Maven Meals

When I was pregnant with Maggie, my friends sent me a gift certificate to use with Maven Meals. I admit that I may have cried when I opened their email. I blame the hormones.



A few weeks after having Maggie, I decided to take the plunge and order my first Maven Meal.  I had heard about the company from another friend who uses them a lot. After ordering from them a few times, I completely understand why she loves this service.



The food is fresh, healthy and most importantly delicious! I'm pretty sure that I don't make food that tastes as good as the dishes from Maven Meals.



Here's how it works: You order whatever you want from the weekly menu by Midnight on Sunday. Then on your delivery day (I live in Ballard so my day is Tuesday), your food is dropped off on your doorstep. The containers are labeled with how long you need to heat the cook (some dishes require some cooking but it is minimal) and how long the food will last in your fridge. All of this is also on the website so there are no surprises when the food arrives.



I'm personally addicted to the Breakfast Cookies. They are full of tasty goodness and are a great meal when you are trying to eat quickly before the children wake and take away the morning bliss. Some of the other delicious dishes we've tried are Seafood Curry, Chicken and Wild Rice Salad, Granola and Lamb Meatloaf. All of the dishes have been fantastic but the granola is simply amazing!



The dishes range in cost from $2.00 to $10.95 per serving. Yes, you could certainly make all of the food cheaper yourself but then you'd have to make the food yourself. Sometimes it is just nice to have healthy, homemade food already prepared for you.







I was not compensated for this review. These are my personal opinions and thoughts. 

Huckleberry Treats

While in LA, Scott and I discovered the most fantastic cafe in Santa Monica named, Huckleberry.



It was a delightful little place packed full of treats and the very best coffee I've had in a long time. The nonfat vanilla latte was creamy and delicious.



I ordered a whole wheat sugar cookie and yum! It wasn't grity or crunchy, just smooth and sweet. Scott got a cinnamon doughnut which renewed my vow to make homemade ones soon.



And best of all, the lighting was amazing in the cafe. Just amazing.

Can I Have Ice Cream For Breakfast?

This weekend, I finally made my way to Molly Moon's for their Maple Bacon Ice Cream Oatmeal breakfast and I'm so glad I did!



Molly Moon's served me up some hot oatmeal and then placed a scoop of Maple Bacon Ice Cream on top. I then sprinkled some cinnamon over it all and dug it.



The savory taste combined with the creamy ice cream and grainy texture of the oatmeal was a delight to my senses. All of Molly Moon's ice creams are a delight to me though. They use the freshest ingredients along with some of the most interesting flavors to create amazing ice cream.



All in all, my tummy was very happy at the end of the meal. So very happy! It made the rest of my day, that much better.



Molly Moon's Ice Cream
1622 ½ N 45th St in Wallingford
206.547.5105
www.mollymoonicecream.com

The VooDoo That You Do

Over the weekend, Scott and I headed down to Portland to celebrate Christmas 3.0 with his family. We had a grand time and on the way home, I convinced Scott to stop by VooDoo Doughnuts. OK there wasn't much convincing, it went more like this:

"Scott, I want to stop at VooDoo Doughnuts."

"AWESOME! Do you have directions?"

And so in we went and it was delicious and full of SUGAR!



They had an eclectic menu full of interesting doughnuts.



I ordered an Old Dirty Bastard which was a doughnut with chocolate cookie crumbles and peanut butter while Scott ordered a Grape doughnut which we suspect was sprinkled with grape Kool-aid. We decided to pass on the Maple Bacon doughnut since well sugar and grease are not usually a good combination.





The doughnut selection and names were fantastic with the prices just right but I must voice my one complaint. I'm sick and tired of restaurants that only take cash. Seriously people in this day and age when people rarely carry cash and tend to only use debit cards. You are running a business and just as you have to pay your employees you also need to pay the credit card fees. OK rant over, I had cash and all was fine but this is just something that bothers me.

So next time you are in Portland or heck if you live there, stop by VooDoo Doughnuts. It's good!

VooDoo Doughnuts
1501 NE Davis
Portland, OR

Skillet Time

Scott LOVES The Skillet and often talks about having lunch there. Unfortunately the location doesn't always work for us BUT today our schedule and the Skillet location worked out for us!



We headed out on a Skillet hunt on the way to pick up my race packet. Yes, I'm running the Seattle Half Marathon on Sunday because I'm insane and it will probably be more of a stumble than a run.



The menu at Skillet was short but filled with delicious food choices. I quickly selected the burger and requested poutine fries on the side. Scott ordered the same.





Seriously it was so good! I can't wait to go back again and now I know why Scott talks about it ALL the FRICKIN' TIME!



Skillet Street Food
Hours, Locations and Menus can be found on the Skillet Website.
From the Skillet Street Food Website, the concept: "We buy old Airstream Trailers, and outfit them so that they have a full commercial kitchen. We then go out to local office parks, events, farmers markets and provide impeccably executed and seasonably relevant bistro style food. Our market is people who really like food, and who appreciate food. Our goal is seattle first, the west coast/world second."

Trophy

This past weekend, Scott and I headed over to Trophy for some afternoon cupcakes and coffee.



I love this cupcake place. Their cupcakes are just sweet enough to be delicious, just moist enough to melt in your mouth and just the right size to make your tummy happy.



We sat within view of the cupcake kitchen and were able to watch the snowballs being frosted. They looked delicious!



So skip over Cupcake Royale and head over to Trophy Cupcakes. If they are good enough for Martha Stewart, they ware good enough for me!



Trophy Cupcakes at Wallingford Center
http://www.trophycupcakes.com/
1815 N 45th St Suite 209 (between N Burke Ave & N Wallingford Ave)
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 632-7020

14 Carrots of Goodness

Last Saturday after I had a very nice 7-mile run, Scott and I headed to the 14 Carrot Cafe for breakfast



The 14 Carrot Cafe is a nice restaurant located in the Eastlake neighborhood. The menu has a slight Greek flair which I love but because I like to copy Scott, I ordered the Huevos Rancheros.





They were delicious! I loved that they placed the sour cream and the salsa in bowls on the side. It's those extra touches that I love.



The specials looked delicious too and made me crave something with pumpkin in them.



14 Carrot Cafe
2305 Eastlake Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 324-1442

A Visit to the Lunchbox Laboratory

Lunchbox Laboratory
7302 1/2 15th Avenue NW
Seattle, WA 98117
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

On Saturday, my eating partner and I headed to the Lunchbox Laboratory for some food infusion. Scott had mentioned that we should visit this restaurant awhile back but this was the first time we had the opportunity to partake in the lab experiment.



We drove along 15th Avenue until I spotted the restaurant sign. It's a smaller restaurant with a small space inside for seating but with plenty tables outside.



The menu was at first a bit overwhelming. You choose from a selection of meats (beef, buffalo, lamb, etc.), cheeses, sauces, toppings and side dishes. They do have some experiments of the day and so I made my choice as did Scott from those dishes. I had my version of the "My Little Allegre" lamb burger which featured lamb, colby jack cheese, maple bacon, balsamic onions and basil ailoi sauce (instead of the recommended BBQ) with sweet potato fries on the side.



Scott had the "Magic Mushroom" burger which featured a beef burger, mushrooms, BBQ sauce and some kind of cheese that I don't remember. He got Tots as his side dish and had to select from the "Salt Menu"



When our food came out from the kitchen (which was hilarious to overhear since the cooks were having some sort of melt-down back there), we wondered if our eyes were deceiving themselves. These were HUGE portions!



We ate and we ate and we ate some more but while Scott was able to clear his plate, I was not able to eat all of my burger. It was delicious and hard to admit to a full stomach.



My final verdict? I'm so going back but next time I'm sharing my burger with my eating partner. Scott summed up our visit well when he told me, "It was Scrumpt-acular!"