Splash

I don't normally eat seafood but I went to Splash with the fam. What is a safe dish for a non-seafood eater? Shrimp of course! Actually, I've ordered chicken here before and it didn't taste very good--serves me right for not ordering what the restaurant specializes in.

http://www.splash-seafood.com/pdf/menu.pdf

I went with the Sake Grilled Shrimp. It comes with 4 very large pieces of shrimp, sweet potato mashed potatoes, black bean mango salsa. The seasonal vegetable I chose was the Brussels spouts smothered in some butter and bacon glaze--nice!

The shrimp was pretty big and tasted awesome--easily the best shrimp I've had in my limited shrimp experience. The sweet potato mashed potatoes are awesome as I love sweet potatoes. They are super pureed and definitely loaded with some butter and sugar. The sprouts were decent with the butter and bacon combo splash! The black bean mango salsa wasn't bad. Every single thing on the dish offered a unique flavor!

Many of you have been to Splash before but if you haven't, don't come here unless you plan to spend some cash! It's one of the higher end places in Des Moines. Great for a special occasion or if you really want to impress someone! The restaurant setting is multilevel and pretty awesome--reminds me of the 90s for some reason (that could be a good or a bad thing).

What's your favorite thing to order at Splash?

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore

I got this recipe from the 100 days of crock pot recipes list I've previously blogged about. The recipe is at the below link:

http://www.stacymakescents.com/fix-and-forget-friday-crock-pot-chicken-cacciatore

In the recipe, I used corn starch as I didn't have arrowroot starch. I also didn't have garlic powder on me so I used 1 clove of fresh garlic which turned to be just about right for me. I recommend shredding the chicken at the 7 hour mark also so the flavor will get absorbed by the chicken.

I've actually made chicken cacciatore the old fashioned way before and I think this recipe is very solid version of the same thing, but easier since you are using a crock pot. The taste was pretty good, and the thickness isn't too bad. It could be slightly thicker but I don't think most people would complain. I like A LOT of sauce and I like it thick and this sauce met those needs for me for the most part. The ingredients are simple too!

I recommend this if you want to try to make your own pasta sauce. I've only made pasta sauces from scratch a few times and I think this is a pretty solid recipe to dip your toes into. Of course, if you want to be paleo, you don't want to use corn starch and you would want to find something paleo friendly to lay the sauce on.

Royal Mile - Fish n Chips

This is at least the 3rd time I've blogged about the Royal Mile so you should know they are my favorite place for a beer. I keep finding good dishes here as well.

Shane coerced me into trying the Fish and Chips, which I was told by many people are the best in Des Moines. I never order Fish and Chips...or fish for that matter anywhere. This, however, was really good! I generally avoid deep fried foods but these somehow have a lighter deep fried taste than normal deep fried food.

http://royalmilebar.com/menu

Not much for me to say here other than get the fish and chips if you remotely like fish! I would even order it again if I ever have an urge to have something on the deep fried side--hey, it still has fish in it!

Loaded Paleo Nachos (Sweet Potato Chips)

I love sweet potatoes, nachos and chips. I also am aiming to sparsely use wheat/grains in my diet so this recipe was perfect for me. Special thanks to Karla Walsh for the recipe and letting me use her mandolin slicer.

http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2013/08/24/loaded-paleo-nachos/


I mostly used this recipe for the sweet potato chip idea. The chips by themselves taste good. I used just regular salt on most of them and the taco john's potato ole seasoning on some others (both good!). I decided to make my usual taco beef recipe (1lb of ground beef and 1 packet of Taco seasoning).

I let these cook about 25-30 minutes. Depending on the thinness, some will get done sooner. I left some in longer than 30 minutes and they got slightly burned. They don't have the crisp of a typical potato chip...but these will not poison your body like a delicious, crispy potato chip either so that's a nice tradeoff.

Sweet Potato chips (This is probably about 2/3rds of what I got out of a huge sweet potato)

My rendition of the nachos buried under: taco meat, greek yogurt and salsa.

If you do like I did and just make this recipe just for the chips, I think you will be happy. I may have smothered my chips too much as to where I didn't even notice they were there. I think you have to be careful how much you put on your chips because they are a subtle flavor and crunch. If you do make the other items in the recipe, please let me know how they turn out.

Pizza Poppers (Pizza flavored egg muffins)

I've been pretty sick of my normal egg puffs (liquid eggs, seasoned and baked in muffin tins) for breakfast. This is something similar but with a lot more flavor (A LOT MORE).

http://www.realfoodcarolyn.com/pizza-poppers/

I managed to make a batch of 11. Notice the burn marks, that's all from this recipe.

A close up to see all the ingredients packed in to it.

For those of you that track calories:

6 liquid eggs servings: 180

1/4 C Sundried Tomatoes: 100

1/3C Almond Flour: 240

1.5 servings of Turkey pepperoni : 105

 4 T of Coconut Oil: 480

Total= 1,105 Calories/4 (3 puff servings) = 276 per serving

Coconut oil is really good for you but if you wanted to shave some calories, you may start by cutting back on that. They end up being pretty oily with the coconut oil and the sundried tomatoes (I bought Classico's brand in a jar).

It's amazing how much flavor are in these. If you're like me and just sick of plain eggs, or traditional breakfasts, try this recipe. The garlic and Italian seasonings dominate the flavor but you get a little almond flour and egg texture with it. The flavor is so good you could probably serve these for a unique dinner.

I actually made these a 2nd time already and I used paper muffin cups which helped keep them from sticking to the pan. The biggest problem I have is the cooked eggs sticking to the muffin tin. I didn't have this problem when I cooked the other eggs so not sure what is the different now. I also have issues stretching this recipe into a large # of servings. I made a double batch of this recipe (except for the oil) and it only made 17 cups worth. These are pretty rich with flavor so you do not need many (2-4) to have a hearty breakfast. Still, I highly recommend making these as they taste amazing. What do you recommend for breakfast?

100 days of Unprocessed Meals (Crockpot)

Rising in popularity is the Paleo diet. I don't claim to know a lot about it but I know it involves eating foods that haven't been processed. Over the last couple of months, it's been my goal to eliminate wheat from my diet. I haven't knocked it out complete but I've stopped by bread/tortillas and I don't buy tortilla chips unless I plan to entertain. 

Today I plan to share a link with you I got from a friend which features a ton of  different recipes that are unprocessed (according to the author). Oh, and these are crockpot meals so I just made your life easier, you are welcome!

http://www.stacymakescents.com/100-days-of-no-processed-meals-crock-pot-style

Recipes tried thus far...

Because it's winter (and I've been lazy) I've tried only the soup recipes, specifically: Gluten Free Taco Soup, Southwest Chicken Crock Pot Soup and the Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup.

Of the 3, the Taco Soup was the best. It has a ton of flavor and a lot of veggies in it. My only knock is the chicken was a little bland. You could fix that by seasoning it when you cook it (before adding to the crock pot). If you want to break the rules of paleo, you can add tortilla chips or cheese. Don't worry, I did too haha.

The Cheeseburger Soup was pretty good, especially at first. The potatoes don't soften up as much as I would like but it somewhat reminds me of Smokey Row's awesome cheeseburger chowder. I even threw a few pickles in my soup and it tasted very close to a cheeseburger. I would make this again!


The SW Chicken Soup was a little on the bland side. If you make this, I recommend using FRESH cilantro as opposed to the squeezable cilantro which taste sour and gross. I doubt I'll make this again with all the all other similar options on the list.

See anything you want to make? Recommend any? What Paleo/Unprocessed recipes do you like?

La Mie - Sausage Omelet

Happy Valentine's day to myself! Shane decided to grace me with his presence with a trip to La Mie. As I've been told, I need some more breakfast places on the blog so Shane suggested La Mie (nestled in the Roosevelt Shops). I was ALL for that choice since I've heard great things but have never been.

Sausage omelet, toast and some green tea

At 9am on a snowy Valentine's Friday, this place was pretty packed but there was still space to sit. The people at the bar where we sat were friendly and the overall energy in the building was nice--it felt like breakfast in a "fancy" big city restaurant.

http://www.lamiebakery.com/lunch

I chose the Sausage omelet which was decent. It was a lighter egg and a lighter sausage which was actually welcomed after a late night the night before. The taste was solid and it came out pretty quick. It wasn't the most delicious/amazing omelet ever but it was well done. At 6.50$, it wasn't cheap but not terribly overpriced--it was expected with a quality place like La Mie.

The toast wasn't bad either, it was a nicer quality than your average bread but nothing earth shattering. My favorite thing would probably be the endless amounts cups of tea (of various choices). If I had a lazy morning, I could certainly come here to chill and get hopped up on Green Tea.

Salmon omelet, toast and some coffee for Shane

Shane, as always, classed up the place with the Salmon Omelet. I'm pretty sure there can't be too many places in DSM that serve that but he recommended both of our types of omelets so he knows what he is doing.

La Mie had an awesome vibe going that makes me want to go back even though the food wasn't epic (it was still solid though). This would definitely be a place to go if you want a pastry. The guy next to us got the French Toast with Peanut Butter, Bananas, and bacon....that looked awesome. Since I rarely eat much bread based foods, I would save that breakfast for after I run a 5k. I would also like to go for lunch to get this: pepper beef (sandwich) with poblano pepper, roast beef, provolone, onion, mayo dijon"

What do you recommend here? Any other breakfast places you recommend I check out?