Restaurant.com couponing in NYC

We had some Restaurant.com coupons to use in NYC compliments of United Airlines frequent flyer program. If you live in a bigger city in the U.S Restaurant.com coupons are a nice way of saving a little bit of money while trying out new restaurants. Since we didn't have to pay for the coupons, it was a big save for us :) Based on the location, menus and reviews, we chose four restaurants: Healthalicious (1594 2nd Avenue), Copper Door Tavern (272 3rd Avenue), Dewey's Flatiron (210 5th Ave) and Rafina (630 1st Avenue). We ended up never using the Copper Door Tavern coupon as it was way too crowded (by drinkers) when we got there, but here are our experiences of the other three.

We went to Healthalicious after spending the whole day at the Met and we were superhungry. Healthalicious didn't disappoint us: the portions were huge and very affordable. I had a veggie burger with a mango smoothie and husband had a beef platter with a coke. We shared a brownie for dessert. My veggie burger was delicious as was the mango smoothie and husband said his platter was excellent as well. The brownie was yummy too. The place itself isn't exactly a sit down restaurant, it's more of a take out place. I'd recommend picking up the foods and heading to Central Park.

Healthalicious' yummy brownie

Dewey's Flatiron was a bar like Copper Door Tavern and we got carded when we went in :) The atmosphere was very pub-like and they had baseball and soccer games on. People were mostly snacking and drinking there, pretty loudly. We sat ourselves in a booth and ordered once again burgers; husband got the bison burger and I ordered veggie burger with cheese and avocado (paid extra). I'm glad I got the extras, since the veggie burger would've been really plain without them. Both burgers were delicious and the service was fast.

Dewey's Flatiron's veggie burger

We chose Rafina for our anniversary dinner, since we went to Greece on our honeymoon and love Greek food. We ordered dolmadakia (stuffed vine leaves) and scordalia (garlic spread) for appetizers and had spanakopita (spinach pie) and beeftekia scharas (beef patties) as the main course. All of them were delicious! Rafina is a real sit down restaurant with a really friendly service.

 Rafina's beef patties

Other than that we mostly ate fast food at McDonalds, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts :) The latter was husband's favorite since he absolutely loves donuts. We also went to the Sushi Shop (536 Madison Avenue) once and had some excellent sushi there. I had the vegetable and pink veggie rolls and I think husband ordered dynamite rolls (salmon). Super-yummy!

Sushi Shop's rolls

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday and Happy Father's Day to those who celebrate it today! :)

Random Tuesdays 11/22/11

My friend's grandma cooking a Thanksgiving dinner in 2007. I love Thanksgiving foods, especially the desserts ;) I'm a vegetarian for health reasons and can't enjoy the turkey, but I love the stuffing! I also love sweet potatoes and anything that has pumpkin in it. And I loooove the pies! Pumpkin, pecan, peach, apple, blueberry...you name it, I love it!

Crockpottin' on a rainy day

Today is a gray and rainy day. It is in fact raining so hard, we won't be able to go out today :( I'm going to outsource grocery shopping to my husband :) To make this day a bit worse, our lil man is very feverish. He is also quite sleepy, so I've been able to do a bunch of stuff. I managed to do some bootcamp pilates (thank you dvd fairy) and I made some delicious veggie chili with my trusty companion the crock pot.

For some reason crock pots are not very popular in Finland. I used them a lot while living in the U.S and when we moved to Finland I ordered one through Amazon.co.uk (they have free shipping to Finland on orders over £25). I later discovered they are available in Finland (http://www.haudutuspata.fi/), but the price is quite shocking! Crock pots are super useful and easy to use, especially if you don't have a whole lot of time to cook. You just pour the stuff in the pot and leave it. Couldn't be easier :)

Finding crock pot recipes in Finnish hasn't been that easy. I've basically found one blog: Antaa Hautua and the haudutuspata.fi page. If anyone has any other other suggestions, please let me know :)

So, I've looked for recipes from American blogs and I've found some pretty good ones too. Here's my favorite, it's the I love my crockpot - vegetarian chili from The Lazy Vegetarian blog. I've changed it to Finnish measurements and changed it a bit otherwise to fit the selection of the average Finnish grocery store:

1 large onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper (color of choice), chopped. I've used a whole red bell pepper.
2 garlic cloves, minced (or from a jar). I've used 3+ cloves, but then again we love garlic :)

Pour a little bit olive oil in the bottom of the crock pot.
Place cut veggies, from above, and the following in your crock-pot:

One can each black beans and brown beans. Two cans of kidney beans.
Two to three cans crushed tomatoes (I use the one with chili flavor).
One small can tomato paste
Chili powder, as desired
2 dl water (you can add more later if it seems too thick)
fresh ground pepper to taste

Stir. Cook for 6 - 8 hours.

Enjoy :)

Yummy chili in the making :)