Caroline Dines

Since I have been living in Boston for the past 8 years, you would think that I would have visited Cape Cod more than once, in October, for a Marathon. The Cape is known for it’s gorgeous beaches, endless bike trails, unbeatable seafood, and laid back summer vibe, which you may have figured out are basically my idea of heaven! Since I normally spend my summer weekends in Maine or Rhode Island with family, I just haven’t gotten to “down the cape” and was so excited when friends of ours decided to rent a house in Eastham for the 4th weekend.

Our Cape adventure began bright and early on Saturday morning. We left Boston by 8:00 a.m.  and we’re lucky not to hit TOO much traffic at that time. Of course the Sagamore Bridge was backed up but other than that it was pretty smooth sailing. Once we arrived in Eastham, we met our group at Nauset Light Beach.

The weather was spectacular!

Perfect for “sacking out” on the beach allll dayyyy lonnnnng…..

Around 4:00 we decided to go check out our rental house. We were all quite impressed with the privacy that this place provided. A long driveway away from the road and no neighbors to hear or see. A real escape.

After unpacking our things, we showered up and hit the back porch for some beer and appetizers. It had been a long day in the sun and I had not taken very good care of my stomach (a banana and half a scone does not qualify as lunch!). I was starving and was so excited to see these Baked Tostitos and Salsa, nevermind the beer!

Ahhhhh….a cold beer after a hot day in the sun. Nothing better. Say what you want about Michelob Ultra not being real beer, but it’s just so darn refreshing! Especially with that added twist of Pomegranate and Raspberry ! Of course, fruity beer isn’t for everyone…Cape Cod Growler anyone?

We ended up hanging out at the place until about 9:00 p.m. when we realized we hadn’t had dinner! Lucky for us there are no shortage of fabulous seafood restaurants in the area and that just happens to be what we were all craving. We cruised the strip and settled on Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar. I acted like I needed to peruse the menu when in reality I knew EXACTLY what I was going to be ordering.

Fried food is not normally on the top of my list for health reasons but there’s something about Fried Seafood that just can’t be beat. Fried clams are pretty much one of my favorite things to eat and if I am out at a place known for fried seafood, I am certainly not going to go with a house salad and grilled chicken!

Fried Native Clams doused in Malt Vinegar and eaten with a healthy side of Cole Slaw and Tartar Sauce. F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.

Since I went for the “Roll” instead of the “Basket” I didn’t get any fries which was fine by me since I snagged some off of Darin’s Fish N Chips Platter.

He didn’t mind too much since his buddy (Thanks Anthony!) had just shown up with a round of Sam Summer Ale for the whole table

Cheers!!!

After dinner we hit the beach for a huge bonfire and to watch the moon rise over the ocean. This is one of those things that you just have to enjoy and not be worried about documenting with a camera. I can tell you I enjoyed it and left my camera in the car. Darin and I retired earlier than some since we were exhausted. Somehow I managed to wake up rather early and felt rather good for all the celebrating I had done the night before. I decided since I was in a new place that I would lace up my sneaks and hit the dusty trail.

I had in my mind that I wanted to go about 4-5 miles and that I wanted to get to some body of water. Our house was very close to the Cape Cod Rail Trail so I turned in the direction and set off to see what I could find. Here’s some scenes from along the way:

Getting my bearings.

The Bay Side.

Finally got to the beach!

My idea of heaven…

All alone.

While my run wasn’t the fastest I have ever done, I enjoyed the scenery and took it somewhat easy since it was an extra run in my schedule.

It felt so nice to have a solid run under my belt before breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, it was lovely and consisted of 3 strawberries and a slice of Starbucks Berry Coffee Cake (Reduced Fat) that was part of  HUGE donation to my house on Friday which I ended up packing up and bringing along for the group.

Moist and cakey! Not my typical breakfast but hey that’s what vacations are for, trying out new things!

After everyone was up we called in our lunch order to Sam’s Deli…

…and gathered our gear for the beach.

Calling ahead was a great idea. The place is quite popular and was swamped with people. We got in and out and on to the beach! My new beach chair backpack was perfect since we had a little walk to the beach from where we parked to get on the shuttle to take us to Coast Guard Beach. Darin said I looked like a turtle.

Although, I took that as a compliment

After a quick shuttle ride…

 we arrived at Coast Guard Beach!

It was crowded, and hot but I was happy to be there and ready for lunch. I ended up getting a Mediterranean Wrap from Sam’s which turned out pretty delicious albeit a little soggy. I enjoyed it with some ice cold water and a nice handful of what else, Cape Cod Potato Chips!

A thin lavash roll up with kalamata olives, feta cheese, roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato and a vinagrette dressing.

The water was the only relief we got this day and at one point we brought our chairs down and sat in the ocean just to keep cool! I can’t imagine what it was like in Boston!

By the end of the day we were all feeling a little out of it. Pete’s get up pretty much sums it up!

We were ready for shade, water, and a good hearty dinner.  Before dinner I had some fresh mango…

and some of the best Guacamole I have ever eaten! Marlies makes a mean guac, I ate a ton of this stuff! I think it’s the cilantro that makes it so good. I never add it to mine because it’s rare that I have it on hand.

Dinner consisted of plenty of grilled meat (steak and sausages)…

and a delicious salad made with fresh mango, avocado, tomato and a miso dressing. It was exactly what I wanted, lots of veggies and some good old fashioned protein!

Alongside this summery meal, I drank an Original Sin cider. This happened to be the Pear variety which I had never tried before and quite liked! It had a very strong pear taste so if your not a fan this would not be a good choice. I love the apple variety of Original Sin and order it whenever I see it out. It’s such a light tasting cider which is hard to find.

And for dessert, Angela brought over a refreshing banana pudding! This guy had all the right stuff; Nilla wafers, banans, pudding, and cool whip!

After our individual portions, most of us went back in for more pudding with Nilla Wafers in hand. We realized that this would make a fun dip instead of serving it like a pie!

After dinner, a rousing game of Pictionary was played (love this game!) and people slowly dropped off one by one. In the morning, Darin and I packed up the car and got on the road for the long, sad trip back to Boston. We stopped for a breakfast wrap before leaving Eastham. Again, I don’t normally eat bacon, egg and cheese anything but this pita wrap was delicious and hit the spot!

I washed it down with a Cranberry Lemonade (bought with the Cranberry Bogs of Cape Cod in mind!)

Now I am back in Boston and it’s 90+ degrees. Luckily I only have 3 short days until I am out of here for another beach escape! Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth Of July Weekend!

Happy Friday! I had a leisurely morning, taking advantage of the fact that I had nothing important to do today and that it is technically my Saturday. I woke up with Darin at 7:00 (per usual) and then ended up reading up on some blogs and watching Dexter in bed. I fell asleep again and woke up at 9:30!!! I guess I needed it Anyway I was hungry at this point and made myself a simple bowl of Barbara’s Shredded oats, almond milk and raisins. On the side I had mango green tea and some sweet apple cider.

I had to take a picture of the time to document how late this breakfast was! Not typical at all!

After getting my act together I decided to go for a run. I had planned to run the river again but this time go in the Cambridge direction. I love running along the river and this route reminded me of my training for the marathon last year. I used to run the whole length of the river and then some during really long runs. Today I thought I would do about 7 or 8 miles and packed my fuel belt up with some sport beans, water and of course my camera. I also brought my T pass, my credit card, and an I.D.  just in case. When I run this far away from home I need to be prepared. It wasn’t super sunny but the weather was mild and quite enjoyable. I ate four sport beans and drank some water at which I now realize was about the 6 mile mark.

So I kind of just kept running. I had my iPhone synced up with some awesome Pandora radio stations and I was in the zone. I ended up running a lot longer than expected and was really surprised when I mapped it out on gmaps pedometer back at the apt. 11.1 miles!? The good part is that I feel great. My hip is awesome and I really don’t think I over did it. I made sure to ROLL myself out and stretch for a good half an hour (while watching the Biggest Loser!). I ate this apple as soon as I returned home.

After a lovely HOT shower I made myself some lunch. I knew I had a lot to replace so I went big. I made a wrap using the left over chicken korma and havarti. OH man this was delicious.

For some a veggie component I had some cauliflower with bean dip on the side. And of course a pickle!

Laundry, CVS, and putting together my Halloween Costume are on the agenda for the rest of the afternoon. Enjoy your Friday everyone!

Well technically they’re not pickled, and our actual harvest was more like 23 lbs! They were certainly fresh and beautiful though!

The farm was awesome today! It was CSA day which meant that the morning was spent harvesting peppers, cilantro, and collard greens from our fields.

Re-Vision Urban Farm’s CSA partners with Drumlin Farm in order to provide enough produce to make a CSA feasible. Drumlin Farm’s truck showed up around 11:30.

We then frantically unloaded all of their produce…

weighed it..

sorted it…

and then began packing up the boxes that would be distributed to the members beginning around 12:30…

We did it all “assembly line” style. I was in charge of giving every one 2 broccoli heads, 2 green peppers, and one head of bok choi. The organizational aspect and the system we had set up was very satisfying. It was a lot of work but so much fun. The finished boxes were lined up for the CSA members but 15 of them were stacked on the front porch of the shelter that is part of the farm for the residents living here. I kept thinking about how awesome it would be to receive one of these boxes that was busting with freshness.

I worked up quite a sweat on the farm today. I was successful in my mission of running there this morning which along with the back breaking work contributed to my intense hunger as I was leaving. I had thrown together a quick trail mix this morning which hit the spot with some nice cold water.

I ended up doing probably another 2.5 miles on my way home and walked the rest. I alternated running and walking and snacked a bit at the same time. By the time I got home I was ready for lunch which was so easy to pull together thanks to my leftover avocado salsa from last night.

I took a low carb wrap and melted some jack cheese on it (also a shake or two of the Mirasol Cantina Chipotle sauce) and then scooped some of the avocado salsa on top. It was tough to get as much as I wanted on there so I had a small portion on the side with some chips. A sliced honey crisp apple completed the meal.

And just because I saw this kitty on my way home sleeping in a store front window I had to share it with you all. It was just so cute I actually stopped running just to take a picture. I love cats, especially those that are slightly overweight

Good morning! It’s another beautiful day here in Boston and I am happy to say that I will spending it working on the farm. I had to eat something quick this morning in order to get out the door on time so I created this breakfast wrap using almond butter, banana and pumpkin butter. It was delicious and as kind of fun to eat something other than yogurt for once I need to get going so I will keep this brief.

Since this was my first go at a breakfast wrap, I am curious if any of you have ideas or favorite combinations that I should try?

Sorry for being M.I.A. all day long. It has been a peaceful and relaxing day around here which started with an awesome yoga practice. The instructor today mixed things up by adding half moon at the beginning and throwing in a few crows. I was successful in both of these poses which made me feel so great! It’s amazing what you can actually do if you just turn your mind off and allow yourself to go for it! I fueled up for yoga with a messy bowl of yogurt, panda puffs, banana, and almond butter.

While walking home from yoga in the bright beautiful sun, I planned out the rest of my day. Since it was so gorgeous and I wasn’t sure how many of these days we have left, I thought a trip to the park with some good reading material was in order. I brought with me a water bottle full of Iced Mango Green Tea, a green apple and a green bar!

This Greens plus chocolate energy bar was recommended to me by my good friend Dain.  I picked it up at Trader Joe’s last week and have been waiting for a good opportunity to try it. Today was perfect because I didn’t feel like eating a big lunch but knew that I needed to eat something good and nutritious after sweating everything out in yoga.

This bar tasted like a candy bar but better. Seriously! It was soft, chewy and the chocolate coating was to die for! The best thing was that it didn’t give you that awful sugar high afterwards and kept you full better than any snickers bar could ever hope to do. I will definitely be getting these again. It is the perfect bar in my opinion when you can’t eat lunch and need to supplement with something. With ingredients like Medjool dates, barley grass, organic wheat grass and Montana bee pollen, this bar is unique in everyway. The inside was almost as green as the grass I was sitting on.

I had the best afternoon laying in the sun and reading my new book! I am about 70 pages in and have learned so much already. I love her style; real, honest and helpful. For instance today I read about how to spot a mediocre restaurant. One of the tips that stuck in my mind is to try to avoid restaurants that have really ideal placement (like right next to a national landmark). These restaurants don’t have to try with their cuisine as hard as other restaurants because they have the advertising and the foot traffic no matter what they do. A little food for thought. When I came home from the park I quickly showered and got ready to visit the hospital for some business that I needed to take care of. After that it was time for work but I chugged an Amazing Grass shake just before heading in. I almost stopped at Starbucks for a Vivano Smoothie but decided the shake I could create at home would be even better and cost me less! Here it is: half water, half almond milk and one packet of Amazing Grass Chocolate.

Dinner fit in perfectly with the “laid back” attitude I have had all day. I used the left over Chunky Beef and Basil Tomato Sauce from last night and made a weird take on a quesadilla.

Whole wheat flour tortillas, pepperjack cheese and a little Pam in the pan helped pull it all together.

And for dessert I snagged one of these oatmeal raisin cookies that were donated to the house this afternoon.  Tomorrow I will be back at the farm and hope to get things back in working order around the apartment. I just lacked the motivation today to put away laundry, vaccuum or do any of the things that I normally do on a Monday. Oh well, it will all still be there tomorrow

This afternoon I took the T (subway) out to my cousin Meg’s new pad. She is basically house sitting for the next 10 months for some friends of hers who have a huge house with two cats. It was nice to get out of my tiny apartment and hang out in a big spacious home. I also appreciated having new backgrounds for pics! We didn’t have a plan for lunch but managed to throw together a delicious one using what she had on hand.

Everything we ate was from TJ’s except the lime chips. We made wraps filled with edamame hummus, fresh salsa, roasted red peppers, and parsley! The brown rice tortillas needed to be heated and since there was no microwave we used a cast iron skillet with  a little olive oil spray. These were not like other wraps, very hard to handle, but they had excellent texture and flavor. They were almost like eating a combination of a hard/soft taco.

Now, if you don’t like parsley then this wrap would not be for you. We used parsley as you would a green since we didn’t have any lettuce or spinach and had TONS of parsley. I actually really liked it and would probably do this again even if I had another green option. It gave it a real punch and tasted super fresh. The roasted peppers were fabulous as well and I think the hummus mixed with salsa really pulled it all together. On the side we had “Food should taste good” Lime chips which were awesome. I had never tried this flavor and was impressed with how they were flavored; lime juice and sea salt! Perfect

I was so excited that I got to try TWO kinds of these chips today! Meg saved me a mini bag of the Cinnamon variety because she knew that I wanted to try them. These were not sweet as you might expect, which I loved. The cinnamon flavor was well represented but it didn’t have the normal counter-part, sugar. I think you could eat these on the side of a sandwich and enjoy them as you would chips but you could also pair them with something as a dessert which is the way we went this afternoon. These are tied at the moment with the chocolate variety which is still high on the list.

Meg was nice enough to share a scoop of her TJ’s rice pudding which was an awesome accompaniment.

We split the bag and probably had 1/4 cup each of the pudding (if that). Overall an awesome lunch! Thanks for the good eats Meg.