When I was heating up another slice of my zucchini potato quiche, I remembered that I had a container of baby spinach in the work fridge, and decided to make a side salad to go with it. There is a restaurant in South Barrington that has the best quiche called L’Eiffel Bistro – so light and fluffy! And their quiche always comes with a side salad. I was going to pretend I was dining out at a brunch restaurant instead of eating breakfast at my desk at work. Just chopped baby spinach, half a Fuji apple and about a teaspoon of light balsamic dressing. Yum!
I tested my blood sugar before working out – 209 – perfect! Except for one thing. I forgot to pack gym shoes – doh! It was a crisp 55 degree day outside, but it was sunny, so my flip flops got my steps in. It was so windy though! I love that some of the trees are still so colorful. I think this weekend though is when we’ll have to do our yard – right now it looks like a blanket of leaves, but we have this one giant tree that drops all it’s leaves at once, so we wait for that to happen.
Luckily I have a drawer in the bathroom in our office that has a hair dryer, my toothbrush and toothpaste, a brush and . . . 20 year old hairspray!
Look at how rusty that can is! I swear it’s at least 20 years old, but it’s still about 1/3 full! When I had this at home, every time Hannah cleaned out the bathroom drawers she wanted to throw it out, but I always saved it from the garbage and put it back.
So on Sunday when Mom and I went out to eat, we both got these delicious Pho bowls of soup. Sadly, I left my leftovers in the car. It was pitch black when I got home and I just forgot to grab it. It only went down to 50 degrees Sunday night, and I didn’t want to take a chance on it, so I had to throw it away. But when I was cleaning out the fridge over the weekend, I realized I still had some Bahn Mi meatballs left, so I decided to make a quick version of Pho. Now I am sure that the restaurant we went to spent hours preparing their broth – I mean, it is all about the broth with a Pho. But I didn’t have that kind of time, so here is my quick version. This is enough broth for one person.
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 cups beef stock (vs. beef broth – mine was Kitchen Basics)
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sriracha
Put all of that in a stock pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. I had leftover pasta in my fridge, and I sauteed up some zucchini, and sliced some jalapeno and had some basil leaves to throw in. When I got to work I added the pasta and zucchini and broth to my soup bowl, and heated that up in the microwave, while I put my leftover meatballs in the toaster oven under broil to heat up. Once the broth was hot, I just added the meatballs, and had a sliced lime to squeeze over the top. Now this isn’t as good as the Pho I had at the restaurant, mine had beef tendon in it to give it a depth of flavor, but for a Pho on the fly? This was really good!
Super filling, spicy and delicious. I could quite possibly eat soup every day and never get sick of it.
So I asked Tony if he felt like pot pie for dinner. He didn’t really comment, so I said “or I could make you some plain chicken and some mashed potatoes” and he said that was fine. Well, I thought I bought chicken cutlets because they were cheaper than chicken breast last week, but turns out I bought chicken tenders! So I walked into the living room and said to Tony “I bought chicken tenders by mistake so I am going to make chicken tenders if that’s okay.” He said “what happened to the chicken pot pie?!” I am not sure he was listening to me earlier, but now my brain had already made the turn to chicken tenders. And not just any chicken tenders – Long John Silver chicken tenders!
If I could only eat at one fast food restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be Long John Silver’s, with Arby’s as a close second. I loved getting the chicken planks, and having the little bits of fried batter in the bottom of my to go box. Sadly, the closest one is 30 miles away. No worries, I check every once in a while to see if one is closer! This is super easy though. I made 8 tenders (I ate 3, Tony ate 1 and I saved the rest). Just add 1/2 a cup of flour to a bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper and then stir in 1/2 a cup of beer. Mix and then while your fryer is getting to 350, let the chicken soak in that batter.
These were pretty skinny, so they took only about 3 minutes to cook. On the side I had mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini, and I made a dipping sauce of 1 tablespoon sour cream mixed with one tablespoon whole grain mustard.
Shitty kitchen lighting photos, but these were delicious – light, the chicken was tender and the crunchy outside – I guess this will have to make due until they build a Long John Silver’s closer to home!
I remembered my FitBit yesterday and just squeaked in my 10,000 steps – woop!
More leftovers are on the menu today – more zucchini potato quiche – I think this morning I am going to have a Chobani with it, and then leftover black bean soup for dinner. We’ll see if Tony is up for bay scallop risotto for dinner tonight. Our high temperature today is only going to be 48 – thankfully I packed my gym shoes so I’ll be hitting the gym at lunch.
Question of the Day: What’s your fast food guilty pleasure? Make it a great day!
Hey, thanks for stopping by and saying hello!
Is this the right link??
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/seafood_recipes.html
Long time reader, first time commenter!
Love your blog…so real and funny.
I use a lot of low carb recipes (great for diabetics as you well know). Linda’s Low Carb website is a great tool. I have made this oven “fried” fish several times. You wont be disappointed!
I tried dB to link…google low carb linda fried fish.
Oh and make your own tartar sauce…yum!
Enjoy, Biz!
I love Long John Silvers but I always get the fish – now I sort of really want some!!
Sadly I like all fast food way more than I should!
Well, that’s about the only “fish” I eat at LJS – the batter masks the flavor of the fish and when I douse it with malt vinegar, even more so!
I am totally giving this soup recipe a try! Sounds so good. There is a Vietnamese place I want to try so bad, but haven’t had a chance to. I know I would like it. I did get some iced coffee from there once, that was pretty amazing. My guilty pleasure? Saddly, Big Macs. Love that special sauce. And I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed one. Maybe last year sometime?
I can’t eat McDonald’s anymore unless I plan on being near a toilet within 30 minutes – Burger King doesn’t have the same effect on me though!
I am totally making that soup too – but I am cringing at what the sodium count would be on that recipe – maybe I’ll start out with 1/2 a cup of pickle juice!
Hope Tony is doing ok. I don’t eat fast food very often, but there is a pseudo fast food place here in Vancouver called the White Spot. It has burgers with crack…I swear! The “legendary sauce” is amazing. I also have a very guilty pleasure that isn’t fast food….stove top stuffing. OMG…I could eat a whole box at one sitting.
Sorry…it is actually “Triple O” sauce…not legendary sauce. The burger is the legendary burger.
Where do you come up with your recipes? Do you create your own or find them online?
If I use a recipe I’ve found online, I always link and give credit. I may tweak a recipe, but it’s quite funny how I recipe develop.
I actually write down recipes at work, then at night or on the weekends when I actually have time to put it together, is when I make all the changes, and my original thought usually ends up nothing like I started out with – I love the whole process of recipe developing though – now I just wish someone would pay me to do it full time! 😀
Hope Tony is feeling okay.
I don’t have a fast food guilt, really. Except maybe chicken wings? I don’t eat them often, but I love them.
John used to love LJS and we have one a couple miles from out house. The last time we went it was horrible. Greasy and mostly batter without much fish! That turned us both off of it.
When Tony and I drove to Austin last year, we stopped at LJS and I got in the car, we got about a mile back on the road, and the planks were so greasy, like they hadn’t changed the oil in a year – so disappointing! I’ll just make mine at home 😀
Never eaten at a Long John Silver’s but Arby’s–oh, my. WHAT is in their sauce? It’s like crack!
I love their regular sauce and the horsey sauce, which I think is just horseradish – I could do shots of that stuff!
Is Tony not feeling well again? One tender is not enough food for him! 🙁
We rarely eat fast food so I’m not sure I have a guilty pleasure… maybe some sort of fried chicken would be it. I can’t remember the name of the chain but we stopped one time while traveling and I got fried chicken and fried okra and I was in heaven!
I loves me some fried chicken too – in fact my store this weekend is selling cut up chicken for .99 cents a pound – I may need to keep the fryer upstairs a little longer to make some fried chicken!
Whew!!! I am glad I had something to eat before I read your blog. I would be hungry by now and make a run to the kitchen!!! But I had my smoothie and slice of toast with P/J on it so I was good to go.
My guilty pleasure fast food??? Anyone with a great double cheese hamburger and fries…yep that would be it. Well you have a great day!!!
Louise – have you been to this place?
http://milwaukeeburgercompany.com/blog/2012/10/11/specialty-burgers/
They look really good!
After the concert we went to Long John Silvers for dinner! Probably been a year since I have been there, LOVE the chicken planks with malt vinegar on them. An hour or two later, I can’t drink enough water to compensate for all the sodium I consumed. It is worth it, along with dipping the yummy hush puppies in tartar sauce : ) Stay warm
Yep, their hush puppies are to die for too – and I agree with the malt vinegar – perfect combo! It was great to see you!
my fast food guilty pleasure is a whopper junior, no cheese, no onion. something about the way BK makes their burgers is just to die for. (and yes, i’m sure i will die one day, and someone can blame it on the whopper junior i eat maybe three times a year, haha!)
I’ve had a whopper at BK and you are correct, so much better than McDonald’s, and I don’t have to visit the toilet 30 minutes after I eat one like a Quarter Pounder!
Tony only ate one tender? How is he feeling? I think a toddler eats more than that. 🙁
That was a lot for him – sadly, he doesn’t have an appetite and I can’t seem to change that. 🙁
That soup looks so good! I really do miss having time to experiment in the kitchen. Sounds like your weather is just as ‘all over the place’ as ours! Today I woke up and it’s super foggy out. Oh well, I heard it might snow over the weekend, so I’ll be happy with what we have for today. 🙂 Hope you have a great day!
Of course tomorrow for Halloween our high temperature is going to be about 40 degrees – nothing sadder than seeing kids in costumes and then all bundled up with hats and gloves!
My daughter loves it when I make homemade chicken tenders. My deep fryer sucks. It doesn’t seem to hold the temperature very well. What do I expect for a $20 investment? No worries since I seldom fry anything. We really like the taste of fried foods just not the way we feel ten minutes later. 🙁 I’m still voting. I’m guessing the voting is still going on since it still lets me go to the site and vote. I noticed you have not linked to it the last two days. Your wind blown hair shot made me giggle.
I keep forgetting to put the link up there! Our fryer was probably only about $50 – but its super easy to clean and keeps the temperature just perfect, so nothing turns out greasy. I buy my oil in a 10 gallon container from Sam’s Club – it’s called “fry oil” and it’s $20 and lasts about six months of frying. I change the oil out after about a dozen fries – I can tell when its time to change it because the oil is too dark I can’t see the basket. 😀
Oh. my. god. those chicken tenders look to die for! It’s just best I stay away from fried food…….. 😉
Happy Wednesday Biz!! Stay warm!
Yep, it’s the curse of having the deep fryer left on the kitchen counter – it just screams to be used! But I think after this weekend, I’ll need to put it away. 😀