Holy Whole Foods!

This afternoon I stepped into what I can only describe as grocery store heaven. A food lovers paradise. A fresh food lovers fantasy. I could go on forever. So tell me why today marked my first whole foods experience? Oh whole foods where have you been all my life? I think I am in love. I always figured that they were just a way too overpriced food store that wouldn't be worth going to, but boy was a wrong. Their prepared food's area is amazing. Their salad bar is delicious, bakery is to die for, cheese section is incredible and their prepared food area? Pizza's, chickens, pasta's.. the list goes on and on. It is a culinary student's dream. So I had to splurge on a few items.. whats the point in going at all if i'm not going to go all out? And of coarse I had to document my purchases for my lovely blog followers.

Of course I had to hit up their salad bar for lunch. I couldn't
possibly tell you whats in here because I decided there needed
to be a little bit of everything. But from what I can remember
there is some arugula, two different pasta salads, a fruit salad,
a corn salad, some green beans, edamame, and a bunch of different
cous cous salads. 

I picked these bad boys up to make with dinner. Some fresh
carrots and mushrooms. Possibly sautéing the mushrooms
with some wine to make a nice sauce for the chicken breasts
I have, and possibly honey glazing those carrots. Sounds
kind of wintery but hey, why not. 

I could not pass up their bread and cheese section. I picked up
a sourdough loaf which they sliced for me, and a pice of brie cheese
my absolute favorite. 

While getting the bread at the bakery this little
baby caught my eye and I had to get it.
A mini cheesecake with a chocolate covered
strawberry on top. Yum. 

So there is my mini whole foods haul. Expect many more of these coming soon. Now that I have been in there, I am addicted. 

Reflections

Here are some pictures from my favorite memories from the past three months in Florida. 

 

I'll never forget my time at Disney. Now I am on to my next adventure.

Who Say's You Can't Go Home

Hello everyone! Thought I had given up forever?! Not a chance! Things have been so crazy in the past month that I haven't posted anything. First my mom came to visit me for a week, and we were in extra hours at the restaurant for two weeks during easter. After that I took the time to recover from the craziness and rest for a while. Then dan came to visit me for an amazing mini vacation, and after that I wanted to shove in as much disney I could in my last week in Florida. And that is exactly what I did. It was a crazy month that would probably take up 30 blog posts to talk about. And now quicker then I thought, my Disney internship is officially over.
From all the long day's at work, visits from amazing people, good friends, amazing food, and crazy rides, I will never forget a moment of my time as a Disney cast member.
I was so excited to leave Florida that whole last week, but when the last night came I began to realize that I would be leaving my temporary home, a place that I had finally settled in to, and a place with amazing weather. I could no longer go on a roller coaster before work, watch the fireworks after a long week, or lay on the lazy river at the water park for hours to work on my non existent tan. I would miss all of those things a lot, but as the plane took off I realized that it was definitely my time to go home. Time to be with my family, my dog's, and my boyfriend who I missed like crazy. Time to move on to something new.
After being home for my first full day, it feels like I never left. I am excited to be in my favorite place in the world, New Jersey, for a summer that i suspect is going to be an amazing one.
So stay tuned for many new blog posts all this summer about my adventures in food, life, and everything else here is the garden state.

The Un-Luck of The Irish

Hello there, have you missed me? I finally had another day off which means I finally had something worth posting about. This was a much needed day off because since the 16th we have gone into extra hours at the restaurant, which means longer days, less sleep, and less eating. Work didn't give me anything exciting to blog about ( i continued to be runner 1, 2, 3, and on deserts) but here I am off from work and ready to tell you about yet another eventful day here in sunny florida.
Actually, it wasn't very eventful, more like.. indecisive.

I decided to have lunch at Applebees which is right down the street. As soon as I saw the you pick 3 appetizer option it was already decided what I was getting. I can never say no to those things.

yumm. just looking at this picture is making me hungry. I
decided to go with the wonton pulled pork taco's, the spinach
and artichoke dip, and the mozzarella sticks. I cleaned the plate.

For the rest of the afternoon I hung out by the pool, did some swimming, some tanning, and some reading. Sounds like the perfect relaxing day to me. After that we decided to venture to the boardwalk to get some dinner. 

We got to the boardwalk and decided on the ESPN restaurant. Only problem? The line was out the door. We decided to try and walk in and see if there were any seat yourself tables at the bar. Nope. The place was packed, and now we had lost our spot in the line that was now around the building. Time for plan B. We decided to check out Cat Cora's restaurant. No reservations until 9 pm. Yeah right. Plan C? Check out the Flying Fish. There was hardly anything under 30/40 dollars so nope on to the next one. We decided we should take the ferry to Epcot and go to eat someplace there. After waiting in line for a while and realizing that every restaurant there would probably have just as long of a wait, we decided to leave the line, get on a bus, and go to Downtown Disney. We finally got there and got in line for the rainforest cafe, an hour and 45 minute wait. Nope. We next tried Portabello's. They weren't taking any walk in's. At this point we were starving and decided the wait's at Planet Hollywood and The House of Blues would be just as long, so we settled on the Quick Service Restaurant, The Cookes of Dublin. 

I decided on the Chicken and wild mushroom pie that came with
"chips", and I got a side of the cheese and bacon dip. 

One word for this meal..bland. Another? Disappointing. The pie had no flavor whatsoever and after adding packets of salt and pepper it still was not satisfying. The cheese dip was watery and also did not have much flavor. For 14 dollars this meal was a bit of a rip off, and I will not be returning to eat here again. 

After leaving dinner still hungry, we mad our way to the movie theater to go see Scream 4. I got myself a small popcorn and a water. The movie was actually better then expected and compared to my Irish meal the popcorn was heavenly. 

Fun In The Sun

I have not posted anything on here in a while because I have been working alot, and at the same stations that I have already told you guys all about. But this week I got the luxury of having two days off in a row, Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday was a great day full of lots of exciting things and lots of amazing food. But of course I was too busy indulging myself that I didn't take the time to take any pictures. Bummer. But I can tell you about it and then you can go see for yourself just how delicious it is.
Now I will be the first person to tell you I do not enjoy sweet things very often. I would much rather eat a bag of chips then eat a cookie or ice cream. So yesterday was a very rare happening where I ate an abundant amount of sweets.
My day started off at Typhoon Lagoon, which turned out to be alot more fun then Blizzard Beach in my opinion. For one, all the water was heated which made it much more enjoyable.

Their wave pool was crazy!

This had to be my favorite ride, the crush n gusher "water coaster"

While we were there we went snorkeling with sharks, stingrays,
and tropical fish. This guy swam right under me. 

Had to get my picture with stich while I was there of coarse. 

Now on to the food. At Typhoon Lagoon we got two things, and yes both of them were sweets. We got a funnel cake, and some mini donuts with a raspberry dipping sauce. YUM. 

After going back and showering after the water park, we headed to Epcot for some dinner in Japan, but first I had some business to attend to: to ride Test Track. It was closed the last two times I went to Epcot so nothing was stopping me this time from riding it. The wait time said 40 minutes but it really only took about 20, and the ride was so much fun! I loved it, and it is definitely now one of my favorite rides. 

We then headed to Japan but not before we stopped in the bakery in France to get some desert. Since Epcot closes at 9, the bakery would be closed by the time we were finished eating. I got an eclair and almost couldn't wait until after dinner to eat it. 

We finally arrived in Japan and decided to go to Tokyo Dining, the sushi place. I always think I am going to get a certain thing, but once I see tempura on the menu everything changes. So I decided to go with the assorted tempura for an appetizer, and the tempura shrimp rolls for my meal. The appetizer portion was really small and if I could go back I probably would have skipped on that and gotten some California rolls instead, but the tempura shrimp rolls were delicious. While we were finishing dinner we had a perfect view of the fireworks from the restaurant. 

After we left the restaurant we didn't wait a second to eat our deserts. We demolished them while walking to the monorail. It was still early so we decided to head over to Magic Kingdom. We got there just in time to see the fireworks. We then went on a couple of rides which included the teacups, it's a small world, the haunted mansion, the jungle cruise ride, and the pirates of the Caribbean ride. After that we headed home. 

I love having two days off in a row. That means I can have one day where I cram a million fun things in, and then another day to just relax, get some laundry done, order some food, and watch a couple of movies. Perfect.