Oh, long weekends – how I love thee. This weekend Adam and I went to my PIL’s house in Friendship, Maine. It’s become one of my favorite weekend getaways – it’s cheap and relaxing. Really relaxing. Basically, 90% of the time this weekend, you could find me in this position.

It was wonderful. I finished 3 books and a magazine and cooked some simple, healthy meals for Adam and me (we also had dinner at Primo‘s bar one night – it was great!). I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating - often when I’m on vacation, really happy and relaxed, I actually eat a lot more intuitively. Stress or anxiety aren’t playing a role in when or what I eat. I eat because I’m hungry or because I’m really enjoying the process of a meal out (or in) with my husband. This weekend was no different.

Adam was making fun of me because I brought so much food with us. We had a giant cooler + 4 grocery bags. I planned every meal + a few baking projects. The stuff adds up when you don’t know what’s available (I brought sugar and flour, for example, something my mother-in-law already had in her pantry but I wasn’t taking risks). We ate well, that’s for sure. And I finally was inspired to take some beautiful pictures of my every-day food

This was breakfast for the past 3 days – maple oat scone + coffee

This is the mix I used for the scones (I bought it on my first trip to Vermont). There is considerable amount of real butter in these and it’s worth every calorie!! Adam rarely eats stuff like that and he was all over these babies as well (and asked that I make them again – I wonder if there is a recipe for them somewhere out there… ).

A typical snack looked something like this: TJ’s organic nonfat greek yogurt, 1/2 pear, Three Sisters Sweet Wheat cereal + raisins

PS – I received the Three Sisters cereal for free from the company. These are 100% natural, sustainable kids cereals… I believe Sweet Wheat is competing with frosted mini wheats (are those whole grain? Kellog’s website was obnoxious so I couldn’t deal with it). It’s slightly sweet and crunchy. I liked it – Adam LOVED it. I guess he grew up with something like that. I also tried Three Sisters Cinnamon Sweets which was the bomb (yes, I just said “the bomb”). I’m not normally a “sweet cereal” kinda girl but man on man. The cinnamon sugar was to-die for. I just ate the cereal as a snack, as is, without milk or yogurt and it was gone way too fast (Adam helped considerably in that dept, it wasn’t just me). So yeah, no picture of the Cinnamon Sweets but you may see it on H&S anyway because I really loved it and may just buy it from Whole Foods at a future date. Ok… moving on to a few other snacks that I received for free to try.

Back to Nature sunflower basil crackers and Cabot serious snacking 50% reduced fat original and 75% reduced fat habanero cheddar

I’m a big fan of both companies and was really excited to try both products. Back to Nature makes some amazing natural classic cookies and their crackers were great too although I didn’t really taste much of the basil. They just tasted like regular butter crackers to me. Delicious? Yes. Unique? Not really. They did go great with these Cabot cheddar snacks. Oh man, those were great. I love how portable and low calorie (yet protein rich) they are. The habanero cheese packs some serious heat. Adam was all about the cheese this weekend

Another delicious snack was part-skim ricotta with a drizzle of lemon juice, raisins and cacao nibs. Pretty savory with a little sweet kick from the raisins. I <3 ricotta (also, doesn’t it look like ice cream? hehe)!

Some other meals looked like this:

When Pigs Fly red pepper hummus bread with hummus, cucumber, turkey, havarti cheese and pickles

Mexican salad: baby arugula, fresh corn, black beans, grape tomatoes, grilled chicken and avocado, dressed in 1T Whole Foods balsamic vinaigrette (I may have to take a picture of the bottle some time for you. This dressing is the best!)

Grass fed burger with WW jalapeno pepper wedge (just like Laughing Cow), tomato, pickles and avocado on FFL sesame burger bun – with carrot sticks

Spaghetti squash with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, tofu and parmesan cheese

Thank you, Lara, for the microwave instructions for cooking spaghetti squash. Brilliant!

[This meal was SO filling. I finally ate maybe 6 hours later because my mouth was bored and wanted chocolate ]

Speaking of chocolate… my parents in law are back from Italy and so these gems nixed any baking plans I had for the weekend. Who needs to bake when you can just pop a chocolate/hazelnut candy (or 2 – actually I ate them 2 at a time every time) in 2 seconds flat.

Chocolate + hazelnut is my favorite combo of all time. LOVE.

The most exciting discovery of the weekend was these little tomatoes – yes, these are TOMATOES. Does anyone know what this variety is called? Because I’m in love. Seriously, I couldn’t get enough (for Boston readers, I got them at the Copley farmers market on Friday).

Not only are these guys adorable, but they are amazingly sweet and kind of taste like fruit. I got a very strong taste of mango but with the freshness and pop of a grape tomato.

These were a popular snack this weekend. Mmmm, I need to stock up next Friday!

So yeah, this weekend rocked. I feel refreshed from all the relaxing but also super motivated for the week to come (I read some incredibly inspiring books – like The Happiness Project – have you heard of it?)

How was your weekend? What would your ideal weekend getaway be like?

Also, I know I’m such a nag but I really REALLY appreciate your support so far on Project Food Blog. I need your vote for my pelmeni post so I could move on to round 5. Please vote HERE. Thank you!!