I am Stuffed!!

And I don’t know why really. I was starving, starving, starving right before dinner. The Husband and I went to Bensi (no web site – can you believe it?) for dinner. I ordered the Potato Croquettes for us to share, and then the Portobello Salad for me for an entree. The Husband ordered a Grilled Chicken and Mozzarella sandwich. When he heard about my choice in entree, he asked why I chose that. I said I was looking for something healthy for dinner, which he laughed at when he saw that I ordered dessert – Creme Brulee Cheesecake! But I ordered it for both of us!!

The first time I went to Bensi’s, it was very soon after they opened, about a year and a half ago. The service was painfully slow… and it hasn’t changed. Tonight, we sat at the bar and waited a good 15 minutes without being acknowledged. There were only 5 other people at the bar, all having been served already. I didn’t feel like waiting any more, or tipping this kind of service, so I went to their take-out spot and ordered our dinner to go. We sat in the parking lot and ate there instead. We had some errands to run, so didn’t have a lot of time for a lingering dinner anyway.

Now back to the meal. The Potato Croquettes were delicious! Well, not too unexpected for something fried, right? The Portobello Salad was ok. A bit steep at $8.95, it was four mushrooms with a balsamic dressing, topped with too soft red pepper pieces. Nine bucks for 4 mushrooms caps? Not terribly impressed. The Creme Brulee Cheesecake was good, but I think what made it good was the raspberry sauce drizzled over it. When I see the phrase Creme Brulee, I think of that nice, golden, slightly crunchy topping, which this didn’t have. The top was golden, but no crunch. Of course, The Husband, being picky about his taste for cheesecake, had one bite and left the rest for me … so much for a healthy meal, eh?

Now to back up the day a bit … a few of us in the office are taking a stab at Weight Watchers (I’m doing WW for lunch at least). For something different, we decided to order from Applebees, since they have a Weight Watchers section now. I ordered the French Onion Soup Au Gratin (3 points) and the Shrimp Skewer Salad (4 points). The soup was good, although it is pretty hard to ruin onion soup. The salad — very disappointing. For starters, it’s $10!!! The shrimp was good, but it tops a bed of iceberg lettuce. Now for a $10 salad, I don’t want to see iceberg lettuce. How about a little spring mix? Or spinach leaves? But iceberg? Puhleeze! Even Wendy’s, in their Garden Sensation Salad line, uses spring mixes for the lettuce, as opposed to just iceberg. Geesh!

My feeling is this … I work hard for my money. Sometimes at the end of the day, I just want to have someone else cook for me, but when I’m forking over the money for the meal, I want it to be worth it. Ten dollars for a salad that is made up largely of cheap, common, iceberg lettuce (about 80% lettuce to 20% shrimp) is ridiculous … make me feel good about the money I spent. Is that too much to ask?

This being our “date night,” Nicholas was home with the babysitter. He had but one request, and it’s the same one every week … an Icee from 7-11, a blue one for him and a pink one for his babysitter. A bargain at 89 cents, he does the happy dance as soon as we walk in with the Icees. Now there’s money I can live with spending.

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