Back from Vacation!

Joel and I spent 9 days in Costa Rica this month to celebrate 10 years of married bliss. :) We stayed at an all inclusive resort which meant I didn't have to scan the price side of the menu before placing my order....which I loved.

There were three restaurants on location and we ate at all three. Not only did we eat at all three, I dare say I probably tried every item on every menu. The true challenge was the restaurant that was all buffet...I had lots and lots of little plates with little bites of all my options divided among them.

The food was very basic, fish and chicken (some beef), lots of rice and potatoes, and mounds of fruit and pineapple. Some of our favorites:

- Chicken empanadas
- Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice)
- Rice Pudding
- Grilled lamb with a chimichurri sauce (herbs, olive oil, garlic, parsley...)
- Baked apple and chocolate (see pic below)
- The Salad bar at the Del Fuego restaurant was incredible...olives, greens, cold cuts
- Onion Soup
- The anchovy on the caesar salad, not so much the caesar salad
- Basil Fusilli soup
- Tikki beef tenderloin served with a carmelized onion sauce
- Ginger creme caramel cake
- German chocolate cake

Ok, so it does look like the desserts win. We loved eating so many fruits and veggies and have tried to reshape our home dining experience to better mimic our eating habits in Costa Rica. I have been making a lot of fish and veggie dishes...which I will make sure to include in future posts.

For those of you curious about Costa Rica, we thought the country was absolutely beautiful and loved being there. I was most surprised with all the wildlife we saw: coati and babbies, large and small iguanas, lots and lots and lots of bugs, crabs, fireflys, white tailed deer, racoons...