Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long post!
Saturday morning I caught a bus to New York to spend some time with friends for the weekend. I managed to pack extremely light using just my Longchamps tote and Michael Kors bag. I brought only dresses to wear because wearing anything else in 100 degree weather would’ve been insane.
Snacks consumed on the way there:
Mmm, salty
Veggies, hummus, and Mama Pea’s zucchini hummus
On sale at Wegmans for $0.99!
Entertainment included listening to music and NPR and texting. Amongst the most entertaining of texts? This one from my Mama:
Hahaha.
The bus ride was seriously fantastic. Sometimes it’s super sketchy but this time the bus driver was a nice old man who happened to know my Grandpa! Small world right? Another plus was that nobody sat next to me! Although that could’ve been because I put my bags on the seat next to me and proceeded to give off extremely strong don’t-sit-next-to-me vibes (karma is probably going to get me now). And to top it all off we avoided all traffic coming into Manhattan and actually got there 15 minutes ahead of schedule, woo!
Once I was in the brutally hot city, I met Lizzy and Mary to head uptown for dinner after, of course, making a much needed pitstop at Starbucks to bask in the frigid air while sipping passion iced tea.
Instagram-ed photo
I purchased a Groupon a long time ago for V-Note so Saturday night was the perfect night to put it to use! We started with the Roasted Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Gnocchi in a sage cashew cream sauce. Upon its arrival we immediately dug in and I didn’t manage to snap any pictures! I assure you it was beautifully presented and insanely delicious.
Mary’s Caulier blonde Belgian beer (alliteration much?)
For our entrees, I ordered the Mushroom Walnut Ravioli, Lizzy ordered the Seitan Scallopini, and Mary had an alternative pasta dish to the Pasta Paccheri because for some reason they weren’t serving that menu item.
Amazing ravioli
Fantastic seitan scallopini
I didn’t get a picture of Mary’s entree but it was beautiful and colorful with spinach pasta, tomatoes, mushrooms, and numerous other ingredients. I tried a bite and it was fabulous!
So even though by then we had consumed enough food to sustain a small army, we went on to order the best part of the meal, dessert! The three of us shared the Dark Chocolate Fondue with fresh banana, pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, and cookies (with all that fruit, I’d consider this dessert selection to be remotely pretty darn healthy) and the Chocolate Ganache and Peanut Butter Cake.
To. Die. For.
While perusing the menu and even after our food had come out, Mary (who is lactose intolerant) couldn’t believe that everything on the menu was dairy free! I think she was most impressed with the “cream sauces” and “cheesecake.” Lizzy and I assured her everything was vegan but we verified with the waiter just to be 100% positive she would leave with a happy belly!
So overall, the food was great, the portions were larger than what we had expected for the price (that means go hungry!), the atmosphere was enjoyable, and our waiter was perfect! We all decided we have to return to V-Note in the near future. It doesn’t top Candle 79 in my book, but it’s definitely on my list of favorite restaurants!
After leaving, we grabbed a cab downtown to Penn Station (at 9:30 it was still in the 90s so we couldn’t fathom a walk and a wait in the sauna-like subway station!) to catch a train out to Long Island. Since our train wasn’t until after 10:00, we explored the K-Mart in the train station.
After spending some time at Lizzy’s house, Mike picked me up to go to his house. I was there for probably all of 10 minutes before I fell sound asleep!
On Sunday we went to a street fair and the farmer’s market where I bought some special treats for Cheya (I’ll post more about this later) and then to Trader Joe’s to get food to barbecue.
Also purchased at TJ’s were these peach pops:
Yum!
Along with some banana bread mix. Instead of using eggs, we used a mashed banana and cinnamon applesauce. The outcome was beyond awesome! Seriously, if you live near a Trader Joe’s go get that mix ASAP and add an overripe banana instead of eggs. It’s easy, all natural, and most importantly addictively delicious.
Aside from eating banana bread cupcakes, we had a few people over for a cookout which included burgers, grilled veggies, a pasta salad made by moi, and chips and salsa. A simple and satisfying menu. Eventually we all piled into cars and headed to Jones Beach to see Michelle Branch and the GooGoo Dolls!
Kan Jam in the parking lot
Free binoculars from Ford
I don’t have much to say other than that the concert was great!
Monday morning Mike and I headed back into the city to grab lunch before I hopped on the bus back home. We went to Fresh & Co. where I ordered the falafel salad with spicy tahini dressing and a half and half iced tea lemonade.
Before getting on the bus, I stopped at Duane Reade for some bus ride snackage:
My Sister picked me up from the station and we decided to go out to dinner to King David’s where I got my second falafel fix of the day.
The weekend flew by, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!
I am glad to be back at work and the gym though. Today we had “Dan the Snake Man” come in to show the students some animals! I’m not a big fan of snakes or lizards but I can totally appreciate the cute baby tortoises!
After work I came home for a little while because I had a stomach ache. It was nothing some kombucha and laying down for a few minutes couldn’t cure though. Once I got to the gym I ran an enjoyable 5 miles at an average 8:51 pace. It felt good to sweat (and not because of the weather)!
Emily ❤
Question: What was your favorite part of your weekend?
extraordinarymoments 