Last Sunday during Music Fest, we stopped in at Bigfoot Lodge for lunch. Bigfoot Lodge is located a few blocks from Beale Street in downtown Memphis, TN.
This was my first time at the Lodge and unfortunately, I had already eaten just a few hours before so I wasn’t hungry at all. Bigfoot Lodge is famous for their seven and a half pound Sasquatch burger - four pounds of fresh ground-chuck, two pounds of their handmade hamburger bun, and one and a half pounds of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and cheese…SEVEN AND A HALF POUNDS TOTAL.
If you can finish it all in under one hour, it’s free! This is very similar to the deal at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas that Josh tried (and failed at) back in 2007, were you are required to eat a 72 oz. and all the side items in under an hour.
You can check out the video below to see what everyone ordered at Bigfoot Lodge. I just wish I had been hungry, because that prime rib sandwich looked outstanding!
Sarah came down yesterday and brought some leftovers from a wedding shower at her house. Among the random food was some chocolate-covered pineapples. I had never had pineapple covered in chocolate, but wow, they were great! This got me thinking about other fruits that are good covered in chocolate…
I had to go shopping later in the day, so I decided to try my hand at making chocolate-covered treats. First up, frozen bananas!
I discovered frozen bananas a few years ago at the local fair and I have been hooked ever since! All you have to do is freeze the banana then dip it in the chocolate sauce. The chocolate hardens pretty quick since the bananas are so cold… and then, it’s ready to eat.
Next up, I tried some strawberries. You don’t really need to freeze these - just chill them in the freezer for half an hour or so.
These turned out even better than the bananas!
The Banana Pops kit was only $.99, which is a lot cheaper than I anticipated. This is an inexpensive way to make some great appetizers for a group function or just some tasty treats for yourself to snack on
Sarah bought this for me a few months back. I’m usually skeptical of those late-night infomercial products… an “As Seen On TV” product. So, does it really work?
I managed to cut my food budget in half since last month: from $397.23 to $198.88, for a savings total of $198.35! So, how did I do this? Did I starve myself?
No, not at all. It’s all about planning and being responsible. One of my big problems has always been spending a lot of money on fast food, restaurants and pizza delivery. I have really cut back big on these items in the past few months and the overall food budget certainly reflects this.
The real cutbacks for me happened at the grocery store. First, you should never go shopping while you are hungry. You will end up buying way too much food!
Second, think of who you are shopping for. If you are single like me, keep that in mind when you are thinking of meals to make. It is a total waste to cook a big dinner if only one person is going to be eating it. Sure, you can save the leftovers and eat them later, but some things just aren’t that edible the second day.
Go cheap! It’s alright to buy generic brand items. Stuff like milk, bread and cereal are all great generic purchases. Some items, like cheese and frozen pizzas (these are the only two examples I can think of right now), I simply refuse to buy the generic brands, as they taste significantly different than their name brand counterparts.
This month, I also bought a lot of cheaper products, like Ramen noodles and rice. Zatarain makes some really good rice products which cost about $1-2 each and can easily fill you up. Ramen noodles are great snacks and at $.07 per serving, it’s almost like eating for free!
Also, shop around for products that are on sale or you can buy in bulk. I picked up a package of Tyson chicken nuggets for about $9. There are easily 60-70 nuggets in the package, so if you eat 10 at a time as a meal (like I do), each meal works out to about $1.30, not bad at all!
Another key step for me this month was cutting out soft drinks. If I have them, I will drink anywhere from 2-4 per day. This isn’t really good for your health and before you know it, you have spent a lot of money to keep them stocked in the fridge. I purchased some Gatorade this month (ten 32 oz. bottles for $10) and tea bags and sugar. I have been drinking sweet tea the past week or so. It is very cheap, easy to make and isn’t as bad for you as soft drinks.
Once you have done your shopping, you will now need to do some planning at home. This was always something I didn’t do before, simply because I never thought about it. You should always try to eat the perishable food first (bread, milk, salad stuff, etc.). I can’t tell you how much milk I have had to pour out because it expired and went sour. This is a total waste and you might as well be throwing your money away.
This month, I “ate in order”. I ate all of the bread, milk and salad stuff first, before it expired, so I would get my money’s worth out of it.
With proper planning, you should be able to cut back on your food budget considerably. It is nearing the end of the month now, and as anticipated, I am starting to run low on food (I still have plenty to make it until the end of the month). BTW, when I say “food budget”, I mean food, household stuff (shampoo, cleaning supplies, etc).
In perhaps my most random thought in a few years, I was just in the kitchen cooking some rice for dinner and a thought popped into my head… a totally random memory of the best drink ever created, Clearly Canadian.
These beverages were really popular in the late 80s and early 90s, but demand eventually died off (supposedly after a change in the formula of the drink). I used to drink the hell out of these beverages when I was a kid. I even went so far as to collect the bottles. I had probably 100 or more when my family moved and I had to throw them all away
I did some searching on Google and it appeared that Clearly Canadian was no more… but, I was wrong!
Turns out, Clearly Canadian is still alive and kicking, and better yet, they have went back to their roots and now offer their original formula beverages for purchase online!
It comes without saying that I am about to order some of these, and I really hope they actually went back to the original formula and not some crappy remake. Now, I just have to decide on what flavors…
We decided to have our Super Bowl party at Sarah’s place this year. Last year we did it at my place and the year before that, we went over to Josh’s house. I just posted about 14 pics from last night - feel free to check them out over on my Flickr Page.
I just got a call from Josh who told me about this really cool new feature over at Domino’s Pizza’s Website. Here is what you do:
Go to Dominos.com.
Click Build Your Own BFD
Select the following options:
Crust - Brooklyn
Basics - Sauce (extra)
Meats - Pepperoni (full pizza), Italian Sausage (full pizza)
Unmeats - Mushroom (full pizza), Black Olives (full pizza)
Now, on the right side, beside Onions, you should see Josh’s Pizza!
Very cool! You can search all of the pizzas in the database and see which has been ordered the most, etc. Have fun making your very own pizza!
Super Bowl XLII is exactly one week away, and for the first time since 2000 (Tennessee Titans), there is a team in the Super Bowl that I will be cheering for (Go Giants!). I am not a huge NFL fan (but love college football), and usually only look forward to the Super Bowl as a time to hang out with friends, eat some good food and watch the commercials.
Last year we had a Super Bowl party at my place. This year, I think we will all be gathering at Sarah’s place for the big game… still have to work out the fine details. As long as there are deviled eggs, I’m set!
What do you have planned for Super Bowl Sunday? And, any predictions on the game? Let’s hear it!
We started today off with brunch at the TI Buffet.
I had an omelet with ham, mushrooms, bacon, tomato and cheese. This was certainly one of the better omelets I have had in a while.
Dessert was equally as good, with my favorite being the chocolate covered strawberries.
Afterwards, we headed over to the Venetian to pick up our press badge holders. While there, I snapped a picture of the Gondola ride that takes you through the hotel.
Is it just me, or is this “live statue” guy just a bit too creepy?
Oh snap, Master Chief made Josh surrender!
Our next stop was the Exotic Car Showroom from yesterday, but today, Josh was going to rent a Lamborghini for a half hour… but just as he was going over the fine print of the contract, he noticed that you were responsible for any damage to the vehicle, regardless of fault or cause. So, say you are sitting at a stop light and someone rear-ends you. Uh oh, your fault! So he wisely decided to pass on the test drive.
I have always heard that The Cheesecake Factory makes some delicious cheesecake, and since there was one right beside the Exotic Car Showroom, we decided to stop in for a quick snack.
I went with the traditional cheesecake with strawberry toppings. To be honest, I was expecting it to be a little better… it was just a bit too creamy and soft for my tastes.
Josh ordered the Godiva Chocolate Brownie Sundae. Josh described it as “phenomenal” and “off the charts”.
After The Cheesecake Factory, it was time to attend our first CES press event, CES Unveiled.
Totally random photo of our hotel.
For dinner, we decided to try Kahunaville again, this time with Josh and Airica.
We had coupons for buy one, get one free cocktails so I tried the Cherry Bomb. The drink had a really weird taste at first but the aftertaste was pretty good.
When it came to dinner, we spared no expense! I had the Volcanic Shrimp Cocktail…
and Josh went with the Seafood Sampler. Both meals were just as good as they looked! The total bill for the four of us was $109.
These two were a bit on the hyper / goofy side at dinner, hah.
We started today off by visiting The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.
We originally wanted to check out the exotic car collection here, but once we got inside and saw the awesome architecture, that plan took a backseat for a bit.
Caesars Palace is themed around Greek Mythology.
This is the first time I have ever seen a store use a real person instead of a mannequin in their store display window!
Looking for a giant stuffed dragon? You are in luck… but be prepared to shell out $5,500 for it.
We finally made it to the exotic car shop. We ended up snapping a few hundred pictures of the cars, but I will save those for a separate update. We might be returning again tomorrow… that is, if we can convince Josh to drop off $250 for a 40 minute drive in a Lamborghini hah.
Just some more pictures from inside the Forum.
After we left the Forum, we stopped by The Mirage to check out the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat.
The lighting outside was really bad today (too cloudy) so it was hard to get any shots to turn out decent.
Watcha’ starin’ at?
Shh, he is sleeping!
This is a totally random picture, but I thought it came out pretty cool.
We came back to our room after The Mirage then met up with our friend Joey. His dad works at the SunCoast casino and was able to hook us up with a comp’ed dinner at Senor Miguel’s.
As the name implies, this is a Mexican restaurant, but I ended up ordering a steak. Go figure.
The steak was really good; I didn’t quite finish it all.
The drinks here were also pretty tasty. I had an apple and strawberry margarita.
Josh had a jalapeño… which I imagine was pretty hot heh.
