sweet tomatoes

I know I’ve talked quite a bit about Sweet Tomatoes during my Disney vacation posts… but seriously it’s my favorite restaurant and Milwaukee needs to get one stat. During our final meal there on Monday, I decided to take a few pictures and give it a more in-depth review than I had before.

When you first enter Sweet Tomatoes, you are greeted with two rows of the longest salad bar ever. You pick a side and then pick whatever salad topping you’d like. They even have a premium section with chicken and other more gourmet items on it that’s a few dollars extra. I just went for the basics – romaine lettuce, carrots, sliced raw butternut squash (such a great idea!), hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, and then there were the prepared salads that I loved – Joan’s Broccoli Madness, Wild Fruity Rice and Southern Dill Potato. These three area all gluten free as well as many others (just check their website and they also had a table tent with all the options that I saw after we sat down). Once your plate is piled high, you pay for your food and either find a seat or are seated (depending on busy-ness level).

Once you sit down you’re free to go and grab something to drink (water’s free!) as well as any hot items you’d like. The items I went for? Baked potatoes and sweet potatoes! They had cups of whipped butter and whipped honey butter – could it get any better? They also had a few gluten free soup options, but being in Florida that was the last thing I wanted! For gluten eaters, they had rows of freshly baked bread as well as a pasta bar with freshly tossed and pre-baked pasta dishes. So many options for everyone!

I was more than happy with my salad and potatoes with butters – especially when they had the perfect dessert. Frozen yogurt! I always went for chocolate and vanilla twist, topped with their homemade butterscotch caramel topping – only real ingredients used so it was okay to splurge, right?! And the frozen yogurt was fat free… Making it totally acceptable to go back for a second bowl… ;).

We ate here four times in four days, and you can be certain we will be coming back the next time we’re in Orlando! We’ve even got our eyes set on one just over the boarder in Illinois… a road trip is definitely in order. Milwaukee needs to get the ball rolling here and get a Sweet Tomatoes… although I think I would find any excuse to go there for lunch and dinner multiple times per week! If you ever stumble across a Sweet Tomatoes, definitely head in for a delicious and healthy meal out!

out and about in kauai: hukilau lanai

Before I get into Thanksgiving recaps, I figured I should post the final Hawaii vacation post – only a little over a week since we’ve been back ;).  Our last night on Kauai we were trying to decide on a restaurant to go to, and we kept coming back to Hukilau Lanai because they feature an entire gluten free menu as well as a gluten free tasting menu if you’re seated between 5 and 6 pm.

We didn’t have reservations but got there around 5:15 and were seated right out on the Lanai with this gorgeous view!

Right away we asked about their gluten free menu and were brought those, the tasting menus and their gluten free bread basket.  It was so nice to be able to enjoy a bread basket again!  The bread was a herby focaccia and it was delectable.  Nice and airy, not dry and gritty.  Served with balsamic vinegar + oil.

I also started out the meal with my first Pina Colada of the trip – these are by far my favorite blended fruity drink!

Sister, my mom and I decided on the gluten free tasting.  My mom eats gluten, but she liked the sounds of this one rather than the normal tasting!  Our meal started with Candied Ahi… coffee spiced ahi, chipotle coconut sauce.

Second course was an Arugula Salad… arugula, fresh beets, corn off the cob, cherry tomatoes, basil vinaigrette.

The third course and first entree was the Fresh Catch… grilled fresh island fish, thai chili coconut sauce, white rice.

Time for another cocktail!  This time I got a Lava Flow – basically just a Pina Colada with a fruit swirl.  Yum!

Fourth course was by far Kinley’s favorite, and was incredibly delicious even though it sounds so simple!  Pork Tenderloin… Local mushroom marsala sauce, crispy polenta.  I usually don’t eat mushrooms, but these were delicious I ate every last one of them!

The next course was supposed to be the final dessert course.  But the manager thought our meals were taking longer than appropriate so sent out a pre-dessert dessert.  Starfruit sorbet.

The final, sixth course of the night was the Big Island Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee… local vanilla bean custard, caramelized sugar.  The perfect sweet ending to the best meal I have ever had.

The meal took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, but probably should take around 2 hours.  We were by no means in a hurry and didn’t even notice it was taking longer than it should have been.  Dad got a regular meal off the menu and they timed the courses perfectly to make sure his entree came around the time ours did.  And they even brought him a scoop of Starfruit Sorbet as well!  I didn’t think it was possible to top the Guava BBQ Ribs from Lemongrass Grill, but as an entire meal this definitely does.  And for only $28?  Are you kidding me?  I would go here each and every week if I lived here, and will definitely be returning when I am fortunate enough to make it back to Kauai!  It was sad that we visited this on our last night so we couldn’t revisit it, but it was a perfect ending to our week!  I don’t think I will ever forget this meal and am hungry just thinking about it!

maui day 10: haleakala crater + honu

I can’t believe this was the last day in Hawaii… as you can tell I definitely was putting this off as long as I could, but I had to write it now so I wouldn’t forget!  In the morning I did my 6 mile long run up the beachside road in Maui, and then we ate and went down to the beach by the condo – I wish I lived this close to the ocean so I could walk to it every day!  We spent the morning snorkeling and soaking up the last of the Hawaiian sun before our departure.  We went back at lunchtime, cleaned the sand off of us and then set off on our roadtrip to Haleakala crater.  Good thing we had Pip to get us there!

We had debated going to Haleakala for sunrise, but decided against waking up at 3am to catch the view – maybe when I am there for longer than two mornings?!  It’s an hour drive up – and 10,000 feet in elevation.  We drove through the clouds.

And behind a busload of Japanese tourists.  Thank you, driver, for pulling to the side so Pip could soar past you.

My ears were popping and my Camelbak was having a hissyfit.  Be careful bringing a Camelbak on a flight or to higher elevations – the water likes to spurt back up the straw and all over everything…

We finally reached 10,000 feet.

And walked up 23 more.

But we certainly could not miss this view.  (P.S. it was COLD!)

This is Hawaiian National Park on the island of Hawaii – see the smoke from the lava flow of the active volcano?  Visiting this park and walking to see the lava at dusk is one of my favorite memories from my last trip to Hawaii.

This looks surreal.  I can’t believe I was actually there.

The top of Haleakala has its own vegetation – including silver plants.  I wanted to bring one home.

We headed back down Haleakala and went toward Lahaina for dinner to celebrate Sister’s birthday!  We finally decided to try out Honu after seeing it listed in a dining guide that highlighted its gluten free options.

The view, both inside and outside, was gorgeous.

The food was too – we got deep fried chickpeas as a complimentary appetizer and I just had to get another Pina Colada before we left!  I think this might have been the best one I have ever had.  Ever.

There were many gluten free options, but my eyes were only for the pizza.

I ended up with the special – Lobster Curry something or other.  It was divine.  The crust was chewy just like hand tossed pizzas are supposed to taste, only sans gluten.  This might have been the best pizza I have ever had and I really need to schedule a trip back ASAP.  Well, and to Kauai as well to go back to Lemongrass Grill and the other restaurant I still need to post about – so much good food!

After dinner Kinley got a special birthday dessert, and we all shared bites!  Happy Birthday Sister!!!

The entire meal was incredible, but also sad because it was our last eaten in Hawaii.  We went back to the condo to pack up and head to the Airport…

 

kauai day 3: hanalai + a foodies paradise

After we got back home from the Sugar Mill Run, it was definitely time for breakfast! We got a box of gluten free Bisquick at the store. It didn’t have the healthiest of ingredients since it provided zero protein or fiber, so we also got some millet and buckwheat groats to throw in the batter. Sister had also brought some chia seeds along, so those three things combined with the Bisquick mix made a perfectly suitable breakfast!

Some of Sweet Marie’s granola might also have been put on the pancakes before they were flipped – I love granola in pancakes. If you’ve never tried it, you have to!

Served with Passion Fruit Coconut Syrup, some bacon and extra granola! I couldn’t even finish all of these because they were so filling – even though I wanted to because they were so good. We will definitely be making these again on the trip :).

After we were done with breakfast and were showered, we headed up north to Kilauea Beach lighthouse. You normally have to pay to get to the lookout and to see the lighthouse closer, but it was free today for Veterans Day – thanks Veterans!

The views were gorgeous.

 

After the lighthouse and more driving, we ended up near Lappert’s Ice Cream when we were starting to get hungry again.

I got a sundae with kona coffee + chocolate macadamia nut ice creams, banana, hot fudge, macadamia nuts, whip cream and a cherry. So good!

From the ice cream we headed to go work it off. Our destination? Driving all the way to the end of the road and then hike up the trail there. Don’t you just love Hawaiian directions? So descriptive… Well, we ended up going all the way to the end of the road and there was a busy beach and hiking trail calling our names! Mom had forgotten shoes for hiking so she stayed on the beach while Dad, Kinley and I went up and up and up. We were told it was 2 miles to some waterfalls… but the sign said 4 and we were definitely not prepared for an 8 mile hike that would take 3-4 hours, so we set off to the first and second lookout points listed on the sign – a Beach View and a Coast Viewpoint (.5 miles away).

The hike was quite treacherous. It was very steep, rocky, and slick in a few spots. Kinley and I wore our Five Fingers and they were just a hit on the trail haha – almost everyone we went by just had to comment and ask if they were good hiking shoes… and that was quite humorous since we so do NOT look like hikers, especially in our clothes for the day! The first lookout was a breathtaking view of the beach down below.

And the second was a double view – one side of the beach (although much higher up!), and the other side was the coastline. Everyone up there took turns taking pictures of each other so we got one of the three of us ;).

The hike probably took us 40ish minutes I would say, and it left us famished. We headed to a beach so the parents could have a quick cocktail (and apparently another huge hike since the beach we decided on had a huge trail to get to it) and then went back closer to our condo to to out for dinner at a place we had a coupon for in our resort welcome packet, Lemongrass Grill Seafood Bar. I started the meal with a cocktail – one with Malibu coconut rum, guava, passionfruit and one other juice blended with ice and topped with Bacardi 151. Probably one of the best drinks I’ve ever had.

For dinner Kinley and I (thank goodness) both got the Guava BBQ Ribs. We asked if it was gluten free and the waitress checked on the sauce, and said it was as long as we got it on a bed of rice rather than their potatoes. That was perfectly fine for both of us! They were the absolute best, fall of the rib ribs I’ve ever had and the BBQ sauce was spectacular. The jasmine rice might have even been the best rice I’ve had. And there was even broccoli slaw. We might have to go back to this restaurant to eat this meal again, because I seriously cannot think of a better meal that I have ever had – and it was so easily made gluten free!

After we got home from the best dinner ever, it was definitely time for the hot tub again. My body was sore from the 10k, hike, beach hike, and all the other random walks and strolls throughout the day. Good thing we won’t have to get up quite so early tomorrow morning!

out and about in middleton: bloom bakeshop

Right after Sister and I signed up for the Haunted Hustle race in Middleton, WI, we started researching places we would be able to eat that catered to our gluten free lifestyle.  We immediately stumbled upon Bloom Bakeshop and were incredibly excited to go there.  I even considered a quick almost 2 hour drive over there because I couldn’t wait! 😉

I, of course, wanted to go there multiple times over our day being there, but we settled on just once and loading up on all of their gluten free options!  We decided to go there after the race as a recovery treat so it tasted all the more delicious.

Bloom Bakeshop is in downtown Middleton, such a cute area and the shop is adorable.  The downtown trees looked especially gorgeous with their fall foliage.

We walked in and only two of their bakery items were marked as gluten free (+ vegan), but there were five in total that day.  We obviously had to get one of each because we couldn’t decide and they all looked extremely delicious.  The mummy cupcake was the most delicious chocolate cake I’ve had (with chunks of real chocolate – yum!) topped with vanilla buttercream.  The other two cupcakes were seasonal flavors, sweet potato with chai spiced buttercream and pumpkin with eggnog – so good!  The bottom row is a blondie-type bar with chocolate chips and a chocolate chip cookie sandwich.

I loved how they decorated these!

And I must admit that this one was my favorite.  The cookie was moist and the buttercream was so creamy sandwiched in between.

We ate this on our scenic drive home and are already trying to find an excuse to go to Middleton again!

out and about in mke: thai-namite thai bistro and sushi bar

I love ethnic food, especially asian cuisines.  I am not really very adventurous when I go to restaurants – mainly sticking with my favorites, but it never gets old!  In fact, when my parents uprooted me in my middle-school years to a new town, one thing that consoled me was the fact that there were 13 Chinese buffets in one county.  Thank you, Wisconsin.

My first experience with Thai food, however, was in London.  I went to a little shop called Monkey and Me and I had the most delicious meal there ever – and proceeded to go back many, many times.  I had both their noodle dishes as well as their regular entrees served with coconut rice – which is the best rice product out there.  But that has nothing to do with Thai-namite since they do not have coconut rice…  Anyways, we grabbed dinner there a few weeks back and it was absolutely delicious and gluten free friendly.  We even brought up our concerns with the waitress and she came back with a menu that she had highlighted all of the gluten free dishes (she had been bored one shift and went through ALL of their ingredients to make this master menu!).

I had actually just gotten home from my weekend in Sonoma and was in the mood for a nice, hot meal.  Although I started out cold with an appetizer: Fresh Rolls.  Fresh rice wrap sheet with stuffed tofu, fried egg, rice noodle, and carrot served with chef special sauce (substituted for plum sauce that was gluten free) and ground peanut.  Loved these!

For my entree I went for the good ol’ Classic (Veggie) Fried Rice.  Tasty rice stir fried with egg, white onion, green onion, and tomato.  I contemplated the Hawaiian Fried Rice, but stuck with typical flavors instead.  This was so good and I ate every last bite!

I even had two of Kinley’s maki.  One Kappa (cucumber) and an Avocado.  These are not necessarily gluten free because of the vinegar they use in the sticky rice?  I had never heard this before but Kinley decided to risk it.

All of our meals were incredible.  Mom and Dad ate with us as well but I didn’t get pictures of their food and I have no clue what they got!  A chicken dish for sure with jasmine rice – they both said it was really good but I didn’t have a bite, but it seems like they do a really good job with all of their food and the wait staff is definitely knowledgable about gluten free dining – a real plus when eating out at a new place!  If you’re looking for some delicious Thai food in Milwaukee, you should definitely check out Thai-Namite Thai Bistro and Sushi Bar!

Thai-namite Menu
Front
Back

dessert pizza

Kinley and I took a trip to New York City this past January.  I loved it.  I have always loved big cities and this was my first time in NYC – although it had been a longtime ambition of mine to get there.  It’s actually quite funny now, we decided to eat vegetarian when we were there in order to help with cost savings – and now that’s all we do :).  We ended up finding a bunch of really good restaurants even without pre-planning anything.  We had a couple stops in mind, but those were mainly for cupcakes.  One night we were really struggling to find something to eat was the night we went to see a show on Broadway, American Idiot.  We were walking around and around and could only find expensive prix fixe meals that didn’t even sound good!  Luckily, on probably our tenth loop around on side streets, we stumbled upon a small Italian Bistro.  I forget the name of it (I do have their business card somewhere), but I remember it was extremely delicious food.  I had some sort of pasta dish but Kinley had a pizza that was to die for.  And what was even more to die for than her meal pizza?  Dessert pizza of course.  Pizza Crust + Nutella + Marshmallows.  We changed it up a bit due to ingredients we had on hand, but the variability of this idea is what will make anyone happy :).

Dessert Pizza makes 1 pizza

• 1 gluten-free wrap (or a whole wheat wrap, I used Sami’s Millet & Flax Lavosh)
• 1T nut butter (or a serving of PB2)
• ~1T mini chocolate chips
• 4-5 dandies vegan marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 350′.

2. Pre-bake the crust for a couple of minutes, if desired.

3. Top crust with your desired pizza toppings.

4. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until nut butter is warm and marshmallows have melted.  You could also use a broiler to help the marshmallows puff up a bit ;).

Mine was PB2 – Kinley’s was Raw Almond Butter.  Both were incredibly delicious.  To make it even more like the original, break out that Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

There will be more of these in the future.  Many, many more.

out and about in gb: the urban frog

I have been sitting on these photos for quite some time.  Six weeks to be exact.  When Kinley and I were looking for restaurants to go to after we ran the Bellin Run, Kinley happened across the website for The Urban Frog in Green Bay, WI.  Their menu looked way too good to pass up and they even had Gluten Free and Vegan options!  Can’t get much better than that in my book.  They’re located right in downtown Green Bay – the perfect urban location.

For an appetizer Kinley and I shared their Guacamole and Organic Blue Chips.  The guacamole was delicious.  My only complaint was that it was gone just too darn fast.

I decided to get the Pumpkin Wrap.  Pumpkin hummus, Granny Smith apple, raw almonds, dried cranberries, and feta cheese on a multi-grain tortilla.  I got mine without feta and with a millet & flax tortilla instead.  They also had gluten free Teff tortillas so I could have had my pick!  I asked for it grilled, but it wasn’t so I ate it how it came.  I was too hungry to wait any longer!

Dessert was out of this world good.  I wish I lived closer so I could eat it all the time.  I guess it might be a good thing I don’t live too close then…  This is Frog Cake. Wheat-,gluten-, and dairy-free chocolate cake served with raspberries.  Say what?!  No wheat, gluten or dairy in the most delicious and moist chocolate cake I might have ever had?  Excellent.  Now you know why I want to go back!

Along with the food items I had they had very delicious looking smoothies and a bunch of other wrap and sandwich options – with a lot of local and organic ingredients!  I really do want to run the Bellin 10k again next year so we have a good excuse to eat here again!

out and about in mke: alem ethiopian village

A couple of weeks ago, Kinley, a friend of ours, Carly, and I went out for dinner at Alem Ethiopian Village in Milwaukee.  The main reason we chose this restaurant (and even heard of this restaurant) was through Restaurants.com when Kinley bought a coupon for $25 off of a $50 purchase.  We love trying new things, and Ethiopian food was definitely new to all three of us!  Ethiopian food is also gluten-free and vegan friendly which was extremely nice – it’s hard to find places to eat that cater to those two dietary requirements combined!

The inside decor was very cute – we were the first ones in for dinner (at 6pm on a Friday), so we got our pick of seats.  We chose the more original setting.

Featuring these neat tables.  There was some sort of cone on top of it as well that the waitress took off as soon as we sat down.

We told our waitress we would be using the coupon, and even after we had ordered all of our food there was still some money to use up, so Kinley and I each had a bottle of Perrier and we got a bowl of Lentil soup to share.

The lentil soup was delicious.  I could have eaten the big bowl all by myself.  There was a lot of lentils throughout as well as the sweetest cooked down onions.  Yum.

For our entree, Kinley and I shared the Taste of Ethiopia Vegetarian Sampler, which featured each of the 10 vegetarian (which is really vegan since they do not use dairy or eggs) options they offered.  They even split up the piles, so Kinley and I each had our own 10 tastes to sample.  It was all served in injera, which is a flat bread made with Teff flour.  I had called earlier and asked if they did use any wheat in their bread (which is not authentic but is common in the US), and they said they did use some wheat flour but they also had gluten free injera that they were able to substitute.  If you are gluten free, call ahead and make sure they have it because they only had one piece tonight and luckily we got it!  Carly had a beef stew dish I believe (in the bowl on the right).  They did ask if it was okay to serve the meat and the vegetarian food on the same injera, which we said was fine (and the gluten free injera was served separately anyways so I just ate that one with the sampler items).

After our wonderful dinner, we walked down the street to the Art Museum, I just love walking by the lake.

Discovery World is right next door and was so pretty this time of day.

After walking here, we proceeded to get lost walking up the lake.  We weren’t technically lost, but ended up way out of the way to cross back over from the lake to a street we could walk back to our car on (darn bluff!).  It was fun nonetheless and definitely got quite the walk in after dinner!

out and about in mke: classic slice

I really do love pizza.  The crust, the sauce, the toppings… yum.  The best pizza I ever had?  Well, I’ve got to give that to some random shop in Florence, but I am not getting that again any time soon.  I have not gotten any take-out or delivery pizza since going dairy-free.  It’s not the cheese factor I’m worried about (cheese-less pizza is still delicious in my book), it’s the dairy put in the crust at a lot of these pizza places!  Definitely NOT good.

So when I heard of a pizza place with vegan options, I perked up.  Vegan = no dairy (or eggs, honey, etc.), so I wouldn’t even have to worry about it!  Classic Slice is by no means purely vegan (or even vegetarian), so there are plenty of options for everyone.  Their dough however, is purely vegan!  And they also have dairy-free cheese, vegan sausage and tofu to add as toppings on your pizza.

Kinley picked up pizza and breadsticks for dinner last Friday night.  Classic Slice has two Milwaukee locations, on the north and the south side so it’s fairly convenient!  We ended up getting the Super Veggie Pizza with a side of Soy Cheese Stix.  We got a medium size of the pizza and the thing was HUGE!  The only complaint is I asked for it with tofu and it came with the vegan sausage which was SPICY.  But it wasn’t noticed until Kinley brought it home and there was no way we were going to drive all the way back to have them remake it…  The Soy Cheese Stix were incredible.  This was only my second experience with soy cheese and it did not disappoint!

View Full Menu