Whats for Lunch?

Hi everyone! As you can tell, we have been busy. Both of us have been working full time, but we look to get back in the habit of up dating our blog. Speaking of work, I work in the building on the left and Adrianne in the building on the right. We work across the street from each other (how cute huh?) anyways, these are a couple of places we like to eat at when we are not packing awesome lunches from home. Enjoy and be on the look out for new post coming soon!
  

Working Girls Cafe is a place we drive by every week on our way to work. One time there was a bunch of construction men wearing hard hats eating underneath the working girls logo, too bad we didn't have a camera. We both had the salmon sandwiches and it was one of the few sandwiches I didn't mind having extra mayo on. Super yummy.

Bread and Cocoa is another local cafe that has great sandwiches. About two weeks ago we came in here when it was pouring rain during lunch time. I had the portabella sandwich. The bread was a little tough but the mushroom was super savory and juicy. Adrianne had the tomato basil soup and it was one of those times (like always) that I wish I had ordered what she was having.

San Francisco Boxed Food Co. is another place that always has a line out the door. This place serves all their food in boxes. hence the name. We ordered the brie and pare sandwiches (so many sandwiches huh) and this was one of the most interesting taste fusions I have had.

Last, we have the farmers market every Thursday in the galleria on Sutter and Montgomery. We get strawberries when in season which has been for the past month. Not only do they have fresh fruits and veggies, but there is this man named Bryd who makes pretzels. Not just any pretzels, but pretzel knots. He ties the pretzels in knots before they are baked. One of the best things in The City in my opinion.

-M

Home Cooked Mexican

Since moving to the Bay Area I have had one void in my diet . . . a home cooked Mexican meal. There has been times when my mother has sent frozen tamales and chile rellenos for us, but it isn't the same as having a freshly prepared meal from home. It doesn't help that we couldn't find quality hand made tortillas, until now. The other day we Yelped tortillas in the Mission and came across La Palma. Finally fresh tortillas! We made some beans, rice and threw in a few tall Modelo Especials and we constructed one of the best meals to date. I really can't emphasize how difficult it is to find Southern California style Mexican food. Everybody up here puts rice in their burritos and wraps them in tin foil. Also, don't even think about ordering a bean and cheese burrito because they don't have refried beans as an option. Lolita's would rule up here.

 

                                                                          Enjoy -M

best weekend ever

Friday night we decided to have a beer at Mojos. We thought we were getting there in time for happy hour but we lucked out. 

However, it did turn out that there was an event going on in the back of mojos where there happens to be a bike shop. The owner was moving to Vermont for some odd reasons and they were having a silent auction and a raffle with some pretty awesome prizes. 

They also had a tub of beer for the event goers. Manny decided to buy $20 worth of raffle tickets, since he's so lucky with raffles he couldn't pass up this great opportunity. And did I already say that the prizes were awesome?!

And guess who cleaned house that night during the raffle?! WE DID! Although we didn't win EVERYTHING, we definitely walked up more than twice to claim our prizes. We felt the sting of embarassment after the 3rd time we won something. I went up to get the woman's montana t-shirt and water bottles and Manny went up to get the two gift certificates to bar crudo and mini bar, we had been wanting to go to bar crudo for oysters!!! & our luck didn't end there.

Manny got a dollar off our lobster raviolis this morning because he was the first customer of the day for the ravioli guy and then he helped the bread guy out by giving his boss directions to the market, in return the bread guy gave Manny a free bear claw and persuaded him to get this caramel pecan pastry which looks like a distant cousin of the cinnamon roll for a dollar off.

All in all it was an awesome weekend & I love bear claws. 

P.S. We also met Dan Deacons distant cousin at this wine/beer shop on the way home from the mission - he was SO nice and helped us pick out a nice bottle of jammy and silky Malbec

-A

WE EAT FISH

The tastiest Salmon I've ever had EVER. 

This is how you could make garlic mashed potatoes.

Our salmon came from the market by our house from a fisherman who caught the fish a few days back! We have never really tried out the fresh seafood at the market, but it was Manny's idea to give it a whirl. Luckily we did because that piece of salmon was so fresh and so much better than any salmon I've ever had from any grocery store, hands down! 

We decided to try something new and marinate the salmon in a mixture of soy sauce, dijon mustard, olive oil, minced garlic. Salmon is also easy to cook, about 7-8 minutes on each side, depending on how big the cut is.   

And we reserved a little of the marinate to cook up some mushrooms. 

& to top our fancy meal off, we bought a bottle of this very aromatic, medium bodied pinot noir, which was pretty pretty good :) 

-A

whole wheat pancakes ...

First and foremost, I would just like to say that I am not a fan of whole wheat pancakes, but these pancakes were not half bad once I added some caramelized bananas and fresh strawberries to the top!

This weekend was a good weekend for breakfast.

And I also feel it is important to add that we have had pancakes for the past three weekends in a row. The whole wheat pancakes didn't give me serious pancake coma though, which I suppose was a good thing - we had a very productive Saturday :)

-A

Constructed Egg Potoato Salad Sandwich

 It seems like lately menus all around the City have some sort of "deconstructed" item, but do they really need to point out that its deconstructed? I think its just clever marketing to charge an extra buck for something that someone was too lazy to mix together. So I am calling my salad "constructed" because I actually took the time to finish what I started. This simple recipe calls for:

• 6 hard boiled eggs (with yolks)
• 3 medium red potatoes
• 4 sliced green onions
• 8oz Best Foods mayonnaise
• salt to taste

Let the eggs and potatoes cool before slicing them (to speed up process, puts eggs and potatoes in cold water). Crumble the hard yolks and add everything in a mixing bowl then proceed to mix everything and then let the salad chill in the fridge for half an hour.

I recommend serving the salad on a Dutch Crunch bread roll. Once the sandwich is "constructed" then you can presume to "deconstruct" it with your mouth. 

Enjoy -M

SALAD & SALAD

This is the beautiful salad we created the other night - I call it cabbage salad. I kind of had a vague picture of what this salad would look like and taste like - but didn't really know how it would come out. Luckily it tasted  pretty damn good :) So here is what you have to do - toss some red & green cabbage together with red onion, jicama, cilantro & any kind of lemon dressing and you have yourself a very tasty salad. 

& we had some beets from our food box so we made some beet and orange salad too :) 

-A

VEGETABLE CURRY

Yes you can make this in your own house! We cheated and got a jar of curry sauce at Rainbow, but it was still AMAZING. Ate this delicious vegetable curry over some white rice and with some sauteed kale.   

This is how it looked when we cooked it - again I have to add that it even LOOKED amazing when we were cooking it.

And guess who got a brand new super sharp knife for Valentines Day?! ME. It chops vegetables like no one else's business and did I say it was really sharp? Manny cut himself just holding it!

You need this knife for all your chopping needs - I cant wait to use this baby on a tomato! :) 

Oh! and we also got our very first food box this past week. Manny found a deal for one trial run box of produce just to test out how the process works - we have been curious about this program for a couple weeks now and finally decided to give it a go. It's really easy to sign up and they have certain drop off areas during the week. So far we have ate the kale, the chard, the carrots, cauliflower, both lemons, and so far we've had one of the oranges. We definitely encourage everyone to give the farm boxes a try - it was totally worth it!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

-A

Lunch Time

Lately I have been addicted to yogurt fruit and granola - but who can blame me when my lunch looks like this and its sweet and delicious and healthy! :] 

[vanilla yogurt, pink lady, blueberries, pecan granola, strawberries] 

A

best christmas gift EVER

Everyone, let me introduce you to our tiny coffee machine, "KEURIG Tiny Coffee Machine."

These are our two favorite go-to coffees in the morning. Caribou is more of a medium-strong roast and the Donut Shop coffee is a lighter roast. I myself prefer the Donut Shop coffee on days like Sunday and the Caribou during the week. & they even make filters for your own coffee grounds!

& the main reason why I wanted to post about our coffee machine was to admit that we used to have coffee addictions - a cup of coffee at the corner coffee shop has like 1000x more caffeine than the coffee we now enjoy from our Keurig. Who would have know that this tiny, single cup making coffee machine would be saving us from ourselves! & thanks again Mom :)

-A

Mango Quinoa Salad

I will miss all the food the winter season has brought to the farmers market, so before I cant get any more fresh kale I decided to grab a bundle at the market this morning and serve that alongside mango quinoa salad I found through yumsugar. Manny described the quinoa salad as tasting something like a taco. I don't know if that will convince you to make it, but it did taste veryyy good.

We also got a package in the mail with a box of pasta, pasta sauce, pesto, almonds, crackers (in other words yummy ingredients for a delicious pasta feast!)

& then we also got a chocolate box in the mail too!!!

Thank you Claudia for the lovely gift boxes. We look forward to eating every piece of chocolate! :)

*Quinoa Mango Salad: Ingredients. 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa, 2 mangos cubed, chopped cilantro, chopped green onion, 1 cup black beans, 3 roma tomatoes, juice of one lemon, salt, & a little bit of olive oil. Combine. Mix. Eat.

Taco Thursday x2

Today I had tacos for lunch AND dinner, lucky me right?! At work there was a taco spread to celebrate the January Birthdays and when I came home I discovered that I would be having tacos again for dinner. I have to admit that the tacos I had for dinner were hands down the best tacos I had all day.

Recipe for the best taco EVER: Corn tortilla, black beans, soyrizo, tomato, cilantro, avocado, and sour cream

On a side note -- I have recently become a fan of sour cream. For some reason in the past I was never really fond of the flavor, but I've recently discovered that it tastes AMAZING with certain meals :]

-A

Something Old & Something New

I have had Chilaquiles different ways but this is the way I prefer them. These above are crunchy fried tortilla strips smothered in a roasted tomatillo and chile ancho sauce. Serve them with eggs and beans and you have a protein rich breakfast that would make a meat eater full. If you want to get your dairy on then add some shredded jack cheese to top them off.

The four pictures above are an experiment that produced a meal that I hope will be a staple in our dinner rotation for years to come. I have been craving fried rice for a while now and last week we cooked some rice in the morning to have it ready for the evening. The rice is mixed with fried egg and green onion and topped with broccoli, mushrooms, seitan, and zucchini.

The rice was served with a side of kale and avocado salad (above). We were at a party a couple of weeks ago and someone brought a kale and avocado salad and it was soooo delicious, I had to have it again. The kale is just mixed with small and medium pieces of avocado.

-MG