Tag Archives: dessert

Bertucci’s and TCBY Night!

Hey guys! I am currently stranded for an extra night in Tennessee due to the snow storm back home, but I don’t hate it. I love it here and could stay for days and days more! I have been eating tons of food and having great quality family time. I’ve even managed to get in a couple of good workouts, including a 4 mile incline treadmill run today! I have to be honest that sometimes I get hesitant to indulge on vacations or let loose and let myself enjoy things I don’t normally eat, but I have been concentrating on being with my family and trying to use that to distract myself from any worries I may get about vacation food. After all, this tasty food is definitely not something that should be cause for worry!

Before I start recapping this trip I want to recap a couple of yummy nights out I had last week, starting with last Monday’s dinner!

I was a crazy woman last Monday night and went out to eat after the gym. Yes, I’m wild and insane. Usually I go straight home, but I made plans with Jeff and Kim to go to a Thai restaurant that I had a SaveNowCT deal to. Well, you know how small restaurants are sometimes closed on Mondays? Yes, that happened.

NO WORRIES! I’m a coupon queen, and had a $5 of $25 deal from the Bertucci’s Facebook page, so I met the two of them there instead. At this point I was ready to eat my arm off and I immediately started on a roll. Mmm. I love their rolls and olive oil + herbs.

Jeff the hand model

Luckily my meal came with a cup of minestrone, so I got that fairly quickly and was relieved from my hanger. It was delicious! I loved the plentiful red beans and noodles. I hate runny, lackluster broth soups. This was hearty!

Check out the herbs on top – love it! For my meal I selected the Seafood di Mare, which awkwardly means Seafood of the Sea? We will let that one slide. This was a brick oven entree of baby scallops, shrimp, mussels, cod, with plum tomatoes and a baked crostini AKA crusty, amazing bread that I put the tomatoes on top of and ate like a homemade bruschetta.

The mussels were very good! It was my first time trying them and I’m glad I had something new. The rest of the seafood was wonderful as well. My only complaint is the temperature of the dish. This thing was HOT, and not your normal restaurant hot. I’m talking after 15-20 minutes of eating (I eat slowly), I was still blowing on each bite and desperately sipping water to cool my mouth down. I finally figured out that taking the remaining components of the meal out of the hot oil they were chillin’ (not at all) and setting them on a bread plate for a few minutes would cool them down quickly. The amount of oil this was baked in was too much anyway – there was so much leftover when I finished! I’d recommend using less oil and heating it less – but really, what do I know about cooking? Just a thought though, Bertucci’s!

And now I’ll embarrass myself by showing the website’s image of my meal. Looks pretty similar in terms of what came with it, but man I would’ve enjoyed having that lemon!

Thanks to Bertuccis.com for image.

Jeff went with the Seafood Torta: “Bertucci’s famous dough filled with tender scallops, shrimp, roasted tomato sauce, tomatoes, shaved cheese and oregano. Topped with fresh thyme and then baked to perfection in the brick oven.” I’ve had the Vegetable Torta before and while it’s delicious, I found it hard to eat and too similar to a pizza. I might as well just get a pizza, it’s easier to manage!

We all agreed that the presentation on this dish was pretty sad. It looked so bland on that plate – so lonely! But Jeff said he liked it. And another website photo for comparison…

Thanks to Bertuccis.com for image.

If only Jeff’s meal had come with that sprig of thyme laying oh-so-delicately on the torta!

Kim got one of my favorites, the Venetian Spinach Salad: “Grilled chicken breast atop a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes, red onions, shaved cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.” Her only complaint was that the red onions were too large for the salad – they were in rings, not shavings, and she doesn’t like too much onion taste at once. I gladly took a few rings off her hands and ate them whole. Classy.

I’m really lucking out with the availability of pretty website photos to put mine to shame, huh?

Image from Bertuccis.com

I’m always impressed with this salad. It’s one of the few I will order from a restaurant. I like to get the salmon – it is worth the higher price. Bertucci’s offers surprisingly delicious salmon.

At this point, we were feelin’ pretty good because the meal was over and it was time to head to TCBY for some FRO YO!

Cute couple aka my dining partners in crime.

We arrived and I discovered that it was Trivia Night, aka answer a trivia question right and get $1 off. And I got the only easy question (Which designer’s daughter owns a candy shop in NYC, Ralph Lauren OF COURSE), so I got $1 off! Poor Jeff and Kim got questions about the 70’s gas shortage and the tallest waterfall on Earth.

The most interesting topping on tap was star fruit! I’d never had it before and was excited to try it. Jeff nailed it when he compared it to an under-ripe pear – it was OK, but not something I’d go for again. Maybe it was just under-ripe!

I went with a mix of PB, white chocolate mousse, caramel, and cake batter flavors. Lots of toppings and topped off with sugar-free chocolate sauce.

And now I bring you…our creations!

Jeff's

Kim's

Mine.

Hey, it looks like there’s a candy cane in there! Trust me, there’s not, I hate them. I am obsessed with those frosted animal crackers though.

What’s your favorite fro-yo topping? Have you ever run into a meal that was just WAY too hot?

Winner Winner (Not Chicken Dinner)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! I’m so psyched for the weekend. I’m going to hit up Group Step after work, go have dinner with an old friend I haven’t seen in forever, and head home to catch up on the DVR. Ah, the life of a working girl-grandma hybrid.

I have been on a bit of a winning streak lately. Yesterday I found out that I was chosen in the lottery for Conan O’Brien’s NYC show taping tickets, so in early November I will be hitting the Big Apple to go see Conan! I am beyond excited and can’t wait to find out what guest will be on that day, though I won’t know for a couple of weeks. I’m hoping for Leonardo Dicaprio since J. Edgar starts showing at film festivals around that time. Yeah I know, dream big, but how amazing would it be to be in the same room as Leo AKA my favorite actor?

Who doesn't drop everything whenever "Titanic" comes on TV? Swoon.

I also recently won an Odwalla Bar giveaway over at Katie’s blog, and a marketing book from a Good Reads giveaway that I can’t wait to check out:

I hate to brag (but really I don’t), I’m feeling quite lucky lately, and am hoping my luck will hold out in the 50/50 raffle at work today that I just purchased 5 tickets for. Proceeds support the troops so even if I don’t win, it’s all good, but it would certainly be nice to head into the weekend with a little extra cash!

I shared my breakfast yesterday, and no need to do so again since it’s the same almost each day, except with a different kind of PB (and maybe an english muffin thrown in on weekend mornings). But today I thought I’d show some pics of my lunch and snacks, and again I most likely will not be sharing these again since my workday lunches and snacks are fairly consistent day-to-day, except my salad beast ingredients change with what we have in the fridge.

Salad beast, fruit and cottage cheese, english muffin and Laughing Cow wedge.

Just to give you an idea of what a typical lunch-size salad for me would have in it, today’s includes:

  • leftover meatloaf
  • spinach
  • banana peppers
  • both bread n’ butter and dill pickles
  • tomato
  • vidalia onion
  • red pepper
  • kalamata olives
  • sundried tomatoes
  • baby carrots
  • snow peas

Some snacks, TJ's veggie chips and a bosc pear.

To finally explain this post’s cheesy title, last night’s dinner was not chicken-related in any form. I got home from class and was absolutely ravenous. I tore through the fridge like a tornado and grabbed the best leftovers I could find. I reheated some Giovanni’s veggie pizza in the oven on low broil (mmm crispy burnt crust) and heated up the last piece of leftover filet in the microwave. It was a super tasty dinner and was followed with an ice cream sandwich.

Veggie pizza with tzatziki sauce, filet with spicy yellow mustard

Thanks to Android Headlines for the below image.

These never fail to take me back to my childhood!

Finally, yesterday was made a little bit more fun by the fact that it was not too cold out, so I could wear my fun Forever 21 leopard swing coat! It has 3/4 sleeves so the time of year I can wear it consists of a very narrow window (early fall, early spring). But whenever I do, I feel so glamorous. The inside is hot pink too – PERFECT.

Who is your favorite actor? When was the last time  you won a giveaway/raffle/lottery/etc and what did you win? Did you eat ice cream sandwiches as a kid?