A turn for the Healthy!

Well it looks like my recipes from here on out are going to be more on the healthy side. Last Thursday I got a call from my doctor after seeing them that Wednesday and being in the ER twice a few months back complaining of chest pains. That while we are trying to figure out the root of the chest pains, they found out I have a fatty liver and if I don't change a few things around I'm gonna be in well.....not the best shape. So now I plan to correct all the food and lifestyle mistakes I can. Especially since I found out about 5 weeks ago I'm going to be a new Daddy!!!

So I doubt I will do 1 restaurant review a month now. I have about 3 that im still writing, but after that it will be slim to none. I now have to rework all the amazing things I cook on a regular basis so it is liver and calorie friendly, but now I'm on a mission!! I have been eating healthier for the past 6 to 8 months but I have slacked on portions, caloric intake, and exercise. Well its changing, I plan to make my self write down everything I swallow, work out for at least 6 hours a week.So I'm going to post before and after shots (& maybe progress pictures too)....

 

 I have already cut out soda months ago along with fried food... So this is my farewell to junk food, huge portions of red meat, restaurant food, loads of my wife’s homemade baked goods and all other sorts of delicious-ness I have come to love, but it will all be worth it to be 100% healthy again and I get back into the shape I use to be so its a win, win. I just have to REALLY stick with it this time instead of losing some weight and being satisfied and going back and eating not so great and just maintaining the weight I lost but not losing any more. I have to do it, not only because I want to look and feel better....because I'm going to have a new baby in Jan!!! So wish me luck and pray for me! I hope all these changes come easy for me. So be on the look out for healthier recipes and more blog of my babble!
 
I will leave you with a recipe my wife made me the other day, I have to say this is by far better than i ever expected, and is my new favorite "healthy" lunch.
 
Orchard Chicken Salad

3 c apples (your choice), chopped small

½ lemon juice (to stop the apples from browning)

½ c celery, chopped small

4 c baked chicken (topped with basil, parsley, & rosemary) cut into cubes

¼ c golden raisins

¼ c dried cranberries (I used dried cranberries infused with cherry juice)

¾ c mayo (or just enough to incorporate everything together)

½ ts celery seed

salt & pepper to taste

Mix everything together and spread onto a whole wheat tortilla. Top with spinach, tomato, or cheese if you like.

Eat & Enjoy!

BBQ Month!!!

Well I came upon a tweet stating that May is national BBQ month, so of course it being one of my top 3 foods I'm gonna celebrate! First day of May  me and the Misses hit up Best NY Pizza to split a personal BBQ Chicken pizza, wasn't bad but definitely nothing to write home about. Now most of their food is amazing but this barley held me over for a week on my BBQ fix.

We were out looking for Farmers Markets and yard sales both without any real luck. Stopped at a Farmers Market on the corner of Henderson Rd. And Linebaugh needless to say we won't be back, although the price was right the quality was way wrong! So for the first time ever my urbanspoon app came in handy and actually gave me a listing for a place I wanted to go without me searching for the name specifically. We headed down Linebaugh to a place called Cally"s Sticky Bones BBQ, we found it without too much trouble.......

We pull into a parking spot in the little strip mall and walk in, the place is decorated nice, but that means nothing to a BBQ connoisseur like myself, I will buy BBQ from a rusted out road side smoker if it taste good enough. We place our orders for BBQ Beef Brisket sandwiches, some sides and we take our seats, and notice the place is empty...

 We notice that they were having some big pig roast off that day so I figure this could explain the emptiness of the place. They have awards and plaques all around from cook offs they have won. Soon the food was placed in front of us.

Like I said we both got the beef brisket sandwiches and I got cole slaw and beans the misses went with potato salad.

They serve their BBQ dry, and I prefer it that way. It let's me taste the quality of the meat, the smoke, and the rub, and it gives me the option to put whatever sauce I want on it. Plus most all BBQ places I've been to have a plethora of sauce to choose from, this stood true for here.

Most of their sauces were the same as every place else, nothing to write home about but over all good. Then I tried their swine sauce, and it was a nice mix of carolina style sauce mixed with some southern BBQ flare. So make sure to try them all when you stop by.

The brisket had a nice smoke flavor, but needed more bark in my opinion. Over all I was very pleased with the quality of the meat, not too greasy, not too much smoke flavor, and not too much added flavor the quality of the meat and wood really shined through. The sandwich was just the right size too, plus add in the side of slaw and beans the lunch basket was perfect. I can say that the meat made up for where the sides lack, now they were good just nothing I was wanting to get the recipe too, but do we really go to a BBQ place for the sides?


Heres something I'm going to try and do when I write a review of a restaurant, get a copy of the menu and scan it for you guys! I know I like seeing a menu befor I venture to a new place so wish me luck on getting/remembering to do this everytime.

They have great prices and add in a daily special you can't go wrong! So if you're craving BBQ and are down by Linebaugh/Armenia area, definitely give Cally's Sticky Bones BBQ a try located at; 2313 W. Linebaugh Ave. Tampa, Fl 33612

Taco Taco........Bus.?.

So if you Live in Tampa (and I happen to) you've heard about the 24/7 Taco Bus and if you haven't you need to figure out why? Its kinda like a landmark around these parts.

Like I said I have heard about it, but never have I tried it. Not because I didn't want to, its just a little ways from my usual stomping grounds and I usually get sidetracked and end up going elsewhere when we plan to go there.

That all was gonna change, after waiting for the mail to run (new company I work for mails checks) we head out to do some normal saturday errands. While out and about I ask the misses if she's up for some mexican food, and her being my wife she said of course when am I not! So we head down toward Hillsborough Ave to this famed Taco Bus, now don't let the name fool you......well it is a bus, but also a sit down restaurant. We pull up and the place is packed, and from what I've heard this is to be expected.

As we walk in there are only 2 seats left and there at the bar so we grab a menu and take a seat. More people walked in and soon had frowns on their faces that they had to either stand and eat or sit out side (a big no no in florida unless its water side or night).

We look over our menus and with some help from out waiter we go with the carne asada burrito combo with rice and beans. Our waiter took our order then rushed off to do the other 99 things he was doing. The food is made in an old bus out on the side of the building and they have a few updated buses too, but the original bus is still where the magic happens.

This hangs on the wall across from us, gotta love tampa and CL!

As me and the misses set there at the bar and look over the other menu items and notice the breakfast part of the menu (note to self come here for breakfast). We tried their hibiscus lemonade, which wasn't half bad. Our food comes, it smells delicious and looks great. Even though its on styrofoam served with plastic utensils, it's all about the food and nothing else here at the Taco Bus.

We both unwrap our burritos and take a bite, the burrito was over flowing with beef, with hints of tomato, onion, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and cheese. As I drew closer to the end of this fantastic burrito the ratio became closer to even, instead of the hints of toppings like it started, but there's no complaining here! The veggies tasted so fresh, well everything tasted fresh. Something you wouldn't expect from the name, but I've grown to realize to expect the unexpected. We made no joke about devouring our lunch combos. The food is better than any Mexican food I have tried in Tampa. It blows Moe's, Chipotle, and all the other chains away. From fresh food, to great atmosphere and the biggest one its ALWAYS OPEN!

As we polished off the plates thoughts of something sweet entered my head. I has saw a small dessert section of the menu so I reached and grabbed one. The only hard thing was to place the order, our waiter as mentioned above was doing about 100 things from the normal refills, to plating food, on to planning a catering event with the table behind us. He soon came over and asked how everything was, and took our order for Tres Leches Cake which the menu noted it was baked in-house so we gave it a try. Now I have wanted to try Tres Leches Cake for awhile but never got a chance until now. As hard as it was to get the waiters attention I can say this, our order was taken quickly our food and dessert was brought even quicker and drinks never went dry.  Back to the dessert, he placed it in front of us and we dug in, then stopping to take a pic, what can I say when the food is this good I almost forget about doing this.

We finish our dessert and pay our tab and head out to finish up our Saturday. So if you're looking for Authentic Mexican  for a great price and a fun location; Be sure to check out the Taco Bus at 913 E. Hillsborough Ave, Tampa FL 33604
813-232-5889 Their site is; http://tampatacobus.com

They also have a newer St. Pete location at; 2324 Central Ave St. Pete, St. Pete FL 33712. I haven't ate there so its on you to go and try it.

So if you're craving authentic mexican style food from ceviche, tacos, burritos, chilorio, and quesadilla be sure to stop in at the Taco Bus.

Tortilla soup recipe

Chicken:

1 (14oz) Chicken breast

Lime

Cover chicken with lime juice, then sprinkle with cilantro, marjoram, basil, paprika, dash of oregano, and black pepper.

Soup:

Evoo

1/4 c onion

1/8 c carrots

Squeeze 1/2 lime

3 tbls Cilantro

1 tbls Marjoram

1 tbls Basil

1 tbls Paprika

1/2 tbls Cummin

Dash celery seed

Dash sage

Salt

20 Grinds of pepper

1 can (14.5oz) Chicken broth

1 can (14.5oz) Fire roasted tomatoes

1/2 c Frozen corn

1 can (15.2oz) Black beans, rinsed

1/2 c Water

2oz diced green chilies

Bring to boil

Bake chicken on 350 till it reaches a temp of 160-165, shred in food processor.

Grill 4 corn tortillas on stove top, put shredded chicken in bowl, pour soup over chicken, cut/break the tortilla in to triangles and serve on top with a lime wedge.

Eat and Enjoy!

Give me a reason

Well again you should already know this (if you've been reading) I got a new job, and we went out to Cooters for a celebration. Well I finished my first 40 hour work week in a few months, and it felt great. All that time in the office I wanted to let loose and relax a bit, but I'm not a drinker (anymore) so bars and clubs have gotten old anyway. I really wanted another reason to celebrate too!

I couldn't find any place better to relax a bit other than a small restaurant. I found a new pizza place out of a local paper I wanted to go to a few months back, so I decided to go there, but after some last minute reading and reviews I opted to go to our favorite pizza place. Plus we haven't ate pizza from anywhere else in about 2 years if not longer. Since I already knew the quality of the food, and they opened a new dining room and released new pizzas for the experience. I wanted to check it out.

So I invited a friend, me and the misses head to the spot.  I get there a few minutes late (its one of the things I do).... We meet our friend outside and my wife gives him the first of a new cupcake recipe she had just baked. Then we head in. Welcome to Best NY Pizza, the greet you when you walk in the door. The place has a upscale pizzeria feel to it, with a casual dining room right inside the front door, a short walk and we reach the new dining area. I have to say it was very nice, from the dim lights, the candles, soft music playing and an amazing visual attraction (you'll have to go to find out what it is). We are greeted and promptly seated in a nice booth. As we start going over the new part of the menu. I end up going with a my favorite pizza "The Best"  in their personal size, my wife went with their new "Mexican Taco" pizza, our friend opted to be the different one and got a Philly Cheese Steak. We placed the order and got a few garlic knots to hold us over until dinner came.

After some great conversation and admiring how nice the new dining area was. Enjoying the amazing garlic knots, our dinner arrives. The pizza looked wonderful and the cheese steak was equally as appealing. See for your self;

The Best

Mexican Taco Pizza

Philly Cheese Steak

My "Best Pizza" is always wonderful, so much flavor and the perfect texture every time. This time was even better since it came right from the oven into my mouth!! The "Mexican Taco" pizza looked even better in person than it did in the menu picture. The taste was perfect, a great balance of everything you would think of in a taco pizza. From what I was told the Philly cheese steak was good, but the bun was soggy, sorry for that Norm. I said their Pizza was the best, and the other food was great...lol

So if you're in Tampa and want the most amazing pizza in the city, a great atmosphere, or order the pizza to take home, make sure to stop into my favorite and soon to be your favorite pizza place; Best NY Pizza located at 14741 N Dale Mabry, Tampa Fl. 33618

Make sure to say hello to the chef, Norm did!

Since we're on the topic of pizza I might as well post a recipe. The beginning of April I bought a 20lbs beef brisket for my wifes birthday. I cut half of it for smoking and the other half to try to make corned beef. Back on yopic, after we had the smoked beef brisket the fiorst night we had plenty of leftsovers, so it was time to get creative. I whipped this beauty up one night and cant wait to make it again. It was the best leftovers have ever tasted. I also plan to try this with chicken, and it would probably work well with pork if thats youe thing(its not mine).

BBQ Brisket Pizza

Pizza dough:

1/2 tbls Basil

1/2 tbls Cilantro

1/2 ts Rosemary (broken up in hand)

20 grinds Pepper
1 box jiffy pizza crust

Mix dough per the instructions on box, add the above ingredients.

BBQ Mix:

1/4 cup Bbq sauce

Splash Favorite vinegar

1/2 tbs Worcestershire

1tbs Garlic

1/4 tbs Apple juice

1/2 cut red onion

Pizza Sauce:
1/3 cup Favorite tom sauce (I prefer homemade)
1/4 cup Bullseye BBQ sauce
 1tbs minced garlic
Splash worcestershire
 Splash garlic red wine vinegar
 Fresh ground pepper
 Pinch dill
Pinch marjoram
 Pinch cilantro
 Pinch thyme

Italian mix shredded cheese to top

1 1/2 lb well smoked beef brisket

Melt remaining fat off in skillet. Chop it up, put in a bag with bbq mixture, thoroughly coat and set aside. Spoon pizza sauce on crust then add beef and onion mixture from bag, top with cheese and bake 15-20 min.

Eat & Enjoy!!

Celebration and a cooter!!!!

So I make ends meet always have, its just in my DNA. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a hustler, and that I've been identified as one at pretty much every job(mainly sales gigs) I've ever had. You can also ask around, I'm the guy that can make a dollar outta 15 cent... So I embrace this and know I will with Gods help make it. So that being said, I've been out of work for a few months, and been doing what I do with help from my amazing wife, who is also unemployed due to a company having no moral code whatsoever, she's better off without them. I would much rather work a full time job, than make money here and there to pay bills. I like a regular paycheck to pay bills and my money I make here and there(all legal may I add) to go and have fun with. I've worked so many B.S. jobs that I could write a book, so to find out I got hired on at a international lending company, with great pay and even better benefits I was thrilled. So my wife decided to apply and not use all of her unemployment benefits, low and behold after weeks of the website glitching every time she tried to contact them her phone rings. After her conversation they wanted her to come in the next day, so we did and everything seemed to go very well......seemed.

So we decided to hit the beach for a lil celebration and relaxation. Out of the blue I sold another electronic cigarette kit so there was a lil extra money so I decided to treat my wife and myself to one of our favorite beach side spots. Plus I wanted an excuse to write another restaurant review style blog. So as we are pulling in the round about off of Clearwater Memorial Causeway I tell the wife to take the second right instead of our normal way to Sand Key Park. She looks puzzled but when she ask why I think she had already answered her own question, but I told her anyway.... We're going to Cooters to celebrate before we hit the beach for the rest of the day.

 We get there right in the middle of happy hour (from 3-6 daily), so after navigating their rather small and packed parking lot. We walk up on their wood deck and are greeted right away. We decided to sit on there deck, the weather was perfect and a great breeze was coming off the gulf. We meet our waitress and place our drink order, and since its happy hour they have .50 raw oysters (on of my favorite foods).

When our drinks come I place an order for some oysters, and we start to look at their daily specials and browse the menu. We wanted something filling but light enough we could go straight to the beach and not feel to full. So the oysters come and were amazing nothing new here.

We decide, order some sandwiches, the Misses went for their Fisherman's Ruben and I chose their Philly Cheese Steak. We finish off the oysters and take in the scenery (not an inch of wall is uncovered).

The food comes and smells amazing, then the wife has a moment of greatness and suggest we trade half of our sandwiches of course!!! (I was feeling a bit down about not ordering seafood as an entree this close to the beach, so she solved that.) This Fisherman's Ruben was perfect, just like a ruben minus the corned beef and add blackened mahi, my Cheese Steak had the right amount of peppers, shrooms and onions to complement the rib eye. So good I almost forgot to take pictures.

We chow down and swap thoughts on each others choice of sandwich and ponder what to eat next time we come back. After we finish our plate...well baskets... We decide there's room for dessert and since its Florida we opt for Key Lime Pie. We get our Pie and its placed on top of this green sauce so the wife has to taste it to see what it is.....gotta love her always up to be a guinea pig. Turns out it was a Key Lime sauce/gel, that complemented the pie rather nicely. The pie was good, not enough key lime taste for me, tasted more like a key lime cheesecake of sorts, but it completed the meal great.

We get the check this place has amazing food, but it's even better if you're on a budget! So we tip and head to the car, with sand and salt water on the mind.

If you're looking for a great west cost beach side spot that's great on the taste buds and even better on the wallet be sure to check out; Cooters at 423 Poinsettia Ave. Clearwater Beach, FL 33767

http://www.cooters.com/

Plus its just a stones throw away from one of our favorite beaches located at Sand Key Park. We hit the beach after feeding the meter, find a spot on a rather empty beach(just the way we like it).  We walk the beach for awhile, noticing a wedding taking place down on the far end. So that spun off talks of ideas for our vow renewals and such. Then we get back to our spot and head into the water. It was nice luke warm water, after chilling in the waves for a bit, we decide to go relax on shore. And relax is what we did, it was so peaceful just laying on the shore with the love of my life by my side it was truly a gift from God. We just laid there for over a hour or more, then some tourist plop down about 20 or 30 feet from us, which is no big deal. Being born or living in Florida for any given time you get use to a few things; Tourist, Snowbirds, Lovebugs, Mosquitoes, and a thousand other annoying things we deal with to live in paradise. The only issue we had with the tourist after they entertained us with all their picture taking and amazement of the surroundings. Then they start to feed the seagulls and if you've ever did this you soon realize what a mistake you just made. What seemed like every seagull on the beach was flying over us and to them. They keep feeding them to get more pictures, and keep feeding them and keep feeding them...it didn't stop...

 Then the seagulls start to hover and me not wanting to have to shoot a bird for dropping a deuce on me and the lady. We decide to call the day quits, so thank you annoying tourist for making us miss the sunset and ruining the mood and flow of a great florida day. But we live here so enjoy your trip, this is our backyard! That alone makes me okay with them doing what tourist do. We head back home shower up and enjoy our night...

Well enough of my rambles that started out  as a restaurant review. See you never know with me...   P.S. To my lady, I love you!