oh yeah, forgot to mention this gem!

OH YEAH,

I treated the mom and son to a lunch at a restaurant that we had NEEEVER been to before despite their history of being just a few miles away. The food was delicious and I'm GLAD TO SAY, that there were not only two but THREE doggy bags leaving with us!!! Only a few weeks ago I would have devoured that plate/bowl of linguine with mushrooms, broccoli, and chicken in a white wine sauce that was enough for four people to get a decent helping. Instead, when I saw the food before the lovely waitress (Wendy, a doll :) ) was even good and ready to bring it to the table, I said ooooh, I'm so not gonna finish that food!! I had nibbled on salad and I think I did have too much bread before the food. There was just SOOO much salad that I couldn't finish it; I wanted to eat some of the entree. After lunch is when we went to Walmart so that was about an hour of on my feet time...enough for me to really realize that the new wedges I bought yesterday are for those times when you'll be sitting for the majority of your time wearing them! ouch! but it's not their fault . . . I need a wide width and they only camIe in regular but they still fit. I said, dab nabbit they're cute enough, Payless is having a BOGO sale, I want them. . . and and DOGGONIT I'd better be able to fit them better by summer's end! I'll always need a size 12...but not always a wide width. So I'm good.


I just had the contents of my doggy bag and when I put it on the plate that was when I realized that there was JUST SO MUCH of it! I ate it all and I feel full. Not stuffed, not still hungry or "hungry". Satisfied. I'm downing some water to help it along now and not to be gross but before I ate lunch and about an hour ago, I ..uuuh...emptied out and made room for more. So, I don't know if that sounds like I'm justifying eating the rest of the food but I don't feel like I just piled now food on top of old food so everything is just sitting around.

It seems like it was a bit of devine intervention to actually eat at that place. I'd planned on visiting a pancake house and hoping there would be something light like an eggwhite omelette and fresh fruit on the menu. BUUUUUUT, as I saw the first one that I'd forgotten about, too crowded...got to the one I was planning for, tooo crowded. Now, I know these kind of places usually have a high volume on Saturdays so I was expecting that but today? Today is graduation day for a lot of schools in the city so by 11:30am some were letting out and well, people wanna eat. No parking, looked like there was a standing room only wait, NEXT! So I was kinda in a bind. I was hungry; the Cheerios were wearing off, and I didn't want to go all the way to Red Lobster. Since I am still boycotting Applebees because of the crap service and food we received the last time we were there, it wasn't an option. I noticed the restaurant seemed to be open so I turned, parked, checked to see if they had seating, then checked the menu, saw some nice looking options (I was scanning for something healthy-esque and that I also didn't already have the makings for at home), went back out to scoop up the fam, then went back to check if they took cards cuz I don't carry cash much at all.

This was an Irish-style restaurant...I think mostly because it was in a historically Irish neighborhood (Evergreen Park). Actually, thinking about it, the menu was more Italian (pasta, pizza, oooh that pizza smelled divine!, etc.) than Irish...was there even a corned beef sandwich on the menu??? I had a thought about how the portions are so ... so huge. Then I thought about how greek restaurants (some) give you so much..hence, what I heard coined "Greek portions" or even Italian family style eating which seems to have nothing to do with the fact that you pass the platters of food around the family table and more to do with the fact that you get enough food for yourself to feed a family!! Yet, in the Mediteranean region where Italy and Greece are is where they're supposed to be so fit, etc. I think it's just because with Americanization comes the need to be bigger and better . . . however, that concept just DOESN'T WORK for every little thing. You can't have huge portions of food to justify the bigger price tag because well, you end up with over half of a country's occupants that are overweight, obese, or in my case morbidly obese. Okay, I know that it's about personal choices and no one told you to eat 4 Wendy's .99 burgers, fries, Frosty, and chicken nuggets or a TOTAL RAID of the McDonalds Dollar Menu!!!! But well, the whole concept of Americanization when it comes to marketing food to people is just sickening.




I think I lost my train of thought..............oh. Over in Italy and Greece...they do a loooooot of walking so they can have that big meal...but really, I don't even know if they have these BIG meals there like the "Italian" and "Greek" restaurants here in America...namely Chicago. But well, they have so much beautiful AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL naturally beautiful and did I mention BEAUTIFUL landscape and old world architecture, art, and culture to walk and take in before, during, and after a meal. Where's my plane ticket and closed real estate deal at for Tuscany??? sigh

Well, despite my mini anti-American BIG EVERYTHING UP diet rant, I'm sure we'll eat there again...and I'm sure I'll be bringing home a doggy bag instead of forcing down an entree fit for four!

I think that's all. Gonna drink some more water. Peace and Blessings!