Dinner in the North End at Artu Boston

A few weeks ago, I joined a few of my blogger friends from Blog and Tweet Boston for dinner at Artu Boston on Prince Street in the North End after work one day. It was fun to stroll through the city after work and especially nice to go by many of the historic places that are scattered around the North End. Most notably, I passed Paul Revere's house just before arriving at Artu.

When I got there, I was taken to a small room setting in the back of the restaurant which had two skylights overhead and was tucked away from the main bar and restaurant area. We enjoyed appetizers, a choice of entrees, drinks and some delicious dessert!

Some of my favorite appetizers were the Seared Scallops entree with Cauliflower, cipollini puree, Grilled Country Bread with Smoked mozzarella, prosciutto, and backyard farms tomato and the Roasted Beets with Pistachio vinaigrette, gorgonzola.

For the main dish, I tried the Fusilli, Sausage, Broccoli Rabe which had Rabe pesto, and pecorino dusted as well. I also tried the Eggplant Rollatini which was delicious!

Here's some pictures to whet your appetite!

NOTE: I was provided with a complimentary meal to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

Finish at the 50 and save $5 before 6/3.

I'm going to be participating in the Finish at the 50 again this year and am really looking forward to it! This annual 5 and 10k race and kids fun run is held at Gillette Stadium at Patriot Place in Foxboro, MA on July 3rd in the afternoon/evening with fireworks to follow. The keystone of the race is that you get to finish at the 50 yard line of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots and New England Revolution.

If you're interested in running, the great folks at Patriot Place have given us a code PARENTALRUNNER that you can use for $5 off an adult entry to either the 5k or 10k race. Act quick because this code expires on Friday 6/3.

NOTE: I was provided with a comp bib for the race in exchange for the pre-publicity as well as a post-race followup post. All opinions are my own.

Cafe de Boston, a great eatery in Boston's Financial District

Cafe de Boston is a restaurant located in Boston’s Financial District. They are open for breakfast and lunch and offer a multitude of different foods to choose from for even the pickiest eaters! I have stopped there for breakfast before and their egg sandwiches are huge and priced very reasonably.

Recently, I was invited to dine there and see the new items they have to offer. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten lunch from them and was pleasantly surprised! It’s located in the former SouperSalad location on Franklin street and is styled like a mini food market with various stations and buffets where you can order or pick up food.I tried the shawarma (which is also known as Doner Kebab) and it was delicious, with a perfect amount of spices added to the tender meat. I looked at the pizza and buffet stations which had everything under the sun, but was drawn to the make-your-own pasta concoction, which I just had to take photos of. If I could fit any more food in my stomach I would have also had a crepe, so I’ll be sure to go back and try it out!

I really liked how all of the food was freshly prepared and laid out. I saw that it would be very easy to eat there for breakfast and lunch every day (even taking dinner home) for am month and never have the same meal twice! They really have thought of everything!

When the meal was over, the owner, Levant, came over and brought us macarons to try which are flown in from France. I also had the turkish coffee which was just perfect. While relaxing, the chef came over to talk with us and give us some of his culinary background. Overall everything was so good. I can’t wait to go back!

NOTE: I was provided with a complimentary mean to facilitate this review. There was no promise given of a positive review, but I loved the place! Will definitely be going back!

KRAVE Jerky is GREAT!

I had the chance to meet some great folks at KRAVE Jerky, while checking out the Bike Boston Friday Festival at City Hall Plaza a few weeks ago… About 10 years ago I started eating jerky as a healthy snack and have been getting it at Trader Joe’s where we love to eat their Turkey Jerky. Recently, while at Roche Brothers supermarket in downtown Boston, I saw the KRAVE packaging and it caught my eye. I grabbed some Lemon Garlic Turkey Jerky and found that it was really tasty and quite healthy - lower in sodium and high in protein!

The great people at KRAVE at the bike festival gave me some to take home and try and we were pleasantly surprised by the flavors and varieties. We really liked the Basil Citrus and Lemon Garlic Turkey Jerky as well as the Pineapple Orange Beef Jerky so far.

I find that it’s a great high protein, low-fat snack and is low in WeightWatchers PointsPlus points (anywhere from 1-3 points per serving).

Here are some KRAVE Jerky facts:

• KRAVE Jerky does not contain any nitrates, hormones, MSG or artificial flavors & is Gluten Free.  
• KRAVE Jerky is 97% fat free; lower in sodium (50-70%), cholesterol (50-70%) and calories (15-70%) than their major competitors 
• KRAVE Jerky is made using unique culinary techniques such as double marinating, brining, baking and grilling to maintain their signature moist and tender texture.

The great folks at KRAVE have offered us a Sampler pack containing 1 of each variety of Jerky they offer, 8 total along with a KRAVE t-shirt as a prize for us to give away to one of our loyal readers.

Please enter using the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: The great crew at KRAVE Jerky provided me with some free Jerky and a giveaway in exchange for this post. There was no promise of a positive review. No other compensation was provided. 

A beautiful Sunday in the City

The first Sunday in May, I joined a few other blogger friends from BlogandTweetBoston and we had a nice brunch at Elephant Walk in the South End.  I left the house around 11 o’clock and was able to get in the city around 11:40… a nice leisurely ride without too much traffic. After driving around a few blocks looking for a parking space, I found one a block away and arrived right on time… I didn’t realize it, but it was also the opening day for SoWa Outdoor Market and the first gorgeous weekend since this horrible winter, so everyone was out and about. Elephant Walk had their front full length windows open so those lucky enough to be right near the windows had a great spot to people watch…

The chef/owner, Nadsa de Monteiro, daughter of the original owner, came out to speak with the group and introduce herself and tell us about the reasoning behind the offerings of French and Cambodian cuisine on the same menu. I learned that Cambodian cuisine is like Thai except that it doesn’t use as much sauce to flavor things or sweeten things but rather uses spice and other methods to flavor the food and is often lighter and healthier than other asian cuisines.

The food was amazing and the company was great! You can see the different food that I sampled below. Yum!!

NOTE: We were treated to brunch in exchange for promising to post a review within 2 weeks of attending the event.

Dave is on a journey... of health and wellness.

Well, I woke up a week ago and decided right after watching runners in the Boston Marathon that I would use this year as a year of health and wellness. I am trying to become more mindful in my approach to life and why not put that towards eating as well. I also found that it really helped getting a few samples of healthy food at the Marathon as I have been having a smoothie every morning!

In any event, I committed myself to starting to eat healthier, getting more exercise, and being more present. To that end, I joined WeightWatchers at the suggestion of a friend of mine. I joined last Wednesday (4/22) and my starting weight was 227 lbs. I saw that number and was shocked but said to myself "hey... we all have to start somewhere."

I then went to my first meeting on Thursday morning 4/23 and it was great! I found out that it was led by a blogger whom I have been following for about a year and she is really energetic and fun! It's crazy when worlds collide like that!

I committed to walking every day and trying to reach my goal of 10,000 steps using my Withings Pulse activity monitor (more on that later). I am happy to report that over the past week I have walked 63,773 steps! That is the most I've walked in a week!!!!

• Sun 4/26: 12,656
• Sat 4/25 13,610
• Fri 4/24 12,130
• Thu 4/23 13,470
• Wed 4/22 10,162
• Tue 4/21 7,629
• Mon 4/20 10,121
• Sun 4/19 9,714

I also didn't realize but I would be missing my second meeting this coming Thursday so after an amazing week of walking I went to weight in this morning and weighed 224.2 lbs. I had lost 2.8 lbs after my first week. Pretty proud of that one... Hopefully I can start a trend here...

Marathon Weekend in Boston and some great Stonyfield Yogurt!

This past weekend was great in Boston! Yesterday was Patriots Day (an official holiday in Massachusetts), otherwise known as Marathon Monday, the day when over 30,000 runners descend on Boston to run a 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boston. After graduating college, I decided to do my part and help by volunteering for this great event  and have done so off and on 6 times... This year, I had the privilege of handing out t-shirts to runners after they picked up their racing bibs. I always enjoy meeting people from all over and this year was no different. The one thing I love about the marathon is that you see people from all ages, backgrounds and abilities who all work together to complete the 26.2 mile trek together.

This year, I volunteered on the Sunday before the marathon and had the chance to go to the runners' expo afterwards which is the largest of its kind in the region, attracting over 100,000 attendees.

At the marathon expo we had a great time! I saw the Organic Roadies from Stonyfield Yogurt and they gave me some of their new Organic Protein smoothie drink to take home and some great Stonyfield Greek yogurt! I was so excited since our whole family enjoys eating it! The thing I loved the most about the smoothie is that it’s so delicious and nutrient rich! There’s 15 grams of protein packed in each one and is only 180 calories!

Then, marathon monday came and we decided that this year we would watch it from Wellesley which ended up being a perfect location. It happened to be a bit chilly that morning, with temperatures in the 50’s and we walked around since some of the shops were giving things away. Xtramart was giving out free Kayem Hot Dogs while City Sports in Wellesley happened to hand out signs, cones and t-shirts (which are my absolute FAVORITE since they are SO soft!) while Whole Foods Wellesley provided a nice respite from the cold, damp conditions outside.

It worked perfectly that also outside of Whole Foods, CLIF bar had a tent and Stonyfield happened to be there AGAIN! We couldn’t believe our luck and they gave us a bunch of new yogurt that we hadn’t had before… Stonyfield Oh My Yog! Wild Quebec Blueberry and a new brand to us which was really delicious. They have some really exotic flavors like Gingered Pear, Pacific Coast Strawberry  and Apple Cinnamon. It has whole milk combined with a touch of honey, the fruit, and then a little sweet cream on top. WOW! We also tried the petit creme blueberry which was greek yogurt but it tasted like dessert - so creamy and smooth and not tart!  My daughter kept going for the YoKids squeezers and she devoured them! It was a really nice surprise that the Stonyfield crew was there.

My daughter had a great time, she enjoyed all of the yogurt, fun activities and even high-fived a few marathon runners for the first time! So much fun!

All in all it was a great time and we enjoyed cheering on all of the runners!

NOTE: No compensation or product was provided in exchange for this review. All opinions are our own. We just love the Boston Marathon, Stonyfield Yogurt, City Sports, Whole Foods and had a great time...