Nyquil-me-Happy

Winner of the Bob’s Sauce & No Pudge Brownie! Mixes Giveaway….Ms. This is Just Sweet Enough!!!!!

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I woke up everday this weekend feeling like a bulldozer ran over me, DESPITE taking disgusting Nyquil nightly starting Friday.

St–RAW-BANI in Bed

I decided to eat my strawberry Chobani in bed, raw and without add-ins for a quick and simple breakfast!

What a fabulous idea! Tt was delicious (though I still prefer blueberry Chobs) but I’m not sure the mushy strawberries and the slighly artificial fruit flavor really strikes a chord with me….but overall, still YUM!

For a full review click here.

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Panera’s Secret

Not long after our noontime movie with a bunch of friend (We say Watchmen – which I didn’t really enjoy because I’m not a blood & guts type of girl), we went for a late lunch at Panera. Though I’d never been a big fan of Panera, I really wanted some good soup because at this point, I’ve pretty much completely lost my voice. 😦

Black Bean soup with the Fuji Apple salad. I devoured everything. Very tasty, but maybe because I was hungry.

The boyfriend got a sierra turkey sandwich with broccoli cheddar soup. His favorite!

I’ve discovered that Panera’s secret is: You gotta pick the right one to go to!! The one that was near my college campus was MUCH more stingy with the salad toppings. The Panera I went to downtown gave much more chicken, pecans, and apple chips than I ever remembered getting!! I was happy with my order!

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Veggie Sticks?!?!

I was a little skeptical when I first looked at these guys…Lesser Evil krinkle sticks huh?

Taste: I’m not gonna lie, it takes a little getting used to. The flavor is predominantly potato-like, though there are definitely other savory flavors as well. The difficult part is pin-pointing what exactly those OTHER flavors are, but overall, an interesting flavor that one could get used to very quickly.

Texture: My favorite part! They were braided into colorful twists. When you bite into the sticks, they are really crunchy and NOT airy (think rice cakes). This is definitely a good thing because it gets you satisfied.

Overall, I could see myself eating these again at home, but probably wouldn’t buy them to entertain friends. 40+ sticks for only 110 calories is really fair. Plus, it also hits high on the satiety factor so you don’t end up eating a whole bag! yay!

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All-You-Can-Eat Sushi Party

To welcome a visiting friend, the bf and I went to House of Sushi with a couple friends from college for a sushi buffet. Nobody knows of this food blog of mine, so I only snagged a few shots of our platters without raising any suspicion. hehehehe.

So I didn’t get to capture the two plates of tempura veggies and the edamame…

How it works: Everyone orders two rolls first, and then when you’re done, you order another 2 rolls, and so on.

The amazing thing is, the waitress will tell you what roll is which on every platter when she brings the plates over. Imagine doing this like 8 times per table!!

I ordered: A Chicago Crazy Maki, a New York Maki Roll, Mexican Maki Roll, & a Yellowtail Maki.

The bill came out to be around $22 per person including tax and tip. Not bad for a big sushi dinner! Given presentation wasn’t exactly AWESOME, the fish was fresh and the service was speedy, and we had a good time! So what more can you ask? 🙂

They even had chocolate fortune cookies to end the meal with!!

We ended the night by playing Rockband and Scattergories while snacking on a tub of Trader Joe’s Vanilla Wafer Cookies. (SO GOOD!)

In reflection – I wish I had more fruits and veggies this weekend. It probably would have helped my sickness go away faster. UGHHH it’s so frustrating when you’re sick and can’t find energy to do anything! 😦

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Acai Goji Berry Steel Cut Oats

On a side note, I decided to make Steel Cut oats for the first time ever thanks to inspiration from Jamba.

Here was the recipe I improvised:

1. Dump 1 cup steel cut oatmeal into electric pot with 4 cups water

2. Bring to boil and cook on medium heat for 40 minutes

3. Dump 4 tbs acai powder, 1 pack vanilla protein powder (yes, I used a shake powder. what was I thinking????), and a handful of goji berries

4. Mix until clumps disappear, then cook another 5 minutes

5. Remove from heat and allow to cool!

Here’s what it looked like after mixing out the lumps. It is more purple in person, and after removing from the heat, it cooked down to a MUCH more firm, sticky consistency.

SUCCESSSS!!!

Now all you gotta do is, stay tuned for the next breakfast post so find out what the final FINAL product looks like!

Wahhooo!

Question for you creative cooks out there – Where do you get your recipe inspirations from???

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More Giveaways!!

Christina is doing ANOTHER giveaway?!?!? Yup!

Missy from Missy Maintain’s has some chips for you!

Wonderful Julie is having a “My favorite things” giveaway!

Just for Fun!, Product Reviews, Recipes

Chobani, Irish Oats, Movie, Panera, party, Products, Recipes, Reviews, Salad, Sandwich, Soup, Strawberry, Sushi

March 23, 2009

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