Tonight's Dinner: June 21, 2013

Tonight I wanted to make an easy breakfast dinner of spam, eggs, and rice.  After Nick saw what I was making, he asked me to make him spam loco moco.  It sounded pretty tasty so we started out on what ended up being a more complex than necessary dinner for a Friday.  I try not to cook on Fridays, but since we hasn't made a dinner together all week, it wasn't too bad.

Step 1: Fried spam over rice

Step 2: Mushroom gravy and macaroni salad

Step 3: Sunny side up eggs and more gravy

Tonight's Dinner: June 20, 2013

Nick had been gone Tuesday and Wednesday of this week for dinner so I had noodles and worked on wedding craft projects.  Thursday, however, the Fongs invited us over for dinner.  I grabbed Emmy and we ran the 5.5 miles to the Fong's house.  On the way, I waved at a guy who I thought was my good friend Frank.  He hesitantly waved back and that's when I realized that it wasn't him.  Woops.  It was kind of hard to miss me too since I was wearing a neon pink tank top so it's not like I could slink away.

The dinner was delicious as always and I was stuffed.

It's a little hard to see how gigantic these clams are, but if you look at the
next few pictures you'll see how much bigger they are than the bowl full
of regular sized clams. 

Today's Lunch: June 18, 2013

Today I went to lunch with a couple of coworkers and a former coworker at Jack's to catch up.  Unfortunately, our former coworker got caught up with a client so he showed up late and had to be rushed through his food.   As a punishment for being late, I stole his pickle.  It was nice seeing him though.  I got the gyro because the guys told me that it was pretty good and large.  It filled me up well enough since I probably shouldn't eat as much as I do.

Photo bomb.  This is what happens when you go to lunch with all boys.

Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are surprisingly good!  They pretty much have no flavor but are packed with tons of vitamins and minerals.  On top of that, they have a ton of fiber so they are supposed to help keep you full.  I was really worried about the texture since the look really slimy and like little bugs in your water, but they aren't bad at all.  They have the texture of a tomato seed.  If you don't like tomato seeds, I'd stay away.  When I drink them in coconut water or my green juice I don't even notice them because they are so slippery that I just drink them down. They are a really simple and inexpensive way to get vitamins and minerals.  I introduced them to a couple of my coworkers and one of them said that they give her a ton of energy.  She likes to sip them straight from the container, but I prefer to put mine in my juice or yogurt.

When you buy the seeds they look like little sesame seeds, but after you add water the explode into something that you can eat.  I read that you should always soak the seeds first as they will expand in your stomach if you don't, which could potentially cause stomach aches or cramps.  So far my coworkers and I haven't seen any negative side effects.  Our main worry is that we enjoy them so much that we would OD on them, but from the reading that I did, it doesn't look like you can really OD on them unless you're eating a whole jar or something.  We're limiting ourselves to a teaspoon or two of seeds a day.  The benefits are great!

The first day I tried them in coconut water. 

I also tried them in Greek yogurt.

Tonight's Dinner: June 17, 2013

Tonight for dinner I wanted to try out a stuffed chicken breast.  I've never done anything like this before and think I was mildly successful.  I only ate about half of mine because I didn't like it much.  It's a good thing we had left over garlic noodles.  I think it would have been much more of a success if I would have used a cheese that melted better.  Costco slices of Swiss cheese don't melt very well and turn rubbery once it's cooled.  Not exactly appetizing.  The dish did look pretty though.  I would probably try this again with a different type of cheese.

I flattened the chicken by pounding it with the bottom
of a pot and rolled cooked mushrooms and spinach
into the chicken. 

Tonight's Dinner: June 16, 2013

For Father's Day we decided to take my Dad to Ruth Chris since he had never gone before.  Our friends, the Ryans, have raved about Ruth Chris' for years.  We are a Black Angus family, but it was nice to change things up.  The two really can't be compared, but the Chins love their well-priced prime rib.

Ruth Chris was really quite good, but I thought that it was a little expensive for what it was.  I appreciated that the meat was cooked simply with salt, pepper, butter and parsley, but when the waitress was explaining that all the meat was cooked the same way, it made me wonder why we were paying big bucks when I know that we can grill steaks with the same ingredients with a very similar result.  I did however, really enjoy the lobster ravioli.  Though the food was really tasty and well cooked, I thought the best part of the meal was the service.  Our waitress was attentive and considerate and the bus staff was extremely helpful.  I'm not sure if we will go back, but it is definitely a nice place for a date night if you are in the mood for steak.

My Dad loves French Onion Soup so we told him that we're
splurging so he should get it. 

I thought my Mom was going to bop my Dad on the head
with her napkin because he kept trying to cut the gruyere with
his teeth rather than his spoon. Christopher and I thought it
was pretty amusing. 

Christopher and I both ordered the 22oz bone in ribeye.  It was only $5 more
than my Dad's 16oz boneless ribeye.  The waitress said that the bone really
doesn't add that much weight, so we went for the bigger one.  I've learned from
a very wise father, always get more bang for your buck!

We got two orders of garlic mashed potatoes to share. 

Dad's 16oz ribeye.

I think that my Mom got a strip steak.  I can't remember and
I'm not that good at meat that I can recognize the cut. 

I only finished half my steak and brought it home for Nick to have for lunch.

Lobster risotto.  I'm always hesitant to order risotto because it can be so easy
to mess up.  The lobster, however, drew me in.    

As a reward for staying home while we were at dinner, we had the bus boy pack
up Christopher ribeye bone. 

"For me?!"

"Well if you insist..."

"My bone!"

I ordered a small ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins
because my Dad loves Jamoca Almond Fudge. 

Today's Breakfast: June 15, 2013

Chef Burger!  Christopher, Nick and I were planning to go to Modesto to see one our favorite Youtube groups, The Piano Guys, for a small concert.  We had a lot of time to spare so we enjoyed our morning at Chef Burger and Father's Day shopping before heading out.

Nick got a veggie omelet.

Nick and I both got breakfast burittos with country gravy. 

Let me tell you guys, the Piano Guys are amazing in their videos and live.  The are incredibly sincere and funny.  I guarantee that we will be playing several of their songs at our wedding during dinner.  On the screens in the back, they played some of their videos while they were playing the songs.  One of their best songs in my opinion, Beethoven's 5 Secrets, was absolutely amazing.  Christopher noticed that Steve, the cellist, matched all of his bow strokes with the video.  That is talent.  I highly encourage you to check out their Youtube channel.  I really can't say enough about how amazing they are.

We didn't take many pictures since they were all turning out like this, but we
had to take a couple. 

Tonight's Dinner: June 14, 2013

This is definitely less than healthy, but after trying to cleanse during the week, I calorie splurged and had a Fosters with popcorn.  Nick fell asleep super early so I was able to get some "me" time.  This also translates to "Allison gets to paint her nails without anyone complaining about the smell" time.  I also got to watch Pride and Prejudice and Pretty Woman without any complaints.  Unfortunately for Emmy, she can't talk.

Now before you all go judging me for lack of any nutritional value of my dinner, I did have a really large lunch at Elephant Bar for our monthly Admin lunch.  

I got a steak burrito and a side of mac and cheese.  One of the other girls didn't
like her steak sandwich so I also ate half of her meat. 

Vanessa got the shrimp platter appetizer as a meal. That's
a lot of shrimp.

She also got a pretty awesome looking mock-tail. 

Tonight's Dinner: June 13, 2013

Pork tenderloin take two:

Garlic noodles with garlic green beans.  Yum yum yum.

Post-Dinner Cooking

After we got home from the Fongs, I still had to do some cooking for our office potluck.  To make things easy for myself, I made sausage taco fixins'.  It was nothing too inspired, but it seemed like something that everyone would like and could customize when they put them together.  I've learned that we have some picky eaters at our office, so this worked out well.

I cooked up the sausage, sautéed mushrooms, red bell peppers, caramelized onions,
chiffonaded spinach, and made a rosemary-garlic-lemon mayo. 

I also brought stuff to make office s'mores.  Using my creme
brulee torch, we roasted marshmallows on bbq squewers.  I
had seen a s'mores recipe on all recipes that used fudge striped
cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate.  Not as good
as the real deal, but definitely not terrible. 

Tonight's Dinner: June 12, 2013

Wow.  I don't even know why we eat out when we can eat like this at home.  The Fongs just received their new, giant, stainless steel grill and invited us over for dinner so that Nick could grill for them.  I think for this post, I'll revert back to letting the pictures speak for themselves.

Giant wild salmon and rib-eyes.

Nick cut the fish in half to fit them on the cedar blocks that
we brought over.

Rob gave all of his groomsmen brands.  Nick really wanted
to try his on one of the steaks.  It turned out better than we
thought, but I kept telling him that he should do it on a cooked
steak.  He was too impatient.

Happy Daddy and woof.

I ate one of these badboys all to myself.