Chipotle Chicken Bowl - Did It Give Me Food Poisoning?

We've all read that Chipotle had issues with food poisoning about a year or so ago, but did this give me food poisoning?

To be fair, my wife had the same thing, but she did not have cheese on it and did not have salsa like I did.  She did not get food poisoning.  And, for dinner, we went for appetizers at Yard House in Glenview, IL.  She didn't eat all the appetizers I ate though.  Perhaps it was something from there?  I guess we'll never really know.

I tossed and turned all night but didn't throw up or have any other incidents... just a sour stomach.  I suppose I'm lucky.  Others don't do so well with food poisoning.

Royal Buffet Lunch With Balanced Exposure Students - Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL

I had lunch with four of the Balanced Exposure students today at Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL.  We had a great time!

The students that went have the opportunity to win a free class of their choice worth up to $79 by posting one of their best smartphone photos on the Balanced Exposure Students Group within Facebook.  The photo with the most "LIKES" from our student group will win!

With only four students entering this contest, they have a 25% chance in winning! Great odds!

The photos above are of the food I ate at the buffet.  Can you identify all the items on the two plates?   I also had a couple of items for desert (red bean ice cream, two small slivers of a pecan pie, a small coconut macaroon, a small cream puff and a small  raspberry cheese cake square.

Overall, I estimated my total calories to be a tad over 2000 calories (based on the MyFitnessPal estimates).

The students were all impressed with the size of the restaurant.  It used to be a former furniture store, so you can imagine the size!  Many Asians go to this restaurant, so you know it has to be good!

Images taken with my iPhone 6s+.

Chicken on the Weber Kettle

Decided to cook some chicken leg quarters on the Weber Limited Edition Kettle!

I found that you really have to keep an eye on things on a kettle or it's going to burn up!  Several pieces were charred a bit more than I had hoped, but nothing really too bad.  The kettle cooked up the chicken relatively quickly.  I cooked the chicken pieces until the internal temp were at least 165 degrees.  The ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk IV really reads the temps quickly and accurately!

Check out the two videos on this cook:

Loading up the kettle

Time to flip the chicken

IHOP - Big Steak Omelette - 1260 Calories

My wife and I went to IHOP in Rosemont, IL for dinner on Friday. We both had the Big Steak Omelette with Hash Browns. Calories for the omelette was 1260 calories. The hash browns added another 320 calories. That totals 1580 calories which is my total allowed calorie intake for the day!

We went there before going to see the Chinese dance show called "Shen Yun" at the Rosemont Theater. Wow! What a show! If you have not seen it, I highly encourage you to go! Our daughter bought tickets for us as a gift. We had great seats too!

Anyway, the restaurant was decided on since it was close by and we figured it wouldn't cost much. We were right! We both qualified for the "Senior" perks deal of buy 1 meal and get 1 free (with purchase of 2 drinks). Total cost with tax was around $16.50 including tax. Tip of course was extra, but we gave our waitress a nice tip (we always do if they do a good job). She was fantastic and very friendly!

The omelette was actually very good. I'd do it again (if it weren't for the high calories)! Besides the side of hash browns, there are hash browns inside the omelette as well. That's probably why the calorie count is so high! I had a Diet Pepsi, my wife had a lemonade.

I have done senior meals in the past, but they usually just lower the portions and lower the price. With this deal, you can pick anything on their regular menu and still get the senior discount. You just need to get there and order between 3 and 6 PM.

The lesson here is that just a single meal with what many might think is a more "healthy" option over something like a greasy burger, can still have a lot of calories! If I ate like this every day and also ate two other meals a day, there's no doubt I would gain weight. Choosing the correct things to eat that have lower calories and modifying your food choices is the key to success.

Today, my typical meal will add up to 500-600 calories max. This will keep me under 1800 calories per day. At this caloric intake, I'll lose weight. Above it, I risk gaining weight. It's been estimated that the average male over 51 years old needs around 2000 calories. Go over that and you'll likely gain weight. Stay under it and you'll likely lose. Women over 50 need 1600 calories. Active women over 50 need 1800 calories.

8.5 lb Pork Butt For Pulled Pork on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker

(Reporting as it happens...)

And we're off! Once again... going for pulled pork. 8.5 lb pork butt on the 18.5" WSM.  This time, I decided not to inject or wet brine, but I did a dry brine the night before. I washed off the salt and patted it dry before putting on some Pork Barrel rub.

I also decided not to cut the butt in half as I normally do. I did a minion method for my Kingsford charcoal and waited until the coals stabilized before putting the butt on the grate, fat side up.  I also did not cut off the fat cap this time, just to see how it will turn out.

Now I sit and wait until the wrap (I will put it in an aluminum pan and cover it with foil around the stall), but I will spritz it with Apple Cider every hour.  Monitoring remotely with a ThermoWork Smoke.

From the suggestion of one of the members of the "Fans of the Weber Smokey Mountain" Facebook group, I decided I needed to raise the pit temperature to finish this cook before having to leave to go to work this evening.  So I added some Kingsford Competition charcoal which typically burns hotter.  If the pork's internal temperature does not rise significantly as we approach 6 hours into the cook, I might need to take the meat out and finish the cook in the oven.

Above: 4-1/2 hours into the cook... the pit temp has never broken 240 degrees. Internal temp is currently at 127 degrees. 

Above: 6 hours into the cook. Looks the same as the last photo! Pit temp averaging around 235 degrees. Internal temp is at 146 degrees. I've decided to cook this one very long and slow. Since I'm going to be headed to work later, I won't have an opportunity to pull this off the smoker until 10 PM tonight. That would mean it's going to be sitting in there for about 14.5 hours! Let's see where this goes!

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OK... now I know why my pit temp could not get higher than 240 degrees today! I had accidentally closed off the bottom vents of two of the vents! Whereas I had thought I had them wide open, they were totally closed! That left only one vent open. The two vents furthest from me are hard to see with my other two smokers in the way. Well, I'm going to have to keep the temp now at 240 or less since I'm going to leave the smoker unattended. I guess that's the problem with having three smokers! Some get in the way of adjusting vents!

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Well, I don't know what to tell you! I went off to work around 3:30 PM.  At 7:40 PM (a little over 12 hours into the cook), I texted my wife to ask what the temps were. She said the pit was at 188 degrees and the meat was at 153 degrees. I don't know if that means it hit the stall, went over 197 degrees internal and was now dropping... or that it just never got there in the first place! My guess is that it never got there because when I took it off the smoker grate at 9:15 PM, it still felt tough with a two prong fork. I decided to put it in the oven at 375 degrees and it's now at 148 degrees internal (it had dropped more by the time I got home). This is going to be interesting if it finally does go to 197 degrees or higher and pulls well. I'll report back later after it's done cooking! Here's what it looks like right after I took it off the smoker. Looks great though!

I decided I needed to finish this cook faster, so I decided to increase the oven heat to 425 degrees.  At 10:45 PM, the internal temperature is now at 194 degrees!  We are close.  I'll let it go until it hits 202 degrees, just to be sure it will pull nicely.  Then, I'll let it rest for 1/2 hour and pull it.

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Well, the cook is finally done!  I let it go until the internal temp hit 202 degrees.  It finished at 11:00 PM.  The cook started at 7:20 AM... so that makes it a total of 15 hours, 40 minutes!  The butt spent 13 hours, 40 minutes in the smoker and then another 1 hour 45 minutes in the oven.  

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The final product!  Even with all the time it spent in the smoker and then the oven, the pork pulled easily!  And, it tastes incredible!  I am surprised at how far off you can be in your cook and still have the end result come out just fine.  So, it proves to me that wrapping isn't really necessary although it does help power through the stall and helps finish the cook faster.  The bark on this thing was amazing, but because it was really burned quite a bit, it wasn't really edible to me.  The bone pulled out without any problems at all as you can see in the photo above.

I will most likely wrap again in the future to speed things up, but it was still a fun learning experience that lasted 15 hours and 40 minutes!  Smoke on!

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The next day, it seems the pork has dried out.  It was much juicier when it was first pulled, but it's drier now.  I think if I had some of the drippings to pour back in, the meat would have been better.  So going forward, I will most likely wrap it and collect the juices rather than cook it unwrapped and let the juices drip away.  And yes, I always try to skim off the fat from the drippings first before pouring it back in!  Still, it is amazing that the meat could do well even when you are cooking it wrong.

4.25 lb Catfish on the Weber Red Kettle Premium Grill

The second cook on the Weber Red Kettle was a 4.25 lb catfish!

I filleted the fish but kept the skeleton.  I like cooking the bones as well on catfish because the bones are very large and easy to deal with.  A lot of meat gets lost during filleting, but if you keep the bones and cook it as well, you get a lot out of the remaining flesh on the bones!

The fish was seasoned with Old Bay and yellow corn meal and then placed on the grill.  I flipped the fish a couple of times and took the fish off the grill when the internal temperature reached 145 degrees on my Thermapen Mk IV.  Turned out great!

My wife and daughter and I thought it was really good.  You could definitely taste the charcoal flavoring besides the Old Bay seasoning.  I had grilled a catfish in the past similarly but used the Weber Spirit E-310 propane gas grill.  In comparison, we all thought this one was much better.  Having that charcoal made all the difference.  We'll do this again in the future!

Weber Limited Edition Original Kettle Premium Red Kettle - 22"

It all started with the Weber Spirit E-310. Added the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker (WSM) and then the 22.5" WSM, and then the 14.5" WSM. Now I have a Limited Edition 22" Premium Original (Red) Kettle!  I also have a 65,000 BTW wok burner... not shown. The grill family is growing!  

The first burger off the kettle is also shown.

Kirkland Signature Super Extra-Large Peanuts

I am an admitted Costco fanatic, but...

Really? Super Extra Large? I don't think so.

I remember years ago, these were perhaps super extra large... but no more. They are regular sized in my opinion. By the way, I only eat perhaps 16-20 peanuts a day if I eat these. I have them at the school so that if I get hungry between classes, I have something to at least munch on. They don't add much to the overall calories... perhaps around 170 calories when I have them.