Taco Thursday- with a Twist!

One of the best things my roommate and I like to do is discover new little hole-in-the-wall places we’ve never been to before, and we sure did find a gem this time!

Tacos & Bla Bla Bla

Simpsonville, SC

https://www.tacos-blablabla.com/

*Food Truck they use for catering pictured left!

This spot opened up right next to a Food Lion near us about a year ago and it’s still going strong. It’s a really cute place, with metal and wooden seating and murals along the wall, depicting the hustle and bustle of a Mexican town. If you look closely, you can see familiar faces & names of the family members that own the restaurant sprinkled in with the rest of the colorful scene.

Their food is just as amazing as their décor. The menu is simple, but jam packed with goodies like tortas, gorditas (my absolute favorite), and mulitas. If we want really good authentic Mexican food, this is where we go!

After ordering, you make your way to their homemade salsa bar, which always changes with seasonality, but has some classics on hand, like chipotle sauce, salsa verde, etc.

We ended up choosing the Green Sauce w/ avocado; Chile Arbol (wicked spicy); Habanero salsa (my favorite); and Bla Bla Verde Sauce (their take on a salsa verde).

Every order comes with homemade chips and refried beans, which worked well to balance out the spice levels on some of the salsas!

As I said, their gorditas are to DIE FOR! Created with a “handmade thick corn tortilla* that is grilled, fried, cut open like a ‘pita bread’, and then filled with your choice of meat or vegetables” (from their website). From top left down and then top right, the fillings we chose were:

  • Al Pastor (marinated shredded pork grilled with pineapples) (my favorite, hands down!)
  • Chipotle Chicken
  • Carne Asada (Steak)
  • & Barbacoa (Shredded Beef Brisket)

There are so many more fillings we could’ve spent breakfast and dinner there too trying to taste them all! Everything is super fresh and made to order, so even if we have to wait, the food is so worth it.

If you’re in town, absolutely check them out! They’re on 1004 W. Georgia Rd. Ste. B, in Simpsonville, SC.

*Side Story — When I was younger, we used to have Peruvian friends who had invited us to their house to have supper, and they made us arepas, which is the Peruvian version of the thicker corn tortilla pictured above. They added little bits of queso fresco to theirs before cooking, and I have made them that way ever since. One of these days I’ll recreate that recipe here too! See that here if you’d like to make our version yourself.

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Meal Prep Monday!

This week, I made a recipe inspired by Pinterest, one posted by a blogger in 2015 named Vodka and Biscuits I have on my “Fantastically Foodie” board (Shameless plug, I know, here’s the link).

I was in the mood to use my cast iron skillet, and I like to try and use what’s already in my pantry when I can — this week, that item happened to be canned pumpkin! It’s been so dull and dreary outside I wanted a warm, feel-good dish for meal prep this week.

Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Sage Sausage

Inspired by a recipe from: http://www.vodkaandbiscuits.com/2015/10/05/pumpkin-baked-ziti-with-sage-sausage/

Key takeaways from this meal prep recipe:

  • You can absolutely make pumpkin into a savory sauce- adding in more fall spices mixed with a little heat from the red pepper flakes or chili powder helps to balance the natural sweetness of the pumpkin
  • You can sub out multiple things in this recipe to better suit what you have on hand:
    • Vegetable broth for Chicken Broth
    • Sage sausage for Italian sausage
    • Olive oil for Canola oil
    • Red pepper flakes for Paprika or Chili powder
    • Cast iron skillet for Saute pan & Oven safe baking dish
  • Depending on the size of the container you use, I got about 7-8 single-serve Tupperware containers out of this for meal prep.

See the recipe we edited to make this non-dairy friendly here and let me know what you think!

Have you ever cooked with a cast-iron skillet before? Do you like using one over a saute pan or vice versa? Shout out in the comments below 😁🙌

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Weekend Foodie Warriors – Take 2!

This week in foodie adventures: Lobster Food Truck, Brunch & Polish Food!

Wow, what a week! We tried to make the best of the rain here with the few days of sunshine we got and take advantage of them!

Cousins Maine Lobster Food Truck

Simpsonville, SC

https://www.cousinsmainelobster.com/truck/charlotte-nc/

First stop for this week was the Cousins Maine Lobster Truck, which won Shark Tank a couple years ago and has been bringing great New England Lobster to the people of America ever since! As a native New Englander myself, this was a can’t miss stop. I grabbed two of my besties, Jonothan and Julissa…

…..and we proceeded to stand in line for FOUR HOURS waiting for food.

Now I know, you must be saying, “You must be crazy to stand in line that long!”. Yes, looking back on it, I’d have to agree with you to a point. Hey, at least they parked in front of a brewery!


We made a lot of great friends in line, and that sweet, sweet lobster was so worth it <3 See pictures below for more fun from Food Truck Tuesday!

Brunch Time!

Brunch with the boys at Another Broken Egg Café

Greenville, SC

https://anotherbrokenegg.com/location/greenville-sc

Brunch is one of my favorite things in the world, besides cooking of course 🙂 Jonathan and my boyfriend & I ended up going to Another Broken Egg after this new biscuit place we were going to check out was closed.

I had an early Saint Patrick’s Day Open-Faced Ruben with a poached egg; my boyfriend had an eggs benedict burger; and Jonathan had a supreme omelet and chocolate chip pancakes!*

*Not pictured here are the biscuit beignets with powdered sugar and orange marmalade dipping sauce we had as an appetizer; brought me back to New Orleans and Café Du Monde!

Dinner with the Fam!

Polish Pierogis and
Gołąbki

Pronounced *Peer-oh-geez* and *gol-ump-keys*

When my family gets together, we love making dishes that remind us of our family that are far away or can’t be with us anymore. Last night’s dinner reminded me of when I was younger, and my grandpa would make pierogis and golumpkis (spelling it this way for ease of reading), or take us to a little family restaurant called Patty’s in Rhode Island for some.

The pierogis were always served with sour cream and grilled onions on the side, and the golumpkis were piping hot out of the oven next to them. The pierogis we ate last night were traditional style (potato and onion filled), and a little more modern style (bacon, cheddar, and potato filled). Imagine if they put mashed potatoes into a ravioli wrapper, and voila! Pierogis!

As a kid, I wasn’t a big fan of cabbage, but having it served this way was delish! The golumpkis are cabbages stuffed with rice and beef, and baked in a sweet, stewed tomato sauce.

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Weekend Foodie Warriors!

There’s nothing that I love more than sharing food with the people I love. 💜 Whether it’s cooking for them, experimenting with new recipes, or taking them out to a new restaurant, I love making memories over a great bite – which is exactly what we did this weekend!

Tonkotsu Ramen and Spicy Soba noodles from Menkoi, Downtown Greenville, SC

The first stop on our foodie tour was to Menkoi, one of the two really great ramen places in the Greenville, SC area. There’s a great place in nearby Spartanburg, SC too called Monsoon, which makes a great Pho, but that’s a picture and story for another day. I got the Tonkotsu Ramen, a pork based broth ramen, and my friend got the Spicy Soba noodles bowl, with a yummy seafood broth.

Ropa Vieja with yuca and yellow rice at Havana Kitchen, Greenville, SC

Our next stop was a new restaurant in Greenville called Havana Kitchen.

I had never had Cuban food before so I was excited to try this one! Upon the recommendation of two of my Cuban buddies, I got the Ropa Vieja, a marinated beef dish. It surprisingly tasted a lot like a Portuguese meal that I grew up with called Cacolia (pronounced like ka-sir-la), which is a stewed beef dish with a tomato-based spicy sauce.

The Ropa Vieja here was paired with a Spanish yellow rice and garlic drizzled yucca, which was absolutely delicious. They even have salsa dancing on the weekends, will definitely have to come back for that one! 💃

Last but not least on our trip was a Greenville hot spot, Mello Mushroom, in honor of National Pizza Day (Feb. 9th)!

Kosmic Karma Pizza from Mello Mushroom, Greenville, SC

Pacific Rim Pizza from Mello Mushroom, Greenville, SC

Their pizzas are a feast for not only the mouth but the eyes, and their presentation was great!

The “Kosmic Karma” pizza included feta cheese, sun-dried and Roma tomatoes, spinach, and was drizzled with a pesto swirl. The pesto was probably my favorite part, that sauce is one of my go-to’s!

The Pacific Rim was a play on the controversial (to some) ham and pineapple pizza – but with a kick – adding bacon, caramelized onions, and jalapenos to the pie most of us know and love.

So there you have it, another foodie weekend in the books. Tune in next weekend for a food truck pile up I’ve been waiting for for two weeks! 🙂

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Two Meal Tuesdays- Chicken and Risotto & Ziti, Oh my!

Let me tell you all something, I LOVE to meal prep. Don’t get me wrong, I love experimenting with recipes and cooking during the week, but with a full time job, kickboxing, and trying to have a social life, it just doesn’t work out all the time.

Enter: Meal prepping. See my Recipes tab for how to make the Lemon Chicken & Asparagus w/Mushroom Risotto, and Rachel Ray inspired Sausage Ziti Bake from yesterday’s Instagram story.

If I’m feeling really motivated to meal prep, I will make two dishes in one night, sometimes staying up until 11 pm to finish crafting my dinners/lunches for the next week.

If you can make food in bulk like this and you don’t mind eating off two dishes for a week or two, it is a huge time and money saver!! If I meal prep something in the crockpot or a big baked/sheet pan dish, it will sometimes last me two weeks from that day. Amazing to not have to go out and spend on groceries if you plan it right. This is a great tactic for busy parents needing to prep school lunches, dinners before dance recitals, soccer practices, band concerts, or just people who only have the energy to cook once a week.

So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? What are some of your favorite things to make for meal prepping? Sound out in the comments below and let me know your suggestions of recipes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗

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