Bad Food Blog

Tag: lunch

• My Menu Plan – December 2020

  Posted at 3:14 pm by Rachel, on November 19, 2020

  My postpartum freezer stash is dwindling but we still need to eat every day, so I wrote another meal plan. I literally cannot remember the last time I wasn’t exhausted, so most of these recipes are tried-and-true without too much fussing. I’m going to be missing all of my freezer meals!

  As always, this is a printable menu – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

  Sundays – Meats

  • Kalua pork – One of our neighbors made this for us recently, and not only did my kids eat it (multiple days in a row), but they also keep asking for it. We might have to freeze some leftovers, and I’m 100% okay with that. Since I am planning on serving rice with this meal and a couple others this month, I will probably make a giant pot of rice and then freeze the leftovers. Rice takes forever to cook and I would rather not have to do it more than once.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – One of my husband’s favorites, and the kids like it too. We’ll probably finish it on the grill instead of under the broiler.
  • Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – I made this recipe and used the chicken carcasses for broth a few months ago. The skin was nice and crispy (if you’re one who likes to eat the skin), the meat was tender, it was very easy to double in a standard American oven.
  • Sweet & sour chicken – We accidentally made four of these instead of two during baby freezer prep, but that just means I have one less meal to make this month, right?

  Mondays – Soups

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – My kids call this “vegetable soup” because of the carrots, celery, and onions. This soup and the tomato soup we are having this month are their two favorite soups. I’ll be using the chicken carcass from the day before to make the broth – last time I got a good gel broth for the first time in a while and I am excited to see if I can do it again.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – My kids love making little “volcanoes” with biscuits and tomato soup “lava”.
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup – I’m probably going to try to prep this earlier in the day and just reheat it at dinner time – less stressful during the dinner time rush and it gives the soup plenty of time to cool for my younger eaters.

  Tuesdays – Leftovers

  Wednesdays – Eggs

  I always used to make roasted sweet potatoes with our eggs, and while I still love them so much, it has been more time than I have wanted or been able to spend lately. A few weeks ago, I started making “baked” sweet potatoes in my slow cooker, and they have been a nice substitute and really just a nice way to freshen up our eggs night. Wrap the sweet potatoes in tin foil and then cook them for 8 hours on low. Giant sweet potatoes will not be as soft so either cook them for longer or cut them into smaller pieces before cooking.

  Thursdays – 

  • Tacos & guacamole
  • Hamburgers & hot dogs
  • Pasta with roasted vegetables/buttered pasta – Another meal from my small freezer stash.

  Fridays – Pizza

  Saturdays – Bowls/Salads

  I love bowl meals and salads, but my kids do not. They hate most foods that touch other foods. If your kids are like mine, just put a portion of each element on their plates before mixing everything together and enjoy your dinner.

  • Beets/sweet potatoes/apple/chickpea/farro/nut bowls – There used to be a great recipe on Budget Bytes for an Autumn Harvest Salad with butternut squash, quinoa, apples, and probably some other things that I cannot remember. I can’t find it anymore, but that is the recipe I had in mind when I added this bowl meal to my dinner menu. I’m going to roast the beets (in foil) and diced sweet potatoes earlier in the day, and toss them with diced apple, chickpeas, farro, and either walnuts or pecans. Dressing TBD.
  • Polenta/pesto/roasted veggie bowls – Make some cheesy polenta (I like parmesan with this – keep an eye on it because mine is usually done in about 25 minutes), and top it with roasted vegetables (I like a mix of at least 3 with this, such as sweet onions, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes) and good store bought pesto.
  • Mashed potato/sausage/brussels sprouts bowls
  • Kale/apple/walnut/chicken salad – The original recipe is for a side salad that doesn’t include chicken; I am going to throw some chicken thighs in the slow cooker to make it a meal.

  ~Holidays~

  • Christmas Eve – Snack dinner

  I think most parents have done some version of “snack dinner” at some point. Ours includes cheese & crackers, raw veggies such as cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, & olives, hummus, pepperoni, and salami – basically kid-friendly charcuterie. It is always a hit and pretty easy to get my kids to eat it, plus it is super simple to prepare, making it perfect for an exciting and busy night like Christmas Eve. In the past we have frequently made waffles for Christmas Eve, and we might do that instead, but right now I am leaning towards snack dinner.

  • Christmas – Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken, farro, vegetables

  Yes, I’m pulling out the slow cooker for Christmas. I’ve made this chicken recipe before and it really is worthy of a Christmas dinner as it turns out so beautifully. And really, it gives me more time to spend with my kids and enjoy the holiday.

  • New Year’s Eve – Turkey & stuffing meatballs, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, something green

  We are rounding out the year with some of our favorite foods, maybe I will make a special dessert too. I don’t plan on being awake at midnight but with three little kids plus a newborn baby anything is possible.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  I’ve been taking the kids out on a walk first thing in the morning, so I bring a smoothie for me to sip along the way, and things like bananas and Larabars for the kids. Most days the kids have a bigger second breakfast when we get back, with oatmeal, cereal, or whatever else.

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – May 2020

  Posted at 10:52 pm by Rachel, on May 3, 2020

  Okay, I am giving monthly menu planning yet another try. Fingers crossed that no one gets sick this month and we can eat the whole thing!

  My Perdue Farms order was finally delivered a week or two ago, so it did take the full 5-6 weeks to arrive. Based on my one data point, I would say their current estimate of 2-3 weeks is probably accurate despite the upcoming meat shortage, although the package I ordered and several other products are not currently available. But talk about good timing! One of the reasons I ordered this meat in the first place was in anticipation of a meat shortage, and here we are. All of the meat we will be eating this month is already in my freezer – even the chicken from the cheesy farro, broccoli, and chicken that we had on Saturday was from a big batch of chicken breasts I baked a few weeks ago.

  Speaking of the meat shortage, you might notice that there isn’t a lot of meat in this menu plan. Not that that is atypical around here, personally I feel that the meat and three menu gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Of course no meat can get kind of boring too! So my categories this month are soup, pasta, vegetarian, eggs, pizza, and a meat night. My Monday and Tuesday nights switch between two categories because of some scheduling conflicts – just makin’ it work.

  May means Cinco de Mayo, and also… Cinco de Cuatro! Just in time too, because my kids have been asking if we can make chocolate covered bananas again.

  I made the menu printable again this month – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – requested by my kids
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – This probably isn’t the best French onion soup recipe ever, but it is pretty easy
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

  Pasta

  • Tortellini with pears and prosciutto (adapted from this recipe)
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – I’ve never made this recipe for myself, but my favorite vegetarian friend – the one who recommended this book to me in the first place – made it for me a while ago so I thought I would give it a whirl.
  • Spaghetti aglio e olio
  • Pasta alfredo

  Vegetarian

  • BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa from Thug Kitchen / veggie tacos for my kids – I made this sometime last year and it was sooo good. Hands-down the most flavorful burritos I have made at home. They were pretty labor intensive, which is why I haven’t made them since, but Cinco de Mayo seems like the perfect occasion for a repeat. Unfortunately the burritos were pretty spicy, and my kids genuinely hate spicy foods right now, so I’ll cut up some veggies for them to make their own little vegetable tacos.
  • Yeasted waffles à la King Arthur Flour
  • Weeknight enchiladas (bean and cheese enchiladas) / veggie tacos for my kids – Again, these enchiladas are really not very spicy, but I have tried and failed many times to get my kids to eat them. I’m going to make them on the super-mild side (with Monterey jack cheese instead of pepper jack, for instance), and also plan on some simple veggie tacos for them.
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli – like a deconstructed chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, but with farro
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Potato kielbasa sheet pan – I’ve never made this recipe, but it looks simple, a.k.a. just my style
  • Easy orange chicken – Why yes, you *can* make that sauce ahead and stick it in the fridge for later in the day
  • Slow cooker honey soy drumettes – This recipe has been in my mental bookmarks for YEARS. Literally, at least five years. Of course, basically every time I think to make it I have a baby under a year old doing baby led weaning, and the one food they are really not supposed to eat before they turn one is honey (thanks, botulism!). Hopefully five years of anticipation do not leave me disappointed.

   

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac & cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Covid-19, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – January 2020

  Posted at 9:37 pm by Rachel, on December 31, 2019

  Happy New Year! I’ve been listening to fireworks all day today – no one does New Year’s Eve fireworks like Hawaii! After six long months, I am happy to announce the return of my monthly menu plan. My nights have switched around a bit since I last shared a monthly menu plan. It feels less festive than Fridays deserve to be, but since Fridays look like they are going to be the busiest night of the week for a while, I decided to make them leftovers night for the quickest, easiest possible dinner. I rounded out the weekdays with other meals that I can prepare with a bunch of kids underfoot – some less than fussy salads, eggs, meats, and soups, many of which can be made ahead. I stuck new-to-me recipes on Sundays, when my husband will be home to wrangle our kids in case things go terribly wrong. Pizza, which is easy to scale up and share with visitors, got Saturdays, the day we would be most likely to have other people over.

  I decided to try out a new program to make the printable menu this month. If you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

   

  New Recipes

  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – We got some take out from Down to Earth, and one of the stand-out items was the Black Bean & Roasted Beets Burger. My 5-year-old, who is really into the idea of burgers right now, said she would eat it again, so I’m trying this homemade variety, which also contains beets and can be made ahead.
  • Barley Stuffed Peppers from Thug Kitchen – These kind of remind me of the pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers that I love, but you know, vegan.  I will probably set some of the filling aside to increase the chances of my kids trying it.
  • Roasted Brussels Sprouts Bowls – This recipe has been on my “to make” list for a while. I will probably use some chicken sausage instead of veggie sausage, we will see what the store has in stock.
  • Roasted Chickpea and Broccoli Burritos – Six months ago, I made Thug Kitchen’s BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa and they were phenomenal. Like, hands down the best burritos I have ever made at home and probably the best burritos I’ve had outside of little burrito shops when I was in college. These chickpea and broccoli burritos look like a lot less work, but the authors say they are a fan favorite. Fingers crossed that they are just as tasty!

  Salads

  • Kale and Apple Salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts – We’ve eaten this salad several times in the last few weeks because it is so fast to throw together. I like to add some baked chicken breast to make it a meal (note that the recipe is for a “side salad”) and I swap goat cheese for blue cheese because that is my preference.
  • Asian chicken salad – Prepare the chicken breasts ahead of time and this is a super fast dinner
  • Farro Salad with Kale and Grapes from You Have It Made – I was asking my family what they want to eat this month, and one of my kids said, “I like farro!” We’ve been eating farro a lot lately, but I decided to throw in this salad for her.
  • Southwestern Salad from You Have It Made – I’m feeling inspired to up my southwestern salad game after trying so many salads this summer. Ellie Krieger’s salad calls for jicama, an ingredient that I haven’t used since 2011! It wasn’t a great experience, which is why I haven’t really used it since then – hopefully this goes better.

  Meats

  • Ginger Peach Chicken – My tips for this recipe are 1) slice the onions very thin – I use my food processor’s slicing disc and 2) cook the chicken WITHOUT the peaches, then add the peaches in for the last 30 minutes
  • Pot Roast – Prep for this always takes me a while so I will probably start it the night before
  • Chicken Parmesan Burgers – I made these for the first time since 2016ish a few weeks ago when my burger-lover started asking for burgers. She liked it (with no sauce and cheese on the side) and asked to have them again. If you’ve never used ground chicken, these are worth a try!
  • Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Spaghetti and Meatballs – As I have previously described, I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. I’ll be working on this on a weekend and then freezing the meatballs and sauce to use on a week night.

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup
  • Winter Lentil Soup from Easy, Delicious Meals

  Pizza

  I haven’t made pizza in the longest time, not because I have stopped eating pizza, but because there is actually a really great pizza place nearby (Boston’s Pizza, if you are on Oahu). I think there is a 50/50 chance I will make pizza versus ordering some take out, we will see where the weeks take me. This is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac&cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, breakfast, burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Menu Plan 10/13-10/19

  Posted at 1:52 pm by Rachel, on October 12, 2019

  You might notice a couple of repeats from last week on this week’s menu – I ended up with a cold last week and had to shuffle some things around. Last week I began planning my breakfasts and lunches in more detail. I did not do a great job sticking to the plan because I just wasn’t eating much. I only just prepped the farro for lunch salads last night, and the grapes were moldy 😦 so I will be trying this salad with some apples or maybe cucumbers instead. Breakfast went better than lunch – I made a big batch of steel cut oats one morning and then ate that for several days. This week I am going to set an alarm on my phone to make overnight steel cut oats (less active cooking time). I also picked up a bunch of sweet potatoes; I will be “baking” them all in the slow cooker for dinner on Monday and then have leftovers for breakfasts and maybe lunches as well.

  Dinner Plan:

  S 10/13 – Maple mustard chicken thighs (slow cooker – make extra for chicken salad sandwiches), mashed potatoes, green vegetable

  M 10/14 – Eggs, sweet potatoes (slow cooker), green vegetable

  T 10/15 – Pasta with blistered cherry tomato sauce, salad

  W 10/16 – Creamy tomato soup (slow cooker from The Complete Slow Cooker), bread, salad

  R 10/17 – Leftovers

  F 10/18 – Greek salad, bread

  S 10/19 – Whole chicken (slow cooker), carrots, green vegetable

   

  Breakfast Plan: Steel cut oatmeal with almond butter and fruit, “baked” sweet potatoes

  Lunch Plan: Layered feta salad with kale, feta, and apples (adapted from You Have it Made), Mayonnaise-Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches

  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged breakfast, Dinner, hotel living, lunch, Menu plan, slow cooker

• The Salads of Summer 2019

  Posted at 11:17 pm by Rachel, on October 6, 2019

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  My food goal for our summer road trip was to eat a salad for lunch or dinner every day. I wanted to do this mostly because it can be hard to eat enough vegetables when exclusively eating out, and not eating enough vegetables makes me feel gross. More simply, greens > fries.

  My husband surprised me by joining in my pursuit, which was great because it made choosing restaurants easier. Unfortunately I didn’t always remember to snap a picture before eating, but we ate a lot of salads from a wide range of places. Fast food salads, fast casual salads, room service salads, sit-down restaurant salads… we tried a bit of everything.

  I’m going to start out with the saddest salad I ate on the trip, this Chicken Caesar from the Embassy Suites in Birmingham, Alabama. When I say “sad salad,” I’m talking about that salad you pick up out of the refrigerated section of a gas station with limp, pale lettuce and like one tomato. If you have only ever eaten sad salads, I’m sorry. I don’t usually order Caesar salads because I think they frequently do lean towards being sad, but this was the only salad that room service offered during our stay. The chicken was decent and it did have some nice big parmesan shavings, but that lettuce was so limp and yellow. Sad.

  

  For comparison’s sake, here is another room service order from the Embassy Suites in Amarillo, Texas (I think this was called the “House Salad,” it was the most basic offering and I added chicken). Some nice lettuce goes a long way, and a couple more tomatoes, some croutons, and pickled onions don’t hurt either. I had pickled onions a few times on this trip – I’m not a raw-onions-on-salads person, but pickled onions were a welcomed addition.

  

  Really though, lack of toppings is not what makes a salad sad. The Simple Green Salad from St. Leo in Oxford, Mississippi lives up to its name, and it might be the happiest side salad I have ever eaten. Look at those greens! Quality over quantity, folks!

  

  We stopped at McDonald’s a few times because they are just about everywhere. It had been a while since I had been to a McDonald’s, so I don’t know when it happened, but apparently they updated their salad offerings. I was impressed by this one – the Bacon Ranch with Grilled Chicken – that I tried somewhere in Alabama. The chicken was still warm from the grill and everything else seemed really fresh too.

  

  I think that McDonald’s two biggest shortcomings are lack of variety (they only have two entree salads) and lack of consistency/availability. This salad – the Southwest Salad with Chicken – was from somewhere in rural Arkansas. That McDonald’s actually only had enough to make one salad, and as you can see they subbed in a lemon for the lime. It was still tasty and I am glad I caught the last salad, but definitely be aware of.

  

  The Spicy Southwest Salad (with grilled chicken) is the only salad I get from Chick fil A. There are two other salads on the menu that I have never ordered, which I guess means that I really like this one. It is kind of spicy, so if that’s not your thing then this is not for you. I’ve gotten this salad all over the place and it is *very* consistent.

  

  Of course we sampled just about every salad from Panera too. New-to-me salads I tried included the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken, Modern Greek Salad with Quinoa, Southwest Chile Lime Ranch with Chicken, and the Strawberry Caprese Salad. The Green Goddess originally appealed to me because it is a cobb salad without blue cheese. As I previously mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by the pickled red onions, but my favorite part is that they included like half of a large avocado. Avocado lovers know what a big deal that is! The only thing that would have made this better is a crunchy element, maybe some nuts. I suppose that isn’t part of a “true” cobb salad, but I think it would eliminate some of the mushiness that can happen with a cobb salad.

  

  I tried the Modern Greek Salad twice. The first time was a take-out order; I was very impressed by the size and quality of the take-out salad. I have heard people say that you get more when you dine-in, but that was not my experience. In fact, I think that the take-out salad was larger than the dine-in portion I had a couple of weeks later. The Modern Greek Salad is in the least expensive menu category – the same category as the Seasonal Greens, Caesar, and Greek Salads. In my opinion, it is much more substantial than the other “basic” salads and better suited to standing on its own for lunch or dinner, even without adding chicken. As I mentioned, my dine-in salad surprised me by being a bit smaller, but even then I wasn’t starving afterwards.

  

  

  The Southwest Chile Lime Ranch was my favorite “Southwest” salad from this trip, and maybe of all time. Everything about it is good, especially the plentiful and perfectly ripe avocado and the quinoa tomato sofrito blend. I am pretty sure than this is the same quinoa in the Modern Greek Salad, and although they are two very different salads, the quinoa is a chameleon that blended in seamlessly with both of them. This is one to recreate at home if you are looking to up your salad game! (I might do this in the near future but with the addition of beans.)

  

  Last up for Panera was the Strawberry Caprese. I love Caprese, and this felt like a fresh take on that salad without completely ruining a classic. Strawberries seem like the best fruit they could have chosen for the mash-up – I don’t think it would be as good with say, blueberries, but maybe a peach Caprese would work? Sadly I made the mistake of adding too much dressing and ended up with a borderline-soup situation… and I still ate the whole thing.

  

  The last two salads that I enjoyed on this trip are from smaller, local restaurants. In Albuquerque, we had the pleasure of finding Vinaigrette. This place is the stuff my wannabe-hipster dreams are made of. As you may have guessed from the name, Vinaigrette is a restaurant centered around beautiful, delicious, nutritious salads, and it is unlike any other restaurant I have eaten in. I was not expecting to love this place so much – I was in kind of a sour mood that day, and when we arrived to the restaurant the hostess looked at our three kids, gave us a less than welcoming look, and then set a place at the table with a regular chair (as opposed to a high chair) for our 9-month-old. It was not looking promising. Fortunately for us, our waitress was great (she even brought us a high chair).

  There were so many tempting options on the menu, but I decided on The Beet Goes On with Grilled Marinated Baby Artichokes. This is another excellent example of a relatively simple yet powerful salad – it’s just greens, goat cheese, pistachios, beets, vinaigrette, and artichokes. When I say powerful, I mean that it was absolutely fantastic. I still daydream about this salad (not joking) and I when I get an oven again I absolutely plan to try to recreate this positively magical food. I was surprised by a couple of things. First, it was actually a lot bigger than I anticipated. Second, the artichokes specifically were a lot bigger than I expected – the word “baby” had me thinking they would be teeny tiny. I don’t think I have ever purchased fresh artichokes, so that may just be my lack of experience showing.

  

  My husband ordered the Reuben with a side of the Omega, which turned out to be a gorgeous and generously portioned side salad. In case you are wondering, we ordered a mac & cheese for the kids. They did not eat any of the mac & cheese, but they did eat the sliced fruit and veggies that came with it. I wish that we could have ordered more raw fruit and veggies a la carte (that might actually be an option, we did not ask, but it is not on the menu). They also ate the bread that we requested for the table. They did not eat the side of roasted vegetables that we attempted to feed them.

  

  We visited the Albuquerque restaurant, but Vinaigrette has other locations in Santa Fe and Austin, Texas. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping in, or if you are miles away like I am, check out their menu online for a treasure trove of salad inspiration.

  The last stop on our trip was San Diego, where we sampled some of Bread and Cie‘s offerings. I think we chose Bread and Cie because we wanted some baked goods and they had excellent reviews, but I wanted to eat a salad before indulging. I deliberated between the Chicken Papaya and Cranberry Goat Cheese salads, and ended up going with the Cranberry Goat Cheese. It was exactly as advertised. Not a groundbreaking salad, but a solid performer and it got the job done before I ate some sweets. I probably wouldn’t seek out Bread and Cie just for salad, but it is a good option if you are there anyway.

  

  Overall, I am really pleased with how my salad challenge turned out. I felt so much better eating this way than how I have eaten on road trips in the past, and just reminding myself of that made it relatively easy to stay on track. Right now I make a big salad for dinner about once a week, and hopefully I can do some more at lunch time soon too. I have probably mentioned before that restaurant salads are where all of my salad for dinner ideas come from, and thankfully this trip has left me with plenty of inspiration to freshen things up for the next few months.

  Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Dinner, inspiration, lunch, restaurant review, salad

• Food Journal #5: Boston

  Posted at 12:47 am by Rachel, on August 19, 2018

  Earlier this summer we got to spend a few days in Boston. It was not nearly long enough (it never is!) but we did pack in a ton of our favorite things, including lots of good food! I probably would have gained 10 pounds here if we hadn’t balanced it out with a bunch of walking.

  Our AirBnB host left some oranges so we could make freshly squeezed orange juice. Oh man, this was so good! I don’t think I’ve had fresh orange juice before this trip. I’ll say that while I’m not usually an orange juice drinker, this had me considering getting my own juicer. It took 2 large oranges to fill this glass:

  

  Tatte was on our must-eat list for this trip; I have been dreaming of their Balakani sandwich (literally) since the last time I ate it in 2016. While Tatte has several locations, I’ve only ever been to the one in Brookline. It is such a cute little place! It was hard to appreciate the last time we were there because it was so packed (brunch on a holiday weekend is not a good time if you’re looking for a quiet spot!).

  

  

  

  The Balakani did not disappoint this trip either. The eggplant was so perfect – roasted to creamy perfection – and really wonderfully complemented by the salty feta. If you want something salty, this is a satisfyingly salty sandwich.

  

  

  We were there about an hour before closing but they still had a few grab-and-go style sandwiches. This one that my husband picked up wasn’t on the regular menu – it’s open-faced with prosciutto, arugula, and pear.

  Of course we picked out a few pastry items as well:

  

  

  

  

  Honestly, the top 2 pastries with the chocolate crusts are not something I would order again. They are so pretty to look at, and I love the fresh berries, but they are just not as chocolatey as I was hoping for. They were kind of dry too for my taste too. I know that we picked them up at the end of the day, but we usually buy a few items and do not eat them all immediately – if they’re dry after just a few hours, buying for a couple of days isn’t really good idea. The cheesecake cup was better – not dry and no disappointment in the intensity of its flavors. I would get this one again. Fortunately there are a lot of options here, so the next time I am craving a Balakani I can just try a different pastry.

  Next up was Eataly in the Prudential Center. We were headed to the Skywalk Observatory and planned to eat breakfast somewhere in the Prudential. Apparently the food court closed since the last time we visited, and I am the only person left from the Northeast who does not like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, so we gave Eataly a try. This place is HUGE – so huge that you can grab a map on your way in. It was pretty early when we showed up, so most of the stations inside were closed. We still walked around the whole upper level just to see what there was, and I was impressed. I loved The Italian Store in Arlington, but I always thought that it should have been bigger or carried a wider variety of products. Eataly is more what I imagined the Italian Store would be like.

  

  

  

  The coffee was solid, albeit small. We also ordered a variety of pastries from the cafe next to the front entrance to share. We chose one with almonds, a cream-filled brioche, a chocolate pastry, and a ricotta and jam turnover. My absolute favorite was the cream-filled brioche, followed by the chocolate pastry. I enjoyed the flavor of the jam in the ricotta and jam turnover, and the pastry had a great crunch, but I wasn’t quite sold on the texture of the ricotta. It was kind of crumbly. Really it was not bad – none of it was – but I don’t know that I would order it again when there is brioche and chocolate pastry to eat.

  After breakfast we took the elevator up to the Skywalk. It was such a clear, beautiful day to be up there. You get free admission with a military or dependent ID, although these views are worth buying a ticket to see. My cell phone picture does not do them justice.

  

  After the Skywalk, we walked over to the Public Garden before heading back to the Prudential to pick up our car. It was almost nap time, so we grabbed some quick sandwiches from Eataly to go. By the way, if you do drive in and park at the Prudential, Eataly will validate your parking.

  My husband ordered a PLT (prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato) and I got the Cavolino, which had pesto, cheese, and caramelized onions. These are BIG sandwiches, and you could probably split one between two people depending on how hungry you are. I think I ended up saving part of mine to eat later. The Cavolino was very fresh tasting – I think there was some lemon in the pesto – great for an early summer sandwich. It was also very oily. It wasn’t oily in a gross way, but it was messy, so if you choose this sandwich, keep some napkins nearby.

  

  

  

  

  That night we picked up a few slices from Regina Pizzeria and took them to DeFilippo Playground around the corner. There were a couple of picnic tables and a great selection of toys in addition to the playground equipment. I was too hungry to wait to snap a picture, so if you’ve never been, it’s a perfect, delicious, thin crust pizza. I think I could eat it every day and not get sick of it.

  My husband walked down the street to Mike’s Pastry to pick up some cannoli. We got one plain ricotta, one strawberry, one Florentine, and one chocolate chip. The strawberry was for our 3-year-old, but I did try some – I can’t say I recommend this one unless you are buying it for someone who cares more about the color than the flavor. The others were all great. I always get the Florentine, which has nuts (I believe they are almonds) and honey in the shell, and chocolate chips on the ends. My husband tried a bite and he found the shell to be a bit *too* crunchy. If that’s something that would bother you, then the chocolate chip might be a better match. I really enjoy the extra flavor the nuts bring to the table though.

  

  On the way back, someone commented that we looked super touristy with our Mike’s box. Maybe it is a tourist staple, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t tasty. We’ve been getting cannoli from Mike’s for years and we love them, which is all that matters.

  I was sad to discover that Finale, a fixture of our college days and past trips, closed a couple of years ago. Apparently it was already closed the last time we were in Boston and we didn’t notice it! Whoops! Anyway, we obviously had more than enough food to fill our bellies this time around, and I am sure we will find some new places to visit in the future. In the meantime, I will miss their dessert-centric restaurant in general and their molten chocolate cake in particular.

  Until next time, Boston!

  Posted in dessert, Dinner, Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged balakani, Boston, breakfast, cannoli, coffee, dessert, Dinner, Eataly, Finale, juice, lunch, Mike's Pastry, pastry, pizza, Prudential Center, Regina Pizzeria, restaurant review, sandwich, Skywalk, take out, Tatte

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