Jamba Juice Eating Plan Results

Well, I finished my Jamba Juice eating plan with fairly good results. I did vary a little because I am a sucker for a bargain. Jamba is currently running a special where if you buy a wrap or salad and a drink off the menu, they cut two dollars off the bill for your "bundle" (see http://www.summerblissisback.com/foodbanner.php). So I would buy a smoothie and a wrap in the morning, have the smoothie for breakfast (under 300 calories) and then eat the wrap for lunch. Price for such breakfast and lunch bundle was about $7.50. I thought it was a deal for two meals. Then I just made sure that my dinner did not exceed my remaining calories goal for the day. I generally had about 800 calories left for dinner. Other than the night I had dinner at my in laws and the day I slipped in some frozen yogurt for lunch, I stuck to the eating plan for the whole week. At the end of the week, I have lost 1 lbs. Not bad, not great.

I must admit that I need more variety in my eating plan. I do not know how Jared ate so many Subway subs. So, it is just me and my Lose It calculator on my iPhone this week. I am sure I will take advantage of the Jamba Juice bundle again this week, but not everyday.

Review: O'Faolian's Irish Restaurant

O'Faolain's delivers great Irish comfort food. My wife and I drove out to the restaurant after a movie at Reston Towncenter. The drive to Sterling was a bit long, but worth it.

We started out with steamed mussels in a white wine sauce with garlic and chili flecks. The sauce had not been simply pour over boiled mussels. You know what I mean? Instead, you could taste that the mussels had really simmered in the sauce and were permeated with flavor. The dish was so good that we asked the waiter for the recipe. Unfortunately the chef said it was a secret.

I ordered the corn beef and cabbage with parsley boiled potatoes. I had had a "hankering" for good corn beef for a while now, and this dish had the perfect portions of protein, carbohydrates and even a serving of vegetables (because I am on a Body-for-LIFE challenge right now). What made the corn beef and cabbage particularly good was the selection of imported mustard from Ireland. I can't recall the names on the labels, but one was an extra sharp mustard and the other, which was seriously "to die for" good, contained whole mustard seeds in a whiskey sauce.

Other dishes I was tempted to order included the Guinness stewed beef , the beer battered fish and chips or Shepard's pie. My wife ordered the chicken pot pie and it was perfectly delicious.

The decor was Irish, but not my favorite. It had green walls, dark hard wood trim, and some hanging cut glass designs. The patrons eating next to us were drinking, laughing and speaking with Irish accents. However, from the black tiled ceiling to the mid-height walls, I felt like I was in a strip mall property dressed up as an Irish pub. Which is what it is, but it is fun to step into another world, even in an all-American strip mall.

Review: Lounge at The Source by Wolfgang Puck

The Source, is Wolfgang Puck's newest addition to his chain of high end, highly successful restaurants. The restaurant is located in the recently completed Newseum. The decor is modern with very clean lines and seating that includes traditional table seating, but also offers booths, lounge seating, bar tables, and seats at the bar itself. The crowd was made up of the typical DC business professionals from around the Capitol, who were hobnobbing and enjoying themselves.

A rare pleasure presented to Shelley and I this week: an entire day to ourselves, no kids. So we went to one of our favorite spots -- The National Art Gallery. When the gallery closed at 5 pm, we decided to just scoot across the street to The Source. When we arrived, we found out that seating for dinner upstairs did not begin until 5:30 pm. We were starving after a grueling intellectual workout at the galleries and decided to eat downstairs in the Lounge. (We were probably also a little under dressed and the dining room prices for entrees were in the $25 to $45 dollar range. We both know that either the Lacquered Peking Duck with Bing Cherries or the "American Style" Kobe Short Ribs would have sent me to the $45 side of the menu.) The fun thing about the Lounge is that it serves a Tour de Puck snacking menu with classics from his other restaurants, such as the Kobe Beef Sliders from Cut, his Beverly Hills Steakhouse or wood-burning-oven pizzas from Spago's in LA.

Shelley and I love cheese, so we had to start with the Artisinal Cheese with Honey Comb and Quince Paste.

The dish has a very nice selection of traditional cheeses (brie, blue cheese, white cheddar, hard goat cheese and soft goat cheese). The blue cheese was a nice mild blue-green veined cheese, I do not know its name. My favorite cheese was the soft goat cheese with a vein of aromatic vegetable ash. Shelley's favorite was the brie spread on a candied walnut. Served with cranberry wheat bread, quince paste squares, apples slices, candied walnuts and honeycomb, the dish was definitely a dessert. The honeycomb was fun, but we received just a tiny square and I really wished for a tad more. While the plate was nicely crafted, it really lacked color because all the cheeses where white. I would love to have seen a rich orange English cheeder and a carmel brown Norwegian goat cheese, to give the plate more depth in color and flavor.

Next, we had the Kobe Beef Sliders. The Kobe beef was mouth watering. However, neither Shelley nor I were fans of the bread and butter pickle in the slider. Once I removed it, I think the flavor of the Kobe beef was nicely highlighted with a mix of caramelized Vivaldi and fresh red diced onions.

To finish, we had the Pork Belly Dumplings. The plating was pretty, the pork filling was nice, but it was, well, a pork dumpling like at any Chinese restaurant. I was hoping for something special. It wasn't.

The service at the Lounge is, well, bar service -- even if you are sitting at a traditional table. Our cheese plate took forever to come, and then the sliders and dumplings arrived in just a few minutes after we order them before we had finished the cheese. But the bar staff was nice bar staff.

Overall, the Lounge at The Source is a fun and casual way to taste some classic cooking from one of America's most famous chef's.

The Source (Sixth and C sts., NW; 202-637-6100; http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/finedining/the%20source/dc/index.php) is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. Plates on the downstairs menu range from $8 to $15. In the upstairs dining room, entrees are $25 to $45.