Errands and Bakeries!

Brian and I enjoyed a pretty leisurely morning, and I was excited for a nice bowl of stove top oats
This was my usual combo:

• 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 c. water, 1.3 c. skim milk, salt
• 1/2 banana
• vanilla
• pecans
• golden raisins
• homemade granola
• a few choc. and PB chips from the Tempting Trail Mix
• White Choc. PB

I also enjoyed a surprisingly sweet half of a grapefruitIt was huge and barely fit in the bowl!

Then we were off!

The day started with somewhat of a bakery crawl in Arlington/Lexington, MA. The first was just so I could get a cappuccino, and we stopped at Quebrada Baking Co. I don't have pictures but Brian ended up ordering a cinnamon almond croissant...DELICIOUS!! Basically a cinnamon croissant filled with sliced almonds. Another part of this bakery that I love is that they have MINI things...mini muffins, mini scones, petite croissants...perfect Bridget sized foods :)

Then we were off to a planned stop at Lakota Bakery so I could FINALLY try their chocolate macaroons I've heard so much about.

We got a few to try..including the elusive chocolate macaroon and a lemon macaroonWOW. The cookie part is a delicious rich almond macaroon, covered with chocolate on the top, but in between the cookie and chocolate coating, was almost like a ganache...rich but delicious. I'd love to just have one of the macaroon cookies by itself. This bakery just makes cookies...and now I know why.

Then we were headed to do some shopping when I almost stopped short because I saw this!
A Great Harvest!!!! I was SO excited and immediately parked.

I picked up a loaf of the Dakoda Seed bread and 9 grainI am so excited to make sandwiches :)

Then we did some shopping...I got a new down coat, and had a late lunch at Fresh City...

I had a simple half tuna sandwich and a cup of Tomato Basil soup
Sipped on...
After more errands, we hit the grocery store to get stuff to make my mom dinner.

Earlier I came across this Shepard's Pie recipe that Elina made based on this recipe. Everything about it made me happy so I wanted to try it out.

Mashed Sweet Potato I used 3 sweet potatoes and about 1/2 T butter.

Based off the original recipe from Eating Out Loud, I omitted the fennel, but added shallots. I also wanted to get extra lean ground turkey, but the regular Lean turkey was on sale so I just omitted the olive oil and just sprayed the pan with some canola oil spray. I also added some frozen cut green beans as well!I wasn't super hungry so I started with a very small portion
THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOD!! Such a comfort food, and definitely adding it to the recipe rotation.I went back for seconds, obviously, and my seconds were more than my firsts. Mmmm. Then we had more Lakota cookies for dessert.

With all my time off since Christmas, I still haven't felt like I was any less busy, but I guess that's just me. I like to be busy.

Tomorrow I am planning an early morning gym trip then off to NH for Brian's step brother's wedding (well technically a vow renewal, but they never really had an official wedding reception 2 years ago, so this is it!). I have a gorgeous black lace dress that I can't wait to wear :)