Staycation Tacoma Restaurants

Welcome back after quite some time of not blogging here because I have been over at 

The Invention of Tiny Toes tracking our pregnancy.

Here is the outcome of our week home trying Tacoma restaurants while we worked to finish the basement before Adler joins us. 

 

Day 1:

Delicious food. Tied for 1 of the best 2 meals we ate this week.

We split the Seoul Burger and the Bulgogiger. Yum!

South 19th St area

Day 2:

Tried a different Thai food place. Huge portions, but not the best food by any means.

Hilltop area

Day 3:

We have eaten here before, but we wanted to try the 4 course early bird special for $21.95.

It was definitely tons of food, but generally just normal. Nothing extraordinary.

Ruston Way waterfront

Day 4:

Definitely tied for first place with best food. The savory crepes were amazing and the desert crepe was just the right amount of sweet. We had the pulled pork crepe and the chicken sausage sweet potato crepe.

Downtown Tacoma

Day 5:

We met some friends down in Olympia, who now live in Maryland. Food was good, but the company was great! So good to catch up with Thomas' old army buddies!

Irish Pub in Olympia

Day 6:

We had worked all day and just wanted to grab something to go. It was ok. Not my favorite and definitely a bar! But it did have a beautiful water view if we had stayed and eaten outside.

Rock the Dock Pub on Dock St waterfront in Tacoma

Day 7:

We chose this on our way to camping. So I wont recommend it necessarily because it is a ways away from Tacoma. But we did walk away with our stomachs full.

A 50's diner in Tenino

Day 8:

Our last night we just wanted something familiar. So our favorite pizza shop won out.

Sammy's Pizza on I St in Tacoma 

And thus ended our tour of mostly new Tacoma food.  Burger Seoul and Savor tied for first hands down.

Honey Lemon Chicken

 

This my friends, was so good. I intentionally went into my Food: Salty Style! board in pinterest in search of something I could make that night. I loved this meal, because I often cook my meals with meat, veggies, and a starch. So this was a fun recipe to change up the meat, but it let me still make a side of couscous and then I simply steamed the green beans and broccoli and added some seasoning. This recipe is adapted from Gimme Some Oven's Skinny Honey Lemon Chicken recipe.

Honey Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3 tablespoons liquid aminos
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Honey Lemon Sauce (see below)
• Toasted sesame seeds

Honey Lemon Sauce Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
• pinch of ground ginger
• Squirt of sriracha

Directions:

Marinate the chicken, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar in the refrigerate for 10 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Whisk the honey lemon sauce ingredients together until combined.

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken without the extra marinade and saute for 5-7 minutes or until it is cooked through.

Transfer the chicken to a separate (clean) plate with a slotted spoon.

Pour the honey lemon sauce into the empty saute pan.  Cook over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the sauce reaches a low boil and thickens.  Add in some sriracha if you would like for extra heat, to taste.

Add the chicken back into the pan and toss until it is evenly coated with the sauce.  Remove from heat and serve the chicken immediately, topped with sesame seeds.

This really was a great meal! 

Excited to have something simple to throw together that has a similar flavor to orange chicken with out coating and frying the chicken pieces.

Indian Chicken, Greek Salad, and Rosemary Flat Bread

 I have been thinking about this challenge to make new food with every meal I have made. And I have so many favorites too! So I am going to try and meld some of my favorite recipes into some new ones to create awesome meals.

Laura posted her favorites on her blog to start off her 52 new meals!

You can read then here and they look awesome!

I am so excited to do this with her!

My new recipe this week is a Greek salad that I found at How Sweet Eats, but changed it a little. We don't do a whole lot of dairy in our house and I also already have a fantastic flat bread recipe, so I just used the one we love. Combine this all with my favorite Indian chicken, and although it sounds funny, it came together beautifully!

Alright! Here we go.

In the morning make your Indian Chicken in your crock-pot.

Creamy Crock-pot Indian Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons garlic

1 tablespoon jalapeno

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon cumin

3/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon mace

8 oz yogurt or sour cream

Place everything in your crock-pot.
Cook on high 2 hrs and low 2 hrs or on low for 8 hrs.
**You can also freeze this meal uncooked! Add everything you need to a zip lock bag minus the yogurt or sour cream and freeze it. Then dump it all in your crock-pot when you need it adding the yogurt or sour cream**

Next up about 1.5 hours before dinner time, make your dough so it can rise.

Rosemary Flat Bread

Ingredients:

1 package active yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon fresh or dried rosemary
3/4 cup water (might need more)
1 teaspoon oil

In the bowl of a mixer combine the yeast, sugar, flour, salt and rosemary. Mix to combine. Add the water in a steady stream until the dough begins to form a ball, turn it on to a board and knead with the heel of your hand until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Coat a bowl with oil. Place dough in bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Put in a warm spot to rise until double in size, about 1 hour.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch the dough, scrape it onto the counter and knead it lightly into a smooth ball. Cut into 20 pieces and with a rolling pin roll out to form very flat 5 to 6-inch pieces.

Preheat a stove top grill pan over medium high. Do not oil. Place bread on hot grill and cook without touching it until you see bubbles on the surface, about 1 to 2 minutes. Turn and continue to cook 1 to 2 minutes more or until bread has puffed up. Serve immediately.

While you are waiting for your bread to rise, go make your Greek Salad!

Greek Salad

Ingredients:

dressing
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salad
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, some sliced if desired
**To make it a traditional Greek salad add 8 ounces feta. Although it was amazing with out it. This is definitely going to become a new staple in our house.

Combine all ingredients for dressing and allow to sit.
Cut up all ingredients for the salad and then toss together in a bowl.
Drizzle dressing over the salad until evenly coated. There will be left over dressing.

Finish up your bread and serve the chicken and the salad over a bit of lettuce on your flat bread! 

Seriously?! And awesome dinner.

Thomas and I stumbled upon this flat bread recipe ages ago and with a few changes have been using it ever since. And my sweet friend Suzy taught me how to do prep for freezer cooking years ago and this is one of the favorite recipes that she gave to me.