December 13, 2017 Lunch – East Ocean. Dinner – a one bowl dinner of PPI Bobby Flay Chicken, Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables, and steamed spinach with sesame sauce

December 13, 2017 Lunch – East Ocean. Dinner – a one bowl dinner of PPI Bobby Flay Chicken, Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables, and steamed spinach with sesame sauce

I wanted to ride today, so I had a big breakfast of a bagel smeared with goat cheese and garnished with slices of red onion and Gravad Lax and two eggs over easy with grilled red onion.

I loved it although it was a bit too filling.  That actually turned out okay, because Peter Eller e mailed me inviting me go to lunch at 1:00, so I did not get hungry by then.

After going to the bank and then delivering money to Jody for the car repairs he did to the mini, we actually did not get to East Ocean until almost 2:00.  Our goal was to see if there is a new strategy about ordering, now that lunch menu prices have been raised $2.00 to $3.00.  Peter consoled me by saying, “It seems completely justified.”  I admitted that he was correct.

When we arrived we perused the menu, comparing prices on the main menu to those on the lunch menu.  I reached an easy decision because the price of my favorite vegetarian dish on the main menu, Fried Tofu with Mixed Vegetables, had not changed.  It was still $7.95, which was particularly satisfying because MixedVegetables were exactly what I used to get with chicken as Moo Goo Gai Pan on the lunch menu  for $5.95 and Moo Goo Gai Pan has been removed as a choice on the lunch menu.  Not all prices on the main menu remained the same.  For example, the price of many meat dishes like another favorite, roasted ½ duck, had been increased by two dollars.

Peter had a more difficult decision but settled on Sizzling Chicken in Black Bean Sauce for $11.95.

The dinner portions are significantly larger than those on the lunch menu, so there is lots of leftovers to take home and the prices of items on the lunch menu are now $7.50 to $8.95.

We enjoyed lunch and each filled a carry out box with about ½ of the large platter of each dish.  So the result is that the new strategy is to order a dish from the mauling menu that is not much more than the new lunch price and get more quantity..

I meditated from 6:00 to 7:00.  When I got home I wanted an easy dinner without a lot of prep.  I lay a bed of fresh spinach on the bottom of a pasta bowl.  I then lay a PPI Bobby Flay Chicken thigh on one side of the bowl and the Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables left over from lunch on the other side of the bowl.  Then I covered the pasta bowl with Saran and re-heated it in the microwave.  While the dinner was re-heating, I made a cup of green tea.  I ate dinner while watching Rachel Maddow and then sent out invitations to our Christmas Eve Open House while listening to Lawrence O’Donnell and Brian William’s shows.  Most of the commentary centered on considering the consequences of the democratic victory in the senate seat race in Alabama and the politics surrounding the tax bill in Congress.

After a bowl of pistachios and a cup of tea with a chocolate at 10:00 I went to bed to blog but fell asleep pretty quickly and slept until almost 5:00.

The single dish dinner was a bit of a mishmash of flavors as the sesame sauce on the spinach combines with the Brown sauce on the Mixed Vegetables and the paprika and cumin rub on the Bobby Flay chicken.

I poured the remained sauce onto the PPI Hamburger stir fry and roasted vegetables that was too dry, which should help its flavor by making it more saucy and flavorful.  We shall see in a day or two, when I heat the hamburger helper with spinach and the rest of the sesame sauce.

Bon Appetit