Crispy Mango Chicken & Heavenly Shrimp

Crispy Mango Chicken. As you can see, we have crispy chicken pieces, mango, cashews... Yummy! It's on a bed of lettuce, so we had to eat around that. *laugh* This is a very sweet dish, with the mangos & a lot of sauce! my one complaint is that there wasn't enough mango!!

Here we have a delicious appetizer known as Heavenly Shrimp. Jumbo shrimp wrapped in noodles & fried. The sauce is kind of citrusy.

This appetizer I wasn't as fond of. We have large spinach leaves - yum; peanuts - yum; coconut - yum; shrimp - yum; limes - yum, but would be helpful if the pieces were bigger; ginger - ew; onions - not a big fan. The sauce was a combination of sweet & savory. So, I like most of the components, but I don't really like DIY things like this. I like my food to be nicely prepared & ready to eat when I'm paying for it! *laugh* There are exceptions, of course, but in this case, I wasn't feeling it. I won't order it again, but if you think it looks good, feel free! It's called Maing Kam.

Until next time - happy feasting! : )

Sa Te

Tried something new for an appetizer - Taro Rolls. They're like regular rolls, but stuffed w/ cabbage & sweet potatoes. Now, I was a little disappointed that you only get 2, cut like this to make 4 "bites." But they were scrumptious! Very sweet, and the dipping sauce is sweet as well.

This is of course the usual pumpkin curry. : ) Seeing this picture, as usual, is making me crave it, so I think it might be dinner. *laugh* Nah, likely I'll fix SPAM & eggs for dinner. ; )

And here we have the dinner portion of Sa Te, or chicken kebobs. : ) That peanut dipping sauce is amazing as well. Pretty tastey looking, huh?

I really need to find some new places to go & take pictures! Any suggestions? : )

Birthday Food for a 2 year old

So, tonight was Leyton's 2nd birthday. Yay! So exciting, and much fun was had by all. Except Leyton got cranky, but he'd been awakened from his afternoon nap way too early, soo... yeah.

Birthday dinner was sausage pizza from Casey's. It was really YUMMMMMMY, but greasy, too. I wouldn't recommend eating a lot of it, but a couple slices are enough to hit the spot. : )

We also had birthday cake. Leyton loves Thomas the Engine, so that's the cake he got. It was chocolate w/ whipped cream frosting. Not my favorite cake, I mean it was good, but just normal cake. Watching him blow out the candles was fun, tho! : )

What'd'ya think? : )

STEAK!!!

Breakfast: Yogurt

Lunch: Salad & soup, yummy potato soup

Snack: Almonds & all-natural ice cream

Dinner:

Looking all pretty...
Smothered in sour cream & ready to eat!

Oh my heck! I have been craving steak for ... I don't even know how long. But for some reason every time I've been to Applebee's, I've chosen something else. *laugh* So today I decided to get Applebee's To Go - it's awesome! Call them up & get whatever you want, bring it home & eat in comfort of jammies. *laugh*

I know you're not supposed to eat steak & potatoes anymore. I don't know why... anyway, shrimp & parmesean steak w/ loaded mashed potatoes & cole slaw was too tempting to resist. Sheeriously. LOL Oh, and a fountain Pepsi. That's right, you can get fountain soda to go, too. YUMMIE! : )

Until next time - what's your favorite way to have steak prepared? (I keep asking these questions, eventually SOMEBODY's gotta leave a comment! LOL) TTFN!

Salad

I love salad! Spinach, tomatoes, avacados, broccoli, carrots, cheese, croutons, poppyseed dressing. MMmmm!!! : ) Today I added in some hard boiled eggs, also. TASTEY GOODNESS! *laugh*

Until next time ... What kind of salad to you like?

Pantry Revealed!

Well, did start out my day with an iced peppermint white mocha, and that makes everything... scrumptious! : ) It also strangely put me in a mood to play around with the camera. LOL

Today I decided to play around with the food in the house. I didn't face the labels or anything - I mean, some are, but the freezer side door's bad about that. *laugh* Anyway, I thought I'd show you a peek into some of the things I enjoy at home. : ) Comments are always welcome - now that they're working again! Heh.

That Laughing Cow cheese spread is awesome. It's garlic & herb flavor, and spread on a Ritz cracker? Yum-O! Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce brings a "sweetness" to pulled pork sammies, or the occasional cheese dog, when I'm not feeling ketchup-y. *laugh* And I always keep cold water in the fridge. It's a must-have.

I've been on a chocolate milk kick lately, but I mix it w/ white milk because otherwise it's too thick. And Florida's Natural OJ makes me feel good about OJ. I don't mind pulp, but I get the No Pulp version because it's smoother. I also like that it doesn't give me heartburn, which some other brands (Tropicana, sorry!) do often. Normally there would be many cans of Dew & Coke living happily side by side, looking a little like Christmas. *laugh* And that crock pot in the back? Today may be the day I clean it out... Perhaps.


The Lime fruit bars are something new I'm going to try. Various one-cup servings of Ben & Jerry's, the boxes on the bottom right are a Kashi bowl, pork egg rolls, and cream cheese wontons. Yum again. As always, we have cheese, under the bars & on the top shelf. : )


This would normally be much more efficiently organized, but I forgot about a couple of things when I was shopping yesterday. Namely, exactly how much frozen stuff I already had! *laugh* I love California Margherita pizzas, and the Cafe Steamers. mmm! These Healthy Choices Cafe Steamers produce much better meals than Marie Calendar's new pasta steamer things. In my opinion, of course! Aaaand, moving on...

Ahhh, the top of the pantry. Normal pantry things such as sugar, flour, rice, crackers, cereal, bread, PB (Jif, gotta be)... then cheesey pouffs (Kitchen Cooked, kettle puffs, the BEST aside from Planters cheese balls. man, I miss those!) and chocolate powdered almonds for snacking. : )

Bottom of the pantry holds my spices, popcorn, pasta, soups, and other things that generally don't need refridgeration. : ) The puprle and blue lidded containers on the top shelf are these interesting popcorn flavorings that I picked up awhile ago. One is White Cheddar & one is Garlic Parmesean. I didn't like that one. Too metalic tasting or something. I haven't tried the WC yet. We'll see when I'm brave enough. LOL


So, there ya have it! What'd ya think? Do you have the same things in your personal foodie collection, or did you see something you absolutely hate? Bad childhood memory of cream of mushroom soup? Do tell! Until next time... keep it fresh! ; )

Delicious rice

Hello, blog buddies! : ) Today's episode is dedicated to something I've been having a lot of lately - Chinese food! Seems like the Asian noodles & rice are calling to me daily lately!

First of all, we have a lil restaurant near work, called China Wok. They have very good egg drop soup. Lots of big pieces of fully cooked scrambled-like egg - some soups are a little yolky & not something I can eat! Their soup is always hot, brothy & very good.

They also have really good crab ragoon, stuffed with lots of filling. Sometimes I just eat the filling part & do away w/ the crispy bits, even though they are tastey, too. Beef fried rice is beef fried rice, right? Au contrare! (I'm sure I spelled that wonky, sorry!) This beef actually tastes like steak instead of hamburger, and again we have the big chunks of egg. I'm also a fan of the peas & carrots, and lack of chunks of onion. Not a fan of chunks of onion! Heh.

Next we have more fried rice with peas & carrots, from Panda Express, located at Northpark Mall. The rice wasn't AS good as China Wok, but the chicken & mushrooms (on the left of the plate) was very good. Juicy and not spicy, and both my nephew, Leyton, and I enjoyed the pieces of zucchini in the dish! On the right side of the plate, we have a very spicy but very good kum pow chicken. it was a little TOO spicy for me, but still good, if that makes sense! And happily for me - Panda Express is a Pepsi place! : )

For more tastey treats, tune in next time! : )

Spicy Basil Noodles revamped

Today, Shannan & I made the Exotic Thai trip of the week. We really do go once a week! : ) I started off with the Sa Te, or chicken skewers. The sauce to the bottom of the plate is basically peanut butter. A creamy, yummy, peanut butter sauce. I cut up the chicken & ate each piece with some cucumber & the sauce. Very smooth & tastey! And I was very glad I'd ordered it, because for my main dish I ordered something I've had before & usually like. Spicy Basil Noodles. Looks good, doesn't it? And normally I like it a lot. But today it was TOO spicy for me! And the cook had added onions, which weren't normally included! Or at least, I don't recall them being included... perhaps there just hadn't been so many in previous orders. Today it was like there was a whole onion in there! They also were way too heavy handed with the hot pepper. Unfortunately, I couldn't even taste what I normally like about this dish through the heat. This just illustrates a lesson I'm taught often, and have just learned to roll with - trying new things has risks, but "old standards" can be risky, too, depending on the chef! So, don't let fear interfere with trying something new. If it's something you really can't eat, the restaurant will generally take it back & fix you something else, at no charge. I didn't follow that path today simply because I'd eaten 1/3 of the meal before the heat kicked in, and I knew I could take the leftovers home to Phil. Tho, as it turned out, Shannan took my leftovers home to her daughter! As long as someone's enjoying it, tho, that's what matters.

Keep your eyes peeled for new & exciting fare, and please let me know what you suggest! : )

TTFN!

Olive Garden

I know the Olive Garden is basically "Italian fast food," but there's something to be said about it. They do know how to make some yummy pasta, and I really love their tiramisu, tho I didn't have any on Saturday.

I did have a little bit of their salad, which is kind of filling on its own. Now, again, we have the dreaded iceberg lettuce, which I don't really enjoy. However, the ceasar dressing is pretty tastey, and I like the flavor it gives to the tomatoes, olives, and croutons.

Normally, I prefer to have this, which is their new soup, chicken & gnocchi. Creamy, savory deliciousness! The one thing I don't like about this particular soup is their use of dark meat pieces. I don't know why, but dark meat in soup freaks me out. When it's on the bone, I love it, but once it's off the bone, it'd better be white meat. Still, I eat around it & highly enjoy this soup!

For my main dish, I chose Ravioli Portabello, with some cheese on top. About 8 large raviolis stuffed with mushrooms & cheese, in a yummy garlicky alfredo sauce. Even tho I love all these ingredients, this was not my favorite dish.

My current favorite dish is the Tuscan Garlic Shrimp. Can you see those shrimp? They are HUGE! Again we have a garlicky cream sauce and fettuccini noodles. (I don't order red sauces, 99% of the time, but I love Prego sauce for home use!) Also, this particular day, the sauce was perfect for dipping the garlicky breadsticks. Are you sensing I like garlic? You'd be correct! : )

Yummmm!

What's your favorite pasta dish? And where do you find it? Do share! (Though, I've been told there may be a problem with my Comments section, which I'm currently trying to fix. Send me an email if you can't comment! I really want some new ideas on things & places to eat!)

Until next time... Be brave! Try new things! : )

Adventures in Thai

For lunch, Exotic Thai likes to start you off with soup & salad. (Oddly, for dinner you do not get either.) The salad is pretty much always the same - iceberg, carrot shavings, slice of tomato, slice or two of cucumber, sweet dressing. I'm not a fan of iceberg lettuce - I prefer dark greens like spinach - but I do usually eat a few bites with the tomato & cucumber. The dressing is very good. The soup varies by day. I believe the one pictured here is Tom Yum, which is slightly curried and generally includes chicken. I like to pair lunches here with water, because the calabration of their Coke products is not to my tatste! : )

On this day, I chose to order an appetizer, basil rolls with sweet dipping sauce. The basil rolls are your general spring roll, stuffed with cabbage and other goodies, including a touch of, well, basil.

And here we have the main dish, known as pumpkin curry. This is my all time favorite dish at this restaurant. Possibly of any restaurant, as it is the dish I crave most often, and could eat more than once a week. As you can see, we have bits of Thai pumpkin (not like our American pumpkin, more like a butternut squash) in a sweet yet savory curry sauce, with green & red peppers and sprigs of basil on a bed of white sticky rice. (The broccoli doesn't go with this dish. It actually belongs to the Black Pepper Beef, but my friend Shannan's not a fan of the broccoli, so I get it! *grin*) You can choose to have this meal with chicken, beef, tofu, pork, etc. I prefer it with chicken, tho beef is sometimes very flavorful with it as well.

And here we have the Garlic Black Pepper Beef. I haven't had this, but it's Shannan's favorite dish. The beef is on a bed of cabbage & carrots, and is served with fried rice. The peppers to the side of the plate are part of a vinagery dressing Shannan adds separately.


Delicious! Doesn't it make you want to visit your local Thai restaurant & see if they have these available? : )

Until next time, keep your eye out for more tastey treats. If you have something you just love to nosh on, please let me know - I may want to try it! : )