Category: Dinner

Gym Friends, Russell Tavern, Poolside, Tia’s

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I feel like the month of July has been so incredibly busy for me between work, travel, teaching, babysitting, etc. that this past weekend felt almost weird because of my lack of plans and the fact that I had, gasp!, free time! What a concept, right? On Saturday, I even felt, dare I say, bored. I know, I know. I should relish in the times where I don’t have much going on, but when I go from being SO busy to being SO NOT busy, it’s hard to know how to flip the switch and be ok with having free time.

Let’s back up, though, shall we? My gym friends, Athena and Ashley and I have been trying to get together for months and this past Friday we were finally able to align our schedules and make plans. I love hanging out with these girls because they “get” me and my love of the gym and teaching and blog blogging so we always have loads to talk about and I always leave feeling like I have more clarity about whatever little issue I might have.

We decided to go to Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square. I’ve eaten there before, but this time was more fun because it turns out I know the manager! He is my old boss, Mr. Shaw’s (I talk about summers at Shaw’s Ridge Farm with Meredith and the rest of the crew) nephew and he used to manage Red Line, which was another favorite of mine in Harvard Square.  Anyway! The 3 of us girls grabbed drinks at the bar while we waited for our table to be ready. We all got cocktails instead of wine, what a shocker!

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Delish! Friday had been a stressful day at work so this was juuuust what I needed to relax! Tyler came to grab us shortly after we finished our cocktails and brought us to our table. He walked us through the menu and said that sharing small plates was the best option. Um, sharing plates? Duh, that’s my favorite thing to do! Lucky for us, he sent out 3 absolutely delicious appetizers for us to try before we placed any of our own orders.

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We tried the Smoked Pigs Tail Pierogi, Crispy Poached Farm Eggs and Fiore Di Nonno Burrata. Holy.Yum. The pierogi was my favorite, but the fried poached egg was a close second. Many thanks to Tyler for sending these out to us!!

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Food blogger in action! Loved that I wasn’t the only weird  one taking pictures of my food 😉

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After we finished those, we decided to order a couple more things: Braised Beef Tongue Meatballs and the crab cakes. Again, both of these were outstanding! I never thought I would eat a beef tongue meatball and enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

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I could have finished there, but since we still had wine and more conversation topics to cover, we placed an order for a flatbread pizza. I forget what we ordered, but it was awesome!

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All in all, it was a really great night! Good drinks, great food and even better company! Can we get the next girls night on the calendar soon, please?!

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On Saturday, I got up early (like 6:45am early, which is really early for a Saturday!) and headed to Brockton for the Color Me Rad run. I’ll do a full recap on that later- it was a blast!

Shortly after I got back, though, I found myself feeling bored! I had showered and cleaned and it was only 11am. I decided to go to the Somerville Pool, and while it’s not necessarily the nicest place to be, it beat packing up and heading to the beach.

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Laying by the pool for the afternoon helped to not only pass some time, but helped to force me to relax! But, just as I was starting to get antsy, I texted my friend, Jessi, she said she was around and would love to get drinks. Perfect! While I waited for Jessi and her friend, Kathleen, to pick me up, I poured myself a glass of wine that my friend, JP had sent me! Last week, he sent me the sweetest “Moe Care Package”, equipped with some of my favorite things!

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J.Lohr is one of my favorite Chardonnays so I couldn’t wait to open it!

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Shortly after I poured this glass, the girls arrived. We headed to Jessi’s apartment in Charlestown and had another glass of wine while we figured out where we should go. She got these adorable Kate Spade wine glasses for her birthday and all I have to say, is I am very glad I didn’t break it!

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We decided to go to Tia’s since they have the best outdoor bar area. The food isn’t great and I think it’s overpriced, but if you’re looking to just get drinks outside on a nice evening, it’s definitely the place to be! I ended up running into an old friend, so I caught up with him for a while- I love how Boston is small enough where you can run into people you know in random places! All in all, it was a really great “spur of the moment” night out!

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Questions for you: Have you ever been to Russell House Tavern or Tia’s? What’s your favorite outdoor bar in Boston? Do you tend to order drinks/cocktails or wine/beer when you go out?

Weekending: Kickboxing, Babysitting, Breakfasting, Beaching

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Good morning! I had a busy, but fun weekend this past weekend, anyone else? I feel like I’ve been in constant “go-go-go” mode for a few weeks now and I’ll be honest, I am ready for a little down time! This weekend, besides the Color Me Rad race on Saturday is pretty much wide open. It’s going to feel great to have TIME to get things done, or, to do absolutely nothing but hang out and relax! As I will be moving in a few weeks, I am sure there are lots of things for me to do around here!

On Friday, I dropped Tim off at the airport around 2:45. From there, since it was so hot, I headed to Starbucks to get some work done. It wasn’t at all what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have a choice:( Once I got to my apartment, I pretty much stayed in my air-conditioned bedroom since our apartment thermostat read 93 degrees. Yikes!

Saturday morning, I woke up mostly rested and mentally prepared myself to tackle the day! On the agenda, going to the bank, teaching kickboxing, grabbing lunch, babysitting and then stopping by Rachel and Dans’s for a BBQ. As I said yesterday, kickboxing was SWEATY! I think it’s because our body temps are abnormally high because of the crazy heat wave- does this make any sense? I got a kick out of the twitter messages post class:

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At least I wasn’t the only one:)

Babysitting was hot, but fun. Watching the kids play in the sprinkler was so fun- ah, to be a carefree kid again, just for a day, would be so great. I brought pizza dough and toppings since I thought it would be fun for us to make pizza together, instead of ordering out. The kids LOVED it. Trying to explain the concept of what we were doing and what it would “turn into” after we baked it was hilarious. Lila said it was the “best pizza she has ever eaten”… job well done 🙂

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Unfortunately, Rachel and Dan’s BBQ had ended, but it was nice to chat with them for a little while. I was ok with going home early as I knew I needed to get up and leave the house by 8:30am on Sunday to meet Meredith for breakfast in Portsmouth. Meredith moved to Australia about 8 months ago, so it was SO GOOD to finally see her and catch up. We joked, though, that there’s no way to catch up on that many months in an hour and a half breakfast. We did our very best! Meredith is literally the sweetest person I know and I am so happy that we are such good friends. She’s the best listener and just “gets” it (whatever “it” may be). Thanks for meeting up, Mere!! Miss you already!

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Since I was already north of Boston and the weather was nice (the heat wave seemed to have finally broke!!), I decided to hit up a beach that I might not normally go to. I had a million things on my “to-do” list, but when I looked at it, I realized that I really needed some quiet “me” time, so I decided to go to Plum Island in Newbury. The beach was really nice and luckily, it wasn’t too hot. I stayed for about 2 hours until I realized I was a. starving and b. nearly out of water. If hangry Monique is awful, hangry and thirsty Monique is a monster!

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On my way home, I stopped in Danvers at the Stop n Shop to grab a few groceries and lunch and made it back to my apartment early enough to have time to water my garden, blog, do laundry and get ready for dinner.

I went to dinner in Dorchester and was very surprised with how nice the restaurant was! When we walked in, the place looked dead, which generally makes me nervous, but as soon as we walked outside to the patio, we realized why the inside was empty: the back patio was awesome!! I was bummed when the server said they were out of the Miso Glazed Salmon, but when I took a bite of the Ahi Tuna Taco’s, I pretty much forgot about the salmon! I am so happy that the weather has cooled down a bit because outdoor dining in the summer is my favorite!

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(Pretty rainbow I saw when I was driving!)

All in all, it was a great, but busy weekend!

Questions for you: Do you like to make your own pizza? Favorite restaurant in Portsmouth? Do you feel like you sweat more in classes when it’s hot out even though they are indoors?

I want to wish my very dear friend, Sara, a very happy birthday!!!

Weekend Catch-Up: Babysitting, Lunch at Cafeteria, Lulu Shopping, Sushi, Beach

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All last week I kept looking ahead to my weekend and felt great that it was literally wide open! However, by the time Friday rolled around, pretty much my entire weekend was booked; does this happen to anyone else? Since I am a planner, this isn’t uncommon for me, but it still made me laugh to see how quickly I turned an open, no plan weekend into a relatively busy weekend!

After I taught on Friday, I headed to Newton to babysit Trent and Lila. I met their mom, Renee, back when we used to take yoga every Monday together. I have been babysitting for them for over 3 years at this point; crazy to think it’s been that long! I always have a blast babysitting because the kids are great, it’s fun to catch up with Renee, and because they always have the best snacks and trashy mags for me to read after the kids go to bed 😉

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Not a bad way to spend the night! Plus, babysitting money is my Lulu money, so you wanna know shopping was on the agenda for Saturday.

I let myself stay in bed until 9am on Saturday since I didn’t get home until 1am. I originally had plans to go to BodyPump, but realized that my body was exhausted and could use the rest. After I got up, I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and then Target to stock up on things for my trip this week. While I was at Target, I ended up getting a bathing suit for $22!! Love a good deal!

After errands, I showered and then my sister and my friend Lauren and I went into the city and had lunch at Cafeteria. Weekend lunches out require cocktails, right? And, it’s only fitting for me to have a glass of bubbly 😉

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To eat, we ordered 3 sandwiches and shared amongst ourselves.

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I got the black bean burger, but I’ll spare you the picture since it wasn’t very pretty. Everything tasted great, though!

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After lunch, we walked over to the Lululemon. I went with the mission to get a colored pair of spandex shorts, but they only had black ones in my size. Boring 😦 I ended up finding a pair of HOT PINK capris (on sale!) and a bright lime green top instead. I can’t say I was disappointed about my purchases.

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Don’t worry, I won’t wear them together 😉

In addition to my new outfit (I am SO excited to workout and wear them now- such a great motivator!), I finally got a new gym bag. I have been on a hunt for a new gym bag for MONTHS, so I’m stoked that I finally found one that I like. It’s really big so it’s perfect for my “work to gym” days (aka, every day).

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I love it so much already!!

After shopping, Lauren and I got much-needed pedicures. It’s the little things!

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Once we got home, I was absolutely beat and did something I NEVER do: napped! I had dinner plans at 7, but knew I had about an hour that I could allot to napping, or at the very least, resting. It felt great!!

Dinner was at Yoki, which I’ve blogged about on here once or twice before! The sushi is amazing and the Celtics roll is literally the best roll I have ever had!!

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Mmmm 🙂

We were finally graced with a really sunny day on Sunday, so Lauren and Danielle and I decided to go to the beach! We went to Nahant, and it was already jam packed at 10am. Even though it was a beautiful sunny beach day, it was almost TOO hot.

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Nonetheless, we lasted about 3 hours and then grabbed lunch at Tides, which is right at the start of the beach.

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I got a Teriyaki Grilled Chicken Wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with a side of steamed broccoli. I loved that they had healthy, yet yummy, food options!

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To counteract my healthy meal, I enjoyed a Blueberry beer!

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There’s just something about an ice cold beer that quenches thirst unlike no other. Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way!

Once we got home from the beach, I did some pre-blogging for the week (have a few guest blogs for you- get excited!), cleaned up the apartment, did laundry and went to the grocery store. Since I will be away most of the week, I just grabbed some fruit and a salad to eat with the other half of my wrap that I got at Tides. Danielle and I did walk to get an ice cream. I was craving one bad! We ended up sharing one since they didn’t have kiddie sizes.

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Phew! That was a long weekend recap; if you made it this far, thank you!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite hot weather treat? What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Ever been to Nahant beach? What is a MA beach that I have to try?

PS!! Check out the size of this summer squash that I picked from my garden!!!

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what do you think I should make with it?!

Shopping, Girl Time, Celebrations, Workouts- Another Busy Week!

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Hi friends! Happy Friday! For some reason, I have had an incredibly busy week. It’s been fun, but I’m beat! Doesn’t end today, either. I’ve got work until 4:30, then I am subbing my old Friday night class at the Allston BSC (all my old regulars, please come!!!) and then babysitting! Phew! Let me tell you that a well deserved trip to Lululemon will be happening 😉

Let’s catch up, shall we?! On Sunday, on my way back to MA, I decided to make a pit stop in Kittery since I was tired of sitting in massive amounts of traffic. I have a bunch of work trips this month and wanted another suit, so it was a great time to check that off my “to-do” list. 45 minutes later, I walked out of Banana Republic with a new suit and a new dress- for $72!!! Long story short, I had cash rewards from my BR card and then had to open another card for some reason so I got the 15% off, too. Definitely a great pit stop!

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I didn’t end up making a big meal on Sunday night since it was so hot, but I threw together a pretty tasty quesadilla! Shrimp, peppers, onions and feta- delicious!

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On Monday, I went to The Studio Empower for an awesome class and was greeted with a salmon dinner prepared by my roommate when I walked through the door! Love that.

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Tuesday was a really awesome day! I forced myself out of bed for an early run. It wasn’t fast, but I covered 3.4 miles in 30 minutes which I was very happy about. After that, I did 15 reps of biceps curls balancing on 1 leg, upright rows, triceps dips, pushups, and an ab ladder. Nothing like being finished a workout by 7:15am!

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After work I met up with someone for drinks at Legal Harborside Roofdeck. I couldn’t believe how packed it was for Tuesday. Apparently people have a life outside of the gym after work; who would have thought?!

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From there, I headed to Amy and Sheila’s for a girls dinner party! Instead of going out, they offered to cook for us which was a nice treat. It’s so hard to catch up with people while in a restaurant at a big table; I’d much prefer a casual setting at someone’s apartment. Our friend, Kelly, was also visiting from San Francisco so our group was even bigger than usual! Unfortunately, Kia couldn’t come because she had her puppy to tend to, but other than that we were all there!

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Amy grilled up chicken, steak, shrimp and veggies. Jess and I cooked rice and green beans and Sheila prepped the salad. Pair that with a big ol’ glass of vino and you’ve got a happy Monique 😉

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After dinner, we brought out the desserts for some birthday celebrations. If you remember, I severely cut back on eating desserts a few weeks ago, but I most certainly had desserts on Tuesday. I mean, funetti cake and peanut butter rice crispy treats with chocolate and homemade berry ice cream?! I was in sweet tooth heaven!

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And, throw some bubbly in there and you’ve pretty much got a perfect night!

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On top of all of that, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better than good food, good drinks, tasty desserts and long overdue girl time, Sheila surprised us with her recent engagement!!!!! Somehow, we had the whole ‘toasting to champagne’ thing on video and it’s literally the best video I’ve ever seen. All you hear in the background is “wait. WHAT?!” from me and screams from Lauren. It.was.awesome! We all couldn’t be more happy for Sheila and Bryan!

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Beautiful ring unlike anything I have ever seen!

Wednesday I ended up teaching a double to help a fellow instructor out- phew! I was on another level that night; that is what happens when I go too long without teaching 😉 My Thursday double was a little tough to get into, purely because my legs were tired! What made everything better, though, was coming home to pizza fresh out of the oven!

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Man did THAT hit the spot!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Questions for you: Tell me- what’s on the agenda for tonight? How have your workouts been? What’s was the best part of your week? Drinks on a weeknight- do you do that often?

4th of July Festivities Continued

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As I mentioned yesterday, my 4th of July festivities continued throughout the weekend, which was awesome! Everyone at home was either retired or had Friday off in addition to Thursday, so we were all in “vaca mode”. Originally, I hadn’t planned to be around Maine all weekend since I had to teach my kickboxing class at 10am on Saturday, but my other plans fell through and the heat wave was still in full effect, so I decided to just come right back to Maine after teaching. For me, in the summer when it’s really hot, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than in Maine- either at the beach, at the lake or at the pool.

I met mom and Danielle, the Jean’s, Colleen and Emma at The Backstreet Grill for beers and lunch. The BSG has a summer series going where every Saturday a brewery sponsors the afternoon and there’s a band playing and everyone hangs out on the patio. Saturday the brewery sponsoring the afternoon was Shipyard, so I was handed a Shipyard Summer immediately upon my arrival- loved it! We hung out there, listening to music, snacking on food and gabbing until about 2:30 when Danielle and I headed up to the lake to go out on the boat with Sara and Amy (and the rest of the gang).

There’s nothing like an afternoon on the lake! Especially when we get to snuggle the little Zeke love-bug!

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He’s just too sweet for words! Once everyone had had enough of the lake, boating and tubing, we headed back to shore. My parents were already at Chris’s “pre-gaming” for the BBQ. Ok, they weren’t pre-gaming, but they were enjoying cocktails on the deck waiting for all of us to arrive.

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I wasn’t far behind them with the cocktails- mom is so good at pouring me a wine right away!

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Chris left for a vacation on Monday, so she wanted to have all of us over to help her eat all the food she had in the fridge. She was the grill master! We literally had a little bit of everything- my favorite way to eat!

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Too stinkin cute! Almost as cute as this little one

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I FINALLY caught him with his eyes open! His little green and white striped outfit was too cute for words. He looked like a little frog when he was sleeping! I spent lots of time with Zeke so Sara could have some time to eat without a baby in her arms- it was fun playing mom for a little while, but I am certainly not ready for my own!

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What a fun night! We ate, we drank, we danced, we made s’mores. The perfect ending to an already wonderful 4th of July “vacation”. Monday was a rude “reality check”; I was not ready to jump right back into the grind of working. Whomp, whomp.

Questions for you: What was the best part of your 4th of July weekend? Any good BBQ’s? Did you see the fireworks? Do you like to burn marshmallows or slow cook them? I like to eat then “raw”, meaning I don’t like to cook them 🙂