Friday, October 31, 2008

Restaurant Review: Benito's Brick Oven Pizza, Pumpkin Muffins, BSI!

First off, the BSI recipes (Pear) look awesome so far! Keep them coming!! If you need a little motivation- here is the start of the prize for the winner:



Second, tonight we did our second restaurant review! We decided to keep it a little low key and tried Benito's Brick Oven in Mount Pleasant, SC. Benito's is located in the heart of Mount Pleasant in the town center. Here are the eats:

Josh ordered a personal pizza with artichokes and prosciutto:


I ordered baked ziti which came with a house salad which was topped with goat cheese, tomatoes, onions, olives (which I picked off), and their house honey balsamic dressing:

Josh's Review:




Pros: No extra charge for artichoke hearts. Fast service. Filling.

Cons: Food was nothing spectacular. Receipt was unnecessarily oversized. Poor beer selection.

Overall Rating: 5.2 out of 8

Erica's Review:


Benito's is conveniently located near a lot of the great shopping in Mount Pleasant. The place was basically empty because it was Halloween (Halloween is HUGE in Charleston). The decor in the restaurant was great- a combination of modern meets old Italy. The menu was large and offered some interesting choices- including cheese plates. The house honey balsamic dressing was really delicious- just slightly sweet! The baked ziti was also very good. The noodles tasted homemade. They do not use sauce in the baked ziti, they only top it with sauce. It was sooo filling I could barely eat 1/4 of it (don't worry Josh finished it off when we got home haha). The food wasn't INCREDIBLE but it was good. The service was pleasant and quick! I would definitely return to Benito's for a hearty, quick meal.

Frank's Review:



I wasn't allowed to go (some lame rule about no animals in the restaurant), so I had mini chunks for dinner. They tasted just as terrible as they usually taste. haha.

3rd: I came home tonight and decided to make some yummy treats to give to all of the instructors after the Body Step Launch tomorrow! I used Tina's recipe for Pumpkin Carob Chip muffins with a few modifications:

Ingredients:

1 cup plain canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup vegan carob chips (or chocolate chips but then they would be non-vegan)

Preheat the oven to 350ยบ. Spray a nonstick muffin tin sprayed well with nonstick spray, or line the tin with paper muffin cups and spray the cups with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Put the pumpkin, water, applesauce, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the carob chips.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, distributing evenly.

Bake until center of muffin is fully cooked (took me 26 minutes for full sized muffins). Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then use a spatula to gently lift each muffin from the muffin tin. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

I was too lazy to take a picture of the finished muffins! Hope you had a wonderful Halloween! Can't wait to see pics of all the costumes!


Benito on Urbanspoon

17 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Great restaurant review!! Haha, glad that Frank weighed in as well :0)

CAROB CHIPS!?!?!??! DID I READ THAT THOSE MUFFINS HAVE CAROB CHIPS!?!??!??!! Oh man. VeggieGirl = ultimate carob fanatic.

Anonymous said...

Hey - I posted my secret ingredient recipe on my blog - do I still need to email it to you?

Never had carob chips before - sounds good!

Anonymous said...

You are hilarious :o) I love the restaurant review - particularly since you gave Frank a chance to put in his $.02 and it was adorable!!

Wow, I need to get workin' on the BSI recipe because that prize looks rockin'!!

Love those carob chip muffins! They look great!

Anonymous said...

I love your restaurant reviews! THAT PICTURE OF JOSH HAD ME ROLLIN'! He seems like such a funny guy. You guys are a totally awesome couple.
HI FRANK! SORRY YOU COULDN'T GO SWEET PEA!
Erica, I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!!

HangryPants said...

I wana win!!!!!!!


Oversized receipt - hahaha. Josh is silly.

Balance, Joy and Delicias! said...

Funny restaurant review! And I want one of those muffins! looks so yummy~~~

Becca said...

Haha I love your husband and Frank's reviews...they cracked me up!

Holly said...

Ooooh....yummy muffins!!! I am definitely on a muffin kick right now. :-)

My BSI recipe is on it's way!

Anonymous said...

your muffins look delectable!

and your reviews are always so fun to read :D

great prize you're prepared - if this doesn't encourage, nothing will! (having said that, i won't be able to participate this round :/)

Lori said...

I don't know about that one. I'm leaning towards Frank's opinion. Ha, ha!

Muffins look great!

Esi said...

I think I trust Frank's review the most. lol. Yummy muffins!

EricaH said...

the pizza looked awesome sorry it was just okay.

also that pumpkin recipe yea ima have to borrow that and try it out. (maybe today thanks for posting)

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