Lunches in the City + Father’s Day

I have three lunches worth highlighting from the last week!

First, I was in the city twice for lunch in the last few days so let’s discuss.

I had lunch at Upland and it was delicious. While I had yet to dine at the Upland location in the city, I did have dinner at the Upland in Miami a few years ago.

The margarita pizza was as good as I remembered it. We also shared a bunch of other sides and appetizers plus a salad.

Yesterday we had a work lunch at Tony Di Napoli.

I feel like this family-style Italian restaurant is famous but maybe it’s just my opinion since I’ve been going to the various locations of the restaurant in the city since I’m little. I last wrote about dinner at Tony’s in this post.

Since Tony’s is a family-style restaurant, we ordered the following for the table:

A house salad, caesar salad, fried zucchini, chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan, baked ziti, and rigatoni ala vodka.

I think most would argue that Tony’s is the best there is when it comes to these classic Italian dishes. In my opinion, the fried zucchini is definitely the best. I don’t normally eat fried food so I definitely felt it afterward but it was worth it.

While I was way too full for dessert, when the giant cake/ice cream combinations arrived at the table, I did have to try it.

On Father’s Day, we went to Gastronomy for lunch. Originally we wanted to have lunch at The Shed, but the wait was two hours and they don’t take reservations.

We started with the roasted Brussels sprouts as an appetizer even though it’s a side dish. I really wanted to try them — they were so good!

And I had the power bowl for lunch.

All in all, lots of good meals lately!

What I Ate Over The Weekend In Florida

I did a decent job of documenting what I ate in Florida over the weekend! While I didn’t catch everything, I did get enough worth sharing for a good foodie recap. 🙂

Friday Dinner:

As I explained in yesterday’s post, my whole surprise plan became rerouted after my major flight delay situation.

While waiting for Heather to meet us at California Pizza Kitchen (although she didn’t know I was going to be there until she walked in!), we ordered cauliflower wings (I think that’s what they were called?) which were delicious and then I had the veggie salad. Always a favorite.

After the surprise moment and dinner, we went home to eat the chocolate covered apples we picked up from the chocolate store in the mall.

National Coffee Day:

Heather and I took her kids to Dunkin Donuts super early Saturday morning. We were all in our pajamas. I would have had oatmeal from Dunkin Donuts for breakfast BUT they didn’t have any so Heather made me some sort of Whole Foods organic toast with peanut butter to go with my large coffee. We left for Miami a little while later.

Lunch by Pool:

I am always the first one hungry. As soon as we were situated by the pool, I needed the menu to start ordering lunch.

Sangria was my drink of choice.

I ordered the plant based patty (that’s what they called it instead of a veggie burger) over a salad.

I don’t think I ate anything else after this until dinner! Actually, I had packed a Quest Bar (always pack them for traveling) so maybe I nibbled on that while getting ready in the room for dinner. Yeah, I think that’s what happened.

Dinner:

Heather had never really finalized a restaurant choice until last minute. Reservations ended up being for Upland. I was starving so we ordered a pizza to share while looking at the menu.

Then I had the Gem Salad. I don’t recall any of the salad details, just the name. Looks like lettuce and cheese. HA.

And I had to have the charred broccoli.

The dessert menu was no great shake but they had a chocolate mousse so that’s what was ordered along with a carrot cake. I bought Heather her birthday crown and birthday girl necklace. The chocolate mousse was nothing to write about at all, I didn’t really like it.

Breakfast On Beach:

OVERNIGHT OATS. Oh, this was so good! I enjoyed the overnight oats while on the beach and really feel that I need to remake them at home! I’m not 100% on the exact ingredients involved here but I’ve been a healthy living blogger long enough to know that there were old fashioned oats, almond milk, probably a yogurt, raisins, almonds, blueberries, and apples in the mix. Maybe a chia seed too.

Brunch:

Heather’s brunch was at Ocean’s 234 and our table was set outside, steps away from the beach.

If you have been a reader of the blog for a while, you already know that Heather and I both work in the event industry which means events play a big role in our lives. For Heather especially since she is managing partner of Atlas Event Rental, tabletop decor matters!

She selected her tabletop items (and the chairs too) to be delivered and set for the brunch. Remember she had it done for my brunch too, shipping the items from Florida!

I ordered a salad. Shocker, I know. Oh, and mimosas. Love a good mimosa.

I had to leave for the airport from the brunch but the cake came out right before I had to depart. I had a piece quickly but no picture.

Looking over this post, I actually didn’t eat that much when I consider that I was away and on vacation. But I certainly never walked around hungry. I’m always the first to realize its time to eat and when that happens, I get myself some food.

Of course there were fries and things like that available poolside, but I am not good at eating those types of foods when it’s hot outside. I do not like how those foods make my stomach feel, and knowing that feeling is probably what helps me to always eat intuitively. I know what I like to eat and what makes me feel the best. So I always order according to that feeling. That being said, I devoured the pizza and the bread basket at dinner because as we know, pizza (and salad) makes me happiest.

As far as travel snacks, I didn’t bring too much with me. I’m pretty good at winging it and finding what I need. I did bring Quest Bars with me for emergencies and picked at one on the plane and one in the hotel room. I also packed two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Ezekiel bread. I ate one early at the airport on Friday as breakfast and picked at the other one during my flight home on Sunday. PB & J packs really well for traveling!

[bctt tweet=”What I Ate in Florida on the blog today! #florida #miami #weekendeats #southbeach #pizza #dinner #uplandmiami #oceans234 #birthdaycake” username=”cookiechrunicle”]

What do you pack as your travel snacks?