Tag Archives: restaurant food

Road To The Outback

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Hello from Ohio!  I left my boys back in Buffalo and I’m missing them like crazy but I’m having a great time here with my grandparents and mom.

The drive takes 7 hours so our morning started early with Starbucks.

A venti skinny cinnamon dolce iced latte.

I packed my mom and myself sandwiches for the road.

Mine was a cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin with Laughing Cow light french onion cheese and Applegate Farms turkey bologna.

Tasty and easy to eat one-handed.

When we got to Ohio I had a Dove chocolate,

and a Buttered Rum Raisin Cookie.

The afternoon was spent visiting with my grandpa and driving around (I can’t believe they got me back in the car!).

My grandma chose Outback Steakhouse for dinner and I ended up having a great meal.  I got a blue cheese pecan chopped salad to start.

And the tilapia with lump crab meat.

“Tilapia crowned with crab stuffing, pure lump crab meat and sliced mushrooms, finished with a drizzle of light lemon butter Chablis sauce.”

It was served with mixed veggies.

The seafood was all amazing.  Butter sauce requested on the side.

I left about half of the tilapia but devoured the crab.  Yum!

Our evening ended with a trip to the store (my parents stock up on products like batteries and razors when they are in the states) where I snagged this bag of jelly bellys.

I guess I have a kids’ palate because the flavors were right up my alley.  The watermelon was my favorite.

What is your favorite jelly bean flavor?

Spring Break Has Begun!

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Actually it began yesterday, but I didn’t get a chance to blog until today.  I don’t have any big spring break-y plans, but it’s always enjoyable to get some time off.  My mom is coming to visit next week for her spring break though and we are driving over to Ohio to visit my grandparents.

Yesterday morning I walked to school in just pants and a long sleeve T-shirt (spring came just in time for its break!) and ate breakfast during class.  A GoGo Squeez Apple Strawberry pouch,

and a Peanut Butter Pretzel Mojo Bar.

Both were good and the combo of salty and sweet was great.

For lunch I had a Simply Asia Spicy Mongolian Noodle Bowl.

I guess it was the morning of packaged foods?

Other than the sodium content (which is something I don’t really worry about within my diet) the nutritionals on these bowls are pretty good and they allow you to get food in a hurry when you’re hungry.  1g of saturated fat and 13g of protein in under 3 minutes?  I’ll take it!

The afternoon included an unsuccessful baking attempt.

My goal was Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream for a St. Paddy’s Day treat.  But I hate chocolate cake and I really hate Bailey’s Irish Cream so it actually wasn’t too big of a loss.

Since we won’t be telefundraising over break I volunteered to work the final shift last night.  I drank a ProBugs Strawnana Split Kefir on the walk back to campus.

Work went well and at 8:30 it was officially the start of spring break!

Adam and I cashed in a meal out (and a Living Social deal) for dinner at Lagerhaus 95.

There, I drank water at a German beer house like a total loser.

We had an amazing meal and are planning on going back next week with my mom.  Adam and I split three things to maximize tastes.  We started with the Camembert Fondue – Franziskaner infused camembert wheel / crisp apple slices / crusty sesame bread.

Fondue is Adam’s and my favorite dish to share at new restaurants and this one did not disappoint.  The Camembert was served on top of sautéed sweet onions and the flavor mix was magical.

Next we had the special, a Crab cake Sandwich.  It was served with vinegary cole slaw and crisp green apples on a brioche bun.

I hate crab cakes that are full of breadcrumbs and this guy was super meaty and perfect.  The bun was almost sweet which was an interesting contrast.  It came with a trough side of clam chowder that Adam devoured.

Finally we had the Truffled Wild Mushroom Panini – Haus blend of fresh wild mushrooms / white truffle oil / cippolini onions / fresh arugula / gorgonzola / pressed on foccocia.

Everything was great,but this was the best dish of the night, hands down.  Adam doesn’t have a sense of smell and I was dying the whole meal that he couldn’t experience the scent coming off the truffled mushrooms.  The earthiness with the creamy gorgonzola – which was far creamier than any other gorgonzola I’ve tried – was great.

The panini came with a side salad that was also impressive.

There were several herbs, I couldn’t identify which ones, mixed into the lettuce and it had the most unique flavor.  The honey mustard champagne vinaigrette (unpictured) was nice too.

Overall we had an amazing experience at Lagerhaus 95 and I can’t wait to go back!

Sometimes great flavors seem to make you even hungrier for more and Adam and I stopped on the way home for a box of chocolates.

I ate half of every flavor, or two servings.  A little excessive because they weren’t even that good but I kept thinking each flavor would be better.

This morning I tried a Chobani 2% Passion Fruit Yogurt.

So good, my favorite Chobani yet!  I love passion fruit in general but this one had the perfect balance of sour and sweet.  If you’ve never eaten a passion fruit before the crunchy seeds might seem a little strange but I promise it’s worth a try.

Now I’ve got to shower and then I’m off to get my green on and make a trip to the grocery store.  Are you wearing green today?

Thank Goodness It’s Tuesday

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The title’s not sarcastic, we have a difficult assignment due this Thursday and I’m glad to still have a day standing between me and it!

My shift at work went well yesterday but when I got out at 9 I was just too tired to photograph, or blog, or think.  We do not do Daylight Saving Time where I grew up and my body still hasn’t quite gotten used to it.  Every year I am so exhausted for the weeks immediately following the time changes.

I needed a little extra help this morning too.

The vanilla flavored Doubleshot was very tasty.  I’d drink it for flavor alone if it weren’t for all the caffeine.

Solid food was good too.

I had a Siggi’s Strawberry topped with two sliced yellow plucots and a drizzle of maple syrup.

The yellow plucots were good but I think I prefer the dapple variety.  These were more tart.

When I walked to campus for stats this morning I was almost too hot in my winter coat.  And I definitely had to fan myself when I saw my score on the first exam –

Woot!

Clinic was good too.  I had my first teenage patient (I’ve been with adults and infants previously) and it was a different sort of interviewing experience.  We also met as a group for some interesting mini-discussions on anorexia nervosa and cystic fibrosis.

I was hungry and short on time after clinic so I made myself an Annie Chun’s Korean Sweet Chili Noodle Bowl.

I added a big handful of shredded carrots on top for veg.

It was good, and I very much liked the amount of heat to the sauce, but desperately in need of a crunch factor.  I have a few other flavors that I purchased on sale and I might stock up on peanuts to top them with.

Dinner was actually a blogger event.  T.G.I.Friday’s invited a bunch of local bloggers to try out their new menu.

The plates were portioned for sharing (and the light was pretty bad) so the media contact actually requested that we not take any food photographs.  Instead I’ll do a recap of what I thought of the dishes I tried when she sends me press info/high-res photos.  I will say for now that I was surprised and impressed.  It felt very strange to not be photographing though!

I brought my friend Kim with me and we ate ’til we were stuffed and a had a lot of fun.  It was nice getting to meet some of the other local bloggers.

I came home from the event planning on working but instead I’m hurrying to bed.  Adam baked up a ton of food to pack for his lunches this week (eggplant, zucchini, tomatillos, mushrooms, rice, and a bunch of seasonings and sauces) and the apartment is permeated with a smell that’s making me ill.  It actually smells delicious, but the sensory overload has given me nausea and a headache.  Tomorrow will be insanely busy but hopefully oder-free!

Weekend Woot-dates

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Did everyone have a good weekend?  I didn’t get much work done, but the food and fun categories were filled to the brim!  We are starting another take-out reduction challenge and we definitely made the most of purchased meals this weekend 😉

Saturday morning I got up and went for a run!

The gym wasn’t open yet so I did my CT10k workout out in the wild at Delaware Park.  I forgot my watch at home and ended up having to count to 150 in my head as I switched from walking to running intervals.  I’m not sure how accurate I was but it was a great way to keep my thoughts occupied.  All total I did 4 miles in 53 minutes.  The wind was out of control and it ended up being a resistance workout of sorts; it was actually super fun to keep pushing through.

I drank the 2nd half of my G2 during my run.

And then I had a big iced coffee with English toffee syrup and Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk in the car.

In the car because we were heading to Toronto!

Last month I promised Adam all-you-can-eat sushi as a reward for participating in vegan month.  We failed at vegan month (recap post to come), but I figured he still deserved his reward for trying, especially since our fails were mostly due to my fat/laziness and not his lack of committment.  My parents sent us $ for Valentine’s that perfectly covered the cost of our fun international date, so off we went.

Lunch was delicious, way too many bites to even attempt to recap.  Adam and I did a lot of sharing, but the spread below shows everything I at least tasted.  Adam had many, many, other bites that I didn’t photograph.

Yum!  I’m still a little stuffed just thinking about it.  But we did find room for dessert.

Thank goodness, because this was actually the best cup of froyo I’ve ever had.  I thought I was going to die from a happiness overload.

A small serving of tart plain yogurt topped with fruit, sprinkles, and a huuuuuuge pile of popping boba.

I was grinning wider and wider with every bite.

After our drive home and an extreme shopping session at Wegmans, I did end up with room for a late dinner.

On that plate was a buffalo chicken sub with blue cheese and an order of fries.  Devoured.

Sunday has been spent on the couch.  Adam is starting a new project this week, in addition to the general being a med student craziness, and we took full advantage of today’s free hours for cuddling and sci-fi.

I did venture outside for brunch though.  My old friend Katie was back in town for a visit!

That sort of fun calls for a Bloody Mary, extra spicy.

Finding a Sunday brunch spot without a 45 minute wait took some doing, but we ended up having a great meal at Panos.

I got the kid’s meal 1-1-1.  A sunny side up egg, a pancake, and hash browns.  Then I smothered everything in syrup.

Every bite was delicious and I seriously considered licking my plate clean!

During the afternoon I ate a bowl of Malted Heath Bar Toffee Blondie 2-Ingredient Ice Cream.

x2.  That stuff is ridiculous good.

Adam had an evening meeting so I pushed back our dinner plans and ordered Chinese.  Told you I was taking advantage of my last days with take-out!  Once our food gets here we are watching our last ever episode of Stargate: Universe and eating crab rangoons.  Yippee!

Are you a sci-fi tv fan?  Did you watch any of the Stargates?

I Need A Plan

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I’m a girl who needs a plan. I am obsessed with my day planner. I make weekly meal plans in bed as I fall asleep. As you’ve seen, if my workouts don’t follow an exact schedule they tend not to happen.

That’s why, without a 10k in sight on the day planner, I’ve decided to follow this Couch to 10k Plan. Not because I’m signing up for a race, but because I hope it will get me back to the gym and back in my running groove. I decided to start at week 4 because I was reasonably certain that I could handle 2 minute spurts of running.

But I also need to follow the plan. I didn’t this morning and it cost me an hour of time and aggravation. I had three things to do in the morning – errands, moving my car, and my first CT10k workout – and the plan was to leave with Adam. But I had weird, vivid dreams all night and a 6:30am rousing made me feel like throwing up. I ended up waiting in bed until 8:50, getting up just in time to move my car. I drove to school, no spots. Went on one errand and back, no spots. It wasn’t until my third return to school that I finally found a place to park. Arrgh!

But my treadmill workout went great. Week 1.1 was 11 sets of 2 minutes running, 3 minutes walking. With warm up and cool down it came to 63 minutes and 4.5+ miles. I don’t know the exact distance because a guy walked by and kicked the plug out of my machine just as I was finishing up.

The rest of my morning/afternoon involved a lot of hurrying to get to class on time and not a lot of feeding myself.  Whoops.  After class I had a mock interview to go to.  The interview was required for a class assignment but I’m really glad to have the experience.  It was video-taped (holy crap, that zit on my chin!) and getting to actually see myself in action was helpful.  My interviewer said I was great, by the way.  Woot!

Then Adam picked me up and this happened –

Hello, lover.  Going two weeks without diet soda wasn’t impossible but it wasn’t fun either.

But while we were at 7-11 something scary happened too.  A major head-on collision right across the street, complete with fire and explosions.  Adam run over to help and I’m not going to lie, it was kind of sexy to see him in action.  (<– I can say that now because everyone involved was ok)

Adam reeked of smoke and I hadn’t eaten all day so we told ourselves we were in shock and headed out for Thai food.  Such a good decision!  And they must have still had lunch pricing going because it was super cheap too.

The husband and I split two dishes, pretty much equally.  Cashew nut tofu, which came with rice.

And Pad See Ew, without egg.

Both dishes were great.  You seriously can’t go wrong with broad rice noodles.  Both dishes were sadly lacking in veggies though, and I was glad that this meal was “lunch” and not “dinner” so I could squeeze more produce into my day later on.

Several hours and some school work afer my late lunch, it was time for late dinner.

I had a baked potato topped with Smokey Maple Baked Beans.

And a side of roasted green beans.

Much better.

Have you ever witnessed a scary car accident?

Day Of Work

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After two very (very, very, very) lazy days, it was time for a day of work. This Sunday was all about getting things done. I –

  • put away two loads of laundry
  • did some dishes
  • ran some errands
  • organized my school binder
  • made all of my note cards from last week’s notes
  • did a case study for clinical practice
  • made a delicious dinner

Breakfast was worth a thumbs up too.

I stirred a Liberte Coconut Yogurt into a big scoop of 1% large curd cottage cheese, topped with shredded sweetened coconut.

The coconut flavor was nice, but the resulting texture was mind-blowing. Too creamy for words.

In between errands and school work was lunch.

I picked up a grab bag-style to-go container from the Co-op.

A salad of yam, corn, and black beans; cilantro tofu; peanut tofu with lots of broccoli; and a little bit of vegan pasta salad.

We took Webster with us on our walking errands and his little sweater was so becoming!

He’s still not 100% down with snow, and shivers like a total wimp.  I tease him mercilessly, telling him that his ancestors in Germany only used to hunt badgers in a climate-controlled living room.

While we were out I found a new M&M variety – Dark Chocolate Mint!

Delish.  These had just the right level of chill to them.

Sometime between the lunch and dinner hours we had salads.

Romaine with chopped cucumbers and a dressing made of the remains of the yogurt Caesar shaken with evoo and cider vinegar.

Dinner was a real winner.

For 4 servings of creamy, cheesy, buttery, vegetarian yet protein-rich pasta, combine –

  • ~ 4 servings of small shape pasta, cooked
  • ~ 1.5 cups peas
  • 2 pint mushrooms sautéed with chopped green onion and 5 Tbsp butter
  • 4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 12 oz 0% Plain Fage

So much yum! I didn’t tell the husband that there was plain Greek yogurt (which he thinks he hates) in the pasta and I didn’t hear any complaints. I think pasta with peas and cheese might be our favorite dish.

I’ve got to get back to work; I’m going to hit with week with running start!

Which flavors of M&M’s have you gotten to try?  I think I’ve had them all – regular, peanut, almond, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, cinnamon, and coconut – the only flavor I missed with strawberry pb which I never found despite hours of searching!

They Were All The Best

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What was the best thing you ate today?  If you’re a normal person you probably answered that pretty quickly.  But if you’re me, every single thing you ate was “the very best thing you ate today!”  If pressed, I guess I’d say the juice.  But that choice wasn’t easy.

My morning started off perfectly with a 60 minute hot yoga class.  I picked up a 30-day unlimited pass to Evolation Yoga on Groupon and I am so excited to get my yogi on this month.  Minus one child’s pose during the camel pose, I managed to huff and puff my way through the entire hour.

It’s a good thing that working out kills my appetite for a bit, because my day got away from me and food didn’t happen until the afternoon.  The husband was home from a night shift when I got back from yoga and I just couldn’t resist crawling into bed with him and the dog.

At 1:30 my friend Kim came by to pick us up and we set off for the hospital that we’ll be doing our clinical practice at this upcoming semester.  We’re all getting pretty nervous and we wanted to do a walk through to set our minds at ease.  I even put on my working-lady clothes so it would feel more like the real thing.

When we got home, the husband and I headed out to Ashker’s.

<– Fraggle Rock; love it!

He got a perfectly thick espresso and I got a juice!

My mother-in-law had to mail me a gift receipt and she sweetly included some fun $ with it.  As you’ll see, we took full advantage of it.

Ashker’s was great about letting me go off-menu and build my own juice.

Kale + spinach + cucumber + carrot.

So dang good.  Veggie juice might be the only thing on the planet I find more refreshing than diet pop!

Then we got Chinese take-out.  Beef and broccoli for Adam, a ridiculously giant plate of crab rangoon for me.

Holy frick you guys, I love crab rangoon so much.  Too much, in fact; I ate it at least once every other day during the first week of the new year.  Now you know why I wasn’t blogging much then 😉

That plate is special too.

Pink glass, which my mom actually collects, from right here in Buffalo.

Pretty nifty.

But I could have basically eaten off of the floor,

with rangoon it’s all good.

My late afternoon was spent on Pinterest.  I’ve been trolling people’s pages for weeks, it was high time for me to finally create my own account.

I made myself feel so full and disgusting with Chinese food that I thought I’d never be hungry again.  But several hours later we were out running errands and suddenly I was ready to gnaw my own arm off.  I made a 1 oz bag of trail mix and devoured it before I could even think about getting home to my camera.

The mix included sesame sticks, peanuts, and honey roasted sesame seeds.

And when Adam found a $10 pizza deal for any pizza with any toppings, I totally bit.  And totally ate a slice in the car on the ride home!  We had a nice dinner.

Romaine topped with celery, buckwheat groats, and yogurt Cesar dressing.

Pizza (3 slices total) with jalapeños and pineapple.

Totally delicious, thanks for the inspiration, Kath.

Mallrat

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Second suitor: if we were making whoopee–

What’s whoopee?

Um, you know, if we were being intimate–

What? Like f**king?

The above is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, “Mallrats.”  If you have yet to see that 1995 classic I urge you to put it on your to-do list.  That movie is all sorts of fabulous.

I thought of the quote today because I spent my afternoon wandering aimlessly around the mall.  I wasn’t there to shop, I wasn’t there to work, I was just there.  (<– movie tagline)

Backing up to this morning, I discovered that two wrongs can make a right.  The fact that I woke up after 10am made it way less weird that I started my “morning” by popping a Rolo pretzel bite into my mouth.

One of the boys brought the bites to Poker last night, thanks Patrick and Michelle!  I’d be feeling slightly more grateful if said poker game hadn’t run past 1am, but what can you do?

I continued the theme with a Zone Perfect Cashew Pretzel Bar for breakfast.

We were in the car because Webster has chewed through every single one of his toys in record time and we needed to make an emergency run to PetSmart.

Then Adam and a friend went to see a movie and I joined them for a trip to the mall! “Mission Impossible #2,458” took a little over 2 hours so I had plenty of time to mall-walk.  I didn’t snap any pictures, but I do have a couple of take-away tips:

  1. The samples at The Gourmet Chef are out of control while they roll out new products for the new year.  I didn’t snap any pictures for stealth’s sake, but I ate at least a mini meal’s worth.
  2. Bath and Body Works is having a gigantic sale right now.  I snagged some great smelling hand soaps for less than $3 a pop.

After my loop, I settled in with a book for lunch.  Lunch’s location was an unexpected bonus – Five Guys!!!

Five Guys’ fries make the top 20 list of things I miss most about living in Brooklyn.  They did not disappoint today either.  Squishy yet crispy, a proper amount of salt, and with the option of endless bottles of malt vinegar.

I ordered a medium but that bag was basically stuffed to the brim!  I didn’t finish them all, but I did a good enough job to make myself a little ill.  Totally worth it.

I also got a veggie sandwich.

The veggie option is basically just a hamburger bun with any/all of the available toppings.  You can also get it with cheese.  I ordered mine with mayo, lettuce, tomato, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and jalapenos that I eventually admitted defeat to and peeled off.

I passed the lunch hour munching and reading (my fourth Kathy Reichs book this week) and it was just great.  This afternoon brought more of the same, only this time the dog read with me.

Love him!

Dinner was easy.

A salad of Romaine, chopped celery, tomato, and 1.5 Tbsp of peanut sauce, topped with some leftover chicken (cooked in the crockpot with a gooseberry sauce from back home, then shredded).

And an onion roll with a bit of SmartBalance Light.

We watched the impossibly sad returning episode of “Grey’s” while we ate.

And I ate a Pep Bar (the British/Canadian version of a York Peppermint Patty) for dessert.

Now I’m looking forward to cuddling with the husband and catching up on Private Practice and Modern Family as well, with big bowls of popcorn in our laps.

five questions for Friday

  1. Have you seen “Mallrats” yet?  Favorite scene?
  2. Ever been to a Five Guys?
  3. What do you dip your fries in?
  4. Do you partake in store samples?
  5. Have you read any of Kathy Reich’s books?