Jan 3, 2012

Food Updates

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I owe you some serious food updates! It would be unreasonable to assume that I haven’t been taking full advantage of the holiday season and enjoying lots of tasty treats! It seems that the holidays also create a good excuse to try new restaurants and to hang out with friends =) so yea we have been doing a lot of that.

But when I’m not out with friends trying new places and eating delicious food, I try to keep myself grounded at home and really try hard to eat good for your food and lots of protein. I have been running a lot so I have been trying to get some fairly large breakfasts in with lots of goodness on the plate! I love the combo of eggs (2 please!) and the Jennie O’s turkey sausage patties! Those are DELICIOUS and I will be purchasing those again for sure! I HIGHLY recommend you try these if you like turkey sausage.

But putting aside the good for you food we have been eating some not so good for you food too but it has been fun! Good thing I have been running and working my butt off in the gym so I don’t feel too bad eating this food. There is something to be said for having a balance in your life- you should be able to enjoy going on to dinner with friends and not worry about the calorie intake all of the time. I think as long as you have a balance and you take good care of your body that you shouldn’t worry about those times you want to go out and indulge a little. Our treat the other night was a new restaurant at Summit Mall in Akron, OH called The Rail. It was our first time there and we enjoyed the night with Kara, Dana, Tiffany, and Brett and it was DELICIOUS. Tim and I are both huge fans of burgers and this place has all times of good burgers so it was a hard menu to sort through!

We also got a great deal on drinks! They were selling a winter seasonal beer for $1 a glass since they were trying to get rid of it! They must have really liked our table because they even brought over 2 free glasses toward the end of the dinner! We will be back for the food and the drinks! Plus, I thought the service was GREAT and my burger that was topped with an avocado spread was hard to put down.

oh yes and a spicy mayo sauce!

Kara made her own burger and it had some very thick cut and delicious looking bacon!

and yes I am well aware that I have a beautiful best friend!

It is so nice to try new places with good friends… especially when the food is so delicious. What I really liked about The Rail was that they had veggie burgers and turkey burgers along side the regular burgers on the menu so anyone could eat a burger there! They also had sandwiches like BLT and Chicken Sandwiches which is always a nice way to mix things up if you are not feeling a burger. Oh and I should mention they also have drink specials every night including a Long Island special and Friday and Saturday nights… I have a feeling Tim will be suggesting this shortly!

One side of the table

The other side of the table

We also had the chance to have little Christmas/New Years lunch celebration with Paul and Amanda and House of Hunan in downtown Akron. We planned on going to 3 Point Restaurant where Tim and I have been before and LOVED but as it turns out A LOT of places were closed on Monday to celebrate New Years Day… understandable I guess… I didn’t have to work either! Tim is sick and this was the first day of him feeling awful so we didn’t get to celebrate much after dinner but I still managed to have some SUSHI for lunch =)

 It was a HUGE roll and tasted delicious! It was a spicy tuna with crunchy on the outside and some spicy sauce on top as well =) As you know I am a huge fan of SOY SAUCE so that is always one of my favorite parts =) Sadly, that is 100% true.

So yes, sometimes I still cook! Tim’s mom’s birthday was the other night and she does a GREAT job on our birthdays always cooking our favorite meal. She even has a “you’re special” plate that the birthday kid gets to eat on and I didn’t have that plate but I still made her some dinner. You may know that I am a HUGE fan of Robin’s stuffed shells and I ALWAYS ask her to make them so one year she gave me a great new pan for shells and the recipe.. and well I hadn’t really taken advantage of that yet so I finally did! Tim and I made stuffed shells and the puff and paired it with a salad and garlic bread. Gary and Robin came over for dinner and we celebrated!

The stuffed shells mixture

Looks pretty impressive right? Maybe I am a good cook

My delicious plate

Oh and no birthday is complete without an ice cream cake! This we bought from the grocery store and this is what I LOVED about it… you know from Dairy Queen the ice cream cakes have that layer of like chocolate crunchy layer and I love that layer but this cake was the best of both worlds… they actually combined the chocolate part of the ice cream cake with the crunchy goodness mixed in. So it wasn’t like you had to just eat the one layer- you could eat the entire cake ha… now that I think about it- is that a good thing for or a bad thing?!

Robin blowing our her one tea light candle (yea I was out of birthday ones)

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Dec 22, 2011

A pseudo pig in a blanket

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Sometimes I think I am psychic. Sometimes when I say that people think I am psycho but nevertheless it was like I was born to make pigs in a blanket. Tim and I love making the little wienies wrapped in a croissant for parties and when we are going to have friends over. They are just absolutely delicious and dipping them in all sorts of delectable sauces makes them that much better. I am a huge fan of honey mustard but we never seem to remember to buy it at the grocery store so instead I do a nice ketchup ha. Nothing nice about it actually – just ketchup.

So when Tim asked me what we should have for dinner, I thought about what was in the fridge and ready to go. We had some Jennie O’s turkey sausage (from our slightly embarrassing grocery shopping trip) so I thought about the weird things we could do with this sausage stuff. Since I love little piggies and blankets I figured I would be a big fan of big piggies and blankets.. and I was.

So on the car ride home I said let’s do pigs in the blanket but turkey sausage style. For some reason Tim was reluctant but agreed in the end. We went home and for some odd reason Tim started to look at the packaging (perhaps for a better idea for dinner?) and there it was BAM! A picture and recipe for these delicious turkey sausages to be in a blanket (or croissant- whatever you want to call it). So Tim accuses me of cheating and seems irritated that I pretended that this idea was mine and claimed it for my own which he would ever right to do IF I had ever seen that picture on the packaging.

They read my mind!!

So this brings me to my psychic abilities. Either that or I just have a knack for sausage but in any case I recommend this meal to anyone! It was just delightful and downright easy to make!

Piggy's cookin!

Oh yea I forgot to mention the shells and cheese!

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Dec 13, 2011

Umm are you hungry or what?

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So on the weekends Tim and I LOVE to make breakfast. I’m not talking about 1 egg and maybe a slice of bacon either- i am talking about the whole shabang! Everything but the kitchen sink kind of breakfast (which is also a delicious wine that you should try). The other day was no exception and when we woke up that morning, we were on a mission!

Yes, this was my plate!

So yea as you can see we splurged a little and had french toast, eggs, Jennie O’s sausage (SOOO GOOD), and some potato hash-brown things (which we took out of Tim’s mom’s freezer that is how bad we wanted them). Everything was delicious!

Tim claims that I am a pretty stellar french toast make and well I’m not one to disagree so I suppose I am pretty good (either that or he just hates having to flip the things) but in any case I thought I would share my recipe. It’s nothing fancy and I was always under the impression that everyone knew how to make french toast but apparently that is NOT the case so here it goes

I use eggs (usually egg beaters), milk, lots of cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla. I never follow any type of ratio and I certainly don’t measure things out but that is all there is too it. Depending on the thickness of the bread- let it soak in the mixture for a minute, flip it over and let that side soak and then throw it on the griddle!

Easy and Delicious- 2 of my favorite things!

As you can see I threw the sausage links right on there too! They were part of our awesome purchase at Acme the other day where we used an enormous amount of $3 off coupons. I’ll continue buying them though because they were so tasty! Nothing like some turkey sausage to start your morning off right!

I put Tim in charge of the eggs!

He minded this picture more than he minded the task of being the egg master!

And then we chowed down on a delicious bfast!

Oh and I should mention that Tim ALWAYS has to have toast with eggs... so he added that too!

And as if all of that powdered sugar and carbs didn’t fill us out I was really feeling the Christmas spirit and made cookies later that night!

Luckily, Tim took these to work so we didn't eat them!

And that is a typical weekend breakfast in our household!

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Dec 5, 2011

Sushi Night, French Toast, and Jennie O’s!!!

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So as you may or may not already know, Tim and I LOVE sushi! When a Groupon came up a few months ago for an Asian market with sushi grade fish, Tim was pumped and bought it! So the other night (right before the Groupon expired) Tim went to the store and picked up some salmon and some Tuna to mix up some sushi right here at home! I will say that this is NOT an easy process. I am lucky enough to have a guy in my life that takes very good care of me so he spent most of his evening slaving away over rice while I was in class, which meant I can’t home to a sushi put-together-night masterpiece! The end result was delicious but the process of getting there was even better! 

I am a firm believer that sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand words so I decided to attempt to capture as much fun as possible for you all to see!

Tim had to do some light reading to ensure we got it right

but I did cut the tuna up!

and we split cutting up the other goods! avocado, cucumber, cream cheese, and salmon

and Tim did some rolling

yea he was really into the rolling

But I wasn't complaining because he even cut too!

and they turned out really pretty!

and the extra decorating with spicy sauce made it even more exciting

but clearly it was worth it! look at those babies!

and before you ask- yes I didn't forget the soy sauce!

Jealous yet? Well don’t be- you can do this too! While it was a lot of work it was well worth it! The experience alone was worth it but they turned out really tasty too!

And at the risk of showing too much food in one post here was the french toast Tim made me the other morning! What a treat!

yes it was delicious!

and that sausage is ground turkey sausage from Jennie O’s! My friend, Angela, at work won a contest and got some coupons for $3 off Jennie O’s and well it was on sale for $3.49 at Acme so needless to say I got a TON! Thanks Angela- this was awesome!

the lady behind me in line was jealous of my $50 savings!

So it has been a GREAT few days!!

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