The Non-Evils of MickieDees

Recently I made a startling discovery at work. A sandwich shop called Specialty's had opened up downstairs and they made it super easy and convenient for us to get lunch by offering all sorts of ways of ordering your food, including placing an order and paying online and then running downstairs to pick up your packed baggie ready to go and waiting with your name on it in the cubby holes by the door.

I was placing an order for a sandwich when instead of clicking on the "add to bag" button, I accidently clicked on the image itself... and up popped the nutrition facts. I can't even remember what sandwich I had planned on ordering, but after seeing the numbers, I searched through their sandwich menu and chose the Napa Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich. Believe it or not, of all their sandwiches, this had the one of the lowest calorie/fat grams content.

What was I more surprised about (other than this being one of the "healthier" sandwich choices)? That this Vegetarian sandwich was unhealthier than the sandwich made with mayo!

I didn't even dare look at the "vegetarian" sandwich that was loaded with cheese and pesto sauce *grabs heart*! But the scariest of all... one of their sandwiches (the "Hot Italian") is actually a whopping 1153 calories and 72g of fat! For a sandwich! Whoever said sandwiches were healthy was lying.

Anyhow, the next day as I was heading back to the office, I decided to swing by good ol' McDonald's for lunch and ordered their 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal (without supersizing... or "going large", or whatever they call it these days). 

Mmmm. While I was enjoying the crispy tasty processedness of the "nuggets", I happened to glance on the side of the box and noticed the nutrition facts.

10-piece golden Chicken McNuggets: 460 calories, 29g of fat.

Medium order of delicious fries: 380 calories, 19g of fat.

Now... correct me if I'm wrong but... wouldn't that make my fast-food combo meal (minus my Sprite and the sauce of course) a total of 840 calories with 48g of fat? That doesn't look that much worse than Specialty's "Vegetarian" sandwich (and just the sandwich, no sides). In fact, after checking their entire menu, it appears that the "unhealthiest" sandwich on McDonald's menu is the Angus Burger with Bacon and Cheese, clocking in at 790 calories and 39g of fat... looking an awful lot like the values for the bland "Vegetarian" sandwich featured above.

Now, I'm not typically one to check the nutrition facts on everything I eat, but the realization that things you would expect to be a "healthier" choice is, in fact, the opposite.

Who knew?

Martini Hour

Several weeks ago, we went to Happy Hour at a small place near the Art Institute called 8 Steers that specialized in martinis (for happy hour at least... not sure about regular dinner and stuff). Of course I got there later than everyone else, and most everyone had ordered food and drinks already. They offer a "martini of the day" for $5 each, and various others (not sure if the others were $5 as well), for happy hour. The "martini of the day" was the Red Gummy Bear martini - I had a sip and it was delicious. Very gummy bear tasting. And then I had a taste of the Lychee martini (okay folks, how do you pronounce that word? the waiter kept calling it "lie-chee" even though we kept calling it "lee-chee"). It was tasty, but, if I can recall, super sweet and not quite lychee flavored. And then the hubster ordered the "X marks the spot" martini (pictured below). It was a very pretty shade of pink, but when I tasted it... wooo X marks the spot alright. What can I say? I'm a lightweight.

So while I was still sans meat, instead of the various different meat sliders they offered, I ordered the cheese flatbread for my happy hour dining (accompanied by a tall glass of... water). And it took forever and a day to come out... I thought the waiter had forgotten! While it was quite tasty, I don't think I'll ever return.

Thee Pitts... Again!

We left the cold in Flagstaff and headed down to the Sun in Phoenix. Our first food stop (the next afternoon) was to a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives featured spot: Thee Pitts Again, a BBQ joint:

The theme was Pork.

The place is a fun little restaurant, very kitschy (displaying the most interesting collection of pigs) and diner-esque, but with a tin tile ceiling (very cool).

To start, we girls opted for the deep fried pickles (3.25). These were good - I've had deep fried pickles at a local place and they battered pickle chip slices and deep fried 'em like no tomorrow... the end result was super salty. However, Thee Pitts Again revived my like of deep fried pickles - theirs were pickle spears battered and rightly deep fried. A bit salty, but not appetite-losing salty.

The boys... well the boys saw one item on the appetizer list and said, "We HAVE to order this"... deep fried rattlesnake (priced at current market value... currently around $15). I for one steered clear of that one! It looked normal enough, though. The meaty part was battered and deep fried like little nuggets and then... part of the boy... skipped the batter and went straight to getting fried. The waitress said that is added for decoration but is perfectly edible. Needless to say, the boys finished that off too! Every little bit (ugh).

And then our food came out.

The four of us actually ordered the same plates per couple, but with different sides. I went with the Slab Dinner (pork ribs St. Louie's - 16.95) which comes with cornbread and honey butter and two sides (I chose potato salad and coleslaw). The other Slab Dinner plate had the sides of beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Yum-o-yum! The ribs were so tender, I just pulled them apart with my fingers with the bone coming clean off of the meat. I was barely able to finish 4 ribs before calling it quits (weak sauce, yes, I know!). Oh yes, speaking of sauce, it wasn't overly drenched in BBQ sauce, which is a + in my book.

And then there were two orders of the Combo Platter (16.95)... which was a giant feast in itself. The combo platter's plate consisted of a cornucopia a meats on a plate: a sampling of pork shoulder, pulled chicken, chopped and sliced ham, beef, pork ribs and beef ribs, as well as the cornbread with honey butter and two sides. The hubster (who had ordered this plate) went with the side salad and a bowl of fresh fruit as his 2 sides. The other order of Combo Platter had seasoned fries and grilled veggies as the sides.

If you haven't guessed, we left with boxes and boxes of leftovers.

And a nice little touch at the end of our side-splitting lunch - individually wrapped Jelly Belly jellybeans!

Okay... I have just gotten hungry again.

Diablo!

We finally did a little weekend road trip out to see the Grand Canyon (quite worth it even though all you've got to do there is to look at the canyon) and stayed in Flagstaff for the evening. For dinner, we swung by this new burger joint that Ed found called Diablo Burger and oh yeah... it was good. It took a little time to find, only because it was tucked into a little corner next to another (larger) restaurant.

Their deal is that everything be local. So the beef is local, the veggies they use are all local... bottom line is, the food is fresh. And tasty!

Served on toasted (and branded!) english muffins instead of the typical hamburger buns, they fill it with beef patties (cooked your way) and the toppings for your particular burger. A spring salad mix and tomatoes are on the side to fill if you'd like, as well as a pickle wedge... and everything sits atop their delicious home-made (er, restaurant-made?) rosemary fries.

I chose the Blutarksy Burger... (supposedly in honor of Animal House) with the beef patty, bacon, sharp cheddar and their Holy Guacamole! Normally I shy away from "guacamole" topped burgers because I've had so many instances where it was not what I would call guacamole... instead it would be like a weird tangy avocado puree that would always leave me feeling sick to the stomach. But I decided, I'll try it anyway. And my goodness!!! Fresh fresh fresh and yummy! Guacamole done right! Everything seemed just right. The english muffins, toasty and crunchy but not overbearingly bready like buns can be... the meat thick and juicy and even though it was more pink than I usually care for, this time I didn't care. It was that good.

The hubster ordered the "DB House" burger: the patty, topped with a fried egg and homemade pesto sauce. I didn't have a bite (too busy drooling over my own burger) but it looked scrumptious... and he devoured the entire thing. Including the fries (which he normally doesn't)! So I am taking that the burger was as good as it looked. Or better.

*I forgot to mention the burgers were about $9 each (includes fries) which do sound kind of pricey, compared to say, a value meal at Mickey Dees... but they are so good, you don't really care!

Easter Sunday/Jasper's 1st Birthday/Meat Day!

So every year for the past decade I guess (I can't believe it's been that long), I give up meat for the entirety of Lent. It's always been a challenge, but for some reason, this year was exceptionally hard. I really (honestly) felt like I was missing something. So as it turned out, Easter Sunday coincided with Jasper's first birthday this year, and of course, the hubster wanted to celebrate by throwing our little pooch a party.

Jasper is such a punk. Just because it was his house and his day (not to mention he was the biggest dog), he had to make sure all his pooch guests knew their place (in the corner)! Thank goodness all the dogs in attendance were little dogs... I don't know if we would have been able to handle 7 large dogs running around.

But anyway, what I had been looking forward to that day was eating meat again. I actually didn't eat that much, but just a nibble was enough to feel whole again.

For Jasper's birthday, the hubster wanted to be in charge of a big ol' meat cake (not to be confused with meatloaf). He chopped up steak into cubes and mixed it with shredded cabbage and I don't know what else. I am purposely excluding the image from this post for specific reasons...

That left me dreaming about other meat dishes. I opted for shepherds pie (not realizing the connection with Jasper's german shepherdness) and sliders.

Individual Shepherds Pie:

Rather than put it in a big ol' dish and make people scoop servings out of it, I went with mini individual shepherds pie by making little crusts out of puff pastry (sheets from the frozen section at the market). For the filling, I sauteed some onions and ground beef with julienned and chopped carrots and zucchini, seasoned with some salt and pepper and added a bit of flour for thickening. I scooped a spoonful of the meat mixture into the puff pastry shell and then topped with mashed potatoes. Mmmm mashed potatoes. For shepherds pie, I had to go with red potatoes (it's got a slightly different texture and consistency than russet that, to me, goes better with shepherds pie)... chopped it up into small cubes (skin on, but cleaned) and boiled. Drain the potatoes and then add some butter (in my case, a stick and a half... shhhh!), some milk and salt and garlic powder to taste... and mash it alllll up! Scoop a bunch and top it on the meat... 

Sliders:

These actually took a bit longer than expected because I decided to finely chop and saute the onions and garlic before adding it to the raw ground beef mixture for the patties. In addition to the sauteed onions and garlic, I added some sauteed coursely chopped green onions, one egg, salt and pepper, mixed it all up and let the meat sit until I was ready to fry them up.

In the meantime, I fried up the bacon till they were nice and super crispy and sliced some tomatoes and avocado for toppings. Then I toasted some King's Hawaiian sweet bread rolls in the oven and laid them open ready for the meat.

It was time. I shaped small patties about 2" in diameter and slightly plump, and pan fried them on the stove until they were nice and crispy on the outside (and hopefully slightly pink on the inside). I placed each patty onto a waiting bun, I put them on the table next to the bacon, tomatoes, avocado, sliced cheese and sliced pickles for everyone to make their own according to taste.

This isn't the greatest photo of them, but it was all I was able to take before all 24 sliders disappeared. I am assuming they were edible since they were all gone before I returned back to the table. Or maybe people were just hungry?

Happy Easter!

Vegetarian Ragout

During my stint at being a vegetarian, I needed something of substance to fill my otherwise meat-deprived void. Remembering back to when my grandpa was around (who was a strict vegan), I vaguely recalled my aunt making this vegetarian ragout dish for him. Trying to think back on what was in it, I ended up just going with whatever it seemed like.

1. I cut up a block of tofu (the hard fresh kind, not the softer pre-packaged kind in the refrigerated section) into maybe 1" or so cubes, and deep fried them all.

2. Similarly to the tofu, I cut up some russet potatoes and yams into 1" or so cubes and deep fried all of them too (I said this was a vegetarian dish, not a healthy dish!). The reason I deep fry first is so they don't get all mushy (or as mushy) as if it was being boiled.

3. After all of that deep frying, it's time to assemble. Chop up some onions (I happened to only have red onions at this time, but typically use white or yellow/brown onions) and garlic and sautee them until nice and translucent (and slighlty browned).

4. Instead of tomato sauce, I used ketchup. I feel it's less watery and more sweet than tomato sauce (but tomato paste would have been way too thick). I used the entire bottle of ketchup.

5. Instead of water, I used coconut juice (not to be confused with coconut milk; this is clear whereas the milk is white and opaque) to brothen up the mixture. It gives it a nice subtle sweet taste.

6. Once the broth has gotten going, give it a little taste. Do you want it spicier? Saltier? Sweeter? I ended up giving mine just a bit of black pepper. I like this dish a little bit on the sweet side, and using the ketchup and coconut juice made it just sweet enough for me. 

After tasting the broth to your liking (make it a little bit stronger than you'd care for because the other elements later will bland it out), add all the insides: I popped open a can of button mushrooms and let it simmer a little bit to warm up.

7. Next, add the fried tofu, potatoes and yam, and mix it all around. It might look kind of gross, but I love it! Could not stop picking at the potatoes.

8. This step is optional (well, actually all steps are pretty optional... like I mentioned, everything is made to personal liking). But in this case, it really is optional. There really isn't a taste to it at all, but I like the change in texture of the bean curd sheets. So if you want, crumble some pieces on top of the dish and mix (the broth will soften the sheets), or just crumble some on top and leave it. 

Scoop some of the ragout onto a bowl of rice and Enjoy! I love this with white rice.