Navigating the "All you can EAT" Buffet

A few Saturdays ago, we got invited to our good friend's christening of her baby girl, Arielle. It was a really great and fun event but there was one HUGE problem. The reception was held at an Asian "All you can eat" Restaurant! And I know myself very well that when I see food, I eat it. When delicious food is free for me to grab, I eat till I have to unbutton my pants. And so in preparation of anticipating that my healthy eating will be ruined, I wore stretchy tights, LOL.

This place called Imperial Buffet never disappoints in how much mouth watering dishes they serve up.

I figured I will start my buffet journey with a BIG plate..........

of salad

Romaine greens with Japanese dressing, beets, green olives, three bean salad and a small portion of seafood salad of shrimp, squid, scallops with variety of peppers. That japanese dressing was delish! I think it has some sesame oil, seaweed and rice vinegar in there.

Next plate.... SUSHI!!!!

Yeah, no brown rice in the sushi section folks. I had salmon and crab, spicy salmon and california rolls along with some seafood dimsum and pork dumplings and some yummy crunchy green seaweed. I really don't know what they are called, all I know is they look like seaweed and they are GOOD!

By this time, I know my next plate would be my last judging by the way my stomach was feeling full. I surprised how full I got really quick.

To avoid the temptation of piling on some more of those delicious shrimp tempura and other fried dishes, I piled up my plate with veggies first. I had green beans, Bok choy and mushrooms. The baked sole was looking scrumptious and pretty healthy to boot but I still gave in to the fried shrimp tempura. 

Thank God for my DD stealing them away from me(evidence is in the pic, see her finger?). She ended up eating my yummy tempura and only saved me one bite. 

Oh and those little balls you see are my favourite! They are called sesame balls; fried dough filled with sweet mongo bean filling covered with sesame seeds. I gave up one of those to my DD as well. 

By this time, my stomach felt like it was going to explode. But I needed something sweet to cap off this lovely lunch. Oh wait, I'm doing this no refined sugars thing right? Yeah I was really bummed. I circled the desserts aisle like a hundred times, trying to justify in my head all kinds of excuses why I need just one plate of some kind of pastry, cake or pie. Thank God for my will power that I only managed to put these two things on my plate.

Honey twist and a 'no sugar' chocolate cake filled with berry and cream filling. I asked the dessert lady if there is really no sugar in it and she just told me a straightforward 'yes'. So I just went and grabbed it. It didn't even realize that there was cream filling until I was ready to put it in my mouth.

But I thought, 'a small square won't hurt, I have been doing so well that I actually deserve this treat!'. But boy, that thought bit me back in the bum because that cake was DISGUSTING!!! It tasted like airy cardboard with aspartame. I was NOT meant to have a real dessert that day.

Good thing I still had my sweet crunchy honey twist that saved my palate from that awful 'no sugar' cake.

So now that I think back about my food choices at that "all you can eat" restaurant, I actually did pretty well. I made better choices by getting tons of veggies first before going to the other dishes. At least I got full with good stuff first before having some of little treats that I deserve to enjoy in MODERATION.

So all in all, the whole family loved the food at the buffet including my DD who went crazy over covering her marshmallow stick in the chocolate fountain.

So we left happy, filled up with great food and enjoyed the company of our beloved friends and family.

But wait, we were not done for the day! 

I had to leave my DD with my mom because we had a boat cruise to go to! I love boat cruises! We went almost yearly when I was still working with the same company as my hubby's and it was always a blast. (Yes my hubby and I worked for the same Financial Giant but did not worked together in the same branch). Now, I decided to go with my hubby this year since a few of my old co-workers and friends were attending as well.

Boat cruise food was blah but I had no choice because where else would I go? I was in the middle of Lake Ontario!

I had: Ceasar salad, rice with veggies and chicken filet with mushroom sauce. Sorry there are no pics, I forgot taking one amidst of all the socializing (Plus they might think I'm nuts).

I burned off the calories from that day dancing the night away with my hubby

And even the boat was flowing with booze, I resisted and stayed sober. I just refreshed and hydrated myself with some cold H2O.

Oh and in keeping with the nautical theme, I thought I'd share with you the cutest accessory I fashioned that night.

That was such an awesome night out for me and my hubby. It was great reconnecting with old friends that I miss dearly and making new ones with my hubby's new co-workers.

Although I must say the best part of the day was seeing this great view of the city that I adore so much.