Restaurant Review: Croissant Gourmet

Chris and I decided to go out to breakfast, and we tried Croissant Gourmet. It's at 120 E. Morse Blvd Winter Park, FL 32789.

I am not the average pastry lover. I mean, some previously frozen corn syrup glazed item from Panera Bread does not entice me. This bakery is the real deal. We're talking butter everywhere. Butter nay-sayers can just skip this altogether because it was butter heaven.

The smells are so alluring that even from the street everyone peeks through the large glass windows. There is a counter to the left when you walk in, it's filled to the brim of almond croissants, cinnamon pastries, cheese danishes, fruit tarts, chocolate desserts and other delicious looking things you wanted to pop into your mouth while the sweet girl behind the counter wasn't looking. I'll admit the visual appeal might be the same as the corporate previously frozen bakery you have in your neighborhood but wait until you taste it.

Chris had the fruit tart. He let me have a bite, what a good guy. It was moist and flakey on the bottom, the effects of much butter I am sure. The tart part was genuine. No rock hard cardboard or soggy flour. The custard might have been vanilla, or plain... is plain even a flavor? The fruit was fresh, we watched them bring in fresh strawberries while we were there. It was glazed in real sugar with maybe some lemon. Bright flavors. Overall: Delicious Fruit Tart (4 stars)

I had the Jalouise. What is that? It is perfection. It's like a strudel and a turn-over mixed together. Mine was Almond Raspberry flavored. As you can see, it was the small size. Alright alright, it was huge. I do contest that it was airy and light so most of the height is air pockets and those don't count. The part that was dense and sweet though... oh it counted! It was almost sweetened almond paste with raspberry jam. The pastry part was buttery (sensing a theme?) and light and not burnt on the edges but delicious the whole way though. Overall: Surprising New Pastry: (4.5 Stars)

Pricing was not markedly cheap or overtly overpriced. Our total for 2 pastries, 1 espresso, and 1 coffee was $10.26.

Happy Pastry Eating!

Thursday's Lunch

I had planned to have Pita Pizza's on Friday, but I wanted one today. Plans were made to be changed slightly, right?

Ingredients:

1 whole wheat pita

1 plum tomato

about 1/8cup of Reduced Fat Italian Cheeses (I used Sargento)

Salt, Pepper, Basil, and Garlic

Steps:

1. Dice tomato.

2. Toss with Basil, Salt, Pepper, and Garlic powder.

3. Spread on top of pita.

4. Sprinkle cheese on top.

5. Bake at 350 for maybe 5 minutes. Then Broil for 2-3 more minutes.

Told you it was so easy! I didn't use any extra oils or anything so it's a pretty high protein, low fat lunch. Here is the link to my Calorie Approximations.

Happy Eating!

Wednesday

Dinner time again!

Tonight we had Steak Quesadillas using the leftover steak from Monday.

Recipe:

1/2 yellow onion

1/2 yellow pepper

1/2 red pepper

4 Small Flour Tortillas (you could use whole wheat but Chris would never eat those, so we still use flour.)

Reduced Fat Shredded Mexican Cheese blend

4-6oz Leftover Steak

Salsa and/or Sour Cream

Spices

1. Pre-heat the oven - How about 350?

2. Cut up your peppers and onions. If you have a purple onion I think that'd be fine. or green peppers instead of red and yellow. I like to use peppers because they add some vegetable and they are crunchy.

3. Toss some Cumin, Garlic, Salt, Pepper, and Parsley in with your

vegetables.

4. Heat maybe 1tsp olive oil in your pan until hot and add your peppers. Cook for 3-4 minutes.

5. I covered my baking sheet in foil.

less messy.

6. Build your quesadillas, Tortilla, Steak Strips, Cheese, Peppers and Onions, and Tortilla on top. Be careful not to get too overzealous in your filling. You don't want the quesadillas to be spilling out everywhere.

7. Bake in the oven for about 5-6min

then flip (gently) and 5-6min on the other side until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are crispy.

8. Yum!

Link to my Calorie Approximations.

Happy Eating!

Cheryl's

Have you ever been to Cheryl's Website?

They ship cookies and delicious baked goods.

Normally... that means they send nasty hard things called cookies and they sit in people's homes and conference rooms until they get thrown away.

This stuff isn't like that!

I've sent Chris baskets of goodies for Valentine's Day and Halloween. (Boys are hard to buy gifts for... I send cookies.) I got the halloween mug from his present last year out of the closet this week. Married Tip: Make sure you like the gifts you give your spouse because they will be coming home to your house!

If you want to send something pumpkin themed all the fall stuff is out and I got a coupon in the mail that I am sharing with you!

$10 off any purchase of $40 or more. Use code: SCARE10 before October 31, 2o1o.

If you want to send something to me, I like this adorable pumpkin bowl.

Happy Saving Money!

Tuesday

Tuesday night we had dinner with our friends at Thai Basil.

Do you like thai food, because I love it! Chris had the Pad Thai which, I realized, I had never tried before. Pad Thai is a rice noodle dish with a red chili sauce that is sweetened. It was a little sweet for me actually. I had the Yellow Curry Chicken, which is onions, potatoes, and carrots in a mild yellow curry coconut milk stew. It was delicious.

My favorite part though isn't even the delicious foods, it's the Jasmine Tea & Jasmine Rice. I've been trying to cut back on my coffee (it's not going well, as I sit here with my mug) but I love Jasmine, it's the smell. The smell is so calming and restorative. Smells can play a big part in which flavors we like. Curry, for example, Chris doesn't like the smell and wouldn't kiss me last night after I enjoyed my dinner. :) What smells do you like?

How's your week turning out? Are you making the items you planned or has there been some unexpected trips to the store? We're on track for some steak quesadillas tonight!

RedLaser

iPhones, iPods, iMacs... are you an apple addict like our family? Chris has been working in IT for about 10 years and it's safe to say we are an apple family. The new iPhone 4 was something we wanted but I wasn't sure was going to fit into our budget.

We ended up selling both of our iPhone3G for $160 each, making the cost of our new phones only $40 each! I can't think of a more budget friendly price.

You might know that I am sort of cheap and Apps that cost money are a splurge I rarely take. Chris laughs at me all the time, "It's only $.99!" but I don't like buying Apps. Which means I know very little about them, I play solitaire on my phone; seriously.

but this App is the coolest thing EVER! It's called RedLaser and it transforms my phone into a scanner gun! I can scan any barcode and find nutrition information, allergy information, and price comparisons. Most of the price comparisons are online shopping, so even if the price is lower, it would be additional for shipping. If you're going to shop at a few stores and try to price compare, this app is a great choice.

Check out their video:

(I am not getting paid or receiving anything from RedLaser, I just think the product is cool)

Happy Scanning!

Monday

Monday: NY Strip Steak, Roasted Red Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus

Mondays are good days for us to have a "fun" meal. What I mean is it has to be fun to cook and fun to eat. 1. Because if it isn't fun to cook then I will probably pick up some rotisserie chicken at the grocery store instead and 2. because if it isn't fun to eat we won't like to be eating leftovers all week.

I often pick fish or something that doesn't last well all week in the refrigerator.

This week I bought about 1.5lbs of NY Strip Steak. It wasn't cheap but I'm planning on using the meat in recipes all week.

We make our steak like this:

Heat up the cast iron skillet until it's super hot. Heat up the oven to "super hot" as well, it's a technical term used in Mel & Chris' Kitchen. We like to keep the steak room temperature too. Then we put salt and pepper on the steak. both sides. Then a tiny smear of olive oil. Then sear for 60 - 90 seconds on each side in the super hot pan. Then 3 - 4 minutes in the super hot oven. Viola! Delicious Steak.

Roasted Vegetables: I put the oven at 400

degrees. Then mix olive oil, Sage, Thyme, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, and White Pepper. It forms a little paste. Cut up your potatoes & asparagus and coat them in the herb paste. Spread them out on a baking sheet in an even layer. I put them in there for about 25-30 minutes. It kind of depends how crunchy you like your vegetables.

It turned out really delicious! and come on, if I can do it, then it can't be that hard.

Happy Eating!

Grocery Shopping

Today I spent $79.49 which is about $20 more than I planned to spend... I am not super proud of my overspending BUT... it happens and maybe I didn't overspend but simply under-plan :D

Above is what I bought at Publix for $48.79. I got some amazing deals!! (be excited) I saved $46.13! Cha-ching.

Savings Recap: Oatmeal was BOGO plus $1 coupon, Tuna was BOGO plus $.50 coupon, Crunchmaster Crackers were BOGO plus $1 coupon, Coffee Creamer was 2/$3 plus $1 coupon off two, Contact Solution was BOGO plus 4 $1 coupons, Cheese was 2/$4, and the frozen Pizza was 2/$10 plus $1 coupon.

I tried to hide the cookies under the tuna but you all can probably still see them, those were $3.69 I didn't need but I've already eaten two since I've been home! Those Olive Crackers were on Sale and I had a $1 coupon but they rang up as the wrong price and so Publix being amazing, gave me them for free and still took my $1 off coupon, so I made a dollar!

I made out pretty well at Freshfield Farms as well, which is where I spent the other $30.70. 3lbs of Organic Apples, 10 small Red Potatoes, 4 tiny Clementines, 3 Bananas, 4 Tomatoes, 1.39lbs of Asparagus, 1 Yellow Pepper, 1 Green Pepper, 1 Red Pepper, and 2 Large NY Strip Steaks.

Happy Shopping!

Meal Planning

This is the last week of the month... which means all my planning and special budget spreadsheeting is coming to the test. Did I do it right? and Do we have enough? Have been bouncing around in my head like little ping pong balls of questions.

I was anxious to just get to the store and find out! I never head right to the store though; here are my plans for the week.

I want to buy some things because they are on sale and/or I have a coupon, like Tuna Fish, Frozen Pizza, Contact Solution, Coffee Creamer, and Instant Oatmeal.

I want to buy some things because we need them, like Milk and Peanut Butter.

I am trying to combine the things that are on sale with things we already have to make a menu that doesn't require purchasing too many more things.

Menu Planning:

Monday:

NY Strip Steak, Roasted Red Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus

Tuesday:

Leftovers from last week for Chris & Tuna Sandwich for Mel

Eating out at our favorite Thai Restaurant with some favorite friends

Wednesday:

Eating out with some more amazing friends (Eating out twice in a week!)

(Leftover) Steak Quesadillas with Grilled Pepper and Onions.

Thursday:

Black Bean Salad & Cheese Quesadillas

California Pizza Kitchen Frozen Pizza

Friday:

Pita Pizzas

Chris has Surgery

There has been almost no grocery shopping and no cooking at my house lately.

Which is sad... for the blog and for my spirit.

I love creating and I may never been a painter or a sculptor but I love creating meals, and then consuming them!

Chris had his gallbladder removed on Wednesday and I've been working so blogging have been pushed to the back burner, so sorry!

You have to see this super cute feel better present Chris got from his Mom and Dad, the balloon is a chicken! and the mug says "Get Well, Eat Veggie Soup"

Almost as cute as cows telling you to eat chicken, chickens telling you to eat vegetables.

Hope you are all eating your vegetables!