Lunch for one

I took myself out to lunch today. After working all night, I felt like treating myself to a little something special. Life sometimes can be a bit much, so it's such a good thing for me to get away by myself to either process some things or just to relax.

Boulder is a great getaway because it's so close - just 30 minutes, and I feel like I'm away. It also is home to one of my favorite restaurants, The Kitchen. It's a place with great food, a nice vibe, and free Wi-Fi!! (So I can sit here blogging on my MacBook, looking like I'm working. I have them all fooled...)

Today, I had a half portion of the Abbondanza salad - a special salad of butter lettuce, creamy chevre, crispy bacon, and fresh sweet peaches. Yum. I also ordered the proscuitto and burrata flatbread - something on the menu that I've had my eye on for a long time but have never ordered. The flatbread was soft on the top and nice and crispy on the bottom, perfect. It was delicately draped with thin slices of proscuitto, then covered with dollops of fresh burrata. Burrata, for those unfamiliar, is a fresh Italian cheese that's basically mozzarella with cream; thus it tastes like a softer, more creamy, liquid-y mozzarella. The burrata was cool, added after the flatbread was baked, and then the whole dish was drizzled with a bit of olive oil. This was a masterpiece - the salty, rich proscuitto, the soft and crispy bread, and the cool, creaminess of the burrata combined to make my mouth sing in celebration and turn cartwheels in joy. Ok, I'm exaggerating. (But just a little.)

Before I admit that I had dessert and coffee too, I have to add this little self-congratulatory note: since I got back from Las Vegas and Mr. M and I had our talk about saving money by trying to eat out less, I've lost 5 pounds. Now, that's just a pound a week, but it's definitely made a difference. Now, I would never be one to advise people to eat out less - I appreciate good food and good restaurants way too much to do that. But for me, that one small change, painful as it has been, has at least had an "up" side as well.

Anyway, to celebrate, I did splurge and have angel food cake with Chantilly cream and fresh strawberries. And coffee. Because you can only deprive yourself so much.

I bet I just gained those 5 pounds back.