Dinner Cruise Food = A Lil Heaven ‘N a Lil Hell

Hey guys! Happy Monday?

Saturday night my family and I went on one of those dinner cruise things for my cousin’s 40th birthday.  It was a lot of fun to be forced to spend time with my family lol

Here’s how the night went:

We arrived before we could load the boat, so my mom insisted we stop and get a drink at El Torito

I had half of a mojito that was the size of my head <not pictured>

My mom, the beautiful instigator, and me (hogging the photo with my big head. eesh!)

Then, later on the boat, we started with some spanakopita (which I prefer to call spank-a-pita because it sounds funnier) and some mystery sauce that I did not touch

then salad

I got mine dry as the dressing was Cesar (for all you newly-inducted vegetarians, Cesar dressing has anchovies, fyi). Sorry for the flash — the cruise’s mood lighting made pictures a beeznich

blurry rolls not pictured.

And, ah, the main course of meat with a side of meat — salmon and flat iron steak (do they take a flat iron to the steak? Can you have curling iron steak? Diffuser steak?)

Looks kinda…hmmm…If only I could show you the very inappropriate alteration my twin made to the food placement after I took this shot…

I opted for the vegetarian option, which was — go figure — mushroom ravioli.  Is there like a contract out there with venues to only serve mushroom ravioli as the vegetarian option?  It was meh because, as usual, it was really just oil and butter with a side of mushroom and pasta.

Then the sky above the boat parted, an angel descended, and dropped this cheesecake in front of me

Let’s thank my hand twin, Chris, for his efforts

Then the floor parted and the devil popped out wearing a red tutu.  He placed this in front of me.

Guys — one splurge is fine.  Two?  Now that’s trouble.  What did I do?  Well, I polished them both off.

Note to self:  Not all splurges are created equal.

Calories in a slice of cheesecake? Could be over 1000 (as a slice of this at Cheesecake Factory). In a slice of chocolate cake? Around 300.
Defying that adage that you can’t have your cake and eat it too?  Calorieless.

Then I did a little dancing…of the Electric Slice…Yep, I felt like I was 10 again!

Ok so I did potentially consume 1300 (+/- 500 who the hell knows?) in dessert alone.  If you add the mushroom ravioli that could have about 790 calories (based on Macaroni Grills’ here), that’s already over 2k calories for an entree and dessert…of ONE meal.  I’m not crying over spilt milk, but, rather, surveying the damage.  In the future — I can either try to exercise more self-control or pray that heaven and hell don’t combine to confront me with two glorious desserts I think I’ll leave it  up to chance since that’s obviously the more intelligent thing to do!

In the News/Noteworthy

• New Scientist‘s, “Meet Future Woman: Shorter, Plumper, more Fertile” (10/19/09) here
• Science Daily‘s, “Culprit Compounds That Block Beans’ Healthful Iron Probed” (10/19/09) here
• Washington Post‘s, “Yes, Thin’s In — But Why Is That A Surprise?” (10/18/09) here
• Free shipping on Me & Goji cereal orders over $15 on Wednesday here
• Justin’s Peanut Butter is releasing packs of Chocolate P.B. next month! See here for all flavors.

Give-Away Round Up

• Win some of Mara’s favorite things including Cherry Larabars and a foodie charm here
• Win a ton of stuff from Cranky Fitness including a TRK Training Bundle or Vitalicious muffins here
• Win a pumpRockr Skateboard (a pivot-driven exercise thingie mabob — looks interesting!) here
• Win some Dr Kracker snacks here
• Win some Vega Sport Performance Enhancing beverage mix here

Ever gone on a dinner cruise?  Was the food any good?  How did you fare in terms of healthy eating behaviors this weekend?

<3, The Cranky One