Spicy Szechuan Tofu

Tried a new recipe from my Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's cookbook, called Spicy Szechuan Tofu.  The picture looks so great, I just had to try it.  It's like Ma Po Tofu, only instead of pork, the recipe calls for beef or turkey.  Tasted great to me!  It was my first time cooking with tofu and beef, very exciting.  I'm happy to say my lunch turned out really well, and yummy too.

Palace Korean BBQ and Nite Owl Cookies

Today I ate All-U-Can Eat Korean BBQ at Palace BBQ Buffet with Justin.  This place is a must for those who love eating at buffets, love Korean food, and don't mind getting their clothes stinky.  It's decently priced at $15.99 for lunch.  The beef is my favorite; this place knows how to marinate it pretty well.  They also have chicken and spicy pork, which is pretty good but I prefer the beef more.

They also have already cooked food, like Fried Rice, and vermicelli.  I love the noodles...but they're always cold.  Would be great if they were warm, but I'm guessing it's just how Koreans eat them.

The aftermath...one dirty nonstick grill.

Ordered Nite Owl Cookies for dessert.  Their cookies are great!  The only thing that's bad about their company is that you have to order a minimum of $10 to get free delivery...and you have to have your cookies delivered, instead of picking up.  But the plus is that the cookies come warm!  Oh, another bad thing, they're pretty expensive.  They're $1.25 a cookie.  Bad, but so delicious...Mmmm...

Aloha Island Grille

Had dinner at the Aloha Island Grille last night.  I really like that place because the food is so homey!  It tastes home cooked, something you can't get at Ono's Hawaiin BBQ or other places of the same type.  My favorite lately has been the Loco Moco, which is an over-easy egg, on top of a hamburger patty, which is over rice.  Gravy lathered all over - complete with macaroni salad on the side.  So yummy!  Also, Justin and I split a Spam Masubi - always a great hit!!!  I really love spam masubi.  But, it's one of those rolls that I can get sick of after having two.

Justin got chicken teriyaki, which was pretty good too.  Didn't take a picture of it though, and we ate the spam masubi first...and it was gone in a few seconds, so no picture.

I'd really recommend this restaurant.  It's a little out of the way though, you really need a car to get there.  Ambiance is cute, very Hawaiin, nothing special, just a shack.  But it feels like you are in Hawaii because it's so laid-back.  Another thing I don't like about this place though is that the food takes forever to come...always, everytime I go, even though the place is usually pretty empty. But the food always comes hot and delicious, so that's the tradeoff.

Woodstock's Pizza

Felt too lazy to cook or go out for dinner, so Justin and I ordered in pizza!  We got Woodstock's, which is a great place to get pizza in Santa Cruz.  Kind of pricey, but we used some deal that was buy one pizza, get one free.

 

This one's the garlic bird pizza, which I think is my favorite.  Or rather, it's the pizza that I order every time.

 

This pizza's the pesto primavera.  It was alright, garlic bird still my fave.

Honey Mustard Chicken

Ate lunch pretty late today, but it was worth it!  I used this recipe from my Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's cookbook, called Honey Mustard Chicken.  So yummy...it was pretty simple.  Doesn't contain many ingredients, only chicken, honey, dijon mustard, basil, salt, flour, and pepper.  I will be making this chicken again!

I had some leftover veggies from my new year's day dinner, which I ate with rice.

Boyfriend's house for lunch

The other day I ate lunch at my boyfriend's house with his parents.  Pretty good food, they made roast beef, zitti (I think that's how you spell it), spinach, caeser salad, and Trader Joe's cheesecake.  MmmmM!

 

Zitti.  I always thought it was just a pasta, but I guess this one had a name for it!

 

Lately I've been munching on a bunch of great leftovers.  Once I finish them up I'll start cooking. 

Oh, another thing, forgot to say that I got the Zagat Restaurant 2010 Book at Costco for $9!  I was pretty happy, those things are always $15.  This is my favorite book when it comes to picking out restaurants.  Every restaurant and rating in that red book is pretty accurate.  I'd highly recommend it...I've been following this book for 3 years now.

Chinese, Froyo, and Beef Stew

Took the Bart to the East Bay today, and ate lunch with my boyfriend at China Village Restaurant in Albany.  We were pretty surprised when we opened the front doors of the restaurant and found a sign that said it was Michelin Rated for 2010!  Wow.  My dad took me here for the first time a couple years ago, and I really liked it.  They have great chicken curry here...

...which we ordered.  Yum!

My boyfriend and I asked the waiter what he recommended, and he said the orange peel chicken was popular.  It was pretty good!  Great flavor.

I think I got the fried rice last time, and it was better.  It was pretty good, only that today it was a little salty.  Service was great, food came out in about 5 minutes!  I'm going to miss this food when I go back to school tomorrow.

On the way home, I stopped by TuttiMelon.  I really like that frozen yogurt shop.  I don't know why everyone hates it.  I like the tart yogurt, but I guess I'm not picky when it comes to froyo.  Some people can really taste a difference, and I guess I can't.  I think the only two toppings I ever get are strawberry and mochi, one or the other.

Great, as usual!

I got home and made beef stew with my mom.  It was neat, the first time I had ever observed her making it.  It's pretty easy, it just takes forever to make.  She stewed it for about 2 hours!

It was bomb.  Definitely going to try making it in Santa Cruz.

New Year's Day Dinner

My family had a new year's day dinner at my house, with lots of great food.  My mom made beef, but I can't remember what kind.  I chopped up some vegetables, my grandpa made spaghetti, etc.  Didn't take too many pictures though.  Oh for appetizers we made sliders and homemade french fries...yum!  I think the french fries had too much oil though, because my boyfriend and I got a stomach ache >_<

My mom's beef, before sticking it in the oven.  Turned out great in the end!

My vegetables, which turned out okay I thought.  Used a recipe from my Trader Joe's cookbook, and it turned out great!

My mom made sliders to start with...so delicious!  So cute too!

...And you can't have burgers without french fries!  Yum...but worth the stomach ache?  Hmm..