Huulloohh Dears!!!
Despite Chicago’s rainy crappy weather, I’m in a cheery mood! Wanna win 6 bottles of gourmet sauces/salsa?? Click here!! Anyway, eats away!!
***These are my favorite oats so far! What’s your favorite combo?***
Strawberry Banana Pumpkin Steel-bran Oats
SERIOUSLY the most delicious, filling breakfast EVER. I love it more than Almond Butter on oats for sure!!!
This takes 1 minutes to put put together once you have the base.
- Serving of vanilla steel-bran oats (see my last post for recipe) microwaved w/ 3 Tbs water
- 3 Tbs Pumpkin stirred in (after microwaving)
- 1/2 Big Banana-mama, sliced
- 1 container Strawberry Activia (OMG the bacteria in it WORKS!!!)
- Splash skim milk over the top
To illustrate the nutty steel-cut oats and the gritty oat bran combined, here’s a scoop of creamy bliss!
Though I love the slightly crunchy steel-cut oats, the oat bran adds a really nice creaminess. Delicious!!
To refresh some memories out there, here were my raw ingredients to make the vanilla steel-bran oats.
Let me know if you make these pumpkin strawberry banana oats, because you’ll love it!!!
****
BBQ Tofu Sabra Crunch-a-Lunch!
For an appetizer, I had this assembly of goodies all dipped into Sabra hummus with Roasted Pine Nuts.
For the main, I finished the rest of the packet of baby carrots dipped in more Sabra (yes, I eat a pound of baby carrots at a time) and a super tasty sandwich! I must have had 1/4 container of hummus because it’s SO creamy, but the pine nuts didn’t add anything flavor-wise)
The sandwich components:
- 2 Slices Arnolds honey wheat bread
- 3 Tbs Sabra Hummus with Pine Nuts
- Garlic Sauteed Spinach
- BBQ Glazed Baked Tofu (1/3 block)
- Tomato, Cucumber slices
Does anyone else not get full off a sandwich? Or am I a monster?
A couple hours later, I busted out Dr. Kracker’s cherry semolina crisps.
After a serving of these (8 crackers for 110 calories), I had enough.
Though the Hummus Maximus was delicious last time, this flavor was a little too dry and flavorless by itself.
***
Reza’s Restaurant, Chicago
How about a Mediterranean dinner date downtown tonight?
The last time the bf and I ordered from Reza’s, we got a great deal of delicious food for a fair price. Unfortunately, going to the restaurant was actually disappointing. Between the SUPER slow service and the tiny chunks of fish they call an entree for $25, the restaurant redeems itself by its hige selection of food on the menu and a few home-run flavors in some dishes.
After it took the waiter over 10 minutes to notice us after we were seated (grrrr), they finally took our orders and brought out some warm pita. Unfortunately these guys turned really crunchy within an hour. I had 1.5 with my dinner.
Our dinner came with complimentary soup. One per diner. I had the Lentil Barley chicken soup, which was well flavored with dill.
The bf had the Tomato Barley soup, which was SO sour neither of us wanted it after 2 sips each.
We ordered the: Skewers of Mixed Vegetables mushrooms, zucchini,
carrots, and tomatoes, charbroiled till tender and
crisp, served with our chef’s exclusive sauce $5.95
The bf and I each had a skewer. A little pricy for two skewers, but the flavors were yummydipped in the “chefs exclusive sauce” = Melted BUTTER. Yum. Shows you the power of butter huh?
Vegetarian Sampler #2
A combination of six vegetarian dishes: baba Ghanouj, two shami, Kashkeh Bodemjan, hummus, Tabbouli, and steamed string beans, $14.95
This was my favorite. I literally ate ALL of the tabbouli, string beans, 3/4 of the hummus, and 3/4 baba ghanouj with my pita’s. (SO good, SO flavorful) The bf helped himself to the Kashkeh Bodemajan (sauteed eggplant, curds, and onion) but both of us were grossed out by the shami (the meatball look-alikes that tasted like dry felafel balls drenched with sweet cold curry)
Our dinner entree came with couscous and a cucumber tomato salad, which weren’t impressive.
Chilean Sea Bass Kabob (Chefs favorite fish & Low Fat)
Big chunks of fresh filet of sea bass carefully seasoned and charbroiled served with grilled vegetable $24.95
Between the two of us, we shared this super-expensive entree for just 4 mini chunks of sea bass. They’re lucky they filled us up with all those carbs or I would’ve been one cranky diner.
Flavor-wise, it was absolutely deliciosu though. The fish was rich, buttery, and melts in your mouth. The butter that the entire dish floats in probably helps. :P
***
RATINGS
Overall: 3.5 (Lots of carbs, tasty food, but try ordering in instead of going yourself!)
Taste: 3.5/5 (Delicious fish flavors, but everything else was average, with a couple “yucky” dishes)
Originality: 3.5/5 (The huge menu puts it one step ahead of its competitors)
Plating: 3 (No stand outs, no surprises)
Value:3.5 (The entree was upsetting, but everything else was huge)
Service: 2 (Slow service and rude servers that tried to take our dishes TWICE while we were clearly still eating from the plates)
For more information, visit the restaurant website!
432 W Ontario, Chicago, IL 60610
***
So that was one day in review for you! What’s your highlight this weekend?
In case anyone was wondering why asparagus makes your pee smell funny???, I got a great answer from nutrition grad student and superbly adorable Em!
“Asparagus contains mercapten, which is also found in onions and garlic and skunk secretions. Your digestive system breaks it down, which causes the smell. Not everyone has the enzymes to break it down, so it won’t cause everyone to have stinky urine. Some people think that everyone breaks it down, but some people just can’t smell it.”
Don’t forget to tell me what your favorite oat combo is so I can try it!! :)
That vegetarian platter looks sooo good!
Mmmm, everything looks amazing!! And those crisps look soo good!
I like microwaving the bananas WITH the oats, so they get cooked and creamy in there. Then, sprinkling walnuts overtop. I used to cook the walnuts in with them, too, but they get kind of soggy and I like the crunch for a bit of a diff. texture. Kind of like a warm slice of banana nut bread.
Sandwiches never fill me up, either! When I was little my mom would pack my lunch everyday, and instead of having a sandwich, my lunch box had a bunch of sides and I’d carry a big thermos with hot food – leftover dinner from the night before, or something quick she cooked up like chef boyardee, ramen noodles w/ veggies, etc. Even now – I can eat a Subway footlong and be hungry in a few hours but that is a TON of sandwich. Anything else if I ate that volume of food I’d probably puke!
Your pumpkin straw-banana oats look sooo amazing! I think I might try this tomorrow… I tried making pumpkin pie oats the other day but didn’t like them so maybe this will hit the spot.. Thanks for the great idea! Love you blog by the way =) Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Sorry that your dinner was sub-par. I’m glad you review all these restaurants though because I’m planning on coming up to Chicago a few times over the summer and to practice running up there before the marathon in the fall. We’ll have to meet up, fo’ sho’!
Lately, my oatmeal has been: 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 tbsp honey, 40g dried apricots (chopped up), and 1oz light coconut milk. (I freeze it in ice cube trays and then add a cube of coconut milk to help cool down the oats.) I like it, though I think I prefer dates to apricots.
OOO mediterranean food! that place must have been bad because usually all the mediterranean restuarants are family owned and are delish!
oh michelle i love looking at your oatmeals!
Here’s the problem with Reza’s: The one on Ontario sucks!! The one up north in Andersonville is 10x better! It’s also rarely worth it to get the seafood entrees there, and is a much better value to get the seafood kebabs. I always get chicken though…
i like the color of the oats! the pink and the yellow :)
Aww, thanks for the shout-out, Michelle!
I love looking at your eats and expert reviews. The next time I’m in Chicago, I’m calling you up for dinner! :-)
I’ve always wondered about the asparagus phenomenon!! Haha.
That restaurant looks good, definitely unique. The veggie skewers and sea bass look right up my alley :D
That veggie sampler sounds fantastic!! Your lunch is a work of art! What’s not to love about BBQ Tofu and hummus?! YUM!
I love it more than Almond Butter on oats for sure!!! – OMG, I didn’t know this was possible. :)
I am never full after just a sandwich. I’m a pig, and I’ll own it. Oink oink.
Sorry the service at Reza’s was bad. Looks like the Vegetarian Sampler Platter #2 made up for it!
So, that’s why my pees smells and CD’s does not. Good to know! Thanks for the info.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
My favorite oat combo–all of them??? haha, I love my banana oats topped with trail mix and peanut butter :) Your breakfast looks out of this world! That sandwich is ROCKING!
<3 jess :)
xxx
Chilean Sea Bass? I wouldn’t order that. Although it’s not on the endangered list currently, it is not considered a sustainable fishery. You can read more about it here: Patagonian Toothfish. And yes, it’s technically not a bass either (I hate when things are misnamed for marketing purposes!). I have little respect for restaurants that actaully serve the fish, to be honest.
Now that I’ve gotten my fish rant out of the way…that lentil barley chicken soup with the dill sounds awesome!
really want to try that combo!!! I’ll try it with “fake” yogurt though, I hope it turns out as good as yours! :)
great restaurant review!!! After reading all your restaurants review, it really makes me want to flight to Chicago (I haven’t been there yet) just to EAT!!! :D
Vegetarian sampler #2 has me drooling right now as I type. Heaven! The oats look awesome too and totally filling.
I’m kind of like you on the sandwich. Yours looks totally delish! Even an awesome sandwich like that one doesn’t always fill me up. I’m not sure why that is, but I can totally relate!
Everything vegetarian in this post sounds AMAZING and I would eat it all!!! :)
I have never seen that flavor of hummus, but the pine nut addition must be kinda fun to crunch on! That tofu sandwich and the oats look so good too!! I’ll have to try that oats combo once I get my hands on some canned pumpkin!
My favorite oats breakfast as of late is simply a (microwaved for 1-1 1/2 mins) apple, lots of crunchy peanut butter and few tbsps of raisins! I also loved the oats I had earlier this week that had some banana strawberry odwalla yogurt, stevia, banana and crunchy peanut butter! So good!
Hello there! Thanks for your incredibly lovely comment on my blog – it gave me the warm fuzzies (which is a good thing, in case you’re not sure!)
Your pink and yellow breakfast is very beautiful! And I would never have thought to put yogurt into oats. Thanks for the great idea!
Your sandwhich looks delish! I love tofu in sandwiches! And hummus as well. In fact, I had a tofu and hummus wrap today for lunch. You know what they say, great minds think alike ;-)
Also, thanks so much for the information on your salsa giveaway (who doesn’t love salsa!) but I think the process of getting any salsa all the way to Australia (on the off-chance I won) may be more trouble than its worth :-)
Hope you have a lovely day!
I could eat a pound of carrots at a time – but that is how my skin turned yellow a few years ago. Now I keep my portions smaller. :D
Yum that Mediterannean food looks amazing! Of course I love anything involving hummus!!
looove mediterannean food – yumyumyum!
My fave oat combo is banana, pumkpin, pecans, pumpkin spice and sugar free maple syrup on top! -YUMMERS! ;)
Michelle,
Can I just say that I LOVE your resteraunt rating system? Incredible!
So much yummy yummies!
Have a wonderful night sweetie!
With Love,
Emily