Not Jimmy John’s!?!?

Whenever Ryan meets me downtown for lunch we go to Jimmy John’s.

I love it. Ryan loves it. It works.

Today, however, I just wasn’t feeling The John’s.

I met Ryan in the lobby of my office building and informed him of my odd change in cravings.

Shock set in.

Then Ryan said he was also craving something other than a Jimmy John’s sub, and randomly brought a gift card for a sushi restaurant with him.

Anytime someone suggests sushi, I’m game!

We headed to Bento, a quick, casual Asian and sushi restaurant, to grab some tasty rolls.

We ended up ordering two sushi rolls and a teriyaki chicken bowl that came with chicken, egg noodles, green beans and asparagus, and split everything between us.

Chicken + Noodles + Veggies

Sushi

All of our food was fresh and flavorful.

I really like how Bento offers a handful of sushi rolls without rice.

I was a little skeptical about the riceless rolls until I tried a piece that one of my coworkers ordered. I was amazed at how I didn’t even miss the rice! I’ve asked about riceless sushi rolls at other restaurants before and chefs will often try to accommodate my requests, which is great.

Of course I still like rice in my rolls, but ordering a roll sans rice is a great option for me when I’m ordering other things and want to enjoy a lighter sushi roll as well.

Dessert

Once we were finished eating, we headed next door to Mochi for frozen yogurt.

We enjoyed the combination we created the last time we visited Mochi so much that we decided to replicate it this afternoon.

Fro Yo Melts My Heart

Peanut butter frozen yogurt + Butterfinger pieces… and we added some chocolate-covered toffee pieced and cheesecake bits for good measure.

I loved having a little lunch date to break up the monotony of the work day. What a nice lil’ treat!

I am actually feeling quite sleepy (food coma, maybe?), and am looking forward to curling up on the couch and watching a movie when I get off work today.

Later tonight I have plans to meet up with some bloggers you may recognize (Woo!) and I can’t wait!

See ya later, alligators.

Break for a Date

This just in: Moving is draining.

We achieved our goal for the day of moving every last thing out of our old apartment. It looks so bare!

Tomorrow we’ll follow up with the floor-to-ceiling clean. Ohhhh joy! 😀

After lots of trips to and from our old place to our new place and lots of loading and unloading the car, we were ready for a quality break from the moving madness. When Ryan suggested a date for some sushi I was more than game!

We showered up and headed downtown to Bento for dinner.

Smiling for Sushi

When we sat down, I ordered a miso soup and Ryan ordered edamame for us to share.

Miso Soup

Edamame

Aside from sushi, Bento also offers amazing boba tea… Or so we’d heard. Tonight we decided to try a boba tea for ourselves!

We ordered the strawberry shortcake boba tea and oooooh wow was it delicious!

Boba Tea

Me + Tea

I loved the little tapioca balls throughout the tea. Toward the end of the drink, I had a blast trying to suck every last one up the straw. Playing with your food = a-okay! 😉

For our dinner, Ryan and I shared a couple rolls of sushi and a sweet and sour chicken noodle bowl.

Sushi

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I’ve never been a big sweet and sour chicken person, but really liked this bowl! Ryan said  sweet and sour chicken is the dish he’d always order whenever his family would get Chinese. Apparently he’s quite the sweet and sour chicken connoisseur and assured me that Bento’s sweet and sour chicken bowl was legit. Yum.

My Date

It felt so good to enjoy yummy food away from an atmosphere filled with boxes!

After dinner we walked next door to Mochi, the frozen yogurt place we discovered last Friday.

I selected half taro (a sweet/tart flavor) and half chocolate soft serve with sprinkles, Reese’s peanut butter cups, coconut and Reese’s pieces.

My Dessert

I really think that I could live on soft serve if it was nutritionally balanced to do so.

What is your favorite dessert?

Ice cream, frozen yogurt and soft serve are hands down my favorite desserts (but I won’t object if you want to throw some cookies and brownies in there for “toppings” 😉 ).

Sushi Saturday

After loads of shopping and two long walks with Sadie, Ryan and I were hungry for dinner. Rather than just cook something up at home, Ryan decided to make it a date night. 🙂

We headed downtown for sushi at Bento, a trendy restaurant that was conveniently playing the Florida/Alabama game. Coincidence???

Ryan was sad the Gators weren’t doin’ so hot (he went to UF for his MBA).

Oh No!

(Yes, this picture was totally staged, and yes Ryan will hate me for posting it. :D)

Though my stomach started eating itself in the amount of time it took for someone to come take our order, I was a happy camper again once I got some miso soup in mah belly.

Miso Soup

Happy Girl

I bet I slurped this whole bowl down in less than two minutes.  

When our order came out we were quite impressed with the tasty display.

Sushi

Mongolian Beef Noodle Bowl

One of the sushi rolls we ordered came without rice which was really neat. I honestly didn’t even miss it. I don’t really like white rice that much. I prefer the nutty flavor of brown rice.

We ate until we were nice and full… but not too full for dessert! We headed to Jeremiah’s for some ice cream and gelato. I ordered a small chocolate peanut butter gelati with vanilla and pumpkin pie on the top. Sounds weird, tastes great!

On our way home we also enjoyed hot cocoa with whipped cream and fudge drizzled on top. A wintery treat!

Both Ryan and I had never seen the classic holiday movie A Christmas Story. I actually won it on DVD last year at the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art, so we figured tonight would be a great night to break it open.

A Christmas Story

We both really enjoyed the movie and thought it was a great conclusion to a nice little Saturday date night.