Travel Meals II

Ok. Was almost out of battery earlier and not able to do lunch from today.

Lunch was a French onion soup and then a sandwich bar kind of thing. But it was a nice sandwich bar that had some cold salads, greens, cold meats and cheeses and some hot meats. The hot meat was corned beef and something called Montreal Smoked Meat. Smoked meat was good but the corned beef was dry and too thinly sliced and a weird flavor. Also. Get ready. Montreal meat was hot. French onion soup however was not. Really? You can't do hot soup? So weird

Good greens and tomatoes. Also olives and cornichons. I am a sucker for those as we know. Had roast beef on a nice piece of some whole grain bread with brown mustard. Good amount of food.

Desserts more meh. Creme brûlée was not a real brûlée. Hard to explain. More Like just straight up custard. The brownies were dry which made me think they were old. Dinner is offsite so lets see what that brings.

Travel Meals

So I'm in Banff this week for work at an in house conference. Staying at the Fairmont Banff springs hotel. Common areas and exterior very nice. It's a behemoth of an hotel and an old one at that. I don't know how the rooms in other wings are but where I am it's a bit disappointing as I expected more from a Fairmont. Very bland decor. Not plush feeling. Just average. Tiny bathroom. My room is supposed to be an upgrade. If I were paying for this I think I'd be pissed. View of mountains and parking garage (the "parkade"  Canadians are so cute). Meh.

Dinner last night was with about all my coworkers from Houston. We are a rowdy bunch so company was good. Food was not. Forced to eat late and somewhere that could accommodate all of us we went to Bow Valley Grill. Had two tables of 6. Server very unenthused to see us. Took drink orders then never offered a refill the rest of the night. Huge black mark in my book as it's one of the things I rank service on.

Our table ordered a ton of apps. Seemed promising but very expensive for portion size, i.e. portions were teeny tiny. Pork tostada tasty but not hot. Same with the lobster gnocchi and the shrimp. The hotel seems to consistently have trouble with serving hot food. As in it is incapable of doing so. Coffee not hot. Hot water for tea not hot. Nothing is hot. And if I notice then you can bet it is a problem.

Next entrees come out. Table 2 almost all exclusively ordered meat and all reported terrible meals and food value. Our table was a little more varied. I had risotto. Someone else had halibut. Presentation was good. Especially the halibut my sartorial colleague ordered. My risotto had too much parsley on it and was topped with a ball of cream cheese rolled in parsley. Ewww. I had to jettison the cream cheese.  That is just kra-kra to put cream cheese on risotto.   Taste was ok though. Creamy without cream. My preference. Dessert was buffet. Got several things. All poorly executed and lacking in flavor. I don't know if Fairmont can't get food up the hill or what, but food quality very disappointing particularly in light of the hotel class the Fairmont is in. Sartorial liked his halibut but the bite he shared with me I found rather bland although the degree of doneness was just right.

The other table was miserable with their bad meals. All entrees were pretty costly too which made the badness that much worse.

I can only go with 2 microwaves and a not recommended despite the strength of the appetizers b/c they were cold and very small portions.

Luby's Goodness . . .

And other meals.

Monday I probably shouldn't bother with. Was dealing with appointments at home and running late to office. Lunch was a cherry chiller from the good people at the Mac Donald's ( only funny if you saw SNL last thurs) in the car. Once at work I had some Melba toast and Boursin cheese.

Tuesday was Luby's with Ducky Momo and FLB2. One word on FLB2 For ease of reference I think I need to call him something else. Chungry calls him Kingwood Boy but I think that is devoid of any creativity. From hereon out FLB2 will be known as Twist is this blog. If you have ever seen Fresh Beat Band you know who Twist is. In all honesty he only vaguely resembles Twist but once I made the connection I couldn't see Twist and not see FLB2. So Twist it is.

Where was I? Ah yes. Luby's. went with the three veggie platter bc one of my fav things at Luby's is the sides. Fried okra, green beans and broccoli rice casserole. Okra was frozen out of a bag which can be good but this was cold and had been sitting out a while. Green beans were good though. Broc/rice casserole was ok. Room for improvement. Very soupy and highly peppered. I didn't really have an issue with the pepper. The soupiness though was a problem.

The guys got fried chicken and gave mixed reviews. One liked it and one was not impressed.

More later on my Calgary eats. So far not off to a good start.



As much as I'm a fan of Luby's I have to rate this a 3 overall. I will give a shout out to our server who was phenomenal. I can't remember his name but his attention to detail was so good we left him a pretty generous lunch tip. Which is a big deal because we are picky and cheap.

And Then . . .

Oh my, busy week and now jetting off to Calgary for a work meeting in Banff. Poor me.

Friday I cannot recall what I ate. Oh yes! Hubs and I had to return some running shoes so went at lunch to Rice Village for lunch. Parking was tight so rather than try to repark near our initial objective, Bombay Brasserie we went to Sweet Paris down from the running store.

Tiny little hole in the wall with robins egg blue walls and white marble cafe tables. It felt like Latin quarter Paris vs old guard right bank. Very fresh and funky. Bonus: actual French people eating there!

SP styles itself a creperie AND cafe however it's really just a creperie. The cafe part must be a nod to the one sandwich they have on the menu. We ordered up a smoked salmon crepe a Houstonian (egg and sausage and potato) and a Nutella with strawberries for dessert.

One word. Yum.
Crepes were just right. Not chewy or rubbery cooked a perfect golden brown. Fillings could have been hotter but overall nice flavor combos and we each ate every bite.

Generally not a Nutella fan but I have to say with the strawberries mixed in this was fabulous. We killed it. And indeed our plate did look sort of a bloody mess when we were through. Strawberries masticated just right and not too much sugar added. No overuse of Nutella. A great balance.

My favorite part was the table full of darling older French gentlemen we sat near. Magnifique!

4.5 and recommended

Repeat x 2 . . . .

Two repeats.

Yesterday was the weekly dumpling foray.  As I have noted before I don't get a drink at Doozo, I go to Starbuck's for the refresher (which had a fresh lime slice, thank you very much) and a black tea for Ducky Momo.  Ducky Momo meanwhile waits in line for the dumplings in a perfectly synchronized ordering sequence.  So yesterday he ordered me a combo, which was supposed to be a chicken and pork combo.

What happened was a veggie and chicken combo.

Fav Lunch Buddy 2 had previously cautioned that the veggie dumplings were gross so I was not excited when I figured out that there was no chicken hidden in amongst the spinach.  But, I have to say they were rather tasty and a nice surprise.  The filling was like spinach pie with cellophane noodles.  I liked it so much I may add it to the dumpling rotation.  Added bonus, we got the Don Corleone booth.  It was faced a weird direction though so this was the view:

Today was lunch with a good friend at Treebeard's b/c it is right in the middle of our two office locations.  I was so jazzed to see her I totally forgot to take a picture.  Imagine a small bowl of shrimp étouffée and squash casserole.  I always get the étouffée.  On rare occasions I will get the gumbo.  Excellent as always although could have been hotter temperature wise.  Squash casserole was much better than last time.  I don't like my squash casserole crunchy with crisp squash.  I like it as mushy as it can before before its just squash pudding.  Today was perfection.  Nicely well done squash, good bread ratio and just the right amount of seasoning.  I could have sat there eating it all day.  4.5 for étouffée and a 5 for the casserole on this visit.  Huzzah!

Alas, now I must go try to find a doctor that does hernia repair.  What kind of a doctor is that?  I'm going with internist.  Wish me well!

Dinner

Bacon.

Trader Joe's Uncured Applewood Smoked Bacon.

Mmmmm bacon. . . .

Monday Monday . . . .

hahaha! It's really Tuesday.  I was traveling yesterday so totally forgot what day of the week it is.  Too lazy to go change my title.

Brought lunch today in the form of the second half of my Trader Joe's chicken enchiladas that I ate for dinner last week.  One package is 4 enchiladas and it's about $5 so a really good value.  Another bonus-- THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!  I'll just tell you right now I'm giving it a 5.  Sorry to spoil the surprise for you.

 this is actually a cross section of 4 enchiladas

close up-- look at all the chicken y'all!

Lots of chicken, but not overdone.  Good cheese to sauce ratio.  Great ranchero sauce.  I'm a repeat customer on these enchiladas.  They are muy delicioso as Dora (and my Daughter) would say.  And for today's in office lunch I am shaking things up a bit by eating on the other side of my desk!  Why is that a big deal?  I always eat on the right side out of view of the doorway.  If I eat on the left side then my lunch and my eating it are in full view of anyone who comes in or walks by if my door is open.  And today it happens to be open.  I'm trying to share the Trader Joe's goodness with the office. By stinking up the hall with my enchilada.  Any minute now the gal in the office next door is going to pop out like a SWAT team and spray everything down with some Lysol.  That's how she rolls.

In summary- 5 microwaves, awesome.  If you have a Trader Joe's near you buy these.  You will not be sorry.  If you are, I don't care to know about it thank you very much.

Misc. Round-up . . . .

Get a snack. It's a long one . . .

Ok- so no photos of anything I ate over the weekend . . .no scratch that. I do have pics from Sat. night dinner at Tommy Bahamas.  Coconut shrimp app and crab stuffed shrimp with a Hurricane followed by a jalapeno mojito.  Drinks all excellent.  The mojito had a nice bite to it.  Coconut shrimp always good at TBs.  Consistency I have come to find is very hard to pull off, but I have to say every time we go to TBs we get this app and it is always prepared the same and always good.  Kudos to Tommy Bahamas kitchen staff!

hurricane

 

coconut shrimp

My main complaint with TBs is the bread and butter combo.  I don't care for the bread.  It's some kind of white bread that is not sourdough, my fav, but not a plain white dough either.  Butter it comes with is a cinnamon honey butter that doesn't add anything to the bread.  Just give me some regular butter please.

Crab stuffed shrimp were very nice.  My usual dish is the Thai shrimp and scallops--also always excellent.  I also like the pulled pork sandwich they have there too although I do find the blackberry BBQ sauce to be a little heavy handed for the pork.  Anyhoo-- crab stuffed shrimp-yum!  Dusted with a little too much spice but overall very nice.  Would not have gone with a mashed potato I don't think but then not sure what I would have done instead. Spinach seemed to have little to no seasoning so it was too bland for my personal preference.

 crab stuffed shrimp with chili sauce

No dessert.  We had to run to go get a movie (and it was kind of super depressing Hope Springs so dessert and more drinks would have been the more entertaining way to go).

Hurricane is a 5, the other 2 shrimps I will give a 4 since part of the goodness scale is whether or not I could eat it every day.  While I love me some shrimp, not sure  I could pull off shrimp prepared either of these 2 ways EVERY single day.

On to my business trip to Calgary!

Stayed at a lovely boutique Hotel le Germain.  Only thing that bothered me is the room was full of ambient lighting so not only did I feel like I could never get it bright enough, there were also a billion stupid switches to mess with.

Breakfast was continental is the le Germain Mount something or other room.  Fairly standard, cereals, yogut, toast, pastries and . . .  what a nice surprise, some cold cuts and cheese!  No, that is not sarcastic.I was thrilled to find some ham and cheese along with fresh strawberries and home made croissants.  the croissants were authentic and to die for.  Strawberries were some of the freshest I have had in a while and the meat and cheese was standard but nice when paired with the other two items.  All told it made for a lovely breakfast.

I would give this a 5.

plate of awesomeness

 

Moving on to lunch with a couple of my Calgarian co-workers . . .  it was an exceptionally fine day in Calgary so we opted for some rooftop patio dining at West.  We shared the fried calamari appetizer (calamari was previously frozen but the breading was nice and light and peppery), then I had the crab and mac n cheese.  I am usually reluctant to get mac n cheese dishes out due to the propensity of cooks to add too much cream in with the cheese and making the dish way too rich so you eat about 5 bites then are done.  I put my fears aside and ordered and was happily rewarded with a delightful dish of tender macaroni with prosciutto, crab and Gruyere cheese.  I did not taste even a hint of cream.  It was a great combination of flavors, not too heavy even with the cheese and best of all I was able to eat most of it and enjoyed every bite.  My only complaint might be that some larger lumps of crab meat were in order. Ideally a 5 but at the end of the day, too rich to really pull it off so I will go with a 4.5.  An excellent mac and cheese.

With some very minimal arm twisting I convinced everyone to order a dessert.  We had a lovely trio of dark chocolate something (that I think said mousse but it was really like getting two candy bars or a flourless cake or something), a sweet potato cheesecake and a strawberry and rhubarb panna cotta.  I think we all agreed that the panna cotta was the best.  Very subtle flavors, great texture.  The cheesecake was also really really tasty.  Very light, not overwhelmed with the sweet potato and a nice caramelly finish.  The chocolate I will give a 4, the cheesecake a 4.5 and a 5 for the wonderful panna cotta.  If you're in Calgary I would recommend this restaurant.  West in the mall on 7th Ave, eh.

Finally, we have my meal on the plane.  A cold salmon with some wild rice and tabouli salad with a lemon cheesecake and a very pleasant Shiraz.  I'm not super hip to cold entrees. This was ok. I liked it better than the cold chicken salad that I got last time.  What is it with return trips and cold entrees?  Going with a  4 for the salmon, 5 for the wine and a big fat 0 for the other 2 parts of the meal.  The lemon cheesecake was gross, with too much fake lemon taste.  And really, do you know what it takes for me to call any kind of dessert gross and give it a 0?  You can trust it was not good, let me just put it that way.  The rice and tabouli salad was also gross.  too much red pepper, no seasoning that I could discern and it didn't taste like the rice and tabouli were cooked  through.  Not one of the better moments in airplane chefery.  I'll just leave it at that.  The wine however I sincerely liked very much and would like to know what it was.  If you are on Air Canada and have some shiraz tell me what it is!!

Kind of Meh . . . .

Today I not only rejected leftovers but also a free hot dog compliments of work.  I had intentions to get the hot dog then showed up and saw they were handing out those giant 1/4 hot dogs and got kind of grossed out.

Instead I tagged along with Chungry, Ducky Momo and another co-worker to Barnaby's Cafe.  It's kind of a hipster mod cafe with comfort food.  I had a hard time finding something to eat that was a) under $12 and b) not real heavy.  I ended up with a small Caesar salad and chicken quesadilla appetizer.

I was initially going with the house salad not even realizing there was a Caesar.  The server mentioned it and I fell right into the trap.  I did try to determine what type of Caesar dressing it was, mayo based or the real thing and got a look like I was stupid.  Apparently most people don't know there is a right way and wrong way to do Caesar dressing.  The only info I got was it was mustard based.  I thought that sounded like it might have potential so I said ok.  And of course my faith in one's ability to make a good Caesar dressing was rewarded with completely mediocre dressing.  No bite at all.  No anchovy paste.  Just an over abundance of fresh Parmesan.  I guess you could consider the Parmesan a plus being fresh vs. the stuff out of the shaker.  Sidebar, I was a young adult before I even knew Parmesan came in another form other than a green shaker or was "fresh". 

Quesadillas were not bad.  shredded chicken in a sort of ranchero sauce with green chiles.  The pepper pieces were big enough I thought at first there was asparagus in the quesadilla.  Instead of a flour tortilla the chicken and chiles came on a wheat wrap that was surprisingly nice and tender.  Helping was large enough that I could have easily just had this for my entire lunch.  After the disappointment of the salad I should have just had this.

Our table was really tiny so sitting 4 was pretty close quarters and none of us are just huge.  Drink refills were abundant though, and I always appreciate that.  Restaurant was a little loud for me.  Not to sound like an old person, but it was hard to hear anyone I was eating with.  I'll have to go back and try something else.  Lemonade comes in an old milk bottle so you get more than the one glass which is nice.  Desserts looked good but we didn't get any.  maybe next time i will get another appetizer and a dessert.  Hmmmmm . ..

I won't recommend the salad but I will the overall restaurant and the quesadilla app.  On rating I will give it a 3.5

This weekend I get rid of the remaining leftovers.  I'm making sangria like crazy so all the red wine that got opened doesn't go to waste.  I think I will have at least a bottle left to deal with.

Possibly Not Even Worth Writing About . . .

But I will anyway.









  
I did not eat this today.  It looks good though doesn't it?  It's Chicken Paprikash from foodtv.com  I may have to try it for dinner one night.  If for no other reason than to see if you really can prepare it in 20 minutes as advertised.  I love "easy" meals that you are supposed to be able to cook real quickly on a weeknight but somehow they turn into a major production between boiling water and chopping things and what not.  If you really want to eat something in 20 minutes then just give me like 2 or 3 things that are in a jar I can dump out together and heat up.  End of story. 

My lunch was the last of the beef tenderloin from Saturday night, and a big helping of Melba toast with Boursin cheese.  Neither of those things make a great photo which is why I have a pic of something else.  I slightly warmed the meat but not enough to fundamentally change the doneness from medium rare.  Found some salt in the kitchen and there you go.  Lunch.  I ate the toast and Boursin while on a conference call that someone had the nerve to schedule during lunch.  It is not cool to be on a lunch call where the majority of the people are in one location getting a catered lunch while you and 2 other saps sit at your desk not eating or eating cheese and Melba toast.  No offense to the cheese and Melba toast.  I have a crazy wicked weakness for Melba toast anyway. 

I had dessert today too.  The office had chocolate cream pie in honor of Chungry turning 50.  You would never think he is that old to look at him.  That, plus he has the appetite of a much younger man.  Oh and now it seems we have cupcakes for the occasion too!  Strictly for research and blogging purposes I will go get a cupcake. . . .

Hmm they all seem to be chocolate or look like they are all chocolate.  No one seems to know what they are.

This seems to be chocolate with some vaguely mocha tasting frosting.  It's ok.  Moist, but I still think I prefer the baby bundt cakes.  Now I need a glass of milk.  That was overkill.

so, where was I? oh yeah.  Don't need to rate my meal b/c it was more of the same leftovers.  That is about as boring as having dumplings over and over again. You know who you are.  As far as the desserts go I can't even say that it's fair to rate a chocolate cream pie.  I mean can you ever have a bad one of those?  How do you screw up whipped cream and pudding?  In the alternative, is it possible to make a really outstanding choc cream pie?  I like them but can't say that I have ever had one that was WOW.  As a general pie category I will give the chocolate cream pies of the world a 3.  The cupcakes I may refrain from rating all together.  They are so subjective.  These for me were just meh.  Best thing about them was that the frosting was not cream cheese or buttercream.  I'm guessing a ganache.  Maybe it's time we all stop with the $3 cupcakes and go back to making them with a box of cake mix and frosting in a can?  Please?

It's NOT leftovers!

Hey guys, guess what?  I'm finally eating that stupid Lean Cuisine Pad Thai that I brought to work over a month ago.  Good thing it's frozen huh?  Yeah, I just couldn't take the leftovers anymore even though they are not bad as far as leftovers go.  Luckily someone else at work wanted some so I packed a bunch up and hauled it in today.

Oh sorry.  It's not Pad Thai.  I'm having "Thai-style noodles with chicken".  Good grief.  And again, just when I think I have the photo orientation thing figured out it goes and pops it sideways on me.  I hate that.

So I have to say that while I love Thai food, pad thai  Thai-style noodles with chicken is not really my thing though.  Peanut sauce is so all over the place.  Never consistent and it's just too hard to tell what you will get unless you are eating someplace with a proven peanut sauce record.  This is not a restaurant but proves my point.  This is just nasty.  So much so I am not sure I can even choke it all down.  This from someone who can generally eat most things whether they are any good or not.  This is just gross.  It's too saucy for one and it's two sweet.  I feel like I'm eating noodles drenched in Peter Pan peanut butter.  Actually it's more like peanut butter plus a 1/4 cup of sugar.  I've always found Peter Pan to be the sweetest of the commercial peanut butters.  For a sandwich that's great.  For "Thai-style noodles with chicken" it is most decidedly not.  No, not fine at all.  Spice level is the only thing good about this.  I just can't even say anymore.  And now I have waited so long to eat I can't even go get anything else b/c all the lunch places have stopped serving.  Granted, that one is on me but I wasn't expecting this to be so yucky.  Well, I think you have heard all you need to about this so I will just cut to the chase.

I'm going with a 1 microwave and a not recommended, unless of course you like overly sweet gross peanut flavored stuff.  In that case, go for it.

More leftovers . . .

The parade of leftovers continues.  Last night for dinner I had a curry chicken tender.  Marinade going on was very paste-like but I'll tell you what, makes for a good moist meat post grill.

Today for lunch I am having leftover pulled pork from my sliders and broccoli salad.  Most people make broccoli salad with raw broc.  I am not so much a fan of the broccoli raw so I do a flash steam first then chop it and add cheese, bacon (duh), grapes, tomato and red onion.  Dressing is a mayo, vinegar, sugar combo thing.  Very tasty.  Even 3 days later it still is pretty crisp even with the dressing on it.

I used a filter on this.  The food really wasn't so faded.  On the paper plate it just made me think of a church potluck. I think my forte is making church potluck comfort food type stuff.  And, it's just what I like anyway.  Cookie was not part of the leftovers, but we will get to that in a  minute. 

The pulled pork is super tender and has retained good flavor sitting around in the fridge in fat and juices.  However, and I can't believe I am about to say this, it is a tad on the salty side.  A little too salty even for me, a salt whore.  Roll is King's Hawaiian.  Nothing to say about this.  It's one of the best things on the planet period.  I'd like to thank my mother for introducing this to me as a child and ruining my life forever.  King's is sold in abundance here in Texas.  It was hard to find back east so I didn't eat them often which was cool.  Now that they are everywhere I buy them all the time for my kids and end up eating more of them than I should.  #1 Son likes to make turkey sandwiches with them. Specifically, open face turkey sandwiches.  I get the what-for if I put the turkey on the roll like a regular sandwich and send it to school that way. It's the little things.

Cookie was free in the kitchen from Frank's Pizza.  Why Frank's makes cookies I've no idea.  But it was there and it's oatmeal raisin so I took it.  It's a big cookie so doubt I will eat it all.  Overall not bad.  tastes like Otis Spunkmeyer dough, so I'm putting my money down that is in fact what it is.  Otis has his place.  It's not awful, but I prefer something else.  Clearly not as good as homemade or Au Bon Pain even.

I'll have to give myself a 3.5 or even a 3 on this meal.  it's kind of heavy to do more than once in a week.  Although if you come to my house and I've made it fresh for you I'd give it a 4 and def recommend it.  I sent some pork home with people so will have to do an informal poll.

Tomorrow I might bring in the chicken and potato salad.  We shall see.  I also have a ton of crackers, Boursin cheese (OMG how good is that stuff?) and olives.  Hubs says I need to stop with the olives and cheese and crackers b/c I am the only one who ever eats them.  Prob. so.  I also have a jar of cornichons from Trader Joe's.  They are heavy on the vinegar and light on the dill and garlic so not sure if I will be able to finish them.  Granddad may have to come in as Closer on that one.

Leftovers

Looks like this week I'll be eating all the leftover food from our party. Today it's cold beef tenderloin. I kinda like to eat leftover red meat cold. Not sure why. Mostly good meat like steak and tenderloin. Cold with salt. That's it. Originally this was grilled with a mustard rub with some hickory smoke Made a nice crust. Maybe next time I'll do a salt crust. In any event, it turned out nicely so yay me! Good cold too. I was in a hurry to leave the house this morning and didn't get any sides to go with. Lunch is just a big helping of red meat. Definitely need something else to eat. My attempts to avoid sweets have proved futile thus far. Depressing. To say the least.

On the up side I ran 7 miles this weekend. However I also aggravated a sore knee from last week. Today I can barely walk which is no fun. Reminds me, I need to go get my ice pack out of the freezer and put it back on.

Busy Bee

Cooking all day for party tomorrow.
Pork sliders
Curry chicken
Beef tenderloin
Cajun shrimp and rice
Broccoli salad
Potato salad
Burnt green beans
Spicy tomato cheese grits
Sangria.

And a picture of my lazy ass cat.

What the hell?

Boooooo. Afternoon snack, fruit no cookies. What's wrong with you? Who ordered this?

More catch up . . .

Today is a work lunch. Having apple walnut salad w/ blue cheese and balsamic vinegarette. Pretty good. Oh, it has chicken too. Not too dry. Has raisins though which is weird right? Overall happy with it. Would prefer more candied walnuts however.



Back to Tuesday, I was tapped to go get dumplings. No, I'm not kidding. More stupid dumplings. I went, but broke away to Au Bon Pain where I had a soup and salad combo with Tuscan white bean and the tomato mozzarella pesto sandwich. Soup, very nice. Beans not too hard. Nice and mushy the way I like them. Sandwich was as good as I recall except for the addition of lettuce on the TMP which is just stupid. Does nothing for it and no reason to have it. Pesto was nice and garlicky. This sandwich used to be a staple of mine years ago when I lived in NYC until I found out it had like 1500 calories. ABP doesn't do the French baguette anymore. It's a multigrain roll now that I think has contributed to the marginally lower calorie count. ABP has a nice nutritional plate calculator online where you choose your meal and it adds it up for you. Similar to the Corner Bakery one, but for some reason I find this one a tad more user friendly. And of course, I wrapped it up with a cookie. Here, I go for the oatmeal raisin. Nice and chewy, but not mushy in the middle. Good crispy sugary coating on the outside from the brown sugar, and not too many raisins. Yum. Did not look up calories because I didn't want to depress myself.

Wednesday was another work function lunch. This one was out of office and catered BBQ. Meh. Everyone was given a mandatory rib, slice of brisket and sausage link. If it had been up to me I would have just had the links. They were great. Brisket and rib, not so much. Very dry. Beans and cole slaw good though. Both sweet which is what I like. Dessert was pecan pie and chocolate chip cookies.  I didn't get either one.  Usually I love pecan pie but this looked like all filling and no pecans, which I don't like.  Would have gotten a cookie afterwards but Fav Lunch Buddy2 said it wasn't worth it.  The cookies were all crunchy as if overbaked but had good flavor.  I skipped and just had Trader Joe's oreos when I got home that night.  I think they are called Joe Joe's.  That name makes me laugh.  The box weighs about ten pounds.  No idea what they put in those things to make it that heavy.  Do natural ingredients weigh more than fake/manufactured ones?  Why is there air?


























Ok. Time to return to discussion of TBO. People looking at me like what in the world am I doing on my phone?

Otto's salad I'll give 3.5. ABP a 4 and both recommended.
Yay!