Earlier this week, Seth and I went out with his parents for a celebratory dinner at Mount Fuji Asian Bistro (I’ll explain the cause for celebration in a future post). I had visited Mount Fuji many times in college, mostly on Thursday nights when they offer half price sushi. I was excited to visit again after several years, as my diet has changed quite a bit since then—I now love seafood and eggs, while back then I was eating a vegan-ish diet.

 

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To start out the evening, we ordered champagne and a few sushi rolls. Both the California roll and the vegetable roll were quite tasty and very fresh—the vegetables had a nice snap to them. Does anyone know what those orange “sprinkles” are called on the California roll? They didn’t taste like anything, but they sure do add a little pop to the presentation.

We chose pretty simple rolls, but Mount Fuji has a pretty excellent selection of specialty rolls too.

For my entree, I ordered the Udon Noodle Bowl, which is described as

“rice noodles served in a classic Japanese soy-base soup, served with shrimp tempura, chicken or shrimp, garnished with fish cake, green onion and sunny side up egg.”

I ordered mine with plain shrimp. Here’s how it look when it arrived:

For some reason, I always get udon and soba noodles mixed up. So I was a little surprised to see these kind of noodles when the dish arrived. I really prefer the nutty flavor of the buckwheat-based soba noodles, but the udon was perfect for this soup. (If you get confused about the different types of noodles too, I recommend this article).

The broth was just salty enough, striking a nice balance between being too bland and tasting like a bowl full of soy sauce.

I had never tried a deep-fried egg before, and it wasn’t anything that I would seek out again. A plain ol’ sunny-side up egg would have been good!

I also would like to see this dish have more vegetables. Maybe some carrot strips or snow peas?

Overall, this dish was a good choice though!

We were all stuffed after our meals, so we skipped dessert. Many thanks to Bob and Marcy for treating us to this wonderful dinner!

Do you like sushi?

What’s the last restaurant you visited?

Filed under: Restaurant Review | 1 Comment »

When I was eleven years old, my sister Lea left for college. I remember being sad that I would no longer be able to follow her and her friends around but excited to hear about her college adventures. In my eyes, she was the coolest. (I now know better).

Anyway, I remember her raving about this place in Evanston (her college town) called “Panera” (then unknown to me) that served soup in bread bowls. Accordingly, when the whole family went to visit her for Parents’ Weekend that fall, we ate at Panera, and I ordered the broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Not only was the soup creamy and delicious, but you also got to eat the receptacle in which it was served. Win-win in my book.

The only downside to that yummy broccoli cheddar soup? It’s pretty loaded with fat and Calories. Bummer.

So when I came across a cream-free and downright healthy version of that soup on Eating Well’s website, I was pretty darn excited. I’ve made it a few times now and put my own spin on it, so I thought you all might like the recipe. Enjoy!

Light Broccoli Cheddar Soup

adapted from an Eating Well recipe

 Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups reduced-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets (about 6 cups)*
• 1 15-oz can navy beans, drained and rinsed very well**
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• dash of white pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• 4 oz reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1. Place water and stock in large pot. Bring to a boil, add broccoli, cover and reduced to medium-low heat. Allow to cook until just tender, about 6 minutes

2. Once broccoli has cooked, stir in beans, garlic powder, pepper, and nutmeg. Cook just long enough to heat the beans.

3. Remove pot from heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender, food processor, or blender.

4. Return to heat and add in the cheese. Allow the cheese to melt and the soup to reduce a bit by cooking on medium-low heat for an additional 5-10 minutes.

 

Serve warm with crusty whole grain bread!

Notes

*Save the stalks to make homemade broccoli slaw or to add flavor to soups.

**Any kind of white bean will work fine here. Be sure to rinse very well, as they can be really briny.

Nutrition per 1/4th recipe: 203 Calories, 6.5g fat, 4.1g saturated fat, 20mg cholesterol, 472mg sodium, 24.9g carbohydrate, 9.3g fiber, 0.1g sugars, 18.1g protein

Filed under: Recipe | No Comments »

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I don’t exactly have good luck when it comes to gardening. Remember the time Margot ate my herb garden?

Fortunately, I think the gardening gods have smiled upon me this year. Check out what’s growing these days:

cucumber

carrots

broccoli (of course!)

squash

basil

cilantro

dill

parsley

thyme

In light of my newfound love of gardening, I am delighted to tell you about Odwalla’s Plant-a-Tree initiative.

Did you know that since 2008, Odwalla has donated a whopping $550,000 worth of trees through its Plant-a-Tree program? Now the company is joining The Nature Conservancy’s All Hands on Earth campaign to plant 100,000 trees throughout 2013. Because of this initiative, towns across the country will have healthier soil and fresher air.

So how can you help?

Create a digital tree! For ever digital tree created, $1 will be donated to the Plant-a-Tree program to go toward planting a real tree. As if that weren’t enough, you’ll also be entered in a drawing to win $10,000 gift card plus a year’s worth of Odwalla beverages and bars.

This is such a great cause, and Odwalla is such a wonderful whole foods-focused company, so I hope you’ll participate!

There’s more—giveaway time!

Odwalla has been kind enough to offer one Broccoli Hut reader a Goodness package, which contains a variety of Odwalla’s wholesome products.

To read details about their products, please click over to their website. I highly recommend the carrot juice and Super Protein bars!

The rules:

1. Leave a comment on this post. It can be anything—what kinds of plants you’re growing in your garden, which Odwalla products you like, or whatever you feel like sharing.

2. For extra entries: Tweet, Pin, or Instagram this post and mention @broccolihut. Leave a separate comment here telling me you did so.

3. You have until Sunday, May 26 at 5PM EDT to enter.

The prizes for this giveaway were furnished by Odwalla, Inc. The Broccoli Hut is responsible for this giveaway, and, as always, the opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Filed under: Contest | 12 Comments »