Dining Out

One of the things I didn't allow myself to do too much when I was first losing weight was eat out.  

Obviously you can eat a lot more food for the point when you eat at home and you're not tempted with all the seriously high point items you used to eat.

So, I stayed away.  I ate out once in a great while but not much.

While I don't have any real desire or intention to eat out frequently I now realize it's a skill I need to learn and the only real way to learn it is by practicing.

I need to get used to picking out healthier options when I dine out, finding balance between indulgences at other times and also going ahead for the full fatty deal when I've banked weeklies.  

Last Friday I went on a day trip with my mom to Crystal Bridges art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.

This property is owned by the Wal-Mart family and is completely free to the public.  They only charge for the touring exhibit which happened to be Chihuly.  

Neither of us had been there so it was really fun to have a chance to explore.  

After seeing all that wonderful artwork we decided to explore the town square and found the most delightful Italian place for lunch called Tavola.  

Above pictured is my meal.  It was a chicken cutlet with capers, artichokes, mushrooms and cheese in a lemon butter sauce served over a small bed of angel hair pasta.

It was FANTASTIC!!!!!  

Really, the whole place was just adorable.  Here's a peak~

What you can't see here is that the water was infused by cucumber.  They poured it to the halfway mark in my glass like it was fine wine. 

That simultaneously really tickled me and made me really excited.

I love good atmosphere and presentation!

The other thing you can't see in the picture is that the marinara sauce they brought to the table to dip the homemade bread in had an olive tampenade.  

EVERY. SINGLE. BITE. was FANTASTIC!!!!

Our server was also so delightful.  She was professional, sweet and attentive.  

She may have also gotten a bit tickled by mom and I because we may have been moaning at the table due to the food being so good.

Think "When Harry Met Sally".  ;)

Mom got the salmon dish pictured just above.  She said it was also fabulous.

When I got home I tracked every bite and felt really good about it.  I also got on the treadmill.  

I'd saved up my weeklies for this and it was so wonderful to eat without guilt and with complete abandon.  

It was a blissful experience I highly recommend.  

And, even  though I went through somewhat of a stress volcano a couple days later I still managed to lose 1 lb this week.

We also visited the adorable spice & tea shop across the street from the restaurant and the adjacent bath shop.

  

The adorable little plastic animals are actually tea infusers.  I bought the manatee for my son.

He loved it!

I also bought a packet of two teas- black chocolate and hazelnut cookie.  You can drink them individually or mix them for a Twix candy bar flavor.  

Ladies and gentleman that's the only 0 pt Twix you'll ever find!  lol

The cute bag was the adorable gift wrapping at the bath shop.  I bought my son a glow in the dark bath bomb that was really cool.  

All in all it was a fabulous day out with my mom.  

Of course she was the best part.  ;)