Weekends are usually pretty great, but this past weekend was especially great and I think the combination of being surrounded by lots of family and the weather was the reason behind it. I’ve been trying to cut back on weekend recaps because I’m not sure how much you enjoy hearing about my play-by-play weekend adventures, but this one was filled with trying out new restaurants and celebrating someone very special so I figured it was worth sharing 😉

Friday night, I met the boy in Central Square and he brought me to a little hidden gem: Green Street Grill. This little restaurant/bar was tucked away on a street parallel to Mass. Ave right in the heart of Central Square. We were lucky enough to snag 2 seats right at the bar (our favorite) and enjoyed some vino and delicious (gluten free) dishes. I had had a very stressful (but good stress) day and it was so nice to be able to relax, have a few wines and not think about anything for a while.

Saturday morning, my sister and I went to a class at Flywheel and, just as I expected, Ann taught a phenomenal class. I’d love to say that I had a great ride, but for some reason, my legs felt like lead and I just didn’t have it in me to push myself and pedal faster. I wanted to- so badly- but my body had another thing planned. Oh well. It was still fun riding next to my sister and we left there hot yoga sweaty!

After class, we shopped around a bit (I got a new dress for Miami!) and then had lunch at Sonsie. The weather had cleared and we got seats right near the open windows- felt so nice to have warm weather!

I can’t say any of what I ate/drank was healthy, but life is all about balance, right?

Saturday night was date-night. We went to his brother and sister-in-law’s condo in the South End for roof deck cocktails and baby snuggles before having dinner at Stella, which is also in the South End. My friend Jess recommended it and it turns out it’s one of his favorite restaurants, so it was a no brainer to try it out! Even better? They have a whole gluten free menu. We had a drink while waiting for spots at the bar to open up (the Bruins were on. I couldn’t care less, but I wasn’t going to take him away from watching). For dinner, we shared the sausage and broccoli rabe, the arugula salad and the braised short ribs. They split that for us, which was so nice! They also served it atop gluten free penne instead of GF mashed potatoes which was totally fine.

Yum. I can’t wait to go back- I dream of that dish. Okay, not really, but it was SO good.

Sunday was a fun day filled with pampering mom! We were lucky enough to have them agree to come down for the day instead of us going up there since we’ve been a few times in the past month or so. Danielle and I made a pretty delicious brunch, if I do say so. We had an egg casserole (egg, milk, chicken sausage, sautéed peppers and onions, spinach and cheese- so easy, so tasty), warm kale salad (with EVOO and lemon juice as the dressing, craisins, goat cheese, grilled pear and candied pecans), fruit salad and Stonewall Kitchen blueberry muffins.

One of the best parts of the day was the fact we got to spend time on my back patio, soaking up some serious sun!

(terrible picture, but it was all I had!)

My mini patio set is, well, mini, but we squished to make it work.

Yummm. I love brunch food! We had such a nice afternoon drinking wine (mom loves excuses to day drink!) and catching up. My dad is coming down next weekend to help get my garden started and I can’t wait! It will be so nice to have fresh veggies all summer- I’m lucky that he has volunteered to help!

And that about sums it up. Although it was a rather indulgent weekend, there’s nothing better than spending time with the people you love and food/drink indulgences are totally worth it during those times!

Questions for you: Did you get outside to enjoy the weather? What was the best part of your weekend? What did you do to celebrate Mother’s Day? What’s your favorite “hidden gem” restaurant? Do you ever have workouts where your mind wants it but your body doesn’t?