Restaurants

Restaurant: Mint- Waitsfield, VT

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Neil and I spent most of the day running around visiting farmers markets (we visited three) and we finally needed to fuel ourselves. After leaving farmers market number three in Waitsfield, VT we decided to try out Mint a vegetarian restaurant in Waitsfield. We tried it a last winter and we thought it was really delicious but we just haven’t made it back until today.

We were seated outside in Paris and after reviewing the menu we decided on two dishes to share- the Falafel Plate and the Tempeh & Roasted Red Pepper Sandwich.

The sandwich was good but it wasn’t great.  It was a little bland and I would have loved for it to be toasted because it got a little soggy. The greens were wonderful dressed with a lavender-herb vinaigrette; so different but so good.

Now as for the falfael plate- yes it tastes as amazing as it looks.

Look at how crispy these little falafel balls are but how moist and wonderfully tasty they are in the center. Everything was amazing! The pita and falafel were warm and delicious with the tahini sauce.  The hummus was so tasty especially on the pita with a piece of roasted red pepper.  What can I say it was so good I could eat it every day.

Overall our second experience at Mint was just as good as the first- well probably even better. The only downfall of the place is the service is fair but the food is wonderful.

A Single Pebble

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Good Morning! This morning started out wonderful with a mug of coffee and a toasted French Meadow sprouted 16 grain and seed bagel with Toffuti. I enjoyed it out on the balcony and read a little bit more of The Hunger Games; so far I am loving this book- have you read it?

Wednesday Morning Breakfast- YUM

Breakfast Date

Lets rewind to yesterday:

Tuesday Breakfast

Lunch: Crackers & Hummus because we had no food

After work I went for a run and did my best pace yet, a 12 minute mile! So far I have cut over 2 minutes off my mile – WIN! It was a really great run.

Follow my workouts on Daily Mile

After my run Neil and I met up with friends from for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, A Single Pebble.

A Single Pebble is a tasty family style Chinese restaurant with some of the best food in town. We chose two small dishes, a large dish and a noodle dish to share between the four of us. We washed it all down with some local brews.

Vegetable Potstickers- These were pretty tasty

Double Garlic Broccoli- one of my favorite dishes on the menu. This is a must order at each visit.

Rice of Course

Sesame Buddha's Beef- this is also a suggested must order dish- it was absolutely amazing. We also had a vegan noodle dish with crispy tofu; it was meh not my favorite but it was okay.

After dinner we went out for one more beer at The Farm House Tap and Grill with this cute couple:


We had a great night out with friends, one of whom is currently living in DC. Now we are looking forward to our August couples trip to Philly. What are you must see, do, eat, ect for Philly? We are looking for suggestions.

 

Pizza or Indian….How About Both?

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Happy Sunday (2nd Saturday)! I love long weekends! This morning Neil and I spent a few hours doing laundry and and caught up on some reading. I finally finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest and started No Meat Athlete’s Half Marathon Roadmap.

After our laundry date we headed downtown to the water front for a walk; we did 4 miles in 68 minutes and it felt great. We are right on track for our 5k in three weeks and then it’s on to our 10k in September and then our half in January.

After our walk we headed to American Flatbread for a beer and flatbread of course. Neil and I both got a Long Trail Brewmasters Double IPA. It was so good.

For lunch we split an Evolution salad and a Revolution flatbread hold the cheese add olives.

Evolution Salad: Organic Sweet Leaf Lettuce & Mesclun Greens w/Organic Carrots & Celery, Arame Seaweed, toasted sesame seeds and ginger-tamari dressing

Revolution Flatbread: Homemade organic tomato sauce, caramelized onions, fresh herbs and kalamata olives

We also shared a half of a stout for dessert:

After lunch we did a little window shopping and restocked our beer selection; I can’t wait to try them over the next month. Now it’s time to relax with a little left over Indian food recipes from The Asian Vegan Kitchen (made last night) and a movie or two. GOODNIGHT!

Leftover Indian YUM

Date Night In France

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Tonight Neil took me on a wonderful date night to France, well the closest you can get to France in Vermont. We started the night out with a drink at 156 Bistro and then Neil surprised me with dinner at Leunig’s Bistro. We have been talking about going to Leunig’s for months okay years but we just have never gone. It’s a little pricey but we had an amazing meal complete with dessert.

To Start- Seeded Baguette

Cocktail for me: Moulin Rouge and a Beer for Him

Artichoke stuffed with Temeph

Espresso

Vegan Carrot Cake: A-MAZ-ING

Overall we had an amazing and delicious meal. The entree was light, fresh and so tasty. The dessert was amazing especially with the espresso. It was the best espresso I have ever had too. Overall amazing meal, amazing ambiance (it was like you were in France) and I had the best date ever- my husband.

Does This Shirt Make Me Look Fast?

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This morning the Hubz and I had intended on getting up early to run before heading to Montpelier to watch Allie and Caitlin’s race but after a late night out at a concert we decided that a little extra sleep was a better idea.  Once we finally rolled out of bed we headed on our way but first we made a pit stop at a new coffee shop Maglianero Cafe for a coffee. This new coffee shop is really a beautiful place and it is bike friendly.  I got a hot drip coffee and the Hubz an iced coffee- both were amazingly delicious.

After our coffee we made our way to Montpelier just in time to see Allie and Caitlin at the first start of the race.  While we waited for them to make the loop back to the finish we headed to our favorite Capitol City Farmers Market to pick up some veggies and our favorite bookstore Bear Pond Books.  Around 9:30 am we headed to the race finish line and watched as runners began to arrive and waited to cheer on Allie and Caitlin.

At the start of their run (girls in pink)

Around 43 minutes I turned to Neil and said they’ll be here in 10 minutes, that’s my guess.  Well guess what- I WAS RIGHT ON! Allie and Caitlin turned the corner at 52 minutes and some seconds and they leaped across the finish line at 53 minutes.  They were really amazing and I am so proud.

Check out the shirts the girls made for the race:

and the back of Allie’s:

After the race we headed to The Skinny Pancake for crepes and to catch up.  Neil and I both got the Vegan Monster with mushrooms and salsa and topped with our favorite hot sauce.

Following brunch we headed to the Hunger Mountain Co-op to take a look but we didn’t pick up much just a yummy chocolate bar and coconut rolled dates for the Hubz.  When we were leaving I decided to take a peak at the sign up sheet for my Sugar Blues workshop next week and guess what? It was FULL- even the wait list is full!!! Squeal! Eeek! OMG! The pressure is on!

When we finally made it back to Burlington the Hubz and I took a look at the clock and decided we better head to the gym before it closed.  Today we decided to get a 250 meter swim in as well as our run.  I haven’t been feeling great, a little congested, so todays workout wasn’t the best on top of the fact that my legs were killing me from yesterdays squats and lunges. After our run we stopped in at Healthy Living for a smoothie and coconut water as well as some organic strawberries and organic apples. The Hubz and I shared a banana-peanut butter-flax-coconut smoothie and it was delicious.

Now it’s time for dinner, The Voice, foam rolling and relaxing with a movie. What are you up to this weekend?

Anniversary Getaway: Day 4-Shop Til You Drop & Plan Changes

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Wrentham Village Premium Outlets where we spent four hours shopping our butts off. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed getting some shopping done while still being able to walk around outside.  For lunch we packed up wraps and fruit and enjoyed a nice little picnic on a green patch that we found next to our car.  As for the success of the shopping….well the Hubz purchased a bunch of tops and a pair of shorts and I left with a pair of earrings and a tennis skirt; not so successful on my part.

After our shopping trip we were left with a huge dilemma- what do we do now?  Honestly there isn’t much happening in the Wrentham area and our hotel which was in Franklin well was just not what we’d hoped for on our anniversary.  So we decided that since we got a steal on the room via Hotwire that we would eat the cost  and find a new room in Boston so we could enjoy a nice night out.  Again turning to Hotwire (seriously addicted) we chose a 4 star in Cambridge and ended up with the Hyatt Regency- WIN!

Our accomodations went from:

Room at Hawthorne Suites - Franklin MA

Room at Hawthorne Suites - Franklin MA

To this:

Hyatt Regency Cambridge

Not only did the romance factor increase so did the ability to get out at night and enjoy ourselves. I mean as much as I loved that evening trip to Target and Shop & Save I’d rather be galavanting around Boston. So we checked in at the Hyatt Regency and headed straight to our room to change and take advantage of their gym – we were in need of a good run to stay on track for our training plan.

 

View as I Ran

After our run and a good shower we got all done up and took a walk across the bridge to Boston to catch a T to our next destination, Addis Red Sea. We had made reservations at Addis Red Sea because it has in the past been one of our favorite restaurants to visit in Boston. We love the atmosphere and the Ethiopian food and have always had a good experience ….until this past visit. We arrived 2 hours before closing and were seated. We were super hungry so we decided to order a lentil sambusa and the vegetarian plate for two along with a few beers. Well once the girl finally took our order we settled in to what we hoped would be a great night. About 10 minutes later the waitress returned to tell us they were out of the lentil sambusa but they had the veggie if we wanted that instead; we said yes and 10 minutes after that she returned with two sambusas. I had a feeling something just wasn’t right so instead of biting right in like I normally would have I tore a corner off only to find that our veggie sambusa was actually beef; can you imagine if I had taken a big bite!! Well 10 minutes after that I finally got the waitresses attention and told her of the mistake and that we would rather not have an appetizer at all and we would just like our meal at this point.

After waiting a bit longer our meal finally arrived with two lentil sambusas (I guess they found more?). We started into the food immediately since at this point we were ravenous after waiting for almost an hour for our food. After a few bites the Hubz noticed that we were missing our salad that was to go with the meal and that most of the food was cold and in addition to that when we finally took a bite of the sambusas they were freezing in the middle. Overall we had the worst experience ever at this restaurant ever and we have been here many times. Unfortunately, after this experience I wouldn’t recommend Addis Red Sea and wouldn’t return- there are enough other great restaurants in Boston to eat at so don’t waste time (or money) here. Oh and we got charged for the sambusas after the whole mess and the fact we told them to disregard the order since they couldn’t seem to get it right.

Oh well! We didn’t let the dinner get us down instead we headed out for a celebratory (for our anniversary, not the horrible dinner) Manhattan down the road.  Honestly one of the best Manhattans ever and I had the best company with me too. Love.

Anniversary Getaway Day 2: Providence

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After our morning at the best bakery ever the Hubz and I continued on our way to Providence. After a few bad turns and a round about way we finally made it into downtown Providence where we first got our shop on and then hit the pavement to explore the city. When I was planning our trip I asked the twitterverse what I should do/see in Providence and many people replied with the Waterfire Providence. Unfortunately we were only in the Providence for the day but we did get to see them setting up for it and it looks like it would have been really nice to see. Oh well, something for next time.

After strolling around the downtown streets visiting with lions and turtles we finally found somewhere to eat.  We stopped in at AS220 a place I had read about during my planning sesh.  AS220 has a gallery, a bar and a cafe and they also host a number of other events.  When I saw the menu I was all about ordering the vegan Bahn Mi but of course just my luck they were out.  Instead I ordered the vegan mac and cheese and the Hubz got the marinated tofu and kale sandwich.  We also ordered the “spicy” black eyed pea fritters.

My mac and cheese was really delicious and Neil (who waited inside to get the food) said they made it all fresh right there. I loved the addition of the broccoli and crispy bread crumbs to my mac and cheese- so good. The Hubz sandwich was really delicious too; we both loved the pickled onions that they put on it- so good. Now as for the “spicy” black eyed pea fritters …..well they were um gross. They had a weird smell, consistency and taste and they were by no means spicy. The vegan sour cream that they came with also tasted really awful. Well I guess two out of three isn’t bad- can’t win them all! Overall we really like the food at AS220, would we go back? Possibly but there are other vegan options around so we would probably try something new first or just eat all our meals at the best bakery ever.