Out to Dinner - Huo Fo Vegetarian Court, Sunnybank

We were meeting friends at Sunnybank for "coffee" so we decided to get some dinner before - and I selected this vegetarian restaurant (it is in the Sunnypark Shopping Centre on Mains Road)!!!!

We were kind of early, and the place was fairly empty. You sit out in a covered courtyard.

Everything on the menu is vegetarian - even the items labelled as chicken, fish steak etc. So it was very exciting to have so many options to choose from!

We started with these crispy chicken bites (I was tempted by the spring rolls, but decided that we should try somehing different for a change!) These were crispy fried balls of what looked like chicken, but wasn't.

For my main meal, I chose the spicy steak - mainly because I wanted to try something completely different.  This was in a quite spicy sauce (as the name suggests) , with lots of crispy vegetables.  It came seved with steamed rice and something crispy on the side. Not sure what it was, but it was delicious!!  

Janet had the Honey Prqawns - which looked remarkably like actual prawns.  I tried one, and they were so much like prawns that I didnt like it.  Janet however thought it tasted just like prawns. So she was happy!

I want to go back here with a group of people so that I can try more of a mix of dishes!

Dinner at home - Pizza

Some more home made pizza!!!

This is the vegie one - with grape tomatoes, pumpkin, zuccinni and "not-bacon" (with tomato sauce)

and the meaty one - with left over bbq sausage, cheerio, bacon & pepperoni (with bbq sauce)

and the cooked vegie version

and the meaty one!

A delicious and easy dinner!!

A Wedding!!

Here is some of the food we had at Jeff & Melissa's wedding - the reception was help at Scarborough, overlooking the boat harbour - which would have made for lovely views had the weather been nice - it was a lovely wedding never-the-less!!

While everyone else helped themselves to the buffet meal, I was given my own special vegetarian meal of vegies and noodles. It looked good. Too bad the noodles appeared to not actually be cooked :-).  THe vegies were tasty though!!

This was Cassandra's dinner (it looks a bit nicer than Janet's plate! haha)

Here's Janet's plate - lacking a little in the green department!

pretty cake!!

Cake was served up for dessert, along with fruit salad. There were 2 types of cake, chocolate and I think caramel. I had the caramel one - yummy and moist - and I loved the raspberry sauce!

So, we have another wedding coming up, and this one is posing me with a clothing dilemma - the invitation states that the dress is to be 50's cocktail attire. Any ideas? or suggestions as to where to find such a thing?

Out for Lunch - Just Poppy's, River Hills

Janet was told about this place that makes great burgers, so we had to go and try it.... and yes, the burgers were fantastic!!

The menu was massive - they even have 4 "meat-free" burgers on the list!!

 

I chose the "Tree Hugger" - vegie patty with lettuce, tomato, beetroot, spanish onion, grilled capsicum, halloumi cheese, mushrooms and hommus. Wow, this was a delicious and massive burger - I couldn't finish it. Actually it would have been just as good without the vegie patty, because there was so much other stuff on there! (and the mushrooms were cut up, so I coped with them quite nicely :-)  )

Janet had "On the Run" - egg, bacon, cheese. She thought it was great

 

The chips were fantastic! Crispy and hot, not that we actually needed them, but we ate them anyway!!

You have to sit out the back of a kind of dodgy looking shopping centre, so possibly it would be an idea to take your burgers to a park to eat them - so many choices, means we will probably be making a return visit in the not too distant future!

Out for Dinner - The Music Kafe, West End

We went to "The Music Kafe" at West End to see Janet's cousin play.  They had a $5 pizza special the night we were there, but we decided we were a bit "pizza'd out" and went for other meals.

I had the Rissotto (with Mushrooms, spinach & parmesan $12.50). Now anyone that knows me will think that this is a very odd choice, as I do not eat mushrooms. Well, my quest for 2010 is to embrace the mushroom, so this was my first attempt.  Perhaps a bit of an ambitious attempt, as they were very generous with the mushrooms in this rissotto.  The rice was nicely cooked with still a little bite to it, and it was not gluggy.  I ate some of the mushrooms, but they got the better of me in the end, and I ended up eating around them.  A more seasoned mushroom eater would have really enjoyed this dish, as apart from the mushroom factor, I really loved it!

Janet had the Chicken Carbonara ($14.50), which had some nicely cooked chunks of chicken throughout a traditional creamy & bacony carbonara sauce.  She loved it.

These were big meals, and neither of us managed to finish them.  There were a few items on the breakfast menu that took my fancy, so perhaps we will be back another time.

Pizza!!! - Lawrences Pizza, Crestmead

We took Shadow for a walk around the Berrinba Wetlands and decided to make a detour to pick up dinner on the way home. For some reason I remembered that Lawrences Pizza is located in Julie St, Crestmead. Otherwise, we would have been driving around aimlessly for a lot longer than we did! (I love my UBD!)

We ordered 2 small Pizzas - $8 each, and waited outside with Shadow - a puppy makes passers by so much more sociable!!

I ordered (surprise!) a vegetarian pizza - minus the Mushrooms and Olives.  They gave me some extra pineapple to make up for this - bonus!! This was a good pizza - not too cheesy, and with a good spread of toppings - I would like the sauce to be a bit more flavoursome though.

And Janet got a meat lovers pizza.  Janet thinks that Lawrences Pizzas are the best, but  I am still in the Sicillian Pizza boat - I like their sauce and base a little more.

We each ate half a pizza, and popped the rest in the freezer for another day.

Dinner with Friends - Make Your Own Pizza!!

Heres a good idea!! We went to our friends place for dinner and we had "make-your-own-pizza".  We used Pita bread as the base, and each made half a pizza each round (2 pizza trays and 4 people!!) There were so many different toppings to choose from - fresh tomato, mince, pineapple, onion, olives, corn, capsicum, pepperoni, other meat, squash, sundried tomato, cheese, and lots of sauces!

about to go in the oven

Just out of the oven

another round of pizza!

and then we played a bit of "Name that Tune 80's edition" in which Janet smashed us all.

Dinner at home - chicken pies

I made these little chicken pies for Janet - I made them in Muffin tins, so that gives you an idea of their size.

I lind baked some frozen shortcrust pastry in muffin tins whilst I cooked up the filling.

The filling was simply chopped up chicken thigh, and a variety of chopped vegies - zuccinni, carrot, corn, and peas, sauted in a little oil, and then simmered with some chicken stock until the vegies were tender and the chicken was cooked.  I then filled up the pastry cases, and topped with a little grated cheese before popping them into the oven for the cheese to melt.