Food Archives - Page 17 of 18

Spring Break Road Trip: Red Rock Canyon Attempt + Bobo’s Oat Bars

March 28, 2018 No Comments

Our next stop was supposed to be Red Rock Canyon. Apparently, A LOT of other people had the same thought, because when we arrived, it was closed off to incoming cars. We parked on the side of the road and D talked to the ranger. He said that the situation would be reassessed in a couple of hours! Well, we did not have time to wait around, so we headed back a couple of exits and pulled off at Calico Hills, which was still open to the public.

You could still see some red rocks, so that was cool.

We did a short hike. I recently became a Friends of Bobo Ambassador, so I thought that I should bring some Bobo’s Oat Bars for sustenance.

Yup, I’m even rockin’ the Bobo’s t-shirt!

Bobo’s Oat Bars were invented by a mother-daughter duo in Boulder, Colorado. They started selling them at local cafes, and their business took off from there. (Love those types of stories!) These oat bars are so delicious and hearty. I like that they are not overly sweet. They are also dairy-free and gluten-free. These bars make a perfect on-the-go snack! You can find them in stores near you here, Amazon, or order directly from their site. I also visited them at Expo West, and was able to try their new toaster pastries–yum! If you want to become a Friends of Bobo Ambassador, please tell them that LimByLim referred you!

I need to get these two to loosen up for photos!

Although the rocks we were able to see were pretty impressive, I was disappointed that we were unable to drive the scenic loop. I guess we will have to make a return visit!

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Food, Girl Scouts, Sponsored

Learning Healthy Habits with Lilly’s Hummus

March 21, 2018 No Comments

Recently, k’s Girl Scout troop had a meeting where they earned the Global Action Award. One of the Global Goals is Good Health & Well Being. When the troop leader asked me to bring a healthy snack for the meeting, I decided on cucumbers, carrots, and Lilly’s Hummus.

Lilly’s Hummus is one of the products that caught my eye at the recent Expo West because it is kid-friendly and nutritious. My kids really like this hummus, and it is a great way to make cut vegetables more appealing. What sets Lilly’s Hummus apart is that it is made with organic chickpeas and has a clean ingredient list.

It is so exciting that Lilly’s has single serve, shelf-stable hummus. This makes it a great option for lunchboxes and road trips. The brand rep told me that they did not have to change the recipe of their hummus to make it shelf-stable; just the packaging.

Teaching kids to love healthy food will benefit them for a lifetime! You can find Lilly’s Hummus at Ralphs and Amazon. For more locations, search here.

For the Global Action award, k presented about gender equality. We also had presentations from the Irvine Water District and a retired dentist.

The girls in k’s troop were each paired with a younger Brownie to help during the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, the girls drew pictures of the global action that they want to work on. The sign was then displayed near the lunch tables for the school to see. I really appreciate how our troop leader tries to incorporate topics that apply to the girls on an individual, community and global level!

*Although I received a free product sample, all opinions are my own.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Celebrations, Food

Korean Winter Olympics Viewing Party

February 13, 2018 No Comments

D can be kind of obsessive about the Olympics. He memorizes medal counts and has been vigilantly tracking how many medals Russia has had taken away. To celebrate the start of each Olympics, we try to have the food of the host country. For example, see our celebration for London 2012. Sochi 2014 was a little more difficult!

Korea was a fun challenge. We were having our small group over on Friday night, so I made it into a Korean potluck and viewing party. Two of our friends are Korean American, so we felt the pressure to keep it real–ha!

Our main dish was an attempt at bibimbap. I just went to Zion Market and bought a bunch of bulgogi meat ($4.99/lb). I cooked it in a wok and then kept it warm in a crockpot, which worked really well. I added a little of the juice so it would not dry out. Other guests brought the various toppings, including carrots, spinach, lettuce, and zucchini. D fried up some eggs right before for the final touch. We also topped it off with sesame oil and gochujang.

Yum! We also had homemade japchae (noodles) and pa jeon (scallion pancakes) from Trader Joe’s. The pa jeon passed the test of our Korean American friends, in case you were wondering!

We went simple with our viewing setup. I really like Soohorang, the white tiger mascot this year!

I also set up a seaweed tasting bar with a new snack I found at ShiftCon called Sea Snax.

I like the Onion Chomperz and the Lime flavored Sea Snax!

Getting in the spirit! Let’s go, U*S*A*!!

Family Field Trips, Food

Indian Cooking Class @ Pavilion Park

September 12, 2014 No Comments

I signed up for a free Indian cooking class in Irvine last Saturday. We do not eat Indian food too much, although D and I enjoy it. The kids liked the chicken curry, but the rice had cashews, so we had to be careful. It is always fun to watch other people cook, but this session was a little long, since everything was made in “real time”. Even though the class was not geared towards kids, I think it was good to expand their culinary horizons. Smile

She taught us about spices, including Indian gunpowder, which I had never heard of before. We were able to take some spices home.

Food, Vacation

Food @ Tahquitz Pines

May 29, 2014 1 Comment

It was nice not having to plan meals, cook, and clean up for a couple of days. The food was better than we expected, and always served with a smile.

The first night was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, cornbread, and a berry cheesecake dessert.

Sunday breakfast was certainly filling: french toast, country potatoes, eggs, and sausage. I’m not sure if the berries were meant for the french toast, but they went well together. There was also an assortment of cereals that I usually do not buy, so the kids were excited to try them out.

Lunch was beef taquitos (not really, but I cannot remember what they called them), beans, rice, salad, and a strawberry churro. This was k’s favorite meal, but it was a little spicy for n.

Pork tenderloin, potato medley, mixed vegetables, salad, and roll plus cheesecake (not pictured). This was our least favorite, mainly because the pork was so plain. I dressed mine up with homemade tonkatsu sauce—ketchup + A1. We were supposed to have a pie social after the evening session, but there was a mix-up, so we ended up with vanilla ice cream instead.

Last breakfast: biscuit with gravy, country potatoes, eggs, bacon and fruit.

Our last lunch was turkey burgers, salad, chips and a turtle brownie, of which I failed to take a picture. We ate with the kids about half the time, and the other half they ate with other kids at their own table. It is hard to believe that they are at an age where that is possible! Seeing all the younger families with booster seats and baby food made me remember how difficult mealtime used to be.

Food

Happy Fat Tuesday

February 22, 2012 No Comments

Painting our kitchen/family room has basically taken over my life, so there has not been too many other activities going on.

We celebrated Fat Tuesday today with apple pancakes and chicken mango sausage for dinner.

I must admit, this picture does not look too appetizing, but n finished his entire dinner. That doesn’t happen too often around these parts.

At Trader Joe’s today, I triumphantly found the elusive Speculoos Cookie Butter!

I was looking for it around the holidays, but they had run out. We tried it on toast and the kids like it. It is probably the closest our peanut-free household has come to peanut butter (still need to try sunflower seed butter).

Celebrations, Food

Valentine’s Day Eats

February 15, 2011 No Comments

D and I celebrated Valentine’s Day early by going out for brunch at Old Vine Cafe yesterday. It is located in The Camp, which neither one of us had ever been to. I enjoyed the eclectic vibe and it was nice to eat outdoors under the heat lamp. The only thing I didn’t care for was that the tables were so close together (although I guess that is necessary since the restaurant is pretty small).

Of course, I did my research beforehand, so I decided on the Open-Faced (Fresh Biscuit, Spicy Sausage, Scrambled Eggs, Chipotle Gravy with Potatoes) and steered D to the Omelet Espana (Sautéed Prosciutto, Artichoke Hearts, Red Bell Peppers, Shitake Mushrooms & Fresh Manchego Cheese). D’s came with toast, so he chose the house-made English muffin and kiwi preserves. We shared, and came away quite satisfied.

The brunch even made D’s list, bumping off Original Pancake House. :0

For tonight’s dinner, I made a heart-shaped pizza with heart-shaped salami.

Celebrations, Food

More Birthdays

January 13, 2009 2 Comments

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a girl that was born just five days after k. (Coincidentally, we were also married within a week of the girl’s parents). The theme was Finding Nemo. There were hot dog octopuses, fish sticks, and sushi.

Birthday girl & Grandma

Look at that Nemo cake! We didn’t get to try it, though, since we left right after the singing.

My sister’s birthday was also Saturday, but since she spent the day at Disneyland, we celebrated on Sunday. We had lunch at Gyu-Kaku, followed by strawberry cake from 85 Degrees Celcius Bakery at my parents’ house.

We ended up ordering the “Samurai” lunch for 5-6 plus two “Meat Lovers” lunch specials for the 8 of us (plus k). However, one “Meat Lovers” would probably have been enough since we had leftovers. (We just cooked the extra meat and brought it home). Note that they don’t offer the “Gold Platter” on Sundays, contrary to what the website said at the time.

I enjoyed the strawberry cream filling inside the rolled cake. I guess D and I have to make a trip down to Irvine to try their other goodies.

Food, k, Restaurant Reviews

1.5 Years Old!

June 23, 2008 2 Comments

Hard to believe, but k turned 1.5 on Saturday. She will be getting a half birthday present in the mail next week. I decided not to buy her a birthday present for her 2year birthday, since she will be getting plenty of Christmas presents four days later.

I also have to tell everyone about our Freshia experience today after church. We went to eat at Kyochon chicken (KFC, “korean fried chicken”–haha), located in the food court of Freshia, on Beach, in Stanton. We tried combo A for $14.99 (drink, 8 wings and chicken bulgogi rice, plus a coleslaw type side with both dishes). The wings, which they are known for, were definitely tasty, but a bit small, especially for the price. The chicken bulgogi rice sort of made up for it, since it was more filling. It was pretty spicy, so the plain rice and soda it came with was definitely appreciated.

However, it was Freshia itself that stole the show. Get this–white nectarines (although, on the receipt, it said white peaches) @ 5 lb./99 cents; red leaf lettuce @ 20 heads for 99 cents; and cantaloupe @ 20 lb./99 cents. Crazy, right? We were skeptical, thinking something was wrong. We already ate a nectarine, and it was really good! I should’ve bought more. I’ll report later on the other stuff. We also bought snap peas and asparagus for $1.00/lb, plus chap chae, marinated chicken and marinated beef short ribs for $3.00/lb. We had the chap chae and chicken for dinner tonight and we were pleased. Forget Fresh & Easy…try Freshia! (We blended in so well with the Koreans that people tried to speak to us in Korean–haha).

It’s been HOT around here:

Food

Taste of Seal Beach

May 25, 2008 4 Comments

On Thursday k and I picked up two of my friends from high school and we went to Taste of Seal Beach at McGaugh Elementary, my alma mater. I thought I might see someone from my past, but instead we ran into k’s pediatrician. I guess he has a son that goes there. That was random. The tickets were $10, and various local restaurants had samples to taste:
320 Main
Beachwood BBQ
Blackboard Bistro
Bogart’s Coffee
Cold Stone Creamery
El Burrito Junior
Finbars
Hennessey’s
Islands
Jamba Juice
Mahé Restaurant
Marie Callender’s
McDonald’s
Naples Ribs
O’Malley’s
Patti Bakes
Panda Palace
Pick Up Stix
Rubio’s
Starbucks
Taco Surf
Tropical Juice
Walt’s Wharf
Woody’s Diner
Yucatan Grill
Z Pizza

The standouts to me were Yucatan Grill (I think it was chicken?, rice and plantains) and Beachwood BBQ (mini pulled pork sandwiches). It seemed like too many restaurants did regular mini sandwiches, which weren’t too memorable. My friends really liked the clam chowder from Walt’s Wharf, but I’m not a clam chowder person. It was also weird that O’Malley’s had a really spicy chili (just like the Irish do it?) k liked the cheese pizza from Z Pizza and the pasta from Finbar’s.

Sorry this doesn’t look too appetizing. This is half way through our first plate of food. We went for one more round of “main” course tastings plus a little dessert.

The one complaint I have is that you had to get all of your food before leaving the gym. Since the plates were on the small side, I wanted to do two rounds, but there was nowhere to sit inside! So we had to awkwardly stand and eat. Then, when we went outside for the coffee/dessert, it had been raining, so all of the tables were wet. I guess that wasn’t their fault, but still…it seems like there could have been a better set-up.

The gym seemed smaller than I remembered:

This was the tree where I was punished for not picking up two pieces of trash before going to recess. I don’t remember the exact details, but I remember there was some sort of miscommunication and that I did not purposely break the rule. I was so embarrassed, because only the “bad” kids had to sit there. One of the teacher’s aides was surprised to see me there and asked what happened–I think she felt sorry for me. Oh, the trauma.

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