Friday food fun...

Hey, everyone!  With the weekend on the immediate horizon (weeeeee!), I've got a fun place to share with you today that you might want to check out on one of your lazy weekend jaunts.  This one takes you up Route 29, halfway between Trenton & New Hope to this little gem...

We've driven past "It's Nutts" about a zillion times, and every time I've mentioned "hey, I want to go there one time" as we've headed onward towards New Hope.  Well, it FINALLY happened this week and I'm SOGLAD it did.  Especially because if there's anything I love more than a place with great food, it's a great unassuming, authentic atmosphere (Spike's Fish Market also comes to mind).  I just LOVE old school, rustic simplicity and this roadside little restaurant has got all those charm buttons to my heart pinging! 

The interior was quaint and sweet (complete with a hutch that you'd have in your kitchen to store all of the ketchup, garlic powder, grated cheese and such)...

...but on one of the GORGEOUS days we've been having in NJ lately, we parked it in the sweet little outdoor patio, surrounded by large bushes to help you forget you're pretty much directly on a highwayJ....

...and dotted with the prettiest little cover of colorful umbrellas...

OH yeah...and the food.  My eyes got bigger & bigger as I read through the menu since its specialties ranged from "famous pancakes, pizza & fried chicken" to Greek, Mexican and Seafood.  But Scott & I had to start off with our favorite that is just TOO hard for us to pass up on any menu:  The loaded baked nachos...

This version with pork & chorizo chili and chickpeas (??), which you didn't even NOTICE because everything all just blended in a delicious pile of cheesy goodness.  Nachos, you'll always have my heartJ 

And, even though it was tough to narrow down our main dish choices, I just knew I had to sample as much of their "famous" items as we could, starting with sneaking a few bites from Katie's "famous Trenton tomato pie"... 

I'd be bold enough to say that it's probably better than half of the country's pizza, coming from a small roadside restaurant.  Say what you want about Trenton, NJ, but we KNOW about pizzaJ  Even Lily got in on the action...

And speaking of things you wouldn't expect to be great at a roadside restaurant:  Fried chicken... 

...but OMG, just so good!  Crispy on the outside, tender & juicy on the inside, it was perfection.  And those mashed potatoes & cole slaw we're none too shabby themselvesJ  A really awesome meal. 

I also got a bite of Scott's Cuban sandwich and went to get another and it was already all gone.  That'll give you an idea of how great THAT wasJ  It'll be hard to go back and NOT get that chicken, but we did steal glimpses of awesome chopped antipasta and what I hear is an incredible seafood chowder.  See also:  We'll be back soon.

Oh...wait, but FIRST:  There was of course dessert to be had!  And while they had a small dessert case filled with blonides & brownies as big as bricks & multi versions of different 7 layer cakes...

...I had one bite of Katie's homemade vanilla ice cream and knew I had to try a flavor of my own.  A non-toppings scoop of cookie dough ice cream was just the ticket.  ULTRA creamy & smooth, you can definitely taste the homemade difference.  Ya just need to try it for yourself (and yes, you can also just stop to get ice cream from the side stand) 

We left full & happy... 

Very happyJ 

We'll be back as soon as we can...and 'famous lemon ricotta pancakes,' I'm comin for ya!  Hope this gave you guys a little 'roadtrip' worthy review.  Great for a lazy Sunday afternoon cruzzzz.  (Oh yeah...and our waitress was a DOLL.  Just had to throw that in there!)  

Have a great weekend, guys!

Connect with me:

On Facebook

On Instagram

Through Email

On Youtube

Comment below

As always...thanks for reading!

A peek at balance...

Hey guys, welcome to a new week.  So while I wanted to focus more on posts tackeling the mental struggles in weight loss, I still wanted to include food and fun in the mix and thought this feature would be a good way to restart.  How does a Monday overview of a peek at how I try to balance all my weekly meals sound?  Same premise as the old blog, but now with a weekly glimpse instead of a daily one.  Also, I think I want to stick to just dinners, splurges & workouts right now.  To be quite honest, my breakfast, lunches & snacks have been pretty repetitive lately.  A fact that sprang up once I realized MOST of the time, I didn't really care what I had, just that I needed to eat SOMETHING.  (I know, how novelJ)  Honestly I've been having a lot of smoothies lately.  They've just seemed very "calming" to me at the moment, for whatever reason.  So, unless I have something majorly exciting in those 3 departments, I'll stick to the dinners, splurges & exercise because:

• Dinner is where I pretty much always try to make something different & keep it interesting....(ummm, except last weekJ  You'll seeJ)  And if you've read this blog for awhile, you'll remember that it was kinda the original style.
• Splurges are really the most fun to talk about and enjoy AMIRIGHT??
• And exercise melds them all together = keeps ya on the healthy track, while giving you a little bit of wiggle room for that piece of chocolate.

I hope this gives you guys some insight into how to balance all the healthy with all the 'good' stuff (and portion control it all, via the pictures) and maybe give you some meal ideas if you're stuck in a rut (one of the main reasons I started this blog to begin with).  As always, I like to show that you don't need to eat sad salads and steamed vegetables every night to loose weight and/or to be healthy.  And that, while at times I do have moments of cutting back on carbs and such, I DO NOT like to cut anything permanently out of life.  What's life without pasta and ice cream??  A life I don't want to live, I know that muchJ 

OK, so here ya go...a peek at my week:

Monday:  And it's starting off boring because we were all sick from before Easter and still feeling under the weather, so I think my dinner was leftover Chinese takeout lemon chicken & rice this night.  I mean, awesome first post about healthy balance, right?J

Tuesday:  The ONLY thing that sounded good:  Takeout baked ziti with sausage + a salad (still wasn't feeling great)

Wednesday:  The only thing that STILL sounded good: Baked ziti with sausage (served on a salad-sized plate for portion control) + salad + a slice of bread & butter

Thursday:  1 dish Lightened Pad Thai  (made with cabbage instead of noodles.  Healthy + delicious!)

Friday:  Polenta Caprese Bites + salad

Saturday:  No dinner since we were still satisfied from a good brunch at Tortilla Press.  Complete with a few cinnamon pita chips...

...a few bites of 'breakfast nachos'...

 ...and 1/2 a chorizo + raja quesadilla

Sunday:  French Onion Soup Dippers + broccoli

I don't want to live a life without grilled cheese either.  There, I said itJ

And the splurges!

Tuesday:  Chocolate Coconut egg.  Because EasterJ

Thursday:  A small scoop of THIS ice cream...

Friday lunch:  Aka-the ONLY thing that I wanted on the planet:  Stewart's Root Beer + a cheese dog (and a couple fries stolen from KatieJ)  Here's what was leftJ 

Sunday morning breakfast: 1 orange chocolate chip muffin

Sunday afternoon:  Good old stovetop popcorn with butter + salt

It was a family treat all aroundJ

And finally- Exercise:

Pretty quiet week since we were getting back up to speed after being under the weather.

Thursday:  Teaching a private gentle yoga session

Friday:  Power yoga...taught by ME at my 1st ever full, public class!  Yeeeeeeeeee!  (does shaking with terrified nerves burn calories??)

Saturday:  2 mile walk around the park

Sunday:  Restorative yoga

So, there ya go!  A week in review.  Let me know what you think about this new Monday recap feature if you have a minute.

Connect with me:

On Facebook

On Instagram  (new account)

Through Email

Comment below

As always...thanks for reading!

Passed 'the point'...

Morning, all!  Hope you're doing well.   Man, is it REALLY Monday already??  I feel like most of last night was spent BEGGING Scott to tell me it really wasn't Sunday night and my weekend with him was a wrap already.  GRRRRRRRR....how do those 2 days go so fast????  Well, time always flies when you're having fun and we had enough of it packed into 2 days.

First up was a Saturday morning trip to the CIRCUS!  Katie's first show, so we were really excited to see how she'd fare.

Favorites included ALLTHEANIMALS & the popcornJ

 Her telling us "I like being at the circus" made it all worth itJ  $12 bucket of popcorn includedJ

#pigtailsilhouette 

And on the food front, we had a couple splurges on tap...

Including a serious craving for Bricco pizza and their PHENOMENAL Cesar salad (WITH charred bread pieces).  Cesar salad being another random FAVTHINGEVER these last 8 months...

....and their PERFECT tomato pie.  And I totally stole inspiration from fellow diners and when I saw this ricotta & meatball topped pie at someone's table as we made our way to our seats, I knew it was a MUST try.

The ricotta was creamy & fresh, their tomatoes are SUPER tangy and plentiful and the meatball is freshly ground and smoked.  Basically it was heaven on a pan.

And Bricco's is never skimpy on the coal oven CHAR.  Anyone who doesn't think this is a ART form is obviously not from the north eastJ  We live for thisJ

And since it was one of the first VERY WARM Saturday nights, I just kinda insisted that ice cream be included with the night's menu.  AND, another requirement:  It had to be from an old-school ice cream stand.  I was just FEELIN this one.  And I found my match in near-by Maple Shade at this little number...

And on top of being completely adorable and EXACTLY what I was envisioning, their soft serve custard was hands down some of the best I EVER tasted.  EVER.  EVER EVER.  It was suuuuuuuuuuper rich & VERY creamy.  Like heaven on a spoon. 

My only regret was not going with my first instinct of a VERY SMALL cup with jimmies.  I heard their non-fat ice cream was just as good as the regular and I think that woulda satisfied me plenty.  Instead I got influenced from ordering Katie a 'flurry' mixed with Swedish Fish (HER FAV!) and ordered myself up a SMALL (yes, THAT'S a small) flurry with peanut butter cups.  The first few bites were DELICIOUS and the CHUNKS of peanut butter cups were a FAB mix-in.  But a quarter of the way in, it became WAY too rich and found myself eating a few more bites 'just cause it was there' and I was PAST 'the point.'  I'll know for next time to keep it together and not go under the influence of KatieJ hahahahahahaha

And I was especially bummed I overindulged cause I knew another of our fav splurges was on tap for Sunday, when we made our one-hour drive north to Rahway for our niece's Sweet 16 birthday request:  Kim's in the Mix.  

We started with our traditional cheesy hush puppies (Scott talks about these at least once every few monthsJ)  And our sweet waitress, Miss Andre's, recommendation of the fried cornbread... 

OMG....sweet, crisp and buttery, as if cornbread needed anything to be more yummy.  It was drop-dead delicious.

And then I couldn't pass up having their chicken & waffles with a side of mac & cheese and fried apples again.  It was as fabulous as I remember.  Just divine, especially the herb-crisp chicken.  Swoon.   We were so full, we didn't even get to sample our desserts...but we ALL took home one, cause ya just CAN'T pass up the selections!!!

But after THIS weekend, I was EXTREMELY ready to get back to a bit of normal.  Where last weekend's splurges felt worth it and no guilt, this week's fared to the side of 'too much' and I'm ready to move on from it...with about 37 gallons of waterJ

We DID have a few 'pull it together meals' in the mix, including my Sunday morning 'liquid breakfast' of coffee, water & some fresh roasted beet/watermelon juice from my friends at EdoFoods...

As well as quenching my latest yogurt OBSESSION with THIS little number aka-love at first sight...

And also some leaner lunches of kale salad & a light dinner of spaghetti squash & pesto.  But I'm ready for the next few days to be 100% LEAN.  Onto Bikini Series: Week 6!  A very welcome to this week, I might add!

Alright, off to get this healthy week started.  Hope you have a great Monday....well, as good as a Monday CAN beJ

No Regrets...

Um...how's this for a start of a "No Regrets" post??

First of all:  HI!  How was your weekend??  Mine was a crazy/wild/busy mix of lots of family fun and a crazy amount of yoga, which was both relaxing, overwhelming & intense.

In short:  A complete mess of emotionsJ

But I guess I should back-track back to Friday where I said "there weren't going to be too many zucchini noodles" involved & I was right about that one!  Especially when a trip to Uncle Dood's Donuts in Toms River is how you start off the day...

photo source

We had full plans to 'just get a few to sample,' but after the INCREDIBLY FRIENDLY staff led us through all the donuts + a few 'menu additions,' we were pretty much dying to get on our hands on as many as possible.  So we ordered up our box of (COMPLETELY OBSCENE FOR 2 1/2 PEOPLE) NINE donuts (EEK!) and headed outside for the benches to give em a sample...

"Only a bite or 2 of each" was my mantra as we sat down:  Till I took my first bite.  HOLY SHMOLY these donuts were OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD!  Crispy, hot & fresh, HAND DIPPED TO ORDER and not to mention:  light, not greasy in the slightest and WAYYYYY to easy to sneak too many bitesJ  (or at least that's gonna be my excuseJ)

I didn't sample either of the top left ones or the middle one (they were Scott's pick of Twix & specialty coffee/mocha varieties), but I had a bite (or 2...or 3) of the rest.  Including the cinnamon & cream cheese frosted (top right), the blueberry & basil (Katie's pick...TO DIE FOR!),  the samoa (bottom left...do I even need to tell you how much I liked that one???) and the two biggest surprise favorites:  The peanut butter iced/chocolate sprinkles one ("you're gonna die" was my preceding bite warning for Scott) and the FRENCH TOAST...

Again, back to that friendly staff:  the guy convinced us to order 2 French Toasts cause they were his favorite and they did NOT disappoint.  Maple frosted, dipped in cinnamon & sugar...they probably were actually the family favorite of the whole box.  Can't say enough great things about this place, the staff and those CRISPY (yes, I'm gonna emphasize that again cause it's a FAV) donuts.  We left with....um, not as many as we thoughtJ), but some of them DID INDEED survive our on slaughter and made it home somewhat in tack.   ...till Saturday.  More on that laterJ

After stuffing our faces, we headed over to (the original plan from my birthdayJ) the Popcorn Zoo,  in Forked River.  

The zoo is actually an animal sanctuary for abandoned or injured animals.  So on top of it being a fun place to visit with kids, it's also nice to see these animals being SOOO well loved & taken care of by the friendly staff.   A very sweet experience.

And the place gets its name from being offered popcorn to share with the animals throughout your visit...

...even if someone snuck in a few bites of her own.  OY!

I'm not sure I've ever seen some of these animals as up close as the Popcorn Zoo is set up....

...which may or may not have been a good thing, considering this tiger was eyein Katie up like a nice steakJ

But needless to say my little animal-lover (except for Polar bears!  She DOES NOT like polar bears for some reason) had an absolute BLAST at this place and couldn't run around fast enough to make several visits to ALL the animalsJ

Only "problem" with this place??  It felt like it was built on the surface of the sun.  ...or at least that's what my 8-month pregnant self felt:), so after our visit, Momma needed to sit down and RELAX for a sec!

So we headed over to Point Pleasant and to one of our all-time favs:  Frankie's Bar & Grill for some of thier AWWWWWWWWWESOME nachos and a salad with ranch that sounded like THEGREATESTTHINGONEARTH at that momentJ 

And in an effort to, ahem, keep it SOMEWHAT together, we split one of their PERFECT burgers, complete with fire-burnt edges on a poppy seed bun.  Oh the joy of it all... 

And of course, after we had to head East.....where we went from 'the surface of the sun,' to a cooooooooool & breezy beach.  Scott deemed the ocean 'like ice'...

...but that didn't stop SOMEONE from headin in!

....which lead to a SOAKED dress, a lack-of change of clothes and THIS LOOK (in one of Daddy's shirts) on a traditional stop at Hoffman's on the way homeJ

#WAYMOREMEMORABLE!

And after 2 LONG, INTENSE days filled with yoga school, we headed out to Mafalda's restaurant on Sunday night to cap off Mother's Day weekend with a fine dining bang.  Starting with these sausage & cheese filled "Italian Spring Rolls" (which Katie HOUSED!)

...a blue cheese, walnut & strawberry salad... 

...and even though they had an exquisite Mother's Day menu of delectable & unique treats, I ordered what just sounded like THE most scrumptious and delicious choice at that moment:  The classic Vodka Rigatoni.  Momma needed some comfort after a loooooooonnnnnnnggggg day. 

Creamy, comforting and delivered to our table PIPPING HOT, I honestly couldn't have enjoy this more at the moment.  A fabulous night out with my Mom, Scott & Katie to end a wild weekend.  (we also had a round of dessert, but I was too exhausted to even reach for my camera again at that pointJ)

Of course, these weren't ALL my eats of the weekend....just the more decadent onesJ  I can't say I always made the SMARTER choices (ummm...9 donuts??), but I never really got overly full and enjoyed ALL my splurges VERY MUCH and I don't have ONE ounce of guilt this morning.  Just ready to get back to our Bikini Series:  Week 5!

I'll have my more VIRTUOUS selections from my weekend of EdoFoods eats, as well as my healthier Monday recap for you tomorrow!

For now, I'll leave you with my hilarious dinner selection from Saturday night...where I walked in the house and realized NOTHING ON PLANET EARTH was going to sound better (or be any more or less caloric, really!J) than the last few bites of the remaining donuts.  And I sided up those bites with my EdoFoods green juice (more on that tomm!) and called it a day...

 

If THAT is not THE portrait of balance, I don't know what isJ

Hahahahahaha...here's to a healthy Monday, everyone!