chocolate – FueledByLOLZ

Red Lion Diner

I had heard nothing but good things about the Red Lion Diner in Medford, NJ. It has been around for a while and is always right on my way to Atlantic City. A few of my neighbors told me it was good so I had to see for myself. When the opportunity presented itself, I met one of my friends out there.

I had passed it a few times driving and my initial thought was “what a cute diner, I’ll add it to my to do list”.

Atmosphere: A

It’s a typical old school diner. It has been there for years and you can tell. It’s got the old school diner booth flair as well as just overall diner atmosphere. It was the old school diner outdoor atmosphere that drew me in to begin with. I should have taken a picture but there is a giant lion stationed right outside. I guess it lives up to it’s name the Red Lion Diner.

Coffee: A

Since we went at night I ordered a decaf coffee. I was actually pleasently surprised they had it on tap and she refilled it very quickly. I never had an end to my coffee and it was actually some of the best decaf I have had. It’s very rare you find a diner that has brewed decaf coffee on hand and refilled it as quickly as I drink it. Great coffee but boring to take a photo of.

Food: A

The menu itself at the Red Lion Diner is pretty big. There are roughly 10 pages of food. There is everything and anything from steak to breakfast to Greek delites. I ordered the Special house Greek salad with chicken.

It consisted of large block feta, lettuce, tomatoes, olives and a few roasted peppers. The dressing was essentally oil. I liked the dressing a lot. The salad came with giant pieces of garlic bread (versus pita bread). I enjoyed the raw peppers a lot in the salad. It was moderately sized as well.

If it were up to me I would have subbed the garlic bread for pita and this salad would have been perfect.

Dessert: F

This has never been a point I have not eaten or finished a dessert. I love cake. Everyone knows I survive partially off of coffee and partially off of cake. For me to order a piece of cake then pass after a few bites…that has happened once (This was that time). I was pretty bummed. I ordered the German Chocolate cake. It tasted as if it had sat out for several days. It was somewhat hard and crusty (even the frosting was hard and crusty!). I can normally find a reason for a D rating but solid F for this one. I’m sad because it does look pretty nice in the photos but as they say…looks are deceiving.

My friend ordered the tiramasu. He said it was good cake but not tiramasu as it was lacking the coffee taste. It looked good to me so maybe if I go back, I’ll order that instead. The middle was stuffed with a whipped cream type of frosting so that is up my alley.

Price: $$

For two meals, two drinks and two pieces of cake it was 55. Overall not the worst value (except for the cake).

Overall Impression/Would I go back?

The salad was good and the Red Lion Diner seems to have a lot of options. There are a lot closer (better) options so I would probably go back there instead. It was a decent salad and they had good options. It was just overly average with a terrible crusty cake.

Questions for you:

Have you ever passed on dessert?

What is your favorite dessert?

Bailey’s Creamer Waffle

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned how much I enjoy baileys creamer. Who was it that gave me this idea, I believe Irina? Well thank you. I took a few weeks off of boozy pancakes and waffles because I realized some people are not into adding lots of different booze to breakfast like myself…Because it isn’t like I go through coffee creamer fast enough without adding them to my waffles, so why not speed up the process of using up my creamers. (then I can go to the store every day!).
Baileys (Irish Cream) Waffle
2/3 cup flour
¼ cup dark cocoa powder
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup Bailey’s irish cream (or whichever flavor you like)
¼ cup sweetener (I used truvia)
½ cup milk
Mix the wet ingredients then add dry ingredients. Pour into waffle maker.

For the topping glaze: (which is always the best part). My “glaze” came out a bit more more creamy than a normal glaze I think.
2 tablespoons maple, sugar free or whatever syrup you like
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons Baileys cream
¼ cup sweetener (I used truvia actually)

I know I often say I have a new favorite pancake or waffle recipe (because in reality it seems like all my recipes I like)…well duh that is why I share them with you. These are really good and you can go so many different directions with them (with all the fancy creamers on the market).
Question for you: Favorite coffee creamer?

Oreo Waffle

Whoop here it is. As some of you know my brother is home. Somehow I’m going to relate this waffle to my brother being home. I don’t really know how that is working out but I’m going with it.

I don’t even know how I thought of it but I think it’s one of my better waffle creations.

The “Healthier” Oreo Waffle

As a kid, I really enjoyed oreos. As a human I really enjoy oreos…however, you can’t really go eat oreos for every meal and expect to run well or feel great. That isn’t quite how life works. So with that I sought on trying to make a healthier oreo waffle. It’s also extremely easy and the hardest part would be making the frosting…or filling.

(Because I guess you can eat that more often)

Ingredients:

For the waffle:

2/3 cup flour

¼ cup dark cocoa powder

¼ cup sweetener (I used ¼ cup stevia)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 tablespoon oil

½ cup milk

Directions: Add wet ingredients and then mix in dry.

For the frosting:

½ cup vanilla greek yogurt

2 packets truvia

2 tablespoons French vanilla creamer

2 tablespoons syrup

Mix the frosting and top on waffle.

I don’t have much to say about this except for that since creating it, I feel like a true healthy living blogger by making a healthier version of something. (This doesn’t happen often ha). I have probably had this waffle (and shared with my family 4 times in the last week…which is a lot of waffles). I still like my oreos but I enjoy this and has already become one of my top favorite waffle recipes.

Questions for you:

Do you like oreos?

What recipe have you “healthified”?

Wineocakes

Okay don’t get your panties in a bunch. After last week’s Guinness Pancakes those who did not like Guinness (weird) asked if there were any alternatives. Did you ask that at college ragers too? Of course there are alternatives to beer. I’ll probably spend the next couple of weeks experimenting with my inner alchi. (YAY for being 21).

Why not make a winocake (winowaffle?).

To be quite honest, I enjoy wine but I don’t drink a lot of it. I still would rather have a bottle of beer but if someone is offering wine at a nice get together I usually won’t turn it down. That is why this week is for all you wine lovers a nice delectable wine pancake. I’m guessing you might want to make this for a brunch or a nice breakfast with the girls but you never know.

2/3 cup flour

¼ cup dark cocoa powder (I used hershey’s dark cocoa)

1 egg

1 cup red wine

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup sweetener (I used stevia)

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:

1/4 cup red wine

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/4 cup sweetener (less if you like bitter…more if you don’t)

1 tsp vanilla extra

Mix and pour over

Here is the thing. The wine will not fully cook out. You won’t get tipsy but as always I don’t recommend using this as a 6am breakfast…unless you really want too. It would be great with the girls for a brunch and I fully plan on it…just next time I actually have friends over ha.

I tried to get the foodie design just perfect.

I almost forgot to tell you, that I had some friends over for a wino pancake breakfast party who quite enjoyed them. I really enjoyed these a lot more than I thought I would, although I like wine (still not as much as Guinness LOL).

Questions for you: Are you a wineo?

Guinness Pancakes

It’s no secret that my favorite beer is Guinness. I’ve never denied it on my blog. Since my favorite beers is Guinness, it would only make sense that one of my favorite desserts is well…Guinness flavored anything. Lately, I’ve seemed to be able to enjoy this a lot more since many of the foodie places I’ve gone have had this option…

No I did not have this for breakfast before work because well…that might be enough to lose my job. They are a nice treat for dinner if you are feeling it, but then again I’m always feeling a casual beer at dinner so why wouldn’t I feel a casual bunch of Guinness Pancakes?

2/3 cup flour

¼ cup cocoa powder (I used gheridelli cocoa powder but I know Hershey’s dark cocoa would be good here too)

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup Guinness

1 tsp vanilla extract

*Personally I used NO sweetener here because I like the raw flavoring of Guinness. If that isn’t your thing than maybe these pancakes aren’t your thing but you can always use a different brew or add sweetener.

My verdict?

Well duh these are my new favorite. They are extremely dark and almost fudge like. I bet they would be just as good in waffle form so that’s what I’ll probably do…tonight.

Questions for you:

Favorite alcoholic (or nonalcoholic) drink?

Mine is almond milk with a splash of seltzer water and 2/3 tsp chia seeds…whatever that means. Just kidding my drinks diet is typically water, coffee, milk and Guinness.

Dates with Legends Part 2

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

S’mores Pancakes

It hit me the other day and I thought about why on Earth I hadn’t made these before. As a child, one of my favorite desserts was a SMORE. Nothing beat roasting the marshmellows (well I tended to catch mine on fire) and squishing it between the chocolate and graham crackers. Not that I don’t mind going out in -30 degree weather in upstate NY, but as a child it seemed like more fun in the summer. This recipe is generally pretty easily and if you are like me (and starving the moment you come home) a quick chocolate waffle recipe always catches my eye.

Smores pancakes:
Basic Pancake recipe:
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ -1 cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup sweetener

Smores ingredients:
½ cup Chocolate (I actually used gheradelli chocolate chips)
2 Crumbled Grapham crackers
½ cup Marshmellows (I used mini ones because they were easier in the recipe)

Mix the basic pancake recipe together and then add the smores ingredients. Cook.

Such an easy and quick fulfillment in life, it makes me wonder why I didn’t think of this earlier!

I folded it so it be like a sandwich...you know...for fun... — I folded it the second time (could be the third or fourth time I made it actually) so it be like a sandwich…you know…for fun…

Questions for you:
Do you like smores?
I did as a child and I do now. Tim and I actually have spent a few nights drinking Guinness and making smores in the upstate weather.
Were you ever a girl scout or boy scout? (smores also remind me of my days doing that).

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