Pizza Gourmet Express

Gary lives just a block or so East of the adorable heart of University Heights in San Diego, which leads to us trying lots of pedestrian friendly restaurants and bars in the vicinity. One such place is our new favorite "neighborhood pizza joint", Pizza Gourmet Express which hails itself as just that.

I walked over to get a pizza last night, and as I snapped a few pictures I heard, "Oh! Another Yelper!" to which I explained that I wasn't a Yelper, and I had my own food blog, not that being a Yelper is a bad thing, I just already have too much on my plate, ya know?

Pizza Gourmet Express

4615 Park Boulevard
San Diego California 92116
(61...

PEG is kinda like the "Subway" of pizza restaurants, an assembly line of fresh ingredients made fresh to order right in front of your eyes and either taken home to cook yourself, or flash baked in their high speed pizza ovens. Gary and I met the owner, James, who is super nice, awesome and informative. He said he'd stop by and see what I had to say, so... HI JAMES!


We got our old standard, the Vegetarian Pizza, which comes with 4 veggie toppings of your choice. We opted for tomatoes, garlic, artichoke hearts and fresh asparagus, on their thin whole wheat crust, then topped with fresh basil and spices. A lot of times I'll forgo the "whole wheat" options, cuz I don't like eating cardboard, but PGE's 51% whole wheat crust is thin, nutty and still soft which makes it a great camouflaged "healthy" option for those of you trying to watch what you eat without giving up taste. Plus their dough is made and delivered fresh! DELISH!

I also love that they have glass bottled sodas, wines and beers, and even Virgil's Root Beer ON TAP!


Pizza Gourmet Express is also doing their part in the Green Movement and deliver their neighborhood pizzas on a cute red bike! I got mine delivered by a cute bearded man.


We got the pizza home and I immediately began snapping pictures of the deliciousness that was our dinner. A large vegetarian pizza has 8 slices and feeds 2 hungry people with enough left over, for well, left overs and runs you just under $16.



Gary got to eat the rest for dinner the next night.


The month of September has affectionately been dubbed, "Nostalgia Movie Month" so we accompanied our pizza with The Dark Crystal on DVD. GELFLING!?!?

(source.)

Feel free to join us by watching movies from at least 15 years ago that make you say things like, "OH yeahhh!! I forgot that part!"

Up next in our queue is; "The Never Ending Story"

The GM Diet Plan : DAY TWO

I've lost a pound!

Today is Vegetable Day! I can not TELL YOU how happy I am to not be eating fruit. Seriously. UGH. Fruit is fine in moderation, but Jesus people. ALL DAY?!!

Here's what the site says:

Day Two

Eat all vegetables - raw or cooked - of your choice in any quantity. A cooked vegetable does not mean vegetables made in curry or with spices. You can make food palatable by adding a dollop of butter or some salad dressing to it. This is taken for energy and balance. You can start the day by eating a baked potato but the rest of the vegetables consumed during the day should be calorie free and rich in nutrition and fiber.

Back in High School I was a Vegetarian, so today was pretty easy for me. I started off the day with the baked potato.


Just a basic baked potato, with a pat of butter, and since it was vegetable day, I added some green onion for flavor. It was pretty much heaven sent.

I snacked throughout the day on cucumbers in lemon juice and baby carrots. For dinner we had a bit of a feast.


I started off by adding a bit of olive oil into a pan and sauteing onion, zucchini, and yellow summer squash for about 10 minutes, tossing lightly a few times though.


We BBQ'd some corn we got at the Market, but it was TERRIBLE and we split a globe artichoke. To dip the leaves into, we took a bit of butter, garlic cooked it in the microwave and added some lemon juice and olive oil afterwards. It was pretty decent.


We also had some free tickets to the Padres Game so we took the Trolley downtown.


It's very hard to not want to order everything at the stadium, so to curb our hunger, we brought bottles of water, baby carrots and our "cheat" were low sodium sunflower seeds.


I think I ate about 175 calories worth of seeds, so I think I'll be ok.

Eat your heart out, Edward Cullen.

Our seats were TOTALLY SWEET! Like 15 rows back from Home Plate, and we had an amazing time, even if we left at the top of the 8th while the Padres were losing, only to get home and find out we won 6-5 in the 16th!!!! Eeesh! I hate when I leave early to beat the traffic and miss awesome games like this. Anyway, tomorrow we get to add salad into our diet, so I am very excited!

I Heart "Heart" Salad

For Valentine's Day, I planned a great meal in my head. I knew that I wouldn't be able to see Brian until AFTER the 14th, so I kept the recipe in there and acted upon it later. The center of the Valentine Meal was the Salad, which I dubbed Heart Salad based on the ingredients.

You will need;



Hearts of Romaine Lettuce (either chopped yourself , or in a bag; I went the easy route)
"Fancy" Lettuce
Jar of Artichoke Hearts
Jar of Hearts of Palm
Can of Beets
Candied Pecans (I used Trader Joe's, but you can candy them yourself if you want)
Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

I started by draining the can of beets and using a paring knife, carving them into hearts. You can use a small heart shaped cookie cutter, which are very easy to find this time of year, or you can be all fancy schmancy and try to carve them yourself.




It took patience and a steady hand, but eventually I carved them all. Next I drained each jar of "hearts" and cut them into bite size peices.



Next fill a bowl with the hearts of romaine and "fancy" lettuce. What I call "fancy" lettuce is basically radicchio, arugula, baby spinach and the like.



For the dressing I used a premade Red Wine Vinaigrette and fixed it up with some garlic, oregano, lemon juice , a bit of the oil marinade from the artichoke hearts and a bit more red wine vinegar.

Throw everything in the salad bowl and drizzle with the dressing.



Serve with your sweetie.

<3