Somehow I think I spend more on Groceries...

I LOVE the grocery store.  But I always always walk out of there spending $30-50 and really it only is one meal and maybe a few snacks worth of food.  On top of that, I also LOVE going out to eat, so all my money goes to food. 

Here was tonight's recipe with a couple substitutions because I'm still living out of Kevin's kitchen rather than mine!  I had some time at Stella's vet appointment to flip through my new Healthy Cooking April/May 2011 magazine.  I found at the end a chicken recipe that looked pretty good because the cherries caught my eye.  It was incredibly tasty and took about 15 minutes to make.  I was shocked at how quick and delicious it was! 

Chicken with Cherry Pineapple Sauce

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each)
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp canola oil
• 1 can (8oz) unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup sweet-and-sour sauce
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 2 green onions, sliced

1. Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and ginger.  In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, brown chicken in oil. 
2. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice.  In a small bowl, combine the sauce, cherries and reserved juice; pour over chicken.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees, turning chicken once.  Stir in pineapple and onions; heat through.

Nutrition: 1 chicken breast half with about 1/4 cup sauce equals 238 calories, 5g fat (1g unsaturated), 63mg cholesterol, 473 mg sodium, 24g carbs, 1g fiber, 24g protein

I had a couple subsititutions because I shopped at Trader Joe's and couldn't find sweet and sour sauce there.  Instead the ingredients I used were the following: chicken breasts, olive oil, fresh cut pineapple, dried cherries (forgot the green onion, oops!) and TJ's General Tso's sauce which was sweet and spicy (so not the same as sour, but very good) and it included garlic and ginger.  All set in my book and it turned out great!  Probably not the same nutrition facts, but oh well!

I'm cooking again!!!

I've been going out WAY too much for food!  Last week I did make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day (started making it a tradition, year #2!) and I also made Giada's Orrechiete with Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Rabe (I know I've mentioned this pasta before.  It's a go-to for me!) This week is even worse as my kitchen is currently full of my furniture while my east wall in the apartment gets repaired.  So I've been crashing at Kevin's and decided to make Stephan and Kevin dinner as a thank you for putting up with Stella and me. 

I don't have any cook books here so I tried food network.  Unfortunately, I just didn't see anything on there that I wanted to make that was easy enough to make in a kitchen that wasn't mine (had some idea what ingredients were available, but still needed to keep it relatively simple).  Then I decided that I've been on a feta kick for awhile, specifically greek fries...delicious.  But Kevin and Stephan have been doing P90x so I knew that whatever I made had to be healthy.  So I opted for a stuffed chicken recipe. I googled and found Feta-Stuffed Chicken from Cooking Light 1995! I then needed a side so I googled good side dish for stuffed chicken and found one by Gina's Skinny Recipes (I'm really liking her website, first the buffalo chicken dip, now this) called Broccoli and Orzo. 

Both dishes turned out great! I loved the chicken, and I'm not usually a chicken fan, but it was incredibly moist and flavorful.  I did add sundried tomatoes to the chicken which was a good call.  This was a pretty easy dish to make (minus the tenderizing of the chicken).  Definitely try this one!

Grahamwich

After a couple of hours shopping (Kelly and Sarah- I got your birthday presents!!) Chelsea and I were trying to pick out a lunch place. We have talked about going to Grahamwich ever since it opened a few months ago by the chef, Graham Elliot. He owns a restaurant, Graham Elliot that Chelsea and a couple of our friends have tried and everyone said that the food was great. So we wanted to try this upscale sandwich place.

It was a good time to go as it was a Saturday and it was around 2:30pm so we avoided the lunch rush and also avoided the weekday lunch traffic. It's a long narrow room and the waiters all look somewhat like 1920s newsboys with the hats. They have a large menu on the wall with the sandwiches, some snacks including the Truffled popcorn we got, desserts, drinks and breakfast foods. All of the sandwiches sounded amazing so it was incredibly hard for me to choose one. Chelsea has read that the Bahn Mie was great so she ordered that. I asked the girl at the counter what her top 2 choices were to which she replied the whitefish sandwich or the Reuben (the Reuben apparently has this cheese fondue spread over it...sounds delicious but messy). Then she said the turkey sandwich is another popular dish. As usual, I never pick the waiter's favorite dish, I have no idea why I ask them, because I went with the turkey sandwich.

Chelsea's Bahn Mie was huge and she said it was delicious, while I felt like my turkey sandwich was a great size (or maybe it's because I like to eat more). My turkey sandwich had candied yams, srujana, turkey (the good kind, not the lunchmeat kind), cranberries and sage mayo on a soft roll. It was amazing! We also ordered the Truffled popcorn with sea salt, pepper, chives and Parmesan. They were very liberal with the parmesan and it was very tasty!

I will definitely go back there as I'd like to try their whole wall of sandwiches (there were probably 10 to choose from) and it was delicious. Also, if you're every shopping off Michigan Ave, it's very convenient and is located on State Street between Ohio and Ontario.

Shake Shack!

I'm sitting here writing out facebook invites for Erin's Bachelorette (sorry Erin, you're going to be kept in the dark on some details, so you're not on the invite!) but I hear on the food network in the background one of the girls, can't remember her name, talking about Shake Shack in NYC! I almost forgot to write about it, but I was there last week. I had a free night (kinda) so I ran over there from the hotel to try it! It was great! I highly recommend if you go to New York. The simple meal was $15 but filling so I can't really complain. I ordered a burger with shake sauce (kinda mild, didn't stand out flavor-wise), cheese fries and the Car-mello Shake. The cheese fries next to Weiner Circle at 2am were the best cheese fries I've ever had. I couldn't even tell what cheese it was but I'm salivating just writing this. And the shake...amazing. It was vanilla custard with caramel, marshmallow and malt powder. I really need to stop ordering shakes all the time. It's at least once a week now thanks to Potbelly's being a block away.

Seasons 21

I am a big fan of Darden Restaurants.  Jaime, my girlfriend in Florida, works for Darden and I just love their restaurants.  First, growing up I went to Red Lobster for my birthday every year until probably high school because I loved crab legs and still do.  I even went last year to Red Lobster for my birthday for old times sake!  I also can't get enough soup, salad and breadsticks (plus a side of alfredo sauce to dip the breaksticks in) at Olive Garden.  But Seasons 21 may be the best restaurant of the chain, although I cannot speak for Bahama Breeze as I haven't tried it yet).  Seasons 21 has everything on the menu under 475 calories.  Mind you, that doesn't take into account ordering an appetizer and an entree and desserts, but when you're running a half marathon the next day, what's a few extra calories. 

The food is delicious always.  Erin, Jaime and I did a more family style meal when we ate there last week.  We had the penne pasta with tiger shrimp, buffalo chicken salad and the quail.   The best part of the meal, however, is the dessert.  They bring out mini cakes in shot glasses.  They are to die for.  Erin even requested them at her bridal shower (sorry Erin, I think you'll be getting various cupcakes instead).  We each had two desserts but did not want to stop there.  Between the three of us we had 3 red velvets, 1 key lime pie, and 2 carrot cakes.  We licked them clean practically. 

Disney Princess Half Marathon!

I did it!!! I ran 13.1 miles in 2:06:50!! Yay!!! It was so much fun.  Jaime of course kicked our butts in the race by running it in 1:45, but I had gone into it thinking that I wasn't sure if I would finish!  Erin and I ran straight through and we rocked. 

**New Goal: new half marathon in a new city every year with Jaime and Erin!

Cafe Des Architectes

Have been meaning to write forever but last week was just NOT a good week but thanks everyone for your support (even though most of you don't agree with my holistic medicine practices). 

Anyways, so last restuarant of Restaurant Week: Cafe Des Architectes.  It was good, not great.  I went with my girlfriend Chelsea and I think she was very pleased with the meal.  Portions were a great size and they had some interesting dishes on the menu.  However, I thought I had remembered them having risotto on the menu online for restaurant week, but that was not the case (which completely bummed me out because i'm totally in love with risotto currently).  The atmosphere was nice and I was definitely felt satisfied and full leaving, but Chelsea and I had talked about Naha at the dinner (she was the person who recommended Naha to me in the first place) and she mentioned that Naha's normal portions are much larger and she thinks they downsize them during restaurant week, so I pick Naha as my favorite meal of Restaurant Week!  I'd go there again :)

Blackberry Margarita - YUM!

Leeks with Red Potatoes and Fried Onions

Monkfish

Hamachi

Barramundi

Chilled Pineapple Soup