Red Lantern – Burpees to Bubbly

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend. Although we did lots of Christmas-y things, it sure didn’t feel like Christmas with 50-60* weather all weekend. I’m not complaining, though, I’m sure we will have freezing temps and snow soon enough!

Before we recap, I want to wish my sister a very happy birthday!!! I hope you have a great day! xo

Friday

I really wasn’t ready to head right home after work on Friday so I texted my friend Jessi to see if she wanted to meet up for a drink on my way home. Lucky for me, she was around and willing to meet up! We met at Assembly Row and puttered through Home Goods before grabbing seats and some vino at the Legal Seafoods bar.

I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to get stuff for dinner: quesadillas! We had chicken we needed to eat and I was in no mood for a boring chicken and veggie meal. I feel like Fridays should be fun meals, not boring standard meals.

We used Ezekiel wraps, chicken thighs I had baked earlier in the week, freshly shredded Gruyere cheese and veggies. I plan on writing these up in a post of their own because they were that good!

Saturday

It was my Saturday to teach and it was fun because there were lots of friends in class! I can tell winter is coming because each week my numbers continue to increase.

We had a rare Saturday where both RM and I were around with no real plans. He took advantage of it by starting to study for his broker exam and I started to do some decorating. Since we loved the quesadilla’s so much, I offered to make them again for lunch!

Later in the afternoon I popped over to Target to stock up on some household items… $85 later and multiple things I didn’t “need”. How does that store always do that to me?!

We decided to get our Christmas Tree later in the afternoon. RM’s family always gets their tree at Russo’s in Watertown so we went there. I was totally impressed! The tree wasn’t cheap, but it just seemed to much healthier than the ones I’ve previously gotten at Home Depot so I didn’t mind spending the money.

My sister was celebrating her birthday on Saturday night at The Brahmin so RM and I decided to head in a little early and grab some sushi at Red Lantern since it’s right next to The Brahmin. We got bubbly, spicy edamame, avocado salad, a spicy tuna roll and a salmon avocado roll and everything was fantastic!

Once we got word that my sister was at The Brahmin we headed over. It was such a fun night- I definitely drank more than usual and more than I probably should have, but I don’t go out like that very often so it’s all good. We laughed, we danced and we took birthday shot shots- so much fun!

RM and I were both craving pizza when we left, but we couldn’t find an open pizza joint so we ended up at Tasty Burger. I had never been and I have to say, although the burger was good, it wasn’t as good as Shake Shack! RM refused to share with me and made me get my own… two bites in and I decided I didn’t want a burger so we ended up taking it home, haha the fries on the other hand? Those were totally hitting the spot!

Sunday

We slept in (no surprise there) and had a nice lazy morning. I whipped up some healthy pancakes and then went back to Target to get a new tree stand since the one I’ve had for a few years apparently had a big crack in it and leaked all of the water we added to it… so not fun!

The rest of the day was spent decorating, food shopping and taking a stab at making Rosa’s sauce. I had a few bites and it definitely isn’t as good as hers, but it’s still pretty good!

It’s been so fun decorating “our home” and getting our first Christmas tree together! We have so much fun living together that I sometimes still feel like we are playing house 🙂

For dinner, we had some paleo slow cooker wings that RM threw together- they were fantastic!

And that about wraps it up!

Questions for you: Did you do anything fun this weekend? Have you gotten your tree and/or started decorating for Christmas? What’s the best meal you had this weekend? Any fun drinks or Christmas parties?

Good morning! How are you doing today? I slept terribly on Sunday night because of a weird stomach ache, so I feel like I’m still catching up on sleep. This past weekend was perfect in so many ways. Even though the weather was not great and ended up causing us to cancel a Cape trip, we still found lots of fun things to do. I have to admit, after having been on the road for the past number of weekends, it was nice to stick around Boston for a bit!

Friday Night

After work on Friday, I ran some errands (including trip to Lens Crafters where they replaced my glasses for $25!! So happy I bought the protection plan. Best thing ever!) and then came home and sat on my back patio for a while. It was nice- I haven’t had a chance to do that enough this summer. And, my dad told me to “watch my garden” for 10 minutes a day… does watching it for a half hour count for 3 days worth of watching? It is coming along quite well!.

Later, RM and I went to Red Lantern for dinner. I had bought a Living Social deal a while back that was due to expire soon, so it was the perfect time to use it! Although the prices are rather high for both drinks and food, everything we had was delicious and I would definitely go back. Even better? They have a whole Gluten Free sushi menu which is awesome.

Saturday

After teaching a very sweaty kickboxing class, I went to get a pedicure at Queen Bee Nails- my favorite place to get them! Between my nails and new toe color, I’m going a little bright with my colors this summer. It’s a fun change!

In the afternoon, RM and I headed to my friend Amy’s apartment for a drink with a few other friends before going to a summer BBQ at Rachel and Dan’s apartment. We had lots of good food and about a million good laughs while playing Cards Against Humanity. That game gets funnier every time I play it!

The best part about Saturday afternoon parties? You still get home early… I am so old!

Sunday

I woke up and did some yoga and core work while RM made us some delicious Pumpkin Walnut Banana Protein Paleo pancakes. I’m not a big pancake person but these are amazing because they actually keep me full for a long time!

Once we were digested, we headed out for a long power walk. I think we covered about 3.5 miles before calling it quits to *attempt* grocery shopping. Have you heard about all the Market Basket drama?? We hadn’t, so you can imagine our faces when we walked in and were faced with this scene:

It was the craziest thing ever- we literally couldn’t even shop because there was NOTHING to choose from. So frustrating. I hope everything gets settled and back to normal asap!

We headed to RM’s mom’s house for a late afternoon lunch/early dinner. She is from Italy and makes the most amazing food, which yesterday included Eggplant parmesan with home grown eggplants. Wow. It was SO good and I’m so happy she gave me leftovers to eat this week!

Later in the evening, we met up with some of his friends/family at the Festa Italiana, which is an Italian Festival/Fair in Newton. There was live music, beer/wine, lots of fair food and rides. I love stuff like this so I was in my element!

In addition to some delicious Carlo Rossi (I can’t say that with a straight face…), we had some oysters and an ice cream cone. No wonder why I was up all Sunday night with a stomach ache- those are dumb things to mix in one night!

All in all, though, it was a really great weekend… the only thing missing was hanging out with my family 😦 I miss them!

Questions for you: Have you been to Red Lantern? What’s your favorite Sushi roll? Where do you get your pedicures? Have you been to any BBQ’s this summer?