" The Belly Rules The Mind"

So much has gone on these past few weeks!!

I went home to McLean, Virginia over the Christmas break and did a lot of eating! We also spent some time in Maui, Hawaii so I will be writing about some of those restaurants as well.

The first restaurant I want to share with you is called Vapiano's in Arlington Virginia. This restaurant has a fun, interactive environment. How it works is when you enter the host gives you a card that looks like a credit card. You walk up to one of three stations the station where you can pick from pizza, pasta. salad and panini or all three! After you order the chef that takes your order cooks your meal right in front of you allowing you to see how they make all their food. They scan your card with your order and you hold on to your card until the end of your meal. At the end you take your card up to the host and they scan it, see how much is on your card and that is what you pay.

The restaurant is very clean and open with an eclectic and modern feel. It has very neat lines which draw your eye to all the decorations. They have long wooden tables to sit at either with your family or others intended for a very social meal.

After trying to figure out what to order for a long time I finally decided on the Carbonara pasta and Dane ordered the Carpacciso pizza. When you order pasta not only do you pick what kind of pasta you actually want but you also pick what kind of noodle you would like your pasta to be made with. The food is amazing! They make all the food in front of you and they grow their own herbs right there in the restaurant so you know it's fresh. It's delectable and mouth watering. The portions are a good sharing size and trust me you will want to share.

My pasta was fresh and very light even though the sauce was super creamy and delicious. Each bite was packed with flavor and the flavors blended very well. The pizza was bright and each bite brought all the crispness of the toppings on the pizza. I would definitely order this again but I hope to order many more items off the menu to get a real taste of the restaurant.

This is definitely a place I will return to and bring my friends so they can enjoy this wonderful creation. Like this fish pizza!

1st Recipe: Malawi Inspired

I choose to do pasta this week because of the pasta dish I ordered at Malawi's. Their pasta was simple but elegant and that is what I wanted to try to create this week.

This week the recipe we decided to try was called Pasta with Zucchini, Bacon and Parmesan. I found it on the Food Network website which is where I usually get all my new food recipes from.

It is a very simple recipe but it is packed with flavor and will make you go back for seconds and thirds. As you will see in the pictures I also made a soup. This soup is called Roasted Pear- Butternut Soup with Crumbled Stilton and you can find it on the Food Network website.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/eating-well/roasted-pear-butternut-soup-with-crumbled-stilton-recipe/index.html

This pasta recipe takes 10 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook. It will serve 6 people.

For this recipe you will need:

-1 pound penne rigate pasta
-4 ounces bacon, sliced into 1/2 pieces
-2 large zucchini, diced
-1 cup reserved pasta water
-3/4 cup very loosely packed, finely grated Parmesan cheese
-salt and pepper

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water to al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot and set aside.

In a large saute pan, add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy. Add the zucchini and cook until it starts to soften. 

Place the cooked pasta over low heat. Add the reserved pasta water, cooked bacon, zucchini and the grated cheese. Toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve immediately.

This is a very simple recipe and it only takes 30 minutes and pasta is great for next day leftovers.

These next couple pictures are of the soup I made and the finished product.

Something I did to make the presentation a little more exciting is put my soup in dessert shooters. This makes the soup a fun appetizer but you still save room for the main course. 

This recipe is fantastic and would recommend it to anyone who was looking for a good pasta dish! When my husband and I make this again I think I we'll try adding garlic or onions to it to really play with the flavor.  It's already delicious but I really want to add my own spin.  I can't wait to continue trying new recipes with my husband.