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.

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.

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...

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

Georgetown Dining Survey! Please Participate!

You all should probably have just gotten an email from Georgetown Dining with a link to a survey. We STRONGLY encourage you to take this survey to help G-Town Dining determine what they can do to improve your eating needs on campus. It doesn't take too long, but can if you write a super long comment like I did.

I have included below my responses to the generalized Leo's quality section, as well as my lengthy comment raving against At Home no longer being self-serve.

"The new policy this year of having employees serve each student's food at the "At Home" station is extremely inefficient and unsatisfactory. College students need to be able to decide how much they want to eat, and need to be able to get food very quickly. At peak eating times, the line is unbearable, and students are not even able to serve their own food while a staff member is retrieving another pan. The At Home station is supposed to be entirely pre-made food that is easy to get on a plate quickly, and having staff members serve it is extremely detrimental to the dining experience. If cleanliness is a concern, it is certainly more efficient to have one staff member watching the station frequently to clean up any messes than to have two constantly occupied by serving food. The other unoccupied staff member could then aid in refilling pans of food in a more timely manner. If the concern is about controlling portions: Students pay for an all-you-can eat meal plan, and should be able to take as much as they wish without getting back in line multiple times (assuming of course that they eat it all). Thank you for your considerations."

Nacho Salad

Yet another change we adore about Leo's this year: the taco station is open during dinner too! An awesome executive call on the staff's part. 

Keep in mind they don't have exactly the same menu as they do during lunch; there is usually a pot of chicken and nacho sauce instead of the regular rice and meat of the day, and no tortillas. With this in mind you can fake your way to a decent burrito by grabbing a green tortilla from the "tossed n wrapped" station, or try our latest O'Donnovation: the nacho salad. A delicious and far more healthful way to get all the guacamole and black bean goodness of nachos without the carbs of regular nachos (keep that toned, sexy core you've been working on with the help of my brilliant ab workout known as the "mitchslabs"--inquire by email or in person).

Ingredients:

-Your choice of lettuce from the salad bar

-Assorted toppings fromt the taco station

Directions:

Prettymuch just get a well sized pile of lettuce from the salad bar downstairs, then head back up to the upper level and top it with all the nacho fixin's you desire. My favorite selections as featured below include shredded chicken, black beans, jalepeños, tomato, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and a few crumbled chips sprinkled on top. 

Fraîche....

Simple Pleasure Mondays: How to Roll a Burrito

Fellow Leo's-ers (and winners),

Given my California heritage and affinity for Mexican food, I must first inform you in an especially smug manner that burritos are not actually Mexican food! Now I will proceed by showing you how to correctly roll such a feax-Mexican delicacy properly, as this greatly enhances the eatability of the burrito.

1. Begin by mixing all your burrito ingredients together with a fork--no one likes a big bite of only sour cream--and gather all the ingredients into the lower third of the tortilla.

2. Fold up the two sides of the tortilla only along the part where the ingredients are.

3. Bring the bottom part of the tortilla up over all of the ingredients, and cinch it down just above all the ingredients.

4. Fold the remaining parts of the sides of the tortilla inward, and roll it all upward until the tortilla is completely wrapped.