helpful! I wish this were possible in my own kitchen when I’m making up recipes!

After an absurd amount of time and decision making…here’s what made the final cut in my YouBar

And here’s another thing I loved – after you order, you get a reordering code so that if you love your creation you can reorder the exact same concoction all over again!

And love my creation I did:

It may not be pretty, but it sure is good.

SO GOOD!

YouBar, you did not disappoint in the least. I will definitely be placing another order soon!!!

staying in rochester : birthday weekend food tour

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend. And by celebrated, I mean I ate an abundance of really good food with a lot of really good people.

OH…the abundance!

In highly uncharacteristic fashion…I didn’t photography ANYTHING that I ate. Who am I?! I’ll return to normalcy next time around, but for now, enjoy the logos and website links!

Here’s how it all went down:

Thursday:

Location: Napa Wood Fired Pizza

Order: The Medusa (wood-fired pizza with basil pesto, goat cheese, the Napa cheese blend, figs, and caramelized onions instead of pineapple)

Friday:

Location: Yotality

Order: Vanilla, Pink Lemonade, and Pomegranate Frozen Yogurts with Toppings

Location: Dogtown

Order: The Schnauzer (traditional dog with sauteed onions and brown mustard)

Location: Yotality (Round Two)

Order: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Frozen Yogurt with Toppings

Location: Village Bakery (full post coming soon…this place stole my heart!)

Order: Farm Table Salad (organic greens, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, goat cheese, croutons, nuts, lemon vinaigrette), the Daybreaker (espresso, steamed milk, honey, vanilla simple syrup, cinnamon sprinkles) (OH MY WORD.)

And…there’s still a trip to Simply Crepes left for next weekend! Does life get any better?

Here’s to good food and extended celebrations!

good things : necessity

First things first, I may have worked all day and night yesterday, but I still had a pretty wonderful birthday:

Thank you so much, everyone! You all make my life a wonderful place to live.

In other news:

If necessity is the mother of invention, I’m certainly glad she parented this dinner.

Necessity = making a meal on a limited pantry over the weekend because I hadn’t been grocery shopping in 2 weeks and didn’t want to face the all-consuming decision that is ordering out so I opted for making something at home instead. Which ended up being farro tossed in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, and basil on a bed of mixed arugula topped with goat cheese.

Not a bad dinner, all things considered! It’s definitely a keeper!

I didn’t know I had it in me (or my kitchen).

Necessity: 1, Pantry Famine: 0.