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.

Kinda Like Crab Meat

I absolutely love imitation crab meat (also known as krab or surimi), the yummy meat often found in California sushi rolls.

While there’s no substitute for real crab, sometimes I crave imitation crab meat!

I picked up a small pack of the good stuff in the seafood section at the grocery store yesterday and used several of the “crab sticks” in a crab salad sandwich for lunch today.

Crab Salad

I enjoyed my crab salad on a lightly toasted whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin with a cup of Chobani Greek yogurt and a side of apple slices for dipping on the side.

Crab Salad Sandwich

Fresh Apple Slices

Greek Yogurt

That imitation crab meat sure made me want sushi for dinner!

Do you like sushi? What are your favorite rolls?

I love the California roll, the rainbow roll and the spicy tuna roll. So tasty!

Of Possible Interest:

• WebMD’s list of Spring’s 10 Most Fattening Foods
• Race commentary from the Boston Marathon (Ryan Hall finished 4th!)
• 5 fast, light and fresh dinners from Health.com

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” 😉 ).

The Lovely Bones + Sushi Night

After leaving work early yesterday for our mental health break prize, my coworker and I headed to the movies to see The Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Bones

I read the book by Alice Sebold several years ago and thought it was a page-turner, so I was excited to see the movie.

The story is about a 14-year-old girl who was murdered (this happens right away, so I’m not ruining anything). The movie is narrated by the murdered girl from the “in between,” a place between heaven and earth. My coworker and I both agreed the movie was good… but kind of strange in the parts where the girl was frolicing around in the “in between.” It’s not one I’d say you have to go see in the theater, but I was entertained the whole time, which is good.

Dinner

When I arrived home, Ryan and I headed to the grocery store to pick up some essentials for the weekend. We were both feeling lazy and didn’t want to cook, so we opted for sushi.

Sushi

We both selected California rolls made with brown rice.

California Roll

Ryan and I agreed that California rolls are only as good as the avocado in them. Fortunately, the avocado in our rolls was fresh and perfectly mushy.

After dinner, Ryan and I settled in to watch our latest NetFlix movie, The Italian Job. How gorgeous is Charlize Theron?

Dessert

For dessert, I blended a cup of frozen strawberries in the food processor with a spoonful of cocoa powder.

Chocolate Strawberry Soft Serve

I love bananas soft serve and thought strawberries might tastes delicious as well. They definitely did and I think a combination of strawberries and bananas would be ah-maze-ing!

Today’s Plans

Today will be a fun Saturday!

Two of my girlfriends are coming over at 9:30 a.m. and we’re heading out to a boutique in Orlando to look at wedding dresses. This is my first wedding dress shopping attempt in Orlando (all others have been in St. Pete), so I hope something beautiful surfaces. Fingers crossed!

After wedding dress shopping, Ryan and I have plans to go to a chili cook off in Baldwin Park with some friends… I looooove chili so I can’t wait.

Tonight we’re heading to my friend’s apartment to watch Miss America because a girl from my sorority is competing as Miss Florida. Go Rachael!!!

I’ll stop in with a wedding dress update this afternoon. 😀 Happy weekend!

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.