Calexico

To continue my lunch adventures around the city, I decided to pay a visit to the Calexico Cart right near Madison Square Park.  I never used to be a huge fan of Mexican food, but lately I have been on a Mexican food kick, so after reading the countless rave reviews online I figured I had to pay Calexico a visit.

They have a few locations around the city and it is a mix between storefronts and carts.  Unfortunately the carts are stationary and are always in the same spots, unlike food trucks that change location daily.  Because of that, you don't really get the opportunity to try it unless you happen to live/work nearby.  Lucky for me, I had a pretty free day today so I was able to make the short trek over to the cart.  I went on the early side because I knew that it can get pretty crowded, and even at 11:50am there were a few people ahead of me in line.

The menu has a really great range of options including burritos, tacos, bowls, quesadillas, and sides like chips and guacamole.  I was having a hard time choosing what to get because I love tacos and burritos, and I always want to order a quesadilla but generally never do.  Since I knew that I was going to be going to a great mexican restaurant this weekend where I always get the tacos, I decided to spring for the Pollo Asado Quesadilla.  The quesadilla comes with cheddar and jack cheese on a flour tortilla and is grilled on the flat top.  It also comes with a side of, what they call, chipotle "crack" sauce.

After taking my first bite, I was so glad that I decided to order the quesadilla.  They are very generous with the amount of chicken in the quesadilla, and it is full of flavor.  The cheese was really melty and oozing from the quesadilla, but it wasn't overpowering the great chicken.  I'm not really sure how to describe the chipotle crack sauce, or what it really is for that matter, I just know that it was delicious.  It added a nice spice to the quesadilla which elevated the flavor of it, and was also really creamy.  I didn't use too much of it because I don't like a lot of spice, but you should definitely give the sauce a try.  

Since I am conscious of the fact that quesadillas are on the unhealthy spectrum of lunch options, I only allowed myself to eat half.  Half was pretty filling, but I could have easily downed the entire thing, because it was that good.  As I write this, the other half is sitting in my fridge and it is really a test of my self control to not open the fridge and eat it.  

Even though Calexico is not a full fledged "food truck," in the sense that it doesn't move around the city, I still put it in the category of the best food trucks in NYC.  The quesadillas are delicious, and the other options looked great as well.  I saw other people eating the tacos and burritos, and I will definitely be back to try the burrito.  I think they have a shop in Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side, in addition to a cart in SOHO and Flatiron, so if you are near any of them (or even if you are not!) you should give them a try for lunch.  

Riverpark

Tonight was our third restaurant week outing, and our chosen destination was Riverpark.  My sister and I went there during winter restaurant week and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to return.  The location is a little isolated, but luckily it is within walking distance of my apartment so it was easy to get there.  It is located right on the east river and they have some outdoor seating, which was great because the weather tonight was beautiful and breezy.  The ambiance inside was also really nice, but it is hard to pass up a table outside when the weather is as nice as it was tonight.

Just like David Burke and Telepan, they offered their whole menu for restaurant week and had just a few select dishes that required supplements.  There was a great selection of appetizers to choose from, and they had a few pasta dishes that you could choose to be either an appetizer or a main course.  I usually tend to order a regular salad as my appetizer, but I decided to be a little more adventurous and I opted for one of the pasta dishes.  There were a few that looked good, but I got the Bigoli pasta which came in a light tomato sauce with heirloom tomatoes, lemon verbena, and a light sprinkling of breadcrumbs on top.  My sister got the avocado and hamachi salad which came highly recommended by the waiter, and my mom got the baby lettuces & greens salad.

The bigoli pasta was really fresh and delicious!  The pasta itself was pretty thick and al dente, but I liked that it had a nice bite to it.  The sauce was really light and had a nice tomato flavor, but the cooked heirloom tomatoes were the best part.  They were really juicy and tasted local and fresh.  The lemon verbena also added a nice touch to the dish because it had an interesting and distinct flavor that paired well with the pasta and the sauce.  My sister really liked the avocado and himachi salad, and my mom thought that the salad was ok but nothing special so she didn't really eat much of it.

For the main course, I went with my usual dish of choice, the grilled chicken.  For people with a more adventurous palate, they offered a really diverse range of dishes including rabbit, scallops, trout, lamb, steak, and pork chop to name a few.  My sister ordered the scallops, again based on the recommendation from the waiter, and my mom got the pork chop which the waiter said was their signature dish.  

The grilled chicken was cooked perfectly, and was moist and delicious.  It came with some roasted tomatoes, which again were one of the highlights of the dish, in addition to freekeh and a delicious sauce.  Even though I loved the dish, I actually liked my mom's pork chop even better (which is weird because I NEVER order pork chop).  It came with collard greens, grilled peaches, sauteed onions, and was topped with the best part of the entire meal--candied barbecue pork belly, which tasted like deliciously sweet pulled pork.  I had never had a pork chop before, but I tried a bite and it tasted like a spare rib and was actually really good.  The sauce that it came in was also delicious and paired nicely with the pork.  The collard greens were way too spicy for my taste, but the grilled peaches were a really nice touch.  But, like I said before, the best part of the meal was the candied pork belly on top.  At first we weren't sure what it was, but after I took the bite I just knew that it tasted like the best pulled pork I had ever had.  When the waiter told us that it was candied, it sounded even better.  Since this is their signature dish, I am hopeful that it will still be on the menu for the next time that I come back and I will definitely order it.  But, to be honest, my sister and I both agreed that we would be happy to just order a bowl of the candied barbecued pork belly (which they don't offer) and be perfectly happy.  My sister also really enjoyed her scallops dish, and even though it was a slight supplement to the restaurant week menu she said it was worth it.  

When the dessert menus came, we were a little disappointed because they had an upside down banana cake listed on their online menu that is not actually offered in the restaurant.  Since this was what we had planned on getting, we were a little sad but we each easily found something else to order.  My sister opted for the cheesecake which came with cherry ice cream, brandied cherries, and crushed graham cracker, my mom got the raspberry and white peach-hibiscus sorbet, and I got the chocolate mousse which had a liquid chocolate center and came with chai ice cream (but I asked for them to leave it out because I really don't understand the pairing of chocolate desserts with tea flavored ice cream) and chocolate whipped cream.

Even though I am a chocolate lover, chocolate mousse is not generally my dessert of choice.  I usually only order it if it is a chocolate mousse cake, otherwise I always opt for a different cake option since I much prefer cake to mousse.  But, since the chocolate mousse was the only chocolate dessert on the menu, and it said it had a liquid chocolate center, I decided to order it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the dessert, and really enjoyed it.  The mousse was very light and fluffy, but it still had a strong bittersweet chocolate flavor.  The liquid chocolate center made it stand out since I have never seen that before with a chocolate mousse.  Overall, it was a good dessert but it was not my favorite that I have had.  I was satisfied with it, but I was able to only eat half and did not feel tempted to finish it(normally if I love a dessert I finish every last bite).  My sister loved the cheesecake (she cleared the plate) and the sorbets were also great and refreshing.  

This dining experience at Riverpark was great, and even better than the first time we had been there.  It was nice to be able to sit outside on the beautiful summer night and enjoy the breeze coming from the east river.  The food was delicious, the service was pretty good overall (not amazing, but not bad either), and the company was the best.  The two standout dishes in my mind were the bigoli pasta and the pork chop (mainly because of the candied pork and the grilled peaches) so I highly recommend both of those.  Even though the location is a bit off the beaten path, it is nice to temporarily escape from the bustling streets of NYC and have a great meal on the water.  

Telepan

Tonight was part two of our restaurant week escapades, and our stop was Telepan, a farm to table inspired restaurant on the Upper West Side.  We always try to go to at least one new place, and my sister chose this as our new place since she had read great things about it.  For some reason I thought it was an italian restaurant at first, but it is American inspired and focused on fresh ingredients.

They really embraced the whole spirit of restaurant week here, and offered pretty much all of their menu options.  For the three courses, you have the option of choosing three savory courses or two savory courses and a dessert, but everyone at the table has to agree on which option to choose.  So, if you are going with a bigger party it may be a bit difficult for everyone to agree, but since it was just my sister we easily settled on the dessert option.  For the appetizer, I chose the seasonal salad and my sister chose the smoked trout appetizer, which was a $3 supplement but it is one of their most popular dishes.

The salad was really light and fresh, and had a very interesting combination of flavors.  It looks like a simple salad upon first glance, but there was a very unique blend of lettuces, spices, and vegetables with a light coating of lemon dressing.  I definitely tasted some licorice which I was not expecting, and there was some corn and radishes as well.  There were a few more things that I was unable to identify, but it was all delicious.  My sister really enjoyed her smoked trout appetizer, and said that it got even better after a few bites.  I should also mention that before the appetizers came, the waiter came over with a large bread basket and you were able to choose from 4 different types of bread.  I chose one that had a lot of seeds on it, and it was good but I only ate half to save room.  The waiter also brought an amuse bouche to the table, which was four little cheese puffs.  This was a nice little touch, and was a really great way to start the meal.

For the main course, I got the roast chicken (which is my standard dish of choice in most restaurants), and it came with some egg pasta and roasted mushrooms.  My sister had a harder time choosing what to order because there were a few things she wanted, but she ultimately settled on the burrata mezzaluna with veal meatballs.

The chicken was really delicious, and was cooked perfectly.  It was served over a nice sauce with egg pasta, mushrooms, some spinach, and something that was crunchy (but I couldn't figure out what it was).  The portion size was perfect and all of the components of the dish worked great together.  The burrata mezzaluna was also great.  The mezzaluna were pretty thin so they weren't overly stuffed, but the cheese on the inside was still super creamy and came oozing out when you cut into it.  I didn't try any of the meatballs because I don't eat veal, but my sister said they were really good (which is evidenced in the fact that the plate was cleared). 

Both of my courses felt light and fresh, so I was definitely ready for the dessert course!  For me, the choice was a no brainer and I ordered the S'more.  I used to go to sleepaway camp over the summer, so having s'mores was always a summer staple for me.  When I saw it on the menu, I got really excited because it felt like a much more decadent way to enjoy the classic treat.  

The presentation of this was spot on, and the taste definitely lived up to the hype.  This dish had every component of a s'more that makes it so good, but it was elevated to an even higher level.  The bottom was a dark chocolate brownie, then a layer of fluffy marshmallow with crushed graham cracker around the border, then graham cracker chocolate chip ice cream, and finally a dark chocolate square to top if off.  The plate was also surrounded with dollops of toasted marshmallow and dark chocolate ganache, which not only made it look prettier but it made it taste better.  Every aspect of the dessert was perfect, and it was just what I had been craving.  The brownie was really chocolatey and rich, the marshmallow was super sweet and fluffy, and the ice cream actually tasted like graham crackers!  I finished this whole thing up, and did not look back for a second!  My sister got the cheesecake sundae as her dessert, and while it was good it did not live up to her expectations.  It was basically a parfait of cheesecake ice cream and blueberry sorbet with crushed graham crackers on the bottom, which she said was fine except for the fact that she was expecting actual cheesecake and felt a little duped. 

As opposed to our last restaurant week experience, we left feeling satisfied with the food and the service.  The servers at Telepan were much more friendly and attentive, and all of our courses came out pretty quickly.  Even though it was really crowded, they did not seem overwhelmed by it and I still felt like they paid personal attention to each table.  When they brought the check, they also gave us two little coconut macaroons.  I waited to eat mine since I was stuffed, but this really reinforced their attention to detail and focus on good service.  This was a great restaurant week experience, and even though I am usually weary of trying new places, this one passed the test!

Chicken Rollatini

To change things up this week, my sister did the Sunday cooking instead of me.  Since chicken is one of the few dishes that we both enjoy, she settled on a chicken dish instead of fish (which is what she really wanted to make).  One of the recipes that she has had past success with is the Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana from skinnytaste (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chicken-rollatini-with-spinach-alla.html), so she decided to make that.  The only change that she made from the original recipe, per my request, was to use shredded mozzarella for the top of the chicken instead of slices of mozzarella because it melts better and has a better flavor, in my opinion.  I have never actually made this myself, but it is a more involved recipe than some of the others that I made.  You need thin pieces of chicken that are the correct ounces, so that they can be rolled properly.  Since we couldn't really see what all the chicken pieces look like before we bought the pack of chicken, my sister had to get creative and had to layer two of the smaller pieces so that it was the correct weight.  It is apparently also difficult when it comes to stuffing and rolling the chicken, but you would never know it when you see the finished product!

I ate mine with some broccoli on the side (some of it got eaten before the picture was even taken) and half of a Japanese Sweet Potato.  I know it sounds like a strange combination, but it worked for me.  This chicken recipe is delicious and does not taste like it is healthy, but it is!  The inside is stuffed with spinach, low fat ricotta, and part skim mozzarella, and it is topped with marinara sauce and just a little more mozzarella cheese.  While it is a bit messy and hard to keep the filling from oozing out, it is a great dish.  I highly recommend it as a creative chicken dish to add to the rotation.

Aperitif

Friday night, to celebrate my Aunt's birthday, I braved the rain and went out to Long Island for dinner.  We went to Aperitif, which is a really great French restaurant in Rockville Centre right in the heart of the town.  It is one of my favorite restaurants in the area because they have a really diverse menu and the food is always great.

They have a really large bar area by the front, which is a good place to wait before you sit at your table.  They also just expanded, so it is a pretty big restaurant, but it gets very crowded at night so you should make a reservation.

On the menu, they have French classics like Coq Au Vin and Bouillabaisse, in addition to small plates, a raw bar, steaks, and many other options.  I ordered the chopped salad to start, which is tomatoes, romaine, cucumbers, onion, bell peppers, and avocado in a lemon dressing.  For my main course, I got the Coq Au Vin, which I have had before and is one of my favorite chicken dishes.  Their Filet Mignon Sliders are also really good, but I never order those I just tend to have a bite if someone else at the table gets them.  My sister and dad's favorite item on the menu is the tuna tartare which comes with guacamole.

Even though the top photo doesn't do the chopped salad any justice, it is really good.  It is not like a typical salad, since there is no lettuce, so it is basically just chopped up vegetables in a lemon dressing.  My favorite part was the avocado (which is really the only reason I order it) so once I finish all the avocado I generally stop eating the salad.  It is a very big bowl so after a while it gets a bit boring.  

For the main course, the Coq Au Vin was delicious.  It comes with a half chicken sitting in a pool of red wine sauce with some vegetables and a side of mashed potatoes.  The chicken itself was cooked perfectly and was really tender.  The red wine sauce pairs perfectly with the chicken and since there is a big pool of it on the bottom of the bowl, there is more than enough to coat the chicken with.  While the mashed potatoes were good, there was nothing too special about them in my opinion.  My sister got the bouillabaisse and really enjoyed it, and some other items ordered at the table were branzino, fried calamari, filet mignon, and steak tartare.  Overall, everyone really enjoyed their dishes here. 

The only thing that was lacking a bit was the service.  Our waiter was very inattentive and seemed irritated and annoyed with us from the get go.  Since I have been here before, I know that some of the other waiters are better, but there have been multiple visits where the service is not on par with the food.  The Coq Au Vin here is delicious and I find myself constantly craving it, so they just need to work on their service and they would be a top restaurant in my book.  

Gotham Bar & Grill

One of the restaurants that I have wanted to try for a while is Gotham Bar & Grill.  My sister had been there a few years back during restaurant week and she said that everything there was really good.  Recently, we were reminded that we still had yet to go here, so I looked at the menu online (like I always do) to make sure that they had options for me since I am pretty picky.  I noticed that there was a Greenmarket Price Fix Lunch Menu for $28, so I looked there first.  There are three options each for an appetizer, main course, and dessert, so not only are there great options but it is an amazing deal.  They only offer this deal during the week, so my sister and I had to plan out a time that we would both be free for lunch during the week, and we decided on July 4th.

We had a 12:00 reservation, which is when they open, and there were already a few people waiting.  We got seated right away, and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful decor.  It is very classic and elegant, and the lighting is really pretty as well.  As we were looking at the menu, they came over and brought a warm sourdough roll which was delicious.  I decided to order off of the greenmarket menu and got the strawberry and arugula salad and the slow cooked chicken.  The menu was slightly different than the one online, but everything that I wanted was still on it so I was happy.  My sister ordered off of the regular menu because she is a seafood/fish lover and there were many more options on the regular menu.  After hearing the recommendations from the waiter, she got the seafood salad and the miso glazed cod.  The only thing that was a little misleading was that online it says the 3 course price fix is $28, when really it is $28 for the appetizer and main course, and an additional $6 for one of the three greenmarket dessert offerings.

(The top image is the strawberry arugula salad and the bottom is the seafood salad)

The strawberry and arugula salad was very fresh and light, and was really delicious.  It is a pretty big portion so I could not finish it because I was trying to save room for the rest of the meal.  The salad came with fresh greenmarket strawberries, hazelnuts, goat cheese, radishes and was coated in a light balsamic vinaigrette.  My sister also loved her seafood salad, which came with scallops, squid, japanese octopus, lobster, and avocado in a lemon vinaigrette.  

For the next course, I got the slow cooked chicken breast, which came with couscous salad, grilled eggplant, and a golden raisin chutney. 

The chicken not only looked really pretty, but tasted delicious. It was cooked to perfection, as it was still very moist on the inside but crisp on the outside.  The sauce made it even better, and the raisin chutney was amazing.  The couscous was also good, but the chicken and the chutney were the stars of the dish.  Even though chicken can be pretty generic at many restaurants, they really do it justice here.  My sister also raved about the miso glazed cod, which is their signature dish, so if you like seafood you should get that.  I tried the sauce and rice that it came with, and can vouch for the fact that the sauce is delicious.  She usually is pretty critical of cod since it can be a hit or miss, but she absolutely loved this dish.  

Once we were done, the waiter brought over the coveted dessert menu.  Since I had already scoped out the menu online, I knew what dessert I was getting; the Gotham Chocolate Cake.  It is the most popular dessert, and luckily for me it is offered as part of the price fix.  My sister did not plan on getting dessert since she did not do the price fix, but the seasonal offering today was the coconut dacquoise so she gave in to temptation and ordered it.

  

Oh. My. God.  The chocolate cake was so amazing!  This was one of those situations again where I went into lunch with good intentions of only eating half the cake, but ended up finishing it.  I was left with no guilt, however, as it was TOTALLY worth every single calorie.  The reviews I had read online did not adequately describe the amazingness that is the Gotham Chocolate Cake (which is actually more like a spongy mousse than a cake).  It is so rich and decadent, yet light and fluffy at the same time, and it just gets better and better with each bite.  It also came with a small scoop of salted almond ice cream and some chocolate crunchies, which were ok but could not even compare to the amazing flavor of the cake.  My sister is not a huge chocolate cake lover, but she took one bite and had the same reaction as me.  In fact, she told me I had to finish it otherwise she would!  The dessert that she got was really good as well, but it just could not compare to the chocolate cake in my opinion.  It had fresh pineapple slices, pineapple cream, and little coconut cookies (like macaroons), and a strange ice cream that she didn't like.  At first she loved it, but after having a bite of my cake she quickly changed her tune.  While it was good, she said that it was not nearly as worth it as the chocolate cake, and she should've ordered the cake so that we could've had two!  (As a side note, I can not remember the last time my sister ordered a chocolate dessert, so that really says a lot!)

Overall, this was an amazing lunch experience.  The decor is very nice and elegant, the service was impeccable and the servers were all very friendly and attentive, and the food was outstanding.  They really pay attention to the details here and every aspect of each course was fresh and flavorful.  The two stars in my eyes were the chicken and the chocolate cake, and my sister said her two favorites were the cod and the chocolate cake.  While it is pricey, we will definitely be back here.  The greenmarket price fix lunch is an amazing deal and you really get your money's worth.  There are many expensive places in the city that are over-hyped and pretentious and the food doesn't live up to the price tag, but at Gotham it is totally worth every cent.  I looked around at the other tables, and everyone was smiling and raving about their food.  Basically, you should save up your money for the week and splurge on a visit here. It will be worth it!  

Trader Joe's Pulled Chicken and Sweet Potato Tots

Since I had a pretty busy weekend and didn't get back into the city until 9:00 last night, I didn't have time to cook.  And, since my sister and I both had work today, we knew that neither of us would be able to make dinner today either.  Lucky for us, there was a package of Pulled Chicken Breast in our fridge that I bought at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and a bag of Sweet Potato Tots in my freezer.  I had been waiting to try the Pulled Chicken ever since I tried the Pulled Pork a few weeks ago, and was hoping that it would be just as good.  

In the package, the Pulled Chicken is pretty much the same as the pork, since it is in the same sauce and takes the same amount of time to heat up.  But, since it is chicken breast instead of pork, the nutritional content is much more appealing.  Whereas the pork has about 20% DV of fat and 25% DV saturated fat, the chicken only has 1% and 0% respectively.  And, if you follow weight watchers like my sister and I do, one portion is only 3 points instead of the whopping 6 points for the pork.  

Since it was only 3 points and the buns that I use are 2, I decided to complete the meal with some of Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Potato Tots.  I have had them before, and they are a delicious alternative to the usual frozen fries.  The tots take about 30 minutes in the oven and the chicken takes only 3 minutes to heat up, so it was a very easy dinner prep.  I completed the meal with some steamed broccoli, like I always do, and overall it was a very delicious and balanced meal!

The chicken was great and had a lot of sauce on it, which made it even more tasty.  It fits perfectly on the Martin's sliced potato rolls that I use, and it even falls off the edges because the portion is so big.  The sauce tasted exactly the same to me as the pulled pork, as it had a bit of a kick to it but it wasn't overwhelming.  And, the chicken actually tasted like real pulled chicken breast and not anything fake or processed, so I would definitely buy this product again.  The sweet potato tots are also delicious and are the perfect thing to have in the freezer when you are in need of a side dish.  They are sweet and get a nice crunch to them when you leave them in the oven for long enough.  Mine always tend to get burnt a bit, as you can see in the picture, but in order for them to get crisp enough the heat has to stay pretty high.  I like when things are well done though, so I don't mind.  

Overall, this was a solid dinner and if you have a Trader Joe's near you, I recommend you buy either the Pulled Chicken or the Pulled Pork to keep in your fridge and the tots to keep in the freezer for when you are in a bind like I was today.  Both the pulled chicken and pork stay good for about 2 months in the fridge, so you have plenty of time to eat it!

Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken

One of my new obsessions has been cooking in the crock pot.  It is so easy to just put all the ingredients in the crock pot, turn it on, and then come back after a few hours to a fully cooked meal.  So, when I find an easy and healthy recipe that can be cooked in the crock pot, I get super excited.

Sunday is usually my day of cooking so that I can have dinner in the fridge for a few days, but this Sunday I was pretty busy and didn't have time to stand over the stove for hours and cook dinner.  Then, I remembered this delicious recipe from skinnytaste.com for Sesame Honey Chicken (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/02/crock-pot-sesame-honey-chicken.html) and immediately decided to make it.   All I had to do was put the ingredients in the crock pot (which took about 15 minutes) and return after 4 hours and take everything out.   The sauce that the chicken cooks in pretty much just has honey, low sodium tamari sauce, onion powder, some water, garlic, tomato paste, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and some cornstarch that you add at the end.  The original recipe calls for some sriracha sauce, but I omitted it because I tend to stay away from spice.  After the 4 hours, you just shred the chicken (which is super easy because the chicken is very tender), coat it all in the sauce, and add some sesame seeds and scallions on top.  Each serving of chicken is about 1/2 cup (on skinnytaste.com it says each serving is 2/3 cup but when I made it there was less than that), and I served it with 1/2 cup of brown rice and some steamed broccoli.

The sauce on the chicken is really delicious and it is very fragrant because of the sesame oil.  There is enough of the sauce that when you mix it with the rice, it coats the rice as well, which reminds me of a dish you could find in an asian restaurant, just much healthier.  My sister recommended that for next time, I cut the broccoli into bite sized pieces and mix that into the sauce with the chicken, which sounds like a great idea to me.  

This dish is super easy to make and is really delicious.  It is also healthy, which is just an added bonus!  And, if you don't have a crock pot, I recommend investing in one because it makes cooking dinner so much easier!  I have the Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker that I ordered from Amazon for a little under $50 (http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967-6-Quart-Programmable/dp/B001AO2PXK), and trust me it is worth the price!  

Bali BBQ Chicken with a Japanese Sweet Potato and Steamed Broccoli

Yesterday was a Whole Foods Day for me because my lunch and dinner both came from the prepared foods section at Whole Foods!  In addition to shopping for lunch options on my recent trip there, I was looking for some dinner items that I could eat on a day where I didn't feel like cooking or having a frozen meal.  So, when I saw their Bali BBQ Chicken, I thought that it was a perfect option.  It is really just a simple piece of grilled chicken with a light coating of some BBQ sauce, which I like since I usually eat pretty plain chicken.  On the side, I had some steamed broccoli and half of a baked japanese yam.  I like the japanese sweet potato better than the regular one because to me it has a sweeter taste.  When shopping for one, the skin has a more purplish color before it is cooked, so it is easier to tell it apart from the other sweet potato varieties.  The inside is also a yellow/whitish color instead of the usual bright orange color.

This was a perfect and easy balanced dinner for me.  It heated up in under a minute, and was so good and filling.  Next time I would probably just get some sauce on the side to dip the chicken in because it was a bit bland even for my taste, but it was still pretty good.  

This is why I love Whole Foods so much!  You can get some really great meal options that can be thrown together in under a minute, and they are all healthy and delicious.  It also makes it look like you spent hours cooking!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Since I do not eat any seafood and rarely eat red meat, I usually end up eating some sort of chicken dish everyday.  While it is sometimes a struggle to keep things interesting, this Baked Chicken Parmesan is definitely one of my favorite chicken dishes to make.  It is very easy, super tasty, and you would never even know that it is actually healthy!

I never really ever ordered Chicken Parm in a restaurant partly because I knew how unhealthy it was (since it is usually fried) and partly because I have never been a huge fan of large amounts of cheese.  But, when I started cooking more often and found this recipe from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/04/baked-chicken-parmesan.html) my opinion for the dish has totally changed.  {And just as a side note, skinnytaste.com is my absolute favorite source for healthy and delicious recipes.  She has such amazing recipes posted for every different food category and meal, and she even posts the nutritional info and the weight watchers points for each dish.  I have made probably at least 20 different things from her site, and everything that I have made so far has turned out great and they were so easy to follow.  Highly recommend this blog if you are looking for healthy, delicious, and easy recipes!}

Anyway, back to the chicken parmesan...this is my second time making this dish and it was just as good as I had remembered.  The cutlet is baked in the oven on very high heat which allows the outside to retain its crispiness without being fried, and each piece gets 1 tbsp of sauce and 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese which is more than enough.  It is the best to eat right when it comes out of the oven because that is when it is the crispiest and the cheese is the most melted.  But, since it makes 8 portions (I halved it to make 4 instead) the leftovers are still just as delicious.

I had mine with 1/2 cup of penne with1tbsp marinara sauce, and some steamed broccoli.  The overall meal is extremely filling, delicious, and healthy which makes it that much better!  I highly recommend trying the recipe (follow the link above), and checking out the recipes on skinnytaste.com.  Trust me, you will love them!