For Father's Day Ken had to work. So, we celebrated it tonite. Over the past 3 years of living here we have only really eaten at 2 restaurants in town, Golden Corral and the Chinese buffet. After 3 years we have come to realize we are sick and tired of Chinese buffets and Golden Corral {ESPECIALLY Golden Corral}. Plus we want the girls to experience different types of food.
Tonite we chose Salsa's Mexican Restaurant. The server was great. They messed up my order and even though I was just going to suffer and pick around the cheese and other stuff I couldn't eat he insisted on taking it back and getting me one that was made properly.
I had the vegetable fajitas. No tortillas, no cheese, and no oil.
Ken had the mixed fajita. He said it was "okay"
Kaylee got a fish dish that she really like.
Mo tried an enchilada. She said the inside was really tasty but, she didn't like the enchilada sauce on top or the fact it was made with a corn tortilla.
Sunny got a burrito. She was very happy with it.
All of the meals came with a side of rice and refried beans.
After dinner we went to try a new-ish frozen yogurt place in European Village. It's a self serve, pay by the ounce (47 cents an ounce, to be exact) place. They had either 8 or 10 different flavors. And atleast half, if not more, were fat free. 90% of them were atleast low fat though. They have a variety of fruit and candy toppings and syrups. There's something for everybody. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of it.
The 2 best parts about this evening? 1) I didn't get any stomach pains!! So, even though the food wasn't the most amazing we've ever tried I consider it a place to keep on our list due to the fact I didn't feel like death. 2) We had a nice relaxing family night.
Here's our meal in pictures:
Salsa's has a few locations around the Daytona area. Click Here to check out their site.
Yo'Belle has locations across the US. Click Here to find your closest one.
What's your favorite ethnic cuisine? What is your kids fave?
I love Next Food Network Star. I've watched it religiously for the past 4 seasons. This season the owner of a pie company, Dangerously Delicious Pies is on there. Last nite's challenge was a Burger challenge. He made a pie burger. A burger sitting on top of a piece of pie dough. It was so stupid. As soon as he said his idea I started thinking about how I would do a pie burger. My first thought was to wrap the burger in pie dough. Ken agreed that my idea seemed like a logical one. Since I can't make pie dough fat free I used a simple bread dough. The dough was wrapped around some mushrooms and onions, seasoned with some garlic and worcestershire sauce {to help give it a "burger-y" taste}, and cheese. It was really good. I will definitely be adding this to my monthly rotation.
"Pie" Dough
Adapted from Whole Wheat Slider Bun Recipe from Fleischman's
Makes 10 (2 per person)
Calories: 230
Fat: 0.9 grams
Protein: 7.9 grams
Carbs: 46.5 grams
1.75 -2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
5 t yeast
1/2 cup skim milk
1/4 cup water
Directions
Mix together flour, sugar and yeast
In a small saucepan combine milk and water. Heat over medium until the temp reaches between 120 -130
Add milk mixture to the flour mixture. Stir together and knead for 8-10 minutes
Let sit for 10 minutes.
Divide into 10 equal pieces and roll out. Let rise for 30 minutes
"Burger" Mix
1.5 lbs of mushrooms (I used a mixture of button and baby bella), sliced
1.5 medium onions, diced
2 T garlic
1 T Worcestershire sauce
Directions
Heat a large skillet sprayed with a bit of nonstick spray
Add onions and mushrooms and garlic and saute until soft
Stir in Worcestershire sauce
Extras
Cheese
Jalepenos
To Put Together
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
After dough has risen place cheese on each
Place 1/3 cup of mushroom mixture on top of cheese followed by any other toppings you'd like
Fold sides of dough up around fillings
Place it on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until dough is golden brown
Now I need y'all's help. I've been trying to think of things that I could add to the burger to amp it up. I'm drawing a blank. What would you do to bump it up?
I know I posted on Facebook that I had given up on cookies. But, I came across this recipe for cookies in my Happy Herbivore cookbook. I had to give it one last shot. These came out alot better than my other tries. Still a little cake-y but, I can deal with it. The original recipe calls for chocolate chips but, I substituted craisins. I accidentally smooshed this one after I baked it. They came out still round and not very flat. I recommend after you put them on the baking sheet lightly press them down so you get a flatter, more normally shaped cookie.
Craisin Cookies
Adapted from Happy Herbivore's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes 14
Calories: 49
Fat 0.1 grams
Sugar: 2.9 grams
Protein: 1.1
Ingredients
1/3 c applesauce
1 T Brown Sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c skim milk
1 c white flour
1 t baking powder
1 T cornstarch
1/4 c craisins
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet
- In a large bowl combine first 4 ingredients
- In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and cornstarch
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well
- Fold in craisins
- Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and flatten a bit. Bake for 8-10 minutes for a cakey cookie. Bake a bit longer for a firmer cookie
Don't you wish that all protein shakes looked like this?
I'm all about getting my necessary protein. It's kind of hard for me because the foods I normally eat don't have much in them. I have a ton of go-to protein sources that are very low fat or nonfat. I love protein powder because it's only around 200 calories, has about 20 grams of protein and it's fat free. Spiru-tein is my personal favorite. You can find it at most health food stores. Click Here to check them out. They come in all different flavors. Banana, cherries jubilee, chocolate chunk, cookies and cream, peanut butter.....the list is so long!
But the thing I DON'T like about protein powders is the cost. They seriously take a chunk out of my bank account. I don't buy them very often due to that fact. I came up with my own protein shake for at home though. It comes in at 250 calories, 3.5 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein. You can customize it as you'd like too. The only downside is that it isn't portable like the protein powders.
Homemade Protein Shake/Smoothie
1 cup (227 g) Nonfat, plain Greek Yogurt
2 T PB2
1 T Cocoa Powder (optional)
.75 - 1 cup Light Soymilk (I like Vanilla)
Directions
- Place everything in a blender and blend until smooth.
Quick, simple, easy!
The dessert I made for our Iron Chef competition was so simple. I'm not going to lie, I picked Baked Bananas with Roasted Marshmallows because it's what I wanted for dessert. It would have been prettier if I had a blow torch to roast the marshmallows with.
Bananas have a whole bunch {pardon the pun} of health benefits.
- The average banana has 467 mg of potassium. It may prevent high blood pressure and atherosclarosis.
- They protect against stomach ulcers
- Slow digesting
- Good source of fiber
- Helps your eyesight
- Promotes kidney health
This dessert hits the spot for me though. Healthy, sweet, simple, and it has a bit of crunch.
Baked Bananas with Broiled Marshmallows
1 banana
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon (depending on taste)
1 T sugar free maple syrup
1/4 cup mini marshmallows (enough to cover the top of the ramekin)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Spray small ramekin with pan spray
- Slice banana into small chunks in a medium bowl
- Sprinkle with cinnamon and maple syrup and toss to coat (or you can just put it all ontop of the bananas in the ramekin)
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until soft.
- When it's done turn broiler to HIGH and top bananas with marshmallows
- Place ramekin back in oven on top rack and broil for 1-3 minutes until marshmallows are brown and charred {watch them carefully!! They go from slightly brown to burned VERY quickly}
I personally like mine slightly brown and Ken likes his basically burnt. How much you roast them is your personal preference. I bet that apples would also taste good under the marshmallows.
What other fruits would be good topped with marshmallows?
While Ken and I were on our trip in January we came up with the idea of having an Iron Chef style cooking contest. Yesterday we finally did it.
We had the girls pick a protein, and 2 vegetables out of a hat. The possible proteins were; tilapia, salmon, veggie crumbles, shrimp and eggs. The vegetable list included; mushrooms, parsnips, greens, radish, okra, winter squash, summer squash, bean sprouts, eggplant, and artichoke. The "mystery ingredients" ended up being tilapia, greens and mushrooms.
The rules were really simple
- All the ingredients had to be used
- It had to be 1 or 2 dishes. A main or a main and a side.
- There was no time limit
We also had a dessert round. The rules were a little bit stricter for this round.
- It had to contain a fruit
- You could only spend $10 on ingredients (I spent only like $2 on a bunch of bananas)
- It had to adhere to my dietary restrictions
We were judged on tast, presnetation, and creativity.
Here's Ken's dinner.
Wonton wrappers filled with sauteed mushrooms, onion, spinach, garlic and tilapia with mozzarella cheese.
My dinner:
A spicy fish sandwich on a homemade slider bun with chive mayo, onions and sauteed spinach.
The mushrooms are stuffed with spinach, feta, onions and garlic.
Ken's dessert...
Sponge shells filled with mixed berries that are coated in jam. He ended up topping it with Cool Whip also.
My dessert (the one in front)...
Baked bananas topped with broiled marshmallows and a dollop of Cool Whip
(I will post the recipe for the bananas in the future)
I am proud of myself that I beat Ken!! Don't know how I did it but, I did.
The girls had a blast judging. Next time THEY get to cook. I'm actually considering making this a monthly thing since it was such a success.
What ingredients would you include as your mystery ingredients? Would you add any other rules?
Hello my loves! I know I haven't been posting much recently. I assumed that when I finished college classes life would settle and I could get back to my normal blogging schedule again.
Well, obviously that hasn't happened. I am still studying for my AFAA exam and my time is spent on that, in the gym and with the girls.
Luckily I'm getting closer and closer to being done. Not much longer now!
I just wanted to give you a quick update and let you know that I'll be back soon. I've got a few good posts in the works. Some reviews, recipes and fun stuff. Oh! And there will be a new Kooking with Kaylee post in the next few weeks.
And since every post should have a picture on it, I leave you with this.
Courtesy of: Moist.Baby.Hippos
Why a baby hippo? Because there's nothing cuter! And anyway, why not??!!??
