Yesterday was gorgeous – while it was a chilly start, by lunch it was in the low 60s and sunny – #love.
In part of Hannah and Jacob’s meal plan, they baked up a bunch of baked potatoes (huh, wonder where they got that from!) and I knew towards the end of the week they would have food that would need to be eaten up before going bad. I made a one ounce sausage, potato, zucchini egg scramble – while it doesn’t look pretty, it was delicious. 3 points for the potato, 2 poins for the sausage, 2 for the egg and the zucchini was obviously free š
One of my bosses was out of the office yesterday so I was determined to get out at lunch. Someone posted this picture of these soup wontons from Imperial Lamian a few days ago, and I saved that post to see where this restaurant was and how close it was to my office. It’s only 7 blocks from my office! How gorgeous do those look!
I made my way over there, and not going to lie, my mouth started watering just thinking about these!
The interior is stunning. I quickly grabbed the to go menu, and pointed to what I wanted – those dumplings above, and was told that was only on their dinner menu – rat farts! The menu is quite pricy, so since what I wanted wasn’t available, I left – knowing that I will soon go there for dinner.
āThere is a food court in the State of Illinois building next to my office, and the shortest line was the Pita Palace. Um, now I know why the line was short because this was awful. The only thing that was great was the fluffy pita bread, the hummus and the rice – the “meat” was dry and while the falafel had good flavor, when I heard the microwave going to heat up my food, that should have been my clue to say “nevermind!”
No one signed up for night secretary, and while I could have stayed, I decided to leave on time. The work will always be there no matter how long I stay.
When I got home Jacob excitedly said “I took care of dinner!” He knows my love of pizza, and while I had turkey burgers on my menu, I happily ate the pizza my son-in-law bought for dinner. He got a side of giardinera, and usually they give us a small container, but they brought us a whole jar for $3! I can put that shit on everything – so good!
Hannah was a bit sad that I only left her one of the chocolate zucchini muffins yesterday morning and took the rest to work. She said “tell those people to get their own fucking Mom!” I have no idea where she gets her potty mouth from. š
The only difference with the ones I made the night before last was that this time I used Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder and they are even more chocolately – so good! My tip when using zucchini in baking – make sure to squeeze out as much liquid as possible – then I toss the shredded zucchini into my dry mixture to coat – that way they will disburse in the muffin and not sink to the bottom.
Best part about this recipe? You need a bowl and a fork to mix – that’s it!
ALWAYS bake your muffins at 400 degrees – no matter what temperature the recipe calls for – just reduce the cooking time by five minutes – this recipe is a spin off of one of banana muffin recipes that I originally baked at 375 for 22 minutes. I baked these at 400 degrees and these baked 17 minutes. You’ll get that gorgeous muffin dome every time – promise! I also LOVE this William Sonoma muffin tin – I bought it a few years ago with a gift card (its pricey at $33) but it is the best non-stick muffin tin I’ve ever used. Just keep in mind this holiday season if you have a baker on your list – this is a good one to buy.
It of course was already dark when these came out of the oven, so these pics were from work.
So yummy! I ran it through the recipe building and it comes in at 7 delicious points – definitely not an every day breakfast, but you could definitely fit it in – I didn’t eat any yesterday, but I brought one for my breakfast and am pairing it with scrambled egg whites (1) and 2 ounces of reduced fat ham (1) so breakfast will only cost me 9 points.
Let me know if you make these! Enjoy your weekend – for the first time in a long time it’s going to be a low key weekend, and I couldn’t be happier. Make it a great day – happy Friday!
Those dumplings look so pretty. I only like fried dumplings, something about the texture if they are not fried. Sorry they couldn’t give you a lunch portion and your second lunch choice sucked š Those muffins look so pretty. They need to be in a bakery store window. I don’t have vanilla protein , do you think chocolate or caramel would change the flavor too much? I’m excited to get some baking in this weekend. Our temps have dropped a wee bit so I don’t bad about using the oven. We also had a Trader Joe’s open up a little closer to us so I’m heading there to get the everything seasoning. I can’t wait to make your naan with it!
I don’t think it matters on the protein shake – I’ve subbed in banana and chocolate no problem – the trick is adding the vinegar to make it into buttermilk š Hooray for a closer TJs!!
I looooooove soup dumplings (also called xiaolongbao), especially as it gets cold outside. The Chicago Tribune earlier this year did a round-up of the best soup dumplings in the city: http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/restaurants/ct-best-soup-dumplings-gallery-20170214-photogallery.html
I don’t think I’ve ever had them before Elizabeth! Thanks for the link – I need to check that out š
oh yum!
Just thought of something. Have you been to Fat Rice yet? I wanted to try when we were in Chicago – whoa, that was a while ago. But Rob is allergic to so much and doesn’t like to share. It sounded like a place that you get big plates and splitting is ideal since it is the only Macanese restaurant (I believe) in the U.S. http://www.eatfatrice.com/
Um, how have I not been to Fat Rice?!! I need to fix that – stat! Thanks for the heads up Carrie!