Now That’s a Lot of Beef!

Last night’s dining experience had to of been one of the funniest things I’ve been through in a long time.  I bought a Groupon to Texas De Brazil: Brazilian Steakhouse a few month back and had to use it by the 31st.  As I have plans tonight and tomorrow night, Sunday night was the only night that was really going to work for both Neal and I.

When we arrived at the steakhouse there was an hour long wait, so we headed over to Barnes and Noble for a little perusing before we got our dining on.  40 minutes later, Neal’s phone rang and our table was ready (how cool is that that they called us?  I though that was pretty sweet!).

We sat down to our table and quickly told the waitress that it was our first time dining at Texas De Brazil.  Within 30 seconds, the waitress spit out our instructions but all I caught was “salad bar” and “meat”.  Neal was far more confused than me, so we sat there and laughed for a good minute before we decided to take some action.

I grabbed my purse, we both put our napkins on our chairs (this is an important part of the story), and we headed off to the salad bar.

Now this salad bar was just about the most intense salad bar I’ve ever seen.  There was a plethora of sliced meats, cheeses, pickled vegetables, various sauces of all different colors (bright teal– RANDOM), pasta salads, rice, beans, soup, and oh yes, romaine lettuce.  Neal turned to me and said “what is this place?”.  It was the funniest thing!

We both made our “salads” and headed back to our seats.  When we got back to our seats both of our napkins were back on the table and perfectly folded… it was the oddest thing.  We both laughed and laughed because we both could have sworn we placed our napkins on our chairs before going to the salad bar.

Now the next step was to enjoy our salad and when we were done we had to turn these little cards over from “red” to “green” to indicate that we were ready for meat.  I felt insecure about turning the card over, so when the waitress stopped by I asked her for some reassurance.  She said, “yes, just turn over the card and people will know that it is time to come to your table”.  My heart rate shot up immediately… how does the turning of a piece of paper trigger them to approach our table?  Neal and I sat there in fear.

A few minutes later, men began arriving at our table with long swords of meat.  Medium steak, well done steak, filet minion, ribs, leg of lamb, lamb chops, chicken wrapped in bacon, Parmesan crusted pork chops, sausages… IT WAS INTENSE.

hahaha! This picture is so funny!

We both asked for a few cuts of meat and enjoyed our dinner.  I was quickly “meated out”.  It was just too much.  Although I am not a vegetarian (or a variation of it), I don’t enjoy meat all that much.  I enjoy ground turkey, the occasional beef burger (when I need some iron), and chicken breasts.  I guess it’s more that I enjoy meat in different dishes but rarely enjoy eating meat by itself.  I really left thinking, that was too much meat, I didn’t enjoy that.  (please note that I truly respect individuals who don’t eat meat for different reasons.  I am in no way looking to offend anyone).

I was glad to have stopped myself when I did because it can be so easy to keep eating when someone keeps bringing you more and more food.  I didn’t care for any dessert, but my sweet toothed sweetheart jumped on the opportunity to order banana cream pie.  He loved it.

All in all we had a really great time.  It was a interesting restaurant to say the least, but we’re both glad we had the experience.  I don’t think we’ll ever go again though.

Weekly Plan: August 29 – September 4

This is a very short week for Neal and I as we’re traveling to Iowa to see his parents and to attend Fry Fest, Neal’s book signing, and the opening Iowa game.  We’re both really looking forward to this trip!  I haven’t been back to Iowa since March and haven’t been to an Iowa game in 2 years…so it’s long over due.  I’ve planned out my meals for Monday and Tuesday, though they’re really hodge podge.  I didn’t go to the grocery store this weekend, so I’m just looking to use up what I have.  Wednesday-Sunday are up in the air as well, as I never really know what we’ll be eating while we’re there.  We usually eat out a lot, so I need to be prepared to make wise choices.

Neal and I had a great first run this morning and we’re both looking to finish out our first week strong.  Running on Wednesday may be challenging, as we’re flying that day, but we’ll try our hardest to get all of our runs in!

Last week was pretty eventful; earthquake, aftershocks, and a hurricane, so hopefully this week will be mellow and relaxing!

	Workout	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Plans
Monday	20 min. E run before work with Neal (burned 312 calories) and Ball & Bar class after work	Homemade tropical smoothie	Oatmeal, apple, peanut butter, dried kiwi	Pasta and asparagus	Game night with Neal and Matt
Tuesday	Spin	Homemade tropical smoothie before spin, oatmeal post workout	Leftover pasta and asparagus	Whatever is left in the house, no grocery shopping this week	Getting my hair done!! YAY
Wednesday	2 mile E run	Granola bar and fruit	—	Dinner with Neal’s parents	Travel to Iowa
Thursday	Looking into some spin classes in Iowa	—	—	—	Relax in Iowa
Friday	20 min E run	—	—	—	Fry Fest in Iowa City
Saturday	Off	—	—	—	University of Iowa football game!!! Go Hawkeyes
Sunday	3 mile run	—	—	—	Relax in Iowa

What is the weirdest dining experience you’ve ever had?  Doesn’t have to have been at a restaurant…