A Great Find, Even Without the Deal

Last August I told you about my experiences with the online deal sites in Deal or No Deal.  For those deals I payed half of the value of what I was purchasing.  Now I've found Savings Ottawa.  They sometimes offer a coupon which is worth dollars off, or perhaps a two for one deal, without us having to pay anything to get it.  While the ones you purchase almost guarantee you will use them to visit the vendor, these free coupons are still very handy to have.

We had to go into Ottawa today, and I happened to have a two for one coupon for the Merivale Fish Market.  Yes, they sell fish there, but it's also a restaurant, and my coupon said that if we ordered one meal, a second of equal or lesser value would be free.  We had never been to this establishment before, but we thought we would give it a try.  It turns out the coupon was only good from Sunday to Thursday, so we were a day too early to use it. It did say that on the coupon, but I had forgotten. Anyway, it was a nice little place and the plates I saw being delivered to the tables around us were heaped high with good looking food.  We opted to stay and give it a try, and each ordered fish and chips.  Now, there were actually three choices for that.  There was halibut, wild or otherwise, and catch of the day, which happened to be cod today.  We both chose the regular halibut. 

The meal of two batter fried fillets came with fresh cut fries and a lovely coleslaw, served up on a piece of cabbage leaf.  The batter was light and the fish was marvelous. There was both lemon and tartar sauce served with it.  We may not have got the two for one deal on this particular trip, but we did find a great new place to eat out.  We will definitely go back there, and I recommend it to everyone.

Meanwhile, why not sign up at Savings Ottawa and pick up a few deals of your own. 

Jumping Hurdles

Yesterday I was at a social event where there are usually a lot of good sandwiches and some sort of other goodies to be had. I was determined not to get into that stuff, and luckily some nice person also brought along some red grapes. Red grapes are an acceptable food on the 17 Day Diet, and a great treat, so I didn’t feel that I missed out on anything.

I woke up this morning to discover I had lost another pound. That’s 5 pounds in five days. Amazing. But I had another challenge ahead of me. I happen to be Queen of the local Red Hat Society Chapter, and I had arranged for our group to gather for lunch today. Going to a restaurant for a meal could prove to be rather difficult with the current limited food choices.

A funny thing happened the moment I entered the establishment. One of the waitresses greeted me with an expression of amazement and said, "Aren’t you on a diet?" Clearly that meant, what the heck are you doing in here! I admitted that I was, and wondered how she knew. Facebook, of course. Our lives are open books to everyone these days, between Facebook, Twitter and Blogs like this one. I had to laugh, but told her I’d manage, but might be calling for some extra vinegar for the salad I planned to have. She agreed most of their dressings seem to have sugar in them, and oil and vinegar would likely be my best choice, under the circumstances. I was lucky today as their soup special was a chicken leek, which has a clear broth, so I had both soup and salad. The soup, of course, came with the usual crackers and a lovely fresh bun, that had just come out of the oven. Tempting, but I never touched it, or the crackers.

I made it through two days of minefields and never strayed off the prescribed course. Mind you, no matter how careful I am in a restaurant, there is something about their food that tends to make me weigh more the next day. I’ll just have to wait and see if I made it safely over the hurdles.