High St Food Hall, Boston

Nick and I have been making time to really date again. I know that part of my marriage falling apart was that we didn't prioritize each other and I don't want that to be an issue again in my relationship. 

Nick and I loved going to the The Alice at the Merchant and found our way over to High Street Place after to check out what is being offered. In Iceland, I fell in love with food markets. The idea that I can eat 5 different types of food just makes me giddy. Nick and I usually share one plate from multiple places when we travel, so food courts work great for us to try a lot of food without over eating.

There are currently 19 different food shops, ranging from fried chicken to sushi to donuts to pizza to raw bar and craft cocktails. 

High Street Place hosts so many events including charcuterie board making, trivia and speed dating. It's a great low key meal out that feels more comfortable than stuffy.

I am a sucker for tacos, sushi, and oysters so visiting High Street Place was the absolute best way to spend my night. I'm hopeful I can plan a weekend with my kids this summer to visit the Children's Museum and Freedom Trail, which are right by, and then stop in for a snack or four!

- Heather

 

Juice Bar, Norwood

Leaving the gym, I found the best little shop in Norwood. The Juice Bar Norwood specializes in fresh made to order Juices, Smoothie, Acai Bowls and Delicious Sandwiches. 

They offer everything from Fresh Green Juices and Healthy Smoothies to Acai Bowls, Hot Sandwiches, Energy Balls, and Wellness Shots. They even have Gluten Free Options which makes my heart so happy!

Located at 20 Broadway, Norwood and open MON-FRI 7AM-6PM and SAT 7AM-5PM. You can even order ahead if you already know what you want!

It's a great looking shop and I feel good about what I order from there. I've decided it's my newest treat to keep me going to the gym! Have you stopped by?

- Heather

Gobble Review

Have I said just how *freaking* hard it is sometimes? Being the one who gets the kids up and dressed and off to school, while also getting myself up and dressed and off to school, and handling the mental load of a house without having a spouse to shoulder that?

Man, it's hard. And then I have to come home every day and cook dinner too. It's just exhausting and the beginning of the school year is even more so.  Add in the newly back after school sports and I'm just exhausted most days. 

I tried Gooble because I wanted to see if having a meal "pre-started" would help make my nights a bit easier and I am so glad I did!

Each meal comes in it's own packaging, ready to throw together. I was able to customize the meals I received and was able to grab meals that I knew we'd all eat.

Try out Gobble today and see how much easier it can make your nights at home!

 

Camp Nowhere, North Providence RI

 Finding amazing food locations is top of my list. Thanks to the Phantom Gourmet, I saw Camp Nowhere and decided to stop on our way home from the zoo one day. 

The food is delicious and everything is less than $4 (even my drink!). We ordered one of just about everything and shared across the table. 

Camp Nowhere is located in North Providence RI and absolutely worth the drive there!

Cookie Monstah, Needham

 Is there anything better than warm cookies and cold ice cream? Cookie Monstah in Needham recently opened and the kids were thrilled to go try it out.

There are over a dozen warm, freshly baked cookie varieties and lots of ice cream flavors.  You can choose to eat them separately, together, as a sandwich, or as a shake. The prices are super affordable and the portions are huge!

Cookie Monstah can be found at 1257 Highland Ave Needham, MA.

Heritage Sherborn

 We've been looking for delicious restaurants and have been checking them off our list as the month goes on. Our most recent restaurant visit was Heritage in Sherborn. The food was delicious and atmosphere was perfect. I love a good sangria on an outdoor patio.

The Heritage can be found at 33 N Main St, Sherborn, MA 01770. Be sure to try the calamari -- it was delicious!

Country Kitchen Coffee and Donuts

 After the last post about Basic Batch donuts, I was told I had to try out Country Kitchen Donuts in Walpole. It is a very unassuming building but it gives off the best old school diner vibes on the inside. You order at a counter and are welcome to sit to eat. My favorite part of the visit was that they had apple filled donuts. They are my absolute favorite but very few places carry them. Picture a jelly donut but filled with apple pie filling instead. Heavenly. I ordered three just to be sure they were delicious.

The kids loved sitting and eating the donuts too, but really loved their bagels. The donuts are soft and airy and bagels have that perfect crisp to them. 

  

Country Kitchen can be found 745 Main St in Walpole Ma. Be sure to grab something delicious and pull up a stool at the counter!

xo, Heather

Basic Batch Donuts

 I have been really trying to get us involved in our community now that things are opening back up and we can visit and still stay safe.

One of the fun things we have done is create a list of food places we want to go. Finding good donuts near us is so important since we were so spoiled with the great donut places in New Bedford.

The first place we tried is Basic Batch Donuts in Milford.

Oh my gosh. These things are huge. And delicious.  I like my donuts to be really light and airy and these absolutely are.  The only issue is that they are so big and there's such a huge desire for them. I showed up ten minutes before they opened and the line was already 20+ people deep! They were super efficient and I was in and out 15 minutes after they opened.

 

The real reason I went was for this amazing sounding lemon raspberry filled but I was not disappointed by any of the flavors.  I ordered a dozen thinking that would be perfect for us but literally each donut can feed 2 or 3 people. We ended up slicing our donuts so that we could try even more of them!

The price was a bit of a shock as I'm used to paying like $10 for a dozen at our local places in New Bedford but they would be worth it as a special treat if we're in the area!

Have you tried them? Where should I go next?

xo, Heather

Back to Work Meal Planning

 I'm normally really great about meal planning and having good dinners ready but I am just in a rut.  I have stocked cabinets, lots of produce and a chest freezer full of protein but I'm just not sure what to cook lately. Honestly, i don't usually do the meal plans because someone in my little family won't like something and I can usually buy the ingredients for less at the local stores.  Paying for the convenience (and no extra portions) hasn't always impressed me. 

But I've decided for the next couple months, I'll be trying out a few of the smaller meal plans to see which really are the best for me. 

Remember: I have given up gluten, have two kids and a grandma to cook for, and I dislike processed foods. This isn't an easy feat but there has to be something out there that's perfect for me, right?

Up on the docket:

Snap Kitchen

Every Plate

Dinnerly

Gobble

Home Chef

I'm excited to see what new and exciting meals they'll inspire!

Yogis Cafe, Plymouth, MA

What's better than "beach food" at an outdoor restaurant in the middle of summer? Emma says "nothing!"

We found ourselves at Yogi's Cafe in Plymouth Ma and oh man was it delicious! Located steps away from the Mayflower and in the heart of downtown Plymouth, Yogi's currently offers walk up dining service with picnic tables to enjoy your food at. 

I grabbed a lobster roll while the kids enjoyed their ice cream alongside their candy from Plimouth Candy Company!

The views of the water were a perfect accompaniment to our lunch and it was so nice to just sit outside and enjoy the great weather.  I won't lie, we definitely walked over to Cupcake Charlies for a post snack, snack! 

I love spending the day walking through downtown Plymouth and stopping at Yogi's Cafe for lunch is now a new favorite place for us!

Yogi's Cafe can be found at 80 Water St in Plymouth Ma.

xo, Heather

Easy Patriotic Push Pop Cupcakes

With all the patriotic holidays happening in the summer, we came up with this super easy dessert that seriously wows a crowd!

We had a box of these push pop containers in our basement-- I had planed on using them for a birthday party and never did-- so we decided they would be perfect!

A boxed white cake mixs, split in half and colored with food coloring gave us the red and blue cakes.  I used a 13x9 pan and parchment paper (longer than it needed to be and fold in the middle to create a divider) and baked according to the box directions.

After letting it cool, we used a small round cookie cutter to cut out perfect circles of cake.
Blue cake on the bottom, some vanilla frosting, and red cake on top! An extra dollop of frosting and some festive sprinkles really finished it off!

The possibilities are really endless when you start thinking about cake colors and sprinkle combinations! I really love these mini sized push pops too!

I'll be making these for every holiday going forward... orange frosting with chocolate cake for Halloween, vanilla cake with gold or maroon chipped frosting for the fall, and red and green for Christmas!

What holiday would you make these for?

xo, Heather

The Best Ice Cream on the South Coast

Even in New England, where we eat ice cream in the snow, ice cream is pretty synonymous with summer. Our favorite place is right down the street at Acushnet Creamery, but we're expanding and trying new places this summer! We happily tried ice cream at 7 different places to let you know what we love!

1. Acushnet Creamery
264 Main St, Acushnet, MA 02743
This has always been a favorite. The s'mores ice cream is a go to for the kids and I but David loves their caramel macchiatto. All the ice cream is handmade and delicious!

2. Country Whip
1173 Main St, Acushnet, MA 02743
Another townie favorite. They offer lots of homemade ice cream, including alcohol infused ice cream but their payment system is a bit wonky if you use a debit card- it rounds up and you pay a convenience fee and then get the change back. 
3. Friendly's
This is one of the kid's favorite places, but mostly because they get lots of toppings with their kid ice creams. Emmalee is especially loving the octopus sundae, complete with gummy worms as tentacles. Always check the reviews on particular restaurants because some locations are seriously slow (I'm looking at you Fairhaven location...). 

4. The Slip
Mattapoisett Town Wharf, Mattapoisett, MA 02739
This little shack on the water offers some of the best prices I've seen on ice cream. Plus they have fried food and RICKEYS! I love Rickeys and they are so hard to find. Chicken fingers for $5, sodas for $1, Ice cream starts at $2.50...  The Slip is cash only but you'll be more than set with a $10.

5. Dairy Made
1517 Cove Rd, New Bedford, MA 02740
This is another new one for us! It's a little stand and the prices are great.  It's another cash only stand but we spent less than $9 on 2 kid ice creams and a raspberry lime rickey.  This is a big winner because a. they have raspberry lime rickeys and b. it's directly across the street from the ocean and the hurricane barrier in New Bedford which makes for a super picturesque view. 

6. Captain Bonney's
1522, 258 New Bedford Rd, Rochester, MA 02770
Captain Bonney's is one of the few places left with soft serve, which puts it on the top of this list immediately! Plus the playground set up, the goats and horses at the farm, and the huge boat to play on- it's tons of fun! Just be careful you don't sit downwind of the farm animals... 

7. Kool Kone
374 Marion Rd, Wareham, MA 02571
In addition to ice cream, Kool Kone has amazing food. I love their onion rings! This is great walk up counter, but they have a dining room as well. There's a very small mini golf set up on the lot, but I've never seen anyone using it. 

Bonus:  Dollar Tree
If you need a quick ice cream treat but don't want to spend too much, check out your local Dollar Tree. My absolute favorite strawberry bars are sold there and are only $1 each, compared to the $2.50 price tag from the ice cream man!

What southcoast ice cream stands did I miss? Which is your favorite?

xo, Heather

Fresh, Delicious, Easy Drinks with RIPE Bar Juice

Disclaimer: I was provided product in exchange for this post, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The unofficial kick off of summer is today! I'm not sure how Memorial Day became the summer kick off, but after paying our respects to the fallen, it's a good weekend to grill some food, have a drink, and start the countdown to summer.

Thanks to Ripe, I can easily make drinks perfect for the summer weather. One of the biggest stresses for me while hosting is that I never seem to have all the ingredients I need. I wanted to start my day with a mimosa buuuuuuut I was out of champs and had no sparkling wine.  Then I thought about a bloody mary and while I didn't have many of the ingredients I needed, I did have Ripe's Bloody Mary mix which meant I only needed vodka, and honestly, when don't I have vodka on hand? I used some shrimp, bacon, olives, and a tomato to really beef up my brunch drink!

I will admit that Bloody Mary drinks are not my favorite but they are so perfect for the morning.  My real love lies with margaritas. Sadly, not all are created equal.  I'm a big fan of my own Margarita recipe but it's nothing in comparison to Ripe's! It was the perfect mix and all I needed to add was some tequila. Dave does not like tequila but enjoyed drinking just the Bar Mix, which means it must be good, right?

A little salt and it was perfect!

Ripe Bar Mixes are perfect and easy for all sorts of events, even just a drink by myself. No extra ingredients to stock, no concerns about ratios... Ripe Bar Mixes come in lots of flavors, like Bloody Mary, Mojito, Cosmopolitan, Margarita, and Lemon Sour.  I am especially excited to try out the Bajan Punch! RIPE Craft Bar Juice is the nation's first cold-pressed, fresh juice bar mixer and are all natural with no preservatives. I love that the taste is so amazing that having a virgin drink would be so easy with these craft juices.

The company itself is based out of New Haven, CT but you can use the FIND RIPE tool to see what local stores carry it!

Each bottle has a shelf life of about 70 days so I will be stocking up on them for the summer.
Which are you most excited to try?

xo, Heather

Lemon Raspberry Short Cut Cupcakes

My favorite flavor combination is raspberry and lemon and it is such a spring time combination. Cupcake Charlies is a favorite of mine and I always look for their lemon raspberry cupcakes.  I've been unsuccessful in finding them recently so I decided to make some of my own.  

I have a crazy schedule and am always looking for ways to save a little time.  As delicious as made from scratch cupcakes are, sometimes a boxed mix is exactly what you need. I am especially fond of Pillsbury's Lemon cake mix and since I only need to add a few ingredients, it's quick and easy. Add in raspberry preserves and canned frosting and you can have delicious cupcakes in under an hour.

They are always what I need in that moment and while they are never as good as Cupcake Charlies, they are delicious. Do you ever use boxed mixes?

xo, Heather