Random thoughts. . .

Doing some late night food prep so I can get my rotisserie on right after work tomorrow. Yee haw!!



By the way Trader Joes, we have gone through 3 bags of this in as many days. It's like crack for the whole family!!

Lunch Round Up . . .

I have been remiss in my postings this week and am getting behind.  Here is a brief recap of what has been going on with lunch and the menu for today:

Monday:  Called to duty as lunch companion again.  And went for dumplings, again.  Pork chicken combo with spicy sauce instead of mild.  The spicy is only marginally so compared to the mild so I'll be getting it from now on.  Dumplings were good.  Wrappers not too doughy which is always a plus for me.

And while we are at it, let's check on the quality of lime garnish Starbucks is putting into its Refreshers.  You may recall the last one I got was pretty gross.  Here is the most recent lime slice:

Eh, not much better.  Not sure why this Starbucks repeatedly has old yucky looking limes.

Tuesday some of us piled in the car and took a field trip to Arby's.    As I was on the heels of the Trader Joe's burrito fiasco I wasn't that hungry and had a salad with Diet Mountain Dew.

That was not a typo.  I did indeed have a Diet Dew fountain drink at the Arby's.  I know you're jealous.  The fountain Diet Dew is hard to come by.  It was heaven.  Salad was good too.  Very fresh.  First salad I have ever had at the Arby's.  My usual fare is the junior roast beef, potato cakes and jamoca shake.  To mix it up I will have a french dip.  Since I didn't get my usual I took a picture of my friend's food.

You see here he got curly fries in lieu of potato cakes.  While I do like the Arby's curly fries, as a lifelong potato cake person I cannot personally advocate for the curly fries, but will not hold it against you if you get them.  Our other co-worker had ordered a chocolate shake before I could stop him.  After extolling the virtues of the jamoca shake he went back and changed his order then concurred that it was indeed a fine shake.  While we ate, known Arby's fanatic, Favorite Lunch Buddy 1/Ducky Momo regaled us all with tales of living in NYC and trekking far distances to the only known Arby's on the island and singlehandedly educating the franchise about the appropriateness of serving potato cakes all day vs. just at breakfast.  And I have to agree, who doesn't know that? That is just criminal to deprive people of potato cakes after 10.  Oh that's right, it was an Arby's in New York City.  Combined with a Cinnabon.  Down in the West Village.  So many reasons why they would be completely clueless as to Arby's tradition.  Reasons, but not excuses.  There is no excuse for running an Arby's that way!  Anyway, Arby's was a pleasure as always, and we all left happy.  Do I even need to rate it for you?  Fine then.  A 5 with a RECOMMENDED.

Indeed!

Which brings us to today, Wednesday and leftover Trader Joe's chicken enchiladas.

They are not quite that color, I used an Instagram filter b/c they came out kind of dark and I wanted to show some details.  Details of an enchilada are kind of impossible though.  Especially leftover enchiladas.  So these came in a pack of 4--clearly 2 servings thank you very much Trader Joe's.   Hubs got these for dinner Monday night.  He ate most of it and thought they were just ok.  I tried them then too and will say I thought they could use more ranchero sauce and the chicken was dry.  What a difference a day and a half makes.  Leftover these are fabulous!  I could still use a little more ranchero sauce on them but overall very nice.  Great melding of flavors.  Chicken is nice and tender now and moist.  Not too much cilantro.  Not a big fan. People over use and it drives me crazy.  This is just right.  Ranchero is nearly 100% the way I prefer it.  Little bit of a beef stock undertone and not too much of a just plain tomato flavor.  Good hint of garlic.  Reminds me of my favorite place back home.

 

Here is the unfiltered shot after I have eaten about half of it.  Please excuse my dirty utensils!  Just overall feeling very pleased about this lunch.  From a calorie standpoint, it's 590 for both enchiladas.  If I'm being honest I should have only eaten one.  That started out my intent but I got carried away but my enjoyment of them.  No bundt cake for me later.  Which reminds me, we just got a Nothing Bundt Cake next door to the Trader Joe's which makes it all to easy to go buy cake.  And they are f'ing good.  I need to check on those calories.  I'm sure they are just short of catastrophic.  So far we have had cinnamon swirl, white chocolate (that I had none of b/c Hubs and Little Dude ate the whole thing before I could say Boo), white choc with raspberry and chocolate chocolate chip.  No one liked cinnamon but me, but it was really nice.  All the flavors are great.  Not too heavy which unfortch makes it easy to eat the whole thing.  And by whole thing I mean the small 4 inch cakes, the Bundtinis.  And yes, you do feel ridiculous ordering a Bundtini.  I just ask "for the small one there".

Oh, ratings.  Cake and enchiladas I would actually give 5s to and recommended.   

Now we are all caught up.  Tomorrow I will more than likely be having my leftover Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala.  Stay tuned.  I know how thrilling that sounds.

Random Tuesday Breakfast Post . . .

Throwing out a little extra love today for my faithful readers.  A breakfast post!

I'm eating a Treader Joe's black bean and cheese burrito.  280 calories, which I am psyched about and also have a hard time believing.  This is a big ass burrito folks, and it has cheese, and it has a tortilla wrap.  Both of which are notoriously not calorie friendly.  I dumped the salsa on the top.  I just can't eat these without some Pace on top.

Usually I always eat Amy's, but I have to tell you, now that there is a Trader Joe's by my house I think I am switching to these.  I am actually shocked at how good I think this is and how much I like it.  Cutting it in half is a trick I learned from Chungry.  Hahahahaha, no not really.  I jest.  He makes it too easy.

Also- maybe b/c this started out refrigerated versus frozen but the tortilla stayed nice and supple after microwaving.  Calling a tortilla supple sounds kind of gross doesn't it?  Let's say soft then instead.  Point is, It did not that get that post microwave cement hardness requiring an electric knife to cut through.

All in all this little experiment was quite the success I think.  Yay Trader Joe's!  I know technically a bean and cheese burrito is not breakfast food, but I started eating them for breakfast a long time ago.  At this point it is firmly in my head that this is a breakfast food.  I don't see any reason why it can't be.  Embrace the burrito for breakfast.  You will like it.

4.5 microwaves
Recommended!!!

Ed. note:  well I thought it might be too good to be true so I just checked my nutrition label again.  Calories ARE 280 BUT the serving size is HALF the burrito!! So, now I am pissed.  Who eats half a stinking burrito?  That is just insanity.  And whats-more, now I have packed away 560 calories because I ate the whole damn thing.  New rating is a 3 for stupidity b/c making something that people will eat ONE of and calling it two servings is ridiculous and I daresay misleading.  I retract my Yay and replace it with BOOOOoooooo.  Jerks.

Catching Up . . .

Wow!  I completely forgot to post my Friday lunch post.  I forgot because I had to borrow a phone to take pics and then forgot to send myself said pics.  Friday was quite the special occasion too and I would be remiss in not blogging it.

Special occasion is twofold.  1) we went to Luby's!  and 2) Chungry came with us.  Growing up in Oklahoma, Luby's, the old Furr's and Picadilly were staples in the "nice" family dinner rotation.  I don't think I'm alone here on that either.  And honestly, who doesn't love a good cafeteria?  If you don't then I can only ask, what's wrong with you?

LuAnn platter with fried fish, cooked squash and fried okra.  Fried okra always good.  I didn't even have to salt it myself because Luby's is on top of it people.  I know you think the fried fish sounds gross but let me tell you 3 out of 4 people at our table got it and we ALL concurred it was GOOD.  It's like that scene in Ratatouille when the food critic takes the bite and has his good childhood memories flash in his mind's eye.  It's just, Ahhhhh. . . .  squash was pretty good.  Lots of garlic and lots of salt, although not as thoroughly soggy and boled the way I really like it.  I had to ask the guy to dig from the center of the tray instead of the edges where it was crisper.  Again- childhood memories.  My aunt and my mom made a mean cooked squash.  If I could have it fixed like this everyday I think I could eat this everyday, thus I will award the elusive 5 microwaves and a recommended.  All hail Luby's!

 My neighbor with his fish, mac and cheese and green beans.  Mac and cheese got a meh.  Bonus celebrity appearance by Sam Kinison!!

Oh man, I forgot my roll y'all!  Uncool on my part.  See how shiny it is from the melted fake butter brushed on the top?  It was warm and yeasty and muy delicioso.  The end.  Also props to our server Starr who was, in all seriousness, very lovely to us and refilled our tea.

Quickie

Just a short post while I'm in the car. Running errands and #2 child fell asleep. Needed a few minutes to let her sleep so I pulled into Sonic. Mama also needed a diet coke for her splitting headache.

I like Sonic. I won't try to act like I don't. My regular meal is a corn dog and tots or a burger. On a whim I ordered the first thing I saw on the menu: chicken fried steak sandwich. No mayo.
You know what? I don't hate it. Yeah it's a processed unnaturally shaped square cfs patty but it was piping hot and crisp. Tomato was fresh and lettuce was cool and crisp. So all in all not bad. I can see doing this at home with maybe some spicy gravy? Anyway, I only ate half. I don't need to look at the nutrition menu to know this has too many calories. I did run 5 miles yesterday but still. . .

I'll give this a 3.5 and recommend it. Chances of me eating this again are slim bc it just doesn't fit my sonic profile. But a good change up.

Ok. Off to the store.

It was, you know, OK . . .

Today was a work lunch to meet a new employee who had flown down from the Mother Ship.  Reservation for 7 at Line & Lariat, the revamped restaurant in Hotel Icon.  The old placed was called Voice, which was a stupid name.  Voice food was good but the service always sucked.  The restaurant revamp did not include a service revamp.  It is still slow as molasses and clueless.  Ex: we had a reservation- walked in and were the only people there other than staff and had to wait while they pushed tables together for us and rearranged chairs.  Seriously people.  You knew we were coming what is the deal?  This happened before as well when it was Voice and we had to stand around in the bar that time for 30 minutes before a table was ready.  What is the deal?  I don't get it.

So we sit down after this tortured furniture rearranging goes on for 15 minutes.  The waiter was so soft spoken you could barely hear him so it's a good thing there was about zero other ambient noise.  Turns out it is also Restaurant Week here in H-town, which I was totally clueless about so we get the regular menu and the RW menu.  Several good looking choices, a red snapper, a gumbo and shrimp and grits.  Ultimately decided on the tomato salad and then the shrimp and grits off the restaurant week menu b/c it's cheaper that way--that's just how I am.  Someone also ordered truffle fries for the table which I did not get a picture of but arrived perfectly hot and crisp and as noted by one of my esteemed colleagues, just the right amount of truffle oil.

Seems like it took forever for the tomato salad to get out to the table.  We finally concluded that there was one person in the kitchen so everything was made and plated one at a time because that is how everything came out.  Salad had a nice variety of tomatoes, French feta and a vinaigrette dressing.  Truly fantastic salad.

Very nice portion too, especially for a prix fixe menu.  It was generous, not stingy at all.  Also the bread that came to the table was very nice too.  I was skeptical when it was first brought out but the yeast rolls were very good.  Flavor just right, moist and dense but not too much.  The onion cornbread muffins were also very tasty.  Moist with good flavor. A hint of jalapeno, but not overwhelming.  Good cornmeal to flour ratio so they were real corn muffins as opposed to being real cake-like.

And then we sit some more while we wait for entrees to be brought out one at a time.  I went with shrimp and grits.  One of my standards if it is on the menu.  Line & Lariat had a gumbo too but for some reason it didn't appeal to me today although someone else got it (FLB2 was in attendance).  Shrimp was fried in this version with some panko bread crumbs it looked like.  It was actually very well done and nice.  A little on the salty side but the grits were so bland that turned out to be a plus.  And you can see it was served with some sauteed greens.  The were a little bitter but not bad.  Fairly standard preparation with some garlic and oil.  You know, it was fine.

 
The red ring around the grits is hot sauce.  It wasn't enough to make any impact in which case, why bother?  As a garnish it's ok but when the menu lists something as part of the dish you generally expect to taste it don't you?  Right? Or am I just crazy to think that?  It also said grits with cheddar and bacon.  Not much though.  I know those are yellow so look like they are some nice cheesy grits, but do not be mislead.  Grits were smooth and creamy but lacked in flavor.  It was ok if you ate them with a bite of the fried shrimp but if you like grits for grits sake then they were disappointing.  I ended up full but not being satisfied which is a pretty crappy way to leave lunch.  I suspect I'll be hitting the deli downstairs for a Skor in the next 40 minutes.  Also a big waste of calories which means I'll have to go run tonight for at least a little bit.  I am joining a running club though so that should help.  Why?  I guess I probably have not mentioned I am training for a half marathon after Christmas.  I've never run one before and historically have not really enjoyed running that much so its kind of a big deal.  I am enjoying the running when its not 98 degrees out but I have a ways to go before I'm ready.  Shrimp and grits are not helping either.  Soon I will have to get serious and cut out sweets and then where will we be?  Some pretty boring blog posts perhaps!  For now though, I am off to get a Skor and a Gatorade.  Then I will be UNSTOPPABLE this afternoon.

Almost forgot-- Heirloom tomato salad is a 5 and recommended.  Shrimp and grits I will give a 3 to despite the strength of the shrimp.  The taste of the overall dish was just meh. 

It's a Go-Go . . .

I was all prepared to finally eat my Lean Cuisine Pad Thai that has been waiting for me for about a month now in the freezer, but I got called up again today to do back up along with FLB2 and one other co-worker.  The 4 of us hopped the cute fake metro train that Downtown Houston has and we went up to Tacos A Go-Go.  Very funky-my kind of place.  I particularly like the canvases on the wall of the Mexican wrestler masks a la Nacho Libre.  Very underrated movie.  Go rent it.

Besides funky, TAG-G has breakfast all day!  Bonus.  I really went back and forth between just a breakfast taco or a platter.  Eventhough I knew I wouldn't come close to eating it all I caved and went with the huevos rancheros with bacon and refried beans.  The platter came with fried potatoes too.  I just had a few to taste- they were solid.  Maybe some salt, otherwise tender and nicely fried.

Scrambled eggs were done well.  I mixed it all up and then scooped it into a flour tortilla with some beans.  YUM.  Beans didn't have a ton of flavor but were smooth and a nice base for the eggs in the taco.  The spicy tomato on the eggs was very nice.  Lots of flavor and spicy.

We also had some good chips and homemade salsa while waiting on our food.  Both were super fresh.  For dessert we tried the s'mores taco and the blackberry and cream taco.  I can't say I would recommend these.  they were ok if you just wanted something sweet but otherwise didn't real offer anything too inventive.  The blackberry and cream turned out to be jam in a flour tortilla fried with whipped cream out of the can.  All things that are individually fantastic, but I'm not sure I would make it and sell it.  I prefer things I can't make myself and this one I could def do myself.  S'mores was melted choc and what looked like marshmallow fluff also in a tortilla and then fried.  I didn't try any of that one but it also got a "meh" from the other lunchers.

Splurged on a Dr. Pepper instead of iced tea.  I find Dr. Pepper is the perfect accompaniment to Mexican food.  Overall, great food and cheap so perfect for lunch.  Next time if I don't just listen to reason and get a taco I will try the Migas.  I give it a 4 and a recommended.


Ed. Note:  It is also worth mentioning that once I got back to the office there was leftover Jason's Deli in the kitchen.  Score! Was able to top off my lunch with some fresh fruit and a brownie.  Jason's Deli brownie's are the BEST!

Lunch Meeting . . .

So today I had a meeting for a board I am on and it was a catered eat-in thing.  Food was from Treebeard's a local establishment.  I like Treebeard's a lot but it seems like the only foods you are only allowed to get catered are red beans and rice and shrimp etouffee.  Never have I ever seen any other food from Treebeard's catered and people get TB catered here a LOT.  Since I was with folks that I don't know real well I had to surreptitiously take a picture of my lunch.  Salad with a nice snappy vinaigrette, a dab of red beans and rice with some sausage and shrimp etouffee with rice.  The shrimp etouffee and gumbo are the only things I get at TB so I was cool with the menu.

The lighting was terrible in the conference room where the meeting was and obviously I wasn't able to go all Instagram on my food b/c that would have taken too long to set up and snap.  I didn't want to be real obvious about messing with my phone at the time.  Dark blob in the back is the red beans and rice.  I don't always like this. They put something in it that has a weird taste to me and I don't know what kind of spice it is.  Maybe cardamom or something along those lines.  Today the weird taste was not so prevalent and the beans were not as spicy as they usually seem to me.  Liked them better this way.  I eat them plain, no cheese or green onions.  That's just wrong.

Now the etoufee on the other hand was spicier than usual.  So much so that it made me break out in a sweat towards the end.  That combined with poor air conditioning in the room.  And poor a/c by Houston standards means it was "normal" vs. "arctic" which in the summer it nearly always is everywhere.  Having grown to love the sub arctic air in all the buildings here it was seriously a bummer to have to sit in a barely cool conference room and eat hot food.  Once I stopped eating I was fine though.  No worries.  Didn't get any of the TB bread they serve.  It sucks.  Let's be honest.  It has a sort of quaint quality to it, but at the end of the day it's just some mediocre store bought bread served with some tasteless margarine.  I prefer to use my calories for the etouffee.  Don't get me wrong though- I do like Treebeard's.  Its many many other redeeming qualities and fresh fruit cups with mint leaves more than make up for sucky bread.

Red beans and rice= 3 microwaves, but get a recommended
Shrimp etouffee = 4 microwaves and a recommended.

When I first moved here TB was one of the few places I knew to go for lunch so I was hitting the etouffee hard in the early days.  Plus I was preggers then so etouffee plus homemade cake was a pretty infallible combo.  Probably for that reason I will always feel a fondness for Treebeard's.  And you know who I ate there with the very first time?  That's right people.  Chungry.

Public Service Announcement-Disney

If you are a Disney person at all you are familiar with the fact that Walt DisneyWorld has been renovating Fantasyland since last winter.  Portions have been reopened already with the rest to follow shortly.  Highly anticipated is the opening of the new Be Our Guest restaurant in what will be Beast's castle.  The ability to make a reservation for BOG opened up yesterday on 407-WDW-DINE.  There was a bit of a kerfuffle yesterday though as to whether a reservation made via the automated system vs a real person counted and would be cancelled.  I am one of the people who got through to the automated system and made a reservation for January.  After I made the res. there was some chatter on the Interwebs that any res made with the automated system wherein you were not required to leave a credit card, would be canceled within the next day if you did not call back and modify to add a credit card.

Consequently I ended up going through the dedicated line at the Vacation Club to make a new res and leave the credit card info but I also emailed guest services and asked.  This morning I got my response back so for all of those who had troubles with reservations yesterday- this is the word now:  if you got a reservation number credit card or no, your reservation is GOOD.  so Yay!  if you have not called back to add a credit card--you are in the clear and can go enjoy BOG.  I am not going until January but I can't wait!!

Here is the complete text of the email I just got (bold by me):

From: Walt Disney World Guest Mail <guest.mail@wdw.disneyonline.com>
Date: August 21, 2012 10:07:15 AM
To: "theneals@mac.com" <theneals@mac.com>
Subject: Re: My Current Walt Disney World Reservation

Dear Diane,

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort. We are delighted
that you are planning a visit!

Regarding Be Our Guest Restaurant

• If you made your reservation and received a reservation number, your
reservation is valid.
• If you did not leave a credit card number with your reservation, your
reservation will NOT be cancelled

We wish you a magical visit, Diane!
If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact
us.

Please include your full name, E-Mail address, and reservation number if
applicable on all correspondence.

Sincerely,

Ann Polson
WDW Online Communications

PLEASE NOTE: All information is subject to change without notice and
should be confirmed just prior to your visit.








Original Message Follows:
------------------------
This morning I made a dining reservation via automated system at Be Our
Guest. confirmation # 422331231853 I was not asked for a credit card
to reserve and i am reading online that my reservation will be canceled
b/c of this and b/c the automated system is not supposed to be making
those reservations? Now of course I cant get through again to talk to
someone and provide credit card. help!?

Thank Goodness!

Primary Lunch Buddy is back in the office which means I can relinquish my duties as back up for now and return to less exciting, but hopefully healthier, eating.

Friday I bought some My Fit Meals to eat for dinner Fri. night but then Hubs came home a bit early so we went for a quick bite prior to picking up the little hellions and had this:

Very tasty burger from the Hubble and Hudson grill at the market near my house.  Cheese and ketchup only, medium rare, brioche bun.  My only real quibble is the burger was medium and not med rare.  For me med rare is the only way to go with a burger.  Disappointed it was overdone.  Burger meant the My Fit Meal was languishing in the fridge over the weekend and I had to eat it today before it went bad.  It's a bigger lunch than I would typically go for--the medium sized Tenderloin and Roasted Vegetable dinner comes in at 340 calories.  You can see it's a pretty big meal.

But it's less than inspiring.  I give it a "meh".  No seasoning at all save for some pepper.  I don't dig pepper-only preparation and the fit/diet meals seem to only be able to season with pepper.  Throw me a bone with some garlic maybe?  Anything would be good.  Squash was ok but, again, was just plain.  I dumped salt all over the whole thing before I ate it and was crying b/c I didn't have more salt packets in my desk.  Meat had little to no taste and would have greatly benefited from some A1 or HP sauce.  Today I am feeling the A1 a bit more.  A1 would have been ok with the squash too.  Not so sure I would want to mix HP with boiled squash.

Really don't have much more to say about this.  Thoroughly pedestrian.
 
2.5 on the microwave scale, Not Recommended unless you have to eat it before it goes bad.  I have to say- the Perfect Fit tenderloin meal is better than this, fewer calories (smaller portion) and cheaper too.  The My Fit Meals seem priced kind of high for the quality of the food to me but maybe I am just cheap (actually there is no maybe there.  I AM cheap).

While I'm thinking about it, some additional random thoughts.  On the prepared foods diet front I have done Fresh Diet, which was good but seemed like it was a lot b/c you had to pay for a month at a time.  So, ouch.  I think I did 2 months then stopped.  Less flexibility with meals and eating their stuff 3 times a day 5 days a week was killing me.  The delivery though was awesome.  Hard to argue with someone bringing food to your door.  By the way Fresh Diet--if you want your cooler bag back, call me.  Otherwise I'm gonna keep using it for car trips with my kids.

When I lived in DC I did the Diet-to-Go prepared foods where you order your menu for 3 days at a time and go pick it up at a local gym.  I did both the low carb and the vegetarian menus.  Best thing about these meals is they gave you decent dessert with most meals and you could pick what meals you wanted and how many days a week.  I did breakfast and dinner-usually eating the dinner as my lunch.  I think this was my favorite.  The food was really good.  Limited choices though on the vegetarian menu.  While Perfect Fit and My Fit may not be the best food ever they are easy to get now that they are at the grocery store.  Worst thing about My Fit Meals is the stupid person manning the counter that has to come out and pep talk you anytime you step within 10 feet of the cooler.  So far I have entertained this nonsense but my patience is wearing thin.  You can see that I know what I am doing when I'm looking at the meals.  I'm not asking you for help so please stop talking to me and just let me get my food and go.  I don't want your stupid weight loss vinegar cocktail and supplement bullshit.  I'm not signing up for anything.  Yes, I'm having a nice day.  Step off.  This last time I pretty obviously avoided talking to the guy and just walked off.  It can only go downhill from there.

Other nits that may or may not be worth mentioning.  I made pork sliders with pineapple chutney for dinner Sunday night.  Recipe is from the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival at WDW and you can find it here.  I couldn't make the brioche buns b/c my yeast was old so I wound up making rocks.  We subbed in Kings Hawaiian rolls which are just as good if not better.  I'll try for the brioche rolls another time.  Chutney came out great but stinky to cook.  Very pungent.  Little Dude complained about it all day in fact and then wouldn't try it at dinner.  We basically had to throw out every threat imaginable to get him to eat it and then listen to gagging and moaning from him about how awful it was.  Thanks, buddy.  Recipe was a slow cooker one.  Next time I think I'm taking it to the smoker.  Or half and half.  I think I'll also do more of a rub on it or brine it next time so the meat has more flavor.  The recipe just calls for salt and pepper which is fine but leaves you with some pretty plain pork.  If you don't make the rolls and just do chutney and pork it's a super easy meal.  And now Mama has about 1.5 pounds of pork leftover to eat this week and a lot of chutney.  Sigh.  I'd give this a 3.5 and recommend giving it a try.

Oh almost forgot!  I also made onion rings.  I put "yellow onion" on my shopping list which apparently was too ambiguous for Hubs so wound up with a bag of onions.  Not wanting to later throw out 5 onions I sliced up 2, did a milk soak and basic flour dusting with paprika, salt and pepper and fried 'em up.  Hubs had doubts but conceded they were good.

Breakfast Edition . . .

Working from home today to wait for several repair dudes for various and sundry things that need fixing. After getting everyone to daycare, summer camp and bus stop decided to treat myself to a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks.

Today we have a bacon egg and Gouda on ciabatta bread. Let's just call it what it really is though. An upscale egg mcmuffin. I have lots of love for the egg mcmuffin. Toyed with getting one today but felt like a scrambled egg vs the hard boiled of the mcmuffin. It's all subtleties folks.

Off topic: typically I am all drive thru at Starbucks. Lately though our usual one has been seriously fubar on the drive thru front. Since I was not also getting coffee I thought it might be faster to go in. Holy crap was that place packed. All the tables inside and the patio were full. What the hell do all these people do at Starbucks in the morning? It's crazy.

So sandwich by SB and coffee by me today. SB cannot make coffee better than I can. Not being immodest. It's just a fact. If you like Starbucks coffee try some Cafe du Monde. That is THE Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. If you can't find it at the store get some online. Since I just had a baby I am mainlining caffeine these days. Coffee with chicory is the bomb. A little cream. A little turbinado and you are all set. It doesn't get much better.

Back to my sandwich. I'm just going to jump right in. This sandwich kicks ass. I am a big fan. It's served hot natch but doesn't get all hard if it cools off before you eat it. Clearly 'bucks has magical microwave technology. I can't tell if the egg is real or not but either way it tastes great, is light and fluffy and has good texture. Bacon is really thin which was initially a concern but has turned out ok. You can actually take a bite without having to wrestle with the bacon. Despite the thinness it is distinguishable in the sandwich. Gouda is a nice touch over cheddar and not as greasy as cheddar can be. The ciabatta roll also excellent. Not too chewy. Good consistency. Overall the sandwich is a delight. I think calories are comparable to an egg mcmuffin but I will need to confirm. Off the top of my head I think this sandwich comes in at around 340. Not bad for a filling and hearty breakfast. Hearty for me I should say. If you have a big appetite then this may just be like a snack for you. Try it anyway. And the cafe creme by me was also excellent. Strong but not overpowering. Good flavor. A hint of sweetness but not too much.
So I'll go with a 4.5 here and a recommended.

No idea what lunch will be later. Stay tuned.

 

Ed. Note 8/20:  Checked nutrition and the sandwich is 350 calories. Lunch ended up being a pb and honey sandwich on light wheat bread at home.  The fridge repairman never showed up either.

Taking It Old School . . .

Well, today's lunch was just lovely on several levels.  For one, we walked quite a ways further than is typical some of it above ground.  The tunnels for this part of downtown don't smell like sewage and old ladies like the section we usually haunt.  So that was a nice change to get to lunch not feeling nauseous before we even ate anything.  Again I ate with FLB1 and FLB2 which is always a good time.  Today we ventured out to Benihana's of Tokyo.  Don't laugh, you know you still love it.  We had one where I grew up (that is now some local off-brand hibachi) and that was where my little bro always wanted to go for his family birthday dinner.  And in fact I had my 12th birthday party there.  Nothing like taking a gaggle of preteen girls out for some Japanese hibachi!  Ahh good memories.  No one loves the steak and shrimp combo with bean sprouts more than me.  We didn't eat at the hibachi table on this trip.   FLB1 hates people so we went for a regular table in the lounge that didn't require forced conversation with strangers and just ordered hibachi off the menu.

First, let me just say the joint was rockin'.  The lounge was packed when we showed up at noon.  We actually may have gotten the last table.  Service was slow which was ok with me b/c it allowed for ample time to soak it all in.  I've had hibachi in the last few years, but I think it's been a long time since I was in a legit Benihana. And look- Benihana is doing it's own signature cocktails now!

The MOMO Mojito!  Who wouldn't want to try that? If it hadn't been lunch time I know I certainly would have!  I love that they have a cocktail that can be alternately named after either a peach, anime characters or an episode of Phineas and Ferb.

OMG!  Ducky Momo hates people too!  I think we have just found a new nickname for FLB1.

Our order was one Lunch Boat (me) one spicy hibachi chicken and one hibachi steak.  All came with the little side salad with the ginger dressing.  I think I sucked it down in about 10 seconds.  This is one of my favorite salads.  All side salads should be this good.  Everything was fresh and crispy and the dressing is just the best thing in the world.  If I had a bottle I would probably just drink it straight.  Not an exaggeration.

The Lunch Boat also came with soup.  More lovely.  Piping hot, delish broth with fried onion, scallion and thinly sliced fresh mushrooms.  Next time I don't feel well I'll go get a gallon of this and take it home with me. The simplicity and flavor are magic.

Ok, so the boat finally shows up:

Check it out!  Some tuna sashimi, some sushi rolls, a little tempura shrimp and veggies, hibachi salmon and edamame.  The menu also said it came with "fresh fruit".  This was actually just a section of orange.  In my mind describing a bit of orange as "fresh fruit" is a little over the top even if technically correct.  Edamame was overcooked and a little mushy, also not salted.  But still not bad.  I just threw some salt on myself.  Tuna was excellent as was the partial roll.  The salmon was not a very big piece but then again with all the other food you get you don't really need it to be.  Dipped in the ginger sauce it was fantastic.  Tempura was light and fluffy and not too greasy.  The shrimp didn't have much flavor--easily fixed with soy sauce.  I got 2 shrimps, a zucchini, yellow pepper and an orange thing that may have been sweet potato but could also have been a mushy carrot.  I only ate one bite of that.  Also had a nice bowl of steamed rice.  Appropriate level of stickiness and good flavor.  All that for $10.  That is some good food value right there my friends.  The spicy chicken was a large portion as well.  The steak not as big but then it was steak so I think BH was being a tad stingy with  the portion.  Still a lot of food eventhough Ducky MoMo complained about it.   I left there, and am still, a quite happy camper.  FLB2 was also very pleased to be eating at Benihana so the idiot grin on his face throughout lunch was also rewarding in its own way.  To get Ducky MoMo to go, however, FLB2 had to sell his soul with regard to lunch next week.  Chungry will be back Monday so I was informed I would not be eating with them at all as my services as back up would no longer be required.


No cookies today.  Still full though 2 hours later so maybe I can make it out without feeding my sweets addiction?  I'd say there's a 50/50 chance.

Benihana's of Tokyo (and who knew there was one in Downtown Houston?  Does anyone other than me find that completely random?)  gets a 4 microwaves/stars and a recommended!!

Seriously, Dumplings Again?

Yes, my children.  It is with great sadness that I tell you Lunch Buddy often lacks in lunchtime imagination.  Once he locks on to a food he likes, watch out!  He will make you go with him to eat so often that you quickly reach maximum utility on the food likeability scale.  Since I have blogged about dumplings twice now (I will concede the pork was very fresh today) today I offer a dumpling haiku:

Order dumplings fast

Dip them and enjoy each bite

The food court beckons

Dumplings were followed by a chewy chocolate Great American Cookie.  A nice switch up from the iced sugar at Corner Bakery.  It was indeed chewy and just the right way to top off the dumplings.  Today's venti refresher had a more acceptable lime, rind still questionable looking.  By the way- a tour of the Interwebs tells me that the venti lime refresher has 80 calories.  Not bad.  It does, however, have an insane amount of sugar so we will have to go back to straight black tea.  Whah whah. 

Looking forward to the return of Chungry so I can go back to my Lean Cuisine and get off this cookie carousel.  No, of course I can't just stand idly by and watch people get cookies but not get one myself.  What is wrong with you?  The only way to avoid the cookie is to not stop for a cookie in the first place or just hide out in my office away from all the cookies.

Yeah, Well . . .

Today I am sad to say, lunch was a complete failure.  I should say it was a failure on the food front but a success on the information front.  Why is that you ask?  Because now we know that Pepper Jack's sucks and we don't ever have to go back.  Today I dined with both Favorite Lunch Buddies.  We will call them FLB I and FLB II.  Choosing where to go was left to me and FLB II.  Recognizing that at some point we would have to try Pepper Jack's, a new place, we felt it would be best to just go and get it over with.  Plus Chungry is still out of town and he would have vetoed.  While the cat's away, and all that . . . 

The prior establishment was well known for its poor service and mediocre food.  Surely something new would be an improvement, right?  FLB I cautioned that it was still the same kitchen and didn't have high hopes.  or any hopes at all for that matter.  Turns out he was right.  It would seem that Pepper Jack's  changed some menu items and painted but otherwise it's the same crappy food and bad service.  I didn't get a photo of it, but the front of the PJ menu says, and I am not kidding, "Experience the Wow Factor"  I was wowed only by how disappointed I was and not much else.

Order was two gumbos labeled a signature dish, and a burger. Plain, Mustard Only.  Chips and salsa were brought to the table.  Sidebar: there is not much I like about Chili's but I do really enjoy their hot tortilla chips and salsa and if everyone served the same chips and salsa it would be fine by me.  The PJ chips were just meh.  No salt, not hot, not even like a Tostito level chip.  Lame  Pretty pathetic, honestly, for anyone purporting to be a Mexican Cantina.  Salsa was good.  Personal preference is for something chunkier, but flavor was good.

It also looks like they kept Cabo's glasses or got used plastic ones from somewhere else.  They are big glasses, which is cool.  But if you insist on having an insanely large glass get a bigger straw, and don't give me an iced tea spoon IN the glass that I have to fish out.  I don't really want to stick my fingers in tea to get it out and then use a wet spoon.  Come on man.   That's like Restuarant 101.  

Next we get the entrees.  I'll start with the burger.  So the order was plain mustard only right?  The server had specifically asked "so no tomato, lettuce . . . " etc?  Answer, "No, just some mustard."  Burger comes out with all the shit on it.  Food server is different from who took our order.  Not plain burger pointed out to food server who looks less than pleased and just stops what he is doing, says nothing and takes the burger back to the window.  Burger comes immediately back out plain.  They had just dumped the tomato, onion and lettuce off and put the bun back on.  No mustard in sight.  Waitress notices no mustard and says let me get you some mustard.   This is what she brings out:

I don't know if they aren't really open open yet or what, but who serves burgers and only has prepackaged condiments for dine in?  Burger was overdone and bun was supposedly a pretzel bun--a fact I am pretty certain was not disclosed on the menu.  It just says white or wheat bun.  FLB I says bun was hard as a rock too.  Personal opinion- if you are doing any prep of a traditional food in a non-traditional way that fact needs to be disclosed on the menu.  Even if its just the hamburger bun.  I wouldn't want a pretzel bun for a burger.  Those two things just don't go together.  I'd be a little pissed if I had not been afforded the chance to make a substitution.  Not to mention the overly well done burger which I don't care for.  If you are only making the burger one way--well well done-- then the customer needs to be told burgers come well done or asked "how do you want the burger done?"  Those are just some of my particular eating out nits.

On to the gumbo.  I love gumbo.  It's something that if I see it on a menu I always tend to get it to try it out.  That, and shrimp and grits.  Bad versions are still tolerable, but when you hit a good one it's worth the gamble.  I will save you the trouble and tell you to pass on this one.

The gumbo at Pepper Jack's comes in a big bread bowl.  A big, stale bread bowl that has been oddly toasted to try to hide the staleness, but just makes it more apparent the bread is not fresh.  Have you ever had dried out sourdough bread?  I don't recommend it.  This was almost like crouton level dryness.  Actual gumbo was tasty, but not hot which always makes me nervous (if I get sick later I will let you know) and the portion was tiny.  This was like a cup of soup in a stale bread bowl and then marked up 500%.  The "signature" gumbo put me back $8.29 (I won't get into what a random price that is) and I think it was seriously about 7 bites.  Maybe 8.  Bad food value.  I am all about value so I kind of felt ripped off here.  That is expensive soup right?  Especially for lunch.  And that's it.  No salad or anything comes with it.  It's just the gumbo.  FLB II was also not favorably impressed.

Additional irritations:  One, there were like 4 manager/owner types there all huddled around the orders making sure they went out but not mingling with the people.  If you're doing a soft opening then hello, you better be asking people if the food is any good or seeing if the pretzel bun is fresh.  Two, what is the point of having a restaurant if you are just going to heat up and serve food service food?  I think they actually made the gumbo but everything else was totally standard restaurant food service items.  You can't make your own french fries or find a local bakery for your buns and bread bowls?  And seriously, what is wrong with you that you can't have some better tortilla chips for chrissakes?  You are in Houston Texas surrounded by Tortillerias.  Come ON.  Make an effort.  I'm guessing that you put a lot of money into your little venture.  Make it count or you'll be out of business by Thanksgiving.  Just a suggestion.  And god help you if Gordon Ramsey stumbles into your place.

To make ourselves feel better we all tromped over to Corner Bakery for a cookie before heading back to the salt mines.  Although, FLB-I got to say "I told you so" the entire time we were eating so I think he already felt pretty happy.

I hate to do this, but I have to go with a 1 for Pepper Jack's and a NOT Recommended.  Unless you are just getting beer and no food.  Then I say it's ok.  Chances are those are the only circumstances I would be returning under.

Maybe Chungry is eating better out in Jersey.

Pete and Re-pete

Today was a repeat of last Thursday's mind blowing soup and panini combo at Corner Bakery.  I had it again to see if it would be consistently good.  Soup was still just as tasty although today it was like whoever served it stirred up the pot or got my helping from the bottom of the pot.  WAY chunkier than the other day.  not so bad but I did find out that this soup has big pieces of portobello mushrooms in it?  What's up with that?  Seems out of whack in a Thai soup, but what do I know.  I wasn't loving the mushroom.  Not for taste so much as the pieces of it were all really big, and I have always found portobello's pretty rubbery.  It's not my favorite 'shroom.  Let's chop it up smaller please.  The chunky quality kind of ruins it.  Not every soup on the planet has to have a bunch of crap in it for "substance".  Sometimes it nice to have a hearty soup based on the strength of its broth alone.  Know what I'm saying?  Throw in too much and it becomes stew.  Or something that is not soup, like chowder.  I'd also argue about some of that other soup you have on your menu being "soup"  like baked potato or broccoli cheese.  Do you have broc/cheese? Maybe I am confusing you with someone else on that one.  Anyway-my point is, keep it mellow.  I enjoyed my soup much more last week without all the junk in it.  You have something sublime here.  Don't ruin it for me.

Panini also solid although it seemed unevenly flavorful.  Like some bites were the awesomeness I was expecting and others were good, but not the same.  Bread was buttered and toasted up perfectly though.  I'll give it that.  Most disappointing though, cookie was not fresh.  How did I know?  The edges were hard.  And the edges don't lie.  My Favorite/Other Lunch Buddy had asked me to bring back a cookie, but I couldn't, in good conscience, do that.  No one wants a cookie that isn't fresh.  Seriously Corner Bakery-put them in the half-off old baked goods pile.  That is super lame you are still selling cookies that you made on Saturday, or worst-case scenario, Friday(!).  

Well, of course I ate it.  Duh!

 

By the way- does Corner Bakery reward the cashier who gets the most email sign-ups each month?  There is one chick that works in there that is hitting the email sign up = free cookie thing hard.  I have already signed up for it with two different emails and every time I go in she asks if we want a free cookie.  Trust me, I will let you know if I want to sign up for the millionth time for your email offers and a free cookie.  You know what I should get a free cookie for?  To replace the old one you sold me today at lunch.  You have my email CB.  Make it happen.

And yes, I did run (6 miles!) over the weekend and did an hour of Pilates (= really sore).  Hopefully, I burned off some of those cookie calories from last week.

Still a recommended, but maybe not on Mondays.

Sunday Lunch

Homemade by me. Scrambled egg on wheat. One of my favorite sandwiches of all time. My mom used to make this for me when I was a kid.  Mine run about 250 calories because I use Pepperidge Farm light bread (crazy low calories, not too thick) 1 big egg, a pinch of sea salt with lavender (a gift from Lavender Hill Farm in OK), and a small bit of Miracle Whip. That's right. Miracle Whip. That is not a typo. I don't eat it often, but I am solidly in the Miracle Whip camp and I will not make apologies for it.  I just don't get the point of mayo on a sandwich.  Don't get me wrong- I do cook with mayo.  It just never never ever graces any of my sandwiches as a spread.  And let me just say if you haven't had a scrambled egg sandwich with Miracle Whip you don't know what you are missing. It. Is. Good. The end.

No Big Whoop . . .

As noted in yesterday's post, today (Friday) I was home with my kids because daycare/summer camp/preschool was closed for a teacher work day.

I didn't have any real prospects for lunch and ended up running errands with my oldest, the Little Dude. Little Dude is having a birthday party this weekend and we had some stuff to buy. I wasn't up for McDs or Chik fil a b/c either of those options would commit me to playground time and Mama wasn't about to deal with that nonsense. One thing about Little Dude, my man does not eat much. As in variety. He eats a lot of bread. A lot of crackers. A lot of milk. From time to time a lot of fruit. Not much diversity is what I'm saying here. When he said he would eat at Subway I took it.

LD had the kids' turkey (plain no cheese) on white bread and a choc chip cookie. I had a 6" turkey on wheat with pickles, tomato, Swiss, black olives and oil and vinegar (trust me, this combo of toppings is golden). No lettuce. Most of the time I find lettuce a waste and totally doesnt add anything to the sandwich so I forego. Plus it just looks nasty when it's been sitting out all day somewhere.

Little Dude made me try a bite of his declaring it "so so good". His bread was fresh so yeah, it was not bad. Mine was good. I mean it's Subway so not really much to say about it. I think it was around 320 calories since I got the cheese. Oil and vinegar was just right. I usually have to beg them to put more vinegar on.

Cookies were not fresh.  I'm guessing at least a day old.  I got chastised pretty hard for eating one anyway. Apparently Little Dude had not ordered two for both of us, but one for him and one for Dad.

No photo because it was Subway and we all know what it looks like. Little Dude asked me to take a picture of his sandwich though, and I did take a cookie pic. Can't get much more exciting than plain turkey on white bread!!

The Dude abides.

More Evil Sandwiches

I know, I know. I'm obviously not the master of my own destiny. Primary Lunch Buddy needs to get back ASAP 'cause I'm dying over here with this lunch schedule.

Today was another venture across town to Corner Bakery, however, much higher taste success than last time. Same caloric result more or less though which is bad. Don't worry though. Tonight I'm hitting the Perfect Fit meals and should get some running in tonight or tomorrow. I think I only have to run about 50 miles to burn off the excess. Easy peasy!! (that's a joke y'all. The day I run 50 miles is the day we have the real zombie apocalypse and I'm running for my life).

In all seriousness though people. Today's meal was Unbelievable on taste. Really excellent meal on all levels. Today, I was second chair Back-up Lunch Buddy as someone else took the first back up spot. Second chair was cool though. It means less pressure to entertain and converse. So what did I have that was such a revelation? Just a little 'ole soup combo. A Life Changing soup combo at that.

Now, I know Chungry in particular disputes that CB can put out some good food. What I ordered is usually not his bag, but I challenge him to try it anyway and tell me it doesn't kick some ass.

Despite my knowledge and belief that CB bread is the root of all evil, I forged ahead with a soup and panini combo. Soup I opted for was the new Spicy Thai Coconut and panini was half a California Grille. I ordered to go in case there were leftovers. There were not.

I was a little nervous about the soup. Thai coconut seemed a bit avant garde for CB. Wow though. WOW! I said. IT WAS SO GOOD! A vegetable broth with some red curry and tomato flavors. Light coconut taste that didn't overwhelm. Some small veggie pieces and a hint of chicken. Overall a flavorful yet delicately balanced taste combo. It really knocked my socks off. Kudos to you Corner Bakery. Now just fix your damn chicken tortilla and we're all good.

On to the panini. California Grille is an all veggie panini with some jack cheese. Sounds totally lame and unexciting right? Wrong! I don't know what they put in this thing but it rocked. Melted cheese was awesome. Not too many red peppers ( you know I'm not a fan). Good artichoke, and I think it has spinach too. Honestly, I am just at a loss for words about it.

Both halves of the meal were outstanding but when combined: Shazaam!!! It is some good shit. I would not lie about this. Trust.

But wait? Did you get the cookie?

Is the sun hot? Is the Pope Catholic? Damn straight I got a cookie. And another fine cookie it was. The end.

I'm giving this whole thing a 5. The calories are like a 1 but every now and then I am totally down with getting this. The soup is fine calorie-wise so really it's just the sandwich I have to do without most of the time. Big surprise, too, I RECOMMEND !!

Time to feed my kids now and get down with some veggie chili. Don't hate. It's not bad.

Tomorrow I'm home with the monkeys all day so no telling what will be for lunch.

Miscellany . . .

Another day eating lunch out.  Lunch was a dumpling repeat so nothing more to say on that.  I get the same thing every time.  Small pork; mild sauce. I had chicken once then got sick later in the day.  Coincidence? Doesn't matter.  It was enough to put me off the chicken for eternity.  

Turns out the reason I am eating out so much this week is because I have been designated "Back-up Lunch Buddy" while Primary Lunch Buddy is away on vacation.  I don't have strong feelings about that either way so, whatever.

Since I have already written about dumplings, I'm devoting this post to other aspects of my meal.  Namely; my drink, the location and a Great American Cookie sugar cookie.

I have to tell you, this has been a banner day so far.  First I get a free car wash as a result of Hubs obsessive carwashing, then we get the big booth at the food court for dumplings!  Just the other day I was expressing my desire for the coveted big booth.  Ask and you shall receive.  How it played out was totally sweet.  We walked up right as two gals were packing up their trash, they moved out and we moved in.  I was like the Godfather of the food court sitting in my booth.

it wasn't this booth but one just like it.  Pretty awesome when compared to the little Formica tables and uncomfortable chairs, eh?  So, as you see the dumplings are in a food court in a mall in an office building.  Looks like a pretty depressing place to eat huh?  Hellz yes it is!  I hate going there actually, but the dumplings are enough of a draw plus there is a Chik-fil-a as back up in the event you don't want dumplings.  One thing about the dumpling place- it has crap drinks.  You know this b/c the majority of people who eat there just get the free 8 oz styrofoam cup of water from the cooler they have.  The whole place is primitive even by food court standards.  No fountain drinks, no condiments station just some cardboard boxes of plastic silverware and chopsticks laid out on a table on the way out of the queue and some elaborately fanned napkins.  Oh and this-- an insane amount of plastic bags that some poor sucker had to open up and stack to get ready for boxes of dumplings:

And they have more than just this.  This is the stack on the side of the counter they are not working on.  It is insanity.

Instead of free water I saunter across the path to the Starbucks for some iced tea or something.  Of late I have been enamoured with the new Refreshers drinks with the green caffeine.  Whatever the hell that is.  As long as caffeine is in the name I am all over it.  Refershers come in hibiscus or lime. Have had both but prefer the lime.  Has a nice minty flavor, not really lime at all to be honest but its not as sweet as the hibiscus.  Hibiscus is also good but it has some odd undertone I am not really down with.  So here is a venti refresher:

oooh it looks so cool and . . . refreshing!  I'd like it more if it didn't have so much ice in it.  I feel like I am really paying $4 for a tall with a buttload of ice.  I drink it in about 2 sips and these are pricey.  I'm not usually real excited about paying a lot for a cold drink but the dumplings are cheap so I don't mind in this case.  Now, you see the lime garnish in the drink?  Nice touch right?  Except today it is a nasty dried out lime that had no business being offered up in a drink.

Come on Starbucks.  You can't do better than that?  You need to send someone to retrain your peeps at the Park Shops in downtown Houston. That shiz should be in the trash.  If I wasn't so lazy (which I think we have documented that I am) I would have marched that right back to the Starbucks and asked for a new drink and a fresh lime.  Besides being lazy my other problem is that I can't point these things out without sounding like a dick, so I passed and just threw away the lime.  But really, are you feeling me here?  That is just dried out and brown and way below Starbuck standards. I'm pretty surprised actually that it was even still in rotation to be used.  The rind didn't photograph as brown as it was in reality.

Moving on . . . 

Now we come to the cookie.  Another bonus b/c I got this from Lunch Buddy who had a coupon for buy one get one free. Score!  Although it turns out that a sugar cookie so soon after the Corner Bakery sugar cookie is a bad idea.  This was a Great American Cookie cookie.  It also has frosted sugar but they are of the sugar and crisco frosting family.  It's cool though. I can appreciate that too and like to partake of my fair share of whipped sugar and fat.  Who doesn't?  I just needed more time between Corner Bakery and this.  I mean, it was ok but not a 5.  the CB cookie is a 5 hands down.  On the heels of a CB cookie this one was a 2 or maybe a 3.  It lacks the homemade flavor that makes the Corner Bakery cookie so fantastic.  But you know, it's fine.

See?  Just fine.  In fact, uncharacteristically I did not even finish this.

So overall lunch was good.  Company good, food court is like a 3, dumplings solid, drink good but overpriced despite the nasty lime.  Cookie a 2.  Overall I think that would average into a 3 total experience.  It might have been higher if I had not been Back up Lunch Buddy.

Still considering the blog name change.  All 3 of my readers have failed to opine on the matter.  Obviously I am going it alone here.

Yodi out.

 

No Wonder . . .

 . . . I'm fat.

Corner Bakery is the devil over which I have about zero will power.  Not so much with the lunch menu items, it's really the baked goods that are my Achilles heel.  Although it can be the lunch items if you are not careful.  As with any bakery/cafe the details are in the bread.   The bread is what makes or breaks your lunch.  In the case of Corner Bakery its best to stay away from just about every sandwich unless its plain turkey on rye.  If you get a sandwich make it a half and get a side salad.

Today I went with a soup and salad combo with the chicken tortilla and Santa Fe salad.  I am pretty sure that CB has changed the tortilla soup.  Last time I recall liking it b/c it was chicken broth based and not tomato.  Today it was a spicy tomato base and no chicken.  At least in my bowl.  It was just, meh.  More or less tasted like every other food service chicken tortilla soup.  The salad I don't think I would get again.  For starters it comes dressed and I assumed dressing would be on the side.  I typically don't eat salad dressing on my salads at all.  When I do I don't use very much.  This was drowning in ranch and it was pretty gross.

The Santa Fe is a big chopped salad, even when in combo form so there was a lot to eat.  However the lack of chicken or tomatoes or even cheese, three things that are typically in large supply in a Santa Fe ranch salad, were missing here.  The salad lacked overall flavor, not enough chicken and had too much dressing on it.  Even if I were normal and ate dressing on salads it would be too much.  Plus when the salad has dressing that makes your calorie count shoot way up.  Per the nutrition calculator at Corner Bakery the salad is 420 plus 100 for the focaccia roll it comes with.  If you 86 the ranch and the cheddar cheese you can get that down to 220 which makes eating the focaccia roll a done deal.  Now I loves me some cheese but in this case if it comes down to choosing between the roll and the cheese I am going with the roll hands down.  The focaccia rolls at the Houston Main Street CB are magic people.  If I had the recipe for these I would make them all the time to the detriment of my entire family.  Now 420 doesn't sound like a lot on its own but when combined with a cup of soup at 230 and an iced sugar cookie at 330 you are talking-- YIKES!  You are talking zero to very little dinner.  Like carrots and that's it.  Carrots and water maybe.

True, I do know better than to get the iced sugar cookie.  I got hooked on them when I was pregnant and they are proving to be a hard habit to break.  Kind of like crack . . .from what I've heard.  Have you ever had one?  I challenge you to find or make a better one.  Icing is the real homemade deal, not a thick bunch of whipped up sugar and criso (although at times that can be mighty fine too).  I cannot live without one when I take the time to walk all the way across downtown from my office to eat there.  The cookie has to make the trip back, end of story.

Behold the Cookie.  It even looks like something your friend's mom who bakes better than your mom made.

If I can't get the cookie then I'm really not even going to waste my time walking over there.  I can find some crap to eat for lunch much closer... that is the kind of power the cookie has.  I'm tellin' you man.  Mmmmmmm.

Recommend Corner Bakery in general, but not this meal--EXCEPT FOR THE COOKIE.  Salad was a 2 and the soup this trip was a 3.  Last time it was a 4.  I swear I am remembering it right.  It was different, and better.  Speaking of better, hopefully tomorrow I will do better with lunch.  I sent Hubs to the store for Lean Cuisine's so it was dealer's choice on the meal.  I'm not even sure what is in the freezer right now.  That should be fun!

don't forget to leave room for dessert!