Nessa's Bliss: food

17 August 2016

I'm sure you've heard of the saying, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"... Does this really apply to men? I mean, I love food, and if you take me out to a restaurant that serves amazing food or take the time to make me a delicious home cooked meal, to me... you're the real deal! So, lets change up that saying a bit and directed towards me... well, everyone.
Don't lie.
We all love food :D

One of my main goals over the past couple of months was to lose weight... you know, the weight I've gained from all the stress eating. I just have some of those days where I am eating super healthy, and then... there are other days where, well, I consider them my "cheat" days.
But, I just can't help it if food is so yummy!
Growing up, I used to eat my favourite foods on the daily, including a Filipino dish called palabok (thank you momma), and a Sri Lankan dish, goat curry (thank you dad!). Yes, shout out to my parents who were constantly in the kitchen fulfilling my hunger. But, yeah, like I said, I used to eat my favourites on the daily.
Over the past couple of years, I began to slowly taste different types of food, and found out how amazing other cultures can take a meat I've been eating for years and completely transform the taste. I'm not a professional foodie or whatever, but I do appreciate great tasting foods.

That's why this post is a tribute to some of my favourite dishes I ate over the summer... Am I proud of it? ~~Kinda~~. YES. There were some damn good, tasty dishes!
This made me hungry... I should probably go make myself a fruit shake...
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16 May 2016

Easy Homemade Lasagna

16 May 2016

food

Easy Homemade Lasagna

Have I ever told you how much I love lasagna?? Well, I love it. It is probably one of my all time favourite comfort go-to food. The problem was, I just always assumed it was too difficult to make it on my own. So, whenever I was craving lasagna, I was never able to fulfill my cravings. But, on days when my mom was feeling all chef-like and made lasagna, my tummy was always happy! No surprise about where this post is going, this past week I've been craving lasagna. And, instead of just craving it, this past weekend I decided to cook my own batch of lasagna! And, to my surprise, it was actually easy! Like, so much easier than I thought. Also, it ended up tasting SO MUCH BETTER than I thought it would! I think that was mostly because I knew what I liked, so I customized and mixed different recipes together! PREP TIME: 30 minutes (if you're a beginner cook) Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes INGREDIENTS: - 1 lb. lean ground beef - 1/2 lb. ground Italian sausage - 2-1/2 cups of shredded cheese of your choice (I used mozzarella) - 1/2 cup of parmesan grated cheese - 2 cups of ricotta cheese - 1/4 cup of chopped parsley - 1 egg, beaten - 1 jar of tomato sauce (650mL) - lasagna noodles (a lot of recipes says 12... I didn't use 12, however) - 1-1/2 cups of water
INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 °F 2. Place grounded meat of your choice in a large pan/skillet on medium-high heat. 3. While the meat is being cooked, mix 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 1-1/4 cups of mozzarella, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, 1/4 of chopped parsley, and egg in a bowl until evening blended.

5. When meat is cook, drain meat using a strainer, and place the drained cooked meat back into the skillet/pan. Pour in entire jar of pasta sauce. Pour 1-1/2 cups into the pasta sauce jar; cover and shake the jaw well. Pour the water in the skillet and stir evenly.

6. In an empty pan or baking dish, place 1 cup of the meat sauce and spread evenly across the dish. (This is your bottom layer!) 7. Take 3 (or 4 depending on the size of your dish) uncooked lasagna noodles across the pan. 8. Take 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, and spread evenly on top of the lasagna noodles.

9. Add 1 cup of meat sauce on top of the ricotta cheese mixture.

10. Repeat steps 7-9 two more times (for a total of 3 layers).

BONUS STEP:
I like my lasagna nice and cheesy. So, before repeating steps 7-9, I like to sprinkle shredded cheese before adding another layer of uncooked lasagna noodles.

11. On the last layer, you may have some extra meat sauce left over; spread it on top of the last layer of uncooked lasagna noodles followed by shredded cheese and parmesan cheese.

12. Cover the baking pan with tin foil, and bake the lasagna for a total of 1 hour, removing the tin foil after 45 minutes.

Well, there you go! See how much more simpler that was! And, its even more delicious than it looks! Hope you enjoy this recipe!

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30 August 2015

Nachos and Wings!

30 August 2015

food

Nachos and Wings!

When we arrived there, we found ourselves a little underdressed. To be more specific, because it was a chilly than normal day, we were wearing sweat pants. Opps. So, to avoid the awkwardness of walking in around well-dressed individuals in our sweats, we decided to search nearby and find somewhere else to eat. At this point, I was starving... I just wanted food!

Then, we saw a sports bar/restaurant in the near distance. PERFECT! "They will for sure have nachos", we thought. The place wasn't as busy as we anticipated. But, we didn't mind. All we wanted to do was eat. Did I mention how hungry I was at this point yet?

We were seated in a booth, and we were BEYOND impressed! There were a mini TV at one end of the booth, showing a baseball game (current game in sports at the time).

Then the food came. And, when I say food... I literally mean FEAST. The portions of the food was bigger than expected (no complains here), but I mean, it was literally a lot. For instance, the nacho size itself was probably big enough to feed up to 4 people; so good thing we only ordered 1. And the wings.... they were most definitely bigger than wings from other restaurants. On top of the that, it all tasted AMAZING! The other day, we were craving Nachos. The only place we know that made nachos, and was actually delicious, was a restaurant in a nearby town. So, we got our stuff together, cleaned up our mess and started to head out.... TO EAT!

I will most definitely be returning in the near future. In fact, I've already told SO MANY PEOPLE about this place. It will probably be my new hangout spot whenever we just want to have a quick bite! So, don't be surprised if you constantly see me snapping pics of my wings ever other day!

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03 July 2015

Date Night: Spring Rolls

03 July 2015

food

Date Night: Spring Rolls

This past weekend, Jay and I spontaneously decided we needed to go out. I personally think it was because we both had a long shift, 8am-4pm at our work, and we were both just tired and cranky and hungry. I know that the last time I ate earlier that day was actually during my lunch break.. which was at 11am. Any who.. the point was that we were really hungry and we wanted to eat a lot. And, instead of going to a restaurant and buying appetizers AND main dish AND desert, which of course accumulates, why not just go to a buffet?

That's what we did. We went to this very popular place called Spring Rolls; and it was just amazing. The set up was similar to other buffet's my family and I usually go to - it was a restaurant style, but because it was a buffet, you can order as much as you wanted! And, that's what we did.

THE GOOD: The food was amazing. They had a lot of choice, ranging from sushi/sashimi, to stead and rack of lamb. I loved the interior decor; the lightning and style of the entire place just seemed so elegant, yet a night club at the same time. It was just a perfect mixture. Also, the plating was just beautiful!

THE BAD: Service was a bit slow. When we arrived there, we found ourselves waiting 10 minutes just to order drinks. Then, followed by 5 minutes to receive the drinks, and actually order our first round of food. 10 minutes to receive the first plate, which is understandable... but, we found ourselves missing half of the items we ordered. When we were done eating our first round, again we pretty much waited 15 minutes until our waited reappeared. It took 5 minutes to get the rice we ordered, then 10-15 minutes until the rest of our order started coming in. Again, we were missing a few of our orders. We then waited 15 minutes for our waiter to look at us to order desert. We decided to just get the bill and leave. We were there for a total of 2 hours.. and that was mostly because of all the waiting we had to endure.

Besides the bad, like I said, the food was delicious. Although, now that I think about it, I kind of wished they gave more options for sauce on some of the entrees. I found that a lot of the entrees had this type of coconut sauce that I was just not feeling... to me, it had a beginning taste of nuts, which I personally do not like. But, that's just our opinion...

Have you been to a restaurant style buffet before? How did you like it? Let me know :)

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20 February 2015

Yummy: Spoon and Fork

20 February 2015

food

Yummy: Spoon and Fork

Last night my family and I randomly decided to go out to eat. And, because Lent has just started, and this year my sister chose to give up meat this year, my sister suggested to go out for sushi. I personally thought it was a great idea, well, you know, because it is sushi!

We had a choice between two sushi buffets to go to. Both were pretty much similar, having a restaurant feeling, but an option of a buffet. If I am not explaining it properly, then think of it like this, you are basically at a restaurant, but paying per person like at a regular buffet. We ended up going to Spoon and Fork and, you pretty much just as order as much as you want!

Since this was a sushi buffet, you already know my focus was on the food. We hard a wide array of seafoods to meat. I enjoyed the food so much, I realized I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted... But, the place was too good, I will definitely be returning and doing another post! ;) For now, enjoy the few pictures I look!