Food Truck Craze

Nick and I have been obsessed with all shows about food trucks. It's a dream come true that you can get so many different varieties of great food from a truck. I mean come on - it'll come to YOU... if you're in the right location. Birmingham doesn't have many food trucks. There's one downtown called Spoonfed but I haven't tried it yet. I don't get downtown very often.

Then there are the taco trucks. There's one close to my work off of Valley Avenue. It sits in a gas station parking lot. When I first saw it, I was too intimidated to go order anything from them. The parking lot was always full and it seemed that they were all hispanic (which means the food there is amazing.) Anytime you go eat food from another culture and you find the customers are from that area, it always means there's some good food there. Well, that's what I've experienced. Nick was the first to try it with the guys. Then he had to meet me there. After that, I pulled my big girl pants up and went on to order my own food to go. I love that truck. Love it. Wonder if they would follow me home so I won't have to cook dinner....

The tacos here are chicken, al pastor, and barbacoa. No organ meat for me thank you! Maybe I'll be adventurous enough to try it one day. Watching Anthony Bourdain has been visual courage for me... every episode is more encouragement to branch out and try something new.

The perfect roasted chicken

A recipe for the perfect roasted chicken can be found here. It is a recipe of Ina Garten. I have made this chicken numerous times and it has come out perfectly every time. No joke - that's EVERY TIME! I am totally amazed that I can roast a chicken that perfectly. And it is so scrumptious. It'll make you want all the skin too. I know that's terrible but you have to admit that the chicken skin is so delicious - it's crispy, salty, and full of the scent of thyme and lemon. My favorite part of this dish are the vegetables that are nested at the bottom of the chicken. The fennel flavors the carrot and makes it taste amazing. I can't stop eating the carrots and I don't like carrots that much. Try this recipe. You will not be disappointed. It would make an excellent protein for dinner guests and it's beautiful on a plate.

Dreamcakes

If you find that you cannot make it over to Gigi's in Hoover and you are somewhere near the Homewood area, go visit dreamcakes! They were in town before Gigi's came in. Their cupcakes are incredibly delicious as well. My girlfriends at work had a routine - go get Chicken Salad and fruit from O'Carrs then stop by dreamcakes for a 3:00 treat. It made the day go by much quicker when you looked forward to some sweetness.

The only complaint I've heard about the cupcakes from either place is that the icing is too much. I noticed recently that dreamcakes has tapered down on the mountain of icing that used to be on the cupcake. I know there are some people who would scrape the icing off and eat it first but most of the people I heard from say that it's such an improvement. I'll have to go and see I guess :) No need to just blindly believe what people say when it comes to cupcakes!

Vietnamese Food

Not sure if I ever posted our many trips to eat Vietnamese. I'm not even going to pretend I know what these are all called because I can never remember. I just try something different every time Nick and I meet for Vietnamese. We've tried two different restaurants and like different things about both places. The restaurant that we usually meet at is on Greensprings Highway and is called Pho Que Huong. I've never had anything there that I haven't loved. We've tried soup noodle bowls, noodle plates, vermicelli noodle bowls, summer rolls and the banh mi (sandwich). Yum! The other restaurant we tried was Saigon Noodle House off of 280. They are very good as well! Their banh mi had lots of meat in it but I didn't taste the pickled veggies - on second thought, I didn't taste it at the other restaurant either. I love pickled veggies so I would love to eat one with some pickled veggies with some bite!

The photos below were taken at both restaurants. I could eat all of this good stuff every single day. I even follow the Nom Nom truck because they sell banh mi's from a food truck in California. I know there is no way they would come down here but I love hearing about what they sell and love to see the response from their customers. Weird.... I know!

Don't be afraid to try Vietnamese food. Just ask for their advice and go for it! Try something new.

Pork banh mi. It has pork, bell pepper, pickled diakon and carrots, cilantro and jalapenos.

The toppings for your soup noodle bowl. Basil, bean sprouts, lime and jalapenos...
Another banh mi (from Saigon Noodle House).
Shrimp noodle dish from Saigon Noodle House.
Mmmm... now this was delicious. I wish I could tell you what it is called on the menu.
Can't wait to go back!

It's Saturday!

We haven't been eating out a lot lately. Trying to save up for my daughter's softball tournaments. I cook at home but it's nothing special at all. Just whatever I can throw together so I haven't been posting much of anything. I have my magazine's out today so I can get some inspiration for healthy meals for the family. Hopefully they'll work out and I can take some pics of the food and share the recipes with you. I'll also add the weight watcher points for those interested.

I saved my points yesterday because I knew that we would be eating out after my daughter's games. We chose to eat at Taziki's in Hoover off of Hwy 31 mainly because it's right next door to Gigi's cupcakes and I wanted to treat the kids to a cupcake. I planned to try a few bites of the cupcakes but count a whole so I wouldn't mess up and eat too much.

Taziki's has other options other than gyros so I wanted to try something that didn't have feta in it.

My daughter ordered the hot beef tenderloin sandwich with fruit and chips. She wanted the sandwich without the horseradish sauce. Every single bit of the sandwich was gone so I would venture out and say that she loved it. Oh and another clue? Was the mmmmm momma mmmm this is so good. You should try it!

Nick ordered the pork tenderloin with grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes. He commented that the pork was cooked very well and was seasoned perfectly. So A+ on his lunch too. He didn't finish all the asparagus so I took it off of his plate to try it - YUM! Tonight I'm going to buy some asparagus to grill.

Stephie ordered the pasta special. It was grilled chicken and penne pasta on top of a salad with basil and balsamic vinegar dressing. I had that exact salad when I went to lunch with Kristy in Tuscaloosa and enjoyed it.
My youngest daughter ordered the grilled chicken on a bed of rice with fruit. She ate the chicken but didn't like the way the rice tasted. They added lemon I believe and some parsley and she's not too fond of anything green. I ended up eating her rice (traded her my potato chips for the rice). I liked it but I could see why she wouldn't eat it. She likes her food to be simple - rice with a bit of butter and that's it.

I ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich with veggies. It was very good. I ended up eating my sandwich, fruit and Noelle's rice. Counted all of it and it was well within my range. So I could sit back and enjoy my lunch without any feelings of failure - HAHAHA! But the pork was tender, the veggies were fresh, and I believe the bun was a potato bun. Not too sure though. Could have done without the sauce they put on it. It was some type of aioli but it just tasted like honey mustard - and I'm not a huge fan of honey mustard.
The pictures are kinda dark but you can see what kind of cupcakes we ordered. Nick ordered the Boston Creme (our favorite! VERY good!) and my youngest daughter chose the red velvet (best I've ever eaten).
My oldest daughter ordered the chocolate with vanilla frosting and chocolate chips (I could pass that one up) and the kentucky bourbon (liked it but I'm not a huge fan of all the nuts). My girls can't wait to try some more. I told them we would go every now and then on different days so they can try different flavors.

Lost!

3.2 pounds! Doesn't seem like a lot but I'm excited it's going in the right direction. I wish I had lost at least 5 but that doesn't seem like it would be a reality without some strenuous exercise - in which I haven't even attempted at this point. My joints are squeaky and cry out in misery if I do anything but walk (excuses excuses!). I will start some movement soon though because I know I need to. But as I am trying to change the way I eat, I need all my motivation to be focused in that for now - for at least 2-3 weeks that is. I'll start my workout planning soon!

Work has been stressful for the past few days. I'm surprised that the stress hasn't caused me to black out and hit the chocolate but it hasn't.... yet. I keep fruit in the fridge at work and a small weight watcher chocolate bar in my drawer. So far so good! I still have those thoughts... go get a juicy delicious cheeseburger with all the goodies mmmmmm or what about those doughy kolaches in the kitchen mmmmmm. But I'm able to push on through and decide not to eat them. Now I'm not in a fantasy world where I'll never touch the food again but I know that if I don't really want them, pass them by. If there comes an instance where I'll have additional stress or irritation from not having one, then I'll eat half of one. I'm on a roll people!

Speaking of which, I'd like to let you know what a kolache is! You can get them at Shipley's Donuts off of Lorna Road. They bake ham, pepperoni, turkey, sausage and sausage with fresh jalapenos in a potato dough (not sweet) with some cheese. So what comes out is a roll of fresh bread with cheesy hot meaty goodness inside. They are delicious but very heavy so eat with caution!

Next weight update will be next Tuesday. Let's see how I do!

Tomorrow is the day!

To get nervous and run away because it's weigh in day! Nah, I'm not nervous but am interested to see how well I did. Well, I'm not going to judge on how "well" I did by the weight I lost because they may not be directly related. I'm just happy that I made great choices in what I ate. We'll see!

We stopped at Western to get our groceries this weekend and I found this wine. HAHA! I am a middle child and can be smarty pants. LOL! Too funny - I should have bought it and tried it out.

This morning I tried oatmeal. I cooked it with skim milk and added fresh blueberries and Splenda. Can I say YUCK? I would rather have wheat bread or a boiled egg. I didn't like it at all. What am I doing wrong? I guess I need to look up a recipe to see if I can improve some oatmeal. The thing is that I need to find a quick meal that I can make.... that tastes good... that will sustain me through lunch. Any ideas?
I wish I had a better picture of the dinner I made tonight. Very tasty and filling. I made wheat rotini and paired it with pork loin, eggplant, onion and romaine. I sauted the onion and garlic, added the cut up pork loin (slivers) and browned the meat. Then I added the egglant and cooked it with a bit of chicken stock. Add the romaine last to keep the crunch. The sauce was a chinese - chinese 5 spice, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Delish.