Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Marduk and I eat out a lot. According to me who has never lived in a big city and didn't eat out at all before I started dating Marduk, there is a fair amount of variety around here, enough so that we run out of money before we run out of places to eat at. The two biggest problems we have, aside from the cost, are that his favorite places are a little harder on my stomach (he likes fast food and loves burgers) and my favorite places are a little too expensive for everyday dining.

Whistler wrote:I can't imagine eating out most of the time. I think I would get really frustrated with the limits of our restaurants. How is it?

It works for me. A typical meal might be a bagel with cream cheese and juice, or a croissant with soda or the salad bar from the grocery store. Salt Lake is becoming more and more foodie, with everything from Indian/Thai curries to tapas to wood-grilled pizzas. These are the things I usually tried to get a date to get me. I will be trying to save money, but imagine I will be eating lots of Jamba Juices and bagels on campus, since my classes are when I am hungriest (midafternoon).

I had a cinnamon sugar bagel and a Coke every single day, pretty much, when I was a math tutor (cue the twitching from the nutrition mavens here, ha. ha. ha.) I lost a ton of weight, since that was pretty much all I had for the majority of the day, and then a small dinner. So I clearly don't require variety in my eating.

Oh man. Marx and I live about 4 miles away from downtown in a large-ish city, and we happily eat at a different restaurant every night for the next year. This is a significant problem both for our budget and our waistlines. (The waistline issue is only slightly mitigated by the fact that we could walk to so many of those restaurants.)

Okay, I was imagining like "sit down and eat soup/sandwich," but including stuff like ready-made grocery food, you could probably have a reasonable diet that way (both expense-wise and nutrient-wise). I used to have the same thing for lunch every day, but my husband likes a lot more variety in his meals, so he ends up eating out a fair bit (because I get tired of trying to think up exciting lunches).

I think there are some foods I like prepared a certain way, and I've learned how to make them that way, so I wouldn't go out to eat them that way. I also think a lot of restaurants are WAY too salty, is that just me?

It depends on where you're eating, Whistler. I think that tends to be true of most chains, but individual restaurants that have their own menus and don't rely on commissaries will be significantly less sodium saturated.

The problem is that chain restaurants rely heavily on pre-made items so that the taste conforms; a whopper in Provo should be the same as a whopper in San Francisco, for example. So in order to accomplish this, the beef patties are prepared before hand and shipped to the store, the sauces come in cans, etc. etc. To make these things taste normal, a heavy amount of salt is added. To most people who grow up eating these sorts of foods (say, for example, grew up eating Kraft mac and cheese) these sodium levels are perfectly palatable.

To avoid this, go to restaurants that don't use commissaries. In the Provo area, I can think of a half dozen off hand that will taste good, and won't be heavily salted. South, I don't know that much. I don't really think there's a market for it in Utah county, outside of Provo.

Yeah, I've found some restaurants that I really like. Have any of you tried Ginger's garden cafe in Springville? I love that place. We also have a diner down in Spanish Fork called Amber's that is pretty decent.

Split pea soup with a ham bone. Split pea soup was always something I'd been intrigued by, and it was tastier than I thought it would be.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things to do with a leftover ham bone.

The fam tried out Papa Murphy's Taco Grande Pizza last night. Delicious! The sauce is replaced with beans, and the toppings are all typical taco stuff. Loved it.

Mr. Mico and I ordered Indian food for delivery two hours ago and it is still not here. If I had only frozen my ground beef a week ago instead of letting it go bad in the fridge this never would have happened!

Steak (for the second night in a row), twice-baked potatoes, sauteed green beans, and cake. Thanks for being born so we could have a fancy dinner, Marduk!

bobtheenchantedone wrote:Steak (for the second night in a row), twice-baked potatoes, sauteed green beans, and cake. Thanks for being born so we could have a fancy dinner, Marduk!

Hey wait a sec, that's what I had for dinner tonight... I had steak for three days in a row now... O.O

This morning I woke up and remembered that I had sour milk and blueberries that needed to be eaten. We had whole wheat blueberry pancakes for breakfast and my heart is happy.

I had Neopoltian margherita pizza, a tiny limonata, and peach sorbetto in an actual peach the other day. Yum!

We had roasted veggies (zucchini, yellow squash, onion, and tomato, seasoned with garlic and thyme), whole grain bread with goat cheese, and ..... one of those over-processed Knorr Pasta Sides.

Breakfast burritos. Scrambled eggs, boiled potatoes, black beans, salsa, and cheese.

I went to Famous Dave's for the first time. It was disappointing. I liked Dickey's much better.

I've never been to Famous Dave's, but I do love the sweet and spicy pickles they sell in the grocery stores. They make me never want to eat any other variety of pickle.

IT'S CHINESE FOOD TUESDAY, YO. Today we went to China Magic Noodle. It was very good.

I bought a rotisserie chicken at CostCo. I put it on my passenger seat on the way home. By the time I got home, it smelled absolutely disgusting to me. (Pregnancy noses can be quite fickle.) So Yellow made mashed potatoes and I ate those mixed with sour cream while everyone else had chicken with their mashed potatoes.