Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Tuna/Chicken Salad Melt and NEW CONTRIBUTOR!

I am very proud to present O'Donovan's on the Waterfront's newest contributor, Alyssa Huberts! Alyssa has been responsible for several of our previous recipes, such as the Pear-Chicken Pizza and Thai-Chicken Pizza. Seeing as John and Scott are having some trouble coming up with new recipes, we hope that Alyssa will fill the void in your life caused by inadequate Leo's creativity. We'll have her bio up on the "About Us" Page shortly. And now, her first original recipe!

~2 English Muffin halves, toasted if desired (available from MYOP)
~Sliced Tomato
~Tuna or Chicken Salad
~Slice of Cheese

Put the English Muffin Halves, openfaced, on a make-your-own-pizza plate. Lay a tomato slice on each. Spread tuna/chicken salad and top with a slice of cheese. Send it through the Make-your-own-pizza oven and enjoy!


Editor's note: This is seriously an amazing dish. You can try it with a bagel as well, but English muffins work better for the size of the tomato slice. Also, I find that the tuna works a little better because the mayo in the chicken salad melts and gets a little messy.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Baked Potatoes

So before we get to the actual subject of this post, we have many updates going on here. First, we know that there haven't been many original recipes as of late. Have no fear, that is about to change. Check back on Wednesday for more.

In other news, we've just hit 10,000 views all time! That's great, but tell your friends about us so we can continue to grow. Remember that if you read this blog regularly, you can follow us either on Facebook or on Blogger to make things easier. Check on the sidebar over there -->

Now for today's suggestion: the Baked Potato Bar
We've previously raved about the carving station, especially their lunchtime sandwiches. However, we also need to tout their baked potatoes, which are always available, without a line, and are always quite delicious.  I've taken to eating one literally at almost every meal. Just snag one, cut it open, spoon in some sour cream as well as bacon, chives, or cheese, and enjoy. As an added bonus, Leo's prepares their baked potatoes how I call, "Red Lobster Style," with sea salt on the skin. This makes the skin really quite delicious and you get the extra health benefits of it. I hope you all try this out!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Hot and Cold

Hello, we've missed you all!

As you may have noticed, OOTW ran into a bit of a stall over the past few weeks. Part of that is due to increased business with schoolwork and ultimate, but part is also due to the fact that our new year innovation has begun to wear off =( . Of course we're still working when we get the chance (and we might have a new contributor soon!) but for now, we want to ask for your contributions. Many of our ideas come from things we see or hear about from our friends, but for all of you readers that we haven't met, feel free to email us or comment with your ideas! We'll credit you of course if you would like.

On that note, here's this week's simple pleasure: hot soups and cold salad dishes.

Leo's rotates their soups on a daily basis, and they're generally pretty enjoyable. I promise you won't have to wait in line, and with the coming winter months, they might be exactly what you're looking for in a hot and comforting dish.

If, on the other hand, you wish you didn't have to eat something lukewarm that was intended to be hot (yeah, it happens all the time, we know), try something meant to be eaten cold. Now I don't claim to be an expert on making traditional salads, but I have come to enjoy some of the cold pasta, rice, or vegetable salads that Leo's concocts between the fruit and waffle-maker downstairs. They sometimes contain some really unusual and delicious ingredients, and the variation is quite satisfying. As an added bonus, they're usually vegetarian and relatively healthy. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Simple Pleasure Mondays: The "value" of grab 'n go

Hello O'Donnovators,

Happy Mid-midterm Fortnight! Don't know about y'all but this week promises to be an absolute killer in terms of workload; best of luck to everyone on their myriad midterms, essays, and what have you.

As you contemplate the option of grab 'n go as a viable and time-saving alternative in the midst of all those assignments you've been procrastinating on, let's take a closer look at how much you're paying for what you get. Here is what one grab 'n go lunch consists of:

-1 entree (salad, sandwich)
-1 beverage (water, soda, milk, juice)
-2 sides (fruit, chips, yogurt)
-1 dessert (cookies) or an additional side

All for the price of $11.55; breaking it down into ballpark proportional prices for each of these items, here's how much you're paying:

-Entree: $6
-Beverage: $1
-Sides: $1.50 each ($3 total)
-Dessert: $1.50

Now flash in your mind the type of food you're getting for each of those prices. Good grief--$1.50 for those measly two cookies? $1.50 for an apple? A whopping $6 for a pre-packaged sandwich?! Reallocate those prices however you want, but you'll never come out on top...

We understand grab 'n go is fast and convenient, but when you break it down and see how much each individual item is costing you, it's really a shame. Since this is supposed to be a simple pleasure post, I leave you with the recommended pleasure of getting a decent meal value from actually inside Leo's rather than taking grab 'n go as an alternative. A great way of thinking about this when you pick your meal plan: choose the number of meals that you will definitely eat inside Leo's, because for every grab 'n go you use you're paying about $5 more than what you'd pay for similar items at Safeway, Wisey's, or other eateries.

If you're concerned about time, here are some suggestions for the fastest ways to get in and out of Leo's with a good meal:
1) Pasta/Vegetarian: I love pasta, and there's not much you can do to mess it up. You will have your food within 30 seconds of walking into Leo's.
2) Pizza/Bistro Pasta & Garlic Bread: see last week's post for details
3) Make your own sandwich: Rarely a line, and you can get in and out quickly. I love their chicken salad.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Pesto-Veggie MYOP

A few weeks ago was Be Well week here at Georgetown, and Leo's was quite involved in getting people to eat healthier and smarter. I decided I'd post something I made a little while ago, which is a much healthier pizza than those we usually make (decked out with any combination of cheeses, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and ranch dressing)

Ingredients:
Pesto Sauce (from fresh pasta line)
MYOP crust
Mozzarella Cheese
Baby Spinach leaves
Onions
Green Peppers
Tomatoes
Black Olives (optional)
Oregano, Parmesan Cheese

The key to this is getting the pesto from upstairs. Generally if you bring the workers a small bowl and ask for a scoop or 2 or sauce, they'll oblige. Take that downstairs and spread it on a pizza crust, saving a little bit to go on top at the end. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese, then arrange baby spinach leaves over. Sprinkle evenly with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and olives if desired. Let the pizza cook, then top it off with the remaining sauce drizzled over, plus some oregano and Parmesan.


Note how the olives here really add to the appearance of the pizza, but if you're not a fan, it's definitely good enough without them.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

National Coming Out Day Rainbow Wrap

As most of you probably know, today is National Coming Out Day. In accordance with this important event, John and Scott decided that, in full support of the LGBTQ community, we would celebrate with a themed Leo's dish. I decided upon a Rainbow Wrap to reflect the recognized rainbow flag of the community.

Unfortunately there are literally zero foods that are naturally blue (blueberries and blue corn are more purple-ish), and besides, you definitely can't find them in Leo's. Instead, I made sure to get myself a Mr. Blue to drink alongside this meal.

The ingredients in the wrap, in order (which is super important, even if the staff member gets mad at you) are:

Tomatoes
Carrots
Corn
Spinach
Cucumbers
Black Beans (closest I could get to blue)
Red Onions

I topped it off with a bit of Italian dressing.



On a more generalized note, I would like to stress that color contrast is extremely important when creating any type of wrap. Also, be careful of the extreme overpowering flavor of Feta cheese, but I support the incorporation of corn and black beans. 

Also today was Leo's attempted celebration of Oktoberfest, which was iffy at best. Though I sorta enjoyed the pretzels, and the chocolate dipped banana was quite good, I was unable to find the rootbeer kegs that were promised...

Monday, October 10, 2011

Simple-Pleasure Mondays: New and Improved Bistro

For this week's contribution, we would like to highlight a section of Leo's that appears vastly superior to what it was last year: the Bistro.

Besides overseeing our favorite station, (MYOP) the Bistro serves simple foods that are quickly accessible (unlike At Home) and very consistently edible. Pizza is pizza, but I've found that Leo's does a pretty good job with it.

Be wary of the calzones, as they are not always good, but an interesting combo is generally worth trying.

The new garlic bread is fantastic, I get it all the time.

The pasta/vegetarian dish they have off to the side is a good bet, but is sometimes too saucy or vegetable-y for me, so use your judgement.

Finally, some of the new specialty pizzas are quite delicious, with Chicken Fajita Pizza, some Chipotle thing, and various options with pesto. Beware the one with bacon, however, that was a bit much