Happy Saturday!  I hope your weekend is SWELL so far!

Before I get to the recap of last night’s pig-out fondue, I want t give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to BERNI who will be running her first Half-Marathon tomorrow!  Berni, you will love it! Savor it, the scenery flies by so fast sometimes! Try to take little snapshots in your mind as you go!  Can’t wait to read your recap of the race!

So about last night…

We had such an amazing time at The Melting Pot.  If you have one anywhere near to wherever you live, you definitely need to go there for a special occasion sometime.  We haven’t been there in a few years and as such, it felt like a “new” experience all over again.   The service is stellar.  For example, they had a hospitality manager who came around with a camera, took our picture, printed it into a card and wrote “Thank you for celebrating your birthday with us.”   Of course the first thing I think when someone is at an establishment with a camera is “Oh geez, they’re going to try to SELL me a photo.”  So I was pleasantly surprised that this was FREE!  Their valet parking is FREE too!

The Littleton location is housed in an old building that used to be a library.  It has beautiful architecture inside and out.

The second pic is the view from our corner booth looking through the archway to a water feature.  My camera doesn’t do it justice.  Kind of how it doesn’t do justice for the water feature in the next shot either:

That’s looking up toward the second story from our booth.

MSP called ahead and had birthday balloons at the table.  See why I call him MSP?  (My Sweetie Pie)  He earns that moniker every day.  LOVE HIM!

Now it’s time to decide on the eats!  (And the drinks!)

Here’s where I choose to be FLEXIBLE about my healthy eating habits.  This was a special occasion so I knew I’d be bending some of the rules I typically follow, but not all of them.  In the interest of meal-sharing, I did NOT want to be a pain. Fondue is a TEAM game.   So yes, I did consume some cow’s dairy (but you KNOW I checked the menu for goat cheese – had they offered that for the appetizer fondue, I’d have been all over it.)   We choose a Gruyere/wine mix and it was delicious.  I ate all of the cauliflower, some of the bread pieces and a few bites of apple.

For the second course, a spinach and mushroom salad:

Apparently, the more wine I drank the more blurry my pictures became…!  :)

The entree I selected was… you guessed it… the VEGETARIAN.  It had asparagus, mushrooms, marinated tofu, 3 pieces of ravioli, broccoli, potato, etc.  Our cooking liquid for this was a simple wine with herbs – no oil for us.  It was FABULOUS.  I didn’t even need the dipping sauces, because the veggies came out of the liquid with an amazing flavor.  (But I still tried them all anyway!)

By this time I was feeling pretty full.  But you can’t go to The Melting Pot and NOT share a dessert fondue.  MSP and I immediately agreed on The S’mores selection:  chocolate and marshmallow melted together then crushed graham crackers added to the mix.  The dippers included bananas, strawberries, brownies, marshmallows, a sliver of cheesecake, rice krispy treats and more graham crackers.  I went for the strawberries and marshmallows and left the denser items for MSP.  He loves rice krispy treats and cheesecake.

It was worth every calorie.  I am a proponent of STOPPING eating as soon as you begin to feel lightly full.  Obviously that was one of the bent rules of the night.  But I focused the majority of my attention on the vegetables and fruit throughout the meal and ultimately felt really good about the food choices I made.  Unfortunately that didn’t stop me from pretty much going into a FOOD COMA the minute I was in the car!  :)

The moral of my Melting Pot post is that you need to take care of yourself and be healthy AND you need to live a little here and there along the way! I made decent food choices while still having a DELIGHTFUL time.  I know that I eat a VERY CLEAN diet the other 95% of the time so letting loose here and there is important to me.  And I feel very strongly about that in my clients’ programs as well.

Do you have a favorite restaurant that is your GO-TO place for special occasions?

Have a WONDERFUL Sunday – enjoy the SuperBowl (or at least the commercials if you aren’t a sports fan).  I’ll be back for MARATHON MONDAY with the recap of this morning’s 10 mile training run!

– Shari B. =)

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