I couldn't even handle the bright blue skies without a trip to see that beautiful blue water for one more day. There was still a cold chill in the air, but who even cares? Not these kids, that's for sure...
Sandwiched in the middle of the weekend was some Easter fun at Nona's house, where 1st Easter treats were eaten...
...and traditional Pastia was made. 98% made by Katie, which was pretty awesome to say the least.
...and of course rounding out the weekend was hunting for eggs (at, ahem, before 7am👀 That even beat Christmas morning!)...
...treat sampling...
...church going...
...and spending most of the rest of the day wrangling the kids in the yard since it was a warrrrrrrmmmm, high 80's Easter in NJ this year...
...and eating. Oh gosh and EATING. So much so that I barely want to talk about food this morning...buttttt we must press on.
Weekly recap:
More 'real life' vs awesome Internet photographer pictures comin at ya😉 And don't let my sub par photo stop you! This dish was absolutely PHENOMENAL. Not to mention, SUPER HEALTHY, EASY AND PHENOMENAL. What a great combo.
Hahahahaha...I can't EVEN with that 'comparison photo', or LACK there of in the comparison department😉 But again, don't let that stop you from making this recipe. We've made it a zillion times and it never fails to impress.
Wednesday: BBQ mini meatloaves + lightly glazed roasted carrots
I didn't even get a photo of this meal given that, after wrangling 2 kids to see the Easter bunny and some playtime at the mall, we got home and made dinner and ate like starving zombies😉
Thursday: Dinner at Chickie & Pete's
Another photo I completely forgot about, as I got swept up chatting with my fabulous cousin. We, of course, split some of their famous fries and I spied a new menu item that I loveeeed: Caesar salad with meatballs! I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee meatballs (and pizza crust!) with salad...so this was RIGHT up my alley, and quite delicious! We also split an order of ricotta donuts, because FUN.
Friday: Nachos + Salad + 1/2 bacon cheeseburger at Frankie's Bar & Grill
So not only was the blue water calling me to head East on Friday, but also the prospect of visiting one of our VERYFAVORITERESTAURANTS down Point Pleasant. We found this place a few years ago when a beach picnic plan was foiled by a rainstorm and we got drawn to this place from the INSANE aroma of charcoal grill being shared throughout the town😉 I have a sweet affinity for 'set plans' that change to be even more memorable and this night will always be one of my favorite "beach memories."
And on top of that, the food and the atmosphere of this place is always just kinda shore perfect. Sorta loud, sorta cozy and ALL sorts of delicious. We didn't want to go TOO crazy, so we went about splitting their nachos and their salad (even this SIMPLE SALAD is just SOOOOGOOD!)
...and we also split a bacon cheeseburger.
Not NORMAL "Good Friday/Lent" fair...but I kinda resided this year to the fact that there are a lot worse things I can do in life than eat meat on a Friday during Lent. But who knows? Maybe next year I'll want to observe, but this year I felt like it was OK to realize it's not THEMOSTIMPORTANT thing I could do for the world during Lent.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just explaining my Catholic-guilt away😉
ANYWAY...
We also had to make our inaugural trip to Hoffman's of the season...
...where Katie got into the fact that she & I could get 2 different flavors of ice cream and we could swap and share😉
Sharing to get to try more?? That's my girl!
Saturday: MORE Sausage & peppers with cauliflower rice
YEP. THAT'S how much we loveeeeeeeed this dish! So nice, we had it TWICE.
Sunday: EASTER
Which was not just ONE course of homemade ravioli, meatballs, salad & fresh bread...
(here's Katie & Lils making the ravioli since I didn't get a picture of them at the table!)
...but a SECOND course of ALL this deliciousness...
A fun combo of efforts of my Mom & Mother-in-Law's traditional Easter dishes. VERYYYYYYYY delicious!
I also held off allllll day from eating any treats to save room for dessert, but had a few bites too many (of rice pudding, pound cake with strawberries & chocolate cream pie...yum) and felt STUFFED by the end of the night. Not surprising since everything was just plain DELICIOUS. But definitely ready to jump back into a SUPER healthy day today! Weeeeeeeeeeeee. Thankfully I had gotten my 'healthy lunch food prep' done on Saturday, so we're all set for a strong week ahead.
Andddddd the exercise to wrap it all up:
Tuesday: Taught Vinyasa yoga + 2 mile Walk with mixed weights
Wednesday: Taught gentle (my hip hurt this day, so I took a rest)
Thursday: Taught Hatha + 5K Walk
I did the walk when I came home from dinner. I was tired when we were leavin the restaurant and as I was walking in the door, realized that I had enough energy to bang something out and this particular workout was calling my name. Felt sooooooooo good that I got that done, even when I thought I was too tired!
Friday: Dance + weights + planks
Saturday: Taught Hatha + an insannnnnnne amount of running around😉
Sunday: Body slimming yoga
Had to laugh that on a rare Sunday that I had off from yoga, I STILL found myself doing it😉 This was just the one that was callin out to me.
LOTS of WORDS. TOO many words from me, I'm sure. So have a great week!!
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As always...thanks for reading!
