Category Archives: Sunday Game Plan

Sunday Game Plan: Long Island Restaurant Week – 2023

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Long Island Restaurant week began in 2006 as an annual fall promotion week long event. Five years later in April 2011, Spring Restaurant week launched and five years after in January 2016, Winter Restaurant week debuted due to popular customer and restauranteur’s demand.

Currently Long Island Restaurant week is celebrated three times a year. The goal is to promote businesses during slow periods and it literally last for eight days. Long Island Restaurant also includes Saturday participation but until 7pm. The website separates the list of participating restaurants in Nassau and Suffolk County. Starting today April 23rd thru next Sunday April 30th, participating restaurants are promoting either two course lunch prix fixe for $22 or three courses for $37 or $44 for dinner.

Normally, I’d be reviewing all the menus from participating restaurants, but I’ve only focused on Nassau County just because of the time I’ll be able to invest this week. Below is a list of restaurants that I would go for lunch or dinner along with the dishes I would order.

There were several restaurants that the menu was not posted and one of them was Maggiano’s Little Italy in Garden City.

Guess what!! First day of restaurant week today we went to Maggiano’s Little Italy because they give A LOT of food. My parents joined in and they loved it. My mom was really impressed. Below is the menu for their restaurant week and it includes a to-go classic pasta, which was amazing. I believe this is the only restaurant that is doing this promotion.

For the appetizers, we got one of everything:

As you can see the portions were huge and all four items were amazing. Let’s just say we were full by the end of appetizers.

When the entrees arrived, my parents ordered the salmon and the beef medallions which had supplemental charges. My husband decided to add chicken to the fettucine alfredo for an extra charge. I ended up ordering the chicken parmesan. My dad devoured his beef medallions, it tasted very tender because it was prepared medium rare. My mom was really full from the appetizers that she took the salmon and shrimp to go. She was not crazy about the sauce, but enjoyed the mashed potatoes and spinach. I enjoyed my chicken parmesan and the pasta was surprisingly tasty without having to add extra cheese. I took my dish to go because I was also full. My husband ate a third of his fettucine alfredo and took the leftover home too.

For dessert, we got one of everything:

The desserts thankfully were served sample size, which made everyone in the table happy. Finally, we ordered our to-go pastas and we ordered spaghetti and meatballs, four cheese ravioli and mom’s lasagna.

The executive sous chef came out to our table to thank us for coming in and enjoying the restaurant week menu. Staff and management were awesome. We will definitely be coming back.

Given the amount of leftovers we got, this week meals will be leftovers from Maggiano’s.

Cheers to eight days of Long Island Restaurant week.

Let’s do this … 2023

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Happy New Year! 2022 was a transformative year as I became a new mom. I’ve been active on Yelp and Seated writing restaurant reviews and hitting up Michelin rated restaurants. I’ve been struggling with Meta, which consists of Facebook and Instagram. My post has not been reaching out to a lot of people and businesses as if I’ve been ghosted or blacklisted. I know it’s a very competitive market out there. So, if anyone out there can provide input to help improve this account, that would be great.

Since it’s Sunday, I began the game plan last night on New Years Eve 2022 with my traditional lucky foods menu. Thanks to Instacart and Food Bazaar, I was able to achieve that.  To start, I had my traditional 12 fruits, which I was able to obtain:

Oranges, clementine, banana, Apple, pear, plum, grapes, blackberries, blueberries, Kiwi, pomegranate, lemon and lime. That turned out I had 13, well to be fair. I had 12 pairs of fruits and 1 banana.

For my meals, I search recipes online to find inspiration with the ingredients I had to work with.  So I made the following:

Cornbread, baked lentil pasta with collard greens and ricotta, Cappellini with tuna, ricotta and peas, Smithfield apple smoked pork loin topped with bacon.

Today, the celebration continues with Pacific foods lentil soup and maybe dumplings. In addition, I’ll go through recipes with my Beaba baby food blender and make stuff for the baby, which I’m very excited about.

Check out my posts on Instagram at @tablespoonsandteaspoons. Stay tuned for an exciting 2023.

Sunday Game Plan: NYC Summer Restaurant Week 2022 – 30 years in the making

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NYC Restaurant Week began 30 years ago with 95 participating restaurants in 1992 to approximately over 600 restaurants today.  This season’s restaurant week began on 07/18/22 and will end on 08/21/22 for most participating restaurants, but some of the well-known or higher end place will end their promotion on either 07/31/22 or 08/07/22. The price points this time are $30, $45 and $60. Mastercard is also a sponsor so if you have a Mastercard, you can register your credit card to get $10 credit back into your statement for purchases over $45 and you can purchase up to 3 meals; so in essence you’ll really paying $35 for an order, which is a pretty good deal.

As of 07/19/22 there are 660 participating restaurants. We reviewed 312 dinner and/or brunch menus of restaurants partnering with Mastercard offering $10 credit for meals $45 and over from July 18-31. During my review of 312 menus, which is based on the menu availability and whether they are participating in Mastercard promotion, below is a list of restaurants grouped by meal and number of people that is worth exploring:

Lunch for 1: Bistrot Leo ($30); Boucherie West Village ($45); Chelsea Table + Stage ($30); Lexington Brass ($30); Malii Gramercy ($30); Morton’s ($45); Rivercrest ($30); Sant Ambroeus ($45) and Side Door ($30)

Dinner for 1: Anassa Taverna ($60); Bar Boulud ($60), Chelsea Table + Stage ($60); David Burke Tavern ($45); Empire Burger House ($45); Festival ($60); French Roast ($45); Hangawi ($60); Il Fiorista ($60); Jue Lan Club ($45); Malii Gramercy ($45); Montebello Restaurant ($60); Morton’s Steakhouse ($60); The Ribbon ($45); Rivercrest ($30); Rosa Mexicano ($45) and Sac’s Place ($45)

Lunch for 2: Cibo e Vino ($30); Dos Caminos ($30); Empire Burger House ($30); Jue Lan Club ($30); Nice Matin ($45) and Yama Ramen ($30)

Dinner for 2: Ammos Estiatorio ($60); Boucherie Union Square ($45); Casa Lever ($60); Chateau 49 ($60); Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse ($60); Cibo e Vino ($60); Dos Caminos ($45); Claudette ($45); Essex ($45); Felice 56 ($45); Hoja Santa ($45); Hudson West ($45); Beauty & Essex ($60); La Pizza and La Pasta ($30); The Land Thai Kitchen ($45); Leuca ($60); Lexington Brass ($45); SenYa ($60); Santo Bruklin ($60); Nice Matin ($60); One 19 ($45); Philippe ($60); Redeye Grill ($60) and SeaFire Grill ($60).

Lunch for 3: Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse ($45); Cibo e Vino ($45); Empire Steakhouse ($45); Felice 56 ($30); Gentle Perch ($30); Amali ($30); Fulton ($45); ilili ($45); Jones Wood Foundry ($30); La Bonne Soupe ($30); Lattanzi Cucina Italiana ($45); Mable’s ($30); The Meatball Shop ($45); The Russian Tea Room ($45) and Tudor Steakhouse ($45)

Dinner for 3: Merakia ($60); Bistrot Leo ($60); Alice ($45); City Winery ($45); Copinette ($45); Danju ($60); Elea ($60); Empire Steakhouse ($60); Frankie and Johnnie’s Steakhouse ($60); Amali ($60); Jasmine’s Caribbean ($45); Jones Wood Foundtry ($45); Kellari Taverna ($60); L’Adresse Nomad ($60); La Bonne Soupe ($60); La Masseria ($60); Longo Bros ($60); Mable’s ($45); Pomp & Circumstance ($45); The Russian Tea Room ($60); Cull & Pistol ($45) and Il Falco ($45).

Lunch for 4: David Burke Tavern ($45); Kubeh ($45); Longo Bros ($30); Maggie’s Place ($30); Osteria 57 ($30); Quality Eats ($30); Redeye Grill ($30) and Zabb PuTown ($45)

Dinner for 4: Fine and Rare ($60); Flatiron Room ($60); Hortus ($60); Kurant ($45); Lattanzi Cucina ($60); Osteria 57 ($45); Pera Mediterranean ($60); Pera Soho ($60); Cathedrale ($60); Laut Singapura ($45) and Temple Court ($60)

Lunch for 5 or more: Ammos Estiatorio ($45); Blue Smoke ($30); Bowery Road ($30); Ci Siamo ($45); Montebello Restaurant ($45); Il Gradino ($30)

Dinner for 5 or more: Vallata ($60); Chazz Palmanteri ($60); Baar Baar ($60); Blue Smoke ($45); Bowery Road ($45); Casa Brazilian ($60); Altesi Downtown ($60); Kubeh ($45); Maggie’s Place ($45); Mazu ($45); Mint Marsala ($60); Perrine ($60); Cacio e Pepe ($45) and The Independent ($60)

Stay tuned and follow me on Instagram: @tablespoonsandteaspoons.

Sunday Game Plan – Starting over 2022

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Happy New Year! We are nine days into the new year and 2021 was a year of reflection and life changing moments. I’ve been active on Yelp and Seated writing restaurant reviews and hitting up Michelin rated restaurants. But this is a New Year and I want to provide content that focused on my mission of why I started this blog. Therefore, I am working on developing more social media content and supporting businesses and products that help create that perfect dish.

So to start, I have drafted a plan to get through this week partly because I am running out of space in refrigerator, freezer and pantry because I tend to go on a grocery shopping spree.

Throughout the week, I’ll be posting more content on Instagram (tablespoonsandteaspoons). My goal for the week is to clean out my freezer and pantry. So here are the following dishes that I aim to recreate to get back on the horse.

  • Cappello’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi with butter
  • Cappello’s Spinach Ravioli with asparagus
  • Lentil Penne with jackfruit meatballs topped with Fody’s sauce
  • Slow cooked Chicken Gnocchi Soup
  • Cauliflower burgers
  • Tuna burgers

I’ll be posting on my Instagram account so stay tuned.

Return to work game plan

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After 3.5 months of mostly working from home, I am officially returning to work on-site full time. This is going to be interesting. I have lots of reservations about taking the bus and subway once again despite reports that it’s immaculately clean. This is a four day week, so we have options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I absolutely did not prep anything, however, this week, I am going to finish my leftovers: Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding that I froze because I made surplus of it. I am also defrosting my homemade Beef Broth, shrimp and pork chops. I have lots of carbs including English muffins, whole wheat bread and rice along with eggs, cheese wraps, chicken sausage, garlic, ginger, lemon, tomato paste and mushroom stock. We also have pantry items like pasta sauces, sardines, canned tomatoes, pasta and chips.

This week I am going to tackle the freezer, which is filled with a bunch of frozen foods, making egg breakfast dishes and building my immune system as I will be hydrating myself to last 10 hours wearing a N-95 mask.

Stay tuned as I try to post this week’s meals on Instagram: tablespoonsandteaspoons.

Stay healthy, stay safe and stay happy.

“COVID-19” Game Plan Week 4

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It’s been almost a month since the lockdown due to this ongoing pandemic spread. The previous game plan was posted over two weeks ago. Good news was that most of the stuff listed in the ingredients section of the game plan lasted over two weeks which was why there was no game plan for Week 3.

I am slowly eating out again to fulfill my food cravings but most of time I am behind the kitchen experimenting with the food I have.

Below are the images I posted on Instagram: tablespoonsandteaspoons.

Moving forward to the present and the rest of the week here’s my game plan for the upcoming week(s). This week is going to be different because I decided to venture into the meal prep kit from Sunbasket and even support local businesses in the area.

Stay turned for posts on Instagram at tablespoonsandteaspoons.

If you are interested in trying a meal kit from Sunbasket you will get $35-$40 of your first order by clicking on the link below: https://sunbasket.com/invite/Christina3035165

Thank you Yoga Club for the connection. If you’re interested in getting an amazing wardrobe for workouts delivered to your front door, click on the link below: https://refer.yogaclub.com/ChristinaP17

“COVID-19 Lockdown” Game Plan

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There is so much hysteria to the point that we are on the brink of becoming a martial law country. This lockdown game plan to “flatten the curve” is set up by NYC mayor and governor to hopefully reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases. As a result, I will be working my paid job, which funds this blog remotely. What does this mean?

This means I get the opportunity to hopefully reset and continue where I left off writing this blog. During the past few months I feel like I am getting ghosted by social media platforms such as Instagram. The only silver lining is that businesses and owner have liked my posts but there are so few of them.

When I launched this blog back in 2016, I had a vision that it would progressively grow and turn it into a career that is fulfilling and rewarding. Unfortunately I have experienced a lot of downfalls due to the lack of support and continuously fighting the powerful establishments and potential haters from the past who feel that they are entitled to any achievement on my own through emotional blackmail and spreading rumors by framing me as the evil, crazy and toxic person because I am finally free.

Still fighting the good fight as these people from the past who knew everything about me inside out are using it against me and taking credit for everything I have worked for including my degrees from Fordham, Hunter and University of Illinois. These same people are bragging to other people that without them I’ll never succeed. Ok..I’ll stop..

Given the circumstances that occurred the last month, normalcy on this end has come to a pause overall. However, I am very thankful to God and the good spirits that I have a roof over my head and a job at least for two months. So making every effort to work for the glory of God because HE controls our fate.

With the exponential increase of COVID-19 cases in NYC and in Long Island, and the origin of this debilitating and mysterious virus came from China, there is also an increase in hate crime against Chinese and Asian Americans because people are ignorant. I am thankful that I have not had that experience personally but given the fact that I am a first generation Asian American born in America with a background in public health and health communications that is passionate about food, culinary medicine, health, and research.

While COVID-19 is still hot press it is also an important public health issue because through health promotion, advocacy and communication communities are actually complying with the progressive martial law mandates such as social distancing, limiting store hours, working remotely and shutting down non-essential businesses. While these measures are implemented, the long term effects will be the disappearance of human social interaction that is essential to survival.

In order to stay in compliance, we went to the supermarket two days ago and brought 1-2 weeks worth of groceries. So without further ado and after hours of planning here’s the weekday game plan based on what’s available in the present moment:

We would love to hear any feedback regarding this week’s game plan. Stay tuned for pictures of my journey through this game plan. Everyone stay safe and may God Bless America!

Sunday Game Plan – Diet plan for one week

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Hello everyone! So tomorrow is July 1st and this is the perfect time to make a change with the end goal being weight loss and eventually getting into my dresses comfortably.

After doing some research I read an article from Woman’s Day regarding a 6 day summer weight loss program and as much I want to replicate the plan, I have to do some modifications because I had to work with what I had. In addition, I will be traveling back and forth so planning healthy meals will be tough. The article set a plan where the most calories come from dinner. The calorie outline listed on the article was 300 calories for breakfast, 400 calories for lunch, 500 calories for dinner and 150 calories for snacks. Therefore the total calorie intake is 1350 calories.

For this week’s game plan, I have listed meals for 7 days instead of 6. In addition I didn’t count calories so I am unsure if I went over the total calorie intake. So below is the list of breakfast, lunch and dinner meal plan for the week.

Pictures of these proposed meals will be posted on my Instagram: tablespoonsandteaspoons.

Wish me luck and stay tuned!!

GAME PLAN – High Protein Meal Plan on a Budget

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Hello everybody, it has been a six weeks since my last post and I have been working and experimenting on mastering basic cooking techniques that I am proud to share on this blog.

Recently I was glancing through several articles and reviewing food labeling content when I realize do people really know portion control.  For example, on a typical diet, one serving of chicken is 4 oz or 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons so for about a pound of chicken, total servings would be four people.

Over the weekend we went grocery shopping at Shop Rite and we brought several ingredients to see how many portion meals we can make and how long it would last for under $50.  We created dishes, which will be shown on Instagram throughout the week. These recipes are inspired from Thai and Chinese cuisines in combination with recipes from Ideal Protein.  Here is the game plan that should last at least 7 days:

low carb game plan

Stay tuned for more.  Let us know if you have any questions, concerns, comments or feedback on how to improve this blog.  We are open to suggestions.  Thank you for all your support.

 

 

Sunday Game Plan – Filipino Restaurant Week 2018

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Happy Mother’s Day! I grew up eating homecooked Filipino food – adobo, sinigang, tinola, pancit, kare-kare and lumpia. The first meals I’ve made as a child were rice, lumpia and turon. These meals were very cost-effective and it would be difficult to open a successful Filipino restaurant because every Filipino would prefer their home cooked meals. However, over the last few years, there have been growing number and popularity of Filipino restaurants that opened in New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. My personal speculation is that Filipinos have become more educated and business savvy to successfully market what is considered authentic Filipino food.

Starting tomorrow May 14 thru May 26, Filipino Restaurant Week will take place in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The goal will be to celebrate the various flavors of Filipino cuisine with special prix-fixe authentic and fusion meals. It’s $25 for lunch/brunch and $35 for dinner.

Last year, a group of my girl friends attempted to take advantage of the brunch pre-fixe at Jeepney in New York City, but, instead we chose the bottomless brunch for $29 with a side of kamote fries. The unlimited mimosas both in mango and kalamansi flavors were so good. Below are images of the entrees we ordered as part of the $29 bottomless brunch deal.

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Chola Burger $17 (ala carte)

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Longsilog $12 (ala carte)

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Kamote Fries

After reviewing the menus and offers for this year’s Filipino restaurant week here is my proposed game plan for New York. There is little chance I’ll be able to head to New Jersey let alone Philadelphia.

  1. Kuma Inn (113 Ludlow St., 2nd Floor) – cash only
  2. Maharlika (111 1st Avenue)
  3. Mountain Province (9 Meserole Street) – lunch/brunch
  4. Talde (369 Seventh Avenue)
  5. Tama (147 Lewis Avenue)
  6. Tito Rad’s (49-10 Queens Blvd. )
  7. Ugly Kitchen (Kamayan Night)

We will continue to keep you posted; check out my Instagram and follow me: tablespoonsandteaspoons. Stay tuned.