Meatball Subs

Tonight we pulled some leftover meatballs and marinara sauce out of the freezer, heated them up and spooned it all into some hot dog buns.



We paired the sandwiches with roasted zucchini and squash from the farmers market.

Frugal Fridays: Noah's Bagels 'Wrapper'

Once again for Frugal Fridays, I was lured in by a sandwich board on the sidewalk advertising a too-good-to-be-true deal: $1.99 for a chicken bagel wrapper sandwich, at Noah's Bagels.



Once inside, I discovered I could upgrade that to a combo, adding chips and a drink, for just $3.99 - which, being still under the $5 after tax price point, seemed like an imperative.

It turns out you do get what you pay for, as the chicken bagel wrapper is fairly small, but actually surprisingly satisfying. It's a big chunk of white meat chicken, wrapped in bagel dough, and combined with either cheddar cheese, or swiss cheese & honey mustard. I went with the latter, while my office mate later got the cheddar and said mine smelled better.

He also noted that it might be a better use of your $5 to get two chicken bagel wrappers, and just drink water. Or you could always get one, and pick up some fruit to go with it, to make it a little more well rounded.

According to the signs, this is a limited time offer - though it's unclear how limited. So if you wanna check out the Noah's Bagels Chicken Bagel Wrapper - "What Bagels Do for Lunch" - do it soon.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Happy Hour Eats at the Ram

I caught a bus to the UW to meet Dan after work, and then we headed down to U-Village for some dinner at the Ram. The place was packed, at least partly due to the record heat wave Seattle is experiencing. We were there because we had an appointment in the area.



We took advantage of the happy hour prices to share a plate of 8 layer dip and chips, and a fish sandwich, each just $4.

Tacos, Rice & Beans

We hid in the basement tonight, thanks to the 100+ degree weather, and had some tacos, rice & beans.

Shrimp with Cucumber-Yogurt Salad and Cous Cous

Chicken Salad Croissants and Pluot Sampler

Sushi & Sausages

For lunch today, we decided to go to U-Village and get some Blue C Sushi, since we needed to pick up cat food and wanted to avoid trying to drive through Capitol Hill during their big Block Party.







For dinner, we grilled up some hot Italian sausages from Skagit River Ranch, and had them with pasta salad featuring mozzarella from Samish Bay Creamery, smoked salmon from Loki Fish Co., and the first batch of tomatoes from our garden!

Flying Squirrel Pizza

To beat the heat today, we headed down to Mt. Baker park and had a dip in Lake Washington. Then we drove South to the Seward Park/Lakewood area, to check out a restaurant a coworker tipped me off to: Flying Squirrel Pizza at 50th and Genesee.



We got a pie with pulled pork, cilantro, and lime that was really delicious. The crust of the thin and crispy variety, cooked until a little blackened. Most, if not all of their pies feature locally produced ingredients - and they make use of other local businesses, like Molly Moon ice cream, for some menu items, particularly desserts.



Besides tasty pizza, really friendly service, indoor & outdoor seating, and great art on the walls, Flying Squirrel also features music that's all from mix tapes - and they accept donations of old tapes. So the music is eclectic, but fun.

Tea Garden

Tonight, cooking sounded daunting, so we opted to order in some Chinese. After discovering Eat24Hours.com, we thought we'd try out one of the other restaurants available through that service - Tea Garden, down on Rainier Ave S. We got some General Tso's Chicken, Honey Walnut Prawns, BBQ Pork, and Rice. It was all pretty tasty, though the broccoli got a little wilted in transit.

Frugal Fridays: Amigos & Beba's Redux

For my third week of revisiting previous Frugal Friday spots in search of additional deals, I returned to my very first frugal friday spot: Amigos & Beba's on the terrace of the Municipal Tower at 5th and Columbia. The restaurant is two in one: Amigos Fresh Mex, and Beba's Sandwiches - all run by the same folks.



Scanning the Amigos menu, I realized just how many of their menu items fall under the $5 price point - even after tax. Although tempted by my usual veggie taco, I decided to see what their Veggie Burrito was like. My answer: ENORMOUS.

For just $3.75 ($4.13 after tax) you get a large flour tortilla stuffed to the gills with beans, lettuce, pico de gallo salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.



Add to that any or all of the salsas and condiments on hand, like spicy pickled carrots, onions, and jalapenos, or fresh cilantro, and you've got a serious meal for a pittance. It's more than enough for me for lunch, though perhaps not quite enough to share with someone else - so do yourself a favor and plan on having some leftovers. Maybe it'll be the perfect thing to get you over that 3pm hump when the end of the workday seems far off, but dinner is still too close for you to chow on anything too substantial.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Chicken in Lemon-Caper Cream Sauce

Tonight's dinner was one of Dan's ideas that began as two simple words: lemon chicken. He suggested it for our meal plan this week, but with no specific recipe in mind. He threw out the idea of using capers, so we stocked up on those, in preparation.

When it came to making dinner, I did what I do: interpreted his idea into a reality. I love the structure and security of cooking from recipes (it's why I love baking so much), but every so often it's great to take a vacation from that and just make things up as I go. Dan does a lot of the idea generation for our meal plans (most of it, actually) - whereas (despite a bookshelf full of cookbooks) I freeze up when confronted with meal planning. I'm so grateful he's gifted at picking recipes and imagining possible dishes, like this one.

I started with a couple chicken breasts which came (from Amazon Fresh) in a vacuum sealed pouch. I sliced open one end of the pouch, placed it in a pint glass, and poured fresh squeezed lemon juice into the pouch - before putting it back in the fridge to marinate.

About an hour later, I pulled out the chicken. After getting some whole wheat cous cous on to cook, I pounded out the chicken until it was evenly thin (called a paillard). I then seasoned the chicken with some salt & pepper.

In a pan over medium-high heat, I got some butter and olive oil melted and hot, and then placed the paillards of chicken in the pan to cook. After a few minutes, I flipped them to the other side and put on the lid to help them cook through. Once they were just about done, I pulled them out, put them on a plate, and popped them in a 170 degree oven to rest and finish cooking (from residual heat, mainly) while I made the sauce.

I tossed some more butter in the pan (about a Tbspn) and then added the marinade. Some might shudder at the idea of reusing a marinade for a sauce (in fact a recent episode of 'The Next Food Network Star' featured Tyler Florence chastising a contestant for even suggesting it), but I think if you cook the marinade at a high temperature, you're going to kill any wee beasties that might cause trouble - just as you did when you cooked the meat itself. People are way too paranoid about bacteria and need to just use common sense, methinks.

Anyway - the marinade deglazed the pan, picking up the brown bits (aka fond). I added some capers and black pepper, and brought it to a full boil. Then I added a little cream, cooked it down, added a little more, cooked it down - creating a salty, creamy, lemony sauce. I served it all with the cous cous under the chicken breast, and topped with sauce.

Fish Tacos, Again?

What I didn't remember when I ordered fish tacos last night was that it was on our meal plan for last night - so we'd be having them tonight (since eating at El Sombrero pushed everything out a day). But really, I'm fairly sure I could eat Mexican food - of all types - every day of the week.

Tonight's fish tacos were made with leftover cod we had in the freezer, which I marinated in lime & lemon juice, plus Corona. Then I rolled the fillets in a mix of cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika before pan searing them. We had them in flour tortillas we had leftover, with some avocado, mozzarella, purple cabbage, and a side of rice & beans.

Post House Hunt Dinner

After work today, we went and viewed a couple houses in the South end - the official start of our quest to buy our first home.

One was big and had a HUGE yard... but had a tiny kitchen and even tinier dining room, with the fridge shoved in the dining room. The other one was nice, but had no yard at all - despite being listed as having a huge lot. I need a big yard for our garden (and chickens someday), a comfortable kitchen to cook in, and a dining room big enough for our table so we can entertain family & friends.

So we struck out, but it was a good opportunity to get our feet wet and practice looking for what we want.

Afterwards, as a reward for our hard work, we hit El Sombrero for some dinner. I had the fish tacos, and Dan had shrimp enchiladas.

Ginger Carrot Soup and Tuna Melts

Using a can of chicken broth, two cans of water, a bunch of carrots from Alm Hill Gardens, plus some onion, parsley from our garden, and seasonings, I made up some ginger carrot soup for dinner tonight, which we chilled in an ice bath before eating - given that Summer has arrived in Seattle. I used ground ginger, then realized later I have ginger paste in the fridge I need to use up - but thankfully I added enough of the powder to give the soup a spicy kick.



We had it with tuna melts made from albacore we bought from the Fishing Vessel St. Jude and some mozzarella on leftover hamburger buns. I just opened the can, pulled out the round of tuna, and sliced it in half - creating two little circles of tuna, which were perfect for our sandwiches.

Four Berry Breakfast Muffins

Thanks to my parents and their big backyard full of red huckleberries and blueberries, to my neighbor's towering blackberry bush that grows into our yard, and to our cute little raspberry bush trying to make it through the summer heat - this week's breakfast muffins feature four kinds of berries.



And thanks to the new Light Rail, I got into work early, and was able to leave early, and my commute was cut in half... making it easy for me to come home and bake up our breakfast muffins before Dan even made it home from work.

Me & Dad & a Hog

Dan & I were in Hawai`i on Father's Day, and my Dad's birthday - so my Dad and I planned a special trip together when I got back. He drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and I'd never had a chance to ride with him, so he picked a favorite route for us to ride together.



I was a little nervous about feeling really exposed, but after gearing up and getting on the bike this morning, we took off and it felt really natural. The helmets even had a radio system in them, so we could talk to each other the whole trip. It was great to spend some Father-Son time - just the two of us.



We drove through Arlington to Darrington, and stopped for some lunch at the Glacier Peak Cafe.



Dad went for the BLT and I had a Turkey Bird - basically a BLT with Turkey. Despite the occasion prompting our trip, Dad adamantly refused to let me pay. I couldn't wrestle the bill away from him before he had it paid.



The food was good, but the trip was awesome. It was so cool to get to ride with him, and see some of his favorite spots. I understand his passion for riding a lot more now that I've felt the wind beating against me as we drive along crystal blue rivers, through green tunnels of trees, past rolling farm land, with snow capped mountains all around. You can smell everything, even taste it sometimes, and I didn't feel unsafe at any point.



In fact, after lunch, I got so relaxed on the bike I was damn-near sleepy.



After lunch, we looped back along Highway 20, into Sedro-Wooley, and then down Highway 9. On the way we stopped at my folk's house, to say hi to Mom and pick some red huckleberries - then got back on the bike and he brought me home.



We drove over 200 miles, but it seemed like it went by so fast. I can't wait to find an excuse to score another ride. It nearly made me want to get a bike myself - though I think replacing our 1993 Ford Tempo, and buying a house, are our first orders of business.