Friday, January 31, 2014

BLOG ADVISORY

Setting sail for the weekend. Look for Blog updates Monday or Tuesday. Ahoy!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Thursday

I started the day with the rest of the Cabbage.

Some might question my choice of Breakfast, but it was in the refrigerator, and it was good.

Ed, Jeff and I were in Miami for a tech show this afternoon. We headed to Lincoln Road for Lunch.

Ed and I both had Pork Shanks with Arroz Moro.

Not a good photo, but it was tasty.

Jeff had a Medio Noche Sandwich.

When we got back to the office, I had a Bowl of Watermelon.

For Dinner, Joe Robert had given me a couple of Omaha Steak Stuffed Sole with Scallops and Crabmeat. I cooked them up, along with some Green Giant Brussels Sprouts.



I think the fish would have been better if I had baked it instead of using the microwave, but I was hungry. They were worth 10 points for the two of them, though. The Brussels Sprouts were pretty good... I had never tried them this way before.

That's it... I'm off on a weekend cruise tomorrow, so I will post when I can.

Wednesday - Soup!!!!

Wednesday, January 29

Four Bananas

A Bowl of Watermelon.

For Lunch, I had some of the Cabbage that I made the other day. It was just as good re-heated.

I'm glad I gave this  another chance. My first couple of attempts didn't go that well.

During the afternoon, two more Bowls of Watermelon.

Lonnise picked me up after work and we went to The Noodle House for Soup. I love Soup, and apparently, so does Lonnise.

And to make it even better, they had pretty waitresses tonight. Ususally, we get our Soup delivered by old men, so it just keeps getting better.

I had my standard: XL Pork Broth with Pork and Dumplings with Vermicelli Noodles.


Fabulous. As always. Lonnise had her standard as well: Pork Broth, Pork and Shrimp with Vermicelli Noodles.


You may have noticed how extra colorful the Soup pictures are... you have Milca to thank for that. She told me that she likes the colors in the Soup, so I put the camera on the 'extra colorful' setting. You can see the difference in Lonnse's shirt in the two photos above.

Later, we were at Jim's house. Jared came over and brought some homemade Ice Cream that he made, well, in his home.

It was **something** Tea flavor. I just don't remember. I called Lonnise; she didn't remember either.

Jared tried to give me a large cup of the stuff, but I negotiated him down to the picture above. This was really, really, really good. I haven't had Ice Cream in a long time, but some of the other people at the house are regular Ice Cream eaters, and they were impressed with it, too.

Soup and Ice Cream... a great day.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Tuesday with Loretta

Tuesday, January 28

I had nothing in the morning, but at around 11:30, I heated up the second batch of Catfish that I made last night.

It was just as good as the night before.

I had a Bowl of Watermelon during the afternoon.

Loretta and I had Opera tickets, so we went to Capital Grille in Miami before the show. We started by sharing an order of their Fried Calamari. I didn't get a good photo of the dish, but here's Loretta with some.

Their Calamari is really, really good. It cost a bit more, but you get a lot of it and, as I may have mentioned, it is really, really good. I had about three quarters of the dish.

For my Main Course, I had the Sirloin Steak Au Poivre.

Yes, that's a side of Mushrooms above the plate. I had those, too. I cleaned my plates. The Fries were not mine. Loretta had the Chilean Sea Bass and, inexplicably, an order of Fries.

She, too, cleaned her plate, but only had three or four of the Fries. She took them home where, I suspect she will throw them out in a couple of days.

The Opera was OK. We liked the music, but the story was a little far-fetched, even for an Opera. We ate nothing the rest of the night.

Monday Home Cooking

Monday, January 27

I had nothing to eat during the day. It was weigh-in day and I had eaten out eight times last week. I figured that I needed all the help I could get.

One of the guys at Weight Watchers talked last week about some "Black Bean Brownies." He claimed that they were as good as regular Brownies at a fraction of the point values. We told him to bring the recipe. He did us one better... he brought the Brownies. I had one.

Was it good? Yes. Was it Chocolaty? Yes. Was it only two points? Yes again. Was it as good as one of these giant, $5 brownies from a Bakery? Of course not, but who was expecting that? It was good and I enjoyed it. I don't think that I will make them, though, because you can't just make on Brownie, and I would wind up eating the entire tray. But if he brought me another one, I would eat that, too. Well worth two points... I get 44 a day.

I stopped at Albertsons on the way home and stocked up. First up, a Bowl of Watermelon.

When I calmed down, I got out the makings for Catfish and Vegetables.

You've got Broccoli, Hot Chili Sauce, Spices, Mushrooms, Pepper Rings, Diced Tomatoes, String Beans and Onion Flakes along with the Catfish. This is one of my standard dishes, and it usually comes out pretty good. Today was no different.

While the Catfish was cooking, I cut up two heads of Cabbage and started to prep and cook that as well.


When that was all done, I put away most of it for later in the week, and had a bowl of it to celebrate.


That was it for Monday. I also cooked enough Catfish and Vegetables to have for Lunch on Tuesday.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Watermelon Sunday

Sunday, January 26

I've eaten way more than I needed or planned to the last few days, so I planned to specialize in Watermelon today. It's on sale at Publix, so I went to town.

That's just one of them. I had a lot of Watermelon today. A lot.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Sandwich Saturday

Saturday, January 25

A Bowl of Watermelon.

In the afternoon, Jeff and I headed down to Coral Gables to watch the Hurricanes play basketball against Syracuse. We hit a roadblock: The MeroRail was all screwed up. We waited for the train for an hour, and then decided to give up and watch elsewhere. Hialeah Park was nearby, and they recently opened a casino, so we figured that there was somewhere that we could watch the game. Also, neither of us had ever been there before.

Hialeah Park (the racetrack) was really cool. The casino: not so much. The track was like going back in time... we even got to see the flamingos!

We watched the game at a bar in the casino. The Hurricanes tried valiantly, but they are a year away from being very good. Jeff had Chips and Salsa and then a Hamburger, and I had Pasta with Sausage.

You may have noticed the lack of Sausage; the kitchen didn't. They eventually brought me some Sausage in Sauce to add to the Pasta. We decided to come back to the track one afternoon, but we will eat somewhere else first.

Ed came over in the evening so we could start planning our May trip to Peru. He wants to go to the jungle and look at jungle stuff. We went to Shenangans East Side Pub for Dinner.

I had a Sandwich. I rarely have Sandwiches. I looked at the menu, thought it through and decided that I wanted a Sandwich. Then I looked at the menu some more, and decided that I wanted the biggest, baddest Sandwich that they had. I ordered the Fat Bulldog Sandwich, with Beans and Sweet Potato Fries.


The menu claims that the Fat Bulldog has "Smoked Sausage, Pulled Pork and Beef Brisket over a pound piled high served on a toasted Kaiser." I didn't weigh it, but they delivered what they promised. I ate every bite, but not before drenching the thing in BBQ Sauce. The Beans and Fries went, too.

Ed had a Sausage and Brisket combo plate.

He claims to no be excited about Blog photos, but he's the first to pose. I had most of his Fries, too.

I talked to Lonnise on Sunday about my Sandwich. She asked two questions: Did I enjoy it? Was it worth it? My answers: Yes and Yes.

Friday!

Friday, January 24

There's been a lot of eating in restaurants this week, and I have more coming, so I'm doing what I can to minimize the damage.

A Bowl of Watermelon.

Another Bowl of Watermelon.

For Lunch, I nuked a Smart Ones Lasagna Florentine.

This is eight points I will always be OK spending. It tastes good and is filling.

Later that afternoon, two more Bowls of Watermelon. Here's a picture, just so you don't think I am making this up.

Caleb and I had hockey tickets for Friday night. I picked him up after work. He had eaten already (and was saving himself for Hockey Game Food), so he watched me have Soup at the Noodle House.

Delicious. We get to the arena. Caleb is all decked out in his Panthers jersey and his claw and banner and stuff. He discovered that he didn't have a hockey stick. We corrected that and got him an order of French Fries.

According to Caleb, the Fries were "OK" -- not as good as McDonalds, but almost as good as Burger King's Fries. I had one, and I can wait a while until my next one.

After the game, Caleb tore up the afterparty. Here he is with two of the Cheerleaders.

In a cruel twist of fate, I have no pictures of me with Cheerleaders. When I got home, I drowned my sorrows in one more Bowl of Watermelon.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Thursday: Peruvian Food - Right Here at Home!

Thursday, January 23

I had big Dinner plans, so I kept it to zero point foods during the day.

Four Navel Oranges.

There's six there; I only had four.

Then, two Bananas and a Bowl of Pineapple.

The Bobblehead is always jumping in on my Pineapple. I finished the daytime eating with four Plum Tomatoes.

Larry has been talking about a Peruvian restaurant in Lantana called Victoria's Peruvian Restaurant. It's very popular, and he had gone there once with Leslie, but they didn't really have any clue as to what to order. I told him that 'everything would be delicious,' but we decided to make a date for all three of us to try the place out.

If you give me an opportunity to show off, I'm there. Plain and simple.

We decided to eat family-style. That way, we would all get to taste the most different things. For our Appetizers, we shared a Cebiche, Anticuchos, and Conchitas a la Parmesana.



The Cebiche was mixed Seafood and Fish (spicy), Anticuchos are Marinated and Grilled Beef Hearts, and The Conchas are Scallops topped with Cheese and baked. The Cebiche was excellent, The Anticuchos were as good as you'll see here in the USA (but not nearly up to Tia Grimenesa's standards), and the Scallops were slightly different than their South American inspiration, but were very good in their own right. We pretty much split all three dishes evenly.

Our Main Courses were Pescado a lo Macho, Tacu Tacu with Lomo Saltado, and -- a real treat for me -- Paiche.



Pescado a lo Macho is Fish Filets covered in a sauce with mixed Seafood. Normally, the fish is fried, but we asked them to grill it. The Tacu Tacu with Lomo is a Rice & Bean Patty (the Tacu Tacu) with stir-fried Beef strips with Tomatoes and Onions, over French Fries. That's a mouthful to say (and eat!), but the combination is really good, and it is a very accessible Peruvian Dish. And Paiche is a really large fish that is only found in the jungle areas of Peru. You can't always get it in Lima, much less Palm Beach County, so I was very excited.

All three dishes were wonderful. We had our choice on reparation of the Paiche, and we had them grill it as well. The Paiche is a thick filet, and it came with a different seafood mix and sauce than the other fish plate. All three were great, and I'm not sure if I liked the Paiche best because it was better, or because it was a treat. Either way, every bite of all three dishes were wonderful.

The Main Courses are where my Professional Eater status showed through... I probably had more than my third of the food, and there was still some leftovers.

If you're looking for Peruvian food and don't mind driving, head to Victorias. It is 'classic' Peruvian, in the sense that these dishes are what my friends grandparents grew up eating. I will be taking Loretta there one night.

That was plenty of food for Thursday.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Wednesday: Dinner with Maud

Wednesday, January 22

Two Bananas first thing in the morning.

Ed and I went to Lunch at the Grille at the Calvary Chapel on Cypress Creek Road. I wasn't going to eat Lunch today because I was going out to Dinner tonight, but I like the church. Mostly, I'm just happy that I don't burst into flames.

Clearly, I wasn't at the top of my game, because I only took one photo during the meal. I was sure that I took more, but I guess not.

We started off with Fried Brussels Sprouts. They were very good. There were about 20 of them, not coated with anything, but kind of fried and then tossed in a sweet-ish sauce, and garnished with small pieces of Bacon. They were really good, but probably not all that diet-y. I had about half the dish.

Ed and I both ordered a Half Chicken with Rice. They also had a few carrots on the side. The Chicken was very good; the rice was, well, rice, and the Carrots were drenched in Butter. I finished everything on my plate except some of the Carrots (there weren't all that many to start). Here's Ed with his dish.

I had a Bowl of Watermelon as an Afternoon Snack.

For Dinner, I met up with Maud and her friend Barbara. After a could of false starts, we wound up at Umbertos of Long Island on Commercial Blvd. It was happenstance, but it turned out excellent.

I decided to have two Appetizers for Dinner -- that way, I avoided the Pasta that comes with everything, seeing as how I had the Rice for Lunch. For my first Appetizer, I had sauteed Escarole Beans and Sausage.

This was really, really good. Everything was cooked to perfection. There was probably more Oil than I would have liked involved here, but other than that... perfect.

Maud had the Minestrone Soup and Barbara had the Salad that came with her Main Course.


They seemed happy as well.

For my Main Course Appetizer, I ordered the Sauteed Calamari Fra Diablo.

This was great and chock full of Garlic. I was ecstatic.

Maud and Barbara had a Ceasar Salad and Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli, respectively.


They also were happy with their meals. This place scored high on all six dishes, and was fairly-priced. Why hasn't anyone told me about them before?

After Dinner, Maud & I went for coffee and talked for a bit. I probably won't get to see her again for a while, so I got all the Maud face time that I could.

That's it for the night.