Getting to Know @Mealightenment [Newbie]: Joe

If anyone is curious, I am the large one in the back.

Howdy, everyone! My name is +Joe Reese and I am (one of) the newbies to the blog. I work with Justin and Jacob, and that is how I got tabbed to be a part of the blog. I guess it should go without saying, but my enjoyment of food and cooking in general gave us something to talk about right off when I started getting to know the guys. Since high school, I've had several jobs in the food industry. I started out as a bus boy/dishwasher at a small restaurant on the east side of Indianapolis. I've also worked in a couple different chain restaurants in just about every position you can think of, until my job change about a year and a half ago.  I wasn't too sure what to write about for my intro post, so I decided to steal the questions I liked from the other "Getting to Know" posts. And without further ado, here we go!

Low Sodium Sweet and Sour Chicken

                                                                                                                                                                           

Who else has procrastinated on eating healthy for the year 2013?  Well, the cold weather is almost over and the time to get in shape is running out. So lets get started on what you'll need to make some healthy sweet and sour chicken that tastes like it was fresh from the local Chinese Restaurant.  It will keep you in line with your goal of losing weight, and it's a heart healthy alternative to ordering out. Here's what you'll need:

Getting to Know @Mealightenment [Week 3] Spotlight

Oh, hello there.  Hopefully the #Snowpocalypse is treating all of you well so far, and hopefully you have plenty of food to get you through the end of the night (though most everything should be open by this evening).

Well, this is the third week of our Spotlight feature, and this week, we're featuring James (or Devin, as he prefers to be known).  Devin and I came to meet through school, as we both had the same professor for English Composition.  We had a project in this class that basically started the course of this entire blog...and well, now here we are.

Getting to Know @Mealightenment [Week 2] Spotlight

Jacob came into the blog in a rather unorthodox fashion.  Jacob and I (Justin) not only do the blog together, but we also work our regular jobs together.  I hadn't really know anything of Jacob before the blog, other than he was just a funny guy that worked at the same place as me.  When the blog started to gain traction in early summer of 2012, and I told Jacob about it.  It was the first time I'd seen his interest in food.  From there on out, until I decided he might be a good addition to our blog, he and I talked food literally everyday.

Get to Know @Mealightenment [Week 1] Spotlight

My, how time flies.

Well, here we are.  The blog is officially over 1 year old as of December 6th.  I never thought Mealightenment would get to be just where it is today, and about how much potential the future of this blog has.  I'd never imagined that I would have two other guys working alongside with me, sharing my same passion about my city and how/where I choose to eat and spend my money.  I'd never dreamed that we'd be on nearly every spectrum of social media. Heck, I'd thought that we would never produce stickers for friends and family members to show their support for what we do.  Sincerely, from everyone who has read our blog or even glanced over our material in the last year, I just want to say thanks.  You may not know how much it affects us here, but it allows us to continue on on this crazy journey and evolution that the blog has gone through.  You, our friends, our readers, and our city of #Indy are exactly why we do what we do.  I can only promise you, that there is definitely more to come in 2013.

Truly Authentic (Carniceria Guanajuato)

There truly is an extreme difference when biting into a "Mexican dish" as opposed to a truly "Authentic Mexican dish". You get that true taste and mixture of herbs, salsa, guacamole, and meat that's cooked a certain way, that you personally cannot perfect yourself.  When visiting this restaurant I had a flashback of my cruise to Mexico. Since then, I've never had such an authentic Mexican dish outside of Mexico...until now. And the best part, it will not burn a hole in your wallet!

Italian Braised Beef Roast with a Chianti Gravy!

Whose tired of the same American style roast?!?! This guy right here! When I think of cooking... I try to come up with something that is a little twisted, a little off of the beaten path. That is when I thought of turning the roast that I grew up on, which was always made with brown gravy and baked next to baby carrots, and switch the flavor up a bit. At my families dinner table, I'm known for my mixed culture cooking. This time around, I came up with an Italian braised roast.

Ingredients 

• Beef shoulder roast

Spice box Indy review

 

       "Approachable Indian food" is the theme for Spice box!

As you can tell, we @mealightenment love our food trucks in Indianapolis! I can't decide if it is the originality of the food, the awesome owners, the great taste, or the excitement that a good truck brings to a curb near you! The one thing I do know for a fact is you can certainly find a truck that has tasty food for a good price!

The "Big" Announcement...We've Expanded!

Hello everyone!!!!

My name is James Thornburgh, and I just joined @mealightenment! Justin and I met in college last semester and we both thought it would be a great idea to work together! So, here I am! I'm very excited to help bring a lot to the table for Mealightenment! 

James and the Reuben Challenge

James, my soon to be partner @Mealightenment, went on a food adventure this week while actually just taking a little time off of work. His biggest accomplishment was getting his pal Greg (or Gregosaurus Rex if you like, dude's a beast) into the same room as the Reuben Challenge at Izzy's in 1 of their 2 Kentucky locations. This particular challenge is celebrating their 110 Year Anniversary.  The challenge is an extreme challenge requiring the entire sandwich to be eaten in 30 minutes, and has only been finished by a handful of customers, including famous food-challenge man Adam Richman.