Category: Dinner

Bachelorette Party: Recap

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Good morning! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Ours was great: Jeveli’s date night on Friday night, Flywheel class on Saturday morning for me and then a weekend on the cape consisting of lots of sun, sand, vino & seafood.

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Back to the grind this week, though, but I figured starting the week with a recap of my amazing bachelorette weekend was a great way to kick it off! Consider this your warning- it’s a long, picture filled post!

When my sister and I were discussing possible bachelorette options, I really only had a few preferences/requests: not too far away because I didn’t want people to have to spend a ton of money for traveling or have to take time off, I wanted to workout and I wanted to drink vino & wear a tutu 🙂 I can easily say that she- and with the help of my friend, Jessi- not only nailed it in the fact all of those things were included, they far surpassed it with everything else they also included.

Midday on Friday, I packed up my car, picked up my sister and we hit the road to go to Portland, Maine. Everyone else was working full days, but we figured it would be smart to take half days to get up there early to get everything ready. Originally I wanted to rent a house, but they had trouble finding one big enough, close enough to town and affordable enough so we opted to just stay at the Residence Inn in downtown Portland. This was the PERFECT place to stay for my (or any) bachelorette party for a number of reasons:

  • Walking distance to all the good bars/restaurants
  • All rooms have mini kitchenettes so we can store stuff in the fridges
  • All rooms have little living rooms, so people don’t have to hang out on the beds
  • They have suite options- we did a 2 bedroom suite which had 2 separate bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen with a table and a full living room, so we had plenty of space to hang out and relax. We also rented another standard room for 1 night since we had more girls staying on the second night.
  • You don’t have to bring your own sheets/towels
  • Housekeeping
  • Free breakfast, which was awesome- they had a waffle maker, eggs, sausage, cereal, bagels, oatmeal, yogurt, etc. This was a huge cost saver because a few of us would go down and stock up and then we could all enjoy it in the room.
  • Cocktail hour

Basically, it worked out way better than renting a house- I highly suggest it!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, back to day 1. We stopped at the Market Basket in Biddeford on the way up to get beer/wine/snacks to stock the rooms and fridges. This was another good way to save money! Once we checked in and unpacked, we walked over to Flatbread Pizza which was right on the water- perfect for a sunny afternoon!

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Not long after lunch, a few more friends arrived and we popped some bubbly and hung out until we got dressed to head to dinner at Vignola Cinque Terre, which was an amazing little Italian restaurant. We ended up having the whole upstairs to ourselves, which was good considering the vino was flowing and friends kept arriving. The best surprise of the night/weekend was when my friend Amy showed up- I thought she wasn’t coming because she was going to be in Nashville, but her plans changed and everyone just kept me thinking she couldn’t come to make it a surprise- it was the best! We shared a bunch of different things and everything that came out was absolutely delicious- I highly recommend this restaurant if you’re in Portland.

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We asked our waitress where we should go after and when she mentioned a country bar called Bonfire, it was an obvious choice to go there. We got a beer tower and had fun dancing and singing before calling it a night around midnight. I didn’t want to stay out too late because I knew we had a spin class followed by a day of drinking the next days.

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Saturday morning we headed to Reve Cycling on Forest Ave. Some of my friends who couldn’t stay for 2 nights met us there so it was fun to have the majority of the crowd together! The best part was that Jessi organized to have matching pants made with out initials (my new ones!!) on the leg and then mine said “bride” on the butt. It was such a fun surprise! The class was awesome & challenging, but it flew by. Everyone was so happy that we did it, too. Nothing like starting the day with a good sweat (even if it probably wreaked of wine, lol).

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After the class, we went back to the hotel and started the shower process, which, considering we had 12 girls showering between 3 showers, didn’t take too long!

My mom and her friend Chris came to spend the afternoon with us, so once everyone was there, we walked to Portland Lobster Company for drinks, eats and live music. It was the perfect place to kickoff the afternoon because the food and drinks were great and affordable, there was plenty of outdoor space and it was right on the water.

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The next stop was The Porthole, which was another great outdoor spot on the water. They also had a live band, but we all joked how terrible they were! It didn’t matter, though, the drinks and company most definitely made up for it 🙂

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After a round we decided to make our way back to the hotel to regroup and get ready for the night. The girls also brought me lingerie which was a fun surprise! For dinner, my mom and dad had prepped all of the fixings to make tacos so we didn’t have to worry about dealing with going out to eat for a big group of girls. This was such a good idea, not to mention the food was delicious.

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BTW, if you’re looking for a tutu, my girl Amy is the best at making them- we said her Etsy line should be called “Babies and Brides” because she makes tutu’s for the brides and babies in her life. It was such a fun addition to my outfit for the day!!

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My other friend, Amy, is doing my makeup for the wedding so we did a trial run before we went out. I don’t wear a lot of makeup and she did a great job of making me not look or feel like I had loads on, but still put enough on to look good in pictures.

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Once we were all dolled up, we headed out to Bull Feeney’s, which is a fun bar for live band dancing. We stayed there for a while before heading BACK to the country bar (Bonfire)… what can I say? We love country music! It was livelier on Saturday night and I was even able to have (and win) a dance off- my idea of a solid night 😉

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Late night shenanigans at the hotel most certainly ensued, which was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, these girls made me feel SO special and loved all weekend. Between friends from home & college (and family), I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to hang out with.  I couldn’t believe all that they did for me, especially my sister and Jessi- you girls are the absolute best and I am SO LUCKY to have you in my life! Can we do this again soon?! Love to you all!!!

Questions for you: Did you have a bachelorette party? Where did you have it? What types of bars do you like to go to? Have you been to Portland before? What are your favorite stops when you’re there? What’s a must-have on a girls weekend?
 

Just Add Cooking: Focus on Local Sourcing

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Good morning! I’m back from the most amazingly perfect bachelorette weekend and while I plan on doing a full recap soon, I’ll just say now that it was literally the best weekend! And we are one step closer to the big day, which is the most exciting thing of all!

Today, though, let’s talk about the recent Just Add Cooking RM and I received. As I’ve mentioned before, as part of their blog ambassadorship I am able to receive one week of meals a month to try out. So far, each delivery seems to be better than the last and considering we were totally wowed after the first delivery, it’s safe to say JAC has a pretty great thing going on.

I’ve talked before about how one of the things I love the most about the company, besides having simple and delicious recipes, is that they try to source locally whenever they can. In the delivery notes overview, they list out where the products came from, which I think is a really nice touch. RM and I try to buy locally and organic, so working with a company who also values that is pretty awesome. In our box this week, we received:

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Pretty cool, right? And, when you’re using ingredients closer to the source, it means they’re getting to you fresher and it’s good for the environment since they don’t have to drive loads of extra miles to get the food items. You can find out more about JAC’shere. It’s really great to see a company support locally!

Let’s talk about the meals, though. We decided to go with the Breaded Pork Chops with a White Bean & Radish Salad, Lamb Skewers and a Quinoa Salad and Shaksuka, which is a Middle-Eastern dish. We cooked the meals last week in the recommended cooking order that JAC provides.

Breaded Pork Chops w/ White Bean & Radish Salad

This meal might have been my favorite meal from the delivery. We don’t get pork very often, which is strange since we both enjoy it, so it was a special treat getting to cook it last week. I’ve never coated meat with mayonnaise before breading it, but I swear it must’ve been what made the meat so -dare I say it- moist (sorry). The flavor was so good! And the white bean and radish salad was also incredible- I told RM that it’s likely going to be a staple salad that I bring to summer parties. It was light and refreshing and just a really interesting combination of flavors.

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Lamb Skewers and Quinoa Salad

Lamb is another meat that we don’t buy or cook- ever, really. We have lamb at RM’s mother’s house on holidays and I always enjoy it, which is why I thought it would be a good choice for the meal delivery. RM fired up the grill to cook the lamb which made it even tastier! The quinoa salad had avocado, cucumber and tomato and reminded me so much of this loaded quinoa salad that I’ve made a few times. Unfortunately the watercress went bad so we were unable to use that ingredient for the sauce, but I use some of the extra chives and it worked out well. I ended up reaching out to my contact to let her know about how the watercress went bad so quickly and she said that when you source local, fresh ingredients there is always a chance that things can go bad quicker than anticipated. She wanted me to share with all of you that if this were to happen to you, just can email them at customersupport@justaddcooking.com or call JAC and the team will provide them with a credit to their account for any inconvenience. These issues happen very rarely and they try to take care of customers quickly when they do.

With that said, we still really enjoyed the meal!

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Shaksuka

This meal was another big hit with us. There’s something about breakfast for dinner that always makes me happy. I don’t tend to eat a lot of eggs for breakfast, but I love them for lunch or dinner so this was a great meal to throw together one night last week. With very minimal ingredients, it took no time at all to make. Unfortunately, I walked away while the eggs were cooking and stayed away a little too long and the yolks ended up cooking all the way through. I was bummed, but it ended up still tasting really good. I never knew that combining diced tomatoes and pearled farro could make such a great base for eggs! And, I’m a big fan of “one pot dishes”, so this was right up my alley. The feta cheese on top was like icing on the cake, too 😉

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All in all, we were so pleased with the meals last week. I was able to make all of them in less than 40 minutes, which is ideal for a weeknight meal. On top of that, I love getting a chance to make new-to-us recipes/dishes and learn how to combine herbs and seasonings since that isn’t something I know a lot about. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your meals, I can’t recommend JAC enough.

If you like the sounds of everything in this post, Just Add Cooking is offering a great deal for those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to try them. With the code BUBBLY, you can get your first Just Add Cooking box for just $39. Which, btw, is 3 meals- one hell of a deal if you ask me! Click here to sign up for a free account and to pick your recipes.

Previous reviews can be found here:

Just Add Cooking {First Review}
Just Add Cooking {2nd Review}

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post but I was provided with a free week of meals in response for my review. As always, all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own- I really, truly think this is a wonderful company and I’m so excited that I get to work with them! As an affiliate, I do receive a credit when you sign up for the service using my code. Thanks for your support!

Easy & Delicious Spicy Cauliflower Rice

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Good morning! Did you guys have a good weekend? I did! Friday night we went to Lucky’s in the Seaport to celebrate our friend’s- Jessi & Chuck- engagement. I feel like I NEVER go out in the city on Friday nights so it was a fun thing to do. Saturday I taught and then hosted book club and then after church on Sunday RM and I went into the city for some shopping. All around, it was a great weekend filled with great friends and delicious food.

And, speaking of food, I have a super easy and super tasty dish to share with you today. I had made it a few weeks ago for RM and me and it was such a big hit that I decided to make it for book club. The girls all gave it rave reviews so I figured it’s time I share it with you!

Cauliflower rice is a relatively new food item in our home, but I can tell you that it’s quickly become a kitchen and meal staple. I’ve heard people talk about it a ton, but it wasn’t until I saw it in a “Best Healthy Shortcuts” roundup over at Barrister’s Beet that I decided to finally try it myself. I headed over to Trader Joe’s and while I was grabbing a few bags of it (in hindsight, I should’ve grabbed many more!), I ended up grabbing a few other frozen bags of veggies, too, thinking I’d try throwing them all together.

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The verdict? Pretty darn good! And when you make it with the spicy peanut sauce it turns into a consistency that literally seems like rice or quinoa. My friends were all shocked that it was just veggies! I almost feel bad sharing this as a “recipe” because it is SO easy, but I think you’ll enjoy how simple it is so I just had to share it.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pan, heat up a few tablespoons of EVOO. Once the pan is warm, add in the bag of frozen cauliflower rice, 1/2 bag of melodious blend & 1/3 bag of roasted corn. Head until everything is thawed and warm.
  2. While the frozen veggies are heating, create your sauce by mixing the peanut butter and Tamari together.
  3. When the frozen veggies are nice and warm, add in the spicy peanut sauce and mix well.

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Serve as is or you can add in some shrimp, chicken, sausage or egg! I served it atop roasted kale with a hard boiled egg for lunch, I’ve eaten it plain and RM had eaten it with the sausage we made a few months ago. I’ve eaten it warm or cold and no matter how it’s consumed, it’s delicious, but be warned- that peanut butter is VERY hot! If you are using regular peanut butter, I would suggest using plenty of hot pepper flakes and maybe even some hot sauce.

Easy & Delicious Spicy Cauliflower Rice

I apologize that the photos are not more appetizing… this is not a pretty dish, but it sure is tasty!

Questions for you: Have you been making any super easy meals lately? Do you like super spicy things or are you more a fan of the mild taste?

Weekending {Extended Version}: Birthday Celebrations & Marathon Monday

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Good morning! I opted to not blog yesterday as I had the day off and figured a lot of you may also have it off or may even be running the marathon! Between taking my birthday off last week, working from home on Friday and then having yesterday off, I feel like I’ve been on a little vacation, which is pretty awesome. With everything going on these days between wedding planning, the BoxFIIT certification, teaching, blogging, working, etc. I feel like I was running on empty and really needed some time to re-charge the batteries. Granted, the past week has been filled with lots of things, but most didn’t involve work which helped give me that “recharge” I needed.

I’m going to keep my captions short, so enjoy the pictures!

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Birthday yoga!

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Birthday manis/pedis/lunch with my birthday buddy!

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Strong ladies supporting me in class. Not pictured: after class drinks at Gaslight 🙂

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Julian pizza from Max & Leo’s- the birthday girl doesn’t cook on her bday 😉

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Beautiful flowers and prosecco from coworkers who came to my class

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Extra bday flowers from RM

 

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All dolled up! Love the new bag RM got me

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My sister surprised me with a bottle of bubbly at dinner. We went to Committee in the Seaport and everything was unbelievably good- we couldn’t stop raving about how flavorful everything was AND they sent out a birthday treat- I highly suggest checking it out!

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Post kickboxing sweaty selfie.

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Entertaining my parents- I’m so sad that I didn’t get a single photo with them while they were here 😦

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Food shopping

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Pancake breakfast

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Birthday presents from my dad- picnic table, fire pit and a heck of a lot of wood. It was SO nice of them to come down not only to celebrate, but also to bring all of these things to help us have an awesome back yard/patio!

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4miler in gorgeous weather. I wish I could say it was a great run, but my legs felt like lead the entire time and my miles averaged 15-20 seconds slower than usual… BUT… I finished it and it felt great to be outside. Who cares about the mile times!

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Taking advantage of the sun and doing my thank you cards for the bridal shower gifts we’ve received outside. And then I started reading Defending Jacob, which is our new book club book. So far, I’m enjoying it, although it’s crazy that it takes place in Newton!

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Beer at home by myself: a rarity, but the weather encouraged it 😉

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Meal prep for the week: a cauliflower rice & other veggie “stirfry” with a peanut sauce and then a veggie-filled quiche- both have so much flavor!!

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Loving our outdoor patio space! Took my workout outside yesterday morning and it was amazing.

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We walked from the Intercontinental Hotel (where RM parks his car) to the Back Bay and it was so nice strolling through Boston Common’s in the gorgeous weather.

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We were fortunate enough to hang out at the Solas Pub (part of the Lennox Hotel) pretty much right at the Marathon finish line thanks to New Balance- drinks, food, prime spectator location?! Yes, please. So thankful for this opportunity!

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Watching the marathon is always a super emotional and inspiring thing. I love watching everyone who is finishing strong, but I also love how everyone is looking out for each other. The crowds roared even louder when struggling runners were trying to get to the end. Fellow marathoners helped those who were physically too beat to run on their own. Paramedics and EMT’s and all of the other helpers were there to help get people safely over the finish line. It gave me chills soaking all of that in. Such a wonderful experience.

If you made it this far, THANK YOU! I’ll be back tomorrow with a workout… and maybe even a recipe for you this week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather? Did you go to the marathon or did you run the marathon? What do you have planned this week?

Just Add Cooking: Round 2 {& exciting news!}

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Good morning! I’m back with another drool-worthy (ok, they’d be more drool-worthy if the lighting and picture quality was better, but you get the idea) Just Add Cooking post. As I mentioned before, as a brand ambassador I have the chance to receive a free week of meals to try and then I get to share my experience with all of you. Week 1 was pretty awesome, but week 2 surely gave it a run for its money! With an Asian-inspired theme, we were introduced to new flavors and meals we would never think to cook on our own.

Our box arrived again on Sunday, which was perfect since it allowed for us to unpack and check it out right away. While there was more packaging than the week before, it was understandable due to the types of recipes we chose for the week. And, most was able to be recycled which is great.

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On Monday night, I figured it was the perfect night to make the Hot Pot; it was cold and snowy and the thought of a warm soup sounded like a great idea. What made it even better was how easy this was to make. While it had a number of steps, none where time consuming or confusing, which made it a quick meal to throw together. The meatballs were my favorite part- they had the perfect amount of spice and flavor combinations and I didn’t even mind the hints of ginger, isn’t a flavor I tend to enjoy. My only complaint was that the dish was a bit too salty for me due to the soy sauce. I don’t tend to salt my food much and we tend to use lower-sodium soy sauce or even tamari so it was not something we/I were used to. Next time I would maybe decrease the amount of soy sauce and replace with water or use a lower-sodium version. Besides that, this was another big hit!

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Tuesday night’s meal of Shrimp Pad Thai was probably my favorite. This meal was so simple, yet so flavorful and totally different from anything else we usually make. I foresee us making this a lot going forward, especially since it re-heated really well! I followed this recipe to a T besides omitting the fish sauce. This was RM’s favorite meal of the week, too.

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Lastly, I made the Beef Teriyaki on Thursday night when I got home from teaching. It was awesome that in 30 minutes we had a whole meal ready for us. We don’t tend to buy or cook a lot of red meat, so it was a nice change to bring a dish like this into our weekly eats. Again, this meal was not fancy, but the flavors were on point! My only complaint here, similar to the Hot Pot, is that it was a bit too salty, again I’m assuming this is because of the soy sauce. This was rectified the next day by adding some broccoli to the mix- beef & broccoli- such a delicious combo!

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I don’t normally like to cook full meals during the week due to my busy schedule that generally doesn’t have me getting home until 7:30-8pm, but these meals were so quick and easy to assemble and serve so it was a very doable activity.

I can’t wait until our next delivery, particularly because we were notified that Chef Jeremy Seawall of Island Creek Oyster Bar, Lineage & Row 34 is partnering with Just Add Cooking to showcase recipes from his new cookbook, The New England Kitchen.

Chef Jeremy Seawall has spent his career working with the farm-to-table movement, focusing on fresh, local foods. This pairs so well with Just Add Cooking because, as you know, they have an entirely local approach to their meal kit programs so working with someone who understands and values that, too, is perfect. And, don’t be intimidated- Just Add Cooking has assured us that Chef Seawall’s recipes will still be fun and relatively easy for weeknight cooking.

We love all of those restaurants so getting to try our hand at cooking some of his recipes is pretty cool! His recipes will be available to subscribers for the 4/24 deliveries (which means you have to order by 4/20). While we didn’t get a chance to check them out this month, you can guarantee we will be picking some of his recipes for next month- I can’t wait!

Don’t forget, if you like the sounds of Just Add Cooking, just use the code BUBBLY when you sign up and you can get your first Just Add Cooking box for just $39. Which, btw, is 3 meals- one hell of a deal if you ask me! Click here to sign up for a free account and to pick your recipes.

Questions for you: What cuisine is your favorite? Do you like your food salty or not? Have you eaten at any of the restaurants that Chef Seawall is affiliated with?

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post but I was provided with a free week of meals in response for my review. As always, all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own- I really, truly think this is a wonderful company and I’m so excited that I get to work with them! As an affiliate, I do receive a credit when you sign up for the service using my code. Thanks for your support!