Lunch for Thursday, July 15, 2010

It has been hard getting back to my pre-vacation habits.  I have been sleeping in later and not making my lunch.  Grabbing something to eat for lunch has cost me alot.  I think of all the things I could have bought instead of eating out.  But finally today I made a lunch.  It's not cute but it is a start back into it.

For lunch today I heated up some quick quiches that I had in the freezer.  We will see how they hold up for a lunch.  I also took a couple of slices of deli ham, added some soft cheese and a piece of green onion, and rolled it up.  I then cut it to thirds to fit the bento.  I also found these really small black plums at the grocery store.  I was so surprised!  There were only a few small ones mixed in with ones twice as big.  I snatched up all the little ones.  I was having a hard time filling my bento today.  I would look at the empty spaces and not know what I wanted to put in.  I did add a fortune cookie and some rice cracker snack mix.  Hopefully the fortune cookie will bring me luck in figuring out what's for lunch tomorrow.

Food and Beverage for Thursday, July 8, 2010

This is the last post about my vacation eats.  I had such a good time and ate some pretty good food along the way.  We went out to lunch before I had to be at the airport for my flight.  Was I ever so glad to have eaten at a buffet.  I didn't get a change to eat anything else that evening. 

I was surprised by all the Asian's eating there. I knew that if they were there it must be a good place to eat.

I had a lettuce wrap, spring roll, tempura, dumplings, green beans, sesame ball, spicy chicken and a chicken on a stick.   

And they also had sushi. Most of it was pretty good.  I wish we had an Asian buffet this good at home.

Food and Beverage for Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I know I am late in posting these.  My travels back home were a little hectic to say the least.  Who likes to sit on an airplane, that has lost it air conditioning, sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half? That is after the other delays.  Not me that is for sure.

Enough on my travel woes and onto the food.  And it is the most wonderful food.  For my last evening out I really didn't know what I wanted to eat.  We had not eaten all day and I just knew that I wanted a nice sit down restaurant.  We were going to see Cirque du Soleil's KA at the MGM that night and while we were looking for a place to eat we walked over to the New York New York Hotel and Casino.  I looked up and saw a sign that said Il Fornaio.  There was my decision, Italian food.  They had the cutest plates and stemware.  Each piece had a chef/baker doing various things.  Just like this bread plate.  It obviously has a baker on it.  The wine glass had a Sommelier on it carrying a tray of grapes and wine.

We started off by sharing a caesar's salad.  It wasn't bad but no creamy dressing like I expect.  I ordered Petto di Pollo al Peperoncino.  Which the menu says "Grilled double chicken breast marinated with sage, rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper, white wine, Dijon mustard and lemon, served with sautéed organic spinach and roasted Yukon Gold potatoes"  I don't like sauteed spinach so I asked for vegetables. 

I ended up with the spinach and had to ask for my veggies.  But our server was very nice about it.  Everything was very tasty!  Especially that red spicy sauce the put on the chicken.  Yummy!

Food and Beverage for Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Today I ate the rest of my breakfast burrito. I was only able to eat half yesterday. It was hugh!

For lunch I had pizza we had picked up from the grocery store. It wasn't too bad. Not frozen but semi-fresh.


We drove out to Lake Las Vegas. It is sad that this beautiful place has went bankrupt. But there was a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We split a white chocolate marshmallow covered apple.

While walking through the Sahara Casino we saw a guy attempting the 6 pound burrito challenge. There would be no way I could finish that. He didn't either. When we walked back through he had three takeout boxes. The waitress said that only approx. 5 in 1000 accomplish it. Gotta give him credit for trying.


While down on Fremont Street I tried something I have heard about but never tried, alcoholic sweet tea. I have to say it was pretty good! The picture is not as good though. Kinda hard to snap a photo with my phone and hold a drink.


For dinner we had Nathan's Hotdogs right inside Mermaids which was slot heaven for me. I put in a $20 and came out with about $200! I had a German Bratwurst. It was delicious!


They also had deep fried twinkies and oreo's. Both were the best desserts!





That's a little piece of heaven right there!

Food and Beverage for Monday, July 5, 2010

For breakfast we had breakfast burritos from Ricardo's. They were so tasty with eggs, bacon, cheese and potatoes. We also got a few taquitos with guacamole on top. That was so delicious. I will have to remember that when I get back home.
Dinner was at Fat Burger that was in the Red Rock Casino. We had such delicious burgers and chili cheese fries. I also won $27.00 while waiting for the food to cook. Yea me!
There was NO drinking at all for this day. July 4th did me in.

Food and Beverage for Sunday, July 4, 2010

I love that breakfast food can be eaten at anytime of the day. After my late arrival we slept in but when we did eat breakfast it was closer to a late lunch time. There was the usual breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast. But we also had cheesy tator tots. Yum.

Before we headed out to watch the fireworks one of my host fixed us some amazing caribbean food. There was rice and black beans and the most flavorful and moist seasoned chicken.


And my day consisted of more liquor. I do not drink like this all the time. I know I could never be an alcoholic. It would hurt too much. It is fun for the holidays though.


I had the privilege of watching fireworks from in front of fountains at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Caesars Palace, which is right next door, put on an amazing display. The best part was when the fountain show started and the fireworks were going at the same time. Only Vegas.

Food and Beverage for Saturday, July 3, 2010

To start off my vacation there were flight delays, lost keys, $60 taxi rides, trips to the store at 1:00 AM and plenty of beverages and some food.

On my 30 min layover in Dallas I had a wonderful Thai Peanut Chicken wrap from Au Bon Pain. It was wonderful! There was fresh cucumber, tomato and herbs. Best airport food I have ever had.


Once I finally arrived, took a long cab ride to my friends house and a locksmith made new keys for my friends car we headed to the grocery store. And I remember how much I love states where you can buy liquor at any hour.


I also was amazed at the variety of food available that I am not able to get at home. I saw some pre-cubed sweet potatoes, sweet potato sticks and some really small baby gala apples. I am so jealous of all these things that would fit so well in a bento.


The rest of the evening, well I guess morning, was full of daiquiri's. Piña colada and strawberry. And some crackers and cheese. We'll have to see what food and beverages the next day brings.

Lunch for Thursday, July 1, 2010

Today will be the last lunch I make for several days.  I will be going out to lunch with a friend tomorrow and then next week will be vacation.  I will try to take some pictures of my meals while on vacation and post them here.  I am sure to be eating a wide variety of foods, so it should be interesting.

For today's lunch I really didn't have anything planned when I woke up this morning.  I liked the way yesterday's turned out so much that I couldn't think of anything for today.  So I just started throwing things together.  I pulled out the rest of the green beans that I have had all week.  Still not tired of them.  And I pulled my last bit of sesame chicken from the bento stash in the freezer.  And that is also the last piece of broccoli and lettuce I have in the frig.  My refrigerator looks so bare but that is the way I wanted it while I was gone.  I wanted to make sure there is nothing in there to go bad, grow fuzz or stink.

I started to make rice but was short on time so I opted for rice noodles.  They even were thrown into three different containers until I made up my mind.  Then I thought I would mix together some peanut butter and hosin sauce to go with them.  Sounds strange I know, but I like it.  And when I was trying to figure out what container I would put the sauce in I saw my corner silicone cup.  I put some in and had I more sauce than would fit.  So I filled up my second corner cup.  I tucked the containers in with the noodles and walked away from my lunch to start to get ready for work.  When I came back and looked at my meal I saw a panda.  Faceless of course, but I thought it would be a good fluffy panda.  So I made the eyes, nose and mouth from grapes since they were sitting there.

I have not been liking the taste of my nori.  Maybe it's the brand, I don't know, but it has me trying to think of other things to use.  Unfortunately it is the best when you need a solid black for decorating.  I looked into the soy wrappers but none of them come in black.  I may get them anyway since they do come in other fun colors.

Here is a picture I took outside of the panda exhibit at the San Diego Zoo last year on vacation.  The entire wall had this really cool mural.  Hmm I guess I am using my vacation theme.  Just not this year's vacation.