what i ate… in branson!
I’m going to go ahead and do my WIAW a day early. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll still be doing WIAW tomorrow as well since Matt + I are currently “detoxing” from all the wonderful food we ate last week in Branson, but first, I must show you why we are in need of that detox.
I’m not really someone who eats the same on vacation as I do at home. For me, it’s a vacation, so in my mind I think it’s OK to overindulge a little bit (a lot) and eat things that you wouldn’t normally eat on a regular basis. Like a (few) handful of M&M’s after every. single. meal. Oops…
But besides going a little overboard on the M&M’s, we also ate some fabulous REAL food. There are a lot of chain restaurants in Branson that we tend to gravitate toward because they’re usually not as crowded and can please everyone (me being a vegetarian + my father-in-law having various diet restrictions due to colorectal cancer). So, we had a meal at Ruby Tuesdays + Panera, and Matt and I spent an afternoon sitting at Starbucks with some delicious smoothies, a pumpkin scone, and a butter croissant.
And we stopped at Steak ‘n Shake on the way home for dinner. No, not a lot of vegetarian options, but a salad without chicken works just fine. And of course, a shake – Nutter Butter for the win!
But, Thursday was our real splurge day. We split up boys + ladies for lunch – the boys going out for BBQ and the ladies heading to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant we have been wanting to try for years, Casa Fuentes. I ordered a margarita to start because they our touted as the best in the world. And it was probably one of the best I’ve had, although it was a little light on the alcohol.
Since it was lunch and I knew I was going to eat my body weight in tortilla chips (they had some of the best salsa I’ve had – Chevy’s is still my favorite though), I ordered something “lighter” for my meal. I went with an a la carte bean burrito that was smothered in enchilada sauce. Why is everything better in enchilada sauce + cheese?
Matt + his dad raved about their BBQ so I figured I should share that with you as well. They went to Danna’s BBQ and got a pulled pork sandwich that had a sausage on top and was served on garlic Texas toast. Matt also said the fries were amazing as well.
Since we were both stuffed from our big lunch, we decided to have a small dinner of sandwiches (tomato, pickles, cheddar, and avocado)…
And make our main course Andy’s Frozen Custard! You know I couldn’t go to Branson without visiting Andy’s! Their sign outside advertised the Branson Centennial Concrete that I had every intention of ordering until I found out it was rhubarb, strawberry, cherry, and cranberry pie (McFarland’s Traffic Jam pie) mixed with vanilla custard. First, I’m not a big fan of pie. Second, I really hate fruit in my ice cream. It just doesn’t make sense to me. So, instead, Matt got the Centennial Concrete and I got the SIX Brother’s Jak-Hammer Concrete, which was Oreo + Heath blended in vanilla custard with a hot fudge “tunnel” down the middle. Yum!
One of the other things we ended up coming home with (and another reason why we need to be detoxing) was a pound of Silver Dollar City’s salt water taffy. I’ve never been a big fan of taffy, but after years of eating their free sample in the store, I’ve come to love it! Our niece bought us a bag when she went over Memorial Day weekend and we had a few questions on what the flavors were. When we went in to the store, we were overwhelmed by all the new flavors they had that we had to buy another bag!
We spent our last day in Branson drinking Sioux City sodas and eating taffy in a double rocker in Silver Dollar City. It was a perfect ending to a relaxing week – although now I am craving taffy that I can’t eat due to our detox, but more details on that tomorrow!
Do you eat the same on vacation as you do at home, or do you tend to overindulge a little (or a lot)?