Marie Callender's

A few days ago, our department went to a district meeting which was off campus. On the way back to work, we went to lunch at Marie Callender's in downtown Chula Vista. This is right next to the Red Lobster and located near the corner of "F" St. and 3rd Ave (hey, there's no "F Street Bookstore" here - that's near K-Mart near L and 3rd, ha ha!).  Seriously, I haven't been here in a decade. This is where the department took me for my "baby" shower party. I was seven months along and felt as huge as a house. I remember eating the Mushroom Stroganoff too, but I digress...

We also met up with a former co-worker who retired last year. She's the one who hired Trio Los Ticos (the trio from Romesco's in Bonita) to play at her retirement party. It was really nice hearing beautiful boleros ("Sabor a Mi" was one of them)...wait, at her party, not at Marie Callender's!

I didn't really want to have anything too heavy...

Althbough this Marie's Perfect Pie Trio looked good ($8.99 for pot pie plus salad plus a slice of dessert pie), I wanted something else. Hmmm...

So I pussed out and got a half sandwich (ham with cheese which was $1.00 extra, fk!) with salad (instead of soup). I chose to have the salad without dressing because the only choice was balsamic which I hate. There were also mandarin oranges (from a can I'm sure), dried cranberries and candied nutz. I liked both items and it was enough to tide me over until later that night.

About that special Marie's Trio, not to worry because the co-workers pretty much got one or the other. The lone male co-worker got the Shepherd's Pie with garden salad. The Shepherd's Pie had pot roast/beef stew with a scoop of mashed potatoes and melted cheese on top. It looked good but I don't like mushy food.

Our former co-worker got the Chicken Pot Pie with Caesar salad...I'd probably eat this because the pot pie has a nice crust on top. In fact, I would probably just eat the crust and not the mushy soft chicken stew inside. Don't get me wrong - both pot pies smelled so good! I'd eat them if I was in the mood.

Now onto dessert, here's the "Razzleberry" (Raspberry) pie...

One of my co-workers let me have her pie slice since she is watching her diet. She let me pick the flavor, so I chose blueberry (seen below) . I liked these (most likely environmentally unfriendly) to-go pie containers. I ate a tiny bit of the crust but saved about 98% of it for TC.

The lone male co-worker got the Banana Cream Pie...mmmm!

Across the street (on the NW corner of 3rd and "F") used to be a Mexican restaurant called "La Fonda Roberto's". Now it's some religious reading room. But when it was La Fonda's, my friends and I used to like going there back in college. They had a lunch buffet and the stuff they served was not your typical Mexican food. Tatonka and I had lunch there before and I remember enjoying the unusual dishes they had (one had walnuts in a white sauce).

So, I scored with a free slice of pie which had great crust. They are having a sale on their whole pies too, $6.99 but I didn't get one. I really should be cutting back on sweets anyways, otherwise my workouts are going to be wasted.