Despite of what you might think based on the last two posts, I didn’t cooked much in January, but I did find a VERY GOOD new restaurant in Reno: “Laughing Planet“.

It’s in Midtown and I had been trying to go there for a while, but it always has a huge line during lunch time. I finally went there with the fiance this week and was really surprised. Although it’s a chain and you order the food at the counter, the place is very spacious and has super healthy food, much like “Great Full Gardens” a block up. It’s not pricey at all and they allow you to make any substitution or addition to your dish. I had a quinoa, broccoli, kale, and chicken bowl with chimichurri dressing: healthy and delicious. Such a great find!

Laughing Planet Bowl

Other restaurants we tried in January: Creme at its new location just across the street from where they were before (and now they have a few more items besides crepes), Asian Paradise, a Chinese place near our house (overpriced but accommodating), “Sierra Gold Casino” for a greasy breakfast, and then raw food at “The Seed” so I wouldn’t feel bad about eating at a casino the week before, and, finally, “Heritage“, a new Mark Estee restaurant inside the Whitney peak Hotel.

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The fiance moved in with me, and with him came a whole pantry of weird food, mostly Asian items. As I was looking for dinner, I came across something called “banh pho”. I looked it up online and it happened to be Vietnamese rice noodles, perfect for one my favorite dishes of all time! I found an unusual recipe online that had tomato sauce in it, but since I had most of the ingredients necessary, I decided to give it a try anyway. I simply loved it! Even a better Pad Thai than some of the ones in town!

Traditionally, Pad Thai also has fried eggs in it, but the fiance can’t eat that. I made it even healthier by adding chopped carrots and celery though.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai

16-oz banh pho rice noodles

2 Tbsp peanut oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion (or a few scallions)

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup sugar

1-3/4 cups water

1 tsp red chili paste

4 Tbsp chunky peanut butter

In a large bowl, soak the noodles in cool water for 30 minutes. In a large frying pan, heat peanut oil and stir-fly garlic and onions. Add the rest of the ingredients, except noodles. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add noodles and cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Done!

Makes 6 servings of 800 calories each.

One of my favorite breakfast foods is French toast, but since the fiance is allergic to eggs, I could never make it at home and ate lots of pancakes for the past year instead. Not anymore! I made this Vegan French Toast last week and it was delicious! The taste and the texture were the same as French toasts made with eggs.

Vegan French Toast

Vegan French Toast

1 cup vanilla almond milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon agave syrup

2 tablespoon ground flax seed steeped in a little bit of warm water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 slices vegan sourdough bread (well, I just used regular sourdough…)

Mix the ingredients. Dip the bread in the mixture and coat both sides well. Cook on a griddle with a bit of oil.

Makes 4 servings of 300 calories each (more if you add real maple syrup!)

Goodbye, pancakes!

Well, you can’t go to Philadelphia and not eat a Philly Cheesesteak! It was out first meal when we got there and I think I actually like the chicken version better.

Philly Cheesesteak

Philly Cheesesteak

Then, of course, we also had tons of pizza. The Ziti pizza was so good! Last time I splurged on pizza like that was the day before my marathon. Hmm… maybe I should go for a run.

Baked Ziti Pizza

East Coast Pizza

D. and J. – Eating pizza in New Jersey

The fiance’s mom is actually of Polish ancestry, so while at his family home, we had tons of Polish food, especially for Christmas, but my favorite is the pierogi, a type of potato filled dumpling.

Pierogies

Fall is over, but we had a lot of fun!

Fall in Reno

Fall in Reno

Slick

Parker

No wonder I’ve been gaining weight: I started going thru the pictures of some of the food of the last couple of months and there were lots of them! Let’s get started with some of the things I cooked: a tomato spinach pasta (recipe from the pasta box!), a gluten free pizza with turkey pepperoni, sauteed chuchu/chayote (the Brazilian squash the fiance loved), chicken stroganoff (Mom’s recipe with table cream), Shepherd’s pie (I made my own real mashed potatoes!), and Christmas cookies (MN family’s recipe). Fall was also a pumpkin pie festival: I made them with evaporated milk, condensed milk, and even cream cheese (the best!).

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As for restaurants, I continued going to my favorites (“Great Full Gardens“, “Brasserie St. James“, and “The Seed“), went to a few I had been before (paella at “Fuego“, “Midtown Eats” with B. and her friends, “Chez Louie“, which is inside the museum, etc.), and tried a few new ones. I’m sure there were even more places we ate at, but when my phone got stolen I lost a few pictures, such as the one from “Pho Restaurant“.

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I really liked the ambiance at “Coffeebar” which is a coffee shop that serves pastries, salads, and wine. For sushi we went to “Tha Joint” and “Ijji III“, both good. In the casinos we tried “Roxy’s” (not a big fan of casinos…) and downtown we had a drink and played jenga at “1864 Tavern“. My favorite new places are “Uncork’d” in Midtown for its outdoor dining and lots of wine choices, and “Paulie’s” for an amazing New York pizza.

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There were also a couple of fine dining spots we went to in December: for M.’s birthday we ate at “Johnny’s Ristorante Italiano“, where we had a family meal with eggplant parmesan and lots of pasta, and for our annual Tahoe Christmas Party we went to “Soule Domain” again (I have to remember to order the lamb again next year!).

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