YUMMY YUMMY

Yesterday we celebrated my best friend Tiffany's birthday at a local place called Ken of Japan. I was pretty stoked about going there since I had never eaten in front of a Teppan range before. I was also pretty stoked about the dessert I had picked out for her.




Inside of the restaurant, they have pictures plastered all over the wall of happy customers. Including the not-so-famous Donnie Wahlberg.



Tiffany and Gary. Tiffany is opening her presents from me here.



Robyn comtemplating what to order.


My pomegranate "margarita". Looks more Martini to me!


Sarah, Sam and Jess.


Salad with ginger dressing.


Miso soup


Shrimpies



Scallops! I tried them for the first time last night.





Yummy Veggies



Making fried rice.



Andy doing a fantastic egg toss.



Fire!

Tacotime!

As Andy mentioned earlier, we went out to the new Fresh and Easy today! We decided to make tacos tonight. I’m a huge fan of ground turkey tacos but we actually had ground beef today. Super lean beef though!
We bought a salsa kit at Fresh and Easy. It came with 2 tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, garlic cloves and a lime. Andy got started on making the salsa in our food processor while I worked on browning and seasoning the beef.

(I love his determined face and dinosaur shirt. I might be biased though!)

This cracks me up because it looks like Andy is missing his hand! LOL!

I simmered the beef with a little water and olive oil. Later I added some low sodium taco seasoning. (which still has tons of sodium. I need to find something else to season with!)

Salsa ingredients go in the food processor…

And out. It came out sort of white looking. Too much onion and not enough tomatoes. Now we know for next time.

Here is our spread; whole wheat tortillas, light sour cream, ground beef, shredded cheddar cheese, guacamole, salsa, jalapenos and a salad!
(I’ve heard that nonfat greek yogurt works well in place of sour cream. Thoughts?) And yes I love lobsters and crabs. Ha!

The cilantro-lime salad dressing really jazzed this salad up. I am never buying iceberg lettuce again.

Talk to you guys later! I have a weight loss question for you! Coming soon.

The Ultimate Teaser Post

Amanda is trying to encourage me to make an actual post. Well here it is.

There is a new market that opened next to our apartment. It is called Fresh and Easy. We are really excited about going there and have put off buying groceries so we can stock up. Is that weird?

So we are about to go. Any of you ever been? Suggestions? Thoughts?

HTML HELP

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this blog? I feel like the pictures look weird unless you view the blog in google reader. Any suggestions?

Taste Test!

I was excited when I got a text from Andy today saying that a package from foodbuzz came in the mail! I was sitting in my advanced creative writing class wondering what they could have possibly sent me. I tend to be forgetful when I'm sick (yeah sinus pressure what? I can hear my voice echoing in my head whenever I talk!!!) anyway I completely forgot that earlier this month, I signed up to taste test these new bars from Quaker. What a nice surprise! They sent us 6 bars. 2 of each flavor.



Quaker True Delights come in
Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry (Which I sampled tonight)
Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut (Andy’s sample)
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond
These bars are 140 calories and 3 grams of fiber! Great for a quick snack. I think they are perfect for me to eat in my car on the way to school.


Here is my bar. Tastes amazing…every bite has honey roasted cashews, berries and granola. What more could I want?

See how it’s loaded with goodness? YUM. Dried cranberries perhaps? I didn’t notice any other berries but it’s possible that I’m completely crazy! I will eat these again and again. I bet a granola bar would taste like heaven with some non-fat vanilla yogurt. Or crumbled over oatmeal? The possibilities are truly endless.

I will give Andy the laptop now so he can tell you about his bar experience.


Hello! Welcome to part 2 of the Quaker True Delights sample. I am Andy. As Amanda mentioned I tried the Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut bar.
So, as you can see there is dried, shaved coconut on top. I am not a huge fan of coconut, but this was good. I would prefer smaller pieces of the actually coconut, but it goes well with the flavor of banana. Speaking of which, you know what artificial banana flavor tastes like? Awful. It tastes like awful. This, however, had dried banana pieces and was subtle and delicious. The bar was not overly sweet or overly chewy. It was moist and tasty.
Notice how I have not mentioned the Mac Nut yet? Well, that is because there was all of 1 on my bar. That makes me sad. After vacationing in Hawaii the past 2 summers, I have grown fond of the mac nut. Why advertise it being a Macadamia Nut bar if you only get one. I am sure the next bar will have 43 nuts and make me look silly. There is a great scene in Casino with Robert Deniro where he rips a pastry chef a new one because one blueberry muffin is chock full of blueberry goodness and another has a scant few. I feel like this. Where are my mac nuts?
That is the only real complaint. Like I said, coconut is not my favorite and I would probably prefer the other flavors of this product over this one, I am sure there are a great many people who love banana and coconut and I do suggest you try it. If you find more nuts, send them my way. Please?

50th post!

Last night I dreamt about breakfast. I wasn’t even hungry, just dreaming of a casual Sunday breakfast at home with the fiancé. Relaxing and planning our wedding. (I know, I know…we’re annoying!) But it has to be done. Sundays are usually our only day off together and we are usually too busy to actually enjoy it.
That said, this morning we made Waffles and Smoothies.
For the waffles, I used a waffle/pancake mix that Andy’s mom gave us for Christmas. All you add to it is water and an egg. It made about 2 waffles. I definitely could have made 3 waffles but I tend to get overzealous. I poured way too much mix in the waffle iron. UGH!

I added a bunch of fresh blueberries to the mix. We were both excited to have blueberry waffles with boysenberry syrup but we realized that we didn’t have syrup! We used to enjoy waffles with boysenberry syrup all the time when Andy lived in Riverside. Aw, memories.

I made my own syrup by microwaving some boysenberry jam with a few frozen berries.


The finished waffles. I love the blueberry flecks. Yum!

I topped mine with the syrup concoction, fresh blackberries and fresh blueberries. And maybe a smidge of unnecessary buttA, I couldn’t help myself!

Andy’s waffles looks almost the same.

Andy made us smoothies using almond breeze, nonfat plain yogurt, frozen strawberries, one banana and one kiwi. They were AMAZING!
Here’s to an excellent Sunday! I have a sinus infection so Andy offered to pick me up some Sudafed. Love him! I’m hoping that does the trick, I really do not want to be sick on my day off!

Letterpress

This post is totally not food-related and I apologize!

I am currently and annoyingly obsessed with paper. CRAZY over it if you will. After looking at Mrs. Cupcake's DIY invites...I got a little dreamy-eyed thinking about how I could do the same. Take a look...



I am so jealous of her skills! It pains me.

So I have decided NOT to do my own invites but I will do my own placecards, table numbers and programs. I can handle it...right? Paper-source has some surprisingly good deals online. At least as far as I've seen.

I am also obsessed with letterpress but cannot bring myself to spend $4-7 per invite. I should just cough it up...but I won't. I'm cheap and I'm not asking anyone else to pay for paper. They wouldn't get it. Maybe I'll just order myself a letter-pressed invite. LOL. I am nuts!

Anyway I just thought I'd let you in on my not-so-secret obsession. Who knows what will transpire in the future. I will let you know!

Bran is not so bland!

I read about these muffins somewhere and decided that I had to try them. I always crave pastries in the morning but they are usually 200-500 calories! I needed something that would fill me up without weighing me down. LOL

Enter Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Both stores carry baked goods by Zen Bakery. Zen Bakery makes vegan and wheat free treats. We got the Blueberry Raspberry Bran Muffins.



I usually eat half on my way to work and the other half on my lunch break. (When I don't eat donuts. I really need to stop that!)



Here is the muffin next to my phone for size comparison. It's huge!

So if you live in California, check out these muffins! They are fantastic!

Crazyburger in San Diego

CRAZYBURGER was CRAZY!!! After watching Guy Fieri eat at Crazyburger on the Food Network, Andy decided that we had to try it out.

Crazyburger is located in El Cajon. It looks like a random hole-in-the-wall but I loved it.

I got a bleu cheese burger with avocado, tomato, red onions and lettuce. I’m obsessed with bleu cheese and avocado. Obsessed! There is nothing I love more on a cheeseburger. I wish I didn’t love it so much. Burgers are definitely something Andy and I are going to have to enjoy in moderation. Less is more right?

Andy got the #21 SANTORINI Burger, ½ Beef ½ Lamb with Tsatsiki Sauce. Andy has a weird love for trying different kinds of meat so I would have thought that he would have wanted to try something like kangaroo! (Yes they have kangaroo..WHAT THE HECK??!?!?!?!)
We ate the burgers with some parmesan French fries. They were pretty tasty.

Thankfully we split them!

Another picture of my humongous burger. It was really huge. It was great because it wasn’t at all greasy. I usually feel super full after eating a burger like this but it didn’t bother me.
So if you’re in San Diego and you’re in the mood for a burger; check out Crazyburger!
Crazyburger is located on
4201 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104-1311
Tonight was another dinner at Whole Foods while grocery shopping day. I’m watching Desperate Housewives and trying to figure out how I’m going to finish this last semester of school. I need to start observing our teachers in their classrooms, register for the master’s program and the credential program. It feels like way too much. I never thought I’d be planning a wedding, finishing school, working almost full-time and trying to lose weight all at once. YIKES. (Oh and did I mention that I’m trying to pay off all my debt by the time we get married?)
Things are going to get interesting around here for sure.

Stone Brewing Company

I’d be lying if I said Andy and I had been eating healthy over the last week. It’s been one of those weeks where I don’t want to cook at all. Ugh. I need to get out of this funk. Expect lots of posts in the future from our dining out adventures this week. I’m not going to do them all in one post…I’m too lazy! So I’ll break it up.
On Sunday Andy and I met up with our friends Tiffany, Coral and their daughters. We went to Stone Brewing Company in Escondido. It was fabulous!

I love how open the restaurant is. I felt relaxed just sitting there.

I started off with a grapefruit izze. My favorite soda on earth. : )

I also got a red rooster iced tea. I was not a fan. I don’t know why I ordered two drinks! LOL

For my entrée, I got the “non-vegetarian” quiche of the day. Mine included white cheddar, Cajun sausage and bacon. I’m glad it wasn’t too huge! (And sad too!)

It came with a green and balsamic vinaigrette salad. It had dried cherries in it! I love when salads surprise you like that.

Andy got a BLT with chile-lime tortilla chips. I ate a lot of this since he said he couldn’t finish. It was too good to pass up.

I’m going to sound like a creep here but… “Bacon makes EVERYTHING better.” Andy completely agrees.
Thanks for suggesting this place Coral! We need to go again for lunch sometime.

VOTE!

One of my favorite food bloggers is a finalist in a Boboli Pizza Contest! Vote on her pizza. It's the Autumn Maple Bacon Pizza. Her name is Christina.

http://boboli.gwbakeries.com/football/enter.cfm

And check out her blog at www.carrotsncake.com I love reading it! :)

Easy breezy berry-full

I dreamt about smoothies last night so when I woke up this morning, I knew what I had to do.
I busted out our new blender and some ingredients and went to work on a new recipe. I figured I might as well share with you!

My first experience with Almond Breeze.

Amanda’s Very Berrylicious with a hint of banana smoothie. (I’m insane I know)
1/3 unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
½ banana
½ cup lowfat plain yogurt (clearly you can use nonfat but this is all I had)
10 fresh blackberries
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
½ cup mixed frozen fruit (instead of ice) I used a berry medley from Trader Joe’s.
Nutritional Stats (entered on sparkpeople)
280 Calories
51 grams of carbs
5 grams of fat (like I said you could lower the cals/fat by using nonfat plain yogurt. I will next time!)
12 grams of protein (I'd love to use plain nonfat greek yogurt for more protein)
8 grams of fiber


From the top of the blender. I mixed everything together before deciding that I needed to add a bit more low-fat yogurt. I originally planned on adding 1/3 cup but it was not creamy enough for me.

Proof of the fresh berries in there. Blackberries have a ton of seeds. Just fyi if that stuff bothers you.

The finished product! This recipe made 20 oz of smoothie. Enough to tide me over until lunch I hope. Let me know if you try this smoothie or if you have another recipe for me to try!

***I didn't add any sugar/fake sugar to this because the banana sweetened it up pretty nicely. I bet some agave nectar would go nicely though if you are into that sort of thing ;)

Now that we actually own a blender, I want to make more smoothies. I will need to invest in some protein powder and ground flax seed to make them healthier. I'm sure you'll be seeing more smoothie recipes soon.