Tag Archives: salad

Broccali Slaw Salad

By Posted in Recipe Tagged , , , , 13 Comments

I don’t often post recipes that aren’t breakfast related…mostly because I stink at them.  But when I want to a fantastic party recently and people actually asked for the recipe to the side dish I brought…well I knew it might even be blog foodie material. 

Broccoli Slaw (makes about 8 servings)

*I doubled this recipe

Slaw:

1 package broccoli slaw

Small bunch of green onions cut up fine

2 cups sunflower seeds

1 cup sliced almonds

2 packages crushed Raman Noodles (I chose the oriental flavoring package)

 

Dressing:

1/3 cup rice vinegar

¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup truvia (you could use ½ cup sugar or ½ cup truvia if you wanted)

2/3 cup olive oil

1 packages of the reserved ramen noodle seasoning

Directions:

  1. Put slaw ingredients in a bowl and mix.
  2. Mix dressing ingredients in a separate bowl and stir well.
  3. Pour dressing mixture into slaw mixture.  You can add some or all (I used about ¾ of it)

And that is that.  Super easy and super deliscous.

Question for you: What do you bring to pot lucks?  Do you have a signature dish? 

Well I suppose this counts as mine since people enjoyed it and it will probably be the only thing I’ll bring from now on…unless it’s a breakfast pot luck I guess.

Date with Shannon at Aroma’s Cafe

By Posted in Resturants, Reviews Tagged , , , , , , 24 Comments

I like my titles to be clear and concise and tell you exactly what the post is about…that isn’t so hard is it?  I could have easily named this post…cold coffee rage...I guess that would be mysterious.

Shannon and I seem to have the most opposite schedules in the world.  Everytime I come back to VA she is just leaving…everytime she is leaving…I am just coming back.  Our schedules normally correlate for about 2-3 days so it’s always exciting when we get to hang out.

We stopped at my local wawa before because I'm an addict

We stopped at my local wawa before because I’m an addict

A couple of weeks ago we decided to hit a café called Aromas located in Newport News, VA.  (Also one in Williamsburg). That being said, it was about a 30 minute drive because google maps and siri likes to take us on the scenic route.  Not a big deal though because we always have plenty to catch up on.

So arriving at Aroma’s we noticed the restaurant was very centered around the coffee.  The café was cute and had a lot of pinterest signs with humorous coffee quotes.  Not only do I almost always try restaurant coffee to begin with, but if that is one of their main claims to fame then I have to try that as well.  Being a plain jane, I like to get normal coffee.  I don’t get their fancy mocha X,Y and Z with a hint of this and a swirl of that.

So after debating what to order I got their specialty house salad with added chicken and a cup (20 ounces of coffee) equating to about 15 dollars.  A little expensive for me but that is fine.

aromassalad

So first the salad.  It was presented extremely well.  It had all my favorite things:  pita, feta cheese and some actual vegetables for good measure. However, I payed an extra 3 dollars for chicken and there wasn’t much chicken added…The salad itself was good though.

aromassalad1

If I had read the menu better I would have noticed that the dressing was some sort of honey mustard flavored.  I don’t exactly care for mustard but it wasn’t bad and I obviously still ate it.

My final verdict: The salad was good but could have used more chicken and been bigger overall for 15 dollars. I had a second lunch a few hours later which was fine. 

Moving on to the coffee.  I don’t normally rail into coffee because I’m not too particular as long as it’s warm and I can add cream.  However, this was a coffee shop and  when I went to go fill up my cup from one of the five pots, four were empty and the other was cold.  So that’s that.   I didn’t finish my coffee and that is saying something for me.

But this photo looks nice

But this photo looks nice

 

My final verdict: Would I go back?  It’s about a 30 minute drive from my house and honestly if I hadn’t had such great company I might have written a harsher review.  I wouldn’t drive the 30 minutes again back and if I was in the area and hungry at the time I would honestly probably try somewhere new.  It’s not bad by any means, but it isn’t a favorite in the LOLZ book.

*I don’t get payed, sponsored or compensated for my review services and all thoughts and rambles are my own.  

Questions for you:

Best restaurant coffee ever?

How do you judge a restaurant?  Food portion or taste?  Atmosphere?  Your Company? My restaurant reviews (well that is obvious). 

Majestic Diner Review (Long Island area)

By Posted in Food Tagged , , , , , , , , , 15 Comments

While visiting my brother Matt in the New York City area last week, we discovered a little gem of a diner.  Diners are one of my favorite types of restaurants because they are barely ever crowded (if they are then the food is out pretty quick), they normally have huge portions and I’ve honestly never had a bad experience with a diner.  Greasy spoons are kinda my thing. 

 

That being said, we saw the Majestic Diner and I knew we had to give it a try.

The first time we had gone to Sunken Meadow Park to run a nice (and quite hilly) 10 miler and then came back to where we saw this diner.  I immediately honed in on the Greek salad and it had all my favorite credentials (2 huge pieces of pita bread, double dressing, grape leaves, salmon and duh feta cheese…I think everything I like about salads…are the actual not salads).  It did not disappoint and we were stuffed afterwords.  We literally waddled onto the train.

salmonsaladnewyorkcity1

Matt wanted to pose with his Cheese steak sub which was also great.

mattcheesesub

We had scoped out the breakfast options too (none of us were in the mood for breakfast the day before) and decided we had to stop back in the morning before dropping Matt off.  It was honestly the best decision we made.

I got the lox (salmon) omelet with rye toast and also pancakes.  I had nothing bad to critique the restaurant on food wise.  The food was amazing, the portions were huge and kept me full for an entire 8 hour drive home and well…  I don’t often eat pancakes at restaurants as well (because I enjoy to make my own) but these were extremely good too. It was a little bit expensive but it was worth it.  The only negative response I had was that I went periods without coffee but I can’t complain too loudly about that.

loxomelet

 

dinerfullbreakfast

 

So would I recommend the Magestic Diner?

Um, well my budget is very lucky that I do not live near there because I would be at this restaurant every day trying everything.  They have so much options.  It is a little bit pricey but well worth it.

Questions for you: What is your favorite greasy spoon?  

Empire Brewery Review

By Posted in Resturants Tagged , , , , , , , 22 Comments

There are a few highest honors you can have in my life.  A very important one is meeting my dad.  My dad isn’t scary and I don’t really know why people are intimidated by him…actually he downright hilarious.  Last week I begged Laura to come to dinner with dad and I before she left for the Cleveland marathon and I left for VA(which she rocked…you can read about it here).

empire

We settled on a local brewery at Empire Brewery in downtown Syracuse.   They make their own beer and have some of the best and most delicious bar type of food I’ve had to date.  I’ve been a few times (as to why I can write a proper LOLZ review) and gotten the Mediterranean platter, Greek salad, and feta chicken flatbread…

The reason I like their salads so much as not only do they add a ton of actual food (I’m actually not still hungry after eating), there is pita bread (+1 point), I can get multiple dressings (+1 point) and they have couscous in the salad (+1)…Not sure what these points are adding up too but it’s my review and I’ll add points if I want.

empiregrilledchickensalad

The main thing is the food filled me up and tasted good.  Oh and wasn’t expensive.  It might be a little bit of a lie if Laura and I hadn’t discussed the dessert options beforehand so that is that.  We settled upon each getting a sundae made from a special dark beer (similar to Guinness).  Wow, this was probably one of my favorite ice creams to date.  It wasn’t like beer overload but it had all the deliciousness of beer and ice cream combined.

laurandidessert

Then dad shocked the world and ordered a cheesecake.  He said it was “for the blog” (my dad routinely makes fun of my blog) and he also has absolutely not sweet tooth at all.  The cheesecake was also deliscous but left to my own I would (and next time I come to Syracuse) will get the sundae again.

dad

So would I recommend Empire Brewery?  Well if you can’t tell I don’t generally write restaurant reviews unless they have become a LOLZ staple.  (Though I know eventually I’ll write a snarky one) I think I should make a review tab at this point.  Oh and yes I would recommend Empire and I would say go big and get the sundae too.

Questions for you: Favorite flavor of ice cream?  Favorite beer? 

Dates with Legends Part 2

By Posted in Breakfast, DailyMusings, Food, Personal, Resturants Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , 19 Comments

 It seems like forever ago, but really this week is really flying by due to packing and finishing up loose ends.  Hopefully whoever has them is done with finals…or doing well.  Last weekend I went to hang out with Laura in Rochester.  I honestly had one of the greatest weekends I’ve had in a long time and I’m really glad that I did.

After our nice shakeout run in the AM (and barely avoiding the rain) we headed to one of our favorite restaurants.  I know I would be a regular here if I lived this close.  Jine’s restaurant is always pretty busy when we go (but we always go during brunch time after a run on weekends) but they do serve some of the best brunch. You know how I like my omelets since I can’t cook them.  The two times I’ve been to Jimes, I’ve gotten a Lox Omelet with pita bread.

omelettepita

Both times, it’s been exceptionally good.  I don’t have too much to say other than the food was excellent (and I highly recommend it) as well as the waitress who we had was so kind and really took an interest to us.  We were literally chatting for about 10 minutes.  Even when it was busy, she made time to chat and really take care of us.

We went to the Rochester Lilac Festival, a big festival that is…well centered around Lilacs.  They had crafters, venders, food, music and even a road race…but that is next weekend.  I was really eye balling the funnel cake and fried dough but knew it probably wouldn’t be the greatest idea before a race the next day.   I love me some fried fair food but I’ll have to wait until there are some events in VA I suppose.

highlandfallslauraandi

And also went to Highland Falls, a gorgeous view in Rochester.  Am I really still in the city here?

highlandfalls

After hanging out, gossiping, shopping at target and doing stuff for a while we decided to get ready for our date at TRATA.  The Restaurant at the Armory is a tapas style restaurant that you can get a bunch of small dishes (or just one large entrée for yourself) and share with each other.

The restaurant itself is three floors tall and had some of the coolest decors I’ve seen in any restaurant.

trata

We opted to first try the duck quesadilla which was extremely delicious.  I can’t even begin to tell you how good the quesadilla was and when we had it I was more than excited to try the steak salad next.  I could have filled up on a few of those alone really.

duckquisadillatrata

The steak salad was also really good but there isn’t really a bad way to make a steak salad I suppose and with goat cheese I was in love.  My only little issue was I probably could have eaten 3 times the amount that was given.

steaksalad

But that was okay because it gave me room for the world’s BEST Guinness cake.  The cake was so rich and delicious, and I ate the entire thing (then I was full LOL).

Caught in the act. I'm not even sure Laura knew I got her.

Caught in the act. I’m not even sure Laura knew I got her.

Would I recommend TRATA?  Absolutely, the atmosphere, the service and the food was amazing.  I would say you are probably going to spend a good amount of money (our meal together was around 70) but it’s certainly worth it and a nice treat.  Heck, I would personally just go there for dessert and a beer the cake was that good.  So Guinness cake and Guinness?

All in all, I had an amazing weekend and I can honestly say that I will absolutely miss Laura to death.  (Yes, I’m sappy admitting that on my blog).  The LOLZ is a sappster.

Questions for you:

Favorite beer?

Mine is Guinness…followed by heinakin.  I’m certainly a dark brewed person. 

Have you ever been to a fair or festival?