Tag Archives: restaurant food

At Least It Wasn’t An Egg Salad Sandwich

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Our evening plans took a sharp turn, and this is a much different blog post than I planned on writing.  I’ll have to make/blog my dessert idea later this week, but we had a great time.

We walked down Elmwood, then walked back to the apartment before we decided that we were hungry for sushi.  After a slightly longer walk, unfortunately we were greeted with this –

No matter.  A slightly longer walk still and we made it to Tokyo Shanghai Bistro.

We’d never been to TSB before, and picked it on a whim, but the complimentary appetizer was a good sign.

I knew dessert was in my future so I went with two small rolls for dinner.

A shitaki mushroom roll,

and a veggie roll with crab and egg.

It wasn’t the best sushi I’ve ever had – both rolls were strangely chewy – but I slather on so much wasabi it barely matters!  I probably wouldn’t go back for sushi, but we spotted some great looking tofu at another table so I think we’ll try again next time we’re in the mood for Chinese.

By the time we were back home from dinner we’d walked another 2 miles.  Bringing our grand total to 6+ miles walked today.

At one point early in our travels I decided that it was absolutely essential that we buy the locally made mini cheesecake we’d been eyeing at Wilson Farms.

We both took a few bites but it wasn’t very good.

What, you mean you wouldn’t look for quality cheesecake at the gas station?!?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve purchased at a gas station?

Walk It Out

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend, readers!  The holiday doesn’t mean much to me (I didn’t even know tomorrow was Memorial Day until a few hours ago; I was so confused the last two days at work when my manager said we were ‘slower than usual because of the holiday weekend’) but I imagine it’s exciting to those of you with real jobs.

Since I hadn’t eaten since 3pm yesterday I made sure to fuel up with a big Granny Smith Apple and a packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter before we set out this morning.

It’s funny that the Justin’s website referenced the fact that most other choc-hazelnut spreads have more sugar than frosting, because the flavor and texture of this goodness totally made me think of frosting!

I ran yesterday on my off day and I felt pretty sore from work so I decided to do a long walk today.  Adam and I headed to Delaware Park for an hour of walking while I quizzed him on pharm. questions.  We walked ~ 2miles.

After a super quick shower I met up with my friend Katie for lunch and ended up walking another ~2miles in the process.  Our final destination was JP Bullfeathers for brunch.

I ordered two poached eggs, cooked dry.

Which came with  a side of fruit,

and rye toast (I ate 2 half slices).

Dipping thick toast into drippy egg yolks might be my favorite restaurant food sensation.  Poached eggs are the perfect dish in my eyes (dippy yolks but much healthier than fried eggs because not cooked with any sort of oil) but I can’t get them right at home so they are the perfect restaurant food for me.

Katie and I also split a side of sweet potato fries, which were sadly sort of awful.

Soggy fries aside, it was nice to get out and about and to see Katie.  I also grabbed a cup of coffee and a Lindt truffle for dessert.

This afternoon Adam and I decided to split a slice of buffalo chicken pizza.

I realize we eat this pizza a lot (it’s possible we fall into food ruts, Wegman’s hot bar much?!) but it’s something we both love.  Plus, at least we always split it!  However, it’s after 6pm and we’ve both determined that we’re really not hungry for dinner so perhaps we should have skipped it today!

We’re going to take another (short) walk and see how we feel about dinner when we get back.  Either way, I have a fun dessert recipe I plan on posting (and eating!) this evening.  See you then!

What is your favorite food to order while dining at restaurants?

Pretty Good

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Hello there; I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend.  It’s been a good Saturday around here, I spent lots of time with the husband, I got to take a few walks, and I received some good news I’ll be sharing later.

Our plan this morning was to cash in a Groupon for brunch, so to kill time while the restaurant opened I headed out to the Farmer’s Market and the Co-op.

While I was up on that end of Elmwood I stopped in at Wilson Farms for my new favorite coffee.

Half Jamaican Me Crazy Coffee (regular) and half Jamaican Me Crazy Cappuccino (sweetened).

Adam and I also drove over to the lake to check out the crazy fog.

Spooky!

Then it was time for brunch at Empire Grill.

But apparently brunch is only a Sunday thing, boo.  And the bad news didn’t stop there, Adam and I hated our brunch lunch order.  I really don’t want the blame the restaurant (the food wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either), we just made really bad order choices for our preferences.

We split a Blue Point Toasted Ale,

the Caribbean Shrimp and Mango Salad with mixed greens, mango viniagrette marinated jumbo shrimp, black bean and pineapple salsa and a mango viniagrette,

and the California Turkey Wrap with coleslaw, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, onions and a chipolte aioli.

I sort of hate raw spinach and I hate wraps so, again, it wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault.  Nonetheless, I ended up eating basically nothing for brunch.

Thank goodness for Banana Split Cupcakes!

Amid chowing down on two cupcakes, Adam and I took a trek to the post office and got to enjoy almost 2 miles of walking and talking, win!

Random sidenote (super random when you consider that this isn’t even a new top) – how awesome is it that this shirt has a bustle?!

I had fancy plans for dinner, but when Scrubs reruns are on you never turn down pizza.

Adam and I split another Buffalo chicken slice,

along with a big pile of baby carrots.

Yep, pretty good for a Saturday!

The Best Laid Plans

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I guess Friday the 13th ended up getting the best of me after all!  The best laid plans don’t always work out.  That’s especially true if you and your husband are terrible at time management and plan to leave at a time that’s too late and then don’t even get out the door on time!

We did get our fun lunch though.

Lloyd’s Taco Truck is Buffalo’s first and only food truck, you know we had to check it out!

I ordered a chicken taco, which was pretty good.

I wish I had gone with beans instead of chicken for my protein, but whatever the white cheese was it was delicious, and the shredded cabbage was nice and crunchy.

We also ordered a churro with cinnamon sugar.

Yuck city.  It was waaaaay too fried and we ended up throwing it away after a few bites.  Lloyd’s wait-time wouldn’t have been worth it in another city, but if you are in Buffalo I’d still say give it a shot; just don’t order the churros!

The day didn’t really improve from there.  The plan was supposed to be taco truck – post office – mall/seeing Bridesmaids- crossing training at the gym – party with some school people.  We ended up running so behind that we had to see a different movie and moved the post office to the end of the day.  Of course, we got to the post office just as the doors were closing in our faces!  In the end we had to scrap the gym and the party too.  And the movie we ended up seeing (that we should have skipped all together because it’s timing is what threw off everything else) was terrible.  <– skip “Thor”

But I guess it wasn’t all bad.  We did get a free small popcorn at the movies.

Do you belong to your theatre’s loyalty program?  Adam and I have gotten so many free tickets and snack items over the years, we love it.

And since my evening was suddenly free, when Adam went to meet friends for a game of tennis I ended up going with him to take a long walk around Delaware Park.  Walking isn’t the best use of cross-training time, but it’s better than nothing.  I walked 3.5 miles around the park.  It was fun to do the loops at a slower pace; the park has done lots of landscaping for Spring and it runs along one side of the zoo so there is a lot to see.

Blooms and buffalos definitely helped to put me in a better mood.

I ate an everything-style Bagel Thin with two slices of 2% colby cheese before we left,

and I drank half of this Arizona Virgin Pina Colada while we were out.

But I couldn’t get it together for dinner.  We stayed up way too late on Thursday and I was pretty zonked out.  <– It’s possible that when Adam and his friends switched courts at the last minute and he asked me to drive myself the last 2 blocks to the park I started to sob uncontrollably  

When we got home from the park I curled up in a filthy little ball for a much-needed nap!  Thank goodness Adam backed me into the shower with a chair before we went to bed.

The plan this morning was supposed to be breakfast then a trip to the Farmer’s Market.  But the skies looked like rain so we hurried out without food.  Too bad we still didn’t beat the clouds.

There wasn’t a lot at the market yet anyways 😦 

I did grab a three-cheese and caramelized onion focaccia to split with the husband for breakfast.

We shared a grande iced America with skim milk from Starbucks so we could eat at one of their dry (and dark!) tables.

A few notes – I love going on mini-dates with my husband.  Thank goodness it’s stopped raining now; I still need to get to the darn post office!  I need more food!

So I’m off.  Assume that I successfully made it to the post office and the grocery store, otherwise tonight’s post is going to be another cranky-pants one!

Seis de Mayo!

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Okay, okay, so I’m a day late on my May 5th post.  Normally I hate to do long-overdue recap posts, but since my new 30 day goal is to post everything, here it is.  Quick sidenote – mad props to everyone who engages in drogging (aka drunk blogging); I wanted to share this yesterday but it was just not an option 😉

My classmates I add were touched by serendipity yesterday, when Cinco de Mayo and our last day of classes fell on the same day.  After a very long last day of classes (9:25 in the morning to 7 at night) we were able to head out for some much-needed celebration.

First, the morning.  Our last day of lab included drawer check out and a final exam.  I had a little extra time in the morning to study since I had to skip my workout (boo!), and I think I did pretty well on the exam.  I didn’t have it together for breakfast, but I did grab a medium iced coffee with skim milk from Starbucks.

And it was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was down to my last sips; clearly I needed coffee!

Our last lab let out pretty early, and we were left with a six-hour break before our final evening class.  No problem, I took my friend Rachel on a mini tour of Elmwood!  We ambled down the street from school, stopping to visit a friend at work and hit up the Spot for a study session.  I grabbed some brown rice veggie sushi from the co-op for lunch.

And actually stopped at the co-op on the way back to school for dinner as well.

During my night class I noshed on Thai cucumber and peanut salad,

and some vegan pasta salad.

Suddenly we were taking our last quiz of the semester, packing up, and we were done with our first year of school!!!  I mean, there are finals next week, but still exciting.

Cinco de Mayo plans were supposed to include a holiday appropriate trip to Cozumel Bar, but a $10 cover later we ended up at JP Bullfeathers.

That was a Jack and ginger ale, but it tasted more like dirty water.  Weak drinks aside, JP Bullfeathers ended up being a perfect spot for our end of school celebration; not too packed for good conversation, but busy enough to still be fun.

We ended up sitting at a table and ordering some food as well.

My friend Janessa and I split the turkey and gorgonzola pannini,

which was delicious.  Turkey sandwiches seem to be my go-to restaurant order.

And how to do go out on Cinco de Mayo without margaritas?!

What’s the Spanish word for sloshed?  Let’s just say I’m glad I could walk less than a minute and be home!

I did stay up to share some dessert, of course.

That’s a caramelized macadamia nut and chocolate mousse tart that Adam brought home.

Now on to today.  In true college-girl fashion, I managed to stay in bed well past 1pm!!  It helps to have the bladder of a camel and a four-day break before finals begin.  🙂

Adam and made the executive decision that we needed a day together, so we took down a full season of Scrub’s recaps and an entire pizza.

That’s a bruschetta pizza topped with extra green olives, the best pizza topper ever.

The half a pizza pretty much covered all my food groups (what?! dairy, grains, veggies…) but I did sneak in one more veggie with a slice of carrot cake from the co-op.

A few facts – Carrot cake does to count as a veggie.  I think I need to be done with the co-op for a few days.  It was a glorious day with my husband.

Did you do anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Marys, Monkeys, and Magnums

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As the title implies, it’s been a fun day!  Also, in case the title leads to any confusion, mary = an upcoming half marathon and magnum is not referring to condoms!

Yep, I said it, I’ve got another half marathon in my sights!  I’ve been agitated ever since my 6-week illness killed my training for the Buffalo Half Marathon and I finally found one to take its place.  My goal is to run in the Presque Isle Half Marathon on July 17th.  I say goal instead of plan because I’m mindful of the fact that I have a history of injuries and pushing through pain isn’t worth the risk.  I’m going to wait until I’ve made it to at least 7 miles without incident before I put money down on entry fee.

I do however have a training plan (which I’ll share sometime soon) that had me slated for 3miles this morning.  The husband and I ran a nice loop around our neighborhood, 3miles and 30minutes.  Since I don’t have a Garmin I can’t really track my pacing, but I use MapMyRun as best I can.

When we got home I had to run through my shower since Katie was picking me up for a brunch date at Betty’s.

I’d never been before but I’ll definitely be going back to Betty’s soon, the place was adorable and the food was delicious!

I ordered off the specials menu, the Portobello Benedict –

Hashbrowns,

fruit,

and two English muffins topped with roasted Portobello mushroom, spinach, two poached eggs, and smoked gouda.

Mmmmmmn!  It shouldn’t be called a Benedict without Hollandaise (I would have gotten it on the side though so I probably shouldn’t quibble..) but this meal was not lacking for flavor.  The egg yolks melted perfectly into the bread and it was great to get some veggies into my morning.

Katie was kind enough to drive me back to school and I snagged a “mocha” (half coffee, half hot chocolate) along the way.

I don’t have classes on Tuesday but I was headed to an Anthropology-sponsored speaker on the topic of primates.  Ever since I attended the Body Farm lecture (love!) my name has been on an e-mail list and when I saw “live primates in attendance” I jumped on the opportunity!  I recruited a few friends to come with me and we all had a ton of fun –

Where else can you see a man diaper a monkey?

We’ve been putting grocery shopping off and are running out of food so Adam picked me up from the lecture for a trip to Wegmans.

I had to show off my primate pictures so we had to get hot bar for lunch.

Tons of grilled/steamed veggies with a little bit of sesame chicken,

with fruit for dessert.

Tastes like summer, the mango was definitely swoon-worthy!

While we were out, I cashed in a coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers’ Program for some Magnum Ice Cream.

I grabbed a box of Double Caramel Bars.

I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to taste this for free because it’s not it’s not a product I would have bought on my own and now I might be obsessed!

Holy double layer of chocolate, Batman; this was good!  It’s (surprisingly good for vanilla) vanilla ice cream, wrapped in chocolate, wrapped in caramel, wrapped in a second chocolate shell.  The premise reminds me of this SNL skit, but the execution was perfection!

http://www.hulu.com/embed/umxmTijZLcnMhDPJjmYd5g

I also snacked on baby carrots with blue cheese,

and shared a few tastes of the husband’s new fancy cheese.

Dinner was a Cooking Light find, Quick White Bean, Asparagus and Mushroom Cassoulet.

Per usual, my changes included –

  • using baby Portobellos for half of my mushrooms
  • skipping the wine and oregano entirely
  • subbing in chicken broth for veggie broth
  • roasting the asparagus instead of boiling it
  • putting the cassoulet into the oven instead of the broiler (I don’t have a single broiler safe vessel!)

Even with my changes it was still pretty delicious though.

I ate my serving with some chips for scooping purposes.

Delicious.

Ok, this has been a very long post, time to wrap things up.  Hope everyone had a good day!

Frosted

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I’m having a blogger conundrum – I’ve made immediate plans to hang out with the husband and I want to go be with him, BUT I had a fun day I’d really like to blog about.  Let’s compromise: good content, quick and boring post.

We had some errands to run this morning before the fun, so I grabbed a 2% Pineapple Chobani to eat in the car.

I’m never going to stray with Mango again, this is sooo much better!

Then we headed to our fun activity – a cake baking/decorating class at Delish!

Delish is an adorable bakery in our neighborhood that also does cooking/baking classes upstairs.  When Groupon offered a 50% of deal a few months ago I jumped on it.  It took us a while to find a class we were both excited about, but cake decorating definitely fit the bill.

We watched the owner bake two kinds of cupcakes and two kinds of buttercream, and learned a few buttercream tips that I can’t wait to use.  We took a few tastes and in total I’d say my bites added up to one small cupcake.

Next they did some cake layering and icing demos and let us loose.  The husband was shockingly talented at writing in icing, must be those future surgeon’s hands!  We each got our own cake to layer and frost.  Mine –

Adam’s –

It was a lot of fun.  If you live in the area I’d highly recommend taking a class at Delish.

The two-hour course got our hunger worked up so we walked across the street to Blue Monk for lunch.

Our friend Danielle is a bartender there and we’ve heard nothing but good things.

Good things that we’ll now echo, because our food was delicious!  I ordered an appetizer special, the veggie Napoleon.

Grilled zucchini and tomato, layered with house made lemon ricotta and sliced baguette.

This was light but filling.  The texture was great and you could taste the fact that the ingredients were high quality.

I also split the famous duck fat frites with Adam.

Swoon!

And snagged a few bites of his duck reuben.

It was good, but my veggies definitely stole the show.

I think I needed a bigger lunch after my small breakfast though (especially after the smell of baking cakes revved up my appetite), so I ended up making myself a snack when we got home.

1.5 oz of tortilla chips, 1.5 oz of 2% sharp cheddar, corn relish, and jalopenos.

Is there a Nachos Anonymous?!

Finally, the plan for the evening is Scrubs reruns and pizza!  I know that sounds dull to some, but this combo is so exciting to the husband and I that I actually talked about it in my wedding vows!  I can’t wait!

Have you ever taken a cooking class?

All Sorts of Win

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My day has been like Charlie Sheen, all sorts of winning!  Seriously though, it has been one of those days that are just randomly fantastic.  Good workout, mostly good food, good times with the husband…

Win #1 of the day was the realization that music makes my workouts fly by.  My i-pod broke months ago and my parents gave me an IOU for a replacement in my Christmas stocking but it’s taken me a while to finally cash it in.  I got a nano, in lime green, engraved with my phone # and part of my favorite quote from Robert Frost.

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Once I got of Biochem this afternoon I headed straight to the gym, my new i-pod stocked with a new 30minute playlist –

  1. Sweet Light, The Chapin Sisters
  2. The Cave, Mumford and Sons
  3. Coming Home, Diddy
  4. Signal Fire, Snow Patrol
  5. Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangster, Geto Boys
  6. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez
  7. My Dick, Dirt Nasty
  8. Somwhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

For 30minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  “What a Wonderful World” is actually the song Adam and I walked down the aisle to once we were married, and when it came on I started to cry!!!  I had to elliptisize as fast as I could to make myself stop being embarrassing (double win!).

Once I was home and showered I headed out on errands with Adam.  Win #2 was the free coffee I picked up at Starbucks for Earth Day –

Seasoned with a big pour of skim milk and two sugars.

Our errands included a trip to the mall for Adam to get an eye check up, where I sat in the food court for an hour and wrote notecards like a weirdo.  I may have looked like a creeper, but I actually got a lot done.

Not a win, was the fact that we were busy straight through lunch and ended up not eating anything.  By 5:30 when we left the mall I was having a definite panic attack of hunger.  I ended up randomly grabbing this Liquid Taffy candy to split with Adam.

Such a win!  The texture of this was divine; a velvety, less chewy taffy.

We continued dessert before dinner by splitting froyo.

Fat free chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with strawberries, sprinkles, and granola.

Total win!

Dinner, not such a win.  It was poised to be good…

We headed to Taste of Thai on Hertel (an avenue with tons of good-looking restaurants and next to no parking), where we split our regular order – Pad See Eiw with tofu,

and Cashew Chicken.

The dishes had tons of veggies (our complaint with Buffalo Thai has been the lack of veggies), but that’s where the compliments end.  The renditions were painfully inauthentic, and way too salty to boot.  Fail!

But being with the husband is always a win.  Especially for the rest of the evening, for which our big plans include the latest Community and the splitting of two mini ice creams.

This day has been sweet, in every sense of the word!

What was your most recent #win?