I Conquered The Pound A Day Challenge!

[IlliniMouse]

Never heard of it? It's a brand new thing. Well, maybe it's not. This is just my version of it! It's relatively simple. Go to Disney, eat with reckless abandon, and gain a pound a day. I rocked it! (Although not so great when you're on a quest to lose weight.)

Places we went are:

Table service-
O'Hana's (dinner)
Sci-Fi (lunch)
Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Chef Mickey's (dinner)
Boma (breakfast)
Rose and Crown (dinner)
Le Cellier (lunch)
Whispering Canyon (dinner)

Counter service-
Cosmic Rays (dinner)
The Mara (breakfast)
Pizzafari (lunch)
Earl of Sandwich (lunch)
Sunshine Seasons (lunch)
Wofgang Puck Express (lunch)
Lotus Blossum (dinner)
Leaning Palms (lunch)

I didn't take pics of everything, but I do have quite a bit of dessert pics!

Stay tuned...the reviews are coming.

 

[IlliniMouse]

First up is Cosmic Rays. It was our arrival night and the MK was open til 3AM! We needed some substantial food to convert into lots of energy that we'd be needing. By the time we hit the bed that night, we had been up for 23 hours.

I've always liked Cosmic Rays. There are alot of different choices, their toppings bar is awesome, lots of seating, and the line has always run smoothly.

DS and I both had the 1/2 Chicken and BBQ rib combo. It comes with mashed potatoes and green beans. I was going to go with just the chicken, but the CM who took our order told me to go with the combo since we were on the DDP. Same thing as the chicken meal, but you get ribs also. I had the sugar free brownie and DS had the chocolate cake for dessert.

DH had the bacon cheeseburger with fries and chocolate cake.

The chicken was really good! It was moist and had a really good flavor. The ribs weren't anything to write home about, but I really liked the green beans. DH's burger was your typical Disney burger. Not fabulous, but not horrible either.

We were all so full I tossed our desserts into my purse to eat later. Surprisingly, the sugar free brownie is pretty tasty!

Sorry-no pics. I was too excited to be at Disney that there were no pics.

 

[IlliniMouse]

This was our first time at Sunshine Seasons. With the variety they have here I thought all of us could find something we'd like.

It was really busy when we went. It was lunch time and raining to boot. Every building at Epcot was busy that day.

DS and I opted to go with the Asian station. He had the Sweet and Sour Chicken with noodles, and I had the Spicy Cashew Chicken with brocolli and rice or noodles. (I can't remember what my second side was! LOL) DS liked his sweet and sour chicken, and the cashew chicken was good. Wasn't too spicy, but enough of a kick to be able to taste it.

DH had the Pork Chop with potatoes from The Grill area. The pork chop looked a little dry to me, but DH said it was good.

I DO have pics of our desserts. I had the strawberry shortcake, DH had the brownie, and DS had the chocolate mousse cake. The shortcake was really yummy. It was light and it had real whipped cream on it. No cool whippy type stuff on there!

The seating area was jammed full, and there were people everywhere trying to find a place to sit. A CM told me there was seating off to the side (outside of the regular seating area), and The Garden Grill was letting people eat up there until 2 PM. We opted to go up to The Garden Grill.

That evening we went to O'Hana's. This is a favorite of ours and we always go here. The food was good, but our service was lacking.

After we were seated, we were brought bread and our salad. Our server took our drink orders and we sat. And sat. Someone brought us the dipping sauces and our server brought our drinks back. I had ordered a Mai tai and DH ordered a Bud. My Mai Tai was so strong I could barely choke it down. The meat started coming around, and we had yet to see the appetizers or the side dishes. Next to arrive was our appetizers, and later yet were the sides. The whole timing of the arrival of the food was really off. Our server came back after everything had arrived and I asked if I could have my drink lightened up a bit. No problem...he got me a new one and it was much better.We didn't see him again until our table was partially cleared. He asked if he could get us anything else and I said "Dessert?" By the look on his face I could tell he had forgotten about dessert.

Normally I am a go with the flow kind of person. The restaurant was busy-like it usually is, so you gotta cut the servers some slack. However, I was watching the tables around us and their food was arriving as it should and their servers came back to check on them quite often. There was nothing wrong with the food, I was just disappointed in our service.

I didn't take pics this year, but here are some from our last trip.
Won tons

Dipping sauces

Wings

Bread Pudding

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Joining in...

 

[Tracerr00]

Count me in! I hope to follow in your footsteps this summer and join in the pound a day challenge as well! Can't wait to read more!

 

[IlliniMouse]

Thanks for joining in!!

Tracer-if you start conditioning now, you too, can rock the Pound A Day Challenge! May the Mickey Bars be with you!

 

[IlliniMouse]

Started our morning out at DHS and went in search of the much coveted (at least by myself) Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake from Starring Rolls. To say this is "good" is a total understatement. I sat there making yum yum noises while eating this cupcake from the Dessert Gods. Underneath the chocolate shavings is a big ooey gooey blob of chocolatey peanut butter. To.die.for. There is also a layer of the ooey gooey chocolately blob stuff in the cupcake. Except it's a layer instead of a blob there. hehehe

OMG. I am still drooling over that.

To the right of the cupcake from the Gods, you can see DH's cinnamon roll. He said it was good, but there is no way it could have come remotely close to my fantabulous cupcake. I even shared it with DS who got a pretzel before we stopped at Starring Rolls. Pretzel vs. Cupcake=no competition.

For lunch we were off to the Sci-Fi. This was DS fav restaurant from the last trip. He loves the whole atmosphere of the place and loves the movies they show. I wasn't super thrilled with my food there last time, but I loved their chocolate peanut butter cake. (I have a thing for chocolate peanut butter things in case you missed that. )

DS and DH ordered the same thing they had last time. Shrimp pasta. Only DS ordered his with chicken instead. On the menus online it says it comes with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, spinach and feta. I didn't see any of that on their pasta, but by it not being there it saved them a whole lot of picking that stuff off. DS also had an Oreo cookie shake. I tried it. Very tasty.

I opted to go with the Beef and Blue Salad. I LOVED this. The steak was tender and had great flavor. I wasn't expecting a steak that good there for some reason. The blue cheese dressing is da bomb! I left some of my steak sit so I could finish the salad.

Now...on to the dessert. I already knew I was having the.....you guessed it. Peanut-Butter Chocolate Cake. Except it wasn't like I remembered it.
This is a pic of the last time we were there:

(I apologize for not having a pic from this time, but it really is hard to take pics in the Sci Fi. My pics usually turn out blurry.) This year, the cake was shorter. It looked like a mini-bundt cake. And the outside of it was hard. And I don't remember an ooey gooey peanut butter filling oozing out of it like the one in the pic. Needless to say, "THE" cupcake has taken over the top spot in the chocolate peanut butter dessert competition.

Our last meal of the day was Earl of Sandwich in DTD. I love this place. Being creatures of habit, we all had the same thing we've always had. I had The Original 1762. Roast Beef, Cheddar Cheese and creamy horseradish sauce. DH had their BLT and DS had the Meatball. Desserts consisted of bread pudding for me, and brownies for DH and DS. If you've never tried EoS, give it a try. We love it!

 

[Wendy&Grumpy]

Only a pound a day?!

I gained 2 pounds a day on my 3 day cruise on the Dream!

I'm sure if we all try really hard, we can exceed that at Disney!!

 

[IlliniMouse]

Only a pound a day?!

I gained 2 pounds a day on my 3 day cruise on the Dream!

I'm sure if we all try really hard, we can exceed that at Disney!!

2 pounds a day???

We're going on a 7 day next summer...I am scared!!! All I could think of when we got home was "I'd hate to see how much I'd have gained if we hadn't been walking all day long." Maybe I'll have to swim from port to port to keep the weight gain to a minimum!

 

[phabric]

I enjoyed reading your reviews. Looking forward to more.

 

[let'sgo]

I'm in and can't wait to see more! Those desserts look fabulous--next time I'm stopping at Starring Rolls for one of those Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes.

 

[deenbrad]

Never heard of it? It's a brand new thing. Well, maybe it's not. This is just my version of it! It's relatively simple. Go to Disney, eat with reckless abandon, and gain a pound a day. I rocked it! (Although not so great when you're on a quest to lose weight.)

Can't wait!

 

[butiflfeet]

I'm loving your reviews! I've heard the same thing about Ohana in a few other recent reviews so hopefully the service is better for us when we're there in October

 

[moniqueelaine]

I am in....Love the pics....

 

[dumbotink'smom]

Just came back on Saturday and I am positive I met this challenge. Only three pairs of my work pants fit! I hope people don't mind seeing me in the same pants for awhile as it was soooo worth it

 

[IlliniMouse]

Woo hoo! Looks like I'm in good company. Fellow Disney Food Lovers!

I guess I have not properly introduced myself.

everyone! I'm the Mom. 42 yo, maker of all reservations, touring plans, information getter, etc. etc. I'm the big WDW lover in the family. (Although I do suspect DH has the same love but is in denial.) I'm the more adventurous eater of the family. I'm not going to rush out and eat chocolate covered bugs anytime soon, but I'm more likely to try something before the other two in my fam.

DH is 43. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. And pasta. No frills eater. He questions things that look or sound weird. I can almost always guess what he'll choose to eat off the menu.

DS is 12. Typical kid. He loves a buffet because there are alot of choices, it's all you can eat, and you don't have to wait for your food. He's starting to eat a few different things, so he's a step above his dad in the taste testing department.

That's us in a nutshell!

Now where was I on my list? Oh yeah...Crystal Palace, Pizzafari and Chef Mickey's!

 

[IlliniMouse]

When I made our reservations for the Crystal Palace, our ADR was for 8:10am. Park opening was scheduled for 9. I thought it would be super cool to be able to experience the park with very few people wandering around. Turns out they extended the park hours because of Spring Break, so we were let in just a few minutes before rope drop.

We've been to the Crystal Palace before, but not for breakfast. It's a pretty restaurant, Pooh characters are adorable, and the food works for all of us. We were seated before our ADR time and got down to business right away.

CP has your typical breakfast fare available. Pancakes, Mickey waffles (regular AND chocolate), french toast, breakfast pizza, sausage, bacon, eggs, danishes, cold cereal assortment, fresh fruit, bagels, omelet station (if I remember correctly), breakfast potatoes, etc. Everything was fresh and kept full.

No pics.

After doing a few things at the MK, we were off to AK. Mid afternoon I started to get hungry, but no one else really was. I went to Pizzafari and ordered a pepperoni pizza. It came with a Caesar salad, and I ordered chocolate mousse for dessert. I ate the salad, a piece of the pizza, DH had 2 pieces of pizza, and DS had one. Between DS and I we polished off the chocolate mousse. The food was okay. I'd eat there again, but I don't think I'll be anxiously waiting to go back.

Again-no pics.

Dinner was at Chef Mickey's. We were seated a few minutes after our ADR. The place was busy, but the servers were on top of things. Typical buffet food here...food is good, not outstanding, not horrible. This was a request of DS to go back. It is fun to sit there and be able to watch the monorail go through the Contemporary. Mickey did come around to the tables. I had read somewhere on the forums that Mickey was possibly only available for pics before you go in for dinner. That wasn't the case when we were there.

Again...no pics. But, I have dessert pics from the last time and they were still the same!
Cheesecake, chocolate mousse mouse, and a key lime torte. All very good!

 

[IlliniMouse]

I can't belive I forgot about the snacks!!!

First snack was a turkey leg. We had our first one last summer out in DL. DS kept seeing them and decided he wanted to try one. I always thought they looked nasty, but decided you never know til you try. We all loved it. They're so huge that the three of us take turns with it! (On a side note, they had turkey leg shirts at World of Disney. Had to buy one of those for DS!)

Dole Whip float. This was a first for me. I've read about them, but had never tried one. I had the pineapple/pineapple one. It was good, but it's not my fav.

Ice cream. 5 snack credits were used at the Edy's ice cream place on Main Street. DH ordered a small the one night and it came with little chocolate mouse ears on it! Super cute. I was jealous. I had their featured flavor which was some sort of chocolate/coffee flavor. It was good. DS had cookies and cream. They went back another night for ice cream, but I had to stop at a cart and get my Mickey bar. A trip isn't a trip without a Mickey bar. We had full intentions of making it to Ghiardelli's, but never made it. Next trip!

Zebra domes! Had to make a stop at the Mara at Jambo House to get some of these. Another first time snack. They were good, but not what I was expecting. I thought they'd be more like a truffle, but the inside is softer. It's a great snack credit deal. 5 of them in the container.

The cinnamon roll and PB cupcake were also snack credits.

Fudge...3 pieces of it. Regular fidge, mint fudge, and peanut butter fudge. All guilt free, fat free, calorie free. Can't beat that!

Other snacks were popcorn, pretzel, and rice crispy treats!

I had full intentions of going to Norway and having school bread. I LOVE that stuff! That didn't happen this trip either. Nor did my mango margarita from Mexico. Everytime we were near those places I wasn't wanting anything to eat or drink.

 

[IlliniMouse]

I'm in and can't wait to see more! Those desserts look fabulous--next time I'm stopping at Starring Rolls for one of those Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes.

There's also a Butterfinger Chocolate cupcake there. It looked really good. Next time we go, I'm ordering a box of cupcakes to go. Eating breakfast is a must before heading to the parks. And a high carb load is recommended! Bursts of energy is needed to speed walk (no running!) to Soarin', TSM, etc for fast passes!

 

[MAGIC...itis!]

Enjoying your report, and “the much coveted (at least by myself) Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake from Starring Rolls” looks like a winner! Thanks.