UPDATED Eat Out Review: Thai Evergreen

This is a sponsored post.  We received compensation for our review from Restaurant.com as a member of their Review Crew, but all reviews are our own honest opinion.

If you’ve been to the Orem Wal-Mart very often, you’ve probably spotted this little family-run Thai spot in the strip mall across the street. Our first visit was just over a year ago, but Thai Evergreen has become our favorite Thai take-out place since it’s not too far from our home.  It’s a bit of a hole-in-the-wall and a little too quiet if there aren’t many diners there, but the food is fantastic and the service is friendly.

Thai Evergreen has a variety of dishes on the menu including curries, noodles, soups, and their own homemade ice creams. If you’re there at lunchtime, take advantage of their lunch specials.  There are three lunch choices for $7.50 each ($7.99 if you want to include a drink). Each is served with white rice, two dumplings, and two entrees (Massaman Chicken Curry & Cashew Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken & Orange Chicken, or Garlic Chicken & Beef Pepper Steak).

We’ve tried quite a few things there and everything has been served hot and seemed very fresh, generally with lots of perfectly prepared vegetables.  We’ve never had anything that hasn’t been at least good, but a lot of the food has been excellent. 

Cashew Chicken & Massaman Chicken Curry Lunch Special:  The Cashew Chicken has a lot of red & green bell peppers, pineapple, cilantro, and onions with an average amount of cashews. The Massaman (one of my favorite Thai dishes) has a wonderfully creamy-coconut flavor with nice chunks of chicken, potatoes, & carrots. I seriously order the Massaman every single time. 

Orange Chicken & Teriyaki Chicken Lunch Special:  The Orange Chicken is one of the best I’ve had with a fresh orange-tasting sauce, crispy fried pieces of chicken, and little orange segments. The Teriyaki has a lot of vegetables including broccoli, onions, & carrots in a sweet sauce.

Spring Rolls: Filled with fresh vegetables & mint with a spicy pepper dipping sauce.

Pad Thai:  Typical flavors, but done well.  Little Diner loves this and can usually eat about 100 helpings by himself.

Crispy Sweet & Sour Chicken:  Breading on the chicken was still crispy with a quite sweet sauce and lots of vegetables including red & green bell peppers, cucumber, celery, tomato, pineapple, cilantro, & green onion.  My kids’ favorite!

If you live close enough for take out, phoning in an order is really easy and it is ready really quickly, usually in ten to fifteen minutes!  You can also save some money by using a Restaurant.com certificate whether you are dining in or doing take-out.  Restaurant.com has discount certificates available to thousands of restaurants across the country.  Their certificates are easy to use with few restrictions (besides minimum purchase amount) and never expire.

Entrée Price: $
Average Fork Rating: 3.6
Mrs. Diner: 4
Amazing Diner: 4
Sweet Diner: 4
Little Diner: 3
Guest Diner: 3

Giveaway: Foster Farms Oven Ready Entrees

This is a sponsored post.  Product has been provided by Foster Farms, but any opinions expressed are my own.

Foster Farms has a new convenience food on the market:  Oven Ready Entrees.  They sound so easy that I think even my older kids could handle it.  Each package contains two fresh chicken breasts already seasoned and ready to go in the oven.  It even comes packaged in an oven-safe, recyclable tray.  Al you have to do is cut a slit in the film and pop it in the oven for thirty minutes.  How easy is that?  Even if you “don’t cook”, you can’t really come up with a reason that you couldn’t prepare one of these. 

Foster Farms Oven Ready Entrees come in four flavors:  Chile Verde, Roasted Red Pepper, Zesty Thai, and Honey Roasted Garlic.  Really, they all sound delicious, and I love the variety of flavor profiles.  I can’t wait to bake them in my oven and then use them on a salad or in a sandwich. Wouldn’t these just be fantastic?

You can find them only in the West right now, from Colorado to Hawaii in retailers like Food 4 Less, Food Maxx, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Lucky, Ralph’s, Safeway, Save Mart, Super Target, Stater Brothers, Raileys, and Vons.  However, five lucky readers will win coupons to try the Oven Ready Entrees for free.

To Enter:  Comment on this post with the flavor of Foster Farms Oven Ready Entrees that most appeals to you.  See the Rafflecopter form to enter and for additional entries.

Giveaway Closes: 12:01 am EST on Monday, June 24, 2013. Winners will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond. You must be at least 18 years old and have a US address. Winners should be prepared to use the coupon in the West from Colorado to Hawaii before the end of the year.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Still using Google Reader? Time to Change!

Hopefully you’ve heard before now, but if not:  Google Reader is going away on July 1.  That means you have less than two weeks to transfer all your feeds if you use Google Reader as your blog reader.  I signed up for both Feedly and Bloglovin’, two popular readers that are gaining a lot of users since the end of Google Reader was announced.  I’ve been trying both of them out for a few months now and they’re both great.  I tend to like Feedly a bit more.  Decide which is best for you by checking out the pros and cons of both readers.  I think they both still need some tweaking, but they’re updating all the time. 

Ready to make the switch?  Check out these two great posts about how to do it…and do it now before all your blog feeds disappear. 

• Bloglovin’
• Feedly

And if you’ve been using Google Friend Connect all this time, you may want to resubscribe because I’m not sure what’s going to happen to feeds that are through GFC. 

Eat In Recipe: Caribbean Ropa Vieja

Get ready…I am going to reveal to you the most amazing thing I’ve made in my kitchen lately:  Ropa Vieja.  Now, if you know any Spanish but aren’t familiar with that dish, you may read “old clothes” and think, “What?”  But, yes, it’s amazing.  I guess it was originally called Ropa Vieja because someone thought the shreds of beef and colorful pieces of vegetables looked like old rags. 

The great thing is that this Caribbean dish tastes nothing like old clothes.  It’s deliciously full of amazing flavors that are different from my usual flavor profile.  The olives bring a briny flavor with a bit of tartness which is nicely balanced by the other ingredients including the sweet brown sugar and red pepper.   The beef is very tender and saturated with juices and the overall dish comes across slightly salty and sweet.  I absolutely loved it and everyone who tried it (i.e.., not Little Diner) liked it.  Sweet Diner even had seconds.  Oh, and the leftovers are just as good if not better a day or so later. 

Ropa Vieja
(adapted from 2011 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Cook Book)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound flank steak, cut into 3x4 inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 medium Spanish onion, chopped (or any sweet onion)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped
7 ounces canned diced tomatoes (about half a can)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 ounces sliced green olives with brine
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup water
coarse salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Brown flank steak until it has a nice brown crust, about ten minutes.  Set steak aside.
2. Add garlic to the pan and sauté briefly until soft and fragrant.  Add onion and sauté for one to two minutes until soft and translucent.  Add vinegar,stirring to loosen the browned bits from the pan.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.  Add meat back to pan.
4. Bring ingredients back to a boil and turn temperature down to simmer uncovered on low for three hours or until meat is tender. 
5. Remove meat and shred.  Add meat back to the liquid and simmer an additional 30 minutes.  Remove bay leaf.  Taste again and season to your liking with salt and pepper.  Serve over rice.

Average Fork Rating:  4.3
Mr. Diner:  4
Mrs. Diner:  5
Amazing Diner:  4
Sweet Diner:  4

Oh – and if you want to hear about our delicious experiences at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, check out the fun we had in 2011 & 2012 (Part 1 & Part 2).  I highly recommend going if you ever have the chance.  For us, it’s been a bit addictive!

Food Holiday Link Party: National Turkey Lover’s Month

Does it seem a little weird that Turkey Lover’s Month is in June?  Seems like it should be November, right?  Oh well…turkey is awesome any time of the year.  Here’s what I’m sharing:  DP Chili (as in Doctor Pepper, people).  Not a typical warm weather food, but it is really delicious & uses ground turkey.

Now it’s your turn.  Link up any recipe that has turkey in it.  Linky is open Monday through Friday.  On Saturday, we’ll feature our favorites and the most-clicked on post (all of which will be pinned on our Pinterest boards).  Each week, we’ll be back with a new food holiday celebration.  Here’s what’s coming up next week:

June 24-28     National Seafood Month

A few rules:

• Please follow Rate the Plate Utah. To make sure you get future link party notifications in a timely manner, we recommend subscribing by email.
• Link to a specific post (not your home page) that is related to the theme (we reserve the right to delete any posts that are inappropriate, spam-like, or otherwise not related to the current link party theme). Can be a new or old post. You may link more than one post.
• Visit at least 2 other entries and leave comments or pin the ones you love.
• Please share by posting about our link party on Facebook, Twitter, and/or putting our party button anywhere on your blog.
• By submitting your post, you are giving permission to feature a link & picture from your blog on our features post, if chosen.  Please submit posts that feature your own photographs.

<a href=" http://www.ratetheplateutah.com/search/label/Food%20Holiday?updated-max=2012-02-21T12:45:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=8&by-date=false "><img src=" http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/jebond76/Public/Food-Holiday-Button2-300_zps6fa27e87.jpg " border="0" alt="Food Holiday Link Party" /></a>

Time for the fun!  Come back on Saturday to see the features!

Food Holiday Features: National Candy Month

There were some really fun things brought to our candy party this week.  Can’t wait to show you all the features!  First, if you’re following along, this is what we have coming up:

June 17-21     National Turkey Lover’s Month
June 24-28     National Seafood Month

…AND here are our fabulous features from this week:

Click Pic Feature :  Homemade Peanut Butter Cups from Framed Frosting

My Picks:

Lemon Drop Candy Cookies form I Dig Pinterest!

Kid in a Candy Store DIY Fluted Bowls from What’s On The List?

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Candy Bar Chunks from Like Mother, Like Daughter

Food Holiday Link Party: National Candy Month

Candy!  I’ve got to admit this is one of the first things I think of when I think of candy:

I always wanted a candy shop like that in my neighborhood...and who didn’t want to go to Mr. Wonka’s factory and eat anything & everything in that candy garden room?  June is National Candy Month, so let’s have some fun by sharing candy recipes!

Link up any recipe that has candy in it or is a recipe for making any kind of candy.  Linky is open Monday through Friday.  On Saturday, we’ll feature our favorites and the most-clicked on post (all of which will be pinned on our Pinterest boards).  Each week, we’ll be back with a new food holiday celebration.  Here’s what’s coming up for the rest of June:

June 17-21     National Turkey Lover’s Month
June 24-28     National Seafood Month

A few rules:

• Please follow Rate the Plate Utah. To make sure you get future link party notifications in a timely manner, we recommend subscribing by email.
• Link to a specific post (not your home page) that is related to the theme (we reserve the right to delete any posts that are inappropriate, spam-like, or otherwise not related to the current link party theme). Can be a new or old post. You may link more than one post.
• Visit at least 2 other entries and leave comments or pin the ones you love.
• Please share by posting about our link party on Facebook, Twitter, and/or putting our party button anywhere on your blog.
• By submitting your post, you are giving permission to feature a link & picture from your blog on our features post, if chosen.  Please submit posts that feature your own photographs.

<a href=" http://www.ratetheplateutah.com/search/label/Food%20Holiday?updated-max=2012-02-21T12:45:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=8&by-date=false "><img src=" http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/jebond76/Public/Food-Holiday-Button2-300_zps6fa27e87.jpg " border="0" alt="Food Holiday Link Party" /></a>

Time for the fun!  Come back on Saturday to see the features!