Friday, November 22, 2013

Eating Out

Tonight I met a friend at a local Polynesian Tiki Bar restaurant which I love! They have a happy hour that goes until 6:00 so we took advantage of that and ordered off of the appetizer menu. They have a number of great tasting appetizers and we chose the Vietnamese fresh spring rolls and the marinated beef kabobs. Both items were fabulous!

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls are one of my all time favorite foods. I make these at home a couple times a month. They are labor intensive and have to be made fresh because they do not keep well. The wrapping becomes too rubbery and dried out after even 1 hour in the fridge. They are light and filling. The ones we had tonight were filled with strips of tofu, vegetable and mint. The mint totally makes it no matter what the filling is. I fill mine at home with shrimp, pickled vegetables, avocado, lettuce, rice vermicelli noodles and mint. I make big rolls and cut them in half. I like less of the wrapper and more filling. The dipping sauce is important and is the element that binds all the flavors together.


 

The beef kabobs were small cubes of marinated steak with pineapple and green onion chunks in between and then lightly glazed and grilled. They were delicious! I will definitely be making them at home.

Frequently when I go out to eat, I will order a couple of appetizers in place of a meal. They are usually just enough to fill me up and I like having different tastes of things instead of a lot of one item. Tapas and appetizers are the perfect food format for me and are an excellent choice for weight loss.

1 comment:

mountain lady said...

I agree it is fun way to add some spice to life without going overboard. I will sometimes have a salad of greens/veggies with a cheese I especially like and lo-cal crackers (like the Italian croccantini)...making a 200-300 calorie "entrée" which also satisfies my desire to have something special..in small quantity. Eating the salad first helps with being satisfied with a small "entrée" portion.