Eating at Home

As the new year is upon us, Fancy and I are eating healthy.  This means a lot of eating at home.  However, as y'all know, okapis love to eat good food, so at home we get a little creative.  One of my favorite meals to eat at home is chicken nachos.

I love Snyder's white corn chips (at only 140 calories per serving - we use 2.5), so those are the basis for this meal.  We then top with black beans, chicken, taco seasoning, cheddar, onions, and black olives.  Fancy has hers finished off with jalapeno rings.  I like mine with tomatoes.   This meal doesn't pack too many calories even with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

For a light and delicious snack, I love these tomato tortillas.  I use a 90 calorie gordita style flour tortilla from Wegmans topped with fresh tomato slices, Italian seasoning, and Parmesan cheese.  I toss it in the toaster oven (my favorite appliance by far) for a few minutes to brown it up.  

Oh, and it's fucking cold here, so we got Mr. Biff some boots.  Awesome.

Open Face Review

Mac D and I had lunch today at Open Face Sandwich Eatery in the South Wedge.  It was the best sandwich I have ever had.  Seriously.  First we'll start with Mac D's lunch.  He had the maple turkey sandwich with a beet accompaniment.

Here it is from another angle, because their presentation is AWESOME.  Anyway, this is no ordinary turkey sandwich: it has yam chips, special mustard, and a hearty serving of greens.  Mac D picked the rye bread, which is no store bought rye: it's the thick, hardy, and fresh outer layer of this awesome beast.  And the turkey?  Yeah, it's fresh roasted.

This beautiful creation is the restaurant's namesake, the Open Face. First you pick fresh roasted beef or turkey (I went beef), bread (I went sourdough), a soup of the day (I went Jamaican Curry Turkey), and a side item (I went "simple salad").  Then, they toast the bread, put on the meat, cover it with soup, top it off with a parmesan wafer and french fried onions, and serve it up with your side item.  For under ten bucks.

Here is a top view to give you an idea of the sheer size of this amazing concoction.  It was perfect.  As mentioned above, this sandwich is the best I've ever had.  I don't say that lightly.  Seriously, I'll probably have dreams about that puppy tonight.  The bread was perfectly toasted, the meat tender, and the soup flavorful without being overpowering.  All of these (obviously fresh and high quality) ingredients complimented each other perfectly without losing their individual awesomeness.

Also: everything in the place is simple and vintage classy.  Even the water cups are SWEET, and you know what else is sweet?  The free piece of hard candy they wrap up with your silverware.  I really enjoyed every aspect of the experience from the friendly counter girl to the delightful surroundings to the incredible food.  I give Open Face 5  stars, but only because that's as high as the ranking system goes.  Drop whatever you are doing and go there immediately.

Parents' Creepy Ass Place...

I find the parents' Pike house very creepy.  The first floor is creepy due to Norman Rockwell paintings.  However, the second floor.  It's just...wow.

Every room is creepy as hell, and just feels...off.  The wallpaper alone scares the crap out of me.  All three levels of wallpaper, actually.   

This rodent didn't make it.  I'm assuming he died of fear.  Or not being able to climb out of this bucket.  But, probably fear.

Best part?  The guest room is up there.

PS: I posted a Spartan Comic this week!

Okapi 2013 Goals and Resolutions

We'll kick off this year by seeing how I did on last year's resolutions.  My goals were: 1) lose weight, 2) work on the sequel to my novel, 3) complete the Art of Manliness 30 day challenge, and 4) update the blog at least twice per week.  Well, that didn't go according to plan.  The closest I came was with the blog posts. Huh.

That's okay.  Sometimes you're the tiger pup and sometimes you're Billy.  This year I was the Tiger Pup.  Look at Billy up there all smug...Anyway, this year the goals will be modified.  Except the weight loss.  That's still on top of our list.  Okapis really suck at losing weight, because we love to eat and hate to cook.  

Last year the goal was to work on the second novel.  Not happening.  Law school.  So, lets simplify that to just edit the existing novel and try to get it published.  It's okay, this okapi knows it probably won't happen, but it's worth a shot.  

The 30 day challenge: I think I lasted 9.  So, this time my 30 day challenge is to do something active every day.  It works in with the weight loss goal, so we shall see.  

We end with the blog post goal.  I'm going to make it one post per week.  The readership is low, and so is my level of doing things that are interesting enough to blog about.  Here's to hoping this year's goals are a success, since Peggy there is laying in judgement.