The Grub Street Diet

Lauren Bush Sneaks Food Into Movie Theaters, Lunches on Candy Corn

Bush has breakfast at the Standard Grill
Bush has breakfast at the Standard Grill Photo: Melissa Hom

“I love trick-or-treating,” says Lauren Bush. “I have younger siblings, so I milked that for as long as I could, tagging along and following them around.” Now that her siblings are in their 20s, Bush is getting her Halloween fix through her latest FEED bag, a jack-o-lantern-faced burlap satchel in honor of the 60th anniversary of UNICEF’s trick-or-treat campaign. (Each bag sold provides micronutrient powder to a child in a developing country for one year.) Now that she’s too old to go door-to-door, Bush is excited about being on the other side of the transaction. “One of the things I’m thinking about giving out this year is scarrots,” she explains. “They’re little packets of carrots packaged in a fun way so kids aren’t like, ’Ugh, carrots.” A Halloween with no candy at all? “Well, maybe carrots plus a Snickers bar,” she says. Find out what Lauren had to eat this week in our latest New York Diet.

Saturday, October 2
I was down in Tampa that morning; I’d been visiting HSN’s headquarters. At the airport on the way back to New York, I stopped at a Starbucks, of course, because they’re around, and I had a chai latte and a bran muffin. I landed back at JFK, and in the terminal I went to Cibo and had this really delicious little pretzel and hummus snack pack.

My boyfriend picked me up from the airport and we drove out toward Orient Point, where neither of us had really been before. It was beautiful and fall-ish; there were lots of farmstands and pumpkin fields, and we pulled over at one of the stands. It was one of these family farms with a big corn maze and a petting zoo and all these activities, and they had fresh roasted corn right next to the corn field, so we had corn on the cob and some hot apple cider.

We were going to the movies in Southampton. We were kinda cutting it close, but we were both really hungry, we didn’t want to wait until after the movie and we didn’t want to just eat popcorn or candy for dinner, so we stopped at a grocery store and picked up two veggie wraps and little deli takeouts and a giant-size pickle, which I love. We snuck the wraps into the movie, which is probably illegal, and had our dinner. It’s sort of the best of both worlds to eat dinner in the movie theater, but you have to be kind of stealth about it.

Sunday, October 3
I wasn’t feeling that great on Sunday, because of all the travel. For brunch, we went to Joni’s in Montauk, which is kind of our favorite brunch place. It’s this cool, very surfer, very local, very healthy and organic spot that’s run by this really neat woman named Joni who is an old friend. I got a really great scrambled-tofu wrap, and we also split a ginger-carrot soup they have — it was really good. And then I had a fresh juice as well, carrot and apple and ginger, because I was trying to kick whatever [illness] I was starting to get. Ginger and carrot are great when you’re getting sick.

That night we drove back to the city. When I’m not feeling great and it’s a rainy day, my most favorite thing in the world growing up was boxed mac and cheese, so I made myself an Annie’s organic mac and cheese from the box for dinner, and had a salad and part of a quiche. I normally would go for the white Cheddar, but I went with the classic orange this time.

Monday, October 4
I went to Washington, D.C., for the day, so I woke up really early, went to Penn Station, and had a coffee and a vitamin C smoothie that I brought onto the train with me.

For lunch, I went to Potenza. It was just kind of a work lunch; I was with Ellen Gustafson from FEED and with Sam Kass, the White House chef. We were talking about how our new Feed USA platform really coincides with a lot of what he’s accomplishing with healthier school meals and better nutrition for kids, and it was really fun to meet him, and a great lunch spot, too — I had spinach-ricotta ravioli and some margherita pizza. Sam picked the place, it’s right near the White House.

Most of my day was spent on the train, really. Before I got onboard to head back to New York, I got a rice and veggie and tofu bowl in the D.C. train station, and ate it on the train heading back.

Tuesday, October 5
I had a quick breakfast at the Standard Grill. When I actually eat breakfast, my go-to is two eggs over easy with wheat toast, coffee, and orange. I love the atmosphere there. They have good light there in the morning, it’s a happy atmosphere, and it’s right near my office, which is always good.

I forgot to eat lunch, which often happens when it’s a busy day, but we have apples and candy corn lying out in our office, so I’m always nibbling on an apple, which is much healthier than the candy corn. But I eat the candy corn, too.

As an appetizer to dinner, I went to Dylan’s Candy Bar because Dylan had launched a new book on candy, and they were having a launch party. Obviously I snacked a lot on candy before having dinner — she has this rock-candy martini, and I had a bunch of SweetTarts. For dinner, we ordered in from Westville; they have the best veggie chili, and I love their Brussels sprouts. We had some leftover quiche still, so I had that as well.

Wednesday, October 6
I was at Tarallucci e Vino for breakfast, where I’d never been before. I had baked eggs with leeks, asparagus, and Parmsean cheese, which was heaven. And obviously coffee.

Again in the office with apples and candy corn for lunch.

For dinner, I went with two of my best girlfriends to Aria Wine Bar on Perry Street, where we had vegetable lasagna, Caprese salad, sort of a mushroom bruschetta-type thing, and some red wine. It was great, and a lot of fun. After that we went to Roasting Plant for tea, and then we went out to Brooklyn Bowl for the M.I.A. concert, which was really fun. To be honest, I didn’t have a drink there, but I thought about it!

Lauren Bush Sneaks Food Into Movie Theaters, Lunches on Candy Corn